Right at the beginning of this review, I’d better reveal that I’m not going to reveal the secret in the title.
Gardiner’s "Secret of Solomon’s Temple" is safe with me although, if you do get that far in this book, you’ll
probably have guessed it for yourself.
This book gives its reader the meaning of life. Just like thousands of books before it and probably thousands
of books after it. Whether its particular meaning of life is of value to you, you will have to decide for yourself. Personally,
I found that if I believed everything Mr Gardiner was telling me, then the world was a far less colourful and interesting
place than I feel it is.
There is a sentence in the introduction, on Page 3, which managed to immediately alienate me. That sentence
is: "This knowledge about which we speak is so weighty that if, after you have read this book and find that it does not change
your life and way of thinking, has simply not been understood properly." So, it’s the reader’s fault then if we
don’t fall in with your meaning of life? It’s nothing to do with the fact that (a) we don’t believe you,
or (b) it doesn’t make any sense or (c) you are hopeless at explaining your argument. No, it’s our fault and we
should, as you suggest, read it again. Now I’m not saying that (a), (b) or (c) apply here, either separately or in any
combination, but by making that statement at the beginning of his book, Mr Gardiner made me expect to find them, not a good
move.
Again, towards the end of the book, on page 205, the Gardiner family visit Lincoln Cathedral and he makes
the statement: "I looked around and saw the various self-important Christian clergy, all pompous and self-righteous". Now
this is just rubbish and is far more a comment on his own self-absorbed, evangelical prejudice than it is an objective view
of the people he sees. If I hadn’t already decided that Mr Gardiner’s philosophy was not for me, this would have
decided me.
There is a lot of numerology in this book, used to prove various points. He holds that the numbers 3, 7 and
9 all have importance in various ways. Now, the number of the house where I spent my childhood was 9 and the number of my
present house is 27, which is both 3 x 9 and 2 + 7 = 9. That means I’m pretty important; should I deduce from this that
I’m the new Messiah? I think not.
I do not want to give the impression that there is no worth in this book at all. I don’t personally
choose to accept Mr Gardiner’s conclusions, and I do believe that a lot of the time, he has decided on his reality and
then bends the facts to fit it. However, the knowledge and research in this book are not to be denied. At the end is an extensive
index of 36 pages which he calls the Knowledge Directory, which is an alphabetical list of Concepts, Characters, Gods, Books,
etc, which was certainly worth perusing.
Mr Gardiner has very definite views on what-it’s-all-about. I do not share them. Whether you will is
a matter for you alone.
