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Dream of the Sages |
by Robert Richardson |
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To students of history, religion, or the occult, a pattern of individual
names and esoteric movements appears on the canvas of time like a sudden
flash of light, then just as quickly vanishes. A group of disparate
people – sometimes famous, sometimes obscure, sometimes solitary,
sometimes united, but always engaged in some amorphous activity –
spontaneously surfaces. Just as suddenly their traces evaporate, their
true purpose and the scope of their actions never comprehended. Understanding
their reality seems to be beyond our grasp. Further study may grudgingly
yield information – but it is inconclusive, incomplete, perplexing.
Their nature and purpose seems to forever remain a mystery. The search
for a solution only leads to speculations, not genuine answers. For us to intellectually apprehend how and why esoteric groups work
and influence the world requires a different type of thinking, a thought
process that sees these organisations and their activities as an ebb
and flow of an ideal. Most of us have approached the inquiry into the
nature of how esoteric groups actually work and influence history by
studying the limited and grossly distorted documentation available about
them, like an investment analyst abstractly examining from afar the
sterile financial structure of a multi-national corporation. But for
us to understand the nature of historical esoteric groups, we should
first attempt to find their underlying purpose. If we approach their
study through that avenue, we may be able to understand why and how
they work to achieve their purposes. All of the positive esoterically tinged movements that have influenced
history share one common characteristic. They seek to positively impact
and alter, in a transformational way, the entire structure and direction
of society. Their impetus is to interject into day to day living a transcendent
awareness and communion with the spiritual element of life, to give
a spiritual orientation and focus to the material activities of day
to day living – to, in effect, spiritualise the material. The reason
for this direction is to correctly align man with the necessary spiritual
path to fulfill his spiritual destiny. Their motives are highly altruistic,
despite the wildly imaginative suspicions and innuendoes of many writers
and even some church leaders. The methods employed by many powerful
Western spiritual movements are always entirely in keeping with these
goals. The best known of these movements have manifested at key transitional
points in Western history. The Rosicrucian movement on continental Europe.
The less obvious but equally influential hermetic academies in Renaissance
Italy and England. The Cathars in southern France. The Essenes at the
dawn of the Christian era. And the best known, and by far the most misunderstood,
of these groups, the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and The Temple
of Solomon – The Knights Templar. Each of these groups formed,
existed, and survived a certain duration to accomplish a particular
mission, then vanished. Through their actions, each of them positively
influenced society as we know it today. Historians and spiritual writers have expended a great deal of ink
unsuccessfully trying to explain what these groups were about and what
they believed. Each of these groups encountered considerable opposition
and conflict and, seemingly, was superseded by rival groups. History
is invariably altered by the victors to suit their goals and needs.
Most of the existing works about esoteric groups have been based on
deliberately distorted records left by the supposed victors. For example,
as has been very aptly stated, attempting to draw an accurate picture
of the activities of the Knights Templar by studying the records of
the Inquisition is like trying to get an accurate picture of the activities
of the wartime French resistance solely by studying the records of the
Gestapo.(1) However, one unaltered stream runs through each of these groups. It
is their operational procedure. Each group has several common yet contradictory
characteristics. Their organisational structure is both hierarchical
and independent. It is at once interdependent and self-sustaining. In
other words, it is a cell-like structure, organised around a belief
system, designed to be able to function without need for a central governing
body, yet still maintaining dutiful fealty and responsibility to the
doctrine which the overall body represents. To cite one case, most people,
ignorant of the actual working nature of the Essenes, assume that the
Qumram monastery was the only Essene entity. In fact, many Essenes lived
in the day to day society. The Qumram community was a centralised training
base. Essene headquarters were on Mt. Carmel. The Essenes, like the
Cathars, the Templars, and the Hermetic academies, could function independently
if cut off from their supposed core. The Rosicrucian groups are the
best recognised model of this structure. This system later became the
basis for intelligence organisations and underground resistance movements.
