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Order of the Solar Temple
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Accessed: 5/11/19

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Order of the Solar Temple
Templar Cross used by the group.
Formation 1984
Type Neo-Templarism
Rosicrucianism
New Age movement
Location
France, Switzerland and Canada
Founders
Luc Jouret
Joseph Di Mambro
Parent organization
Renewed Order of the Temple
Golden Way Foundation

The Order of the Solar Temple, also known as Ordre du Temple Solaire (OTS) in French and the International Chivalric Organization of the Solar Tradition, or simply as The Solar Temple, is a secret society and sect that claims to be based upon the ideals of the Knights Templar. OTS was started by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 in Geneva as l'Ordre International Chevaleresque de Tradition Solaire (OICTS) and later renamed Ordre du Temple Solaire.

Some historians allege that the Solar Temple originates with French author Jacques Breyer, who established a Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple in 1952. In 1968, a schismatic order was renamed the Renewed Order of the Solar Temple (ROTS) under the leadership of French right-wing political activist Julien Origas.

The OTS is perhaps most notorious for being associated with a series of murders and mass suicides in 1994 and 1995 that claimed several dozen lives in France, Switzerland and Canada. [1]

Beliefs

According to "Peronnik" (a pseudonym of temple member Robert Chabrier) in his book, "Pourquoi la Résurgence de l'Ordre du Temple? Tome Premier: Le Corps" ("Why a Revival of the Order of the Solar Temple? Vol. One: The Body") 1975, pp. 147–149,[2] the aims of the Order of the Solar Temple included: establishing "correct notions of authority and power in the world"; an affirmation of the primacy of the spiritual over the temporal; assisting humanity through a great "transition"; preparing for the Second Coming of Christ as a solar god-king; and furthering a unification of all Christian churches and Islam. The group reportedly drew some inspiration for its teachings from British occultist Aleister Crowley, who headed the Order of Eastern Temple from 1923 until his death in 1947, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a 19th-century Rosicrucian Order Crowley belonged to briefly.[3] Both occult groups had a grade system somewhat similar to the Solar Temple. Another Rosicrucian group, the Rosicrucian Fellowship headed by Max Heindel, also mentioned that Rosicrucians worship Christ as "The Solar Logos" (Rays from the Cross Magazine, June, 1933), although this is not orthodox Christian doctrine.

There were Solar Temple lodges in Morin Heights and Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec, Canada, as well as in Australia, Switzerland, Martinique and other countries. The Temple's activities were a mix of early Christian Identity, UFO religion and New Age philosophy using variously adapted Freemason rituals. Jouret was interested in attractive, wealthy and influential members, and it was reputed that several affluent Europeans were secret members of the group.

Structure

According to the literature of the OTS, the central authority was the Synarchy of the Temple, whose membership was secret. Its top 33 members were known as the Elder Brothers of the Rosy Cross (an alternative name for the Rosicrucians), and were headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The Council of the Order formed Lodges that were run by a Regional Commander and three Elders. Progression in the Order was by levels and grades, with three grades per level — the levels being The Brothers of Parvis, The Knights of the Alliance and the Brothers of the Ancient Times, in ascending order. There were many organizations associated with the OTS, including the International Archedia Sciences and Tradition, Archedia Clubs, Menta Clubs, Agata Clubs and Atlanta Clubs, all of which offered the teachings of Luc Jouret both to the general public and privately to OTS members. The Lodges had altars, rituals and costumes. Members were initiated at each stage of advancement in ceremonies which included expensive purchases, jewellery, costumes, regalia, and the payment of initiation fees. During ceremonies, members wore Crusader-type robes and were to hold in awe a sword, which Di Mambro said was an authentic Templar artifact, given to him a thousand years ago in a previous life.

Mass murders and suicides

In October 1994, Tony Dutoit's infant son (Emmanuel Dutoit), aged three months, was killed at the group's centre in Morin-Heights, Quebec. The baby had been stabbed repeatedly with a wooden stake. It is believed that Di Mambro ordered the murder, because he identified the baby as the Antichrist described in the Bible. He believed that the Antichrist was born into the order to prevent Di Mambro from succeeding in his spiritual aim.

