Ciaran is a phenomenally talented music/songwriter. He was the drummer with That Petrol Emotion, a group mostly from Derry in the north of Ireland. He now lives in London. Still Life Supreme touches the depths within us with a haunting, numinous beauty.
Still Life Supreme - courtesy of Ciaran McLaughlin
The court case in London, which ended with a decision in favor of Dan Brown, has obscured the real issues over the suggestion in both books, that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and that their blood line is still to be found in the south of France. The case taken by two of the authors of the book known in the UK as The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code and Random House UK, (who find themselves in the unenviable situation of being sued by their own authors) is tempered somewhat by the spike in sales of both books. In the brouhaha that has surrounded the case, the important issues have not been discussed in the mainstream media. The courts decision was the correct one, for any other would have meant that it would be virtually impossible to write a non-fiction book were it no longer possible to draw on already published sources.
Surely, one might have expected some discussion as to the true nature of Lord Jesus Christ and in consequence, the real meaning of the myth of the Holy Grail? Both issues are explored within The Legend of Dagad Trikon, and the author takes a totally different line to Dan Brown and the authors of the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Grégoire de Kalbermatten recognizes Jesus as a manifestation of the divine power, and sees the Grail, the mystical cup with which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood/essence of Christ on the Golgotha, said to contain the mysterious substance that is the key to the redemption of mankind, not as a physical chalice but as a metaphor for the redemptive and transcendent powers that became available for humanity as a result of the Resurrection.
It seems extraordinary that in the ‘so-called’ Christian countries, tolerance has apparently reached a point where any insult can be leveled with impunity at Jesus Christ, in the name of art or freedom of speech, protected here in the USA under the First Amendment. This is done with almost no response or reaction from leaders of the Christian denominations, who might be expected to take a stand and defend the sensitivities of their followers.
