A Compilation Research File on 'Baphomet' (TERM, FIGURE, SIGIL) ----------------------------- INTRO To: private email From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nigris (333)) Subject: Masonry, Pike, Baphomet Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 14:54:56 -0800 (PST) 49980331 aa2 Hail Satan! I'm involved with individuals attempting to reconstruct the history (data, not rumor or propaganda) surrounding the term 'Baphomet' and to what it relates, from the accusations surrounding the Templars to modern usage in Thelemic, Satanic and possibly Masonic cultures. we've obtained many of the major elements, but certain key parts are missing: * if there is some alchemical 'Baphomet' figure to which Pike is referring (I'll ask some alchemists this last bit but would still like your input). * why some Masons might deny Pike as a substantive source while others find him imperative * whether Pike and Eliphas Levi were in any way related * whether Crowley associated the term with the Mercury serpent-chicken graphic or that was a later combo * if LaVey and Co. picked up Masonic glyphs for their insignia or obtained it from an occult book thank you for your time. if you cannot assist, I'd appreciate some referral to someone who can do so without too much bias. I understand that we share membership in the OTO, and so hoped that this might also inspire you. :> thanks for your time. blessed beast! tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com nigris (333) ------------------------------------- TERM To: private email From: catherine yronwode Subject: Re: history of baphomet: alchemy, templars (long) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 20:45:23 -0800 nagasiva wrote: > cat wrote: > # I think we are all circling around the notion that although the NAME > # Baphomet apears in Medieval texts.... > > my Am Her Dic says Medieval is 476-1453. you know of texts within > which the name Baphomet appears, rather than Mahomet? citation? > I've been trying to figure out what proof there might be of this > and all I've come up with is 1800s. Well, other folks in the sacredlandscape-list were saying 1400 for the name Baphomet...but, still no citations. Are we chasing a will-o-the-wisp? > # Now, in another note, tyagi snickered at my mention of the "poor > # Freemasons," but the truth is, all Freemasonic scholars of any worth > # know full well that the conferring of extra-Masonic degrees > # (anything past the Third and Sublime degree of Master Mason) is a > # FRENCH invention of the 19th century and that the so called Knights > # Templar degrees (e.g. Scottish Rite (which is pure French, despite > # the name) and York Rite Templar degrees) were concocted out of whole > # cloth at that time and have no true connection to Freemasonry at > # all. ...If you want to know more about the "Frenchification" of Freemasonry, contact Art de Hoyos, . He maintians a stupendous library of Masonic Rites for the sake of comparison and is most knowledgeable on the origin of the "Scottish" Rite with Chevalier Ramsay and all that. Under the name the College of Rites, he publishes discarded rituals, including fragments and ones wholly clandestine and irregular. He corresponds freely with scholarly non-Masons on historical issues such as these -- no secrecy problems there. He is particularly interested in discovering ritual books of the so called Rite of Memphis and Mizraim, another set of 19th century French-originated extra-Masonic degrees (98 of 'em, i think!) based on a spurious Egyptian-Freemasonry scenario. The Rite of Memphis and Mizraim has fallen into disuse completely, but they are often said to have influenced the "Egyptian" ritual work of Crowley et al, who probably took those degrees or saw the ritual books. > # ...the idea of a group of persecuted nobles and knights allying > # themselves with a craft guild of British stoneworkers goes against > # everything known about the Brtish class system. So i say "poor > # Masons," because in adopting the pathetically pretentious 19th > # century fiction of being descended from the nobility (a fiction > # which is NON-EXISTENT in Freemasonic rites, documents, and lodge > # lectures from the 1400s to the mid 1800s), they opened themselves up > # to the charge of "devil worship," the same charge that had brought > # the Templars low. ..."from the 1400s to the mid *1800s* -- that is, until Ramsay and his French Brethren created the Templar degrees, followed in time in the USA by Albert Pike, who translated the Templar Rites and also plagiarized the