Date: Sat, 14 Aug 93 18:46:15 PDT

_Liber Templarus: The Origins and Characteristics of the Knights Templar_
Research by Frater Nigris

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The word of Sin is Restriction.


Contents:
1. Origins of the Knight
2. Chivalry and the Way of the Knight
3. The Origin of the Knights of the Temple (Templars)
4. The Practices of the Templars
5. The Goals of the Templars
6. The Focus of Worship Among the Templars


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1. Origins of the Knight

"Invasions by Saracens, Norse and Magyars brought failure of central
protection,...the local baron or bishop organized a localized order
and defense, and remained possessed of his own force and court.  Since
the invaders were often mounted, defenders who could afford a horse
were in demand; cavalry became more important than infantry; and just
as in early Rome a class of equites - men on horseback - had taken
form between patrician and plebs, so in France, Norman England, and
Christian Spain a class of mounted knights grew up between the duke or
baron and the peasantry."

The Story of Civilization, Vol. IV: The Age of Faith, by Will Durant,
Simon and Shuster, 1950; page 553.

-----------------------------------

"Knights or chevaliers were cavalrymen....  Cavalry was the battle arm
of chivalry; they and the cavalier, the chevalier, and the caballero
took their names from the horse."

Ibid, page 569.

-----------------------------------

2. Chivalry and the Way of the Knight

"Out of the Germanic customs of military initiation, crossed with
Saracen influences from Persia, Syria, and Spain, and the Christian
ideas of devotion and sacrament, flowered the imperfect but generous
reality of chivalry.

"A knight was a person of aristocratic birth - i.e., of titled and
landowning family - who had been formally received into the order of
knighthood.  Not all 'gentle' men (i.e. men distinguished by their
gens or ancestry) were eligible to knighthood or title; younger sons,
except of royal blood, were normally confined to modest properties
that precluded the expensive appurtenances of chivalry; such men
remained squires unless they carved out new lands and titles of their
own.

"The youth who aimed at knighthood submitted to long and arduous
discipline.  At seven or eight he entered as a page, at twelve or
fourteen as a squire, into the service of a lord; waited upon him at
table, in the bedchamber, on the manor, in joust or in battle;
fortified his own flesh and spirit with dangerous exercises and
sports; learned by imitation and trial to handle the weapons of feudal
war.  When his apprenticeship was finished he was received into the
knightly order by a ritual of sacramental awe.  The candidate began
with a bath as a symbol of spiritual, perhaps a guarantee of physical,
purification; hence he could be called a 'knight of the bath', as
distinguished from those 'knights of the sword' who had received their
accolade on some battlefield as immediate reward for bravery.  He was
clothed in a white tunic, red robe, and black coat, representing
respectively the hoped-for purity of his morals, the blood he might
shed for honor or God, and the death he must be prepared to meet
unflinchingly."

Ibid, page 572-3.

----------------------

"Theoretically the knight was required to be a hero, a gentleman, and
a saint.  The Church, anxious to tame the savage breast [sic],
surrounded the institution of knighthood with religious forms and
vows.  The knight pledged himself always to speak the truth, defend
the Church, protect the poor, make peace in his province, and pursue
the infidels.  To his liege lord he owed a loyalty more binding than
filial love; to all women he was to be a guardian, saving their
chastity; to all knights he was to be a brother in mutual courtesy and
aid.  In war he might fight other knights; but if he took any of them
prisoner he must treat them as his guests;...  Above the conscience of
the commons feudalism exalted the aristocratic honor and *noblesse
oblige* of the knight - a pledge of martial valor and feudal fidelity,
of unstinting service to all knights, all women, all weak and poor.
So virtus, manliness, was restored to its Roman masculine sense after
a thousand years of Christian emphasis on feminine virtues.  Chivalry,
despite its religious aura, represented a victory of Germanic, pagan,
and Arab conceptions over Christianity; a Europe attacked on every
side needed the martial virtues again."

Ibid, pages 574-5.

