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the Knights Templar, the Crusades & the Holy Grail (Original Version)

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« Reply #30 on: January 03, 2008, 03:34:10 am »

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   posted 05-09-2005 07:25 PM                       
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Don't let new crusade ruin mystery of chapel

LIAM RUDDEN

DEPENDING on which school of thought you come from, the Holy Grail is either the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and which was then used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch his blood as he hung on the cross, or for the more esoterically minded who hold that a union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene produced an offspring, the bloodline of Jesus
For those who side with the first belief, the vaults of Rosslyn Chapel, just outside Edinburgh, have long been rumoured to hold not just the key to the mystery, but to be the actual resting place of the Holy Grail itself, many believing it was brought to the chapel by the Knights Templar, the secret order entrusted with its safekeeping.

This theory, reinforced and given added currency by Dan Brown’s decision to feature the church in his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, has been around for many decades.

But now, as reported in Wednesday’s Evening News, a man claiming to be a descendant of Hugues de Payens, the first Grand Master of the Knights Templar has called for archaeologists to be allowed to carry out electronic examinations of the 15th century chapel to find out if the ancient relics really are buried there.
American academic Dr David Conley believes that the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and ancient scrolls, all dating back to the time of Christ may be hidden beneath the Midlothian church, in an underground tunnel system that mirrors the design of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

"My own belief is that if there are scrolls or the so-called Holy Grail is there then it should be returned to Jerusalem," he told the News, adding: "I do feel passionate about this because anything there goes back to when Islam, Christianity and Judaism were united."
Of course, it could all be just another conspiracy theory.

Previous investigations - though limited - have proved inconclusive, and simply added to the mystery. And surely that’s as it should be.
After all, were Dr Conley to prove beyond doubt that the vaults contain nothing more than dust and air the enigmatic mystique of Rosslyn Chapel would be destroyed forever, along with the thousands of curious visitors who flock there every year.

On the other hand, if he found it . . .


http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=493402005

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« Reply #31 on: January 03, 2008, 03:34:34 am »

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   posted 05-09-2005 09:32 PM                       
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« Reply #32 on: January 03, 2008, 03:35:01 am »

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   posted 05-24-2005 09:54 PM                       
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Kabbalist Blesses Jones: Now´s the Time to Find Holy Lost Ark
14:03 May 20, '05 / 11 Iyar 5765


An unnamed Kabbalist has granted blessing to famed archeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones to uncover the Holy Ark of the Covenant. Jones plans to excavate the Lost Ark by the Tisha B’Av Fast this summer.


The famed archaeologist, the inspiration for the “Indiana Jones” movie series, has spent most of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark was the resting place of the Ten Commandments, given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, and was hidden just before the destruction of the First Temple.

The Talmud says the Ark is hidden in a secret passage under the Temple Mount. Jones says that the tunnel actually continues 18 miles southward, and that the Ark was brought through the tunnel to its current resting place in the Judean Desert.

Throughout the many years of his quest, Jones has been in close contact and under the tutelage of numerous Rabbis and Kabbalists. Extremely knowledgeable in Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah sources dealing with Holy Temple issues, Jones has now received permission from both known and secret Kabbalists to finally uncover the lost ark.

Dr. Jones, who divides his time between Texas and Israel, has been here since March 9th ready to finally reveal the Ark. However, he has been waiting for both permission from the mysterious Kabbalist and for project funding to come through.

As recently as last month, the rabbi, who only communicates via messenger, told Jones that the time was not yet right to discover the Temple vessels.

Last Thursday, however, Dr. Jones received a communication from the rabbi reading, “The time is right.”

Armed with this and other blessings, Jones is now excited to uncover his life's pursuit. He believes the ark will be discovered by Tisha B'Av (Aug. 14), a day of repeated tragedy in Jewish history. Most notably, it is the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Holy Temples.

Noahide guru Jones says that the State of Israel is passing through the same biblical straights as the generation that first entered Israel after the exodus from Egypt. “If history repeats itself, the history itself is prophecy,” Jones says.

