Les Bergers d'Arcadie - Nicolas Poussin
The secret of Rennes Le Chateau has kept philosophers, archeologists, Holy men and lunatics like myself busy for many years. The story starts with a few facts that cannot be disputed. Berenger Saunier was made the priest of Rennes Le Chateau late in the last century. He started off on a very poor stipend of only a few pounds per year and had to beg off of the local folk for food and entertainments. Sometime later he became stinking rich and started spending money like it was going out of fashion. By all accounts he was a very extrovert man who spent money on building follies and keeping two ladies in the fashion they had become accustomed. One in Rennes and the other in Paris.
He died a poor man and in debt to local company's.
Various theories have emerged as to why our man Berenger suddenly got so rich.
The most popular is that he stumbled upon a vast hidden treasure, possibly helped
by a codex that was discovered in his church by a Mason. This Mason was busy remounting
the altar which had fallen into a state of disrepair when he allegedly found a
parchment hidden in on of the pillars.
Supposed copies of this parchment are in existence and have been decoded to
show the following message:
BERGER PAS DE TENTATION QUE Poussin
TENIERS GARDENT LA CLEF PAX DCLXXXI PAR LA
CROIX ET CE CHEVAL DE DIEU J'ACHEVE CE
DAEMON DE GARDIEN A MIDI POMMES BLEUES.
Arguably translated as:
SHEPHERDESS NO TEMPTATION THAT Poussin
TENIERS HOLD THE KEY PEACE 681 BY THE CROSS
AND THIS HORSE OF GOD I COMPLETE* THIS
DAEMON GUARDIAN AT MIDDAY BLUE APPLES
* Can be translated as Destroy.
The system used for decoding this was extremely complex and most cypher makers these days
consider the system to be too complicated for even military needs.
Who are Poussin & Teniers?
Well they were artists who were well known for their interest in secret knowledge.
It is now widely believed that the key to the mystery lies in unravelling the clues in
"The Shepherds of Arcadia" which had been painted in various versions by both artists.
The actual decoding of the cypher was provided by a gentleman by the name of De Sede
who is a French writer. He seems to have links with a secret society known as the Priory
of Sion.
This secret society, if it still exists in its original form, are out to have the Merovingian dynasty placed back in their rightful place on the French throne. They may have problems here though as France has been a republic for a little while. The Merovingians, it has been suggested, are the true descendants of Christ. Suggested by them and not many others it should be said however!
So many theories which can be well proved with geometry, lore, history and various other means quite often require standing back a few feet and asking "are you for real?". I love a good mystery as do many people but there is a limit to how much one can take.
Aside from all this intrigue we should remember that Berenger did become fabulously wealthy all of a sudden and he must have got this from somewhere. After all he refused to say where it was from, and I would hope that as a man of the cloth, he did not recieve it from illicit means.
There are glaring similarities between the decypherment of the document and points around the local area, especially things in Berengers church. These things were not placed in to the church until he started spending his money.
Shepherdess no temptation that Poussin Teniers hold the key.....
It is thought that Berenger viewed the paintings by Poussin and Teniers on his many
visits to Paris. He also bought copies of the paintings to take back to Rennes. There
is a certain geometry to the paintings of the Arcadian Shepherds which if overlaid
on a map of the area point to other points of the decryption.
Peace 681... A spot height of 682 Mtrs is on one of the points of the pentagram, discovered in the landscape. It was originally thought to be 681 Mtrs until modern surveying methods showed up the error.