Sauniere's hidden room

[Mark Harlem]

Dear All,

Has anybody by now figured out why Sauniere had a hidden ('secret') room adjacent to the church?

Kindest
Mark

[Don Barone]

Hi Mark ...

I was unaware of this fact. Was it part of the main structure or was it seperate. If I had to guess I would suppose it would be easy to say, to hide the treasure. But I am sure there must be another reason.

Why do you think he had it ?

Cheers
Don Barone

[Mark Harlem]

Dear Don,

Adjacent to the church there is a room which can only be entered through a 'hidden' door in the priest's scaristy. On the outside wall there is a small window (that's how Leigh - not Lincoln- first noticed it).

It is also described at: www.dagobertsrevenge.com/index.html?articles/rlctrip

"Following the interviews, Jane showed us to a room that most tourists don't get to see: Sauniere's sacristy. This is where Sauniere donned his robes prior to commencing services. It was a small room that featured a stained glass window depicting Christ on the cross, and was empty but for a table, a box of old candles, and a white robe adorned with blue silk Fleur-de-lys. Toward the back wall was a wooden door, nailed permanently shut with an ancient rusted nail. It had been a closet, we were told, but the closet had featured a secret panel in the back that lead to Sauniere's secret room. Jane had no idea how long the room had been sealed off, but with a little coaxing, saw no reason why we couldn't pry out the nail and have a peek inside. So we pried out the nail, popped open the secret panel, and stepped inside Berenger Sauniere's legendary treasure room. We couldn't help wondering who had last come into this place, or whether any of the writers who'd referred to this room had ever laid eyes upon it. The floor of the room was dirt. Whatever floorboards were once here had long since been torn up, and the dirt was soft from digging. A pile of rubble was heaped into one corner. From ground level, one could peer beneath the floor of the sacristy, but there was little to see except cobwebs and mounds of oxidized dirt that looked as though it hadn't been disturbed for centuries. The room was decaying, squalid, and entirely unimpressive, and yet would couldn't lose sight of the fact that within this filthy cubicle with its peeling paint, a great treasure of some sort had at one time been secreted away".

If you want I can see if I have some photo's of it in my file. Probably do

Kindest
Mark

[Charlotte]

Hi Mark and Don,

I have several questions.

Could it be that the hidden (secret) room adjacent to the church is meant to convey, in concrete, that the church itself teaches exoterically, but that our true story is hidden in the secret room? That everyone is looking for a worldly treasure, but meant is the treasure in heaven, hidden within ourselves, which we will discover when all the symbology is understood correctly.

Christ and the Virgin Mary point to their radiant heart, seat of the treasure, his hand is shown with the index and middle finger exended, revealed knowledge, the ring and small finger symbolic of the yet hidden. I read the link you provided, Mark, there is a room, a closet, and another hidden door, and so on deeper into the mysteries.

Concerning the painting of John the Baptist, thought by art experts to be painte by Leonardo da Vinci. How was it determained that it depicts John the Baptist, and what is the meaning of the facial expression and apparently exaggerated index finger pointing upward in a peculiar way?

Two more intersting things from the article. The hands of May Magdalen painted by Sauniere himself, and the statement "Demand Pork in Cathar Country. It's part of a tradition of good taste." "Ironically", says the writer, "Cathar Tradition" was strictly vegetarian."

Have a good weekend

Charlotte

[Mark Harlem]

Dear Charlotte,

Let me first of all say that I am not a big fan of the particular website I referred to, but it just came in handy for my question. There are really some matters there that do not do justice to the 'real deal'.
One persistent piece of information just keeps showing its head all the time; the fact that the Holy Family fled to France after the crucifixion. This simply just was not the case. The argument used in favour is that they had to flee because of the danger that the Saducees were now after them (after having Jesus nailed to the cross). This does however in no way reconcile with the fact that the group of apostles (of which James became the new leader) stayed in Jerusalem and preached to the people. So why would the family be in danger (who never preached) and were the apostles (who did preach and cause further 'unrest') left untouched? It was only years later that major problems arose that caused people to flee, which you can read all about when you turn to the Acts.

And there are many other foolish claims which hurt the truth and therefor lead people away from what was (and still is) going on, instead of leading them towards it.

Anyway,
a lot has been said, not all sensible, about the pointing index-finger-gesture of Leonardo. It is in fact the symbol for the Annunciation (where the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to Jesus).
It was already used by the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck on their 1432 magnificent Gent Altarpiece.
www.abcgallery.com/E/eyck/eyck32.html
(btw; the angel is obviously on the left, but notice that Van Eyck has made it a very female figure. But then again, this masterpiece has much, much secrets to be yet unveiled, which will probably happen next year).

