World of Mysteries - Quest for the Holy Grail

for 2,000 years successive generations have been gripped by a quest a quest championed by King Arthur and the knights of the round table for a sacred cup which will provide its finder with immortality and total enlightenment this is the greatest treasure hunt of all a journey through some of the most historic and mysterious sites in Britain the quest for the Holy Grail the search for the Holy Grail has taken Questers around the world but one of the most enduring legends tells us that the Grail was brought to Britain by Jesus Christ's great uncle Joseph of Arimathea when Jesus was dying on the cross Joseph held a bowl to his side collecting the blood of Christ after Christ died Joseph was visited by the Archangel Raphael who told him to bring this sacred bowl this Holy Grail to the Blessed Isles of the West Briton once here the chalice was said to be hidden in the most holy place in the land ever since the search has been on to find the Holy Grail the story is shrouded in the mists of legend and the quest continues to this day weaving a spectacular path across some of the most dramatic and mysterious sites in Britain glastonbury where the water flows red from the blood of Christ Tintagel birthplace of King Arthur and home to Merlin Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland a sacred treasure trove which closely guards its holy secrets including possibly the Holy Grail there is no written evidence about the Holy Grail we must rely on stories passed from generation to generation so what do these legends tell us about the sacred Cup some say the Grail is a magnificent jewel encrusted goblet others that is a simple wooden bowl more fitting for a carpenter it could be the bowl that collected the blood of Christ or the cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper or it could be both there could be more than one Holy Grail the idea of a sacred Bowl goes back far beyond the Christian tradition the holy grail borrows heavily from the pagan belief in a sacred cauldron the Celtic symbol of fertility and regeneration the holy grail is the ultimate relic it is all-powerful supposedly giving eternal youthfulness inspiration and fertility to those who drink from it it can heal the sick and mortally wounded but only the pure can approach the cup the impure will see it disappear before their very eyes so will the Grail ever be found could this wooden bowl kept at a secret location in England be the Holy Grail or does the truth lie not in a physical object but in the quest itself joseph of arimathea would have been familiar with the journey to britain he was a wealthy tin merchant who regularly traveled to Cornwall and Somerset trading in precious metals shortly after Christ's death Joseph left Jerusalem and made one final journey following the tin trade route arriving in Cornwall in AD 37 but on this particular trip Joseph didn't linger at the tin mines in Cornwall his cargo this time was more precious than any metal he was carrying the Holy Grail he was on a mission from God Joseph was heading for Glastonbury near bath the glass aisle he had been sent to find by Archangel Raphael today Glastonbury consists of three hills rising from a plain but when Joseph arrived here the plains were flooded and Glastonbury was an island the Isle of Avalon Glastonbury or Avalon is the home of the mysterious where the spiritual world meets the material world where heaven meets earth and although there is no direct evidence it is widely held to be the place where Joseph hid the Holy Grail it's potentially true that such a person could have come here so there it is a legend though we cannot put our hand on our heart and give historic facts and dates the potential exists and therefore it's something we honor because we are trying to honor through symbol that which is unexplainable namely God Joseph of Arimathea sailed up to Glastonbury landing at wery all Hill he and his companions were all weary after a long journey he sailed in to the land we call Glastonbury with his boats got off and they said has our journey ended he's supposed to have stuck his staff into the ground and said Lord God grant a society suddenly Joseph's staff flourished into a living Hawthorne bush the holy thorn of Glastonbury he took this as a sign that Glastonbury was the destined resting place of the Holy Grail the Glastonbury thorn thrives to this day and unlike any other thorn bush in the country it flowers every Christmas and Easter each December a flowering branch of the tree is cut off and sent to the Queen our ancestors to send the first cutting for the bonnet to greet their Christmas table and so did remind them of the king of King your majesty we present these gifts of cuttings taken from the holy thorn that grows in the church art of st. John's Church Glastonbury this gift comes with our gratitude love loyalty and prayers and in anticipation of the celebrations surrounding your golden jubilee I remain your faithful servant your sincerely father