"Hmm, this is very interesting, indeed," 22 mused, turning to a bookcase crammed with volumes of every esoteric size, shape and theme. "A real allegory - let me see what old Easton's has to say about Southern Jasper."

Jasper - (Heb. yashpheh, "glittering"), a gem of various colours, one of the twelve inserted in the high priest's breast-plate (Ex. 28:20). It is named in the building of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:18, 19). It was "most precious," "clear as crystal" (21:11).

Also, in Job 37:9, the word "south" is literally "chamber" used in the sense of a treasury.

"Bizarre - I understand Venus being the planetary correspondence, especially where the color in question is green. And the self-fed tree is obviously the Tree of Life...now could our Queen of Heaven, Mary Magdalene, be the embodiement of mystery here, especially since she was the Beloved Disciple and author of Revelations? The grotto reference is clear to me - could the Southern Jasper be the legendary Book of Love???"

Twenty-two shifted in her seat and felt the mantle of Marie Negre descend across her shoulders. Without thinking, she murmured, "There is a certain chapel, a sacred space I must visit when I arrive in France. I have been away from the land of Sarah the Gypsy for too long, too long..."

Far away, in Salem, Miss O found herself on the receiving end of a surprise email from one of her Gnostic heroes, Don Vincenzo Ponti. When the missive was duly opened, she began to read with a gasp:

Provencal tradition relates that soon after the events in Palestine, a shipload of Jesus' relatives landed off the old Roman fort of Ra, near present day Les Stes. Maries de-la-Mer. By all accounts, the group included three Marys, covering the interwoven family of Jesus and John the Baptist. One of the three was Mary Magdalene, first witness to the resurrection and, by Gnostic accounts, Jesus' foremost disciple and wife. Also included were Martha and Lazarus, members of the Magdalene's family, a few local Romanized Jews including Maximinius and Sidonius, the blind man from Jericho, and, either welcoming them home or included miraculously as part of the ship's company, Sarah the Egyptian. Traditon relates that the group spread out through Provence and preached the Good News with such success that by the time of the destruction of the Temple and the Diaspora, barely more than a generation later, Provence was at least partially converted to Christianity.

Two of the Marys, along with Sarah the Egyptian, remained in the sea-side village where they landed. When they died, around 50 CE, St. Trophime himself came from Arles to administer the last rites. The three were buried near a small oratory or chapel they had built in the center of the village. In the 9th century, a new church was built over the oratory and the graves, and, fortified, it became part of the town walls. Good King Rene, Count of Provence, excavated the old church looking for the Holy Grail. Having found the holy relics of the two Mary's and Sarah, Rene built a lofty and imposing church of pinkish stone to house them. With its parapets, merlons, embrasures and internal fresh-water spring, the church acted as a virtually impregnable fortress designed to protect the town's inhabitants from Moorish pirates and other marauders.

Stepping into the cool darkness of the church from the bright clear sunlight of Provence is to step back into another age, an age of faith that was at least superficially Christian, but actually illuminated, from within as it were, by the antiquity of its Goddess worship. Under the chancel, a flight of stairs leads down to the crypt, where King Rene found the bones of Sarah and the two Marys. Blackened by the candles of myriads of pilgrims, most of them Gypsies who come to pray before the statue of Sarah, the crypt envelopes the vistor with an atmosphere of dark and earthy mysteries. If this is Christianity, it's far different from its more orthodox varieties. Here, the feminine is not excluded, but worshipped in a manner that is far more primitive than early Christianity.

Shrine of the Two Marys

This impression is heightened during the Fete of May, when the Gypsies gather to honor Saint Sarah and the two Marys. For several days prior to the festivals on the 24th and 25th of May, Gypsies from all over Provence, southern France and northern Italy pour into Les Stes Maries de-le-Mer, some still in their colorful horse-drawn caravans.

The three day festival begins by taking down the reliquaries of the two Marys from their chapel above the chancel. The relics are left on display while the statue of Sarah is brought up from the crypt, draped in many rich cloaks and paraded down to the sea.

The next day it is the two Marys' turn to make the journey. Standing in a small blue boat, piled high with roses, and holding an urn full of healing balm, the two Marys travel on the shoulders of their four guardians down to the sea where they landed almost two millennium ago. In this simple ritual can be heard echoes of a Goddess tradition going back to Egypt and beyond. After the Marys are returned to their chapel, the dancing and singing goes on late into the night as the crowds prepare for the third day's bull fights, bandido runs and parties in honor of the Gypsy benefactor, Folco de Baroncelli.

These celebrations mark a fountainhead. Like the spring in the church of the two Marys, one of many miraculous springs we will find along the way, these traditions serve as a source point for the broad esoteric current that King Rene himself labeled the underground stream of lost Arcadia. And with this knowledge -- the mystery hidden in plain sight, known to the Gypsies and the common folk -- the true history of that underground stream, the Gnostic Christianity of the west, can be traced through the centuries.

"Oh my Gods!" Olivia near yelled. "Domenico, don't pack that guitar of mine yet - we may be taking it to a certain grotto by the sea in Provence! No wonder the Gypsies love Flamenco, n'est-ce pas, my Lucky cat?"

And Lucky smiled the smile of Sekhmet - a very secret smile, indeed.






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