LSR reviewed

     INTRODUCTION

      The Serpent Rouge is a poem of 13 verses. It was deposited on 17th January 1967 into the French National Library. It was part of the Secret Dossier's. 

      The poem itself is clearly related to Rennes-le-Chateau and Rennes-les-Bains and the surrounding countryside. However, verses also mention two churches in the Latin Quarter of Paris, Saint Sulpice and Saint Germaine des Pres. 

The one connecting theme for the poet seems to be Meridians. Thus in these churches Meridians are a focus, as well as their floor plans, their individual histories and details regarding shifting Meridian's. There is mention of the Gnomen found at Saint Sulpice. Some page's of the larger document that Le Serpent Rouge is attached to show a genealogy of Merovingian kings along with 2 maps of ancient France [known as Gaul]. In later re-issues theSE maps have Meridian's added to them. 

In the area of Rennes-le-Chateau the most important Meridian appears to be the famous Roseline Meridian. So clearly Meridians are of paramount importance in the poem. Perhaps the term 'Red Serpent' is used symbolically and poetically to represent an important line in the mind of the poet i.e. a long red line through France? An astronomical meridian or a geographical meridian? The poet certainly references both types - stating that our priest's of the local area were mediators between heaven and earth. The spiritual and the earthly materialistic. The point is spelled out even further by Cherisey in Circuit on page 69:  "A priest, because he is conscious of Heaven and Earth, must meditate on the relationship of astronomy with geography" (my underlines). 

Astronomy studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets. Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets. Traditionally, geography has been associated with cartography and place names. Does Cherisey indicate a certain studying of the heavens, perhaps latitudes and longitudes as well as astronomical 'arcs' as related to geographical areas? Astronomical arc's are indeed mentioned in the Serpent Rouge - appearing under the French term for 'rainbow' which we interpret as a meridian. 

        This is not a novel idea within the Plantard & Cherisey team. Plantard advocates exactly this in his introduction to La Vrai Langue Celtique. Not only does Plantard go on about the ell [a celtic measurement] and other aspects of cartography, he also refers to the zodiac of Rennes. For Boudet writes about "Twelve palaces were enclosed in a single enclosure," with the allusion (referring to Pliny) that these monuments were dedicated to the Sun, which leads Plantard to discuss the zodiac - made on page 84. Page 246 of Boudet determines the centre of this zodiac/Cromleck and on page 241 he gives the dimensions to draw on the map these two circumferences: 15 and 16 centimeters of radius. The brilliant author does not fail to add that "this grindstone had to grind wheat (gold) in a perfect way". The sign of Aries is designated by Abel, guardian of the herds, that is to say, the N, symbol of the North for all and that we find twice in the word RENNES of the title of the map. On page 43, the author insists on the distinction of the warp with the weft (raster, N frame) because the string corresponds to the vertical lines ↑ ↓, drawn from the letters N of the card while the weft means the opposite line. Very subtly provided information on pages 227 and 231 makes it possible to locate the sign of Aries (Abel) towards the confluence of Sals and Rialsès, exactly at Roc Nègre, L'Ariès de Nègre or Aries Noir, according to the inscription engraved on a tombstone! Before going further, to summarise the above and dispel any misunderstandings that may have crept into the mind of the reader:
1) By astronomical coding, Abbé Boudet indicates twelve deposits and their position corresponds for each one to a palace of the Zodiac, this one beginning towards Blanchefort, to 0º of Aries on Roc-Nègre. 2) By cartographic coding, an error determines at the confluence Blanque-Sals the Jais mine of Serbaïrou. 3) By coding of the tarot, the lightning by Cap de l'Homme to end at the Cardou.
This coding is perfect. Rennes-les-Bains, with a circumference (p.225) of 16 to 18 km, is a bank with twelve chests each opening with a particular number. This does not imply that some chests still hold a deposit." Even on this level, for the authors, the story is one of buried treasure. If on one level this is true - the poem also refers to the star sign of Ophiuchus, a sign known as the Serpent Bearer. The Serpent Bearer is not the same as a/the Red Serpent. Conspicuous by its presence Ophiuchus must be seen as significant because the author has used the 13 star zodiac to name and label the 13 verses of his poem. Perhaps the Red Serpent pertain's to something which the Serpent Bearer has the knowledge of? This would seem to be borne out in the actual verse under Ophiuchus, where the poet/observer/searcher has realised what the 'secret' is - in other words he knows what the Red Serpent is. The poet says: To this, Dear Reader, be careful not to add or remove an iota... meditate, meditate again, the vile lead of my writing contains perhaps the purest gold!
The word iota is used in a common English phrase, 'not one iota', meaning 'not the slightest amount', in reference to a phrase in the New Testament: "until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law" (Mt 5:18). Or more fully - For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. The terminology here reinforces what Plantard and Cherisey say about the priests who meditate on the relationship of astronomy with geography and the quote of Jesus - until heaven and earth pass away - i.e. spiritual and materialistic, heaven and earth. The quote is part of the Sermon on the Mount. The general sense is "From this code, so written, not the smallest letter nor part of a letter--not an `i' nor the crossing of a `t'--shall be erased until all things come to pass." The poet tells us his writing contains the 'purest gold'. In actual fact, he says the 'vile lead' of his writing contains the gold. This could also be, more or less, a direct reference to the fabled Philosophers Stone. Why? Because the philosopher's stone (Latin: lapis philosophorum) is a legendary alchemical substance said to be capable of turning base metals (lead, for example) into gold (chrysopoeia). It was also sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal in Western alchemy. The philosopher's stone was the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, enlightenment, and heavenly bliss.
Le Serpent Rouge then is a kind of map on the ground as well as an alchemical search [in philosophical terms]. But it could also relate to a specific object. In French, the Serpent Bearer is known as Serpentaire. Serpentaire has a pictorial representation as shown here;
Interestingly Serpentaire can refer to a specific object that was said to have belonged to three different historical or mythological figures - either Apollo, Asklepios or Hermes. (For more information on this see here http://www.rhedesium.com/the-battle-of-the-serpents.html). And as we look at the star or astronomical sign for Ophiuchus we are reminded of that specific object. Look at the star sign for Serpentaire (Ophiuchus) illustrated below - does it not look like a Serpent wound around a stick? Does it not look like the Rod of Asklepios? This would certainly suggest an object said to have belonged to Apollo, Asklepios or Hermes. The object is known as the caduceus or the asklepian, a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god Asclepius. The design for the Serpentaire and the Asklepian are very similar. The French website describing Ophiuchus makes the direct correlation between the Serpent Bearer and Asclepius. It says; 'The constellation represents a man with a snake around him divided precisely in tow. It represents Asclepius , the legendary doctor. Asclepius had killed a snake one day and was surprised to see another snake revive the dead snake with herbs. Medical knowledge of Asclepius had subsequently grown to the point where he was able to raise the dead. This alarmed Hades , god of the underworld , who feared that he would not receive any more souls because of it'.
Then it is quite clear - the Red Serpent may be for our poet, the fabled Rod of Asclepius. If it is, once again how is this related to Saint Germaine des Pres and Saint Sulpice?
There now follows my in-depth analysis of the Serpent Rouge poem. It is necessarily gleaned from various English translations of the poem - while referencing back to the original French language. It must be said that i am not a fluent French speaker and therefore some of the nuances that the author may have meant will be missed by me. With this caveat then, the poem follows;

Aquarius
'How strange are the manuscripts of this friend ...‘
The manuscripts on the one level are referring to the alleged parchments that Saunière found. The word literally means "written by hand" (which is entirely apt, because the 'forger' of these 'manuscripts' famous in the Rennes-le-Chateau story were indeed copied out by hand) and the codes, ciphers and messages found in these documents certainly are very strange. They are said to comprise of some genealogies, one dating from 1244, another from 1644. But it is two of the parchments that had apparently been composed, in the 1780's, by one of Saunière's predecessors as curé at Rennes-le-Château, the Abbé Antoine Bigou, that are of interest.
'Great Traveller of the unknown ..'
In a sense of course Saunière is unknown to us. Much of his life is shielded in secrecy. Others have suggested that the great traveller of the unknown is the Sun, on its daily journey through the sky. And of course this may relate to the Zodiac symbolism used in the poem - as the Sun travels through the heavens that have been mapped out by man. This may be correlated to the solar imagery that Chérisey has been directing us to elsewhere in his Priory of Sion publications, most notably regarding the various Meridians important in the Rennes Affair. It could also conceivably indicate a solar meridian - a meridian indicated by a gnomon. This is a horizontal line aligned on a meridian with a gnomon facing the noon-sun - it is termed a meridian line and does not indicate the time but instead the day of the year. Historically they were used to accurately determine the length of the solar year. We are reminded of the Gnomen found at Saint Sulpice. I am reminded of the manuscripts (i.e hands) reaching out and leaving the Sun in the form of its rays as depicted for the God of the early Egyptians, Aten. This deified Aten is the focus of the monotheistic religion of Atenism established by Amenhotep IV, who later took the name Akhenaten in worship and recognition of Aten. Symbolically the term great traveller is also a name given to the archangel Raphael. He is the patron of travellers and God of the Air (the unknown?). He is also regent of the Sun. He is the angel of light, knowledge and healing. Raphael first appears in the Book of Tobit (which is interesting as the new theory put forward by Isaac Ben Jacob suggests that Saunière partook of a Cult of the Dead ritual. Jacob identifies the Book of Tobit as the book this cult was based on).
If Chérisey did compose these strange manuscripts then it is perhaps Chérisey himself who becomes the 'great traveller of the unknown'. Perhaps he refers to his lonely search for some hidden knowledge ...
'they appeared to me separately, yet they form a whole, for him who knows that the colours of the rainbow give a white light'
Looking at the above lines as a 'holistic' whole rather than interpreting the lines individually - the 'manuscripts' themselves could now be construed as pertaining to the rays of the Sun itself. This makes the 'friend' the Sun on its travels in the heavens once again. And in those heavens are the stars and systems of the universe as well as the Zodiac - and as we see the poem is divided into verses each beginning with a sign of the Zodiac. However, it is not any old Zodiac (see here: http://www.rhedesium.com/notes-on-le-serpent-rouge.html).
The author has bizarrely made a connection between these 'manuscripts' - the rays of the sun and a rainbow of white light. How do the rays of the sun interact with a rainbow? A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by the reflection of light in water droplets in the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun. [So, if the Rennes Affair does relate to a tomb, or a sanctuary, or a gold deposit of some archaeological and historical value and you are searching for a location on the ground and using the heavens as a 'guide' would the sun always be opposite you at the desired location?] When you see a rainbow it is not located at a specific distance but comes from any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to the Sun's rays. Thus, a rainbow is not an object and cannot be physically approached [an analogy perhaps to the mercurial world of the Rennes Affair and its 'treasure' - changeable; volatile; fickle; erratic and with the continual admonition to never approach the sacred deposit]. Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to manoeuvre to see any rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the Sun. Even if an observer sees another observer who seems "under" or "at the end of" a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow further off - yet, at the same angle as seen by the first observer. Knowing Chérisey these are perfect analogies regarding the search for the 'Sleeping Beauty' in the landscape he is describing! Why is it also important to refer to a rainbow 'that gives a white light'?
It was Newton who originally separated out white light. "Newton originally (1672) divided the spectrum into five primary colours: red, yellow, green, blue and violet. The colour pattern of a rainbow is different from a spectrum, and the colours are less saturated. There is spectral smearing in a rainbow owing to the fact that for any particular wavelength, there is a distribution of exit angles, rather than a single unvarying angle. In addition, a rainbow is a blurred version of the bow obtained from a point source, because the disk diametre of the sun (0.5°) cannot be neglected compared to the width of a rainbow (2°). The number of colour bands of a rainbow may therefore be different from the number of bands in a spectrum, especially if the droplets are either large or small. Therefore, the number of colours of a rainbow is variable. The light is first refracted entering the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop, and again refracted as it leaves the drop. The overall effect is that the incoming light is reflected back over a wide range of angles, with the most intense light at an angle of 40–42°.
The amount by which light is refracted depends upon its wavelength and hence its colour. This effect is called dispersion. Blue light (shorter wavelength) is refracted at a greater angle than red light, but due to the reflection of light rays from the back of the droplet, the blue light emerges from the droplet at a smaller angle to the original incident white light ray than the red light. Due to this angle, blue is seen on the inside of the arc of the primary rainbow, and red on the outside. The light at the back of the raindrop does not undergo total internal reflection, and some light does emerge from the back. However, light coming out the back of the raindrop does not create a rainbow between the observer and the Sun because spectra emitted from the back of the raindrop do not have a maximum of intensity, as the other visible rainbows do, and thus the colours blend together rather than forming a rainbow.
A rainbow does not actually exist at a particular location in the sky. Its apparent position depends on the observer's location and the position of the Sun. All raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer's eye. This light is what constitutes the rainbow for that observer. The bow is centred on the shadow of the observer's head, or more exactly at the antisolar point (which is below the horizon during the daytime), and forms a circle at an angle of 40–42° to the line between the observer's head and its shadow. As a result, if the Sun is higher than 42°, then the rainbow is below the horizon and usually cannot be seen as there are not usually sufficient raindrops between the horizon (that is: eye height) and the ground, to contribute. Exceptions occur when the observer is high above the ground, for example in an aeroplane, on top of a mountain, or above a waterfall". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow).


