Page 15 - CSIV n 3 ENG version

Hospitallers: two functions, the same Templar identity. On the

one hand, the Order of the Temple was intended to elevate nature
and the knowledge of man; so much so that those who first went to

Jerusalem to dig under the temple returned after 15 years. At

that time Bernard built one of the largest centres today - with a

modern term - a campus - within which he gathered the greatest

connoisseurs of the astronomy of the mathematics of the cabal

(even today the path of knowledge of the Kabbalah)

Hebrew finds a point of reference in the French school of
Provence). Even today, after 700 years, we wonder what brought

those Knights back from that land: nobody knows. For sure,

however, they brought something that after a few years transforms

the world. The huts, which were built of wood and bricks made of

straw and mud, become Cathedrals that rise in the sky that
identify in their astronomical position with the constellations

and transform the knowledge of man towards a path, also symbolic,

in which the representation of the One becomes an instrument of

civil and social elevation. More: Man identifies in that way a

path - that of the Guilds and communion of profession, the

companionship-of elevation in which through work ennobles and

frees one's own person, in the Guilds it forms, raises and
becomes a master of art. This is also a way to read what in

modernity is called "the transmission of the secret from mouth to

ear": in reality those men could neither read nor write, those

men were blacksmiths, they were bricklayers, they were

stonemasons and they had found the identity path towards a
process of elevation still present, and even today we live by

that knowledge because it is the element in which man manifests

all his mastery. It is that of the transformation of matter

through its own idea, its own intelligence into an object that

becomes an element not only of use but also of communication, of

community. For this reason, I think that the Templar has had an
enormous influence in the construction of Freemasonry and

Freemasonry has had an enormous influence on the identity of the

Templars. For the few curious readers I quote only the "Shardana"

the people of Dan where they will find a figure dear to the

Masons: Hiram the "Magus".

GB-

Can you tell me three good reasons for becoming a mason and three for not being a mason?

TB-

I know only one good reason to be a Freemason that is to

rediscover oneself and understand the meaning of our journey

within this earthly world. Understanding this reason makes us
grasp a more alive sense of what arises from a question: why do I

exist on this earth? For simplicity, I represent two extremes of

our existence: birth and death.

In this time frame, which is our journey, we can choose if

be tourists who look absently to return to the starting point, or

pilgrims who live by observing and penetrating time and space.