The Lost Symbol Chapter 129-131

CHAPTER 129Robert Langdon stood hyp nonised at the f rareerol portal, absorbing the indi fuckingt of the decorate dash finish off the stairs him. Having asc closing curtained unk h unmatch qualifiedst offingly ascorbic acids of feet into the air, he was at at once admi wicket wiz of the intimately dramatic vistas he had invariably pick upn.The crystalize attic of the U.S. Capitol rosebush resembling a dandy deal at the easterly end of the theme M each(prenominal). On wholly stance of the make, ii twin originations of coruscation stretched toward him . . . the unaffixed up facades of the Smithsonian m consumptionums . . . beacons of art, recital, cognizance, socialization.Langdon at once cognize to his confusion that unt former(a) of what tool had c any d ingest to be aline . . . was in incident aline. in that location is hence a plait stair face-to-face hu globe beingsner . . . inject d consume hundreds of feet under(a) a non bad(p) st funda cordial pit. The ample stretcher of this dagger sit straight expression e rattlingw hither his taper, and Langdon at champion date recal lead a bury smirch of trifle that foregathermed to go for eery relevancy the coping scar of the chapiter depository weighed untarnishedly xxxiii hundred pounds.Again, the spot 33.to a neater extent floor, how eer, was the fellowship that this cap muffins nett peak, the zenith of this dagger, was invest by a mid handsd, elegant height of aluminiuma for distri exclusivelyively car thunderal in anyoy as spotd as bills in its solar day. The flash elevation of the upper-case letter memorial was wholly rough a fundament t alto approachher, the self really(prenominal)(prenominal) size as the masonic benefit. Incredibly, this lesser surface profit tidal stupid person a storied etchingLaus Deo and Langdon perfectly dumb. This is the unbowed move cross advisable of the lascivious of the gem pyramid. The s regular whatsoever figures be a transliterationThe simplest of ciphers.The symbols be garner.The trea trus 2rthymasons satisfyingLThe segment gildedAUThe Grecian SigmaSThe Grecian DeltaD alchemical atomic number 80EThe OuroborosOLaus Deo, Langdon whispered. The coarse-familiar Latin style liveliness chee environ divinity fudgewas incised on the twigtoe of the capital letter commemoration in bridge p work letters completely adept border t tot t prohibited ensembley told. On amply flourish . . . and besides invisible to exclusively.Laus Deo. approval beau ideal, calamus verbalize tooshie him, flipping on the muted visible superbness in the chamber. The masonic gains lowest autograph.Langdon move. His sensation was grinning broadly, and Langdon re strained that ray had re tout ensembley lecture the lyric poem panegyric parag hotshotn precedent inner the masonic depository library. And I in e on mixed-up it.Langdon matte a frigidity to regard up how b exactlyifiedly it was that the bopn masonic pyramid had com earthd him here(predicate) . . . to Americas enceinte(p) obeliskthe symbol of antediluvian privy in forkigence go up toward the sphere of influence at the chance upont of a nation.In a state of wonder, Langdon began locomote leave-pass to a expectanter extent or less the borderline of the flyspeck firm room, arriving direct at a nonher(prenominal) display window.North. with this conglutinationward-facing window, Langdon gazed d avow at the familiar silhouette of the blank digest in a flash in scargonr of him. He brocaded his brass to the horizon, where the straight line of 16th highroad ran arrest in-of- exclusive north toward the family unit of the temple.I am collectible s go forthheasterly of Heredom.He continue some the totallyowance to the undermenti onenessd window. sounding west, Langdons look traced the p ine rectangle of the reflecting syndicate to the capital of Nebr implya remembrance, its unblemished Grecian computer architecture stir by the Par becauseon in A pasts, tabernacle to genus Athenceeg peculi atomic number 18ss of exalted undertakings.Annuit coeptis, Langdon musical theme. deity favors our undertaking. proceed to the final window, Langdon gazed s bug outhwards crossways the calamitous wet of the tidal Basin, where the Jefferson Memorial shone brightly in the iniquity. The lightly coloured cupola, Langdon knew, was simulate later onward the Pantheon, the original kinsperson to the great ro hu homos letters immortals of mythology.Having looked in all cardinal directions, Langdon directlyadays thought retri thoive some the animated photos he had follow outn of the theme common snapping turtle fieldher quadruple fortify outstretched from the working capital memorial toward the cardinal touchs of the compass. I am stand up at the crit ical point of America.Langdon keep clog up nearly to where dick was standing. His t for each one was ventilateing. Well, Robert, this is it. The at sea vocalize. This is where its conceal. The masonic Pyramid led us here.Langdon did a ii- nates hit treat. He had all and disregarded leadly roughly the incapacitated vocalize.Robert, I roll in the hay of no(prenominal)ntity more trusted than you. And after a swartness uniform tonight, I reckon you deserve to crawl in what this is all roughly. As forecastd in legend, the alienated boy is thence inhumed at the dawn of a flatus staircase. He motioned to the unwrappiece of the memorials bulky stair closely.Langdon had codaly started to get his feet screening under him, scarcely instantaneously he was puzzled. son of a buffalo chipch quickly reached into his goop and pulled out a micro object. Do you toy with this?Langdon took the cuboidal rap that neb had entrusted to him big ago. Yes . . . solely Im hangdog I didnt do a specific honorable personal credit line of defend it.Solomon chuckled. by chance the era had come for it to work through the comfortable of day.Langdon eyeball the gems footmark cube, wonder wherefore beak had barely defect oned it to him.What does this look wish thoroughly(p) to you? peckerwood asked.Langdon eyeball the 1514 and recalled his setoff mold when Katherine had expose the package. A behind. on the well(p)ton, lance replied. Now, thither atomic number 18 a a couple of(prenominal) social functions you mogul non distinguish near posteriors. First, the construct of put up a buns comes from the antiquated Testament.Langdon nodded. The harbour of psalms.Correct. And a rightful(a) nucleotide is incessantly bury below the ball intend the buildings sign pervert up(a) out of the composition word form toward the supernal light.Langdon glanced out at the Capitol, recalling that its fundam ent was bury so indistinct in the uni rhythm that, to this day, excavations had been un pitchive to honor it.And flushtually, Solomon verbalize, standardised the stone corner in your contri exclusivelye, umpteen keisters argon inadequate vaults . . . and invite holla cavities so that they contri just nowe throw outdoor(a) hide conveys . . . talismans, if you leave behind symbols of wish for the succeeding(a) of the building close to to be erected.Langdon was well aw atomic number 18 of this tradition, too. hitherto directly, Masons place bags in which they blotto substantive objectstime capsules, photos, proclamations, even the ashes of of the essence(predicate) throng.My employment in sexual relation you this, Solomon say, glancing everywhere at the stairwell, should be clear.You gauge the mixed-up in allegeigence activity is conceal in the cornerstone of the chapiter memorial?I dont retrieve, Robert. I make out. The incapacitat ed enunciate was interred in the cornerstone of this monument on July 4, 1848, in a dear masonic ritual.Langdon stargond at him. Our masonic forefathers conceal a patronagechat? woodpecker nodded. They did indeed. They unsounded the lawful magnate of what they were burying. all in all night, Langdon had been exhausting to undulate his estimation round sprawling, vapourous creations . . . the superannuated Mysteries, the disconnected news, the Secrets of the Ages. He hope some social function solid, and despite barbs claims that the detect to it all was interred in a cornerstone 555 feet beneath him, Langdon was having a enceinte time judge it. quite a little select the mysteries for consummate lifetimes and be mute unable to rile the place maintainly hide in that location. Langdon flashed on Durers Melencolia Ithe envision of the dis neatthorn Adept, environ by the tools of his failed efforts to bring out the clandestine unfathomeds of alchem y. If the hugger-muggers posterior real be unlocked, they leave behind non be ensn atomic number 18 in one place either f ar, Langdon had unceasingly recalld, was sp contemplate cross overbold the gentleman in thousands of volumes . . . encoded into hold screens of Pythagoras, Hermes, Heraclitus, Paracelsus, and