The phrase 'they appeared to me separately' also surely refers to the so-called Bigou parchments, two documents probably composed by, or manipulated by Chérisey that we mentioned above. Chérisey said he had composed them around 1961, perhaps adapting them from prior knowledge he was in possession of. Using the text of the Codex Bezae, Chérisey composed these parchments to encode a 'secret'. Whether these ideas are those that Chérisey thought up in his own mind or whether he was working from other sources we will probably never know.
Some have suggested that all Chérisey did [if he altered the documents] was to copy the manuscripts from an earlier source (the original facsimile copy of the Codex Bezae from an encyclopedia in the case of the Small 'Dagobert' parchment) and then modify them by adding some new material and/or changing the scale size of each parchment. This new material was essentially the 'coded messages'. But of course if one looks closely there is indeed much more added to the texts than just an easy to find text message. If there is anything to this story of Rennes-le-Château was Chérisey giving us the means to solve it? Why not simply publish what he had found and make a financial killing? Or was he, as some posit, trying to reach other 'initiates' to gain more knowledge?
The coded messages are of course the famous deciphered codes we now know.
1) To Dagobert II, king, And to Sion belongs this treasure, and he is there dead. [Small Parchment].
2) Shepherdess, No Temptation, that Poussin Teniers hold (or guard) the Key, Peace 681, By the Cross and this horse of God, I complete (or destroy) this daemon of the guardian at noon. Blue Apples. [Large Parchment]. In view of the information in the Secret Dossiers (discussed and published here: http://www.rhedesium.com/some-notes-on-the-lobineau-documents---part-one.html) the first cipher in the smaller parchment obviously refers to the 'matter of Rennes' - the matter dealing with viticulture. The 'hidden prince' who is a descendant of and who will materialise and claim the treasure of Solomon. This 'matter of Rennes' and the treasure of Solomon tie quite naturally in with the 'deciphered code' - the treasure belongs to Sion (Jerusalem, city of Solomon).
The 'matter dealing with viticulture' also refers to the possible descendants of Dagobert II (I suppose not necessarily a direct descendant but perhaps via a sister or brother and their descendants etc) through a Count Bera II who is alleged to have transported an important treasure to Rhedae, a treasure that was originally in the hands of Dagobert II and his 'family'. According to the Lobineau documents Bera II was going to use this treasure in part for his reconquest of the Aquitaine. (Interesting that the Lobineau documents refer to one particular relic obtained by the Merovingian Kings of which one piece is said to be a Gold Cross of Solomon. These treasures, presumably, are being asserted by Lobineau to have been the same as those owned by earlier Merovingians such as Childebert I. Did the family of Dagobert II and his descendants, direct or otherwise, obtain this same 'treasure'?)
The other interesting detail is that it is this Smaller Parchment 'To Dagobert, King and to Sion ...' that encodes the mathematical key of 681 and which is related to Saint Sulpice (see here: http://www.rhedesium.com/interview-with-paul-karren.html). This ties in again very naturally with the second cipher of the Large Parchment.
The link here and the insight needed [if we read the Priory propaganda as some kind of 'whole' via the Lobineau Documents] seems to be that of the Visigoths and their kingdom in the Aquitaine and Septimania and the legends associated with that kingdom. The cipher also suggests that the treasure belongs to Sion (Sion either being Jerusalem or perhaps Plantard‘s Priory of Sion). This would make sense if Plantard and Chérisey, as members of Sion, had discovered information relating to this 'treasure'.
The line 'and he is there dead ...' is more difficult to interpret. Who is dead where? Dagobert II? His body is known to have been taken back to Château Charmois in Stenay after his assassination and then buried in a church in Stenay which was eventually named after him. Interestingly it is known that Richilde, Charles the Bald's second wife, actually charged Drogon, the then Govenor of Stenay, to locate the whereabouts of Dagobert II‘s tomb. Why? Had his body been lost? Why would she even want to locate the lost body of an obscure and little known Merovingian king 200 years after his assassination? It was also her husband who canonised Dagobert II in 872 via a metropolitan council in Douzy held on 10th September 872 in the presence of Bishop Hincmar. Why? And in fact, in relation to some important archaeological relic, some researchers intimate that Charles the Bald had an association with this relic, the relic Chérisey mentions as being in possession of some early Merovingian kings. What was important about the body of Dagobert? Or was the importance attached to something buried with him?
The second cipher is even more difficult to pin down. But it would seem to be 'a map'.
Another point shown to me by Paul Karren was the following - the line in this verse which refers to the 'colours of the rainbow give a white light' should be interpreted from the French term for the word 'rainbow'. In French the word rainbow is 'arc-d'en-ciel' and is literally translated as 'arc in the sky.' It is possible that an astronomical meridian is exactly that: an arc in the sky that originates at the north celestial pole, runs directly overhead of the local longitude of the observer and ends at the horizon. Thus, for Karren, the writer of LSR has found a clever way to connect 'arc, meridian, and colour.' A rainbow also consists of the 6 colours of the visible light spectrum - violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red as we saw above. Was Chérisey drawing our attention to astronomy for some reason? Plantard said that the two texts of the “ invented” parchments were to be read “together“. To quote Plantard: 'There was one coded message on each side of the page. In some way, apparently, the two texts interacted with each other - if for example, they were held up to the light and viewed, as it were, in superimposition".
Superimposition is the placement of an image on top of an already existing image usually to add to the overall image effect but also sometimes to conceal something. It is almost like an optical illusion which is probably why there is reference to a rainbow, itself an optical illusion. In keeping with the Sun symbolism travelling through the Zodiac it would follow that the Sun gives off its rays of light useful in seeing through ‘the parchments' together using that light! This rainbow and white light imagery may support the suggestion by Plantard to place the two manuscripts together superimposed. ‘Until Newton's work became accepted, most scientists believed that white was the fundamental colour of light; and that other colours were formed only by adding something to light. Newton demonstrated this was not true by passing white light through a prism, then through another prism. If the colours were added by the prism, the second prism should have added further colours to the single-colour beam. Since the single-colour beam remained a single colour, Newton concluded that the prism merely separated the colours already present in the light. White light is the effect of combining the visible colours of light in equal proportions ..... Since the impression of white is obtained by three summations of light intensity across the visible spectrum, the number of combinations of light wavelengths that produce the sensation of white is practically infinite. There are a number of different white light sources such as the midday sun..." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White).
Even the idea of the white light (the rainbow give's a white light) goes back to the midday sun! And the midday sun (Midi) can sometimes be interpreted as/or a Meridian. It seems Plantard was telling us that the manuscripts when held up to the light and superimposed somehow interacted with each other. What on earth was Chérisey trying to impart by creating two manuscripts that 'interacted' together? Was it indeed the same way as Andrews and Schellenberger suggested? A map?
A further elaboration on the theories of light, light play and an [optical?] illusion of a treasure map is given by Chérisey in his novel CIRCUIT. The Delacroix Chapel of the Angels at Saint Sulpice in Paris [according to him] produced a light effect (that of Blue Apples) at the time of Saunière. Chérisey particularly mentions the mural Heliodorus Driven from the Temple. The light effect on this mural at a particular time, he said, ‘indicated a map of the environs of Rennes-les-Bains'! 'or for the Artist for whom black springs out from under his paintbrush, made from the six colours of his magic palette'
In painting white can be crafted by reflecting ambient light from a white pigment. The ambient light must be white light, or else the white pigment will appear the colour of the light. White, for example, when mixed with black produces gray. Which colours mixed together create black?
"Black is the colour of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light. Although black is sometimes described as an "achromatic", or hueless, in practice it can be considered a colour, as in expressions like "black cat" or "black paint". Black can be defined as the visual impression experienced when no visible light reaches the eye. (This makes a contrast with whiteness, the impression of any combination of colours of light that equally stimulates all three types of colour-sensitive visual receptors.) Pigments that absorb light rather than reflect it back to the eye "look black". A black pigment can, however, result from a combination of several pigments that collectively absorb all colours. If appropriate proportions of three primary pigments are mixed, the result reflects so little light as to be called "black". Absorption of light is contrasted by transmission, reflection and diffusion, where the light is only redirected, causing objects to appear transparent, reflective or white respectively.
Painters have long used more than three "primary" colours in their palettes—and at one point considered red, yellow, blue, and green to be the four primaries. Red, yellow, blue, and green are still widely considered the four psychological primary colours, though red, yellow, and blue are sometimes listed as the three psychological primaries, with black and white occasionally added as a fourth and fifth.
During the 18th century, as theorists became aware of Isaac Newton‘s scientific experiments with light and prisms, red, yellow, and blue became the canonical primary colours—supposedly the fundamental sensory qualities that are blended in the perception of all physical colours and equally in the physical mixture of pigments or dyes. This theory became dogma, despite abundant evidence that red, yellow, and blue primaries cannot mix all other colours, and has survived in colour theory to the present day.
Using red, yellow, and blue as primaries yields a relatively small gamut, (In colour theory, the gamut of a device or process is that portion of the colour space that can be represented, or reproduced. Generally, the colour gamut is specified in the hue–saturation plane, as many systems can produce colours over a wide intensity range within their colour gamut) in which, among other problems, colourful greens, cyans, and magentas are impossible to mix, because red, yellow, and blue are not well-spaced around a perceptually uniform colour wheel. Most painters include colours in their palettes which cannot be mixed from yellow, red, and blue paints, and thus do not fit within the RYB colour model. Some who do use a three-colour palette opt for the more evenly spaced cyan, yellow, and magenta used by printers, and others paint with 6 or more colours to widen their gamuts" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamut, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_colors, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black). Is Chérisey thinking of a particular artist? And why call his artists palette magic? Because of this mixing process that creates new colours? Why draw attention to 6 colours in the artist palette? This could perhaps refer to the range of colours in a given work or body of work by an artist? This could be alluding to a created specific painting. It can be reinforcing the light effect discussed above because a pigment is a material that changes the colour of the light it reflects, as the result of selective colour absorption. And why black? The colour black is associated with evil, darkness, bad luck, mystery, silence, concealment, elegance, execution, end, chaos, death, and secrecy. Some organizations are called "black" when they keep a low profile, like secret societies. Black frequently symbolizes ambiguity, secrecy, and the unknown. The medieval Christian sect known as the Cathars viewed black as a colour of perfection. The colours white and black are widely used to depict opposites. Visually, white and black offer the highest possible contrast. In western culture white and black traditionally symbolize the dichotomy of good and evil, metaphorically related to light and darkness and day and night. Wisdom is sometimes thought of as being black too.
In our context then, an artists particular work that conceals a secret of some sort? This would again, because of Plantard and Cherisey, mean Poussin's 'Shepherds of Arcadia' painting, which does encode, or utilise a device related to the mathematical number 681. This number is indeed linked to Teniers and Poussin as 'holding the key' .... with Chérisey asserting that this 'key' couldn't be unlocked until the epoch of the painter Delacroix. Black and white may simply be referring to the floor in the church at Rennes and a chessboard! Black and white could also be referring to specific local landmarks if the poem is to be read as some kind of 'map'.
PISCES
'This Friend, how to introduce him to you? His name remained a mystery, but his number is that of a famous seal' Which friend is being referred to now? Saunière? I doubt it. Chérisey? No. The meaning has switched. His secret name may refer to the name of a deity which was secret and not divulged to any but religious leaders. Knowing the secret name of a deity enabled one to have power of the deity. So perhaps a specific deity is now our guide?
But with mention of 'a famous seal' we are led to the Solomon Seal. So is it Solomon that is now our 'friend', our guide? This could make sense in relation to the rest of the Lobineau dcuments - they frequently make reference to a Gold Cross of Solomon. This Cross (which has been researched in depth by Isaac Ben Jacob et al) is said to have existed through history and came to be in the hands of some Merovingian kings - who thought this 'Cross' had been fashioned by King Solomon. Remember also, under the verse Ophiuchus we find out that the author of the poem has found out "the secret of the Seal of SOLOMON, that of this QUEEN I have visited the hidden residences".
The first sentences in this poem had referred to 'manuscripts of this friend' which we are now identifying as Solomon. What manuscripts did Solomon create? His most famous alleged manuscript is of course the Key of Solomon (in Latin: Clavis Salomoni) a book on magic incorrectly attributed to King Solomon. This 'Key of Solomon' probably only dates back to the 14th or 15th century and the Italian Renaissance - in which a typically Renaissance view of magic is revealed. This 'magic' is really Hermeticism. It is summed up thus "The Hermetic/Cabalist magic which was created by Pico and Ficino was made popular in northern Europe, most notably England, by Cornelius Agrippa's 'De occulta philosophia libra tres'. Agrippa had revolutionary ideas about magical theory and procedure that were widely circulated in the Renaissance among those who sought out knowledge of occult philosophy. "Agrippa himself was famous as a scholar, physician, jurist and astrologer but throughout his life he was continually persecuted as a heretic. His problems stemmed not only from his reputation as conjurer, but also from his vehement criticism of the vices of the ruling classes and of the most respected intellectual and religious authorities." While some scholars and students viewed Agrippa as a source of intellectual inspiration, to many others, his practices were seen as dubious and his beliefs serious. The transitive side of magic is explored in Agrippa's 'De oculta philosophia' and at times it is vulgarized. Yet in Pico and Ficino we never lose sight of magic's solemn religious purposes: the magician explores the secrets of nature so as to arouse wonder at the works of God and to inspire a more ardent worship and love of the Creator. "Considerable space is devoted to examples of evil sorcery in 'De occulta philosophia' and one might easily come away from the treatise with the impression that Agrippa found witchcraft as intriguing as benevolent magic" (Renaissance Magic & the Return of the Golden Age, John S. Membane).
Many such magic books attributed to King Solomon were written in the period of the Renaissance, ultimately influenced by earlier (High Medieval) works of Jewish kabbalists and Arab alchemists, which in turn hark back to Greco-Roman magic of Late Antiquity.
In Late Antiquity itself Hermetism emerged in parallel with Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and early Christianity, "characterized by a resistance to the dominance of either pure rationality or doctrinal faith". The books now known as the Corpus Hermeticum were part of a renaissance of syncretistic and intellectualized pagan thought that took place around the 2nd century. Other examples of this cultural movement would include Neoplatonist philosophy, the Chaldaean Oracles, late Orphic and Pythagorean literature, as well as much of Gnosticism. Because of Cosimo de'Medici, in the Middle Ages, who sent out 'agents' to scour European monasteries for lost ancient writings - Hermetism was brought to light once again and this later triggered the Renaissance. In the realm of philosophy, Cosimo, influenced by the lectures of Academy in Florence. He appointed Marsilio Ficino as head of the Academy and commissioned Ficino's Latin translation of the complete works of Plato (the first ever complete translation). Through Ficino and others associated with the Academy, Cosimo had an inestimable effect on intellectual life.
Within the text of the Key of Solomon itself, there are descriptions of demons whom Solomon enslaved to help build the temple. However, when a demon named Ornias harasses a young lad, who Solomon favours, by stealing his pay and sucking out his vitality through the lad's thumb, Solomon petitions for help in stopping this situation. His petitions are answered by the Archangel Michael who gives Solomon a ring with a seal on it that enables him to command the demons. In some reviews of this work Solomon's ring is often referred to as the Seal of Solomon, which is not actually a ring but a design upon the ring. Some versions of the "Testament of Solomon" indicate that the actual ring was made of brass and iron, carved with the Name of God, and set with four jewels. In other versions, which tend to be the later versions, the ring simply bore the symbol of the Seal of Solomon, which we now refer to as the Star of David. The idea that something as insignificant as a ring can be a powerful magical charm has been used since the times of ancient magicians. Egyptians believed in the power of magical rings to heal and bring good fortune, and Europeans as early as A.D. 800 made use of them in bestowing social privileges.

