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The Prophecy of Melkin
Chapter 11
Unravelling the Medieval Latin of Melkin’s prophecy.
The reader must now be aware of the impact that Melkin has played in British history, so let us now turn our attention to what it was that he intended to convey to us specifically in his English prophecy. Melkin has surely set out to manifest the whereabouts of Joseph of Arimathea's entombment, leaving specific and precise instructions within that prophecy. For the last 600 years researchers have tried to interpret, disentangle or make sense of this riddle from the obtuse Latin phraseology. They have tried to translate it into something coherent so that the phrases link together and provide meaning to the reader. There is no doubt that Melkin wanted us to understand this riddle, the clues in it are extraordinarily accurate.
The Latin is archaic and grammatically incorrect, so, not only is it necessary to establish the geometry that lies beneath the riddle and the meaning of individual words on different planes, but we need to try and unravel Melkin’s intended purpose, while also attempting to understand the mind of the man who wrote it.
Melkin’s puzzle is literary genius conveying information on different levels and one can only wonder what his thoughts were as he constructed this riddle.
Let us briefly recap the current situation so that the following elucidation of Melkin’s words will be fully understood to relate to a different account of what transpired immediately after the crucifiction.
The unknown location Ictis, where tin was exported from, had a vault within the Island because Diodorus says cartloads of ingots were taken to the Island and it acted as a market place up until the Roman era. Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy tin Merchant in this era. He was said in the Grail stories to be buried on an Island of Avalon, but the Grail was also on the Island of Sarras. Joseph was buried with ‘duo fassula’containing the blood and sweat of Jesus which was thought to be the Grail, but it turns out to be the Shroud of Turin. Joseph is said to have brought with him what has since become known as the ‘Holy Grail’ to Britain, but this is in fact the body of Jesus in a casquet of Cedar oil known in the Grail stories as the Grail Ark. Since the advent of the Romances, the ‘duo fassula’ and the Grail have become one and the same.
Many commentators have assumed that Joseph was buried near the Old Church, in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey and for many years the institution at Glastonbury Abbey has proactively encouraged such a position. It seems, that Melkin has required us to solve a riddle for which he may have intended us to keep searching at Glastonbury until now. If this was the case, how could he be sure that Joseph would be found eventually because he would never have guessed that the Monks at Glastonbury would convert the Glastonbury Tor into the Island of Avalon?
Did his confidence lay in the fact that he was cognisant that the Grail was a ‘Grade or Stage’ in ‘Time’ that would inevitably come as part of a divine plan?
It was Melkin who wrote the ‘Book of the Grail’ which contained this Hebraic occult knowledge that the Romance writers could not comprehend and thus allegorised, building and elaborating on the substance therein, using metaphor and imagination. It seems that Melkin's prophecy, which cannot be traced back earlier than John of Glastonbury's‘Cronica’ is based upon a body of information concerning Devon and Cornwall (Belerion). This historical sequence of events concerned Jesus, who as a single person, has changed the world as part of a divine plan set in ‘Biblical Time’.This historical source information was partly used by the French Grail writers who were not aware of Jesus’s body in Avalon, but knew something to do with him was brought from the Holy land to England. In the true prophetic tradition, Melkin prognosticates on what will take place when Joseph's tomb is found indicating that if not wholly, then in part, he was divinely inspired.
The Medieval renovated Ley system within which Joseph is buried has been accurately planned out and surveyed. Melkin has knowledge of the Ley system and the distances and angles within it. It appears that Melkin, is the source for all original Arthurian information that has come down to us today. Since Melkin’s prophecy was written, Avalon, where Arthur and Joseph are buried has been shrouded in mystery, but Melkin is responsible for renaming Ictis as Avalon. Avalon connects Arthur and Joseph, both reputed to be buried there and Melkin’s genealogy recorded in John’s Cronica, connects them in a bloodline. Joseph is a blood relative of Jesus who is inextricably linked to the Grail, while the Grail, as the modern world understands its substance, is buried with Joseph and Arthur in Avalon and this entire tradition has stemmed directly from Melkin.
How is it that a Monk knows so much, as to understand the essence of the Grail back in the sixth century and know that Jesus is buried in Avalon and also have insight into occult knowledge concerning God’s divine plan and a grasp of Biblical Time? Were Jesus’s remains witnessed by Melkin at the burial of King Arthur? The answer has to be yes, since he gives such an apt description of the Turin Shroud.
So let us look at this small fragment of his understanding that has miraculously steered events and come down to us, for as we further our enquiry, we will see that it is very probable that the Grail book is about to surface as the book of the Law did, when the Jews returned from captivity and this whole story will be understood.
John of Glastonbury fortuitously has preserved this prophecy:
Hec scriptura inuenitur in libro melkini, qui fuit ante merlinum,
This scripture is found in the book of Melkini, who had been before Merlinum,
Insula auallonis auida funere paganorum, pre ceteris in orbe ad sepulturam eorum omnium sperulis propheciae vaticinantibus decorata, & in futurum ornata erit altissimum laudantibus. Abbadare, potens in Saphat, paganorum nobilissimus, cum centum et quatuor milibus domiicionem ibi accepit. Inter quos ioseph de marmore, ab Armathia nomine, cepit sompnum perpetuum; Et iacet in linea bifurcata iuxta meridianum angulum oratori, cratibus praeparatis, super potentem adorandam virginem, supradictis sperulatis locum habitantibus tredecim. Habet enim secum Ioseph in sarcophago duo fassula alba & argentea, cruore prophete Jhesu & sudore perimpleta. Cum reperietur ejus sarcofagum, integrum illibatum in futuris videbitur, & erit apertum toto orbi terrarium. Ex tunc aqua, nec ros coeli insulam nobilissimam habitantibus poterit deficere. Per multum tempus ante diem Judioialem in iosaphat erunt aperta haec, & viventibus declarata.
Hucusque melkinus.
‘The Isle of Avalon, greedy for the death of pagans, more than all others in the world, for their entombment, decorated beyond all others by portentous spheres of prophecy, and in the future, adorned shall it be, by them that praise the most high. Abbadare, mighty in judgement, noblest of pagans, has fallen asleep there with 104,000 others (or 104 knights), among these, Joseph of Arimathea has found perpetual sleep in a marble tomb, and he lies on a two forked line, next to the southern angle of an oratory, where the wattle is prepared above the mighty maiden and in the place of the 13 spheres.
For Joseph has with him in his sarcophagus two white and silver vessels, filled with the blood and sweat of the prophet Jesus and when his sarcophagus is uncovered, it will be seen whole and undisturbed, and will be opened to the whole world.
Thenceforth those who dwell in that noble isle, will lack neither water nor the dew of heaven. For a long while before the day of judgment (ludioialem) in Josaphat, open shall these things be and declared to the living’, thus far Melkin.
There are many variations on how this can be translated, but this seems to be an alternative generally accepted gist, that makes some sense also:
The Isle of Avalon, with greed for the death of pagans, before all others in the world, for the entombment of them all. Decorated beyond all others by the chanting spheres of prophecy and for all time to come, adorned shall it be by them that praise the Most High.
Abbadare mighty in saphat, noblest of pagans, has fallen on sleep with 104 other knights
Among these Joseph of Arimathea has found perpetual sleep in a marble tomb and he lies on two forked line next to the southern angle of an oratory, where the wattle is prepared above the mighty maiden and where the aforesaid 13 spheres rest. For Joseph has with him in his sarcophagus two vessels white and silver, filled with the blood and sweat of the prophet Jesus. When his sarcophagus is discovered, it will be seen whole and untouched, And will be opened to the whole world. Thenceforth those who dwell in that noble Isle will lackneither water nor the dew of heaven for a long time before the day of judgment in Josaphat and open shall these things be and declared to the living.
Rendered below is probably a more accurate translation (Melkin’s intended meaning), with reference to an abridgment of Ainsworth's English and Latin dictionary, by Robert Ainsworth, Thomas Morell and John Carey and the 'Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis' by Domino Du Cange.
The first part of the prophecy we shall cover as a whole so the sense is not lost before we dissect each phrase. This first half of the prophecy is the instructional part, where pertinent facts are relayed as to the confirmation of the tombs location and entrance. The second half of the prophecy is assuredly divinely inspired as it speaks in ‘Time’with biblical metaphorical language and will be elucidated in the following commentary when we disentangle the various layers of meaning.
'Island of Avalon, coveting the pagans in death, above all others (places) in the world for their entombment there, it is before the circle of portentous prophesy (Avebury) and in the future will be adorned by those that give praise to the highest. The father’s pearl, (Jesus) mighty in judgement (or virtuous through new wine), the noblest of pagans, sleeps 104 miles from it (Avebury), by whom he received interment by the sea from Joseph named from Arimathea, and has taken his eternal rest there, and he lies on a line that is two forked between that and a meridian, in an angle on a coastal Tor, in a crater, that was already prepared and above is where one prays which one can go at the extremity of the verge, high up in Ictis is the place they abide to the south at thirteen degrees'.
Showing the bifurcated line or 'two forked' where it splits in Avebury runs through Montacute at an angle of 13 degrees for 104 nautical miles.
Any commentator on this passage will find it impossible to transliterate, simply because Melkin is concealing information sub textually, word clues rendering the passage as a whole incapable of fluid translation. The puns and double meanings are carefully thought out, but obtuse by deflection. The only way to understand the difficulty he must have had, conveying his message in layers of meaning and grasp what he has achieved, is to evaluate his choice of words. What follows is some of the hidden sub text in meanings he was trying to convey. It is almost as if he was appealing through the layers to different ways of understanding. The task of elucidating becomes less muddled if we take each word separately or if inseparable from another, using the combination.
Adjectives, adverbs, verbs and nouns seem to be intermingled without respect to tense, conjugation, case or declension and one may be lacking other scribal clues such as capitals or punctuation which are now missing. There is evidence also within the text that words are split, which leads one to consider that these splits, may be interchangeable with other root words and thus a cipher could be disentangled if an original copy was extant.
