Philip Gardiner's "Shining Ones"

In reviewing Ancient Aliens yesterday, I noted that Giorgio Tsoukalos made reference to “The Shining Ones,” a term associated with Philip Gardiner, a British alternative history writer who has been described as “the next Graham Hancock” and takes Hancock as one of his key inspirations. A few other writers have also employed the term, including Laurence Gardner, Lloyd Pye, and William Henry. They tend to use it to describe the Elohim, for reasons I can’t fathom since that is not the translation of the term.

Gardiner simply adopts these views wholesale from such secondary sources, which I guess would make his books alternative history squared. They and Gardiner, in turn, are mistakenly building on—sadly—Zecharia Sitchin, whom Gardiner cites explicitly. Gardiner follows the alternative history mistake of deriving the Canaanite name for God, “El,” from the word for “shine,” whereas the word is simply the term for God. (I wonder if they are confusing this with the fact that the Indo-European word for god, deus, derives from the ancient Proto-Indo-European term for shining because their ancient chief god was the god of the bright sky.) The “el” in Elohim is believed to derive from a root meaning “strength,” not “shine.”

Thus Gardiner’s other comparisons, such as suggesting that the “El” in elves also derives from this same cult of Shining Ones, also fail. Elves, incidentally, do not derive from the word for “shine” according to most linguists but instead the word for “white.”

Gardiner believes these non-existent Shining Ones are part of a worldwide, primeval cult of shamanic priestly elites who inspired the Knights Templar and Freemasons and secretly rule the world. According to Gardiner, the Shining Ones were also the Fallen Angels of the Book of Enoch. This is how Tsoukalos connects them back to ancient aliens.

This exact same idea, nearly point for point, appears in Andrew Collins’s book From the Ashes of Angels (1998), which claimed that the Fallen Angels were a Neolithic elite who sparked civilization but were ultimately killed off for their sins. Gardiner’s contribution was to marry this to Graham Hancock’s high priesthood of the Lost Civilization—that itinerant band of Aryan supermen Hancock believes were mistaken for gods by the world’s nonwhite peoples. Thus Gardiner sees the Fallen Angels as continuing on to today in the guise of Freemasons.

I’ve obtained a copy of Gardiner’s Secret Societies (2007), which claims to link the Shining Ones to our favorite friends the Knights Templar and the Freemasons, as well as Robin Hood and King Arthur, and I’ll be reviewing this book in stages this week. I can’t wait for the chapter on how these societies consume—wait for it—yes, white powdered gold and human menstrual blood, after Laurence Gardner’s wacky ideas!