Atlantis Online
March 29, 2024, 05:10:29 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Comet theory collides with Clovis research, may explain disappearance of ancient people
http://uscnews.sc.edu/ARCH190.html
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

the Knights Templar, the Crusades & the Holy Grail (Original Version)

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 16   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: the Knights Templar, the Crusades & the Holy Grail (Original Version)  (Read 15428 times)
0 Members and 73 Guests are viewing this topic.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #15 on: January 03, 2008, 03:18:28 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:35 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Baphomet

Allegedly a goat-headed devil figure

Central to the accusations brought against the Knights Templar, was the accusation that, they worshipped an idol named Baphomet, which is said to have taken the form of a head or sometimes a Black Cat. The truth behind this mythos varies with various scholars.

The Baphomet is one aspect of the Templars mythos, could generate so many theories as to its true origins is amazing. The interest in the Baphomet has survived over 600 years and taken many forms. The opinions on the Baphomet vary greatly from scholar to scholar and mystic path to mystic path. The purpose of this section is to shed some light on some of the theories and the connection, if any, to the Knights Templar.

Mistakingly some describe the Templars as Devil worshipping Occultists, while historians of the twentieth century were of the belief that the Templars were party to the machinations of a corrupt government and church. It remains to be seen what the common consensus of this century will be regarding the order.

Twentieth century historians may have believed in innocence, the Baphomet mythos did survive as is indicated by the following dictionary definition: "Baphomet was the deity worshipped by the Knights Templar, and in Black Magic as the source and creator of evil; the Satanic goat of the witches' Sabbath and one of the names adopted by Aleister Crowley."

The image of the Baphomet is as varied as the explanations as to its etymology. A listing of some of the more common descriptions of it.

An idol with a human skull
Ahead with two faces
With a beard - Without a beard
With the heads of a cockerel
With the head of a man
With the head of a goat and the body of a man
Wings and cloven feet
The upper body of a woman (maternity)
A candle on its head - a symbol of revelation combining male sexual potency with the four elements and intelligence

Theories on the etymology of the Baphomet are many. To some it is believed to be a corruption of the Moslem prophet "Mahomet" or in English Mohammed. The Templars fought along side Moslem Assassins during their time and it is held that they may have adopted Islamic beliefs. This doesn't really hold water to anyone familiar with Islam as the religion forbids all forms of idolatry.

Another train of thought is that Baphomet is really a joining of two Greek words meaning absorption into wisdom. In either case the fact remains that the Templars were accused of practicing their initiations and rituals in front of a large idol of the demon Baphomet.

How did this belief come to be? Since King Philip of France sought to own the vast Templar wealth, he along with his puppet Pope Clement V had the Templars captured and tortured. During these tortures they made many confessions, among these, the disclosure that they had worshipped an idol said to be the Baphomet.

Were these claims true? Perhaps we'll never know. Jacques de Molay, who had earlier confessed his and the Templars guilt slowly burned at the stake insisting the order was innocent of all but one offence, that of allowing torture to cause them to lie and confess untruths.

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

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.
The number 58 is less puzzling if one remembers that five (5) is the number of the pentagram and eight (Cool is indicative of Isis. We may now complete the simple equation which exposes her secret number: 5 X 8 = 40 = 58 - 18 ISIS

The numbers 5 and 8 are also exhibited in the beliefs of the 'Brothers of the Rose Cross', where the rose is constructed with a centre of five petals, surrounded by eight petals.

- David Wood, Genisis

Isis' 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.

- Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal

Public indignation was aroused by charges of worshipping the devil in the form of an idol called Baphomet. Baphomet was the Templar symbol of Gnostic rites based on phallic worship and the power of directed will. The androgynous figure with a goat's beard and cloven hooves is linked to the horned god of antiquity, the goat of Mendes.
- Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks

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."
- John J. Robinson, Dungeon, Fire and Sword

They bestowed worship in their chapter on a heathen idol, variously described as to its physical characteristics, but known as a 'Baphomet', which etymologically was the same word [in Old French] as 'Mohammed'. [Once or twice the form Mahomet is actually used by witnesses in the trial.] Like so many persecuted heretical groups of the past, they were said to hold their chapters only secretly and at night.
It was impossible for the Templars to have 'picked up in the East' the practice of worshipping an idol bearing the name of the Prophet Mohammed, since no such idol existed anywhere in the Levant, even among breakaway sects such as the Ismailis or the Druse. The idea that Muslims were idolaters was itself a part of another system of 'smears', the pejorative representation of the oriental world by western Christians."

- Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians

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 abufihamat (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.
- Idries Shah, The Sufis

During the Inquisition evidence there are several references to members of the order receiving on initiation a little cord that had been in contact with 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."

- Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ

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.
The treasurer of the Paris temple, Jean de Turn, spoke of a painted head in the form of a picture, which he had adored at one of these chapters.

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.

- Noel Currer-Briggs, The Shroud and the Grail

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 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.

- P. R. Koenig, Too Hot to Handle

Another possibility as to the identity of the Baphomet may lie with Nicodemus, who in the Gospel of John who brought spices for Christ's burial. He is also mentioned in the apocryphal Evangelium Nicodemi (4th C.) as a ruler of the Jews who testified in Christ's favor. The Interpolation in the First Continuation of Chrétien's Perceval (12??) tells of the flight of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to England and includes the following intriguing passage:
Another possibility for the origin of the Head relates to the imagery on the first Grand Master's shield, which consisted of three black heads on a gold field. After about two hundred years, it is plausible that this head imagery could have worked itself into the legend of the Baphomet. According to more than one account, the Head was the actual skull of Hugues de Payen, which was preserved as an object of veneration.

- Forrest Jackson, The Baphomet in History and Symbolism

We found indisputable evidence for the charge of secret ceremonies involving a head of some kind. Indeed the existence of such a head proved to be one of the dominant themes running through the Inquisition records. Among the confiscated goods of the Paris preceptory a reliquary in the shape of a woman's head was found. It was hinged on top, and contained what appeared to have been relics of a peculiar kind."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

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."
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown ofthe 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.
- Ward, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #16 on: January 03, 2008, 03:18:49 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:36 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Black Isis - The Black Virgin

As all things in our reality have positive and negative polarities - so too does the feminine icon Isis. All souls contain a side that is in the light and that which is dark. This reflects the emotionals aspects of third dimension - love very fear and hate.

Isis is a metaphor for the feminine aspect in all of us. Therefore Isis is portrayed as having dual aspects of Light - the goddess - and Dark which links with magic, illusion, time, and alchemy of consciousness, the Trickster, Merlin, etc.

Coming from Egypt she would be portrayed as a dark skinned woman - though in modern times she is fair.

All feminine archetypes in all mythologies - are linked to one soul - be they goddesses, priestesses, Mary, aliens entities, etc. They are all the same soul essence.

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


Isis was a magician, possibly the archetype for the high priestess of the tarot. She learned her magic from Thoth, although according to some legends she obtainedher powers from Ra himself by tricking him into revealing his name to her, thus acquiring his full magical knowledge.
- Murray Hope Practical Egyptian Magic


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


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 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.

- The Cult of the Black Virgin


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #17 on: January 03, 2008, 03:19:26 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:37 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary Magdalene

Mary is more than one person. Like the energies of the Mythologies - such as the Egyptian goddess Isis - much has been written about who Mary is and what occurred in her timeline.

Mary Magdalene was the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Tradition has labeled her a prostitute, but there is nothing in the Bible to support this view and much to dispute it.

Many ideas about Magdalene persist today, whether or not the biblical text and historical resources confirm them. For example, early church fathers incorrectly identified her with the sinful woman who anointed Christ's feet at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Others believed she was Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus.

Who really was Mary Magdalene? Apparently her status in early Christianity was as high. The Bible gives us clues about her importance. After his resurrection, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene not Peter, according to the Gospel of John. Mary Magdalene announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord." In other scriptures, her name is first in the list of witnesses (Mk. 16:1-11; Mt. 28:1; Lk. 24:10; Jn. 20:11-18; 1 Cor. 15:5-8).

The Gnostic Gospel of Mary adds evidence that Mary was a strong Christian leader. This nonbiblical manuscript was discovered in Egypt the middle of the twentieth century. It suggests that Peter was jealous of Mary.

Clearly Jesus and Mary had a special relationship. A familiar scene in art and music is her encounter with Christ that first Easter morning. She does not recognize the man to whom she speaks until he calls her by her name.

Artists have often recreated the scene when Jesus says, "Do not hold on to me" (Noli Me Tangere) in the Gospel of John. Two examples are on this page. The popular hymn, "I Come to the Garden," was also inspired by the story of Jesus' appearance to Mary that first Easter morning.

Recently scholars have suggested that Mary was the one whom Jesus loved and that she wrote the Gospel of John. For centuries, Christians have wondered about the identity this person beloved by Jesus. Tradition says it was the disciple John; parts of John itself support this opinion. Others, using scholarly analysis, ask, What if the beloved disciple were Mary? These views are both provocative and controversial.

Probably we will never know many details about Mary Magadalene. We can be sure, however, that Mary was a significant leader early Christianity.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Mary was a women who loves and dares. In the story of Jesus, she first appears when an angel announces that she will bear a child. Her response is to boldly sing, "My soul magnifies the Lord!" This song, known as the Magnificat, praises God who brings down the mighty and raises up the lowly. Mary could be very tender as a mother is to her child but also very strong.

Mary's strength and concern for the downtrodden is revealed in Mexico, where she is called "Our Lady of Guadelupe." Typically Our Lady of Guadelupe is imaged as a woman wearing a crown and starry robe standing on a crescent moon held up by a cherub. The sun glows behind her, suggesting the image of the woman clothed in the sun from the Book of Revelation. Her name may derive from the Aztec Nahuatl word coatlaxopeuh (pronounced quatlasupe) -- the one who crushes the serpent.

