The Goddesses path to enlightenment is still strong throughout the world and it’s practiced among Shamans, Gnostics, Yogis, Wiccans, Mystics, Kabbalists, and Pagans.
The Goddess tradition is also known as the Teachings of the Rose. The rose is a symbol of the Goddess, as well as for alchemy and gnosis, which are branches of the ancient goddess spiritual tradition. The rose was used as a symbol for Mary, as it was also used as an ancient symbol of Venus.
One of the titles of the Templars was Knights of the Rose Cross. When the secret societies of Europe acquired the Gnostic and alchemical wisdom of the Knight Templars, many also adopted Mary as their patroness and the rose as their symbol. An example of another popular alchemical sect that shares the symbol of the Rose are the Rosicrucians, meaning ‘those of the rose cross’. These various hidden societies became collectively known as sub-Rosa. That is to say, they existed under the symbol of the rose.
Although it is widely held belief that these secretive groups were exclusively created to protect Mary’s sacred bloodline, which may also be true, it was the secret alchemical tradition that she was a patroness of which was actually being so closely guarded for so many centuries. That is not to say there is not such bloodline in existence, but merely that this was not the singular or primary concern, in this author’s humble opinion, of the Templars efforts.
In the Holy land, the Templars learned many of the mysteries from the Sufis, who in tern learned from earlier Goddess cults of the Babylonian Ishtar, and still earlier Sumerian Inanna.
In pre-Islamic times, Mecca was founded to be a shrine to the Goddess. The Black Stone of Kaaba in Mecca, towards which Muslims still pray in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca today, is set in large solid silver mountings which on whole resembles the vulva of the Goddess.
The Kaaba is accurately aligned on two heavenly phenomena: the cycles of the moon and the rising of Canopus, the brightest star after Sirius. Pre-Islamic worship of the Goddess seems to be primarily associated with AI’Lat, which simply means ‘goddess’. She is a triple goddess, similar to the Greek lunar deity Kore/Demeter/Hecate. Each aspect of this trinity corresponds to the phase of the moon. Islamic traditions continue to recognize these three, but labels them ‘daughters of Allah’.
Deities of other cultures known to have been associated with black stones included Aphrodite at Paphos, Cybele at Pessinus and later Rome, Astarte at Byblos and the famous Artemis/Diana of Ephesus.
The sacred Black Stone that now enshrines in the Kaaba was the feminine symbol, marked by the sign of the yoni (vagina), and covered like the ancient Mother by a veil. The Black Stone rests in the Haram, “sanctuary”, cognate of “harem”, which used to mean a Temple of Women, in Babylon, a shrine of the Goddess Har, mother of harlots. Hereditary guardians of the Haram were the Koreshites, “children of Kore”, Mohammed’s own tribe. The holy office was originally held by women, before it was taken over by male priests calling themselves eni Shayban (Sons of the Old Woman”).
Various Classical writers describe the sexual rituals which went on the honor of the ancient Goddess - which included he practice which is now known by the disdainful term of ‘sacred prostitution’. Knowledge of ancient rites, as well as the transmutation of sexual energy, was retained through the ages and not completely eradicated by the arrival of Patriarchal religions.
The Sufis taught the Knights Templars that the goal of internal alchemy was to awaken the divine power of the goddess within the human body.
From the Sufis, the Templars also learned that the eight pointed star, or cross, is both a symbol of the goddess as well as an ancient symbols for alchemy. The Templars also venerated many others symbols of the goddess, such as the doves, roses, and five pointed stars. In fact the controversial horned goat of Mendes, a symbol which the Templars made androgynous and adopted, which they also referred to as Baphomet, is actually a translation of Sophia the goddess.
From the Johannites, which emerged out of the Gnostic sect called the Essenes, the Templars were initiated into the Goddess rites and teachings brought to the Middle East from the Far East. It is the same Essene sect that Jesus was said to have been born into. Because of the influence of the Sufi, and the Johannites, the Templars game to know of the Holy Spirit as the power of the Goddess. It was this goddess power that the Knight Templars attempted to transmit into their sacred ceremonies, and the same goddess power that they acknowledged to be the Holy Grail itself.
Extracts from the book Occult Secrets of Vril (chapter 8: Sophia) by Robert Sepehr.
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