Museu d’Història dels Jueus a Catalunya -Centre Bonastruc Ça Porta
The Kabbalist Center of Gerona. From the very beginning two opposing tendencies appear among the kabbalists, the first seeking to limit the Kabbalah to closed circles as a definitely esoteric system, the second wishing to spread its influence among the people at large. Throughout the history of the Kabbalah right down to recent times these two tendencies have been in conflict. Parallel with this, from the time of the appearance of the Kabbalah in Gerona, two attitudes developed concerning the relationships of the bearers of the rabbinic culture to the Kabbalah. The kabbalists were accepted as proponents of a conservative ideology, and as public defenders of tradition and custom, but at the same time they were suspected, by a substantial number of rabbis and sages, of . . . . being innovators whose activities must be curtailed wherever possible . . . . In these disputes, the Kabbalah of the Gerona scholars seemed to be a symbolic interpretation of the world of Judaism and its way of life, based on a theosophy which taught the inner secrets of the revealed Godhead and on a rejection of rationalist interpretations of the Torah and the Commandments.
. . . .
This combination of the theory of the Sacred Names and the speculations using the methods of gematria with the theory of the Sefirot of the Gerona kabbalists contains . . . . . a powerful renewal of ecstatic tendencies, which took on the new form of “prophetic Kabbalah.” Gershom Scholem.
I first became aware of Patrice Chaplin while listening to the Coast-to-Coast installment called Mysterious Portals (Is she dating Dr. Who?, an impatient listener asked). Before that, I knew nothing of the importance of Gerona to the development of Kabbalah — just as I knew nothing of Patrice Chaplin. I ordered 
Patrice’s book, City of Secrets, (published by Quest Books) and devoured it as soon as it arrived. In fact, I took time off from work today to read it a second time for the purpose of this review, and believe me, I didn’t need to be forced. The book is vital and energizing — an invigorating journey. It’s not just a book. It’s an initiation.
What is the Kabbalah? The two-word definition would be ‘Jewish Gnosis.’ Of course, it is much more than that: it is a complex intellectual-philosophical body of work paralleling the complex cultural history of the Jews; it is a culture in its own right, a complete theosophical system. But, no matter how complex, all enlightenment arises from a single Being.
The foundation of all foundations, and the pillar of all wisdom is to know that there is God who brought into being all existence. All the beings of the heavens, and the earth, and what is between them came into existence only from the truth of God’s being. Maimonides
This basic Kabalistic structure is used to describe Rosicrucian Initiation of consciousness. Likewise, the Grail structure is also Rosicrucian: Graal = Gradalis = By Degrees. We should therefore ask, What is the Grail? An Object, A Ritual, or a Place? Can the Grail be perceived in Super-conscious states? I am reminded of something Paul Case said repeatedly: you can neither reveal a secret to someone not ready, or conceal it from someone who is. The Confessio puts it thus:
Were it not an excellent thing to live always so as if you had lived from the beginning of the world, and should still live to the end thereof? So to live in one place that neither the people which dwell beyond the Ganges could hide anything, nor those which live in Peru might be able to keep secret their counsels from thee?
I regard the Grail myth as an initiatic — or mythopoetic — corpus; emblematic, rather than symbolic. Those who have delved into the Grail imagery know full well it has played a much more central role in Western history than is currently imagined, and this has nothing to do with Dan Brown’s speculative books, or Monty Python’s funny movie. Chaplin convinced me that there was an important Qabbalistic order in Spain entrusted with the ritual aspects of the Grail. This is really great stuff.
Until I listened to Patrice on the radio, it never occurred to me that the Grail is a ritual. Period. She referred to it as “the key.” I thought immediately of that ornate description in Book V of Eschenbach:
They bowed, and the two who carried the silver knives approached and laid them down on the beautiful table. Then courteously they all withdrew and joined the first twelve. If I have counted right, there must be eighteen ladies standing there. Ah vois! Six more are now seen coming arrayed in costly garb, one-half of a silk that
was interwoven with gold, the rest of pfellel-silk from Nineveh. They and the six who went before wore gowns alike, of priceless worth, each made of two fabrics combined.
After them came the queen. So radiant was her countenance that everyone thought the dawn was breaking. She was clothed in a dress of Arabian silk. Upon a deep green archmadi she bore the perfection of Paradise , both root and branch. That was a thing called the Grail, which surpasses all earthly perfection. Repanse de Schoye was the name of her whom the Grail permitted to be its bearer. Such was the nature of the Grail that she who watched over it had to preserve her purity and renounce all falsity.
El Mundo de la Luz. There’s a scene in City of Secrets (p. 35) where Patrice “accidentally” comes across what we much later in the book suspect was a Grail ritual conducted by, or participated in, French polymath Jean Cocteau — a very disturbing scene:
The room, flickering with lights from an important looking ceremonial candleholder with six branches, was busy with shadows that sped and whirled onto every possible surface with a desperation not to be left out, like children playing a game of musical chairs. I could see only part of the long table and a few men around it, intoning phrases. They were the singers. Others were
silent. The candles were tall, their light bending in the draughts. A man in black, his head shaven, held a scroll and put his hand on a substantial, engraved piece of stone in front of him. I thought he wore a headdress, but it was a shape behind his head like a star, which I found out later was a hexagram. The shutters kept from view other men, but the shadows dominated the room. These must be priests from the cathedral — yet why did people keep saying the house was never used? The sound became bigger as though forcing my head to expand, becoming unbearable, and I covered my ears.
