By Tracy R. Twyman
Originally written for Dagobert’s Revenge Magazine, Copyright 2001
(Does not necessarily represent author’s current viewpoint.)
Illustration from the magazine Vaincre showing their vision of a “United States of the West.”
Since the time of Clovis I, the Merovingian kings of France have been
the rightful heirs to the senior crown of Europe — that of the Holy
Roman Empire, although that right has not always been recognized. The
title that Clovis and his descendants were originally given by the Pope
when the covenant between the Vatican and the Merovingians first began
in 496 A.D. was “New Constantine,” giving him secular authority over the
choicest bits of Christian Europe, just like the authority which the
namesake of the office, Constantine, had once enjoyed. But Constantine
had been the “thirteenth apostle,” and was responsible for the
incorporation of Christianity into the Roman institution.
He was therefore also a priest-king, holding spiritual dominion as well as secular dominion, just as previous Roman emperors had done. But when the later Merovingian kings began to exhibit a desire to exercise their own spiritual authority, which rested partially upon the foundation of their blood relationship to Jesus Christ and King David (they were the descendants of both), it sparked a chain of events that culminated in the assassination of Dagobert II, the last effective Merovingian king, and the loss of the title “New Constantine” for his descendants. However, the Merovingians appear to have taken their right to the title, and their right to European hegemony, very seriously, in a manner that seems to be rooted in something more ancient than the time of Clovis. They believe, perhaps because of their descent from Christ and King David, or perhaps because of their descent from an even more illustrious ancestor, that they were already entitled to rule over Europe long before it was sanctioned by the Pope. This “Divine Right” was recognized by their loyal subjects as well, who regarded the Merovingians as semi-divine priest-kings, and who formed a cult worshipping Dagobert II after his death. With a following like that, the Merovingians were not about to give up their rightful inheritance without a fight.
Less than 200 years later, a man named Charlemagne (Charles the Great), who married a Merovingian princess, was made Holy Roman Emperor, and given dominion over a land mass greater even than that which the Merovingians had possessed. Thus began the majestic Carolingian dynasty, consisting after Charlemagne of men with partially Merovingian blood. Charlemagne too was considered a priest-king, and is probably the most famous and beloved figure in French history. For his scepter he carried with him the Spear of Destiny, that holy relic supposedly bloodied by the wound of Christ, which is said to confer upon its possessor transcendental power over the entire Earth. And while he may not have ruled over the entire world in actuality, he did have dominion over its most significant portion. For at that time Western Europe was without a doubt the foremost bastion of culture, science, philosophy, and morality, a light in the darkness, surrounded on all fronts by uncivilized barbarian hordes.
The Carolingian dynasty ended in 918, but the Holy Roman Empire continued to play a decisive role in the unfolding of its destiny. It was during this time that the Empire began to turn its sights towards the Holy Land. The first Crusade began in 1095, and the entire enterprise was brought about because of the pressure that certain Merovingian descendants placed upon the Pope and the nobility of Europe. This resulted in the capture of Jerusalem four years later, and the creation of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem as part of the Holy Roman Empire. The capture was lead by Godfroi de Bouillon, a descendant of Dagobert II, and his brother, Baldwin I, was proclaimed King of Jerusalem. The Merovingian descendants appear to have considered the Holy Land their rightful possession, once again due to their direct descent from King David, and Jerusalem was in a way their coronation stone, legitimizing their eventual return to the rule of the Holy Roman Empire.
It was to this goal that they immediately dedicated themselves, and with the help of Baldwin II (son of Baldwin I, who died shortly after the capture of the Holy Land), a group of Knights was formed supposedly to help keep the roads to Jerusalem safe for pilgrims. Its core members were all from the Merovingian “Grail families,” and they soon went about establishing their own sort of empire throughout Europe — one based upon the power of money. The Templars were legally beholden to none but the Pope, and even that they took lightly, so any land controlled by them was essentially an independent principality. They held possessions throughout the continent, and controlled major industries, especially that of banking. Soon, they had all the princes of Europe indebted to them. It took the Pope and the King of France colluding against them to get them disbanded, excommunicated, and in some cases burnt at the stake before the Templar menace was finally subdued.
Meanwhile, Merovingian descendants were busy reclaiming the throne of the Holy Roman Empire via another avenue. In 1273, Count Rudolf of the Merovingian-entwined Habsburg dynasty (later Habsburg-Lorraine) was elected Holy Roman Emperor, and the title stayed within the family until the Empire itself collapsed in 1806. Interestingly, the Empire was ended by Napoleon, himself husband of a Merovingian princess who had consciously attempted to associate himself with the Merovingian mystique by placing golden bees from the tomb of Merovingian King Childeric III on his coronation robe. It is also interesting to note that, although he was not of royal blood himself, he was recognized as an emperor, and ruled over a pan-European empire much like the one that he had just crushed. The Habsburgs remained the emperors of Austria, and then Austro-Hungary, until the revolution of 1919, making them the longest reigning European dynasty in history. And their role in European politics wasn’t over by a long shot.
It took only 67 years from the end of the Holy Roman Empire for the Merovingian Grail families to begin jockeying once again for control of Europe. The Knights Templar had been the brainchild of another secret society which spawned them: the Priory of Sion, an order dedicated to nothing less than the restoration of the Merovingian bloodline to the thrones of Europe. And in 1873, they sponsored the creation of another front organization — the Hieron du Val d’Or, whose name, as the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail notes, contains an anagram of the place-name “Orval,” a location that seems to be particularly important to the Merovingians and the Priory of Sion. Notably, the word “Orval” contains the syllables which, in French, mean “gold” and “valley.” Thus “Val d’Or” means “Valley of Gold.” In his 1979 book Le Tresor du Triangle d’Or (The Treasure of the Golden Triangle), Jean-Luc Chaumeil states that the Hieron practiced a version of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, and that the upper degrees of this order constituted the lower degrees of the Priory of Sion itself. Chaumeil described the group’s disposition as “Christian, Hermetic, and aristocratic.” They proclaimed themselves to be Catholic, even though the Church of Rome condemned them. Their mystic teachings contained, according to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, “a characteristic emphasis on sacred geometry and various sacred sites… an insistence on a mystical or Gnostic truth underlying mythological motifs,” and “a preoccupation with the origins of men, races, languages, and symbols… ” The order was, “simultaneously Christian and ‘trans-Christian.’ It stressed the importance of the Sacred Heart… sought to recognize Christian and pagan mysteries… [and]… Ascribed special significance to Druidic thought — which it… regarded as partially Pythagorean.” The Hieron du Val d’Or was also unabashedly pro-monarchist, and sought a restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. But this one would be built, unlike the previous one, on an ultimately spiritual basis — a vision specifically echoed in the Priory of Sion’s own literature. The new empire would have been a reflection of Heaven on Earth, that specifically Hermetic Arcadian ideal. Jean-Luc Chaumeil described the Hieron’s agenda as:
“…a theocracy wherein nations would be no more than provinces, their leaders but proconsuls in the service of a world occult government consisting of an elite. For Europe, this regime of the Great King implied a double hegemony of the Papacy and the Empire, of the Vatican and of the Habsburgs, who would have been the Vatican’s right arm.”
The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail were quick to point out that this envisioned scenario accords with the Nostradamus prophecy about the “Great King” who would issue from the House of Lorraine, since the Habsburgs were the House of Lorraine. At the same time, though, this vision accords with that shared by numerous other cultures throughout the world and throughout history who have embraced the myth of the King of the World, a legendary quasi-divine global monarch who, it is said by those who believe in him, currently lives in the center of the Earth, psychically directing the affairs of mankind, and who will incarnate in human form at the end of our current epoch so that he can rule earth directly. It further accords with the “King of the blood of Sion” image discussed in the infamous The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, which, as Holy Blood, Holy Grail hypothesizes, may well have been the minutes of a meeting of the Priory of Sion, as it describes a plot by the descendants of King David to take over the world.
The events surrounding World War I toppled the Western monarchies, and for the first half of this century Europe was in total chaos. It seemed impossible for current events to be any more out of sync with the goals of the Merovingian bloodline during that time. But the chaos worked to their advantage, because it created the need for order. At the close of the First World War, people began to theorize that a united Europe would make it impossible for member countries to go to war with each other in the future. The pitch became even more fevered during and after the Second World War, as people began to realize the true danger of the U.S.S.R. and the need for a united European power bloc to balance the ratio of world power against the Communists. Also, even though most of Europe was appreciative towards the United States for freeing them from Hitler, they also knew that the United States now held more influence than any one European power could hope to stand up to in the case of a conflict. But a United Europe would, once again, create a balance, and stand as a bulwark against both Communist imperialism and bourgeoisie American culture-distortion. Not surprisingly, it was the royal families of Europe, particularly the Grail families, who campaigned for a united Europe, often working through the apparatus of the Priory of Sion and other groups.
