Bornholm, Gotland and the Hanseatic League

On the Island of Bornholm near Denmark in Scandinavia are found the Burgundian Templar Churches with a virtual study in sacred euclidian geometry in orientation. Check out the book The Templars Secret Island by Haagensen and decide for yourself. At the very least the whole number system of measurement useful for our ancient brethren, at the back of the book is vital. The round churches are Templar design, very similar to the Newport Tower Rhode Island, and it is known that the island was named Burgunderland and is tied to the Templar story in France. Also found their was a cache of golden medallions with long haired kings depicted on them. Maybe you saw a bit of the History Channels "Holy Grail In America" film about the Kensington Rune stone. It leads to the book by Scott Wolter "The Hooked X". Supposing that a land quest party searching for a new foundation west of Vinland with an educated Gotland Cistercian monk, did get to the midwest of north america via the great lakes or the Hudson Bay. Edgar Cayce certainly suggests that Norrmen got all the way to Montana. These runes tell a tale and the author has well refuted all arguements against the Kensington Stones authenticity, at the very least. With Stone holes and the Sinclair voyage and the Newport Tower, with winter solstice alignment at the egg/keystone and Bornholm measurement system, your gonna enjoy it. One begins to see the logic of a Templar island strongholds in the Baltic Sea, between the Teutonic Knights and the empowered Hanseatic league out of Germany, at Bornhom and at Gotaland, whose standard by the way is a lamb bleeding into the Holy Graal. The tie between the Hanse associations and Masonry has been speculated upon and also the knights power to protect the rights of the craftsman within their strongholds. If the Hooked x is part of the Easter Table, secret dating table and we find it on Columbus sigla 80 years later. One has to consider that the Knights of Christ from Tomar would have the Gotaland Cistercian nordic mapping for their trip. Combine that with the Greek/Arabic/Jewish astolabes in the learned cartographer centers of Spain and Portugal, and you have fine potentials for navigation. Scott Wolter puts this together nicely, check out the Utube lecture Scott Wolter-1 through 7. No way a voyage with that much clout didn't have the best mapping. The whole new world exploration may have been promulgated because of the Cistercian connections in medieval Europe. So just like the secret/sacred geometry of Gothic architecture, from Gotaland, we have runes and triple dating using the secret easter tables, viking sagas and advanced astrolabes leading to the new world from Portugal and Spain, with the Knights of Christ, with templar masts, and Columbus sigla and reaching back further to the round templar structures at Newport with its Orphic Egg pointing to a New Jerusalem in good old Minnesota. The adaptation of Christianity was well along in Scandinavia by this time and no doubt the Charters of the Knights helped to sate the adventurous spirit of the Normen.

Another Brick in the Wall, Another Link in the Chain

Thats the famous Pink Floyd lyric, and of course masons know it from the Apostle Paul's letters. Another stone in the wall of that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Pink Floyd suggested that we become JUST another brick in the wall. Well I love Pink Floyd, but in this world, when men freely choose to be a brick in the wall, it's not usually because of worldly fear or reward or of being fooled by the system, nor is he easily put off by the thought that there may be some that basely gain by his action. Most often it is because of the force of his moral code of service to others. The Marines leave no man behind, imagine the bond that must create. They face death in order to gather up a fallen brother. Freemasons look to the unbroken chain, that chain which reaches back in Brotherhood into the past, and the chain is not complete until that new mason is brought to it. Every new mason is the northeast corner stone, that building to be started aright requires him being squared away first

