As to the nature of the ‘treasures’ at, and in the environs of, Rennes-le-Château, they are fivefold.
The Priory of Sion
Achurch is a temple, a holy place. The idea of a space set aside for sacred purposes spans history and cultures, as across the world and through all ages people have raised monuments to their gods. Whether in caves or cathedrals, congregations have gathered to learn rituals and chants and to hear laws and teachings passed down through priests – special individuals who serve as intermediaries between the human and divine realms. Regardless of their complexity of structure, all places of worship adhere to the same basic usage. Often the strongest building in a community, they would be the sanctuary, a safe place from attackers, the elements or evil spirits. The church or temple would often be placed on the highest point in a community, closer to the perceived divine abode. Even now, in spite of all that space exploration and astronomy has discovered, it is difficult for some to shake the childhood image of heaven as a place beyond the clouds.
Reaching up to the sky like a path to heaven, mountains too became sacred, and traditionally gods have often resided on the summit of a sacred peak. There is a well known example of this in the biblical Book of Exodus, when Moses climbs Mount Horeb to converse with Yahweh and receive the Ten Commandments.
Owing to its hilltop location the church at Rennes-le-Château fulfils the role of a holy place built on the peak of a mountain. It is a modest structure that from the outside looks ramshackle and slightly dilapidated. However, on entering the church we are greeted with a wonderland in miniature, a trove that draws visitors from far and wide to marvel at the wealth of symbolism on offer.
When Father Bérenger Saunière refurbished the church (see Chapter 5) he did so in an absurdly ostentatious manner for such a small parish. Not one inch of the entire structure is without decoration and it is not just the garishness that catches the eye. Saunière’s choice of décor raises many questions and for me is one of the most important aspects of the Rennes-le-Château mystery.
Perhaps the church is meant to overwhelm the senses, to drive out all distractions and flood the mind in imagery. It might be an attempt to be truly awe-inspiring, to ‘blow the mind’ into an empty space for prayer and contemplation of God.
When I began to investigate the mystery of Rennes-le-Château I was convinced there was no single underlying answer to all aspects of the enigma. The multitude of threads would not be woven into some great tapestry but must be separated out and researched in isolation. A risk for researchers at this stage is to attempt to fit all the pieces into a single theory by either ignoring anomalies or desperately hammering square pegs into round holes. So rather than imposing an absolute view, what follows are a list and explanation of some of the elements of the church that appear to be incongruous with Catholic symbolism. Let us begin with an overview and brief history of the church itself.
Many who come to study this little temple are amazed by the wealth of apparently unorthodox symbols that furnish the church. Many of the objects on display have more than one meaning, and more than one influence on their design. If we can split these strands into separate theories then we may stand a chance of seeing clearly the messages left to us by Saunière. First and foremost Saunière and his colleague in the neighbouring parish, Henri Boudet, were Roman Catholic priests and therefore it would be wise to consider the Christian use of the symbolism in the church before leaping to more outlandish conclusions.
Much of what we see can be recognized from other churches, and some may be surprised to learn that the pentagram and the ‘Star of David’ are not entirely uncommon in Christian churches. Sometimes a church will have features that may seem to a greater or lesser degree at odds with the Christian surroundings: examples are the ‘pagan’ symbols of Rosslyn chapel, the zodiac of Santiago de Compostela, and the labyrinth of Chartres. Even with this in mind the church at Rennes-le-Château stands out simply because there is so much incongruous décor that it is at risk of overwhelming the Christian message entirely.
The church of St Mary Magdalene (Sainte Marie-Madeleine) was consecrated in 1059 and the apse dates from the ninth century, but it was not the first church to stand on the hilltop. There are a few remaining stones from an earlier church of St Peter in the wall of an old garage nearby. Part of a crypt of this earlier church is still rumoured to exist, but the current owners of the plot on which it is said to sit deny this, and a concrete floor currently prevents any further investigation.
The church is basically Romanesque in design and the date 1646 is inscribed on the porch which might indicate a previous restoration. The altar until the time of Saunière was said to be Carolingian, dating from the eighth–ninth centuries.
Today the church is desperately in need of renovation. There are many cracks in the walls and plasterwork, damp has seeped into the painted stars on the ceiling and to the right of the main door a crack runs up the wall, caused by a previous neighbour attempting to dynamite his way into the crypt. Flagstones are broken and loose, and the head of one of the statues was replaced in recent years after some unknown vandal removed the original. With the church being the focus of so much speculation, so many stories of treasure and secrets, such physical damage is unfortunately inevitable.
In 1994 the Vatican received permission for a team of archaeologists under Dr Eisenmann to do a ground scan of the church. The group arrived with ground radar equipment and locked themselves in the church for a number of days and also spent time in the graveyard. They left refusing to discuss anything that they may have found.
The fact that the Church are still looking, long after Saunière’s death, means either that they have lost something or that they believe something to be hidden there. A Catholic priest once told me that I should be careful about what I say about the Catholic Church while in the area of Rennes-le-Château because they have people working there and consider the work important.
Nic Haywood stressed the church’s significance:
‘It is an initiate’s church, not for the profane; there are many anomalies. [For example,] the Latin inscription [“By this sign you will conquer”] and water stoup – there are messages hidden in there. It has a Masonic resonance.’
