Part 9 Eleanor and Geoffrey of Anjou

 Eleanor was the victim of certain rumours declaring that she had supposedly indulged in an affair with Geoffrey Count of Anjou.  Chronicler Walter Map, a inveterate tittle tattler and inventor of court gossip is at the root of these rumours - written circa 1181. Gerald of Wales, another of the same ilk, repeats them, although he is writing in 1216.  Both sources are highly dubious, although they can't be entirely discounted.  However, exactly when Geoffrey was supposed to have slept with Eleanor and got away with it, isn't told.  Gerald of Wales says it was when Geoffrey was 'seneschal of France.' Which he never was.  I would have thought Geoffrey too busy fighting for his own wife's heritage to have time to conduct an affair with the Queen of France, and Eleanor herself would have been closely guarded in her teen years (married at 13) and herself would not have had opportunity to whisk herself off for a quickie with her husband's neighbour and vassal, devastatingly handsome though he was.   However, they may well have met up at court and flirtations  (and more) may possibly have occurred.  This sort of 'we'll never know' scenario is absolutely perfect for Akashic exploration.  Here are mine and Alison's findings on the matter:  If you believe it, then here is the truth, and if you don't, it's just as close to the truth as anything else that's been written over the last 800 years!

  

To look at Eleanor between 1137 and 1150, and any significant interaction between her and Geoffrey of Anjou.

 Eleanor's heart is warm and she is sitting down, and she's looking down, but I can feel a quivering there, which is a little bit of excitement. It's the excitement of being close to someone she fancies. (Geoffrey).  She is very, very embarrassed by his attention.  He has these luminous eyes and he fixes them on her, and when he does that, she can't meet them. He keeps his face completely straight and serious and gives her this intense look. From the outside it could not be construed as anything salacious at all. He's just being strong I suppose. It would look like a strong, masculine sort of pose, but Eleanor feels it much more deeply and she can't take it for a long period at a time. She has to get up and move about. It's like being in the sun too long; it gets a bit too hot. And even when she walks away and does things at the sideboard, she is so conscious of him still looking at her that she can't behave naturally; it's as if she is on a string. She is so self-conscious of almost giving a performance - as if she is on a stage because she is being watched so much. And afterwards when she gets together with Petronella, they are standing and giggling like mad with their hands over their mouths, and they just put their heads down and they are giggling.  Which is nothing new those two, but is not very approved of.  This might or might not lead anywhere. We need to find out.  Geoffrey was gorgeous and Eleanor here is obviously still very much a young teenager.  She married at 13 in 1137 and into the 1140’s was still an adolescent.  It’s a normal girly response to giggle in the presence of a handsome man in his 20s with powerful sexual charisma. It felt like she was sitting next to a pop star whom she had admired from a distance, and it was very exciting to meet that person.

So go to the closest moment between Eleanor and Geoffrey of Anjou prior to the second Crusade and then their closest moment after the second Crusade, so say 1149

Oooh, Eleanor is very confident here. Eleanor is in control here. This is much more like the older Eleanor that I've seen. You know how in later life she became this very regal, confident person?  I am seeing an element of that in the younger woman here, but this seems to be texual confidence. In other words she is feeling her sexual power. It's a confidence that became more of her public persona later on. This is where it starts from.

She's standing against a pillar, slightly out of the room but on a step above the room. She is feeling very proud and very attractive. She is feeling beautiful. Geoffrey has looked up ‘across a crowded room’ and straight at her, and even licked his lips. She has this invincible pride; it's almost steely. You know how she was really quivering before as a teenager? She is not at all here. It's more her political sense here. It reminds me more of when she was moving soldiers about. It's a feeling of perhaps one in the bag - she's got a political ally, and she uses it like mad. So if she gets the opportunity to walk in front of him, she will emphasise her body as she walks, knowing that he is watching her. She flirts with him unmercifully and she really calls his bluff.

By something she says, or just by her body language?

