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Specifically menstrual blood has always been a highly prized ingredient in many magical potions the magicians want to concoct.

Many ancient cultures believed that the power of creation was within the blood of a woman. Menstrual blood is shed without wounding and was therefore considered to be especially sacred. The only other event on par is the blood that accompanies childbirth. The ancient Egyptians linked the annual flooding of the Nile and its reddish colour with the breaking of the waters and the pregnancy of Isis when she gave birth to the divine child, Horus.

The word menstruation comes from the Greek menus meaning both moon and power, and men meaning month. The menstrual cycle is linked to the Moon, a stellar object that the ancients knew also affected the tides and therefore seemed to regulate the liquids of and on planet Earth. The step of linking the Divine Female with the Moon is therefore but a small step and no doubt one of the foundations upon which astrology would be based.

Certain cultures distorted this ‘moon time’ into various rules: the woman was perceived unclean during this period, forced to live separate from the rest of the family, was not allowed to prepare food, etc. The psychological changes that sometimes accompany the menstrual cycle became known as lunacy – a person being affected by the moon. Once the rules of women were ‘regulated’ by social laws, the role of women within the sacred rituals was slowly replaced by a patriarchal hierarchy, where women occupied a secondary place in society. From being the regulators of the sacred cycle of the world, the new ruler was the sun alone, whereby the women could be left in the caves from which they often uttered their incantations.

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Though many esoteric Western traditions are male-dominated, those with a magical tendency often need a female component, if only because of the historical importance of the female prophetess or priestess that helps the male in his quest for enlightenment. We remember the Sibyls, whom even the Church was unable to remove from history and whose depictions frequently are encountered within church decorations. It was a Sibyl of Anjou who stood by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders, and brought the Precious Blood of Christ from Jerusalem to Bruges. To make them suitable for Christianity, these Sibyls were often said to have predicted the advent of Christ – thus underlining the Church’s doctrine that everything in history seemed to be geared towards the advent of Christ. After his first coming and the non-completion of His work – in the eyes of the Church – it was of course all about his Second Coming, upon which He would finish what He had started.

Many of the esoteric societies offer special significance to Mary Magdalene, who is clearly one of the companions of Christ, either as a preferred initiate, if not his wife. And of course, the blood magic performed with the Precious Blood of Christ would provide us with the mightiest of all magical potions.

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LINKS:

Website Philip Coppens

Historical Mysteries

SuperNatural ParaNormalities

Photographer embee 

The house on Spaniard Street was so ancient that the original date had been lost, but a stone set into a wall said it was restored in 1616 and a map of the city showed it to have stood there already in 1562. Prior to that period, and probably since the 13th century, it formed a convent with three houses on either side of it.

It was in this house the sister of the spiritualist writer Florence Marryat went to live. Back then, it still had subterranean passages, choked with rubbish, leading nowhere – or, at least, no one knew where they were leading to. Mrs Marryat had stayed here several times, and always had unpleasant feelings about it, especially in a large room on the lower floor that had originally been the chapel of the convent.

The incidents she wrote about in her book occurred in the autumn of 1878, when she visited her sister in the company of their friends Mr and Mrs Uniacke, and of the famous medium Mr William Eglinton. They were not there “for their pleasure or edification”, as one of the control-spirits of Mr Eglinton put it, but because “there was a great work to be done”.

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The First Séance

They all assembled in the drawing-room, where the séance was intended to be held. Mr Eglinton immediately became restless and moved away from the piano, where they had made some music. He walked up and down the room, stared fixedly at the door and exclaimed: “What is the matter with it? There is something very peculiar about that door!”

He approached it quickly, but the voice of his control-spirit Joey warned him: “Don’t come too near!” – And so he retreated to a sofa, where he appeared to be fighting violently with some invisible spectre. Mr Eglinton made the sign of the cross and extended his fingers towards the door, as if he wanted to exorcise something. Finally the medium burst into a mocking, scornful laughter that lasted for minutes, while a diabolical expression came over his face.

Mr Eglinton clenched his hands, gnashed his teeth and crawled – in stead of walking – towards the door and up the steep turret stairs to the room on the entresol where they had made a so-called “cabinet”. Reaching the upper floor, he suddenly came to himself and fell back several steps. The husband of Mrs Marryat  was, fortunately, just behind him and saved him from a fall.

The medium complained of a pain in his head and they all sat at the table to receive further instructions. But there the same spirit took again possession of him, and Mr Eglinton left the table and groped his way towards the bedrooms on the upper floor, his hand holding an imaginary knife, raised as if he wanted to strike, a horrible expression on his face.

The spirit seemed to lead the medium up to a flight of stairs from the entresol to the corridor, closed by a padded door. Moaning terribly, Mr Eglinton made half a dozen times his weary round of the room, when one of his control-spirits took possession of him. “Daisy” talked with the Marryat party for some time and they asked her what the spirit was like that had controlled Mr Eglinton until now.

