Fifth Show

A Search for the Goddess

We heard that the Holy Grail might be in Rennes le Chateau in France, so of course we had to go looking for it.

Now the Holy Grail is a social and spiritual insight based on a technical insight. The story is of a problem and a solution. The problem was a land, depopulated by a mysterious force, neither plague nor war, famine nor outward migration. The solution was the Holy Grail. We have already explained it. King Arthur's knights never had a hope of finding it.

Our search turned out to be a search for the goddess.

First a little history. Bear in mind: this is history in the dark ages. There are few documents. Such documents as do exist I have not actually seen myself. Even if I had seen them, my Latin is from the wrong century and is weak anyway. Even if I had seen the documents and my Latin was strong and I had taken good notes and had a good understanding of the context on no prejudice, I would probably not be able to read the handwriting; that was not standardized until the time of Charlemagne.

In the days of the Roman Empire, a man named Arius from Capadocia in what is now Turkey converted a group of Visigoths to Christianity. (MAP) They found themselves persecuted by other Goths and sought refuge in the newly Christian Roman Empire under the emperor Constantine. Later, under pressure from the Huns coming out of the east, the Visigoths sacked Rome and went on to overrun what are now France and Spain.

There arose an alliance called the Franks, more specifically the Salic Franks. You will remember at the beginning of the Shakespeare play "Henry V" there was a discussion of Salic Law. Salic Law is important because the Salic Franks and their descendants overran all of Europe. Originally the Franks, like the Visigoths, were a democracy and had essentially equal rights for women. (About this time, the camera wanders off and begins to take an interest in Allie's shoes.) It was for such rights that Henry V thought he was fighting. I suppose it is only fitting that what he accomplished was at last reversed by the energy of a woman called Joan of Arc.

(Allie's feet start to pose for the camera.) The Franks are described first as coming from a land "near the Thuringians." There were two places called Thuringia, one near what is now Belgium and one near where the city of Weimar now stands. This is where our hunt begins, on the Horselberg mountain near Weimar.

Allie, stop flirting and show them the picture. (Camera turns sulkily to the picture Allie is holding.) (#1A) This is a small glade high on the slopes of the Horselberg. In an ancient story told by Wagner in the opera "Tanhauser," a young man named Tanhauser discovered an enormous cave in the Horselberg called the "Horselloch." In the cave were the goddess of love and her attendant maidens. They entertained Tanhauser for many years. At last be felt guilty about it and started to look for forgiveness. His quest led him to the pope who said more or less, "Sooner will this staff in my hand put out leaves than you ever be forgiven." In a few days the staff put out leaves, but by that time Tanhauser was on his way back to his friends in the Horselloch.

To my untrained eye, the area around the Horselberg contains limestone, and the northeast side has slumped, as if a cavern of enormous size had collapsed long ago. We found no sign of a cave nor could we discover any rumor, although each time we asked, people would drop their voices and talk to each other in a dialect I do not know. I did usually, however, pick up something like, "He's asking about Das Venusberg." Then they would deny everything. This century has not been kind to that part of Germany. I did not pursue it.

This is the Venus, I suspect they were talking about. She is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. (Picture #2H.) One can't help feeling a little sorry for Tanhauser when the roof fell in on him.

The Holy Grail, according to one legend was taken to Glastonbury in England by Joseph of Arimathea. He climbed a hill there called Wearyall Hill, planted his staff on the hill and declared his travels to be over. He founded the first Christian Church that wasn't in a hole in the ground. (Christians in Rome were at that time meeting in catacombs under the city.) And his staff grew into a thorn tree of a kind that survives only in Glastonbury and in the Holy Land. This (picture #3T) is Wearyall Hill. The tree is not Joseph's staff. It is, however, a cutting tree grown from a cutting and so forth going back to that staff.

Or that's what they told us.

The Venus over there is hardly the first piece of rock carved to look like a woman. In fact for tens of thousands of years it seems people made little female figures of a size you could hold in your hand. Some say that these figures have exaggerated anatomical details. To my eye they are just normal. The theory is that they represented some notion of a universal goddess. The record, however, is not there. We can only guess. (Figure #G)

But here she is. This one is only seven thousand years old, made in ancient Sumer of terra cotta. If we are right, she alone was worshiped for more than nine tenths of the time that there have been humans. This is the earth goddess.

