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Secret Words and Secret Societies - Part 1 - Page 2

© Sandra Linville

One early religious secret society sparred with Christianity for awhile. The cult of Mithra began in Persia and then spread to Babylonia, Greece and the Roman Empire where it met Christianity head on. Mithra was the ancient Indo-Iranian god of light. To reach immortality, a member had to complete seven grades of initiation, including slaying a bull which reenacted Mithra's killing of the cosmic bull of creation. Interesting way to conquer evil and death. The cult presented a sales pitch promising all worshippers worldly success which would then lead to shelter and gratification in the next. After Christianity eradicated Mithra, it co-opted its greatest festival, the Birth of the Sun, on December 25.

Another early society formed after the First Crusade. A group of nine warrior monks created the Knights Templar, a monastic military order, to protect pilgrims traveling from Europe to the captured city of Jerusalem. With the support of both the Pope and several European monarchs, the order grew until it yielded only to the Pope. It took them only two centuries to become feared as warriors, respected for their piety and revered for their wealth. The order's power and wealth enabled it to circumvent the usury ban and fundamentally, the Knights Templar became the world's first bankers.

Unfortunately, in the 1300s, King Philippe IV of France and his puppet, the Pope Clement V, began a campaign to eradicate the order. The King resented the order its power and was insulted when it refused him as an honorary Templar. Also, the Templars, the most professional and stalwart military force in the Western world at that time, were homeless. An ominous predicament for King Philippe. The King mapped out a plan worthy of the most devious secret police department - at dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, all Templars in France were arrested.

During the next seven years this persecution extended beyond France's borders and the Templars were systematically arrested, prosecuted, tortured and executed. In 1312, the Order was dissolved and in March of 1314, Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, was burned alive. The Knights Templar, considered one of the most eminent institutions of its time and a durable monument of Western Christendom, was no more. Some believe that the superstitious Friday the 13th myth began after King Philippe's first strike at the Templars - indeed bad luck for them.

The Knights' demise is covered thoroughly in "The Temple and the Lodge, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. They, along with Henry Lincoln, also wrote the controversial The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail which some think Umberto Eco parodied in his Foucault's Pendulum. In that book, Eco covers the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, the Masons and so much more. The characters in the book agree on "a fundamental axiom: the Templars have something to do with everything." They could have a point - Simon Templar, the 'Saint,' spells his name the same way. Could be he is a descendant of one of the Knights and is the key to finding the Holy Grail. Or at least a Volvo that drives itself.

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