Editing Order of the Solar Temple (section)

== History ==

=== Background ===
The OTS was one of numerous [[neo-Templar]] organizations active in France and Switzerland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These organizations followed a tradition of claiming unbroken descent from a lineage of [[Grand master (order)|grand masters]] that claimed to go back to the original medieval [[Knights Templar]]; the original Knights Templar had been dissolved by [[Pope Clement V]] following accusations of witchcraft and [[heresy]] at the beginning of the fourteenth century.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=219}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|pages=19–20}} In 1310, 54 Templar knights were burned at the stake, and four years later the Grand Master and a local leader were as well.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=297}} French esotericist and alchemist [[Jacques Breyer]] initiated a resurgence of neo-Templar groups in France in 1952. This "Arginy renaissance" was tied to a claimed mystical experience in the [[Castle of Arginy]], which led to the founding of the [[Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple]] (OSTS), which was formally created in 1966.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=141}}{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=126}}

[[Joseph Di Mambro]] was a French jeweler with an interest in esotericism. After scamming a business partner in the late 1960s, Di Mambro fled France, before returning to [[Pont-Saint-Esprit]] in 1972 and acting as a psychiatrist. Soon after, he was sentenced to six months in prison for writing bad checks, breaching patient trust, and for impersonating a psychiatrist.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=37}}{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=301}} In the late 1960s, he became a member and lodge leader of the [[AMORC]] organization in [[Nîmes]], France.{{sfn|Michaud|1996|p=32}} AMORC is the largest contemporary [[Rosicrucian]] organization, structured into lodges which performed initiation rituals into specific degrees.{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=126}} [[Luc Jouret]] was a Belgian homeopath. He traveled widely studying various forms of alternative and spiritual healing, before settling in [[Annemasse]] and practicing homeopathy there.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=29|pp=28–29}}

=== The Pyramid and Golden Way ===
In 1973, Di Mambro founded and became president of the Center for the Preparation of the New Age ({{Langx|fr|Centre de Préparation à l'Age Nouveau}}, CPAN).{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=288}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=174}}{{sfn|Michaud|1996|p=32}}{{Efn|According to Bogdan, CPAN was the first iteration of the OTS and therefore it started in 1973.{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=288}} Others say the OTS was founded in 1978 with the Golden Way or 1984 as a schism from ORT.}} CPAN was a yoga school, but also presented itself as a "cultural center for relaxation".{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=174}} In 1976, eight people including Di Mambro, most of whom lived together, formed a building society in [[Collonges-sous-Salève]] and bought a building that they called "The Pyramid" ({{Langx|fr|La Pyramide}}).{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=174}}{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}} The group was also called by its members the Fraternity of the Pyramid ({{Langx|fr|Fraternité de la pyramide}}).{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023a|loc=0:25–1:29}} This hid an esoteric society, consecrated as the Temple of the Great White Universal Lodge, Pyramid Sub-Lodge 24 June 1976.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=174}} In June 1977, Di Mambro met orchestral conductor [[Michel Tabachnik]], who, having an interest in esotericism, attended and became a member.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}}{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023a|loc=00:45–01:12}}

On 12 July 1978, Di Mambro founded the Golden Way Foundation ({{Langx|fr|Fondation Golden Way}}). The Golden Way became the center of activities in Di Mambro's variety of groups.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=174}} Several members donated large amounts of money, allowing them to buy a property in [[Saconnex d'Arve|Saconnex-d'Arve]] (Geneva) which hosted meetings, including for non-members.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=174}}{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023a|loc=08:10–09:00}} The Golden Way functioned as a "front" for a smaller group of people, the "Fraternity", which undertook secret esoteric rites.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=174}} The Fraternity, like many other New Age organizations in the 1970s, had communal ideals, holding all their property communally. This attracted members — one member had previously been in the Scottish [[Findhorn Foundation|Findhorn]] New Age group — but also disappointed them when the reality of the group failed to live up to the ideal.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|pp=174–175}} As well as the Fraternity there was the "Community", which was made up of members who kept their income and paid for rent/food and drink.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=175}}

