(11-29-2023, 01:14 AM)guyfriday Wrote: One of the accusations made against the Knights Templars was the issue of idolatry. In the case of the Templars the idol was a head or skull, depending on which source you read from. Now for a little bit of a disclaimer.
 
For the context of this thread, we will make a few assumptions:
 
(1) The human body and the soul are two separate things in which the body is a physical vessel for the metaphysical soul to inhabit.
 
(2) The body and soul can be operated without each other.
 
(3) The soul can be encased in other objects.
 
There is this device called an “Oracles’ Head”. The most famous of these is the supposed existence of Roger Bacon’s Brazen Head which he used to divine events and outcomes of choices he postulated to it. Other people who reportedly had one of these heads were; Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Johann Georg Faust (yes that same Faust, but the real historical person no the character in the play) and Albertus Magnus.
 
The notion that the Knights Templar could have had one of these Oracles’ Heads would explain many of the odd stories of how they were able to escape with their treasure ships during the French Kings persecutions and how they were able to flee their castle along the French/Spanish boarder at the time.
 
Sure, some of the Templars were captured, but most went underground. It can be speculated that those captured (even Molay the head of the organization) didn’t have the head in their possession at the time.
 
This head was both defined as being the head of John the Baptist and/or Baphomet, and even charges of it being the Jewish god Moloch. What if it wasn’t any of these but instead it was a head shaped idol or even the real skull of a Templar founder, French knight Hugues de Payens. Necromancy has, throughout history, was a way to learn about events from both the past and the future. It was believed that the dead lived outside of time and could give these points of view as advisories to the living.
 
Now this wouldn’t excuse the Templars from the accusations of idol worship, but it would possibly excuse them for having use of it. One wouldn’t have to worship the head only have accessible position of it in order to benefit from its creation.
 
Oh, how could have been created? When the first Knights took to a encampment on the Temple Mount in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque and started doing treasure digs at the site. They might have come across scrolls/documents about esoteric matters such as magic and relic crafting. Then when their leadership was near death, they might have removed the Knights soul and encased it in an idol or skull of a fallen Knight.
 
So, I’ll end this thread opener with the notion that could these talking heads that the Templars have been accused of worshipping had just been Oracles’ Heads, and if so, where did they end up? The Vatican, The French Monarchy, Switzerland where some of the French Templars fled from, or somewhere else?

(11-29-2023, 06:47 AM)DISRAELI Wrote: Another possibility is that the concept came directly from the imaginations of the interrogators, inspired by the other stories.

"Baphomet" is a fairly obvious mispronunciation of "Mahomet". All these stories were being built up on a combination of misunderstanding and malice.