Melkin formulates his prophecy in a combination of blurred Latin incorporating Teutonic and low Latin, purposely entangled double entendres, sometimes leaving little to be comprehended from the text that has survived. If one adds to this muddle any scribal changes made at Glastonbury, we are left with a collection of meaningless ‘word strings’, in effect rendering Melkin’s intended riddle as mute through the ages as it has remained and brings into question the validity of his existence. He was known as a geometer but until now we have had no proof of his existence; the geometry given by his puzzle gives credence to those who attested that he was a geometer and to his very existence.
The most powerful thing about this prophecy, now we have decoded it, is the latent truth that it holds, by pointing to an island and a tidal island in the sea as described in Grail literature. Its ability to have survived down through the centuries while muted, to convey its intended message, a message of mystery and expectation that has entered the psyche of the British people, is an extraordinarly fortunate event and may possibly be responsible for changing the outward expression of religion throughout the world if what it pertains to uncover is allowed to be opened.
Insula Aualonis avida funere paganorum:
• island of Avalon,where both Arthur and Joseph are said to be buried, coveting (guarding preciously) pagans in death. Either named because the Island stands at the exit of the river Avon or is named after Aveton the village at the tidal extent of the river subsequently known as Aveton Gifford after the Norman Conquest. However Percival’s cousin in the Perlesvaus was son of an Alain d'Escavalon or Elinant of Escavalon, but since Melkin is responsible for the source of all original Grail material, this name still comes back to him.
• Avide; an adverb or avidus, an adjective-Greedy, Hungry or Covetous. The sense that Melkin portrays by use of this word is essentially, ‘not relinquishing’, nor‘releasing’ (until the appointed time); The Island as a custodial guardian.
• Funere;from funero, funera, etc, giving funeral, to bury or of a dead body.
• Paganorum;from paganus, a man of the country or peasant. ‘pagan’in classical Latin "villager, rustic, civilian, but in the medieval religious sense not Christian-of the old religioni.e Jews. The word Pagan has many connotations and could mean, not of Britain.
Overall a very difficult sentence to cobble together, possibly rendering the sense of a pagan island, rather than the bodies of pagans buried there. The pagan island scenario would concur in conjunction with Ley Lines, and would indicate that Melkin was aware of the existence of the Ley Line system and the island's inter-relation with Avebury, Montacute and the Lyonesse line.
This word string also could give a sense of pagan island that is guardian over those buried, and the ‘pre ceteris’refers to their pre-eminence in all the world. Alternatively it could be referring to the island, coveting the bodies in plain view (before) the rest of the world. Island of Avalon – hungering after (looking after, happy to be taking care of), being covetous of the buried occupants that are not from this island of Britain, before the entire world, (until the world is ready). As the reader will understand shortly, Melkin’s use of the word ‘sperulatis or sperulis’, twice in this prophecy, is rendered with two completely different meanings, even though Melkin ostensibly refers back to its first meaning as being the same as its second use, by employing the word ‘supradictis’ (aforesaid). So it is with the word ‘paganorum’ in the sense that it is used here as possibly being a pagan island (part of the old religion), yet the second use of the word after Abbadare, has a completely different sense. Remember that Melkin is directing our thoughts toward an Island in the true sense of the word (unlike Glastonbury) and this island is by a river (the river Avon) and tidal as described in the Perlesvaus. Presumably this was the rivers name when Melkin was alive, but the etymology of Avon is ‘river’,thus the explanation of so many ‘River Avons’ in Britain.
Figure Showing the river Avon at the heads as it exits by Avalon in the hazardous tidal waters that surround the island as described in the Perlesvaus.
pre ceteris in orbe ad sepulturam eorum omnium:
• pre ceteris;gives the sense, before others or before the rest,
• in orbe ; in the globe, planet or world, giving the sense of pre-eminence.
• ad sepulturam ; from sepultura, giving a burial site or sepulchre.
• eorum ; of them, or their.
• omnium ; of all.
The sentence has generally been translated as: ‘at the burial of them all will be decorated (from decorata), beyond the others in the world’, which of course makes difficult reading. The most likely sentence would be, ‘ their burial site is honoured above all others in the world’, as one is honoured in receipt of a decoration. This in fact, is confirming what later directions indicate, that the sepulchre is on the island and is accounted above all others (places) in the world or there is no greater tomb (of importance). Melkin refers to the sepulchre twice in conjunction with the word ‘orbe or orbi terrarum’ (around the world), thus indicating, what we expect to be a global event, having global ramifications on the tombs unveiling.
sperulis prophecie uaticinantibus decorate:
Sperulis: Firstly let us look at the etymology of the word ‘pearl’. The Arabic language called it a ‘dar’, a term which was then translated by the Greeks as "Pinna's stone", thus identifying its origin from the Mediterranean pearl mollusks. The pearl is also referred to as "pirula" or "perula" in Latin texts, probably because of its spherical (sphaerula, pronounced "sperula") or pear-like shape. Also ‘perla’ is formed from ‘perula’ for ‘sperula’ the diminutive of sphaera. A more probable origin is that the word is formed from the Latin pirum as suggested by Diez in allusion to the pear shaped form of the pearl. Du Cange in volume five says that the extremity of the nose was called ‘pirula nasi’ from its resemblance to the form of a pearl. But ‘pirus’ which surely was not unknown by Melkin was used to denote a “boundary stone made in a pyramidal shape”. Du Cange says also, this seems to have been the origin of the singular expression ‘pirula nasi’ as being something at the extremity and probably Melkin’s allusion to Avalon acting as a marker in our Pyramidal shape. From Du Cange ‘sperula’ is given as; ‘parva rotunditas volubilis, sicut solet, in sphæræ modum,’-- round compass, of a small volume, as is usually the manner of a sphere. The word is used twice, once as ‘sperulis’ as in this instance and once as ‘sperulatis’secondarily, both of them having different meanings. The meaning here though is in direct reference to Avebury stone circle.
• Prophecie; that which is foretold in the future by a prophet.
• Vaticinantibus;giving prediction, soothsaying, prophecy or portent from vaticinari from ‘vates’ meaning a prophet + 'canere' to foretell. However this could be Melkin’s way of saying what is located in this sepulchre will be against the Vatican i.e. anti-Vatican. It should not be forgotten that Jesus knew exactly what his mission entailed and the suffering (proved by the Shroud) that he was about to endure and was not about to be dissuaded from it by Peter, and said to him "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." The Roman Church is built upon Peter and in no way is Peter at fault, but Jesus knew that the Popes would usurp his legacy for this world and not the heaven that Jesus spoke of.
The Grail keepers would certainly have precedence before Papal pretensions passing from Josephes to Brons and could be considered another line of succession or Branch other than the self-proclaiming imposter of Jesus’ inheritance. The Roman Pontiff the first Bishop of Christendom deriving his claim by hypothesis from St. Peter, who only by Roman self-profession was ‘episcopus primus et Pontifex primordialis’. Melkin knew of what lay in this tomb and therefore was aware of the inaccuracies peddled by the Roman Church. Melkin understood the Divine plan and of the true meaning of Jesus’ reference to the Temple being rebuilt upon the third day (or within three days) and hence the story of Peter’s denial of Jesus three times being equitable with the three Grades to enlightenment. These three days are the grades of the Grail, but we will come to this in ‘Time’. Are the words of Jesus ‘And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it,’ similar to the promise given to David from which the Church and Gentiles inherited. Is Christendom and Islam along with the Jewish faith now to become like the Davidic line, to be the precursor of a global inheritance set forth in a Divine Plan by the God of Israel? What is certain is that, without the Roman church most of the Globe would not be aware of the God of Israel.
• Decorate from ‘decorates’ translating as, set forth or adorned. This could be aslo read as 'before' if one split the word to 'de coram' i.e lays before or faces.
This sentence is generally translated as‘soothsaying spheres of prophecy or portentous circles of prophecy’. It is essential to remember that Melkin is actually directing us on this quest from a starting place that is a stone circle namely Avebury. His description of the circles or spheres having been ‘set forth or adorned’, might indicate that Melkin is referring directly to a stone circle. Stone circles were important to the ancients who were preoccupied with discerning the future. Melkin refers to stone circles as if they have a connection with man’s ability to predict or as if it is the circles themselves that have some impact on leading us to the tomb of Joseph through Ley lines. The irony of disentangling Melkin’s prophecy through our initial investigation into the ‘Perpetual Choirs’ and scribing circles on the landscape, gives rise to even more perplexity. Could Melkin’s sense be that, Avebury adorning the British landscape, from which Ley line's interconnect or thread through the tomb of Joseph, have some attribute or function in the foretelling of its discovery. The reader should not be too sceptical here as the two words following ‘sperulatis’ both impart a sense of future knowledge presently unknown. We must not dismiss the fact that Melkin has knowledge of the St. Michael Ley line; so is he imparting to us through this statement that these stone circles have some effect on, or direct our thoughts for the future collective benefit. No one today has an idea of the stone circles proper function, but recognising that Melkin probably understood the use of stone circles (as he certainly knows about the St.Michael ley line); is he implying some sort of telepathic system ordering the thoughts of the collective? Melkin knew of the existence of the St. Michael Ley line, yet we have only recently rediscovered it. We should not ignore the use of two words which essentially mean ‘looking into the future’. So are the circles physical attributes on the landscape for channelling thought from individual communities or interlinking them in some way as their prevalence and conformity of shape seems to indicate relative functionality?
et in futurum ornate erit altissimum laudantibus:
• in futurum; although being an obvious reference to the future, it is also a reference to ‘Biblical Time’ and is reiterated as a reference to the same time as ‘ex tunc’ in the penultimate sentence of the prophecy, which is indicating the thousand years of time from the discovery of Joseph's tomb, the day of Jehosaphat. This is a sure indication that Melkin has understood ‘Biblical Time’ i.e. time, Times and Half of that time (or the Times Halved). We shall explain this concept in a later chapter as it appears in Daniel 7:12 , 12:7 and Revelation 12:14
• Ornate;adorned, arrayed, crowned with or decreed, in reference to the island of Avalon.
