The Organisation of phi

The revelation of John.

21.v9 « Then one of the seven angels that held the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke to me and said, « come, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb, » So in the spirit he carried me away to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from GOD. It shone with the glory of GOD ; it had the radiance of some priceless jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall, with twelve gates, at which were twelve angels ; and on the gates were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

This passage from the revelation of John describes the Holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from God. It had twelve gates, with twelve angels and on the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Following the initial moment of creation, the 2:1 division and the seven-fold numerology, the divine enters into the material through a twelve-fold organisation. The unity between consciousness and the divine pattern is most obviously found in the twelve-fold numerology associated with the disciples of Jesus, the twelve knights of Arthurian Legend, twelve monks that founded the abbey at Clairvaux and the twelve signs of the zodiac. The twelve-fold symbology is obtained from the square table by adding to it four equilateral triangles (fig 9).

We can now consider how the compliance with the divine pattern as explained symbolically by Saint John and Plato has influenced the construction of Auxerre and its zodiac.

The Sacred Geometry of Auxerre

Auxerre lies in the middle of north west Burgundy and the department of the Yonne, of which it is the capital. The ancient settlement gained its greatest recognition in 346 AD when it became an important seat of bishops.

The length of one side of the square table contained within Chartres cathedral is 9,656 m (fig 9). Four equilateral triangles fit around this square to multiply the square’s length by two . A continuation of this multiplication gives :

9,656 x 2⁶ = 0,618 Km

or 1/phiKm

1/phi Km is the distance between points of the equilateral triangles (fig 10). A twenty four division of the pattern (fig 9) forms the blue-print of Auxerre town centre. However, it is the seal of Solomon that is most obviously highlighted in the construction of the town centre.

Fig 10 and fig 11 illustrate how the ancient religious monuments and street plan conform with the pattern.

The centre of town is the place Marechal Leclerc. This was the site of the original cathedral of Auxerre which became the Chapelle Saint Alban before its destruction. Archaeological excavations date an original circular construction to the 3^rd century AD.

Running directly through the town centre and forming the main axis of the seal of Solomon is the Rue de Paris which becomes Rue Germain Benard. This road is built on an original Roman road connecting Paris and Lyon. The other Roman road, connecting Auxerre to Nevers, and forming one of the 24 divisions, is now the Rue du Temple, so named because of its location of the Auxerre Templar headquarters.

Three of the six points of the seal of Solomon are marked by major religious buildings (Fig 11 following page) .

-The cathedral of St Etienne, of which the first foundations were laid by the bishop Saint Amatre at the end of the 4^th century. The construction of the present cathedral was started by the bishop Guillaume de Seignelay in 1215AD.

-the church of St Eusebe dating from the 13^th century, built on the site of a monastery founded around 640AD by Saint Pallade.

-the church of Saint Pierre, which replaces an original abbey founded by the bishop Aunaire at the end of the 6^th century.

All three of these monuments replaced earlier religious constructions and they were all rebuilt in the style of the sacred Gothic architecture which occurred as a result of the first crusade to the Holy Land.

The cathedral of St Etienne and the churches of St Eusebe and St Pierre have been protected and developed over the centuries, but there have been more ancient religious sites contained within the pattern of Auxerre centre that have been destroyed or simply neglected and forgotten.

The « documents d’évaluation du patrimoine des villes de France » gives the following list of all the known sites and their location. Apart from only two exceptions, they are all contained within a circle of diameter 2/phi Km (Fig 12).

1-Basilica St Amatre

2-Basilica, then church, then chapel Saint Alban

3-Cathedral St Etienne

4-Oratory Saint Maurice

5-Monastery Saint Come and Saint Damien then monastery Saint Marien (first placement)

6-Church Ste Marie then collegiate church Notre-Dame-de-la-Cité

7-Basilica, then monastery Saint-Pierre-en-vallée

8-Monastery Saint Martin, then parish church Saint-Martin-les-Saint-Marien

9-Basilica Saint Christophe

10-Basilica St Pierre and St Jacques

11-Basilica then abbey Saint Julien

12-Church then parish church Saint Mamert

13-Basilica , then collegiate church Saint Eusebe

14-Basilica Sainte Marie, then monastery Notre Dame-La-d’Hors,then parish church Notre Dame-La-d’Hors.

15-Basilica Saint Gervais

16-Chapel Saint Clément

17-Chapel then church Saint Pèlerin

18-Baptistery Saint Germain

19-Baptistery Saint Jean Baptiste

20-Church Saint Loup

Religious establishments developed in the XIIth and XIIIth centuries

21-Convent Franciscan

22-Convent Dominican

23-Chapel and Templar commandery

24-Parish church then chapel Saint Etienne le petit

25-Synagogue

Of particular interest is the placement of the Templar commandery (23) and a synagogue (25) close to the centre of the pattern.