“I don’t like this spirit,” Daisy answered. “He has a bad face and there is no hair on the top of his head. He wears a long black frock.”

They concluded the spirit had to be a monk or a priest. At that moment, this spirit again got possession of Mr Eglinton and led him, as before, to the bedrooms on the upper floor. Florence Marryat describes how he was elevated far above their heads and carried to a large table into the “cabinet”. But then, Joey advised them to take Mr Eglinton downstairs to the dining room, where they had supper and the medium appeared to be quite himself, laughing and eating well.

After dinner, however, he turned restless again and began pacing up and down the room, controlled by the unfriendly spirit. Mr Eglinton went to the drawing-room, pronounced three times the word “Go!” and locked himself up in the darkness of the room, while all the others waited outside.

He remained there for sosme minutes and then opened the door. “Bring a light!” he said in quite a different voice. “I have something to say to you!”

Motioning them to be seated, Mr Eglinton stood before the party in the light of a lamp. “I have to tell you the story of this unhappy and disturbed entity,” he said. “The spirit is present now. The confession of his crime, through my lips, will help him to… throw off! off! off!…. the earthbound condition… to which he was condemned…”

And so they were told now that this house once had been a convent, with four subterranean passages. In this convent lived a most beautiful nun, while on the other side of the canal there was an Italian priest residing in the monastery there. This priest had conceived a forbidden passion for the nun. At night he would steal his way to the nun’s convent, by means of one of the underground corridors, attempting to make her listen to his tale of love. But she was strong in the faith, and she resisted him… until one one night, when he hid himself here in the dark, maddened by his guilty passion and her repeated refusals, waiting for her to pass him on her way to the chapel. When she resisted him again, he stabbed her on the very spot where Mr Eglinton first perceived him.

The priest dragged the body of his beloved down the stairways to the vaults beneath, and buried it there. The pure soul of his victim found immediate consolation, but the spirit of the priest was chained down to the scene of his awful crime… Mr Eglinton walked up to that spot and knelt there for some minutes in prayer.

The Second Séance

The next day, as Florence Marryat sat at the table in the “cabinet” with only her sister, the name of “Hortense Dupont” came through, and the following conversation was rapped out:

“Who are you?”

“I am the nun he loved and I loved him too…”

“When did he kill you?”

“In 1498.”

“How old were you?”

“Twenty-three.”

That evening, when Mr Eglinton entered the séance room, he was immediately possessed by the spirit of the murderer. From the window he saw his victim coming through the courtyard, and then started to pursuit her again, perspiration streaming down his face. They all kneeled down then and started praying the De Profundis, while Mr Eglinton fell to the ground, wrestling in agony. At the Salve Regina, he lifted his eyes to heaven; at the Ave Maria he clasped his hands; in the Pater Noster he appeared to join them. But when they ceased praying, the evil passions returned and his face became distorted again in the thirst for blood of his beloved.

At last, Mrs Marryat’s sister fetched a crucifix, which they placed upon his breast. It had not been there many seconds before a different expression came over the face of the medium. Mr Eglinton seized the crucifix in both hands, strained it to his eyes, lips and heart. He held it from him at arm’s length, then passionately kissed it, as they repeated the Anima Christi. Finally, holding the crucifix out for each of them to kiss, a beautiful smile broke out on his face… and the spirit passed out of him.

Mr Eglinton awoke, terribly exhausted, his face as white as a sheet, trembling violently. “They are doing something to my forehead,” he muttered. “Burn a piece of paper… Give me the ashes…”

He rubbed the ashes between his eyes and immediately the sign of the cross became visible, drawn on his forehead in deep red lines. In a trance, his control-spirits led him to the cabinet, where they all formed a circle in front of him while he was sitting in an arm-chair. A cross of fire now appeared outside the curtain of the cabinet, illuminating it, while the head and shoulders of a nun appeared there, floating, her white coif and chin-piece pinned, her face that of a young and pretty woman. The spirit seemed very anxious to show herself and came close to each of them in turn.

“Are you Hortense Dupont,” Mrs Marryat asked, and the apparition nodded her head in acquiescence.

The Third Séance

On the third day, when they were all dining, loud raps were heard. As soon as they were seated in the cabinet, Mr Eglinton became entranced. He crawled up the stairs that led to the padded door which he found open now, drew a long breath and went to the winding turret staircase where he was carried up and down in a wonderful manner, only placing his hand on the balustrades.

They all ended up in the drawing-room of the sombre old house, watching by the ghastly light of a lamp the acting of that terrible tragedy – holding their breath as the murderer crouched by the chapel door, retreated with his dagger in his hand, and then stabbed his victim, and stabbed again, and again.

