14. Joan of Arc was born around January 6, 1412.

13. In modern times, some doctors and scholars have “diagnosed” Joan of Arc with disorders ranging from epilepsy to schizophrenia.

12. Also Known by the nicknames The Maid of Orleans and La Pucelle

11. Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint.

10. Her father was a farmer named Jacques Darc and her mother was Isabelle DE Vouthon who taught her religion and housekeeping.

9. She had three older brothers: Jacquemin, Jean, and Pierre. She also had a much older sister about which little is known.

8. Joan was first visited by a Voice from God when she was twelve. She later testified at her trial that she was in her father’s garden on a summer day around noon when she first heard the Voice.

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7. Joan never actually fought in battle or killed an opponent. Instead, she would accompany her men as a sort of inspirational mascot, brandishing her banner in place of a weapon.

6. Joan tried to protect Paris from the English, but she failed and was captured and sold to England by Philip of Burgundy.

5. Joan of Arc had a famously volatile temper.

4. Joan of Arc was from a part of eastern France known as Lorraine and a prophecy foretold that France would be saved by a maid from Lorraine.

3. Joan’s Voices were said to be St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.

2. Joan left home at sixteen to answer her calling.

1. At the trial in England 1431, she was condemned and sentenced to die by burning at the stake on 30 May 1431.

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A number of beautiful women will always be remembered in human history, most of them because of the scandal that he caused.

Here are some of the most beautiful famous women in history, as quoted from the All Women’s Talk.

1. Cleopatra

If alive today, Queen Cleopatra probably always will adorn the main page of gossip. Queen of Egypt was dropped gallant king, Julius Caesar because of his affair with Marc Anthony.

He also claims he is the reincarnation of Isis, using milk to bathe and suicide by a poisonous snake pecks.

2. Lady Godiva

This beautiful woman Lady Godiva fight for the interests of the oppressed people of Coventry, central England that oppressed due to the tax be increased her own husband.

The husband had promised not to raise taxes if Lady Godiva appear in public without the outfit, a very taboo thing to do at the beginning of the 11th century.

The baron never thought his wife would have agreed this. He then ordered the people to close the doors and windows so that no one who witnessed his wife naked.

A man, named Tom ignores this command and peek Baron’s wife. From this incident was born the phrase ‘Tom the Peeking’. As punishment Tom both eyes blinded.

3. Lucrezia Borgia

LucreziaDia an illegitimate daughter of a man who later became Pope Alexander VI. The Pope on suspicion of incest or incestuous sexual relations, had two wives (bigamy) and has at least one illegitimate child through sexual adultery. He also allegedly involved in murder and political intrigue.

This girl is the victim of a family whose most famous in history.

4. Joan of Arc

Joan of ArcIa is a visionary figure of female soldiers from the 15th century. Claimed to receive inspiration from God, Joan led the French army and won the battle over British forces, including through the siege at Orleans.

Although it managed to secure the coronation of Charles VII, but he could not get rid of British troops from France. English Ecclesiastical Courts accused him guilty of heresy and burned at the stake.

Twenty-five years later, this belief is overthrown by Pope Callixtus III. In 1920, nearly 500 years later, Joan of Arc was canonized as the Patron Saint of France.

A documentary backing Sarah Palin and investing her with heroic, patriotic qualities has been made.

It is called Undefeated and many are calling it a decisive shot in a run for the Presidency. In the film Sarah Palin is compared to Joan of Arc, an historic French warrior who led her country in the fight against the English. They were the hated foreign power who occupied France during the 100 years war.

Joan of Arc came from humble origins but had the qualities to rally her fellow citizens in the fight back against the occupying power, the English. She believed that God had chosen her for the task and he inspired her through many visions.

The film does not make clear whether Sarah Palin has similar visions but many of her supporters do 

Born in 1412, Joan of Arc had several victories against the English but was captured by French rivals and handed over to them The English gave her a trial but she was inevitably found guilty and condemmed as a witch. The punishment was burning at the stake and Joan of Arc died at the age of just 19. Some 25 years later the Pope declared her a saint.

The documentary opens with a series of clips of public figures attacking Palin. Critics like David Letterman, Matt Damon and Rosie O’Donnell set the scene as she is depicted as a lone voice, fighting for her values against the powerful liberal establishment.

