The Debate over the Rosslyn Motet Heats Up

Over the last few weeks, there’s been an interesting exchange happening in the comments section of BS Historian’s article "Rosslyn Chapel’s Musical Cubes Silenced?" For those of you not familiar with the article or the comment thread, there are some serious questions about Stuart Mitchell’s Rosslyn Motet by BS Historian and Jeff Nisbet. The basis of the detractors from the Motet is that an 1860’s restoration team replaced a great number of cubes in Rosslyn Chapel. This theory is supported by lithographs done in 1837 by Samuel Dukinfield Swarbreck. In these lithographs, Swarbreck depicts a great number of missing cubes from the ceiling at Rosslyn.

This would mean that the basic theory behind the Rosslyn Motet is not accurate. The Mitchell’s theory behind the Motet is that the Sinclair family encoded the cubes with Chladni patterns to conceal a piece of music. What happens to the basic premise if cubes were added in the at a later date?

This isn’t the first time Mitchell’s work has been brought into question. A number of folks, myself included, have come out and expressed their doubts about the Motet. Here’s a run down of articles that present alternate view points on the matter:

• Dr Warwick Edwards, a Glasgow University music professor, was interviewed on 20 May 07 in the Sunday Mail with his doubts about the validity of the Motet. (Thanks to the News for Medievalist blog for capturing this article for posterity.)

• Jeff Nisbet’s article The Rosslyn Motet expressed issues with the history of the Cubes, in relation to the Motet, and inconsistencies in the news stories related to the Mitchells.

• Researcher and writer for the Fortean Times, Brian Allen ask me to post an open letter that questions whether the Sinclairs would have had access to technology that would have allowed them to have discovered a Chladni pattern, let alone encode the cubes with them.

• BS Historian also posted "Music of the Cubes - A Musician’s Perspective" bringing into question the very musical nature of the theory behind the Motet.

• And finally, I posted "Inconsistencies in Reports of the Rosslyn Motet" questioning some discrepancies in the news reports of the Motet’s “discovery.” Mitchell posted a comment about my article at the bottom of the piece.

It would seem that Stuart Mitchell has responded to some of BS Historian and Jeff Nisbet’s arguments in the comments section of Rosslyn Chapel’s musical cubes silenced? Mitchell’s comments are comments 11,12, and 15. It would seem that, other than the use of the incomprehensible phrase Mr. Muskateerwang, Mitchell doesn’t give an answer to the central question.

Mitchell’s comments on the 1860’s restoration and the Swarbreck lithos are, “You say the cubes have been ‘re-arranged’? And are not in the order first presented in 1446 and your evidenced,(taken from Lithographs which are artworks and artistic interpretations) is this?? WHO WOULD RE-ARRANGE THEM???? This chapel had a BLUEPRINT, look at the design, detail and infrastructure. There was a plan and any restoration would naturally stick to the original…WHO would NOT STICK TO the original designers intentions??”

Wouldn’t this mean that the 1860’s restoration team would be privy to the Sinclair’s original design and intent? That would mean that there was someone out there that, at least up to 1860, knew the keys to unlock the architectural and design secrets of the Chapel. If that’s the case, I’d love to see a write-up on how that came about and who was in the "know".

Now there would be another interesting twist to debate over the Motet. Jeff Nisbet posted on 6 Jan 08, as comment 20 in the thread, that all the cubes in the Swarbreck lithos appear to be the same. So there might not be any mystery attached to the cubes at all. If the original design of the cubes was identical, there could be nothing coded in the cubes by the original architects of the Chapel.

I would urge you to read the threads and articles posted above in full and form your own opinion. Jeff and Historian have brought up a number of points that need to be answered if the world is to accept the Motet as the final answer to the Rosslyn Cubes.

Rosslyn Chapel to Ban Photography

According to a Scotsman article Tuesday, the officials at Rosslyn Chapel are banning all types of photography inside the Chapel beginning 2 Jan 08. According to the article: “Colin Glynne-Percy, the director of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, said: "I would hope that people come to see the chapel, not just to video it, so I would expect visitor numbers to be unchanged. The problem is one we have had for quite a while, because the chapel is quite dimly lit and there are cracked and uneven slabs.”

