The Templar’s Song, “A Kabbalistic Tale” - A One Man Show

Ten-minute introduction - Singers, instrumentalists, jugglers, acrobats, fire breathers and sword swallowers

1) A Vow

Good evening. I hope you enjoyed the music and acrobatics of my troupe of entertainers. They have been with me for many years. They have come with me to England, and they all come from various parts of the Holy Land. We have been through a lot together. But I am getting ahead of myself. You are here to hear my story so let me begin.

I am now a sixty-year-old former Templar. I was born in Winchester. My family claims that they came from France with William the Conqueror in 1066. I believe it is true. My father was a knight, and I became a knight. I learnt how to read and write, and I learnt how to fight.

I was physical when I was a young man. I liked the sword, the spear, the axe. I learnt from the peasants how to fight with a staff and my fists. I went hunting. I was a man of my time but for one thing. I loved poetry and song.

And so I became a patron of the arts. I wrote lyrics and songs. I hired jongleurs to sing and perform them and above all, I hired acrobats and conjurers to entertain my guests before feasts. These men and women could blow fire, swallow swords and walk on a bed of nails.

How they did it or still do it, I do not know, but their presence in my life has always reminded me to be thankful for the small things as the larger ones often disappoint. You have already seen them perform. They are never far from me.

My mother had the voice of an angel, and she would sing religious songs and ballads to me while she played the lute. She herself taught me how to sing and play the lute. Every roving minstrel or aristocratic Troubadour who showed up in our hall was asked to play for us and at times, fortified with extra containers of wine, they would teach me their songs and melodies.

I got married when I was twenty. I was betrothed to the daughter of a related family. I knew not the woman, but we discovered we were like minded. We had two children and despite the turbulence of our time we were happy enough.

When I was forty, we took a boat to Cornwall. The storm broke up our boat and we were washed overboard. I was the only one to survive.

On that terrible day, I sinned as I was unable to save my family and so, I vowed to go to the Holy Land, join the Templars, and protect the Kingdom of Jerusalem (or what was left of it) from the infidels. When I arrived, I found out that nothing was as it seemed.

Click below to hear Richard Burton reading Section 1 - A Vow:

Richard-Burton-reads-Section-1-A-Vow

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First piece - Worldly bliss can last no more:

2) Confession – Life in the East

Upon arrival in the Holy Land I was soon inducted into the Templars. I was sworn to secrecy but as I write my will, I now believe that at least some of these secrets can be shared with my heirs, my nephews by my brother’s wife. They in turn will not share them widely because although aristocratic I have taught them how to build, and they are fine architects and masons.

In the Holy Land I soon discovered that the Templars had changed and then, slowly, I changed with them.

For example they insisted that we bathe each day. In England I bathed once a month in a river and avoided bathing during the winter months.

We learnt to eat local foods with our right hand, and they were well spiced. In addition to alcohol we were allowed to take hashish and in addition to all the rituals of our faith, we were inducted into a world of symbols and rituals unique to the Templars.

By that time Jews had returned to our lands, and we had as many Muslim subjects as we had Christian. Our Templar masters taught us that we were the guardians of all of Jerusalem’s peoples, Christian, Jewish and Muslim.

Some of our masters sat at the feat of Kabbalists and Sufis and both our Christian faith and practice began to be more tolerant of others, as opposed to the orthodoxy preached by newly arrived friars from Rome or England.

We listened to the synagogue chants of the Jews and sang our songs to their melodies, and we momentarily paused from our labors when the muezzin made the call to prayer.

Second piece - Syrian Sufi song:

3) Becoming a Master Mason

The Templars trained me as an architect and stonemason, and I became the man who repaired our many castles and churches which were built in the circular fashion like the Temple of Solomon beside the Church of the Sepulcher.

My teachers were Jews; many of whom claimed to be direct descendants of the Jewish Priests who were trained to build the Temple of King Herod and which I read about in Josephus’, book the Jewish Wars. I have a copy in Latin.

These men were Cabbalists and transferred to me not only the craft that I mastered but its symbolism. Most of it is not from the Talmud and concerns itself with the twelve principles of creation, the Sephiroth and their relation to Solomon’s Temple. I memorized the book called the Sepher Yetzira and with it the oral tradition of geometry and building.

