Mysteries of Templar Treasure and the Holy Grail: The Secrets of Rennes Le Chateau - Softcover

Fanthorpe, Lionel; Fanthorpe, Patricia; Wallace-Murphy, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 157863315X ISBN 13: 9781578633159

Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2004

Synopsis

Next to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, no other place on Earth holds as much esoteric symbolism as France's Rennes le Ch'teau. Its location and design are the subjects of countless rumors, myths, and legends. Mysteries of Templar Treasure and the Holy Grail, formerly published as The Secrets of Rennes le Chateau, delves into the reality behind the action and adventure of The Da Vinci Code. Rennes le Chateau has plenty of secrets: buried treasure, unsolved murders, supernatural powers, codes on parchments and tombstones, not to mention clues concealed in statues and paintings, enigmatic priests who controlled immense wealth, and secret societies that are still active today.

The authors survey the arcane history and secrets of Rennes le Chateau, including its relationship to the Merovingian bloodline of Christ. The Chateau is a possible location of an immense treasure, such as a Templar, Cathar, or Priory of Sion hoard. The final resting place of a famous artifact like the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Longinus, the Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus or even the Holy Grail.

The authors also examine Rennes le Chateau's proximity to Cathar and Templar fortresses, its mystical layout, and its location on the same Paris meridian as so many other esoteric mysteries.

Extensive appendices in the book offer possible solutions to secret cryptograms, point out odd connections and commonalities between Rennes le Chateau and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and suggest the possibility of fourthdimension/tesseract implications.

About this title

About the Author

Lionel Fanthorpe taught history at Gamlingay Village College in Cambridgeshire and presented two acclaimed TV series: Talking Stones and Castles of Horror. In addition to his writing, lecturing, and radio and TV work, he is also Director of Media Studies at Cardiff Academy in Wales, UK. Coauthor Patricia, a meticulous historical researcher, is Lionel's business partner, agent, manager, PR executive and wife.

Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe live in Cardiff, Wales. Lionel has an Advanced Mains Distinction in Divinity awarded by Cambridge University's Institute of Education. He has written many books on religious topics, and is an ordained Priest. Although primarily an acknowledged world authority on paranormal phenomena and unsolved mysteries, his biblical and theological knowledge is also immense. He is also the host of the popular UK television program Fortean TV, while Patricia serves as his agent, PR executive, and coresearcher. Their latest bestsellers from Hounslow Press include: The Oak Island Mystery: The Secret of the World's Greatest Treasure Hunt (1995), The World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries (1997), The World's Most Mysterious People (1998), and The World's Most Mysterious Places (1999).

<br /><br /> Tim Wallace-Murphy is an author and lecturer with an international reputation. He is the driving force behind the creation of the European Templar Heritage Research Network and author of Rosslyn and The Mark of the Beast.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Mysteries of Templar Treasure & the Holy Grail

The Secrets of Rennes-Le-Château

By Lionel Fanthorpe, Patricia Fanthorpe

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 1992 Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-315-9

Contents

Introduction to the Mystery
Chapter 1: Rennes-le-Château and its Area
Chapter 2: The History of Rennes-le-Château
Chapter 3: Theological and Religious Factors
Chapter 4: The Real Messianic Message
Chapter 5: Lines, Shrines and Signs
Chapter 6: Codes, Ciphers and Cryptograms
Chapter 7: Magicians, Alchemists and Men of Mystery
Chapter 8: The Habsburg Connection
Chapter 9: Priests and Prelates
Chapter 10: The Overseas Enigma
Chapter 11: Glimpses and Glances
Chapter 12: Conclusions
Appendices
Bibliography
Index

CHAPTER 1

RENNES-LE-CHÂTEAU AND ITS AREA

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.

Not far from the Naurouze Gap which separates the eastern Pyrenees from France'scentral massif lies the village of Rennes-le-Château. Mediterranean chestnut,Hermes oak and cork oak all flourish here in the eastern Pyrenees. Broom growsprolifically and ubiquitously on the hillsides, and there are countless hectaresof tough, drought-resistant bushes of the species which are native to Provence.

The eastern Pyrenees are cut by the valleys of the Agly, the Tech and the Tet;and the Agly has sculpted an interesting line of cretaceous marls. Theneighbouring Corbières with their hard palaeozoic core seem to be fighting astubborn rearguard action on behalf of the central massif.

Rennes and its immediate surroundings rest on cretaceous limestone: the area isrich in sharp, jagged crests with stark, singular profiles, labyrinthine cavesand subterranean rivers and streams. Despite the heavy undergrowth andafforestation on most of the nearby slopes, the hill on which Rennes itselfstands is comparatively bleak. Only the scant, tough, mountain grasses and anoccasional shrub cover its ponderous limestone base.

