Notes:
One of the most powerful scenes in The Da Vinci Code takes place in early spring in windswept
Normandy. Sophie Neveu discovers her grandfather, Jacques Sauniere, engaged in a secret sex
ritual in the basement of his old country house, as masked worshipers look on, rocking back and
forth and chanting. The men are dressed in black, the women in white. (SEE ABOVE)
Here Brown illustrates "the sacred feminine."
The word sacred means "special" or "holy"; feminine in this context, stands for "goddess spirituality,“
which we will discuss in the next chapter. The Da Vinci Code explains why the rite of holy marriage
fell on hard times: "Holy men who had once required sexual union with their female counterparts to
Commune with God now feared their natural sexual urges as the work of the devil" (125), and thus
the rite was banished by the narrow-minded church.
The Gnostic Gospel of Philip (on which The Da Vinci Code depends for the statement that Jesus
and Mary Magdalene kissed on the lips) emphasizes the spirituality of "sacred marriage.“
Having studied the Gospel of Philip,
we agree with Brown's claim that "all descriptions of ... secret rituals in this novel
[The Da Vinci Code] are accurate"
(1). At least in this case. The "bridal chamber" in the Gospel of Philip was reserved for secret and
private initiations of
"free men and virgins," who wore clothes of "perfect light." (This term is probably a euphemism for
spiritual and physical nakedness.)1 According to second century expert on Gnosticism Irenaeus,
mantras also accompanied the ceremony of the bridal chamber.
2 Early Christian teachers who witnessed this activity firsthand called it "promiscuous intercourse.“
3 Here, too, The Da Vinci Code accurately describes a spirituality that took place in history and
claimed to be true Christianity.
The non-Christian pagan mysteries also had such rites of initiation. Such a ritual takes place
No Feminine, in this context, stands for "goddess spirituality."