Photos: Régor Mougeot

Photos: Régor Mougeot

Francais 

Le Hurpoix is in the Essonne (department 91), France.

The Hurepoix is a wooded hilly region S of Paris, between the Beauce, the Brie and the Gâtinais. It's principal towns are Montlhéry, Dourdan and Etampes, the former capital of the kingdom of France. Here those who 'have eyes to see' may rediscover the old Tradition, return to the Source if they follow the Vouivre... the Dragon Path... the ley.

The "Pape des Escargots" [2] spoke of the Vouivre, which symbolises the telluric currents which flow through the earth. This is the snake / dragon which is so frequently represented on the capitals and garoyles of churches and cathedrals... which is referred to in so many place names and local legends... those places where it nourished with it's energy the accupuncture points of the earth, linking with cosmic energy to make such places as Orcival, Rocamadour, Longpont-sur-Orge, Sainte-Foix de Conques, Chartres etc so highly-charged places of Spirit.

Over the centuries standing stones and other structures have been erected to mark the many kinds of healing sacred site (eg holy wells and other sites revered for their healing qualities) which have been nourished by this energy.

Every pilgrimage which follows these Dragon Paths enables us to recharge our energies from the Source. No need to visit town shrines - it is sufficient to follow the old Ways and leys to receive their blessings.

If you visit Longpont-sur-Orge you will have the pleasure of discovering the Basilica. In the past an initiation took place here underground, in the belly of the Vouivre. The initiate was devoured by the ogre - Dragon - to return transformed, reborn, just as Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the whale before being spat out st Ninive or Sainte Marguerite.

If you visit Longpont-sur-Orge you may visit the Basilica where in the past an initiation took place underground, in the very belly of the Vouivre. The initiate was devoured by the ogre - Dragon - to return transformed, reborn, just as Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the whale before being spat out at Ninive or Sainte Marguerite.

The word Orge is said to be derived from the word ogre (others would say that it related to the term orgone. ed)

[1] - George et Régine Pernoud, Le Tour de France Médiéval, Ed. Stock, 1982, p.73.
[2] - Roman d’Henri Vincenot.
[3] - Voir : Kintia Appavou et Régor R. Mougeot, La Vouivre, un symbole universel, Ed. EDIRU, 2006.
[4] - Voir : Régor, Du Cheminement Initiatique imagé par saint Roch et sa Vie Exemplaire d’après les Enseignements d’Emmanuel, Ed. Les Amis du Désert, 1988.
[5] Emmanuel, Le Bréviaire du Chevalier, Tome 1, Ed. Le Point d’eau, 1983, p.181.
[6] - Ed. EDIRU, 2006.
[7] - De nombreuses représentations semblables existent, dont par exemple, la statue de cette sainte dans l’église de Saint-Marcel (Berry). Marguerite est la christianisation de Morgane. La sonorité MRG se retrouve dans les deux mots, mais aussi dans MoRGue, MaRGot, Mère-Grand, MèRe-Guérisseuse.

At the basilica of ND de Cléry near Orleans one may see, in one of the windows a coat of arms depicting a serpent regurgitating a man, with a royal crown : this can only be the motif of a lord who had gone through an initiation "in the belly of the viper"; he has acquired a real kingdom; the heart, the body and the spirit.

Nearby is Sainte Geneviève des Bois. The woods have long since disappeared, but within an urban area it is surprising to find a much frequented holy well, which still enjoys a pagan veneration of St Geneviève. Anyone visiting the site for a short while may witness local people coming to drink from the spring, to wash their feet and to pour the water over their skin problems... and also over those of their pets.

This is a very popular site, with many votive offerings of flowers, candles and images of the saints. Here are christian and pagan devotions side-be-side, moving in their simplicity and in the confidence of the people who come here to be healed.

From the marshes of the Orc Geneviève provisioned Paris by boat while the town was beseiged by the Huns, so preventing famine.

