[giovonni]

"Peter Solomon, in addition to overseeing the House of the Temple, was the master of his local lodge. and it was at lodges like this one that a masonic initiate's journey always begins...where he underwent the first three degrees of Freemasonry.
"Brethern," Peter's familiar voice declared, "in the name of the Great Architect of the Universe,
I open this lodge for the practice of Masonry in the first degree!"
(TLS 434).







A gaval rapped loudly.
Langdon watched in utter disbelief as the video progressed through a quick series of dissolves featuring Peter Solomon performing some of the rituals starker moments.

Pressing a shining dagger to the initiates bare chest... threatening impalement should the initate "inappropriately reveal the Mysteries of the Masonary"...describing the black and white floor as representing "the living and the dead"...outlining punishments that included "having one's throat cut across, one's tongue torn out by its roots, and one's body buried in the rough sands of the sea..."
(TLS 434).







"Langdon stared. Am I really witnessing this? Masonic initiation rites had remained shrouded in secrecy for centuries. The only descriptions that had ever been leaked were written by a handful of estranged brothers...

Especially edited this way. Langdon could tell that the video was an unfair piece of propaganda, omitting all the noblest aspects of the initiation and highlighting only the most disconcerting. If this video were released, Langfdon knew it would become an Internet sensation over-night. The anti-Masonic conspiracy theorists would feed on this like sharks...even though the ritual was innocuous and purely symbolic...

Eerly, the video included a biblical reference to human sacrifice..."the submission of Abraham to the Supreme Being by proffering Isaac, his firstborn son"
(TLS 434).







"The video footage shifted now.
Same room. different night. A larger group of masons looking on. Peter Solomon was observing from the master's chair. This was the second degree...More intense now. Kneeling at the alter...vowing to "forever conceal the ennigmas existing within the Freemasonary"...consenting to the penalty of "having one's chest cavity ripped open and plusing heart cast upon the surface of the earth as offal for the ravenous beasts"...

Langdon's own heart was pulsing wildly now as the video shifted yet again. Another night. a much larger crowd. A coffin-shaped "tracing board" on the floor"
(TLS 435).







"The third degree.
This was the death ritual~the most rigorous of all the degrees~ the moment in which the initate was forced "to face the final challenge of personal extinction." This gruling interrogation was in fact the source of the common pharse to give someone the third degree. And although Langdon was very familiar with academic accounts of it, he was in no way prepared for what he know saw.

The murder.

In violent rapid intercuts, the video displayed a chilling, victim's point-of-view account of the initiate's brutal murder. There were simulated blows to the head, including one with the Mason's stone maul...The attack was mimed of course, and yet its effect on camera was bloodcurdling...

After the deathblows, the initiate~ now "dead to his former self~ was lowered into a symbolic coffin, where his eyes were shut and his arms were crossed like those of a corpse. The masonic brothers rose and mournfully cicrled his dead body while a pipe organ played the march of the dead.

The maccabre scene was deeply distrubing.

And it got worse.
As the men gathered around the slain brother, the hidden camera clearly displayed their faces...

Oh God...
The scene changed again"
(TLS 435).







"The House of the Temple...the video kept moving...A powerful pipe organ played in the distance...and a new image materialized.
The Temple Room.

Langdon swallowed hard...Beneath the oculas, the black marble alter shone in the moonlight. Assembled around it, seated on hand tooled pigskin chairs, awaited a somber council of distinguish thirty third degree Masons, present to bear witness. The video now panned across their faces with slow and deliberate intention.
Langdon stared in horror...Sure enough, seated around the alter, adorned in their long silk gloves, Masonic aporns, and glistewning jewels, were some of the country's most powerful men...Langdon wanted only to look away, but he could not. The scene was utterly mesmerizing, alarming even to him. In an instant, he had come to understand the source of Sato's anxiety and concern"
(TLS 436).



The caput mortuum




"Now on screen, the shot dissolved into a single shocking image.
A human skull...filled with dark crimson liquid. The famed caput mortuum was being offered forth to the initiate...
The Fifth Libation...to see it calmly witnessed by America's most powerful men...this was as arresting an image as any Langdon had ever seen.
The initiate took the skull in his hands... "May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me "he declared, "should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath."

Obviously, the initiate had intended to violate his oath beyond all imagination...Langdon could barely get his mind around what would happen if this video were made public. No one would understand. The government would be thrown into upheaval.
The truth will be twisted, Langdon knew. As it always is with the Masons...
For a brief instant, Langdon felt a glimmer of hope...
I'm dreaming, Langdon knew. This video will create chaos...

God help us...

Without a word, Sato reached over, closed the briefcase, and lifted it off his lap. Langdon turned to her trying to speak, but he could find no words. It didn't matter. Understanding was written all over his face. Sato was right.
Tonight was a national-security crisis...of unimaginable proportions"
(TLS 437-8).