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Da Vinci: Code and Hype

In a book store at the Munich Airport I had found another paper back "The Tomb of God (Das Letzte Grab Christi, 1996)" by Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger claiming to be a sequel to the original "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" story, giving an architect view and interpretation of geometrical design forms and hints in paintings such as Les Bergers d'Arcadie, created in 1638 by Nicolas Poussin. The authors suggested that that the Templars had discovered Christ's remains in Jerusalem and transferred them to France, guessing that Christ's grave is now at Pech Cardou near Chateu de Blanchefort and Rennes-le-Chateau. Another book, showing different approaches the Holy Grail, Monika Hauf's "Ways leading to the Holy Grail - An occidental Myth (Wege zum Heiligen Gral - Der abendländische Mythos, 2003)," would neatly wrap up historic Perceval legends between Chretien de Troyes' "Le roman de Perceval ou Le Conte du Graal (around 1178-1181)" and Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival (between 1200 and 1210)." It visits theories that the Grail is identical with the philosopher's stone, even a meteorite for being described as a rock from the stars, brought to earth by angels (in Eschenbach's words "lapsit exsillis," interpreted as "lapis ex stellis") and the Templars as keepers of the Grail in Roslyn. Continuing with Otto Rahn's Nazi quest in the Cathar fortress Montsegur in Southern France, taking it for the legendary Grail castle Munsalvaesche, it reveals the hidden Baphomet to be an encrypted word for Sophia or Wisdom, the Grail, respectively the non canonical Gospel of Thomas. Well, a kind of all-in-one-theory, or the very good try to give a really overall overview.

Parts are going into the same direction as Graham Phillips' "The Search for the Grail (1996)," mentioning the existence of various Grails including the Book of the Holy Vessel being again the Gospel of Thomas and as alternative the Marian Chalice, a small onyx vessel, about the size and shape of an eggcup in possession of descendents of the historical King Arthur. King Arthur himself is identified as the Welsh King Owain Ddantgwyn, around the time of the Saxon's defeat in the historic battle of Badon in 493 AD ruling the British kingdom of Powys, then reaching from the English Midlands to Central Wales. Some suspect that the Grail legend was invented around the time of the Albigensian Crusade, climaxing in the siege of the Cathar stronghold Montsegur at the base of the Pyrenees Mountains. For the Grail story stresses Jesus being the son of God, the denial of which cost hundreds of Cathars their lives in 1244. "Centuries later I wonder why, what secret they took to their grave," as Iron Maiden put it in their song of "Montsegur."

The mosaic version of Da Vinci's Last Supper in the Viennese Minoritenkirche. The life size copy, created by Italian artist Giacomo Raffaelli on Napoleon Bonaparte's order from 1809 to 1814, had been acquired under the Austrian Monarch Francis I.(II.) and transferred from Milan to Vienna. Viennese Quotation: "Fü schena ois Origineu" - "Much nicer than the original!"

On my last day of an US business trip I was asked about my current reading, which was about ancient traces of religion and female deities, a book titled "The Goddess, the Grail & the Lodge (2004)" by Alan Butler. I would mostly remember it for mentioning a connection between Knights Templar and the foundation of Switzerland, splitting off Hapsburg's Austria in 1315, the year Jacques de Molay was put to death in France. While a contemporary source referred to knights in long white coats fighting alongside the Swiss Cantons, other arguments for Templar influence in establishing the Swiss Democracy include the Bank tradition of both, a Templar cross both in the (inverted) Swiss flag and the sign of the Swiss founded Red Cross Organization, up to Calvinism breaking the influence of the Roman church on the country. Besides, the book went on with obscure statements that a church body would represent a mother's womb with a rose bud over entrances mirroring an ultimate fertility symbol, which I found too odd and vague then to mention in further detail. My US colleagues would suggest me to read Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code (2003)" for the novel connected to similar topics, and I picked it up as one of the first fiction literature in years to ease my return flight, which - in an astonishingly capturing way - it really did. An incredible plot, hunting from place to place, starting out with Mona Lisa, smiling in the Parisienne Louvre, and a dead body stretched out in a circle in a life-sized replica of the Vitruvian Man, via lots of places always hinting the next step only like a treasure hunt. Cleverly mixing fact and fiction, the book speaks of unveiling "the greatest cover up in the history of mankind." The story connects the quest for the Holy Grail with the legendary bloodline of Christ. The base theory that Jesus had been married came from fragments of the Coptic apocryphal text known as the Gospel of Philip, with a passage citing: "And the companion of the … Mary Magdalene … more than … the disciples … kiss her … on her …"

