An investigation into the Holy Grail and the Cathar legacy
• Traces the journey of Otto Rahn, the occultist and one-time SS member who sought the Holy Grail and traveled widely throughout Europe as a researcher until his mysterious death in 1939
• Explores the modern legacy of the officially heretical Christian sect known as the Cathars
• Follows the author’s own investigations into the location of the Grail and Rahn’s legacy, taking readers on a journey through occult Europe
Meticulously following controversial 20th-century occultist, historian, and partially Jewish SS member Otto Rahn’s investigations into the Holy Grail and Catharism, author and filmmaker Richard Stanley enters into the occult world of Europe. On his quest, the author encounters esoteric traditions that have survived since the Crusades and the Inquisition, ultimately finding a new spiritual path in his own life. At Rahn’s family home in the Black Forest of Germany, Stanley unearths a cache of maps, photographs, and unpublished manuscripts. His journey in pursuit of Rahn’s legacy then takes him to Montségur, in southern France, a mystical stronghold and one-time home of the Cathars, the esoteric and Gnostic Christian sect that was decimated in the medieval Albigensian Crusade. There he sees the extraordinary summer solstice light phenomenon that reveals the mystical past of the fortress and encounters witnesses who insist Rahn is still alive.
Methodically visiting every site on Otto Rahn’s esoteric path, from France to Iceland, the author untangles legend from truth as he looks at the connections between the Cathars, the Rosicrucians, Julius Evola, neo-Cathar and Freemason Déodat Roché, and the mystical bleeding stones known as Lapsit exillis. He also examines the prophecy of the return of Esclarmonde de Foix, the White Lady, medieval priestess of the Cathars who appeared to Rahn during his search for the Grail.
Foreword by Hamilton White
INTRODUCTION
To Know Is to Die
A Note on the Terminology Used in This Book
1 Close Encounters with the Ancient World
2 A History of the Cathars
3 Who Was Otto Rahn?
4 Otto’s Quest for the Grail
The Crown of Lucifer
5 A Visit to the Devil’s Lake
Summer 1998
6 Into the Labyrinth of the Pyrenees
7 Infiltrating the Order of the Polaires
8 The Methodology of Information
and Disinformation
Europe Hypnotized
9 Pagan Imperialism
Europe 1932–1938
10 Dark Camelot
Castle of the SS Order
11 The Fear
Germany 1938–1939 and Geneva 1998
12 Summer Solstice at Montségur
Midsummer 1998
13 The Stones from the Sky
14 The Face in the Pentagram
Autumn 1998
15 Searching the Ends of the Earth
Iceland 2005
16 The Death and Transfiguration of Otto Rahn
Germany 1938–1939
17 Aftermath
18 The Three Mothers
19 The Coming of the White Lady
EPILOGUE
Portal into Summer
Montségur June 21, 2015
APPENDIX 1
Otto Rahn
Life of the Grail Hunter
APPENDIX 2
Chronology of the Last Crusade
APPENDIX 3
Cathars of Montségur
The Martyred and Their Legacy
APPENDIX 4
The Holy Grail in the Nottingham Evening Post
Bibliography
Index
Height:229
Width:152
Spine:25
Weight:816.00