KNIGHTHOOD’S BLESSINGS

Mysterious, mind-boggling collection of ancient genealogies.

The general reader meets Starr’s work with a sense of being an outsider to the author’s world. From the very first pages there is simply no way of understanding Starr’s frame of reference, which is apparently hidden in some manner of secret society. Starr talks about the training of a knight and the various secrets with which knights are entrusted. He is clearly speaking of the present day and yet the reader is left wondering, from beginning to end, what kind of knighthood Starr is discussing. There are hints that Starr might be referencing the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic fraternal organization, but his material is in many ways non-Christian. The vast bulk of the book consists of elaborate genealogical charts covering major figures from the Bible, European history and mythology. The reader’s eyebrow is immediately raised when Starr explains that “Almost all of the content of the book is from the internet, so the ideas may or may not be true.” Additionally, nowhere does Starr provide citations or attributions for his information. The reader knows only that he found most of it somewhere online. The author utilizes a number of unusual, even confusing, terms and references, such as “the priestess the Virgin Mary” or “Saint Judas Iscariot.” The reader will be confused, or bemused, by some of the elaborate connections made between characters of European history and of the Bible—King Arthur comes from the line of David, for instance. Yet most perplexing is his inclusion—without explanation—of genealogies linked to mythological characters. Hector and Aeneas are descended from Joshua of the Old Testament. The wife of the Norse god Odin can be traced back to Joseph of Arimathea. The reader will also be surprised to find out that Cain and Abel both had twin siblings, or even more shocking, that God himself is placed into a genealogy, having apparently descended from other ancient gods such as Anu and Enlil. Undermined by esotericism.