CHAPTER 10

LE SERPENT ROUGE


Le Serpent Rouge encapsulates all aspects of the mystery.

The Priory of Sion


In the late 20th century the Priory of Sion circulated a small publication entitled Le Serpent Rouge (The Red Serpent). At its core is a mystical poem in thirteen stanzas in which all the threads of the Rennes-le-Château mystery are drawn together, including a route through the landscape; symbolism; alchemy; bloodlines; art; literature; and the Paris Meridian. It touches upon every level of the mystery while encrypting its secrets in strange, symbolic language.

It was Le Serpent Rouge that first really attracted me to the mystery of Rennes-le-Château and the Priory of Sion. The document is drenched in esoteric symbolism yet contains directions and references to real locations in the valleys surrounding Rennes-le-Château. The ‘red serpent’ of the title is both the alchemical salamander (a creature once believed to be impervious to flames, and hence a symbol of fire) and the River Sals, which turns red from the iron-rich soil as it runs through Rennes-les-Bains. Sion confirmed that ‘Le Serpent Rouge does indeed draw attention to the environs of Rennes-le-Château’. The entire symbolic journey is mapped onto a real symbolic landscape to create a journey of initiation.

On first encountering this work I suspected that its authors were trying to communicate something of great importance. In my twenty years of research that suspicion has never wavered. It is clear that Le Serpent Rouge works on a number of levels. On the surface there are references to the physical aspects of the Rennes-le-Château church and the surrounding landscape. Beneath this are direct references to alchemical processes, which lends the entire document the feeling of a dream. It calls to mind the alchemical journeys described in The Most Holy Trinosophia (a work attributed to the legendary Comte de St Germain) or the process of the 16th-century Splendor Solis. According to Sion, Le Serpent Rouge ‘intermixed the whole crucible of information, the secret itself, in alchemical allusion.’

Like all alchemical texts we are taken on a journey of initiation that acts on both the physical and spiritual levels of being. The initiation that it describes can be undertaken as a pilgrimage, a spiritual journey or a ritual much like the 18th (Rose+Croix) Degree of Freemasonry. It can also be studied remotely and used for visualization of the kind that appears in guided meditations.

KNOWN HISTORY


Although the current edition of Le Serpent Rouge first went into public circulation in the late 1960s, its true origin and age are unclear, as Sion gives the impression that it has been changed and updated to reflect changes in the landscape over time. According to Sion the original, which ‘was never intended for the public eye’, existed in French, Arabic, Catalan, German and also Provençal, a dialect of Occitan, the language of southern France which is still widely spoken in the Languedoc and elsewhere. But none of these versions have been made available, and given that the bulk of the poem is devoted to the renovated church of St Mary Magdalene at Rennes-le-Château, I think it is safe to say that Le Serpent Rouge as we know it originated in the 20th century. The current version may have several predecessors, each of which was subsequently expanded or elaborated. Sion claims that the text has a long and distinguished history; allegedly used by Renaissance artists, philosophers and metaphysicists, it has a core-message that may well stretch back as far as the early medieval or Gothic period.

It is a beautiful poem in its own right, and its authorship is still in question. Pierre Plantard was capable of writing it, as was Jean Cocteau. Certainly, parallels can be seen in Cocteau’s own exploration of the journey into the underworld in his film Orphée.

The work originally consisted of a single piece of prose, the thirteen stanzas representing an expanded zodiac. Some parts of the poem are said to have been compiled from other texts, including the diaries of Nicolas Flamel and parchments that originated with the St Hillier family. Flamel is a recurring figure in many of the alchemical references made by Sion. As we have seen, he is said to have achieved the Great Work at noon on a January 17 and is considered one of history’s leading alchemists. But his published writings reveal little of his actual knowledge. The ‘genuine’ diaries that have influenced Le Serpent Rouge are not publicly available. Sion would also have us believe that Flamel received much of his alchemical knowledge from a book that he was given while undertaking a pilgrimage that included the Rennes-le-Château diversion (see Chapter 9). This might simply be a further allusion to Flamel’s importance, but we will return to this idea later.

According to the cover of the current (1960s) edition, the authorship of Le Serpent Rouge was originally attributed to three men who were said to have been found hanged following its publication. The story is spurious but exists to indicate that something important and esoteric is being revealed, and is akin to the Masonic threat of hanging for the revelation of secrets. The myth of the murders also serves to generate interest in the document while hiding the identity of the true authors.

Louis Vazart, an archivist and antiquarian member of Sion’s second level, was known to have circulated copies to prospective members of Sion toward the end of the 20th century. Vazart had revised an earlier version of the text which he distributed unsolicited to those who Sion thought might be interested or of use to them. These copies were given a fictitious publisher and had a red binding.

The booklet was also used as a form of signpost by the Priory of Sion. It is worth noting that they tendered to potential recruits an invitation not to join the Priory of Sion directly but to join ‘the mystery of Rennes-le-Château’.

It is no surprise that the Priory of Sion used Le Serpent Rouge as a circular in order to attract people who would be interested in its work. It is the most perfect invitation to join an esoteric society since the Rosicrucians published the Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis in the early 17th century (see page 32). The Priory was moving to make public some of its knowledge and had begun to disseminate something of the organization to the outside world.

THE ORIGINAL TEXT


The first public appearance of the publication was a copy deposited in the Paris National Library in the late 1960s. The cover was titled Le Serpent Rouge and subtitled Notes on St.-Germain-des-Prés and Saint-Sulpice of Paris. Also on the cover is the publication date of January 17, 1967 – January 17 being the date found as a signpost throughout this affair – and a price of three francs, along with the spurious author names plus a reference to Pontoise as the publisher’s location. Pontoise is the birthplace of Nicolas Flamel, and another subtle reference for alchemists to recognize. These details convey the overall effect of making it appear a normal publication while subtly highlighting the content for the intended audience.

The cover bears a hand-drawn shield device depicting a horse with the inscription ‘LENE BUXEUM-EOUS SCAPH FE’. This phrase may seem impervious to translation, though in Latin lene (short for plene) translates as ‘completely’ and scaph (short for scaphium) as ‘bowl’, so it may be an allusion to the biblical phrase ‘my cup runneth over’ (Psalms 23.5).

There is also a circular device of three concentric rings. It is a kind of logo, with the outer rings made up of dots with P at the top and S at the foot, the initials of the Priory of Sion. The second ring is wider with an equal-armed cross at the top and the inscription Rosa Crux 1099–1188. The inner ring has a letter S curled through what appears to be a thigh bone beneath a curved letter M. According to Sion:

‘Like the cult of Osiris, the Sufic Freemasonry of the final era of the Crusades also adopted the thigh bone, later to be employed by the early privateers and later Moorish Dancers, etc. Traditionally, the crossed thigh bones are the primary symbol of the “Slain Osiris”.’

A similar device can be found in the church at Rennes-le-Château, high on an arch. The stylized M is a variation on the monogram of the Virgin Mary and is likely to denote Mary Magdalene, to whom the church is dedicated.

Possibly a later addition or specific to my photocopy is what appears to be a library reference: ‘DL 20 March 1967. 04927.’

When Vazart later circulated the booklet with a bound cover, the back cover explained the apparent deaths of the authors and the inside back cover contained a news report of the decapitation of a courier, Fakhar ul-Islam on a train from Paris to Geneva. The decapitation and hangings may have been intended to warn the reader that they were handling material that was bound by Masonic oath. Fakhar ul-Islam’s death was a real event and he was said by Sion to be in possession of a state secret and possibly also alchemical documents and genealogies that were stolen.

On the second page is the figure of a seated woman with three dice at her feet. She is wearing a scallop shell, the pilgrim’s badge for the route to Santiago de Compostela. The dice are another subtle signpost for alchemists and esotericists, as the numbers displayed on adjacent sides are incorrect.

The cover of Le Serpent Rouge

This also occurs in the dice used by the soldiers in the crucifixion scene painted by Jean Cocteau in the French Church off London’s Leicester Square (see page 256). Henry Lincoln brought this mural to the world’s attention when he discovered that it was constructed around a pentagram in the same manner as Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego (Shepherds of Arcadia) and the landscape around Rennes-le-Château. In the Cocteau mural the dice are numbered wrongly, as they are in the crucifixion scene in the Stations of the Cross at Rennes-le-Château. In both cases the two dice show the numbers three, four and five on adjacent sides. On real dice the numbers on opposite sides always add up to seven, so three and four cannot be adjacent and this can also be seen in the Jean Cocteau mural in London mentioned earlier. Sion had informed me that the three dice in Le Serpent Rouge represent the alchemical mercury and are taken from a 15th-century alchemical manuscript called The Book of the Holy Trinity (which I will cover later).

Also on this page is a quotation from L’Alchimie Moderne by Abbé Théophile Moreux (1867–1954):

‘After a long sleep, the same assumptions resurface, undoubtedly returned to us with new clothing and a richer person, but the foundations are the same and the new mask which they wear could not mislead a man of science.’

Note that the term ‘man of science’ can be used to describe alchemists. The notion of awakening from a long sleep returns a number of times throughout Le Serpent Rouge in the form of references to Sleeping Beauty (La Belle au bois dormant), the famous tale published in 1697 by Charles Perrault (see page 50) and may also be a reference to ‘race memory’.

