Rel(ion (1e95)25, 267-283

Ordeal by Fire: The Tragedy of the Solar Ternple

MAssIMo INrnovrcNs

On October 4th and 5th, 1994, fìfty-three

'showing people were found dead in Switzerland and
in Canada. Their bodies---+ome signs of uiolence - suffered before the
"of
fìres_were found in the in.r,r"oted ..rí.., a neo-Templar movement called
orieinallv Internatio.tal o.dtt li óhit"lry Sol"t Tradition or' for short' Solar
ispartof one
ó.a", of tt" sótarTempieThemov-ement
i'iÍiitti,
of,.u"r^í
""iJi*1séojgi
aora..rr, which as a whole compose the universe -oi rhe contemporary
o . * l - . r o r " . i . m o v e m e n r s , t h e n e o - T e m p l a r t r a d i t i o n l n t h i s p a p e r l P r g p o l e .Solar
to
m.., nr.t of all, the history of the ""o-itmpl"' tradition' then that of the
i.ttif., ..f^iftUìh. iniorm'tion on th; ffegedy ofoctob,er 1994' and finally
"rrenti"í
porsible interpretations @ 1995AcademicPressLimited
,olgÉtting ,o-J

L The N eo-Tem,plat Traditíon

'Temolar' deprees wíthin Freenasontry
T;;'i;;.;";;;-f.-ftr' ,tra,ion i{ not a continuationof the order of rhe Tempìe'
Hugues de Payens(or
a monastic-chivalriccatholic order founded in 1118-19 by
p."tri dissolvedby Pope ClementV afterthe cruel persecution by Philip the Fair'
""a i'r,". is suppression, the order survived for a few decades
il;:ffi;.;,-;,t'ta'oz.
by the begtn"i'tg of the l5th century the Templars had totallv
;;;;ic;Jil;;;;but
of the order has been cnticized by
,ra.rished.The theory oi ,".rí con"cinuation 'totally
" as Régine Pernoud as
acadenrics.holars of medieval Templar history such
'uniformly foolish' claimsand legends'
insane'and tied to
--ifr.
ia." that the Templars,though officially suppressed' secredycontinued their
activitiesuntil the 18th cenìury,sp,""d -ostly atong French and GermanFreemasons'
Europe' Freemasonry could in fact
Wh". Ao^ Engt"ndit wasintioducedto coniinental
how much esoterically re-interpreted
fr".Ay fr.t.", iluaf asmerelythe heir-no matter
not only of architects'
in itr'*e"ltirrg-of the Briti;h tradeguildsof masons(composed
were loo humble. to be acceptable- by
fot ,lro of silmplebricklayen). Its íi9n5 "to -the-
hoped attract'-The was. thus formulated of
;;;;p."" ,toblés Free-asoory .lege1d^
place'in the Englishand Scottish guilds of masons'
o.rr".u,.,l knightsfinding a'hiding-aitivities
i"fr.t"-,n"v .o'uta .o.r,l,iu. their Especiallyin Germany' thesemysterio-us
ofthe Templar
L"ìgi* ;.". q".kÌy identifiedwith the TemplarsThese,arethe origins
Europe'2 but extended to the
à.g?"., of ft.è-"sorrry. They *ere .reatedin continental
(1724-95)' who in 1791
ùiir.J fingao^ ,hrorrghthé activitiesofThomas Dunckerley 'Grand Pnory of
(ater known as
founded thJ'Grand CJnclaveof Knights Tempìars' 'Templar'I4asonicdegrees aretoday
Knjsht, Tempìars')within EnglishFrelema'onry''
the present Encampments
i."ía i" Uo,n ,fr. Sconishandlhe York Rites,andoriginated
within
.iii"tgrtit T.rnpl"tr, composed exclusivelyof Freemasonsand widespread
Anqlo-AmericanFreemasonry.-
'"fl;';;;;;;;
.i i.-pr"i degreesin the sreat majoriry. of Masonic rites and
interpreted'and there
oU.ai.n^.o found today thioughoit the world must be correcdy
dating back.to the 18th
ù" *. different levels;f interPretationAt a fint level'
"."ia orgaruzatlon sucn as
century, one could mention the idea of propagatinga-new
lavish display
F.".rrr"roltry through a captivatingritual, suchas-theone denved-with
thJchit'alric world of medievaltimes- At a second level'
.i..rtu-*'""a t-í.ds-àom

+17 fi1200/O
oo4a-72rx/95/ 030267 O 1995 Ac:demic PressLímit€d
 268 M. Introvigne

as far back as the 18th century, a tension was already developing within Freemasonn.
berween a rationalistic 'cool current' and a 'warm current', more interested rn
esotericismand the occult. Such tension not only divided each ofthe severalobedience.
and lodges from the others, but often existed wìthin the same obediences where a lodge
could easily include both rationalistsand occultists.sThe Templar legend appealed,fór
different reasons, to both 'cool' and 'warm' currents. The 'warm current, presented
Medieval Templars as esoteric magrcians, keepers of occult secrets (in the wake of
what today's historians regard as libelous allegations of witchcraft generated by the
propaganda spread by Philip the Fair in his desire to destroy the Templar order for
economic and political reasons).The 'cool current' considered instead the Templars not
only to be victims of tragic historic circumsrances, but rebels against the French
Monarchy and the Roman Church ('againstthe Throne and the Altar', according to the
terminology of that time), and therefore predecessorsofthe Enlightenment protest and,
later on, ofthe French Revolution. This consideration is once again false,ifwe consider
the Templars' real history, but representsan integral part ofthe myth surrounding them
in the l8rh century.

The oigíns of independent neo-Teffiplaism

During the French Revolution-an especially complicated time in Masonic history-
not everyone agreed with the assumption that the set ofTernplar degreeswas only a part
ofthe Masonic system, and that it was to remain therefore subordinated to Freemasonrv
as a whoìe- and to its leadership (although today such assumption is accepred in the
majoriry of Masonic obediences and rites). The first disagreements originated in the
Lodge of the Knights of the Cross in Paris. There it was argued that, ii the Templar
legend is true and the British guilds of Freemasonsare 'interesting, only becausethey
have offered, since the 14th century, a hiding place to the heirs of the Templar Ordei,
then the Templar Order precedesFreemasonry, and the Masonic organizations must be
subordinated to the (neo-)Templar ones and not vice vena_ This controversv besan
with a Masonic adventurer active at the time of the French Revolution, a piris
physician called Bernard-Raymond Fabre-Palaprat(177 3-IB3B).In 1804 he declared to
have discovered-toge ther with his colleaguesof the above-mentioned Masonic Lodqe
of the Knighrs of the Cross in Paris--ome documents proving rhe existence of Jn
unintermpted succession of Templar 'Grand Masters', operating secretly from the
suppressionofthe order in 1307 to 7792 (when the last ,hidden, Grand Master, Duke
Louis Hercule Timoléon de Crossé-Brissac, died in Versailles, massacred by the
Jacobins). With the French Revolution and the fall of the French Monarchv. the
Templars were now able to come into the open. In 1805 Fabré-palaprat reconsr;ucted
the Templar Order, and proclaimed himself Grand Master. The idea of an autonomous
Templar Order (independent from Freemasonry, unlike the Templar degrees) was
generally well-accepted in the occult subculture, and caught the interest of Napoleon
himselt who authorized a solemn ceremony in 1808.ó
In spite of Napoleon's interest, the Catholic Church remained obviously hostile to
neo-Templarism. Fabré-Palaprat called the Roman Church ,a fallen church' and
founded in its place an 'esoteric', so-called 'Johannite' church, of which later-due to
his supposed prerogatives as Templar Grand Master-he consecrated as Bishop the
radical socialist and former Catholic priest Ferdinand-Frangois Chàtel (1795-1g57).
Since the 1830s the neo-Templar movement intertwines therefore with the ,indepen_
dent churches', schismaticgroups led by'bishops' claiming an irregular, but nevertheless
'valid'
consecration of more or less remote Catholic or Orthodox origins, due to the
 OrdealBY Fíre 269

