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The Priory of Scion

The Prieure du Notre Dame du Sion, or Priory of Zion, is said to be the cabal behind many of the events that occurred at Rennes-le-Chateau. According to the Prieure's own documents, its history is long and convoluted. Its earliest roots are in some sort of Hermetic or Gnostic society led by a man named Ormus. This individual is said to have reconciled paganism and Christianity. The story of Sion only comes into focus in the Middle Ages.

In 1070, a group of monks from Calabria, Italy, led by one Prince Ursus, founded the Abbey of Orval in France near Stenay, in the Ardennes.

These monks are said to have formed the basis for the Order de Sion, into which they were folded in 1099 by Godefroi de Bouillion.

For about one hundred years, the Order of the Temple - Knights Templar - and Sion were apparently unified under one leadership, though they are said to have separated at the cutting of the Elm at Gisors in 1188.

In 1188 AD King Phillip II of France and King Henry II of England (with his heir Richard the Lion Hearted at his side) met on the sacred field at Gisors. This site in France was where kings had come for centuries to debate, forge alliances, and sometimes do battle. A huge elm tree in the middle of the sacred field was the central symbol - an ancient elm thought to be almost 800 years old at that time, so huge that nine men joined hand to hand could not encircle it.

Phillip and Henry were not on good terms; war between England and France was in the air, and Henry was making a claim on France. Phillip informed Henry that the elm would be cut down; Henry and Richard planned to defend it. A battle ensued, Richard was slightly wounded, the French army stormed the field with superior manpower while the English fled and took refuge in the nearby chateaux of Gisors. Phillip chopped down the elm, and retained France for himself. Henry thus did not conquer France but went home and ruled England, passing it on to Richard the Lion Heart followed by his other son, John.

I see the cutting of the elm as a metaphor for - Elm=Tree of Life. Cutting - split in the bloodline - or DNA. This was all linked to alchemy.

Other theories...

The Cutting of the Elm at Gisors did more than just split the Templars off from its parent Order, it defined the boundary line between the Plantagenets on one side, supported by the Templars, and the Capetians on the other, supported by Sion. This division would eventually produce not just the destruction of the Templars by the French King, Philip III and his puppet Pope, Clement V, but the catastrophe of the Hundred Years War between France and England.

The elm at Gisors represented the Merovingian bloodline, and the battle was about the claim to the right to rule. Henry II was the grandson of Fulk V, King of Jerusalem. But this title was bestowed through marriage to the daughter of the previous King of Jerusalem, Baldwin, who did have a direct male succession from the Merovingian Kings. Henry II's claim to France was based on obscuring the truth; his claim to blood descent was untruthful but politically worth making if the facts could be obscured. However, in a more relevant light, his son Richard did embody a true claim, because his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was descended from Charlemagne and therefore Clovis, one of the first Merovingian Kings. The Plantagenets established their Merovingian heritage only through Eleanor of Aquitaine; it was valid for Richard to make the claim (though he couldn¹t because he wasn¹t yet king), but not for Henry II - even though his grandfather had married the daughter of a legitimate lineal male descendant of the Merovingian line and thus became the third King of Jerusalem after Godfroi and Baldwin.

This is why King Phillip of France wanted to symbolically cut the cord for Henry and Richard: Phillip, too, was descended from Charlemagne. Only two, but more like three, females stood in the decent line between Phillip and the Merovingian Kings. (Male descent was preferred in royal successions.) He believed his claim on France was more pure than the Plantagenet usurpers. (Not true, since Eleanor's other line back through Bernard Plantevelue was probably all male.) Thus the elm at Gisors, ancient symbol of genetic branching and direct continuity, was cut as a statement to Henry II: 'Go away, France is mine!" The outward visible symbol of the vine transplanted from the Holy Land was no more. The knowledge thereafter was hidden, though preserved by the Templars and, later, by the Priory of Sion.

The Templar order was then destroyed by King Phillipe Le Bel of France, in 1307. Sion appears to have been at the nexus of two French antimonarchical movements, the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century - acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine families - and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as behind an attempt to make the Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th - the Hieron du Val d'Or. It appears that there are vast connections between Sion and numerous sociocultural strata in European thought - Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Arthurian and Grail legends, Arcadianism, Catharism, chivalry, etc.

Yet this mysterious secret society brought itself to light in 1956 and is listed with the French directory of organizations under the subtitle "Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union, which in French abbreviates to 'circuit' - the name of the magazine distributed internally among members. Depending on what statutes one considers, Sion either has 9,841 members in nine grades, or 1,093 members in seven, with the supreme member, the Nautonnier or Grand Master of the Order being, till 1963, Jean Cocteau.

While it is believed the head has been Pierre Plantard de St.-Clair up until recent times, he claims to have left that post in 1984, so it is not clear who runs the organization at this time. But whoever he is, he has had illustrious predecessors: Jacques DeMolay, Leonardo de Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Claude Debussy, among others! Plantard, in any case, seems to have enjoyed the ear of many influential persons in contemporary French politics - deGaulle, Marcel Lefebvre, Francois Ducaud-Bourget, Andre Malraux, and Alain Poher, and others, many of whom appear to know him from his efforts with the Resistance during the Vichy occupation. Despite its registry, however, the organization remains untraceable, its given address and number leading to dead ends which might lead one to wonder why the government never bothered to verify the information.

