The History of the Order of the Temple of the Sun: How an Undereducated Jeweler Created a Suicide Sect

There are hundreds of sects in the world whose adherents believe in strange things and practice terrible rituals. But among them there are special cults that practice human sacrifice and mass suicide. The "Order of the Temple of the Sun" is one such sect, which, fortunately, no longer exists.

The Order of the Temple of the Sun Society was founded in the mid-1980s by businessman Joseph Di Mambro. The exact date and time of the emergence of this teaching is unknown, but Switzerland is considered its birthplace. The sect quickly began to expand and soon its branches appeared throughout Europe and even overseas, in Canada.

The founder of the sect did not reinvent the wheel and used a hackneyed, but definitely working concept. The Master of the "Order of the Temple of the Sun" Di Mambro taught that the Apocalypse was coming, terrible misfortunes were about to fall upon humanity, and only the followers of his faith would be able to save themselves.

It was not easy to become a candidate for salvation. Only wealthy people who were able to make large donations were accepted into the sect. The priests convinced the followers that they should not wait for the end of the world. It was important to leave this world in advance and calmly move to Sirius. It was there that the believers would find eternal heavenly life.

The transition to the new world was simple - through self-immolation. There were people who were so thoroughly processed that they happily accepted a painful death. The first suicides were reported on October 5, 1994. At that time, 48 burnt bodies were found in Switzerland. Experts determined that not all of them died of their own free will. Some were tied up and shot before their death, and only then burned.

On the same day, October 5, a similar incident occurred in Canada. In a city called Saint-Sauveur, five bodies were found, including a three-month-old baby. The investigation found out that the child was not simply killed, but sacrificed. This was evidenced by the condition of the body and the presence of ritual objects.

The baby was first stuffed into a canvas bag and then pierced through the chest with a wooden stake. Among the dead were the baby's parents, who were stabbed to death before their bodies were set on fire. Similar cases have been recorded in different countries around the world. The dead were not always burned alive. Among them were those shot, stabbed, hacked to death, and even poisoned.

Mass cases were striking in their scope and sophistication. On December 22, 1995, in the French Alps, 16 people were found to have set themselves on fire. To commit suicide, these people used complex homemade devices made from electronic timers, lighters, and plastic bags filled with gasoline.

Upon closer inspection, several of the victims were found to have been shot. They were all linked by the Order of the Temple of the Sun, but the police had questions that no one could answer. Relative clarity came after the high-profile tragedy in Saint-Casimir, Canada.

On March 24, 1997, another action took place in Canada, in the village of Saint-Casimir in the province of Quebec. Five people killed themselves there. But this time the sectarians decided to spare their teenage children. The deaths were staged in such a way that there was no doubt about the people's belonging to the sect.

On the evening of March 24, 1997, a farmer's house caught fire. The fire was extinguished only two hours later. Upon entering the house, firefighters found the bodies of two men and two women on the second floor. They were lying on beds and on the floor, forming a figure resembling a cross. Around the corpses lay burnt petals of red roses.

In the next room was what looked like an altar. There were robes and a sword with the word "Pauline Riou" engraved on the blade. Later, on the first floor, which had suffered more damage, they found a badly burned woman's body. When the police arrived, they found three teenagers in a shed in the yard - two boys and a girl.

They were in a strange, sluggish state and had poor sense of time. It turned out that all three were the children of Chantal and Didier Keze, whose bodies were lying on the second floor of the house. It is worth mentioning that only one child began to cry upon learning of the death of his parents. The other two remained completely indifferent to this fact.

The main culprit of all these horrors, Joseph Di Mambro, was born in the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit in the south of France in 1924 to a family of Italian immigrants. His parents tried to give him a good profession and sent him to study to be a jeweler. But Joseph was not interested in work, he was carried away by mysticism and esotericism.

Immediately after the end of the war, Joseph Di Mambro got married. The couple had a child and the man had to think about finances. He remembered what he had once studied and opened a jewelry workshop. But he was a bad specialist in this business and soon his business went bankrupt. Then Joseph decided to become a medium.

In post-war Europe, everything connected with the Templars was popular - the knightly order destroyed in the 14th century by order of Pope Clement V. According to legends, some of the knights survived and their descendants, endowed with enormous magical powers, live among us. All these tales fit well into the ears of ordinary people and Joseph Di Mambro took advantage of this.

Di Mambro began conducting spiritualistic sessions, arranging communication between gullible clients and the spirits of deceased knights and magicians. At the same time, he joined the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rose and Cross, which added to his authority as a medium. By the mid-60s, Joseph decided that it was time to start his own "business" and left the Rosicrucians.

The charlatan went on a tour of North Africa and the Middle East in search of inspiration. Di Mambro continued to earn money through spiritualistic sessions, but he did not shy away from outright crime. For example, he agreed to open a joint jewelry business with a former Rosicrucian comrade. He received a substantial sum of money from his partner for equipment and materials and ran away with it.

In 1971, Di Mambro returned to his native Pont-Saint-Esprit and was almost immediately sent to prison. He was accused of forging bank checks and a psychology degree. Upon his release, he joined the Sovereign Order of the Temple of the Lord, another highly dubious esoteric society.

His dream of founding his own religious society came true in 1973. Di Mambro moved to Switzerland and registered the Center for Preparation for the New Era there. At first, things were slow. Joseph came up with a few primitive rituals that impressed no one. But over time, he gained experience and began to conduct high-quality mystical shows. New adherents came to the Center for Preparation in droves. This is how the "Order of the Temple of the Sun" was born.

The rich youth especially liked Di Mambro's rituals. They were delighted with torches, altars, swords and spells. The former jeweler's affairs improved and he even moved with his wife and daughter to his own house in Geneva. True, in 1979 the house burned down. It is unknown why this happened, but the owner received substantial payments from the insurance company.

By the mid-80s, Di Mambro had focused on preparing his followers for the end of the world. At first, he said that the chosen ones would be able to escape on a huge ark. He even purchased a plot of land in the Canadian province of Quebec and began building a vessel. But after a while, the "master" changed his teaching and the idea of self-immolation and moving to the star Sirius appeared.

You already know how it all ended. It seems that Di Mambro himself began to believe in the nonsense he had invented. Among his victims was even his 12-year-old daughter, whom he killed with a lethal injection and then burned. By this time, the authorities of Canada, France and Switzerland were already hunting for the "Master".

Joseph Di Mambro himself committed suicide on October 5, 1994, in the village of Salvan in Switzerland, among his closest associates. Before his death, he wrote a note in which he blamed the Canadian and Swiss authorities for the mass deaths of his followers. At the end of the letter, Joseph Di Mambro addressed the remaining followers, calling on them to burn themselves as soon as possible for a better life on the star.