French author Eliphas Levi in support of those rites. . > # I love Masonry, but i love it as a craft-guild with a strong, > # positive connection to sacred site architecture, humble working > # class symbolism, and a noble simplicity of purpose. I do not love > # the silly "Templar" addendum that now almost wags the dog. For those who want a sample of what i mean by this, i recommend a Netscape jaunt to the Freemasonic vernacular sacred site called Margaret's Grocery, which displays how working people utilize Masonic symbolism to enoble their own architectural fancies. This grocery store, outfitted as a Masonic lodge, speaks deeply to me of how Masonry in its true form can enrich the lives of those who investigate it. The URL is http://www.luckymojo.com/grocery.html catherine yronwode The Sacred Landscape: http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredland.html -------------------------- TERM/FIGURE To: cat@luckymojo.com (catherine yronwode) From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer) Subject: Re: history of baphomet: alchemy, templars (long) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 14:51:19 -0700 (PDT) 49980712 aa3 Hail Satan! (pls fwd to sacredlandscapes if acceptable) nocTifer: # > >I'm investigating the alchemical background behind the figure and # > >name of "Baphomet", which appears to have been applied around the # > >turn of the century to a variety of graphic images, some alchemical # > >and some merely unconventional. typically it is fused in the # > >exposition of the apologist with the object of worship of the Knights # > >Templar, but this does not really bear out in the extant records of # > >their trials and the condemnations levelled against them (the usual # > >term used there is 'mahomet' and probably relates to a vicious # > >accusation of fraternization with the Muslims). to be noted, that paragraph was constructed for release to an alchemical elist and later reprinted to Usenet. my interest extends far beyond merely the alchemical background, inclusive of being a member of an occult organization (OTO) whose mythical or thematic ties directly claim the Templars as precursors, and having as a religious focus a composite and/or recreation of Baphomet as I understand Hir, a symbol of wild nature easily comparable to demonological iconography. sri catyananda (cat@luckymojo.com): # The real question facing Europe at the time of the Crusades seems to # have been "If Islamic temple architecture, why not Islamic religion?" # And THAT is what the Pope said "no" to when he had the Knights Templar # order annihilated. They went too far. interesting, I've not heard that motivation for the Papal condemnation. my impression was that it was purely an economic and political coup organized and carried out by King Philip IV (The Fair) of France to regain control of the banking system of which the Templars had become the major operators. I'd thought that Pope Clement V was party to the Philipian greed/power struggle and may have been killed after the coup so as not to pose a threat to the King's further desires. # Now, tyagi, tell me what sources you have that the Templars were # charged with worshipping "Mahomet" and not "Baphomet." first a brief etymology ------------------------------------------------------------------ _Baphomet_ (bae.f*o*met). {a. F. *Baphomet*; cf. Pr. *Bafomet*, OSp. *Mafomat*.} _a._ A form of the name Mahomet used by mediaeval writers. _b._ Alleged name of the idol which the Templars were accused of worshipping. (According to l'Abbe' Constant, quoted by Littre', this word was cabalistically formed by writing backward *tem. o. h. p. ab.*, abbreviation of *templi omnium hominum pacis abbas*, 'abbot' or 'father of the temple of peace of all men.') Hence Baphomet'ic *a*. _1818_ Hallam *Mid. Ages* (1872) _I._ 140 Baphomet is a secret word ascribed to the Templars. _1855_ Milman *Lat. Chr.* _VII._ xii. ii. 278 The great stress .. in the condemnation of the templars is laid on the worship of Baphomet. The talismans, bowls, symbols, are even called Baphometic. _1831_ Carlyle *Sart. Res.