Order of the Solar Temple
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The Order of the Solar Temple also known as Ordre du Temple Solaire (OTS) in French, and the International Chivalric Organization of the Solar Tradition or simply as The Solar Temple was a secret society based upon the new age myth of the continuing existence of the Knights Templar (see Origins of the Solar Temple below). OTS was purportedly started by Joseph di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 in Geneva as l'Ordre International Chevaleresque de Tradition Solaire (OICTS) and renamed Ordre du Temple Solaire. It is believed that other members were also involved who have remained unknown to the public.
NOTE: While a great deal of the material below is repeated in many articles and books written by journalists, much information about the Solar Temple remains unverified. There were few official documents and no official spokespersons that can document the beliefs and practices of this Neo-Templar splinter group. Ex-member accounts can be contradictory, as their statements are often based upon hearsay from other members, or are allegations that were never responded to by the members of the group. The group received little publicity until after the tragedy which killed most, if not all, of its leaders. The only information presented below is that which is generally undisputed.
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Dogma and Beliefs of the Solar Temple
According to "Peronnik" (a pseudonym of temple member Robert Chabrier) in his book, "Pourquoi la Resurgence de l'Ordre du Temple? Tome Premier: Le Corps (Why a Templar Revival? Vol. One: The Body) 1975, pp. 147-149, the aims of the OTS included establishing "correct notions of authority and power in the world"; an affirmation of the primacy of the spiritual over the temporal;assisting humanity through a great "transition"; preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus as a solar god-king and furthering a unification of all Christian churches and Islam.
Founders of the Solar Temple2
It is stated that the OTS absorbed another neo-templar organization called Foundation Golden Way, which was led by Joseph Di Mambro (1926 - 1995), who was born at Pont Saint-Esprit in France. Before founding the OTS, Joseph Di Mambro was also part of a Rosicrucian organization called AMORC (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis), from 1956 to 1970. Di Mambro, who had been trained as a clock maker and jeweler, became interested in esoteric religions at an early age. He was arrested on swindling charges which prompted his resettlement in Switzerland.
Luc Jouret was born in 1947 and died in 1994 in Granges-sur-Salvan, Switzerland, as part of the tragedy which ended the group's formal existence. He was the other publicly acknowledged founder of the OTS. Born in the Belgian Congo, he was educated in medicine at the Université Libre in Brussels, graduating in 1974. He specialized in homeopathy. Jouret, who had interests in freemasonry, the Albigenses and Cathars, as well as many new age theories, convinced his followers that he and Di Mambro were members of the 14th Century Christian Order of the Knights Templar during a previous life, and that Di Mambro's daughter Emanuelle was "the cosmic child". She would lead them after death to a planet which was said to revolve around the star Sirius. They claimed that Di Mambro's daughter had been the result of an immaculate conception.
There were Solar Temple Lodges in Morin Heights and St-Anne-de-la-Pérade in Quebec, Canada, as well as in Australia, Switzerland, Martinique and other countries. The Temple's activities were a mix of early Protestant christianity, mixed with a new age philosophy and homeopathic medicine, using variously adapted freemasonic rituals. Jouret was interested in attractive, wealthy and influential members, and it was reputed that several affluent Europeans were secret members of the group. There were press reports that executives of Quebec's Hydro-Quebec were building dams at the behest of Jouret, in order to provide electricity for a Quebecois colony that would exist after the group's prophesied doomsday event.
