Arcadia Discussion Zone

You may now watch the long awaited documentary by Carrie Kirkpatrick called, 'Mystical Legends - Girona, A City of Secrets' featuring Patrice Chaplin and myself, here:

http://vimeo.com/7180485

Thank you to Carrie for posting the documentary on the internet as it has mysteriously been removed from the excellent 'Controversial TV', for no apparent reason.

I have been told that the order to remove it from the channel was due to 'circumstances out of control' and came at the request of the 'the people at the top'. All this, from a television station in need of content and a documentary that had been exceptionally well received. Just who are the 'people at the top' then? Was it somehow too controversial?

In any case, I hope you enjoy it. And thanks again Carrie!

Best regards,

Andrew

PS I know this link has been posted elsewhere on the forum - and thank you for that - but I thought I would place it in a easier to find topic.

Ok. So I watched it Andy. And lots of things are going through my head. I know, I know, it's all that weak & pasty gray matter.

-- Have these letters from Sauniere to Maria Tourdes really been authenticated? I mean, by anybody with a bit more authority than a party-entertainer, a real graphologist?
-- On what basis does Patrice or anybody else think Josep Tarres was Sauniere's grandson? Would that make him the son of whatever child he and Maria Tourdes supposedly produced? (Or would the other possible grandma be Emma Calve or Marie Dernarnaud)?
-- I don't doubt she knew him, is there anybody besides "The Wolf" (I love that name) who will verify that Patrice & Josep had a long and deep intimate relationship? Maybe it was more of a summer fling. BTW, when did they break it off, it obviously was some point before these post-heart attack confessions of this decade.
-- Is anybody going to try and interview Josep before he dies? He may still be alive, but I'm not sure for how much longer.
-- So Patrice saw both Jean Cocteau and Umberto Eco attending these "Grail rituals" in Girona at Maria Tourdes' home. This mysterious "Grail Society" of Girona is not Jewish, but whatever was being depicted in that video had them all chanting in Hebrew. Plus they practice the Jewish Kabbalah - the real thing, not the Madonna version. (That's good.)
-- So we have a mirror of the Tour Magdala on Maria Tourdes' property ... but it looks like hers was built first. And in between the two towers (how Tolkienish) is Mount Canigou.

Well, you've got my curiosity going on, so I decided to look into if there's anything special about Canigou. Sure is, BTW.

http://www.anglophone-direct.com/Midsum ... Focs-de-la

One of the countless joys of living here is that each year you learn more and more about recurring major festivals.
No event in the Catalan calendar is more important than Els Focs de la Sant Jean or The Fires of St John, our mid-summer rites held on the region’s sacred mountain, Canigou (2,784 metres), and in towns and villages right across Catalonia.

Essentially the Fires celebrate the ancestral bonds of love and friendship between all Catalans everywhere – and by extension between all human beings. Indeed, many foreign nationals take part in the celebrations, though the current President of the Committee of the Fires of St John is, naturally, a Catalan, Jean Iglésis. He it was who spearheaded the celebrations in their present form from 1963.

The first midsummer fire on Canigou in modern times was lit on 23 June 1955 by one Francois Poujade and a few fellow USAP rugby fanatics - to celebrate his birthday and also the Perpignan team’s victory over FC Lourdes in the Yves du Manoir Challenge cup. Then between 1957 and 1963 Les Cercles des Jeunes enlarged the event. A local group belonging to an international network of young people devoted to good causes, Les Cercles extended the midnight fires to 20 further hill tops and watch towers. French Catalonia was truly ablaze!

La Trobada

Preparations for big events are often as much fun as the events themselves. So it seems with La Trobada (The Gathering or Reunion) when enthusiasts from many communes assemble for two days about a week before the solstice bonfire to make all the necessary preparations.

The meeting place is Les Cortalets (altitude 2,150 metres), an extensive plateau below Canigou. People make their way there either on foot along the track known as La Piste du Llech (a five hour walk), or by horse, mountain bike or 4x4s. Donkeys are allowed only for carrying supplies.

Each person brings a bundle of faggots of vine cuttings – symbols, like the fire itself, of "love and peace" to be deposited the following morning round the iron cross at the summit of Canigou.

[snip]

After not much sleep following these euphoric celebrations, the hardier participants make the four-hour climb to the top of Canigou, with their bundles of faggots and copious quantities of ribbons and bands in the famed Catalan colours of sang et or, or blood-red and gold. The faggots, bearing the name of each commune, are piled and tied to form a huge bonfire round the ancient metal cross on the top of the mountain.

A week later, at midnight on 22 June, the fire is lit by a group of watchmen from the Cercle des Jeunes with a flame permanently kept alive in the Casa Pairal; or, more precisely, in the hearth of the Casa Pairal’s reconstructed kitchen of a mountain farmhouse named Mas Gleix, dating from 1631. The Casa Pairal is a superb Catalan folk museum housed in Perpignan’s most imposing town-centre landmark, the 14th century brick-built former fortress-cum-prison, Le Castillet.

Why the flame is kept in the Casa Pairal, what happens after the bonfire on Canigou is lit, and the spectacular celebrations in Perpignan on 23rd June are stories for another day.

[snip]

Gosh dangit, another tease. I hate 'em.

I'm not sure what this guy is saying exactly, but it may be because his Catalan-to-English is not-so-very-much good.

http://www.feuxdelasaintjean.com/30.html

Harms mystical in all the countries, from time immemorial, always gave place to great number of magic practices: one braids crosses of Midsummer's Day, one preserves the firebrands and ashes of the hearth, the candles of white bubble, one looks at fire through a bouquet the dauphinelles ones, one passes 7 times the fennel in fire, one manufactures a marvellous powder starting from plants to make dance the girls, one preserves demons and from the wizards, one will gather grasses magic and medicinal, one rolls oneself in the dew...

