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Rosslyn - Guardian of the Secrets of the Holy GrailRosslyn: guardian of the secrets of the holy grail Among New Age pilgrimage centres in Scotland such as Iona and Findhorn, interest is rapidly growing in Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh. Though nominally Episcopalian, this private medieval building of the St. Clair family shows considerable esoteric carving with links to Templars and Masons in particular. The authors believe that hidden in the chapel are scrolls and other artefacts found by the Templars in Jerusalem, a belief also promoted by another Element author 'Prince Michael of Albany' (p.213) a Pretender to the Scottish throne whose background was investigated by The Guardian newspaper on 24 March 1999. The appeal of Rosslyn is not confined to the Christian West. Nazis interested in the Holy Grail came to the chapel in the 1930s (p.22). The leader of the Black Tantric Buddhist sect has been there and declared it one of the most powerful sites he has ever visited (p.23), although it 'lies cheek-by-jowl with churches of the very different Calvinistic fundamentalist Protestant tradition' (p.1). The ambition of this book is vast, for after describing the antiquities of the chapel, the authors offer a summary of the Western esoteric tradition, and set off on a continental pilgrimage. 'We have established,' they conclude, 'that the seven Christian buildings comprising the apocalyptic configuration in stone, the churches and cathedrals at Rosslyn, Amiens, Paris, Chartres, Orleans, Toulouse and Compostela, were all founded on Druidic sites dedicated to the planetary oracles' (p.208). Clearly there is a problem here and not just for Christians in Scotland, with several agendas besides the disinterested search for truth, and the natural wish of authors and publishers to sell books. We must be cautious first about the claims that particular features of the chapel are ancient. The Victorians were great Gothic imitators, and they have certainly left their mark on Rosslyn. Moreover, we have just been reminded how the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 triggered much Egyptian-style architecture in the West. We should be aware too of the conflicting theories that freemasonry was founded in England or Scotland, where the age of certain Rosslyn features may be relevant. The owners of Rosslyn do not permit archaeological digging (and neither do the custodians of the alleged tomb of Jesus in Kashmir, nor for that matter those of certain 'Holy Places' in Jerusalem!). So there are likely to be many more books theorising about what is buried underneath. But there is another dimension to this book. Muslims, following the Qur'an often argue that Jesus did not die on the cross. Element, who are keen promoters of Sufism (the esoteric side of Islam) are also publishers of Gardner's Bloodline of the Holy Grail (which I reviewed here in December 1998), of Holger Kersten's Jesus lived in India, and of Eisenman and Wise's The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered. These books are used with many others from the genuinely scholarly to the tendentious, to attack the divinity of Christ and the atonement (Rosslyn p.62-3), the apostle Paul (p.67) and the authority of Scripture (p.68). You may be surprised that a book about an old chapel could lead to the wholesale rejection of the gospel, but it does. It is part of the package if not the underlying theme. And that to me is lamentable - that the legitimate re-examination of mysteries of the past has been hijacked by those for whom Barbara Thiering represents biblical scholarship, and Matthew Fox, theology. As for the location of other sacred buildings, it is well known that the Church of Rome encouraged the use of pagan sites for churches. Our opinion of that will partly depend on whether, like some Protestants, we deny any possibility of power residing in a place. There was certainly a succumbing to pagan practices in the new buildings as the centuries passed, and in 1456 when work began on this site, pagan motifs would be widely acceptable. However, the gospel is not about teachings in stone, but the Word. The only stone that really counts is the One the builders rejected (Jesus Christ) - and the white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it (Rev 2.17). Leslie Price© Evangelicals Now - October 1999 |