They were consciously organised like the esoteric societies, designed
to continue functioning without support or contact from the main body,
yet incapable of revealing the heart or details of the structure of
the entire organism if penetrated or compromised by opposing forces. Similarly, each of the esoteric groups has other definite organisational
characteristics: Some sort of unified command and reporting structure
that always appears vague and mysterious to outsiders. A highly disciplined
internal training system. A firm code of conduct. An adherence to a
canon of basic beliefs not fully comprehended by outsiders. The unwavering
concept of individual personal responsibility and personal accountability.
And the invariable but gracefully unstated implication of leadership
by example. These traits do not define a belief system per se, but something far
more important and exceptionally relevant to our society today. They
define a principle-centred existence that is applied in day to day affairs.
They define very clearly a specific way of living one’s life. This
way of life is lived in accordance with the knowledge and principles
that have been carefully and selectively handed down orally through
generations of initiates, and have as their basis the essential principles
of the universe and the knowledge of the origin and purpose of man.
This orally transmitted information is referred to as “The Tradition”,
and sometimes, when collected in a preserved body of wisdom, “The
Temple.” Before examining more closely how this system has impacted us, it
will benefit us to review the Western model for the public visibility
of this system. The model was long established in the West. It entered
into a decline. Its adherents transferred the model to other bases,
perpetrated it, and preserved it for transmission into the future. The
model was the Egyptian Temple system. All of Egyptian society was organised along an esoteric and an exoteric
basis. The exoteric structure centred around the pharonic system of
government, with which academic students of this civilisation have occupied
themselves in an effort to comprehend why this society lasted so long
and so successfully. Their studies have not seen much successful fruit,
because they have failed to comprehend that it was the esoteric structure
which sustained the entire basis of the Egyptian dynasties and the surrounding
society for so many centuries. (2) This esoteric structure has had little effective study in academic
circles, like most of man’s genuine history. It was organised around
the Temple system. The Temple system was based on the gradual instruction
of an increasingly elite group. This study took many decades. It involved
intensive personal discipline. It began with a period of self-purification.
It entailed physical, mental, and spiritual training. It worked on all
aspects of the being. The successful candidate was gradually culled away from his peers.
The less capable aspirants were weeded out. The more fortunate were
advanced progressively and carefully through the system over many years.
They studied the physical and spiritual aspects of man, his origin,
purpose, and relationship with the divine, becoming true physicians
who could heal not just the physical being. Through increasingly progressive
steps, they ultimately advanced to a series of tests. Some of these
tests proved fatal to the aspirant. One objective of the training was
an induced out of body experience in the Great Pyramid. To return the
aspirant to this plane required the efforts of a high priest with twelve
disciples. The priests were not always able to return the aspirant,
and the death of the aspirant was not uncommon. When the aspirant did
return to this plane, he consciously saw the world differently, like
one who has been reborn with new knowledge and a new perspective. This
is the origin of the phrase now so popular with fundamentalist Christians,
“born again”. In the end, a handful of carefully trained and
highly developed individuals were advanced into an elite priesthood
which, through its adherence to spiritual principles, maintained a balance
that facilitated the functioning of Egyptian society. Their point of
view had by now changed. They no longer worked on spiritual progress
for their own sake, but for the benefit of the upward evolution of mankind.
And from their inner core, they were dispatched to different corners
of the known world to indirectly help the lesser developed advance themselves,
thereby assisting in the progress of humanity. The Temple replicated the structure and spiritual principles of the
universe. The outer society replicated the Temple and its spiritual
principles, but in a form not articulated to the common people who were
not sufficiently developed to consciously understand, honour, and fulfill
its reality. Instead, by replicating the principles in society, the
average person was able to live in rhythm with the principles and to
become positively influenced by them, growing through this process without
making the total dedication and sacrifice required of the elite core
group. The Egyptian pharonic concept represents the embodiment in the person
of pharaoh the highest principles and aspirations of the society. The
pharaoh was the outward representative of the Temple principles and
of the life of the entire society. He was supposed to live life in the
material world in compliance with the inner laws of which the populace
remained only vaguely conversant. The pharaoh was supported and aided
in this role by the inner and most highly developed elite of the Temple
priesthood. His dictums were executed by a separate administrative arm. It is difficult if not impossible for any group, no matter how dedicated,
to indefinitely sustain itself in accordance with spiritual principles.