Huh? The problem with this explanation is that visitors will be at the same risk of tipping while looking at the ceiling, or photographing it. While there are areas of the Chapel that has, what I would consider, uneven slabs. Around the Apprentice Pillar, there is a small step up behind pillar. You’d have to be a pretty big klutz to trip over this small step up.

I would think the scaffoldings around the outside of the Chapel would be more of a safety concern. The steps up to the top of the scaffolding are quite steep and can get slick when it rains. There has to be a greater risk of someone falling off this while taking pictures that stubbing their toe on something inside the Chapel.

The Apprentice Pillar at Rosslyn Chapel taken on 15 Oct 07
with a cordoned off area behind the Pillar.

The article goes on to say, “"In the past we have used tape to cordon off some of the worst areas…” When Laura and I were there in October, there was a cordoned off section right behind the Apprentice Pillar. The section had yellow and black caution tape around a piece of plywood behind the Pillar. When I ask the on site tour guide about the area, she had told me “Repairs or some such work going on over there.” After going back through photos other visitors had posted on line, I was able to ascertain that the section was corroded off sometime between 22 Sept and 3 Oct 07. I have not seen any photos of the area dated any later than mine on line, so it still could be there.

This area is also the perfect spot for conducting any type of unobtrusive studies of the Pillar. One could dig down, bore a hole from underneath the Pillar, and insert a file optic camera into the Pillar itself. No one would be with wiser. This would be a rather easy way to put the speculation to rest that he Pillar was hollow and contained that magical treasure everyone is looking for at Rosslyn.

Speculation that the Pillar is hollow generally relates back to a Masonic legend. The story is that before the Flood, Enoch placed a book containing all the antediluvian arts and sciences, and laws of the universe either beneath or inside two pillars. Some have tried to make the connection that this story is a veiled allegory to what is hidden at Rosslyn.

Somehow I think there is more going on at the Chapel than just a concern for safety. Signs posted that said, “Uneven steps proceed at your own risk.” would pretty much release the Chapel of any liability in a lawsuit. So what’s the real motive behind the photography ban? You and I may never know.

A Visit to Rosslyn Chapel

My first time visiting Rosslyn Chapel was in 1999. Remember the pre Da Vinci Code days when you were reading Born in Blood and people were perplexed when you told them the book was about Templars and Freemasons? Those were the heady days when I visited Rosslyn.

There was no one in the Chapel except myself, my buddy Craig Bryant, and maybe two other folks. The Chapel was a quite place of reflection on the mysteries the Sinclairs left for us. It was almost like the stones talked to you in the silence. Possibly the voices we heard was from the hangover from the copious amounts of Scotch we’d drank the night before. No matter the reason, it was like stepping into the Holy of Holies when entering the Chapel in those days.

Another Biblical scene entered my mind when visiting this go around. The money changers had entered Temple when Laura and I visited Rosslyn this Monday. There were at least 150 people roaming around the tiny Chapel and the grounds when we arrived early Monday. Loud, plodding tourists had invaded one of the world’s most enigmatic structures. One had to literally step over the other visitors just go get a decent picture of anything in the Chapel. The up side to the increased traffic to the Chapel is additional funds for conservation and research. I just hope the additional funding is going to the right places.

However, this trip wasn’t without a few new insights and revelations into the Sinclair’s masterpiece. The first being a cordoned off area right behind the Apprentice’s Pillar. There was a 4’x3’ area enclosed with yellow and black caution tape around a thick piece of plywood sitting on the Chapel’s floor. I had asked one of the Chapel’s employees what was going on in the cordoned off space. Their answer was that it was, “Repairs or some such work going on over there.” There is a slight step behind the Apprentice’s Pillar that could have been damaged by increased foot traffic.

Is the cordoned off space keeping visitor’s safe or is it keeping the public from seeing something else that’s going on behind the pillar? Whatever is happening behind the Apprentice’s Pillar happened sometime between the middle of September and the first of October. I searched back through my Google alerts on “Rosslyn Chapel” and found some bloggers that had taken pictures in the Chapel in the last few weeks. This image on Fickr uploaded on 22 Sept 07 does not show the barrier. The picture in this blog dated 3 Oct 07, with almost the same perspective as the first photo, shows the barrier up. I had one picture turn out with the barrier shown, and in the slide show below. The other pictures I took of the barrier were on a bad memory card. I’ll be searching though the video we took to see if I have some better shots today and will post when, and if I can find them.