“Israel is different from all other nations in a lot of ways, but more than anything else, Israel is the only nation whose history was written before it happened.”

Once a Christian pastor, Jones left his post to become a leader of the growing Noahide movement. Noahides are G-d fearing non-Jews who observe the seven laws of Noah, which are obligatory upon all of humanity.

The explorer and teacher published a book in 1959 predicting the precise outbreak of the Six Day War, based on his analysis of the period from the Exodus from Egypt up until the First Temple Period. He says that applying biblical analysis to modern times points to major events that will “turn the world right-side-up.”

Jones calculated the war in 1967 by analyzing the sequence of events in the First Temple Period and transposing them onto the "Third Temple Period” – the period beginning with the Jews’ foundation of an independent State in the Land of Israel in 1948.

“It fits just like tongue in groove,” he says.

Jones analyzed the following passage from the book of Bamidbar (Numbers): “Every man from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go to war...". He said it could be read this way, "So from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go, went to war in Israel.”

“Well, ’67 was the 20th year,” said Jones, who received acclaim for fighting as a non-listed soldier in the Six Day War. He was the only non-Jewish American to take part in the combat.

“Two years at Mt. Sinai, and then the Jewish people went to Kadesh Barnea,” he says, referring to the time immediately following the Exodus. Transposing the Jewish people’s first entry into Israel via the Jericho region and the re-entry to those areas in 1967, one can find striking similarities.

“At Kadesh Barnea, [the Jewish Nation] sent in those [twelve] spies who gave the evil report, and because they believed the evil report, they were sentenced to wander for 38 years before they could come into Gilgal” – an ancient city near Jericho.

“1967 was a repetition of Kadesh Barnea,” Jones says. “If Israel had come in and taken this place, the Arabs would have fled like they did in 1948. But no, because of the evil report of Golda Meir and Motta Gur and Moshe Dayan, who said ‘We cannot do that, world opinion will be against us.’ So Israel was sentenced to 38 years more – and June the 7th [2005], Jerusalem Day, will be the 38th year.

Jones believes that the Jewish prophecies regarding the greatly anticipated redemption are occuring in front of our eyes.

Jones' escapades and explorations were the inspiration for the blockbuster movie 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' of the 'Indiana Jones' trilogy. The man who wrote the first draft of the film, Randolph Fillmore, was one of the volunteers who worked with Jones in 1977.

“I agreed to help him write the movie,” Jones said, “as long as – number one – he wouldn’t set it here (in Israel). Some people believe the ark is in Ethiopia or Egypt, some believe its in Constantinople or Rome. I just didn’t want it to be portrayed as being here. The second thing was, 'Don’t use my name.' So he didn’t. My name is Vendyl – V-E-N-D-Y-L. So he just dropped the first and last letters and it ended up Endy Jones.”

Although at the time of the film, Jones was far from pinpointing the location of the Ark, he has come a long way since then. With the help of an ancient document found in Qumran together with the Dead Sea Scrolls, known as the “Copper Scroll”, Dr. Jones is convinced he has pinpointed the location of the Ark of the Covenant.

“In the copper scroll, the first five lines say, 'In the desolations of the Valley of Achur, in the opening under the ascent, which is a mountain facing eastward, covered by forty placed boulders – here is a tabernacle and all the golden fixtures,'” Jones says.

"This is what we have been looking for all these years, and I’ve walked over those boulders thousands of times without really stepping back and looking – realizing ‘hey, those boulders have been brought in here, they’ve been placed in here, they didn’t come off a mountain. And they’re huge.’”

Jones recounts his early explorations into the tunnels which lead from the ancient Old City of Jerusalem, near Jaffa Gate, to the foot of the Dead Sea. “My son and I went an hour and 20 minutes into the tunnel. There were so many branches and we didn’t have anything to mark the route, so I said, ‘We better get out of here and come back with a roll of string.’ Then I made the mistake of asking permission to do it. That was before I learned that Israel is a lot like heaven - it is a lot easier to get forgiveness than it is permission.”

