Freemason Hugh Gilbert Discusses Scottish Independence & Knights Templar

As voters in Scotland prepare to vote next week on whether to break away from Britain and form their own independent country, author and Scottish Freemason Hugh Gilbert discusses the movement and the reasons he comes down on the side of secession.

“Scottish independence to me is the only thing that must happen. It’s a one-off chance we’re getting right now – we haven’t had this chance in hundreds of years – to regain our sovereignty. Sovereignty is all about remembering who we are, that has been taken out of us.”

Gilbert – who wrote the book Free the Unicorn - explains that the title is connected to the theme of Britain’s royal coat of arms.

“That’s why I wrote the book, I saw that the royal coat of arms for England if you look at it, it has the unicorn of Scotland. And if you look at the unicorn of Scotland, you’re going to see it. My question is, why is it chained? When the independence issue came up, I’m asking, why is it chained to the throne?”

“We need to decide as a nation to stand by that throne as allies, or choose to walk away. But why is it chained to the throne? I object to that completely.”

He adds: “And then you have to ask yourself, why did they feel the need to chain it. What is it that drives them to chain it? There must be something they are concerned about, to put it mildly. And there is, it’s about us remembering who we are.”

On the relation of Knights Templar to Scottish history, Gilbert said Templars had actually been coming to the region since around 1124, when King David met with Hugues de Payens of the Templars. He explains that later, Templars begin to gather amid flourishing gold and silver mines - many of which were owned throughout Scdotland by Templars.

He speaks about the subjugation of Scotland, which was completed in 1746, when the rebellions were finally stopped.

“Even at Bannockburn itself,a lot of Edward’s army were European troops, they’d been given license to do in Scotland as they wanted, should they have won that battle, should the Templars not been there,” he said. “It would have been genocide.”

Gilbert believes that being under the rule of Britain has basically been the same as historically being ruled by the Vatican.

“We had a corrupt system run by monarchies throughout Europe, and it was back to that time with the Vatican,” he said. “Well now, not an awful lot has changed - only we’ve got Westminster backed by corporate, large corporate – and who’s behind that, we could go on forever.

“But the same system is basically arising again, and we have one more chance to step away from it in a civil way, by voting - for Scots to remember who they are” Gilbert said. “Sovereignty, for everyone on the planet, is remembering who you are. If we remember who we are, their game is over.”

Listen to the full interview to also hear Gilbert speculate on what type of government Scotland would assume if it wins independence, plus his views on spirituality and Christianity in Scotland.