Here is confirmation, perhaps, that the mystique around the Holy Grail has more to do with ritual transmutation than with objects (“ritual” meaning any sort of system which raises the receptivity of its practitioner) — a Quest, not a destination. Chaplin’s book arouses this thought: suppose the Grail mythology was a Christian cover for a pre-Christian, pagan rite? It seems very likely, since the political-correctness of the Middle Ages was to attach Christian names to forbidden ideas and practices — a ruse the Irish specialized in, in fact, to deflect the wrath of Church authorities concerning Druid practices. Many holy Christians sites sit atop older Pagan monuments. One suspects that our ancestors — perhaps even mysterious others from other dimensions — knew things we can only fantasize about in literature and in film and that, when conditions are right, certain of our contemporaries pass through that veil to other dimensions you and I know nothing about.
Well they were the grail rituals because they’re all documented on scrolls which take two hours to perform. They’re not simple. It’s at least a two hour event, and it has to be performed by initiates of a high order who have prepared for the ritual. Even to witness the rituals you have to be in a state of purification and have a very high energy level in your nervous system. So you would have been fasting, for instance. 17 Questions for Patrice Chaplin
Portals, hints of portals, and a haunting attachment to the sanctity of the past, City of Secrets reads like a string of over-lapping mini-secrets connected to One Big Secret. Part love story, part travelogue, part police investigation, I find myself continually going back and rereading phrases or incidents with a new appreciation, even puzzlement. Have I read this before? I can never be certain. Strange figures dart in and out of the waves lapping ’round the dark, forbidden center. Who really is telling this story? What aren’t they telling us? What isn’t she saying? One can never be sure. Frequently there are references to people who are “evolved.” One suspects “evolved” means much more than can be explained in a 336 page memoir.
Jose and Patrice
Patrice’s love for the mysterious and poetically forlorn Jose at first seemed a distraction from the “real book”, but I found myself appreciating how Patrice’s feelings and expectations changed with age and experience. At first I thought, ‘Damnit, leave the girl stuff out!’, but as I read on, I was digging girl stuff! With practice I came to realize that Jose was bound to something Patrice couldn’t see, and that he was trying to protect her from his fate, while struggling with his love for her. We can see the young Patrice struggling with jealousy; we can see the young Jose struggling with his call; each is struggling with predestined ends that exclude the other, but they can’t see it. Later we come to appreciate — at least superficially — some of Jose’s lonely pain. After all, what is the Grail without Romance? He or she who thirsts for the Grail can appreciate the loneliness of those who would enter the court of Repanse de Schoye.
The Questions continue: Who was Berenger Sauniere, the “priest who became rich overnight”? Who were the Rosicrucians? Who, and how old, was Maria Tourdes?
La Nuit, by J.C. Villalonga
What was that strange tower built next to the mysterious house? What purpose did it serve? Where exactly was the Sun Stone kept these many centuries? And what was it? Where did it come from? For me, the Sun Stone was the most fascinating piece of the entire story. One way or another, the Sun factors into spiritual transformations of a radical nature. Did our ancestors figure out how to capture that agent in a ritual stone? Interesting idea, isn’t it? I have reason to suspect the Egyptians knew something about teleportation and time stretching, for example. Not hard evidence, mind you. Just suspicion.
Salvador Dali The Perpignan Railway Station
Whatever it was these folks had (thought they had?), it somehow figured into a ritual that the priest, Sauniere, knew a great deal about. Was he good? Was he evil? Or someone who came across knowledge that is, like some asteroid belt, always visible to those who know where to look? A knowledge that can be used for good or evil?
He was looking for something, and he looked for it years earlier when he went to Narbonne, and he found it. It was all to do with documents and traditions hidden in the Kabbalah tradition, and it pointed straight back to Rennes-le-Château. And then hey diddle diddle, he’s
in Rennes-le-Château. He didn’t end up in some backwater because he annoyed the church. They wrote his script for him which covered him and covered any contingencies. He was chosen to do the work.
The priest discovered that the secret was in Girona, in Spain! It was part of the actual plan of what he had to go and find. He wasn’t just arbitrarily finding a lot of money to make himself a nice little life because if he was going to do that he would have hopped out of Rennes-le-Château a long time ago. He’d have gone somewhere else. I mean that’s logical isn’t it? Why would he stay there, it was not a nice place! He was doing the work. He had to leave information for those that came after him. 17 Questions
Patrice encounters a dreadful vision at Rennes-le-Château in one of the many chapters in the book that force you to try and understand how every person she met, every circumstance she encountered, is somehow tied to the mystery that emerges from the story, like a pattern coming into relief from apparently unconnected facts. What’s going on here? Ian Punnett said he hoped these things were true. You Go, Ian!
Reading City of Secrets allays any fear of deception, hers or ours. Our 21st Century world is so materialistic, so nihilistic, so filled with a kaleidoscope of stupid cliches and mindless bumper stickers, that the magic which oozes from Patrice’s prose seems no longer possible, and yet, there it is! Wow! She is a first-rate writer. Top of the heap.
Here was one of my favorite pieces in the book, which elicits that feeling of time travel:
It was how Christmas should be. The light in the Gothic Quarter as though from another century flooded us with gold and then flickered, became insubstantial and presented figures made up of bits of light, dancing in and out of reality like characters in a fairground.
That’s some damn good writin’, boy. Can’t wait to read the sequel, sent to me by Quest books. I’m gonna get to it as soon as I can.
External Links:
17 Questions of Patrice Chaplin
The Twin Towers: a Spanish Connection?
Codex Celtica: the Grail Mystery Takes a New Turn
The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief
Rumor Mills Network Interview of Patrice — Download Targets
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