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cherylblsom · 6 years ago

Text

2,4,6,8 - Who do we appreciate?

masterlist

(A/N): Back with a request this time, I hope you enjoy and thank you to @ddlxvxato for the request!

Pairing: Cheryl Blossom x Toni Topaz

Word Count: 1,809

Warnings: swearing - that’s really all my dudes

Summary: (request) Toni gets hurt during cheerleading practice and Cheryl wants to take her home but toni resists cause she doesn’t want to appear to be “a weak serpent.” 💞💞thanks

“Girls c’mon we need fire!!! We’re performing at a pep rally not a funeral, I need more energy” Cheryl barks at the Vixens as she paces back and forth across the gym. Her eyes shift all over trying to take in everyone at once and pick out anyone slacking or doing a move wrong. Her eyes roam over Toni who hits her pose perfectly and Cheryl can’t help the warm feeling spreading in her heart and the smile pulling at her lips. She lets her eyes wander again and they stop when she hits Josie near the middle.

“Josie.” Cheryl says stalking over to her. “What in the hell are you doing? I did not let you on to my squad for you to half ass it.” She snaps. Things have been tense between the two girls recently and Cheryl found herself snapping at Josie more easily than she would have, but to be fair Josie was slacking today and her moves were sloppy.

“Really Cheryl?” Josie says, raising her eyebrows at the redhead. “You really think I’m gonna buy that you’re just angry at my performance? Or is this about something else?”

“You were sorta messy Josie...” Betty says in a soft voice from beside the pair. Josie’s eyes flick sideways in a glare and Betty drops her head instantly. The gym had gone silent as the two girls stood staring at one another. She can feel Toni’s presence beside her but she knows better than to interrupt or try to stop Cheryl in this moment. Toni’s hands lands softly on Cheryl’s shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

“I will have you know Josie that I pride myself on how well the Vixens preform. So no, it’s not about something deeper” she takes a step back and turns away before walking towards the stereo at the front of the gym. “From the top” she yells before clicking the play button and blasting Rhianna through the gym. Cheryl nods her head along to the music and watches different sections of the squad as they spin and twirl and toss each other in the air. Her head is turned focused on Betty and Veronica when she hears a loud thud, what sounds like a crack, and the unmistakable sound of her girlfriend letting out a loud cry. She’s in the middle of the gym and fuming within seconds of it happening. “What in the hell?” She barks at the 3 girls who were the bases and spotters for Toni. “You entire fucking job is to make sure she’s safe. Or can you not get that through your minuscule brains?” The Vixens standing in front of Cheryl are wide eyed and are looking anywhere and everywhere to avoid making eye contact with her. One opens her mouth but Cheryl stops her by holding her hand up. “I don’t want to hear whatever excuse your peanut sized brain has come up with. Until you learn how to properly do your job you can go.” She watches the three of them scurry out of the gym, the door slams behind them and echos through the silent gym. Cheryl’s glare flickers over the rest of the girls, daring anyone to speak up about her choice. When the girls remain silent she turns to Toni whose head is bowed staring at the ground. She’s holding her ankle close to her body and Cheryl can tell she’s holding back tears by the way she’s biting her lip and shaking ever so slightly.

“Toni baby?” Cheryl says, her voice softening immediately as she drops to her knees. “What kind of pain is it? Sharp? Throbbing?”

“I’m okay” Toni replies taking a deep breath. She moves to tuck her left leg under her and stand up on it, carefully she places weight onto her right foot but winces almost immediately.

“Toni, let me take you home it’s okay” Cheryl is on her feet instantly and steadying Toni so she doesn’t fall back over.

“No, Cher I’m okay really”

“Toni c’mon you’ll make it worse.” Cheryl moves a little closer to Toni before whispering into her ear. “You don’t gotta act tough all the time babe it’s okay”

Toni shakes her head in response and let’s out a long sigh. “I’m a serpent it’s my job to act tough” she mumbles before moving away from Cheryl and slowly but surely hobbling over to the group of Vixens. One of the girls suddenly takes a step back and collides with Toni who wobbles slightly before falling directly onto her injured ankle.

