There are those who claim Bernard of Clairvaux to be an Esoteric/Gnostic. One reason being, his uncle was one of the original Knights Templar. Today, high level Freemasons call themselves Knights Templar and Knights of Malta. In the opening pages of Clairvaux Manifesto, in a chapter entitled Fiat Lux (pp. 11-22), I briefly mention the origin of the Cistercians and Knights. Later in the book, I share a Malta Journal Entry (pp. 178-182).

(free preview of the first 34 pages of the manifesto can be downloaded here)

Not long ago, I was praying through downtown Toronto without an agenda and was led to pray outside this building, having no idea it is now known as the MTV Temple. After my prayer tour, I did a Google search on MTV and the masonic, and stumbled upon this take of the 2009 VMA’s.

From pages 214-215 of Clairvaux Manifesto,

The trip to Europe was deeply educational for me, and took my research to a whole new level. For six months leading up to the trip, I had been studying the ruling families of Europe as well as Templars, Hospitallars, Teutonics, Augustinians, Cluniacs, Benedictines, Cistercians, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Jesuits. During my studies, I did not imagine that I would end up in Temple Church in London, or sit on the rooftop terrace of the former Grand Master of the Hospitaller Knights of St. John’s palace in Valletta, or walk among the Benedictine, Cistercian, and Cluniac abbeys of France. Yet, for some reason, everything I had been studying opened up in real time and space right in front of me. The abbeys we visited were at one time full of many people building something wonderful together; stone and light legacies to the power of prayer, work, and friendship.

I’ve read just enough history and geography to recognize that much of what is happening today is a circular and telescopic recapitulation of such history. Today, there’s a lot more media, more stories to spin, and more layers of history which have been documented, debated, and manipulated in various ways. There are more listeners and readers than ever before, who all have their own opinions, memories, and ideas as to how it was, and is, and should be in the future—and, of course, what all of it obviously means or doesn’t mean or shouldn’t mean, to God. I’ll just keep following the bread crumbs of heaven wherever they lead me.

I didn’t write Clairvaux Manifesto with my head in the sand!

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