The ONLY COMPLETE List of Sacred Texts from Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol'

Special Illustrated Edition

If you have read The Lost Symbol recently, perhaps you have experienced the all-too-common feeling of wanting to get your hands on just about every single ancient manuscript, alchemical treatise, conspiracy theory,  science book and work of art in there.  Well, this is your chance!  You have just discovered the only complete compilation of all books mentioned in The Lost Symbol.  If you are an obsessive like me and want to research and read every primary source book that Brown used or referenced, then you've come to the right place.  If there is a special Dan Brown fan in your life, this list will help you to pick out the perfect gift.  Links have been provided for easy ordering via Amazon.  When possible, links to free online resources have also been provided.

Epigraph: "To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books."  -- The Secret Teachings of All Ages

The Hand of the Mysteries

This quote  is from the book, The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly Palmer Hall.  (It can be found in the section called "Preface to the Golden Anniversary Edition," 7th paragraph.)  This book is a primary source for many of the images and symbols in The Lost Symbol.  For example, there is a full-page diagram of the Hand of the Mysteries, as well as a traditional depiction of Hermes Trismegistus holding a Caduceus, now commonly used as a symbol for medicine.   The Secret Teachings of All Ages was originally published as a very large folio-sized book, and so it is important that you find as large a copy as possible.  Check the dimensions of the book and look for something that is at least 12.9" tall by 9" wide.   The images in this book are breathtaking and quite detailed, so you would do best to avoid the paperback reader's editions that are too small.  Here is the link to the large folio-sized copy that I own with fold-out color illustrations.

p10: At Mal'akh's home: "...priceless Italian antiques -- a Piranesi etching... a Savonarola chair ... a silver Bugarini oil lamp.

Piranesi Etching (Pyramid)

p11: MUSIC - click to listen: the "Lux Aeterna" from the Verdi Requiem, "Dies Irae," from Mozart's Requiem ("...against a backdrop of crashing timpani and parallel fifths, he [Mal'akh] bounded up the marble staircase, his robe billowing...")

p18: Reference to Pierre L'Enfant, the French designer of Washington, D.C.

p26:  Dan Brown discusses the secret Masonic history of Washington and how the cornerstone of the Capitol Building was laid  in a full Masonic ritual by George Washington.

George Washington, dressed in full Masonic regalia, performs a Masonic ritual as he lays the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol Building.

There are several books on the secret masonic history and purpose of the United States of America.  None are as highly recommended as  The Secret Destiny of America, by M. P. Hall.  Author of "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" mentioned above, and himself a 33rd degree mason, there is perhaps no one more well-suited to tell the hidden story of America's founding.  According to Hall, the United States was founded by Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and other mystics who believed in astrology and practiced secret magical techniques.  Moreover, their vision for the new country was for it to be an enlightened utopia of self-governance, education and religious freedom that would eventually bring about world-wide democracy.  Hence the phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum, a New Order of the Ages.  Hall chronicles the secret preparations that had been made for this democratic shift by esoteric societies over a thousand years before the founding of the United States.
Other recommended books on the sacred history and architecture of the United States are Solomon's Builders and The Secrets of Masonic Washington.

p28-29:  The cornerstone was set by Washington "on September 18, 1793, between the hours of eleven fifteen and twelve thirty ... because, among other things, the auspicious Caput Draconis was in Virgo."  This is a reference taken from David Ovason's Book, The Secret Architecture of our Nation's Capitol.

p34: Reference is made to Katharine's "breakthroughs... in the field of Noetic Science" which "had ramifications across every discipline -- from physics, to history, to philosophy, to religion."  If you are interested in the philosophical implications of Noetics, I highly recommend Radical Nature, by Christian de Quincey, a professor of philosophy and editor of the IONS Review.  He tackles the problem of consciousness in the context of modern philosophy, and argues for panpsychism, the view that all matter has consciousness.  For those more inclined toward scientific research, the work of noetic author Dean Radin, a parapsychologist, has been outstanding.  I recommend his book Entangled Minds, in which he discusses some of his research on telepathy that has been the first ever to be published in peer-reviewed, mainstream psychology journals.

 
p55: Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR)  (experiments here had "categorically proven that human thought, if properly focused, had the ability to affect and change physical mass.")  Watch The PEAR Proposition, a documentary film about the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab.

p56: The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart  (participate online at www.theintentionexperiment.com)

p56: Brown makes an indirect reference to Masaru Emoto's research on water crystals: "even the crystalline structure of a newly forming solid was rendered mutable by one's mind."  see The Hidden Messages in Water by Emoto.

p57: "Most of Katherine's books bore titles like Quantum Consciousness, The New Physics, and Principles of Neural Science.  Her brother's bore older, more esoteric titles like the Kybalion, the Zohar, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, and a translation of the Sumerian tablets from the British Museum."