The contents of the church and the surrounding buildings are the only solid evidence we have of anything unusual having occurred at the time of Saunière. The politics, secret societies and mythology of this area are difficult to substantiate but the church is real, and open to viewing by all.
It was made clear to us by Sion that much of the church was neighbouring priest Henri Boudet’s design, but to avoid confusion I will refer to it as Saunière’s church as it was in his parish and domain.
As we approach the church the first item that catches our eye is the Latin inscription above the door: Terribilis est locus iste (‘Terrible is this place’). Although somewhat alarming at first sight – and the source of many wild theories – this is simply a quote from the Bible (Genesis 28.17). When Jacob lies down to sleep he witnesses a vision of angels ascending and descending a ladder.
‘How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’
In this context the words terribilis and ‘dreadful’ mean ‘awesome’, ‘terrifying’ or ‘inspiring dread’ rather than ‘terrible and ‘dreadful’ in their modern negative senses. Whether or not Saunière imputed another meaning to this phrase, it is used in the standard service for the dedication of any Catholic church, however modest in size, and is also quite a common Catholic inscription.
We shall return to the visionary aspect of this biblical quotation, but for now it is interesting to note that the passage about angels ascending and descending a ladder also has a Kabbalistic echo as the Tree of Life is sometimes described as ‘the ladder of lights’. This is revealed to Jacob once he has placed a stone beneath his head as a pillow. Afterward he sets this stone up as a pillar, anoints it with oil, and names the spot Bethel – House of God. The perfect stone is a possible Masonic connotation. The first Masonic tracing board has a ladder that represents Jacob’s Ladder and the way back to God.
The ladder also features heavily in the ritual of the 18th (Rose+Croix) Degree, where the candidate is instructed to ascend a ladder that is adorned with a rose. This is the Rose of Sharon, a symbol of love (Song of Solomon 2.1) and also, according to some Masonic researchers, of Jesus. There is ambiguity in this as the candidate might also be ascending the ladder in order to re-enact the crucifixion. I think that the main issue of contention with such interpretations for the Catholic Church is that the ladder symbolizes humankind’s ability to ascend to an experience of the divine directly.
On entering the church we are greeted by the gaze of a demon, the star of many photos on websites, books and articles about Rennes-le-Château.
The statue itself supports the water stoup and is part of a larger sculpture representing the elements. The demon is the earth, shouldering a small font in the shape of a scallop shell. This holds [holy] water for those entering the church to dip into and bless themselves with the sign of the cross. Above the shell are two salamanders, symbols of fire, forming part of a plinth that carries the French inscription Par ce signe tu le vaincras (‘By this sign you will conquer [him or it]’). Four angels stand above the inscription, each making part of the gesture of blessing oneself with the sign of the cross. The angels represent air.
The statue of the demon is most likely to represent Asmodeus, a character from the Book of Tobit in the Catholic Old Testament; the Talmud; and various apocryphal works. He is identified as such in the Priory of Sion publication Le Serpent Rouge, which is covered later.
Prof J R Porter’s The Lost Bible contains many scriptures that were excluded from the final Bible. One of these is the Testament of Solomon, a Christian work of the early centuries CE, which tells how Solomon ‘harnesses a succession of demons to help build the Temple’. Porter writes (p.76):
‘In the Bible, Solomon’s wisdom is said to consist primarily of knowledge about natural phenomena, plants and animals (1 Kings 4.29–34). Extrapolating from this passage, the rabbis credited Solomon with a vast store of astrological, magical, medical, and especially demonological lore, which enabled him to compel evil spirits to work on the Temple.’
The demon is a grotesque statue, with mouth open and eyes bulging and was probably based on Bernini’s The Damned Soul sculpture in Rome, which is fitting. His posture is crouched, with one hand pointing toward a section of floor and the other gripping what must have been a staff or pole, long since removed.
Note that the posture of Asmodeus is a mirror image of the statue of Jesus being baptized, on the other side of the church. In this context the scene is entirely reminiscent of the medieval Kabbalistic dualistic pairing of good and evil couples. It is a theme that links Kabbalah to the Gnostic dualist faith of the Cathars (see The Other God by Yuri Stoyanov).
Asmodeus is the Deus Invertus, the inversion or reflection of God, and this is why he can be seen mirroring the statue of Jesus in every way. This mirroring appears throughout Saunière’s domain and we will return to it as a theme later.
Also of note is that according to local researcher Gérard Thome, Asmodeus is said to follow the Ark of the Covenant wherever it travels. Briefly, the legend of Solomon and Asmodeus is as follows:
Solomon intended to build his Temple but was instructed by God that he must neither use tools nor make any sound. In order to find a silent cutting tool he sent for Asmodeus, the ‘king of the demons’ who, as a magical creature, could work without making a sound. Asmodeus lived high on a mountain, where he had dug a deep pit to use as a water cistern. Solomon’s servant drained the water and filled the cistern with wine. When Asmodeus became drunk, the servant captured him and led him back to Solomon.
On the journey back, Asmodeus jeered at a magician. When asked why, the demon said it was ‘because at that very moment the magician was sitting upon a vast treasure hidden in the soil underneath him, and yet he knew not, although he pretended he could foretell the future and unravel mysteries.’