--------------------------------

"If we may believe the medieval romances, the knight was pledged to
the devoir or service of the lady who had given him her colors to
wear; she could impose dangerous exploits to test or distance him; and
if he served her well she was expected to reward him with an embrace
or better; this is the 'guerdon' that he claimed.  To her he dedicated
all his feats of arms; it was her name that he invoked in the crises
of combat or the breath of death.  Here again feudalism was not a part
of Christianity but its opposite and rival.  Women, theologically so
stinted in love, asserted their freedom and molded their own moral
code; the worship of woman in the flesh competed with the adoration of
the Virgin.  Love proclaimed itself an independent principle of worth,
and offered ideals of service, norms of conduct, scandalously ignoring
religion even when borrowing its terms and forms.  The orders of
knighthood - of the Garter, the Bath, the Golden Fleece - multiplied
to the number of 234 in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain; and
schools like Eton, Harrow, and Winchester combined the chivalric ideal
with 'liberal' education in the most effective training of mind and
will and character in pedagogal history.  As the knight learned
manners and gallantry at the court of the noble or king, so he
transmitted something of this courtoisie to those below him in the
social scale; modern politeness is a dilution of medieval chivalry."

Ibid, pages 576-7.

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3. The Origin of the Knights of the Temple (Temlars)

"Early in their colonial occupation the westerners founded the
'military orders' of knighthood.  The first of these were the
Templars, started about 1119 by a Burgundian knight who sympathized
with the hardships of the Christian pilgrims, and who banded together
with several others in a group designed to afford protection to the
helpless on their way to pray at the Holy Places.  The knights took
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and were given headquarters
near the Temple of Solomon - hence the name Templars.  St. Bernard
himself inspired their rule, based on the rules for his own
Cistercians, and confirmed by the Pope in 1128."

A History of Civilization, Volume I, by Brinton, Christopher and Wolfe,
Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1955; pages 343-4.
--------------------------

Notes: Mid-11th century: Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights and Templars
were heavily armed esquires to guide pilgrims on the road to the Holy
Sepulchre.  Established in Jerusalem, occupied by the Egyptians at the
time, in connection with an Amalfitan charitable foundation.  Trained
to fight, they lived in half-monasteries/half-barracks, "engaged in
frequent combat, observed a very strict discipline; and guarded
strongly fortified castles."  They indulged in wool and banking
trades, which were quite lucrative.

Life in the Middle Ages, by Robert Delort, Ed. S.A. Laussana, 
transl.  Robert Allen, Universe Books, 1972; pages 244-6.

-----------------------------

"For like Augustus, Constantine had managed well everything but his
family.  His relations with his mother were generally happy.
Apparently by his commission she went to Jerusalem, and levelled to
the ground the scandalous Temple of Aphrodite that had been built, it
was said, over the Saviour's tomb.  According to Eusebius the Holy
Sepulchre thereupon came to light, with the very cross on which Christ
had died.  Constantine ordered a Church of the Holy Sepulchre to be
built over the tomb, and the revered relics were preserved in a
special shrine."

The Story of Civilization, Vol. III:  Caeser and Christ, by Will Durant, 
Simon and Shuster, 1944; page 663.

-----------------------------

"The Order of the Templars was formed in Jerusalem in 1119 under the
title of 'Poor Knights of Christ of the Temple of Solomon' to protect
pilgrims in Palestine."

Life in the Middle Ages, Delort, page 246.

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4. The Practices of the Templars

"It has been asserted, without any real evidence, that the Templars
cultivated esoteric - even heretical doctrines.  Apparently they
denied Christ three times by spitting on the Cross; but that may have
been done in memory of Saint Peter or as a test of humility and total
obedience.  The legend that they were compelled to indulge in sodomy
was already widespread in the 14th century...  homosexuality may have
developed within the order during the great crises it underwent in the
thirteenth century.  They were also accused of worshippin Baphomet -
an idol that may or may not have been hermaphroditic - but that
indictment rests on evidence at once tardy and far from
well-founded....

