Priory
Babylon
Why do you come here, reader?
Do you expect to find another review of The Da Vinci Code? The
hassle and hubbub that book has brought us, you can't imagine. Perhaps you expect to read here once again
that Brown's book is an accomplished thriller, but that the author got half his
historical facts wrong and sketched out a huge and absurd conspiracy where
there was none to be found. Is
this what you're looking for? How
many articles and books have gone over this same ground? Or is it maybe a movie review you
expect?
In any case reviews are not what I'm going to offer. What I will write here is far more
momentous. I'm going to uncover a
secret in the real world--a secret
I've kept for years but have finally tired of keeping. With this brief declaration I intend to
tell the truth as it is. And so. .
. .
I am the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.
There--I've come out with it.
You may have a hard time believing me, but your skepticism won't change
the fact. I am the current Grand
Master of the Priory and have been so for nearly a decade.
The truth is I've intended to tell about the Priory ever since they
inducted me as an undergraduate. I
first encountered and joined the Priory during my junior year abroad in
France. That was in the late
1980s. But regardless of my ideas
on what Priory secrecy ought to be and on how it should work in the
organization, they insisted I not think of reform but rather should keep my
mouth shut, both there at the meeting house off the Rue de la Violette in Aix,
and then back in the States as I finished my degree and moved up the
ranks. I was a newcomer after all,
and as such I was persuaded to keep quiet and was even threatened.
"It's an ancient secret we protect," they'd tell me. "Any breach of the secret by a member will be punished with expulsion--or worse."
Back there in Aix and
during the years following I had no choice but to listen. Besides which, there was some justice
in their point, as my ideas would have meant a quite radical change in the
organization as it related to the outside. Still, even then I suspected the worst punishment those
pseudo-aristocrats could dole out would be forcing me to reread their
"mystical" poems. That
generation of the Priory is gone now.
And now that I'm Grand Master, I intend to reform according to my
original plans. Of the three sŽnŽchaux I know that two are in agreement with me. This declaration is the first step.
The Grand Master is I. I'm
the man that leads the Priory. You
wouldn't know it on the surface--actually I hold down a pretty normal job--but
then that's just how it should be.
We have always insisted on discretion, and will continue to do so,
albeit in a different way.
But enough of my own history. My own personal history is not my purpose here. I intend to get to some of the important things, the questions that keep people up at night reading guides to Dan Brown's thriller--as if a thriller needs a guide!--the questions that animate dinner parties and echo round chat rooms. And so: Is there reason to believe that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ? Did the Knights Templar uncover the Temple Treasure in Jerusalem at the time of the First Crusade? Do we Priory members really worship the sacred feminine and engage in ritual sex? Do we know where the Holy Grail is? Is there a "sacred bloodline" running from Jesus through the Merovingian kings and Pierre Plantard?
Many of these questions are in fact laughable, and do not really relate to the Priory in any case.
As for Mary Magdalene and Jesus, the truth is that not even I, the
Grand Master, can tell you reliably about that. And the reason is simple. The Priory of Sion doesn't go back that far, nor did our
founders (rest their maligned souls) ever come upon any secret gospels relative
to this question or any Temple Treasure either. So you will have to go to scholars if you want answers about
Mary Magdalene--you will have to rest content with informed speculation,
because nobody has concrete answers regarding this. And what did you expect?
As for the ritual sex, that part of Brown's book is mostly true, at
least in terms of the Hieros Gamos being part of Priory tradition. Brown's presentation of the ritual is
not quite correct however. During
the Hieros Gamos the dancers do not hold "golden orbs," but rather
orbs of moist clay. And the Grand
Master does not engage in intercourse with any silver-haired spouse, separated
from him for most of the year in order to protect the bloodline from a
murderous Church, but rather with one of the younger Priory initiates, selected
during an earlier Priory ritual by the body of participants.
I will tell you about the Holy Grail too, at least in terms of the material Grail, the Grail as object.
The Holy Grail is not Mary Magdalene or some cryptic scion of the Lord
like you read in Holy Blood, Holy Grail or Brown's book. Nothing
of the sort. Instead it's a silver
and gold chalice about five inches tall with a few of the precious gems missing
from the rim. Though I saw photos
of the Grail while in France, I didn't see the actual object until later in
England, when I was made a sŽnŽchal.
The Grail chalice is indeed a symbolic object that holds its place in
our doctrine and ritual. I am
certain that this object in our possession has a history of many hundreds of
years.
