'Decoding The Lost Symbol' Adds to Pleasure, Understanding of Dan Brown's Best-Selling Novel 'The Lost Symbol'

By David M. Kinchen

You don't really need Simon Cox's Decoding The Lost Symbol (Touchstone, a Simon & Schuster imprint, 256 pages,  $14.99) to enjoy Dan Brown's latest Robert Langdon symbology thriller, The Lost Symbol, but the A-Z reference guide will definitely increase your pleasure and understanding of the novel set in and around Washington, DC.

I read Brown's novel and Cox's "skeleton key" to it -- borrowing a phrase from the title of a famous 1944 guide to James Joyce's 1939 novel  Finnegans Wake,  A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake  by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson -- at the same time.

I often referred to Cox's book to get more information on, say, the Washington Monument or the Washington National Cathedral, or the Library of Congress, just to mention a few of the places Langdon visits, often accompanied by Katherine Solomon. "Skeleton" is an appropriate word in this often grisly book as the mysterious killer Mal'akh pursues his warped and twisted path toward self realization.

Cox clarifies or -- in the case of the prologue to The Lost Symbol  -- corrects Brown's narrative in this "unauthorized" guide. The prologue describes the initiation ceremony of a man we later learn is named Mal'akh -- as well as someone else in a surprise twist at novel's end --  as he receives his 33rd degree on the  House of the Temple in Washington, DC.

Mal'akh is receiving the highest degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, but Cox says the ceremony presided over by Peter Solomon is the Cerneau Rite, which includes the practice of drinking "blood-red" wine from a skull. Worshipful Master Solomon would never use such a rite, since it had been proscribed several times by the ruling body of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Cox writes.

Cox says this is one of the only times Brown "casts a  shadow upon the rituals and symbolism of Freemasonry."  Indeed,  The Lost Symbol is a very sympathetic look at the often maligned organization. Defenders of Freemasonry -- and Cox, a non-Mason,  counts himself among this group -- call Freemasonry a "society of secrets," rather than a "secret society." The distinction could be called irrelevant to opponents of Freemasonry.

 Both Brown and Cox praise the inclusiveness of Freemasonry, especially the Scottish Rite branch, which has among its members Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and people of various races. Only a belief in a supreme being -- a "Great Architect of the Universe" -- is required. Detractors, on the other hand, might point to past recruiting among Masons by another secret society, the Ku Klux Klan.  Freemasonry remains a very divisive subject, as Brown demonstrates in The Lost Symbol. 

Cox, author of Cracking the Da Vinci Code and Illuminating Angels & Demons, offers the first definitive guide to all the mysteries featured in The Lost Symbol. Based on extensive research, this alphabetical guide lists the real people, organizations, and themes featured in Brown's latest novel, explains their histories and their meanings, reproduces and analyzes the symbols themselves, and provides insider knowledge gleaned from years of exhaustive study. From the monuments of Washington, D.C., to the secrets of Salt Lake City and the hidden enclaves of the CIA in Langley, Virginia, Cox knows where the facts are hidden about the Freemasons, Albert Pike, the Rosicrucians, the Founding Fathers, and more.

Simon Cox's book has an entry on "noetics," the specialty of Katherine Solomon, Peter's scientist sister. Want more information on people like Isaac Newton, Albrecht Durer, Benjamin Franklin, Constantine Brumidi and many others mentioned in The Lost Symbol?  Cox has them in his comprehensive guide, which also includes color and black and white photographs. It can be read independently, but of course Decoding The Lost Symbol is best read in conjunction with a reading of Brown's novel. In addition to being a guide to Brown's book, Decoding The Lost Symbol is an excellent introduction to Freemasonry, its practices and symbols. Cox also includes a comprehensive bibliography.

About the Author

Simon Cox was the founding editor-in-chief of Phenomena magazine, a U.S. based newsstand publication launched in 2003. Having studied Egyptology at University College London, he went on to work as a research assistant for some of the biggest names in the alternative history game, including Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, and David Rohl. He lives in England.  You'll find Simon Cox online at www.decodingthelostsymbol.com

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