A controversial book, a source of much arcane knowledge - “La vraie langue celtique et Le Cromleck de Rennes-les-Bains” by Abbot Henry Boudet.
[EDITOR - I came across this blog entry [referring to a book by Alessandra Micheli (Source) - a book talking about Boudet's work as discussed by Alessandra. You can also access the blog HERE to read the original. A fascinating read!].
"The Vraie Langue Celtique written by Abbé Henry Boudet (Quillan 1837-Axat 1915) is, in the opinion of many experts, an extremely absurd work. The author, as already mentioned, proposes a reasoned study on the Celtic language and its connections with local history and the menhirs scattered on the hills around the town.
The first oddity can already be found on the cover. A certain Fancois Pomies is indicated as the publisher, complete with his address. The problem is that in the 1886 publication date, there was no Pomies. The aforementioned publisher, in fact, had ceased business six years earlier, in 1880, the date on which Boudet had already delivered his manuscript.
In reality, the book will be published by Victor Louis Bonnafous, who took over from Pomies in his own office. Why does Bonnafous publish the work under the name of another publisher who has also disappeared? The overall circulation will be 500 copies, of which only 398 will be sold; the others will be donated to libraries, embassies and various cultural and religious institutes, others will be given to spa tourists. The parish priest had entirely financed the edition, losing a lot of money.[1]
Today, almost no trace remains of those 398 copies. The very few remaining copies fuel a market of more or less legal editions. The specimens donated to public libraries have disappeared and in some cases there has even been sabotage to obtain them. At the Biblioteque Nationelle in Paris, someone took it to read with the aim of cutting out the pages, leaving only the cover to deceive the librarians by replacing it with the novel Le cochon d'or [The Golden Pig]. The copy remains deposited at the Carcassonne library which, however, is in such poor condition that it is no longer available for reading.
What's so important about this text? We mentioned how it seems that Boudet wanted to highlight page 11 or even the preliminary observations.[2] The eleventh page of the Vraie Langue Celtique contains a statement with interesting meanings. It is precisely on this page that Boudet sows revealing clues, contained in particular in two statements: the first concerns the belief that one day, the Sanskrit language will give the key to the Celtic language, to the point of believing that the Celts came from Asia, the cradle of mankind. The second claims that, while other peoples of antiquity left us writings, this did not happen among the Celts. To discover something, you need to study the proper names of people and using the language of the Tectosagi to explain the meanings of megalithic monuments.
Since Boudet seems to want to invite us to look for something by pushing us to decipher his clues, what we have to look for is the hidden meaning of the information he provides us. And the two concepts prove to be very enlightening. According to some theories, in fact, the Celts, an Indo-European people, came from Asia[3] and their religion and culture had points in common with India. Asia was the cradle of civilization. Coincidentally, Asia is the seat of the legendary city of Agharti where it is said that all the occult knowledge, the divine laws and the principles of sacred geometry (which is of such importance in the Aude) are preserved, essentially the cultural heritage of the whole humanity. Not only this. It is said that this mysterious city rises on the main frame of the earth's currents or perhaps it is even the sacred centre of this underground kingdom that generates these rivers of energies. These lines, the famous Ley lines, run across the entire planet and spread across the surface irradiated by the megaliths. Precisely the megaliths mentioned by Boudet are the only remaining testimonies of the ancient populations which would thus become real manuals of arcane sciences, taking on the appearance of antennas or generators of natural but forgotten energies. The Celts would be the custodians of this ancient scientific knowledge in which sacred geometry was of considerable importance.
Agharti, according to many esotericists including Helena Blavataski, would rise on the island of the Gobi Sea where in ancient times the demigods from Venus, the lords of the flame, comparable to the Tuatha de Danaan, the mythical people who brought religion to men, science, agriculture, in short, civilization itself. Furthermore, the name Tuatha is similar to Tiuth, god of Hyperborea (far north), lord of the Polar Star and of the Island of Thule which according to Guenon[4] represents only a different name for the same tradition. All these memories refer to a single archetype, that of the sacred city par excellence or of the lost homeland perhaps following a terrible cataclysm whose knowledge was saved by a group of wise men. Knowledge that referred not so much to magic, as it is commonly understood, but to agriculture, science, mathematics, geometry and astronomy.