"Be that as it may, the power, wealth and discipline of the Templars
and the fact that they were stationed far away, on the threshold of
the fabulous Orient, led to the acceptance of a great many legends and
made them the object of a great many hates.  Let me mention Wolfram
von Eschenbach's words: 'The valiant knights have their residence in
the castle Monsalvat, where the Grail is kept; they are the Templars,
who often ride far away in search of adventure; whatever the outcome
of their battles, whether glory or humiliation, they accept it wth a
happy heart in expiation of their sins.'"

Ibid, pages 245-6.

------------------------------------------

"The Council approved the Rule of the Temple which was to become the
new code of conduct for the Knights [1126].  The Rule, which covered
every aspect of daily life, contained 72 articles.  It was extremely
strict and severe and was believed to have been inspired by a rule of
Essenian origin known as the Rule of the Master of Justice.  Great
stress was put on obedience, and everything in it was designed to
promote communal life among the Knights and to avoid jealousy and
pride.  The Rule did not cover administrative matters.  By 1267 the
Knights themselves had added a large number of other articles dealing
with the administration of the Order.

"The following is a short summary of the structure of the Order which
was developed and maintained until the Order's abolition in the 14th
century.

In order of importance the officers for the Order were:

The Grand Master
The Seneschel
The Marshal
The Commander of the City of Jerusalem
The Commander of the City of Tripoli
The Commander of the City of Antioch
The Provincial Masters of France, England, Aragon, Portugal and
Hungary.  Other officers were the Draper, the Gonfanonier, and the
Turcopolier.  Each of the provinces had a hierarchical structure
modelled on the headquarters in Jerusalem.  The provinces were further
divided into Commanderies and Preceptories under Commanders and
Preceptors.  The Commanderies were sub-divided into 'Maisons' or
'Houses'.

"The ranks of the Order were composed of:
Knights
Squires or Ecuyers
Chaplains or Almoners
Sergeants
Tradesmen, masons, craftsmen and artisans
Locally enlisted militiamen called Turcopoles

"The Grand Master was the head of the Order.  He had very wide powers,
but could not take certain decisions without consulting a group of
senior Knights known as the Chapter.  He had some privileges such as
the right to four horses when in the field and to the largest tent,
distinguished further from the others by being circular in shape.  The
Grand Master was always accompanied by the battle standard of the
Order, which was known as the Gonfalon Beauceant....

"The Knights were the main fighting force of the Order.  They were
assisted by the Squires or Ecuyers.  The latter were attached to the
Knights as servants while they passed their apprenticeship.  The
Knights were known for their courage and their oath never to retreat
even if the odds were three to one against them.  The dress uniform of
the Knights was a white cloak bearing a red eight-pointed cross.  In
battle they wore coats of mail, and their weapons consisted of a mace,
a heavy sword, a short lance and a cutlass....

"The battle standard of the Knights Templar, the Gonfalon Beauceant,
was a red eight-pointed cross on a background of black and white
squares.  In heraldry, this red cross which had widened ends was known
as 'Croix pattee gueules'."

The Templar Tradition in the Age of Aquarius, by Gaetan Delaforge,
Thrshold Books, 1987; pages 50-53.

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5. The Goals of the Templars


UNITING THE RELIGIONS OF THE WEST

"... the Templars were entrusted with a number of secret missions.  
One of these was to work for the linking of Christianity and Islam.

"There is documentary evidence that despite the continuous state of
military confrontation which existed between the Christian and Moslem
armies in the Holy Land, there were very close contacts between the
Templars and certain Moslem brotherhoods.  It is known that the
Templars signed secret treaties with the Islamic sect of Ismailis, and
it was demonstrated on several occasions during combat between Arab
and Templar forces that certain ideals of chivalry were respected on
both sides.

"There were of course the famous contacts between the Templars and the
Fraternity of the Assassins, a secret fraternity and offshoot of the
Ismailis founded around 1090 by Hassan Sabah.  The Head of the
Fraternity was known as Sheikh-el-Jebel, or 'the Old Man of the
Mountains.'  Certain historians have argued that the real meaning of
the title was 'the wise man or sage of the Cabala or Tradition'.

