‘Bob Cooper on Rosslyn and the Templars’

    

Sorry for the short notice, but I learned of this just now. If the notion of Templars in Scotland intrigues you, then you ought to attend this discussion. But, if I may quote Dr. Zaius: “You may not like what you find.”

     

‘Templar pipes by Pipa Croci’

    

Pipa Croci

I intended to post this weeks ago, while all the pipes were available for sale, but I forgot. Now, only two are still obtainable. What pipes? Pipa Croci’s line of nine in its Templar Collection.

Nine, inspired by the nine founders of the Order of Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem—better known as the Knights Templar. From the publicity:

Pipa Croci pipes are created by Paolo & Gianni Croci from Mantova, Lombardia. The company was founded in 1983 and on each pipe you will find the nomenclature reads “dal 1983.” Each and every pipe is hand crafted from aged Italian Plateau Briar. This is a company that makes no two pipes alike and they truly create some masterpieces. In their own words: “The Pipa Croci is an artisan enterprise. The pipes which are born from our hands are all different from each other. This means that the owner of a Croci pipe possesses something totally unique.

Siro Taioli is sometimes mentioned as a pipemaker or, at least, a pipe designer. In fact, Taioli was the Spanish distributor of Pipa Croci pipes made by Paolo & Gianni Croci, Mantova in Italy. And so, he has private label pipes stamped with his name. His probably most spectacular project was a line of nine pipes dedicated to Hughes de Payens, Geoffroi de Saint-Omer, Andre de Monbard, Gondemare, Geoffroi Bisol, Godefroy, Roral, Payen de Montdesir and Archambaud de Saint-Agnan—the founders of the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem or, simply, Templar Knights.

Pipa Croci

The Templar pipes rest in a precious wooden casket clad with velvet. At the shank’s end is a ring of silver or gold on which the cross of the Templar Knights is mounted in red gold. To every pipe, there is a certificate.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying the medieval Knights Templar have anything to do with Freemasonry. That’s a “weird pseudo-history.” This edition of The Magpie Mason is more like an Honorable Mention. Nice looking pipes though.

Did the warrior-monks take tobacco? I have no idea, but latakia, one of my favorites, originates from an area where the Templars waged some of their warfare. After a long day of slaying the infidels, I imagine a pipeful could be rather soothing.

I don’t spend that kind of money ($329) on briars, and these are so decorative in their wooden display boxes that I wonder if their owners will smoke them or preserve them pristine as collectible pieces. But I leave that to you. Click here to see the set and maybe purchase the two remaining pipes.

Click here for more on Pipa Croci.

     

‘BBC: The Templaaars!’

    

Last night, BBC 4’s In Our Time program reviewed the historic Knights Templar in a conversation among scholars who also refuted the notion, popular among some Freemasons, that the medieval warriors were the ancestors of Masonry.

It’s a sober-minded, authoritative, 50-minute finding of facts. (Keep listening beyond the host’s sign-off at 42 minutes.) Melvyn Bragg is joined by Jonathan Phillips, of the University of London; Helen Nicholson, of Cardiff University; and Mike Carr, of the University of Edinburgh.

The Masonic moment comes at 41 minutes, when Freemasonry’s templarphilia is laughed off as a “weird pseudo-history.”

The program’s webpage also gives a reading list of fourteen books. John J. Robinson did not make the grade.

Enjoy.

     

‘Book report: titles coming this fall’

     
Inner Traditions/Bear & Co., “one of the largest and oldest publishing houses in the world devoted exclusively to the subjects of spirituality, the occult, ancient mysteries, new science, holistic health, and natural medicine,” will release a number of titles in those subjects later this year, including several of interest to Magpie readers. I’ll highlight a few very subjectively.

American Freemasonry: Its Revolutionary History and Challenging Future, the latest from Alain de Keghel of the Grand Orient of France, is due in September. (I had the pleasure of meeting him at Masonic Hall a few years ago.) The man knows his business, and with forwards by Art de Hoyos and Margaret Jacob, this sounds like a winner I look forward to reading. From the publicity:

American Freemasonry: Its Revolutionary History and Challenging Future explores the American Masonic system and its strengths and failings.