* II. vii, My Spiritual New-birth, or Baphometic Fire-baptism. _Oxford English Dictionary_, some edition, p. 659. __________________________________________________ not much here before the 1800s. then the most important source I've come across that I find persuasive (I'd love to hear if you think my trust in him is ill-founded) says the following concerning the idol of the trial accusations: There was also another account of the idol, which perhaps refers to some further object of superstition among the templars. According to one deponent, it was an old skin embalmed, with bright carbuncles for eyes, which shone like the light of heaven. Others said that it was the skin of a man, but agreed with the others in regard the carbuncles. In England a minorite friar deposed that an English knight of the Temple had assured him that the templars had four principal idols in this country, one in the sacristy of the Temple of London, another at Bristelham, a third at Brueria (Bruern in Lincolnshire), and a fourth at some place beyond the Humber. Another piece of information relating to this 'idol,' which has been the subject of considerable discussion among modern writers, was elicited from the examination of some knights from the south. Gauserand de Montpesant, a knight of Provence, said that their superior showed him an idol made in the form of Baffomet; another, named Raymond Rubei, described it as a wooden head, on which the figure of Baphomet was painted, and adds 'that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming 'Yalla,' which was, he says, 'verbum Saracenorum,' a word taken from the Saracens. A templar of Florence declared that, in the secret chapters of the order, one brother said to the other, showing the idol, 'Adore this head -- this head is your god and your Mahomet.' The word Mahomet was used commonly in the middle ages as a general term for an idol or a false god; but some writers have suggested that Baphomet is itself a mere corruption of Mahomet, and suppose that the templars had secretly embraced Mahometanism. --------------------------------------------------------- _A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus and its connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients_, by Richard Payne Knight, Esq., University Books, 1865, repr. 1974; pp. 197-8. _________________________________________________________ I have exchanged email with kindred whose citations were ambiguous and claimed a variety of things about the trials and their contents. so far this is most rational evaluation of the trials that I have located, though I know it is not a thorough and academic effort -- more of an account supplemental to historical overview of the Order. # Are you claiming that this entire story is an urban legend that # circulated through 19th century French and British occultism? I don't make such a claim outside of asking for proof that this is not the case. in fact I would love to hear of pre-1800s usage of the term in any variation (Baffomet, for example) and wonder whether RPKnight's usage of 'mahomet' is peculiar or if it is based upon something historical (I hadn't until now thought to consult the OED on the term 'Mohammed'/'Muhammad' to verify this). # ...i'd like to know your theory as to where and when the name # "Baphomet" first appeared. I have absolutely no idea. I've heard a variety of claims, but I have followed out few actual texts in which I could verify this and I have been very careful only to quote directly from source or pass on verifiable data. I obtained the above from the texts in question (sorry I have no date on the OED, I'm sure that it can be verified by anyone tho -- improved? let me know). # Finally, have you had any luck yet tracing down the original references # for the "goat of Mendes" and the original source for the "alchemical" # figure of the androgynous goat-horned being that Eliphas Levi promoted # as "Baphomet"? I, for one, cannot reconcile that image with the "bearded # head" that the Templars were accused of worshipping. Since the head of # the Levi-esque (for want of a better term) Baphomet is HORNED, would not # the Pope's minions have accused them of worshipping a HORNED head? Kinda # unobservant of them, you know, to just notice the beard and not the # frigging HORNS! excellent criticism. I suspect that we should treat all of this as so much 'witchcraft' from Inquisitory times and look outside the records of the trials for reliable information. terminological usage in condemnation is one thing, but the actuality that lay *behind* the trials is very difficult to establish at times and probably won't ever be pinned down. we come to a place where Occam's Law should applied to sociological sciences, I think. # Light on any of these dark matters would be appreciated. even Dark lights? :> here's a copy of text from a Satanist I ran across within the last few months who told me that he was quite sure of the connection between Baphomet (the Church of Satan has a sigil to which they apply