I am not sure exactly what it is. He is standing sideways on. She is as well and she's got her elbow bent and something in her hand that looks like a walnut or something and she's very flirtingly offering this to him. This is really subtle. She knows what she is doing. He thinks he knows what he's doing. He's been calling the shots; he's been the one who has seemed to be in pursuit and making her feel embarrassed, but it is now as if she is pushing him to get under the pretence, to get under the show on top to see what he's really like underneath. To see what his real feelings are. Which are... real lust. So when he shows her that in his eyes, he also shows her his vulnerability because he has revealed his true feelings. And she is ready to lead him. So she leads him on with this plaything, and when she has got him really gagging for it…then she walks away.

So when you say she leads him on with this plaything, what is she doing then? It's like the carrot before the horse. ‘Have a little taste.’ Takes it away. ‘A little bit further…no hands… a little bit further.’ And then she walks away? Yes when he gets it. Ah, he gets it then? Yes, but then he has to stand there chewing and watching her walk away.

 Go to another significant moment between Eleanor and Geoffrey before the Crusade.

There's that warm feeling again in her chest. I'm getting horse riding movements.. She wants to feel his body close to hers and that's what this warm feeling is about here. She's riding on the back of a horse behind him. They are playing in a silly way. I think if he was a motorcyclist he be going a bit too fast, just to make her scream, but he's actually making the horse rock about at the back too much, up and down. That's it, and then he catches her with his arm as she falls. Then there's a lot of fast riding, but not with her at this time. There seems to be a lot of playfulness in general. It's a group of them being a bit wild.

Bottom line: The chroniclers may have seen smoke and created fire. And perhaps Geoffrey warned his son against Eleanor because she had such powerful sexual charisma as a mature woman. 

I have written a blog about Geoffrey of Anjou at my regular Living The History blog. 
http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2011/09/handsome-is-as-handdsome-doesgeoffrey.html

Part 8

"In my descriptions of people, nearly all the information I get comes from an inside perspective.  It’s what it feels like to be that person.  When they talk directly to us, it’s what it’s like to be in the presence of that person as well. "

Alison to me at a recent Akashic session.

A little bit more on Alienor's sister Petronella and involving Louis' second cousin, the courtier and warrior Ralph or Raoul de Vermandois

Go to Petronella, sister of Alienor of Aquitaine, when she receives the news of their father’s death.

Alison Petronella is so shocked at the news of the death of her father that she can’t breathe, she can’t speak, she’s all stiff.  Daddy, daddy, daddy.  I feel really at a standstill in the centre of my chest.  She wants to give these flowers to him, white daisy flowers, big ones.  She’s got them in her hand.  She wants to know where she can give them to him. Where is he?  She doesn’t understand.  How can he be dead?  He’s not here.  I don’t think she understands the concept of death properly.  She doesn’t understand that it’s final.  She thinks that her father can suddenly be brought into the castle and be there again.  She believes that if she wills it enough, that’s what will happen. ‘Daddy, daddy, I love you.’  She doesn’t want anything to do with Alienor because she thinks it’s Alienor’s fault.  She thinks Alienor sent him away. If it wasn’t for Alienor he would have stayed, and she would have had him all to herself.  She wouldn’t have had to share him with Alienor.  The pain in her chest is just tremendous.  She’s like a lost dog, looking in all directions.  She can’t be consoled.  She keeps asking questions.  ‘When will he come home?  She’s not accepted it; that’s basically how it is.  And as time goes on, it only gradually dawns on her as things change that he’s not going to come home.  She starts to be very, very sad about it.  Depressed, crying.  It’s as if part of her shuts down emotionally and she carries on with the practicalities of what she has to do.

Does she continue to feel like that towards Alienor, or does it ease?  She starts to rely on Alienor a lot as a sort of surrogate parent.  And like a surrogate parent you can rebel against a parent but love them at the same time.  You kick against them but rely on them too.  She seems to rely on Alienor for Alienor’s authority.  Alienor makes decisions as to what’s right and what’s wrong.