The magical signet ring said to have been possessed by King Solomon, which variously gave him the power to command demons and to speak with animals, as we saw above was carved with the Name of God, and set with four jewels. In later versions the ring bore the symbol of the hexagram. Other versions have it as a pentagram. Different versions also assert that this magic ring was given to Solomon by Raphael, and it gave him power over demons. Raphael we have met earlier, the great traveller of the unknown.
Asmodeus, king of demons, was one day according to the classical Rabbis, captured by Benaiah using this ring, and was forced to remain in Solomon's service. Another legend concerning Asmodeus goes on to state that Solomon asked Asmodeus what could make demons powerful over man, and Asmodeus asked for his ring so that he could demonstrate; Solomon agreed but Asmodeus threw the ring into the sea and it was swallowed by a fish.
Other magical items attributed to Solomon are his key and his Table. The latter was said to be held in Toledo, Spain during the Visigothic rule and was part of the loot taken by Tarik ibn Ziyad during the Umayyad Conquest of Iberia. The Table is described as being, by some, at the origin of the Holy Grail tale written by Wolfram von Eschenbach (an emerald fallen from heaven) as the Table of Solomon is described as being made of emeralds:
"WE have told how King Roderic, when he invaded the enchanted palace of Toledo, found in its empty chambers a single treasure,—the famous table of Solomon. But this was a treasure worth a king's ransom, a marvellous talisman, so splendid, so beautiful, so brilliant that the chroniclers can scarce find words fitly to describe its richness and value. Some say that it was made of pure gold, richly inlaid with precious stones. Others say that it was a mosaic of gold and silver, burnished yellow and gleaming white, ornamented with three rows of priceless jewels, one being of large pearls, one of costly rubies, and a third of gleaming emeralds. Other writers say that its top was made of a single emerald, a talisman revealing the fates in its lucid depths. Most writers say that it stood upon three hundred and sixty-five feet, each made of a single emerald, though still another writer declares that it had not a foot to stand upon". (http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=morris&book=spanish&story=solomon)
Solomons' key, by contrast, appears in the title of the Lesser Key of Solomon, the grimoire whose framing tale is Solomon capturing demons using this ring, and forcing them to explain themselves to him. Asmodai/eus is a demon known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit. The demon is mentioned in some Talmudic legends, for instance, in the story of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. In the Testament of Solomon, a 1st-3rd century text, the king invokes Asmodeus to aid in the construction of the Temple. The demon appears and predicts Solomon's kingdom will one day be divided (Testament of Solomon 5:4-5). When Solomon interrogates Asmodeus further, the king learns that Asmodeus is thwarted by the angel Raphael, demanding considerable mental effort.
Which number of the famous seal is relevant? Five or six? The Star of David or the pentagram? Or are we just being drawn to Solomon? Solomon does indeed have a bearing on some of the later information in the rest of Lobineau dossier. May Solomon also be related to the archaeological relic as Chérisey suggests, that some are seeking? We have seen that the Merovingian king Childebert obtained a golden cross of Solomon said to have been made of pure gold. In ancient times the church Childebert built was known as Saint-Vincent and Sainte-Croix, having been built as a shrine for the sacred relics brought back by Childebert from a victorious expedition against the Visigoths (531-543) - which included the tunic of Saint-Vincent and a rich cross of gold, studded with precious stones, from Toledo, and said to have been made for Solomon as detailed above. Perhaps the connection is Solomon and various treasures associated with him?

'How to describe him to you? Perhaps like the pilot of the indestructible ark, impassive like a column on his white rock scanning towards the south [midday] beyond the black rock‘
The most obvious way to describe Solomon? How about the builder of the First Temple with his father King David? How about, in the context of an indestructible ark, the keeper of the Ark of the Covenant? But this seems to simplistic and to obvious. The pilot of the indestructible ark could be Noah. I suppose at a stretch we could link this Ark with the earlier verse about rainbows which would have a connection with Noah and the biblical Flood. This was because as 'God regretted the flood he promised never to send a flood again, displaying a rainbow as a guarantee' to Noah.
Jesus has also been referred to as an ark made of imperishable wood. Hippolytus had said: "And, more-over, the ark made of imperishable wood was the Saviour Himself. For by this was signified the imperishable and incorruptible tabernacle of (the Lord) Himself, which gendered no corruption of sin. For the sinner, indeed, makes this confession: "My wounds stank, and were corrupt, because of my foolishness." But the Lord was without sin, made of imperishable wood, as regards His humanity; that is, of the virgin and the Holy Ghost inwardly, and outwardly of the word of God, like an ark overlaid with purest gold."
The original French word in the poem for pilot is 'le nautonnier' so may refer to the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.
The description of the Ark being impassive like a column on a white rock suggests a tall mountain in a landscape. This would appear to be supported by the following sentence in the poem - 'scanning south beyond the black rock'. The black rock perhaps could be Roc Negre and so it might be suggesting an area near to Rennes-le-Château or more likely Rennes-les-Bains. The verse mentions '..like a column on his white rock'. There is (are) many mountain's in the area called White Rock. There is, however, only one Roc Blanc which is North of Roc Negre. White rock does not necessarily translate as Blanchefort (white fort).
It may be pertinent to mention, in view of the above verse describing a rainbow as an arc in the sky, that the term 'arc-d'en-ciel' could be indicating an astronomical Meridian (this has correlates with descriptions given by Cherisey in Circuit), metaphorically 'an indestructible 'arc'. As Karen has told us "It is possible that an astronomical meridian is exactly that: an arc in the sky that originates at the north celestial pole, runs directly overhead of the local longitude of the observer and ends at the horizon". Perhaps an 'indestructible Arc' phonetically means - in this verse - the astronomical Meridian passing close to Roc Blanc and Roc Negre. An astronomical 'arc' would be indestructible. But why is this important in the mind of the author of LSR?



I would posit that scanning south (midday) is referring to a Meridian in the mind of Chérisey - probably one of the Meridians he has also highlighted throughout the Secret Dossiers. Because this verse refers to Solomon, I would guess that it is that P-S PRAE-CUM MΩ Meridian that runs through Saint Sulpice (Saint Sulpice being called by Chérisey the new Temple of Solomon).
ARIES
'In my arduous pilgrimage...'
For our author his search has been a hard struggle to get to the truth, requiring great exertion; it has been a search that has been and will be laborious; difficult, full of hardships and severe. It may be mentally taxing to fathom out the clues & indeed difficult to accomplish this pilgrimage'. Pilgrimage is an interesting word to use. A journey that is a pilgrimage is 'a long journey or search of great moral significance. Can be a journey to a sacred place, or shrine of some importance - important perhaps to a persons belief and faith‘. The authors journey is also a very personal journey. The author could be talking metaphorically, as a guide through history, or the words could be literal, a search in a specific landscape.
'I tried to clear a path with the sword'
A sword is a long edged piece of metal, used as a cutting and thrusting weapon. The root of the actual word means to wound and to hurt. Famous swords through history include Arondight (the sword of Lancelot), Crocea Mors (the sword of Ceasar), Excalibre (the sword of King Arthur) and Joyeuse (the sword of Charlemagne).
A sword is also depicted on the cover of Chériseys 'CIRCUIT‘. The centre of the sword depiction has the words 'Saint Ursin‘. Saint Ursinus of Bourges is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and is considered the first bishop of Bourges. Another saint of Bourges is Sulpicius II. He was Bishop of Bourges (624-644). In his honour the church of Saint-Sulpice was built in Paris, from which the Society of Saint-Sulpice derives its own name.
The sword here could also be representing the Meridian because as we saw elsewhere the Abbé Moreux suggested as much. Is Bourge a reference to the Meridian? Does clearing a path with the sword mean follow the Meridian? But which Meridian? We may mention a quote at the beginning of the Serpent Rouge poem as follows: after ‘a long sleep the same hypotheses are revived, without doubt they return, richer and newer, but that their origins stay the same, and the new mask which they wear, should not deceive/mislead the man of science’. This is a quote of the Abbé Moreux who was an astronomer at Bourges.


As it so happens - while studying the idea of the sword representing a Meridian i came across a French researcher who suggests that not only is the sword representing one Meridian, but probably THREE - as represented by the design of the sword using three lines! (The researcher is Jean-Pierre GARCIA and his ideas are worth getting to know. His ideas involve the somewhat esoteric nature of French history and its Sacred Geometry and Meridians. Here is a translation from Google of the relevant page (Part 3 of 5) http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.rennes-le-chateau-archive.com/meridiens_3.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.portail-rennes-le-chateau.com/aude-avril-009.htm%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D955%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=kNhlUMfkGouN0wXdq4CIAw&ved=0CFkQ7gEwBg). With the permission of Jean-Pierre GARCIA i have published here some of the relevant illustrations. (A precis of GARCIA'S findings will appear here soon; http://www.rhedesium.com/cheacuterisey-and-his-circuit-meridians.html).