During World War II, the Priory was being led by the poet and artist Jean Cocteau, who held the post of Grand Master from 1918 until 1963. However, there was another organization operating under the umbrella of the Priory of Sion known as “Alpha Galates,” lead by M. Pierre Plantard, a direct descendant of Dagobert II, who would one day become the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion itself. Alpha Galates was largely concerned with politics, both of France and of Europe in general. They also published a strange little magazine called Vaincre (Victory). Pierre Plantard has claimed that Vaincre was a Resistance journal (although on the surface it does not appear to be) and indeed, European unity was a popular tenet amongst the Resistance. Vaincre proclaimed the mission of Alpha Galates, which, as described in The Messianic Legacy, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, included:
“1. The unity of France within her geographic frontiers and the abolition of the line of demarcation between German-occupied zones and those under Vichy control;
2. The mobilization of all French energy and resources for the defense of the nation and, particularly, an appeal to the young for obligatory service;
3. The creation of a ‘new western order’, a ‘young European chivalry’ whose keynote was to be ‘Solidarity.’ Within each European nation, this organization, known as ‘Solidarity’, was to represent ‘the first stage of the United States of the West.’”
This idea of the “United States of the West” is one of the predominant themes throughout Vaincre, and is illustrated by a drawing that ran in the first issue. This drawing depicts a mounted knight riding down a road upon which is written “The United States of the West,” situated in between areas labeled “Brittany” and “Bavaria,” towards a rising sunset marked with the sign of Aquarius and “1946,” indicating that the birth of the United States of the West would be the dawn of a new age. For Alpha Galates, this was not merely a dream. It was a plan. Louis le Fur, a member of Alpha Galates, later founded a group called “Energie” that included Robert Schuman, another man who wished for a United States of Europe, and who later became an instrumental figure in the drafting of the plans for the European Economic Community. As the French Foreign Minister, it was his “Schuman Declaration,” made on May 9, 1950, that resulted in the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which combined the coal and steel production of several European countries under the same authority. This constituted the real beginning of the EU, and May 9 is now celebrated as “Schuman Day” in Europe.
But it was not only the men of Alpha Galates and the French Resistance that were dreaming of a United Europe. The dream was alive in Germany, not just with Hitler and his advocates (who clearly wanted to “unite Europe” in a wholly different way) but with the German Resistance as well. The German Resistance was largely centered around an aristocrat named Claus von Stauffenberg, a nobleman and monarchist with a large and loyal following of acolytes called “the Kreisau Circle.” Stauffenberg was responsible for the famous “Bomb Plot” — the attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, now celebrated as Europe’s Stauffenberg Day. Among his circle were his cousins Count Helmut James von Moltke and Hans Adolf von Moltke, the latter of whom was apparently a member of Alpha Galates. In an article from Vaincre, in which it is announced that Pierre Plantard has been elected Grand Master of Alpha Galates, Hans Adolf von Moltke, who is described as “a great German, one of the Masters in our Order,” is quoted as stating:
“I have the pleasure to say, before my departure for Spain, that our Order has at last found a chief worthy of it in the person of Pierre de France.
It is therefore with total confidence that I depart to perform my mission; for while not deluding myself about the perils I run in discharging my duty, I know that until my last breath my watchword will consist of recognition of Alpha Galates and fidelity to its chief.”
Von Moltke had been the German ambassador to both Poland and Britain, and had just been appointed Ambassador to Spain. His cousin Helmut James von Moltke had been attempting to circumvent Hitler by negotiating a peace deal with the Allies himself through associates in Sweden, and it is likely that Hans Adolf von Moltke was on a similar mission in Spain. Von Moltke died in Spain later that year, and although the Allies won the war, the peace that followed was not at all what the Kreisau Circle had in mind. Had they been successful in negotiating their peace deal, Europe may well have turned out much differently that it is today.
This link between the Kreisau Circle and Alpha Galates represents the first definitive link between the French and German Resistance movements yet known. The relationship between the two groups seems not to have begun until 1942, the same year that Vaincre began publishing. Like the members of Alpha Galates, the Kreisau Circle became involved in the planning of the EEC through their associates in the Swiss branch of the British Foreign Office, and through Allen Dulles, then head of the Swiss station of the OSS, which later became, with Dulles at the head, the CIA. As I shall discuss, the Priory of Sion appears to have had a special relationship with the CIA as well.
After the war, Pierre Plantard apparently gained high rank within the Priory of Sion itself, and began editing its official journal, C.I.R.C.U.I.T., which stood for “Chevalierie d’Institutions et Regles Catholiques d’Union Independente et Traditionaliste” (Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union). It was very similar in style and content to that of Vaincre. But in regards to the politics of state, C.I.R.C.U.I.T. did not confine itself to mere statements of opinion. They predicted what they believed would inevitably occur. They argued for the abolition of the French system which carved the country’s geography into departments. They then laid out their own blueprint for the restructuring of the French government — one which would include nine sections: “Council of the Provinces; Council of State; Parliamentary Council; Taxes, Work, and Production; Medical; National Education; Age of Majority; and Housing and Schools.” This doesn’t seem terribly radical. But then, in another article by Plantard, he described plans for the restructuring of the entire world, including:
“…the creation of a Confederation of Lands [becoming] a Confederation of States: the United States of Euro-Africa, which [represents] economically (1) an African and European community of exchange based on a common market and (2) the circulation of wealth in order to serve the well-being of all, this being the sole stable foundation on which peace can be constructed.”
The formation of a United States of Europe appears to have been one of the most consistently-stated goals of the Priory of Sion and those associated with it during the twentieth century. According to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, “The Prieure de Sion [sought] a United States of Europe partly as a bulwark against the Soviet imperium… a self-contained and neutral power bloc capable of holding the balance of power between the Soviet Union and the United States.” The idea of a united Europe was also, as I have mentioned, popular among the French Resistance. It was espoused by people such as the national literary hero of the French, André Malraux, who advocated a “European New Deal” allied against the U.S.S.R. Also in 1942, Winston Churchill was quoted as saying, “I trust that the European family may act united as one under a Council of Europe. I look forward to a United States of Europe.” Organizations such as Pan Europa, founded by Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, began to pop up in the 1940s. Pan Europa included Jean Cocteau’s friend and fellow poet Paul Valery, and is currently directed by Otto von Hapsburg. They employ a Celtic cross as their insignia.
Other groups that were interested in seeing European unity were the Western intelligence agencies, especially British and American intelligence, who sought to build a pro-European network amongst militant Catholic and right-wing political groups. When the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Strategies), precursor of the CIA, was under the control of William Donovan, they attempted to infiltrate the Vatican and put priests in top positions on their payroll. They made use of Father Felix Morlion, founder of Pro Deo (For God), a European Catholic intelligence agency which the O.S.S. funded and installed first in New York, then in the Vatican itself. They also made use of the Society of Jesuits, which has been involved in Catholic espionage for years.
In 1948, the same year that the Congress of Europe met at the Hague, the O.S.S. became the Central Intelligence Agency. Immediately the CIA began funding European political parties, particularly the Christian Democrats, in an attempt to manipulate European governments and pull them to the right. The following year, the ACUE (American Committee on a United Europe) was formed, and William Donovan was made its chairman. Allen Dulles, former head of the O.S.S. in Switzerland, friend of the Von Moltke cousins and future head of the CIA, was Vice-President. The Director of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the future coordinator of the Trilateral Commission, George S. Franklin, was the Secretary. They even had another CIA employee, Thomas Braden, as their Executive Director. It was because of these men that the decision was made for the US State Department to fund the European movement. Following this, Joseph Retinger proceeded to collaborate with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and others to create the now infamous globalist think tank, the Bilderberg Group.
Meanwhile, the CIA busied itself funding organizations and newspapers all over Europe that were pro-Catholic and anti-Communist. A major recipient was Italy’s Christian Democrat party, which had been started by the father of future Pope Paul VI, who was also on their payroll. He had been working as a spy and liaison for the OSS, then later the CIA, since WWII. It has also been said that Pope John Paul II has been receiving weekly intelligence briefings from the CIA since 1978, although it is unknown whether that continues to occur given the Pope’s current state of deterioration.