Dr. Jones, wearing an orange anti-disengagement bracelet, dismisses the current Israeli government's plan to uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria from their homes. "There will not be any disengagement, nor will there be any Palestinian State,” he says.

Jones, who has a photographic memory, quotes: “Chapter One in Isaiah: 'How has the holy city become a harlot? Righteousness filled the street, but now murderers. The ruler is a friend of thieves and the ministers desire bribes.'”

“The prophet wasn’t talking about his day – he was talking about now. ‘Therefore, says the L-rd, I will restore them to their beginnings. I will set judges up as at first, and counselors as in the beginning.’”

The Sharon government will soon be history, Jones asserts, and the Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Court of 71 judges) will take its place and lead the Jewish people. “The Sanhedrin was established October the 13th of last year. Now all we have to do is have an election to elect counselors. The Sanhedrin is like a Senate and the elected counselors are like a House of Representatives.”

Dr. Jones says the discovery of the lost ark will “flip the whole world right-side-up.”

“I just gotta drill a bore-hole into the chamber, drop a pin-camera in and there it is. And everything is gonna change, believe me. The Jewish people are gonna come back.”

Listen to an exclusive interview with Dr. Jones on the Noahide Movement, on IsraelNationalRadio's brand new show: 'Light Unto the Nations.'

Learn more about Dr. Jones' excavations online at www.vendyljones.org.il.


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=82226

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« Reply #33 on: January 03, 2008, 03:35:23 am »

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The ark was a set of rules most likey set by Amenhotep of Egypt, it does described the wings of Iris.

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« Reply #34 on: January 03, 2008, 03:35:43 am »

 
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« Reply #35 on: January 03, 2008, 03:36:16 am »

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ATON, the GOD Who HID

THERE WERE over 300 Gods in EGYPT when AMENHOTEP 4 was

born to AMENHOTEP 3 and his half-Hebrew wife TIYE, the daughter

of YUYA, the BIBLICAL JOSEPH.....Why did this young Pharaoh

decide to turn his back on all these "gods" and their priests? ...AHMED

OSMAN, Cairo Attorney at Law, and author of MOSES, Pharaoh of

Egypt, explains it thus.........

........The young Pharaoh had hidden most of his early childhood in a

frontier fortress town near the Sinai Desert....His mother's Hebrew

relatives were living in the farm country of the Nile Delta....They had a

tradition of an ancient God or "Gods" [the ELOHIM], who did not look

like animals or crocodiles, and indeed were very POWERFUL BEINGS

although people had long ago forgotten what They really looked like.

........The other Pharaohs, including AMENHOTEP 3, his biological

father, had a tradition that only Pharaoh's FAMILY, among all the families

in EGYPT, were really descended from AMON, the SUN GOD, chief

of all the "gods" of EGYPT....They were obliged by the priesthood for

many generations to marry their own SISTERS, to preserve the purity

of the ROYAL BLOODLINE....TIYE's child was contaminated with

Hebrew blood, and NO WAY could he ever claim to be a pure-bred

descendent of AMON...After he was old enough, TIYE convinced his

father the Pharaoh to accept him as his SON and allow him to jointly

rule EGYPT....

.........This was only marginally acceptable to the EGYPTIAN NOBLES,

however, and "MOSES" was pursuaded to marry NEFERTITI, his

half sister, daughter of his father by an EGYPTIAN wife other than the

half-Hebrew TIYE....As ALL EGYPTIAN and ROYALTY...Neferititi

was the real power behind "MOSES" rule of Egypt after his father died,

perhaps at a young age....."MOSES" had before that aquired an

Ethiopian wife as part of the REWARD for a military campaign he led

as GENERAL into UPPER EGYPT where the population is almost all

BLACK....Hebrew oral tradition supports this history, and Numbers 12

hints at it........This early MILITARY PROWESS of "MOSES" explains

how a supposed "shepherd" was able to lead out in the defeat of so many

war-like tribes and nations in the wilderness as His Hebrew relatives

approached Canaan........

