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Templers
the alternate view on the knights templar - David Icke's Official forum
10 posts - 2 authors - Last post: 19 Jun 2009
Furthermore, Imam Ali's sermon rules out this alleged marriage when it states: ... (founder of Knights Templar) was Shi'ite and drawn from Sufism.
Its clear that the Templars were Muslim and they were Shia Muslim. ...
www.davidicke.com/forum/
It is clear that the Templars were Muslim and they were Shia Muslim #
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001 – Intro to Knights Templar, The Twelver Shia Muslims
Posted in 001 - Introduction on October 27, 2009 by mandate-templar
Bismillah and Asalaam Alaikum
This is a section of my blog that will deal with one of the most amazing discovery of my years researching Comparative Theology and they are called the Knights Templar. Everything you hear about them from mass media is completely false. Imagine the chaos that would certainly ensue if the world discovered that the Templars were actually Muslim.#
In reality there were Shia Twelver Muslims (Link) and the West does not want you to know. Naturally you will not find the evidence from any written document from the Templars but then again you will nit find any single document from Templars for that matter. Everything their true identity is encrypted in the symbols found at their constructs.
The same posts I make in this blog have appeared on shiachat but i can claim ownership on the content owing to the fact that it is indeed my research and the words on those posts at shiachat are indeed mine,
So in this section of my blog, i will provide some areas of my research for you to verify/contest any of my claims. Comments and constructive criticism are most welcome. And I shall also keep tabs on whatever new and mysterious information coming out regarding the Templars.
Wasalaam
This entry was posted on October 27, 2009 at 6:52 pm and is filed under 001 - Introduction . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
http://bannedbyshiachat.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/001-intro-to-knights-templar-the-twelver-shia-muslims/
http://bannedbyshiachat.wordpress.com/
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002 – The Clues!
Posted in 002 – The Clues! on October 27, 2009 by mandate-templar
Bismillah and Asalaam Alaikum
This is a step by step journey into exploring the clues that came my way in my research into the Islamic identity of the Knights Templar.
1 – The Knights Templar were tried as heretics thru a Vatican sponsored Inquisition and convicted. The heresies they were charged of were Islamic in nature.#
2 – The Knights Templar were Guardians of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail comes from the word Sang Real. Sang Real means Holy Bloodline. Although the Da Vinci Code (*99) believes that this Holy Bloodline was the extension of Nabi Isa’s (Jesus son of mary) bloodline thru an alleged marriage between him and Mary Magdalene which produced a daughter called Sarah. And thru Sarah was Nabi Isa (jesus) descendants spawned called teh Priory of Sion. But that is untrue cos you can only have descendants thru sons and not daughters.
lineage is determined by a Y chromosome. since women do not have a Y chromosome, how then can descendents be tracked via a female bloodline?
Furthermore, Imam Ali’s sermon rules out this alleged marriage when it states:
Sermon 159 – He had no wife to allure him, nor any son to give grief, nor wealth to deviate (his attention), nor greed to disgrace him.
Thus the Da Vinci Code is a hoax but that does not mean that the Knights Templar were the guardian of the Holy Grail (Holy Bloodline) is also a hoax. It is potentially true.
3 – The Only Islamic sect that glorifies a Holy bloodline is the shia sect. Some are twelvers and some are seveners. Others like Aga Khan Ismailis and Bohras go beyond those numbers where their imamate extends to current leaders.
But the Shia Twelvers glorify the Bloodline of “14 Masoomeen” (14 pure ones) which includes the Prophet, his daughter Fatima and the 12 Imams. This makes a total of 14 and they are signified as Pillars of the Shia Faith.
The Knights Templar symbolised this Holy Bloodline of 14 Pillars at Rosslyn Chapel whose notable feature are 14 pillars of which 2 are unique (Muhammad and Fatima) and 12 are similar (12 Imams)
4 – The Knights Templar also revered the sacred feminine as part of the Holy Grail/Holy Bloodline doctrine.
In 1158, a small town in Portugal was named as Fatima. Although the naming of this town is based on legend, its interesting to note that by 1130, the Templars were not only well entrenched in Portugal but in 1160, established a base in Tomar which is a 30 minute ride from Fatima.
Its thus very plausible that its the Knights Templar who named the town as Fatima since no Crusader would name any town with Islamic/Shia value.
It is therefore with little wonder when i read statements like:
1 – The roots of Templarism itself, and thus of Freemasonry, are actually deeply linked not so much to Christianity, but rather to Islam and particularly to Muhammadism.
2 – The De Payen family’s Islamic background (founder of Knights Templar) was Shi’ite and drawn from Sufism, a mystic belief in which Muslims seek to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God, the very thing the Roman Catholic Church had declared a no go area.
3 – The Templar order’s “Muslim” Philosophy which sprang from a Sufi trend of Islamism, was then Shi’ite in concept.
REFERENCES
1 – The Knights Templar of the Middle East – HRH Prince Michael of Albany and Walid Amine Sahab (Book Link)
Pg XI
2 – Ibid pg 68
3 – Ibid pg 75
Book Link
Although the authors of this book are attempting to paint the Templars as Sufis/Ismailis, but the reality from the symbolism of the Templars is that they were Twelver Athna Asheri Shia. There is no doubt about that.
*4 – The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. The real theory emanates from the Book – Holy Blood Holy Grail authored by Michael Baigent & Co (Book Link). I have called it the Da Vinci Code Theory because its a more popular name for recognition purposes.
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Salaams and Welcome to my world of the Islamic Knights Templar
Posted in Knights Templar Watch on October 27, 2009 by mandate-templar
Bismillah and Asalaam Alaikum
The Title says it all really. I will be posting my research of the Knights Templars and their Islamic Identity. Please follow the links in numeric order or perhaps the sub category link description might interest you more.#
Whichever option you choose, i look forward to any feedback.
Wasalaam
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Tashayyu.org – Preamble
Posted in Tashayyu.org The Emperor Has No Clothes on October 25, 2009 by mandate-templar
Bismillah and Assalaam Alaikum
Let’s face it, attacking tashayyu is one daunting task but I am quite prepared to take on macisaac’s integrity. He is after all shiachat’s blue eyed boy. The real question is why? Is this personal? #
No its not personal and allow me to elaborate.
Folks like macisaac are a real marvel. They come into Islam through a long migratory pattern embarking on a journey of spiritual discovery and eventually settle into Islam. Yes he is goraa (white) but so what. He has every right to be with Islam and feel welcome. We are a religion for all humanity so he has every right to be with the Ummah. And I am sure it always mesmerizes us born Muslims when Reverts do the same gig as our middle eastern/desi forefathers, chiming in with the oh so wow at Al Mufeed and Kulayni et al ra ra sloganeering.
But eventually just like any honeymoon, the macisaac charm wears off, the dust settles down and all we have left is the residue to analyze. That’s when macisaac intellectual contribution to Shia Islam can be objectively discerned for actual value. Has he brought anything new to the table or is he rehashing the same old tripe called the religion of our forefathers? If so, did he waste his time converting to Islam and more importantly, is he wasting your time peddling crap hadith?
The reasons I choose to attack Tashayyu are:
1 – If macisaac is not fit to govern in Islamic manner, is he fit to preach Islam? – As a Mod, he has banned not just me but several others from shiachat without due process as sanctioned by Islam. He has also marginalized Akhbaris subjecting them to mod previews before ratifying their posts for public display. And one time I remember if memory serves me right, the esteemed toyibonline having a go at macisaac for pandering up to his pet suck up project (avjar). His self evident hubris goes against Islamic ethical code so I got to wonder, why the hell did he convert even in the first place if he doesn’t want to observe Islamic law? What are the checks and balances on the mods themselves or are they above the law? Who is the mod’s mod?
Sermon 175 – People are of two categories – the follower of the sharí`ah (religious laws), and the follower of the innovations to whom Alláh has not given any testimony by way of sunnah or the light of any plea.
Sermon 68 – You do not understand the right as you understand the wrong and do not crush the wrong as you crush the right.
2 – The license to misguide – Anyone familiar with macisaac’s work will be intimately aware of his forte, namely a hadith junkie. But how sound are those hadith? What independently corroborates the ahadith he scatters on shiachat? And what about the dispute between splzo and jondab legendary for their disputes on what constitutes sahih hadith? Has macisaac solved even one problem between them? Why are we so blasé about this?
Sermon 121 – We now had to fight our brethren in Islam because of entry into Islam of misguidance, crookedness, doubts and (wrong) interpretation. However, if we find any way by which Alláh may collect us together in our disorder and by which we may come near each other in whatever common remains between us we would accept it and would give up everything else.
There are 2 issues as per Imam All’s view. The first one is an open mandate to combat misguidance regardless of how close we may be to the individual and the second one is about communal unity. In Imam Ali’s words if we can find a balance between our disagreements driven by any common ground, then we must pursue that path in earnest. But as macisaac has banned me from the one area of our common ground, he has left me no choice.
Anyone familiar with his prized assets on shiachat namely the Fiqhi Hadith and Tashayyu threads will know that I never participated on those threads. Macisaac knows full well that I dislike and disapprove of his interpretation and yet he should be the first to acknowledge that I did no harm to him on his marquee threads. I attacked him purely on threads independent of his creation.
By banning me and others, it’s he who changed the equation and with the banning evaporated any scope for unity. He may argue about shiachat rules yada yada yada but what use are those rules that go against Islamic Law only to profit the spooks and mindless Usooli drones?
3 – Suppose if macisaac wrong? – What happens to a soul in its grave when it has taken ahadiith as sahih purely on macisaac’s endorsement or in modern economics we call it branding. macisaac will not be there to protect the victim. He will have his own issues to worry about. So have we given his advice a good test or do we want to be this fella described by Imam Ali:
Sermon 82 – Thereafter those who accompanied him went away and those who were wailing for him returned and then he was made to sit in his grave for terrifying questioning and slippery examination. The great calamity of that place is the hot water and entry into Hell, flames of eternal Fire and intensity of blazes. There is no resting period, no gap for ease, no power to intervene, no death to bring about solace and no sleep to make him forget pain. He rather lies under several kinds of deaths and moment-to-moment punishment. We seek refuge with Alláh.
Has macisaac himself subject to any kind of independent verification? What is his track record in this regard?
Sermon 17 – He is ignorant, wandering astray in ignorance and riding on carriages aimlessly moving in darkness. He did not try to find reality of knowledge. He scatters the traditions as the wind scatters the dry leaves
So I have decided since I owe macisaac no loyalty and that I am 110% convinced that he is peddling crap hadith, we can go after Tashayyu’s jugular.
The advantage in this system is that people will not only get to know the two sides of an argument, but its high time the impressionable kids on shiachat beware of false hadith peddling. Let not the macisaac brand bamboozle them and let the independent judicious mind decide between me and macisaac. He is just a typical control freak goraa who becomes insecure when second guessed and believe me when I tell you, he is highly insecure.
4 – Is this the Shia Islam of our Aimmah’s endorsement? – Yes it is without doubt. Just ask Imam Ali
Sermon 172 – The need for sagacity in fighting against Muslims – O’ creatures of Alláh! I advise you to have fear of Alláh because it is the best advice to be mutually given by persons, and the best of all things before Alláh. The door of war has been opened between you and the other Muslims. And this banner will be borne only by him who is a man of sight, of endurance and of knowledge of the position of rightfulness. Therefore, you should go ahead with what you are ordered and desist from what you are refrained. Do not make haste in any matter till you have clarified it. For in the case of every matter which you dislike we have a right to change it.
By now everyone should be convinced of 3 things regarding macisaac regardless of your opinion of me:
A – He has not conducted his authority on shiachat in an Islamic manner.
B – He has not subject his hadith peddling antics to any kind of independent falsification test.
C – macisaac will not be in your grave to protect you for any wrong hadith that he put on shiachat and by the virtue macisaac loyalists people bought at face value. .
And this is precisely the kind of Muslim Imam Ali has asked us to fight and tashayyu.org is the target of my affection. The fight will be based on macisaac’s judgment when validating a hadith against the Quran and Nahjul Balagha which I am pretty certain he has not factored into his equation and I know how uncomfortable that makes him feel.
So I say, lets put tashayyu under the microscope and lets see how macisaac checks out. I promise you it will be illuminating if not downright fun.
Macisaac and his doting lackeys (male and/or female) on the other hand have every right to rebut my argument. He can counter through my comments section or tender a full rebuttal to my site which I honour to publish or even handle this subject on a forum of his choosing.
To macisaac: Are you so unbelievably stupid to think I would just walk quietly into the night after my unjustified banishment. Oh and before i forget, no dodgy tricks as i have saved your website for offline perusal.
Wa Salaam.
PS – I shall address the issue of macisaac’s idea of Ilme Rijal in the last sections. Primarily I shall tackle only the ahadith which will be addressed section by section, book by book. Inshallah, I intend to handle one section per week.
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Salaams to the world!
Posted in About Us on October 7, 2009 by mandate-templar
Bismillah and a hearty Asalaam Aalikum
This is a brief preamble into why this site began and where I want it to go.
