Sirius and the Coming One-World Civilization

Sirius is one of the most important stars involved in the evolution of humanity and the development of a one-world civilization. According to the Dogon Tribe of Mali which has records of their visitations, missionaries from the star have been coming to Earth for thousands of years in order to directly teach and guide humanity on its evolutionary quest to gnosis. Alice Bailey of Theosophical fame was told by Djwahl Kuhl and the Ascended Masters that the star is The Great White Lodge in the heavens and the driving force behind Freemasonry. This accords with the ancient Egyptian identification of the star as Sah Ptah, who is the Master Builder of our universe and the alchemical force behind spiritual transformation. Sah Ptah was the acknowledged patron of the masonic craft and its lodges in Egypt.

The Egyptian wisdom of Sirius and the Master Builder became part of modern European Freemasonry during the time of Dhul-Nun al Misri, an Egyptian Sufi who founded the Sufi Freemasons, the Al Banna, after decoding the alchemical and masonic hieroglyphs in many of the Egyptian temples. The Al Banna taught their masonic wisdom to the Knights Templars, who in turn took it into Europe and amalgamated it to developing Freemasonry. It is believed by many that the first three Blue Degrees became part of European Freemasonry at this time and that they were ascribed the color "blue" because that was the color of the Egyptian Master Builder Ptah and his star Sirius.

The work of Sirian missionaries to create a one-world civilization apparently began when they brought to Earth a rock from their star system that eventually ended up in the palace of the King of the World in Shambhala. It was through Shambhala and the Earth's monarch that the Sirians planned to precipitate a world government and their rock the was meant to assist them in this endeavor while they were away. At one point a chunk of the rock was presented to the founders of the League of Nations in order to assist them in creating a one-world government, but when the League eventually dissolved the rock was taken back to Shambhala by the famous Russian painter Nicholas Roerich who referred to it as the "Chintamani Stone" and made it the subject of many of his paintings.

Perhaps the most important way that the Sirians have been able to make inroads in the creation of a one-world civilization is through the secret societies, especially the Freemasons who traditionally represent Sirius in their lodges as the Blazing Star. Through the Freemasons the Sirians helped to create the United States, a country that could further their aims of a one-world civilization, and they essentially became big brothers to the country when it became an entity on July 4, 1776. It was during this day that our Sun was in a perfect alignment with Sirius, thus making the blue star intimately involved with the destiny of our nation.

The work of the Sirians is predicted to come to completion soon. At that time the star will blaze in the heavens in a great explosion of scintillating blue-colored rays. The Hopis refer in their legends to this dramatic appearance of Sirius as the Blue Star Kachina, and they claim that it will signal the beginning of a one world civilization and a new golden age of wisdom.

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The Esoteric Influence of Orion and the Pleiades

Lately I have been mentioning in the IOGT seminars and lectures that the Pleiades is the seat of the Divine Mind and Divine Force in our part of the Milky Way Galaxy, and that high frequency Divine Force from a higher dimensional universe moves through it while becoming encoded by the Divine Mind before subsequently condensing into the physical shapes that are destined to populate our local physical universe. In The Keys of Enoch, JJ Hurtak explains that the Seven Sisters are the Biblical Seven Candles before the Throne of Yod He Vau He and serve as the connecting link between a refined "Father" universe and our own "Son" universe. From a gnostic perspective, the Pleiades are thus the link between the Pleroma, the "Fullness of God" from whence our souls originated, and the physical universe where they became trapped in physical bodies. Thus the doorway to our true home is the Pleiades. Since many of us currently in physical form passed through the starry cluster on our way to Earth, much of the world's population has consistently recognized the Seven Sisters to be its ultimate heavenly abode. It is for this reason that during the night of Samhain (October 31/November 1), when the star group of the Pleiades reaches its zenith in the night sky, it was believed by the Celtic and Native American cultures that the souls that had transitioned during the previous year could finally make their ascent to their rightful home in the Seven Sisters. Now, however, as gnostics we know that the Pleiades was not their final destination but a portal to their eternal abodes.

Hurtak goes on to say that the "Lords of Light" - the gnostic teachers of our galaxy who had embodied the Divine Mind - embraced the Divine Blueprint of the Pleiades while making the constellation of Orion their abode in the Milky Way. From there they were able to monitor and oversee many of the physical crystallizations which precipitated out of the Divine Force that flowed outward from the Pleiades. As embodiments of the Divine Mind, the enlightened gnostics Hurtak calls the "Lords of Light" traveled from Orion to the Earth and other parts of the galaxy in order to serve as teachers of the Divine Will for fledgling humanity. These cosmic missionaries came principally from Orion's Belt and when they arrived at their physical destinations they oriented some of the sacred temple structures which they built towards their celestial home, and in some cases, such as the Pyramids of Giza, they even made these structures terrestrial replicas of Orion's Belt.

Hurtak's exposition on the Pleiades and Orion is not new, but simply a modern-day dissemination of wisdom that the ancient gnostics were well aware of. Knowing that Orion was the seat of the "Lords of Light," the ancients designated the constellation of Orion to be the heavenly seat of the archetypal gnostic warrior/teacher and named it in accordance with their mythological traditions. It thus became known variously as Horus, Mithras, Michael, and Skanda or Sanat Kumara. The symbology of Orion shooting his bow and arrow at the Seven Doves of the Pleiades (or the Taurus Bull they sit within) also became very significant to the ancients, as it represented to them that the Divine Mind embodied by the cosmic warrior was instrumental in shaping the Divine Force that emanated from the Pleiades. This wisdom was part of the sacred myth surrounding the archetypal warrior, which maintained that his weapon - whether a spear, sword, club, or arrow - was the vehicle that the personification of the Divine Mind used to subjugate and tame the primal life force, the "dragon" or "bull", and ultimately determine the physical shapes that precipitated out of it. Thus, when the ancients looked into the heavens they perceived a chapter out of one of their most cherished creation myths, the era when the archetypal warrior defeated and tamed the unruly life force. There sparkling above them was either the great Saint Michael fighting with and defeating his Dragon, or the eternal warrior Mithras slaying his recalcitrant Bull.

Thus, Orion is a star base of galactic gnostic warriors who collectively follow and are represented by the archetypal gnostic warrior. But there is more. The warrior Orion walks with his dog, which is represented in the heavens by the Dog Star, Sirius. Sirius has been called the "Great White Lodge" in our galaxy and for many ages has been recognized to be another star base of gnostic and alchemical missionaries.

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The Gnostic Illuminati: Who They Really Are

The The Illuminati has become a scapegoat for all the evils besetting the world these days. Unfortunately, most people do not have a clue about the original mission and purpose of the Illuminati of the 18th century - and I am sure they would be very surprised to learn that the incipient Illuminati was completely different from the “Illuminati” they currently malign. In truth, the original Illuminati ceased to exist virtually hundreds of years ago.

The Illuminati founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776 was an organization of gnostics who referred to themselves as “Templars” and conducted their original meetings around a five-pointed star, whihc is the symbol of the Goddess Tradition from which their path of gnosis had emerged. In order to accomplish their goal of universal gnosis for the masses, the founding members of the Illuminati resolved to infiltrate all institutions that sought to control the minds and actions of the populace, including the world’s monarchies and the Catholic Church. If their agenda were to succeed they would have the additional satisfaction of knowing that they had achieved vengeance for the early Templars who had suffered persecution at the hands of King Philip IV and Pope Clement V for their heretical gnostic practices.

The gnostic agenda of the original Illuminati was designed to be the final chapter in a crusade anciently initiated by the Knights Templars: the founding a One-World Spirituality based upon gnosis and alchemy. However the Knights’ far-reaching mission did not originate with the Templars, but with the Moslem Sufis. The vision of a free world filled with gnostics was first conceived in the mind of a Persian Sufi named Abdullah ibn Maymun, who founded a gnostic mystery school in order to manifest this noble goal. The school’s gnostic curriculum and Maymun’s planetary vision was subsequently taken up by the “House of Wisdom,” an Ishmaeli mystery school in Cairo that was famous for cranking out enlightened Sufi masters. One of the graduates of this school was Hasan-i-Sabah, the founder of the infamous Assassins. Hasan became famous for strategically murdering those political figureheads who blocked the coming new era of gnosis.

