The Spear of Destiny

History provides us with a static ridden view of the past, the closer you look the blurrier it gets. Even in written history we have distortions through view points and poets who liked to spice their stories with a few mystical ingredients. As big of a skeptic as I am, I still find myself drawn to ancient stories like a magnet. Some of my favorites are the histories and stories surrounding ancient artifacts… One of the most significant of these artifacts throughout history happens to be the Spear of Destiny.

For those of you that don’t know, the spear of destiny also known as the holy lance is said to be the spear that pierced Christ’s side bringing an end to his life on the cross. This is mentioned in the Bible in John 19:31-37 21^st century King James version “But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was dead already, they broke not His legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith there came out blood and water.” The Christians witnessed and believed it to be a fulfillment of prophecy as in Psalms 34:20 “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” this is the very moment that the Spear of Destiny enters history.

Today there exist several of these historic spears with claim to be the exact holy lance to have pierced the side of Christ. According to the book the Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscrofts where the name is derived, the lance was possessed by an assortment of generals and military leaders including Theodosius I, last emperor of Rome to rule over the entire empire, and Alaric king of the Visigoths, known for ransacking Rome.

Alaric, King of Visigoths, riding into Rome potentially wielding the Spear of Destiny

Thus the legend is born, a story of a lance that rendered the owner invincible in battle, granting limitless power for the owner to conquer the world; There is a catch however, as legend goes, if the possessor is ever to lose the spear from his poessession he is instantly struck down. According to the legend, Charlemagne carried the spear through 47 successful battles, but was killed instantly upon dropping it.

This legend supposedly intrigued Napolean who attempted to obtain the lance after the battle of Austerlitz, but thankfully the spear had been smuggled out of country and Napolean was never able to get his hands on it. In 1912, the spear had made its way to Austria to the Hofburg museum and according to Trevor Ravenscroft is where Hitler first became acquainted with this object of immense power.

Hitler had this to say upon glancing the spear “I stood there quietly gazing upon it for several minutes quite oblivious to the scene around me. It seemed to carry some hidden inner meaning which evaded me, a meaning which I felt I inwardly knew yet could not bring to consciousness…I felt as though I myself had held it before in some earlier century of history. That I myself had once claimed it as my talisman of power and held the destiny of the world in my hands…”

We all know the events afterwards resulting in WW2 but in April 30^th 1945 soldiers invade Hitler’s vault and recover the spear…hours later… Hitler puts a gun to his head… General George S. Patton, a firm believer that he is a reincarnated general from the Roman rein, attains the spear and is immediately enthralled by it. Patton becomes determined to have its origins traced and returns the spear to its display at the Hofburg Museum in Vienna, Austria where it has been traced as far as the 4th century A.D. and still remains there to this day.

the Spear of Destiny, as displayed in the Hofburg palace in Vienna

Youtube Video from Ancient Mysteries:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQXPgoB1SsI

-Eric. (2038)Eric.

Comments

comments