The Secret Message of Jules Verne
Michel Lamy
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Buy *The Secret Message of Jules Verne: Decoding His Masonic, Rosicrucian, and Occult Writings* by Michel Lamy online

The Secret Message of Jules Verne: Decoding His Masonic, Rosicrucian, and Occult Writings
Michel Lamy
Inner Traditions
Paperback
328 pages
June 2007
rated 3 of 5 possible stars

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According to Michel Lamy, the science fiction adventure novels of Jules Verne are only the glossy covers wrapped around his coded teachings of esoteric traditions. Lamy discusses Verne's use of wordplay as an allegorical language. The word games explored include:

  • Anagrams. Letters in words, or entire phrases, are rearranged to reveal a new meaning.
  • Metagrams. One letter in a word changes to form a different word.
  • Logogriphs. Formation of many words out of a base word. (Anytime "or" appear together in a name, Lamy interprets this as a reference to gold, often specifically the gold of the Merovingians or the Temple of Solomon.)
There is a long discussion of Verne's The Underground City as following the steps of initiation into Freemasonary: preparation, voyage to the beyond, and rebirth. (Does this mean that all quest stories are Masonic?) There is no hard evidence that Verne was a mason, and he could have known the rituals for initiates and apprentices without membership. Lamy argues that the knowledge he displays of higher masonic grades would only be available to masons.

Besides Freemasons, there are discussions of Rosicurians, Golden Dawn, Thule Soceity, Angelic Society, Theosophical Societies and Occultism. Some of the topics are only mentioned with the assumption that the reader has foreknowledge. Others are covered in detail. Too many names and their relationship to each other are confusing without prior knowledge. Those whose interest was piqued by Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons will be lost very quickly. This is stuff for the serious student.

Not being a student of esoteric studies, the idea I can agree with the most is: "Of course, there are people who see mystery everywhere and seek to move from comparisons to conclusions where only coincidences exist."



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Midge Bork, 2007

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