The Armageddon Conspiracy (52 page)

When the worst was over, they all
slowly got back to their feet.
A vast column of smoke was visible
in the distance.
There was no trace of the fireball any longer.

‘
My God, what
happened?’
Sinclair’s voice was quivering.

‘
I think that was an
asteroid,’ James said.
‘I remember reading about this type of
thing.
An asteroid exploded in mid-air over Siberia a century ago.
Witnesses said there was a blinding light followed by a deafening
thunder.
They were knocked off their feet by the wind.
Afterwards,
it was estimated that trees were flattened over an area of eight
hundred square miles.
If it had happened over a major city, it
would have been like a thousand atomic bombs going off.’

They all looked at each other.
Birmingham and its satellite towns, with a population of several
million, weren’t so far away.

‘
Let’s get moving,’
Gresnick said.
‘I don’t think we have much time left.’

68

L
ucy squeezed
onto the same seat as Cardinal Sinclair as they set out again.
She
twisted round to glance at James as he marched up the hill.
He
looked so forlorn.

‘
That spear you found
back there at Cadbury,’ Sinclair said.
‘We need to understand what
significance it has.
Why was Hitler so interested in the Spear of
Destiny?
How does the spear he took from Vienna relate to your
spear?’

‘
My grandfather was
obsessed with Wagner’s opera
Parsifal
,’ Gresnick interrupted.
‘The
Spear of Destiny plays a central role.
My grandfather thought it
proved Wagner was a Grand Master of a Gnostic cult.’

‘
My father used to love
listening to Wagner too,’ Lucy said.

‘
Wagner was never to my
taste.’
Cardinal Sinclair grimaced.
‘I presume
Parsifal
is about Percival, the knight
who found the Holy Grail.
Where does the Spear of Destiny fit
in?’

The horses had
practically stopped and Gresnick had to urge them on with a riding
crop.
‘Wagner’s opera is based on Wolfram von Eschenbach’s
book
Parzival
,’ he
said when they were going at a reasonable pace again.
‘It’s set in
medieval Europe.
A mountain castle called Monsalvat overlooks a
forest and a beautiful lake in inaccessible terrain.
Monsalvat is
the Grail Castle, almost certainly modelled on the Cathars’
stronghold at Montségur.
The Grail King is called Amfortas and he’s
served by the Grail Knights; men who have vowed to protect the
Grail with their lives.

‘
Their great enemy is
Klingsor, a black magician of the highest degree who once tried to
join the Grail Knights but was rejected because of his
uncontrollable sexual lust.
Insanely, Klingsor castrates himself to
try to cure his condition, but the Knights still refuse to allow
him to join their Order.
So, Klingsor becomes their sworn enemy,
pledging to do everything to destroy them.

‘
The Grail Knights
guard the Grail Hallows, including the Spear of Destiny, but
Klingsor manages to steal the Spear and later uses it to wound
Amfortas in the genitals.
It’s a spiritual as well as physical
wound that never heals no matter how many medicines are applied to
it.

‘
From his dark castle,
Klingsor, with the power of the Spear flowing through him,
dominates all the lands around.
Meanwhile, Amfortas lies in agony
in the Grail Castle, tormented by his incurable wound, powerless to
resist Klingsor and praying for the return of the lost
Spear.

‘
A prophecy says that
an innocent fool will find the Spear and cure Amfortas.
Parsifal
chances upon the Grail Castle and is allowed to witness the Grail
Keeper’s most sacred ceremony.
In the great hall of the Grail
Castle, Amfortas and the Grail Knights prepare to commemorate the
Last Supper, with Parsifal looking on.
When Amfortas tries to
remove the veil that covers the Holy Grail, the pain of his wound
grows worse than ever.

‘
When the chalice is
uncovered, it glows.
Parsifal watches the strange ceremony, but
takes no part and doesn’t ask Amfortas any questions about his
wound.
Parsifal is then ordered to leave the castle and told never
to return.

‘
Klingsor, aware of the
prophecy regarding the innocent knight, guesses Parsifal is the
knight in question and lures him to his wondrous castle.
In the
castle’s magic garden, enchanting flower-maidens beg to make love
to Parsifal but he turns them all down.
Klingsor then uses a
beautiful sorceress to try to seduce Parsifal.
The sorceress is
Kundry, a Jewish witch who was present at Jesus’ crucifixion and
who mocked him as he hung on the cross.
Cursed to live forever
because of her crime, she’s despicable and tragic.
It was she who,
with promises of perverted sex, entrapped Amfortas, which led to
the Grail King’s wounding by Klingsor.

‘
When Kundry kisses
Parsifal, the young knight recoils, but, at the same time, he’s
overcome by profound insights.
He understands why Amfortas was
tempted, and he feels the Grail King’s longing and suffering.
The
world, he realises, is an unending circle of pain and despair.
Only
through compassion and renunciation of the pleasures of the flesh
can the circle be broken.
He’s full of regret for the lack of pity
he showed at the ceremony in the Grail Castle.
Why was he so
insensitive towards the Grail King?
Now he knows what he must do to
help Amfortas.

‘
Klingsor, thwarted,
flies into an uncontrollable fury, and hurls the Spear of Destiny
at Parsifal, but it miraculously stops in mid-air.
Parsifal reaches
up and grasps it.
As soon as he does so, Klingsor’s castle of
enchantments disappears.