Some interesting things have come to light about the Prieure recently. One is that the Swiss Grand Lodge Alpina (GLA), the highest body of Swiss Freemasonry (akin to the Grand Lodge of England), may have been the recruiting body for the Prieure. But the GLA is also said by some to be the meeting place of the 'Gnomes of Zurich' who are said to be the Power Elite of Swiss bankers and international financiers. The GLA is said by David Yallop to be the body which controlled the P2 Masonic Lodge in Italy.

P2 controlled the Italian secret police in the 1970s, took money from the CIA and KGB, may have had a hand in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades, had 900 agents in other branches of the Italian government and the highest positions of the Vatican, bombed a train station and tried to blame it on the Communists, used the Vatican Bank to launder Mafia drug money, fomented fascist coups in South America, and is most likely linked to the arch-conservative Knights of Malta and Opus Dei in the Vatican.) P2's Lucio Gelli may have had a role in the death of John Paul I, and perhaps even the assassination attempt on John Paul II.

One of the most interesting people to write about the Prieure may be Michael Lamy. He claims that Jules Verne was a member of both the Prieure and the Illuminati. Further, he maintains that the Prieure's politics must be understood as Orleanist, which he describes as "aristocratic, anarchistic, and Nietzchean." Perhaps it all becomes most clear when Lamy reveals to the reader that the true secret of the village of Rennes-le-Chateau is that the extinct volcano Mount Bugarach leads down into the hollow earth to a realm of supermen.

Ean Begg feels it is connected with many of the Black Virgin sites all over Europe. Certainly, if the organization's full name is the Prieure de Notre Dame du Sion, and if it is site of Orval is connected to the worship of the bear-goddess Arduina, venerated by the Sicambrian Franks of the area and their Merovingian kings, then this may be the case.

There are hints, of course, that Notre Dame is not the mother of Jesus, but Mary of Bethany AKA Magdalene a princess of the tribe of Benjamin, which is itself notorious for an outbreak of goddess-idolatry in the period of the Judges. That Mary may also be the one also known to the Gypsies of the south of France as one of the three 'Maries-de-la-Mer,' whom they call 'Sarah the Egyptian', the sun-burnt one.

According to Michael Bradley, some of the keepers of the Holy Grail may have come to the New World long before Columbus. He believes that some of the Templars may have fled to Canada after the dissolution of their order, carrying the Grail. The Money Pit has more often been associated with pirates' buried treasure, but as many know, the Jolly Roger flag's skull-and-crossbones icon has long been associated with Masonic and Templar legends.

Zeno Map - 1398

The so-called Venetian Zeno Map shows a knight with a sword standing where Nova Scotia is. In 1398 Prince Henry Sinclair, his Venetian navigators Antonio and Nicola Zeno, and three hundred Knights Templar, left Orkney in twelve ships.

They sailed to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland then on to Nova Scotia and New England. This is the story of the "Zeno Narrative," a document that records and maps the travels and explorations of Prince Henry Sinclair with his companions to the New World, ninety four years before Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage. Prince Henry Sinclair was born in 1345, at Rosslyn Castle, and was the descendant of the Saint Clair / Gisors a Norman family that was granted the Barony of Rosslyn, Midlothian, Scotland in the 12th century.

The Sinclairs of Scotland are hereditary lords of Rosslyn Chapel and are said to be descended from the Scots Guards, a clique loyal to the Stuart dynasty, which in turn are thought to have contained converted members of the Templar Order who fought with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, and to have provided the basis of Freemasonry. In the Money Pit on Oak Island, a mysterious stone inscription was found: Forty feet below - two million pounds are buried. Every company that has tried to locate this treasure has failed.

Along with the supposed visits of Prince Madoc of Wales and St. Brendan of Ireland, Prince Henry the Navigator's trip to the New World with the Zeno brothers makes it one of numerous European pre-Columbian voyages. The Zeno map, along with those culled by Viking travelers, may have even helped Columbus make his way across the Atlantic.

Sinclair liked all that he saw about in this new world and decided to stay. Many of the members of his expedition wanted to return home. He allowed them to leave and kept two of the smaller boats for himself, and those who chose to remain with him. He established a base here and started exploring the lakes, rivers and inlets of the area. Sinclair's base may have included a castle, which was built on the peninsula between the now named the Gold and Gaperau Rivers.

At the mouth of each of these rivers are islands - both named Oak Island and both being the only Islands in Nova Scotia with Oak Trees. At the confluence is a mysterious ruin, which is was Sinclair's fortress or old castle.

He became fast friends with the local Indians, the Micmacs, and is believed that he was called 'Glooscap' by them, the name of the white God of their ancient lore. And supposedly they loved him almost as if he were a god.

Sinclair and his party remained in Nova Scotia for almost a year. Over the winter months they had built a larger ship and when spring came they sailed south.

They sailed to present day New England, just north of Boston. Their relations here with the Indians were very good. While here one of his party and supposed cousin Sir James Gunn died. He was buried near the summit of Prospect Hull in current day Westford, Massachusetts. A grave marker in the style of the Templars was hand chiseled onto a rock slab. The image on the rock is of a Knight Templar, bearing the arms of the Gunn Clan on his Shield. Sinclair sailed back to Scotland, where he died in 1401 while having problems with English invaders.

It appears that there may be strands connecting Rennes-le-Chateau and the New World Orders. Ultimately, the Rosicrucian ideas behind the American experiment may have deeper Arcadian roots.

Bradley hints, but does not come out and say, that what is beneath the Money Pit is the Grail.

