Notre Dame Cathedral - The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes
Revelation 17:6
“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”
King James Version (KJV)
Matthew 4:8
“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;”
King James Version (KJV)
Prelude:
Fallen from Grace Part 3:
Essential Background Studies:
St Mary's Minnesota
Fallen from GRACE means what exactly? (thethirdheaventraveler.com)
Fallen from GRACE Part 2; Peter at Antioch (thethirdheaventraveler.com)
I Don't Go To Church (thethirdheaventraveler.com)
Notre Dame Cathedral receives its iconic bells 5 years after fire (msn.com)
After a massive fire in 2019, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris will be ringing its bells once again. Scheduled opening is December 2024.
The Vatican's Year of Peace - An ominous warning of End Times Events (thethirdheaventraveler.com)
See forthcoming study on the great wars of Europe involved the VATICAN behind the scenes.
Notre Dame = Our "Lady" = Mother Mary = The Queen of Heaven
dame (n.)
c. 1200, "a mother," also "a woman of rank or high social position; superior of a convent," and an address for a woman of rank or position,
Jeremiah 44:18
“But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.”
King James Version (KJV)
Build back better.
Isaiah 9:10
“The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”
King James Version (KJV)
Isaiah 9:10 (KJV) states: “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”
This verse reflects the pride and defiance of the Israelites. Despite the destruction they faced, they were determined to rebuild with even stronger materials. The bricks represent their previous, less durable construction, while hewn stones symbolize a more permanent and resilient rebuilding effort1.
Similarly, the sycamore trees were common and less valuable, while cedars were considered more precious and durable2. By choosing to replace sycamores with cedars, the Israelites were expressing their confidence and determination to come back stronger and more magnificent than before2.
This attitude, however, was seen as a sign of their arrogance and unwillingness to acknowledge God’s judgment1. Instead of humbling themselves and seeking repentance, they chose to rely on their own strength and resources.
Rising from the Ashes
In Christian symbolism, the phoenix is often seen as a metaphor for resurrection and eternal life. It represents the idea of rebirth and renewal, much like the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The imagery of the phoenix rising from its ashes can be linked to spiritual truths found in the Bible, such as the transformation and new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)1.
Occult Meaning
In occult traditions, the phoenix holds deep symbolic significance. It embodies themes of rebirth, renewal, transformation, and immortality2. The phoenix’s ability to rise from its ashes after being consumed by fire is seen as a powerful symbol of hope and new beginnings3. This metaphor of death and rebirth is a recurring theme in various cultures and mythologies throughout history4.
Rooster atop of the spire.
Before the Cock Crows Notre Dame - Prophetic Rooster fitted to Spire (thethirdheaventraveler.com)
The golden rooster atop the Notre Dame spire holds deep significance both culturally and religiously. It serves as a symbol of vigilance and Christ’s resurrection1. The rooster also houses sacred relics, including fragments of Christ’s Crown of Thorns and remains of St. Denis and St. Genevieve, adding to its religious importance1.
History
Victor Hugo
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Personification of the Cathedral: Hugo personified Notre Dame to emphasize its importance as more than just a building. He depicted it as a living entity with its own character and history, which helped readers connect emotionally with the cathedral and understand its value1.
Notes:
A pagan city lies below the cathedral.
The Île-de-la-Cité on which Notre-Dame de Paris now stands was once a Gallo-Roman city known as Lutetia. The cathedral may have been built right over remnants of a temple: Around 1710, pieces of a sculpted altar dedicated to Jupiter and other deities were discovered during an excavation under the choir (although it remains unclear if this is evidence of an ancient temple, or if the pieces were recycled there from another location). Additional architectural ruins found in the 1960s and ’70s, many dating back to this ancient era, lie in the archaeological crypt located beneath the square just in front of Notre-Dame.
There are three portals on the western façade of Notre-Dame, each laden with sculpted saints and sacred scenes. One doesn’t seem to fit, however—the Portal Sainte-Anne features a much earlier style than the rest. Its figures, such as the central Virgin and Child, look stiffer in their poses and less natural in their features compared to the other statues. That’s because this tympanum, or semi-circular area of decoration, was recycled from a previous Romanesque church. A close examination in 1969 revealed that it was not originally made for this space, and had been adapted to fit the Gothic structure.
Notre-Dame had a “forest” in its roof.
Before the fire, the cathedral contained one of the oldest surviving wood-timber frames in Paris, involving around 52 acres of trees that were cut down in the 12th century. Each beam was made from an individual tree. For this reason, the lattice of historic woodwork was nicknamed “the forest.”
The cathedral was one of the earliest structures built with exterior flying buttresses. They were constructed around its nave in the 12th century to lend support to the thin walls, after the need for more light in the incredibly tall church required larger windows, and thus greater supports. The exposed flying buttresses became an iconic aspect of Gothic design, and although there’s some debate over whether Notre-Dame was the first church to have them, they certainly set the trend in sacred architecture.
28 of its kings lost their heads in the French Revolution.
In 1793, in the midst of the French Revolution, 28 statues of biblical kings in the cathedral were pulled down with ropes and decapitated by a mob. (King Louis XVI was guillotined earlier that year, and any iconography tied to the monarchy was under attack.) The mutilated stones were eventually tossed in a trash heap, which the interior minister dealt with by ordering the material be repurposed for construction. It wasn’t until 1977 that the heads of 21 of these kings were rediscovered during work on the basement of the French Bank of Foreign Trade. Now they’re at the nearby Musée de Cluny.
