Dan Green : Part 2

4. Speaking of decoding clues outside of the Cathedral, what about the Alfred Tennyson plaque and its curious, raised letters?

Curiously, there are only two statues of Tennyson anywhere to my knowledge, and Tennyson of course is most renowned for his Holy Grail poem. If we take a close look at his plaques they are loaded with symbolism and things that I have since decoded and which are germane to the Rennes-le-Château mystery.

Tennyson Plaque – outside Lincoln Cathedral

The Tennyson plaque is only about two or three hundred yards from the marker tomb. On it we can clearly see ROI and SION; and SION and ROI interlock, which is pretty much the main body of Parchment 2 at Rennes-le-Château. ROI is French for King. So we have King and SION.  Much of the plaque relates to his famous Holy Grail poem. For instance, if you read the last four lines its clear they contain clues to Lincoln Cathedral and the link in the Da Vinci Code. I go into this in some details in my books. The odds against all this happening are just astronomical.

5. Back to the tomb / crypt. What is the status of your quest to scan it?

As I’m sitting here now I have in fact obtained permission for the scan. It’s going through the Cathedral protocol right now. I’m using a company in Cambridge that accidentally discovered lost Royal tombs in Westminster, so I’m using the best company and the best technology. It will be a ground penetrating radar scan at a depth where I anticipate the treasure to be found. It’s really that straight forward.

You mentioned earlier that the spot has been validated as being potentially significant by other means, namely dousing. Can you elaborate on what others have found and to validate your X marks the spot?

I did commission a dowser, renowned for finding things in the past and I gave him very little information to go on. He said ‘just tell me what you want me to look for and I'll do what I do’.  At the time I just said that this is a burial ground and we’re looking for a hidden / lost tomb. The dowser located a spot which he said exactly coincided with a hot spot and it was the tomb. He said it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and that it was one of the most powerful jolts he’s ever had in his entire dowsing career. In fact, the spot he identified was six inches away from where I expect to conduct the scan.

Also, a top Rosslyn researcher showed a picture of the tomb to his most trusted 'psychic' researcher without telling them any other information. He came up with a beautiful woman, a knight, a dog, and France. Absolutely true!

And he wasn’t aware of what spot you were referring to?

No, no, no.

That’s interesting.

He even said to me, don’t give me any information, just tell me what you want me to look for and I’ll do what I do.

6. So forgive me for asking, but what happens if the tomb proves to be empty?

Now then, a lot of people submit that the Rennes-le-Château treasure may be spiritual. One of the theories that I embrace in my life, which I personally believe to be true, is Lovelocks Gaia theory; that the earth thinks as if it is a physical body. Just like acupuncture, the planet earth has its energy grids. It could just be that I have been lead to a spot that requires an excavation and in the Lovelock sense that would be an act of acupuncture or micro-surgery on the planetary body that, as in acupuncture, will have a healing effect somewhere else on the planetary body. This is very cosmic, and I am allowing for the fact that my way of thinking is ‘anything is possible until proven impossible’, it could just be that I have located a spiritual treasure that needs an excavation or point of entry on the earths surface.

7. That’s interesting because I think it’s in your second book you include a discussion on some papers from a local library that had to do with a quest that appeared to lead to the exact spot, can you elaborate on that?

Yes! Grantham library, in Lincolnshire possessed a very interesting document that dates back to 1917. Legend has it that the document was written by Victor Hugo. Now, I don’t believe for a moment it was written by Victor Hugo, and I’ve compared the handwriting. I believe that Hugo came to the Isle of Wight, although there’s no proof that he have wandered about the United Kingdom whilst in exile. That said, I think he was in exile for about sixteen years. He came here the very year the dog on the platter was installed in Lincoln Cathedral.

Now then, this does appear to be a spurious document. It reminds me of the Priory documents in the Rennes-le-Château mystery. Here we have our own version, this time; it’s a quest for a lost Cathedral. And if interpreted through the eyes of the Da Vinci Code it leads us from Grantham to the very spot where our marker tomb is located. They were deposited there in 1917, the year Saunière died. How can this be? How can something that’s gone unnoticed and gathering cobwebs for all these years, be interpreted in the year 2005 and point to the same spot?