According to Roman Catholic tradition, Mary appeared centuries ago (1531) in Central Mexico to Cuauhtlatoatzin (Juan Diego), an Aztec and a Christian convert. He reported that a beautiful woman surrounded by light as bright as the sun appeared to him and requested that a church should be built on that location. (See a painting of Juan Diego by Jose de Ibarra, 1743.)

Mary revealed herself, not to a member of the church hierarchy but to one who was poor, not to a European but to an indigenous person. Roman Catholics of Mexico, especially those who are among the many living in poverty there, treasure this powerful image of "Our Lady of Guadelupe." They see her as a champion of the poor and oppressed, a defender of children, and even a dragon-slayer (the dragon or "beast" is symbol of the devil).

Mary is known by a variety of titles in Latin America. The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute lists these:

Argentina: Our Lady of Luján
Bolivia: Our Lady of Copacabana
Brazil: Our Lady "Aparecida" (who appeared)
Chile: Our Lady of Carmel of the Maipú
Columbia: Our Lady of Chiquinquirá
Costa Rica: Our Lady of the Angels
Cuba: Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre
Dominican Republic: Our Lady of "La Altagracia"
Ecuador: Our Lady of Quinche
El Salvador: Our Lady of Peace
Guatemala: Our Lady of the Rosary
Honduras: Our Lady of Suyapa
Mexico: Our Lady of Guadalupe Nicaragua: Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of El Viejo
Panama: The Immaculate Conception
Paraguay: Our Lady of the Miracles of Caacupé
Peru: Our Lady of Mercy
Puerto Rico: Our Lady of Divine Providence
Uruguay: Our Lady of the Thirty Three
Venezuela: Our Lady of Coromoto Honduras: Our Lady of Suyapa

- Jesus and Courageous Women


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

Some people link Mary to the Holy Grail and the Knights Templar. Secular books with names such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Woman With the Alabaster Jar expand on traditions that she committed sexual sins. They claim that Jesus married her and fathered one or more children. These books are based on fiction, not fact. below is quoted information from that text.

____


In popular Christian tradition Mary Magdalene is a prostitute who finds redemption by apprenticing herself to Jesus. And she figures most noticeably in the Fourth Gospel, where she is the first person to behold Jesus after the Resurrection. In consequence she is extolled as a saint, especially in France - where, according to medieval legends, she is said to have brought the Holy Grail.
The Magdalene is not, at any point in any of the Gospels, said to be a prostitute. When she is first mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, she is described as a woman 'out of whom went seven devils'. It is generally assumed that this phrase refers to a species of exorcism on Jesus' part, implying the Magdalene was possessed. But the phrase may equally refer to some sort of conversion and/or ritual initiation.

The cult of Ishtar or Astarte - the Mother Goddess and 'Queen of Heaven' - involved, or example, a seven-stage initiation [the seven veils]. Prior to her affiliation with Jesus, the Magdalene may well have been associated with such a cult. Migdal, or Magdala, was the 'Village of Doves', and there is some evidence that sacrificial doves were in fact bred there. And the dove was the sacred symbol of Astarte.

- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

In some versions of history, Magdelene is viewed as the mother of the Merovingian Dynasty. Mary Magdalene was the redeemed sinner who was the first to see Christ after his Resurrection. Through her redemption from sin and her unique knowledge of the Risen Christ, she was regarded by the occult initiates of the Middle Ages as a medium of secret revelation. Those initiates had chosen the planet Venus as her symbol in the cosmos.
- Henry Lincoln, The Holy Place

Long ago her name was Isis, Queen of the benevolent springs, Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give your the rest.. Others knew her as Magdalene with the celebrated vase full of healing balm. The initiated know her to be Notre Dame Des Cross.
- Le Serpent Rouge

Mary Magdalene had her surname of Magdala, a castle, and was born of right noble lineage and parents, which were descended of the lineage of kings. And her father was named Cyrus, and her mother Eucharis. She with her brother Lazarus, and her sister Martha, possessed the castle of Magdalo, which is two miles from Nazareth, and Bethany, the castle which is nigh to Jerusalem, and also a great part of Jerusalem, which, all these things they departed among them.
- Legenda Aurea (published in Genoa in 1275)

She was also high priestess of the Temple of Ishtar at Magdala, and as such she would have been the keeper of the doves. She is linked with Benjamite, the tribe which was ostracized because they were of the line of Cain. So too was Hiram Abiff, architect of the Temple of Solomon.
- David Wood, Genesis

The idea that Mary [Jesus' mother] had been an adultress never completely disappeared in Christian mythology. Instead, the character of Mary was split into two: Mary the mother of Jesus, believed to be a virgin, and Mary Magdalene, believed to be a woman of ill repute.
The idea that the character of Mary Magdalene is also derived from Miriam the mythical mother of Yeishu, is corroborated by the fact that the strange name 'Magdalene' clearly resembles the Aramaic term 'mgadla nshaya' meaning 'women's hairdresser'. Because the Christians did not know what the name 'Magdalene' meant, they later conjectured that it meant that she had come from a place called Magdala on the west of Lake Kinneret. The idea of the two Marys fitted in well with the pagan way of thinking. The image of Jesus being followed by the two Marys is strongly reminiscent of Dionysus being followed by Demeter and Persephone.

- Hayyim ben Yehoshua, The Myth of the Historical Jesus


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #18 on: January 03, 2008, 03:20:03 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:38 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prieure de Sion
The Prieure du Notre Dame du Sion, or Priory of Zion, is said to be the cabal behind many of the events that occurred at Rennes-le-Chateau. According to the Prieure's own documents, its history is long and convoluted. Its earliest roots are in some sort of Hermetic or Gnostic society led by a man named Ormus. This individual is said to have reconciled paganism and Christianity. The story of Sion only comes into focus in the Middle Ages.
In 1070, a group of monks from Calabria, Italy, led by one Prince Ursus, founded the Abbey of Orval in France near Stenay, in the Ardennes.





These monks are said to have formed the basis for the Order de Sion, into which they were folded in 1099 by Godefroi de Bouillion.





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


Cutting of the Elm at Gissors
For about one hundred years, the Order of the Temple - Knights Templar - and Sion were apparently unified under one leadership, though they are said to have separated at the cutting of the Elm at Gisors in 1188.

In 1188 AD King Phillip II of France and King Henry II of England (with his heir Richard the Lion Hearted at his side) met on the sacred field at Gisors. This site in France was where kings had come for centuries to debate, forge alliances, and sometimes do battle. A huge elm tree in the middle of the sacred field was the central symbol - an ancient elm thought to be almost 800 years old at that time, so huge that nine men joined hand to hand could not encircle it.

Phillip and Henry were not on good terms; war between England and France was in the air, and Henry was making a claim on France. Phillip informed Henry that the elm would be cut down; Henry and Richard planned to defend it. A battle ensued, Richard was slightly wounded, the French army stormed the field with superior manpower while the English fled and took refuge in the nearby chateaux of Gisors. Phillip chopped down the elm, and retained France for himself. Henry thus did not conquer France but went home and ruled England, passing it on to Richard the Lion Heart followed by his other son, John.

I see the cutting of the elm as a metaphor for - Elm=Tree of Life. Cutting - split in the bloodline - or DNA. This was all linked to alchemy.

Other theories...

The Cutting of the Elm at Gisors did more than just split the Templars off from its parent Order, it defined the boundary line between the Plantagenets on one side, supported by the Templars, and the Capetians on the other, supported by Sion. This division would eventually produce not just the destruction of the Templars by the French King, Philip III and his puppet Pope, Clement V, but the catastrophe of the Hundred Years War between France and England.

The elm at Gisors represented the Merovingian bloodline, and the battle was about the claim to the right to rule. Henry II was the grandson of Fulk V, King of Jerusalem. But this title was bestowed through marriage to the daughter of the previous King of Jerusalem, Baldwin, who did have a direct male succession from the Merovingian Kings. Henry II's claim to France was based on obscuring the truth; his claim to blood descent was untruthful but politically worth making if the facts could be obscured. However, in a more relevant light, his son Richard did embody a true claim, because his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was descended from Charlemagne and therefore Clovis, one of the first Merovingian Kings. The Plantagenets established their Merovingian heritage only through Eleanor of Aquitaine; it was valid for Richard to make the claim (though he couldn¹t because he wasn¹t yet king), but not for Henry II - even though his grandfather had married the daughter of a legitimate lineal male descendant of the Merovingian line and thus became the third King of Jerusalem after Godfroi and Baldwin.

This is why King Phillip of France wanted to symbolically cut the cord for Henry and Richard: Phillip, too, was descended from Charlemagne. Only two, but more like three, females stood in the decent line between Phillip and the Merovingian Kings. (Male descent was preferred in royal successions.) He believed his claim on France was more pure than the Plantagenet usurpers. (Not true, since Eleanor's other line back through Bernard Plantevelue was probably all male.) Thus the elm at Gisors, ancient symbol of genetic branching and direct continuity, was cut as a statement to Henry II: 'Go away, France is mine!" The outward visible symbol of the vine transplanted from the Holy Land was no more. The knowledge thereafter was hidden, though preserved by the Templars and, later, by the Priory of Sion.

The Templar order was then destroyed by King Phillipe Le Bel of France, in 1307. Sion appears to have been at the nexus of two French antimonarchical movements, the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century - acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine families - and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as behind an attempt to make the Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th - the Hieron du Val d'Or. It appears that there are vast connections between Sion and numerous sociocultural strata in European thought - Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Arthurian and Grail legends, Arcadianism, Catharism, chivalry, etc.

Yet this mysterious secret society brought itself to light in 1956 and is listed with the French directory of organizations under the subtitle "Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union, which in French abbreviates to 'circuit' - the name of the magazine distributed internally among members. Depending on what statutes one considers, Sion either has 9,841 members in nine grades, or 1,093 members in seven, with the supreme member, the Nautonnier or Grand Master of the Order being, till 1963, Jean Cocteau.