Leonardo Da Vinci (born 20 years later in 1452) used the same gesture. Not only when depicting John the Baptist (who 'annunciated' Jesus in the desert), but also already when drawing Mary and her cousin Elisabeth and their two respective sons. This time it is Elisabeth raising the index finger.

www.webcolombia.com/leonardo/Leonardo_Da_Vinci_Virgin_and_Child_with_the_Infant.jpg

I hope this was of some interest to you.
Kindest
Mark

[Mark Harlem]

Dear Don,

I realised that I neglected your question about what I thought the room was.

I would suggest that the room adjacent to the church was once used for a so-called "anchorite" (various spellings), a Hermit who lives in solitude and total contemplation. Other such hermits were for instance Jutta (teacher of Hildegard von Bingen), who spent her life closed off in a little room with only a small window through which she had some contact with the outside world (for food and to relieve herself of waste). The reason why the door is ‘hidden’ in Saunier's case behind a closet is because, contrary to popular custom where they bricked the whole thing up, some anchorites attended mass an d this was then most probably the case at Rennes.

Interesting to realise that at Rennes such importance is given to (paintings of) Saint Anthony the hermit.

Kindest
Mark

[Don Barone]

Hi Mark ...

Any idea [or guesses] who may have inhabited this room for surely it was not Sauniere. Or is this the mystery ?

Best Regards
Don Barone

[JoeS]

The description of the "secret chamber' is a litle too over the top for me to take seriously. I don't hink, in reality, that Sauniere had much to hide other than the fact he was ilegally selling masses.

Mark makes a very good point about the Magdelene-to-France myth. There really was no reason for members of the early church to leave Jerusalem until the Disapora. I think the myth has roots in the migration of Jews to Southern France during the Diaspora. It's a possibility that there may also have been some early Christians among their number.

I did uncover some very interesting pictures of stonework from very early churches in Southern France which is clearly Coptic in influence. I think there is a definite link between early Christians in Southern France and the Egyptian Gnostic/Christian tradition.

Joe.

[Mark Harlem]

Dear Don, that indeed is the mystery to some. Joe is of course correct that the room was not meant for Sauniere (nor for any of his contemporaries), because it was already long there when he took office.
I am highly interested in Joe's material concerning the stone work relating to the Coptic Church. Could you help me on that Joe?

Kindest
Mark

[Charlotte]

Thank you the information and links, Mark

I second the first sentence of your reply, and share your view of the Holy Family not having to flee to France after the crucifixion.

I understand the the 12 agonizing stations up to Golgotha, the skull, as the way of alchemical transformation, Jesus as the physical man nailed to the cross of matter, who has to die, the good and bad man to the left and right of him denoting our base and noble nature, which also has to die, to be reborn a shining body, the akh of the Egyptians.

The Virgin Mary I understand as a "brought down" version of the Great Virgin Mother who eminated her son, she being venerated above any other divinity by the Kabalists and philosophers. On the physical level a virgin cannot be a mother.

Most interesting is the painting of the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elisabeth, the latter portrayed somewhat shadowy by Da Vinci, and their respective sons. Elisabeth the older seems to be annunciating something into Mary's ear. John the Baptist annunciating Jesus in the desert and baptizing him in the river Jordan, John saying he is not the Savior, that there is one who comes after him, and Solome dancing the dance of 7 veils on condition she will be given the head of the Baptist, all this I understand to mean that John is exoteric knowledge, Jesus esoteric, or John's head, the dead letter of the word interpretation, has to be cut off to get to the truth which comes later. The 7 veils of Solome being illusion beneath which is truth hidden.

Following the Rosicrucian and Gnostic teachings, I agree with Joe that there is a difinitive link between early Christians in Southern France and the Egyptian Gnostic/Christian and Coptic traditions.

I think Sauniere's hidden secret room adjacent to the church can be interpreted on different levels. I'm currently reading the Da Vinci Code, and am at chapter 42, where Sophie and Langdon just opened two gates with the "heavy and shaped like a cruciform key." Wonder what they have found?

Learning to live

Charlotte

[JoeS]

Hi Mark,

The links abut the stonework are on my laptop and I will have to look them up. The carved figures on ancient French Churches are almost identical to those found in Coptic churches in Egypt. The following page gives a good summary of the influence of the Egyptian Church on Southern France

www.st-peter-st-paul-coptic-orthodox-church.org/historic_connection.htm

Lerins is possibly the oldest monastic site in Europe and is still active to this day. The Monastry there has records reportedly dating back to at least 200AD..

It's also interesting to note that Lerins is associated with a St. Vincent (St. Vincent of Lerins) and Le Serpent Rouge makes mention of "the Children of St. Vincent".

I there is one consistent theme throughout the RLC mythos it is that the true origins of Christianity are very important in some way.

Joe.

[Mark Harlem]

Dear Joe,

"I(f) there is one consistent theme throughout the RLC mythos it is that the true origins of Christianity are very important in some way".

I couldn't agree more with you.

Thank you for the link.

Kindest
Mark