Gene of Isis

‘How could you know that, if you never saw Ashlee again after the Sinai adventure?’

‘I never said that I never saw Lady Granville-Devere after that,’ Albray defended.

‘But Ashlee said so, in the epilogue of her journal.’ I raised the mighty book to show him.

Albray placed a hand upon the book, unable to cope with the thought of reading while enduring the erratic motion of the aircraft. ‘I suspect you’ll find other journals written by Ashlee later in life in that big old chest you inherited.’

‘More tales featuring my favourite hero!’ I held his hand in both my own and squeezed, delighted at the prospect of reading more of my great-great-grandmother’s adventures. ‘Did she make any other esoterically groundbreaking discoveries?’

‘Many,’ Albray teased. ‘Perhaps you shall be the one to compile a thesis based on your family history and shed light on some of the most ancient of mysteries.’ Albray made this sound like a dare.

The idea was so shocking that I choked on a laugh. ‘Write about this little episode?’ I was horrified by the notion and yet I had already found several interesting avenues to research in the field of modern science. Born in the computer age, I had access to far greater amounts of information than any of my foremothers. What had been merely theory to them, science could now confirm as fact.

‘You do come from a long line of prolific writers,’ Albray encouraged. ‘Both Lillet and Ashlee were always hunched over a blank page, chronicling the events of their life and times. And if they had not made the effort, I doubt you would have survived your recent peril.’

‘I shall certainly consider adding to the accounts in my family inheritance.’ I felt comfortable committing to that.

‘You would not have to publish under your own name,’ Albray continued. ‘And, as you say, it would make a great work of fiction.’ He raised both eyebrows in challenge.

I loved his smile, having so seldom seen it. ‘Perhaps.’

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baigent, Michael, Leigh, Richard & Lincoln, Henry, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Arrow Books, UK 1996

Bell, Gail, The Poison Principle, Pan Macmillan, Australia 2001

Dolan, Brian, Ladies of the Grand Tour, HarperCollins, London 2001

Fraser, Angus, The Gypsies, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK 1992

Gardner, Laurence, Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark, HarperCollins, London 2003

Bloodline of the Holy Grail, Multi mediaQuest International, UK 2001

Realm of the Ring Lords, Multi mediaQuest International, UK 2000

Genesis of the Grail Kings, Bantam Press, UK 1999

Melton, J. Gordon, The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, Visible Ink Press, US 1999

Pool, Daniel, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, Simon & Schuster, New York 1993

Stephens, John Lloyd, Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia, Peatrea and the Holy Land, Dover Publications, New York 1970

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Albigensian Crusade (1209AD): this crusade was directed against Christian heretics in southern France—the Cathars—by the Church of Rome. It was a bitter conflict that was partly a civil war, partly persecution, partly an invasion and possibly a treasure hunt as well. The crusade lasted for twenty years.

Amrita (science): is an enzyme produced in part by the urethral Skene glands (the female prostate). 350BC Aristotle recorded that some women, when sexually excited, produce the Amrita fluid. In Tantric tradition Amrita is called ‘the ambrosia of immortality’ and ‘the fountain of youth’.

The Cathars: were the supporters of Albi-gens (see Elven Bloodline), and were the last actively visible Gnostic school in the West. Branded heretics by the Roman Catholic Church, armies descended upon Languedoc and thus began the Albigensian Crusade. Their name Cathari means ‘pure’ in Greek, and it was rumoured that the Cathars were hiding many of the secret treasures relating to the Grail.

Consolamentum (Cathar faith): was a spiritual baptism by fire, executed by the laying on of hands.

The most significant ceremony in Cathar theology, it marked the transition from an ordinary believer or credenti to a Parfait—one of the elect Perfecti. Only a Parfait could administer the rite, so that every new Parfait was linked to a chain of Perfecti that stretched all the way back to the apostles and to Jesus himself. During the ceremony the Holy Spirit would descend to the Parfait who was administering the rite and part of the Holy Spirit would then pass into the new Parfait’s physical body and permanently inhabit it. This was why Parfaits were expected and willing to lead such austere ascetic lives, and why ordinary believers were prepared to adore them.

Convenenza (Cathar faith): was not consolamentum, but it fulfilled the parts of the consolamentum that required the candidate to respond and make