Arcadia Discussion Zone

This is apparently from a letter written to Paul Smith by Margaret, Countess of Lichfield on 18 May 1987:


http://priory-of-sion.com/psp/id16.html

You may have all discussed this before, but I was wondering what everyone thought...

I stood in front of the Shepherds' Monument at Shugborough last April and thought; "By God this thing could do with a clean-up."
And I wasn't being facetious.

"Jean Vié"...is this not the name of a "past someone important"... in Rennes-des-Bains?

I apologise, but there is just so much swimming in my mind regarding information. I really need to settle and intuit some.

Blessings,
Paula

Jean Vié was the previous priest in RLB before Boudet.
http://www.rlcresearch.com/2007/11/11/boudet-tombstone/
Check out the mistakes on his tombstone. Its that 17 again
Regards
Nic

dear Goodness!!!
my child was due on this date (1998)...
however, he decided to arrive much earlier (to my thanks...i could not carry his weight any longer )

+smile+

yes...i have noticed this date quite a few times. too many perhaps?

thanks nic!

all of me,
Paula

Hi there Jean, nice to reply to one of your posts.
You have already drawn controversy, as you must be aware. M Norton is insisting youre Henry Lincoln. M Norton is insisting he is not Paul Smith. And here you are posting on a subject so dear to Paul Smith's heart with the information from Paul Smith's universally-declared-to-be-excellent web site. We appear to be going round in circles. Is Paul leading us on a merry dance?

Maybe Paul is leading himself on a merry dance. I think Paul has the answer to this problem on his web site. I think he has had it there for years and never noticed. Let us start at the beginning.

When I first posted on Adrian's 'Real or Imaginery No 2: Poussins and Egypt Connection? here I was continuing some thoughts I first expressed in reply to Sheila's intuitions at the end of this thread. The post on Adrian's thread continued my thoughts on what St Anthony was doing in his cave and linked it to the writings around the PortaMagica. Basically I was saying that St Anthony was undergoing a process of self-transformation that eradicated the split we all have within ourselves. He confronted his demons and healed the split within. The Hebrew for Holy Spirit, symbolised by the dove, is above the door of the Porta Magica. On the threshold, to be read as the successful aspirant leaves, is an instruction to "open the earth, to make salvation germinate for the people".
This all meshes in perfectly with Et in Arcadia Ego (the version Adrian is investigating) which has the dove hidden within a cloud. Et in Arcadia Ego is normally read with an assumed 'I', with the 'I' taken to mean 'death' as in 'I, death, am also in life'. But Arcadia is the Underworld, the land of the dead. If we are in Arcadia we are dead already. Therefore the 'I' can only mean 'life', as in 'I, life, am also in the land of the dead'. We are not talking of physical death here but spiritual death, so the 'life' must be spiritual life.
This is the very opposite meaning to that commonly understood to be represented by the Et in Arcadia painting. In fact it is the meaning in reverse, so what better way of depicting it than to put the painting in reverse. This is where Shugborough enters the scene as there the picture is depicted in reverse with the enigmatic lettering below it.

Visiting this link at the official Shugborough Hall web site will take you to a page describing The Shepherd's Monument and some of the poetry and other writings associated with it. Included in the page is a short poem by a friend of the Anson family:

'The silent Monk, in lonely cell immured,
From every folly, vice, and care secured,
Should inward turn calm Meditations Eye,
And Life imploy in studying how to Die. '

What is immediately noticeable is that each line starts with a capital letter as you would expect but there are extra capitals throughout the verse. Fair enough you say? Then why doesnt "cell" get a capital? Lets look at what the extra capitals are:

...M...M...E...L...D...

Spelling out the word MELD with an extra M at the front.
It just happens that if the silent monk was St Anthony then he would be in the process of MELDing the split within. And he would not be studying how to die but how to live - the exact opposite.
So what is the origin of the word 'meld'? Several online etymology dictionaries all said the same thing: Origin, Middle English, German or Old French meaning to mix mingle or blend. Eg The Online Etymology Dictionary. and many others.
It therefore looks possible that the capitalisation was done deliberately in that way to pass on a hidden message which serendipitously has the 'M' and 'D' of the uber enigmatic second line of the Shugborough lettering at the two ends of the message.

And when one looks at the information on Paul Smith's site things really get interesting.