Later Asmodeus was summoned again, this time using Solomon’s ring, the seal of which is described as five interlaced A’s (this forms a pentagram, not the hexagram of the traditional ‘Seal of Solomon’). He told Solomon that he was the offspring of a marriage between an angel and man: ‘I am of celestial origin. Is my star not bright in heaven, the star which some men call the dragon’s child? The archangel capable of frustrating my designs is Raphael.’ Asmodeus asked not to be made to work with or in water, so Solomon made him carry water in order to frustrate his designs on humankind.
It may seem strange that Solomon chose to summon a demon and not an angel to do his work but in Christian theology angels serve only God and no mortal has power over them. Solomon was able to compel demons to work for him, thereby showing his power to subdue evil.
It is also possible to understand this relationship in terms of psychology. There are methods for identifying, accepting and working with our own inner demons in order to bring them under our control and ultimately transform them and integrate them back into our self.
Perhaps Solomon subjugated his own, lower unconscious aspects, symbolized by the demon, with the water of his emotions. This frees his inner fire (symbolized by the salamanders) to rise up as creativity to higher states of consciousness (symbolized by the angels).
As the details of the story of Solomon and Asmodeus exist not in the Bible but Judaic folklore it would seem strange that a Catholic priest would employ it at all.
The truth is that the significance of Asmodeus is neither Jewish nor Christian in this context. Asmodeus as the builder of Solomon’s Temple is central to Freemasonry and their Templar predecessors. As all Masonic temples are fashioned on Solomon’s blueprint it makes Asmodeus especially important to the Freemasons. The presence of Asmodeus adds weight to idea that either Father Saunière or Boudet was influenced by quasi-Masonic groups.
One of the Jewish traditions surrounding Asmodeus is that he was a keeper of treasure and beside his statue a fresco of the Sermon on the Mount includes a prominent bag of gold spilling out from a depiction of the local landscape. Sadly, this alone has been responsible for attracting a fair number of treasure hunters to the region.
Shells were used as a motif of pilgrims who had visited the Holy Land, where shells were said to have been in abundance on the shores and could be used to drink and eat from (see Whone, Church, Monastery, Cathedral). The words ‘shell’ and ‘skull’ are thought to be related and both were also used as drinking vessels. Later, the scallop shell represented the pilgrimage to the shrine of St James at Compostela in northeastern Spain. Rennes-le-Château is close to a major pilgrim route to Santiago so the most likely reference is to St James. However, there is also a scallop shell in Saint-Sulpice, Paris, that serves as the baptismal font, so it is a common enough design.
The link between alchemy and salamanders is well known and often this interpretation is given. Salamanders are small lizard like creatures considered to represent fire because of their legendary natural ability to withstand it. Even in classical Christian symbolism they are seen as representing ‘enduring faith and the righteous man who cannot be consumed by the fires of temptation’ (Symbolism by J C Cooper).
The French inscription Par ce signe tu le vaincras above the water stoup is relevant in two ways. Firstly, there is a rare Rosicrucian alchemical manuscript called the Codex Rosae-Crucis (Book of the Rosy Cross) that includes a collection of alchemical engravings. The final plate, and culmination of the alchemical workings, includes a Kabbalistic Tree of Life, at the foot of which is a circle cut into the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, overwritten with the inscription ‘By this sign you will conquer’. This is the first of many references to the Rosicrucians in the church.
Second, the inscription has exactly 22 letters, a number that we find repeated throughout the Rennes-le-Château mystery. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life has 22 paths that correspond to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Tree is represented in the Bible by Jacob’s ladder. There may also be a clue here as to how to read the Stations of the Cross (see page 94).
Associated with the Kabbalah and alchemy are tools to reinterpret language. This may be by the numeric values attributed to letters (numerology) or through puns using the ‘green language’. Both methods are thought to have been employed by the Abbé Boudet in his book La Vrai Langue Celtique (see above, page 82).
The second, and more usual, interpretation of ‘By this sign you will conquer’ comes from the legend of Emperor Constantine I’s vision before the battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312CE. It is said that the night before the battle, the emperor saw an image of the cross and Christ appeared and spoke to him and said: ‘By this sign you will conquer’. Constantine adopted the cross for his monogram and had the shields of his army painted with it. He won the battle and this event is said to have helped persuade him to legalize Christianity in 313. Constantine himself is said to have converted fully only on his deathbed.
Saunière also had his initials, BS, carved between the salamanders, though some interpret the letters to indicate the place where two local rivers, the Blanc and the Sals, meet at a spot known as Le Bénitier (‘Holy Water Stoup’) just north of Rennes-les-Bains.
The four angels make the sign of the cross but the anomaly here is that the tallest angel is not touching his forehead but shielding his eyes, as if looking into the distance in the direction of Rennes-les-Bains. Strangely, there is a hole in the top of his head that seems to serve no known purpose. It would be impractical as a candleholder and unlikely for affixing some form of headwear or halo as he has the only hole. I suspect that at some point in recent history the hole was made to check if Saunière had hidden anything.
Moving on into the nave, the full impact of the church becomes apparent. Here we are surrounded by murals, carvings, paintings, statues and stained glass, all in the space of a small parish church. It would be interesting to think that the priest had intended to overwhelm the senses of the visitor, rendering them open to the grace of God, but unfortunately I suspect that he simply got carried away with tasteless interior decorating and did not know when to stop.