The general contents that were added to the core of Le Serpent Rouge include a smattering of histories and plans about St.-Germain-des-Prés and its Parisian district in 1615. There is a plan of the layout of Saint-Sulpice with the Paris Meridian, dated 1966 and a few cuttings on Saint-Sulpice in Paris with attention drawn to the artist N Signol, whose paintings grace the church walls. ‘Signol’ is written around a reversed N, which the artist uses to sign his work and is said to be a sign of adepts.

Other material present includes a Merovingian genealogical chart, maps of France at the time of the Visigoths and Merovingians, and an image of Childebert, the Merovingian king. These have links to the idea of a bloodline surviving to the present day and will be covered in a later chapter.

The copy forwarded to me had also been stamped with a number of devices. These include stamps from Grand Lodge Alpina, Memphis-Misraim and a Priory of Sion ‘Crux Rosa’ design. It also has a sample of Arabic handwriting on the back that includes the date 1956 in Arabic numerals.

The core of the booklet is undoubtedly the 13 stanzas following an expanded zodiac that includes Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. Ophiuchus occupies a gap between Scorpio and Sagittarius and it is interesting to note that it was only officially accepted into the astronomical zodiac as recently as 1995. The sun is in Ophiuchus from November 30 to December 16.

What follows is the original French text of the 13 astrological stanzas that describe the journey, taken from a copy released to me by the Priory of Sion.

Note: the rows of ‘x’s appear in the original text and are used to overprint typographical errors. The numbered headings given here are represented in the actual text by small icons of the astrological signs that contain numbers.

1. Aquarius


Comme ils sont étranges les manuscrits de cet Ami, grand voyageur de l’inconnu, ils me sont parvenus séparément, pourtant ils forment un tout pour lui qui sait que les couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel donnent l’unité blanche, ou pour l’Artiste qui sous son pinceau fait, des six teintes de sa palette magique, jaillir le noir.

2. Pisces


Cet Ami, comment vous le présenter? Son nom demeura un mystère, mais son nombre est celui d’un sceau célèbre. Comment vous le décrire? Peut-être comme le nautonnier de l’arche impérissable, impassible comme une colonne sur son roc blanc, scrutant vers le midi, au-delà du roc noir.

3. Aries


Dans mon pèlerinage éprouvant, je tentais de me frayer à l’épée une voie à travers la végétation inextricable des bois, je voulais parvenir à la demeure de la BELLE endormie en qui certains poètes voient la REINE d’un royaume disparu. Au désespoir de retrouver le chemin, les parchemins de cet Ami furent pour moi le fil d’Ariane.

4. Taurus


Grâce à lui, désormais à pas mesurés et d’un oeil sûr, je puis decouvrir les soixante-quatre pierres dispersées du cube parfait que les Frères de la BELLE du bois noir, échappant à la poursuite des usurpateurs, avaient semées en route quant ils s’enfuirent du Fort blanc.

5. Gemini


Rassembler les pierres éparses, oeuvrer de l’équerre et du compas pour les remettre en ordre 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.

6. Cancer


Les dalles du pavé mosaïque du lieu sacré pouvaient être alternativement blanches ou noires, et JESUS, comme ASMODEE, observer leurs alignements; ma vue semblait incapable de voir le sommet où demeurait cachée la merveilleuse endormie. N’étant pas HERCULE à la puissance magique, comment déchiffrer les mystérieux symboles gravés par les observateurs du passé? Dans le sanctuaire pourtant le bénitier, fontaine d’amour des croyants, redonne mémoire de ces mots: PAR CE SIGNE TU le VAINCRAS.

7. Leo


De celle que je désirais libérer, montaient vers moi les effluves du parfum qui imprégnèrent le sépulchre. Jadis les uns l’avaient nommée: ISIS, reine des sources bienfaisantes, VENEZ A MOI VOUS TOUS QUI SOUFFREZ ET QUI ETES ACCABLES ET JE VOUS SOULAGERAI, d’autres: MADELAINE, au célèbre vase plein d’un baume guérisseur. Les initiés savent son nom véritable: NOTRE DAME DES CROSS.

8. Virgo


J’étais comme les bergers du célèbre peintre POUSSIN, perplexe devant l’énigme: “ET IN ARCADIA EGO...”! La voix du sang allait-elle me rendre l’image d’un passé ancestral. Oui, l’éclair du génie traversa ma pensée. Je revoyais, je comprenais! Je savais maintenant ce secret fabuleux. Et merveille, lors des sauts des quatre cavaliers, les sabots d’un cheval avaient laissé quatre empreintes sur la pierre, voilà le signe que DELACROIX avait donné dans l’un des trois tableaux de la chapelle des Anges. Voilà la septième sentence qu’une main avait tracée: RETIRE MOI DE LA BOUE, QUE JE N’Y RESTE PAS ENFONCE. Deux fois IS, embaumeuse et embaumée, vase miracle de l’éternelle Dame Blanche des Légendes.

9. Libra


Commencé dans les ténèbres, mon voyage ne pouvait s’achever qu’en Lumière. A la fenêtre de la maison ruinée, je contemplais à travers les arbres dépouillés par l’automne le sommet de la montagne. La croix de crète se détachait sous le soleil du midi, elle était la quatorzième et la plus grande de toutes avec ses 35 centimètres! Me voici donc à mon tour cavalier sur le coursier divin chevauchant l’abîme.

10. Scorpio


Vision céleste pour celui qui me souvient des quatres oeuvres de Em. SIGNOL autour de la ligne du Méridien, au choeur même du sanctuaire d’où rayonne cette source d’amour des uns pour les autres, je pivote sur moi-même passant du regard la rose du P à celle de l’S, puis de l’S au P ... et la spirale dans mon esprit devenant comme un poulpe monstrueux expulsant son encre, les ténèbres absorbent la lumière, j’ai le vertige et je porte ma main à ma bouche, mordant instinctivement ma paume, peut-être comme OLIER dans son cerceuil. Malédiction, je comprends la vérité, IL EST PASSE, mais lui aussi en faisant LE BIEN, ainsi que xxxxxxxx CELUI de la tombe fleurie. Mais combien ont saccagé la MAISON, ne laissant que des cadavres embaumés et nombres de métaux qu’ils n’avaient pu emporter. Quel étrange mystère recèle le nouveau temple de SALOMON édifié par les enfants de Saint-VINCENT.

11. Ophiuchus/Serpent


Maudissant les profanateurs dans leurs cendres et ceux qui vivent sur leurs traces, sortant de l’abîme où j’étais plongé en accomplissant le geste d’horreur: “Voici la preuve que du sceau de SALOMON je connais le secret, que xxxxxxxxxxx de cette REINE j’ai visité les demeures cachées.” A ceci, Ami Lecteur, garde toi d’ajouter ou de retrancher un iota ... médite, Médite encore, le vil plomb de mon écrit xxxx contient peut-être l’or le plus pur.

12. Sagittarius


Revenant alors à la blanche colline, le ciel ayant ouvert ses vannes, il me sembla près de moi sentir une présence, les pieds dans l’eau comme celui qui vient de recevoir la marque du baptême, me retournant vers l’est, face à moi je vis déroulant sans fin ses anneaux, l’énorme SERPENT ROUGE cité dans les parchemins, salée et amère, l’énorme bête déchainée devint au pied de ce mont blanc, rouge en colère.

13. Capricorn


Mon émotion fut grande, “RETIRE MOI DE LA BOUE” disais-je, et mon réveil fut immédiat. J’ai omis de vous dire en effet que c’était un songe que j’avais fait ce 17 JANVIER, fête de Saint-SULPICE. Par la suite, mon trouble persistant, j’ai voulu après réflexions d’usage vous le relater un conte de PERRAULT. Voici donc Ami Lecteur, dans les pages qui suivent le résultat d’un rêve m’ayant bercé dans le monde de l’étrange à l’inconnu. A celui qui PASSE de FAIRE LE BIEN.

TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY


There are a number of translations available but I have chosen Nicole Dawe’s as the mainstay. She is a professional translator and an academic researcher who spent many years in the region and her input, as always, was invaluable in navigating the nuances of French wordplay. My only additions to this were for the purposes of flow or where the direct translation of a quotation differed from a recognizable source such as the Bible.

Various authors, including David Wood and Elizabeth Van Buren, published their own translations in the 1980s and since then other versions have been appearing online and in publications. Each author tends to have their own distinct take on the text and because it is so diverse and symbolic in content it lends itself to completely different readings. Depending on your level of interest you can interpret this text in many ways.

The structure of Le Serpent Rouge is astrological. Seeing an array of Greek mythological figures transcribed in dot-to-dot form in a sky of randomly scattered stars may now seem bizarre to us, but it is worth remembering that the Greek civilization’s understanding of archetypal influences in psychology was incredibly advanced.

In terms of archetypes and influence, Renaissance philosopher and astrologer Marsillio Ficino also tells us that the planets are within us, and therefore very much in the realm of psychology. The constellations are a projection of our inner psyche to be identified and re-integrated. A student of Jung, Marie Louise von Franz, concurs, stating that the planets within are to be, and their influences realigned (rectified).