........Had "MOSES" been content to practice Polytheism, or even tolerate

it, he might have reigned longer as Pharaoh...but his own biological part-

Egyptian part Royalty status coupled with the religious traditions of his

mother's relatives led him to finally declare that "THERE IS NO GOD

BUT ONE, AND THAT GOD CANNOT BE REPRESENTED

BY ANYTHING FOUND ON EARTH."...and the FIRST TWO

COMMANDMENTS of the famous DECALOG came into being...


.............The young Pharaoh was not TIMID, and he was a successful

General....He changed his name to AKHENATEN, in honor of his

"ONE GOD" Whom he named ATON or ATEN [as in Hebrew,

there are no required VOWELS in EGYPTIAN]...."ATN" is the word....

When the people showed their displeasure, he shut down all their temples

and moved his capital to AMARNA, which he built and populated with

artists, craftsmen, and intellectuals no longer under the control of an

archaic priesthood....AMARNA was the "CAMELOT" of the 14th

century BC....

...........The powerful priesthood REVOLTED, forced AKHENATEN-

MOSES to abdicate to his young son TUTANKATEN, also named

for ATEN, "The GOD Who hides His FACE but does not look like

a crocodile..."...AKHENATEN moved out to the Sinai mountain-top

Temple at Sarabet-al-Khadim, now full of stone monuments that look

remarkably like the "TWO TABLES of STONE" as they are usually

pictured inscribed with those famous "TEN COMMANDMENTS"....

A miniature stone-carved picture of his mother, Queen TIYE, was found

there...the same picture featured earlier on this WEB-SITE.........

.........According to OSMAN's calculations, AKHENATEN-MOSES

spent 30 years in exile, not 40, but that's pretty close as symbolic numbers

go...TUTANKAMEN had become TUTANKAMON and gone back

to polytheism at the insistance of the priests....NEFERTITI, his mother,

was the REAL RULER...For a while, after King "TUT" died in his youth,

"MOSES" Hebrew Uncle, a General, had his turn at the throne...He was

the one who provided "PROTECTION" for the exiled King....

........ALL this History was of course SUPPRESSED, and it took a

LAWYER with a passion for CLUES and access to the evidence to

"find" the REAL STORY....for Jewish Scribes have suppressed it also,

for reasons of their own....A large factor, no doubt, was the knowledge

that "MOSES" was only 1/4 Hebrew, and his children 1/8 Hebrew....

So, in the BIBLE TRADITION he was the "adopted son" of Pharaoh's

daughter.....Actually that was quite near the truth...He was the son of

one Pharaoh's wife [TIYE] and married another Pharaoh's daughter

[NEFERTITI]....How about the name "MOSES"?...Osman says that one

meaning of "MOSES" in ancient Egyptian is "the HEIR"....Moses returned

to Egypt after 30 year's exile as the returning "HEIR". ...His famous ROD

was the Egyptian Scepter he took with him...no doubt carved into the

shape of a SNAKE....Successful against the "snakes" of the other

magicians because it was the genuine scepter of the Pharaohs, recognized

as such by all who saw it...

..........No one would accept Him back as ruler of Egypt, because they

couldn't tolerate his MONOTHEISM, but they did allow those of his

Hebrew relatives who wished to leave to follow him back into the

Wilderness of Sinai....MIRIAM [NEFERTITI] his wife and half-sister,

no longer acceptable as Queen of Egypt, followed him into the Wilderness,

now one of THREE wives...The youngest a Bedouin Princess who bore

him the children acknowledged as his in the BIBLE....

........As usual, the Hebrews squabbled and fussed about this and that

much of the time....One problem was WHAT to call their ONE GOD...

