The Holy Grail and the Shroud of Turin

by John White

Christianity, rightly understood, is a Western enlightenment tradition. Just as Buddha did not teach Buddhism, Christ did not teach Christianity. Both taught systems for self-liberation or God-realization. (The names of the religions arose long after their founders walked the earth.) In the West, however, those who preserved the teaching of Jesus too often failed to understand it. As a result, the religion of Jesus became a religion about Jesus, a cult of personality rather than a path for self-transcendence.

Consequently, the enlightenment aspect of Christianity was driven underground, and only now is reemerging publicly because of two factors. First is the discovery of lost Gnostic texts and esoteric knowledge which challenge traditional dogma about the nature and teaching of Jesus. Second is the huge hunger around the world for self-transcendence and acceleration of evolution beyond ego into a higher form of humanity. (I think that accounts in great part for the mega-sales of The Da Vinci Code, although the novel badly misdirects readers with regard to the nature of the Holy Grail. As you will see here, the Holy Grail is not the bones of Mary Magdalene or the presumed bloodline of Jesus or even the Divine Feminine. The Holy Grail is actually the Shroud of Turin, the burial cloth of Jesus the Christ. The Shroud satisfies all questions about the Holy Grail.)

Forced to hide itself, an underground “stream” of teaching and teachers kept alive the knowledge of enlightenment, just as Jesus himself had done in his time for a tradition whose origin goes back at least to pharoanic Egypt. The pharaonic funeral tradition of ancient Egypt is primarily about the process of consciousness transference from the flesh body to the spirit body or akh—or, more properly, learning to operate in the spirit body independently of the flesh body. Knowledge of that ceremonial process may have passed into Judaism via Moses, who became a member of the Pharaoh's household when he was rescued as a baby by a pharaoh's daughter. As he grew up, he was probably initiated by temple priests into their secret knowledge about higher human development.

From Moses, according to esoteric legends, the akh-knowledge descended through the centuries as an inner teaching in some branches or schools of Judaism, emerging publicly and most dramatically when Jesus demonstrated the conquest of death by his resurrection, leaving the tomb as the Risen One. Legends and some esoteric documents have the tradition continuing through some of the early Christians to the Cathars of southern France.

The Knights Templar

Another group which rightly understood Jesus was the Order of the Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or Knights Templar. Begun in the 12th century, the Templars were the ones who first named the Holy Grail and initiated the story of the Grail Quest. Now, thanks to dedicated investigators such as Frank Tribbe, author of the recent book The Holy Grail Mystery Solved, and Noel Currer-Briggs, author of the earlier book The Holy Grail and the Shroud of Christ, the Holy Grail can be understood as enlightenment or God-realization and the Grail Quest as the process of growth to enlightenment—the very essence of Jesus’s teaching-demonstration.

However, there is an actual physical object—the Shroud of Turin— which likewise merits the term Holy Grail. What is the connection between a psychological process and a physical object? How can both be the same thing? Here is the explanation.

The Templars, headquartered in Paris, were violently suppressed and disbanded in 1307 on trumped-up charges by King Phillip IV of France and Pope Clement V in order to seize the Order’s great wealth from its treasury in Paris and elsewhere. But the Templars had been warned; Philip found the treasury empty. (No, that treasure did not end up under Trinity Church in New York City, despite what the film National Treasure portrays, although the location and nature of the treasure is a subject of much investigation and speculation. The Da Vinci Code portrays it beneath Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, just south of Edinburgh. I’ve been in the crypt beneath the chapel; the treasure is not there either. Wherever it may be, I personally believe the principal treasure items were copper scrolls, dating from Jesus’s time or earlier and recovered by the Templars from beneath Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem when the Order began, which contained detailed information and instruction about the process of higher human development to enlightenment. The Templars eventually gave rise to Freemasonry, which preserves some of the precious knowledge. In the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, there is a degree in which the initiate searches beneath Solomon’s Temple for the “lost Word.” That “word,” in my opinion, was actually written instructions on how to attain the state of holiness exemplified by Jesus the Christed One. Thus, in my opinion, the greatest Templar treasure was a Codex of Enlightenment.)

