Jim Tresner, 33°, G.C.
P.O. Box 70,Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044–0070
Book Reviews Editor, The Scottish Rite Journal

As the years pass, I find myself more and more dependent upon the illusion of wisdom than the illusion of knowledge. To have a reputation for knowledge takes work. You actually have to know things, and that means you have to study and be ready to debate issues with others who know at least as much as you do-and usually more. But one can gain a reputation for wisdom simply by keeping the mouth shut, practicing a quiet, inward smile, and keeping the eyes focused on the distant horizon.

Nonetheless, all of us have known people who were truly wise, and many of us have found that their wisdom points a way out of confusion when additional information merely deepens our dilemma. Information focuses on progressively smaller points-wisdom scans progressively broader vistas. The science of earlier times becomes superseded by our own science and, in turn, will be superseded by the science of tomorrow. But the wisdom of a Socrates or Plato is as fresh, as vital, and as relevant today as it was those many long centuries ago. The books reviewed this month, to one degree or another, address this difficult subject, wisdom.

Richard Smoley & Jay Kinney, Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions, 1999, Penguin Arkana Book, paperbound, 389 pages, good index, available on the Internet for $11.17, or at your local bookseller

Written by the editors of the late and very lamented Gnosis magazine, this is a very good and useful book. It is neither a spook show nor a how-to-become-a-guru-and-command-devils-and-angels-in-ten-days book, as far too many books on esoteric wisdom tend to be. It is, rather, a clearly written exposition of the great traditions that have influenced Western thinking.

It would be a great oversimplification, but not, I think, an inaccuracy, to suggest that the esoteric or hidden wisdom traditions concern themselves primarily with two questions: What is the real nature of man? And how does man truly relate to God? There are several of these great traditions. They show up in daily life in everything from the names we give our children to the value systems in our minds when we vote in state and national elections. Smoley and Kinney cover the general topics of Jung, Gnosticism, Esoteric Christianity, Kabbalah, Magism, Neopaganism, Shamanism, Alchemy, and more. This is one of those books I will return to again and again.

Patrick Byrne, Templar Gold: Discovering the Ark of the Covenant, 2001, Symposium Books, paperbound, 428 pages. Available on the Internet for $19.95 or at your local bookseller

From long experience, I have a large salt shaker on the desk when I sit down to read a book about the Templars or about the Ark. Often it is needed.

I'm not going to evaluate the author's thesis or even explain what it is. In fairness to Bro. Byrne, you need to encounter his evidence directly. The author gives some well-developed examples to move the case along, and his geometric demonstrations are fascinating. If you have an interest in the questions surrounding the Knights Templar, the Grail, and the Ark of the Covenant, you will find the book compelling. Even if you are not interested in those things, you will probably be intrigued in the proofs Bro. Byrne suggests from the rituals of the Blue Lodge and Royal Arch. And whether you agree with his conclusions or not, this book is a least a remarkable study in deduction.