It is not the only weird trail in the Rennes mystery. One researcher insists that the inventor Barnes Wallis was one of the most recent Grand Masters of Sion.

Others have even found connections to the so-called Baconian Theory, which suggests that Sir Francis Bacon authored Shakespeare's plays. Bacon's works suggest a Rosicrucian experiment taking place in the New World.

Fanthorpe seems to believe that ultimately Rennes-le-Chateau may be a Doorway unto the Invisible or a gateway to other dimensions, through the Emerald Tablet which he speculates may have been a tesseract (3-dimensional representation of a 4-dimensional figure).

Lincoln and his co-authors fashioned a theory that Christ had descendents who legged it to the south of France where they intermarried with the royal Franks to found what eventually became the mystical Merovingian Dynasty. Ergo, the real mission of the Templars and Priory of Zion: to safeguard not just the treasure of the Crusades, but to preserve the Grail, which appeared in medieval texts as 'Sangraal' or 'Sangreal' - translated to mean 'sang real', or 'royal blood'. In other words: the dynastic legacy of Christ, literally.

The Merovingians were considered in their day to be quasi-mystical warrior-kings vested with supernatural powers. The Merovingians traced their ancestry back to the Benjamites who, according to legend, fled from Israel to Arcadia in Greece.

The earliest roots of the Prieure de Sion were founded in some sort of Hermetic or Gnostic society led by a man named Ormus. This individual is said to have reconciled paganism and Christianity. The story of Sion only comes into focus in the Middle Ages. In 1070, a group of monks from Calabria, Italy, led by one Prince Ursus, founded the Abbey of Orval in France near Stenay, in the Ardennes. These monks are said to have formed the basis for the the Order de Sion, into which they were 'folded' in 1099 by Godfroi de Bouillion. He was one of the leaders of the First Crusade who had recaptured Jerusalem. They claim that it was this Order that lay behind Hugues of Champagne and the founding of the Templars.

The avowed and declared objective of the Prieure de Sion is the restoration of the Merovingian dynasty and bloodline - to the throne not only of France, but to the thrones of other European nations as well. By dint of dynastic alliances and intermarriages, this line came to include Godfroi de Bouillion, who captured Jerusalem in 1099, and various other noble and royal families, past and present.

Godfroi was, by legend, a member of the Grail Family, and by lineage a Merovingian and apparently, rightful King of Jerusalem by his descent from David. It is clear that he was aware of this. When he left for the first crusade, he sold all of his property. He intended to stay in Jerusalem. Godfroi was close to de Payen and the count of Champagne, and Baudoin his brother was integral to the founding of the Templars.

One might therefore term Godfroi de Bouillon as a sort of 'king of kings', or at least a maker of kings, since he founded the Order of Sion that could crown Kings of Jerusalem.

To the south of Jerusalem looms the 'high hill' of Mount Sion. By 1099 an abbey had been built on the ruins of an old Byzantine basilica at the express command of Godfroi de Buoillon. According to one chronicler, writing in 1172, it was extremely well fortified, with its own walls, towers and battlements. And this structure was called the Abbey of Notre Dame du Mont de Sion.

In 1979, M. Plantard had said to us, quite categorically, that the Prieure 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.

At some point the treasure had passed from the Merovingians to the Priory of Zion. the Templars took the treasure from the Holy Land to the French Cathars, who, on the eve of their destruction by the church, squirreled the lucre away in the Pyrenees.

For about one hundred years, the Order of the Temple (Knights Templar) and Sion were apparently unified under one leadership, though they are said to have separated at the 'cutting of the elm' at Gisors in 1188.

Near the end of the thirteenth Century a separate detachment of Templars was sent from the Aragonese province of Rossillon to the Rennes-le-Chateau area in southern France [the old Cathar stronghold]. This fresh detachment established itself on the summit of the mountain of Bezu, erecting a lookout post and a chapel. Alone of all the Templars in France, they were left unmolested by Philippe le Bel's seneschals on October 13, 1307.

On that fateful day the commander of the Templar contingent at Bezu was a Seigneur de Goth. And before taking the name of Pope Clement V, the archbishop of Bordeaux - King Philippe's vacillating pawn - was Bertrand de Goth. Moreover, the new pontiff's mother was Ida de Blanchefort, of the same family as Bertrand de Blanchefort [the fourth Grand Master of the Order of the Temple]. Was the pope then privy to some secret entrusted to the custody of his family?"

Whether is was the intrigues and the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth century, the insurrection known as the Fronde in the seventeenth century or the Masonic conspiracies of the eighteenth century, successive generations of precisely the same families were implicated, operating in accordance with a single consistent pattern.

In documents dating from 1619, it was stated to have incurred the displeasure of King Louis XIII of France, who evicted them from their seat at Orleans and turned the premises over to the Jesuits. After that, the Prieure de Sion seemed to vanish from the historical record, at least under that name, until 1956, when it appeared again, registered in the French Journal officiel.

The castles of Templar Chateau of Bezu, the Chateau of Blanchefort and Rennes-le-Chateau are each located on a mountain top. Together, with the high spots of two other peaks, the locations form a perfect pentagon (five equal sides) some fifteen miles in circumference. Like Rennes-le-Chateau "the village church dates back to at least the time of the Visigoths, some thirteen centuries ago. The church is dedicated to Saint Magdalene.

