The Templars were very much connected to a Gnostic tradition, a Gnostic mystical tradition that they learned and they inherited in the Holy Land and brought with them back into Europe. For much of the time that the Templars were around it would have been part of the Templar tradition, but a lot of it has been lost.

The Templars were famous for their heresy and it was because of the heresy that there was the downfall and the disillusion of the order.

We’re talking about 12th and 13th Centuries, so, of course, in Europe at that time it was purely the Catholic tradition. So anything that wasn’t Catholic was heresy. But this was really heresy and it really pushed the envelope, absolutely!

But, according to tradition our first Grand Master, Hugues de Payns, right after we were formed in 1118 A.D, he was initiated into what they called this Johani lineage, also known as the Holy Grail lineage that came through Jesus, Mary Magdalene, John the Apostle. (Please see Recommended Reading – bottom of this page.) (*)

Ultimately it started way back in the Far East and came West with a tribe known as the Andean People. They are the only surviving Gnostic Sect from ancient times that still exists and they exist in Southern Iraq. They came west and united with the Persian civilization, Egyptian civilization and the Sumerians. Finally, they merged with the Essenes.

We were involved with rites that involved transmitting what we called the Holy Grail energy, which is also known around the world as the Holy Spirit, as the Serpent Power—Kundalini in the East.

Once that energy enters you, then it does the work of evolving you and opening up what we call the Centers of Gnosis—the centers of intuitive wisdom. When that happens so many answers to questions that you have always had are right there. What am I doing here? What’s this Universe about?

So, how we look at it is that Jesus essentially created two lineages: The more fundamentalist, the more patriarchal, the Catholic lineage with St. Peter; the more matriarchal, the Gnostic, the alchemical with John the Apostle and Mary Magdalene.

It is that lineage that we are trying now to revive. It was always part of us, and then when the secret societies were formed that split off from us they became representatives of it, as well. They were all alchemists; they were all Gnostics.