Although there were unforeseen accidents and hidden purposes in our visit to France – John thought he was going to traipse all over France and follow the Knights Templar – we were landed right in the Duchy of Aquitaine and our task was to heal the emotional memories left over from many lives past.
And we did discover many past lives in France, and John was shown that he also had 4 significant lives in that era. The memories of all our lifetimes are buried within and, although the situations are different, and the people are different, we tend to treat life with all those old emotions and reactions. Read on as we learn on our journey through the Duchy of Aquitane and the lives of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Louis VII, Henry II and Richard the Lionheart.
I began to write this while we were living in France but something like 8 weeks passed when I had my fall on May 12th and then a second dangerous ‘turn’ on 11th June when I collapsed and almost died. In that time I have to admit it was very difficult, I could not think clearly but was aware that a window was opening wider into the memory of living a life as a royal with much power at the time and decisions made with huge influence in history.
Decisions that have returned to haunt me now. See Bumps, Falls, Soul Stories and Releasing where I share what it is like to go backwards, a bit like snakes and ladders.
During April, the month before my accident, we had travelled to Le Chateau de Isle d’Oleon in Aquitaine and had vague feelings of being there before. In fact John was quite shaky on his feet and I worried that he would fall over the high parapets in the huge Fort that we visited on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. I kept thinking of Eleanor – or Alienor (1122 – 1st April 1204) as is often spelled for I had seen, as we parked our car, a college nearby named in her honour.
Citadelle du Château-d’Oléron
France, showing the Duchy of Aquitaine during the time of Eleanor
After the accident memories of Eleanor’s life began to pour into my consciousness amidst the pain I was experiencing from my broken/cracked rib and broken toe. I found my self reacting with deep resentment in the way John was speaking to me but realising he was playing a role of how it was between Eleanor and Henry II – King of England and Aquitaine, France. The emotional reactions have been with me for a long time and now it was time to release them once and for all.
Eleanor had been only 15 years old when she was left as an orphan – she was a mature girl, capricious, highly educated and usually confident. However, she felt vulnerable and was surrounded by advisors, of whom she was not sure of who she could trust. It was arranged that she should marry Louis VII King of France – nothing to do with a love match, but rather like being a pawn in a game of politics and dowry for she had inherited a very large area of Southern France as the Duchess of Aquitaine.
I could feel her uncertainty about all of this but she accepted advice of her counsellors and did ‘her duty’ as she understood it and that was expected of her.
Life’s Lessons and Emotions
In this life, I remember at 15 years old my parents had divorced and wanted to live their own lives – each not having any room for me to live with either of them. I felt orphaned, alone and uncertain. I felt vulnerable, and although I was a mature girl, I was not surrounded by advisors. I was unhappy and confused. My grandmother took me in and cared for me as I began work to earn wages, instead of my hope to attend university. Strangely, my maternal grandmother’s name was Ellen. I write of this in the realisation of how often “we play out” other past lives in our present life. It is not the same story, nor necessarily the same situation, but the same emotions are involved. It gives opportunity for us to change our perspective in life to become stronger and not to judge ourselves, or others, but rather to let go ‘old thinking patterns’ that are painful. To move on and heal those reactive emotions that we don’t like in ourselves, that keep coming back in all sorts of ways in one’s life stories. When you deal with them – confront them and decide to forgive yourself and others – one can then be totally at peace with oneself.
In an 1840 painting by Jean Baptiste Mauzaisse, young Louis VII, Eleanor’s first husband, takes the banner of St. Denis in 1147. The original hangs at Versailles. Eleanor is kneeling at the Prie Dieu
You can read more about King Louis VII on Wikipedia, here.
You can read more about Eleanor of Aquitaine on Wikipedia here
It is said that Eleanor was the richest woman in Europe and the most eligible. In the 12th century a noblewoman of that time was in danger of being kidnapped and held for ransom if she was not married. Her guardian, Louis VI King of France married her off to his son Louis VII. Thus it was a political match, not a love match and one that Louis VII automatically inherited her wealth, position, and large area of Land that went on to make him the King of the whole of France.
The marriage was not a happy one and even though she had two daughters it was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree, which was allowable at those times. The daughters had to stay with their father Louis VII. But the land known as Aquitaine was returned to Eleanor.
A little older and wiser Eleanor then married Henry II making him both King of England and Aquitaine in France. She was older than him but knew him of course, they were also related. Like many of the nobles in Europe they all seemed to be distantly related in some way. Although again it was a political match, Eleanor was in love with Henry II. He had a reputation of being very difficult – a manipulator – Machiavellian in his manner. The noble men of those days were supposed to be chivalrous and that was what Eleanor was used to. Henry was different and often treated her almost as if she was his chattel – he owned her – not allowing her independence; they quarrelled often. However, they still had 8 children and Henry II was delighted to be presented with 5 sons over the years along with 3 daughters.
Henry II and Eleanor – 14th century depiction
He was a philanderer, not unusual in those times and had mistresses. But Eleanor was not happy when Rosamund came on the scene, producing an illegitimate son, and was allowed, by her husband, to almost usurp Eleanor in her own court. The indignity almost broke her heart. She remained a strong spiritual woman and as her life progressed it became more difficult with Henry II and his jealousies of King Louis VII of France and eventually the loss of the loyalty of his own sons. She spent a lot of time trying to maintain peace between them all.
