Albo noticed two Egyptian sphinxes on the roof of the Manitoba Legislature, which got his spider-sense tingling. With the support of a research grant, he spent the next 10 years unravelling an architectural mystery that had gone unnoticed since the building’s completion in 1920. What’s with all the hieroglyphics? What’s with the occult symbols, pagan icons, numerology, and Golden Boy perched atop the copper dome? Digging into the archives, Albo uncovered that every person involved in the construction of this building was a Freemason, including nearly a century of consecutive Manitoba premieres that governed it. The chief architect, Frank W Simon, designed everything with the utmost thought to the Hermetic principles of numerology, astrology, geometry and alchemy. Albo was able to decipher that Simon had created a Temple of Hermetic Mysticism, funded with millions of dollars of taxpayer money and cloaked as a stodgy government building.    

Overlooking the entrance, are two statues officially representing Manitoba and Winnipeg. Not so, says Albo; it’s actually the gods Hermes and Aphrodite. The pillars measure to the exact specification of those of the Biblical temple in Jerusalem. The guardian bison are actually protective symbolic amulets energized with sunlight, and everywhere you turn, you’ll see the constant use of the important numbers thirteen, 8, and 5. Thirteen stones in the archway, three sets of 13 steps, eight pointed stars. You need a book to explain it all, which Albo handily wrote for us. The Hermetic Code, a national bestseller, reveals these and other clues everywhere, chiselled in concrete and hidden in plain sight.