The Treasure

The Treasure is the central section of the book The Secret, containing full-color reproductions of twelve paintings by John Jude Palencar, and twelve verses. Both the paintings and verses are enigmatic by design, each incorporating elements that, if correctly interpreted, provide clues to the location of one of twelve buried casques.

The paintings and verses are untitled, and unnumbered. According to the book, each painting is intended to be paired with a verse to form a coherent set of clues; these verses are not necessarily the ones adjacent to each painting, and in fact the generally accepted pairings do not combine adjacent elements.

As stated in the text, these two paired elements comprise everything needed to locate the casque. The book instructs (p. 7-8): “The key to each requires the proper combination of one treasure painting with one treasure verse. You need only decipher the clues in any pair to learn the location of a treasure casque.” The remainder of the book consists of rules, lore, and whimsical entertainment.