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The Law of Confusion

Also known as the Law of Freewill, it is said to be a governing principle of this veiled reality, a status said to be watched over and protected by many. The Seeker/Hierophant spends some time finding suitable answers to the big questions, often they are the answers that were given in youth, but the reasons why they are true just aren't adequately laid out. Confusion is noted in hindsight, when the full measure of learning has been accomplished. And once the individuals truth is formulated, the intentions will be undertaken. Or sadly one can take ones eye off the proverbial ball and never find ones intended path, wind up in neutral and sit on the fence, or reverse course in the incarnation and move toward the opposite polarity.
They say that it is the Logos' Plan, that we should seek in relative darkness, in order to appreciate the Light. Were it not for this veil of confusion, Importantly, the Plan wouldn't afford the accelerated Soul advancement that this polarized freewill plane/density offers. We wouldn't know the spectrum of suffering and sorrow nor joys and teach/learning which freewill and hence duality provides. Nor would we know Faith, since Diety would be obvious, nor the dharmic and karmic struggle, nor the choice of service/polarity, of which principle to serve, the selfish or selfless dynamic, on which the souls grade is supposedly determined, after many incarnations.
So we must find our own answers that ring true. Those accepted and freely chosen, as with faith, as absolute proof of Diety is unavailable. The leap of faith can occur in this environment. Like the Fool tarot card, stepping off into the abyss, we anchor our beliefs on a principle which apparently has little reward here, while the material polarized world often highly rewards self service. So the Soul makes sense of the confusion and chooses a direction. One path can lead at Harvest to the Adversary, That Which is Not, the dark pyramid of enslavement and power over others, while another path leads to the Collective of freely chosen understanding. The third and well trodden path is of indifference, that of having to repeat the grade because of not having met the high threshold required to advance beyond the Choice Density. This is similar to the separation of wheat from chaff, though in the course of time eventually we all advance/return to the Infinite Creator. Is there anything else?
So this is a version of the Law of Confusion, aka freewill, where the Choice is made, the choice which then empowers the will, which tempers the metal of the soul, in the fire of catalyst. Thanks for the opportunity to share this viewpoint.

The Geometry of the Flower of Life

It is found in the Osirian Temple in Egypt, perhaps the oldest of tombs discovered deep underground. Interestingly the geometric design is burned into the pillar by a technique which today we could not emulate, nor obviously could the ancient Egyptians. The flower is based on the vesica pescis, that symbol which most closely imitates the Diety in state of fractal holographic replication. And of course is used to also denote the Piscean Age, in which the Master Returned. Judging from the movie "Thrive" it is the essence of the future energy source, derived from Torus spin motors, some Tesla and some Haramein, yet to be designed. The "Thrive" movie looks to scapegoat the Rockefellers and other power brokers, which is unnecessary. Interesting that the focus is on fractals, as many times the crop circles demonstrate fractal designs. Organic fractals of course being those incorporating the golden mean, from the center out, while inorganic fractals can emulate the six circle matrix found in the flower of life, from any point conforming at the outer edge to the pattern. If it is so that the New Age is allowing to incarnate only Souls of positive polarity, then perhaps we will move from a system of organic like growth to one of inorganic growth, with less centralized power and free energy. Wouldn't that be a nice change for the exhausted Earth Mother. Wonderful that our ancient Brethren happened to build with square and compasses, those tools required to make the six petalled flower of Life.

A Brasileiro and a son of Erin brought to light

In our sleepy little New England town the other night we had and Entered Apprentice degree. We had two candidates both of whom came to us through the Grand Lodge Electronic Membership Request program. Today I was reminded of how much things stay the same by the Scottish Rite monthly magazine which commented that in the early years of the country, a masonic lodge was one of the earliest established buildings in these towns. Men who differed in Christian Sect and cultural background could have one thing in common in the fraternity. Who best could work and best agree. At our lodge that night a Brasilian and a Irishman were brought to masonic light. Kiplings Mother Lodge poem comes to mind. How good it is for brethren to dwell together, like the precious dew of Hermon.

Reincarnation and the Veil of Forgetting

In the Plan of our Logos, the evolution of souls is accelerated using the so-called veil of forgetting. Coming into incarnation the soul has no memory of previous incarnations. Being aware of multiple lives would prove the existence of soul, but as it is veiled, the mind/body/spirit complex i.e. person, is driven to faith and to polarize towards its choice of service, to self or others, in short to define the metal of the soul. If this veil was not in place, the being might simply be contented knowing the ever present unity with Diety. Karmic debt from error would be avoided, who would make such a choice? No striving, since catalsyt/circumstance would not be sought or encountered; no polarity, since the dark side would be obvious illusion. Most importantly faith would be weak, as the one who never knows blindness appreciates vision less, compared to him who lived in darkness and then finds light. What is it about faith that is so essential, that the whole of the freewill/choice reality would be wrought to shape it? Supposedly, the arcana before this veil consisted of fewer stations. Much of the catalyst and experience of this illusion/reality is geared toward the transformative choice of polarity. What would it be like without this veil, certainly daunting would be the consideration of how far the soul has to travel in order to evolve, were it aware of truth beyond our limited sight. To me, this suggests the sublimity of the Plan of Diety, the scope and love for all creation, the light which is created out of love and freewill. Organized, everpresent, All That Is, good, bad and indifferent, nothing is lost or unloved.

