I've forgotten how much Granny told me until I had to jog it from my memory.
Remember when I told you the approx. date of 1100 C.E. being important. Well according to oral tradition in my family, a male member of the family (tradition says that his name was Miguel) who had some land and holdings and no wife, nor wanted one, decided for some reason to join the Knight Templar.
Now I could go into a long tale about them, but there are sites on the Web that explain it better and in much more detail. What they were, were knights who were soldiers who saw to the safty of the pilgrims to Palestine, and because they were suppose to take vows of poverty, anything they had would be given over to the order and in turn they would receive the basics for living.
Because the order its self was suppose to be poor, but they also had to have means of providing places for the pilgrims to rest and different bases of operation, the moneys and properties that was given to the order was inturn re-invested for the good of the order.
In short the Knight Templar started what was the basis of the banking system.
What Miguel did was sell his lands back to the family because they were suppose to have been connected to other family lands--this was down near the Algarve. And then he took the money and joined the Order of the Knights Templar and gave all his money to them. Our oral tradition is not clear if he was a knight or in a service aspect of the order, it is definite that he did join them.
And even though he was suppose to be in the service of god and not really have contact with family for some reson he was able to. He had some learning (reading and writing) and was able from time to time be in contact with the family until his death some few years later.
He was our first but tentative connection to the Templars and in fact in the 1300’s when the Templars were being hunted to death in most European countries, in Portugual they were safe but changed their name to the Order of St. John or Knight’s Hospitlars.
Now I also mentioned the Black Death, and rebellions.
Events in the past had very powerful effects on our existance in the present--this is part of it.
Well for sometime many things existed almost side by side, but as time was moving forward and the Christian church was gaining power, things were slowly changing, and indeed if certain events had not happened when they did, much of the Goddess materials would have continued to exist side by side with the Christian faction and either one or the other would have slowly asorbed the other if it were not for these events.
Richard II Planangent of England,
Knights Templar
King Philip of France
The Peasants revolt
The Black Death or Plague
The Cathars and Abssigians
Over the next 200 years things were slowly coming to a head, what was the match that burned the fuse that caused the explosion was The Black Death also know as the Plague.
The Plague caused death by the hundreds of thousands all over Europe, there was barly one place that was not in someway untouched.
The Christian church pleaded with the people that this was a sign from God for their sinfull ways but the people had other ideas and turned against the church and even the government, there was also in place the feudal system which was becoming very taxing to the peasant they no longer had rights of their own so with the plague the peasants realized that they held much power and were going to burn everything in sight.
This was especially felt in England and there they were on their way to destroy London except for one thing~~~a 14 year old Boy King--Richard the 2nd~~
It had long be recognized that the Plantanget family were the heads of the goddess religion in England and that the young king was one of the last heads of the group, he rode alone on horseback and pleaded with the peasants to return home and that he would see to it that they would have reforms~~he meant well~~~
Unfortunately when he got back his council of elders had other ideas and did not hold up his end of the bargain and began a systematic purging of those rebellious elements along with the church under the guise of heresy, for under heresies lands and properties could be confiscated.
In essence the power of the Plantanget kings as the leaders of the ancient pagan religion was now being destroyed by the increasing powerful christian church.
The Cathars were a Christian group but with strong goddess over tones and had in their possesson original gospels from the two Marys and family members of Jesus that taught equality and reincarnation and everything that the now Catholic and Orthodox church (there was a schism a few hundred years before) denys.
And they were also gaining new members much to the church and governments displeasure---The followers of Aradia in Italy were much of they same thing but if you read the gospel of Aradia by Leland there is much political overtones heavily mixed in with the teaching which in my opinon almost negates it's trueness.
If however, one deletes the political overtones in the gospel and also it's sometimes incoherent gibberish and Lelands romantism one can see the origins of the goddess beliefs as it had survived in remote parts of Italy.
The Cathars were also weathly, so with charges of heresy and the backing of the governments this group was destroyed and their manuscripts either confiscated by the church or destroyed and their properties --well we know what happens to that.
But in some cases some members of the Cathars were able to smuggel out copies of these gospels and are still in existance today even though they are not in any way acknowledged by any Christian group.
Now by the 1300 hundreds the Knights Templar had much monitory and political power and would make loans to kings and governments and Philip of France was not a happy camper.
He owed the Templars a huge sum of money with interest and the Templars were calling the loan, as a matter of fact the Templars refused to finance Philip anymore for some of his political ventures.
The church also at that time was concerned about the Templars, for it seemed that they were not following the guide lines of the church. In truth the Templars were following the guide lines of not only the known Bible, but they were also able to access important information that talked about the power of the mind and what had really happend some 1300 years before.
And they had something else that proved to them the power of one of the great avatars something they were willing to die for to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands~~some people called it a head that talked, some people said that it was the veil of Veronica who wiped the brow of Jesus as he was on his way to Golgatha and left the imprint of his face on it~~legend has it that if you stared at the face on the veil the eyes would open and the face would speak.
Some claimed that it might have been the lost crown of King Solomon. What it was was not really known except that the Templars were willing to die for it. And to under go rigerous training so that they would not crack under torture should they be captured by any enemy.
Granny told me this and I was only 12 at the time, that another family member had joined the Templars about the 1350's some 150 years after the first male family member joined, and since there was supposedly some record of the first one joining among Templar records this second family member, was able to do the same thing and was able to enter the order.
Eventurall by means of communication to his family in Portugual told them much information that was taught to him in the order. This information was relayed to different family members orally and it was this information that eventually Granny told me.
But he also told the family that the greatest treasure of the Templars was not a head or veil but a long piece of cloth that showed a man crucified.
During the persecution of the Templars one of the templars was given the cloth for safe keeping and under disguse, he returned with it to his family and they inturn donated to a church in Italy
Granny would alway get excited about this and every time she talked about it, even years later as my mother and I followed the scientist in their article debate about the truth of this piece of cloth~~~she (Granny) told me "let them not believe but the Goddess showed her power and it's there it shows the sacrifice of her son and it is so, but many will lie or not believe but it is so".
The reason for this is that the Templars knew that something was in the wind and started to hide and salt away their treasures including manuscripts that were found that talked of the Goddess, and were part of the Templars teachings which they had brought with them from Palestine.
Part of the Templars seal includes the cresent moon of the Goddess which hints at the goddess beliefs within the Templar literature.
So Philip and the pope at that time declared the Templars as heretics and under that charge and only that charge could the Templars properties and Moneys be confiscated. All because Philip didn't want to pay his loan.
One of the few places that did not agree with those charges of heresy was Portugual and Scotland. There the Templars were safe but by this time they hid their treasures and members transferred their vows to other Knight Monistaries.
This family member returned to Portugaul from France and supposedly re-joined the family long enough to tell the family members all that transpired and about some of the Templar teachings before entering another monestary.
But with all these events happening on the heels of one another, the church and indeed the political governments became concered of rebellion and so began what is called now a days "The Burning Times" Anything that hinted of difference or equality of women of knowledge that was not part of the establishment was good enough to be condemned to the fire.
So with this my families trad was warned by this remote monkish former family member and they relized that they had to do something to protect themselves and their ways.
Granny told me that a major gathering was held under the pretext of a marriage celebration that was going to be held near harvest time. And it was there that it was discussed what to do to protect ourselves and our traditions.
Please be patient with me it will all come together in the next couple of sections,well I did warn you it was going to be a long read
.Follow this to the next link~~~HISTORY OF MY TRADITION PART 6