While it is believed the head has been Pierre Plantard de St.-Clair up until recent times, he claims to have left that post in 1984, so it is not clear who runs the organization at this time. But whoever he is, he has had illustrious predecessors: Jacques DeMolay, Leonardo de Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Claude Debussy, among others! Plantard, in any case, seems to have enjoyed the ear of many influential persons in contemporary French politics - deGaulle, Marcel Lefebvre, Francois Ducaud-Bourget, Andre Malraux, and Alain Poher, and others, many of whom appear to know him from his efforts with the Resistance during the Vichy occupation. Despite its registry, however, the organization remains untraceable, its given address and number leading to dead ends which might lead one to wonder why the government never bothered to verify the information.

Some interesting things have come to light about the Prieure recently. One is that the Swiss Grand Lodge Alpina (GLA), the highest body of Swiss Freemasonry (akin to the Grand Lodge of England), may have been the recruiting body for the Prieure. But the GLA is also said by some to be the meeting place of the 'Gnomes of Zurich' who are said to be the Power Elite of Swiss bankers and international financiers. The GLA is said by David Yallop to be the body which controlled the P2 Masonic Lodge in Italy.

P2 controlled the Italian secret police in the 1970s, took money from the CIA and KGB, may have had a hand in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades, had 900 agents in other branches of the Italian government and the highest positions of the Vatican, bombed a train station and tried to blame it on the Communists, used the Vatican Bank to launder Mafia drug money, fomented fascist coups in South America, and is most likely linked to the arch-conservative Knights of Malta and Opus Dei in the Vatican.) P2's Lucio Gelli may have had a role in the death of John Paul I, and perhaps even the assassination attempt on John Paul II.

One of the most interesting people to write about the Prieure may be Michael Lamy. He claims that Jules Verne was a member of both the Prieure and the Illuminati. Further, he maintains that the Prieure's politics must be understood as Orleanist, which he describes as "aristocratic, anarchistic, and Nietzchean." Perhaps it all becomes most clear when Lamy reveals to the reader that the true secret of the village of Rennes-le-Chateau is that the extinct volcano Mount Bugarach leads down into the hollow earth to a realm of supermen.

Ean Begg feels it is connected with many of the Black Virgin sites all over Europe. Certainly, if the organization's full name is the Prieure de Notre Dame du Sion, and if it is site of Orval is connected to the worship of the bear-goddess Arduina, venerated by the Sicambrian Franks of the area and their Merovingian kings, then this may be the case.

There are hints, of course, that Notre Dame is not the mother of Jesus, but Mary of Bethany AKA Magdalene a princess of the tribe of Benjamin, which is itself notorious for an outbreak of goddess-idolatry in the period of the Judges. That Mary may also be the one also known to the Gypsies of the south of France as one of the three 'Maries-de-la-Mer,' whom they call 'Sarah the Egyptian', the sun-burnt one.

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


Sailing and Grailing to Nova Scotia
The Money Pit Mystery - Oak Island

A bizarre story has to do with the Money Pit Mystery




on Oak Island just off Nova Scotia.

According to Michael Bradley, some of the keepers of the Holy Grail may have come to the New World long before Columbus. He believes that some of the Templars may have fled to Canada after the dissolution of their order, carrying the Grail. The Money Pit has more often been associated with pirates' buried treasure, but as many know, the Jolly Roger flag's skull-and-crossbones icon has long been associated with Masonic and Templar legends.



Zeno Map - 1398

The so-called Venetian Zeno Map shows a knight with a sword standing where Nova Scotia is. In 1398 Prince Henry Sinclair, his Venetian navigators Antonio and Nicola Zeno, and three hundred Knights Templar, left Orkney in twelve ships.

They sailed to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland then on to Nova Scotia and New England. This is the story of the "Zeno Narrative," a document that records and maps the travels and explorations of Prince Henry Sinclair with his companions to the New World, ninety four years before Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage. Prince Henry Sinclair was born in 1345, at Rosslyn Castle, and was the descendant of the Saint Clair / Gisors a Norman family that was granted the Barony of Rosslyn, Midlothian, Scotland in the 12th century.

The Sinclairs of Scotland are hereditary lords of Rosslyn Chapel and are said to be descended from the Scots Guards, a clique loyal to the Stuart dynasty, which in turn are thought to have contained converted members of the Templar Order who fought with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, and to have provided the basis of Freemasonry. In the Money Pit on Oak Island, a mysterious stone inscription was found: Forty feet below - two million pounds are buried. Every company that has tried to locate this treasure has failed.

Along with the supposed visits of Prince Madoc of Wales and St. Brendan of Ireland, Prince Henry the Navigator's trip to the New World with the Zeno brothers makes it one of numerous European pre-Columbian voyages. The Zeno map, along with those culled by Viking travelers, may have even helped Columbus make his way across the Atlantic.

Sinclair liked all that he saw about in this new world and decided to stay. Many of the members of his expedition wanted to return home. He allowed them to leave and kept two of the smaller boats for himself, and those who chose to remain with him. He established a base here and started exploring the lakes, rivers and inlets of the area. Sinclair's base may have included a castle, which was built on the peninsula between the now named the Gold and Gaperau Rivers.

At the mouth of each of these rivers are islands - both named Oak Island and both being the only Islands in Nova Scotia with Oak Trees. At the confluence is a mysterious ruin, which is was Sinclair's fortress or old castle.

He became fast friends with the local Indians, the Micmacs, and is believed that he was called 'Glooscap' by them, the name of the white God of their ancient lore. And supposedly they loved him almost as if he were a god.

Sinclair and his party remained in Nova Scotia for almost a year. Over the winter months they had built a larger ship and when spring came they sailed south.

They sailed to present day New England, just north of Boston. Their relations here with the Indians were very good. While here one of his party and supposed cousin Sir James Gunn died. He was buried near the summit of Prospect Hull in current day Westford, Massachusetts. A grave marker in the style of the Templars was hand chiseled onto a rock slab. The image on the rock is of a Knight Templar, bearing the arms of the Gunn Clan on his Shield. Sinclair sailed back to Scotland, where he died in 1401 while having problems with English invaders.

It appears that there may be strands connecting Rennes-le-Chateau and the New World Orders. Ultimately, the Rosicrucian ideas behind the American experiment may have deeper Arcadian roots.

Bradley hints, but does not come out and say, that what is beneath the Money Pit is the Grail.

It is not the only weird trail in the Rennes mystery. One researcher insists that the inventor Barnes Wallis was one of the most recent Grand Masters of Sion.

Others have even found connections to the so-called Baconian Theory, which suggests that Sir Francis Bacon authored Shakespeare's plays. Bacon's works suggest a Rosicrucian experiment taking place in the New World.

Fanthorpe seems to believe that ultimately Rennes-le-Chateau may be a Doorway unto the Invisible or a gateway to other dimensions, through the Emerald Tablet which he speculates may have been a tesseract (3-dimensional representation of a 4-dimensional figure).

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


Bloodlines - Magic - Ormus
Lincoln and his co-authors fashioned a theory that Christ had descendents who legged it to the south of France where they intermarried with the royal Franks to found what eventually became the mystical Merovingian Dynasty. Ergo, the real mission of the Templars and Priory of Zion: to safeguard not just the treasure of the Crusades, but to preserve the Grail, which appeared in medieval texts as 'Sangraal' or 'Sangreal' - translated to mean 'sang real', or 'royal blood'. In other words: the dynastic legacy of Christ, literally.

The Merovingians were considered in their day to be quasi-mystical warrior-kings vested with supernatural powers. The Merovingians traced their ancestry back to the Benjamites who, according to legend, fled from Israel to Arcadia in Greece.

The earliest roots of the Prieure de Sion were founded in some sort of Hermetic or Gnostic society led by a man named Ormus. This individual is said to have reconciled paganism and Christianity. The story of Sion only comes into focus in the Middle Ages. In 1070, a group of monks from Calabria, Italy, led by one Prince Ursus, founded the Abbey of Orval in France near Stenay, in the Ardennes. These monks are said to have formed the basis for the the Order de Sion, into which they were 'folded' in 1099 by Godfroi de Bouillion. He was one of the leaders of the First Crusade who had recaptured Jerusalem. They claim that it was this Order that lay behind Hugues of Champagne and the founding of the Templars.

The avowed and declared objective of the Prieure de Sion is the restoration of the Merovingian dynasty and bloodline - to the throne not only of France, but to the thrones of other European nations as well. By dint of dynastic alliances and intermarriages, this line came to include Godfroi de Bouillion, who captured Jerusalem in 1099, and various other noble and royal families, past and present.

Godfroi was, by legend, a member of the Grail Family, and by lineage a Merovingian and apparently, rightful King of Jerusalem by his descent from David. It is clear that he was aware of this. When he left for the first crusade, he sold all of his property. He intended to stay in Jerusalem. Godfroi was close to de Payen and the count of Champagne, and Baudoin his brother was integral to the founding of the Templars.

One might therefore term Godfroi de Bouillon as a sort of 'king of kings', or at least a maker of kings, since he founded the Order of Sion that could crown Kings of Jerusalem.

To the south of Jerusalem looms the 'high hill' of Mount Sion. By 1099 an abbey had been built on the ruins of an old Byzantine basilica at the express command of Godfroi de Buoillon. According to one chronicler, writing in 1172, it was extremely well fortified, with its own walls, towers and battlements. And this structure was called the Abbey of Notre Dame du Mont de Sion.

In 1979, M. Plantard had said to us, quite categorically, that the Prieure was in possession of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem, plundered by the Romans during the revolt of A.D. 66 and subsequently carried to the south of France, in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château. The treasure, M. Plantard stated, would be returned to Israel when the time is right.

At some point the treasure had passed from the Merovingians to the Priory of Zion. the Templars took the treasure from the Holy Land to the French Cathars, who, on the eve of their destruction by the church, squirreled the lucre away in the Pyrenees.

For about one hundred years, the Order of the Temple (Knights Templar) and Sion were apparently unified under one leadership, though they are said to have separated at the 'cutting of the elm' at Gisors in 1188.