• altissimum laudantibus, rendering praise to the most high. The sentence giving the impression that when Joseph's tomb is discovered, the Island of Avalon will be arrayed by the mass of new converts, giving praise to God. This sense does concur with the final part of the prophecy that indicates that Joseph's sepulchre will be opened to the whole world, giving an impression that the island will become a pilgrimage and a new religious re-awakening will occur globally on the discovery of Jesus’s body. There will be a new cognitive view of the world order and an elevated understanding amongst spiritual Jews that the living and the dead are bound by a Divine plan. Those pilgrims visiting the Island of Avalon, giving praise to the most high. This could also be a reference to Britain rather than Avalon specifically as the last sentence of the prophecy infers.
Abbadare, potens in Saphat, paganorum nobilissimus:
• Abbadare, has given rise to much speculation about the word’s provenance and meaning, but it would seem to be a reference to Jesus, meaning “The father's pearl”, (Abba- father, Dar- pearl from the Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew). As is intonated in the Grail romances, added to Joseph's connection with the importation of the Holy Grail, this reference would seem to indicate the presence also of Jesus's body within the island of Avalon. Joseph leaves Jerusalem, and arrives at Sarras, taking with him the Holy Graal, which is carried inside an ark or box. This refers metaphorically to Jesus, specifically with reference to a pearl being formed by the flesh just as it is grown in an oysters shell. It is formed in our body and its beautiful and precious substance remains long after the flesh that made it, has died. This is a profound reference to the spirit being a precious object born by an organic body, yet remaining after the flesh has died. Not a metal, nor a gem but ‘a pearl of great price’….a spiritual soul created through God’s divine plan as in Mathew 13:46. As the reader will be aware the word ‘Abbadare’ would have been used by Melkin to avoid direct reference to Jesus's body to avoid adverse reaction from fundamentalist sensibilities. The Holy Grail, having a direct connection with Jesus, but in direct reference to his body at times but in the Glastonbury tradition the Grail being misunderstood for the Turin Shroud as the Duo Fassula. The references to the Grail in the romances being of a different order involving a spiritual quest, the likes of which cannot be found by searching or by hastening its occurrence in a lifetime. The Holy Grail is a derivative of the Latin ‘gradus’ meaning by degree', 'by stages', applied to a dish from a transliteration by Helinand. This dish was brought to the table in different stages or services during a meal in the Chrétien de Troyes poem. Essentially the pearl of great price is Jesus through whom by the will of his Father spiritual enlightenment is attained, hence ‘the Father’s pearl’
• Potens;powerful, mighty, of great virtue.
• Saphat;by most commentators is translated as ‘judgement’ derived from its reference to Jehosaphat in the last sentence of the prophecy rendering, ‘Mighty in judgement’ from Jehosaphat’s meaning as ‘judgement day’ or God’s judgement. Shaphat in Hebrew translating as judge or judgement . Melkin could possibly be giving us a double entendre in ‘Sapa’, translating as ’New wine’. ’potens in saphat’ could then give the sense of “virtuous through new wine”, deriving its sense from having been made perfect through the Holy Spirit. The most obvious translation is from ‘potens’ meaning also ‘pre-eminent’or as Du Cange has it, ‘having pre-eminence’ rendering ‘having pre-eminence in the new wine’ which of course would be a precise description of Jesus as the pre-cursor to the New wine as in Mark 2:22; ‘no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined’. No, Jesus pours new wine into new wineskins and thus the passage through the Grades. (Also in Mathew 9:17 & Luke 5:37). Most attempts at translation have rendered this word string as, ’Abbadare, mighty in judgement, most noble of the pagans’.
One possible sense would be, if we can assume that Melkin is aware of the Zerah connection(otherwise Sarras would not have been named after Zarah) and his reference to ‘paganorum’ is the old religion or even Jewish; ‘Jesus preeminent in the new wine, the noblest of the Jews’. The most poignant transliteration of‘potentem in Saphat’ should be understood as ‘he who’s might is in spiritual awakening’ which we shall see in connection with Jehosaphat. Without getting too ingenuous it could even be the result of a Glastonbury scribal change from Sarras rendering ‘Jesus the mighty of Zerah’, but this will only make sense once we understand that Joseph may well have been British.
cum centum et quatuor milibus domiicionem ibi accepit:
• cum centum et quatuor; translating as ‘with one hundred and four’.
• Milibus; confusing most translators into thinking its meaning is derived from ‘Mille’, a thousand; but Melkin’s real intention is ‘mille passuum' which gives a thousand paces which equals one mile or ‘miles’ even though he is referring to Nautical miles. The reader will remember the unit of nautical miles is used so that a unit of measurement correlates to a sixtieth of a degree; this same unit having been employed by the ancients. The nautical knot only came into use in 1630 AD, but the ancients had sub divided the globe into degrees of a circle reckoned on the 90 degrees of the four quadrants, as was evident by Pytheas’s calculations in Latitude. Melkin was aware (being attested a geometer and astrologer and now vindicated as one) of this unit and probably named it after the Roman or statutory unit. The term was not commonly used, but the ancient Roman mile was 1,000 double paces, one-step with each foot, for about 4,860 feet, and there were many local variants….. a modern statute mile measuring about 400 feet longer.
Most translations have used the word‘Knight’s’ from the Latin word ‘Militus’ with the assumption that it refers to‘the others’ that are said to be buried in Avalon. Other translators have opted for the word “saints” assuming a scribal error for 104. Some commentators, while not replacing the number, have assumed that a mistake has been made and that Melkin is referring to the 144 thousand saints in the Book of Revelation 7:4,14:1 & 14:3. This misrepresentation has been highlighted by later interpolators as in the case of Capgraves ‘Nova Legenda Angliae’,which renders the sense of Melkin’s words to ‘milia dormientium accepit’ which has 104,000 sleeping with him…. while some translators have added the word‘Saints’. In place of the common translation error rendering 104 thousand, Melkin is telling us that it is 104 nautical miles from Avebury to the Island of Avalon. This measurement is precisely 104 miles from a point, just right of centre within the Avebury circle, to the ‘Huer’s hut’ on Burgh Island as seen in figure 25. The Joseph line drawn from Avebury to the resting place of Joseph is confirmed by Father William Good, as it passes directly over St. Michael’s Montacute.
Figure 24 Showing the Joseph line tangentially touching St. Michael’s hill Montacute. The Joseph line forming the acute angle of 13° at Avebury, between the St. Michael line and Mons Acutus (Montacute).
• domiicionem ibi accepit;conveying the sense ‘took his sleep there or received his rest there’. This sentence is usually translated as‘Abbadare’, powerful in judgement, the most noble of the pagans took his sleep there with 104,000’. Obviously Melkin deliberately sets out his sentence to obfuscate, inserting the word ‘cum’ meaning ‘with’, so that ‘Abbadare’ is appearing to be taking his rest with 104,000 others, especially when the first words of the next sentence are ‘inter quos’ which translates as ‘among whom’. The real information which Melkin is trying to convey here is that Joseph and Jesus are taking their rest there; 104 miles from the circle of prophecy, which is Avebury as seen in figure 25.
Inter quos ioseph de marmore, ab Armathia nomine, cepit sompnum perpetuum:
• Inter quos; The usual translation of the sentence is: 'among these Joseph of Arimathea received eternal slumber in a marble tomb'. In the previous word string Melkin used ‘domiicionem ibi accepit’ and here he is using ‘cepit sompnum perpetuum’ immediately afterwards. Aware of Melkin’s cleverness and the fact that he is confounding normal thought processes, it would appear, as if he is clearly speaking of two different people. ‘Jesus received his rest there’ and ‘Joseph named from Arimathea took his perpetual sleep there’. The word ‘Inter’ by most commentators is translated as ’among’ but Melkin has his derivative from 'interrare’ "put in the earth, bury” or ‘interramentum’.
‘Inter quos’ most researchers have as ‘among whom’ but here Melkin is using a play on words and his meaning is ‘Interred’ or‘Interred with whom’ also inferring two people. The implication of this is; that it now establishes 'Abbadare' as another separate subject and the translation becomes,’ interred with whom is Joseph, named from Arimathea taking his eternal slumber by the sea'.
• marmore ‘Marmor’ translates as a marble stone or as ’the sea’; its derivative being the similarity of small wave motion in a calm water, giving the expression ‘a marbled sea’ and is also found in Ainsworth’s dictionary. It was said that King Arthur, when he was fictitiously found, was ‘not in a marble tomb’ to distinguish it from Joseph’s tomb; again showing the weight Melkin's prophecy had in determining Glastonbury as Avalon by making reference to the prophecy. By remarking on this detail (even in the negative) confirming the monks find as ‘the other important body’ to be buried within the Glastonbury grounds.
• cepit sompnum perpetuum: The repetition of ‘dormicionem’ as referring to Abbadare, then immediately followed by ‘sopnum perpetuum’, referring directly to Joseph of Arimathea, does clearly indicate that Abbadare and Joseph are two different entities especially since the mighty in Judgement is referring to Jesus. This example of Melkin’s direct obfuscation gives us an idea into the mind-set of the man. He has set out to misdirect his readers with this pun on ‘inter’ while sub textually informing us that Jesus has received his rest there. This he has done by not offending Christian sensibilities during the intervening years until the present, while at the same time in the same sentence, preparing his readers for the appointed time. It is strange to contemplate that Joseph has buried Jesus twice in a ‘hewn tomb’ that is owned by Joseph himself. Once with a ‘fasciola’ as related by the Gospel accounts and the second time with a‘doubled fasciola’…… which of course fits with the description of the Shroud of Turin which as we shall see shortly, suddenly appeared on the world stage, just after the Templars had visited the Isle of Avalon. As we have uncovered already, Melkin wrote the book of the Grail. The original source for Melkin’s book of the Grail was obviously Joseph. Joseph brought the Grail to Britain and so affirms that he was responsible for depositing Jesus’ relics in Avalon, before being buried there himself by the first Grail keepers.
Et iacet in linea bifurcata iuxta meridianum angulum oratori:
• Et iacet in linea, this is the sentence most frequently quoted in reference to Melkin’s prophecy, the usual translation being, ‘and he lies on a two forked line next to the southern corner of the oratory’. Et iacet in linea; renders ‘and he (or they) lie(s) in a line’. As all commentators have previously suspected correctly, the line thus referred to is an indicator to where the tomb is located and the root cause of all misdirection has been the word ‘oratorii’ linked with ‘adorandam virginem’.