"Although opinions differ as to the real nature of the Assassins,
there is general agreement that the Fraternity taught a secret
doctrine which was transmitted only to the initiated.  There must
certainly have been some connexion [sic] between the Assassins and
Sufism.  It also appears that organization of the Fraternity and its
religious codes and regulations greatly resembled those of the
Templars....

"The flowering of the Sufi tradition was also coterminous with the
rise of the Templars.  Although Sufism had already existed from the
early phases of Islam, it was only around the tenth or eleventh
century AD that it was institutionalized.  The most important Sufi
brotherhoods were founded between the twelfth and fourteenth
centuries, but the golden age of Sufism was the twelfth century.  It
is therefore probable that given their mission the Templars would have
been busy obtaining information during this period of spiritual
ferment in Islam.

"Mention was made... of the transmission of the Tradition to Abraham
by Melchisedek.  This heritage was subsequently diverted into the
three main currents of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.  It was the
task of St. Bernard and the Templars to try to bring them together
again.

"The Templars did not succeed in outwardly reuniting these currents.
They did however manage to maintain contact with Islam and to
integrate certain teachings, as mentioned above.  Through the Essenes
and the Cabalists elements were also transplanted from Judaism, all of
which were to vitalize the spirituality of the Western people for
centuries which followed.


WORKING FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF CHRISTIAN IDEALS

"Another secret mission of the Templars was to strive for the Return
of the Christ.  Their terminology for this objective was the 'Return
of the Christ in Solar Glory.'  This is the priority mission of the
Temple today..."

"Yet another secret mission of the Templars was to prepare the coming
of the Paraclete....The word has been translated into English as
'Comforter.'  No single English word, however, conveys all the
significance of the Greek Parakletos which has meanings related to
defender, helper, comforter and advocate....

"At the Last Supper, after the Christ had revealed to his disciples
that he would be betrayed and would not be with them physically for
very long, he told them that he would be followed by the Paraclete, a
manifestation of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Truth....

"The Templars considered the Paraclete to be the manifestation of the
Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth and Revelation.  For them its
coming would herald the completion of the cycle of a phase in the
evolution of our planet, when the Triune nature of the Divine will
have been brought in through concrete manifestation - the Father
aspect through Melchisedek, the Son aspect through the Christ
manifested in Jesus of Nazareth, and the aspect of the Holy Spirit
through the Paraclete.  The Templars believed that they were given the
mission of preparing men's minds for the coming of the Paraclete, so
that one day they would be able to perceive truth directly without the
intermediary of a spiritual teacher or master....

"The modern Templar, like his predecessor in the Middle Ages, has a
special responsibility to facilitate the unfolding of the Paraclete
and to propagate the awareness of the new influences by the state of
spirituality he radiates.  He will not need to go about enquiring into
hidden things.  By his efforts to purify himself and to open himself
to the new influences he will automatically stimulate the realization
of what truth is in the people around him."

Ibid, pages 62-76.

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6. The Focus of Worship Among the Templars

BAPHOMET

"There was also another account of the idol, which perhaps refers to
some further object of superstition among the templars.  According to
one deponent, it was an old skin embalmed, with bright carbuncles for
eyes, which shone like the light of heaven.  Others said that it was
the skin of a man, but agreed with the others in regard
 the carbuncles.  In England a minorite friar 
deposed that an English knight of the Temple had assured him that 
the templars had four principal idols in this country, one in the 
sacristy of the Temple of London, another at Bristelham, a third 
at Brueria (Bruern in Lincolnshire), and a fourth at some place 
beyond the Humber.

"Another piece of information relating to this 'idol,' which has been
the subject of considerable discussion among modern writers, was
elicited from the examination of some knights from the south.
Gauserand de Montpesant, a knight of Provence, said that their
superior showed him an idol made in the form of Baffomet; another,
named Raymond Rubei, descrbed it as a wooden head, on which the figure
of Baphomet was painted, and adds 'that he worshipped it by kissing
its feet, and exclaiming 'Yalla,' which was, he says, 'verbum
Saracenorum,' a word taken from the Saracens.  A templar of Florence
declared that, in the secret chapters of the order, one brother said
to the other, showing the idol, 'Adore this head - this head is your
god and your Mahomet.'  The word Mahomet was used commonly in the
middle ages as a general term for an idol or a false god; but some
writers have suggested that Baphomet is itself a mere corruption of
Mahomet, and suppose that the templars had secretly embraced
Mahometanism."

