Raiders of the Lost Grail

This one is going to seem a little far-fetched. But it is not outside the realms of possibility.

While researching Montsegur stories yesterday, I came across this one about Otto Rahn, who had been assigned the task by Hitler and the Nazis to find the Holy Grail. But before you start to think that this is just a rehash of Raiders of the Lost Ark consider the fact that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Here is an sampling of the story.

“Now fast forward to WWII, in which France is occupied by the Nazis, and a young German author, researcher and S.S. Lt. named Otto Rahn is sent by the Nazis to Southern France to look for the Holy Grail, which many in the Nazi hierarchy are eager to possess. The Nazis, it will be recalled, also believed whole-heartedly in the theory of the Hollow Earth, and sent expeditions down to Antarctica looking for the entrance. Furthermore, the Nazis had great admiration for the Cathars, especially their disciplined lifestyle, vegetarian diet, and sophisticated Gnostic theology. In fact, there were elements within the Nazi hierarchy who were hoping to resurrect the Cathar religion. So it was only natural that Otto Rahn would go looking for the Holy Grail at the place where the Cathars were said to have left it – Montsegur. He also knew that in the Grail romances of the Middle Ages, the Grail is said to reside in a castle at the top of Mount Salvat, which Rahn believed to be the same as Montsegur. So he stayed for a number of years, off and on between 1928 and 1931, exploring the caves of Montsegur and the tunnels of the surrounding Languedoc, even the village of Rennes-le-Chateau.

“The information comes from a remarkable book by Col. Howard Buechner called Emerald Cup – Ark of Gold: The Quest of S.S. Lt. Otto Rahn of the Third Reich. According to Buechner, Otto Rahn did discover something in the caves around Montsegur, just as Parzival had discovered the Holy Grail in a cave near Montsalvat. Buechner says that Rahn found that the landscape paralleled exactly that of Mount Salvat in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, and writes that:

“The grotto and certain other rock formations in the story bear the same names as those in a massive cave near Montsegur.

“It was the clues in this book which, according to Buechner, led him to make his first awesome discovery. Writes Buechner:

“He explored the grottoes of an area known as Sabarthez, notably the grottoes of Ornolac and the massive cavern of Lombrives. Here he found a huge chamber which was known to the local mountain people as the ‘Cathedral’ because it had served as a meeting place for the ancient Cathars. In the main hall was a great stalagmite known as the ‘Tomb of Hercules.’ In a third grotto, that of Fontenet, was a stalagmite which was white as snow. It was called the ‘Altar’… Deep within the grottoes of the Sabarthez he found chambers in which the walls were covered with characteristic symbols of the Knights Templar, side by side with the well-known emblems of the Cathars… One very interesting image which had been carved into the stone wall of a grotto was clearly a drawing of a lance. This depiction immediately suggested the bleeding lance which appears over and over again in Arthurian legends, and which is, of course, the Holy Lance which pierced the side of Christ at the crucifixion.”

The 700th Anniversary Flyover

Sadly, according to Buechner, Rahn was not destined to discover his first Grail, the Emerald Cup. He died under mysterious circumstances before he was able to, some say with the complicity of the Nazi hierarchy. Instead, they sent the swashbuckling Otto Skorzensky, “Chief of Germany’s Special Troops,” who allegedly found it with little difficulty on March 16, a day sacred to the Cathars. Buechner relates the story in which “the local descendants of the Cathars” happened to be on top of the mountain celebrating some mystical rite when the S.S. helicopter came down to scoop up Otto Skorzensky and his treasure. “At exactly high noon on March 16, 1944, a small German aircraft appeared. It flew over Montsegur several times, dipping its wings in salute. Then it used skywriting equipment and formed a huge Celtic cross in the sky. The Celtic Cross was a sacred emblem of the Cathars.”

From The Real Tomb of God: The Grail, The Ark, the Emerald Tablet, and the Forgotten Father of Mankind by Tracy R. Twyman

The Chart

Neptune in Libra is within a 10º opposition to both the Sun and Mercury. The Sun and Mercury are square to the Mars/Saturn conjunction in Gemini. I would say that their intentions were thwarted, wouldn’t you?

And don’t get me started about the Moon being in opposition to Uranus…

Conclusion

Modern legends take on a special aura. They’re called urban myths, now. And the endless fascination for all things Nazi ensures that these myths will not die.

But let’s get one thing perfectly clear: Cathars would not have approved of one of its sacred treasures being used as a source of occult power for an organization bent of world domination. IF, and I repeat the word ‘if’, the Nazis had found the original Holy Grail, it didn’t do them any good, in the short term. The Nazi leadership were defeated in just over 13 months. And Hitler killed himself. Need any further proof?

Shekinah strikes again.