I'm using <xsl:for-each> to iterate over a node set created by
exsl:node-set($somevariable).

Inside the for-each I want to access the main document but / now seems to
refer to the root
of the node-set.

How do I access the main document? I'm using xalan-j.

Save the the main document into a variable, perhaps a global
variable:
 <xsl:variable name="main" select="/"/>