Link between Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and Huddersfield University Freemason expert Dr Robert Lomas

Nov 14 2009 by John Avison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Later, when the first (highly secret) copies of The Lost Symbol arrived at Transworld in London the publishers realised that Robert had once again provided Dan Brown with many basic facts for his new thriller.

They quickly brought out a UK edition of Turning the Solomon Key to go on sale alongside the new Dan Brown book.

“Using Masonic rituals and Washington’s own diaries, Robert uncovers the symbolic reasoning behind the positioning of the city’s major landmarks, and in the process disposes of many anti-Masonic urban myths,” a Transworld spokesman said this week.

Dan Brown is noted for hiding secret codes in his writing and The Lost Symbol is no exception.

On page 314 he puts the opening words of Robert’s The Hiram Key into the mouth of a senior Freemason and on page 433 he has Dr Robert Langdon recognising and describing the image on the cover of Robert’s cult book on Masonic philosophy, The Secret Science of Masonic Initiation.

Freemasons have been meeting in Huddersfield since 1793. The first permanent Masonic lodge was established in the town on South Parade.

Early last century that Masonic Hall was demolished and the lodge moved to Greenhead.

In total, 17 lodges meet in Huddersfield area in various halls scattered from Holmfirth to Lindley and form part of a wider network of 209 Masonic Lodges in West Yorkshire.

Masonic factfile

There are about 480,000 Masons in the UK.

Though Masons say the first known Masonic script is the Regius Manuscript of 1390, Freemasonry emerged first in Scotland in the late 1500s, and appeared in England in 1717.

The website for Huddersfield Freemasonry is at www.truth521.org.uk

Robert Lomas’s website on Walter Wilmshurst is at www.brad.ac.uk/webofhiram/

The Masonic Society’s website about The Lost Symbol is at http://www.freemasonlost symbol.com/