Description
By Tobias Churton.
The author searches for the real historical person known as John the Baptist and the traditions that began with him. The Mysteries of John the Baptist explores why he is so crucially important to the Freemasons, who were originally known as “St. John’s Men.” It also reveals how John and Jesus were equal partners and shared a common spiritual vision to overcome corruption in the Temple of Jerusalem.
This amazing work also explains the connections between John as lord of the summer solstice, his mysterious severed head, fertility rites and the connection to ancient Jewish harvest festivals.
Few Freemasons today realize why the most significant date in the Masonic calendar is June 24th—the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist and the traditional date for appointing Grand Masters. Nor do many of them know that Masons used to be known as “St. John’s Men” or that John the Baptist was fundamental to the original Masonic philosophy of personal transformation.
Starting with the mystery of John in Freemasonry, Churton searches out the historical Baptist through the gospels and ancient histories, unearthing the real story behind the figure lauded by Jesus’s words “no greater man was ever born of woman.” He investigates John’s links with the Essenes and the Gnostics, links that flourish to this day and exposes how the apostle Paul challenged John’s following, twisting his message and creating the image of John as “merely” a herald of Jesus. He examines the significance of John’s severed head to holy knights, such as the Knights Templar, and of Leonardo’s famous painting of John.
Revealing John as a courageous, revolutionary figure nearly as vital to the origins of Christianity as his cousin Jesus Himself, Churton shows how John and Jesus, as partners, launched a covert spiritual operation to overcome corruption in the Temple of Jerusalem and reinitiate Israel.
Softcover, 288 pages
