The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye

from Chapter 1

The Inscription's Message

In the end, the mystery of the Cross at Hendaye, and the secret it was designed to encode, boils down to the message contained in the oddly divided Latin inscription. Fulcanelli instructs the reader that its message concerns a place of refuge from the double catastrophe described by the monument. But how exactly does it tell us this? And does it give us any clue to where this place of refuge might be located?

At this point in our investigation, we had proved that Fulcanelli's assertions of a double catastrophe were viable, and even found evidence linking the cataclysmic process to the inner and outer transformative mechanisms of alchemy. Dr. LaViolette's active ether subquantum kinetics model even resembled Sannella and Bentov's "kindling effect" model for the onset of Kundalini. This suggests that the inner light and the outer light are generated by similar processes.

Everything that Fulcanelli had alleged, no matter how bizarre it sounded on first reading, had been found to be based on truth. There seemed no reason to doubt Fulcanelli’s word on the inner meaning of the inscription's message. However, in the Hendaye chapter, Fulcanelli gives us no clue as to what or where this place of refuge might be. He simply informs us that from the inscription "we can learn that a country exists where, death cannot reach man at the terrible time of the double cataclysm." It is up to us to find it, implying that the inscription does indeed tell us the "geographical location of this promised land." Those who find it, Fulcanelli promises, will take up the mission of renewing mankind after the disaster. Fulcanelli assumes that this elite will be "the children of Elms," that is the followers of the astro-chemical path of transformation. As we will see, this hope may or may not have become reality.

So we are left with the 17 letters of the inscription--OCRUXAVES/ PESUNICA--and Fulcanelli's peculiar comments on it. He begins by telling us that it is easy to recognize the familiar phrase: O Crux Ave Spes Unica, which is translated as "Hail O Cross, the Only Hope." Indeed this inscription is so common as to render any coded phrase within it mean ingless. There must hundreds of thousands of graves in France with this inscription on them. Fulcanelli tells us that this one is different because of the misplaced S.

In telling us exactly how this makes a difference, however, Fulcanelli lapses into obscurity. He calls attention to the incorrect grammar in the second line, even though he knows that including the S on the second line would correct the grammar. As we have seen, Pes, foot or measure, can also be related to unica, the word "only," by transposing the i and the c to form uncia, "the 12th part:' This "measure of the 12th part" can he connected to the cycles of the catastrophe measured by the galactic Cross. Fulcanelli is calling attention to this interpretation with his fudging about grammar. But he doesn't say that this is the reason for the split S, he merely speculates that it was done on purpose. And then he tells us that he already knew the meaning of the inscription from studying the images on the pedestal. This is a clear reference to the cosmic cycles and alignments spelled out on the pedestal, the "measurement of the 12th part." But he wants to show investigators how these "hidden matters" might be solved by "plain common sense, logic and reasoning." In other words, he is posing us a riddle, an intellectual test.

He tells us that the letter S, "which takes on the curving shape of a snake [(note that spes, hope, reversed is seps, or snake)] corresponds to the Greek khi (X) and takes over its esoteric meaning." Just in case we missed this reference to the key or Cross in the sky made by the X of the snakes or dragons, Fulcanelli informs us that "it is the heliocoidal track of the sun, having arrived at the zenith of its curve across space, at the time of the cyclic catastrophe."

Of course, this is only clear if you have made the mental journey outlined in this book. "The heliocoidal track of the sun" is an archaic term for the sun's precessional motion against the ecliptic. Heliocoidal can he translated literally as sun circles, a description of the ecliptic and the slow "suspended" movement of the earth's wobble against it. The zenith of its curve across space is the moment when the solstices cross the galactic axis--the time, according to Fulcanelli, of the cyclic catastrophe.

Preface--Hendaye: A Monument to the Cosmos

Introduction--The Politics of Secrecy: Fulcanelli and the Secret of the End of Time

Part One
Fulcanelli and the Secret of Alchemy

1--The Fulcanelli Mystery
The Apocalypse, the Lost Generation and the Rediscovery of Alchemy
Le Mystère des cathédrales, Alchemy, and Surrealism
A New Chapter
The Fulcanelli Legend
The Cross at Hendaye
A Lodestone of Pure Weirdness

2-- The Secret of Alchemy
The Alchemical Meme and Secret Societies
Egypt: Isis and Horus
The Underground Stream: From Egypt to the Middle Ages
The Underground Stream: From The Black Death to Fulcanelli
The Three-Fold Transformation
Transformations and Transcendence

Part Two
Eschatology and Astronomy

3--Gnostic Eschatology
Eschatology
The Gnostic Return: Isis and Mary the Alchemist
The Alchemical Eschatology of Christianity
Revelation, The Antichrist, and Chiliasm
Constantine and the Orthodox Apocalypse

4--The Ancient Illuminated Astronomy
Hebrew Illuminism
The Teli, the Cycle, and the Heart: Serpents in the Sky
The Kaaba, The El Most High, and the Covenant of Abraham
Islam: Sanctuary of Sacred Science

Part Three
The Gothic Renaissance and the Holy Grail

5--The Hermetic Pope And The Knights Templar
The Alchemical Transmission and the Recovery of the West
TheAlchemical Pope and The Creation of the Millennium
Peter the Hermit, the First Crusade, and the Rock of Zion
The Secret of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon

6--Grail Knights, Perfecti, and the Illuminated Sages of Provence
The Hermetic Grail
The Grail in Provence
The Perfecti
The Stone of the Wise
Elijah, Eschatology, and the Underground Stream

