News of the results of the Council of 1128, which legitimized the Order of the Knights Templar, spread incredibly quickly. The Templars were a dream come to life, they embodied the ideals of chivalry for everyone.
The influx of new members into the Order was enormous: during the first three years, its intensity remained practically unabated. The original squad of nine knights magically transformed into a mighty host, numbering thousands and thousands of warriors. Pay attention to a very important detail: people who committed sin and were rejected by the bosom of the Church found the most lively welcome in the Order of the Templars. Here it is - the beginning of the conflict!
Add to this the fact that the Lords of the Templars were appointed with the consent of the Priory of Sion. All these were not ordinary people, believe me! The Templar Masters were the elite of their time, called upon to create a synarchic institution of the new government. Naturally, this ran counter to the interests of the monarchy and the Church. Here is the second component of the conflict. The masters - among other things - were also entrusted with a special mission: the establishment of a religious universe! Naturally, staying within the framework of the orthodox religion, one could not dream of anything like that. Therefore, the Templars themselves, and first of all, their masters, is permissible and should be considered heretics. This is already the third component of the conflict that led to the tragic end of the Order.
How, you might ask, was the Templar heresy manifested? There is no need to go far to answer this question. All of you have heard about the Crusades, of course, but not everyone knows that the Templars deliberately went … to an alliance with the Muslims. Just think: a huge military machine starts up, thousands of knights embark on a long-term campaign, pursuing their goal to reclaim the Holy Sepulcher … and suddenly it turns out that the Templar masters are sitting - figuratively speaking - at a round table of negotiations, lively discussing with the bloodthirsty Arabs the prospects of creating a unified Christian Muslim civilization! What is it ?! Jean-Jacques Belu in the monograph "The Secret Sources of the Da Vinci Code" - directly indicates that Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars, had great hope thatthat he would be able to organize the whole of Europe with the aim of internalizing European and Asian cities. What was the goal of Master Molay? Bedu believes that, most likely, he intended to place the entire planet under a single standard of the Judeo-Christian pontiff! How King Philip the Handsome could react to such a project, which in principle cancels him as a monarch, we have no doubts. Pope Boniface VIII, as well as Clement V who succeeded him, again could not take positively Molay's initiative. Add to this the fact that the Templars in the fourteenth century clearly did not want to be content with the role of the assault force assigned to them by the Priory of Zion.he intended to place the entire planet under the uniform standard of the Judeo-Christian pontiff! How King Philip the Handsome could react to such a project, which in principle cancels him as a monarch, we have no doubts. Pope Boniface VIII, as well as Clement V who succeeded him, again could not take positively Molay's initiative. Add to this the fact that the Templars in the fourteenth century clearly did not want to be content with the role of the assault force assigned to them by the Priory of Zion.he intended to place the entire planet under the uniform standard of the Judeo-Christian pontiff! How King Philip the Handsome could react to such a project, which in principle cancels him as a monarch, we have no doubts. Pope Boniface VIII, as well as Clement V who succeeded him, again could not take positively Molay's initiative. Add to this the fact that the Templars in the fourteenth century clearly did not want to be content with the role of the assault force assigned to them by the Priory of Zion.assigned to them by the Priory of Zion.assigned to them by the Priory of Zion.
Let's put it all together now: tremendous wealth and influence, conflict with worldly and spiritual power, severing relations with the Priory of Zion. What conclusion can be drawn? The only one - the Order of the Knights Templar was doomed …
We can say that King Philip the Handsome was the main opponent of the Templars. His hatred, as we believe, was primarily due to the fact that he owed the Order a huge amount - the king, alas, preferred to live beyond his means. However, Philip was not only a decent bastard, but also a hefty strategist. He understood that there was only one way to win the confrontation: by the sudden arrest of those who made up the leadership of the Templar Order. His order, transmitted to all trusted authorities, reached the addressee and had an effect unparalleled in efficiency. On the night of October 12-13, 1307, over 15,000 of the most influential Templars were arrested, including the Grand Master himself.
In addition, Philip the Handsome undertook a win-win PR-action, spreading all kinds of nonsense among the population that the Templars perform human sacrifices using innocent babies for this purpose; the knights were also accused of engaging in black magic and even conspiring with Satan himself, whose loyal servants they allegedly were.
