"I have held up a light in the obscurity of Philosophy, which will be seen centuries after I am dead. It will be seen amidst the erection of Tombs, Theatres, Foundations, Temples, Orders and Fraternities for nobility and obedience — the establishment of good laws as an example to the World. For I am not raising a Capitol or Pyramid to the Pride of men, but laying a foundation in the human understanding for a holy Temple after he model of the World. For my memory I leave it to Men's charitable speeches, to foreign Nations and the next Ages, and to my own Country after some Time has elapsed." -- Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.

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Join me to explore the hidden tenets of arranged alignments of architecture and art. Structures as diverse as the Great Pyramid, Baalbek, The Tower of the Winds, Hagia Sopia, Basilica San Vitale, The Dome of the Rock, St. Peter's Square, Gisors, The Newport Tower, Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, and the Georgia Guidestones all may have a common origin.

Three reproductions of the Tower of the Winds in England help to display how this age old value is viewed through time. Along the way many legends and myths associated with the Holy Grail and other relics are examined.

Treasure myths such as the Oak Island Legend and The Beale Treasure Legend may have a common origin and hidden meaning. The tale of The Bruton Parish Church Vault (a.k.a. "Bacon's Vault) may also be a copy of an already existent mystery at Stirling Castle.

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The Williamsburg Rockefeller Array: The Earliest Linear Park in N. America?

The Williamsburg Array, Francis Bacon, Blackbeard the Pirate, and the Bruton Parish Vault.

Phi Beta Kappa an academic fraternal organization was founded at the Raleigh Tavern in 1775. The Raleigh Tavern was also the home of the "infant"; a silver punch bowl that used Blackbeards skull as an element of its construction.
















A reproduction of the gallows in Williamsburg.

Williamsburg, Virginia is truly a town steeped in American history that was one of the early colonial capitols. Virginia once encompassed much of the American south and territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. For a short time Jamestown was the capitol. Bartholomew Gosnold was an early official who may have been one of the earliest geomancers in America. Gosnold was married to Sir Francis Bacon’s sister and was known to always carry a staff with a pewter finial or decorative knob on the end of it that may have represented the gnomon or staff of an Augur or Geomancer. The use of a staff of this type may go as far back as the Egyptian staff or rod of Petah (see photos at right).

Gosnold’s grave along with the finial or knob of his gnomon were recently discovered at Jamestown. This tradition of augery may have descended from the Egyptians and Sumerians to the Lydians, Etruscans, Phoenicians, Romans, Royalty of Europe, and finally the United States. Gosnold may have been the first in a long string of Americans to practice this ancient craft in North America.

Lengends and myths swirl around Bacon including one that involves him being the bastard son of Queen Elizabeth I. Some feel he may have been given a caveat from the Queen to establish the Jamestown Company due to this relation. Jamestown may have been the first founding step towards a Baconian vision of Atlantis in North America. It is no coincidence that Francis Bacon’s brother-in-law may have been the Augur of the Jamestown Colony. Gosnold was buried just outside the pallisade of the early Jamestown Colony. His place of burial in relation to the layout of the fort inside may have had some geomantic implications and may have been considered the axis mundi of the Jamestown Colony.

Well known Freemason and student of occult authorityJohn Dee, Francis Bacon is said to have had an early, secretive role in the establishment of the Jamestown Company. Many cling to legends of Bacon bringing the actual Holy Grail to America. (The grail may still be stored in Rose Hill, Md. see additional chapter). The capitol of the now Virginia Colony was moved to Williamsburg and soon after the College of William and Mary was established. The common explaination for the naming of Virginia is for Queen Elizabeth. Alternately the colony was named for Palais Athena the goddess of virgins. Palais Athena is venerated by many gnostic and Masonic groups and Athena adorns the flag of Virginia to this day.

William and Mary would be considered the oldest college in America if the first incarnation of it had not burned in an early confrontation with Native Americans. Harvard is considered the first college in America due to this little known fact. William and Mary does have the distinction as the birthplace of the academic Greek organization Phi Beta Kappa. William and Mary also has the distinction of having three U.S. presidents as alumni and is the school from which George Washington received his surveying credentials and was once Chancellor of. William and Mary was likely the breeding ground for the Masonic ideals and philosophy that helped to spark the American Revolution. Many sons of the landed aristocracy of the south attended William and Mary. Harvards location near Boston was also a flash point of patriotism and Masonic principles in colonial America.

