Faithfulness

One of my friends told me this real story. His father was posted in a small forest town at that time. One day, while he was passing through a stretch adjacent to the forest, 5-6 wild dangerous looking dogs surrounded him. There was no one else around. Suddenly, a small local dog arrived nearby and invited attention of the dangerous dogs. Then he started running away in a particular direction. My friend's father too ran behind that dog. The wild dogs, because of some strange reason, didn't chase him! He was safe. He then took that dog to his home and domesticated him. After a long association, one day, there was something wrong with the dog, may be he had eaten something wrong. He was eagerly waiting in the house, for his master to return from office. As soon as my friend's father came, the dog ran towards him, lovingly hugged him, played with him, and then moved away. He went to the bathroom, vomited blood, and after some time, he was dead.

I know many of us have stories like this. I remember the story of Sona, the female deer of poetess Subhadra Kumari Chowhan, which she described in her story. Also, I remember one story I read on some of your blogs, where the authoress described how she found and lost her faithful pet.

On the other hand, we as humans are faithful often not even to us; right? There are scientists who try to justifiably explain why men by nature are not faithful to their partners. And there are people who justify unfaithfulness to one's organisation by saying: everything is right until you get caught up. There have been numerous stories of rags-to-riches individuals, who were unfaithful to their masters. Faithfulness to one's country, motherland, family, parents, spouse, friends… ideally the wish list is long. I think the human tendency to justify things pulls us too low… In the changing times, will the pets be the only ones who will retain this basic quality?

Perseverance

A wild butterfly has entered my room. It is flying towards the tube light, hitting it and then coming back. It keeps doing this until it falls into some dark and congested place. While she was sitting on a book, I pulled the book and threw her out of the window. After some time, she has come back, and keeps moving towards the light. I know she will keep doing this till her last breath.

A long time back, when I used to prepare for engineering entrance exams, sometimes I went past 2 in the morning. I needed to get out of my room, in order to enter the main building. In those chilly winter nights, under the electric bulb, I used to see a procession of ants, moving, one before the other, night after night. They used to carry something with them, without any attempt of stopping and taking a breath. I knew they would keep doing that till their last breaths.

Why don't we humans have a comparable perseverance as that of a butterfly or an ant? Though scientists are famous for their disciplined life, and of course Yogis and monks "have it" in them, even they take several years of practice to reach that state. What about others? Have you ever seen an insect that won't run towards the light? Or a single ant who decides that from today onwards, she will not travel in a queue, but take a break in between, take a nap, or a peg or two? Or a papaya tree that decides to generate sour fruits? Why is that we humans, despite being the wisest of all, are the stupidest of all too? Why can't perseverance come naturally to all of us too? Our scientists are able to create a Dolly from a cell, but will they ever be able to selectively develop some natural characteristics in the human beings, such as perseverance? Why should humans learn that in a hard way, but the butterfly should inherit it?

Rahul Tiwary

Business: Forbes Asian Fabulous 50 List – 2007

Great news. A total of 12 Indian companies made it to the third annual Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 List.

The 12 Indian companies in alphabetical order are:

• Bharat Heavy Electricals
• Bharti Airtel
• Grasim Industries
• HDFC Bank
• ICICI Bank
• Infosys Technologies
• Larsen & Toubro
• Reliance Industries
• Satyam Computer Services
• Tata Consultancy Services
• Tata Steel
• Wipro

And, China got only 7 on this list!

References: [Forbes List] [Rediff]

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow’s theory contended that as humans meet ‘basic needs’, they seek to satisfy successively ‘higher needs’ that occupy a set hierarchy. Maslow’s theory was regarded as an improvement over previous theories of personality and motivation.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs.

Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the lower needs in the pyramid are satisfied. Once an individual has moved past a level, those needs will no longer be prioritized. However, if a lower set of needs is no longer being met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs – dropping down to that level until the lower needs are reasonably satisfied again

The five levels are self explanatory and are explained in the attached picture also, therfore I am not describing them.

It is very interesting to understand the needs of humans, structured in this manner. Though someone can debate on the hierarchy, the fact remains that this model explains why a child cries, why a boy in your locality behaves in that manner, and why the subordinate of Hari Sadhu is frustrated….

Creative Destruction and Destructive Creativity

These days, I have observed that some young people are very proud of their creativity, which is destructive; in fact one of my friends claimed it as one of his strengths!