The first thing that one might notice about the information on M Smith's web site is that the short poem in the post above has now converted into a long poem that Lady Anson thought not to do the subject of the inscription justice. We shall see what she meant later.
The long version of the poem has also been described by a modern-day commentator as poorly composed. It is not. It is well composed. The commentator merely did not understand what the poem was trying to say.
This too will be explained.

But first we must understand the c1750 letter of Lady Anson to begin to understand this.
The letter is in two sections: the first can be looked on as a lover's letter although written using some unusual imagery. The second section of her letter is more usual although it does begin by mentioning the name Astree. 'Astree' coupled with the word 'Lignon' (a river in the Loire) mentioned in the first section gives us the clues to discover where the imagery in the first section comes from. It is from Deux visages de L'Astree by Honore d'Urfe. First published in 1607, the 1621 version is supposed to be 'better'.
It seems that Tufts University hold all rights to the work. They insist on a copyright notice being displayed so here it is:

Deux visages de L'Astree
Copyright 2005, Tufts University.
http://astree.tufts.edu (December 2008).

From the 'repertoire' page Tufts have produced it is clear the book covers ground familiar to us: Appollo, Arcadie, Astree (Astere?, of the Starry Skies), Belenus, Champs Elsees (Abode of the Heroes in the Underworld), Galathee (Galathians), Hecate, Ixion, Jupiter and Saturn are amongst the dozens of characters.

Looking now at the first section of Lady Anson's letter, certain things begin to be clear. It is reproduced below:

Kind Shepherd,

Since I left the pleasant banks of your beautiful Lignon, I have not ceased to complain of jealous Time which with such swiftness has carried me away from the happy moments I spent there (i.e., Shugborough Hall). For sure, if there is one place on the turning Globe of this World where one spends days spun with Gold and Silk, it is among those flowery Vales, those shady hills, those clear rippling waters, and especially those very friendly Shepherds and Shepherdesses found there. It is so that one can admire nothing else in any other plains, not even the herds that wander there. I believe then that there is no need to tell you how vexed I am to be so far removed from such great happiness, and from you, my kind Shepherd, to whom I owe so much of what I have tasted of it: Alas, I wish I could be more worthy and more capable of making a similar return, but poor as I am, I can only assure you that as my heart merits better the name of Mirror of True Recognition, unlike the fountain in the gardens of the Palace of the Louvre, the one of the Fountain of True Love, such that if you looked into it you could see yourself, as lovers one could see each other in this beautiful Spring, before the bad Fairy cast a spell on it.

It begins as an elegant love letter and soon mentions Time, which has carried her away to another place. It continues with "the turning Globe of this World". Remember the other monument at Shugborough, the turning Globe with the cat on top? "It is among ... flowery Vales ... shady hills ... clear rippling waters ... friendly Shepherd and Shepherdesses ... plains ... herds that wander there."
Where are we?

Bergerdearcadie (Arcadian Shepherdess) should know. She gave us an extract from Virgil's Eclogues V on page 2 of the 'Real or Imaginery No4' thread which mentions Daphnis, the shepherd of Arcadia. He was killed, which resulted in Arcadia being turned into a Wasteland. Daphnis called for a tomb to be erected in his honour, and an inscription extolling his fairness that exceeded that even of his flocks. Et in Arcadia 'Ego'. (Remind anyone of another myth and the raised inscription in the corner of a tomb in the RLC area?) This vain Daphnis had seven herds of cattle and seven herds of sheep in various areas of the Hesperides. Remember seven.

Continuing with the first part of the letter:
Now Lady Anson writes a lament that she cannot continue to walk in Paradise, but thanks her kind Shepherd (Lord Anson) for having shown her those delights that she has tasted.
A lover's letter? Read on:
She then assures him that when she is more worthy, she will return the favour: "... when my heart better merits the name Mirror of True Reflection."
She then contrasts the Mirror of True Reflection with the Fountain of True Love to be found in the Palace of Louvre (ouvre = to open) that you used to be able to look into and see the one you truly loved. She then finishes by saying that that was before the Bad Fairy cast a spell on it.

A love letter? Or has Lord Anson been telling his wife a little about the true meaning of the monuments in her garden?