this name) and Satan. I asked him for an elaboration that I could follow out. the text of his response follows, which I have yet to track down. commentary welcome. A good deal of information, granted comes from Gerard de Nerval, which is 19th century stuff and not really of much direct use to us as history. The same can be said for the Merzdorf manuscripts, which are pretty well accepted as being forgeries, but as August Starck had pointed out in his 'Canon of the Temple' in 1766 the link between Baphomet and Satan was obvious. (This is the first time it is linked with Satanism directly). The link with Pan comes much earlier, in Mallory's 'Morte D'Arthur' and the earlier 'Parsifal' by Wolfram of Esenbach. In both cases, it is referred to as the 'Meta', the Greek for 'spirit' then (12th to 13th century) in wide use as a reference to the spirits of the pagan wild - Pan and his minions. Detailed references can be found in Hammer's 'Mystery of Baphomet Revealed' though for better early scholarship, try 'A Discourse on the Subtill Practises of Devilles by Witches and Sorcerors' (1587, G.Gifford). The latter is also a source for the reference to the Goat of Mendes. You might also try 'A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus and its connection with the mystic theology of the Ancients' (Richard Knight, mediaeval but date unknown). ----------------------------------------------------------- author's name withheld as I am not sure he wishes to be known. you may reproduce the text for private research purposes. these sources may or may not reveal anything about the history of the usage of the terms, but if they exist (and at least RPKnight's does, so I have no reason to doubt the others do too), then they may provide evidence for pre-1800s usage of the term. I suspect that in many if not all cases they will not lead to any sort of evidence connecting 'Baphomet' to the Templars or especially to any sort of figure like Levi's. Albert Pike's mention of Baphomet varies in important ways from Levi's rendition, and this is one of the reasons, combined with that of RPKnight's text, that I have taken up the assertion that there was NO historical consensus on what 'Baphomet' might have meant, regardless of the age of the term, and that its origins relate to Islam rather than some other more fantastic reference (by Occam in my amateur hand). nocTifer: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com ----------------------------------------- TERM/FIGURE To: palladin@swbell.net (Barry) From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer) Subject: Re: history of baphomet: alchemy, templars (long) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 21:29:26 -0700 (PDT) 49980712 aa3 Hail Satan! Barry : # ...the focus on the beard over the horns in the image of a goat's # head does seem odd unless there is some other bearded head used in # place of the goat --say, "old man" chronus/saturn maybe. don't the Muslims usually grow beards? Saracens? Muhammad? # ...the 20 vol Oxford Engligh Dictionary ... says, according to # l'abbe Constant, quoted by Litre'( whoever these people are! ) # the word is cabalistically formed by spelling backward, "TEMpli # Omnium Hominum Pacis ABbas. (father of the temple of peace of # all men).... L'abbe Constant is the lapsed abbey Alphonse Louis Constant, the birthname of Eliphas Levi. Litre must be some historian or propagandist doing a review, because this backwards acronym was something that I think Levi dreamed up. you know all those silly occultists -- they all have multiple names. # this also seems unconvincing. he probably plays his old LP's # backward too. heh! I doubt the technology existed. it may been a feint to reintegrate the Gnostic Templars and any surrounding ideas into turn of the century religion or mysticism (Golden Dawn and the like). Levi did make some of it up. some of it he collaged together for his salon-fodder texts (which I have in the library here, translated by AEWaite, and the text which Crowley translated from French to be found online along with many other of Crowley's works). # studying what i could find in various places on the topic of Levi's # Goat of Mendes/Baphomet of the Templars, it seems to me that the # image is derived from the templars's own twist on the mystery # schools of the near east regarding that on earth the Azoth # principle (108) is trapped in matter and ruled over by a saturnine # Rex Mundi figure. I'd love to hear what sources describe the Templar esoteric ideas. I've imagined that they were either nonexistent, buried