Catholic theory adrnitting that the apostolic successionmay validly continue also outside
'real' (although schismatic
the Church of Rorne as long as the consecratingBishop is a
'valid' Bishop. The
or excommunicated) Bishop and was in turn consecrated by a
intertwining still remains today, within certain limits, and often, wherever there is a
neo-Templar order, we find an'independent church'under the same leadership (and
vice versaj. There is no evidence that Luc Jouret, the co-founder of the Solar Temple,
was consecrated as a Bishop, but he was ordained a priest in one of the French
'independent churches'and in this capaciry occasionally celebrated what he called an
'Essene
ritual', in fact a version of the Catholic Mass.
In any case, Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat gave birth to a neo-Templarism
'knights' who were at the
independent from Freemasonry, though largely composed by
same time Freemasons,Today the Templar knighn and degreeswithin Freemasonry are
found mostly in the Anglo-saxon countries, while Fabré-Palaprat's autonomous
neo-Ternplarism has until today remained largely confined to the Latin countries.

from L838 to 1970

mouement
The neo-Templar
After Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat'sdeath in 1838, the neo-Templars experienced
their first schism, dividing promote$ and opponents of the ties benveen the Templar
Order and the Johannite Church of Ferdinand-Frangois Chàtel. (The Johannite
Church, the history ofwhich is not part olthis paper, continues to have heirs to this day,
though not all of them are at the same time neo-Templars). The rwo branches, led
respectively by CountJules de Moreton de Chabrillan and by Admiral William Sydney
Smith, reconciled in 1841 under the leadership ofJean-Marie Raoul The Templar
Order l.rad,however, gone out of fashion and one of Raoul's successors,A. M. Vernois,
put it-in the Masonic terminology-'to sleep'in 1871. Later on, the'regency'of the
Order was given by some surviving members to the poetJoséphin Péladan (1858-1918),
who, however, was mostly interested in another order he himself created, the Order of
the Catholic Rose-Croix of the Temple and the Grail.T Those were the years of the
occult revival of late 19th century. The Templar Order, with dozens of other groups,
ended in the great melting pot of occult orders operated by the srange bedfellows
Joséphin Péladan and Papus (nom de plun.re of the medical doctor Gérard Encausse,
'Templar'
1868-1916). During these years, a certain terminology and symbology was
fashionablein a long seriesof occult movements of different origins: to quote just some
of the most relevant examples, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), was founded by
Austrian industrialist Carl Kellner (1850-1905) and made famous later by British
magician Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), in the world of ceremonial magic; and the
Ordo Novi Templi (ONT) was created in 1907 by lorg Lanz von Liebenfels
(1,874-1.954) within the German 'Ariosophy' a pan-German and racist version of
Rosicrucian and theosophic themes, which later had a real, but o en overestinated
'Templar' symbols were more or less
influence on Nazism.8 In all these groups,
prominent and were used side by side with other symbols of a different narure, within
the frame of worldviews which differed from those of the Templar Order founded by
Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat.
The succession of Fabré-Palaprat's Order of the Temple continued in Papus'
Independent Group of Esoteric studies, and later on in-its Belgian branch, KVMRIS,
an organization particularly interested in sex magrc.e In such environments, the
neo-Templar tradition easily blended in with othen (such as the neo-pythagoric,
Martinist and Rosicrucian traditions), especially since many occult orders shared the
same leadership. In 1932 the Order of the Temple was legally incorporated by the
 270 M. Introvigne

Belgran group under the narne of Sovereign and Military Order of the Ternple of
Jerusalem (OSMT), having as its 'Regenr' Théodore Covias (the number of
members was considered to be too small to nominate an actual ,Grand Master,). The
next 'Regent' after Théodore Covias was Emile-Clément Vandenberg, elected in
1935. ln L942-in the midst of World War ll-the Order of the Temple agreed to
pass on the Regency to a member residing in the neutral country of portugal,
Antonio Campello Pinto de Sousa Fontes, who secured for the neo_Temflar
movement a great tnternational propagation, opening national ,priories'in almost all
Western countries.

The neo-Templar Orders a;fter 1970: Schisms, occuhism, and secretseruices

In 1970 an international convention met in paris to elect Antonio Campello pinto de
Sousa Fontes' successor as head of OSMTJ.1o The majority of national priories
wanted to elect his son Fernando, but at the convention a turn of events caused
Antoine Zdrojewski, a general of Polish origins but a French citizen and residenr, to
be unexpectedly elected as 'Regent'. The'1970 convention started a rather unclear
connectron qnng neo-Templa$, secret servic€s and European politics. The rurn of
events that brought on the election of Antoine Zdrojewski was in fact due to the
massive enrolment in the Sovereign and MiÌirary Order of the Temple of
Jerusalem
by members of SAC (Service d'Action Civique), a private French right_wing
organization with ties to the Gaullist parfy, half-yiay between a private secret servicé
and a parallel police. Right aíter the election, Antoine Zdrojewiki nominated as his
'chargé
de mission' Charly Lascorz, an influential memúer of SAC. OSMTJ,s
headquarters were placed on the same premises as ETEC (Études Techniques et
Commerciales), a Paris corporation larer exposed as a fiont for SAC. OìMTT.
unsanctioned by any law-unlike the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, who"e
passports are recognized as valid by many countries-began issuing ,diplon.ratic
passports' in the name of the Order, from which many members of SAC benefited.
In,.19.72, the. police-accusing ETEC of several irregularities, including possible
collusions with organized crime-raided ETEC,S premisis in paris and put an end to
its operations (seen by the press as a 'cover, for SAC,s iltegal activitiet. As a result of
the raid, in 1973 Antoine Zdrojewski put OSMTJ's FrÀch priory .to sleep'. The
history of SAC ended with the murder of police inspector
Jacques Massié la local
leader of SAC) and his family in Auriol, near Marseilà, in tógt. flìis affair, one of
the most obscure of recent French history, culminated in a court case, and in a
Parliamentary Commission of lnquiry, which dissolved SAC in 19g2. Durins the
trial-held in Aix-en-Provence in 1985-Jacques Massié,s career withrn Anìoine
Zdrojewski s oSMTJ was brought to light. Even after oSMTJ's ofiìcial dissolution in
1973, rn fact, SAC members had kept alive the Order's activities, which included the
traffìcking of OSMTJ passportsand (according to press sources) an international Íaflìc
ofweapons (never fully proved) between the neo-Templan connected with SAC and
the notorious Italian Masonic Lodge P2 headed by Licio Gelli (later also dissolved in
Italy afrer the inquiry of a ParliamenraryCommission).
The election ofAnroine Zdrojewski in 1970 brought abour also a schism among the
neo-Templars. Fernando campello Pinto de SousaFontes declared the election ini'alid
and proclaimed himself as 'Regent', as his father,s successor,thus creating in almost
every country at least two orders of the Temple (often sharing the s"-. .,"-.. OMSTJ):
one loyal to Sousa Fontes and one loyal to Zdrojewski. Eipecially important for Àe
number of members and for the intemational relations wai the Swiss Great priorv-
 OrdealBY Fire 271

