Knights Templar Featured In "Solomon's Thieves" Comic

"Prince of Persia" video game creator Jordan Mechner is interviewed today at Comic Book Resources, and he talks about one of his many new projects under development - a three-part comic book series based upon the Knights Templar, called "Solomon's Thieves."

"Solomon's Thieves" is set in the period of the Knights Templar in France in the 14th Century. I've been fascinated by the Templars for many years, and this was a story I came across while doing research for "Prince of Persia." You can't read about the Crusades without the Templars being mentioned. For many years, I thought this story was fascinating, but I didn't really see how to do it as a movie or a book. Then it really clicked was when I thought to do it in the spirit of Alexander Dumas, one of my favorite writers – something that would be, like "Prince of Persia," a fun swashbuckling adventure that would also be set against a real historical event. It's very rooted in history and I think also very relevant to the modern day. . .

[snip]

"Solomon's Thieves" is really told from the point of view of two knights who come back from the Templar Crusades to find that the world has changed. Like returning veterans of any unpopular war, they have trouble fitting into society. In this case, they arrive in Paris just in time for the entire order of Knights Templar – hundreds of knights in the rank and file up to the grand master himself – to be arrested in a single morning and hauled before the Inquisition on charges of blasphemy and heresy. This is an actual historical event – the overnight destruction of what had been one of the most powerful military religious organizations in Europe. And so the fun of the book is to see these great, sweeping historical events – the conflict between the church and the king and all of it – from the point of view of the small fry, the small fish who slipped between the cracks. They don't necessarily understand what's going on, but we deeply sympathize with their plight because these are guys who joined up to be heroes.

The Knights Templar were like the Japanese Samurai or the Jedi Knights of their time. They represented an ideal. They weren't just the best fighters – though the Templars considered it even odds when they were outnumbered ten to one – but they were the best, noblest knights. They were above material gain at a time when normal knights just fought for plunder. As boys, they dreamed of growing up to be Knights Templar. The red cross on white was a very potent symbol in the Medieval Age, so that's why their fall was so shocking, and the plight of these knights as ordinary enlisted men was something I felt modern audiences could connect with and empathize with.

"Solomon's Thieves" is due in stores May 11th.

Human Remains Found In Rosslyn Chapel

STV in Scotland is reporting that human remains may have been found in Rosslyn Chapel.

An article by Graham Fraser reports that workmen found bones in the Chapel during conservation work:

The bones, which were found on February 19, have now been removed from the site to be examined by archaeologists to discover their age, type and if they are human or animal. They were discovered under a slab while a new heating system was being installed inside the chapel. There is no record of a burial site in this particular area of the chapel.

The local police are not treating the discovery as a crime, which implies the bones are very old. Rosslyn Chapel authorities have declined to comment. The crypt has been used for the burial of descendants of William St. Clair who built the chapel, and the Sinclair family, but the new discovery is not in an area historically used for interment of bodies.

The famous 15th century chapel is associated by various authors with early Scottish Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, and wide range of pseudo-historical claims, along with being the location of the climax of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. It is undergoing a US$20 million renovation and restoration project.

March and April Are Dummies Months

Pardon a shameless bit of capitalistic promotion, but it's one that ultimately helps you. The good folks at Wiley Publishing have had a regular program every year at this time, and March has officially been "Dummies Month" . Buy a Dummies book or audio set and get a $5 rebate (up to two per family). But this year, the term has been extended until the end of April. That means two Dummies Months in a row!

Now that means you can buy one or two Dummies books with a purchase price of $6.99 or more, on any subject (not just ours) between March 1st - April 30th, 2010, and get $5 smackers each delivered to your majestic manse's mailbox direct from the publisher.

Now obviously we would like you to take this opportunity to plunk down your hard-earned pelf and procure our books: Freemasons For Dummies, The Templar Code For Dummies, and Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies. Think of it as an economic stimulus package. We do have a poodle to support, after all. But there are more than 1,300 Dummies titles out there, and we would certainly understand if you already own ours...

You can download a pdf of the rebate form here.

Templar Tarot Deck

Author Stephen Dafoe and artist Allen Chester have published a new deck of Tarot cards, based on Knights Templar history and imagery. Templar Tarot: the Journey.

