> > As a result, very little of any historical accuracy > > remains. I would have to advise you, based on my > > research, that easily 80-90% of what you will find in > > books about the Cathars (including HBHG) is fiction. > > Can you articulate and elaborate on the 10-20% that is not fiction?
I'm going to save it for my book, which will be fiction but I hope will have a tad more resemb- lance to what the Cathars were really like than a lot of the stuff out there. Basically, though, in terms of belief they were strong Duallists in the Gnostic tradition, mean- ing that New Age projections onto them as seeking enlightenment-while-in-the-body are way off. The basic belief was that the physical was corrupt and true liberation can't be attained while in one. No concept of Unity, in other words. In terms of social values, they were vegetarian, non-violent, and egalitarian with regard to the rights of men and women. The lay believers had no real proscriptions on their actions other than the ones above; the priests (perfecti) were celibate. They rejected Church ritual and the swearing of oaths and their only scripture was the Gospel of John. I have to believe that most rumors that are focused on the Cathar "treasure" as being about a physical treasure (such as the grail or some other kind of mystical object) are bullshit, because Duallists would not have placed any faith in or value on physical objects. The whole point was to get beyond the physical to the realm of spirit. Fascinating group. I do not identify in any way with their Duallist belief system, but do for personal reasons with the group itself. My hero is going to be a heretic to the heretics, someone who has been brought up in a strictly Duallist philosophy who starts having experiences of Unity and this has to deal with the contradiction between what he has been taught and what he is experiencing. Unc To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