directed by Alfred Zappelli and recognized by Fernando Campello Pinto de Sousa

Fontes. When Antoine Zdrojewski left the stage in 1973, Alfred Zappelli tried to
operate from Switzerland on an international scale, and to salvage what was left of
Antoine Zdrojewski's organization, establishinga French Priory dependent on the Swiss
one. He then nominated as leader of the French Priory-according to press sources-
Georges Michelon (also a member of SAC). At the time of the murder in Auriol,
Antoine Zappelli issued a press release,clarifiing that JacquesMassié had no part in his
OSMTJ. During the same yean Philip Guarino, an American political lobbyist,
introduced himself as leader of an OSMTJ Priory in the U.S. Philip Guarino was
also-according to the Italian Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the P2
'correspondent' of Licio Gelli's Lodge. Perhaps it is for this
Lodge-the American
reasonthat a file on OSMTJ was found during one ofthe raids carried out by the Italian
'fringe' 'irregular'
authorities at Licio Gelli's villa in Arezzo. Many and Freemasons
belonged to an ltalian Grand Priory of OSMTJ (established-as it seems-with Alfied
'bailli' (i.e. local leader) Pasquale Gugliotta
Zappelli's authorization) which had as
(hitrself a member of the P2 Lodge) and comprised, among others, Pietro Muscolo of
'clandestine' Masonic fraternities and,
Genoa and Luigi Savona ofTurin, both leadersof
according to the Parliamentary Commission, Masonic allies of Licio Gelli.
At this point however, the OSMTJ loyal to Sousa Fontes or Zappelli and the
remainders of Antoine Zdrojewski's OSMTJ were no longer the only two main
'independent'
characters of the neo-Templar scene. Almost everywhere, orders had
sprung up, which-when not claiming to be receiving direct messageschannelled fiom
medieval Templars from the spirit world-produced genealogical trees which usually
included both Ber:nard-Rayrnond Fabré-Palapratand Antonio Campello Pinto de Sousa
Fontes. It is perhaps worth mentioning a.lsotwo branches not stemming from ,\ntoine
Zdrojewski, nor from Fernando Can.rpelloPinto de SousaFontes. The first branch was
establishedby a bizarre Spanish gentleman, Guillerrno Grau, who-persuaded to be a
descendantof the last Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma Il-began claiming in the 1960s the
throne of Mexico under the name of Guillermo III de Grau-Moctezuma, granting (not
for free) honoun, chivalric titles and even University degrees fiom a (mail-order)
'college' 'kingdom'.
in his At that time a student of esotedc lore, Antonia Lopez Soler,
asserted that the Templan, suppressed in 1307 all over Europe, had survived in
Cataionia. The aìleged Monteczuma enthusiasticailyespousednot only the theory, but
aiso the student, changing Antonia Lopez Soler's name into Countess Moctezuma and
inrmediately proclaiming himself Grand Master of a Catalan Branch of OSMTJ. The
Catalan Branch, founded in the 1960s, began establishingpriories all over the world in
the 1970s, taking advantageofthe conflict between Fernando Campello Pinto de Sousa
Fontes and Antoine Zdrojewski.
'independent'
A second branch sprang from the mystical-esoteric experiences of
Jacques Breyer, a member of the current most interested in esotericism in French
Freemasonry. After these experiences, which he underwent tn 1'952 in the castle of
Arginy, France, the French occultist came in contact with Maxime de Roquemaure,
who claimed to be a descendantofa branch ofthe medieval Order ofthe Temple which
had survived through the centuries not in Catalonia but in faraway Ethiopia. Breyer and
de Roquemaure subsequently founded the Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple
(OSTS). Some of the initial members of OSTS founded one of the many French
'Opéra' (the history of
Masonic organizations, the National Grand Lodge of France
which is outside the scope ofthis paper). OSTS faced a crisis in 1964following Breyer's
resignation, but was re-órganized twice after that, in 1'966and 1973.12within this order
272 M. Introvígne

appeared most persistently apocalypric ideas on the end of the world and the gìorious
'Solar
retum of the Christ'.

Julien Origas and the Renewed Order of the Temple

The more apocalyptic neo-Templar ideas caught also the interest of Julien Origas
(1920-83), who frequented other occult orders as well-including the Sainc Germain
Foundation in Marseille (not to be confused with the Foundation of the sarnename in
the U.S.A., which constitutes the organizational structure of the new religious
movement called I AM Religous Activity). The French Saint Ger:rnain Foundation was
'Angela'
led by a certain who claimed to be a reincamation of Socratesand Elizabeth I
of England and at the same time the mother of the Count of Saint-Germain, the 18th
century French occultist who never died and is still active-according to ideas common
to dozens ofgroups oftheosophical origins-in the Grand Lodge ofAgartha, conposed
'Ascended
of Masters', which secret\ governs the world. Julien Origas was also a
member of the world's largest Rosicrucian organization, AMORC, lounded in the
United Statesby Hawey Spencer Lewis (1883-1939) and extremely successfulin the
French-speaking countries. It is in those san.reFrench-speaking counties, in fact, that
AMORC tried in the 1970s to gain a sort of total control of the esoteric comrnuniry.
Due to widespread interest in Martinism, for example, in order to avoid that AMORC
members seek elsewhere Martinist experiences, AMORC created its own Martinist
'Legate'
order. Around 1970, Raymond Bernard, then of AMORC for the French-
speaking countries (today he has no more ties with AMORC, but in the meantime
much has changed within the international Rosicrucian community), embraced
enthusiasticallyJulien Origas'idea of creating a Renewed Order of the Ten.rple (ORT,
not to be confused with the similarly-named Order of the Renewed Temple joined by
famous esoteristRené Guénon, 1886-1951,at the beginning ofour presentcentury).rl
Origas' ORT may have offered the opportunity of keeping within AMORC fold
members of the occult subculrure interested in joining a neo-Templar group. It seems
that the creation o{ORT was even confirmed by the apparition of a mystedous'Whire
Cardinal' to Raymond Bernard in Rome, and that, asa result of this event, Julien Origas
was crowned'King of Jerusalem' with an actual crown. For several years before the
coronation, Julien Origas had been in contact with Alfied Zappelli, and their two
groups (ORT and the Swiss Branch of OSMT) had developed-without actually
coming together---{ome common ventures, even if some strong disagreementsarose
'secret
soon after.14 It seems that there was also a Order' (assembling important
members of ORT and of severalbranchesof OSMTJ), unknown to the other members,
within which were formulated ideas on the imminent end of the world and on the
presence on Earth of living 'Ascended Masters', including Origas and 'Angela', the
'Secret
leader of the Saint Germain Foundation. Menbers of the Order' even oÍÌ-ered
prayers'to Angela and Julien' (Origa$, both destinedto assumea critical role in the
soon-coming universaìconflagration.
Julien Origas, to say the least, did not receive good press coverage in France.
Severaljournalists noticed his relations with neo-Nazi and White supremacisr groups
from half of Europe and (once again) with members of SAC. A few years later, his
neo-Nazi ideas and his relations with the Saint Germain Foundation in Marseille
caused his separation from AMORC. Julien Origas' ORT, continued to operate
independendy (undergoing, of course, several schisms), accepting ideas from Jacques
'Angela'
Breyer's OSTS and from on the end of the world and on messagesreceived
direcdy from the Ascended Masten of the Grand Lodge of Agartha. After Julien
 OrdealBv Fire 273

Origas' death in 1983, these ideas became even more odd. It was in 1981 that Luc
Jouret, one of the main charactersin the Solar Templar tragedy, first contacted Julien
Origas' ORT.
Around 1980 all over the world there were over one hundred rival Templar orden
Today there are probably many more, and every large Western city (in Italy as welì as
in other countries) hosts at least a couple of them. It would be a serious mistake-
especially right after the October 1994 tragedy-to lump aìl of them together. They
'cover-groups'
vary greatly, from apocaÌyptic associationsto for espionageand political
machinations, from organizations dealing with sex magic to others that are litde more
than clubs where one dressesas a Templar mostly to cultivate (asit happens in a couple
of Italian organizations) social and gastronomical intelests.

