Vox Dei

I read the new Dan Brown novel, The Lost Symbol, and I'm in two minds about it.  The big reveal at the end is more than a little disappointing.  In fact, the novel as a whole doesn't stand up to its two predecessors.  

But...

There is a message in this book that's important.  This book does contain the secret of the ages.  And it's a secret that, when you tell people it, they don't believe you.  Even if they do, it's not something that it's just enough to know or believe; it's something you have to live.  Here's the secret: you are god.

I told you you wouldn't believe me.  But it is the secret and has been expressed throughout the ages, from the sacred sparks of the Kabbalists to the Thou art That of the Hindu Upanishads.  Aldous Huxley has a book called The Perennial Philosophy thats collects sacred scripture from around the planet that expresses that secret.

So, in the book, Robert Langdon has to solve the secret of the Mason's Pyramid to find this out.  Why?  What's the point?  In the ancient mysteries, especially those of the Elesius, initiates found out this secret not by being told it but by being led through an experience that would alter their consciousness and change their lives.  In other words, it wasn't just enough for them to know they were god, they had to live as if they were god.  It's not enough for anyone searching for the secret to be given it immediately; they have to struggle for it to discover it's true value.  Only then is Hiram Abiff lifted from his grave, and only then is the lost word rediscovered. 

Joseph Campbell tells a story about a guru and his student.  The guru one day tells his student that everything is god and that he is god.  The student is stunned by this and leaves the guru's house in a daze.  He walks down the street of the village pointing at things.  "That dog is god, I am god.  That cart is god, I am god.  That fruit vendor is god, I am god."  So on and so on.  Coming down the street toward him is an elephant with a driver on its back.  The driver sees the student and starts yelling at him to get out of the way.  The student just stands in the middle of the street, still dazed.  "That elephant is god, I am god."  The elephant finally knocks the student aside with his trunk and continues on.  After lying still for a few minutes, the student stands back up and, without dusting himself off, walks back to the guru's house.  The guru, who's been standing at the door watching everything, meets the student.  "You told me I was god."  The guru says that yes, he did.  "You told me everything else was god."  The guru again agrees.  "Then why, if I am god and if the elephant is god, did the elephant knock me aside?  It could have killed me."  "Because," says the guru, "you didn't listen to the voice of god telling you to get out of the way."