By Mark Amaru Pinkham for Atlantis Rising Magazine
According to one esoteric tradition, after excavating
the foundations of Solomon’s Temple for nine years the Templar Knights left the
Middle East with five “caskets” or cases that were full of treasures they had collected in the Holy Land. These cases were
eventually deposited in Kilwinning, the Mother Lodge of Scottish Freemasonry, before being transported to
Roslin Castle, ancient home of the Sinclair Barons of Roslin, where they were
kept safe until a fire broke out in the building. The cases were then quickly
removed from the castle and very soon afterwards the construction of Rosslyn
Chapel officially began. Thus, it appears that the chapel may have been built
specifically to hold the five cases. This notion was ostensibly corroborated in
the 1990s by Andrew Sinclair, who conducted ground scans at Rosslyn and
discovered five rectangular objects or boxes in the crypt underneath the Chapel.
Sinclair’s discovery has fueled speculation about what might be in the cases,including
notions of artifacts associated with Solomon’s Temple or Herod’s Temple, and
possibly some ancient scrolls. It has been conjectured that some of the
imagined artifacts in the cases were discovered by the Knights via clues they found while studying obscure Essene
texts, a theory recently corroborated by
the discovery of the Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Clues found in
the Copper Scroll have led archeologists to empty pits in close proximity to
Templar symbols and weapons, thus ostensibly revealing that the Knights had
overseen the secret excavations and then absconded with whatever treasure they
found. The hypothetical scrolls that may exist within the five cases have been
theorized to include genealogical information regarding a family spawned by Jesus and Mary
Magdalene, or, assert authors Christopher
Knight and Robert Lomas in The Hiram Key, possibly Essene informationregarding
the origins of Freemasonry. But at the present time all that can be said for certain
about the scrolls is that one of them contains a diagram with symbols recalling
the mysterious Johannite Heresy, a gnostic belief system that the Templars may
have been initiated into in the Holy Land. This diagram was copied by Lambert de
St. Omer, a retired schoolmaster, when the Templar Knights passed through Flanders
as they moved through northern Europe. This diagram, which today is entitled as
the Heavenly Jerusalem and hangs on a wall within a museum in Ghent, Belgium,
is a map of the New Jerusalem described in the
Book of Revelations.
Johannite heretical wisdom is evident in the diagram
via the identification of a Messiah –
the figure prophesied to
found the holy city of
the future – as being not Jesus
but John the Baptist. Such a designation is consistent with the ancient Johannite
heresy, which stated that John was both Messiah and founder of the gnostic
Johannite path that leads to the intuitive vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem. According
to this heretical tradition, there were two Messiahs or Chosen Ones, with John,
the Priest Messiah, one rung above Jesus, the incarnated King Messiah. If the Johannite
Heresy is truly the key to understanding the Templar scroll now in Belgium it
must be allowed that the Knights were
Johannites and embraced a greater veneration for John the Baptist than Jesus.
Furthermore, if they were Johannites then they practiced a gnostic path
comprised of heretical rites that culminated in an inner revelation regarding
the nature of the universe and the goal
of human existence. The truth of this notion would explain why the five cases
with their Johannite scrolls ended up in Rosslyn Chapel. The Sinclair builder
of the Chapel considered himself to be a caretaker and preserver of the
Templars’ gnostic wisdom. Earl William Sinclair was a Grand Master Freemason of
the developing Scottish Rite, an order that had descended directly from the
Templars who had fled France and later made their home in Scotland. According
to Niven Sinclair, a contemporary patriarch of Clan Sinclair, rather than risk
death by exposing the gnostic secrets in his possession Earl William imbedded
them within his stone edifice. Perhaps he knew at the time that the secrets he
was hiding for posterity - secrets which would prove that the Templars were
Johannite gnostics and heretics - were indeed the Templars’ Biggest
Secret.
