1937
Pierre Plantard (founder of the Priory of Sion) involved
in Right-Wing political activity aged seventeen – attempting to
form an anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic organization with the aim
of "purifying and renewing" France, which was denied by the
French authorities. Plantard used the pseudonym "Varans
Vincent" or "Varrans de Verrestra".
This was done within the historical context of France having its
first Socialist and Jewish Prime Minister, Léon Blum. And
the renewal of France by the Right-Wing societies involved the
ethnic cleansing of Judaism.
1937
Paul Le Cour, 'L'Ere du Verseau' (The Age of Aquarius).
Quoting Peter O’Reilly:
"In it Le Cour looks forward to
the future Age of Aquarius as bringing with it the return of
Christ in the role of Christ the King. It is a
work of esoteric and apocalyptic Christianity in which the
author also voices his belief in an esoteric spiritual
tradition that originated in
Atlantis… (and quoting from
the book) "The work of 'Atlantis', founded the 24th
of June 1926, is inspired by the same directives as those of
the director of the Hiéron (i.e. de Sarachaga) whose
signet ring representing Cybele was bequeathed to me by
Mlle Lepine."…[the book contained a drawing of an
octopus subtitled] "une symbole de la tradition
primitive: le poulpe" (a symbol of the primitive tradition:
the octopus)."
1942
‘Vaincre’ Nr 1, page 1 (21 September), featuring a quotation
from Paul Lecourt, Editor of ‘Atlantis’:
"…When a stream is polluted it
is necessary, if you are to find the pure water, to go back
to the source. It's the same with tradition - it only
remains pure at its origin."
‘Vaincre’ was the bulletin of
the Alpha Galates, an anti-Masonic, anti-Semitic
Right-Wing organization that stemmed from
Plantard’s earlier
Right-Wing activities of the 1930s: the Statutes of the Alpha
Galates being dated 27 December 1937 (Feast Date of St John
The Divine). The Alpha Galates believed that their
secrets were originally derived from
Atlantis, and a
strain of Theosophical thinking runs through some of the
Bulletin’s articles written by Le Comte Moncharville, who
seems to have been Plantard’s mentor.
1949
Third edition of ‘The Age of Aquarius', with Le Cour quoting a
passage from a novel by J-K. Huysmans:
"I think that society has
started to putrefy, that its bones are rotting, that its
flesh is falling off. It has to collapse; it cannot be
bandaged up or healed. It must be buried, and another one
born. God alone can accomplish such a miracle..."
Passages from the chapter entitled ‘The
Formation of a New Order of Knighthood’ (translated by Peter
O’Reilly):
"For more than twenty years we
have been calling in 'Atlantis' for the formation of a new
order of Knighthood and indicating the means by which it
might be achieved... Jules Romain, in 'Le Probleme
Numero Un', published in 1947, wishes, in the face of
the current enormous danger, for a spiritual power
consisting of a grand order of chivalry and it seems to him
that for it to be realized the support of the Catholic
church would be of great help. Another French author,
Raymond Abellio, has published, likewise in 1947, a
curious work entitled 'Vers un prophetisme nouveau',
in which he, too, calls for the formation of a grand order
consisting of a community of initiates under the direction
of a man with a sense of mission. The order would comprise
novices, disciples and masters. He does not indicate the
means of realizing it, but thinks that it could be through
the Catholic Church, on condition that it lifts the
veil off the New Testament and 'questions St John....'
"Let me also point out that P.Riquet in a conference
in 1947 at Notre Dame de Paris, has also spoken for the need
for the creation of an order of knighthood. And
Jean-Louis Lagor has published a work with the title 'Une
Chevalerie Renaitra' (An Order of Knighthood Will Be
Reborn).
"Young people have been abandoned for far too long without
moral or spiritual direction. Teaching has been developed at
the expense of 'education'. Everything therefore needs to be
created from the beginning to bring about the formation of
leaders and educators, subject to a discipline
simultaneously heroic and sanctifying, in special
establishments: Priories (Prieures). We possess in
France buildings that are permeated with a spiritual
dynamism that favors its realization, such as Mont St
Michel with its wonderful cloisters for meditation, its
majestic chapel for prayer and its magnificent hall of
knights. All are unused.