I was sworn to secrecy when I was given this wisdom. Slowly I learnt Hebrew and I was struck by this passage:

Two stones build two houses,

Three stones build six houses,

Four stones build twenty-four houses,

Six stones build one hundred and twenty houses,

Seven stones build five thousand and forty houses.

From here on go out and think what the mouth is unable to speak, and the ear is unable to hear.

And then I learnt Aramaic, the language of the Christians of Syria whom I was told are descendants of the family of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I would go to their church to hear the songs that I believed Jesus and his family must have sung. My Templar master encouraged all of this.

Third song - Hebrew medieval Piyyut in old pronunciation from Tiberias:

4) Falling in Love

I had loved my wife and the memory of the love of my children left me with a dull ache in my heart for many years. Then one day all that changed. I met a widow. She was a Jewish woman, a woman who ran a fruit and vegetable business. What the Arabs call a Dallal.

I had dealings with her as I supplied our fraternity with its meat, vegetables, fruit, and wine for as it turned out, I had a talent for selecting good produce.

She was literate and her father had taught her to read and write. She knew the Old Testament and had read the New Testament in Aramaic which she had learnt from her private Talmudic study. She was fearless and she knew that only if she blasphemed our Lord in public would she be punished.

Instead, she regaled me with questions that I could not answer, the most profound being, “What is the nature of your savior. Is he man or God? He is both, or three of something else?” And then she would ask me if he had truly preached turning the other cheek, why were the Christians who ruled the land so violent?”

I could not answer her but instead of causing grief it drew me to her, and we would go over the news and gossip of our most insecure and finally semi tolerant Christian Kingdom in a sea of Saracenic hostility. Jews would go freely to and from our neighbor’s emirates and so the gossip would just fly as she saw more than I did.

For my part I would tell her about the constant intrigue of our rulers, of the French against the English and the English against the Germans and the intrigues of the Italians, all good and loyal subjects of our Kingdom of Jerusalem whose Holy City was no longer in our hands.

Ours was a never-ending tale of deceit, sprinkled with occasional nobility. I thought it would go on forever because we rarely see major changes ahead of us. I vowed I would never bed my love for I was a loyal Templer sworn to celibacy or at least I thought.

Fourth Song - Merry It is When Summer Lasts:

5) Leaving the Templars

I confessed to my master that I was in love with my Jewish grocer. Her name was Ruth. He told me that the first Crusaders had massacred most of the Jews of Jerusalem and that it was only just that the Jews had returned to the Kingdom for they have much to teach us, especially about building in stone and the protection of the Temple, before Christ returns.

He told me that the Templars believe the Jews are God’s chosen people, and that I was discovering the lost craft of building that they had learnt from Hiram of Tyre. My master believes that many paths lead to God and that we must first be good Christians.

He knew I had to leave the brotherhood and there was a touching ceremony where all the ritual acts that had been done when I joined were now done in reverse order, amidst smiles and blessings. Soon I would be free.

I bought an estate in the Galilee. Ruth, and I lived there in peace for some years. We had thousands of olive trees and lived off the sale of their oil. We were not poor and as we lived in separate houses no one knew of our intimacy.

And there, amongst the Franks, the Jews and Muslims I reconstituted my entertainers, fire breathers, acrobats and the like and so I take my leave for a few minutes to drink with some friends while they entertain you, for it would be unchivalric for me to simply talk to you all evening without some additional entertainment.

Music set to acrobatics:

Intermission

Fifth song - Kalenda Maya:

6) Strife

Let me tell you that happiness does not last long, even when you have built it yourself in good masonic style.

One year the rains did not fall. The Bedouin from across the Jordan moved west in force. They set up their tents and brought their herds close to our farms. They kept to themselves, and we did the same. Then one night they attacked.

I had trained two hundred farmers in the art of war. We had dug trenches around our farms. We had planted sharp sticks in pits on the way to our farms and houses.

We also had small mangonels which rained Greek fire at a distance, and we communicated by pigeons. It was all over in five hours. We had lost five men, and the Bedouin had lost two hundred and fifty. They sued for peace, and we discussed terms with their Sheikh.

