Upcoming Travel Photo Essays

[Laura]

I have a whole slew of photos to post on my personal website and I do promise that I will get to them soon. Back in October we made a day trip to Rennes-le-Bains to see the "Devil's Armchair" and a "Trembling Rock." We had a nice hike through beautiful countryside and I have some lovely photos. On the way home, we made a quick run up the hill to Rennes-le-Chateau to try to catch the sunset, but by then, my camera battery was gone!

In November, we went to Marseille again to stay a week at the Luminy campus. The weather wasn't optimal so I only visited St. Victor's church and spent about two hours in the gi-normous crypt.

Seems that the guy who founded the church was St. Cassien. (interesting that "cass") and he has also been credited with creating Tarot cards based on recent research. He came from Bulgaria and may very well have been of a Catharist persuasion. So, the idea that the Tarot embodies the teachings of the Cathars, or "Esoteric Christianty," may need to be considered.

This is my friend, Pierre's, translation of a recent French text on the subject:

According to Philippe CAMOIN, “it was the monk called Jean Cassien, founder
of the St Victor Abbey in 400 AD coming back from the East, who contributed
to the transmission of a secret teaching via the Tarot. It is clearly the
order of St Victor that, in the years 1000, ruled over the territory where
we will find the oldest Tarot and the oldest documents mentioning Tarots.
This territory is composed of Northern Italy, Southern France and Northern
Spain, the territory over which the Cathars and the Templars flourished”.

In France, from the end of the XVIth century, and due to the bohemian
influence, people really started using tarot in a divinatory way. Marseille
became then, in 1754, an important production center. The Marseille model
takes the lead, perpetuating the tradition of far more ancient masters
including François Chausson (1672); and particularly under the plume of
Nicolas Conver, Card Master. His middle age drawings were re-written in
1760, from the existing wood molds and the colors used by ancient engravers.
This Tarot, Called “Tarot de Marseille” is the one that saved the purest,
the most ancient and the most traditional symbolism, items and colours. We
should notice that the Conver factory founded by Nicolas CONVER, card master
since 1760, became, through a merger with the Camoin House : a factory
producing playing cards and various games, that prints its favourite game :
“Le Tarot de Marseille de Nicolas Conver”, last representative of the
ancient Marseille Card Masters Brotherhood, the Camoin House keeps focused
on respecting, maintaining and transmitting an authentic tradition.

Philippe Camoin, the last inheritent of the Marseille Card Masters, says new
historical data could change the situation about the rise of Tarot in
Western world. Thanks to the restoration work that he started in 1998 with
Alexander Jodororowsky through whom he’s restoring original symbols and
colours of the Tarot of Marseille, they discover a symbolic structure that
had vanished with time; and dozens of new symbols generating new teachings.
For example, the discovery of an egg located at the bottom of the eagle in
the emperor arcane, two snakes enlaced at the feet of The Temperance also
the four elements in the Ace of Cups. "

So, that was an interesting excursion. I took lots of photos in the crypt and will be putting up a photo album when I get an hour to call my own.

 

[Ruth]

Hi Laura and Everyone. I was lucky enough to tour France in 2004 (was reading Ancient Science at the time) and was struck by the number of symbolic references around the place to Lions (or as some web sites say leopards). The most obvious one is in Normandy which has lions (or leopards) on its flag. The lion symbolism must have travelled to Britain with the Norman invasion.
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/the_lion_and_the_unicorn.htm
But why lions? Why chose a symbol of an animal that doesn't even live in that country? Of course, there are biblical references to the 'Lion of Judah' as well as some extrodinary art work in the Louvre.
http://www.geocities.com/coolpoete/lionofjudahsymbol.htm
Sounds a bit like the 'angry, jealous' god to me.

Back to Normandy! I bought a book on Normandy because I was particularly interested in its history and close links with Britain. It's a bit ironic that in 1066 England was invaded by the Normans and 878 years later they come back to re-invade Normandy again.

One provice in the book (A tour of Normandy by Rene Gaudes & Herve Champollion) struck me as particularly interesting and this was the provice of Orne (can this be linked to birds, I wonder?). It's capital is Alencon. It is a relatively newly created province, created during the time of the French Revolution out of provinces of Normandie and Perche (any word relation to fish or even Percy?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orne
It struck me as being very mysterious area, besides being known for its forrests and cheese (Camembert!) Interestingly enought there is another connection to the French Revolution here, Charlotte Corday who killed Marat in his bath was born in Champeaux, Orne.
The province of Orne also has plenty of mysterious goings on. There is a legend surrounding Roc au Chien (near Bagnoles-de-l'Orne) that a dog would devour any young girls of marriageable age who ventured near. This for some reason reminded me of the human sacrifices that were carried out in the labrynth.

To the North-West is the province of Eure, which to the East has Gisors, a mediaval fortess that was managed by the Templar knights at one time. There's a little bit on how one of the fortessess towers nearly collapsed because of unauthorised digs carried out by treasure hunters. I guess it's typical for people seeking 'treasure' to always look in the wrong place! Further to the East of the Eure province is Val D'Oise (is this like valley of the bird - oiseau? There is probably a connection in the name to the Valois French Kings too).

I had the idea the birds might be important from this quote: (970621)
A: Templar carriers.
Q: What does that mean?
A: Seek and ye shall find.
Q: Well, how am I supposed to do that? I can't find anything else on the Etruscans!
A: No.
Q: What do you mean 'no?' You mean there is more out there on the Etruscans?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay. What are Templar carriers?
A: Penitent Avian Lords.


Anyway, to the west of the province of Eure there are the Vernier Marshes which mentiones a stone and inscription praising the grass of Normandy, "of a green so beautiful that even Hope can dream".

Also from the same session (970621)
Q: You guys are gonna drive me crazy! Do you mean Rhineland as in Germany proper?
A: We do not mean Rhinelander, Wisconsin... Or do we?!? Who is to tell?
Q: Who?
A: The searcher, the sepulcher, the one who carries the staff in constant search for greener pastures.

Well, I'm not sure if this should be in the travelogue or somewhere else, but I definately found France and especially Normandy and its mysterious history quite facinating not to mention beautiful.

 

[Laura]

Today I managed to get up the Rennes-les-Bains photos. You can see them here:

http://laura-knight-jadczyk.com/Rennes-les-Bains/index.html

 

[atreides]

It's a dangerous business, going out your front door.