The Great Cross of Hendaye (French: Croix d'Hendaye) is a stone cross located on the town square of Hendaye, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in southwestern France. The cross includes references to apocalyptic beliefs about Christianity, Rosicrucianism, and alchemy. Many, including devotees of Nostradamus, the Bible Code, and especially the 2012 phenomenon, believed that a great comet would pass by, or crash into the earth in the year 2012, and interpreted the Cross of Hendaye as another reminder that 2012 would be the end.
Description
The cross comprises three parts with engravings in its stone. These engravings picture alchemical symbols that occultists believe contain encrypted information on a future global catastrophe. An important part of understanding The Cross of Hendaye is found in the writings of the mysterious alchemist Fulcanelli, who hints in his 1926 book 'Le Mystere des Cathedrales', that on the cross is encoded a warning of "a purifying fire that will soon consume the Northern Hemisphere."
The creation and transportation of the Cross of Hendaye is rumored to have been funded by a Christian society known as the Rosicrucians. The Cross is a paradigm for synergy, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts alone. The entire monument is said to be a schematic of the Philosopher's Stone.
Of the symbols found on the cross, it is essential to examine all the parts of the Cross together so that a holistic interpretation is faithfully determined rather than simply analyzing symbols individually.
The Monument
Divided into three basic parts these are the Upper Cross, Greek Cross, the column, and the pedestal base. Each are further divided into their own components. The Upper cross has three symbols, the pillar has its own symbol, and the base has four symbols. Upper Cross: Three Main Symbols are: traditional inscription of INRI(located on top of the cross), two double 'X' markings, and a broken Latin inscription that reads O crux ave spes unica ("Hail to the Cross, our only hope"). These symbols offer a three-way inter-related meaning system, which gives the key to understanding the entire process as symbolized by the monument. The pillar: The pillar plays a unifying role on the monument that serves as a link which bonds each element of the Cross together and explains that each portion of the Cross is to be considered in union with the remaining portions of the Cross. The cross is a single entity and its overall meaning is not to be interpreted based only on one of the elements but rather the overall meaning should be based on all of the elements together. The Base: The four symbols engraved on the base must be taken as a united whole in which the order and meaning of the symbols are constant. The images are: an eight-ray star burst, a half moon shape with an eye spot, an angry sun face with a bulging spiral eye, and an oval that fills the entire space of the rectangle (which is quartered by a cross). Of the four symbols found on the Cross, there are two that have are believed to have significant meaning. The Sun Face symbol and the Oval Symbol. Sun Face Symbol: The face of the Sun is framed by 16 large spikes and 16 smaller spikes inside a containing outer circle. The Sun is then surrounded by four stars, which are placed in the corners of the rectangle and titled so that the diagonal axis continues through the center point of the Sun face. Which then draws a Galactic Alignment through the Sun. Oval Symbol: The oval has four capital letter "A"'s in it. One 'A' is positioned on each side of the arms of the cross. The A's are unusual in that they have a sharply angled cross bar set in the top angle of each 'A' rather than the usual horizontal cross bar