The modern climate, flush with biased information from all ends of the political spectrum, is rife with conspiracy theories and grandiose ideas about the world order. Though we have unlimited amounts of knowledge available at our fingertips, it has become exceedingly difficult to differentiate between fact and fiction.
Marco Rigamonti, Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, explains that there is some truth to this idea, but maintains that not all orders or secret societies are thirsty for power. In fact, he wants to set the record straight about the Priory of Sion, sharing rare insider information about the history and beliefs of the organization, and how they are much more than The Da Vinci Code — they are still fighting monumental battles.
The original conspiracy theory — which defined the term — is that there are surreptitious organizations and secret societies operating without the public’s knowledge, working behind the scenes to influence politics, finances, and the world at large.
What is the Priory of Sion?
The Prieuré de Sion, anglicized as the Priory of Sion, is an organization that the world knows best for its depictions in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. However, the organization is not fictional — the Priory of Sion is an initiatory Order of chivalry that is still active today.
Long thought to be a secret society, the organization has done its best to make itself known to the world in order to clear up preconceived notions about their intentions, even going so far as to officially register their Order. Even more, the Priory of Sion disrupted notions of conspiracy around the Order after making a rare public appearance in 2017, presenting a gift of €1,000 to the small French village, Rennes-le-Château, formally reintroducing the Priory of Sion and their newest Grand Master, Marco Rigamonti, to conventional society.
The Priory of Sion is no longer the furtive Order that has been depicted in the media — they even have their own website, where they are very forthcoming with any information the public may want to know about the organization as a whole — but The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code did capture some truth about the organization’s beliefs. For example, the Priory of Sion does believe that Jesus and Mary Magdalene have descendants living today, but in a refreshing manner, the Order allows for skepticism and never attempt to push their beliefs on the public, even stating that they do not “pretend to propose this genealogy like a certain fidelity to history…”
The Order, which their website states was founded in 1099, is currently led by Grand Master Marco Rigamonti, is doing their best to ensure that the Priory of Sion’s ancient traditions, rituals, and spirituality are known — or better yet, understood — by the general public through regular displays of lucidity.
The Priory of Sion wants to be transparent with the public
For Grand Master Marco Rigamonti, because of the modern political climate’s polarizing nature, it is more paramount than ever before that the Priory of Sion is entirely transparent about who they are, what they do, and where their organization fits in the “conspiracy theory” puzzle — even if it could be potentially dangerous for the Order.
According to Rigamonti, although the Priory of Sion does not have a secret agenda, the Order has come into contact with groups that do, but he is determined to draw a clear line of separation between the Priory of Sion and these clandestine organizations. He is outspoken, intent to reveal what he and the Priory of Sion believe to be true evil in the world, but knows that it is at his own risk.
Rigamonti describes the historical importance of an attempted involvement from these outside organizations into the Priory of Sion, explaining just how different their Order is from the groups they are often categorized with.
A clandestine American organization has tried to interfere with the Priory of Sion
Since the Priory of Sion maintains that the Order has been around as early as the 11th century, it is expected that they would have interacted — even unintentionally — with other organizations in the past. The Priory of Sign touts a long list of supposed Grand Masters throughout the years, including high-profile individuals such as Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Victor Hugo; each fulfilled the role for a number of years before turning the title over to another either shortly before or after their deaths. Current Grand Master, Marco Rigamonti, says that it was during one of these conveyances that the Priory of Sion was infiltrated by a dangerous organization from the United States — a group that has been speculated about for years by conspiracy theorists and whistleblowers alike.
Rigamonti explains that between 1960 and 1981, the Order found itself infiltrated by dubious characters with ulterior motives, which they hoped to achieve through the Priory of Sion. The following is a retelling of this period according to his detailed account:
One of the last supposed Grand Masters during this era was French author and artist Jean Cocteau, a man best known for his influence in the Dadaist and surrealist movements. Before his death in 1963, Cocteau named Pierre Plantard — who some skeptics believe to be the original founder of the Priory of Sion — as his successor.
However, Plantard could not assume the role of Grand Master without the support of the highest authority council in the Order, the Council of the 13 Rose-Croix. The Council wanted to supervise Plantard, dictating that he reach a number of decisive goals before investing him as Grand Master. Rigamonti notes that this is not typical for the Order, explaining that the Council felt that if Plantard could successfully accomplish these goals, it would solidify his worthiness of becoming Grand Master to the Order, ensuring cohesion amongst the group.
More so, Plantard needed to legitimize his claim to the title in the eyes of all the members, a task that proved especially difficult as it was during this time that the aforementioned outside actors had crept into the Order and had begun sowing seeds of discord. Rigamonti explains, saying, “This strategy is not the usual way a Grand Master receives investiture, but was necessary because of the creation of an internal split [which] occurred with the infiltration from a very powerful organization from the United States.”
Rigamonti says that this clandestine American organization has no true designation, but is known by many familiar names, referring to themselves according to the rituals their members celebrate or how they wish to affect public opinion. However, this organization goes out of its way to conceal its true nature from the public.
“You can call them Illuminati, Satanists, or however you prefer,” Rigamonti says. It should be noted that the Priory of Sion has no qualms with the name “Illuminati” because they believe in the original dedication of the term — a group founded in 1776 by Johann Adam Weishaupt that was committed to the emancipation of mankind — not the modern interpretation that carries negative connotations. However, the polyonymous American organization is rumored to exist only to gain control over the global society, using dirty tactics such as lobbying, pushing false pseudoscience as truth, and wielding large sums of money as a weapon to achieve their goals.