Phi Beta Kappa was formed or created in 1775 in a the original Raleigh Tavern near the campus of William and Mary at a time when only men attended. It is said that the founding members were all Freemasons that attended the college. This was long after Thomas Jefferson’s attendance at the college. Though Masons claim he was a Mason the only group that Jefferson is a proven known member of at William and Mary is the little known Flat Hat Club that may or may not still exist at the school. Is the Flat Hat Club the "Skull and Bones" of Williamsburg? Later Jefferson became the member of scientific societies and groups that may have had some occult beliefs. The era of the mid 1770’s seems to be a banner for the creation of Masonic and occult oriented philosophies and Groups.

Freemason architect Sir Christopher Wren's designs inspired what is now the oldest building of any college in America. Wren was a known Freemason and many look to his designs for Masonic and occult sacred geometrical formulae. Christopher Wren could be considered a geomancer. As any architect he concerned himself with the comfort and practicality of his structures. As a geomancer he would have also been concerned with making the building the correct sacred and significant proportions for desired effect. Geomancers sometimes construct environments meant to elicit a certain or given response. Some may be geomancers and not even realize it!

For an indication as to the degree gnosticism and the occult were involved in the daily life of early Williamsburg one need look no further than the design of the Williamsburg Gallows. From plan view the gallows were triangular measuring 11 feet per side. It is speculated that the gallows were also 13 feet in height. The dimensions of each side of the triangle added is 33; a significant number in the occult and one that seems to sometimes be associated with executions and death. The number eleven is the occult number of chaos and also seems to have some esoteric importance. Historical illustrations of the Gallows show them being three vertically set posts with cross-members attaching them at the top.

The gallows are famous as the site of the hanging of Blackbeard the Pirate’s crew. Blackbeard was captured near Okracoke Island of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In what may be mis-interpreted as a ceremonial sacrifice Blackbeard was beheaded on the spot soon after his capture. His crew was brought to the colonial capitol of Williamsburg for trial and execution. Illustrations of the crew’s hanging include depictions of the gallows themselves and the large crowd that attended what was considered a festive event of the day. The illustrations show onlookers drinking bottles of wine and snacking on turkey legs during the event.

Sometime in March of 1719 thirteen of Blackbeard’s crew met a grisly end on the gallows of Williamsburg. 13 men executed on a triangular gallows 11 feet on a side totaling 33 feet. In pictures of the reproduction of the gallows in Williamsburg they appear to be about 13 feet in height. After execution the head of a pirate was placed on a pike at the river entrances of the York, and Potomac Rivers on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay. This route up the Chesapeake Bay was traveled extensively in this era and was an approach to Baltimore and Annapolis. The occult numbers associated with the gallows and this particular event are interesting when viewed from the perspective that many pirates were thought to be men who were brothers of gnostic oriented organizations. Many have speculated that Blackbeard himself was a member of such a group. It seems in this era that everyone from Blackbeard to Thomas Jefferson were involved with gnostic oriented brotherhoods.

The obvious occult overtones of the design of the gallows in both the historical record and its triangular shape and dimensions may shock many who were unaware of the prevalence of this philosophy in early America. Indeed the spatial orientation of objects in a geomantic perspective is no more obvious in the capture of Blackbeard and the subsequent execution of his crew. Someone intentionally used shapes and numbers of occult significance to create an instrument of not only death but execution. Could this be interpreted as human sacrifice given the occult overtones?

After Blackbeards subsequent caputure and execution. The English then proceeded to Hampton, Virginia and placed the pirates head on a pike at the entrance to Hampton harbor. The entrance to Hampton harbor is situated nearly perfectly on the 37th parallel. Placement of Blackbeard’s head at this location on the latitude and longitude grid may have had talismanic implications and intent. This location is known as Blackbeard’s Point to this day. The sequence of Blackbeards capture, beheading, treatment of his skull and other factors point to the possibilty that the entire chain of events had occult, talismanic overtones and implications.

