The Solution to the Shugborough code and the location of the Holy Grail

Added: (Wed Nov 11 2009)

Pressbox (Press Release) - I believe I decoded the Shugborough inscription, and I created a website to discuss there in detail this solution. Unfortunately, the discussion is a bit long and will not fit in just one single post, which is why I needed to develop a website of my own just for this purpose. Please visit my website at:

http://shugborough.info/

For adherents of the modern Grail-conspiracy legend, the code is alleged to hold a clue to the location of the Holy Grail. And this I found out to be true. In brief, my solution goes like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shugborough_inscription

O•U•O•S•V•A•V•V
D• M•

I believe the letters of these two lines of code represent the letter combinations that will open two safe boxes. Keyless combination locks were first introduced at the beginning of the 17th Century. During that period, and in literature, letter code combinations were written in capital letters followed by a period. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play The Noble Gentleman written before 1615 were the lines:

A cap case for your linen, and your plate,
with a strange lock that opens with A.M.E.N.

These two safe boxes make use of the rotary combination type of locks, using a combination dial to open it.

However, unlike the usual rotary combination locks, words , instead of numbers, surround the dials. The words surrounding the first dial are:

"BERGERE PAS DE TENTATION QUE POUSSIN TENIERS GARDENT LE CLEF PAX DCLXXXI PAR LE CROIX ET CE CHEVAL DE DIEU J'ACHEVE CE DAEMON DE GARDIEN A MIDI POMMES BLEUES"

The words surrounding the second dial are:

"A DAGOBERT II ROI ET A SION EST CE TRESOR ET IL EST LA MORT"

If you are familiar with the mystery associated with the St Mary Magdalene's Church at Rennes-le-Château, then you will immediately recognize that these two cryptic messages were obtained from parchments which a priest named Berenger Sauniere discovered in 1887 hidden inside the church.

The first safe box will open by positioning (and stopping) the rotary dial on the following words, and on the following letters, alternatingly moving the dial clockwise and then counter-clockwise:

TENTATI"O"N, Q"U"E, P"O"U"S"SIN, CHE"V""A"L, J’ACHE"V"E, J’ACHE"V"E.

The final "V" from the word J’ACHEVE, should be selected twice in a row, moving the rotary dial clockwise, and then counter-clockwise. This is the reason why the final "V" in the Shugborough code does not have a period after it, since the same letter from the same word was chosen for the combination code:

O•U•O•S•V•A•V•V

The second safe box will open by positioning (and stopping) the rotary dial on the following words, and on the following letters, alternatingly moving the dial clockwise and then counter-clockwise:

"D"AGOBERT, "M"ORT.

These codes are meaningless, and they were selected randomly. The sculpture on top of these two lines of code in the Shugborough monument gives us a clue on how this random selection was made.

The sculpture shows 2 sarcophagi, with the smaller sarcophagus placed on top of the bigger. Also, words were etched on these sarcophagi and two shepherds were pointing their fingers on specific letters while the rest of the group were just observing the letters being pointed at.

If we combine this clue provided by the sculpture with that provided by the message written on the first lock, namely:

"That Poussin, Teniers keep the key."

It becomes obvious that the two shepherds doing the pointing were the painters Nicholas Poussin and David Teniers. They were of course asked to either close their eyes or look away from the inscriptions while pointing their fingers, ensuring that the selection was truly random. The message on the first lock was inscribed on the upper sarcophagus, surrounding it entirely, while the message on the second lock was inscribed on the lower sarcophagus. Each painter was told to point on a different sarcophagus and make a total of only 10 letter selections starting from left to right of each message, moving around the sarcophagus counter clockwise. Since the painters cannot see the letters they were pointing at, inadvertently, spaces between words were sometimes touched. Thus, there were 8 letters and 2 spaces selected on the first message, and only two letters and 8 spaces on the second. Also, the final V of the first message was either inadvertently or intentionally selected twice; and this is the reason why there is no period after the final V of the first line of code.

Having solved, the Shugborough code with the use of Sauniere's parchments, I was also able to determine the location of where the Holy Grail is buried.

For a complete discussion of my solution, please visit my website. Thank you!