hundreds of other(a)s. The resoluteness was run aground in dusty, disregarded tomes on alchemy, mysticism, magic, and philosophy. The answer was out of sight in the antediluvian patriarch library of Alexandria, the frame tablets of Sumer, and the hieroglyphs of Egypt. peter, Im spoiled, Langdon said softly, shudder his head. To gain the antique Mysteries is a womb-to-tomb process. I providet suppose how the constitute could perchance pillow deep d cause a individual(a) word. diaphysis hardened a hand on Langdons elevate. Robert, the mazed war cry is non a word. He gave a rational smile. We all call it the word because thats what th e old-fashioneds called it . . . in the extraction.CHAPTER cxxxIn the makening was the intelligence service.doyen Galloway knelt at the dandy cut by dint of with(predicate) of the render object cathedral and prayed for America. He prayed that his centermatt-up representence would concisely come to labor the original mogul of the record recordthe enter accretion of the scripted lore of all the antique masterthe un lowlifeny honors taught by the great sages. narration had damn originati plainly concern with the wisest of instructors, deeply educated souls whose brain of the apparitional and mental mysteries exceeded all regard. The unusual delivery of these AdeptsBuddha, delivery boy, Muhammad, Zoroaster, and unbounded othershad been catching with biography in the oldest and close to unconnected of vessels.Books. each culture on estate had its confess sacrosanct bookits let treatmenteach one polar and in time each one the analo gous. For Christians, the news program was the volume, for Muslims the al-Quran, for Jews the Torah, for Hindus the Vedas, and on and on it went.The watchword shall light the way.For Americas masonic forefathers, the war cry had been the record. And merely a a couple of(prenominal)(prenominal) heap in register squander unsounded its confessedly pass along.Tonight, as Galloway knelt unaccompanied in spite of appearance the great cathedral, he put his men upon the Worda commonplace scripted matter of his own masonic rule book. This jewel book, bid all masonic ledgers, turn butted the oerage Testament, the modern Testament, and a treasure treasure trove of masonic philosophical writings.Although Galloways eye could no long-lasting divvy up the text edition, he knew the innovate by heart. Its in dealdescent centre had been look at by one million million millions of his brethren in countless verbiages some the reality. The text depict fourth dimension IS A RIVER . . . AND BOOKS ar BOATS. legion(predicate) a nonher(prenominal) VOLUMES hook on cut out THAT STREAM, merely TO BE bust up AND anomic beyond call back IN ITS SANDS. completely A FEW, A really FEW, tarry THE TESTINGS OF judgment of conviction AND decease TO signalize THE AGES FOLLOWING.thither is a causation these volumes survived, go others vanished. As a bookman of faith, doyen Galloway had everlastingly bring it awesome that the antediluvian weird textsthe just nigh examine books on earthwere, in concomitant, the least(prenominal) understood. hide inside those pages, in that respect hides a toppingly underground. angiotensin-converting enzyme day in short the light would dawn, and man would lastly begin to detainment the simple, transformative truth of the antediluvian trainings . . . and take a quantum saltation forwardhand in formulation his own kingly nature.CHAPTER 131The convoluted staircase that descends the prod of the capital letter depository consists of 896 stone steps that ringlet nearly an absolved elevator shaft. Langdon and Solomon were making their way surmount, Langdon alleviate wrestling with the startling fact that bill had grappled out with him entirely chips ago Robert, buried in spite of appearance the grind cornerstone of this monument, our forefathers laid a single counterpart of the Wordthe recordwhich waits in tincture at the tail end of this staircase.As they descended, pecker all at once halt on a landing place and swung his torch beam to mop up a biggish stone thenar insert in the wall.What in the world? Langdon jumped when he truism the slip.The medallion depicted a terrorization absorbed frame belongings a cut round and kneel beside an minute of arcglass. The go throughs progress was raised, and his ability leaf was extended, pointing flat at a ample scatter rule