Aleister Crowley and the Knights Templar

[Keldor]

I hope this is the right place for this if not the mods can move it.

a few months ago, I was watching a show on the History Channel about the Kinights Templar and it mentioned at the end that 'Satanist' (In quotes because he was not a devil worshipper) Aleister Crowley beleived that the Templars were fellow devil worshippers, I admit I'm new to learning about Crowley but does anyone if there is any truth to this claim, if not it wouldn't the first time they lied about Crowley (on another show they said that Crowley was a student of A.E. Waite [as most of us know Crowley hated Waite]) Any clearifaction on this would be appreciated.

Thank You

 

[Huck]

... ... well, it wouldn't hurt the reality of the Templars, if Crowley believed that or if somebody else believed, that Crowley believed it.

It's true, that the French king and he church accused the Templars. When the chief of the Templars Jacques de Molay was executioned in 1314 a French king and a pope died in the same year. Actually not only this king died, but the following 3 sons, all in the same way kings of France, and also a son of the eldest king died (.. also a very young king, dying in child-bed 1316). The whole dynasty was gone in 1328 and was followed by a side-branch of the family.

This didn't stay unobserved ... so the legend of a curse of Jacques de Molay started to spread.

The whole case reappeared after Francois I, who died 1547. His son, French king of course, married to a Medici-girl, died in a juist in 1559, and then also three sons followed (but actually the mother reigned) and the whole ended in 1589 with death of the 3rd son, childless of course, and the same Medici wife and mother. Another end of a dynasty.
Involved are stories of satanic messes of the queen-mother, the well-known Nostradamus and the night of Bartholomy 1574.

The next king, Henry IV. of Navarra, birth of a new French dynasty, who was involved in the story by marriage to the king's daughter in 1474 and this event was followed by the tragedy of the night of Bartholemy, married after divorcing of his earlier wife another Medici-girl.

He was assasinated in 1610 and again a Medici-queen reigned in Paris, cause her son was too young. In the course of time there were sorcery accusations against the queen and her mistress, 3 Musketiers, a famous cardinal Richelieu and finally a 5-years old Louis XIIII. in 1643, who reigned 72 years and did set a record for monarchical stability. In his time there were also involvement in sorcery etc. ... but, actually, these guys of 17th century still burnt witches, so sorcery and accusation for sorcery were common scandal-themes.

This dynasty was seriously under stress in 1789 with a French revolution and with 1792 more or less over, when the king head's did fall, ... and then, it is said, that somebody in the streets of Paris cried: "Jacques de Molay, that's your revenge ..." or similar ...

It's plausible, that some of these stories were known to Aleister Crowley, why not ...

 

[Keldor]

I've never heard about Nostradamus being accused of Satanism, but I hear about de Molay's curse.

Also there are a lot of things written about Crowley that are false, I guess that's what happen when you spend your life making more enemies than friends (sort of like the Templars in a way).

 

[Scion]

I imagine they're using Crowley's veneration of Baphomet (which comes to him by way of the much-revered Levi) to link hgim to the Templars. As good a reason as any, but I can say that it had nothing to do with devil worship (a fact of which you obviously are aware. )

That said, do a search for Baphomet and you'll find some material that will clarify the link they've posited, and it's a tenuous link. Then you might boogie over to Thelemapedia and do a search for Baphomet over there to see what the man said himself on the subject. Lots of juicy stuff, mostly focussing on hermaphroditic, Gnostic readings of the big B.

Hope that helps,

Scion

 

[Rosanne]

In Plato's cosmology Demiurge was the creator of the Universe. To the deeply spiritual Gnostics he was the false-god that created the world and all physical matter. He was the jealous wrathful god of the Old Testament. The sins of man (the Gnostics believed) keep them under the control of Demiurge and his army of false-angels the Archons.
It is this that the Knights Templars supposedly believed.

The exact nature of the Baphomet of the supposedly satanic Knights Templar may never be known, but it probably wasn't like the "Goat of Mendes" (employed by Anton LaVey for the Church of Satan) that most people are familiar with today. Descriptions culled from the Christian order by their inquisitors are usually of a jeweled skull or severed head.