We also do well to remember that long before Jung began to explore the unconscious, alchemy had a process of discerning the layers of influence, like the application of heat to distil impurities from substances.

From what I can glean, Sion is interested in all levels of astrology. With an alchemist’s eye they view every phenomenon from all sides. They have an interest in ‘mundane’ astrology – the astrology of locations such as Rennes-le-Château and other important locations around the world. There is also the early work of Franz Mesmer (1734–1815), whom Sion has mentioned a number of times. He was known to have drawn on the work of an English astrologer, Richard Meade, to explore the notion that the tidal effects of the sun and the moon would also affect the human body.

It is also interesting to note that the addition of an astrological sign creates a shift from twelve to thirteen, which would be the true number of disciples were Mary Magdalene’s role to be acknowledged and accepted by Church.

Let us now begin our journey. My commentary follows a translation of each stanza with additional guidance from the Priory of Sion. My interpretation is in no way definitive but it might serve as a starting point for others who intend to walk this path.

1. Aquarius


How strange they are, the manuscripts of this Friend, great traveller through the unknown, they came to me individually, although together they make up a whole for him who knows that the colours of the rainbow form white unity, or for the Artist who with his paintbrush makes the colour black spring from the six colours of his magic palette.

The directions included in Le Serpent Rouge may at first appear confusing. This is due to the dual nature of the text. Often what is being described is both the route across the landscape and the interior of the church at Rennes-le-Château. The latter is a guide to the former. The church mirrors the landscape and the pilgrim is to keep this in mind as they walk the path. It is interesting that the zodiac begins with Aquarius, as Sion notes:

‘[This version of the zodiac] commences with Aquarius – closer to [January] 17 than the bulk of Capricorn. Traditionally, as you are aware, the zodiac (in all its forms) commences at 0 degrees Aries.’

The 17 here is another reference to January 17, with its many correspondences. This explains why Le Serpent Rouge neglects to begin in Aries and also indicates that the degrees of the zodiac are important to this undertaking.

We begin our journey under the sign of Aquarius with unknown manuscripts from an unknown guide. The Egyptian god Amen-Ra first comes to mind as a candidate for ‘the great traveller through the unknown’, which along with the later references to Isis would give these paragraphs an Egyptian slant. The term might indicate the path that Amen-Ra, as the sun, took in his boat across the heavens. It might also allude to a Nautonnier, the sailor or helmsman of the Priory of Sion, a term shared with Royal Arch Freemasonry. But this is not conclusive. The ‘great traveller’ might also be an alchemist, such as Nicolas Flamel, journeying into the unknown regions of science and mysticism.

The ‘manuscripts’ could also refer to the fabricated parchments of the Rennes-le-Château mystery (see page 70). Nicole Dawe has commented that it may be the separate sheets that make up the Dossiers Secrets. Another possibility is an early version of the 18th (Rose+Croix) Degree recognizable to Freemasons. It seems that the candidate who would understand these manuscripts is being described as knowing the inner nature of both black and white from the arts and sciences. This is another Masonic allusion, indicating the chessboard floor that appears in the Rennes-le-Château church and all Masonic temples (see page 93). An obvious interpretation of the black and white would be good and evil, their interlinked nature implying that these opposites are dependent. There is an idea that good and evil are not separate, and opposites, but merely different aspects of the same thing.

‘The colours of the rainbow that make up a single white light’ take us in a slightly broader direction. The great mathematician, Freemason and alchemist Isaac Newton was credited with the discovery of the colour spectrum. He was also claimed by Sion through his inclusion in Plantard’s version of the Grand Master list (see page 44). This supports the Masonic view but may also indicate that we are following the route followed by alchemists through the ages. The ‘peacock’ stage in alchemy, also entitled ‘Iris or the Rainbow’ (Nicolas Flamel) is a state where all aspects of nature are visible.

Sion also informed me that the references to the colours of the rainbow are linked to the origins of humankind and can be found in ancient Chinese alchemical texts. Chinese alchemy underpins what is now referred to as Taoism but originally encompassed chemistry, metallurgy, herbalism and the quest for immortality. In Chinese alchemy there is a stage called ‘the place of the red dragon’ and this is alluded to as ‘the red serpent’ to inform the reader that Western alchemy also has its roots in ancient China.

The rainbow would have been assigned magical properties by many early civilizations because it was outside their sphere of control and understanding, but the influence of Chinese alchemy can perhaps also be seen in the Vedic texts of India as the god Indra carries a rainbow bow that fires bolts of lightning to kill the primordial serpent. Also, the Indian creation myth tells of how the gods created an ocean of milk from which an elephant was formed whose name means ‘rainbow’.

The seven colours are also synonymous with the teachings of tantra as the journey can also be interpreted as the rising of kundalini (serpent) energy through the seven chakras, or energy centres of the body.

The artist who mixes six tints to make black could be Nicolas Poussin, who apparently limited his palette to only six colours. The landscape in his Et in Arcadia Ego arguably includes the peaks of Pech Cardou, Blanchefort and Rennes-le-Château in the background. The painting depicts a tomb that has been identified as one that stands close to these sites.

In terms of location, the colours may allude to the ‘River of Colours’ that runs beneath the Grotto of Mary Magdalene to the south of Rennes-le-Château.

My main Sion contact, Nic Haywood, elaborated on the alchemical aspect by explaining that the Grotto of Mary Magdalene was a place of initiation, parallel to the first stage of the alchemical process (the nigredo stage) and the first stanza of Le Serpent Rouge. In the previous chapter, on pilgrimage, we saw how the ‘secret diversion’ into the region begins in the Grotto of Mary Magdalene and then follows the River of Colours as the peacock stage.

The use of the grotto mirrors that of the room of contemplation located behind the false cupboard in the church (see page 101). The grotto would be used as the preparatory room for the 18th Rose+Croix Degree, which is itself a ritual form of the nigredo, or ‘blackening’ stage of alchemical transformation. Father Saunière’s fresco on the altar depicts Mary Magdalene in the grotto with a skull and a cross. These are two of the items to be contemplated during the initiate’s time in isolation. The nigredo is the clearing out of the unconscious in preparation for the initiation and leads to the ‘peacock’ stage symbolized by the rainbow.

Near the grotto exists an underground pool that may also have been used but it is on private land and access to it is now sealed.

2. Pisces


This Friend, how can I introduce him to you? His name will remain a mystery, but his number is that of a famous seal. How can I describe him to you? Perhaps as the commander of the imperishable ark, impassive as a column on his white rock, scrutinizing the south, beyond the black rock.

The mystery of the name could also be a reference to the Egyptian god Amen-Ra. According to the myth of Isis she placed in his path a scorpion, which stung his foot so that she could demand his secret name before administering a cure. Traditionally, to know the secret name of a god or demon is to be able to control them and this allowed Isis to breathe life back into her husband Osiris. The story of Hiram Abiff in Freemasonry is an updating of the Osiris myth and there are also parallels in the resurrection of Jesus.

The ‘commander of the imperishable ark’ again invokes the idea of the helmsman in both Sion and Royal Arch Freemasonry. The ark reference and the hidden name are true to Amen-Ra, who piloted his boat across the sky. Amen-Ra is also said to have a numeric value of 7, which would make the ‘famous seal’ the ‘Seventh Seal’ in the Book of Revelation.

The identity of the ‘Friend’ remains inconclusive because there is a figure behind much of what we are looking at. The most famous ‘seal’ associated with Masonic mysteries is the seal of Solomon: a pentagram (or hexagram in later interpretations). The hexagram is of interest as a symbol because it is the Hermetic seal and a simplified version of the fleur-de-lys or heraldic lily. In alchemical and Rosicrucian diagrams it represents the joining of fire and water. Water can be used to bind the demon Asmodeus to one’s bidding, just as Solomon used a ring to force him to build the Temple in silence. The church of Rennes-le-Château, of course, contains Asmodeus and is designed to reflect Solomon’s Temple (see page 119). The Sermon on the Mount fresco in the church also includes flowers that grow locally and are commonly known as ‘Seal of Solomon’.

As to the secret name, the more esoteric Freemasons break ‘Solomon’ down into SOL-OM-ON meaning ‘light’, ‘glory’ and ‘truth’, though I have also heard of ‘ON’ representing Osiris.

Pisces contains another clear reference to a known location. The text mentions the ‘white rock’ looking south beyond the ‘black rock’ which places us at Blanchefort, to the east of Rennes-le-Château. Blanchefort is a ruined castle that stands on a white pillar of rock. We are looking south past a pillar of dark rock called Roc Nègre, the Black Rock, in the direction of the Devil’s Armchair, the circle and the Dead Man. On the southern horizon is Le Château des Templiers (Castle of the Templars) up on Le Bézu. It is claimed by Sion that this was indeed, as the name suggests, a Templar castle. On the same ridge as the Château des Templiers is Roque Rouge, the Red Rock. As mentioned previously the black, white and red (nigredo, albedo and rubedo) are the three principal stages of the alchemical process.