• Examines the history of Freemasonry in the United States from the colonial era and the Revolutionary War to the rise of the Scottish branch onward.
• Investigates the racial split in American Freemasonry between black lodges and white and how, unlike French lodges, women are ineligible to become Masons in the United States.
• Reveals the factors that have resulted in shrinking Masonic enrollment in America and explores the revitalization work done by the Grand Lodge of California.

Freemasonry bears the imprint of the society in which it exists, and Freemasonry in North America is no exception. While keeping close ties to French lodges until 1913, American Freemasonry was also deeply influenced by the experiences of many early American political leaders, leading to distinctive differences from European lodges.

Offering an unobstructed view of the American system and its strengths and failings, Alain de Keghel, an elder of the Grand Orient de France and, since 1999, a lifetime member of the Scottish Rite Research Society (Southern Jurisdiction), examines the history of Freemasonry in the United States from the colonial era to the Revolutionary War to the rise of the Scottish branch onward. He reveals the special relationship between the French Masonic hero, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Founding Fathers, especially George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, including French Freemasonry’s role in the American Revolution. He also explores Franklin’s Masonic membership, including how he was Elder of the lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris.

The author investigates the racial split in American Freemasonry between black lodges and white and how, unlike French lodges, women are ineligible to become Masons in the U.S. He examines how American Freemasonry has remained deeply religious across the centuries and forbids discussion of religious or social issues in its lodges, unlike some branches of French Freemasonry, which removed belief in God as a prerequisite for membership in 1877 and whose lodges operate in some respects as philosophical debating societies. Revealing the factors that have resulted in shrinking Masonic enrollment in America, the author explores the revitalization work done by the Grand Lodge of California and sounds the call to make Freemasonry and its principles relevant to America once again.


Coming in December will be another hefty study (704 pages!) on one Aleister Crowley by the great Tobias Churton. I cannot say Crowley is a subject that interests me—I admit to carrying a prejudice that I can’t quite articulate and probably won’t shed—but Crowley’s story as rendered by Churton entices even the reluctant reader. Read the publisher’s synopsis, and see if you can resist:

Aleister Crowley in America: Art, Espionage, and Sex Magick in the New World is an exploration of Crowley’s relationship with the United States.

• Details Crowley’s travels, passions, literary and artistic endeavors, sex magick, and psychedelic experimentation.
• Investigates Crowley’s undercover intelligence adventures that actively promoted U.S. involvement in WW I.
• Includes an abundance of previously unpublished letters and diaries.

Occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowley’s three sojourns in America sealed both his notoriety and his lasting influence. Using previously unpublished diaries and letters, Tobias Churton traces Crowley’s extensive travels through America and his quest to implant a new magical and spiritual consciousness in the United States, while working to undermine Germany’s propaganda campaign to keep the United States out of World War I.

Masterfully recreating turn-of-the-century America in all its startling strangeness, Churton explains how Crowley arrived in New York amid dramatic circumstances in 1900. After other travels, in 1914 Crowley returned to the U.S. and stayed for five years: turbulent years that changed him, the world, and the face of occultism forever. Diving deeply into Crowley’s five-year stay, we meet artists, writers, spies, and government agents as we uncover Crowley’s complex work for British and U.S. intelligence agencies. Exploring Crowley’s involvement with the birth of the Greenwich Village radical art scene, we discover his relations with writers Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser and artists John Butler Yeats, Leon Engers Kennedy, and Robert Winthrop Chanler while living and lecturing on now-vanished “Genius Row.” We experience his love affairs and share Crowley’s hard times in New Orleans and his return to health, magical dynamism, and the most colorful sex life in America. We examine his controversial political stunts, his role in the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania, his making of the “Elixir of Life” in 1915, his psychedelic experimentation, his prolific literary achievements, and his run-in with Detroit Freemasonry. We also witness Crowley’s influence on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and rocket fuel genius Jack Parsons. We learn why J. Edgar Hoover wouldn’t let Crowley back in the country and why the FBI raided Crowley’s organization in LA.

