Arcadia Discussion Zone

The Portal: An Initiate's Journey into the Secret of Rennes-le-Chateau
by Patrice Chaplin

DESCRIPTION:
The true-life memoir Patrice Chaplin began in The City of Secrets (Quest Books, 2008) continues here in the story of her spiritual initiation into the Kabbalistic tradition preserved since the Middle Ages by a secret society in the pre-Roman city of Girona, Spain. Salvador Dali was a member of that society, as was the renowned author Umberto Eco, the filmmaker Jean Cocteau, and Jancint Verdeguer, one of the most celebrated Catalan poets. Importantly, so was the mysterious Berenger Sauniere, the priest who in the late 1800s built Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France, with the Tour Magdala, a tower that is twin to the neo-gothic tower in Girona. The book has the flavor of a magical journey. The series of initiatory stages through which Chaplin is led corresponds to the magical square of Venus, containing the constellation of the Great Bear. Like many spiritual journeys, Chaplin’s involves a long process of letting go, particularly of her attachment to her former lover, Jose Tarres, who loves Girona more than any woman. As his family has for generations, Jose has dedicated his life to guarding the Kabbalistic wisdom embedded in the very stones of the city, much of which is revealed in this gripping story.

PatriceChaplin.com & Facebook.com/PatriceChaplin


Edition: First Trade Paper Edition
Author: Patrice Chaplin
ISBN-13: 978-0-8356-0888-6
ISBN-10: 0-8356-0888-3
Format: Trade Paper
Trim Size: 5 1/4 x 7 3/4
Page Count: 288
US Price: $16.95
Release: September 2010
Language: English

Thanks Xochi, that's certainly something to look forward to. I'm a little confused, though - is this the same book, under a different title, as what was previously to have been called "The Door" (seems logical if it is), or "Mr Lazarus" (another title I've heard mooted for one of Patrice's writing projects), or something different altogether. I assume the former.....

Lovely cover, by the way.

dear oh dear oh dear

Like Casteneda! Exactly!

Hooray, a new book by Patrice!

The cover is beautiful

The Girona Flower Festival. Happy Valentines` Day Xoche.

I hope that earthquake in Chicago didn`t shake you too hard!

Hi guys, yes this is the same book which was previously titled 'The Door'. Essentially, this memoir takes up where COS left off. After COS was published Jose thought it was a good idea for Patrice to go on the initiation. This memoir covers Patrice's journey, working with Jose's teacher. Lol, I don't think she anticipated what she was getting herself into. But it was necessary for her to 'see'. I know i'm the publicist, so i'm supposed to say this...but this is an amazing, amazing book!!!! I couldn't put it down, I couldn't wait to be done with my office work to pick it back up again. Patrice really bares herself to the world, she's so endearingly honest--I laughed at many points in the book, even though I know how rigorous and terrifying some of it must have been for her, just because of her human nature and displeasure at some of the ascetic requirements. And as a theosophist etc., Patrice's initiation's stellar constellation did help put certain elements/writings in perspective for me, the mysteries dealing with the 7 Rishis and our planetary logoi. Amazing parallels there.

o, thanks for the Valentine's wish Mary! the earthquake wasn't bad--hopefully not a preview of coming attractions.

actually...i await this book with anticipation.

"City of Secrets" was a real eye opener and i found it intriguing & very beautifully written...."Happy Hour" made me smile more but didn't have the same edge...( or did it)....but what the heck, i still couldn't put it down 'till the end.

Both of these books weave the same kind of literary magic & mystery that pull you into the story...and that's what it's all about....the intrigue of magic & the unknown, coupled with hair raising reality which forms the beauty of transporting the reader into the lives of someone else.

I`m reading it over again myself, it`s even better the 2nd time.

So Patrice did finally go on the initiation!

I just finished reading about when she declined to go up on the Mt. with

Jose, and then he changed after that.

What I've read of The Portal is fascinating, and I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing.

Mr Lazarus is a novel, a very strange and haunting love story. I don't think Patrice has a publisher for it yet.

PRESS RELEASE

Member of Hollywood’s Chaplin family reveals the Holy Grail's Atlantean stargate!

THE PORTAL
An Initiate’s Journey into the Secret of Rennes-le-Château
Sept. 2010 • ISBN 978-0-8356-0888-6• $16.95 pb • 288 pp • 5 1/4 x 7 3/4
By Patrice Chaplin

A story of love and magic steeped in the truth, a story that will stay with you years after you read the last pages.
—Kathleen McGowan, New York Time best-selling author of The Expected One and The Book of Love

The Portal is the true and startling disclosure of respected British writer Patrice Chaplin. Picking up where Patrice’s previous memoir City of Secrets: One Woman’s True-life Journey to the Heart of the Grail Legend leaves off, The Portal details Patrice Chaplin’s 21st century initiation into the Holy Grail’s deeper mystery. To unveil the sacred and prehistoric purpose of what is now Rennes-le-Château, Patrice had to live the myth of the famed priest Bérenger Saunière, a fellow initiate who rose to recent cult popularity due to modern-day bestsellers such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Davinci Code. This real-life memoir documents Patrice’s little known purifications and the deadly pilgrimage they prepared her for.

It was 2003 and City of Secrets was in the process of being published in the UK. The charismatic Jose Tarres, real-life custodian of the Holy Grail, great friend to remarkable talents such as Salvidor Dali, Jean Cocteau, Umberto Eco and Simone de Beauvoir, and forever the love of Patrice’s life, had suffered a near fatal heart attack. With Jose then in his seventies, the power of death as a silencer threatened the survival of his society’s guarded knowledge. Patrice had thoroughly researched Jose’s documents and testimony with his permission for the writing of City of Secrets. But upon its completion, Patrice confessed she still did not fully understand the puzzle revolving around the legendary, yet very real, golden cup. “So what was the secret behind the secret?” Patrice asked. With simple resolution, Jose said “You have to do what they did in every century, the initiates. You have to do the Journey”.

Jose’s matter-of-fact assignment comes to life in this deeply profound memoir. Under the guidance of Jose’s teacher, a mysterious recluse and one of the few true living Kabbalists, Patrice embarks in 2004 to ‘tread the Seven Stars under the Great Bear’. Through activating the eleven sacred sites along the French/Catalan border, Patrice journeys detachment, death, and rebirth. Unlike some unfortunate initiates, Patrice lived through Mt. Canigou’s great secret, and more so, was decreed to tell about it. What she discovers in the end—startling as it may be—is space/time’s inextinguishable truth: What it is to be “human”, and to be “of” this earth. The mystery of our origins has been imprinted upon our planet from time immemorial. The time for us to remember has come; this journey is now a gift for everyone.

Patrice Chaplin, journalist, author and playwright, has written twenty-eight books; her novel Siesta became a film starring Jodie Foster and Isabella Rossellini. As a Bohemian in Paris she spent time with Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. When married to Charlie Chaplin’s son Michael and working in Hollywood, she collaborated with Lauren Bacall, Miles Davis, and Salvador Dali. She resides in London.


PatriceChaplin.com & Facebook.com/PatriceChaplin

Ditto!

I can't wait!

A belated thank you to Xochi for posting this - a gem of a lady and the world's coolest publicist.

Thanks Xochi!

Andrew

tee, hee, thanks Andy! ^_^ keep me in mind when you decide to publish!

....activate the spell checker now!