Since always, in Catalonia, one speaks about the quatres plants entering daN the composition of the "ramellet of Sant Joan"
Yellow arsenic or death-I-viu
The immortal one or sempreviva
the millepertuis or perico groc
The walnut tree or will noguera

Between midnight and rising of the sun, each year, returns the mysticism of night and the traditions of the nature. Bien of the habits and the traditions were transmitted to the symbolic system of the four elements nature:

Water; of always, Midsummer's Day was related to the symbolic system of water: morning ablutions, crossings of rivers by the herds... il was of tradition to roll itself naked in the dew of the morning... This year, leave to research the alchémille and drink the invaluable dewdrops distributed on the circumference of the sheets as formerly the alchemists did it.

Fire :Midsummer's Day is the festival of the summer solstice
One finds this symbolic system in the plants since all the grasses of Midsummer's Day are plants related to the sun.

[snip]

http://www.feuxdelasaintjean.com/29.html

1 It is the restoration of traditional fires of Midsummer's Day.

In the vicinity of Perpignan (with Our Injury of Safety), the Circle of the young people organizes a bonfire where one is interfered taken care Catalan songs, folklores and sardanes.

2 In the heart of each Catalan a deep desire and a need remain to find its roots, to establish a bond with its history, its traditions, and to give again a vitality with the language of his/her fathers.

1955: The first fire with the peak of Canigou

[snip]

1964: Year 2 of the flame of Canigou.

a) The Committee of fires of Perpignan with the Circle of the Young people deals with all the organization of the flame of Canigou.

b) The flame of Canigou; Girl of the sun.

In top of Castillet one gathers some branches (bay-tree and olive-tree) come from the garden of Jancint Verdaguer (1845-1902). The rays of the sun using a magnifying glass give rise to a small flame come from the fire of heaven. The flame is given to Marguerite Mestre.

c)Pourquoi the flame is it lit on the terrace of Castillet?

Hurdy-gurdy prison of State, Castillet, where one had tortured those which wanted to preserve their Catalan identity, symbolized a State which martyrisa a whole people eager to preserve the language and its culture.Cette prison of hatred and suffering will become by the flame of Canigou a house of love.

d) Castillet, this old fortress, is transformed by our friend OJ Delocle into museum and traditions popular and baptized "Put it Pairal".Dans one of the rooms was reconstituted the antique cooks Farmhouse Gleix. "It is in its hearth that the flame of Canigou all in charge of love will be preserved, of peace of fraternity" says our friend OJ Delocle.

e)Avant the demolition of the Farmhouse built before the treaty of the Pyrenees appeared on the old lintel in oak a engraved date: 1631. For 333 years had run out. Three hundred and thirty three, figure esoteric venerated by all the mystics in many religions or initiatory schools.

F) Marguerite Mestre deceased in 1966 was the downward one of 16 generations which had lived in this farmhouse. Since, each year 3 watchers of the summits of the Circle of the Young people renew the epic of the catch of the flame, then assemble it to the peak of Canigou to take care it and regenerate it before going down again it to distribute it

[snip]

I notice Patrice also says Salvador Dali was involved with the Girona circle. Not too surprising, he didn't live too far away. Apparently her next book is going more into the Dali connection.

We have a Dali museum over in Tampa, I've been to that one, not any of the European ones.

Two of my favorite Dali paintings.

The Last Supper (the geometry in the painting is based on Phi, the Golden Section)


http://goldennumber.net/art.htm

In "The Sacrament of the Last Supper," Salvador Dali framed his painting in a golden rectangle. Following Da Vinci's lead, Dali positioned the table exactly at the golden section of the height of his painting. He positioned the two disciples at Christ's side at the golden sections of the width of the composition. In addition, the windows in the background are formed by a large dodecahedron. Dodecahedrons consist of 12 pentagons, which exhibit phi relationships in their proportions (see Geometry for details).

Crucifixion: Corpus Hypercubus



http://www.theartistsalvadordali.com/sa ... rcubus.htm

Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) (Corpus Hypercubus ou Crucifixion) 1954, by Salvador Dali, Oil on canvas 194.5 x 124cm Metropolitan Musuem of Art New York. Dali called this painting "Metaphysical, transcendent cubism, it is based entirely on the Treatise on Cubic Form by Juan de Herrera, Philip the 2nd's architect, builder of the Escorial Palace: it is a treatise inspired by Ars Magna of the Catalonian philosopher and alchemist Raymond Lulle. The cross is formed by an octahedral hypercube. The number nine is identifiable and becomes especially consubstantial with the body of Christ. The extremely noble figure of Gala is the perfect union of the develpment of the hypercubic octahedron on the human level of the cube. She is depicted in front of the Bay of Port Lligat. The most noble beings were painted by Velazques and Zurbaran; I only approach nobility while painting Gala, and noblity can only be insired by the human being." Dali had abandoned his Atheism in favor of the religion of his birth and baptism Catholicism. Combining this with his beliefs in so-called "nuclear mysticism" he created painting such as the Hypercubus. Christ is suspended on an eight sided dodecahedron - an octahedral hypercube or a cube in the fourth dimension. Dali's critics often stated that his use of these mathmatical symbols as "visual opportunism" and that the artist knew nothing of the meanings and mathmatical principles behind them. Thomas Banchoff a Brown professor who did pioneering work using computer graphics to illustrate geometry beyond the third dimension in the 1970's insists that this assumption about Dali is untrue. "Dali wanted to be treated seriously by scientists," Banchoff said of the artist. "He knew what he was talking about he was not just using the symbols." Banchoff and Dali became friends after a 1975 article in the Washington Post about Banchoff's work caught Dali's eye. Banchoff stated that Dali had specific mathmatical questions and sought the professor's help to solve optical problems in some of his more extreme works.