• Bifurcata; to bifurcate literally means ‘to divide into two branches or forks’. Melkin becomes remarkably un-obtuse when he gets to his specific instructions about the bifurcated line. All translators agree that ‘he lies on a bifurcated line’ but Melkin obviously felt confident that this information would be hard to unlock. Without a St. Michael ley line and a point at which the two lines cross inside Avebury, the information given quite clearly, would be irrelevant. Melkin also could be assured that Joseph would not be associated with Neolithic stone circles or Ley lines.
Some commentators have used the most imaginative ways of trying to understand the meaning of Bifurcata. The most far fetched is derived from a meaning of 'in linea' as linen and 'bifurcata' as folded to give a folded linen cloth. However we are looking for instructions that lead to Joseph's tomb. Both the 104 and the 13..... the other pertinent points in the instructions both confirm by accuracy that they are indicating the Island of Avalon, the subject of the puzzle. However some like William of Worcester who measured and described the abbey church around 1478 at Glastonbury have understood that 'in lineabifurcata' is part of a geometrical and measurable instruction.
'and opposite the second window(of the lady chapel) on the south side thare are in the cemetary two stone crosses hallowed, where the bones of King Arthur were buried, where 'in line bifurcata' lies Joseph of Arimathea'.
The only problem is that all previous investigators have assumed that Avalon is Glastonbury. However, it is still quite ridiculous to associate the abbey three quaters of a mile away from the church on Glastonbury Tor (the supposed Island of Avalon) and the assumption of correlation that Joseph is buried in the Abbey grounds. If Joseph were buried anywhere near Glastonbury, he is on the tor (which we have been led to believe is Avalon)....... but one cannot have him three quaters of a mile away near a church which may or may not have been built by him.
• Juxta; translates as nearby, next to, close to, bordering upon or beside.
• meridianum angulum; A ‘meridian’ is half of a great circle that passes through the centre of the earth at the North and South poles; as if half a vertical plane on the globe, giving constant longitude. It could also be described as an imaginary line of half of a great circle route from pole to pole. Melkin is clearly trying to show the reader that the Joseph line is‘Imaginary’ or conceptual much like a true meridian line only becomes real when plotted. It is interesting to note that Capgrave, Leland and Hardyng say that Melkin was an astrologer but it is John Bale that tells us that Melkin, wrote the book called ‘De Arturii mensa rotunda’ while at the same time informing us that he was a geometer also and the display of geometric precision should confirm to the skeptic Melkin's prowess as a geometer.
It would seem then, that the mention by Bale of these two topics (the book, then the observation about geometry) would indicate Bale saw either Grail table geometry or landscape geometry in the book he was referring to. It seems probable that at some stage this book, copy or fragment, existed at Glastonbury. The information about Montacute as a geometrical marker for the 'Joseph line' could only have reached Father Good by two sources; Henry of Blois as already discussed or out of this possible geometrical source that Bale refers to. It is however, strange that after the puzzle has been decoded and very accurate geometry is evidently displayed, how researchers can still hold Melkin's prophecy as a fictitious twelvth or thirteenth century invention.
Melkin was well aware of what a ‘meridian’ was. Most probably though the reference is giving the clue to look for a line that is similar to those found on a Map. Although lines of longitude (the truest definition of a Meridian) were not easy to calculate on a map at this stage and were largely responsible for their distortion, it clearly shows Melkin’s great grasp of technical issues such as these, through his precise surveying data.
‘Meridianus’, in Ainsworth, is described as‘pertaining to noon or noontide’, referring to the Sun’s change in longitude at its daily zenith. Ainsworth also has another translation which gives ‘Southern Meridional’ which would only be an accurate description if viewed from the northern hemisphere, so it is technically not a definitive translation. This somewhat oblique definition would be derived from the declination of the sun to the horizon viewed and defined by observers north of the equator which (with tables) defines Latitude. However, it is from this translation that most commentators have derived ‘Southern angle’ from Melkin's text. It is also worth noting that ‘meridianum anglum’ could be translated as an ‘English Meridian’; surely a pun not unobserved by Melkin. It could be that Melkin is referring to the angle created at Burgh Island between the Lyonesse line and the Joseph line that runs from Burgh Island to Avebury as shown in figure 25 if the ‘Southern’ is part of his meaning. More likely he is referring to the angle at 13 degrees to the St. Michael Ley line.
Essentially the word ‘meridianum’ is conveying the sense to us, of an imaginary line and this was surely Melkin’s intent. It could however be a word that he used to substitute for another descriptive word, known in his day, which would convey a sense of a Ley Line. The recent nomenclature of ‘Ley or Ley line’ must have had an earlier appellation before the knowledge of the system was lost and it is apparent that Melkin knew of its existence.
Again this brings us back to the question; was Melkin aware of the functions of the Ley line system, or did he just construct the riddle from geometric information given in another text that he sourced…… that may have been old Judaic, from Zerah’s descendants. This presents a confusing set of circumstances where a Megalithic site is referenced by a Monk who lived anywhere from the fifth to the eighth century AD, that draws on arcane material; who writes a Grail book about the steps or grades to the temple, thereby manifesting his understanding of a divine plan. Not only does he have knowledge of historical fact relating to Jesus and Joseph, four to seven Hundred years after they were buried in Avalon, but also is aware that Avalon exists within a network of Leys, part of which was built before Zerah’s offspring came to England and was built by early Megalithic Man. Did Melkin really have an angel deliver this information as Helinand says; if so, was it Michael the Archangel?
We arrive back at the same circuitous dilemma of whether Melkin was the actual surveyor and the reader will only be able to make his own judgement at the penultimate sentence of the prophecy, where Melkin is giving directions within the local vicinity of the island. From this it becomes clear that he visited the Island upon which probably stood a small monastic building (rumoured to have existed by locals) built before the St. Michael Chapel referred to by Camden (circa 1610). By 1680 there is no mention of a chapel and by 1752 it was recorded as a ruin and brings us back to the point that it appears to have been purposely dismantled. This leads to another puzzle; who did the dissembling of the St. Michael churches and who tried their hardest to hide Father Good’s message from Rome by eradicating Maihews reference? Is this group, society or order still actively suppressing through the ages? The most intriguing puzzle (second only to Melkin and his riddle) is the Megalithic usage of sites and Ley’s and the surveying of such a construct being conveyed to Melkin. Was this knowledge through Neolithic Zerah conveyed down to Joseph then passed on to Melkin over a period spanning two thousand years or even longer? If the Saxons had not invaded Britain would this information about Ley lines and stone circles be widely known today. Melkin left Britain with the book of the Grail for France, but if he knew of the existence of a line (not forgetting at this time there were no St. Michael churches on it), then how did he percieve it, what was its function in Neolithic times and why has some record of it not been passed down through the ages and why have we had to wait until John Michell points out its existence? How was it that the Templars knew of its existence prior to the building of the St.Michael Churches?
• Oratori; from‘oratorium’ in late Latin meaning a small or private chapel of prayer which would fit the description of the wattle church or the later wooden clad building in Glastonbury. The question of whether Melkin’s prophecy has had scribal changes will seem to be an unanswerable question. Melkin has most emphatically set us a riddle but did he write the word ‘oratori’, or was this a later interpolation. The reason we should ask such a question is because, if he wanted to keep our attentions at Glastonbury why did he write about the Isle of Avalon and how could he be assured in the seventh century that the Monks would eventually change Glastonbury into Avalon. Although his manuscripts were read by several chroniclers at Glastonbury, we do not know if he was a Glastonbury acolyte and therefore would have wished to concentrate the gaze of the quester toward the grounds of Glastonbury, but it seems logically highly unlikely. However when dealing with Melkin logic is the last attribute to use, to peel back the layers on every level of understanding.
It would seem that following the word‘oratori’ with ‘cratibus’, which all commentators have translated as ‘wattled’, (as in the construction of the first church)…… is too much of a coincidence, for it not to have been part of Melkin’s original text however if we start on this investigation we will be none the wiser because Glastonbury has made subtle changes i.e the dedication of the old church to 'Our Lady' to conform to Melkin's 'virginem adorandam' and concur with certain aspects of the Grail literatures depiction of the Grail chapel.
‘Cratibus’ fits descriptive clues in the local vicinity of Burgh Island and so does ‘ora tor’. It is as if Melkin would have us blindfolded and pointed in the wrong direction and begs the question; just how difficult should a riddle be, to be solvable? However Melkin’s original text could have read ‘orari’ from Orarius–giving ‘sea shore’ and an addition of the letters ‘t’ and ‘o’ to the middle of the word by a Glastonbury scribe would have rendered the word ‘oratori’. This is a possibility having already seen the interpolations and fabrications that Glastonbury perpetrated, to locate Joseph's burial place within the Abbey grounds. The best solution would be that the Latin word ‘ora’ and ‘tor’ from‘torus’ were split. ‘Ora’ translates as‘the border or coast of a country; particularly the sea coast or maritime district’, while the Latin word ‘oralis’ translates as ‘mouth, entrance or mouth of the River’. The word ‘tor’ from the Latin ‘torus’ meaning ‘a knoll or high mound of earth’, orfrom Old English torr; a ‘tor’ being ‘a high rock, lofty hill or tower’, possibly from Celtic, or Old Welsh, meaning a hill or a craggy outcrop of rock on the summit of a hill. If Melkin set out to combine these words which gives the real sense of where Joseph's body lay i.e. ‘a Tor by the coast’; then the word string ‘oratorii cratibus preparatis’ has rendered the sense of a ‘hill at the mouth of the river’ or ‘Tor by the sea’ which has been pre-readied (this could either refer to the tomb which used to be the tin depository or the island within the ley line network. If Melkin’s intention was to give us the sense of a tower (dedicated to the Virgin Mary) by the sea, this would admit to a previous building (maybe part of a monastic building) before the other St. Michael chapel was constructed that existed prior to 1307. The previous building is alluded to in the Perleasvaus as where the latin book of the Grail became the source for the High History of the Grail.
'L'auteur du Haut Livre du Graal affirme même que son texte est copié d'un manuscrit latin qui a été trouvé en l’Isle d’Avalon en une sainte meson de religion qui siét au chief des Mares Aventurex, la oli rois Artuz e la roïne gisent'.
