For a 'secret society' of best-selling proportions, the Freemasons sure aren't doing a lot to hide - in fact, they're doing just the opposite in the wake of the release of Dan Brown's latest exposé cum thriller novel. In The Lost Symbol, which sold more than a million copies on its first day, Freemasonry is used as the shrouded backdrop of symbolotry and allegory through which hero professor Robert Langdon must navigate in order to find a hidden pyramid and unlock the "Ancient Mysteries" concealed within for the evil Freemason hellbent on becoming God who kidnapped his good friend.
Stirring much controversy and sending conspiracy theorists worldwide into a frenzy of online attempts to uncover the dark 'secrets' of the society, even the book's release date, Sept. 15 (or 09/15/09), led to widespread speculation as to a secret Masonic meaning, adding up, as the numbers do, to 33 - the highest degree of membership to which Freemasons can honorarily achieve.
InsideToronto Article: Unlocking the mystery of a not-so-secret society
Stirring much controversy and sending conspiracy theorists worldwide into a frenzy of online attempts to uncover the dark 'secrets' of the society, even the book's release date, Sept. 15 (or 09/15/09), led to widespread speculation as to a secret Masonic meaning, adding up, as the numbers do, to 33 - the highest degree of membership to which Freemasons can honorarily achieve.
InsideToronto Article: Unlocking the mystery of a not-so-secret society