Okay, so....

The Knights Templar were rumoured to be worshipping Baphomet, the goat-headed god of witchcraft and paganism. This may have been a fabrication by Philip IV in order to justify his persecution of the Knights, but nevertheless there is a long tradition of association between the Knights Templar and the goat-headed god.

Baphomet has clear similarities with the Incubus/Yellow God/Lobsel Vith from Silent Hill 1. It may even be implied that they are the same deity.

So, we have the Order, which includes Baphomet in it's pantheon. And we have the Knights Templar, who worshipped Baphomet.

And if we follow the idea solidified by Dan Brown that the Knights Templar were servants of the Sacred Feminine (Mary Magdalene's bloodline), and worshipped the goat-headed god of witchcraft due to his association with the Sacred Feminine, we have yet another analogy with the Order, who serve the Holy Mother.

And thirdly, the fusion of religions (pagan/christian/judaic/islamic) into the creed of the Templars and the Free Masons is similar to the fusion of religions (christian/native american/judaic/etc.) displayed by the Order.

So obviously here, my theory is that the Order from Silent Hill might have some connection with the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar were created to protect pilgrims on their journey to the Holy Land, and also (if we follow the Dan Brown rationale) to protect the bloodline of Christ that was continued through Mary Magdalene. So the Order of Silent Hill, by 'escorting' Heather on her journey, are likewise protecting the 'holy grail' that is the mother of God.

And on a final note, another name in witchcraft for the goat-headed god, Baphomet, is Azazel. In the Book of Enoch, Azazel was the leader of the fallen angels who spread corruption upon the earth and was rebuked by the prophet Enoch, who was then taken up into heaven and transformed into the angel Metatron. Metatron (according to a large majority on this forum) is the equivalent of Valtiel. So this is where we can see the symbolic dichotomy between the Red God and the Yellow God - symbolising the struggle between Azazel (Baphomet/Incubus) and Enoch (Metatron/Valtiel).

The Book of Enoch, which chronicles the rise of Metatron and the defeat of Azazel is rumoured in Judaic legend to be the Book of Secrets first delivered to man by the angel Raziel, passing from Adam to Enoch and then to Solomon, becoming the Testament of Solomon, on which many of the rituals of witchcraft were based, including the pagan rituals of the Knights Templar. So here we can theorise that the Knights Templar and the Order would be studying the same literature and possibly using the same rituals and magic.

So are they one and the same? That is the question I pose, and the theory I present for you to devour at your leisure.


(p.s. If this theory pans out, it would be highly ironic, considering that the Order was destroyed by a family by the name of "Mason". )

Wow man. That was probably the most profound theory I've read about SH1.

It seems highly possible, that you are all right. Since [spoiler]the Masons freed themselves from The Order's persecution, so we can look at the sect name FREE Masons.[/spoiler]

You, sir, are a genius.

There's nothing to suggest that they're "one in the same", but you do put forth some interesting facts. The lore of the cult has influences in a number of ancient religions and traditions..also, you mention the "Dan Brown" rational, but The DaVinci Code was written years after SH1 came out, rendering the whole "bloodline of Jesus" thing to be moot. (It's a crock anyway.)

Dan Brown's books are not based on fact, It's accepted fact the Catholic church and European royalty fucked over the Templars with the Baphomet lies so they could get their hoards and take over their banking, There is no "fusion of religions" to the Masons, they're just non-denominational and non-discriminatory, and neither the Knights Templar, Illuminati, or Free Masons fit the style and themes of Silent Hill.

Yeah, yeah, I don't want to get into an argument over Dan Brown please. But the idea of the Templars guarding the bloodline of Christ and serving the Sacred Feminine was around long before Dan Brown's book (which is why some people tried to sue him, if you remember).

And if we consider the (probably falsified) image of the Templars as Baphomet-worshippers, surely there is some fusion of religions going on - i.e. Christianity+pagan influences+latin/greek origins of the pagan deities.