Near the end of the thirteenth Century a separate detachment of Templars was sent from the Aragonese province of Rossillon to the Rennes-le-Chateau area in southern France [the old Cathar stronghold]. This fresh detachment established itself on the summit of the mountain of Bezu, erecting a lookout post and a chapel. Alone of all the Templars in France, they were left unmolested by Philippe le Bel's seneschals on October 13, 1307.

On that fateful day the commander of the Templar contingent at Bezu was a Seigneur de Goth. And before taking the name of Pope Clement V, the archbishop of Bordeaux - King Philippe's vacillating pawn - was Bertrand de Goth. Moreover, the new pontiff's mother was Ida de Blanchefort, of the same family as Bertrand de Blanchefort [the fourth Grand Master of the Order of the Temple]. Was the pope then privy to some secret entrusted to the custody of his family?"

Whether is was the intrigues and the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth century, the insurrection known as the Fronde in the seventeenth century or the Masonic conspiracies of the eighteenth century, successive generations of precisely the same families were implicated, operating in accordance with a single consistent pattern.

In documents dating from 1619, it was stated to have incurred the displeasure of King Louis XIII of France, who evicted them from their seat at Orleans and turned the premises over to the Jesuits. After that, the Prieure de Sion seemed to vanish from the historical record, at least under that name, until 1956, when it appeared again, registered in the French Journal officiel.

The castles of Templar Chateau of Bezu, the Chateau of Blanchefort and Rennes-le-Chateau are each located on a mountain top. Together, with the high spots of two other peaks, the locations form a perfect pentagon (five equal sides) some fifteen miles in circumference. Like Rennes-le-Chateau "the village church dates back to at least the time of the Visigoths, some thirteen centuries ago. The church is dedicated to Saint Magdalene.

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

The early astronomers saw the Earth as the center of the universe, around which the Sun, the stars and the planets revolved. Each planet forms its own pattern of movement around the Sun as seen from the Earth. For the ancient watchers of the heavens, those differing patterns of movement allowed them to draw geometric shapes based on the positions of each planet when it was aligned with the Sun.

Only one planet describes a precise and regular geometric pattern in the sky - and that planet is Venus, the heavenly counterpart of the earthly Mary Magdalene - and the pattern that she draws as regular as clockwork every eight years is a pentacle.

There can be no doubt that churches, calvaires, castles and obscure ruins - almost every structure of note upon the map -form an intricate web of alignments which intersect with perfect regularity on the zero Paris- meridian. The distance covered by three of those division is the circle radius measure. Each point is separated from the next by exactly one third of 933.586 poles.

The accepted definition of a pole - also known as the Rod or Perch- is now 5.5 yards.

All of the measurements and placements of the buildings follow the patterns of the sacred geometry.

This all leads back to the Hermetic studies - Hermes - who was Thoth - Ancient Egyptians - Alchemy - Ark of the Covenant - Tree of Life - Qabbalah.

The boat of Isis was positioned in the constellation of Argo. Specifically, in Egypt this constellation was named Sothis or Soth-Isis, the Star of Isis. Furthermore, in the Egyptian legends this vessel represented the female organ of generation. The Ark of the Covenant of the ancient Israelites is believed to have been modelled after the ceremonial ark of Isis.

It has been alleged that Hughes de Payens, first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, had been inducted into the Johannites, a sect which chose John the Baptist as their prophet. According to the dossiers secrets, each of the alleged Grand Masters of the Prieure de Sion took the name Jean in succession (supposedly influencing the name chosen by Pope John XXIII). One of the Grand Masters on the list, Leonardo da Vinci, displayed a strong interest in John the Baptist. Another, Sir Isaac Newton, became preoccupied with the writings of the Apocalypse, then attributed to John the Evangelist.

According to the dossiers secrets, the following individuals were amongst the Grand Masters:

René d'Anjou (1418-80) - a major impetus behind the Renaissance through his literacy and influence on Cosimo de'Medici setting up bastions of esoteric, Hermetic principles - the 'underground stream'. Legend records that the d'Anjous were descended from Ann the Jew, daughter of Joseph of Arimathea, who supposedly carried the Davidic blood line and settled in western France. Later, the D'Anjou branched into the Houses of De Guise and De Lorraine. René d'Anjou was related to the king of France by marriage and remained a trusted ally during the war with England. On paper, René was one of the most powerful men in Europe. Unfortunately, after the failure of his Italian campaign, he was nothing more than a patron of the arts and collector of books. René was co-sponsor of the Arcadia revival in the late 15th century.

Through his patronage of art, literature and the advancement of knowledge Rene is one of the most important figures of the formative years of the Renaissance. It was directly as a result of Rene's influence that Cosimo de Medici sent agents out to look for ancient texts, which resulted in the revival of Neoplatonic and Hermetic thought.

Nicholas Flamel (1330-1418) the most famous of the alchemists said, "the Paris notary Nicolas Flamel claimed that he dreamed of an occult book, subsequently found it, and succeeded in deciphering it with the aid of a Jewish scholar learned in the mystic Hebrew writings known as the Kabbala. In 1382 Flamel claimed to have succeeded in the 'Great Work' (gold making); certainly he became rich and made donations to churches.

One alchemical symbol that is widely acknowledged by modern scholars is that of an old bearded man, the back of whose head shows a young woman looking into a mirror. A statue with this image graces the exterior of Nantes cathedral, as does a bearded king with the body of a woman, in the porch at Chartres that depicts the Queen of Sheba.

The hermaphrodite is a pure alchemical symbol, representing the perfect balance achieved in the Great Work, and the perfect being, in which the alchemist himself is transformed and transmuted spiritually - and, as many believe, physically as well. It was a 'consummation devoutly to be wished' and had little, if anything, to do with sexuality as we understand it today.

The Great Work was an explosion of the potential into the actual, where they mystical quest takes on concrete form. As the alchemists said, 'as above, so below' - this process was believed to make spirit into matter and transmute one sort of matter into another. It made a man into a god.

Revered by men like Newton, Flamel was the discoverer of The Sacred Book of Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer and Philosopher to that Tribe of Jews who by the Wrath of God were Dispersed amongst the Gauls which became one of the most famous works in Western esoteric tradition.


Leonardo de Vinci (1510-19) - Having little formal education, Leonardo enthusiastically accepted Nicholas's [of Cusa] new worldview [of an universe with no limits in space, no beginning or ending in time] as a justification for rejecing the outmoded authority of the 'pharisees - the 'holy friars' and of his 'adversaries' Plato and Aristotole.

For the first time since the Ionians, he put forward a conception of science that was wholly secular, in no way based on religious doctrines or philosophy. In Leonardo the craftsman, scientist, and inventor are merged into one.

Leonardo was left-handed; he was a strict vegetarian- he sought the company of alchemists and necromancers; he worked on a Sunday and only attended Mass when at court. The only surviving sculpture that involved Leonardo in its making is the statue of John the Baptist in the Baptistry in Florence, on which he collaborated with the utmost secrecy with Giovan Francesco Rustici, a known necromancer and alchemist.


And Leonardo's last painting was 'John the Baptist', showing him with the same half-smile as 'The Mona Lisa', and pointing straight upwards with the index finger of his right hand.

This in Leonardo's work is a sign always associated with John: in the 'Adoration of the Magi' a person stands by the elevated roots of a carob tree - John's tree, symbol of sacrifical blood - while making this gesture. In his famous cartoon of St. Anne the subject also does this, warning an oblivious Virgin.

The disciple whose face is perhaps accusingly close to Jesus' in 'The Last Supper' is also making this gesture. All these gestures are saying 'remember John'.

Johann Valenin Andrea (1637-54) - "the creator of the semi-secret Christian unions and author of the Rosicrucian manifestos, a Hermetic allegory which also evokes resonances with the Grail Romances and the Knights Templar.

At this time, with the eclipse of the House of Lorraine, the Priory transferred its allegiance to the more influential Stuarts after Frederick of the Palatinate married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I of England. Frederick created a culture, a 'Rosicrucian' state with its court centered on Heidelberg.

Robert Boyle (1654-91) - part of the "Invisible College" of dynamic English and European minds which became the Royal Society after the restoration of the monarch in 1160 with the Stuart ruler, Charles II as its patron and sponsor. His two closest friends were Isaac Newton and John Locke who met regularly with him to study alchemical works.

In the ancient world alchemy was referred to simply as 'the sacred art'. It flourished in the first three centuries A.D. in Alexandria, where it was the combined product of glass and metal technology, a Hellenistic philosophy of the unity of all things through the four elements (earth, air, water, fire), and 'occult' religion and astrology.

The essential principle was that all things, both animate and inanimate, were permeated by spirit, and that the substances of the lower world could, through a synthesis of chemical operations and imaginative reasoning, be transmuted into higher things of the spiritual world - things not subject to decay.

Napoleon Bonaparte - Sion appears to have been at the nexus of two French anti-monarchical movements, the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century (acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine families) and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as an attempt to make the Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th- the Hieron du Val d'Or.

-The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #19 on: January 03, 2008, 03:20:39 am »

 
Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:40 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel, or the Collegiate Chapel of St Mathew as it was to have been, was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, third and last St Clair Prince of Orkney. It is in fact only part of the choir of what was intended to be a larger cruciform building with a tower at its centre.

More than thirty-seven collegiate churches were built in Scotland between the reigns of James I and James IV (1406-1513). They were secular foundations intended to spread intellectual and spiritual knowledge, and the extravagance of their construction depended on the wealth of their founder.

After Sir William died in 1484, he was buried in the unfinished Chapel and the larger building he had planned was never completed. But the foundations of the nave are said to have been excavated in the nineteenth century and found to extend ninety-one feet beyond the Chapel's original west door, under the existing baptistry and churchyard.

What was built however is extraordinary enough, 'This building, I believe, may be pronounced unique, and I am confident it will be found curious, elaborate and singularly interesting, impossible to designate by any given or familiar term' wrote Britton on his Architectural Antiquities of Britain (1812), adding somewhat despairingly that its 'variety and eccentricity are not to be defined by any words of common acceptation.'.

