

TEMPLAR KNIGHTS SECRETS

Apr
28thSecrets Of The Knights Templar
by Gary Wayne
Knights Templar | Forbidden History and their Secret Quest for Atlantis
In 1096, Pope Urban II decreed the first Crusade because Muslims continually assaulted Christian pilgrims; however, Masonic interests were firmly focused on reclaiming Jerusalem.
Once the Christian Crusaders retook Jerusalem, an unanticipated, new order, sponsored by Mason/Rex Deus organizations, was unaccountably ordained by Papal Bull. This order was, of course, the Knights Templar, which originally consisted of nine founding members from European aristocracy; although, Rex Deus records indicate there were eleven. The original nine were not the poor, impoverished monks revisionist history would have us believe. All nine, or eleven, derived from important, royal Flemish and French families.
Templar historians noted the order was opportunistically created as a ruse to protect Christian pilgrims as they journeyed to Jerusalem; this was an effective cover for the secretive Rex Deus (Masons/Essenes) and the Priory of Sion and their real mission at Jerusalem. Note, however, the Priory of Sion was the true power behind the Templars and their occultist agenda.
Rome had already charged another order, the Knights of St. John, with the responsibility for the protection of pilgrims. Thus, the Templar order was cloaked under the guise of protecting pilgrims, allowing them to excavate without oversight for secret documents and knowledge hidden beneath the temple ruins. With all this in mind, then, we are compelled to query: Who is this mysterious Masonic Order of Sion/Priory of Sion? What was their true agenda for creating the Knights Templar? In 1975, at Paris’s Bibliotheque Nationale, parchments were discovered that became notorious as the Les Dossier Secrets that identified numerous members of an ultra secret brotherhood, the Priory of Sion.
Knights Templar Are Not What You Think | Documentary of Secrets and Mysteries
The Priory of Sion, according Steven Sora, is a secret organization existing today that is over 1,000 years old; it has existed under several names during its life. According to Templar author Jean Markale, the Priory of Sion is thought in many circles to be an ancient order that played a significant role in shaping history. Brown notes the Priory of Sion was founded in 1099 as a secret society by King Godefrois de Bouillon after conquering Jerusalem. The Les Dossier Secrets listed many famous people from history as past Grand Masters leading this organization. These included such luminaries as Leonardo Da Vinci, Victor Hugo, Robert Fludd, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton, to name a few. The Priory is thought to be a secret society protecting ancient, secret knowledge and documents, which they intend to reveal to the world at some specific point in the future. De Bouillon is thought to have created this secret brotherhood because he feared the powerful secret his family had held since the time of Jesus would be lost. The Priory of Sion is believed to hold the genealogies of Jesus’ descendants that would, if revealed to the world, threaten Christianity as we know it today.
One must note for the record, though, to date, no so-called bona fide, historical evidence has surfaced to support the suspicion that the Priory of Sion ever existed, but this so-called lack of evidence seems to be misdirection to me by powerful Rex Deus families. Additionally, Plantard, the last known Grand Master of the Priory has admitted to creating and planting the Les Dossier Secrets forgery. However, as noted by Gnostic writers (and seemingly from inside information), Plantard resigned from the Priory in 1984, due to the Les Dossier Secrets controversy, so his admission to creating forgeries was, in my opinion, misdirection and perhaps an endeavor to save his life. There appears to exist a disproportionate quantity of Masonic and Gnostic patronage endorsing the authenticity of the Priory of Sion and its history that make it difficult to discount its existence. To this end, Sylvia Browne also admits that there seem to be many accurate details and truths in the forgeries, leading one to ask: where did Plantard get his information? One wonders whether or not disinformation is now at work with regard to Plantard and the Priory.
The objective of this secret society has been to nurture and protect these alleged bloodlines of Jesus, those few members of the Merovingian bloodline who have survived into our age. Steven Sora believes the Knights Templar were organized to conceal the true motives of the Order of Sion, for their true motive was to reestablish the kingship of Jerusalem with French bloodlines descending from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The Templars were, therefore, known as the Guardian Princes of the Royal Secret.
Gardner further added that the main objective to the newly sanctioned Templar order was to excavate and retrieve the Templar Treasures, the knowledge and treasures of the Essenes, Solomon, Moses, Egypt, Hermes, and the antediluvians. DeBouillon met with Calabrian monks to revive the ancient Order of Sion and plot the establishment of the Templars. Calabrian monks were initiated into Pythagorean philosophy (Gnosticism). Thereafter, a conclave of Calabrians arrived in Jerusalem around 1090 C.E. Gardner goes on to note that the Templars discovered surviving books from the Library of Alexandria, Essene works predating the life of Jesus, and a wealth of other treasures and knowledge.
Brown confirms that the objective for the Templar order was to excavate the Jewish temple, all to find corroborating evidence from (Essene) documents confirming Godefrois’s family secret, reuniting this lost treasure with the Visigoth treasure already located in Languedoc. Excavation discoveries purportedly contained secret documents hidden during the Jewish revolt of 66–70 C.E., which challenged both the Roman Church and the New Testament doctrines. The location to these dissident documents was likely referred to in the copper scroll from the Visigoth king Alaric and his plunder of Rome in 410 C.E.
According to Priory of Sion records, the temple organization was reestablished in 1099 C.E., in Jerusalem, and not necessarily created then. The elder organization was known as the Brothers of the Red Cross, which was the same emblem adopted by the Knights Templar, who then passed on this legacy to the Rosicrucians. The Brothers of the Red Cross was, of course, a Gnostic order originally established as the Sages of Light in Egypt by Ormus, known also as Ormessus, an Alexandrian allegedly converted by St. Mark. The Essenes were also supposedly connected with Ormus and his disciples until 1181 C.E. Markale testifies that the Brotherhood of the Red Cross was a fusion of the Essenes; the Johanites/Nazorenes; and Godfrois’ group, the Priory of Sion.
The Priory of Sion then established the Knights Templar as its own private and subversive military arm, under a veil of legitimacy and integrity, through an official Catholic-sponsored organization (with the help of St. Bernard), which became fully accepted and integrated into mainstream Christianity. The Knights Templar, then, according to Markale, became an exoteric creation of an esoteric order, which was employed as a militia organization, subject in all respects to the Priory of Sion. Note also that the Templar Knights wore white garments, like those worn by the Essenes, until 1146 C.E., when St. Bernard authorized Templars to don the Red Cross, as well.
After the formation of the Templars, the Priory of Sion was thought to have merged into the Knights Templar, until the two orders split at the Cutting of the Elm in Gisors. Even though the founding Templars, were considered Rex Deus, the guiding force behind the Templar creation, according to Marr, was sponsored by the shadowy Priory of Sion organization. Through the Priory of Sion, the Templars were formidably funded in complete secrecy by various royal families of Europe, Rex Deus families. The Knights Templar, after all, were believed to be the official guardians of the Holy Grail, the Shroud of Turin, and the Ark of the Covenant. Templars, according to Marshal, always crop up in Grail literature and are believed by others to have been originally founded in the era of Arthur and Perceval as a cryptic Order of Grail Keepers. Gardner wrote that the Templars were directly linked back to the Knights of the Round Table, the Sangreal Order of guardians for the Grail treasure and secrets. This was the mystical Brotherhood of Great Heroes. Lancelot of the Lake’s heroic legacy later served as the archetype for the Knights Templar.
I find it both intriguing and troubling to note that the origins of the Knights Templar lie with Arthur, Perceval, and the Holy Grail over 600 years before their order came to public view in the twelfth century, which, in turn, connects back even further to the Brotherhood of the Red Cross. Paul Naudon wrote that the early Templar order abided by the rule of the Celtic Christian and Benedictine bishop from England, the famous St. Augustine, until 1128 C.E., when St. Bernard instituted an indelible new rule for the Templar order.
Craft legends recorded the Templars from their beginning ventured into ongoing communications with other secret societies from the Middle East, from which they adopted many of their doctrines. Of these secret societies, the Druids, the Gnostic Essenes, and the Islamic Gnostic Assassins held the closest ties to the Freemasons, all organizations that held inexplicable ties to the Templars. In fact, as early as 1129, Hugh De Payen, first Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, led 300 knights allied with the Assassins of Persia on a siege of the city of Damascus. David Hatcher Childress wrote that the Assassins had formal ties to the Templars and almost joined the order, but the Templars did not meet their objectives, whatever those objectives were. Furthermore, many of the latter Knights Templar were, in truth, Palestinian by birth, totally fluent in Arabic and thoroughly familiar with the Assassins.
