Temple Church (London)

The Church of the Knights Templars in London, consisting of two parts, the Round Church and the Choir. The Round Church (transition Norman) was built in 1185. The Choir (early English style) was finished in 1240.

Hargrave Jennings, in his book The Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries (1870), states that the Temple Church in London presents many mythic Rosicrucian figures. One figure signifies the Virgin Mary, and displays the cross as rising like the pole or mast of a ship (argha ) out of the midst of a crescent moon (navis biprora ), curved at both ends.

The staff of the grand master of the Templars displayed a curved cross of four splays, or blades, red upon white. The eight-pointed red Buddhist cross was also one of the Templar ensigns.

The church's arches abound with stars with wavy or crooked flames. The altar at the east end of the Temple Church has a cross on a field of wavy stars; to the right is the Decalogue, surmounted by the initials A.O. (alpha and omega); on the left are the monograms of the Saviour, I.C., X.C.; beneath is the Lord's Prayer. The winged horse, or Pegasus, is the badge of the Templars.

The tombs of the Templars, disposed around the circular church in London, are of that early Norman shape called dos d'ane; their tops are triangular; the molding passes through the temples and issues out of the mouth and horned skull of a mask. The head at the top is shown in the cover of the tomb. There is much hidden meaning in every curve of these Templar tombs.