II. Luc Joaret,JosephDì Ma.mbroanil the Solar Temple

Luc Jouret (194i-94) was bom in Kikwit, Belgian Congo (present-day Zaite). îron
Belgian parentson October 1Sth, 1947.1sFear ofviolence againstBelgan citizens at the
time of decolonization persuadedhis parentsto setde back in their home country, where
Luc enrolled in the Department of Medicine of the Free University of Brussels.In the
1970s the Belgian police opened a file on Jouret as a member of a small communist
group, the Walloon Communist Youth. In 1974 he graduated as a medical doctor. In
1976 he enlisted as a paratrooper and took part in the Kolwezi raid, which allowed
Belgian troops to bring back home a group of fellqw-citizens threatened in Zaire. The
prevailing ideas among paratroopers were diametrically opposed to Luc Jouret's
Communism but, according to a former college mate, Marc Brunson, now a
veterinarian, the young doctor asserted that, at the time, joining the paratroopers
'seened the best way to infiltrate the Army with Communist ideas'.toAfter the military
experience, his interests focused on alternative forms of medicine. He studied home-
opathy and later became a registered honeopath practitioner in France (in many
French-speaking countries homeopathy is in fact regulated by law). In 1977 he had
visited the Philippines (later he reported also visits to'China, Peru and India') in order
to study the techniques of local spiritualist healers.According to Jean-Frangois Mayer,
Jouret claimed-in a long interview he had with him in December 1987-that the
experience in India was crucial for turning-to homeopathy, although he had been in
contact with European homeopathic practitioners before.17 For a short while he
supposedlybecame a follower of guru Krishna Macharia. In the early 1980s he started
a homeopathic practice in Annemasse, France, receiving clients dso fiom nearby
Switzerland. F{is successas a homeopathic doctor was remarkable. People came to him
as far as the other side of the Ocean and, after a few yean, Jouret had several practices
in France. Switzerland and Canada.
In the 1980s, Geneva and Montréal were perhaps the rwo cities with the greatest
number of esoteric groups in the world. Besides continuing with his homeopathic
practice, Luc Jouret became also a lecturer on naturopathy and ecological topics, active
in the wider circuit of the French-speaking New Age movement. ln about 1981, he
established the Amenta Club, an organization managlng his conferences (the name
'Club'-and then into Atlanta). He spoke in
was later changed into Amenta-without
New Age bookstores (in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada) and in eclectic
esoteric groups sucl.ras the Golden Way Foundation of Geneva (previously called La
Pyramide, which had as its leaderJoseph Di Mambro, 1'924-94, who later became the
co-founder-and largely the real leader-of the Solar Temple, while the Golden W'ay
became for all purposes the parent organization of the Atlanta, Amenta and later
 274 M. Introvigne

Archédia clubs and groups). In 1987, Jouret was able to be received as a paid
'motivationa.l
speaker'by two district ofiices ofHydro,Québec, the public hydroelectric
utility of the Province of Quebec. Besides getting paid 5,400 Canadian dollars for his
conferences in the Period 1987-89, he also recruited fifteen executives and managers
who later followed him to rhe end.
Amenta was nothing but the ourer shell of an actual 'Chinese box' system. Those who
most faithíully attended Jouret's homeopathic practices and conferences were given the
invitation to join a more confidential, although r.rot entirely secret, 'inner circle': the
Archédia Clubs, establishedin 1984, in which one could already find a definite ritual
and an actual initiation ceremony, with a set of symbols taken fiom the Masonic
Templar efforts ofJacques Breyer (whose books-and one audiotape, according to Jean
Frangois Mayer-were still being circulated). According to Canadian reporter Bill
Marsden-who in 1994 interviewed some former members of the Solar Tempìe and
whose findings have been compiled by SusanPaLner in an unpublished manuscript she
kindly sent to CESNUR-Breyer personally attended OICTS meetings in Geneva in
1985: an ex-member described Origas, Breyer and Di Mambro as having been earlier
'the
three chums who spoke of esoteric things' in the fìrst Tempiar neetings he had
attended in Geneva. Jean-Franqois Mayer also notes that in 1987 Amenta organized a
seminar on Breyer's thought. The Archédia Clubs were not yet the truly inner parr of
Jouret's organizafion. Their most trusted members were invited to -lorrr an even more
'inner'
circle, this one truly was a secrer organization: the International Order of
Chivalry Solar Tradition (OICST), in short Solar Tradition, later to be called Order of
the Solar Temple (although it is not impossible that an Order of the Solar Temple had
ongrnally existedasan inner circle of OICST). OICST can be consideredboth a schism
and a continuation ofJulien Origas' ORT, which Jouret had joined in 1981 with the
knowledge of only a few fiiends. Apparently former Communist Luc Jouret and
neo-NaziJulien Origas understood each other very well, at least for a few months. After
Origas' death, Luc Jouret tried unsuccessíullyto be recognized as ORT's leader, facing
opposition fiom the founder's daughter, Catherine Origas: hence the 1984 schism and
the establishment of OICTS. On the other hand, some of Luc Joure t's co-workers in
the Archédia Clubs, such asJoseph Di Mambro, co-founder of OICTS, and Gereva
businessmanAlbert Giacobino, had been rnembers, according to presssources,ofAìfred
Zappel\l's Sovereign and Military Oider of the Temple of Jerusalemts and possibty of
AMORC. But according to Jouret's mosc secret teachings, the schism that had giver.r
binh to OICTS was not only the mere fruit of disagreements,but was rather according
to the will of the Ascended Masters of the Grand Lodge of Agartha, who had revealed
themselvesin 1981, beforeJulien Origas'death,disclosinga'Plan'that was supposedto
last thirteen years, until the end of the world, predicted for the year 1994.
Di Mambro's andJouret's OICTS teachingsstressedthe occult-apocalyptic themes of
Jacques Breyer's OSTS and Julien Origas' ORT, connecting together three traditions
on the end of the world: (a) the idea found in some (but by no means all) New Age
groups of an impending ecological catastrophe (for instance, Jouret was very insistent
about th€ lethal nature ofmodern diets and food); (b) some neo-Templar movements'
theory ofa cosrnic 'renovatio' revealed by the Ascended Masters ofthe Grand Lodge of
Agartha; (c) the political ideas of a final international bagarre propagated by survivalisr
groups both on the extreme right and on the extreme left ofthe political spectrum, wirh
which Jouret had contacts in different countries. It seems that, in the years spanning
from 1986 to 1993,Jouret and Di Mambro kept receiving'revelations', followingJulien
Origas tradition, especially offour'sacred objects' the Grail, the Excalibur Sword, the
 OrdealBY Fire 275

Menorah, and the Ark of the Covenant ('apparitions' of which, according to

ex-members, were fabricated through electronic tricks and holograms), until it was
revealed to them that benveen the end of 1993 and the beginning of 1994 the Earth
'entities'
would have been forsaken by its last'guardians': at first six hidden in the Great
Pyramid of Egypt, and later-but this could have been a metaphor used for a spiritual
experience of three leaders of the Temple-three Ascended Masten who had received
a revelation on the end ofthis cycle near Ayers Rock Mountain, Australia (a country in
which the ltemple had in the meantime establisheditself).
Luc Jouret was able to keep up his speaking engagementr in the New Age circuit as
long as the existence of a secret order with peculiar ideas on the end of the world was
well hidden behind the different Amenta, Atlanta, and,\rchédia groups and clubs.
'When
some curious journalists and the unavoidable disgruntled ex-members started to
talk about the Solar Temple, the doors shut. The Archédia Clubs dissolved in 1991, and
various European New Age bookstores had by this time begun refusing to host Luc
Jouret's conferences. There remained, howevet, a solid operation in Canada, where
Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro spent a great deal of their time since 1986, and where
they had founded a Club Archédia de Science et Tradition International. Under the
Atlanta and Archédia Clubs labels, Luc Jouret could thus keep up his conferences-on
topics such as The Sphirur, Christ, and the New Man-in Québec (and it seemseven
at the University of Québec at Montréal) in the years 1991 and 1992. Motivational
classeswere ollered to companies under the aegisof an Académie pour la Recherche et
la Connaissancedes Haute Sciences(ARCHS, whose literature was printed by Edirions
'Chinese
Atlanta). The box' system continued in Canada, where also Solar Temple
members from Switzerland, France and Martinique moved. According to the Manden
interviews compiled by Susan Palmer, ex-mernben claimed in 1994 that in 1991 11
mernbers of the Solar Temple were brought to Canada fiom Martinique in order to
'female' 'male'
increase the French energy in Québec and further balance the English
energy there. Headquarters were located in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, in a historical
boarding school purchased on 26 October 1984 from the Catholic Brothen of the
Sacred Heart, for 235,000 Canadian dollars. In the 1990s the house was the properry of
the Association pour I'Etude et la Recherche en Science de Vie Québec, and of the
SociétéAgncole 81. In fact,'science oflife'(Science de Vie) was often the topic ofluc
Jouret's conferences,who blamed many ills ofthe world on today's poor diet, suggesting
'naturally-grown'
as an altemative products. The house in Saìnte-Anne-de-la-Pérade
was also a centre for the production of'natural' food products, partly marketed through
an'ecological' bread shop, the Boulangerie Alimens Naturels. Another Solar Tempìe
centre was establishedin 1992 in Saint-Sauveur, in a luxurious house on Rue Lafleur,
bought for 450,000 Canadian dollars. A P.O. Box addressand a bank account were kept
in Charlesbourg, another small town of Québec. In Morin Heights, a mountainous area,
were the two villas which served as personal residencesfor Luc Jouret and Joseph Di
Mambro, with apartments for two other Temple leaders, Camille Pilet and Ms
Dominique Bellaton. Focusing on Canada and communal living meant a decreasein the
'hard core' of about one hundred members
number of devotees. ln 1,992-93 only the
of the Solar Temple was left, as opposed to the international membership in the 1980s
of about 200-300 people.
On 8 March 1993, a crucial episode in the history of the Solar Temple occurred in
Canada. Two Temple memben, Jean Pierre Vinet, 54, engineer and project-manager
for Hydro-Québec and Herman Delorme, 45, insurance broker, were arrested as they
were attempting to buy three seÍriautomatic guns with silencers, illegal weapons in
276 M. Introvigne