The principal authority on the history of the Chapel and the St Clair family is Father Richard Augustine Hay, Canon of St Genevieve in Paris and Prior of St Piermont. He examined historical records and charters of the St Clairs and completed a three volume study in 1700, parts of which were published in 1835 as A geneologie of the Sainteclaires of Rosslyn. His research was timely, since the original documents subsequently disappeared.

Of the founder Father Hay said this: 'Prince William, his age creeping on him, came to consider how he had spent his times past, and how he was to spend his remaining days. Therefore, to the end, that he might not seem altogether unthankful to God for the benefices he received from Him, it came into his mind to build a house for God's service, of most curious work, the which that it might be done with greater glory and splendour he caused artificers to be brought from other regions and foreign kingdoms and caused daily to be abundance of all kinds of workmen present as masons, carpenters, smiths, barrowmen and quarriers... the foundation of this work he caused to be lain in the year of our Lord 1446, and to the end, the work might be more rare, first he caused draughts [plans] to be drawn upon eastland boards [imported Baltic timber], and he made the carpenters carve them according to the draughts thereon and he gave them to for patterns to the masons, that they might cut the like in stone and because he thought the masons had not a convenient place to lodge in...he made them build the town of Rolsine that is now extant and gave everyone a house and lands. He rewarded the masons according to their degree, as to the Master Mason, he gave nearly £40 yearly, and to everyone of the rest, £10...

Sir William's son and successor to the Barony of Rosslyn, Sir Oliver St Clair, roofed the choir with its stone vault but did no more to fulfil his father's original design.

The Chapel was generously endowed by the founder, with provision for a provost, six prebendaries and two choristers, and in 1523 by his grandson, also Sir William, with land for dwelling houses and gardens. On February 26th ,1571, however, just forty-eight years after his last endowment, there is a record of the provost and prebendaries resigning because of the endowments being taken by 'force and violence' into secular hands as the effects of the Reformation took hold.

The Presbytery records of Dalkeith reveal that in 1589 William Knox, brother of John Knox and minister of Cockpen, was censured 'for baptizing the Laird of Rosling's bairne' in Rosslyn Chapel, which was described as a 'house and monument of idolatrie, and not ane place appointit for teiching the word and ministratioun of ye sacrementis'.

The following year, the Presbytery forbade Mr George Ramsay, minister of Lasswade, from burying the wife of a later Oliver St Clair in the Chapel. The St Clairs had not yet succumbed to the Reformation and remained Roman Catholics.

This Oliver St Clair was repeatedly warned to destroy the altars in the Chapel and in1592 was summoned to appear before the General Assembly and threatened with excommunication if the altars remained standing after August 17th, 1592. On August 31st, the same George Ramsay reported that 'the altars of Roslene were haille demolishit'. From that time the Chapel ceased to be used as a house of prayer and soon fell into disrepair.

In 1650, during the Civil War, Cromwell's troops under General Monk attacked the castle and his horses were stabled in the Chapel.

On December 11th, 1688, shortly after the protestant William of Orange had landed in England and displaced the Catholic James II, a mob from Edinburgh and some of the villagers from Roslin entered and damaged the Chapel. Their object was to destroy the furniture and vestments, which were now regarded as Popish and idolatrous.

The Chapel remained abandoned until 1736, when St James St Clair glazed the windows for the first time, repaired the roof, and relaid the floor with flagstones. The boundary wall was also built at this time.

When Dorothy Wordsworth visited the Chapel on September 17th, 1807, she remarked: 'Went to view the inside of the Chapel of Roslyn, which is kept locked up, and so preserved from the injuries it might otherwise receive from idle boys, but as nothing is done to keep it together, it must, in the end, fall. The architecture within is exquisitely beautiful.'

Further repairs to the Chapel were undertaken at the beginning of the nineteenth century and in 1861 it was agreed by James Alexander, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn, that Sunday services should begin again. He instructed the Edinburgh architect David Bryce to carry out restoration work. The carvings in the Lady Chapel were attended to, stones were relaid in the crypt and an altar established there. The Chapel was rededicated on Tuesday April 22nd, 1862, by the Bishop of Edinburgh and the Bishop of Brechin preached from the text, 'Our Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth' (Psalms xxvi, v8).

The Reverend R. Cole, then resident military chaplain at Greenlaw Barracks near Penicuick, became private chaplain to the Earl. Lady Helen Wedderburn, daughter of the 7th Earl of Airlie, who lived nearby at Rosebank, organised a subscription from which some of the interior fittings were provided.

In 1880-1, Francis Robert, 4th Earl of Rosslyn, added the apse to serve as a baptistry with an organ loft above. The work is by Andrew Kerr. The Earl also filled the baptistry arch with the handsome oak tracery which you see today, decorated with his crest. Together with the two Chapel doors, this is the only wood used in the construction of the building.

The cost of the work was seven hundred and fifty eight pounds, eight shillings and six pennies, with a further thirty four pounds and eighteen shillings to Andrew Kerr for fees. Kerr told the Earl that a party of visitors 'had remarked that it was wonderful that such young men should be entrusted to execute such carving,' to which the estate factor 'very coolly replied, that it was not wonderful here, as the finest pillar in the Chapel was the work of an apprentice boy.'

The Earl was happy with the work and in a letter to Kerr on November 16th, wrote: ' I must say that the author pronounces your building a complete success.'

In 1915, a report on the fabric by Sir Robert Lorimer observed: ' The stone work of the Chapel is in fairly good order and requires very little done to it... a few of the stones are crumbling but not to the extent to cause any alarm. The condition of the roof is not satisfactory... and there are a number of gaps and cracks all over.' He recommended that the exterior of the roof be covered with asphalt and this was carried out.

In 1942 the Chapel was almost closed for a second time when a government official called Robertson wrote to the Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin MP, 'that the Episcopalian Church at Roslin was almost empty every Sunday... on a recent Sunday there was a congregation of only two, and apart from the Clergyman's labour there must be other workers employed in cleaning and looking after the church and I suggest that steps are taken to close it down.'

A copy of the letter was sent to Gwilym Lloyd George MP, the Minister of Fuel, who in turn wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland in the following terms; 'I enclose a copy of a letter from David Robertson which causes me considerable embarrassment, who am I, a Welshman, that I should do anything that might imperil the eternal salvation of one Scottish Episcopalian. In any case, from the fuel point of view, I doubt whether I would be justified in securing a small economy of fuel in this world at the possible cost of a disproportionate expenditure of it on myself in the next.' The Chapel remained open.

Further work was carried out by Anthony 6th Earl of Rosslyn, in the 1950's when the crypt roof was repaired and the interior carvings cleaned by hand over a period of several years. He also added the stained glass windows in the baptistry. A report of May 1954 from the Ancient Monuments Branch of the Ministry of Works records that 'surfaces covered with green algae will be scrubbed down with stiff bristle brushes... using a solution of .880 ammonia and water. Water will then be used copiously until the surfaces are clean and free from dirt and vegetation. Flaky patches will be sealed off... Hollow areas in ornament will receive special treatment by grouting... and when the surfaces are thoroughly dry they will be hardened with silica fluoride of magnesium at a rate of 1lb per two gallons of water.'

This work was in accordance with the thinking of the time but not, unfortunately, with current conservation philosophy. The effect of the magnesium fluoride - a cementitious slurry - was to seal the internal surface of the masonry with an impermeable coating, so that the stone became saturated with water containing soluble pollutants. In addition, the coldness of the wet stone encouraged condensation. A report in 1995 confirmed that damage was occurring and that humidity in the Chapel was very high. It recommended that steps should be taken to dry out the saturated masonry, remove if possible the cementitious coating, and restore the permeability of the richly carved inner surfaces of the Chapel.

In March 1997, a free-standing steel structure was erected to cover the Chapel. It will enable the stone fabric of the roof vaults to dry outwards, away from the carved interior surfaces. In due course the bituminous felt, asphalt and concrete coverings of the stone roof vaults will be removed to assist this process. Stone and mortar repairs to the external walls, pinnacles, and buttresses, renewal of the rainwater disposal arrangements, repairs to the stained glass, and appropriate repair and conservation of the interior are all required. The coverings over the stone vaulted roofs will be renewed in lead and ways of removing the cementitious slurry are being investigated, in order that this magnificent building can be preserved for future generations to use and admire.

The year 2000 saw the Trust embark on a second phase of work. Funded jointly by The National Heritage Lottery Fund, The Eastern Scotland European Partnership, Historic Scotland and the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, this phase has a number of elements. Essential stabilisation works to the east boundary walls will protect the Chapel. A new roof of Caithness slate has been placed over the existing Crypt roof, and the Priest's Cell and two more modern buildings beside the Crypt have been made functional. The stairs to the Crypt have been repaired and the access to the Crypt is now both safer and more of an experience. Work has also been carried out to improve the electrical services in the Chapel, repairs to the wooden screen at the west end, and our interpretation of Rosslyn's story.

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

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.
-Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic

We encountered repeated references to the Sinclair family - Scottish branch of the Norman Saint-Clair/Gisors family. Their domain at Rosslyn was only a few miles from the former Scottish headquarters of the Knights Templar, and the chapel at Rosslyn - built between 1446 and 1486 - has long been associated with both Freemasonry and the Rose-Croix. In a charter believed to date from 1601, moreover, the Sinclairs are recognized as 'hereditary Grand Masters of Scottish Masonry'. This is the earliest specific Masonic document on record.
-Baigent and Leigh, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail


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.

The symbolism is Egyptian, Celtic, Jewish, Templar and Masonic in profusion. A star-studded ceiling, vegetative growth coming form the mouths of the Celtic Green Men, entangled pyramids, images of Moses, towers of the Heavenly Jerusalem, engrailed crosses and well as squares and compasses. The only certain Christian imagery was in later Victorian alterations: the stained glass windows, the revolting baptistery and a statue of the Madonna and child.