“FUCK” she screams half in anger and half in pain, Cheryl’s ears register Toni’s cry and heart drops instantly. Toni’s eyes squeeze shut in pain and her breaths are coming out a lot harsher. Her eyes flutter open a moment later and tears start to fall down her face in a rapid succession, she says Cheryl’s name softly aching for comfort. The way Toni was reacting to this pain had Cheryl a lot more worried this time, it wasn’t like her to be this vulnerable and open especially around others.

“RONNIE?” Cheryl practically screams, she looks around frantically trying to find the raven haired girl.

“Cheryl hey breathe for me alright? It’s okay let’s just move her to the bench.” Veronica responds from behind Cheryl. Betty says something about ice and then turns and is running out of the gym before Cheryl can even think of a response. The Vixen who bumped into Toni is standing there looking horrified and repeating how sorry she is. She avoids Cheryl’s look and moves back into the crowd of Vixens to avoid any conflict with her captain like the others had. Cheryl doesn’t even attempt to snap at her, this time her attention is solely focused on Toni. She moves to Toni’s right side and Veronica to her left before wrapping their arms around her waist and lifting her into a standing position. A small yelp of pain falls from Toni’s lips when she puts pressure onto her right ankle and she leans heavily into Veronica to try and shift her weight over. Veronica’s other arm immediately flies to steady Toni against her and Cheryl gives her a grateful smile before moving closer and scooping Toni up in one quick movement. Toni immediately turns her head to bury it into Cheryl’s neck and the redhead can feel the tears start to stream down Toni’s cheeks in a waterfall. Veronica steadies her hand on Cheryl’s back for extra support and the trio slowly make their way across the gym.

“Shhh baby” Cheryl soothes as she walks over to the benches and sits down, she holds Toni on her lap and makes sure her ankle is resting carefully beside them on the bench. “I’ve got you” Cheryl says gently as the other girl starts to sob against her. Cheryl holds Toni a little closer to her body and presses a gentle kiss to her forehead in attempt to soothe her a bit. “Deep breaths baby girl” Cheryl soothes. Toni’s breathes in and out on Cheryl’s counts until her sobs subside and she’s just crying slightly against Cheryl’s chest. Betty runs back into the gym and does a quick sweep with her eyes before noticing Cheryl and sprinting over.

“I- I’m so sorry, I .. came as .. fast as I.. could” Betty says as she tries to catch her breath, she moves to lay the ice packs against Toni��s ankle earning a whimper in response. Veronica looks around before shrugging her sweater off and scrunching it into a ball to put under Toni’s ankle and elevate it.

“Thank you so much guys” Cheryl says as she lets out a shaky breath.

“Don’t mention it” Betty says, “do you want me to go run the Vixens through the dance again?”

“No... just send them home, I think we’ve had enough for today” Cheryl responds, Betty nods in response before making her way back over to the group of girls, Veronica hesitates a moment before trailing behind Betty. Cheryl turns her attention back to Toni who has curled closer against her chest and is still sniffling quietly.

“Is the ice helping?” Cheryl asks gently, Toni nods in response and turns her head to look up at Cheryl. “I’m so sorry... I- I should have been watching more carefully. I should have seen they were holding you wrong and told them to fix it. It’s my job to keep you - all of you - safe and I failed. I’m so sorry TT” she reaches to wipe the tears off Toni’s cheek and stroke her cheek gently.

“Cher, there’s 30 of us and one of you. Don’t be so hard on yourself” Toni wraps her fingers around Cheryl’s hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

“But you got hurt because of me. Maybe I should move you to a base or.. or change that part, I don’t know....” Cheryl’s voice cracks and she has to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from crying.

“Babe honestly even if you would have seen it they probably couldn’t have fixed it in time, I promise it’s not your fault”

Cheryl nods and wipes a stray tear that’s rolling down her cheek. “How come you’re always the logical one even when you’re injured?”

