Rosslyn : Guardian of the Secrets of the Holy Grail

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Amongst all the books about Rosslyn that I have read, this one belongs to the bottom of the shelve. An alluring title, nice cover, quality print, but.... badly written, conjecture after conjecture, re-hashing of subjects that had already been covered by more established and respected authors. Simply not worth it, which is regrettable, because the book starts off well only to gradually loose its credibility.

Rating:
Summary: Rosslyn - an explanation
Review: Finally, someone manages to interpret Rosslyn - and to uncover and interpret a lot more than that.

I can accept that a lot of critics will read this (the book, not my review!) and try to discount a lot of what is stated, but read it with an open mind and you might find something that has been missing - and I don't mean anything from the book.

I would love to hear from anyone who reads this book and to discuss their interpretation. I'd love to discuss where it leads them and what their next book was after reading this one.

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Rating:
Summary: Rosslyn: Guardian of the Secrets of the Holey Grail
Review: Horrendous and so derivative that I felt like I was in statistics class. Man, this was horrid. Boring, plodding, wasteful and not surprisingly, outclassed by every other book I've read in the genre--which isn't anything to brag about considering 95% of this stuff is garbage.

Rating:
Summary: A Review from a 13 year old
Review: I thought this was a very thought provoking read. I always wondered if historians got history all wrong. I though this book was interesting. The only problem was, I got the book because I'm interested in the myths, legends, and history of the Holy Grail and the Knights Templar, but the book didn't have anything about the Holy Grail, and the Knights Templar wern't mentioned throughout half the book. I especially liked the parts on the evolution of the underground streams, dating back to the ancient intiation pathways on the Nile. I din't really like the chakra connection, and I don't subscribe to the acolyptic configuration theory, but the history is very good. I definly recomend this book to people intersted in the Knights Templar, Rosslyn chapel, and the Revelation of hidden secrets. A vrery intersting book!

Rating:
Summary: Not so much about the Chapel, but good Templar read
Review: I was expecting the book to cover the mysteries of Rosylyn Chapel, but it barely touches on its history.
Rather is delves into the world of the Templars and the early Catholic Church, which, facts and myths aside, in itself is interesting.
If you want to know more about the Templars, then this is a good book for you.
If you were looking for a book on Rosslyn Chapel, this might be interesting, but will leave you still seeking.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat interesting but not reliable
Review: Many will come across this book in the same way I did -- as follow-up reading to the best-selling "Da Vinci Code." Although titled as a book on the Rosslyn Chapel, it covers much of the same ground regarding early Church history, the Knights Templar, etc. Unfortunately, it is perhaps the most petulant and self-serving book I have ever read. The authors seem to have written the book as a vehicle to express rage against the Catholic church. You don't have to be a fan of the church to be put off by the transparent force-fitting of the facts into the authors' agenda. I bought the book because I wanted more factual background relating to the "Da Vinci Code" material, but after reading Wallace-Murphy's work, I did not feel that I could rely upon his information. Many of his most challengeable statements are footnoted, but the footnotes simply refer to early writings by the author on the same subject matter. There is also much argument of the "hey can you believe this?" quality. Readers looking for dispassionate historical information will want to look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant book to read
Review: Rosslyn: Guardian of the Secrets of the Holy Grail, by Tim Wallace-Murphy & Marilyn Hopkins, would seem from its title to be a book about Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. The book, though very pleasant to read, actually gives relatively little information about the chapel or about the St. Clair family who own it. The book discusses in a somewhat general manner the esoteric tradition in western Europe, with some attention to the Knights Templar, and advances the theory that there was a pilgrimage route of initiation from Santiago de Compostela in Spain that proceeded through five sites in France and ended at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. If you wish to read anything that you can get your hands on that alludes in any way to the Knights Templar or to the esoteric tradition in Europe, then this short volume is worth reading. I would not recommend this book to anyone seeking an introduction to the subject matter.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: SAVE YOUR MONEY. Since reading The DaVinci Code I have been in search of the "grail" of info about the Templars and their relationship to Rosslyn Chapel. In spite of the title of the book listing Rosslyn prominantly it barely touches on it. I had hoped to learn the meaning(s) of the statues and the carvings. Forget it. These 2 writers(they collaborated) regularly use unfounded rumors to jump to what they then treat as irrefutable fact. For example they say that when Robert the Bruce,King of Scotland, defeated the English King it was rumored that horse mounted knights entered the field of battle just as Robert's forces were about to be defeated............note I say it was rumored. They built upon that and say in the book that the knights were Knights Templar and they galloped head long into battle and right for the hill where the English king and his generals were watching the fight. Fearing capture, the English king fled and his troops seeing him leave fled also. What a leap to a conclusion. Now for the humor. If these 2 didn't have the words esoteric,enigmatic,gnostic,and apocalyptic in their vocabulary they could not have written this book. They use one of or all of these words at least every 3 pages. All in all this book was a lot of phony mumbo jumbo,such as Jesus was a twin...........now that's a new one.......and darn little about Rosslyn Chapel. What a dis-service to those who bought the book.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: SAVE YOUR MONEY. Since reading The DaVinci Code I have been in search of the "grail" of info about the Templars and their relationship to Rosslyn Chapel. In spite of the title of the book listing Rosslyn prominantly it barely touches on it. I had hoped to learn the meaning(s) of the statues and the carvings. Forget it. These 2 writers(they collaborated) regularly use unfounded rumors to jump to what they then treat as irrefutable fact. For example they say that when Robert the Bruce,King of Scotland, defeated the English King it was rumored that horse mounted knights entered the field of battle just as Robert's forces were about to be defeated............note I say it was rumored. They built upon that and say in the book that the knights were Knights Templar and they galloped head long into battle and right for the hill where the English king and his generals were watching the fight. Fearing capture, the English king fled and his troops seeing him leave fled also. What a leap to a conclusion. Now for the humor. If these 2 didn't have the words esoteric,enigmatic,gnostic,and apocalyptic in their vocabulary they could not have written this book. They use one of or all of these words at least every 3 pages. All in all this book was a lot of phony mumbo jumbo,such as Jesus was a twin...........now that's a new one.......and darn little about Rosslyn Chapel. What a dis-service to those who bought the book.