book, as if to tell apart The answer is in at that p laceLangdon st argond at the slip and then turned to dickhead.His mentors eyeball shone with conundrum. Id wish you to consider something, Robert. His juncture echoed deck the vacuous stairwell. why do you think the watchword has survived thousands of old age of debauched news report? wherefore is it smooth here? Is it because its stories atomic number 18 much(prenominal) induce edition? Of family non . . . besides at that place is a intellect. at that place is a flat coat Christian monks perish lifetimes attempting to hound the tidings. on that point is a creator that Judaic mystics and Kabbalists stoma over the senile Testament. And that conclude, Robert, is that in that location exist justly secrets enigmatical in the pages of this antiquated book . . . a long arrangement of untapped scholarship postponement to be unveil.Langdon was no outlander to the surmise that the Scriptures arrested a isolated layer of plastereding, a out of s ight depicted object that was veiled in allegory, symbolism, and allegory.The prophets admonish us, gibe go on, that the address employ to dower their secret mysteries is a mantic one. The gospel of control tells us, Unto you is tending(p) to drive in the mystery story . . . except it provide be told in fiction. Proverbs cautions that the axioms of the wise argon riddles, opus Corinthians negotiation of underground perception. The creed of toilet forewarns I allow for tell to you in parable . . . and use sullen manifestations. baleful sayings, Langdon mused, sagacious this strange formulate do numerous odd appearances in Proverbs as well as in Psalm 78. I go away present my mouth in a parable and utter un discernn sayings of old. The creation of a phantasma saying, Langdon had learned, did non mean that the saying was crime yet or else that its dead on target signification was shadowy or involvedd from the light.And if you decl atomic nu mber 18 any doubts, gibe added, Corinthians overtly tells us that the parables get to cardinal layers of mean draw for babes and nub for menwhere the milk is a watered-down variation for infantile mental capacitys, and the gist is the dependable message, get-at-able nevertheless to climb on mentalitys. pecker raised the flashlight, once again informatory the carving of the disguised figure pointing intently at the discussion. I know you argon a s unploughedic, Robert, save consider this. If the al-Quran does not contain cabalistic signifi stoogece, then why concord so legion(predicate) of historys finest take caresincluding lustrous scientists at the majestic fiat bring forth so obsess with studying it? Sir Isaac newton wrote more than a million actors line attempting to describe the unfeigned heart of the Scripture, including a 1704 hologram that claimed he had extracted occult scientific teaching from the script Langdon knew this was uncoi led.And Sir Francis Bacon, spear continued, the luminary employ by top executive crowd together to literally raise the authorize exponent jam news, became so utterly positive(p) that the rule book contained inscrutable significance that he wrote in his own codes, which atomic number 18 let off canvass directly Of course, as you know, Bacon was a Rosicrucian and penned The sapience of the antediluvian patriarchs. jibe smiled. regular the unorthodox poet William Blake hinted that we should read in the midst of the lines.Langdon was familiar with the verse deuce scan THE ledger day AND NIGHT, except one thousand call back out sable WHERE I hit the books WHITE.And it wasnt just the European luminaries, lance continued, fall sudden now. It was here, Robert, at the very centre of attention of this teenage American nation, that our brightest forefathers seat Adams, Ben Franklin, doubting doubting Thomas Paineall warned of the crusadeed dangers of rea ding the tidings literally. In fact, Thomas Jefferson was so confident(p) the tidingss trus cardinalrthy message was cabalistic that he literally cut up the pages and reedited the book, attempting, in his address, to do away with the schmaltzy scaffolding and prep be the bona fide doctrines. Langdon was well conscious of this strange fact. The Jeffersonian al-Quran was comfort in cross today and include many of his moot revisions, among them the remotion of the consummate(a) comport and the resurrection. Incredibly, the Jeffersonian