Rosslyn Chapel Mysteries of the TemplarsSaved from http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/masons/mysteries.html The Baphomet(1) Rumors and Charges
An Abominated Idol "Some confessed that they had also worshipped an idol in the form of a
cat, witch was red, or gray, or black, or mottled. Sometimes the idol
worship required kissing the cat below the tail. Sometimes the cat was
greased with the fat from roasted babies. The Templars were forced to eat
food that contained the ashes of dead Templars, a form of witchcraft that
passed on the courage of the fallen knights." In the list of charges drawn up by the Inquisition against the Templars on 12 August 1308, there appears the following: "Item, that in each province the order had idols, namely heads, of which some had three races and some one, and others had a human skull. An Eastern
Origin? "Probably relying upon contemporary Eastern sources, Western scholars
have recently supposed that 'Bafomet' has no connection with Mohammed, but
could well be a corruption of the Arabic abufihamet
(pronounced in the Moorish Spanish something like bufihimat). The word
means 'father of understanding.' In Arabic, 'father' is taken to mean
'source, chief seat of,' and so on. In Sufi terminology, ras
el-fahmat (head of knowledge) means the mentation of man after
undergoing refinement - the transmuted consciousness." Sufi martyr Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj died in 922CE. He was "a
pantheist, an alleged miracle worker, and a most definitely unorthodox
Muslim, Hallaj was imprisoned and tried for blasphemy for his public
descriptions of his mystical union with God. Finally convicted after a
nine year inquiry, Hallaj was maimed, crucified, beheaded, and his torso
was cremated. Some of the stories surrounding his death include an account
of the Caliph's Queen Mother having Hallaj's head preserved as a relic
(Singh, 1970). Various Sufi sects have rituals commemorating Hallaj's
death, and Shah claimed that Hallaj was the model for the 'Hiram Abiff'
character in the Master Mason initiation ritual." A Gnostic
Origin? (2) A Bearded Head The Brothers
Testimony "...a man's head with a large beard, which head they kiss and worship at all their provincial chapters, but this not all the brothers know, save only the Grand Master and the old ones." During The Trial of the Templars in 1307 Brother Jean
Taillefer of Genay gave evidence. He "was received into the order at
Mormant, one of the three perceptories under the jurisdiction of the Grand
Priory of Champagne at Voulaine. He said at his initiation 'an idol
representing a human face' was placed on the altar before him. Hughes de
Bure, another Burgundian from a daughter house of Voulaine, described how
the 'head' was taken out of a cupboard, or aumbry, in the chapel, and that
it seemed to him to be of gold or silver, and to represent the head of a
man with a long beard. Brother Pierre d'Arbley suspected that the 'idol'
had two faces, and his kinsman Guillaume d'Arbley made the point that the
'idol' itself, as distinct from copies, was exhibited at general chapters,
implying that it was only shown to senior members of the order on special
occasions." "Nearly all the brethren agreed that the head was bearded and had long hair, and the Templars,
like the majority of their contemporaries, regarded long hair as effeminate, so the length of the idol's
hair was remarkable for this, if for no other reason." According to the most consistent accounts, the idol was: "...about the natural size of a man's head, with a very fierce-looking face and beard." "He went on to say that he could not describe it more particularly,
except that he thought it was of a reddish color." The mysterious object at one of the Templars' Paris ceremonies was "brought in by the priest in a procession of the brethren with lights; it was laid on the altar; it was a human head without any silver or gold, very pale and discolored, with a grizzled beard like a Templars." "Other descriptions, clearly referring to copies, included mention of
gold and silver cases, wooden panels, and the like. But the Paris head is
different. One gets the distinct impression that this was the holy of
holies, accorded ceremonial strikingly reminiscent of that used by the
Byzantines." The Templar Cord Upon being initiated into the Order of the Peacock Angel (Yezidis),"a
holy thread, of intertwined black and red wool, is put around the neck.
Like the sacred thread of the Parsis and other ancient Middle Eastern
cults, this must never be removed; and it sounds like the cord that the
Templars were accused of wearing when the Order was suppressed as
heretic."