The principles of the House of Wisdom reached Weishaupt in 1771 when he met a Danish man named Kolmer. The wisdom that Kolmer had acquired by spending years in Cairo studying the remaining doctrines of the House of Wisdom was carefully studied by Weishaupt, and in 1776 he made this the foundation of his Illuminati. Weishaupt's new Illuminati reflected its Sufi heritage by offering eight degrees of advancement that were similar to those offered through the House of Wisdom. These were also identical to those aspired to within the order of the Roshaniya, a sect of “Illumined Ones” in Afghanistan that had been similarly founded by a missionary from the House of Wisdom. The Illuminati also reflected the Persian Sufi roots of Abdullah ibn Maymun by adopting the Persian calendar and the floppy hat of Mithras, the Savior of their spiritual tradition. When the Illuminati eventually spearheaded the French Revolution the hat of Mithras was popularly worn by the revolutionaries and became the symbol of the freedom promised by the Illuminati.

Eventually Weishaupt’s Illuminati became infiltrated by Jewish bankers who changed the agenda of the organization to support their own vision of a New World Order. This occurred after the infamous Freemasonry and Illuminati summit in Wilhelmsbad, Germany in 1782, during which it was decided that Jews could become Freemasons. According to much historical documentation, it appears that the Jewish bankers who were then initiated into a combined Freemason-Illuminati organization subsequently used the order to set into motion their agenda of complete subjugation of the masses in order to support their ambition of dominating the world's monetary system. Thus, in the end the Illuminati agenda went from being complete freedom for the masses to one of servitude to the international bankers. This distorted “New World Order” with its supposed “Illuminati” conspirators is the one people know of today.

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Barak Obama: Prophet of a One-World Gnostic Spirituality?

If I held on to any doubts regarding the current ascension of consciousness on our planet, they all suddenly evaporated as I watched the recent inauguration of Barak Obama. The induction of our new President was the sign post I needed to assure me that the U.S. – and the rest of the world - is finally moving in the right direction. I believe this inspiring turn of events has the potential to help complete the dream of the original Knights Templar: the creation of a one-world spirituality based upon the primal path of alchemy and gnosis.

I base my current optimism about Obama and his presidency on his individual astrological chart, as well as the chart I erected for his administration, which is based upon the time he was sworn in as the 44th president: 11:56 am EST. Since the very first presidential primaries I have been studying Obama’s astrological chart, which at the time struck me as explicitly portending a destiny that would eventually land him in the oval office. His chances for success in November were highlighted by the fact he was about to move into a very auspicious cycle governed by an exalted planet, which made his chart far and away superior to all the other candidates… save one, Hillary Clinton. But the positive influences for late 2008 that I detected in her chart now make perfect sense. She was destined to receive the honorable appointment of Secretary of State. When November arrived the astrological axiom of “As above, so below” proved its validity once again. The planet Pluto transiting into the sign of Capricorn during that month was an obvious heavenly reflection of Obama’s inevitable victory on Earth. Capricorn is the sign of authority and governmental rule, and Pluto is the planet of dramatic transformation. Among the Sufis, Kundalini is known as Baraka, the feminine form of Barak. Thus, Pluto moving into Capricorn reflected Barak Obama’s transition into a high governmental position of authority.

But there is more! Since Pluto’s emanated power has been equated with Shakti or Kundalini, the power that dramatically transforms what ever it touches, its arrival in Capricorn also signaled that Obama would be a dynamic transformational force while serving in office. Such a destiny is certainly borne out by his natal chart, which has an Aquarius Rising, and is therefore ruled by Uranus, another planet that precipitates sudden and dramatic change. The Uranian nature of Obama’s chart is, not surprisingly, duplicated in the astrological chart of his new administration. This chart was set at the time of the inauguration when those planets highest in the sky were broadcasting a full measure of Aquarian energy. The Sun and Mercury had just moved into Aquarius, and they were met there by the recently transitioned Jupiter. The resulting chart indicated that Obama’s administration was to be the vehicle for dramatic change and, quite possibly, a wayshower for the prophesied Age of Aquarius. Like the Aquarian Age, Obama’s administration has the potential to heal the divisiveness of the previous patriarchal age; it can assist in a dissolution of the barriers that separate people, countries, and ideologies. If this planetary alchemy can truly occur, then we could finally accept that we are all one, like countless waves of the same sea. We could also acknowledge that we are all part of the same “God”, as well as embodiments of that God. The purpose of life on Earth - to discover one’s inner divinity through alchemical purification and transformation – could then become universally acknowledged and a one-world spirituality could become a reality.

The Templars' Final Crusade

Who are the New Generation of Knights Templar and what is their current agenda? Will there be a Final Crusade? Obviously, the answer to this question depends on which branch of modern Templarism one is referring to since each one currently follows its own “drummer.” For example, in keeping with what they believe was their antecedents' raison d'etre, the Knights of the SMOTJ continue to work towards a Holy Land that is safe for pilgrims, and the other main Knight Templar organization, the Freemasonic Templars of the Commandery, continue to follow the Medieval knights’ code of chivalry and service to humanity by funding both national and international charities. By contrast, we in the IOGT have chosen to be more pro-active by spreading around the globe the wisdom of gnosis and alchemy that we believe was passed to us from our ancestral Templars. For us, this planetary dissemination is truly the Templars’ Final Crusade. This crusade was first initiated by the early Templars and then taken up by the Secret Societies of Europe. Now we are spear-heading it. Its mission is to create a one-world spirituality based on freedom of belief and the inner, intuitive revelation or gnosis that results from alchemy. This Final Crusade has been capricious over hundreds of years, and it has often been short circuited by the corrupted powers-that-be. But our collective eyes are now firmly fixed on the goal, when during the coming new era a one-world spiritual consciousness can potentially manifest more easily than ever before. Therefore, those of us involved with the Final Crusade are now making one final push, one final charge. But this is not just our crusade, nor is it a crusade composed solely of trained and seasoned warriors. This a "Peoples Crusade," and we need your help and support if we are to win it. Please join us! Visit http://www.gnostictemplars.org/ and take steps to become an Associate or Initiated Member of the IOGT.

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The Templar-Egypt Connection

During their two hundred years in the Middle East the Knights Templar became aligned and associated with the spiritual tradition of Egypt by two different streams of influence. The first of these streams was the gnostic Johannite Tradition, which the Templars inherited in the Holy Land. Before being assimilated into the Templars the Johannite teachings had moved down a long line of Grand Masters that included John the Baptist, Jesus, John the Apostle and Mary Magdalene. According to legend, both John the Baptist and Jesus had spent time in Egypt and channeled the accumulated mystical wisdom they had received there directly into the Johannite data banks. Jesus accomplished this through his disciple John. Jesus was initiated into the ancient Osirian priesthood – possibly during a ceremony in the Great Pyramid – and when he returned to Palestine he transferred the power and wisdom he had gained to John the Apostle, who then passed it down the line of Johannite Grand Masters to the Templars.

The second stream of Egyptian influence that found its way into the Knights Templar catechism came via a Sufi order known as the Al-banna, “the Builders,” which was the order of Sufi Freemasons. The Al-banna was founded by the Egyptian Dhu’l-Nun, who became a Sufi only after spending his early years studying the esoteric hieroglyphs covering the temples of Egypt and the gnostic manuscripts of Thoth-Hermes. He eventually became initiated into the Egyptian tradition of builders, which was patronized by the “Master Carftsman,” the deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and contained many mystical degrees of advancement. Dhu’l-Nun ultimately took his knowledge of Egyptian masonry into Palestine and formed the Al-banna, which in turn built many of the Islamic sacred structures in the Holy Land, including the Al-Asqa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. When the Templars were given the Al-Asqa Mosque to live in by King Baldwin II, it is believed that they spent many hours studying the architecture of the Dome of the Rock while also receiving special training by members of the Al-banna. The masonic wisdom the Knights gained was later used in the development of Gothic architecture, which would sweep Europe, as well as in the development of Speculative Freemasonry on the continent. There is reason to believe that the first three degrees of Speculative Masonry, known as the “Blue Degrees,” were adopted directly from the Al-banna and Dhu’l-Nun, who had adapted the degrees from the Egyptian Masonic tradition he was initiated into. They were called blue degrees in honor of the Egyptian masonic patron Ptah, whose sacred color was blue. Ptah was also associated with the star Sirius, which was known among the Egyptian masons as Sa Ptah, and this is why the star eventually became an iconic image in most all lodges of Speculative Freemasony. Finally, the legend of the Master Builder Hiram Abiff studied by the Speculative Freemasons was an adaptation of the myth of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris that had been studied by the Egyptian masons.