Geneviève was a druid priestess, born at Nanterre. " Genova " in the language of the celts signified " daughter of the sky ". In the old language Nanterre signified 'Nemeto-durum' (Nemeton = holy place / sanctuary / temple. durum = a place of spirit / stronghold / fortress). [1]

[1] - Pierre Gordon, Les racines sacrées de Paris et les traditions de l’Ile-de-France, Arma Artis, 1981, p. 34

Until the days of St denis, Longpont sur Orge was a druid sacred site dedicated to Isis. This may seem surprising, but there had long been close links between ancient Egypt and Europe; there are many ancient sacred sites in France dedicated to Isis.

So it is not for nothing that the present day capital is called " Paris "[1] and that the Ile-de-France has been known as " Parisis " (of Isis).

The coinage struck by Hugues Capet was called parisis.

Isis is the ancestor of the black madonnas, as is also the great goddess Annis known as " Black Annis " [2] of the Tuatha de Danann.

In India the figure of the Black Mother is Kali, which means " The Black ".

The Earth Mother is black, like the darkness of the ancient initiation caves. "This blackness is the Light of the Unmanifest, the Black Light which the Black Madonna, Black Isis, the Primordial Serpent symbolises, before the separation of Light and Shadow" [3].

The real Black Madonna who succeeds the earlier Black Mother, being Nature Herself, is usually represented without child, or with an adult child holding the globe of the world in his hand representing manifestation. The goal of innitiation is to return to the point of origin, to regain the state of innocence"

[1] - Le vocable celtique Par ou Bar, signifie « bateau ». Ainsi Paris porte toujours un bateau dans ses armoiries. La « barque d’Isis », « qui flotte mais ne coule pas », est aussi la nef blanche, le vaisseau du salut. Voir : Pierre Gordon : Les racines sacrées de Paris…, Op. cit.
[2] - Pierre Gordon, Essais : les Vierges Noires, Mélusine, l’origine des contes de fées, Arma Artis, 1983, p. 1.
Notons que la déesse Annis fut christianisée en sainte Anne, si chère au cœur des Bretons, et dont on ne dit rien dans les Evangiles!
[3] - Notre livre, Le Miroir symbole des symboles, Ed. Dervy, 1995, p.16
[4] - Sermons, Seuil, note 59.
[5] - Emmanuel-Yves Monin, Conférence inédite.

Since time immemorial Isis has been revered at Longpont sur Orge.The druids would have been converted to christianity on hearing the predications of St Yon / Yvon, and of St Sulpice, both disciples of St Denis; they also awaited " the pregnant madonna ".

It can be difficult to know if, at the beginning of christianity, the druids were converted to christianity or the opposite! There was a symbiosis and unity between the two - demonstrated by the similarities between the irish and breton saints and other magicians and shamans. Many churches and abbeys such as at Bénévent [1] in the Creuse, were built to the divine proportion - the golden rule and the celtic cross - until forbidden by papal decree!

Saint Denis never came to Longpont, but rather his disciples, St Sulpice and St Yon / Yvon.

Near Longpont-sur-Orge there are the remains of a Temple of Mercury. The column surmounted by a cross in wrought iron is still to be found in the basilica.

According to legend Audierne de Montlhéryn, wife of the local lord, seized this cross while it was red hot without being burned. She therefore became a christian of such ardent belief that the other inhabitants also converted to christianity. She had the first church built here.

Of the former Abbey de Longpont nothing remains. However the whole area is particularly sacred. On the opposite side of the river Orge is Saint-Michel-sur-Orge; St Michel / St Michael succeeded Mercury as the Liberator. The pole (Mercury) is the celestial pole which is required to master the telluric energy - maintaining in place with the lance (St Michael) the serpent / dragon for the proper functioning of the telluric and cosmic energies. These are two aspects of the same energy, the sky and the earth, the active yang and the receptive yin. The "short circuits" of the human mind may interfere and prevent the proper functioning; the energy becoming diverted, causing wars in society, illness in humans.

At the entrance to the basilica, on the central pillar is a remarkable madonna, standing on two serpent dragons.

Similarly elsewhere; for example the figure of Christ at the great door of Notre-Dame in Paris, also supported by two vouivres. If one could enter by this door (sadly always kept closed nowadays) one would descend many steps, clearly demonstrating that one is entering underground.

The cult of the Black Madonna at Longpont succeeded that of Isis over many centuries. The holy well behind the main altar was still accessible until around 1950.