The principal charge against the Templars was this: they worshiped the image of a bearded man. In an irony totally lost on Philip, the charge was true. According to Tribbe, the Templars had come into possession of the Shroud, the legendary burial cloth which wrapped Jesus in the tomb. (His just-published book Portrait of Jesus? traces the history of the Shroud from the tomb, through its possession by the Templars, to its current location.) It was kept folded in a wooden box or casket with an opening which allowed the face of the Man in the Shroud to be viewed as a form of worship. (Many Templar buildings had paintings or icons which replicated the face.) The viewing window of the Shroud’s wooden container was framed with latticework. Citing the work of Currer-Briggs, Tribbe explains that the Old French word greille, which referred to the lattice frame or grillwork, was transliterated over time into the English “grail.” (The transliterated word’s meaning was corrupted, however, because “grail” etymologically means cup or bowl, and the various Grail-story authors wrongly told the public that the Holy Grail was the cup of the Last Supper or a bowl which caught Jesus’s blood while he was on the cross.) The wooden frame itself was not holy, of course. Naming it was simply a shorthand way of referring to the tangible evidence of holiness which it displayed—the cloth imprinted with the image of the risen Jesus formed at the moment of resurrection. That image records Jesus’s attainment of the final stage of enlightenment, namely, becoming light itself. That is, he attained the resurrection body or light body; he became a being of light.

Scientific Study of the Shroud

The Shroud, presently residing in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist at Turin, Italy, is now the most important religious relic in the world because it has been subjected to such rigorous scientific testing that its authenticity has been established. (The Latin term for shroud is sindon and those who study such, including the one at Turin, are sindonologists.) Although a carbon-14 test in the late 1980s purportedly showed that the Shroud was no older than the 13th century—and therefore was a hoax—it has now been shown that those test results were badly flawed due to several factors. First, the piece of Shroud used for testing was taken from what is now recognized as a 14th century “patch” or repair of the Shroud, woven “invisibly”—i.e., not immediately visible to the naked eye. Second is the presence of biological material (mold or microorganisms growing on the fibres) and carbon particles (from the smoke of a 16th century fire in which the Shroud was partly burned) on the piece of fabric tested which skewed results toward a more modern date.

New chemical tests move the age of the Shroud back in time to the first century A.D. Furthermore, the weaving of the linen Shroud is now recognized as consistent with the weaving of first century Palestine but not 14th century Europe. Moreover, new research has identified pollen grains on the Shroud which could only have come from the vicinity of Jerusalem during the months of March and April—Passover time—when such vegetation is in bloom. For these and other research-based reasons, the Shroud is now clearly established by sindonologists as an authentic first-century relic from the Near East, precisely as legend holds.

As for the image of the Man in the Shroud, research likewise indicates it is no hoax. The blood stains are real, type AB, and contain human male DNA. Tribbe notes in Portrait of Jesus? that the closest science can come to explaining how the image of the Man in the Shroud got there is by comparing the situation to a controlled burst of high-intensity radiation similar to the Hiroshima bomb explosion which "printed" images of incinerated people on building walls. Shroud researcher Ray Rogers, a physical chemist from Los Alamos Laboratory, said, "I am forced to conclude that the image was formed by a burst of radiant energy—light if you like." In other words, the image is recorded on the cloth as if by a photoflash of brilliant light rising from the body of the Man in the Shroud. Another Shroud researcher, Prof. Alan Adler of Western Connecticut State College, concluded that the Shroud image could have been created only by a form of energy which science cannot name. (Portrait of Jesus? describes this and more about the Shroud.)

The image of the Man in the Shroud was created by a mysterious—call it miraculous—process which science does not understand. The Templars understood it, however. At least, they understood that the Shroud was mute testimony to the fact that Jesus transubstantiated himself in the tomb through an act equivalent to a self-controlled nuclear explosion which alchemically transformed his flesh, blood and bone into a body of light and thereby conquered death. He attained enlightenment to the ultimate degree and is now known as the Light of the World (John 8:12). That was the object of Templar worship.

The Teaching-Demonstration of Jesus

The face-image was venerated by the Templars because it visibly demonstrated the central fact of Jesus’s teaching: the conquest of death through ascension in holiness of spirit to total oneness with God. Properly understood, Tribbe says, the Grail is enlightenment and the Grail Quest is actualizing our human potential for growth to that state of being which Jesus demonstrated and called humanity to attain. Jesus's attainment of the resurrection body which created the image of the Man in the Shroud is the highest form or ultimate stage of enlightenment—literally becoming light. That is what Jesus taught and demonstrated. His teaching-demonstration was not simply moral, as Churchianity tends to imply. It was also mystical and metaphysical, as the suppressed traditions make clear.