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The Qualities of a Modern Knight Templar

In the Middle Ages the ideal of a knight was to live a life of chivalry, kindness, courage, courtesy, chastity and piety. The ideal knight was required to possess great faith and devotion to God and sought to help and protect all humanity. The ideal knight, as we all know, was personified as Sir Galahad. In Tennyson's poem Sir Galahad our ideal knight sums himself up by stating: "My good blade carves the casques of men,/My tough lance thrusteth sure,/My strength is as the strength of ten,/Because my heart is pure." The last line "Because my heart is pure," sums up Galahad's greatest virtue and the one from which all his other strengths and virtues emerge.

According to the Medieval Holy Grail texts, the ideal knight was the one who would find success in search of the Holy Grail, and Sir Galahad did indeed find the sought-after object before finally ascending into the Heavens from its power. Therefore, the optimum qualities of a knight, at least in the estimation of the Medieval Grail thinkers, are those that assist one in finding the Holy Grail. But since our ideas of what the Holy Grail is have evolved over the years, should not the qualities for achieving it also evolve?

As we know it today, the Holy Grail is the power or frequency of an object, that once entering a person can take him or her to enlightenment and immortality. This is why there have been literally hundreds of Holy Grails around the globe, some of which date back to Sumerian times. The transformative energy they possess is known as the Holy Spirit, or Kundalini, which is a power that emanates from certain blessed objects, but also lies in a dormant state at the base of the human spine. Thus, according to our new definition of the Holy Grail, the qualities of a Modern Knight Templar should be those that assist him or her in receiving this power and awakening it at its seat at the bottom of the spine.

Interestingly, spiritual traditions around the globe that allude to this Holy Grail power maintain that the way to receive it from the environment and/or awaken it internally involves cultivating many of the virtues ascribed to Sir Galahad: kindness, chastity, devotion to a higher power, courage, and a pure heart. In unison they all assert that a person must be willing to dedicate him or herself to the goal of enlightenment through service, surrender, devotion, discipline and love for one's fellow brother and sister. Thus, in many regards even though our notions of the Holy Grail may have changed somewhat, the path to its achievement remains very much the same.

Having been on the Kundalini path for many years I would like to include one more pre-requisite quality needed for an aspiring Modern Knight Templar on the path of the Holy Grail: personal responsibility. The universe functions according to the law of cause and effect always. So whatever you have in this moment you have earned in this lifetime or another. There is no such thing as a "victim," nor is there such a thing as "luck." If a person has not learned this truth before finding the Holy Grail many problems can arise. For one thing, the results of actions from many lives can show up all at once because one's karma is speeded up ...and it is very easy to feel "victimized." Once the Holy Grail is discovered a person is officially on the "fast track" to enlightenment and unless he or she remains steadfast in the wisdom that you can only get back what you have put out, they are likely to get stuck in self-pity for extended periods of time. Moreover, if a person then reacts angrily or violently to his or her circumstances, he or she will only succeed in creating more karma that will have to be experienced at a future time, thus delaying their inevitable enlightenment. So a sense of personal responsibility, along with an attitude of surrender, is imperative. But, of course, to develop this attitude takes courage. It is too easy to blame another person, the universe, or God for your misfortune. This is why I believe that the path of the Holy Grail - the path to enlightenment - has always been, and will always be, suited principally for spiritual warriors...and Holy Grail Knights!

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Crystal Skulls & the Knight Templars

The Knights Templar were inveterate lovers and users of Human Skulls of all sizes and mediums, including both metallic and Crystal Skulls. The Templar identification with Human Skulls was reflected in one of the Knights' preeminent symbols, the "Jolly Roger," which is the recognizable pirate or poison symbol of a human skull surmounting cross bones. This symbol represented both the Templar ceremonial use of skulls as idolic images and even drinking vessels, as well as their practice of alchemy, one of the stages of which was termed "Deadhead" and represented cryptically as a human skull.

Human Skulls were popular among the Templars because they were believed to hold the spiritual power of their original owners - as well as to continually emanate this essence throughout their environment. The skull of John the Baptist discovered by the Templars during the Fourth Crusade in Constnatinople was such a skull. The Templars claimed that John's skull radiated the same kind of Holy Spirit power as it did when attached to the original body of John, and in order to empower their ceremonies and initiations they placed it on their high altars. Other human skulls paticularly esteemed by the Templars were those that had been possessed by Christian saints and past grand masters of their organization. In order to amplify and conduct the power emanating from these skulls for ceremonial purposes they were often wrapped in a highly conductive metal, such as gold or silver, and then placed in energy-productive reliquaries made into the shapes of sacred geometric formations including tetrahedrons, octagons, and pyramids. References to Templar skulls wrapped in gold and silver can be found in some of the early Holy Grail legends.

In recent times Crystal Skull experts such as Nick Nocerino and Frank Dorland have confirmed the Templars' history with Crystal Skulls. Nick Nocerino claimed that during WWII he was offered and declined the gift of a large, ancient crystal skull from a French farmer, and later he heard that this skull had become the possession of a secret Templar or Freemasonry order in France. He was also told confidentially by a member of some French secret society that the Templars had long been the caretakers of very ancient and powerful Crystal Skulls. One of their Crystal Skulls may have been the most famous one on the planet today, the Mitchell-Hedges "Skull of Doom." One legend has it that the Knights Templar arrived in the New World hundreds of years before Columbus and deposited soem of their most valuable treasures there, including the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, which they hid in Maya land in Central America. Supposedly Frederick Mitchell-Hedges was a member of a secret society that preserved a record of where the Templars had hidden the crystal skull, and he followed it to the Maya site of Lubaantun in Belize where he was able to locate the skull. Some parts of this story have been confirmed by Frank Dorland, who studied and researched the Skull of Doom continuously for six years. Dorland claimed that the crystal skull had indeed been in the possession of the Templars and carried around by them in Europe and the Middle East during the time of the Crusades.

Today, certain Templar organizations continue to use human and crystal skulls, including our order, The International Order of Gnostic Templars. The centerpeice of an IOGT altar is often a crystal skull, representing our patron John the Baptist, that is incased in a pyramid or sacred geometrical form.

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Black Madonnas: The Goddess holding the Green Man

The Black Madonna cult of Europe initially came into focus when Knights Templar returned from the Middle East with an assortment of black statues that were destined to grace the central altars of many Gothic cathedrals they would help construct. Such cathedrals were dedicated to the Goddess; their sacred geometrical design stimulated the generation of the transformative Holy Spirit power of the Goddess within, and Her form was manifest interiorly both as the Black Madonna as well as the labyrinth.

Having been schooled in the Goddess traditions of the Middle East, the Knights Templar would have known that the Black Madonna represented the destructive/transformative power of the Goddess, known as the Shekinah, Holy Spirit, Kundry, Kali, Baraka, and Kundalini. They would also have learned the eternal myth of the Goddess, whose Son was born as the Lord of Nature or Green Man in the spring and died with the falling leaves each fall. During his short life the Son matured quickly enough to become his mother's lover before dying in her grieving arms soon afterwards. Such was the legend of Inanna/Ishtar and her son Dammuzi/Tammuz of Mesopotamia, as well as Astarte/Aphrodite and Adonis of Syria. It was also the foundational myth behind the legend of the Anatolian Great Mother Cybele and her lover Attis, and even Isis and her son, Hathor. According to this myth, Osiris, the Egyptian Green Man, died each fall and was then reborn as his own son, Horus.

The Catholic Church co-opted the ancient "pagan" symbol of the Goddess and Her Son and, like so many other rites and symbols it borrowed, gave it its own puritanical Catholic slant. Thus, the ancient Black Madonna eventually became the Virgin Mary carrying the baby Jesus...and more confusion crept into the Church. When the researching author Ean Begg traveled around to the sites of the various Madonnas in Europe and asked the Church officials why the Modonna was black, their answers were startling. "She's black because of the Church soot," said one priest, which did not explain why nothing else in the Church was black. Another calmly replied: "She's black because she's black!" How enlightening!