Assassin derived from the Arab word asas, meaning “guardians or guardian brothers.” Almost all mystical groups ostensibly have an ancient name signifying either a watcher or a guardian of ancient knowledge. Assassins paid a tribute to the Templars through the twelfth century; although, the reasons for this are unknown today. In 1198, Bernard the Treasurer recorded the leader of the Assassins inexplicably treated the Templars as if they were royalty, but again, without explanation. Assassins served the Templars loyally as translators, interpreters, spies, ambassadors, and contract killers.
Assassins were additionally remembered as great builders, adopting their organizational structure from the Pythagoreans and the Egyptians. Assassins wore white robes and practiced a form of solar worship just as the Essenes, the Great White Brotherhood, and the Templars did.
The Assassins were part of a mystical, Muslim sect, the Ishmaelites, whose founding leader was the famous Aga Khan, descendant of Mohammed; modern-day followers of this sect reside in Pakistan, India, and East Africa. Ishmaelites are made up of three sects: Karmates, Ismailis, and Assassins. The Karmates focused on reform, which eventually shook the Muslim world, including Syria, Egypt, Persia, and India, leading to the Fatimid dynasty. Previous to this, the Muslim prophet Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima, married Mohammed’s brother-in-law, Ali, which later established the Fatimid dynasty, which dreamt of creating peaceful universalism in the world, under the doctrines of Amenhotep IV of the Armana dynasty, who was known variantly as the infamous Pharaoh Akenhaten. The Fatimid dynasty also intentionally established a House of Wisdom that produced the initiate Hassan-I-Sabbah, who founded Hashishim, the Assassins. Karmates thereafter organized themselves into professional guilds all containing hierarchal degrees and apprenticeship. Karmates also introduced Hellenic, Neoplatonic, Hermetic, and Sabian dogma into Islam through esoteric initiations.
The Templars appear to have adopted almost all of their organizational structure from the mystical Assassins, Karmates, and Ismailis. The Templars and the Benedictines also adopted much of the Arabic Mysteries and ancient knowledge. Arabs and mystical Muslims over centuries had developed alchemy into a synthesis of Egyptian, Chaldean, Jewish, and Hellenic practices before teaching this knowledge to the Europeans. According to Naudon, all this cryptic and ancient knowledge was then distributed throughout Europe via the Benedictine and Templar orders.


It is from the Essenes Mackey believes the Templars adopted their heretical religion. The Templars were not the Catholic Christian order they portrayed themselves to be. They were, in truth, a secret order of Gnostics, who based their religion on mysticism in the tradition of the mystic Assassins and Essenes. Templars placed their beliefs in what they viewed was the true church that taught mysticism and reincarnation, the church that was suppressed and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, the religion known as Gnosticism.
From the mystic Assassins, the Templars modeled their own organization, even to the extent that the Islamic Assassins were a secret society outwardly practicing Islam but inwardly practicing mysticism and renouncing Islam. Templars also outwardly practiced Christianity but inwardly denounced it, preferring to worship the global pantheon under the religion of the Gnostics. According to Geoffrey Higgins, the Assassins and the Templars were identical. The Assassins organization, then, was the clandestine, mystical organization brought back to Europe, which flourished under its new Christian disguise and in the protection of the Roman Church; these founding seeds eventually led to the Templar’s downfall as heretics.
In 1128, at the Council of Troyes, the Templars were granted the status of a Sovereign Order and were adopted as the Holy Warriors of the Catholic Church, whence they received enormous gifts from the great lords of Europe. Templars were granted the right to retain all plunder pillaged from the Muslims under this edict, and they confiscated vast tracts of lands in Syria and Palestine until 1239 C.E. Templar rise to power and prominence was swift; in 1139 C.E., Pope Innocent II granted the Templars international independence from any obligation to any authority other than himself. This Papal Bull was prominently known as Omne Datum Optimim; it granted the Templar Order the unprecedented right to administer the law as the high justice in all the lands under its control. Templars were a law unto their own in the nations in which they resided. Templars subsequently administered high justice in Paris, under a great and legendary elm tree. Elm trees are sacred in Gnosticism.
Omne Datum Optimum further enhanced Templar power through granting the Templar Order the ability to appoint its own priests and establish its own churches. This Papal Bull was reconfirmed in 1162 by Pope Alexander III. In 1188, Pope Gregory VIII declared the Templars did not have to bow to any bishop other than the pope; the Templars were then completely free from bishop oversight, authority, and inspections. Because of the support from St. Bernard and the Papal blessings, which brought forth the generosity of the European royalty, Templar wealth overflowed, which then transformed the Templars into one of the greatest military, political, economic, and religious forces the world has ever known, and it happened in less than fifty years. Omne Datum Optimum granted the Templar Order extravagant privileges that modified and expanded the Council of Troyes edict in uncontrollable ways. From this point on, the order became an official initiatory entity, according to Markale.
The Templars then converted their generous gifts by selling and exchanging them to acquire lands and buildings of their own choosing, which were strategically located near all the main arteries of commerce, thus making them necessary conduits between far-flung regions of Europe. These new lands were all located at strategic points, governing the economic, social, and political livelihood of all Europe.
Within a decade of their return from Jerusalem, Templars became the most influential body the world has ever known. They established the first international banking network and became the financiers for most of the thrones of Europe. At the pinnacle of Templar power, at the close of the thirteenth century, Templars owned more than one-third of Paris, according to Paul Naudon. The central Templar bank was situated in the Paris Templar Temple, which became the center for French finances.
By the middle of the twelfth century, the Templars had assembled considerable holdings in the Iberian Peninsula. They established castles outside of Barcelona, at a place known as Montserrat, where legend has it that the Templars originally hid away the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant. Interestingly enough, Montserrat was the location where the Gnostic Essenes/Rex Deus settled in the early centuries before Christ, along with settling in yet another enigmatic area of southern France known as Catalunya. Catalunya was the district the Templars migrated to after they were outlawed from Portugal, a region known as “the Razes” around Rennes Le Chateau. Not coincidentally, this region was in Septmania that was not subject to direct French sovereignty. This was also the mythical and mysterious region settled in by Mary Magdalene and her Grail progeny.
The Gnostic Cathars, too, were strongly allied with the Knights Templar. Cathars resided in southern France around Catalunya, the very same region that the pre-Christian Essenes and the Knights Templar later settled. All were Gnostics who were united in common cause. Catharism was a blend of ancient earth worship, eastern mysticism, Gnosticism, and aspects of Christianity. Some refer to Catharism as “western Buddhism,” a powerful religion that would have spread to all of Europe if not for the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 sponsored by the Roman Church. And what should not come as any surprise is that Catalunya was the region where the mythical Merovingian Fisher Kings reigned.
The Templars chose for their official emblem the Red Cross from the Gnostic/Essene Brotherhood of the Red Cross, the Order of Ormus, and the Sages of Light; whereas their sister order, the Gnostic Order of St. John, the Hospitallers, accepted the white cross as their emblem. The Templar Red Cross boldly flew as the official flag for Christopher Columbus’s first two vessels, suggesting the Templars somehow helped fund Columbus’s historic discovery of the Americas, furthering the Templar agenda at the same time.
When Jerusalem fell back into the hands of Islam in 1188, the Priory of Sion officially split away from the Knights Templar at a famous, legendary event recorded as The Cutting of the Elm at Gisors in Normandy. The Priory held the Templars responsible for the loss of Jerusalem and further accused the Templars of falling into disfavor through greed, which the Priory charged was a complete betrayal of their mission laid out by Hugh De Payen at the creation of the Knights Templar. From this point on, the Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar separated into divergent organizations. The Cutting of the Elm was symbolic, for this official separation signified that each organization henceforth had distinct and independent agendas to pursue. The Priory then scurried underground and into complete secrecy. It is thought that it was because of this strained separation the Priory of Sion stood by in silence at the dismantling of the Knights Templar in 1307.
Gisor, until that time, possessed a great elm tree that was famous for its size, age, and magnificence. The elm is of great allegorical significance in the Gnostic web of religious allegories, doctrines, and organizations, to which both the Priory of Sion and Knights Templar belonged. The French word for elm is orme, as in the Gnostic Ormus of Egypt. Ormus was the Gnostic St. Mark supposedly converted in Alexandria at the turn of the millennium. This was the Gnostic sect known variantly as Ormuzd, and Ahura-Mazda, of the ancient Persian Mazdean tradition and Zoroastrianism, which all modern Gnostic, New Age, and Theosophist religions connect themselves back to in history.