Most important, Jesus’s teaching-demonstration was universal, intended for all humanity, and it is therefore profoundly evolutionary. Jesus was a teacher of evolutionary enlightenment. He wanted to show it is inherent in our human potential to become like him—i.e., to imitate Christ, to become Christ-like. Imagine a world peopled by individuals who have so completely followed the teaching of Jesus that they have, in effect, duplicated him in themselves. Imagine a world peopled by individuals who, as St. Paul foresees, attained “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Tribbe's scholarship places the Shroud in the context of the human potential for enlightenment and shows its significance for the entire human race, not in denominational terms but in psychophysical terms. (My VI article “Enlightenment and the Body of Light,” Nov.-Dec. 2003, discusses other sacred traditions which also see higher human development concluding with attainment of a light body.)

Jesus wanted people to understand that the human potential can change the human condition. He wanted people to understand that egoic hell can become ecstatic heaven through an ascent in consciousness from the sin of self-centeredness to the nondual realization that “I and the Father are one.” Heaven, Mr. Webster tells us, means a state of unbroken communion with God. That condition of unbroken communion is God-realization, self-liberation or enlightenment. Heaven or the kingdom of God is not limited to the postmortem state. It can be attained in this life. The kingdom is within us, to be realized—a potential to be made real—by following the way Jesus taught. Hence, Jesus “opened the gates of heaven” for the entire human race. “The kingdom of heaven” and “the kingdom of God” were therefore his terms for enlightenment.

Jesus did not claim an exclusive relationship with God, but rather an all-inclusive one which he called humanity to share. (Remember that the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t begin with “My Father” but with “Our Father.”) Heaven/the kingdom of God/enlightenment is for everyone who will follow Jesus in his teaching-demonstration.

Jesus, Adam and America

Nor did Jesus claim to be the only Son of God; rather, he spoke of himself most often as the Son of Man, the offspring of humanity. To the apostle Paul, Jesus was the “second Adam” or “new Adam” (I Corinthians 15:45), the progenitor of a new race, the starting point for our higher human development beyond ego on a species-wide basis. To the apostle Peter, the Word became flesh “to make us partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). A few other Church fathers similarly understood higher human development. St. Athanasius: “The Son of God became man so that we might become God.” St. Thomas Aquinas: “The Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature so that he, made man, might make men gods.” As Jesus himself said, quoting Psalm 82, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'?" (John 10:34).

Jesus spoke and acted on the premise that all people have the capacity to attain the kingdom of heaven, and that if a sufficient number of people did that, the world would be transformed into heaven on earth, manifesting outwardly what was already the case inwardly. Actualizing that worldwide would be a mighty step forward in human evolution—a step in a process ordained by God and hence an Intelligent Design for the human race.

The Templars sought to do that, following in the Way which Jesus taught. Because of their experience with the corruption of the Old World, however, the Templars apparently set in motion a long-term project for the creation of a new and uncorrupted society in the New World. Over time, the suppressed Order of the Temple gave rise to modern Freemasonry and to the Freemasons (such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, John Paul Jones and James Monroe) who had such a strong role in the foundation and formation of America.

Is it possible that America is the result of a Templar/Masonic experiment intended to create a New Jerusalem or New Israel in the New World—not a Jewish nation but a universally God-centered society? John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson spoke of that possibility for our country. They saw in America the potential for human perfection, just as the Puritans had spoken of the newly settled continent as the Promised Land. The Founders spoke not of a secret organization but rather of their hope for a holy society whose collective will was to reflect heaven on earth and thereby fulfil the ancient biblical covenant with God to be “a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Even anticlerical Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again”—i.e., go back to the Garden of Eden and get things right this time. The Great Seal of the United States expresses the same idea of a new beginning with the words Novus Ordo Seclorum, “the new order of the ages.”

if there is anything sacred about America, it is the idea that God is the author of our being and the source of our freedom, our sovereignty, our rights, our justice and our human dignity. The four references to Deity in the Declaration of Independence collectively express those ideas (“Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge of the World,” “divine Providence”). They are very Masonic ideas, injected into the social-political institutions and world-view of America by those Freemasons who were among its Founders. Moreover, the most fundamental value of America is freedom, the same value expressed in the prefix of Masonry. Was it purely chance, or has a hidden hand been guiding American affairs through the centuries and working through barely visible means which carry the symbols and substance of Templary/Freemasonry?