And does she still blame her for their father’s death?  No.  I think there’s some jealousy there that Alienor had times with their father that Petronella didn’t and never will and that Alienor had longer with their father, but it’s also something she can draw on, so she can ask Alienor about those time and she can experience them at second hand.  I think she has come to realise it’s not Alienor’s fault through Alienor’s own suffering.   

Petronella going to Paris.

I notice that Petronella has this signature sort of body language where she has her hands clasped together, or something in her hands. A lot about her is heart-shaped like her face.  The top of her body can be heart-shaped.  It’s just that delicate sort of – very much like her grandmother’s physiology.  She’s crying about what she can and can’t take with her, and having to leave behind so much.  When I say leave behind, it’s more like the flagstones of the castle, the walls, the very stones that make the place up.  The sunshine, especially the sunshine.  Pets.  I am seeing a little greyhound type of dog in a very pale colour.  She’s not taking that with her then?  No, it’s got puppies and won’t travel well.  It belongs to the house and she’s being told not to be silly.  I’m seeing a woman who’s telling her these things.  Quite a well dressed woman.  The woman is saying she will be better off without the encumberance of a dog.

And her impressions as they enter Paris and her thoughts on Alienor’s sudden marriage. Petronella is quiet.  Her mouth is down and her eyes are down.  She feels a bit depressed.  There’s a deep emotional pain as well.  She’s lost her sister as well now.  She’s lost her mum, her dad, her sister.  She switches off and is just a body going through the motions.  You wouldn’t know all this was going on from the outside.  You’d just see a proper person doing what she was meant to do but there’s no sparkle there.

And Paris.   Hmmm, she’s very interested.  She likes all the new sensations.  The smells, the sights, the sounds, the tastes.  She enjoys new things and she gets embarrassed as well when people notice her and offer her things.  She’s very sweet. She’s looked after with such pomp and distance in a way that she really wasn’t looked after at home.  There was much more proximity and hands on at home.  In Paris there is definite etiquette about things and she likes that.  Aaaah, and there’s a little dog.  A little fluffy dog like a Pomeranian. That someone’s given her?   I don’t know, but it’s near the hearth and she loves it.

So where did it come from?  It’s just already there, but it’s in the area where she particularly lives.  There’s this big square hearth.  There are other dogs there, but she particularly likes this one.  It sits on her knee as well.

So how does she get on with Alienor’s mother in law the dreaded Adelaide? Adelaide treats her as quite a pet because Petronella is so quiet and pliable.  She looks so sweet, she’s like a chocolate box ideal of a little girl or a little princess. 

And Petronella’s impression of Louis?  She doesn’t like him.  Her mouth purses to one side and there’s a sick feeling coming all the way down her middle.

Why?  She just finds him gruesome.  Sort of smarmy.  He’s always trying to be kind to her and she just finds him really smarmy.  He tries to give her gifts.  Say someone in this situation was trying to give her a bag of sweets, and because she doesn’t like him she doesn’t like the gift either.  The sweets are horrible.  I think it’s like an older brother syndrome.  An older brother with a girl-friend.  Euwwww!  There’s just something sibilant about him.  Something about his lips and something kind of… it’s like the way many male writers write love scenes - sleazy snail-trail stuff.  She finds him disgusting. She’s just happy when he doesn’t notice her.  She’s not happy when he puts his attention on her. She feels that Alienor has changed. She likes this horrible monster Louis.  It’s as if Alienor is all different and all grown up and talking with these other people, and Petronella has to watch her from a distance. 

And Petronella’s views on Alienor sharing a bed with Louis?   She can’t stand the thought of that.  Who’d want anything to do with Louis?  That’s how she feels and she tries not to think of it.  It gives her bad vibes.  I think she can sense his unease with pleasurable things.  I think she picks that up.  I don’t think she trusts him because of that.  It seems false.  I don’t think she’d be able to put her finger on that, but that’s what’s at the base of it.

