A Spanish connection? Part 4: a Kabbalistic Cabal

 

Diva

Did, or did Saunière not know Emma Calvé? The question is almost as old as the mystery itself. Officially, there is no evidence that Saunière visited Paris – and we should rightfully be sceptical about the major discovery he allegedly made in 1891 that took him to St Sulpice, as we know the mystery of the priest’s wealth predated 1891 by several years.
However, as it is clear that Saunière was a traveller, it is not impossible that at some point – if not more than once – he made his way to Paris. That in itself should not cause too much consternation; a man like Saunière might have wanted to see the nation’s capital, as a tourist, nothing more.

Emma Calvé

Few tourists to the capital however would find themselves in the company of Emma Calvé, at that time one of the biggest celebrities in France. Furthermore, we might assume that the establishment where Calvé hung out, should perhaps not be those where a priest should be seen.
It is therefore unlikely that Saunière and Calvé met. Nevertheless, that is precisely what the allegation is. And according to Henry Lincoln, who supported the thesis that the two knew each other, “someone” told him “for sure” that Saunière knew the diva; it was a certitude, though here was only oral evidence.
To this body of hearsay evidence, Chaplin adds more oral evidence: that Saunière knew Calvé, that Maria Tourdes knew her too, and that a friend of Tourdes, a Madame Juncosa, went to the castle Calvé had bought near Millau as late as the 1950s.
Still, it is possible that Saunière and Calvé met. How? The answer is actually quite simple. If Saunière was interested in, or a member of, an occult society, or attended their gatherings in Paris, than it is likely he would have chanced upon Calvé, who was a well-established visitor to such gatherings.

A stopover in Lyon

André Douzet uncovered evidence that Saunière attended a Martinist lodge meeting in Lyon. We do not yet have such evidence for a possible Parisian connection. Still… why was Saunière attending such meetings in Lyon? The register shows he was a visitor – attending a lodge meeting as he was in town. But as experts have pointed out, being a visitor does not mean you were a tourist; visitors were members of other lodges, in other towns, who visited a lodge elsewhere, in this case Lyon. Some experts even argue that only the higher grades were allowed such visits, suggesting that Saunière was a member of the upper echelons of Martinism.

In the same category as Lincoln’s hearsay evidence, we have hearsay evidence that Saunière was present in Lyon for the joining of two Martinist lodges, one from the Catalan area in Spain and the other from Lyon. When we learned about this information, in 2005, we were faced with several questions.
One: if Saunière was asked to execute the joining of two lodges, it meant he was highly regarded in that occult hierarchy. We had not seen any written evidence of this, beyond the attendance log in Lyon.
Two: why did a lodge from the Catalan region desiring to unite with a lodge in Lyon choose a mediator that lived in Rennes-le-Château? Though Saunière may have been high up the ranks, surely there were others better located – geographically – to manage this union?
Of course, Chaplin’s new material opens up another possibility: that Saunière was not a neutral bystander, but that he was actually a member, or linked with, members of this Catalan lodge.

Running in the family

Maximin & Melanie Calvet

The Girona group is interesting as it was apparently performing occult workings that created apparitions of “the Virgin”. As Saunière was apparently working the same magic, what to think of another “rumour” that Emma Calvé was related to Melanie Calvet… one of the people who witnessed the apparition of “the Virgin” at La Salette? Coincidence? For any doubting Thomases, we should point out that the artist’s civil name was Rosa-Emma Calvet.
Calvé knew personally the doyens of the Parisian occult scene: Stanislas de Guaïta, founder of the Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix, in 1888; Papus (Gérard Encausse), founder of the l'Ordre Martiniste in 1891; at the home of Edouard Bailly, she also met Jules Bois, who practiced demonology and interested Calvé in such and other rituals.
Her name is listed in the 'Diplôme d'Honneur' that was given to Papus on November 11, 1892 in Paris, by the Lodge “La Vérité”. Following her name, Calvé has written “S.I.” – “Supérieur Inconnu”?
We also find her signature on a request to create a Martinist lodge in Toulouse. The request is made to the Lyon lodge… which is the same lodge that Saunière was invited to attend while in Lyon. The plot, it seems, thickens…

More family connections

Chaplin’s central source of information is a descendent of Juli Tarres. Juli Tarres had known Saunière, and his grandson had known Maria Tourdes. Chaplin was told that Josep Tarres’s involvement with the Girona group was a work of several generations. Even his mother belonged to a society of Rosicrucians in France. As she was born in 1907, her role was obviously not as important as that of Juli Tarres. Chaplin was told his ancestors had been members of the central group in Paris, which had a branch in Narbonne – the town where Saunière is most likely to have been informed about his “mission” in 1886: to break the Bigou code and recover certain information his predecessor had stashed away in the run-up to the French Revolution.