I remember this scene from in one B&W Hindi movie:

Johnny Walker and his son used to sell windowpanes. One bad day on streets, their sales were nil, and then they discovered an ingenious way to turn their fortunes. First, his son throws a stone and breaks the window of a decent apartment and runs away. Then the Johnny appears and is immediately hired to repair the broken window. By this way, they use their destructive creativity to open new avenues for their income.

I tried to understand creative destruction and destructive creativity, and was amazed to find out that in fact, these two terms are opposite to each other. Let us see some examples to understand this.

The example of Johnny Walker may immaturely conclude that it is the people like them who do this. But the phenomenon is too widespread. Destruction of colonies created markets for the European nations. If the farmers of Champaran didn't plant indigo in their lands and thereby their soil losing fertility, the cotton mills of Britain wouldn't have made that much profits. Of course, this is imperialism more than destructive creativity, but think about the first man in whose mind this idea came, that pure business (which East India Company started with), was not enough and colonization is the best thing to do. Recent example is the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq; there are credible reports of how much American companies earned out of contracts to rebuild the destroyed cities. This phenomenon of destructive creativity even spreads to modern companies and businesses. They have found that selling their new products is difficult, but success lies in moulding an entire generation into their target consumers: first they want you to grow obese, and then they will do weight loss therapy to cure that! And the creative destruction while firms compete is also well known. The monopolies destroy any new entrants into the market, which is one reason governments have been hostile to the big M&As (remember derailed GE-Honeywell merger?). In market though, there is some destruction that is inevitable; e.g. music CDs and VCDs destroyed cassettes and VCPs/VCRs. These are naturally happening creative destructions.

I can put the availability of foetus sex determination machines under this category. And the invention of Atom Bomb? These were all creative, but they destroyed many a things also in the way… A live example is the Setu Samudram Project, where government of India is willing to spend Rs 2600 Crore of taxpayers money (80% Hindus) to destroy a mythical bridge between India and Srilanka, in order to make some ships pass though and save some travel time. What overwhelms the protagonists is nothing other than the joy of Destructive Creativity!

In the way, I have mixed up the two terms: Destructive Creativity and Creative Destruction. Creative Destruction is defined as the process of 'transformation' that accompanies 'radical innovation'. This may be positive. For example, when competing companies and competing technologies destroy others, it is called creative destruction. Like digital MP3 players are destroying MP3 CD players. But, Destructive Creativity is the process involving generation of ideas and behaviours focused on 'harmful goals'. Examples, we can easily think of. But companies some times utilize this method to find the loopholes within their own systems, before some one finds it and use it to his/her advantage. E.g. in software companies, one of the desired skills of a s/w testing engineer is destructive creativity. 

The harms due to these tendencies are many. Things like ethical hacking may seem cool, but in general, destructive forces will never achieve for mankind, a minuscule of what pure creativity does. Getting broken glass replaced may not be a big deal, but the broken hearts and souls may never get their due. In the name of ethical destruction, or spreading civilizations, destructive creativity has already done substantial damage. Let us not idolise the destructive creativities. It takes years for a tree to grow, but our creative lots may take a few minutes to turn the clock back. There will be two alternative solutions, for example, for India-Pakistan conflict: diplomacy or a war. First is constructive and second is destructive. And hence, the biggest question in front of mankind is: how to ensure that creativity remains constructive and not destructive?

Business: Toothpaste Market in India

Toothpaste market in India is worth Rs 2200 Crore (2006).

In India, per capita toothpaste consumption stood at 74g in 2005, which is amongst the lowest in the world, compared to 350g and 300g in Malaysia and Vietnam respectively.

Toothpaste enjoys a country wide penetration level of 50%.

Rural: 39%
Urban: 75%

Oral hygiene continues to be under aggressive competition, with sales increasing by a modest 3% in current value terms in 2006 to Rs. 2,400 crs. Toothpaste accounted for a whopping 83% of value sales.

HLL's market share in the dental care market has grown from a mere five per cent in 1979 to an impressive 36 per cent today, whereas Colgate-Palmolive has been seen its market share decline from a dominating 75 per cent to a struggling 56 per cent.