When our beloved Prophet started his Mission in 610 CE, he was greatly maligned, hounded and marginalized from mainstream Meccan society until his Mission embarked on a self imposed exile we call the Hijra. The Meccans couldn’t debate him and out of their fear, they perpetually conspired against him to the point of attempted murder. He then settled in Medina from where he continued the same Mission of preaching the purest form of Monotheism that was levied onto him as his Divinely charged responsibility. And from Medina his Mission flourished. He neither quaked with fear nor did he shirk from his responsibility.#
This blog is really not about starting a whole new cult with followers etc. And i certainly don’t want your cash. It’s an ideological Hijra of sorts albeit an involuntary one best symbolized by the exile of our beloved Prophet and of course the banishment of our very much loved Abu Dharr. A gravitation away from shiachat is not necessarily a bad thing and the same mission of combating Usoolism can be continued from this little tranquil corner of mine. After all, enjoining good and forbidding evil is incumbent on every Muslim so why not continue the same task I had embarked on at shiachat? Imam Ali’s consoling words to Abu Dharr are a stark reminder of what we should not aspire to become:
Sermon 129 – The people were afraid of you in the matter of their (pleasure of this) world while you feared them for your faith. Then leave to them that for which they are afraid of you and get away from them taking away what you fear them about. How needy are they for what you dissuade them from and how heedless are you towards what they are denying you
I am no Abu Dharr and I will be the first to admit it but in some small way, his experience is my exact experience albeit it a more benign one. Abu Dharr suffered greatly for the Islamic cause both physically and emotionally which I have not. Yes, maybe some emotional bruising was experienced but not anywhere near the scale of Abu Dharr’s misery. Just examine for yourselves what the precise words of the usooli junkie mods at shiachat had to say in their little private world about their decision to ban me and compare it to the reasons of Abu Dharr’s banishment or the reasons for our Prophet’s exile:
Mandate needs to go. Enough of his attacks on Shaheed Mutahhari and other scholars. Read the report I generated from the topic. He has made some grave accusations against two learned personalities And his persistence on spreading his misguidance has to be controlled. I say we ban him and even if he comes back with another id, we should implement a rule that already banned members should not be allowed back at all.
LOL – Yes, SC Mods, he’s surely at it again! In your short sighted holier than thou control freak Usooli driven efficacy, you performed the cardinal sin of shooting the messenger which goes against the very grain of Islamic Law you arrogantly claim to be authorities on. In short, it’s my job to expose you as hypocrites. The reasons that compelled the Prophet to emigrate and Abu Dharr to be banished are the same reasons you have chosen to banish me. How ironic wouldn’t you say?
And for my piece de resistance, I have specifically reserved special attention for macisaac’s Tashayyu.org section as my end of the quid pro quo bargain. The justification of my attack on Tashayyu.org will be provided for in the relevant section.
But I hasten to remind the reader that this blog is more than my anti shiachat cui bono rant though I must admit that the slogan “banned by shiachat” is catchy and who knows, it might just spin into a profitable t shirt business :P
Of course I will be doing other issues like Usoolism (What they don’t teach you at Hawza), Quran and Comparative Theology, Knights Templar Watch and probably a General Ramblings sections for sports, politics science and the odd dodgy story about male breast feeding etc (oh how I miss my banter with bro trailblazer). But I do intend to add value to a dynamic Shia mindset where Hawza’s have fallen way short. There is much more to Shia Islam than taqleed and hawza. So lets all be part of that dynamism that Shia Islam espouses.
But it will be a slow moving blog owing to time constraints so don’t expect an article a day and I will endevour to update the site consistently with relevant non traditional oriented information but by all means do subscribe to the RSS Feed.
While constructive criticism will not just be a hallmark of this site as we are sworn to a higher ethical code, it is both invited as well as accommodated through comments to the escalated level that if anyone feels that any of my articles are factually inadequate or inaccurate may take the full liberty to lodge a proper rebuttal with me and I shall publish it side by side with my own admission of liability pending some vouchsafing. On the other hand, should anyone identify with this site’s objective and feel they wish to contribute in content creation; I will naturally entertain all possibilities.
Look forward to your proactive participation Inshallah.
Wasalaam
PS – To the gentle soul who provided me with the private quotes from SC. I thank you everyday and do not feel this is a betrayal of your trust. I believe the argument must go to the next level presenting proper facts. Publishing the precise quote was a necessary part of the agenda. And of course Allah will reward you mightily if my cause is just and I have no doubt that it is indeed a just cause.
So come on you, chin up and together we can rock this world.
http://bannedbyshiachat.wordpress.com/
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Scottish Rectified Rite
Great Priory of Bulgaria
Chevalier Bienfaisant de la Cité Sainte
C.B.C.S.
Knights Templars Historical Outline #
In the 11th century, a horde of Saracens invaded Asia Minor, including Palestine, precluding the Christians from prostrating themselves before Jesus' Sepulchre. Following that, Pope Urban II convened the Council and proclaimed the Holy War. Altogether, eight crusades were fought from 1096 to 1270.
The first crusade ended in 1099 with the conquest of Jerusalem. Nine years later, in 1108, nine knights established themselves in the old Temple of Salomon. They formed the first unit of a sacerdotal - knightly order and became the Knights Templars. They soon built up friendly relations with a group of Imami Arabs (Twelver Shiites) and learnt the Secrets and Mysteries.
1118 – The Knights Templars founded the Order of the Temple.
1125 – Having learnt the Secrets and the Mysteries, the Knights Templars elected Twelve Knights. Their task was to guard the Flame of Knowledge in the mythical Castle of Montsalvat, France.
1312 – With the permission of the King of France, Philip the Fair, Pope Clemente V decreed the dissolution of the Order.
1604 – Foundation of the Brotherhood of the Rosicrucians.
1776 - Foundation of the Order of the Enlightened - Alessandro di Cagliostro.
1827 - Foundation of the Hermetic Brotherhood of the Light - Eliphas Levi Zahed.
1905 - Foundation of the Ordo Templi Orientis - Aleister Crowley.
1948 - Foundation of the Ordo Rosae Misticae - Frank Giano Ripel.
2001 - Foundation of the Order of the Enlightened Knights (Ordre des Chevaliers Illuminés; Ordine dei Cavalieri Illuminati).
CONTACT US:
The Acient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraim
Bulgarian Sovereign Sanctuary
E-mail: balcanmaster@yahoo.com
The Sovereign Sanctuary of the Gnosis
consists of members who have reached the higher degrees in The Order.
Their prime duty is to study and to practice the theurgy and thaumaturgy of the degrees of Arcanum Arcanorum,
consisting of the Supreme Secret of the Order.
What is Gnosis?
· In the original Greek, Gnosis simply refers to "Knowledge".
· The Oxford English Dictionary defines Gnosis as "A special knowledge of spiritual mysteries."
What is Ecclesia?
· The Ecclesia or Ekklesia (Greek eκκλησία) was the principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens during its Golden Age (480–404).
· The term Ecclesia comes from the Greek eκκλησία, which simply means any specially called assembly of people.
· When used in the New Testament, it acquired the sense of people gathering for religious reasons.
What is Ecclesia Gnostica?
· Ecclesia Gnostica (Latin for The Church of Gnosis or The Gnostic Church) is an openly Gnostic publicly practicing liturgical Church. The church and its affiliate, the Gnostic Society, attempt to "make available the philosophy and practice of gnosticism to the contemporary world.”
What is Ecclesia Gnostica Ortodoxa?
All Memphis Mizraim members in Bulgaria are regularly baptized in Eastern Orthodox Church - and Ecclesia Gnostica Ortodoxa is that it's denomination, which is connected with the teachings of Bogomilism - Bulgarian gnostic tradition. Templar membership in our Order requires the applicant must be pre-baptize in Orthodox Church. The ceremony was performed by Orthodox priests who belong to the Order, and constitute the body of clergymen of Ecclesia Gnostica Ortodoxa - Bulgarian Bogomils Church.
http://sites.google.com/site/memphismizraimbg/c-b-c-s-
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the alternate view on the knights templar
18-06-2009, 02:58 PM
1 - The Knights Templar were tried as heretics thru a Vatican sponsored Inquisition and convicted. The heresies they were charged of were Islamic in nature.
2 - The Knights Templar were Guardians of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail comes from the word Sang Real. Sang Real means Holy Bloodline. Although the Da Vinci Code believes that this Holy Bloodline was the extension of Nabi Isa's (Jesus son of mary) bloodline thru an alleged marriage between him and Mary Magdalene which produced a daughter called Sarah. And thru Sarah was Nabi Isa (jesus) descendants spawned called teh Priory of Sion. But that is untrue cos you can only have descendants thru sons and not daughters.
lineage is determined by a Y chromosome. since women do not have a Y chromosome, how then can descendents be tracked via a female bloodline?
Furthermore, Imam Ali's sermon rules out this alleged marriage when it states:
Sermon 159 - He had no wife to allure him, nor any son to give grief, nor wealth to deviate (his attention), nor greed to disgrace him.
Thus the Da Vinci Code is a hoax but that does not mean that the Knights Templar were the guardian of the Holy Grail (Holy Bloodline) is also a hoax. It is potentially true.
3 - The Only Islamic sect that glorifies a Holy bloodline is the shia sect. Some are twelvers and some are seveners. Others like Aga Khan Ismailis and Bohras go beyond those numbers where their imamate extends to current leaders.
But the Shia Twelvers glorify the Bloodline of "14 Masoomeen" (14 pure ones) which includes the Prophet, his daughter Fatima and the 12 Imams. This makes a total of 14 and they are signified as Pillars of the Shia Faith.
The Knights Templar symbolised this Holy Bloodline of 14 Pillars at Rosslyn Chapel whose notable feature are 14 pillars of which 2 are unique (Muhammad and Fatima) and 12 are similar (12 Imams)
4 - The Knights Templar also revered the sacred feminine as part of the Holy Grail/Holy Bloodline doctrine.
In 1158, a small town in Portugal was named as Fatima. Although the naming of this town is based on legend, its interesting to note that by 1130, the Templars were not only well entrenched in Portugal but in 1160, established a base in Tomar which is a 30 minute ride from Fatima.
Its thus very plausible that its the Knights Templar who named the town as Fatima since no Crusader would name any town with Islamic/Shia value.
It is therefore with little wonder when i read statements like:
1 - The roots of Templarism itself, and thus of Freemasonry, are actually deeply linked not so much to Christianity, but rather to Islam and particularly to Muhammadism.
2 - The De Payen family's Islamic background (founder of Knights Templar) was Shi'ite and drawn from Sufism, a mystic belief in which Muslims seek to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God, the very thing the Roman Catholic Church had declared a no go area.
3 - The Templar order's "Muslim" Philosophy which sprang from a Sufi trend of Islamism, was then Shi'ite in concept.
REFERENCES
1 - The Knights Templar of the Middle East - HRH Prince Michael of Albany and Walid Amine Sahab (Book Link)
Pg XI
2 - Ibid pg 68
3 - Ibid pg 75
Although the authors of this book are attempting to paint the Templars as Sufis/Ismailis, but the reality from the symbolism of the Templars is that they were Twelver Athna Asheri Shia. There is no doubt about that.
Last edited by islamvslizards; 18-06-2009 at 03:00 PM. Reason: added references
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rosslyn chapel is a replica of solomons temple - why?
Link: http://www2.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/poseur3.html
Quote:
Rosslyn Chapel: As with many other aspects of this mystery, the importance of Rosslyn Chapel is unclear and seems to have been obfuscated, unfortunately. Its owners, the Sinclairs, claim to be the hereditary patrons of Scottish Freemasonry, to have explored the New World (particularly Nova Scotia and Oak Island) a century before Colombus, and to be connected to the Templars through marriage and descent. Some of this appears to be in doubt, because it's based on the work of Jacobite historian Father Hay, who used documents that were lost in a fire... in any case, we do know William Sinclair did build Rosslyn in the 1400s, it does contain very unusual carvings (particularly people who look like Templars engaging in things that seem like Masonic rituals), and it does incorporate unusual geometry. (SOME say that this geometry replicates the Temple of Solomon.) Pierre Plantard seems to have changed his name to "de St-Clair" in order to claim affiliation with the Sinclairs of Scotland.
Infact Rosslyn isnt very Christian at all in its design and aesthetics. You can download this PDF file.
http://ca.geocities.com/fidelity231@...ll/Rosslyn.pdf
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[Part 3]
some more info, and who was baphomet?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piallos/2801388560/
templar church nearby, made at the same time of the village of fatima
Once you read the content, ask yourself some critical questions. The timeline is identical. The distance between the 2 places is a mere 20 miles and yet history makes no connection between the 2 incidences. Not only are they very related, but of the 2 links, one is factual, the other is part factual but cotton wooled in legend.
And this link is an endorsement of the KT high end intellectual ability:
http://www.bravepen.com/rosslyn/articles/strange.php
secondly - baphomet
what was baphomet?
firstly, it sounds suspiciously similar to the middle ages pronunciation of mohammed - mahomet.
as you know one of the charges the vatican put against the knights templar was that they worshiped baphomet
But the Baphomet thing happens in the end of the story. Its only during the Inquisition that the Baphomet narrative is actually introduced. Thats 2 centuries into the KT existence with no prior record of Baphomet's existence. There is also no physical evidence of the Baphomet statue. Its obviously a trumped up charge to make the KT belief in Muhammad and Islam as some pagan religion and they got an artist to devise the symbol. If the Vatican was true in its accusation then surely they would have presented the actual statue.
But the KT were very clever. They let their constructions do all the talking for them wherein they left amazing clues. Rosslyn is one excellent source for clues and Convent of Christ in Portugal is another.
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Protecting pilgrims?
It is said by most populist KT Historians that when they formed in early 12th century, their official task was to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. But dissenting scholars say that its not physically possible for 9 people to protect the pilgrims covering a very large tract of land. Furthermore there is evidence by way of correspondence between the King of Jerusalem (King Baldwin) and other authorities that KT were to be hosted by the King for the sole purpose of excavating the Temple of Solomon.
Then there is the Dome of the Rock which was never desecrated by the KT nor were any mosques destroyed etc. On the contrary, Dome of the Rock was replicated in Portugal while at the same time, a nearby town 20 miles away was renamed as Fatima. Would it be very PC to install Islamic symbols in Portugal at the height of the Crusades and a period in Europe known as Reconquista?