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The Dual Green Man: The Two Johns

The ancient Green Man was eventually divided by the theologians of patriarchal religion into two entities. He thus became the famous Twins spoken of in creation myths worldwide, who were the cultural bearers and gurus of many civilizations. But althought they began as twin boys and friends when patriarchy was still in its infancy, they eventually became diametrically arch-enemies and opposite in both appearance and nature. Their evolution progressed from their manifestation as the attractive and congenial Castor and Pollux, or the Ashwin Twins of India, to the Jews' St. Michael and Belial, and finally to Christ and Satan of the Christians. Within the pagan and esoteric sects, the Green Man as Jnana, Janus, and John - all of which carry the meaning of "wisdom" - split to become Janus with two heads, or the two Johns: St. John the Baptist and St. John the Divine who ruled over the dark and light halves of the year. And since the Green Man was the teacher and protector of the esoteric mysteries for his mother, the Goddess, his two halves manifesting as the two Johns became the patrons of many of the gnostic and alchemcial sects of Europe, including the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.
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John the Baptist, Incarnation of the Green Man

As Grand Master of the Johannite lineage, John the Baptist was an incarnation of the Green Man, a truth known by another Johannite Grand Master, the great painter Leonardo Da Vinci. One of Da Vinci's greatest works is the above image of John the Baptist as Bacchus or Dionysus, the Greek manifestation of the Green Man. Da Vinci apparently knew that the Green Man or Son of the Goddess was the primeval guardian and teacher of the Goddess's seminal mysteries - the mysteries of gnosis and alchemy - and that he became incarnate in all Grand Masters who carried the torch of gnosis within the lineages that he, the Green Man, had anciently founded. That such an entity was once incarnate in a physical or semi-physical form seems certain because the Johannite/Mandean lineage of John the Baptist is reputed to have emerged from Sri Lanka, the island that is reputed to have spawned many other lineages of the Green Man - who is known on Sri Lanka as Skanda, Murugan or Sanat Kumara. Legends have it that Skanda, the Jnana Pandita, the Teacher of Gnosis, founded numerous lineages of Gnostic masters who traveled north from Sri Lanka into India to found the prodigious yoga traditions and schools that still exist there, while others went west to become founding members of the Nasorean, Holy Grail, or Johannite lineage in the Middle East. The term Nasorean has as its root Nas, a term meaning "serpent." The Nasoreans were the definitive gnostics of the Middle East who claimed to be representatives and guardians of the teachings of the original Serpent of Wisdom, the Serpent on the Tree, which is another epithet for the Green Man of Sri Lanka. They knew, as do nearly one billion Moslems around the world today, that Sri Lanka is the original Garden of Eden.

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The Androgynous Green Man in Rosslyn Chapel

The androgyny of the Green Man, who is the life force densified - or Spirit and matter united - is represented in numerous ways both within and outside of Rosslyn Chapel. The picture to the far left of the Green Man head that is found inside of Rosslyn and situated within the confluence of eight vines symbollizes the Green Man to be the union of the 8 (upper Spirit world united to lower material world), which is the number of the life force or alchemical mead that nourishes but also transforms a base metal or person into something immortal and divine. The alchemical scientists who helped design Rosslyn recognized three powers of the Green Man/life force. It was creative; it was preserving; but it was also destructive. The life force condenses into physicality, so it is creative; it nourishes all living creatures, so it is preserving; but it eventually turns everything back to itself, life force, so it is also destructive.

The Green Man in his dual nature is also depicted by the above image in the upper center. The guides of Rosslyn Chapel will inform you that half of this Green Man's face carries a different expression than the other half. The right side, representing his creative and preserving nature, is benificent, while the left side, symbollizing his destructive nature, is sinister and evil. The Green Man's destructive nature is fully personified by the third image in the lower center, which a Rosslyn guide will tell you is a depiction of the evil and destructive Green Man, or Baphomet, which is why it is situated outside the chapel on its north wall facing the direction of cold and death. Baphomet was recognized by the Knights Templar as the personification of the powers that destroy, but through their association with the Sufis and other mystical sects in the Middle East many of the Knights also knew that the destructive force of the Green Man was necessary to achieve enligtenment because it destroyed everything that kept a person from knowing his or her divine nature, including the ego and one's physical, emotional and mental toxins. The presence of so many Green Man heads in Rosslyn would appear to indiacte that the chapel was, at least to a degree, dedicated to the Green Man. And it was. As Feng Shui experts will tell you, the chapel was designed to generate the life force of the Green Man so that it could be used for both healing and initiation into the spiritual process of death and rebirth. The presence of the Green Man heads in Rosslyn may also reveal what is hidden within it or under it. It could hold the head of John the Baptist, one of the most sacred objects of the Templars that was discovered in a palace in Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. As Leonardo Da Vinci knew when he painted John the Baptist as Bacchus, the Baptist was a manifestation of Dionysus, the Green Man and Lord of Nature. An interesting confirmation of the connection between John and Dionysus can be found in their respective names. Bacchus is related to Iacchus, a Greek name for Dionysus as teacher of the mysteries that translates into the English "Jack." Jack, as is well known, is a nickname for John.

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Rosslyn: Monument to the Goddess

According to Andrew Sinclair, one of the items stored within the crypt of Rosslyn Chapel is the large Black Madonna that once graced the chapel's main altar. Rosslyn, claim the Sinclairs, was created by Earl William Sinclair to reflect his pagan/gnostic beliefs...beliefs that were shaped by the early Knights Templar and shared by the Black Madonna-loving Gypsies he allowed to live in Roslin glen during the warm summer months. The Black Madonna is the personification of the dark, destructive power of the Goddess, which alchemically transforms a seeker and prepares him or her to incarnate Sophia, the Wisdom of the Goddess. The presence of a Black Madonna within Rosslyn indicates that the chapel was used both for initiation rituals and transformational healing.

Earl William Sinclair installed the Goddess within Rosslyn Chapel as the five pointed stars, abundant roses and graceful dove that embellish its ceiling, and Andrew Sinclair maintains that the original floor of the chapel was a Labyrinth, a geometrical form body of the Goddess and one of the best tools ever created for the development of gnosis. Of course, the Goddess's Son...and Daughter...are manifest as the numerous Green Men and Women heads that cover the inner and outer walls of the chapel. And since Black Madonna's pre-existed Christianity, the child held by the Black Madonna on Rosslyn's altar may have also been recognized by Earl William to be the Goddess's Son, the Lord of Nature who is born and dies annually with the arrival and departure of the Earth's flora.

The Goddess chapel of Rosslyn was one of seven Gothic enclosures built by Templar trained masons over the chakra points of Europe. Over Europe's first chakra was built the cathedral of Santiago de Compostella. The second chakra in Toulouse, France became the home of a towering cathedral as did the succeeding chakras in Orleans, Chartres, Paris, and Amiens. The last or seventh chakra, and the only one in the UK, became the home of Rosslyn Chapel. These seven chakra points were collectively a pilgrimage root taken by the Knights Templar. At each corresponding cathedral the Knights would seek to awaken, or further awaken, their inner gnosis through special baptismal rites that had originated with their patron and the founder of the gnostic path in the West, John the Baptist, hundreds of years before them. This is why images of the Baptist figure prominently all along the route. The crowning initiation occured at Rosslyn Chapel with the awakening of Knights' crown chakra.

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Rosslyn Chapel's Mysterious Crypt

According to one theory, Rosslyn Chapel was built to be a replica of Solomon's Temple (or rather Herod's Temple, which was also a replica of Solomon's Temple). Moreover, after taking it through Europe to Scotland the Templars (or their Sinclair descendants) hid their treasure in Rosslyn Chapel in the area that corresponds to the region of Solomon's Temple the Knights had initially discovered it in. This area of Rosslyn Chapel, which is deliniated in the upper far left image by a six pointed star, sits directly under the "keystone", the cubed stone that descends from the roof of the chapel, and is said to correspond to the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple, the place the Ark of the Covenant was kept. The second image above is a map of the largest vaults under Rosslyn Chapel discovered by ground scans. The largest vault is in the shape of an Arabic 8 and sits directly under the six pointed star. Obviously, this is where much of the excavation will occcur once permission to enter the crypt is granted. When will it be granted? More on this later.....

