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Tau/Tough carvings on Roslyn Chapel interior. Bottom: Cabalah image of triangle with tetragram-



maton inscribed within, in Roslyn Chapel Museum. Both photographs by Elizabeth Caldwell

Hirschman.

 

trade throughout the world, including images of a kangaroo, pineapple, maize, tobacco

and other wonders.

 

Of course, by the time the Templars arrived, additional Jewish immigrants had already made

their way to Scotland. Recall that in 1290 C.E., King Edward I had ordered all Jews to leave

England, causing many to flee across the border to Scotland and overseas to France and the Low

Countries. Others went underground in England and became Crypto-Jews. It is likely that the

subsequent expulsion and proscription of Jews in the French kingdom (1306) caused families

with hidden Jewish roots to become even more secretive, if they remained, or else to flee in

advance of exposure, as occurred in Nazi Germany. The important Jewish community in Nor-

mandy, still an English possession and not yet part of France, must have been in a particularly

stressful position. At this point, many English and French Jews doubtless joined relatives already

in Scotland. The emigres could not fail to have included those schooled in the mystical strain of

Judaism known as the Cabala, which had been flourishing in Narbonne since the 1100s. As Jews

were harried from one country to the next, Scotland emerged as one of the few safe-havens.

Thus, by the early 1300s, Templars, Jews and Muslims had likely all sought refuge in Scotland.

 

 

Templars, Cabala and Judaism

 

 

Before discussing the Cabala, let us turn to additional testimony concerning the his-

toric reality of the Jews in Scotland. The current claimant to the throne of Scotland and

holder of the title of Prince of Albany, Michael Stewart, has written extensively about

Stuart genealogy and early Scottish history. He discusses the close ties between certain

members of the Catholic hierarchy, specifically St. Bernard, the Templars and the Scot-

tish Celtic Church (p. 32):

 

St. Bernard [a Cistercian monk] had been appointed Patron and Protector of the Knights

Templars at the French “Council of Troyes” in 1128. At that time, he had drawn up the

Order’s Constitution and had since translated the Sacred Geometry of the [Jewish] masons

who built King Solomon’s Jerusalem Temple.... Also in 1128, Saint Bernard’s cousin, Hughes

de Payens, founder and Grand Master of the Templars, met with King David I in Scotland,

and the Order established a seat on the South Esk.... Both David and his sister mere mari-

tally attached to the Flemish House of Boulogne, so there were direct family ties between

David, Hugues de Payens, and the Crusader Kings of Jerusalem....

 

[The Templars’] Jerusalem excavations had... led to other important discoveries, including

some ancient documentation which enabled them to challenge certain Roman Church doc-

trines and New Testament interpretation.... Their documentary discoveries were substantial,

including numerous books from the East, many of which had been salvaged from the burned

library of Alexandria [Egypt], There were ancient Essene works predating Jesus Christ and

volumes from Arabian and Greek philosophers, all of which were destined to be condemned

by the Church. There were also countless works concerning numerology, geometry, architec-

ture and music, along with manuscripts pertaining to metals and alloys. In all, the Templars

returned to Europe with the combined knowledge of thousands of years of study.

 

Thus, by the early 1 100s a substantial amount of Middle Eastern knowledge, learn-

ing and mysticism had been transferred to Scotland. It was little surprise, then, that

the Knights Templar, Jews, and Muslims would have chosen to cooperate in seeking

refuge in Scotland, once they were exiled from Christian countries. Stewart (p. 33) also

writes:

 

Scotland was the perfect haven for the Knights Templar of Jerusalem. The Stewart kings, the

Setons, and the Sinclairs were all hereditary Knights Templar, and Scottish Rite Freemasonry

was later created as a sub-structure of the organization. The hereditary right of the Stewarts

came by virtue of Robert the Bruce having granted the Knights asylum in Scotland. The Sin-

clairs gained their privilege because they had afforded half the Templar Fleet safe anchorage at

Orkney, and the Setons had given valuable financial assistance during the Order’s hour of need.

 

Stewart also traces the origins of the St. Clair/Sinclair family from France to Scot-

land, specifically mentioning their role in the Templar Order (p. 102):

 

One of Scotland’s most prominent families of the early Stewart era was the old Norman fam-

ily of St. Clair, who had arrived in the 11th century, sometime before the Norman Conquest

of England. In 1057, they had received the Barony of Roslin, south of Edinburgh, from Mal-

colm III Canmore.... William Sinclair, [St. Clair] Earl of Caithness and Grand Admiral of

Scotland, was appointed Hereditary Patron and Protector of the Scottish Masons by King

James in 1441....

 

The masons of William Sinclair were not the speculative freemasons that we know today,

but operative stonemasons privy to the Sacred Geometry held by the Knights Templar.