A few days later, Di Mambro and twelve followers performed a ritual Last Supper. A few days after that, apparent mass suicides and murders were conducted at Cheiry and Salvan, two villages in Western Switzerland, and at Morin Heights—15 inner circle members committed suicide with poison, 30 were killed by bullets or smothering, and 8 others were killed by other causes. In Switzerland, many of the victims were found in a secret underground chapel lined with mirrors and other items of Templar symbolism. The bodies were dressed in the order's ceremonial robes and were in a circle, feet together, heads outward, most with plastic bags tied over their heads; they had each been shot in the head. It is believed that the plastic bags were a symbol of the ecological disaster that would befall the human race after the OTS members moved on to Sirius. It is also believed that these bags were used as part of the OTS rituals, and that members would have voluntarily worn them without being placed under duress. There was also evidence that many of the victims in Switzerland were drugged before they were shot. Other victims were found in three ski chalets; several dead children were lying together. The tragedy was discovered when officers rushed to the sites to fight the fires that had been ignited by remote-control devices. Farewell letters left by the believers stated that they believed they were leaving to escape the "hypocrisies and oppression of this world."

A mayor, a journalist, a civil servant, and a sales manager were found among the dead in Switzerland. Records seized by the Quebec police showed that some members had personally donated over C$1 million to Di Mambro. Another attempted mass suicide of the remaining members was thwarted in the late 1990s. All the suicide/murders and attempts occurred around the dates of the equinoxes and solstices in some relation to the beliefs of the group.

Another mass-death incident related to the OTS took place during the night between the 15 and 16 December 1995. On 23 December 1995, 16 bodies were discovered in a star-formation in the Vercors mountains of France. It was found later that two of them shot the others and then committed suicide by firearm and immolation. One of the dead included Olympian Edith Bonlieu, who had competed in the women's downhill at the 1956 Winter Olympics.[4]

On the morning of 23 March 1997, five members of the OTS took their own lives in Saint-Casimir, Quebec. A small house erupted in flames, leaving behind five charred bodies for the police to pull from the rubble. Three teenagers, aged 13, 14 and 16, the children of one of the couples that died in the fire, were discovered in a shed behind the house, alive but heavily drugged.

Michel Tabachnik, an internationally renowned Swiss musician and conductor, was arrested as a leader of the Solar Temple in the late 1990s. He was indicted for "participation in a criminal organization" and murder. He came to trial in Grenoble, France during the spring of 2001 and was acquitted. French prosecutors appealed against the verdict and an appellate court ordered a second trial[5] beginning October 24, 2006. He was again cleared less than two months later on December 2006.[6]

Spanish sect

The Order of the Solar Temple was also based in Spain, especially in the Canary Islands. In 1984, the founder of the OTS, Luc Jouret, lectured on the island of Tenerife.[7] The leader of the order's branch in Spain lived on the south of the island.[8] The only Spaniard who died in the suicide of the Order of the Solar Temple was a barber from Tenerife.[9] In 1998, a sect was suspected of plotting ritual suicide in the Teide National Park. Both Spanish and German police initially linked the group to the Order of the Solar Temple.[10]

See also

• Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis – Di Mambro was a member

References

1. L'enquête sur le Temple solaire révèle le monde des sociétés secrètes
2. "Peronnik", Pourquoi la Résurgence de l'Ordre du Temple? Tome Premier: Le Corps (Monte-Carlo: Éditions de la Pensée solaire, 1975).
3. The Eye in the Triangle, Israel Regardie, June, 1993
4. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill. "Edith Bonlieu Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
5. "Conductor on trial over cult killings in France, Switzerland and Canada". 25 October 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
6. "Conductor cleared of cult deaths". BBC News. December 20, 2006. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
7. "«Spanish police state they prevented mass suicide by Atma (Isis Holistic) Center cult»". Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
8. Historia oculta de Canarias.
9. Tenerife, La Opinión de. "Tres sectas destructivas campan en Tenerife - La Opinión de Tenerife". http://www.laopinion.es. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
10. "La líder de la secta de Tenerife recaudó 300 millones entre sus fieles". 1998-01-18. Retrieved 2015-06-17.