Graham widths of course there's no need to put a stamp on this parcel it's going by Royal Mail the Queen's Postal Service and if you post something to the Queen you don't need a snake for such a small town Glastonbury attracts vast numbers of visitors drawn here by the vibrant spiritual atmosphere welcome to Glastonbury everybody the ancient sacred Isle of Avalon Jamie George runs a guided tour around some of the most spiritually important sites in Glastonbury weari all Hill channes well and the Glastonbury Abbey the heart of Avalon pavulon comes from the Celtic demigod avala and Avalon is a place where can be found the elixir of life within the holy grail if you wish and it is also where the Fountain of Youth can be attained in this valley between the tour and the surrounding landscape we are in the Isle of Avalon many visitors to Glastonbury are on a quest of their own looking for important landmarks associated with King Arthur and the Holy Grail so here is the cross which was established here during the reign of our present Queen and on the side of it is a lovely little statement which says here lies a Christian sanctuary so ancient that only legend can record his origin that grave and of course this was the site of the first wattle and daub Church wattle being brushwood and dog being mud that Joseph built with his companions in AD 37 down through the ages people have been looking for the Grail as both a physical Cup and as a symbol of spiritual enlightenment and so when people do come here they're searching for meaning in their lives and they're searching for the Grail within the physical cup remains elusive but there is a place in Glastonbury where a spring runs red red according to legend with the blood of Christ legend tells us that when Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail to Glastonbury in Britain he buried it under the tour at the chalice well spring could the Grail still be there today maybe one of the 500,000 tourists who visit Glastonbury each year will find it the channes well still exists and its water continues to run red colored so they say with the blood of Christ the story is that this cup or he was the cup of the Last Supper was buried here um this was already sacred ground this was a sacred spring and the redness of the waters would have been a very potent symbol for any early Christian reminding them of the blood of Christ the most likely explanation for the red color is the iron deposits in the water but over the centuries the chalice well has attracted thousands in search of spiritual and physical healing we will like to drink the water they like to see the well listen to the water bubbling up take the water the lion's head sitting the little shelters to picnic perhaps some people just come to pray or meditate often people will go to the healing pool in Arthur's Court perhaps put their feet in splash some water over themselves so it's many things to many people but I think first and foremost it's it's a haven of peace and tranquility which we really need in this modern world of course many visitors take photographs to mark their visit but what they don't expect when they get their photographs processed is the mysterious appearance of strange shafts of light we do have unexplained phenomena here last year the doctor took some pictures of the Lions head area where people drink the water all the photographs were normal except for one which showed a very particular curved beam of light we examined the photograph it certainly was not a normal occurrence of light leaping into the camera the Holy Grail has left its mark on Glastonbury but no one knows if it's still there in the 12th century 30 monks from the abbey descended into the ancient tunnels that run underneath Glastonbury in search of the Grail only three came out one struck down and two deranged the rest it is said were claimed by the mysterious forces of the tour did they see the Holy Grail and were they unworthy no one ever followed these monks into the labyrinth under Glastonbury and the tunnels have long since been sealed as the surface soil has slipped down the sides of the tour but to this day Questers secretly dig for the tunnels beneath Glastonbury hoping to find the Holy Grail and the remains of joseph of arimathea some people believe that he was buried with the bow we don't know because I was over found his grave remember Roland Rotherham has spent much of his life on a quest for the Holy Grail it's something that you spend your whole life searching for everybody needs something to believe in and something to search for for centuries people have assumed that Joseph of Arimathea buried the Grail at the red spring of the channeis well but nearby there is another spring where the water flows white water douser John Bowers believes that the white spring is a much more likely hiding place for the Holy Grail he's tracing the underground route of the water which feeds the white spring and looking for caves where Joseph might have hidden the Holy Grail dowsing is an