With everything that’s been transpiring in the news and the anniversary, it makes one wonder if the folks at Rosslyn aren’t trying to find something behind the Pillar. It is long been thought that the secrets of Rosslyn are hidden in the Apprentice’s Pillar. Could this be a small shaft to look at what’s inside the Pillar from below? Once again, Occam’s Razor and wishful thinking usually get the best of me.

Since Rosslyn is also the working Saint Matthew’s Church, we had happened on a ten minute prayer service. Laura and I decided to descend into the crypt area of the Chapel to explore while the short service was happening. The crypt area was much as I remembered it with one exception. In the first two niches in the wall, as you walked down the stairs, were sprays of flowers. A bouquet of red roses in the left niche and one of white in the right niche were present. Both sets of flowers looked like they were a few days old. Evidently, someone had the same idea about placing flowers at Templar related sites at Rosslyn and Paris on the 13^th.

Going back up to the main floor after the service was over, I had an errant thought. There is little dispute that the Chapel was designed to teach or show a story. This would make the entire Chapel a type of Masonic Tracing Board in the form of an actual building. Possibly, each set of windows in the Chapel represent a lesson that would be taught to an initiate. If this was the case, there is one thing missing that would be the key to deciphering the whole meaning of the Chapel, the original stained glass. There is not a single piece of the original stained glass in the entire building. I began to fear that the mysteries of the Chapel would never be found without that information. The Sinclairs had frustrated me yet again…

Laura and I left the Chapel shortly thereafter and headed over to the Grail Restaurant (I’m a sucker, what can I say?) for a lunch. With haggis, neeps, and taddies fortifying our souls we headed over to the bus stop to return to Edinburgh. We realized that I had misread the times on the bus schedule and had another 45 minutes to kill in the village. Wandering around, we found the Rosslyn-Sinclair Masonic Lodge just down the village’s main road. Tucked away behind the main buildings of the burg, it was nice to see where my Brothers meet in this village of mystery. Maybe next visit, I’ll arrange to set Lodge there. Those guys must have some stories to tell…

Making our way back to the bus stop we ran into a couple of interesting travelers. They were two down on their luck gents who were obviously backpacking around the country looking for a home. One of the fellows had a very loyal dog with him who rarely left his side. The dog’s owner had a number of tattoos on his right forearm of various esoteric symbols. One was of the Eye of Horus between his left thumb and index finger. Both men sat very quietly waiting for the bus and did not seem to be your usual down on your luck types. Maybe the lads had some other purpose in being there that day. Pushing my penchant for the fantastical out of my head we waited for the bus to continue back to Edinburgh.

Below is a sideshow of some of the things we saw that day. Due to the restrictions on flash photography, some of the photos didn’t come out as well as I would have wished them to. I’ve also thrown in a not-so-good picture of the Stone of Destiny where it sits in Edinburgh Castle. The photo was taken outside the vault where it rests. I had to take this one on the sly since photos were not allowed inside the vault. However, no one said I couldn’t take a picture of the Stone from outside the vault looking in…

Rosslyn Chapel Ghost Stories

Since I posted the picture of the “ghost” at Rosslyn Chapel, I’ve been besieged with questions about Rosslyn being haunted. I thought I’d answer all the questions in one fail swoop recapping the ghost stories that have cropped up around the Chapel.

• In July of 2006, a group of actors rehearsing for a performance at the Chapel claimed to see a “fairy like” entity roaming around the grounds.

• Rosslyn employee Simon Beattie believes he has heard a child’s voice coming from inside the crypt when no children were present in the Chapel.

• Rumors of sightings of robed monks in and around the Chapel have persisted for years. Some have sited a gray robed monk surrounded by four knights in the crypt. Others say they have seen gray and black robed monks walking the grounds at night.