The early astronomers saw the Earth as the center of the universe, around which the Sun, the stars and the planets revolved. Each planet forms its own pattern of movement around the Sun as seen from the Earth. For the ancient watchers of the heavens, those differing patterns of movement allowed them to draw geometric shapes based on the positions of each planet when it was aligned with the Sun.

Only one planet describes a precise and regular geometric pattern in the sky - and that planet is Venus, the heavenly counterpart of the earthly Mary Magdalene - and the pattern that she draws as regular as clockwork every eight years is a pentacle.

There can be no doubt that churches, calvaires, castles and obscure ruins - almost every structure of note upon the map -form an intricate web of alignments which intersect with perfect regularity on the zero Paris- meridian. The distance covered by three of those division is the circle radius measure. Each point is separated from the next by exactly one third of 933.586 poles.

The accepted definition of a pole - also known as the Rod or Perch- is now 5.5 yards.

All of the measurements and placements of the buildings follow the patterns of the sacred geometry.

This all leads back to the Hermetic studies - Hermes - who was Thoth .

The boat of Isis was positioned in the constellation of Argo. Specifically, in Egypt this constellation was named Sothis or Soth-Isis, the Star of Isis. Furthermore, in the Egyptian legends this vessel represented the female organ of generation. The Ark of the Covenant of the ancient Israelites is believed to have been modelled after the ceremonial ark of Isis.

It has been alleged that Hughes de Payens, first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, had been inducted into the Johannites, a sect which chose John the Baptist as their prophet. According to the dossiers secrets, each of the alleged Grand Masters of the Prieure de Sion took the name Jean in succession (supposedly influencing the name chosen by Pope John XXIII). One of the Grand Masters on the list, Leonardo da Vinci, displayed a strong interest in John the Baptist. Another, Sir Isaac Newton, became preoccupied with the writings of the Apocalypse, then attributed to John the Evangelist.

According to the dossiers secrets, the following individuals were amongst the Grand Masters:

René d'Anjou (1418-80) - a major impetus behind the Renaissance through his literacy and influence on Cosimo de'Medici setting up bastions of esoteric, Hermetic principles - the 'underground stream'. Legend records that the d'Anjous were descended from Ann the Jew, daughter of Joseph of Arimathea, who supposedly carried the Davidic blood line and settled in western France. Later, the D'Anjou branched into the Houses of De Guise and De Lorraine. René d'Anjou was related to the king of France by marriage and remained a trusted ally during the war with England. On paper, René was one of the most powerful men in Europe. Unfortunately, after the failure of his Italian campaign, he was nothing more than a patron of the arts and collector of books. René was co-sponsor of the Arcadia revival in the late 15th century.

Through his patronage of art, literature and the advancement of knowledge Rene is one of the most important figures of the formative years of the Renaissance. It was directly as a result of Rene's influence that Cosimo de Medici sent agents out to look for ancient texts, which resulted in the revival of Neoplatonic and Hermetic thought.

Nicholas Flamel (1330-1418) the most famous of the alchemists said, "the Paris notary Nicolas Flamel claimed that he dreamed of an occult book, subsequently found it, and succeeded in deciphering it with the aid of a Jewish scholar learned in the mystic Hebrew writings known as the Kabbala. In 1382 Flamel claimed to have succeeded in the 'Great Work' (gold making); certainly he became rich and made donations to churches.

One alchemical symbol that is widely acknowledged by modern scholars is that of an old bearded man, the back of whose head shows a young woman looking into a mirror. A statue with this image graces the exterior of Nantes cathedral, as does a bearded king with the body of a woman, in the porch at Chartres that depicts the Queen of Sheba.

The hermaphrodite is a pure alchemical symbol, representing the perfect balance achieved in the Great Work, and the perfect being, in which the alchemist himself is transformed and transmuted spiritually - and, as many believe, physically as well. It was a 'consummation devoutly to be wished' and had little, if anything, to do with sexuality as we understand it today.

The Great Work was an explosion of the potential into the actual, where they mystical quest takes on concrete form. As the alchemists said, 'as above, so below' - this process was believed to make spirit into matter and transmute one sort of matter into another. It made a man into a god.

Revered by men like Newton, Flamel was the discoverer of The Sacred Book of Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer and Philosopher to that Tribe of Jews who by the Wrath of God were Dispersed amongst the Gauls which became one of the most famous works in Western esoteric tradition.

Leonardo de Vinci (1510-19) - Having little formal education, Leonardo enthusiastically accepted Nicholas's [of Cusa] new worldview [of an universe with no limits in space, no beginning or ending in time] as a justification for rejecing the outmoded authority of the 'pharisees - the 'holy friars' and of his 'adversaries' Plato and Aristotole.

For the first time since the Ionians, he put forward a conception of science that was wholly secular, in no way based on religious doctrines or philosophy. In Leonardo the craftsman, scientist, and inventor are merged into one.

Leonardo was left-handed; he was a strict vegetarian- he sought the company of alchemists and necromancers; he worked on a Sunday and only attended Mass when at court. The only surviving sculpture that involved Leonardo in its making is the statue of John the Baptist in the Baptistry in Florence, on which he collaborated with the utmost secrecy with Giovan Francesco Rustici, a known necromancer and alchemist.

And Leonardo's last painting was 'John the Baptist', showing him with the same half-smile as 'The Mona Lisa', and pointing straight upwards with the index finger of his right hand.

This in Leonardo's work is a sign always associated with John: in the 'Adoration of the Magi' a person stands by the elevated roots of a carob tree - John's tree, symbol of sacrifical blood - while making this gesture. In his famous cartoon of St. Anne the subject also does this, warning an oblivious Virgin.