At last, and only for a brief moment, he seemed paralyzed. Then he started back, both hands clasped to his forehead. He flung himself on the body, frantically kissing the ground. Waking to the fear of detection, he raised the corpse in his arms, seized it, dragged it, slipping on the stone floor to the cellars below, and moaning all the time.

They all knelt with him and began to pray.  As he heard their voices he turned towards them, his lips moving while he was trying to speak, trying to bless them, his arms outstretched, his tongue protruded. He was unable to articulate, but a beautiful smile broke out over his countenance and he fell prostrate on the floor.

“Where am I?” Mr Eglinton asked them. “What on earth has happened? I feel so queer!”

The medium was exhausted, but nevertheless felt a great calm and peace.

Copyright by Patrick Bernauw

This account was also published in the Spiritualist Newspaper, on August 29th, 1879 – when the séance had just occurred.

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Visiting Bruges-la-Morte, a medieval ghost city
The Holy Blood of Bruges, a New Jerusalem
The Holy Sepulchre of Bruges-la-Morte

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Vintas started out together with the political organization of the “Saviours of Louis XVII”, wich later took a mystical turn. He apparently also had some kind of a “mentor”, a certain Madame Bouche who went under the name of Sister Salomé and lived in the Place St. Sulpice in Paris. Together with this “visionary”, he formed his own “Church of Carmel”.  Vintras traveled through the French countryside, wearing an inverted cross on his vestments, and he acquired many followers. His masses included visions of a Black Madonna, lilies steeped in blood, saints disguised as troubadours and angels habited like knights. Vintras had bloody sweats and his blood also appeared on hosts, where it pictured often a heart with an inscription in his own handwriting, spelling his own name. And empty chalices were suddenly filled with wine, leaving stains of blood…

By 1848, the Church of Carmel was condemned by the pope and in 1851, Vintras was accused of homosexuality, conducting black masses in the nude and masturbating while praying at the altar. At that time, he had already followers in England and Belgium, and they had set up “religious houses” at St. Odile in Alsace and at Sion-Vaudemont in Lorraine. 

Shortly before his death, Vintras befriended Joseph-Antoine Boullan (1824-1893), a defrocked priest and also a supporter of the Naundorff claim. Boullan became the successor of Vintras in Lyon, outwardly maintaining pious practices, but conducting satanic rituals in secret. Boullan would soon become the most famous satanist of the 19th century. He claimed to be a “Missionary of the Holy Blood”, the reincarnated St. John the Baptist.

In the 1850’s and together with the former nun Adèle Chevalier, “abbé Boullan” founded the “Society for the Reparation of Souls”. Boullan had met Adèle at La Salette. She was a friend of the visionary Melanie Calvat. Adèle bore the abbé two children and now they specialized in “exorcising demons by unconventional means” and “curing devilish illnesses”. They gave possessed victims human excrement to eat, mixed with the Eucharist. And they performed black masses, in which they even would have sacrificed one of their children.

Boullan said the original sin of Adam and Eve could be redeemed by sexual intercourse with incubi or succubi and he taught his followers all sorts of sexual techniques and how to copulate with the spirits of the dead. He  soon got convicted for fraud and was suspended from his priestly duties. After serving his time in jail, he voluntarily presented himself at the Holy Office in Rome – also known as the Inquisition – which reversed its former decision. He wrote down his doctrines in the “Cahier Rose” which after his death was found by Joris-Karel Huysmans, the novelist who published in 1891 “Là-Bas”, a “history of satanism” (translated as “Down There” or “The Damned”).  Huysmans, by that time converted into a Catholic, apparently saw to it that this “shocking document” was locked away in the Vatican Library.

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Around 1889 the sect of Boullan was infiltrated by the Rosicrucian Stanislas de Guaita, who published a pamphlet, titled “The Temple of Satan”. Boullan and de Guaita now engaged in magical warfare. At that time, being portrayed as “the good magician Dr. Johannes” in the scandal raising novel of his friend Huysmans, Boullan suddenly rose to stardom. He and Huysmans both claimed to be attacked by demons. When Boullan in 1893 died of a heart attack, Huysmans published an article in which he said this was due to an evil spell cast by de Guaita. The Rosicrucian challenged the writer to a duel, but Huysmans declined and apologized.

Some were saying the character of the demonic canon Docre was inspired by abbé Boullan, but Huysmans stated more than once this was not true: in his novel he depicted the chaplain of the Holy Blood of Bruges, Louis Van Haecke, as the satanist Docre. In an article published on a site dedicated to the French Gnostic Tradition it is said that both Boullan and Louis Van Haecke were ordained Pontifs Divines of communities on the model of the Carmelite Order, developing their own theology.

