Rosslyn Chapel: LARGE PRINT EDITION: Occult Secrets and Esoteric Treasures Revealed

This unique book presents starting new evidence suggesting that there is a very real and breathtaking secret hidden within the structure of the now, near legendary, Rosslyn Chapel situated near Edinburgh, Scotland.

Excerpt:

Introduction

If ever there was an example of Sir Winston Churchill's famous quotation referring to Russian foreign policy as, 'a puzzle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma' applied to a building, then surely this building must be Rosslyn Chapel. Over the years, fevered speculation over this medieval structure has fuelled a series of quests to uncover what if any mystical and arcane secrets and codes may be encoded within its design.

These quests have involved everything from the straightforward and robust, i.e. drilling directly into the vaults through the flagstoned floor of the chapel, and in one notorious instance an entirely unauthorised attempt to bore into the vaults from a field outside the building, to learned historical and archaeological research and debates about the images and patterns carved into the stonework. It is notable that the more intrusive archaeological endeavours have all been rebuffed, although several ultrasound ground scans have been carried out with considerable success. There have also been attempts to employ very different and subtle types of questing techniques using the talents of psychics and mediums and, as we shall see, these methods appear to have had more success than the more conventional and traditional and it is to these alternative methods that we apply ourselves.

While it can be argued that all places of worship are, by nature, in a sense supernatural or otherworldly, as we shall see, in the case of Rosslyn Chapel this assertion just might be literally true. The theories expounded and words written about this small Midlothian chapel are legion, but until fairly recently the interest in the building and its legends was confined to a relatively small band of people. They tended to be academics, historians and members of various quasi-religious and mystical groups, e.g. the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians and the Militi Templi Scotia (MTS), who are a relatively modern, (18th century) Scottish variant on the legendary and near mythical order of warrior monks, the Knights Templar. Ownership of the Templar inheritance has been claimed by a variety of groups and organisations and there are a series of Masonic degrees, beginning with the Royal Arch and continuing through The Preceptory and Cryptic Council, all rituals invoking Templar imagery and traditions.

In addition there have been other less worthy groups who claimed to invoke the Templar name and its code of honour, among them the OTO, or 'Ordo Templi Orientis', and the more recent but much more venal and avaricious, 'Order of the Solar Temple'. Both of these groups were more concerned with enacting rituals and quasi-magical ceremonies than promoting chivalric values, particularly the OTO, which included the notorious, late 19th, early 20th century occultist, Aleister Crowley, among its members. In the case of the Solar Temple, which in fact was organised and operated more like a cult, the lives of several of its adherents ended in mass suicide at the whim of it founder rather than initiation into anything genuinely worthwhile. Having said that, the Knights Templar themselves were also reputedly involved with heretical and magical practises and we shall look at some of these charges and their implications later in this book.

In the past few years however, even prior to the arrival of the astonishingly successful novel and film, 'The Da Vinci Code', the building and its grounds have become a magnet for thousands of people from all over the world. Each person had their own reasons for going there although the overall impression is that they are all on a pilgrimage, but first a word about The Da Vinci Code and its remarkable penetration into public awareness. Although the chapel was already quite well known due to earlier books such as 'The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail' and 'The Hiram Key' plus its companion work, 'The Second Messiah', it was not until after the publication of the, by now, almost ubiquitous Da Vinci Code, that widespread interest of the building really ignited. Precisely why this should be the case is puzzling, but perhaps it is because this particular work, being one of fiction, has a much wider appeal than more serious works designed primarily to educate and provoke thought, but ultimately of course entertain. The reaction of the churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church in leaping forward to denounce what is after all presented as a work of fiction is also surprising, but taken at face value ultimately perhaps predictable.

On the other hand, their reaction could be described as illogical; why decry a fictitious work suggesting that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene yet promote belief in a supernatural, evidently male entity who, with no physical contact, supposedly caused a human woman to become pregnant with his offspring, and what is more the offspring performed acts of necromancy, magic and sorcery. It is curious that the reason Christ was put to death on the cross was not because he was a troublemaker, which, although this was a civil offence it was not one deserving execution, instead it was because he was deemed a 'malificus', or magician, a crime that did attract the death penalty, specifically crucifixion.

Staying with the da Vinci Code, as regards Mary Magdalene, after her death she was canonised as a saint by the Catholic Church and her relics were originally venerated at the abbey of Vèzelay in Burgundy. She rapidly gained a huge, almost cult-like following, and later, in 1279, at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence, France, where her remains were apparently relocated, they attracted such enormous throngs of pilgrims that an earlier shrine was rebuilt as a great Basilica, which, from the mid thirteenth century on, became one of the finest Gothic churches in southern France.

This part of the Magdalene legend helps corroborate the theory that she did in fact travel to France, with or without the Christ, to create the beginnings of an entire alternative Grail mythology. Perhaps ultimately all churches should be grateful for the increased attention because they will probably benefit as a result and it indicates that deep down there is an unrequited thirst for spiritual comfort that only they can supply.

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