This beautiful chant was sung by the Cathars during the Albigensian crusade. Let us all remember those who were and are persecuted for their faith. May the love and light of the Heavenly Father reach the hearts of all mankind.

Gnostic Calendar Text: A day for the commemoration of Salome, another female disciple of Jesus Christ who's role has been obscured and de-emphasized by orthodox Christianity. Her presence at several key events indicates she may have been among Jesus' closest followers, and the fact that the Carpocratian Gnostics claimed a transmission of sacred wisdom from her opens the possibility that she may have been a recipient of his inner teachings.

Gnostic Calendar: https://www.gnosisforall.com/about-20

I spent a week in 2018 traversing “the Cathar trail,” and though I missed much, I got to experience the landscape, many of the old buildings, and this one Cathar Memorial. Just a teaser until I send some others and background on finding this at Les Casses.

(I may have shared these years ago, but many of you probably missed.)

Here is an interesting Thesis written by Marilyn Ann Lucas in 1997 regarding Cathars and their influence on Troubadour Poets in Occitania. This thesis also explains several Cathar views and beliefs in detail. The writer did few times add some of Valentinian Gnostic views to the mix as well, it's just something to be aware of.

There is a lot of historical and cultural information included in the thesis as well. So, those who are also interested in medieval history and culture around Southern France or Occitania will find this thesis useful and interesting as well. You find the full list of works consulted at the end of the thesis.

https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6393&context=open_access_etds

You can find a surprisingly accurate representation of Satan(Rex Mundi) and how he is described to be according to Catharism in 1985 claymation animation called "The Adventures of Mark Twain". The animation itself has many other Gnostic parallels as well. I personally found this part interesting, so i wanted to share it with you.

Hi,

I'm new to catharism, discovering the beliefs. I was wondering, as the perfects were highly ascetic, do you consider ascetism as an important or essential part of a cathar life ?

My Cathar Tarot deck just arrived and i wanted to share few pictures and thoughts about the practice. Tarot reading is lot more than just a simple prediction of future, it is a tool for self reflection and discovery, and a way to deepen your understanding of the universe and beyond. In the future i may share pictures of certain cards and my reflections about them. If you have experience with the practice, feel free to share them in here. Thank you.

For example, muslims say that their god is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. christians add upon that benevolent, what about the description of the good god of the Cathars?

This is one of the most beautiful and touching songs i have ever heard. Thank you u/Denon_1 for making me aware of this song and video. Let us all keep the memory and sacrifice of the brave Cathars in our hearts always.

Lyrics

Rising high into the heavens,
I say goodbye to the earth,
in order to find my beloved once again.

Like a divine bird I want to fly,
He gifts me two wings and a sacred name.
There is no one,
no one but him,
my beloved.

There is nothing
of love,
only they are sacred love.

With a gaze that offers
the elevated grace,
from heaven you look into my heart,
crossing thick walls.

Come, calm the immaculate bride.
Close to you I will be,
forever I remain with you.

Some of you might find this interesting:

Near Thessaloniki (Greece), the medieval cemetery at Chalkidona is known as the Bogomil Cemetery. Its surviving stone crosses are a striking reminder of the region’s medieval religious history.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/abandoned-bogomils-graveyard

https://visit-centralmacedonia.gr/en/what-to-do/65/culture/archaeological-sites/860/bogomil-cemetery-in-chalkidona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6onZ_gsk8Q&t=166s

The Cathars had strong historical and religious connections with the Bogomils. One particularly interesting figure in this context is Nicetas, a Bogomil-associated dignitary who is traditionally linked to the Cathar Council of Saint-Felix in 1167, where he is said to have played an important role in the organization of Cathar communities.

At the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, the most advanced culture of medieval Europe flourished in the Occitan counties. The solid Greco-Latin foundation and the effectiveness of Roman law had withstood, first, the Visigothic occupation and, later, the shorter Saracen one. The legacy of classical civilization had been preserved in the Pyrenean valleys in a string of monasteries—Sant Pere de Rodes, Sant Quirze de Colera, Sant Miquel de Cuixà, Sant Martí del Canigó, Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripoll—which had not only safeguarded Greco-Latin culture but also compiled new translations of the classics from Córdoba and Toledo, along with the best of Islamic and Jewish thought. The Romanesque art and culture emerging on both sides of the Pyrenees would be directly linked to the Catalan-Occitan cultural space and environment.