The Franks defeated the Huns. They then formed an alliance with the Catholic Church. The combination of Frankish force of arms and ecclesiastical literacy was devastating. The Franks went on to defeat Rome, the Visigoths, the Gauls and the Moors and led the first and only successful crusade to claim the Holy Land. France today takes her name from these consummate fighter and administrators. When the Franks reached the south of France, they encountered rumors of the Magdalene.

Joseph of Arimathea was only one of a large number of people who took advantage of Roman efficiency to travel widely in the first century. Some say the Virgin herself went to Ephesus. The remains of a temple are to be seen at Ephesus, a temple to Artemis (this is a roman image of Artemis # 3A statue) much the same as the goddess Diana. She we a virgin, goddess of the hunt, and rather more appealing than most of the classical gods and goddesses. Diana is often portrayed with her bow and arrow and a deer. In fact, Artemis was extremely popular in Ephesus. There was a special protection there for anyone within a bowshot of the temple. The best remaining library of the ancient world still stands, and there are those who think the tone in Paul's letter to the Ephesians is milder than much of scripture. Some say that some of the emotion people attach to the Virgin is a carry over from their affection for Artemis. Some say the memory of the Princess Diana shares the same.

They built a church here (picture #4G) at Old Sarum in Salisbury in England that they dedicated to the Virgin. When they decided to move to a new location, legend says they shot an arrow and determined to build anew where the arrow fell. Legend goes on that it struck a deer that ran a mile and a half to the river before it fell. Here (picture #5G and #6E) is Salisbury cathedral built on that spot.

Another traveler was the Magdalene, according to tradition the one who broke a jar of perfume and poured it over Christ's feet and who later was the first to discover the empty tomb.

Some say that there was a tower called Migdala somewhere near Jerusalem and conclude that Mary Magdalene had something to do with the tower.

However here (picture #6A-T) is a view of the little hamlet of Eschbach in the German wine-growing district. Here we stayed in a little home called "Hauslein." When we asked, we were told it meant "little house." Our informant went on to say that in proper German it should be "hauschen" but in dialect it was "hauslein." I thought about that a long time before I realized that the word "maedchen" or little girl in German should be "maedlein" in the archaic dialect. That is very close to Madeline, which is French for Magdalene. It is Mary the little girl. And it matters, because the Magdalene came to France.

She joined a little Jewish community in a region called the Midi, or Middle or Noon. (Map.) It is a very important place geographically. If you want to travel between Italy, France and Spain, the easiest way is through the Midi. The climate is excellent. The land supports excellent wines. Hither she came, and here she lived and taught the rest of her life.

Islam arose. (Map.) It swept from Arabia east to the Pacific and west to the Atlantic. Islam swept south into Africa until resistance melted, south into India until resistance melted, north in to China until there was no more fighting to do. The cold and distance of central Asia slowed them down and the great mountain chains of Eastern Europe were not an inviting target. The great city of Constantinople stood closed to them for many centuries.

The greatest city in Europe was Venice, but Italy was mostly just a collection of city-states. The British Isles had no standing army. Scandinavia was almost unpopulated. The Western Hemisphere was there for the taking once they found it. The only credible resistance in the world was the Franks, holding the western door to Europe, and toward them the awesome power of Islam was now turned; on one battle hung the question of a unified Islamic planet.

The Franks were led by Charles the Hammer. He did not consider himself to be king, but his family became the Carolingian dynasty. He knew he had a problem. He secured the cooperation of the Jewish community in the Midi. He had an advantage. He himself could claim to be descended from Mary Magdalene. (genealogy #7H)

(Camera begins to move in on Heidi.) The Moors had swept over Spain and half of France, but now without the Midi, they proved no match for the Frankish knights at the battle of Tours. In return for their help, Charles Martel established a homeland for the Jews, an independent kingdom Septimania de Midi. Its safety was guaranteed by the Carolingian dynasty of the Salic Franks. (Heidi flirts.)

Under Charlemagne, the Franks virtually unified Europe. But the dynasty ran into problems with the succession. The key question turned on who should succeed as king, the one best able to lead or the legitimate one. It has been suspected that some of the illegitimate children may not have been thought so because their parents were not married but because the church did not recognize the marriage. Perhaps the mother was Jewish. At all events, the Carolingian dynasty was no more. (Camera starts to tickle her ear.)

It was replaced by the Capetian dynasty, which was quite effective. In fact, just about all the royal families of Europe can trace their descent to the Capetians. But the oath of Charles Martel did not bind them. (Heidi giggles.) Heidi, behave yourself.

Meanwhile the Midi flourished. By some accounts it was second only to Venice as the greatest civilization in Europe, tolerant, prosperous, educated, humane and a wonderful place to live.