The Disbelief
of Pope Clement V
According to conventional history, the first intimation
that the Vatican had regarding the Templars’ gnostic and Johannite predilections
came to the surface during the Knights’ depositions for allegations of heresy
in 1307. Then, in 1308, Pope Clement V disbanded the ruthless Inquisition so
that he could privately interview the Templar Knights himself. At stake was his
own private bodyguard of knights, which since the time of Pope Honorius II and
the Council of Troyes in 1128 had been the Holy See’s personal militia. The
Knights had been accused of a litany of heretical
offenses, any one of which could have been reason enough
to cast them straight into the holy fires of the Inquisition, but since many of
the Knights’ confessions had been extracted under extreme torture their
credibility had been severely compromised. Therefore, having himself never
fully believed the damning allegations against his beloved Templars, Clement V
confidently called for 72 Knights to be transported from Paris to his villa in
Poitiers in southern France where he was sure they would recant their previous
testimonies. Imagine his surprise when, after insuring the Knights that they
were safe in his home no matter how damning their confessions might be, the
Templars refused to discredit the confessions previously extracted from them in
the dark and dank torture chambers of Paris. Pope Clement, who was essentially
a pawn put into office by King Philip, could only scratch his head in disbelief
and lament that his Knights had somehow strayed from the straight and narrow.
To his dismay he had found out conclusively that all the vile allegations against
the Templars, such as kissing each other on the buttocks, and urinating upon the
Cross and renouncing Jesus as their Savior in favor of a grizzled, mummified head,
were indeed true. The Pope was finally forced to accept the fact that he had lost
his knights. Later, within the silence
of his quarters the distraught Pope must have wondered whether the
Templars had ever truly been a Christian army of the Church.
What the Vatican Really Knew
Since the time of Templars’ private audience with Clement V a body of evidence
has been forming to prove that although the Pope Clement was blind to the Knights
heretical activities, other informed Church officials within the Vatican did indeed
know about their heretical propensities. For example, according to testimony given
during the Templar trails from one Father Antonio Sicci, some of the Knights’ gnostic
activities had been witnessed by Vatican spies in Palestine well before 1307. It
also became clear during the Templar trials that both the Vatican and King
Philip of France had had their spies overseeing the Knights’ activities in
Europe before 1307 because some of them were later chosen as witnesses for the
prosecution. It was because of the evidence uncovered by these early spies that
months before the Templars’ mass arrest King Philip knew exactly what heretical
activities to instruct
his 12 specially selected spies to look for when he
had them infiltrate certain Templar preceptories. The monarch may have
also known what heresies to look for
from studying information contained within a
secret Templar document. This document, entitled Baptism of Fire of the
Brothers-Consulate and often referred to by Templar historians as the “Secret
Rule of the Templars,” was later discovered in 1780 in the Vatican Library by a
Danish Bishop. Said to have been written
in 1240 A.D. by a French Templar Master named Roncelinus, it appears to give a
green light to all the heretical offenses that the Knights were accused of in
the 14th century. Permission to indulge in all manner of Templar
heresy can be found in this document, including defilement of the Cross, denial
of Christ as the Savior, sexual liaison, and the worship of the idolic head
known as Baphomet. There is even a passage within the document that gives the
Knights permission to initiate other gnostics into their order, including
Cathars, Bogomils and even Assassins. If
the Baptism of Fire of the Brothers-Consulate
was indeed in circulation beginning in 1240 A.D. it would have been an easy
task for a Church or Royal spy to procure a copy for their employers.
The Knights of St. John
A more substantial bit of evidence in support of the
notion that the Vatican was aware of the Templars’ heretical Johannite affiliations
came in the mid 1800s when Pope Pius IX gave his famous “Allocution of Pio Nono
against the Free Masons.” In fact, this address implies that the Vatican may have known all along about a heretical
Templar-Johannite relationship. At the time of his momentous address the Pope
was receiving immense pressure to take a stand against the uprising of numerous
heretical gnostic sects forming in France, one of which was The Johannite Church
of Primitive Christians. This sect claimed to be a direct descendant of the early
Knights Templar, and the chief of the sect, Bernard Fabre-Palaprat, claimed to
be a Templar Grand Master in line from both Hughes de Payen and John the Apostle.
