Building the Tree of Life Part 2: 777… a number you can count on?

 

Numbers

The number 777 is important in specifically two traditions. The first is based on the Jewish tradition surrounding Jesus. He was identified with the number 777 based on the logic that three times seven was seen as the “perfect number” in the Jewish religion. This type of addressing was also known in Egypt, where Thoth (Hermes) was spoken of as “thrice great” – three times great.
If 777 is the number of Jesus, let us note that 666 is the number of the demon, Satan, and by a fortuitous coincidence, this number is present in the postcode of Perillos: 66600. It provides for further ingredients in the alchemical soup that is brewing in the baking sun of Southern France. Let us nevertheless quickly add another ingredient, namely that with all of these numbers, we should not exclude the number of Man, which is 555.
The second tradition in which 777 is important is that of the Kabbalah. Here, as there is talk of the “Beast”, the number 777 is specifically linked with Aleister Crowley, who identified himself as the Beast, and wrote a book titled 777, on the Hermetic Kabbalah. The number 777 is used as the number 7 depicts a type of path that can be taken in the Tree of Life – of which Crowley identified three primary routes. This system of interpretation of the Kabbalah, which is too complex to enter into detail here, uses the Tree of Life as a methodology to schematise the workings of the practicing magician – largely mimicking the Art of Memory.

A sacred game

For those who are not foreign to gambling and the world of casinos, they will know that 777 is important for slot machines. For them, 777 becomes a number of intense joy… and fortune. The number 7 has always been one of the most sacred numbers and going into any detail on it, is not necessary… but let us nevertheless note there are seven planets, seven sleepers of Ephesus, seven deadly sins, and virtues, seven days of the week, seven plagues of Egypt and seven demons that Jesus chased out of Mary Magdalene.
For H.P. Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, 777 was straightforwardly linked with the number of incarnations, which was seen as the separation from and the return to the One. In this format, it is an amalgamation of the Tree of Life, which is also there to promote progress of the soul throughout its incarnations, in search of reunion with the Creator.

Newspaper headlines

All of this playing with numbers has not shown any link between the number 7 or 777 with the enigma of Rennes-le-Château and/or Perillos. It is also clear that in 2007, despite this year having an 07.07.07 (July 7, 2007), few will remember a news item that circulated in the early 1990s, which mentioned the presence of a certain type of graffiti, which at the time was seen as nothing more than a joke. Though it happened in various French regions, each region thought at first they were the only ones affected, but then realised that there was an overall pattern.
Unknown agents had left an inscription on various walls, often of religious monuments, in which 777 featured prominently. The inscription was normally that of a circle, containing a cross, held in a V-shaped letter. The latter was framed by the letters 6 (on the left) and 5 (on the right) with a 7 above the epicentre of the cross. This in itself was framed by two other number sevens, of rather large size. In short: 777.

The graffiti became known for its consistency and apart from differences in height and how the 7 was written or precisely placed in the middle, there were no apparent major differences between the various graffiti. The phenomenon became so widespread that newspaper did not fail to notice. Journalist Corine Sabouraud wrote in “L’independent de Perpignan” on Wednesday, May 4, 1994, a brief overview of the entire enigma:

“After Olette on Monday, Prats-de-Mollo, Fetges, Sauto, Prats-Balaguer, Fontpê-drouse, La Cabanasse, La Llagonne and the Priory of Serrabonne… in all of these small villages of the ‘haut-cantons’ and the Vallespir, the churches were discovered to be inscribed with this strange graffiti yesterday, which appeared for the first time in the P.O. [Pyrénées-Orientales], over the weekend of May 1. Beginning, it seems, from Brittany, via the Puy de Dôme, the Aude and finally the P.O., these enigmatic inscriptions have been seen on the inside and outside of places of religious worship and have also been found at the beginning of the week on the old stones of the city of Carcassonne.
The work of the same team, a single person or isolated groups that have recovered the esoteric design for what seems to be bizarre ends? A mystery.
The enquiry given to the gendarmes focusing on each region, and followed by Paris, is currently difficult to assess.

These graffiti are recent. They began to appear in the north-west of France at the start of the Easter holidays. Since, they have moved southwards, showing marked similarities.
Apart from the symbol itself, their diameter is always the same too. Bordered by two sevens, the circle has a diameter of 50 centimetres.
It is painted with black spray paint, which does not dissolve, and drawn by an expert hand. Furthermore, in the P.O., rather inexplicably, they have all been made on Sunday… during the day.
Proof, perhaps, in Prats-de-Mollo. On the church of the village, in the Chapelle de la Piéta, the number 7 was noticed on Monday by a custodian. Returning, yesterday morning, he looked more closely and discovered a complete inscription behind the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows. To gain access to this chapel, there is but one doorway, situated at the end of the church of the 17th century which is only open from 8 to 18 hours. No evidence of forced entry was found by the local gendarmes.”