Because of this, William was enabled to build the now famous Rosslyn Chapel; the overall

work, with its abundance of intricate carvings, was begun in about 1446. In 1475 a Charter

... was ratified, and Rosslyn became known as “Lodge Number One” in Edinburgh. The

magnificent Chapel — still used by Knights Templar of the Scottish Grand Priory, and by the

Scottish Episcopal Church — stands above the Esk Valley, near the original Templar center at

Ballantradoch (House of the Warrior).

 

Stewart (p. 117) continues:

 

In respect of the Masonic patronage granted to Sir William Sinclair in 1475, ... there were

trade and craft Guilds in Scotland at that time.... King James III had granted numerous

Charters in Edinburgh that year, as did his successors thereafter:

 

 

Date

Guild

Chartered

1475

 

Weavers, Cordwainers (leatherworkers and shoemakers),

Wrights (artificers and metalworkers), Masons (stone-

workers and builders), Bowyers (bow-makers), Glaziers,

Upholsterers, Painters, Slaters, Sievewrights (sieve- and

basket-makers), Coopers (barrel-makers)

 

James III

1483

Hammermen (blacksmiths, goldsmiths, saddlers, cutlers

and armourers), Fleshers (butchers)

 

James III

1500

Wakers (clothiers and millers)

 

James IV

1505

Surgeons, Barbers

 

James IV

1530

Bakers, Bonnet-makers

 

James V

1581

Goldsmiths (separated from Hammermen)

 

James VI

1586

Skinners

 

James VI

1635

Post Office

 

Charles I

1640

Dyers (incorporated with Bonnet-makers)

 

Charles I

1672

Hatters (incorporated with Wakers)

 

Charles II

1681

Merchant Company

 

From the ranks of the newly created, operative Guilds, the Knights Templars selected certain

members who were keen to extend their minds to matters of science, geometry, history and

philosophy, as detailed in the ancient manuscripts which the original Order had brought out

of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.... Scotland became a beacon of enlightenment. The new

brotherhood of “Free” Masons supported their less fortunate neighbours, and their respec-

tive Guilds set money aside for the poorer members of society, thereby beginning the estab-

lishment of charitable organizations in Britain. 9 King James VI became a speculative

Freemason at the Lodge of Perth and Scone in 1601, and on becoming James I of England

two years later, he introduced the concept south of the Border.

 

Stewart further reports that the Scottish Guilds were given access to the Templar

banking system, which enabled them to construct and maintain their international trade

network. Aberdeen, with its very broad-based trade channels, founded Freemason Guilds

on the French model in 1361, according to Stewart (p. 117-118):

 

[Further, ] quite apart from the Guilds, the Knights also received lay-people into their allied

confraternities and, for a small annual subscription of a few pence, men and women alike were

afforded numerous privileges by way of personal and family support in times of need. This

was, in fact, the beginning of the insurance and life assurance industry, and it is the reason why

so many of today’s leading British underwriting institutions emanated from Scotland.

 

 

The Cabala

 

We will close this chapter with a section designed to segue between what has been

presented about the Templars and what will be covered in chapter 9, on Aberdeen and

northeast Scotland. This has to do with a branch of Judaism termed the Cabala. The

Cabala originated in the Holy Land around 70 C.E. and incorporated Judaic religious

ideas together with geometric principles developed much earlier, very likely at the time

of the building of the pyramids of Egypt. The same architectural and mathematical prin-

ciples were applied to the construction of the Temple of Solomon in Israel.

 

As we shall see, the theorems behind both the pyramids and the First Temple are

based on the discovery of pi, phi, a number of Pythagorean theorems, and other geo-

metric principles emanating from Eastern learning. They are not magical or mystical,

per se. Yet, to the human minds capable of grasping them, they must have seemed God-

given and divinely- inspired. Their perfection, symmetry and consistency would have

produced awe and amazement among those gifted enough to comprehend and use them.

This same set of mathematical principles also had enormous pragmatic utility in fields

as diverse as astronomy, architecture, navigation and land measurement. Because of the

precious intellectual capital they represented, these- geometric theorems were closely

guarded, shared only among a select group of Middle Eastern cognoscenti.

 

The Templars embraced this body of knowledge eagerly, more particularly since it

had been the subject of earlier philosophical, scientific and religious speculation in Greece,

Rome and Moorish Spain, and it became one of the spoils of conquest when they seized

control of the ancient civilizations of the East. In medieval Palestine, the principles had

been combined with a mystical numerical system which assigned each letter in the Hebrew

alphabet to a number or digit. By recasting Torah texts as numerical sequences, the Jews

created elaborate mathematical metaphors that were used to give additional levels of

meaning and correspondences to their sacred scripture. In the Diaspora after 100 c.E.,

these notions were elaborated and embroidered in Cabalistic centers of learning, first in

Provence in southern France, then in Spain, and by the 1500s, cycling back to the Holy

Land and other Levantine centers such as Alexandria, Istanbul and Salonica.