The TV program for sensational reasons have confused the two. It should not be forgotten that the inquisition used torture to get these so called 'Satanist' confessions. It is thought that the Templars might have revered John the Baptist and had his Skull- hence Baphomet.
Crowley seemed to encourage the public view of an association with the Goat of Mendes, and views on Satanism in Crowley's time is not what is called Satanism now. ~Rosanne

 

[Huck]

I've never heard about Nostradamus being accused of Satanism, but I hear about de Molay's curse.

Also there are a lot of things written about Crowley that are false, I guess that's what happen when you spend your life making more enemies than friends (sort of like the Templars in a way).

I neither don't know, that Nostradamus was accused, but I indicated that he was involved in the courtly life ....

http://www.nostradamus-repository.org/letter.html
Letter from the year 1457 - Nostradamus writes to the current king Henry II, who was husband to the Medici wife Katharina, and she was accused to have made black messes and killing a child (or children(?)) for that purpose ... at least I found this representation in a sort of history book. Neither I don't know, if there is any true word in this story.
Obviously Katharina in her later dominating kings-mother role had foes and accusation of that form often had concrete and simple political reasons.

Nostradamus predicted (so it said and analyzed by the believers of Nostradamus) the death at the juist in 1559, the tragedy, which opened all that political instability in France in the following 30 years.

 

[frelkins]

At one time in the UK, a woman wrote a book about Crowley in which she said he was a "black magician," "a Satanist," and that his groups held "black masses."

Crowley sued her. This suit, a la Oscar Wilde, consumed his inherited fortune, bankrupted him, and in time he lost. The judge from the bench condemned Crowley as a Satanist, saying he had never heard of such disgusting vice and unnatural practices.

The public perception of Crowley until the psychedelic 60s was that he was in fact a Satanist. His funeral was described in the British papers as a "black mass." This is probably due, as others have said, to his use of the Baphomet image.

Since the 60s have ended, Crowley's reputation has perhaps slightly improved. But in general, I think it fair that the majority of those who have heard of Crowley do hold the impression that he was what most would deem a "Satanist."

All I can personally say is that his junkie, heroin-addicted lifestyle creeps me out personally. I wouldn't want to have known him. But of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I do not, however, think "they" have "lied" about Crowley. Most of Crowley's hype was self-created and he seemed to be proud of it at the time.

 

[Keldor]

That is true that Satanism as we know it wasn't around in the time of Aleister Crowley (in fact I read that Satanists, at least those associated with LeVey, don't 'worship' Satan or any other demon that we might asscosciate with the devil, they mere look to Satan as role model of rebellion) Now they are some groups that do worship the devil or some other entinty associated with that concept, but for the record when someone says Satanist they're probally thinking of LeVey.

I knew Nostradamus was involved in courtly life, he wrote many letters to the king, and as for whether Medici involved with devil worship, my opinion would be no, the medicis were a powerful family and probally had many enemies and just like today when someone has a grudge with someone powerful they accuse them of devil worship.


Just to clear things up, I am not a Satanist, I am a Roman Catholic, I just read about these things, I'm sort of an armchair scholar!

 

[DoctorArcanus]

from the Book of Thoth

There is no doubt that this mysterious figure [Baphomet] is a magical image of this same idea [the Hermaphroditic nature of God], developed in so many symbols. Its pictorial correspondence is most easily seen in the figures of Zeus Arrhenothelus and Babalon, and in the extraordinarily obscene representations of the Virgin Mother which are found among the remains of early Christian iconology. The subject is dealt with at considerable length in Payne Knight, where the origin of the symbol and the meaning of the name is investigated. Von Hammer-Purgstall was certainly right in supposing Baphomet to be a form of the Bull-god, or rather, the Bull-slaying god, Mithras; for Baphomet should be spelt with an "r" at the end; thus it is clearly a corruption meaning "Father Mithras". There is also here a connection with the ass, for it was as an ass-headed god that he became an object of veneration to the Templars.​

http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_thoth17.htm

 

[Keldor]

Thanks for the intresting info on Baphomet, I think we'll never know who or what the Baphomet of the Templars was, because so many theories have been theories (ie a corruption of Mammhad, a severed head, the godess Sophia, etc) but it is certainly intresting to read about it.