“I guess it’s just part of my natural charm” Toni says as she winks effortlessly up at Cheryl. Cheryl can’t help but let out a soft laugh in response to her girlfriend. “Hey, come here.” Toni tugs on the soft white and yellow fabric of Cheryl’s vixen shirt to bring her closer and connect their lips in a deep kiss. Cheryl moans softly against Toni’s soft lips before kissing her again harder this time.

“Let’s go home to cuddle and watch Netflix” Cheryl says softly once the pair pull away.

“Netflix and chill?”

“Shut up, not happening in your current condition”

“Well if you wanted to top for onc-“ Toni is interrupted by Cheryl purposely coughing loudly as Veronica approaches and lets her eyes flick between the pair as she notices the blush on both their cheeks.

“I’ve learned not to ask” Veronica says as she rolls her eyes at the couple dramatically.

“Don’t worry we were just discussing Cheryl’s bottom tendencies” Toni pipes in as she moves herself into a sitting position.

“Damn, I really had her pinned for a top” Veronica says and then lets out a laugh which causes Toni to laugh along.

Cheryl shakes her head at them and scoffs “We are NOT discussing our sex life right now TT”

“Spoken like a true bottom” Toni says as she leans over to press a light kiss to Cheryl’s pouty lips. The trio move slowly towards the door, the sound of laughter echoing throughout the gym and bouncing off the walls.

#choni #cheryl x toni #cheryl blossom #toni topaz #riverdale #riverdale fic #fanfiction #choni fanfiction #redserpent #veronica lodge #betty cooper #josie mccoy

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wilsondownes · 6 years ago

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The Red Serpent: Background

This is the Background to the 13 chapters of the book Discovering the Keystone, Solving the Riddle of The Red Serpent after 40 years by Guillaume Brouillard. This book is named after one of the most important documents associated with the Priory of Sion, namely Le serpent rouge, which was part of a cache of documents deposited in the French National Library between 1956 and 1967. This document holds the key to the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château with which most people are familiar through Dan Brown’s the popular novel The Da Vinci Code. These mysteries, however, do not merely concern the holy grail but also the temple treasures of Jerusalem.

On the 17th January, 1967, a short document titled Le serpent rouge, meaning ‘The Red Serpent’, was published in Pontoise, France. To this day, the document is shrouded in sheer mystery. The cover shows a coat of arms on which are depicted a pitcher with water flowing from it and the head of a horse. At a glance, the pitcher and flowing water could be mistaken for a serpent, or even some kind of monster. Spanning the coat of arms is the motto ‘LENE BUXEUM-EOUS SCAPHFE’, of which nobody has as yet risked an (acceptable) interpretation. The document itself comprises a poem and notes on two Parisian churches.

That this is everything but an ordinary and least of all insignificant document is evident from the fact that another symbol appears on the cover, to wit the seal of the Rosicrucian Order. This seal consists of three concentric circles. In the inner circle, the letters M and S are combined into one symbol. In the next ring is written ‘rosa-crux.1099.1188’, and in the outer ring, 36 small circles appear, with the letter P right at the top and the letter S right at the bottom. One later discovers that the letters PS refer to the Rosicrucian Order called the Prieuré de Sion (the Priory of Sion).

The use of this Rosicrucian symbol indicates that Le serpent rouge was initially circulated in the secret world of occult organisations, of which this order is one.

Fig 1. The cover of Le serpent rouge.

i. The authors

The three authors of this document, Pierre Feugère, Louis Saint-Maxent and Gaston de Koker, call themselves the ‘three brethren’ – in all probability referring to the Brethren of the Rose Cross. Not much is known about them, except that all three died tragically shortly after Le serpent rouge was published. On the 6th March, 1967, Saint-Maxent and De Koker were found hanged, and the following day, so too Feugère. The way in which they died, and the fact that their deaths were almost concurrent, lead one to believe it was the result of their leaking the order’s secrets.