Sacred Geometry and Unified Fields, Nassim Haramein

Sacred Geometry and Unified Fields This guy is on to something. UTUBE from July 2010. Haramein puts forth that the old Masters perceptions- that we are all One, that the light informs the darkness, that the spirit underlies the physical, is really all dogma until you prove it mathematically and empirically. So he has presented it and so far refutations of his proof are not forthcoming. You know the establishment is trying like hell to find error. After all, modern day quantum physics hangs in the balance. Could it be that spooky action at a distance is explained by the possibility that each proton of each atom is in contact with an all informed vacuum, by way of its own black hole, through the veiled reality of atomic polarity and the attractive forces? That would really make poetic the thought, that God is closer than your breathe. There is a recent paper also published which uses as a reference his model of the Schwarzchild proton. Click on the blog post title.

The Human Potential to Overcome The Energy Crisis

Click on the title above for a link to a UTUBE video to hear a definitive lecture of the energy crisis. No cherry picking scientific method, no Gorian explanations of global warming. Just a nuts a bolts discussion on the present and future energy situation.

Divine Democracy and the Warrior Spirit, the Lady of the Labyrinth

We now face a draw down of our military at the moment when some few unstable nations continue to seek to have the nuclear forces at their disposal even as they have no legitimacy with their own peoples. Do the forces of greed seek to bring on Ragnarok, or the doom fixed in their minds by their dogmas. There is a Seer in Norway, known as the Lady of the Labyrinth, she has translated the Eddas. She starts this segment a week after the terrorist killing in Norway, by the self proclaimed, Masonic Knights Templar, and with the peoples massive rose march which followed. If you want to understand the Eddas, she sounds like the real thing to me. Click on the title of this post for the link to this UTUBE segment. Her usual videos do not stray much from her research on the Eddas.

Al-Kwarizmi, or Algoritmi, the Scholar of The House of Wisdom, Baghdad

In 825 he translated and integrated Sanskrit and Greek source material to give us our present decimal algebraic mathematics. When the Islamic conquest of Persia was completed, Baghdad was the scientific center, and the House of Wisdom established by Caliph Al ma'mun, the same Al ma'mun who was the first known man to enter the Great Pyramid, in 820 c.e. 12th century translation of Al-Kwarizmi's books on algebra was done in Latin in Segovia, Spain by Robert of Chester . The scholar also worked on astrolabes, among other sciences, which lately ties into the Hooked x astrolabe with arabic 4 combined with X(ten for latitude numeral 40 "Perhaps one of the most significant advances made by Arabic mathematics began at this time with the work of al-Khwarizmi, namely the beginnings of algebra( al-jabr, rebalancing). It is important to understand just how significant this new idea was. It was a revolutionary move away from the Greek concept of mathematics which was essentially geometry. Algebra was a unifying theory which allowed rational numbers, irrational numbers, geometrical magnitudes, etc., to all be treated as "algebraic objects". It gave mathematics a whole new development path so much broader in concept to that which had existed before, and provided a vehicle for future development of the subject. Another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before."[19]

2012, The World Hasn't Ended

The time and the half time, and no man knows the time of the Eternal Return. The world upheaval predicted by The Law of One Material and the Edgar Cayce Material, by the Aztec Calendar and the commencement of the Aquarian Age. Before the year 1000 there was great expectation of the end or of the Return. We know that the present is all that is, that the future is a probability and the past a perception. That the collective mind influences everything, including the weather, and even tectonic movements, is a common metaphysical teaching. So if the major religions, and millions of minds have been anticipating, a Judgement Day, a day of reckoning, and the planet is under the load of 7 billion persons and earth changes are certainly a reality, why hasn't it happened yet.
Quantum Physics suggests that the subjective observer can influence seemingly empirically controlled events. What if new found Hope in the places where grinding repression existed, has raised our collective status. What of new Faith, in places where scientific nihilism, existed. What of Charity, one nation to another, has lifted the burden of poverty, from age old forces. Would these things be enough to change the look of the probable reality of earth's new age. We have spent 40 years in the desert....we know we are all the children of earth and of the cosmos. We see Infinity through our powerful telescopes and our sciences continue to plumb the depths of Creation without final answers to the basic questions of the Creation. Maybe the probable reality has changed, maybe TGAOTU and all the Hierarchy of Angels are finding that the earths freewill density is a success and earth can transition into the higher reality in a more sublime way. It may not be a vain hope. The disclaimer that all the prophecy is meant as a warning only, or simply the meanderings of searching minds and hearts and that things will likely march along as they have and all the rest is hogwash, is admitted. But still Prophecy is affected by change, even the changes caused by its warning. However that doesn't mean the probability of same is averted. Like climate change, we can reduce the rapidity of CO2 geometric rise, but that is unlikely to alter the probable y axis end point in 30 or 40 years, without massive change, only the time x axis.

