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IMAGINE IF WE WERE TO
SEE WILLIAM SINCLAIR BUILD A "ROSSLYN" TODAY
I have been very amazed
by the wisdom in the design, decoration, and sacred images of Rosslyn that sought to include all the vital religious
forces of the day and age in a manner which was inclusive and respectful to the
source of many wisdoms and religions of different nations and cultures.
And we are further interested in
light of the historical recognition of today, that given religious
'truths' have historically competeted for dominance into their being a supreme
truth. The contrast is seeing something constructed by combining the wisdom
of the ages and cultures into one universal structure with respect for
all. Freedom of thought and freedom of religion has been a fairly new human
evolution of understanding and conduct. Historically the competing forces
of religious thought striving for suprememcy over others similarly striving
have brought much pain and hardship. This, in my view, is the
accomplishment in the attempt of the Sinclairs to make Rosslyn unique and universal. Rosslyn remains of historical and symbolic
meaning through the centuries as a monument with a
message.
So imagine! Assume that William Sinclair
were to build Rosslyn today. If we took this same
philosophy and attitude into today's world we would have not just a chapel. We
would see a monument to all religions, a building that went from the origins of
religious thought, to the modern precepts of human spirituality. Every part of
this edifice would support the symbolic strivings for mankind from the Temple of
Solomon to the Sweat Lodges of the Indians.
Inside we would have the collected Sacred
Books of Law and of knowledge upon which humanity has built its many
cornerstones. The Bible would be beside the Koran and the other works of
religious seekers around the world. And students with incompleted notes and
thesis would pose questions to one another. There would be adorning the walls
the artistic art being the focus of many cultures, all exploring their
approaches to a greater wisdom. The paintings of the eagle would be there
with the images of the Buddah and the Christ. Sculptures would
represent the continents of the world. It would be designed in a fashion that
needed to be a construction that is inclusive, and universalistic, not
exclusive. No part of the chapel if built today would derogate from the respect
earned of anothers strivings for religious knowings.
Rosslyn may
have a secret hidden because the designer had a simple message that combined
man's cultural searches for God in its different forms.The Christian may come to
such a Chapel and leave seeing images of the Stages of the Cross. The Norse
having seen the Gods of his ancestors, would leave knowing the centuries before
him. The Mason seeing the image of the square and compass that predated
1700, The Jewish pilgrim the foundations of The Temple. The earth movement in
knowing the Green Man mythologies were universal and while ancient do great the
spring planting season in reverence. .
But the Rosslyn
chapel was also combined in a harmony that could be shared by
walkers that came from different religions and expereices so that they could see
what their brothers and sisters from around the world were seeking. For they
were seeking the same thing in different ways, using different expressions and
appreciations in different languages. In such an imaginary edifice they would
see the accomplishments, myths, and stories of the religious quests of their
brothers and sisters from around the world. The might see that they were perhaps
less than all knowing, but could share the wisdom of others.
Individuals invited to an imaginary Rosslyn of today would be invited inside to seek to uncover
their own wisdoms in a way that added to the experience of humanity. Invited
individually and collectively to see and learn with their own eyes. Rosslyn has a message today which remains as important to
our generation as it was to their generation. Somethings change, many of the
important values that span the centuries do not. It is that which
we do not know, that outlines that which we feel as
'knowable'. It is what is unseen that moves the navigators compass.
I do not see only hidden messages in
Rosslyn as much as a sincere practical attempt to
combine the diverse and multitude of messages of human kind into a unity. Now
that is not to derrogate from the many myths, stories and legends each with
their own mysteries that are contained in Rosslyn. To draw upon an analogy, if
we focus on the individual voices alone we may miss the chorus that
combines their individual voices into a greater choir. I do not perceive
any hidden design or singularity of message in so far as a
difficulty or inability of the Rosslyn viewer to stand far enough back
to see that the entire monument may well have been the message, not its
parts alone.
The individual pieces and
carvings of a Rosslyn if constructed today would
collectively give their message to the harmony which is mankinds striving
for spiritual and religious understanding. Every carving, every dimention would
have a higher purpose to the invitee to combine their experience into an
experience that is the human journey. If Rosslyn was built today it would be a
place for learning, and a site for seeking wider understandings and knowledge.
It would exist today as a place where the paritioners could combine their
sharing voices and understandings in worship and fellowship for those forces
which connect them to one another. The connectivity of our human condition is
far more important than that which divides them from one another. A new
paridigm from an old one, new yet old.
William Sinclair and those that came
before and after are to be honoured for their lives and their times. But perhaps
above all theirs is a message silently enduring in stone that remains
lasting. Theie message lies in the many stories carved in and in
the foundations and throughout combined in harmony that is simple and
yet complex.
We perhaps can identify
with the apprentice that looks down having proved his knowledge and
perhaps knowing more than the Master, but never quite knowing it all. He carved
a pillar of beauty. But why the pillar was constructed may have been unknown to
our apprentice. The importance of the pillar lies inside the understandings
of the great Architect. The mystery continues in silent testament and winds
around and up the pillar(s) to something mysterious and yet beautiful, simple
and complex, but the value is in the meaning behind the pillar.
So it is with Rosslyn, the whole edifice and entire complex that was.
Perhaps pointing to a hope for something to be appreciated by the generations
that followed, something mysterious and yet beautiful, simple and complex which
underlies the meaning of Rosslyn. But imagine if it were built today? What a
hope for an transcultural understanding and appreciation. The more that we are
diverse the more we are all connected. From Niven Sinclair; "The mystery, the
mystique, the esoteric has always been there but there is also something much
deeper which goes far beneath the foundations of reason and experience." It may
be something that we all really know deep inside ourselves.
Respectfully
submitted
Neil Sinclair
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