In spite of this reference there is some confusion as to where we are placed on this stage of the journey. Various statements from Sion indicate that the initiation route near Rennes-le-Château is circular and begins and ends at the Devil’s Armchair (Fauteuil du Diable) just south of Blanchefort. This feature is inscribed with the alpha and omega and a triangle. The triangle is symbolic of a mountain but may also be a reference to the ‘eye in the triangle’ seen in the nearby artificial pool amid a small copse of trees (see page 112). The alpha and omega represent the beginning and end of both the Serpent Rouge journey and the Great Work of the alchemists. Both Blanchefort and the Devil’s Armchair are on the same range of hills but it is a stretch to consider them the same location.

Later in the text we discover that the journey was begun ‘in the shadows’, so perhaps the view south from Blanchefort relates to the stars. There is another possibility in that the full moon should be present to illuminate various aspects of the landscape, such as the River Sals snaking its way south (see page 177). In recent years, even with a full moon, the abundant trees and the light pollution from the houses in the valley below mean that nothing can be seen of the River Sals. I can only imagine that at one time it looked like a stream of mercury weaving its way through the valley below. However, the ruins of the Templar castle at Le Bézu can still clearly be seen in the distance directly south.

3. Aries


In my arduous pilgrimage, I tried with my sword to cut my way through the inextricable vegetation of the woods, I wanted to reach the abode of the sleeping BEAUTY, who some poets believe is the QUEEN of a vanished kingdom. When I despaired of finding my way, this Friend’s parchments were my Ariadne’s thread.

The use of the word ‘pilgrimage’ indicates the nature of our journey, in that we are heading toward a location of religious importance. A sword to cut a path through the vegetation would certainly be useful in some areas of this landscape, but the author is also alluding to Charles Perrault’s famous tale Sleeping Beauty (La Belle au bois dormant).

The term ‘sword’ is often a masculine symbol of wisdom as it cleaves and breaks apart that which it encounters. It is tempered by the Grail, a feminine receptacle that represents healing and understanding. Earlier versions of Le Serpent Rouge were said to refer to this as a ‘magic sword’. A magic sword appears in many myths, usually in the hands of a king or hero. There is also a complex alchemical reference related to this, as Sion confirms:

‘Note: We draw our steel or compass from the belly of the ram” is a familiar, old alchemical aphorism. It alludes to crucial information concerning “celestial agriculture” – another term for a specific application of alchemical science.’

The ‘steel’ here is another term for sword. In the chemical application of alchemy is a process that involves the use of ammonium chloride, a salt of ammonia. Ammonia derives its name from Amen-Ra (or Amun-Ra), the Egyptian god who was symbolized by the ram, as was Hermes.

Sleeping Beauty is said by some to be Perrault’s most alchemical work. The Beauty of the title is easier to grasp in psychological terms, as the child of the toxic mother who by failing to be conscious of her own destructive nature passes this on to her daughter in the form of an unconscious life. Sleeping Beauty is re-awakened to life by love, but it is worth noting that the awakening of the feminine aspect is important for both men and women. The alchemical stance is to seek the perfection hidden within nature and to bring this to life. Both the Perrault brothers were among the names of Sion members supplied by Nic Haywood (see page 47).

The ‘queen of a vanished kingdom’ is likely to be Isis, who is mentioned further on in the text. It is worth noting that during the 19th century Freemasonry became particularly obsessed with ancient Egypt, so it is possible that we are reading this through a Masonic filter that traces everything back to Egypt. But this female archetype is the same as any other liberated feminine force. The archetype – be it Sleeping Beauty, Mary Magdalene or Isis – reflects the dual nature of the quest. The recovery of the lost feminine archetype is also central to the mystery plays of Freemasonry, regaining the balance of masculine and feminine within the individual. The aspirant is attempting to discover their own feminine nature, a path of intuition and wisdom that may lead them to gnosis, an experience of the divine.

We also learn that the journey is taking us to the ‘abode’ of Sleeping Beauty.

On the physical pilgrimage the meaning conveyed here is that we are also in search of a real location, a final resting place of this lost feminine. It is likely that we are seeking a ‘sleeping beauty’ in the form of a corpse. A number of saints are said to have remained uncorrupted after death and I was informed by Sion that if Mary Magdalene’s body existed it too would be in such a condition.

Finally there is the mention of Ariadne’s thread. In Greek myth, Ariadne gave the hero Theseus a ball of twine so that he could find his way out of the Labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur that dwelt within. The Ariadne reference may be to the ‘labyrinth’, a local term for a series of caves and mines beneath the landscape near the Devils’ Armchair. But the reference also works on a number of other levels. The labyrinth is a rose expressed through geometry.

‘Labyrinth: a term of multiple usage, referring to the correct-but-fraught path of the Great Work, and likened to the maze of antiquity at Knosos (Gnosis?) called Ab-sol-om.’

There is an important distinction to be made between the maze and the labyrinth. The maze can be solved by logic, trial and error, and it calls upon the right side of the brain to deduct a solution. The labyrinth is a path of contemplation and transformation that evokes the left side of the brain. It focuses the enquirer on ever-decreasing turns to a point at the centre. Continuing on the path then unwinds back to the outer edge. This is a form of walking meditation, an active and intuitive journey to the divine source of your being and back. There is nothing for logic to solve.

The Gothic cathedral labyrinths are sometimes referred to as ‘Solomon’s maze’, and Freemasons are initiated by being led blindfold around a lodge and to an altar where they kneel and ask for light.

The thread of Ariadne in this context refers to the signposting that all alchemists are obliged to leave for those that follow in their footsteps:

‘To the few who successfully traverse Ariadne’s web is revealed a wholly new and largely unsuspected universal reality, in which even ancient myths, legends and timeless folk and fairytales – themselves a likely vestige of a race-memory – acquire an entirely new and all too obvious meaning.’

This is linked to both alchemy and the tradition of preserving knowledge by encrypting it as symbols for later generations. It is a duty placed on all who achieve the Great Work and many, such as Fulcanelli, leave an encrypted manuscript before disappearing from public life.

4. Taurus


Thanks to him, and now with measured steps and a reliable eye, I was able to discover the sixty-four dispersed stones of a perfect cube, which the Brothers of BEAUTY of the dark wood, escaping from the pursuit of the usurpers, had scattered on their way as they fled the white Fort.

Taurus begins with the aspirant locating 64 stones. Sixty-four is the number of squares on a chessboard. The floor of the church at Rennes-le-Château has a chessboard, as does every Masonic lodge, but here they are described as ‘dispersed’.

The ‘Brothers of Beauty’ fleeing the white fort alludes to either the Templars or the Cathars, ‘brotherhood’ being a term used by secret societies or a religious order to describe their members. The ‘white Fort’ is Blanchefort and a Templar garrison is said by Sion to have been stationed there and forced to flee when the order was rounded up by the ‘usurpers’, the agents of the French king, who technically did not rule this area. In this context ‘usurpers’ might also be a pointed reference to the Knights of Malta, who were given lands and possessions that had belonged to the Templars.

The escapees and their ‘treasure’ is also very reminiscent of the story of the three Cathar heretics who escaped Montségur with an unknown ‘treasure’ prior to the sect’s demise at the hands of the Albigensian Crusade of 1209–29 (though the last Cathar outposts held out till 1244 or later). From this we can surmise that part of the secret is something that the Templars or Cathars were in possession of, and which they hid just prior to their arrest on October 13, 1307. This may have taken the form of objects or documents, or both.

The ‘perfect cube’ is another Masonic reference. Masons use the symbol of the roughly hewn stone, or ashlar, to denote an unfinished man. They give a small ashlar to initiates as a symbolic representation of the work that they still need to do on themselves. With hard work and the right tools this stone is to be turned into a perfect cube – symbolically, a perfected man.

The key to the Taurus stanza is the phrase ‘measured steps and sure eye’. From the peak of Blanchefort running south of the ruins there is a clear line of sight to the hilltop village of Rennes-le-Château, where Saunière’s Tour Magdala can be seen as establishing a line of sight.

5. Gemini


Collect up the scattered stones, work with the set square and compasses to put them back into a regular order, search for the meridian by going from East to West, then look from South to North, and then in every direction to obtain the solution you seek, stopping in front of the 14 stones marked with a cross. The circle is the ring and the crown and is the diadem of this QUEEN of the Castle.

We are instructed to collect the scattered stones and put them back in regular order. The 64 stones, as we know, represent the Masonic tiled floor in the church at Rennes-le-Château and the term ‘regular order’ is used within Masonic lodges when conducting what is termed the ‘regular order of business’. The ‘square and compass’ are the classic symbols of Freemasonry but could also be used to align points on the landscape. I am not aware of ‘scattered stones’ as a Masonic reference but it echoes the many parts of the god Osiris, who was dismembered by his brother Seth. The scattered parts of Osiris had to be gathered and reconstructed by Isis, his consort.

The Paris Meridian is marked in the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris by a dolmen and this location is referenced directly later in the text. The meridian was based upon an earlier line that runs between Blanchefort and Arques called the Rose Line (Ligne Rose). This passes through the site of the tomb in Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego.