In the early days after the suppression of the Knights Templar, any connection to the Templars would have been met with severe reprisals from all forces loyal to the Roman Catholic Church in all European nations, save one. Some surviving Templars sought refuge in sister organizations, such as the Knights of St. John, the Teutonic Knights, and others, but the powerful, along with the Templar wealth, all stowed away to Scotland, under the protection of the Sinclair family and Robert the Bruce. Bruce was excommunicated by that time for murdering his rival to the throne in a Catholic Church. Because of Bruce’s excommunication, his official recognition as King of Scotland by Rome did not come until pope John XXII lifted the excommunication in 1323, long after the reestablishment in Scotland of the new Templar order, which was done in secrecy, under Scottish protection.
The Bruce clan was originally French, being known as “De Bruce.” Lomas and Knight recorded that the Bruces were a Norman clan that was also Rex Deus. Remember, as well, that Robert’s descendant James Bruce claimed to be a descendant of the Essenes, which were the originating Rex Deus cult. Through marriage, the Bruce clan gained a direct lineage from the McAlpin dynasty of kings that originated with the tribe of Scota and the kings of Dalriada and Tara of Ireland. This is why Bruce tried to unite the old kingdom of Ireland with Scotland when Bruce revolted against England.
According to Steven Sora, both the Bruce and Sinclair families had Norse roots before becoming French, having arrived in Normandy with the Norse incursions. The Bruce clan, according to Naudon, was indeed a Flemish family from Normandy, whose family maintained Templar membership throughout the generations. Rollo was the Norseman who vanquished Normandy; William the Conqueror was his great, great, great grandson. The successful battle of Hastings by William the Conqueror put William’s Rex Deus bloodline back on the English throne, which his Norse brethren had lost about thirty years before.
The De Bruce family also had long and strong ties to the powerful Sinclair clan. Both were Norman families that gained large English tracts of land for supporting William the Conqueror in 1066. In 1062, before the famous battle at Hastings, Norman knights first arrived in Scotland and Ireland; these knights included William the Seemley St. Clair, whose descendant Henri St. Clair was a battle partner with Hugh De Payen, one of the founders of the Knights Templar. Norse invaders had previously signed a treaty in 911 C.E. with the French that ceded Normandy to the Norse—this agreement, the Treaty of Saint-Claire-Sur-Epte is the origin of the Sinclairs’ adopted name.
Both the Sinclairs and the Bruces later had a falling out with William the Conqueror and migrated north to Scotland, where they allied themselves to Malcolm III. Henri St. Clair became the first Earl of Rosslyn and founder of the Sinclair family dynasty that eventually built Rosslyn Chapel. The Sinclair clan later became the Grand Masters of the Freemasons of Scotland. King Malcolm III of Scotland granted William St. Clair the lands at Rosslin and then made William’s son, Henri, the Earl of Rosslin. Henri St. Clair took an active part in the first Crusades as part of the originating and founding Knights Templar.
William Sinclair exemplified the power of his family through his deeds and titles. He was renowned as the Earl of Caithness, the last St. Claire Earl of Orkney, the Baron of Rosslyn, Chancellor and High Admiral of Scotland and Lord Sinclair. The Sinclairs were remembered fondly as the last of the Norwegian Jarls. William Sinclair of Rosslyn, Scotland, was believed, according to Templar authors, to have been a member of a secret society (Rex Deus) that preserved important, ancient knowledge and also knowledge concerning the Holy Grail, the Holy Blood of the Merovingian dynasty, and information on the undiscovered continent across the Atlantic. William Sinclair was both Rex Deus and a member of the Knights Templar.
Excerpt from The Genesis 6 Conspiracy
The Secret Knowledge and Mystical Quests of the Knights Templar
Welcome to a captivating journey into the hidden world of the Knights Templar, an enigmatic order that held the key to medieval secrets and embarked on mystical quests. In this exploration of medieval history and secret societies, we will uncover the mysteries they guarded and the legendary quests they undertook.
Among the Templar secrets lie the fabled Holy Grail and the mystical Ark of the Covenant. Join us as we delve into these ancient relics’ historical context and the Knights Templar’s role in their search. Discover the allure of secret societies during this fascinating era and unravel the age-old enigmas they left behind.
From their origins and the secrecy that shrouded their activities to their enduring legacy, the Knights Templar fascinates and inspires. Their secrets transcend time, reaching deep into the world of hidden knowledge and historical mysteries. Join us as we unravel the cloak of secrecy and dive deep into the annals of medieval history and secret societies.
The Origins of the Knights Templar
To understand the secrets and quests of the Knights Templar, it is crucial to delve into their origins and historical context. During the medieval period, the Templars emerged as a prominent order, playing a significant role in the Crusades and capturing the imagination of many.
Formed in the early 12th century, the Knights Templar were initially tasked with protecting pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. However, their influence quickly expanded, gaining immense wealth and power. They established a network of strongholds known as Templar commanderies and became one of the wealthiest and most formidable military orders of the time.
While the Templars’ primary purpose was to safeguard Christian pilgrims, they soon became entangled in the political landscape of the Crusades. Their role as skilled warriors and financial experts granted them favor and support from various nobles and monarchs.
Despite their growing influence, the Knights Templar were one of the first secret societies of their time, shrouding their activities in secrecy and symbolism, which only added to their mystique. The allure of secret societies during this era, such as the Templars, stemmed from the fascination with hidden knowledge and the desire for exclusive membership.
As we dive deeper into the medieval history of the Knights Templar, we uncover the mysteries surrounding their formation, their role in the Crusades, and the secrecy that enveloped their activities. Join us as we unravel the origins of this legendary order and explore the captivating world of secret societies and medieval intrigue.
The Quest for the Holy Grail
One of the most famous quests associated with the Knights Templar is their pursuit of the Holy Grail. This sacred relic, believed to be the cup used by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper, has captivated the imagination of people for centuries.
Legends and Theories
The legends surrounding the Holy Grail are numerous and diverse. Some tales depict it as a miraculous vessel with supernatural powers, while others portray it as a symbol of spiritual enlightenment. The Templars were said to have been entrusted with the Grail and sought to protect it from falling into the wrong hands.
Templar’s Role
The Knights Templar played a significant role in the Grail narrative, fueling the legends and adding to the mystery. Some theories suggest that they discovered hidden knowledge or ancient treasures during their quests, including clues related to the Grail’s location. Their search for the Holy Grail became intertwined with their larger mission to protect pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem during the Crusades.
The Historical Context
The quest for the Holy Grail by the Knights Templar took place during the medieval period, a time of great exploration and curiosity. With their extensive resources and network, the Templars were uniquely positioned to undertake such an ambitious quest. Their search for the Grail became a symbol of their devotion and dedication to their cause.
The Enduring Mystery
The quest for the Holy Grail stands as one of the most captivating enigmas throughout history. This legendary artifact, often depicted as the cup from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper and later used to collect his blood at the Crucifixion, has fueled centuries of speculation, exploration, and scholarly research. Despite numerous theories and extensive archaeological pursuits, the precise location and nature of the Grail remain shrouded in mystery, its true essence slipping through the fingers of time.
This enduring quest has not only intrigued historians and archaeologists but has also sparked the imaginations of countless adventurers and writers, weaving its way into the fabric of medieval lore and modern storytelling. The Holy Grail symbolizes the ultimate quest for knowledge, redemption, and divine connection, representing a beacon of hope and eternal life for those who seek it.
Central to the Grail narrative is the enigmatic role of the Knights Templar. This legendary order of warrior monks, founded in the 12th century to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, has been linked to the Grail through myths and speculative historical connections. Tales of their secret rituals and rumored possession of sacred relics, including the Holy Grail, have added layers of intrigue to the Templar legacy. Their sudden downfall and the subsequent dispersal of their treasures have only deepened the mysteries surrounding their connection to the Grail.
Exploring the legends, theories, and historical context of the Holy Grail and the Templars’ involvement reveals a tapestry of faith, power, and mystery. This quest, transcending mere artifact retrieval, delves into the spiritual and metaphysical realms, inviting us to ponder the nature of sacredness and the endless human drive to uncover the unknown. The Holy Grail remains a symbol of the eternal human quest for meaning, a relic as much of our imagination as of history, continuing to inspire and elude in equal measure.
The Search for the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant, an ancient biblical artifact, has long been the subject of fascination and reverence. Described in the Bible as a sacred chest built by the Israelites under the guidance of Moses, it was said to hold the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, symbolizing God’s covenant with his people. The Ark’s mysterious powers and its significance as a divine link have made it a coveted object for centuries, leading to endless speculation about its final resting place.