Canada. Daniel Tougas, a police offìcer of Cowansville and a Temple member, was
temporarily suspendedfrom ofiìce on chargesof having helped the two. On 9 March.
judge Franqois Doyon of Montréal committed rhem ro trial, fieeing them on parole.
Luc Jouret-who according to police reports asked the rwo to buy the weapons-was
also comrnitted to trial, and an arrest waÍant was issued against him. (The Temple
leader could not be found, as he was in Europe at the time.) The evenc drew the
attention of the Canadian press to whar newspaperscalled 'the cult of the end of the
world'. The separatedwife of one of the members, a Swiss called Rose-Marie Klaus,
took advantageofthe situation, calling for a pressconference on 10 March, in which she
denounced sex magic practices and econonrical exploitation of members. On the same
day, 10 March, another pressconference was held in Sainte-Anne-de-1a-Pérade.Sitting
besidesJean-Marie Horn, President of the Association pour 1'Etude et la Recherche en
Science de vie Québec, and Didier Quèze, Solar Temple spokesman, was the town's
Mayor, Gilles Devault, who declared that the Ten.rple 'never causedany trouble' but, on
'contributed
the contrary, to the development of the community'. 'A cult?'Not at all,
said the Mayor, 'Their
children take part in the town's amusements, they play hockey.
Actually I beiieve that they are people that give a very positive contribution'.1e Even the
leporte$ most bent to sensationalismcould not find any hostiliry between this Quebec
town and the Solar Temple, and recounted that 'residents of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade
met yesterday (10 March, 1993) do not seem to have any grievances towards menrbers
of the Order'.to Rose-Marie Klaus was considered an unreliable fanatic, and even the
local parish priest, Father Maurice Cossette, admitted thar, rrue, they were not
Catholics, but he let them'advertise their conferences on nutrition and health on the
church bulletin', as long as they didn't 'talk about Apocalypse'.2l Later on the Solar
Temple's lawyer, Jacques Rochelle, hinted to a 'schism' that would have happened
'more
or less' in 1990, during which the Canadian members supposedlyìeft Di Mambro
and Jouret. Aìlegedly also Herrnan Delorme and Jean-Pierre Vinet 'had left the Order
severalmonths before' their afiest.22It is unclear whether this information represented
a simple attempt ofsidetracking the investigations,or iftension within the Order of tl.re
Solar Temple actually existed. In any case,the oflìcial leader of the Canadian Branch in
March 1993, Robert Falardeau, head of a minor Department at Québec Ministry of
Finance,died in October 1994 with Luc Jouret and JosephDi Mambro.
A few days after the anests,the pressstarted to lessenthe intensity ofits attacks on the
Solar Temple, asking the police for clarifications. Police oilìcials were then forced to
reveal that the operations againstthe Solar Temple were not caused simply by a desire
to emulate their American colleagues,at that time engaged in the siege of the Branch
Davidians' ranch in Waco. On 23 November, 1992, a man identifiing himself as
'André'
had phoned four Canadian members ofthe ParLiamenton behalfofa mystedous
goup, Q-37 (so called-according to 'André'-because it had 37 members, all from
Québec), announcing the impending murder of Québec's Minister of the Interior,
'guilty'
Claude Ryan, found of adopting a political line too favourable to the claims of
Native ,\mericans. Reports by some informers-perhaps members of the Canadian
intelÌigence services-to the Québec police, srating that rhe group Q-37 was tied to the
Solar Temple, prompted the investigations which culminated in the trap against two
Temple mernbers who tried to buy illegal weapons from a person who tumed out to be
a police agent. Police authorities had to admit, however, that in five months of
investigations they were not able to find any proofofties between the Q-37 group and
the Solar Temple (except for the Solar Temple's hostiliry towards Native Americans,
which came from Julien Origas'White supremacistideas). In fact, they could not even
 Oúeal BY Fire 277

this was about all the

find any proof that a Q-37 gtoup actually - existed' . Since
wire-taPping rePort relating how
i"i"r'rt"li.", qtcu"c pohÀ .oid oftt (apari fiom a
of the group to p-ractise-sho-oting with a pistol-advice
i". j""t"i
"aìt"a "'m"-b", in the isolated Swiss
1*,ii"J
'"""ir.0-i Uy his lawyers because of th. t""d for self-defence
the 30 june, 1993 court proceedings in M-ontréal' Herman Delorme and
j.;;-úr.; ìllegal weapons-justified again
Vinet píead guilry only oi having.bought 'suspended
*.r" f,"ód with che local formula of
íi,h .."roo, of sif:defe.rce-ani
acquittal', with a fine of 1,000 Canadian dollars each to '(the be given to the Red cross'
juàg..1.""-pi".. noninjustified the decision stating that accused)have until now
of biases lnd bigorry which have become tremendoudy widespread
U.ó íi.,i-,
members of a cult' and cults
ifrt."gi ,fti, event's coverage; tf,ey Laoe been regarded as
events' especially due to the
*.r. io, very popular ir, À. -.ài. at the time of these
On 15 July-discreetly and without previous knowledge by the
in.ia*, - lú".o;."
in court the same accusations and to
media-Luc Jouret returned to Montréal to answer
same conditions as F{erman Delorne
obtain his o'itn'suspended acquittal-under the
virràt. Mean*úil., in Québec, three institutions were concerned about
",lJj."n-ei.n. (which had agent
coniections their offìcersand employeeshad with a'cult': the police
parole-and expelled him from its ranks)' Hydro-
Daniel Tougas condemned-with
commission that verifìe d how 22 employees
Québ.c (*hich nominated an invesiigation
15 were actual members of
hàd participated in the activities of tie Solar Temple and
it, aà,ririni Hydro-Québec to refrain in the future fiom hosting occult-religious
'motivational' conferences), and the Ministry of Finances (which sent Chief of
back into
Department Robert Falardeauon leave for one week, then let him slip quietly
17 March 1994' a letter signed
om'."). fn" tempest seemed to end smoothly, even if on
in which the Order claimed
OrdÉ. of the S'olar Temple' was found in Montréal,
on
responsibility for an attackìgainst a Hydro-Québec tower in Saint-Basile-Le-Grand
letter as it mentioned only
24 February. The police quàstioned túe authenticity of the
agarnst
the Saint-Basile-Le-Grand attack and not another one comrnitted the same day
reserve of Kahnawake but kept
a Hydro-Québec installation in the Native American
to be known to the
,..rót by ìhe authorities (which, however, had obviously
The Canadian incident later appeared to be extremely significant in the
,io.k..rj.*
fìnal crisis of the Solar TemPle.

