Malachi Smith's List: HISTORY-Modern

• Catherine de Medici's Chamber of Secrets
• Hundreds of secret cabinets built into the walls of legendary poisoner's private work room
• For generations, the room full of tiny cabinets at the famous Chateau of Blois has been described to visitors as Catherine de Medici's private apothecary cabinet of horrors, home to her extensive collection of deadly poisons.
• The massive Chateau de Blois has been home to many notable members of the French aristocracy, but none more notorious than the murderous Medici clan.
• Catherine de Medici, wife to one French king and mother to three more, died at Blois in 1589.
• She was the original evil stepmother, ultimate meddler in the affairs of her children and therefore matters of state, and notorious for the mysterious yet convenient deaths of her enemies.
•  
  •  

    Click to enlarge. Catherine de Medici's secret cabinets source
• Once you grasp a little of her family story, however, it seems that maybe she was the most well adapted natural product of her environment.
• Catherine was born to the infamous Florentine Medici family. Her mother died 28 days after her birth. Her father, Lorenzo was the young prince for whom Machiavelli penned his famous instructions, and he died only a few days later, most likely from syphilis.
• After being handed around by various family members, a coup in Florence saw her paraded through the streets on a donkey as a symbol of her defeated family legacy.
• Brought to Rome by the pope (her uncle), she was married off at age 14 to the also 14 year old heir to the French throne, who seemed to openly dislike her, and proceeded to take up publicly with another woman.
• After a slow start, Catherine eventually bore ten children, seven of which lived long enough to meddle in politics themselves.
• Her final pregnancy was with twins, two girls who had to be cut from her womb to prevent the death of them all. They did not survive.
• Shortly thereafter, her husband's reign as king was ended by a lance to the eyesocket during a jousting match held in celebration of their daughter's marriage, at which he wore his mistress's colors.
• Amazingly, a lance to the eye (and brain) did NOT immediately kill him, and he lived another ten, presumably agonizing, days.
• Catherine then turned her attentions to micromanaging her children's careers, starting with the reign of her 15 year old son, Francis (dead by 16), then the sickly 9 year old Charles (dead at 24), and finally her favorite, the mama's boy Henry, all against a general background of political mayhem, bloody rebellions and religious massacres.
• This tumultuous time in France and in her life was the setting for Alexandre Dumas' Queen Margot, which tells the story of Catherine's daughter Margaret who was married off to a protestant leader in a political move, and which seems to be be source of the legend that the cabinets at Blois were for Catherine's poison stash.
• The room in question holds 237 small cabinets, hidden in the beautiful woodwork.
• The room was in fact associated with Catherine de Medici, and she was certainly suspected of some heinous poison related crimes*, but historians believe that the cabinets were much more likely to have held small objects d'art or confidential papers than a poison collection, which is a little bit disappointing.
• The Chateau is also the site of the elaborate assassination of the Duke of Guise, plotted by Henry III (third son of Catherine), and there is an enormous painting depicting the scene in one of the rooms.
• It is also known for its beautiful three storey external spiral staircase and gargoyle downspouts. The wallpaper on some of the rooms has to be seen to be believed.
• The Chateau is located conveniently across a plaza from the Maison de la Magie building, home to a fine collection of clocks and automata built by the magician Robert-Houdin, the front of which has been transformed into an enormous mechanical dragon clock.
• *It is worth mentioning that Italians in general, and women specifically, were widely suspected of being poisoners. Catherine definitely ordered the killing of a handful of people, but she may be innocent of poisoning, specifically.

21 more annotations...

• Beelitz Heilstätten
• Terrifying derelict military hospital once housed a recuperating Hitler
• Sometimes abandoned buildings merely look creepy, but in truth, were home to some boring manufacturing plant, or some benign industrial process.
• The Beelitz Heilstatten hospital's history lives up to its dark visage.
• Built in 1898, this disused hospital complex of approximately 60 buildings located in the district of Beelitz Heilstatten.
• Vetween 1898 and 1930 the complex served a sanatorium for lung diseases, generally housing those with then-fatal conditions such as tuberculosis.
• During the first world war it served as a field hospital that treated the earliest casualties of such new weapons as machine guns and mustard gas.
• During this time it also treated a young soldier by the name of Adolf Hitler, who had been blinded by a British gas attack and wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme. (This earned him the Iron Cross.)
• Ironically, these experiences and his successful treatment would set the stage for the hospital to once again be used as a field hospital, treating wounded Nazi's during WWII.
•  
  •  