Segments:

Popular Segment - Colgate Dental Cream, Pepsodent - Declining

Low Price Packs - Cibaca, Babool - Growing

Niche Products - Ayurvedic and Sensitive toothpastes - Stagnant

Freshness Segment - Colgate MaxFresh,Close Up,Anchor Gel - Growing

Price-based Segments:

Regular Segment: 100 gm: Rs 25-30

Low Price Segment: 100 gm: Rs 14-20

The Lower Price Point segment accounts for around 25% of total category volumes. Small and regional brands from the low priced segment are expected to perform well because they are often close to the market, respond faster to changes and are willing to learn from mistakes.

Colgate

Colgate has been present in the domestic oral care market (of India) for the last 70 years.

A dominant position in the toothpaste segment with a 48% market share in the domestic market.

1.5 times the second largest player.

Cibaca was acquired by Colgate in 1994 from Ciba Geigy.

The company today has two main brands in the toothpaste segment � Colgate and Colgate Cibaca.

Colgate Cibaca has risen to become the 4th largest paste brand in the country in volume terms after Colgate Dental Cream, Pepsodent and Close-Up

Pepsondent

Brand of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL, erstwhile HLL)

In a declining toothpaste market, HLL has managed to grow its brands and this has been attributed to Pepsodent’s value proposition being redefined.

Pepsodent’s share has been climbing steadily from 15.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2002 to 16.3 per cent in the quarter ending June 2006.

HLL's Dental insurance scheme, being launched through a partnership with the New India Assurance, offered a dental insurance of Rs 1,000 on purchase of any pack of Pepsodent.

Anchor

Anchor belongs to Anchor Health and Beauty Care (AHBC), a part of the Anchor Group (makers of Anchor Electrical switches).

Anchor White Toothpaste was positioned as India‘s first British Dental Health Society certified 100 per cent vegetarian toothpaste, in 1997.

Anchor and Ajanta price their offerings at more than 40% discount, giving the market leaders a run for their money. These low priced competitors accounted for more than 80 per cent of the growing "discount segment".

Top 5 Brands – Market Share (2006)

1. Colgate Dental Cream: 34%

2. Close-Up: 14%

3. Pepsodent Complete: 10-11%

4. Colgate Cibaca Top: 5.7%

5. Colgate Fresh Energy Gel: 3%

6. Other Brands: 32.3%

a. Anchor, Babool, Ajanta, etc

Company - Market Share (Value), 2006

1. Colgate Palmolive Ltd: 47.3%

2. HLL: 30%

3. Dabur: 7.2%

Source (Market share): AC Nielsen Market Information Digest India, 2006

Know how the names of your favourite companies came into being

Apple Computers: Apple was founder Steve Jobs' favourite fruit. He was three months late in filing a name for his business. So he threatened to name the company "Apple" if other colleagues don't come up with a better name. And the rest is history.

Google: It was originally called Googol, a word that represents 1 followed 100 zeroes. After founders Seargey Brin and Larry Page presented their projects to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to Google.

Hotmail: Sabeer Bhatia tried all types of names ending with mail, and fixed it as Hotmail, as it contained all 4 letters of HTML. Earlier it was referred to as HoTMaiL.

Hewlett-Packard: Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel: Acronym for of Integrated Electronics.

Microsoft: Bill Gates thought the name was devoted to micro computer software. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the hyphen was taken off later on.

Motorola: Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for motor cars.

Sony: Comes from Latin word Sonus meaning sound.

Red Hat: Founder Marc Ewing lost his favourite red hat, which he had got from his grandfather. He searched for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return the red hat if found by anyone.

To my teacher Mrs. Seema Khanvilkar

Dear Madam,

That our last class in business communications is over, the Mondays without your classes would be strange. Today, while going through the newspaper, I got to read an article which made me remember you. Asked if he found captaining Indian cricket team a burden in such a scenario, Rahul Dravid said, “Burden is too strong a word and people say that because of how I look. I’m not naturally a cheery-looking soul on the field.”

Rahul Dravid's self awareness made me recall what you always say: "You should feel comfortable in your own skin. No matter how you are, this is most important." And you prickle the skin of one of your hands with the other, while you say so! Incidentally Rahul Dravid is credited of being one of the most cool-headed guys in Indian cricket team, again making me recall your saying: "Thinking on your feet is very important. Not everyone is able to do that." This episode connects with me very well also because I always get a similar feedback - of carrying a serious face most of the time!