IlL The Tragedy

during
i *iti ,"t. *o-nthi,p.th"pt years,to find out exactlyhow the eventsdeveloped
extensiveìy
the first week of Octobei 1994. The most essentialinformation has been
people, including LucJouret' had
covered in the world media. On 30 September, nine
Canton, Switzerland)' On 3
dinner at the Bonivard Hotel in Veyiaux (in the Vaud
October, Joseph Di Mambro was seen having lunch with others at the Saint-Christophe
Di Mambro's
Rert".traJt in Bex (same Canton). On 4 October a fìre destroyedJoseph
Canada. Among the ruins, the police found five charred bodies'
villa in Morin Heiglts,
-a
to have been stabbed
one of which was child's. At least thÀe of these people seemed
and Joseph
ro death before the fire. In Salvan (Valais Canton, Switzerland), Luc Jouret
chalet, and bought several
Di Mambro asked a blacksmith to change the lock in their
ofthe centres ofthe Solar
plastic bags. On 5 October, at 1:00 a.m, a fire startedin one
near Cheiry' in the Canton of
î"-pl" i. Switzerland, the Ferme des Rochettes,
was also a centre for natural agriculture-owned by Abert
FribJurg-which
Mambro in several
Giacobi"no,who as mentioned earlier was an associateofJoseph Di
one of which was a
esoteric and neo-Templar activities. The police found 23 bodies'
278 M. Introuígne

Giacobino's'
child's, in a room converted into a temple Anrong the corpseswas-Albert
many others were
the farm,s owner. some of the victims were killed by gunshors. while
three chalets'
if""J *nft their heads inside plastic bags. The same day, at 3:00 a'm '
at Les
i"i"Ui by members of the Solar Temple, caught fire almost simultaneously
"a found 25 bodies'
Cr"rrg.,,or'S"l r"rr, in the Valais Canton. in the chared remains were
also
remainden of devices programtned to stÀfi the.6res (such rlevices were
"ìong"*t,t 52 bullets destined
foon? ,N4orinHeights and at Cheiryi, and the pisrol which shot the
"t
for the people fouid dead in Cheiry' On 6 October, Swis hi:torian Jean-Frangois
(Centre for Studies on
Mry"r, ,""ritrry of the International Committee of CESNUR
Nel n"Ligi""rj-the scholar who in 1987 had conducted a ParticiPant observation.of
the Clubs'Archédia-received a package mailed from Geneva on 5 October (in the
'b p"rt', me"oing 'departure' in French)' The package
,f".. fot ,t r"tta.r it said simply
" explaining
iircluded four docu*"ttt, ,r-t ,ing ,tp the ideology of rhe Solar Temple and
fton.i the American
what had happened that night, togeiher with an arlrcle extracted.
incident'
Executfuelntiiigence Review t"poblith.d in Nexas on the Randy Weaver
"t parts of it were aÌsosent to some Swiss newspapers On
Other copies oithe package or
owned by a
8 Octobàr, in Aubignan, France, the police discovered in a building
down the
member of the Solar"Temple a deactivated tlevice which could have burned
9 October' the
house, similar to the onei found in Switzerland and in Canada On
passports ofJoseph
French Minister ofthe Interior, Charles Pasqua,received in Paris the
Di Mambro and his wife Jocelyne (both already identified 'Tran among the victims of the
Swiss fìre). The sender's name on the envelope is that of a Sit Corp.' in Zurich'
The canadian television announced the same day that, according to thefu investigatlons,
for
tripi li Mambro used the Solar Temple as a cover for-weapon srnuggling and
"money-l"lrnderi.tg, and had huge bank funds in AustraLia The fìgures allegedly involved
i" ,f"í (-i"llions of dollit$, which supposedly corresponded with those of the
Australian ""m"bank account, were however drastically reduced by the Swiss prosecutors
among the
Or. 13 O",ob.r, the Swiss police stated to have identified without a doubt
and to have
charred bodies that of Luc Jouret (whon.i many thought had escaped)'
son of former
t"l"gt"^a as Patrick Vuarnet (a young menrber of the- Solar Temple'
d pr"rident oia mulrinational fashion firm' Jean Vuarnet) the
olyfrrc ski champion
'mailmarr' who had sent "t thi documents to passports to
Jean-Frangois Mayer and the
Mambro
French Minister Charles Pasquafoltowing instructions by Joseph Di

IV. Elements for an Intetptetatíon

to search for
Suicide and/or"murder? Wó can find some answers-if we know how
that they could also
them beyond the esotericjargon and without barring the possibility
documents sent to
include some information aimed at side-tracking-in the four
CESNUR nerwork
lean-FrancoisMayer (whom we thank for passingrhem on to the
'pto-pUy).
The explanation includes a suicide and rwo t'?es of murder' According to
able to understand
ih" dà"r,-.rr,r, soÀe especiallyadvanced members of the Order are
sta.àd by the Grand Lodge of Sirius or of Agartha in 1981 is
that-as the cycle 'not a suicide in the
completed-it is time to move on to a superior stageof life It is
bodies to recerve
ho*àtt ,enr" of the ierm', but a deposition of their human
'solar' ones With these new bodies' they now
immediately new invisible, glorious and
operate in another dimeniion, unknown to the uninitiated' presiding over the
'redintegratio" There is also another
dissolution ofthe world and waiting fo! an esoteric
that in order
classofless advancedmembers oftlie Solar Temple who cannot understand
'solar body' one must 'depose' the mortal one The documents imply that
to take on the
 OrdealBY Fire 279

'transition' (in other words' must be

these members must be helped to perform their
'helped'to die) in the least violent way posible Lastly, the documents state that within
the
the îernple's membenhip were also founcl backslidersand traiton, actively helping
of the Solai Temple: the government of Québec and Opus Dei To them
"..h-"n.'-i", 'just
the documents Promise retribution' (in other words, murder,-wìthout the cautions
used wìth the less advanced members). According to a survivor, Thierry Huguenin-
whose last-minute escape was apparently responsible for reducing the casualties
to 53-Jouret and Di Mambro hal phnn"d that exactly 54 vicqas should die in order
,o ,..ui" immediate magical contact with the spirits of 54 Templars burned at the
"r.t
stake in the 14th century.
This scenario may seem consistent with the different ways in which the victims rn
Switzerland and in Òanada died, and with the results ofthe investigations, which seem
to inclicate that the murden in Morin Heights and Cheiry were carried out by two
members of the Temple, Joel Egger and Ms Dominique Bellaton (a manicure-turned
socialite through t"q".l oflo"" with businessmen,well known in Geneva and
" "ff"in
in the ski resort ofAvàriaz), who laterjoined the other leadersin the suicidal act in Les
Granges sur Salvan. In Morin Heights rwo Swissmembers, Colette Genoud and Gerry
Genoird. mav have committed suicide, while Antonio and Nicky Dutoit were savagely
murdered with their 3-month-old baby Emmanuel. According to the Québec police
report of November 1994 the Dutoits were included in the traiton' list also because
they had named their son Emrnanuel. The report argues that Di Mambro's daughter
Emmanuelle-whom Nicky Dutoit had been babysitting and whose mother was
'cosmic child', an exalted being with a
Dominique Bellaton-was regarded as the
precious future, By calling their son Emrrranuel the Dutoits had usurped the unique
'cosmic child', and had in fact transformed
position of Emmanu.le ói Mambro, the
th"i, b"bu son into the Antichrist Hence, according to the Québec police, the
particular\
' elaborate ritual used for killing baby Emmanuel Dltoit and his Parents'
On the other hand, there seems to be a contradiction berween the first three
documents and the fourth one. Ffom the fìrst three documents it seemsthat the tragedy
'Plan', and as a preparation for the
was prearranged,aspart ofthe Grand Lodge ofsirius'
end of the world, which is at any rate impending for a1l humanity' The fourth
'political' note-presents the suicide as an act of protest against
document-on a more 'mass
the persecution by the Government of Québec, whom the document accusesof
muàer', finding a parallel with the activities of the U.S- authorities in Waco and with
other episodes oi violent repression of new relìgious movements by police or
government authorities. Perhaps the contradiction is only apparent, if we interPret the
óanadian incidents of 1993 as the instigating force leading to the final stage of an
apocalyptic itinerary which actually began long time ago. The Québec Police report of
Nou.db.t 1994 claims that, although no evidence of weapon traffìc by the Solar
Temple exists to date, the police action taken in 1993 in fact prevented a mass
suiciàe-cum-homicide taking place in Saint-Sauveur, Canada, at least one year before
the October 1994 ta{edy, and may thus have saved some lives.
After the tragedy oi October 1994, a faulty intelpretation spread widely among the
international pi".., most probably among the general public The Solar Temple
",.rd
incident was compa.ed to earlier events-from Jonestown to Waco-and was simply
'danger
blamed, once more, on the of the cults'. Sociologically speaking, however, one
can immediately notice a difference. The victims ofJonestown and Waco (two events
which are already very different from one another), all belonged to low economical
strata (unemployed young people, unskilled workers, low-salary employees facing
280 M. Introuigne