Van Haecke associated his group with occultists who believed in the efficacy of Black Magic; he developed a rather dark “Luciferian Theology”. In his “Gnostic Dictionary”, André Wautier says about Louis Van Haecke that he was a Flemish priest who followed the defrocked abbé Boullan after his breaking-up with the Catholic Church. Van Haecke eventually found his own way, which was typically anti-gnostic and included satanism and black masses. For Van Haecke,  Jesus of Nazareth had not kept the promises he made in proclaiming himself the Son of God, since he did not ban evil from the world. On the contrary, the religion that claimed his name, did not follow his ideal of love and poverty, but saw its leaders compromise themselves and their church with the political and military leaders and with the powers of money, thus helping to reign injustice, misery and war over the world. Therefore, it was the enemy of the Father and the Son who had to be worshipped: Satan, who allowed the act of giving love and joy and helped his disciples to get through the bad times of life.

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Read also:

The Satanist Chaplain of the Holy Blood of Bruges

Down There: A History of Satanism

The Code of the Holy Blood

Rennes-le-Château and the Holy Blood of Bruges

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While visiting museums in Germany for a piece on German art he never published, in the museum of Kassel J.K. was struck by Matthias Grünewald’s “Crucifixion”. The painting depicted in naturalistic detail the ugly face of death, with the oozing wounds and the brutally torn body of Christ upon the Cross. Precisely through this realistic depiction of suffering a miraculous spirituality was made manifest; the very excessiveness of the pain of Jesus Christ was some kind of a transfiguration without halos or other symbols. J.K. had his first glimpse of what he would call “supranaturalism” or “spiritualistic naturalism”. It was possible, through the techniques of documentation and naturalistic detail, to go beyond the material and show the human soul.

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At the same time, Huysmans’ life also was a confrontation with gruesome reality: his mistress Anna Meunier was suffering from a painful illness, his friend Jules-Amedée Barbey d’Aurevilly was dying of old age and another friend, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, was slowly expiring of stomach cancer. J.K. set about to document the manifestations of the Spirit in the real world. “Là-bas” started as a study of the model for Bluebeard: the noble and pious Gilles de Rais who fought with Joan of Arc and then, in his castle at Tiffauges, became a kidnapper, torturer and slaughterer of children. But the novel soon turned into the story of the research Huysmans did in order to write it. Autobiography and fiction had merged before, now it was J.K.’s stand-in Durtal who tried to understand the horrible deeds of Gilles de Rais. In order to achieve this, he – as Huysmans – studied the occult, the black arts and the Black Mass.

Huysmans made contact with Berthe Courrière, thanks to her lover, the writer Remy de Gourmont. Berthe believed in black magic and beguiled J.K. with tales of her paranormal experiences. Huysmans also had a brief and bizarre affair with another Lady of the Occult, Henriette Maillat. Both she and Berthe were the models for Hyacinthe Chantelouve, the heroine “down there”. Huysmans contacted, among others, a founding member of the modern French Order of the Rosy Cross, Stanislas de Guaïta; a self-proclaimed descendant of the Chaldean Magi, Sâr Joséphin Péladan; an expert on alchemy, Michel de Lézinier; the renegade priest and exquisitely evil Joseph-Antoine Boullan, no stranger of prisons, who regarded all forms of sexual intercourse as acts of worship and who was accused of having slain his own child, conceived by a nun, on the altar, after a Black Mass. Boullan provided Huysmans with all sorts of documentation on the black arts in 19th century France.

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“Down There” is the account of Durtal’s – or Huysmans’ – research, and their discovery: that Satanism is alive and kicking in 19th century France, just as it was in the medieval times. It’s a strong spiritual force, creating real phenomena one can observe and document. The subject matter of “Down There” may be abhorrent, as art – through the power of words – it is highly original, since the categories of fiction and nonfiction, reality, dreams and imagination are called into question.

The novel received a good press, but had some unpleasant consequences for its author: there were some violent attacks launched, calling the originality into question (of course it was not “original”, since J.K. had previously “lived” the plot!) and Henriette Maillat recognized in the letters of Hyacinthe Chantelouve – who had Durtal admitted to a Black Mass – the letters she had written to Huysmans. Fortunately for him, at the ministery where he was still working, J.K. had some connections with the Sûreté (the French secret police) and when Maillat discovered that detectives were asking questions about her, she disappeared from J.K.’s life.

And then there were the Rosicrucians, disturbed at J.K.’s close contacts with Boullan and his high-priestess Julie Thibault. It was the start of a Black Arts War, with magicians casting spells upon each other and Huysmans narrowly escaping a deadly duel. For years afterward, J.K. felt that he was a victim of evil magic. So from time to time he could be found huddled inside a chalk circle scrawled upon the floor to ward off hellish vibrations.

