The Writing's On The Walls
CLAIRE SMITH & JOHN RITCHIE

IT TOOK 40 years to build the Medieval masterpiece of Rosslyn Chapel, to construct a place of worship unlike any other church in the world. Earl William Sinclair, who ordered the chapel in 1446 and Sir Gilbert Haye, who supervised the work, were among the most powerful and educated men in Europe.

Great stonemasons settled next to the wooded glen to construct the library in stone, a building alive with symbolism and bursting with imagery. Rosslyn Castle already housed one of the finest collections of books in Europe - so what did Sinclair and Haye hope to achieve by preserving their knowledge in stone?

Perhaps they anticipated the dark times ahead, when churches were burned, mystics persecuted and esoteric wisdom outlawed as heresy. True enough, the fortunes of the Sinclairs would fall, the castle would be besieged and the great library dispersed.

Yet Rosslyn Chapel survived the church burnings, Cromwell's siege and the abhorrence of John Knox and Calvinism.

By the 19th century, the chapel was a ruin and it would have crumbled to oblivion had it not caught the imagination of Dorothy Wordsworth and Queen Victoria.

Today, inspired by its inclusion in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code and its starring role in Ron Howard's film of the same name, a new generation is beating a path to the door to try to unlock the mysteries hidden in a tiny Midlothian village.

Rich in stories and symbolism, bursting with riddles, codes and hidden messages, the chapel continues to inspire and enchant visitors.

Some believe that it conceals hidden buried treasure, tells a great biblical secret or is a temple for a pre-Christian mystery tradition. Conspiracy theorists find evidence of a global cover-up while others believe it celebrates the eternal feminine. One visitor who came to Rosslyn in 1999 announced the chapel was clearly a spaceship, which would lift off and leave the Earth in 2000.

Paradoxically, amid all this, the Episcopal Church, which now holds services in Rosslyn, is also the centre of a revival, with lay preachers emphasising the ecological and spiritual nature of Sinclair's Chapel in the Woods.

Everyone who comes to Rosslyn finds their own interpretation - and perhaps that is the real point of the chapel.

But what are the symbols which have created so much excitement - and what was Haye and Sinclair's message to future generations?

Today, we offer some of the keys to unlocking the secrets of the Library in Stone.

       

KING ARTHUR
AS WELL as the Victorian stained glass window showing the conventional image of the Holy Grail at the Last Supper, Rosslyn contains other links to Arthurian legends, to Merlin and the legend of St Graal.

A pillar beside the west entrance shows fighting red and white dragons prophesied in Merlin's dream, foretelling the Saxon invasion.

Merlin and Arthur are associated with south-west England, but there are many links to Scotland. Merlin is said to have died at Stobo and fought magical battles in the woods of Caledon, of which Rosslyn Glen is a fragment.

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
Rosslyn Chapel has long been associated with the Knights Templar, an ancient order going back to the days of the Crusades. In the 12th century the grand master of the order was married to Katherine St Clair and two of the grand masters in the 13th and 14th centuries were members of the St Clair family.

When the order was persecuted by the Pope in the early 14th century, some of the Knights escaped to Scotland (where Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated and did not proscribe the order). A number of the carvings at Rosslyn have Templar or Masonic connections and a sealed vault in the Chapel is said to contain religious relics.

Over the years, many fanciful theories have been suggested about what might be in the sealed vaults - ranging from the Holy Grail to the Ark of the Covenanant, even the "true" Stone of Destiny.

A book, which was written in 1774 for the Masons, gives a detailed account of a secret entrance to the tombs and claims that they contain the remains of ten of the Barons of Rosslyn and some of their armour

THE BEEHIVE
UNTIL very recently, bees still lived in the beehive carved into the roof of the chapel, flying in through a specially carved entrance in the heart of a flower.

Bees were a symbol of the Merovingian dynasty, the long-haired French kings, who the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail believed to be the guardians of the Templar treasure and the descendants of Mary Magdalene.
Three hundred golden bees were found in the grave of Merovingian ruler Childeric and Napoleon pinned one to his coronation robes when he was crowned Emperor.

The beehive, with its precious gold contents has been a symbol of hidden treasure for centuries.

HIDDEN MESSAGES
THERE are many hidden messages and codes concealed in Rosslyn Chapel. Faces atop the pillars are said to represent the mason and the apprentice and his weeping mother - but the same carvings could depict Matthew, Mary and Jesus.

An elaborate system of cubes is supposed to describe a piece of music which, if transcribed correctly, will transport listeners to Heaven.

A section of the chapel roof is covered with a star pattern, thought to be an astronautical map to the United States. Hidden among the stars are carvings of Jesus, angels and a dove of peace.

THE INSCRIPTION
IN A BUILDING alive with imagery and allegory, most of the stories of Rosslyn are told in pictures, but there is one exception. An inscription in Lombaric letters reads: 'Forte est vinu. Fortier est rex. Fortieores sunt mulieres: sup om vincit veritas.'

It means: "Wine is strong. The king is stronger. Women are stronger still: but truth conquers all." The lines are found in the Old Testament Book of Ezra and answer a riddle set by Persian king Darius. Zerubabbel, who answered, became the builder of the Temple of Jerusalem.

