The Templar Knight
Mysteries of the Knights Templar
Did the Templars bring cannabis to Europe via the Assassins?
There are different theories about the relationship between the Templars and the arrival of cannabis in Europe. Were the knights potheads who popularised dope in the Middle Ages?
Cannabis and the Knights Templar
In the book “Green Gold: the Tree of Life, Marijuana in Magic and Religion”, it is conjectured that hashish came to Europe via the Templars as a result of their trading activities with the Ismailis in outremer.
The warriors of the Ismailis, who defended their faith against Sunni rulers, were the famous ‘Assassins’. These fearless killers struck at their enemies in such a way that their bravery was often ascribed to taking hashish and that was where their derived from. Hashishin = Assassin.
Not so says Amin Maalouf who says the word Assassin means ‘followers of the foundation’ and has nothing to do with ganja.
READ MORE: Were the Assassins forerunners of the ISIS terrorists?
The Assassins got the Templars hooked on cannabis
But Robert Anton Wilson in his book ‘Sex and Drugs’ recounts the familiar line that the courage of the Assassins must have been influenced by narcotics and that there is evidence the Templars partook of the wacky backy. At the very least to relieve pain.
One must mention the Sufis, the Islamic mystics often said to have influenced the Templars. They worshipped a Golden Head and the Templars worshipped the head of Baphoment and therefore, they were all off their heads. Dope produced that higher level of enlightenment that mead and ale was could never hope to.
I can only hope that when Jacques de Molay faced the fires outside Notre Dame in 1314, he did so with the benefit of several pints of Stella Artois and a big long spliff. How else to endure that public agony?
What did the grotesque demon Abraxas have to do with the Knights Templar?
Abraxas was a grotesque creature with a twin tail – similar to the twin tailed mermaids known as “melusines” in the Middle Ages. So why did this bizarre beast appear on Knight Templar seals?
READ MORE: Find out about Oak Island and the Knights Templar
Abraxas – a gnostic creation known to the Templars
The hideous Abraxas appears on Templar seals and was presumably a cult picked up in the east as Templar knights went to fight in outremer. The origins of Abraxas seems to lie in gnostic beliefs in an overarching deity more powerful than all other gods.
Abraxas seems to have played a central role in the gnostic cult of Basilides in the second century AD. This Alexandrian mystic was teaching at a time of huge religious ferment when Christianity hadn’t completely defined itself in the way that we know it today.
So Basilides did believe in a kind of disembodied Jesus – gnostics didn’t like the idea of an incarnated God – and that the only way to know Jesus was through a process of intense meditation, for want of a better word, called ‘gnosis’.
How Abraxis fitted in to this is probably as some kind of master-god above other divine and semi-divine entities. Happy to have that explained more accurately by experts out there.
The head of Abraxis sometimes resembles that of a Basilisk – the cockerel crested serpent head of that legendary beast. The trunk is normally that of a man and then legs of snakes and feet which seem to resemble scorpions.
Royston Cave – what were the Templars doing down there?
Some investigators believe the Templars were using a network of Neolithic caves throughout the UK for religious/mystical purposes. Royston caves is often cited as an example of a magical Templar cave.
Strange carvings in Royston cave
Royston is a bell shaped cave, man made or shaped with a ventilation hole. The symbols carved on the wall bear an uncanny resemblance to Templar images seen at their properties throughout Europe and the Middle East.
It’s thought that the strange inscriptions in the cave at Royston are a form of hieroglyphic text that the Templars discovered in outremer – an ancient form of writing long forgotten.
READ MORE: Why did the Templars engage in head worship?
These are some of the identified carvings:
- Saint Christopher near the entrance, the dog head saint carrying Jesus
- Saint Katherine, revered by the Order is nearby
- Saint Lawrence complete with the gridiron that he was brutally martyred on
- A figure with a sword who could either be Saint George or more likely, Saint Michael the Archangel. He is pointing to the apostles, the smallest of whom is the traitor Judas (author of a gnostic gospel as well all know)
Richard the Lionheart has been identified with his queen Berengaria of Navarre whose crown is above her head but not on top of it, as her status as crowned queen seems to have been disputed The poor woman also had to contend with the Lionheart’s alleged preference for chaps over the ladies. All good fun with the squires and knights no doubt.
READ MORE: Caynton caves – are they Templar?
One carving at Royston erroneously attributed
There is a figure that looks almost Celtic in its crude simplicity who was wrongly credited as King William of Scotland – mainly because a ‘WR’ is scrawled on him. More likely to be Saint David. Unfortunately, the cave is covered in the grafitti of idiots who have seen fit to leave their names there – as if posterity would remember them on account of that act of vandalism.
If Royston is a Templar creation, it does beg the question of whether the Templars had other similar cave-like places of worship. Caves have always been mystical places seen as bringing worshippers closer to the subterranean Gods but as the Templars, like all Christians, worshipped as sky god, it’s hard to see what the significance would be.