'through the thick vegetation of the woods'
This imagery is of overgrown woods and trees and thick undergrowth. Trying to clear it away suggests the sword is not much help. It is so overgrown one cannot even see the way to go. Can we really make out the wood for the trees? Can we clear a path through all the twists and turns of this information to the ultimate important truth that Chérisey wants us to see? Which landscape are we in? Fantasy or real?
'I wanted to reach the residence of the sleeping BEAUTY'
Firstly, why capitalise and draw attention to the word 'beauty‘? St. Augustine said of beauty "Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked‘. The Pythagorean school saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. In particular they noted that objects proportioned according to the golden ratio seemed more attractive. So is BEAUTY also a veiled reference to the golden ration - 1.618? This number or an anagram of this number is a reoccurring theme in the whole Rennes Affair. It could also suggest Boudet‘s Cromlech in which a tomb, for him, is supposed to lie, The Cromlechs diameter is 16-18 kilometres long. 16 - 18 could be symbolic suggesting beauty, the Golden Ratio of 1.618, and an anagram of 681.
In our context though, the 'sleeping beauty‘ may also be referring to the fairy tale story by Charles Perrault. The imagery fits the original story of the Sleeping Beauty where the sleeping beauty was Briar Rose. In French 'Sleeping Beauty‘ is La Belle au Bois dormant, "The Beauty asleep in the wood‘ which may be a more pertinent translation. The beauty asleep in the wood? Doesn‘t a literal reading indicate to you that a beauty, presumably a female, a woman, lies asleep in the woods? And is this wood, this thick vegetation the wood we are clearing with our sword? This pilgrimage is to the sacred shrine of a woman? Are we looking for a tomb of a woman, associated with sacredness and spirituality?
The popular story of Sleeping Beauty is as follows: 'At the christening of a long-wished-for princess, fairies invited as godmothers offered gifts, such as beauty, wit, and musical talent. However, a wicked fairy who had been overlooked placed the princess under an enchantment as her gift, saying that, on reaching adulthood, she would prick her finger on a spindle and die. A good fairy, though unable to completely reverse the spell, said that the princess would instead sleep for a hundred years, until awakened by the kiss of a prince. The king forbade spinning on distaff or spindle, or the possession of one, upon pain of death, throughout the kingdom, but all in vain. When the princess was fifteen or sixteen she chanced to come upon an old woman in a tower of the castle, who was spinning. The Princess asked to try the unfamiliar task and the inevitable happened. The wicked fairy's curse was fulfilled. The good fairy returned and put everyone in the castle to sleep. A forest of briars sprang up around the castle, shielding it from the outside world: no one could try penetrate it without facing certain death in the thorns. After a hundred years had passed, a prince who had heard the story of the enchantment braved the wood, which parted at his approach, and entered the castle. He trembled upon seeing the princess' beauty and fell on his knees before her. He kissed her, then she woke up, then everyone in the castle woke to continue where they had left off...‘ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty Downloaded 30/1/09).
As the beauty slept, around her castle there began to grow a hedge of thorns, which every year became higher and higher, and at last ......closed up around the castle and all over it. The princess, also known as Briar Rose, and her story spread through the country and every now and then Kings‘ sons would try to get through the thorns. But they found it impossible. The thorns would hold the sons fast so that they could not get free. They died a horrible death.
Our poem's author hints of this 'sleeping beauty' in her closed up house/shrine or crypt. If you compare this description of a search for a tomb with other writings of Chérisey, one will see a correlation between his description of the tomb of the Grand Roman, a tomb he seems to have visited himself. This was in his novel CIRCUIT (see above). Chérisey describes it thus:
'After a rapid glance at the landscape he penetrates boldly into a crevice close to where one would pass by a thousand times without discovering it. The way forward is via a narrow neck. After a brief journey, which seems never ending, there is a branching tunnel in a pool. Cellis or Arcis? Right or left? Lets go for the left and long live the King. He enters, crawling flat on his stomach into a whitish mineral patina the fumes from which brings tears to his eyes and makes him cough... After about thirty metres his gut meets a smooth and vertical wall where the previous stalwarts had carved several niches as footholds. At the sixth niche there is a small gully of running water: Charlot almost loses his balance. His knee knocks harshly against the stone. He scrambles painfully to the top, onto a solid rock platform across which he moves forward like a limping ghost, plastered with smears of white and the blood which trickles all the way down his leg.
The sepulchre of the Great Roman stands in the centre of the platform, immediately beneath where the arches of the high vaulted ceiling cross. Two inscriptions on the memorial pedestal upon which the lead coffin, tightly sealed, show not the least signs of damage. Charlot kisses the coffin. As regards to treasure, there is not the slightest trace, except in the partitions of the vaulted arch, where there is perhaps a faint glimmer of copper. Several cellar rooms extend for some distance but they stretch beyond the radius of the lamps‘ beam. There is a deadly journey under a crumbling arch. Here is the right hand passage that Charlot thanks heavens for having avoided ...... He replaces his tile on the little wall, from where he took it, and replaces the dust, just as he found it, pursues his journey in the cellar and reappears from behind the tomb of the Grand Roman, the way he had come. The smooth wall that he once had scaled, if with some difficulty, now seemed precipitous to Charlot making him dizzy at the prospect of descending. So he decided to select an alternative route. Without wishing it upon himself, a little at random, if one were to make a judgement in the clear light of day, which might be somewhere down there in the distance. Here comes the horror: the cavern which leads to the light is the residence of the sentinels of the Grand Roman. These are the dead, trapped in a part body in a morass and who wave their tiles just as the dregs of humanity would brandish their steel as they hone their blades. These are the dead of some very different era, considering that there is among them some perfect skeletons, and some faces so well preserved by the atmospheric conditions that one would say that they were stars from a Grevin museum'.
The sentinels of the Grand Roman seem to echo the: 'Kings‘ sons [who] would try to get through the thorns. But they found it impossible. The thorns would hold the sons fast, so that they could not get free. They died a horrible death'. They became trapped in the hedges & thorns.
So Chérisey's Grand Roman tomb would not appear to be the same tomb depicted in LSR which he is also searching for. (For more on the idea of an important tomb of a Great or Grand Roman see here: http://www.rhedesium.com/the-delmas-manuscript-and-the-tomb-of-a-roman.html and also http://www.rhedesium.com/paul-sennier-and-the-treasure-of-the-aniorts.html). The interesting thing about Chérisey is that this specific Roman tomb is in an area named by him. Is he playing or is he serious? For Charlot says: 'I salute all you others, an explorer of Montferrand and of Cardou riddled with tunnels in the churches and cemeteries!' Another interesting point is the way in which the tomb in LSR that Chérisey searches for contains the Sleeping Beauty i.e. a sacred female but the tomb in Circuit contains the Grand Roman, a male. So he tells us, many before him have searched these areas …via tunnels perhaps leading from a church or a cemetery?
The earlier influences for the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale came from the story of the sleeping Brynhild in the Volsunga saga. It was, in fact, the existence of Brynhild that persuaded the Brothers Grimm to include Briar Rose in later editions of their work. Even though Brynhild is a shield maiden and a valkyrie in Norse mythology she also appears under the name Brünnhilde in the Nibelungenlied. Brynhildr is probably inspired by the Visigothic princess Brunhilda of Austrasia, married with the Merovingian king Sigebert I in 567. This takes us back to the Merovingian connection that is associated with the Secret Dossiers. Is this precisely what the author of the poem wants us to look at? Merovingian history at this time? Brunhild was born in Toledo (the city where some Solomonic treasure had been stolen from during the time span of the creation of Saint Germain des Pres). She was a daughter of King Athnagild. She married Sigebert I, a grandson of Clovis I. Sigeberts brother, Chilperic of Soissons, married Galswintha, the sister of Brunhilda. However, as Gregory of Tours reports, Galswintha was murdered at the instigation of Chilperics 'mistress' Fredegund. Fredegund then married Chilperic. Galswintha's death aroused the enmity of her sister Brunhilda against Chilperic, bringing about 40 years of warfare between the Frankish kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria.
The full length tomb of Fredegund is depicted in the LSR document. The tomb of Chilperic I is also depicted in the LSR dossier. Why? Are we to be looking at the events of history here again?