Perhaps it was this very tolerance that drew to them the Cathars. The word sort of means "puritan." This little bird is one of the Cathar emblems. (#8G) It has a broken wing. It cannot soar. Cathars were Christians who clung to a heresy that had been taught them by Arius back in the time of Constantine. It holds that the soul is bound to the earth.

The earth, it seems, is run by the devil. All earthly power is evil. Life itself is evil. Humans, or at least our bodies, were made by the devil. But the devil was not able to make souls, so he went to heaven and lured some angels down to give life to the bodies he had made. When the body dies, the soul cannot go to heaven but is doomed to go on and live in another body.

Now it is possible by constant prayer and meditation to escape this. But for practical purposes in real life it is not going to happen. So the Cathars had a strategy. They would select a few from among their numbers who would spend their lives in prayer and it was hoped would get into heaven, while the rest of them got on with practical matters. Think of a bunch of prisoners getting together and agreeing to boost a few over the wall. The rest would stay behind and endure their punishment, but maybe they would get a chance next time.

The Cathars, whether of the elect or not, spent their days in doing good things like ministering to the sick, preaching, teaching, attending to the poor and keeping themselves as pure and as blameless as circumstances permitted. They were highly respected.

The idea that the devil has enormous power on earth is not one that has vanished over the years.

When the Moors were driven back into Spain, people began to wonder what had happened to Mary Magdalene. She was supposed to be buried in a chapel somewhere, so they looked around. The search led to a cave, this cave. (#9E) The cave held a coffin. The coffin held a body wrapped in cloth and a note saying in French, "This is Mary Magdalene. The Moors are coming. She wasn't safe, so I hid her here." They unwrapped the cloth and found bones and a note in Latin saying, "This is Mary Magdalene." The skeleton was almost complete, lacking only the jawbone.

That all seemed to be good. They thought it would be nice to get the whole thing certified by the Pope, so they took their evidence to Rome. The Pope took one look and said, "O that's very nice. Nice skeleton, but we have Mary Magdalene here in Rome."

"No we have her."

"No we have her."

Grrrrr.

"You get your bones, and we'll get our bones and we'll look at them together."

They did. It turned out that all Rome had was a jawbone - and it matched. Now suddenly legend ends and history begins. Because the Pope said, "All right, I'm convinced." And we wrote it all down, said he had seen it with his own eyes, and put the papal seal on it. And that document exists to this day.

Alas, not everything Popes have done has been that agreeable. They day came when a Pope decided that the Cathars were heretics and would have to be destroyed. It started in the late 1100's and took about 150 years. They called it a Crusade. The Capetians carried it out for the Inquisition.

The Midi is drained by a river system called the Aude. Central to the area is this fort, the Carcasonne. (Picture. (#10T) It was first built by the Romans and rebuilt and extended by Goths. (#11G) The Goths used remarkably large stones that can be recognized today. Carcasonne was rebuilt in the Middle Ages (#12H) and most recently rebuilt during the last century (#13E). It is the mightiest medieval fortress in Europe and has never been taken by siege.

The first town the Crusaders attacked fought back mightily. When it was at last taken, the Capetians put everyone in the town to the sword. Then they came to Carcasonne. (Picture #14T.) The leader in the fort thought it would be prudent to go talk to these people. He wanted to find out what the rules of engagement would be. What would happen to his people if he just surrendered? What would happen if they fought and then surrendered? What sort of assurance could he get that they would keep their promise?

The Crusaders took him prisoner under a flag of truce. Then they did something like send word to the town, "It's all right. Open the gates." Then they went in and put everybody to the sword.

After that, it was just a matter of time. The Aude valley is split up by hills. Controlling the center and the Carcasonne, the Crusaders could attack one castle after another at their leisure. This is Mont Segeur. (Picture #15H) It was the last stronghold of the Cathars. The night before it surrendered, to the usual treatment at the hand of the Inquisition, a small group of men left the back of the fort. It is suspected that they hid something of great importance. Then they came back and surrendered with their brethren. (#16E)

By the end of the campaign, the Crusaders had killed everyone, Cathar, Moor, Catholic and Jew. The kingdom of Septimania de Midi was no more. The land is almost empty to this day. (#17T)

And so it stood in the nineteenth century, when a young Catholic priest, this man here ( # book) - this is Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln - was assigned to a small church in a town called Rennes le Chateau in the Midi. The town has something like thirty or two hundred people in it - reports vary - about as many of you as will ever watch this show- and the church itself was in ruins. He was a strong, humorous looking, darkly handsome man, apparently a man of enormous intelligence, imagination, energy and artistic ability. You can't see the picture very well here, and I don't have permission to make a good reproduction, but it is figure number 3 here.