[snip]

And then there's this film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Âge_d%27Or

L'Âge d'Or (The Golden Age) is a 1930 surrealist film directed by Luis Buñuel and written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.

The film cost a million francs to produce and was financed by the nobleman Vicomte Charles de Noailles, who beginning in 1928 commissioned a film every year for the birthday of his wife Marie-Laure de Noailles. When it was first released, there was a storm of protest. The film premiered at Studio 28 in Paris on 29 November 1930 after receiving its permit from the Board of Censors. In order to get the permit, Buñuel had to present the film to the Board as the dream of a madman.

On 3 December 1930, a group of incensed members of the fascist League of Patriots threw ink at the screen, assaulted members of the audience, and destroyed art works by Dalí, Joan Miró, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy and others on display in the lobby. On 10 December, the Prefect of Police of Paris, Jean Chiappe, arranged to have the film banned after the Board of Censors reviewed the film. A contemporary Spanish newspaper condemned the film as “...the most repulsive corruption of our age... the new poison which judaism, masonry, and rabid, revolutionary sectarianism want to use in order to corrupt the people.”[1] The Noailles family pulled the film from distribution for nearly 50 years. In 1933, it was screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, but the film did not have its official United States premiere until 1-15 November 1979 at the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco.

[snip]

It starred Max Ernst, husband of ... Leonora Carrington.

Funny, that.

Dali...



and don't even mention the train station @ Perpignan.

why not? There are a lot of gold nuggets on it which you don't see on a reproduction.

Cute film. Very enjoyable. Thank you.

The Jews had been in Spain for around 1,500 years before their expulsion under Isabella and Ferdinand. In the prior centuries both Christianity and Judaism had been treated with extreme tolerance by the ruling Arabs.

Wisdom from whatever source was actively encouraged among all the religious groups operating within Arabic jurisdiction.

The first idea I want to dispel is that there was any animosity between Jews and Arabs in Spain. There was none. The edict was that if the Jews paid their taxes like anyone else, they could operate in peace and so they did. Until later a French and Italian couple chose otherwise. What did they care about Spain?

Whenever the Cabbala is mentioned, you have to look for its origins in the Arab, specifically Sufi, school of Ikhwan al-Safa, The Faithful Brethren of Basra, aka Brethren of Purity who originated it. It is no older than the second half of the 10th century and has no historical origins in any ancient Jewish tradition.

The Jews were taught by the Arabs. The first Hebrew grammar book, Kutub al-Lughah, was written in Arabic by Saadia Gaon (c887-942 ad).

Other Sufi schools include the Illuminati school of Ibn Massarrah of Cordoba (931-983 ad) and Dhul Nun's (768-861 ad) Al Banna or 'Masons', both of whom contribute obvious ritual, imagery and symbolism to western Freemasonry.

When the film talks of the Cabbala and Freemasonry we are in reality talking about two systems with common origins. Sufi schools have always, and are today, about the regeneration of the individual leading to the ability to directly recognise and experience a person's own unity with creation. The power that such realisation offers has lead to great and wonderful things being done by Christian, Islamic and Jewish people. It's irrelevant. If you got there, you got there.

If La Sanch are perpetuating a system of this kind I would not be surprised. Commemorating a bloodline? Maybe. If the organisation is remembering a suppression of the truth they observe. Yet again the Catholics did the dirty deed - Ferdinand and Isabella suppressed what they did in the name of Catholicism. We have to deal with that fact.

Mt. Canigou is the spiritual homeland of Catalonia, it's in their blood. As Glastonbury is to an Englishman. Does 'Baraka' as the Sufis would say attach to such a place? Is it a portal to another place? If it was used as an initiatory site, and what better one - it's a dramatic setting - then I would say yes, it is a portal.

Hmmmm. Is that Merkavah mysticism I see whizzing out the door?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkabah#M ... i_Merkavah

As for Spanish medieval Kabbalism being a synthesis of Jewish and Arab/Sufic systems -- totally agreed.

I just might quibble with your "no ancient Jewish tradition" thing.

I think you just agreed with me, Dr. The 'it' I was referring to was specifically the QBLA, Kabbala, Cabbala system, not any other ancient Jewish tradition. I need to read up more about the Jewish mystical tradition so I am grateful for your pointer, thank you.

The waters get muddied I think where areas of agreement come together. The Sufis certainly used any opportunity to find existing myths, beliefs, writings or systems of operation onto which they could graft their own wisdom. I am sure the Jews contributed their own wisdom and traditions to the goal of common learning.

good to see you posting again!

Thought it might be helpful to do a map showing Rennes - Canigou - Girona to see just how 'in the middle' Canigou is.

I also plotted the Benedictine Monastery at Ripoll. An important place of learning in the middle ages with a large library and the place where Gerbert studied, Borrell II of Barcelona having been asked in 967 ad by the Abbot of Aurillac in France to take Gerbert to study mathematics in Spain and acquire there some knowledge of Arabic learning. Gerbert is the person who introduced Arabic numerals to the west. Gerbert became Pope Sylvester II. Wikipedia tells me 'There is also speculation that he had Sephardic-Jewish ancestry.'

Actually, Andy, I now want to return to two things Patrice said in her "17 Questions" interview with you.



