Temple and Contemplation brings together for the first ... - ImagoMundi

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
ology" of the Temple and of the recurrences of the Imago Templi—when
confronted with the perils of History and with Pharoah's norms, reveals
itself in the following terms. The aspirations of Christian esotericism were
polarized in the historical Order of the Knights of the Temple, conceived
as having been the seat of this esotericism. It goes without saying that the
ancestry of this Order was the subject of inquiry, and in this inquiry the
significant aspiration is revealed. For this ancestry was always traced back
to the Temple of Solomon through the Essene community and other
related communities. This is why we had to start by noting the "purposes"
(in the phenomenological sense of the word) of the Imago Templi from the
representation of this Imago in Ezekiel's theology of the Temple down to its
representation in the theology of the new Temple among the Essenes of
Qumran. So much for the ancestry of the Imago Templi in the Templar
tradition, considered a parte ante.
At the same time, Christian esotericism could not consent to the destruction
of the Temple, and neither could it agree that Philip the Fair had
succeeded in bringing his evil act to a successful conclusion. Its only
possible response was a challenge, echoing the desperate cry of the Templar
knights that we heard at the beginning, resounding through the solitary
amphitheatre of Gavarnie. A parte post, the succession of the Temple, down
to the resurgence of initiatic knighthood in the eighteenth century, was
assured by a series of links, the very choice of which increases our knowledge
of the meaning and the "purposes" of the Imago Templi. This meaning
and these purposes can still be perceived in the Temple of the Grail built
by Titurel at Montsalvat, in Zacharias Werner's great dramatic poem,
and in Swedenborg's Nova Hierosolyma.
We Occidentals have been over-forgetful, perhaps, of both the meaning
and the tradition. But it has seemed to me important to bear them in
mind, because I have heard it said too often that we in the West were
destined to obey the norms of materialism and mechanization.
6. Templar filiation "a parte ante". Let us situate the sparse historical data of
which we can be certain—those that establish us ab origine symboli, at the
birthplace of the symbol--at the centre from which the traditions a parte
ante and a parte post radiate outwards. To begin with, there is the epistle
addressed by St. Bernard to the first knights who formed the "Militia
Crucifera Evangelica". Here the Temple of Solomon as the Temple of
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THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
Wisdom is already seen as the outward symbol of the inner temple, to
whose building their Order was thus pledged from the start. The Temple
must first be built in the heart. This link, emphasizing the vocation of the
knights as builders, at the same time validates the relationship of modern
templarism to the original Templar knighthood. This validation stems
essentially and above all from the fact that both exemplify the same
archetype, and that the "modern Templars" are no less the spiritual sons
of St. Bernard than the Templars to whom he spoke of the Holy City and
of the promise made at Zion. There are differences, of course, between the
original Templars and, for example, the Templars of the Holy Grail (see
below, section VII), but both share in the same heritage, constituted in
the "treasures of Heaven". 193
Secondly, there is the monument erected in the ancient and sacred
precinct of the Temple—the monument known as the "Dome of the Rock"
(Qubbat al-sakhrah in Arabic), though often and wrongly as the "Mosque of
'Umar". This monument owes its name to the fact that it is situated
exactly on the rock which, according to tradition and to the opinion of a
good many scholars, used to be in the Holy of Holies of the old Temple.
By an act of donation on the part of the king of Jerusalem, Baudoin II, the
building became Templum Domini, the church of the knights Templar, who
were henceforth associated indissolubly with the Temple through their
name. The building forms a regular octagon surmounted by a dome, and
was the prototype of the Templar churches built in Europe. The dome
itself was the symbol of the Order and figured on the seal of the Grand
Master. 194
From that time on this symbol was to be par excellence the Imago Templi,
dominating the horizon of "templarism". The word "templarism" will be
used here to denote the whole concourse of the hierophanies of the Imago
Templi in Western consciousness—a concourse that phenomenology should
analyse and contemplate while acknowledging at last the importance of
this spiritual fact. It would be important to analyse what is expressed by the
193:J Arthur Edward Waite, A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry (Ars magna Latomorum)
(London, 1921), vol. II, p. 239 (abbrev. Encyclopaedia).
194 Cf. (he article 'Kobbat al-Sakhra', in Encyclopedie de l'lslam. See also Th. Busink,
op. cit., p. 12 and note 43. It is worth recalling some of the hierological traditions:
Jeremy taking the stone with him to Ireland; King Edward III transferring it to
Westminster Abbey, where, ever since, the kings and queens of England have been
crowned upon this stone.
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