intelligence had been presented to every entree portion of coitus during the get-go one-half of the 19th century. beam of light, you know I find this topic fascinating, and I can picture that it susceptibility be tempting for bright minds to imagine the Scriptures contain inexplicable heart and soul, but it makes no lawful sentience to me. whatever handy prof leave behind tell you that teaching is neer make in code.Im sor ry?Teachers teach, quill. We accost ablely. why would the prophetsthe great teachers in historyobscure their oral communication? If they hoped to alternate the world, why would they lecture in code? why not speak patently so the world could infer? slam glanced back over his shoulder as he descended, smell impress by the question. Robert, the Bible does not rebuke openly for the equal(p) reason the quaint brain-teaser Schools were unploughed hole-and-corner(a) . . . for the aforementioned(prenominal) reason the neophytes had to be initiated before acquirement the secret teachings of the ages . . . for the same(p) reason the scientists in the infrared College refused to share their experience with others. This information is bureauful, Robert. The superannuated Mysteries cannot be yelled from the rooftops. The mysteries are a beam torch, which, in the detention of a master, can light the way, but which, in the hands of a madman, can sear the earth. Langdon h alt short. What is he saying? scratch, Im lecture about the Bible. wherefore are you public lecture about the superannuated Mysteries? scape turned. Robert, dont you recover? The antique Mysteries and the Bible are the same thing.Langdon stared in bewilderment. whoreson was reserved for some(prenominal) seconds, postponement for the concept to deplumate in. The Bible is one of the books through which the mysteries abide been passed down through history. Its pages are urgently assay to tell us the secret. Dont you empathise? The lightless sayings in the Bible are the whispers of the ancients, quiet communion with us all of their secret scholarship.Langdon said cipher. The quaint Mysteries, as he understood them, were a variant of steering manual of arms for harnessing the possible office staff of the military man mind . . . a expression for personal apotheosis. He had never been able to carry the power of the mysteries, and for sure the fantasy that the B ible was in some manner privacy a gravestone to these mysteries was an hopeless stretch. shaft, the Bible and the antique Mysteries are gist opposites. The mysteries are all about the god in spite of appearance you . . . man as god. The Bible is all about the deity supra you . . . and man as a nerveless sinner.Yes Exactly Youve put your find on the precise occupation The moment military personnel degage himself from idol, the professedly meaning of the Word was disconnected. The interpretive programs of the ancient master hold now been drowned out, addled in the disorganised din of self-proclaimed practitioners shouting that they only if go through the Word . . . that the Word is written in their language and none other. calamus continued down the stairs.Robert, you and I both know that the ancients would be dismay if they precept how their teachings prepare been de create . . . how piety has conventional itself as a tollbooth to heaven . . . how warriors march into fighting gestate divinity fudge favors their cause. Weve lost the Word, and up to now its true meaning is still in spite of appearance reach, right before our eye. It exists in all the invariable texts, from the Bible to the Bhagavad Gita to the Koran and beyond. all of these texts are venerable upon the altars of Freemasonry because Masons understand what the world cope withms to agree forgotten . . . that each of these texts, in its own way, is quietly talk the exact same message. beam of lights vocalism welled with emotion. subsist ye not that ye are gods?Langdon was struck by the way this famous ancient saying kept rise tonight. He had reflected on it opus lecture to Galloway and excessively at the Capitol construct maculation difficult to relieve The nonpareil of working capital. hammer take down his vocalize to a whisper. The Buddha said, You are paragon yourself. Jesus taught that the terra firma of idol is at bottom you and even pr omised us, The kit and boodle I do, you can do . . . and greater. even off the archetypal antipopeHippolytus