    Click to enlarge. source
• Occupied by the Russians in 1945, it served as a Soviet military hospital, for the next 50 years, until 1995, long after the fall of the Berlin wall.
• The hospital treated everyone from Communist party members to the disgraced head of the East German government who was sent there after being forced out in 1990.
• Today, while a few small sections of the enormous hospital are used as a neurological rehabilitation center, and Parkinson research center.
• The majority of the complex, including the surgery ward, the psychiatric ward, and a rifle range, have all been abandoned and left to decay back into the surrounding forest.
• In 2002 it was used as a set for the Roman Polanski film the Pianist.
• As none of the complex is guarded, it is a popular place for urban exploration, drinking teenagers, and people looking to give themselves a good scare.

14 more annotations...

• Pavlov's House
• Nazi's lost more men trying to take this Russian held Stalingrad apartment block then they did when taking Paris
• Sergeant Yakov Pavlov received a simple order, "Not one step back." It was an order he intended to keep.
• Very few battles in human history can compare to the epic proportions of carnage at Stalingrad.
• Two ideological empires fought for survival in a hailstorm of blood and steel that lasted for months and marked a turning point in the course of WWII.
• The grinding war of attrition begun in July of 1942.
• Despite ferocious resistance, by September, German forces crawled their way to banks of Volga, leaving in Russian hands only pockets of resistance.
• A four-story apartment block overlooking the "9th January Square", parallel to the river and occupied by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, was one such pockets.
• Sergeant Yakov Pavlov's platoon took possession of the building by violently driving out the German invaders but in the process there were casualties.
•  
  •  

    Click to enlarge. source
• In fact, of the 30 man platoon, only 4 soldiers survived.
• The lieutenant was dead, all senior sergeants were dead, and Pavlov was the highest ranking of four survivors.
• There were also 10 Russian civilians who had been trapped in the basement by the fighting. They were still unable to escape as the apartment remained surrounded by German troops.
• Pavlov was determined to follow the order "Not one step back" and the Russian soldiers proceeded to fortify their position.
• A few days later reinforcement arrived, boosting their numbers to 25 soldiers and the 10 civilians.
• They surrounded the building with barbwire and mines, breached walls to create channels of communications, barricaded doors and windows and installed machine guns, and indeed, never took a step back.
• They managed to defend the building for two straight months, from 23 September until 25 November.
• Pavlov and his men fought off countless attacks. Germans assaulted the building several times each day, trying to take it by infantry or armor.
• But the Germans were at a disadvantage, they had to charge across the open space of "9th January Square." Pavlov's men met them each time with a deadly barrage of riffle and anti-tank fire, decimating the attackers.
• They say that they had to use lulls in the fighting to run out and kick over the heaped piles of German corpses so they could not be used as cover for the next round of attackers.
• The Germans lost more men trying to take this apartment block then they did when taking Paris. The house was marked as fortress on German maps.
• Both the soldier and the civilians survived the two month siege and were finally ferried to safety by counter-attacking Russian troops.
• Pavlov's House, as it is now known, was rebuilt and returned to its original purpose after the war. The east side of the building, the side facing the river, was rebuilt by original bricks collected after the battle.
• It serves as a memorial of the resistance on a place where Hitler's war machine ground to a halt due to one man's determination to take "not one step back."

22 more annotations...

• Sinister Sites – Illuminati Pyramid in Blagnac, France
• Nov 10th, 2009 | By Vigilant | Category: Sinister Sites
• Located in a suburb of Toulouse, the “Place de la Révolution” is probably one of the most blatant displays of Illuminati designs in existence: a huge pyramid hovering atop a map of the world.

• The symbolical meaning of this structure reveals a rather grim and elitist ideology and seems to confirm the conspiracy theorist’s claims: the world is lead by a secret cabal named the Illuminati.

