Following Sunbeams

Like the view from the Great Wall above (wherin myriad ghosts dwell), the light broke hazily into the darkness and led upwards.

What was I to expect when the ancient king Irial Faidh appeared to have married Tamar Telphi, a princess of Judah? And who was she? Trace her patrilinear branch back and names from the Old Testament popped up - Hezekiah,Jotham, Jehoshaphat, Solomon, David, Jesse.>.>Isaac, Abraham Shem, Noah,...Seth, Adam. The legend goes that Tamar and her family fled a conquest of Jerusalem , settling in Eire. OK, it sounds plausible but I wonder if, other than legend, there would be any way to verify this.Of course not. Events occurring in BC era are a bit removed from 21st century America.

Desperate for information and a greater understanding of the dynamics of these times, I turned to the works of Sir Laurence Gardner. I had read his Bloodline of the Holy Grail many years ago in conjunction with the reading of Baigent, etc's Holy Blood, Holy Grail. The premise of these works was essentially a search for the historical Jesus, removed from the image promoted by institutional dogma. Even though I had minored in New Testament studies at college, I knew very little about the scholarly efforts to flesh out the man known as Jesus. Raised in the Episcopalian tradition, I rarely questioned the faith of my fathers. Wondering about the mysteries of the virgin birth and the resurrection, I would, nevertheless dutifully recite the Creed, thinking this is what we believed, quashing any rebellious thoughts which rose to the surface of an overactive imagination. The music held the mystery for me, the glorious old Anglican hymns which rose in incredible harmonies, taking my soul with them. All were likely to bring tears to my eyes: one spoke to me like no other.

Robert Blake's mystical and mysterious Jerusalem, sung in St Mary's Chapel at Chatham Hall, set me forth on my quest. Who did Blake refer to, walking Britian in ancient times? The Holy Lamb of God? Chariots of fire and arrows of desire? These words seemed at once so Anglophilic and unChristian, an anthem for a nation which had a rather important opinion of itself. But no, the depths insisted on the truth as Blake saw it. Did the historical Jesus visit England? The Grail myths, St Patrick, St Columba - Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales...all pointed to a degree of spirituality beyond church doctrine, and so I began climbing into the tendrils of light reaching out to me.