The Knights Templar, renowned for their role as protectors of Christian pilgrims and guardians of sacred relics, have been intricately linked with the search for the Ark. Legends suggest that during the Crusades, the Templars may have discovered ancient secrets or even the Ark itself beneath the ruins of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. Theories abound that they could have harnessed its mystical properties or hidden it away, contributing to their legendary wealth and power.
The enduring quest for the Ark of the Covenant transcends mere archaeological interest; it represents a deeper yearning for connection with the divine and the pursuit of ancient wisdom. This search has woven a complex tapestry of myth, religion, and history, inviting scholars, treasure hunters, and the faithful to explore the possibilities of its existence and location.
The Templars’ involvement in this quest adds a layer of mystique, suggesting a profound and secretive engagement with the sacred. Unraveling the tales of their search for the Ark opens a window into the human desire for hidden knowledge and the power of sacred artifacts. As the search continues, the Ark of the Covenant remains one of history’s most enduring mysteries, symbolizing the infinite quest for spiritual and historical enlightenment.
Unraveling Templar Secrets
The medieval history of the Knights Templar is shrouded in mystery, with their quests for the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant capturing the imaginations of many. However, these enigmatic warriors were known for guarding secrets that extended far beyond these famous pursuits. In this section, we unearth the Templars’ hidden knowledge and clandestine practices, revealing the intricate web of secrets they held within their order.
Clandestine Practices and Rituals
The Knights Templar, a medieval order of warrior monks, have long been shrouded in mystery and intrigue, particularly regarding their clandestine practices and rituals. These secret ceremonies, steeped in ancient mysticism and symbolism, were fundamental to the Templars’ identity, embodying their deep spiritual convictions and their mission’s sacred nature.
Within the secluded sanctuaries of their commanderies, the Templars conducted complex and enigmatic rituals. These ceremonies, often misunderstood or misinterpreted by outsiders, included initiation rites that bonded members to the order with vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The rituals were imbued with symbolic gestures and words, believed to convey spiritual truths and convey divine protection.
The Templars also developed a sophisticated system of codes and signs for communication and identification, enabling them to recognize fellow knights and convey messages securely in an era fraught with dangers. These secret signs and codes further enhanced the mystique surrounding the Templars, fueling speculations and legends about their knowledge and activities.
Exploring the Templars’ clandestine practices provides a glimpse into a world where the spiritual and the martial intertwined, revealing the profound and mysterious ceremonies that shaped their beliefs and practices. The secrecy surrounding these rituals has left a lasting legacy, captivating the imagination of historians, writers, and conspiracy theorists alike.
The Legacy of Hidden Knowledge
As guardians of hidden knowledge, the Templars possessed insights that set them apart from society. From sacred geometry to alchemical practices, their understanding of esoteric disciplines influenced both their quest for enlightenment and their impact on the secret societies that followed.
The Knights Templar’s journeys and crusades brought them into contact with a plethora of ancient civilizations, from the shores of the Middle East to the hidden corners of Europe. These encounters exposed the Templars to a vast reservoir of knowledge, including mystical teachings, architectural innovations, and esoteric philosophies. Their role as both warriors and monks facilitated the absorption and preservation of this wisdom, contributing to their enigmatic legacy.
The Templars were reputed to uphold and practice a blend of mystical teachings derived from their interactions with diverse cultures. This included an understanding of sacred geometry, alchemy, and the Kabbalah, which were integrated into their spiritual practices and the architecture of their temples. The depth of their knowledge, much of it veiled in secrecy, has led to speculation about their possession of lost artifacts and manuscripts containing ancient wisdom.
Furthermore, the connections between the Templars and other secretive orders, such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, hint at a transmission of hidden knowledge through the ages. These links suggest a continuity of esoteric tradition, with the Templars at the heart of a network of knowledge exchange. This enduring transmission of ancient wisdom has cemented the Templars’ place in history, not just as warriors of the cross but as guardians of deep spiritual and philosophical secrets.
Shaping Secret Societies and Historical Mysteries
The Templars’ secrets not only influenced their own practices and beliefs but also left an indelible mark on the development of secret societies and historical mysteries that endure to this day.
The Knights Templar’s dissolution in the early 14th century did not signify the end of their influence. Instead, it marked the beginning of their profound impact on the formation of other secret societies, most notably the Freemasons and the Illuminati. These organizations, steeped in ritual and mystery, are believed to have adopted and adapted Templar traditions, symbols, and knowledge, embedding the Templars’ legacy into their foundational structures. The Templars’ emphasis on brotherhood, secret rites, and the pursuit of spiritual and intellectual enlightenment provided a blueprint for these later societies, fostering a lineage of esoteric tradition that persists to this day.
The connections between the Templars and revered historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sir Isaac Newton further illustrate the order’s far-reaching influence. Allegations of these individuals’ involvement with secret societies that inherited Templar knowledge suggest an intellectual lineage that contributed to their groundbreaking work in art, science, and philosophy.
In contemporary popular culture, the Templars continue to captivate the imagination of millions. From novels and films to video games and television series, their enigmatic legacy and hidden knowledge are subjects of endless fascination. This ongoing interest underscores the Templars’ enduring appeal as symbols of mystery, power, and wisdom, bridging the gap between historical fact and speculative fiction. The Templars’ story, woven into the fabric of modern entertainment, ensures that their mystique remains alive, inspiring new generations to explore the depths of history’s most intriguing enigmas.
In the captivating world of the Knights Templar, true power lay not just in their quests for sacred relics but in the secrets they safeguarded and the hidden knowledge they possessed. As we unravel these Templar secrets, we gain a deeper understanding of medieval history, secret societies, and the timeless allure of hidden wisdom.
The Legacy of the Knights Templar
The impact of the Knights Templar extends far beyond their quests and secrets. This captivating order has left a lasting legacy in medieval history, secret societies, and popular culture. From their enigmatic practices to their intriguing symbolism, the Templars continue to fascinate and inspire, creating a rich tapestry of historical intrigue.
Influence on Medieval History
The Knights Templar played a significant role in shaping the course of medieval history. As fierce warriors and skilled financial managers, they became powerful during the Crusades. Through their military prowess and strong financial networks, they accumulated vast wealth and established a system of banking that influenced Europe’s economy for centuries to come.
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The Templars’ military expertise and strategic skills on the battlefield contributed to significant victories during the Crusades, garnering them immense respect and influence.
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Their financial prowess and innovative banking practices, such as issuing letters of credit and establishing safe deposit facilities, set the foundation for the modern banking system.
Influence on Secret Societies
The Knights Templar’s clandestine practices and mysterious rituals have captivated the imaginations of many, inspiring the creation and evolution of secret societies throughout history. The Templars’ aura of secrecy and esoteric knowledge have left an indelible mark on secret societies around the world.
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Groups such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians have drawn inspiration from the Templars, adopting their symbols, rituals, and secretive nature.
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The Templar legacy can also be seen in popular culture, with fictional works and movies often featuring secret societies directly or indirectly inspired by the Knights Templar.
Enduring Fascination
The allure of the Templars’ secrets and their quests for ancient treasures continue to captivate historians, treasure hunters, and enthusiasts alike. Tantalizing clues and theories surrounding Templar artifacts, such as the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, keep the intrigue alive, fueling ongoing research and exploration.
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Medieval history enthusiasts are engrossed in unraveling the hidden codes, symbols, and documents left behind by the Knights Templar, uncovering new insights into their rituals and beliefs.
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Templar-inspired tourism, with historical sites linked to the order, draws visitors from around the world, allowing them to immerse themselves in the mystique and history of these medieval knights.
In the realm of Templar secrets, medieval history, and secret societies, the legacy of the Knights Templar continues to unravel, grip our imaginations, and inspire us to explore the enigmatic world they inhabited. By delving into their history, we uncover their impact on the past and their enduring influence on the present.
Summary
In conclusion, the Knights Templar has left an indelible mark on medieval history. Their secrets and quests for the Holy Grail and Ark of the Covenant captivate the imagination of scholars and enthusiasts alike. The mysteries and enigmas surrounding the Templars continue to intrigue us as we strive to uncover the hidden knowledge they guarded and the mystical treasures they sought.
Delving into the world of medieval history and secret societies, we have explored the origins of the Knights Templar and their role in the Crusades. We have unraveled the legends and theories surrounding their quest for the Holy Grail, a sacred relic that has captivated minds for centuries. Furthermore, we have ventured into the realm of biblical artifacts, following their search for the mythical Ark of the Covenant and its hidden secrets.