The disciple whose face is perhaps accusingly close to Jesus' in 'The Last Supper' is also making this gesture. All these gestures are saying 'remember John'.

Johann Valenin Andrea (1637-54) - "the creator of the semi-secret Christian unions and author of the Rosicrucian manifestos, a Hermetic allegory which also evokes resonances with the Grail Romances and the Knights Templar.

At this time, with the eclipse of the House of Lorraine, the Priory transferred its allegiance to the more influential Stuarts after Frederick of the Palatinate married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I of England. Frederick created a culture, a 'Rosicrucian' state with its court centered on Heidelberg.

Robert Boyle (1654-91) - part of the "Invisible College" of dynamic English and European minds which became the Royal Society after the restoration of the monarch in 1160 with the Stuart ruler, Charles II as its patron and sponsor. His two closest friends were Isaac Newton and John Locke who met regularly with him to study alchemical works.

In the ancient world alchemy was referred to simply as 'the sacred art'. It flourished in the first three centuries A.D. in Alexandria, where it was the combined product of glass and metal technology, a Hellenistic philosophy of the unity of all things through the four elements (earth, air, water, fire), and 'occult' religion and astrology.

The essential principle was that all things, both animate and inanimate, were permeated by spirit, and that the substances of the lower world could, through a synthesis of chemical operations and imaginative reasoning, be transmuted into higher things of the spiritual world - things not subject to decay.

Napoleon Bonaparte - Sion appears to have been at the nexus of two French anti-monarchical movements, the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century (acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine families) and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as an attempt to make the Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th- the Hieron du Val d'Or.

Abbe Seiyes urged Napoleon to marry Josephine Beauhamais because she was a Merovingian descendant, and to adopt her two children by a previous marriage who were of this anciently royal stock. In 1798 on the way to Egypt, Bonaparte detoured to capture Malta and the treasure held by the Knights of Malta.

During second world war in France, a recent grand master of the Prieure de Sion, M. Plantard, was grand master of Alpha Galantes. "He hinted that beneath its pro-Vichy and Petainist patina, Vaincre [the journal of Alpha Galantes] contained coded messages and instruction which would have been decipherable only to the Resistance.

Vaincre had been printed by Poirier Murat, Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, holder of the Medaille Militaire and officer in the French Resistance. According to Vaincre and Alpha Galantes, chivalry was to be the instrument of national renewal for France: 'a chivalry is indispensable because our country cannot be reborn except through its knights.'

In the fifth issue of Vaincre, dated 21 January 1943, a great German, one of the Masters in our Order" is quoted as saying: "It is therefore with total confidence that I depart to perform my mission; for while not deluding myself about the perils I run in discharging my duty, I know that until my last breath my watchword will consist in recognition of Alpha and fidelity to its chief.

This statement is ascribed to Hans von Moltke, a career diplomat and also a cousin of Claus von Stauffenberg. Helmut James von Moltke, together with Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, was the leader of the so-called Kreisau Circle, the civilian wing of the German Resistance to Hitler.

Both Alpha Galantes and the Kreisau Circle were intent on youth movements and on mobilizing the resources of European youth. Both insisted on a moral and spiritual renewal an opposition, in Moltke's words, based on fundamental principles.

Both were essentially chivalric in their orientation. And both were dedicated to the eventual creation of a United States of Europe.

During the Second World War, while Poher was doing something heroic in the Resistance to win the Resistance Medal and the Croix de Guerre, and while Plantard [future Nautonnier of the Priory of Sion] defied the Nazis and suffered torture for it, the Cross of Lorraine was adopted as the symbol of the Free French forces under Charles de Gaulle.

This cross, having two cross-bars instead of one, originated with the ancient French house of Anjou, where Guiot found his tale about Percival. It was later adopted by the Merovingian-descended rulers of Lorraine in the old Sicambrian heartland on the Rhine.

Napoleon Bonaparte - Sion appears to have been at the nexus of two French anti-monarchical movements, the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century (acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine families) and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as an attempt to make the Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th- the Hieron du Val d'Or.

In 1796 Napoleon was one of three revolutionary 'Directors' heading the government. Another Director was Abbe Sieyes, who knew of certain genealogical researches that had been undertaken by one Abbe Pichon. Pichon had access to the royal archives captured by the revolutionary government, where some important genealogies had been hidden away, and he discovered that a direct descent from Dagobert II had been maintained up to then.

Abbe Seiyes urged Napoleon to marry Josephine Beauhamais because she was a Merovingian descendant, and to adopt her two children by a previous marriage who were of this anciently royal stock. In 1798 "on the way to Egypt, Bonaparte detoured to capture Malta and the treasure held by the Knights of Malta.

During second world war in France, a recent grand master of the Prieure de Sion, M. Plantard, was grand master of Alpha Galantes. "He hinted that beneath its pro-Vichy and Petainist patina, Vaincre [the journal of Alpha Galantes] contained coded messages and instruction which would have been decipherable only to the Resistance. Vaincre had been printed by Poirier Murat, Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, holder of the Medaille Militaire and officer in the French Resistance. According to Vaincre and Alpha Galantes, chivalry was to be the instrument of national renewal for France: a chivalry is indispensable because our country cannot be reborn except through its knights.

Napoleon Bonaparte - Sion appears to have been at the nexus of two French anti-monarchical movements, the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century (acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine families) and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as an attempt to make the Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th - the Hieron du Val d'Or.