"MOSES" insisted on ATON or ATEN, but this had been Egyptianized

to ADON or ADEN....Or more familiarly ADONAI...With the adoption

in the Wilderness of the THIRD COMMANDMENT, which promised

SEVERE PENALTIES for anyone spelling or saying GOD's name in

an improper manner...It was decided to use "MOSES's" name for GOD

without penalty, while Y-W- was abreviated, not used except at the

holiest feast days, or just indicated as two yodts '' in a sentence.

........And that's how the GOD of the Jews became known as "Baruch

ata Adonai Elohainu Melech ha-Olem"...in English..."Blessed art

Thou O Lord, Our God, King of the Universe."


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The TORAH CODES in ELS, "Equidistant Letter Spacing" give in all

these texts involving "MOSES" and "MIRIAM" their REAL NAMES

AKHENATEN and NEFERTITI, and are also full of the NAME

ATN..ADN...ATEN and ADONAI...As with other things involving

the HIDDEN BIBLE CODES....Real TRUTH is more important than
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« Reply #36 on: January 03, 2008, 03:36:42 am »

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darn those pop ups:)
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« Reply #37 on: January 03, 2008, 03:37:03 am »

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The Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant are two seperate things.
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« Reply #38 on: January 03, 2008, 03:37:23 am »

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Don`t believe in the Da Vinci Code, the cup is what Jesus drank of to repesent his body.If that cup can ever be found it would be wonder.
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« Reply #39 on: January 03, 2008, 03:37:43 am »

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  posted 05-25-2005 12:53 AM                       
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i wish you would grow a brain.
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« Reply #40 on: January 03, 2008, 03:38:57 am »

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Hello, Docyabut. Yes, the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail are two separate things, but if it could be proved that the Holy Grail was actually a bloodline of kings stretching back to Jesus, would we think any the lesser of him? I think not.

I, for one, would not hold it against Christ if he had taken a wife of Mary Magdalene and had a family.

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« Reply #41 on: January 03, 2008, 03:40:07 am »

 
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  posted 05-26-2005 10:31 AM                       
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http://www.templarhistory.com/

Might want to check out this website. It seems to have every answer to the Knights Templar.

Personally, I do believe there is some validity to this group.

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« Reply #42 on: January 03, 2008, 03:40:46 am »

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In search of the Holy Grail
DIANE MACLEAN

IT IS the hottest day of the year so far in Scotland and crowds escape the melting heat in the dark, hallowed vaults of Rosslyn Chapel. Copies of The Da Vinci Code are clutched in sweaty hands. Tourists take photos "to show the folks back home," while others admire the architecture. Beside the south door of the chapel is a group looking intently at what is described as a Templar gravestone. They are here in search of the grail.

The Holy Grail made its first appearance in a 12th century romance by Chretien de Troyes. The story grew legs with Wolfram von Eschenbach's 13th century epic poem Parzival where, for the first time, the Knights Templar entered the frame.


Does this Knight Templar look like a man who knows one of the most important secrets of all time? The short answer is, we simply don't know. Photo: Getty
"Grail questing" has reached fever pitch since Dan Brown's 2003 best-seller, which culminates in Rosslyn. A weekend workshop at nearby Newbattle Abbey College offers enlightenment to grail aficionados. Their guest speakers number a Knight Templar, a Freemason and a member of the mysterious Saunier Society. I joined the group of curious for the experience.

After the tour of Rosslyn we gather in the crypt at Newbattle. Everyone has read Brown's book and virtually everything else that has ever been written about the grail.

We are here to learn the truth, but as one member of a secret society after another promise to reveal their mysteries, the truth seems slippier than an oil slick. Why else do secret societies call themselves secret?

Archie Shields, a flesh-and-blood Knight Templar, sets the scene by describing a contemporary Templar. Shields concedes the society is governed by initiation, rites and secrecy. Amid his failure to elaborate on these matters, we cannot judge what their connection is to the original Templars. Instead, he focuses on the present-day Christian interpretation the Templars have of the grail.

"The grail is about life and knowledge," he says. "It is about our journey, and hoping that in the end God finds in our favour and we reach heaven."