That said, some things become obvious to some, but need to be pointed
out to others. The late medieval
design of the Grail chalice held by the Priory argues strongly against its
having been used at the Last Supper.
Certainly no established Priory members actually believe this object
dates from ancient times.
And so: the Holy Grail remains an idea, a focus of faith. The object held by the Priory of Sion
is a late medieval work of art and a part of certain of our rituals.
Given what has been said above regarding Mary Magdalene, it should be
clear that the story of the sacred bloodline running through the Merovingians
cannot be verified. Nonetheless
this story certainly does predate Pierre Plantard. But once again: Priory members consider the story a legend,
a metaphor rather than actual history.
Pierre Plantard himself was not a full Priory of Sion member. He came to the Priory as a clown and
was allowed to set up shop with his greasepaint intact. The Priory
encouraged him into action with the idea that he would do just what he did:
discredit the Priory. Word of the
actual organization had sparked too much interest among people the Priory
wanted nothing to do with: anti-Semitic cranks, leftovers of the Vichy
intelligentsia. There were people
with clout that the Priory wanted to keep out, people pressing to find out
more, to become members. One of
the current sŽnŽchaux was responsible
for rumors of the Priory making the rounds in this group. Though his indiscretions ultimately led
to his being demoted, the damage had already been done. The growing interest of these new
would-be members--this and their correct suppositions as to the identity of
various high-ranking Priory figures--had to be diverted with a ruse. And so Plantard was brought in. He was encouraged to develop a cell of
the Priory according to his own ideas, among which was the assertion that any
viable spiritual organization needed to seek power in the political realm as
well: that a political wing was necessary to continue the Priory's work. Of course it was suspected, given his
character and concerns, that Plantard would soon be turning this new Priory
cell into his own mythomaniacal fiefdom.
In fact this is just what was wanted. His plans for maintaining the Priory's secret character
while at the same time gaining new members were insincerely applauded by the
actual Priory members he knew. The
idea to claim his branch was named after the Mont Sion in Haute-Savoie was
Plantard's. Although much of
Plantard's correspondence hasn't been saved, the proud letter in which he announces
this plan is still in the Priory archives.
Plantard was dealt with according to schedule. Eventually his Priory connections
claimed the original organization was going defunct, that in fact his branch
was the more vibrant and what was still held by the Priory would be transferred
to him later. This was told to the
busybodies too. For years they had
taken Plantard as their connection, and it had been hinted to them that he was
the man to watch. Then, finally,
he was cut loose: the Priory didn't communicate with him any more.
Many of the best-known stories relating to the Priory come
straight from Plantard and his desire for self-aggrandizement. Though the story of a sacred bloodline
in Europe is part of Priory lore, in fact it is not a bloodline the Priory
protects but a text and the teachings in that text. Or rather: It is not an actual bloodline we protect but a
text and the teachings embodied in that text.
An interesting aside: The writer Dan Brown does seem to have at least a fleeting connection to the real modern history of the Priory, though I don't know where he got it. I knew Sophie Neveu when a student in Aix. She worked at the cafŽ on the Cours Mirabeau where most of us Priory members would meet for drinks. She even became a member eventually. She had long red hair just like in Brown's book. The last I saw her was in New York in 1998.
Now I've told you all the
secrets I can tell you without really telling the secrets I can tell you. It's like with Strauss' Persecution
and the Art of Writing. It's like with the purloined letter:
sometimes the only safe place to hide things is out in the open. And what could be more out in the open
than this declaration? Can you
separate the Priory from the myriad fictions it has spawned? Can you find out the third?
If you're an attentive
reader and have gotten this far, you can begin on a more diligent track by
reading the following:
M______ _________
Where
Harvey stopp'd there rises up a Babel late reputed,
Its
mossy stones a Ziggurat of pathways convoluted.
Continue
there where he trod not & seek our scattered Keys;
The
Door whose locks they open up you'll reach in just degrees.
The title of this poem is missing. You must figure it out from the clues available. This, I know, is rather like in the book: that world-shaking thriller in which most people first learned of the Priory. But be warned: If you get the title and finally interpret this poem, then your real difficulties will begin. Which should be no surprise. It isn't easy being a knight, not even in this belated age. And what did you expect? To find [ ] revealed in pulp thrillers and pseudo-histories?
Eric Mader
Grand Master of the Priory of Sion
01/17/09
THE PRIORY DOCUMENTS: INTERNAL PRIORY CORRESPONDENCE
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Email: inthemargins03@hotmail.com
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