The Temple # 2: A periodical dedicated to the history of the Knights Templar and related subjects.

By Yuri Leitch and Lynn Picknett

The Temple was created in August 2002 with an aim to encourage research into the Knight Templars - their related and interrelated subjects, such as; the Grail Legends, Arthurian Mythos, the Rosicrucian's, Masonic Lore, Early Christianity, Cathars, Gnostic Theology, Alchemy, Folklore, Rennes Le Chateau, Geomancy, the Occult, Mythology and Symbolism etc.

The Temple started as a periodical with articles written by a few friends in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Over the years it has published extensively research on relevant subjects by a varied selection of researchers. On this website and in The Temple publication you can read the latest discoveries written by the coffee table student as well as by renowned authors such as Robert Lomas, Lynn Picknett, Evelyn Lord and Stephen Dafoe. As The Temple deals with so many subjects from the shadowy past, legends and myths as well as the latest historical data are all well represented.

In early 2006, a compilation of issues 1 - 6 of The Temple called The Templar Papers were published by New Page Books, and are now obtainable in various languages. Due to its success a second compilation Temple Antiquities - The Templar Papers II, was published in December 2010 in the UK and US by O-Books.

In this Issue:

The Hanged Man - Geoffrey de Mandeville, O. Olsen. The Head on the Platter, Yuri Leitch. The First Templars, Sadny Hamblett. The Knights Templar - Freemasonry and Rosslyn Chapel. Bill Jackman. Templars in Somerset and Bristol, O. Olsen The Legacy of Mary Magdalene, Lynn Picknett. Franks Casket; Genesis of the Grail Myth, Yuri Leitch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Temple Publications
• Release date: Dec 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9780957211353

Yuri Leitch

lives in Glastonbury where he works as an author and artist.

Book preview

Information

Tarot cards have fascinated mystics, occultists, spiritualists and the ordinary man and woman with their Arcane meaning for hundreds of years. Even today we don’t know when they originated or where they came from. Was it from China, India or Egypt? Some say the Gypsies brought them with them to Western Europe, others claim the Templars made them. The layman has turned his or her trust for guidance to the Tarot reader, a veil of mystery has surrounded the Tarot deck and the wise person interpreting them.

Here in this article we will only look at one of the cards of the Tarot deck. This card you can find in the Major Arcana, the suit of trumps and greater secrets. All the different Tarot decks depict each card a little bit differently, but still, each card is interpreted by the wise very similarly. Number twelve; The Hanged Man is usually shown as a man hanging from a tree, upside down, with one of his legs crossing the other. The Hanged Man is echoed in the legends of Osiris, Odin, Jesus Christ, and the Fisher King. All sacrificed themselves for humanity. The sacrifice of everything earthly, by giving up the materialistic world for the divine. In the Major Arcana it signifies a sacrifice that can be achieved by choice, or it will happen by divine will.

In 1243, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex and a Knights Templar had a fatal wound inflicted to his head. He is described as a man of great courage and strength in battles, but because of his immoral impurities he had been excommunicated for plundering Ramsey Abbey. Still, for some reason, the Templars would take care of him; Just before Geoffrey died, some Templars laid upon him their white mantle decorated with the red cross and a few days after his death, they brought him to the Old Temple in London.

Enclosed in a lead water pipe, he was hung on a branch of a tree in the orchard, where he remained until absolution was obtained from Pope Alexander, by the intercession of the Prior of Walden. His body was then taken down and privately buried in the porch of the Old Temple. During the restoration in 1841, his effigy was moved to the porch of the New Temple, where it is still to be seen today. On the effigy of Geoffrey there are no emblems or Templar insignia, some claim he was hung upside down. What can surely be seen today are the crossed legs on his effigy. Is this not too familiar to Tarot card number 12, The Hanged Man?

So what do we have here? A Knights Templar hung upside down from a branch of a tree in the orchard of the Old Temple. With this the author can understand the claims that have been made surrounding this Grand Order, claims of heretic beliefs and practises. Whatever they practised, I am sure the reader does find it unusual to hang a dead man in a tree outside a church?

Did the Templars have knowledge of any esoteric wisdom, were the Templars privy to something more than the ordinary man and woman in the mediaeval days? Or did they only differ with different burial practises? All we can do today is guess.

Oddvar Olsen

16 October 2002

The Head On The Platter

Following on from my first two articles (in Issue 1 of The Temple) about the Franks Casket and Salome; much more new information has come to light, about John the Baptist and the Holy Grail. However, before I go into discussing these new ideas it is necessary to talk about the word ‘Grail’, and to establish just what exactly the ‘Grail’ is, and more importantly for future research, what the ‘Grail’ isn’t.

The two most common misconceptions about the Grail are a; that it is a cup, and b;