Places of mystical power?

Question: Do Rennes-le-Chateau, Rosslyn Chapel, The Chalice Well, and Montsegur have mystical power?

Rennes-le-Chateau is a small village at the top of a hill, near Couiza in Occitania, about a twenty minute drive from where we used to live. It has amazing views of the Pyrenees, and was once a Visigoth city. It has become famous, and something of a tourist trap, in recent years, due to a mystery concerning François Bérenger Saunière, the village priest from 1885 to 1909 and the village church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Saunière not only completely renovated the church, inside and out, he also bought several plots of land and built an estate including the Villa Bethania, a garden with a pool and cage for monkeys, and an orangery connected by a belvedere (with rooms underneath) to his personal library, namely the Magdalene Tower - all in the name of his house-keeper.

All this attracted hostile comment, the Bishop of Carcassonne sent several written warnings about the selling of masses (the supposed means, along with generous donations, of funding the projects), and Saunière resigned in 1909 to become a 'free priest', living the remaining 8 years of his life in apparent poverty. His house-keeper paid for his coffin. The controversy as to where the money came from remains a mystery. It has been said that Saunière found parchments hidden in the old altar of the church, relating to the treasure of Blanche of Castille - the surplus of gold raised to pay the ransom of St. Louis (Louis IX of France, 1214-1270). It was subsequently claimed that the parchments alluded to the survival of the Merovingian line of Frankish kings - although this was later admitted to be fictitious.

Another suggestion is that he found the tomb of Mary Magdalene herself, and a further claim was made that Saunière had found evidence that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and that their offspring became the Merovingian Dynasty. Whatever the truth of the matter, Rennes-le-Chateau has become something of the 'mystical capital' of the Languedoc, a region rich in the history of the Cathars, the troubadours, and, more recently, the millenial hopes of those believing that aliens inhabit the nearby upside-down mountain, the Pic de Bugarach.

On visiting Rennes-le-Chateau, I was surprised by how small the church is, how grand the estate, and how beautiful the views. It held, for me, no more sense of the numinous than any other place of worship, or any other site where the wonder of the world can be appreciated.

Rosslyn Chapel is a 15th century chapel in the village of Roslin, near Edinburgh, properly known as the Collegiate Chapel of St. Matthew. It was founded by William St. Clair (or Sinclair) aka 'Prodigus', the 3rd Prince of Orkney and 1st Earl of Caithness, to celebrate the Divine Office and Masses for the faithful departed. After the Scottish Reformation of 1560, Roman Catholic worship in the chapel was ended, but it was re-opened as a place of worship according to the rites of the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1861. Since the 1980s it has been the subject of speculative theories in connection with the Knights Templar (whose HQ in Scotland was only a few miles away at Balantrodoch), their link with the Freemasons, and the Holy Grail, and that it was designed to hide something of importance - either treasure or a sacred object.

It is also claimed by dowsers and diviners to be a place of power, lying at the conjunction of two major ley lines. Again, like Rennes-le-Chateau, for me the power of Rosslyn Chapel lies not in the somewhat romantic theories that surround it, but rather that, like the chapel of Little Gidding in Cambridgeshire, it is a place to 'kneel and pray, where prayer has been valid'. That's what gives me shivers down the spine, not buried treasure!

The Chalice Well is a natural spring, fed by a deep aquifer in the lower levels of the Pennard Sands, situated at the foot of Glastonbury Tor. Archeological evidence suggests that it has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years. Latterly the Well has been portrayed as a symbol of the feminine aspect of the deity, the masculine aspect being symbolised by the Tor. The current well cover features a design of the Vesica Piscis bisected by a spear/sword - again the merging of female and male symbols.

Wells in Celtic mythology are often regarded as gateways/portals to the spirit world, and, within Christian mythology, this particular well is said to mark the site where Joseph of Arimathea placed the chalice containing drops of Jesus' blood. Local lore associates the well water with blood since it is warm, reddish, and coagulates. However, the latter two properties are more prosaically due to the iron oxides deposit in the water, which gave rise to its other name - the Red Spring - and the former is due to the higher temperature of its source below ground. The warmth of the water predisposes nearby plants to flower early - including the Holy Thorn tree (the staff of Joseph, which took root where he planted it, and which I have had the delight to hug!) which is in the Chalice Well Gardens. Wells and gardens are good places to reflect, find solace and peace, and enjoy nature. If that is mystical power, then yes, it exists there.

Back to France, and Montsegùr, last stronghold of the Cathars, and possibly the best known of all their Châteaux. It is situated overlooking the present-day town of Lavelanet, where for three years we did our supermarket shopping.

There has been human settlement in the Montsegùr area since the stone age - some 80,000 years ago. More recently it was occupied by the Romans. The previously ruined castle had been rebuilt around 1204 by Raymond de Péreille, who shared the lordship of Montsegùr with his cousin Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix, and subsequently became a centre for Cathar activities and home to the bishop Guilhabert de Castres, one of their supporters.

With the start of the persecution of the Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade, Montsegùr became a refuge for dispossessed Cathar families, was the object of four sieges, the first two led by Guy and Simon de Montfort, and was cited by the Lateran Council as a 'den of heretics'. It was not only the 'seat and head' of the Cathars, but also their base for sorties against the crusaders, including the killing of two inquisitors at Avignonet.

On 16th March 1244, after the fourth and 10 month long siege, over 200 Cathar people walked down the 'safe mountain' from the castle to the field at its foot, now known as the Prat dels Cremats, where they were burned alive, having refused to abjure their faith - although it is said that either two or four of the Cathar Parfait escaped over the castle walls in the week before this, taking with them an un-identified Cathar 'treasure'.

So, a place of mystical power? - maybe so: the power of faith over fear.