A small piece of the original Black Madonna still exists, contained within the present White Madonna known as Notre-Dame de Bonne Garde. According to Pierre Gordon who saw it, "a small black figure (0,30 m) in pear wood, dating from the 17th century and known as Notre-Dame de Bénédiction, accompanied him". [1] This figure has since disappeared.

The basilica sits in marshy terrain, making excavations impossible. There must once have been a network of tunnels communicating with the château de Montlhéry and Brétigny-sur-Orge. A legend tells of the treasure of Longpont which was buried beneath the basilica during the revolution. But the real treasur was the initiation which one received here.

Sometimes the treasures guarded by dragons are not what we imagine! They are far more valuable than vulgar gold. Just as the dragon's treasure of fable is not the precious stone or gem at the dragon's head, but the third eye which it symbolises.

"According to tradition the Black Madonna at Longport was originally kept in a hole in an oak tree. In other words she was as the spirit of a divine tree. It was there that she was discovered. Around 50 BC the Camutes came to ask for a copy, so she is older than the Mother of Chartres". [2]

A neighbouring small village takes it's name from St Yon, who built an oratory there, and gave a christian meaning to the pagan effigy.

Longpont had a Black Mother long before chartres. "At Chartres, where the holy well and the Black Mother seem to have been left outside the christian sanctuary, they were enclosed by the new cathedral, built in the 11th century by Fulbert" [3]. This ancient celtic holy well had been called "puits des Saints-Forts" (= Well of the Strong Saints). No-one knows the reason for this. However, in the La Langue des Oiseaux (= Language of the Birds) [4], which was used by alchemists, seekers etc, when decrypted refers to the four elements: F (Feu = fire), O (eau = water), R (air), T (terre =earth). The saints who have mastered the four elements are indeed strong! What is more, S is the symbol of the Energy of the Serpent.

On the vaulted roof of the basilica a huge 19th century fresco has been completely restaured. The fresco shows the Virgin Mary coming out of the druid oak, holding in her arms the infant Jesus as angels play trumpets. This fresco shows the continuity of druidry and christianity. At each side the evangelists talk or preach to the druids as well as the saints Anne, Louis, the queen Audierne de Montlhéry, and St Jean Vianney.

[1] - Pierre Gordon, Essais : les Vierges Noires, Mélusine, l’origine des contes de fées, Arma Artis, 1983, p. 12.
[2] - Idem, p. 13
[3] - Id., p. 2.
[4] - Voir : Emmanuel-Yves Monin, Hiéroglyphes Français et Langue des Oiseaux, Ed. Le Point d’Eau, 1994.

The energy is perceptible not only in the building, but throughout the whole valley or the Orge. A long wooden bridge once crossed the marshes here. But the Long Pont (= Long Bridge) is also that of the initiation which makes us cross from one side to the other.

There is no point coming here to measure the telluric currents with instruments! They cange position according to the seasons and the intensity varies with the solstices. All holy places carry a cosmic message which "is not in fact a demonstration of a great ancient science which frees the magnetic energy of a place in such a way that it becomes capable of taking a man to a state of great spirituality" [1] .

Once once finds oneself in such a place the unique quality of life becomes coloured by the telluric and cosmoc energy in the duality of manifestation, rather than by the projected mental colours of men.

Druidry, paganism, christianity etc offer little to those who know how to get essentials, the original Tradition from which they sprang. In such places the energy gives health [2] if one can abandon former beliefs and life in complete simplicity... For that "await the End which is the MEETING with the SOURCE OF LIFE" [3].

Pilgrimages on the Way of the Vouivre / Dragon / Serpent is a means to this!

[1] - Jacques Bonvin, Vierges Noires. La réponse vient de la terre, Ed. Dervy-Livres, 1988, p. 127.
[2] - Etre « sain(t) » sans T, c’est faire retour au sein de l’Unité du multiple, révèle la Langue des Oiseaux.
[3] - Emmanuel (Yves Monin), Le Manuscrit des Paroles du Druide sans nom et sans visage, Ed.du Point d’Eau, 1990, p. 351.

Robert-Régor Mougeot