It is possible that the head idol was intended to represent the severed head of John the Baptist, based on allegations that he was revered by the Order. The Templars took part in the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1203-4. Robert de Clari described the opulence and numerous relics at the sacred chapel of the Boucoleon Palace, amongst them supposedly the head of John the Baptist. An egregore is a magical entity that is artificially created by the focused thoughts and desires of a medium (analogous in many ways to Tibetan tulpas.) Supposedly a medium or statue could then serve as a tenant for the egregore, nourished by the sexual life-powers of the members. "The Egregora does [sic] exist in the so-called 'astral plane' and it is a demon, that is to say, an illusory entity. It is not a true Microcosm, but a gestalt of vitalized shells, a focus for everything that is negative, defeatist, maudlin, bigoted, introverted in human nature - a morass completely hostile to progress and to the spiritual evolution of mankind." "The representation of the egregore as bust recalls the ancient
literary tradition of animated statues or Salome, who wanted the head of
John the Baptist, probably to master his visionary powers.....The classic
prototype of such an egregore is Baphomet, the alleged egregore of the
Templars, who was (as the Roman Emperor of the Gods) likewise worshipped
in the form of a bust. In the secret statutes of the Templars, Baphomet
was besought with the introduction to the Qu'ran and dismissed
with the 24th chapter of the Book of Sirach." A Likeness of the
Lord? "Nicodemus had carved and fashioned a head in the likeness of the Lord on the day that he had seen Him on the cross. But of this I am sure, that the Lord God set His hand to the shaping of it, as they say; for no man ever saw one like it nor could it be made by human hands. Most of you who have been at Lucca know it and have seen it." The Skull of Hugues de
Payen? The Mandylion/Shroud of
Turin? The idol was also described as: "...An old piece of skin, as though all embalmed and like polished cloth." Ian Wilson also hypothesizes that the Templar idols were representations of Christ's face copied from the
Mandylion/Shroud.
A possible surviving example, on a painted panel found at Templecombe,
England, shows "a bearded male head, with a reddish beard, lifesize,
disembodied, and, above all, lacking in any identification mark....It
conforms too, to some of the most rational Templar descriptions: 'a
painting on a plaque', 'a bearded male head', 'lifesize', 'with a grizzled
beard like a Templars'. (The Templars cultivated their beards in the style
of Christ)." A Daemon
Guardian? "INQUISITOR: Now tell us about the head. Based upon the idol's description as a "demon" having "very fierce-looking face and beard", the idol very likely could have been Asmodeus, the "daemon guardian" who helped Solomon build his Temple. A statue of the demon guards the door of the parish church at Rennes-le-Château. "The Templars' stronghold in Jerusalem, the site of their foundation,
was finally overrun by the Moslems in 1244. Thirty-three years later the
victorious sultan, Baibars, inspected their castle and is recorded to have
discovered inside the tower 'a great idol, in whose protection the castle
had been placed: according to the Frank who had given it its name [this is
an unreadable word, made in diacritic letters]. He ordered this to be
destroyed and a mihrab [Moslem prayer niche] constructed in
its place." (4) A Feminine Origin? CAPUT LVIIIm The reliquary was: "A great head of gilded silver, most beautiful, and constituting the image of a woman. Inside were two head bones, wrapped in a cloth of white linen, with another red cloth around it. A label was attached, on which was written the legend CAPUT LVIIIm. The bones inside were those of a rather small woman." "Caput LVIIIm - 'Head 58m' - remains a baffling enigma. But it is worth
noting that the 'm' may not be an 'm' at all, but the astrological symbol
for Virgo." "The number 58 is less puzzling if one remembers that five (5) is the number of the
pentagram and eight (8) is indicative of Isis.
We may now complete the simple equation which exposes her secret number: "That it had a feminine origin is shown by Gerald Massey who writes
'METE was the BAPHOMET or mother of breath'. According to Von Hammer, the
formula of faith inscribed on a chalice belonging to the Templars is as follows: Let
METE be exalted who causes all things to bud and blossom, it is our root; it is one and seven; it is
octinimous, the eight-fold name."