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Rosslyn Chapel: A Monument to Gnosis

The St. Clair or Sinclair builders of Rosslyn Chapel have always been pioneers and protectors of the path of Gnosis. Sir Andrew Sinclair, in his book Rosslyn, revealed that there were St. Clairs involved in spreading gnosis as early as the 1st Century, and they were at the forefront of the Cathar movement during the 12th century in southern France. As the gnosis wisdom gradually became expunged from much of Templarism following the fateful day of October 13, 1307, the Scottish Sinclairs became its preservers and guardians by later encoding the gnostic Templar secrets upon the walls and ceiling of Rosslyn Chapel as an abundace of curious symbols and scupltured images, as well as by storing the Templars' gnostic documents in the chapel's crypt. Perhaps most importantly, the Sinclairs designed Rosslyn to give its visitors the gnostic experience. The chapel erection on the powerful Roseline, as well as its gothic design, which incorporates the golden mean spiral and the six and eight pointed stars of alchemy, naturally generate the Holy Spirit power in order to raise the frequency of its visitors. This ascension a visitor experiences has the effect of releasing some level of his or her inner Kundalini power and activating the inner centers of gnosis, the chakras, especially the Ajna Chakra or Third Eye of Wisdom between the two physical eyes. Earl William Sinclair, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel, also designed the floor of Rosslyn to be a labyrinth, which is one of the most powerful gnostic tools on the planet. As a person walks a labyrinth he or she naturally entrains the left and right hemipsheres of the brain to work in sync. The "aha" Gnostic experince occurs when the information of the left brain is intuitively felt to be true by the right brain. Finally, Earl William strategically placed throughout Rosslyn images of the Goddess, whose tradition had spawned the path of gnosis, as well as symbols of her Son, the Green Man, who was the guardian of Her gnostic wisdom. One definitive image of the Goddess was a black Madonna, which was set prominently upon the central altar. This Goddess personification of the Holy Spirit power, which alchemically transforms a person into a gnostic master, decisively informed the world that the chapel was indeed meant to be a monument to the path and experience of gnosis.

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The Messiah John the Baptist

When the Knights Templar left the Holy Land with five trunks or "caskets," it is believed that part of the treasure in their cargo was documentation of their Johannite lineage. Knight Hughes de Payen had recently received the grand mastership of this lineage, which had been passed to him from John the Baptist, Jesus, John the Apostle and then down a line of grand masters who had all adopted the titular name "John." Hughes officially became John #68 of this Johannite lineage.

Some of the Johannite documentation the Templars carried with them exposed the wisdom of the co-messiahs. Their "heretical" wisdom stipulated that John the Baptist was the teacher of Jesus and ranked higher than his pupil in the gnostic hierarchy. In the Holy Land the Templars learned that John was the fulfillment of the ancient Essene prophecy which stated that a messiah would be born in the Tribe of Levi and be the Priest Messiah, while a second one would be born in the Tribe of David and be the King Messiah. Following their respective births, Messiah John, having been born a priest in the Tribe of Levi, was venerated as closer to Yahweh and superior to Jesus, the King Messiah born into the Tribe of David.

When the Templars moved through Europe with their five trunks they stopped in Omer, the home of Templar Knight Geffrey de St. Omer, long enough for cleric Lambert de St. Omer to copy one of the Johannite documents they were carrying. Today, Lambert's drawing (the above image), known as the "Heavenly Jerusalem", survives in the library of the University of Ghent in Belgium. Those who have studied the image maintain that it represents the new world prophesied in Revelation that was to be created by the messiah. What makes this a pure Johannite document is the image's implication that John the Baptist is (or will be) the founder of the New Jerusalem. And almost unbelievably, Jesus is nowhere in sight!

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What's Really in Rosslyn Chapel?

Authors Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas maintain in The Hiram Key that Rosslyn Chapel was built to be a model of Solomon's Temple, or more accurately, it was built as a reflection of Herod's Temple since Solomon's Temple was long gone by the time the Templars arrived in the Holy Land...and the Knights only had Herod's Temple to study. Knight and Lomas base their theory on the respective floor plans of Rosslyn Chapel and Herod's Temple, which as the above diagrams reveal are nearly identical. The authors also claim that the "unfinished" outer wall of Rosslyn was supposed to be unfinished because that is the way it looked when the Templars' studied it in Jerusalem. This is probably the only good explanation for the wall being there, since it is not a weight bearing wall and thus could not have sustained the weight of an additional structure being added to Rosslyn Chapel. It certainly was not built to tie into the huge cathedral that some believe was part of the original plans for Rosslyn.

So the question remains, why would the latter day Templars in Scotland, i.e., the nobility of Clan Sinclair, build Rosslyn Chapel to be a model of Herod's Temple? The answer lies in the rason d'etre of the Knights Templar themselves. Were they really formed to protect pilgrims coming and going from the Holy Land, or was there another reason for their existence? Considering that nine middle aged Knights would not have been able to police much of Palestine, it appears that there must be different reason for their Order. Since the 19th century, when members of the Royal British Army investigated deep holes dug by the Templars in the foundations of Herod's Temple, it has been a common belief of many that the true reason for the Knights' existence was to retreive buried treasure in the Holy Land. And since some of the holes were nearly 20 feet deep, it is also believed that the Templars must have known exactly where the treasures had anciently been buried. In this regard, Tim Wallace-Murphy maintains that a group of Jewish Elders, known collectively as the Rex Dues families, left the Holy Land during the first century C.E. after burying priceless Essene and Jewish temple artifacts and documents in strategic places. They then traveled into Europe and married into the royal families of the continent, eventually revealing the location of the treasure they left behind to their new families. This wisdom eventually passed down for centuries ithin the royal families until it reached those noble knights who were destined to become the first Templars. According to the rest of this possible scenario, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem was also in on the secret treasure which is why he gave the Templars part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to live in. Then, as soon as the king died nine years later, the Templars left the Holy Land with five trunks or "caskets." The caskets were first taken to Scotland and deposited in the the earliest Freemason lodge, Kilwinning, and then transferred to Roslin Castle, home of the Sinclair nobility. After a freak fire broke out in Roslin Castle the five cases were quickly removed, and then six months later construction on Rosslyn Chapel began. Was Rosslyn built specifically to hold the five cases? If so, what is in the five cases? More on this later.....

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The Mystery of the Green Man

In Rosslyn Chapel the Green Man is manifest on the interior and exterior walls more than one hundred times, thus revealing an important link between the Sinclair builders of the chapel and the Spirit of Nature. The Sinclairs were gnostics and identified God with nature. They became patrons of the Gypsies partly because they shared their "pagan" veneration of nature. The Sinclairs were also preservers of the gnostic secrets of the Knights Templar, and there is reason to believe that much of the Sinclair veneration of the Green Man was inherited from the Templars. This is probable since some of the Green Man images decorating the walls of the chapel incorporate Templar alchemical and gnostic wisdom.

We know that the Templars' patron saint was St. George or "Green George," a personification of the Green Man. The name George is derived from the root "Geo", meaning "Earth," thus making him the Earth Man or Green Man. But apparently the Templars learned a mystery about the Green Man in the Holy Land. In the Middle East they learned that he was synonymous with the Green Man of the Sufis', Al-Khadir, who was also the initiator into spiritual life. Al-Khadir initiated by activating the process of alchemical unfoldment within a seeker of wisdom by transmitting a spark of himself into them. His spark was the life force, of course, since as nature he was the embodiment of crystallized life force. But his spark a higher frequency of life force than what normally sustains life. In the western mystical tradition this high frequency life force is known as the Holy Spirit, and in the East it is known as Kundalini power. In Rosslyn Chapel, Templar alchemical associations with the Green Man are on display as the Green Man motif pictured above, whose head is situated in the center of eight vines, eight being the number of the Kundalini or Holy Grail power. The Arabic numeral eight unites two circles, or the two "worlds" of Heaven and Earth, which come together to produce the high frequency life force. The alchemical substance, as any alchemist will tell you, involves the union of the polarity.

If the Templars' patron St. George, the Green Man, is an initiator and an embodiment of high frequency life force, or Kundalini, - as Rosslyn Chapel reveals - then his function is to transform a physical warrior into a gnostic warrior by transmitting a particle of himself in order to alchemically awaken the inner gnostic centers of wisdom. Thus, the highest path of the Knight Templar is, and always has been, that of the Gnostic Warrior.

