“The greatest mystery of the infinite is the existence of Him for whom alone all is without mystery.”
Preface to ‘The Key to the Great Mysteries’
by Eliphas Lévi (1861)
Baphomet
Baphomet is a name of unestablished origin.
It appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 1300s. However, in the 19th century the name came into popular English-speaking consciousness with the publication of various pseudo-history works that tried to link the Knights Templar with conspiracy theories elaborating on their suppression. The name Baphomet then became associated with a “Sabbatic Goat” image drawn by Eliphas Lévi.
Baphomet has occasionally been portrayed as a synonym of Satan or a demon, a member of the hierarchy of Hell.
Baphomet appears in that guise as a character in James Blish‘s The Day After Judgment. Christian evangelist Jack Chick claims that Baphomet is a demon worshipped by Freemasons, a claim that apparently originated with the Taxil hoax.
Léo Taxil‘s elaborate hoax employed a version of Lévi’s Baphomet on the cover of Les Mystères de la franc-maçonnerie dévoilés, his lurid paperback “exposé” of Freemasonry, which in 1897 he revealed as a hoax satirizing ultra-Catholic anti-Masonic propaganda.
In the 19th century, the name of Baphomet had become associated with the occult. In 1854, Eliphas Levi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (“Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic”), in which he included an image he had drawn himself which he described as Baphomet and “The Sabbatic Goat”, showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns (illustration, top). This image has become the best-known representation of Baphomet.
The downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead is enlarged upon by Lévi in his illustration of a goat’s head arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasts with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram.
Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet]
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This entry was posted on June 24, 2009 at 9:29 am and is filed under Commentary, Mysticism, Mythology, Occult, Philosophy, Religion, Symbolism . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed
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“Friend or Foe?”
Baphomet is a name of unestablished origin.
It appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 1300s. However, in the 19th century the name came into popular English-speaking consciousness with the publication of various pseudo-history works that tried to link the Knights Templar with conspiracy theories elaborating on their suppression. The name Baphomet then became associated with a “Sabbatic Goat” image drawn by Eliphas Lévi.
Baphomet has occasionally been portrayed as a synonym of Satan or a demon, a member of the hierarchy of Hell.
Baphomet appears in that guise as a character in James Blish‘s The Day After Judgment. Christian evangelist Jack Chick claims that Baphomet is a demon worshipped by Freemasons, a claim that apparently originated with the Taxil hoax.
Léo Taxil‘s elaborate hoax employed a version of Lévi’s Baphomet on the cover of Les Mystères de la franc-maçonnerie dévoilés, his lurid paperback “exposé” of Freemasonry, which in 1897 he revealed as a hoax satirizing ultra-Catholic anti-Masonic propaganda.
In the 19th century, the name of Baphomet had become associated with the occult. In 1854, Eliphas Levi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (“Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic”), in which he included an image he had drawn himself which he described as Baphomet and “The Sabbatic Goat”, showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns (illustration, top). This image has become the best-known representation of Baphomet.
The downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead is enlarged upon by Lévi in his illustration of a goat’s head arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasts with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram.
Like this:
This entry was posted on June 24, 2009 at 9:29 am and is filed under Commentary, Mysticism, Mythology, Occult, Philosophy, Religion, Symbolism . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.