Notre-Dame of Paris III

The Royal gate and alchemy

The Royal Gate was and is thus still asserted by in favour of astrology and the hermetists. - The closed door, that of Saint-Anne and Saint-Marcel, was it and is still by the alchemists.

With hearing them, the récepte, the secrecy of the sublimates stone of wise is registered under the statue which is drawn up one the pier, slicing into two the bay. This rules, - which is only one reproduction, because the original is placed in the room of the Thermal baths, with the Museum of Cluny portraiture has bishop, blessing with has hand its visitors and steam pressing with the feet has dragon left has kind of vault funerary where has dead woman sat in A wrapped shroud of flames.

Simple The reading of this scene is very. It is enough to open Bollandistes. The legend of saint Marcel, ninth bishop of Paris, tells, indeed, that this holy delivered the town of has horrible dragon which had established its lodging in the whetstone sheath of year adulteress, died, without to cuts had time repentance and without to cuts received the sacraments; the holy struck his stick the monster, surrounded him the neck of his stole, took it along to has few miles of Paris, in A deserted, and there, him intima the order, which besides it obeys, never not to turn over more in the city.

Let custom add this detail, that with the processions of Rogations, the clergy of Notre-Dame formerly made curry, to remember it this miracle, has broad dragon of wicker in the open mouth whose the people threw cakes and fruits. This dress, which went up with the Middle Ages, ended in 1730.

Such is the version of the Church; other is that of the alchemists. In its race of hermetic philosophy, Cambriel explains this figure thus:

Under the feet of the bishop, one the bases even of its statue, each side, two stone rounds are carved. The rounds of right-hand side would Be the shows of rough natural metal, such have one extracts it from the mine, the rounds of left, neglected like the first by the Christian symbolic system, would Be same metal drank purified natural; and that one would refer to the human figure, sitted, in the sepulchral vault, and which occurred in the fire of which its shroud is surrounded. Of this tomb furnace which would Be the philosophical egg, inserted in the athanor, the dragon, born in its turn from the human figure, would Be, while rising out of the furnace, in the open air, under the feet of the holy, the Babylonian dragon butt which Nicolas Flamel speaks, in other words, Mercury philosophal, the green lion, the milk of the virgin, the substance even which exchanges by has projection lead into gold.

In this interpretation, saint Marcel would not bless custom any more, goal it would make has gesture of circumspection, which would mean: you conceal, maintain the secrecy yew you understood it.

Yew odd that it appears, this glose is however conceived, because the preparers of the philosopher' S stone edge places themselves under the holy patronage of this who has, indeed, operated several transmutations.

Ounce, whereas it was yet year only sub-deacon and that it served the mass of the Prudence bishop, He transmuted into has wine who missed, the toilets which He had just drawn in the the Seine; another time also, it changed this same toilets into has liquor scented like chrism.

The choice which the alchemists made of this Elected official to allot the possession of the famous secrecy to him could thus up to has certain point Be justified; however, it is advisable to observes that the official owner of spagyric, with the Middle Ages, was not saint Marcel, goal quite saint Jean the Evangelist, that is to say because has very old legend shows it to custom erudite in art to treat the iron now; maybe because two worms, taken in A passionately literal direction (Which of virgis fecit aurum, Gemmated lapidibus.), sequence woven in its honor by Adam of Saint-Victor, represent it to custom manufacturing with Wood of gold and stones of the gems.

More fabulous still this other legend appears to custom reporting than has scruple of the stone of wise was hidden by the Guillaume bishop of Paris in one of the pillars of the chorus than one will recognize yew one follows the direction of the eye of has corbel which looks At it, carved one one of the porches, it custom in chaut not more; what it sied simply to retain, it is that, more than its congeneric, Notre-Dame of Paris is mysterious, more expert edge-to Be drank less pure, because it is At the same time catholic and occult and it grafts one the Christian symbolic system the réceptes of the Cabal.

The inflection of the axis of the chorus

yew one places oneself in the nave of Notre-Dame one edge note that the axis of the chorus incline slightly one the left.

