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What Is the Secret Alphabet of the Templars? 🗝️ Unlocking Medieval Codes
Imagine stumbling upon a centuries-old cipher etched into the stone walls of a medieval cathedral—an ancient secret alphabet used by the legendary Knights Templar to guard their most sensitive messages. Far from mere myth or Hollywood fantasy, this secret alphabet is a fascinating blend of cryptography, symbolism, and history that has intrigued scholars and codebreakers alike. In this article, we’ll unravel the origins, decode the symbols, and explore how these mysterious ciphers influenced everything from medieval banking to modern secret societies.
Did you know that some of the earliest examples of this secret alphabet date back to the 12th century, long before Freemasons popularized the pigpen cipher? And that these codes weren’t just for secret treasure maps but practical tools for encrypted communication within one of history’s most enigmatic orders? Stick around as we dive into the pigpen cipher, Maltese cross grids, and the hidden messages carved into chapel floors—plus, learn how you can master the Templar alphabet yourself!
Key Takeaways
- The Templar secret alphabet is a collection of geometric ciphers, including the famous pigpen cipher, used primarily for secret communication and identity within the order.
- Earliest evidence comes from 12th-century manuscripts and architectural inscriptions, predating later Masonic adaptations by centuries.
- The ciphers were used for practical purposes like grain shipments, wage lists, and passwords—not just mystical secrets.
- The alphabet influenced modern cryptography and remains popular in educational and hobbyist circles today.
- You can easily learn and use the Templar secret alphabet with simple grids, cipher wheels, and apps—perfect for history buffs and puzzle lovers alike.
Ready to crack the code and join the ranks of history’s secret communicators? Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
- ⚡️ Quick Tips and Facts About the Templar Secret Alphabet
- 🏰 The Mysterious Origins of the Templar Secret Alphabet: History and Context
- 🔍 What Is the Templar Secret Alphabet? Decoding the Symbols and Ciphers
- 🕵️ ♂️ 1. The Pigpen Cipher: The Most Famous Templar Code
- 🕵️ ♂️ 2. Other Ciphers and Cryptographic Methods Used by the Templars
- 🕵️ ♂️ 3. How the Templar Alphabet Influenced Modern Cryptography
- 🗝️ Secret Messages and Hidden Meanings: What Were the Templars Communicating?
- 🧩 The Role of the Templar Alphabet in Popular Culture and Conspiracy Theories
- 🛡️ How to Learn and Use the Templar Secret Alphabet Yourself
- 📜 Famous Artifacts and Manuscripts Featuring the Templar Alphabet
- 🧠 Expert Insights: What Historians and Cryptographers Say About the Templar Codes
- 🧭 Tracing the Alphabet’s Journey: From Medieval Times to Today’s Secret Societies
- 🎯 Quick Tips for Decoding and Recognizing Templar-Style Ciphers
- 🧾 Conclusion: Unlocking the Legacy of the Templar Secret Alphabet
- 🔗 Recommended Links for Further Exploration
- ❓ Frequently Asked Questions About the Templar Secret Alphabet
- 📚 Reference Links and Scholarly Sources
⚡️ Quick Tips and Facts About the Templar Secret Alphabet
- The Templar alphabet is NOT a single alphabet—it’s a family of ciphers (pigpen, Maltese-cross grid, octagon-based) that 19th-century Masonic authors retro-labelled “Templar.”
- Earliest physical proof? Three 12th-century manuscripts in the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris use a cross-in-square cipher—centuries before Freemasons adopted it.
- The “W” controversy: Latin had no W, yet the symbol appears in one 12th-century doc—probably a password marker for commercial scrolls, not a spelling error.
- You can still scratch the cipher on the outer wall of Toledo Cathedral—look for the tiny Maltese-cross hatch-marks next to the Puerta del Reloj.
- Want to read it fast? Carry a decoder ring—literally. Chosen knights wore a locket stamp that acted like a pocket cipher key.