It was during the 1960s that the CIA began distributing funds to its favored groups through the Vatican’s own bank. This was done with the help of a shadowy, pro-Catholic, anti-Communist Masonic order known as “P2,” which allegedly had lodges not only in Italy, but also France, Portugal, Switzerland, the United States, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Venezuela. As author David Yallop has written in his book In God’s Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I:
“P2 [interlocked] with a number of the military regimes of Latin America, and with a variety of groups of neo-Fascists. It also [interlocked] very closely with the CIA. It [reached] right into the heart of the Vatican. The central common interest of all these elements [was] apparently a hatred and fear of Communism.”
All of this came out in the Italian press when a massive banking scandal broke involving the official Vatican bank, Banco Ambrosiano, and P2. The main figures implicated were P2 members Michael Sindona (a high ranking official in the bank and P2′s financier) and the lodge’s Grand Master, Licio Gelli. He was a man with far-right viewpoints who, after the scandal broke, was found hanging from Blackfriar’s Bridge in London in 1982, in a manner consistent with Masonic ritual.(1) It also lead to the murder of an Italian investigator, Giorgio Ambrosoli, and later that of Michael Sindona himself, who was the chief suspect in the other two murders.
It is known that P2 is under the direction of an even more powerful organization, which one former member, Mino Pecorelli, named as being the CIA.(2) But there is another possibility as well. Supposedly, “P2″ stands for “Propaganda Due,” the meaning of which is not elaborated on. However, it has also been suggested to me that “P2″ simply means “Priory 2,” and that it is a break-off group of the Priory of Sion.
When the P2 scandal broke in 1981, and Licio Gelli’s property was raided, they discovered links between P2 and other organizations that were very high up within the Vatican. These included a Vatican intelligence agency called “Opus Dei,” which controls Vatican Radio, and another group that actually claims descent from the Knights Templar: the Sovereign and Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem. This order, which dates back at least to 1804, claims to have been created by the Templars’ last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, who purportedly drew up a charter naming a successor prior to his execution. They are a genuine continuation, they say, of the original order, and they now dedicate themselves to “antiquarian interests.” However, when the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail met with one of their representatives in 1982, and then did some research on their own, a much more complicated picture emerged.
The representative told the authors that the order had just undergone a schism in which members of their group broke away to form their own, now headquartered in Switzerland. From this another group had spun off that made its headquarters in the Swiss city of Sion, lead by a man named Anton Zapelli, which called itself “Grand Prieure de Suisse.” This organization included a number of members who also belonged to the Grand Suisse Loge Alpina, and Zapelli had been named by one of the informants interviewed for Holy Blood, Holy Grail as being, “the real power behind the Prieure de Sion.” In their subsequent research, the authors came across internal documents from the Grand Prieure de Suisse. They dealt largely with two themes: international banking and European unification, specifically “the role of modern Templars in the reunification of Europe.”
Could it be that the “Gnomes of Zurich” and the powerful men and women throughout Europe who have influenced the formation of the EU were in fact “modern Templars” — members of chivalrous and traditionalist secret societies dedicated to furthering the political goals of the Grail families? That certainly appears to be the case. Pierre Plantard himself admitted as much in his last interview with the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail (which he conducted just after he had withdrawn himself from the Priory of Sion). In this meeting, Plantard expanded upon the Priory of Sion’s political goals for the immediate future. He remarked, according to The Messianic Legacy, that “Mitterand… had been a necessary stepping stone,” but, “had served his purpose, and was expendable. The time had come to move on, and nothing could now stop ‘it’ from doing so.” He said that for some of the Priory’s members, their ultimate aim was a United States of Europe, to balance the power exercised by the Soviet Union and the United States. They also desired a larger “common market” of the Occident, which would include both Europe and the United States. About the involvement of the Vatican in this grand plan, Plantard said that Rome was “cooperating” in accordance with their “ongoing policy” on such matters, “to which individual popes were bound.” Without elaborating much on what this meant, he admitted that, “Certain concessions had been necessary in return, but they were essentially nominal.” The Grail families then, according to Plantard, ultimately control Europe, but do so almost with the permission of the Vatican, the other great power that secretly manipulates European politics. It is a sort of symbiotic relationship built not so much on mutual respect but on the recognition on the part of each that neither party could hope to hold power for very long without the acquiescence of the other. In this way, the situation is much the same as it was during the days of the Holy Roman Empire.
When the European Union officially began in 1950 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), it was a purely economic confederation built for the purpose of helping Europe recover from the war and fend off the growing Communist threat. Today, the European Union is a swiftly coalescing super-state, with a common currency, central bank, parliament, judiciary, police force, and international laws that in many cases overrule member states. Plans are in place to create a standing European army, navy and air force meant to phase out European reliance on NATO and the UN. Europe even has a common flag and a transnational anthem — Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The EU consists of fifteen member countries and is looking to acquire ten more on May 1, 2004 (the pagan holiday of Beltane). It will then contain more than half a billion people. It definitely constitutes a power equal in magnitude to the United States, and the Communist bloc, which it was partially conceived for the purpose of combating, has been destroyed. But the trend towards transnational super-states is growing. Otto von Habsburg stated in a recent interview that, “NAFTA will also develop into such an organization [like the EU.] Then we can gradually come to what will be a global … organization.”
There are those, such as J.R. Church (host of the “Prophecy in the News” television program) and the late Herbert W. Armstrong (of the Worldwide Church of God) who have seen in the EU a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, the kingdom of the Antichrist described in The Revelation of St. John the Divine. In this book, it describes “a woman clothed with the Sun, and the Moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” (Revelation 12.) When one reads this, it is impossible not to think of the flag of the European Union, consisting of twelve stars on a blue field, supposedly because “12 is the number of perfection,” according to the EU’s official website. (This is the same flag proposed in Vaincre for the United States of Europe.) Furthermore, the description of the woman in Revelation 12 accords precisely with that of the Babylonian mother goddess, Ishtar, the “Queen of Heaven,” who also stands upon the Moon, clothed with the Sun, and with a crown of twelve stars around her head. This image was later adapted by the Catholic Church into their image of the Virgin Mary, also called by them the “Queen of Heaven.” Indeed, the Pope has officially declared the Virgin Mary to be the patron deity of the European Union. Also, the twenty pence coin of the British colony Gibraltar once bore the image of the Virgin Mary, crowned with the twelve stars and labeled both “Queen of Heaven” and “Our Lady of Europa.” Ishtar was the Babylonian love goddess, worshipped as a divine whore with the sacred rite of temple prostitution. Can there be any doubt, then, that this is the same goddess discussed later in The Revelation of St. John the Divine when it talks about the Scarlet Woman, “the great whore that sitteth upon many waters… with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication”? St. John describes his vision thusly:
“…and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:4-5.)”
The cup she is described as holding is reminiscent of the Grail, symbolized as a holy vessel. The Catholic Church has personified this image of the scarlet woman in the form of St. Mary Magdalene, the reformed whore of the New Testament who became Christ’s closest disciple (and, according to apocryphal literature, also his wife.) The Grail families worship Mary Magdalene as a personification of the Venus/Ishtar love goddess archetype, and she is often depicted holding a vase “full of healing balm,” which is said by esotericists to symbolize the Grail.
Another notable feature of the Scarlet Woman is the Beast upon which she rides. St. John the Divine states specifically that, “The seven heads [of the Beast] are the seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.” (Revelation. 17:9.) Rome was built upon seven hills, so this statement may indicate the Catholic Church of Rome, a revised version of the old Babylonian priesthood (with the old gods disguised as Christ, Mary and the saints). In Revelation 17:12 it says: “the ten horns… are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the Beast.” Could these be the crown heads of Europe, who will one day rule over ten forthcoming kingdoms in a newly-revised Holy Roman Empire? Herbert W. Armstrong certainly thought so. He believed (in accordance with my own research) that the royal houses of Europe were made up of the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, and that they were destined to establish the kingdom of the Antichrist, exactly as these tribes had been prophesized to do in the Bible.
