Travis Simpkins: "The Master Game" by Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval

The Master Game

by Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval

Disinformation, 2011

Brief Review by Travis Simpkins

Begun in the early 1990's, some of the research conducted by Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval for The Master Game: Unmasking the Secrets Rulers of the Wold was previously released in an earlier book titled Talisman. The Master Game is a bulked-up and more comprehensive work, expanding and updating the material for a 21st Century perspective.

In essence, this well-written volume attempts to "trace the course through history of two interrelated underground religions, Gnosticism and Hermeticism." Ever subdued and reemerging, the theory suggests this hidden faith and it's mystic teachings were protected and passed down to the present day by way of Ancient Egyptian astronomer priests, Gnostic and Hermetic sages, Cathars, the Knights Templar, Renaissance scholars, the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati and the Freemasons. Well known historic leaders, intellectuals and innovators played key roles in the secret enlightenment, including Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Medici Dynasty, Dr. John Dee, Giordano Bruno, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, Sir Christopher Wren, Albert Pike, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and other American Founding Fathers.

Examining how this secret religion and it's Masonic symbols and ideals have shaped the modern world, great emphasis is placed on the street design and monument placement in major cities and their alignment with the stars. Ancient Egypt seems to be an ever-present reference point. Aerial views of Paris and Washington, DC show intriguing similarities with proposed plans of post-fire London, as well as with ancient cities like Rome, Heliopolis and Alexandria.

The first 90% of the book is fascinating and by no means anti-Masonic, presented as an open-minded academic and intellectual journey down the paths of possibility that interweave through Masonic history. The last chapters, however, deal with the modern Israeli/Palestinian conflict and tend to delve deeper into the realm of conspiracy views. Overall, the tome lays out an original idea, and is a free-thinking and enjoyable 600-page sojourn.