These unfortunate incidents only deepen the mystery surrounding the document. If these three persons’ transgression was punishable by death, the document must surely contain information of immense value to the group it concerns – in this case the Prieuré de Sion. It is, after all, not very common for three authors of specifically a secret document to die more or less simultaneously, and on top of it, to all appearances by being executed. Judging from this mere fact, Le serpent rouge unquestionably contains highly sensitive and top secret information not meant for the eyes of outsiders, and perhaps not even certain members of the Rosicrucian Order itself.

ii. Just another smokescreen?

When it comes to the hidden world of secret organisations, it is, however, wise not to swallow everything that’s dished up. More often than not, the explicit goal is to mislead the uninitiated, which could very well also be the case with Le serpent rouge. The first thing that springs to mind, then, is whether the names on the document were not perhaps borrowed to conceal the identity of the true author(s). The content of the document, as well as the fact that this was but one of several similar writings that appeared in the French National Library at that time, and just about all under different aliases, lead one to believe that this holds true for this document as well.

The obvious question then is: Who is the true author(s) of Le serpent rouge?

In their booklet Rennes-le-Château: A Bibliography [1], John M. Saul and Janice A. Glaholm list all the books and writings related to this subject. Underneath the names of the ‘authors’ of Le serpent rouge they noted the following: ‘The names Feugère, Saint-Maxent and De Koker are said to have been borrowed from contemporary reports of suicides. The true author is likely to be Pierre Plantard and/or Philippe de Chérisey.’[2] This supposition probably originated with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, co-authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, who, together with Jonathan Tootell, advised Saul and Glaholm on the content of their booklet.

If Pierre Plantard and/or Philippe de Chérisey were indeed the true author(s) of the document, a couple of questions remain. For instance: If Feugère, Saint-Maxent and De Koker’s names had only been placed on the document after their deaths to protect the true author(s), the writing could obviously not have been published on the 17th January, 1967, as is stated on the document, as they only died in March of that year. The deposit slip in the French National Library furthermore states that Le serpent rouge had already been received on the 15th February, 1967 – almost a month before the purported authors died! This date could, however, have been backdated with a little help from a library employee.

In view of the fact that the alleged authors are said to have committed suicide, one can also not help but wonder why three seemingly unrelated persons would simultaneously decide to hang themselves.

It seems that, in the end, more questions than answers will remain as to the identity of the true author(s) of this document.

iii. The poem

The first part of Le serpent rouge consists of a poem with the same title. It is of extraordinary poetic quality, and comprises 13 stanzas. The poem was signed by ‘Louis Saint-Maxent’, with ‘October 1966’ written underneath. Although Pierre Plantard or one of his friends could have put together this document, it is highly unlikely that any of them was capable of writing such an exceptional poem. Some writers are of the opinion that the author is more likely to have been someone like the famous painter and poet Jean Cocteau (1889 - 1963), who, like Plantard, is said to have been a Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion.

Back to the poem itself: Each of the 13 stanzas falls under one of the signs of the zodiac, which in this case consists not of 12, but 13 signs. The additional sign is that of the Serpent-handler, inserted between the signs of Scorpio and Sagittarius. Given the title of the poem, it is not surprising to find a stanza under the Serpent-handler.

It is only when one starts analysing the details in the poem that it becomes clear why Le serpent rouge is veiled in such mystery. There is absolutely no question that it does indeed contain a secret of immense proportions. The poem is written in the form of a riddle in which specific clues were very cleverly weaved. There are references to mysterious symbols that have to be deciphered and a ‘solution’ that must be obtained.

From stanza to stanza one is drawn in by this singularly odd set of riddly clues, until one is told: ‘To this, Dear Reader, be careful not to add or remove an iota … meditate, Meditate again. The base lead of my writing perhaps contains the purest gold’ – which is yet another clue.

Only towards the end of the poem the red serpent itself, which is clearly at the heart of the mystery, is mentioned. It is described as an ��enormous beast’ that is ‘red with anger’, and one whose coils have apparently been rolling down through the centuries.

