Swiss Templars

How Switzerland became keeper of the Templar legacy

When Ignatius of Loyola became the first “Father General” of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1540, he did so in a very different-looking continent than Europe appears today. Pope Paul III, who approved the society’s foundation within the Catholic church, had his home in the Papal States, which existed in the northern half of…

Templars

The Crusades and the journey down the rabbit hole

Perhaps you’ve never heard of the Black Pope, Octogon, Executive Outcomes and Blackwater, but the names Dutch East India Company, Hudson’s Bay Company, Wells Fargo and Jesuits may strike more of a chord? No doubt many will have come across the Templars, Crusaders and Masons… but what do all these bodies have in common? Well…

The media war to capture the human psyche

Renowned Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud considered the human psyche to be at the centre of an individual’s emotions, thoughts and behaviour, controlling everything from a person’s interaction with family, friends and colleagues to beliefs about religion, education, death and all else in between. He characterised the psyche as consisting of three conflicting parameters… the id,…

Mount Kailash: The most sacred site on Earth

In a land of giant peaks at the summit of the world, Mount Kailash doesn’t even figure in a list of the 25 highest… in yet it still manages to stand out from all the other mountains in the Tibetan massif. At approximately 22,000 ft above sea level, it is the most sacred site on…