'The author of the High Book of the Grail even claims that his text is copied from a Latin manuscript which was found in the Isle of Avalon in a house of holy religion which sits at the head of hazardous tides where King Arthur and Queen Guenievre lie'.
If we accept the holy house is a monastery which we will show existed in the last chapter and we take 'Mares' as a misinterpretation of the word 'marée' which translates as tide or tidal waters then take 'Aventurex' as aventuré which in old French has the same meaning as hasardé, hasardeux...... we surely are looking at Burgh Island surrounded by tidal waters as the Island of Avalon that used to have a monastery on it. The word 'Mares' could of course refer to the sea in old french as 'le Mar' equated with 'le Mer' and the sense could just be the Island in the adventurous seas.
We shall return to this in the last chapter where it is clear that St.Michael’s mount in Cornwall has been confused with Burgh Island in a Norman charter by Edward the Confessor. We will also show that the High History of the Grail portrays Burgh island in Devon as Avalon in many of its descriptions.
‘Oratorii cratibus preparatis’ does lead the inquirer to conclude it relates to the wattled oratory in Glastonbury yet the‘prepared’ in that sense has little relevance. As an ‘oratori’ is a religious hymn and an oratorium is a place of prayer, there appears an obvious association with choir, thus an association with the Perpetual Choirs, of which, as we have seen Glastonbury is undisputed. The translations that have written ‘chanting spheres of prophecy’, when ‘vaticinantibus’ has little to do with chanting; is realistically just a case of the mind associating ‘oratori’(religious hymn) with church (wattled) where monks chant; giving rise to an association with ‘Perpetual Choirs’ singing an ‘oratori’.
However it was this association of spheres, chanting and perpetual choirs that initiated our geometric structure. The association of a geometric design, namely a sphere, coupled with religious hymns that would be sung in an oratory, has led many researchers to associate the Glastonbury choir with ‘Perpetual Choirs’ of the Triads. This all combining and adding credibility as to Joseph’s burial site being within the grounds of the Abbey and subsequently enforced by geometric information supplied on the bronze plaque……. The pupose of which was to trick the enquirer by the measurements displayed thereon...... into thinking it had some association with the bifurcated line of Melkin's prophecy. This plaque as we have covered was purportedly to save for posterity’s sake, directions to where the Choir of “Yeald Chirche” was once located, before it succumbed to fire. These directions were made to seem relevant to the shapes that were inscribed on the floor in lead that were now lost, that Malmesbury had indicated some mystery lay within the design. This again as we have seen, was a gambit by Monkish acolytes to establish a proximity to a holy relic that had never existed on the site, but we must not forget it was William of Malmesbury who first mentions the business of wattle but was this later interpolation? What is the relationship of this man’s ‘ut ferunt’ in reference to Joseph on the one hand, then Joseph’s wattled church being described by him on the other. The corruptions of association fostered by Glastonbury that we have seen so much of in the intervening years, between when Melkin wrote have been made to link up with the obvious associations made from Melkin’s prophecy regarding ‘cratibus’ and Joseph. ‘Oratori cratibus preparatis’ would seem to be best translated as ‘a tor on the coast with a prepared crater’.
Cratibus preparatis:
• Cratibus: ‘crates’from which we derive the modern word ‘crate’ (originally from a wicker basket for transporting) gives the Latin form ‘cratibus’, which translates as ‘a bundle of rods wattled together’ literally, wicker-work or hurdle, wattled or interwoven. ‘Cratibus’ as an adjective, literally means wicker, but ‘cratitius’translated means wattle and daubed’. It would translate as ‘Wicker,’ as in woven strands of straight poles giving ‘hurdle’. It could be a play on words from ‘Crater’, a cup or bowl, goblet … a platter for meat, with an obvious association to the Grail stories and the Grail's association with Joseph, both rumoured to be buried in the Isle of Avalon. ‘Cratis’ gives us a ‘grill’ as in rods or wood interwoven. The monks of Glastonbury could have been trying to perpetuate an association with ‘wattle’ just to tie in with Melkin’s prophecy or indeed this was the construction method and a small scribal change establishing a direct link to Glastonbury. Because of the words proximity to ‘Supradictis’ it would look as if Melkin could on one plane, be using the word in the sense of Crater which of course is a major feature on the Island. The author is unable to elaborate further as this gives direct instruction as to the tunnel entrance.
Part of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey.
• Preparatis from ‘parate’, set purpose, by design, giving‘pre parate’ predesigned or Paratum ‘a thing made ready’. The literal interpretation on one level could refer to the power that has been interwoven and prepared ‘aforetime’ from on high (by God).This could have been Melkin’s understanding of the old Neolithic networks supernatural power in as much as we are still ignorant today of its effect but this seems far-fetched. Yet at least he knew of the existence of Ley lines and may have had complete or partial understanding of their function. Melkin could also be using the term ‘Crater’to describe a cave or cavern that was pre prepared that refers to the Ictis Vault. In the Glastonbury scenario the ‘preparatis’ is hard to rationalise but assuredly the cave was pre-readied because without the cave, the functionality of Ictis and its description as an an Emporium would be redundant and the Island would not be specifically pointed to as the place where the tin was taken to by the cart load.
Now we know that Melkin’s puzzle works on many planes and if we use the word ‘potenter’ as meaning ‘effectually or Judiciously’ from the next line in conjunction with 'cratibus preparatis' and 'super potentem adorandam uirginem',we could contrive the meaning ‘The Tor by the sea with a pre-prepared crater over which effectually is the Adorable Virgin’. This again is tentative. There is a long standing tradition on the Island that a monastery once existed, so when Melkin wrote his riddle, did he know of a previous building dedicated to the Virgin Mary, situated over the subterranean vault before the dedication of a chapel to St. Michael after 1307 AD. Certainly parts of the Perlesvaus indicate this. One could even get the sense of ’a crate containing a preparation’ from ‘praeparatio’ and from ‘crateris’ a receptacle or trough with a preparation, referring to the embalming fluid contained within. This will become clear when we investigate the cedar embalming fluid surrounding Jesus’body .There is however on another level, a completely different meaning that can be extricated specifically relevant to the tunnels entrance. This seems to be the real clue to the tombs entrance with specific localised instructions assuming in Melkin's day there was a monastery on Burgh Island which becomes clear in a later chapter.
super potentem adorandam uirginem supradictis:
• super, rendering above, upward or on high,
• potentem, translates as mighty, powerful or being able ,having power or being capable, but it also has the sense of potential i.e reaching or attaining
• adorandam , meaning adorable or venerable. ‘ad’ by itself translating as; on, at, to or towards is directional. If we look at splitting the word into ad orandam we could be looking at the word orandam, giving ‘to pray to’ or be pleaded with, and also means to pray, as in this example‘ad orandum vero et communicandum’ …..which translates as ‘in truthful prayer and communication’. Is Melkin sending us toward where one prays ? ‘Ora’ as we have seen translates as ‘by the sea coast’, but also has another sense giving ‘extremity, brim or edge’, so with ‘virge’ is this Melkin’s meaning ‘extremity of the verge’ because already the 'Marmore' has told us that the island is by the sea.
The ‘Vera historia de morte Arthuri’, provides a tradition for the burial of Arthur and most of these traditions have an echo of truth. Here Arthur's body is taken to be buried in a certain chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary,(Adorable Virgin) but since the entrance is too narrow to get the body into, it is temporarily left outside while a storm comes and fog obscures everything. When the fog clears the body has disappeared and in its place there is a sealed tomb. ‘Some say that this is where the body resides; others claim that it was mysteriously carried off to an unknown destination during the storm’. The reference here is of a coastal location where storms and fog occur where we know the entrance to be on an Island....... with a sealed entrance that might once have had a monastery or chapel dedicated to the virgin Mary situated upon it. Is this Melkins meaning of ‘adorandam virginem’
• Virginem derived from ‘Virga’ giving virginalis with an obvious reference to the Virgin Mary. ‘adorandam virginem’means “The adorable virgin or maiden”. This sentence essentially is intonating precise local instructions to the entrance of the vault, giving its relation in the local vicinity to the crater and where an old church used to be situated. Diodorus Siculus who leads us to Ictis in the preceding chapters, bears witness that: “Opposite to the coast of Celtic Gaul there is an island in the ocean, (Britain) not smaller than Sicily, lying to the north… tradition says that Latona was born there and for this reason, the inhabitants venerate Apollo (the Sun God) more than any other god. They are, in a manor, his priests (Druids), for they daily celebrate him with continual song (Perpetual Choirs) and pay him abundant honours… In this island, there is a magnificent grove of Apollo (St Michael Ley line), and a remarkable temple of the spherical form (Avebury), adorned with many consecrated gifts”(Ley lines).
Latona had to give birth to Apollo and Artemis the twins of Zeus on an Island not accounted as land and not attached to the sea floor; Procopius’s ‘Otherworld’ which existed in Britain.
However, it would seem as if Melkin is giving direct instructions as to where the entrance to the sepulchre is. If we split ‘adorandam’ into ‘ad orandam’ it renders ‘in prayer’ if we use the root ‘oran’ it gives again the coast or brim or extremity or edge as before. ‘Vergere’ gives slope or incline which is a multi-levelled instruction. The English word ‘verge’ has the same derivative root of virga which gives virgin or verga. If we attempt this word string ‘super potentem adorandam uirginem supradictis’ as a whole whilst splitting ‘supradictis’ into‘supra ad ictis’, we get the sense ’upwards one is able at the edge of the verge up high in Ictis’.
supradictis : Normally translates as ‘aforementioned’. Melkin is clever here with the word ‘supradictis’to make it look like he is relating to the ‘sperulatis’, as if ‘supradictis’ is referring to the ‘aforementioned sperulis’ in the early part of the prophecy.‘supradictis’ translates as ‘spoken of, said before, mentioned above or aforesaid’, as most translators have it, and could even be word play on supra-dictis and could be rendered as “foretold from above”. As the reader will be aware, Melkin is not only naming the fabled island of Ictis, the very same island the prophecy is about; but ‘supra-ad-ictis’; informing us that Joseph and Jesus are ‘high up in Ictis’. ‘Supra’ rendering- above, aloft or on high. This may be an indicator of Melkin’s confidence at having entangled the enquirer sufficiently, or could even be a creeping anxiety that the intended purport of his message may never reach posterity with all its subtlety. However he was cognisant of the fact that Ictis is synonymous with Avalon and is responsible for changing the name as well as obscuring the location of both.