This absence of cover would have appealed to its original neolithic settlers(some of whose stone axe-heads and other artefacts have been discovered in thearea by M. Henri Fatin, the owner of the ancient Château Hautpoul) as well as tothe Celt-related Tectosages (an interesting ethnic title probably meaning "wisebuilders or makers, skilled craftsmen") who were probably living in Rennes atabout the same time that Pericles was guiding the Athenians. The bare slopes ofthe hill on which Rennes-le-Château stands give its defenders a clear view ofany potential enemies while they are still several kilometres away. Militarystrategists among the Romans, Visigoths, Septimanians, Merovingians,Carolingians and their successors would also have found Rennes an eminentlydefensible site.

Couiza lies on the main D118 road between the towns of Limoux in the north andQuillan in the south, while Rennes-le-Château it self is less than fivekilometres south of Couiza. Montazels, which adjoins the western outskirts ofCouiza, is a fascinating old hilltop village — "Mount Hazel" in its anglicisedform, and some folklorists traditionally associate the hazel with wisdom. It washere in Montazels on April 11th, 1852, that Bérenger Saunière was born in anarrow, three-storeyed house with iron verandas overlooking the curious"Fountain of the Tritons". The Tritons depicted on this fountain are reminiscentof dolphins in many respects, but their heads are grotesque. The foreheads aremuch too high for an aquatic mammal, or for a fish, and the rows of regularteeth look distinctly human. Some early artists portrayed Triton, the son ofNeptune and Amphitrite, as a man down to the waist, the rest of him being afish's tail. The statue in the Vatican museum which shows Triton abducting anymph portrays him with a horse's forelegs, as well as a human torso from thewaist up — rather like a centaur.

Ancient tradition places Triton's home just off the coast of Libya, where he issaid to live with his parents in a beautiful golden palace below the sea.

This "Fountain of the Tritons" may well be a significant clue in the Rennesmystery. Firstly, Saunière built his watchtower looking out directly towards hisold home beside that fountain in Montazels, and with the fountain just behindus, we photographed Saunière's tower during a research visit to Montazels in1990. Secondly, we believe, the Rennes mystery has links with the Money Pit onOak Island, Nova Scotia, which we studied in 1988, and interviewed DanBlankenship, the site manager. The Money Pit is currently being explored by asyndicate called Triton Alliance with whom Dan is closely associated. Thirdly,there is a very curious legend concerning the birth of Mérovée, alias Merovech,alias Merovaeus, the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. According to thislegend, Mérovée's mother, the wife of King Clodion le Chevelu (Clodion the longhaired),was impregnated twice before Mérovée was born: first by Clodion, thenby some sort of merman, sea-monster or aquatic demi-god while she was swimming.Was this the mysterious Triton (whoever or whatever Triton really was)?

The traveller who follows the banks of the River Aude from north to south, as itflows to the west of Rennes-le-Château, comes first to Alet-les-Bains, thenCastel Nègre (the Black Castle) followed by the turning to the east which leadsto Luc (meaning light). Once south of Couiza, the Aude trail leads through thevillage of Campagne, the town of Quillan and on to Belvianes. Immediately southof Belvianes, the river passes between two dramatic and curiously named naturalfeatures: to the west le Trou du Curé (the Priest's Hole, or the Priest'sCanyon); to the east Les Murailles du Diable (the Devil's Ramparts). The BlackCastle beside the Village of Light? The Priest's Canyon opposite the Devil'sRamparts? No more than fanciful and romantic local place names perhaps, but inview of the strange rumours and legends saturating Rennes and the surroundingarea they may be a clue to something more.

It is equally interesting to follow the course of the River Sals, which means"salt", and there is yet another strange coincidence here concerning names.Saunière can mean "salt-maker" and salt is a powerful religious symbol: it is apurifying agent used in rituals of exorcism; it represents the power of goodnessand light; it heals and it cleanses; both literally and metaphorically it givesflavour and meaning to an otherwise dull and tasteless existence. Jesus himselftold the first disciples that they were the salt of the earth. The Rennesmystery has connections with Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England, home ofthe extremely wealthy Admiral Anson. In the grounds of Shugborough Hall standsThe Shepherd Monument: a mirror image in stone of Poussin's "Shepherds ofArcadia". Staffordshire is a salt county. Natural brine wells up to the surfacein many places there. So much salt is produced that cattle standing in what thelocals call the "plashes" of natural brine soon become white with crystallinesalt.

