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The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code has taken the market by storm. The Da Vinci Code has become a phenomenon and a topic of conversation around the water cooler, with good reason. Brown’s book is a unique combination of fact and fiction and has the reader questioning every statement. The Da Vinci Code has been on the New York Time’s Bestseller’s List for 68 weeks and counting. So why have people embraced this book with such enthusiasm? Everyone loves a good mystery and a 2000 year old mystery concerning the Catholic Church has truly captured people’s attention.
The story centers on the character of Dr. Robert Langdon, professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard, who is called upon to help solve the murder of the Louvre’s curator Jacques Saunière. Saunière is found naked and lying in the same position as the drawing Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. Beside him is a message written in blood. It is because of this
message that Langdon is called in as the prime suspect, unbeknownst to
him.
The riddle left behind leads to clues hidden in da Vinci’s works including The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, creatively disguised by the painter. Langdon is joined by Sophie Neveu, granddaughter of the late curator. They learn that Saunière was part of the Priory of Sion, a secret society which included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and da Vinci, among others. The curator was one of only four men, all of whom were murdered, who knew the secret protected by the Priory - the location of the Holy Grail.
Langdon and Neveu have to race against time, work through brain-teasers, and outwit the Head of Opus Dei, a Catholic sect believed to have been manoeuvring to take control of the Priory’s secret. If they fail, the secret will be lost forever. Every twist and turn in The Da Vinci Code will leave you wondering and wanting more.
Theories
Here are a number of theories in The Da Vinci Code:
• The Holy Grail is not a chalice but rather the symbol of a woman, Mary Magdalene (who carried the bloodline of Jesus)
• Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute. That story was created by the Church to disguise the real relationship between her and Jesus which was that of his wife. She fled to Gaul after Jesus was killed and gave birth to a daughter named Sarah.
• The French expression for the Holy Grail, San gréal, is a play on words for Sang réal, which translates to mean "royal blood".
• The Holy Grail contains documents that testify to the bloodline of Jesus, as well as the remains of Mary Magdalene.
• The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were created to keep secret the documents discovered in Jerusalem in 1099.
• Leonardo da Vinci was a member of the Priory of Sion and a keeper of the secret of the Holy Grail. He actually reveals this secret in his painting of The Last Supper. There are thirteen wine chalices in the portrait not just one, and the person seated next to Jesus is in fact a woman not a man, his wife Mary Magdalene.
• The Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of da Vinci himself. It reflects the union of male and female like the holy union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The name Mona Lisa is also an anagram for “Amon L’Isa” which refers to the father and mother gods of Ancient Egypt (Amon and Isis).