Offering a 20th century history of the occult movement in the United States, Churton shows how Crowley’s U.S. visits laid the groundwork for the establishment of his syncretic “religion” of Thelema and the now flourishing OTO, as well as how Crowley’s final wish was to have his ashes scattered in the Hamptons.


My own interest in Knights Templar, both the medieval and neo varieties, is kaput, but I might check out Freddy Silva’s First Templar Nation: How Eleven Knights Created a New Country and a Refuge for the Grail, coming in November. From the publicity:

First Templar Nation overturns the long-established historical narrative about the origins and purpose of the Knights Templar.

• Explains how and why the Templars created Europe’s first nation-state, Portugal, with one of their own as king.
• Reveals the Portuguese roots of key founding members, their relationship with the Order of Sion, the Templars’ devotion to Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist, and the meaning and exact location of the Grail.
• Provides evidence of Templar holy sites and hidden chambers throughout Portugal.
• Includes over 700 references, many from new and rare sources.

Conventional history claims that nine men formed a brotherhood called the Knights Templar in Jerusalem in 1118 to provide protection for pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. Overturning this long-established historical narrative, Freddy Silva shows that the Order of the Temple existed a decade earlier on the opposite side of Europe, that the protection of pilgrims was entrusted to a separate organization, and that, in league with the Cistercian monks and the equally mysterious Order of Sion, the Templars executed one of history’s most daring and covert plans: the creation of Europe’s first nation-state, Portugal, with one of their own as king.

Including over 700 references, many from new and rare sources, Silva reveals Portugal, not Jerusalem, as the first Templar stronghold. He shows how there were eleven founding members and how the first king of Portugal, a secret Templar, was related to Bernard de Clairvaux, head of the Cistercians. The author explains the Templars’ motivation to create a country far from the grasp of Rome, where they could conduct their living resurrection initiation—whose candidates were declared “risen from the dead”—a secret for which the Church silenced millions and which the Templars protected to the death.

Placing the intrepid Knights in a previously unknown time and place, Silva’s historical narrative reveals the Portuguese roots of key founding members, their relationship with the Order of Sion, the Templars’ unshakeable devotion to Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist, and how they protected a holy bloodline in Portugal. He also provides evidence of secret Templar holy sites, initiation chambers, and hidden passageways throughout Portugal, often coinciding with pagan and Neolithic temples, and explains how their most important site forms a perfect triangle with the Abbey of Mont Sion in Jerusalem and the Osirion temple in Egypt. The author also reappraises the meaning of the Grail and reveals its exact location, hidden in plain sight to this very day.

Freddy Silva is a leading researcher of alternative history, ancient knowledge, sacred sites, and the interaction between temples and consciousness. He has appeared on Discovery Channel, BBC, and Coast to Coast AM radio. He is the author of five books and lives in Portland, Maine.


The Metaphysical World of Isaac Newton: Alchemy, Prophecy, and the Search for Lost Knowledge by John Chambers, due next February, recounts “Newton’s heretical, yet equation-incisive, writings on theology, spirituality, alchemy, and prophecy, written in secret alongside his Principia Mathematica.” From the publicity (mention of the Flood brings to mind Antediluvian Freemasonry):

The Metaphysical World of Isaac Newton shows how Newton’s brilliance extended far beyond math and science into alchemy, spirituality, prophecy, and the search for lost continents such as Atlantis.

• Explains how he was seeking to rediscover the one true religion that existed prior to the Flood of Noah, when science and spirituality were one.
• Examines Newton’s alternate timeline of prehistory and his study of prophecy through the Book of Revelations, including his prediction of Apocalypse in the year 2060.

