The Oak Island Mystery

by Lionel

  The power and wisdom of Thoth are said to reside in his mysterious Emerald Tablets. Exactly what those tablets are, or what they are able to achieve, only a very few of the most avant-garde thinkers would dare to speculate, but they are said to be truly awesome, ranking alongside the energy which generated the controversial Philadelphia Experiment and allegedly blew the Eldridge through hyperspace in 1943.[3] Their power may also be compared with the energy involved in the alarming Montauk Project on Long Island, New York.[4] It has been conjectured that there is a power within the Emerald Tablets capable of warping time and space themselves, of opening the science fiction writers’ so-called “gates” between “probability tracks” and “parallel universes,” of determining which probability track shall cease to be hypothetical and become a concrete, experiential “reality.”

  In summary then, Hermes Trismegistus (alias Thoth, alias Melchizedek?) clearly stands in the front rank of those ancient beings whose origin is unknown but who were apparently capable of exercising vast and mysterious powers not available to their normal, human contemporaries. When Abram returned from the Jordanian war during which he rescued his kinsman, Lot, he encountered Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem, and gave him a tenth of the spoils captured in the war. Psalm 76 verse 2 equates Salem with Sion and Jerusalem. Psalm 110 — usually regarded as a Messianic Psalm — refers to Melchizedek’s endless life. In the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 7, the writer describes Melchizedek as being “… without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God …”

  Ancient Egyptian legend and mythology, augmented by later Greek scholarship at Alexandria, credited Thoth (Melchizedek?) with the authorship of many books of wisdom dealing with such diverse fields of knowledge as astronomy, astrology, mathematics, history, geography, and medicine. He is also said to have been the author of the Book of the Dead, whose earliest versions go back at least as far as 4000 B.C.E.[5]

  Two assumptions may now reasonably be made: that a very wise, powerful, and mysterious being known variously in ancient times as Thoth, Hermes Trismegistus, and Melchizedek was a genuine historical character, and that this same being was the possessor of certain devices, often described as the Emerald Tablets, by the use of which some of his enormous super-human powers were exercised.

  It is equally safe to assume that those who coveted such powers would have gone to any lengths to acquire the Emerald Tablets, and that he who possessed them would have taken great care to ensure that they never fell into the wrong hands — especially into the hands of those who followed Set, the personification of evil in ancient Egypt.

  Here then, millennia before the Christian era, is the earliest and faintest dawning of the Arcadian Treasure quest. Rennes-le-Château has its dark and terrible secrets right enough, but they are not even remotely connected with Jesus, with Mary Magdalene, with the totally imaginary “bloodline” hypothesized by Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh,[6] with Joseph of Arimathea, or with the Holy Grail as the sacred vessel from which Christ shared wine with His disciples at the Last Supper. That priceless sacred vessel may well have been miraculously preserved somewhere, but its quest and its saga are a totally different story. They follow a different route entirely from the trail of the Emerald Tablets at the heart of the Arcadian Treasure.

  That the far, far older Grailstone tradition may have been given a Christian veneer by early evangelists and missionaries (as many other ancient pagan festivals and mysteries were given) is highly likely. That the medieval knightly romance of the quest for the Holy Grail, in the form of Christ’s Cup, may have become confused in the telling with the hunt for the Grailstone, Grail Tablet, or Hermetic Crystals is also highly likely, and would account for much of the confusion surrounding the Grail saga today. The theory that the “secret” of Rennes-le-Château has anything to do with some sensational “revelation” contradicting the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is totally false. The Christ revealed to us in the Gospels and the Apostles’ Creed is a physical, historical, and spiritual fact. The real Arcadian Treasure mystery which links Rennes, Glozel, and Oak Island, presents no challenge at all to the great central truths of Christianity.

  As Wolfram makes plain in his apparently deeply coded epic, Parzival, the Grail of antiquity was a stone of some sort, a crystal, perhaps, or a gemstone tablet, rather than a drinking vessel.

