Arcadia Discussion Zone

So the term applies to anyone in government? Even if they could be called foreigners?

TCP

aka the wisest fool in Christendom.

In two day's time 768 years ago the Cathars at Montsegur chose to be burned at the stake rather than surrender to the Holy Roman Church

This is what they saw at Dawn from Montsegur



The sun and venus rising together over Rennes le Chateau Arcturus on the east-west line at 33 degrees the cross at 66 degrees. The Lyre is almost overhead


Hercules over the east west line

Notice that Polaris is not north

Tonight no one will sleep

Perhaps they chose to be burned rather than have there eyes, lips and in some cases hands removed. This was a common practice of those on both sides of the Albigensian war

Whether they did or did not choose this form of death over maiming (I doubt they had any choice), the date of March 16, 1244 was, and is, considered the symbolic end of the Cathar religion.

of course they had a choice, surrender or die.

True, the Ecclesia Gnostica out here always has a commemorative mass for the victims of Montsegur on March 16th. I've been to a couple of them.

Speaking of which, LA Weekly did a fantastic interview with Bishop Stephan Hoeller of the Ecclesia Gnostica back in 2005.

Exile in Godville

One of my favorite parts of the interview:

Aside from its dismissal of Judaic law and its challenge to Papal Writ, one of the things that undoubtedly drove the suppression of Gnostic scripture was its depiction of “the prostitute,” Mary Magdalene, as holding equal status with the 12 disciples and special rank with the Son of God himself. Like Eve, M.M. “gets it” before the guys do, not infrequently prompting grumblings of “What’s up with her?” This brings us to the zingers breathlessly reported by Dan Brown in the widely read pages of The Da Vinci Code.

Since Bishop Hoeller is a bona fide scholar of the lore alluded to by the now stupendously rich Mr. Brown, the question must be posed: Was it some sort of tantric sex thing between J.C. and M.M.?

“Although I’m delighted by the interest in Gnosticism it’s stirred up,” Hoeller says, “and by its part in restoring Mary Magdalene to her place at the side of Jesus, I must confess that my regard for The Da Vinci Code is considerably less than for The Matrix. For one thing, Mr. Brown seems to have an agenda. He appears to be deliberately courting certain ‘interest groups,’ among them conspiracy buffs, enthusiastic but badly informed Goddess worshippers and almost anyone who harbors a grudge against the Christian faith. And though the Gnostic Gospels do identify the Magdalene as having a unique spiritual kinship with Jesus, there’s no suggestion that the relationship was sexual, much less that it produced offspring. This is a canard derived almost wholly from an earlier piece of sensationalistic pseudo-history called Holy Blood, Holy Grail.”

“According to which,” I interject, “the bloodline of Jesus produced the French monarchy . . .”

“Yes, well . . . the Merovingian dynasty.”

“And your opinion of the Holy Blood theory?”

“Flapdoodle.”

You've got to love the old guy, he's quite a character.



TCP

I don't follow, tingra, they did surrender and they did die, at least the 200 or so confessed perfects.

Yes you do Bill, they could surrender and be mutilated, and then die, or they could die by self- immolation.

I think it is about the Freedom to Choose and the sacrifice of one self
When you think of Christ
he knew all along he was going to die and be arrested and crucified
He could of run or did many different things to alter the outcome

but he didn't
Some would say that was suicide...

But he chose to sacrifice himself
Isn't that what the Cathars did

I think the Bishop copped out Tim
he acknowledges her rightful place at Jesus side
but he evidently forgets the Gnostic Gospel of Phillip
where Magdalene kisses Jesus and he her

and he must tow the line let's face it



Bishop did you even read the Gospel of Phillip....
And I'm sure Jesus was kissing an unmarried woman in front of his MARRIED apostles
to show them it was "ok"


What a major COP OUT!