The story Patrice is referring to is NOT medieval ... it's from the early centuries CE and forms part of Jake's favorite book ... the Talmud. BTW, the story doesn't say they "went through portals to other dimensions". It says specifically they entered Paradise (Pardes) - the Garden of Eden (Orchard).

http://www.kabbalaonline.net/Safedteach ... radise.asp

Four Who Entered Paradise

Translated and edited by Rabbi Moshe Miller from Pardes Rimonim

The Talmud (Chagiga 14b), Zohar (I, 26b) and Tikunei Zohar ( Tikun 40) report the following incident regarding four Mishnaic Sages

The Rabbis taught: Four [Sages] entered the Pardes [literally "the orchard."] Rashi explains that they ascended to heaven by utilizing the [Divine] Name, i.e., they achieved a spiritual elevation (Tosafot, ad loc) through intense meditation on G-d's Name]. They were Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher [Elisha ben Avuya, called Acher -- the other one -- because of what happened to him after he entered the Pardes] and Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva said to them [prior to their ascension]: "When you come to the place of pure marble stones, do not say, 'Water! Water!' for it is said, 'He who speaks untruths shall not stand before My eyes' (Psalms 101:7)." Ben Azzai gazed [at the Divine Presence - Rashi] and died. Regarding him the verse states, "Precious in the eyes of G-d is the death of His pious ones" (Psalms 116:15). Ben Zoma gazed and was harmed [he lost his sanity -- Rashi]. Regarding him the verse states, "Did you find honey? Eat only much as you need, lest you be overfilled and vomit it up" (Proverbs 25:16). Acher cut down the plantings [he became a heretic]. Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardes_(Jewish_exegesis)

The Pardes typology describes four different approaches to Biblical exegesis in rabbinic Judaism (or - simpler - interpretation of text in Torah study). The term, sometimes also spelled PaRDeS, is an acronym formed from the name initials of these four approaches, which are:
Peshat (פְּשָׁט) — "plain" ("simple") or the direct meaning[1].
Remez (רֶמֶז) — "hints" or the deep (allegoric) meaning beyond just the literal sense.
Derash (דְּרַשׁ) — from Hebrew darash: "inquire" ("seek") — the comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences.
Sod (סוֹד) (pronounced with a long O as in gold) — "secret" ("mystery") or the mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation

[snip]

Association with paradise

The Pardes system is often regarded as mystically linked to the word pardes (Hebrew פָּרְדֵּס), meaning orchard. "Pardes" is cognate with the word "paradise", and Firdaus (Arabic فِردَوس), and probably originally from Persian. It occurs only three times in the Tanakh, namely, in Song of Songs 4:13, Ecclesiastes 2:5, and Nehemiah 2:8. In the first of these passages it means "garden"; in the second and third, "park." In the apocalypses and in the Talmud the word is used of the Garden of Eden and its heavenly prototype.[2] From this usage, comes Christianity's denotation of Paradise as the abode of the blessed.[3][4]

[snip]

I think this directly relates to Patrice's next response.



This text BTW is called the Zohar.

Here's the passage she's referring to. Notice BTW in the Talmudic story Rabbi Akiva is the only one who entered the garden and returned - sane, alive, etc.

http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=z ... 15&sec=554

259. Rabbi Akiva said to him: What is the meaning of the passage, "I went down into the garden of nuts" (Shir Hashirm 6:11)? He said to him: Come and behold. This garden comes out of Eden, and this is the Shechinah. Nut is the holy supernal Chariot, which is the four headwaters of the rivers that separates from the garden, WHICH IS THE SECRET OF THE FOUR FACES - NAMELY THE FACE OF A LION, THE FACE OF AN OX, THE FACE OF AN EAGLE, THE FACE OF A MAN. This nut has four holy heads inside, MEANING IN ITS FRUIT, AND IT ALSO HAS FOUR KLIPOT ('PEELS') THAT COVER THE FRUIT, WHICH ALLUDES TO THE FOUR KLIPOT: A STORM WIND; A GREAT CLOUD; A FIRE FLARING UP; AND A BRIGHTNESS, LIKE THE SUPERNAL CHARIOT. And when he said: "I went down," IN "I WENT DOWN INTO THE GARDEN OF NUTS," it is as we learned that so and so descended to the Chariot.

260. Rabbi Akiva said to him: If so, he should have said: 'I went down into the nut', WHICH IS THE CHARIOT. Why does it say, "I went down into the garden of nuts"? He said to him: Because THE GARDEN, WHICH IS MALCHUT, has all that is goodly in the nuts, FOR THEY GROW IN AND EMERGE FROM THIS GARDEN, WHICH IS MALCHUT. THEREFORE, HE MENTIONS THE GARDEN SPECIFICALLY. AND HE CONTINUES TO EXPLAIN HIS WORDS, AS TO WHY THE CHARIOT WAS ALLUDED TO IN THE NUT. Just as the nut is hidden and concealed from all sides IN ITS PEEL, so the Chariot that emerges from the garden, WHICH IS MALCHUT, is concealed from all sides. All these four heads in the nut are attached to each other on this side, MEANING IN THEIR CENTER, and separate on this side, OUTWARDLY. Thus, THE FOUR ASPECTS OF the Chariot attain each other in unity, in joy, in completeness, and they separate, each one to its individual aspect for which it was appointed. This is what is written: "That it is which compasses the whole land of Chavilah" (Beresheet 2:11). Likewise, "that is it which goes toward the east of Ashur" (Ibid. 14). It is the same with the rest of them.