I'm not saying any of this is true. I'm saying that the exaggerated image of the Baphomet-worshipping Templars and the fictional image of the Order are similar and could be linked.

And what we're saying is that while the creators of the game(s) had their creation (the Cult) influenced somewhat by them, they were also influenced by many other ancient religions and traditions, and the mythology of the Knights Templar, the Masons, etc., don't have any central role in the Cult, any more than does the mythology of other similar entities, on a base level.

Still, thank you for the nicely thought out theory!

I don't think there's much to argue about here. Everything the man has said it correct. Yes, its a theory, and I understand that may or may not be what Silent Hill IS, however it is a damn good theory!

Yes, it's a very good theory, actually. My friend's fiancee, who never actually played the Silent Hill games, but was interested in seeing it, mentioned that Pyramid Head never really bothered her much. That is, until she started to compare him with the Knights Templar, because PH's look reminded her of them.

Very nice theory!

Here's another little connection: the Baphomet idea was most likely untrue, correct? Well, the Order was believed by Harry to worship Samael (which I THINK is generally linked with the baphomet image), and it turned out that they didn't believe in Samael at all. It's true that Dahlia purposely cultivated that image, whereas the Knights Templar had it forced upon them, but I still think this is a possible connection.

I honestly don't think that the Order was envisioned to actually BE the Knights Templar, but it seems to me that Team Silent was almost certainly inspired, either directly or indirectly, by the story and culture of the Knights Templar.

These games, and their fans, never cease to amaze me with their depth and creativity!

There is so much lore and mythological thought that goes into the spiderweb pattern of these games, I think you would be hard-pressed to draw an absolute relationship between the religious precepts discussed in the games and worldly religious traditions. Although, I do very much like your theory, and I think it highly plausible that Team Silent spent an awful lot of time reading up on all sorts of religious teachings and occurrences before concocting the labyrinthine mess that is the SH religious framework. We have no proof that you are definitely incorrect (St. Thomas, O Font of Wisdom, please correct me if I'm wrong on that), and we have no proof that you are right. So it is possible. As Sherlock Holmes himself said, "Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." But my two cents think that your theory at least played a part in the development of the SH universe. Cheers!

Woah. That blows my mind, right there. A-Fucking-Mazing. Points to Arthemesic for the Free Masons reference, too.

Well, your therory is very intriguing, but truthfully the Knight Templar had a profound empact on many religions. Of course they started Chatholic, and then changed from there, building there own rules and belifes. But the only problem was that the Templars never came to the US. They stayed in Europe. True they fled from England. Most believe they went to Scotland of France, but no one is for sure.

But they wouldn't have come to the US, considering the colonies were a joke in the ancient world. Most believed that they would return to England and to the church.

But who am I to say you are wrong. Perhaps they took a leap of faith and came to the US to exscape the Brits and the persecution of the church.

The order was disbanded for treason, with some heresy thrown in for good measure. Most of them were killed. They didn't go anywhere except in the ground and maybe one or two who got away and didn't talk about it again.

Team Silent was inspired by many religions from all over the world while creating the whole cult religion structure. What you have presented here could be one of the 'examples' they used but I wouldn't say that SH Cult is following Templars path since Team Silent 'modified' how the cult works. Templars main goal wasn't to summon a god that they have believed through some extraordinary teachings and rituals, just like you said to protect pilgrims etc etc while SH Cults main goal was to summon a god to bring the 'salvation to all man kind'. Also the Yellow God called Lobsel Vith plays diffrent role here. It's a vessel of the 'SH god' when it's not sheltered in a womb, through the immolation process Alessa was inpregnant with it by recieving fetus from that deity. And then again I see no similarity to the Templars here if that was your main point

Basiclly what I'm saying is you did great job with finding all the similarities(which I already read somewhere btw) but Templars and Order are sharing only the deity scheme. In one point there is a crossroad where their ideas split

Well, yes, but that's the point. No one's ever denied that the cult is a mishmash of other religions. He's only saying that maybe there's some Templar in there along with the other junk.

