Sherlock Holmes Film

The new Sherlock Holmes film featuring Robert Downey Jr. pits the Victorian detective against the villainous Lord Blackwood and involves an occult order known as the Temple of the Four Orders.

While the Temple of the Four Orders is an invention of the film, it clearly draws from sources such as the Freemasons and the Golden Dawn. Indeed, publicity concerning the film repeatedly compares Blackwood to onetime Golden Dawn member , although i personally find such a comparison to be rather stretching things.

Regardless, I have to applaud the film writers for doing a bit of homework! While occult scribbles abound throughout the film, there’s no references to Satan or demons. (A couple quick images of Baphomet are seen, but those are historically appropriate.) Imagery does include sphinxes, alchemical symbols, pentagrams and crosses, all of which make sense for a 19th century occult group. Their uses of layered symbolism in complex images likewise is congruent with what real world magical orders were creating at the time.

In short, the film largely abandons the usual exaggerated hysterics and instead builds a relatively believable occult group, while of course taking certain liberties for the good for the story.