Sources

• Daraul, Arkon. A History of Secret Societies. (NY: Citadel, 1995)
• Galanter, Marc. Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)
• Moran, Sarah. The Secret World of Cults. (Surrey, England: CLB International, 1999)
• Davis, Eric. Solar Temple Pilots, The Village Voice (October 25, 1994)
• "French Magistrate rejects idea that outsiders killed cultists," AFP, (April 24, 2001)
• Haight, James A. And Now, the Solar Temple. Free Inquiry, Winter 1994-95.
• Hassan-Gordon, Tariq. Solar Temple Cult Influenced by Ancient Egypt, (Middle East Times, Issue 18, 2001)
• Mayer, Jean-François. Apocalyptic Millennialism in the West: The Case of the Solar Temple, Critical Incident Analysis Group, hsc.Virginia.edu, retrieved, January 4, 2003.
• Musician Denies Solar Temple Murders, The Scotsman, Edinburgh (April 18, 2001)
• Palmer, Susan. Purity and Danger in the Solar Temple, Journal of Contemporary Religion 3 (October 1996) pages 303–318
• Probert, Robert. Solar Temple: Tabachnik Acquitted, Center for New Religious Studies, (June 25, 2001)
• Serrill, Michael S. Remains of the day, Time, (October 24, 1994)
• Spanish cops arrest cult leader, Associated Press, (January 8, 1998)
• Gordon, Sean (25 October 2006). "Trial highlights Canadian cult link". Toronto Star. p. A3. Retrieved 2006-10-25.

Further reading

• James R. Lewis (editor), The Order of the Solar Temple: The Temple of Death (Ashgate Publishing Company, Ashgate Controversial New Religions Series, 2006). ISBN 0-7546-5285-8

External links

• Religious Tolerance: Solar Temple
• CBC Digital Archives - Solar Temple: A cult gone wrong
• Order of the Solar Temple - Britannica

Cultists killed 3-month-old Quebec boy
by New York Times News Service
The Baltimore Sun
November 20, 1994

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TORONTO -- A 3-month-old boy was stabbed to death in a Quebec village because he was considered the Antichrist in the rituals of a cult linked to the murder-suicide of 53 people in Switzerland and Quebec last month, the Quebec provincial police say.

The police reconstructed the bizarre developments in a burned-out chalet in the ski resort village of Morin Heights, north of Montreal, where five people were found dead early last month.

The incident was followed a few days later by the fiery deaths of 48 cult members in two Swiss villages.

All the victims had some association with the Order of the Solar Temple, a cult that used symbols from Roman Catholicism, astrology, Gnosticism and the medieval Christian fraternities of the Knights Templar and Rosicrucians to attract believers in Europe and Canada.

The cult's two leaders, Luc Jouret, 46, a Belgian-born physician, and Joseph di Mambro, 70, a French Canadian who lived in Switzerland and Quebec and who controlled the finances, died in Switzerland.

At a news conference in Montreal on Friday and in later telephone interviews, the Quebec police said the infant was killed along with his parents by Joel Egger and Dominique Belaton, Swiss followers of di Mambro. The police said they were acting under the orders of di Mambro, an authoritarian figure in the cult, and used a wooden stake in the ritual slaying.

The baby's parents, Antonio Dutoit and his wife, Nicky Robinson Dutoit, did odd jobs for di Mambro.

According to police, di Mambro, who usually decided when women in the cult had babies and what names would be selected, was outraged when Mrs. Dutoit had a baby last July 5 and named the boy Christopher Emmanuel.

Police learned from interviews with some of the sect's former members that di Mambro regarded the baby as the Antichrist because the name matched that of his daughter Emmanuelle and because he had not been consulted. He then ordered two of his followers to Quebec to kill the family. Colette and Gerry Genoud, members of the order who set up the killings, committed suicide three days later.