Obviously the facts are incredibly contradictory and they just dont add up. The reality favours the KT being pro Islamic than not. There is no doubt in my mind that when you connect all the loose ends presently available, its the KT who went to the Muslim world and not the other way round. They went in with a pre-determined agenda and mindset.
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didnt the knights templar FIGHT muslims?
its important for you to know that the KT were officially founded AFTER Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders and the fall occured in 1099.
It is also said that once Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders, the Knights formed and headed to the Holy Land. But for what purpose? Now this is where conflicting histories come into play and I would like to demonstrate that:
Version 1
In 1108,a small group of knights who called themselves The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ presented themsleves to the King of Jerusalem. They offered to act as a kind of a police force in the Crusader states, protecting the pilgrims, who were unarmed from marauding Muslim (1)
Here the Military Monks were doing 2 things. First, they were rooting Christianity physically and powerfully in the Holy Land. Second, by colonizing the frontiers, these new military monks were performing, and taking to its logical conclusion, a function that monks had been fulfilling in Europe for years. These monks were pushing aggresively against the Frontiers of Islam and were in the front line of the Holy War. (2)
Refs:
1 - Holy War - The Crusades and their impact on today's world - By Karen Armstrong - Pg 185
2 - Ibid - Pg 186
Version 2 comprising of several quotes completely contradict Karen Armstrong's version:
In public pronouncements they (Templars) had declared that their mission in the Holy Land was to keep the road from the coast to Jerusalem free from bandits. I could find no evidence , however, to suggest that they took any steps to fulfil this mission during those first 7 years of their existence; on the contrary as one authority puts it, "the New Order did very little in this period." Besides, simple logic suggested that 9 men could have hradly protected anybody on a highway almost 50 miles long.
I could only conclude, therefore, that Hugues De Payens and his colleagues must have had some other, undeclared purpose. They largely confined themselves to the precints of the Temple Mount during the first 7 years of their sojourn in Jerusalem - and this suggested very strongly that their real motive must have had to do with that very special site. (3)
One story recorded in the annals of crusader kingdom of Jerusalem tells of a young Frankish Knight entering the Dome of the Rock and being met by a Muslim praying towards Mecca. Losing his temper, he intimated the follower of Islam that he was praying the wrong way. The Frankish Knight then found himself taken to task by 2 Templar Knights and told him not to come back till he had learned both manners and tolerance. (4)
The fact that is that the Order of the Templars, certainly in the Middle East, was only Christian as an alaternative to being Islamic. It (Templar Order) was fundamentally Islamic in both essence and practice. Moreover, the Islamic hierarchy of neither Mecca or Cairo made any military or verbal move to prevent the Templars taking over charge of the Dome of the Rock, the second most holy site of Islam and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The reason for their lack of enthusiasm to fight the Templars was simply because the contemporary Islamic records refer to the oder of Knights Templar of Islam. Christians they may have claimed to be, but this was merely a ploy to keep both the Orthiodox and Catholic Churches out of the Mosque, out of the Dome of the Rock, so that their true brothers could go on worshipping God while praying towards Mecca. (5)
Refs:
3 - The Sign and The Seal - by Graham Hancock - Pgs 93/94
This view is also supported by The Second Messiah by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas - pg 28/29
4 - The Knights Templar of the Middle East - by HRH Prince Michael of Albany and Walid Amine Salhab - pg 74
5 - Ibid - pg 75
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the lineage of Hugues de Payns - was he a sayyed (descendent of muhammed)?
(1) Muhammad (570-632)
Seal of the Prophets
(2) 5th Caliph/ 2nd Imam
Hasan d. 670
(3) Hasan II
Son of Hasan
(4) Abdullah al-Kamal
Grand Master
Assassins, or Prince of the Mountain.
(5) Idris I - 789-93
Ruler of Fez
(6) Idris II - 793-828
(7) Umar
(8) Abdullah
(9) Ali
(10) Ahmad
(11) Mamun
(12) Abu Ahmad
(13) Muhammad d. 1008 al-Mansur
Emir of Cordoba
(14) Abba of Pamplona
(15) Abd ar-Rahman an'Nasir
(Prince Sanchuelo)
Wife: Jimena of Cordoba
(16) Theobaldo - Lord of Gardile
Wife: Angelica Doukas
(17) Thibault de Payns
Lord of the Castle of Martigny
Wife: Helie de Montbard
(18) Hugues de Payns
1st Master, Order of the Knights Templar
Wife: Elizabeth de Chappes
Son: Thibault de Payns
Abbot of Abbey of St Colombe
the genealogy is mentioned in this book
During the First Crusade, it is said that Hugues De Payen fought in that Crusade. Then he returned and went straight to Scotland where he married into the St Clair Family. Today they are known as the Sinclair Family. Now thats important to know cos Hugues De Payen formed the Knights Templar and the 12th Century and around the 15th Century when the Templars were no more, the St Clair family built the Rosslyn Chapel. Although it is also important to note that the name Hugues De Payen does not feature prominently in the First Crudade so his role in that Crudade is not exactly clear.
But after Hughes' marriage and forming the Knights Templar, they returned to the Holy City, Jerusalem, 9 men in all. Now here we have 2 versions of what transpired when the Templars were in Jerusalem. The popular version states that they as Christian soldiers went to defend pilgrims visiting the Holy Land against the Muslims whilst those who disagree say that they were primarily in Jerusalem to excavate the Temple of Solomon. Those who disagree argue that its physically impossible for 9 men to defend pilgrims stretching 50 kilometers and that excavation.
The excavation theory works for me cos Rosslyn Chapel is modeled on the Temple of Solomon. What is critical about the Rosslyn Chapel is that it is
1 - filled with Islamic symbolism like 14 pillars and Arabic inscriptions etc. But its important to know that symbolism is a way of encrypting a message which can only be decrypted for those who recognise the symbols.
2 - It is home of the Holy Grail where the Holy Grail is not a literal chalice but a Royal Bloodline. One theory of this Royal Bloodline led to a Da Vinci Code theory but that theory is not sound cos Jesus cannot have a Royal Bloodline through daughters as alleged but thru sons as Imam Ali has covered this aspect in sermon 159.
3 - Rosslyn was built in the 15th century well after the Templars were eliminated.
4 - The symbolism of Rosslyn does not match the symbolism of the Freemasons. So the link between the 2 cannot be justified.
5 - Rosslyn comes from 2 Gaelic words Ross and Lyn. Ross means Ancient Knowledge and Lyn mean passed down the generations. Therefore Rosslyn means Ancient knowledge passed down the generation.
In the 14th century, relations between the Templars and the Church came to a boil and the Church decided enough is enough and arrested them under the Papal edict of Pope Clement and King Phillipe. It has been alleged that the Templars were blackmailing the Church specifically about the Holy Bloodline. Pope Clement who ruled for a very short period is the same Pope who has gone on record to state that Islamic presence on Christian soil is an insult to God. A curious statement to say the least considering that Muslims were already gotten rid of from Europe by then.
The second most curious aspect of this witch-hunt on the Templars was the Inquisition itself. The Church accused the Templars of various heresies
1 - Templars would worship a pagan statue called Baphomet (Wiki and answers.com have information on this). But the Church to date have not produced this pagan statue. One of the reasons is that there is no statue and the second reason is that Baphomet could be a derivative of Mahomet aka Muhammad. Though Western Scholars deny it could be reverence of Muhammad but without tangible evidence.
2 - Templars denied the Cross. They would spit on it etc. The denial of the Christian Cross is Islamic in nature. So the claim that Templars were Christian Crusaders whose uniform had an emblem of the Christian Cross is something that doesnt make sense.
3 - Templars were accused of practicing sodomy. But thats ridiculous cos Templars pro-created and also believed in strong values like Chastity. They also had a strong dietary laws i.e. animals they could eat and ones they had to avoid. Heck they even sat on the floor when eating.
Now if we combine the following values
1 - Baphomet aka Muhammad
2 - Denial of the Cross
3 - Symbolism of Rosslyn of 14 pillars (2 unique and 12 similar) with Arabic inscription
4 - Rosslyn meaning ancient knowledge passed down the generation
5 - Blackmailing the Church with a Holy Bloodline
6 - Reverence of Sacred Feminine thru a Black Madonna aka Bibi Fatima and her Hijab.
When these 6 values are combined, its pretty clear that the Templars were Muslim and they were Shia Muslim. Thats why the Church had to rid of the Templars cos they were blackmailing them about Muhammad and his Ahlul Bayt as the true successors of Nabi Isa.
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[Part 7]
the knights templar, the ark of the covenant and the cathars
i believe that the ark of the covenant was not proof of jesus' bloodline, but proof of another bloodline which would be much more destructive to the christian church - the sayyed bloodline, and holy relics of prophets such as adam, jacob etc
"Opening the Ark of the Covenant" has this information. It begins on page 250 - and this is part of that chronoolgy:
Opening of the Ark of the Covenant
Frank Joseph and Laura Beaudoin
pp. 250 - 251
950 BC - King Solomon completes the construction of Jerusalem's First Temple, and the Ark is moved into its Holy-of-Holies.
587 BC - Jerusalem falls to King Nebuchadnezzar II, whose Babylon troops obliterate the First Temple in their fruitless search for the Ark of the Covenant, which lies hidden in a deep shaft directly below the Holy-of-Holies.
439 BC - The Jews return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian capitivity, but are unable to find any trace of the Ark of the Covenant after the passage of 150 years.
415 BC - The Templae is rebuilt, minus the Ark of the Covenant.
65 - After years of scouring the Temple Mount, Herod the Great fails to find the Ark for his construction of the Second Temple.
398 - A Byzantine theologian writes that the Ark of the Covenant is in Axum, Ethiopia
1103 - Baudoin I, the Crusader King of Jerusalem, learns of local reports locating the Ark on his palace grounds atop Temple Mount. For verification, he dispatches an emissary to his friend, Hugues de Champagne, at Troyes, France, where (Rashi) rabbinical tradition confirms the rumors. Baudoin and the Count begin careful preparations for excavation.
1127 - During mid-summer, after nine years of excavating beneath the Temple Mount, Knights Temnplar unearth the Ark of the Covenant. In the fall, they carry it aboard ship for Europe, arriving at the port of Brindisi, then journey to northern Italy, where they winter at the Abbey of Seborga.
1128 - The Ark is taken to the Cistercian monastery in Citeaux, France, while its permanent home is being built in Chartres, the first Gothis Cathedral. But the abbot, Bernard de Clairveaux, proves to be a security risk, and the Templars move the Ark to the Castle of Boullion, in Flanders. They entrust it to a special order of caretakers, the Cathars, who some years later carry the Ark to a more remote fortress near the foot of the Pyrenees mountains, Montreal-de-Sos.
1204 - The Ark is transported to the Cathar stronghold, Montsegur, which has been continuously refortified over the next 40 years, makingit the best defended castle in Europe.
1244 - After a nine month siege, Montsegur surrenders to the forces of Catholic France. Two days before the capitulation, the Ark is smuggled through enemy lines by four Cathars, who carry it across the Spanish frontier to the abbey of Montserrat, just outside Barcelona.
Since the Cathars have now been introduced I find it needful to explain their Order. At the time that the Cathars carried the Ark away from Montsegur they were being killed by the thousands as a result of the Albigensian Crusade:
The Cathar Inquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade
[The Knights Templar refused to participate in this inquisition. The Cathars were their friends and comrades".]
The Roman Catholic Church had always dealt vigorously with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but before the 12th century such groups were organized in small numbers, around wayward preachers or small localized sects. The Cathars of Languedoc represented an alarmingly popular mass movement,[4] a phenomenon that the Roman Church had not seen for almost 900 years, since Arianism and Marcionism in the early days of Christianity. In the 12th century much of what is now Southern France was converting to Catharism, and the belief was spreading to other areas. The Cathars, along with other religious sects of the period such as the Waldensians, appeared in the cities and towns of newly urbanized areas. Although Cathar ideas had not originated in Languedoc, one of the most urbanized and populated areas of Europe at the time, for reasons unknown it was there that their theology found its most spectacular success.
The Cathars were especially numerous in what is now western Mediterranean France, then part of the Crown of Aragon. They were also called Albigensians; this is either because of the movement's presence in and around the city of Albi, or because of the 1176[5] Church Council[6] held near Albi which declared the Cathar doctrine heretical. Political control in Languedoc was divided among many local lords and town councils.[7] Before the crusade, there was little fighting in the area and a fairly sophisticated polity.
On becoming Pope in 1198, Innocent III resolved to deal with the Cathars. He first tried peaceful conversion, but the preachers sent out to return the schismatics to the Roman communion met with little success.[8] Even St. Dominic succeeded in converting only a handful.[9] The Cathar leadership was protected by powerful nobles,[10] and also by some bishops, who resented papal authority in their sees. In 1204 the Pope suspended the authority of some of those bishops,[11] appointing papal legates to act in his name.[12] In 1206 he sought support for wider action against the Cathars from the nobles of Languedoc.[13] Noblemen who supported Catharism were excommunicated.