I wondered about her relationship with Ralph of Vermandois in that first year in Paris?  She gets ever so shy with him and coy.  She’s got a very unusual smile.  I can feel it forming.  Her top lip puckers somehow, all across the top.   She gets totally embarrassed and giggly and looks down.  She hardly dares look up again, but she does.She has a tremendous laugh. It’s quite a deep laugh and she does it just because he looks at her and he has this humour in his expression.  I suppose it’s the vibration he’s sending that triggers something in her. 

So all he needs to do is look at her and she bursts out laughing? Yes, it’s as if he’s told her a very funny joke. I don’t think this is just something that happens without a background.  It’s a reference perhaps to some transaction they’ve done beforehand.

 So investigate it a bit more.  She’s giggling away like mad.  She’s trying to hide it by stroking this little dog and putting her head down.  And then she’s found him standing right in front of her.  She’s been trying to overcome her feelings and look down and cut off.  Then suddenly in front of her there’s this shadow and there he is, right in front of her and she didn’t know he was there! 

Just with him?  Yes!  He’s standing there and admiring her dog and asking about it.  Her mouth’s puckering up again and she’s talking.  There’s a warm, bubbly feeling in her abdomen as she is able to control herself enough to talk about the dog and about something else, perhaps a journey.  I’m not sure.  The conversation settles down and then slows down.  His attention is going somewhere else and she can look up at him with a yearning feeling.

A father figure thing?  It feels like love.  It’s a feeling that this person has given her attention and love and a positive thing and she wants more of it.  She is naturally open to giving her love to him.  It reminds me of her grandmother Dangereuse.  You know how passionate her grandmother was, and when she was fixed on that person that was all she wanted she was so full on.  In a similar way; it has a slightly different flavour, but the focus is the same. Interesting.  We discuss her age – somewhere between 11 and 13.  Certainly no older than that.  I suppose it would be a bit like an older boy in the school noticing you and becoming the centre of his attention and how you would deal with that.  Well in this case it would be more like fancying the headmaster because he’s 35 years older than her!  But what I am saying is that the feelings inside her are like that.  Ah, I see.  So like fancying a boy, not a man. Yes. So let’s see if she notices how old he is.  I think it’s a mixture of this daddy thing and boyfriend thing.  I think the other thing is that a lot of women of Alienor’s age and Petronella’s age were married off to much older men as a cultural norm.  I don’t know whether their focus was on older men – their eye perhaps trained into wealth and standing rather than youth and beauty. I don’t think he was unattractive. I do feel he was an attractive man.

So what did Ralph think of her?  The sort of feelings I’m getting are of him striding from one side of the room to the other and then striding towards her and like having a very complex toy, a little toy like an automaton that is very fascinating to play with.  Then there’s another deeper motive that is to do with power, that realises the very powerful position he is in, in relationship to her.  And this is exciting because it is in relation to personal power not delegated power. It’s not official, it’s something to do with him alone, with his own charisma.  It’s interesting, because he does like to test that out on other ladies as well.  It’s not something new to him, but he gauges people’s reactions.  So it’s like a hobby then?  Alison laughs and half nods.  Is it flirting then?    I think there’s an element of it, yes. 

And what does Alienor think of Ralph?  Alienor has a very fixed gaze on him.  She thinks him very attractive.  This is her view from a distance.  She thinks his body very attractive.  She thinks his mind is busy on things in front of him and doesn’t notice her.  When he does turn his attention on her, he can out-courtesy her.  She’s very good at being courteous but hers is very natural.  His is natural but with an extra edge as well. It has an intent.  She likes him better at a distance than close up because he tends to get too close.  He can invade her privacy.  When he’s speaking to someone smaller than him, he has a habit of bending over right from the middle of his back and putting his hand forward just to be on their level, but the edge of his energy is quite sharp.  It’s like having a metal edge to his fingers somehow, and she doesn’t like that sharp edge.  Although they’ve got things in common, a closer familiarity makes her feel uncomfortable and back away.  But there again, it’s not that she doesn’t trust him, it’s just his manner that she finds uncomfortable. While he’s at a distance, she likes him.