  In their earliest days the Emerald Tablets moved from ancient Egypt to Salem and back again more than once: it was as if some great psychic tug-of-war was going on between Hermes Trismegistus and Set. Perhaps word of them reached Ur of the Chaldees at about the time that Abram began his long journeyings. Was there a vestige of truth in the ancient Jewish legend that Sarah, Abram’s sister-wife, came across them by accident in the cavern where Hermes rested (in much the same way that Christian Rosencreutz later rested in his heptagonal tomb)? Perhaps it was when the Emerald Tablets left Egypt with Moses that an evil Pharoah (a follower of Set?) hurled his doomed charioteers in suicidal pursuit of them across the bed of the Red Sea.

  Did the tablets next find centuries of safety inside the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies — a place so vibrant with sacred power that Set’s agents dared not approach it directly? What happened shortly before Solomon died? Did Menelik, Son of the Wise Man, succeed in taking the Ark to his beautiful mother’s distant Kingdom of Ethiopia, and, if so, did he gain possession of all the Emerald Tablets, or only some of them? What do the Ethiopian Holy Men guard so zealously at Axum today? The empty Ark?

  A thin line of ancient Gnostic tradition links unusual early religious groups such as the Paulicians, the Manicheans, the Bogomils, and the Cathars: far more discernible bonds connect the Cathars to the Templars and the Templars to modern Freemasonry. Suppose that Gnosticism, which had a dualistic view of the universe, and which percolated strongly through the Cathar beliefs, also guarded some of the secret knowledge of the Arcadian Treasure and the Emerald Tablets which formed its priceless and powerful core. Gnostic dualism would readily embrace the concept of a holy war between Hermes Trismegistus, representing Goodness and Light, and Set, representing Evil and Darkness. The very early Coptic fragment in the British Museum, the Pistis Sophia, is a piece of Gnostic teaching. George Young believed (with sound logic to back him) that Coptic refugees found their way to Oak Island. The riddle carved into the ancient red porphyry slab in the Money Pit may also have been inscribed in some variant Coptic dialect, if Professor Barry Fell is correct.

  But another possible refuge for all or some of the Emerald Tablets and the Arcadian Treasure has yet to be considered. Northeastern Spain and southwestern France (the area including Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains) were once the largely independent Jewish Principality of Septimania.

  Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh have obscured the issue somewhat in their enthusiasm to find evidence for their incorrect “Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene” theory, but a significant portion of their ancillary historical research remains sound. As they themselves point out, there was a semi-autonomous Jewish Principality in the Rennes area which flourished during the sixth and seventh centuries C.E. One of its most notably successful rulers was Guillem de Gallone, who was the hero of another of Wolfram’s epic tales, and who was also traditionally associated with the Guardians of the Grail. What if Guillem was actually another of the secret guardians of the Emerald Tablets? Where did his Septimanian Jews originally come from? Did they, by any chance, leave at the same time that Menelik and his companions brought the Ark of the Covenant to Axum?[7]

  The threads now begin to come together again, and a clearer pattern starts to emerge. Among the most mysterious objects referred to in the Bible are the Urim and Thummim. They are first mentioned in Exod. 28:30 as being placed in the jewelled Breastplate of Judgement worn by the High Priest — indeed, the text implies that this is the purpose of the Breastplate. While the instructions for making the Breastplate are given in considerable det
ail (verses 15 to 29), neither here nor anywhere else in the Scriptures are any instructions for making the Urim and Thummim, or even one word about what they looked like or how they were used.

  The Urim and Thummim might have been jewels; they might have been sacred engraved stones; they might have been auxiliary components of the main Emerald Tablets. They were once used to ascertain the Will of Yayweh, rather as lots were cast to make important decisions, or to resolve vital questions. They gave guiding “signs” in much the same way that Gideon, the courageous Judge of Israel, asked Yahweh for a “sign” via the fleece and the morning dew.[8]

  Somewhere along the winding road of Hebrew history, the Urim and Thummim vanished. There were no more priests who knew how to read them. Could they have left the Holy Land at the same time as the Ark made its way to Axum? Did they travel with those same Jews who brought the Ark to Solomon’s son, King Menelik of Ethiopia? Did they later find their way to Septimania during its prosperity? Were they concealed there for safety (along with other precious Jewish and Arcadian Treasures at Rennes-le-Château) when the glory of Septimania began to fade?

