More notes on Le Serpent Rouge ...
The poem, in itself, can be studied for years and still not be understood because it presents so many layers of understanding. Perhaps this reflects the intellect of the author? Surely this author is not a 'prankster' having a laugh at us? It seems like one must wear different hats to read the poem in different ways and approaches.
Today i have my 'MAP' hat on .....
Read these lines:
Rassembler les pierres éparses, oeuvrer de l'équerre et du compas pour les remettre en order régulier, chercher la ligne du méridien en allant de l'Orient à l'Occident, puis regardant du Midi au Nord, enfin en tous sens pour obtenir la solution cherchée, faisant station devant les quatorze pierres marquées d'une croix. Le cercle étant l'anneau et couronne, et lui le diadème de cette REINE du Castel
We ask ourselves - what are the scattered stones? Stones on the floor? Stones of a ruin? The mechanism to discover the 'cipher' in the Sauniere parchments [i.e. the chessboard and knights moves]? After all the poet said as much on the cover page of the poem - 'Discover, one by one, the 64 stones ...' [i.e. the 8x8 chessboard and its moves to obtain the 'bergere, pas de tentation' cipher].
But why would we need to use a square and compass to do this? That is to put them [the scattered stones] back together again? Perhaps, as in the theory of Karren - to use the square and compass to obtain the hidden 681 cipher in the small parchment?
However, the following lines of the poem - "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" - surely suggests we are now in a landscape and not looking at pieces of paper?
So what are the 'clues' for the landscape? They are the 'stopping in front of the 14 stones marked with a cross'. We know there are many 'stones' in the Rennes-les-Bains area 'marked with a cross'. Henri Boudet mentions them. He even has them on the map which accompanies his La Vrai Langue Celtique opus! While we were all pre-occupied with the number 14 and assuming that it [stopping in front of the 14 stones of the Cross] must mean the 14 stations of the Cross in a church, specifically Saint Sulpice - [which it well could be, on another level], we may very well have missed that really in the present context of looking east to west and for a Meridian - it was a map and a landscape we should have been looking in. Probably Boudet's landscape.
Stones again are mentioned in the next verse but these are associated with an alignment - an alignment in the landscape where the viewer is 'incapable' of seeing the summit where the secret tomb lies. Our poet continues in the Libra verse: At the window of the ruined house I gazed across the trees stripped by autumn to the summit of the mountain. The cross of crete stood out under the midday sun, it was the fourteenth and the biggest of all with its 35 centimetres.
In Gerard de Sede's L'Or de Rennes there is a reference to this cross of 35cm! It is in relation to a 'circuit' of the 'Way of the Cross'. The fourteenth Cross of this 'circuit' refers to a dolmen on the way to Sougraine - where here we will find a carved cross on its 'crest' which measures 35cm!
So here we see the Way of the Cross and its fourteen stones is indeed a walk around the landscape of Rennes-les-Bains looking at 14 crosses.
Above - The fourteenth Cross - on the way to Sougraine - there is a carved cross on its 'crest' which measures 35cm!
Is it an ancient cross - left by observers of the past? Where is the ruined house and its window associated with this dolmen? If any of this is on the semblance of the right track - then i now believe the 'cercle étant l'anneau et couronne, et lui le diadème de cette REINE du Castel' refers to the Cercle of the Cromlech [and that perhaps the smaller circle inside the larger cromleck that Boudet refers to is the diadem [or the smaller crown metaphorically on top sitting atop the larger enclosure] of this Queen - i.e Rennes?
Is this all a recent confection - by those associated with the Serpent Rouge poem in its form presented to us in the 1960's? Why not? We know, after all, that Pierre Plantard carved designs on stones in the area - see picture below!
How do we know Plantard and Cherisey were not busily marking crosses in areas to match the poem verses?
Above - Plantard marking an area with some chalk?
But wait - we know that on page 244 of La Vrai Langue Celtique Boudet says that by a square rock (the De? Dice?) is the entrance to a cave and dolmen... It states on page 245 that directly above the dolmen, a rock crest bears a Greek cross carved in stone; it is the largest of all those that we have been given. So it seems confirmed - the fourteen stations of the cross of scattered stones is actually those given to us by Henri Boudet and that the most important cross is the one on this dolmen near Serbeirou/ road to Sougraine.
Boudet is, then, our observer of the past in the poem?
Above - Boudet's book and page 245!
There is more .... on the physical ground are places known as the Holy Water Stoup [where the River Blanque and Sals merge], the fountain of the Cercle, the Devils Armchair - all of which are referenced in the Serpent Rouge poem; could all be markers on the ground ....!
There is also the Antoine Rocher map which shows a Croix of 35cm ....in the landscape - so should this be applied to the East West line when scanning the landscape?
But this cross of 35cm is nearer to the church of RLC ....and not Rennes-les-Bains!
More to follow.....