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| Cracking the Symbol Code: Revealing the Secret Heretical Messages within Church and Renaissance Art | 
| Author: Tim Wallace-murphy
Publisher: Watkins
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 319275
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1842931369
Dewey Decimal Number: 704.9482
EAN: 9781842931363
ASIN: 1842931369
Publication Date: July 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Expanding on issues touched on in The Da Vinci Code, this thought-provoking study explores the real story of Christianity—a story told by men and women condemned by the traditional, orthodox church, and one long hidden in mysterious codes and symbols. In medieval times, dissenters believed the established church ruthlessly suppressed the truth about Jesus and his ministry. Branded as heretics and subject to torture and execution for their beliefs, the dissenters—including the Knights Templar, Freemasons, Cathars, and groups of scientists—devised an ingenious code to communicate with fellow sympathizers and preserve the truth. They concealed these complex symbols in art, artifacts, and architecture of the medieval world. Finally, this fascinating underground language is deciphered…revealing powerful messages meant as much for today’s truth seekers as for medieval minds.
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| Customer Reviews:
 What's next?"cracking the macaroni salad code"? July 14, 2008
Apparently when the fiction book"The Da Vinci code" became popular everyone-and I do mean EVERYONE-wanted to grab up a piece of Dan Brown's action..In most cases these late-comers either attempted to "explain" the devices used in the fiction,or made some sort of application,however tenuous,of these devices to some known historical reality..Tim Wallace-Murphy's volume"Cracking the symbol code" falls into the latter category..
It did not require a popular fiction,such as"The Da Vinci code" to bring to our attention the fact that many religious symbols have origins that are much earlier than most of us might have assumed...Neither did it take a popular novel to bring to our attention the fact that the roman catholic church was determined to stamp out any and all"heretical"thinking(i.e. any religion that was not the roman catholic church),even if this involved mass slaughter(such as the campaign against the cathers),or by other means(such as the"holy"inquisition)..What Wallace-Murphy does in his book is re-hash these facts while pointing out,quite rightly,that taboo symbols(by roman catholic church standards)were often secretly incorporated into the art and the cathedrals of the time-period,both as an effort to preserve them,and as a form of protest and rebellion against what was a harsh and dictatorial religious oversight..
Alas,Wallace-Murphy does little to place the blame for this NEED to secretly incorporate "heretical"symbols and messages into church and renaissance art right where it belongs-in the lap of the roman catholic church..Instead,he tip-toes around ,afraid to step on toes,afraid to offend modern day catholics,indeed afraid to offend modern day christians of any sort..This approach weakens the impact of his book greatly..
Further,Wallace-Murphy overlays his text with a lot of new-age mumbo jumbo that has very little to do with the issues which,alledgedly,this work is supposed to be addressing..
As for the notion that some sort of a"code" has been"cracked" here,well that is just nonsense...The art is there,even today,plain to see..The symbols,and thier connections to earlier religions,are also plain to see..The fact that,during the renaissance this over-view of earlier religions and thier symbols may not have been so readily available to all,like it is today,does not in any way make the case that some sort of a secret code still exists,today,and needs"cracking"..Frankly,with all of the alledged codes,in art,in the bible,in the entrails of a freshly slaughtered animal,it is begining to look as if,for the writer with imagination,there are codes EVERYWHERE..With that in mind,I,myself,am preparing my manuscript'"Cracking the macaroni salad code"or How some noodles,spices,and mayonaise,when read the right way,will reveal all of the secrets of the universe..Look for it at your local deli counter soon....
Oh Da Vinci! February 9, 2008
This informative work deals with the history and significance of symbolism in Christian art, explaining how and why heretical ideas were hidden from the church hierarchy right under its nose. The author points out the indicators of hidden symbolism and explores the manifold layers of meaning conveyed by it.
Section I covers the birth and development of sacred symbolism and the legacy of ancient Egyptian gnosis, while Section II discusses the Bible, the supposed Egyptian origins of Judaism, and two conflicting views of the life and ministry of Jesus. The connection between Atenism and Judaism has been made before and is not convincing.
Section III examines early Christianity, St Paul, the foundations of Christian symbolism, the consolidation of Christian Europe and the glory of the Gothic. The last section discusses the hidden streams coming to the surface in issues like the Black Madonna, Sacred Geometry, Chartres Cathedral, the Grail, the Templars, the Tarot, symbolism in Rosslyn Chapel and in renaissance paintings and the craft of Freemasonry.
In the epilogue, the author brings the reader up to the present with discussions of the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery, relevant TV programmes of recent decades, the book The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail and discoveries at Amiens.
The book contains 30 beautiful plates of sculptures, carvings, pillars, stained glass windows and paintings, plus photographs of features at Rennes-le-Chateau. There are also black & white figures throughout the text. Thirteen pages of source notes, a bibliography and index conclude the book.
Although interesting and not without merit, the book has some major flaws, one of which is its unthinking embrace of the Magdalene Myth. His claim that Jesus was married is based on dubious scholarship. One of his sources is a certain Margaret Starbird - an investigation of her work triggers the alarm. It is pure speculation and fantasy along the flakier shores of the imagination.
These Da Vinci Code spin-offs are highly entertaining and even thought-provoking as in this case, but beware of the wild claims about early Christianity. The notion that Jesus Christ was gradually made divine in a process of syncretism with pagan religions has been thoroughly disproved by Larry Hurtado in his landmark work Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity.
A Disappointment January 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was disappointed with this work by one of my favorite authors. For one thing, the subtitle of this book, "Revealing the Secret Heretical Messages within Church and Renaissance Art" is very misleading. In almost three hundred pages of material, exactly ten pages are dedicated to the mystery of Renaissance art, and that adds up to a few mentions of certain DaVinci works. The rest is alternative Bible history and an examination of Gothic Cathedral art in stone. Mr. Wallace-Murphy misses the mark with this one.
 Very highly recommended for general readers, but particularly those following the Da Vinci mystery's progression March 9, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Cracking The Symbol Cone: Revealing The Secret Heretical Messages Within The Church An Renaissance Art by British author, lecturer, and historian Tim Wallace-Murphy is among the most informative explanations to the mysteries left behind of the Knights Templar, Leonardo Da Vinci, King Solomon, and the metaphorical art of the medieval Christian era. Explore a culture and time of mystery, until recent time not at all understood, and now publicly understood. Never before has a book revealed all that Cracking The Symbol Code depicts to its readers. Informed and informative, Tim Wallace-Murphy's Cracking The Symbol Code is very highly recommended for general readers, but particularly those following the Da Vinci mystery's progression.
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