Knights Templar part 2

As we began looking at the issue of the Knights Templar last time I wrote: “Many of you have no doubt heard of the Knights Templar. But what do we really know about them? Were they gallant Knights sworn to serve Jesus Christ or Heretics? They have been called both and bee called better and worse.” I guess I knew of what I spoke because this first part of the piece has really generated the email. Both pro Templar and con Templar people have written. I hope you will all enjoy the remainder of this small post and will join us as we take a closer look at the Knights Templar...

What the Vatican Really Knew

Since the time of the Templars’ private audience with Pope Clement V a body of evidence has been forming to prove that although 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 their 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 or who 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 19^th 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.

So there it is, make up your own mind as to the Templars. I think that weather you are pro or con you must admit that the Templars are just another bit of proof that we truly do inhabit a weird, weird world!

I’m Average Joe