King John and the Templar master
King John of England was one of the least popular monarchs ever but curiously he received significant support from the Knights Templar. Even when his barons were moving in on him, the Templars remained resolutely loyal to this treacherous king.
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King John stays with the Templars before Magna Carta
It’s an interesting fact that when King John was first presented with the demands of the barons, who were forcing Magna Carta (the great charter) on to him, he was staying at the New Temple in London with Brother Aymeric (sometimes spelt Elmeric), master of the Order in England.
This was rather like lodging with your bank manager who also happened to enjoy a papal seal of approval and have a handy stock of weapons and well trained soldiers.
READ MORE: How the movie Ironclad got the Templars wrong
King John uses the Templars as his personal bank
The Templars were very much John’s bankers, particularly after he was declared excommunicate by Pope Innocent III.
John seems to have both deposited and taken out multi-thousand ‘mark’ amounts to protect his wealth and to use it to hire troops. Aymeric also helped John out with his papal problems – particularly important as Innocent III was beyond doubt the most powerful pope in history.
Why did the Templars support the Kings of England?
The Templars were enthusiastic supporters of the Plantagenat kings and did rather well out of them. Henry II was a keen benefactor and John gave them the island of Lundy, bits of Northampton and Cameley amongst other bequests. For this, he got their support in his bust up with the aristocracy.
Aymeric St Maur may have been related to Milo St Maur, one of the rebel barons. Entirely plausible as they were all from the same Norman knightly class. It’s also claimed that the St Maur family were ancestors of the Seymours from whom Jane Seymour emerged, third wife of Henry VIII – two hundred years after the crushing of the Templar Order.
Did Islamic militants inspire the Templars?
Praying and training to be warriors in communities called Ribats, a certain class of muslim warrior could have been an influence on the founders of the Knights Templar. Unless somebody wants to dispute this and please feel free. But it’s certainly tempting to believe that knights who found themselves exposed to the influences of the Islamic world, adopted some of their practices. They saw Ribat warriors effectively combining prayer with fighting and thought, hey – we’ll have some of that.
What is the Pentagram symbol doing in Templar churches?
Visiting churches in Portugal, I’ve often noticed the presence of the Pentagram symbol and wondered – what on earth is an occult image doing in a Christian place of worship?
In the United States in recent years, a group of self-proclaimed Satanists have repeated unveiled a statue of the goat-headed demon Baphomet with a pentagram fixed to its forehead.
They are protesting against Christian religious displays by some states that they argue contravenes the constitution – in terms of separating church and state. And they make their point by carting round this provocative bit of sculpture.
For us on this blog, there are two interesting points to note about that. One is that the pentagram pops up in medieval Christian churches – and especially Templar places of worship (mainly in Portugal for some reason). Furthermore, the evil Baphomet was alleged to have been worshipped by the Knights Templar – an accusation made at their trials.
So it is very disarming when you see a pentagram in a Christian church. Surely this is a pagan or Satanic symbol?
Having been brought up a Catholic myself, I know all about the Catholic obsession with numbers. The Trinity. Twelve apostles. Seven crops up everywhere – seven churches, seven trumpets, seven seals, etc. The Virgin Mary grants you seven graces for saying seven Hail Marys in recognition of the seven sorrows she suffered leading up to the death of Jesus.
Nine choirs of angels – no more, no less. And of course thirteen is the number of betrayal. These figures – 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, etc – are charged with meaning in Catholic theology.
The Pentagram has five points. Catholics argue that it’s OK to find it in a place of worship because it represents the five wounds suffered by Jesus at the crucifixion. It provokes you into contemplating his torment on the cross.
The Catholic church obviously lists the wounds with gory relish: two in the wrists for the nails; two through each of his feet and one wound from the lance of the Roman soldier Longinus who pierced the side of Jesus.
The church pictured above is actually Franciscan and was built after the Templars were destroyed in 1307. However, one normally associates the Pentagram with paganism so it’s interesting to see it pop up in a Christian context. And it seems to do so especially in Portugal.
At Santa Maria Olival in Portugal, the Pentagram is very clearly evident at the end of the nave. This is the church where Templar grand masters were buried in the Middle Ages. It’s based in the former Templar citadel of Tomar. When you walk into the church – you just can’t miss it – it’s like an evil eye staring down at you.
FIND OUT MORE: Were the Templars and Cathars linked?
At Rosslyn chapel in Scotland, there are pentagrams carved everywhere. Most of them, the authorities tell us, are masons’ marks. They have no meaning or significance. But, some have argued that a particular carving in the sacristy down below represents the star Venus.
I investigated this mysterious star carved into the sacristy wall with American TV presenter Scott Wolter on a Templar special edition of the Discovery documentary American Unearthed.
We looked into theory that this pentagram-shaped star was proof that the Knights Templar journeyed to the New World after being crushed by King Philip of France. They would have navigated by the stars. Was this carving therefore some kind of navigational map?