261. Rabbi Akiva said: This dirt in the peel of the nut, MEANING IN THE FOUR KLIPOT THAT SURROUND IT, to what do they allude? He said to him: Even though the Torah did not reveal it, BECAUSE THE TORAH SPEAKS ONLY IN THE ASPECT OF GOOD IN THE NUT, it did reveal in this - MEANING IN THE ALMONDS - AS WILL BE EXPLAINED WILL THAT THE TORAH SPEAKS ABOUT THE FOUR KLIPOT OF THE ALMOND IN PARTICULAR, ALLUDING TO JUDGMENT, AND NOT THE ASPECT OF THEIR GOOD.

262. Come and behold: Some almonds are bitter BECAUSE OF THEIR PEELS, and some are sweet, implying that some are of Severe Judgment, TO WHICH THE BITTER ALMONDS ALLUDE, and some serve HOLINESS, TO WHICH THE SWEET ALMONDS ALLUDE. But we see that every open allusion TO THEM in the Torah is about Judgment, AND DOES NOT DISCUSS THE GOOD IN THEM - THE SWEET ONES. And so it is in Jeremiah, who was shown the Judgment THAT IS IN THEM as is written: "I see a rod of an almond tree (Heb. shaked)" (Yirmeyah 1:11). What is the meaning of shaked? Actual almonds - "AND IT WAS SAID TO HIM, 'FOR I WILL HASTEN (HEB. SHOKED) MY WORD TO PERFORM IT,'" MEANING TO UPROOT, CRUSH, DESTROY AND DEMOLISH...It is written by the rod of Aaron: "And yielded almonds" (Bemidbar 17:23), AND IT BECAME A SIGN TO THE REBELLIOUS PEOPLE. SO WE SEE THAT THE TORAH SPEAKS ONLY OF THEIR ASPECT OF JUDGMENT. And from the word itself, THAT THEY ARE CALLED 'ALMONDS' (HEB. SHKEDIM) it is understood that it refers to Severe Judgment, as is written: "And Hashem watched (Heb. yishkod) over the evil" (Daniel 9:14). And, "I will hasten my word," and so all of them. So it IS CLEAR THAT THE WORD "SHAKED" REFERS TO SEVERE JUDGMENT. Rabbi Akiva said to him: It seems that one could gain much wisdom from everything the Holy One, blessed be He, does, as is written: "Whatever Hashem has done is for His own purpose" (Mishlei 16:4). Rabbi Elazar says: We learn it from these words, "And Elohim saw everything that He had made and, behold, it was very good" (Beresheet 1:31). That is the meaning of "very" - IT IS GOOD to learn supernal Wisdom from it.

[snip]

The Chariot = The Merkavah of the Vision of Ezekiel 10

Nuts??

In the post above which Seeker maybe copied from a barely comprehensible Catalan site (Is this Babelfish or what the site actually says?) there is mention of 4 components of some sort of alchemical mix,


Now you're talking about nuts in the Kabbalah, and I remember reading somewhere in the Kabbalah it says that the visible world is a walnut, this being some sort of analogy to a walnut being shaped like the human brain.

Does anyone know if there is an ancient tradition (and I mean a pre-1100 AD) tradition about walnuts having any mystical significance, that might have been current in the Pyrenees, Hispania or the Languedoc?

Just a few comments about the grail from a Sufic point of view, since the film touches upon it.

Sufi material contains numerous references and salutations to a cupbearer.

More specifically Jalaludin Rumi's full name and title was Sayid Khidr Rumi Khapradari. Khapradari means cupbearer. The young Rumi visited the Sufi Fariduddin Attar The Chemist in his old age. Attar presented Rumi with one of his books. Attar had written no less than 114 books for use by sufis. Attar's books had widespread influence throughout Europe, for instance his Parliament of the Birds inspired Chaucer's Parlement of Fowles and much later Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

Attar's romantic quest writings were shown by Garcin de Tassy (January 25, 1794, Marseille - September 2, 1878) to resemble the Roman de la Rose. They are part of a tradition predating any appearance in Europe, originating in Syria but probably entering southern France by way of Spain. Attar's romance in turn inspired a similar book by Majriti the Cordoban.

The Sufic phrase is Qarael Muqaddas and means Holy Recital. In Moorish Spain it was pronounced Garael Mugaddas.

De Tassy noted that the Roman de la Rose has analogies with two Sufic streams of literature, Al-Muqaddasi's Birds and the Flowers and Attar's Parliament of the Birds.

The 'Sang Real' idea may not necessarily be ruled out because of the 'Garael' approach. It may not be a case of either/or but a case of both and more. Never underestimate the depth of meaning in Sufi literature, words are chosen extremely carefully. The numerical symbolism being only one aspect of this.

That's why I gave the URL, as I do for all regurgitations. If you go to it, you'll see that's not Babelfish horror. Apparently the guy did his own Catalan to English translation.

BTW, I know nothing about the symbolism of nuts for Catalan people, but I do know what they mean for Jewish people.



http://judaism.about.com/od/conservativ ... hvat_4.htm

ALMOND (Shaked)
The name of the tree and nut means “early rising” and it has been a symbol of the beginning of Spring. We believe that it originated in the Land of Israel in a wild form and was ultimately cultivated there, for domestic use and export. We know that another name for the almond was “luz” as in Gen. 28:19 and later in the Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit 4,7 because it is 21 days between blossoming and the forming of the fruit, exactly the same time between the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls and the destruction of the Second Temple. Thereafter it became increasingly available in the sweet variety and thrived in Israel during the Second Temple period and thereafter.

http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_ ... Basics.htm

#9 Walnuts are divided into four sections, corresponding to the four letters of G-d's name (Havayah) and the four legs of G-d's chariot (see Ezekiel 1). As walnuts have two shells which have to be removed, one hard, one soft; we too have to undergo both physical and spiritual circumcision (see Deut. 30:6).