We are then to look ‘in every direction’, which may mean either within the church or on the landscape. This might be a reference to both the constellations in view and the symbols within the church. The ‘14 stones with a cross’ is a reference to the 14 Stations of the Cross within the church and also, surprisingly, to a feature on the landscape. Gérard Thome kindly guided me to this location where, due south of the Devil’s Armchair, there are stones with crosses carved into them. They lead to a single large rock that once acted as a base for a tall iron cross but this has long since been removed, leaving only a hole in the stone. Thome’s understanding of the crosses is that they were carved and placed by Saunière’s friend and mentor, Father Henri Boudet.

This location is also close to a ‘circle’. There are actually two circles in the area. One is the small spring beside the Devil’s Armchair and the other an actual circle of trees in a field further south, with a standing stone at the centre. As far as I can tell, this is on private land but can be viewed from the north hillside of Château des Templiers even further to the south. If this circle is the ‘ring’ to accompany a crown, does this mean a wedding band? If so, our Sleeping Beauty is married, of royal blood and of the castle. The name Magdalene literally means ‘of the tower’ (Magdala, or Migdal, in Galilee translates as ‘tower’) so the castle, ring and crown could all allude to Mary’s heretical status as bride of Jesus. Another option is that it refers to another Mary, Countess Marie de Negri d’Ables of Blanchefort castle, a local noble who may have been responsible for the protection and continuation of the secret heresy that was hidden by the Templars, and is perhaps alluded to in the previous stanza.

6. Cancer


The slabs on the mosaic floor of the holy site could be alternately white or black, and JESUS, like ASMODEUS, watch over their alignments, my vision seemed incapable of seeing the summit where the wonderful sleeping woman remained hidden. Not being HERCULES with his magical power, how should I decipher the mysterious symbols engraved by the observers of the past? In the sanctuary however, the font, the fountain of love of the believers, reminds us of these words: BY THIS SIGN YOU WILL CONQUER him.

The Jesus and Asmodeus reference locates us firmly back at Rennes-le-Château, where the chessboard floor is watched over by Jesus and Asmodeus (see page 88). There is an almost dualist/Cathar aspect to the mirroring present in this scene. The chessboard was placed diagonally to the church so that its alignments are roughly northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest. It is interesting that above Asmodeus one of the four angels is not touching his forehead in benediction but shielding his eyes as if looking into the distance due east. This is the direction of Blanchefort, Pech Cardou and beyond to Arques.

If, as Nic Haywood told me, the name ‘Arques’ is derived from the Arabic for chessboard, we are once again seeing the interior of the church mirroring the landscape:

‘Ru-at, arq-at, etc. is the root of Arque and means variously ‘chessboard’ (as in arq-a-leen or aral-kheen), ‘plaid’, ‘great doorway’, and ‘secret or sacred language’. It is one of ancient Arabic’s more ambiguous and esoteric words, much-used in alchemical and Sufi teaching.’

The hero Hercules undertakes a great series of ‘labours’ or trials that can be read as an alchemical quest. For example, the androgyny that he experiences in the service of Queen Omphale represents a phase that appears in many alchemical illustrations. Hercules’ fifth trial, the challenge of having to clean out the huge and dung-filled Augean stables in one day, can be interpreted as purifying the unconscious or the alchemical nigredo stage. The hero’s own ‘chamber of reflection’ was the cave of a hermit in which he pacified a lion. Nicolas Flamel also makes reference to ‘King Hercules his Book, which entreateth of the colors of the stone, entitled Iris or the Rainbow.’

We see here again a reference to the importance of the rainbow, as explored earlier. Another alchemical aspect to the stanza is hinted at by the inscription ‘By this sign you will conquer him [or it]’ (Par ce signe tu le vaincras). The inscription can be found on the statue of Asmodeus and the angels in the church and is taken from Emperor Constantine’s vision of a cross, with the addition of the word le (‘him’ or ‘it’). Interestingly, the phrase appears in the alchemical tree of life of the Codex Rosae-Crucis and other alchemical manuscripts.

As Sion says, the mention of Hercules is also an allusion to ‘the two pillars’ and ‘the eagle’. The ‘two pillars’ is a Masonic reference to Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars of the Temple of Solomon, which are represented in every Masonic temple. The eagle reference refers to the biblical Book of Job, where God tells Job that wherever there is a corpse the eagle is there. The gospels of Mathew and Luke also contain a similar reference. ‘Eagle’ (also translated ‘vulture’) seems to be a generic term used for all carrion birds in the Bible, but they are also equated with the highest possible viewpoint. My understanding of this is that the eagle can see the tomb which we seek. According to Sion:

‘John Dee also made profound allusions to the eagle in reference to the disclosure of a body in his hieroglyphical Monad. In one sense it could be said that the eagle’s eye equates with the all-seeing eye – we must not forget that this bird has strong connections with Zeus and is also a symbol for the oft-cited third eye or the eye of the Cyclops, the eye of Argo.’

This may also mean that we are to use the astronomical constellation of Aquila, the Eagle, to get a bearing on the location. This brings us back to the astrological aspect of Le Serpent Rouge. In the night sky Aquila is adjacent to Hercules, Ophiuchus (the 13th sign) and the Serpent. How these relate to the landscape is not clear. I have considered the link between the pool in the triangular field and the Eye of Providence (see page 112) but mapping these astronomical signs on to the landscape is far from satisfactory or specific in its directions.

The reference to the eagle may also mean that the tomb is visible from a high point such as one of the peaks. But importantly it reiterates that we are searching for a corpse.

7. Leo


From her whom I wanted to liberate rose the emanations of perfume that permeated the tomb. Some had once named her ISIS, queen of the benevolent springs, COME TO ME ALL YOU WHO ARE HEAVILY LADEN AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST, others MADELAINE, with the famous jar full of healing balm. The initiated know her real name: NOTRE DAME DES CROSS.

This stanza is said by Nic Haywood to be heavily influenced by Nicolas Flamel’s unpublished diary. We return to the allusion to releasing an archetypal ‘feminine’ energy in the intended ‘liberation’ of a Sleeping Beauty. The discovering of the inner feminine appears in many esoteric teachings, such as Freemasonry, but there is a lesson for all in this as the search for our own intuition, that inner voice of insight and personal truth. ‘Queen of the benevolent springs’ is not a title that I recognize but it may refer to the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes situated in the small garden outside the church at Rennes-le-Château.

In physical terms the perfumed smell would be the odour of an uncorrupted body seeping from the tomb. This would be the smell of the rose, telling us that the physical remains of a female saint are buried in the vicinity. As the name ‘Madelaine’ is used later in the text it is likely this refers to Mary Magdalene. The idea of the uncorrupted corpse is a tradition of the relics of the saints. St Catherine Laboure’s body, for example, was exhumed after nearly 60 years and discovered to be in perfect condition. When the tomb was opened there was said to be the odour of roses.

The use of ‘rose’ is also a pun on both the Rose Line and St Roseline who is linked to this mystery by the Teniers painting mentioned in the shorter fabricated parchment from the 1970s (see pages 247, 249). We will revisit Teniers later (see Chapter 16) but for now suffice to say that it also has Masonic/alchemical connotations. Alchemy also has reference to the odour, what Sion calls’ The all-pervading fragrance created at the moment of the rubedo.’ The rubedo or ‘reddening’ is an alchemical stage that is sometimes shown as taking place in a rose garden.

‘Come to me all you who are heavily laden’ is from the Sermon on the Mount, as featured in the church, although here it is attributed to Isis. This is supported by the earliest known use of the phrase, which can be seen inscribed over a temple of Isis in Egypt (see Hancock, The Sign and the Seal).

During later discussions on this stanza, Nic Haywood sent me the following:

‘There is an all-important line in Le Serpent Rouge which says: “The initiated know her true name: OUR LADY OF THE CROSS.” It should read: “Les initiés savent son nom véritable, NOTRE DAME DES CROISE[T].” (“The initiates know her true/sacred name, OUR LADY OF THE CRESCENT[S]”).’

The term ‘croiset’ is a variation on cross that I think is a veiled reference, along with the mention of the rose, to members of the Rose Cross.

The alteration of ‘crescent’ to ‘cross’ in the final line may have been an attempt to Christianize the text but the female archetype is here stated as ‘Our Lady of the Crescent’. The goddess Artemis was known as ‘Lady of the Crescent’, a virgin huntress and ruler of the moon and patron of pagan Byzantium, later Constantinople. The banner of the city, and of the later (Christian) Byzantine empire, was a crescent moon, which was retained by the Muslim Ottomans who conquered the city in 1492. There are many images in alchemical manuscripts of the sublimation of the feminine illustrated by the queen standing upon a crescent moon. Even Christian imagery has incorporated this feminine device such as El Greco’s Assumption of the Virgin Mary and countless others depicting the Virgin Mary standing upon a crescent moon. An interesting example of this is the Louis Niño painting of the Virgin Mary from the 1730s as it also depicts Mary as having a triangular shape, in keeping with the ‘Black Madonna’ statuettes and paintings of the Virgin Mary. Black Madonna figures are often seated and holding a child which is identical to Isis figures from Ancient Egypt. Isis can also be described as ‘Queen of the Fertile Crescent’, the ‘Fertile Crescent’ being the agricultural region formed by the valleys of the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris. The identification of the Black Madonna with Isis is made clear by Sion:

‘As for the Black Virgin, Isis before conception is the Virgo Partiturae, that is to say the earth before its fertilization, which the rays of the sun are soon going to bring to life. She is the mother of all gods as is attested by the inscription: “To Isis, or to the Virgin from whom the son/sun will be born.”’