ancient technique for detecting water underground running water causes disturbances in the Earth's electromagnetic field these disturbances trigger small spasms in the dowsers muscles which are amplified using the rods dowsing may not be regarded as credible by some scientists but for many it remains an effective technique that anyone can learn sacred sites tend to be centered around water and it could be the electromagnetic vibrations which attracted pagan settlers in the first place there's no doubt in my mind that this place is a major sacred place it probably predates Christianity by thousands of euros you know this was a pagan holy site thousands of years ago don't worry about me I'm just does it so it wouldn't surprise me that when Christianity came over here it would choose this place rather than most others - if you like superimpose Christianity on top of the pagan religion the water which is underneath Glastonbury Tor here is the water which feeds the white spring which is a calcium containing water supply and that must have come from a chalk area mmm right I'm standing on it I'm on the water line now and coming from that direction going that way when you have water going through chalk or limestone areas you have caves yeah it seems to be forking out heading that way so it wouldn't surprise me if there weren't caves underneath here in fact I would expect it well let's have a go see oh do fit in it's about 30-something feet 3035 feet that way long way to do the Holy Grail could still be at the bottom of Glastonbury Tor buried in a cave but according to one legend the Grail was stolen from its hiding place at Glastonbury and taken to the mystical castle of the Fisher King so sending King Arthur's knights of the round table on a great quest for the Holy Grail one of the greatest figures associated with the quest for the Holy Grail is the legendary ruler of the Britons King Arthur King Arthur is often presented as a romantic medieval finger leading his knights of the round table in an age of chivalry and romance the whole thing about the legend sort of built up around Arthur they give us an eternal hero arguments still rage about whether Arthur is a real Foreman if achill character the first written reference to King Arthur is found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century book the history of the Kings of Britain since then the legend has never stopped growing most famously Arthur standing on the steps of Camelot castle dispatched his knights on a great quest to find the Holy Grail today I charge you with the most holy quest a gracious question so what of the Holy Grail but the real Arthur the man who started all the legends comes from the 5th century a time with no written history the Dark Ages well firstly we've got to remember that the Arthur is not a name it is a nickname title the Great Bear the Arthur you have an enormous series of romances that were built up during Middle Ages about a person who was not a king but a warlord who definitely had a basis in fact the 5th century Arthur fought the invading Saxons in a series of famous battles word of his heroic deeds spread throughout the land and the author the Great Bear spawned the legend of an invincible leader a legend that has grown epic over the centuries jutting out from the ragged cliffs on the north coast of Cornwall is the beautiful and mysterious castle of tint Angela each year over a million Questers and tourists come to Tintagel from around the world in search of King Arthur and the Holy Grail over the centuries the legends associated with Tintagel have been blown to ever greater heights some say Tintagel is Camelot the seat of King Arthur some say it belongs to Merlin the wizard who masterminded Arthur's birth rise to power and quest for the Holy Grail the mysterious cave running right underneath Tintagel is said to be Merlin's cave but where does legend end and history begin recent excavations have revealed dramatic new evidence about Tintagel during the 5th century the time of the real Arthur on Tintagel we see many buildings like this square filter dry stone walling although mostly upper work that you see above ground was actually rebuilt in the 1950s they are actually sitting on genuine foundations of 5th and 6th century buildings although less than a quarter of Tintagel has been excavated incredible amounts of Mediterranean pottery have already been found this produced nearly 8,000 shares of this pottery which is more than the rest of Western Europe put together it certainly does show that the person who was living here was certainly a very high-status indeed could there be some basis for the legend placing Arthur at Tintagel is this high status person the one and only Arthur in 1998 in this corner of the castle a fifth-century drain cover was unearthed which bore an inscription that could change legend into history it was absolutely incredible basically this is the first time ever in Britain that an inscribed stone has been found from a Dark Age Citadel or fortress so