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Order of the Solar Temple : the Temple of Death

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Order of the Solar Temple : the Temple of Death The Order of the Solar Temple The Temple of Death Edited by JAMES R. LEWIS University of Wisconsin, USA © James R. Lewis 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. James R. Lewis has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as the editor of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Gower House Suite 420 Croft Road 101 Cherry Street Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405 Hampshire GU11 3HR USA England Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data The Order of the Solar Temple : the temple of death. – (Controversial new religions) 1. Ordre du temple solaire I. Lewis, James R. 299.9'3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Order of the Solar Temple : the temple of death / edited by James R. Lewis. p. cm.—(Controversial new religions) Includes index. ISBN 0-7546-5285-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Ordre du temple solaire. I. Lewis, James R. II. Series. BP605.077073 2006 299—dc22 2005032195 ISBN-13: 978-0-7546-5285-4 ISBN-10: 0-7546-5285-8 Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall. Contents List of Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 James R. Lewis 1 Templars for the Age of Aquarius: The Archedia Clubs (1984–1991) and the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition 7 Jean-François Mayer 2 Ordeal by Fire: The Tragedy of the Solar Temple 19 Massimo Introvigne 3 Purity and Danger in the Solar Temple 39 Susan J. Palmer 4 The Mystical Apocalypse of the Solar Temple 55 John R. Hall and Philip Schuyler 5 The Dangers of Enlightenment: Apocalyptic Hopes and Anxieties in the Order of the Solar Temple 91 Jean-François Mayer 6 Crises of Charismatic Authority and Millenarian Violence: The Case of the Order of the Solar Temple 105 John Walliss 7 Sources of Doctrine in the Solar Temple 117 George D. Chryssides 8 Death as Initiation: The Order of the Solar Temple and Rituals of Initiation 133 Henrik Bogdan 9 The Ordre du Temple Solaire and the Quest for the Absolute Sun 155 Marc Labelle 10 Sects, Media and the End of the World 169 Roland J. Campiche vi The Order of the Solar Temple Appendices The Testaments 177 Order TS: Ritual for the Donning of the Talar and the Cross 189 Select Bibliography 209 Index 217 List of Abbreviations ADFI L’Association pour la Defense des Familles et de l’Individu AEIMR L’Association d’Etude et d’Information sur les Mouvements Religieux AMORC Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis ARC Alliance Rose Croix/Association for Cultural Research ARCHS L’Académie de Recherche et Connaissance des Hautes Sciences CAN Cult Awareness Network CESNUR Centro Studi Sulle Nuove Religioni (Turin) CINR Centre d’Information sur les Nouvelles Religions (Montreal) ETEC Etudes Techniques et Commerciales KVMRIS Ordre Kabbalistic du Rose-Croix NMM new magical movement NRM new religious movement OICST International Order of Chivalry Solar Tradition ONT Ordo Novi Templi (Order of the New Templars) ORT Renewed Order of the Temple OSMTJ Sovereign and Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem OSTS Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple OTO Ordo Templi Orientis OTS Ordre du Temple Solaire RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police SAC Service d’Action Civique SQ Sûreté du Québec Introduction James R. Lewis In October 1994, 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple (l’Ordre du Temple Solaire, or OTS) in Switzerland and Quebec, Canada, were murdered or committed suicide. On 4 October, a fi re destroyed a villa in Morin Heights, Canada, belonging to Joseph Di Mambro, the group’s leader. Police found fi ve charred bodies in the ruins. Three had been stabbed to death before the fi re. At 1:00 a.m. on 5 October, a fi re started in Ferme des Rochettes, near Cheiry, in the canton of Fribourg, one of the centers of the Solar Temple in Switzerland. Police found 23 bodies in a room that had been converted into a temple. Some had been shot; many others were found with their heads inside plastic bags. At 3:00 a.m. on the same day, three chalets inhabited by members of the Solar Temple caught fi re almost simultaneously at Les Granges- sur-Salvan, in the Swiss Valais canton. Here police found 25 bodies, along with the remains of the devices that had initiated the fi res as well as the pistol used in the Ferme des Rochettes shootings. For many months prior to this initial spate of murder-suicides, rumors of fi nancial mismanagement had been circulating among Solar Temple members. On 30 September, shortly before the group’s dramatic fi nal “transit,” a three-month- old infant