Through their clandestine practices, rituals, and teachings, the Templars have left behind a rich legacy that continues to shape secret societies and historical mysteries. Their enduring impact can be felt in popular culture, and their influence stretches far beyond their quests and secrets. To truly understand the Templar secrets and the historical context in which they thrived, one must traverse the intricate tapestry of medieval history and unravel the threads of the enigmatic secret societies that have shaped our world.


Knights Templar Secrets and Legacy: The Untold Truth
The Origins of the Knights Templar: From Humble Beginnings
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy began in 1119 when nine knights formed a military order to protect Christian pilgrims. They pledged absolute loyalty, took vows of poverty, and established their headquarters near the sacred Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
With the Church’s blessing, they quickly gained influence, wealth, and land across Europe, shaping medieval history. Their disciplined training, strategic warfare, and unmatched bravery made them a formidable force during the Crusades. Nobles and monarchs entrusted them with financial assets, transforming them into the medieval world’s most powerful banking institution.
Over time, their influence spread far beyond the battlefield, creating an unparalleled legacy. Their mysterious rise, immense power, and secretive nature fueled countless legends and conspiracies. Even today, their origins remain a subject of fascination, inspiring endless debates about their true purpose and hidden agenda.
Knights Templar Secrets: The Hidden Purpose of the Order
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy revolve around their mysterious mission, which extended far beyond protecting Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. Many believe they uncovered sacred knowledge, hidden relics, and powerful artifacts that shaped medieval and modern history.
Their influence grew rapidly, allowing them to operate independently from kings and popes, raising questions about their true purpose. Some historians suggest they sought ancient wisdom, secret scriptures, and forbidden truths concealed beneath the Temple Mount. Their vast network, cryptic rituals, and coded messages fueled endless speculation about their connections to esoteric traditions.
Over centuries, theories emerged linking them to lost civilizations, hidden bloodlines, and suppressed religious teachings. Despite their downfall, their enigmatic role in shaping history continues to inspire researchers, conspiracy theorists, and truth-seekers alike. Unraveling their true mission remains an enduring mystery, leaving behind a legacy shrouded in secrecy and intrigue.
The Mysterious Symbols and Codes of the Knights Templar
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy include cryptic symbols, coded messages, and secret rituals that continue to puzzle historians and researchers worldwide. They carved enigmatic markings into cathedrals, tombstones, and ancient manuscripts, embedding hidden meanings within their designs.
Some believe these symbols connect them to sacred geometry, alchemical knowledge, and lost esoteric traditions that predate their order. Their use of the eight-pointed cross, pentagrams, and labyrinthine patterns suggests a deeper understanding of mystical teachings. Many speculate they developed complex ciphers to communicate sensitive information beyond the reach of kings and popes.
Some codes allegedly concealed locations of lost relics, sacred texts, or hidden treasures scattered across Europe. The secrecy surrounding their symbols only deepened after their sudden fall, fueling countless theories about their hidden wisdom. Even today, their encrypted messages remain a subject of fascination, inspiring endless research into their true meanings.
Sacred Relics and Lost Treasures: Truth or Myth?
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy are deeply connected to legendary relics, hidden treasures, and mysterious artifacts that have captivated historians for centuries. Many believe they safeguarded the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and lost biblical scrolls containing forbidden knowledge.
Their immense wealth and secretive nature fueled countless legends about underground vaults filled with gold, sacred objects, and ancient manuscripts. Some theories suggest they discovered powerful relics beneath the Temple Mount, which granted them influence over medieval rulers. Their sudden downfall led to speculation that they hid their treasures in remote locations across Europe and the Middle East.
Despite numerous expeditions, no concrete evidence has confirmed the existence of these fabled riches or sacred relics. Theories continue to emerge, linking the Templars to hidden chambers, lost cities, and secret societies protecting their legacy. Whether myth or reality, their connection to legendary artifacts remains one of history’s greatest enigmas.
The Financial Empire of the Knights Templar
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy include the creation of one of the most sophisticated financial systems in medieval history. They established an early form of banking, allowing pilgrims and nobles to deposit wealth in one location and withdraw it elsewhere.
Their secure network of strongholds and financial expertise enabled them to manage vast fortunes across Europe and the Holy Land. Monarchs, merchants, and religious institutions trusted them to safeguard assets, finance wars, and facilitate international trade. Their influence grew so immense that some believe they controlled the economies of entire kingdoms through strategic lending.
Their wealth and independence eventually made them powerful enough to rival European rulers, fueling envy and suspicion. When King Philip IV of France sought to erase his debts, he orchestrated their downfall through accusations of heresy and treason. Despite their tragic end, their financial innovations laid the groundwork for modern banking and economic systems.
The Fall of the Order: Betrayal and Persecution
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy took a dark turn when political greed and fear led to their sudden downfall in 1307. King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the order, conspired to dismantle their power through false accusations. He arrested hundreds of Templars, charging them with heresy, blasphemy, and forbidden rituals to justify seizing their wealth.
Under brutal torture, many confessed to fabricated crimes, while others remained steadfast, refusing to betray their sacred vows. Pope Clement V, pressured by Philip, disbanded the order, sealing its fate and erasing its influence from public records.
Grand Master Jacques de Molay, defiantly proclaiming the Templars’ innocence, was burned at the stake in a chilling act of retribution. Many believe surviving members fled to secret strongholds, taking with them priceless knowledge, relics, and ancient mysteries. Their dramatic fall only deepened the intrigue surrounding their order, leaving a legacy shrouded in secrecy and speculation.
Survivors and the Secret Escape of the Templars
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy became even more mysterious when rumors spread that surviving members secretly escaped persecution. Many believe they fled to Scotland, Portugal, and Switzerland, finding refuge in sympathetic kingdoms willing to protect them.
Some suggest they integrated into other secretive organizations, preserving their knowledge, rituals, and influence for future generations. Historical records hint at Templar ships vanishing from French ports, possibly carrying treasure, relics, or sacred documents to unknown locations. Legends claim they played a hidden role in shaping societies, influencing military orders, and establishing powerful banking institutions.
Portugal’s Order of Christ, led by former Templars, carried on their maritime traditions, fueling the Age of Exploration. The theory that they laid the foundations for Freemasonry remains a topic of heated debate among scholars and historians. Their mysterious disappearance only deepened the fascination with their order, leaving behind unanswered questions and endless speculation.
The Connection Between the Templars and Freemasonry
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy continue to intrigue historians who speculate about their deep connection to Freemasonry and secret societies. Some believe surviving Templars safeguarded their traditions by embedding their symbols, rituals, and philosophies into Masonic lodges.
The similarities between Templar and Masonic initiation ceremonies suggest a shared lineage, passing down hidden knowledge through generations. Freemasons revere Templar legends, incorporating sacred geometry, esoteric teachings, and cryptic symbols into their organizational structure. Historical records reveal that many 18th-century Masonic groups openly claimed direct ties to the medieval order.
While some dismiss these links as myths, others argue that Freemasonry preserves the Templars’ spiritual and philosophical ideals. Their alleged influence extends into politics, finance, and secret networks shaping global events from behind the scenes. Whether fact or fiction, their possible connection fuels endless debates, reinforcing the aura of mystery surrounding their hidden brotherhood.
Templar Symbols and Hidden Messages in Architecture
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy reveal themselves through mysterious symbols and coded messages embedded in medieval architecture worldwide. Many ancient cathedrals, castles, and chapels display intricate carvings linked to Templar beliefs, rituals, and esoteric knowledge.
The use of sacred geometry, pentagrams, and cryptic markings suggests they concealed hidden meanings within their architectural masterpieces. Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, often associated with Templar mysteries, contains elaborate carvings believed to hold encoded messages. Some historians argue that Gothic cathedrals, funded by Templars, incorporate mathematical precision inspired by ancient wisdom.
The presence of hidden tunnels, underground chambers, and secret passageways hints at their need for discretion and security. Many theories suggest they left behind maps, relics, or sacred texts hidden within the walls of their sanctuaries. Whether intentional or coincidental, these symbols continue to fascinate researchers seeking to decode their long-lost secrets.
The Enduring Fascination with the Knights Templar Legacy
The Knights Templar Secrets and Hidden Legacy have captivated the public imagination for centuries, inspiring countless books, movies, and documentaries. Their mystique lies in their secretive nature, sudden fall, and alleged hidden knowledge, which continues to intrigue people worldwide.
From ancient relics to mysterious symbols, the Templars left behind an enigmatic legacy that invites endless speculation. Many believe their lost treasure, sacred texts, or untold secrets still await discovery in hidden corners of the world. This enduring fascination with their order fuels ongoing investigations, with scholars and treasure hunters searching for clues.
