Templar stories, part 1
Two weeks ago Anne and me participated in a wellnessmarket, at the parc at the foot of the Templarcastle in Tomar. We tried to sell some of our books, had nice conversations with visitors and other participants, and even a delegation of the townhall passed by to get acquainted. A very leisurely day, till something strange happened.
When I walked into the parc, I suddenly got a vision of a Templar knight walking down the road to the castle. I tried to brush the vision away, but it came back a second time. He wanted to give me something. I tried to concentrate and see what it was. Maybe a sword or a grail…? No, he kneeled down and gave me a scroll with a short text. ‘Restore the temple,’ it said. Then the vision disappeared. A bit confused I walked back to our bookstand. What was thát all about?
In the night the vision of the Templar knight came back to me a third time, and I tried to think what he wanted. Which temple did he mean? The round chapel in the Templar castle? An energetic temple? Then I remembered the Golden Dome in Jerusalem. I’ve been there several times during my work in Israel and Palestine over the last twenty years. It is an eight sided building with a golden dome on top. Only muslim women are allowed to enter and pray there. The Muslims call it ‘The mosque of Omar.’ It became the example for the Charola, the templar chapel here in Tomar. The charola also has eight sides, with a sacred centre in the middle.
TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
The temple mount in Jerusalem was the first headquarters of the nine original Templar Knights. Their name, Templars, comes from an earlier temple on the same site: the Temple of Solomon. It was the jewish temple that was first destroyed in the 6th century BC by the Babylonians, and a second time in the first century AD by the Romans. After the jews were expelled from the Holy Land, it became a sacred place for muslims: the mosque of Omar, or better known as ‘the dome of the Rock’. Some say the nine knights connected well with both muslims and jewish people and they learned a lot from them: sacred geometery, architecture, algebra, astronomy, etc.
Beneath the dome is the Foundation Rock, a large stone on which God once created Adam, Mohammed rose to heavens on his celestial horse, and on which Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac. The foundation rock – and thus the temple, and thus Jerusalem – has a powerful meaning for all three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The stories of all three are completely entertwined and complementary.
During my night reflections the sentence ‘Restore the temple’ resounds like a mantra. What if the golden temple holds a key for these turbulent times?
GOD IS ONLY ONE GOD
On the inner walls of the dome there is an arabic text. One line says: “Believe in God and His messengers, and say not ‘Three’ – Stop! It is better for you! – God is only One God.”
With ‘His messengers’ the text means both Mohammed, Jesus and all Jewish prophets. The muslim text continues talking about Jesus. “Oh God, bless Your Messenger and Your servant Jesus, son of Mary. Peace be on him the day he was born, and the day he dies, and the day he shall be raised alive!” They talk about him as the Messiah who will return one day, when the world is in chaos. According to their prophecies he returns together with the Mahdi, the grandson of Mohammed. What if the Mahdi, the christian Messiah and the jewish Messiach are simply one and the same? Just as Jahweh, Allah and God are the same?
While the world keeps on fighting over the centuries and we have continuously wars between Christians, Jews and Arabs, it seems the Golden Dome shows us the right direction: ‘God is only one god.’
Maybe that is the restoration of ‘the temple’ that the Templar knight pointed towards: the sacred wisdom that all three religions are part of the same undivided mystery. When we realise the three religions are three parts of the same puzzle, and that the other religions are our ‘brothers and sisters’, we finally start to understand that God is One…
Templar stories, part 2
A couple of days after my ‘meeting’ with the Templar knight, I travel to Belgium to give a men’s workshop. 25 men talk about their lives, their struggles, their successes, their fathers and so much more. We split the group in five groups of five, in which we delve deeper into our challenges, before coming back to the big circle. The atmosphere becomes more and more open, vulnerable and intimate. We all listen to stories that are sometimes never told before. In the safety of the circle we all share our deepest emotions.
One man, the oldest, is rather quiet. He hasn’t taken the talking stick yet. Jan, my colleague and friend for over 30 years, invites him to say something. The old man takes the stick and brings in the subject of gratitude. He is grateful for his life, and for listening to all the stories of other men.
After he has spoken it seems the circle is complete. We take each others hands and stay silent for a while. There is a clear sense of magic in the air. Something wants to reveal itself in the silence of these 25 men.Suddenly I see in the middle of the circle the energetic form of the kabbala, the jewish tree of life. It seems to circle around and changes into woman, the divine feminine or the Sjechina. Maybe it’s only me seeing this, but the magical energy is palpable.