While the group's headquarters were impressive, the group lacked a successful communicator with which to spread its ideas.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=175}} In 1981, Jouret was invited as a speaker, and spoke about homeopathic medicine at one of their conferences. Di Mambro was impressed by him, and invited Jouret to join, and he was officially accepted into the group alongside his wife on 30 May 1982, where he quickly rose in the ranks.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=175}} Di Mambro then told others that Jouret possessed charisma, so he should be the frontman for the group, while Di Mambro controlled it from behind the scenes. Jouret became the group's "propagandist" and began giving lectures promoting it in 1983.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=175}}

=== Cosmic child ===
In June 1981, Di Mambro, then 57, began an affair with then 21-year-old Dominique Bellaton. He later claimed to receive a revelation from the "masters" that Bellaton would produce a "cosmic child" through theogamy.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}}{{Efn|Referring to the concept of conceiving a child through divine intervention without sexual relations.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}}}} About that time, Jouret founded the Amenta Club (later renamed simply Amenta, then Atlanta).{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=29}} In 1982, Di Mambro announced that a "great mission" awaited the foundation. He also announced that a "child-king" was to be born into the community.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023a|loc=20:40–21:00}} Di Mambro had actually impregnated Dominique Bellaton, a former manicurist, who was well known in Geneva and had previously had several affairs with businessmen.{{sfn|Labelle|2006|p=160}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=36}} Di Mambro claimed that this child's conception was created from the power of his mind and [[Immaculate Conception]].{{sfn|Labelle|2006|p=160}}{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=310}}

Their child, initially named Anne Bellaton, was born on 22 March 1982.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}}{{sfn|Labelle|2006|p=160}} The child was viewed as "the Christ of the new generation",{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}} but was born female, something attributed by Di Mambro to human imperfection (believing the child's mother being human had led to an imperfect Christ).{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=221}} Di Mambro claimed the child was an Avatar, a male soul trapped in a female body. She was then renamed Emmanuelle (the male version, Emmanuel, being [[Jesus]]'s messianic name), but was referred to with male pronouns.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=221}}{{sfn|Labelle|2006|p=160}} He required Emmanuelle to wear gloves and a helmet to protect her purity as the "cosmic child", who he considered the "messiah-avatar" of the planet's new age.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=302}}

=== Renewed Order of the Temple ===
{{Main|Renewed Order of the Temple}}
In 1970, French legate of [[AMORC]] [[Raymond Bernard (esotericist)|Raymond Bernard]] established the neo-Templar group the [[Renewed Order of the Temple]] (ORT) at the suggestion of [[Julien Origas]],{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=27}} who was given control of the group shortly after.{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=126}} During a meeting of the ORT and the OSTS with the Golden Way Foundation in 1981, Julien Origas met Jouret.{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=127}} Origas was impressed by him, and invited him to come to Auty with him and join ORT.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=125}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=145}}{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}} Jouret was initiated into ORT, quickly rising into its leadership ranks.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=145}} Jouret and Origas became close,{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=30}} and Origas may have appointed Jouret to be his successor and the next Grand Master.{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=127}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=145}}

Origas died in 1983, after which Di Mambro urged Jouret to take over the order, and he became its new grand master that year.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}} The same year, Michel Tabachnik was made president of the Golden Way Foundation.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}} Jouret was initially accepted by the remaining ORT members as successor, but began introducing new and foreign concepts into the ORT, inspired by Di Mambro's ideas.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=145}} Jouret was never consecrated as Grand Master, which was an important process to many esoteric groups, and he was not an officer in the legal aspects of the organization; this was used to oust him in 1984.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=146}}