"Herodotus (4:26) speaks of the practice in the obscure Issedones of gilding a head and sacrificing to it. Cleomenes of Sparta is said to have preserved the head of Archonides in honey and consulted it before undertaking an important task. Several vases of the fourth century BC in Etruria depict scenes of persons interrogating oracular heads. And the severed head of the rustic Carians which continues to 'speak' is mentioned derisively by Aristotle." - Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind A similar tradition could be found in the Celtic cult of the severed head which figured predominently in Peredur, a Welsh romance about the Holy Grail. "A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, a Lord of Sidon; but
she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover
crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the
void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He
obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again
and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones).
The same voice bade him 'guard it well, for it would be the giver of all
good things', and so he carried it away with him." "One chronicler cites the name of the woman in the story - Yse,
which would seem quite clearly to derive from Isis." "At one time there was only God. He was all omnipotent and existed alone. This caused him to become discontented, thus he split himself in two in order to create a mate. He kept the elements of Order and Logic for his own being and gave his mate the elements of Chaos and Emotion for her being. Her name is Yse (pron. Issa). She became so overwhelmed with love at her creation that when he kissed her, she gave him a reaction which was to become known as the 'Chosen Response'. The Chosen Response was the first acknowledgement and reaction of love between a male and female in the universe, and this became the greatest secret of and mystery of mankind, being 'The Holy Grail'." Use of the Atbash
Cipher Schonfield "showed that by applying the Hebrew Atbash code to the name Baphomet, the name
Sophia [ShVPIA], female wisdom, is revealed. Sophia is equated with Isis by
Plutarch." Isis's magic was allied to the wisdom of the Egyptian god Thoth. His wife or consort, Nehemaut, was known to the Gnostics as Sophia. "By this analysis, therefore, when the Templars worshipped Baphomet
what they were really doing was worshipping the principle of
Wisdom." "From the Templars' use of the Atbash Cipher, it is probable that some
form of Nazarean or neo-Nazarean sect had continued to survive in the
Middle East as late as the twelfth century, and had made its teachings
available to the West." The Black
Virgin "The great Egyptian goddess Isis, often depicted as a black woman, is
inextricably linked with alchemy and is closely associated with the Black
Madonnas of Europe." "The ankh [the looped cross of Egypt] which Isis carries as supreme
initiatrix may account for some of the oddly-shaped scepters carried by
the Black Virgins who, like Isis, often favor the color green. Their
greeness and blackness points to the beginning of the opus whose secret,
according to alchemists, is to be found in 'the sex of Isis'." "The Black Virgin..is Isis and her name is Notre Dame de Lumiére." "The Templars, imprisoned and awaiting death in the Castle of
Chinon...composed a prayer to Our Lady acknowledging Bernard to be the
founder of her religion. In addition to the numerous hymns and sermons he
addressed to her, he wrote about 280 sermons on the theme of the Song of
Songs, the epithalamion of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, whose
versicle 'I am black, but I am beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem' is
the recurring refrain of the Black Virgin cult." "I am black, but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem. Like the black tents of Cedar, like the pavilions of Solomon." Most of the several hundred statues in France known as Black Madonnas
were accidentally darkened by smoke and fumes from votive candles. Others
were originally constructed of a dark wood like ebony (and later pear) or
deliberately darkened through periodic treatment with oil or wine. Syrian,
Coptic, or Ethiopian images transported to France during the Crusades may
have served as prototypes for the Black Madonnas. The Hidden Legacy of the TemplarsPrester John "Prester John is a corruption of Presbyter John - the Apostle John - even in the Gospel, it says that
a rumor had arisen that John would never die, but that this was not true. Combine that with the several emperor
Johns of Byzantium, at a time with Europe was threatened by Muslim invasion, and it becomes conflated into
a rumor of hope of assistance." "...No sooner had Bishop Otto reported the existence of Prester John
and of the River of Paradise in his realm, then the Pope issued a formal
call for the resumption of the Crusades. Two years later, in 1147, Emperor
Conrad of Germany, accompanied by other rulers and many nobles, launched