  From Rennes to Glozel near Vichy is barely 200 miles as the crow flies — no problem for an experienced and determined horseman, and even less for a party of dedicated, veteran Templar Knights, armed to the teeth and ready for anything. If the grim disciples of Set were in pursuit of that powerful and priceless treasure — which must never be allowed to fall into their sinister hands — would not the wisest course have been to separate its various components, and place them in different, secret locations: Rennes, Glozel — and, eventually, somewhere far away across the wide and formidable Atlantic? Modern firearm safety regulations recommend permit holders to keep ammunition locked in one police-approved safe, and unloaded guns in another. Would not a parallel thought have occurred to the wise old guardians of the Arcadian Treasure? With Glooscap/Sinclair support, part of it, at least, could have made its way across the Atlantic to the deep safety of the strange Oak Island labyrinth, the earliest parts of which already waited below Oak Island.

  Here, then, is the innermost heart of the great secret: the final and breathtaking truth about the Money Pit and all that lies below it, and alongside it. There are no simple answers which automatically exclude all others, because the whole structure is ancient and composite. It is a laminated arcane honeycomb, a convoluted catacomb of secrets, riddles, and enigmas. Daedalus himself would have been proud to have created such a structure. The Gordian Knot is a mere clove-hitch beside this vast Oak Island Mystery.

  Phoenician and Carthaginian traders were among the first to reach Mahone Bay; fourth century Romano-Celtic legionaries and miners from Ogofau dug and delved below what is now the Money Pit; Coptic refugees survived the perilous Atlantic voyage and left their Egyptian porphyry memorial stone behind them with the revered body of their leader, the Arif. Perhaps many years were to elapse before later visitors accidentally disturbed it, recognized it for something sacred and mysterious, and reverently re-interred it in their own comparatively recent shaft.

  Photograph of the top of the Money Pit.

  Sinclair’s Templars arrived with their precious cargo and more work was carried out: vast, natural, limestone caverns and twisting subterranean passages were augmented by additional connecting ways, flood traps, and water barriers to guard the priceless Emerald Tablets which the Templars had brought with them. Then, perhaps, Drake’s Cornish miners added a passageway and chamber or two to what was already there — for readily understandable buccaneering reasons. Suppose that the historical sensation to cap all historical sensations is valid: Francis Bacon realty was Drake’s illegitimate son by Queen Elizabeth! If Drake himself already knew about the Oak Island mystery, wouldn’t that have been the link which would have enabled his son, Sir Francis Bacon, to preserve important documents there, using the new mercury-bath method which he had pioneered?

  Henry Morgan had the charisma and the organizing ability to make his own distinctive contribution to the complexity that already existed below the island. So did King George III’s clique, which included the fabulously wealthy Admiral Anson of Shugborough Hall. Perhaps from Anson — or from one of his trusted navigational officers — there came a faint, indiscreet whisper that George III’s Havana gold was hidden below the island, and that a marvellous, impregnable hiding place already existed there. If that rumour reached an English engineering officer during the American War of Independence, it might well have prompted him to bury the army pay-chests there: and later retrieve them!

  There is no single treasure, there are several … and most important of all are the Emerald Tablets. There was no single unknown genius, there were several, and each added something significant to the work of his predecessors. Those who dug and concealed over so many centuries have that so much in common with those who have sought, and are still seeking: as with all human endeavour, the work of those who follow, depends upon the foundations laid by those who went before them. It is fitting, perhaps, to end with a tribute to the three 1795 pioneers: a picture of all that is left of the foundations of one of the homesteads they built on the island when they combined farming with treasure-hunting so long ago.