Originally the area of chessboard floor created by Saunière in the nave was like a true chessboard, a perfect square of only 64 black and white tiles, giving the game away as to the use of the church. However, in more recent times the entire floor has been tiled, masking the original chessboard square. The chessboard floor of light and dark squares is a requirement of all Masonic lodges, and can take the form of carpet if it is a temporary lodge. In Saunière’s church the chessboard is laid in tiles in the floor and is placed so as to be ‘contemplated’ by the statues of both Jesus and the demon Asmodeus. It is instantly recognizable and proof that the church is a Masonic/Rosicrucian temple in its décor. Bernard Giscard, a local architect and sculptor of the renovations, was a known Freemason but could not have created a working lodge without the agreement of the priest, Father Saunière.
The chessboard also appears in one of the decoding methods of the de Sède parchments that were published in the 1960s (see page 289). This involves a knight’s tour where a single knight follows moves around a chessboard by landing on every square only once. Letters can be added to the board in the order they are discovered in the text and as the knight follows the tour he spells out a secret message.
Symbolically, the black and white squares of a chessboard represent duality in all its forms. In his book on Chartres cathedral, the author Louis Charpentier makes a very subtle link between the chessboard, the Chartres labyrinth and alchemy by using the knight to ‘square the circle’.
Many churches contain interpretations of the Stations of the Cross. These are the fourteen key events that mark the Via Dolorosa or Way of Sorrows, the route taken by Christ from the site of his judgment to his crucifixion at Calvary (Golgotha). The reputed locations of the Stations were sites of pilgrimage in Jerusalem, and the Franciscans installed representations of them in European churches to allow congregations to follow the Via Dolorosa in spirit. A number of Catholic churches still hold Easter services where parishioners are taken from Station to Station in remembrance. In many churches you will find the Stations marked by simple Roman numerals but occasionally they are a little more elaborate, either paintings or, as at Rennes-le-Château, sculptured reliefs. There are in fact two versions of the Stations of the Cross but the following is the more popular and can be found at Rennes-le-Château:
1. Jesus is condemned to death by Pilate.
2. He is forced to carry his own cross.
3. He falls for the first time.
4. He meets his mother.
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross.
6. St Veronica wipes his face.
7. He falls for a second time.
8. He speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem.
9. He falls for the third time.
10. He is stripped of his cloak.
11. He is nailed to the cross.
12. He gives up the ghost.
13. He is taken down from the cross.
14. He is placed in the tomb.
The Stations here are quite large and ornate, with each one surmounted by a cross with a rose at the centre. As already mentioned, the rose-cross symbols are indicative of the Rosicrucians and of the higher Rosicrucian degrees of Freemasonry.
The actual framed carvings depicting Christ’s journey are of a standard design for the region and like much of the church they were created by Bernard Giscard. The originals were supplied unpainted and examples of these exist in the church of the nearby town of Couiza. From this we know that any modification made by Saunière or Boudet lies in the painting of these carvings. According to Sion, ‘much may be had from Boudet’s Stations of the Cross if one is adept in Phonetic Kabbalah.’
Phonetic Kabbalah, known in alchemy as the ‘green language’ (la langue verte), was explained by the alchemist Fulcanelli as a way of inscribing symbolic puns into buildings, and a language peculiar to individuals who wish to communicate their ideas without being understood by outsiders. These word games sometimes appear in Freemasonry as well but are mostly linked to the Rosicrucian and alchemical tradition. The term ‘Rosicrucian’ is itself part of this tradition since the name of the mythical founder of the tradition was one Christian ‘Rosenkreuz’, a symbolic surname simply meaning ‘rose cross’ in German.
Such images allow the viewer to re-interpret what they see by breaking the words up to form different words or to render a phrase that sounds alike yet contains a different or deeper meaning. Without knowing how to interpret the symbols, researchers can get lost in a maze of verbal simulacra.
True Phonetic Kabbalah is said to work in most languages but is best rendered in French, Arabic and Hebrew. My French does not stretch as far as Boudet’s Occitan word games, but I do have some thoughts on the Stations of the Cross. To begin with, the Stations of the Cross at Rennes-le-Château also illustrate a ritual of initiation. This initiation is the same one as the route that Le Serpent Rouge takes through the surrounding landscape, which is covered later. The lesser reflects the greater in true Hermetic fashion. It is alchemical in nature and in some ways resembles the Rose+Croix 18th Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. I will cover here the outstanding points of interest but bear in mind that these interpretations are a work in progress.
Pilate has red hair and is waited on by a black boy. This feature is also present in Chartres cathedral, where a black boy at the feet of the Queen of Sheba is thought to indicate that she was from Ethiopia and has been linked to the Ark of the Covenant (see Hancock, Sign and the Seal). There is also a gold gryphon, a mixture of eagle and lion. The eagle symbolizes vigilance and the lion courage, and during the Middle Ages the gryphon was considered a symbol of good and evil. That it is rendered in gold next to the black boy might indicate the nigredo, the ‘blackening’ stage of alchemy often shown as an ‘Ethiopian’ boy. There is also perhaps a reference to the local noble family of de Negri d’Ables, residents of the Château Blanchefort. Their name is also written ‘Nègre’, which is identical to the French for ‘negro’.
The black boy carries a “white plate” of water with which Pilate washes his hands. This is a likely allusion to Le Plateau Blanc between Rennes-le-Château and Blanchefort. Pilate is also wearing a veil.