Like Joan of Arc, Sarah Palin is described as having patriotism and belief in her country as her guiding principles. Like Joan, Sarah is surrounded by enemies but carries the fight bravely to them.

There is another comparison to be made. Palin would love to be seen as a Ronald Reagan figure, fighting for conservative values against a near socialist government. Every candidate running against Obama would relish being in the same bracket as Ronald Reagan. He remains a much loved personality and on the campaign trail a hugely successful vote winner. Even though he was often mocked by liberals and the media. 

Whether Palin will come across as Joan of Arc, Ronald Reagan – or whether she will simply crash and burn -remains to be seen.

Karman Sana University protested in front every Tuesday from 2007 to present.

He was arrested several times, including when the protests began in Yemen.

President Saleh said he would resign after leaving office in 2013, but on 4 March rejected the plan of transition to democracy. The people of Yemen, led by Karman, will change now.

In February, Karman told Time: “People will now fall regime.”

Phoolan Devi, India

It may seem strange but one of the biggest thugs in history was a woman in India.

It joined the other one has become law “bandit queen” remains to this day in history with this name.

Together with a band of outlaws, bandits Queen has started to rob the rich, let’s kidnap and blackmail them.

It also killed 23 men in terrible pain that abuzasera in the past.

Finally, he surrendered in 1983 after most of the “outlaws” were killed. He remained in prison for 11 years, and after liberation in the Indian parliament was elected, continuing his fight on the political and diplomatic ways.

Angela Davis, USA

By the age of 26 years, Angela Davis was a scholar, political activist and one of the most wanted fugitives on the FBI list.

Supporters of the Black Panther party, Davis was accused of kidnapping and murder in 1970.

The weapons that were fired at the event were recorded on Davis’s behalf, she was accused of complicity.

At that event, a guard were killed in jail and a judge.

She was acquitted of all charges in 1972 and became professor of political science at a university in California.

Golda Meir, Israel

On her real name, Golda Mabovitz was “Iron Lady” of Israeli policy, the first and only woman prime minister in Israel’s history during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

This has had an impact on the Zionist movement in pre revolutionary state.

After the arrest of several Zionist leaders in Palestine in 1946, Meir became the main negotiator between the Hebrew and the UK. Simultaneously, he remained in close contact with Jewish armed resistance movements.

During the visit to America in 1948 and raised $ 50,000,000 from the Jewish diaspora.

Meir Ben-Gurion said he is remembered as “the woman who got the money to the rule.”

Jiang Qing, China

Looking back, Jian Qing lived two lives: one that began in extreme poverty and led to a brief career as an actress and several failed marriages and a radical member of the Communist regime, which has brought terror to China during the Revolution Cultural.

Despite the duality of his life, Jian Qing will always be remembered as one of the most brutal revolutionary.

After marrying in 1938 Chairman Mao Zedong, and Jiang used his status to satisfy their thirst for power.

In a short time managed to climb the ladder of the Communist Party and became responsible for much of the persecution that took place between 1966-1969.

Nadezhda Krupskaya, Russia

Spider veins protesters since the current youth.

Educated at a liberal school, she taught evening classes for industrial workers in 1889 until he joined the Marxist doctrine of talks in circles.

Together with Vladimir Lenin, it helped establish the League of working class struggle for the liberation in 1895.

Police arrested both of them shortly afterwards, but they were married during his exile in Siberia.

After his release in 1901, he followed Lenin in Munich, Geneva and London, helped in drafting the International Marxists newspaper.

After World War I, Krupskaya returned to Russia and became a central figure in the Bolshevik Party of Vyborg and pressured the Central Committee of the revolution of 1917. Her ashes are buried in the Kremlin wall.

Susan B. Anthony, United States

He was a prominent American leader, independent in civil rights played a key role in the nineteenth century on women’s rights in the United States.

He traveled thousands of miles throughout the United States and Europe, taking between 75 and 100 speeches a year about voting and women’s rights for 45 years.

U.S. authorities have arrested for illegally voting in the 1872 presidential campaign, and later a judge fined her $ 100.

Anthony died in 1906, 14 years before that amendment 19 to give women voting rights.

