Templar Heresy: A Story of Gnostic Illumination

Marco Polo described a visit to the Alamut region on his way to China in 1271. The Venetian traveler related a story about the Assassins he had heard from several people he met.

Carefully selected young boys from surrounding areas were raised from earliest childhood in the court of the Old Man of the Mountain. They were educated in various languages and customs, courtly etiquette, and trained in martial and other skills. The most talented, courageous, and loyal were then chosen for a unique experience.

During the night, ten or twelve disciples would be drugged with opium and carried unconscious into a hidden area known as the Garden of Delights. It had been constructed to resemble Muhammad’s descriptions of Paradise. Beautiful silk tapestries and paintings hung in gilded pavilions. Streams of wine, milk, honey, and cool water flowed through various ducts within the garden. Tasty fruits and elegant and colorful flowers and fragrant plants were carefully cultivated. Couches were laid out for the youths, and here they were entertained by beautiful women, clothed in diaphanous dresses, who sang and danced and initiated them into the arts of love.

The fidais remained in this sensual bliss for four or five days until they were again drugged and carried back to the castle. Upon awakening, they related their experience to the Master. The Old Man explained that he held the keys to Paradise. If they accomplished the mission on which he would be sending them, even if they died, he would summon his angels to transport their souls directly to this heavenly realm.

He then assigned them a target from among his most dangerous enemies. The fervor of his disciples’ loyalty was unmatched. Surrounding chieftains and rulers lived in dread of these killers who had no fear of death.

On August 12, 1308, Pope Clement V released the articles of accusation against the Knights Templar in a document entitled Faciens misericordiam. Among its charges were the following:

That they worshiped and adored an idol as their God and savior. It was variously described as a human head, or heads, sometimes with three faces, or a human skull. It was believed the idol protected the Order, gave it riches, caused the trees to flower and the land to germinate.

That in their receptions, they surrounded the idol with a small cord that they then wore at all times around their waists in veneration of the idol.

That at the ceremony of reception, the Order demanded its new members deny Christ, or Christ crucified, sometimes Jesus, God, the Virgin, or the Saints.

That at the ceremony of reception, the candidate was told to spit on the cross, or an image of the cross, or of Jesus. That they sometimes trampled the cross underfoot, or urinated upon it, both at the reception ceremony and at other times.

That the Order taught that Jesus was not the true God, that he was a false prophet, that he had not suffered on the cross, that he had died not for the redemption of humanity but for his own sins, that neither the receptor nor the candidate could expect salvation through Jesus.

That they did not believe in the sacraments of the Church.

That there were a series of kisses during the ceremony of reception, by the candidate or by the receptor, either on the other’s mouth, navel, bare stomach, buttocks, base of the spine, or penis.

That they conducted all their business in secret meetings and at night and that all the above errors could only flourish because of this secrecy.

PART ONE

THE QIYAMA AND THE ASSASSINS

CHAPTER 1

Saturday, the 17th of Ramadan, 559 A.H. (August 8, 1164), was a brilliantly clear morning. Alamut Castle, the headquarters of the Assassin Order, sat upon a rock some 650 feet high, overlooking a valley in the rugged Elburz Mountains of northern Persia near the Caspian Sea.

A large crowd stood in the courtyard of the fortress and cheered, their swords raised high. They were assembled in ranks, their white robes dazzling in the sun. Banners of white, red, yellow, and green rippled in the wind under the blue sky.

Upon a high dais stood a fervent figure, tall, handsome, bearded, wearing a white turban and robe. He was Hasan II, the thirty-seven-year-old Grand Master of the Assassin Order. He ascended the minbar (pulpit) at noon and raised his arms toward heaven. His back was turned to Mecca.

His noble face shining with confidence and wisdom, Hasan gestured for silence. He then delivered the heretical Qiyama proclamation that abolished Islamic religious law in favor of a more mystical approach to spirituality.

He was jubilant, in an ecstatic state of revelation and inspiration, and his words would have repercussions through the ages.

"In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate. This is the day of Qiyama, the Day of Resurrection! Today, we rise to a new state of being. Today we rejoin the Divine, the Eternal Light. Today we enter Paradise!