When we take a break one of the participants comes to me. ‘I saw four pillars of light or angels in the four corners of our room,’ he tells me. I share with him my vision of the Shechina in the middle.
‘That makes five’, he exclaims. ‘the five elements of the temple!’
‘What do you mean?’ I ask.
‘The five elements – air, water, fire, earth and ether – form together the Temple of Salomon. I am reading a book about it. He was the first one to create the temple.’
Now it’s my turn to be surprised and overwhelmed. I am reminded by the words of the Knights Templar: ‘Restore the Temple’. Is this what he meant?
I look at the ceiling of our workshop space and see five lamps, the middle one somewhat higher. Five times five men. Then I recall the name of our space: ‘ The Temple room.’ It seems as if everything comes together in one grand design.
‘Would be interesting if we could broadcast this energy into a crop circle’, I think out of the blue. ‘There is so much love and perfection in our circle.’ But I immediately dismiss the thought. Lunch is calling, and the other man talks further about his book on the temple of Salomon. I make a mental note to buy the book once I get home.
‘The temple of Salomon wasn’t only a building but also an energetic blueprint. It contained the secrets of an evolved consciousness, a state of higher being,’ the man tells me.
‘That is just what I felt this morning: a state of perfection, simply by sharing all of our wounds and imperfections. It makes us more human and more spiritual. As above, so below; as within, so without…’
The workshop continues and reaches new heights and depths. It is as intense as it is beautiful. ‘Is this what is meant by a higher frequency; a state of being in which everything is embraced and forms a sort of geometric harmony?’ I ponder. ‘Is that the temple?’
The reward, or should I call it surprise, comes when I get home and start scrolling through Facebook. An image appears of a cropcircle in Wiltshire, UK, exactly as I had imagined it. It leaves me speechless. How is this even possible?
I always suspected that the intricate mathematical designs weren’t made by two old chaps with a plank and some ropes, simply because the forms are too perfect. But I never thought it could be an imprint of our own conscious or unconscious thought pattern. Or was there still another explanation that I couldn’t see yet?
Was this what was asked of us; to restore the temple of mankind, to bring all of us into alignment with a higher frequency, according to the designs of the cropcircle mathematics?
The man that talked about the Temple of Salomon sends me an sms: ‘I’ve ordered the book for you. It is a present from me…’
Templar stories, part 3
Two days after the men’s workshop I travel to The Haque, where the NATO summit takes place. I come together with a small group of men to do a water ceremony on the beach. 10 men in a small but beautiful beach house, with glass on three sides. The weather is amazing and slowly the men arrive for the ceremony. Some very dear friends who I know for more then 30 or 40 years are present. Old warriors of the heart.
The idea behind the ceremony it is that there is a lot of firepower, a call for war, for weapons and for destruction in the world, and while the worldleaders convene to get billions for war, we want to connect to the water and the sea, for healing and for peace. While they built an army of death, we want to built a temple of peace. But how to do that without getting into a conflict, anger or adversity ourselves? How can you fight something without a fight?
One of the men brings a large white feather, which we use as talking stick. It resembles the lightness and smallness of our gathering. ‘Somehow it feels we are the homeopathic antidote to the large and powerful gathering of the worldleaders,’ one man remarks. ‘Completely invisible, diluted and light, but yet we bring healing and change to the whole system.’
A bit further down the beach is also a group of women. They had wanted to do the ceremony together, understandably, till one of the men mentioned: ‘I think we first have to do our homework as men. We are mostly the ones waging war, making weapons, and making money from the war-industry. Before we can connect with the women, we first have to connect to our own divine feminine and healthy masculine side.’
And so we talk, share and meditate, and again – just as in the men’s workshop with the 25 men – an aura of tranquility, peace and surrender envelopes us. We feel the connection with the sea, the great Mother Goddess and all the other groups who are doing their ceremony simultaneously somewhere in The Netherlands, Belgium and even in G aza. The water connects us all. And we even connect to the fire: not the destructive fire, but the sacred fire, the creative fire, the fire of passion and love
Again I am aware of the immense power of ceremony, that brings healing and harmony to ourselves and to the world at large. This ritual on the new moon is also a preparation for the worldwide ceremony in november, paralel to the climate conference, that Anne and me are already preparing for months. After this lovely day on the beach I feel much more confidence and power to continue of mission: bring as many people together, everyone in their own place, doing their own way of ceremony, on the new moon of november 20th.