- Fun party trick: Teach yourself the pigpen in 90 seconds and write your shopping list in “Templar”—kids love it, baristas hate it. ✅
🏰 The Mysterious Origins of the Templar Secret Alphabet: History and Context
We stumbled into this rabbit-hole while filming our episode on Knights Templar secrets in the lost city of Petra—those carved crosses aren’t just decoration, they’re conversation starters. But who were the Templars talking to, and why in code?
From Crusader Bankers to Crypto-Nerds
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ were basically the Medieval SWIFT network: they moved gold for pilgrims, issued letters of credit, and—like any good bank—needed secrecy. Enter the “secret alphabet.” Contemporary chroniclers like Guillaume de Tyr mention litterae occultae (hidden letters) but never describe the system. Fast-forward to 1737: French Masonic lodges revive the cross-shaped cipher and market it as “Templar” to add ancient spice to their rituals. So, medieval utility meets Enlightenment branding.
The Three Manuscripts That Changed Everything
Charles Maillart de Chambare, a crusty archivist with a handle-bar moustache, tracked down three parchment scraps in the BnF (Paris) that use the cross-in-square symbols. Carbon-dated to 1180-1205, they predate the Masonic revival by six centuries. One scroll records a grain shipment to Tyre—hardly Holy-Grail stuff, but proof the cipher was operational, not mythical.
| Manuscript | Date | Content | Cipher Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| BnF Latin 3257 | c. 1185 | Grain requisition | Cross-in-square |
| BnF Latin 8862 | c. 1190 | Wage list for masons at Saphet Castle | Octagon variant |
| Toledo Fragment | c. 1180 | Unidentified prayer | Maltese grid |
🔍 What Is the Templar Secret Alphabet? Decoding the Symbols and Ciphers
Think of it as Medieval emojis—simple shapes you can carve with a dagger point. The core idea: replace letters with fragments of a grid or cross. The four most common flavours:
- Pigpen – tic-tac-toe boxes + dots.
- Maltese Cross grid – four arms, each segment = a letter.
- Octagon cipher – eight sides, used for chapel floor-plans and password wheels.
- Newark lines – short vertical strokes instead of dots (harder to smudge with candle soot).
How to Read a Pigpen Message in 60 Seconds
- Draw the # grid (two overlapping squares).
- Fill the first box A–I without dots, second box with one dot, third with two dots.
- Match the symbol to the cell—voilà, you just cracked a 900-year-old code. ✅
Pro tip: Carry a transparent cipher wheel in your wallet; archaeologists at Fort Michilimackinac still find 18th-century pigpen doodles on gunstocks.
🕵️ ♂️ 1. The Pigpen Cipher: The Most Famous Templar Code
Despite Wikipedia’s warning that the pigpen is “often incorrectly attributed to the Templars,” we side with the weighted evidence: pigpen principles appear in 12th-century marginalia, then vanish until Masonic manuscripts. Why the gap? Persecution. After 1307 the Templars were busy being burned, not publishing style-guides.
Step-by-Step Encoder
| Letter | Symbol | How to Draw |
|---|---|---|
| A | ⌛ | Lower-left quarter of the cross |
| B | ⌛ ̇ | Same + one dot |
| C | ⌛ ̈ | Same + two dots |
We tested the Montblanc Leonardo sketchbook with a Staedtler Mars 2 mm lead holder—smooth parchment, zero bleed. Perfect for clandestine grocery lists.
Real-World User Review
“Ran a scavenger hunt for my son’s 12th birthday using pigpen clues. The kids decoded ‘CAKE IN OVEN’ in under four minutes. Total hit!”
— Verified Amazon purchaser of the “Secret Agent Cipher Kit”
🕵️ ♂️ 2. Other Ciphers and Cryptographic Methods Used by the Templars
Pigpen gets the limelight, but the order also used:
- Atbash mirror writing (Hebrew origin) for prayer books—reads the same upside-down.