When he was put in charge of this pile of old rocks in an almost abandoned town, the first thing to do was to repair the church. He got a couple of workers and started to dig around and see what needed to be done. He found a couple of old parchments in one of the pillars that supported the altar. Also there were a few bones, never identified

The parchments contained coded messages. He was able to break one of them. The text was in Latin, but the coded message was in French. (Reads) The treasure belongs to Dagobert the second and to Jerusalem and there he is dead.

Dagobert the second was in the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks. It was the founder of that line who defeated the Huns. Dagobert is certainly dead. He died of a hunting accident. There are those who say he was killed so that the Carolingians could take over. I don't know. Nobody in this story is pure, except the Cathars.

So the message mentions royal Franks, Jerusalem and a treasure. Not much to go on. I understand that the son of Dagobert came for safety to Rennes le Chateau. That, of course, was long before the war against the Cathars.

He sent the other parchment to Paris. Here is the Notre Dame in Paris (#19G), and here is a church built by the Franks soon after they conquered Jerusalem. (#20H)

The code was broken by somebody in the church there. (#21E) (Reads) The shepherdess who is not a temptress. Poussin and Teniers have the key. Peace 681. By the cross and the horse of God I destroy this demon of the guardian at noon. Blue apples.

The message mentions Poussin. He is one of the greatest of the French painters. He did paint a picture (the only one he ever painted in France) in which there is a shepherdess who is not a temptress. It is this picture here it hangs in the Louvre. (Picture #22T) The shepherdess is respectably dressed. In the background, you can see Rennes le Chateau itself. And there is mention of a key. A man named Teniers apparently wrote a letter that Poussin had some important secret. Seems to be tied to the picture.

Peace 681. Well that's only a couple of years after Dagobert's son came to Rennes le Chateau looking for safety.

By the cross and the horse of God I destroy this demon of the guardian at noon.

Noon? Midi in French? That's this area, the Midi. By the cross and the horse of God I destroy this demon that guards the Midi. That sounds like a Cathar talking. The Midi is controlled by a demon, but the demon will be destroyed.

So far, it looks like it has to do with the Merovingian dynasty, with Cathars, with Jerusalem and with that picture.

Blue apples.

Well, that sounds very specific. Not much help though. Blue apples. Blue meat is rare meat in French. Pomme can be apple or knob or ball or head. We never figured that one out. I don't think anyone can claim to have solved the mystery until he can explain it.

So we went to Rennes le Chateau.

On the way, we stopped in the little town of Eschbach. This is the Madburg castle (#23H and #24E) above the town.

We stopped at a hotel near this old roman aqueduct. (#25G) We asked where the Grotto of the Magdalene was and got a blank look. I picked up a brochure from the desk and said, what about this one? (#26T) We were told it was fifty miles to he north. It made no mention of relics, though, so we thought it must be a false trail. In fact, we made it a general principle that if things pointed one way, we would go the other way. (Camera moves in on Tammie.)

After a lot of searching through guide books, we found another Grotto of the Magdalene to the south. The road was supposed to turn off in a tiny town. It wasn't marked. On the second trip through the town, we tried squeezing down a little alley. In back, behind a few shops, we could see daylight. We edged that way and sure enough found a small unmarked road. (Tammie shows her nails.)

There was almost no traffic. We climbed and turned an hour or two until we crossed a high ridge and left the Aude watershed altogether. Eventually our navigator said it was time to start walking. (Tammie pokes at the camera.) We reached a meadow. Looking up, we could see this. I think that is the shrine against the cliff face. Tammie, stop scratching its eyes and show them the picture. (Picture #27T) Somewhere behind those buildings is a cave. The relics of the Magdalene are in it, I am just about sure. Here I am taking a reading from a satellite navigator. (Picture #28H) On the other side of the meadow we began to make our way up a trail (#29E) such as had been mentioned in the book reference, steep and rocky.

Just at noon, we heard the bell ringing from the chapel. It can't have been a hundred yards from us, but the forest was so dense we could not even see the cliff. We thought we had made it.