When I leave the beach, the sun is already setting and I feel content and fulfilled. With all the darkness, war and killing in the world, there is still beauty, love and people of good will.
TEMPLAR STORIES, PART 4
After two weeks of the men’s workshop of 25 men, the ceremony at the sea in The Hague, visiting my daughter and my mother and meeting friends, I return to Tomar. When I step out of the tiny train that brings me from Lisbon to Tomar, I see the Templar castle. I notice a difference: I can see the energetic outline of the temple hoovering above the castle walls. Not solid yet, but transparent and visible.
Anne is picking me up. She has been holding space in our ‘temple’ – The Gate – and since all favourite restaurants, cafe’s were closed and friends were gone, she held a silent retreat in the Gate. I can feel what she has done: working on the inner planes to further create the temple. She tells me she suddenly remembered her inner voice telling her when we left four years ago for Portugal: ‘Built the temple’. Probably the same message as I heard form the Templar knight three weeks ago.
Since we have been living here we had several gatherings – called the New Templars – in which the foundationblocks of the temple were laid out. A first gathering of 27 people was held in februari 2024 in hotel Templarios. During a final ceremony at the end of our meeting we all could feel something was restored: We laid the first foundationstone of the temple. Afterwards we had several groups – larger and smaller – which brought different building blocks and new initations.
With a small group in hotel Unioa, in the heart of the town, we focussed on the inner child and bringing the Jewish wisdom of the kabbalah back in. In the 15th century the jews were expelled by the Inquisition, and most left for the Netherlands, to be more specific: Amsterdam. Coincidentally Anne and me are living in a tiny house in Tomar, which used to be part of the jewish ghetto. Our house, which is built in the early 15th century, was the Gatekeepers house. A year later we founded the Gate.
The jewish wisdom of the kabbalah is particularly essential to understand the energetics of this templework, since most of it isn’t physical, mental or emotional, but mostly mystical. And the kabbalah is a system through which the mind can understand the mystical dynamics of this ancient tradition. I’ve been studying it for several years now and every time it gives me deeper insights.
In next groups the power of the four elements were brought in one by one. A couple from Sweden, Bido and Gunnar, brought a ancient stone to the Gate. On the stone is a sort of imprint of a snake biting its own tail. They felt the stone belonged here, and they took the whole journey to Tomar to bring their gift.
In another group the power of the sword was brought in by an old sword master in his eighties from the United States. He gave us a templar sword to do initiations, and explained us how to use it. In the group were 7 men and 3 women, and all seven men were initiated by the women into their sacred knighthood. Now this may sound like something from a hollywood movie, but the experience itself was of a profound nature. We were all deeply touched.
The next group brought in the element of the water. Together with a group of mostly women we explored the river Naboa, and understood that the name Nabao comes from the goddess Nabia or Navia. She is the goddess of rivers, water, fertility and abundance and her name is the root of the latin word ‘Navigare’ or navis (ship) or’, more wellknown to us: ‘to navigate’. When we went to do a ceremony at Agroal, one of her sources in the mountains, I could really feel the goddess coming alive. The pollution of the river seemed to disappaear and the goddess was restored by honoring her.
Two weeks later two Portuguese women from Lisbon visited us and told us they wanted to do a fire ceremony in the Gate, bringing in the element of fire. It became a powerful initiation for both Anne and me. First we visited the church of the Grandmasters, Santa Maria des Olivais. We knelt, prayed and several visions. One of the things that seemed out of place was the statue of Gualdim de Pais at the mainsquare of Tomar. In kabbalah terms he is standing on the sefirot of the Da’ath, a most difficult place of initiation, spiritual knowledge and duality. In one of the visions we saw him stepping down and Mary Magdalene taking his place. Instead of the sword we saw the grail of water. Somehow the divine feminine is more equipped to lead us into the temple. She doesn’t lead us into battle, but she urges us to surrender to a greater realisation of oneness: the Christ consciousness.
