FULCANELLI- The Mystery Of The Cathedrals

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Le Mystère des Cathédrales

(The Mystery of the Cathedrals)

1922.

Was Fulcanelli a Plagiarist?

In his 1926 book entitled Le Mystère des Cathédrales, Fulcanelli provided detailed analyses of the Notre Dame Cathedrals of Paris, Amiens, Bourges and several other sites in France.  Schwaller de Lubicz told Vandenbroeck that most of the book was based on a draft manuscript that he had previously loaned to Fulcanelli.  Thus, most of the Fulcanelli book had been plagiarized!  Schwaller stated the following:

I showed him [Fulcanelli] the documentation I had gathered of cathedral symbolism.  He got very excited and assured me he would give me a hand in publishing it.  I was at that time thinking about moving away from Paris; the whole social affair was taking too much of my time.  But I had been working on a book with detailed proof through the structural elements of the cathedrals, and through the sculpture and ornaments, that they were a Christian expression of the Hermetic Oeuvre. … I did talk to him about all the material I had gathered concerning the symbolism of cathedrals.  At that time I intended to publish something on the subject, and he made me believe he could help me; he had connections.  He really was most interested when I showed him the manuscript, and asked to borrow it for a few days, to look at it more closely in view of presenting it to a publisher.  It took me a long time to get the manuscript back, and when he did return it, his opinion was that this material should not get published, that it revealed too much, and publication was bound to lead me to adverse consequences.  A regular confidence man he was, that one!  But I admit I had had thoughts in that direction myself, and he merely confirmed them.  Well I had other things on my mind.  I was at that time preparing to move up to Suhalia [in Switzerland], and that was an enormous undertaking.  We left shortly thereafter and I gave no further thought to the matter.  I didn’t stay in touch with the Paris people, wanted to get away from all that social involvement.  Then in 1926 I find out about the publication of Le Mystère des Cathédrales!  It was completely based on my work.