With the mysterious assassination of Chilperic (584), Fredegund seized his riches and took refuge in the cathedral at Paris. Fredegund died c. 8 December 597 in Paris. The tomb of Frédégonde is a mosaic figure of marble and copper, situated in Saint Denis Basilica, having come from St. Germain-des-Prés. Fredegund is also said to be responsible for the assassination of Sigebert I in 575. Merovech, son of Chilperic and Audovera, decided to marry the widowed Brunhilda and became an enemy of his father. Chilperic, his father, had Merovech later tonsured and sent to the monastery of Le Mans to become a priest.
Merovech fled to the sanctuary of St Martin at Tours, the church of Gregory (who is thus an eye-witness to these events) and later Champagne. He finally returned to Tours in 578, and when his bid for power failed, he asked his servant to kill him.
In other writings the importance of Saint Martin of Tours is great in regard to a sacred banner he carried. The famous story of him cutting a cloak in half with his sword may also indicate a Meridian, the favourite subject of Chérisey!
Brunhild had by now tried to seize the regency of Austrasia in the name of her son Childebert II, but she was resisted fiercely by her nobles and had to retire briefly to the court of Guntram of Burgundy before obtaining her goal. At that time, she ruled Austrasia as queen. Not being a fighter, she was primarily an administrative reformer with a Visigothic education. She repaired the old Roman roads, built many churches and abbeys, constructed the necessary fortresses, reor-ganised the royal finances, and restructured the royal army. In 579, she married her daughter Ingunda, then only thirteen, to the Visigothic prince Hermenegild, allying her house to that of the king of her native land. What is the common denominator in all of this? Treasure, Toledo, Visigothic treasure. Is it all related to the poem of LSR?
In the Vaincre article (1989) mentioned elsewhere there is reference to this period in Merovingian history. (Notwithstanding some glaring errors. For example, it is stated that Childeric ordered the construction of St Germain des Pres. In fact it was as we know, Childebert). In the article it says that the church of Saint Sulpice owes its 'prestige‘ and splendour to the Meridian of the 'mother church‘. That is, St Germain des Pres.
'In 556, Childeric I (sic) gave the order for an abbey suitable to watch over the necropolis of the Merovingian kings ....... (the) foundation was answerable solely to the King, abbot and Pope. Childebert‘s foundation was dedicated to Saint Vincent and the Holy Cross (by reference to a Spanish expedition from which a relic, and the veneration of Saint Vincent (d.304) had been brought back, and secondly because of the architecture of the church‘ (i.e. it was the first Christian sanctuary in the form of a cross). The church was plated with gold inside‘
In founding the monastery, Childebert gave to the abbots his fief at Issy and the Oratory Saint-Andréol, afterwards Saint-Andre-des-Arts, with its territory, the whole comprising a vast domain extending from Sevres to the Petit Pont along the left bank of the Seine. As the church had been the nucleus, so the monastery remained the centre and pivot of the world which grew up around it.
From Childebert to Dagobert the basilica had served as sepulchre for the kings and princes of the Merovingian Dynasty, all those who died in Paris or in the diocese were buried beneath the paving of the splendid monument to its founder and its patron saints. As narrated by dom Bouillard in his Histoire de l'Abbaye royale Saint-Germain-des-Prez, the facts culled from Gregoire de Tours and Fortunat, Childebert and his brother Clotaire joined forces in Spain against Teudis, the king of the Visigoths, the mortal enemies of the Francs.
After capturing Aragon they made the siege of Saragossa, and sweeping everything before them would soon have captured the city, but for the extraordinary piety and faith of their simple opponents. Reduced to extremity and without hope of human aid, says the narrative, the in-habitants of Saragossa clothed themselves in sack-cloth and ashes, and singing psalms to the praise of the Lord, carried in procession about the walls of the city the tunic of Saint-Vincent, who had been their citizen, hoping thus to invoke miraculous intervention to accomplish the humanly impossible.
Begun about 556 it was finished in 558. The plan of the church was cruciform, following the lines of Solomon's cross. A rich mosaic formed the paving, and sheets of gilded copper covered the roof, itself supported by great marble columns. The sides were pierced by many windows, and paintings on a background of gold embellished the walls, while a ceiling laid in gold leaf completed an ensemble so rich in this material that the basilica was sometimes called Saint-Germain le-dore, or le palais dore de Saint-Germain.
Childebert invested it with the sacred trophies—the tunic, the gold cross, thirty chalices, fifteen patens, twenty caskets intended to hold the Gospels. All this we know from the author of the life of Doctrovee, the first abbot of the monastery.
Clovis and Clotilde, the first king and queen of Paris, together with their two murdered grand-sons, were buried in the crypt of Sainte-Genevieve. From Childebert, their son, to Dagobert, their great-great-grandson, the builder of Saint-Denis, the kings and princes who died in Paris, or in the diocese, were buried at Saint-Germain-des-Pres. When they died elsewhere they were buried in other famous churches, as for instance, Clotaire, dying in his palace at Compiegne, was buried in the basilica of Saint-Medard, in his old capital at Soissons. Also Sigebert his son, assassinated by the furious Fredegonde, was interred at Saint-Medard‘.
Interesting how the Merovingian church was not in the shape of a Cross because of Christianity but rather because of Solomon's Cross. But why would Solomon have a Cross? He was an Old Testament king of the Jews! There was no such 'Cross' at this time!
The Vaincre document also refers to the state Meridian/Zero Meridian created by Louis XIVth in 1667. The 'church Meridian‘ for the Vaincre article however, is a Meridian that ran through St Germain des Pres. To quote: '.... the distinction between the state Meridian and the Church Meridian is drawn with reference to the Paris Observatory and the Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres. The latter, of course, was never in official usage and from 1681 (!!) remained the concern of a hermetic Society‘. What does all this mean? It seems to suggest that there was something very important about St Germain des Pres. That it has something perhaps to do with a 'relic' that Childebert brought to St Germain des Pres. A relic that seems to have had something to do with the expeditions to the Visigothic stronghold of Toledo. Toledo once served as the capital city of Visigothic Spain, beginning with Liuvigild (Leovigild) and was the capital until the Moors conquered Iberia in the 8th century.
Who or what was the hermetic Society that was interested in this Meridian at Saint Germaine des Pres and then from 1681 became the only group who were concerned with that Meridian? Was it Olier's Society of Sulpice? Or was it the Priory of Sion? That is, of course, the second version of the Priory 'story' which has as their origins not as previously recorded with Godfrey de Bouillon but the ‘version’ of the Priory of Sion story that started with its founder as Jean-Timoleon Nègri d’Ables with the help of Blaise d’Hautpoul (d.1694) and Abbé André-Hercule de Fleury (d.1743 and who is the brother of Marie de Fleury who married February 1680 Bernardin de Rosset of Rocozels (? -1720), lord of Rocozels Bouloc and Ceilhes and whose later descendant was Paul-François-Vincent de Fleury). This 'second' Priory is said to be ‘a more or less direct successor of the Children of St Vincent and (probably) of the Company of the Blessed Sacrament founded in 1629 by Henri de Lévis’.
The Children of Saint Vincent are obviously successors of St Germaine des Pres and the knowledge held there (Originally Childebert with the help of his brother Clotaire besieged Zaragoza, but was forced to retreat. From this expedition he brought back to Paris a precious relic, the tunic of Saint Vincent, in honour of which he built at the gates of Paris the famous monastery of St Vincent, known later as St-Germain-des-Prés). The Company of the Blessed Sacrament was a pious association for spiritual and apostolic purposes, founded 1629 by Henri de Levis, the duke of Ventadour (1596-1680). Among those associated with establishing the Company of the Blessed Sacrament were Brother Philippe d' Angoumois,O.F.M. Cap. Father Jean Suffren, S.J.;Reverend Charles de Condren of the Oratory and Henri de Picher, one of the kings stewards.
This Priory, for the authors of the Vaincre article, would appear to be the hermetic Society interested in the 'Church' Meridian!
Why does Chérisey seem to be referring to two separate ideas? On the one hand he refers to some kind of tomb or crypt of sacred importance. He refers to the machinations of certain Merovingians and especially the early kings. He seems to repeatedly refer back to this Solomonic Cross, or some other spoil of war, taken from the Visigoths. Is it a code for some of the Visigothic treasure, which has legendary associations with the area of Rennes-le-Château and perhaps Rennes les Bains? And what has this to do with several different Meridians?
'Whom some poets see as the QUEEN of a lost kingdom‘ The term 'some poets' could indicate chosen poets, or a group of poets, who are preoccupied with the 'sleeping beauty‘, the poetical myth of the princess who sleeps. While she sleeps she is indeed queen of a lost kingdom ...our author here could consider himself one of the poets who could be so labelled. Does our author refer to a queen of a lost kingdom elsewhere?
Using the pseudonym Nicolas Beaucean it is probably Chérisey who wrote a document called 'In the Country of the White Queen' and it seems that this 'White Queen' may be the equivalent Queen he is likening to as the 'Sleeping Beauty' in LSR. Who is the white queen and where is her country? The 'country' is Rennes-les-Bains. Beaucean discusses the various legends of the white queen of Rennes les Bains. Beaucean decides that observers had been getting their grammar wrong - AU PAYS DE LA REINE BLANCHE - suggesting that the word Reine, although it also meant ‘Queen‘, had been confused with Rennes as phonetically these words sounded the same.
An ancient legend also referred to a bathing tub at Rennes of the Reine Blanche (White Queen) which was then mixed with the history of the thermal spa area of Rennes-les-Bains. Mention is made of the work by Boudet regarding Rennes-les-Bains. Was this town part of a Cromlech measuring 16-18 kilometres in length? Boudet suggests that at the centre of this cromlech is an important burial, a burial associated with the 'resurrection'. He said: 'One could ask oneself why the name of Rennes is given to our spa; and one finds easily the reason, when one examines closely this strange landscape: in fact its mountains crowned with rocks, form an immense stone circle of sixteen to eighteen kilometres in circumference'. (La Vraie Langue Celtique).
So Rennes and its spa is named after this Cromlech? Boudet suggests Rennes is named because of the strange landscape which forms this 'immense stone circle'. This stone circle surrounds a menhir where a menhir indicates a tomb. Therefore is Rennes-les-Bains named after a tomb or even centred around a pre-existing tomb? Who is in the tomb? And is it the same person as the Abbe Delmas wrote about? [see HERE].
Beaucean refers to a white marble statue found after historians put together 'a multitude of documents'. The marble statue is referred to as a 'goddess' and Beaucean calls her Isis. So it is now Isis who is the white Queen. Was there a huge pagan temple, 15 metres high, which was situated to the south of the village of Rennes les Bains, asks Beaucean? And is it her Lost Kingdom he refers to in this poem? Or is it another White Queen, perhaps synonymous with Isis? What kingdom?
It is, however, very pertinent here to mention the tomb of the so called Grand Roman. From the Priory Propaganda as well as the work of Henri Boudet, a case can be put forward that this tomb of the White Queen is actually mixed up with/or synonymous with each other and signifies another tomb - that of the Grand Roman (see here). It becomes a 'huge pagan Temple, [where] on the edge of the cap dé l'Hommé on the top of a Menir, opposite the pagan temple, converted into a Christian church later destroyed by fire, was carved a beautiful head of the Saviour looking over the valley, over all the dominant Celtic monuments which had lost their teachings. The victorious cross against paganism, has not ceased to reign in the Cromleck of Rennes-les-Bains, and still maintains, engraved in the religious heart of its inhabitants, the commandments of life given to the world by the Eternal Truth."
Its interesting to note that the Country of the White Queen may also be a subtle hint by Chérisey to chessboards and therefore the means to decode his parchments. The White Queen is a fictional character who appears in Lewis Carroll's fantasy novella 'Through the Looking-Glass'. The motif of 'Through the Looking-Glass' is a representation of the game of chess. Isis is often known as the White Queen in her benevolent role, and Black Queen in the malevolent role.
Why is Chérisey/Beaucean drawing attention to a key work by Henri Boudet which talks of a burial associated with the ‘resurrection‘ and Isis as queen, a white queen? Is this the tomb we are searching for in LSR, the crypt of a sacred female, a burial associated with the resurrection?
We might ask ourselves the most important questions: Which queen? Which resurrection? From above statements it would seem that actually the tomb we are searching for is that of the Grand Roman, which is associated with the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene is persistently referred to because she was also associated with this tomb, for she was the first to see Jesus three days after his execution. Even this has correlates with the Priory Propaganda [because for Plantard, an important tomb existed near his property which was 'known' as the tomb of Gnaius Pompey, the Grand Roman. Plantard adds a further piece of information - that this tomb is located in Fangalots. Fangalots is a place in the vicinity of Rennes-les-Bains].
In his book, Boudet also mentions Fangalots. After discussing human sacrifices carried out by Druids (which, Boudet wrote, Ceasar had referred to in his 'Gallic Wars'), Boudet wrote;
"The punishment [murder/sacrifice] was usually reserved for criminals, and is written on the Celtic ground - we find the term Fangallots, which is designating land in Rennes-les-Bains, in the steep slope down towards where the spa is built - that of Bain-Doux. Fangallots means "disappear from the gallows", to faint (Fent) disappear, gallows (galleuce), gallows, gibbet. The descendants of the Tectosages, keeping the Gallic customs, have always used the gallows against criminals, and even today, hanging is the Anglo-Saxons only method practiced for the punishment of criminals sentenced by the courts to the death penalty".
The Priory of Sion duo of Plantard and Cherisey obviously knew about this Boudet reference, because to my astonishment, while perusing the Secret Dossiers i came across a statement in the text as follows; "The decoration (to) the setting to the tomb referred to [i.e. the 14th station of the Cross at Rennes-le-Chateau] is ... of the necropolis of Fangallots at Rennes les Bains". The quote was placed next to a picture of Sauniere's 14th station of the Cross. The quote seems to intimate that the art work would pertain to Fangalots. And that either Fangalots is related to a tomb of Pompey or even the historical Jesus Christ figure!]
So it seems, if you take Cherisey and Plantard et al at face value they are seemingly suggesting that the tomb of Jesus is in the Rennes-les-Bains area! And probably with the remains of Mary Magdalene. For more on this theory see here.
