The Portal: An Initiate’s Journey into the Secret of Rennes-le-Château Patrice Chaplin 288 pages 5 1/4 x 7 3/4 $16.95 paper 978-0-8356-0888-6

The Portal is the true and startling disclosure of respected British writer Patrice Chaplin’s initiation into the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château. Following in the footsteps of those before her, among them, the famed priest Bérenger Saunière who rose to cult popularity due to modern-day bestsellers such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code, Patrice embarks upon a secret alchemical pilgrimage involving strict purifications of mind and body and a deadly journey they prepared her for, all of which unveils the sacred and prehistoric purpose of what is now Rennes-le-Château.

It was 2003 and City of Secrets (Constable & Robinson) was in the process of being published in the UK. The charismatic Jose Tarres, real-life custodian of the Holy Grail, great friend to remarkable talents such as Salvidor Dali, Jean Cocteau, Umberto Eco and Simone de Beauvoir, and forever the love of Patrice’s life, had suffered a near fatal heart attack. With Jose then in his seventies, the power of death as a silencer threatened the survival of his society’s guarded knowledge. Patrice had thoroughly researched Jose’s documents and testimonies with his permission for the writing of City of Secrets. But upon its completion, Patrice confessed she still did not fully understand the ancient puzzle revolving around the legendary, yet very real, golden cup. "So what was the secret behind the secret?" Patrice asked. With simple resolution, Jose said "You have to do what they did in every century, the initiates. You have to do the Journey".

Jose’s matter-of-fact assignment comes to life in this deeply profound memoir. Under the guidance of Jose’s teacher, a mysterious recluse and one of the few true living Kabbalists, Patrice undertakes in 2004 to ‘tread the Seven Stars under the Great Bear’. By activating the eleven sacred sites along the French/Catalan border, Patrice encounters detachment, death, and rebirth. Unlike some unfortunate initiates, Patrice lived through Mt. Canigou’s great secret, and more so, was decreed to tell about it. What she discovers in the end—startlingly as it may be—is space/time’s inextinguishable truth: What it is to be human, and to be “of” this earth. What this means will shock and amaze and is the real gold hidden within the mystery of Rennes-le-Château.

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Patrice Chaplin is an internationally renowned playwright and author who has published more than 25 books, plays, and short stories. Her most notable work includes Albany Park, Siesta, which was made into a film staring Jodi Foster and Isabella Rossellini, Into the Darkness Laughing, Hidden Star, Night Fishing, and Death Trap.


Other titles by the author:

• City of Secrets:
  One Woman’s True-life Journey to the Heart of the Grail Legend

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