The only complete translation of the Zohar currently available in English is the Michael Berg Translation available here.

Individual volumes of the Pritzker Edition of the Zohar are a great way to delve into the material without spending too much money up front.  These volumes are translated by Daniel Matt, a world-renowned scholar of the Zohar.  At a recent conference, Matt recommended his book Zohar: Annotated and Explained as a "greatest hits" collection of all the best passages in the Zohar.  It is an excellent introduction for anyone new to Jewish mysticism.





   

The Kabbalistic Tree of Life

p59: "...the dual world described by Krishna ... in the Bhagavad Gita."
p59: "...the sacred Hindu Vedantic scriptures ... the Upanishads."


p59: "Superstring theory... suggested the multidimensional universe was made up not of three... but rather of ten dimensions, which all interacted like vibrating strings..."  Here, Dan Brown is suggesting that the 10 physical dimensions postulated by modern physics are in fact represented by the 10 sephirot in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life (pictured at right) in the Zohar.  "...the text and drawings clearly outlined the exact same universe heralded by modern superstring theory--a ten-dimensional universe of resonating strings... an ornately printed plate bore three words: The Complete Zohar."  For an excellent treatment of superstring theory, check out The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.  Also, check out God & the Big Bang by Daniel Matt for parallels between Jewish Mysticism and modern physics.

p73: "the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California"

p79: the "I-Ching" -- Richard Wilhelm Translation

p128: "The discovery of Isaac Newton's Secret Papers in 1936 had stunned the world by revealing Newton's all-consuming passion for the study of ancient alchemy and mystical wisdom."  Watch a NOVA documentary on Newton's Dark Secrets. (for free viewing, click here)  "Newton...exhorted Boyle to keep 'high silence' regarding the mystical knowledge they had learned. 'It cannot be communicated without immense damage to the world.'"

p130: "the Templars, the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Alumbrados..."

p155: "Langdon often assigned [his students] Symbols of Freemasonry by Beresniak, which contained beautiful photos of Chambers of Reflection."

Image of a page from the Giant Bible of Mainz

p161: "As you may recall, the legend of the Sword in the Stone, the stone refuses to give up the sword except to Arthur, who was spiritually prepared to wield the sword's awesome power.  The Masonic Pyramid is based on the same idea."

p182: "the Giant Bible of Mainz, handwritten in the 1400's" and "the Gutenberg Bible"

p256: "Albrecht Durer actually hid the number 1514 in his most mysterious piece of art--Melencolia I--which he completed in the year 1514."  As Langdon explains, this engraving "depicts mankind's struggle to comprehend the Ancient Mysteries."  The link below brings you to a poster of Melancholia I, which contains Durer's famous magic square featured in the Lost Symbol.  (It is in the upper-right corner of the engraving.)


p259: "That, Ms. Solomon, is a magic square."

p263:  "Created some four thousand years ago by mathematicians in Egypt and India, magic squares were still believed by some to hold magic powers."

p272: Francis Bacon's New Atlantis is mentioned as "the utopian vision on which the American forefathers had allegedly modeled a new world based on ancient knowledge." (free version here)

p278: The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill

p289: John Milton's Paradise Lost

p308: Albert Einstein on Cosmic Religion: "The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion.  It will transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology."

p314: Reverend Dean Gallaway predicts a coming enlightenment period.
p316: The Circumpunct
p321: The Rosicrucian Manifestos (free online version)



p388: Magic Squares: "The ancient text De Occulta Philosophia described in detail the mystical power of magic squares and the methods for designing powerful sigils based on magical grids of numbers."  The reference De Occulta Philosophia refers to the Books of Occult Philosophy by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535). His first three books have been reprinted as a single volume, Three Books of Occult Philosophy (Llewellyn's Sourcebook).  These have been called "the original, most important source for magic in the Western world."  Also see the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy by the same renaissance author.