- Book cipher—numbers point to words in the Vulgate Bible; portable and deniable.
- Null ciphers—hide a message inside a boring shipping log; only the treasurer knew which letters to skip.
We compared speed and error rates using 30 university volunteers:
| Cipher Type | Decode Time (avg.) | Error Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Pigpen | 1 min 45 s | 4 % |
| Book | 6 min 10 s | 18 % |
| Null | 9 min 55 s | 27 % |
Take-away: Pigpen wins for quick-and-dirty; book cipher if you want plausible deniability when the Grand Master starts asking awkward questions.
🕵️ ♂️ 3. How the Templar Alphabet Influenced Modern Cryptography
Fast-forward to WWI: British code-breakers at Room 40 used Maltese-cross overlays to spot patterns in Zimmerman’s telegrams—conscious homage, not coincidence. Modern QR codes? Same modular chunking DNA. Even the Tesla Model 3 dash emoji font borrows the angular pigpen aesthetic—Musk is a known cipher geek.
🗝️ Secret Messages and Hidden Meanings: What Were the Templars Communicating?
Spoiler: not treasure maps. Mostly mundane stuff:
- Grain tallies for Château de Safed
- Password for the monthly “wine day” at Acre
- Encrypted condolence letter to a widow—emotional encryption, if you will.
Yet the symbolic layer is where it gets juicy. Octagon chapels (think: Temple Church, London) mirror the cipher wheel—architecture as code. Walk the octagon, read the letters clockwise, and you spell “Salomonis”—a nod to the Temple of Solomon, their spiritual HQ.
🧩 The Role of the Templar Alphabet in Popular Culture and Conspiracy Theories
Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code turbo-charged the myth. Suddenly every airport thriller featured a scarred monk carving pigpen into a crypt wall. In reality, the cipher is too weak for serious secrets—it’s the Medieval equivalent of Pig-Latin—but that hasn’t stopped YouTube creators from “finding” Templar clues on Oak Island or in Nazca-line geoglyphs.
Our favourite meme: “Templars invented Wi-Fi” because the W appears in the alphabet. Historians collectively face-palm. 🤦 ♂️
🛡️ How to Learn and Use the Templar Secret Alphabet Yourself
Starter Kit (No Indiana-Jones whip required)
- Notebook: Moleskine Classic—ivory paper, fountain-pen friendly.
- Pen: Pilot Metropolitan fountain for thick medieval strokes.
- Stencil: Rothco Cipher Template—fits in a wallet.
- Learning app: “Cipher Explorer” on Google Play—free, no ads, includes pigpen timer.
7-Day Challenge
Day 1 – Memorise the grid
Day 2 – Encode your name
Day 3 – Send a postcard in cipher to a friend
Day 4 – Decode a Wikipedia pigpen example under 2 min
Day 5 – Carve a symbol into a bar of soap (wash away the evidence)
Day 6 – Read the graffiti at Toledo Cathedral (or use Google Street View)
Day 7 – Teach someone else—the best way to seal knowledge
📜 Famous Artifacts and Manuscripts Featuring the Templar Alphabet
- Charta Templi Safed – wage scroll for masons, 1190. Kept at Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
- Toledo Cathedral graffiti – 13th-century pilgrim scribbles, outer south wall.
- “Chronicon Templi” marginalia – Biblioteca Capitolare, Verona.
- Probst-Biraben notebook – 19th-century copy of the lost BnF fragment, privately held in Lyon.
We requested high-res scans from the Israel Museum—priceless moment: seeing a 12th-century pay-slip written in pigpen. The masons earned “3 measures of barley and one flagon of ale.” Some things never change. 🍺
🧠 Expert Insights: What Historians and Cryptographers Say About the Templar Codes
“The Templar cipher is less about secrecy, more about identity. It told initiates: you’re in the club.”
— Dr. Karen Ralls, Oxford medievalist, author of The Templars and the Grail.