Yeah, and in particular I'm wondering how much of a part Templar beliefs play in the fundamental premises of the Sects.

For instance, how much is the Sacrements-based philosophy of the Holy Mother Sect derived from the ideas of Pagan Witchcraft, with it's curses, incantations and use of body parts in spells).

And how much is the Vessel-based philosophy of the Holy Woman Sect derived from the ideas of the holy grail in human form (i.e. a divine bloodline).

And how much is the mediating-philosophy of the Valtiel Sect based on the teachings of John Dee and Alastair Crowley, who used the "Enochian Language" in their witchcraft rituals (the Enochian language being the celestial script taught to Enoch, who in turn became Metatron, who in turn is now believed to be Valtiel).


This is probably all answered in the Symbols/Allusions threads, but I was just inspired to write this because of the strong Baphomet image present in both the Templars and the Order, as well as some of the connections above. To me it seems like there is a heavy Templar influence in the makeup of the Silent Hill Cult.

But this is probably because I'm focussing on the Templars. Were I to look at something else, like Buddhism, I would probably start seeing a whole load of connections there as well.

Ah, the wonders of supposition.

The Knights Templar is an organisation dedicated to fraternal friendship based on honour and integrity. The Knights Templars are guardians of many secrets, including the Holy Grail. In the 12th Century, the Knights Templar would meditate twice a day and before battle, to focus their mind and spirit as one.


Masons

Play Broken Sword if you want to try a good games involving the Knights Templar.

Oookay. If anybody has something to add about any links between the Knights Templar and Silent Hill, feel free to contribute. If not, please don't necrobump old threads.

This is the best mentality when looking into this!

I've been an active Mason, etc for a while and am surprised at some of the info in this thread. I hope to provide more resourceful sources to maybe help advance some of the SH-related theories.

It would be best to avoid Dan Brown altogether and do your own research from real sources. An excellent foundation is directly from sources themselves. For example, here is a great link about the Templars, Baphomet, etc from the most respected and historical premiere Masonic Research Lodge in the world, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.
[url]
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/templars.html[/url]

As for the mentions of Dee and Crowley (and probably Golden Dawn, ritual magick which probably implies SH3 birthing a god), the BEST source is the source Dee and others all owe to: Cornelius Agrippa's "Three Occult Books of Philosophy". Here is a link:

http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/

Agrippa was around for Renaissance Magic and Alchemy, Qabbala, etc and his work was used by Dee, Crowley, thelema, Lon Milo DuQuette (today), for "Enochian Magick" and dealing with Metatron, etc.

Interesting note: Crowley belonged to the Golden Dawn which was founded by Freemasons (Mathers and Wescott), the latter of which was also an active member of the Theosophical Society during Blavatsky's life. The Masonic/Knight's Templar connection is about as speculative as the founding of Freemasonry itself. There are a million orders of ceremonial magick, Masons, Knights Templar, etc today so it's so hard to trace things, but fun to try nevertheless.

I hope some of this helps. A personal opinion is that Valtiel does equal Metatron as stated in this thread. On the Qabbalistic Tree of Life diagram found in Agrippa, etc the top Sephirah "Kether" is 'governed' by the 'archangel' METATRON. That which precedes Kether is known as Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph-Aur (no-thingness of the neo-platonists). This could be correlated as the dark or nightmare world of Silent Hill which Valtiel/Metatron/Kether "turns the valves" as Kether is said to be the first Sephirah ("crown") and emanate directly from this no-thingness into what we perceive as light, the beginning, turning of valves, into "reality" and the rest of the Tree of Life diagram! Heather has to 'travel up the tree' through the various Sephiroth and return into Unity with Alessa/God/whatever you want to call it.. but that would be returning to Kether and the states of no-thingness 'above' it. Hence, Valtiel is an angel attendant to Heather and continually assisted her through her travels!

If you're interested in any of this please do some research and hopefully it inspires someone!