Excommunication was no barrier to being a Templar
If you want to get an idea on why the Templars may have made quite a few enemies early on, then their acceptance of excommunicated men in to the Order is a good starting point.
Some early sources say that the Order had to gain the permission of a local bishop to allow somebody who had been cast out of the church to become a Templar. But even that requirement seems to have been junked as the Order blithely informed the “established” church that it answered only to the Pope.
So…it could admit anybody it wanted so long as the Holy Father, in far off Rome, didn’t raise any objections. In the context of medieval Christendom, that does seem quite extraordinary.
It must have been angered and confused many prelates to see the Temple recruiting people who, one assumes for good reason, had been forbidden the holy sacraments and shut out from the Catholic church.
Yet it seems they could knock on the door at their local Templar preceptory and next thing, they were off to the crusades. How did the Templars get away with this?
Did some crusaders stop eating pork – and why?
Crusaders giving up pork. Even dressing like their Muslim neighbours (the wealthier ones) and living in eastern style houses with gurgling fountains. It’s enough to make a European Catholic in the Middle Ages gag. But apparently, some crusaders in the Holy Land went kosher or halal – influenced perhaps by the Jewish and Muslim faiths.
Crusaders going native in Jerusalem
It seems that many of the first wave of the crusaders who invaded and slaughtered the good people of Jerusalem, once they had settled down, went a bit native. So much so that they even stopped eating pork.
A story told by an Arab chronicler who went to dinner at the house of a “Frank” – their word for all crusaders – related that he boasted at having dumped all his old culinary habits and even hired some Egyptian cooks.
Pork never enters this home, he noted. This disgusted many knights in the west who felt that their compatriots in the east had got a bit effete and heretical in their manners. Why, they were probably feasting on dates and almonds every day.
But what was the real reason? Were the crusaders being influenced by their Muslim and Jewish neighbours? There is no law against pork in Christianity despite the dietary laws stated in the Old Testament. But in Judaism and Islam, pork is not kosher or halal respectively.
When the Templars were eventually put on trial in 1307, one accusation was that they had got too close to the Muslims. Could this aversion to pork have been used as evidence to support that allegation?
Were women allowed to join the Templars?
Were the Templars an all boys club or could women get a look in? Well, it seems the Knights Templar may not have been the woman haters they have been accused of being. Indeed, their attitude to women may have been better than the traditional monastic orders:
- Unlike the monastic orders, the Templars did bow to pressure and allow women to join
- There was a Templar convent led by a woman
- They preferred venerating female saints to male saints
- Women might have started out as lay associate members and through circumstance become leading local Templar figures
It seems that money has always opened doors and the Middle Ages were no exception. There are a few examples of wealthy ladies who gave themselves to the Order as ‘donatas’. In return for a portion of their fortune, they gained access to the order.
READ MORE: Secrets of the Knights Templar
There were also women handed over to the Order by benefactors as bondswomen. And there was even a Templar convent at Muhlen. This was, however, the only example of a nunnery in the order.
What was definitely a men only area was the battlefield. But away from the clash of sword against scimitar, there seems to have been a surprisingly ability for women to ingratiate themselves in to the Order’s company. All that in spite of the misogynist ravings of Bernard of Clairvaux, the saintly abbot who was the religious mentor to the knights.
Templar historian Helen Nicholson notes that the Templars held female saints in special reverence that contrasted with the all-male atmosphere of daily life in the Templars and their vows of celibacy.
And during the trial of the Templars when medieval accountants started looking at Templar assets to dispose of them to interested parties – women Templars are noted. They did exist. But their role remains shrouded in mystery.
FIND OUT MORE: Medieval chroniclers who hated the Templars
Did Templars build cathedrals?
Were the Templars masons? In other words, did they actually engage in the activity of cathedral and church building? Aside from their own distinctively round churches, were the knights instrumental in building great structures like Notre Dame in Paris?
The Order of the Temple existed at the same time as a massive boom in cathedral building. In their book The Hiram Key, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas estimate that in the hundred years from 1170, more stone was cut by masons than in the entire history of ancient Egypt.
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Templars as masons
Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth century, Europe resounded to the striking of chisel against stone and yet, it all seems to have been the work of Benedictines and Cistercians. The holy warriors of the Temple were too busy channeling all that bullion to the crusades in the east.
So – does that mean no Templars were masons? Well, section 325 of the Templar Rule intriguingly mentions masons being members of the Temple, but not as full knights.
Karen Ralls, a great Templar scholar, points out that mason brothers were the only Templars allowed to wear leather gloves apart from chaplains. And it seems they were restricted to a kind of “associate” status.
But it seems hard to believe that if a cathedral was springing up near a Templar preceptory and it was all on hands on deck to get the thing built that the Templars would have just ignored and refused to get involved. I’ve seen churches in Europe and the Middle East which almost certainly bear imagery one associates with the Templars.
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Could it possibly be that these Templar masons lent a helping hand? And left their mark?
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