Some see the fundament of the novel's extraordinary success not only in its extremely suspenseful plot but also in tendencies of today's society towards Do-it-yourself-spirituality. The underlying question "What if the church had been wrong all of the time?" seemingly justifies all those that have broken with their belief, while possibly still getting this bad feeling in their stomach when reflecting on what could be at the end of their lives. A couple months later I picked up a German copy titled "Sakrileg (Sacrilege)" as birthday present for a friend. The novel on the one hand seemed to support his interest in secret Gnostic literature, on the other bring a strong fictional element in and by that drawing a clear border to real life. What echoes in my ears is a comment, I had heard years ago about somebody else: "He's been reading the wrong books!" A commentary put everything straight for me again, even the suggestion that Leonardo had painted Mary Magdalene instead of the traditionally young and good looking portrayed "Beloved Disciple" John at Jesus' right hand in "The Last Supper." I had seen a mosaic version of it in the Viennese Minoritenkirche a while ago and now did a little research on it on the internet. Also, I had always liked the picture with the actors (found on the walls of "fun places" such as fast food restaurants or movie theaters) as an art quotation to Da Vinci's Last Supper now placing Marilyn Monroe in the center of other film stars. What had made a movie star out of Jesus Christ himself was Mel Gibson's brutal production "The Passion of the Christ," about which the pope is quoted saying "It is, how it was." Disturbingly realistic scenery of torture left actor Jim Caviezel with a depressingly swollen face under the crown of thorns. An extraordinary film, all in Aramean language with subtitles to be more authentic - and still the Easter 2004 box office hit. My stomach felt bad after watching it.

Then in early 2006 a trial hit the news. Two authors of the old and thanks to The Code again republished and probably well sold "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" accusing the extremely successful Brown Novel of plagiarism just before the film would be released. Another marketing gag? Put under the tagline "Seek The Truth," the "Da Vinci Code"-movie starred Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, whom I would always remember for his "Houston, we have a problem" while watching "Apollo 13" in a cheap one-dollar-movie theater in Grove City, PA, where I suddenly wondered what bats were flying around in space for. In a Vatican broadside Archbishop Angelo Amato, Secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and number two behind Pope Benedict XVI, summarized: "The Da Vinci Code is an offensive, anti-Christian novel, full of lies, mistakes, and theological errors about Jesus, the Gospels and the Church." Probably having earlier Islamic threats against Salman Rushdie's life in mind following his 1988 publication of the "Satanic Verses," the Archbishop continued: "If this book and film had been about the Koran there would be a world revolution." Asking Catholics to boycott the Da Vinci Code film - a widely ignored advice - seems a rather subtle reaction on a movie suggesting Christianity is based on nothing but a monstrous hoax around the Holy family, kept secret by the top clergy over centuries. But even in these enlightened times one just couldn't "officially" ignore it completely.

Vienna's mosaic copy of the Last Supper amazes through painstaking detailedness and lively colourfulness.

Resistance. Writing about dark ages and hidden secrets, I also had to think about an unusual conversation over lunch. The topic of the day had been, whether or not the Catholic Church was "officially" still regarding the earth as flat. As we know, in 1633 a papal court had forbidden Galileo Galilei to further spread the Heliocentric World View, which seemed to contradict the sequence of the works of creation as by the Holy Scripture. Notably, within a hundred years after Galileo's death his theory was generally accepted, the Inquisition's ban on reprinting his works was lifted in 1718 and the last opposition to heliocentrism was removed from the Index of Forbidden Books by 1835, but it took the Vatican until 1992 to completely rehabilitate Galileo and deeply apologize. I remembered having read a book with the provocative title "Die Ketzer - The Heretics (1997)" by Rupert Lay, among others discussing the controversies around Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. The Freudian chapter summed it all up: Marx had provoked resistance among the property-owning classes for questioning their privileges and suggesting atheisms instead of the supposedly god given social order. Those that couldn't cope with having descended from apes or at least having common evolutionary roots with animals rejected Darwin. Others that couldn't imagine their planet not being the very center of the universe condemned Galileo. Finally, Freud's analysis of human weaknesses and subliminal drives made it hard to believe that man was created in the image of God. These entire new theses were in one way or the other shattering the current world view and compromising the church's far reaching influence. For a more and more enlightened environment would less and less depend on religious advice, recommendation and direction.

Being afraid of change, especially if it results in loss of influence, if it criticizes and contradicts someone's position, often causes some kind of defense reflex as part of a natural reaction. How would you react facing some of these charges? Would you easily give in, not hesitate to give up all of your social position, or would you try to prove the other one wrong and fight for rights you have earned step by step over the years? And so there are situations, when we are not as open to new things as we should be, and by defending our interests we do wrong. Realization of the own shortcoming often comes late, very late in some cases. Better admitting it late though than never. Without escaping through a back door, not hesitating to revisit wrong decisions and take corrective actions, as necessary. Even states have broken with their past, denied legal succession with whatever order had existed before on the same territory, kept up by the same people or their ancestors. And so one must acknowledge if not admire the incredible long term continuity of the church over centuries, over two millenniums even. In a way, as an institution it may be often slow in reacting to short term modern streams and applying new knowledge that was gained. For the church is said to plan in centuries. Who could claim to do the same? Without doubt, debates are important, sometimes even helping to speed up the necessary progress. Better understanding the mistakes of the past is a precondition for being able to avoid them in the future. Often things get too political though. Especially when talking about times before the separation of the secular and the sacred - of church and state, which really only happened in the early 20th century. As so often, when the conversation gets too political, we have to be careful not to lose the focus on the important. And with religion, what it all really should go back to is belief, salvation, and ultimately to an answer to one of the most burning questions, about the meaning of life!

"If you're driftin' on an empty ocean with no wind to fill your sail,
The future, your horizon, it's like searchin' for the Holy Grail."
(Sail Away, Deep Purple, 1974)

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