Encoded symbolism
in stained glass fragments at
Symbolism found in a series of encrypted carvings discovered in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey reveals the spiritual treasure documented in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene; the Sacred Mysteries of the Holy Grail.
Hints of Glastonbury’s extraordinary history have survived in the complex series of myths linking the founding of the First Church by Joseph of Arimathea and the Arthurian legends which describe the quest for the Holy Grail. It is possible that there were once documents in the Abbey’s former library which may have shed light on these mysteries but, in the destruction which followed the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, it can only be assumed that any such manuscripts were lost, hidden or destroyed. The Dissolution was subsequently followed by the puritanical zeal of the Reformation but the enigmatic presence of the Abbey ruins continued to inspire, and, in the summer of 1909, hints of Glastonbury’s slumbering secrets began to emerge.
The ruins of the Abbey had been purchased by the Church of England after several hundred years of private ownership and the then Prince and Princess of Wales visited the town to attend a public celebration of the transaction. During the proceedings, a welcoming speech was read out by an ecclesiastical architect called Frederick Bligh Bond and his address included a mysterious prophecy; a prediction that a spiritual treasure identified as ‘Glaston’s Glory’ was waiting to be rediscovered inside the monastery’s decaying walls.
Frederick Bligh Bond was the first person to begin a proper excavation of the Abbey ruins. His book, The Gate of Remembrance (1918), explains that he had received information about the Abbey’s mysterious past in the form of automatic writing, a method of communication which had been instigated by a Brotherhood of former monks who called themselves ‘The Company of Avalon’. The monks explained that the Abbey itself could be regarded as a kind of silent ‘sermon in stones’ and that Glaston’s Glory was both a mystery and a treasure; the implication being that there was something about the physical structure of the buildings which was still symbolically encoding a mysterious source of spiritual knowledge.
Inspired by these clues, Bligh Bond looked for manuscripts which documented the early history of the Abbey. Several authentic sources were discovered and these confirmed the legendary connection between Joseph of Arimathea and the former existence of the First Church, built from wood, which had originally been positioned on the site of the 12th century stone building which is now called the St. Mary Chapel. Bligh Bond then physically confirmed the former position of a black marble tomb that had been said to house the relics of Arthur, the mysterious Celtic king who was directly linked with the Grail Tradition. In addition, he began work on the dimensions of the St. Mary Chapel and these measurements confirmed a ground plan which was based on the Vesica Pisces, the geometric form which is fundamental to the forgotten mysteries of sacred geometry and geomancy.
Sadly, the publication of The Gate of Remembrance caused a considerable degree of local controversy and, much misunderstood, Bligh Bond’s pioneering discoveries at the Abbey were brought into disrepute. However, in recent years, it has been recognised that other ancient artefacts were purposefully encrypted and there have been many have been willing to invest the time and effort involved in researching the mysterious legacies of the past.
Some of these lines of research converged very publically in 2003 with the unprecedented success of Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code. Highlighting the powerful secrets which have been hidden from public knowledge for hundreds of years, the novel included the revelation that Mary Magdalene had been mother of the children of Jesus. This provoked a general interest in Mary’s real role in the history of early Christianity with the consequence that the discovery of a Coptic Christian copy of a Gospel, written by Mary herself, was also publicised.
Additional research suggested that the ruling families of Europe secretly claimed royal descent from ‘Rex Deus’ ancestry, lineages which traced themselves back directly to the children of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. In addition, it is has also become clear that the Rex Deus lineages had direct links with the Knights Templar who acted as custodians of a powerful source of spiritual knowledge which, in the face of years of persecution by mainstream Christianity, was purposefully disguised in the stories which have become known as the Grail Tradition. Other lines of research have confirmed links between the Knights Templar and the esoteric information which was encapsulated in the sacred geometry of the Gothic churches, the implication being that the stonemasons were taught by the Templers.
My own research had focused on the history of the St. Mary Chapel at Glastonbury, the Grail Tradition and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and these strands of information were suggesting a common connection. It seemed that much of the symbolism commonly seen in early Christian buildings was linked with the Four Elements of Nature and this teaching is also recorded in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Templar’s Grail Legends. (See ‘The Truth Sings in Circles’) So, in combination, there was a further possibility; that some of the Templar’s secrets could have come directly from the lost Gospel of Mary Magdalene and there was a meaningful link connecting the Rex Deus lineages, the Knights Templar, the spiritual mysteries encoded in the Grail Tradition.
Mary Magdalene’s Gospel is particularly important because it faithfully documents Jesus’ explanation of the spiritual function of the Four Elements of Nature during the inner processes of transformation and, even though every spiritual tradition describes the subtle complexity of these teachings in some form or another, Mary’s wording is particularly clear and precise. Furthermore, Mary’s Gospel is particularly valuable because this information does not seem to have been recorded anywhere else in the early Christian texts.
The lost teachings in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene are also important because they help the individual in their search for Gnosis, the process of learning how to experience the direct, personal connection between the Soul and the divine source of Creation. This information functions as the key which helps the individual understand how they are making spiritual choices in their everyday actions, the kind of choices which lead to a growing sense of inner, personal authority. The effect is to make Mary’s Gospel a kind of Grail treasure; a source document containing some powerful pearls of wisdom, a spiritual jewel which could be described as priceless.
Prompted by Frederick Bligh Bond’s information, that the fabric of Glastonbury Abbey had been designed to encode an important treasure of spiritual knowledge which was linked to the Grail through King Arthur, I began to study the carvings in and around the monastery ruins. The reasons for Glastonbury’s legendary mystique began to emerge and I began to understand the series of encoded messages which are connecting the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Grail legends and the sacred geometry used by the Knights Templar. In other evidence there is a further surprise; it seems that some of the Glastonbury monks had continued to disseminate this powerful but, by this time, very heretical, information in the years leading right up to the Dissolution of the Monasteries itself!
We now know that, certainly until the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene had been greatly honoured as a Saint and the symbolism used in early Christianity certainly suggests that the information in Mary’s Gospel had originally been both valued and openly taught. Later, the architectural imagery used in the Gothic Churches also implies a direct understanding of the same source of spiritual knowledge. Furthermore, I have discovered several older images which show Mary Magdelene holding a book and another which actually portrays her preaching!
Sadly, some of the pages of the Coptic Christian copy of Mary’s Gospel have not survived but it is my belief that its teachings can be safely used as a cipher, the key which decodes the depth of meaning in the symbolic imagery found in the carvings at Glastonbury Abbey. The effect is that the sacred mysteries of the Order of The Holy Grail, the lost spiritual treasure which the Brotherhood had also called Glaston’s Glory, are revealed.
Mano is currently offering workshops based on the Magdalene Grail Teachings in Glastonbury (contact ManoMannaz@googlemail.com or 01458 833114).
Her book, The Truth Sings in Circles (Athena Publishing), includes an explanation of the Grail coding in the legend of Perceval’s Quest and Fulfilling the Prophecy (Lulu) discusses the extraordinary history of Glastonbury Abbey.
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