Isaac Newton (1643-1727) is still regarded by the world as the greatest scientist who ever lived. He invented calculus, discovered the binomial theorem, explained the rainbow, built the first reflecting telescope, and explained the force of gravity. In his famous masterpiece, Principia Mathematica, he described the mechanics of the physical universe with unimagined precision, proving the cosmos was put together according to laws. The perfection of these laws implied a perfect legislator. To Newton, they were proof that God existed.

At the same time Newton was writing Principia Mathematica, he was writing a twin volume that he might have called, had it been completed, Principia Theologia—Principles of Theology. This other masterpiece of Newton, kept secret because of the heresies it contained, consists of thousands of essays providing equation-incisive answers to the spiritual questions that have plagued mankind through the ages. Examining Newton’s secret writings, John Chambers shows how his brilliance extended into alchemy, spirituality, the search for lost continents such as Atlantis, and a quest to uncover the “corrupted texts” that were rife in the Bibles of his time. Although he was a devout Christian, Newton’s work on the Bible was focused not on restoring the original Jewish and Christian texts but on rediscovering the one true religion that existed prior to the Flood of Noah, when science and spirituality were one.

The author shows that a single thread runs through Newton’s metaphysical explorations: He is attempting to chart the descent of man’s soul from perfection to the present day. The author also examines Newton’s alternate timeline of ancient history and his study of prophecy through the Book of Revelation, including his prediction of an Apocalypse in the year 2060 followed by a radically transformed world. He shows that Newton’s great hope was that these writings would provide a moral compass for humanity as it embarked upon the great enterprise that became our technological world.

John Chambers is the author of Victor Hugo’s Conversations with the Spirit World and The Secret Life of Genius. He has contributed essays to Forbidden Religion: Suppressed Heresies of the West. He lives in Redding, California.


Gotta go. Ranger game.
     

‘Livingston Library’s March lecture’

     
The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York hosts a monthly lecture series on Thursday nights to the delight of standing room only audiences and for the betterment of the Craft. On March 30 at 6:30, the library will welcome to the lectern William M. Sardone, grand master of DeMolay International. The library is located on the 14th floor of Masonic Hall (71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan). From the publicity:

Courtesy DeMolay International

Order of DeMolay Grand Master Bill Sardone

at the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Library.

The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York is extremely proud to welcome William M. Sardone, Grand Master, DeMolay International, who will speak about the history of the medieval Knight Templar after whom the Order of DeMolay is named.

Jacques DeMolay lived from 1244-1314, and joined the Knights Templar, a group of “warrior monks” who were charged by the Catholic Church to protect pilgrims to Jerusalem, and who also fought in the Crusades. Eventually, the Knights Templar became very wealthy, and were targeted by local lords, who won from the Church condemnation of the order in 1312. Jacques DeMolay remained loyal to his fellow Knights, even under pain of torture. He was burned at the stake and became a symbol of loyalty and friendship.

The Order of DeMolay is a Masonic youth group founded in 1919. It is open to young men between the ages of 12 and 21. In order to join, the young men must also be of good moral character. They must also believe in a supreme being, with all religions welcome.

RW William M. Sardone is credited with the revitalization of the Order of DeMolan New York State, and was elected as the Grand Master of DeMolay International in June of 2016. He has served on the following Boards: NYC Business Advisory Council, NYC Department of Education, President Executive Board of AT&T Northeast Chapter Pioneers, Executive Board of New York Junior Achievement, Associate Board of USO and Harlem Boys and Girls Club. In addition, Sardone served 38 years in the U.S. Army Active and Reserves, receiving numerous medals and commendations. He also has more than 30 years experience in established and start-up companies, and credits his DeMolay foundation for his success.

Seating is limited. Please RSVP here.

White wine will be served.

Photo ID is required to enter the building.

The timing is right! Remember March 18 is the anniversary of DeMolay’s execution in Paris. I hope that white wine ain’t French!

     

‘Umberto Eco 1932-2016’

Courtesy The Guardian

“The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.”