Recalling the legend of Hiram Abif, high up in the corner where the south and west walls meet, and level with the organ, is a head with a severe gash on the right temple and in the opposite side of the west wall is the head of the person who killed him.

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.

From the outside, Rosslyn is a representation in stone of the Heavenly Jerusalem as depicted in Lambert's copy, with towers and a huge central curved, arched roof. Inside the Rosslyn shrine, the layout is a reconstruction of the ruin of Herod's Temple, decorated with Nasorean and Templar symbolism. In the north-east corner we found a section of the wall carved with the towers of the Heavenly Jerusalem complete with the Masonic compasses, styled exactly as they are shown on Lambert's scroll.

As we looked directly upwards from the organ loft, we could see that the arched roof had a running series of keystones down its length, just like the one the Royal Arch degree describes as found in the ruins of Herod's Temple.

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 Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

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.
- Chris Thornborrow, An Introduction to Current Theories about The Holy Grail

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.
- Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel

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."
- An Illustrated Guide to Rosslyn Chapel

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'.
-Royal Arch Degree

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.

Rosslyn is not a free interpretation of the ruins in Jerusalem; as far as the foundation plan is concerned, it is a very carefully executed copy. The unfinished sections of the great western wall are there, the main walls and the pillar arrangements fit like a glove and the pillars of Boaz and Jachin stand precisely at the eastern end of what would be the inner Temple. The spot we identified as being at the center of the Seal of Solomon turned out to correspond exactly with the center point of the medieval world; the middle of the Holy of Holies; the spot where the Ark of the covenant was placed in the Temple at Jerusalem.

- The Hiram Key: Pharaohs,Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

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


Knights Templar to use latest imaging in search for Grail
January 6, 2003 - Independent.co.uk

For centuries the intricately carved stones of Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh have tantalised historians, archaeologists and devoted Christians.

A labyrinth of vaults beneath the 15th-century home of the Knights Templar is reputed to contain dozens of holy relics, including early gospels, the Ark of the Covenant, and the fabled Holy Grail.

More than 550 years after the first foundation stones were laid, modern technology is about to put the legend to the test.

A group of Knights Templar, successors to the warrior monks who sought asylum from the Pope by fleeing to Scotland in the early 14th century and fought for Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, are to make a "non-invasive" survey of the land around the chapel. They will use the latest ultrasound and thermal imaging technology in the hope of finding evidence of the existence of the vaults. "The plan is to investigate the land around the chapel to a depth of at least 20ft," said John Ritchie, Grand Herald and spokesman for the Knights Templar.

"The machine we are using is the most sophisticated anywhere and is capable of taking readings from the ground up to a mile deep without disturbing any of the land.

"We know many of the Knights are buried in the grounds and there are many references to buried vaults, which we hope this project will finally uncover." Rosslyn Chapel, or the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew as it was to have been, was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, third and last Prince of Orkney. Built as a celebration of Christ, it is also a monument to craftsmanship.

Bristling with flying buttresses and gargoyles in the highest Gothic style on the outside, the interior is carved with scenes from the Bible, the fall of man, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the birth of Christ, the crucifixion and the resurrection.

"Rosslyn is an amazing building. It is a book in stone but, because the symbolism which is written into the chapel is in a medieval language, we haven't even cracked the introduction page yet," Mr Ritchie said.

Pillars and arches are covered with hundreds of exquisitely carved leaves, fruit, animals and figures. Some curious carvings are said to depict cactus and sweetcorn, chiselled before Columbus set foot in America in 1492.

"There is a whole series of stuff on each section of the chapel, which relates to a different period of time," Mr Ritchie added. "We have to go back to the 15th century and read it with a medieval eye to understand what it all means. All these symbols relate to events in history. It is a book created in stone, which brings in all the apostolic religion, laid over by an astrological form which tracks the seasons, and the plants in the seasons."

Both the Freemasons and the Knights Templar claim the ornate stonemasonry of the church is a secret code which, if broken, will reveal the whereabouts of treasures.

One theory suggests that one of the ornate columns, known as the Apprentice Pillar, may contain a lead casket in which is hidden the legendary cup used by Christ at the Last Supper and later used to collect his blood, the so-called Holy Grail.

"Once we understand the introduction page we will begin to understand what this book in stone means," Mr Ritchie added. "We hope to start as soon as possible and get a load of readings from it. We hope to at least find this burial place and maybe the Holy Grail itself."

Rosslyn Chapel, History, Hauntings and Mystical Connections

The chapel has been described as a 'Tapestry in Stone' - some of the most impressive stone carving in Scotland if not Europe -the Apprentice Pillar - said to have been carved by an apprentice to the master mason.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004 
 
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #20 on: January 03, 2008, 03:22:36 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:40 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Legend of the Skull Of Sidon
The Skull and Cross bones have long been known to have Masonic connections. It was commonly used as a symbol on Masonic Grave sites in the past. The Skull and Crossbones, Masonic or not point out to us all, our own mortality and eventual death. This image of mortality was believed to figure in Templar ritual. Now while this claim in and of itself seems quite believable, one of the legends of how it came to be is not.

It is well known that the order of the Templars were monastic in nature and therefore forbidden to have involvement with women.

The legend of the Skull of Sidon states that a great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar who was a Lord of Sidon. She died suddenly. On the night of her burial, he supposedly crept to her 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 returned at the appointed time, 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.

It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the order.

This tale can be traced back to a twelfth century author named Walter Mapp, although the story at this time is not connected with the Templar Knights. However, at the time of their trials 1307-1314 it was well woven into the Templar legend. In fact it was called upon during the actual trials of the Templars.

Edward Burman in his book Supremely Abominable Crimes tells of an Antonio Sicci, an apostolic notary from Vercelli, Northern Italy. Sicci recounts to the inquisitors the tale of the Lord of Sidon which he claimed he learned while working for the order in the Holy Land. His accusation and recounting of the tale is similar to that quoted in Baigent and Leigh's book.

As ridiculous as this tale seems in modern times, it was easily bought during the period. The inquisitors and theologians would have picked up on the fact that the woman of the piece was Armenian by background. This they would have connected with the Armenian Church and its Paulician sects. The Paulicians and the Bogomils were practitioners of Catharism which the church had all but wiped out during the Albigensian Crusade. Since the church believed the Cathari to be practitioners of the Black Mass and necromancy, the woman's Armenian background would make the story guilty by association.

- The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004 
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #21 on: January 03, 2008, 03:23:15 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:44 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Templars and the Shroud of Turin
Article By © Stephen Dafoe

Any discussion of the Shroud of Turin is bound to be controversial. Those who view this sacred and holy relic fall into two camps, those that believe it to be the undisputed earthly evidence of a Christ risen and those who believe it to be a medieval forgery.

It is not the intention of this web site to cast doubt on or support the authenticity of the shroud, but rather to show its possible relationship to the Knights Templar. We receive many letters from angry people who wish to enter into lengthy debates about carbon 14 reliability. We are aware of new evidence that puts the reliability of carbon 14 dating in question, so please refrain from telling us of the findings or directing us to URL's that make the claims.

There are two theories that relate to the Templars having been involved with the Shroud, one, which would support the authenticity of the Shroud and another, which would refute it.


In 1204 the Crusaders sacked the city of Constantinople. Among them were the Knights Templar, whom some scholars contend took the Burial shroud of Jesus from the city. To support this theory, author Ian Wilson who wrote the book "The Shroud of Turin: Burial Cloth Of Jesus?" makes the claim that the head that the Templars were accused of worshipping was none other than that of Jesus. His belief is that the Shroud when folded depicted the head of Christ and was referred to as the "Mandylion." There is a painted panel at Templecombe in England that shows a bearded head like that, which is depicted on the Mandylion.

In their two books, "The Hiram Key" and "The Second Messiah," authors Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas paint a contrasting picture to the Mandylion theory. The authors theorize that the image on the Shroud of Turin is in fact that of the last Grand Master of the order, Jacques de Molay, who was tortured some months before his execution in 1307. The image on the shroud certainly does fit the description of De Molay as depicted in medieval wood cuts, a long nose, hair shoulder length and parted in the center, a full beard that forked at its base, not to mention the six-foot frame. De Molay was said to be quite tall.

However, many have criticized the theory on the basis that the Templar rule of order forbade the Templars from growing their hair long. What critics of the theory overlook is that during DeMolay's seven years in prison it is highly unlikely that he would have been afforded such luxuries as good grooming.

Knight and Lomas claim that the shroud figured in the Templars rituals of figurative resurrection and that DeMolay's tortured body was wrapped in a shroud, which the Templars kept after his death. Lomas and Knight further believe that lactic acid and blood from DeMolay's tortured body mixed with frankincense (used to whiten the cloth) etching his image into the shroud.

When the shroud was first put on display in 1357 (50 years after the disbanding of the order) by the family of Geoffrey de Charney who was also burned at the stake with De Molay, the first people viewing the shroud recognized the image to be that of Christ.

The authors theorize that Jacques de Molay may have been tortured in a manner similar to Christ as a mockery. Certainly then, the wounds suffered by De Molay where the same as those of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Today it is commonly believed by many, through carbon dating, that the shroud dates to the late 13th century and not to the date of Christ's supposed crucifixion. It is interesting that the church revealed these carbon dating results on October 13th, 1989, which is the same day the Templars were arrested by Church and State. According to the authors:

"Carbon dating has conclusively shown that the Shroud of Turin dates from between 1260 and 1380, precisely as we would expect if it were the image of Jacques de Molay. There is no other known theory that fits the scientifically established facts. Through experimentation, we know that the figure on the Shroud was on a soft bed of some kind, which strongly suggests that the victim was not dead and was expected to recover."

The Second Messiah pg. 161
Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas
Permission granted by authors for the use of above quote.

Regardless of whether the findings of Ian Wilson or Knight and Lomas are correct, it is evident that this most holy and venerated relic has found its way into the Templar mythos.