A boy in the foreground picks up a stick as if taking up the baton. This appears in other renditions in the region so it is not unique to this church.
In the nearby town of Couiza lives the artist Alain Féral, a former student of Jean Cocteau. Féral once painstakingly produced a scale model of the church and also illustrated a beautiful plan of the layout, copies of which are on sale at the little bookshop in the town. Féral makes much of this particular Station. He points out that it is the only one with a black shape beneath the picture. This, he tells us, is also a reference to the de Negri d’Ables family. They are important to the mystery as they would have been the source of the documents that Saunière is said to have found. As mentioned earlier, they claimed that their land contained a goldmine but rumours abounded that they were mining not gold but an ancient hoard of treasure (see page 68). As I have indicated, the name ‘de Nègre’ can mean ‘of [the] Negro’ and is traditionally said to derive from the family’s intermarriage with non-Europeans. Possible interpretations of the root of this name will be covered in the bloodline chapter (see Chapter 15).
Also linked to this is the theory that a cousin of Marie de Negri d’Ables of Blanchefort, Jacques-Etienne Marconis de Nègre (1795–1865), who lived at Rennes-le-Château, created the Rite of Memphis, a precursor to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite that later merged with the Rose+Cross degrees.
As Jesus stumbles again, St Simon of Cyrene once more takes up the Cross in order to assist him. According to Sion,
‘References to St Simon, as portrayed in the Stations of the Cross, (see Station 7) are to Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825), a brother of the order.’
Henri de Saint-Simon was very influential on both socialism and sociology and formed a semi-mystical order of scientific priests, which he intended to replace the clergy in the industrial age. He is said to have attempted suicide, but Sion denies this, claiming his injuries were ‘an act of retribution’ by those who opposed his work.
Phonetic games can be played with this as with all Stations of the Cross. For example, there is a soldier holding up a large shield with around its edge an arrow design pointing anticlockwise and running halfway round it. This shield obscures one half of a tower in the distance. In French, this can be understood as haut bouclier et demie tour (‘raised shield and half a tower’). However, in Phonetic Kabbalah (see page 95) this can be understood as the phonetically identical au bout clier et demi-tour (‘at the bottom [of the] enclosure and a half-turn [ie anticlockwise, to the left]’).
St Simon seems to be looking out into the distance to one side of the station and St Veronica crouches holding the cloth. Not only are they rendered in an irregular fashion, but they are also overemphatic gestures and/or symbols. In Phonetic Kabbalah one could read Simon regarde (‘Simon looks’) as cime on regarde (‘[the] summit one looks at’) and Veronica au lin (‘Veronica with the cloth’) ver en nid kaolin (‘worm in [the] nest [of] kaolin’). ‘Worm’ here could be understood in the sense of serpent. If one goes to the bottom of the churchyard (the ‘enclosure’) and makes a half turn, the crest one sees is the ‘Eagle’s Nest’ (Nid d’Aigle) a local term for Pech Cardou, which is formed, in part, from kaolin clay.
A child accompanying Jesus is dressed in a tartan sash. Due to the overriding Masonic nature of the church’s décor, this is likely to be a reference to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The Masonic notion of ‘protecting the widow’s son’ comes to mind, and some interpret this as a reference to the child of Mary Magdalene and Jesus.
The Roman soldiers strip Jesus of his cloak and play dice to determine who should take the spoils. The dice are displayed with three and four on adjacent sides and a five on a separate die. In fact three and four are never on adjacent sides of a die, whose opposite sides always add up to seven. The same device appears in both Le Serpent Rouge and in a mural painted by Jean Cocteau in London, both of which are covered later. The numbers 3/4/5 are also Pythagorean. The ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras discovered that in a right angle triangle, the square of the hypotenuse (long side) equals the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides. Hence 3² + 4² = 5² (9+16=25).
The image for the final Station traditionally shows Jesus being taken to the tomb, but the Station in this church is unusual in that this scene takes place at night. Some authors, such as Michael Baigent in his excellent The Jesus Papers, claim that this is evidence that Jesus survived the Crucifixion. Baigent asserts that because the scene takes place at night Jesus is not being taken to the tomb (since Jewish law required burial before sunset, the start of the Sabbath) but is being smuggled away from it under cover of darkness. However, this theory ignores the previous two Stations, which clearly show the sky darkening and the sun setting, as described in the gospels, which state that it was supernaturally dark when Jesus died (Station 12): ‘There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed.’ (Luke 23.44; compare Matt. 27.45, Mark 15.33). The night aspect of Station 14 is a natural extension of these scenes.
It was also claimed that as it was against Jewish law to touch a dead body on the Sabbath (after sunset on a Friday, the day Jesus died) and during Passover, Jesus must have been alive when being carried. While this is true it ignores the fact that Saunière was a Catholic priest and had no reason to take Jewish laws into account when having the Station painted; indeed he may simply have been ignorant of them. The scene may still depict the living Jesus being smuggled out of the tomb, but the evidence is not conclusive.
As well as Asmodeus and the angels, the church has a collection of works depicted in wood and plaster. This is not unusual though why these particular saints were chosen is unclear: clues may be found in their acts and lives but it is possible that the statues were selected simply for their names alone: Germaine, Roch, Anthony, Anthony of Padua and Luke. St Germaine and St Roch are covered individually below. The statues are laid out in such a way that the five saints’ initials spell out the word Graal, the French for Grail, in the form of a letter M.
