The Da Vinci Code, Holy Blood Holy Grail, and the current revival of interest in the relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus: all the current discussion started right here, with this story of a rebellious (and possibly renegade priest) who died in a little town in the French Languedoc, Rennes-le-Chateau. What secrets were revealed in the mysterious documents he may (or may not) have found in his church? How did a small local mystery evolve into a complicated web of speculation incorporating the family of Jesus, the lost kings of France (the Merovingian dynasty), the demon Asmodeus, the Knights Templar, the Cathars and the Albigensien Crusade, the gnostics, the gnostic gospels, the Holy Grail, the Green Man, St. Dagobert, St. Sulpice, the Plantagents, the Rosicrucians, the troubadours, the Masons, the French Resistance, the paintings of Da Vinci, the cult of the Black Madonna, the worship of Isis, strange geographical anomalies, mysterious French secret societies that may---or may not---exist, Cocteau, the paintings of Poussin, and so much more?
If you liked The Da Vinci Code, will love the famous "mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau" and Berenger Sauniere (the real Sauniere). Explore Sauniere's peculiar church, read the original story, and---once you're well and truly sucked in--- buy a copy of Holy Blood, Holy Grail (on which The Da Vinci Code heavily relied). I didn't like The Da Vinci Code, but I like this. It's all one big tangled skein of rumor, history, inference, speculation, wishful thinking, and weird patterns that might, or might not, be completely random. You know, like life itself, and the whole history of the world and origins of consciousness.
It's not history, of course, and it's not literature either. I've heard it called junk history, but I object to this label: what could be more enjoyable and intellectually stimulating than trying to piece together the elements of a mystery that no one can ever solve from bits and pieces of known history? (As long as you don't start believing in your own constructs, of course).
It's sort of the ultimate conspiracy theory, connecting everything to everything else, and showing that at some time or another everyone, even God, was involved. And not even God knows why. It's the conspiracy of random events making ripples in space time. Or, you know, whatever. And the beauty part is that the moving parts are all TRUE (i.e., based on rumors, allegations, and assertions that qualify as "history," whatever that meant before people could get it on tape.)
I learned a great deal of French history, and particularly about certain dead and gone religious and historical movements the survival of which would have changed the entire course of western religion. I became fascinated with the Cathars and the Gnostic Gospels; and with the history of the Languedoc generally,
How could any of that be bad? And it all started right here.
Comments