“Arise !”

 

The exact nature of the relationship between Jesus & Mary Magdalene has, for more than twenty years, been at the centre of the mystery of Rennes-le-Château. In popular mythology, the secret of the village has become linked with their alleged marriage, resulting in offspring which apparently continued their existence in France, centuries later becoming the Merovingian rulers of France.
Let us work from another hypothesis: that Saunière was indeed interested in Mary Magdalene, but for a very specific reason: a reason which may possible be easily derived from the biblical accounts.

His wife?

Mary Magdalene appears only very late in the biblical events: in the final days of Jesus, she is constantly around the key events that would become known as the Passion. She is also the first to witness his resurrection from the tomb.
Apocryphical documents have in recent years come to light which show that Jesus and Mary Magdalene knew each other before the last week of his life. She is listed as one of his female disciples and seemed to be on intimate terms with him. Certain gospels, specifically those found in Nag Hammadi, give her an exalted position, whereby she, rather than Peter, seems to be the leader of his followers.
Still, the new evidence suggests that she is not Jesus’ wife – if anything, she specifically does not seem to be his wife, but a disciple.

Necromancy

Necromancy is divination by raising the spirits of the dead. The word derives from the Greek necros “dead” and manteia “divination”. Strabo referred to necromancy as the principal form of divination amongst the people of Persia, specifically widespread amongst the Sabians. The Babylonian necromancers were called Manzazuu or Sha’etemmu and the spirits they raised were called Etemmu.
The central rite of necromancy is a descent into the Underworld, which is also a common theme in Classical mythology. It survived in the Christian West in the “purgatories”, the most infamous of which was St Patrick’s Purgatory in western Ireland.

A classical example of a descent into the World is in the Odyssey (XI), where Odysseus makes a voyage to Hades, where he raises the spirits of the dead using spells which he had learnt from Circe. His intention was to invoke the shade of Tiresias, but he was unable to summon it alone without the accompaniment of others.
The story has some of the characteristics of the biblical story: the role of a woman who is instrumental in the descent. In Greek traditions, these were the sibyls or the famous Pythia; in the Egyptian rendition, it is Isis herself who descends into the Underworld, to retrieve the deceased Osiris – and raise him from his tomb.

There are many references to necromancy in the Bible. The Book of Deuteronomy (XVIII 9–12) explicitly warns the Israelites against the Canaanite practice of divination from the dead. This warning was not always heeded: King Saul asked the Witch of Endor to invoke the shade of Samuel.
The raising of Lazarus is, in its biblical setting, a clear example of necromancy. It has been suggested that the Jews took action against Jesus as a direct consequence of this; as we just noted, the Jews did not endorse this practice.
In its biblical account, it is Jesus, not a woman, who raises Lazarus. But did Jesus himself get raised by a woman – Mary Magdalene? Raising – to rise – is the act of the resurrection, of whom Jesus is the most famous example. “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Christianity and necromancy

Necromancy rode its way into Christian Europe on the wave of Arab documents finding their way mainly into France with the Spanish Reconquista in the late 11th century. It reached Chartres, where John of Salisbury is listed as a prime example of a “group of monks, canons and lay men, who were plotting to invoke the demon Berich”.
The phenomenon continued to exist. The 17th century Rosicrucian Robert Fludd describes Goetic necromancy as “diabolical commerce with unclean spirits, in rites of criminal curiosity, in illicit songs and invocations and in the evocation of the souls of the dead”. Today, necromancy is extensively practised in voodoo.
It may come as a surprise that it were the Christians themselves who were wholly responsible for the propagation and ongoing practice of necromancy. There are confessions of the clergy members themselves professing a history of experience with necromancy. Necromancy became a way for idle literate Christian clergymen to integrate Hebrew and Arabic legend and language into forbidden manuals of sorcery.
Many have also noted the parallels with the Christian rites, specifically that of exorcism. In exorcism, various demons and spirits are driven away in the name of God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. The spells of necromancy are the exact opposite: specific demons are invited to inhibit a place, artefact or person.

The raising of a spirit and “bringing him out of the Underworld” requires a physical “thing”; the spirit can be tied to an amulet, a specific place or can be attached to a person. The latter would be seen as a person that is “possessed” and against which exorcisms could occur. But it does not need to take such an extreme form. Magi or sorcerers in the Middle East were believed to be “possessed” by such an entity, but the co-operation between both was largely of their own free will.
Lynn Picknett has highlighted that there are accounts that mention that John the Baptist was believed to “work” with a spirit, as referenced in Matthew 11:18. Jesus himself was believed to be “possessed” by the spirit of John the Baptist, after the latter’s decapitation.
The most potent form of necromancy is to tie the raised spirit with a part of a body. Even more powerful is to tie it to a part of his own body, which brings up interesting correlations between the medieval interest in Christian relics and necromancy. The most powerful form of necromancy was to murder a person, keep a part of his body, and then raise his spirit to inhabit that part. It is clear where Hollywood thrillers have gotten their inspiration from… The film The Mummy is exactly that…

The preparation for the descent to the underworld is also linked with a rite known as “horasis”. This is, in essence, preparation of the “descender”. It is known as Anointing – which is exactly what “Christos” means.
There are variations as to what this preparation involves. In some rites, it is the anointment of the head and the feet. In others, it was the anointment of the entire body. In some rites, it was felt that the entire male body represented the phallus (in Egypt identified with the Creator God Atum) and that the anointment of the body was therefore the wiping of the phallus with a fluid. The act was performed by a female priest and the fluid was to represent either the male sperm (which in some cases it no doubt was) or the female semen. Again, variations exist. In essence, it was a preparation of the body, in which an altered state of consciousness was attempted, either through sexual ecstasy, drugs, massage, meditation, etc.