The image of a woman riding a beast is in itself symbolic of Europe. An ancient Greek myth, discussed in detail in Dagobert’s Revenge Volume 4#1, relates how the goddess Europa (after whom the continent of Europe was named) was kidnapped and raped by the great Zeus in the form of a bull. He came to her from out of the sea, and carried her off beneath the waves. This story has previously been identified this story with the myth of the Quinotaur, or sea bull, whose rape of a Visigothic princess lead to the birth of Meroveus, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty. Of course, the Merovingians went on to provide Europe with the royal families who ruled over the Holy Roman Empire, now currently being resurrected in the form of the European Union. The image of Europa riding the bull is used on numerous official EU documents, including currency, and can be found depicted in motifs and statuary throughout the official EU buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg. (3) This has been interpreted by a number of Bible prophecy preachers as a statement by the EU identifying itself with the Beast of Revelation, yet many of these people are ignorant of the Greek myth of Europa. It is clear, however, that the man who called himself St. John the Divine most certainly was not ignorant of the Greek myth. He saw that the Roman Empire was destined to dominate the world, and he specifically chose to depict it this way.
The Priory of Sion also appears to see in the United States of Europe an apocalyptic scenario, although they declare themselves to be working for the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on Earth. Priory of Sion member Paul le Coeur wrote in his book The Age of Aquarius (4): “Let us try to understand what our mission consists of. Let us try to fulfill it by preparing knights of the Apocalypse whose head will be Christ when he returns!” A one-time spokesman for the Priory, Jean-Luc Chaumeil, even wrote a book about the Priory called Templars of the Apocalypse. One can certainly see their point of view. For one thing, the kings of a future European empire would be blood descendants of Christ, David, and the patriarchs of the Bible, quite fitting for the administrators of God’s kingdom. And if a strong European empire actually managed to fend off the threats to Western organization once and for all, it would indeed seem like Heaven on Earth.
This may be the most convincing argument in favor of a strong European Union: the need for Western civilization, exemplified by Europe, to defend itself against its enemies, especially Islamic fanatics, the same enemy the Holy Roman Empire faced during the time of the Crusades. Today we face a threat that, if not met, could end in the destruction of our culture and the ultimate extinction of our people. This can be done only by presenting a unified front. Only through Europe’s union can a genuine state of peace and security, a true “Pax Europa” be achieved in the West — a peace that will spread throughout the entire world if maintained. In a globe such as ours today, external threats to the Western order need to be met with common immigration policies, travel restrictions, and defense policies, as well as health and safety codes. But even more so, those who attempt to destroy our culture need to be met by a West that is healthy, strong and proud; one which acknowledges its common heritage and cherishes its traditions. The threat that faces us is ultimately spiritual in nature, and therefore our unity must be ultimately spiritual — not merely materialistic and political, which is what the EU appears at present to be. The journalist and philosopher Julius Evola wrote of this concept that, “… the principle of the Empire can have … dignity only by transcending the political sphere in the strict sense, founding and legitimizing itself with an idea, a tradition and a power that is spiritual.” Writer Francis Parker Yockey expressed a similar point of view when he wrote: “the nature of the unity of [Western] culture is purely spiritual in its origin. The material unity that follows is the unfolding precedent of the inner, spiritual unity.” Even the Pope appeared to be making the same argument during a recent speech he gave to the Italian legislature when he said:
“[The] common European house [should be built with] the cement of that extraordinary religious, cultural and civic heritage that has made Europe great down the centuries… It is necessary therefore to be on guard against a vision of the continent which considers only its economic and political aspects, or which critically engages in ways of life based on a consumerism that is indifferent to the values of the spirit. If one wants to give durable stability to Europe’s new unity, it is necessary to ensure that it rests on those ethical foundations which were once at its base… “
It is clear that the heritage which the pontiff is referring to here is that of the Holy Roman Empire, and of the Catholicism that sustained it.
One thing that will be necessary in order for the European Union to survive will be for European society as a whole to reject the overwhelming degree of anti-Americanism that has long been fashionable for them to embrace. The United States has been and will continue to be Europe’s greatest ally, a friend in good times and in bad, something they would not do well to reject. As I explained earlier on, the United States government was integral to the formation (as well as the funding) of the European Economic Community since the very beginning, and US Presidents have always been outspoken in their support of a united Europe. Furthermore, there is obviously a common cultural bond between Europe and North America that cannot be ignored, which is why the Priory of Sion has at times advocated a “United States of the West,” rather than the more restrictive “United States of Europe.” This bond between Europe and America will only become stronger as the common threat to our civilization becomes more grave.
The other thing which European society must resist is its recurrent tendency towards anti-Semitism, once again making a comeback, this time amongst the political left, for whom it is fashionable now to campaign against Israel and maintain belief in Zionist conspiracy theories. Israel, and particularly its capitol of Jerusalem, has been tied to Europe by a spiritual bond since the Crusades. The kings of Europe come from the bloodline of the Jewish kings, and Judeo-Christianity is our predominant religion. There is no straining the Judaism out of Europe without destroying its culture. Furthermore, Jerusalem was once seen as the jewel of the European empire, and there is evidence to indicate that it will be again one day. Writes Tim Cohen in The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea : “In September, 1993, [Shimon] Peres signed a secret deal with the Pope promising Vatican hegemony over Jerusalem’s Old City by the year 2000.” Peres’ friend Mark Halter, who was apparently in charge of delivering the message to the Pope, was quoted as saying that, “The city will stay the capital of Israel, but will be administered by the Vatican. The city will have an Israeli mayor and a Palestinian mayor, both under orders from the Holy See.” A few yeas later, the Pope, barely able to stand, made the difficult journey to Jerusalem to offer a formal reconciliation with the Jewish nation, apologizing for the Vatican’s seeming complicity with the Nazis during the Holocaust. On March 11, 2001, Israeli President Moshe Katsav was quoted by the Bild newspaper as saying that he was “firmly in favor of his country joining the European Union.” France, Britain, and Germany have also expressed their willingness to admit Israel into the EU. Perhaps Israel will be known again one day as the “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.” Let us not forget that Otto von Habsburg still holds the title “King of Jerusalem,” and that the title will revert to is son Karl upon his death.(5)
The only thing that is missing in this vision is a new Clovis, a new Dagobert, a new Charlemagne, what the Priory of Sion refers to as the “Grand Monarch,” the new messianic figure who will be a rallying point for the revival of the Empire. But the appearance of this figurehead will probably not occur until Europe reverts back to its royal tradition of monarchy. This will inevitably develop in a situation in which a unified Europe decides to embrace its common heritage, for it will soon find that without its royal tradition it has no appreciable heritage. A European leader from a royal house with established branches all over Europe is the only sort that would be accepted by people from all European countries. Every other sort of leader would be considered a despot with no mandate to rule. Furthermore, whenever a people embrace or re-embrace an established tradition of monarchy, it always makes them stronger. Julius Evola wrote a great deal on this topic in Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist:
“… in the interpretation of the genesis of historical nations, we shouldn’t forget what was essentially due to dynasties representing a tradition, and to the loyalty that was created around them… .”
Of the sort of government that should lead a united Europe, he continued:
“European unity would always be precarious if it leaned on some external factor, like an international parliament lacking a common higher authority… Only elites of individual European nations could understand one another and coordinate their work, overcoming every particularism and spirit of division, asserting higher interests and motives with their authority. In other times, it was royalty… who could make the great European policy; they regarded each other almost as members of the same family (which, in part, they were, due to dynastic intermarriages), even when grave conflicts temporarily arose between their peoples.”
Finally, Evola made a suggestion for how a European empire could be achieved:
“We could suggest the idea of an order, whose members would act in the various nations, doing what they can to promote an eventual European unity… A first group should be composed of members of ancient European families that are still ‘standing’, and who are valuable not only because of the name they carry, but also because of who they are, because of their personality.”
Evola could have hardly predicted any closer what was soon to occur: the creation of a united Europe by the very same royal bloodlines (the Habsburgs and other Merovingian descendants) who had once ruled over it before, and whose dynasties had been crushed not a century earlier in some instances. The goal of those families — a United States of Europe — is almost fully achieved. Even the title which they envisioned for this new empire is soon to become a reality. In November of 2002, the newspapers reported that the Convention on the Future of Europe, lead by the former President of France, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, has just drafted a proposed constitution for Europe (where currently none exists) in which the very first article declares the establishment of a “United States of Europe.”
Within the next few years, we could be seeing the fulfillment of a millennium’s worth of plotting and manipulation on the part of Europe’s hidden hierarchy — the Merovingian master plan to rebuild the Holy Roman Empire according to their own prerogatives. And you can bet that this time they are not going to give up their empire so easily. They intend this empire to last for a thousand years.
Endnotes:
(1) When initiated, the Masonic candidate takes an oath swearing his loyalty and secrecy on penalty of ritualized murder such as this.
