Saturday, March 2, 2019

Just science-fiction XXXVI : Cathars, Vegans and BEEs !

by Jean-Jacques COURTEY, Doctor in Economic Geography, Ph. D
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This article is an important complement to a previous one, published on January 21st, 2016, on Global Politics and Economics : "Rediscovering famous characters : Guilhem, the revanchist Cathar !" In Paris, he became the famous Guillaume de Nogaret (c. 1260 -1313), serving King Philip IV "The Fair" (1268-1314).
But for some reasons involving Cathars, Vegans, and BEEs, we prefer integrating this article to our mascot series, "Just science-fiction". So you have to take it this way, of course !

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As Catharism is presently reviving, in the perspective of 2025, it is necessary to be clear about the followed diet.
We wrote, that at the difference of Templars who shared with them "The Gospel of Saint John" as the only admitted Christian Gospel, Cathars were usually vegetarian.
Then, they were taught not to eat meat normally. But, it's not because you are taught something, that you are doing it automatically and everyday, especially if you are not a member of clergy. The latter included priests and up to five bishops (Albi, Toulouse, Agen, Carcassonne and Razès).

Anyway, meat is not fish. And Cathars were definitively eating fish.
About meat, there was sometimes a tolerance - said differently a flexibility -, as they were often living in good intelligence among Catholics who accepted them.
Thus, there was no special problem to communicate, which is explaining why Catharism could last so long (between the 11th and 14th centuries).
Catharism left notably its strong imprint in the South of France, even nowadays, far after the crusade against "Albigenses" ("Albigeois" in French, after the name ot the beautiful town of Albi in Ariège).
Catharism is remaining symbolized presently by the cross of the counts of Saint Giles, which became then the one of the counts of Toulouse, and finally of whole Languedoc.

We want to recall that Cathars don't seem to have been fanatics about food, even they had obviously their own inclinations.
So, if you compare with nowadays, they wouldn't have understood the demands of "Vegans" (full vegetalians) concerning fish for instance. Don't forget Cathars thought fishes had no soul, at the difference of human beings, animals or birds !
However, concerning the respect of animal life a parallel can certainly be made.


They were calling themselves "bonshommes et bonnes femmes" ("good men and good women"), and researched a kind of purity in life. And this could explain partly the nickname of "Cathars" given to them far after, if coming from the Greek "Katharos" (pure). Of course, it has to be added that another origin is sometimes given, which is deriving from "Cattus" or "Cat" in Latin, if considered as heretics worshipping Cat according to inquisitors among the hardest. Papacy called them "heretics", because they were not following the Catholic way of belief, and clearly opposed themselves to its doctrine.

Cathars believed in the unpeaceful and entangled coexistence of two opposite Gods : a good God who should have reigned on the whole universe but appeared confined to Earth, and a bad God who took over his role. Then, human life was governed by their permanent conflict. They were calling the bad God Satanael.
And for that reason, Cathars were not considering the Doomsday as a bad thing. After the Doomsday (provoked by a coming Solar super-tempest, on an Earth left unprotected by any shield), they thought Satanael would lose his power. And the predestinated people benefitting the grace of the good God, would live then in "Chiliasm" on Earth : it means they would enjoy for a thousand years all kinds of pleasures !

As a comment of the XXIst century, it must be quoted that the "bad God", Yaldabaoth after his real name - also called the "Demiurge" -, was in fact the 4th son of the "good God" (or should we say more precisely the "good Goddess", Barbelo). That's why the very pretty Italian-American singer Ariana Grande (born on June 26th, 1993 in Florida), can sing "God is a woman !"
The confusion came from the fact Barbelo became male to face the androgynous Son, after life on Venus ("Lucifer" in Latin) had expired due to deadly Solar winds. The mysteries of metamorphic changes in the Cosmos are hard to conceive for human beings : usually, having a bicameral brain, a human being is thinking on a binary mode, so neither on ternary nor quaternary ones. Anyhow, it is remaining that the opposition between Barbelo (the "Goddess-Mother" originally) and Yaldabaoth, is basically the story of an unsolved parent-child conflict. Both of them are connected to the Supreme Intelligence of Universe, called the Source, who is neither male nor female in reality !


Coming back to food, the only ones who were following really a full vegetarian regime among Cathars, were the "Parfaits" ("Perfects"), their clergy and novices. After one year of being "beginners" , volunteers - either men or women -  were receiving the "Consolamentum"  ("Consolation"), a kind of  baptism given by a "Parfait" imposing hands without water.
Then, them only had to follow privations and discipline about food as vegetarians, excluding meat and eggs (they respected birds).
Commoners about them received this sacrament only before their death.
So, they couldn't lose the benefit of a baptism they never received before.