it is really an incredible feeling just to see this what it consisted of just just a square cut into the bedrock onto which slabs of slate have been laid and it was on one of those slabs of slate that we actually found the inscription and the collie avi fake it our table mister the inscription translates as art new-made this is this the clue that historians writers and Grail hunters have been searching for his art knew Arthur could this be the home of the Arthur the Great Bear fearless warlord bugbear of the Saxons whatever the truth behind the art news stone it is added greatly to the legend who knows what treasures and what answers still lie buried beneath the weather-beaten cliffs of tint Angela the legend of King Arthur has become so powerful that an entire Arthurian industry has emerged around the castle one of the most remarkable monuments to the knights of the round table his King Arthur's great halls in Tintagel village this is a shrine to the romantic legends of King Arthur and his knights of the round table to their principles of chivalry and to their quest for the Holy Grail stories about the Knights and their adventures searching for the ultimate spiritual enlightenment have inspired generations to question their own lives well it's a very stirring story about the quest for the Holy Grail and if you take it as a straight adventure story it's very exciting but it's also a mirror of the quest for perfection that human beings tend to strive towards and so in many ways it's not a quest for a physical object but a quest for a better way of life and ultimately a perfect way of life 12 Knights began the quest for the Holy Grail but only three ever came close Percival Galahad and Bors they faced many dangers and fought many battles ultimately their quest took them to the mythical castle of the Fisher King the lame king whose lands were doomed to lie barren until a night true enough pure enough and worthy enough would come to claim the Holy Grail you when a knight actually attains the Grail he is first of all shown the cup itself it is supposed to appear before him as a physical object and when you actually attain the Grail in it is supposed to appear the child Christ and he places his hands into the wound where the spear pierced the side of the adult Christ he takes a piece of his flesh and grants it to you and you take it it is the living flesh of the Christ child that is how it appears in the legends that have come down to us that is obviously as far as a Christian Knight is concerned the ultimate communion that's why you have other knights personal and Galahad attaining the Grail and dying in ecstasy at that precise moment after they have taken the ultimate communion because after all once you've had that what else is there left the knights of the round table eventually returned the Holy Grail to Avalon but the etherium legends end in betrayal and tragedy King Arthur's own son Mordred turns on him and the two become locked in a bitter and bloody battle to the death Mordred is killed and Arthur is fatally injured he is carried to Avalon where it is said he can live on through the power of the Holy Grail Avalon is the sacred Isle where everything comes together it is the place of regeneration where even nature is reborn it is the place where the spirit world meets the material world it is Glastonbury in Somerset back at Glastonbury Abbey Jamie George's tour is reaching a highlight the shores of Avalon we're in 1190 a party of monks discovered a grave with the inscription here lies Arthur in the Isle of Avalon the tomb has long since disappeared but the legend remains king arthur lies asleep in avalon waiting to come again and lead the British people in their hour of greatest need Arthur represents the questing spirit in us all and it is up to us to find a way to awaken that questing spirit in each one of us so is the holy grail still hidden beneath Glastonbury Tor or has it vanished some say it was taken by monks fleeing the destruction of the abbey and has been kept in a secret location ever since in the care of one family the guardians of the Holy Grail as our quest continues we are being taken to a secret location in the middle of Britain to see the nanteos cup a cup which many believed to be the Holy Grail the Reverend Scudder a religious scholar is taking us to a mystery rendezvous with the guardian of the nanteos cup Reverend Scott and first tracked down the cup 15 years ago I had a very early morning encounter under voice said to me you will find the holy chalice and I dismissed it at first till I heard his a second time when I sat up in bed and lo and behold I heard it a third time and by then it was a mixture of emotional excitement and questions and queries and a call came at 6:34 friend of mine and he said to me have you heard of an anteus cup have you heard of the chalice and I could not believe that the subject was being brought up within a couple of hours after this voice we've been asked to keep the location of the nanteos cup and the identity