In Greek oracular sites, we see the presence of this preparation occurring as well, by female priests; the male “traveller” is then led inside the main centre, whereby in some cases, such as the Oracular site of Baia, the male traveller met a priestess inside, who called upon the spirits of the dead for him.
Many variations on the central “descent” once again exist. But the framework of this Descent – and the subsequent Rise – is largely identical to the events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus.
Here, we find a woman with an alabaster jar, Mary Magdalene, who anoints Jesus’ feet. When Jesus is inside the tomb, officially “dead”, it seems that Mary Magdalene remains around. When Jesus has “risen”, she is the first to see him. Furthermore, she is asked, when she sees him, not to touch him. The bible makes it appear as if this is because Jesus is somehow merely a “spiritual projection” and if she were to touch him, she would somehow “go through” him, as if he is a mirage. But the original Greek words used in this “please do not touch” episode make it clear that Jesus is merely asking Mary Magdalene not to touch him, for a mundane reason, like she may get dirty herself. We can therefore only wonder whether the “Risen Jesus” was still “anointed”.

“On the third day”

Though not mentioned in the Bible, the Christian Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus Christ “descended to hell, on the third day rose again from the dead.” There is no mention of this incident in the gospels, and the few references elsewhere in the New Testament are vague and not necessarily relevant. How, then, did the descent into hell find its way into the Creed? It seems that certain material was excised from the gospels, even though it may have been at the core of original Christianity. The most imaginative description of Jesus’ descent is found in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus.
There is little doubt that this rite involved a temporary death for the participants. The rite was furthermore not typically “Christian”. The initiate Apuleius reported that “the delivery of her mysteries [of Isis] is celebrated as a thing resembling a voluntary death”; and when describing his own experience he wrote that he “approached to the confines of death, and having trod on the threshold of Persephone, I returned from it.” (Apuleius, Metamorphoses, XI, 21, 23)
Plutarch stated: “At the time of death, the soul has an experience like that of men who are undergoing initiation into great mysteries” (Plutarch, Fragments, 178). He then discussed the close connection between the Greek verb forms teleutan and teleisthai, respectively “to die” and “to be initiated.”
One of the leading authors on this descent in the late 19th century was the Theosophist H.P. Blavatsky. In The Secret Doctrine, she wrote: “The initiated adept, who had successfully passed through all the trials, was attached, not nailed, but simply tied on a couch in the form of a tau […] plunged in a deep sleep […] he was allowed to remain in this state for three days and three nights, during which time his Spiritual Ego was said to confabulate with the “gods,” descend into [the Greek] Hades, [the Egyptian] Amenti, […] and do works of charity to the invisible beings, whether souls of men or Elemental Spirits; his body remaining all the time in a temple crypt or subterranean cave.” (2:558)

Saunière the magician ?

This may seem to be millions of miles from the world of Rennes-le-Château, but it is not. On a straightforward level, we know that Saunière’s church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene. The church is replete with images of her beside Jesus, anointing him, in preparation for his crucifixion and entombment. Elsewhere, there is a scene in which Jesus raises Lazarus, who is believed to have been Mary Magdalene’s brother.
The other evidence is less well-known. For example, when Noël Corbu acquired the Villa Bethania, he made a thorough inspection of the premises. He found, apparently hidden behind a plinth, a small booklet, clearly belonging to Saunière, written in medieval Arabic. The document is an invocation of “entities”, including one specific entity – who will remain nameless for the moment.
We note that the entrance to his church has another demon: Asmodeus. Various “psychic inclined” people have observed strange phenomena in and around Rennes-le-Château. For visitors, this often is nothing more than a “strange vision” or a “time slip”. For some residents, it takes on more ominous forms. One resident, living close to Saunière’s estate, has spoken of having an apparition of Asmodeus himself, in the living room. This person just happens to be the current owner of Saunière’s book of demonic invocations.
A team of psychic researchers have felt Asmodeus’ presence just outside of the village. Even merely inquisitive people have often been drawn to this location, photographing it, but without any apparent reason or awareness why they do this.
The location “coincidentally” is owned by this same inhabitant.
It coincides with conclusions made by the team of The Rise article, who in their second article, ask whether Saunière did indeed not dabble in the occult, specifically in the raising of demons. If Saunière was indeed involved in necromancy, it may explain what he was doing in his cemetery, at night, digging up corpses – which resulted in an official complaint from the villagers.

