The IOGT and the Johannites

The International Order of Gnostic Templars owes its existence to a lineage of spiritual masters that the Knights Templar were initiated into in the Holy Land known as the Johannite and Holy Grail Lineage. Soon after the Knights Templars were formed in 1118, the first Grand Master of the Order, Hughes de Payen, also became Grand Master of the Johannite lineage via an initiation by the acting head of the lineage, the Patriarch Theoclete of Jerusalem. The lineage was known as the Johannite Lineage because all its Grand Masters, including Theoclete, acquired the title of John during their tenures in office. The name John can be traced back to the founder of the Johannite Lineage in the West, John the Baptist, and his descendant in the lineage, John the Apostle. But it can also be trace back to Sri Lanka, the island in the Indian Ocean that is recognized as the ancient home of the founder of the Johannite Lineage, a semi-mythical Master known as Sanat Kumara, Murrugan, Karttikeya, and Skanda. Another name of this Master is Jnana (pronounced Yahna) Pandita, the Lord and Teacher of Gnostic Wisdom. It appears that after the Johannite Lineage was taken west by a series of adepts known as the Mandean Nasurai the name Jnana eventually transformed into the Aramaic Yahya, the Hebrew Yohanan, and eventually the English John. Following the anointing of Hughes de Payen as Grand Master of the Johannite Lineage each Knight Templar Grand Master who followed him also assumed the title John. One legend claims that an organization known as the Prior of Sion was part of the Templar Order at its inception but split off from it after 1188. The separated Prior of Sion then continued the tradition of calling its Grand Masters John, which later included Leonardo De Vinci who assumed the title of John IX. It is interesting to note that the word Sion is John in the Welsh Language, so from one perspective the Priory of Sion was the Priory of John.