The ‘black’ of ‘Black Madonna’ is also said to mean ‘wise’. It identifies the archetypal mother, the true creator, as a triangle. In this we also see that the eye in the triangle of Freemasonry is feminine and therefore so too is the ‘All-Seeing Eye’ of the Grand Architect – God. The feminine nature of God is an ancient wisdom drawn in part on the ability of women, in their role as creator, to produce new life through birth. The tradition of virgin birth stems from the idea of a sole feminine creator.

8. Virgo


I was like the shepherds of the famous painter POUSSIN, perplexed when faced with the enigma: “ET IN ARCADIA EGO…!” Would the voice of blood restore to me the image of an ancestral past? Yes, the flash of genius traversed my thoughts. I could see it again, I understood! I now knew this fabulous secret. And wonder of wonder, when the four horsemen leapt, the shoes of one horse had left four imprints on the stone, this was the sign that DELACROIX had left in one of the three paintings in the Chapelle des Anges. Here was the seventh sentence that a hand had traced: PULL ME OUT OF THE MIRE SO THAT I DO NOT REMAIN STUCK THERE. IS twice, embalmer and embalmed, miracle jar of the Eternal White Lady of the Legends.

We begin with a reference to Nicolas Poussin, the artist responsible for the painting Et in Arcadia Ego, or The Shepherds of Arcadia. The shepherds are seen deciphering the Latin inscription ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ (literally ‘I too [am or was] in Arcadia’) on an old tomb. There was a tomb on the road between Arques and Blanchefort that was considered by many to be the one in this painting. The debate still rages as to whether they are related, but clearly Sion intends us to make that connection. In the background of the painting three peaks can be seen that match Pech Cardou, Blanchefort and Rennes-le-Château. The painting is discussed at length later (see Chapter 16) but the inscription has been brought to our attention so we must briefly consider its meaning.

There is certainly an enigma around the inscription, and the many interpretations of this are covered in later chapters. The next line includes the term ‘voice of blood’. The origin of this term is likely to be ‘the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground’ (Genesis 4.10). In this verse God is accusing Cain of murdering his brother. The murder is not unlike the Egyptian myth of Osiris, who was also murdered by his jealous brother Seth. The shifting through Greek, Egyptian and Christian mythology makes it difficult to determine which is the more important here, but perhaps we are learning that all three myths are essentially the same. Either way, following the references to the tomb and death it reminds us again that there is a corpse involved in the Rennes-le-Château mystery.

There is also the possibility that the ‘voice of blood’ is race or cultural memory. A possible aspect of the members of the bloodline is that there is something to be ‘awakened in the blood’. Perhaps genetic memory is the cause of the sudden realization seen in the line ‘would the voice of blood restore to me the image of an ancestral past’. Sion tells us that this point ‘is indeed apposite and there are methods for forcing the resurfacing of what you rightly call race memory’.

Professional translator Nicole Dawe, a former resident of the region, also informed me that she feels certain that ‘voice of blood’ (la voix du sang) is a play on words, a reference to la voie du sang (‘the route of blood’, or bloodline) and that once the initiate understood this they understood everything, as conveyed in ‘I now knew this fabulous secret.’

We come now to the ‘four imprints’ in stone left by the four horsemen. The mark left by a hoof is an arch shape, so I initially sought four arches in the region. I found nothing satisfactory, except for the tendency for graveyards and crypts in the area to be gated with an arch. There are a number of rocks in the region with indentations of all kinds so it may be that I have yet to discover an actual example in the rock. The ‘four horsemen’ may also allude to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but in this context they are more likely to be a reference to the four knights of the chessboard.

The painter Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) was responsible for many of the paintings in Saint-Sulpice. Some believe that these paintings represent the landscape of Rennes-le-Château and its environs. Delacroix certainly painted landscapes in the Pyrenees, as he was resident there for a number of years. There is a shape on a pillar of his depiction of Heliodorus Expelled from the Temple that looks familiar. It is formed of two circles joined by a square in the middle. A variation on this image appears in the form of the sandal ties worn by the seated woman on the second page of Le Serpent Rouge booklet. The same design effect is on the side panel of the Visigothic pillar in Father Saunière’s garden beneath the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. The three Delacroix paintings are complex, so selecting this ‘sign’ from the wealth of imagery is not conclusive. However, Sion has also alluded to the fact that the geometry of these paintings is important.

The ‘seventh sentence’ is tantalizing as it leads us at once to search for the other six. The quotation exists in the church of Rennes-le-Château but this might not be the only reference. ‘Deliver me out of the mire that I may not sink’ is another quote from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. It is also a reference to a plate in the 16th-century alchemical document, Splendor Solis. It is no coincidence that both this stanza and the plate are both numbered eight. The Splendor Solis plate depicts a red youth rising from mire, raised by the queen. We can interpret this as psychic matter rejected and submerged into the unconscious, just as any aspect of a child’s personality that is deemed unacceptable is ‘split off’ and purposely hidden. This aspect of personality remains stuck in a juvenile state until it is recovered (brought into consciousness) and redeemed. Here we see it rediscovered and lifted out of the unconscious by the Higher Self, an internalized ‘mother’ or great nurturer who welcomes and accepts this lost aspect.

In alchemy, the captured fumes of the alchemical operation are reintegrated to produce a new substance, and the red sphere of the skull foreshadows the completion of the Great Work. The figure of the queen is pregnant (symbolizing the potential for rebirth) and in all cases the male youth and white queen must unite to become the Hermaphrodite, symbolizing the integration of all opposites and duality. The integration of all fragments of the personality completes the psychological process.

‘IS twice’ simply means ‘ISIS’, but this duplication also directs us to a geometric form of the double cube used in Freemasonry. The ‘embalmer and embalmed, miracle jar’ would be another reference to Mary Magdalene, known for anointing Jesus, and links her to Isis, who had the parts of Osiris embalmed to create the first mummy. The ‘embalmed’ part of the line reiterates that her body is thought to be buried in the vicinity. The description of ‘white lady’ puts her in contrast to the Black Madonna, which is thought to represent Isis or perhaps Sarah, who according to legend travelled with Mary Magdalene on the boat to France.

The grouping of these names reminds us that we are also seeking an underlying experience of the feminine aspect. Those who try to walk the route of Le Serpent Rouge should bear in mind that the journey serves as both ritual and pilgrimage.

9. Libra


Begun in the shadows, my journey could only end in the Light. At the window of the ruined house, I contemplated the summit of the mountain through the naked autumn trees. The cross on the peak stood out under the midday sun, it was the 14th and the largest of them all at 35 centimetres! So here I was in my turn, horseman on the divine steed straddling the abyss.

The timing here is a kind of reversal of Masonic ritual, in that all lodge workings begin, albeit symbolically, at noon. Here we began in the dark, making our way into the light and arriving at noon. ‘Noon’ also appears in Nicolas Flamel’s account as the time that he achieved the Magnum Opus (Great Work) of alchemy on a January 17; and it is pointedly referenced in Sion’s fabricated parchments from the 1970s (see page 289). The night aspect takes place in the moonlight to indicate the feminine principle symbolized by the Magdalene.

There is a ruined house to the south of the Devil’s Armchair, but I have found no features that make it especially identifiable and there are plenty of other ruins in the vicinity. However, it does offer a view of more than one summit, the peak of Le Bézu with its ruins of Château des Templiers directly to the south, and Pech Cardou to the north.

As for ‘the cross on the peak’, the Château des Templiers is the likely location as this was represented by a Templar cross on some hand-drawn maps of the region. There are short stone crosses scattered around the landscape in the area, but these serve as old boundary markers. The size of the cross would make it impossible to see across the valley, so it may be a reference to the 14th Station of the Cross in the church. This depicts Jesus being placed in a tomb and the intention could be to give us the impression that the tomb depicted in the church and the location on the landscape are one and the same. Also in view of the Templar ruin is the area of land called L’Homme Mort –‘the Dead Man’.

An enigmatic statement from Sion may also relate to this matter:

‘I am reminded of the following extract: “and suddenly I realize. How beautifully sweet is this pollen, kept safe at the centre of this rose of majesty; hanging as it does upon the navigator’s cross but with the divine ability to invert horizons.”’

The ‘navigators cross’ is a latitude-finding tool in the form of a staff with degrees marked upon it and a movable crossbeam. By aligning the top of the staff with the Pole Star and moving the cross beam up or down until it matches the horizon, you are able to ascertain your latitude. This might be a tool for identifying a specific location on the land using the view from the ruined house. Sion has certainly shown some interest in the dimensions of the staffs held by various figures in the Rennes-le-Château church, most notably the staff that was once held by Asmodeus. This is now missing and to my knowledge no record of its length exists. Other staffs include the cross on the altar painting, the staff held by John the Baptist and another on the statue of St Anthony. It is an idea that warrants further exploration.

