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23.5 Degrees Book Review of The True Celtic Language
By Stella Maris
September 06, 2008
The True Celtic Language and the Stone Circle of Rennes-les-Bains
© Les Editions de l'Oeil du Sphinx
Ever since the success of Dan Brown's international bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, an entire cottage industry has developed around the deconstruction of encoded "esoteric secrets" which are believed to hold the key to the future development of all Mankind.
Of course, the in-joke in the Priory of Sion researchers community is that Dan Brown got all the codes spectacularly wrong, having surfed disinformation off of the internet without verifying it... but, because there aren't any actual hidden secrets, it doesn't really matter anyway.
But, in a perverse way, this is exactly why the publication of the English translation of The True Celtic Language and the Stone Circle of Rennes-les-Bains, originally released by Abbé H. Boudet in 1886, is so useful. Because, the more access the modern-day Seeker has to the original documents for themselves, the less one has to rely on the word of bogus "experts" and other assorted pranksters.
Granted, one might regard the English production of this obscure classic as a tad bit self-indulgent but I, for one, applaud the diligence of translators Marcus Williamson and Corella Hughes (who are genuinely residents of Rennes-les-Bains), and the vision of Philippe Marlin's ODS publishing company, in seeing this project through.
So, what's the point of all this, one might ask?
Basically, the bottom line is that in the days before the printing press, and before most people could even read or write, the transmission of information was based on phonetic and visual aids, which inevitably became more complex and eventually developed into "coded" art forms in their own right.
The implications of this methodology are vast. The technique influenced the themes and design of fine art paintings, sculpture, architecture, jewelry, and even religious expression, down to the construction and decoration of cathedrals and churches. Practical aspects were incorporated into the design of watermarks, masonic marks and, most importantly, the promotion of the sale of alcohol.
In fact, it's tempting to attribute all deep esoteric secrets to the production and sale of alcohol, but that's another story for another day...
In the meantime, Abbé Boudet's theory is that the True Celtic Language is actually... English. It doesn't matter that there's absolutely no scientific basis for this assertion, we're talking pure pre-Surrealist performance art here.
The book is stuffed to the gunwales with mind-boggling Frenchified English puns which allegedly lead to the revelation of deep secrets encoded within the environs of Rennes-les-Bains where, coincidentally, Kate Mosse's recent bestseller, Sepulchre, is set - and where she significantly launched the French version of the paperback in July.
Whether you believe any of this or regard it all as complete bunkum, the production of the book itself is exquisite and destined to become a must-have collector’s item for connoisseurs of enigmatic curiosities.
It has been designed as a faithful 21st century mirror image of the Belisane imprint that most Priory of Sion researchers use. The size, the typeface, the layout, and even the paper were carefully chosen to the complement the French version of Boudet’s masterpiece, which makes the essential comparison of passages between the two languages a breeze.
The English translation of The True Celtic Language by Abbé Henri Boudet is currently available by direct mail order from the Librarie Atelier Empreinte in Rennes-le-Chateau and will soon be available from Amazon.
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