The cat for instance. In the Book of the Dead it is a cat who cuts off the head of the serpent of darkness and assists Osiris to defeat his foes.
Here is one of Redon's many interpretations of Apollo and his chariot. This one shows Apollo having fired an arrow into the serpent's body.



and another Redon Apollo showing seven butterflies bursting out of the defeated and now rotting serpent:



There is an excellent Wikipedia page on mythological serpents, particularly the chthonic serpent and their connection with sacred trees starting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(symbolism)#Mythological_serpents (As the forum software does not handle this type of link properly you will have to copy and paste.)

Here are two more illustrations, both of which have been on the forum before:

......

The wasteland theme we have come across before, and in the right hand illustration the Mirror of True Reflection is in the left hand cave being stared at by the lighter man. His darker opposite is looking at something else.
Look again at the illustration on the left. The man is dressed in armour with a sword in his hand. He is an armed man yet he is still surrounded by a wasteland. What is wrong with him? The French depict cowardice as an armed man running away from a hare. What is it we are all the most afraid of?

Of course we know the answer! We are most afraid of ourselves. We are most afraid of The Mirror of True Reflection. We will run away from it at all costs. Yet it is our salvation.

All we need to do is to ask the correct questions with a true heart. One devoid of self-interest and vanity.

Which brings us back to Daphnis, the vain shepherd who lies entombed in Arcadia. It also brings us to the letter that M Smith received from the Countess of Lichfield in 1987.
She, it seems by intuition alone, was able to give an interpretation of the inscription to some friends.



The interpretation that flashed into her mind was: 'Out of your own sweet vale Alicia vanish vanity twixt Deity and Man, thou Shepherdess the way.'
Note the 'vanish vanity'. The 'Alicia' here is a mythical shepherdess who used to keep her flock on one of the seven hills of Rome.
The Countess' English language interpretation takes the D. M. of the second line to be 'Deity and Man' wheras the commonly accepted Latin interpretation is Diis Manibus - 'Dedicated to the shades'.

Is there another interpretation of the enigmatic lettering that brings all the elements discussed above together and takes the whole subject forwards. I believe there is.

We have Arcadia, the Underworld, under some kind of a spell. Daphnis is dead, entombed and lamented. On another level it seems that we ourselves are spiritually dead. Encased in our material world, we seem incapable, or unwilling, to change things. It is as though we could be saying "Et in Arcadia Ego". It is as though we too are under some kind of a spell, similar to that which affected Sleeping Beauty maybe, caused by the eighth fairy, the Bad Fairy.
The tragedy is that it is not just us and Daphnis who are trapped. So too are all the heroes of mythology. Arthur's men as well, swords in hand, are ready for action when the hour of need comes, but they are incapable of moving.
Frozen in Time, we all wait.

The answer is within the letters, the eight letters of the top line of the Shugborough inscription. There is one letter that should not be there. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
The S is the interloper. Remove it and the remaining letters will be instantly recognised by anyone who has read Robert Grave's The White Goddess. He describes how the secret alphabets were used to construct a variation on the Holy Name of God, a variation of the name Jehovah. By finding the secret of the name, one group defeated another, bringing change, for good or bad, to the land and the people. The finding of your opponent's name allows you to be victorious and install a new name, one that is so secret that it is fabled that it is lost.
The remaining seven letters form a new shortened version of The Unspeakable Name of God. Seven letters that can be enlarged to nine and then increased to the full name. Except that we shall never know that.

It is difficult enough to remove the S, to break the spell.
But it can be done, and today is the day to do it.

First we must understand the importance of the S. In the ancient language of the trees the S stands for Saille, the willow. Sacred to Hecate, True Queen of the Underworld, the willow gives osier bindings. These were used as cords in times past to bind the sacred king of the year as he was sacrificed and succeded by his replacement. This kept the cycle of death going ad infinitum. We are not talking about physical death here, although one did die. We are talking about spiritual death and the possibility of changing that cycle for ever. This is the encoded message within the geometry at Glastonbury.
The willow month was the fifth month of the old Celtic year and lasted from mid April to mid May, putting May Day, the start of the fifth month, at its centre.
The willow was the tree of enchantment and also the tree of poets, so what better way of breaking its enchantment than with a poem.

It is done.

The new name is sealed.

The new Age begins.

