CHARTRES CATHEDRAL

I first went to Chartres in 1965, as a college student. It was jsut another big, famous building on a long list. Twenty years later, when I lived in France for two years, I went to Chartres a number of times. (I lived far away, to the south, so it was a 13 hour drive. My visits corresponded to the times I went to Paris.)

The first books I read were the popular ones filled with mysteries and esoteric pronouncements, such as Charpentier's Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral. My interest carried me deeper, however, causing me to continue reading. As I learned what really had happened there, and what the cathedral really had to say, all of those hokey mysteries seemed shallow and irrelevant. Although not made up completely from whole cloth, nevertheless, most of those mysteries are rediculous speculation which totally ignore verifiable history.

Chief among those mysteries (which are all popular now, thanks to Dan Brown's influence on esoteric fiiction) are the suggestion that the Templars had something to do with building the cathedrals. Even recently, yet another book has come out (by Gordon Strachan) about Chartres Cathedral and sacred geometry. Once again, his hypothesis is that the Templars followed the crusaders to the Holy Land, where they encamped in the ruins of Solomon's temple. Most versions say they dug up some kind of document or relics. Strahan's version is that they studied with Sufi's and learned esoteric knowledge, which then led to the building of the cathedrals.

There is only one problem with this kind of scurilous scholarship. There is an identifiable stone trail of the origin of the various features that led to the Gothic style. We know where the first pointed arches were, and flying buttresses, and so forth. In a number of cases, they pre-dated the Templars. Besides, how would that have worked? One day a Templar comes to Chartres and knocks on the Bishop's palace. "Excuse me, but would you mind if I build you a great big church, larger than anything that has been done before, using secret knowledge that I learned from the Sufis?" Not withstanding the question of why the Sufis would share their knowledge with the folks that were trying to kill them, such a hypothesis doesn't take into account the considerable social and economic and political factors that must lead to such an enrmous undertaking within any society. (Charpentier suggests that the Templars funded the cathedrals by secretly going to the New World -- three hundred years before Columbus -- and getting gold from Mexico.)

There is a school in Oakland, CA, that has been promoting their curriculum called, "The New Chartres School." During the Middle Ages the school at Chartres was on the leading edge of knowledge. This new version sounded great. They were holding their week-long seminars in Chartres, itself. Then, disappointingly, I looked at their book lists. It included Charpentier and Strachan, not as bad examples, but as their source of information. So they wasted everyone's time filling them with that garbage rather than teaching and learning something true and far more exciting. I was so disappointed that I spent a whole day writing a rebuttal, which I hoped they would distribute to the participants. But I excpect it was deleted as being the ravings of some unknown madman. (How many of them have been to Chartres 50 times?). If you want to see it, here's a link. It's called "Mything the Point."

So is there a good book on Chartres, aside from a few shallow guidebooks? I like anything by John James or Anne Prache. I was expecting the worst when I encountered Cathedral of the Black Madonna: The Druids and the Mysteries of Chartres by Jean Markale. (Druids were the priestly class of the Celts, who likely inhabited the area. Beyond that, we actually know nothing. Here, too, is a lot of speculation.) It turns out that the title is cleverly meant to draw people in, but once there, he identifies these theories as unlikely. Meanwhile, he has some very beautiful and respectful material about the cathedral and other matters. His other books are on topics such as Druids, Divine Feminine, Cathars, Mary Magdelene, and several on the Celts. He certainly is keeping company with all of those essoteric folks. But he seems fairly credible.I plan to check out some of his other books.

So, I have a few photos on the right. Otherwise, once again, the body of the desireable material is on my larger, Labyrinth Enterprises, LLC, website. See www.labyrinth-enterprises.com/chartresresources.html. Having retired from One Heart Tours (as director, I led tours to Chartres for 17 years) in 2004, will I ever again lead groups to Chartres Cathedral? Well, never say never, but it is not likely until I am fully retired from the labyrinth business.

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Our groups received permission to go to the high parts of the exterior of the cathedral that are closed to the general public.

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Friends, in Chartres: Diane, Judy, Lea.

.Here the cathedral, even in modern times, towers over the surrounding town. Think of the impressing 1,000 years ago!

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Here I am, giving a tour around 1999.

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Taken by Sonia Halliday and copyrighted by Pitkin (they make postcards and posters of this, which we used to sell), I got permission to put this photo on my website. It is a beautiful photo of the labyrinth in its setting (taken for the inside cover of a guidebook by Malcolm Miller). Chartres has the widest nave of any of the French cathedrals (except for an obscure church in Mirepoix, near where I used to live). The labyrinth itself is 42 ft. 3 3/8 in. in diameter.

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Here one of my groups is walking the labyrinth. The floor is made of a dense limestone quarried nearby. The lines are marble, from an area north of Paris. If you have read my bio, then you will appreciate that to the right of this photo, with the white shawl, is Ruth, my wife of 18 years. On the left, in the blue dress, is Susan, my pevious wife (for 10 years). It's just a coincidence that I had two wives at the same place at the same time.

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When you look up in the cathedral, you see the vaults high above you. This is what is on the other side of those vaults (the attic, if you will). In 1836 the wooden roof burned and was replaced by the largest cast iron structure until the Eiffel Tower was built more than fifty years later. Very impressive.

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This is what is holding it all up. For the first time, the great master of Chartres assembled together all of the elements that would become the model for all subsequent Gothic churches. If you think of each detail as an instrument, it was at Chartres that the symphony first played. That is why Chartres is so special.