There is a major difference between myths and legends utilized as allegories in literature and the fabrications of pseudohistory by quasi-historian charlatans that mix unconnected fact with fantasy with their secret revealed pulp history novels portrayed as true.
Returning to the "Templar theory" of this threads title, one has attempted to provide a constant connect over several centuries among many people unconnected to each other providing clues in literature, artworks, and monuments of a great secret treasure buried either on Oak Island or Annapolis Basin by Templars.
What is amazing is how this great "secret" was kept secret with all this various unrelated individuals knowing this secret to include these hidden clues in their various endeavors.
What has been presented as "evidence" is this fabulous fantasy tour through history that includes the Medieval Grail romance tales, the Cathars including a side trip with Otto Rahn, the Templar's alleged discovery in the Holy Land, banking and merchant activities, and their fall from grace arrests with 18 galleys setting to sea from La Rochelle, paintings by Poussin and Teniers, Anson's Shugborough garden folly, Priory of Sion and so on with other unrelated side trips, that cumulate with the discovery of coconut coir fibres on Oak Island that "prove" Templars, like Killroy, were here.
Even the casual history researcher know that none of these people or events are remotely connected in any way or that there was a flow of "secret" knowledge passed on to various unrelated people through the centuries and still remain secret, and realize
this is a modern phase phenomenon of created speculative pulp history published for profit to the gullible conspiracy minded.
Sure, but there are caveats. The Poussin and Teniers paintings, if you look at them from a composition point of view, use the same arrangements of concentric circles, 9 of them in fact. It becomes a short symbolic leap to then say that this is all related to the 9 levels of Enoch's chamber that is suggested to us on OI. It is likely that the Teniers painting was singled out, rather than Titian's Pieta (which also uses a same sort of composition) because of the symbolism of the subject matter. Here I'm talking of Teniers painting of Saint Anthony and St Paul. The legends associated with the depicted scene mesh entirely with a newer fiction that we get through freemasonry. St Anthony the Great is most well known for his redemption and salvation, or his successful battle to overcome human temptation. He spent two 40 year periods in the desert being supported by a raven sent by God to feed him. Tau was the symbol he wore on his cloak. The Great Tau is the symbolism that leaks into the the OI story. There are two more Taus, one was a twin to Jesus and he has a famous painting made by Rembrandt that uses wonderful evocative symbolic geometry as composition too. This triple Tau symbolism gets associated with Royal Arch Masonry Symbolism. It makes it possible anyone to then say one is closely related to the other in sort of causal relationship.
Poussin's painting is a momento mori subject matter (remember death). Haliburton writes-in a similar encounter with a tomb in his narrative which has a name with initials MM on it. The leap from MM to Mary Magdalene and Cathars is possible for any wild speculator to make here (and it has been done, believe me). Poussin's painting is actually constructed in a way to depict musical harmony in a pretty clever way. The 9 concentric circles used as composition elements have centers that fall on the bisecting line through the painting. Their relative spacings can be used to depict 8 intervals (7 of them the same and one narrower). These 8 intervals as they are shown equate to the key of F in music which has the emotive quality of peacefulness and assuredness (as it is described to us by musical composers in the Baroque period). This allows one to interpret the painting, if we wish to, as a portrayal of a muse giving calm to the shepherds as they ponder the tomb (death). The message as some have interpreted it is to not fear death, that everything is fine and that the shepherd will come and find the lamb. If you consider the key of F you' ll see that is has one flat note in it whose interval is portrayed, B. This has allowed some to see the FB suggested as a pointer to Francis Bacon. And off to the races we go with a new story line...
I think it is disingenuous to think this is ALL just nonsense. People who believe in religious ideas are prone to look and see meaning in the world that reinforces their beliefs. They are also prone to make paintings and write literature that cleverly points to things that support their beliefs. I suppose the hope is that the next guy might come along and see the symbolism and use it as proof that the whole premise is valid. It isn't. We have no reason to believe any of Christianity's stories just because we have been symbolic works that support them written after the fact.
Where I would disagree with you is that it is terrible conspiracy to go looking in art and literature for any meaning. You ought to. That is where you will discover exactly why you shouldn't believe all the suggestions you read today. There are things in them to see that are levels up from what is presumably presented. They are not imagined things. They are suggestions. You may not like the suggestion, and I certainly don't like them all, but they are not fictions. What is fake about it is often the thing they are trying to support which is often times a religious point of belief.
Most of the elements that are in the crackpots' speculations about OI actually do have a place in the sordid history of Christianity. They are being used to write treasure stories with now. So, the proper way to expose these frauds is to show exactly where they go off the rail when they interpret what they see an read. I suppose this only applies to those who have been self deluded and not to outright frauds like Pierre Plantard and his invention of the Priory of Sion. There are plenty of people who don't know **** and try to exploit what they can for a material gain. They seem to think it's fun too. We could actually include Walt Disney Studios in this sort of activity. They have corrupted more than a few minds with their presentations. It's probably fitting that they should be the parent company of History Channel today.
There is History to be written describing the use and abuse of symbolism. It's not all garbage. We have symbols and symbolism of all kinds for a reason. It originally allowed us to describe deep unknowns in ways we can relate to. I am close to believing symbolism originates in the spiritual considerations of the past. Oddly enough, that is what Francis Bacon thought too. Parallels are everywhere one wants to look. I am not so quick to say to the world that I am Francis Bacon reincarnated because we harbored same ideas as some might be if they could make a buck off of it or support their beliefs.