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The First Path to God

The legends of the East maintain that the first teacher of the path to God, i.e., the world's first guru, was Sanat Kumara. The spear-wielding Sanat Kumara was also the primal warrior, so the original path to enlightenment he taught to developing humanity was also the path of the Spiritual Warrior, who by definition is the one who masters life by effectively meeting his or her challenges and opponents. Sanat Kumara, who is also called the Jnana Pandita, the "Teacher of Gnosis," taught that the way to God leads to the activation of the gnostic faculties, from which then emerges the inner realization of "I am God in a physical form." And he also taught that the way to this revelation is through mastery of the Vel spear, the spear he holds in his hands in the above illustration. The Vel is not a physical weapon, it is a symbol that represents the internal process involved with awakening of the Third Eye of Wisdom of the Spiritual Warrior. The blade of the spear represents the Third Eye, and the spear's shaft is symbolic of the human spine, path of the Kundalini that rises up from the base of the spine to awaken the Third Eye. When we have cut away the dogma that separates the world's religions and returned to the path of gnosis as is prophesied, wisdom regarding mastery of the inner spear and the path of the Spiritual Warrior will once again be known and taught around our planet.

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The Sacred Spear through the Ages

Within the last two thousand years the Sacred Spear has been passed down through the lineage of Holy Roman Emperors and known as the Spear of St. Maurice, the blade of which was supposedly crafted by King Constantine from nails taken from the True Cross by his mother, Helena, during her pilgrimage in the Holy Land. Legend has it that the creation of this spear was inspired by a vision Constantine had of a spear that served as the vertical shaft for a flaming Labarum or Chi-Rho symbol the emperor saw in the sky. Under the Chi-Rho was written "With this sign conquer." Did the symbol signify that the monarch should conquer with the sign of Christ, and that he should use a physical spear to do so? Or did it mean siomething else at that time in history? Considering Constantine was a so-called "pagan" when he saw the symbol and only became a baptized Christian on his death bed - as well as the fact that the symbol of the spear initially had not physical but spiritual implcations - this was probably not the case.

As emperor of the Roman Empire Constantine was a representative and devotee of the "Soul of the World," the solar deity Mithras, whose symbols included the Greek Chi - whose shafts denoted the path of the Sun. Thus, when the king saw the Chi bisected by a spear, another symbol of Mithras, how do you think he related to it? He no doubt preceived it as the symbol of Mithras, as would have all Roman soldiers and military leaders, who up until that time had won their battles with the assistance of Mithras.

As I have shown in my book The Truth Behind the Christ Myth, Constantine may have assocaited Mithras with Jesus, a trend began with St. Paul who had been an ardent devotee of Mithras. Paul was born in Taursus in Cilicia, which was the capital of Mithras worship in the Middle East, and spent his life in the company of Roman soldiers first as a tent maker and then as a member of the palace guard. When St. Paul heard about Jesus he naturally associated him with Mithras, who according to prophecy was supposed to incarnate at that time. It was thus natural for Paul to amalgamate the legend of Mithras (born of a virgin on December 25th, ascended into Heaven, will return at the end of time, etc.) to the life story of Jesus. Apparently the association between Jesus and Mithras continued down until the time of Constantine, which is why the Roman monarch had a model of Mithras' spear fashioned out of the nails that had pierced Jesus.

In my book I also reveal the spiritual origin of the Sacred Spear. The spear was part of the Mithras cult, but Mithras himself was a Persian version of a much older deity: Skanda-Murugan, the primeval warrior and Soul of the World in the Hindu tradition. Skanda-Murugan's principal weapon, his Vel spear, denoted the inner faculty of intuition and symbolized that the best weapon to defeat one's opponents is the inner intuitive guidance one receives from Spirit. The blade of Skanda-Murugan's Vel represents the "Third Eye" of intuition located between the two human eyes, and its shaft denotes the spine, pathway of the activating Kundalini. When the Kundalini, which normally sits dormant at the base of the spine, is awakened, it ascends the human spine to the head and awakens thes Third Eye of intuition, or gnosis. It is because of this spiritual property of his Vel that one of Skanda-Murugan's titles is Jnana Pandita, the "Teacher of Gnosis."

Thus, the movement of ruling the world with the spear began with Skanda-Murugan, who was also recognized as King of the World, and therefore the message to Constantine should have been "With this -the guidance of Spirit - conquer." But the spiritual associations with the spear may have been lost at that time. They certainly were later on, as witnessed by how Hitler understood the Spear of Maurice, that "he who wields it rules the Earth." Obviously Hitler did not understand that the way to rule is through following the inner guidance of Spirit, not through brute force. Such inner guidance will always lead to the heart, not to brutality.

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The Ancient Lineage of Spiritual Warriors

According to the Gnostic Templar tradition, the Ancient Lineage of Spiritual Warriors began with the primal warrior of the East, Sanat Kumara or Murugan, the wielder of the Vel spear. Sanat Kumara, who was the founder of the Holy Grail tradition, established a lineage of Spiritual Warriors to guard the Holy Grail and take the gnostic mysteries West. These were the Nasurai adepts of the Mandeans, who later merged with the Essenes and founded the sect of Nazarenes, which slowly became populated with master builders adept in the art of sacred geometry. These were the early members of the Craft, which later became Freemasonry. One of these builders was Jeshua ben Joseph, the disciple of the Mandean prophet and Nasurai, John the Baptist. Jeshua ben Joseph inherited the Holy Grail and the wisdom of the Spiritual Warrior from the Baptist, whose name "John" was derived from a Sanscrit name of Sanat Kumara, Jnana (pronounced Yan or Jon) Pandita, the "Teacher of Gnosis." John, like other Grand Masters of the Spiritual Warrior lineage, was recognized to be an embodiment and incarnation of the primal warrior. Thus, Sanat Kumara passed a part of himself down this lineage. This was his gnostic wisdom and power, which enabled the possessor to conquer all the challenges of life.

Jeshua ben Joseph eventually passed the Ancient Lineage of Spiritual Warriors and the Holy Grail to the two apostles at the foot of the Cross, John the Apostle and Mary Magdalene. They, in turn, passed it down a long line of Spiritual Warriors all named John, which was a title meaning "He of Gnostic Power and Wisdom." During the time of the first Knight Templar Grand Master, Hughes de Payen, this lineage became the possession of the Templars and Hughes became its Grand Master. One of his titles then became John #68. From that point onwards the Ancient Lineage of Spiritual Warriors passed down within the Templars. Later, when the Templars needed to become invisible in order to survive following their mass arrest in 1307, much of the wisdom of the Holy Grail, the Craft, and the Path of the Spiritual Warrior passed into Freemasonry. Because of this transmission the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry became an order comprised of an abundance of Knighted degrees, and the 13th degree of the York Rite became known as the degree of Knight Templar. It is also why Freemasonry chose as its patrons two earlier lineage holders of the Ancient Lineage of Spiritual Warriors, John the Baptist and John the Apostle. As the "Two Johns" they are pictured above.

We in the Gnostic Templar tradition recognize that our lineage streams from the primal warrior, Sanat Kumara, and the Ancient Lineage of Spiritual Warriors. Like our predecessors we also strive to embody the power and wisdom of our ancestral Spiritual Warriors and live in every moment as vehicles of gnostic power and wisdom.

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The Ancient Path of the Modern Knight Templar

The path of the Modern Knight Templar has its roots in an extremely ancient tradition. According to historical traditions worldwide, the path of the Spritual Warrior was one of the original paths to scred wisdom taught to humankind. Many cultures preserve histories that recount one or two great warriors who appeared during the earliest ages of human existence in order to teach this path, as well as many of the other mundane and sacred sciences, including writing, medicine, agriculture, building, etc. One of these warriors, Skanda Kumara (aka Sanat Kumara, Murugan), of the Hindu tradition has been mentioned in previous posts. Other famous warriors and culture bearers worldwide include: The Hindu Ashwin Twins; Castor and Pollux; the Greek Kaberoi Twins; Hunapu and Xbalenque of the Mayas; and the Ahayuta Twins, patrons of the Zuni Warrior Clan. The Hopis have their twins, as do the Iroquois and many other Native American Tribes. In some of these legends the one primal warrior has been split into two identical twins in order to reflect his higher and lower selves. Such is the case of the great warriors Castor and Pollux - one of whom was "of Heaven" and the other "of Earth" - as well as their Christian counterparts, St. Michael and St. George. This wisdom of the higher and lower selves of the primal warrior was understood by the early Knights Templar, which is why they adopted the one spiritual warrior divided as the "twins" St. Michael and St. George to be their patron.

