The Order of the Solar Temple French : Ordre du Temple solaire , OTS , or simply the Solar Temple , [ a ] was a new religious movement and secret society , often described as a cult , notorious for the mass deaths of many of its members in several mass murders and suicides throughout the s. The OTS was a neo-Templar order, claiming to be a continuation of the Knights Templar , and incorporated an eclectic range of beliefs with aspects of Rosicrucianism , Theosophy , and New Age ideas.
It was founded in , in Geneva , Switzerland. Di Mambro, a French jeweler and esotericist with a history of fraud, co-led the group with Jouret, a Belgian homeopath known for lecturing on alternative medicine and spirituality.
Di Mambro had founded several past esoteric groups, and had previous affiliation with a number of other organizations. The group was active throughout several French-speaking countries. Its practices focused largely on ritualistic elements, with beliefs in the ascended master figures of Theosophy, who they believed resided on the star Sirius.
Its members were largely affluent former Catholics. Following increasing legal and media scandal, including investigations over arms trafficking and pressure from an ex-member, as well as conflict within the group, the founders began to prepare for what they described as "transit" to Sirius.
In , Di Mambro first ordered the murder of a family of ex-members in Quebec , before orchestrating mass suicide and mass murder on two communes in Switzerland. In the following years, there were two other mass suicides of former OTS members in France in and in Quebec in In total, 74 people died in the course of these events; it is not known how many of the specific deaths were murder and how many were suicides.