Finally, at the Black Mass J.K. attended himself, or at least at the orgiastic ritual narrated in “Down There”, he claimed to have seen a Belgian priest, who became the prototype of the diabolic Canon Docre. Of course his friend and ally Joseph-Antoine Boullan had nothing to do with it, the authorities better had a look at the life and times of abbé Louis Van Haecke. This resulted into a highly controversial issue, for Louis Van Haecke was the well respected chaplain of the famous Chapel of the Holy Blood in Bruges…

Read also:

The Black Mass, as described by J.K. Huysmans in “Down There/The Damned”

The Satanist Chaplain of the Holy Blood Chapel in Bruges

Black Magic in Nineteenth Century France

To Be Continued Here:

• Rennes-le-Château and the Holy Blood of Bruges
• The Holy Blood of Bruges, a New Jerusalem
• The Holy Sepulchre of Bruges-la-Morte

The oldest mention of the Holy Blood Procession dates back to 1291. The guilds of Bruges were obliged to participate in a procession of horse- and guilds-men, artisans and marksmen, city councillors and clergy marching in all their splendour with the relic round the city walls. In the 15th and 16th century, profane scenes with giants, the mythical Bayard Horse and the chambers of rhetoric of Bruges were added to the biblical scenes of the mystery plays. The Noble Brotherhood of the Holy Blood is for centuries the organiser of this procession. The theme still is some sort of a Quest for the Holy Grail: a search for the meaning of life and the pursuit of happiness and fulfilment that got many names – like the Kingdom of God or the New Jerusalem… This idea Bruges being a new Jerusalem also is far from new: Bruges was deliberately built as this New Jerusalem.

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The Procession of the Holy Blood is opened by the police, a brass band, horsemen carrying the flags of Bruges, the Holy Virgin Mary as the patroness of the city and of course the Members of the Noble Brotherhood of the Holy Blood.

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Old myths – and the Old Testament – tell us of existential matters: man looking for a lost paradise.

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Abraham is departing from his familiar surroundings for a strange, but better land. But Joseph is sold by his brothers to a caravansary on their way to Egypt – people always will leave their “brother” behind. Joseph however becomes one of the most important men in Egypt, because he is able to interpret the Pharaoh’s visions. When the sons of Jacob, driven by hunger, make their way to Egypt, Joseph saves them. He is, as Jesus, an outcast who brings new life to humanity.

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In all times, there are prophets who have a keen insight and see beyond the facts. They feel what the future will bring.

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The story of Jesus’ life rings in a new time. God is speaking in Him. The birth of Christ is presented by the merchants of Cologne, because this city is the keeper of the relics of the Three Kings.

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There are scenes of Jesus and the teachers and Saint John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus. John is the patron saint of the city of Florence. Therefore it is the Nation of Florence that presents us the scene of John the Baptist, Herod and Salome. The frivolous man in power, Herod, had imprisoned the Baptist because he criticized his way of living: he had taken for himself his brother’s wife.

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During a feast Herodias’ daughter danced so gracefully that Herod swore he would give her anything she asked. Salome demanded the head of John the Baptist.

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Jesus gives the answer to the meaning of life. Following Jesus means: to love God always, even if you are at risk of losing your life. Here is the entry to Jerusalem and the Last Supper, presented by the Rhetoricians of the Holy Ghost or the Thirteen.

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Jesus did not receive a fair trial. The Roman governor Pilate defended his own position, instead of searching for the truth. Jesus had to serve as a scapegoat.

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Jesus was crucified in order to appease the anger of the people and to suppress the tensions in society. As Lamb of God he takes away evil once and for all. With Him a new time begins. From this moment begins the description of Jesus’ physical and moral suffering. He is the symbol of all who are tortured up to this day.

The scenes of the scourging and the crowning with thorns are presented by the masons and stone-masons, because, from the 15th century, their public worship took place in the chapel of the Holy Blood. Jesus is now “on the cold stone” – this statue, a work in 1900 created by Michiel D’Hondt, is venerated in the chapel of the Holy Blood, but is now in the Procession escorted by a platoon of Roman soldiers.

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Copyright by embee, used with permission

The events of Golgotha are represented by the miraculous cross of Damme. According to the tradition, it has been brought out of the sea by sailors. Since 1339 it is venerated in the church of Our Lady in Damme.

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The inexpressible suffering experienced by those who are left. The mother who lost her son. Girls are singing a Stabat Mater. The Pieta…

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Milan, capital of Lombardy, preserves the relic of the Holy Sepulchre. There also is a Church of the Holy Sepulchre – or a Jerusalem Church – in Bruges. The statue showed here is a copy of the one in this church (1702). In front of the Holy Sepulchre and led by grieving women goes Joseph of Arimathea carrying the chalice in which the blood of Christ was received.

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A group with banners is called “the Arms of Christ”. The banners are portraying the instruments of the Passion or Arma Christi.

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The Chamber of the Rhetoricians of the Three Saints present the scene of the Resurrection, because there are three saints in its coats of arms: St Barbara, St Catherine and St Mary Magdalene who was the chief witness of the Resurrection.