difiìculties) as is the caseofthe members of many Christian-apocalypúc (or, in the case

ofJonesto$/n, political apocalyptic) new religious movements. Ifwe run through the list
of the identified victims of the Swissfires, we immediately notice a different picture. It
is perhaps enough to read the first names (some of which we already mentioned) ofthe
victims: Robert Falardeau, Chief of a Department of the Ministry of Finances of
Québec; Joyce-Lyne Grand'Maison, a reporter for the daily Journal de Québec, who
worked for eight years as contributing editor for the financia.l page; Camille Pilet,
recently retired as international sales manager of the Swiss multinational watch
corporation Piaget (who was in the process of launching his own brand of designer
watches); Robert Ostiguy, mayor of Richelieu, Québec; Abert Giacobino, business-
'cult'
man in Geneva . . . For a sociologist, this is not a rypical list of members of a or
a new religious movement. The media comparisons with the Jehovah's Witnesses or
The Family could be humorous, if we were not talking about a tragedy. The
high-ranking government officer, the financial reporter, the multinational manager, the
mayor are all types of people one expects to fìnd enlisted not in a new religious
movement, but rather in a club or fratemity. The anti-cult movements have tried to
'cults'
exploit the Solar Temple tragedy to attack the in general and to launch campaigns
against The Family, Scientology and even Jehovah's Witnessesor Hare Krishnas, who
are, on the contrary, religious movements and must be carefully distinguished-from a
sociological and doctrinal viewpoint-from the occult-esoteric groups such as the Solar
Temple. AsJean-FranqoisMayer hasnoted, the structure ofthe Solar Temple may recall
for some featuressome new religious movements. On the other hand, as I have argued
'new
elsewhere, magical movements'share some external features with new religious
movements but should not be confused with the latter since the experience they offer
is inherently different.25 Even the expectation of the end of this world by Christian-
based groups, such as The Family or the Jehovah's Witnesses (aswell as by millions of
pre-millennialists in the evangelicalprotestant world) does not resemble the expectation
of destruction and of magical reconstruction ofthe members' and ofthe world's destiny,
as found in the magical-esotericalviews of the Solar Temple and similar groups.
An acceptable interpretation of the Solar Temple tragedy must be reached on two
levels, which do not exclude each other. The first level must necessarily consider the
'deviant'
odd intrigues bet';veen secret services, more or ìess clandestine Lodges and
Templar organizations in recent neo-Templar history. Both elderlyJoseph Di Mambro,
and younger Luc Jouret, took part in Orders such asJulien Origas' Renewed Order of
the Temple and the Sovereign and Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalenr (in
several of their controversial branches, not to be coníused with others with similar or
even with the same names) long enough to enter in the orbit of influence of groups
whose ties with the French SAC, with the Italian P2 Lodge and with several countries'
secret servicesseem probable in view of court and parliamentary findings. The fact that
Joseph Di Mambro and his wife's passportswere sent to French Minister Charles
Pasqua-whom, according to the French media, was once tied to SAC-is, in this
context, a strange coincidence (or perhaps a warning). Even more puzzling is the way
some information of yet unclear origins provoked the police of Québec to attack the
Solar Temple in 1993, thus exacerbating its apocalyptic fears.
The second level, referring to grounds more familiar to the sociologists than the
world-certainly more obscure to them-of secret servicesand political intrigues, takes
into consideration the specific nature of the apocalyptic current within the magical-
'renovatio',
esoteric uniyerse. The vision of a or a total renewal of the world-which
frequently adopts as its symbols fire and death-is rypical of an occult tradition which,
 OrdealBY Fíre 281

grouPs' seemsto be growing

thoueh a minoriry trend in the world of magrcal-esoteric
li',fr. end of thjs second nillennium. This occult tradition-which,
i,
"irrì.,,* mostly to middle-aged people from a good
unlike' the new religious movemens, appeals
'Ch'itti"tt
beliefs and religion in their traditional
*"iA U""tgrotltta iho g"rl"r^lly .ludt
fv main"tainswith the symbols of fire and death and' more generally
-.""i"pj"*
present world, a metaphorical relation'
,o""t iri. with rhÉ idea of the destruction of the
iJ* r.-pr., fo1smlll'
however,provesthat it is not impossible
il;;;iil;";i;.
milieu to live the
frinEe sections of the apocalyptic curttnt *itliitt the magical-esoteric
ideoìlogy of destruction to tragical and extreme consequences'

Nofes
1 Réer n e Pernoud, ks Templiers, Paris. PressesU n lverslrairesde Frlnce. 1988' p l l For more
:r, r"eg'ndr templaremassonicre Ia realte'rorica' in cESNUR
;ì;:ii;. ,.; M;;; ir"grt",i-.
-Nuoue
iCe'rro Srudi Sulle Relrgii-ni). Messimo lntrovigne (ed.), Massonetiae Reli*ioní'
Leumrnn (Tonno). EIle Di CI !994. pp 63-18'
Frctc'mapnneie tefiplíèreet
-2 For a detaìled account of the -",,"', t"" René Le Forestier' I'a
ou, XVttte et XIXe siècles, vol 2, Paris' La Table d'Emeraude 1987'
occuttirte
Btethret in éhivalry: A celebration of two hundted years oJ the Great Piory 3J
'3 See Frederick Smyrh,
Militury d,xdMasonico ersol sr'lohi oJJerusalem' Palestíne' Rhodesand Malta
ii ùiiiltL"ugtìi,
'"i
lvales ord Prorin,", O'""t's' iottdon, Lewis Masonlc 1991 According to
Èiit ia ,,ía
reached lreiand even before England,
ir"a.îi.n S-u,ft it is possible thai'Tempiari Masonry
maybe a. errly a. rhe i760c (ióid.. p 1o)'
'Che .o,iè l" t"'o"t""' problema delle origini e le origini del
4 See'Masimo Introvigne
problema', in CESNÚR, Massonetía e Religioni' pp' 13-42'
dallo spíritismo4l sdtanistlo'
5 lee Masimo Introvigne, ll uppello del mago l fluovi ltlouifientítt148icí
Milan, SugarCo 1990
hrs Ordtr ofthe Temple and rheJ ohanntce.-C, h"lù:
6 On Bernaìd-Rrymond Fabré-Palaprat. ijl
and-íìom a sceptical yet farourabìe viewpoinc-the work ot rhe unosnc
ibid.. Do.233-231i
Leon.. p"b* Des Esans. ks Hiérophanres. Étu.des. sur_lesJondareurs de rcli2ions
éll,irir[t É]ió.
i"pri, to ntuot ìion nos jolrn' Paris, Chacornac 1905' pp 124-153'
i^qu'à
pp 187-194' On the esoteric
7 On the evens quoted in this paragraph, seemy II cappellodel mago'
Uy Joséphin'Pédda;-whitú totttinut today it iome forms-----seeiúid" and
"J..r-r.""a.d
C;;;;;. gealrftlJ' Io;ephinPéladan 1858-1918 Essaísut une maladiedu-Iyisme' Gtenoble'
Èti*.'r,,itrr.t-iéo.r.iàí
'i*-"tàiln tl. hit,".y of thosesrme orden rhe testimonyof Count-Léoncede
PeÀs'
a" iriìhobgi, coni*poraine ^L'Enrr'aae idèal Hstoire de la Rose*Crcix'
",
Chacornac 1903, is an essentialreading'
influence on Nazism, seeNicholas Goodrick-Clarke' The Ottult
" On the history of ONT and its
8
li"it ol Norilt^, Wellingborough (Northamptonshire), The Aquarian Press 1985'
the scandalousknight
9 Among the me-b.rs oÌ KVMRIS who became neo-Ternplars was
de Sarnt-Marcq. whote rdeas on sex magic ere descnbed in my book' /1
Ceorels Le Clément
,ircntí dellognostitìsno. Carnago (Varere).sugarco lqq3 pp l55-160
my considerationson
10' On the events described in this paragraph and lhe nexf I have based
interviews -iLh membeis of"the occult mrheu in France rnd on nvo books which
#ronrt
obvious inaccuracies' end must therefore be
iiif"a", ,i"tg ,"r,it ln,"r"r,i.,g information, also
Arnaud Chadnjon and Beitrand Galimard Flavigny' orihes et Contre-otìlrcsde
;;t;;;;";tfy,
purpose seperatingthe irue
èheraleìe, Pa;r, Mercure de Frànce 1982 (which has as its main
Ài.,rria. o.a.r, of".rcient.and noble d..ce.rt from .ou.ttetfeits); and André Van Bosbeke, with
Enquétt sur lessociétós ocubeset lesordtesde
ieart-Pier.. D. St".. cke, Cheualietsdu uingtièmesiècle
',h;;;i";ì,;;,;;;;;;;,.'n'".".
epo I q88-(aJourn'li'tjc survev mosdv interested in the politìcal
judicial'
fin"r,.;^l i.pe.tr-of modern neo-Temilarism) Both works quote extensively
",-ri
parliamentary and journaÌistrc sources.
Since the last century
- ' îhn Grand Piory did not rcpresent the Íì$t Italian neo-Templàr Order'
11
b""n -or", ihi.h later entered into the or6it of ore of the main leaden of
;;;; il
"'f"- in ltaly ihis century, Gastone Ventum (1906-81) See ùso hrs Templati e
o.-"ùi n o,r"*"tt*
rcmplaismo, Rome, Atenor 1984
282 M. Introuígne