The story of Blackbeards skull is a strange tale with many different aspects. Several reputable and reliable sources have maintained that after a few years Blackbeards skull was removed from the harbor entrance and fashioned into a silver mounted drinking cup. Pulblisher John F. Watson states: “skull was made into the bottom part of a very large punch bowl, called the infant, which was being used as a drinking vessel at the Raleigh tavern in Williamsburg. It was enlarged with silver, or silver plated; and I have seen those whose forefathers have spoken of their drinking punch from it, with a silver ladle appurtenant to that bowl.”

Given the timeline related to Blackbeards beheading and the crews hanging it is remotely possible that Thomas Jefferson,George Washington, and many other prominent early Virginians/Americans drank from this vessel. Even more shocking is the idea that this behaviour was somehow acceptable in this era of Williamsburg in the same tavern at which the academic fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa was later founded by ten men all Freemasons. It is possible given Phi Beta Kappas founding over fifty years after Blackbeards capture that no members drank from the skull of Blackbeard. Given that the founding members of Phi Beta Kappa were all Freemasons it is well within the realm of possibility that the skull was there for occult, gnostic oriented purposes. The Death Cult veneration of the human skull is said to require the skull of your enemy to worship. To someone with Death Cult values worshipping and drinking from the skull of Blackbeard the Pirate in the colonial capitol of Williamsburg must have held some strange, talismanic purpose. Many attribute the worshiping of the skull of your enemy to great success in many different realms.

Historian John Esten Cooke in his book Virginia claims that the cup was still in use as late as 1913. Esten also alludes to skulls use as drinking vessels dates back to ancient times and refers to sources such as the Roman scholar Livy and Heroditus who recorded such practices in northern Italy (www.history.org). Other sources record sightings of the “cup” as late as 1930 and describe it as being inscribed with the words “deth to Spotwoode.” Spotswood was the Royal Governor of Virginia at the time of Blackbeards capture. The location of the cup is unknown today. It is unlikely that such an object would be lost or misplaced. Could the skull be one of the items in the mythical “Bacon’s Vault” hidden somewhere in Williamsburg? Could it be in the tomb of Skull and Bones at Yale? Another interesting scenario might involve an organization similar to Skull and Bones at William and Mary that are caretakers of the cup. It is unknown if the Flat Hat Club is still in existence at William and Mary.

The veneration of skulls is one of the things Knights Templar have been accused of in the past. During the “Templar Inquisition” of the early fourteenth centrury they were accused of worshiping the head of John the Baptist. The deaths head cult also has a connection with the cult of the Green Man in the British Isles. German Masonic death head’s cults have been part of history from the Crusades, Nazi S.S. death’s head division to the Skull and Bones organization of Yale University. Drinking from a human skull is also rumored to be a rite of an advanced degree of Freemasonry. Many of the rites practiced at Bohemian Grove and other places echo those of the death’s head cults.

Williamsburg and Jamestown are very near the even 37th parallel. Nearby Hampton to the southeast sits exactly on the 37th. Williamsburg is aligned with the City of Baltimore on a north to south axis. If a line is vectored south from the western city limit of Baltimore it vectors directly to Williamsburg and very near Jamestown. This relationship is notable from a practical and geomantic perspective. The western city limit of Baltimore is directly north of Wren Hall on the campus of William and Mary. This orientation would have been an easy one given only a magnetic compass. This is important in light of the fact that this line could have served as a north to south baseline for mapping and land divisions early in the history of the Colonies. It would have been especially applicable to the Tidewater region of Virginia and Maryland.

Lord Baltimore (Calvert) played a large role in the establishment of the Mason Dixon line and many other aspects of colonial culture. Baltimore is famous for its mid-nineteenth century Druid Hill Park. Williamsburg was established prior to Baltimore so it follows that Baltimore may have been established in part due to its proximity to Williamsburg. This arrangement does symbolically and practically link the two settlements together. This arrangement was established long before Thomas Jefferson or George Washington were born proving that this practice has been in north America since at least the beginning of English occupation if not Spanish occupation further south.

The orientation of the geomantic array in Williamsburg is very interesting from the perspective of these arrays use as sighting devices. The direction these types of linear arrays point or vector to establish a talismanic relationship to the target or whatever is on the line. To the east the linear array vectors out into the Atlantic Ocean. This may be symbolic of the Baconian value of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. If the a line is extended at the angle of the array extended west it passes Nashville about ten miles north of the Bicentenial Mall, and continues to the vicinity of El Paso, Texas.