The Templars’ connections to historical events, religious figures, and powerful institutions only add to their allure. Despite centuries of research, the truth behind their secrets remains elusive, driving further exploration and curiosity. Ultimately, their legacy endures as one of history’s most compelling and unsolved mysteries, inviting all to seek answers.


THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD.
How the Knights Templar created Europe's first nation-state and a home for the Grail
Based on material from First Templar Nation by Freddy Silva. ©2014. No unauthorized reproduction or sharing please.
In 1159 the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, placed a mysterious seal on a charter that awarded the Knights Templar one third of his new, hard-won territory — an extraordinary move for a new monarch. On this strip of land the Templars would erect they most famous and lasting monuments: the Mother of All Churches dedicated to Mary Magdalene, and a rotunda with no door; visitors accessed the interior of the building via a secret chamber used for the investiture of new knights, or to administer the inner brotherhood’s most secret rite, the ‘raising of the dead’.
The king’s seal contains an anagram and reveals why the Templars were awarded this territory and why they patiently waited forty years to receive it. Secret societies love their symbols because, just like parables, to the casual viewer they convey one message while to the initiate of the Mysteries they conceal another. At first sight the seal with its scrambled letters form the word PORTUGAL. To the esoteric reader it reveals something altogether deeper, an added R, PORTU-GRAL. But to an initiate it reads, in Portuguese, POR TU O GRAL: “Through You The Grail.”
Is it possible the Templars inherited one-third of Portugal under unusual circumstances and there deposited their most famous artefact?
To understand how we got to this point we must first return to the moment when the Templars became an official order. In 1118 a new king of Jerusalem was chosen, Baudoin de Bourcq. Barely had Baudoin gotten used to his newly appointed seat when he received a visit from Hugues de Payen and Godefroi de Saint-Omer, as though the two proto-Templars were presenting their credentials. Whatever Hugues and Godefroi pitched the new king it sold him, and soon after, a small, close-knit group of knights moved into premises on Temple Mount to became officially known as the Knights Templar.
This is the official historical record. But new evidence shows that, seven years earlier, the Templars were already present and materially active in another land two thousand miles to the west, and through their intervention, this secret endeavour became their greatest accomplishment — the creation of Europe’s first independent nation-state.
It’s the close of the 11th century. There is no France, no Spain, and the German states are largely under the tutelage of the Holy Roman Empire. After riding west to help the Castilian king reclaim his lands from the Moors, a knight named Henri of Burgundy inherits the Atlantic port city of Porto Cale and its surrounding territory — the small county of Portucale — whereupon Henri changes his name, in Portuguese, to Count Dom Henrique. He had barely time to enjoy his new status when he was asked to set sail for Jerusalem, arriving just after its conquest by Crusaders. Little did Dom Henrique know that his decision to sail to Palestine would mark a pivotal moment in the history of his newly-acquired land, for the people he’d meet in Jerusalem would one day shape the destiny of his tiny territory.
On his second voyage to Jerusalem in 1103 Dom Henrique’s arrival coincided with that of two proto-Templars: Hugues de Payns and Count Hugh de Champagne. Originating from the same Duchy, it is likely that both Hugues and Dom Henrique got to know each other over the next three years, especially as both men shared the vision of a temporal new kingdom accountable only to God.
Traveling with Dom Henrique was another man of French parentage, Pedro Arnaldo da Rocha, born in Santarem (in what is today Portugal), whose family, the la Roche, were supporters of the burgeoning Cistercian Order. In time, its abbot Bernard de Clairvaux would become the Templars’ main benefactor.
Young Pedro Arnaldo’s presence in Jerusalem was opportune, arriving as he did shortly after the first king of Jerusalem installed members of the secretive Order of Sion in the abbey on its namesake hill. To say he made a favorable impression is an understatement, because by 1116 Pedro Arnaldo resurfaces as a full member of the Order, his signature inscribed on an original document from the Abbey de Notre Dame du Mont de Sion, in which he is addressed in Latin as Prior Petrus Arnaldus.
Such a position imbued Prior Arnaldo with immense political leverage. The abbey had established close ties with the knights and monks in the nearby church of the Holy Sepulcher, affording the prior direct access to two individuals living there — Hugues de Payns and Godefroi de Saint-Omer. That relationship was revealed on July 19, 1116 when a document signed by both Prior Arnaldus and Hugues de Payns declares “good relations are assured between the two Orders.”
In the relationship between the Order of the Temple, the House of Burgundy, the Ordre de Sion and the incipient Portuguese kingdom, Arnoldo da Rocha would prove to be the lynchpin. He was Portuguese by birth, his friendship with Count Dom Henrique granted him favor within the Portuguese court, and through his family’s status, connections with the nobles and ecclesiasts in and around the Portuguese city of Braga, many of whom were of Burgundian heritage. But Portuguese chroniclers give Prior Arnaldo even more credit. They cite him as a key founder of the Knights Templar in the county of Portugale, if not one of the original Templars in Jerusalem: “Arnaldo da Rocha, who was a Templar knight, was one of the first nine originators of this illustrious Order of the Temple in Jerusalem,” wrote the historian Alexandre Ferreira in 1735, quoting a 17th century source, Manuel de Faria e Sousa. And Sousa would have been in an excellent position to know, for he was himself a Templar knight.
Prior Arnaldo da Rocha as one of the original Templars is both provocative and explosive because it brings into sharp focus an unsettling proposition: were there really only nine original Templar knights? Or was this number merely a talisman, the kind of flourish employed by secret societies throughout that period? We may never know for certain; however, it is categorically stated in the Cistercian chronicles that the original Templars consisted of “Hugues and Godefroi and nine other knights,” raising the original core group of proto-Templars to eleven.
In 1114 Count Dom Henrique passed away in his adopted homeland. Back in Jerusalem, the Order of the Temple was still in its embryonic stage, yet sources claim the Templars by this time were already present in Portugale: “After D. Affonso VI married his daughter to Count Dom Henrique, they [the Templars] always came to his aid, and did not stop doing so even after the death of his son.” An independent German source also states categorically that the proto-Templars forged a working relationship with Count Dom Henrique: “The acquisition of an important property, such as that of the castle of Souré, which was given to them [the Order of the Temple] by Count Henrique in 1111 proves that these knights had already rendered some services, and that he was convinced of their usefulness.”
Such a donation places the proto-Templars firmly in the county of Portugale a full seven years before their official date on Temple Mount. And it wasn’t the only documented property they were awarded in that period. Shortly before he passed away Dom Henrique signed another document providing them with a residence in the city of Braga, described as being ‘beside a Templar hospital’, which would be the hospital for the poor founded by the city’s Archbishop Payo Mendes, “annexed to the main houses he had earlier donated to the Templars in the hermitage.” These acts of goodwill from an archbishop seem unusual until one discovers Payo Mendes’ second, secret job was that of Prior of the Knights Hospitaller, the sister organization to the Templars.
While Mendes groomed Afonso for his future role as first king of the Portuguese, the Templars continued to amass properties in and around Braga, and inevitably the city became their headquarters, as one Templar Master asserted: “De Domo Templi, quest est in Bracharensi Civitate,” ‘the home of the Temple, which is in the city of Braga’. The rate at which they received properties on Portuguese soil far eclipsed donations given to the Order elsewhere in Europe, and particularly so around the end of 1125. In the late part of that year the Templars grew noticeably active on Temple Mount, with several knights returning to Europe, as evidenced by the appearance at the Cistercian abbey in Clairvaux of the knights André de Montbard and Brother Gondemare — the former being the uncle of Bernard de Clairvaux, and the latter a Cistercian monk from the Portuguese town of Gondemare, a few miles south of Braga.
They were by no means the only knights stirred into action by Hugues de Payns. On the Celtic pagan day of Beltane, May 2, 1125, the Templar Grand Master co-signed a document in which he and Prior Arnaldo of the Order of Sion once more declared good relations between their respective brotherhoods, after which the prior also becomes suspiciously absent from Jerusalem. Writing of this notable event, the chronicler Lucas de Santa Catarina states how “the Grand Master dispatched several knights with powers to establish the Portuguese crown. Four of the Knights were Dom Guilherme, who supervised the others, Dom Hugo Martiniense, Dom Gualdino Paes, and Dom Pedro Arnaldo. They had the title and the power of Procurators of the Temple, which they exercised in due course, as many writers agree, while the Order sought to establish a home, and proceed as planned.” Joining them on the voyage to Portugale was a fifth Templar Procurator, Raimund Bernard.
No doubt Brother Gondemare and André de Montbard shared this explosive piece of news with Bernard de Clairvaux at his abbey. And yet to the Cistercian abbot this was hardly news, merely confirmation. Bernard had been contemplating the idea of establishing a temporal New Jerusalem, a model nation-state that would come to represent the epitome of true Christian ideals, because back in 1119 Bernard himself had dispatched a delegation of monks from Clairvaux to the Portuguese county — domain of his late uncle Count Dom Henrique — to found a monastery. One of those eight monks was Brother Roland, one of the founder Templar knights.
Given these associations between the Cistercian monks and the core Templar brotherhood it can be argued that both the Templars and Cistercians were working toward the same end — not to mention the Ordre de Sion, for not only was their abbot now also a Templar Procurator, and Portuguese at that, but brothers Gondomare and Roland are also listed as members of that same order.
No sooner had the five Templar Procurators landed in Portugale in 1125 when they received the first of many property donations: a small town near Gondemare called Fonte Arcada. The document was witnessed and signed, “I, Guilherme, Procurator of the Temple in this territory, receive this document.” But this Guilherme Ricard was far more than that, for his name appears on a second grant — for half the estate of Villa-nova donated “to God, and the brotherhood of the Knights Templar” — this time in Latin as Magister Donus Ricardus. Guilherme Ricard was the first Master of the Knights Templar in Portugale.
All these events preceded the Templars’ official blessing by the Pope at the Council of Troy in 1128. And barely two months after the famous event, Portugal’s independence was secured by prince Afonso Henriques, son of the late Count Dom Henrique. That the Templars were central to this event is shown in the declaration document which bears the first-known Templar logo.
But there’s more. Just as the first two kings of Jerusalem were “greatly obligated” to the Order of Sion for their positions, so prince Afonso was said to be “greatly obligated to members of the Order [of the Knights Templar].” This relationship became all too clear in 1129 when the king-in-waiting reissued the charter for the castle of Souré, — the one his father had donated to the Templars before they were thought to exist. Afonso’s wording on the reconstituted charter to the Knights Templar unequivocally reveals why he was so “greatly obligated” to the order: “I make this donation, not by force or by persuasion, but for the love of God, and for the good of my soul, and of my parents, and by the cordial love that I have for you, and because within your Brotherhood and in all your works I am a Brother.”
The Templars had placed one of their own on the throne of Portugal, and more to the point, Afonso was also the nephew of their main benefactor and spiritual compass, Bernard de Clairvaux.
Thus the Templars, the Cistercians and the Order of Sion secured their territory as far from papal interference as one could get in medieval Europe. The big question is, what were the Templars doing there, years before they were officially sanctioned in Jerusalem? Much of the answer becomes evident if one examines the spiritual aspects of the inner brotherhood that constituted the nucleus of the Order and the age in which it manifested.
The 12th century was characterized by an economy based on plunder and an overarching religious entity that tolerated nothing outside its strict Catholic dogma. Self-empowerment was denied, and worse, to connect spiritually with your god required doing so through an intermediary such as a priest or bishop. The alternative route to spiritual self-expression was through initiation into the Mysteries taught by Gnostic sects such as the Cathars and Bogomils, or the teachings of their predecessors the Essenes and Nazorites, particularly those of their priestly messiah John the Baptist, whose doctrine of living resurrection the Templars honoured. These rituals and beliefs are echoes of ancient Egyptian Mysteries schools whose central tenet was the enlightenment of the individual in this lifetime through a voluntary out-of-body experience, an initiatory (and figurative) resurrection, otherwise known as the ritual of ‘raising the dead’. Initiates were exposed to a knowledge that opened their vision and understanding of the Universe, and when their consciousness returned to the body they were considered enlightened or ‘risen’. By contrast, those who fell outside the teachings walked through life as though asleep, they were viewed as unaware or ‘dead’.
In the 12th century such ideas had fallen foul of the Catholic Church and its monopoly on resurrection, particularly its carefully selected canon which was based on a literal and erroneous interpretation of this experience — a fact asserted by the apostle Philip, who maintained that anyone who believes in a literal interpretation of resurrection is confusing a spiritual truth with an actual event. Needless to say his gospel was suppressed for sixteen centuries. Any sects who practiced ‘raising the dead’ were systematically run underground or met a slow and gruesome death.
Shortly before their persecution the Essenes buried scrolls outlining this ritual under Temple Mount. Around 1120 the Templars unearthed the first set of scrolls after tunneling under Temple Mount. Godefroi de Saint-Omer, one of the original knights, brought them back to his namesake town to be decrypted by the scholar Lambert; other scrolls were handed to a Kabbalistic School in nearby Troyes who enjoyed the support of Bernard de Clairvaux.
Like the Essenes, the Knights Templar also consisted of two groups: an outer group who dealt with temporal matters, and an inner brotherhood who followed an initiatory Gnostic tradition of enlightenment and whose behavior and ideas were more akin to a ministerial college. Entry required a waiting period of one year, and vows made by incoming Templar recruits such as Arnold of Sournia unequivocally imply that admittance into this exclusive group held a promise of considerable spiritual benefit: “I, wishing to come to the joys of Paradise, surrender my body and my soul to the Lord God.”
If it is indeed true the Templars followed a rite of spiritual practice based on Gnostic traditions — and by all accounts it did — they would similarly have conducted their initiations in secret underground chambers, much like the Essenes did under Temple Mount. In what amounts to a smoking gun, a document found in the possession of Templar Master Roncelyn de Fos called The Rule of the Elected Brothers, unequivocally states: “Build in your houses meeting places that are large and hidden that can be accessed by underground tunnels so that the brothers can go to meetings without the risk of getting into trouble...In the houses of unelected Brothers, it is prohibited to conduct certain materials pertaining to the philosophical sciences, or the transmutation of base metals into gold and silver. This shall only be undertaken in secret and hidden places.”
One of the hand-carved tunnels used for initiation ceremonies.
Such chambers still exist below original Templar buildings in Sintra, Portugal, a town donated to Gualdino Paes — one of the five knights sent by Hugues de Payens to “establish a Portuguese crown” and who later became Templar Master of Portugal. The Templars’ properties in Sintra now serve modern day businesses, such as the Hotel Central and Café Paris. In 1970 a hypogeum or ritual chamber with access tunnels was discovered beneath said café, with a connecting passageway leading one way to the nearby Palace, and the other uphill towards the Templar castle.
Fifteen minutes’ walk from Sintra’s main square lies another property that right up to the Middle Ages was described as the Forest of Angels. Today it is the site of an extensive property owned by successive Masonic families dating to at least the early 18th century; in 1371 it was still in the possession of the Knights Templar. Its gardens can only be described as a deliberately designed ritual landscape. One of its many wonders is a labyrinth of tunnels penetrating deep into the bedrock of the mountainside, as though meant for initiates wishing to immerse themselves in the womb of the Earth Mother, much like Gnostic sects have done throughout history.
One tunnel leads to a shaft sunk forty feet into the earth. It is officially described as a well yet close examination shows it never did, nor is it capable of retaining water. It consists of five levels of unevenly stacked and undressed limestone blocks, here and there patched and repaired. Behind the blocks hide five low and narrow circular galleries, each accessed through claustrophobic spiral and in a style that suggests a later refurbishment. The top of the shaft is literally an eighteen-foot diameter hole, level with the ground and surrounded by a rough, dry-stone wall in the shape of a horseshoe. The entrance faces northeast and, like Stonehenge’s horseshoe of bluestones, it references the highest position of the light, the summer solstice sunrise, an esoteric reference to ancient wisdom and, coincidentally, the feast day of John the Baptist, to whom the Templars dedicated a disproportionate amount of churches in Portugal and elsewhere.
inside one of the initiation ‘wells'.
But by far the greatest evidence pointing to the Templars having followed mystical practices and rites of initiation of the Mysteries appears in the town of Tomar. And the manner in which they inherited this property is nothing short of extraordinary.
Once Afonso Henriques secured the Portuguese nation-state with Templar assistance, he awarded what amounted to a third of his territory to the brotherhood, who in turn made good use of it by creating a kingdom within a kingdom. Its center was Tamarah (as it was then spelled), named for the daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The name means ‘palm tree’, so it similarly represents the symbol of the resurrected Egyptian god Osiris. Before they set about rebuilding the town, the Templars undertook a near pathological interest in re-erecting a dilapidated church, Santa Maria do Olival, which later became ‘mother of all Templar churches’. Indeed, all twenty-two Portuguese Templar Masters would be buried in this unimposing edifice. Clearly Tomar was a focal point of the Templar empire and served some undisclosed purpose in a larger plan, for it was from here that their maritime empire grew after the Order’s supposed destruction in the 14th century; in Portugal the Templars simply changed their name and continued business as usual.
From the church’s crypt a tunnel branches off in two directions, one towards the main plaza of Tomar and its unusual church dedicated to John the Baptist. It’s passage is marked by a mysterious pyramidal stone relief of a dog (representing Sirius, the star associated with ancient knowledge) and a lion (representing Regulus, the bright star in Leo, referred to as the Royal Star and the gateway to the records of all knowledge). From there the tunnel veers uphill to what became the Templar’s most famous building, the rotunda.
Like the Abbey de Notre Dame du Mont Sion in Jerusalem, the rotunda stands prominently on a limestone hill overlooking the town. Around the periphery of the enigmatic building are symbols relating to esoteric practices, along with the emblem of the mysterious Ordre de Sion, the cross and rose. The rotunda is described as a church yet never did it have an altar. Or for that matter a door. Entry into the original building was via a tunnel beneath the floor. During one visit to the town’s archives I came across an account of restoration work conducted in the 1940s describing how the exterior of the rotunda had been coated with reinforced concrete that hid or destroyed the entrance to a crypt.
The Templar's mother church. Santa Maria do Olival.
It was then I came across an account of a stone mason who’d performed restoration work in the rotunda at the end of the 19th century. “It was the habit of one of these masters to return home and register the alterations made inside the castle, because these would continue until much of what was old would be made unrecognizable or made to disappear. One of the things that riled him the most was the disfiguration of the beautiful and intriguing Arab pathway that the old monks of the Temple used in their ceremonies and led directly to the basement of the Temple church [the rotunda].”
Even in those days the brothers living in the convent used to share stories with the masons of how Master Gualdino Paes brought back from the Holy Land the plans of the Holy Sepulcher that were to be used for the construction of the rotunda. Master Gualdino also ordered a pathway leading to it to be constructed in the Arabic style, and that both were used not just for secret religious ceremonies but also for the investiture of new knights. The monks also spoke of the Templar Master returning with many scrolls. He kept them safely in a room excavated out of the rock, which the monks referred to as the ‘gate to the underworld’. This doorway rested on very old stonework upon whose uprights the Templars carved dragons, and on the supported lintel, a kind of winged serpent.
The rotunda of Tomar.
During recent attempts to beautify the perimeter of the castle of Tomar and its rotunda, an area was cleared around the original Almedina gate. Below it there is a doorway into a cave. The lintel stone is still in place, and indeed a kind of winged serpent is carved upon it, flanked by the heads of two dragons; a drawing made in 1918 shows the engravings still in their entirety, accompanied by a description of which parts of the Arab pathway were visible inside the subterranean passages leading to the chamber beneath the rotunda.


The Knights Templar in Portugal may very well have continued the initiatory practice of ‘raising the dead’. During interrogation by the Inquisition, a Templar knight cryptically stated: “There exists in the Order a law so extraordinary on which such a secret should be kept, that any knight would prefer his head cut off rather than reveal it.”
This statement has caused a flurry of speculation as to what secret the Templars were privy to. Were they simply following a rediscovered secret doctrine of initiation or was there something else?
One well-studied route revolves around the protection of a holy bloodline, championed very convincingly by the authors of Holy Blood Holy Grail. During my own research to discover why the Templars created Portugal for their main center of activity — an subject barely touched by Templar historians until I wrote First Templar Nation — it seemed to me that they wanted to be as far from Rome as possible — this secret required protection from papal interference, and the Portuguese were tolerant of such a policy because traditionally followed a policy of paying lip service to papal authority.
If you recall, the Templars, to all intents and purposes, were an extension of the Cistercian Order and its abbot Bernard de Clairvaux, a number of its key knights being Cistercian monks. A goodly number were also high ranking members of the Order of Sion, particularly its prior, Pedro Arnaldo. One of the declared aims of the Order of Sion was the reinstatement of a holy bloodline upon the throne of Jerusalem, if not the throne of a European state. This bloodline descended from the House of Troy, through the line of David, and into the Merovingian dynasty of medieval Europe. The Order of Sion accomplished the first objective when it seated the Merovingian Godefroi de Bouillon upon the throne of Jerusalem following the conquest of the city.
Such a holy bloodline was considered a great treasure, and given the brief longevity of kings of Jerusalem in this era, it is possible the Order of Sion planned to elect another Merovingian, this time in the relatively safe territory of Portugal — someone who could be groomed and protected by the Templars and their successors. Perhaps. There is a surviving document held in the Cistercian archives which outlines the rites of succession of Templar Masters in Portugal, in which the swearing of allegiance by every new Master unambiguously declares a vow “to protect the bloodline of David.” Such a blatant line item would hardly be featured unless there was a bloodline to protect.
But the other aspect of the Templar secret and the creation of Portugal lies in their association with the Grail, or Graal.
Although perceived as many things, ultimately the Graal describes the journey of a hero who undertakes a perilous journey into a mystical land and returns transfigured by the experience and the knowledge he’s exposed to, whereupon he has a spiritual awakening. So to anyone who understands the Mysteries, the Grail is not an object but the search for the highest spiritual potential within oneself. In the religious climate of medieval Europe nothing could be more dangerous. The Templars reversed the tide of ignorance perpetuated by the Church by offering anyone the chance to experience this living resurrection, to which end they built countless secret chambers, much like their predecessors from Egypt to ancient Japan, and this is perhaps the single-most reason why both rich and lay people donated all their worldly goods to help the order succeed.
Inside the charola.
It must be stressed that the living resurrection has historically been performed in secret chambers and ancient sacred sites. Science now knows that such ancient temples are found at the intersection of the Earth’s electromagnetic pathways. This concentrated energy is known to stimulate areas of the brain that lead to altered states. Such a spiritual technology is a pre-requisite for inducing the voluntary near-death experience that sends the candidate on a shamanic, out-of-body journey. It was the key ingredient in living resurrection ceremonies. And virtually every site won by the Templars was an ancient sacred site, typically dedicated to Isis or her regional doppelganger.
As a Templar knight, king Afonso Henriques would have been privy to the Templars’ spiritual teachings and the attainment of this inner transformation, the Graal, and it merited awarding the order one third of his land, to establish a kingdom within a kingdom. On the king’s charter lies the unusual cross symbol with the anagram PORTUG-R-AL. In Portuguese it reads ‘through you, the Graal.’ Afonso is alluding that the Graal is to be found in this territory, specifically the town of Tomar, particularly when one considers the name is also a metaphor. In Portuguese it means ‘to drink, to imbibe’, and in esoteric circles, an initiate of the Mysteries must ‘drink’ the knowledge if it is to be internalized. The successful candidate would complete the final initiation by undertaking a voluntary near-death experience, to be awoken by an adept in the morning and lifted from a figurative grave. At this moment they were declared ‘risen’. This initiation is still performed today by the Templars’ progeny, the Scottish Rite Freemasons.
The Templars left clues that the crypt under the enigmatic rotunda of Tomar was used for such a purpose. If you trace a line through the rotunda to the Templar church of John the Baptist, the line passes through two pillars with the pagan symbols of the dragon and the green man, symbols of rejuvenation, and ends 2000 miles away in the church of Notre Dame du Mont Sion in Jerusalem. If you then take that church plus the other two prime Templar sites — the Holy Sepulchre and Solomon’s stables (where they resided) — this perfect triangle is bisected and the imaginary line ends in Egypt, specifically in the underground chamber called the Osirion, where the oldest resurrection ritual of Osiris was once celebrated.
We are presented here with the intriguing possibility that the Templars placed the Graal in Tomar. All these centuries, while we’ve focused on their exploits in Jerusalem and France (and to some degree in Britain), like the smokescreen myth of nine knights protecting a pilgrim trail, the stories have distracted our gaze away from the main accomplishments taking place in this remote country they created before the order itself was made official.
It is indeed an incredible coincidence that just as the Templars are erecting their mysterious rotunda in Tomar, the Graal writer Cretien de Troyes begins writing his famous opus. In the story, the Graal rests on a salver, a ceremonial silver tray. One has to wonder, then, why the Templars called this round building a charola. Because it literally translates as ‘a salver’ — a most unusual name for a religious building that stands at the crossroads of two electromagnetic lines, and never had an altar or a door.
The Templars, it seems, gave us the answer on a silver tray.
