Dear Carolyn,
As it seems, the local pride to be "Cathar country" has to do rather with
tourism and probably also with political anti-centralistic feelings in South
France than with religious feelings. Nevertheless medieval Catharism (like
the templars or the Grail) has always attracted modern esoterics or
obscurantists. In the 30ies, the German writer Otto Rahn (_Kreuzzug gegen
den Gral_, Berlin 1933; _Luzifers Hofgesind_, Berlin 1938) was quite
successful to stir up and feed this kind of interest. I was not aware, but
it does not really surprise me, that today neo-Catharists do have their own
websites. I have found similar materials on the web where I would rather not
have expected them, once even on the server of a reputable university, in
the personal subdirectory of a professor of (if I remember it correctly)
neuro-linguistics.
Yours,
Otfried
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