Obelisk
A Tale of Spiritual Warfare
Part 1 of the Beyond the 33rd Degree series
Obelisk begins with a suicide bomber attempting to blow up Cleopatra's Needle, an Egyptian obelisk in Central Park, New York City. GLENN GIORDANO, a researcher with an intimate knowledge of the occult and bible prophecy solves the riddle on the suicide bombers vest and alerts Homeland Security. MICHAEL DUNCAN,his partner, experiences a prophetic blood memory dream just before they discover artifacts hidden in a stone box destined to change the world. Giordano and Duncan are about to be engaged in an epic battle with evil in high places. Michael believes God visited him in a dream and took him to a place unknown to him. After showing him an elaborate banquet being held, God speaks the name, Rossbury Manor". Upon waking Michael searches the term on the internet and is startled to see the place from his dream, down to the finest detail. Within hours the dream begins to force its way into his wakened state. At the same time, Glenn is discovering that Freemasonry is being established as the religion of the New World Order. The centerpiece of this religion, the object of their idolatry is the standing stone, the obelisk. The next day as Michael and Glenn are tearing down a wall in a house they are renovating they discover a carefully crafted stone box buried in the foundation. They open it to find four items that all have Masonic characteristics; a white leather apron, a wampum belt, an octagon shaped jewel and an ancient parchment. They begin to question reality when they determine the parchment bears the family crest of the owners of Rossbury Manor on Long Island, New York, the place from Michael's dream. When Michael calls the director of the Native American Institute to discuss the wampum belt, the call is intercepted by a grad student who relays the message to JARRETT BALDERSTONE, an international banker whose family has owned Rossbury Manor since 1640. Balderstone immediately calls CARDINAL SALVATORE ROMANO in Rome to tell him that the lost Balderstone Box containing the clues to the location of the Holy Grail Chalice has been found. Balderstone dispatches DISMAS, a special ops veteran of the Iraq War to track down Duncan and Giordano and get the clues from the box, at any cost. Michael and Glenn learn all the clues point to an octagon shaped patio on the grounds of Rossbury Manor and feel compelled to take a road trip to Long Island, to the place from Michael's dream. With a very dangerous Dismas following they stay one step ahead of him guided by an unseen hand. The evening is Midsummer's Eve. They stop at Mt. Tammany to prepare themselves spiritually for an, as yet unknown, confrontation with the evil Cardinal and Balderstone the next morning. At the same time on Long Island, the Cardinal, a Druid, and a black magic priestess perform an occult wicker man ritual at the annual Midsummer bonfire. The next morning at daybreak on St. John's Day, they enter the manor house and interrupt a sacred marriage being held at sunrise, Michael realizes he has just walked into his blood memory dream. Michael and Glenn discover they are players in spiritual warfare of biblical proportions as they lay the artifacts from the Balderstone Box on the wedding table and offer the Grail Chalice to the Cardinal. The wildest dreams of the Cardinal and Balderstone are fulfilled. The Holy Grail Chalice in the Cardinal's hands sets God's apocalyptic time clock ticking and initiates end times bible prophecy. The world will never be the same.