A few yards later we came to a sign and a chain. Construction. Keep out. We turned back. Here is a little shelter for pilgrims along the trail. It looks like it is about in ruins. (Picture #30T)

Here is an old postcard we were given that shows the inside of the chapel. (#31G) The cave itself is pictured in this book here. (Book #32H)

Of course, you don't have to travel that far to find remembrances of Mary Magdalene. Here is the Church of the Magdalene in Paris. (#33E and #34T) It is a very fine, classical building, not a Gothic building. Compare the front with this ancient Roman Temple. (#35G)

And so we arrived at last at Rennes le Chateau and the church. This (#36H) is an image of Mary Magdalene on the side of the church. The church is dedicated to her.

(#37E) This is the door to the church. Over the door it says in Latin, "Hoc Locus Terribilus Est.) This is a terrible place. I don't think that refers to the church itself. I think the priest must be referring to the whole world as being an evil place, a veil of tears as we sometimes say. That would be a very Cathar notion. Also, as you step through that door, just to your left is the baptismal font, apparently carved by Sauniére himself. I do not have a picture of it, but it is obviously the work of a master. It may be that he could not get one of the usual sculptors to do it. Maybe he did most of the sculptures himself. The odd thing about the font is that it is supported by a small powerful looking horned man. It looks like a devil. Now it is quite traditional in Gothic style to have Gargoyles that can look like devils, but generally they are kept to the outside. The baptismal font is, shall we say, a kind of sensitive part of the church.

(#38T) Here is some of the sculpture within the church. Notice that someone of substantial artistic accomplishment has been at work here. The Image is very beautiful without being sentimental. One man seems to be on a crutch. The clothes are clean and presentable but not rich. The landscape is little different from what lies outside the doors. And the composition is worthy of a professional.

(#39H and #40G) Notice that the roof is semi-circular. This is a Romanesque building like the church in Paris, not Gothic like the cathedral at Salisbury. It is a remarkable church, but it does not seem to be in anyway revolutionary or objectionable. I later learned that one of the paintings is supposed to represent Christ being carried out of the tomb. Of course that wasn't supposed to have happened. If it is true, it is very subtle. I saw nothing discordant. Even the devil, forced as he is into service supporting the baptismal font, makes a statement that may be unorthodox but by no means irreverent.

Here is Mary Magdalene again. (#41E) She has poured perfume over the feet of Christ and is mopping it up with her hair. It is much more of a narrative than the Gothic windows we looked at in Paris. It is a good deal less breathtaking. Here are some oddities. Her skirt is the same color as the robe of the man behind her. He seems to have a few extra fingers. I imagine the priest got outside help on this one. The church, by the way, had always been dedicated to Mary Magdalene. This was not Sauniére's doing.

A few yards from the church, Sauniére built this library (#42G), which he called the Tower of the Magdalene. It has an observation tower. Here we are looking south at the tower and the country beyond. The question came up as to how the priest of a tiny town got enough money to fix up the church, not to mention build himself a very nice house. And then there is this library.

The secret codes do mention a treasure. Either he found it, and this is what he spent the money on, or he persuaded someone very rich that he was looking for it, and they supported him. That is what I suspect.

In other words, anyone could deny that he found a treasure or that there ever was a treasure, and perhaps he never believed in it himself. But I rather think he did.

This is looking north from the tower. (#43T) Look at the flowers. Look how gentle and beautiful the land is. The valleys are rich. The hills are not impenetrable. Yet it is so empty. It reminds one of the Grail curse, not the curse of the Grail but the curse the Grail was meant to heal.

Of course the land does not looked cursed. Too many people make a land looked cursed. This land has a very gentle, sweet feel to it, as if it wants to have people and wants to take care of them. It reminds you of the old idea of the Goddess. Where is she? Why does she not have some people?

Notice the cliffs in the middle distance. The upper part of the cliffs are steep and white; the lower part is red and less steep. It looks like a layer of limestone with some thin layer of protecting rock above and iron rich earth below. The limestone is steep because it weathers quickly. The Horselberg had much the same look. There might be caves out there.

And this is at the tower of the Magdalene looking east (#44E), in the general direction of the tomb in the Poussin painting, or that is what our peerless navigator told us. I find the map a little confusing. If there is a treasure at Rennes le Chateau, it should be in this picture or in one of the two just before. If Sauniére believed in the treasure, he must have put up the tower as a place he could read, study and look out over the landscape. In other words, he thought it would have been in one of these pictures.

They say Sauniére was accustomed to taking long walks alone, perhaps searching. But what could it have been for? Suggestions I have heard include: The Holy Grail, the lost treasure of the Cathars, the lost treasure of the Templars, the treasury of the temple of Jerusalem, the Ark of the Covenant, an elixir of youth, a warning about a comet impact of the earth and proof that the resurrection never happened. To that I would add the obvious one: proof that the resurrection actually did happen.