In 1796 Napoleon was one of three revolutionary 'Directors' heading the government. Another Director was Abbe Sieyes, who knew of certain genealogical researches that had been undertaken by one Abbe Pichon. Pichon had access to the royal archives captured by the revolutionary government, where some important genealogies had been hidden away, and he discovered that a direct descent from Dagobert II had been maintained up to then.

During the Second World War, while Poher was doing something heroic in the Resistance to win the Resistance Medal and the Croix de Guerre, and while Plantard [future Nautonnier of the Priory of Sion] defied the Nazis and suffered torture for it, the Cross of Lorraine was adopted as the symbol of the Free French forces under Charles de Gaulle. This cross, having two cross-bars instead of one, originated with the ancient French house of Anjou, where Guiot found his tale about Percival. It was later adopted by the Merovingian-descended rulers of Lorraine in the old Sicambrian heartland on the Rhine.

-The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

From Wikipedia

Prieuré de Sion, usually rendered in English translation as Priory of Sion or Priory of Zion; since the 1970s, it has been an elusive protagonist in many works of non-fiction and fiction. Although it has been characterized as anything from the most influential secret society in Western history to a modern Rosicrucian-esque ludibrium, it is generally thought that the Priory of Sion is, in large part, a hoax. Certainly, there is no published and approved historical evidence that establishes its existence before 1956.

The Priory of Sion is an association that was founded in 1956, in the French town of Annemasse. As with all associations, French law required the association to be registered with the government. This took place at the Sous-Prefecture of Saint Julien-en-Genevois, in May 1956, and its registration was noted on 20 July 1956 in the 'Journal Officiel de la République Française'.

The founders and signatories are inscribed as Pierre Plantard known as Chyren, Andre Bonhomme known as Stanis Bellas, Jean Deleaval and Armand Defago. The purpose of the association according to its Statutes deposited at St Julien was entered as, "études et entraide des members" ("education and mutual aid of the members").

In effect, the originator of the association and its key protagonist was most probably Pierre Plantard, the General Secretary of the association although in practice its President was Andre Bonhomme.The choice of the name, 'Sion', was based on a hill south of Annemasse, known as 'Mont Sion'. Plantard chose a local name for specific reasons.

In the 1950s France experienced a tumultuous political situation, as these were the years of the French Fourth Republic; in Paris, governments succeeded each other rapidly and there was great instability. Also, the war in Algeria was in full swing. There existed much suspicion in the country and the fear of coups d¹états.

Since Plantard was an outsider in this out-of-the-way provincial town, his part in the creation of an association (or any association) aroused suspicion. Therefore, the choice of a name associated with a local and well-known landmark gave it a local character.

As with all French Registration Papers and Statutes, those of the Priory of Sion are available to the public. We also find an accompanying title to the name which reads as: 'Chevalerie d¹Institutions et Règles Catholiques, d'Union Independante et Traditionaliste' - this forms the acronym C.I.R.C.U.I.T and translates as "Chivalry of Catholic Rule and Institution and of Independent Traditionalist Union."

The Statutes and Registration Documents of the Priory of Sion were deposited on 7 May 1956, while the first issue of its journal Circuit is dated 27 May 1956 (in total, twelve numbers of the journal appeared). Its objective was indicated as a "Bulletin d¹Information et Défense des Droits et de la Liberté des Foyers H.L.M." ("News Bulletin for the Defence of the Rights and the Freedom of Low-Cost Housing").

Some of the articles took a political position in the local Council elections. Others attacked and criticized property developers of Annemasse. It also opposed the gentrification of the area. Therefore, the political contents of the journal had brought it to the attention of the local authorities and any attempt by its editor, Pierre Plantard, to form an association was bound to be received with increased suspicion. The offices of the the Priory of Sion and the journal were at Plantard¹s council flat.

The articles of the Priory of Sion indicated the desire to create a monastic order - but the activities of the Priory of Sion bore no resemblance whatsoever to the objectives as outlined in its Statutes - these were two entirely different things - as noted by the Sub Prefecture of St Julien-en-Genevois (this textual documentation exists in its archives, comprised of observations and correspondence written by officials that were required to monitor this situation, and this material is available for public inspection).

Article VII says that its members are expected, 'to carry out good deeds, to help the Catholic Church, teach the truth, defend the weak and the oppressed'.

There is ample evidence that it had several members, as indicated by the numerous articles contained in its journal 'Circuit' that were written by numerous different people, and towards the end of 1956 the association had aims to forge links with the local Catholic Church of the area involving a School Bus service run by both the Priory of Sion and the church of St Joseph in Annemasse - an article written by Father Saud in issue 12 of 'Circuit' (headed as a Special Edition') outlined the aims of creating a bus service to the local Nursery and Primary School of the town of Annemasse.

In the same issue J. Cailleboite criticised the local authority for not tarmacading a local road that was being used as a local playground by the children. The association was dissolved sometime after October 1956 but intermittently revived for different reasons by Plantard between 1962 and 1993 in name and on paper only. A letter at the Sous-Prefecture of Saint-Julien en Genevois indicates that Plantard had a criminal conviction as a confidence man.

From the 1960s, a series of hypothesis and unproven historical associations became attached to the name Priory of Sion. These bear no relation to the origins of the 1956 association.