This inflection, we find it almost everywhere, in Saint-Ouen and the cathedral of Rouen, At Midsummer' S Day of Poitiers, Notre-Dame of Chartres and Rheims, with Saint-Galien of Turns, Saint-Germain-of-Meadows, in Paris, with Saint-Nicolas-of-Port, closed to Nancy, in almost all the broad basilicas of the Middle Ages.
Constant The repetition of this artifice is thus wanted and it has its raison d'être.
However, until now, it was allowed that this deviation of the axis of the chorus was year allusion to the attitude of Jesus expiring one the Wood of the torment; it was the translation, in architectural language, of the passage of the Gospel according to Midsummer' S Day: “And inclinato capite, tradidit spiritum.”
At present the symbolic system Be relegate by it in the - rancarts and one there teach the materialism archaeological in it that it cuts moreover more low.
Does Is have booklet entitled “the deviation of the axis of the churches symbolic system?” and which has have year author Mr. de Lasteyrie, member of the Institute and one of the podestats of the School, is, from this not of view, typical.
Mr. de Lasteyrie answers by the negative one his question, declare that it did not discover any text of the Middle Ages relating to this subject and it adds At ounce: “Yew ever the chance made some leave somebody the mysteries of our libraries, I C not believe that one had to pay great attention to it, because it would Be insulated enough so that one could boldly argument the been worth of it.”
Simple young stag are which is. This way of taking the initiative to deny the importance of any document which would reduce its thesis to nothing is At the very least ingenuous; it is, in all the boxes, careful.

At the same time drank have it attests custom that the slope of the bedside of the cathedrals is not intentional and was inspired by No mystical intention, it sort to provide custom the reasons of this constant anomaly of the axes and to explain custom the causes for which the architects of the basilicas of the Middle Ages made it.
And At this not in time this veteran of the paperwork custom exhibe of the arguments of which extraordinary indigence throw.
After having told what we know already - that the cathedrals were built by successive training courses and not of only one jet - very seriously, He says to custom:

“It from of results that the architects who chaired following work had to connect new masonries with the shares before built and it was there problem of which one will include/understand all difficulty, yew one thinks that the celebration of the worship in share of the church obliged to raise, between this share and the building site where work continued, of the partitions gold the walls which intercepted the sight completely.
However people of the Middle Ages, not knowing any the instruments which make it possible modern to Be located with precision and to connect, despite everything the obstacles, the most complicated lines, tested the greatest embarrassment to take to their reference marks and has tiny error had have has consequence has deviation very marked in alignments. “

And it is not more malignant than this! Permanent The irregularities of the cathedrals simply hold with this that the architects of the Middle Ages did not know to their trade and were not equipped with modern instruments.
With Wood apron tended between the built share and that to build was enough to make them roofing stone the head and all were mistaken, none in its calculations did not fall right.
Obviously the scribing tools which built, in the XIXth century, Saint-François-Xavier, Our-Lady-of-Fields and Saint-Pierre de Montrouge were extremely higher, like science, with the poor architects which built the cathedrals of Chartres, of Rheims, of Paris, drunk them, did not make inadvertencies; they complied with the intangible rules of the chalk line, they did not make lean the chorus of to their churches!
Such are the let us lessons of monumental orthopedy which are output now At the school of Charters. (huysmans)

Year explanation of Mr. Guingamp: “This variation of axis small channels from has shift one the one hand between the terrestrial meridian line and the stake celestial BASIC , one the other hand of the difference existing in horizon between the rising of the sun and the set, the same day. One June 21, the sun small channels in solar squaring and binds down in lunar squaring and one December 22 it is the opposite. The day of spring, there is 3°5 approximately shift.”

It is enough then following has dedication, to move number of desired dismantle the axis of the nave, according to the day of the holy.

Central The astrology and zodiac of the gate

There the gate of the Virgin of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Paris (western frontage) is represented is Zodiac which edge appear somewhat strange.
One the left side, we find in A direction descending the signs from the Lion, the Gemini, the Bull, the RAM, Poisson and Aquarius (thesis the last two signs escape the tightened presented plan). One the right side are represented, always in A direction going down, the signs of Cancer (in the past named the Crayfish, which is reproduced indeed one the monument), of the Virgin, the Balance, the Scorpion, Sagittarius and the Capricorn (thesis the last two signs escape the tightened presented plan). This order of presentation edge appear surprising. Yew we refer to the Wheel zodiacale, the order of succession of the signs during the year does not provide any explanation one the sequence suggested.

One the other hand, yew we refer to the interior order of the Zodiac, the difficulty disappears. This order founded one two branches, one is marked by the Lion, the other by Cancer. This organization answers the principle of polarization between Sky and Ground, credit and liability, female male and, yang and yin, gasoline and substance, etc general Its diagram is obtained while placing the two signs principiels (Lion for the male, Cancer for the female one) in signal. Thesis two signs open each one has branch including/understanding five signs placed under to their respective jurisdiction, like have many attributes included/understood in their natural.