And it was also argued that the Templars do not pray to Christ, but to a goat idol named Baphomet. All accusations, except the last one, are so wild and ridiculous that they do not even deserve comment. As for Baphomet, it is pertinent to cite the description given to this phenomenon by the already mentioned Jean-Jacques Bedu: “Until now, no one has solved the riddle of Baphomet, whose name was never pronounced by the Templars and was not indicated in any of the inquisitorial lists … Satanic cult gained popularity in the 19th century thanks to von Hammer, an Austrian Freemason. Baphomet, this idol, gave birth to as many imaginations and speculations as the Grail …"
Promotional video:
Jacques de Molay
The Templars who were in dungeons were subjected to monstrous torture and abuse, given to force them to confess to what they did not commit. Many could not stand the torture and confessed; thus further aggravating their position. At the same time, outside the walls of the dungeons, a conflict flared up between the new pope and the king. The Pope tried to rescue the Templars, but did not succeed. Philip the Handsome was very determined! And then came the final act of the drama.
For him, the king chose the porch near Notre Dame Cathedral, about which Victor Hugo, the future head of the Priory of Sion, will write his great novel five centuries later. On March 18, 1314, the 22nd Grand Master of the Templar Order, who will henceforth be called the Last, ascended the scaffold. He was paired with the faithful Geoffroy de Charnet. They renounced their testimony, which they had been tortured, and, having publicly declared their innocence, were set on fire. At the time of his death, Jacques de Molay, gathering his last strength, cried out a curse:
“Our bodies are in the hands of the king of France, but our souls are in the power of the Lord. Pope Clement and King Philip! May you appear before the Lord in a year in order to get what you deserve!
I curse you! I curse! Damn you until the thirteenth generation of your kind!"
Then they did not attach any importance to his words, but when on April 20 Clement V first died of suffocation, and on November 26 of the same year Philip the Handsome died, strangely killed in the hunt, they began to be treated differently. The offspring of those who were cursed by Jacques de Molay suffered a similar fate, France itself suffered, plunged into the abyss of the Hundred Years War …
So, did it end there?
What is there! After several centuries of oblivion, several organizations immediately began to call themselves Templars; there were those in Russia!
And after the publication of The Da Vinci Code, the Templars became a kind of archetype, a special phenomenon, inextricably linked with the artistic culture of our world. And it doesn't matter that no one knows about the location of their treasures and shrines: this makes the mystery surrounding their name only more attractive …
Templars and Tarot
This medieval card game was filled with … hidden heretical symbols …
Games of twenty-two cards were called Daddy Woman, Empress, and Star. Initially, tarot cards were invented as a means of secretly spreading worldviews alien to the Church and forbidden by it …
The pointing set in tarot cards was used to denote the divine essence of the feminine principle.
(Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code)
The Tarot is a deck of 22 cards called the Major Arcana (or Great Secrets) and another 56 Minor Arcana cards. The latter, in turn, are subdivided into Figured (King, Queen, knight, Page) and Numbered cards (from Two to Ten; and there is also an Ace). Minor Arcana, except for too, are represented by 4 suits: Staffs. Cups, Swords and Pentacles.
There is still fierce controversy about when the tarot cards were created and who exactly was involved in their creation. Nevertheless, there are very good reasons to believe that it is thanks to the Templars that we have today a set of 78 magic cards that allow us not only to know the future, but, most importantly, to touch the most cherished secrets of the world!
The very idea of these mysterious maps could have been borrowed by the Templars from the same Saracens with whom they fought. The Templars immediately understood the promise of using cards; After all, the images on them can be endowed with a double meaning! Thus, with their help, it will be possible to transfer the secret knowledge that the Templars possessed.