“Rosicrucian”

Though Chaplin does not give a clear overview of the Masonic framework in which all of this should be seen, she does leave sufficient clues along the way.
Let us remember the presence of Julien Sacaze – or at least his works – both on “Les inscriptions antiques des Pyrénées” and his notes on Rosicrucianism.
When Chaplin is meeting with a member, the latter consults a file and suggests to Chaplin she should look into the “Orde Kabbalistique de la Rose Croix” in Paris; if Chaplin did as such, she does not expand in the book.

The Kabbalistic Order of the Rosy Cross

Though the organisation’s existence is well documented, let us note that it had a council of 12 members, six of them unknown, "so that the order could be resurrected in case of decay.” As such, precise details of the founding members and who did and did not belong, can not be exhaustively proven. By default, the more interesting members of this organisation will not have taken up the presidency, but will have been amongst the “unknown six”.
The history of occult organisation is confused at best, so let us note that the Kabbalistic Order was closely attached to the Martinist Order, as well as the Gnostic Church.

The Kabbalistic Order of the Rosy Cross was founded in Paris around 1888, with Marquis Stanislas de Guaita [1861-1897] as the first Grand Master. Let us note that 1888 was the year that Saunière apparently made his first voyage to Girona.
The Order was an amalgamation of various occult disciplines, including the Kaballah, the tarot, alchemy, numerology, etc. The initiations consisted of three degrees, and one secret fourth degree.
The three grades were often seen as an “open university” for adherents. The first exam resulted in a Bachelor's in Kabbalah and consisted of the study of the western tradition, particularly that of the Rose-Croix and the knowledge of the letters of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, their form, their name and their symbolism.
The second degree conferred a Licentiate in Kabbalah, focusing on the general history of religious traditions throughout the ages and how they reflect a more universal Truth, as well as the study of certain Hebrew words. This part of the exam was oral. A second written part consisted of a philosophical, moral or mystical question whose answer ought to have been made evident to the candidate by this point.
The third grade consisted of the defence of a thesis with discussions on all the points of the Tradition and conferred the degree of Doctorate of Kabbalah.

Apart from Stanilas de Guaita (who, as we mentioned, knew Emma Calvé), Papus, Spencer Lewis, Lucien Mauchel, Paul Sédir and Joany Bricaud were all linked with this organisation. Specifically the presence of Papus and Bricaud is of interest, for they are the Lyon pillar of this organisation, connecting us with the activities of Saunière in that town.
As such, we have a logical framework, even though evidence for various individual links is sketchy at best – but what would you expect from a secretive, occult society?

In 1886, Saunière is charged with a mission, from people in Narbonne, to began searches in Rennes-le-Château. In 1888, he goes to Girona, while in Paris, key occultists unite and create various new orders, some of which have a presence in Lyon.
One of Saunière’s Girona contacts, Juli Tarres, either already is, or will soon become, a member of one such order; other people connected with him in Girona do likewise.
A decade later, we find Saunière visiting a Martinist Lodge in Lyon, apparently there to unite a Catalan Martinist lodge with a Lyon lodge.

Saunière and the Kabbalah

In a letter Chaplin has recovered from Saunière, dated May 22, 1899, we read: “I am organising a retreat at the end of the month so will place the stones as Guillaume suggested.
Each of them is marked by a sign, which doesn’t mean anything. It is no more than a signature of the mason who hollowed and sealed it at that time.
I have studied the text but my grasp of Hebrew ritual is outmatched here.
I have shown it to a very old professor at Paris University and he thinks it might come from the Phoenician.”
It is not clear as to what the placement of the stones relate, though we have noted elsewhere that in the construction of the presbytery, his reading room, etc., he incorporated older stones with somewhat enigmatic signs, which are, indeed, “no more than a signature of the mason”.
That Saunière was indeed dabbling in the Kabbalah is shown by his familiarity with, though no expertise in, Hebrew rituals. We can only wonder whether his education in this language may have come about by studying for one of these Kabbalistic degrees the Order had organised. Finally, let us also note that he at least knew, if not had met, a professor in Paris – a town which Saunière visited at least twice, according to Chaplin.

The note

Chaplin’s book also contains a rather enigmatic note. “Passage to the Light”, it lists on the left a pyramid made up from the letters of Yahweh; on the right are the names of the four best-known Egyptian deities, Seth, Isis, Osiris, Nephtys, which not coincidentally spell out SION, when taking their initials. The note reads “Je connais SION”: I know SION… or I know the four Egyptian deities?
In short, the note refers to a union that is realised by overcoming the “antinomies”, to use the words of Péladan: Isis-Nephtys and Osiris-Seth, two triangles that thus form the Seal of Solomon.
This union is the pyramidion, the summit of the royal art, the only point where the four sides of the pyramid come together. It is a point and as it is “manifested”, it is a circle that surrounds the Seal of Solomon of the opposites. United, the point and the circle present the sun, Ra, or for the Masons, the eye in the triangle. Ra, of course, is the sun god, the god of light… and that seems to be the passage that is indicated.