• Sir Walter Scott described a legend in Lay of the Last Minstrel that when a Prince of the Orkneys dies, the Chapel becomes awash with strange lights.

• Not far away from the Chapel lies Roslin Castle. One legend cites that a knight in black armor rides around the grounds. Other sightings on the Castle grounds include that of a large hound that bays on stormy nights. Both these legends seem to be linked to a battle that happened between English and Scottish forces in the town of Rosslyn in 1302.

Sounds like these are just the standard haunting stories that come with any old structure. One would think there would have been more sightings and haunting legends around the Chapel. If anyone has any other legends about the Chapel that they would like to share, let me know and I’ll update the list.

Another Point of View on the Rosslyn Motet

I received this letter from Brian Allen regarding the article I wrote on the Inconsistancies in Reports on the Rosslyn Motet. Mr. Allen has agreed to let me publish this letter here on my blog. His claims run counter to some of the news reports that are out about the Motet. I thought it is important to see his point of view based on his research as a counterpoint to the letter I received from Mitchell.

Dear Brian,

With reference to a feature item in the UK Sunday Mail of April 22nd 2007 (and other media outlets) on the alleged discovery of a musical secret hidden in Rosslyn Chapel. This featured the work of Messrs. Thomas and Stuart Mitchell and the creation of a piece of music called ‘The Rosslyn Motet’. I present these observations, not with any taint of ‘sour grapes’, but purely in the interests of both presenting the bigger picture and perhaps giving perhaps more accurate and valid version of events. I am also probably one of the very few people who have also recreated certain specific frequencies within the chapel prior to the Mitchells. Mr Mitchell senior claims that he discovered the concept that the cubes in the so-called ‘Lady Chapel’ at the east end within Rosslyn are in fact graphic representations of ‘Chladni patterns’. I also arrived at this conclusion early in 2004 after conducting a series of investigations in the chapel first begun in 1993. This was with absolutely no knowledge of, or connection with, Mr Stuart Mitchell or his father, Mr Thomas Mitchell.

Based on my findings I conducted a full-scale test of my theories in the chapel in November 2005 using a tone generator, a computer and speakers, this was with the full consent of the then director of the Rosslyn Trust, Mr Stuart Beattie. The test, which involved the creation of tones comprising ‘augmented fourths’ also called ‘The Devils Chord’, produced some remarkable sonic and physiological effects. Those present, apart from my wife and I, included a musician, a psychologist, an acoustic therapist and two psychic mediums. In fact Mentorn TV reported on my theories at some length in a recent Discovery Channel TV programme.

Crucially, my own research was based on much earlier work facilitated by the late hotelier and former MI6 agent, Mr Steven Prior, who in the early 1990’s commissioned a computer programmer and a musicologist to decode the patterns; sadly he did not live to see any results. Mr Prior was of the opinion that the cubes represented what he called ‘healing cadences’. Therefore, although I could be mistaken, as with my own research there must be some doubt that Mr Mitchell’s work is entirely original, the difference is that, in my book, ‘Rosslyn, Between two Worlds’, I freely admit that my conclusions are based on earlier research and also that I tested the results successfully in 2005. Although this is described at length in the book, I also wrote an article on this subject for the magazine, ‘Fortean Times’. It is perhaps interesting to note that the late Mr Prior also intended to recreate the music in the chapel using musical instruments contemporary with the era and also with the services of a vocal group called ‘The Medieval Babes’.

That the cubes are based on Chladni patterns is indeed a valid hypothesis because the builder of Rosslyn, Sir William Sinclair, probably had the knowledge and available materials to recreate them had he chosen to do so. However, although I have been able to produce evidence for similar patterns, literally dozens of them, none have been identical, but I saw enough to conclude that my ideas were valid allowing me to proceed with my own evaluation. On the other hand, Mr Stuart Mitchell allegedly claims that his Rosslyn Motet is scored directly from the patterns on the cubes.