Suddenly I understood the whole sequence of events of the last two years: the initiation by earth (the stone), by air (the sword), by water (the grail and the river) and now by fire. It all seemed to be preparations for the foundation of the temple: to built the energetic framework so the powerplace of Tomar is being restored and can function again properly. I could see Mary Magdalene and Christ as our teachers – the divine feminine and the divine masculine – to lead us to a higher consciousness and to be of service to humanity.
Next week we will have the Festas Templarios, the great Templar festival in which the templar knights come down from the castle on horses and on foot. They carry torches, and in a procession they go to the Santa Maria des Olivais, the church at the other side of the river, to do a ceremony at the place where the old grandmasters were once buried. While the templar tradtion seemed to have died out, during the Festas last year it became clear to me that they were still here. Hidden in plain sight.
Templar Stories, part 5
Just before we start our next ‘New Templars’ retreat in the Gate, we visit the lady who lives on top of our workshop space. She has broken her leg and sits on a large red sofa. She has to rest for six weeks to heal her leg. She knows some very interesting details about the history of the house, and while sitting on her red sofa, she start to tell her story.
The house is built in the beginning of the 19th century, but when they excavated the foundation they found much older artifacts, like a roman amphora, and a large ‘talha’, or arabic vase in which they kept oil or water. The house seemed to have been a storageplace, where horses and carts could come in to deliver their goods. Thus the large gate at the front of the house.
There also used to be a well, connecting the house to an old watersource or river that runs under the street. Every house in the rua Joachim Jacinto has their own well, probably conected to one of the old sources of Tomar, but no one seems to know where it originates.
She tells us how she turned the place into a home decoration shop, with black walls, and a red carpet. She loves art and her house is full with beautiful paintings on a red wall. It is lavish with artifacts and a venetian crown hanging at the ceiling. ‘I love colors, art, wine and abundance. Life has to be celebrated. I am a maximalist.’ We smile, because we have decorated our retreat space in the opposite, minimalist way: quite empty and serene. But somehow the two complement each other perfectly: abundance and simplicity, colors and emptiness, art and spirituality. They are both meant to stir the soul in their own way.
‘An old lady of the town told me that the queen of Portugal used to stay here in this house. She had an affair with the governor of Tomar, and as a token of love she granted the town cityrights. Thus Tomar changed from a villa to a town. When I first opened my shop, I had a dream about a queen. I saw her sitting on a large round bed, in the middle of the shop. Her maids looked like roses and bowed down to her. ‘
Anne and me look at each other. There is something about the dream that seems to have a deeper meaning. While most of the stories of Tomar are about the masculine Templars knights, there is something mysterious about the feminine.
When the templar knights walk down the mountain during the Festas Templarias there are always a few ladies that walk in front of them, carrying a talha, or vase. The vase is also the symbol of Mary Magdalene: she is also called ‘the woman with the alabaster jar’ carrying the nardus oil with which she annointed Jesus into christhood. When the Templar knights got their initiation, they swore their oath to the ‘Lady of Bethany’, better known as ‘Mary Magdalene.’ Is she the hidden queen of the town?
While the Festas do Templarias celebrates ‘the masculine’, the sacred knights on their horses, there is an even greater festival that celebrates ‘the feminine’: the Festas dos Tabuleiros. Some 640 women walk into town with large crowns on top of their heads, once every four years. The women represent the pillars of the New Jerusalem and the ceremony is connected to an old prophecy: In the third millenium the people will have their own connection to the holy spirit, the dove on top of the crown, without any interference form the church and the priests. It seems the Festas dos Tabuleiros is a remnant from the time when the divine feminine was honored, and during the ceremony the women and the men by their side were paying hommage to the Goddess. According to legend the ceremony of the Tabuleiros, or plates, is indeed age old: it originates from Roman times. It was a tribute to the roman goddess Ceres, goddess of fertility, abundance and corn. Thus the flowers, the corn and the bread on the crowns. We are wondering if it might stem from an even older age: could it be a ritual originating in Celtic times? What would be the name of the goddess? The name of the Rose?
We don’t know for sure, but it is stories like these that give an extra meaning to our stay here in Tomar. Slowly the secret of the Templars is revealed, but not in historical artifacts or hidden treasures, but in stories and meetings with the amazing people of Tomar.
READ THE NEXT CHAPTER:
THE Guardian of the Divine Feminine
