Two Knights on One Horse

Two Knights on One Horse;

A secret hidden in plain sight.

By SK Ray Hayward REPGC, KCT.

If you’ve read any books on the Knights Templar, you probably come across the image of two knights riding on the same horse. To the casual observer, it’s odd that two fully armored knights would ride the same horse, unless it was in an extreme case.

According to legend, Hugues de Payens (the first Grand-Master of the Templars) and Godfrey were so poor that between the two of them they had only one horse, and this gave rise to the famous image on the seal of the Templars, of two men riding a single horse.

 In Templar history, we find that that image is the seal of the 6th Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, Bertrand de Blanquefort.

The grandmasters and officers all had seals to affix to documents in addition to their signature. The seals were tied with ribbon to the bottom of a document, probably vellum, and then a ball of hot wax was poured on the ribbon, and the seal would be pressed into the wax. Lastly, some seals were stamped directly onto the document. Some seals were pressed on two sides, and so we find that de Blanquefort’s seal was of the Dome of the Rock on the reverse.

Historians have pointed to the two riders on one horse as the symbol of the name, and humble origins, of the Knights Templar, known as the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. A name which was actually used later, the founders of the Order called themselves Knights of the Temple. Many people claim that the two knights showed that the Order was so poor in the beginning that the knights had to share a horse. Makes sense, right?

The founding of the Order in 1118 by nine knights was anything but poor or humble. Hugh De Payans and Godfrey De Saint-Omer were anything but poor, both coming from wealthy and powerful families in the Champagne region of France, near Trois. Indeed, Bernard of Clairvaux, known to the world as Saint Bernard, the leading scholar and doctor of the Roman Catholic Church at that time, was a friend and supporter to the founding knights. And you couldn’t be a knight without the means to support and maintain yourself, horse, armor, sword, and general upkeep for warfare.

Logistically, two knight riding on, let alone fighting from, the same horse would be difficult. They would be in each other’s way, and the strain on the horse would be exhausting. Who controls the horse or decides which enemies will be engaged? Also, if that were a legitimate, or common way of fighting, the chroniclers of the time, who detailed all the modes of warfare and combat, would have mentioned it. There is no history to support two knights having to share a horse.

I believe that the two knights are representative of three major teachings of the Knights Templar. The first being a metaphor for those who can see and should lead, and those you can’t see and must follow. The second being the idea of knights who were fighters and those who were politicians, namely knights of the East and West. And thirdly, the idea that two religions were being practiced within the Order. Plus, here are two bonus ideas, the relationship of the will-mind-body, and Pegasus the winged horse.

1. Those who see clearly and those who don’t. The seal shows the knights one in front of the other on one horse. The knight in front sees clearly, the knight in the back has an obscured view. This is a metaphor for leading and following, knowing and unknowing, obvious and hidden, knowledge and trust. The knight in front sees, knows, and is in possession of the Way. The knight in back must trust, believe, and follow. Here is one example of knights in the know, and knights in the dark.

              

During the Templar trials, most of the serving brothers and lesser knights did not know about the heads or skulls located at each commandery, chapterhouse, or castle. A few were privy but most stated under torture that they did now know about, venerate, or worship, any kind of head or relic. Most of the senior knights, the masters, and office holders all admitted to a head or skull that was used in their initiations and rituals. Many called it Baphomet. Others attributed the heads or skulls to the relics of saints and holy people.

2. Politicians and Crusaders. In the Masonic Knight Masons, we find three of the oldest, unchanged rituals and degrees worked in the US. They are the Knight of the Sword, Knight of the East, and Knight of the East and West. Sometimes known as the “Green Degrees,” they are from Ireland and basically contain the Royal Arch degree, the Order of the Red Cross, and some Templar aspects. The Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite has these degrees as their 15th and 17th degrees.

I look at the Knight of the Sword as the founder of the Knights Templar, Hugh DePayens, being knighted. Knight of the East is where he fought for King Baldwin and founded the Order of the Temple. Knight of the East and West as his success in making the Knights Templar the premier Order in Europe and the Middle East and the bridge between two worlds.

                                    

One way to look at the two knights is that one lived and worked in the East, Jerusalem and the Middle East, and the other lived and worked in the West, Paris and Western Europe. A Templar who was in Jerusalem was a fighting monk, one who was more warrior than priest. A person who was on the front lines of warfare, treaties, and cultural exchange. 

A Templar who was in Europe was more concerned with land, recruitment, political posturing, and the church. The various grandmasters came from both or were active in both. That is why we see some either in Europe gaining more favor with the nobles and the Church, or those who were fighting and dying in battle, or having much interaction with the locals, including the Sufis, Assassins, and even the Mongols!

3. Two knights are two religions while one horse is one Order. This is controversial and I take full responsibility for my blasphemous conclusions! Historically we know that the Templars had interaction with all the inhabitants of the Middle East and everywhere they had commanderies. We know that many of them spoke Arabic, Hebrew and other languages, in addition to the French and Latin of the educated priests and knights. Indeed, the Templar habit of shaving their heads and cutting their mustaches short while letting their beards grow was the custom of the Sufis.

The Knights Templar, who grew up in Roman Catholicism, were exposed to many branches of Orthodox Christianity, such as Greek, Armenian, and Maronite orthodoxy. Gnostic Christianity, Sabian, Mandaean teachings, as well as Orthodox Judaism, and Manicheism would have been available to them. Their most heavy influence was by far Sufism, through Sunni and Shiite Islam. This is where they picked up alchemy, astrology, chess, sacred geometry, architecture, kabbala, numerology, Hermeticism, and some controversial ideas about Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Closer to home, the Cathars, also known as the Albigensians, were a religious sect located in southern France. They venerated Mary Magdelene, allowed women to be priests, and preached a doctrine more gnostic than Roman Catholic. They also didn’t believe there was a need for a pope! They were suppressed in the 4th Crusade, the only crusade the Knights Templar sat out. In fact, many Cathars sought refuge with the Templars. The 6th Grandmaster, Bertrand De Blanquefort, was from a Cathar family and his mother was reported to be a Cathar Perfecti, a priestess of that religion. And it is his seal we are talking about. I say that the two knights present as Christian from the front, but many possible religions from the back!  

 

Here are two more ideas for possible meanings behind the seal. There have been many philosophers who have tried to describe the relationship between the mind, the will, and the body. Another way of thinking about which controls us; our thoughts, emotions, spirit, or something else? We see this in Plato’s Allegory of the Chariot. The modern mystic and teacher, G. I.  Gurdjieff also used a cart, driver, and horse to explain the chain of command of a human being.

“The carriage represents the physical body. The horse represents emotion. It is what pulls the carriage forward. The driver represents the mind. The driver and horse do not speak the same language but understand each other enough for commands to be obeyed.”

~ G.I. Gurdjieff

I also look at the two knights as the conscious or front knight, the sub-conscious or rear knight, and the horse as the body.

Lastly, Pegasus became a symbol for the Knights Templar and is prominently displayed in the stained glass at the Templar Round Church and Middle Temple in London. I think it came about from people seeing the wax seal with two knights becoming worn and degenerated from handling and age. I think the two knights melted into looking wing-like at that is the origin for the Pegasus connection.

Brothers, Knights, and fellow seekers, this is by no means the definitive meaning of Two Knights on One Horse, it’s really the tip of the iceberg. My paper is merely the beginning of our research and conversation. What do you think?