The gravestone of Sir William St Clair - who built Rosslyn Chapel. There are now doubts that he was ever a Knight Templar.
Next up is Jim Munro, Grand Master Freemason. He is knowledgeable about Rosslyn and disputes claims that there are Templar graves in the chapel. At this news we feel hope leaving by a side door, as if the links between the Templars, grail and Rosslyn are evaporating in the heat of the midday sun. The atmosphere perks up as Munro then reveals he never travels without his crystal and has found something intriguing when he dowsed the church.

"There is a very powerful ley line running through the north side of Rosslyn. If you follow it, it runs to Temple (or Balantrodoch) – where the Knights Templars lived – and then all the way on to Jerusalem."

Galvanised by this more esoteric information (although unable to see quite how it fits in with the grail), we await expectantly to hear from John Millar of the Saunier Society. Set up originally to promote the work of Henry Lincoln, author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which started the Holy bloodline theory, the society now investigates the unexplained.

Millar's interpretation of the grail is the most cryptic we have heard so far.

"It is something very special with strange properties that requires exploration," he begins. Like many involved in the "grail quest" he is hard to pin down, and his explanation involves a 5,000-year-old book, The Epic of Gilgamesh, thought to be the oldest on earth.

"Through history there have been recorded accounts of strange devices," he continues. "Herodotus, the Mahabharata, even the Bible mentions them. These accounts convince me that there is something rather strange out there."

Finally he cuts to the chase and offers his own insight into the grail. Derived in part from Plato, Millar's theory focuses on an idea of a cyclical universe.

"At periodic intervals our civilisation has been destroyed and slowly rebuilds again in a cycle, and the grail must be something that survives when we implode and destroy, forming a link between our old civilisations and the new."

We are now warming to our subject and coffee-break chat is dominated by contradictory theories. Most believe that the grail is Christ's bloodline, but as talk veers off into conspiracy theories and the "murder" of Princess Diana, it is hard to keep focused.

George and Linda Scott from the American town of Roswell, New Mexico, came to the course to satiate their obsession for Brown's book and satisfy a desire to get the truth. They are also both looking for something to replace organised religion – which they consider too fundamental. Linda, who is in her 50s, has breast cancer, so the quest for knowledge has been brought into sharp focus.

"I think your whole life is a quest," she says. "When you have to confront your mortality this close, you want to know that life has had a meaning."

On the web
Visit the website of Newbattle Abbey to find out about their short courses
The course doesn't present any answers as to whether the grail is in us or hidden in a chapel pillar, but it does end with one tantalising item.

"A number of years ago an American lady came on a course here," says Millar. "I told her about the Templars and everything, and she was extremely interested, even asked me to co-write a novel with her."

Nothing came of the proposed collaboration, but Millar was delighted to see her return the next year.

"She came back, and she brought her novelist husband with her," he recalls.

Millar does not remember the surname of the couple, but he can clearly remember being introduced to her husband…Dan.

To this day he is convinced that the man he told all his secrets to was the author Dan Brown.

So, you see, we may not have found the grail, but we might have found the genesis for the world's most talked about book.


http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=749652005&20050708095545

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« Reply #43 on: January 03, 2008, 03:48:42 am »

 
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   posted 07-10-2005 07:36 PM                       
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Hidden da Vinci sketch uncovered
Drawing discovered under his painting of ‘Virgin on the Rocks’

This picture provided by Britain's National Gallery shows Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Virgin on the Rocks," as it is seen using infrared reflectography, which reveals an underdrawing beneath the surface of the painting. For centuries, art lovers have admired Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Virgin on the Rocks," a powerful study of Christ's mother in a rather gloomy cavern. Now experts at London's National Gallery, where the painting is on display, say the delicate brushstrokes hide another picture by the Italian master.

The sketch — the first unknown Leonardo image to be found in decades — is beneath the delicate brushstrokes of the artist's "Virgin on the Rocks," a powerful scene of Christ's mother in a dusky cavern, which hangs in the London museum.

