(continued from last post)
But there IS evidence that connections with both Islamic and Jewish
mysticism were made by the Templars, dating back to well before the
"Cutting of the Elm." And there was a healthy strain of Gnostic and
especially Cathar thought in the more implicitly Christian elements of
Templar thought. It is quite possible and plausible that the building
blocks of the Western Hermetic traditions, from Alchemy to Freemasonry
to Theosophy to the Fin de Siecle Occult revival that birthed the Order
of the Golden Dawn, the Stellar Matutina, the Astrum .'. Argentum .'.
and the Ordo Templi Orientis (meaning Order of the Oriental Temple)
have their roots with or at least were influenced by the Templars.

And when one takes into consideration the connection between the
Templars and the Merovingian House, one can clearly see that the ritual
repudiations of traditional Christianity may have something to do with
the hypothesis that has been presented here, that is that the Cross
represented not a victory, but a defeat for the Davidic royal house of
Israel. Yehoshua and later Yehoshua bar Rabbi and Eleazar had died at
the hands of Rome. Only the exodus of Miriam ha'Migdal, who was either
with child or had a babe in arms with her, saved the most promising
branch of the Houses of both David and Benjamin from destruction. So it
makes sense in this light that despite the use of a red Cross Patee, a
"Rose Croix", as their symbol, the Templars would ritually defile a
cross as the symbol of a major defeat of the House of David.

Most of the Templars were massacred by the Seneschals of King
Phillipe Le Bel. But the Templars did not merely exist in the land
"over the sea"...they had holdings in Germany, where a Templar offshoot
called the Teutonic Knights had their own autonomous "Ordenstadt" in an
area that includes parts of modern-day Germany, Czechoslovakia and
Austria; they existed practically unmolested in Portugal, where only a
name-change to the Knights of Christ was required of them to remain;
and in the far reaches of Scotland, where Robert the Bruce gave them
sanctuary in exchange for their aid in defeating his enemies at the
Battle of Bannockburn.

C.) The origins of Freemasonry and the Rosicrucians

The local Masonic lodge today is pretty much a social club, with no
more interest in Magick and heterodox Mystery Religion than other
fraternal organizations like the Knights of Columbus, the Elks Lodge
and that perennial favorite, the Odd Fellows. But from the 18th Century
CE to the beginning of this century, Freemasonry was primarily a
Mystery Religion, an initiatory tradition that had links with the
ancient Apollonian, Orphic and Hermetic Mysteries of Ancient Greece.

It is probable that writings by Pythagoras and others were preserved by
the knowledge-loving Jews and Moslems of the Near East from the mindless
destruction that was part and parcel of the sweep of Christiandom across
parts of Asia and most of Europe. Perhaps the greatest collection of
scientific and esoteric knowledge, the Library of Alexandria, was burnt
to the ground by Papal command in the 4th or 5th Century CE. But in
Jewish and Moslem enclaves, scientific as well as esoteric research
continued. In the enclaves of the Jews, this expressed itself as the
esoteric system of the Qabala. In Islamic lands this expressed itself as
the foundation of modern Arithmetic and Mathematics, as well as the
metamorphosis of Alchemy to the rudiments of Chemistry.

Perhaps the remainder of the Templars, having kept themselves free
of the dogmatism of orthodox Christianity by their adherence to a more
heterodox form of Christianity, began to translate these documents and
integrate bits and pieces of them into their ritual worship. Templars
also came into contact with some of the artisan guilds of Europe, who
had encrusted their apprenticeship regime with elements of mysticism,
like a Bower Bird encrusts his nest with shiny objects. Most notable
for their mystical bent were the Masons Guilds.

The medieval Masons Guilds had identified themselves with the craftsmen
brought by King Hiram of Tyre to Jerusalem to build Solomon's Great
Temple on Mount Moriah. King Hiram was given the appelation "the
Son of the Widow Lady", linking him possibly with the child brought by
Miriam ha'Migdal to the South of France, albeit only in a symbolic
sense. According to the mythology created by the Masons Guild, Hiram
was assassinated, and the craftsmen swore that they would eventually
find their leader's murderer and avenge Hiram's death.

The Templars began to add elements of the legends spun by the Masons
Guilds to their rituals. Hiram was identified with the murdered
grand master of the Masons Jacques De Molay, and the Templars took the
oath of revenge for the murder of the legendary King of Tyre, the
friend of Solomon.