All language subtitles for mysteries.of.the.knights.templar.s01e04.720p.web.h264-skyfire[EZTVx.to]

What made the
Templars spiritual practices

unique when compared to
other practices of the time?

I'm Scott Wolter.

I'm a forensic geologist
and a Knights Templar.

And I'm
Timothy Hogan, grand master

of the Knights Templar.

The Templar
founders originated

from Gnostic families.

Whenever I think about the true
founding of the Templar order,

I always go back to Bernard.

In 1113, he joined
the Cistercian order

with 30 family members.

They all came together,
including two of his uncles

who were part of the
original Nine Knights

that founded the Templar order
in Jerusalem, which would

be only a few years later.

Now, obviously, there's
something going on here.

In my mind, I look at this
as a deliberate event.

This was intentional.

30 family members,
that's not a coincidence.

What this sounds like to me is
the beginning of a coup d'etat.

Yeah, Bernard
was also responsible for--

he had sent by the church
to go down and investigate

a group of Gnostics in
Southern France known

as the Albigensians, also
known as the Cathars,

another name for them.

These were the Gnostic families
that the Templars came out of.

His mission was he was supposed
to go down and condemn them.

But he actually came back and
praised their way of life,

saying that they were
even more Christian

than the Christians of Rome.

Right, right.

So isn't there a
very famous saying

that goes back to the
Albigensian crusade

when the church mounted a
crusade against the Cathars

and these Albigensian families.

And interestingly enough,
this happened around 1204,

I believe to 1244 not
long too many years

after Bernard died, right.

And there were groups
of Knights that

were sent down there by
the church, not the Knights

Templar, by the way.

But there's an old story that
goes that one knight said

to another knight,
when they were

about to raid one of
these Cathari families

and kill them all.

And he'll say--
he basically said,

how do we know the
good Christians

from the bad Christians?

And the other Knight
said, kill them all

and let God sort it out.

Yeah, it
was a brutal crusade.

It was actually one of the
first Crusades of Europe,

and it was against
other Christians.

And it's important to note that
the defender of the Cathari

families of the
Albigensian families, a man

by the name of Lord
Raymond, he was actually

taken into hiding by
the Templar order.

And after he died, he was
buried on Templar properties,

actually in the Templar
preceptory in Toulouse

because he was denied
burial in Holy Land

amongst the Roman
Catholics of the time.

So this
Albigensian crusade

was Christians
against Christians.

What was it that the
church was upset about?

Why did they kill these people?

What were they practicing that
was perceived as a threat?

Well, there was a
number of things going on.

One was Toulouse was bigger
than Paris at the time.

So this was prime real estate.

But the people that
were practicing

in this area of Southern France,
their form of Christianity,

which was a Gnostic
Christianity,

was different than what
was being practiced

other places in the world.

OK.

In fact,
the word gnosticism

or and when I refer
to a Gnostic family,

it really comes from the
Greek word gnosis, which means

divine experiential knowledge.

And it was the
belief that anybody,

through their own efforts, could
attune with the greater God

consciousness, sometimes
referred to as the Christos,

the collective consciousness.

The word gnosis would be
equivalent in the Eastern

traditions to enlightenment
or even nirvana.

But it was a state of
experiential knowledge

in which the individual,
through their own efforts,

attained this illumination.

OK, now we're getting
to the meat of the matter,

really to the core of the issue.

And basically,
what you're saying

is to achieve a connection
with deity, whoever

and whatever you call
it, that was something

in their version of
Christianity this achievement

or striving to achieve
Christos, right,

or this spiritual
enlightenment, they

could do all by themselves,
whereas the Roman church

required a human conduit.

Now, this would
be a big problem.

And now, I think we're starting
to see where the issue is.

Yeah, the Gnostics,
while they had priests,

their job was more as a
facilitator to initiate people

into experiences.

But it was believed
that the divine spark,

the sacred flame within
was within everybody.

So anybody--

We were
born with it, right?

We were born with.

It was an inalienable right.

This goes back
to these God given rights

that we were born with.

That's exactly right.

Because it came from the
creator, came from source.

Because we are all
connected to that,

anybody could attune with it.

Whereas within the
Roman church, you

needed the intervention of
a priest to get to there.