Isis herself is associated with a resurrection of sorts. After her brother/husband Osiris had been murdered, and his body cut up into parts, she, by using her magic, was able to fix him back together and breathe new life into him.
The Osirian myth reports that Seth had a banquet for Osiris in which he brought in a beautiful box and said that whoever could fit in the box perfectly would get to keep it. Seth had measured Osiris in his sleep and made sure that he was the only one who could fit the box. Several tried to see whether they fit. Once it was Osiris's turn to see if he could fit in the box, Seth closed the lid on him so that the box was now a coffin for Osiris. Seth flung the box in the Nile so that it would float far away. Isis went looking for the box so that Osiris could have a proper burial. She found the box in a tree in Byblos, and brought it back to Egypt, hiding it in a swamp. Seth went hunting that night and found the box. To assure that Isis could never find Osiris again for a proper burial, Seth chopped Osiris's body into fourteen pieces and scattered them all over Egypt. Isis and her sister Nephthys went looking for these pieces, but could only find thirteen of the fourteen. Fish had swallowed the last piece, his penis, so Isis fashioned one out of gold. Isis used her magic to put Osiris's body back together and managed to bring him back to life, after which they conceived Horus (another earlier deity). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis)
Beaucean then goes on to talk of the legends of treasure associated with Rocko Negro, exploited either by the Romans or for generations afterwards. Again the Zero Meridian is evoked (already familiar to us in this LSR document) which 'links Saint Sulpice in Paris to Saint Vincent in Carcassonne'. For the first time the Roseline is mentioned. And in this document the author refers to a verse by Nostradamus which he translates as the following:―
Under the line of the Meridian (that is to say the Rose Line); Not far from there a treasure is hidden, Which over long centuries had been gathered, Found (he) will die, the eye put out by force. So, we have Isis, goddesses (remember the whole LSR poem may be based on a Celtic zodiac which worshipped a goddess), an existing pagan temple, treasure, the zero meridian and the Rose line. Isis was of course a Queen. There is also a term used in the Rennes Affair, the Queen of the South ...which may also be referring to a Meridian. This sleeping beauty, this lost and sleeping queen, whom we already see is linked to the country of Roc Negre and Rennes les Bains is probably the 'treasure' which lies close to the Roseline.
'In desperation of finding my way - the parchments of this Friend were for me, the thread of Ariadne.'
To find this 'sleeping beauty' is very difficult. The tomb and crypt is not going to be found without the help of the 'parchments'. Of course these parchments are those we have previously encountered ... The ones located by Saunière in legend but really those that Chérisey created to pass on some key information. How can we break these parchments? How can we break them and know how to use them?
Chérisey seems to have come into the possession of some information which was linked with Saunière and the mysterious goings on of this priest. This information so motivated Chérisey that he went on a pilgrimage of his own. We have photographs of Chérisey and Plantard searching the Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains landscape. And the information seems extraordinarily important to them, one that they could not outwardly talk of, so they spoke in fables and guarded language. Why? What information is so great and secret that this has to be so guarded?
Cherisey wrote in 1964 (before he wrote CIRCUIT) the following: P.S. The Holy Madeleine was brought back to France in very old times. More or less legendary traditions give a report on a pilgrimage to her sepulchre. On arrival of the infidels one group left her alabaster sepulchre and put it in the shelter of a marble sepulchre. It has been there since. Some claim that it is in a cave in a mountainside, near a road and even the dimensions of this cave (29 X 24 X 4) are given. Good king Rene of Anjou made some excavations in Provence in 1448; there is no proof that he succeeded. There cannot be confusion regarding which Magdalene - there are only two holy persons who bore the name of Madeleine (the second is out of the question, she lived at the XVIIth century and bears the name of Catherine in religion) - so it must be her that spread an amber perfume on Christ, and cries with his martyrdom. She had, it is said , beautiful hair which was used to cover her at the time of her life as a sinner & to cover her nudity when she withdrew to a cave. What do you believe that I will seek in Rennes le Château? If I succeeded I will not have the right to speak about it. (November 6, 1964). (http://www.portail-rennes-le-chateau.com/cherisey/cherisey.htm)
Should we assume that he found what he was looking for? In 1967 Chérisey wrote and published CIRCUIT where he refers to finding a tomb of great importance - that of the Grand Roman. Is this what he had been looking for in 1964, and which he referred to in private letters at that time? The tomb is in the vicinity of Rennes-les-Bains. Why the distinction of one male and one female?
By 1968, Gerard de Sède has published 'The Accursed Treasure of Rennes le Chateau' … where the authors informants speak of a secret of great import that cannot be directly referred to …. Correlating to Chériseys If I succeed I will not have the right to speak about it. De Sède says that all reference to this 'secret' can only be in guarded language … He said: 'especially the maker of a stupendous discovery, would, if he were unable to reveal it, be the prisoner of an almost intolerable contradiction, between his pride that would want to impel him to make it public, and his fear, which would constrain him to remain silent....'
De Sède described this person who found a great discovery as being obsessed with it for the rest of his life & by what he had seen, which was perhaps 'terrifying', but which could not be disclosed to anyone. Who does De Sède have in mind? Is it Saunière? In the context of the story he is telling, yes it could be Saunière. I think it is Saunière who he believes made a stupefying discovery which obsessed him for the rest of his life. I think it is also true of other priests, including Boudet and Gelis. Perhaps surely it is a 'religious' secret?
There may be a material treasure, but actually, this 'stupefying' discovery is much bigger than gold alone. As Pierre Plantard hinted, it is a 'spiritual treasure'. But what De Sède suggests is that they [the possessors of the secret] were only human and in the end they could not keep it secret. Using the fable of the 'barber of Midas' De Sède tells us that those who know of the secret, have in their own way, told us what it is. But the supplier to De Sède of this story is Chérisey and Plantard. And it could just as well be Chérisey who found out a monumental secret. Perhaps even the same secret that Saunière found? The barber of Midas discovered that his master concealed under his cap the ears of an ass. He therefore;
'whispered his secret to the earth, after having dug a hole, which he hastened to fill. But soon rushes sprang up there that, at the slightest breath of wind, spread abroad his indiscretion‘. Because the poor barber of Midas could not keep such a secret the only way he had out of the situation was to speak while taking care not to be understood or to be understood 'while making sure that certain aspects were never overtly mentioned'. To achieve this aim, the common language which everyone understood could not be used. As De Sède intimated
'it will be necessary for him to devise another sort of language: to create a sea into which can be cast without too much risk the message'.
It is obvious that Boudet did this. Christian Doumergue, a well known French researcher, suggests that the 'sea into which can be cast without too much risk the message' is the 'hoax' of Rennes-le-Chateau perpetrated by Plantard and Cherisey. Doumergue feels Boudet knew exactly what he was talking about! De Sède suggested that this 'sea' to be created was where the hermetic art and the reinvention of it was used. He alerted us to the fact that successive custodians of the 'secret of Rennes' might well have been inspired through the centuries to construct wonderful puzzles. Chérisey is of course talking to us via the construct of a wonderful puzzle. He created the parchments that Saunière was supposed to have found!
The suggestion that these documents become like the 'thread of Ariadne' implies we will not solve this enigma without these documents. Ariadne's thread, named for the legend of Ariadne, is the term used to describe the solving of a problem with multiple apparent means of proceeding - 'such as a physical maze, a logic puzzle, or an ethical dilemma - through an exhaustive application of logic to all available routes. It is the particular method used that is able to follow completely through to trace steps or take point by point a series of found truths in a contingent, ordered search that reaches a desired end position. This process can take the form of a mental record, a physical marking, or even a philosophical debate; it is the process itself that assumes the name‘ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne's_thread_(logic)). The key element to applying Ariadne's thread to a problem is the creation and maintenance of a record - physical or otherwise - of the problem's available and exhausted options at all times. This record is referred to as the "thread", regardless of its actual medium. The purpose the record serves is to permit backtracking - that is, reversing earlier decisions and trying alternatives. Obviously, Ariadne's thread may be applied to the solving of mazes in the same manner as the legend; an actual thread can be used as the record, or chalk or a similar marker can be applied to label passages. If the maze is on paper, the thread may well be a pencil. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne's_thread_(logic)). Ariadne gave Theseus the clew or ball of thread that kept him from getting lost in the Minotaur's maze. A clew is a yarn or thread used to guide one's way through a maze or labyrinth; a guide, a clue. It is by the parchments that we will not get lost, the parchments for Cherisey are the 'clew'! So we are to use Chériseys parchments as a guide and clue. What is more it is these parchments that will uncover the clue's and it is the particular method of solving them that leads to success.
Having already seen that these two parchments interact together the trick is obviously to work out how they are used in this way. Only one book and its authors suggest the solution to the parchments as being used interacting together in the way the LSR author and Plantard suggests. It is the book, Tomb of God, by Andrews and Schellenberger. Here the parchments become a map detailing the area of Rennes-le-Château and Rennes Les Bains. We may note that they also offer up the only solution to the concept of the Rose line. What these authors identified from the Saunière parchments were three geometric elements; in Parchment 1 (smaller one) - "two pairs of parallel lines, a tilted equilateral triangle and lines radiating out from a point'. In Parchment 2 was the square, a hexagram and rotation of that square. The authors suggest that these are the keys Poussin and Teniers 'guard'.
If Ariadnes clew then is the Parchments and their geometric markers what then is the key to it all?
Chérisey in 'Stone & Paper' said that the key to the Cross was 681! In 'Stone and Paper' he refers to what the clues in his created parchments mean. PAX, he says, has a visual form which signifies the famous vision of Constantine in 312, a radiant hexagram that the Greeks read as XP and the Latins see as PaX. Here, he is also referring to perhaps the hexagram in Parchment 2. In actual fact though Constantine did not see a hexagram in his celestial vision! But he did see the vision at midday. (A reference also used in the Grand Parchment).
And a celestial vision? Is this a midday reference to some astronomical event? Again in our discussions Paul Karren said to me: Ophuichus is almost due south etc ... In January - around noon .... Moreover .. The sky at Sulpice, on January 17th is almost exactly the same as that at Rennes les Bains. Why? Because they share the same longitude (meridian). An observer at Sulpice would see the exact same sky as an observer at the same moment would at Rennes les Bains, except everything would be lower on the horizon. This is because the longitude at Sulpice is higher than at Rennes les Bains‘. (See the diagram below)
This 681 of PAX 681 is explained by Chérsiey in terms of Merovingian history - that of the Dagobert descendants. How can 681 be a key to geometric map patterns, because clearly, the solution of Dagobert‘s descendants does not fit the rest of the verse or even that of the Zodiac or Meridians etc as elsewhere in Chériseys writings?
A solution was suggested to me in the Golden Thread of Ariadne. This was further explained as Golden legend, Golden ratio, Golden triangle etc. In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887. Other names frequently used for or closely related to the golden ratio are golden section (Latin: sectio aurea), golden mean, golden number, and the Greek letter phi. Other terms encountered include extreme and mean ratio, medial section, divine proportion, divine section (Latin: sectio divina), golden proportion, golden cut, and mean of Phidias. The number 1.618 turns up frequently in geometry, particularly in figures with pentagonal symmetry. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio).
TAURUS
'Thanks to him, from now on by measured steps and a sure eye, I can discover the sixty-four dispersed stones of the perfect cube‘
Thanks to Chérisey and by using measured steps ‘and a sure eye‘ (i.e. henceforth we can now solve this search for the hidden sanctuary by concentrating and using clear sightedness). It sug-gests an almost scientific approach. We must use keen perception, sound judgement, sharp and clear vision and be very discerning and exacting. These could all be exhortations to think mathematically and clearly follow logically the clues presented to us. The solution to the parchments is geometry and the key is 1.681. The 64 stones may be indicating also the 8x8 chessboard and set up of the key to deciphering the large parchment of Saunière. There is also the chessboard represented or indicated in the church at Rennes-le-Château. The perfect cube is a square or a three dimensional object or shape ‘bounded by six square faces with three sides meeting at each vertex‘. And as we have seen above the perfect cube may also be referring to the tilted square indicated in Tomb of God.
'Which the brothers of the BEAUTY of the dark wood, while escaping from the usurpers, had scattered on their way whilst they fled from the white Fort'
The brothers of the BEAUTY of the dark wood may refer to those guardians of the Sleeping Beauty, the sacred female who is asleep in the woods. But who were the guardians? The beauty of the Dark Wood could also mysteriously be referring to Black Madonna's. These Black Madonna's are wooden representations of the Virgin Mary but are darker skinned in the representations. They are continually seen as subversive representing something other than the Virgin Mary. Some speculate that they refer to Isis, once again, or even Mary Magdalene.
And it is the sanctuary of this black Beauty that we are trying to locate. Dark Wood may refer to the woods of where that sleeping beauty lies or perhaps it refers to Isis, a goddess symbolised as black. Isis and this 'sleeping beauty' female seem to be interchangeable metaphors for that which we are seeking. The brothers searching for or guarding the sanctuary could also refer to a kind of 'fraternity'.
