Knighthood

What is a knight? A noble warrior that follows the romantic notions, virtues and courtly ways of medieval European culture? A warrior who seeks honor and valor through action and adventure? A simple soldier who does his duty for God and his country? Or a high-ranking nobleman and soldier that enacts brutal violence for King and Realm on foreign enemies? Is he even a mercenary out to build wealth and status for himself? From my readings on the subject, a knight could be any of these. In fact, it is likely that he was all of these things. Or at least within the organization of the Templars and Hospitallers, that all of these types existed.

It was fascinating to me that one of my favorite authors on writing, John Truby, mentioned that one of the popular types of stories to be told in the future will be about the Knight. I’m not sure why he feels this way or where he got the idea but writing about an order of knights has been in the back of my mind for a few years now.

What does the knight symbolize? In my mind, the ideal knight symbolizes valor and courage, and courtesy and nobility, loyalty and integrity in character in his dealings with those he meets, whether he meets with friend or foe. He resides under the warrior archetype but he is also a soldier who follows orders and though his own personal character may be far more distinct - he could have a poet’s heart for instance - he will have the singular duality within him; as humans we all have it. What is that duality? It is the state in which he can uphold what is virtuous, good and right in his land and be as ferocious and implacable as a raging lion in defense of his realm or his ideals. or, he can also become corrupted by greed, envy or the politics of his day. He can be a soldier in that he fights for others above him in the chain of command, or for God, and he can be like a demi-godlike warrior who rises to mythical status as he fights for personal honor and glory.

Of course these winsome ideas are what we may desire to see in the world of imagination, but not always the truth of things in reality. Some knights really upheld this shining ideal. Others were as brutal and cruel as wild animals. Knights were an integral part of old style warfare in various parts of Europe. In reality, good intentions descending into brutality, or even wicked plans sprouting evil deeds and crimes of humanity is what many wars were and are. That is simply the way of it. And knights were part and parcel of that, for good or ill.

But when talking of the ideal knight in story, I want to recreate the ideal of martial perfection, in a moral, sense, at least what that looks like in my own mind. Others’ ideals may look look different. For instance, knighthood will vary in race and ethnic background in my future stories. And, they will travel space.

For some time now I’ve been reading books about the Crusades and about the Templar Knights. The Mazzaroth Society in my books, more pointedly, the martial arm of that society - the Knights of the Northern Star - will be patterned off of them. These knights are a holy order who follow a religion that is a syncretism of Catholicism, Zoroastrianism and Islam, with some elements of Greek mythology. I haven’t worked out all of the kinks in the religious ideas yet. I’m getting there. Two major holy days for them are the celebration of the founding of the old order in 1118 A. D. and the solemn observance of Friday, October 13th, 1307 A. D. .

I wish to clear up any confusion of my thoughts on the many sordid mysteries surrounding the Templar Knights. If you follow Templar Knight lore you have heard all sorts of salacious things about them, most unfounded. One of the things I want to get across is that the Templars I have an interest in are the old Templars, the order that was founded by Hugh de Payens and ended with Jacques de Molay. To me, these are the true Templars and I do not believe that they have any real connection with the modern Templars (other than the name) or with the occult traditions that have obscured who they are and what they did. More on that later. Many of those occult ideas and the lies about them were crafted by their enemies during the trials that led to their destruction in order to discredit them, for reasons of envy and greed. How better to destroy a powerful foe than to destroy their reputation? These lies sprang up again in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from various occult groups as a way to create a false connection to the Templars. I believe such myths romanticize the idea of the knights and by virtue of association, romanticize those who desire to connect their own esoteric traditions to the Templars. I believe the ongoing falsehoods propagated about them stems from the eighteenth century Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge and the Rosicrucians and it could be possible that as time went on the Templars may have held ideas that were not always in agreement with traditional Catholic belief. For instance, there was a time when they admitted heretics within their ranks, such as the Cathars. And many spent their entire lives in the Middle East, called Palestinian Franks by some sources, in cultures steeped in Islam and may have in some instances over time been influenced by Islam in minor ways. But the Esoterica of these modern days have little connection with the Templars of the medieval age.