The powerful count Raymond VI of Toulouse refused to assist and was excommunicated in May 1207. The Pope called upon the French king, Philippe II, to act against those nobles who permitted Catharism, but Philippe declined to act. Count Raymond met with the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, in January 1208,[14] and after an angry meeting, Castelnau was murdered the following day.[15] The Pope reacted to the murder by issuing a bull declaring a crusade against Languedoc – offering the land of the heretics to any who would fight. This offer of land drew the northern French nobility into conflict with the nobles of the south.[16]
The military campaigns of the Crusade can be divided into several periods: the first from 1209 to 1215 was a series of great successes for the crusaders in Languedoc. The captured lands, however, were largely lost between 1215 and 1225 in a series of revolts and military reverses. The situation turned again following the intervention of the French king, Louis VIII, in 1226. Although he died in November of that year, the struggle continued under King Louis IX. The area was reconquered by 1229, and the leading nobles made peace. After 1233 the Inquisition was central to crushing what remained of Catharism. Resistance and occasional revolts continued, but Catharism's days were numbered. Military action ceased in 1255. In the end, the Albigensian Crusade killed an estimated 1 million people, not only Cathars but much of the population of southern France.
By mid 1209 around 10,000 crusaders had gathered in Lyon, before marching south.[17] In June, Raymond of Toulouse, recognizing the disaster at hand, finally promised to act against the Cathars, and his excommunication was lifted.[18] The crusaders turned towards Montpellier and the lands of Raymond-Roger de Trencavel, aiming for the Cathar communities around Albi and Carcassonne. Like Raymond of Toulouse, Raymond-Roger sought an accommodation with the crusaders, but he was refused a meeting and raced back to Carcassonne to prepare his defences.[19]
Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209.
In July the crusaders captured the small village of Servian and headed for Béziers, arriving on July 21. They invested the city, called the Catholics within to come out, and demanded that the Cathars surrender.[20] Both groups refused. The city fell the following day when an abortive sortie was pursued back through the open gates.[21] The entire population was slaughtered and the city burned to the ground. Contemporary sources give estimates of the number of dead ranging between seven and twenty thousand. The latter figure appears in the Papal Legate Arnaud-Amaury's report to the Pope.[22] The news of the disaster at Béziers quickly spread and afterwards many settlements surrendered without a fight.
The next major target was Carcassonne. The city was well fortified, but vulnerable, and overflowing with refugees.[23] The crusaders arrived on August 1, 1209. The siege did not last long.[24] By August 7 they had cut the city's water supply. Raymond-Roger sought negotiations but was taken prisoner while under truce, and Carcasonne surrendered on August 15.[25] The people were not killed, but were forced to leave the town — naked according to Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay. "In their shifts and breeches" according to another source. Simon de Montfort now took charge of the Crusader army,[26] and was granted control of the area encompassing Carcassonne, Albi, and Béziers. After the fall of Carcassonne, other towns surrendered without a fight. Albi, Castelnaudary, Castres, Fanjeaux, Limoux, Lombers and Montréal all fell quickly during the autumn.[27] However, some of the towns that had surrendered later revolted.
The next battle centered around Lastours and the adjacent castle of Cabaret.
Attacked in December 1209, Pierre-Roger de Cabaret repulsed the assault.[28] Fighting largely halted over the winter, but fresh crusaders arrived.[29] In March 1210, Bram was captured after a short siege.[30] In June the well-fortified city of Minerve was invested.[31] It withstood a heavy bombardment, but in late June the main well was destroyed, and on July 22, the city surrendered.[32] The Cathars were given the opportunity to return to Catholicism. Most did. The 140 who refused were burned at the stake.[33] In August the crusade proceeded to the stronghold of Termes.[34] Despite sallies from Pierre-Roger de Cabaret, the siege was solid, and in December the town fell.[35] It was the last action of the year.
When operations resumed in 1211 the actions of Arnaud-Amaury and Simon de Montfort had alienated several important lords, including Raymond de Toulouse,[36] who had been excommunicated again. The crusaders returned in force to Latours in March and Pierre-Roger de Cabaret soon agreed to surrender. In May the castle of Aimery de Montréal was retaken; he and his senior knights were hanged, and several hundred Cathars were burned.[37] Cassès[38] and Montferrand[39] both fell easily in early June, and the crusaders headed for Toulouse.[40] The town was besieged, but for once the attackers were short of supplies and men, and so Simon de Montfort withdrew before the end of the month.[41] Emboldened, Raymond de Toulouse led a force to attack Montfort at Castelnaudary in September.
[42] Montfort broke free from the siege[43] but Castelnaudary fell and the forces of Raymond went on to liberate over thirty towns[44] before the counter-attack ground to a halt at Lastours, in the autumn. The following year much of the province of Toulouse was captured by Catholic forces.[45]
In 1213, forces led by King Peter II of Aragon, I of Catalonia, came to the aid of Toulouse.[46] The force besieged Muret,[47] but in September a sortie from the castle led to the death of King Peter,[48] and his army fled. It was a serious blow for the resistance, and in 1214 the situation became worse: Raymond was forced to flee to England,[49] and his lands were given by the Pope to the victorious Philippe II,[citation needed] a stratagem which finally succeeded in interesting the king in the conflict. In November the always active Simon de Montfort entered Périgord[50] and easily captured the castles of Domme[51] and Montfort;[52] he also occupied Castlenaud and destroyed the fortifications of Beynac.[53] In 1215, Castelnaud was recaptured by Montfort,[54] and the crusaders entered Toulouse. Toulouse was gifted to Montfort.[55] In April 1216 he ceded his lands to Philippe.
Revolts and reverses 1216 to 1225
However, Raymond, together with his son, returned to the region in April, 1216, and soon raised a substantial force from disaffected towns. Beaucaire was besieged in May and fell after a three month siege; the efforts of Montfort to relieve the town were repulsed. Montfort had then to put down an uprising in Toulouse before heading west to captured Bigorre, but he was repulsed at Lourdes in December 1216. In September 1217, while Montfort was occupied in the Foix region, Raymond re-took Toulouse. Montfort hurried back, but his forces were insufficient to re-take the town before campaigning halted. Montfort renewed the siege in the spring of 1218. He was killed fighting in June.
Pope Innocent III died in July 1216; and with Montfort now dead, the crusade was left in temporary disarray. The command passed to the more cautious Philippe II, who was more concerned with Toulouse than heresy. The crusaders had taken Belcaire and besieged Marmande in late 1218 under Amaury de Montfort, son of the late Simon. While Marmande fell on June 3, 1219, attempts to retake Toulouse failed, and a number of Montfort holds also fell. In 1220, Castelnaudary was re-taken from Montfort. He reinvested the town in July 1220, but it withstood an eight month siege. In 1221, the success of Raymond and his son continued: Montréal and Fanjeaux were re-taken, and many Catholics were forced to flee. In 1222, Raymond died and was succeeded by his son, also named Raymond. In 1223, Philippe II died and was succeeded by Louis VIII. In 1224, Amaury de Montfort abandoned Carcassonne. The son of Raymond-Roger de Trencavel returned from exile to reclaim the area. Montfort offered his claim to the lands of Languedoc to Louis VIII, who accepted.
French royal intervention
In November 1225 Raymond, like his father, was excommunicated. Louis VIII headed the new crusade into the area in June 1226. Fortified towns and castles surrendered without resistance. However, Avignon, nominally under the rule of the German emperor, did resist, and it took a three month siege to finally force its surrender that September. Louis VIII died in November and was succeeded by the child king Louis IX. But Queen regent Blanche of Castile allowed the crusade to continue under Humbert de Beaujeu. Labécède fell in 1227 and Vareilles and Toulouse in 1228.
However, Queen Blanche offered Raymond a treaty: recognizing him as ruler of Toulouse in exchange for his fighting Cathars, returning all Church property, turning over his castles and destroying the defenses of Toulouse. Raymond agreed and signed the treaty at Meaux in April 1229. He was then seized, whipped and briefly imprisoned.
Inquisition
The castle of Montségur was razed after 1244. The current fortress follows French military architecture of the 17th century.
The Languedoc now was firmly under the control of the King of France. The Inquisition was established in Toulouse in November 1229, and the process of ridding the area of Cathar heresy and investing their remaining strongholds began. Under Pope Gregory IX the Inquisition was given great power to suppress the heresy. A campaign started in 1233, burning vehement and relapsed Cathars wherever they were found, even exhuming some bodies for burning. Many still resisted, taking refuge in fortresses at Fenouillèdes and Montségur, or inciting small uprisings. In 1235, the Inquisition was forced out of Albi, Narbonne, and Toulouse. Raymond-Roger de Trencavel led a military campaign in 1240. He was defeated at Carcassonne in October, then besieged at Montréal. He soon surrendered and was exiled in Aragon. In 1242, Raymond of Toulouse attempted to revolt in conjunction with an English invasion, but the English were quickly repulsed and his support evaporated. He was subsequently pardoned by the king.
The Cathar strongholds fell one by one. Montségur withstood a nine-month siege before being taken in March 1244. The final holdout, a small, isolated, overlooked fort at Quéribus, quickly fell in August 1255. The last known Cathar burning occurred in 1321.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade
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[Part 8]
the discovery of the ark, and what happened next, and a tantalising clue as to the religion of the knights templar
The material here is from "Opening the Ark of the Covenant", by Frank Joseph and Laura Beaudoin, ISBN 13 978-1-56414-903-9.
Discovery
They held back at the rough-hewn entrance, as Hughes stepped in alone like the Levite high-priest of old, and withdrew a moldering cloth, ragged and torn with the passage of many centuries, draped over the object. The cover disintegrated into a obscuring cloud of dust, from the center of which emerged the perfectly preserved Ark of the Covenant. The emotionally overcome discoverers fell to their knees before the golden vessel, heartily thanking God for having blessed their years of hard labor. Secretly nootified, , the king rushed to the excavations, where he was lowered into one of the Templar's deep work tunnels. At its bottom, they escorted him a few paces into the small cave sheltering their precious find.
As were Ahkenaton and Moses before him, Baudoin II appears to have been profoundly affected by the close proximity to the sacred object. Although a beloved and successful monarch, he voluntarily abducated, despite the absence of a male heir. He resigned from one of the most powerful kingdoms on earth: Jerusalem, the Navel of the World, vacating the throne to his daughter Melisende, on the condition that she wed Fulk V of Anjou, in France.
Baudoin II, once again Baudoin de Bourq, divested himself of his kingly wealth and all but the humblest personal possessions to live monastically for the rest of his life, in prayer and meditation, secluded among a few monks at the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre. His transformation was not unlike, fundamentally at least, Amenhotep IV's metamorphosis to Ahkenaton when he came into contact with the Ben-Ben stone, or Moses' transformation upon his descent from Mount Sinai with Yahwehs "tablets." Never given to piety before, Baudoin appears to have been similarly affected by exposure to the Ark of the Covenant's profuse radiation of negative ions. They engendered him in a catharsis or altered state of consciousness equivelant to a Kundalini experience, the opening of his crown chakra to a previously unrecognized spiritual dimension.
As soon as the Templars made their discovery, time began working against them. Any outside inkling of what they had really been up to since 1118 could spark a cultural conflagration beyond the command of all earthly authority to extinguish. The longer they lingered in Jerusalem, with its tens of thousands of eyes, the greater their probability of being found out. Hughes sent a special courier to Bernard with coded words of their find. "Your mission is accomplished," the Cistercian leader answered in response filled with high praise, and begged them to return home at once. The Count booked accomodations aboard the next available ship to Europe, and sailed from the Holy Land with his fellow knights in early autumn. No one else on board could have dreamed that among their crated baggage was the world's supreme religious treasure.
The voyage passed without incident, as did their long trek acreoos Italy, where the Ark and its Templars paused at the Seborga monastery before moving on into France in late 1127 or early 1128. At the Council of Troyes, in January of 1129, a beaming Bernard of Clairveaux succeeded in winning papal recognition of the Knights, who could now don the white robes, signifying purity of belief, for which they became famous. The emblematic red cross would not come for another 20 years, until Pope Eugenious III allowed them to wear it for the first time "as a symbol of Christian martyrdom."
Its first, temporary hiding place was the Cistercian abbey Hughes de Champagne had made possible four years prior to the founding of the Templars. Bernard was devoted to its safekeeping, but could not resist making some obvious hints that imperiled his vulnerable charge. Bernards obvious references to the Ark of the Covenant was underscored by his frequent characterization of the abbey in which it been secluded as "the heavenly Jerusalem." Even the Count of Champagne remarked that, "the abbot of Clairvaux became the oracle of Europe, " meaning perhaps he told more than he should.
By then the Templars were no longer the same nine humble functionaries blindly obediant to his will. Papal recognition had transfigured them with growing wealth and burgeoning membership from the nobility, opening up new spheres of interest in power politics. They overode the command of the indescreet Bernard, removing the Ark form his abbey to Lower Lorraine, the duchy of Godfroi de Bouillon before he helped the First Crusade to the Holy Land, and from which he never returned. But his formidble fortress still stood [as it does today] and had been deeded back to his family after his death. The massive structure was, in fact, eminently defensible, among Europe's foremost military emplacements any besieging attacker would find daunting. [Flanders Castle de Bouillon]
Moreover, its location not far from Troyes allowed the Templars, members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and a privileged few, access to the sacred object and its golden aura. Fifteen centuries of burial deep in the Earth had dampened the Ark's static accumulation, making it safe to approach and be positively responsive to low-frequency input, such as meditation, prayer, or hymns. Troyes became the most remarkable urban center in Europe. While the rest of Christendom wallowed in bigotry, superestition, illiteracy, and ignorance, its citizens enjoyed an intellectual freedom and cultural florescence absent from the outside world. History and the arts were not ocnditioned by papal dogma, while Muslim science - particularly medicine - was studied without prejudice, resulting in the proto-rennaissance of the City of Troyes and Chartres Cathedral.