Copyright by embee, used with permission

Copyright by embee, used with permission

Now starts the historical section, with a herald announcing the arrival of Thierry of Alsace, returning from the Crusades. He brings the relic of the Holy Blood with him. Tradesmen and members of the guilds go forth to welcome the Count. The band enhances the spirit of the festive arrival in this “good city” while town messengers announce the annual fair and procession.

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There are flagwavers and their flags are showing a pelican who feeds her young with her own blood to save them from starving to death; it’s a symbol of Jesus Christ you’ll find everywhere in Bruges.

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And then there is Count Thierry with the relic. Besides him is his lady, Sybilla of Anjou. There are no Templars in the Procession. Nevertheless, according to the legend, it were the Knights Templar who gave the Count the relic of the Holy Blood. Count Thierry is followed by his son Philip of Alsace, who later will be the commisioner of Chrétien de Troyer, the writer of the first Grail Story, as is told in the article Perceval and the Holy Grail of Bruges.

Copyright by embee, used with permission

Copyright by embee, used with permission

Finally, the Saint George’s Guild opens the most important section of the procession. This guild was also responsible for maintaining order in the medieval city. Is it a coincidence their red cross reminds us of the banner of the Knights Templar?

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The Holy Blood relic is carried by two prelates and four members of the Noble Brotherhood surround the shrine, dating from 1617, and set with hundreds of precious stones amongst which is the “black diamond”, coming from Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. Here is a last picture of the shrine, taken in the morning, when it was carried out of the Chapel of the Holy Blood…

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Related articles

The Holy Blood of Bruges, a New Jerusalem

Perceval and the Holy Grail of Bruges

The Medieval Procession of Penance at Furnes

The Ghent Altarpiece, also known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, completed in 1432 by the Van Eyck Brothers (Hubert & Jan), is a large and complex polyptych, originally made for the Joost Vyd Chapel in Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. In the eighties, for security reasons, it was removed to another chapel in the cathedral. The Mystic Lamb is regarded as a true artistic highlight of Christianity and of Western civilisation. It is said – but it’s not sure – that Hubert Van Eyck started the work and his brother Jan, the famous Flemish Primitive who was attached to the court of the Duke of Burgundy, finished it.

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A Masterwork of Mystery

The Ghent Altarpiece consists of a complex series of 24 scenes, with two doors and a central piece which is showing some saints and apostles adoring the Mystic Lamb, or the symbol of Jesus Christ. From the panels to the left and to the right, pious hermits and pilgrims, Just Judges and Knights of Christ are approaching the ceremony in the middle. The upper register shows Christ as a King, between the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, Adam and Eve. Inside, there are angels singing and making music.

The oil painting offers intricate details and composition, unrivaled realism, mystical meaning and a translucent use of colour which is responsible for the beautiful light. Over the centuries, the masterpieces has retained its luminous colours.

The polyptych, surrounded by mystery, has always been the main attraction of the impressive cathedral of Saint Bavo. After being kidnapped by the French revolutionary forces, some panels of the Mystic Lamb returned to Ghent. In 1816 however, the panels were sold for 100.000 guilders to an antiquary, while the bishopric knew they had a value of at least four times this sum… and indeed, the panels were sold very soon to a museum in Berlin for 400.000 guilders. At the end of the 19th century, these panels were cut lengthwise. In 1919, thanks to the Treaty of Versailles, they returned to Belgium again. Oh yeah, and what are the Knights Templar doing on this very catholic piece of art? 

Maybe the greatest mystery of the many mysteries surrounding the Mystic Lamb, was caused by the lower left panel, called the Just Judges. The original panel got stolen in 1934, has never been found and was replaced by a copy. It’s Belgium’s most famous unsolved mystery. Countless amateur and professional sleuths are still tracking clues. In a BBC interview with crime writer Minette Walters, Ghent’s former police chief Karel Mortier referred to the theft as “the art crime of the century”.

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The Theft of the Just Judges

In the night of April 10, 1934, two panels – the Just Judges and St. John the Baptist – measuring 1.49 x 55.5 centimeter, were stolen from the cathedral. On May 1, the bishop of Ghent received a letter, which said that the sender possessed both panels. The letter was signed “D.U.A.”. Provided he would receive 1 million francs for the Judges, he would return St. John without any charge. DUA asked the bishop to answer him through an advertisement in a newspaper, and St. John was delivered at the railroad station Brussels-North. But instead of the requested sum, the authorities only wanted to pay 25.000 francs… and the Just Judges did not return home.

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November 25… Arsène Goedertier, aged 57, a broker who lived and worked in the small town of Wetteren, aged 57, collapsed after a speech at a political rally. On his death bed, he informed his friend Georges de Vos in private that he had a file on the crime at his home. Goedertier tried to say more… but finally took the secret in his grave. Later, the police found in his home carbon copies of the messages which had been sent to the bishop by DUA. Only one single cryptic line spoke of the possible whereabouts of the Judges: the panel was “in a place where neither I nor anyone else” could recover it drawing attention.

