Jesus, King Arthur, and the Journey of the Grail
By Maurice Cotterell
Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Illustration Credits
xi
Introduction
1 The Celts
1
5
2 Who Wrote the Bible?
16
3 The Monasteries
25
4 A Land Without A King
37
5 The Holy Grail
49
6 The Secret of the Grail
68
Appendix 1: Decoding the Viracocha Transformer
185
Appendix 2: Secrets of the Ancients
200
Appendix 3: The Sun as the Feathered Serpent
204
Appendix 4: Calculation of the Sunspot Cycle
Using Sacred Geometry
217
Bibliography
229
Index
233
CHAPTER FIVE
The Holy Grail
The Ardaugh Chalice
The Mystery of the Script
Below each of the studs on the bowl of the Ardaugh Chalice is carved
the name of one of the twelve Apostles. As noted earlier, the names
are written in insular majuscule script, persuading experts that the cup
was engraved by monks at Lindisfarne. But the names of the Apostles
in the Lindisfarne Gospels are written in Latinised Greek whereas on
the chalice they appear in Latin. Lindisfarne was established by the
Irish monk St. Aiden, who, like St. Patrick, preferred not to speak Latin
(Patrick preferred his Celtic Mayo-Irish). If the chalice was engraved by
the monks of Lindisfarne, why did they not use the same language and
convention on the chalice as they used in the Lindisfarne Gospels? Why
use Latin on the cup and Latinised Greek in the Lindisfarne Gospels?
The Mystery of the Names
The twelve names as they appear on the bowl also raise questions. The
name of Judas Iscariot, the so-called Disciple who betrayed Jesus, is
missing, which is understandable. But the name of the Apostle who
replaced him, Mathius, is not included. If the monks of Lindisfarne had
engraved the cup, they would have known that Mathius had replaced
Judas—given that the Lindisfarne Gospels are based on the Latin
Vulgate version of the Bible which contains the Acts of the Apostles
naming Mathius as the replacement. Instead, the twelfth name on the
chalice is that of St. Paul, the one-time Roman Saul, who preached
around the Mediterranean during Roman times. The earliest known
2
THE HOLY GRAIL
The Secret of the Conjoined Dragons (I)
Tau Cross dragon heads
Figure 52. The poor quality handsketched engraving, detailing the
names of the Apostles, continues
around the chalice and terminates
with a picture of two conjoined
dragonheads [shown upside-down
in this illustration] beneath each of
the handle escutcheons. A similar
depiction [of two anthropomorphic dragon-angels] also appears
on either side of the Grail shown in
the fifteenth-century manuscript
(plate 18). Moreover, two dragonheads are known, from archaeological evidence, to represent
Christ and the Crucifixion, further
supporting the association of he
chalice with the event.
Figure 53. Tau cross, showing a scene of the Crucifixion with Christ on the cross together
with Mary and St. John inside a solar-cross envelope, all inside the conjoined belly of two
dragons (from a Greek ivory staff, Tarascon, eighteenth-century). Following the Crucifixion, the Greek letter ‘t’ or tau, was associated with the cross. The dragons represent sacrifice, after the ancient custom of Silene where the first born of every family was (legend has
it) sacrificed to a dragon that lived in a swamp. Hence the association with Jesus who was,
likewise, sacrificed on the cross. The staff carried by the time-travelling magician Merlin
(counsellor and spiritual guide of King Arthur) was crowned with a tau cross identical to
this one. Merlin was hence aware of the meaning of the tau cross and its association with
Christ and must have, therefore instructed Arthur to carve the dragons on the Holy Grail
to authenticate its provenance.
3
THE HOLY GRAIL
The Secret of the Conjoined Dragons (II)
a
b
c
Figure 54. (a) Tau cross, showing Mary with the Christ child inside the Sun, which carries
magnetic loops around the perimeter, inside the belly of two conjoined dragons (Walrusivory) English, mid-twelfth-century). Venus appears either side of the Sun, as a small white
circular stud. (b) The Lid of Palenque, the 5-tonne (4.92-ton) limestone lid that covers the
sarcophagus of Lord Pacal in his tomb at Palenque. (c) Detail from the lid showing a tau
cross, meaning that Lord Pacal was also associated with the tau cross and the Crucifixion
of Jesus. The center cross is covered in magnetic loops, sunspot loops, suggesting that Lord
Pacal, like Jesus, was the Sun on Earth.