A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus and its connection with the
Mystic Theology of the Ancients, by Richard Payne Knight, Esq.,
University Books, 1865 [pr. 1974]; pages 197-8.

------------------------------
"Baphomet.

"There is no doubt that this mysterious figure is a magical image of
this same idea, developed in so many symbols.  Its pictorial
correspondence is most easily seen in the figures of Zeus
Arrhenothelus and Babalon, and in the extraordinarily obscene
representations of the Virgin Mother which are found among the remains
of early Christian iconology.  The subject is dealt with at
considerable length in Payne Knight, where the origin of the symbol
and the meaning of the name is investigated.  Von Hammer-Purgstall was
certainly right in supposing Baphomet to be a form of Bull-god, or
rather, the Bull-slaying god, Mithras; for Baphomet should be spelt
with an 'r' at the end; thus it is clearly a corruption meaning
'Father Mithras'.  There is also here a connection with the ass, for
it was as an ass-headed god that he became an object of veneration to
the Templars.

"The early Christians also were accused of worshipping an ass or
ass-headed god, and this again is connected with the wild ass of the
wilderness, the god Set, identified with Saturn and Satan....He is the
South, as Nuit is the North: the Egyptians had a Desert and an Ocean
in those quarters."

The Book of Thoth, by Aleister Crowley, Samuel Weiser Inc., 1944; page
67.

-------------------------------------

SET

"This 'Devil' is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with horror by
people who are ignorant of this formula [IAO], and, imagining
themselves to be evil, accuse Nature herself of their own phantasmal
crime.  Satan is Saturn, Set, Abrasax, Adad, Adonis, Attis, Adam,
Adonai, etc.  The most serious charge against him is only that he is
the Sun in the South.  The Ancient Initiates, dwelling as they did in
lands whose blood was the water of the Nile or the Euphrates,
connected the South with life-withering heat, and cursed that quarter
where the solar darts where deadliest."

Magick, by Aleister Crowley, Ed. John Symonds and Kenneth Grant, 
Arkana Books, 1973; page 172.

----------------------------------------

"Ass - Humility; patience; peace; stupidity; obstinacy; lewdness;
fertility.  An ass's head was also regarded as a source of fertility
As a beast of burden the ass can typify the poor.  Christian: Christ's
nativity; the flight into Egypt; the entry into Jerusalem.  It was
also used to depict the Jews and the Synagogue and has Satanic
connotations.  Emblem of St. Germanus.  Egyptian: Emblem of Set in his
typhonic aspect; inert power; evil.  Greek: Slother; infatuation.
Sacred to Dionysus and Typhon as a brutish aspect.  Sacred to Priapus
as the procreative principle; also sacred to Cronos/Saturn.  Silenus
is sometimes depicted as riding on an ass.  Hebrew: Stubbornness.
Kings, prophets and judges rode on white asses.  Hindu: Asses drew the
celestial chariot of Ravana when he abducted Sita.  Sassanian: The
three-legged ssis purity and a power against evil; it is also lunar as
the three phases of the moon."

An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols, 
by J.C. Cooper, Thames and Hudson, 1978; page 16.

-----------------------------------------

MITHRA

"In Mithraism, the most virile of Oriental cults and therefore the
most attractive to the Roman soldiery, the conception of the sympathy
of God and man was prominent.  Men saw in the struggles of Mithra the
Unconquered the prototype of their daily life.  The tauroctonous
Mediator, so familiar on the revolving slab in the chapels, the
champion of Light against Darkness, of the weak against the strong, of
men against the dominion of demons and cosmic powers, was a human
figure whose triumphant struggle encouraged men to higher endeavor.
Mithra, moreover, compensated for any apparent deficiency in
sympathetic communion by alliance with other Eastern cults,
particularly that of the Great Mother, and in its latest stages, with
that of the Egyptian mother of sorrows."