Part 7. The Vase and Suger

 One of the few items remaining from Eleanor's life is the vase she gave to Louis VII at the time of their wedding.  Louis - or Louis and Eleanor together, depending on who you believe, later gave it to Abbot Suger of St. Denis at the consecration of the magnificent new church of St Denis.  Originally the rock crystal vase was unembellished apart from carving on the crystal itself, but Abbot Suger had it beautified with gold and jewels.  Various biographers and novelists have imagined that Eleanor must have been devastated to  see Louis give up that vase to the abbot, but I honestly do not see why that should be the case.  An item such as this would always have been used for religeous purposes and kings and queens were always in the act of giving magnificent gifts to their favourite religeous establishments.  What was more fitting than that the mausoleum and church of the Kings of France should house this gift with Suger as its custodian? It would hardly have stood on Louis' bedroom windowsill before this would it?

But, I digress.  I wanted to find out about this vase in the Akashic sequence, so I asked Alison to take a look at it.  I also asked her to take a look at the personality of Abbot Suger:

For readers interested in the vase in conventional history, there's an excellent piece in Eleanor of Aquitaine Lord and Lady edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John C. Parsons.  The title is The Eleanor of Aquitaine Vase by George. T. Beech.  You can also find out a bit about it at the Louvre website. http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice_popup.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673226029&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673226029&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500778&bmLocale=en

 

To the question of Alienor giving the crystal vase to Louis:

A tall man is stooping down to put this crystal vase in her hands and it seems to have straight sides and then flares out a little bit at the top.  I’m not getting past the bit where I see the vase being put in her hands. I’ll try to get it from her point of view.  She’s feeling good.  Warm, excited.  I can’t get the feeling of the vase in my hands though.  I don’t want you to tell me what it looks like…  No, but I can tell you that it was a family treasure and that it had belonged to her grandfather William IX who got it from Spain.  It had been been passed down the family from him.  It’s quite knobbly and it’s got embellishments at the top. Alison is drawing it and it does have a strong look of the said vase but without the top and base that were added later.

She feels very warm about this. She’s holding this precious thing in her hands and she is walking across to Louis and she’s walking across at a diagonal towards Louis, and because of the preciousness of this object, she is just walking with her feet, she’s not making her knees move.  It’s as if she’s giving this delicate thing which is also her delicate self, her heart to him.  She has no qualms about trusting. She is just doing what she needs to do and trusting in this exchange and this shows the level of her trust.  Louis picks it up and holds it carefully, looks at it, and he kisses her right at the top of her brow.  She feels satisfied.  In fact it feels a bit of a relief because she no longer has to have responsibility for this vase and Louis calls someone to come and look after it.  I can see a ring being exchanged now.  It’s a gold ring with a big red stone in it.  He’s taking it off his own finger and giving it to her. He’s not putting it on her finger, he’s putting it into her hand. 

And the incident from his POV?   When he sees this coming across to him and the vase and the bride, he thinks ‘Yummy.’  Again, he accepts it as what ought to be.  He takes this expansion of his belongings, his well being as just normal.  He takes it for granted.  He doesn’t see a limit to it.  He doesn’t feel it needs to stop there.  He feels the ring is something to bind her closer to him.  It’s the sort of gift he’s used to making from the throne to his magnates and he uses it in a similar way.  It feels the right and proper thing to do and he’s done it now.  And then he looks around at his entourage to see what effect that’s had on them.  It’s because he’s used to using these gifts for political reasons and it’s a habit with him now that he has to see the effect of favouring one person on other people. So it’s not just an actor looking for audience response then?  No, I can’t see that.  It’s just a habit.  You have to be watchful and on your guard if you are going to control all this.  Although on the other hand he can’t control it all.  

