Holy Blood Holy Grail Mystery - Solved

The Shepherd�s Monument Mystery � Solved.

I was reading Holy Blood and the Holy Grail when I came across the �mystery� of the bas relief based on Poussin�s painting �Les Bergers d�Acadie. The authors said that the inscription DOUSOVAVVM was impossible to decipher, even with a computer. This sounded too wild to be true and I took the challenge of solving the mystery, without a computer. It took four hours, hardly impossible to decipher. My proof is listed below, I will not go into details of the references, they can easily be found on the Internet.

Clues to the Solution (not in order)

�      Village of Rennes-le-Chateau is perched on a rocky outcrop

�      Antoine Bigou miscarved the date MDCCLXXI as MDCOLXXXI. He changed C to O (not a Roman Numeral) and added an extra X or number 10

�      Poussin painted Les Bergers d�Acadie � the title is French

�      Sauniere discovered a parchment ��Poussin�hold the KEY�

�      Location of Poussin painting in Les Pointls, near Rennes-le-Chateau

�      A reverse bas relief carving of Les Bergers d�Acadie is located at Shughburough house near Staffordshire England

�      There are eight letters on one line of the bas relief, two letters on next line

�      Sauniere decoded the messages and found the Grail even though he was not a Templar initiate � he did not possess the esoteric knowledge thought to be needed

Solution (Order of learning the first five clues is unimportant: The last step can not be deciphered until the first five are understood, and you have the KEY.)

1.      Bigou replaced C with O and added reference to number 10 - CLUE

2.      There are 10 letters on inscription, eight on one line � CLUE

3.      Poussin painted Les Bergers d�Acadie - CLUE

4.      Bas relief is a �REVERSE� of Poussin�s painting � CLUE

5.      Bas relief has a casket obscuring view of Rennes le Chateau � CLUE

6.      Sauniere parchment refers to Poussin � KEY

7.      Replacing O with C in the eight-letter word and reading it REVERSED (i.e. upside down and mirrored) gives for the first line:    AAVACSNC. This is an anagram in French �Ca Canvas� (That Picture). The bas-relief in England is obscuring the location of the Holy Grail in France - SOLUTION

No esoteric knowledge needed.

Solution by Ed McGrath May 16, 2007 (not Jan 17^th)