THE SECRET FORMULA The advantage of seeing another armchair treasure hunter at work every day is we get to discuss and compare ideas on a regular basis. After two years of comparing notes on The Secret: A Treasure Hunt, Turtle and I have recently come to a new understanding of what I call the “Secret Formula”. By applying this newest formula we have found the solutions for all 10 unfound casque locations. We know this may sound unbelievable. We also found it hard to believe, at first. In the past we developed solutions that seemed to fit, but later realized we were forcing the solution. This forcing is not the case in these latest solutions. In fact, once we applied this new formula, the solutions fell together surprisingly fast. When the same illustrator and author create 12 paintings and verses there are bound to be similarities in their creations, even if unintentional. The similarities in The Secret are common enough to justify creating a formula that can be applied consistently to both the paintings and verses. The Formula With no examples of misleading clues found in the paintings or verses we can safely assume that everything is important. Otherwise, why add it to the hunt? Every word and every image likely has a purpose. With this “everything is important” thought in mind; a good approach should include the question of purpose. If an image is in a painting, why was it added? If words are part of a verse, why were they added? This is a visual treasure hunt. Objects in the paintings and verses can be seen in the city and around the treasure site. After solving enough of the painting to get to a city, the hunter was expected to go to that city with verse in hand to finish the solution by using their eyes and skill. Of course, the arrival of the internet has changed that plan and now allows us to make those visits virtually. The Paintings The paintings are primarily designed to get you to a city or general area. Painting Guidelines •  Find as many items as you can in the painting before trying to match it to a verse. •  The image clues in the paintings range from obvious to hidden. When hidden they are simply camouflaged and disguised by combining with other shapes, colors and features. •  Some image matches are exact but others are just approximate. The creators (Preiss and Palencar) probably understood how much information could be gathered from an exact or subtle match, and the images were painted appropriately. •  An image most likely has only one purpose. Use once and move on. •  Each painting has at least a basic theme based on a country mentioned in the “The Passage to the New World” and “Litany of the Jewels” introduction sections. Painting Steps 1. Coordinates – Numbers found in the painting provide latitudes and longitudes to the correct city. •  The coordinates are shown with either one or two numbers. -  If there is only one number it should be used as a center coordinate for the search area and can be worked to either side of that latitude or longitude. -  If there are two numbers they should be used as the limits for the search area, like sides of a box. •  The one exception to the latitude and longitude coordinate method is the Milwaukee casque. The rebus mill-walk-key is used instead. 2. Map features – representations by outlines and shapes of geographic features found on a map in the form of a: •  State border •  Shoreline •  River •  Island •  Bridge •  Park boundary 3. City Landmarks – Images of identifiable structures that verify the city or general area. •  Statues •  Buildings •  Fountains •  Monuments 4. Final Spot Images – Images of other identifiable structures that can be found in the area around the actual dig spot. •  Moons – San Francisco •  Boulder – Kill Devil Hills •  Columns - Cleveland •  Fence – Chicago •  Palm - Clearwater •  Stone bridge – New Orleans •  Sphere and animals – Houston •  Olympic Stadium – Montreal •  Tree trunks – Milwaukee •  Capital Dome – Salt Lake City •  Judson Memorial Church windows – New York 5. Jewel Clues – Has little to do with a location solution. Reveals what the treasure award is for that casque. The jewel for each location can be found by using three methods. •  Birth stone – The jewel itself is placed somewhere in the painting. •  Birth flower – The birth flower representing the month of the birth stone is found in the painting. •  Count of the birth month is found in either hand positions in clocks or quantity of objects. The Verses The verses are designed to lead you to the final exact dig spot. They are written in riddle structure, but are literal when necessary. Every word of every verse has a purpose and only one purpose. Verse Steps 1. Of major importance is matching of the correct verse to the chosen painting. This is the first and maybe the most difficult step in solving the casque location. To match a verse familiarize yourself with the city and its landmarks, parks and features. Second, simply apply a trial and error method, often using the first verse line. Examples of workable first verse line matches are: “In the shadow of the grey giant” = USS Yorktown “Lane two twenty two” = First Flight Airport “At the place where jewels abound” = City Park sundial “View the three stories of Mitchell” = Mitchell Hall “Pass two friends of octave” = Smith statues 2. Dividing the verse up into the proper sections is very important. The whole meaning of that section of verse can change if not read as intended. Question if a line of verse should be grouped with the previous line or the next. The tricky part is that sections were, at times, shifted within the verse. Although those sections are intact, the sections of verse lines themselves not always in logical order. 3. Capitalization. If something is capitalized there is good reason. Just search out the proper noun referred to by the capitalization. Examples of capitalization: •  “Justice” •  “Congress” •  “Hard” •  “Two” 4. Punctuation. Another tricky procedure is figuring out where there may be implied punctuation. My favorite example of both punctuation and capitalization use is the first line of Verse 5, “Lane Two twenty two”. To read this line the way it was intended change to “Lane Two/ twenty, two”. Use “Two/ twenty” (2/20) to follow established runway naming convention. Use “two” to show that any runway parallel to The first (Wright Brother’s) runway will have to be runway 2 (the second). 5. Don’t take the verses too literal. Every line has been twisted in its meaning when possible. A good approach for us was “nothing means what it says”, unless necessary. Often the “necessary lines” are simply used to clarify or setup the riddle lines. Examples of necessary literal lines include: •  “Not far away” •  “Look down” •  “At twelve paces” •  “From right to left” •  “Is your clue” •  “Near this site.” •  “Step across” •  “Are here to see” •  “Walk 100 paces” •  “In July and August” •  “Stand and listen to the birds” 6. The verses are designed with visual clues. Verses often describe items seen when there in person, but can occasionally use historical references where basic knowledge of local history is necessary. 7. There are two general types of verses, “travel” and “landmark”. •  The travel verse starts at one spot and then moves you to the final spot. Words that are used in travel verses include: “Pass” “Ride” “Take” “Ascend” “Through” “Step” “Walk” “Running” Travel verses include: San Francisco Houston Milwaukee Salt Lake City •  The landmark verse puts you in one spot and reinforces that location with supporting lines of verse. These lines include area landmarks. Landmark verses include: Kill Devil Hills Cleveland Chicago Clearwater New Orleans Montreal Charleston New York 8. Literary references - The verses have many quotes from history and literature. No evidence has been found that these references are intended to be used in the solution formula. It is more likely these phrases were added provide interest, flavor and depth. They surely add to an already great treasure hunt. Much of this formula is probably understood by a majority of the regular posters and watchers of this forum. This is just simply how Turtle and I organized the formula ingredients by priority and sequential steps. Hopefully, this has explained our approach to the formula. To review this approach, it included: •  Follow the formula steps in order. •  Focus on one painting at a time. •  Match the proper verse to that painting, sometimes through lots of trial and error. The solution should come together naturally, no forcing is needed. •  Keep an open mind. Always seek a better solution fit. Don’t let your current solution become your pet solution. The cool thing was that as each verse matched up it got easier to go through the remaining verses for the next painting match.