A small tributary of the Sals called the Rialsesse, which flows into it from theeast, passes close to the site of the Tomb of Arques, flowing at the very footof the limestone promontory on which the tomb stood until it was unaccountablyrazed by the new owner of the site in 1988. The demolished tomb had been erectedby an American named Lawrence in 1903, and was an exact replica of the one withthe Et in Arcadia Ego inscription featured in Poussin's canvas.

It was Visigothic practice in the fifth century, and probably for some yearsafterwards, to bury their kings surrounded by their royal treasures in secretchambers concealed below river beds. The technique was to dam the river anddivert its course temporarily while the bed was excavated and the burial chamberprepared. Once the dead king and his treasures were safely interred, and thewaterproof subterranean chamber properly sealed, camouflaging sand and gravelwould be raked over the site and the dam demolished. The all-concealing riverthen resumed its original course. Within a few weeks it would be almostimpossible to locate the site, and, even if it was located, without sufficientmanpower to divert the river again, it would be almost impossible to profane theking's tomb. Unless, of course, a secret passage was constructed ... perhaps fromthe base of a tomb on the bank?

Pierre Jarnac's Archives du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château reproduce our 1975photographs of the Tomb of Arques and the two coffins it then contained. Jarnacrecords on the same page that a M. Adams says that the tomb also contains — oronce contained — a very large iron wheel, fixed in the wall, and carrying anendless chain. It did not show up on our 1975 photographs, but that does notmean it wasn't there. It might simply have been out of camera range.

The Sals rises several kilometres southeast of Sougraine, and flows on northwestthrough Rennes-les-Bains. Shortly before entering this ancient village, the Salsis reinforced by the River Blanque, and immediately to the west of theirconfluence are three very curious and significant landmarks: the Dead Man; theDevil's Armchair and the Trembling Rock. Beside the road which follows the curveof the River Blanque, and immediately south of these three strange landmarks,lie the ruins of a very ancient mine; a few hundred metres south of that mine isa heritage.

As we follow the Sals through Rennes-les-Bains itself, we pass the ancientchurch where Boudet — at least as enigmatic a figure as Saunière — worked for somany years prior to the First World War, and the presbytery where he laboriouslyassembled his cryptic volume about the old Celtic language. This timelesssettlement with its thermal springs — well-known since Roman times — has thesame deep, secretive atmosphere that envelopes Rennes-le-Château.

From Rennes-les-Bains the Sals flows almost due north between the Pech Cardou tothe west and the high slopes which hide the ruined Château Blanchefort to theeast. Below Blanchefort juts the sinister Black Rock, and halfway up the mightyside of Cardou stands the White Rock: again that balance; again that challenge — itis as though the two cosmic forces of Good and Evil, Darkness and Light,Order and Chaos (central to the Gnostic beliefs of the Cathars who once throngedthe Languedoc) are dramatically and repeatedly symbolised in so many of therivers, mountains and landmarks of this mysterious region.

At the tiny hamlet of Pachevan, the Sals turns due east towards the littlehillside village of Cassaignes. There is a mystery here, too. In the cemetery ofCassaignes, incongruous among the nineteenth and twentieth century tombs andmemorial carvings which surround it, stands an ancient, weathered stone cross,unmistakably of octagonal Visigothic cross-section. It has probably stood therefor fifteen hundred years. What mystery does it cover? To what secret hidingplace does it point?

Coustaussa is the next hillside village. There is a ruined Château here, withgaunt stone fingers that point upwards starkly like the hand of a traveller whohas died of thirst in the desert and still points accusingly at the mercilesssun. In the cemetery of Coustaussa lies the body of the murdered priest, AntoineGélis, savagely struck down by some unknown hand in his own presbytery, here inthe village in 1893. A solitary and secretive old man, Gélis normally answeredthe door only to his niece, when she called with food or clean laundry for him.On the tragic evening when he neglected his own prudent rule, whoever — orwhatever — got into his presbytery, attacked him with heavy iron fire-tongs, andfinished him with an axe while he was apparently trying to struggle towards thewindow overlooking the street in a vain attempt to summon help. What seems evenmore sinister and macabre is that the murderer then coolly and calmly laid outthe body — as solemnly and respectfully as a priest or an undertaker might havedone.

There were three great pools of blood on the presbytery floor but there was notone telltale foot or fingerprint to be seen. Gélis had considerable sums ofchurch money lying about the presbytery: none of these had been touched. Alocked deed box, however, had been forced and the contents rifled. Very probablysome interesting documents had been removed — but what were they? And what madethem more important than the old priest's life? What strange, paradoxical,psychopathic type of killer could strike down a defenceless old man with an axe,and then spend vital getaway time in laying out the body?