Hallelujah

A much more sober analysis of the subject matter by Andrew Baker, who has been studying the subject matter for 30 years:

The Shepherds Monument
http://priory-of-sion.com/psp/monument.html

I note you do not argue against the interpretation above. Maybe you would like to inform Andrew Baker of the new interpretation.

I see from the link you give above that the 1750 letter was originally in French. Maybe you could suggest to Mr Baker that he removes the "(i.e., Shugborough Hall)" that he has inserted into the body of this letter and places it as a separate note at the end. (I interpret this section of Lady Anson's letter to have 3 meanings.)

It was mentioned in an earlier post on this thread that the short 'Hermit' poem describing the silent monk in his lonely cell suddenly expanded into an extremely lengthy poem that can be viewed on Paul Smith's web site on this page.
Lets have a quick look at it now.
A full analysis is unnecessary and would quickly become boring, but there are hidden things to be found which quickly take us back to the main RLC threads.

How to start? It is so long that splitting it into sections might be an idea.
The first four lines can be ignored as they have already been dealt with in a separate post above. If we now split the rest into sections by looking for the full stops we have:

Section 1
From 'But harsh confinement ...'
To '... Whose Life is worn e'er he has learnt to live.'
(25 lines)

Section 2
'Not thus the votary of sensual bliss.'
(1 line)

Section 3
'A different path he takes fair Truth to miss.'
(1 line)

Section 4
From 'Sage Awe of Death ...'
To '... Then madly plunges in Eternity.'
(6 lines)

Section 5
From 'But he, the man ...'
To '... And the gay Landskip glads the admiring Sight.'
(12 lines) (Landskip = Landscape)

Section 6
From 'Here with the friend, ...'
To '... And finds this beautious Marble Moralize the Scene.'
(14 lines)

Notice anything about the line lengths?
The Shugborough Hall inscription puzzle is a letter puzzle.
The last two sections of the poem have line numbers that can be added together to make 26, the number of letters in the English alphabet. It just so happens that the first section has 25 lines, the number of letters in the French alphabet at the time, with the w, the letter that it lacked, starting the 25th line. A mere coincidence? Initially one might think so.

With sections 1, 5 and 6 out of the way we can look at sections 2, 3 and 4. They just happen to add up to 8 lines, the very number of letters in the main line of the Shugborough inscription.
Not only that. If section 2 is added to section 1, this would increase the lines of the section to 26, thus bringing it into balance with sections 5 and 6. Then the original eight lines of the centre sections would be reduced to seven, exactly what we have left when the S is removed from the top line of letters on the monument.

It has earlier been remarked that the missing W of the old French alphabet begins the 25th line. A further coincidence is that the very last word of the poem 'Scene' begins with an S, the very letter we removed from the main line of the inscription.
(Actually, to have a c next to the S is quite a good choice, as will be explained later.)

Next we have something quite intruiging to look at.

(continuation of post above)
Looking down the line endings, there are two places in the poem totally different from the others.
All the line endings rhyme - and they all scan, except for these two places. Not only that - in these two places the last word on the line is repeated on the end of the line below.
In section 2, the word repeated at the end of two adjacent lines is 'Heart'.
In section 6, the word is 'Tears'.

'Heart' is straight forward: it has no other pronounciation or meaning possibble in the context in which it was written.
'Tears' is a different matter.
The two lines read:
'His view extends beyond this vale of Tears;
His hopes securely fixed admit no Tears;'
The second line has a meaning that is pretty much fixed in the context in which it was written, but does the first line of the two?

The 'vale of tears' was a well used phrase in the 18th century. It meant 'this world', 'this life', as in 'we spend a while in this vale of tears and then go on to a better place.' But it can have another meaning: you can tear something, to rip it. By coincidence you can tear a vale, especially if you spell it 'veil'.
Where does one find a veil you can tear?
Thats right, jb gave us the answer the other day in his link referring to the Kabbalah.
The Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, has three veils that are designed to be torn. This can only happen when the aspirant is ready, when they have reached a certain stage of spiritual advancement.
There is an article from the Journal of Biblical Literature here with an illustration we should be familiar with. The article investigates the meaning of the tearing of the temple veil at the time of Christ's death. It ends with a reference to the Mithraic Mysteries.