Rating:
Summary: Personal Revelation, not history or scholarship
Review: This book stands as part of the growing stream of what might be called "neo-esoterica". Readers of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the Hiram Key, Arcadia, and many other books will find many of the beliefs presented here familiar. Tracing a supposed "heretical pilgrim's route" from Campostella, Spain (the shrine of St. James) through France to Rosslyn chapel in Scotland, the authors make use of such ideas as chakras (both individual and terrestrial), ley lines and tellurian energy, and cosmic prophecies based on astrological alignments.
Readers are also led through the now-familar discussion of a gnostic tradition originating in Egypt and other early cultures that found its way into early Judaism. Then we are introduced in a vague way to the gnostic alternative to orthodox Chrisitanity: Jesus came as "revealer, not a redeemer"; the roles of James the brother of Jesus, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene are amplified, those of Paul and Peter denegrated and often treated as the real heresies; gnostics were heroes that stood up to the growing dogmatism and corruption of the Church. While I have no sympathy for Inquisitors and witch-hunters, even the most open-minded reader might find the authors' dark view of Christian history a bit biased.
The story then continues along familiar conspiratorial paths. The gnostic tradition is kept alive by the Cathars and the Bogomils, inherited by the Knights Templar and from them by the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians. Beneath all of this is some version of the "Rex Deus" tradition, that claims that elements of European nobility are the decendents of high priests in Jerusalem, or perhaps Jesus himself (with Mary Magdalene). As other reviewers have noted, what doesn't appear here is the Holy Grail, either as an object or a literary tradition. Rather, the authors take the Grail as a metaphor for the secret tradition brought to Rosslyn chapel by the Knights Templar and the St. Clair family that owned it.
So, what is one to do with all this? It is a spiritual journey after all, and one cannot argue with spiritual issues. It is not, however, either history in the traditional sense or a work of scholarship. The book is peppered with footnotes, true, but the vast majority of them refer either to the authors' own works or other books with no more basis for their assertions. Piling whipped cream on older whipped cream does not give it more solidity. There are numerous errors that either indicate an embarrassing level of ignorance or bad editing. There is mistranscribed Latin (p. 143), a reference to a 'silicone-chip' (p. 194; I don't even want to think about this one), claiming that a quote from Gregory of Nyssa supports reincarnation instead of the developing concept of Purgatory, etc. Many statements are made with no support whatsoever, e.g. "Jesus was, of course, an initiate of the Nazorean sect of the Essenes" (p. 190); of course. Did the Druids learn from Egypt? Did the first Knights Templar dig under the Temple of Solomon and find treasures including the Ark of the Covenant? Will July 28, 2019 be a day of apocalyptic change? Who knows--and that's the difference between history and spiritual speculation. If this book helps you down the road, more power to you, but don't think the authors have told you anything about real events or traditions.