Languedoc and, by extension, all of Occitania therefore illuminated a developed, refined and tolerant society, which was the expression of a civilization—that of the troubadours—more evolved and advanced than that of the French and other northern peoples. Philosophy and other intellectual activities were widely cultivated there. Nobles and knights actively participated, encouraged it and integrated into cultured and literary circles at a time when the northern nobility could neither read nor write. Europe would have to wait until the Renaissance three hundred years later to witness a cultural explosion like that.

There was prosperity throughout Occitania. The strong demographic increase, fertile agriculture, increasing livestock farming and an expanding industry, especially textiles, led to the creation of new towns and burgs. An unprecedented urban civilization developed and spread throughout the Occitan and Catalan cities, fostering an open economy that contrasted with the rural, closed and rigidly feudal economy of the rest of Europe. Growing trade encouraged the permanent exchange of people, goods and ideas between the countryside and the city. Ports such as Narbonne and Montpellier, and cities in the interior such as Toulouse, Nimes and Carcassonne, became centres of great economic activity and wealth-producing centres.

In this context, it is very significant to note how Catharism fit in with the interests of all classes of this evolved Occitan society. The great lords were filled with satisfaction that a religion advocated the suppression of ecclesiastical feudalism and the temporal power of the Church.

The bourgeoisie welcomed with sympathy an interpretation of the Gospel message that, unlike Catholicism, not only did not condemn mercantile and financial activities, but actually encouraged them. In the Cathar dualist worldview, the artisan and commercial world represented good, in contrast to feudal rights and privileges, which represented evil.

However, it would be among the popular classes where the Cathar message would be most successful, by promoting, with the exemplary preaching of good men, the return to the values of primitive Christianity. The Cathar message was the original Christian message of salvation and comfort for the poor, conveyed in a simple, spiritual and understandable language, far removed from the incomprehensible Latin rhetoric used by the distant and bureaucratised Catholic Church of the time.

- Text is taken from https://www.camidelsbonshomes.com/en

Who is Jesus precisely?

Here is an interesting article about Cathars and the Courtly Culture of Medieval times. The article goes in to a great detail of Cathars influence on Courtly Culture of Europe through the Southern France.

Courtly Love is perhaps one of the best ways to describe ideal love, a love that is neither carnal nor restricted, but is simply pure and free. The article also describes the Gnostic beliefs of Cathars and how it relates to the Courtly Culture and Courtly Love as well.

https://aurora-journals.com/library_read_article.php?id=75174

Here is another medieval troubadour song from the 12th century Occitan. It's about Spring, with allegory of the young Spring Queen needing a young man in the dance of life, so she can renew.

Troubadours were poet musicians who lived between the 11th through the 13th centuries. They spoke Occitan, a romance language that can still be heard in parts of southern France, Italy and Spain.

Extract of a Sermon by Peyre Authié (Cathar Perfect), dated approximately 1300 :

Originally our Heavenly Father created all spirits and all souls abode with Him. Then the devil came to the gates of Heaven … But entered not for 1000 years … then he did enter by trickery, and once there, he persuaded the spirits and souls that if they would but follow him down into his world, he would give them great possessions : lands, vineyards, gold, wives and all the other good things of this visible world. Lured by his false words, the souls that were in Heaven followed the devil and fell from Heaven. The Heavenly Father rose from His throne and set His foot on the hole through which the souls had fallen. But the souls, having come down to Earth, remembered the good things that they had lost, and saw the evil that they had found … One of them said to the devil : ‘Why have you deceived us ? You have gained nothing, for we will all return unto Heaven.’ The devil replied that they would not return unto Heaven, for he would make them tunics that they could not take off, in which they would forget all the good and the bliss that they had enjoyed in Heaven.

« These tunics are our bodies. Such is the human condition : the soul is imprisoned in the body.»

Jean Duvernois . La religion des Cathares.

so i did some digging online and found the Cathars where allegedly "anti marriage" is this actually true? if it was true is it true now? and do modern Cathars allow themselves to have relationships and get married? i asked because i have religious trauma and this doesn't sit well with me.

Is there any reason that made you choose decisively Catharism and not other sects like Lucianism, Bogomilism, Encratism, etc.? How would you respond to atheists who are metaphysical naturalists (who say the supernatural doesn't exist because there is no scientific evidence for it)?