knights templar and freemasonry

[faunabay]

In honor of the Knights Templar tarot deck, I've decided to do some research. I've heard of the freemasons but hadn't ever heard of the Knights Templar before.
I've gotten a book from the library and will be reading it in the next couple of days, but wondered what you all know about each?? Pretty much all I know about the freemasons is the name. LOL From the deck I know that the Templars were a religious order that fought in the crusades and had amassed a huge financial fortune that has partially disappeared, but nothing else. ???????? Anyone know anything? (loaded question, I know)

 

[cayacia]

all i know about the knights templar was what I "learned" in a great PC game called The Broken Sword. Acording to the game they fought in the crusades and procured a large fortune (like you said). But at one point, I think it was the Frence revolution, they were all killed in a square by some church in Paris. I don't know why.

I would go back and play the game again and find out (I love that game so much) BUT my dorky little brother snapped the first CD in two by accident :-(

 

[Kaz]

I don't know a thing about freemasonry, so if it is connect to this deck, dunno.
I have it and I like it. I did some background reading on the Knights Templar on the net, you will find loads of links when doing a search on it. Some interesting stories some just bullshit.

Kaz

 

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

Quote:faunabay (02 Feb, 2002 03:45):
Pretty much all I know about the freemasons is the name.

As for the Templars, two good fictional sources for gleaning useful info are Umberto Eco's "Foucalts Pendulum" (hope I spelled that right!), and Sir Walter Scott's classic, "Ivanhoe."

With respect to Freemasons, I can't resist sharing *this* definition from Bierce's Lexicon (also quoted in my sig):

Freemasons : An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II, among working artisans of London, has been joined successively by the dead of past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embraces all the generations of man on the hither side of Adam, and is drumming up distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants of Chaos and the Formless Void. The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucius, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian pyramids -- always by a Freemason.

;-)

 

[jmd]

Off the top of my head, the Knights of the Temple (of Jerusalem), hence Templars, were set up to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land. They were therefore set up as a Catholic Military order.

They were later deemed heretical, and their fortunes confiscated.

As a result, there is some evidence that some may have moved to Scotland to avoid persecution, to there eventually be 'adopted' by Freemasons. There is now a Templar Order within Freemasonry, and restriced to it.
Freemasonry and the Templars, however, are founded on different principles. The former is founded on Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth.

With regards to the novels mentioned, Eco's Foucault's Pendulum is great, but I wouldn't read it for information's sake.

A good and easy-to-read dramatic history is P. P. Read's The Templars, Phoenix Press (1999), (isbn 1 84212 1421).

 

[slinky_jo]

My grandad was a Free Mason in Scotland. He wouldn't tell anyone about what they did - not even his wife! BUT they were awesome, good people, and help build hospitals, schools, etc (being masons, ha ha ha!). Over here in NZ, they're are a lot of old folk's homes either built by free masons, or built with the funds donated by free masons. that's all I know - as well as there are a lot of famous free masons - i think a few USA presidents. yeh, sure, they have funny rituals, but what religious group doesn't?? hee hee - take a look at me and my pagan mates on a sabbat! hee hee hee lol