As mentioned in relation to Gemini there are also a number of crosses carved into rocks to the south of the Devil’s Armchair and the ruined house.

10. Scorpio


Celestial vision for him who reminds me of the four works of Em. SIGNOL around the line of the Meridian, at the very heart of the sanctuary where this source of love of one for the other shines out. I turn on the spot looking at the rose of the P and then that of the S, then from the S to the P… and the spiral in my mind becomes like a monstrous octopus, expelling its ink, the darkness absorbing the light, I am dizzy and I put my hand to my mouth instinctively biting my palm, perhaps like OLIER in his coffin. Curses, I understand the truth, HE PASSED, BUT HE TOO, DOING good AS WELL AS xxxxxxxx He of the flowery tomb. But how many have pillaged the HOUSE, leaving only embalmed corpses and many metals that they had not been able to take with them. What a strange mystery the new temple of SALOMON, which was built by the children of Saint VINCENT, conceals.

Much of this paragraph refers to the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, which Father Saunière may have visited to have the parchments that he discovered in his church decoded (see page 70). Saint-Sulpice is named for St Sulpitius (or Sulpicius), the 7th-century bishop of Bourges, who was known for defending his people against the Merovingian rulers of the day. His feast day is celebrated on January 17.

The ‘four works of M [for Monsieur] SIGNOL’ are paintings at the centre of the church by Emile Signol (1804–92). They are signed in capital letters and depict biblical scenes. Figures in the paintings point either forward or diagonally. If you follow the pointing fingers they lead you in an ‘N’ shape across the church. The signatures of two of the paintings have the N of SIGNOL reversed. As we have seen, his reflected/reversed theme is a constant in the Rennes-le-Château church and is said to be the sign of an adept.

To the left of one painting is a marble obelisk that is the marker for the Paris Meridian. It has a brass line that runs down the centre of the obelisk and across the floor diagonally through the ‘N’ route indicated by the Signol paintings. The Paris Meridian continues south through France and passes near to Rennes-les-Bains, close to the Blanchefort mountain. It runs in parallel with the ‘Rose Line’ or ‘Line of Secrets’, which passes through the graveyard at Rennes-les-Bains (see page 249).

‘Source of love of one for the other’ might be a reference to the spiritual legacy left by Jean-Jacques Olier (1608–57), who reconstructed Saint-Sulpice and established its seminary, in the form of organizations such as the Sisters of Charity (see Chapter 3). Olier’s attempt to elevate the position of women in the Church reflects the love that Jesus would have had for Mary Magdalene had they been married. He also influenced St Vincent de Paul in the creation of the Daughters of Charity. Nic Haywood had this to say about Olier and his work:

‘Bearing in mind that Olier’s mentor was an adept of the alchemical process (having gleaned his ‘clues’ from the distilled material which had been well guarded by our old friends the Templars), he set about a synthesis which was known in ecclesiastical circles as a form of heresy, but which could not be suppressed.’

Nic followed this with a further statement:

‘St Vincent’s Daughters of Charity were formed on January 17, 1681, 300 years to the day from when Nicolas Flamel achieved his Great Work. Its purpose was to care for destitute women and orphans, something Flamel had funded with the wealth he had attained, in the form of orphanages. It was institutions such as these that symbolically upheld the tradition of caring for Mary Magdalene and any attendant children that accompanied her to France after the crucifixion. It is in a way the response to the perennial Masonic question of “who will take care of the Widow’s Son?” The physical wellbeing of Mary was but one concern; in taking care of her tradition it was ensured that her teachings would also survive.’

There is another link between St Vincent’s Daughters of Charity and Rennes-le-Château in that Elizabeth of Rennes, a local dignitary, was in the care of the Daughters of Charity

In Saint-Sulpice there are two round windows above the north and south aspects of the Meridian. In the center of these there is a P in the north and an S to the south. Sion intimated back in the 1970s that these stand for the ‘Priory of Sion’, but this could have been an attempt to attach themselves to the mythology of the church or simply to bring themselves to the public’s attention. We are instructed to turn from the P to the S and vice-versa.

As we discovered in Chapter 9, a spiral can be experienced as a route to the source but also as the dormant serpent. The octopus is a primordial image but may also indicate the spiralling arms of the labyrinth, both beneath the ground and within the mind. At the centre is the source, the origin, and this is identified in La Source, the small natural spring beside the Devil’s Armchair. The black ink absorbing light might be a reference to the alchemical Hermaphrodite (see the preceding stanza), a merging of the black and white.

According to Sion, ‘the reference to the octopus – familiar metaphysical symbolism apart – is likely a direct reference to the Throne of St Peter: Rome itself.’ This indicates that the hiding of the light is in part seen as the fault of the Catholic Church; this entire stanza would then be moving us toward a search for a more balanced form of Christianity.

I visited Saint-Sulpice many years ago in the company of Sarah Hurst and together we examined the church using Le Serpent Rouge as a guide. There is a plaque on the wall with a profile of Olier, but he is not holding his hand to his mouth so I suspected that another portrait of Olier existed. As mentioned earlier, we discovered that the mural in the chapel of St.-Jean Evangéliste (St John the Evangelist) has a figure who clearly resembles Olier. This figure has one hand to his mouth and beneath his arm are three large scrolls and a book. At the time I drew no conclusions about the possible content of these documents, but I noted the similarity between the painting’s notion of hidden texts and this aspect of the Rennes-le-Château story. I will return to these scrolls in the next section as there is more to be learned about them (see Chapter 15).

In the next part of this stanza the narrator then instinctively bites his palm. This is a Masonic gesture of horror but also of completing the Great Work. Nic Haywood tells us:

‘As to the “gesture of horror”, this is a known term and relates, in the main, to the moment of discovery of the [Philosopher’s] Stone or rather to the fact that to discover the Stone is in fact “to become the Stone”:

“When that joyful moment appeared and God granted me, by his eternal grace, this most precious of gifts; this ‘Divine Quintessence,’ this Stone of the Wise. When that fateful hour struck I accomplished the gesture of horror and retired, fleeing from the sight of the world.”’

The latter quote is most likely Nicolas Flamel’s unpublished journal, which is in Sion’s possession. The term ‘doing good’ is often used to describe Rosicrucians (see Jean Markale, The Church of Mary Magdalene) and is also a quotation from one of the gravestones at Rennes-les-Bains. It is inscribed on the tomb of Paul Urbain Vincent de Fleury – ‘he of the flowery tomb’. He was the grandson of Marie de Negri d’Ables, countess of Blanchefort. Of interest is the fact that de Fleury has two tombs in the same graveyard bearing different dates of death. One of these tombs is known to be empty but presumably served another purpose at some point in history.

The de Fleury family owned lands around Rennes-le-Château, including Blanchefort. The landscape in the Sermon on the Mount mural in the church of Rennes-le-Château is based on the region and includes a rose-covered tract of land owned by de Fleury.

The ‘pillaged house’ tells us that there is a tomb there, but all that remains are the embalmed corpses and metal objects too heavy to carry. There are a number of options for this location. It could refer to one of the crypts beneath the Rennes-le-Château church that were sealed by Saunière (see page 72). It seems likely from his behaviour that Saunière was pillaging treasure from somewhere close to home. We know that Olier was buried at Saint-Sulpice but the reference is unlikely to be to him because ‘bodies’ is plural. The plural also indicates that it is the tomb of a couple or a family.

The de Fleury lands are a possible location for such a tomb, as is the cave shown on the Rennes-le-Château altar painting, with Mary Magdalene beside a grave. But as we are physically south of the Devil’s Armchair, somewhere between Blanchefort and Château des Templiers to the east of Rennes-le-Château we are far from both. The area of land called L’Homme Mort, the Dead Man, is here, and I discovered from Sion that this was once a way into the local tunnel system that would lead to a sacred site. More of this is covered in the following chapter.

As mentioned earlier, Olier was an associate of Sion and oversaw the reconstruction of Saint-Sulpice. The design of this church, like that of the church at Rennes-le-Château and all other Masonic/Rose+Croix temples, is based upon Solomon’s Temple. There is a broader interpretation to this, in that the new Temple of Solomon is not just the microcosm (the church at Rennes-le-Château) it is also the macrocosm of the surrounding landscape. This too is further explored in the following chapter.

St Vincent de Paul, Olier’s contemporary and fellow Sion associate, is also mentioned. A statue of St Vincent surrounded by children is on display in Saint-Sulpice. But this also hides another level of intrigue. In the Middle Ages St.-Vincent was the name of a suburb of Carcassonne, the walled city 30km (18 miles) north of Rennes-le-Château. This was part of the Jewish quarter and located outside the walls of the main city. The Jewish communities in the region are said to date back to before the time of Christ, hence the region would have provided a safe haven for Mary Magdalene fleeing the Holy Land. If she had a child this Jewish settlement would have cared for the child just as St Vincent himself became renowned for embracing the children of God.

11. Ophiuchus


Cursing the ashes of the profaners and those who live in their tracks, emerging from the abyss where I was plunged making the sign of horror. “Here is the proof that I know the secret of SALOMON’S seal, that XXXXXXXXXXX of this QUEEN, I visited the hidden residences.” Friendly Reader, be careful not to add or remove one iota from this… think, think again, the base lead of my writing XXXX perhaps contains the purest gold.