7--Temples of the Cosmos, Cathedrals of the Goddess
The Hermetic Cathedrals
"Bright Is the Noble Work . . ."
The Gothic Cathedrals of Our Lady
The Stone That Fell from Heaven, Black Virgins, and the Temple of the Grail
The Philosophers' Church

Part Four
The Mystery of the Cathedrals

8--The Grand Hermetic Theme and the Tree of Life
Fulcanelli's Notre-Dame-de-Paris
Our Hermetic Tour Guide Poses a Conundrum
Solving the Conundrum
Saint Marcel's Dragon
The World Tree and Astro-Alchemy

9--Fulcanelli's Tree of Life and the Mystery of the Cathedrals
Le Mystère as the Tree of Life
The Alchemy of Light: Fulcanelli's Kabbalah

Part Five
Hendaye's Message: The Season of Catastrophe and the Place of Refuge

10--The Mystery of the Great Cross at Hendaye
A Forgotten Cross
Precessional Mythmaking and an Enigmatic Altar to the God of Time
Vishnunabhi, the Mother, and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor
The Mystery of the Stone Altar

11--The Message of the Great Cross at Hendaye
Triangulating the Myth and the Message
Deciphering the Code
The Monument Speaks: The Season of the Apocalypse
The Philosopher's Stone and the Quality of Time

12--Catastrophe and Refuge
Cosmic Superimposition: Wilhelm Reich, Orgone, and the Center of the Galaxy
Messages from Many Sources
Earth Under Fire: The Double Catastrophe Revealed
The Inscription's Message and the Place of Refuge
A Sign Pointing toward Peru
Atlantis in the Andes
The Navel of the World
Inca Caves and the Cross at Urcos

Part Six
The Great Mystery: Illuminated Masters, Apocalyptic Refuges, and Mythic Time

13--From Atlantis to Shambhala
The Cross and the Myth of Time
Looking East: A Refuge in the Himalayas
Padmasambhava and the Temple of the Cosmos
Shambhala and the Wheel of Time

14--Alchemy and Transcendence

Epilogue: Fulcanelli Revealed

Appendix A--Fulcanelli on the Green Language
Appendix B--The Emerald Tablet
Appendix C--Notes on Mount Zion
Appendix D--Tree of Life Symbology in Le Mystère des cathédrales
Appendix E--The Cyclic Cross of Hendaye

Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Jay Weidner is an author and filmmaker who has produced and directed documentary films on prominent contemporary figures such as the artist Alex Grey. He lives in Washington state. Vincent Bridges (1952-2014) was a historian, shamanic therapist, and author who wrote extensively on gnosticism, alchemy, and unsolved enigmas.

“Fascinating detail . . . a truly groundbreaking work.”
Moira Timms, author of Beyond Prophecies and Predictions

“The authors, by their brilliantly derived mix of alchemy with astrophysics, have breathed new life into the Fulcanelli enigma.”
Joscelyn Godwin, author of Cosmic Music

"A brilliant deductive revelation."
John Major Jenkins, author of Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 and Galactic Alignment

“It would be impossible to describe or even summarise the staggering amount of information in this book. The material covers vast areas of Western occult knowledge, some parts of which have almost been lost to the genuine seeker. . . . A highly recommended book.”
Jennifer Hoskens, New Dawn, May-June 2005

". . . [This book] is packed with very clear 'indications' towards the secrets of life. . . . concise expressions of the significance of alchemy and cosmology. Anyone who is interested in the Knights Templar, Holy Grail, Christian Mysticism, Immortality and being alive in the first place should certainly read this book."
Oliver Perceval, Light, Summer 2005, Vol. 125, No.1

"A good book, worthy of reading, and if the authors are right, either sell your bonds, or don't worry about peak oil, credit card rates, or terrorism, as the End of Time is near."
Institute for Hermetic Studies, Oct 2006

NEW AGE / ANCIENT MYSTERIES

"A brilliant deductive revelation."
--John Major Jenkins, author of Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 and Galactic Alignment

"The authors, by their brilliantly derived mix of alchemy with astrophysics, have breathed new life into the Fulcanelli enigma."
--Joscelyn Godwin, author of Harmonies of Heaven and Earth

"Fascinating detail . . . a truly groundbreaking work."
--Moira Timms, author of Beyond Prophecies and Predictions

The Mysteris of the Great Cross of Hendaye reveals one of Western occultism's deepest secrets. The alchemical transformation of base metal into gold is also the transformation of the current Iron Age into the Golden Age. Based on the work of the enigmatic twentieth-century alchemist Fulcanelli, authors Weidner and Bridges show how the greatest alchemical secret is that of time itself and that coded into an obscure monument in southwestern France--the cross in the town square of Hendaye--is the imminent date of the apocalypse. From the cross of Hendaye to the western facade of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, from the Pyrenees to ancient Egypt and the secret origins of Atlantis in Peru, the authors' explorations reveal that we are indeed living in a "fatal season" intimately connected to our solar system's alignment with the galactic center. The authors' in-depth examination of alchemy's connection with the coming end days also reveals that this astro-alchemical knowledge was part of the sacred science of the Egyptians and the Atlanteans, whose coded messages are, at last, deciphered to guide humanity to its future destiny.

JAY WEIDNER is an author and filmaker who has produced and directed documentary films on prominent contemporary figures such as the artist Alex Grey. He lives in Washington state. VINCENT BRIDGES is a historian, shamanic therapist, and author who has written extensively on gnosticism, alchemy, and unsolved enigmas. He lives in North Carolina.