what is the secret to the four tiads?  What relation does Calatrava
and scrolls have to it?

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 26 May 2004 18:50 PDT

Could this be "triads" rather than "tiads?"

If would be very helpful if we knew more about this riddle. Where did
you encounter it? Where did the references to "Calatrava" and
"scrolls" come from? Anything further that you can tell us would be
much appreciated.

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Clarification of Question by bethania-ga on 27 May 2004 10:07 PDT

Sorry about the mistake the question is What is the secret to the four triads?

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Clarification of Question by bethania-ga on 27 May 2004 10:18 PDT

This is a riddle given to me at school by a person who gave a lecture,
nothing related to this.  The post card with the riddle read like
this:  What is the secret to the "Four Triads?"
Hints:  AAAAVCTLR, CSRLSLO (these words are scrambled)

Nothing else was said about the riddle.  I figured out the sclambled
words to be calatrava and scrolls, I could be wrong.  The I looked up
Triads and found that that it can relate to music, the book of God,
book of revelation or book of the dead with in the jewish community. 
I am stumpped right now so I have asked for help.  The riddle is broad
with little hints.  It is intended to take me all summer to figure it
out.  The answer must be submitted by the beginning of the scholl year
August 2004.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 27 May 2004 11:26 PDT

What kind of school do you attend?  Was the riddle given by someone
who specializes in or likes a particular subject?

My initial instinct is that this has something to do with
architecture.  Calatrava is a famous architect; "scrolls" can be an
architechtural term; and presumbaly triads or threes (or even twelves)
must show up in architecture.

But I don't have any specific ideas about an answer.  Probonopublico
comes closer than I do to solving the riddle.

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Clarification of Question by bethania-ga on 29 May 2004 08:45 PDT

I attend 8th grade in a private school.  This riddle was a summer
challenge given to us by our junior achievement spokesperson, his
profession is in jewlery.  I think he just wanted to give us a task to
do during the summer.  He'll be back next school year, August 2004. 
For now, this is all the info I have to offer.  I am just as cluless
as anyone else.

Doesn't 'triads' suggest three (if that is the correct spelling)?

A general chapter held at Cîteaux in 1187 gave to the Knights of
Calatrava their definitive rule, which was approved in the same year
by Pope Gregory VIII. This rule, modeled upon the cistercian customs
for lay brothers, imposed upon the knights, besides the obligations of
the three religious vows, the rules of silence in the refectory,
dormitory, and oratory; of abstinence on four days a week, besides
several fast days during the year; they were also obliged to recite a
fixed number of paternosters for each day Hour of the Office; to sleep
in their armour; to wear, as their full dress, the Cistercian white
mantle with the scarlet cross fleurdelisée. Calatrava was subject not
to Cîteaux, but to Morimond in Burgundy, the mother-house ...

So, these guys had FOUR vows to make, one more than the normal triad.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03149d.htm

Scrolls?

Well, I'll leave someone else to figure that out.

Triads does suggest 3, but the riddle asked for four triads.  I have
found that most articles will only preset three triads.  I continue my
search, but this is challenging to me.

Yes. Bethania ... 

But the Calatrava evidently had FOUR sets of vows, as opposed to the
customary Triad.

Can't imagine where the Scrolls figure though.

When the Knights of the Calatrava went into battle they carried a flag
with four reversed anchors connected at it`s center.It was known as
the calatrava cross.The cross was thought to protect all that went
into battle.Each anchor or "Triad" had a special power.Patek Phillepe
is the first person I know of to discover the Calatrava Cross and use
it`s symbol.It was placed on the finest time pieces ever made.The
Scrolls are a reference to the dead sea scrolls.The secret of the Four
Triads is supposed to be the secret to the meaning of life.The Zodiacs
whole basis comes from the Four Triads.

Wow!

An Illuminating Comment from the Man (or Woman) Him- or Her- Self!

You can't get better than that.

Ok, so far you have the Knights of Calatrava and their cross, which
all seem good.  It answers one aspect of the Triads.  Still troubling
though, is the scrolls clue.  How do we know that the scrolls have
anything to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which weren't discovered
until the 1940's, right?  So what other scrolls could we be talking
about?  Well, here is a thought, a line to pursue:

1. What if the triads is actually the four houses of the Zodiac:
"Key elements in the system include the constellations, the houses,
and the seven planets. The twelve major constellations of the zodiac
lie in the path of the planets, each sign with its distinctive gender,
ethos, location, and form. Each is assigned a section of the circle of
the sky (divided into three sections, or "decans," of ten degrees
each). They are frequently grouped and regrouped in recombinant
triads, in which one or another sign is regnant. Each of the four
triads becomes associated with primal elements,seasons of the year,
cardinal directions, and so on."

2. astrology continued...
"In the second century, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy gathered together
many of the extant variable systems and attempted to standardize them.
By the middle of the eighth century, there was a lively Arabic
interest in astrology, driven partly by the translation of Greek works
that had survived in Pahlavi translations. The Arabic works were to
have a considerable influence on astrological systems of the
Renaissance and their derivatives, beginning in 1202, when Leonardo of
Pisa (Fibonacci) introduced the Arabic system of numerals. Shortly
thereafter the Norman kingdom of Sicily sponsored the translation of
Greek texts from Arabic into Latin, with the aid of Arab and Jewish
scholars. Michael Scotus, the astrologer of Frederich II, was
knowledgeable and influential in the development and diffusion of the
astrological tradition. In Toledo in 1252 King Alfonso X of Castile
sponsored an assembly of fifty Jewish and Christian scholars 10
translate the works of Ptolemy, among other scientists, from Arabic
into Castilian."

So where was Calatrava? Castile.  This occurs about a century after
the founding of the Knights of Calatrava.  Maybe the "scrolls" are
actually arabic scrolls of astrology that were translated in the
former Moor town of Calatrava.

Not sure if the complete answer is there, but i think more likely than
the Dead Sea Scrolls