#10 Almonds signify enthusiasm in serving G-d, for the almond tree is always the first to bloom. This is why Aaron's rod sprouted specifically almond blossoms (Num. 17:23). [See also Jer 1:11-12-be sure to catch the "pun" in the original Hebrew.]

[snip]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

In the Song of Songs (6:11), God goes down into an egoz garden - El ginat egoz yaradti. Egoz is equivalent to the Aramaic egoza, a nut - usually walnut - tree. In the accompanying Midrash, Song of Songs Rabba, the people of Israel are likened to a pile of walnuts. When one of them is moved or disturbed, each walnut in the pile is affected.

[snip]

Ginat Egoz (the "Walnut Garden"), written by Joseph Gikatilla in medieval Spain, is a seminal kabbalistic work. The title formalized three kabbalistic methods of Torah exegesis. Ginat is an acronym for gematria (numerology), notarikon (acrostics), and temura (letter substitution), while egoz or walnut, with its two coverings (a hard shell and a leathery coat surrounding it), represents the hidden Torah, which is always wrapped in a cover and is contained in an ark that is also covered. The four chambers of a walnut are analogous to the four mysterious creatures, described in the Book of Ezekiel (Chapters 1-3), which pull God's chariot throne.

[snip]

The walnut illustrates the ancient "Doctrine of Signatures," which held that the appearance of plants and their fruits signified their curative properties. Thus, heart-shaped strawberries would be good for the heart and kidney beans would improve kidney function. Consumption of walnuts, which resemble the brain, would strengthen that organ. Indeed, research has revealed that walnuts contain serotonin, a chemical manufactured in the brain and whose lack is often reported among individuals suffering from a variety of mental disorders.

[snip]

In the film Patrice tells us that the place Josep Tarres loved as much as the Frenchwoman's garden was his baracca or hut.

I am seeing connections here with another Sufi stream, that of the Carbonari.

"What have an Italian secret society got to do with this?" I hear you ask.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonari

The Sufi group called Fehmia or Perceivers originate with Bayazid of Bistam (804-874). Bayazid's master was Dhul Nun al-Misri, founder of the Sufi Builders or Masons and prototype for the western Masons.

There are two letter Hs in Arabic. FeHM means to understand or perceive, FeHM with the other H means coalman or charcoal dealer and sounds the same. The much later Italian carbonari or charcoal burners are a deterioration of this group.

The myth of the Carbonari claims that King Francis I of France (died 1515) strayed into Scotland (sic) when out hunting. He was found and befriended by charcoal burners, a band of mystics instructed by an ancient sage. Francis joined them.

As with Freemasonry, which claims the early lodges were founded in Scotland and which speaks of Scottish rites, it makes far more sense if we read Spain as a code word for Scotland. France borders on Spain, not Scotland. It's not a mistake but deliberate confusion.

The smallest unit of the Carbonari is the baracca or hut. See my connection here?

Among the original Fehmia Coalmen, baraka means meeting, or a signal to call a meeting. Baraka is also the Sufi word for blessing. It actually means more like the Chinese Chi or energy. Baraka can be the emanating energy from a holy person and it is believed can attach to a place or object after a person has departed. The handing down of a sufi mantle is an example of this transmission of baraka.

The Sufi Coalmen traditionally gave blessings to brides, a tradition that exists today in some parts of England where the chimney sweep is called in to kiss the bride.

There may be more to Josep's baracca than meets the eye. His love of his baracca may be more than a shed he liked to sit in. Did Patrice ever visit this hut? Was it some place Josep met or used to meet with his fellows? Josep was a poet, he'd appreciate the wordplay.

Hmmm. Well, I guess E. has given me permission to talk about Perpignan after sheila said no.

OK. I'll just give the link and NOT regurgitate contents this time.

Every thing Dali Planet has on the Perpignan Railway Station -- you'll see some interesting tie-ins there.
http://daliplanet.blogsome.com/category/perpignan/

His relationship with catastrophe theorist Rene Thom, the very Daliesque ways Roger Michael Erasmy has interpreted Dali's work, ... etc.

However, couldn't help but notice this. Now I'm not the "there are no coincidences" type of person myself, but sometimes I wonder. Quoting:



Pollack noted that the Dali Tarot, with Hebrew letters on the trump cards, drew on the Jewish Kabbalah. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet corresponded to the 22 trumps of tarot’s Major Arcana, four worlds of existence and 10 stations on the tree of life to the four suits of 10 numbered cards.

When Gala and Dali moved to Arcachon in the south of France in 1939, distancing themselves from the onslaught of war, their next-door neighbour was Leonore Fini, an artist even more eccentric than Salvador. She was involved in alchemy.

Amanda Lear described her at a restaurant outing in Paris as bringing “her own court” and wearing a full-length gown topped by a magician’s cape”.

“She had stars in her hair and carried a wand like a scepter.”

In 1939 Fini was a close friend of Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst’s partner, and the three of them shared an interest in alchemy and ritual magic. In answer to her question, Dali said he too believed in magic.

[snip]

Unlike other people, I'm following several tangents at once.

Where he could it seems.

Yellow arsenic or death-I-viu
The immortal one or sempreviva
the millepertuis or perico groc
The walnut tree or will noguera

death-I-viu would be mort i viu in Catalan or death and life. The Sufi Ibn Sina, Avicenna (980-1036) wrote that there are three forms of arsenic, white, yellow, and red. The word arsenic is from the Arabic al-zarnikh, in turn from the Persian zarnik or gold coloured. I can't see this going down too well in a potion. I think mort i viu must be a plant of some kind, not arsenic trisulphide.

edit: from the video on the site this is mort i viu



The immortal one, sempervivens, could apply to a number of plants and trees. Likely they mean the oil of the cypress tree.