(2) Pecorelli was murdered after making this acknowledgement
(3) It is peculiar to think that the state of Europe uses an official seal depicting a prelude to rape and bestiality.
(4) Published in 1949 and translated by Peter O’Reilly.
(5) The Habsburgs are also the current possessors of the Spear of Destiny once held by Charlemagne.
http://quintessentialpublications.com/twyman/?page_id=77
Originally written for Dagobert’s Revenge Magazine, Copyright 2001(Does not necessarily represent author’s current viewpoint.)
He was therefore also a priest-king, holding spiritual dominion as well as secular dominion, just as previous Roman emperors had done. But when the later Merovingian kings began to exhibit a desire to exercise their own spiritual authority, which rested partially upon the foundation of their blood relationship to Jesus Christ and King David (they were the descendants of both), it sparked a chain of events that culminated in the assassination of Dagobert II, the last effective Merovingian king, and the loss of the title “New Constantine” for his descendants. However, the Merovingians appear to have taken their right to the title, and their right to European hegemony, very seriously, in a manner that seems to be rooted in something more ancient than the time of Clovis. They believe, perhaps because of their descent from Christ and King David, or perhaps because of their descent from an even more illustrious ancestor, that they were already entitled to rule over Europe long before it was sanctioned by the Pope. This “Divine Right” was recognized by their loyal subjects as well, who regarded the Merovingians as semi-divine priest-kings, and who formed a cult worshipping Dagobert II after his death. With a following like that, the Merovingians were not about to give up their rightful inheritance without a fight.
Less than 200 years later, a man named Charlemagne (Charles the Great), who married a Merovingian princess, was made Holy Roman Emperor, and given dominion over a land mass greater even than that which the Merovingians had possessed. Thus began the majestic Carolingian dynasty, consisting after Charlemagne of men with partially Merovingian blood. Charlemagne too was considered a priest-king, and is probably the most famous and beloved figure in French history. For his scepter he carried with him the Spear of Destiny, that holy relic supposedly bloodied by the wound of Christ, which is said to confer upon its possessor transcendental power over the entire Earth. And while he may not have ruled over the entire world in actuality, he did have dominion over its most significant portion. For at that time Western Europe was without a doubt the foremost bastion of culture, science, philosophy, and morality, a light in the darkness, surrounded on all fronts by uncivilized barbarian hordes.
The Carolingian dynasty ended in 918, but the Holy Roman Empire continued to play a decisive role in the unfolding of its destiny. It was during this time that the Empire began to turn its sights towards the Holy Land. The first Crusade began in 1095, and the entire enterprise was brought about because of the pressure that certain Merovingian descendants placed upon the Pope and the nobility of Europe. This resulted in the capture of Jerusalem four years later, and the creation of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem as part of the Holy Roman Empire. The capture was lead by Godfroi de Bouillon, a descendant of Dagobert II, and his brother, Baldwin I, was proclaimed King of Jerusalem. The Merovingian descendants appear to have considered the Holy Land their rightful possession, once again due to their direct descent from King David, and Jerusalem was in a way their coronation stone, legitimizing their eventual return to the rule of the Holy Roman Empire.
It was to this goal that they immediately dedicated themselves, and with the help of Baldwin II (son of Baldwin I, who died shortly after the capture of the Holy Land), a group of Knights was formed supposedly to help keep the roads to Jerusalem safe for pilgrims. Its core members were all from the Merovingian “Grail families,” and they soon went about establishing their own sort of empire throughout Europe — one based upon the power of money. The Templars were legally beholden to none but the Pope, and even that they took lightly, so any land controlled by them was essentially an independent principality. They held possessions throughout the continent, and controlled major industries, especially that of banking. Soon, they had all the princes of Europe indebted to them. It took the Pope and the King of France colluding against them to get them disbanded, excommunicated, and in some cases burnt at the stake before the Templar menace was finally subdued.
Meanwhile, Merovingian descendants were busy reclaiming the throne of the Holy Roman Empire via another avenue. In 1273, Count Rudolf of the Merovingian-entwined Habsburg dynasty (later Habsburg-Lorraine) was elected Holy Roman Emperor, and the title stayed within the family until the Empire itself collapsed in 1806. Interestingly, the Empire was ended by Napoleon, himself husband of a Merovingian princess who had consciously attempted to associate himself with the Merovingian mystique by placing golden bees from the tomb of Merovingian King Childeric III on his coronation robe. It is also interesting to note that, although he was not of royal blood himself, he was recognized as an emperor, and ruled over a pan-European empire much like the one that he had just crushed. The Habsburgs remained the emperors of Austria, and then Austro-Hungary, until the revolution of 1919, making them the longest reigning European dynasty in history. And their role in European politics wasn’t over by a long shot.
It took only 67 years from the end of the Holy Roman Empire for the Merovingian Grail families to begin jockeying once again for control of Europe. The Knights Templar had been the brainchild of another secret society which spawned them: the Priory of Sion, an order dedicated to nothing less than the restoration of the Merovingian bloodline to the thrones of Europe. And in 1873, they sponsored the creation of another front organization — the Hieron du Val d’Or, whose name, as the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail notes, contains an anagram of the place-name “Orval,” a location that seems to be particularly important to the Merovingians and the Priory of Sion. Notably, the word “Orval” contains the syllables which, in French, mean “gold” and “valley.” Thus “Val d’Or” means “Valley of Gold.” In his 1979 book Le Tresor du Triangle d’Or (The Treasure of the Golden Triangle), Jean-Luc Chaumeil states that the Hieron practiced a version of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, and that the upper degrees of this order constituted the lower degrees of the Priory of Sion itself. Chaumeil described the group’s disposition as “Christian, Hermetic, and aristocratic.” They proclaimed themselves to be Catholic, even though the Church of Rome condemned them. Their mystic teachings contained, according to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, “a characteristic emphasis on sacred geometry and various sacred sites… an insistence on a mystical or Gnostic truth underlying mythological motifs,” and “a preoccupation with the origins of men, races, languages, and symbols… ” The order was, “simultaneously Christian and ‘trans-Christian.’ It stressed the importance of the Sacred Heart… sought to recognize Christian and pagan mysteries… [and]… Ascribed special significance to Druidic thought — which it… regarded as partially Pythagorean.” The Hieron du Val d’Or was also unabashedly pro-monarchist, and sought a restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. But this one would be built, unlike the previous one, on an ultimately spiritual basis — a vision specifically echoed in the Priory of Sion’s own literature. The new empire would have been a reflection of Heaven on Earth, that specifically Hermetic Arcadian ideal. Jean-Luc Chaumeil described the Hieron’s agenda as:
“…a theocracy wherein nations would be no more than provinces, their leaders but proconsuls in the service of a world occult government consisting of an elite. For Europe, this regime of the Great King implied a double hegemony of the Papacy and the Empire, of the Vatican and of the Habsburgs, who would have been the Vatican’s right arm.”
The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail were quick to point out that this envisioned scenario accords with the Nostradamus prophecy about the “Great King” who would issue from the House of Lorraine, since the Habsburgs were the House of Lorraine. At the same time, though, this vision accords with that shared by numerous other cultures throughout the world and throughout history who have embraced the myth of the King of the World, a legendary quasi-divine global monarch who, it is said by those who believe in him, currently lives in the center of the Earth, psychically directing the affairs of mankind, and who will incarnate in human form at the end of our current epoch so that he can rule earth directly. It further accords with the “King of the blood of Sion” image discussed in the infamous The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, which, as Holy Blood, Holy Grail hypothesizes, may well have been the minutes of a meeting of the Priory of Sion, as it describes a plot by the descendants of King David to take over the world.
The events surrounding World War I toppled the Western monarchies, and for the first half of this century Europe was in total chaos. It seemed impossible for current events to be any more out of sync with the goals of the Merovingian bloodline during that time. But the chaos worked to their advantage, because it created the need for order. At the close of the First World War, people began to theorize that a united Europe would make it impossible for member countries to go to war with each other in the future. The pitch became even more fevered during and after the Second World War, as people began to realize the true danger of the U.S.S.R. and the need for a united European power bloc to balance the ratio of world power against the Communists. Also, even though most of Europe was appreciative towards the United States for freeing them from Hitler, they also knew that the United States now held more influence than any one European power could hope to stand up to in the case of a conflict. But a United Europe would, once again, create a balance, and stand as a bulwark against both Communist imperialism and bourgeoisie American culture-distortion. Not surprisingly, it was the royal families of Europe, particularly the Grail families, who campaigned for a united Europe, often working through the apparatus of the Priory of Sion and other groups.
