The Secret Scroll

Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Secret Scroll - by Andrew Sinclair. With colour photos and hand-drawings, acknowledgements and notes. Introduction biography by Andrew Sinclair. 218 pages.

I received this book in the post with a request for an honest review! It begins with a beautiful story from 1330 and of the heart of Robert the Bruce, being taken to Jerusalem for burial by an ancestor of the author. Much of the St Clair family history goes back far beyond 1,000 years to the lands of the river Epte in Normandy. We read of the Gnostics, and the connection between the Templars and Freemasons, hidden knowledge, mysticism, hermetic and cabalistic knowledge, and how the Kirkwall scroll of Orkney, now in a Masonic lodge on an island in the North Atlantic, holds the key to many of the greatest mysteries, such as the Ark of the Covenant, the Garden of Eden, and the Grail itself and how geometric designs were learnt from mosques in the holy land. The remains of Templars were often interred in the position of the skull over crossed leg bones, a position which I found extraordinary, like much else in this book. 

The author connects the Christian Templars with the Freemasons who are not Christians. I was shocked that the author criticised Jacques de Molay for “ruining his sect by ordering it to surrender and confess” even under excruciating torture, peine forte et dure! I notice the author has changed the title of the Order from The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon to the Order of the Temple, thereby cutting out both the oath of poverty and of Christ. This says a lot about the intention of the book and the way it presents the lives of the Templars especially, and the emphasis of the text on heresy whilst ignoring the New Testament!

One chapter is devoted to the history of Jerusalem and its temple, another to the dish known as the Grail. There is information on an itinerary for anyone who wishes to visit the area of Scotland around the Roslin area, the Rosslyn Chapel itself (its stone roof culminates in a dove bearing the host down to a crescent cup/Grail), Melrose, etc., and another detailed itinerary through France, for those who like exploring. 

     There is little about the religious life of the Templars, especially as they spent all day every day in prayer, caring for pilgrims, finding relics, and fighting to the death when required to do so, all religious duties. Here, they have become believers in all kinds of heresies that went unchallenged by other Christians whom they shared their lives closely with. It is very apparent that the story of the severed head that the Templars were accused of 'worshipping' (only God is worshipped) could never have been seen, as reports of it by the tortured Templars varied too widely for evidential accuracy. The text takes us fully into the Grail myths, though many weird stories are promoted in the churches that are described. 

     Like the Dream of the Rood, written prior to Chretien’s Grail, and like the Green Knight story, there is a dreamlike quality to many historical myths and other apocryphal tales. There could be many reasons for these convoluted and strangely mysterious and rather obviously untrue tales. Maybe to aid sleep, to heal severe trauma, or to laugh at ridiculous behaviour! We will never know! What is of interest is the goodness held by the story of Jesus and what he teaches us about life and death, goodness and injustice, and that the Templars, both knights and ordinary people within the Crusader Orders (not all Templars were knights) were prepared to give up wealth to fight and die for a pathetic cause so far distant from their homeland and family 

The book is full of wonders - and what a family history to have! The Templars always make a marvellous story, one filled with extremes of religious devotion, asceticism, courage, success and loss, violence, accusations of pagan idolatry, suggested initiations, injustice, mystery, lost treasure, revival, places to visit, oh! So much more! The late Dr Andrew Sinclair was a prolific novelist, non fiction writer and biographer, and film maker.  The Secret Scroll? Recommended - definitely! Review by Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk