Rosslyn, ley lines and the baron knights

I must be the only one here not in search of the Holy Grail or the bloodline of Christ. I'm meeting a past master Freemason who is going to show me the force that lies beneath Rosslyn that could be the source of all the mystery.

"First you must take this in your hands," instructs Jim Munro, as he places an enormous jaguar tooth in my palm. "When the time's right I'll take you round to the north-east corner of the chapel and place you in a certain spot. Then you must do everything I do, hands open and relax."Munro believes that an enormously powerful ley line runs through Rosslyn and that its presence has led to the construction of many different sacred sites here through the millennia. He thinks that Picts, Druids and Romans all venerated this site and that Sir William Sinclair, the man who built Rosslyn in 1446, choose to build here to tap into its powerful properties. (The Sinclairs founded Freemasonry in Edinburgh in about 1599 and orders have been started worldwide.)

Ley lines are something of a mystery. The idea was first put forward in the 1920s when Alfred Watkins, an English scholar and photographer, noticed that many ancient monuments were aligned in straight lines: Prehistoric standing stones, old pre-reformation churches, holy wells were all laid out in very specific patterns.

Later, in the mystical 1960s, ley lines were given an added dimension with a connection to earth mysteries, spirituality and the unknown. People began to search for them by dowsing with twigs or coat hangers.Munro, who also takes tours round Rosslyn, thinks ley lines are fields of energy and that by channelling them through crystals he can help people in pain.

"You can compact the energy in them," he says. "I use them for healing, but I don't claim to cure people."

One woman he helped walked up stairs for the first time in years after a healing session in Rosslyn. He concedes that it could be mind over matter, but is, he says, just one example of the power of the ley line.

Munro begins the process by placing the 300-year-old jaguar tooth, given to him by an Irish dowser, in the hand of the person he is going to work on. The tooth relaxes people and stops them thinking of other things. When the subject is in a more susceptible frame of mind he takes them inside the chapel.

"There are seven pillars in the chapel and all the tops are carved differently," says Munro. "The one in the northeast corner is the only one with an uncarved side. This is where the ley line goes through the church."

The ley line was shown to him by Lin Yun, whom Munro calls "the best dowser in the world". Lin Yun came from Tibet to Rosslyn as part of his quest to seek out the world's most sacred places. He sourced it from South Queensferry, just outside Edinburgh, through Rosslyn, Midlothian, down towards Balantradoch, the ancient templar outpost also known as Temple. From there it can be traced through a number of important cathedrals in France, through Spain before eventually ending in Jerusalem.

This ley line is, according to dowsers, immensely powerful.

"For me this place is absolutely sacred, it is absolutely special," says Munro, who is convinced that although the ley line pre-dates human existence in the area, the continued use of it as a spiritual area has led to the power being increased."There are 20 barons of Rosslyn buried on open ledges in full armour in an underground vault here," he says. "They were last seen in 1650, but I believe they are still there. I believe that their spirit stays inside the holy building, and helps keep it sacred."

As we enter the chapel Munro points out some relevant features. First is the carved face of Mercury, whose job it is to draw the earth energies down from the glen and channel them into the building. Then he shows me carvings that are said to show North American plants, which "proves" a Sinclair visited America before Columbus.

Finally, we arrive at the north-east corner.

We stand facing each other and I try and relax, which is hard with about 100 tourists gawking. Still, I give it my best shot and we start waving our arms around. Having gathered the energy around us I hold my hands in the contact position – about a foot apart.

Then Munro approached and started to channel, making giant invisible snowballs out of the air and forcing them around my body. I begin to feel that I have failed him, as no matter how hard he pushes the energy, my hands remain steady.Finally, unable to ignore the piercing stare of a hat-wearing gentleman we give up. Charles Hamilton, from Ithaca, New York, approaches to ask what we were doing. He was fascinated, finding many parallels with aikido – a martial arts practice he does back home.

"Aikido is all about tapping into energy, about finding and concentrating what's there," says Hamilton. "It is such a joyful energy, and coming here is fantastic. You can really feel it."

We leave him to continue his tour of the chapel and sit down to discuss what happened.

"People expect the ground to open up and take wings, but it doesn’t happen like that," says Munro. "The energy just heats up. I thought your hands were about to move. I could feel it happening, but you didn't go along with it. What did you feel?" he asks.

I felt… well I felt extremely silly really. I confess to a slight tingling sensation in my hands and I did feel some heat, but whether that was just a symptom of extreme embarrassment or something spiritual is anybody's guess.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may want to read:

The Grail, Jesus's children and Stone Age lasers: Scotland's madder myths

The many mysteries of Rosslyn chapel