Go to Suger first seeing the vase.

I can see him looking at the vase, and I can see it as a vase, without all the embellishment. I can see the light shining through it. It's fantastic. Suger's eyebrows go up. It's kind of amazement and a very smooth feeling inside. Suger isn't a very smooth person, he's always got lots of deals going on inside. This calms it all down and smooths it all out. I suppose it supersedes all that, it overlays all that. It's the beauty of it, it clears everything else out. He has this aesthetic ambition (In history) and I think this is what it is. It calms everything down in him. He gets a sense of being at peace; he's not at peace generally, that's not his nature, but being able to be overwhelmed by something beautiful and magnificent allows him that time of peace where he doesn't have to think. There's no thought going on. I suppose that's the closest to God he can be when he can have that lack of mundane thought. He goes blank and he goes through the moment. He is no longer Suger the ball bobbing along the ocean, it's just all gone and he can be himself. It's not even a desire to have the vase. It's like relief. It's like going to a retreat and thinking ‘Ah, I can just let it all go now. ' So I guess that the beautiful things he collects – his vase collection for example, are what do it for him. Yes I suppose that's why he does it, because it's an important part of his life.  We thought how sort of intricate these things are, and busy. We never guessed that it could bring this calmness. I suppose it's a bit like A mandala, for him then.  Yes, but naturally in an unexpected way. It wasn't premeditated or anything. He doesn't hang onto it at the time because that would lose it. He just allows it to happen. How interesting. It shows why he's got the motivation to do this collecting. I suppose he's only like this when he's in the zone. When showing somebody else he would be in a very different frame of mind. I don't think he'll be able to explain it. He would say, Oh the beauty of this object, the proportions, the size… But he wouldn't be able to explain the feelings, or only in terms of God. God is all beauty. So he would use that experience to tell others what God is, but it would be profane for him to tell people that he got this feeling from physical objects. These are only reflection of God’s might and worth.

Why did Louis decide to give the vase to Suger in 1144?

Louis loves this man and there seems to be a flowering of this love as Louis gets older.  It seems to be something that sustains him.  He has been able to rely on Suger right from childhood as someone that sustains him.  He just wants to show his appreciation for everything that Suger has done for him and his family in everything that he upholds.  The way that he’s treated in the family.  The way that Suger has dedicated his whole being and life to upholding the family.  What more loyal member of state could you wish for?  It almost brings tears to his eyes.  So how can he show what he feels without bringing something that is very precious, fragile and more than that, luminous, to give to Suger.  It’s something which appears transparent but in certain…ah this is interesting…but in certain lights gives off other colours like a prismatic effect.  That’s why it would be so precious wouldn’t it?  It would be like a real light show. It would complement the windows that Suger had put in his church – like a reflection.  I can feel that Louis feels the emotional preciousness of it in the connection that he has with Alienor.  So it has that emotional resonance as well as the other resonances.  And to give that, all his love, all this beauty, all his connection with Alienor is an enormous gift.  No wonder it brings tears to his eyes.

What does Suger think of this gift?  He is taking it into his stomach, taking it into his treasury. Mmm, yum, nice. 

But then he tarted it up, didn’t he?  That’s to make it his.  It can’t go back; it’s his now.

Yes, he made an inscription to that effect.  So the tarting wasn’t because he felt it needed extra bling?  No, he was putting his own graffiti on it.  So he thinks it’s a worthy gift?  Oh indeed, yes. Has he coveted it before?  Yes, he has!  Has he ever made mention before that it’s a nice piece?  I’ve lost it now, but I just got the feeling he has commented on it before and seen it before, but said things like ‘If only it was a little bit here and a little bit there, it would be perfect, or it would be gorgeous.  He certainly does like it.