Pope Pius’ subsequent denigration of the sect during his address proved that
the Church had ostensibly known for hundreds of years about an intimate Templar-Johannite
association: “The Johannites ascribed
to Saint John [the Baptist] the foundation of their
Secret Church, and the Grand Pontiffs of the Sect assumed
the title of Christos, Anointed, or
Consecrated, and claimed to have succeeded one another from Saint John by an
uninterrupted succession of pontifical powers. He, who, at the period of the
foundation of the Order of the Temple, claimed these imaginary prerogatives, was
named THEOCLET; he knew HUGUES DE PAYENS, he installed him into the Mysteries
and hopes of his pretended church, he seduced him by the notions of Sovereign Priesthood and
Supreme royalty, and finally designated him as his successor." Pope Pius’
address was soon corroborated by some highly respected esoteric historians of
the 19th Century. In Isis Unveiled
Madame Blavatsky revealed: “They (the Knights Templar) were at first the true
Knights of John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness and living on wild honey
and locusts,” while her contemporary, the selfstyled Templar descendant and
Kabbalist, Eliphas Levi, volunteered in The History of Magic:
“The Templars had two
doctrines; one was concealed and reserved to the leaders, being that of
Johannism; the other was public, being Roman Catholic doctrine…The Chiefs
alone knew the aim of the Order; the
Subalterns followed without distrust.” Thus,
Levi confirmed the Templars’ affiliation with the gnostic Johannites but he
went one step further in pointing out that it was principally the Grand Masters
and chiefs of the Order who were aware of the Knights’ heretical activities.
This notion has been corroborated by transcripts compiled by the Papal Council
during the Templar trails that show that when the Knights were questioned regarding one of their
most important Johannite rites, that of worshipping an idolic head called Baphomet,
only the chiefs of the Order knew anything about it. The caretaker of the head
was, at the time, Hughes de Peraud, the second in command under Templar Grand Master
Jacques de Molay, who secretly carried the head from one preceptory to the next
whenever an initiation or ceremony called for its presence.
What was Baphomet?
Who or what was Baphomet and how did it connect the
Templars to the Johannites? The contemporary Johannites, who became separated
from mainstream Templarism in the mid 19th
century, claim to know. Supposedly their church, the Apostolic Johannite
Church, is in possession of secret wisdom descended directly
from the chiefs of the Knights Templar. According to
James Foster, former Primate of the Johannite Church, Baphomet of the Templars
was the decapitated head of John the Baptist, the “Messiah” of the Johannite
tradition. This would explain the extreme sanctity the Templars ascribed to the
head and why it was in the sole possession of the Orders’ second in command.
According to the Templars at their trial the head possessed special power and
could make “trees blossom and the land to produce.” Legend has it that when
John’s head was found by the Templars in the Boukoleon Palace in Constantinople
during the Fourth Crusade the head had been used to keep an Eleventh Century
emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire vibrant and alive through daily passes near
his body. This power, known as the Holy Spirit in the West and Kundalini in the
East, is the same power John was saturated with during his lifetime in the Holy Land. It is this power that can
awaken itself as a normally dormant evolutionary energy at the base of the
spine and culminate in gnostic awareness.
Templar Kisses
Like the veneration of Baphomet, many of the other
heretical rites that the Templars were accused of, such as kissing each other
on the mouth as well as various other parts of the body, can only be understood
in light of a perceived Johannite or gnostic-Templar association. The Templar
kisses are said to have been planted at the base of the spine and below the navel, areas of the body
that are associated with the evolutionary Kundalini power. A third initiatory
kiss, placed upon the mouth, could also have been used to awaken this inner
power by moving the Kundalini-saturated breath of a Templar initiator into a
new Knight. This practice and similar ones have been known about and observed
by the gnostic sects of the East for thousands of years. As to the homosexual
activity alleged to have occurred between the Templar brethren, this may have
also had Kundalini-activating implications. Throughout the ensuing centuries
following the Templar trails certain European sects using tantric and
homosexual activity for spiritual purposes and Kundalini activation, such as
the OTO, have maintained that their sexual rites have descended directly from
the Knights Templar.
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