Codes on The Lost Symbol Cover - The Symbol

Quest
Submitted by Greg on Thu, 2009-07-09 05:16.
 Essays
 The Lost Symbol

Get ready for Dan Brown's upcoming book by purchasing The Guide to Dan
Brown's The Lost Symbol from Amazon's Kindle store today, for just $5.99. The book features
essential information on the hidden history of the United States, Freemasonry, and other
topics that Dan Brown will likely write about, so that you can understand The Lost Symbol
better.

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It's like deja vu all over again - Yogi Berra

Almost six years ago now, it was pointed out to me that the dust cover of The Da Vinci Code
contained a number of 'anomalies': map co-ordinates in 'mirror writing', biliteral ciphers using
bolded letters to hide messages, and more. The reason for these strange inclusions became
clear when Dan Brown announced in an interview that clues about the sequel to The Da Vinci
Code were hidden on the cover of the bestselling book. By solving these puzzles and ciphers -
and being conversant with many of the topics and resources Brown was likely to use in
writing the sequel, I was able to write a complete primer on the as-yet unpublished book in
late 2004. Originally titled (and self-published) as Da Vinci In America, it was later renamed
The Guide to Dan Brown's The Solomon Key in 2006, when Dan Brown's publisher
announced the title of the book to the New York Times. In The Guide, I gave background
information on many of the topics that I surmised would be in the new book: Francis Bacon
and the transmission of Rosicrucian philosophies, the history of Freemasonry, how 'the Craft'
influenced America's Founding Fathers, and the esoteric landscape of Washington, D.C.
(including such exotic locales as the Scottish Rite's "House of the Temple").

There was therefore a lot of confusion when early in 2009, Brown's publisher suggested that
the topics and title of the sequel to The Da Vinci Code were still unknown. This seemed to be
further confirmed when a change of title was announced - the book was now named The Lost
Symbol, with a scheduled publication date of 15 September, 2009. However, since the
announcement of the new book, clues and hints to the topics covered have been given via
Facebook and Twitter, and I can happily say that I was spot on with most of The Guide to The
Solomon Key - excepting of course, the minor matter of the title! Although I do wonder
whether my book had anything to do with the title change in the first place...?

Further confirmation of the key topics came when the cover artwork for The Lost Symbol was
released in early July 2009. The cover features a 'torn parchment' theme similar to the cover of
The Da Vinci Code, though with Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. featured rather than the
Mona Lisa. Also prominent is a wax seal emblazoned with a double-headed eagle - a direct
confirmation that Freemasonry, in particular Scottish Rite Masonry - would play a major role
in the new book (see here for the same seal used by the Scottish Rite).
According to Gould's History of Freemasonry Throughout the World:

The double-headed eagle was probably first introduced as a symbol in Masonry in the year
1758 . In that year, the body calling itself the Council of Emperors of the East and West was
established in Paris. The double-headed eagle was possibly assumed by this Council in
reference to the double jurisdiction which it claimed and which is represented so distinctly in
its title.

Every Supreme Council in the world, and the subordinate bodies thereto, extensively employ
this emblem in their Degrees, jewels, lectures, paraphernalia and stationery, making it the
distinctive emblem of the Rite.

The 33 in the centre of the triangle comes from the fact that there are 33 'degrees' (levels of
initiation) in the Scottish Rite. Interesting numerological insight/coincidence - the individual
numbers of the release date of the book, 15/9/9, add to the number 33!

Not so noticeable on the cover though are the various symbols covering the parchment, taken
from astrology, alchemy and other esoteric fields. Perfect vibe for a Dan Brown book. But if
we look closer, we find something else. Once again, the cover of a book by Dan Brown has
some hidden codes!

Firstly, there are three letter-number combinations hidden on the cover. Above the R of
"Brown" we find "B1". On the left, above "a novel", there is another: "C2". And also, on the
far right of the cover, "J5". Here's the magnified views:
But that's not all. Just on the inside and outside of the left hand side of the faint circle
surrounding the seal, there are two sets of numbers:

For those that can't make it out, they are...

Outside: 22-65-22-97-27
Inside: 22-23-44-1-133-97-65-44
I haven't had much time to think about the above yet, but the one thing that does strike me is
the non-random appearance of repeated numbers: 22, 44, 97 and 65. Perhaps worth noting is
that there was a similar code on the back page of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress (128-10-93-
85-10-128-98-112-6-6-25-126-39-1-68-78), where each of the numbers referred to a chapter,
and taking the first letter of each of those chapters yielded (after using a Caesar Box cipher
key) a secret message.

So it may be that, for now, these are largely unsolvable puzzles - we may need the book in
hand to check for correspondences in the text, or we may need to wait for another post-
publication online challenge giving more information, as was the case with The Da Vinci
Code. Taking the example of that book, it's also likely that there will be more clues on the
back cover of The Lost Symbol which we won't see until the book is released.

And so, more than 5 years after I first wrote a book about the sequel to The Da Vinci Code,
based on the ciphers hidden on its cover, I find myself investigating new ciphers on the cover
of that new book. If you've got any thoughts on the above, feel free to share it by commenting
below.

(For those interested in exploring the topics in The Lost Symbol, you can read articles here on
The Cryptex - check out the "Latest Articles" block on the right side of the page, and also the
sample chapter on Washington D.C. from The Guide, which can be found in the "Guide to the
Solomon Key" block on the top right of the page.)

Update 11th August, 2009:

Dan Brown's website has just had a makeover, and on the new design there is now a section
just for The Lost Symbol. In there you'll find a "Coming Soon" section devoted to an
upcoming "Symbol Quest", which I assume will be along the lines of the previous webquests,
and based on the clues on the cover.

Also on the new website is a downloadable PDF of the book cover which, in addition to the
front cover, also shows the spine of the book. On the spine there are three things worth noting.
The first two are another couple of letter-number codes, as are found on the front cover. At the
top left of the spine we find "E8", and just above the keyhole we can see "H5":
So now the full complement of letter-number codes are B1, C2, E8, H5, and J5 (unless there
are more on the back cover).

One last thing worth noting is that inside the 'keyhole' at the bottom of the spine we can see
the Washington Monument:

Is this indicative that the Washington Monument is 'key' to the plot in some way, or is it just a
nice design element further pointing to Washington, D.C.? And, perhaps, a sign that the theme
of the novel has remained unchanged for some time (echoing the 'old' title of The Solomon
Key). In any case, you can read more about the history of the Washington Monument, and the
rest of Washington, D.C., in the sample chapter from my book, "Strange Constructions",
available as a free PDF download. Or pick up the new, updated Kindle version of The Guide
to Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol from Amazon to get a full primer on the likely topics in the
sequel to The Da Vinci Code.