But more about that later.

iv. The secret lies in the Razès

From the clues in the poem it is clear that the secret primarily relates to the region of the ancient Razès, which is in the south of France, in the Languedoc, south of Carcassonne. In the Razès – once the stronghold of the Visigoths – are two small towns where over a century ago truly mysterious things happened that have given rise to almost a cult following. These are the twin towns of Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains. Centuries ago, the former seems to have been called Rhedae, which according to certain experts means ‘swift serpent’.

At the end of the 19th century, the parish priest of Rennes-le-Château, Bérenger Saunière, is said to have discovered certain parchments in his church, after which his life changed dramatically. Overnight, this once impoverished priest was a man of enormous wealth, undertaking one building project in the town after the other. Among these were the erection of the beautiful Villa Bethania and the famous Tower of Magdalene. Some writers are convinced his sudden fortune stemmed directly from the discovery of the parchments, stating he either came upon a treasure along with it, or discovered the directions to a treasure in the parchments.

Another of Saunière’s projects was the restoration of his church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene, which included some very peculiar changes, such as a devil with the holy-water stoup on his back at the entrance, and curious depictions of the 14 stations of the cross. Although these correspond greatly to those in the church of Rocamadour, for example, they contain considerable diversions from the latter with regard to detail.

As for the town of Rennes-les-Bains, the parish priest, Henri Boudet, a close friend of Saunière’s, in 1886 published an odd piece of work entitled La vraie langue celtique et le cromleck de Rennes-les-Bains [3] (‘The True Celtic Language and the Stone Circle of Rennes-les-Bains’). In this, he details the area around Rennes-les-Bains and also supplies a map of the region. He specifically mentions an enormous stone circle with a 16 - 18 km circumference, and furthermore makes the bizarre statement that the early Celts spoke Anglo-Saxon (English). Up to this day, no-one has ever seen this stone circle, and some deem his off-the-wall statements as clues concerning something of enormous value hidden in the area.

The poem Le serpent rouge therefore on the one hand contains information pertaining to the interior of the Rennes-le-Château church, and on the other, to the area around Rennes-les-Bains. Most everything in the poem indicates it is here that one will find the most important clues to the ‘solution’ the poet speaks of.

Later on one discovers that the parchments Saunière allegedly found also contain crucial information, as do certain paintings – among others those by Poussin called ‘The Shepherds of Arcadia’, and the ones painted by Delacroix in the St. Sulpice Church in Paris.

v. Two Parisian churches

Besides the poem, the document Le serpent rouge contains a set of notes, including various sketches, maps and a genealogy. The last eight of the 13 pages comprise ‘notes on St.-Germain-des-Prés and Saint Sulpice of Paris’, as is indicated by the subtitle of the document. These two Parisian churches are situated close to each other on the banks of the river Seine. The church of St.-Germain-des-Prés (‘des prés’ meaning ‘of the open field’) is the oldest in Paris, and is a monastery chapel built in 542 to house the relics King Childebert, son of the famous Frankish king Clovis, brought back from Spain. The St. Sulpice Church, on the other hand, is a parish church founded by the abbot of St.-Germain-des-Prés. The existing building was erected in 1642 on the same spot where the earlier church stood.

The notes also include an article on the history of the monastery of St.-Germain-des-Prés, wherein is stated that the church was built in the exact same place where earlier stood a temple of Isis, the Egyptian goddess. Various sketches accompany the article, including one of St.-Germain-des-Prés just before its demolition in 1794, a sketch of the monastery itself (supposedly done by Gaston de Koker), as well as a sketch of the bank of the river Seine where the monastery was later built as it looked in 1615. There are also sketches of the graves of King Childebert, the founder of the church, and King Chilperic, who was buried there. Another article by ‘Pierre Feugère’ concerns Childebert and his wife, Ultragothe.

As far as the St. Sulpice Church is concerned – which is also mentioned in the poem – one later on discovers that the most important item in the notes is the floor plan of this church, signed by ‘Louis Saint-Maxent’. This plan clearly shows the meridian that is indicated by a copper line running across the floor of the church. To the left of this line the letter P is written, and to the right, the letter S – in other words, PS. The word ‘PRAE-CUM’ also appears next to the meridian line.

