Rosslyn: guardian of the secrets of the holy grail
Element. 242 pages. £16.99
ISBN 1 86204 493 7 .
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).