The Secret of the Temple: Earth Energies, Sacred Geometry, and the Lost Keys of Freemasonry

Context: I am a Master Mason and have read quite a number of works on the history of the Craft, ranging from well-grounded historical texts to other, more speculative works.Greer's The Secret of the Temple: This is a fantastic effort to bring together threads of tradition and history from across the globe, and presenting them in a wholly new light. I do not wish to give up any spoilers here. I will say the wide-ranging scholarship and various connections Greer presents here I found to be unexpected, incredibly interesting, and left me with much to ponder. In addition to a thesis on what the "Secret" might be and how it was transmitted, the book is filled with references to supporting works. Greer does not ask you to take his word - he backs it up with references you can delve into yourself. He even provides an experiment you can perform to illustrate one of his points.While he does push the bounds of scholarship in new (and to me, very unexpected) directions, he does not attempt to bend or break any laws of physics or demand credulity on the part of the reader. There is solid scholarship here - a foundation for a bigger and more breathtaking look at what might lie at the root of our Craft. Every chapter was fresh and unexpected in a very delightful way.Well worth your time and money. I highly recommend it.

This is an interesting book about the ways in which the physical construction of stone buildings might have enhanced the growth of crops in ancient civilizations. This is not a book about crop circles, or temples of doom from an Indiana Jones movie. There is little to no mystical content. It is a methodical inquiry into the possible effects that building construction, materials, location and orientation may have on the growth of plants. That said, it definitely falls outside the boundaries of the usual thinking on agriculture and architecture. If you are able to get beyond the sort of schooling that tells you, "We won't look into it because we already know things don't work that way," then you may gain something from reading it.Mr. Greer provides an experiment to test some of these concepts that could easily be performed by any 10-year-old as a science fair project. The only improvement I could suggest is a website where readers could post pictures of the results of their plant growth experiments.The rest of the concepts could be completely tested and developed by anyone willing to build several stone buildings near unproductive farm land. No need to hire Priests of Chemash or Ba'al, just build the buildings. If there is a farmer somewhere who was planning to build a stone building anyway, or a gardener willing to alter the dimensions, orientation, and structure of his or her new tool shed, I hope they will pick up a copy of this book and give it a try!

Awesome

What a fascinating well written book by John Michael Greer. Greer offers a fresh perspective to the Temple builders and worshippers of the higher realms. This book applies to both the seasoned Mason as well to the curious.

I read this book with an open mind and it did not disappoint. After finishing this I am going to dive deeper into Temple technology and it’s secrets. I recommend this book for people who are into the ancient thought process. So Mote it Be.

a book I have looked for. thanks a lot.

There is much food for thought here. I appreciated the comparison between various cultures and how they relate to Freemasonry.

I really liked this book. It touches on a number of themes that I really appreciate, and which are often John Michael Greer's stock-in-trade: 1) ancient peoples were not only not-stupid — they were in fact quite intelligent and competent; 2) that a holistic approach to science and technology can lead to extraordinary results; 3) that not every solution to every problem must be a whiz-bang high-tech one; and 4) that a number of weird holdovers from ancient times can be found in the modern world, in much the same way that J.R.R. Tolkien described fairy-stories as old furniture consigned to the nursery — not ready to be thrown on the firewood pile, but not really fashionable, either.This book deals with the potentials for using the energies of the earth to perform extraordinary feats of soil fertility and agricultural productivity using what Greer calls 'temple technology'. He points out that ancient peoples — among them the Israelites, the Egyptians, the Indians, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Maya, and others — frequently used a particular style or methodology of constructing temples according to a given ground plan and elevation. This ground plan and elevation appear to be connected with secret knowledge encoded in the rites of the Freemasons, and with the Templars before them, and rooted in the idea that structures, built of the correct materials and 'tuned' in accord with solutions of resonant geometry (akin to snipping a radio antenna wire to the correct length), have a salutary effect on the landscape around them — and further, that particular rites involving incense and sound waves may increase these effects significantly. I've begun performing the experiment suggested partway through this book, and I'm enjoying the results so far.

This is an excellent book, well written and thought provoking.

This (lame) book has been written by somebody who obviously likes to write but does not have the gift for it...The few interesting points are quickly spoiled by loads of scientific or historical mistakes. If you are keen on a form of self proclaimed mysticism which is not backed up by any fact: this book is for you!!This could have been a great topic, but it only looks like the author has done all his researches on the internet, and spent a few weeks compiling it.AND, the worse part of all....... I cannot believe that I bought this book twice!!!! After page 160 (where I am writing this note), I forgot it in a plane... Hopefully, the remaining pages will be slightly better but I feel I will very shortly regret it.