One of the absolute highlights of our spiritual journey 2014 “In the footsteps of Mary Magdalene and her successors” through the Languedoc is doubtlessly going to be the visit we are going to pay to the former heartland of the Cathars, namely Albi. This town won notoriety during the Albigensian Crusade, since the Albigenses, the important group of Cathars who used to inhabit this region, namely the North-East of Toulouse, originally come from there. The interior of the church is so breathtakingly beautiful that I rank it among the most impressive sacred buildings I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the photos I have taken are unable to fully express its ravishing beauty. For this reason, I am all the more looking forward to visit this impressive monument of the Cathars together with my fellow travelers in October 2014 again.

The fans of Kathleen McGowan’s novel „The Expected One”  are also going to get their money’s worth on our spiritual journey, since the novelist situated the legendary “Château des Pommes Bleues” in the small village of Arques, which she calls the “holy village” in her book.

The castle of Arques, which has got nothing to do with the “Château des Pommes Bleues”, nevertheless is a very impressive building, especially its high and distinguishing tower. The fans and readers of Kathleen’s Magdalene Line are definitely going to rejoice at the fact that we are going to visit those legendary places in the course of our journey.

Click here for more photos and the respective quotes from the book.

Montségur, which means “secure mountain”, is situated on the eastern edge of the Pyrenees, the border mountain range between France and Spain, on a steep and rugged knoll. The ruins of the probably most widely known castle of the Cathars sit enthroned on the peak. In the course of the crusades against Mary Magdalene’s successors, the Cathars, the castle was attacked time and again. The year 1243 is especially noteworthy in this context, since the fortress was besieged by nearly 10.000 crusaders for 10 months.

They tried to starve the Cathars and forced them either to renunciate their faith or be burned at the stake. Subsequently, 225 Cathars together with their bishop were burned, because they would not submit to the Catholic faith. Only a few could escape and those who managed to flee were murdered soon afterwards as well. We are going to visit this castle in the course of our spiritual journey.

You can find more photos on my homepage.

Mainly records of the Cathars which have been written by their persecutors and murderers have survived the centuries, but hardly any writings which have been produced by themselves. This is why this religious group, which probably dates back to the Essenes, a religious group to which Jesus and Mary Magdalene belonged as well, is often seen in a negative light. The Cathars lived in the South of France and in some other Mediterranean countries and were wide-spread during the Middle Ages. They practised their own “Christian religion”, which, however, deviated strongly from the institutional Church. This is why they were suppressed and nearly extinguished.

The Cathars used to ordain both men and women as priests. Before they could take the holy orders, they had to prepare themselves for this ritual in dedicated caves for years. Then the ritual was performed. In the course of our journey we are going to visit some of those caves.

Philip Coppens, Kathleen McGowan’s unfortunately too early deceased husband, wrote a very impressive book on the small village in which Mary Magdalene has been worshipped for centuries: „The Cryptogram [1] of Rennes-le-Chateau“. The book tells the story of Bérenger Saunière, the former country curate who became extremely wealthy by unknown means in the middle of the 19^th century, which enabled him to renovate the church which was dedicated to Mary Magdalene out of his own pocket and fashion it in an unusual way.

Already on entering the church one is staggered by the stoup, which is borne by a horned man. There are several depictions of Mary Magdalene in the interior of the building, for instance in a semi-relief on the altar, as statue or on the marvelous windows.

There are many photos in my Facebook album “The Expected One”, in which I have published many albums that accord well with text passages from the same-titled novel by Kathleen McGowan

[1] A cryptogram is an encrypted text.

A journey on the trails of Mary Magdalene and her successors through the Languedoc – without visiting Rennes-le-Château – is impossible! After all the small mountain village is situated only a few miles from our castle hotel.

Over the centuries treasure hunters have been looking for the “Holy Grail” in and around the village and the small town also gained fame in the last 150 years owing to the legendary country curate Bérenger Saunière, who was an ardent worshipper of Mary Magdalene. Today I am going to show you the charming landscape around Rennes-le-Château, there will be more information on this place in the next blog entries.

On Monday in the week of our spiritual journey we are going to discover the ruins of the Cathar castle which probably possesses the most beautiful view over Languedoc on foot. Already the ascent, which takes about 20 minutes and is not physically demanding, offers a breathtaking view over the placid line of hills right up to the Pyrenees. This mountain chain separates the South of France from Spain and many Cathars used to live in this region. (We are going to visit some of those Cathar caves in the course of our journey, a corresponding blog entry will be posted at a future date).

The castle of Quéribus provided refuge during the so-called Albigensian crusade (1209-1229), in the course of which the institutional Church cruelly persecuted the Cathars, because the castle luckily was never taken.

From up there one can see the small village Cucugnan, which was named after the same-named family in the possession of whom the castle was towards the end of the 12th century. They were friends with the Cathars and sympathised with their faith.