Umberto Eco
Foucault’s Pendulum
     

‘Two tours of France’

     
I don’t feel France is the place for me, but here are two opportunities for you to visit the Hexagon in June. Both Esoteric Quest and old friend Tim Wallace-Murphy will lead groups through the Languedoc region. From the publicity:

An Esoteric Quest for the South of France:

Troubadours, Cathars, Templars,

and the Grail in Medieval Languedoc

June 4-9, 2015

Join us for the eleventh in the Open Center’s series of international conferences on the Western Tradition as we journey to Carcassonne, Languedoc, in an exquisitely beautiful region of the South of France.

Long known as a focal point for numerous spiritual streams, this area was at the heart of the high medieval culture of both the Troubadours and the Gnostic Christian Cathars. “The Bons Hommes,” as the Cathars called themselves, created one of the most remarkable and enigmatic spiritual movements of the Middle Ages, the destruction of which was one of the great tragedies of European religious life. The Troubadours were the first to bring romantic love to the Western world in poetry and song of great elegance and charm that expressed a new merging of the erotic and the mystical.

Languedoc, with the neighboring domains of Catalonia and Provence, is filled with culture and spiritual history. It is a region that carries significance for the medieval Grail stories and is imbued with the mythology of Mary Magdalene. This Quest will explore the aura of mystery that still clings to the castles and villages of the region, and will drink deeply of its wisdom and legacy.

We invite you to join us and meet others who share an attunement to this brief, beautiful but unforgettable time when love, esoteric spirituality, and appreciation of the divine feminine and its immense gifts reigned supreme.

The Esoteric Quest starts with an optional pre-conference day visiting Montségur, the last stronghold of the Cathars, and Puivert, an important center of Troubadour culture in the 12th century.

We also will offer two post-conference journeys: one heading south into the wild beauty and hilltop villages of Catalonia, Spain; the other traveling east into the azure skies and brilliant sunlight of Provence.

Co-sponsors: The Lumen Foundation and the Divination Foundation.

Lure of the Languedoc:

Group tour with authors

Tim Wallace-Murphy and Jeanne D’Août

Land of Mystery, Myth, and Magic

June 7-14, 2015

The mystery, magic and intrigue of the Languedoc range far beyond the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau, which is a minor affair, or the more important story of Mary Magdalene. This land has been at the cultural, commercial and spiritual crossroads of the known world for more than 20,000 years and is redolent with spiritual energy.

The Phoenicians, the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Visigoths, the Jews, the Moors, the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, the Troubadours, and the Cathars all have played their part in molding the spiritual heritage that is so apparent here. On this tour we will explore Neolithic sites that resonate with tangible, telluric energy; see cave paintings which are among the earliest archaeological spiritual artifacts known to man; visit castles, churches, and towns associated with the Knights Templar; explore the rich local heritage (which, according to many historians, was so creative that it would have sparked the Renaissance in the 1300s had it not been for the Crusade against the Cathars); visit castles that are imbued with the history of the Troubadours; and, most important of all, just be in this wondrous landscape and absorb its peace and its sacred, transformative atmosphere.

The tour will be led by two authors who live here and know this landscape well. Tim Wallace-Murphy and Jeanne D’Août will share their insights to enhance your understanding and appreciation of this beautiful country where historic sites and sacred geometry are an integral part of a much larger holistic spiritual entity—the land itself.

Click here to see the detailed itinerary.
     

'The Templar test'

    
The dates of the next International Conference on the History of Freemasonry have been announced. ICHF will return to Scotland for 2013. Next up will be a repeated call for papers this summer, followed by the release of a list of chosen presenters in the form of a tentative conference agenda early next year.

No one has any idea which scholars will be selected to present which researched subjects, but I hope you will consider this challenge if you have bought into the Templar myth of Masonic origins. I predict no research paper will seek to advance the notion that our Masonic fraternal order has its roots in the medieval military order commonly called the Knights Templar, and I ask you to understand why.

