Jesus in the Tomb with his eyes opened, Eglise St. Michel. Espéraza

After Abbé Jean Rivière took the final confession of Bérenger Saunière, he is said never to have smiled again. This story seems exaggerated. Fact is that Rivière made a remarkable modification to his church in Espéraza in the period after Saunière’s death. He had a grotto built with a strange statue of Jesus lying down after the crucifixion (still wearing the Crown of Thorns). Jesus is lying in this tomb with his eyes open. What did Rivière want to tell us here? Photo’s courtesy of Ben Hammot who discovered this remarkable monument.

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Tombstone of Jean Jacques Henri Boudet (Axat, Aude)

Henri Boudet is buried in the cemetery of the town of Axat. The top of his tombstone reads “F A M I L L E S A P R E L L A B A T B O U D E T”, indicating the tomb is a family grave containing multiple burials, although only Henri and his brother Edmond are mentioned by name in the inscriptions. The Notary Edmond Boudet was buried in this tomb in 1906, 9 years before Henri’s death. On the lower right hand portion of the tombstone is a raised, rectangular shaped slab, elevated from the base of the horizontal tombstone by 3 cm. The raised masonry is approximately 11 cm wide and 9 cm long and carries the inscription I.X.O.I.Σ.

At first glance the expression ‘IXOIS’ seems to defy language, combining Greek, Latin and English characters to form a nonsensical string of letters. When viewed upside down, the inscription turns into 3.I.0.X.I, perhaps being a reference to Boudet’s puzzling 1886 book; La vraie langue celtique et le cromleck de Rennes-les-Bains. The ‘310’ portion of the upside down view matches the number of pages in Boudet’s book: 310. The ‘XI’ portion is thought to reference Chapter 11 of Boudet’s book, which many believe to contain a treasure map. Collectively, these observations have led researchers to conclude that the little stone book conceals a secret.

In actual fact, it concerns a representation of the word ICHTUS meaning Fish and representing Jesus.

The individual letters of the expression hold the following meaning:

The Cathedrale de Notre Dame des Pommiers et St. Thyrse of Sisteron (Provence) contains the exact same word I.X.O.I.Σ. written below a fish, proving it was not an uncommon way to refer to Christ.

Andrew Gough elaborates on this theory in his article here.

Photos (c)2007 Andrew Gough

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Monument des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen

Masonic Monument celebrating the Declaration of the Rights of Men and of the Citizen 1789, Champs de Mars, Paris. The monument was commissioned by the Mitterand government in 1989, 200 years after the revolution during which Lafayette drafted the document for the National Assembly. The enigmatic monument was designed by Yvan Theimer. The heavy iron door carries an inscription ‘Les Bergers d’Arcadie Et In Arcadia Ego’, which links it to the mystery.

You can read more (in French) about this peculiar monument in this article.

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Engraving in the Marble Bass Relief of the ‘Shepherds Monument‘ at Shugborough Hall, Staffordshire, England

The monument was commissioned in 1748 by Admiral George 1st Baron Anson. The engraving is in fact an inverted copy of Nicolas Poussin’s Les Bergers d’Arcadie, with an additional tomb depicted. The work was executed by Flemish sculptor Peter Scheemaker, well-known from his sculpture of William Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey (1740)

At the bottom of the Shugborough monument a code is visible:

    O•U•O•S•V•A•V•V
D•                                M•

According to this book by Stuart Nettleton it is based on a Genesis 50:25 which deals with the death of Joseph in Egypt. For reasons explained in his book the middle sequence needs to be inversed: D.V.V.A.V.S.O.U.O.M which stands for

Deus Visitabit Vos Asportate Vobiscum Sancta Ossa Upilio Occulto Maneo

or

God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry away the shepherd’s holy bones to remain concealed.

Shepherds Monument on Google Maps

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Tomb of Nicolas Poussin, Basilica Lorenzo in Lucina, Rome

Nicolas Poussin died in Rome in 1665 and was buried in the Basilica San Lorenzo in Lucina. Vicomte de François-Auguste-René Châteaubriand (1768-1848), French Ambassador in Rome, raised a monument to Poussin above the artist’s mausoleum in 1820. It carries a dedication and a bas-relief displaying his most famous painting the Shepherds of Arcadia. Below the plaque there’s an inscription that might well answer our question of whether Poussin preserved esoteric clues in his work. It states:

‘PARCE PIIS LACRIMIS VIVIT PUSSINUS IN URNA VIVERE QUI DEDERAT NESCIUS IPSE MORI HIC TAMEN IPSE SILET SI VIS AUDIRE LOQUENTEM MIRUM EST TABULIS VIVIT ET ELOQUITUR’.

This curious expression speaks about how Poussin has given his life without really dying. He is silent now but if you’re prepared to listen you can hear him speaking through his paintings.

Chateaubriand;s dedication reads: ‘F-R de Châteaubriand to Nicolas Poussin, for the glory of the Arts and the honour of France’ The bas-relief displaying Les Bergers d’Arcadie was executed by Léon Vaudoyer (1803-1872). The bust of Poussin, above it, is signed ‘P. Lemoyne’.

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