was killed at their Canadian site by a wooden stake driven through its heart. The parents, who were ex-members of the Temple, were also brutally murdered. Surviving members explained that Joseph Di Mambro had ordered the killing because the baby was the Antichrist. Several days later, Di Mambro and 12 followers convened a ritual Last Supper together. The murder-suicides took place not long after this meeting. Fifteen members of the inner circle—referred to as the “awakened”—took poison; 30 others—the “immortals”—were shot or smothered to death; while another eight, termed “traitors,” were also murdered. The plan seems to have been for the fi re to more or less completely destroy everything in the Swiss centers. This would have compelled investigators to focus on the group’s self-interpretation of their actions—a self-interpretation embodied in four letters, or “Testaments,” that were sent to 60 journalists, scholars, and government offi cials. However, because the incendiary devices at the main center in the Cheiry farmhouse failed to ignite, many documents and other artifacts remained intact. One of the Testaments, addressed “To All Those Who Can Still Understand the Voice of Wisdom,” issued a call for other Solar Temple sympathizers to follow their example: [F]rom the Planes where we will work from now on and by a just law of magnetism, we will be in the position of calling back the last Servants capable of hearing this last message … may our Love and our Peace accompany you during the terrible tests of the Apocalypse that await you. Know that from where we will be, we will always hold our arms open to 2 The Order of the Solar Temple receive those who are worthy of joining us. [See Appendix 1 for the complete text of the Testaments.] This invitation from the Temple members to join them in the beyond found a receptive audience. On 16 December 1995, 16 of the remaining European members disappeared from their homes in France and Switzerland. Four left notes hinting at a second mass suicide. Thirteen adults and three children were later found dead in a remote forest in southeast France. Investigators concluded that at least four of them did not die willingly. Most had been drugged. Two of the 16 had shot the others, poured gasoline over their bodies, set them on fi re, and then shot themselves so that they would fall into the fl ames. Finally, fi ve additional adult members and three teenage children apparently tried to commit suicide on the spring equinox of 20 March 1997, in Quebec. The attempt failed due to faulty equipment. The teenage sons and daughter of one of the couples convinced their parents that they wanted to live. They were then allowed to leave, and the adults subsequently succeeded in burning down the house with themselves in it. Four of the bodies were arranged to form a cross. The teens were found drugged and disoriented, but otherwise safe, in a nearby building. A note was found describing the group’s belief that death on earth leads to a transit to a new planet where their lives would continue. The Solar Temple tragedies played a pivotal role in infl aming the cult controversy in Europe. Although European anticultists had been active for decades, the spectacle of the murder-suicides infl uenced public opinion to support harsher actions against new religious movements (NRMs). Interestingly, this came at around the same time that the North American anticult movement suffered a severe setback as a consequence of the bankruptcy of the Cult Awareness Network (Melton 1999: 229). The Solar Temple incidents were directly responsible for prompting European governments to begin issuing offi cial reports on the dangers posed by nontraditional religions (Introvigne 2004: 207) and, particularly in France and Belgium, a growing campaign emerged to “combat” alternative religions (Hervieu-Léger 2004: 49; Palmer 2004: 65; Lucas 2004: 346). The incidents also helped bolster the North American anticult movement, which supplied consultants for European governments, as well as the mind control ideology that became a central element of European reports and subsequent legislation (Shupe et al. 2004: 198). Neo-Templarism The Solar Temple’s founder, Joseph Di Mambro, had sampled a variety of esoteric groups, including the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC). In the 1960s, he came into contact with several persons who would later play a role in Solar Temple history, including Jacques Breyer, who had initiated a “Templar resurgence” in France in 1952. Several groups, including the Order of the Solar Temple, have their roots in Breyer’s work. “Templar” in this context refers to the Knights Templar, the medieval order to which groups in the neo-Templar tradition ultimately trace their lineage.
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