‘
For years, Parsifal
struggles in vain to find the Grail Castle once more.
It seems to
have vanished from the real world.
After many trials, he’s allowed
a second chance to enter the sacred castle.
The castle is full of
gloom, the Knights sunk in despair because they’ve been deprived
for years of the spiritual sustenance provided by the presence of
the Spear.
As Parsifal brings the Spear close to Amfortas, the tip
begins to bleed and he touches the King’s wound with it.
Instantly,
the King’s wound vanishes.’

‘
What did your
grandfather think the hidden meaning was?’
Sinclair
asked.

‘
Parsifal is regarded
as a symbol of Christianity, and Klingsor of paganism,’ Gresnick
said, ‘and the story is about how the purity and compassion of
Christianity triumph over the primitive passions of
paganism.

‘
But a Nazi called
Hermann Rauschning claimed that Hitler interpreted
Parsifal
very differently.
Rauschning said he found the notes Hitler scribbled on his
programme when he first saw
Parsifal
.
Hitler, according to
Rauschning, believed it was a story about the purity of blood
–
racial hygiene
.
Amfortas’s incurable sickness was caused by his perverted sex with
a Jewess.
His blood had mixed with hers and was now eternally
tainted.
The Grail Knights’ sacred task was to protect the purity
of Aryan blood.
Untainted blood was the secret of life – the real
Holy Grail.
Impure blood, racial mixing, on the other hand, was a
catastrophe, leading to bestial breeds driven by primal, degenerate
instincts.

‘
Klingsor’s enchanted
castle was the world of temptation where pure Aryan blood was in
danger of being contaminated by non-Aryans.
Parsifal was the great
hero because his blood was never corrupted.
He was able to resist
Klingsor’s blandishments and Kundry’s offers of wild sex.
The
recovery of the Spear was the restoration of Aryan purity.
Amfortas
had sinned by having sexual intercourse with a Jewess.
His genitals
were the source of his downfall.
When the holy Spear was used to
touch his genitals, his blood was miraculously re-purified and he
was cured.
The Grail Castle was the perfect Aryan world.
Klingsor’s
realm threatened that purity, and it was the task of all good
Aryans to take the role of the Grail Knights and resist the
corruption of their Aryan blood.’

‘
But you don’t accept
either interpretation, do you?’
Sinclair said.

Gresnick smiled and shook his head.
‘My
grandfather believed Wagner was a senior figure in a German secret
society known as the Order of the New Templars.
Strongly Gnostic,
the Order of the New Templars believed that the Grail Knights were
the Knights Templar themselves.
Amfortas symbolised Gnosticism,
while Klingsor was Christianity.
The Grail Castle was the True
God’s pure world of light while the Castle of Wonders was the
material world of the Demiurge.
Amfortas’s incurable wound was the
loss of so many souls from heaven to the evil world of matter.
He
could only be cured by the return of all souls to heaven.
The
lesson of Parsifal is that only an innocent fool can achieve that,
using the Spear of Destiny.
The Spear is the key, not the Grail.
And…a final point…it’s necessary that blood be shed.’

‘
You think I’m the
innocent fool, don’t you?’
Lucy found it hard to look Gresnick in
the eye.

‘
A nice, sensitive
Catholic girl seized from an asylum?
I’m afraid you fit the bill
perfectly.’

‘
And you think I’ll
shed blood, that I’ll kill someone with the Spear?’

‘
Yes.’

‘
But Parsifal didn’t
kill anyone.’

‘
Let’s hope this turns
out the same way, but I doubt it.’

Gresnick turned to Sinclair.
‘What if
Hitler somehow got it wrong, and the Vienna Spear is a fake?’

‘
Well, if that’s the
case then thanks to Lucy’s efforts back at Cadbury, they now have
the genuine Holy Lance of Longinus.’

Gresnick scratched his head.
‘We’re
missing something, aren’t we?
All along we’ve been concentrating on
the Grail Hallows and practically ignoring something else of equal
if not greater power.’

‘
The Ark of the
Covenant,’ Lucy said.
‘But didn’t you say it was blown up in front
of the White House?’

‘
I don’t think that was
the real Ark.
No one who believed in its power would blow it up,
and no one who didn’t believe in its power would go to all the
trouble of stealing it.
And if everything that people say about it
is true, I doubt it could be destroyed anyway.
Besides, didn’t you
get the impression that Morson knows exactly where it
is?’

Sinclair nodded.
‘Nevertheless, I don’t
understand where it fits in.
The Grail Hallows are all associated
with Christianity, but the Ark is purely Jewish.
It’s never been
mentioned in the same breath as the Hallows.’

‘
You’re right.’
Gresnick said.
‘The Ark disappeared from Jewish history long before
Jesus’ time.
He never set eyes on it.’

‘
What’s your take on
the Ark?’
Lucy asked Sinclair.
‘Do you think it’s just a glorified
treasure chest?’

‘
In the Bible, the Ark
is a gold casket that contains not only the Ten Commandments but
also the very secrets of Creation.
It holds the answers to all of
our questions about where humanity came from and where we’re going.
It’s also literally God’s throne on earth.
Some people go further
and say the Ark is the portable house of God: he actually lives
inside it.
Moses, they point out, would address the Ark directly
and say things like, “Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be
scattered and let them that hate thee run for their lives before
thee.”
In a sense, the Ark
is
God.
That’s practically how the Jews regarded it.
That’s why they were so obsessed with it, and why it haunts them to
this day.
They’ve never recovered from its loss.’