| The Portugal Code |
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| by Gina Modesto |
 The Knights Templar was one of the most famous of the Christian military orders. It was created to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest. Tales say that these knights also protected the Graal, the great treasure of humanity. They have suddenly disappeared on 14th century, vanished by the Church. Did you know Portugal was a new homeland for all the knights that have run away? Did you know they have helped Portuguese with their knowledge of nautical and astrology? Well, maybe the secret of Holy Graal was also in Portugal. Maybe the Knight Templar has left us a new mystery to solve. Actually, they have changed our way of seeing the world… We navigated around the world. Related to the tradition of the Knight Templars there is another secret order– The Rosicrucian Order.
There is no doubt that some very important Portuguese names were part of that order. Why? Well, maybe someone has known previously what was about to happen in Portugal, what we were about to find around the world. We were the first crossing the oceans, this might mean something. Maybe we were blessed by God,… or blessed by the magic of Graal which teach us to go in demand of something never seen before.
 The Knights Templars order was founded around 1118 by French knights Hughes de Payens, a veteran of the First Crusade, and Godfrey de St Omer for the protection of pilgrims on the road from Jaffa and Jerusalem. At first, the knights, being nine in number, relied on gifts and cast-offs. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem gave them a headquarters on the Temple Mount, above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. It was from this location that the Order took its name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon.
The Order grew rapidly because of support from key church leaders such as Bernard de Clairvaux, and was exempt from all authority except that of the Pope. Because of this official sanction, the order received massive donations of money, land, and noble-born sons from families across Europe, who were encouraged to donate support as their way of assisting with the fight in the Holy Land. Templar Knights also fought alongside King Louis VII of France, King Richard I of England, and in battles in Spain and Portugal.
Though the primary mission of the Order was a military one, only a small percentage of its members were actually at the front lines, while many others were involved in developing a financial infrastructure to support the warrior branch. The Order also innovated ways of generating letters of credit for pilgrims who were journeying to the Holy Land, which involved pilgrims depositing their valuables with the Order before setting off on the journey.
At any time, each knight had some ten people in support positions. Some brothers were devoted only to banking, as the Order was often trusted with the safekeeping of precious goods by participants in the Crusades; but the primary mission of the Knights Templar was warfare.
Initiation into the Order was a profound commitment, and involved a secret ceremony. Few details of the rituals were known at the time, fuelling the suspicions of medieval inquisitors, but initiates, at least in the early days of the Order, had to be of noble birth, of legitimate heritage, and had to be willing to sign over all of their wealth and goods to the Order. Joining the Order required vows of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience. For the warriors of the Order, there was a cardinal rule of never surrendering. This fearless uncompromising nature of the Templars, along with excellent training and heavy armament, made them a feared and elite fighting force in medieval times.
After Jerusalem was lost to Saladin in the late 1100s, the Crusades gradually wound down, and European support for the Order began to falter. In the early 1300s, a financial dispute with King Philip IV of France contributed to the official disbandment of the Order. On Friday, October 13th of 1307, Philip had hundreds of French Templars simultaneously arrested, charged with over 100 crimes, and tortured by Inquisitors until they "confessed". In 1312, under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V officially disbanded the Order at the Council of Vienne, and in 1314 the remaining leaders were burned at the stake in Paris.
Templars around Europe were either arrested, absorbed into other organizations such as the Order of Christ and Knights Hospitaller, or fled to other territories outside of Papal control such as excommunicated Scotland. But questions still remain as to what happened to the thousands of Templars across Europe, or to the entire fleet of Templar ships which vanished from La Rochelle on October 13th of 1307.
In 1128 some Knights Templar came already to Portugal. One of the places that become their new home was the Castel of Soure. The Knights Templar helped Portugal to get free of the Mouros, who wanted to conquer the country. They fought the Mouros and after that they stayed in the Castle around Coimbra. The castle was in the middle of a plane land, it was a medieval castle, with a rectangular plant and four towers. It was supposed to be a refuge and a residence for the knights.
Were some Knights Templar members of the Rosicrucian Order? Some ideals are in touch.
 The Rosicrucian Order is a legendary and secretive Order publicly documented in the early 17th century. The Rosicrucian greeting is, "May the Roses bloom upon your Cross." In this 17th century three Rosicrucian Manifestos were anonymously published: Fama Fraternitas in 1614, Confessio Fraternitas in 1615 and the Chymical Weddind of Christian Rosenkreutz in 1616. These documents, full of symbolism, have been interpreted in various ways throughout the centuries. They do not directly state Christian Rosenkreuz's years of birth and death, but in two ingenious sentences in the Second Manifesto the year 1378 is presented as being the birth year of "our Christian Father", and it is stated that they could describe the 106 years of his life, which would imply the year 1484 for his death. The foundation of the Order can be deduced in similar terms as having occurred in the year 1407.