Such organisations have a period of life in which they create an expression
suited to the times, accomplish the mission and disappear to be succeeded
in another time and place by a successor organisation suited to the
expression of its times. During the existence of any group, as individuals
successively replace each other from generation to generation, changes
occur. Some are more able than others, some less able than those who
precede or follow them. Human frailty sets in. Slight changes in even
a highly disciplined Temple system can have vast implications over time.
Alterations in the focus and dedication of those holding the pharonic
throne could divert the course of events. Embodying the weathervane
of a society or group is neither easy nor sustainable. Gradually, systems
and principles can deteriorate. But over that same time period, the seeds of the future can also be
planted. Non-Egyptians were allowed to enter the Temple system. Some
advanced through the full training. Some returned back to their own
countries. This is the origin of the system called the Mysteries which
arose in the Mediterranean pre-Christian era as Egyptian culture declined.
The Mysteries appeared in a different form but followed the same lines
as the Temple system. It was the same message, simply put into a different
bottle, a bottle styled for the people of Greece and the Mediterranean
world. Similarly, the Egyptian Temple system is undeniably the training
ground for the great Pythagoras and the system of knowledge that he
spread through ancient Greece and southern Europe. The teachings of Pythagoras appeared differently as well. Styled in
a more modern form, they followed the same line as the Temple, but less
rigid. Still, they entailed an academy. A gradual system in which the
candidate advanced degree by degree toward a higher level of mental
and spiritual development. And an outward aspect as well, a concern
with the nature and direction of humanity, just like the Temple system.
Metaphorically, the superiority of the system of knowledge that he represented
is expressed by the parable of his dying of starvation on the steps
of the Temples of Muses. While the Temple system was being disseminated to the north and east
of Egypt by Pythagoras, another Temple trained initiate followed a similar
path of preserving the initiatic knowledge. His name is known to history
as Moses. He aligned with an obscure people and reconstituted their
societal structure and belief system around the Temple principles. By
restructuring an entire ethnic people, he insured that aspects of the
Temple system would be preserved by this insular group for generations,
until its next reconstitution was necessary in a form applicable to
the requirements of that time. Moses reconstituted the Temple system among the Jewish people in a
manner stylised after the Egyptian model. A specific caste of priests
was physically organised around a Temple. The entire twelve tribe system
– itself a mystical anagram – focused on the Temple, and the
life of the nation centred on it, on their faith, and on a specific
identity as a people set apart, unique in God’s eyes, and held
together under a pharaoh-like king. Even the mystical Tree of Life of
the Kabbalah directly corresponds to the Egyptian Neters. The focus
on their religion as the core of their existence gave the Jewish people
their unique identity and enabled them to survive the cultural annihilation
experienced by others. But it did not give rise to the powerful spiritual
current Moses had hoped. This vacuum gave rise to the mission of the
Essenes. The Essenes, like the Templars, are a widely misunderstood spiritual
group. Subdivided into different groups and having members active both
in their monastic training ground at Qumram and throughout the Jewish
community in day to day living, from the headquarters at Mt. Carmel
they were directed toward one specific goal – the preparation of
an entity sufficiently advanced to bear the higher consciousness which
would incarnate in the man known as Jesus. This particular mission extended
far beyond the concept of the messiah, which may be loosely defined
as the priest-king. In the concept of the messiah is the return of the
pharaoh, the embodiment of the spiritual governing principle in the
day to day affairs of the state, but in the Essene case it involves
a particularly advanced consciousness carrying an impulse to revive
the spiritual facets of mankind. The pharonic ideal also appeared throughout
Europe, degenerating over time into the present concept of royalty.
Interestingly, all prophetic Jewish literature except one book foretells
and focuses on the coming of a messiah. For the Essenes, the mission was consuming. In an occult sense, the
entire organisation focused on the incarnation of a spiritual being
who would alter humanity through the implantation of a spiritual impulse.