When we first came to Montignac Charente, which is also Aquitaine country I didn’t know much of the history of France. I noticed that there were many huge churches in the Charente area much larger than was necessary in some of the small villages. These huge churches seemed to be everywhere. It seems early in the 10th century the Catholic Church had to have permission from the Royals to build churches. They then constructed Gothic style Churches over existing Roman chapels. Which – by the way – were probably built on sacred energy points within the earth. They had beautiful acoustics engineered by the local masons using limestone blocks. The priests encouraged their flock to walk pilgrimages to Jerusalem and/or Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) in Spain, in honour of Jesus.
Church at St Amant du Boixe
The beginning of the Crusades began when the Holy Sites of Jesus in Jerusalem where under attack and the Pope of the day requested that good Christians join together, take up the cross, to fight the interference with travellers and pilgrims to their Holy Site. The Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) pilgrim route to Spain needed to be protected also.
Christian Pilgrimage – Destinations
The concept and practise of Christian pilgrimage was first made to holy Christian sites which were connected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The destinations of the first Christian pilgrimages were therefore in the Holy Land notably Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth – 3000 miles distant from Europe. Soon it became common for Medieval people to make a pilgrimage closer to home visiting sites associated with Christian Saints and martyrs, holy relics and to places where there had been apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Pilgrimages were the first holidays enjoyed by Medieval people. Groups of Christians would set off together on a spiritual journey to visit a holy place or shrine where they would pray together.
My husband John and I have memories of being Christians even then and believed the necessity of assisting the Christian Church to protect the sacred sites and as royals were involved in decision making and the leaders of a Crusade. The thinking of peoples constantly at war was very different in the Medieval Times than it is now. In that time many people were killed in the Crusades (both sides) and of course in these days it could have perhaps been handled in a different way. Killing is not from the original teachings of Jesus.
An Ugly History
We cannot deny that the Church of Rome has an ugly history of protecting its teachings and doctrines. Right from the beginning of the early church, those who denied the faith at the edge of a sword were banished from the company of the believers. They were called heretics. If you were not with the Church, then you were against it. Emperors and Kings all tried to control the church and turn its purposes to their own, for the Church had a teaching about the Divine Right of Kings and a rite of coronation which was virtually a rite of ordination. This was why there was so much turmoil when a King or Royal disobeyed the Pope, which happened many times in Eleanor of Aquitaine’s life.
We know the Christian Church engaged in awful things – the Crusades and the Inquisition. They suppressed other nature religions and the original religion of Ireland – Celtic Religion which they simply replaced with Christianity. The Pagan Goddess Brighid simply became St Brigid. There was a suppression of ‘Pagan’ Religions, and much persecution if people erred in their belief. There were witch hunts by the Church, torture, trumped-up-trials and sentencing – most witches were burnt at the stake.
All these things happened in the name of God. It has since been addressed with sincere apologies, in the name of the Christian Church by Pope Paul II and Pope Francis of today. What was done then in the name of the Christian Church had nothing to do with God at all.
The Message of Cosmic Sai Baba
We have also received a message for all from Cosmic Sai Baba. Quoting last paragraph from a recent message of Cosmic Sai Baba:
“So please remember that. I implore you to do everything you can to learn of the differences in understanding – rather than judgement – between the two religions that are having problems in understanding each other. Everything comes from the same place.
THERE IS ONE GOD WHICH IS LOVE”
We have found a way to give penance; for although we believed we were making the right decisions about the Crusades in those times 900 years ago – we want to make it right. I will write more about this in the next article.
I am feeling much better by the way and thinking much more clearly. John thinks I may had suffered a mild stroke (similar to him) but they didn’t check for that at the French hospital. I think he is right – I must say I noticed a very, very, slight drop in one side of my face and after it happened it was a month after my Fall. … So it was possible but all that is healed now. My body had to be shaken up – to allow the information of the newer me to come forth …
In the meantime I was asked to deal with the unhappy emotional memories of Aliénor of Aquitaine. We both have been made aware of many past-lives we have had in France, or Gaul, or in particular the time of Aquitaine. When we first set out from Australia – John wanted to research the Knights Templar and the Crusades; well we have landed smack in the middle of its beginnings – we had no previous idea.
John has been shown he has 4 past life memories to consider in this era and in particular Richard I (The Lionheart) who was one of Eleanor’s sons. That means I was his mother. (Don’t like the idea of that role) It was historically recorded that Richard was Eleanor’s favourite child, people not realising that they were soul mates. A soul is androgynous, it can incarnate into an earth body as Male or Female. (See the book Two Soulmates )
So with our being there, in France, particularly the Charente, there has been much healing going on – both consciously with ourselves – and more so at a subconscious level for the history and wars, and religious wars, that are now in the past energies and history of that land.
The Knight Templar aids the pilgrim (Left Centre) and the Knight Hospitaller binds up the sick(Right Centre)