The Widow Plantard

During the summer, the Zaepffels came to Paimpont and brought with them a cook – Amélie Raulo, widow of Plantard – who worked in their service occasionally. She came accompanied by her son Pierre, then of school age. Having no children of her own, Geneviève Zaepffel took a liking to the latter and contributed to his intellectual training. She frequented the renowned esotericists of her time such as Paul Le Cour (founder of the magazine Atlantis), Georges Monti and Oswald Wirth, whom she frequently received.

She practiced tarot and introduced Pierre Plantard to the art of reading cards. The latter would go on to create his own deck and, in turn, give readings. A detail to consider. Pierre Plantard painted twenty-two paintings corresponding to the twenty-two arcana of the so-called Marseille tarot, featuring landscapes and elements related to the Rennes-les-Bains area in the background. Unfortunately, only five of these paintings are visible in the publication “Le Cercle” (The Circle), deposited by his son Thomas at the BNF (National Library of France) in 1992. In addition to various esoteric disciplines, Geneviève Zaepffel taught him the great mysteries of the invisible forces of nature, so present in the Breton forests. With such a quality mentor, Pierre Plantard undoubtedly accumulated great knowledge and was able to strengthen his own sensory and mediumistic faculties.

Pierre Plantard remained in contact with Geneviève Zaepffel until her death. He was likely let in on certain major secrets through her and the circle of initiates gravitating around her. Was he tasked with taking up the torch and transmitting messages in turn? This information may have initially been divulged according to a pre-planned pattern and timing. It should be noted that Pierre Plantard called himself “de Saint Clair” from the mid-1970s, after Geneviève Zaepffel's death.

This may suggest that these secrets may have fuelled Pierre Plantard's mythomania and pushed him to go beyond the initial framework and act as a free spirit. He was fifty-one years old at the time and possessed the necessary fundamentals to perfect the decorum of his mystification. However, he must have known that any initiatory path requires stripping away the ego and letting go of all personal ambition. In Tradition, the chosen one is designated by a specific group at a specific time. In no way does he proclaim himself as such.