A scientific experiment at Rosny

Inscription on the porch of the city of Carcassonne

The gendarmes submitted photos and drawings of the graffiti to a scientific laboratory in Rosny-sous-Bois, where they tried to discover its significance. But no other indications were uncovered that led the gendarmes to identify who might be responsible.
The journalist herself had tried to do her own private investigation, by asking the “Centre du Verseau” – obviously a new age institute – for comments on the glyph. The lady in charge stated that these lines and numbers were not randomly chosen, but came from a group of young “mystics, trying to announce a change after a cycle has been completed, and a positive change” is occurring.
For her, the circle was a sign of unity and our planet. V was for victory, of light, symbolised by the cross. As to 777, her explanation was that “it was a reference to the Beast of the Apocalypse. It is the sign of change and a sacred number of the creation of matter. As to the 5 and the 6, it is the individual man inside the universal man.” Others, the journalist noted, had openly spoken about the squaring of the circle.

The invasion of the 777

Apart from this newspaper report, other information confirmed that the “wave” spread south and was hence not confined to one region. But what was less reported, was the fact that Rennes-le-Château itself became a victim of this “act” too. Indeed, one morning, at the beginning of the month of March, 1994, the village awoke to find several examples of the same graffiti design. Let us note that somehow, the village seems to have been ahead of the rest of southern France, like the Pyrénées-Orientales, which was only “hit” in May.
The graffiti It was found on the exterior of the Tour Magdala, an isolated 7 on the door of the village water cistern, another on the Villa Bethania, and a third on the door of the lot of the municipal workforce. Add to this the presence of this design that was on the port of the church of Mary Magdalene, as if to underline a point – whatever this point were to be.
Rennes-les-Bains too received its fair share of graffiti. The presence of a triple 7 was found on the spring of la Madeleine and in the second mine along the side of the road that leads to Bugarach, as well as another sign on the oratory near the road that curves its way to the hermitage of Galamus… which received the full version of the graffiti. Behind the semi-circular wall of that what remains of the spa of Rennes, situated at the entrance to the town, were two representations of the design: one is conform to the general description, whereas the other was divergent. The latter was also found in Coral, near Prats de Mollo… but also in the Caune cave in Perillos.

Inscriptions on the old spa of Rennes-les-Bains

The graffiti was also present in other regions that are close to our heart: the Pilat and larger Lyonnaise region. The complete design was found on the castle of Péage-de-Roussillon. Rather curiously, in Lyon, there were only simple sevens on the St Etienne side of the cathedral of St John, as well as six other sites (making for a total of seven sites), one of which was St Irénée… on the side of the rue des Macchabées, only a short distance away from where Saunière had lodged a century before.
In the Pilat, the 777 was on a rock near the chapel of Mary Magdalene (towards the spring), at Champailler and at Lupé, on the tower, near the old village. Two other locations were visited, but at present, we will not identify those. Finally, we add that another 777 was discovered on a site in the Beaujoleais region, whose owner has used legal means so that the name of his castle is not mentioned by the likes of us.
Let us note that the list is not exhaustive – far from it – but it is clear that amidst the totality, all the “logical sites” of the enigma are present – including some that were hardly famous in 1994, when this occurred.

The strange absence of any analysis

Nobody ever seemed to try and make a map of France upon which all of sites where these designs were found were located. And nobody seems to have been interested in trying to find out whether there was ever a detailed enquiry, and whether the French Renseignements Généraux – the national intelligence agency – got involved – as they are wont to do because of the scope and scale of the problem, requiring a coordinated effort to track down the culprits – if any tracking down was ever on the cards.
Furthermore, because of the scale, it would be intriguing to note whether this was a French or European phenomenon. Were other nations involved? As far as we are aware, there was at least one graffiti present in Spain.

We know that the gendarmes reported to the authorities the existence of these graffiti. It underlines that they did not merely classify the incident, or treated it as a mere joke – as most observers classified it upon witnessing the phenomenon. There was also an attempted analysis to analyse the glyph itself, in an effort to identify who might be behind it. But that led to no results. And it is clear that from the scope of the operation, that this involved more than one person – few if any people could cover France with so many graffiti, sometimes in the middle of the day, with the explicit danger of being caught in the act.

Classified

The inscriptions can be classified in three categories. The first is the “total glyph”, being the circle, the cross, the V and two sevens. Then there is just the seven, appearing once, twice or three times – 7, 77 or 777. Of these, 7 and 777 were the most common and only a single 77 seems to have been discovered.
Then there are all other graffiti that do not conform to the “total glyph”. These include depictions in which some of the letters are “barred”, a version without the circle or the cross, etc. In this series, we find the inscription on the doorway of the church of Rennes-le-Château: a pointed triangle pointing downwards, in the centre of the doorway, with the numbers 6 and 5. The latter are barred. There is no circle, no V or a cross. The most bizarre of anomalies is in the old baths of Rennes. There is one reading 777, and between the three sevens, there are the letters J en C, as well as an S, barred diagonally. It is this model that is repeated at Coral; at Perillos and in the ruins of the castle near Péage-de-Roussillon.
It seems logical to assume that JC means Jesus Christ… even though this does not explain the S. Still, this type of glyph, a barred S, is sometimes found in texts dating back to the aristocracy of the Renaissance era – and is also a call-sign for the castle whose name we are not to reveal. We can add that such a glyph was not chosen at random, and was well-known in certain esoteric circles.

