I see that the many groups of Knight Templars have included women into their hierarchy as female Knight’s known as “Dames” and we of the Ancient Order of Templar Knights have a problem with this.
In the dark ages during the time of the Knights Templar, there weren’t any women “Knights”, in fact the warrior knights were forbidden to associate with women in any way and this is stated in their Rules of Conduct, so where does the idea of women being included with the Templars come from.
As far as I have been able to ascertain there is no direct writings to show that women were and integral part of the Knights Templar during the Crusades. The only direct reference to women and the Templars is a painting made in the 14th or 15th century depicting both men and women wearing our mantle of white and proudly displaying the red cross, this painting is showing the women in a capacity of “nurses” healing our wounded brethren and this I can see as a possibility of being true.
While many assume the Templars and the Knights Hospitallers were comrades in arms this is a mistake, while they were both military orders of the Catholic Church, they were far from being friendly allies, in truth they were and still are competitors. The Hospitallers started as a hospital unit to help the wounded Christians and crusaders, I sincerely doubt they would be there for the wounded Templars.
It is written in Templar rules that when wounded they could only be treated by one of their own and with this in mind if one of them was wounded so severely that he required hospitalization I could see there being women to help nurse the Knight back to health.
From Chapter 13 of the Rules:
“The Ladies, as symbol of their donation and good disposition at the service of the Militia, shall be given a white veil on which the Cross of the Militia shall be missing the upper arm, as the whole Cross is reserved to the Knights”.
While there is this possibility of women being a part of the Templars, they would never have been made into “Dames” and would have never been allowed to socialize with the male members outside of hospital ministrations.
Now 700 years later the ban on women has been forgotten in favor of increased membership and funds not to mention being politically correct. In my humble opinion this is a betrayal of our fore fathers and the Rules set forth by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
I know from speaking with a number of Templar members that they also disagree with the inclusion of women in our ranks, but they cannot really do anything about it they feel, but I think they can.
If you are a member of any Templar organization that allows women to become “Dames” of the order, register your objection to this violation of the orders Rules and if need be with draw for the order until they act in accordance with the Templar Rules.
While I realize this is not “politically correct” I do not care no one ever said we as Templars were ever known as being “PC” and hopefully we never will!
Sincerely,
Highlander, GMAOTK
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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3 comments:
It's always interesting to observe the thought processes of individuals regarding principles and positions which transcend time.
First of all, negativity is not necessary because it always distracts from our processing by encouraging an emotional response to defend -- and so begins the volley of emotions rather than intellect. Professionalism requires an individual to understand the underlying processes rather than depending on each page of the cookbook to survive -- that would more of a technician (they are good at arguing the words, but miss true comprehension or knowledge -- and as soon as a page is gone they don't know what to do).
Some would pose "women" as a dilemma. You don't resolve a dilemma by opposition or arguing -- you simply eliminate bias, and at that point we would typically all agree.
My point is that concrete thinking binds us to outdated and obsolete dispositions. By leaving our minds open and free from bias, we would likely agree that the capabilities underlying the Templars were their ability to maximize and improve on the state-of-the-art from all perspectives. Their rules were their best efforts to communicate a consistent state of being and for relating to each other, and their environment -- as time would pass, they would surely improve and update their rules relative to their knowlege and capabilities to maximize their resources for success in all areas.
Templars would surely evolve and stay ahead of the pack. That means they would boldly implement the most effective physical means, such as a Hummer rather than a horse. And just as they would improve their technical knowlege and physical control, so would they improve their cognitive processes and social complexity. After all, our own military has long begun the process to integrate the concept of "women" into most all aspects of their functions. So have our police and fire services -- most reacted with primative bias at the begining, but then awoke.
As a firefighter, my first emergency incident with "a girl" was a plaza fire which began with a fully involved tire store and was marching down the line. What I saw was simple -- as the firefighters worked, every single big strong firefighter had to come out to rest from fatigue, but the female firefighter was much better at pacing herself working at least twice as long as the others before needing a break. Needless to say -- no one ever felt anything less than respect for her from that time on.
Do we need to concern ourselves with inappropriate and primiative perspectives of women as knights? No, but it does give us an exercise to improve our thinking, reasoning skills, and problem solving capabilities.
Should we feel threatened by concrete thinkers? Certainly not -- as long as we foster a positive spirit and seek a brighter light the negativity and dark elements will cement themselves in the old school and they will eventually disappear or begin to evolve -- yet they should still be appreciated for trying the best given their cognitive and social limitations.
Respectfully,
Tom
I have been most fascinated with the Templars over my lifetime. I've studied the subject deeply as well as many sects and religions. I understand your view and admire you for speaking your truth. Females were not at all like they are today. Now we are faced with the questions of the male role. To be quite honest, to protect a traditional order is almost imposible because we have evolved so much. Women wanted equality and "NOW" it's almost expected of them to strive brutaly to get what they want. The roles may eventualy change. In my own opinion...If we were 20 year earlier discussing this i may say "Yae", but I believe it would be to your advantage to alow strong women with valuble knowlege in such groups. We don't fight harder..but smarter. The crusades are over. Feel free to email me
29682@bellsouth.net
Sometimes women can merely be housing the spirit of a man who was once mighty as a knight. She would still have that about her. Unfortunately my dear, you may find yourself in an interesting predicament a lifetime from now.
No, women do not have the physical build and are often distracted by the body and its workings so different from men.
Strong women should form appropriate orders consisting of other women. There is no competition. Women can never be as men.
But if you woke up in a different body, would you say use your knightly strength and power in a woman's body? Say you still perceived yourself as a man with strength and wit.
Imagine society would not allow this to be simply because you were in a female body..now. You would be very unhappy let me tell you. Also, western society seems to encourage women to come to take or borrow from men's status and power. Dangerous is the claim of women, to have their own order of power. This would and does get knocked down before it even gets a chance to be born..sorry, thinking like a woman again.
Thank You for your blog.
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