Memory of Altlantis perhaps?
Boudet as can be seen, was anything but an extravagant madman, but he was a man of vast culture, whose work had a deeper purpose: to stage an initiatory journey, a sacred pilgrimage through the purest and deepest cultural and esoteric knowledge. What is the final prize? Perhaps it is precisely the Grail that shining Truth that transmutes....We continue to carefully analyse his work, since only a detailed reading can highlight the most intriguing aspects that could escape a superficial reading. It goes without saying that these are indispensable for understanding the purposes of the parish priest. It is Boudet himself who puts us on the right path by inviting the reader to decode his work by transforming nonsense into a statement with meaning. For example on page 126, Boudet boasts of speaking a certain coded language. And as in every code there is a key to understanding it.
How to find the right key?
First of all, arm yourself with a solid esoteric, alchemical and cabalistic knowledge, as well as possess the foundations of the Hermetic and Gnostic doctrines. But not only this. If you consult the index of the book, the third chapter is dedicated to the Punic language. Boudet himself underlines how the aforementioned language: with his wordplay, he knew how to create personal names. Common names also offer similar combinations and represent, with numerous associated monosyllables, entire sentences with a rigorous and precise meaning. [5]
The Punic language that Boudet speaks of, however, is not the one in use in Carthage but is the transliteration of "pun", an English term which means "play on words". The suggested key is, therefore, phonetic based on homophony, i.e. the masking of one term with another.[6] The arbitrary translations that fill the book serve to hide precise French words which, put together, constitute a sort of second text, probably fundamental for the search for the treasure.
In the opinion of Giorgio Baietti,[7] on page 120 to page 126 of Boudet's book, a route is precisely described, for example masking the information with a discussion on the months and seasons of the year. In reality, precise points of the territory associated with a kind of secret code are outlined. At the end of the book there is a very detailed map of the area, drawn by Boudet's brother, Edmund. The map (scale 1:50,000) has the title Rennes Celtique and contains indications for identifying the erected menhirs, the demolished ones, engravings on the rocks, the dolmens and the Greek crosses. What is most interesting about this map, however, is the accurate description of the places of the alleged Cromlech that Boudet analyses in the book including Blanchefort, Cardou, Bazel, Cap de L'Homme, Roko Negro, l'Homme Mort. Such meticulousness, however, is not accompanied by accuracy. The heights of the mountains are almost all incorrect and the fact is strange since the Boudet brothers had the Army General Staff Map at their disposal, from which they could easily copy all the data. According to Giorgio Baietti,[8]by applying the Punic language to numbers the following calculations are obtained:
Sebairou 514 (5+1+4=10)
Blanchefort 544 (5+4+4=13)
Bazel 564 (5+6+4=15)
Cardou 796 (7+9+6=22)
What could these numbers mean?
Let's try to help ourselves with the cabala. The number 10 would correspond to the letter Yod. This represents creation, the essence of things, the divine is the only one that leads to upward growth. It can indicate power and possession. The 13 is linked to the letter Mem which represents the revealed and the Hidden, that part of the celestial rules, hidden from view. Furthermore, it is the alchemical symbol of transformation, linked to the feminine essence of God: that is, the Grail. The number 15 is related to the letter Samech. It represents the place of divine presence, support, protection and memory. The soul, like the alchemical crucible, can transform hostile forces into creative energies, just by recognizing them. It can also indicate falsehood and the material world. The number 22 corresponds to the letter Tau. This represents Truth and perfection, the man close to the Gods, total wisdom, the man who knows how to see beyond and who no longer lives in the human world. It is the final reward, the general key to everything.