Accompanying an article called ‘Le bi-centenaire de Mazarin – 1861’ (‘The Two Centuries since Mazarin – 1861’) are two sketches of the inscription on the gnomon to be found on the copper line in the northern wing of the church. There is also a sketch of the mausoleum of the priest Jean-Baptiste Languet de Gergy, in whose time the gnomon was erected. The Chapel of the Holy Angels, situated at the back of the church, also features prominently in the poem.

Fig 2. The floor plan of the St. Sulpice Church in Paris.

Also included in the notes are the adjoining sketches of three men: Jean-Jacques Olier (1608 - 1657), founder of the new St. Sulpice Church, Eugène Delacroix (1798 - 1863), who painted the three paintings with angels as theme in the church, and the painter Nicolas Poussin (1593 - 1665), who is not directly linked to the church. All three of these men are mentioned by name in the poem. Right underneath these sketches is a short quote by the celebrated opera singer Emma Calvé (1858 - 1942), dated the 7th May, 1939. She was romantically linked to the priest Saunière of Rennes-le-Château, who allegedly visited Paris in 1891 or 1892.

vi. The Merovingian bloodline

The genealogy included in the notes is that of the earliest Frankish kings, the Merovingians. Although it was one of them who founded the monastery of St.-Germain-des-Prés, namely Childebert – a block is drawn around his name in the genealogy – it seems odd that one’s attention is drawn to this early dynasty. Underneath the genealogy are two maps of Gaul from the Merovingian era – one of 511 A.D. and the other of 620 - 632 A.D.

This Merovingian genealogy differs somewhat from the common Merovingian genealogies in that it includes Sigebert IV, the son of Dagobert II. Underneath his name is written ‘Septimania’, which is a region in the south of France, also shown on the mentioned maps. Septimania is the region in which the Razès lies – the area that is central to the poem Le serpent rouge. What is strange, though, is that during that time, Septimania did not belong to the Franks, but to the Visigoths.

According to this genealogy, then, King Dagobert II had a son called Sigebert, who apparently came to this area in the south of France at some point. It would therefore seem that the ‘red serpent’ and the whole enigma of the Razès are somehow connected with this Sigebert.

vii. Solving the riddle

The impression the document as a whole leaves is that it contains information in the form of clues to solve the riddle embedded in the poem. On the inner front cover one then indeed finds the depiction of a man squatted in front of scattered cubical stones, seemingly lost in thought, with the caption: ‘Discover the sixty-four stones one by one’, which links with a line from the fourth stanza: ‘I am able to discover the sixty-four dispersed stones of the perfect cube.’

As was mentioned earlier, the specific spot the clues are supposed to lead one to, is in the region wherein Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains lie. Pierre Plantard, who is connected with the authorship of the document, visited this area towards the end of the 1930s – and it was not to marvel at the bird-life; he fine-combed the Sals Valley at Rennes-les-Bains under the pretence that he was an archeologist. In his book Rennes-le-Château et l’énigme de l’or maudit [4] (‘Rennes-le-Château and the Enigma of the Accursed Gold’), Prof. Jean Markale refers to this visit of Plantard, stating that he closely searched the heights and cliffs in the river valley and that he was particularly interested in the Fountain of Magdalene and the Queen’s Baths. He apparently also paid particular attention to the two tombstones of an earlier local ruler, Paul-Urbain de Fleury, in the cemetery of Rennes-les-Bains. With him he carried the scarce book by the priest Henri Boudet, La vraie langue celtique et le cromleck de Rennes-les-Bains, which deals exclusively with this area.

Fig 3. The figure at the cubical stones.