Many of the ancient warriors appeared so anciently in history that one of their initial assignments was to rid the world of huge, dangerous animals, which were apparently the early dinosaurs. Such was the task of Skanda Kumara and the Ahayutas, as well as St. George, St. Michael, and others. Thus, from the beginning the Spiritual Warrior made it his duty to serve and protect humanity, and this mandate continued down to the time of the Knights Templar and many of the early Knighted Orders. Today, the Templar organization known as the SMOTJ continues this mandate by protecting Christians coming and going from the Holy Land - except they use diplomacy rather than force to accomplish this goal. We in the IOGT also strive to serve and protect humanity, but we are accomplishing our mission by publishing research and organizing conferences that reveal that all religions are linked, and they all have a similar origin. Through this work we hope to create more understanding and tolerance between the world's religions and hopfully end much of the warring that has raged between them for millenia.

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The Yoga of the Modern Knight Templar

One of my favorite qoutes made by Krishna while teaching the warrior Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita reads "Yoga is skill in action." Thus, the Hindu saint does not say that yoga, the path to enlightenment, involves contorting your body into a pretzel or meditating in a sealed cave for years in the frigid Himalayas. Instead, he proclaims that yoga is skill in activity, thus revealing that yoga is for everyone since we are all involved in some form of daily activity. As Krishna implores us, we only need to use good judgement and discrimination in the choices we make in order to practice Yoga and evolve spiritually. We just need to walk a middle path between the polar extremes of behavior - and most importantly - we need to act without attachment to the fruits of our actions. Such attachment, states Krishna, will only bring about pain and suffering, because at least half the time the fruits of our labors will not live up to our hope and wishes. So, he says, dedicate the fruits of your labors to God/Goddess, knowing that a higher power has your best interests in mind and will both support and protect you. You can also dedicate the fruits of your labor to your brothers and sisters around you and throughout the world. Krishna states that such service to the world is no different than making an offering directly to God/Goddess, because God/Goddess exists within the heart of each human being. And, as the Bhagavad Gita teaches us, dedicating the fruits of your actions to some one or something is the only way of not creating any more karma for yourself. Unless you dedicate the fruits of your action to someone or some thing other than yourself you will be forced to experience the fruits of your actions - whether good or bad - in this life or a future one. Only when you stop creating more karma for yourself can you finally extricate yourself from the continual rounds of birth and death and achieve complete enlightenment.

The Yoga of Action is the path of the Modern Knight Templar, the Spiritual Warrior who consciously uses the inner sword and spear of good discrimination and intuition to guide his or her daily activities and not get too attached to their fruits. To learn more about this path, visit http://www.gnostictemplars.org/.

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A Textbook for the Modern Knight Templar

One important - and timeless - textbook of the Spiritual Warrior and Modern Knight Templar is the Bhagavad Gita. The entire text of this ancient scripture is a conversation between Sri Krishna and the great warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, which symbolizes the conversation between the Higher Self (Krishna) and the Ego (Arjuna) that occurs on the battlefield of life. The dialogue begins when Arjuna becomes distraught about fighting in a great battle against his own relatives and wants to lay down his weapons and leave the battlefield. When Arjuna (the ego of the Gnostic Warrior) opens himself to the wisdom of his Higher Self (Krishna), he receives the necessary guidance to continue his battle. Once the guidance of Krishna (the Higher Self) has been embraced by Arjuna (the Ego), Krishna (the Higher Self) then becomes the driver of the chariot (the body) of Arjuna and continuously oversees the actions of the Gnostic Warrior as he meets his opponents. This completes the metaphor of life....

What makes the Bhagavad Gita unique is that the guidance from Krishna can be applied to any challenge - and to any time or place - which confronts a Gnostic Warrior. Thus it is the definitive textbook for a Spiritual or Gnostic Warrior - and just as useful today as it was thousands of years ago. During his discourse Krishna disseminates universal and eternal wisdom to Arjuna that can be used at any time, including the insight that a Gnostic Warrior should not be attached to the fruits of his or her actions and make them an offering to God/Goddess. He says that one should follow one's dharma - i.e., one's life path - without attachment to its fruits. A Gnostic Warrior should use his spear of intuition to "hear" the guidance from his or her chariot driver, the Higher Self, and then wield the sword of discrimination to make a quick and firm decision - followed by decisive action. Only in this way can a Gnostic Warrior shed fear and hesitation, and live spontaneously in every moment. Krishna also gives instruction about how to develop and wield one's inner spear and sword.

To learn more about the Bhagavad Gita and the path of the Gnostic Warrior, please visit http://www.gnostictemplars.org./

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Bridging One's Spiritual and Worldly Lives

The path of the Modern Knight Templar is the bridge that unites the cloistered and secluded life of a monk with that of a contemporary responsible citizen who is fully integrated into his or her society. Thus, the path of the Modern Knight Templar is the path of the Age of Aquarius, during which we all will be seeking to unite the solitary monastic life with the co-operation and social consciousness needed in modern society. We are feeling the effects of the Aquarian Age now as more and more of us are finding it increasingly difficult to either isolate ourselves from the world, or to live a mainstream existence without a far-reaching alturistic and spiritual outlook. We need to find a middle ground, or Middle Path. The path of the Modern Knight Templar is the bridge that unites the material and spiritual worlds because it reveals how to tap into our inner spiritual resources while carrying on our normal day to day activities. The doctrines and practices of this path teach a person how to meet all challenges in life by creating an arsenal of inner weapons, which include the sword of discrimination and the spear of intuition. In order to manufacture these inner weapons and use them constructively, the Modern Knight Templar makes an academic study of gnosticism, philosophy, psychology, etc. while incorporating a schedule of both physical activity and contemplation into his or her daily routine. He or she learns how to keep all levels or "bodies" - including the physical, emotional, and mental bodies - free from toxic build-up and/or stagnation. Only when all bodies are their corresponding "weapons" are tooled and kept sharpened - and working harmoniously together - can we expect to meet all our worldly challenges.

For more information on the Modern Knight Templar path, please visit http://www.gnostictemplar.org/.

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Who is eligible to be a Modern Knight Templar?

To be a Modern Knight Templar has nothing to do with sex, race or nationality. It has nothing to do with formalized religion. To be a Modern Knight Templar you only need to be a person in search of wisdom regarding life-mastery and self knowledge. A Modern Knight Templar wields his or her inner weapons to conquer the challenges life presents him or her with, and it is the thirst for the ultimate enlightenment of Self-Realization that spurs him or her forward on this seemingly never ending "battle." However, with the wisdom of Self-Realization found with the heart the battle is won as the questions regarding human existence are summarlily answered at once.

The Primal Knight pictured above, who is known in the East as Skanda-Murugan and by the Templars as St. George, is niether male or female, he is androgynous. This is why he is depicted in the form of a ten year old boy who is still, by nature, a balance of male and female characteristics, or adrogynous.

The Templars began inducting women into their various organizations in the 1960s even though many women reflect the characteristics of a Modern Templar Knight even more than most men do. This is because many women have learned how to conquer life's challenges much better than men, but also because many of women have been Templar Knights in other lifetimes. Some recognize this truth and have had personal experience of it. These women claim to have come back in a female form this lifetime in order to bring more balance to the Templar path.

Females are also inherently more suited to the path of the Modern Knight Templar then are men. This is because the highest wisdom achievable to a Modern Knight Templar is the intuitive wisdom in his or her heart, which is generally easier for women to access then it is for men. Women are naturally more intuitive by nature and, therefore, more "gnostic." In fact, the path of the Gnostic or Intuitive Knight came out of the ancient female or Goddess Path, which has been dedicated to the cultivation of inner wisdom and experience rather than the acceptance of conceptual dogma. Interestingly, within the ancient path of the Gnostic Knight the inner intuitive guidance that the warrior received was recognized as coming directly from the Goddess Herself.

Historically, the Gnostic Knight tradition emerged from the Goddess Tradition in the East before it was brought west to the Holy Land, where it merged with the sect of Essenes. Within the Essenes emerged John the Baptist and Jesus, who passed the gnostic torch to John the Apostle and Mary Magdalene, who then passed it down a lineage of Grand Masters name "John" until the time of the first Knights Templar Grand Master, Hughes de Payen, who then became John #68. Since then, the Templars have been the guardians and representatives of the Gnostic path. With them it became known as the Johannite or Holy Grail Path, within which the Holy Grail was identified as the transformative spiritual power of the Goddess, i.e., the Holy Spirit, that opened the inner gnostic centers of a Gnostic Knight and could even grant the prize of immortality.

The International Order of Gnostic Templars exists to carry on the ancient tradition of the Gnostic Knight Templar. We welcome all races and both sexes to join us as we embark together on the ancient path of the Gnostic Knight, which will now become known as the path of the Modern Knight Templar. Learn how you can become either an Associate or Initiated Member of our organization. Visit http://www.gnostictemplars.org/.