I think the ideal of the Knight is something that should be brought back into literature and entertainment in general. It doesn’t have to stay in the same form it originated in, (although there is nothing wrong with that) but that martial ideal of a noble man who serves realm, his god(s), his king or queen, the ideal of a shining paladin who is virtuous and has sterling integrity and honor, or works toward it, is something that the culture needs now, especially young men. Strong faith and/or good philosophy as spiritual and psychological meat to feed on is important in culture, in civilization. Courage, daring, virtue. Adventure. These are all needed. There is also a dark side to this paladin persona, though. This must be acknowledged and I intend to explore it. Overweening pride, greed, envy, self-righteousness, harsh judgementalism is that other side. Hypocrisy, too. If the Templars had problems - and lo! they did - it was these sins. No need to fabricate devil-worshiping, gay sex rituals. While I suspect that a few may have participated in homosexual acts, after all, let’s be honest about human nature, some people have a hard time reigning in their impulses, and sexual impulses are powerful, I do not believe that as a whole they regularly participated in these acts. I do believe that they largely kept to a strict Biblical moral code. However, I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for absolute certainty. I can only guess after having read historical books on the subject. In any case, they committed enough serious sins that proved they were fallen, like all other men and women. I won’t explore all of this in this current series because it is mostly centered on our young private eye, Jonas Johnson. But I will touch on some of these in the current series and if I decide to create a series about the knights ( I am thinking about it after the current one) I will delve into these ideas more deeply.

On my reading of the Templars, I found much that delighted me, things that surprised me and things that were very dark in their history. There is enough there that we don’t need to regurgitate scurrilous tales of devilish rites and other salacious stories that have little basis in fact. But there were many valorous deeds they performed as well. It must be said that most knights were illiterate, did not come from wealthy families and went on their missions for reasons of penitence, looking for adventure or because of their sincere love for God and their faith and they took their vows seriously, all the way to the death in battle, and for many, death was their eventual end. They were not Satanists or worshipers of the Baphomet. Actually, the name Baphomet didn’t come into history until the fourteenth century, during the trials of the Templars. It was said that they worshiped this image in secret sex rites. Again, it was used to discredit them in order to seize their property holdings and financial assets and destroy them since they could not be controlled. This destruction was orchestrated by the King of France, Philip the Fair, who was broke, narcissistic and devious, and desired the Templars’ wealth.

This understanding is key. For some, if they cannot control a thing, they will seek to destroy that thing. We see this in family systems, schools, companies and all the way to tyrannical governmental systems. If you look into the research, this Baphomet name is a mispronunciation of the name and the purpose of Muhammad, the foremost prophet of Islam. This confusion of the word and its meaning was mentioned in a chronicle of the First Crusade, in the twelfth century. It was then used as a weapon centuries later. It was a matter of the proverbial game of telephone played to sinister perfection. As information travels further and further away from its original source, the message gets lost in translation. Some today refuse to accept this logic and prefer to swim in scandal and falsehoods. I understand why. Scandal is exciting. Sometimes even romantic, depending on how far away you are from it and what color your perceptive lenses are. No matter. *I* won’t be doing that.

Whatever we may believe of the righteousness (or not) of their cause, they did perform mighty and valorous deeds. One of them was protecting pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem from robbers and murderers. I believe they had other motives as well during their founding but the protection of pilgrims was a noble cause. It must be said that the Muslim side performed their own valorous deeds. Things are not always one-sided. Their beating back the conquest of the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula was one of the greatest feats for Europe; their help in the destruction of Constantinople, another Christian realm, were one of the very darkest deeds in their history. Like with any human organization, there is good and bad.

The Knights of the Northern Star, like their ancient brethren that I will attempt to build a connection to, are noble monks and warriors and their mission echoes the old noble mission of the first Templars; to expand the wisdom of the Father of the Celestial Lights to humanity and to protect traveling pilgrims. My knights especially have an interest in protecting vulnerable people being exploited by governments, corporations and criminal organizations around the solar system as well as pilgrims of any and all sorts, whether they share their faith or not. That’s what Jesus would have done.

A last note: there is also the place called Edessa. A historical place in Templar history in the Middle East. It may figure as a place in future novels, a sort of interstellar “Jerusalem”; a focal point of religious and psychological significance for many powerful forces in the solar system. But that is for the next post.

In the Jonas Johnson novels the knights play a minor part that will increasingly become more important. Look for part 2 soon.