The documents of their training base at Qumram denote the discipline
that was expected to be extended in daily life. There is little in the
aspects of daily training in these documents that is not in other spiritual
schools. Their nature has assumed a special character given that those
men and women in the modern world primarily responsible for studying
these documents do not understand the rudiments of the way in which
individuals are trained to live in society and reflect spiritual values,
nor can they apprehend a methodology so broad that it intends through
deliberately indirect actions the reformation of the entire society. The name Essene has many interpretations. One of the most interesting
is “trowel”, the tool with which a mason works with stone
and mortar to create a building. The Essenes were masons, building the
house of God in themselves. By doing this, they were working to help
advance mankind. Ultimately, the mission of creating the vessels adequate
to sustain the spiritual capacity necessary for the reformation of society
was successful. The Essenes, their mission completed, disappeared from
history, most traces of their existence obliterated by the different
Jewish sects that opposed them. The start of the Christian era marked a singular turning point. Prior
to this time, many conflicting religious expressions of the same ideals
existed side by side. The Greek Mysteries are allegorical representations
of the Egyptian system. The rise of various cults such as Sol Invictus,
Mithras, and the Roman system of gods are all representations of the
same group of principles. This mass confusion was consolidated in the
early years of the Christian era as the Roman church proclaimed itself
supreme and systematically absorbed or annihilated its opposition, driving
these movements into extinction. But by these actions, the church created
a widespread common vocabulary and belief structure. During this time, Pythagorean thought assumed an academic and philosophical
character and resurfaced later in Neo-Platonic ideals. Plato’s
ideals, often seen as observations derived from Athenian society or
a philosophical treatise, are really esoteric principles expressed as
the restoration of a balanced and spiritual order. As opposed to blind
obedience, man functions in an intellectual manner driven by principles.
But the outcome is still the same dream the sages have held for centuries. The manifestation of the esoteric movements took a different form
in the south of France in the 11th century with the group called the
Cathars. Before reviewing the Cathars, it is important to hold everything
preceding them in perspective to understand the change in direction
that begins its implementation with the Cathars and the Templars. In
Egypt, a highly structured elite imposed a regimented society based
on spiritual principles on a less enlightened humanity to evolve their
awareness. In Israel, an elite group worked to affect a top down solution
to promulgating spiritual principles, but without rigidly structuring
society. In the Pythagorean and Platonic systems, a small group worked
for the good of humanity, but without rigidly structuring society and
emphasising the value of individual intellectual reasoning capacity.
Each of these directions represented gradual steps toward the realisation
of the development of human potential and individual freedom. Centuries
later, humanity would realise the benefits from the seeds planted by
these groups. The appearance of the Cathar movement is viewed by historians as the
rise of a new religion which jousted with Christianity for supremacy
and, like so many groups which have struggled with the Roman church,
lost. The Cathars are primarily known to us by relatively recent works
which interpret their story in light of our limited knowledge of their
activities. The Cathars are usually traced back to the Bogomils and
other groups. They are, in fact, only the same principles, appearing
again in the guise of the message of the times. The Cathar priesthood,
the Parfaits, were noted for their unimpeachable conduct, purity, and
dedication. They contrasted so sharply with the corrupt Roman church
that people flocked to them, especially in the south of France. However,
it is by their conduct that we must see what they really are. They seek
by conduct to show men how to change their daily lives. They do not
proselytise. They do not impair individual freedom. In fact, by standing
in contradistinction to the prevailing power of the predominate secular
authority of the time that imposed its will from top down, the Roman
church, the Cathar parfaits encouraged among the common people the freedom
of individual choice. It is expressed by principles lived in action
by an elite priestly core which maintains focused spiritual values. What survives of the Cathars today is distorted by people who think
the incomplete remnants of the misunderstood Cathar belief system is
the key. The key was their code of conduct. That is what attracted followers,
that is what made believers, that is what they promulgated. Persecuted
for forty years in the very first crusade, hunted down, killed, and
driven underground, they were succeeded by three distinct movements,
the Troubadours, the trade guilds, and the orders of knighthood, particular
the Knights Templar. The Troubadours were a means through which the sages deliberately
intended to imbue man with an orientation toward putting spiritual principles
in action. Travelling minstrels, harmless singers of songs, tellers
of poetry, the Troubadours offered no overt threat to the established
power structure. They moved through all levels of society, from royal
courts to common taverns. Through their actions and their travels the
Troubadours began the seeds of the first popular literature, of the
beginning of a common popular consciousness. They were the first to
move ideals on a widespread basis into the popular imagination. Through
them, the legends of The Grail and high spiritual ideals lived in action
came into popular consciousness. They became the vehicle for inspiring
the popular imagination. The trade guilds held a simple task. They inspired a code of conduct
in daily living for the common people. A harmonious order was established.
