Templar Edification

In the Royal and Select Masters Degrees we are introduced to Ahishar and Adoniram and their roles in teaching us the lessons that these two degrees have to offer. In the Royal Master degree we are introduced to Adoniram and the role he plays in teaching us about the death of Hiram Abiff and the Master’s word being lost. It is believed among individuals who are not Masons that Adoniram and Hiram Abiff are one in the same. Adoniram was a high ranking official in King Solomon’s court. He was responsible for overseeing the collection of taxes throughout Israel, a portion of which went into the building of King Solomon’s Temple. He was also responsible for and oversaw the labor force in the construction of the Temple. Adoniram was also responsible for acquiring and getting the resources needed for the Creation of the Temple to the Temple Mount. Adoniram is described in the Talmud as having great wisdom and dedication. He was the principal tax collector of Israel under King Solomon. He was a...

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 6 th 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 ...

I have on my little finger one of the oldest and most widespread of esoteric symbols: the pentagram, or five-pointed star within a circle. I view this as something of a litmus test. The pentagram has been, at various points in history, a Jewish symbol, a Christian symbol, a sigil of Renaissance magic, a Masonic symbol, a Wiccan symbol, and last as well as least, a Satanic symbol. But it appears to have started with Pythagoras. Pythagoras lived and taught in the sixth century BC. He was born in Samos and settled in the Greek colony of Croton, modern day Calabria, where he founded his community. His teachings emphasized moderation, piety, health of body and soul, respect for elders and of the state, and monogamy. He believed in the transmigration [also known as metempsychosis, is the belief that the soul or non-physical essence of a living being continues its existence in a different physical form or body after biological death] of souls, opposed animal cruelty, and advocated for the ben...