Paranoia

Inscriptions on the porch of the church of Rennes-le-Château

A likely conclusion to draw from this wave of graffiti is that we are confronted with adults, with a clear motive and action plan. But it is remarkable that though often, religious monuments are targeted, it seems that in the case of Rennes-le-Château, more sites were chosen that someone merely trying to paint 777 on or near religious monuments would choose to do. There is the spring in Rennes-les-Bains, the Tour Magdala, but even the Caune in Perillos… and even Coral, which sits miles in the middle of nowhere; spraying 777 in Coral requires devotion to the cause – as does the little “sign” that is put on display in the nearby church of Prats de Mollo, requiring either a break-in that leaves no traces, or a co-ordinated effort to spray the glyph by daytime, when anyone can enter the church and see the destruction occurring.
And it are such acts that make us question whether the goal of this enterprise, or at least parts of it, may indeed have been linked with the enigma, if only because of the choice of 777 – and its apparent connection with Jesus Christ, a figure who by 1994, due to the works of Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, had become firmly entrenched in the enigma of the village.

Of course, it could just be that one has to be paranoid first in order to see such a distinction in the “pattern”. Perhaps indeed… or perhaps not. But another question that needs to be asked, of course, is whether the divergence of some symbols is merely the result of errors or “bad training” on the part of the creator, or whether the small differences are key indicators. In short: are we confronted with a code? A certain type of “path” along which the initiate can find certain information? If so, than it is clear that the extent of the exercise was throughout France, and would only be done in a short period of time, as signs would obviously be washed away quickly. But what purpose did it serve? Alternatively, was it perhaps a type of magical marker, a glyph that linked these sites? Was it, indeed, seen as a type of “awakening”, the end of one era and the beginning of another? That is one analysis, as we have seen above, that was given to the glyph.

A secret society

Irrelevant of who they are, it is clear that the group who performed this feat, was a secret society, for the simple reason that they were able to remain secret and anonymous. It is also clear that the apparatus of state was set into motion to chase the perpetrators down, with various agencies looking into the matter. But as to any conclusions that were made or reports submitted, this remains an unknown.
Let us note that on the part of the perpetrators, the action was swift, was known to only leave a “sign” whose survival ranged from hours via days to weeks and a few months at most – and was never repeated. The latter could, of course, merely be because via via, the perpetrators were identified and “told off”. But that is just one scenario. It could be that their “Great Work” merely lasted a few weeks, and was only meant to last for a short period of time… like highlighting the period in which this awakening or “the start of a new age” was supposedly occurring.

Conclusions

Decomposition of the elements of the inscription

In the absence of official conclusions, let us draw our own. We assume that the perpetrators were indeed a secret movement. To accomplish what was accomplished, it is clear that they could rely on clear channels of communication, were people who knew what to do, and how to do it – for example the detailed knowledge of making sure the circle had 50 centimetres as diameter. We also note that 1994 was largely an pre-Internet era, in which communications were less instantaneous and required more co-ordination. Just like the Internet uses viral marketing, a “viral campaign” to paint 777 would thus be difficult to mount – and the very nature of the Internet would be able to reveal the likely source, or at least provide far more information than what was available here in the aftermath of the phenomenon.
It is therefore possible that a group came together for the sole and single purpose of painting 777 in various locations. This seems not the most logical option. More logical would be that a pan-French organisation, already in existence, was used, or decided to execute, this project.

When it comes to identifying a secret society that has a presence throughout most of France, few obviously fit the bill and Freemasonry is the most logical one to put forward. However, the nature of this organisation does not lend itself very well to such “acts” – nor is it easy to conjure up an image of a Freemason with a spray can in hand desecrating – or empowering? – various religious sites in France. So perhaps it should – could – be an organisation that is linked with, or works in the shadows of Masonry?
From the various organisations that exist – or at least are known to exist – two stand out. One of them is the domain of “La Sanch”, i.e. penitential movements, which is able to create a small subgroup that is able to survive each time the larger society is in danger of being destroyed. It is this small cell that will later restart the entire process, like a worm regenerates after parts of its body have been chopped off. Of interest is that this sub committee is made-up of seven people. Such “sub networks” would never be tracked, as their history has revealed on numerous occasions – of course, in retrospect.

The other inroad is the letter V, used by some as part of a resistance, Victory, and so much more that was linked with the 5, 6, 7. V is the 22nd letter of the alphabet, and 22 of course has an importance both in the mystery of Rennes-le-Château… and the Kabbalah. Coincidence, or design?
But in the final analysis, based on the little information that is available, we have to agree with the conclusions of the new age centre that L’independent consulted for their article: in early 1994, an unknown group in France sprayed various religious monuments across the territory, but with a specific focus on the sites involved in the mystery of Rennes-le-Château, with a glyph that seemed there to “activate” “religious France” and bring about a “new age” – a New France? It makes the question who these people truly were, all the more intriguing.

André Douzet