Explorations into the Leonardo Mystery


Leonardo wanted to convey a complex body of knowledge so he used the theme of a last supper because it was a perfect vehicle for transmitting that content , which already by the 15th century had been lost. The ‘System of Knowledge’ conveyed in his fresco, The Last Supper, is the zodiac of twelve signs: Christ is the ‘sun’ or the centre of the Solar System and around him are the twelve disciples, the twelve signs of the zodiac. But there is far more than symbolic imagery and this is where Partriza Norelli Bachelet (Thea) takes us. She puts special emphasis on the 6th sign, Virgo and the 8th sign, Scorpio, which explain Mary Magdalene’s dual persona as both ‘Virgin’ and ‘Prostitute’.



Explorations into the Leonardo Mystery posits that the imagery and symbolism in Leonardo’s art demonstrates that he knew the zodiac to be an evolutionary journey in which the 8th sign Scorpio represents the point at which the vital energies are used for self destruction (the Scorpion) or for illumination and fuel to manifest higher levels of consciousness (the Eagle). The author presents the crucifixion of Jesus as a collapse which can take place (in the 8th sign Scorpio) on the individual’s so-called ‘journey’ towards becoming more divine. She exposes the choice before mankind: to cease the 12 stage/ 12 month journey because of our limited vision of God and material creation, or to labor on and achieve a higher vision and experience of the Self and the Cosmos.

Images which are discussed in Explorations into the Leonardo Mystery in terms of their occult significance include The Vitruvian Man, St. Anne and the Virgin (cartoon), St. John the Baptist, La Gioconda (Mona Lisa), and the Rosicrucian Mysterium which places side by side the ‘Shroud of Turin’, and the ‘Ark of Noah’. Readers are given both a sense of Leonardo’s familiarity with and use of the zodiac as a system of knowledge, and a sense of why it is that throughout the history of mankind, this system lives on through all manner of civilizations, religions, mythologies and artwork.

‘The 6th disciple holds his index finger upright signaling that the mystery is about to be revealed. He is the first of the zodiacal M’s, and he draws our attention to the fact that what lies ahead explains our subjugation and despair, as well as the path to our redemption. It does indeed all hinge on the Redeemer, as Leonardo preferred to call him. For we can either move with him to his crucifixion and remain nailed to the cross of our sexual atavism and guilt and everything the human species has been burdened with in this ongoing struggle; or we can find in the One the redemption that is required in order to move beyond as a species and to experience a very different future on this planet.’ (p. 21)

Explorations into the Leonardo Mystery

‘Was the crucified Jesus … simply a part of the wisdom carried over from pre-Christian times and taken directly from the zodiac – not ‘historic’ in the sense we know history today but rather representative of the eternal Tradition which is an initiation open to each and every human being on this planet? We can go the way of the crucifiction and see Mary Magdelene as a prostitute, just as Christian theology was devised during the Dark Ages. Or we can move with her, the very same Magdelene, away from agony and sin and death to the higher symbol, we ourselves become that. After all, the zodiac IS OUR BIRTHRIGHT. Anyone born on this planet IS THAT: we carry this harmony in our very genes. The ‘code’ is this cosmic rhythm that the annual rotation of our planet marks out in her journey around the Sun which we divide into twelve parts.’ (pp. 14-15)

Additional information

Weight .093 kg
Dimensions 7 × 9 in
Number of Pages



Paperback (Magazine style)