The statue of Mary Magdalene is positioned at the centre of this design, at the top of the M, so this reference could not have been accidental. The idea of Mary as the Holy Grail might have more to do with an archetype of the ‘divine feminine’ than with the bloodline, but even so, it would be no less important.
This local saint was a shepherdess born on a farm near Toulouse. Her grave at Pibrac has been a site of pilgrimage and host to a number of recorded miracles. Her feast is celebrated on January 17 – the date of the defaced de Negri d’Ables tombstone (see page 74)
A local saint, native of Montpellier in the Languedoc, St Roch was thought to have healed the sick through supernatural means. Accounts of his life claim that he was on a pilgrimage to Rome when struck by illness and had to return to France, where he was accused of being an impostor and died in prison.
St Roch was a favourite of Bernard Giscard, the supplier of these statues. He appears in many of the local churches, including Limoux (with its Black Madonna), Rennes-les-Bains and Couiza. St Roch is the patron saint of lost items, especially treasure, and Saunière may have installed the effigy for this reason. St Roch is also depicted lifting his robe to reveal his right knee, a known reference to Masonic ritual.
St Mary Magdalene’s statue here is accompanied by a book and skull. The book is open and has a pattern on the pages but no writing. Skulls feature in Masonic rituals and are used in conjunction with a book in the Chamber of Reflection but they may also indicate the presence of a corpse. Mary is covered at length in a later chapter.
Both St Joseph and the Virgin Mary are holding children, each having different coloured hair. This possibly indicates that Christ had a brother, perhaps even a twin – a notion accepted by some schools of esoteric thought. The other child could also represent a brother of Jesus, who is described in the Bible as having brothers and sisters including James, Mark, Judas and Simon. Roman Catholicism traditionally explains these siblings as being children from a supposed previous marriage of Joseph, allowing Mary’s virginity to remain intact.
The church has a large mural depicting the Sermon on the Mount, the classic depiction of Jesus preaching during his ministry. The main feature of this work is the detailed landscape surrounding his figure. To the left we can clearly see features local to Rennes-le-Château, such as the nearby town of Coustaussa where the priest, Father Gélis, was murdered (see page 75), and local flowers, notably the one known as Seal of Solomon (Polygonatum). There is a bag of gold in full view on the hillside, hinting at treasure as the simple answer to the mystery of Saunière’s wealth. But if it is treasure, where did it come from: ancient Israel, the Celts, Romans, Visigoths, Templars or Cathars?
There is also a tract of land covered in roses.
‘If one considers the image carefully, one can clearly see a pointed mount to the left of the composition. This steep mount is covered with roses. Likewise, if one looks down the valley, with Coustaussa to the right, one clearly observes this geological outcrop which, on paper, is a separate tract of the Fleury lands.’
Sion’s mention of the Fleury lands highlights that areas of land in the area can be traced to old families who in turn can be traced back to the Templars.
Also visible in this mural is an image of the top of the pillar in which parchments were said to have been found (see page 72). This has pomegranate leaves growing from it, symbolic of immortality and resurrection. A bush on the right of the painting contains a hidden spyhole that links through to a bedroom in the church presbytery. It is not known what purpose it served though it might simply have allowed Saunière to keep an eye on his replacement when he was suspended from duty.
This is the only item in the church that is strongly considered to be by Saunière’s own hand. It depicts Mary Magdalene kneeling in a cave beside a cross made from two branches. One of the branches has sprouted two live shoots and this is sometimes interpreted to signify the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The cave, with its hill formation in the background, bears a resemblance to a cave opposite Rennes-le-Château known as the Magdalene Grotto. There is a view from the road looking east as you approach Rennes-le-Château from Couiza that is a good fit for this image. On the left is the ruin of Coustaussa, and the peak opposite is Pech Cardou, beyond Blanchefort. This matches both the Sermon on the Mount depiction of Coustaussa and the statue of the standing angel looking east. A photograph of both the altar and the comparative view are included in the plates section.
The figure of Mary is seated with her hands in her lap, the fingers interlaced. In the Rose+Croix degree there is an instruction about the ‘Sign of Adoration’ that begins with the interlacing of the fingers.
This image serves a second function. It explains the Magdalene Grotto as a Masonic room of contemplation. The presence of the skull and the cross could be evidence that this cave was used as such. But in simple terms the local landscape, the grave and the skull may also allude to traditions that either Jesus or Mary may be buried in the vicinity.
The stained glass windows are pretty but of little interest. There are examples of the mission of the apostles Martha and Mary, and Mary Magdalene wiping the feet of Jesus with her hair. However, there is an effect that seems to occur every year – on January 17. It is said that at noon on this day, light through the windows casts blue spheres on the wall. Witnesses gather every year to view this phenomenon and photographs exist to back this up. From one of the parchments released by de Sède in the 1970s we are told that these are ‘blue apples’. The phenomenon seems to exist in other churches, including Saint-Sulpice in Paris, though the blue glass has recently been removed from this church so it cannot easily be verified. The windows in the church at Couiza also cast strange forms but I have yet to witness anything more revelatory than a Rorschach test.
