THE ORDER OF THE SOLAR TEMPLE
The Fires of the Templars
In The Secret World of Cults, Sarah Moran reports that Luc Jouret was obsessed with fire, based on the manner in which the original members of Order of the Knights Templar were burned to death at the stake. To him, fire was the signal for the world's demise. Fire, while destructive, also had the power to transform, as in the alchemical rituals that were endowed with the mystical power to turn base substance into more refined and valuable forms.
As part of Jouret's plan to end in fire, he had rigged gasoline bombs at the various suicide sites to go off at the simple ringing of a phone. Whoever was near the bombs, whether dead, dying or just captive, would be incinerated. He was a long way from the original ideals of the knightly order.
Societies
In 1118 A.D., says Arkon Daraul in A History of Secret Societies, nine knights from the First Crusade formed a bond to protect pilgrims who were journeying to the Holy Lands. They took monastic vows and created a sacred order, which over the course of 200 years, grew into one of the most powerful and secretive organizations in Europeso much so that it eventually drew the wrath of rulers. For a while, they had the support of European monarchies and the Holy See Pope Innocent II exempted them from all but Papal authority and they moved from poverty to great wealth, but finally they were persecuted and dissolved.
In 1307, the King of France, Philip the Fair, took exception to the order's secret meetings and rituals, and moved against them. On October 13, on the grounds of heresy and homosexual acts, he seized their considerable assets and forced tortured confessions. In 1310, he burned 54 members at the stake and Pope Clement V dissolved the order. By 1314, the last of the Grand Masters, Jacques de Molay, was burned. One legend has it that Molay cursed both the king and the pope, announcing that within a year they would join him. Pope Clement died a month later, according to the Templar History Web site, and Philip, seven months after.
Over the years since, neo-Templar societies have sprung up, including the Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple, founded by Jacques Breyers in 1952. He'd had mystical experiences at a castle in France and had decided to re-energize the ideals of the order. His work influenced Di Mambro and Jouret.
At any rate, Jouret saw within the play of past power and persecution a precedent for the Solar Temple. What had happened to the Knights Templar was filled with spiritual symbolism that grounded his proselytizing with ancient roots. The persecution had killed their bodies, he believed, but not their inherent spirituality. That lived on in the elite members of the Solar Temple.
However, it seemed that the ideals were getting tarnished, people were having doubts, and something drastic had to be done.