What is quite noteworthy is that virtually all the landmarks mentioned in the recounting of Pierre Plantard’s visit to the Sals Valley feature in Le serpent rouge. The Plantards had also owned a piece of land in the region of Blanchefort and Roque Nègre, which lies in the area where one enters the valley of Rennes-les-Bains from the north. In former times, there had also been a goldmine here, where according to the authors of Web of Gold. The Secret History of a Sacred Treasure [5], a treasure had most probably been hidden.

viii. The temple treasures

In the writing Les descendants Mérovingiens ou l’énigme du Razès Wisigoth (‘The Merovingian Descendants or the Enigma of Visigothic Razès’), there are a couple of interesting comments about this alleged treasure. This writing was circulated among members of the Swiss Alpina Masonic lodge and was also deposited in the French National Library. The purported author is Madeleine Blancasall – in all probability a pseudonym of Pierre Plantard, his friend Philippe de Chérisey, or Plantard’s wife, Anne-Léa Hisler. According to this script, the treasure hidden in the area consists of 25 000 000 golden Francs, which is part of the Merovingian king Dagobert II’s treasure, and an additional 19 500 000 golden Francs, allegedly part of the treasure of the Visigoths of the Razès. Although these numbers are clearly highly exaggerated and a (feeble) attempt at emphasising the value of the treasure, it is interesting that Pierre Plantard is said to have taken part in the moving of gold bars worth a hundred million Francs to the Union Bank of Switzerland in 1952.

The most famous treasure said to be found in the region is the one the Romans had robbed from the temple in Jerusalem, which the Visigoths later brought here after their pillaging of Rome. Pierre Plantard himself referred to this treasure in a conversation with the authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, who write: ‘In 1979, M. [monsieur] Plantard had said to us, quite categorically, that the Prieuré [de Sion] was in possession of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem, plundered by the Romans during the revolt of A.D. 66 and subsequently carried to the south of France, in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château. The treasure, M. Plantard stated, would be returned to Israel ‘when the time is right’.’ [6]

It could therefore very well be that the poem Le serpent rouge is somehow connected with this treasure. There is, after all, mention of the ‘purest gold’ in the poem, and one of the paintings of Delacroix the poet emphasises indeed revolves around the temple treasures.

If the intricacy of the poem is anything to go by, it is certainly possible that what one is dealing with here are in fact directions that could lead to the biggest treasure of all – the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem. As was mentioned earlier, some writers are of the opinion that the famous Jean Cocteau was the writer of this poem, which makes one wonder whether he did not perhaps write it as a sort of last testament.

Some experts believe the poem to be related to the geometrical pattern according to which the Rennes-le-Château church was laid out, and others that it describes the mysterious process that is symbolic of the inner path of a mystic’s development. Although both of these suppositions could be correct, right from the start, however, it seemed to me to rather primarily involve the Sals Valley in the Rennes-les-Bains region, containing directions for a route through the area. Visiting Rennes-les-Bains for the first time, I couldn’t wait to see if such a route does in fact exist. Needless to say, I was quite thrilled when I discovered that the first clues in the poem do indeed correspond to such a route.

Next, I will set out exactly how I went about analysing the 13 stanzas of the poem in consecutive chapters and elaborate on the information related to each clue. The complex thread of the content is carried through on each of the many levels the poet saw fit to weave into the riddle, up until the final solving of it. In conclusion, I venture an opinion as to the political and religious implications of the discovery of the actual keystone.

[1] Saul, J.M. & Glaholm, J.A. 1985. London: Mercurius.

[2] Ibid., p. 19.

[3] Boudet, H. 1886. Carcassonne. Reissue: 1984. Belisane: Nice.

[4] Markale, J. 1986. Paris: Pygmalion. Translation: Graham, J. 2004. The Church of Mary Magdalene. The Sacred Feminine and the Treasure of Rennes-le-Château. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions.

[5] Patton, G. & Mackness, R. 2000. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.

[6] Baigent, M., Leigh, R. & Lincoln, H. 1982. The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. London: Jonathan Cape, p. 235.

#17January merovingian Rennes-le-Château davincicodeRosslynchapel etinarcadiaego theholybloodandtheholygrail leserpentrouge asmodeus redserpe

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