The founder of the Order of the Rose-Croix belonged, as affirmed by historians, to a noble family, but there is no document that allows us to confirm this. However, it is certain that he was an orientalist and a great traveller.
It is on the foundation of these teachings that Rosenkreuz conceived the plan for simultaneous and universal religious, philosophic, scientific, political, and artistic reform. For the realization of this plan, he united with several disciples (seven at first, according to Fama Fraternitatis), to whom he gave the name of Rose-Croix.
What was known in the early 17th century as the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" seems to have been a number of isolated individuals who held certain views in common, which apparently was their only bond of union. These views were regarding hermetic knowledge, related to the higher nature of man, and also with common philosophical conceptions towards the foundation of a more perfected human society. Their writings included a hint of mysticism or occultism, promoting inquiry and suggesting hidden meanings discernible or discoverable only by "Adepts".
 Around 1530, more than eighty years before the publication of the first manifesto, documented evidence of the cross and the rose already existed in Portugal in the Convent of the Order of Christ, home of the Knights Templar, which later was renamed Order of Christ. Three bocetes were, and still are, on the abóboda of the initiations' room. In these cases, the rose can clearly be seen at the center of the cross. At the same time, a minor writing by Paracelsus called Prognosticatio Eximii Doctoris Paracelsi (1530) contained the image of a double cross over an open rose, along with a written reference to it.
The alchemy in the laboratory, where the ultimate goal was understanding of the laws of Nature in order to aid the individual's quest for perfection, recalls another type of alchemy, the one called spiritual. The true alchemists, or philosophers of the fire, often make reference in their works to the blowers, meaning all those who were just interested the creation of gold and the material aspects of alchemy.
In the point of view of the Spiritual Alchemy, the materia prima is the human soul. The laboratory is the human existence during which the soul has the possibility of accomplishing the learning needed to perfect itself. A large majority of modern Rosicrucians believe in the study of Spiritual Astrology as a key to the Spirit, designed toward spiritual development and self-knowledge, as well as an aid to healing through Astro-Diagnosis.
Occultists also point out that many of the works of William Shakespeare, the music-dramas of Wagner, Goethe’s Faust, Dante´s Divine Comedy or Camoe´s epic Lusiads, and a few other books of comparable rank, are designed for esoteric as well as exoteric reading.
And we can’t forget the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. He is now sat in the center of Lisbon. Actually, you can go to Baixa-Chiado and in front of Brasileira (one of the most old Coffee’s Houses in Lisbon) it is the statue of Fernando Pessoa. You can sit and drink a coffer with him. He has great stories to tell. He says that “Portuguese are going to leave, searching for a new India that does not exist in space, in vessels that are made of dream’s stuff.” He talks about a Fifth Empire for Portugal, a place for this spirituals dream, where will see the connection between the knowledge of science, the knowledge of the occult and the intuition. Maybe the Portuguese will find the connection between the science and the religion, a brand new world. After all we have found a new world before.
Walk in Belem and you will see what Camoes really meant when he said that Portuguese could reach the most hidden corner of the world. It is famous as the place from which the great Portuguese explorers set off on their voyages of discovery. In particular, it is the place from which Vasco da Gama departed for India in 1497. Perhaps Belém's most famous feature is its tower, Torre de Belém, whose image is much used by Lisbon's tourist board. The tower was built as a fortified lighthouse late in the reign of Dom Manuel to guard the entrance to the port at Belém.
Belém's most notable modern feature is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries). It was built in 1960 to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the death of Henry The Navigator. The monument is carved into the shape of the prow of a ship in which stand statues of various explorers, as well as a statue of Henry himself. Adjacent to the monument is a square into whose surface is set a map showing the routes of various Portuguese explorers.
Belém's main street is Rua de Belém, in which there is a 160-year-old pastry shop, at which can be purchased one of the famous pastel de Belém, a custard tart made with flaky pastry. Enter this pastry and try one with sugar and cinnamon. Then you can go down this street, look to the river… and you will realize the beginning and the end of everything. Imagine the tower waiting for the boats, the families waiting for their men to come… Those times were for dangerous journeys to discover the most unknown world. This world was the Graal for Portuguese Navigators. We believe that the Knights Templar taught us this so important lesson.
source: wikipedia.com |