Considered in this way, do these numbers allude to the process by which man can appropriate hidden laws or something revealed that contains within itself the divine presence or the memory of a lost truth? If so, this truth is connected to the divine laws or in a place where they are preserved, a sort of tabernacle where the presence of God is the source of Truth, the door to perfection. The divine, i.e. sacred laws, involve a transformation, a true initiatory death through which the abandonment of the old is possible. Only in this way is rebirth possible, perfectly represented by the symbol of the Grail (the feminine element, gnosis). What do you die from? To matter, to its falsity. Only in this way can we obtain the keys to access man's true reward: immortality. If we connect these findings with the initial considerations, the picture appears clearer. Simply combine the results obtained by the cabal with the statements on page 11 and the preliminary observations. We are faced with an important discovery: Boudet intends to talk about some knowledge that would allow a union with the divine. It almost seems that Boudet is alluding to a precise meaning and use of megalithic monuments and sacred places of the Celts. That is their writing, their legacy and there lies the knowledge we are looking for. The number 22 also attracts attention as it always appears in everything related to Rennes. One of the most significant points of Cromlech is connected to Mount Cardou which, according to some, contains the greatest secret in the world: the tomb of Jesus.
Is this the hidden truth?
The knowledge that is so protected? Perhaps man does not need to be redeemed because he already contains redemption within himself as Jesus, the man who managed to become God, showed us? Is the truth that man contains the dormant divinity within himself in embryo and only needs the power of gnosis, the Christ energy to free it? But now we enter a truly forbidden field, the field of Gnosticism ... Let's focus on another element: the use of code. If Boudet uses a code, that means his message can be dangerous and disruptive. Only if we are in the presence of explosive information, which therefore risks calling into question the social, political and religious structure, do we try to protect it or rather hide it. But it is equally important to seek a way to pass them on since only alternative Truths are a necessary and effective weapon against the stagnation of civilization and man. And here, therefore, we resort to the code [as a] suitable means to pass on to those who will be equipped with the right interpretation key, i.e. the initiated, the worthy and the pure. I don't know if I belong to that circle, probably not, but I will try to use the key I found.
We see. We mentioned that Boudet's message could refer to a path of redemption and rebirth. But we have also mentioned how this path is prohibited and therefore does not belong to the official Catholic path. Perhaps it is suggested that redemption can also be found and not only outside the church. Let's delve deeper.
Thanks to his linguistic theories, Boudet even goes so far as to reinterpret the texts of the Bible so much so that the sacred tetragrammaton YHWH, according to him, derives from the English personal pronouns I HE WE YE. Absurd. But we also stated that behind the absurdity, the nonsense, there is a sort of subtext. So what does this statement tell us? Perhaps the image of Yahweh is a human construction? Is it a personal God? According to some theories[9], in fact, the figure of Jahve derives from a personal God who protected Abraham's family and was a minor god of storms and armies. Yahweh, he who is, is a God of forms, a god shaped by the needs of men who protects the limiting aspects of matter. This is equivalent to saying that representing divinity is our mental construction. And, in fact, Yahweh is an all too human god, endowed with all human attributes such as power, mercy, arrogance and wrath. Abel also ends up the same way. The name of Adam's son derives from to ape, i.e. to present the image and hell and inferno. In practice, his name would mean presenting the image of hell. After this apparently incomprehensible statement, Boudet returns to speaking in a normal tone, falling within the canons of Catholic orthodoxy. This strange hint remains, a stone thrown almost at random into the quiet pond of orthodoxy which, however, creates curious and disturbing movements... If, as many claim, Boudet was a simple and harmless country priest, mentally closed, why insert this translation in a context that would aim to present a historical theory without at all trying to undermine the Holy Mother Church? Why insert a sentence that clearly clashes with the apparent orthodoxy of the speech? Maybe it's not out of place at all, though. I strongly doubt that to support his linguistic theses it was essential to mention a similar translation of Abel's name. Abel is the prototype of the victim, of the righteous. Furthermore, it is now clear to us that behind every sentence, no matter how disjointed or extravagant, there is a precise meaning. Boudet knows very well what he wants to communicate, yet he hints and then denies, suggests and then denies. Telling and not telling: isn't that the best way to communicate forbidden knowledge? Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear. And isn't inserting a dissonant phrase, in a harmless and religiously fearful speech, a way of highlighting the statement itself? This was deliberately done to further emphasise the hidden message hidden in the explanation of his name. And it is on Abel presented as an image of hell that attention is concentrated willy-nilly. And it is precisely that image that breaks the logical narrative of the facts, to the point of transforming our usual cognitive state, offering the possibility of using another mental scheme to observe, perhaps for the first time, the other side of the coin. He lives there, estranged from the rest of the comments, and in his otherness lies his terrible destructive power. A grinning shadow that clouds the tranquil harmony of the landscape... I believe that what Boudet proposes is a highly and delightfully heretical message, something that can therefore only be communicated in a hidden way. Behind the apparent orthodoxy of Boudet, as well as Sauniere, there is a sort of mark that belongs to the very soul of Languedoc: the mark of Cain. And the mark of Cain is part of the Gnostic tradition.
