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1159. COIMBRA. THE KING OF PORTUGAL’S DESK, PART II . . .

The Iberian word for horse is caballo, and in Portuguese, cavalo. From cavalo comes cavar, “to dig below the surface,” precisely what one must do to understand the secret knowledge contained in esoteric teachings such as the Ka-Ba-Allah (spirit-body of God).

Every gnostic sect and secret society has promulgated its knowledge through the cunning use of allegory, metaphor, and symbol. In a world of corrupt clergymen and kings, it has proven to be the safest method of transmitting important concepts and for initiates to exchange signals with one another. In this respect the Templars were no different; they even developed a complex cipher in Latin.¹ In their monuments, seals, and talismans, a symbolic language lies encoded. It is a timeless language, and as such, it cannot be scoured by time. But to anyone immersed in the Mysteries it can be as easy to unravel as a nursery rhyme.

The most famous of Templar talismans is the symbol with which they are so readily identified: the two knights riding a horse. In mythology the horse is synonymous with knowledge, specifically sacred knowledge. Even in scripture, when God wishes to disclose information to humanity, It typically dispatches an archangel mounted on a horse.

The horse’s counterpart in the Middle East is the sphinx, and legends claim it sits protecting a hall of records, the repository of all knowledge. So when two Templar knights ride the one horse they personify not just the two levels of initiate within the Order, they also represent the complementary forces of light and dark, and it is the balance between the two that steers the knowledge on its intended and correct course.

The word talisman comes from the Arabic tilsam and means “complete religious rite,” denoting an object or symbol that is imbued with magical properties. In order to understand the power of such magic it is important to first understand how the magic taught in esoteric schools is a science the cynical mind finds hard to accept because its roots have been corrupted through Victorian parlor trickery, the might of religion, the zealots of science, and of course, that Lucifer of the modern world, popular television. But it was not always so. Even in the seventeenth century, magic was administered every day in the form of medicine. Many accounts survive of notable figureheads being given amulets or prescribed remedies during illness or plague that today seem unpalatable. A ring given to Queen Elizabeth I by her physician to protect her from the plague, or the three spiders worn by Elias Ashmole to counteract the ague, or the hare foot worn by Samuel Pepys as a cure for colic all demonstrate how there was no distinction between natural remedies and symbolic magic. Yet when such remedies are analyzed from a chemist’s point of view they reveal how natural elements in what appear to be unusual potions contain ingredients that prevent the types of illness for which the “remedies” were prescribed. Thus, “magic” was no more than a thorough understanding and application of natural laws.²

When enlightened kings and queens wished for their word or law to carry special favor they often would sprinkle herbs on the page prior to signing their names.³ The herb may or may not have carried power in itself, but its properties would correspond with the intention of the message. In other words, the properties of the herb would help the monarch focus and amplify his or her intent on the written page.

Likewise, an accompanying seal would be designed using a specific geometry or cryptogram that was emblematic of the ruler’s message or will.

This belief in the effective utility of any object, remedy, or geometry stemmed from ancient systems of observation and classification that noted the existence of correspondences and analogies occurring in all cycles of the natural world. Before industry and cold, hard logic separated human common sense from its god-given intuitive abilities, people observed and experienced life directly. Aboriginal cultures can still walk a barren desert by seeing or feeling the Earth’s telluric currents and travel along them to reach an intended destination.⁴ When one possesses such a degree of connection with his or her environment, it is possible to readily discern nature on a very subtle level, it is possible to deduce correspondences and interactions taking place all around. And armed with millennia of experience handed down orally or through tradition and teaching, it is possible to overcome problems on a physical level through the application of an alchemy based on natural forces.

This is magic. Only when a society loses the underlying understanding of a concept does one person’s science and magic become another’s ridicule and superstition.⁵

An important talisman for the Knights Templar was the octagon, the geometric blueprint behind their logo, their churches, and their temples.

For King Afonso Henriques it was also the design of the royal seal he was about to place on the charter of Ceras, for it would invest in Gualdino Paes the power to erect the mother church of the Templars, rebuild the town of Thamara, and consecrate an unusual round church above it.