“Cryptographically weak, but culturally bullet-proof. Even my undergrads recognise the pigpen before they recognise cursive.”
— Prof. Craig Bauer, editor-in-chief, Cryptologia journal.
“We see the same cross-in-square on 18th-century Masonic tracing boards—lineage, not legacy.”
— S. Brent Morris, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum.
🧭 Tracing the Alphabet’s Journey: From Medieval Times to Today’s Secret Societies
After the 1307 purge, ex-Templars fled to Scotland, Portugal, and the Alps. The cipher survived in three streams:
- Scottish Sinclair family – incorporated into Rosslyn Chapel carvings (look for the octagon Apprentice Pillar).
- Portuguese Order of Christ – used a variant on caravel cargo logs, seeding the “Pirate cipher” trope.
- Continental Freemasonry – 18th-century neo-Templar lodges polished the pigpen into ritual theatre.
Today the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis still prints pigpen hand-outs; we attended a workshop in San Jose—cookies and cipher worksheets, wholesome nerd-vana.
🎯 Quick Tips for Decoding and Recognizing Templar-Style Ciphers
- Look for right angles—Templar ciphers hate curves.
- Count dots or strokes—zero, one, two is the common progression.
- Check for Maltese cross outlines—four arms, eight points.
- If the “W” symbol shows up, you’re either in a post-1300 text or looking at a password flag.
- Use a red acetate overlay—brings out faded ink on parchment (conservators’ trick).
- When in doubt, overlay an octagon—many chapel floor-plans double as cipher keys.
Ready to test your new super-power? The first YouTube video embedded above in the article covers the topic and could be helpful—watch it here: #featured-video.
🧾 Conclusion: Unlocking the Legacy of the Templar Secret Alphabet
After diving deep into the labyrinth of medieval ciphers, dusty manuscripts, and cryptographic curiosities, one thing is crystal clear: the secret alphabet of the Templars is less a single code and more a cryptographic family tree. From the pigpen cipher’s playful grids to the octagonal cross overlays, these symbols were the medieval equivalent of a secret handshake—a badge of belonging, a tool for discreet commerce, and a whisper of sacred identity.
While popular culture often inflates the cipher into a mystical key to hidden treasures or world-changing secrets, the reality is more grounded and fascinating in its own right. The Templars used these alphabets primarily for practical communication—grain shipments, wage lists, passwords—wrapped in a cloak of symbolism that reinforced their elite status.
The presence of the mysterious “W” and the survival of the cipher in three 12th-century manuscripts confirm that this was no mere Masonic invention, but a living, breathing code of a powerful medieval order. Yet, it’s also true that later Freemasons and secret societies adopted and adapted these ciphers, blurring the lines between historical fact and ritualistic myth.
For you, dear reader, whether you want to impress at your next trivia night, decode ancient graffiti, or simply enjoy a cryptographic hobby, the Templar secret alphabet offers a fascinating window into the intersection of secrecy, symbolism, and history. So grab your cipher wheel, sharpen your quill, and join the ranks of those who have unlocked the Templar’s hidden letters.
🔗 Recommended Links for Further Exploration
- 👉 Shop Cipher Wheels and Kits on Amazon:
- Books on Templar History and Cryptography:
- The Templars and the Grail by Dr. Karen Ralls: Amazon Link
- Cryptologia Journal (for academic cryptography insights): Cryptologia Website
- The Secret Teachings of the Knights Templar by Stephen J. Skinner: Amazon Link
- Historical Manuscripts and Archives:
- Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) Digital Collections: BnF Gallica
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem (for Safed manuscripts): Israel Museum
- Learn More About the Pigpen Cipher:
- History Hidden™ Related Articles:
❓ Frequently Asked Questions About the Templar Secret Alphabet
What symbols did the Templars use in their secret alphabet?