Mystery Religions and Christianity, by Samuel Angus, 
University Books Inc., 1966; page 120.

------------------------------------------

GENERAL MYSTERY RELIGIONS

"Yet [the Mystery Religions] failed and the religion of Jesus
trimphed.  Orphism, which introduced into Greek religion a note that
resounded for at least twelve centuries and which by its syncretistic
penetration left its mark upon so many other faiths, disappeared.
Isis, the mother of tend erness, the goddess 'of a thousand names,'
commenced her victorious career in the Greek world in the Peiraeus in
the fourth century B.C. and ended it in A.D. 391, when Theophilus and
his iconoclasts demolished the Serapeum of Alexandria and destroyed
Bryaxis' venerated statue of Serapis.  The Great Mother of Pessinus,
the first successful Oriental invader of the state religion of Rome,
after winning the adoration of the West for eight hundred years,
during six hundred of which she had a temple on the Palatine, lost her
power.  The Syrian goddess (Dea Syria, Atargatis) and her accompanying
Baals, in spite of lending themselves so readily to that solar
monotheism which became a conspicuous phase of later paganism and
their adoption by Nero, Heliogabalus, and Aurelian, never appealed to
the sympathies
 of the ancient world as did the Great Mother and Isis.  They perished, 
though they left more magnificent ruins than their competitors, who 
strove to supply a universal religion co-extensive with the imperial 
sway.  Mithras Invictus, the god of soldiers, though identified with 
the Unconquered Sun lost his sceptre after a reign in the West of over 
four centuries.  The Hermetic religion of Revelation and Regeneration 
was too akin to occultism and pitched its demands too high for the 
masses."

Ibid, page 246.

------------------------------

"There was also present in the Mysteries another function of faith
which became conspicuous in Christianity - cult-loyalty, faith in, or
fidelity to, the deity which formed the bond of cohesionof the
religious guilds and made the members collegae et consacranei.  The
religion of Mithra was a militia, or warfare, which for the Roman mind
implied a sacramentum, or oath of allegience.  Faith was struggling
for expression when Mithra was addressed as Sol Invictus, or Isis as
'thou eternal Saviour of the race of men,' or when the initiate
uttered 'I have escaped evil; I have found good'; 'Thou art I, and I
am Thou.'  The Mystery-Religions thus inculcated faith in their patron
deities, in the magical efficacy of rites, in mystic identification
with the god, and cult-loyalty."

Ibid, page 291.
-------------------------------

LIGHT-BASED MYSTICISM

"According to the Persian and later the Manichaean tradition, 'the
pious man had a second immaterial self (Persian grev = soma or nature,
Aramaic qnuma, which is used to translate the Greek 'autos'), and this
was the reflection of his luminous soul and at the same time the
divine emissary who would one day guide the luminous soul to Heaven.

"Later the luminous self, which becomes identified with the luminous
soul is often called Jesus.  In the so-called Liturgy of Mithras, a
work that is assuredly pre-Manichaean, the luminous self is seen
placed in the luminous world by the primal god, and consisting of four
or five luminous elements.  'This luminous self in its bodily form is
a divine being to whom the initiate must pray if he wishes to rise to
the world of Light.  This dwells with the primal god, while in the
material world the primal Gayomart represents gnosis or knowledge of
God.  Thus illumination here means to return to oneself, to find the
way back to one's divine nature, to the luminous body, the luminous
body within us that is composed of the elements of Light."

The Experience of Light, Max Pulver
From: Spiritual Disciplines, Ed. by Joseph Campbell, 
Bollingen Series XXX, Princeton University Press, 1960; page 242. 

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Invoke me under my stars.  Love is the law, love under will.

I am I!

Frater (I) Nigris (666) 333
Tyagi Nagasiva
Rev. 93!04.05 e.v.
Tyagi@HouseofkAOs.Abyss.com
House of Kaos
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