Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2013-06 - AMORC

4Roger II of Sicily .flooding in from the intellectually more advanced Muslimcourts of Al-Andalus, especially the court of Toledo andthe glittering court of Zaragoza. Thus, Muslim culturepenetrated Occitània by way of the Catalan lands.There was also the Norman conquest of theMuslim Emirate of Sicily. Here, they integrated the localMuslim and Jewish population with their own, andcreated a wonderful hybrid civilisation. The Normanscame to appreciate and admire the rich culture in whichParatge is more than a religious precept to doso-and-so because God says so; instead, it is auniversal code of life.they now found themselves. Many Normans in Sicilyadopted some of the attributes of Muslim rulers in dress,language and literature. Like the multi-ethnic Caliphateof Córdoba, then only just eclipsed, the court of RogerII of Sicily became the most luminous centre of culturein the Mediterranean.His court attracted scholars, scientists, poets,artists and artisans of all kinds. In Norman Sicily, still withheavy Arab influence, laws were issued in the language ofthe community to whom they were addressed. Muslims,Norman Sicily, mosaics.Jews, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and Normans workedtogether to form a society that historians have said createdone of the most extraordinary countries the world has everseen. This is the meaning of Convivéncia, where all peopleslived harmoniously together and all prospered materiallyand spiritually, just as happened in Occitània.Finally, the various crusades in the Holy Land andthe Levant opened European minds to new ideas as neverbefore and contributed to the demise of the Dark Ages.These ideas had gradually infiltrated along the trade routesinto Occitània, which fought to keep its independenceby playing off the great powers of England, France andAragόn against each other. It was a careful balancing actthat succeeded until the times of the Albigensian Crusade.Sèm Amics de DieuWe Are Friends of GodWhen I was doing research on the Cathars for thepresentation, I came upon a concept that seemed veryfamiliar. In the June 2006 edition of the RosicrucianBeacon, there was an article about Ma’at and Asha, theancient Egyptian and ancient Persian conceptsof Cosmic Order. Here, it seems, was a Europeanversion of the same concept, and it was foundonly in Occitània!Occitan had become the courtly andchivalric language of the early Middle Ages,much as French did in later centuries. It was the firstlanguage of the English kings Richard the Lionheart andJohn, and their mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richardand John’s sister Joan married Raymond VI, the Count ofToulouse. They all spoke the same language, Occitan, notFrench and not English. Occitan was also the language ofthe troubadours or wandering minstrels.The troubadours sang about Fin’Amor, fine orrefined love. At the heart of most troubadour poetry laythe theme of transcendence, the transformative powerThe Rosicrucian Beacon -- June 2013© Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC