Signs of the Times – part 22
Originally posted Sept. 1, 2012.
Quote of the Times:
“Eventually this secret agenda (world government) became a truly formidable reality, in the form of a rich and corrupt religious order (the Knights Templars). This order had no respect for legitimate government and threatened the whole world with an immense revolution. The Templars, whose history is so imperfectly known, were those terrible conspirators…” Albert Pike, (Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite’s Southern Jurisdiction), Morals and Dogma, p. 815. [Morals and Dogma was meant to be read only by the highest degree of Freemasonry, for example, it says, that the high degrees deliberately deceive the lower degrees].
Continuing our study into the origins of terrorism, we need to note that, after the Assassins, the next step in our story is the role played by the Knights Templars.
The Poor fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (or Knights Templars), were a Roman Catholic order of religious monks who were also holy warriors – in today’s terms they would be called “Christian mujahidin” – they could also be described as the special forces or commandos of the medieval world.
Ostensibly their purpose was to secure the Holy Lands (after the first crusade) and to protect pilgrims as they took the long journey from Europe to Jerusalem. Their name is derived from the fact that their Jerusalem headquarters was located on the foundation of the ruined Jewish temple.
During their more than 200 years presence in the region several things happened:
- They became the darlings of Christendom. [In today’s terms they were the super heroes].
- They became the world’s first international bankers. [In order to assist the pilgrims they established a banking system that would allow people to deposit money in one part of the world and draw it out in another].
- In spite of their vows of poverty they became extremely wealthy.
- They had dealings with the Assassins and adopted many of their principles and methods. And they became the conduit for Assassin principles and methods into Europe.
- In the east the Templars also encountered a gnostic/secret society called Johannism. They became converts to Johannism (only revealed to the top leadership). [Johannism was a rival to the Roman Catholic papal system. The Catholic papal system claims to be descended from the apostle Peter. Johannism claims to be the true church descended from the apostle John. The Johannites believed that they would eventually replace the Roman Catholic Papacy and establish their own.
- As a result of all of the above, the Knights Templars became arrogant and ambitious, and also the greatest custodians, of the age old plan to control and govern the whole world.
- Therefore, ostensibly practicing orthodox Roman Catholicism on the outside (the deceptive façade), inwardly the Knights Templars were anti-Catholic with an agenda of their own – which was played out in secret, and only known to the upper echelons of the order.
Note: this descent into anti-Catholicism and secret society agenda was not part of the original Knights Templar organisation – it was a gradual corruption of originally good intentions.
The fateful day arrived on October13, 1307, when the Pope and the King of France conspired together to arrest all the Knights Templars, and began an investigation into the order that “threatened the whole world with an immense revolution.” Albert Pike tells us what the reaction was: “Never was a Coup d’Etat accomplished with a more formidable concert of action. The whole world was struck with stupor, and eagerly waited for the strange revelations of a process that was to echo through so many ages.” Morals and Dogma, p. 820.
In today’s terms, the action against the Templars would be the equivalent of the governments of the western alliance, working in concert, to arrest all their intelligence and special military forces, accusing them of subversion (and perversion) and putting them on trial.
The result was the execution of the Templar leaders and the suppression of the Order. Pike continues: “The end of the drama is well known, and how Jacques de Molai and his fellows perished in the flames. But before his execution, the Chief of the doomed Order organized and instituted what afterward came to be called the Occult, Hermetic, or Scottish Masonry.” Ibid, p. 820.
For the purposes of our story it is important to recognize why the highest echelons of Freemasonry are called ‘Scottish Masonry’ or the Scottish Rite’. It is because many of the remnants of the Templars fled to Scotland and found a refuge there.
The Templars were welcomed in Scotland for two reasons. Firstly, because the king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce had committed murder on his way to the throne (therefore, he had many internal enemies and needed all the friends he could find). Secondly, he had a formidable external enemy in the form of English ambitions to conquer all of the British Isles. At the time of the Templar’s suppression, Scotland was fighting desperately for its independence against England, so the Scots welcomed these experienced and well trained warriors. [In fact, it was the sudden arrival of the Templars on the battlefield at Bannockburn, in 1314, that threw the English into disarray and secured Scottish victory and Scottish independence].
As a result of these successes the Templars were even more welcome in Scotland. They laid the foundations of what we now call Freemasonry. [Freemasonry likes to envelope itself in mysticism, and claim ancient and obscure origins – but essentially it is just neo-Templarism, hiding behind a semi-Christian façade].
Leaving Templar-Freemasonry to entrench itself in Scotland, we need to move on a few hundred years to the year 1601. This is the year that England ran out of Kings and Queens. The solution was to import a king from Scotland. [This is how the separate nations became the United Kingdom – and this is how King James the sixth of Scotland became King James the first of England – this is the king that gives his name to the King James Bible]. And this is how Freemasonry now establishes itself in England. When King James moved south – Scottish Freemasonry went with him.
From England it moved to France and the rest of Europe and to the Americas. Basically, wherever the British Empire went, so too, did Freemasonry.
Freemasonry was especially popular in France. This is because the Scottish line of kings (the Stuarts) lost the British Throne (and Charles I lost his head) and they went into exile in France – from where they plotted and planned their return and their revenge. Naturally, their weapon of choice for this enterprise was Freemasonry (remember Freemasonry has always been linked to the Scottish throne since the time of Robert the Bruce and the Battle of Bannockburn). The Stuart cause was known as ‘Jacobinism’ and ‘Jacobite Clubs’ were opened all over France (Freemasonry in disguise). The Stuart cause eventually failed, but the politicised ‘Jacobite Clubs’ remained – they were looking for a new political cause to embrace. This was the mid-1700s – the French Revolution was about to begin. The Stuarts were not able to get their revenge – but the Templars would be able to get theirs.
To be continued…
God bless, Bruce Telfer.
Intriguing historical note: for those of you who noticed Dan Brown’s 15 minutes of fame, with the book and the movie entitled ‘The Da Vinci Code’ – perhaps you would have noticed that in the quest for the solution to the riddle, the plot went all over Europe (stumbling into and out of various former Knights Templar locations), but ultimately ending up in Scotland, and specifically at Rosslyn Chapel (just outside Edinburgh), where the mystery was solved. Rosslyn Chapel is a most intriguing place, perhaps the most intriguing of all, is that it is adorned with carvings of plants that originally were only found in North America (such as maize). So what is remarkable about that? It is remarkable because the building of Rosslyn Chapel started in the year 1446 and was completed before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America in 1492. So how did these unknown plants end up in Rosslyn Chapel? Some historians have noted that when the Templars were suppressed in 1307, they were actually in possession of a sizable navy. All of these ships (and presumably their crews), escaped the fate of their land based comrades. These ships sailed away and they were never seen again – they simply vanished [what is also significant is that the fabulous wealth of the Templars also vanished – when the King of France raided their treasury he found very little]. Therefore, it is speculated that the Templars, (perhaps already aware of the existence of North America), went there to lick their wounds and to regroup, taking their wealth with them. One last piece of intriguing history is the fact that, when Columbus sailed to ‘discover’ America all his ships had huge red crosses emblazoned on the sails of his ships – this was/is the distinctive emblem of the Knights Templars.