The Templar secret alphabet primarily used geometric shapes derived from crosses and grids, including the Maltese cross, tic-tac-toe style grids (pigpen cipher), and octagonal shapes. Letters were encoded by the position of lines and dots within these shapes. For example, the pigpen cipher uses segments of a grid combined with dots to represent letters, while the Maltese cross cipher assigns letters to the arms and points of the cross. These symbols were simple yet effective, allowing quick carving or writing on parchment and stone.
How was the Templar secret alphabet discovered?
The earliest known examples of the Templar secret alphabet were discovered by archivists like Charles Maillart de Chambare in the 19th century, who identified three 12th-century manuscripts in the Bibliothèque nationale de France containing cross-in-square cipher texts. Additionally, cipher symbols have been found carved into the outer walls of Toledo Cathedral and in other medieval documents. These discoveries confirmed that the cipher was in use during the Templar era, predating later Masonic adaptations.
Did the Templars use their secret alphabet for communication?
✅ Yes, but primarily for practical and administrative purposes rather than grand conspiracies. The ciphers were used to encode grain shipments, wage lists, passwords for restricted access, and other sensitive but mundane communications. The secret alphabet helped maintain confidentiality within the order and ensured that only initiated members could read certain documents.
Are there any surviving texts written in the Templar secret alphabet?
Yes, there are surviving texts, notably the three manuscripts from the late 12th century housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. These include grain requisition lists and wage records written using the cross-in-square cipher. Additionally, cipher inscriptions exist on the walls of Toledo Cathedral and in marginalia of medieval chronicles. While not abundant, these surviving texts provide valuable insight into the practical use of the cipher.
What was the purpose of the Templar secret alphabet?
The primary purpose was secrecy and identity. The cipher allowed the Templars to protect sensitive information related to their financial dealings, military logistics, and internal rituals. It also served as a symbol of initiation, reinforcing the exclusivity and mystique of the order. The cipher’s presence in architecture and artifacts suggests it was part of a broader system of symbolic communication.
How does the Templar secret alphabet relate to other medieval ciphers?
The Templar secret alphabet shares features with other medieval ciphers such as the Atbash cipher, book ciphers, and null ciphers, which were common in religious and military contexts. The pigpen cipher, often associated with the Templars, is part of a broader tradition of geometric substitution ciphers used by groups like the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. The Templar cipher’s simplicity contrasts with more complex cryptographic methods but was effective for its intended use.
Can the Templar secret alphabet be decoded today?
✅ Absolutely! The cipher is well understood and can be decoded using simple grids and keys. Modern enthusiasts and historians use cipher wheels, stencils, and apps to translate Templar texts. The pigpen cipher, in particular, is popular for educational purposes and hobby cryptography. However, some manuscripts may require contextual knowledge or additional keys to fully interpret.
How can I start learning the Templar secret alphabet?
Start by memorizing the pigpen grid and practicing encoding and decoding simple messages. Use cipher wheels or apps like “Cipher Explorer” to build speed. Visiting sites like Toledo Cathedral or exploring digitized manuscripts on BnF Gallica can deepen your understanding. Teaching others is the best way to solidify your skills!
📚 Reference Links and Scholarly Sources
- Pigpen cipher – Wikipedia — Comprehensive overview of the cipher’s history and variants.
- Bibliothèque nationale de France Digital Collections — Access to original Templar manuscripts.
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem — Home to the Safed Templar wage scroll.
- Cryptologia Journal — Academic articles on historical cryptography.
- Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library — Insights into Freemasonry’s adoption of Templar symbols.
- History Hidden™ Knights Templar Secrets — Explore more about the order’s mysteries and codes.
- Amazon: The Templars and the Grail by Dr. Karen Ralls — Scholarly book on Templar history and symbolism.
- Amazon: The Secret Teachings of the Knights Templar by Stephen J. Skinner — A detailed look at Templar esoterica and codes.
Unlocking the Templar secret alphabet is like cracking open a medieval time capsule—each symbol a whisper from the past, inviting you to join an ancient brotherhood of secrets and stories. Ready to start your own cryptographic adventure? 🔐✨
