In the year 1244, the fortress of Montsegur finally capitulated to the besieging forces of thousands of Catholic troops. The defenders of Montsegur were the remains of the Cathars (Pure Ones), a mysterious heretical sect whose dualist beliefs were widespread in the areas of southern France. Considered a danger both religiously and politically to the Church, the Pope declared a crusade in 1209 to utterly destroy them.
After decades of death and extermination, the Cathar strongholds slowly fell, and in 1244 one of the last remaining symbols of defiance, the imposing fortress of Montsegur, perched atop a lonely mountain called the "Pog", surrendered.
The siege itself lasted for many months, with the Catholic forces finding great difficulty in taking the slopes of the mountain to position their powerful trebuchets (catapults). In early 1244, troops managed to climb up and capture a major plateau, and slowly made their way up the mountain to bring the trebuchets in range. By March, the defenders could not hold on, and a surrender was negotiated. The terms were that any mercenaries could leave, but any Cathars must reject their faith to be forgiven for their heresy. Most of the Cathar leadership (Perfecti) refused. Approximately 210 Cathars were marched to the bottom of the Pog, and were burned together on a massive pyre.
This entire episode of history has become shrouded in myth and legend. Supposedly, in the days before the fall of the fortress, several Cathars allegedly slipped down the slopes, hidden from the enemy, with the sacred treasures of the fortress. This treasure is most often cited as the Holy Grail. Indeed, Montsegur has often been identified as the Grail castle itself, as in the medieval Grail romance "Parsival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach, the castle is called Monsalvat.
Now here is where our story gets weirder. A young German writer and historian, Otto Rahn (1904-1939) became interested in the ruins of Montsegur and the Grail legend. In the late 20's, he descended upon the region, and explored the ruins of the castle and the surrounding caves of the mountain. He wrote a book of his findings, published in 1933, called "Crusade Against The Grail", linking Montsegur with the Grail castle and the treasure of the Cathars with the Holy Grail. In the vein of the great travel writers of his time, Rahn describes his journey into the dark depths of history:
"In time out of mind, in an epoch whose remoteness has been barely touched by modern historical science, it was used as a temple consecrated to the Iberian God Illhomber, God of the Sun. Between two monoliths one which had crumbled, the steep path leads into the giant vestibule of the cathedral of Lombrives. Between the stalagmites of white limestone, between walls of a deep brown colour and the brilliant rock crystal, the path leads down into the bowels of the mountain."
Another tale learned from the shepherds of the area describes the fate of the Grail:
"During the time when the walls of Montsegur were still standing, the Cathars kept the Holy Grail there. Montsegur was in danger. The armies of Lucifer had besieged it. They wanted the Grail, to restore it to their Prince's diadem from which it had fallen during the fall of his angels. Then, at the most critical moment, there came down from heaven a white dove, which, with its beak, split Tabor [Montsegur] in two. Esclarmonde, who was keeper of the Grail, threw the sacred jewel into the depths of the mountain. The mountain closed up again, and in this manner was the Grail saved."
Returning to Germany in 1933 he continued his researches. Now that the Grail castle had been identified, his next step was to explore the religion of the Cathars, and find out the true meaning of the symbolism of the Grail, and unlock the primordial tradition that lay beneath its Judeo-Christian facade. His researches came to the attention of none other than SS leader Heinrich Himmler, and Rahn was persuaded to join the SS as a civilian within the department of ancestral heritage (Ahnenerbe). In 1936, he officially joined the SS.
His next book, "Lucifer's Servants", published in 1937, continued the Grail quest, but now, the aggressors against Montsegur were no longer Lucifer's army, but those of Yahweh and Judeo-Christian culture. The Pure Ones were holders of the primordial Nordic tradition, who revered Lucifer as the true light-bringer. Rahn's writings blended with SS ideology to reveal the Cathar's dualist beliefs as the adoration of Lucifer and the true Northern bloodline of the Holy Grail.
Later in 1937/38, Rahn fell out of favour with his superiors, possibly for ideological reasons, for as his friends noticed, the increasing totalitarianism of the Third Reich went against his more liberal nature, and he was assigned duty in Dachau concentration camp. He eventually asked to be released from the SS, and a few months later in 1939 was found dead of exposure on the Tyrolean mountains. His death is generally considered suicide. Rahn's writings and those of the Ahnenerbe have to this day fueled legend (some more true than others) of the National Socialist interest in the occult.
The Cathars themselves are still an enigma to us. There are little extant writings of their beliefs, and most information comes second hand from the Catholic Inquisition. But we do understand the following about them. They believed that the material world was evil because it trapped the pure spirit into physical form. In a Cathar text which is known as "The Book Of The Two Principles", it is claimed that "good and evil do not harmonize, nor can one come from the other, since they mutually destroy one another and battle in active and continuous opposition." This Gnostic belief defined two opposed creative Principles, one of light, one of darkness. The nature of these principles could be only understood through initiation, where then the spirit could be set free with this knowledge.
For Rahn and the National Socialists, this understanding extended to the fact that the god of the Old Testament, Jehovah, was the true evil god, the lord of the material world, "Rex Mundi", and was to be rebuked. Lucifer was the true being of light, the saviour of mankind (or at least in their eyes, the Nordic races) who brought them the knowledge of immortality that Jehovah denied them.Now how does all of this relate to the Grail? Although most think of the Grail as the Christian relic that Joseph of Arimethea used to contain the blood of Christ, its roots are of a greater primordial tradition. Some claim the Grail itself is a bloodline, the holy blood (Sangreal) of people descended from Jesus. Some say it goes back even further as the divine blood brought from the heavens when the most ancient gods descended and intermixed with human beings creating the first Kings. In "Parsival", the Grail is also called a stone, the Lapis Exilis, or "Stone from the heavens". In medieval myth, this is the stone that fell from Lucifer's crown during the war of heaven
Saint Michael saw God's anger, plagued by this insolence.
He took (Lucifer's) crown from his head,
In such a way that a stone jumped out of it,
Which on earth became Parsifal's stone.The first thing that comes to mind when one hears of a "stone from heaven" is that of a meteorite. So now we have a primordial Grail stone, a lodestone, a meteorite with high magnetic activity that is only able to communicate and transfer energy through those of a pure blood. It is interesting that the element iron itself is highly susceptible to magnetism and is also contained in our blood. Magnetite, an oxide of iron, is what can create magnetized iron which contains polarity, such as a lodestone. Do only certain types of people contain this type of polarity in their blood? Does this Grail then act as some sort of catalyst to create a conduit of energy between itself and a living being? Or is the Grail itself this polarity of light and darkness within our souls?
So who are these children of the Grail?
— Daemonskald, 34th Summer
