The origins of the Priory of Sion Part 5: More initiates?

 

A female angel?

Throughout its existence, from its very beginning in Lyon in the 16th century, the Angelic Society seems to have been an informal community of writers with a specific rapport towards angels, if not their guardian angels. Maurice Barrès and Jean Cocteau may be the two authors that have recently achieved most notoriety for their claims, but they were not alone. Another suspected member of an Angelic Society is George Sand.
This French author was a good friend of Eugene Delacroix, the man responsible for the angelic paintings in the Chapel of the Angels in St Sulpice. He painted her in 1838, seven years after her first novel was published. This portrait was originally part of a larger painting showing both George Sand and Frédéric Chopin, one of the men she would have a relationship with following her divorce. Delacroix painted several portraits of her from 1834 onwards. He also stayed repeatedly with her in Nohant, in 1842, 1843 and 1846. Her son Maurice Sand worked for a while in the atelier of the master and she dedicated a work to him.

Meet thy angel

A far more prominent suspect is Anatole France, the author of "La Revolte des Anges” (Revolt of the Angels). France was a friend of Barres, as well as of Victor-Emile Michelet, through whom he knew Papus. In “Le Temps”, June 1, 1890, he wrote: “This ancient house [the college of France] has this endearment that it is open to all novelties. Everything is taught there. I desire that they would teach the rest. I wish that they create a Chair of Magic for Mr. Papus.” His novel “La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque » was inspired by the work Le Comte de Gabalis by Montfaucon de Villars.
But it is specifically “Revolt of the Angels” that features both St Sulpice and angels. It starts “beneath the shadow of St. Sulpice” in the ancient mansion of the d’Esparvieu family, which contains an elaborate family library. Its librarian and cataloguer begins to notice that each night, a number of books are mysteriously displaced from his carefully ordered shelves, which is beginning to drive the man insane, specifically as it is clear that no human agent can be responsible for the crime.
The librarian is also friends with Guinardon, a restorer of paintings, whose “favourite subject was the Chapelle des Anges in Sulpice”, in which Delacroix’s paintings were peeling of the walls (the novel is set in 1914) and where he was tasked to restore them. Guinardon states that “Michel is my patron saint. And I have a special devotion for the Angels.”
It is however Maurice d’Esparvieu who will begin to take on a primary role. A man destined to little greatness in his own life, turns out to be a person whose guardian angel manifests himself to him. First, the guardian angel tells him that he is the one that is responsible for the disturbance of the library, as he has been studying: he has just materialised as he has chosen Paris to prepare the Revolt of the Angels against, not God, but an usurper demiurge, Ialdabaoth. As such, he can no longer be Maurice’s guardian angel, for he has greater things on his mind.

Revolting Angels

Already, it is intriguing to note that the guardian angel is named Arcade – close if not identical to Arcadia, the theme so beloved by the Angelic Society. This is his name amongst men, for the angels, his name is Abdiel. Abdiel in Hebrew means “Servant of God” and is identified in the Bible (1 Chronicles 5:15). He was a Seraph in the Sepher Raziel and features prominently in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, from where France most likely took his inspiration from.
However, in Paradise Lost, Abdiel denounces Satan after hearing him incite revolt among the angels, and abandons Lucifer to bring the news of his defection to God. His devotion to Lucifer in Revolt of the Angels is never in doubt. His enemy is the demiurge… and his army of faithful angels, led by Michael.

It also becomes clear that Arcade is not the only materialised angel in Paris and over the next few weeks, several convene, plan and plot to overthrow the demiurge from his throne and place Lucifer on it. Three long chapters of the book in fact are a “history lesson” in the history of the angels, which includes a detailed account of their first attack, before Time, to overthrow Ialdabaoth from his throne – which had caused Lucifer’s fall. With preparations all in place, Arcade and his fellow conspirators goes to Lucifer’s place of exile on Earth, to inform him that his army is ready to fight for the throne. In the final analysis, Lucifer has a dream in which his army is able to conquer the demiurge and expel him from heaven; then, he wakes up, stating he will not fight; instead, he believes that we need to fight and conquer Ialdabaoth within ourselves.

The man behind the angels

The book is somewhat autobiographical. France was the son of bookseller and after working for his father, secured the position of a cataloguer at Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre, when in 1876 he was appointed a librarian for the French Senate. “Revolt of the Angels” was written in 1914 and is considered to be his masterpiece. Indeed, it could be argued that it was the book that led him to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. But apart from a Nobel Prize, in the 1920s, France's writings were also put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books"), the list of publications which the Catholic Church censored for being a danger to itself and the faith of its members. (John Milton and George Sand also feature on this list.)
France’s style of writing is light and entertaining – in fact, Revolt of the Angels has certain scenes that are reminiscent of Cocteau’s Orpheus, presenting a slightly humoristic approach to the subject.
We know that Cocteau was very much involved with his guardian angel; and we can wonder whether Maurice’s struggle with his guardian angel (noting that the struggle with one’s guardian angel was the core of the Angelic Society and the message of Delacroix’s painting in St Sulpice) was meant to be a reflection of France’s struggle with his. No doubt, we will never know.

The gardener

What was the Revolt trying to bring about? One of the key messages of the novel and this revolt is a return to the Greek ways, in which men were free and not bound by the rules of the Church. The hope of the Revolt is not only to overthrow the demiurge from the throne, but also to bring about a return to the way of living favoured by the ancient Greeks. The main character is an angel known as Nectaire, who like Pan plays the flute – and in fact, is depicted as once having been the Greek god Pan. Intriguingly, he is normally referred to as “the gardener” and as such, we have yet another connection with the garden. Coincidence, or further evidence that gardens are important to the Angelic Society, just like the garden in Lyon was specifically treasured by the French founders of the Angelic Society?

Filip Coppens