130 and an uncompleted work

Chaplin also uncovered other notes of members from Saunière’s Girona group. Two of these notes have the writer sign off with his name and a curious symbol: a curved line, which looks like a mountain, and the number 130.
When she asked what it meant, she was that told that the number 130 related to the Kabbalah and Jacob’s ladder; the sign meant the work was uncompleted: “I want to complete the uncompleted.” As Freemasonic ideology has now become well-known, it is well-known that they had a preoccupation with placing the pyramidion on the pyramid: creating the union.
We asked an expert for further details and were told that in the Kabbalah, the number 130 stood for the “Temple of the Lord” and “Jacob’s Ladder”, which thus confirms Chaplin’s information.

Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob’s Ladder is a well-known story from Genesis. Jacob fell asleep on a stone and saw angels ascend and descend from heaven. The story is remarkable, for the stone is often linked with the Grail legend, specifically with the Grail stone, as it was described by Wolfram von Eschenbach. This stone was also the alchemical stone, with which the alchemist was meant to work.
To stumble upon Jacob’s Ladder in a group that is interested in the Grail as a stone and the Kabbalah is therefore rather logical.

As Dutch researcher Klaas van Urk has pointed out: there is a clear reference to Jacob’s Ladder in Saunière’s church: above the porch, we can read “TERRIBILIS EST LOCUS ISTE”. – “This Place is Terrible.” Though several assume it is merely a joke, it is indeed a direct quote from Jacob, when he saw the Ladder: “This Place is Terrible”, to continue that “this is the House of the Lord”. Or should that be “number 130”?

What is Jacob’s Ladder? Van Urk provides a concise summary: “Jacob’s Ladder is a Kabbalah working schedule, similar to the Tree of Life. It is a step by step search through the dimensions of the four elements (Earth, Water, Air and Fire) to the ultimate knowledge of God and awareness of his existence.” In short, it is similar – if not identical – with the contents of the note above.
But, importantly, it were specifically Freemasonic orders that used this Ladder; the likes of Martinez de Pasqually had described it as the symbol of reintegration.

Jacob’s Stone

Stone of Scone

The ritual seems to involve “the” Alchemist’s Stone – linked with Jacob’s stone, which marked the foundation of the ascent to heaven. Did this group have this stone in its possession? The answer is both no – and yes.
The most popular candidate for Jacob’s Stone is the so-called Stone of Scone, or Stone of Destiny, which in legend made its way from Jacob’s time via Egypt, Spain, Ireland, to Scotland, to end up in Westminster Abbey, and be returned to Scotland in 1996. However, there is little or no evidence to suggest this is the “real” Stone of Jacob.
Several cultures, across the world, from Europe to Mexico, have seen stones as important representations of the deities. No doubt, this global phenomenon is why we have the legend of Jacob’s Stone. To this day, in small Mexican villages, the old traditions remain alive – as they did until the last decade of the 20th century in remote areas of Scotland.

It is therefore possible that the Girona group had “a” such stone – but “the” stone? Furthermore, is this stone the mystery object which in the book is described on occasion as “the key”, “the Grail”, “the cup” and even “the activator”?
The reading of Genesis shows that it was Jacob’s sleeping on this stone that induced this vision of an ascent to Heaven and a meeting with God. And the Girona group seem to claim that it is their “activator” that is able to “activate” their ceremonies – their moving towards the light – or ascent to heaven.
Apparently, the ceremony is not without risk, as it seems to unleash a lot of power, with which the members of the group need to be able to work. If not, they fall “victim” and Chaplin notes that Alfred Saunière, who apparently participated in some of these rituals, may have collapsed and died during one such ritual.

“They showed me”

In one letter seen by Chaplin, Saunière is quoted as “they showed it to me, I laid my hand on it, I made it work and I’m holding it firmly”. In another letter, a member of the Girona group is warned off by his grandfather: “Saunière went too far. The ritual does not belong to the Church. He may have started in good faith but he must have done something wrong. Look how he ended up. […] If the Egyptians kept it secret, they must have had good reasons.”

And thus, we are back to the Grail, which for the Girona group is a mythical stone. We can only think back to Wolfram von Eschenbach, who travelled to the same general area and once back, in Germany, wrote the story of Parzival and his quest for the “Sacred Stone”. Patrice Chaplin is a modern Wolfram, who travelled to Girona and then wrote, in London, “City of Secrets”, about the esoteric side of this Spanish town.

Filip Coppens
We would like to thank Stéphane Chalandon and Klaas van Urk