I am very sorry to bother Spring team again. The AspectJ Weaver will throw ReflectionWorldException when an application context xml file contains both <aop:config> and <lang:groovy> elements. The problem forces all sping users to use either <aop:config> or <lang:groovy>, but never both. For example: ... <aop:config> <aop:pointcut id="PersonServiceOperation" expression="execution(* org.test.PersonService.*(..))"/> <aop:advisor advice-ref="txAdvice" pointcut-ref="PersonServiceOperation"/> </aop:config> ... <lang:groovy id="GroovyPersonService" script-source="classpath:org/test/GroovyPersonService.groovy"/> ... I have read all the relevent codes and find out that the exception is thrown by AspectJExpressionPointcut class in the following code: ... private ShadowMatch getShadowMatch(Method method) { synchronized (this.shadowMapCache) { ShadowMatch shadowMatch = (ShadowMatch) this.shadowMapCache.get(method); if (shadowMatch == null) { shadowMatch = this.pointcutExpression.matchesMethodExecution(method); // throw ReflectionWorldException this.shadowMapCache.put(method, shadowMatch); } return shadowMatch; } } ... The ReflectionWorldException is thrown by the pointcutExpression. According to the 2.0.3 source code, <aop:config> element will auto trigger AbstractAdvisorAutoProxyCreator which will run to the above getShadowMatch method. If the parameter passed to the getShadowMethod belong to a Groovy script object, the pointcutExpression object cannot see the Groovy script object method because the pointcutExpression object and the Groovy script object belongs to different ClassLoaders. Please provide a workaround solution to this problem. For example, in the AspectJExpressionPointcut file ... public boolean matches(Method method, Class targetClass, boolean beanHasIntroductions) { checkReadyToMatch(); // TODO: need to check whether a temporary pointcutExpression is needed or not // build a temporary pointcutExpression to be used by getShadowMatch() method PointcutExpression old_pointcutExpression = this.pointcutExpression ; // save original pointcutExpression // create a temporary PointcutParser using the targetClass classloader so that the pointcutExpression can see the Groovy // script object methods PointcutParser temp_pointcutParser = PointcutParser.getPointcutParserSupportingSpecifiedPrimitivesAndUsingSpecifiedClassLoaderForResolution( DEFAULT_SUPPORTED_PRIMITIVES, targetClass.getClassLoader()); // create a temporary pointcutExpression PointcutParameter[] pointcutParameters = new PointcutParameter[0]; // MUST be modified, just example here this.pointcutExpression = temp_pointcutParser.parsePointcutExpression( replaceBooleanOperators(getExpression()), this.pointcutDeclarationScope, pointcutParameters); Method methodToMatch = findMethodToMatchAgainst(method,targetClass); ShadowMatch shadowMatch = getShadowMatch(methodToMatch); // restore the original pointcutExpression this.pointcutExpression = old_pointcutExpression ; temp_pointcutParser = null ; ... The above example is very messy and silly. I know that Spring team will provide a better solution. The above code is only a temporary solution I currently use. Thanks a lot for any help from Spring team. cheers chris tam xenium