The wife of Arsène Goedertier revealed that her late husband was an avid reader of detective novels and a true fan of Arsène Lupin, the hero in some of Maurice Leblanc’s mystery novels. Arsène, of course, was also Goedertier’s first name, and Lupin was a “gentlemen thief”. Goedertier had read The Hollow Needle (L’aiguille creuse) several times. The theme of the novel was “art thefts”. Arsène Goedertier undoubtedly felt inspired by Arsène Lupin, who always left a trail of coded messages after his thefts. Goedertier used a similar code in his ransom notes.

Arsène Goedertier was an eccentric, but although he might have typed and mailed the ransom notes, I doubt he was the original thief… and he sure didn’t act alone. The broker from Wetteren was in a very healthy financial situation. Maybe he chased some sort of a symbolic revenge. Indeed, Goedertier is said to have been “angry” at the Catholic Church.

Since 1956, former police chief Karel Mortier has dedicated himself to the search for the Lost Judges. Mortier beliefs the panel was hidden somewhere in Saint Bavo Cathedral. X-ray investigations however were fruitless. Another policeman, Chris Noppe, is convinced that the Judges are hiding in the coffin of King Albert I. A few months before the theft, the Belgian King – the hero of the Great War – died in a climbing accident, which was possibly a set up for murder. The body of King Albert I now lies in the crypt of the royal family in the palace of Laeken, near Brussels. Belgium’s own Miss Marple, Maria De Roo, is defending a conspiracy theory, claiming the authorities retrieved the panel. And I think Goedertier and two accomplices worked for Himmler’s SS and were murdered when they double-crossed a nazi agent.

Van Eyck, neo-Templar and alchemist

I do believe Van Eyck’s painting held a “Da Vinci Code”, containing information the true whereabouts of the Holy Grail, also known as the Holy Blood(line) of Christ. In the 16th century, Jan Van Eyck already was described by art historian Giorgi Vasari as an alchemist, suggesting he was a member of a secret brotherhood. In his article 666 = Satan’s Song? – Part 2: The Just Judges and Otto Rahn, Philip Coppens says that modern freemasons have noted how Van Eyck depicted a working lodge in a drawing of Saint Barbara. 

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Jan Van Eyck entered the service of Philip the Good in 1425. The Duke of Burgundy was moving his court between his palaces in Brussels, Lille and Bruges. Van Eyck resided in Lille and mostly in Bruges, where he died in 1440. He performed certain missions for the Duke, but the exact nature of these missions has remained unknown. Both men were very close, the Duke served as godfather to one of Jan’s children.

While working on his masterpiece, Jan’s patron established the Order of the Golden Fleece. The name has never been fully explained, but it is no secret that Philip was very interested in alchemy. In his palace in Brussels for example, he installed a real “alchemical room”. Though Van Eyck was employed by Philip the Good, he took the commission for the Vyd family. He knew he would have to spend a great amount of time on this Ghent Altarpiece. So, even if Jan only completed what Hubert had begun, he needed the consent of his patron. But that seemed to be no problem at all.

The Mystic Lamb clearly depicts Jesus as a King. This was very uncommon in medievalor Gothic paintings. It was also very uncommon in 1432, and even dangerous, to depict a bunch of arch-heretics on your piece of art. Under pressure of King Philip of France, in 1307 many of the Knights Templar were arrested, tortured – so they would give false confessions – and burned at the stake. The Order was disbanded by Pope Clement V in 1312 on the charge of religious heresy and sexual misconduct.

So, here is one of the great Mysteries of the Lamb of God: what are the Templars doing on this “true” catholic masterpiece? The title of the panel is “Milites Christi”, Soldiers of Christ, the official name of the Knights Templar. Moreover, they don’t look like sinners who are seeking forgiveness, do they? No, this one knight in his shining armour rides with great kings and noblemen, bearing the shield and the banner of the Temple!

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On the Ghent Altarpiece, the Mystic Lamb is spilling his blood in the Cup of the Last Supper. This bleeding lamb is common christian iconography, but the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) and the Chalice usually doesn’t show up together with the Templars, who were regarded as the keepers of the Holy Grail… or the secret of the Holy Blood(line) of Christ.

The Nazi Plot Theory

I have developed the “Nazi Plot Theory” for the first time in a book called Mysteries of the Mystic Lamb (Mysteries van het Lam Gods, 1991). Adolf Hitler came into power in 1933, just a year before the Judges got stolen. I do think the Nazi’s commissioned the theft, because of the mystic and heretic connotations of Ghent Altarpiece. Hitler wanted to seize the iconography of the Mystic Lamb and incorporate it into the Holy Canon of his own “Arian” religion, that had to compete with Christianity.

