The Holy Blood Code

In 1890, the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans wrote to a young Dutch novelist he was searching for "a demoniac sodomite priest" who performed the black mass. Joris-Karl - "J.K." for the friends - needed this man for a new book about satanism which would become "Là-bas" (translated as "Down There" or "The Damned"). J.K. did find the priest... It was the Chaplain of the Holy Blood Chapel of Bruges, Louis Van Haecke. Now this "Super Satanist" also wrote a book... about the Precious Blood of Bruges!

In 1900, the Chaplain of the Holy Blood Chapel of Bruges, published - in French - the fourth edition of his book "The Precious Blood of Bruges". This really is a strange piece of writing, not only because of what has been written down, but also because of what the Chaplain does not mention. For instance, Van Haecke starts his book on the Holy Blood with some pages on the topic where the name "Belgium" comes from: the Belgae were the most "belligerent", Caesar said. This reminds us of another priest, the friend of abbé Saunière of Rennes-le-Château, Henri Boudet and the strange etymology of "La Vraie Langue Celtique". But what has the etymology of "Belgium" to do with the Holy Blood? Nothing...

In this book about the Precious Blood of Bruges, Van Haecke doesn't say a word of the Cathars or the Grail, and the Templars are only mentioned once. Regarding the Holy Blood of Bruges, both the Grail and the Templars are significant: the Holy Blood was brought to Bruges by the Templars and the Count of Flanders, Thierry of Alsace - and it was his son, Philip, who commissioned Chrétien de Troyes with the first Grail story. Both the Templars and the Grail also are important in the context of "the bloodline", as revealed by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln in their international bestseller "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" (1982). The Cathars and the Templars both were "arch-heretics", but who does Van Haecke mention as "heretical" influences? The Orphist Cults and the Bogomils.

I think there definitely is something like a "Da Vinci Code" in this book: his use of footnotes is rather idiotic and van Haecke ends his story with this poem:

But there is much more in it... The references to some quatrains of Nostradamus, for instance... So, is this a Da Vinci Code or a Nostradamus Code?

Read all about it here:

The Code of the Holy Blood