Our classes started from you making us speak on "love", and after the speech, you and the class gave us the feedback. The classes afterwards included lectures on non-verbal communication and body language, a class-feedback on one-another, knowing yourself self-evaluation exercise, telephone etiquette, interview basics, dining etiquette, etc. You were so nice to take us to a restaurant and teach us how to handle a continental cuisine. And in the last class, you showed us an English movie in the class, and we had to analyse the oral and non-verbal communication in the movie.

Despite being a corporate trainer in the field of communications, you take pain to take classes in our university. You boast of the fact that you enjoy teaching, and it shows in your attitude And what a greater testimony than the words of your own students? Listening, giving feedbacks, and correcting others seem easier than what it really is. Coping up with some boring students, some freak ones; listening to the non-sense of some others is too much of a job at the end of the day. But you seem to be made for your job.

You remember, in the final extempore, some of the students didn't do well. In fact, some turned red faced and stopped midway. I was really ashamed that we fared so poorly in your final class. What would have been a better gift from us to you than a brilliant performance in front of you? There is one area in my opinion where you can do better. The fact remains that the guys and girls that fumbled were predictable. In the class exercises, they saved themselves from the trouble, while the strongest ones outsmarted and outshined in front of all. And remember the guys who volunteered themselves for taking the interviews; they were all with above average communication skills. I think in future, you should make an extra effort in raising the level of the bottom of the pyramid!

Personally, I didn't have the opportunity of having met many sensible and perfectionist teachers as you are. You are the one who taught me how to pronounce "righteous". From deepest of my heart, I wish to thank you for your efforts put in for the benefit of ours. May you have very happy fruitful days ahead. May you always enjoy a sound health and great successes in your professional life.

With best regards,

Yours truly,

Rahul

Da Vinci Code on Sacred Feminine – XI - A Square Cross

A square cross, with four arms of equal length, predated Christianity by fifteen hundred (1500) years. This kind of cross carried none of the Christian connotations of crucifixion associated with the longer-stemmed Latin Cross, originated by Romans as a torture device. People are always surprised how few Christians who gazed upon “the crucifix” realized their symbol’s violent history was reflected in its very name: “cross” and “crucifix” came from the Latin verb cruciare to torture.

Equal-armed crosses like this one are considered peaceful crosses. Their square configurations make them impractical for use in crucifixion, and their balanced vertical and horizontal elements convey a natural union of male and female.

The equal-armed cruciform was symbolic of balance and harmony but also of the Knights Templar. Everyone had seen the paintings of Knights Templar wearing white tunics emblazoned with red equal-armed crosses. Granted, the arms of the Templar cross were slightly flared at the ends, but they were still of equal length.

[The Series continues]

Da Vinci Code on Sacred Feminine – X - Priory of Sion

They call themselves the Prieur de Sion – the Priory of Sion. They are based here in France and attract powerful members from all over Europe. In fact, they are one of the oldest surviving secret societies on earth.

Membership

The Priory’s membership has included some of history’s most cultured individuals: men like Botticelli, Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo and Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci presided over the Priory between 1510 and 1519 as the brotherhood’s Grand Master.

Sacred feminine

The Priory has a well-documented history of reverence for the sacred feminine. They are known as the guardians of an ancient secret. One that made them immeasurably powerful. The identities of living Priory members are kept extremely secret.

The Priory’s tradition of perpetuating goddess worship is based on a belief that powerful men in the early Christian church ‘conned’ the world by propagating lies that devalued the female and tipped the scales in favour of the masculine.

The Priory believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever.

History of Priory and Secret Documents

The brotherhood’s history spanned more than a millennium… an astonishing chronicle of secrets, blackmail, betrayal, and even brutal torture at the hands of an angry Pope.

The Priory of Sion was founded in Jerusalem in 1099 by a French king named Godefroi de Bouillon, immediately after he had conquered the city. King Godefroi was allegedly the possessor of a powerful secret a secret that had been in his family since the time of Christ. Fearing his secret might be lost when he died, he founded a secret brotherhood the Priory of Sion and charged them with protecting his secret by quietly passing it on from generation to generation. During their years in Jerusalem, the Priory learned of a stash of hidden documents buried beneath the ruins of Herod’s temple, which had been built atop the earlier ruins of Solomon’s Temple. These documents, they believed, corroborated Godefroi’s powerful secret and were so explosive in nature that the Church would stop at nothing to get them.