If so, then America is an social-political experiment in evolutionary enlightenment. Understanding that leads directly to the recognition that a global culture and political system founded on universal wisdom and unconditional love is not only possible, but actually within our grasp. I call it The United States of the World—a global America, one planet-nation under God—purified of its own corruption and self-aggrandizing aspirations to empire, peacefully and benignly spreading its noble ideals, and holding aloft the torch of “freedom’s holy light” whose ultimate form is enlightenment itself. What better Holy Grail can there be?

—The Shroud of Turin Website

There are many web sites offering information about the Shroud of Turin, such as The Holy Shroud—Official site . But for one-stop shopping, so to speak, go to The Shroud of Turin Website, www.shroud.com, based in Los Angeles. It was created in 1996 by Barry M. Schwortz, the Official Documenting Photographer for the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP). It has had millions of visitors. It offers links to nearly every other Shroud-related web site. It also has an on-line library of Shroud books, articles, conference and symposia proceedings, and related materials, plus a listing of Shroud centers and organizations.

Schwortz was part of the 1978 team which spent ten days examining the Shroud. He took 2,700 photographs, many of which are available on the website for viewing and purchase in high-resolution images.

In his introductory message, Schwortz says that at first, he wondered whether someone raised as an Orthodox Jew should be part of such a “Christian” project. He was convinced by a friend that he should because of his technical expertise. He is glad he took the advice. Two decades later, he says, “Frankly, I am still Jewish, yet I believe the Shroud of Turin is the cloth that wrapped the man Jesus after he was crucified. That is not meant as a religious statement, but one based on my privileged position of direct involvement with many of the serious Shroud researchers in the world, and a thorough knowledge of the scientific data, unclouded by media exaggeration and hype. The only reason I am still involved with the Shroud of Turin is because knowing the unbiased facts continues to convince me of its authenticity.” The purpose of his web site, Schwortz says, is so “you can see for yourself.”

—The Sudarium of Oviedo

The Sudarium of Oviedo is an ancient bloodstained linen cloth the size of a small towel which is claimed to have covered the head of Jesus of Nazareth after his crucifixion (see John 20:5-7). It has been kept as a holy relic in the cathedral at Oviedo, in northern Spain, since the 8th century. The Sudarium (Latin for “face cloth”) is severely soiled and crumpled, with dark flecks that are symmetrically arranged but form no image, unlike the markings on the Shroud of Turin. It has been dated to the 7th century by historical documents and it seems highly probable, from other historical records, that it goes back to first century Jerusalem. Pollen on it comes from Palestine, Egypt and Spain, confirming the oral tradition that the Sudarium was taken from Jerusalem through North Africa to Spain.

In the 1980s, sindonologists began examining the Sudarium for links to the Shroud of Turin. As a result of various studies, the Sudarium is now regarded as providing new evidence for the authenticity of the Shroud because:

• The cloth has been known historically as the Sudarium Domini and has always been associated with Jesus of Nazareth.

• The Sudarium is of the same kind of cloth (but not weave) and the blood type (AB) matches those on the Shroud.

• One type of pollen is identical to that found on the Shroud. It grows only east of the Mediterranean Sea as far north as Lebanon and as far south as Jerusalem.

• Scientific studies validate the ancient claim that the cloth had covered the head of a long-haired, bearded man with bleeding scalp wounds who died in an upright position.

• Residue of what is most likely myrrh and aloe have been discovered in the Sudarium, in accord with the Jewish burial custom of Jesus’s time.

• The face of the man in the Sudarium had typically Jewish features, a prominent nose and pronounced cheekbones.

• The Sudarium and the Shroud have so many bloodstains which match up—70 on the face side and 50 on the rear side—that the only possible conclusion is that the Sudarium of Oviedo covered the same face as the Shroud of Turin.

In summary, both tradition and science indicate the Sudarium was used to cover the head of the dead body of Jesus. No evidence points away from that conclusion except for one radiocarbon dating to the 7th century, and the researcher who obtained that age of the cloth acknowledges that his results are questionable. See various web sites for research data and the 2001 book Sacred Blood, Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo by Janice Bennett (P.O. Box 2001, Littleton, CO 80127-0005).

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