of the Guardian a secret are we close to the end of our quest is the Holy Grail inside this church could we be about to succeed where Lancelot failed the cup has been in the care of the same family for 500 years it was given to them by monks of Glastonbury Abbey fleeing the ravages of the Reformation in the 16th century a time when Henry the Eighth destroyed more than 800 Catholic monasteries in order to establish the Church of England some of the monks of Leicester escaped and after a series of adventures and they went to the family at nanteos in Wales and there they handed over this wooden bowl all they said was guard this it is our greatest treasure that's all they said they said nothing else they made no mention of the Grail no mention of James of Arimathea nothing whatsoever but then again if you look at it that's hardly surprising because if you we're in possession of Grail would you admit it the nanteos cup it is held by many to be the Holy Grail the original olive wood vessel used to collect the blood of Christ the present guardian of the nanteos cup is the last in the family line she has no doubt as to the authenticity and power of the cup and has only agreed to be filmed on condition that we don't reveal her identity you can't look at it except with reverence it gives you a very moving experience and I know to some people when they look at it first they can't stop crying it seems to have all the sadness that's in the world in the cup much of the cup has been destroyed over the years chunks have been bitten off by overzealous miracle seekers desperate for a piece of the world's greatest holy relic it has a profound effect upon you a very deep sort of emotional feeling and religious feeling and you feel that it is something very unusual about it almost a holiness sense about it you revere it but is this wooden bowl really the Holy Grail or is it just a focus for belief after 2,000 years of questing can this really be it we do know that that cup then entails cup when the ceremony is performed each year with holy water being run into it and small pieces of cloth being dipped into this water than sent people it works people are reporting miracles no reverence catherine has received letters from all over the world testifying to the curative effects of the nanteos cup Brenda shooter and David way both claimed to have been healed by the Holy Grail there was all this stuff horrible stuff and a knitted fetch the old thing open all the lymph Graham's from the base of my neck they were enlarged and enflamed the pain in it was so bad I was taking tablets and when the doctor came in she said my word you are ill so des sent me to the Ulster clinic and Peter who I've known for many years sent me a prayer cloth which I attached to the inside of my shirt during the daytime but I believe that the prayer cloth and the contact of the cloth was the thing that helped me get led better Peter Scoggin didn't tell me till after I was better that he had anointed the particular prayer cloth that I had with water from the Holy Grail I felt then that that proved that the non tears cup was genuine because of the remarkable healings that have been testified to from all over the world incidentally it offers a new spiritual life force that can change human nature and the Grail the chalice is symbolic of that and those who partake sincerely are changed it will be kept reverently in the family maybe one day it might be given to a cathedral or a holy place many many people believe that that the remains of that wooden bowl are the bowl of the Animus iam but if the nanteos cup is the Holy Grail is it the cup which was used at the Last Supper or the cup which collected the blood on the cross both have been touched by Christ there could be more than one Holy Grail Rozlyn Glenn in Scotland is said to be closer to heaven and hell' than any other place in the grounds of Rosslyn Castle clinging to the edge of a magical ravine sits one of the most enchanting and mysterious places in Europe Rosslyn Chapel thirty-four thousand visitors a year make the pilgrimage to Rosslyn just a few miles from Edinburgh in search of the beautiful the bizarre and the Holy Grail Rosslyn Chapel has been described as being the repository of everything from the Ark of the Covenant to the mummified head of Christ every stone is steeped in legend and mystery Rosslyn Chapel is all things to all people the secret messages in the carvings speak to pagans Christians Freemasons and treasure hunters but the most enduring legend is that it could be the resting place of the Holy Grail there are elements here which have led people to believe that the grill may be here that's a very old tradition all the signs point here to The Apprentice pillar symbols surrounding the pillar including Joseph of Arimathea holding the Grail and the cross carved with the shape of the Grail have led scholars to believe that the chalice must be hidden inside the pillar the stories about the Holy Grail are so inexplicably intertwined that it is very hard