The Priory vowed that no matter how long it took, these documents must be recovered from the rubble beneath the temple and protected forever, so the truth would never die. In order to retrieve the documents from within the ruins, the Priory created a military arm a group of nine knights called the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar. Almost everyone on earth had heard of them, at least abstractedly. For academics, the Templars’ history was a precarious world where fact, lore, and misinformation had become so intertwined that extracting a pristine truth was almost impossible. Nowadays, Langdon hesitated even to mention the Knights Templar while lecturing because it invariably led to a barrage of convoluted inquiries into assorted conspiracy theories.

The idea of protection of pilgrims was the guise under which the Templars ran their mission. Their true goal in the Holy Land was to retrieve the documents from beneath the ruins of the temple.

Nobody knows for sure whether they found them or not, but the one thing on which all academics agree is this: The Knights discovered something down there in the ruins… something that made them wealthy and powerful beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.

Knights were in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade and told King Baldwin II that they were there to protect Christian pilgrims on the roadways. Although unpaid and sworn to poverty, the Knights told the king they required basic shelter and requested his permission to take up residence in the stables under the ruins of the temple. King Baldwin granted the soldiers’ request, and the Knights took up their meager residence inside the devastated shrine. The odd choice of lodging had been anything but random. The Knights believed the documents the Priory sought were buried deep under the ruins beneath the Holy of Holies, a sacred chamber where God Himself was believed to reside. Literally, the very center of the Jewish faith. For almost a decade, the nine Knights lived in the ruins, excavating in total secrecy through solid rock.

Did they find something? They certainly did. It had taken nine years, but the Knights had finally found what they had been searching for. They took the treasure from the temple and travelled to Europe, where their influence seemed to solidify overnight.

Nobody was certain whether the Knights had blackmailed the Vatican or whether the Church simply tried to buy the Knights’ silence, but Pope Innocent II immediately issued an unprecedented papal bull that afforded the Knights Templar limitless power and declared them “a law unto themselves” an autonomous army independent of all interference from kings and prelates, both religious and political.

With their new carte blanche from the Vatican, the Knights Templar expanded at a staggering rate, both in numbers and political force, amassing vast estates in over a dozen countries. They began extending credit to bankrupt royals and charging interest in return, thereby establishing modern banking and broadening their wealth and influence still further.

Tragedy

By the 1300s, the Vatican sanction had helped the Knights amass so much power that Pope Clement V decided that something had to be done. Working in concert with France‘s King Philippe IV, the Pope devised an ingeniously planned sting operation to quash the Templars and seize their treasure, thus taking control of the secrets held over the Vatican. In a military maneuver worthy of the CIA, Pope Clement issued secret sealed orders to be opened simultaneously by his soldiers all across Europe on Friday, October 13 of 1307.

At dawn on the thirteenth, the documents were unsealed and their appalling contents revealed. Clement’s letter claimed that God had visited him in a vision and warned him that the Knights Templar were heretics guilty of devil worship, homosexuality, defiling the cross, sodomy, and other blasphemous behavior. Pope Clement had been asked by God to cleanse the earth by rounding up all the Knights and torturing them until they confessed their crimes against God. Clement’s Machiavellian operation came off with clockwork precision. On that day, countless Knights were captured, tortured mercilessly, and finally burned at the stake as heretics. Echoes of the tragedy still resonated in modern culture; to this day, Friday the thirteenth was considered unlucky.

Survival

Fraternities of Templars do still exist today, under a variety of names. Despite Clement’s false charges and best efforts to eradicate them, the Knights had powerful allies, and some managed to escape the Vatican purges. The Templars’ potent treasure trove of documents, which had apparently been their source of power, was Clement’s true objective, but it slipped through his fingers. The documents had long since been entrusted to the Templars’ shadowy architects, the Priory of Sion, whose veil of secrecy had kept them safely out of range of the Vatican‘s onslaught. As the Vatican closed in, the Priory smuggled their documents from a Paris preceptory by night onto Templar ships in La Rochelle.

Where did the documents go?

That mystery’s answer is known only to the Priory of Sion. Because the documents remain the source of constant investigation and speculation even today, they are believed to have been moved and rehidden several times. Current speculation places the documents somewhere in the United Kingdom.

For a thousand years, legends of this secret have been passed on. The entire collection of documents, its power, and the secret it reveals have become known by a single name Sangreal. Hundreds of books have been written about it, and few mysteries have caused as much interest among historians as the Sangreal.