8. You mention that the tomb marker sits on the site of the crypt of Saint Margaret’s church, what do you know about the significance of Saint Margaret?

Saint Margaret was a shepherdess. She was a virgin Saint but strangely enough, she was a patron of pregnant women. She was beheaded, and when we take a look at the kneeling Magdalene in the Rennes-le-Château church we clearly see a skull which to me is indicative of beheading, or if you like a burial ground because we are in Saint Margaret’s burial ground. Saint Margaret went everywhere with a cross; holding a cross identical to the one that the kneeling Magdalene is holding. Also, in Poussin's 'Shepherds' painting, the shepherd nearest the shepherdess clearly has his staff decapitating him.

You mentioned that she beheaded, wasn’t there a headless skeleton discovered nearby – just outside Lincoln Cathedral, in the preparation for the filming of the Da Vinci Code?

Yes! The very week that Hollywood were at Lincoln Cathedral, electricians had to dig some cable to provide power to the light rigs inside the Cathedral, and low and behold, what did they find whilst they were digging? A tomb which nobody had an inkling ever existed. The Cathedral has no record or document of it at all. Intriguingly, in the tomb were the remains of a female minus her head.

The archaeologists instantly dated it to the fourteenth / fifteenth century. My suspicions are, and again it fits comfortably in my link with the Da Vinci Code, that this was a decoy tomb for anybody who might have had any information about a tomb in the area that contained the bones of Mary Magdalene, and draws attention to St Margaret, whereupon the real tomb sits in her burial grounds only a few hundred yards away.

Tomb outside of Lincoln Cathedral: site of the headless female corpse

9. You use the term led in your books, as though you have been led to this mystery as opposed to having actively sought it out. Can you comment on that?

Well it seems to me when looking back that the key event in my ever going to Rennes-le-Château was to be there to witness what I saw at 8pm on the evening of 24th April 1986. Having had an already eventful experience or two that day; arriving at a sealed rock crop tomb that is clearly painted at the top of Da Vinci's 'Virgin of the Rocks', the one where Mary Magdalene is without halo.

That plus a strange incident at the church of Bugarach; my wife, stepson and I were resting at the humble stone built hut belonging to Daniel, who still lives in the valley I believe. Three bright lights in the distance, which looked like stars, started to move and then suddenly disappeared. Next, we all witnessed a strange red cloud with flashing lightning approach the valley and eventually traveling around the back of the Chateau. It was like something out of Spielberg's 'Close Encounters' movie! Daniel broke our silence to announce 'I think it was a spaceship'. Why we had to be there to witness that is anybody's guess. There wasn't a single other person about throughout the entire encounter.

We left for England the next morning. Surely there are residents still living at the Chateau who witnessed this? I know David Wood has encountered 'UFO' stuff too, and I've even managed to photograph strange aerial anomalies at Glastonbury, Lincoln Cathedral and Temple Bruer since then. Not easy for a neurologist to explain!

So it’s very strange. I’m by no means a treasure hunter. However, twice in my life circumstances brought me to Lincoln, however each time I moved on. The third time circumstances brought me to Lincoln I stayed, and within a number of years this research seems to have presented itself to me. So much so that I had to check it and confirm it, and present it to the public. I’ve nothing to hide. My intention is to share this with people. If it’s being presented to me, I’m quite happy to share it.

10. What is your understanding of the history of the Knights Templar in Lincoln?

Some commentator once said there seems to have been more Knights Templar occupation in the area than there should be. For instance, one of the areas most famous is a place called Temple Bruer, which is twelve miles south of the Cathedral. It’s still in existence, and seems to be a part of the Lincoln Da Vinci Code simply because of the fact that it’s west wall presents a strange etching which seems to represent the device in the top left corner of Rennes-le-Château parchment number one.

Temple Bruer: similor in design to Rennes-le-Château parchment #1?
(Copyright Dan Green)

Rennes-le-Château Parchment 1: note image in the upper left hand corner

11. You’ve received a tremendous amount of both local and national press coverage. In the process the location of the marker tomb has been revealed. Aren’t you worried that enthusiasts might start to dig?