Copyright © 2019, The Baltimore Sun, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication

The Order of the Solar Temple: A Suicide Cult
by bizarrepedia.com
Accessed: 5/11/19

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The Order of the Solar Temple (Ordre du Temple Solaire or OTS in French) was, and still is, a secret society based upon the ideals of the Knights Templar. The little known esoteric sect was founded by Joseph Di Mambro (pictured above with his daughter) and Luc Jouret. Similarly to UFO religious Millenarian group Heaven’s Gate, the followers of Joseph Di Mambro were brainwashed to believe he was a member of the 14th Century Christian Order of the Knights Templar in a previous life and that his daughter, Emanuelle, was The Cosmic Child, and they would be led a planet which orbits the star Sirius after their deaths.

In October 1994, the sect shocked Switzerland and gained worldwide notoriety when 23 bodies were discovered in the Swiss canton of Fribourg. Another 25 bodies were found in Valais. Only 5 days earlier, 3 people had been killed in Canada – a Swiss couple and their infant son Emmanuel Dutoit, who had been repeatedly stabbed with a wooden stake, because he was believed to be the Antichrist.


Three-month-old Emmanuel Dutoit and his parents were killed.

Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret

The cult was started by the two men in 1984 in Geneva, Switzerland. Di Mambro was born in 1924, the eldest of three children, the son of a construction worker from northern Italy. He was raised as a Catholic and received his education in a private Catholic school where he was described as an average student. He took violin courses and went to mass every Sunday until the age of 20. In the 1950s, Joseph Di Mambro began practicing occultism. He became a member of The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis. A little later he established Golden Way Foundation, the purpose of which, in addition to making money, was also to forge links between people keen on occultism. Within the foundation, he met Luc Jouret.


Joseph Di Mambro.

Luc Jouret studied to become a doctor but disappointed quickly in modern medicine and left the industry. He travelled the world, studying his spirituality and practising alternative medicine such as homoeopathy. Eventually, his journey led him to Golden Way Foundation, where he met Di Mambro and Michel Tabachnik — a famous Swiss conductor and composer who later testified against the members of the cult for killing children.


A Swiss weekly magazine L’Illustré showing photos of Michel Tabachnik taking part of OTS’ ceremonies.

Apparently, Michel Tabachni used Google’s New “Right To Be Forgotten” (who is complying with the European Union’s new) to remove his relationships with the cult. By using Google and searching for Tabachnik, this page won’t show up. You decide what to make of it.

[[“european-takedown-notice.jpg” “Michel Tabachnik’s Google European Takedown Notice”]]

The Order of the Solar Temple

Just like in any other cult, money, sex and power played a key role. The central authority was the Synarchy of the Temple. The members were secret, headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. There were lodges in Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Martinique and other countries. The activities were a mixture of early Christianity and various Freemason rituals. Several affluent Europeans were secret members of the group. The lodges had altars, rituals and costumes.


Cult leader Joseph Di Mambro.



Jouret saw himself as Jesus Christ himself. He became obsessed with sex and was having intercourse with one of the female members before each ritual to give him strength for the upcoming ceremony. The members handed over their money and adhered to strict rules.

Upon realizing the hypocrisy, cult member Tony Dutoit spoke out and left. Soon, he and his wife were stabbed to death in Canada. Their little son Emmanuel, who was named by Di Mambro as the Anti-Christ, was wrapped in a black plastic bag with a wooden stake placed through his chest.

Mass Suicide/Murder

The leadership felt that they were being persecuted by governments. They claimed to anticipate the coming end of the world due to an environmental disaster and decided that some of the members should leave the earth prematurely.

In Fribourg and Valais, the cult members either took their own lives or were ritualistically murdered. Some were shot in the head or asphyxiated, some had been drugged. Many wore black ceremonial robes, had plastic bags placed over their heads, bodies positioned in a star formation with feet pointing to the center. Many of the bodies were set on fire.

The two founders Luc Jouret and Jo Di Mambro, were among the dead.

In March 1997 in Quebec, Canada, five more people took their lives. Three children managed to escape at the last moment and were the only survivors of the tragedy. The total number of deaths attributed to the cult was 74, including several children.