Does the word have anything to do with the French word sang or Spanish sangre meaning ‘blood’? Blood was the backbone of the Sangreal. The legend is complicated, but the important thing to remember is that the Priory guards the proof, and is purportedly awaiting the right moment in history to reveal the truth.

The word Sangreal is an ancient word. It has evolved over the years into another term… a more modern name.” He paused. “When I tell you its modern name, you’ll realize you already know a lot about it. In fact, almost everyone on earth has heard the story of the Sangreal.

Holy Grail

Holy Grail is the literal meaning of Sangreal. The phrase derives from the French Sangraal, which evolved to Sangreal, and was eventually split into two words, San Greal. Holy Grail.

The Sangreal documents are only half of the Holy Grail treasure. They are buried with the Grail itself… and reveal its true meaning. The documents gave the Knights Templar so much power because the pages revealed the true nature of the Grail.

The true nature of the Grail? The Holy Grail, people had thought, was the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper and with which Joseph of Arimathea later caught His blood at the crucifixion.

According to the Priory of Sion, the Holy Grail is not a cup at all. They claim the Grail legend that of a chalice is actually an ingeniously conceived allegory. That is, that the Grail story uses the chalice as a metaphor for something else, something far more powerful.

The Holy Grail is arguably the most sought-after treasure in human history. The Grail has spawned legends, wars, and lifelong quests. Does it make sense that it is merely a cup? If so, then certainly other relics should generate similar or greater interest the Crown of Thorns, the True Cross of the Crucifixion, the Titulus and yet, they do not. Throughout history, the Holy Grail has been the most special.

[The Series continues]

Da Vinci Code on Sacred Feminine - IX - Mary Magdalene

As seen in the Last Supper

Da Vinci lays it all out in the open in The Last Supper. The one seated in the place of honor, at the right hand of the Lord is an individual with flowing red hair, delicate folded hands, and the hint of a bosom. It was, without a doubt… female. The woman to Jesus’ right was young and pious-looking, with a demure face. This is the woman who single-handedly could crumble the Church? Who is she? That, my dear, is Mary Magdalene.

The Last Supper tells us that the Holy Grail was a person. And not just any person: A woman who carried with her a secret so powerful that, if revealed, it threatened to devastate the very foundation of Christianity!

Who was Mary Magdalene?

The unfortunate misconception that she was a prostitute is the legacy of a smear campaign launched by the early Church. The Church needed to defame Mary Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous secret - her role as the Holy Grail.

The early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore, any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible. Unfortunately for the early editors, one particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels. Mary Magdalene. More specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ.

Married?

It’s a matter of historical record and Da Vinci was certainly aware of that fact. The Last Supper practically shouts at the viewer that Jesus and Magdalene were a pair.

Notice that Jesus and Magdalene are clothed as mirror images of one another. Sure enough, their clothes were inverse colors. Jesus wore a red robe and blue cloak; Mary Magdalene wore a blue robe and red cloak. Yin and yang.

Venturing into the more bizarre, note that Jesus and His bride appear to be joined at the hip and are leaning away from one another as if to create this clearly delineated negative space between them.

Symbol of M

In the painting, if you view Jesus and Magdalene as compositional elements rather than as people, you will see another obvious shape leap out at you – A letter of the alphabet.

Glaring in the center of the painting was the unquestionable outline of an enormous, flawlessly formed letter M.

Why is it there?

Conspiracy theorists will tell you it stands for Matrimonio or Mary Magdalene. To be honest, nobody is certain. The only certainty is that the hidden M is no mistake. Countless Grail-related works contain the hidden letter M - whether as watermarks, underpaintings, or compositional allusions. The most blatant M, of course, is emblazoned on the altar at Our Lady of Paris in London, which was designed by a former Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, Jean Cocteau.

The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record. Moreover, Jesus as a married man makes infinitely more sense than our standard biblical view of Jesus as a bachelor.

Why?

Because Jesus was a Jew and the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible’s gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood.

What the Gospels tell?

The Gnostic Gospels, the Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea scrolls are the earliest Christian records. Troublingly, they do not match up with the gospels in the Bible. Flipping toward the middle of the book, we find a passage:

And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?

As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion, in those days, literally meant spouse.

Read the first line again. And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene.

The book clearly suggested Magdalene and Jesus had a romantic relationship.

This is from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene:

And Peter said, “Did the Saviour really speak with a woman without our knowledge? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?”