   

Two branches of the Zodiac

The branch marked by the Lion opens has series conspicuous to follow one another Vierge, Balance, Scorpion; Sagittarius and Capricorn and that the branch marked by Cancer governs the succession of the Gemini, the Bull, the RAM, Poisson and Aquarius. We find in thesis two orders those being reproduced one the small columns of the gate of the Virgin, with year exception. Indeed, one the monument, the low-reliefs of the Lion and Cancer are reversed. Under the Lion the signs of the Gemini are located, of the Bull, the RAM, Poisson and Aquarius, pertaining to the Cancer branch. Under Cancer seat the signs of the Virgin take, of the Balance, the Scorpion, Sagittarius and the Capricorn, raising all of the solar branch. It is young stag by No means of year error, goal butt what Rene Guénon called has “exchange hierogamic”. This last consists in the exchange between the male attributes (celestial) and the female ones (terrestrial).

Rene Guénon quotes the example, drawn from the Chinese Tradition, Fo Hi (figure celestial) and Niou Koua (terrestrial figure). The first gives to the second the compass (the circle being has form symbolizing the Sky) and the second gives to the first the public garden (the public garden being has form symbolizing the Earth). The “exchange hierogamic” puts forward the meeting of the Sky and the Earth, generating the demonstration. This aspect arises thus in the gate of Notre-Dame: the male principle (Lion) gives the signs under its jurisdiction to the female principle (Cancer) and reciprocally.

It appears interesting to note that only the first furnace signs of each branch take seat one the side columns. The signs located partly low of the interior organization of the Zodiac (Poisson and Aquarius, one the one hand, Sagittarius and Capricorn of the other) ugly are out one the bases one which the aforementioned columns rest. This positioning symbolizes has proximity with the substantial, passivates principle (Earth of Far-Eastern). This one consists in the support being used for the gasoline to appear, which is expressed by the architectural composition of the studied share of the gate, similar of that of the Zodiac. Let custom recall that, in A traditional company, all is subordinated to the principles. Any expressed thing constitutes only one symbol of higher realities. Thus, crowned architecture, art whose raises construction of the cathedrals, applies this principle: monument is used to symbolize some have truths. We find in the recourse to symbolism zodiacal within the buildings catholic the fastening of Western astrology to this Tradition, translating into this the biblical Word (Genesis):

“1.14 God known have: That there are luminaries in the extent of the sky, to separate the day from with the night; that they are signs to mark the times, the days and the years;
1.15 and that they are used have luminaries in the extent of the sky, to light the ground. And that was thus.
1.16 Broad God made the two luminaries, the largest luminary to govern the day, and the smallest luminary to govern the night; He made also stars.
1.17 God placed them in the extent of the sky, to light the ground,
1.18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from with darkness. “

The Zodiac itself, its figuration one some religious monuments and this text have many expressions different from the same reality, presenting from the different points of view one this same object, being supplemented all to make reach has knowledge.

Notre-Dame of Paris is the most satisfactory summary of hermetic science. ”
(Victor Hugo)

While Low Sunday wandered one the heights of Notre-Dame, sharing its sufferings with the waste-gas hands, the archdeacon Claude Frollo, have for him, gorged itself with the hermetic symbols contained one the frontage of the cathedral but, more precisely, has symbol now disappeared: the corbel.

Victor Hugo describes Frollo “calculating the angle of the look of this corbel which is due to the gate of left and which looks in the church has mysterious not where is certainly hidden to philosophize stone”.  Hugo adds that it is with the Guillaume bishop of Paris that one owes “this page of black book written out of stone”. It is him which would cuts hidden the stone (perhaps that of Nicolas Flamel) in one of the pillars of the nave.

Another tradition, reported to the XVIIth century by Gobineau de Montluisant, speaks butt has stone corbel one the curves of the central door which would cuts the eye directed towards the place where “the sunbeams are hidden which will Be transformed into gold At the end of thousand years and diamond At the end of three thousand years”. The Fulcanelli alchemist, in the Mysteries of the cathedrals (1926), confirms thesis beliefs.