12 See Jean-Pierre Bayard, L,o Cuide dessocíétés Paris, Philippe Lebaud 1989, p.43; A.
serrètes,
Chaff-anjonand B. Galimard Flavigny, O res& Contre-orcLres de Cheualeie,pp. 169-171. From
OSTS descend also other present-day orders, such as the Ordre des Veilleurs du Temple in
France, with corresponding, parallel organizationsin other countries, which have nothing to do
with the developments described in the next paragraph.
13 On René Guénon's Order ofthe Renewed Temple see my ll cappellodel mago,pp.237-38.
14 Femando Campello o Pinto de SousaFontes also tried to keep OSMTJ's Priories free from ries
with controversial groups, Garing mostly a lossofthe independence from Masonic organizations
so greatly stressedby Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat.During the second halfofthe 1980sa
conflict arcse between the Portuguese Regenr and Alfied Zappelli. The majority of the Swiss
Grand Priory's members accepcedthe authority of Fernando Campello Pinto de Sousa Fontes
and reorganized their Priory in 1988, with Joseph Clerc as Prior. Joseph Clerc's branch is still
quite strong, while AJbercZappelli, today old and in poor heaÌth, keeps only a small handful of
followers (author's telephone interview withJoseph Clerc, 19 October 1994).
15 The only scholarly study on Luc Jouret and his activities, pubJished before the tragedy, is
'Des Ternplien pour l'Ere du Verseau:les Clubs Archédia (1984 1991) et
Jean-FrancoisMayer,
I'Ordre Internacional ChevaleresqueTradition Solaire', MouvementsReligieux,14 (1993), n.153,
pp. 2-10 (summed up in ID. Irs Nowelles uoiesspiituelles.Enquètesw la religiositéparallèlcen
Saisse,Lausanne,L'Age d'Homme 1993 pp. 148-149). In the U.S. a curious book by Gaetar
Delaforge, The Templat Trcdítion ín the Age o.fAquaius, Putney (Vermont), Threshold l3ooks
1987 was published arguing chat the order ofthe Temple had indeed survived after the 14th
century, keeping, in its possession,much occult knowledge and that che International Order of
Chivalry Solar Tradition (i.e. Jouret's order) was its true and legitimate heir. The book (by a
member of the Temple who later defected) was advertised and circulated in che occult-
theosophical subculture, but it is obviously nor a scholarly work. I found also very useful a
dossier including all Canadian press articles on the Solar Ternple preceding the even$ of
October 1994, compiled by the Centre d'lnformations sur les Nouvelles Religions of Montréal,
as well as CESNUR's collection ofU.S., S\ùissaùd Canadian articles following such events, of
which I mention here some ofthe most thorough ones concerning facts,but whose opinions are
to be read cautiously: Michael Matza,'Mix of apocaiypseand ego drove cakisd, Philadelphia
Inquiret,9 Octobet 1994; Alan Riding, 'A Preacher with a Dark Side Led Cultists to Swiss
Cha.letJ', îre Neu Yofu Times, 9 October 1994; see also Massimo Introvigne with J. Gordon
'The
Melton, Solar Temple. A preliminary report on the roots ofa tragedy', a paper presenred
at, the annual conference of the Communal Studies Associatìon in Oneida, New York, 6-9
October 1994; and Tom Post with Marcus Mabry, Theodore Stanger, Linda Kay and Charles
'Suicide
S. Lee, cult', Newsweek,lTOctober 1994,pp. 10-15. For the November 1994 reporr
'Transit vers
by che Sùreté du Quebéc, the Québec police, see Sylvain Blanchard, Sirius', le
Devoír, 79-20 November 1994 and videotape of rhe press conGrence by ofiìcer Richard
Saint-Denis and others supplied to CESNUR by the Centre d'lnfonnation sur les Nouvelles
Religioru, Montréal. The story of a survivor (with true names hiding under pseudonyms) is
Thierry Huguenin, I* 54e, Patls, Fixot 1995.
l 6 T . P o s re t a / . .' S u i c i d ec u ì r ' .p . 1 3 .
17 Luc Jouret, Medécine et Consciexce,Mor'tré.;,l. Louise Courteau 1992. p. 4; letter lrom
Jean-Frangois Mayer to Massimo Introvigoe, 14-15 December 1994. Many thanks to
Jean-FranqoisMayer for his most helpfuÌ comments on an earlier version of this paper.
18 This information is also denied byJoseph Clerc, present Grand Prior ofthe Swis OSMTJ loyal
to Sousa Fontes, who siates thac Joseph Di Marnbro had only casual relations with Alfred
Zappelli, without ever becoming a full-Iìedged member of OSMTJ (telephone interview by the
author with Joseph Clerc, 19 October 1994).
'L'Ordre
19 SeeYves Boisvert, du Tempie Solaire n'a pasI'air de beaucoup déranger Sainte-Anne-
de-la-Pérade', fu Presse(Montréal), 11 March 1993'
'Les
20 Denis Bolduc, membres de I'Ordre nient vouloir importer des arrnes',It Joumal de Qrébec,
11 March 1993.
'L'Ordre
21 Y. Boisvert, du Temple Solaire'.
22 Norman Provencher, 'L'Ordre du Temple Solaire se dit victime de difamation', It Soleil,12
March 1993; Manin Pelchat,'Jouret avait été ecarté de l'Ordre du tenple solaire', fu Pre$e
(Montréal), 18 March 1993.
 Oìleal By Fire 283

'Le
23 Richard Hetu and Martin Pelchat, Juge absout deux ex-membres de I'Ordre du temple
solaire', tu llere (Montréal) 8 July 1993.
'L'Ordre du temple solaireseraitimpliqué', b Devoh, 18 March 1994.
24 SeeBernard Plante,
25 Letter &om Jean-FranqoisMayer to MassimoIntrovigne 14-15 Deiember, 1994. For the
diferences betlveen new magicalmovements(NMMs) and new religious movements(NRMs)
seemy Il uppello del mago.îhis diffetence-and the category of NMMs-has been acknowl-
edgedin thé most receniposition paperon NRMs by the Roman Catholic Church, the geneyl
report ofFrancis Cardinal Arinze at dre Extraordinary Consistory of 1991, and is implied in the
look by Raphaèl Aubert and Carl A. Keller, Vie et mott de I'Odrc du TempleSolairc,Yevey,
Editionsde l'Aire 1994.

and friends of
This paper was originally given in February 1995 asa report for associates
CESNUR, Centre for Studieson New Religions,Torino, Italy.

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE is the director of CESNUR (Centrefor Studieson New

Religion$ in Torino, Ita1y,and a lecturerin the sociologyof religiousmovemenmat
Regina Apostolorum University in Rome, Italy. He is the author of 13 books in the
field ofnew religiousmovementsand contemporarymagic.

úa Bertola86, 10122 Toino, Italy