Part 5: Back to the beginning.
In part 4 I revealed the disclosure of a "Secret Place". This secret has been handed down for centuries using occult signs and I have discovered that for this purpose a geometric pattern was used. This pattern, which I called "Blanchefort-geometry", can be found on the map as well as in the paintings and documents which play a role in "The Mystery of Rennes-le-Château". Moreover, the pattern had been hidden in a unique way in the drawing of the "Dalle de Coume Sourde" in "Le Trésor Maudit". In part 5 I will trace the Secret still further. You will be able to witness new disclosures.
Other paintings.
It isn't important for the story whether the documents were genuine: they conceal the Blanchefort-mystery just as the paintings do. My next step was to find out if there were still more paintings through which the Secret had been passed down.
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First of all I focused on the first version of "Les Bergers d’Arcadie" by Poussin. Again starting from the staff of a shepherd I soon found the pattern. It appeared to be a simple pattern, in which the leaning tree and the arms of the person at the bottom on the right function as meridian and parallel. |
But there were more paintings involved in the Story.
René d'Anjou.
An image that comes back again and again in the various books is a miniature by René d’Anjou. René is mentioned as one of the Grandmasters of the Priory of Sion. "King of Jerusalem" is one of his many titles.
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Because of the angle formed by the lance and its shadow I could find the pattern. The meridian and the parallel have been clearly marked too. |
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Starting from the sun three patterns can be constructed. From each pattern there is one line going to one of the corners of the painting. |
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A pattern of the same size as the first one can be found if you use the sun, the fingers of the persons standing, plus the boot of the person lying down. All in all it was clear that René d’Anjou too was an "initiate". |
In 1437 René d’Anjou was imprisoned in Lille. Here the painter Jan van Eijck, whose work is also worth studying in this light, paid him a visit.
Jan van Eijck.
Jan van Eijck’s most famous painting is to be seen in the church of St. Bataaf in Ghent (Belgium): "The Adoration of the Lamb". One of the many remarkable stories about this painting mentions a "secret of the Templars". Studying the bottom row of panels it appeared that all diagonals were at an angle of 70°, one of the angles of the Blanchefort-geometry.
 The "Lamb of God" of Jan van Eijck |
 The diagonals are at an angle of 70°. |
The central panel proved to be composed as a double Blanchefort-geometry: two triangles of 30°, 60°, and 90°. The centre of the picture is the statue. The centre of the aureole is on the frame at the top of the panel. Finally I could, again starting from some of the staffs, draw in the pattern and ascertain the meridian.
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But there was yet another painting by Van Eijck which had attracted my attention, called "The Madonna with Canon Van der Paele". Here it was the staff of St. George that helped me to draw in the pattern. So Jan Van Eijck was an initiate too. What might he have discussed with René d’Anjou, when he visited him in prison?
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But the trail led still further back in time…
The Map of Jerusalem.
The last and oldest manuscript which I studied (though I am certain that still more paintings have been made on the basis of the Blanchefort-geometry) was a miniature representing the map of Jerusalem (mentioned by Andrews and Schellenberger). I could find the basic lines, using the street plan and the crosses on the shield and the banner of the Templar. Also the oblique cross on the "church of the tomb of Mary" was helpful here.
 St.Bertin in St.Omer |
 Map of Jerusalem |
 Basic lines |
After drawing in the pattern the "Secret Place" proved to be situated just under the (empty) Tomb of Christ. In a second pattern one line pointed to "Béthania", determining the form of the plaza. I also found a third pattern. In this pattern the "Secret Place" was on the back of the horse. In all patterns the various lines are directed towards striking details in the miniature.
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All three patterns are of such a size, that in one way or another, they "are connected". Here for the first time I happened on the triangle Blanchefort-Serres-Cassaignes in a painting.
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The makers of the map were monks from a convent in St. Omer in the north of France. From whom had they received the information enabling them to make this map? From the Templars? Is the Secret of Blanchefort a Secret of the Templars as well? It was time to go and find out on the spot.