We will investigate further in relation to Leonardo Da Vinci’s connection to this Island and the subliminal messages he has left for posterity and the way that words and paintings are used to allude to concealed meanings. The most striking revelation about this obvious reference to Ictis is...... how does Melkin know it was called Ictis? Had Melkin indeed read the Greek and Roman accounts of Ictis and deduced himself, that the place is synonymous with Joseph’s burial place or was the history explained in a manuscript that expressly gave an account of Joseph’s connection with Ictis. The latter seems most probable as even in Melkin’s era Ictis’ whereabouts was lost to classical chroniclers. Even if Melkin did witness Arthur’s burial and saw Jesus’s remains, there would have to be some form of writing explaining why this Island was chosen by Joseph and related the islands historical name, five or six hundred years after Joseph’s burial. It is this body of writing that would appear to be part of the source for Melkin’s Book of the Grail and for this reason the Perlesvaus' authority stems from someone called Joseph who many assume to be just the narrator. This is not the case, but arises from the fact that Melkin in the Grail book is actually stating that the authority for the story of the holy relics reaching Britain, stems from Joseph himself. The reason we can assume this is that The High History which is a copy of the Perlesvaus written by Henry Blois says that the origins for all the Grail material came from the Island of Avalon which Melkin came across when Arthur was buried there, using this source and filling in the story up to Arthur .
It seems reasonable to assume that the Templars who built the St. Michael church design, returned Melkin's updated account i.e the Book of the Grail to the sarcophagus; otherwise this book would have come to light.
Most commentators have assumed that the reference in the High history of the Grail to the book emanating from the Island of Avalon indicates the writer of the perlesvaus or the High History transcribed it from there. Henry of Blois who derives his knowledge from the French material founded on Melkin's Grail book was informed that the Grail material was from a religious house on an Island by Melkin, but he had no idea where Avalon was. It is the opinion of the author that Melkin’s Book of the Grail was deposited in the sepulchre when the Turin Shroud was removed and shortly thereafter made public. The treasure and the Ark were also deposited at the same time which we will cover shortly.
However, now we get precise instructions as to the entrance of the old tin vault if we take the meaning of ‘cratibus praeparatis’ having a dual meaning in that it applies to the external crater dug by the original operators of Ictis so that they could get their cart to the tunnel entrance leading to the storage vault: ‘cratibus praeparatis, super potentem adorandam virginem, supradictis’…… meaning 'in a prepared crater at reaching the verge toward where one prays up high in Ictis'.
Showing the Cove stone within Avebury stone circle where the bifurcation or fork occurs between the St. Michael Ley line and the Joseph line at 13 degrees.
sperulatis locum habitantibus tredecim:
• sperulatis: Most translators have rendered this word string ‘where the aforesaid 13 spheres rest’ but with the word ‘sperulatis’, Melkin has set out to baffle the reader. If the enquirer is unable to resolve this last clause of the directional part of the riddle, one is not going to obtain the direction of 13 degrees from the St. Michael Ley line through Montacute to Burgh Island along the Joseph line. Melkin plays on the original use of the word ‘sperulis’, from which we derived sphere, which at the beginning of the prophecy related to the stone circle of Avebury. Melkin then refers back to ‘sperulis’ by using the word “aforementioned”(the normal meaning of 'supradictis') trying to convince the reader that the two words ‘sperulis’ and ‘sperulatis’ have one and the same meaning. However his use of the word for the second time has not the same sense as in circle or sphere, but rather in its composition, being comprised of degrees. Melkin surely meant ‘sperulatis’ as a diminutive form and of the symbol for degrees i.e. 13°……. the symbol being a small circle °. By the association with a sphere or circle being comprised of degrees and the fact we are dealing with geometric instructions, it is possible Melkin imagined that one would associate the word with its composition or definition and derive from it the enumerated angle. It might appear that Melkin has used a play on words assuming that the reader would know that ‘speraulus’ means ‘to be looked for’.
• The word locum is rendered as ‘where’ by most commentators but this same word also translates as ‘tomb or sepulchre’ in Ainsworth. Locum generally understood by translators as locus, refers to a place such as the location or place being discussed.
• The word habitantibus rendering to ‘dwell’ or‘abide’, seems very out of place in this sentence and it would be no surprise if ‘habit’ and ‘antibus’ were split to give the sense of ‘dwelling opposite’ at 13 degrees or some such contortion...... just as we toyed with ‘Vatican Antibus’. We could arrive at ‘antiboreus’ which translates as ‘looking towards the north’ or from ‘anticus’ translating as the fore part or southward. It is only because habitantibus is unusual, especially in this section of the directional part of the prophecy, that it would seem that the word needs to be split; so we could have the ‘locum’ as a sepulchre abiding in the fore part or southward of the 13 degrees, or those that dwell in the tomb are looking toward the north to the 13 degree angle. The reader can see how accurate Melkin has been by carrying out a simple trigonometric example by drawing a line at right angles down from the point at which the Ley lines cross each side of Glastonbury tor and this gives the precise angle of 12.838568 degrees, which is only 9 ‘seconds’ out and considering the fact that Melkin is trying to conceal that he is referring to degrees, can be accounted as a rounded up 13 degrees.
Figure 24a Showing the exemplified three sides of the right angle triangle giving 12.84 degrees.
• Tredecim: translating as thirteen. Sperulatis may give the translation ‘degree’ by its relationship with a sphere. A sphere is made up of 360°, so Melkin is giving a visual pun of the small circle that is the degree symbol because ‘Sperulatis’ is the diminutive form of Sperula. This is a novel yet apt description that the word conveys as long as the sense is understood, i.e. a tiny sphere or circle as the symbol used for degrees. However the angle of 13° between the Joseph and St. Michael Ley Line is so precise that it could have no other meaning, but the 13 degrees as shown in figure 25. Without Google Earth this investigation into Melkin’s directions would be difficult in the extreme, but it is oddly quaint that a crop circle nestles comfortably in the opposite angle to that indicating the 13 degrees just to the right of the Avebury circle as shown in figure 25.
Figure 25 Showing the 13° formed between the St. Michael Ley line and the Joseph line that ‘Bifurcate’ at Avebury.
Habet enim secum Ioseph in sarcophago duo fassula alba & argentea, cruore prophete Jhesu & sudore perimpleta:
• Habet enim secum, literally translates as ‘for he has with him’, ‘secus’ giving ‘nigh to’ or ‘with’. This sentence usually translates as ‘Joseph has with him in the sarcophagus two vessels, white and silver, filled with the blood and sweat of the Prophet Jesus’. Melkin in this second-half of the prophecy seems to get less obtuse, but his use of words indicates he is still supplying occult information. One assumes these days that the ‘duo fassula’ is synonymous with the Holy Grail, as indicated on the heraldic shield of Glastonbury. But what was rendered as a singular ‘graal’ originally in the Grail stories was corrupted into two beer jug like vessels on the Glastonbury Arms.
• Ioseph in sarcophago: in the sarcophagus or sepulchre or tomb, Joseph..... has with him.
• Duo Fassula: two‘fassula’…… before the Grail stories were written, must have confused the monks when the singular Grail appeared around 1150AD. At least this might have prevented a falsified find of Joseph’s remains, being totally unable to produce something so sacred as the blood and sweat of their Lord. It is not clear if there is an exact translation of ‘fassula’ because it is a direct obfuscation. Commentators have assumed that the Grail is a receptacle and it would seem that even Helinand is trying to rationalise three threads; 1) two vessels that he must have heard about. 2) The degrees, steps or grades that the word Graal suggested with his Latin derivatives. 3) The processional taking place in the Grail story while sitting at meat. Thus he came up with the etymology of a platter as a serving dish for meat.
In the Glastonbury case, we are led to believe that it holds two liquids, blood and sweat. So from the Latin ‘vas’, a vase, commentators have assumed ‘vassula. This sounds like ‘vascula’ which, as the reader will know is a vessel and therefore would seem the obvious deduction. As Melkin has proved to be accurate up to this point in the information that he is providing us, probably from a much older text, it would seem that the duality of the Grail as an object within the sarcophagus is more likely than the singularity of the Grail in the romances as the sense of Graal. In the Romances as we have covered, it has been largely misunderstood. As we have discussed, Melkin was the consolidator of that tradition in the Book of the Grail and, as a religious rite will have referred to it in the singular. This will be elucidated later, when we will see that the Graal from Gradatim are the degrees or stages of spiritual enlightenment in ‘Biblical Time’, rather than the physical object or receptacles containing the blood and sweat. A ‘fasciola’ however, is a bandage and a ‘fasceola’ is a swaddling cloth or a cloth swathe.
• alba translates as the word ‘Pearl’ in Latin but also has its translation as the word ‘white’ by most translators. In fact it directly refers to a ‘white cloth’. This of course would confirm the assumption of the white grave cloth otherwise known as the Turin Shroud of which there was mention in all four Gospels.
• argentea from ‘argenteus’ meaning ‘of silver’also translating as ‘clear or bright’ but usually to do with silver, a mass of bullion, coin or money. It also has another meaning of plated(as in silver plated) or ‘overlaid’. ‘Argentatus’ giving silvered, over plated or again‘overlaid’. Is this the heart of Melkin’s message that really shows who it is that Joseph brought to England and the proof?
• cruore from ‘Cruor’, translating as blood from a wound or gore. ‘Cruentatus’ giving made bloody or died with blood. The Glastonbury cruets as vessels or as Father Good referred to them as golden ampullae, are purely derived from word association from that Latin word for blood, ‘cruore’ then led to ‘cruet’ and from blood to vessel. Many researchers have chosen to translate as ‘two cruets’, leaving out‘fassula’ as the vessel and converting the blood supposedly contained in the vessel into the vessel itself, holding the blood. Thus we have the vessel holding the blood turning into a vessel that sounds like what the vessel is purported to contain.