We demanded one out of every ten of their sheep and that they would give us every knife, sword, and shield that they had used against us. We insisted two young sons of the Sheikh live with us and that they would be brought up as Christians.

The Bedouin had no choice and when the rains returned in the following years they moved east across the Jordan. Four years later we sent their boys home.

I know not what faith they follow but Ruth taught them the rudiments of the belief of the Jews and so I do not know if they will go to heaven or not.

Sixth song - Rege Mentem

7) Plague Strikes the Land

Within a few years the locusts swarmed up from Arabia devouring every living thing. Hunger plagued the land. Our stores began to run out. People did not have enough to eat, and they began to die in large numbers. Disease was a result of hunger.

We had enough granaries to feed ourselves and our own people. We stored them in cisterns. Brigands infested the land, both Christian and Muslim. It did not matter. Men who had lost their wives and children to hunger lived and died by the sword. The King paid grocers to distribute what they had in their stores.

And then a tribe of Turkish speaking nomads came down from Syria and plagued the land. I raised one hundred horsemen and 1000 men on foot. We fought these nomads to a standstill and then my men lost control.

They killed every one of them knowing had they not, they could have ransomed them for much money. I fasted for a month. I lived off bread and water. I went to mass every day. I asked God for forgiveness.

Ruth told me that only living men could forgive what our soldiers had done and that it would be certain death to cross into Syria and ask forgiveness of the women folk of this tribe. I had nightmares for a year after that. Such is life.

Seventh Song – Afghan Tea house song

8) King Richard

And so I was summoned by King Richard. He had come to the Holy Land to fight. I was called by his men to join his fighting band. He lived like a king, he walked like a King, and he talked like a King as if God himself had given him the right to rule. He liked to drink. He liked to talk, and he was musical.

He could read and write Latin, recite poetry in French, and picked up some spoken Arabic during his campaign. In the evenings I spent much time playing the lute while he sang.

He was peculiar. During one major battle he sent a message to the opposing Emir that they should meet in a tent and break from fighting and feast until the next day. I was part of the entourage.

Early in the morning he motioned to a servant who brought out a chest of gold for our enemy. He looked at it, motioned to his entourage to break camp and we watched his troops retreat beyond the Jordan for the rest of the day. Richard had shown no fear during the feast and carried no weapon. He had no fear of death.

He lived a charmed life and as a token of my loyalty he gave me a sword adorned with silver gold, diamonds, and semi-precious jewels. I sold it to pay my troops. I learned many new songs and melodies that Richard had brought from Europe.

Just before he left Acre for France, I took him to my home where my entertainers regaled him and his men for a night of song and feasting. He left the next morning.

Eighth song – Ja nus hons pris (Written by Richard the Lionheart!)

9) I Become a Master Mason

The king called me to Jaffa and insisted that I learn everything I could from the master of the Jewish masons. I had been doing this since I arrived in the land and then I spent then next year in Galilee, the Lebanon and Syria up to Antioch repairing castles and fortifications.

We had lost Jerusalem to the Saracens but at least were given the right of pilgrimage and my Templar brothers protected pilgrims on their long walk from the coast to the holy city.

We Franks were having great trouble attracting young men to take up the cross and come and fight the Saracens, or even just defend ourselves from them. Their incursions became more frequent and more violent.

Our armies and our aristocrats in the land were being selectively terrorized by assassins, a cult of men who took large amounts of hashish and swopped down from the mountains of Syria to destabilize us. Their leader was called the “Old Man of the Mountain.” I knew that I must meet with him, if only to be sure that the rumors were true.

I set off to meet him in the middle of winter with a small band of men. We encountered much snow and ice and passed frozen mountain passes. Various bands of outlaws questioned my mission but were terrified when they discovered that I was off to visit the Old Man of the Mountain and so they kept their distance.

Finally one early spring day we arrived. An emissary from the leader of the Assassins invited me to his castle. I went alone.

He received me as an honored guest. He gave me liquor of aniseed and slaughtered a sheep in my honor. We dined and talked until late at night.