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__________________
Real Eyes Realise Real Lies
http://www.sitchiniswrong.com/
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/index.php
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http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69281
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During the First Crusade, it is said that Hugues De Payen fought in that Crusade. Then he returned and went straight to Scotland where he married into the St Clair Family. Today they are known as the Sinclair Family. Now thats important to know cos Hugues De Payen formed the Knights Templar and the 12th Century and around the 15th Century when the Templars were no more, the St Clair family built the Rosslyn Chapel. Although it is also important to note that the name Hugues De Payen does not feature prominently in the First Crudade so his role in that Crudade is not exactly clear.
But after Hughes' marriage and forming the Knights Templar, they returned to the Holy City, Jerusalem, 9 men in all. Now here we have 2 versions of what transpired when the Templars were in Jerusalem. The popular version states that they as Christian soldiers went to defend pilgrims visiting the Holy Land against the Muslims whilst those who disagree say that they were primarily in Jerusalem to excavate the Temple of Solomon. Those who disagree argue that its physically impossible for 9 men to defend pilgrims stretching 50 kilometers and that excavation.
The excavation theory works for me cos Rosslyn Chapel is modeled on the Temple of Solomon. What is critical about the Rosslyn Chapel is that it is
1 - filled with Islamic symbolism like 14 pillars and Arabic inscriptions etc. But its important to know that symbolism is a way of encrypting a message which can only be decrypted for those who recognise the symbols.
2 - It is home of the Holy Grail where the Holy Grail is not a literal chalice but a Royal Bloodline. One theory of this Royal Bloodline led to a Da Vinci Code theory but that theory is not sound cos Jesus cannot have a Royal Bloodline through daughters as alleged but thru sons as Imam Ali has covered this aspect in sermon 159.
3 - Rosslyn was built in the 15th century well after the Templars were eliminated.
4 - The symbolism of Rosslyn does not match the symbolism of the Freemasons. So the link between the 2 cannot be justified.
5 - Rosslyn comes from 2 Gaelic words Ross and Lyn. Ross means Ancient Knowledge and Lyn mean passed down the generations. Therefore Rosslyn means Ancient knowledge passed down the generation.
In the 14th century, relations between the Templars and the Church came to a boil and the Church decided enough is enough and arrested them under the Papal edict of Pope Clement and King Phillipe. It has been alleged that the Templars were blackmailing the Church specifically about the Holy Bloodline. Pope Clement who ruled for a very short period is the same Pope who has gone on record to state that Islamic presence on Christian soil is an insult to God. A curious statement to say the least considering that Muslims were already gotten rid of from Europe by then.
The second most curious aspect of this witch-hunt on the Templars was the Inquisition itself. The Church accused the Templars of various heresies
1 - Templars would worship a pagan statue called Baphomet (Wiki and answers.com have information on this). But the Church to date have not produced this pagan statue. One of the reasons is that there is no statue and the second reason is that Baphomet could be a derivative of Mahomet aka Muhammad. Though Western Scholars deny it could be reverence of Muhammad but without tangible evidence.
2 - Templars denied the Cross. They would spit on it etc. The denial of the Christian Cross is Islamic in nature. So the claim that Templars were Christian Crusaders whose uniform had an emblem of the Christian Cross is something that doesnt make sense.
3 - Templars were accused of practicing sodomy. But thats ridiculous cos Templars pro-created and also believed in strong values like Chastity. They also had a strong dietary laws i.e. animals they could eat and ones they had to avoid. Heck they even sat on the floor when eating.
Now if we combine the following values
1 - Baphomet aka Muhammad
2 - Denial of the Cross
3 - Symbolism of Rosslyn of 14 pillars (2 unique and 12 similar) with Arabic inscription
4 - Rosslyn meaning ancient knowledge passed down the generation
5 - Blackmailing the Church with a Holy Bloodline
6 - Reverence of Sacred Feminine thru a Black Madonna aka Bibi Fatima and her Hijab.
When these 6 values are combined, its pretty clear that the Templars were Muslim and they were Shia Muslim. Thats why the Church had to rid of the Templars cos they were blackmailing them about Muhammad and his Ahlul Bayt as the true successors of Nabi Isa.
One interesting note to all of this is, I have a source that states that the founder Hugues De Payen is actually Sayyid and hails from Imam Hassan. I have the family tree on me. I was wondering if anyone could verify the genealogy.
--
What's This All About?
Welcome to the website devoted to addressing the claims of the ancient astronaut hypothesis popularized in the writings of Zecharia Sitchin. Who's behind this site? My name is Mike Heiser. Who am I? The short answer is that I'm a scholar of biblical and ancient Near Eastern languages, cultures, and religions. Why do I bother with this stuff? Because I don't like ancient texts manipulated to promote false claims. If I were a lawyer I'd feel professionally obligated to tell you if someone was giving you bad legal advice. If I was a medical doctor, I'd owe you the truth if I knew the medicine you were taking was bogus or could kill you. If I was an accountant, I'd let you know if a neighbor's tax advice could put you in jail. I'm none of those things, but I'm trying to provide the same service in my areas of expertise. I can tell you--and show you--that what Sitchin has written about Nibiru, the Anunnaki, the book of Genesis, the Nephilim, and a host of other things has absolutely no basis in the real data of the ancient world. I don't doubt that Zecharia Sitchin is a nice guy; he's just wrong. Nothing personal. #
see: http://www.sitchiniswrong.com/
mshmichaelsheiser@gmail.com
-------------------
Hello my friends,
I hope you will accept the words of a "heathen" - Actually, I practice East Indian Kriya Yogi, and I am an American.
I picked up the statement regarding Mohammad's possible geneaolgy on the Google search engine, by using Lord Gordile. It sent me here and I am certainly glad to be here. I belong to a Templar Fellowship group (Templar Fellowship of America) in the USA and we are studying the Sufis.#
I have studied the Knights Templar for eight years now, and I have always believed that the Templars had a relstionship with Islam. A very good relationship. I have just read the book referenced in the previous post and I have every hope that the lineage is correct. This is the one I have:
Muhammad (570-632)
Seal of the Prophets
5th Caliph
2nd Imam
Hasan d. 670
Hasan II
Son of Hasan
Abdullah al-Kamal
Grand Master
Assassins, or Prince of the Mountain.
Abdullah al-Kamal
Idris I - 789-93
Ruler of Fez
Idris II - 793-828
Umar
Abdullah
Ali
Ahmad
Mamun
Abu Ahmad
Muhammad d. 1008 al-Mansur
Emir of Cordoba
Abba of Pamplona
Abd ar-Rahman an'Nasir
(Prince Sanchuelo)
Wife: Jimena of Cordoba
Theobaldo - Lord of Gardile
Wife: Angelica Doukas
Thibault de Payns
Lord of the Castle of Martigny
Wife: Helie de Montbard
Hugues de Payns
1st Master, Order of the Knights Templar
Wife: Elizabeth de Chappes
Son: Thibault de Payns
Abbot of Abbey of St Colombe
We are also seeking verification of this lineage. I would be honored to have your ideas and thoughts and any suggestions.
If I find anything else to verify this list, I will return and add my research. I have past experience as a professional researcher and I will promise to do my best finding more information.
Beat Regards,
Eddie Lark
the family tree of this founder of the knights templar group can be found in this book -
http://www.amazon.co...y/dp/157863346X
it is listed as follows:
1 - Imam Hassan
2 - Abdullah Al Kamal
3 - Idris I - Ruler of Fez
4 - Idriss II
5 - Umar
6 - Abdullah
7 - Ali
8 - Ahmad
9 - Mamum
10 - Abu Ahmad
11 - Muhammad Al Mansur - Emir of Cordoba
12 - Abd - ar Rahman An Nasir - Jimena of Cordoba
13 - Theobaldo - Lord of Gardile
14 - Thibault De Payen - Lord of the Castle of Martigny
15 - Hugues De Payen - Founder of the Knights Templar.
is there some way we can verify if this line is true? if so, it will be a massive evidence that the knights templar, were, in fact, shia!!!
thank you sheikh, i appreciate any light which you may shed on this topic.
=============
salams sheikh, how are you? mashallah i have been reading your answers and am amazed by the depth and breadth of your knowldge.
apologies for the second question, but i think it is only you who i can turn to to answer this!
myself and a few brothers are having a discussion on another shia forum (www.shiachat.com) about the knights templars origins.
one brother has claimed that the founder of the knights templar, i will quote the post in question:
the family tree of this founder of the knights templar group can be found in this book -
http://www.amazon.co...y/dp/157863346X
it is listed as follows:
1 - Imam Hassan
2 - Abdullah Al Kamal
3 - Idris I - Ruler of Fez
4 - Idriss II
5 - Umar
6 - Abdullah
7 - Ali
8 - Ahmad
9 - Mamum
10 - Abu Ahmad
11 - Muhammad Al Mansur - Emir of Cordoba
12 - Abd - ar Rahman An Nasir - Jimena of Cordoba
13 - Theobaldo - Lord of Gardile
14 - Thibault De Payen - Lord of the Castle of Martigny
15 - Hugues De Payen - Founder of the Knights Templar.
is there some way we can verify if this line is true? if so, it will be a massive evidence that the knights templar, were, in fact, shia!!!
thank you sheikh, i appreciate any light which you may shed on this topic.
--
There you are my friend. I am Koastal Eddy and I wrote you an email at the shiek's website. I believe Hugues de Payns (founder of the Templars) is in the bloodline of Hassan and his son Hassan II. I don't especially know what I am talking about, but it seems to me that would make Hugues de Payns a Shia?
I am glad to see so many people interested in the Templars. My hobby is researching them and I have become very well acquainted with them over the past 8 years. There is a great deal of new material out to the public now. Some of it I have posted on my Templars website, http://groups.msn.com/TheTemplarLegacy. The Mohammad Lineage we are speaking of is located there. You and your friends are invited to visit, but first you must become members when you arrive. I will approve your memberships immediately. There are two more of my sites as well:
http://groups.msn.co...mplarsChronicle
http://groups.msn.co...ARCHRONICLESIII
If anyone notices somethng that is not correct, I will change or delete the item. You are the experts on Islam - not me.
I am new to these forums and I am not familiar with the uploading process. I have uploaded the lineage chart, but don't know if it actually uploaded?
It will be nice to have any or all you visit my websites . . .
within and without,
filthy infidel
--
http://www.aimislam.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7649-was-the-founder-of-the-knights-templar-a-shia/?s=79b50d04cbd13230b75adefb1e4ee118
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The Knights Templar of the Middle East: The Hidden History of the Islamic Origins of Freemasonry [Hardcover]
Hrh Prince Michael of Albany (Author), Walid Amine Salhab (Author)
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
For the first time ever, a source from within reveals the shocking truth that the roots of the Knights Templar, and thus those of Freemasonry, were actually more deeply linked to Islam than to Christianity. The Knights Templar of the Middle East breaks new ground in this well-tilled sphere and is guaranteed to stir more fires of controversy than any other book to date on Freemasonry and Templars.#
Prince Michael writes with sterling scholarship, making full use of his access to libraries of the secret orders of which he is a member. The book delves deep to examine the true roots of this worldwide society, revealing both historical events from Europe to the Middle East and the author’s own deeply personal, perilous journey to research and expose this hidden history.
Going against the accepted history of the Freemason society as evolved from a remnant of Knights Templar who settled in Scotland, The Knights Templar of the Middle East takes readers much farther back to the true historical biblical land, based in Western Arabia rather than Palestine. The true secret of the Inner Circle of the Order of the Templars was such that, had they revealed it, the knowledge would have rocked the cradle of Christian and Judaic beliefs.
About the Author
HRH Prince Michael is a Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar of St. Anthony and a Scottish Freemason. His first book, The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland, was a bestseller in Scotland and the UK. In 1992, Prince Michael was elected president of the European Council of Princes. Recently named to the Diplomatic Corps of the Government of the Knights of Malta, he resides in the UK. Sir Walid Salhab was born in Lebanon in 1960 and graduated from the Islamic College of Tripoli in 1974. He presently lectures on media and filmmaking at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.
Product Details
* Hardcover: 210 pages
* Publisher: Weiser Books; First Edition edition (November 1, 2006)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 157863346X
* ISBN-13: 978-1578633463
* Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
reviews:
1.
This book is fairly well written and fairly well researched, with a good bibliography, except for the inclusion of some books of pseudo-history, but sadly lacking any footnotes or endnotes to indicate the sources of his claims, except for a few sources mentioned within the text, which in the end is a combination of history and pseudo-history, with little evidence of his title thesis about Islam, mostly just uncertain and vague connections between Templars and Islam in the middle east or Islamic Spain. The author briefly compares Islamic belief about Jesus against Church belief, but it seems unlikely that Islam is the source of heretical Templar beliefs, and continues a bit with speculations about Templar archaeological diggings and possible Essene manuscripts. The author spends some paragraphs comparing Islamic architecture and Church architecture, but unfortunately without any drawings or photographs, which would have been useful and helpful. The book is actually more concerned with the pseudo-historical idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were the founders of the royal families of Europe, including his own Scottish Stewart ancestry, and its links with the founding of freemasonry, and as usual with this sort of speculative alternative history, completely lacking any credible historical evidence of the most basic claim regarding their ancient reputed genealogy, but just continuing the usual unproven claims and speculations, as if merely repeating pseudo-historical assertions is sufficient proof. However, there was an assertion regarding the Merovingians and Carolingians and Capetians, as being all of the same family and same male lineage descent, that I have not seen in other similar pseudo-historical books, although I have not seen all the other similar books. Of course, the inclusion of female lineage descent from the Merovingians, thru daughters of these families, would include almost all the families of nobility in Europe. There is a small amount of genealogy in this book, but not sufficiently documented, and there may be a few errors or statements contrary to the usual scholarly consensus about historical genealogies, although documentary proof of early middle ages genealogy is a difficult subject even for genealogical experts and historians.
