Gretchen Cornwall

I’ve had multiple thoughts on the latest episode of The Curse of Oak Island that I wanted to share…  Rock Solid aired January 1st 2019 in a two-hour special…

Firstly, congratulations to Doug Crowell, Jack Begley & Charles Barkhouse for finding, what we all hope, must surely be the ’90 Foot Stone’.

All the best discoveries come from dark inhospitable & lost places – the dust, spiders and the dark labyrinth underneath the bookbinder’s shop, reminded me of scenes from Hammer Horror films.  Incredible that the old stone was still in Halifax, obviously too large to carry off & sadly far too useful for the preparation of leather in bookbinding…

Though a bit battered, I hope that high-resolution laser scanning (suggested by Marty Lagina) will reveal traces of the odd code that Daniel McInnes reported finding on the stone at the 90 foot level below ground in 1804.  The original location of the shaft has been lost for many years.  Scanning may provide a better translation of the hieroglyphic code.

The new 50-ton wash plant will help tremendously in sorting spoils from prior digs, allowing Gary Drayton to find more ‘bobby dazzlers’.  Expensive, impressive large-scale engineering is being leveraged against the 224-year-old mystery, I hope that it will reveal lost objects that tell a broader story and give us all a higher understanding of the island’s history.

Now, down to it…

Marty Lagina brought in scientist, Dr. Travis Taylor to the War Room, His multi-disciplined background provided insights into the megalithic stones on Oak Island, indeed helping to find a few large ancient boulders.

Dr. Taylor’s thought of using a Geiger counter to locate high concentrations of naturally occurring Uranium may indeed assist the O.I. team in their hunt for a vault or tunnels….

Dr. Taylor’s comment that there is too much anecdotal evidence over the last few hundred years that simply cannot be ignored…  A multi-disciplined scientist with knowledge of statistics put himself on the line – Very much appreciated.  The anomalies of Oak Island are worthy of investigation!  Something happened on Oak Island!

Taylor, an astrophysicist, noticed that there were high numbers of individuals involved in the Oak Island mystery over the years who were Freemasons.  He studied their traditions which included a Tracing Board from the Third Degree and containing the symbols of Jacob’s Ladder, the Holy Grail and the Pleiades…

…  This led him to conclude that the constellation Taurus may have been overlaid on the island as a star map using the principle, ‘As Above, So Below’ in a literal sense.  The Pleiades can be found within the large sprawling constellation of Taurus.

I agreed with his concept of As Above So Below and applying constellations/stars to the landscape.  Bringing Heaven to earth was a priority to the Templar mindset who built many of their fortresses in a five-pointed star formation across landscapes in France as noted by author Henry Lincoln.

Just an observation on my part, if Dr. Travis theory is accurate, Taurus the Bull, may have represented one of the four gospels in the Templar mindset, but perhaps not isolated to this one concept.

The four books of the New Testament include: Mathew the Winged Man, Mark the Winged Lion, Luke the Winged Ox or Bull and John the Evangelist as the Eagle.  One needs wings to survey a landscape to soar above an island.

The name Luke is interesting an a variant of the root word in Latin for ‘light’ or ‘lux’ – Starlight in this case?

Taurus is also one of the astrological signs of the zodiac.  Astrology was part of the medieval world due in part to the three Magi who followed the star of the nativity to locate King Jesus  – Clearly, the Magi were astronomers and astrologers, identifying Jesus as an extraordinary individual and also how to locate him.  This particular topic has been covered extensively, elsewhere in multiple books and articles.

Astrology was practiced as a science and was part of astronomy up until approximately the Age of Reason which officially began between 1730 – 1735, when the two were separated along with alchemy from chemistry. Strange that religion should follow in the footsteps of science and also separate out alchemy and astrology from ‘observable fact’.  Astrology, though very prevalent in the west is not an acceptable part of science or of most religions.  But the Templars would have been well versed in the subject as it was an acceptable part of the medieval world.