Up until 1206AD there was a synagogue very close to the exact centre of the seal of Solomon pattern. This pattern was the esoteric symbol used by the Jewish occultists.

Further evidence of the four equilateral triangles as the basis of Auxerre’s street plan is given by the emergence of the Maltese cross of the Templars, also contained within this pattern (Fig 13).

The Templars were established in Auxerre, at the latest, by the end of the XIIth century. In 1239 AD they had bought several properties and constructed the Templar commandery on the old Roman road now known as the Rue du Temple.

The Rue du Temple is one of the two Roman roads that pass through the centre of Auxerre’s seal of Solomon pattern. This street forms one of the 24 spokes spreading out from the centre and is the location of the Templar commandery.

From the Templar commandery it passes through the original cathedral of Saint Alban (2)(Fig 12) and continues through the site of the abbey Saint Germain (18) and the monastery Saint Martin-les-Saint Marien (8).

The Cult of « Notre Dame »

In order to know why the Templars specifically chose the Rue du Temple as the site for a commandery, we need to understand the importance of the cult of the virgin Mary and the astrological sign of Virgo in Templar history.

In early Christian times, the site of the present cathedral at Chartres was one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in France, but even before then it was of great religious importance to the Celts. The destination of the pilgrims was « Notre-Dame-De-Dessous-Terre » or the statue of the black Virgin in the cave underneath the cathedral. This ancient statue of a woman sitting down with a child on her knees was presented with the inscription in Latin « Virgini Pariturae » meaning « the virgin will have child ».

This prophetic statue dates from before the Christians, possibly even before the Celts.

The cave which contains the statue is the site of the druid wells and dolmen, and above these is where the Templars chose to construct their masterpiece of Gothic architecture, the cathedral Notre Dame.

If we examine the position of the major cathedrals from the XIIth and XIIIth centuries dedicated to Notre Dame in the ancient provinces of Champagne, Picardie, Ile de France and Neustrie, we find that they trace out on the ground the celestial constellation of Virgo.

In 1310 AD, at the time of the persecution of the Templars in France, the following defence, in form of a prayer, was offered to the pontifical prosecutors :

(to GOD) « Your order, that of the temple, has been founded by the general council in the honour of the saint and glorious Virgin Mary, your mother ».

(To the Virgin Mary) « Saint Mary, Mother of GOD...defend your religion (or order)... »

The Auxerre Landscape Zodiac

The Rue du Temple is our introduction to the landscape zodiac that surrounds the centre of Auxerre (Fig 14). By following it out from the centre we find that it forms part of the outline of the figure of a woman on the ground; the astrological sign of Virgo.

The rest of her shape is formed by the relief of the landscape, paths and other roads. The present roads are relatively modern in construction, but often their paths follow the original routes chosen by our ancestors. Of the oldest tracks and pathways there was always the necessity for the route which naturally followed the shape of the hills rather than go over them. Of course, many routes have been added and changed course , but in general, the original routes remain and along with the natural features of rivers etc. they allow us to see the forms of the landscape zodiac. To fully appreciate the figures we need to investigate large scale maps, as issued, for example, by the French IGN to the scale of 1:25 000.

The following figures represent the houses of the Auxerre zodiac (Fig 14) :

Aries The ram or lamb

Taurus The bull

Gemini The twins. Two separate figures, one dark (formed by woodland), one light (formed by open space between woodland). They are resting inside the Cancerian ship.

Cancer Argo navis, the ship

Leo The lion

Virgo The angel

Libra Aquila, the eagle

Scorpio The scorpion

Sagittarius The donkey

Capricorn The horse, Pegasus

Aquarius The phoenix

Pisces The fish. One large, one small.

Some of these signs are not the traditional signs used to represent the houses. For example, there is a ship in the house of Cancer. Or rather it is a reflection of the celestial constellation Argo navis, which is a very bright constellation as opposed to the more traditional constellation of Cancer which is rather dim. The choice of constellation used to represent each house could also depend on its mythological interpretation.

The length of the seal of Solomon pattern which contains Auxerre town centre is :

1/phi Km (0,618 Km)

By multiplying 1/phi x 2⁶ we obtain 39,554 Km.

This distance is the distance between the octagonal 11^th century church at Laroche-St-Cydroine and the church from the same period at Prégilbert.

The larger seal of Solomon pattern between these two churches neatly encloses the Auxerre landscape zodiac (Fig 15).