From his Dafoe's website:

Unlike any other tarot deck, the Templar Tarot deck features two sets of Major Arcana cards taken from the original art of American artist Allen Chester. The significance of the art is interpreted by Stephen Dafoe, renowned Templar historian and Canadian author. Dafoe draws on his vast knowledge of the Templars and related traditions to see the mystical messages that Chester has captured in the art. As with the first edition of the Templar Tarot, this tarot deck will also be a limited edition. This is a perfect deck for those that use tarot as a meditation tool.

Available from Dafoe's website or the publisher, Inspire By Design.

AP: Experts find rare Crusader-era murals in Syria

Archeologists in Tartous, Syria have discovered rare Crusader murals depicting heaven and hell. The al-Marqab Citadel in Tartous, about 150 miles northeast of Damascus, is thought to be where England's Richard the Lionheart landed at the beginning of the Third Crusade before traveling to Jerusalem to do battle with Saladin.

Story from the Associated Press today:

Archaeologists have discovered two Crusader-era murals depicting heaven and hell in a medieval church on Syria's coast — a rare find that could reveal new information about the Christian knights who battled Muslims for control of the Holy Land hundreds of years ago.

Experts are now renovating the 12th century paintings, which were discovered last year by a joint Syrian-Hungarian team excavating an old Crusader fortress on a hilltop overlooking the Mediterranean in the eastern city of Tartous.

The murals, which measure about 8 feet (2.5 meters) high and 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide, were hanging on either side of the altar of a 12th century chapel inside the al-Marqab Citadel and had accumulated thick layers of dust and dirt, archaeologists said.

The panel depicting hell shows people being tortured inside a wheel covered with knives and others being hanged and burnt, said Marwan Hassan, head of the Department of Antiquities in Tartous. The one portraying heaven includes saints surrounded by light colors.

Hassan said the Crusader murals were important because they were the first ones found in the Middle Eastdepicting heaven and hell.

Read the rest here.

Other details in an article from the Global Arab Network.

October 13th Interview with Stephen Dafoe

On the occasion of the 702nd anniversary of the October 13th arrest of the Templars in France, catch Brother and Sir Knight Stephen Dafoe's interview in the Innsmouth Free Press today.

And if you haven't read them, I highly recommend both his books, Nobly Born, about the medieval Order, and The Compasses and the Cross, about the Masonic Templars.

Poke around the Innsmouth Free Press site, as they have done a whole series of articles about the Knights Templar as part of an entire "Templar Week." And for more books about the Knights Templar, see here.

French Knight Templar Property For Sale

Own your own Templar home. According to a press release by the Sextant French Property Network, this renovated medieval home was originally built by the Knights Templar.

It is set in a 28.8 acre land and comes with a pond, natural spring and various outbuildings including a barn and a bread oven. The property offers 450m2 of living space, comprising on the ground floor: entrance, 34m2 lounge with a fireplace, dining room with a fireplace, 18m2 kitchen with free standing units, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, wc, dressing room and a laundry room. On the first floor there is a 42m2 lounge, 23m2 bedroom, 28m2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, 36m2 bedroom and a 15m2 room in the tower. The house also has a cellar and a boiler room. Electricity, mains water, broadband, septic tank, wood and oil heating connected.


This house is full of charm and character with original French ceiling (plafond a la francaise), exposed stones, fireplaces and beams. The property is accessed by a magnificent stone porch way leading into an interior courtyard. Located only a short drive from Bergerac.

See the listing here. A paltry $1.25 million (US) and it's yours.

Possible Knight Templar Relic

Various sources are carrying this UPI story:

LEEDS, England, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A piece of painted wood found at a rummage sale is a priceless 1,300-year-old Knight's Templar relic, a British antiques dealer says.

Martin Roberts of Leeds, England, acquired the piece in a swap for a pine chest and six Victorian glass handles, the Daily Mail reported Monday.

He showed it to other dealers who concluded the 10-inch by 4-inch piece was most likely from a tabernacle used by the Knights Templar to carry religious items, the Mail reported.

"It's a door or a lid, and there may well be a museum out there exhibiting the other half of the box it came from," Roberts said, adding the piece is to be sold by the auction house Christie's in London in December. Roberts said he has no idea how much money the piece will bring.

In 2007, Roberts bought an antique for $83 that turned out to be an Egyptian artifact. He later sold it for $50,000, the Mail said.

The Knights Templar, among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders, existed for about two centuries in the Middle Ages.

According to another account in The Independent:

The former professional golf player astonished experts who insisted on wearing gloves to examine his latest find when he told them that he had driven around for two weeks with the tabernacle on the dashboard of his van.