That order constituted around discipline and respect within the guild
for members and for their work. Work itself became a noble ethic to
be valued. And because of the protection of the Knights Templar, the
guilds were spared from oppression by the nobility. Under the unseen
guidance of the secret orders, the road up from slavery and serfdom
had begun for the common people. Before turning to an overview of the Templars it is significant to
note how key turning points have occurred in the transmission of the
esoteric spiritual message. It was first transmitted to an elite in
societies. The populace was given a highly simplified version. After
the consolidation of much of the West by Rome, it was transmitted through
role models. After the suppression of the Cathars, it was spread through
the means of ordinary society, not just to sustain an elite, but in
disguise, through and to every man. It reached into their lives in songs,
it touched their imaginations with inspiring stories, and became principles
in the lives of working men and the foundation of the guilds. And all
these principles were based on one unifying ideal – the impulsion
of proper spiritual principles and their use in focusing day to day
living to uplift the consciousness of man so that he could evolve and
fulfill his purpose and destiny. The Knights Templar remain today the single greatest force for turning
the spiritual mind of the West. Many prominent occultists have contended
over the years that the beginning of the decline of the West and of
its spiritual dark age – the age of Kali Yuga – started with
the suppression of the Templars. Today it is fashionable for writers
and historians working from records left by the Inquisition to charitably
agree with the Inquisition that the Templars had become corrupt, that
they had fallen from principles, and to tacitly agree with some of the
charges against them. These conclusions are the reiteration of falsehoods
promulgated by the only keeper of information in its time, the Roman
church, to cover up its own actions against the Templars, actions motivated
by church and French leaders’ greed for the Templars’ wealth. To review how the Templars worked in the world is not possible within
the confines of this space. But a summary of a handful of their accomplishments
clearly reveals its purposes and the workings of a genuine esoteric
organisation. Like the Essenes and every other genuine group, a core
inner order actually provided the Templars with their spiritual impetus
and direction. But by bridging all worlds of their time – spiritual
and material, nobility and common man, religious and military, commerce
and contemplation, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic – the Templars
moved the entire course of history. These activities marked another
turning point in history. While their inner order worked esoterically
on spiritual self-development, everything they did was an action in
the world of its time directed at impacting the day to day lives of
people in a positive and transformative way. Their goal and mission
was the transformation of all of society, and nothing less. But their
method was to work through the key aspects influencing the society of
their time in order to inject spiritual principles in daily life and
plant the seeds for future change. The best description written of the activities of the Templars remains:
“The mission of the Knights Templar was two-fold. Firstly, to inject
a certain spiritualism idealism into the world of their time through
a number of concrete actions. Secondly, to insure the continuity of
the Spiritual Tradition of the Temple by seeking out the sacred esoteric
heritage of mankind wherever it was to be found, to reunite it, and
to present to a certain spiritual elite a synthesis of the Tradition
adapted to the Western mentality of the Middle Ages.” (3) The Templars mode of action was uniquely suited to their times. It
moved at one and the same time on multiple levels because it was practical,
pragmatic, and designed to create immediate effects. But it also created
an atmosphere which carefully sowed the seeds for long term future changes
on material and spiritual levels. In this regard a few concrete actions
of the Templars are particularly worth noting. The Templars sponsored the building of churches, chapels, and great
cathedrals across Europe. Templar churches embodied in them certain
esoteric geometric and mathematical principles that create a transformative
effect on worshippers. The effect subliminally led more people to experience
the value of the spiritual on their everyday lives. At the same time,
cathedral building had a positive economic impact on the overpopulated
and impoverished European society. Churches and cathedrals dedicated
to the Templar patron, the Virgin, promoted the feminine principle of
spirituality, and, again subliminally, raised the oppressed status of
women in society by providing a female role model for veneration. The Templars created a new class in society. They raised up the common