Structure of the OTS
According to the literature of the OTS, the central authority was the Synarchy of the Temple, whose membership was secret. Its top 33 members were known as the Elder Brothers of the Rosy Cross (an alternative name for the Rosicrucians), and were headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The Council of the Order formed Lodges which were run by a Regional Commander and three Elders. Progression in the Order was by levels and grades, with three grades per level - the levels being The Brothers of Parvis, The Knights of the Alliance and the Brothers of the Ancient Times in ascending order. There were many organizations associated with the OTS including the International Archedia Sciences and Tradition, Archedia Clubs, Menta Clubs, Agata Clubs and Atlanta Clubs, all of which offered the teachings of Luc Jouret both to the general public and privately to OTS members. The Lodges had altars, rituals and costumes. Members were initiated at each stage of advancement in ceremonies which included expensive purchases, jewellery, costumes, regalia, and the payment of initiation fees. Members believed in reincarnation and held that Di Mambro and Jouret would lead them, after the members died, to a planet near the star of Sirius. During ceremonies, members wore Crusader-type robes and were to hold in awe a sword which Di Mambro said was an authentic Templar artifact, given to him a thousand years ago in a previous life.
Origins of the Solar Temple
Various contemporary groups perceive themselves as fulfilling the tradition of the Knights Templar — an ancient Christian Order of warrior monks, authorized by the Pope during the Crusades, that had amassed great wealth and possessed great treasures. These treasures are variously speculated to be the Holy Grail, the head of Baphomet, proof of the survival of the historical Jesus after the crucifixion and/or marriage to Mary Magdalene. This wealth of the Templars disappeared without a trace after the leaders of the group were branded as heretics and burned at the stake by the Catholic Church. Many of these neo-Templar groups believe that they share some esoteric connection to the original Templars and may purport to have knowledge of this mysterious treasure.
Some historians allege that the Solar Temple originates with French author Jacques Breyer who established a Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple in 1952. In 1968, a schismatic order was renamed the Renewed Order of the Solar Temple under the leadership of French right-wing political activist Julien Origas. Some reports have claimed that Origas was a Nazi SS member during World War II. Jouret eventually became a member of this Renewed Order of the Solar Temple (ROTS), one of dozens of self-styled neo-Templar groups in Europe, some with no connections to ROTS at all. After Origas died in 1983, Jouret became the presiding Grand Master of the ROTS. The group splintered one year later. It was then that Jouret and Di Mambro founded the OTS, taking a large portion of ROTS's members with them.
Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (book) (1989) is a sophisticated satire of these western mystery tradition groups that became popular in Europe after World War II. See also Priory of Zion, an article which deals with The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leight and Henry Lincoln.
The Solar Temple in Quebec
In 1986 Jouret and Di Mambro moved to the Canadian province of Quebec, establishing a chapter of the Order of the Solar Temple near Montreal and Quebec City. They bought a chalet complex in Morin Heights, complete with indoor pool, along with a center in St-Anne-de-la-Pérade. Jouret also brought some other of his loyal followers from Switzerland. The group believed that there was going to be a coming global catastrophe. Jouret declared that "the world would soon be engulfed in warfare and famine. Only Quebec would be spared…" A "giant concrete nuclear air-raid shelter" was built in the centre to protect them during the predicted calamity.
Di Mambro also owned several luxury properties in Australia, France, Switzerland, Martinique and elsewhere in Canada which were used for Solar Temple activities. He also married a lady named Dominique Bellaton. The couple produced Emmanuelle, their alleged "virgin birth" daughter, whom the members of the group believed would lead them to Sirius.
By the early 1990s, several members of the group had left, with various complaints. Jouret had been arrested for stockpiling firearms illegally in the center of Quebec, and his doomsday predictions did not seem to be panning out.
Mass murders and suicides: leaving the planet, destination: Sirius
In October 1994 an infant, aged three months, was killed at the group's centre in Morin Heights, Quebec. The baby had been stabbed repeatedly with a wooden stake. It is believed that Di Mambro ordered the murder, because he identified the baby as the Anti-Christ described in the Bible. He believed that the Anti-Christ was born into the cult in order to prevent Di Mambro from succeeding in his spiritual aim. A few days later, Di Mambro and twelve followers performed a ritual Last Supper. A few days after that, mass suicides and murders were conducted at two villages in Switzerland, and at Morin Heights — 15 inner circle members committed suicide with poison, 30 were killed by bullets or smothering, and 8 others were killed by other causes. Many of the bodies when found were drugged, possibly to prevent the members from objecting. The buildings were then set on fire by timer devices, purportedly as one last symbol of the group's purification.