“When I touched it, it sent shivers through me,” he said yesterday. It was initially checked out by a dealer in Doncaster who suggested the polychrome cartoon images could be of St George and the Dragon. But he now believes it is more likely to be a Roman stabbing a Turk – a reference to the Crusades as well as a priest carrying a cross. A second expert suggested that its origins could be traced back to the Orthodox Church between 700 and 1200.

The door was found at Masham, North Yorkshire, close to Middleham Castle, the former home of Richard III which dates back to the time of the Norman Conquest. One theory is that it may have fallen into the possession of one of the influential residents that inhabited the castle, known as the Windsor of the North.

New Book: Fraternal Regalia I - Knights Templar

My very good friend, and the current Eminent Commander of Indianapolis' Raper Commandery No. 1, Carson Smith, eats, sleeps, and breathes the Masonic order of the Knights Templar. When John D. Hamilton's book, The American Fraternal Sword, came out earlier this year, depicting more than 600 swords in full color, he described it as "Templar porn."

Comes now a new book by Michael C. MacDonald that I'm afraid is going to keep Sir Knight Carson up all knight reading under the covers with a flashlight: Fraternal Regalia I: Knights Templar - A Collectors Guide to the Orders, Degrees, Activities, Uniforms, Swords, Regalia, and Collectible Souvenirs of the Commandery of the Knights Templar of York Rite Freemasonry. It covers Knights Templar regalia and collectibles from 1800 to 1930.

The book is not yet available on Amazon, but is for sale on Ebay. To quote from the listing,

Hardbound 8/12 x 11. 230 pages! Over 500 high quality B&W photos and illustrations! Many period cabinet photos illustrating the various uniforms, regalia and activities of the Commandery of the Knights Templar! 51 swords illustrated from period regalia catalogs! 19 swords illustrated in detailed pictorials! Black Uniform and White uniforms described in detail! Price Guide Included! This book describes - Masonic Lodge Structure - York Rite Structure - Order of the Red Cross - Order of the Knights of Malta - Order of the Knights Templar - Ritual regalia - KT Rank & Insignia - The White Uniform - The Black Uniform - Fatigue uniform - Hats - Sashes - Swords & Daggers - Conclave Medals - Officers Jewels - Parade & Drill Teams - Mounted Commanderies - Symbology - Triennial Conclaves - Souvenirs - Pilgrimages - Badges - Ribbons - Jewelry

The book is sponsored by the Internet Sword Collectors Association.

The price is $59.

Thanks to Mark Tabbert for the heads up.

Templars and Mysteries of the Mystic Lamb

A fascinating article by Patrick Bernau on the Socyberty website about artwork in a Belgian cathedral by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, known as the Ghent Alterpiece, or The Mystic Lamb.
It seems that two panels of the composition (called a polyptych) were stolen in 1934 (known as "The Just Judges" and "St. John the Baptist"), and have never been found.
Bernau asks why would a Flemish cathedral painting from the 1400s feature a Knight Templar, a century after their dissolution?
And why did someone steal the panel?
And how did the Nazis get involved?

Bernau has written a book on the painting, Mysteries of the Mystic Lamb, so far only available in Dutch.

Read on...

Vatican Says Knights Templar Protected Turin Shroud

Vatican researcher Barbara Frale, who rediscovered the Chinon Parchment that showed the Knights Templar were absolved of wrongdoing by Pope Clement V, is in the news again with a new discovery. Frale has found a document that makes the case that the Knights Templar found and protected the famed Turin Shroud, and that it was the source of allegations that the Templars venerated the head of a bearded man. This allegation was part of the accusations of heresy brought against the Order.

According to an article in the timesonline.uk today,

Barbara Frale, a researcher in the Vatican Secret Archives, said the Shroud had disappeared in the sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, and did not surface again until the middle of the fourteenth century. Writing in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Dr Frale said its fate in those years had always puzzled historians.

However her study of the trial of the Knights Templar had brought to light a document in which Arnaut Sabbatier, a young Frenchman who entered the order in 1287, testified that as part of his initiation he was taken to “a secret place to which only the brothers of the Temple had access”. There he was shown “a long linen cloth on which was impressed the figure of a man” and instructed to venerate the image by kissing its feet three times.

Dr Frale said that among other alleged offences such as sodomy, the Knights Templar had been accused of worshipping idols, in particular a “bearded figure”. In reality however the object they had secretly venerated was the Shroud.