And this is why the priests
would perform sacraments

of different kinds
in order to basically

be the middleman
between you and heaven.

Right.

Within the
Gnostic tradition,

there was no middleman.

Because you were already
connected into that,

which is great if
you're a free person.

But it's really bad
for business if you're

trying to act as the middleman.

Well, yeah.

And I think we see
the conundrum here.

This is the crux of the issue.

The other thing
that separated gnosticism

at the time from some
of the Eastern Orthodox,

and Roman Catholic,
and other traditions

was the Gnostics interpreted
the crucifixion, death,

and resurrection of
Jesus as a metaphor.

Right.

They didn't
believe that he actually

physically died and
came back from the dead.

They interpreted
it as a metaphor.

In fact, the word
Resurrection in Greek

is anastasius, which
just means to wake up.

And so they interpreted
this as waking up

to gnosis, the death
of the old self

that was attached to
the physical world

and the awakening to the
new realization of gnosis.

They saw metaphors
of, for example,

Plato's description
of his cave for those

who are familiar with that
philosophical model in which

a person is born into a cave,
looking at shadows on a wall,

and is interpreting
those shadows as reality.

And every once in
a while, somebody

will come into the
cave and say, hey,

there's a whole other
world out there.

And the people either revile
them and say, you're crazy,

or they'll go out.

And if they go out of
the cave, then they

have a responsibility
to help liberate others.

If you go back and
you look at depictions of Jesus

on the cross with Mary
Magdalene sitting at the base,

right, if you look at the
position of their heads

relative to each other.

This is the position
of both Venus

and the sun on a particular
point on the winter solstice.

Yeah, there were
layers of this metaphor.

I mean, from the
Gnostic standpoint,

these theragnostics also
looked at Mary Magdalene

as representing the Sophia,
which was the goddess of wisdom

and that Jesus
represented the Christos

or the universal consciousness.

And according to the
Gnostic cosmology,

Sophia also represented
the human soul that

incarnates on down
into this world,

becomes trapped in
matter, and it's only

through her wedding
of the Christos,

the universal consciousness,
that she's in turn liberated

and experiences gnosis.

So this whole play takes
place also within the story

of Mary Magdalene
and Jesus, which

if we accept that
the wedding of Cana

was actually the wedding
of Mary Magdalene to Jesus.

According to the Gnostics,
this was the story

of how the soul weds itself with
the universal consciousness.

Really, the soul
represented the Sophia,

and the Universal
consciousness was the Christos.

So Jesus, representing the
universal consciousness,

marrying Mary
Magdalene, represented--

Sophia.

Sophia, represented
the individual soul

coming to illumination.

And in fact, we even
see this alluded

to again in going back to
the death and raising story.

Who's the first to witness
the resurrected Christ?

Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene.

She's there at the
tomb when he is resurrected

according to the church, right.

That's right.

And not only
that, but Jesus was also

known for doing things like
liberating seven demons

from Mary Magdalene.

Well, to the Gnostics,
this was a metaphor

for opening the blockages of
the seven chakra, the seven

psychic centers, are also
known as the Seven seals

before revelation.

And with the opening
of each seal,

our old perception of
the world dies, and then

our new perception of who
we really are opens up.

Well, and the
fact that Mary Magdalene

was present at the time of the
resurrection, if we go back

to that metaphor of the
sun on the winter solstice

when the son comes back,
who is always there?

Venus.

Venus.

Even though
you can't see her

when the sun is above the
horizon, she's always there.

It's also
believed that there

were initiation rites that were
designed to illustrate this.

And it may even be that
Jesus himself was performing

these initiation acts.

Exactly.

An example
I like to point out

is the story of Lazarus.

In the story of Lazarus,
he said to have died.

He was put in a
tomb for three days.

And then Jesus resurrected
him in the town of Bethany.

Well, the word Lazarus
in Hebrew is El'azar.

And it should be pointed out
that El in Hebrew means God.

Yes.

And Azar was
the ancient Egyptian name

for Osiris, the God Osiris, who
also went through this death.

Same death and
resurrection ritual.

And the town of Bethany
in Hebrew came from Betanu.