I’ll be devastated if anything untoward happened there. I think in some sense I’ve protected the area really by announcing it. I think there would be far more chance of people digging speculatively had I just said somewhere in the region. I think I’ve protected the area and from what I’ve seen there has been a lot of respect shown to it. I’ve seen people come take photographs. I’ve seen objects placed there, including a stone with a ‘PS’ carved in it that somebody had left and a bouquet of roses.

12. So what is your view on the Priory of Sion; real or hoax?

I think that if there had been a secret organisation down throughout history, there may be times when it needed to change its name for various reasons. The fact that we’ve been promoting the Priory of Sion and people have came to say well it was only created in 1956 only; I think there is a strong possibility that there has been a secret organisation throughout history that may have called itself the Priory of Sion at one point. I don’t think the name is as important as possible fact that there has always been an organisation, which could be there till this day, whether it’s called Priory of Sion or not.

As I mentioned earlier, I researched the origin of the Lincoln Imp statue, Lincoln Cathedrals own demon guardian, and low and behold the word Imp actually goes back to Sion. I always suspected that the Imp was a marker, with its foot on a pedestal, in exactly the same fashion as the shepherd in the Nicolas Poussin painting (Shepherds of Arcadia).

13. So with respect to your two books, what has the reaction been locally? You must be quite well known in Lincoln.

There seemed to be a change in perspective with the second book. The first book was perceived by a lot of people as less than serious; more fiction than fact. Then when the sequel came out, and I didn’t anticipate I was going to do a sequel, I just couldn’t ignore the fact that more and more evidence was coming, so when the sequel came out a lot of people were somewhat shocked that it looked like I was doing a u–turn and was now saying what I may have announced as fiction is absolute fact. A lot of people seemed to distance themselves from that, because suddenly it was taking on this very serious issue.

We have an individual who has nominated a precise location in Lincoln and is implying that possibly here is one of the most legendary treasures in history. And because I’ve announced a GPR scan I think a lot of people are suspending their criticism. Obviously, people who want to isolate the Rennes-le-Château mystery to France will look the other way. The irony is that without the clues associated with Rennes-le-Château I could never have discovered anything in Lincoln; it needed a mergence between Rennes-le-Château and Lincoln, and that confirms my suspicion that there was always some sort of connection between the two.

So the city was less receptive than you would have wished?

Since the second book, there's been a bit of an eerie silence. Who would have thought that the Cathedral could possibly be tied up in this Mystery? It had some bad press long before I came on the scene - a sex scandal in the early 1900's. In 1995, the then Dean of the Cathedral announced to the British public that he was having troubles and finally had to retire from his job. He was experiencing personal problems resulting from being involved in a sex scandal. Then he casually announced to the British public that he would like to close the Cathedral for three months in order to have had it exorcised! He went on to also say that he considered Lincoln Cathedral to be the battle ground, or focal point between the forces of good and evil, which is an extremely strange thing for a Dean of a Cathedral to suddenly say. What’s his flock going to think of that then? He didn’t elucidate any further at the time, and as recently as last year he still refuses to comment on that.

How was that received at the time? That’s quite a shocking thing to say to the general public.

Because the poor chap was embroiled in a sex scandal, lots of people might have perceived that he would say anything. He claimed that the allegations levied against him were the result of evil or of dark forces. I think a lot of people believed that is why he was asking for an exorcism, in order to exonerate himself. But looking back now I do wonder if Lincoln Cathedral has harboured, harnessed or hid a secret for centuries and centuries and maybe he may have known a little about that.

14. So tell us, what was Lincoln like at the time of the filming of Ron Howard’s Da Vinci Code? How has it changed since?

Well it’s not often you have Hollywood on your doorstep. Naturally a lot of people turned up everyday outside the hotels where the cast and stars were; many hung around the Cathedral looking for autographs. I know a lot of people associated with the Cathedral were offended by the fact that the institution took a £100,000 fee for the filming when obviously the nature of the book is upsetting too many Christians.

I remember the now infamous nun protest, which was on national television. But other than that I think the rest of the town just responded to the fact that Hollywood was turning up on their doorstep; let’s go and meet and greet, etc. I actually managed to present a copy of my first book to producer Ron Howard, which I thought was quite neat.