This 'Fraternity' could suggest a fraternity of 'secret' guardians associated with a white fort, i.e. Blanchefort. Does this suggest the Knights Templar? Not much is known regarding the history of Blanchefort. There is a suggestion that there may have been some sort of Visigothic foundation on this rock which is in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château and Rennes les Bain but it is only in 1125, that the castle was signed over to the bishopric of Alet (-les-Bains) by its master Bertrand de Blancafort who swore allegiance to the Viscount Bernard Aton of Alet. Around 1130 he allegedly asked the Knights Templar to start exploiting a goldmine near the castle. It was whispered that this operation was a cover up to dig up the treasure of the Visigoths, much of which was gathered during the sack of Rome on 24th August 410 by the Visigoth leader Alaric I the Goth. In 1209 the castle was conquered by Simon de Montfort in the Albigensean Crusade. He gave the castle, which was now called Château de Blanchafort and the surrounding lands to his comrade in arms Pierre de Voisins. (http://ww.rlcresearch.com/2007/12/22/chateau-de-blanchefort/).
In the 'Tomb of God' the authors discuss a document that had as a witness one Raymond, Abbot of Alet les Bains. They suggest that Blanchefort was owned by the Abbey of Alet from 1132 - 1180. And that both were owned by the Templars.
However the guardians of Blanchefort and perhaps the sanctuary could just as easily have been a family affair. It was a property held by the Hautpoul and Fleury families both central to the 'story' of the Rennes Affair.
The author of LSR seems to be implying that when Blanchefort was usurped those that guarded this mountain originally may have left clues for later observers to follow. He describes these clues as '64 dispersed stones' .... Which on one hand would apply to the parchments Saunière found but it could also apply to other clues left. What clues would the 'brothers of the beauty of the dark wood' leave for posterity?
[Incidentally, the famous Cathars also may have had some influence over the place at this time. It would depend on the dates in history. The poem refers to 'escaping from the usurpers'. Which may refer to the Albigensian Crusade as the military campaigns of the Crusade can be divided into several periods: the first from 1209 to 1215, which was a series of great successes for the crusaders in Languedoc. The captured lands, however, were largely lost between 1215 and 1225 in a series of revolts and military reverses. The wealthy lords of the counties and vicounties in this area (the Languedoc) lived well, and they allowed an atmosphere of relatively open mindedness and tolerance of beliefs. The Roman Catholic parishes were not as strong a community focal point as they were in many other parts of France. Jews and Cathars served in many of the courts of the comte de Toulouse and the vicomte de Trencavel. The latter was very open in his support of the Cathars. The barons of the North of France were said to have coveted this rich land of the south. And indeed, after this Crusade, many of the lands had been usurped].
Closer to our story in Courts Circuits, Mairie de Bugarach (1994), had this to say: "Le château de Blanchefort gardait les vallées de la Sals et du Rialsesse, il a vu passer la croisade de Simon de Montfort pendant l'epopée cathare. Il fut la propriété des Hautpoul et des Fleury, seigneurs de Haut-Razès. Non loin y fut exploitée une mine d'argent, dans ce sectueur on trouve de l'azurite et de la pyrite de cuivre." (The castle of Blanchefort guarded the valleys of the Sals and the Rialsesse. It saw the passing crusade of Simon de Montfort during the cathar papacy. It was the property of the Hautpoul and Fleury families ..not far from here a silver mine was exploited and in this area one finds azurite and copper pyrites). The abbè of Rennes-les-Bain, Boudet, had this to say about Blanchefort: "On the left bank of the Sals, the stone circle starts towards the crag of Blancfort. The natural point of this rock has been raised, in the middle ages, to allow the construction of a fort serving as an observation post. There remain some ruins of masonry testifying to the existence of this fort."
For Boudet then this fort was deliberately constructed to serve as an 'observation‘ post. But to observe what? Usually medieval watchtowers scanned for invading forces. Who manned the watchtower? Or was it more specifically to watch a site of particular importance? If Blanchefort was a watchtower and the guardians had to flee this watchtower in the wake of usurpers ....presumably then the dispersed stones mentioned in the poem could be seen as clues associated with Blanchefort? Again it is the authors of Tomb of God who suggest Blanchefort was an observation post for a site on the opposite mountain called Cardou. Cardou is associated further by Boudet with a very cryptic comment in his True Celtic Language. A formation of rocks on the flank of Cardou Boudet described as 'this last rock, separated from Cardou and presenting several points reunited at the base, gave our ancestors the idea of small beings comprising a family .... And poetically named these needles as Lampos. This word derives from 'lamb', or to lamb', when speaking of the sheep ...‘ And also according to Andrews and Schellenberger tell us that on the flank of Cardou, where Blanchefort would keep watch over, was where the Rose Cross could be found!
The Lamb of God (Latin: Agnus Dei) is one of the titles given to Jesus in the New Testament and consequently in the Christian tradition. It refers to Jesus' role as a sacrificial lamb atoning for the sins of man in Christian theology, harkening back to ancient Jewish Temple sacrifices in which a lamb was slain during the passover (the "Paschal Lamb", Hebrew: Korban Pesach), the blood was sprinkled on the altar, and the whole of the lamb was eaten. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_of_God).
Does Boudet wish us to think of Jesus? How can a poetic area of Cardou called Lampos be seen as a family? This 'Lamb of God' suggests that 'One of the few Christian symbols dating from the first century is that of the Good Shepherd carrying on His shoulders a lamb or a sheep, with two other sheep at his side. Between the first and the fourth century eighty-eight frescoes of this type were depicted in the Roman catacombs. The lamb, or sheep, symbol, then, of the first class described, has, in all catacomb paintings and on sarcophagi of the fourth century, always a meaning associated with the condition of the deceased after death’. But in the new era ushered in by Constantine the Great the lamb appears in the art of the basili-cas with an entirely new signification. The general scheme of apsidal mosaic decoration in the basilicas that everywhere sprang into existence after the conversion of Constantine, conformed in the main to that described by St. Paulinus as existing in the Basilica of St. Felix at Nola. "The Trinity gleams in its full mystery", the saint tells us. "Christ is represented in the form of a lamb;‘ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08755b.htm).
Why does Boudet associate this imagery of Jesus and his sheep as 'comprising a family‘ with a local landmark around Rennes-les-Bains‘?
GEMINI
'To reassemble the scattered stones‘
I.e. the clues, perhaps the sixty-four dispersed stones should in relation to the parchments be deciphered - the same ones that had been scattered as the supporters of the BEAUTY fled from the white Fort! Did these 'supporters' leave documents behind? [The Templars, a noble family?].
'work with the square and compass to put them back in regular order‘ This means no more or less the use of Geometry to solve the disparate clues. Using the parchments which are the clues we must decipher them using a 'set square and compass‘ to put them back into regular order. A set square provides 'a straight edge at a right angle, or other particular angle to a base line‘. A compass is an instrument used for inscribing circles or arcs. They are particularly useful for measuring distances especially on maps. Here then our ideas that the parchments may be maps are reinforced or that the clues in the parchments are to be used on a map. Compass and straight edge constructions are constructions of lengths or angles using an idealised ruler and illustrates the principles of 'plane geometry‘. So using the plane geometry found in the parchments use it on a/your map.
'look for the line of the meridian in going from the East to the West, then looking from the South to the North, finally in all directions to obtain the desired solution‘
Here LSR begins to focus on Meridians. Presumably once you have worked out the parchment geometrical clues and once you have identified the map and area to use one must look for the line of Meridian going from East to West in other words ... a line of latitude. (Having said that - the French words used - 'de l'Orient à l'Occident' could signify Eastern and Western Europe. The Orient means "the East". It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Near East or Far East, in relation to Europe. The term "Orient" derives from the Latin word oriens meaning "east" (lit. "rising" < orior " rise"). The use of the word for "rising" to refer to the east (where the sun rises) has analogs from many languages: compare the terms "Levant" (< French levant "rising") for example. Also, many ancient temples, including pagan temples and the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, were built with their main entrances facing the East. To situate them in such a manner was to "orient" them in the proper direction. When something was facing in the correct direction, it was said to be in the proper "orientation". The opposite term "Occident" is derived from the Latin word occidens meaning "west" (lit. "setting" "occido" "fall/set"). This term was once used to mean the West (where the sun sets) but has fallen into disuse in English. The French word Occident is a masculine noun and is very rare.)
This line of latitude had been surmised by Andrews and Schellenberger who called it the east- west Rose line.
This Meridian owes its prestige to Saint Germaine des Pres and what the Priory of Sion calls the Church Meridian. As we have read above this Meridian was never officially used and in 1681 it just remained the concern of a 'hermetic Society‘ - that is the Society of Sulpice created by Olier. (It is this geometry that Paul Karren appears to have discovered). Saint Germaine des Pres was created to house a relic brought back by Childebert and for the veneration of Saint Vincent. The Saint Vincent for this Church would appear to be Saint Vincent of Zaragossa. For the hermetic Society of Olier they were known as the Children of Saint Vincent ..but this seems to refer to something obliquely in the Rennes-le-Château area. In fact it refers to a Meridian, the Meridian that was the preoccupation of the hermetic Society.
We have referred to Beaucean above and Beaucean remarked: 'if the parishes of Peyrolles and Serres are the twin children of Saint Vincent, then the parish of Rennes les Bains guards the heart of the Roseline'. Looking in all directions to obtain the desired solution or more appropriately the desired location'. Saint Vincent is the saint we have referred to above. In honour of his relics, Childebert built the abbey church of Saint Vincent and the Cross. This church later became St Germain des Pres. On the last page of the Lobineau documents there is a Meridian depicted running right passed this church. It is this church Meridian that is of importance. This church Meridian runs down to Peyrolles and Serres.....And we know we are on the right track because the line of the poem says: look for the line of the meridian in going from the East to the West then looking from the South to the North finally in all directions to obtain the desired solution‘ . In other words to find our tomb and crypt of the Sleeping Beauty we need to find the Rose Cross … that Meridian from North to South and the line of the Meridian from East to West. Does the origin of this Meridian and the Church then relate to Childebert? How are these streams of thought connected? A site in Paris associated with Saint Vincent and a Solomonic treasure, a cross studied with gems and highly prized, a site in the area of Rennes les Bains associated with a Sleeping Beauty in her crypt … of which our intrepid author has been on pilgrimage for? 'stopping in front of the fourteen stones marked with a cross‘. Some have suggested that this line refers to the stations of the Cross at Saint Sulpice. We have read above of an hermetic group devoted to the church Meridian of Saint Germain des Pres and that from 1681 it was the preserve of those at Saint Sulpice (aka possibly the children of Saint Vincent). In the Lobineau Documents there is a map of the ground plan of Saint Sulpice and standing on the Meridian line one will see the S and P windows. The stations of the Cross in this church are indeed plane stones marked with a cross and are numbered 1 to 14 for each station. The most important Meridian though seems to be that one associated with Saint Germaine des Pres. And in Saint Germaine des Pres there is also a depiction of an S and P on stone. Perhaps the Meridian referred to in the previous line is associated with the Meridian that Gaston de Koker has running through the Chapel of the Angels of Delacroix (DE LA CROIX, OF THE CROSS?)
However could the fourteen stones marked with crosses also be in the landscape? We have after all deciphered the geometry and have located meridians and are looking for lines of sight. According the old guide book at Rennes-le-Château the following is reported:
'The Stations of the Cross - When carefully examined it is clear that these stations of the cross have little in common with the Passion as recited in the gospels. According to the principles of the phonetic riddles, of which the Freemasons are so fond, the Abbé Boudet had anomalies added to each of the stations of the cross, which were originally a standard version, bought from a dealer in church decorations. Each of these anomalies describes a precise location to be found in the stone circle around Rennes-les-Bains."
'The circle is the ring and the crown, and to him is the diadem of this QUEEN of Castle‘.
Boudet is thought to have walked his local landscape adding stone crosses and making markings on them. This in turn may relate to the Cromlech ...in this poem‘s line the circle is the ring and the crown that may relate to an entry made by Boudet: 'The centre of the stone circle of Rennes-les-Bains is found in the place named, the Cercle. In calling it Cercle - to circle - cerkl) to surround - [environner], surround [entourer] the central point of the stone circle of the Redones, and reaffirming in this way a small circle in a larger one, the Druids wanted to express the very clear idea that they possessed one unique God who was existing in the beings. God being the Being even through essence, he is also in everything in a very intimate way, in that he is the cause of everything that exists. The created world is here represented by the small circle surrounded by the larger one, and this large circle by its spherical shape, offers to the spirit the idea of the essential perfection of God, in whom all beings live and die, who contains everything and exists inside them, not at all like a part of their being or an accident, but like an agent is present in the being on which it acts and which it reaches by its virtue."
The verse could just as well refer to a sovereign and the treasures associated with a sovereign that are passed to each successive sovereign to symbolize their right to rule. They may include crowns, sceptres, orbs, swords, rings, and other objects. This may correlate with the earlier verse that the sleeping beauty is a queen who has lost her kingdom.
Chérisey has talked elsewhere of this ring and lily symbolism. In CIRCUIT, once again, he suggests on page 104 that there is a 'secret hidden on a ring‘. Describing the ring studded with stones the figure is of a safe - suggested along with its own key. Chérisey also says that: 'Saunière had an engraved signet ring with the mark of the circle and the lily—this represents a family that he is charged to give to the ―King of the World'.