For this to be true it would require that a number of musical notes related to the cube patterns would have to be precisely recreated using the Chladni method (or alternatively a system called Cymatics, although this is less likely) in order to create an entire musical score and I have yet to see any evidence of any kind that this is indeed the case. If that has not been done then Mr Stuart Mitchell would have had no valid musical starting point, and that being the case, what he has produced, pleasant though it is, is therefore guesswork based on several earlier medieval pieces he has created vibrating plate assembly allegedly used by Mr Thomas Mitchell to recreate the patterns on the Rosslyn cubes, from my own experience this shape of plate (square) would not have produced the necessary patterns using the materials available to Sir William Sinclair. Not having any information regarding the exact method used by Mr Thomas Mitchell, I must conclude that it was an oscillator or something similar.

Some time ago I did try to contact the Mitchells directly via their website in order to ‘compare notes’ so to speak, but my approaches were either not received or simply ignored. Ignoring my approaches would be the case if (A) they realised that I knew as much as they did (B) I had arrived at a similar conclusion using a slightly different method, but especially, (C) that in addition I had beaten them to it. As a recognised paranormal researcher, broadcaster and author with four books published so far and another one currently in pre-publication, please feel free to validate my observations via my website, www.p-e-g.co.uk or simply enter ‘Brian Allan paranormal’, or ‘Brian Allan UFO’, using a search engine. If anyone wishes to discuss or pursue the matter further please do not hesitate to contact me on the peg website.

Regards,
Brian J Allan

A Response from Stuart Mitchell Regarding the Rosslyn Chapel Cubes

For those of you that don’t check out the comments section of my blog, I got an interesting one last night. The author claims to be Stuart Mitchell. There is no way to tell because it was posted on a newly activated Blogger account under the name Stuart. The profile has no info at this time.

However, I don’t doubt the validity of the post. The comment states:

Stuart said...

hi there,

I was very interested by your observations and felt I should clear up a couple of your queries.

There are today exactly 213 surviving cubes/rectangles/stone blocks protruding from the arches in the Lady Chapel at Rosslyn. 2 have been lost to antiquity due to theft or accident. It is known that Oliver Cromwell once used Rosslyn Chapel as a stable for his horses and the theory abounds that they were broken off then. But whatever the case is, 2 are missing. We have mapped out the entire ceiling and pattern sequence in a topological diagram and finding the identity of the missing cubes was fiarly easy. For example, one of the missing cubes is in the middle a line of cubes that are repeated 9 times, interestingly belonging to the percussion line of a medieval drum that emits one particular note/cube throughout its part. That one was straight forward. The other was not quite so easy but is part of a recurring phrase that repeats 3 times in the work. By the time we arrived at this missing moment, we already had an understanding of the way the piece was developing and instinctively applied a note that worked with the melodic development of the Motet.

Regarding some of the media discrepancies and inaccurate comments that have occurred over the past few months in the press, the subject of Rosslyn's music and its relationship with Cymatics/Chladni patterns is complexed enough for most news articles to want to shape the story for their readers in an understandable way, however, at the sacrifice of the scientific and aesthetic knowledge one has to absorb in order to arrive at the musical conclusion. Everything is 'boiled down' to suit the reader. It is beyond our control and subject to the viewpoint of the publication(s).

I have heard of Matsushita’s project but do not know what results have developed for him in this area.

I hope this has shed some light for you on some of the inconsistencies you have experienced in the past months regarding our project.

Best regards
Stuart Mitchell

So it would seem that I have been another victim of the mass media mediocrity on a few of the points I brought up. So it goes…

BK

A Picture of a Ghost at Rosslyn Chapel?

Since everything this week seems to be revolving around Rosslyn, why should this be any different? The below photo published here on the Telegraph UK site. All I've done is mark the area in red on the original and blown it up on the right. I think it's probably a motion blur, but one never knows.

Inconsistencies in Reports about the Rosslyn Motet

Author’s Note:
One of the things that I look for in any series of information is inconsistencies. One can ferret out the trail of where truth lies by looking at the wake of conflicting details. It is with this mind set that I have explored the following topic. And as always, I have played Devil’s Advocate with myself. The few things that I’ve turned up might be explained away very simply. However, there is an equal chance they cannot. The bad thing is that I end at a place that brings more questions than answers to the table. The other really bad thing is that all of this makes me sound like an off the deep end conspiracy theorist.

