Mary Magdalene - Ste Beaume

St- Victor Monastery - Marseille

Hotel Bain - Comps sur Artuby

St- Andre  - Comps Village

Group Practices at St Thyrs

Valcros Droma - Solar Fortress

Hotel Eveche - Alet sur Aude

Cathares Fortress - Montsegur

Not far away from Couiza lies a little village  called Rennes-le-Chateau, which has 
became renown in recent years for its strange history and magical mysteries. Occupied since the Neolithic ages , being at the same time an ancient Gallic powerplace,  the capital of the Wisigoths tribe and Rhedae, the city of  Merovingian Kings, many  suggest that it may still hide today the Arch of Alliance, somewhere in the  surrounding Razès. The Magdala tower, build by Béranger Saunière is said by several Tibetan Lamas (Nyingma and Karguydpa, 1985) to be one of the local entry to the Celtic Annwn (the land of ancestors), or in other names the Tibetan / Mongolian: Shambala.

Magdala Tower - Rennes

Transepts - Alet Abbaye

      The Order of the Hospitalliers de St. Jean de Jerusalem (Lavaldieu) and the Knights Templars,  both had several properties in the region, and the intricated role they both played during two centuries of  Roman Inquisition against the Cathars will be discussed.

      Another enigma being approached in this  study are the megalithic Cairns, Dolmens  and Menhirs standing around Rennes-les-Bains, as described in the book of the " abbé Henri  Boudet :  La Vraie Langue Celtique et le Cromlech de Rennes-les-Bains ", as well as in other areas being visited, such as the Dolmen  of  Saint Michel de Grandmont,  Dolmen des Fados, the Pic de Bougarach, le Fauteuil-du- Diable / Rennes-les-Bains and its surrounding rocks and Cairns. Visit of the hot springs (Roman Empire period)  in Rennes-les-Bains may be included.

      From Couiza and Quillan, not far from Chateau Queribus, we will reach the ruins of the Bézu. From there,  on the left we can see the Pique de Levaldieu, Rennes-le-Chateau and part of the natural Cromlech of  Rennes-les-Bains.  The ruins of the Chateau du Bezu (actually those of the Chateau Sermon d'Albedun) lead to an ancient  Celtic Altar, with a splendid view on the Pic de Bugarach, Pique de Lavaldieu and surrounding Cathars Land. 

      A Seminar held in Alet will focus on the history of the Cathars faith, the controversial relations between Cathars, Templars and the Inquisition Crusaders, as well as on the common roots it may have or have had with the Celtic, Arianist (Wisigoth) and Dualistic faiths (Bogomiles, Nestorians) during the early Christendom period.  We will discuss the common archetypal roots which may be found alive and practices in the Indo-European Rig-Veda,  Central European or Asian Shamanic Traditions, as they were  historically linked with the Cathars and Knights Templars own dramatic history. This itinerary will be escorted with experienced speakers and guides, most being academically  entitled to provide a small group with phenomenological guidance and historical depth.

Montsegur - Grail Montsalvat

Asmodee, Gardian  of  the Arch of  Alliance

      Our references  include a selected review of the Cathars and Knights Templars history in South of France, as well as a narration of the first century exile to South of France  of Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea  (James) and other apostles of Christ, who landed in Provence, before moving  to Septimania , Brittany (Armoric), then to Glastonbury and Wales.  The myth of Mary Magdalene and of Joseph of Arimathea (James) will be studied in places such as Rennes-le-Chateau, La Val Dieu (Center of Mary Magdalena cult), les  Ste Beaume, Saintes Maries de la Mer and St Victor in Marseille (the ritual space at the basilica of the  golden goddess, Notre Dame le la Garde and the Crypt of the Abbey of St. Victor ). 

      French legends recorded in the 4th Century say that Mary Magdalene (along with Lazarus and Martha)  fled to the South of France (via Egypt) bearing "the earthen vessel that held the blood of Christ."  While legends of the Holy Grail took on a life of their own centuries later, merging with other legends,  many believe that Mary Magdalene was herself the earthen vessel bearing Christ's child, the sacred bloodline of David.  This is said to be indeed what many early Christians, including the Cathars, believed. 

      The Cult of the Magdalene, forced underground, is linked to the Cult of the Black Madonna, which  thrived in France and elsewhere in Europe. There has been much speculation as to the origin  of the Madonna's blackness.  One link is to Sarah "The Black Queen,"  believed to be the child of Mary Magdalene, brought out of Egypt.  The town of Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, in southern France, still celebrates her festival. Other links are scriptural, such as to the bride in the Song of Songs: "I am black,  but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem" (Song of Solomon 1:5, B,C *), or to the deposed Davidic princes of Jerusalem: "now their appearance is blacker than  soot, they are unrecognized in the streets" (Lamentations 4:8, B).

      One of Mary Magdalene's most prominent shrines, at Chartres, centered around a statue named  "Our Lady Under The Earth" . This also emphasizes her hidden aspect in the South of France, where the Cult of the Magdalen flourished until it was all but wiped out in the Albigensian campaigns.  St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Founder of the Templars, was born at Fontaines on the outskirts of Dijon,  a place said to have had its own Black Virgin. He is said to have received three drops of milk taken from the breast of the Black Virgin of Chatillon while still a boy. He later went on to help the  Templar order expand quickly and to preach the Second Crusade - from Vezelay, a centre of the cult of the Magdalene and a Black Virgin site.

      In Southern Provençal tradition, the Black Madonna is associated with St. Sara, the patron saint  of the Gypsies. She was said to be the black assistant who accompanied the three Marys to France when they fled from the Holy Land after the Crucifixion.  In local gypsy tradition, she is said to have been a gypsy (some say 'Egyptian') woman who  helped them to land safely.

      A cult of St. Sara persists today at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer,  one of the earliest Magdalene sites in France. From the Abbaye of Alet (Aude) to the Verdon, we will have accordingly been to most the Sacred Altars of the Magdalene, being first week in Aix-en-Provence and Ste. Baume, where Mary lived  in retreat and died. We will have prayed in the Grotto of St. Mary Magdalena and after a picnic, we will go to the village where the bones of St. Mary Magdalena are housed, and pray in the Basilica of St. Maxim. That will have given us ample time to wonder and reflect during this Grail Quest on the Wonders herein cited. 

Limoux - Black Madonna 

The castle of Puilaure

      This programme will allow all participants to link their meditation and catharsis with the striking  natural beauty of the target-sites being visited. Most of these powerplaces have kept their outstanding spiritual attraction, the strong cosmo-telluric energies and resurgence of some mythological entities being amongst the reasons for their current exceptional harmony and powers.

      The fortresses of Montségur, Quéribus and Peyrepertuse, surrounded by the magnificent scenery of the Land of Cathars,  remain living testimonies of the beauty and spiritual  forces of  the Cathars Knowledge, Light and Love,  against those of dark violence and hatred.   Slowly climbing the steps leading to Montségur Pog (refuge), we will pay Hommage to the  Parfaits and other Cathars who gave they lives to preserve their tradition. 

St- Jean - Black Madonna

St- Victor - Black Madonna