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The Modern Templar & His Sword

In the same way that a Freemason's "tools" denote the inner principles he is set on developing for his degree, the sword of a Modern Knight Templar is used principally in ceremony and generally represents the Knight's inner principal of mental discrimination, although it also denotes the double-edged and razor-edged path he or she walks in life. These are not dissimilar ideas, but interrelated. Good discrimination allows a Modern Knight to walk the Middle Path between extremes, which can at time feel like balancing upon a razor's edge; it is easy to fall off!

As the Modern Templar Knight moves through life he or she is constantly beset with important challenges and decisions to make. The tendency for a new Knight is to take the most exreme path of righteousness and service to humanity, no matter what the cost is to him or herself - or to the opponent. But with time comes wisdom, and the experienced Modern Knight Templar eventually learns to take the Middle Path, one that will not throw himself or his surroundings too much out of balance. When the Middle Way is cultivated with dedication and for a period of time, the male and female principles within a Modern Knight become balanced and the brain hemispheres begin to work in unision. Then a Knight becomes guided by the union of intellect and intuition, which manifests as Gnostic wisdom. In this way the Knight naturally becomes a Gnostic.

The primeval Knight, St. George - or Sanat Kumara as he is known in the East- teaches a Knight how to live in harmony with life. Sanat Kumara, who is also known as "King of the World," is the patron of the Kshatriya Caste of India, which includes all warriors and kings. In the shamanic world the First Knight and King is manifest as the lion, the "King of Beasts," as well as other members of the cat family, including the jaguar or puma. The Andean Shamans maintain that it is the puma that rules the "Middle World," or Earth. The other worlds, the Upper World and Lower World, are ruled by the condor and serpent respectively.

Since it is cat spirit that rules the Earth, and because it is said that "a cat always lands on his feet," it is the best animal spirit to teach a Knight how to live in balance and confront all his challenges in the world. Since the cat also both rules and reflects the movement of the life force that runs upon the surface of the Earth through his slithering movements, it is additionally the patron of all sacred movement and martial arts, which can only be mastered through mastering the movement of the life force. So the cat rules over both a Knight's inner sword fighting or mental finess, as well as his or her outer movements used in wielding a physical sword.

As the Grail legends reveal, when the Knight or King does not use good discrimination he is likely to break his sword. Thus the "fallen" and crippled Fisher King had his sword broken in half, and King Arthur had his sword broken by unwisely enrolling the great warrior Sir Pellinor in battle.

The Sword is represented in the Tarot deck in the Suit of Swords, which reveal how well the inquisitor is wielding his or her discrimination. In general, the even number cards in the Suit of Swords denote more balance and the tendency to take the Middle Path than do the unbalanced, odd numbered cards.

If you are ready to become a Modern Templar Knight and learn how to wield your inner sword of discrimination, consider joining the preeminent Gnostic Templar Order, the IOGT http://www.gnostictemplars.org/, and/or consider taking the 18 lesson IOGT E-Course advertised on the homepage. We welcome you!

LINKS:
Website: http://www.gnostictemplars.org/
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E-mail: info@gnostictemplars.org

The Modern Templar & His Spear

Murugan (St. George), The Primal Spear Carrier

The relationship between a Knight Templar of ancient times and his spear is obviously much different than the one that currently exists between a Modern Knight Templar and his or her "weapon." But - and this is a little known truth - many of the early Templars understood the symbol of the spear just as a Modern Knight Templar does. For both eras of Knights, the spear has denoted an inner principal with which the spiritual warrior destroys the darkness that obscures the truth. The earliest understanding of the spear and the path of the spiritual warrior was taught to the Templars by their Sufi, Gnostic and Kabbalic teachers during the Knights' nearly two centuries in the Middle East. It was then expounded upon by the Templars within the Holy Grail legends authored in the 13th and 14th centuries, and it was later condensed within the Tarot, wherein the spear was depicted as a "wand" and associated with spiritual insight rather than physical destruction. Thus, to truly understand the symbol of the spear one must travel back in time to the early esoteric tradition of the East...

Today, within the Templar tradition, the spear is commonly associated with two of the Templars' patron saints, St. George and St. Michael, who are reflections of each other. St. George manifests as St. Michael in the heavens and vice-versa. The Templars knew of St. George before entering the Holy Land, certainly, but an understanding of him as being not just a physical warrior but a knight who fights with spiritual power and wisdom evolved in the Middle East.

According to the Sufi Idries Shah, while in the Holy Land the Templars studied with a Sufi sect known as the Order of St. Khadir, which also venerated St. George but as Al-Khadir. Like St. George or "Green George," Al-Khadir was a version of the Green Man, but he was different from his European counterpart in that he was responsible for initiating a Sufi with Baraka or spiritual power, and for being a spiritual advisor to Moses and many of the early Sufis and Jewish Prophets. Those Moslems who had studied the wisdom brought back from India and Sri Lanka by Sufi missionaries also knew Al-Khadir as the Hinduss' Skanda, Murugan or Sanat Kumara. Today, on Sri Lanka, there is a spritual colony dedicated to Murugan called Kataragama, where Buddhists, Moslems and Hindus all worship the same deity. Here he is Al-Khadir to the Moslems, Murugan to the Hindus, and Kataragama Deviyo, the "Deity of Kataragama" the the Buddhists. Since Sri Lanka is the "Garden of Eden" for the Moslems, and Skanda or Murugan is the most ancient name of this deity on the island, he who became Al-Khadir and St. George historically began as Skanda-Murugan.

For many ages the Hindus and Sri Lankans have worshipped Skanda-Murugan as the first and greatest of the warriors. He is their primal teacher of the martial arts and the archetypal warrior. But he is also venerated by them as the Jnana Pandita, the "Teacher of Gnosis." With his "Vel" or spear Murugan defeates his enemies with gnostic or intutive wisdom. In fact, his wisdom comes from his spear. This is because the spear is an esoteric symbol that denotes the path of wisdom. It's shaft denotes the spine, the pathway of the fiery Kundalini power (later depicted as the fiery "wand" of the Tarot), and its head or blade represents the human Third Eye of Wisdom which beomes awakened through the activating power of the Kundalini. Thus, the teaching from Skanda-Murugan, the primal spiritual warrior, is that the best weapon for fighting one's battles is spiritual wisdom.

As Modern Templars in The International Order of Gnostic Templars we seek to awaken the Third Eye of Wisdom and fight all our internal and external battles with the spiritual insight we gain from its activation. We welcome all people and both genders who would like to join as onthe Path of the Spiritual Warrior, the Modern Knight Templar. to To begin your path as a Spiritual Warrior or Modern Knight Templar consider taking our IOGT E-Course which you can find on the homepage at our website: http://www.gnostictemplars.org/.

The First Knight Templar Cross

More from International Grand Prior of the IOGT, Ian Sinclair:

"The first cross wasn't the ' Cross Pattee, it was the Cross of Lorraine, Pope Eugene the third gave them another one called ' The Cross of the Eight Beatitudes in 1147, so really in the beginng they only used the Cross of Lorraine, then the Cross Pattee."

The Engrailed Cross of the Sinclairs

The Engrailed Cross of the Sinclairs. This definition of the Engrailed Cross was recently sent to me by the International Grand Prior of the IOGT, Ian Sinclair.

"The engrailing is said to 'protect' the true cross of which the Sinclairs were guardians. At its centre it also embraces or encompasses the croix pattee of the Knights Templar which is readily discernible if you cover the cross at the first knuckle of each limb. This is particularly apparent at Rosslyn Chapel where the engrailed cross is incorporated into each and every arched dome.The four arms are also said to represent the four rivers of paradise.The engrailed cross has been a central part of the Sinclair arms since Norman days. It is also incorporated in the coat of arms of the City of Paris because of our defence of that City.It has appeared on the sails of our ships, on the shields of our Knights, on the battlements of our castles and, most notably, in that sanctum sanctorum, Rosslyn Chapel."

It has also been stated that the Engrailed Sinclair Cross is the definitive Holy Grail Cross and that the Sinclairs are the protectors of the Holy Grail. From this perspective the vertical and horizontal lines denote the male/female principals that unite as the Holy Grail's Water of Life or Elixir of Immortality. Thus, the scallops along the edges of the cross are the "waves" of the Water of Life.