As you remember, as a result of a conflict with the authorities and the Church, the Order of the Templars was severely attacked and by the beginning of the XIV century was destroyed. Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars, was martyred at the stake on March 18, 1314. As for the Tarot cards, they were officially declared a diabolical invention and were universally banned by the papal bull (i.e. by decree). However, few people knew that Pope Clement V (aka Bertrand de Gotte) was the son of Ida de Blanchefort, who came from the family of Bertrand de Blanchefort, who in 1156-1169 was the head of the Templar Order! It was Clement V who insured - as far as possible - the activities of the Order (with his active participation, he postponed the final collapse of the Templars for five whole years!). That is why the Templars not only managed to save their treasures and sacred artifacts,but also to leave in circulation the Tarot cards, symbolically depicting the history of the Order of the Knights Templar and containing hints of the Higher Knowledge. These cards gradually gained popularity not only among the crowned persons, but also among the people. Since few original Templar decks survived, new ones arose. Each creator of the deck brought something of his own into the images on the cards; a number of meanings, of course, were lost. The symbolism of the cards began to vary over time, individual cards began to disappear from the decks (by the way, the Knights disappeared first, which is typical!), Right up to the complete loss of 22 Major Arcana. Of these, alas, only the Fool remained. And even then it transformed into a banal joker … Suits were also replaced: Staffs became clubs, Cups - hearts. Swords - with lances, and Pentacles - with tambourines. As a result, instead of 78 there are only 52 cards left,which represent the now standard deck of playing cards.
But true tarot decks with magic symbols still continued to exist! The oldest of them is considered the one that was made in 1450 by the artist Bonifacio Bembo to commemorate the engagement of the Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, to Bianca Maria Visconti, the illegitimate daughter of Duke Filippo Visconti.
This deck could be considered "heretical" if only because it contained a card called "Papessa" (La Papessa). Think for yourself: dad - and in a woman's attire !!! But this is far from a random image. The fact is that the early Christians were convinced that the very first Pope was … Mary Magdalene, and not the Apostle Peter! The Templars were of the same opinion. Mary Magdalene, if we turn to the apocryphal gospels, was endowed with a prophetic gift and possessed a fair amount of wisdom.
And it was her - according to the Christian Gnostics - that Jesus considered the only one worthy to become a pope. This is why the presence of the Pope in the Visconti-Sforza deck meant a direct challenge and undermining the church faith! It is curious that the prototype of the Papess for Boniface Bembo, the creator of the deck, was Maifreda de Provano, a distant relative of the Visconti family. She lived at the end of the XIII - the beginning of the XIV century, in Milan and was the head of a small heretical sect that especially venerated a certain passion-bearer Guglielma, who died in a Cistercian monastery. Members of the sect considered her to be the embodiment of the Holy Spirit, and Mayfred de Povano herself - a true pope! Subsequently, Mayfreda was arrested and burned at the stake.
It is also appropriate here to recall Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), the famous Cistercian preacher who created the Templar Rite.
He was committed to the cult of the Black Madonna, whom he considered the black bride of Christ! The cult itself dates back to the Song of Songs (1: 5), where it literally says: “Daughters of Jerusalem! I am black, but beautiful. So, several centuries before the start of the persecution of the Templars, the idea was formulated that the teaching of Christ and all the powers for the exercise of spiritual authority could be transferred to a woman - Mary Magdalene.
Let us also remember that in the cathedral of Siena, among the busts of other popes, there is one with a striking inscription: “Johannes VIII, femina ex Anglia” (nana John VIII, a woman from England)! This bust is a real testament to the existence of the legendary Pope John, the woman pope. Falling in love with a Benedictine monk, she fled, with him, disguised as a man, to Athens. There her lover died, and she, once again taking on a man's appearance, took the dignity of a priest. Later, she was awarded the cardinal rank and eventually took the papal throne under the name of John VIII, becoming the heroine of folk legends! This fact - due to its scandalousness - undermined the very foundations of the church. A funny detail: the Vatican even issued a decree that every candidate for the throne of the Pope must first of all sit in one cassock (no underwear!) On a special chair,there was a hole in the seat. Only the presence of male genitalia (as the church hierarchs could verify) served as a reliable pass for the applicant.
The clergymen tried with all their might to erase the legend of Pope John from the memory of the people. Leko imagine what indignation they could have caused by the existence of a specific Tarot card called Papessa (sometimes she was simply called Joanna)!