To the right of the altar is the sacristy, a small office with cupboard set into the eastern wall. The cupboard has a false back – amusingly reminiscent of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C S Lewis – that leads to a hidden secret room, the semicircular shape of which can be determined from the outside of the building.
In Freemasonry, the Rose+Croix degree is prefaced by spending time alone in a ‘chamber of reflection’ or room of contemplation. These are small rooms adjacent to Masonic lodges where the candidate prepares for ritual by contemplating objects such as the skull and the cross. Secret chambers are not exclusive to Freemasonry but in the context of the church and Saunière’s work this was likely to be one of its uses. The chamber has its roots in Judaism, where a small room or part of a room is put aside for prayer, and this fits in with the Masonic ‘Temple of Solomon’ design for the church. As this room can be used to attain gnosis, direct communion with the divine, it ironically has no place within a Catholic church and possibly reveals Saunière’s heretical leanings.
The chamber of reflection often includes a number of alchemical symbols such as triangles representing the elements, plus sulphur, salt and the acronym VITRIOL – Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem. This is usually translated as ‘Visit the interior of the earth, purifying to discover the hidden stone’. It is advice for the person meditating, though I think rectificando meaning ‘purifying’ or ‘rectifying’ works better if translated as ‘making straight’ in terms of psychological distortions. VITRIOL also appears on a number of Sion’s publications.
These alchemical elements are covered later in the section on alchemy but for now they indicate the broader origins of this room beyond Freemasonry.
A second feature of the hidden room is that at one point it contained steps leading down to the crypt beneath the altar.
There are two closed chambers beneath the church. At the planning stage of the Bloodline documentary, producers Bruce Burgess and René Barnett had reached an agreement with the mayor and the council of Rennes-le-Château to fund some of the much needed rewiring of the church. This would have required excavating the floor in certain places, giving access to the crypts. Unfortunately the government department that oversees all work on national monuments in France vetoed the work. However, there are records of others having had access to the crypts, notably Claire Captier, who remembers accessing the stairs and the vault beneath the church as a child. Researcher Nicole Dawe also tells us that another local priest Abbé Mazières (1909–1988) also claimed to have been inside the tomb, which apparently lay beneath the famous ‘Knight’s Stone’, near the altar.
According to the Priory of Sion two vaults beneath the church contain two important items placed there by Saunière. He had originally found these at the back of the church, and in one of the vaults there is imagery – a carving on a wall or on the floor – indicating something important in the local landscape. Over time Sion made a number of further comments about the objects in the crypt that can be summarized as follows.
‘The objects may go unnoticed and be stepped over. The two objects belong with the ‘body of evidence’ but are not body parts and should be reunited with a third item in the museum in Carcassonne. They would also have been used during the Cathar Consolamentum ritual.’
‘Two out of three items deposited around Rennes-le-Château before the siege of Montségur during the Albigensian Crusade, were concealed in two locations. Saunière put those two items for safe keeping beneath the church. The décor, at Boudet’s behest, was to leave signposts for others to follow. Part of the tradition is that you leave a sign.’
It was also said that there were bodies at Gisors that were moved to Verdun and then to the Rennes-le-Château tombs. The treasure of Gisors went to the Vatican and included two fonts dating from 1350. The impression given was that these were Templar treasures, but to this day the crypts remain sealed.
From the church interior we move outside to the grounds and gardens of Saunière’s personal property. After the visual bombardment of the church it is somewhat relaxing to amble through the rest of Saunière’s domain. The approach to the church is flanked by two small gardens.
To the right is a small triangular garden with a Calvary and a grotto, that was rebuilt after visitors raided the original for souvenir stones. The orthodox view of the grotto is that it represents the cave where Mary Magdalene spent the final years of her life when, according to local tradition, she came to France. There is also a depiction of the Crucifixion in the centre of this garden with the inscription: A.O.M.P.S. As mentioned previously, this was claimed by Pierre Plantard to mean Antiquus Ordo Mysticusque Prioratus Sionis (Ancient and Mystical Order of the Priory of Sion) but a similar inscription exists on an obelisk in Rome that translates as ‘May Christ protect his people from all evil’. I tend not to believe Plantard, who I think was struggling to attach Sion’s name to the Rennes-le-Château mystery because it served other purposes. However, it is a claim the order upholds to this day.
In the corner opposite the grotto, beside the entrance to the graveyard, is Saunière’s small office. Carved into the wood is a reversed N as seen in the paintings of Emile Signol in Saint-Sulpice and said to be a sign of an adept (see page 170) but this might be a recent addition. Excavations beneath this office have led to a tunnel system and witnesses who have gained limited access to this area can support this.
To the left of the path is another, smaller garden containing a short pillar supporting a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Virgin Mary. The pillar is said to be Visigothic in design and is a copy of the one that supported the altar in the church when Saunière began his restorations (see page 71). (The original exists but does not look old enough to date from the Visigothic period so it may also be a copy.) The pillar has a cross carved into it with the Greek letters alpha and omega but it has been inverted so the cross and symbols appear upside down. Into the base is carved the word ‘Mission’.
Beside the garden is a gateway to a small courtyard and the presbytery, which currently houses a small museum of Saunière’s possessions. There is said to have been a tunnel from the presbytery to the nearby Château Hautpoul, but from the dilapidated condition of the château it would be difficult to know if this was still intact.
