In this newsletter: Hybrid Origins confirmed as Andrew's new book. Latest news on Göbekli Tepe tours, safety and who has taken over from Professor Klaus Schmidt. Plus a new video on Göbekli Tepe put together by Hugh Newman. Other upcoming tours to Peru and Bolivia, and Cambodia and Laos. IRS nightmare over in the quest to republish The Black Alchemist. Revisiting The Seventh Sword. The legend of the Seven Swords of Destiny and the Seven Swords of Adamant as found in the Life of Apollonius of Tyana - a new lead

Hi, nearly into February. I had my birthday on Sunday and spent the day on the Hadleigh Downs searching for prehistoric flint tools, something I like doing when not solving the mysteries of the universe or trying to put the world to rights. I did manage to find a nice one - a Mesolithic tool known as a microlith or micro-burin, which probably dates to between 8000-5000 BC. It was found just yards away from where I found a beautiful example in 2014. See picture below.

Mesolithic flint tools found a few yards apart on the Hadleigh Downs in Essex, England. Top, microlith or micro-burin and, bottom, a beaked burin. The bottom one bears a striking resemblance to beaked burins manufactured in Belgium around the beginning of the Younger Dryas mini ice age, ca. 10,900 BC, by the Federmesser culture, so it could well date back to this early age. Generally, however, archaeologists would date these tools to ca. 8000-5000 BC.

Hybrid Origins

It is now confirmed that my next new book to be published by Inner Traditions will have the working title of Hybrid Origins. It will show that the hybridization of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the west and Homo sapiens and Denisovans in the east caused the rise of the first civilizations 40,000-50,000 years ago. It will also tell the entire story of my realisation that the American giant skeletons, the so-named "Nephilim" (a very inaccurate term that has come into popular usage of late), are almost certainly Denisovan human hybrids, a concept presented and argued for the first time in my contribution to Greg Little's book "Path of Souls," published in 2014. As I mentioned in a previous email it is a theory that is now being adopted by researchers all over the world and has been used on a recent TV show exploring the mystery of the giant skeletons.

New Göbekli Tepe Video

Hugh Newman has put together a great new video on Gobekli Tepe using footage from the Megalithomania Origins of Civilization Tour in 2013. It features Graham Hancock, Hugh and myself. I am introducing our tour party to the various stone enclosures with Graham and I having a debate about the nature of the stones. Take a look when you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=nvO_IsfWSP4

Obviously, it is hoped that this video might help tempt you to join us at Göbekli Tepe in either May or September this year. Interest is high in the tours, although some people are obviously apprehensive about booking because of the situation in Syria and Iraq right now. Hugh Newman and I have been in touch with our Turkish agent and they make it clear that there are absolutely no problems right now in Turkey, and that they have been running tours to Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding area without any problems at all. All they do say is that you should always consult government webistes for any recommendations on travel, and this include Turkey, of course.

The tour do come within 10 miles of Syria when you visit the majestic ruins of Harran, the ancient city of the moon and home of the Sabian star-worshippers on the Harran plain, but all the other sites are 30 or so miles away from the Syrian border. This includes the ancient city of Sanliurfa, where, our agent informs us, the brand new museum, featuring a permanent Göbekli Tepe exhibition, is now scheduled to open in April. This will be second up only to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations at Ankara, so it should be something quite spectacular.

One other question put to the Turkish travel agents was whether Professor Klaus Schmidt has been replaced yet, and if so by whom. They came back and said that apparently an archaeologist from the UK, who is working on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute, has been in charge of excavations at Göbekli Tepe. However, it is unclear whether he is Schmidt's permanent replacement.

This is an exclusive, by the way. However, our agent does not know the name of this British archaeologist. I will endeavour to find out who it is, although for some reason Ian Hodder comes to mind. He worked as head of excavations at the Neolithic city of Çatal Höyük in southern-central Turkey for many years, and left his post there just before our tour party reached the site last May. However, I am not aware of him having any affiliation with the German Archaeological Institute, but who knows.

When I learn more, you will know more.

Anyway, back to the tour. Do have a serious think about coming along either in May or September. Prices are good, and you will have the privilege of going to these sites with people, i.e. Hugh and I, who really know what they are talking about. Below are the basic details. More can be found at the link provided.

May 25/30 & Sept7/12, 2015. Short break to Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding area with Hugh Newman and myself. Experience Göbekli Tepe twice, see Harran, the Sabian city of the moon god Sin, with its fabulous Astronomical Tower; Karahan Tepe, Göbekli Tepe's sister site, and also Sanliurfa, the biblical city of Edessa, with its cave marking the site of the birth of Abraham, its tranquil Pools Of Abraham, and brand-new archaeological museum with its permanent Göbekli Tepe and Pre-Pottery Neolithic exhibition. Click for full details and immediate reservation.

General view of Göbekli Tepe from the northeast.

OTHER UPCOMING TOURS

On top of this these coming weeks might well be the last opportunity to contemplate coming with us to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Preah Vihear, and the mysterious Plain of Jars in Laos. We shall be leaving on March 17, so do book soon if you are still thinking about it. Click for full details and immediate reservation.