Mary Wollstonecraft, United Kingdom

The feminist movement started in the eighteenth century in Britain and worked shoulder to shoulder with Edmund Burke.

In a world dominated by men, Wollstonecraft argued before the whole world that she is more than as a possession of beauty.

In his two papers “A justification of the rights of man” and “justification of women’s rights” has held political views, saying that discrimination against women leads to failure of the Company.

Joan of Arc, France

Peasant girl, had a dream in which Christian saints France called him to regain the lands that were dominated by English.

Arriving with his message to the king of France, two months later, Joan of Arc led an army to victory against the English at Orleans in 1429.

Several years later, Joan was captured and burned at the stake for heresy and witchcraft. Joan of Arc was canonized by the Vatican in 1920 and remained in history as “The Virgin of Orleans.”

Boudica, United Kingdom

Queen Boudica was icenilor, a tribe living in eastern Great Britain today.

After the death of her husband, a Roman official took land and whipped him daughters.

This insult has caused a major conflict against invaders. Icenilor Army, which have been added and other tribes, devastated the Roman forts and settlements.

Londinium was burned to the ground. The fire was so intense that it has formed a layer of tiles around the house and this layer there are still about four feet below the streets of London today.

Like Cleopatra, Queen icenilor chose to drink poison rather than “pice” in the hands of the Romans. Statue to persist over the Thames in London, the city that once burned to the ground Boudica herself.

Cover of Healing With The Fairies: Oracle Cards

“If humans would just uncover the rich treasures that exist within themselves, including the endless supply of material & spiritual wealth that they currently hold, they could never be afraid again.”

Exert from “Healing with the Fairies” by Doreen Virtue

We only use 10 to 20% of our brain capacity.  We really don’t understand the whole concept of soul & we don’t love as fully & completely as our hearts would or can allow.  If we ever learn to utilize any or all of these to their fullest capacity what sort of wonders can we achieve for ourselves & others?

Buddha was a real man, so was Martin Luther King Jr., Confucius, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Copernicus, etc.  Mother Theresa, Joan of Arc, Mary (whichever one you identify with), Marie Curie, Queen Elizabeth I were real woman.  We all have the ability inside of us to be like our God or Goddess.  Jesus himself said that we could be like him, that he was no more the son of God than we are.  I believe he meant by that that we all have the ability inside ourselves to evolve into something more……more intelligent, more spiritual, more loving, more caring, more nurturing, more powerful, more in control of ourselves. 

Each & every one of us has that ability, we can all evolve into something more, something that is not afraid of what life holds, because we know that it holds us until we go on to the next plane of existence & get to explore there.

He was born in 1404, in the family Castle at Machecoul. He was a bright child who could be both rigorous and artistic. He learned Latin whilst still an infant but also liked to illuminate manuscripts for his own pleasure. When both his father and mother died within months of each other when he was still only aged 11 he was placed, along with his younger brother Rene de la Suze, under the tutelage of his ambitious and unscrupulous grandfather, Jean de Craon. He was determined to use his recently acquired grandsons to increase his own and their personal wealth via the marriage bed. On 30 November, 1420, aged 16, Gilles was married to Catherine de Thouars, the heiress to Poitou and the Vendee. They were to have one daughter and the marriage was to make both Gilles and his grandfather very wealthy men indeed.

Handsome and brave the young Gilles was reckless in everything he did; but he was also short-tempered and prone to bouts of violence. It wasn’t long, however, before he proved himself on the battlefield. Indeed, he appeared to revel in the carnage and brutality of warfare. He was never happier than in those places where blood had to be spilt. Decorated for bravery in the war against the English his citation read, “ For his high and commendable services and his many brave feats.” But there was to be little semblance of military discipline in the way he conducted his private life. He drank heavily and spent recklessly. He both entertained lavishly and patronised the arts at great expense to himself. Under the protection of the Duke of Brittany, if he ever found himself short of money he merely took from others by force.