the Second Crusade. "If indeed you wish to know wherein consist our great power, then believe without doubting that I, Prester John...exceed in riches, virtue, and power all creatures who dwell under heaven. Seventy-two kings pay tribute to me. I am a devout Christian and everywhere protect the Christians of our empire...We have made a vow to visit the sepulcher of our Lord with a very great army...to wage war against and chastise the enemies of the cross of Christ... "Where was Prester John? His reference to the Apostle Thomas' tomb
pointed to India, but so muddled were medieval notions of geography that
India was thought to be somewhere near the Nile; thus when, in 1177, the
Pope wrote to PresterJohn, his letter was presumably carried into 'Middle
India', or Ethiopia." "Harbay, reigning Zagwe monarch of Ethiopia before his brother Lalibela
deposed him, is deduced to have been the mythical Prester John. "Derived
from Jano, a reddish-purple toga worn only by royalty, the word [Jan]
meant 'king' or 'Majesty'..." Prester John's letter also contained a warning against the Templars, who were believed to have been allied with his brother against him. "There are Frenchmen among you, of your lineage and from our retinue, who hold with the Saracens. You confide in them and trust in them that they should and will help you, but they are false and treacherous...may you be brave and of great courage and, pray, do not forget to put to death those treacherous Templars." The Churches of
Lalibela "Writing was seen on the Gral to the effect that any Templar whom God should bestow on a distant people...must forbid them to ask his name or lineage, but must help them gain their rights. When such a question is put to him the people there cannot keep him any longer." Ethiopia's diplomatic relationship with Christian Europe were to continue into the following century. "It is known that this emperor [Wedem Ara'ad of Ethiopia] in the...year of our salvation 1306 sent thirty envoys [who]...presented themselves reverentially before Pope Clement V at Avignon." "By a considerable margin, the eleven rock-hewn churches of Lalibela
were the most architecturally advanced building that Ethiopia had ever
known (indeed, in the considered opinion of UNESCO, they deserved to be
ranked amongst the wonders of the world.)....Towering edifices, the
churches remain places of living worship eight hundred years after they
were built. It is important to stress, however that they were not built at
all in the conventional sense, but instead were excavated and hewn
directly out of the solid red volcanic tuff on which they stand. In
consequence, they seem superhuman - not only in scale, but also in
workmanship and in conception." On the arch "of the ceiling of the rock-hewn church of Saint
Mary's...can be seen a stylized croix pattée contained within a Star of
David - a most unusual symbol in a Christian place of worship, but one to
which it is known that the Knights Templar were particularly attached.
Behind the arch...[is]a cloth-wrapped column said by the priests to have
been engraved by King Lalibela himself with the secrets of how the
rock-hewn churches were made." Another croix pattée is carved on a boulder
on the outskirts of Axum, and several more can be found "in the ruins of
King Kaleb's palace - a structure that could well have been still standing
and inhabited in the thirteenth century." (2) Portugal: The Knights of Christ "In Portugal, the Templars were cleared by an inquiry and simply
modified their name, becoming the Knights of Christ. They survived under
this title well into the sixteenth century, their maritime explorations
leaving an indelible mark on history. (Vasco da Gama was a Knight of
Christ; Prince Henry the Navigator was a grand Master of the Order. Ships
of the Knights of Christ sailed under the Templars' familiar red patte
cross. And it was under the same cross that Columbus's three caravels
crossed the Atlantic to the New World. Columbus himself was married to the
daughter of a former Grand Master of the Order, and had access to his
father-in-law's charts and diaries.) "...The first and most active figure on whom any solid information is
available was Prince Henry the navigator, Grand master of the Order of
Christ and a man described by his biographer [Zurara] as possessing
'strength of hear and keenness of mind to a very excellent degree...[who]
was, beyond comparison, ambitious of achieving great and lofty deeds." In Portugal, Dom Enrique, mestrat of the Knights of Christ became know
as Enrique the Navigator and "exploited every modern method. At Sagres his
staff included geographers, shipwrights, linguists, Jewish cartographers
and Moorish pilots. The team studied map making and how to improve
navigational instruments, the astrolabe and compass. Islam had conquered
the Spains; Christianity would conquer Africa, then Asia. By 1425 his
brethren had colonized Madeira and the Canaries. In 1445 they settled the
Azores. The systematic exploitation of the west African coast began in