man by protecting the working masons and sponsoring the first genuine,
independent movement of the trade guilds, the Compagnons de Saint Devoir
(the Companions of the Rule of Holy Duty), who built the Templar sponsored
churches and cathedrals. These trade groups, formally placed under Templar
protection sometime around 1145, created an internal hierarchy, taught
codes of personal conduct and ethical values to the illiterate craftsmen,
provided sources of income, protected widows and orphans of members,
and created through the graded craftsman system a hierarchy similar
to the discipline in an esoteric order. In a network of houses in various
parts of every country through which apprentices travelled and worked,
common manners and fair play were instilled, and a sense of common,
shared interests was developed. From their contacts with the Eastern
initiates and esoteric schools of the Middle East, the Templars imparted
to the master tradesmen certain secrets of geometry and mathematics
for incorporation into the cathedrals, thereby raising the consciousness
of the trade class. The guild houses eventually evolved into the Masonic lodge systems,
and the shared sense of values created the concept of a unified society
of the working man. In addition to creating a sense of self-worth among
the individual members, this system was the beginning of the first principles
of equal rights for all. After the suppression of the Templars, the
Compagnons were persecuted for many centuries. But when the plague swept
through Europe and decimated the population, the longer term impact
was the elimination of European overpopulation that had created a surplus
of labour and resultant poverty. By protecting the guilds from oppression
by the nobility and the church, the Templars left in place a mechanism
that insured both a cohesive structure within plague decimated common
society and a body which spoke on behalf of the common people. It allowed
the standard of living to rise and the basis for a new way of life to
begin. The feudal system waned, replaced by new centres of power. And,
indirectly, the course of society and the evolution of consciousness
expanded. Principled but indirect stimuli often have far reaching results.
As the modern writer and statesman Vaclav Havel noted during his own
seemingly impossible struggle against Communist authoritarianism, “Even
a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political
effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political influence.” The umbrella of Templar action extended beyond the working tradesmen.
The Templars were originally said to be founded to protect travellers
on their way to Jerusalem. The protection of travellers to the holy
place was a metaphor for providing the spiritual means to higher knowledge.
But one reason the Templars became widely venerated by the common people
was because their network of European commandaries actually did make
travel on the roads safer for the peasants. Heretofore, the common people
enjoyed no protection from incessant road bandits or pillaging nobility.
The protection of the European roadways not only facilitated the safe
movement of commerce. It was the first truly widespread societal benefit
enjoyed by all classes of society. For the first time, a commoner enjoyed
the same protection as nobility. Once a seed of equality is planted
and assumed as a given by any society as a whole, the process of eventual
transformation is assured. By becoming an independent force on which
every part of society could depend, the Templars sowed the seeds for
the concept of common standards for all in society and governance. Much has been made of the fact that the Templars virtually invented
international banking when they became a repository of royal treasuries,
the executor of wills, and the financiers of kingdoms, and became fabulously
wealthy as a result. Seen in a different light, it has never been noted
that for the first time there existed through the Templars a common
source of trust and justice. Royalty could be assured their treasuries
would not be pillaged. They could travel safely from location to location
without fear of robbery and knew that they could secure funds at any
Templar preceptory along the way. They could be assured that heirs would
not deprive each other of their inheritance, because the Templars would
enforce will provisions fairly. And commoners with possessions could
be assured that Templars would execute their wills justly, prevent their
possessions from being usurped by the nobles, or even care for their
children in the event of their deaths. Again, this was the first widespread
standard of unimpeachable fairness available to all levels of society,
a singular force on which people from all walks of life could depend.
From these actions eventually grew the ideal that justice could be fair
and serve all. The Templars also impacted the concept of government. They were both
advisors to kings and adversaries of the tyrannical use of royal power.
