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Review
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The Head of God.
The Head of God - The Lost Treasure of the Templars. By Keith Laidler. Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN: 0-297-84129-7.
Keith Laidler is described as:
"an academic turned writer and film-maker. He is the author of five previous books on scientific and natural history subjects, has produced nature films for Survival Anglia, the BBC and National Geographic TV and worked with Sir David Attenborough on The Living Planet."
He has brought this background to bear on such subjects as: Egyptology, Celtic and Druidic practice, Jewish beliefs and customs, the Knights Templar, the Renaissance and the history of Scottish Freemasonry. The author covers in excess of 3000 years of human experience and comes to a conclusion that might come as a surprise. It will certainly come as a surprise to learn that Rosslyn Chapel is in the West of Scotland.
The overwhelming feeling from this book is; 'I have heard all this before'. He quotes sources such as Knight and Lomas (The Hiram Key & The Second Messiah) and Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh, (The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail). 
This might be, in part, why this book has the same 'feel' as others on this 'subject'. An historian should always submit details of the sources consulted during the course of his or her research in order that readers of the final product might be able to examine those sources for themselves. In his book, Laidler has provided such a bibliography consisting of the work of 254 different writers. Some of these works are difficult to obtain and some 65 are in a language other than English. Some important works have been omitted but that said it does provide a very useful list of further reading.
His theories raise many interesting questions but in the course of attempting to substantiate them he deviates greatly from our normal understanding of history. That in itself is no criticism of a work such as this but when the arguments used can be shown demonstrably to be wrong then the whole edifice appears to be built upon sand. One such example is the argument of the 'Cult of the Head', which the author tortuously traces from Akhenaten an Egyptian Pharaoh (1377-1358 BC), to the Knights Templar.
'Knowing' that Rosslyn Chapel was built by a 'covert' member of that Order (whatever that means) and the profusion of 'disembodied heads' within Rosslyn Chapel provides him with a link between the builder and the 'Cult of the Head'. This to be fair, simplifies his overall argument, but his reason for mentioning this clue, or link, is that there is not one full size depiction of the 'Green Man' to be found within the chapel. The conclusion is that the chapel, the St Clair family, the Knights Templar, and therefore the Freemasons are connected with the 'Cult of the Head'. Sadly, this displays an ignorance of research regarding the 'Green Man', examples of which are to be found all over Europe; in pagan temples, abbeys, cathedrals, churches and even on tombs, fountains, in at least one stained glass window and on a horse brass! In two or three instances, only, is the head connected to a body. In other words there is nothing unusual about the Green Men within Rosslyn Chapel.
Some will find this book shocking and blasphemous. Others will find it irritating due to the many unsubstantiated arguments put forward. If you really want to 'know' that the embalmed head of Jesus Christ is buried in Rosslyn Chapel, below the Apprentice Pillar, then you should buy this book.
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