During World War II, the Priory was being led by the poet and artist Jean Cocteau, who held the post of Grand Master from 1918 until 1963. However, there was another organization operating under the umbrella of the Priory of Sion known as “Alpha Galates,” lead by M. Pierre Plantard, a direct descendant of Dagobert II, who would one day become the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion itself. Alpha Galates was largely concerned with politics, both of France and of Europe in general. They also published a strange little magazine called Vaincre (Victory). Pierre Plantard has claimed that Vaincre was a Resistance journal (although on the surface it does not appear to be) and indeed, European unity was a popular tenet amongst the Resistance. Vaincre proclaimed the mission of Alpha Galates, which, as described in The Messianic Legacy, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, included:
“1. The unity of France within her geographic frontiers and the abolition of the line of demarcation between German-occupied zones and those under Vichy control;
2. The mobilization of all French energy and resources for the defense of the nation and, particularly, an appeal to the young for obligatory service;
3. The creation of a ‘new western order’, a ‘young European chivalry’ whose keynote was to be ‘Solidarity.’ Within each European nation, this organization, known as ‘Solidarity’, was to represent ‘the first stage of the United States of the West.’”
This idea of the “United States of the West” is one of the predominant themes throughout Vaincre, and is illustrated by a drawing that ran in the first issue. This drawing depicts a mounted knight riding down a road upon which is written “The United States of the West,” situated in between areas labeled “Brittany” and “Bavaria,” towards a rising sunset marked with the sign of Aquarius and “1946,” indicating that the birth of the United States of the West would be the dawn of a new age. For Alpha Galates, this was not merely a dream. It was a plan. Louis le Fur, a member of Alpha Galates, later founded a group called “Energie” that included Robert Schuman, another man who wished for a United States of Europe, and who later became an instrumental figure in the drafting of the plans for the European Economic Community. As the French Foreign Minister, it was his “Schuman Declaration,” made on May 9, 1950, that resulted in the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which combined the coal and steel production of several European countries under the same authority. This constituted the real beginning of the EU, and May 9 is now celebrated as “Schuman Day” in Europe.
But it was not only the men of Alpha Galates and the French Resistance that were dreaming of a United Europe. The dream was alive in Germany, not just with Hitler and his advocates (who clearly wanted to “unite Europe” in a wholly different way) but with the German Resistance as well. The German Resistance was largely centered around an aristocrat named Claus von Stauffenberg, a nobleman and monarchist with a large and loyal following of acolytes called “the Kreisau Circle.” Stauffenberg was responsible for the famous “Bomb Plot” — the attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, now celebrated as Europe’s Stauffenberg Day. Among his circle were his cousins Count Helmut James von Moltke and Hans Adolf von Moltke, the latter of whom was apparently a member of Alpha Galates. In an article from Vaincre, in which it is announced that Pierre Plantard has been elected Grand Master of Alpha Galates, Hans Adolf von Moltke, who is described as “a great German, one of the Masters in our Order,” is quoted as stating:
“I have the pleasure to say, before my departure for Spain, that our Order has at last found a chief worthy of it in the person of Pierre de France.
It is therefore with total confidence that I depart to perform my mission; for while not deluding myself about the perils I run in discharging my duty, I know that until my last breath my watchword will consist of recognition of Alpha Galates and fidelity to its chief.”
Von Moltke had been the German ambassador to both Poland and Britain, and had just been appointed Ambassador to Spain. His cousin Helmut James von Moltke had been attempting to circumvent Hitler by negotiating a peace deal with the Allies himself through associates in Sweden, and it is likely that Hans Adolf von Moltke was on a similar mission in Spain. Von Moltke died in Spain later that year, and although the Allies won the war, the peace that followed was not at all what the Kreisau Circle had in mind. Had they been successful in negotiating their peace deal, Europe may well have turned out much differently that it is today.
This link between the Kreisau Circle and Alpha Galates represents the first definitive link between the French and German Resistance movements yet known. The relationship between the two groups seems not to have begun until 1942, the same year that Vaincre began publishing. Like the members of Alpha Galates, the Kreisau Circle became involved in the planning of the EEC through their associates in the Swiss branch of the British Foreign Office, and through Allen Dulles, then head of the Swiss station of the OSS, which later became, with Dulles at the head, the CIA. As I shall discuss, the Priory of Sion appears to have had a special relationship with the CIA as well.
After the war, Pierre Plantard apparently gained high rank within the Priory of Sion itself, and began editing its official journal, C.I.R.C.U.I.T., which stood for “Chevalierie d’Institutions et Regles Catholiques d’Union Independente et Traditionaliste” (Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union). It was very similar in style and content to that of Vaincre. But in regards to the politics of state, C.I.R.C.U.I.T. did not confine itself to mere statements of opinion. They predicted what they believed would inevitably occur. They argued for the abolition of the French system which carved the country’s geography into departments. They then laid out their own blueprint for the restructuring of the French government — one which would include nine sections: “Council of the Provinces; Council of State; Parliamentary Council; Taxes, Work, and Production; Medical; National Education; Age of Majority; and Housing and Schools.” This doesn’t seem terribly radical. But then, in another article by Plantard, he described plans for the restructuring of the entire world, including:
“…the creation of a Confederation of Lands [becoming] a Confederation of States: the United States of Euro-Africa, which [represents] economically (1) an African and European community of exchange based on a common market and (2) the circulation of wealth in order to serve the well-being of all, this being the sole stable foundation on which peace can be constructed.”
The formation of a United States of Europe appears to have been one of the most consistently-stated goals of the Priory of Sion and those associated with it during the twentieth century. According to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, “The Prieure de Sion [sought] a United States of Europe partly as a bulwark against the Soviet imperium… a self-contained and neutral power bloc capable of holding the balance of power between the Soviet Union and the United States.” The idea of a united Europe was also, as I have mentioned, popular among the French Resistance. It was espoused by people such as the national literary hero of the French, André Malraux, who advocated a “European New Deal” allied against the U.S.S.R. Also in 1942, Winston Churchill was quoted as saying, “I trust that the European family may act united as one under a Council of Europe. I look forward to a United States of Europe.” Organizations such as Pan Europa, founded by Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, began to pop up in the 1940s. Pan Europa included Jean Cocteau’s friend and fellow poet Paul Valery, and is currently directed by Otto von Hapsburg. They employ a Celtic cross as their insignia.
Other groups that were interested in seeing European unity were the Western intelligence agencies, especially British and American intelligence, who sought to build a pro-European network amongst militant Catholic and right-wing political groups. When the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Strategies), precursor of the CIA, was under the control of William Donovan, they attempted to infiltrate the Vatican and put priests in top positions on their payroll. They made use of Father Felix Morlion, founder of Pro Deo (For God), a European Catholic intelligence agency which the O.S.S. funded and installed first in New York, then in the Vatican itself. They also made use of the Society of Jesuits, which has been involved in Catholic espionage for years.
In 1948, the same year that the Congress of Europe met at the Hague, the O.S.S. became the Central Intelligence Agency. Immediately the CIA began funding European political parties, particularly the Christian Democrats, in an attempt to manipulate European governments and pull them to the right. The following year, the ACUE (American Committee on a United Europe) was formed, and William Donovan was made its chairman. Allen Dulles, former head of the O.S.S. in Switzerland, friend of the Von Moltke cousins and future head of the CIA, was Vice-President. The Director of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the future coordinator of the Trilateral Commission, George S. Franklin, was the Secretary. They even had another CIA employee, Thomas Braden, as their Executive Director. It was because of these men that the decision was made for the US State Department to fund the European movement. Following this, Joseph Retinger proceeded to collaborate with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and others to create the now infamous globalist think tank, the Bilderberg Group.
Meanwhile, the CIA busied itself funding organizations and newspapers all over Europe that were pro-Catholic and anti-Communist. A major recipient was Italy’s Christian Democrat party, which had been started by the father of future Pope Paul VI, who was also on their payroll. He had been working as a spy and liaison for the OSS, then later the CIA, since WWII. It has also been said that Pope John Paul II has been receiving weekly intelligence briefings from the CIA since 1978, although it is unknown whether that continues to occur given the Pope’s current state of deterioration.