4
THE HOLY GRAIL
version of the New Testament comes from the early Peshitto manuscript precisely dated as being written in AD 464, after the death of King
Arthur. King Arthur, therefore, who died in around AD 450, would not
have known that Mathius had replaced Judas. Arthur, however, having lived through the Roman occupation of Britain, would have been
aware of the works of St. Paul—the favourite of the Romans after the
time of Constantine—and therefore would more likely have believed
that the popular Paul had taken the role of the twelfth Apostle.
The Mystery of the Grammar
A linguistic scholar has pointed out that the names contain grammatical errors: ten names appear in the possessive sense but two—the Latin
versions of Tatheus and Simon—appear in the nominative. St. Aiden
may not have favoured Latin but he was a scholar, as the Lindisfarne
Gospels testify. It is unlikely therefore that educated clerics engraved
the chalice. If clerics did not engrave the chalice, then who did?
The Secrets of the Carving
The incorrect names of the Apostles support the view that it was Arthur
in AD 453 who incorrectly carved the name of Paul on the chalice and
not clerics in AD 698.
Arthur would also have had no axe to grind over the use of Latin,
unlike the monks, who were at loggerheads with Rome over the dating
of Easter and the structure of the Church. He was no educated scholar
and therefore more likely to make grammatical errors.
And the carving of the names on the cup is rough and crude (plate
23b) as though it has been done with the end of nail—an instrument
intimately associated with the Crucifixion of Christ. It is patently clear
that whoever carved the cup wished to convey the fact that they did
not possess the skill of whoever manufactured it. But whoever it was,
they knew it was the Holy Grail and engraved it to let others know.
The Secrets of the Dragons
The engraving has more to say; it continues in loops around the solarcrosses and beneath the handle escutcheons taking the shape of two
conjoined dragon heads (figure 52). This “mark of the Grail”—two
anthropomorphic dragon-angels—also appears either side of the Grail
shown in the fifteenth-century manuscript (plate 19). Two dragon
heads are known, from archaeological evidence, to represent Christ
5
THE HOLY GRAIL
and the Crucifixion, further supporting the association of the chalice
with the event. Figure 53 shows an example of a tau cross featuring a
scene of the Crucifixion with Christ on the cross together with Mary
and St. John inside a solar-cross envelope inside the conjoined belly of
two dragons.
Following the Crucifixion, the Greek letter t, or tau, was associated with the cross. The dragons represent sacrifice, after the ancient
custom of Silene where the firstborn of every family was (legend has
it) sacrificed to a dragon that lived in a swamp. Jesus was, likewise,
sacrificed on the cross.
Figure 54a shows another example of a tau cross, this time with
Mary and the baby Jesus inside the circular Sun, which carries magnetic loops around the perimeter, again inside the belly of two conjoined dragons. Venus appears either side of the Sun, as a small white
circular stud. Figure 54b shows the lid of Lord Pacal at Palenque and
figure 54c shows a detailed section of the lid featuring a tau cross,
meaning that Lord Pacal is also associated with the tau cross and the
Crucifixion of Jesus.
According to Malory, the staff carried by the time-travelling
magician Merlin was crowned with a tau cross identical to the one
in figure 53. Merlin was hence aware of the meaning of the tau cross
and its association with Christ and must have therefore instructed
Arthur to carve the dragons on the Holy Grail to authenticate its
provenance.
No one but Arthur or his knights would have engraved two conjoined dragons on the chalice to acknowledge the Crucifixion of Jesus
and celebrate the cup’s discovery because no one but Arthur or his
knights have been featured worshipping the Grail flanked by two
dragons. And no one but Arthur or his knights have been featured at
the Round Table worshipping the Grail radiating light—from the quartz
crystal in the foot-cone.
6