1434, made possible by the new caravels, the most seaworthy ships of their
day. Rigged with many small sails instead of one or two huge spreads of
canvas as hitherto, these new ships were much easier to handle - a smaller
crew make provisions last longer." "Our knowledge of the Henrican voyages is inadequate, and this is
largely due to the adoption of a policy of secrecy which included the
suppression of facts...historical works...nautical guides, maps
instructions to navigators and their reports." "Indeed, so great was the commitment to secrecy in Henry's time that
the release of information on the results of the various exploratory
voyages that were undertaken was punishable by death. Despite this,
however, it is known that the prince was obsessed with the notion of
making direct contact with Ethiopia - and that he sought to achieve this
end by circumnavigating Africa (since the shorter route through the
Mediterranean and then into the Red Sea via Egypt was blocked by hostile
Muslim forces). Moreover, even before the Cape of Good Hope was rounded,
the masters of Portuguese vessels venturing down the West African coast
were instructed to enquire after 'Prester John' to see whether it might
mot be quicker to approach his kingdom overland." In 1487 "King John II of Portugal, then Grand Master of the Order, had sent his trusted aide Pero de Covilhan on a perilous journey to the court of Prester John via the Mediterranean, Egypt and the Red Sea. Disguised as a merchant, Covilhan passed through Alexandria and Cairo to Suakin and there, in 1488, he took ship in a small Arab barque for the Yemeni port of Aden. He then became caught up in various adventures which delayed him considerably. As a result it was not until 1493 that he finally succeeded in entering Abyssinia. Once there, however, he made his way immediately to the emperor's court where he was first welcomed but later paced under comfortable house arrest. One can only speculate as to why this happened, but...Covilhan's greatest skill was a spy (he had previously worked as a secret agent in Spain)..." In 1497 Vasco da Gama, also a Knight of the Order of Christ "devoted a
considerable part of the expedition [to India] to African exploration and
is reported to have wept for joy when, at anchor off Mozambique he was
rightly told that Prester John lived in the interior far to the north." "We saw...to our great joy the tents and camps of the Emperor Prester John." "At the center of this tent capitol, in a red pavilion guarded by
warriors wearing lion skins and by live lions on leashes, the travelers
beheld him, the negus, or emperor, of Ethiopia. That neither he nor any of
his subjects had heard of Prester John fazed the Portuguese
not at all, so elated were they to have found him at last." "One of the members of this embassy was Father Francisco Alvarez...who
had been told by priests of the ancient tradition that the rock-hewn
churches of Lalibela had been 'made by white men'....Carved into the roof
of this great edifice [the church of Saint George], he said, was 'a double
cross, that is, one within the other like the crosses of the Order of Christ." (3) Spain: "Viva la Muerte" "In Spain the brethren of Calatrava, Alcantara and Santiago were the
spearhead of the Reconquista, consolidating the Christian advance,
destroying the exotic Moslem civilization of Cordoba and Granada. On the
vast and lonely meseta where no peasant dared settle for fear of Moorish
raiders, the monkish frontiersmen ranched hears of cattle and sheep, a
practice which reached North America by way; of the Mexican haciendas. In
the later Middle Ages politicians used them to capture the whole machinery
of Castilian government." "Much of Spanish history cannot be understood without some knowledge of
the brethren [which became the Order of Knight's of Christ and The
Aragonese Order of Montesa after the dissolution]. They had become the
Reconquista itself and helped form their country's military tradition,
that compound of unspeakable ferocity and incredible gallantry, expressed
in the modern Tercio Extrajero's motto - 'Viva la Muerte'. It was this
spirit and the techniques of the Reconquista which overcame Aztecs and
Incas, creating the Spanish Empire, while Portuguese brethren transformed
the crusading idea into a movement of colonization which ended with Europe
dominating the world." "Not long after the Templar dispersal, very accurate and inexplicable
sea-charts began to appear all over Europe. These maps, called
portolans (thought to be derived from 'port' to 'land'), were
far superior to the Ptolemaic maps studied by academic ecclesiastics in
the monasteries and fledgling universities. Most of the portolans covered
the area of the Mediterranean and the European Atlantic coast. They
covered the areas crucial to European sea-commerce. "...Is it mere coincidence that his flagship, the famous Santa Maria,
bore Templar crosses on her sails when Columbus set sail from Palos? Is it
mere coincidence that his voyage was financed, not by the sale of