MASONIC IMAGERY
SOME say Earl William Sinclair who built Rosslyn, was a descendant of a member of the Knights Templar, who guarded Jerusalem after the first crusade.

Templar knights supposedly discovered a fabulous treasure, or great secret, among the ruins of the temple in Jerusalem. Some believe the eight-pointed star on the gravestone of his grandfather, William de St Clair, reveals him as a member of the Knights Templar. Most now believe Sinclair was not a member, but the chapel has many carvings of masonic initiation ceremonies, including men kneeling with ropes twisted round their necks.

A TEMPLE OF THE GODDESS
A BEARDED Christ with breasts is just one of the strangely androgynous images found in the carvings of Rosslyn Chapel. In accordance with medieval tradition, the hundreds of angels carved into the stonework of the chapel are neither male nor female. Women are prominent in many of the Bible scenes carved around the chapel, with Martha, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene playing an important part in many of the stories. The roses and lilies on the ornate roof of the chapel are also associated with female wisdom traditions.

VEIL OF VERONICA
ABOVE the south door of the chapel, which was traditionally used as the women's entrance, is a carving showing the veil of Veronica, a famous medieval relic renowned for its healing properties. The veil - the Vera Icon (true image) was a miraculous image of the living Christ on a piece of cloth, which was said to have been offered to Jesus on his way to the crucifixion.

The carving, which appears to have been deliberately decapitated, encapsulates some of the main themes of Rosslyn: healing, compassion, and the direct experience of God.

THE PHYSIC GARDEN
ONE of the things which immediately strikes the visitor to Rosslyn Chapel is the profusion of plants, which grow from the mouths of the green men and which wind themselves, in an everlasting vine, around the windows and pillars of the building. Many images of healing the sick have been noted in the chapel and it is thought the illustrations may have functioned as a medical encyclopaedia in stone. Soutra, which lies 11 miles south of Rosslyn, was the site of one of the most important medieval physic gardens in Scotland and many of the plants which grew there are depicted in Rosslyn. Legend persists that carvings of unknown native American plants, sweetcorn and aloe, prove that Henry, Prince of Orkney, sailed to America 200 years before Columbus.

THE GREEN MEN
THERE are more than 100 green men in Rosslyn Chapel, and many believe they are a link to Celtic pre-Christian and druidic religions which flourished in Britain before the establishment of the Roman church. Each window has a green man at the centre of the lower sill, recognisable by the tendrils of plants coming from their mouths.

The legend of green men is associated with Robin Hood or Herne the Hunter of the Greenwood, and also with Merlin - and has a strong connection with the gypsy tribes who enjoyed special protection at Rosslyn. While they have come to be associated with British pantheist traditions, few people realise they are a universal motif also found in Egyptian and Hindu temples.

THE LAMB OF GOD
THE heraldic symbol of the Lamb of God, Agnus Dei, is found beneath a window on the north side of Rosslyn Chapel. The Lamb of God was one of the symbols of the Knights Templar and appears in many Templar chapels.The Knights Templar made much of their great wealth from introducing sheep and grazing.

Strangely, the lamb of Rosslyn points towards the Roslin Institute, less than a mile away, where Ian Wilmut and his team created Dolly the Sheep, the first animal cloned from an adult cell.

 Some have likened the twisting vine patterns on the Apprentice Pillar to the double-helix of DNA. Could Dolly be the modern equivalent of the Templars' Holy Grail?

THE PRINCE'S PILLAR Also known as "The Apprentice Pillar "
THE twirled and garlanded pillar arising from the mouths of tangled dragons is the crowning achievement of the Rosslyn stonemasons.

Today's chapel guides call it the Apprentice Pillar and tell the story of the young apprentice who carved the pillar in his master's absence and was murdered as a result of his master's jealousy. The story has been repeated for hundreds of years, but many believe it is a myth, which mirrors the tale of Hiram Abif, builder of the Temple of Jerusalem.

The earliest records of Rosslyn refer to the Prince's Pillar, and many believe the masterpiece celebrates William Sinclair, who was a Prince of Orkney.

The swirling dragons are found in Norse myth at the base of Yggdrasil, the great ash tree and the tree of life.

ROBERT THE BRUCE
WILLIAM de Sinclair, whose gravestone lies at the rear of the chapel, died in 1330 after attempting to take the heart of Robert the Bruce to the Holy Land. It was Bruce's last wish to go on a crusade, but the nearest they got was Guarda Teba in Spain when 25 Scottish knights, led by the Good Sir James Douglas, attacked the Moors and split the Muslim army.

Almost all of the knights were killed, including two Sinclair brothers, in what amounted to a suicidal cavalry charge. Yet it led to the first defeat of the Moors in Spain. According to one account, the charging Douglas hurled the heart of Bruce at the enemy, saying: "Go Braveheart and we lesser mortals will follow."

An angel carved in a window on the south side of the chapel shows an angel holding the crenellated cross of the Sinclairs and clutching a heart. If you look on the left side of one of the windows in the Lady Chapel, you can see an eerie flattened face, believed to have been carved from the death mask of Robert the Bruce.