now i'm scared.....

as for the inquisition, Pope Gregory IX expressedly decreed the start of the inquisition in 1233 to supress what he saw as heresies. he expressedly named as his targets the muslims, jews and cathars. the cathars held mary magdalene to be the patron saint of the knights templar, and they were her devout followers. after this decree by the inquisition they went underground, and much of their teachings were encoded in what we now know as tarot cards. conclusive enough for you?

Cool---I did not know the Cathars were related to Tarot cards.

I wondered about Simon Templar---"The Saint"

Janimal, where did you find all that information?

a friend of mine studied at trinity college years ago, and he used to loan me some pretty unusual books, but i didn't think the info was that obscure. i've no idea of names of books and authors; it was 15 years ago i was into reading up on this stuff, but i'm pretty sure i've seen it mentioned in several. not bestsellers, mind you - mostly pretty dry tedious historical studies.
oh, yeah, i forgot to mention above that the templars were a group within the cathars.

Okay lets back up a bit--The Cathars were wiped out in 1209 (looked it up) but it took another 100 years for the Templars to be named heretics and wiped out--the last head Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake in 1314. How were the Cathars and the Knight Templar related? I thought it was pretty well accepted that the Knights Templar were persecuted because the King of France Phillipe the ??? owed them a ton of money and talked the Pope he had gotten elected to declare them heretics. While they were pretty successful in France--there were some who escaped (to England, Scotland, Nova Scotia?????)

I remember when I was little, I had friends that were involved in "Rainbow Girls" (www.iorg.org) and "Job's Daughter's" (www.iojd.org) both of which were affiliated with the Masons and had a boys group called "Order of the Demolay" (www.demolay.org). All meetings were in the Masonic temples and were secretive.
Interestingly enough, despite all the talk about goddess worship, women used to not be allowed at their secret meetings (Some were open to the public) and are not allowed to be Masons which is why they created the groups for the girls but the men could go to any women's closed door meetings at any time.
Also interesting, only daughters/granddaughters/nieces of Masons were allowed to be Job's daughters, and Rainbow Girls were for those less fortunate ones!
I remember wanting to join, and my parents were ok with it at first, then when they were told they were not allowed to attend the regular meetings unless they were members, they pulled me out.
Also interesting, the women & girls were all very nice, but the men were very rude.
Perhaps because I am Catholic... Hmmm...
Or maybe it was just because I was a brat!!

Has anyone been involved with, or heard anything about these organizations?

I vaguely remember some of these being mentioned by people when I was in high school. DeMolay in particular rang a bell. I can also remember my Grandmother had belonged to something called Eastern Star-but until you mentioned them had forgotten all about it. Anyone else know anything?

Um, not really I'm afraid! I know about the Inquisition....that of course is very well documented. But this is the first time I've even heard of Mary Magdalene connected with the Cathars......I'm not saying you're wrong, but the mainstream history books I've read on the subject seem to omit any mention of it. Admittedly the Cathars are a bit mysterious though....most of what we know about them comes from biased sources, i.e. Catholic sources. Maybe the books you refer to were based on some research that never hit the mainstream, dunno.

Their main beliefs sprang from the embers of the earlier Gnostic tradition, as far as I'm aware....admittedly some Gnostic texts do show Mary Magdalene in a very different light to the canonical Gospels, so maybe there is a link there. But as far as I'm aware, a devotion to her was not any kind of central plank of the Cathar faith. I think the main reason why the Cathars were oppressed is because, like the Gnostics before them, and like the Muslims and Jews you mention, their religious beliefs happened to differ from those of Catholicism and therefore naturally warranted death and eternal damnation! :p

As for the Templars and the Cathars, there is a theory that there was a link, true. In fact that theme is explored in the novel I mentioned in another thread, 'All Things are Lights' by Robert Shea. Officially, though, the Templars were orthodox Catholics, although they were later decried as heretics. But did they really have 'heretical' beliefs, or was that just an excuse for the Pope to get rid of them? I don't think anyone really knows for sure.

I had forgotten about Eastern Star... Interesting that Dan Brown touched upon NONE of these organizations in his book... The symbolism in their names alone is off the charts!!!

Satrina; i did'nt know that about the rainbows girls we have them in this village..i'll look into a bit more but we do have a large Masonic community here so it is a probable link.TY