Isabella's jewelry as so commonly thought, but by a mysterious consortium
of wealthy men which included Jews and other heretics? And is it only
coincidence that Columbus weighed anchor on August 3, 1492 just a few
hours before the deadline for all Jews to be out of Spain?" (4) England: The Peasants' Rebellion For several years before the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381, "a
group of disgruntled priests of the lower clergy had traveled the towns,
preaching against the riches and corruption of the church. During the
months before the uprising, secret meetings had been held throughout
central England by men weaving a network of communication. After the
revolt was put down, rebel leaders confessed to being agents of a great
Society, said to be based in London." Walter the Tyler "exploded into English history with his mysterious uncontested appointment as the supreme commander of the Peasants' Rebellion on Friday, June 7, 1381, and left it as abruptly when his head was struck off eight days later on Saturday, June 15. Absolutely nothing is known of him before those eight days. That alone suggests that he was not using his real name...In Freemasonry the Tyler, who must be a Master Mason, is the sentry, the sergeant-at-arms..." "Archbishop Courtenay, who became the leading churchman in England as
successor to the archbishop whose head had been lopped off by Wat Tyler,
identified the existence of the Lollard group in the spring of 1382, less
than a year after the Peasants' Rebellion. He drove them out of Oxford and
attempted to crush the entire movement. Lollardy, however, survived his
efforts, and those of other civil and church leaders, for the next two
centuries by the expedient of going underground. The Lollards conducted
business in 'conventicles', or secret meetings, in a network of cells
throughout the country, and they somehow gained the support of certain members
of the aristocracy, especially the knightly class." "In the early 1300s John Wycliffe, a professor of Divinity at Oxford
University, realized that the major problem with the Church in England was
that the Bible could only be read by the educated clergy and nobility
because it was written in Latin. Although the common man was generally
illiterate, Wycliffe decided that if an English translation of the Bible
was available, then general literacy might be stimulated as well. (5) Scotland: The Scots Guard "The church at Kilmartin, near Loch Awe in Argyll, contains many
examples of Templar graves and tomb carvings showing Templar figures;
furthermore, there are many masonic graves in the churchyard." "Scotland...was at war with England at the time [1307], and the
consequent chaos left little opportunity for implementing legal niceties.
Thus the Papal Bulls dissolving the Order were never proclaimed in
Scotland - and in Scotland, therefore, the Order was never technically
dissolved." "...Part of the Templar fleet made the decision to head to Argyll and
the Firth of Forth, where they knew Robert the Bruce was engaged in a
rebellion against England. The fact that Robert the Bruce was
excommunicated combined with the long St Clair family links with Rosslyn
was the greatest attraction of Scotland as a sanctuary - it was one of the
few places on the planet where the Pope could not get at them. Because of
the war with the English the Templars also knew that as skilled warriors,
they would be received with open arms." "According to legend - and there is evidence to support it - the Order
maintained itself as a coherent body in Scotland for another four
centuries." "At the bloody Battle of Verneuil in 1424, the Scottish contingents had
acquitted themselves with particular bravery and self-sacrifice. Indeed,
they were virtually annihilated, along with their commander, John
Stewart..." "The nobles comprising the Guard were heirs to original Templar
traditions. They were the means by which these traditions were returned to
France and planted there, to bear fruit some two centuries later. At the
same time, their contact with the houses of Guise and Lorraine exposed
them in France to another corpus of 'esoteric' tradition. Some of this
corpus had already found its way back to Scotland through Marie de Guis's
marriage to James V, but some of it was also to be brought back by the
families constituting the Scots Guard. The resulting amalgam was to
provide the true nucleus for a later order - the Freemasons [Scottish
Rite Freemasonry]." "c.1560. When the Knights-Templars were deprived of their
patrimonial interest through the instrumentality of their Grand-Master Sir
James Sandilands, they drew off in a body, with David Seton, Grand Prior
of Scotland, at their head." (6) West to America? "Josephus, the historian of the Jews in the first century, observed
that the Essenes believed that good souls have their inhabitation beyond
the ocean, in a region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or
snow nor with intense heat, but refreshed by the gentle breathing of the