Millepertuis is Hypericum, St John's Wort.

I think will noguera is really wild noguera or wild walnut.

edit: this is the four items together, the two leaves are the walnut and something else.

OK the ball is the film and the statements made within it, I hope.

The film makes assertions about the Jewish quarter of Girona being the site of the original cabbala. Andrew talks in the film about a Jewish mystery going way back. In the context of the 1,500 years the Jews colonised Spain, the cabbala doesn't go way back into it at all. Way back from today does he mean?

I felt it necessary to point out that the origins of the cabbala are not in Girona or even in Spain, nor are they within Judaism per se. They are Sufic in origin, through the Faithful Brothers of Basra.

The film asserts there is a grail content to this story.
I tried to point out an area I have not seen discussed in any of these fora so far regarding cups and grails and cupbearers, giving the origins and the characters concerned. I also tried to point out that there are precedents for the grail romances that predate Roland and are not originally based in Europe. I tried to point out that the term we call grail has a specific meaning other than the fashionable sang real idea. Again in order to do this I have to mention the Sufis.

The film asserts there is/was a secret society operating in this area of Girona, behind the cathedral.
I tried to explain the background to a few secret societies in Spain that spread through Europe, their Sufi origins and mentioned one that may have some connection through Josep's baracca terminology. The Sufi organisation is Fehmia or the Coalmen. The later Carbonari copied their terminology and trappings.

Tasty end of the table? Rule out the Sufis and you will miss a huge amount of European goings-on, the societies that sprang up, many of which operate today, either with members who have a knowledge of their origins or not. Sometimes some of the members know and some don't.

The secret society is La Sang, its very prominent in Girona.

http://andrewgough.co.uk/happyhour.html

Is Josep Tarres part of La Sang’ I asked nonchalantly. ‘No, but he has helped the society in the past.

[snip]

His bio is here. BTW, I found a better Catalan translator than I used the last time, so I'll try again. Still Babelfish-level-cringeworthy, of course.

http://www.pedresdegirona.com/tarres_2.htm

The poet Joseph Tarrés and Fontan was born in Girona in 1929. He attended primary school in the College of Girona and then Marist Brothers Secondary School. He has worked throughout the service life of the Catalan culture, without ever having any kind of official aid. Its activity focuses on the recovery and promotion of culture and artistic heritage in all its aspects.

Regarding the recovery of architectural heritage in 1953 inaugurated the International Girona residence to accommodate students and artists from all over, like the Palace Saltieri Rome.

As an actor has participated in numerous shows and traditional folk.

For fifteen years he won for three consecutive years, the First Prize of the Association Belenistas Girona, and restored the house in Platja d'Aro called La Casa Vieja, the twelfth-seventeenth century, from which organizes festivals Popular Music and Drama; premiered the work with Mario Cabré Low Earth after years of neglect in some scenarios Catalans, and create the show in Girona Girona's medieval Gothic The Nativity, which represents over three years in the Archaeological Promenade, with the assistance of thousands of spectators (the crib was the origin of the legend of the Old Girona).

Discover and help get the house in Begur to Carmen Amaya, collaborates with the Ballet Carmen Camboria, cousin of the previous wicket montane and Laureano the Corral de la Camboria in Calella de Palafrugell, designs the sets for presentation of Camboria in London, and brings the performance of the Ballet of Rosario and Antonio. Presents the collection of Danish designer jewelry Nixel Axel, who designed the jewelry and costumes of the Marquis de Cuevas Grand Ballet. Collaborate in the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian. Under the direction of Mr.. Gispert, theater director, and Mr. Emilio Banda, director of Radio Girona, creates the first group of Catalan Radio Theater with the premiere of five children. Share the lead role with Maria Teresa Leone and rendered many people (in Flaça sank part of the stage).

As a screenwriter and film director, for twenty years received the Silver Medal of the National Contest of Amateur Cinema with the film The Death of the day and then as you film with Narcissus Sans mueras (Campdorà, 1954) and summer hooligans with Serge Moritz photographer Orfeo Negro and French Connection. Also made advertising films with Narcissus Sans (Keungueu detergent, neutral string Street Force). Related to this world, organized by Casa Vieja in the big farewell party for Liz Taylor, one of the greatest festivals in the Costa Brava that time. Meet Ava Gardner and is a friend of Ludmila Txerina.

As a writer, is the 1952-1953 Award finalist Christmas with the novel in 1963 and Gorch edit book Five poets Girona recovery attempt Catalan folk poetry. Collaborated in launching the movement "The young Catalan Poetry." Meet the writer Agatha Christie and the writer and playwright Patrice Chaplin (*). Start the Noches de Garcia Lorca, where they recited poems Romancero gypsy. In 1994 the Provincial Council of Girona will edit the book Corpus and 2003, the poem Easter. In 1998 wrote the introduction to comment on the book "Song of Songs" by Ezra of Gerona (ED. Indigo). He is collaborating Journal of Girona.

We should also highlight their stay in Paris for three years. At this time collaborating with photographer Gerard Bischop and actors of the Theater Huchette, Henry Wolf and Bernard terms, both of Gerona, and performs various Roman-starring picture for the editorial Mondatori. Welcomes the Community of Saint Severin exiled Catalan and Spanish, organizes exhibitions of Latin American artists in the gallery and Luxembourg participated in the gatherings of Coffee Flower and Les Deux Magots.