Unknown: •  The one exception to the latitude and longitude coordinate method is the Milwaukee casque. The rebus mill-walk-key is used instead. The latitude and longitude coordinates are indeed in this painting--they are Roman numerals. Look in the hair, and at the configuration of the tree trunks. They form 87 and 43.

I'm not sure if this is meaningful in any way but I thought I would throw it out there anyway.  At the very least it is interesting.  The blue light that surrounds some of the items in the images seems to emanate from the box that the woman is holding in picture 11.  In addition the light seems to be at different angles in all the images as if they can be arranged in a particular order in relation to image 11.    I thought about an arrangement where image 11 would be in the middle and the rest of the images would be around it like a clockface but you need 13 images for that so that didn't work. The only image that doesn't have any blue light at all is image 9 which would indicate that image 9 would be directly behind image 11. Also, since we are pretty sure there is only one casque in Canada and image 9 is the only image without blue light it is another indication to me that image 9 goes with Canada. Just my thoughts, make of them what you will.

Digger-- I did exactly that with photoshop and wound up with:  Absolutely nothing.  However, Sonoran, if you are looking for a formula, then I would suggest this: stop it.  The only formula that is worth noting is that A painting SHOWS you where it is, while a verse TELLS you.  Thus far only two casques have been found and dug up, which means that there is no formula, otherwise the rest would have been found within a couple of months, like BP said.  About the best you can do, if you are looking for a common element, is to find out what the dig sites have in common, and MAYBE they will point to a pattern based off of convenience, ease of burial, etc.  What you have done is state the obvious about each painting and the wording in some of the verses, but you have not really discovered anything new.  The only way I will accept that there is a formula is if you provide an equation, apply it to a city, and find the remaining treasures.

digger7, i wonder if that blue around the images indicates water, like the port cities. then image 9 would be an inland city, do you think? sonoran, for myself, i don't think there is a set formula. he gave us landmarks and roads and riddles, and it's all fun. well, .......to me it's all fun, 'cause i'm just sitting in my chair playing with words, lol..........for the hunters,  it's a little more heartbreaking, i'm sure.

Unknown: digger7, i wonder if that blue around the images indicates water, like the port cities. then image 9 would be an inland city, do you think? An interesting thought slappy, I hadn't considered that.  You could be right.