The Secret of Solomon’s Temple: A Sacred Site or a Metaphor for Enlightenment?

For centuries, Christians, Freemasons, Jews, Knights Templar and other sects and religions have sought to uncover the truth behind Solomon’s Temple, and they continue today to fight for control of what they believe to be the sacred temple site. In fact, scholars and academics have neither confirmed the location nor have they discovered archaeological remains of the temple, while conspiracy theorists accuse the various interested parties of covering up the legacy of Solomon, the King of Israel.

Some believe that Solomon’s temple lies beneath the stones of Jerusalem, and therein lies its importance to today’s world.

The fact is that the teachings of the ancients as revealed through the stories of Solomon and Sheba were actually a working-through of a psychological process of inner balance. They gave us this teaching in the only way they knew, through analogy and symbology built around their own worldview. Part of that symbology was the concept, rather than the actual construction, of Solomon’s Temple.

A temple of the magnitude described in religious texts would have had to be an archaeological miracle, impossible to achieve in the era of its supposed construction. Ruins of a massive edifice with all its fabled, magnificent surroundings have never been discovered. Excavations have turned up only simple structures in humble hamlets. Even the location of the temple is hotly debated––it simply cannot be found.

Another clue to the secret of the temple is the discovery that the word Baphomet is derived from the Latin words for the Temple of Solomon, and Baphomet, the head, is what the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping. Baphe means immersion and metis means wisdom. Therefore, Baphomet is the immersion of oneself into wisdom, it is the true temple.

It is perhaps easier to believe that the writings of Moses, the Prophets and those of all earlier teachers are not to be taken literally, but figuratively––they contain a secret meaning hidden behind the words. There was no Temple of Solomon, and there is no archaeological or historical evidence that Solomon or his Queen, Sheba, ever lived. We are left with only one reason for the telling of the old stories of the king and the temple. The stories are metaphoric parables meant to teach us, as Solomon and Sheba learned, to balance the male and female sides of our nature, and the peaceful and aggressive sides of our temperaments. The true temple is built when the symbolic king and queen are in balance, and that is the lesson of the stories of Solomon and Sheba––each of us builds our own temple, which is a collection of our experiences, influences and causes of suffering.

The Lord told his people to build his temple without the use of tools, as it would be an affront to him. His hidden message was that the temple is the inner reality of the physical and spiritual body. Solomon’s Temple did not exist. It is a symbol of our own spiritual growth.

If the world’s religious come to understand the true meaning of the temple, one of the reasons for strife and warfare in our world will fall away.

Now that we know that the Temple of Solomon is a teaching device, a symbol used over the centuries to aid us in achieving enlightenment, we find that it is as compelling a gift today as it was in the time of the mythical king. (Philip Gardiner)