   

  
• The Place de Revolution is situated on a roundabout in the rather quiet commune of Blagnac in Toulouse, and a constant flow of cars drive around the monument every day.
• As is the case in diverse parts of the world, most locals find the monument that adorns their town “nice” and “decorative” without having the slightest idea of its deep occult meaning.
• To those who have “eyes to see” however, the Place de la Révolution clearly and unequivocally reveals the hidden force which shaped the past and is relentlessly working to mold the future.
• In this apparently simple structure are embedded the goals, the aspirations, the philosophy and the beliefs of the hidden elite who guide the clueless masses towards a New World Order.
• Historical Considerations
• The Place de la Révolution was built in 1989 to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of the French Revolution.
• Modern Historians agree that Freemasonry played a critical role in the unfolding of the revolution.
• “If one desires to point to a major world event proven to have been inspired by secret society machinations, one need look no further than the French Revolution, which devastated that nation between 1787 and 1799.
• Although popularly believed to have begun due to a public uprising over lack of food and government representation, the record is quite clear that the revolution was instigated by cells of French Masonry and the German Illuminati.
• The New Encyclopedia Britannica tells us that in France there arose a political system and a philosophical outlook that no longer took Christianity for granted, that in fact explicitly opposed it…
• The brotherhood taught by such groups as the Freemasons, members of secret fraternal societies, and the Illuminati, a rationalist secret society, provided a rival to the Catholic sense of community.”
• Secret society researcher and author Nesta H. Webster was even more pointed, writing in 1924, “[The Masonic book A Ritual and Illustrations of Freemasonry] contains the following passage, ‘The Masons… originated the Revolution with the infamous Duke of Orleans at their head.’”
• Author Bramley wrote, “During the first French Revolution, a key rebel leader was the Duke of Orleans, who was grand master of French Masonry before his resignation at the height of the Revolution.
• Marquis de Lafayette, the man who had been initiated into the Masonic fraternity by George Washington, also played an important role in the French revolutionary cause.
• The Jacobin Club, which was the radical nucleus of the French revolutionary movement, was founded by prominent Freemasons.”
   -Jim Marrs, Rule By Secrecy
• Far from hiding this fact, French Masons take great pride in this historical accomplishment. Many Masonic monuments were erected in France in 1989 to celebrate Freemasonry’s role in the French revolution.
• The one in Blagnac is however particularly revealing.
• It is modern, slightly futuristic even and focuses on “what is left to do” rather than “what has been done”.
• It describes a world united under the rule of a giant floating pyramid, representing secret societies inside the realm of the Great Architect.

• The Pyramid

   

  
• the top two layers of which are separated by a metallic divider.
• The pyramid is composed of a total of thirteen layers,
• If you have studied any of the works of art or monuments that were inspired by Masonic teachings, you will already know that the number thirteen is constantly represented in various ways.
• The bottom layers of the pyramid represent the lower degrees of Masonry while the top two,  which are separated by the divider, represent the Illuminati – the “hidden degrees”, the capstone of the pyramid.
• Every single time I talk about Freemasonry on this website, I always refer to those hidden degrees.
• This is where the “Truth” is revealed and where the decisions are taken.
• The bottom layers are simply a school of hermeticism and are a means to recruit “those who are worthy”.
• If you are a Mason and you are not at the top of the hierarchy, represented by the capstone of the pyramid, I am not referring to you and I never did (just had to make this point clear).
• It is interesting to note that the pyramid on the back of the American dollar bill also contains thirteen layers.

• This pyramid is literally hovering above a map of the world in mosaic.

   

  
• The symbolism here could not be more blatant. The pyramid, this symbolic structure representing secret societies operating on every continent, floats above the whole world, dominating it (some might say overshadowing it) and owning it.
• Water in this structure also bears an important symbolic and spiritual meaning.
• Emanating from the top of the pyramid, water slowly trickles down each layer to finally end up on the map of the world.
• Water, a representation of divine wisdom, starts by gracing the top of the pyramid, which represents the “illuminated”, the elite of the world.
• From the capstone, water descends from one layer to another, “feeding” each Masonic degree with its share of wisdom.
• The symbolic end result is that the entire world is filled with (or drowning in, depending on the point of view) this knowledge.
• When viewed in kabbalistic terms,  water flowing through thirteen layers or “channels” is a reference to Mem, the Fountain of Wisdom.
• “Just as the waters of a physical fountain (spring) ascend from their unknown subterranean source (the secret of the abyss in the account of Creation) to reveal themselves on earth, so does the fountain of wisdom express the power of flow from the superconscious source.
• In the terminology of Kabbalah, this flow is from Keter (”crown”) to Chochmah (”wisdom”). The stream is symbolized in Proverbs as “the flowing stream, the source of wisdom.”
• In particular, we are taught that there are thirteen channels of flow from the superconscious source to the beginning of consciousness.
• These channels correspond to the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy revealed to Moses at Sinai, as well as to the thirteen principles of Torah exegesis, the (superrational) “logic” of Torah.”
   source: www.inner.org