Ophiuchus is illustrated by a man holding a serpent. He is the ‘Golden Serpent-Bearer’, reminiscent of Freemasonry’s 25th (Knight of the Brazen Serpent) Degree. The existence of the 13th sign is problematic for astrologers in that it was recognized by the celebrated astrologer Ptolemy at the time of the Romans, but he chose to ignore it because it upset the balance of sun signs in the zodiac. The sun passes through the sign during late November and early December but to this day astrologers in both Vedic and Western astrology choose to ignore the constellation.

The name is also connected directly with ‘Ophir’, the secret land whence Middle Kingdom ancient Egyptian priests were said to have obtained their vast quantities of gold. Author and Egyptologist E A Wallis Budge suggests that they maintained a supply of the precious yellow metal at the same place. Further-more, these journeys to obtain large quantities of gold involved a voyage by sea, and not in the direction of southern Egypt.

The use of Ophiuchus in Le Serpent Rouge is interesting as it seems entirely absent from Freemasonry, alchemy and other traditions that appear here. Perhaps it has been included to support the idea of the alchemical ‘red serpent’. Sion has maintained that it was added in part to facilitate a shift to a more alchemical experience of the journey.

The stanza begins with the narrator cursing and emerging from the abyss. It seems that he has managed to visit the underground location that has been the goal of the quest so far after making the Masonic ‘gesture of horror’. Caves exist in abundance in the area, especially around and beneath Blanchefort, and the region has been mined since Roman times.

As for ‘Solomon’s seal’ we recall that there is a flower called the Seal of Solomon, which appears on the Sermon on the Mount mural at Rennes-le-Château along with the de Fleury lands mentioned in the previous stanza. Perhaps by understanding this the seeker has found the hidden location of the ‘queen’. But then the text takes a turn and we are told to ‘Think, and think again’, requiring the reader to meditate on what has come before. It tells us that through contemplation we can discover the secret of this text. We are then informed that we have been instructed in alchemy and must not add or remove anything at this stage.

12. Sagittarius


Returning then to the white hill, the sky having opened its gates, I seemed to feel close to me a presence, feet in the water like him who has just received the mark of baptism, turning myself to the east, opposite me I saw his rings unravelling endlessly, the enormous RED SNAKE mentioned in the parchments, salty and bitter, the enormous unchained beast became red in anger, at the foot of this white mountain.

In this stanza we have returned to the hill of Blanchefort and are positioned at the Devil’s Armchair, where the alpha and omega carvings denote the beginning and end of not only the journey but of the alchemical process.

The journey ends with an act of washing the feet in the pool beside the Devil’s Armchair. This originated with Jesus washing the feet of the disciples after the Last Supper and was practised as a ritual among various Christian orders, including the Cathars.

The ‘Balneum Mariae’ (Bath of Mary) is a warm-water bath used by the alchemists and there are many natural hot springs at Rennes-les-Bains that are used to this day.

From the Devil’s Armchair, through the trees, we have a limited view of the ‘serpent’ of the River Sals that runs through Rennes-les-Bains. Appearing silver in the moonlight, when we began our journey, it is now visible in the daylight. As Nicolas Flamel wrote:

‘He which is washed is the Serpent Python, which, having taken his being from the corruption of the slime of the Earth gathered together by the waters of the deluge, when all the confections were water, must be killed and overcome by the arrows of the God Apollo, by the yellow Sun, that is to say, by our fire, equal to that of the Sun.’

At the culmination of the alchemical Work the mercurial serpent becomes red as it enters the stage of rubedo. As Lyndy Abraham puts it in A Dictionary of Alchemy: The river serpent is transmuted into the celebrated goal of the work, the elixir or stone.’

The red serpent also appears in many cultures associated with the orphic egg from which the universe was thought to have emerged. In psychological terms it represents the conscious that must be fused with the unconscious. In alchemical terms it is the red man that marries the white queen (as in Plate 7 of the Splendor Solis). In terms of actual geography the River Sals (‘Salt’) runs through Rennes-les-Bains and joins the River Blanc (‘White’). The Sals turns red during heavy downpours owing to the high iron oxide content of the soil that is washed into it.

The ‘presence’ close to the narrator might be a reference to the corpse he has just witnessed below ground or something more divine.

13. Capricorn


My emotion was great, “DELIVER ME FROM THE MIRE” I said, and I awoke immediately. In effect, I omitted to tell you that this was a dream which I had on this JANUARY 17, on the feast day of Saint SULPITIUS. After this, my worry persisting, I wanted, after the usual reflection, to tell you one of PERRAULT’S stories. Hence, Friendly Reader, in the following pages here is the result of a dream that rocked me in the world of the strange and the unknown. That he who passes might do good!

Having witnessed the inscription, and the meaning of it, the narrator enacts it himself and is immediately awakened as if enlightened.

‘Deliver me from the mire’, as mentioned before, is the Splendor Solis plate showing the white queen lifting the black and red ‘Ethiopian’ from the waters, receiving him in his partially transmuted state between nigredo and rubedo. There is another interpretation of this sentence, in that Adam was created from dust or clay and brought to life by the breath of God (or Goddess, in the form of Isis). The woman who raises the boy is Sophia (Divine Wisdom), the wisdom and the spirit transferred by the breath of God.

Perrault is referred to again and his tale Sleeping Beauty provides a good analogy for both the alchemical journey and the physical attempt to visit the tomb of the lost queen. On another level there is the aspect of the divine feminine, the ‘sleeping beauty’ within us all. Therefore perhaps it is not Sleeping Beauty herself who awakes but the narrator, who revives this aspect of himself and is awakened from his own dream state after requesting help from this archetype.

The date January 17 makes another appearance and although the many meanings of this date were covered in the chapter on Rennes-le-Château, we are reminded that on Flamel’s Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures he claims to have achieved his first use of the ‘powders of projection’ by converting mercury into silver on the January 17 at noon. It signifies the completion of this stage of the Magnum Opus.

The phrase ‘do good’, as we have seen, is both a reference to the Rosicrucians and also the de Fleury tombstone as explored in Scorpio. It is also a final call to fellow Rosicrucian adepts to undertake this journey.

A CONCLUSION – OF SORTS


No doubt there are a few who will find Le Serpent Rouge as easy to read as a Perrault fairy tale. But for the rest of us we must continue to peel back the layers of meaning and peek into the unknown.

Outright conclusions regarding Le Serpent Rouge are a hard-fought battle and clearly I have only scratched the surface of this enigmatic document. I think there is more to be gained by walking the land, the ‘path of the el diablo’ as Nic Haywood once phrased it, than by only reading it remotely. It is worthy of serious contemplation.

We know that one of the driving goals behind Sion’s public surfacing in the 1950s was the identification and gathering of the adepts who had become scattered after the Second World War. This document also acts as another signpost, to be read and recognized by those who know Flamel’s alchemy and the mysteries of the Rosicrucian and Masonic lodges. It emphasizes the feminine archetypes and the link to Saint-Sulpice in the time of Olier.

With Sion we often get the feeling that they are directing us toward something of great importance but without exactly telling us why. They are drawing us to the region of Rennes-le-Château and hinting at a tomb and a heresy that exist there. There are numerous connections for us to consider as we pick up the threads of what Olier was attempting at Saint-Sulpice and what Father Saunière communicated through his church.

Alchemy is a means to transformation at all levels of existence, from the purely material (as in the familiar image of the alchemist transforming lead into gold) to the more profound quest for spiritual enlightenment and gnosis: in other words, the transformation of the soul.

Rennes-le-Château is the perfect environment to illustrate this. A truly Hermetic aspect of the journey is that the red river called ‘Salt’ flows into the river called ‘White’ in exactly the same way that the ‘Ethiopian’ of the Splendor Solis joins and merges with the white queen. The names of the region’s hills, valleys, rivers, springs and caves and so on are seemingly inspired by the Great Work of alchemy, and once this is understood it makes perfect sense that the Priory of Sion should direct us to this area when we ask what secrets they hold.

As with life, things have moved or changed and landscapes around Rennes-le-Château have altered over time. Some land is now in private hands and inaccessible, some significant objects or sites have been removed or destroyed, and tree-planting programmes have obscured many of the views. This makes our journey difficult but not impossible, although I caution those who set out at midnight and expect to undertake the journey with ease. The landscape after dark is dangerous and unforgiving.

I must also warn you that the route can lead to a number of entrances to an underground passage, part of which passes under rivers. I was given a clear instruction not to attempt this passage before May as it is prone to flash floods in the winter months and is a death trap. I waited until the weather cleared but on the route I took I found that the underground passage had collapsed. More will be said on this in later chapters.

I think the idea of awakening from a long sleep, as mentioned in the final stanza and visited throughout the text with references to Sleeping Beauty, hints at a link between alchemy and the bloodline. The search for the lost queen continues but there are other gateways to the glory of the perfumed rose. For now we must leave behind the ever-uncoiling serpent to consider the final resting place of our Lady of the Crescents. I leave you with this passage from FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:

‘Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many Knots unravel’d by the Road; But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate.’