Crusade Against the Grail - Rennes-le-Chateau Research and ...

PARSIFAL 31
(or "Sons of Belissena" as they also called themselves). 28 They claimed to be
descended from the moon goddess Belissena, the Celt Iberian Astarte. On their
shields were a fish, the moon, and a tower—the emblems of the moon goddess, the
sun god, and the power of the knights.
Peire Roger was also a Son of Belissena. His castle was located in Mirepoix
(Mira piscem = contemplate the fish). From his Tower (as his castle was called) he
could watch the fish swim in the crystal-clear waters of the Hers river, which
originates on the majestic Saint Bartholomew's Peak; he could also see the new
moon rising above Belissena's forest to the east. Before the Christian era, his city
was called Beli cartha (city of the moon). It was believed to have been founded by
the Phoenicians, who were searching for gold and silver in the neighboring
Pyrenees.
There was hardly a single castle in the Pyrenees that didn't belong to a Son of
Belissena. Above all stood the Barons of Verdun, whose dominions under the
mountains almost equaled their aboveground holdings in area, and easily
surpassed many in beauty. The marvelous lime grottoes of Ornolac and Verdun
extended kilometer after kilometer into the bowels of the Ariege mountain range.
This part of the Ariege valley is called the Sabarthes (after the Church of
Sabart, where the Mother of God had foreseen Charlemagne's victory over the
Saracens). The Sabarthes is protected by two cities that belonged to the counts of
Foix: Tarascon, which served for years as a Moorish advance post against
Charlemagne, and Ax, where Phoenician merchants, Greek colonizers, and Roman
intruders healed themselves in its thermal springs.
As vassals of the House of Foix, the Barons of Lordat, Arnave, and Rabat
shared the Sabarthes with the lords of Verdun. The castles of Lordat, Calames, and
Miramont rose majestically on rocks like authentic eagles' nests, at an altitude of
more than a thousand meters [3,000 feet].
In Olmes (the Valley of Elms) on the northern face of the Saint Bartholomew's
range, the Peyrotta and Perelha lived in their fortresses. The most heavily fortified
of these were Montsegur, Perelha, and Rocafissada. Raimon de Perelha was,
together with the counts of Foix, the Lord of Montsegur. Montsegur signifies
"Secure Mountain."
From this bastion, outlawed troubadours, ladies, and knights were to watch in
horror as the crusade threw hundreds of thousands of their