There is never a short list of architectural enigmas when talking about Rosslyn Chapel. In the news this week, one of the most intriguing features of the Chapel has been brought literally in the limelight. The remaining rectangular cubes that adorn the ceiling of the Chapel have taken to the news in the UK. This time the solution to the solution seems to be a musical one.

In 2006, composer Stuart Mitchell claims to have cracked the code by assigning musical notation to the Cubes by way of Chladni Patterns. Mitchell worked with his father Thomas Mitchell to offer a solution to the Cube riddle. Below is a list of relevant articles to get you up to speed on recent developments.

Team cracks chapel's music 'code'; 30 Apr 07; BBC News

Da Vinci Chorus; 22 Apr 07; The Sunday Mail

Tune into the Da Vinci Coda; 27 Apr 06; The Scotsman

The Rosslyn Cipher; Aug 2006; Fortean Times

Composer Cracks Rosslyn Musical Code; 1 Oct 05; The Scotsman

Japanese bid to solve mystery of the Rosslyn cubes; 16 Jun 2002;The Scotsman

Stuart Mitchell and his father Thomas have a better solution to the Cube mystery than has ever been presented, I have noticed a few oddities about the story. The first is that we know that there is at least one cube missing in Rosslyn. The author of the Fortean Times article makes this claim quoting “Chapel Management”. When I visited the Chapel in 1999, I heard a tour guide place the number of missing or damaged cubes at four. Either: I am mistaken, I misheard the guide, my recollection is not accurate, or there were four missing cubes and now there is just one.

No matter what the number, the missing cube(s) could queer the whole decryption process. The missing piece, or pieces, could be the “key cubes” to the code. The piece of music would be incomplete without the missing cube(s). None of the articles about Mitchell even address how he overcame this obstacle. (Mitchell has a book on cracking the cube code that I have not gotten yet. This may be addressed there. Or I could have missed a reference that has explained this. If so, let me know.)

Related to the missing cube(s), is the number of cubes reported to be in the Chapel. All the news reports and articles I listed above set the total number of cubes in Rosslyn at 213. Thomas Mitchell’s web site says that he decoded 215 cubes. Out of all the references I have on Rosslyn, I cannot find an exact cube count. If anyone out there has a definitive answer to the number of cubes at Rosslyn, please let me know.

The other set of inconsistencies has to do with Matsushita Electric Works UK’s, a division of Panasonic, research into the Rosslyn Cubes. My misgivings about the Matsushita and the Mitchell situation can be found in my article Music and the Rosslyn Cubes.

Basically, the 27 Apr 06 Scotsman article Tune Into the Da Vinci Coda asserts that: “The breakthrough to interpreting the notation came when Mitchell's father discovered that the markings carved on the face of the cubes seem to match a phenomenon called Cymatics or Chladni patterns.” The Sunday Mail’s 22 Apr 07 article Da Vinci Chorus goes on to say, “Using skills learned as an RAF code-breaker during the Korean War and his lifetime knowledge of classical music, he finally realized they depicted the vibrations of musical notes. He said: "It was a Eureka moment to end all Eureka moments.”

Oddly enough, in the 16 June 2002, Scotsman article Japanese bid to solve mystery of the Rosslyn Cubes says one of the theories that Matsushita has is: “… that the notes were recorded using a brass plate covered with sand. When the brass plate was struck with a bow, it vibrated, creating a distinctive pattern of sand lines for that particular note.” This is exactly how Chladni patterns are created.

Mitchell’s father didn’t make any breakthroughs relating the Chladni patterns to do with the Cubes. The theory was in existence and in print four years before the Mitchells made the announcement they had cracked the code. To further muddy the waters, Stephen Prior was working on cracking the cube code via music as far back as 1994. So what gives? Stuart Mitchell made the comment on 30 Apr 07 to BBC, “We got clues from other books as well. Over the years this became more of an obsession than anything else and we decided we had to find out what was going on.” So how could the pair not have been aware of Matsushita’s work in 2002?