During the period when Pierre Plantard was working his way up to Grand Master, the alleged “Highest Priest” of this underground American organization was none other than bank chairman Gaylord Freeman. Rigamonti says that Freeman and this group wanted to absorb the Prieuré de Sion into their organization, using the Order as a foreign extension for their goals, seeing it as an opportunity to build a powerful network with almost unlimited resources.
Some members of the Priory of Sion supported this offer, believing that Gaylord Freeman was of Merovingian descent — a notable detail, considering Godfrey of Bouillon, the original founder of what would become the Priory of Sion, was also a member of the Merovinginian bloodline. This caused a rift between members of the Priory of Sion: Freeman’s supporters clashed with the members who believed that this union would not only render the Order useless, but result in renouncing their traditions and deeply-held beliefs in order to join an evil organization.
After a long battle of which the public was unaware — until now, that is — the Priory of Sion broke protocol again in an attempt to reunite their Order. Pierre Plantard’s road to Grand Master was already unorthodox, but differed further when he was invested on January 17, 1981, after winning a vote — something done very rarely within the Order — with the support of 83 out of 92 members.
Plantard was invested as Grand Master after earning the trust and support of the Priory of Sion, and as a result, Gaylord Freeman and his so-called “American branch” of the Order were expelled and excommunicated.
Current Grand Master, Marco Rigamonti, wants the public to know that there is only one legitimate Prieuré de Sion, and that all other “branches” are not recognized by the Order.
“The problem is that [Gaylord Freeman] continued using the Priory of Sion’s name without the Order’s authority and still today, his excommunicated illegitimate branch is calling itself Priory of Sion, without having the right to do it,” Rigamonti clarifies. “That’s why we don’t miss a chance to repeat our disavowal to them, any time someone improperly links us to activities which are responsible for Freeman’s clandestine organization.”
The Priory of Sion is not affiliated with any clandestine organization
Grand Master Marco Rigamonti says that the surreptitious American organization has done more than just try to interfere with the Priory of Sion, and that their reach goes further than the public expects.
The same group, allegedly once headed by Chief Executive of First National Bank of Chicago Gaylord Freeman, is also in control of international lobbying group the World Economic Forum (formerly known as the Davos Economic Forum). The World Economic Forum is at the center of many conspiracy theories, and while these could be written off, the organization is far too suspicious for all of these theories to be falsehoods.
This is why the Priory of Sion and its Grand Master, Marco Rigamonti, formally disavow the World Economic Forum. Rigamonti makes this clear in no uncertain terms, saying that he and the Order will fight against the WEF’s agenda, delivering this passionate statement:
“As actual Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, I firmly declare my hostility against the Davos World Economic Forum, [and] I publicly declare I am openly fighting to boycott their agenda… I do this because we live in an age when social and political matters become a spiritual battle, where people are asked to renounce rights and dignity in the name of a technological progress that is not serving humanity anymore, but it’s simply becoming a Golem ready to devour humankind. I think that to institutionally impose a Digital Identity will be the realization of the biblical ‘mark of the beast’ without which it will be not possible to sell or buy anything.
As a believer in God, I think humanity was not created to be miserably enslaved in a sort of grotesque ‘invisible cage’ made of biometric passports and social credits, as China’s totalitarian government does. I believe humanity exists to aspire to continuous evolution through self-improvement, both on the spiritual, psychological, and mental plane. Freedom and well-being are necessary to develop one’s own potential, through study, sport, art, philosophy and tradition [that] is the culture that attributes value to this.
The Priory of Sion is in total disagreement with the Davos Economic Forum [or World Economic Forum] and its intentions to penalize instruction by making philosophy and humanistic sciences to be considered obsolete and being studied just in private institutes. We disagree with their intent to gradually abolish private property, because private property is what gives dignity by don’t making the private citizen being a slave to a system. Without private property, and the imposition of a social credit system like China, freedom of speech — and even thought — would be literally eradicated in society.”
However, the Priory of Sion is not solely focused on the World Economic Forum or underground actors of whom the public has no knowledge. Because the Order does not operate in the shadows, they are committed to speaking out about events that are regularly broadcast in the media, fighting what they see as injustice. Grand Master Marco Rigamonti has no qualms about speaking his mind on these matters, fervently abjuring the shocking acts occurring during the current European crisis, urging the public to hold government officials accountable:
“The majority of the large-diffusion press that [depicts] the population as ‘favorable’ to a war against Russia is just committing a war crime, manipulating the information to legitimize a war that people simply repudiate… just a minority of the population living in Europe wants to sanction Russia and face the economic consequences of it. War and sanctions against Russia serve interests that are simply not [reflected by] European citizens.
Ursula von der Leyen gave [an] order to censor any transmission by the Russian media, claiming the will to protect citizenship from the ‘Russian lies’. I think no further explanations are needed. So-called European leaders are a very malicious, weak leadership, that [treat] the citizen just as they are idiots [and speak] to as dumb babies.
[The] European Union itself is an illegal structure, because was not built through a referendum votation, but just through corrupted politicians that ceded national sovereignty without having the right to do it, as in any constitution chart, sovereignty obviously cannot be ceased to any other entity, because it’s of the population of the country.
After two years of lies and abuse, neglecting basic rights with the excuse of a sanitary emergency, just to extort a Digital ID, those bureaucrats should be imprisoned and that [should] be called to respond about their responsibilities in their abuse of the human rights, are now also asking support and unity to the population for a war that is just to defend their private ambitions and interest.”
The Priory of Sion: no secrets or conspiracies
In an uncertain world, it is important that truth and honesty is exalted. There are many things that are kept from the public, making it impossible to know what we don’t know. Whether the Grand Master Marco Rigamonti’s claims are true or not he speaks with such conviction on behalf of himself and the Priory of Sion that it is clear the Order feels passionately about protecting the world’s citizens and cultures as best as they can.