The Priory of Sion is considered 'dormant' by the Sous-Prefecture because it has indicated no activities since 1956. According to French law, subsequent references to the Priory bear no legal relation to that of 1956 and no one other than the original signarories are entitled to use its name in an official capacity (though A. Bonhomme played no part since 1956, he officially resigned in 1973 when he heard that Plantard was linking his name with the association; therefore no one is around to use the name officially).

Plantard originally hoped that the Priory of Sion would become an influential cryptopolitical lodge (similar to the P2 cabal), but dedicated to the restoration of chivalry and monarchy, and to promote Plantard's own claim to be the rightful king in France.

In the 1960s, Pierre Plantard began writing a manuscript and produced "parchments" (created by his friend, Philippe de Cherisey) that Father Bérenger Saunière had supposedly discovered whilst renovating his church. These forged documents alluded to the survival of the Merovingian line of Frankish kings.

Plantard manipulated Saunière's activities at Rennes-le-Château in order to "prove" his claims relating to the Priory of Sion.Between 1961 and 1984 Plantard contrived a mythical pedigree of the Priory of Sion claiming that it was the offshoot of the "Order of Sion" (its correct historical title being the Abbey de Notre Dame du Mont Sion) which had been founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the First Crusade.

Calling his original 1956 group "Priory of Sion" undoubtedly gave Plantard the later idea to claim that his organisation had been historically founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades when meeting Gerard de Sede during the early 1960s - this fabrication by Pierre Plantard was part of his literary deal with the author Gerard de Sede when they both began collaborating together during the early 1960s in a series of published books.

Furthermore, it is reported that letters in existence dating from the 1960s written by Pierre Plantard, Philippe de Cherisey and Gerard de Sede to each other confirm that the three were engaging in an out-and-out confidence trick, describing schemes on how to combat criticisms of their various allegations and how they would make-up new allegations to try and keep the whole thing going - these letters (totalling over 100) are in the possession of French researcher Jean-Luc Chaumeil, who has also retained the original envelopes.

Jean-Luc Chaumeil during the 1970s was part of the Priory of Sion cabal and wrote books and articles about Plantard and the Priory of Sion before splitting from it during the late 1970s and exposing Pierre Plantard's past in French books.In order to give credibility to the fabricated lineage and pedigree, Plantard and de Cherisey needed to create 'independent evidence'.

So they deposited a series of forged documents at the Bibliotheque Nationale (BN), in Paris, during the 1960s. Therefore, people who set out to research the 'Priory of Sion' would come across these fake documents at the BN. One of those researchers was Henry Lincoln.

With such 'evidence' in hand, he persuaded the BBC's factual program 'Chronicle' to make a series of documentaries. The BBC was very willing to go along with this. T

he program generated thousands of responses. With such interest, it became inevitable that a book was going to be written. In order to further 'investigate' the Rennes-le-Château mysteries, Lincoln joined forces with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. Their research led to the pseudohistorical Secret Files of Henri Lobineau at the BN, compiled by Plantard and de Cherisey under the pseudonyme of "Philippe Toscan du Plantier"; the three authors also met up with Plantard and de Sede. Such 'evidence' became the source for their book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, in which they reported claims that:

• with a list of illustrious grand master, the Priory of Sion has a long history starting with the creation of the Knights Templar as its military and financial front;

   

• it is sworn to returning the Merovingian dynasty, that ruled the Frankish kingdom from 447 to 751 C.E., to the thrones of Europe and Jerusalem;

   

• the order protects these royal claimants because they may be the literal descendants of Jesus and his wife Mary Magdalene or, at the very least, of king David and high priest Aaron;

   

• the Roman Catholic Church tried to kill off all remnants of this dynasty and their guardians, the Cathars and the Templars, during the Inquisition, in order to maintain power through the apostolic succession of Peter instead of the hereditary succession of Mary Magdalene.

These authors further asserted that the ultimate goals of the Priory of Sion are:

• the founding of a "Holy European Empire" that would become the next hyperpower and usher in a new world order of peace and prosperity;

   

• the establishment of a messianic Masonic state religion by revealing the Holy Grail, which would prove Ebionite views and Desposyni claims;

   

• the grooming and installing of a "Rex Deus" pretender on the throne of a Greater Israel.

Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln even incorporated the infamous anti-semitic tract known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (spelling Zion with an S) into their story, concluding that it actually referred to the activities of the Priory. This they viewed as the most persuasive pieces of evidence for the existence and activities of the Priory of Sion:

• The original version emanated from an irregular Masonic organization that used the name "Sion" but had nothing to do with an international Jewish conspiracy.

   

• The original version was not intended to be inflammatory or released publicly, but was a program for gaining control of Freemasonry.

   

• The person responsible for changing the text in about 1903 was Sergei Nilus in the course of his attempt to gain influence in the Court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The presence of esoteric cliques in the royal court led to considerable intrigue. Nilus' publication of the text resulted from his failure to succeed in wresting influence away from Papus and an otherwise unidentified "Monsieur Philippe".

   

• Since Nilus did not recognize a number of references in the text that reflected a background in a Christian cultural context, he did not change them. This fact established that the original version could not possibly have come from the first Zionist Congress in Basel (1897).

Accepting these hypotheses as facts, some fringe Christian eschatologists viewed the Priory of Sion as a fulfillment of prophesies found in the 'Book of Revelation' and further proof of an anti-Christian conspiracy of epic proportions.