Whatever it was, if he found it, the secret has been even better kept than it was before.

So where does one look? Just driving around is the most fun, of course. Here is what the country looks like. (#45H) Occasionally there are some old ruins, although not enough to persuade you that the great civilization that was supposed to be here ever existed at all. (#46G) All you can think is that this area has been the crossroads of Western Europe for thousands of years; there SHOULD have been a civilization here, so it is easier to think that one vanished than that there never was one.

Until we know what "Blue Apples" means, all we can do is sightseeing.

However, others have been more optimistic.

Here is Rennes le Chateau on the map. (#47) Here is more or less where the tomb was. (#48) Again, alas, I do not have a picture, but when you stand here and look back, the horizon adequately matches at least a part of the horizon in the picture by Poisson.H Also, although the land we have been looking at seems soft and moist and fertile, the land in the painting is much harsher and drier.

Sure enough, when you get to the approximate location, the land does seem a little harsher. It is as if the shepherds had left their usual fields in order to climb into the area where the tomb sat to look at it and wonder.

So whatever we are looking for, the location is probably somewhere east of Rennes le Chateau and west of the tomb. Starting with that as our mental set, we do find that there are six or seven little towns, each with a church of course, arranged more or less in a circle. The towns themselves are probably very old. Even after the population had been destroyed, new settlers would have gravitated toward existing towns for the sake of whatever had been left behind of building materials or remnants of roads.

There is a famous circle of churches around Paris, a number of great cathedrals set out in a circle. Of course that is on a much grander scale than here. But the notion of a circle of churches was known before people started looking for mysteries here. So it may have been known to anybody who was hiding something. And this circle is right in our search area.

Enthusiastic hunters have started drawing lines through the towns on the map. This book Geneset by Wood and Campbell (Fig #49) will give you the rational for doing so. When we draw the lines, we do get a very presentable star.

So we stand with the map in one hand showing the star and the painting of the shepherds by Poussin on the other hand and ask the question, "Assuming the painting is a clue to something around here, how do the map and painting relate to each other. It seems a bit of a jump, but if you make a rectangle with one corner being Rennes le Chateau and the other corner the opposite foot of the star, the rectangle has the exact proportions of the painting. In other words, if you superimpose the painting on the map, this area of the map is the painting.

So rather than tramping around the countryside looking for a clue, we can go back to the painting and look for a clue. Unfortunately, I don't see any blue apples. But the shepherds are pointing to something. If the painting is pointing anything out, it is right here. And that corresponds to this point on the map. It is the south slope near the top of a little mountain called la Pique.

(Jenny starts to work up a sneeze.)

So we jumped in the car and drove over there. Surprisingly, we found a muddy track that led us right to the spot we were looking for. I don't suggest following it when the ground is wet. He had a tendency to slide sideways, and there was no guard rail. When we finally got there, there was nothing but an empty hillside. There was no building, no forest, no cave and nothing that could hide anything. Short of just putting shovel to earth, there was no way anything could turn up. And if the land really had been disturbed at some time in the past, you would expect to see some unexplained change in the vegetation even centuries later. So we were confident that there was nothing on la Pique.

Jenny, what is into you? (She sneezes.)

We weren't quite done. We recalled that everything went by reverses and any hint was probably sending us the wrong way. The only chance was that the hint might be sending us EXACTLY the wrong way.

Sooo, we asked the navigator to imagine that we had flipped everything over, the map, the star and the directions. If we were going to reverse the directions, where would they then point and could he take us there.

With a manner of, "Is that all?" he stared giving directions. The place he took us is here: (picture #50G)

This is the spring of the Magdalene. It is not a big spring, certainly by Florida standards. You get to it by crossing a brook on stepping stones. There once was a bridge, but it has long since fallen in ruins. The name ties in with the priest's church and his library.

Here is the youngest member of our expedition (#51H). She is looking happy and maybe a little smug that she turned out to be the best stepping stone stepper in the expedition. She is sitting on part of the ruined bridge.

As we stand looking in the direction of the picture, up the hill behind us is a stone formation called the Devil's Armchair. I would not make too much of the name. Many names in this region reflect a lively imagination.

So that was it. We did not find the Holy Grail. We did find the spring. And we looked and looked for the Goddess, but we couldn't find a goddess anywhere.

(The women are seen to take offence. The close in on Linton, trip him and then make as if to lop him up with axe, mace and sword.)