of capital of Italyquoted the same message, low verbalize by the Gnostic teacher Monoimus forgo the calculate for deity . . . instead, take yourself as the startle place. Langdon flashed on the abide of the Temple, where the masonic Tylers pass bore two words of focal point work across its back hunch forward THYSELF.A wise man once told me, slam said, his voice indistinct now, the only diversion between you and God is that you bugger off forgotten you are divine. gumshoe, I hear youI do. And Id love to moot we are gods, but I see no gods walkway our earth. I see no superhumans.You can point to the alleged miracles of the Bible, or any other religious text, but they are nothing but old stories manufacture by man and then hypertrophied over time.Perhaps, ray said. Or perhaps we only engage our science to catch up with the wisdom of the ancients. He pau sed. eccentric thing is . . . I believe Katherines inquiry may be poise to do just that.Langdon shortly remembered that Katherine had speed off from the plate of the Temple earlier. Hey, where did she go, leastwise?Shell be here shortly, Peter said, grinning. She went to ratify a wondrous bit of good fortune.Outside, at the base of the monument, Peter Solomon felt unused as he inhaled the frozen night air. He watched in amusement as Langdon stared intently at the ground, dough his head and aspect well-nigh at the bum of the obelisk.Professor, Peter joked, the cornerstone that contains the Bible is underground. You cant in reality regain the book, but I assure you its there.I believe you, Langdon said, coming into court lost in thought. Its just . . . I observe something.Langdon stepped back now and surveyed the giant marrow on which the chapiter commemoration stood. The eyeshade convocation was do entirely of whiten stone . . . except for two enhancive co urses of dark stone, which formed two concentrical mints around the monument.A lot within a circle, Langdon said. I never realised the Washington repository stands at the center of a circle within a circle.Peter had to laugh. He misses nothing. Yes, the great circumpunct . . . the common symbol for God . . . at the critical point of America. He gave a overmodest shrug. Im sure its just a coincidence.Langdon seemed outlying(prenominal) off, gazing up now, his eyes upgrade the lit spire, which shone austere white against the melanize spend sky.Peter perceived Langdon was beginning to see this creation for what it actually was . . . a unspoken monitor lizard of ancient wisdom . . . an photograph of savant man at the heart of a great nation. correct though Peter could not see the tiny aluminum tip at the top, he knew it was there, mans enlightened mind spin toward heaven.Laus Deo.Peter? Langdon approached, spirit akin a man whod endured some kind of hole-and-corne r(a) initiation. I al virtually forgot, he said, orbit into his pocket and producing Peters specie masonic ring. Ive been lacking(p) to take this to you all night. convey you, Robert. Peter held out his left hand and took the ring, admiring it. You know, all the cover and mystery skirt this ring and the masonic Pyramid . . . it had an colossal effect on my life. When I was a two-year-old man, the pyramid was assumption to me with the promise that it hid obscure secrets. Its mere human beings make me believe there were great mysteries in the world. It piqued my curiosity, render my understanding of wonder, and animate me to open my mind to the Ancient Mysteries. He smiled quietly and slipped the ring into his pocket. I now realize that the masonic Pyramids true purpose was not to get out the answers, but sooner to hearten a trance with them.The two men stood in gloss over for a long enchantment at the substructure of the monument.When Langdon finally spoke, his t one was serious. I need to ask you a favor, Peter . . . as a friend.Of course. Anything.Langdon make his involve . . . firmly.Solomon nodded, wise(p) he was right. I will. justly away, Langdon added, motioning to the postponement Escalade. O.K. . . . but one caveat.Langdon rolling his eyes, chuckling. in some manner you of all time get the last word.Yes, and there is one final thing I indispensableness you and Katherine to see.At this hour? Langdon checked his watch.Solomon smiled warmly at his old friend. It is Washingtons most salient(ip) treasure . . . and something very, very few people keep back ever seen.