• Sudore, ‘sudor’ giving sweat, labour, travail or pains. Melkin has given us here the answer to this problem of the‘duo fassula’ in that ‘fascla’a swathe or breast cloth and ‘fasciola’ swathing cloth, is meant as a ‘doubled’ white cloth covered in sweat and blood from Jesus, (overlaid, from ‘argentea’, as one would overlay an image with silver i.e. following the outline of the image) . If Geoffrey de Charney who was the first to exhibit the Turin Shroud, had removed it from the tomb it would explain its sudden appearance in the 1350’s.
Perimpleta; has always provided the word for ‘full’, in the context of ‘filled with the blood and sweat’ by nearly every commentator on the prophecy. Perimpleta is not a word in its own right that has meaning, but this is common with Melkin. It can be made up from ‘per – impleta’, coming from the verb 'impleo' which means 'I fill up/satiate'. The 'per-' on the front is a common latin prefix for emphasis i.e. 'completely full/satiated'.
'pleta' comes from 'pleo' which simply means 'I fill'. In the form 'pleta' it is acting as an adjective meaning 'filled'. This is obviously Melkin’s misdirectional intention.
However there is no evidence of the word existing as written here, so one can conclude it must be part of the riddle to be solved. 'peri' is a Greek word meaning 'around' and is usual as a prefix meaning "about, enclosing," as in the word ‘perimeter’ …….. a "line or outline around a figure or surface”. ‘Pleta’,literally giving, ‘I plait’ in English, meaning to fold or as the definition gives, "to bend cloth back over itself”. This seems to show that Melkin has a message to convey that Jesus is in an ‘enclosed fold’ or ‘enclosed in a fold’. It appears to confirm and describe the Turin Shroud as the article that Melkin is describing; that is the white cloth that covered Jesus while he was in Joseph’s tomb in Jerusalem (if he ever was). The different accounts regarding the cloth after the tomb was found empty, can largely be regarded as padding for the justification of a first-hand account,(all Gospel accounts differ) and each individual account given by the Gospel writers adding credibility to their personal explanation of the resurrection. There is no doubt that Melkin is letting the world know that a ‘doubled grave cloth, covered with blood (from wounds) and sweat from the prophet Jesus…..and it was Jesus who was enclosed in this folded cloth just as it is shown by the image on the Turin Shroud. The explanation of how the outline was formed and when the shroud left the sepulcher will be elucidated shortly.
• The prophete Jhesu is a poignant appellation, many researchers linking this expression with an eastern origin, as the Koran refers to Jesus in this way. Melkin as we shall see is fully aware that not only did the Prophets predict Jesus’s coming forth but also that he was the fulfilment on one level of understanding, of what they had predicted and thus, was one of their Genre and part of the Divine plan. We now have Melkin’s intended meaning of; ‘Joseph has with him in the tomb a doubled white folded cloth that was laid over the prophet Jesus and outlined by his sweat and blood’. Melkin again by naming Jesus in this way…… is making us believe this is just a reference to him and not that we are Talking about the Turin shroud and his body.
Cum reperietur eius sarchofagum integrum illibatum, in futuris videbitur et erit apertum toto orbi terranum:
• Cum reperietur eius sarchofagu; translates as‘with the discovery of his sarcophagus’ .
• Integrum; from ‘integrates’ translating as ‘entire or whole’. This is in reference to the body of Jesus being preserved by cedar oil in the Grail Ark.
• Illibatum; giving ‘untouched, pure or undefiled’, from libatum ‘defiled’ as in ‘virginitas libata’
• in futuris videbitur; translating As ‘in the future, it will be seen’.
• et erit apertum toto orbi terranum; gives ‘and will be opened to all, around the world’.
The translations of this sentence appear for the most part as; ‘once his sarcophagus is discovered, it will be seen whole and untouched and then open to the whole world’ or similarly, ‘with the discovery of his tomb, which will be whole and undefiled, from thenceforth it will be viewed and open to the entire world’. As in the beginning part of the prophecy, where Melkin speaks of the future referring to a period when Joseph's body is uncovered, as a time when pilgrims would give praise to God at the island…… so is this sentence referring to that same point in the future. This does infer a religious change at the discovery of the tomb and Melkin twice, in this short prophecy, mentions the ‘whole world’ or ‘all around the world’, indicating that it will be a change in the religious system with global ramifications. ‘Open to the whole world’; indicating, not a Christian world, but an all-inclusive world of Muslims and Jews of the Abrahamic traditions, but also including all faiths that are understanding the proofs of Divine intervention by prediction, convinced by that which is revealed, upon the opening of the tomb.
Melkin starts the sentence with ‘cum’ and with its various forms of translation, by inference, is indicating a point in time i.e. ‘with the unveiling of the sarcophagus’. This is the commencement of a 1000 year period spoken of in Revelation 26:6 ‘Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years’. Melkin’s understanding of ‘Time’ is what most qualifies him as a prophet and why such great importance should be attached to this prophecy because he is speaking in ‘The Times’ i.e. from the birth of Jesus to the uncovering of the tomb and speaking about the commencement of a new age, the 1000 years which are to follow . A fuller explanation of ‘time, times and half of time’ will come shortly.
Ex tunc nec aqua nec ros celi insulam nobilissimam habitantibus poterit deficere.
Ex tunc; ‘from thenceforth’. This whole sentence is most commonly translated as, ‘from then on, those who dwell in that noble island will lack neither water nor the dew of heaven’. Melkin starts the sentence ‘ex tunc’ or literally ‘from that time’, indicating again the expectation of change at the point of time when the tomb is unveiled. What Melkin understands is that religion in general with its multitudinous dead practices across the world (starting in Britain) will now accept the God of Israel as the only truth, in amongst the myriad of other gods by which men contrive their ‘modus operandi’
nec aqua nec ros celi; this is again confirming God-given blessings from that time forward. Rain and dew are metaphorical for spiritual blessings sent from heaven and from thenceforth, never failing those who are converted in that island. However, Melkin is imparting occult information here on one level, in that, he is using the word ‘nekros’ from the Greek, which gives us ‘dead, dead body, corpse’ or ‘nekrosis’ "a becoming dead, state of death.Now the reader may find this next bitincomprehensible but it is based upon the correct interpretation of the prophets and this is Melkin’s reference to the ‘spiritually dead’. It shows that he is fully aware of the‘degrees’ of spiritual progress of Man set within the finite parameters of‘Biblical Time’. This expression ‘Spiritually dead’ is encapsulated throughout the prophets as those who come out of ‘spiritual Egypt’ and do not obey the Law engraved within them i.e. the denial of the testimony of Jesus. Those that do this are accounted ‘spiritually dead’ but those that accept his testimony are accounted as alive-or living. This is overcoming the first death spoken of in Revelation. However those that accept the testimony of Jesus by ‘coming out of Egypt’ yet afterward with the pressures of life, and the innate qualities of corruptness that are the lot of the human condition……they fall away into ‘non-compliance with conscience’ or disobedience to that engraved upon their heart. These then undergo and experience the analagous‘Fall of Jerusalem’. This is referred to throughout the prophets and of course is followed by the seven years of compliance (known spiritually as ‘the captivity’), a period to put away sin and of purification and acknowledgement that there is a God (The whole point of the divine plan to self-realisation or Gnosis). After the acknowledgement and compliance, spiritual peace is found,(the goal of the Divine plan) and this is the overcoming of the second death also mentioned in Revelation. Failure to comply in the ‘spiritual captivity’ period, results in the second death i.e. spiritual death (non peace). The three periods or degrees of Gnosis; firstly the coming out of Egypt, secondly the return from the Captivity (in the Spiritual sense) and thirdly the heavenly state of spiritual peace, are synonymous with the three days that Jesus speaks of, when he refers to the rebuilding of the Temple. This is how this ‘Shir ha Ma'a lot’ fits in as the Grades or steps toward the Temple. These three days are also synonymous as, the three periods of time i.e. Time, the Times and Half Time. ‘And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as arefor death to death; and such as arefor captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword’. Jeremiah 43:10.
What Melkin is referring to here are those persons that in the seven years of captivity after the fall of spiritual Jerusalem, who do not acknowledge that there is a God; from that time forward there will be no more water from heaven. ‘Seven times will pass by for you, until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.’ Daniel 4:32. Daniel 4:25.
The evidences for Melkin’s double meaning here rely on elucidation in a later chapter as a digression here is not opportune and the explanation involves the issue of‘Biblical Time’.
It is here however that it becomes evident that one scribal change has been made for reasons to accord or marry with the word ‘insula’ the first word of the prophecy and the Island of Avalon we have been trying to locate. This scribal alteration was most probably innocently changed before or by John of Glastonbury when transcribing Melkin’s prophecy. Melkin wrote originally the word ‘insalem’ as a pun because with this word the purport of his occult meaning is passed to the initiated but also the mundane sense is conveyed. Melkin’s original would have read; ‘Ex tunc nec aqua nec ros celi insalem nobilissimam habitantibus poterit deficere. If one were to split ’insalem’ as intended by Melkin to, ‘in salem’, then the sentence reads ‘from that time there is no water for the dead but those that live in (heavenly) peace, will not lack drink’. This is the peace of which comes to those who have come out of Egypt initially and then subsequently purified themselves during the seven year Captivity after the spiritual fall of Jerusalem. ‘In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people. Isaiah 11:11.
insulam nobilissimam; ostensibly translating as ‘noble Island’ in the one sense as Melkin intended but as we have seen, this originally would have been written as the non existant Latin word ‘insalem’, which when split gives ‘in peace’ the very objective of Gnosis and the understanding behind the essence of the Grail.‘Mental rest’ in the landscape of the mind, which allegorically has its similitude in the Holy land, is the key to the understanding of the vast body of knowledge incorporated in the prophets. A difficult concept to grasp, but the ‘rest and peace’, that the prophets speak of is spiritual and not historical.