 

As Benbassa (1999, p. 38) notes, the spread of Cabalistic doctrines occurred within

the larger context of the cross-translation of important philosophical and scientific trea-

tises in the Mediterranean area:

 

The [French-Jewish] Kimhi and Ibn Tibbon families distinguished themselves in the domain

of translation. In the one, Joseph Kimhi (1105-70) and his son David ( 1 160? — 1 235), and in

the other, Judah ibn Tibbon (1120-90) and his son Samuel (1150-1230), translated the great

classics of Judeo-Arabic thought from Arabic into Hebrew, including the works of Saadya

Gaon (882-942), Ibn Gabiron (10201-1057? ), Judah Halevi (before 1075-1141), and Bahya

ibn Pakuda (second half of the eleventh century).... They also devoted themselves to the

translation of Greek and Arabic scientific works, particularly in medicine. The texts of the

Muslim physician, philosopher, and mystic Avicenna (980-1037) and, especially, of the

philosopher Averroes (1126-98) were translated from Arabic into Hebrew. 10 Spanish Jews

trained in their homeland in Arabic astronomy brought it with them to Provence; some

invented astronomical instruments, others translated works from Latin.... Samuel ibn Tib-

bon produced a translation of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed (1200) that appeared

before the author’s death in 1204.... Indeed, Provence was also the homeland of Levi ben

Gershom, commonly known as Gersonides (1288-1344).... At once a philosopher and the-

ologian, commentator on Averroes and biblical exegete, talmudist, mathematician and logi-

cian, he was also the inventor of an astronomical instrument....

 

Provence, land of philosophy, was also a land of mysticism. It is there that the Sefer-ha-

Bahir (Book of Brightness), the first document of theosophic kabbalism, was compiled on

the basis of oriental sources between 1150 and 1200.... Abrah ben Isaac, president of the rab-

binical court of Narbonne (d. 1180), and especially Isaac the Blind ( 1 160? — 1235) — grandson

of Abraham ben Isaac... developed a contemplative mysticism. Born in Provence and along

the coast of Languedoc, the kabbalah was rapidly transplanted to Catalonia, which main- tained close political and cultural ties with these regions.

 

The earliest known mention of the Cabala comes from the first century of the Com-

mon Era, in Judea. Here, four of the classical texts were written: (1) Heikalot Books, (2)

Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation), (3) the Zohar (Book of Splendor), and (4) the Bahir

(Book of Brilliance) (Bernstein 1984). The Heikalot Books are based on the biblical Book

of Ezekial, which uses the Throne of Glory and the Heavenly Chariot (Merkabah) as cen-

tral symbolic devices. The Book of Ezekial and the Book of Genesis both were popular

religious texts within Judea from 538 b.c.e. to 70 C.E., that is, during the Second Temple

period. Commonly, the wheels of the heavenly chariot are drawn to incorporate the

Pythagorean theorem; metaphorically, this means that mathematical wisdom could raise

mankind to a perfected state (Bernstein 1984).

 

The Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation) is the oldest non-Biblical treatise of

Judaism, having been written down in the second century (Bernstein 1984). This book

develops the theme of the ten Sephiroth or primordial numbers and the 22 letters of the

Hebrew alphabet. Some of its main images are the ladder of wisdom, with each step lead-

ing to a higher level of knowledge, and the tree of life, which combines aspects of the

ladder going upward from Earth to Heaven with the additional symbolism of “above

ground tree, below ground roots, ” or, “As Above, So Below.” 11 The tree metaphor posits

that activities on Earth are reflections of actions in Heaven. An important theme through-

 

Tau

 

Sign of the cross

 

out is the perfectibility of the world through human endeavor, often expressed in Judaic

tradition as Tikkun Olam (“perfecting the universe”).

 

The Zohar (Book of Splendor) is a collection of many different writings on various

religious topics. Possibly authored by Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai (160 c.E.), it is the most

influential of the Cabalistic writings. It was first published in its entirety by Rabbi Moses

de Leon of Guadalajara, Spain, around 1290 C.E. (Bernstein 1984). Rabbi Simeon was

known as “the Sacred Light, ” and we see this name carried forward to the Saint Clair/ Sin-

clair /Sanctus Clarus family of France and Scotland. Further, we will find in Aberdeen

many persons having the surname of Norrie/Noory/Nory/Norris, which is Arabic for

“light” or “illumination.” The Zohar proposes that the Torah is actually a series of numer-

ical codes that reveal a much deeper level of divine meaning than the “surface” letters,

words and stories.

 

The Bahir (Book of Brilliance) was also produced in the early Talmudic period (ca.

100 C.E.) and almost lost as a text, only to reappear in Provence, France, during the 1200s.

The Bahir introduces metaphors of reincarnation and the masculine-feminine nature of

God. The Jewish scholar most closely associated with the tradition of the Bahir is Rabbi


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