The Lost Symbol

My first book for 2010 - The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown is interesting enough for me. Finished it early this week. Knowing a little about Freemasonry, of course made things even more interesting.

Anyway, the whole novel evolves around this secret society known as Freemasons. Set in Washington D.C., the seat of power, the time line in the novel is actually very short, something like a night! In that 12 hours the reader is brought through a roller coaster of conspiracy, symbolism, secret societies, human madness for that quest of immortality (in the character of Zachary Solomon aka Malakh which incidentally is a messenger angel in the Hebrew Bible). Malakh, the super evil villain even castrated himself to achieve that chance of immortality and power. The things that us mortals will do to get that immortality.....

The suspense was gripping enough but I find myself reading the epilogue half way through the novel.... cheat mode! The ending of the book was somewhat an anti-climax... big secret supposed to be revealed. The reader would be left expecting something dramatic, huge...... but nah! In the end it still comes back to us... whether or not we understand....HOPE. I supposed there is actually climax in the anti-climax! ... sometimes it's the simple things that make a huge difference in our lives but we don't see it. We keep looking at the purportedly bigger things, the things that we can touch and feel, see and size up... but it's actually the hope for better things that keep us going.

Conclusion.. no matter how man tries to think of himself as self sufficient, powerful, I guess that little void in our lives will kinda nudge us towards a greater power. In the end, what seems to matter - the Word (of God), hell and hope. Our mortality serves to remind us that!

Freemasons are made up of people of all religions. Also, many writings point to them as being steep in occultism, symbolism. But they belief in a higher power. And they refer to this higher authority as the Greater Being. Kinda to cut out the need to fight over which term is right. Malaysia over the weekend has been another weekend of imbroglio, one of our politicians doing over the use of the term Allah. As a result, churches were torched. Looks like there are powers who are set on plunging the nation into distress so that harsh laws can be enacted - one that takes our personal freedom away. One must be a real fool not to see how these politicians are playing out every one of us. Just look at the timeline... it's like an old script that has been repeatedly used. Old tools for the same reason... to stay in power. They say to be a leader is to serve. Our leaders serve, that's undeniable. But they serve themselves.

What does it matter if God is Allah or Tuhan or Jehovah or Yeshua? Should we make God's name exclusive by using man made laws to prohibit that which is not ours to begin with? We do not own God. God does not need man to defend Him or go on the offensive for Him. He is supposed to love all his creations...... and here we are fighting over His name as though He is ours when it should be the other way round. God is supposed to be God to all who call out to Him... yet we stamp ownership on Him, whom we do not even own.... It's us the people who seem to be having some problem here. And lately, there seem to be emerging, this group of people, their credo, the ends justify the means. I'm reading another book at present about the 4th Reich.. eerily familiar, all these modus operandi.

We have a gahmen which is most effective (and ruthless) in quelling the Perak constitutional crisis protests but totally helpless in quelling this current sets of protests (including the torching of churches).... what fools we are. Najib sure has a way with words - this protest he cannot stop but the Perak, Hindraf and Bersih protests, there were 101 reasons why they had to use force. Faith should remain personal.... in the name of God we give credence to the atrocities we commit. And we the foolish people give such people power.... cos the attempt to invite the ghost of May 13th seems to have been extended yet again. First they paraded the cow head, then they torched the churches... I supposed pigs will be next!

Back to the topic on Freemasons... I'm still reading more about it, going into the worlds of Enoch, stonehenge, masonic lodges in Europe, the powerful and influential people who were members of the Freemason movement, Phoniecian worlds of craftsmen, Knights Templar.... doubt if I'll completely get all it right but they are really interesting.

Anyway, The Lost Symbol is a nice read. And I'm happy that I finished a book early on in the year. Maybe I'll be able to read more books this year. 8) Back on what's happening around. We have sure hilang a lot of things after 50 over years despite great progress in our lives. And maybe it's time to rediscover that hope that we can do without corrupt and greedy leaders who use all means to justify their ends.