The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth that appears to have been used to wrap the body of a man who had been crucified, and ghostly images appear of a man with a bearded face. In spite of almost immediate pronouncements by the Catholic Church that it was a fake, the faithful believed that the image was of Jesus, and continue to do so today. Chemical analysis and carbon dating techniques used in 1988 provided results that the markings were paint and that the cloth dated from the 14th century, but those results were almost immediately called into question. The Shroud is, today, the property of the Vatican, which has always refused to declare it to be the authentic image of Christ.

The Knights Templars have been implicated in the Shroud’s history before this announcement by Barbara Frale. First, it was in the possession of the family of Geoffrey de Charney, Templar Preceptor of Normandy, who was burned at the stake along with Grand Master Jacques de Molay in 1314. Geoffrey’s nephew, Geoffri de Charney, apparently had the Shroud, and upon his death, his widow, Jeanne de Vergy, first displayed it in public in 1357.

Author Ian Wilson has claimed in The Shroud of Turin: Burial Cloth of Jesus? that the Templars may have found the preserved head of Jesus, and that the Shroud was used to wrap it up in. In which case the Shroud really does authentically reveal the face of Christ.

Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight, on the other hand, claim that the Shroud, in fact, displays the face and features of none other than Jacques de Molay. They make the argument in their book The Second Messiah that the last Grand Master of the Templars was tortured before his execution, and the Shroud displays the blood of his wounds and the long hair and beard that fit his description. Further, using the carbon dating results from a 1988 test of fabric from the Shroud which place its origin between 1260 and 1380, the time frame fits the period of de Molay’s imprisonment and torture. They conclude that the Shroud was wrapped around de Molay after he bad been brutally worked over, but was still alive.

A completely different theory should interest fans of The Da Vinci Code. Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett’s book, Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? makes the claim that the image was actually a hoax created by none other than Leonardo Da Vinci himself, using a primitive photographic chemical process and a pinhole camera.

For more, see The Templar Code for Dummies.

Templar Tactical: Training For Battle

Guernsey County, Ohio residents are up in arms over a new police and paramilitary training camp that will open this summer 80 miles east of Columbus. Templar Tactical is building a 200 acre facility for training police, military, and private defense companies. It will include multiple shooting ranges, a shooting house, an apartment building with a movable floor plan and breakable windows and doors, a helicopter landing pad, and more. It will not be open to the public.

According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch, Templar Tactical's CEO Bill Janson got the idea for the company while working for a private defense contractor in Iraq.

“The name was selected because of the dual role of the Knights Templar during their time,” Janson said. “First off, they were fierce warriors, which speaks to our military market, and later they assumed the role of protectors, which is indicative of our law-enforcement officers.”

Fighting a war in the MIddle east also comes to mind...

Last Weekend of Dummies Month

Excuse the intrusion of crass economics, but March is officially "Dummies Month," and there are just a couple of days left.

Buy one or two Dummies books on any subject (not just ours) before March 31st, 2009, and get $5 direct from the publisher. In addition, the Wiley folks will also send along another $5 mail-in rebate form for any Dummies book purchased in June, July or August 2009.

Obviously, we like you to take this opportunity to scoop up our books: Freemasons For Dummies, The Templar Code For Dummies, and Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies. But there are more than 1,300 Dummies titles out there, and they are all part of this offer.

You can download a pdf of the rebate form here.

Do it now before the government nationalizes the book business...

New Knights Templar Movie: Ironclad

A new movie is in production about the Knights Templar. Ironclad is being directed by Jonathan English and is based on the very real story of England's Rochester Castle. From the Internet Movie Database listing:

It is the year 1215 and the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal to the Magna Carta, a noble, seminal document that upheld the rights of free-men. Yet within months of pledging himself to the great charter, the King reneged on his word and assembled a mercenary army on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back under his tyrannical rule. Barring his way stood the mighty Rochester castle, a place that would become the symbol of the rebel's momentous struggle for justice and freedom.

The film is rumored to star Megan Fox, Paul Giamatti, Robert Carlyle, Bob Hoskins and Richard Attenborough. It is due in theaters in December 2009.

George Smart's Knight Templar Timeline Now Online

George Smart, author of the indispensable book, The Knights Templar Chronology: Tracking History's Most Intriguing Monks, has posted a revised 2nd edition of his timeline of Templar history on his website at www.georgesmart.com/templar.

The book is available as well for those of us who demand a more tactile relationship with our research material.