One of the most famous encounters between royalty and the Templars occurred
when English King Henry III attempted to upbraid the Master of the Temple
in England and was instead bluntly countered, in modern terms, “Be
careful what you say King. For if you cease to rule with justice, you
will cease to be King.” What royalty and the church, and later
historians, would decry in this exchange as Templar arrogance, was in
fact an assertion of the rights of society against the abusive power
of royalty. The Master of the Temple in England would later be witness
to the signing of the Magna Carta and a behind the scenes force in its
creation and execution. Similarly, by fighting for the freedom of the
small border kingdoms of Aragon, Navrarre, and Mallorca from Muslim
forces and aligning with those kingdoms, the Templars insured the existence
of smaller independent and more liberal states. Lastly, the Templars provided a covert bridge that had not previously
existed to other faiths. Generations of historians have failed to comprehend
that the accusations of Templar familiarity with Islamic and Jewish
sects represented not the religious “corruption and betrayal”
of which their enemies accused them, but rather the specific mission
of attempting to regenerate a commonality of knowledge and respect of
beliefs – which happens to be characteristic of modern religious
tolerance. By their very existence, the orders of chivalry, and specifically
the Templars, paved the way for the Renaissance – thus the ideals
stirred by the Troubadours became physically embodied by the orders
of knighthood. Through the orders of chivalry, the idealised Troubadour
poetry became a manifest reality. It demonstrated that the highest ideals
which inspired men could in fact become a living reality, that the concept
of the Grail quest could became a genuine, worldly search for the spiritual
and a way of life. By the start of the 14th century the secret orders had moved from
working with a small spiritual elite to a hidden vanguard which worked
quietly in society. The emphasis each esoteric group made in their lifecycles
of approximately 200 years foreshadowed the major next step in human
progress and evolution. The ideals and energy put into motion by the
orders of knighthood soon came to flower in the Renaissance. In Italy the influence of the esoteric on many of the leading noble
families became a primary motivation for the explosion of learning and
culture that became known as the Renaissance. Through the sponsorship
of families like the Medicis, learning – new modes of thought and
the rediscovery of ancient wisdom – returned to become a valued
world distinctly apart from the province of the church, as in ancient
Greece. In the Renaissance, the ideal of the Platonic reformation of society
took root. Through the wealth of key Renaissance families, art was sponsored,
books rediscovered, and esoteric principles applied in the cultural
aspects of life, from creating a rich fabric of meaning in a garden,
to promoting the translation of the Corpus Hermeticum. For the first
time, the implementation of esoteric ideals was openly through the medium
of families who remained fully engaged in everyday life. They sponsored
activities influencing mundane existence. They injected the concept
of beauty and harmony into their residences and surroundings. Architecture
and music again became important and vital. Even gardens (e.g. the Boboli
Gardens) became expressions of the esoteric ideals of beauty, harmony,
and balance, inspiring the renaissance and infusing society. The esoteric
mission of the Templars to bring a moribund society back to life with
new ideas and spiritual principles finally flourished, 180 years after
their demise. Cultural figures took the lead in this revival. Marsilio Ficino strongly
influenced the rebirth of Platonic and esoteric ideals and teachings.
At Villa Carreggi, outside Florence, Ficino actually started a Platonic
academy under the sponsorship of Cosimo De Medici. However, it was Giorgio
Gemistos, long forgotten to history, who was the hidden hand moving
the Renaissance to fruition by providing the inspiration for Medici’s
actions. An occultist and sage council, Gemistos met Medici in 1437
when Gemistos attended the ecumenical council of Florence/Ferrera as
the unofficial advisor to the Greek delegation. During this council
he spent time with Medici. His inspired vision of transforming religion
and culture through a spiritual revival led Medici to redirect his own
life. He began a fervent pursuit of the translation and introduction
of classical texts and metaphysical ideas to vivify every aspect of
life. The objective of this work was nothing less than the transformation
of the life of man and its orientation toward a spiritual way of living
through inspiring the cultural elements of society. From the Platonic
academy and the esoteric lodges of Italy, waves of creativity and new
expressions surged across Europe, imbuing all levels of society with
new ideas and planting the seeds for future changes. In England, in the light of the Renaissance and inspired by esoteric
orders spanning the English Channel and connecting Britain and the continent,
an academy called “The Temple” arose at Gorhambury, becoming
an influence on the future course of the West. Originally under the
direction of Sir Nicholas Bacon, it became focused around his adopted