What was he like?

He was very down to earth, none of this Hollywood glitz and smaltz. He actually walked from his hotel every day to the Cathedral to do the filming. I was impressed that he walked whilst the rest of the cast were driven.

Has tourism changed since?

That’s a moot point actually, as a lot of people expected a massive snowballing effect. Obviously Da Vinci Code fans were going to come and see where the movie was filmed which would have added to the usual amount of visitors from around the world, but whether it’s been a mammoth turn out or not I’m not so sure. I think maybe there might have been a bit of hype in there as well. But Hollywood is actually returning next year to do a remake of the Dam Busters, so ha ha, we could get accustomed to this.

15. Have you been approached by organisations or individuals with more information or people who feel threatened by what you may have uncovered?

I do get a lot of readers via e-mails who have suggested things. In fact, the week before my book was actually published, by a publisher in Lincoln, the very week before it was due to coincide with Hollywood’s arrival, I got a phone call from the publisher and he said “I want nothing further to do with this, I’m returning all your stuff. I want out!”

Now I’d been working with this guy two months previously without a problem. Everything on the table - no hidden agendas or anything, and I said “what’s the problem, what’s the matter?” And he said “you are giving away Freemasons secrets”. This was at the eleventh hour. Now you must understand that Lincoln is a very strong Masonic town, and while I don’t believe that modern Freemasons have any insight into these historical mysteries, I did wonder if there was concern about my talking freely about my rather un-Masonic interpretation.

Also in 1989, I sent a dossier to the 33 degree Freemasonry headquarters in England and Scotland. I included some photographs that I had taken at Rennes-le-Château; strange photographs. I weaved in amongst it some of my own theories and involvement in the Rennes-le-Château mystery as it appeared to me at the time. So, I sent this information anonymously to both bodies and rang each up two or three weeks later, and apparently the Scottish Freemasons had taken a vote on the implications of the dossier.

That’s interesting…

They actually took a vote, but apparently the vote had been close and they decided to take no motion.

No motion?

No motion, nothing from England but the Scots actually took a vote. That dossier may well still be in existence today.

Do you still have a copy?

No. Regretfully, I did not keep a copy for myself.

16. What was the essence of it? It must have been quite a serious work for the Scottish masons to have taken a vote, no?

It was about changes that were coming in the world and Freemasons as an organisation that declares itself as benevolent. It’s something they should sit up and take notice about, and looking back now, everyday the news reports are coming out about global warming and all the changes that are going on in the world. There seems to be a heralding of some change going on in the world, and I thought if masons were true to their cause they should be doing something about that in some way.

As the worlds largest charitable organisation that’s a reasonable place to have taken that issue.

Yes, yes, I felt a bit uncomfortable about doing it obviously, because one can never be sure when involved in Rennes-le-Château just what the ramifications could be, and people have been followed about and had mail intercepted by who knows or what. One would feel uncomfortable about having done such a thing.

17. That’s great stuff Dan. Thank you for all of your insight. Is there anything else you would like to add?

I think great changes are underway on this planet. We know it. We just have to look at the climate and evolution; there’s something changing, something momentous, something cosmic.

I think the Rennes-le-Château mystery is a cosmic mystery. We may not understand it. It draws people to it, but it seems to me to be at the crux of something momentous that is going to occur in our life time. What is behind it I couldn’t say? Whether it’s a human agency or not, I’m a neurologist, we don’t understand how the human brain works at all. If the planetary body is as Lovelock says, that it has a mind and a brain, it could assemble us to do its bidding for whatever is going to occur in a planetary or cosmic sense, again my intuition tells me it’s something like the closing scenes of Kubrick’s 2001 a Space Odyssey.

It’s almost as if this earth is giving birth, hence the Rennes-le-Château emphasis on the number 22, the number of days that a pregnant cell develops corpus luteum, and the 'X', the female sex chromosome.

Fingers crossed that the scan will give birth to some new information on the mystery.

Before a birth you have a scan…

Touché!

Copyright © 2006 - 2007 Andrew Gough. All rights reserved.
Website designed by artifice design