"By proclamation of the Hidden One, the invisible Imam, we are now free from the shackles of religion. The chains of restriction are struck from our necks! A New Age begins.

"This day we discard all external forms of worship. We turn from the outward forms of religion—from the letter of the law—to the inner meaning of the commandments, the batin, the hidden depths of inner truth."

Hasan raised his arms toward the sun.

"Today we stand in the light of God! Rejoice, my people, in your liberty! Abandon the fast! Remove the veil! Drink wine!

No longer do we turn toward Mecca—for all the earth is illuminated by the light of God! We have risen. We are free. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt! Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds!

Hasan looked skyward, his eyes shining, his face beatific.

The crowd broke into thunderous applause that echoed through the valley. The people’s love for their Imam had been fulfilled by this revolutionary proclamation. Such courage! Elders proudly remembered Hasan-i-Sabah’s creative political and religious consolidation decades earlier. He had elevated the Nizari Ismailis to the vanguard of Islamic thought. They now recognized the same genius in their new leader.

Many Assassins had tired of the conservative stance of Hasan-i-Sabah’s successor, Buzurgumid, Hasan II’s grandfather. Yes, he was a great general and had expanded the Nizari territory. In addition to his military campaigns, there had been several high-profile assassinations, including that of the illegitimate Fatimid Caliph himself. But compared to Hasan-i-Sabah’s revolutionary energy, Buzurgumid proved to be an unexciting and uninspiring leader. His son, Muhammad, Hasan II’s father, was even worse. He had remained virtually dormant during his twenty-four year reign, avoiding any active expansion of territory. He had chosen instead to rest on the laurels of his father. A longing for Alamut’s earlier glory was widespread.

The young Hasan II had long been regarded as the answer to their frustration. He was believed to be an extraordinary soul. Rumors had swirled for years that he was actually the secret son of the Hidden Imam himself. His Qiyama proclamation this day seemed to hint at that possibility. It was certainly proof of his remarkable stature as a spiritual visionary. Imagine overturning five centuries of Islamic law in one afternoon! And to do so here, at Alamut! The chests of his supporters swelled with pride at the thought that their Imam had reclaimed the preeminent position of the Assassin community as the religious leaders of the entire Islamic world.

While there was great enthusiasm on the faces of most of the people in the courtyard, yet a few men were hiding their discomfort. They cast quick glances at their confederates, then swiftly lowered their eyes. They were seething with hatred for the blasphemy to which they had been exposed this day.

The teachings of the Prophet Muhammad were absolutely clear. In fact, they had been collected in writing and taught by generations of religious leaders. The Muslim faithful had followed the Prophet’s example and advice in their daily lives for longer than half a millennium. There was no room for doubt when it came to the proper rules of behavior for a Muslim. Whether it was one’s conduct in marriage, the foods one should eat, how to dress, how to bathe, how to raise children, how and when to pray and perform the other duties of the faith, how a leader should administer the affairs of the community—all were carefully spelled out.

Allah’s rules had been dictated to His Messenger by the Archangel Gabriel. These precepts and codes had stood the test of time because they worked—and they worked because they came directly from God.

Drink wine? Break the Ramadan fast? Who did this madman think he was? They would quietly and carefully seek out their fellow Assassin dissenters and make their next plans together. The Qiyama heresy would not stand here at Alamut or survive to spread anywhere else. This mulhid (apostate) must be stopped. It was that simple.

CHAPTER 2

Later that night Hasan was with his friend and favorite student, the young Rashid al-Din Sinan. Twenty-four years old, with jet-black hair and beard, Sinan displayed the lean intensity of the committed mystic. He deeply admired and loved his teacher. They walked together in the now-empty courtyard of Alamut. As they gazed upon the starlit heaven, Hasan further expounded his new doctrine of spiritual liberation.

We have a divine mission, Sinan. Our destinies are linked. There is a New Dispensation! We are free of slavery and restriction. Now we will experience God within!

He paused so that Sinan could absorb these unfamiliar and revolutionary concepts. Hasan was keenly aware of how shocking the Qiyama proclamation was, even to so supportive an ally as Sinan. Hasan knew that Islam was an extremely rigid and stylized religion. He knew that his Qiyama doctrine would be considered heretical by even the most tolerant