The Magic circle

Magic circles are known to give protection to the “witch”. It creates a protected space, in which the magician is also to operate, allowing on those forces in which he wants to let in – and keeping all others at bay.
In his detailed study of the layout of Saunière’s estate, Guy Patton has shown that the entire estate contains an intriguing pentagram – a well-known magical symbol, which is used in the invocation of spirits and acts like a magic circle does. We can only wonder whether this is a coincidence, or whether it has anything to do with the presence of a “magical entity”, Asmodeus or otherwise.

Vincent de Paul, sorcerer ?

One other person, listed in the mystery of Rennes-le-Château, may be linked with magic and sorcery. Vincent de Paul was the founder of Lazarist movement. His life is marked with an absence for approx. two years, which he allegedly spent in Arabia, as a slave to a man who taught Vincent de Paul magic. Later, de Paul would make sure to highlight that he himself knew the rites, but never practiced them – at least, when he had done these initially, they had been under duress. Late in life and by then a well-known public figure, de Paul tried to get a hold of these letters, realising no doubt that they were an admission of his dabbling in the occult.

The Underworld

Hades, otherwise known as the Underworld, was the abode of the dead or, more accurately, of departed souls. It is necessary to distinguish between Hades the locality and Hades the god of the Underworld, the god of the dead. Hades comes from a Greek root meaning “unseen,” “hidden,” or “unknown.” Relevant comparisons can be found in the Egyptian religion, where the equivalent of Hades is Amenti, meaning “hidden place” or “place of the hidden god,” and in the roots of the word hell, which had a sense of “hiding” or “concealing.” In mythology, Hades was located under the earth, and the god Hades was the principal of the Underworld deities; hence the journey to Hades involved a descent.

Although hell is usually thought of as a hot place and one to be feared, the northern Helheim, abode of Hel, ranged from a very cold world to sunlit meadows and was not necessarily one to frighten mortal hearts. Likewise, Hades in ancient traditions was not just a place where sinful souls were tortured. The Greeks saw it also as a gateway to a heaven-like existence. One road in Hades led to Tartaros where imaginative punishments were administered, the other, the right hand road, led to the Elysian Fields.
A descent into the Underworld, the abode of the deceased, is therefore “emotionally neutral” – you can make it joyous or not, though many entered it in search of deceased loved ones. This is, it seems, what most of the Greek oracular sites were used as, as was the Irish St Patrick’s Purgatory.

In Jesus’ image

Jesus was not the first to argue that a descent into the Underworld held the promise of eternal life. The voyage itself was seen as the ultimate test of initiation, in which the successful initiate would come away with “full consciousness”. The reward is immortality, though it should not be automatically assumed that this was physical immortality. Rather, it may be seen as the “Kingdom of Heaven” of Biblical fame.
It seems unlikely that Jesus was indeed the “Son of God” in any physical sense. But Jesus may have been a magician – as more and more evidence is uncovered offering proof for this – in a tradition of “Resurrectionists”, who performed this rite.
Knowledge of this was therefore not limited to Jesus himself. In large parts of the world, the rites were known – and must have survived into Christianity. The question needs to be asked whether the rites continued to exist for centuries, and whether a certain number of priests – perhaps even Saunière himself – decided to literally step in the footsteps of Jesus “Christ”, and perform the acts of magic.

A lot of source material exists on the Descent and Rise, specifically from the Renaissance onwards, when ancient Greek and Roman treatises were translated. It I thus known that the famous Eleusinian Mysteries were the origin of most of the classical references to a descent into Hades, including Plato’s. Their establishment is described in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which dates from the 7th century BC.
The most famous rendition is the story of Orpheus, who went to Hades to plead for the release of the soul of his dead wife, Eurydice. His beautiful music captivated the god of the dead, who granted his request on condition that if Orpheus looked back when leaving the Underworld, Eurydice must return to Hades. Orpheus failed to honour this rule of the spiritual path and his journey was in vain. In the Orphic Mysteries to which Orpheus lent his name, the descent theme was prominent. In a later phase of this religion, devotees were buried with small gold tablets on which were etched not only descriptions of the entrance to Hades, but also intimations of the mystic ritual to prepare the departing soul for its after death journey. What originally had been a conscious and meaningful experience had by then become a mere formula, underlining the role of books such as those found in Saunière’s villa.

Arise !

A series of questions needs to be posed. Is it possible that Saunière belonged to a group of priests that were familiar with an ancient knowledge of “Resurrection” – Descent and Rise into Purgatory – and practiced – or dabbled – in these rites? If so, is there a connection with Perillos? Perillos, the site which forms the centre of his model, on which he marked the “Tomb of Jesus Christ”. Perillos, whose lord Ramon de Perillos, went on a voyage to Ireland, St Patrick’s Purgatory, to contact the spirits of the deceased, only to retain and exclaim that his territory contained a “gateway” to “another world” – the Underworld? Hades?

Filip Coppens