Neda, the Voice of Persia

Iran continues to hold her people in a state of totalitarian subjection. And that the Mullahs and corrupted power brokers hold freemasonry as enemy of the state and religion, I am reassurred that our order of tolerance and freedom still has relevance. After all, one can be known for ones enemies as much as for ones friends. It is when, evil is met with silence, that darkness prevails, as we all know. The people will never forget little young Neda, hopeful and striving for a future, out on the street, adding her voice to those of her fellow citizens, and shot down in cold blood. If this is an example of the religion which will bring man to higher understanding, I'll eat my hat. This exemplifies the nullification of that which is good by that which chooses to enslave. Some day soon perhaps that yoke will be thrown off by the people who have listened to the message, of Neda. She followed the tenets of the Zoroastrian tradition....Ahura Mazda requires.

Robert Lomas and Morals and Dogma

The last books that I've read by Robert Lomas, the Physicist Educator and prolific masonic author have been fantastic. The research done in the Templar Key and in his book on the Royal Society in Invisible College is truly illuminating. He is perhaps the best masonic author we have today and it would not surprise me if he was the inspiration for Dan Browns Robert Langdon. The true test of his grasp of spiritual things is his new book about the interface between science and metaphysics. I would recommend the Law of One of course to him, but just his grasp of spooky action at a distance should be enough to qualify him as a modern Albert Pike to freemasonry. Perhaps he could wright a few of our degrees in the appendant bodies. Imagine if our rituals were able to convey well that if as many have always suspected, the physical world is laid over the geometric matrix of the spiritual world, and that therefore the laws of physics must agree with spiritual laws, Newtons reciprocal change of energy....mass in motion requires equal and opposite force to bring to rest....has the correllary in karma. This is cause and effect, and forgiveness is a force which will stop that wheel of karma. Reincarnation, of the infinite soul, can refer to the concept of preservation of energy, being transformed. Inertia, has correlary, a reason for our transformative freewill plane of spiritual evolution...in that a soul without catalyst will remain at rest, blissfully at rest within the Creator. Material and spiritual gravity would hold, that which has greater success at seeking the infinite Creator has greater spiritual weight. So a black hole is as a solar logos. Anyway, if we were able to have ritual which brought science and deeper truths of the root of mind together, it might help things move along in our great society of friends and brothers.

The Honey Bee and The Fleur de Lis.... a ramble

The Merovingians viewed the honey bee as sacred, 300 golden bees were stitched into Childeric's grave cloak, subsequently used by Napolean, who crowned himself. Clovis wife Clotilde of the Burgundians, and Bornholm, enocuraged the emblems use. The Burgundians having come down from Burgunderland (bornholm) after 100 AD. Bornholm where the later Templar round churches are found. Dagobert of Sion scrolls found at the church of Mary Magdalen at Rennes le Chateu comes later. The long haired princes of the Landeudoc in southern France, with their supposed lineage to Mary, ruled from the 5th to the 8th century in parts of France and Germany, defeating the Roman Syagrius and uniting parts of what would become France. The area was also the seat of the Cathars, heretics to the church destroyed in the early 1200's in the albigensian crusade. The honey bee may have become stylized in the Fleur de Lis by french court in the 1100's. The hexagonal honeycomb geometrically perfect, magical in its use for building, and industry, and perhaps representing Mary. The Fleur appears in many coats of arms, in Spain, in Luxemborg, medieval Bosnia and the City of Florence, birthplace of the Englighenment. Mary who was oft worshipped by early european Christians, some turning from the Norse Freya, like Rollo Ganga the Walker who founded Normandy. The Viking enclave which bound itself to the royal families of Europe in marriage and who gained Nuestria with the Treaty of St Clair in 911 promising to stop raiding, and his descendant William the Conqueror became King of England. We Freemasons are kinda fond of the honey bee too. Just a note of interest, it may be that a recently discovered microbiologic agent is infecting the bees and causing them to become disoriented and perhaps not return to the hive... leading to hive collapse. I hope we Freemasons don't suffer from such confusions.