2.
This review is well intentioned to HRH and the co-author. However, the book simply does not meet minimal quality criteria for such a work and casts a thick shadow on Samuel Weiser publishers, otherwise known for high quality in the esoteric field. Perhaps authors and publisher were in a great commercial hurry to jump onto the Da Vinci Code bandwagon.
The subtitle is presumptuous. Its last part should have read "the Islamic transmission of Freemasonry" instead of "origins". As HRH should know, the origins of masonic craft symbolics and initiation are "from time immemorial".
The text to be printed was, if at all, very poorly proofread and abounds in errors of spelling, grammar and syntax. If proofreading quality is an indication of what HRH's rule might be like, God save Scotland!
Although it contains a list of reference texts, the book is not footnoted and thus places much if not most of its content, alas, into the realm of conjecture.
One of the central recurrent themes of HRH is continual severe bashing of the Christian Roman Catholic Church, an institution to which, mind you, this reviewer does not belong. This concurs with HRH's decidedly "kshatriya" (warrior caste) point of view. Not unlike the 19th century abuse and capture of French freemasonry by egalitarian politics, HRM purports that 18th century French FM served above all as a cover and camouflage to place the Stuart dynasty back on the throne of the United Kingdom. If this were so, so much the worser for the initiatic Order of FM!
As is frequent among authors, HRM reveals his ideological leanings in the Preface by referring to the 19th century notion of reincarnation, if taken literally an absurd amalgamation of the two traditional doctrines of transmigration (not restricted to one world among an indefinity thereof)and metemphychosis. Apparently many if not most "modern occultists" including HRH have great difficulty understanding that the known universe with all of its mega- and micro-galaxies, black holes, quanta, waves, and beings, is only one of an indefinity of worlds, and definitely not a closed circuit.
So YRH and Mr Salhab, if you decide to publish a 2nd edition, at the very least please be so kind as to:
1. proofread it or have it professionally proofread,
2. meticulously footnote it,
and
3. refrain from assertions that only detract from your historic position.
-
http://www.amazon.com/Knights-Templar-Middle-East-Freemasonry/dp/157863346X
------------
The Fourth Templar Secret of Fatima
Former Magistrate Carlo Palermo
Says the Real Plot is... Venetian
Anti-Islamism takes on many guises. Certainly one of the oddest however is this : did you know there is a conspiracy by Islamic fundamentalist Templars, led by Venetian Nazis, who plan to kill the Pope, promote Liberation Theology in Latin America and push drugs, all of this for the sole purpose of restoring the glorious government of the Doges?
This is what we discover reading the book Il quarto livello ("The Fourth Level", Editori Riuniti, Rome, 1996) by former judge and former Italian Parliament member, Carlo Palermo, whom many know and admire as an adversary of corruption in very difficult times. Nothing we say here should be understood as a criticism of his Quixotic personality.#
Palermo made the headlines some time ago when he gave an interview to the daily Il Giornale, accusing the "Templars and the Shiites" for an (accidental) fire in the chapel in Turin where the Holy Shroud is kept. Authoritative journalists have described Palermo's book as the last word on the Mafia and on the mysterious bomb outrages of the 70's and 80's in Italy
Yet what he writes stands to history as does the hollow earth theory to geology.
"Why did Hutus and Tutsis massacre each other in Rwanda? Why did the peoples of former Yugoslavia do the same? Why is terror being spread today in Paris or in Beirut, in Algeria or in New York, in Islamabad, in Karachi or in Jerusalem ? [...] Why are macabre mass suicides still being committed in Canada and in Switzerland, in the name of a religious cult which draws its inspiration from the old Templar Order ..? Why, on the threshold of the third millennium, has the Church not yet explained the third secret of Fatima to the faithful ...? Why are we still unable to cast full light on the terrible bomb outrages which struck Italy during the 70's and 80's ..?" (pp. 4-5).
Well, I suppose that is a good question
The cover of the book helps the reader go guess the answer - against a black background, a bald knight Templar, with a long beard, rises up threateningly.
Palermo's story starts with the International Bank of Credit and Commerce (IBCC), which had a large number of dubious account holders, and then crashed with the CIA investigating it.
Now, according to Palermo, the IBCC was established by a group of Pakistanis whom he calls "of Shiite confession, of Sufi creed" (p. 19).
The whole book rests on these six words, since they connect the dirty business at the IBCC with the whole world of what one might call "the occult", plus Islam too.
According to Palermo, Sufism is "a sort of final cult" devoted to an "anti-scientific and anti-technological" struggle, and can be found "both in Islamic and in Catholic fundamentalism" (p. 19 ff.).
"The cult of the return to Mother Nature meets with special favour in the ascetic mysticism of Sufism".
Let us pause a moment to say a few terribly obvious things. The various Sufi orders are closed groups within the Islamic world (not within the Catholic world) which attempt to reach certain mystical states through contemplation of the word of the Qur'an.
The founders may have been saints, but their heirs only too often have become countryside magicians. Nobody can actually call them "heretics" as long as they perform all their religious duties, but rumour often accuses them of transgressing the law of the common folk.
Devotion to saints, political passiveness, recourse to magical practices, the creation of an elite within a society like the Islamic one based on the equality of men before Allah - all of this has made Sufism largely hateful to just those fundamentalists Palermo associates them with.
Sufism, apart from some poems thanking Allah for rain (a masculine word in Arabic), certainly has no cult of "Mother Nature". "Nature" in Arabic is expressed using a word meaning "moulded" or "printed": it is no "mother", but rather the sign that a unique and almighty divinity has impressed on the world. Of course some Westerners mix up the "Wise Men of the East" with their own smog problems, but that is another story.
"If we want to identify the sector where Sufi philosophy has penetrated most deeply, we must see how the international far Right has developed. And the greatest leader of the Right, Adolf Hitler, comes to mind at once" (p. 20).
And here is how he proves this:
The SS "looked back" to the Prussian Empire.
The Prussian Empire was a "direct derivation of the state of the Teutonic Military Order".
The Teutonic Order had absorbed "some members" of the suppressed Templar Order.
These members drew their inspiration "from Sufism".
Therefore, "it is a fact that the SS state was a Sufi state".
Conspiracy thinkers often employ the double somersault. Palermo gives us an elegant example of this. The first move: Himmler modelled the SS on the Jesuit Order. One would love to ask for at least a little evidence of this, but our acrobat is flying through the air towards his second move and should not be disturbed:
"A great deal of evidence shows that Ignatius of Loyola, before establishing his Order [the Jesuits], was initiated into the mystical secrets of the Shadliyya sect in Southern Spain and in the Maghreb, on a specific request by the aristocratic families of Venice".
Now, it may well be that some unstated Venetian families sent a young Basque to study in the Maghreb so he could learn how to recite Qur'anic verses. It is also quite possible that Sai Baba manages to produce cow dung powder by just waving his robe. However, before taking either of such statements at its face value, I need to be convinced. And Palermo is as shy of sources as Sai Baba is of cameras (a note at the end of the book says that a certain Hermann Müller in 1898, in an unspecified "profound study", discovered resemblances between the Jesuits and the Sufis).
But let us get back to the Templars. We are told that they were set up "according to the same guidelines as the Sufi order" of the Assassins (who were not Sufis).
Palermo literally believes in some rather weird statements that were tortured out of the Templars by the inquisitors who wanted to lay hands on their considerable riches: "as a Gnostic cult", the Templars took up elements "drawn from Islamic doctrine (such as the adoration of the god Baphomet)". So we finally know what Muslims do in the mosques: they worship Baphomet.
Thanks to the Templars, the Cathars too became a "Sufi movement", the purpose being that of "freezing progress and blocking the development of the population at zero growth" (p. 22).
A this point, we meet the Thule Society, which supposedly inspired German National Socialism. Goodrick-Clarke, in The Occult Roots of Nazism (The Acquarian Press, Wellingborough, UK, 1985) says everything there is to say about this matter. There were some occultists among German nationalists, much as there are Keltic magicians among the followers of the Italian "Lega" or Cabalists among Zionist extremists. It is hard to say how much mysticism inspired certain political theses, and how much it simply justified them. It is true that the founder of the National Socialist Party, Dietrich Eckart, had belonged briefly to the Thule Society, which did indeed use at least an initiatory jargon. However this marginal world never interested Adolf Hitler. Whose notoriously rather unpleasant character prevented him from allowing others to tell him what to do even when this meant losing a quarter of a million soldiers at Stalingrad.
ome people imagine a bit more, like René Alleau, but of course quite properly, his works are not published by Editori Riuniti but by Edizioni Mediterranee (The Occult Origins of Nazism by Alleau came out in the same collection as The Medium's Book, After Nostradamus and Prodigy Children and Reincarnation).
In any case, according to Palermo, in recent decades, there has been a trend towards "mystical Oriental cults" among the "far Right", especially "in Germany." A little mysticism (generally not "Eastern" at all) does exist in the Italian and French far Right, but there is much less in Germany, where nationalist paradigms prevail.
Actually, Sufism has mainly inspired bland groups of Theosophists or retired '68 protesters who practice "Sufi meditation" (i.e., they whirl for a few minutes, just like we did when we were small). This kind of gymnastics is especially appreciated among former members of Left-wing groups (probably because it is a kind of circular march, reminiscent of protest parades).
Most Western neo-Sufi movements look back to Inayat Khan, an Indian who was a friend (but not a member) of the Theosophical Society. His daughter Nur worked for British intelligence; arrested by the Gestapo, she was shot in the head (Maria Chiara Bonazzi, "Niente sesso siamo spie", La Stampa, 5.1.97). Even if the Theosophists had some racist fantasies (however their "Aryan race" included the Jews and even, albeit very far down, the Indians), as loyal subjects of the British crown during the war, they organised meditations to help the Allies win.
However, Palermo has by now laid the ground for anything: once the Basic Plot has been proven, any of its threads can be followed anywhere. Starting out from the IBCC, one can mention any ugly event involving the Near East, whether this refers to Iran or to its historical enemy Iraq, or to the Libyan fundamentalists Qaddhafi occasionally has put in gaol, or to Qaddhafi himself, who is sometimes called the greatest heretic before Salman Rushdie, as he allegedly denies the validity of all Islamic texts except for the Qur'an, and grants strict social equality to women.
But let us see what our judge discovered during his investigations on Qaddhafi.
Under Fascism, the "British espionage networks" appointed one Giuseppe Volpi, "the last Doge of Venice", as governor of Libya, giving him the title of Count of Misurata. Volpi must have been quite elderly, since he had lost his job in Venice in 1797, whereas Fascism came to power in 1922. At least the history books I know mention no period of "British" domination in Libya until after 1945.
"The old Fascist secret police networks and the Libyan ones were virtually a single network, and Qaddhafi was 'born' out of them." Now, Qaddhafi's agent in Italy is supposed to be a certain Claudio Mutti, to whom Palermo devotes several pages.
It is hard for me, living in Italy, to say whether the founder of the IBCC was really a Sufi, but Claudio Mutti lives in nearby Parma and Michele Brambilla (Interrogatorio alle destre, Rizzoli, 1995) devotes several pages to him.
According to Palermo, Mutti is a "professor of Romanian language at the University of Bologna" (no such chair exists); founder "of the extremist organisation Black Order" (it is true that he was investigated; arrested because a magazine he edited had titles vaguely resembling the letters used for a leaflet of 'Ordine Nero', he was acquitted when it was discovered that they were actually entirely different); an intermediary between an Italian organisation called "Giovane Europa", the Palestinians and Qaddhafi ("Giovane Europa" closed down before Qaddhafi came to power). There is more coming: Mutti is supposedly involved in the bomb outrages in Brescia and on a train (when the first took place, Mutti was in solitary confinement in a gaol in Bologna, during the second in a gaol in Milan, during investigations for which he was later acquitted).
Mutti however is also an expert on the world of the Gypsies (he is the author of an incredible Sinti-Parma Dialect dictionary) who for years has been publishing the kind of books you will never find in a bookstore. The Libyans must be very stingy, since they oblige their secret agent to support himself by working as a teacher. But above all, why, with fifty million Italians available, did they hire such an unusable person: Mutti is an extremist who prefers the losers to the winners of the Second World War, and above all he is a Muslim. More or less like being a strictly pro-Soviet black in the South of the USA forty years ago.
One of Palermo's loveliest flights of fancy concerns the attempt to knife the Pope, carried out by a deranged individual at Fatima in Portugal in 1982. Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, was married to Ali, founder during the 7th Century, of the Shi'a (and here we have the IBCC), and the name of the town of Marsala in Sicily supposedly comes from Ali (p. 134); Marsala is not far from Trapani where an attempt was made on the life of Palermo when he was an anti-Mafia judge; and the town of Fatima in Portugal was founded at the time of the Crusades, which brings us back to the Templars…
The man who made the attempt on the life of the Pope had briefly been a member of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), a movement against Liberation Theology launched by an apocalyptic Brazilian professor who styled himself a "prophet". Now I doubt that anyone in Italy has criticised TFP [ see http://www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/storia/gb11.htm ] more thoroughly than we have done; and this gives us the right for once to criticise this peculiar Brazilian organisation.
TFP is pro-Pope and anti-Islam (as could be seen a few years ago, during the public recital of the rosary organised by Centro Lepanto, a TFP subsidiary, against the opening of a mosque in Rome some years ago). But Palermo needs to fit TFP into his personal plot, and he does so taking the longest possible route: the noble German family of the Thurn und Taxis, all of whom were "Venetian secret agents" (p. 126 ff.), is supposed to have belonged to the Thule Society; some of them were related by marriage to the Brazilian Braganza family, and a member of the Braganza family is supposed to be the "main supporter of Tfp". "Even today, this association [Thule, the pre-Nazi one!] is a society of conspirators which extends throughout the world inside certain special cults like the Blue Army of Fatima and the one called Tradition, Family and Property (Tfp)." On p. 125, Palermo adds a new entry to the list of "Sufi heresies", besides TFP: Liberation Theology, believe it or not.