• The Bronze Tablets

   

  
• In front of the pyramid are two bronze tablets, which are very reminiscent of Moses’ 10 Commandments in shape, but engraved with astronomical and planetary glyphs instead of words.

• The rectangle slab of bronze uniting the two tablets bears the biggest accomplishment of modern illuminism: the Declaration of Human Rights.
   
   The engraving is a reproduction of this classical document:

   

  
• The Declaration contains many Masonic, Illuminist and alchemical symbols such as (starting from the top): the Eye of the Great Architect in glory, the Orobouros (snake eating its tail), the Phrygian cap (the red hat under the Ouroboros) and the fasces.
• Let’s not forget the two Masonic pillars on each side sustaining everything.
• “At the visual focus of this illuminated document (and its copies), and set apart with striking contrast, we find a familiar Mithraic motif—a red Phrygian cap set atop the shining white steel of a weapon, itself braced vertically, Excalibur-like, into the presumed bedrock.
• Should one doubt the symbolic significance of this spear and its Mithraic equivalent, the sword or harpe, attention is directed to the fasces, or barsom,, which otherwise would remain inexplicable in this context.
• Also, the red tassel situated above the fasces is an important Masonic symbol for the ‘Mystic Tie’ that binds Masons, although they might be of diverse opinion and perspective, into a sacred band of Friends and Brothers;
• the knot or tie, however, is a more ancient symbol of cosmic trans-terrestrial Union.”
   -Mark Hoffman, Freemasonry and the Survival of the Eucharistic Brotherhoods
• In a documentary on Masonic monuments in Paris, Jacques Ravenne, a French author and high level Freemason said:
• “The Declaration of Human Rights, which was created in France and gradually adopted around the world, was conceived, discussed and written in Masonic lodges before being released to the public. One can retrace those Masonic origins by the use of symbols, which bear little significance to the profane but are extremely important to the initiate.”
   (Translated from French)
• The most significant symbol is the Eye within the triangle, also found on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States.
• It is an unmistakable symbol of the Mysteries of secret societies and became the most universally recognized symbol of Illuminism in pop culture.

• The entire structure is meant to resemble this Eye within a triangle.

   

   

   

  

   

  A hole at the center of the pyramid stands for the Eye of the Great architect. Notice the paths surrounding the pyramids are meant to resemble rays of glory.
• Lequeu’s Quote

• 
   The creators of this structure inscribed at the base of the pyramid its true meaning. One inscription says:

   

  LE BONHEUR EST DANS L’ANGLE OÙ LES SAGES SONT ASSEMBLÉS.

   

  which can be translated to

   

  HAPPINESS IS IN THE ANGLE WHERE THE WISE ARE GATHERED.
• This phrase is a quote from Jean-Jacques Lequeu, a French architect from the revolutionary era who mixed Masonic principles with visionary designs.
• The “angle” mentioned in Lequeu’s enigmatic quote is a direct reference to Freemasonry, where architecture and geometry are at the basis their spiritual allegories.
• The Masonic symbols of the compass and the square and considering God to be “the Great Architect” are proof enough of this fact.
• In the context of the pyramid however, the quote takes on a specific meaning. The “angle where the wise are gathered” most probably alludes to the divider placed towards the top of the pyramid, at the level of its capstone.
• As mentioned previously, the top of the pyramid represents the Illuminati, the hidden order which is only accessible to a select few. So the quote says: “True happiness is at the top of the pyramid, the Illuminati, where the wisest unite“.

• On the other side is another engraving which says:

   

  “TEMPLE DE LA SAGESSE SUPREME”

   

  which can be translated to:

   

  “TEMPLE OF SUPREME WISDOM”

   

  This is most probably the name of the actual structure, which contains obvious Masonic terminology and confirms the above interpretation of its meaning.
• The “House”
• This represents the metaphorical creation of the “Great Architect”, a great temple, inside which divine wisdom flows freely.
• The metal frame of a house surrounds the pyramidal structure.

• On the other hand, one can interpret this thing as a kind of prison. Notice how the tip of the pyramid reaches above the house.

   

   

   

  

   

  Only the capstone reaches outside the confines of the house

   

   

   

  Are the Illuminated the only ones able to escape the prison of the material world?

• The Phrygian Cap

   

  

   

  In the plaza surrounding the pyramid there are numerous columns, including this one, which bears a stylized Phrygian cap.
• This red hat, with its tip pointing forward, became the symbol of revolution in France and the USA. Once again, the origins and the significance of this hat can be found in occult mysteries.

• “During the 18th century the ‘Mithraic Mysteries’ and its symbolism was of great interest to the Freemasons, and the conflation of the cap used in Mithraism with the Pileus led to the red Phrygian cap evolving into a symbol of ‘freedom’, held aloft on a Liberty Pole during both the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution .”
   -Mark Hoffman, Freemasonry and the Survival of the Eucharistic Brotherhoods

   

   

   

  

   

  Phrygian cap on the seal of the United States Senate
• “As a Phrygian Cap, or Symbolizing Cap, it is always sanguine in its colour. It then stands as the ‘Cap of Liberty’, a revolutionary form; also, in another way, it is even a civic or incorporated badge.
• It is always masculine in its meaning.
• It marks the ‘needle’ of the obelisk, the crown or tip of the phallus, whether ‘human’ or representative. It has its origin in the rite of circumcision–unaccountable as are both the symbol and the rite.
• The real meaning of the bonnet rouge, or ‘cap of liberty’, has been deeply obscure since time immemorial, notwithstanding the fact that it has always been regarded as a most important hieroglyph or figure.
• It signifies the supernatural simultaneous ’sacrifice’ and ‘triumph’.
• It has descended from the time of Abraham, and it is supposed to be an emblem of the strange mythic rite of the ‘circumcisio preputii’.
• The loose Phrygian bonnet, bonnet conique, or ‘cap of liberty’ may be accepted as figuring, or standing for, that detached integument or husk, separated from a certain point or knob, which has various names in different languages, and which supplies the central idea of this ’sacrificial rite–the spoil or refuse of which (absurd and unpleasant as it may seem) is borne aloft at once as a ‘trophy’ and as the ‘cap of liberty’.
• It is now a magic sign, and becomes a talisman of supposedly inexpressible power–for what particular dark reason it would be difficult to say. The whole thing is a sign of ‘initiation’, and of a baptism of a peculiar kind.
• The Phrygian cap, ever since this first inauguration, has stood as the sign of the ‘Enlightened’.”
   -Hargrave Jennings, Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries
• In Conclusion
• The Place de la Révolution of Blagnac is one of those monuments which simply does not lie.
• It celebrates simply and without any political correctness the nature of the works of secret societies.
• The “Temple of Supreme Wisdom” is permeated with symbolism and messages directly alluding to Freemasonry and the Illuminati and hides in plain sight the true philosophy of our world leaders.
• The French Revolution was mainly carried out by Freemasonry and resulted into a great political sucess – the creation of the French Republic – the ideals of which radiated across the world.

  • And the butchery during the "Reign of Terror?"
  Add Sticky Note
• Is it realistic to think that the work of secret societies stopped there? Masonic scholars believe that those events were only the beginning, the first necessary step towards an “enlightened world”.
• The fact is that History has been nothing more than series of conspiracies.
• The French revolution was a conspiracy theory until it became a historical fact.
• In the same way, the New World Order is now a conspiracy waiting to become a historical fact.
• There is however no need to keep this conspiracy hidden, the masses are too ignorant to understand what is happening. They drive around monuments celebrating the imminent arrival of an Illuminati-lead New World Order but still deny its existence, automatically referring to those who claim it does exist as in need of  “tin foil hats”.
• Maybe they’re right. Maybe this monument is a big tin foil hat hovering above the world, reminding us daily how stupid we are.

• Pictures in this article from

   

  The Laws of Silence Blog
• Local Citizen Filming and Describing the Monument (in French)

96 more annotations...