It was during the 1960s that the CIA began distributing funds to its favored groups through the Vatican’s own bank. This was done with the help of a shadowy, pro-Catholic, anti-Communist Masonic order known as “P2,” which allegedly had lodges not only in Italy, but also France, Portugal, Switzerland, the United States, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Venezuela. As author David Yallop has written in his book In God’s Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I:
“P2 [interlocked] with a number of the military regimes of Latin America, and with a variety of groups of neo-Fascists. It also [interlocked] very closely with the CIA. It [reached] right into the heart of the Vatican. The central common interest of all these elements [was] apparently a hatred and fear of Communism.”
All of this came out in the Italian press when a massive banking scandal broke involving the official Vatican bank, Banco Ambrosiano, and P2. The main figures implicated were P2 members Michael Sindona (a high ranking official in the bank and P2′s financier) and the lodge’s Grand Master, Licio Gelli. He was a man with far-right viewpoints who, after the scandal broke, was found hanging from Blackfriar’s Bridge in London in 1982, in a manner consistent with Masonic ritual.(1) It also lead to the murder of an Italian investigator, Giorgio Ambrosoli, and later that of Michael Sindona himself, who was the chief suspect in the other two murders.
It is known that P2 is under the direction of an even more powerful organization, which one former member, Mino Pecorelli, named as being the CIA.(2) But there is another possibility as well. Supposedly, “P2″ stands for “Propaganda Due,” the meaning of which is not elaborated on. However, it has also been suggested to me that “P2″ simply means “Priory 2,” and that it is a break-off group of the Priory of Sion.
When the P2 scandal broke in 1981, and Licio Gelli’s property was raided, they discovered links between P2 and other organizations that were very high up within the Vatican. These included a Vatican intelligence agency called “Opus Dei,” which controls Vatican Radio, and another group that actually claims descent from the Knights Templar: the Sovereign and Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem. This order, which dates back at least to 1804, claims to have been created by the Templars’ last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, who purportedly drew up a charter naming a successor prior to his execution. They are a genuine continuation, they say, of the original order, and they now dedicate themselves to “antiquarian interests.” However, when the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail met with one of their representatives in 1982, and then did some research on their own, a much more complicated picture emerged.
The representative told the authors that the order had just undergone a schism in which members of their group broke away to form their own, now headquartered in Switzerland. From this another group had spun off that made its headquarters in the Swiss city of Sion, lead by a man named Anton Zapelli, which called itself “Grand Prieure de Suisse.” This organization included a number of members who also belonged to the Grand Suisse Loge Alpina, and Zapelli had been named by one of the informants interviewed for Holy Blood, Holy Grail as being, “the real power behind the Prieure de Sion.” In their subsequent research, the authors came across internal documents from the Grand Prieure de Suisse. They dealt largely with two themes: international banking and European unification, specifically “the role of modern Templars in the reunification of Europe.”
Could it be that the “Gnomes of Zurich” and the powerful men and women throughout Europe who have influenced the formation of the EU were in fact “modern Templars” — members of chivalrous and traditionalist secret societies dedicated to furthering the political goals of the Grail families? That certainly appears to be the case. Pierre Plantard himself admitted as much in his last interview with the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail (which he conducted just after he had withdrawn himself from the Priory of Sion). In this meeting, Plantard expanded upon the Priory of Sion’s political goals for the immediate future. He remarked, according to The Messianic Legacy, that “Mitterand… had been a necessary stepping stone,” but, “had served his purpose, and was expendable. The time had come to move on, and nothing could now stop ‘it’ from doing so.” He said that for some of the Priory’s members, their ultimate aim was a United States of Europe, to balance the power exercised by the Soviet Union and the United States. They also desired a larger “common market” of the Occident, which would include both Europe and the United States. About the involvement of the Vatican in this grand plan, Plantard said that Rome was “cooperating” in accordance with their “ongoing policy” on such matters, “to which individual popes were bound.” Without elaborating much on what this meant, he admitted that, “Certain concessions had been necessary in return, but they were essentially nominal.” The Grail families then, according to Plantard, ultimately control Europe, but do so almost with the permission of the Vatican, the other great power that secretly manipulates European politics. It is a sort of symbiotic relationship built not so much on mutual respect but on the recognition on the part of each that neither party could hope to hold power for very long without the acquiescence of the other. In this way, the situation is much the same as it was during the days of the Holy Roman Empire.
When the European Union officially began in 1950 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), it was a purely economic confederation built for the purpose of helping Europe recover from the war and fend off the growing Communist threat. Today, the European Union is a swiftly coalescing super-state, with a common currency, central bank, parliament, judiciary, police force, and international laws that in many cases overrule member states. Plans are in place to create a standing European army, navy and air force meant to phase out European reliance on NATO and the UN. Europe even has a common flag and a transnational anthem — Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The EU consists of fifteen member countries and is looking to acquire ten more on May 1, 2004 (the pagan holiday of Beltane). It will then contain more than half a billion people. It definitely constitutes a power equal in magnitude to the United States, and the Communist bloc, which it was partially conceived for the purpose of combating, has been destroyed. But the trend towards transnational super-states is growing. Otto von Habsburg stated in a recent interview that, “NAFTA will also develop into such an organization [like the EU.] Then we can gradually come to what will be a global … organization.”
There are those, such as J.R. Church (host of the “Prophecy in the News” television program) and the late Herbert W. Armstrong (of the Worldwide Church of God) who have seen in the EU a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, the kingdom of the Antichrist described in The Revelation of St. John the Divine. In this book, it describes “a woman clothed with the Sun, and the Moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” (Revelation 12.) When one reads this, it is impossible not to think of the flag of the European Union, consisting of twelve stars on a blue field, supposedly because “12 is the number of perfection,” according to the EU’s official website. (This is the same flag proposed in Vaincre for the United States of Europe.) Furthermore, the description of the woman in Revelation 12 accords precisely with that of the Babylonian mother goddess, Ishtar, the “Queen of Heaven,” who also stands upon the Moon, clothed with the Sun, and with a crown of twelve stars around her head. This image was later adapted by the Catholic Church into their image of the Virgin Mary, also called by them the “Queen of Heaven.” Indeed, the Pope has officially declared the Virgin Mary to be the patron deity of the European Union. Also, the twenty pence coin of the British colony Gibraltar once bore the image of the Virgin Mary, crowned with the twelve stars and labeled both “Queen of Heaven” and “Our Lady of Europa.” Ishtar was the Babylonian love goddess, worshipped as a divine whore with the sacred rite of temple prostitution. Can there be any doubt, then, that this is the same goddess discussed later in The Revelation of St. John the Divine when it talks about the Scarlet Woman, “the great whore that sitteth upon many waters… with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication”? St. John describes his vision thusly:
“…and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:4-5.)”
The cup she is described as holding is reminiscent of the Grail, symbolized as a holy vessel. The Catholic Church has personified this image of the scarlet woman in the form of St. Mary Magdalene, the reformed whore of the New Testament who became Christ’s closest disciple (and, according to apocryphal literature, also his wife.) The Grail families worship Mary Magdalene as a personification of the Venus/Ishtar love goddess archetype, and she is often depicted holding a vase “full of healing balm,” which is said by esotericists to symbolize the Grail.
Another notable feature of the Scarlet Woman is the Beast upon which she rides. St. John the Divine states specifically that, “The seven heads [of the Beast] are the seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.” (Revelation. 17:9.) Rome was built upon seven hills, so this statement may indicate the Catholic Church of Rome, a revised version of the old Babylonian priesthood (with the old gods disguised as Christ, Mary and the saints). In Revelation 17:12 it says: “the ten horns… are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the Beast.” Could these be the crown heads of Europe, who will one day rule over ten forthcoming kingdoms in a newly-revised Holy Roman Empire? Herbert W. Armstrong certainly thought so. He believed (in accordance with my own research) that the royal houses of Europe were made up of the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, and that they were destined to establish the kingdom of the Antichrist, exactly as these tribes had been prophesized to do in the Bible.
The image of a woman riding a beast is in itself symbolic of Europe. An ancient Greek myth, discussed in detail in Dagobert’s Revenge Volume 4#1, relates how the goddess Europa (after whom the continent of Europe was named) was kidnapped and raped by the great Zeus in the form of a bull. He came to her from out of the sea, and carried her off beneath the waves. This story has previously been identified this story with the myth of the Quinotaur, or sea bull, whose rape of a Visigothic princess lead to the birth of Meroveus, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty. Of course, the Merovingians went on to provide Europe with the royal families who ruled over the Holy Roman Empire, now currently being resurrected in the form of the European Union. The image of Europa riding the bull is used on numerous official EU documents, including currency, and can be found depicted in motifs and statuary throughout the official EU buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg. (3) This has been interpreted by a number of Bible prophecy preachers as a statement by the EU identifying itself with the Beast of Revelation, yet many of these people are ignorant of the Greek myth of Europa. It is clear, however, that the man who called himself St. John the Divine most certainly was not ignorant of the Greek myth. He saw that the Roman Empire was destined to dominate the world, and he specifically chose to depict it this way.