The concealed image shows a woman with one hand clutched to her breast, the other outstretched, kneeling before what experts said was planned to be an infant Jesus. Leonardo apparently was planning a picture of the adoration of the Christ child, a scene popular with Renaissance artists, but changed his mind.
"It came as a complete surprise to finding the sketch," said Rachel Billinge, research associate in the conservation department of the National Gallery. "We had no idea until we studied the painting that there was anything under there."

The National Gallery's "Virgin on the Rocks" is a copy of the painting of the same name that now hangs in the Louvre in Paris. National Gallery experts were using infrared techniques to find out how the copy had been made when they found the sketch.

The Roman Catholic church had commissioned Leonardo to paint "The Virgin on the Rocks" for a Milan chapel altarpiece in 1483.

"When (Leonardo) completed the first painting, he was so pleased with it that he asked for more money, and when this was refused, he sold it privately," Billinge said.

The artist later agreed to paint another picture — and probably started with the newly found sketch — but was persuaded to make a copy of the original "Virgin On The Rocks," she said.

The copy was placed in the chapel in 1508.

Critics argue over the meaning of the scene in "The Virgin On The Rocks." Some claim it depicts the Immaculate Conception, while others say it shows the first time Jesus met John the Baptist.

The last time any new Leonardo works were discovered was the 1930s, when the portrait "Ginevra de'Benci" and "The Madonna of the Carnation" were attributed to him.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8433482/

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« Reply #44 on: January 04, 2008, 04:47:26 am »

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   posted 11-16-2005 09:29 PM                       
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Knights Templar

The Seal of the Knights — the two riders have been interpreted as a sign of poverty or the duality of monk/soldier.The largest, and most powerful of the Christian military orders, the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, originally named The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple which is in Jerusalem is widely known as the Knights Templar. It was founded in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its hostile Muslim neighbors, and to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest.

Organization

Knights Templar CrossThe Templars were organized as a monastic order, following a rule created for them by Bernard of Clairvaux, a member of the Cistercian Order. The Templars were well connected and quickly became prime movers in the international politics of the Crusades period. In time, they were endowed with several extraordinary Papal bulls (see Omne Datum Optimum) that permitted them, among other things, to levy taxes and accept tithing in the areas under their direct control, facilitating their quick rise to institutional power.

There were four divisions of brothers in the Templars:

the knights, equipped as heavy cavalry;
the sergeants, equipped as light cavalry and drawn from a lower social class than the knights;
farmers, who administered the property of the Order;
the chaplains, who were ordained priests and saw to the spiritual needs of the Order.
At any time, each knight had some ten people in support positions. Some brothers were devoted solely to banking, as the Order was often trusted with precious goods by participants in the Crusades. But the majority of the Knights Templar were dedicated to warfare. It was primarily a military order directly responsible only to the Pope. Some consider the Knights Templar to be the forerunner of the modern professional army and elite special forces units. The Templars used their wealth to construct numerous fortifications throughout the Holy Land and were probably the best trained and disciplined fighting units of their day.
History
Their popular name alludes to their historical headquarters in the Temple of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, a shrine on the summit of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, which they renamed Templum Domini (Temple of the Lord). The summit is sacred to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount as well as to Muslims as the Dome of the Rock [Arabic: Qubbat As-Sakhrah] and also referred to as the Mosque of Omar. The Templum Domini became the model for many subsequent Templar churches in Europe, such as the Temple Church in London, and is represented on several Templar seals.

In addition to Palestine, the order fought in the Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista. The headquarters of the Templars in Tomar, Portugal, was in the Convento de Cristo. They were given extensive possessions and castles in frontier land. At one point, they were to inherit the kingdom of Aragon, jointly with other military orders. The Templar Knights were identifiable by their white surcoat with distinct red cross emblazoned above the heart or on the chest, as seen in many portrayals of crusading knights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar

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Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.

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