Bet means house
in Hebrew, and Anu

was the ancient Egyptian
abode of the dead.

So here, you have
Jesus raising the God

Osiris in the house of
the dead, which is either

a metaphor that he was
passing on this earlier

ancient Egyptian tradition
or the person represented

a candidate who is
symbolically being initiated.

And it was tied into this
idea of the soul attaining

this new level of awakening.

Let me just jump
on something for a second

that I think might add a little
something to the argument

that maybe we are
talking about Jesus

was performing a ritual as
opposed to physically really

dying.

And if you look at the
14 stations of the cross

when you go to a Catholic
Church, three of those stations

talk about Jesus
stumbling, right.

And then he gets
back up on his way

to where he's ultimately
going to be crucified.

Now, as you know,
within Freemasonry,

we have a degree where there
are three stumbles, if you will,

that the candidate goes through.

I find this an
interesting parallel.

I also find it interesting
that the grand architect

of the building of the
temple, a guy whose name was

Hiram Abiff, who is
killed, and then his body

is buried out in the
mountains for 14 days.

I find this to be a very
interesting connection

and I think supports the
argument that maybe this

is allegorical, and it
represents a ritual rather

than an actual death.

Now, having said that, I
think it's very important

that you and I both
make it clear to people

watching this show that
we are not advocating

one position for another.

We're not saying this
is that or that is that.

I think that's for the
individual to research it,

hear what we say, look into
it yourself, and then decide

for yourself.

Again, the
hallmark of templarism

was this belief that the
divine, spark the sacred flame

was in everybody.

And this is again what
allowed them to associate

with so many people
of different faiths.

But they did find that
within a lot of the faiths,

there was always this mystic
element that understood

these things metaphorically.

And it's part of what
allowed the Templars

to travel and associate with
groups all over the world.

There were Jewish
kabbalists that represented

a Gnostic tradition.

There were Druze in the
Middle East or Tawhid Mudun.

They were Gnostic
Unitarians, they still are.

And they had very close
relationships with the Templars

in the past and
still do to this day.

In fact, many
Druze are Templars.

So I think it's
really important for us

to try to make a distinction
between gnosticism

and religion.

And if the Templars were truly
Gnostics, is that a religion?

How do we define that?

For some gnosticism
were a religion, for others,

it was more of a philosophy.

And there were some
that will say, well,

there's no evidence that
the Templars were Gnostics.

You can sit here and
say they were Gnostics.

But where's the proof?

And I'll tell you
where the proof is.

If you look at old
Templar documents,

they used a wax
seal on many of them

of a figure known as Abraxas.

Abraxas was a Gnostic talisman.

Abraxas was a strange
looking figure.

He had a rooster
head, a human body,

where he was holding a whip.

He wore an apron, and
he had snake legs.

And he was said to
be the son of Sophia,

again, the goddess of wisdom.

So what does that mean?

I mean, that seems like
an apparent contrast,

this freaky creature
with Sophia.

What's the connection?

According to
the Gnostic cosmology,

Sophia gave birth to
four main children.

Three of them were known as
faith, hope, and charity.

Yeah, and then the
fourth one was Abraxas.

Well, Abraxas was
said to originally

be known as an archon.

And what the
archons were is they

were like prison
guards that kept

people enslaved to
this planet until they

had attained illumination.

And so their job
was to test people,

to try to put
people in situations

to see if they would really
practice what they were

preaching, if they
were really practicing

from the sacred flame
within or if they

were going to act out of fear.

According to the Gnostic
myths, Abraxas attained

illumination himself.

He started out as
a prison guard,

trying to keep people enslaved.

He came to gnosis.

He found gnosis, this
divine revelatory knowledge.

And then he became a
liberator of others.

Now, the stages of
his body were said

to represent the
stages of initiation

that in fact, the
Templars practiced.

The snake legs represented
being bound to the Earth.

I mean, there's no animal that
crawls closer to the Earth

than a snake

Yeah.

That
represented the people

of an Earth bound personality.

The people who are completely
ruled by the physical,

and that's all they think about.

They don't really appreciate the
consequences of their actions.

They live for titillations,
and to avoid pain, and seek

pleasure, and that's it.

Otherwise
known as hedonist.