The Priory of Sion also appears to see in the United States of Europe an apocalyptic scenario, although they declare themselves to be working for the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on Earth. Priory of Sion member Paul le Coeur wrote in his book The Age of Aquarius (4): “Let us try to understand what our mission consists of. Let us try to fulfill it by preparing knights of the Apocalypse whose head will be Christ when he returns!” A one-time spokesman for the Priory, Jean-Luc Chaumeil, even wrote a book about the Priory called Templars of the Apocalypse. One can certainly see their point of view. For one thing, the kings of a future European empire would be blood descendants of Christ, David, and the patriarchs of the Bible, quite fitting for the administrators of God’s kingdom. And if a strong European empire actually managed to fend off the threats to Western organization once and for all, it would indeed seem like Heaven on Earth.
This may be the most convincing argument in favor of a strong European Union: the need for Western civilization, exemplified by Europe, to defend itself against its enemies, especially Islamic fanatics, the same enemy the Holy Roman Empire faced during the time of the Crusades. Today we face a threat that, if not met, could end in the destruction of our culture and the ultimate extinction of our people. This can be done only by presenting a unified front. Only through Europe’s union can a genuine state of peace and security, a true “Pax Europa” be achieved in the West — a peace that will spread throughout the entire world if maintained. In a globe such as ours today, external threats to the Western order need to be met with common immigration policies, travel restrictions, and defense policies, as well as health and safety codes. But even more so, those who attempt to destroy our culture need to be met by a West that is healthy, strong and proud; one which acknowledges its common heritage and cherishes its traditions. The threat that faces us is ultimately spiritual in nature, and therefore our unity must be ultimately spiritual — not merely materialistic and political, which is what the EU appears at present to be. The journalist and philosopher Julius Evola wrote of this concept that, “… the principle of the Empire can have … dignity only by transcending the political sphere in the strict sense, founding and legitimizing itself with an idea, a tradition and a power that is spiritual.” Writer Francis Parker Yockey expressed a similar point of view when he wrote: “the nature of the unity of [Western] culture is purely spiritual in its origin. The material unity that follows is the unfolding precedent of the inner, spiritual unity.” Even the Pope appeared to be making the same argument during a recent speech he gave to the Italian legislature when he said:
“[The] common European house [should be built with] the cement of that extraordinary religious, cultural and civic heritage that has made Europe great down the centuries… It is necessary therefore to be on guard against a vision of the continent which considers only its economic and political aspects, or which critically engages in ways of life based on a consumerism that is indifferent to the values of the spirit. If one wants to give durable stability to Europe’s new unity, it is necessary to ensure that it rests on those ethical foundations which were once at its base… “
It is clear that the heritage which the pontiff is referring to here is that of the Holy Roman Empire, and of the Catholicism that sustained it.
One thing that will be necessary in order for the European Union to survive will be for European society as a whole to reject the overwhelming degree of anti-Americanism that has long been fashionable for them to embrace. The United States has been and will continue to be Europe’s greatest ally, a friend in good times and in bad, something they would not do well to reject. As I explained earlier on, the United States government was integral to the formation (as well as the funding) of the European Economic Community since the very beginning, and US Presidents have always been outspoken in their support of a united Europe. Furthermore, there is obviously a common cultural bond between Europe and North America that cannot be ignored, which is why the Priory of Sion has at times advocated a “United States of the West,” rather than the more restrictive “United States of Europe.” This bond between Europe and America will only become stronger as the common threat to our civilization becomes more grave.
The other thing which European society must resist is its recurrent tendency towards anti-Semitism, once again making a comeback, this time amongst the political left, for whom it is fashionable now to campaign against Israel and maintain belief in Zionist conspiracy theories. Israel, and particularly its capitol of Jerusalem, has been tied to Europe by a spiritual bond since the Crusades. The kings of Europe come from the bloodline of the Jewish kings, and Judeo-Christianity is our predominant religion. There is no straining the Judaism out of Europe without destroying its culture. Furthermore, Jerusalem was once seen as the jewel of the European empire, and there is evidence to indicate that it will be again one day. Writes Tim Cohen in The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea : “In September, 1993, [Shimon] Peres signed a secret deal with the Pope promising Vatican hegemony over Jerusalem’s Old City by the year 2000.” Peres’ friend Mark Halter, who was apparently in charge of delivering the message to the Pope, was quoted as saying that, “The city will stay the capital of Israel, but will be administered by the Vatican. The city will have an Israeli mayor and a Palestinian mayor, both under orders from the Holy See.” A few yeas later, the Pope, barely able to stand, made the difficult journey to Jerusalem to offer a formal reconciliation with the Jewish nation, apologizing for the Vatican’s seeming complicity with the Nazis during the Holocaust. On March 11, 2001, Israeli President Moshe Katsav was quoted by the Bild newspaper as saying that he was “firmly in favor of his country joining the European Union.” France, Britain, and Germany have also expressed their willingness to admit Israel into the EU. Perhaps Israel will be known again one day as the “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.” Let us not forget that Otto von Habsburg still holds the title “King of Jerusalem,” and that the title will revert to is son Karl upon his death.(5)
The only thing that is missing in this vision is a new Clovis, a new Dagobert, a new Charlemagne, what the Priory of Sion refers to as the “Grand Monarch,” the new messianic figure who will be a rallying point for the revival of the Empire. But the appearance of this figurehead will probably not occur until Europe reverts back to its royal tradition of monarchy. This will inevitably develop in a situation in which a unified Europe decides to embrace its common heritage, for it will soon find that without its royal tradition it has no appreciable heritage. A European leader from a royal house with established branches all over Europe is the only sort that would be accepted by people from all European countries. Every other sort of leader would be considered a despot with no mandate to rule. Furthermore, whenever a people embrace or re-embrace an established tradition of monarchy, it always makes them stronger. Julius Evola wrote a great deal on this topic in Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist:
“… in the interpretation of the genesis of historical nations, we shouldn’t forget what was essentially due to dynasties representing a tradition, and to the loyalty that was created around them… .”
Of the sort of government that should lead a united Europe, he continued:
“European unity would always be precarious if it leaned on some external factor, like an international parliament lacking a common higher authority… Only elites of individual European nations could understand one another and coordinate their work, overcoming every particularism and spirit of division, asserting higher interests and motives with their authority. In other times, it was royalty… who could make the great European policy; they regarded each other almost as members of the same family (which, in part, they were, due to dynastic intermarriages), even when grave conflicts temporarily arose between their peoples.”
Finally, Evola made a suggestion for how a European empire could be achieved:
“We could suggest the idea of an order, whose members would act in the various nations, doing what they can to promote an eventual European unity… A first group should be composed of members of ancient European families that are still ‘standing’, and who are valuable not only because of the name they carry, but also because of who they are, because of their personality.”
Evola could have hardly predicted any closer what was soon to occur: the creation of a united Europe by the very same royal bloodlines (the Habsburgs and other Merovingian descendants) who had once ruled over it before, and whose dynasties had been crushed not a century earlier in some instances. The goal of those families — a United States of Europe — is almost fully achieved. Even the title which they envisioned for this new empire is soon to become a reality. In November of 2002, the newspapers reported that the Convention on the Future of Europe, lead by the former President of France, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, has just drafted a proposed constitution for Europe (where currently none exists) in which the very first article declares the establishment of a “United States of Europe.”
Within the next few years, we could be seeing the fulfillment of a millennium’s worth of plotting and manipulation on the part of Europe’s hidden hierarchy — the Merovingian master plan to rebuild the Holy Roman Empire according to their own prerogatives. And you can bet that this time they are not going to give up their empire so easily. They intend this empire to last for a thousand years.
Endnotes:
(1) When initiated, the Masonic candidate takes an oath swearing his loyalty and secrecy on penalty of ritualized murder such as this.
(2) Pecorelli was murdered after making this acknowledgement
(3) It is peculiar to think that the state of Europe uses an official seal depicting a prelude to rape and bestiality.
(4) Published in 1949 and translated by Peter O’Reilly.
(5) The Habsburgs are also the current possessors of the Spear of Destiny once held by Charlemagne.
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