  Photograph of the foundations of the McGinnis home or that of another early settler on Oak Island.

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  Still Unsolved: Twenty-First Century Developments

  Our research into the Oak Island Mystery goes back some forty years to the time when co-author Lionel was lecturing on the psychology and sociology of unexplained phenomena for Cambridge University’s Extra-Mural Board. The Oak Island Mystery formed an important part of that syllabus. During those forty years we have read almost everything available pertaining to the Money Pit mystery in books, articles, and on the Internet. We have met several of the most significant researchers and investigators — including Dan Blankenship and Dan Henskee — and discussed the mystery with them first hand. Forty years of research have not solved the mystery, but they have led us to conclude that there is a genuine mystery down there. We warmly welcome this opportunity of updating our book, and adding to the original seven theories centred on the Oak Island mystery.

  The first and most exciting theory is that the Money Pit could have been built by highly intelligent and technologically advanced constructors way back in the very distant past. Were they survivors of the hypothetical catastrophe that overwhelmed ancient Atlantis and Lemuria? Is the mysterious “treasure” protected in the deepest depths of the Money Pit a scientific and technological treasure, a treasure of knowledge, rather than jewels, gold, and silver? Believers in Atlantis and Lemuria think that they were very advanced civilizations that existed well over ten thousand years ago.

  Readers of the Akashic Records, very talented and perceptive individuals including Madame Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, and Edgar Cayce, are of the opinion that those mysterious records contain references to Atlantis and Lemuria. Also referred to as “The Book of Life,” the Akashic Records are believed to be an almost infinite “library” of every thought, word, and deed in the cosmos. They are, accordingly, a primary source of information about the Lost Continents.

  Atlantis, according to the Akashic Records, enjoyed solar power and very advanced hydraulic systems. When rival groups of Atlanteans quarrelled, their super-technology led to devastating destruction. A few of them escaped and made their way to island-studded Mahone Bay, on the coast of Nova Scotia, where they designed and built the Oak Island Money Pit to protect their deadly, dangerous artefacts. The equally advanced civilization on Lemuria, which later vanished below the Pacific, was thought to have been equally advanced scientifically and technologically.

  The second, closely related theory, involves extra-terrestrials instead of Atlanteans or Lemurians. In outline, this theory suggests that there are scientific and technological treasures concealed in the farthest depths of the Oak Island Money Pit. It runs parallel to the von Daniken theories of ancient astronauts from elsewhere in the universe. On
e version suggests that their spaceship developed a fault, and that the best they could hope for was to preserve part of their technology in the labyrinth with its flood-traps that they built below Oak Island.

  On October 4th, 1967, what became widely known as the Shag Harbour UFO Incident consisted of numerous reports of a strange object falling from the skies into the Gulf of Maine near the small fishing village of Shag Harbour on the southern tip of the eastern coast of Nova Scotia. The reports of the crash of the unknown aerial object were thoroughly investigated by the RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard. The Royal Canadian Navy and Air Force were also involved, in case it was a plane that had gone down near Shag Harbour, and any survivors would be in urgent need of rescue. Armed forces from the U.S. were also involved in the investigation. The search undertaken by the Royal Canadian Navy included underwater investigations. As the search proceeded, it was ascertained that no scheduled plane was known to have gone missing.

  The first reports of the incident were made by five Nova Scotians who lived in the Shag Harbour area. Laurie Wickens and his friends were driving through Shag Harbour along Highway 3 when they saw what they described as “a large object” falling into the water not far from the harbour itself. They said that it had gone in about 300 metres offshore. Subsequent, expanded reports — including evidence offered by divers — gave the impression that not one object but two were involved, and it was even hypothesized that the second mysterious object had gone below the water deliberately to “rescue” the first one.

  There can, of course, be no guarantee that the Shag Harbour incident was a genuine UFO, but if it was, it adds some credence to the possibility that the Oak Island Money Pit was the work of extra-terrestrials.