John the Baptist is the patron Saint of the Templars but he is not associated with a creature, due to his beheading the skull is often his emblem in paintings and statuary.  I’ve identified the skull at the center of the Nolan Cross as that of John the Baptist and that the Nolan Cross was created by the Knights Templar.  This interview with myself and John Temple aired on December 18th, 2018, Episode Six, the Nolan Cross Speaks which covered this topic.

If the guest on Tuesday is correct about Taurus…. He is suggesting that the Templars applied an element of astrology by utilizing the Winged Bull of the New Testament – rather than the symbol for their Order which would be the skull of John the Baptist as seen in the Nolan Cross headstone which is isolated to one side of the island whereas Taylor’s projection covers three islands with the larger outreach of Taurus.

Aside from being the Winged Bull of the New Testament, Taurus is the first constellation in Judaic astrology and related to the first letter Aleph which begins the Ten Commandments.  It is the element of air and the pathway of Intelligence between the two spheres of Kether and Chochmah at the top of the Tree of Life.  Overlay the Tree of Life on a human being and the term ‘intelligence’ is apparent as this pathway leads right to the top of the head.

This would not have been out of step with Templarism as they chose to learn as much as was possible from other cultures in order to become more successful as an organization.

Taurus is a winter constellation with its highest visibility in December & January on the eastern horizon.  During the early months of spring, it shifts to the low western horizon.

As an astrophysicist, Dr. Taylor chose Taurus as it suited the landscape across Oak Island.  Keeping the proportions intact took the constellation across the water to include Frog and Apple islands.  I’ve always pondered if neighboring islands might be part of the Oak Island story.  It would make sense…

I cannot stress the importance of the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters highly enough.  They represent the Seven Muses of the Liberal Arts.  The shinning seven stars in the night sky were meant to be the guide in the heavens of the complete & elevated human being. The Seven Sisters were highly prized in ancient Greece and also in Freemasonry for their representation of the refined & accomplished mind.  The gold standard of education, logic and spiritual understanding that if followed developed an unstoppable and formidable human being.

I have found what I consider to be the origins of the Tracing Board so profoundly important to Freemasons, who inherited the concept from the Templars.  I have included this information in The Secret Dossier of a Knight Templar of the Sangreal in Chapter 31 – Below is a short excerpt and images.

Philosophia – A Medieval Tracing Board

“Herrad of Landsberg (1130 – July 25, 1195) was contemporary with Hildegard of Bingen and was the abbess of Mont Sainte-Odile in Alsace which was founded, of course, by a Merovingian princess. The abbey is only sixty eight miles or 110 kilometres from Magdeburg. Herrad compiled an ambitious encyclopaedia of 12th century knowledge as a comprehensive guide for the education of her nuns. Hortus Deliciarum, or the Garden of Delights, was begun in 1176 and completed in 1185, containing over 300 illuminations. Multiple hands took part but Herrad wrote, edited and guided the manuscript. The majority of the poems and hymns are attributed to her. The beautiful illustrations were by other artists.

One of the most fascinating plates from the Hortus Deliciarum is the Philosophia et septem artes liberales or Philosophy and the Seven Liberal Arts. The Seven Liberal Arts were considered by Greeks to be a complete circle of geometry, astronomy-astrology, arithmetic, rhetoric, music, grammar and dialetica. All Seven Arts were necessary in the Classical world for the complete understanding of the art of war and to be a good citizen.”

Philosophia, or the Wisdom of Philosophy, sits enthroned in the center of the Seven Muses, outside the protective circle created by the wisdom of the Seven Liberal Arts are the scribes of ignorance.  The balanced mind with a grounding in all Seven areas was considered necessary to function as a productive member of society.

Below the throne are Socrates and Plato two of the finest minds ever produced by Greece.

Within this Tracing Board lay pictorial codes relating to Mary Magdalene through Geometry and the muse of Astronomy.

It is my thought that if Dr. Taylor is correct about Taurus & the Pleiades there will be very interesting finds as the meaning behind the two constellations is both rich and deep.  That the Templars wanted to imbue the landscape with the legends and knowledge behind these shining stars adds another layer of magic to a lexicon of 224 years of treasure hunting on Oak Island.

I look forward to finding out more!