Otherwise known
as hedonism, correct.

But then initiation within
the Gnostic tradition

first involved a baptism
by water or some sort

of illustration of water.

Water represented the emotions.

And it was believed that all
the liquid functions of the body

are generated in the abdomen, at
the place where the apron hung

in Abraxas' body.

So this represented the first
stage of initiation, this apron

that Abraxas wore.

First degree.

Right.

Then the goal of
this was the initiate

had to learn to subdue
their passions at this stage

within the Gnostic tradition.

They taught that not to
get rid of your passions

but rather to use them as an
energy for transformation.

They believed that metaphors in
the Bible like walking on water

was symbolic of learning
to stabilize your emotions

and not drowned in them.

So use your emotions
for transformation.

Because then the next stage
was associated with air.

And this is where you
have Abraxas with his whip

that cracks in the air.

And it represented the
intellect, and the mind,

and the studying of
the arts and Sciences

that were things
of the mind, not

for the purpose of being
able to prove how smart you

are at memorizing facts.

That wasn't the purpose.

The purpose of it was
to see the bigger order

and recognizing that all of
these sciences of the mind

pointed to the fact
that all of our minds

are connected to
a universal mind.

This was the Christos.

And getting to this place
was where you experienced

gnosis or enlightenment.

Now, the final stage within
the Gnostic traditions

of which the Templars
were passing this on

was between the air
stage and then going

to the rooster head of Abraxas.

The rooster head of
Abraxas represented fire.

And it represented
the calling forth

to the experience of
gnosis of illumination.

I mean, what is
a rooster do when

it sees the light of a new day?

Calls out--

Calls out.

the crows.

So this
was the experience

of recognizing the light,
the source of light,

which was meant
to be the gnosis.

But before that could
happen, the Gnostics

would usually have--

perform a ceremony in
which the candidate

had to symbolically die to their
old self and then be raised.

Resurrected.

Resurrected to the
new light of understanding.

This is what was
found within all

the different Gnostic
traditions of the ancient world.

It probably came from Egypt,
where they were performing

the same initiations.

And even before that,
going back to Atlantis.

Because we know that
even other groups

on the other side
of the Atlantic,

like the Mayans
and such, were also

performing these ceremonies.

So the Templars inheriting
this understood what it meant.

They utilized it.

And when they encountered these
other cultures that were also

practicing these
initiation rites,

they immediately recognized
them as brothers and sisters

because they knew
they understood

this mystery that
had been passed down

from ancient Atlantean times.

And this was the
foundation of the gnosis.

It just seems
to me the evidence keeps

building that it comes down
to philosophy, ideology,

and ultimately this death
and resurrection ritual,

and gnosis, and
enlightenment that

was this connecting thread
between these cultures,

not just between Europe
and North America

but throughout the world.

And in fact, when
I met with the Maya down

in the Yucatan, they
have a similar ritual

in which the candidate is
brought into the Senote area,

where the ritual is being held.

This big open hole
that's got water at the bottom.

Water at the bottom.

And they have five altars.

They have four at the
Cardinal directions

and one in the center.

And the candidates, they
have to offer sacrifices

of earth, water, air, and fire
at the four Cardinal directions

after which they're led
to the center altar.

They're given an oath
that they have to take.

They have to take an oath,
then symbolically killed

after which they're
raised from the dead.

Yup.

Reborn.

Reborn and
presented with an apron

by the shaman, who has
an all seeing eye painted

on his chest.

It's done with a
particular handshake

that just happens to be
the same handshake that's

used by Templars.

It's used by Druze.

It's used by Hopi.

It's used by a whole
number of other traditions

around the world,
again, which according

to all of their
traditions goes back

to Atlantis or in the
Mayan case Atzlan.

And this ties in ultimately
with some of the mysteries

of the Holy Grail.

We've talked about the Grail
a number of times already.

The Templars were said to be
the Guardians of the Grail.

According to the
Gnostic traditions,

the Grail was the
meeting point between

the individual consciousness and
the collective consciousness.

That was the point.

So to drink from that
Grail symbolically,

we meant to drink from that
universal consciousness.

Beautifully said, Tim.

Thanks for watching this episode
of "Mysteries of the Knights