Personally met Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Ionesco, following representations cantatrice La Chauve, the Théâtre de la Huchette. Is part of Cosmogony Max Handel (**), called Jean Cocteau, Georges Brassens, Aznavour, Edith Piaf and Theo sarapes, Melina Mercouri, Françoise Sagan and Juliette Greco. Her relationship with the synagogue in Paris allowed him to discover the Kabbalah of Gerona, which leads to his return to Girona, when transferring their job in the printing of the faculty of the newly arrived letters painter Henry Marquis .

In addition, it has always taken many social obligations. Fight the disappearance of the narrow-gauge railway Girona-Sant Feliu de Guixols ( "Requiem for a toy train," published in Revista de Girona and Presence); opposed the construction of the building professionals (interrupted the opening ceremony and could not put the first stone), and prevented the reform of the Presbytery of Girona Cathedral (which succeeded the retired Cardinal Jubany make model such reform, the Boards discussed in chapter of the Cathedral). From 1996 to 1999 collaborates with advocacy groups Ter (GDT).

In 2001 the association presided People Ter. Since 2002, together with his wife Pia Crozet, actively involved with the platform Saving Empordà. Anti macrourbanitzacions Costa Brava and the destruction of the landscape, especially in Sant Mori and Vilanera-l'Escala.

In 1975 he married the French sculptor Pia Crozet, School of Fine Arts in Paris (Samaranch Award) in 1977 and gave birth to her son John Abel.

On 4 May 2004, by agreement in Regular Session of the City of Girona, and, as stated in the agreement, in recognition of his civic commitment expressed in his constant dedication to the recovery of the past and projection of Girona and its continued cultural activism, he was awarded the distinction of "citizenship".

[snip]

(*) You will notice all his official bio will state is that he and Patrice met. Of course, if it was just a torrid affair that lasted 2 weeks or 20 years, official bios do leave those things out. He did marry someone else in 1975. If Patrice was the love of his life, well, he has been married to someone else for the last 30 years.

(**) Cosmogony group of Max Heindel... far as I can tell, this seems to mean he was part of a study group along with Surrealist Yves Klein and some of the other named people, who were studying Max Heindel's Rosicrucian Cosmogony.

http://www.yveskleinarchives.org/docume ... nt_us.html

One day (in late 1947 or early 1948), recalls Claude Pascal, Yves arrived saying "look what I found." He showed me the Cosmogonie des Rose-Croix. We tried to read the book and discovered that without a master we could not understand it. Ultimately, the two young men would discover in an old astrologer, Louis Cadeaux, a spiritual guide to the hermetic Rosicrucian doctrine.

Claude Pascal -- quoted in Yves Klein (Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1983).

Max Heindel’s La Cosmogonie des Rose-Croix (Cosmogony of the Rosicrucians) became a reference book which Klein would study on a daily basis for the next four or five years. In June, Yves Klein and Claude Pascal registered at the Rosicrucian Society, in Oceanside, California.

[snip]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Heindel

It was then, with his mind already made up to return, feeling that in vain he had given up a big work in America to take this trip, that Heindel reports to have been visited by a Spiritual being (clothed in his vital body).

The highly evolved entity that visited Heindel eventually identified himself as an Elder Brother of the Rosicrucian Order, an Order in the inner worlds formed in the year 1313 and having no direct connection to physical organizations which call themselves by this name.

[snip]

Elder Brothers = Freres Aines (if Tim is still bothering to drop by)
http://www.gnostique.net/initiation/FARC.htm

http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/March% ... g_W08A.htm

This study examines the portrayal of the kabbalist in the Commentary on The Song of Songs, written by R. Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona. Contrary to the tendency of scholars to treat kabbalists as mystics, Ezra portrays the kabbalist as a sage whose wisdom is acquired through a combination of oral transmission, textual study, ascetic practices, and “the attachment to the divine presence.” Whereas Ezra’s predecessors, most notably his teacher, Isaac the Blind, maintained a model of spiritual leadership that required that the kabbalistic sage hide his wisdom from the public, Ezra came to believe that the task of the kabbalistic sage is to teach kabbalistic wisdom to all Israel since only this wisdom could provide Israel with the fortitude to survive exile and with the hope that the exile will, at the divinely appointed time, come to an end. Following an analysis of Ezra’s more exoteric stance toward kabbalistic secrets, the study turns to Ezra’s portrayal of the kabbalist qua sage and addresses Ezra’s depiction of kabbalistic hermeneutics, devekut, and the kabbalist’s view of non-kabbalists.

[snip]

Centre Bonastruc ca Porta
http://www.pedresdegirona.com/separata_ ... astruc.htm

http://www.girona.cat/call/eng/patronat_membres.php
Tarres Fontán, Josep

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliette_Gréco

Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal grandparents. Gréco also became involved in the Résistance, and was caught but not deported because of her young age. She moved to Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1946 after her mother left the country for Indochina.[citation needed]

Gréco became a devotee of the bohemian fashion of some intellectuals of post-war France. A famous description of Gréco is that her voice "encompasses millions of poems".[cite this quote] She was known to many of the writers and artists working in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Boris Vian.[cite this quote]

Gréco spent the post liberation years frequenting the Saint Germain cafes, immersing herself in political and philosophical Bohemian culture. As a regular figure at legendary music and poetry venues like Le Tabou on Rue Dauphine, Greco became acquainted with Miles Davis and Jean Cocteau, even being given a role in Cocteau’s film Orphee in 1949. [1] That same year, she began a new singing career with a number of well-known French writers writing lyrics; Raymond Queneau's "Si Tu T’Imagines" was one of her earliest songs to become popular.

[snip]

Francoise Sagan: Sex, Drugs & Literature
http://www.litkicks.com/FrancoiseSagan/

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