The circle and the lily are the attributes of the Grand Monarch as referred to by Nostradamus. Researchers such as Silvain think that the 'key‘ is the 681 (of Parchment 2). The castle must be her sanctuary where she still sleeps.
Cancer
'The stones of the mosaic paving of the sacred place could be alternatively black or white'
The black and white paving stones being referred to are those at Rennes-le-Château. Jesus and Asmodeus do indeed look at the same place on this chequered black and white floor. As we saw above the chessboard is orientated to the cardinal points and maybe useful in the citing of a location in some way. 'and JESUS like ASMODEUS, observing their alignment'
In the church at Rennes-le-Château a statue of Jesus crouches in the same manner as the devil statue. Why are Jesus and Asmodeus both observing the alignments? Or are we to observe where the statues are actually aligned? It is interesting to note that both Jesus and Asmodeus were associated with the Temple of Jerusalem. Asmodeus helped Solomon build it, Jesus described himself and his body as the Temple of Jerusalem that would rise again after three days.
Do the statues look at the same alignments on the represented chessboard?
For the author of LSR he says that once one has the alignment the intrepid searcher will be incapable of seeing the summit ... 'my view seems incapable of seeing the summit where the marvellous sleeping one remained hidden‘
Wherever the point is it would seem that we are still not at the sanctuary of the Sleeping Beauty. In fact the terminology used here seems to suggest that the actual crypt and sanctuary is further away at another summit. And this summit can just about be seen … because the observer seems to be afflicted with bad eyesight. Why? Is the light from the sun shining in his eyes? Because of the distance? Because of the vegetation and woods? Is it midday and the sun is in his eyes? The summit of where the Sleeping Beauty lies seems to connote that the crypt is in a mountain.
'Not being Hercules with magical powers‘
Hercules was sent to kill or subdue or to fetch back for Eurystheus a magical animal or plant. As a commentator noted; all the sites chosen [for the tasks of Hercules] were all previous strongholds of the Hera, or the Goddess, or were entrances to the netherworld‘. He also noted that all the sites were to be found in the borders of the classical Arcadia.
Perhaps our LSR author is alluding to searchers looking for a place associated with a Goddess?Of the Underworld, of Hades? Yet again we are being focused back to a Goddess like Isis. Our intrepid researcher is not strong physically like Hercules. He also has no magic powers. His only way of getting into this sanctuary is to decipher some ancient symbols carved by observers of the past‘. Carved? On rocks? In manuscripts? Symbols carved by observers of the past? Those who observed at Blanchefort from the tower? In ancient texts from the days of the observers? Perhaps the symbols relate to designs in the actual sanctuary? Or perhaps carvings created by our priest Saunière and Boudet? 'how can I decipher the mysterious symbols engraved by the keepers of the past‘?
Traditionally a Druid bard was known as a Keeper of the Past. They were either poets or minstrels. Myths depict some bards as itinerant troubadours who travelled from place to place, sharing news and reciting their songs for every new audience. Other bards were attached to specific kings or chieftains and they made a career out of singing the praises of their patrons. The words of a bard were considered to be magical--they could enchant their listeners, and could even cause physical harm with their satires! Bards were the journalists, historians, critics, and performing artists of the ancient Celtic world. Today's bard would embody similar qualities, using literary or perhaps ever artistic skill to weave a spell of enchantment around their listeners or readers. But a bard doesn't/didnt just write poetry or sing songs to entertain-- he or she recognised that the ultimate role of magic is the fostering of spiritual growth. As we are in the church of Saunière is it his symbols we need to decipher? Was he the keeper of some mystery of the past and as a mordern day bard left symbols in his church? Why not? At least one design symbol of Saunière is used by Cherisey (see below). Or perhaps rather it was Boudet‘s symbols in his literary works? After all, his book is about the true Celtic language of which the Druid Bards had control!
The Keepers of the Past could also refer to the areas priests. And why not? The whole enigmatic story of the treasure of Rennes has been kept by priests for the last few hundred years - in fact, since the death of Marie d'Hautpoul.
'In the sanctuary however the stoup, fountain of love of the believers, reminds us of these words: BY THIS SIGN YOU SHALL CONQUER him/it'
Here, in this line, we are indeed told that the sanctuary with symbols is the one created by Sauniere. It is the symbols he added that we need to decode! Specifically the water stoup! It could also refer to the actual sanctuary of the 'Sleeping Beauty‘. The water stoup of believers i.e. the water that the faithful dip their fingers in to cleanse themselves and then make the sign of the Cross rests on the shoulders of Asmodeus. There is also the 'Fountain of Love‘ in the area of Rennes les Bains .. an actual pool in the River Sals. The fountain or source of Love … in the context of Church teachings also refers to Jesus himself. Chérisey says as much in a later verse of the poem. Reading that line as a whole we might be being told that in the sanctuary [the same sanctuary that the Beauty Asleep in the Woods resides in?], the Fountain of Love, the source of Love as Jesus Christ, will also be found!].
Just above the water stoup we see the 'By this sign you shall conquer (it/him)‘ phrase. The motto is obviously a reference to the celestial sign Constantine saw in the sky just before the famous Battle of Milvian Bridge.
From Eusebius, two accounts of the battle survive. The first, shorter one in the Ecclesiastical History leaves no doubt that God helped Constantine but doesn't mention any vision. In his later Life of Constantine, Eusebius gives a detailed account of a vision and stresses that he had heard the story from the emperor himself. According to this version, Constantine with his army was marching somewhere (Eusebius doesn't specify the actual location of the event, but it clearly isn't in the camp at Rome), when he looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words. The Latin translation is 'in hoc signo vinces‘ — "In this (sign), conquer". At first he was unsure of the meaning of the apparition, but in the following night he had a dream in which Christ explained to him that he should use the sign against his enemies. Eusebius then continues to describe the labarum, the military standard used by Constantine in his later wars against Licinius, showing the Chi-Rho sign‘. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Milvian_Bridge). In 'Stone & Paper‘ (a manuscript by Chérisey said to show the RLC parchments and cipher inventions as a hoax with details on how the hoax was perpetrated) Chérisey gives some strange solutions to the codes. On page 15 of the document he says that … ‘as the Chrisme PX it became firmly entrenched as the sign designating the Roman Emperor Constantine's war cry in 312, "In hoc signo vinces", translated by abbé Saunière in his church as "Par ce signe tu le vaincras". The "le" he went on to say was superfluous but enabled Saunière to have a 22-letter phrase, although at this point Chérisey does not say why this is important. In its original Latin the phrase appears in the church at Rennes-les-Bains. The Latin translation is 'in hoc signo vinces‘. This appears to be represented in a vague manner on the Marie de Negre tombstone -the P+X at the base of the left-hand column headed A and appearing on the right hand column'.
Chérisey says even more in this document. He says of the code Pax 681 that ' PAX has a visual visual form, signifying the famous vision of Constantine in 312, a radiant hexagram that the Greeks read as XP and the Latins as PaX. It is a war cry: 'In this sign you shall conquer' accompanied a vision, a slogan common enough in the Christian world‘
This emblem PAX, Chérisey insists, is known 'from its religious composition‘ when it was used by the Papacy incorporating the Alpha and Omega into the whole reading APX . Cherisey then discusses this device as being of the 'Shepherds of Arcadia‘, and says ''The privilege that the Church assumed in taking on the emblem of a temporal prince, is written in a long conflict be-tween imperial Byzantium and pontifical Rome. A parallel was drawn between the chasuble deco-rated by the chrismon symbol and the red cloak of the Emperor of Byzantium, which carried the emblem until the year 507, when Anastasius put in an appearance and adopted the white of the penitent. The Emperor of the Orient ☧ announced that he was going to devote his personal interest to public benefit. He was loudly ap-plauded. This meant that the red robe with the chrismon embroidered in gold passed directly to the Papacy. That same year St Martin of Tours, ambassador of the orient in Gaul, was instructed to return the PAX to Clovis, the Merovingian King in whom the Church was happy to recognise the 'Patrice‘ and the 'new Constantine‘. A legendary illustration relates to this event, where Saint Martin cuts his cloak in two, with a sword and gives half to a poor man in whom he fails to recognise the Roman emperor. Arriving in Gaul, the sign of the PAX was replaced with the LABARUM or symbolic banner with its retention of the red and gold colours, whereas the war cry 'In hoc signo Vinces‘ became the Montjoie-Saint Denis' (From RO51, pp 17-18).
Here Chérisey equates the Pax with the Labarum many years after the event! The Labarum was a military standard that displayed the first two initials of the word 'Christ‘- that is Chi and Rho. It was first used by Constantine I. Chérisey is definitely imparting something important here.
Later on in Stone & Paper, Chérisey tells us the proper meaning of the code 'La Clef Par la Croix‘ - 'The key to the Cross‘. (This in itself appears interesting, because normally this part of the cipher sentence is separated at different places). The code is usually rendered:
BERGERE PAS DE TENTATION QUE POUSSIN TENIERS GARDENT LA CLEF PAX DCL XXXI PAR LA CROIX ET CE CHEVAL DE DIEU J'ACHEVE CE DAEMON DE GARDIEN A MIDI POMMES BLUES.
In this way it is usually interpreted that Poussin & Teniers 'guard the key‘. Here Chérisey changes the meaning slightly, or perhaps adds emphasis to 'The Key to the Cross‘. Presumably this would link up with Constantine's cross/Labarum? Paul Le Cour, for some reason, envisioned Constantine's Labarum as looking like this i.e a radiant hexagram. (You can read more about this elsewhere on this site - http://www.rhedesium.com/the-tombstone-of-marie-hautpoul-de-blanchefort---key-of-a-secret.html).
LEO
'From her, whom I desired to set free….'
This is the Sleeping Beauty again. This woman is very important to Chérisey. 'Rose towards me the scent of the perfume which impregnated the Sepulchre'
Is our lone pilgrim reaching his desired sepulchre? Which sepulchre? Remember this month in the poem represents the 8th July to 4th August. Therefore it is the month of the Lunar Calendar/Druid Calendar which encompasses the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene. The Celtic/Druid calendar, as we saw above, may relate to the Goddess, and which all the way through Chérisey has been using as a metaphor to either the Magdalene or Isis. Which one does he mean and why? Is it their sepulchre he approaches, or a sepulchre associated with them?
The reference to perfume impregnating the sepulchre is strange. If Chérisey does mean the Magdalene then the sepulchre must be the sepulchre of Christ. She went here to anoint his body with spices and oils. However when she got there she found the tomb empty. It could be a reference to the anointing that the Magdalene may have done (although the identity of the woman is disputed by theologians) in readiness for the burial of Christ. In Stone & Paper, Chérisey says, in reference to these parchments of Saunière; Document II quotes a text from the Gospel of John (XII, 1-12) referring to Mary Magdalene pouring a vase of very expensive perfume over Jesus a week before the Passion.‘ Then he says: 'the treasure hunter will be looting a centuries-old necropolis containing bodies in a well-preserved state of mummification, aptly symbolised by Mary Magdalene as the patron saint of embalmers'. Here we have a reference to a necropolis or crypt, which contains mummified bodies …. Symbolised by the Magdalene because she is a patron saint of embalmers. But she did not embalm anybody!! She is mostly associated obviously with the resurrection of Christ. Having gone to the tomb of Christ, following Jewish ritual to check that the person buried was really dead, she found an empty tomb. We assume she went to the correct tomb, so what had happened to the body? Had it been stolen? Mary said this at least three times. She seemed convinced the body had been stolen. She had taken spices to anoint the body, but why? Hadn't this already been done? Was there going to be a secondary burial? (Some scholars think Jesus was buried hurriedly in a temporary sepulchre and then the women came to anoint the body for its proper burial. We must also add that according to the Gospel of Mark the tomb of this historical Christ was left unguarded and unsupervised for 24 hours before a guard was put on duty there. Who told the guards where the tomb was?).
Quite why in Chérisey's mind Magdalene became a 'patron saint of embalmers' is not clear. Some think the Gospel of John suggests an embalming of Christ. Or that there were elements of embalm-ing way, suggesting the ancient Egyptian religion was being re-enacted?
We have seen throughout the poem that the Magdalene is associated with Isis. There is a correlation: Anubis, who was an ancient god guided the dead on their path to the underworld long before Osiris became an important deity. He was responsible for mummifying Osiris after his murder, and he became patron saint of embalmers. Is the Magdalene a kind of Anubis? If so, this is disturbing because it means the Magdalene oversaw the embalming of the body of Jesus, guiding the dead, in this case Jesus, on his path to the underworld!!
'Once they had called her Isis, queen of the healing springs, COME TO ME ALL YOU WHO SUFFER AND WHO ARE OVERWHELMED AND I WILL COMFORT YOU, otherwise: MADELEINE, with the famous vase full of healing balm. The initiates know the true name: NOTRE DAME DES CROSS' Is Isis associated with healing? Yes she is. But does the Magdalene carry healing balm? No she doesn't. She carries, depending on your point of view, healing plants or plants for embalming. For a burial. She hadn't supposedly come to heal Jesus.
There is a sanctuary however, in France, called Notre Dame du Cros.
Are we to think of this, in the French language, rather than the literal English translation?
Rennes-les-Bain has some healing waters …. And as we saw above, in the Beaucean work 'In the Country of the White Queen‘ these healing waters and springs are discussed as well as the Queen who came to take the waters there. The author mentions the work of Boudet, the cromlech and the fact that a white statue of Isis had been found on the left bank of the Sals. This appears to have been lifted from information given by Boudet in his 'La Vrai Langue Celtique' regarding a temple once built on the 'left bank of the River Sals, at Rennes-les-Bains'. The Abbe DELMAS also talked of a huge pagan temple 15 metres high just south of Rennes les Bains. Is this indeed the Temple with vaulted arches that Chérisey referred to in Circuit? (You can read more here about this 'Temple': http://www.rhedesium.com/the-delmas-manuscript-part-two.html).
*** The rest of this article will appear in the next issue, and will cover the verses Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius and Capricorn plus closing observations.