Any normal reader will be perplexed by certain expressions Palermo uses: his hatred for Venetians and for the "cult of Mother Nature"; the definition of Sufism, which arose towards the 9th century, as an "anti-scientific and anti-technological movement"; or the notion that "the essence of the philosophy and of the aims of the 'families' associated with the Thule Society was [...] hatred for the Renaissance of Nicholas von Kues, Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaello". Raffaello?.
The journalist Franco Fracassi recently published Il quarto Reich, "The Fourth Reich", a similar conspiracy-theory pamphlet with as many mistakes but less mysticism.
Palermo and Fracassi are associated with the political Left. However an author on the Right, Maurizio Blondet, has created no less than three books, titled respectively Conspiracies I, Conspiracies Conspiracies II and Conspiracies III. S
The problem is not a "Right or Left" one. Conspiracy thinking is a universal mechanism which anyone can adopt, as long as it against "our" enemy.
I pass no judgement on the former magistrate's political ideas (although the idea of having him as one's judge is a bit worrying - what if one had a Venetian ancester?). However what I find interesting is how an occultist and irrational attitude which claims the Templars and/or Sufis secretly run the world can appear not only in Tarot card reading or among spoon benders, but can also turn up in such an apparently "serious" field as politics.
It is incredible but true… I have seen University professors and journalists trustingly read Carlo Palermo's writings. And these writings were published by Editori Riuniti, which at least once used to be a serious publisher.
Miguel Martinez
P.S. This review was written several months ago. In the meantime, Palermo has come out with another book, Il Papa nel mirino: gli attentati al pontefice nel nome di Fatima, - "The Pope as a Target: Attempts on the Pope's Life in the Name of Fatima" - always published by Editori Riuniti (Rome, 1998). This is practically a photocopy of the first book, and this should make everybody happy: Palermo and Editori Riuniti who sell twice as many copies with half the work, you who can save money on buying it, and me, who didn't have to take the time to rewrite this review. The only interesting addition - in his new book, Palermo attacks "Moscow, theosophist, arrogant and violent", guilty of the atheist October Revolution.
http://www.kelebekler.com/palermogb.htm
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Esoteric Coffeehouse » » Knights Templar
30 May 2009 ... The Knights Templar were established around 1119 by Hugh de Paynes ... an Islamic warrior sect that belonged to a particular Shi'ite branch.#
A Look at the History and Legend of the Knights Templar (II)
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
The history of the Knights Templar may be fascinating, but it does not compare with the history of their legend. It is hence regrettable that insufficient research has been done in Knights Templar mythology. Whether the Templars were truly in possession of some wondrous knowledge, the Grail, or they were devil worshippers, we will probably never know. What we can record is what the people believed, and some continue to believe, about the Templars.#
From what I have been able to fathom, the Templar-mania is no coincidence. Even during the existence of the knighthood, they were the object of an intense medieval propaganda. At the beginning, the propaganda was positive, even idealistic, initiated by high church figures and popular troubadours. Then, as Philip IV and Pope Clement began to defame the order, the publicity became very negative. The story they told about the Templars resembled a modern ‘conspiracy theory’. In any case, in the 13-14th centuries, the Templars were, as it were, “big news”. Today, books like those of Dan Brown or Michael Baigent only perpetuate a medieval news story.
The positive propaganda was initiated by an influential monk, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. St Bernard was an amazing figure: he single-handedly organized the reformist Cistercian order in Europe, preached the Second Crusade and even arbitrated the choice of the Pope (for more on him, see 1). In addition, St Bernard was a staunch supporter of the Templar order. In fact, much of Templar ideology came from St Bernard’s vision. In 1128, at the Council of Troyes, he penned down the outline of the Templar Rules, which became a standard of chivalry in the epoch (2). Later on, he wrote “In the Praise of the New Knighthood”, which portrayed the Templars as an ideal knightly order that combined military chivalry and monk dedication (3). In his view, the Templars were probably meant to be more than an order – but an archetype of the ‘new knighthood’. In this spirit, he urged the entire European knightly class to join the Templars (4).
(more…)
Tags: baphomet, bernard of clairvaux, cathars, conspiracy, devil worship, eschenbach, grail, Knights Templar, legend, Mythology, parzifal
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A Look at the History and Legend of the Knights Templar (I)
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
As with many legends, the recorded history of the Knights Templar is probably less spectacular than people’s imagination. The Templar order was one of the several military monk institutions established in the High Middle Ages, amongst which the other prominent ones were the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights. Yet it was only the Templars that captured the imagination of the West as an archetype of the secret society.
The Knights Templar were established around 1119 by Hugh de Paynes (Payns), a French knight who had participated in the First Crusade and helped in the capture of Jerusalem from the Moslems (1). To quickly recap, the First Crusade (1095-1099) was the most successful of all, as mostly French (or Franks as they were called then) knights had conquered Jerusalem, as well as several important cities in the Middle East, such as Antioch and Tripoli. Following the conquest, the Crusaders established a system of feudal states in the region, out of which the Kingdom of Jerusalem was the most important. The Crusader success created a new pilgrimage fervor in the West, with thousands of pilgrims taking the inland route through Byzantium to reach the Holy Land. When they did so, they often found themselves robbed or killed by bands of Turks and other raiders (2). It was this situation that prompted Hugh de Paynes, with eight other knights, to propose the establishment of a monk order that would actually protect the pilgrims and locals from Moslem raids. The King of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, was happy to grant this new order and actually gave them headquarters on the Holy Mount, in the captured Al-Aqsa mosque (3).
But why a monk order, and not a regular army corps? The answer is not very straightforward. It is said that Paynes was inspired by the Hospitallers, a monk order that had set up a Hospital in Jerusalem to feed and treat poor pilgrims. Yet at this stage the Hospitallers apparently were not a military order (4). The Templars were also influenced by the Cistercian movement in southern France, which was a supranational monk order which contributed to the flourishing of learning in the High Middle Ages (5). Yet, again, as all monk orders of Europe, the Cistercians were not a fighting order. An early analysis proposed that the model of the Templars might not have come from Christianity at all, but from a mysterious warlike group of Moslems called the Assassins (6). The Assassins were an Islamic warrior sect that belonged to a particular Shi’ite branch, called the Ismailis (the Moslem community had suffered a schism in the early 800s into the majoritary Sunnite and the minority Shiite). This connection is hard to establish, as the Templars and the Assassins were in opposite camps. It is perhaps safer to conclude that the Templar order, just as the Hospitaller and Teutonic knights, were products of their own age, which sought to achieve divine salvation through holy conquest. The First Crusade was led under this premise, and the Templars only continued its ethos.
http://www.esotericoffeehouse.com/tag/knights-templar/
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Secret Societies: The Templars and the Assassins
A Lecture given at the Masonic Reading Room
November 8, 2006 - James Wasserman
Good evening. Turn on a TV or open a newspaper in any country on earth today, and you will be faced with the inescapable conclusion that the Crusades did not end in 1290. Western civilization and Islam are now fully engaged in what I believe can only be understood as the modern Crusades. This war began with the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711. It continued with the attack on France in 732. In 1095, the Muslim military advance drew perilously close to Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The Byzantine emperor approached the West and vowed to abandon the Greek Orthodox faith in return for Roman Catholic assistance in the defense of Christendom. The medieval Crusades were an act of self-defense.#
The politically correct version of this story attributes the Crusades to an outbreak of religious fanaticism and aggression on the part of Europe. However the author of the Song of Roland, the classic ninth century account of the defense against the Muslim invasion of France, would heartily disagree — as would the many thousands who lost their lives in that campaign. A similar interpretation of the modern Crusades — such as American lust for oil — might be equally rejected by the three thousand people who died here on September 11.
It is important to place the political situation in context because it hints at the primary theme of tonight’s discussion. And that is the modern relevance of two groups of warrior monks from the Crusades — secret societies vowed to the extension and defense of their religions. We will also examine some of the roots of their mystical doctrines.
One unexpected consequence of the medieval Crusades was the end of centuries of control of Europe by the Roman Catholic Church. In addition to the military defeat of Christian armies, there were three primary spiritual causes for the fall of the Church’s political and religious hegemony — and the flowering of the Renaissance beginning at the end of the 14th century. That burst of religious and cultural creativity would result in the rise of the esoteric movements, of which Freemasonry may be considered the crown jewel.
The Knights Templar
The first of these influences was of course the Knights Templar. They were founded in Jerusalem in 1118 or 1119 by nine knights who pledged themselves to poverty, holy obedience, and chastity under the leadership of Hughes de Payens. Hughes had spent two decades in the Holy Land as a Crusader. His wife died leaving him with no ties to this world other than his faith. Of late, he had despaired of fighting and the secular life, and was in the throes of a spiritual crisis. The Patriarch and King of Jerusalem suggested that Hughes and his men serve God by protecting pilgrims who came to visit the sites of the Christian faith, and walk in the very footsteps of Christ and the Apostles.
The pilgrimage had become especially popular in the tenth and eleventh centuries as the dreary conditions of the Dark Ages began to improve. Swamps were drained, forests cleared, houses, castles and towns constructed, roads improved, and a more positive mindset infused Europe. Millennial fears and the dark expectations of a fervently anxious and superstitious people passed. Think back to our own reaction to the millennial fears of Y2K. To the medieval mind, St. John’s description of the Beast of the Apocalypse and his thousand year reign of evil was even more unnerving than the threat of a worldwide computer breakdown.
Survival brought hope, and tentative steps were made toward the modern world — of which the pilgrimage was a prime component. For it offered the opportunity to scholars, students, religious devotees, wanderers, merchants, even criminals punished by exile, to move beyond the limited confines of Europe. (During the period from 6th through 10th centuries we call the Dark Ages, most people never traveled more than ten miles from their birthplace.)
Travelers discovered that the Holy Land of their dreams and aspirations was occupied by an alien populace, whose language, customs, and beliefs were in sharp contrast to their own. The biblical sites of Bethlehem, Sinai, and Jerusalem were controlled by those who demanded a tax for pilgrims, who might unleash bands of brigands against people they considered infidels, and who had erected mosques and madrassas where churches should stand. In Constantinople, Roman Catholic pilgrims learned that the burial shroud of Christ, fragments of the True Cross, and other precious relics of their faith were in the hands of unrecognizable Christians —who claimed to worship Jesus, but who did so in strange languages, with a married clergy, alternate Mass, and no allegiance to the pope.
The pleading of the Byzantine emperor for help against the invading hordes of Islam aligned perfectly with the stars to launch the First Crusade in 1095.
After a stunning series of hard-won victories at Nicaea, Antioch, and Jerusalem — in which God’s assent to the plan seemed demonstrated — a new period of European civilization developed in the Palestinian region. Construction of castles and fortifications, churches, residences, the development of government, farming, commerce, and military readiness proceeded.
At the same time, pilgrims continued to visit in increasing numbers. Yet travel was still difficult. Muslim robbers and insurgents attacked Christian caravans. A particularly horrific assault took place in 1119 in which 300 pilgrims were killed and another 60 captured and held for ransom.
It was in this setting that Hughes and his friends approached the Patriarch and King. And they assumed the obligations to bear arms in service to Christianity as protectors of the Holy Land.
The Order of the Poor Knights of Jesus Christ was awarded lodgings on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem at the site of the Temple of Solomon in the al-Aqsa mosque. Thus they were known as the Knights of the Temple, or Knights Templar. Their vow of poverty caused them to dress in the donated clothing of the faithful, while their lodgings were described by a contemporary visitor as shabby. Yet something was happening. Count Fulk of Anjou (later King of Jerusalem) is believed to have become an associate member. A castle was donated to the Order in the northern mountain region of Lebanon. One of the original nine knights was the nephew of Bernard of Clairvaux, an enormously influential Cistercian abbot, later canonized,.
In less than a decade, the Order was catapulted into prominence and history. The Patriarch wrote to Bernard asking his help in getting the Templars regularized by the Church, and in drafting a Rule for their conduct. Bernard was captivated with the idea of an order of warrior monks in service to Christ and His Church. He worked to get them papal sanction and proselytized on their behalf throughout Europe. The Templars were recognized at the Council of Troyes in 1128. Bernard helped draft a Rule, based on the fourth century monastic Rule of Saint Benedict. In 1136, he wrote a long letter to Hughes de Payens, In Praise of the New Knighthood, that hymned the ideal of the Holy Warrior.
"Neither does he bear the sword in vain, for he is God’s minister for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of the good. If he kills an evildoer, he is not a mankiller, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil. … These men are appointed by God and searched out by his hand to the limits of the land; honorable men of Israel to guard faithfully and protect vigilantly the tomb, which is the bed of the true Solomon, each man with sword in hand, and skillfully trained to battle."
Yet within two hundred years, these heroic warrior/monks would be arrested, tortured, and executed — slandered as demonically inspired heretics, devil worshipers, sexual libertines, and traitors to Christianity.
The Assassins
While images of a Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem were inspiring European Christians, a Persian visionary was meditating upon a fortress in which he and his flock could maintain their independence, pursue their religion, and spread the doctrines of pure Islam. For Hasan-i-Sabah, founder of the Assassins, understood the secret of the true line of succession from the Prophet Muhammad, and the proper direction for the faith.