However like so many words in Melkin’s prophecy, the outward word suggests a mis-spelt meaning, yet when uncovered, the occult sense is revealed just as in Usher’s version giving Judioialem instead of the modern corrected or assumed form of ‘Judicialem’ to conform with Saphat. ‘Judioialem’ was probably a corruption or conscious scribal correction and almost certainly the original word that Melkin would have written was ‘Judiosalem’. The reason that this assumption can be posited is because it is a certainty that Melkin understood the message of the Biblical prophets. This can be assumed by his understanding of Biblical time which can only be gleaned from the prophets of Israel.
habitantibus poterit deficere
• habitantibus from a root of ‘habitatio’ , ‘habitator’ ,‘habitatus’ or ‘habito’ giving ‘to dwell, live in, or abide. Melkin’s choice of words is exact and precise to convey the sense of a spiritual place where one lives at peace, much as today the modern expression of describing someone as being ‘in a good place’ in reference to their state of mind or mental wellbeing. This concept of a spiritual location is vital to the understanding of the prophets, as what was essentially a landscape in historical time (set in Biblical time) becomes by mental transformation…….. as Melkin comprehends, a mental landscape of peace within which one can potentially live. This essentially is the Kingdom of Heaven that is referred to by Jesus as an earthly attainable state…… the likes of which he proclaimed to be at hand or attainable. Unfortunately the opposite state being equally attainable. The subject requires an elucidation that is grounded in the prophets and the subject analysis is too broad to be dealt with within these pages excepting the subject of Biblical Time……. which we will cover only to show that Melkin was certain that what he prophesied would take place at a set point, in that time.
• Poterit; from a root describing ‘drink or drinking’ which again has biblical connotations. Drinking is synonymous with acceptance of the divine plan or God’s word and of what is revealed by the prophets of Israel. The real sense of spiritual drinking can by association be equated with the satiation of spiritual thirst as in Jeremiah 49:12‘This is what the LORD says: "If those who do not deserve to drink the cup; must drinkit, why should you go unpunished? ... You must drink this cup of judgment!’. Or again in Obadiah 4:16 ‘Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been!’ Here again in Mark 10:38 ‘Can you drink the cup? But Jesus said to them, "You don't know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink from.
• Deficere from ‘deficio’ meaning, to leave or fail one’ giving the word ‘lack’ as most translators have it.
Per multum tempus ante diem Judioialem in iosaphat erunt aperta haec, & viventibus declarata:
Most translations of this passage differ only slightly; ‘for a long time before the day of judgement in Josaphat, these things will be openly declared to the living’.
• Per multum tempus ante; translates as ‘a long time before’ and relates as we have already seen to the 1000 year period from the time the tomb is unveiled before the day of Judgement i.e from the time that Joseph’s and Jesus’ tomb is unveiled. This is the last period of the seven day period of 7,000 years that constitute the framework of ‘Biblical Time’.
• diem Judicialem. ‘diem Judicialem’ which is purely conforming to the notion of its connection to judgement day may have undergone a scribal change. This has been due to its connection with Jehosaphat which the Abrahamic faiths believe refers to judgement day. Melkin again can only be understood with a grasp of the Prophets prophesying in time, as biblical spans of time are often misunderstood being dependant upon how the prophet is referencing the subject, this determining the unit time measure expressed.
Melkin here most probably wrote ‘Judiosalem’ which obviously is word play on Jerusalem as well as being a subliminal joining of Judah (Judeo) and Salem which has been changed to judicialem because of its connection with Judgement day. Exactly what Melkin intented is most likely to have been‘Judeosalem’ ‘The day of Judah’s peace’ or ‘peace of the Jews’ referring to the spiritual peace of those coming out of spiritual Babylon which takes place on the day of Jehosaphat, as long as the thousand year period is understood as a day being the seventh day of the one week of Biblical time. Melkin is using the word ‘Salem’ from which Jerusalem is derived from Urušalimum , ‘Foundation of Shalem’; Salem coming from the word shalem, shalom, shalim or salam meaning peace; the city of Jerusalem which dates back to the early bronze age, where Abraham and Melchizedek met. ‘Judah’s peace’ is the goal of the Divine plan if one accepts that a ‘Jew’ is a spiritual Jew i.e. a person having come out of Egypt primarily and then subsequently returned from the Babylonian captivity, (Babylon the Great in the spiritual sense) and then found peace through adherence to the Law and acknowledgement of the existence of God. This view of the prophets being not only historical, seems newly contrived, but is the essential perception although not intellectually or theologically comprehended, that unites and is perceived by the Abrahamic faiths
• in iosaphat: Melkin has steered the reader into assuming a place, by prefixing ’Josaphat’with ‘in’, when he is quite aware of Jehosaphat’s meaning as a period of biblical time (which is the 1000 years of ‘The Times’ halved) and accounted as a degree of spiritual awakening being the third day of the three time periods, time times, and halftime as these were referred to by Jesus as days. The reader will remember that ‘saphat’ was rendered as judgement in the earlier part of the prophecy. ‘Judiosalem’, became Judioalem and was then changed to‘Judicialem’ because of its association with Jehosaphat being commonly associated with the last Judgement. The rendering of ‘Saphat’ as ‘judgement’ in the previous passage is incorrect, when ‘potens in Saphat’, should be understood as ‘he who’s might is in spiritual awakening’ in direct reference to spiritual Jews.
The Valley of Josaphat or Valley of Jehoshaphat is mentioned in only one passage of the Bible, in Joel 3.2 : "I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations". It is from this passage that Christians derive Jehosaphat as the ‘last judgement’, which is exactly what Melkin is alluding to. Due to its attachment to a valley, theologians have assumed it has a geographical location, but like ‘mountain’ in biblical texts; it rarely, especially in prophetical literature, has the sense of geographical location. When the reader of prophetical literature becomes aware of the concept of a historical location( i.e the Holy land and its tribes) set in ‘Biblical Time’ that has become a blueprint for a spiritual landscape, this transliterable approach to the comprehension of the Prophets words becomes clearer. The prophets speak of the nations and their attributes dualistically applying to real time historical prophecy but also understandable within an individual mental landscape. Josaphat incidentally is the name given to the forth king of Judah. The essence of Jehosaphat’s meaning is captured with the passage in Matthew. 25, and bears witness that the voice of Jesus can be heard by everyone that spiritually came out of Egypt i.e. heard the Law; but then subsequently most of those who were initially blessed with this miraculous correcting toward gnosis, chose to ignore their conscience, eventually being sent to captivity in Spiritual Babylon at the destruction of Spiritual Jerusalem. This does sound oversimplified and contrived but we will come to this when discussing ‘Biblical time’ but the point is that Jesus did not only come for the Gentiles but all the children of Israel. Evidence of the Divine plan can be witnessed in Mathew 25 showing the relationship of choice with deed which as we have stated, takes place within the seven year period which is the defining time of purification through compliance or as it is Biblically known ‘the troublous times’ : 31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me’. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, ‘when did we see you hungry, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?’ 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me’. 41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not . 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me’. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
erunt aperta haec, & viventibus declarata:
usually translated as’openly shall these things be declared to the living’ but another interpretation could be that ‘these things will be openly accepted or made apparent by those having reached spiritual awareness’. ‘Viventibus’, the living or alive, has the same connotation as in prophetical literature, as those not spiritually dead. Throughout the prophets this notion is held that man can be alive, not in the sense that humans are either dead or alive but spiritually alive, as opposed to those in whom their conscience no longer councils to do good but instead, acts conversely as a ‘fearful looking for of judgement’. It is from this understanding that we might grasp God not being a ‘respector of persons’ but only of those who are spiritually alive.
Melkin specifically points to a period in time and this point in time is the uncovering of Jesus’ body. The reason for this is obvious in the proofs it will provide for the future, not only of the veracity of his prophecy but substantiating the words of the Prophets of Israel……… these confirmations and the realisation of a Divine plan will cause a paradigm shift in consciousness. Jesus and the Archangel Michael mentioned in Revelation and Daniel seem to be both part of the raising of Human consciousness and are accounted as witnesses to the Divine Plan.
Figure 25a Edward Burne Jones’s Tapestry of‘The Failure of Sir Gawaine & Sir Uwaine at the Ruined Chapel’ showing St. Michael the Archangel as the one entering into the Grail chamber to ask the fabled Question; Who does the Grail serve?
Although the Angel connected with the Grail is often named as Gabriel, this is a later interpolation as we do not find the name Gabriel in the early French verses, only that an of an angel on whose forehead was written ‘Je sui apieles forche del très haut signour’, ‘I am called the strength of the Most High God’; and as related in Revelation the leader of God’s heavenly host. It is common to all the Abrahamic faiths that Michael is the one to unite the nations, but is also seen as the second witness in Biblical time as Daniel speaks of his arrival at the end time of what he instructed as being encapsulated within the parameters of Biblical time.
It would seem by the Templars dedication of all the St. Michael churches within our design that this angel was either named in the book of the Grail or assumed from prophetical prediction as connected with the Grail.
In Fragments of the Prince Melchizedek document found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Melchizedek and the Archangel Michael are one and the same and there is undoubtedly an understanding of Michael being inextricably linked to the Grail, since all these churches that have led us to this Island of Avallon, have been named after him specifically. It is through the Archangel that the Dragon is killed .The Archangel being inextricably linked to accounts in Revelation and the Prophets, showing Biblical inter-relation with the spiritual quest of the Grail romances……… all integrally linked to Jesus the Archetypal son of the God of Israel. It is ‘HE’ who spoke through the Prophets, who mankind calls God, whose plan it is, to elevate the Consciousness of Man, and this is also allegorically replicated as the ascension of the steps by degrees to the Temple.
It is God that carries out his Divine Plan in Time, but the Archangel Michael who seems to have lived throughout time is inescapably linked to all aspects of our investigation. His name is linked with the Island, with the Grail………… and as the protector of God’s people as seen here in the The Apocolypse of Paul or Visio Pauli
Hear What Michael says! I am he who stands in the sight of God every hour. As the lord lives, in whose sight I stand, I do not stop one day or night praying incessantly for the human race, and I indeed pray for those who are on the Earth, but they do not cease committing iniquity and fornications; and they do not do any good while they are placed on earth and you have consumed in vanity the time in which you ought to have repented.
Figure 25b Showing the St. Michael Ley line...... the Joseph line relative to the Island of Ictis which Joseph visited as a tin merchant. This shows the ingot wreck sites proximity to the the Island of Avalon.