 Following on from our look at Louis giving Alienor’s vase to Suger, I wanted to look at Alienor’s reaction to this event.  1144

Alison: She feels quite tight across the heart area.  This is an Alienor who is quite worked up.  Tight heart, tight cheeks, tight eyes.  Emotional in an anxious way.  I am getting the words ‘Please God, this has got to work.’  She is angry and not that bothered about the vase.  This is about God.  Her anger is connected to her relationship with God, so this is a direct communication with God.  Suger is just a periphery.  I think this is to do with wanting a boy child.  It doesn’t seem fair.  Why can’t she have what she wants?  She will give anything, it doesn’t matter what, in order to have what she wants.  So the actual item isn’t as relevant as what she wants.  Suger to her is just someone who is doing what’s needed in the circumstances.  Not quite a servant, but a functionary. It’s not up to him, it’s up to God.  That’s how she sees it, although she wouldn’t say it outright.  It wouldn’t be necessary.  She can find Suger a bit annoying but he’s got a job to do.  She’ll let him get on with his job, but this isn’t to do with him really.  It’s to do with God. He’s just a functionary of God. 

So this vase is to be given to God as a plea for her fertility?  It’s more of a demand actually!  She hardly even looks at the vase.  It’s only in her side vision and the main part of her vision is to God. Why the vase and not a different gift?  Well she could give anything.  She doesn’t mind what it is, and it isn’t the only thing she’s given.  She’s given loads of things.  She’s given bags of gems.  She’s given gold coverings to things.  I am seeing one of those gold engraved domes that you put over tombs.  She would rake around and give whatever it took.

Suger  and his character.

Adelaide’s and Alienor’s relationships with Abbot Suger.

Adelaide feels that this is a person she can do business with.  He has stature but he knows his place.  I can see something like a bishop’s mitre and it’s very upright.  She’s on a pedestal above him.  There’s a definite demarcation in their positions but they are both upright, and she can rely on him to fulfil his role.  Sometimes he can be a bit over-zealous and working his own machinations, but generally she feels it is for the purpose of upholding the state so she’s prepared to give him a bit of leeway in that.  There are moments when she pushes against him and it’s as if there is nothing there.  She just takes that as an aberration.  Something that doesn’t quite click.  There’s something that’s not quite right, but there’s not enough of those incidents for her to see the whole thing as not quite right, so generally she disregards those for the benefit of the overall structure.  And there is a glint in both their eyes which shows they understand each other.  They’re on the same wavelength.  There’s a glint of humour as well. Their humour is getting one over on someone and how you do it, and I think they appreciate that in each other as very skilled practitioners.  They recognise when each other has a win. 

Alienor and Suger?  Alienor comes from a position of a supplicant, a person who wants to do right by religion, spirit, God.  She has a wider idea of what religion and spirituality are.  While he is a figurehead and part of the structure of a physical church. I am seeing arches in a cathedral here and as if he is one of those arches that holds it up.  In a similar way, if she pushes against that, it could damage the stability of the church.  So she has to accept his position for the sake of the structure, but she does find him quite rigid, like a column made of metal rather than stone, as if he doesn’t have the spirituality that the rest of the church transmits and yet he is this elegant column and arch that looks right, that looks more than right,  She feels sick, looking at it more emotionally. I find I have to go to two levels with Alienor.  That was the higher level, but the emotional level is a bit lower.  He makes her feel physically sick and I am trying to work out why this is... He pokes into the private lives of other people.  He pokes into places where it’s really, really not appropriate and this very much upsets her.   And yet she doesn’t seem to have the power to stop him or keep him out and he can do it when she’s got no intuition about where he’s going to do it next. I suppose he’s got his talons in Louis so he can manipulate Louis all the time.  She is definitely not treated as a human being by him.  She is not considered to have feelings but only to be part of a unit in this political jigsaw.