What has happened with Matsushita’s project? Their research began on the premise that music derived from the Cubes could be used to heal damaged tissue. This theory was based on Stephen Prior’s prior (sorry couldn’t resist) work. Stuart Mitchell himself thinks that playing the Motet in Rosslyn will literally unlock something in the Chapel. The big question at hand is did Matsushita’s project ever stop, or is it still on going? Furthermore is there a connection between the Mitchells and Matsushita? Alas, I have no answers for those questions.

The final oddity is one that puts me over the top with the Lone Gunmen. Stephen Prior was reported to be in the MI6. Thomas Mitchell was an RAF code breaker during the Korean War. While this truly is six degrees of separation that could link both men back to Kevin Bacon, the fact is both were part of the British Intelligence Community at one time. It’s odd how British Intelligence keeps popping up in my articles. Remember Vernon Gifkins or the decoding of the Shepherd’s Monument at Shugborough Hall being decoded by Bletchley Park? Ok, now I’m beginning to think that I should get a grip…

In closing, let me be the first to say all of this might be easily explained. I realize that I do not have all of the facts at hand; nor have I spoken with anyone involved in the project. I would welcome any rebuff from either Mitchell on some of the inconsistencies that are in print about them. Given what’s in the press, there’s just something that doesn’t feel right. Once again, I’m left with more questions than answers.

The Rosslyn Light Box and The Lost Tomb of Jesus

File this under: “Things that have nothing to do with each other, but someone will try to make something out of it…”

The picture on the right is that of the “light box” that was recently discovered at Rosslyn Chapel. For the full scoop on this discovery, read this Scotsman article.

On the right is the “Lost Tomb of Jesus” per the James Cameron documentary.

Now, my prediction is that someone will make a comparison between the two objects. These comparisons will advance the theory that the builders of Rosslyn were hiding the true secret of the tomb in the Chapel's architecture. I’m sure there will be protractors flying to measure angles and distances relative to the Golden Ratio between the light box and the circular piece in the front of the tomb. Someone will make the case that the real secret of the tomb can by found by tracing the exact angle that the light box casts on 21 March or 21 September as it relates to a spot in front of the tomb. Either that or some other voodoo trigonometry will crop up in someone’s book in the next year. At least that’s my prediction.

Just remember when you're scratching your head trying to make the mental math work, you heard it here first.

Folks, Try This at Home

Yes it is true. There are those that went out to see the Da Vinci Code and immediatly bought spade and shovel and headed to Rosslyn. Folks, dig in your own back yards will you? Even if you do find something, you would probably wreck any archeological value it might have...

Music and the Rosslyn Cubes

Stuart Mitchell has made the news recently for collaborating with his father Thomas Mitchell in cracking the code of the mysterious Rosslyn Chapel Cubes. (For the whole 27 Apr 2006 Scotsman article, click HERE The first news of this hit the Scotsman back on 4 Oct 2005) The Mitchells believe that the 213 cubes hold the code to a piece of medieval music that will unlock the secrets in the stones of Rosslyn. Thomas Mitchell has been working on this problem for the last 20 years. According to the Scotsman article, The breakthrough to interpreting the notation came when Mitchell's father discovered that the markings carved on the face of the cubes seem to match a phenomenon called Cymatics or Chladni patterns. Chladni patterns form when a sustained note is used to vibrate a sheet of metal covered in powder producing marks.

Well its not that much of a break through. On 16 June 2002, the Scotsman reported a similar theory in the article Japanese bid to solve mystery of the Rosslyn cubes. As early as 2002, Panasonic UK has been working on the cube mystery with, eight scientists and music specialists from around the world. Their slant was that the music produced from the cube code might produce a sort of healing music. Their hope was that some sacred cord which would enhance the ultrasonic healing devices the Panasonic markets.

Oddly enough, Panasonic's key to breaking the code might sound familiar. The article states, One of the theories is that the notes were recorded using a brass plate covered with sand. When the brass plate was struck with a bow, it vibrated, creating a distinctive pattern of sand lines for that particular note.

So whats really going on here? Did the April 2006 Scotsman article overstate the Mitchells making a break through in cracking the code? Is there a connection between the Panasonic UKs research and the Mitchell project?

Not that this is any earth shattering conspiracy, but there are some interesting questions raised in the discrepancies. I'll snoop some more and post any additional findings.