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

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
transfiguration of the martyr Jacques de Molay as prelude to the coming
of the new Temple, which will be the work of the "Sons of the Valley". In
both cases, the Imago Templi is manifested in two phases: the tragedy of its
destruction, and the triumph of its restoration (see below, Nova Hierosolyma).
The whole drama of humanity is contained within the drama of this Imago
Templi, whose norm opposes the violations and profanations of History
with the inviolability and sacredness of the Temple "on the high mountain".
As regards the second point, because the historic Templars were no
more than temporary trustees of the secrets of the Temple, Zacharias
Werner is led to adopt an attitude different from that which tends to
exculpate the unfortunate Templars on the charges brought against them
in the course of an unjust trial. The expectation of the new Temple
presupposes a critique of the old one. It is not that the author goes over to
the side of their sinister enemies, King Philip the Fair of France and Pope
Clement V; but he attempts to explain their fate in terms of a superior
logic, one which enables him already to proclaim the dawning of a new
day. In effect, the tragedy of the historic Order of the Temple is raised to
the rank of parable. In saying that this tragedy typifies all the drama of
mankind, we are once again thinking of the essential meaning assigned
from the start (see above, section II) to the destruction and the restoration
of the Temple: entry into the world of exile, and departure from it. In
Zacharias Werner's dramatic poem, the Templars of the fourteenth century
are in fact no more than surrogates for the Templar masonry of the
eighteenth century because, according to the author's vision, both of them
were unfaithful to the mission with which they had been entrusted by the
"Sons of the Valley".
In what did this betrayal consist? All the reproaches and criticisms
levelled by Zacharias Werner at the historical Order of the Temple are in
fact directed at his own eighteenth-century contemporaries, who are easily
recognizable. The Knights Templar are said to have misused a secret
knowledge that had been entrusted to them, and to have been about to
reveal it at an untimely moment to the profane world. It was on account of
this that the "Sons of the Valley" withdrew their protection from them,
and they were abandoned to their destiny of destruction. They were not,
however, utterly abandoned: a small remnant was preserved with a view
to the future palingenesis. 257 In this, Zacharias Werner is simply following
257 A. E. Waite, Emblematic, p. 184.
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THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
Templar history according to the Scottish tradition (see above, section
VI, 7). In fact, as we have just said, it is eighteenth-century Templarism
which is at issue, because it is accused of having allowed itself to be
corrupted by the radical application of the principles of the Aufklarung, the
"age of Enlightenment". In the first place, he is thinking of the disquieting
llluminati of Weisshaupt in Bavaria, who had already provoked a
violent reaction on the part of the "Strict Templar Observance", and
whose political aspirations did indeed bring discredit on Templarism in
general. 258 Secondly and more generally, the author has in mind the whole
spirit of the Enlightenment in his critique of a degenerate Templarism:
the reduction of religion to morality in the name of a rationalism and a
criticism that so mutilate the high ideal of the Temple that it is no longer
recognizable; a deism that opens the way to atheism pure and simple and
unleashes the passions of egoism and personal ambition—in short, everything
that the spiritual knighthood was charged and pledged to oppose. 259
Obviously, it would be easy to speak of anachronism with respect to the
role assigned to the fourteenth-century Templars as mouthpieces for the
Enlightenment. But here the intentions of the playwright are not those of
a historian. What he wishes to do is to synchronize the decadence of the
Imago Templi with the ways in which it may be restored. 260 That is already
clear from a very brief analysis of his great dramatic poem. This esoteric
play—it deserves to be staged, although I do not know whether it ever has
been—comprises two parts.
A. The Templars in Cyprus. The scene of action is Limassol (Limasso),
the stronghold of the Order in the south of the island. In several scenes we
are presented with the life of the Order and its ritual ceremonies, in a way
which is intended to show us the deep-seated reasons for the Order's
decadence. Its Grand Master, the virtuous Jacques de Molay, is unable to
remedy the situation. Under a false pretext, Philip the Fair persuades the
knights to come to France. The fateful decision is taken during a solemn
258 Cf. Louis Guinet, Zacharias Werner et I'esoterisme maconnique (Paris/The Hague,
Mouton, 1962).
259 Ibid., pp. 321-324.
260 Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner, Die Sohne des Thal's, ein dramatisches Gedicht. 1.
Teil: 'Die Templer auf Cypern'; 2. Teil: 'Die Kreuzesbruder'; Theater von F. L. Z.
Werner (2 vols., repr. of orig. ed., Vienna, J. V. Wallishauser, 1813; the first
edition is dated Berlin, 1803). The photocopy of the work came too late into my
possession for me to be able to provide an analysis of it here, as I would have
wished. I will return to it elsewhere.
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