Sidney D. Kirkpatrick's Blog

A Creed For Marriage

The Edgar Cayce archive at A.R.E. headquarters in Virginia Beach contains a wealth of published and unpublished correspondence and documents on the "Sleeping Prophet." I compare it to a Library of Congress for the metaphysical world. Among the documents that Nancy and I found in the archive is a document titled Creed For Marriage. As there is no author listed, we can't say whether or not this came through Cayce when he was in trance, or simply something that was dear to him. I find it quite inspiring and endeavor to read it over every few months to remind me what having a partner is all about. I'm sharing it here as others may feel the same.

                                                      Creed For Marriage

I believe that the ability to love is a giftand a privilege, and that it deserves cultivationin every way.
I Believe that I love you, and because I loveyou, I am responsible for you, the specifichuman being who happens to Love me, andwho best understands and answers my needs.I believe that with the help of God, I mayunderstand and answer yours, and may surround your days with serenity.
I Believe that He will help me to act positivelyin my relations with you and all other humans,so that my love will heal and help, not hurt ordestroy; and that because of Him, all obstaclescan be overcome, and all rough paths madesmooth.
I Pray that He will help me to remove all tracesof selfishness and conceit, and those fears whichprevent right motivation, right action, and harmony in my life.  I pray that, as I become ready, He will replace them with the Light of wisdom.
May our home always be in each others’ hearts,and not just a place of sticks and stones. May its hearth, in peace and freedom, always support a welcome fire; where may be fostered the repeatedred-dedication of our belief in the necessity topreserve and extend the good in all human liveswhich become tangent to our own.

Sidney and Nancy Kirkpatrick in Los Angeles

Nancy and I have been on the road all winter giving lectures on our favorite topic, Edgar Cayce, and meeting with film producers in LA interested in adapting our book, Edgar Cayce, An American Prophet, into a feature film and television series. Given the amount of interest we've seen, it's clear that the time has finally come for a dramatic presentation of the Cayce story. We're very excited! 
While in LA, we also met with the team who have adapted the Turning The Tide Richard Novak story into a feature. Shooting, we're told, will begin this fall, in Puerto Rico. You can see a preview of what's to come about Carlos Lehder, featuring an interview with yours truly, on the TV show Gangsters: America's Most Evil, premiering next month:  http://www.biography.com/tv/gangsters-americas-most-evil/videos/the-colombian-rambo-carlos-lehder-preview-23027267701

First Review!

"In a riveting narrative that is as exciting as a well-crafted novel… Sidney Kirkpatrick… paces his book about the case of the vanishing jewels with such skill that it grabs readers by the scruff of the neck and does not let go until the very last page."

Larry Cox, King Features

Read the Entire Review:

During the Nazi march across Europe, thousands of priceless artworks and antiquities were systematically looted, including the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire. The Crown Jewels were especial...

One doesn’t associate Adolf Hitler with holy relics. How did this come to be?

One can either declare Hitler and his inner circle certifiably insane and be done with the matter, as many historians have done, or one could, with difficulty, trace the evolution of Hitler’s monstrous agenda point by point, from the rantings of a political dissident in a Munich beer hall to the death camps. I’ve tried to connect the dots. In Hitler’s Holy Relics, readers get a picture window into the mind of this madman, and can follow, point by point, how the failed Vienna art student and former choirboy developed a profound obsession with Christian mysticism and the Holy Roman Emperors, and more important, how, in building the Third Reich, he sought to create a ‘Holy Reich.’ Most writers wouldn’t have the temerity to put the words Holy and Reich together. At least no self-respecting Christian would put them together, and it wasn’t what came to my mind before I read Horn’s reports. But it’s not such a mental leap as you might expect. The Nazis actually created their own bible, complete with an Aryan Jesus. A Catholic priest edited Mien Kampf. Hymnals and rosaries were found along with children’s toys in the gated compounds where death-camp clerks and crematorium supervisors lived with their families. And among Himmler’s corps of Aryan scholars were prominent theologians, historians, and scientists, who traveled the world collecting all manner of religious art and manuscripts. Possession of the Holy Lance and Holy Roman Empire Crown Jewels might have actually been, in Hitler’s mind, a means to justify his quest, like Charlemagne before him, to conquer the Western world. This could also explain why Hitler believed he had the authority to commit the atrocities for which his henchmen would stand trial in Nuremberg. There can be no greater distortion of power than one man, the leader of a nation, believing that his or her authority comes directly from God.

One doesn't associate Adolf Hitler with holy relics. How did this come to be?

One can either declare Hitler and his inner circle certifiably insane and be done with the matter, as many historians have done, or one could, with difficulty, trace the evolution of Hitler's monstrous agenda point by point, from the rantings of a political dissident in a Munich beer hall to the death camps. I've tried to connect the dots. In Hitler's Holy Relics, readers get a picture window into the mind of this madman, and can follow, point by point, how the failed Vienna art student and f...

How does Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis figure into your story?

This was the book that she wanted written when she was an editor at Doubleday, but due to the ill-health of Walter Horn, the book never got beyond the planning stages. Caroline Kennedy, when she was working for the Metropolitan Museum, brought the subject to her mother's attention. I am the grateful recipient of their collaboration as I have drawn on the extensive oral interviews that were conducted in anticipation of the earlier book being written.

How I Came to Write This Book

My initial interest wasn't in General Patton and Heinrich Himmler, but with the holy relic known as the Spear of Destiny, the spear-point that a Roman centurion was said to have used to pierce Christ at the Crucifixion. I was fascinated by how this relic has been venerated over the centuries, that it wasn't property of the church, as is the Shroud of Turin and most other holy relics, and how world monarchs, from Constantine to Napoleon, and finally Hitler, coveted the artifact. The challenge ...

The Question I'm Asked the Most

Many of my readers have pointed out the fact that I've written books on a wide variety of topics which range from biographies of American psychic Edgar Cayce and artist Thomas Eakins to a true crime thriller about Peruvian archaeology, and now a book about Nazi mysticism and plunder. The truth is, I can't resist a good story. That's what all my books have in common. They're about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. In A Cast of Killers, we follow the footsteps...

Coast to Coast AM

I'm thrilled to be discussing Hitler's Holy Relics with Ian Punnett on Coast to Coast AM this Saturday night, May 15. Please tune in at 11 pm. Pacific Time, and 2 am. East Coast Time.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/u...

Sidney Kirkpatrick in San Francisco to honor Walter Horn

The San Francisco leg of my Hitler's Holy Relics book tour has been a smashing success. I am most grateful to Chris Hallett, the new chair of U.C. Berkeley's Department of History of Art, for arranging for me and medieval art historian Beate Fricke to honor Dr. Walter Horn at an event at the Doe Library on April 28. Among the many guests were Peter Selz, the distinguished art historian of German Expressionism, several of Walter's children and grandchildren, and a very large and enthusiastic c...