Cathar View : The Mysterious Legacy of Montségur

The Thirteenth-Century Cathars, slaughtered at Montségur in 1244, today offer an alternative to mainstream Christianity that, for many, integrates better both with ancient pagan traditions and with modern 'new age' attitudes than does the church. They are used to focus a sense of local pride and independence in the Languedoc of France and they still offer a symbol of largely non-violent resistance against persecution and near-genocide. While they are the source for substantial studies into reincarnation, they, also, give us extraordinary detail to help us understand mediaeval life and the horror of the inquisition. Their spirituality and what it stood for remain alive in countless exemplary ways and it is easy for the picture to become contradictory, contentious and confused.

Contributors to THE CATHAR VIEW range from the scholarly to the 'alternative'. Chapters take us from accounts of their predecessors, the Bogomils, through to a review of recent 'heretical' viewpoints about the holy Grail – the basis of the Da Vinci code and the burgeoning legend of Mary Magdalene. There are contributions about Cathar sympathisers such as Otto Rahn, who for many is the original for Indiana Jones, and a look at some of the occultists who have been intrigued by the Cathar inheritance, such as the mysterious Polaires. Also investigated is the landscape of the Languedoc and what it holds for walkers and mystics alike.

In sum, this is a unique and valuable contribution to the literature about the Cathars or Albigenses, sympathetic to its subject and offering new clarity about what really underlay their intriguing beliefs.