"In studying the writings of the ancients we become their
contemporaries; in reflecting and pondering on their circumstances it is as
though we also witnessed them and experienced them. Thus study of this kind
can take the place of a long life, supposing death should hastily snatch us
away."
-- Abu Shama of Damascus, d. 1267
[Quoted from G. E. von Grünebaum, CLASSICAL ISLAM.]
IN Section One, Qadosh, we outlined the Johannite Legend of the Templars, and some of the ideas contained in it. In Section Two, we have elaborated upon one of these ideas, that of the mysterious group of Gnostics, or Johannites, which met up with the founders of the Order of the Temple, creating an alliance and a succession, with an agenda aimed at destroying and/or reforming the Catholic Church from within. Of course, these days, the Church will destroy itself by virtue of its doctrines, which are crimes against nature, as much as the various things which the Church considers to be crimes against nature, like Homosexuality and Birth Control.
So, when we read that there was one such group, of Gnostics, Johannites, Christians of St. John, etc., we are interested in finding out just which group this would be. The obvious group, on the surface at least, would seem to be the Mandaeans. In fact, Fabré-Palaprat himself identified the Mandaeans as this group. However, this might not in reality be the case, since there are incompatibilities. At the time the Legend of the Templars was penned, the Mandaeans were identified as the Christians of St. John, because of their use of the practice of Baptism, and their identification of John the Baptist as the real Messiah.
But --- there are other groups, some of which exist to this day, that employ these Gnostic and Johannite ideas. Some of these groups cloak it all in the guise of Esoteric Islam, so as to avoid persecution, using the Illuminati's age-old practice of religious dissimulation. Contrary to the opinions of some, this practice is a necessity for survival, and can only be considered totally legitimate behaviour, particularly in the long-term manner of looking at things.
G. E. von Grünebaum states that the original Sabians were the Elkesaites. The Elkesaites were at one time descended from the Essenes and Ebionites. The Elkesaites had a group attached to them, an elite group, which contained the desposynii, or relatives of Jesus. This group was known as the Sampsaeans, and acted as a control group to the Elchesaites themselves. Later, we are told in a work by al-Biruni, that the Sampsaeans, or Shamseans, or Sun-people, are found in North-east Syria, Northern Mesopotamia, etc., right where the Yezidis and other groups eventually show up. In fact, in Beausobre's work on Manichaeism, an identification between the Sampsaeans and the Yezidis is drawn. Perhaps this early work on Manichaeism is flawed, due to the fact that it was written in an age predating the science of archaeology, but it provides us with some good food for thought.
The Yezidis have a saint cult within their religion, one devoted to Sheikh Shams or Chams. Shams = Shemesh, the Sun, much like the Sampsaeans were called the Sun-People, on account of their name. We find the importance of Sheikh Shams, or Shams, or Shemesh, in some of the other groups we have been studying in the Near-East, one of which is the Alawites, or Nusairis. More on them at another place in our work.
How did the Gnosis survive the Dark Ages? Through Christian sources? Somewhat -- through Egyptian and Syrian Monophysite groups, like the Thebaid Brethren, founded by Saint Pachomius at the place where the Nag Hammadi library was deposited. However, we find the Gnosis preserved even more intact via the Hermetica transmitted to the Harranians, and to the Isma'ilis. And it was from these groups of Isma'ilis and their cousins, like native groups such as the Druzes, Nusairis, Yezidis , etc., that we find the Gnostic ideas being pursued, cultivated, developed, evolved, transformed into new language and symbol systems in order to make it all understandable over the course of time.
While the Mandaeans may appear on the surface to be the group that met the Templars, we see no reason to accept it as proven fact. Even if Palaprat maintained it to be the case, since there is evidence that points to at least one other group of people, and possibly to others as well. The Rose + Croix tradition owes more to the Thebaid Solitaries and their relations in Syria; to the Harranians (who WERE Sabians), and to the Nusairis.
The Harranians as we have pointed out, came from various places, and brought in the Ophite Gnosis at a time when it was dying out, due in part to the rise of Islam. Before they were the Harranians, they were known as the Boghdadians, "God Given", much like the Dositheans had a name that meant the same thing. Is this just a mere coincidence? Do we have to accept irrational nonsense as virtual truth, just because it is so popular these days to raise up a diseased monarch to the status of a God?
The Harranians transmitted their teachings to the West, at a time just prior to the First Crusade. They (or their heirs) ended up in Constantinople, and the first result was the Brothers of the East, 1080 / 1090 (depending on time line). From there it made its way Westward, and both the Rosicrucian Current and the Fratres Lucis Current sprang up as a result and perpetuated themselves sometimes in tandem, sometimes separately, and both currents exist in some form or another, to this very day, though not necessarily in the groups which claim these traditions for themselves.
The Brethren of Purity, along with the Harranians, worked with the famous encyclopaedic set, known as the Rasa'il Ikhwan as Safa. We say the Harranians did, because the Picatrix is attributed to Harranian origins, and it demonstrates a knowledge of and debt of gratitude to the Rasa'il. From the Picatrix and from the Hermetica, such Western Scholars as Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Reuchlin, Agrippa, and others derived their systems.
A certain Kalonymus ben Kalonymus is said to have been a translator of the Rasa'il. A certain Rabbi Kalonymous is stated by Gershom Scholem to have been the teacher of Isaac Luria ("The Ari"), one of the major developers of the Kabbalah as we know it today. It is clear to us, from what little material we possess on these concepts, that Luria undoubtedly did come across the Gnosis in this ancient source material. Once upon a time, Moslems and Jews did depend upon and even get along with one another. But then, they didn't yet have Uncle Sam's checkbook to pay to keep the fight going.
Since we cannot state with absolute certainty just which Gnostic group might have contacted the Templars, though it must have been one that employed Latin / Hebrew / Greek or Latinized/Hebracised/Graecised nomenclatures -- we can only say that if it wasn't a combination of the Isma'ilis, the Yezidis, the Harranians, it had to have been one of the Monophysite monastic communities, either in the Thebaid and/or the Decapolis region of Syria. Or it might have been a combination of the two seemingly opposed systems.
Just like other old yarns that must fall by the wayside (or get accepted by gullible New Agers), the one about the Mandaeans can be laid to rest.
What's next on the agenda? We will now go back to the period of the Gnosis, and examine the history of Serpent Worship, in the context of the groups we have been covering already, and in the context of Ophite Gnosis traditions and in the context of High-Grade Freemasonry.
It is necessary to go into the past, beyond the birth of the Gnosis, to the Near-Eastern Serpent Cults, and to the Mystery Traditions, and perhaps to the oldest cults we can find traces of, in order to view the Current as a continuous whole, a continuity as complete as the Ouroboros itself.
This we shall do throughout Version FOUR of Antiquities of the Illuminati. Stay tuned.
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