Installed in the presbytery was a private altar used by Saunière following his expulsion from the church. Here we find another statue of the kind made by Giscard. The statue, which was never on public display, is of Joan of Arc in full armour and bearing a standard.
You enter the graveyard through an arch surmounted by a skull and crossbones. A simple emblem of death, this was also a symbol of the Templars and is better known for its adoption as a pirate flag. Gérard Thome insists that these indicate that the church contains a way into an underground system of tunnels. There are other tunnels in the area, including one that commenced at a now bricked-up archway in the small town of Serres to the east, which is said to have collapsed when a nearby road was built. The skull and crossbones may have their roots in a Templar symbol that appeared in the Middle Ages.
Within the graveyard itself exists evidence of one of Saunière’s most baffling and disturbing actions. In the ossuary lies a broken gravestone, one of two that Saunière removed from the grave of Marie de Negri d’Ables, countess of Blanchefort, and chiselled completely blank to remove the inscription. According to a version in circulation of the original inscription, the letters ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ can be discerned among the text, the same inscription that appears on the painting of that name by Nicolas Poussin (also called The Shepherds of Arcadia).
I have received an old map of the graveyard via Nic Haywood detailing who is buried where, but I choose not to make this public at this time as it is likely to attract further vandalism and treasure hunters to the location.
Saunière’s guesthouse, the Villa Béthania or Bethany, continues the Mary Magdalene theme. According to one tradition Bethany, near Jerusalem, was her birthplace, and she is identified with ‘Mary of Bethany’ in John 11. The guesthouse has two stained glass windows above the front door depicting two slightly different sacred hearts.
The garden to the rear of the villa was lovingly restored by Saunière and originally housed a menagerie. It would seem that this was a reference to Noah’s Ark and the Royal Ark Mariner degrees of Freemasonry.
The garden is enclosed and has a fountain to the rear of it. In Christian symbolism this is usually said to represent the Virgin Mary, the legend being that only a virgin could tame a unicorn. But in medieval tapestries Mary Magdalene was also depicted in a closed garden with a unicorn. The biblical Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, attributed to King Solomon, has the verse: ‘A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed.’ (Song of Solomon 4.12).
This little stone tower built by Saunière appears at first to be a folly. Said to have housed his library, the inside is a tiny space, ornately decorated but cramped. The tower is steeped in duality: it is repeated and reflected a number of times in both name and architecture. The angle of one of the windows was said to have been changed on Saunière’s instruction. According to Nic Haywood, ‘changing the angle of the window meant altering the vision; a shift’. Again, as with the figures of Asmodeus and Jesus (see page 90), we find mirroring. Magdala (Migdal), was the town on the shores of Lake Galilee from which Mary Magdalene is named (Luke 8.2). Migdal means ‘tower’ so the building is actually called ‘tower tower’. It is also said that the gardens are designed to mirror the layout of the church. The meaning of reflection in this context will be further explored later.
According to information quoted by author Patrice Chaplin in her book City of Secrets, the tower is linked to visits that Saunière made to Gerona, where an almost identical tower, also called Torre Magdala, existed until the late 1950s. The version in Gerona is a possible source for both the name and the design of the tower.
This is a further example of reflection. Curving round the edge of the hilltop like a battlement is a balustrade with the Tour Magdala at one end and at the other another tower designed as a mirror image of it. There is one difference: the second tower is an iron-framed greenhouse that originally housed an orangery. In every other respect, however, it perfectly reflects its stone counterpart. The point exactly midway between the two towers is the fountain in the garden. This is important, as there is a broader alchemical tradition of water reflecting the inverse that pervades other aspects of this mystery.
By tracing Christian symbolism we find that the tower is also symbolic of the Virgin Mary. This pairing of the two Marys is a consistent theme, however you interpret it. It is very reminiscent of Jean Cocteau’s work in the French Church in London, where he painted an image of Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary facing away from each other but linked by their hair. Together the two figures form a letter M, containing both Marys.
The structures and buildings of note at Rennes-le-Château bear more than a passing similarity to what remains of Old Jericho (Ar, City of the Moon), in that, at Old Jericho, there stands a prominent tower, the remains of an ancient church and a house or large villa built to house visitors of importance.
Jericho, it will be recalled, was the site at which the Ark of the Covenant was employed by the Israelites, during the biblical battle.
We cannot leave the sites of Rennes-le-Château without admiring the wonderful views that surround the town: the Pyrenees to the south, Pech Bugarach to the southeast and Blanchefort, in the shadow of Pech Cardou, to the east. Looking south from the Tour Magdala, we see the Grotto of Mary Magdalene cut square into the opposite cliff, which rises above the Ruisseau des Couleurs, the ‘River of Colours’. Below is a slope leading down to a plateau on which Saunière intended to build another tower. According to Sion, the plans for this exist and show the immense height he wanted the tower to be. This would have afforded views far and wide across the landscape and we can only wonder today what other purpose this tower was intended to serve.
Saunière himself apparently claimed that people would one day come to visit his parish as if it were a second Lourdes. The idea of Rennes-le-Château as a pilgrimage site is covered in more depth later. Suffice it to say that to become one it would need to have a holy relic or some other form of unique religious attraction.
For now let us leave Father Saunière’s domain and explore the surrounding landscape.