And Levi answered, “Peter, you have always been hot-tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like an adversary. If the Saviour made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Saviour knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us.

The woman they are speaking of, is Mary Magdalene.

Whom to carry on His Church?

Peter is jealous of her. Not only because Jesus preferred Mary, the stakes were far greater than mere affection. At this point in the gospels, Jesus suspects He will soon be captured and crucified. So He gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone. As a result, Peter expresses his discontent over playing second fiddle to a woman. We daresay Peter was something of a sexist.

According to these unaltered gospels, it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions with which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary Magdalene.

Jesus - the original feminist!

That was the plan. Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene.

And Peter had a problem with that. See Peter in the Last Supper. You can see that Da Vinci was well aware of how Peter felt about Mary Magdalene.

In the painting, Peter was leaning menacingly toward Mary Magdalene and slicing his blade-like hand across her neck. The same threatening gesture as in Madonna of the Rocks!

Royal Blood

Few people realize that Mary Magdalene, in addition to being Christ’s right hand, was a powerful woman already. Mary Magdalene was of royal descent. Magdalene was recast as a whore in order to erase evidence of her powerful family ties. I it was not Mary Magdalene’s royal blood that concerned the Church so much as it was her consorting with Christ, who also had royal blood. As you know, the Book of Matthew tells us that Jesus was of the House of David. A descendant of King Solomon - King of the Jews. By marrying into the powerful House of Benjamin, Jesus fused two royal bloodlines, creating a potent political union with the potential of making a legitimate claim to the throne and restoring the line of kings as it was under Solomon.

The legend of the Holy Grail is a legend about royal blood. When Grail legend speaks of ‘the chalice that held the blood of Christ’… it speaks, in fact, of Mary Magdalene - the female womb that carried Jesus’ royal bloodline.

A Father too?

The greatest cover-up in human history: Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage, and the vine from which the sacred fruit sprang forth!

The royal bloodline of Jesus Christ is the source of the most enduring legend of all time - the Holy Grail. Magdalene’s story has been shouted from the rooftops for centuries in all kinds of metaphors and languages. Her story is everywhere once you open your eyes.

The word Sangreal derives from San Greal - or Holy Grail. But in its most ancient form, the word Sangreal was divided in a different spot.

Sang Real literally meant Royal Blood.

Sangreal… Sang Real… San Greal… Royal Blood… Holy Grail.

It was all intertwined.

The Holy Grail is Mary Magdalene… the mother of the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ.

Leonardo da Vinci is not the only one who has been trying to tell the world the truth about the Holy Grail. The royal bloodline of Jesus Christ has been chronicled in exhaustive detail by scores of historians.

See some titles:

THE TEMPLAR REVELATION:

Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ

THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR:

Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail

THE GODDESS IN THE GOSPELS

Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine

This is perhaps the most famous tome:

HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL

The Acclaimed International Bestseller 

This caused quite a stir back in the nineteen eighties. To my taste, the authors made some dubious leaps of faith in their analysis, but their fundamental premise is sound, and to their credit, they finally brought the idea of Christ’s bloodline into the mainstream.

The Church’s reaction to the book was outrage, of course. But that was to be expected. After all, this was a secret the Vatican had tried to bury in the fourth century. That’s part of what the Crusades were about. Gathering and destroying information.

Surviving bloodline

The threat Mary Magdalene posed to the men of the early Church was potentially ruinous. Not only was she the woman to whom Jesus had assigned the task of founding the Church, but she also had physical proof that the Church’s newly proclaimed deity had spawned a mortal bloodline. The Church, in order to defend itself against the Magdalene’s power, perpetuated her image as a whore and buried evidence of Christ’s marriage to her, thereby defusing any potential claims that Christ had a surviving bloodline and was a mortal prophet.

[The Series continues]

Da Vinci Code on Sacred Feminine - VIII - The Last Supper & The Holy Grail

The Last Supper is Da Vinci’s legendary painting. It portrays Jesus and His disciples at the moment that Jesus announced one of them would betray Him.

The Last Supper is one of the most astonishing tributes to the sacred feminine you will ever see.

Where is the Holy Grail?

The legend says that after dinner, Jesus took the cup of wine, sharing it with His disciples. One cup, the chalice… the Cup of Christ… the Holy Grail… Jesus passed a single chalice of wine, just as modern Christians do at communion.

Let us see the painting again.

