>>24592932
>>24592927
The central ritual of Templar initiation was kept very secret. From one of
the proceedings of the trial we learn that a knight who underwent it
returned as pale as a corpse and with a lost expression on his face,
claiming that from then on he could never be happy again. Shortly after,
the same knight fell into a state of invincible depression and died. Such
effects recall those produced in some of the tests of the Grails, tests that
"turn one's hair as white as snow" and induce, in those who fail, a deep
disgust with all earthly things as well as a deep and incurable
unhappiness. What produces an extreme terror in some knights and causes
them to flee, according to another testimony of the Templars, is the vision
of an "idol:' which is described in various forms. These forms, as they are
described in the proceedings of the trial, are difficult to interpret: a
majestic golden figure, a virgin, the apparition of an animal's head such as
a ram's, a crowned older man, an androgynous or two-faced figure. Most
likely these are dramatizations of the initiatory consciousness, in which a
given content of an
5. See my Revolt Against the Modern World, chapters 18 and 19. This too
was the true meaning of fighting according to the knights of the Grail: to
them it did not matter whether their opponent was a Christian or a
Saracen, just as it did not matter whether their fight ended in victory or
death, since fighting for them was an ascesis and a purification, with the
exception of their "superordained" task of defending the "seat of the Grail"
and of blocking access to it.
individual's imagination can playa determining role. We may also get
some orientation through testimonies such as the one claiming that the
idol is a "demon" who (allegorically) "bestows wisdom and riches;' that are
virtues which we have already seen referred to the Grail. The name
frequently given to the mysterious idol, Baphomet, in all likelihood comes
from the Greek f3apTJ J.lTJ'rDJ.li;, meaning "baptism of wisdom;' or a
gnosis in a higher sense; this may have been the name of a ritual that most
likely passed on to the idol.