Rennes-le-Chateau - The Mystery of the Golden Crest

A geometric sigil is not the usual heraldic device. The one on the golden crest is similar to the carving on the Centurion stone found in the Rennes-le-Chateau area by Ben Hammott and his team. The sigil on the stone and the shield are shown pointing to one another in the collage below, do they illustrate the joining of the North and the South so important to the private esoteric society in 19th c. Girona, Spain?

The book “City of Secrets” by Patrice Chaplin tells of the connection of the Abbe Berenger Sauniere of Rennes-le-Chateau church to the city of Girona in the south. He made visits to Girona whenever possible and he used the 19th c. tower near the Girona Cathedral as a directional model for his own tower which he built on his parish hilltop.

The Girona tower was a part of the House of the Canons which was his home away from home.

It was believed by the private Rosicrucian society to which Sauniere belonged, that the connection between the two towers created a vibrational dimension that could be used to create a portal to the spirit realm and to visions of the past – a form of time-travel as it were.

Both the sigil on the Centurion stone (fig. E) and on the gold shield (fig. C) contain the Hermetic “4”, the ancient sign of the god of the crossroads and of the 4 directions. They also both display the serpentine “S” on the staff reminiscent of the medicine staff of Moses in the wilderness and also of the wand of Hermes, the Caduceus.

It is of interest that the upward-pointing arrow on the shield appears to be a compass pointer with the “S” for “south” pointing to the north. This is reminiscent of the method used by Ben Hammott with the direction clues left by Sauniere. Ben found nothing following the pointing arrows, but when he explored in the opposite direction, he found the messages in the bottles left buried by Sauniere.

Hermetic marks are indicative of the Templar Crusaders who once occupied the area of S. France and N. Spain. The Templars had learned of the Hermetic wisdom of the Greeks from the Moslem scholars (captors) in the Holy Land. Greek wisdom had been preserved in Arabic and passed onto the Europeans though the Templars. This newly discovered ancient Greek wisdom caused the European Renaissance.

Both the Hermetic "4" and the Caduceus "S" are Hermetic marks. Another obvious sign of the Crusades is the large gold crescent and star on the golden shield (fig. C). Knights who battled the Moslem Saracen troops in the Middle East often used the sign of the Moslem crescent in their heraldry. The gold crescent moon is displayed on a field of red which is a drapery. Heavy red drapes where used in the palace of the pope.

In the collage of Hermetic devices there are five examples of the Hermetic 4 Cross. The top left is the sign itself (fig. A). Below that is a crest from Limoux, France near Rennes-le-Chateau. This crest is located in an Anglican (Episcopalian English) establishment in Limoux as a wall decoration (fig.B). It utilizes the upside-down 4 of the Hermetic Cross at the base with the “X” for the crossroads. Above on the upper part of the vertical is the double bar of the Cross of Lorraine. This cross is said to originate from the surveying device used by the Templars – the staff with the double-bar.

The carved stone crest at the bottom of the page (fig.D) is from the Renaissance when the Hermetic 4 Cross was used by the printing industry. This is a guild crest of a printer in Venice, Italy.

The final example is one of the clue stones (above) carved by the Abbe Berenger Sauniere and discovered by Ben Hammott through the subliminal clues left by Sauniere in the redecoration of his church. Berenger Sauniere, “BS”, carved his initials in this rock and he also used the Hermetic 4 with the X at the base and a small cross on the crossbar of the 4.

The Centurion stone (fig.E) is also thought to have been carved by Sauniere, but its similarity to the sigil on the gold crest suggests an earlier, perhaps Templar, origin. The Castillon diary is evidence of the Templar connection to Girona – the gold from the Templar castle Cabrieres in S. France was intended to travel to Girona, Spain for safe-keeping.

Does the sigil on the gold crest  prove that the bond between the hoped-for Templar state in S. France and N. Spain existed? As an heraldic shield device, the sigil on the golden crest is totally unique.