The tearing of the veils of the Tree of Life is said to allow direct communication with God. The very word Kabbalah means 'receiving' or 'that which has been received'.
By coincidence, it is said that it is by knowing the name of God that one is able to communicate with him. 'Knowing the name of God' is a phrase that is the equivalent of saying "I have had direct communication with God." If this was what the Rosicrucian's 'turning base metal into gold' allowed, would they want to admit to it? Maybe not. But hidden within the lines of a poem? Maybe.

Does the second 'Tears' line now take on a new meaning?
Does 'His hopes securely fixed admit no Tears;' really say that despite being unable to admit to it, his hopes are securely fixed on this most secret of works?
(One name given to this endeavour was The Work of the Chariot - see the paintings featuring Apollo above.)

We must not forget the two lines of the poem ending in 'Heart'. Placed together in the same way as the two lines ending in 'Tears', the inference is that 'Tears' and 'Heart' must be linked. Indeed they are.
For it is only with a pure heart that the veil drops.

The one who traditionally had the purest heart is Jesus Christ himself. The moment when the veil dropped for him can be looked on as the moment of the transfiguration.
This was witnessed by Moses and Elijah.

Was the wisdom said to be contained within the Kabbalah anything to do with the transfiguration of Christ? Nowhere has this ever been suggested.
Yet, in a small, uniquely decorated Somerset church, there is just such a suggestion. Built into the chancel floor, right in front of the altar, is a Tree of Life that is said to date from the original church that was built on this site in 1485. It is made from cast glass pieces and although the ten sefirot are not all in their traditional places, the design is clearly derived from the Flower of Life. In the centre is placed a large bluey green disc of glass which is said to represent the Earth. Looking down on the scene are Moses and Elijah, the two witnesses at the transfiguration.

.........

The Tree of Life and Moses (with serpent) and Elijah, part of the unique decoration in the church at Hornblotton near Glastonbury.
Hornblotton church plays an important part in the geometry at Glastonbury. It has precisely the same position and alignments as Arques Chateau does in the geometry at RLC. (See detailed mapping on the Hidden Landscapes web site.)

There we have it. Something that has been described as an "impossible puzzle", something that has defeated even the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, unravelled and explained.
Can it be proved that the interpretation given above is correct? No. Like so many things, it is impossible to prove. But it fits into the overall puzzle of the Poussins/Teniers clues perfectly. (Bearing in mind that Sheila has now solved the meaning of the Poussins/Teniers clues.) And it takes the whole RLC mystery on to the next level: The solving of the rest of the clues that were found in the large parchment.

There is just one loose end that remains to be tidied away:
Why was it a good choice to have a c next to the S in 'Scene', the last word in the long 'Hermit' poem?

Is this meant to be taken seriously - it is polluted with Plantard allegations that have been proved time and time again to be fictions.

Is this all you can say?

I take it you have nothing sensible to say then.

I am waiting for anything that you have written to be taken on board by rational historians.

RenaissanceMan wrote:



I can wait no longer; impatient as I am. And I can't, for the life of me, work it out.

I must know!

Pray, do tell RenaissanceMan.

Wombat.

The Arcadia Triforce:
http://top10crackedcodesandmysteries.blogspot.com/

Well, here we are again, dusting the cobwebs off this part finished thread after nearly a year - and what do we find - marsupial tracks.
Our antipodean friend has left his calling card propped neatly in the corner and it was left, ignored.
How remiss!

Wombat ..... you should have said, and your question would have been answered.




Because the letter C represents wisdom in the old Celtic tree ogham alphabet as the tree representing C is the apple, the ancient tree of wisdom.

Heres a strange tale:
As I finished the explanation of how and why the S is removed from the line of Shugborough letters, a line popped into my head

"S, escorted from the scene by wisdom."

and its not until just now that I noticed the second 'sc' in the line.


Since Cybermacht's arrival I have been thinking again about the Shugborough problem, trying to fathom the next stage of the solution I started above, and indeed why I started it. Its something that would not let me go then and it will not now. I had it pencilled in for the holiday but Cybermacht has started it off early. I admit its at the edge of my understanding, but I think I can see it - just.


A quick note about all this tree ogham stuff: Its all in Robert Graves' 'The White Goddess', an absolutely indispensible handbook to all this, including the technique of slantwise poetic thinking which I have found to be essential to even begin to understand the RLC mystery.

I call it "A political misunderstood":

http://top10crackedcodesandmysteries.blogspot.com/

You know, its like a Pandoras box, but what its being liberated? lol