Filippo Goti writes: Anyone who tries his hand at studying the Gnostic texts may come across a singular inversion of roles, qualities and attributions that inexorably strike the protagonists, extras and divinities of the Old Testament... the impression that the unwary reader might receive, it is that of being faced with some game of mirrors, intent on overturning the Truths in which he has always believed [10].
And this is precisely the impression one gets from reading that passage by Boudet. Boudet, in fact, does nothing but cite in an elusive but decisive way, the Gnostic tradition, the way in which the Gnostic interprets creation. And Gnosticism in the form of Catharism dominates, like it or not, is the Aude region. For the Gnostic, creation is not the benign gift of a loving and wise God, but rather the work of a lesser, arrogant and blind god: the demiurge. Man, a spiritual creature, originally an angel in the shape and likeness of the true God, is imprisoned in the material body by this demiurge, jealous of such perfection. The cosmos is the result of an act which, in an attempt to reiterate the power of the demiurge, attempts to parody the perfection of the superior order. For the Gnostic, man is not the master of creation but a prisoner and slave of matter, forced to ignore his true origin. And it is this way of conceiving the world as a prison that affects the characters of Genesis. The celebratory narratives of the creative act become, by reflection, the verb of the adversary and whoever rebels against the demiurge (the creator god) is raised as a symbol of the truth that triumphs. Consequently, the servants of God, the righteous, become servants of evil, images of hell. Among the tires (those aware of the spirit) who courageously rebel against the enslavement of the archons (the dominators of the material world), a special place is reserved for Cain, so much so that the Gnostic community of the second century took its name from him (the so-called Cainites). Cain and Abel, the children of Eve and Adam, outline the two opposite worlds of matter (Abel) and spirit (Cain). Two worlds which, although interacting, due to their opposite nature, fight and cancel each other out. The truth, Gnosis, involves moving away from carnality, represented by bloody sacrifices, a symbol of the base emotions on which matter itself feeds. Cain presents himself as the superior nature of man, that incarnate angel, linked to the harmony of natural cycles, seen as a means to incorporate and understand the harmony of the cosmos itself and therefore of God, while Abel becomes the lower nature, subservient to matter, to those aggressive and compulsive instincts that increasingly bind man, preventing him from ascending towards the spirit.
Can the Gnostic accept as Supreme Lord an entity that demands blood from his followers? That: do you recognise yourself in a people who, as a rite of initiation, belonging and recognition, require blood shed from the sexual organ of a child, unaware of what is happening? [11] Clash of worlds, clash of cultures, between a fundamentally Semitic one linked to the sacrifice of animals in the rite of circumcision and the presence of another, linked to rites of different spiritual elevation, foreign to the carnal cults of blood and sacrifice. It is thanks to the murder of Cain, seen in a symbolic and initiatory key, the superior nature, the spiritual one, triumphs over the second, the lower, material one, attracting however the ire of the archontic powers, those who constantly work so that man remains bound to this world. Therefore Cain, the emblem of the Gnostic man, born from what apparently appears to be a transgression of the law, is different among his peers, since by transgressing the law of the Demiurge, he lives not thanks to his material senses, but through the mark of gnosis, the sign of Cain.