The Mystic Lamb should be read as a code and some of the panels could be incorporating documents or a map, concerning the Holy Blood brought by the Knights Templar and Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders, to Bruges. The first Grail story was commissioned by his son, Philip of Alsace. In the late 19th century the chaplain of the Holy Blood Chapel in Bruges seems to have turned into a satanist. His tale was told by Joris-Karl Huysmans in his book Down There (Là-Bas) and preceded that other story of a satanist priest, who found a treasure and/or a secret concerning the Templars, the Grail and the Holy Blood(line) of Christ. In other words, is the story of Bérenger Saunière, the parish priest of Rennes-le-Château, nothing else than an echo, a hoax, part of a disinformation project designed to turn the eyes of the world to southern France, so that the true secret could remain a secret?

The obsession of the top Nazi’s for the Ghent Altarpiece is a matter of record. During World War II, the Ghent Altarpiece was stolen by the SS and hidden in a salt mine near Salzburg. A special agent was sent to Belgium with only one task: finding the Judges! It was to SS-officer Henry Koehn that Goedertier’s widow spoke of her husband’s fascination for The Hollow Needle. Interestingly, Leblanc’s stories of Lupin, a character he created in 1905, showed a great number of indirect references to the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château…

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Read more:

Mysteries of the Mystic Lamb

The Holy Blood of Bruges, a New Jerusalem

Rennes-le-Château and the Holy Blood of Bruges

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An Elaborate Hoax

His story attracted Pierre Plantard, who wanted to play a vital role in the history of France and concocted an elaborate hoax, planting fake documents in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, that implied Plantard was a descendant of a royal dynasty. In 1967, Gérard de Sède published a book about his friend’s claim to fame. They chose the area and history of Rennes-le-Château as their setting.

The next step was The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, in 1982 published by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln.  They said Saunière found documents implying that the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene were connected to the French royalty.  Saunière found them in his church, in a Visigothic pillar, in 1891. 

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Saunière had been a teacher in the seminary of Narbonne, but being undisciplined, he was appointed in 1885 to Rennes-le-Château. He renovated the church, built a grand estate for himself (the Villa Bethania) and a personal library which resembled the Tower of David in Jerusalem (the Tour Magdala). In 1896, the bishop of Carcassone investigated how Saunière had been able to fund these building projects. The bishop relocated him to a different parish, but Saunière refused and resigned. In 1910 he was tried for fraud; he had been selling masses he never performed. In 1917, Saunière died in poverty.

Some theories developing around Rennes-le-Château and Bérenger Saunière said that the Catholic Church was paying the priest vast sums to buy his silence, because he knew all about The Holy Blood – also known as The Holy Grail (Sang Royal, San Greal, Saint Grail) -, being “the bloodline of Christ”. He might even have discovered the grave in which Christ had been buried. Arch-heretics such as the Templars and the Cathars once were the safekeepers of the Secret. It was also the reason why Saunière lost his belief and got involved with trendy occultist and maybe satanist circles in Paris, featuring the composer Claude Debussy, the Belgian symbolist playwright Maurice Maeterlinck or that other “decadent” writer, Joris-Karl Huysmans. He also knew Emma Calvé, the Maria Callas of her age, who was a high priestess of a Parisian esoteric sub-culture.

And Nothing More?

The Mystery of Rennes-le-Château is probably a hoax, made of facts and fiction, and inspired by hard facts that had nothing to do with southern France, but with the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, Flanders. I even strongly believe that the hoax was made up to turn the attention of the public away from the real secret that was kept in Bruges.

In 1891, the year Saunière allegedly “found” something in his church, Joris-Karl Huysmans – born in Paris from a Dutch father – published his novel Là-Bas (translated as Down There or The Damned) and was the cause of a public scandal because of his depiction of satanist circles in Paris. The novel had a very vivid Black Mass scene, calling Jesus Christ an “Artisan of Hoaxes”, a “do-nothing King”, a “coward God”. 

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The “abominable truth” was that the canon Docre, Huysmans’ black mass celebrant, could be identified as the Flemish priest Louis or Lodewijk Van Haecke, Chaplain of the Holy Blood Chapel in Bruges. Docre/Van Haecke was reputed to have the tattoo of a cross on the soles of his feet, so that he could walk continually upon the symbol of the Saviour. Huysmans said that Van Haecke paid three visits to Paris, where he moved in occultist circles. He was seen in an establishment known for “its clientèle of renegade priests”.

Huysmans stated that the Chaplain of the Holy Blood, keeper of the Holy Grail, lost his faith because Jesus, “the Artisan of Hoaxes”, didn’t die at Golgotha… And who brought the one and only Holy Blood – or Holy Grail – in the 12th century to Bruges? The Knights Templar, together with a Count of Flanders, whose son later would commission Chrétien de Troyes to write the first Grail romance…

The Holy Blood of Bruges, a new Jerusalem: full story.

Read also:

The Mysteries of the Mystic Lamb

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