son, Francis, along with another esoteric academy founded at Mortlake
by John Dee. Trained from youth for his work and initiated and trained
in an esoteric lodge in France, the full impact of Bacon and the lodge
that worked around him has not yet been fully realised. Together with a group of men representing all key facets of the society
of his time, Bacon wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare and took
the interesting multi-dimensional symbol of Pallas Athena, the spear
shaker, as an image in works published under his own name. The entire
structure of the Shakespearean plays are based on principles in esoteric
teachings. This is why they have had such an enduring appeal. They were
a message styled to the common man. The design of even the Globe Theatre
was an embodiment of the esoteric principles. Bacon and his group sought
to reintroduce the proper use of the intellect in reasoning through
his essays and attempts to reform institutions, to redirect the ancient
dialectic methods to a tool which could be, like the plays, accessed
by anyone. Of equal and often overlooked importance, the group introduced
the reformation of the English language as a vehicle for the transmission
of esoteric and cultural concepts. They firmly planted a series of ideals
in English culture that eventually, through England’s global colonies,
began a far reaching transformation beyond the confines of Europe.(4) Attempts during this era to establish a Republic such as the Palantate
in Bohemia, and the little studied activities of John Dee in Bohemia
to reform religious activities, did not meet with success. But the ideals
widely established through these activities and the concurrent issuance
of Rosicrucian pamphlets fired a wide imagination in society and, according
to some academic sources, most likely led to the period known as the
Enlightenment.(5) Throughout history, slowly, step by step, the process of transforming
humanity has been gradually aided by the activities of positive esoteric
societies. The actions of positive groups have resulted in benefits
realised sometimes generations later in society. Most interestingly,
to the students of these groups and of the ebb and flow of history,
they seem to be acting in anticipation of the next advancement necessary
in human evolution. For some time now, the activities of these organisations
have appeared quiet, depending perhaps on the fruition of past efforts
to create a positive movement in humanity or awaiting a new impetus
from their own core. The trend of worldwide culture for the last 200 years has inexorably
been moving toward the enhanced concept of individual freedom. Today,
with some exceptions, we live in a world in which individual freedom
is often taken for granted. The options of free will and choice by individuals
are becoming a driving force. Now, even commerce and technology have
joined to accelerate this evolutionary step as free market economies,
the Internet, and broadband technologies will soon bring to people across
the globe previously undreamed of options for working, learning, communicating,
and participating. Yet, in this time, the stakes in the essential struggle of the spirit
have become higher than ever. The conflict between light and dark is
more subtle, the struggle less overt, but the future consequences of
our personal actions will be higher than ever because of the variety
of choices and the possibility to exercise self-indulgence through the
vehicles of technology and commerce without restraint or discernment.
The outcome of this struggle, to determine whether or not man will sink
into self-indulgent materialism or rise above it to create a truly better
world, is far from certain. It no longer depends on others, but on ourselves.
We can actively work to become more spiritual, thereby transforming
ourselves and the material world and successfully realising what generations
of initiates have dreamed of and worked toward, or we can choose to
work to materialise and dull the spiritual aspect of man into haziness
until it is ultimately lost. The choice of which future we actively
wish to create is now man’s individual responsibility, and the
result of that choice and of our actions will ultimately be our legacy
to future generations. Footnotes 1. Paraphrased from Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln
in Holy Blood, Holy Grail (New York: Delacorte Press, 1982). 2. For more esoteric studies of Egypt, the reader is referred to the
works of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz. 3. Gaetan DelaForge. The Templar Tradition in the Age of Aquarius
(Putney, Vt.:Threshold Books, 1987), p. 63. 4. For a more detailed study of this period, the reader is referred
to the works of the Francis Bacon
Research Trust. 5. For more information on this period and the seeds it sowed, the
reader is referred to Francis A Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
(London and New York: Ark, 1986). Sources © 2000 by Robert Richardson. All rights reserved. Originally
published in New Dawn
No. 64 (January-February 2001). Robert Richardson is the author of The Unknown Treasure: The Priory of Sion Fraud and the Spiritual Treasure of Rennes-le-Château (Houston, TX: NorthStar, 1998), available from Pratum Book Co., PO Box 985, Healdsburg, California 95448, USA. knowledge@pratum.com.
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