However, since modern historians do not accept Holy Blood, Holy Grail as a serious contribution to scholarship, all these claims are regarded as being part of a dubious conspiracy theory. French authors like Franck Marie (1978), Jean-Luc Chaumeil (1979, 1984, 1992) and Pierre Jarnac (1985, 1988) have never taken Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion as seriously as Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh. They eventually concluded that it was all a hoax, outlining in detail the reasons for their verdict, and giving detailed evidence that the Holy Blood authors had not reported comprehensively. They imply that this evidence had been ignored by Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh in order to bolster the mythic version of the Priory's history.

In 1989, Pierre Plantard tried but failed to salvage his reputation and agenda by claiming that the Priory of Sion had actually been founded in 1681 at Rennes-le-Château.

In September, 1993, he approached of his own volition an investigative judge (not by writing any letter), claiming that Roger-Patrice Pelat had once been grandmaster of the Priory of Sion. That was a serious mistake and it led to Plantard's eventual isolation. Pelat was a friend of the then-President of France François Mitterrand and center of a scandal involving French Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy.

A French court ordered a search of Plantard's home, turning up many forged documents, including some proclaiming Plantard the true king of France. Under oath, Plantard admitted that he had fabricated everything, including Pelat's involvement with the Priory of Sion.

Plantard was ordered to cease and desist all activities related to the promotion of the Priory of Sion and lived in obscurity until his death on 3 February 2000, in Paris.Most recently, due to Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, there has been a new level of public interest in the Priory of Sion.

Cryptic Motto

Et in Arcadia ego... is supposedly the official motto of both the Plantard family and the Priory of Sion, according to a claim that first appeared in 1964. Et in Arcadia ego is a Latin phrase, that most famously appears as a tomb inscription on the ca. 1640 classical painting, The Arcadian Shepherds, by French painter Nicolas Poussin. It literally means, "And in Arcadia, I". It has been suggested that the cryptic phrase could be an anagram for "I Tego Arcana Dei" which translated into English means "I Conceal the Secrets of God".

However, the addition of the ellipsis (which was not there in the Poussin painting), suggests a missing word. Sum has been proposed as the completion of the phrase, which could then read "And in Arcadia, I am." However, Latin grammar is highly inflected, and would not use the pronoun "ego" with the verb-form "sum": for the proposed meaning, the motto would have to be Et in Arcadia sum.

Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger have theorized that the extrapolated phrase Et in Arcadia ego sum could be an anagram for Arcam Dei Tango Iesu, which would mean "I touch the tomb of God - Jesus". Assuming that:

a) the Latin phrase is in fact incomplete,

b) that the extrapolation as to the missing words is correct,

c) that the sentence, once completed, is in fact intended to be an anagram,and

d) that Andrews and Schellenberger selected the proper anagram out of the thousands of possibilities

 

Adrien Bourrell describes witnessing, as a young boy during the early 1930s, the building of the tomb at Les Pontils - constructed to contain the bodies of the mother and grandmother of Louis Lawrence, an American from Connecticut who had emigrated to the area. Bourrell provided this information to two French authors: Franck Marie in 1974 and Michel Vallet (Pierre Jarnac) in 1985.

Plantard had tried to argue that the Louis Lawrence tomb at Les Pontils was a "prototype" for Poussin's painting. The Louis Lawrence tomb was situated directly opposite a farmhouse (behind the foliage) and was not situated in the "middle of nowhere" in the French countryside, as is commonly assumed. The tomb was demolished in 1988 by its then-owner, with the full permission of the local government authority.

The Priory of Sion was supposedly led by a Grand Master or Nautonnier. The list below is derived from "Les Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau" compiled by Philippe Toscan du Plantier (1967):

1. Jean de Gisors (1188-1220)
2. Marie de Saint-Clair (1220-1266)
3. Guillaume de Gisors (1266-1307)
4. Edouard de Bar (1307-1336)
5. Jeanne de Bar (1336-1351)
6. Jean de Saint-Clair (1351-1366)
7. Blanche d'Evreux (1366-1398)
8. Nicolas Flamel (1398-1418)
9. Rene d'Anjou (1418-1480)
10. Yolande de Bar (1480-1483)
11. Sandro Filipepi (1483-1510)
12. Leonardo da Vinci (1510-1519)
13. Connetable de Bourbon (1519-1527)
14. Ferdinand de Gonzague (1527-1575)
15. Louis de Nevers (1575-1595)
16. Robert Fludd (1595-1637)
17. Johann Valentin Andrea (1637-1654)
18. Robert Boyle (1654-1691)
19. Isaac Newton (1691-1727)
20. Charles Radclyffe (1727-1746)
21. Charles de Lorraine (1746-1780)
22. Maximillian de Lorraine (1780-1801)
23. Charles Nodier (1801-1844)
24. Victor Hugo (1844-1885)
25. Claude Debussy (1885-1918)
26. Jean Cocteau (1918-1963)
27. Francois Ducaud-Bourget (1963-1981)
28. Pierre Plantard (1981-1984)

A second List of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion that included the names of Roger Patrice Pelat and Thomas Plantard appeared in 1989, but it should not be confused with the above list that belonged to a version of the Priory of Sion that Plantard rejected. When Plantard tried to make a comeback and a revival of the Priory of Sion in 1989 following his retirement in 1984 he claimed that the above list was bogus and a part of the "Secret Files", which by then had been exposed as a fraud by French researchers and authors.

This second List of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion appeared in Vaincre No. 3, September 1989, page 22 (Managing Editor: Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair)

With special thanks to www.crystalinks.com 

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