There is another mystery centred on Coustaussa, which would not have come to ourattention without the invaluable help of M. Henri Fatin, the proprietor ofChâteau Hautpoul in Rennes-le-Château. M. Fatin showed us around his fascinatingand historic home, and very generously gave us several hours of his time. Amongthe many interesting theories he discussed with us was the possibility that theactual street layout of Rennes-le-Château had been deliberately designed toapproximate to the form of an ancient "boat of the dead" — including thegigantic outline of a dead warrior, complete with helmet. He lies with his backto the north, his head to the east — towards Jerusalem, the Holy City. His feetare towards the west — the Isles of the Dead, the Twilight Lands of the SettingSun. The casque, or helmet, of this dead warrior is very plainly outlined, andChâteau Hautpoul occupies the midpoint of his back, approximately where the keelof the boat would join the underside of the hull. Having once been made aware ofsuch a possibility through our discussions with M. Fatin, we noticed that theoutline plan of the village of Coustaussa also bears an uncanny resemblance tothe helmeted head of a dead warrior. Were these original street plans laid outas gargantuan memorials to ancient lords and heroes? Pyramids decay; the deepestlines carved on stone become indecipherable as aeons pass: but streets, tracksand roadways last as long as men walk them.

There is another possibility: deliberate designs of this size and scale arereadily visible from above, and their outlines become clearer as the observer'sdistance from them increases. Compare this with the various giants and whitehorses cut into the chalk of several English hillsides, and the inexplicablelines of Nazca, which Erich von Däniken once maintained were intended for theuse of ancient astronauts or aviators. In a mountainous district like that inwhich Rennes-le-Château is located there are numerous ridges, peaks and otherviewpoints from which the layout of an entire village is clearly visible.

Almost due north of Rennes-le-Château, the Sals joins up with the Aude atCouiza, and, having briefly traced the courses of these rivers, we can centreour attention on Rennes itself and its relationship to the significant sites andlandmarks nearby.

A bearing of zero degrees leads to the Black Castle. At 7 degrees we find Luc,the Village of Light; 39 degrees (significantly 13 x 3!) is the bearing forCoustaussa with its mysterious ruined Château and the grave of Antoine Gélis,its brutally murdered nineteenth century priest. A bearing of 55 degrees leadsto Cassaignes, where the cemetery contains the ancient Visigothic cross —incongruous among the more modem memorials. The ruined Château Blanchefort is ona bearing of 72 degrees: exactly one fifth of the 360 degrees of a full circle,and exactly the size of each external angle in a regular pentagon. In Poussin'sfamous picture of the "Shepherds of Arcadia", the geometry of the painting isbelieved by at least one expert to be based on a regular pentagon, which extendsoutside the frame. The centre of this pentagon is said to coincide with the headof the shepherdess. Some other investigators are convinced that pentagonsfeature prominently in the landscape and topography of the Rennes area, and, ofcourse, the pentagon has been regarded for centuries as a potent magical symbol.

A bearing of 87 degrees from Rennes-le-Château points towards the mysteriouscave in the Bézis Valley, near what the maps usually label the Berco Petito, butwhich Stanley James refers to as Berque Petite in his Treasure Maps of Rennesle-Château.Taking a bearing of 105 degrees leads to Rennes-les-Bains; 114degrees locates the village of Sougraine; 115 degrees takes us over to theDevil's Armchair; 117 degrees is the direct line to the Trembling Rock; the 121degree line arrives first at the Dead Man and beyond that at the ancient mineclose to the bank of the River Blanque where it runs parallel to the narrow,winding D14road connecting Rennes-les-Bains with Bugarach. The 147 degreebearing leads to the ruined Château of the Templars, which lies less than twokilometres to the west of Le Bézu.

Travelling due south from Rennes-le-Château on a bearing of 180 degrees bringsthe traveller to several more ancient mines. Exactly two kilometres due south ofRennes lies the Aven. The fascinating black dot which marks its location on theofficial map produced by the Institut Géographique National for the area isshown on the key as representing Entree de mine, d'excavation souterraine — entranceto a mine or subterranean excavation. Aven is close to the French wordavenir with its sense of futurity, hopes, expectations and prospects. Merely acoincidence? Or is it another of those very curious verbal connections whichappealed so strongly to the brilliant but devious mind of the author of La VraieLangue Celtique, Abbé Henri Boudet?

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Mysteries of Templar Treasure & the Holy Grail by Lionel Fanthorpe, Patricia Fanthorpe. Copyright © 1992 Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 157863315X
• ISBN 13: 9781578633159
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272