Who is Fulcanelli?
This Fulcanelli character seems central to the propagation of this idea. A pseudonymous 'twentieth-century alchemist', eh? With his own theories about etymology, edenic language and cathedral design? Sounds an interesting chap. Basically the idea, as others have already said, is that lots of those transcendant yet fuzzy alcemical/hermetic truths are encoded in the geometry of the great cathedrals. I apoligize in advance for this post's ridiculous length - I thought I'd put what I could find up for discussion.
***Here is a slightly barking article that seems to be trying to read all sorts of esoteric templar stuff into Rabelais, as well as dwelling at length on his regard for weed:
http://www.alchemylab.com/cannabis_stone3.htm
"'The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais is an esoteric work, a novel in cant. The good cure of Meudon reveals himself in it as a great initiate , as well as a first class cabalist. — Fulcanelli, Master Alchemist, Le Mystere des Cathederales
The 20th century alchemist, Fulcanelli also referred to this language of cant, as the Language of the Birds, echoing the Sufi author Attar’s Conference of Birds (see chapter 14, Moslem World), a mystic ode to hashish . Author Kenneth Rayner Johnson comments on this language of cant in The Fulcanelli Phenomena:
All initiates, Fulcanelli states, spoke in cant — including the masons who built the cathedrals and who were the operative predecessors of today's speculative Freemasons. Eventually he maintains, the “language verte” or “green language” (green...being the color of initiation in the secret societies referred to earlier) became the mode of speech of the poor, humble and oppressed. An indication of this fact can be discerned in the use of “rythming slang” among London’s Cockneys, or in the jar_gon of “hip” or “jive-talk” originally derived from American Negro blues artists and other musicians.
Fulcanelli says:
“It remains the language of a minority of individuals, living outside accepted laws, conventions, customs and etiquette. The term voyous (street-arabs), that is to say voyants (seers), is applied to them and the even more expressive term, sons or children of the sun….” — Quoted by Kenneth Rayner Johnson, The Fulcanelli Phenomenon"
***This site has a lot of information on the subject:
http://www.sangraal.com/AMET/milieu.html
This essay relates Fulcanelli to the surrealist movement.
"From this, we see that Fulcanelli's attempt to impress upon the reader the fact that there is a secret in the cathedrals, and that this secret was placed there by a group of initiates -- of which Fulcanelli is obviously one -- depends upon the abundance of imagery and association which overpowers the intellect, lulling one into an intuitve state of acceptance. Fulcanelli, like Shakespeare, overwhelms the reader with his brilliance. It is difficult to accept this man as anything but an incredible intelligence.
But even after careful reading, one finds that the "mystery" of the cathedrals is never explained, and that what one assumes to be the basic mystery of Alchemy is only glancingly delineated. There are allusions that escape the reader as easily as a mosquito glimpsed out of the corner of your eye. At moments, a glimpse of a great truth flits by, giving a hint of something incredible, and then, like the mosquito, it is gone. Cathedrals feels more like a Haiku poem, one that is ephemeral and fleeting. Frustrated, the reader starts over, reading even more carefully, following the allusions and associations, trying to find and pin down the core of meaning that one senses is there, somewhere."
**Stuff on that elusive Frank Zappa connection, including a summary of 'The Fulcanelli Mystery'
http://w1.858.telia.com/~u85821131/misc/fulcanelli.html
The man Zappa he say:
"Fulcanelli was the "last of the alchemists" - I believe he was immortal a la Comte St. Germain, and possibly also discovered the philosopher's stone. His true identity is obscure.
"There is a little more to this story - Fulcanelli believed that the secrets of Christian hermeticsm were to be found in bas-reliefs throughout Europe's cathedrals - after he bestowed this knowledge upon a trusted disciple in 1920 (whereupon Le Mystère des Cathédrales <bibliography.html> was published) he disappeared without a trace. Thirty years later he made a single appearance to his disciple, before disappearing again, and, according to his disciple, actually had grown younger by at least 20 years."
***Here is a page with criticisms of Fulcanelli as manuscript-stealer and 'puffer':
http://azothgallery.com/caezza_fulcanelli_rev.html
"Schwaller offers brutal criticism of Fulcanelli's cabalastic exegesis. The excessive intellectual attempt to root French language directly to ancient Pelasgian Greek so as to make it a privileged vehicle for cabalistic expression, the so-called ‘language of the birds', is wholly contrary to what is actually required for cabalistic interpretation. Beyond intensified perception, celestial grace and the intelligence of the heart what does one need in order to read directly the signatures of Nature? Fulcanelli's academic expositions remains hopelessly over-etymologized. Cabalistic expression and its interpretation appear only as symptoms of amplified consciousness. They are not its cause. After careful reading of Fulcanelli a bounty of deeper insight can be derived from study of VandenBroeck's memoir as well as the works of R.A.Schwaller de Lubicz."
So, what does anyone think? My reaction is to suspect some kind of large-scale prank. Certainly I reckon this 'language of the birds' is a relatively recent creation, though it clearly fits with quite a bit of hermetic thought, particularly the search for the edenic language. Have any of you read Fulcanelli's 'The Mystery of the Cathedrals'? I'm going to try and track it down. Again, it all seems linked with all that holy blood holy grail 'underground stream' stuff.
(On a different tack, another thing that comes to mind is that 'green' had a very wide range of meanings in the early omodern period. There may be some connection with the enigmatic lines in 'The Garden' by Andrew Marvell that say: "Annihilating all that's made / To a green thought in a green shade'. I'd always assumed 'green' here was a pun linking the garden's colour to frustrated sexuality, but perhaps there could be some kind of esoteric link there?)
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