Was Boudet a Gnostic? Certainly, as a cultured man as he was, he knew the Gnostic religious doctrines, especially since these, I repeat, rightfully belonged to the land of the Aude. Since Boudet was a clergyman, his clues centered on sensitive religious issues that potentially threatened Catholic authority. Both the Gnostic hint and the repeated emphasis on the Celtic tradition show how the message was strongly heretical. There is talk of a deposit of occult wisdom that awaits its master in the Nemeton (sacred grove).[12]
In the Vraie Langue Celtique we find mainly two wisdom currents: is there a link between the two?
The Cromlech that Boudet speaks of, with its power of transformation, closely resembles the alchemical Athanor, capable of separating the heavy from the subtle, the same goal of gnosis. Can't the interrupted tradition (the living language) that someone is trying hard to revive refer to the Gnostic traditions? After all, Gnosticism has a very ancient genesis; so much so that it can trace its origins back to the Hermetic-Egyptian doctrines, to Zoroastrianism as well as to Hinduism, with its belief in living in an illusory world and therefore a source of suffering, as it clouds true knowledge. Furthermore, as Mariano Bizzarri and Francesco Scurria [13] rightly observe, it seems that this Cromlech is intimately linked to the resurrection to life and Rebirth is the underlying theme of Boudet's work, whether it occurs within a sacred space (for the Celts a sanctuary was not necessarily a well-defined architectural structure) or through gnosis. And in Languedoc, sacred spaces abound, indeed, according to Louis Charpentier, the soil of France abounds in places endowed with strange powers: capable of influencing the lives of men. [14]
Indeed, they would be marked by megalithic monuments, considered the remains of an ancient civilisation: that of the giants. Was this Boudet's hidden message? Was this his most ambitious project to pass on alternative knowledge to allow man to evolve? Or is it all a fantasy and Boudet was really a harmless parish priest? Or was he just nostalgic for the monarchy? I don't think Boudet was a fool or a simpleton. Instead, he shows himself to be a very erudite, particular and often absurd parish priest, endowed with a genius that does not fit well with the thesis of obtuseness. I do not doubt that his convictions were very strong. I just question the nature of these strong beliefs. Furthermore, I also believe that the theory of an esoteric Boudet does not a priori exclude his political involvement. The most daring, alternative or even secret theories fit well with the concept of politics understood not only as an electoral and organizational system of the state, but above all with something that involves the inner life of the person and the citizen. It is the ideas that transform men that contribute to creating new forms of political aggregation. Not only. It is from the change of society within itself that the replacement or creation of a new political structure becomes possible. Without the emergence of new social demands, changing the political organization is often not necessary. Even dictators and the creators of autocratic states base their claims to power on social inputs (just think of Nazism and communism).
Was Henry Boudet an esoteric? Did he belong to movements of the underground current that gave the Languedoc that particular colour and which made the Rennes-le-Chateau affair famous? These are the questions that await an answer. And which are hidden in that book which remains a terrible, fascinating mystery.
Notes:
[1] It is estimated at 5382 gold francs, the sum paid in advance to publish the book.
[2] The strange numbering gives the result 11, if we reconsider page 2 as page 1 or even 12, like the signs of the zodiac, the simple letters of the Hebrew alphabet or the lace of the Magdala tower, underlining how numerology plays a notable importance in the Rennes enigma.
[3] Marc Queston, Magical tradition of the Celts, Atanor, Rome, trans. Alessandra Pizzari page 13
[4] Renè Guenon, The king of the world, Atanor, Francesco Zambon, Rome 1976.
[5] Boudet, op. cit. page 100.
[6] The same system used in some texts by Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels.
[7] Giorgio Baietti, pages 108-109. op.cit
[8] See Giorgio Baietti . page 110 p.cit
[9] C. Knigth, R. Lomas, op cit. page
[10] Filippo Goti, the Gnostic Cain, www.fuocosacro.it
[11] Filippo Goti, op.cit.
[12] Boudet, op.cit< page 264
[13] M. Bizzarri, F. Scurria op.cit.
[14] Louis Charpentier, The Giants and mystery of the origins, Age of Aquarius, Turin 2007, trans. Fiorella Buzzi.