The Magna Carta, The Marshall and the Master of the Temple

Watching the movie Ironclad the other night, I did alittle Wikipedia as the bodies were cloven. It would appear that one of the great knights of the era, William Marshall, whose tomb is in the London Temple, was present and an advisor to King John when he signed over rights to all freemen in the 1200's document. This document which initiated Hadeas Corpus, the right to be charged when held, was a great step away from the idea of King as Gods magistrate. The Master of the Temple was also present. So while these men were not on the side of the Lords and freemen, it is easy to think that this important charter, giving powerful rights to guildsmen may have contributed to the transition from Templars to Freemasons and to the rights of man. Marshall, who had fought in the Holy Land, was made a Templar on his deathbed. Does anyone have any comments further on the subject?

Ct. Grand Lodge Tests The Corner Stone of New Britain Police Building

Last Saturday as the most destructive early snow storm in generations began to fall on Central Connecticut, the Grand Master of Ct. Freemasons Bro. James T. McWain and his suite of Grand Lodge Officers performed the corner stone ceremony for a new public building. The corn, was scattered upon the Stone by the Grand Master Elect Bro. Gary W. Arseneau, of Friendship Lodge #33 in Southington, the oil and wine by the Grand Senior Warden and Grand Junior Warden, who also tested the stone by plumb and square and level to verify its setting as true, trusted and well laid. Prayers were said for the builders and the officers of the law who will work there, by Bro. James Vander Eyk, Grand Chaplin Pro Tem. Many Brothers turned out. New Britains Mayor Timothy Stewart, noted that the ceremony would be one of his last serving as Mayor, and one of which he was honored to participate in. The Chief of Police Honorable William Gagliardi said words extolling the fraternity, the service of the department, and the great effort of city government to get the building to reality. All in all a great day the proud city of New Britain, Connecticut. Click on the title to this post for link to published article.

October 13th 1307 The end of the Templar era

Thanks to Philip of France and Pope Clement V for the betrayal of the Knights Templar which occurred today 704 years ago, bringing about the end of the age of the crusades. If it had been allowed to continue perhaps it would have evolved into a greater order with greater goals than the taking of Jerusalem and pushing back the Mohammedan armies. A world wide order with the aspiration of universal brotherhood may have been advanced. Oh wait that happened anyway.

Percival and the Fisher King

To be one ask one......seek and you shall find.....knock and it will be opened unto you...and etc.
Percival sups upon the generous Kings delicacies and sleeps on feathered bed and is given the greatest hospitality in his misty mountain top castle outside of time and even the Grail is brought to his attention. But he was told never to ask questions so not to be ill mannered. And so the Fisher King must continue paralyzed. Had Percival simply asked about the Grail, the King would have been miraculously healed. Alas poor Percival awoke the next day alone and was given an unescorted departure. To ask...to knock...to seek....nothing is found if nothing is sought. It is the same in Freemasonry, you have to ask. The same with knowledge....you have to seek.

The Sword in the Stone and Saint Galgano

Check out link to title of this post. I was searching Cistercian abbeys of which there are many and came across the interesting story of Saint Galgano, who for reasons debated, appearently sank his blade into solid stone in Tuscany in the eleventh century. If I were to bet I would say it was not an admonition from his dreams which caused him to to do so but rather an anguished moment of faith when this man was considering abandoning the world and its glamour. The question arises though, can we believe in such an accomplishment in the physical world. Ra says that the Great Pyramid was made whole from Infinite Stone, Edgar Cayce says it was built by the same power which causes iron to swim. We know that in some tellings of Percival the first knight was Galvano, and of course the sword in the stone is part of King Arthurs tales. Many of us believe that the spiritual world is just beyond the physical law, but if this story were true, then the power to move mountain is within our capabilities just not our understanding.