In conclusion of our story about the Visconti-Sforza deck, we note that Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli collaborated with the family of the Sforza dukes of Milan for a number of years.
True, this was already after the famous deck was created. If you started reading this book from the very beginning (and you probably already read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code!), Then you know that both of them were the Supreme Masters of the Priory of Zion (Botticelli from 1483 to 1510, and da Vinci - 1510 to 1519)! This Priory was a kind of think tank of the Templar Order. And if we still remember the great passion of the great Leonardo for fortune-telling oracles, as well as what we know very well today about Botticelli's active interest in the Tarot, then the idea of the undoubted attention of the Templars to the Tarot cards and their involvement in the creation of the latter becomes more than obvious! And the hatred of the Church towards the Templars naturally leads to the desire to destroy their offspring at the root …
It can be said that the Church has succeeded to some extent in its pursuit of tarot cards. From at least the 15th to the 18th century, Tarot cards were virtually inaccessible to the common people. Then their rapid revival began. Many tarot decks (Gebelin, Papus, Marseilles, etc.) appeared, they appeared on the free market. The apotheosis came in 1909, when Arthur Edward Waite, head of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, with the help of the artist Pamela Smith, created his unique Tarot deck.
Today it is the best-selling and most popular deck in the whole world, moreover, it is the easiest to purchase (an important circumstance for Russian readers who appreciate the combination of cheapness and quality). For the first time, the deck provided images for all 78 cards (since the inception of the Visconti-Sforza deck, images were present only on 22 cards of the Greater Arcana). White Papess was named the High Priestess.
High Priestess (Major Arcana II card)
As you can see in the picture, the High Priestess is seated on the throne between the columns with the symbols B and J (Boaz and Yachin, the union of spiritual and secular authorities), reminiscent of the holy of holies) of the Jerusalem Temple, and they also greet those entering any Masonic temple. The connection with the Masons is far from accidental: the Templars who survived the persecution joined them, passing on part of their knowledge.
However, it would be more accurate to say that the Templars simply appeared in the guise of Masons. After all, for a long time it was the Templars who directed the initiation of candidates for the Masonic degrees of initiation.
Templar initiating freemason
White was directly associated with the Freemasons; it is not surprising that the images on the cards of his deck contain the corresponding symbolism. In addition, White's student was the great Alistair Kpoyly, the chief magician of the 20th century, who founded the Ordo Tempi Orientis - the Order of the Eastern Templars that still exists today!
However, there are other cards in the Tarot deck that Make you remember the Templars. It's like direct instructions - Death (XIIIth card of the Greater Arcana). Knight of Staves, Knight of Cups, Knight of Swords, Four of Swords, Knight of Pentacles, and more sophisticated.
Tarot cards depicting the Templars
(Death, Knight of Staves, Knight of Cups, Knight of Swords, Four of Swords, Knight of Pentacles)
We should dwell on them in more detail. For example, the Hanged Man (XII card of the Greater Arcana).
Hanged
The Hanged Man's legs, as you can see, are crossed to form a swastika. And it was customary to bury all the Templars with their feet fastened in a similar way.
Or here is the Hierophant (V-th card of the Great Arcana).
The hierophant
First of all, people who are well versed in the Tarot know perfectly well that this card is also called the Grand Master (the reference to the Templars is undoubted!). In addition, we see on the map that the throne of the Hierophant is between two columns (as in the map of the High Priestess, or Papess); these columns again remind us of the threshold of the Jerusalem Temple, the abode of the Templars. In addition, we have information that the official images of the Grand Master were depicted in this way.
By the way, the golden tiara on the head of the Hierophant allows him to be confused with the Pope! The main symbolic meaning of the Hierophant's card is “possessing the key to the sacred mysteries”. Apparently, the Templars considered themselves Jerusalem high priests who were destined to spiritually rise again (Death card) and reappear on earth to proclaim the True God. Thus, a conflict with the official Church was inevitable!
And one more curious detail. As a result of the study of the famous Shroud of Turin, it was concluded that the features of the depicted face, which was considered the face of Christ by the Church, strikingly resemble those already mentioned by us … Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars.
Modern researchers note that the appearance of the shroud in the Middle Ages coincides in time with the decision of the Church to categorically ban the circulation of Tarot cards throughout Europe!
Such is the story …
And now it is advisable to say at least a few words about the general secret symbolism of the Great Arcana cards. The fact is that these 22 cards are a model of the salvation of the soul, and, as the Templars believed, the whole process does not even touch Christ! What will help the Fool (0-th card of the Major Arcana) to achieve what he wants? Exclusively the nature of their own deeds, the Templars believed.
The fact is that the sequence of maps of the Major Arcana is based on the Möbius principle (two-dimensional figure with one plane).
This means that this sequence is infinite. In addition, it can be conditionally subdivided into several cycles. The first cycle (ordinary world) is the outward looking cards from the Fool to the Hermit (IX card of the Greater Arcana).
The Wheel of Fortune (X-th card of the Greater Arcana) is a kind of bridge leading to the second cycle (the world of secret knowledge).
It is represented by the cards of Justice looking inward (XI card of the Major Arcana) to the Judgment (XXth card of the Major Arcana).
The XXIth card of the Great Arcana, World, symbolizes the return to the original cycle, thereby proving the inextricable connection of the everyday world with secret knowledge.
In conclusion, a few words about the suits of the Tarot cards.
Four suits (recall that we are talking about Staves, Cups, Swords and Pentacles). Popular rumor over time began to associate their symbols with the artifacts of the world of the Grail legends. The result was the following match:
Staves = Spear;
Cups = Grail;
Swords = Sword;
Pentacles = Chalice.
If you give free rein to your imagination, then the conclusion clearly suggests itself that the notorious artifacts of the Grail, it seems, are nothing more than shrines that the Templars managed to find under the ruins of Herod's temple!
But that is not all. Those who are fond of the history of the Grail should probably know about the existence of the four Royal Houses of the Grail (corresponding to the cardinal points). Those who hear about this for the first time will be interested to know that:
The South House was also called the House of the Spear (Lothian and Orkney).
The Western House was also called the House of the Grail (Pellinore)
East House - House of Sword (Pendragon), North House - Bowl House (Benwick).
Lothian and Orkney (South House) are the Saint-Clair family, which owned the famous castle of the Templars Rosslyn, whose chapel was a copy of Herod's temple. And one of the representatives of this family, Catherine de Saint-Clair, was married to Hugo of Payens himself, the first Grand Master of the Templars (1119-1136)!
It was the Saint-Clair family who guarded the Templar shrines and sought to preserve their secret knowledge.
The Tarot cards not only reminded of the Templars, but also contained an allusion to a faith that was contrary to the orthodox beliefs of the Church. There was no better remedy!
Those of our readers who have already had to deal with Tarot cards, of course, noticed that we illustrate our story about the connection between the Tarot and the Templars using the Arthur E. Waite deck, which we talked about earlier, and not Visconti-Sforza.
The ego is not accidental. Strictly speaking, the last deck has not reached our days completely. Some of her maps are even in museums in different countries. True, through the efforts of the famous restorer Atanas Atanassov, a modern version of this deck was created, but it, being of real collector's interest, still does not fully meet the goals of this publication. Although the images on it date back to the 15th century, only 22 cards of the Great Arcana were awarded pictures; in addition, the secret symbolism is minimal. The great magician Aleister Crowley (who, by the way, created his own Tarot Thoth!) Argued that the esoteric value of the deck does not come from the time of its creation!
We affirm; for your practical use, the Waite deck is the best choice!
Do you want to know how much)?
Well, we'd love to satisfy your curiosity!
It was Arthur Waite, perfectly versed in magic, Kabbalah, history and secret rituals of the Templars and Masons, comparing what he knows from the legends about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, put forward a version that the Grail should be understood as a spear, goblet, sword and dish, sacred objects symbolizing the suits of the Tarot! In addition, he did not limit himself to creating images only for the cards of the Major Arcana. In his deck, you will find pictures on all 78 cards, as we indicated above! And if you add to this the richness of the secret symbolism contained in the cards, then you will agree that you cannot even dream of a better deck! Should we be surprised now at her popularity!
G. Blagoveshchensky