When Muhammad died in 632, most Muslims (known as Sunnis) believed he had endorsed his father-in-law Abu Bakr as his successor. (The Caliph, or successor, is not the spiritual equal of the Prophet. Rather, he is charged with leading the flock and enforcing religious regularity. Since Islamic government is a theocracy, the Caliph is a combination of Pope and King.) An alternate contemporary faction (known as Shiites) claimed that Muhammad had actually appointed his son-in-law and cousin Ali as his heir. They asserted that the genetic stamp of righteousness would be passed through the Prophet’s bloodline by his sole surviving child, his daughter Fatima. Leadership should be reserved for descendents of the Prophet through the marriage of Fatima and Ali.
The 1400-year-old conflict over succession between Sunnis and Shiites has produced rivers of blood. In Iraq today, these are the car bombers and executioners whose daily antics are reported with such tedious regularity by our breathless media.
As early as 680, the Prophet’s grandson Husayn, and a group of his Shiite followers, were brutally murdered at Karbala by Sunnis. The massacre is commemorated today by Shiite self-flagellants mourning their inability to have protected him.
After Husayn’s murder, Islam was widely perceived by Sunnis and Shiites alike as having taken a wrong turn. Shiism henceforth became a reformist movement. On a religious level, it sought for a rebirth of spiritual purity. As a political movement, it was allied with the poor and disaffected. (These themes continue to play themselves out in the social programs of such Iranian-backed militant groups as Hizb’Allah and the Mahdhi Army.)
In 686, a leader named Muktar arose to revenge Husayn’s murder. His army enjoyed military success, but he died within a year. However he imbued Shiism with two crucial concepts. He elucidated upon the identity of the Imam — a kind of highly spiritualized Caliph guided by Allah to lead Islam. The Mahdhi was that unique Imam who would appear at the End of Time and bring forth the Day of Righteousness. All the world would bow before Mecca and the Prophet. (In a very under-reported story, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invoked this apocalyptic messiah during his recent speech at the UN.)
Eighth century Shiism hosted an eclectic and radical mix of beliefs. Heretical strains were contributed by new converts including Persians, Greeks, Gnostics, Sufis, Christians, Manichaean dualists, and Jewish kabbalists. Doctrines of the purity of the bloodline of David, and of the Messiah were absorbed. Beliefs in metempsychosis, reincarnation, magick, astrology, and numerology were common. The concepts of Imam and Mahdhi evolved to something closer to what Western occultists describe as Inner Plane Adepts, or members of the Great White Brotherhood. Teachers (or dais), the Imam’s representatives, were accorded near-divine status and viewed to possess miraculous powers.
In 749, the Abbasids came to power in Baghdad where they would reign for five hundred years. Their political ascent had been heavily supported by Shiites. But the Abbasids abandoned their Shiite base the moment they seized the throne — declaring themselves to be a Sunni dynasty.
This caused a terrible crisis among Shiites. They were forced once again to question their movement. They concluded they had become too relaxed in accepting claims to spiritual leadership. Lineal descent from Muhammad through the marriage of Fatima and Ali would again be defined as the gold standard.
Yet in 765, a dispute arose concerning the identity of the seventh Imam. Which of two brothers (both lineal descendants of the Prophet) had been given the spiritual mantle to lead Shiites? The supporters of one became known as Ismailis. While they were a minority, they went on to establish the first successful Shiite government in 909. The Fatimid Caliphate ruled Egypt and beyond for over two hundred years.
In 1095, during the decline of the Fatimid Caliphate, another schism occurred that is central to our story. The Fatimid Imam (or caliph) appointed his son Nizar to succeed him. Yet the Turkish general who had seized control of Egypt decreed a different successor, Nizar’s much younger, and more malleable, half-brother. Nizar led a revolt, but despite some early success, was captured and killed.
Hasan-i-Sabah was the leader of the Fatimid Ismaili mission in Persia. He had been born near Tehran about 1055 to a majority Shiite family. At seventeen, he was exposed to the Ismaili doctrine. He experienced an illness and a religious conversion, and traveled to Cairo where he was trained as an Ismaili missionary. He was arrested by the military ruler of Egypt, and escaped under marvelous conditions. The minaret of a prison in which he was held collapsed. He sailed on a boat that survived a fierce storm, miraculously quelled by the intensity of his prayers. He traveled throughout Persia, modern Iran, preaching the doctrines of the Fatimid Imam.
He supported the succession of Nizar, and organized a resistance movement when that succession was usurped. When he learned that Nizar had been killed, he declared Nizar’s son the true Imam, and founded the Nizari Ismailis. The sect remains flourishing to this day under the cosmopolitan leadership of the Aga Khan. Hasan built a community of believers in the northernmost regions of Iran near the Caspian Sea. His headquarters was named Alamut, the Eagle’s Teaching. It was a secluded mountain fortress where he reigned for 35 years — fortifying his defenses, developing agricultural sustenance, working on the Nizari doctrine, training religious teachers, and sending forth missionaries as far away as Syria. Hasan’s strategic use of selective political murder to eliminate military threats to his community led to the Nizari Ismailis becoming known as Assassins.
Hasan’s most illustrious successor was the fourth leader at Alamut named Hasan II. Although he was killed within less than four years of assuming the throne, he presided over a spiritual revolution.
On August 8, 1164, Hasan II proclaimed the Qiyama, the Resurrection, the Day of Judgment, the immanence of the Imam. He ordered the overturning of all outward observances of Islam in favor of a Gnostic enlightenment, a heaven on earth. He declared that Nizari Ismailis had entered a state of perfection in which the experience of God within was an ascertained reality. Traditional Islam was heresy. The Ramadan fast was abandoned. Turning in the direction of Mecca to pray was irrelevant — for all the earth had been illumined by the Light of Allah. Dietary restrictions were deemed unnecessary and some Assassins were said to have overturned sexual propriety.
The Qiyama heresy was promulgated in Syria by the charismatic Assassin leader Sinan. He was a contemporary and sometime ally of both Saladin and Richard the Lionhearted. The Syrian Assassins were the channel by which the Ismaili Gnostic current entered the Knights Templar Order.
The Cathars
The third influence in the Templar Esoteric Revival was the Dualist Christian sect of southern France known as the Cathars.
Dualism posits the existence of Good and Evil in balance. Radical dualists believe the world is equally divided between God and Satan; that neither is stronger. Moderate dualists believe that the balance of Good and Evil is the Will of God, and that Good will triumph in the end. Dualism was a major aspect of the Gnostic movement of the second through fifth centuries in the Mediterranean region, including Greece, Egypt, and the Mid-East. In the sixth century, the Gnostic academies of the Roman Empire were closed. Scholars and mystics fled East and were welcomed in Persia. Esoteric Christianity and dualist heresies fused with Hebrew and Sufi mysticism, and indigenous shamanic traditions. A rich spiritual teaching evolved — occasionally spread to the West in isolated pockets of clandestine worship. It would also migrate into the Ismaili and Assassin mysteries.
The Cathars of the eleventh century were the spiritual descendants of that heritage. They would soon face dire consequences for a belief system that challenged the primacy of orthodox Roman Catholic doctrine.
In 1233, Pope Gregory IX presented the definitive Roman Catholic view of the heresy of the dualist Cathars. He said they believed God had erred in casting Lucifer out of Heaven. They expected Lucifer to return in triumph. Gregory described a Cathar initiation ceremony that began with the appearance of a monstrous toad. This was followed by an ice-cold pale man whose kiss would suck away all traces of Christian faith. The pope described Cathar worship of a black cat (from which their name is probably derived). He wrote that congregants offered the cat an anal kiss. This was followed by an orgy which included homosexual congress. Accusations were leveled that babies born of such orgies were sacrificed, and their fat turned into a Eucharist of Hell.
Within 80 years, nearly identical charges would be hurled against the Knights Templar. The campaign of vilification against the Templars would cause many hundreds to be imprisoned, tortured, and burned at the stake.
The Cathars were, in reality, a group of Christian Gnostics. They believed in the New Testament teachings of Christ, especially His call for simplicity. They believed the materialism of the Roman Catholic Church was in direct opposition to the rejection of this world preached by Jesus and the Apostles. They regarded matter as intrinsically evil and incapable of redemption. They viewed the human soul as an angel trapped in a body of clay. They taught that one could reunite with his celestial identity through rigorous spiritual practices.
They believed sex was the means whereby the soul had been lost, that birth was the gateway of material imprisonment. They taught that animal foods should be shunned as the product of sexual union. Cathars rejected the idea of Hell, believing the world itself to be the realm of suffering.
They believed Jesus was an emanation of God sent from love of humanity, but that He was not a human being, and did not suffer, or die on the Cross. They despised the Cross as a symbol of materiality. Similarly they rejected the Mass as a false worship of the material plane.
Charges of denying the orthodox interpretation of Christ, defiling the Cross, and subverting the Mass were among the most serious made decades later against the Knights Templar.
Cathar clergy wandered through the Languedoc region of France. They lived in simplicity, demanding little from their flock other than bare sustenance. The clergy included women. They sought no tithes, no ecclesiastical opulence, and no political power.
Pope Innocent II launched the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in 1209. In 1233, the Inquisition was formally instituted to root out the remains of the Cathar heresy. The Inquisition’s long battle against heresy would continue into the eighteenth century. Catharism ceased to exist by 1325.
The Connection
After two hundred years of battling the heathen as heroes of the Christian faith, the Knights Templar in France were arrested on October 13, 1307. Accusations of devil worship, demonic intercourse, spiritual heresy, sexual impropriety, and political treason were laid against these once proud and admired warriors. In a drama that would play itself out in agonizing detail over the next seven years, the Templar Order would be crushed.
The Knights Templar, the Assassins, and the Cathars were all hunted down and destroyed by the orthodox power structure they challenged. The Templars were assaulted by an unholy alliance of Church and State, the Cathars by the Church which perceived them as its greatest rival, and the Assassins by the Sunni and Shiite majorities of Islam.
These three groups were rebels with a cause.
And I believe that cause was later embraced by Masonry, and that it has infused all spiritual secret societies since the Renaissance — from the Rosicrucians to the Alchemists, to the O.T.O.
The cause is Gnosis. The reality of direct personal experience of God while in life and within the body. The very essence of Gnosis is the rejection of intercessors between Man and God. Gnosis is thus at odds with all power structures.
I also believe that Gnosis is at the core of Masonic political values such as those that helped shape America through our Founding Fathers. These cherished principles include individual rights, freedom of thought and worship, universal tolerance and brotherhood, freedom of association, the spirit of open inquiry, equality before God and the law, and the consent of the governed.
Spiritual secret societies of both yesterday and today proclaim the inherent dignity of the individual, and his rightful place in the order of the Universe. To those who arrogate to themselves the exclusive right to determine such dignity for others, members of Gnostic secret societies will ever be smeared as heretics and subversives. Yet to lovers of Freedom, including, I hope many in this room, they will remain Light bearers of the Secret Tradition that continues to ring forth the clarion call of Human Liberty.
Thank you.
http://jameswassermanbooks.com/templar-lecture.html
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You have a lot of correct information and some incorrect information, but you are on the right track. The networks of esoteric priesthoods and priestesshoods, orders, movements etc. have been active for thousands of years. Hugues de Payens was a direct descendant of Muhammad the Prophet from the bloodline of the first Muslim monarch of Morocco, Moulay Idris. His family name, de Payens, did not come from a specific region but rather from the fact that he came from a bloodline of Muslims (who were pejoratively and incorrectly labelled as pagans by the Christians). His great - grandfather was 'Abdur-Rahman an-Nasiir, known to his Spaniard countrymen as "Sanchuelo." In time, some of his progeny moved across Europe and Hugues' father, Thibault de Payens, son of Thibault the Moor, was the Lord of a castle in Martigny. Some say that Hugues was brought up as a Christian. I have my severe doubts. At best, he was brought up in a very open - minded and esoteric household. It is very likely that his beliefs were not unlike those of the Gnostic Albigensians and the inner rules of the Order attest to this. That they would have shared the study and practice of esoteric mysteries with Jews and Muslims is practically guaranteed. Certainly the view of the Crucifixion among the Gnostic sects echoed that of the Qur'an. As for "Baphomet," it could have been a pejorative term or a code word for the sculptured bust that was kept by the Templars in every major outpost. The bust was that of a martyr, but it was not John the Baptist and it was not Muhammad the Prophet. I cannot say more.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to contact me: grand.hierophant@iokgi.org . Cheers and... as salaamu 'aleykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Fraternally,
Manuel Fernando Núñez (C.), 33º 66º - 90º 95º 97º
Sovereign Grand Master and Grand Hierophant
International Order of Khemetic Gnosis and Illuminism
Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis - Misraïm
Super Excellent Master,
Order of Royal and Select Masters
Tau Damcar Judaeus
Patriarch, Archbishop & Prince in the Gnosis
Ecclesia Gnostica Illuminata Sangrealis
Fra∴ Spartacus Hermeticus
Rex Supremus XIIIº
O∴ I∴ U∴
Sar Avraham,
S::I::G::I::
International Order of Illuminated Martinists
Grand Professed, VIIIº
Rectified Scottish Rite
Reau-Croix, XIº
International Order of Illuminated Élus Coëns
Brother of the Orient, Priest-King and True Rosicrucian united with Melchizedek, VIIIº
Order of the Rose Cross of the Orient
Patriarch of the Rose Cross,
Kabbalistic Order of the Rose Cross
Supreme Alchemist of Multiplication and Transmutation and
Perfected Master of the House of Wisdom, XIVº
Founder and Past Knight Templar Sovereign Grand Commander,
International Order of the Knights and Dames of the Temple of Solomon and the Sangreal