Renowned French researcher Isaac Ben Jacob has published a novel about Abbé Saunière, linking him with a Cult of Death. The book is based on the team’s analysis of Saunière’s accounts and argues that Saunière received the money to perform death rituals, which some men have performed for centuries, from the Cathars to the penitential movements that still roam the streets of southern France and Northern Spain. The book is in French. Their English non-fiction account, The Rise, will be available in English in late 2007.

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Radio RenneSSence has a spectacular premiere. Today the first podcast was published consisting of an in-depth interview with author, playwright and Hollywood icon Patrice Chaplin. Chaplin discusses her new controversial book City of Secrets which unveils a completely new dimension to the mystery, drawing in Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali and Umberto Eco. She reveals the relations between the Grail, Bérenger Saunière and the manifestation of the next Messiah. The interview can be followed online but it can also be downloaded for private use. Later this week the service will be available for Podcast subscription on iTunes.

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On the brandnew website of Terre de Rhedae it is reported that Antoine Captier recently presented an important new artefact that once belonged to Abbé Bérenger Saunière. The item is a Sautoir, a garment worn around the neck by Freemasons known as a Masonic Collar. It proves beyond any doubt that Saunière’s interests reached well beyond those of an ordinary village priest. Captier is said to do more revelations in his book that appears to be scheduled for release very soon. The article is in French.

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In the third part of the Spanish connection article series, Société Perillos examines the House of the Canons and the strange Stone that was allegedly kept there and removed later. There appear to be many links with Rennes-le-Château. We also find out that Saunière was not the only one with an obsession for inversions.

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Rennes-le-Château Archive has some super high-res photos by Jean Brunelin of Saunière’s Altar in the Eglise Marie-Madeleine. Close examination reveals a number of oddities. Or is there really a station of the cross and a book hidden in there?

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Italian Rennes-le-Château Mariano Tomatis researcher is going to great lenghts to preserve the original documents related to the mystery of Bérenger Saunière and his enigmatic village. He dug up many old documents from the Departmental Archives of the Aude, touched them up and made them into PDF’s. The example he put up as a showcase is from the 1938 magazine ‘Folklore Review’ and tells the story of a certain shepherd.

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Société Perillos adds a new and logical layer to the mystery of Rennes-le-Château. It was always assumed Saunière moved in esoteric circles, but so far the evidence has been thin and indirect. This is starting to change with Patrice Chaplin’s book City of Secrets in which she describes the priest’s Kaballistic activities in the Spanish city of Gerona. Now there also appear to be strong Kaballic influences closer to his home in Rennes-le-Château. The Tree of Life is acting as the final combining element between his enigmatic garden and cemetery.

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