  

Abbe Suger and his first feelings on meeting Eleanor when he came to Bordeaux.  He seems to be in a very deep state, perhaps he's asleep. I can feel him washing his hands now and I can see him from a strange angle. There are some squared off pillars ornamented, with a basin in front. Yes it's a basin that's built into a pillar and it's all carved. It's like a water fountain in a garden. He's drying his hands now and saying 'Where is she?' He is being told a whole catalogue of things she has been doing today. Oh I see. He is asking about her and he is being given a lot of detail about her lifestyle. He is saying 'We will see her at prayer.' He is asking how pious she is. He is being told that she is very pious. She knows a lot about the Bible.

FFW. I am hearing a bell; I am seeing a long corridor with lots of people going down it. Then they moved back to allow Suger to pass forward through them. I am getting this contemplative feeling. I feel that I am in the church with Suger and he is in the situation where the choir is alongside the altar. The children, not just Eleanor are brought up to the altar to have communion and he watches her.  His attitude to her is that she is a child and as such like a blank tablet that you can mould. Children are not fully formed people. The outside of her looks fine and he doesn't see any problem with it. I just get the impression that he would regard all children as being the same, just blank objects that he puts form to. So it wouldn't matter who she was really inside, just so long as she met the birth criteria. And as an additional bonus she is very attractive and almost jewel-like in her perfection, so everything seems very satisfactory from his point of view. After all this is a world for grownups.

 

Now to take a look at Suger’s spirituality, particularly in the building of St.Denis.

Oh! Such pride!  His head, it circles round.  It’s so mobile it’s like on the end of a snake.  His lips are pursed.  Exquisite!  He’s so over-arched with pride about this.  It is the apex of what man can do in terms of honouring God and it all is to do with artistic taste and exquisiteness.  He feels he has brought all this together, so it is his creation.  He has sourced everything.  Workmen, artists.  He’s claiming the credit for the whole thing.  Not because he’s designed it, but because he’s brought all the designers together to work on this project. So really he’s claiming himself as an artist here.  He’s gone down in history as the creator of this place and seen as massively spiritual.  Why? Because St. Denis is so spiritual.  Mmm.  It gives people an urge towards spirituality? Yes, like when you enter a cathedral and you get this spiritual soaring feeling towards God.  And this is what St. Denis does, and so everyone thinks that its builder must have had this great spiritual vision and been of that mindset himself.  Which may not necessarily be true.  Not at all. He sees it as he is the one who has done the most magnificent thing for God, so isn’t he wonderful? He’s taking so much credit for it.  Not the designers who actually brought that spirituality in through their work, but because of him because he actually thought of having them in to do it.  Let’s have a look at how he actually gelled all these ideas together so I can make sure what his aesthetic involvement actually is.  Yes, he has actually got aesthetic involvement in the sense that he knows what looks nice.  He would know what garments were the best if he was going to a very big service.  He would want very beautiful, ornate, well embroidered garments – it’s just on a larger scale.  It’s like ordering a very nice cake.  I want it to shine here, I want sparkly bits there and it would be a wonderful setting for him to do his sermons with his nice gear on.  I am seeing gear that is basically silver and white with pale blue, pale yellow, pale green embroidery on – delicate colours on a very light background and that’s the setting he puts himself in.  So he looks like a radiant being as well.  Absolutely.  ‘Oh, my dear ones, you are gathered in my offering to God.’   I mention that St Denis was the resting place of the Capetian kings.  Alison comments that St. Denis also gives Suger a place then where he can preside over the bodies of these dead kings and that Kings have to apply to him for special services.  Alison also comments that all of his deep feeling was aggandisement and everything else seems to be quite mundane and practical.

What were Suger’s feelings towards Alienor?

It’s quite interesting because he feels as if she is sending out these golden rays, every so often prodding him.  So it feels as if she can see through him and he has to protect himself against her and guard himself.  He sees her as someone he has to be careful of.  He recognises her intelligence himself, but probably wouldn’t admit to anything like that.