=== Founding ===
Following this, the ORT schismed. Jouret had no legal right to the ORT name, so he founded a splinter group in Geneva, Switzerland upon his ousting, alongside Di Mambro, in 1984.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=146}}{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}} Jouret later claimed that this schism had been the will of the [[ascended master]]s, who had appeared to him two years prior and revealed to him a 13 year plan until the world ended.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=30}} This group was formally created 21 June 1984, and at the time of its creation the Golden Way Foundation was formally dissolved (though "Golden Way" was still used to refer to the group's Geneva commune, that still had 50 members).{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=223}} 

It was first called the ORT–Solar Tradition before being renamed the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition ({{Langx|fr|Ordre international chevaleresque de Tradition solaire}}, OICTS or OICST) and finally the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS).{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=146}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=30}}{{efn|The "Order of the Solar Temple" may have initially been the inner circle of the OICST before becoming its main title.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=30}}}} Jouret, a compelling speaker, was the "front man" for this organization, though Di Mambro was the actual leader.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=126}}{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=303}}

=== Activities ===
[[File:The_Templar_Tradition_in_the_Age_of_Aquarius_cover.jpg|alt=Cover reads at the top The Templar Tradition in the Age of Aquarius. Reads at the bottom Gaetan Delaforge. In the middle of the cover is a painting of a grail on a checkered Knights Templar flag, with a night sky background.|thumb|Cover of ''[[The Templar Tradition in the Age of Aquarius]]'', produced to spread the OTS's belief|upright=.8]]The OTS was dually schismatic and a direct continuation of the original ORT, with occult-apocalyptic teachings descended from that of Jacques Breyer and Origas, which it tied to other apocalyptic concepts,{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=30}} and some [[white supremacist]] ideas from Origas.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=33}} Breyer attempted to mediate the schism, suggesting the groups separate with goodwill; Breyer's mediation did not work and the OTS and the other branch of ORT grew to dislike one another. He suggested that Jouret and Di Mambro's group transfer to Canada to spread the movement.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=146}}{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=222}} The ORT already had some Canadian administration in [[Trois-Rivières]] and [[Quebec City]], which were led by Robert Falardeau. To convince him to help them find land in Canada, Falardeau was given the title of "grand financier" by Jouret and Di Mambro.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=222}} 

From then on, the group's most active locations were in French-speaking Europe and Quebec; from Quebec, the group intended to spread its influence to the United States, and began a translation project to make OTS ideas available to English speakers. This was mostly unsuccessful, as the OTS never had more than a few American members.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=177}} In the English speaking world, the OTS went by the names Order TS and Hermetica Fraternitas Templi Universali.{{sfn|Bogdan|2006|p=144}} In 1987, a member of the order using the pseudonym Gaetan Delaforge wrote ''[[The Templar Tradition in the Age of Aquarius]]'' in English to spread the order's Templar ideas into the United States. The book argues that the Templars survived to the modern day, and that the OTS was its ultimate successor, and was spread in occultist circles.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=146}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=194}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=28}}

In 1985, Di Mambro decided to set up a survival center in [[Canada]] in the event of [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]]. An estate, named Sacred Heart ({{Langx|fr|Sacré-Coeur}})  was purchased in [[Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade]], [[Quebec]], to create an organic farm.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=224}} The organization set up several subsidiaries, both official and hidden, to finance these real estate purchases; Di Mambro made a profit by reselling his stakes in these purchases to members.{{sfn|Michaud|1996|p=33}} Di Mambro asked Tabachnik to draw up a series of writings to inspire him to rise in ranks within the order, called the Archées.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023a|loc=40:35–41:33}} Many of the Order's concepts and principles were inspired by these writings, third degree initiatory texts.{{sfn|Labelle|2006|p=162}} Written between 1984 and 1989, they were made up of 21 articles, each ranging from 15 to 20 pages.{{sfn|Labelle|2006|p=162}} They were considered difficult to understand even by members of the OTS.{{sfn|Labelle|2006|p=162}} In 1987, [[Camille Pilet]], then the worldwide sales director of the Swiss watch company [[Piaget SA]], officially joined the OTS.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=152–153}} He donated several million Swiss francs to the order.{{sfn|Mayer|2014|p=40}} It is likely that Pilet's donations kept the group from going [[bankrupt]],{{sfn|Mayer|2014|p=40}} and were used by the OTS to buy properties.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=161}} He was the main financial provider of the OTS and the wealthiest businessman in the order.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=146}}{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=20}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=151}} 