"Our country has a mission to fulfill. It has been shaken
hard to wake it from its torpor, its lethargy; and now ideas
are shooting up on all sides, for France is a seedbed
of ideas. Let us try to understand what our mission consists
of, let us try to fulfill it by preparing knights of the
Apocalypse whose head will be Christ when he returns!
"The cycle of the romances of the Round Table tells
us the story of the holy vessel, the Grail, which there is
good reason to connect with that Ganymede (i.e. Aquarius).
Considered as containing all light and all knowledge, it is
the object of a quest, a search to which the knights
dedicate themselves. Their head is King Arthur, head
of the legendary order of knighthood of the Grail, who is to
return one day at the head of his knights to put the world
back in order, and at that time all symbols will be
explained. But such an order of knighthood will have to be
placed under the patronage of St John, who is the head of
knights and of initiates."
1951
Paul Le Cour, ‘L'Evangile Esotherique De Saint Jean’.
1954
Paul Le Cour died.
1956
Pierre Plantard being one of four individuals who formed
the Priory of Sion, named after the Mountain of Sion
outside Annemasse (Haute-Savoie), subtitled C.I.R.C.U.I.T., an
acronym for ‘Chevalerie d’Institutions et Règles Catholiques,
d’Union Independante et Traditionaliste’ (Knighthood of
Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and
Traditionalist Union); with its Catholic nature being highly
emphasized. The Statutes of the 1956 Priory of Sion
contained elements very similar to those found in the 1937
Statutes of the Alpha Galates.
The Grand Master of the 1956 Priory
of Sion – called ‘Nautonier’ – was designated under
‘l’Arche "Kyria"’: the Greek word meaning "the elect lady"
(cf. 2 John 1), being one of the early Christian titles for the
Blessed Virgin Mary. This designation of the Grand Master was
most likely inspired by the knowledge of the ring Paul Le
Cour inherited from the Hiéron du Val d’Or that
featured the Goddess Cybele.
1966
"Eugène Stublein" & "Abbé Joseph Courtauly", ‘Pierres gravées de
Languedoc’ – featuring a ‘second’ gravestone of Marie de
Negri d’Ables, containing a diagram of a spider
remarkably similar to that of the Octopus found in Le
Cour’s book.
French researcher Pierre Jarnac
discovered the real signature of Eugène Stublein in his
booklet ‘Description d’un voyage aux etablissements Thermaux
de l’arrondissement de Limoux, avec une carte Routière’
(1877), and found it to be different to the Stublein signature
found in the above book, concluding that both the ‘Pierres gravées’ book and the ‘second’ gravestone of Marie de Negri
d’Ables to be forgeries of the mid-1960s.
The authentic signature of Eugene Stublein:
Compared to the signature found in ‘Pierres
gravées de Languedoc’:
1967
‘Les Dossiers Secrets d’Henri Lobineau’, compiled by Philippe
Toscan du Plantier, featuring a ‘Hiéron du Val d’Or article’
written by "Le Poulpe" – the article itself being a
patchwork of paragraphs from Paul Le Cour’s ‘The Age of
Aquarius’, also featuring the diagram of the Octopus from
Le Cour’s book (as well as the double-headed vertical line that
appears down the middle of the faked gravestone of Marie de
Negri d’Ables).
The top of the article bears the date 24 June
1926 – the same date as the founding of ‘Atlantis’.
‘Les Dossiers’ gives a fictitious
List of Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, all of which
bear the title of ‘Jean’ or ‘Jeanne’.
CONCLUSIONS
That the elements embodied within both the Alpha Galates
and the Priory of Sion were already old and well-trodden
ideas featured by many esoteric authors.
That Pierre Plantard was a great admirer of Paul
Lecour and was inspired by his esoteric works, merging them
together into his Right-Wing political views.
That Plantard kept his esoteric and political Right-Wing
views alive throughout his life – spinning his mystic monarchist
games throughout the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and
1980s.