Cathars knew very well fish was necessary to be healthy, when you don't eat meat.
Thus, they never had only grains as their ordinary food, "Parfaits" included as fish eaters !
The exclusion of meat was connected to their belief in metempsychosis. As a matter of fact, they thought their soul could be reincarnated up to nine times, and not automatically as human beings, but also as animals or birds.
So again, even the "Parfaits" were not what we call nowadays Vegans, or more familiarly "Veggies".
Above that, they could drink good wine, and not only water, just like the Catholics who were harmoniously surrounding them in the South of France...and to be comprehensive beer also in the Northern region of Lille (where they were living more hiddenly).

It has to be underlined, that Catharism was usually introduced as a religion of recovered freedom, and not guilt. So tolerance was its most important motto, and not the opposite. Then, there was no punishment normally if a simple commoner was eating meat sometimes, with Catholic relatives or friends for instance. "Endura" (fasting and abstinence) was more concerning "Parfaits" and novices.
And it was the same if some ordinary couples were following the tradition of marriage, when Catharism was preferring cohabitation.
Don't forget once again the only Cathar sacrament quoted above, "Consolamentum", was given to ordinary people only at the end of their life (as extreme unction in that case) !


Getting back to our century, another peculiarity is noticeable about Veganism. Nowadays, you can find some beekeepers abandoning over suddenly their bees and hives, when becoming Vegan. They don't want to exploit anymore bees, which didn't claim anything yet !
Of course, bees are very clever for famous ethologists. Don't forget they are said to come from the planet Venus, in an immemorial time for Earth life development, according to Incas !

Anyhow, half-jokingly no Queen seems to have demanded an enormous increase of "wages", or any compensation in food for itself or its working bees. And none of them complained to the UNO as ET (which it would be, if following the precolombian prehistory) or BEE (Biological Extraterrestrial Entity), for the violation of its rights according to the "Corporative Treaties" of 1950 or 1954 !
Of course, nobody knows what could do the reappearing "Bee of Wallace" (Indonesia), which is four times bigger than a European bee ?

It has to be underlined that coincidentaly the word "Vegans" also applies to ETs coming from Vega. But nothing seems to indicate they are themselves "Veggies", and then only vegetarian or vegetalian, but rather omnivorous.
In this regard, let's recall that etymologically, the word "Vegan" applied to human beings is coming from a contraction of the vocable "Vegetarian" by Donald Watson (UK, 1944) !
Vegan ETs as for them, can be far taller than average human beings, and are often supposed to be the usual pilots of TR-3B, those triangular flying saucers of the US "Solar Warden" fleet : remember the UFO wave over the whole Flanders (Netherlands, Belgium, and France) in 1990.
Every time there is a clash between Pleiadians, Aldebarans and Alpha Dracos for instance, like now, they are on a state of alert with their vessels wherever it is !





It has to be acknowledged that before the crusade against Cathars in the South of France (1208 -1244), and even during it Southern Catholics were easily melting with them. They often happened to fight and die at their side, like in the terrible massacre of Béziers (1209).

In this area speaking occitan - "langue d'Oc" -, Cathars were just considered as a bit original. Tolerance and non-violence were normally their mottos.
And the attitude of the Counts of Toulouse, who were Catholic about them, was witnessing this benevolence and support.

Then inter-marriages were not that rare, in an area which was devoted to liberty of thinking and behavior - food not entirely excluded ! So in practice, except for the "Parfaits" and the Cathar clergy, commoners were rather flexitarian (flexible about food).

In a way, Catharism could be considered as deriving from Visigothic Arianism (taking Jesus as just a man, and not the son of God), but not really as a kind of pre-Protestantism given it didn't recognize the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it was clearly influenced by the most enigmatic aspects of Gnosis.

Most documents about Cathars having been destroyed by Inquisition, the only written traces about their real beliefs, are considered to be remaining contained nowadays in the "Secret Rule of Lyons" (from Italian Cathar houses, 13th century). As a matter of fact, this town situated not far from Italy and Geneva, sheltered a part of Cathar survivors.
At the moment, it is difficult to know if the full Cathar revival prophesied by the last "Parfait", the unhappy bishop Guilhem Bélibaste (c. 1280 - 1321) for 2025 in the Kingdom of France, will really occur, with the support of BEEs ?

Nowadays, Catholicism having become more and more tolerant and opened-minded, with an attempt to return to the original sources, an unpassionated coexistence at least might be considered.
To be comprehensive, it has to be noticed that because of the Vegan influence worldwide, an optional green day without meat and fish has already been adopted by some developped countries, like UK. And in France, it is also suggested for Monday !