He had read Arabic translations of the Bible as by now the Jews of Baghdad had translated it into Arabic. He had read an Arabic version of the New Testament. He had studied the works of Plato and Aristotle and some of the Sufis of Islam. His kingdom in Syria was just a little smaller than our own crusader kingdom.

He said, “I am amazed that you have had the courage to come and meet me. I do not get many visitors, but I send out many assassins. It is my way of showing your rulers and your enemies rulers that it is not in their interest to come and harass me. Otherwise, I have no conflict with your kingdom. It is just my unique style of warfare. I do not play by the rules, but I am a just ruler of own people.

The Old Man would often end a statement with quote from the Bible, the Gospel, or the Koran. He was about sixty-five years old, and he looked like he could ride and sleep on a horse for a week. He was a fit mountaineer. After a week he gave me many gifts and a shawl of gold for Ruth.

He said, “I have no quarrels with the Jews. You are living in their land and one day you will be gone. It is written in one of our sacred books that one day they will return to rule. So do well by them.”

He then recited this quote from the Koran, he got up and bid me farewell.

“And [remember] when Moses said to his people: ‘O my people, call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples.

Ninth song – Afghan Tunbur melody

10) Going Home

It took two weeks to ride home back to my rural estate in the Galilee. I kept myself amused by reciting the story of Tristan and Isolde.

These are some of the verses that came to mind, in no particular order.

Within her room at Tintagel, Iseult the Fair sighed for the sake of Tristan, and named him, her desire, of whom for two years she had had no word, whether he lived or no.

Within her room at Tintagel Iseult the Fair sat singing a song she had made. She sang of Guron taken and killed for his love, and how by guile the Count gave Guron’s heart to her to eat, and of her woe. The Queen sang softly, catching the harp’s tone; her hands were cunning and her song good; she sang low down and softly.

Then came in Kariado, a rich count from a far-off island, that had fared to Tintagel to offer the Queen his service, and had spoken of love to her, though she disdained his folly. He found Iseult as she sang, and laughed to her:

“Lady, how sad a song! as sad as the Osprey’s; do they not say he sings for death? and your song means that to me; I die for you.”

And when I returned, I woke up in the middle of the night with a haunting melody. I called it the Lament of Tristan.

Song number ten – Lament of Tristan

11) I am Sent to Scotland

The Templar master had one final request for me to fulfill.

He asked me to take my masonic knowledge and my understandings of the geometer’s art that is the oral tradition of the Sefer Yetsira.

He had had a dream that one day the Templars would save the King of Scotland. He did not know when and why. It could be in one hundred years, but he knew that we must begin to prepare Scottish Templars to defend their throne.

The hows and whys of it were beyond me and so I travelled to Scotland, trained Templars there in the art of fortifications and war. A local fortune teller blessed me and told me that one day a man with the name of Bruce would call upon the Templars to defend his throne. I did not pay attention to this as I longed to return to Ruth. After two years I managed to get home but soon the end was near.

Eleventh song – Flowers of the Forest (Dark Isle Bagpiper)

12) The Twelve Tribes and the Twelve Apostles

My master gave me a secret book called The Twelve Tribes and the Twelve Apostles. It is a Cabbalistic book and predicts much of what may happen in England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland in the times to come and that it must only be shared with other Templar Masons so they can act in their best interests.

I always kept it close to me as the Saracens were pushing us out of the Holy Land. We had lost Jerusalem and then much of the rest of the country at the battle of the Horns of Hattin. Our shattered remnant retreated to St John of Acre. I cannot return for we were defeated there, and all the Templars have fled to Cyprus.

I left Ruth behind because she refused to come to Acre and then England. She told me that her family had never left the Land of Israel and one day, she did not know when, her people would rule there like in the times of King David.

As the boat that was to take me back to England approached the harbor I wept as I stepped on board.

Twelfth song – Pour mon Coeur

So now you have heard my story. There is so much more but I am very tired. I must go pray and then I will sleep. But first I must bathe in hot water.

Some people here have accused me of being a wizard for doing so. That makes me laugh and so I leave you to be entertained by my troupe. Then you too can go home and also bathe and feast.

God bless you all.

Good night.