Anagram Found On Shugborough Hall Monument

June 2005

3. Anagram Supports Masonic Theory
About the Shugborough Shepherd's Monument
by Shannon Dorey

An anagram discovered by Martin Winstanley of Coventry, UK supports the theory that the Shepherd's Monument at Shugborough is a Masonic altar. Winstanley, who lives about 30 miles from Shugborough, first became interested in the monument last year when he read about the code breakers from Bletchley attempting to decode the inscription using the Enigma machine. Winstanley said he knew instantly what the letters meant but found it difficult to prove his theory.

He interpreted the letters V V at the end of O U O S V A (V V) to mean TEN from the Roman numeral five which is V, spelling O U O S V A (TEN). He had learned from Richard Kemp, the general manager of the Shugborough estate, that the number ten was extremely significant to the park. Not only were there ten letters in the Monument's inscription, but there were also ten original monuments on the site. Since ciphers associated with Rennes-le-Château reported that Poussin and Teniers held the key,1 Winstanley interpreted the TEN from the name TENiers to mean the two V's represented as two fives, which equal ten. When he made this calculation, the letters together presented DOUOSVATENM, which is an anagram for "Devout Mason," with the letters D and M being the clues to the first letters of the two words.

It was from clues found at Rennes-le-Château that I used to support my theory that the Shugborough Shepherd's Monument was an Operative Masonic altar. I took another look at Rennes-le-Château to see if there were also clues there to explain Winstanley's anagram. Research done by Rennes-le-Château expert Alan Scott helped in my search. The statute of the devil or demon Asmodeus provided a clue.

Scott, who knew nothing of the anagram or the significance of the number five, had already reported on his web site that on the left wing of the statute were five small marks that looked like healed scars, or perhaps scratches. He believes that there is little doubt that the marks were deliberately added. The gouges are deep and have perfectly formed edges. He thinks they are simply vertical lines that had been carefully recessed in the wing and placed there under the direction of the former parish priest, Berenger Saunière and that they indicate the number five. He also points out that the devil, or Asmodeus, is placing his left hand on his right leg in such a way as to again signify the number five. The hand is not flat on the thigh, but was raised above it.2

Another clue to the V signifying the number five for the anagram may be from a painting that was purchased by Berenger Saunière during a stay in Paris. In addition to paintings by Teniers and Poussin, he also purchased one of Pope Celestine V by an unidentified artist.3 Pope Celestine V, who reigned from July to December, 1294, before abdicating, had been a monk who had loved solitude and lived in the wilderness of Monte Morone in the Abruzzi and later in the wilder recesses of Mt. Majella. His role model was John the Baptist. In the late thirteenth century, it was illegal for popes to abdicate, and so he was arrested for his abdication and eventually murdered.4 The association of Pope Celestine V with John the Baptist connects the V of Pope Celestine V with the statue of John the Baptist in the church. On John's cross is a banner with two V's hanging together to form an M. I discussed the V's hanging from the statue of John the Baptist in my article Shugborough Hall: A Masonic Altar? I wrote that the two V's were meant to be read together to form the M that begins the word Mason. But this double V may be a clue with a double meaning. Perhaps it also means that the two Vs were meant to be added together to make ten. I believe that Rennes-le-Château is full of clues to the Shugborough Shepherd's Monument's Masonic significance. Berenger Saunière and other Masons before him likely set up the clues for Masonic rituals that had initiates decoding the meanings of the letters on the Shepherd's Monument.

In many languages, the first ten letters of the alphabet are also the first ten digits, one to ten. Sometimes "ten" is like the name of God, as in Spanish, where the word Dios means God and the word dies means ten. In the Hebrew alphabet, the English word Judaism begins with the tenth letter of the alphabet, yud.5

The numbers five and ten play significant roles in the Dogon religion. Dogon religious symbols are closely associated with those of the Masonic Symbols. In the Dogon religion the number ten is identified with the ten fibres that came down from the alien Nummos' world. These fibres were the essence of the Nummo. The descriptions in the mythology clearly indicated the fibres were DNA.6 In the Dogon religion the two V's symbolized chromosomes and were said to be Amma forming two points.7

Dogon social organization was expressed by classifications, which included all natural manifestations numerically expressed and related to each other.8 This was the same concept presented by Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans, a secret society in Egypt and Babylon, believed that everything in the universe was numerical and that, according to Pythagoras himself, the number ten was the very best number. The number ten contains in itself the first four integers (1+2+3+4=10), which when written in dot notation form a perfect triangle.9

The Dogon system of signs (DNA) encompassed the smallest twig and the tiniest animal. The spider, worm and dragonfly were considered of the same importance as the lion. The Dogon believed that "the originality of this thought lay in the fact it postulated a series of correspondences between all these elements, grouped in categories that could be broken up and linked together."10 This related to the Dogon premise that all humans, plants and animals were linked together by the source DNA that was Amma.11

For more information on these associations refer to The Master of Speech and The Nummo. If you would like to contact the author, email sd@themasterofspeech.com

¹Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail, BPCC Hazell Books, Aylesbury, England, 1990. p.26.
²http://www.rennes-discovery.com/church6.htm#devil Alan Scott. 2005.
³Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln p.27.
⁴http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03479b.htm Pope Célestine V
⁵Laird Scranton, Hidden Meanings, The Study of Founding Symbols of Civilization p.25.
⁶Shannon Dorey, The Master of Speech p. 25.
⁷Shannon DoreyThe Nummop.52.
⁸Dorey The Nummo p.39-40.
⁹http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/
~history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html Pythagoras of Samo School of Mathematics and StatisticsUniversity of St Andrews, Scotland 1999.
¹⁰Dorey The Nummo p.39-40.
¹¹Dorey The Nummo p.29-32.