The group reached its membership height in January 1989, with 442 members: 187 in Metropolitan France, 90 in Switzerland, 86 in Canada, 53 in Martinique, 16 in the US, and 10 in Spain, from which they gained more than $36,000 in monthly revenue overall.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=177}} Most members of the OTS had little contact with the leadership, and little or no idea of their violent plans.{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|p=97}} Some financially successful members individually donated amounts ranging from the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to the group, to finance the "life centers"; however, some of the money was instead used to fund the leader's own travel expenses, and cost of living expenses for OTS members who did not have other support. The group began to have financial problems.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=177}}

=== Decline ===
Beginning in the late 1980s, several members began to doubt Di Mambro.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=7}} In 1990, Di Mambro's son Elie discovered that the apparitions that appeared during OTS ceremonies were faked, operated by Tony Dutoit, who confirmed this before leaving the group. Elie, who also realized that the "masters" his father presented did not exist, then revealed this to other members.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=7}}{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} Some members explained the falsification away as necessary to keep "weaker souls" in the group, but numerous other members, whose faith in the group had been previously damaged by the silencer scandal, left the group and demanded a reimbursement of money they had donated.{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} Joseph Di Mambro promised to return the sums requested, but several OTS members resigned in quick succession in 1990, leaving only the core group of OTS members.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=7}} Many people, including Elie and many high-ranking members, left.{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=289}}

The Archedia clubs were dissolved in 1991.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=31}} The members of the Sacred Heart commune disliked Jouret, accusing him of a lack of financial transparency and sexual exploitation of women. He was viewed as a dictator by the Quebec members of the group, and was also not present often as he constantly traveled. There was a resulting power struggle between the Quebec and Swiss templars.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=225}} As a result Jouret slowly become less prominent in the leadership role of the Solar Temple and quit its executive committee in January 1993.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=226}}

=== Anti-cult movement ===
The OTS had largely escaped negative public attention from the [[anti-cult movement]] in the 1980s, other than two lines about Jouret published in a French anti-cult booklet in 1984. He and the group were left out of later 1980s editions.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=179}} In 1991, a former member, Rose-Marie Klaus, contacted a Montreal [[cult-watching organization]], [[Info-Secte]]; they subsequently produced a letter warning other organizations in Canada about the group.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=224}}

Klaus's husband had left her for a "cosmic marriage" to another woman, and she wanted money she had given to the organization returned; she sued the group, and attempted to get the OTS negative press coverage.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=224}} While her husband Bruno Klaus (who would die in the 1997 mass suicide) had been getting increasingly involved in the OTS, Rose-Marie was growing less involved, but continued to live with him near the group's compound. One day, Bruno arrived home and told her that the OTS [[Ascended master|masters]] had decided that he was to be with another woman; Rose-Marie, upset by this, asked Jouret to mediate between them. His solution to this issue followed the OTS practice of "cosmic coupling", which ignored "earthy marriage"; he set Rose-Marie up with another man, André Friedli, later one of the killers in the 1995 incident.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=226}}{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|pp=132}} Rose-Marie was not satisfied with this and it lasted only briefly. She stated that "I saw later that this man went with other women, the women had other men. It was very mixed up."{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|pp=132}}

For several years after this, she repeatedly tried to get Bruno back, having a "foot inside, but always one outside" the OTS community, but eventually gave up and began contacting anti-cult groups.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|pp=133}} On 10 September 1991,  following several Martinicans leaving the island to join the OTS, the president of Martinique's branch of the Association for the Defense of Families and Individuals (the leading French anti-cult group), sent a letter asking various Canadian associations for information on the group.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=179}}  In 1992, after an invitation from a French [[Anti-cult movement|cult-watching organization]], Klaus visited Martinique, where she denounced the group. Her statements were picked up by the local media.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=179}}{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|p=96}}{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=224}}