N.E.A.R.A. article of the Newport Tower Origin

It does seem entirely possible that the Newport Tower with its astrological window alignments was a Templar/Cistercian emulation of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. What if the Templars did not only go to Scotland Orkney after being disbanded. What if they went to other islands, as at Malta, to Bornholm and to Gotland. We know Gotland was given to the order later on. Gotland has the largest fortification in Europe a great horde of Silver has been found there, arabic silver too. What if these islands were the real refuge for the disappearing Knights and their ships. The title page has a link to the whole article. Below is a snippet.



Frères Maçons - 12th Through 14th Century



The order of The Knights of the Temple of Solomon or Templars were, we are told, dedicated to protecting pilgrims traveling in the Holy Land. Their original charge to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its entire physical and symbolic splendor loomed large on their agenda. To this end, they called each other ‘brother masons” (frères maçons), surviving in English as the Freemasons of today. The central role of the Templars in Jerusalem expanded, along with an increase in wealth, throughout Europe. Templar Commanderies dotted the countryside. Full of zeal, the returning knights imitated the round form of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in their own churches.



Conceived among the saints, and committed to monastic vows, the Templars’ fall from grace was swift and fatal, marked with the badge of the basest of sinners. As originally chartered in 1118, with its rule devised by Bernard of Clairvaux, this was to be a combination military-aesthetic order dedicated to selfless service to God. But service to God became extremely profitable and the Order flourished. By 1300 it had become a powerful force both politically and financially. As heirs to the Gnostic mysteries acquired from the Desert Fathers in the Holy Land, their rituals were shrouded in mystery. This suspicion was used to plot their overthrow, particularly in France where King Philip the Fair and Pope Clement IV were anxious to join forces in assuring their destruction and the confiscation of Templar wealth and property. The intrigue culminated on the fateful day of October 13, 1307, when Grand Master Jacques de Molay and 15,000 brother masons were snared by French storm troopers, turned over to the Pope’s resourceful inquisitors for inconceivable tortures and ultimate deaths. The Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, languished, cruelly tortured, for seven years until at last, proclaiming the innocence of his Order to any abominations and cursing Philip, he was slowly burned to death in March of 1314.



After October 14, the Order of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem ceased to exist, at least in France. In Spain, where the Pope was not favored over the wealthy knights, the Kings of Aragon and Castile found them innocent. In Portugal, they were reconstituted as the Knights of Christ. The Germans were indifferent to the Pope’s edict disbanding the Order. The English were busy with other enemies, and it was not until the Pope’s inquisitors arrived in 1313 that persecution began in earnest.



The remaining vestiges of Templar power simply disappeared the night before the assault. The eighteen ships of the Templar fleet anchored at the Atlantic port of la Rochelle were gone. Gone, too, was much of the Templar wealth.



Where did the survivors go? The most popular theory is that the fleeing knights sought refuge along the rugged coast of Scotland where Robert Bruce, in his increasingly bloody fight against English domination would have welcomed these warrior monks to his forces. The victory over the English at Bannockburn would have assured the refugees a secure haven for many years to come. Several investigators have wondered if, in conjunction with Scots renegades or Norse-rooted Orkney Islanders, some ships of the fleet found their way across the Atlantic to a western refuge.



One wonders if the "refugio" or "Norman Villa" noted on Verrazzano’s 1524 map, or the tiny tower shown at the mouth of today’s Narragansett Bay on Mercator’s 1569 map offer any clues. Even cartographer Marc Lescarbot shows a Latin cross (representing a Christian settlement or just a stop?) on the bottom left corner on his 1609 map focusing on the Saint Lawrence seaway where crosses abound on the map. To pursue our quest for a prototype for the Newport Tower, let us consider the building traditions of the frères maçons.



Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem



Not far from the never- fulfilled dream of a rebuilt Temple of Solomon, the best known Templar construct in the Holy Land is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Built by Constantine in the 4th century over the reputed tomb of Jesus, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was variously damaged and defaced by Persians and Muslims before it was rebuilt by the Crusaders in the Twelfth century. Far more grandiose than its numerous offspring, the rotunda is surrounded by an arcade supported by twelve round columns and six square pillars which in turn support a gallery repeating the same columns and pillar configuration supporting a dome but which was originally open to the sky. Its form became the model of round churches throughout Europe. Charlemagne echoed it in his chapel Aix la Chapelle in Achen Germany. The Templars followed the model wherever possible, as have penitents of all nations who copied it in memory of their Savior. The common bond in all of these sacred buildings is their roundness.



Templar Round Churches: