Meticulously following controversial 20th-century occultist, historian, and partially Jewish SS member Otto Rahn’s investigations into the Holy Grail and Catharism, author and filmmaker Richard Stanley enters into the occult world of Europe. On his quest, the author encounters esoteric traditions that have survived since the Crusades and the Inquisition, ultimately finding a new spiritual path in his own life. At Rahn’s family home in the Black Forest of Germany, Stanley unearths a cache of maps, photographs, and unpublished manuscripts. His journey in pursuit of Rahn’s legacy then takes him to Montsegur, in southern France, a mystical stronghold and one-time home of the Cathars, the esoteric and Gnostic Christian sect that was decimated in the medieval Albigensian Crusade. There he sees the extraordinary summer solstice light phenomenon that reveals the mystical past of the fortress and encounters witnesses who insist Rahn is still alive. Methodically visiting every site on Otto Rahn’s esoteric path, from France to Iceland, the author untangles legend from truth as he looks at the connections between the Cathars, the Rosicrucians, Julius Evola, neo-Cathar and Freemason Deodat Roche, and the mystical bleeding stones known as Lapsit exillis. He also examines the prophecy of the return of Esclarmonde de Foix, the White Lady, medieval priestess of the Cathars who appeared to Rahn during his search for the Grail.