In 1434, he constructed his own chapel where he would preside at prayers and take Mass in extravagant and expensive robes he had designed himself. The following year he put on a theatrical extravaganza that not only lasted the best part of a day but had in its cast more than 150 actors and 500 extras. It was all paid for out of his own purse and included laying on free food and wine for the spectators, some of whom it is believed he paid to attend performances. The affair almost bankrupted him and he sold the families properties and valuables to keep himself afloat. By June, 1435, the family had had enough and petitioned both the French King and Pope Eugene IV to curb his excesses. The Pope refused to get involved but on 2 July, 1435, a Royal edict prevented Gilles from selling any more of the families property. With his reputation already in sharp decline Gilles life had taken a darker turn. He had begun to dabble in the occult coming under the tutelage of a sinister man named Francesco Prelati. He had been promised that the occult was a means by which he could regain his fortune.

Gilles had started his killing spree in the Spring of 1432, with the abduction of a 12 year old boy named Jeudon. He worked as an apprentice to the local furrier Guillaume Hilairet. Gilles de Rais cousin Gilles de Sille (this may have been de Rais himself) asked the furrier if the boy could take a message for him to the Castle at Machecoul? The boy did not want to go and Hilairet only reluctantly agreed. The boy was never seen again. When de Sille was later questioned about the disappearance he denied any knowledge of the boys whereabouts. Over the next 8 years a great many boys and girls were to similarly disappear. 

Gilles de Rais was to be aided and abetted in his killing spree by his manservants Etienne Corrilaut (known as Poitou) and Henriet. De Rais’s crimes were only uncovered by chance. On 15 May, 1440, in a dispute over money he abducted a priest from the Church of Saint-Etienne-de-Mer-Morte. In a subsequent investigation of the events surrounding the abduction the Bishop of Nantes stumbled across the murders. When testimony from witnesses revealed the full horror of what had been going on the Bishop approached Jean V, Duke of Brittany and requested a full secular investigation. On 29 July, 1440, the Duke of Brittany agreed, and Gilles de Rais, Poitou and Henreit, were arrested charged with murder and the even more serious crime of heresy.

The trial itself was a scandal. That a man of such noble birth, a confidante of Joan of Arc, and a Hero of France could be guilty of such heinous crimes was unthinkable. It was also embarrassing and the Authorities wanted a speedy resolution.

According to the testimony of witnesses, Rais would either invite young boys or girls to his Castle to collect food for their families or abduct them late at night from nearby villages. Once in the Castle he would endeavour to pamper them. He cleaned them, he dressed them in the finest clothes, and he would get them drunk. Once fully intoxicated he would take them to his private chambers. There they would be hung up on ropes attached to hooks and gagged to stop them from crying out. He enjoyed seeing the fear in their eyes, it stimulated and excited him, and he would proceed to masturbate either on their stomachs or their thighs. His manservant Poitou testified that he would often masturbate on them after they were already dead and that he disdained from the victims sexual organs taking, ” infinitely more pleasure in debauching himself in this manner than using their natural orifice in the normal manner.”

Rais himself confessed that, ” when the children were dead I would hold up the heads of the most handsome ones to admire them.” He also took great pleasure in splitting open their stomachs and admiring their internal organs. Most of his victims were killed with a large double-edged sword known as a braquemard. The bodies were them dismembered and the remains burned in the fireplace of his private bed chamber. The room would then be heavily perfumed to disguise the smell of dead and burnt flesh.

Much of the testimony that was heard at the trial that began on 15 September, 1440, was so graphic that the judges ordered it be struck from the records. As so many of the victims remains had been burned an exact body-count was impossible. The Court, however, estimated that at least 200 young boys and girls had been killed by Gilles de Rais and his accomplices during an 8 year killing spree. Others have put the total much higher.

On 23 October, 1440, Poitou and Henriet were condemned to death. Two days later Gilles de Rais was found guilty of murder and heresy and condemned to hang and then be burned to death. On 26 October, the sentences were carried out.

Gilles de Rais was the first to die. He had requested that this be so and given his rank, his service to France, and his previous good reputation, his request was granted. Before sentence was passed he addressed the crowd and asked for their forgiveness. He then turned to his two accomplices and urged them to be brave, to not fear death, and think only of their coming salvation. He was then hanged until barely conscious before being lowered onto the scaffold where he had been standing which had since been set alight. His body was then consumed by the flames.

The name Gilles de Rais survives in infamy along with that of Elisabeth Barthory, Countess of Blood, that other notorious medieval serial-killer.        

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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

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