Its bells were once melted down for artillery.
The kings weren’t the only part of Notre-Dame destroyed during the French Revolution. The cathedral, like other churches around France, was transformed in the late 18th century from a Christian space and rededicated to the new Cult of Reason. All 20 of its bells—except the colossal 1681 bourdon called Emmanuel—were removed and melted down to make cannons.
While the bells at Notre-Dame were replaced in the 19th century, the new instruments were not as finely made as the older versions, and made a more dissonant noise when clanging. Finally, in 2013, a new ensemble of bells restored the cathedral to its 17th-century sound, with the deeply resonant Emmanuel still joining in the toll on special occasions.
Napoleon and Victor Hugo saved Notre-Dame from ruin.
When Napoleon Bonaparte decided to have his 1804 coronation as emperor in Notre-Dame, the building was in bad shape. Centuries of decay as the city developed and changed around it, as well as the vandalism of the French Revolution, had left it on the verge of demolition. For years it had been used as little more than a warehouse. So when Napoleon declared its return to church use, and hosted his grand ceremony within his walls—an event in which he famously crowned himself—it brought Notre-Dame to new prominence.
Nevertheless, the coronation didn’t fix its structural deterioration. Then author Victor Hugo used the building as a personification of France itself in his 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris. (The book’s name is often translated as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, yet the bell ringer Quasimodo is not the main character; the central figure is Notre-Dame.) And Hugo vividly evoked its decrepit 19th-century state:
“But noble as it has remained while growing old, one cannot but regret, cannot but feel indignant at the innumerable degradations and mutilations inflicted on the venerable pile, both by the action of time and the hand of man, regardless alike of Charlemagne, who laid the first stone, and Philip Augustus, who laid the last. On the face of this ancient queen of our cathedrals, beside each wrinkle one invariably finds a scar. 'Tempus edax, homo edacior,' which I would be inclined to translate: 'Time is blind, but man is senseless.'”
The book was a success, and the momentum led to a major restoration overseen by architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.
Its monsters are modern, not medieval.
Some of the most popular images of Notre-Dame are from the perspective of its gargoyles or chimera (the carved monsters that don’t act as waterspouts). Few visitors would guess that the fantastic creatures now on the cathedral weren’t there until the 19th century; they were added between 1843 and 1864 during the radical restoration overseen by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.
Hugo had described gargoyles extensively in Notre-Dame de Paris, and Viollet-le-Duc was reportedly inspired by this romantic vision of the past. A daguerreotype from before this overhaul shows a building more stark than the one we know today, with no beasts perched on its towers, its medieval gargoyles having long been removed. Before the fire, many of the 19th-century gargoyles were decaying; PVC pipes had taken the place of those that had been taken down for safety.
The gargoyles were far from the only fanciful addition by the architect Viollet-le-Duc. Among the 12 apostles he had installed around his new spire, he included himself as the face of Saint Thomas.
Its spire was a saintly lightning rod.
Photos of the cathedral before the fire show a rooster on top of the spire. This rooster was not a purely decorative bird. In 1935, three tiny relics—an alleged piece of the Crown of Thorns and some bits of Saint Denis and Saint Genevieve (the city's patron saints)—were secured inside the metal bird’s body. The idea, the story went, was to create a sort of spiritual lightning rod to protect the parishioners within.
Its organ is thought to be the largest in France.
The Notre-Dame organ involves almost 8000 pipes (some dating back to the 18th century) played with five keyboards, making it the biggest pipe organ in France (although some claim that Saint-Eustache has a larger one). The instrument was restored in 2013 to mark the 850th anniversary of the cathedral, and fortunately, it survived the 2019 fire with only water damage from the firefighters’ hoses. It is still being cleaned and decontaminated.
All roads lead to Notre-Dame de Paris.
Bees still live on its roof.
On the Notre-Dame sacristy, adjacent to the cathedral, a small beehive was installed in 2013. The hive was home to Buckfast bees, a strain developed by a monk named Brother Adam and known for its gentleness. Their honey is made from the flowering plants in nearby gardens, including the Square Jean XXIII just behind the cathedral, and was given away to the poor.
Miraculously, the 180,000 bees survived the devastating fire. They wouldn’t abandon their queens, and so hunkered down inside their hives and survived on honey. A year after the blaze, they were pollinating flowers and producing the sweet stuff as usual.
13 Facts About Notre-Dame Cathedral (msn.com)
Located in the heart of the city in the first arrondisement near Les Halles, this 17th-century church is a charming and eclectic mishmash of architectural styles: It's a Gothic structure dressed in Renaissance detail.
The Chapel of the Virgin, which was built in 1640, features a sculpture of the Virgin and Child at the center of the apse surrounded by three large painting
Designed by Jesuit architects Etienne Martellange and Francois Derand, this 17th-century church features influences both from French Gothic architecture (such as the traditional cruciform plan and the verticality of its facade) and Italian Baroque architecture (like its curved form details and Corinthian columns on its facade).
The Marais district building likely inspired the church in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables where Cosette marries Marius Pontmercy. Hugo lived nearby in the Place des Vosges from 1832-1848, during which he wrote the novel (it was published in 1845). His daughter Leopoldine was married at Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis in 1843.
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