west wind which perpetually blows from the ocean. This idyllic land across
the sea to the west (or sometimes the north), is a belief common to many
cultures, from the Jews to the Greeks to the Celts. The Mandeans,
however, believe that the inhabitants of this far land are so pure that
mortal eyes will not see them and that this place is marked by a star, the
name of which is 'Merica'." Knight and Lomas argue that this was the true source of the name "America". Historical convention, of course, states that the continent was named after Amerigo Vespucci. This was, Knight and Lomas say, is due to an error committed by an obscure monk in the Duchy of Loraine who had mused over a meaning for 'America' and confused it with the amateur navagator. "Now, these parts of the earth (Europe, Africa, Asia) have been more extensively explored and a fourth part has been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (as will be described in what follows). Insomuch as both Europe and Asia received their names from women, I see no reason why any one should justly object to calling this part Amerige (from the Greek 'ge' meaning 'land of'), i.e., the land of Amerigo, or America, after Amerigo, its discoverer, a man of great ability." When the monk published the information in Introduction to Cosmography it quickly became part of popular folklore. "If you look at a map of the road network of France, which the Templars
had built and policed, it is very noticeable that all the great
long-distance routes meet at one point - at La Rochelle, on the Atlantic
coast. The harbour of La Rochelle lies in a natural bay, is easy to
defend, and it was laid out and developed by the Templars very early in
their history. Furthermore, the Order owned a huge fleet, and other
seaports in the north, for links with England, and in the south, as a
starting-point for voyages to the Holy Land and the Mediterranean islands.
La Rochelle, however, is far too far north to serve as a viable port of
embarkation for Palestine, and the same applies to voyages to England. For
this purpose, it was far too far south. There were other ports from which
one could cross to Britain far more quickly and simply. "After Napoleon conquered Rome in 1809, some files were brought back to
Paris from the secret archives of the Vatican. Among these were a few
documents relating to the Templar trials. In one of these records was the
statement of Jean de Chalons, a member of the Order from Nemours in the
diocese of Troyes." "On the evening before the raid, Thursday October 12th 1307, I myself saw three carts loaded with straw, which left the Paris Temple shortly before nightfall, also Gèrard de Villiers and Hugo de Chalons, at the head of 50 horse[men]. There were chests hidden on the carts, which contained the entire treasure of the Visitator Hugo de Pairaud. They took the road for the coast, where they were to be taken abroad in eighteen of the Order's ships." "There is no record of the seizure of eighteen Templar ships from their
naval base at on the French coast, or of any Templar ships anchored in the
Thames or at other seaports in Britain....Since many of the Templar ships
were galleys, they were ideally suited for piracy, because becalmed ships
were always easy prey for those that did not depend upon the
wind." The Zeno Narrative tells of a mysterious ocean voyage west one hundred years later by a Templar descendent, Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney. Indian legends and a number of clues suggest that the landfall was Nova Scotia. Preserving the Secrets
"It is known that the Templars fled to Scotland, too, after the
dissolution of 1312, and it is known that some found refuge among the Saint-Clairs of
Rosslyn in Midlothian. There is a Templar cemetery there." "No family in Europe beneath the rank of royalty boasts a higher
antiquity, a nobler illustration, or a more romantic interest than that of
St. Clair."
- Baigent and Leigh, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail Choir Rosslyn Chapel "is decorated inside with carvings of Masonic significance...and botanical significance.
Arches, lintels, pillar bases and such like are mostly covered in decorative but highly detailed plant motifs, with
many different species represented." Two of the motifs resemble the aloe cactus and maize cobs, plants indigenous to the New World and supposedly unknown to Europe before the sixteenth century.
"...Everywhere there were manifestations of the 'green man', the Celtic
figure that represented fertility. Over a hundred 'green men' have been
counted but it is believed that there are even more subtly peeping out of
the vegetation." "...William St Clair himself masterminded the whole construction of the
building from its inception to his own death in 1484, just two years
before it completion; furthermore, he personally supervised every tiny
detail of the work...William St Clair had brought some of Europe's finest
masons to Scotland for this great project, building the village of Rosslyn
to house them."