=== Gun scandal ===
The next year the group encountered further trouble. Canadian police, then investigating Q-37 (a mysterious group that threatened to assassinate Canadian public officials, which was eventually determined to have never existed), believed the OTS may have been involved.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=224}} Soon after, the group's locations in Quebec were raided and two members were arrested for possession of illegal weapons. Jouret had asked the men to buy three [[Semi-automatic firearm|semi-automatic guns]] with [[Silencer (firearms)|silencers]], illegal in Canada, resulting in their arrest.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|pages=31–32}}{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=289}} Jouret and the other two men were given only light sentences (one year of unsupervised probation and a $1000 fine to be paid to the [[Red Cross]]), but in the aftermath the media took interest in the group. The Canadian press began to report, using information gained from police [[wiretaps]] of conversations between members of the OTS, which they described as a "[[doomsday cult]]".{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|p=96}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=180}}

Though Jouret had encouraged some members of the OTS to learn to shoot, at the time, members of Info-Secte believed the group to be of a [[survivalist]] nature, and that they intended to use the weapons to defend themselves after an apocalypse; a representative of Info-Secte publicly expressed his confusion as to why they needed silencers for this purpose. Even [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid]] newspapers, which ran lurid stories about the organization, did not indicate they believed them capable of violence. In March 1993, some members of the group tried to convince the press that the OTS was harmless and mostly dedicated to moral improvement and gardening, and denied allegations of being a cult.{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|p=96}}

Following the arrests, other countries and agencies began investigating as well. Two days after the men were arrested, the [[Sûreté du Québec]] announced an inquiry into the financial aspects of the group, with the Australian police launching a parallel investigation later in the year. A bulletin from [[Interpol]] alleged that Di Mambro and Odile Dancet had been involved in two banking transactions in Australia, each worth $93 million. In 1994, the French authorities delayed the issue of a passport to Di Mambro's wife, Jocelyne, because of an investigation.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=137}} At the same time, a former member of the OTS, Thierry Huguenin, called Di Mambro and demanded his money back, threatening to file a criminal complaint. In February 1994 a photocopied letter was mailed to about 100 members revealing financial misuse; this made both Di Mambro and Jouret furious.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=210}} In March, the Canadian [[RCMP]] were helping the [[Australian Federal Police]] investigate possible [[money-laundering]] by the OTS, and the Swiss authorities also received Australian bulletins.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=137}} No evidence of money-laundering was found, but the accusations fed conspiracy theories.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=142}}

The OTS viewed itself as increasingly persecuted, though according to [[Jean-François Mayer]], there was little actual opposition to the group, with Quebec Public Security Minister [[Claude Ryan]] explicitly stating the government would not surveil cult members in the wake of reports on the group and denying information claiming the group had planned to commit terrorist attacks in Canada.{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|pages=98–99}} The leadership believed the increasing legal and media attention to be both a conspiracy against the OTS and a sign of the [[Kali Yuga]], and the group's ideas became increasingly focused on environmental destruction and [[ecological collapse]].{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=289}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=180}}

Compounding the difficulties, Di Mambro also began having issues with Emmanuelle. Though she had been raised from birth to be a messiah figure, by the age of 12 she had become uncooperative, rejecting her role in the group and taking an interest in typical teenage [[pop culture]]. He believed her to be under threat from the [[Antichrist]], who, he believed, was born to Tony and Nicky Dutoit in summer 1994. Di Mambro had previously forbidden Nicky from giving birth, but after she left the group had a son, Christopher Emmanuel. Di Mambro, deeply offended by the name similarity, the disobeying of his instructions, and that he had not been consulted in the naming of the infant, ordered the family murdered later in 1994.{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}}