to separate history over here and myth over there but the idea that there is something here is an enduring persistent truth metal detectors have shown an object the right size to be inside but the Earl of Rosslyn has repeatedly refused to allow an x-ray machine to finally discover the truth within the apprentice pillar his motto is conservation and preservation not excavation for the moment The Apprentice pillar must remain a mystery but even if the Holy Grail isn't in the pillar there are those who say it can't be far away it said that we're the grill is hidden the waters of the river are stained red with the blood of Christ to doomsday and of course the word rosalyn means I'm his red waters Rozlyn Glen has been a spiritual focus for thousands of years it's not just Christians who worship at Roslin witches still meet under the shade of a 2000 year old yew tree there are natural caves along the banks of the river some with Bronze Age markings there is a network of tunnels under the castle and no one knows how many catacombs beneath the chapel one entrance is still visible according to legend treasure hunters sent a piper and his dog down this tunnel to explore the labyrinth they could hear the music as the piper moved beneath them he traveled for a mile and then the piping stopped he never emerged and no one has ever entered the tunnel since nobody knows was under the chapel there's the stories of what's under the chapel which go back to the 17th century stories of a crypt under the chapel in which the Sinclair Knights are laid out in Palama but no one to my knowledge has ever been or seen what is under the chapel it wasn't there are secret organizations who frequent the chapel and who are rumored to know what lies beneath they will neither refute nor claim to possess that vessel in any particular part of the chapel can you blame them if they have got it because do you want to be known as an organization it has it's incredibly powerful relic in your possession just think of what could be the possible outcome of large organizations knowing of the existence and whereabouts of such an incredibly powerful relic but maybe the Holy Grail is not a cup but something less tangible no one has ever managed to fully decode the meaning of the carvings in Rosslyn Chapel the scale intricacy and symbolism has baffled and intrigued visitors for centuries why for instance would a Christian Church have over a hundred carvings of the pagan fertility symbol the green man the symbolism is ultimately about humanity's bond with nature and the cycle of birth growth decay and death primarily the importance of Rozlyn is a universal message that was left for posterity I believe about humanity The Treasures of Roslin to some extent also are how can I put it spiritual treasures so through the carvings and through everything else some people have seen Roslin as a as a book in stone as a sort of Holy Grail delight of hidden teaching and night - is another kind of treasure a spiritual treasure it may be that one day Rosslyn Chapel will be excavated the truth laid bare and the secrets revealed but this may solve nothing it could be that for the human spirit the question is more important than the answer on their quest to find the Holy Grail the knights of the round table would only achieve enlightenment if they asked the right question of the cup hmm doth the Grail serve perhaps it serves he who seeks it that's a quest and if you're on the quest and you serve the grill the grill helps you it serves us all it serves as all if we but open our eyes to its reality because the Grail represents paradise and paradise all around us all we need to do is open our eyes to it and our heart and our minds now I hope I am never the person that finds the Grail because if you do find it just think you will then be responsible for taking away everybody's dreams because there will be nothing left to quest for and so the search continues Cornwall Glastonbury and Rosslyn still hold many mysteries for the questing tourists there are many who believe there is no chalice that the Holy Grail is the quest itself and that it is the quest rather than the Cup which brings the gift of ultimate enlightenment but wherever we travel this is a journey open to us all to quest for meaning in our lives you

Channel: Naked Science

Views: 332,411

Rating: 4.625 out of 5

Keywords: quest, holy, grail, king, arthur, documentary, famed, arthurian, legend, evidence, wooden, bowl, isle, avalon, god, celtic, elixir, life, immortality, fountain, youth, historian, dr, roland, rotherham, scholar, search, map, christianity, religion, dark, ages, guardian, nanteous, cup, great, bear, leader, epic, cornwall, battle, myth, mythical, castle, fisher, sir, galahad, perceval, wondrous, communion, sword, tragedy, bitter, power, unusual, da, vinci, code, pray, healing, beautiful, symbol, abbey, cauldron, knights, templar, crusade, catholic, church

Id: MIwElS1vnCM

Length: 50min 50sec (3050 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 04 2014