Lynn Picknet and Clive Prince, authors of "Turin Shroud: In Whose Image?" present another theory of interest on the matter. Readers will recognize the authors from the book, "The Templar Revelation." In the authors' earlier book the duo claim that Leonardo Da Vinci who created an early photographic technique manufactured the image on the shroud of Turin.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #22 on: January 03, 2008, 03:24:46 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:45 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rennes-le-Château
A clear connection exists between The Knights Templars and the famous secret of Rennes-le-Château.
Article © by Martha Neyman Author of
"The Horse of God" and "The TRUE language of Rennes-le-Château"


The "Code" used by the Knights Templars, to hide their most precious treasure was:

Church Symbolism...

The old language of the Church, our "Shepherd"; used by the "Initiated" to exchange secret messages...

Remember: In symbolism, everything has a "second" meaning...

This key of symbolism opened the doors to:

The famous painting by Nicolas Poussin: "The Shepherds of Arcadia".
The decorations in the church "La Madeleine" in Rennes-le-Château.
The strange book by the priest of Rennes-les-Bains, Henri Boudet.
Through these, an answer is found to the questions:

Are clues hidden concerning "Rennes-le-Château"..?
Were the Templars really involved..?
On "What" this treasure truly is..?

In my first book: "The Horse of God", paintings speak: Through symbolism, out of the shadows a second image becomes visible... And... it is clear: Indeed, a great Templar mystery was here concealed..!

In my second book: "The True Language of Rennes-le-Château", a dead priest "comes to life". He too, like Nicolas Poussin, shows us the way to the secret of Rennes-le-Château, which in fact is the secret of the Knights Templars and "what" they found in the Orient during the Crusades.

Both: The painting of "The Shepherds" and the book of Henri Boudet, together with the images in the church of Rennes-le-Château, lead to the correct spot... We only have to follow "The Horse of God", which in fact is "One" of the "Two" keys, given to find the solution... Follow "The KNIGHT"... The half horse of chess.

Editors' Note
For more information on Martha's research into the Rennes le Chateau mystery and the Knights Templar, visit her web site:
http://home.tiscali.be/rlcbooks



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004 
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #23 on: January 03, 2008, 03:25:33 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-17-2004 12:46 AM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Templars And The Holy Grail?
Article © William Mann
Author of "The Knights Templar in the New World"

With the advent of the internet, there appears to be a swelling tide of interest relating to the question as to whether the medieval Knights Templar in fact possessed the Holy Grail. The answer to this is a very simple one: There is no doubt whatsoever that the Templars possessed the Holy Grail.

The explanation behind this answer, unfortunately, remains somewhat complicated and, to a degree, very speculative. The key, as I have learned during the writing of The Labyrinth Of The Grail, is to constantly "look beyond" what appears at first to be the true answer. The simple reasoning is that why else would both the Church and State pursue the Templars to the far ends of the earth and torture them beyond compassion. Obviously, the accusations of blasmephy were only an excuse to justify their actions. It really doesn't take any skill to recognize that the inner circle of the Templars possessed something far more valuable than mere silver and gold - something that threatened the very being of the Church and State.

What the Templars possessed, and became sworn guardians of, was the unbroken line of "ancient knowledge" which among other things allowed the ancient mariner to circumnavigate the world. It is now coming to light that trade among the "Old World" and the "New World" had regularly occurred throughout the Neolithic to Roman eras by "societies who were in on the secret." Hints of these visits and settlement now appear to be revealing themselves through a variety of sources including classic mythology, Indian legend and maritime folklore, as well as through recent archaeological discoveries.

This knowledge was pure power. Societies that not only possessed the ability to track the sun, moon and the stars, but possessed the inherent wisdom to maintain the "secret" of being able to fix longitudinal positions long before it became common practice, were societies in constant danger of being exterminated. On the other hand, those societies who were able to exploit their advantage to the fullest such as the earliest Templars enjoyed a status rivaled by none.

In other words, the Templars, and those who came before them, were accorded the ability to "look beyond" standard Church dogma to places yet to be "discovered" - the mythical Otherworld.

Think about it for a moment. If you possessed an unlimited source of raw material, fertile land, and mineral wealth, would you reveal it to the world? No, I don't think that you would, especially if you were in the business of "brokering" peace among nations. The Templars would surely have considered this knowledge to be a "God-given gift." Thereby, the Templars would have considered themselves to be the guardians of a direct "conduit" between God and man. The Templars would have also believed that this conduit of knowledge straight from the heavens exposed itself through the Mysteries of Christ. To the Templars, this embodiment of heavenly knowledge was The Holy Grail.

You may ask how was it that longitudinal coordinates could be established in pre-Christian times prior to the development of the chronometer. Again, the answer is the simplest, yet most complicated, of all possibilities. Since the concept of time began, man has turned his eyes to the sky and followed the paths of the heavenly bodies. Evolving from this activity was the establishment of strategic viewing positions, which allowed the "Ancients" to establish "roseline" (meridians) around the world. These ancient stone circles and menhirs found around the world, such as Stonehenge, were used to track the known paths or circuits of the eclipses of the sun and the moon.

It was this recognition of "order" and "pattern" in all that made up the universe, which resulted in the development of "sacred geometry." As such, sacred geometry was derived through man's ability to reason, which means that all men possessed the "Grail knowledge" through the "art of reasoning." Come to think of it, there is nothing really "sacred" about it, other than the knowledge that certain Egyptian "royal lines" came to assume it as their God-given right.

Indeed, modern society should not be looking to certain royal houses to capture the "lost art," but to its historical guardians including the Celtic Druids and Irish, and medieval Knights Templar. Hence, the seeker of the true Holy Grail must follow the path to the source of Celtic tradition and its Indo-European roots. Only when one understands their roots will one better understand themselves. And for the seeker who is able to arrive at the proper application of knowledge and understanding, wisdom and truth will be revealed.

Coming full circle, these four "commodities" were the "Grail treasures" that the inner core of Knights Templar possessed. Unfortunately, even sailing half way around the world in A.D. 1398 to what was considered a New Jerusalem (modern-day Nova Scotia) could not prevent the Templars from being relentlessly pursued by both Church and State. Therefore, it was in the wilderness of A(r)cadia that the 14th century spiritual leader of the Knights Templar, Prince Henry Sinclair, buried the Holy Grail until such time that a more enlightened society could make better use of its virtues.

In this circumstance, one can only conclude that the Holy Grail was the recorded knowledge of the Ancients, set down by those initiates who were willing to sacrifice their lives to perpetuate in words the one true connection between heaven and earth.

Remember that the Celtic soul lies in the head. Thus, the Templars did not allow their hearts to rule their actions. Similarly, the Holy Grail awaits those who practice the simple art of reasoning, enabling them to look beyond the trappings that await them on their journey.
http://www.templarhistory.com/mystery.html


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #24 on: January 03, 2008, 03:26:54 am »

 
SUBLIMER33
Member
Member # 1487

Member Rated:
   posted 10-24-2004 09:00 PM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"head of sidon "

remains me of the ancient masonic symbolism of the greek ledgends of the warrior who cut off the LADY SNAKE HEAD or the the shield of cain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 69 | From: JACKSON,MS. US | Registered: May 2003   
 
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #25 on: January 03, 2008, 03:27:25 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 10-28-2004 11:52 PM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any thoughts on the true nature of the Holy Grail, Sublimer, or anybody? More to the point, how many of you have read "the Da Vinci Code"?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #26 on: January 03, 2008, 03:28:25 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 12-06-2004 10:52 PM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The last crusade of the Templars
By Ruth Gledhill
The knights want a Papal apology nearly 700 years after they were disbanded and hounded into exile



THE VATICAN is giving “serious consideration” to apologising for the persecution that led to the suppression of the Knights Templar.
The suppression, which began on Friday , October 13, 1307, gave Friday the Thirteenth its superstitious legacy.


A Templar Order in Britain that claims to be descended from the original Knights Templar has asked that the Pope should make the apology.

The Templars, based in Hertford, are hoping for an apology by 2007, the 700th anniversary of the start of the persecution, which culminated with the torture and burning at the stake of the Grand Master Jacques de Molay for heresy and the dissolution of the Order by apostolic decree in 1312.

The letter, signed by the Secretary of the Council of Chaplains on behalf of the Grand Master of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon Grand Preceptory, with a PO box address in Hertford, formally requests an apology “for the torture and murder of our leadership”, instigated by Pope Clement V.

“We shall witness the 700th anniversary of the persecution of our order on 13th October 2007,” the letter says. “It would be just and fitting for the Vatican to acknowledge our grievance in advance of this day of mourning.”

Apologies have already been made by the Roman Catholic Church for the persecution of Galileo and for the Crusades. The Templars hope that these precedents will make their suit more likely to succeed.

Hertford Templar Tim Acheson, who is descended from the Scottish Acheson family that has established Templar links and whose family lived until recently in Bailey Hall, Hertford, said: “This letter is a serious attempt by a Templar group which traces its roots back to the medieval Order to solicit an apology from the Papacy.”

He added: “The Papacy and the Kingdom of France conspired to destroy the Order for reasons which modern historians judge to be primarily political. Their methods and motives are now universally regarded as brutal, unfair and unjustified.

“The Knights Templar officially ceased to exist in the early 1300s, but the order continued underground. It was a huge organisation and the vast majority of Templars survived the persecution, including most of their leaders, along with much of their treasure and, most importantly, their original values and traditions.”

The Hertford Mercury newspaper has reported newly discovered Templar links with Hertford, including a warren of tunnels beneath the town. At the heart of the maze of tunnels is Hertford Castle, where in 1309 four Templars from Temple Dinsley near Hitchin were imprisoned after their arrest by Edward II, who believed that they were holding a lost treasure. The treasure was never found.

When Subterranea Britannica, a group of amateur archaeologists, expressed an interest in investigating Hertford’s tunnels last month, they received anonymous threats telling them not to.

The Templars captured Jerusalem during the Crusades and were known as “keepers of the Holy Grail”, said to be the cup used at the Last Supper or as the receptacle used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Christ’s blood as he bled on the Cross, or both.

Interest in the Templars and the Holy Grail is at an unprecedented high after the success of books such as The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, and the earlier Holy Blood Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, which claimed that Jesus survived the crucifixion and settled in France.

The Knights Templar were founded by Hugh de Payens, a French knight from the Champagne area of Burgundy, and eight companions in 1118 during the reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, when they took a perpetual vow to defend the Christian kingdom. They were assigned quarters next to the Temple. In 1128, they took up the white habit of the Cistercians, adding a red cross. The order knights, sergeants, farmers and chaplains amassed enormous wealth.

In Rome, a Vatican spokesman said that the demand for an apology would be given “serious consideration”. However, Vatican insiders said that the Pope, 84, was under pressure from conservative cardinals to “stop saying sorry” for the errors of the past, after a series of papal apologies for the Crusades, the Inquisition, Christian anti-Semitism and the persecution of scientists and “heretics” such as Galileo.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #27 on: January 03, 2008, 03:32:52 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 02-17-2005 11:09 PM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are The Holy Grail And Ark
Of The Covenant Hidden
On Baltic Sea Island?
By Peter Starck
12-25-00

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant may have been hidden by a secretive religious order of crusaders, the Knights Templar, on the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm some 830 years ago, according to a new book.

The whereabouts of the grail and the ark -- legendary religious relics of immeasurable value to Christian and Jewish believers -- have intrigued historians and archaeologists for centuries and films about quests to locate them, notably the ''Indiana Jones'' series, have thrilled movie audiences worldwide.

No one knows exactly what the relics actually are but the ark is believed a box-type container that held the stone tablets inscribed with the 10 commandments which Moses received from God on Mount Sinai.

Legends differ about the Holy Grail but it is most widely thought to be the chalice which Jesus and his apostles drank from at last supper before he was crucified.

Some scholars speculate that treasures amassed by the Knights Templar ended up in Rosslyn chapel in Scotland. Others have hinted at locations in Ethiopia, Spain and Canada.

In a 194-page book ``The Templars' Secret Island,'' Denmark's Erling Haagensen and Henry Lincoln of Britain say medieval round churches were built at sites on Bornholm based on the sacred geometry used by the Knights Templar elsewhere in Europe, most famously at Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France.

The book, studded with graphs, plots the churches' geometric layout with mathematical precision and the authors suggest the design may be a map to hidden treasures.

The Danish archbishop Eskil visited Knights Templar Grand Master Bertrand de Blanchefort in France in 1162, nine years after the death of his predecessor Bernard of Clairvaux.

The historically recorded purpose of Eskil's visit -- coming at a time when the Knights Templar may have feared becoming vulnerable because of the influential Bernard's demise -- was to prepare a crusade against pagans inhabiting the Baltic Sea's northeastern coast in what is today Estonia and Latvia.

The book suggests that Knights Templar who joined the Baltic crusade built Bornholm's churches and may have taken the opportunity to stash some treasures there.

``The need for a secure hiding place would have been paramount...It would make sense to conceal whatever may have been the Order's treasures in more than one place.

``Better still to provide a hiding place which was remote and had no apparent connection with the Order. Bertrand's involvement in the planning for the Baltic Mission would have offered him the perfect opportunity. Bornholm...now becomes a trump card,'' says the book.

``It was small and easily controlled and protected. Above all, it was remote, unknown, unlikely to be disturbed, not big enough or rich enough to attract an errant warrior intent on carving out a kingdom,'' it continues.

Unique Churches Lasting Heritage

The European Templar Heritage Research Network (ETHRN), a non-profit making association of scholars not affiliated to any religious or political group, says it has been historically documented that the order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon -- the full name of the Knights Templar -- was founded by aristocrats from the French region of Burgundy early in the 12th century.

The order's classic round churches founded on octagonal geometry, supposedly based on the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, are a lasting heritage of the Knights Templar era, the ETHRN says.

Historical records and 20th century archaeological digs indicate that a group of Knights Templar were searching for something under Jerusalem's Temple Mount between 1118 and 1127.

Haagensen and Lincoln say that on returning to France in 1127 the crusaders reported to Bernard of Clairvaux that their ''mission'' had been accomplished.

A carving on a pillar at the cathedral in Chartres, France, suggests the mission had been to find the Ark of the Covenant.

Legends say Mary Magdalen, to this day the village saint of Rennes-le-Chateau, and Joseph of Arimathea, who according to the Bible buried Jesus, took the Holy Grail to France.

Evidence of the belief in this tale is found in historical records about the Nazis searching for the Holy Grail at Rennes-le-Chateau during World War Two.

Backing up the theory that Knights Templar treasures may have been hidden on Bornholm, the book says ancestors of the noblemen who founded the order lived on this rocky 587 square km (226.7 square miles) island, now part of Denmark and home to some 45,000 people.

Burgundians Came From Bornholm

The authors point to a find of nearly 3,000 tiny, intricately carved golden figures unearthed in a 1985-86 excavation of a Bornholm field as lending credibility to their claim of a Bornholm connection.

The golden figures have been dated to AD 400-600 when the Merovingians -- a clan of Frankish kings who claimed to be, like Jesus, of the house and lineage of the Bible's King David -- were at the height of their power. Descendants of the Merovingians later settled in Burgundy.

The book also quotes a AD 417 work by Spanish historian Orosius, which says the Burgundians came from Bornholm.

The Knights Templar viewed the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant as their rightful possessions because of their bloodline to the House of David, scholars say.

The equilateral six-sided shape which forms the star of David is part of the geometric design formed by Bornholm's medieval churches, the book by Haagensen and Lincoln shows.

``It is undeniable that those who planned and built the churches of Bornholm knew exactly what they were doing and why they did it,'' the authors say, adding the design ``indicated a sure hiding place.''

An excavation in 1995 to install heating ducts under the floor of Oesterlars church, the biggest of Bornholm's round churches, found ``unusual and unexpected stone features...which might be explained by the presence of an undiscovered crypt,'' the book says, quoting the official renovation report.

Olsker, another church in the geometric pattern, also features a ``curious indication of a possible underground structure beneath a staircase,'' the authors say.

``Neither of these subterranean anomalies has, thus far, been investigated.''
http://www.rense.com/general6/baltic.htm



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #28 on: January 03, 2008, 03:33:30 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 04-30-2005 04:12 PM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to print this quote from new forum member Angela Micol's article as this relates to my own research on the Templars:


quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Greatest Secret Ever Told by Angela Micol

After revealing the many patterns and unexplained large landforms on the surface of the Earth and after having visited Rennes Le Chateau many times in the past, I began to piece together what I feel is one of the greatest secrets ever. This secret includes the Knights Templar brotherhood and a cross so large it has been kept quiet all these years, waiting for it to be revealed to the entire world. I believe they were led by God to not only find the ancient mountains of the first race that existed on this planet but to use that very knowledge as the formation of a New Atlantis which is founded on truth and freedom for all. This New Atlantis is what America was once referred to in the past and what our forefathers set out so many years ago to fulfill. A vision of a future country where all are considered equal in brotherhood and religion. This article will help supply the evidence that does seem to point to a great secret that the Knights Templar have protected from the very beginning. That is the secret of the giants and their technology that was still left behind after the flood only buried and concealed by nature. For if there once were 'giants in the earth in those days', then where did all their giant houses go? Under the mountains and under the sea to be tread upon yet again by those above. As above so below, selah.



It is widely known the Templars were some of the greatest tunnelers of all time. According to legend they were led to dig under the temple mount in Jerusalem and found great knowledge as a result of this and possibly have used this knowledge to help build this society and create the New Atlantis that was dreamt of by many. Legend tells that giants created mountains and valleys including one particular mountain that is especially important to the Knights Templar, Mont Segur. (1)

Montsegur France During the Albigensian crusade the Cathars sought refuge at Montsegur since it was a remote Knights Templar stronghold. However during the Inquisition by the Roman Catholic church, Montsegur fell but maybe it's secrets are still safe to this day.

It has also been rumored that the Knights Templar dug below the Montsegur citadel and may have also stumbled into a gigantic ruin. The image to the left shows the citadel of Montsegur on top of the mountain. Is it possible the Knights Templars knew these mountains were ruins of the ancients and dug down into them to learn about the past?


One must merely look to the Renaissance that began in Europe and spread throughout the world to see that new knowledge was unleashed at this time in history. The great Gothic cathedrals built by the Knights Templar are one revelation of the great secrets they discovered by digging into the Earth. Architects still marvel at these gigantic masterpieces of design and engineering that suddenly sprung up all over Europe around the same time in history. To this day exactly how the cathedrals were constructed and how such technological marvels could have been built so quickly are still astounding and impressing historians. The spans of these gigantic spaces were seen as impossible for stonework and still hardly reproducible even to this day. The cathedral designs always stemmed around the human body and it's proportions, almost as if the stones are telling us the body is the temple, the temple is merely a facade. One has only to go into one of these great spaces such as the Notre Dame cathedral in France to marvel at such gigantic structures. Perhaps the Knights Templar were led to find these ruins for a reason to spread learning throughout the world and help in the enlightenment of mankind. From out of the Dark ages a new society emerged perhaps from the remnants of a much older one, one who's story has yet to be told. The word Renaissance means 'rebirth', quite possibly from the past into the future. Could this rebirth have been achieved by divine intervention?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.satellitediscoveries.com/articles/greatest/secret.html

--------------------
Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Archangel
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 4627



« Reply #29 on: January 03, 2008, 03:33:45 am »

Archangel

Member
Member # 2097

Member Rated:
   posted 04-30-2005 04:15 PM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And, of course, great work, Angela.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 148 | Registered: Aug 2004   
Report Spam   Logged

Beware the All-Seeing Eye. It watches you even as you sleep. The power touches every corner of the earth.
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 16   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy