Marian Goddard

During the Middle ages, the Church's stranglehold kept the masses in a twilight realm between the practical realities of survival, the hope of heaven and the threat of hell. When most of humanity was beaten down by misery and suffering, interminable wars were being fought in the name of religion and the rich held the power of life and death over the common people, social reform, the healing of the sick and religious freedom seemed unattainable. Yet, from the mystery schools of Egypt, Chaldea, Persia and India, there has been carried through the ages, a gnosis, grounded in nature and informed by the highest ideals of service to humanity. It was brought to Europe with the traders from the East, with the alchemists, by the crusader knights in their contact with the Arabs, with the troubadours in their love songs, hidden in monasteries and religious orders. This knowledge has always been proclaimed heretical and brutally supressed. Christian von Germelshausen is left orphaned when his mother and father are burned at the stake for heresy. He has been left a legacy, a mysterious book and jewel and a bright dream of hope for the alleviation of the misery and superstition he sees all around him. Accompanied by a disgraced knight, Andre' de Langue, he travels to the East, in the quest to discover the knowledge he needs... and there he encounters wonders beyond imagining.