Jesus is sitting in the centre. He and His disciples are breaking and eating bread and drinking wine. Everyone at the table had a glass of wine, including Christ. Thirteen cups. Moreover, the cups were tiny, stemless, and made of glass. There was no chalice in the painting. No Holy Grail.

Both the Bible and our standard Grail legend celebrate this moment as the definitive arrival of the Holy Grail. Oddly, Da Vinci appears to have forgotten to paint the Cup of Christ.

What anomalies Da Vinci included here that most scholars either do not see or simply choose to ignore. This fresco, in fact, is the entire key to the Holy Grail mystery. Da Vinci lays it all out in the open in The Last Supper: the Holy Grail is not a thing. It is, in fact… a person.

Thirteen Men?

The Last Supper is a painting of thirteen men. Is it? Take a closer look at the picture.

Scan the thirteen figures - Jesus Christ in the middle, six disciples on His left, and six on His right.

How about the one seated in the place of honor, at the right hand of the Lord?

The individual had flowing red hair, delicate folded hands, and the hint of a bosom. It was, without a doubt… female.

That’s a woman!

Believe me, it’s no mistake. Leonardo was skilled at painting the difference between the sexes.

The Last Supper is supposed to be thirteen men. Who is this woman?

Who is this woman?

Everyone misses it. Our preconceived notions of this scene are so powerful that our mind blocks out the incongruity and overrides our eyes.

It’s known as skitoma - the brain does it sometimes with powerful symbols.

Another reason you might have missed the woman is that many of the photographs in art books were taken before 1954, when the details were still hidden beneath layers of grime and several restorative repainting done by clumsy hands in the eighteenth century. Now, at last, the fresco has been cleaned down to Da Vinci’s original layer of paint.

The woman to Jesus’ right was young and pious-looking, with a demure face, beautiful red hair, and hands folded quietly. This is the woman who single-handedly could crumble the Church?

Who is she?

That, my dear, is Mary Magdalene. (More about her in the next issue)

Symbols of male and female

Are you familiar with the modern icons for male and female? These are not the original symbols for male and female. Many people incorrectly assume the male symbol is derived from a shield and spear, while the female symbol represents a mirror reflecting beauty. In fact, the symbols originated as ancient astronomical symbols for the planet-god Mars and planet-goddess Venus. The original symbols are far simpler.

This icon is formally known as the blade, and it represents aggression and manhood. In fact, this exact phallus symbol is still used today on modern military uniforms to denote rank. The more penises you have, the higher your rank. Boys will be boys.

Moving on, the female symbol, as you might imagine, is the exact opposite. This is called the chalice. The chalice resembles a cup or vessel, and more important, it resembles the shape of a woman’s womb. This symbol communicates femininity, womanhood, and fertility.

Real meaning of Holy Grail

Legend tells us the Holy Grail is a chalice - a cup. But the Grail’s description as a chalice is actually an allegory to protect the true nature of the Holy Grail. That is to say, the legend uses the chalice as a metaphor for something far more important.

The Grail is literally the ancient symbol for womanhood, and the Holy Grail represents the sacred feminine and the goddess, which of course has now been lost, virtually eliminated by the Church. The power of the female and her ability to produce life was once very sacred, but it posed a threat to the rise of the predominantly male Church, and so the sacred feminine was demonized and called unclean. It was man, not God, who created the concept of ‘original sin,’ whereby Eve tasted of the apple and caused the downfall of the human race. Woman, once the sacred giver of life, was now the enemy.

Man the creator?

This concept of woman as life-bringer was the foundation of ancient religion. Childbirth was mystical and powerful. Sadly, Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female’s creative power by ignoring biological truth and making man the Creator. Genesis tells us that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. Woman became an offshoot of man. And a sinful one at that. Genesis was the beginning of the end for the goddess.

Lost Goddess

The Grail is symbolic of the lost goddess. When Christianity came along, the old pagan religions did not die easily. Legends of chivalric quests for the lost Grail were in fact stories of forbidden quests to find the lost sacred feminine. Knights who claimed to be “searching for the chalice” were speaking in code as a way to protect themselves from a Church that had subjugated women, banished the Goddess, burned nonbelievers, and forbidden the pagan reverence for the sacred feminine.

Holy Grail was a person. And not just any person. A woman who carried with her a secret so powerful that, if revealed, it threatened to devastate the very foundation of Christianity!

[The Series continues]