If the Nashville area was the true target of the array was this somehow linked to Bacon's vision for the layout of the New Atlantis? Was that area designted as subsequent construction of the the mall in Nashville so many years after the original one in Williamsburg was built indicates some unknown significance of the area where Nashville is located. It is possible the city was settled on the line intentionally. There is evidence that the groups of people who value these arrays beyond the aesthetic are adhering to some long ago drawn out plan that they simply will not deviate from.

Williamsburg is a very special place and one can almost feel the history oozing out of the earth there. Archaeologists say that you can’t drop a shovel within twenty miles of town without finding something. This mantic feeling or effect has not been lost on others and great effort has been made to restore and improve Colonial Williamsburg. Many visitors believe that when they visit Colonial Williamsburg they are visiting an historical array of buildings that were reconstructed and arrayed as they originally were. While to some degree this may be true many of the buildings are full reproductions and the array does resemble many other plazas of the same type found around the world through time.

Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg are actually visiting a plaza or array very similar to that of the National Mall, Bicentenial mall and the International Peace Garden. Many major cities and even several smaller towns have this type of occult or Gnostic oriented layout. This park was tuned for effect by a geomancer and was built in conjunction with the already existing geomantic layout of William and Mary.

Williamsburg is the first of a nationwide system of similar monuments dreamed of by Bacon and continued by Thomas Jefferson and supplemented by others as time went on. The original plan of William and Mary includes the delineation of a flat topped pyramid with Wren Hall at the top. The slanting sides of the pyramid are formed by the approaching streets. The layout of Williamsburg and all of the associated Rosicrucian and Masonic symbolism indicate that Jefferson may have been carrying out a plan set into motion by Sir Francis Bacon.

Another compelling theory as to why the restoration took place revolves around the location of a supposed vault of information and wisdom left in Williamsburg by Sir Francis Bacon himself beneath what is now Bruton Parish Church. Rumors about the location and existence of the vault are supported by local lore and historical documents including letters written by those who saw the tunnels and vault entrance. Local legend states that Thomas Jefferson, F.D.R. or Rockefeller were the last people to view the contents of the vault. It is possible that among any artifacts remaining in the vault is a plan for the development and location of cities in towns in the new colony including their locations on a pre-established stellar inspired grid. As those interested in gnostic wisdom and possibly Masons both Jefferson and F.D.R. would have had huge interest in making Bacon’s vision a reality.

The Rockefeller foundation was the largest influence and contributor to the “restoration” of Colonial Williamsburg. The restoration of Williamsburg (1932) was undertaken in the same era of construction of the International Peace Garden and Hoover Dam and its star chart memorial. This is also the time during which the one dollar bill received its illuminist design and the final spike was driven into the heart of the Federal Reserve as it existed previously.

This era seems to have been important in the Masonic world and may have been thought of as the beginning of the “Ordo Novus Seclorum” or New World Order. In this case the “order” being translated in the literal as in the planning of the locations of cities and towns in advance and beyond the dynamics of any natural or equitable civic evolution. If this plan was known only to adherents of the belief that kept it a secret it would have comprised a huge advantage in many different social and economic spheres. It is possible that this vision is what motivated Jefferson in planning the future location of the city of Indianapolis and other locations as more western territory was obtained. One need to look no further into the obvious pre-planning of cities and towns than on the latitude of the Mason Dixon line.. Several cities and towns including Indianapolis and Denver seem to have been intentionally placed and planned to be located in position along the line.

It is not clear if Williamsburg was restored to the way it actually was. Prior to its restoration some elements of the array had been altered through the normal course of civic evolution. It seems logical that the restoration was to set things back to the way they were designed originally including the plaza composed of in part of the campus of William and Mary, Bruton Parish Church and the Colonial Capitol building.

Interesting that the original archaeological deposit had this built atop it granted after hundreds of years of normal use. It is not clear if this array was being restored to the way it was originally or which elements may have been changed. The design does fit with the status of a capitol and the relation of the capitol building to the campus makes the linear design a logical progression. This design may represent the earliest array of its kind in North America.