# Les mythes du Temple solaire

Les mythes du Temple solaire is a book by religious historian Jean-François Mayer. It was published in 1996 by Georg éditeur [fr]. The book covers the Order of the Solar Temple (French: Ordre du Temple solaire, OTS) a cult notorious for the deaths of many of its members in several incidents throughout the 1990s. Mayer had access to many of the OTS's records while writing the book, and had been personally consulted in the police investigation.
It was later translated in two expanded editions into Italian and German, and an abbreviated English version was published as a journal article in Nova Religio. The book received positive reviews, and was described as influential on later studies of the OTS.

## Background

The Order of the Solar Temple was a millennialist new religious movement, lead by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro. They were active in several French speaking countries, until in 1994 several mass suicides and murders were orchestrated by members of the group. This followed many internal stressors in the organization, including legal issues and money problems.
Jean-François Mayer is a Swiss religious historian. Mayer had studied the organization prior and had personally attended OTS meetings as far back as 1987, meeting Jouret. He published the only academic writing on the OTS before the violence occurred, Templars for the Age of Aquarius: The Archedia Clubs (1984–1991) and the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition,$^{:3–4}$ published in the French newsletter Mouvements Religieux in January 1993.$^{:7}$
Mayer personally participated in the investigation of the OTS, being consulted by the Swiss police. In writing the book, he had access to many of the records of the group that they had left behind.

## Contents

In the book, Mayer regularly quotes the OTS's own writings, arguing that ignoring what he views as inseparable from the decline of the OTS would lessen understanding; half the book in total is either the direct documents of the group or related works.
Mayer analyzes the leader Joseph Di Mambro and his psychology, describing him as paranoid and as a pathological liar. He argues that contrary to the group's assertions, they did not experience persecution, and that the group's actions had come from Di Mambro's increasing sensitivity to criticism, strengthened by the legal issues Jouret had faced in Canada. Mayer was impressed by the actions of the Swiss police he interacted with in the investigation, and argues in the book that their "rigorous approach to the truth could teach lessons to more than one university researcher or journalist".
Mayer notes that the group prepared to leave a "myth" behind it, through elaborate planning, to make a statement. They had planned to commit the mass suicides earlier, but delayed it due to the Waco siege, as they feared that it would not make enough of a statement so soon after a similar occurrence. He states that more mass suicides were possible as many former members were still attached to the group's doctrine, though that the group no longer existed in an organized way, and that some elements of what lead to the group's actions were still unknown. He concludes that there are "ideas that kill" and denounces what he views as the detached-from-reality beliefs of many esoteric movements.

## Publication

The book was published in 1996 by Georg éditeur [fr]. In 1997, a revised Italian version, Il Tempio Solare, was published by Leumann, and the next year an expanded German edition was released as Der Sonnentempel: Die Tragödie einer Sekte and published by Paulusverlag. In 1999 an abbreviated version of the book was published in the journal Nova Religio as "Our Terrestrial Journey is Coming to an End": The Last Voyage of the Solar Temple, translated into English by Elijah Siegler.

## Reception

Les mythes du Temple solaire received positive reviews. The book was favorably reviewed by sociologist Françoise Champion [fr], writing for the journal Archives de sciences sociales des religions [fr]. Champion called the book a "valuable work" and praised Mayer's understanding of the people involved. A review in Radicalisation Research praised it as "the most significant work on the collective suicide and killings of The Order of the Solar Temple". The review noted its influence on later works about the OTS, and said that though Mayer had published other works on the group the book remained his "core research" on them.
A response to the shortened journal article, Our Terrestrial Journey is Coming to an End, by Jean E. Rosenfeld writing for Nova Religio, praised Mayer's scholarship as "admirably restrained", and concurred with Mayer on applying Colin Campbell's "cultic mileau" concept to the OTS.