Hiérogamia

6.5.2024

HIEROGAMIA means sacred union. It’s the sacred union between two deities or between a deity and a human. It also symbolizes the fusion of dogmas and liturgies from old and new religions (spiritualities). A process known as syncretism. I’ve been fascinated by syncretism for 30 years. It can be seen everywhere in the Pyrenees: in churches that still have pagan votive altars in their walls, on megalithic monuments Christianized in the 19th century, in oral traditions whose stories are now part of the Catholic narrative, and in liturgy, which adopts certain survivals. It’s not an assimilation but a conservation of the old cults by the new for the reasons of the time (spirituality and power). This recording includes texts from the 12th to the 19th centuries, reflecting the great independence of this Occitan land, as well as a text by François Villon. They are borrowed from the great classical works of male (Bernard de Ventadour, Bertrand de Born) and female (Azalaïs de Porcairagues) troubadours, and from the corpus of traditional Occitan songs, mainly from the 19th century. In the background, the Cathar story is a strong source of inspiration, so much so that it was an adventure in resistance, faith and sincerity for the region in which I live.