Several remain questions drank. First of all, which was this Guillaume of Paris? Yew there were well has bishop corresponding to that butt which speaks Hugo, Guillaume of Auvergne (professor of theology and bishop of Paris of 1228 to 1249), one knows few things butt his unspecified alchemical gold esoteric vocation and participation in the construction of the cathedral yew it is not that it offered the bell of the southern tower. One also evokes the name of the bishop Guillaume Chartier, goal it correspond of nothing to the dates the construction of Notre-Dame (it died in 1472 whereas the cathedral was almost completed At the end of XIIIth century). However could it Be has question of Guillaume, broad Inquisiteur from Paris, in which Philippe IV entrusted, this famous date of October 13, 1307, the arrest of all Templars of the kingdom of France?

Does Would to philosophize stone Be then have kind of symbol of the mysterious treasure of Templars, object of all covetousnesses and all the fictions during centuries?

Then, have for the corbel itself - yew have well is have there ever existed - it today disappeared (like many of other architectural elements) from the frontage of the cathedral. Does Hugo specify that it was one the gate of left, the gate of the Virgin, goal one which exact site? Is it necessary to consider the medallion with the dove, allegory of the Humility, in which Fulcanelli sees the corbel of the alchemists, symbol of materia PRIMA and the putrefaction? However one of the doves of the gate of the Virgin?
“It is in this share of the porch that was formerly carved the major hiéroglyphe of our practice: the corbel. Principal appears of the hermetic blazon, the corbel of Notre-Dame, from time unmemorable, had exerted has very sharp attraction one the peat of the blowers: it is that year old legend indicated it like the individual reference mark of has crowned deposit. ” (Fulcanelli, COP cit.)

With tradition calls upon the Wise Virgins contained in the oven wall of the central gate, under the scene of the last Judgement, of which one of them would indicate the stone bird by its explicit position. Drank the indications vague are, and the architectural speech is often scrambled between symbolism esoteric and reality. Does edge one exclude have layman interpretation from the Word corbel, which indicates in architecture has covering stone element, drink gold metal intended to support has beam gold has lintel?

It is known that Notre-Dame of Paris has long time has place of appointment of the alchemists who puts under the gates of St Marcel, St Anne and the last Judgement. Is it more than this stone book which Hugo evoked drank?  its stones contain some unimaginable treasure? Had the creator of Esmeralda understood that the cathedral contained some unimaginable treasure, and makes of its heroin the incarnation of this “emerald of wise” gold “philosophical Mercury” of the spagiric tradition?

Thus let us leave the last word to the gilded Worms of Gerard de Nerval:

“Often in being obscure for it lives hidden God;
And like an eye incipient covered by its eyelids,
A pure spirit increases under the stone bark. ”

Symbolic system of the cathedral

the vertical rise in the cathedral reproduces the superposition of the three levels of the universe. The crypt then symbolizes the underground world, the walls and the ground, the space of the men, and the arrows and turns, the divine world, so that the universal harmony is preserved.

Horizontally, the architects called upon a solar symbolic system. The chorus is directed towards the east, with the rising of the sun, logically making back in the west, symbol of the end of time. Thus, the northern side, fallen into the shade from the sun, will express the sin and evil, while the southern side, richly illuminated, will be devoted to the glory of Christ.

Notre-Dame is particularly rich in alchemical symbols. She leads us on the way of the wisdom which begin with a deep self-knowledge, by the determination of the matter to transmute. It is enough more precisely to study its Western frontage for better including/understanding this occult dimension.

The Western frontage of the cathedral is associated the three interior rosettes, the unit describing the initiatory way of the alchemists, a route external with cosmic dimension and an interior route with human dimension.
The rosettes are indeed the symbol of the way between original darkness and the achievement of work. They carry in them by their concentric form the idea of perpetual restarting.
For better understanding, it is necessary to leave the central pillar and the statue of Cybèle, Phrygian goddess of wisdom. It carries two books being able to represent the Old one and the New Will. More precisely, the first, in opened position, evokes knowledge by the Texts and the second, closed, interior knowledge. This alchemical combination, spiritual step and knowledge of the writings, will carry the beginner until wisdom. Outside, the course starts with the gate of Holy Anne, mother of the Virgin, where the birth of Christ is illustrated. This is why the southern rosette which corresponds to him represents Christ Architect of the world. We are at the beginning of the way, at the origins of the World. It is precisely with this beginning which the putrefaction with the alchemists can be associated, work with the black. It is a question of removing the impurities of the matter what spiritually means to purify the heart.
The course continues with the gate of the Virgin representing the temporal cycle of the seasons and work. The Western rosette reciprocally evokes the night sky and the synthesis of work. It is then a question of spiritualizing the matter (here the man), to restore its heart with the body purified previously.