"Early this morning on resuming our labors we discovered a pair of pillars of exquisite beauty and symmetry: proceeding with our work, we discovered six other pairs of equal beauty which from their situation, appeared to be the remains of the subterranean gallery leading to the Most Holy Place." "In Rosslyn, we observed that the fourteen pillars had been arranged so
that the eastern eight of them including Boaz and Jachin,
were laid out in the form of a Triple Tau. The formation and the proportions were exactly as
the Royal Arch degree depicts today." "The Triple Tau, signifying, among other occult things, Templum Hierosolyma, 'the Temple of Jerusalem'. It also means Clavis ad Theosaurum - 'A key to a treasure' - and Theca ubi res pretiosa deponitur - 'A place where a precious thing is concealed', or Res ipsa pretiosa - 'The precious thing itself'." "The famous Grail Seeker Trevor Ravenscroft claimed in 1962 that he had
finished a twenty year quest in search of the Grail at Rosslyn
chapel.....His claim was that the Grail
was inside the Prentice Pillar (as it is known) in this chapel. The chapel
is often visited now by Grail Seekers and many references to the Grail can
be found in its stonework and windows. Metal detectors have been used on
the pillar and an object of the appropriate size is indeed buried in the middle.
Lord Rosslyn adamantly refuses to have the pillar x-rayed." Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas believe that the small crypt of the Rosslyn shrine was the lower middle chamber where the masons received their wages. Before the vaults were sealed off when the chapel was completed, twenty Templar knights were buried there in full armor. "Seemed all on fire that chapel proud, "The vaults themselves may yet be far more than a simple tomb, other
important artifacts may be contained therein. The one recorded action of
the Lords Sinclair that apparently contradicts their well earned reputation for chivalry
and loyalty may also be explained if the vaults are opened, for it is just possible that
some clue as to the whereabouts of certain treasures of great historical interest may
also be discovered." "The Companion's Jewel of the Royal Arch is a double triangle, sometimes called the Seal of Solomon, within a circle of gold; at the bottom is a scroll bearing the words, Nil nisi clavis deest - 'Nothing is wanting but the Key', and on the circle appears the legend, Si tatlia jungere possis sit tibi scire posse - 'If thou canst comprehend these things, thou knowest enough'." Knight and Lomas speculate that the reconstructed treasure vaults of Herod's temple are located below the main floor of the Chapel. An Seal of Solomon (Star of David) can be constructed from the alignment of pillars between the entrance and Triple Tau formation. "At the very center of this invisible Seal of Solomon, in the arched
roof there is a large suspended boss in the form of a decorated arrowhead
that points straight down to a keystone in the floor below. It is, we
believe, this stone that must be raised to enter the reconstructed vaults
of Herod's Temple and recover the Nasorean Scrolls."
Andrew Sinclair (The Sword and the Grail, Arrow Books 1994)
"did some ground radar investigations of the chapel and found evidence of
large metallic objects and vaults. They drilled down into a vault but were
unable to get a mini-TV camera down because rubble kept filling the borehole." (2) Freres Maçons "Jacques de Molay and his predecessors signed documents over the title
Magister Templi, Master of the Temple. And that temple, taking its name
from the Temple of Solomon, certainly was left unfinished upon the murder
of its masters, who also had been tortured to reveal their secrets by
three assassins who ultimately destroyed them. Not Jubela,
Jubelo, and Jubelum, but Philip the Fair of France, Pope Clement V, and the order of the Knights
of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem." The formation of the The Illuminati by Freemasons and the instigation of the French Revolution and anti-papacy movements in the eighteen century have been seen as a fulfilment of Templar revenge. "The Templars, or Poor Fellow-Soldiery of the Holy House of the Temple,
intended to be re-built, took as their models, in the Bible, the
Warrior-Masons of Zorobabel, who worked, holding the sword in one hand and
the trowel in the other. "Thus the Order of Knights of the Temple was at its very origin devoted to the cause of opposition to the tiara of Rome and the crowns of Kings, and the Apostolate of Kabalistic Gnosticism was vested in its chiefs. For Saint John himself was the Father of the Gnostics, and the current translation of his polemic against the heretical of his Sect and the pagans who denied that Christ was the Word, is throughout a misrepresentation, or misunderstanding at least, of the whole Spirit of that Evangel."
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