Then on June 29 we have the ANCIENT TECHNLOGY PERU & BOLIVIA TOUR 2015 with Brien Foerster, Hugh and myself. The main tours go to Lima * Cuzco * Sacred Valley * Ollantaytambo * Machu Picchu * Puno * Lake Titicaca * Sillustani * Cutimbo * Tiwanaku * Puma Punku * and much more sites. Click here for more info and immediate registration. There is also an add-on to Nazca, Paracas and Ica. Click here for more information and immediate registration. Festival at Cusco

IRS NIGHTMARE

After several trying weeks attempting to sort out my tax details with the IRS, they have finally accepted me into the ranks of a non-US citizen who will earn taxable money in the USA. This means that when The Black Alchemist is finally published, the IRS won't retain 30 percent of income earned. This sort of information is important for everyone who intends using Amazon's CreateSpace service in the future. Make sure you sort all this out months before you intend publishing your book, otherwise it will add major stress to your experience. For more on this matter check out the following IRS webpage: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Individual-Taxpayer-Identification-Number-(ITIN)

Hopefully, we are still on for The Black Alchemist being published on March 21. More on this soon, and how to secure your special edition copy.

THE SEVENTH SWORD I have just finished re-reading my 1991 book The Seventh Sword, which I intend republishing in two or three parts over the coming year or so. Part one will be the dramatic discovery back in 1979 of what we call the Meonia Sword and Green Stone. This opening volume will include an epilogue outlining all the incredible clues that my colleague Graham Phillips and I missed in our search to find these magical items. In addition to this, it will contain fresh evidence of what exactly the term Meonia actually meant to the freethinkers, hermeticists, cabalists and unionists of Elizabethan England in the years prior to the original concealment of these artfacts sometime during the early part of the seventeenth century.

Not sure about Volume Two yet, but I am thinking of removing some of the Victorian period material that followed the Green Stone story, as much of it came as a result of our firm belief that the Meonia Sword was Victorian in origin (a fact conveyed to us by a curator at Chester Museum), which is definiotely not what I think today. All the indications are that the original Meonia Sword, with its enigmatic inscription "Meonia fore Marye," dates to the Shakespearean age, ca. 1600 AD. It is a new spin on the subject, and one that I will deal with in the book.

Volume Three, which might even be Volume Two if the above goes ahead, will feature the discovery of swords two to six, and the quest to find the Seventh Sword. In addition to this it will include the search for the sacred centre of Britain (named as the "Heart of the Rose"), and the final bringing together of the Seven Swords to conduct a ritual known as the "Form of the Lamb," something that was done in fact seven times, in seven consecutive years from 1992 through till 1998.

Iarchus, who appears as a character in the biographical life of Apollonius of Tyana, a first-century AD Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor, is said to have presented Apollonius with a present of seven rings. Each was named after the planets, and were worn in turn by Iarchus on the day appropriate to the planet in question. For this reason, it has been suggested by commentators on Apollonius's life that the Seven Swords of Adament were likewise connected with the planets. If correct, then there is every chance of a connection between the Seven Swords of Adamant and the Sabaeans of Harran. They were masters of everything seven-fold in nature, including the venerations of the Seven Stars or Seven Planets. Each of the planets was presided over by a celestial intelligence that embodied the spirit of the planet, the origin perhaps behind the idea that the Seven Swords of Destiny were guarded by seven angels.

Harran, as we have seen, is close to the border with Syria, so the fact that the legend of the Seven Swords of Destiny comes also from Syria is very interesting indeed. Are the Seven Swords of Adamant and Seven Swords of Destiny one and the same concept?

As I write these words I have just checked the exact account of the redicovery of the Seven Swords of Adamant by Iarchus. They are to be found in "The Life of Apollonius of Tyana," written by Flavius Philostratus in the fourth century AD, and translated by F.C. Conybeare for an English language edition of the book published in 1912, and read as follows:

"And I [Iarchus] could enumerate many more merits of this great man, if I did not shrink from pronouncing a panegyric upon myself; for I may tell you I am the person in question [i.e. the Brahman Ganges], as I clearly proved when I was four years old. For this Ganges on one occasion fixed seven swords made of adamant in the earth, to prevent any monster approaching our country; now the gods ordered us to sacrifice if we came where he had implanted these weapons, though without indicating the spot where he had fixed them. I was a mere child, and yet I led the interpreters of their will to a trench, and told them to dig there, for it was there I said that they had been laid [§21]."

The text can be found at the following link:

http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apollonius/life/va_3_21.html

Another version of Apollonius's life states that the swords were made of "diamond", presumably a substitute word for "adamant":

"I would continue the story if I did not scruple to engage in praising myself, for I am HE. I proved the fact when I was four years old, in the following way: this Ganges once planted seven swords of diamond in the earth to safeguard the land against the approach of any terror; the gods commanded that all comers to the place where these were planted should offer sacrifice; but they did not reveal the place of planting. I, being quite a child, led the interpreters to a trench and bade them dig, saying the swords were there deposited."

[21, Philostratus, Athenian. (2013). pp. 114-5. In Honour of Apollonius of Tyana (Vol. 1). London: Forgotten Books. See:
http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/In_Honour_of_Apollonius_of_Tyana_v1_1000600565/243]

Why were seven swords used in this manner in the first place? And why were they rediscovered by Iarchus? Could there really be a link between the concept of the Seven Swords of Destiny and the Seven Swords of Adamant? More importantly, does any of this have any connection with the Seven Swords found by mysterious means in The Seventh Sword and all eventually brought together?

Anyway, all this is brand new material, and I intend continuing this research over the coming months. If anyone has any information on this subject they might like to empart I will be happy to hear from them.

Also if anyone out there has read The Seventh Sword and has any thoughts and ideas regarding where I should go with its contents, I will also be happy to hear from them. At this time, I know what will be in Part One, and that is all. That story is immense as it is, and should be a stand alone episode. Everything else can slot into place thereafter.

That's about it for the moment.

Be in touch soon, and don't forget to think seriously about the tours, especially about booking for Gobekli Tepe in May or September. It will be an experience of a lifetime.

Regards,

Andrew