Lastly, the central gate presents the last judgement, achieved work, in other words the “Philosopher's stone”. Its medallions guide us in the stages to be followed.
With the alchemical direction, the central gate is the balance between the virtue and the defect, a confrontation of its own bilateral nature.

The iconography of the gate indeed takes again the symbols employed by the alchemists of the time. Each medallion has its complement vis-a-vis him, symmetrically compared to the central axis.
They are an invitation with the transmutation of oneself: it is a question of regarding the defects as a raw material and malleable in order to transform them into virtues.

For example, to pride and inconstancy humility and perseverance are opposed. These two virtues must make it possible to fight the two defects associated and so on with the list given in the following table:
North:
Virtues: Job on its manure, Humility, Wisdom or prudence, Justice, Charity, Hope, Faith.
Defects: Pride, Madness, Injustice, Avarice, Despair, Impiété.
South:
Virtues: Abraham close to the furnace bridge, Perseverance, Obedience or tender, Harmony or Peace, Softness, Patience, Force or courage.
Defects: Inconstancy, Spirit of rebellion, Discord, Hardness, Anger, Lacheté.

The alchemical universe of Notre-Dame takes up very well the idea of man as a matter and an actor of the Philosopher's stone, an at the same time material and spiritual dimension.

Numerology

Let us point out the proportions E the cathedral:
Solar length 127m50 1+2+7+5=15=1+5=6 a Number
Width of the central nave 12m50 1+2+5=8 a Number of the evolution of the alive beings
Height of the central nave 32m50 3+2+5=10 a Number of plenitude

These esoteric dimensions must recall the men whom they will reach plenitude with the sky and not on the ground, and of this fact they must direct their glances towards the sky… reason height of the central nave.

Earth currents

According to Andre Bouchet, they are 4:

- A first, to 69m of depth, passes to the foot of the northern tower and moves in diagonal towards the telluric node of Notre-Dame towards the East. (Mannheim, Hagueneau, Sarreguemines, Metz, Verdun, Rheims, Meaux, Paris, Versailles, Dreux, Mortagne, Alençon, Mayenne, Autrain, Fraud-of-Brittany, Saont-Malo, Jersey, Guernesey, Bournemouth and Stonehenge)
it second, to 78m, moves towards north. (Brussels, Oudemaarde, Lille, Arras, Amiens, Beauvais, Senlis, Paris, Versailles, Chartres, Orleans, Bourges, Mills, Clermont-Ferrand, Rodez, Albi, Toulouse, Borough-Madam, Andorra and finish in Spain)
it third, with 92m, in direction of the East. (Stuttgart, Sarrebourg, Strasbourg, Metz, the Trawl-net-on-Marne, Paris, Evreux, Lisieux, Caen, Carentan, Cherbourg, Bournemouth)
it fourth, with 83m, also in direction of the East. (The Tyrol, Zurich, Lucerne, Basle, Mulhouse, Belfort, Vesoul, Chaumont, Troyes, Melun, Paris, Chartres, Mans, Laval, Rennes, Saint-Brieuc, Guingamp, Morlaix, Brest, the Atlantic)

The most important water current, charged in éléctro-magnetic tellurism, therefore to radioactive and curative water, moves towards the East. (Germany, Apperwiller, Erstein, south of Strasbourg, Bar-le-Duc, Nancy, Toul, Vitry-the-François, Sézanne, Paris, Chartres, Chateaudun, Vendôme, Turns, Poitiers, Niort, La Rochelle where it is divided into two branches: Island of D, island of Oléron, the Atlantic and Angouleme, Bordeaux, Saint-Jean-foot-of-Port and Spain)

http://www.cathedraledeparis.com/FR/0.asp
http://ndparis.free.fr/
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame_de_Paris
http://www.huysmans.org/troiseglise/dame.htm
http://www.astro-tradition.com/zodiaque-notre-dame.html
http://www.paris-pittoresque.com/monuments/6b.htm
http://endirectdelacave.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/ou-est-passe-le-corbeau-de-notre-dame/
http://www.cathedrale-paris.net/histoire.html#alchimie
Esotericism of the cathedrals of Rene and Claudine Bouchet 
Mysterious cathedrals of Maurice Guingand