In western Switzerland, 48 members of a sect died in another mass murder-suicide. Many of the victims were found in a secret underground chapel lined with mirrors and other items of Templar symbolism. The bodies were dressed in the order's ceremonial robes and were in a circle, feet together, heads outward, most with plastic bags tied over their heads; they had each been shot in the head. It is believed that the plastic bags were a symbol of the ecological disaster that would befall the human race after the OTS members moved on to Sirius. It is also believed that these bags were used as part of the OTS rituals, and that members would have voluntarily worn them without being placed under duress. There was also evidence that many of the victims in Switzerland were drugged before they were shot. Other victims were found in three ski chalets; several dead children were lying together. The tragedy was discovered when officers rushed to the sites to fight the fires which had been ignited by remote-control devices. Farewell letters left by the believers stated that they believed they were leaving to escape the "hypocrisies and oppression of this world."
A mayor, a journalist, a civil servant and a sales manager were found among the dead in Switzerland. Records seized by the Quebec police showed that some members had personally donated over $1 million to the cult's leader Joseph Di Mambro. There was also another attempted mass suicide of the remaining members which was thwarted in the late 1990s. All the suicide/murders and attempts occurred around the dates of the equinoxes and solstices in some relation to the beliefs of the group.
Michael Tabachnik, an internationally renowned Swiss musician and conductor, was arrested as a leader of the Solar Temple in the late 1990s. He was indicted for "participation in a criminal organization," and murder. He came to trial in Grenoble, France during the spring of 2001 but was acquitted.
It is believed that The Solar Temple group continues to exist, with thirty surviving members in Quebec at the St-Anne-de-la-Pérade center (where some of the remaining members run an organic bread bakery), with from 140 to 500 members remaining worldwide.
Bibliography
- Cult Members say Solar Temple Leaders Ordered Mass Suicides, AFP, April 19, 2001, www.rickross.com
- Darkaul, Arkon. A History of Secret Societies. (NY: Citadel, 1995)
- Davis, Eric. Solar Temple Pilots, The Village Voice (October 25, 1994)
- "French Magistrate rejects idea that outsiders killed cultists," AFP, (April 24, 2001)
- Galanter, Marc. Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)
- Haight, James A. And Now, the Solar Temple. Free Inquiry, Winter 1994-95.
- Hassan-Gordon, Tariq. Solar Temple Cult Influenced by Ancient Egypt, (Middle East Times, Issue 18, 2001)
- Mayer, Jean Francois. Apocalyptic Millennialism in the West: The Case of the Solar Temple, Critical Incident Analysis Group, hsc.virginia.edu, retrieved, January 4, 2003.
- Moran, Sarah. The Secret World of Cults. (Surrey, England: CLB International, 1999)
- Musician Denies Solar Temple Murders, The Scotsman, Edinburgh (April 18, 2001)
- Palmer, Susan. Purity and Danger in the Solar Temple, Journal of Contemporary Religion 3 (October 1996) pages 303-318
- Probert, Robert. Solar Temple: Tabachnik Acquitted, Center for New Religious Studies, (June 25, 2001)
- Ross, Rick. Solar Temple Suicides, Cult Education and Recovery, www.culteducation.com, (Sept. 1999)
- Serrill, Michael S. Remains of the day, Time, (October 24, 1994)
- "Solar Temple," www.religioustolerance.org, (Jan 4, 2003)
- Spanish cops arrest cult leader, Associated Press, (January 8, 1998)
External Links
- Religious Movements: Order of the Solar Temple (University of Virginia) (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/solartemp.html)
- Religious Tolerance: Solar Temple (http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_solar.htm) NOTE: The original text of this Wikipedia article borrowed heavily from this copyrighted site, or is it the other way around?fr:Ordre du Temple solaire