Scores of accomplished academics and other skilled scholars from around the world will present their findings on a dizzying variety of subjects during the three days of this conference, but I don't think anyone will attempt to advance the supposition, which was born in about the mid 18th century, that Freemasonry descended from the medieval Templars. My challenge to you is simply to ask yourselves why that might be. In the very land where the Templars allegedly appeared out of nowhere to vanquish the English and save Robert the Bruce's rear end at Bannockburn, a three-day conference on Masonic history will make no claim of paternity against these alleged forefathers of Freemasonry.

Remain calm, be open-minded and circumspect, ask yourselves why that is, and form an objective answer.
    

Tim Wallace-Murphy at Alpha

     

Dr. Tim Wallace-Murphy is welcomed to Alpha Lodge by Worshipful Master David Lindez. The world renowned scholar visited Saturday night to discuss “Rosslyn Chapel: Reliquary of the Holy Grail.”

The August Order of Alpha Males inducted a new member Saturday night when Dr. Tim Wallace-Murphy of Lodge Robert Burns Initiated No. 1781 in Edinburgh became the latest world renowned scholar to lecture at historic Alpha Lodge No. 116 in East Orange, New Jersey.

(I recently dubbed Alpha the Provincial Grand Lodge of Essex County because it simply surpasses everything else going on in New Jersey Freemasonry in terms of Masonic culture, while not at all forgetting about the basics, the brotherhood, and its relationship to the neighborhood.)

They came from miles away to be at Alpha that night. Masons from New Jersey’s Fifth, 10th, 12th Districts and more; and from Pennsylvania too. We gathered to listen to this prolific author, lecturer and familiar face from documentary films discuss “Rosslyn Chapel: Reliquary of the Holy Grail.”

“I started my spiritual journey 35-36 years ago,” said Wallace-Murphy, prefacing his lecture with some personal background. Fascinated by the books of Trevor Ravenscroft and Joseph Campbell, he was intrigued by the great power that symbols and myths have to conceal hidden wisdom while inspiring seekers to break the codes.

In particular it was the Holy Grail that first drew him in.

“My first literary collaborator, the late Trevor Ravenscroft, composed his masterwork, “The Cup of Destiny,” to reveal to the younger generation that the Grail romances reveal, within their drama and symbolism, signposts to a unique path of initiation: the true teaching of Jesus,” he explained. “He was not alone in this conclusion, for one of the world’s leading mythologists, the late Professor Joseph Campbell, writing of the importance of the Grail, cites a passage from the Gospel of Thomas: “He who drinks from my mouth will become as I am, and I shall be he.”

“Campbell came to the conclusion that this represented the ultimate form of enlightenment that can arise from a successful Grail quest. Thus the Grail quest is not what it seems, for there is a hidden agenda designed to conceal a heretical truth from the prying eyes of the clergy,” he continued. “The original Grail sagas of Chrétien (de Troyes) and Wolfram (von Eschenbach) are coded guides to initiation.”

Which leads us to Rosslyn Chapel, the enigmatic structure Wallace-Murphy credits with being the reliquary of this inspired initiatic heritage.

“The care and precision that went into the construction of the chapel fall into a category of what we would now call ‘quality assurance,’ ” said Wallace-Murphy. “Every carving and every decoration was first made of wood, and then shown to William (St. Clair).” They then were carved in stone and placed where he directed. Earl William St. Clair was the builder of Rosslyn Chapel and the last Sinclair Earl of Orkney.

Our speaker, using PowerPoint, lead a tour of the amazing site.


The Exterior

There are many flying buttresses of the Gothic order of architecture, but they are not weight-bearing. On the East Wall is found a bust of Mercury, “the first of many anomalies we’ll come across.” The West Wall he said was originally meant to be an inside wall, but the building was never completed; work on the site ceased upon the death of William St. Clair in 1482. In a window on the South Wall is carved a Knight Templar leading a blindfolded man by a rope about his neck.

The roof, made of solid stone, is divided into five sections, one of which displays what Wallace-Murphy said is a “profusion of five-pointed stars,” another sign denoting the Chapel’s relevance to the Knights Templar.


