BIBLIOGRAPHY
Three general surveys with good photographs and an appreciation
of architectural aesthetics may be recommended: Doris Hey-
den’s and my Pre-Columbian Architecture of Mesomamerica
(New York, 1975), Henri Stierlin’s Maya (Fribourg, 1964),
and Stierlin’s Mexique ancien (Fribourg, 1967).
PAUL GENDROP (1987)
Translated from Spanish by Gabriela Mahn
TEMPLE SOLAIRE. The Order of the Solar Temple,
a European esoteric movement, shocked European public
opinion with its mass suicides and homicides of 1994, 1995,
and 1997, and it had a crucial effect on subsequent anticult
activity by various European governments.
THE ARGINY MOVEMENT. A whole group of new religious
movements flourish with foundational mythologies connect-
ed to the medieval Knights Templars. Most trace their origin
to the Order of the Temple founded in 1805 by Bernard-
Raymond Fabré-Palaprat (1777–1838), a French physician
and Freemason. After Palaprat’s death, the movement went
through a number of schisms, and by 1950 more than one
hundred small neo-Templar bodies were in existence
throughout the world. New groups emerged during the
1950s, some of them claiming mystical experiences in which
their founders were directly initiated as Knights Templars
from the spirit world by ascended “Masters of the Temple.”
Jacques Breyer (1922–1996), a prolific French esoteric
author, claimed to have had such an experience with two
companions on June 12, 1952, in the ruins of Arginy Castle
in France. These events led to the establishment of the Sover-
eign Order of the Solar Temple (Ordre Souverain du Temple
Solaire, or OSTS). In the 1960s Julien Origas (1920–1983),
an interpreter who had served four years in jail for his war-
time activities as a Nazi collaborator, became associated with
the Arginy movement, and established the Renewed Order
of the Temple (Ordre Rénové du Temple, or ORT) as an
independent but related branch of the OSTS. On March 21,
1981, the leaders of OSTS and ORT converged in a mystical
ceremony in Geneva on the premises of a third organization,
also recognized by Breyer as part of the Arginy movement:
the Golden Way Foundation, established by Joseph Di
Mambro (1924–1994). The ceremony was—according to
Di Mambro—at least as important as the Arginy experience,
and was later cited as the founding date of the Order of the
Solar Temple.
THE ORDER OF THE SOLAR TEMPLE. Di Mambro was born
in Pont-Saint-Esprit (Gard, France) in 1924. A jeweler by
trade, in 1956 he joined AMORC, the Ancient and Mystical
Order of the Rosy Cross. He left it around 1970, joined the
Arginy movement, and—after a minor skirmish with French
justice in 1971 for writing bad checks—moved to Anne-
masse, near the Swiss border. He later moved to Switzerland,
where in 1973 he started a full-time career as teacher of yoga
and occult philosophy. He also became the founder of several
occult societies. In 1982 Di Mambro’s Golden Way Founda-
tion was joined by Luc Jouret (1947–1994), a popular Bel-
gian homeopathic doctor who had established a practice in
Annemasse. The Amenta Club (later renamed Atlanta), a cir-
cle established by Jouret for his clients and friends, became
a vehicle for disseminating Di Mambro’s ideas. Di Mambro
also introduced Jouret to Origas, and the Belgian doctor
quickly ascended to a leadership position in the ORT.When Origas died in 1983, Jouret claimed to have been
designated as his heir and as leader of the ORT, but his
claims were challenged by the Origas family. Jouret and Di
Mambro eventually left the ORT and established the Inter-
national Order of Chivalry-Solar Tradition, more commonly
known as the Order of the Solar Temple (Ordre du Temple
Solaire, or OTS). By this time they operated a system of Chi-
nese boxes. People initially attended Jouret’s speeches orga-
nized by the Amenta and Atlanta Clubs. Those most inter-
ested were invited to join the Arcadia Clubs. The most
dedicated members of the Arcadia Clubs were eventually in-
vited to join the true secret organization, the OTS. By 1989
(possibly the year of its maximum success) the OTS had 442
members, most of them in French-speaking countries (only
sixteen in the United States). Jouret had considerable success
in Quebec as a motivational speaker, especially at Hydro-
Québec, the public hydroelectric utility of the province,
where he recruited fifteen executives and managers for the
OTS between 1987 and 1989.
By this time, the theme of an imminent end of the
world (originating from certain ideas of Breyer, but includ-
ing new elements about UFOs and extraterrestrials) was a
central part of OTS teaching. When the OTS apocalyptic
worldview was discovered behind the facade of Jouret’s moti-
vational speeches, the group started to experience strong and
organized opposition.
THE TRAGEDY. In 1991 the Martinique branch of ADFI
(Association pour la défense des familles et de l’individu, the
largest French anticult organization) denounced the conver-
sion of wealthy Martinicans to the OTS and their eventual
move to Quebec. ADFI-Martinique was able to join forces
with Rose-Marie Klaus, a disgruntled Swiss OTS ex-member
whose husband Bruno had left her within the frame of new
“cosmic” marriage rearrangements introduced by Di Mam-
bro and allegedly dictated by the ascended Masters. Eventu-
ally, Klaus’s determined opposition made inroads: Jouret
found it increasingly difficult to be invited as a motivational
speaker, and in February 1993 the Canadian police started
investigating the Solar Temple. On March 8, 1993, two
OTS members, Jean-Pierre Vinet and Hermann Delorme,
were arrested as they were attempting to buy semiautomatic
guns with silencers, illegal weapons in Quebec. A warrant for
arrest was also issued against Luc Jouret, at that time in Eu-
rope. In fact, the arms deal had been arranged by a police
informant engaged in a sting operation. The prosecution
ended with a “suspended acquittal” and a minor fine for Jou-
ret, Vinet, and Delorme (with the latter leaving the OTS fol-TEMPLE SOLAIRE 9067