The Interior

“The inside is superbly carved,” he said. “Profuse, with very intricate carving at eye-level and above. A symphony of carved spirituality!” There are Zoroastrian and ancient Egyptian symbols. “Every form of spirituality known in the 15th century, but this is supposedly a Christian church.”

The Apprentice Pillar – The master mason, having received from his patron the model of a pillar of exquisite workmanship and design, hesitated to carry it out until he had been to Rome, or some such foreign part, and seen the original. He went abroad, and in his absence an apprentice, having dreamed the finished pillar, at once set to work and carried out the design as it now stands, a perfect marvel of workmanship. The master mason on his return was so stung with envy that he asked who had dared to do it in his absence. On being told it was his own apprentice, he was so inflamed with rage and passion that he struck him with his mallet, killed him on the spot, and paid the penalty for his rash and cruel act.

(Source: “An Illustrated Guide to Rosslyn Chapel” by Tim Wallace-Murphy. Photo from “Cracking the Symbol Code” by Tim Wallace-Murphy.)

The Apprentice himself, Wallace-Murphy explained, is seen in the southwest corner of the clerestory wall, his gaze directed downward at the Master Masons Pillar. Relating a fascinating anecdote, he told of how a colleague laboring in the restoration of the Chapel had discovered that this Apprentice once had a beard. “Apprentices in the 15th century were not allowed to have beards,” he added. An esoteric clue lies therein.

Other aspects of the Apprentice Pillar include its allusions to the Tree of Life; the musicians playing medieval instruments; and what is called the Stafford Knot, a pretzel-shaped configuration that Wallace-Murphy said is a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Bro. Wallace-Murphy discussed many symbols found built into the architecture of Rosslyn Chapel, varying from Green Man depictions to symbols of the Deadly Sins and Cardinal Virtues to carvings of maize, lilies and rosettes. The Magpie Mason strongly recommends his books for detailed description and analysis of these and more. But one aspect he did discuss in detail that I ought to share concerns the Templar symbolism, which is the crux of his theory of initiatic intent in the design of the Chapel.

There are “five diagnostic elements” embedded in Rosslyn Chapel, he explained.

The Agnus Dei, or Paschal Lamb – the seal of the medieval order of Knights Templar that in this instance has carved into it a pair of hands drawing back a veil, all but exclaiming a sense of esoterica revealed. In addition, an angel in the south aisle is carved holding a Sinclair shield, with another pair of hands pulling back a curtain.

The Engrailed Cross of the Sinclairs – depicted throughout the main chapel is what Wallace-Murphy called the Croix Pattée: a Knight Templar cross converted into the Gnostic Gross of Universal Knowledge.

The burial stone of Sir William de Sinncler, Grand Prior of the Templar order who, according to legend, had commanded the Templars in their intervention on Scotland’s behalf at Bannockburn.

“Commit thy work to God” – is the St. Clair family motto, which the author likened to that of the Templars: “Not to our name Lord. Not to our name, but to Yours be all the glory.”

The heraldic colors of the St. Clair family – are argent and sable, the same color scheme of the Beausant, the battle flag of the Templar order.


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As regards the medieval Knights Templar and their alleged role in the history of Scotland and as forefathers of Freemasonry, the Magpie Mason stands comfortably in the Cooper camp. It makes for a far less romantic story, but the trail of facts into Masonic origins does lead to the builders of the great cathedrals. The rival theory of Freemasonry descending from the Templars is very exciting, has sold many books, and is entirely speculative. But on interpretations of the countless symbols carved and placed throughout Rosslyn Chapel, I’m open to informed opinion and very much enjoy reading the research of those who actually study this enigmatic site, using their training in religion and mythology to translate what they see. In Freemasonry, there are tangible facts, but there also are the intangibles that spark curiosity and ought to mark common ground on which academics and ordinary thinkers like myself can build together. Bro. Tim Wallace-Murphy’s books are accessible to all, and intentionally so. He knows his material thoroughly and presents his theses in language and style that can bring together the most orthodox of Quatuor Coronati disciples and the undecided seeker beginning his journey.

That embodies the ultimate goal of the Masonic lodge.