by trial fabrication, or blizzarded over by hyperpropaganda that seeks to glom them into refabricated novelty dressed in old clothing. the visual image could easily be interpreted the way you describe it, however. # i would tie it in with similar dyadic heresies of near # east origin sprung from Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism that # eventually turned up in europe. this sort of thing inspired # the Cather philosophy, for example and seems in line with # alchemical thought.. also concepts like, "the body is the # tomb of the soul", catch the grim flavor of the "divine # spirit trapped in matter" viewpoint. yes, I'd got the impression that this was an orphic contribution to early Christianity and sometimes infested the Gnostic cults too. # re mohamet as anti-christ:i wonder if the cubic kabba shrine # of the muslims was seen as same as the cubic throne of baphomet. a lovely connection, yes. # re the rooster-headed fellow mentioned: he is ABRAXAS, an # embodiment of the combined 7 planetary powers--similar to # that candle found in stores. . rings a bell. Crowley was at least one who renamed him 'Baphomet' and used it as a sigil of identification in his texts. if memory serves I saw that same graphic in SRPKnight with a label of 'Baphomet' so who knows how many people associated the two? # does any of this seem on target? # PS ( is Mendes a person or a place?) B. my comments lie above. I think Mendes is a place, and that usually it is located somewhere in historic Egypt (my current Bible, Am Her Dic, doesn't list it, so perhaps archaic or mythic). I seem to remember one of my occultist friends stating that some Goat-like god was in charge there. the Christian whose text may be found at the URL below concerning masonry, Mendes Goat and Baphomet is probably unreliable but he seems to think it was Ba'al. I don't remember Ba'al as specifically capratic, but I'm not that familiar with the old gods (I could look it up here if need be). http://www.Saintsalive.com/freemasonry/goatofmendes.htm nocTifer: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com ------------------------------------- TERM/FIGURE To: From: Barry Date: Tuesday, July 14, 1998 8:41 PM Subject: re: history of baphomet:back again. >>***barry answers cat--- > >palladin@swbell.net (Barry) wrote: >>> >>> cat, neal, and tyagi --- >>> >>> i've been following this thread with interest. this question of what >>> it was that the templars worshiped has always puzzled me too.the focus >>> on the beard over the horns in the image of a goat's head does seem >>> odd unless there is some other bearded head used in place of the goat >>> --say, "old man" chronus/saturn maybe. > >>cat answers-- >>I think we are all circling around the notion that although the NAME >>Baphomet apears in Medieval texts, there is no evidence that this name >>was applied to the "tarot devil" image (paunchy androgyne with talons >>and goat horns, face on abdomen, holding baton) until Levi made the >>connection. The "bearded man" of the Templars may have been Mahomet -- >>as in, "by the beard of the Prophet!" -- but after hearing all the >>evidence accumulated here over the past few days (including also Pam's), >>i am almost ready to dismiss Levi's claim re: the Templars worshipping a >>taloned goat-guy-gal as PURE HOGWASH. > >***barry again-- >It won't be a quick answer but i'll be checking for proof on medieval use >of the name. re the image, at this point, i'm inclined to agree with you. >maybe it helped sell his book.I like the beard of the prophet theory. > >>cat answers-- >>Also, as tyagi has pointed out, it is important to keep sight of the >>fact that the worship of a "head" would be anathema to Muslims as well >>as to Christans, so the Church was accusing the Templars of more than >>just following Islamic trends; they were accusing them of being >>blasphemous Muslims too.. > >***barry again-- >re the head: yeah but there is a carry over from the cult of >Orpheus/Dyonisius that may be the source of this and is potentially linked >to alchemy too. White Goddess has material on Bran, crows and oracular >heads worth a look, p 99,66-7, 87 and 118 for example. I want your opinion. > >>cat answers-- >>Now, in another note, tyagi snickered at my mention of the "poor >>Freemasons," but the truth is, all Freemasonic scholars of any worth >>know full well that the conferring of extra-Masonic degrees (anything >>past the Third and Sublime degree of Master Mason) is a FRENCH invention >>of the 19th century and that the so called Knights Templar degrees (e.g. >>Scottish Rite (which is pure French, despite the name) and York Rite >>Templar degrees) were concocted out of whole cloth at that time and have >>no true connection to Freemasonry at all. A lot of Masons "want to >>believe" (cf. "The Lodge and the Temple" by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln >>(the "Holy Blood Holy Grail" folks) and "Born in Blood" by Robinson), >>but the idea of a group of persecuted nobles and knights allying >>themselves with a craft guild of British stoneworkers goes against >>everything known about the Brtish class system. So i say "poor Masons," >>because in adopting the pathetically pretentious 19th century fiction of >>being descended from the nobility (a fiction which is NON-EXISTENT in >>Freemasonic rites, documents, and lodge lectures from the 1400s to the >>mid 1900s), they opened themselves up to the charge of "devil worship," >>the same charge that had brought the Templars low. >> >>I love Masonry, but i love it as a craft-guild with a strong, positive >>connection to sacred site architecture, humble working class symbolism, >>and a noble simplicity of purpose. I do not love the silly "Templar" >>addendum that now almost wags the dog. > >***barry again--some good points here re french accretions to masonry and >class issues. >do i understand you to say that contemporary masons are all caught up with >grasping at links to the templars because they'd rather be knights than >stone cutters? > >> barry wrote-- >>> no help on the origin of name. one of my other sources notes that >>> Baphomet does not appear in any demonology before 1400. sadly none of >>> their sources are mentioned. the 20 vol Oxford Engligh Dictionary >>> repeats the old saw that baphomet,bafomet and mafomet are all forms of >>> the name Mohamet used by medieval french writers to describe to muslim >>> prophet. i think that's hard to believe. i want proof. it also says, a >>> ccording to l'abbe Constant, quoted by Litre'( whoever these people >>> are!) the word is cabalistically formed by spelling backward, "TEMpli >>> Omnium Hominum Pacis ABbas. (father of the temple of peace of all men) >>> this also seems unconvincing. he probably plays his old LP's backward >>> too. >>cat answers-- >>Oh, Barry! That one is rich: New! Improved! Backward Baphomet with >>Cabalistic Toasty Granules! > >>barry wrote-- >>> it's really hard to be serious in the face of such nonsense. > >>cat answers-- >>My theory exactly. > >>barry wrote-- >>> . >>> i don't have Levi, but i have his illustration of Baphomet in Manley >>> Hall's Encyclopedia of Symbolic Philosophy. studying what i could >>> find in various places on the topic of Levi's Goat of Mendes/Baphomet >>> of the Templars, it seems to me that the image is derived from the >>> templars's own twist on the mystery schools of the near east regarding >>> that on earth the Azoth principle (108) is trapped in matter and ruled >>> over by a saturnine Rex Mundi figure. > >>cat answers-- >>Wait. On what authority to you have (108) Azoth linked to the Templars? >>That's new to me and i need a cite. As far as i know the Rex Mundi >>notion is Cathar. I find that these French and French-influenced 19th >>century occultists tend to use the Templars as a sort of "universal >>solvent," creating linkages between everything mysterious, occult, or >>counter-Catholic by means of the fabled Templar's Fleet, whereby these >>knights just sailed around spreading heresies from East to West. >> > >***barry again-- > yeah ,the french. you may be right, but i think the pattern follows a >consistant internal logic. OK. let me slow down to 30 mph. > > From Manley Hall's, "big book", the encyclopedia of symbolic philosophy, >chap. 51, the caption under the picture of Levi's goat-man: > > the practice of magic - black or white - depends on the ability of the >adept to control the universal life force, that which Eliphas Levi calls >the great magical agent or the astral light. by manipulation of this >fluidic essence the phenomena of transcendentalism are produced. The >famous hermaphroditic Goat of Mendes was a composite creature formulated to >represent the astral light. It is identical with Baphomet, the mystic >pantheos of those disciples of ceremonial magic, the Templars, who probably >obtained it from the Arabians. > > In the final sentence, is Hall quoting Levi? Hall takes Levi's word re >the Templars and Baphomet. Hall's is a mason but inclined somewhat toward >the fabulism you remarked on. he believes in Atlantis too. grain of salt. > >now from Eliphas Levi's _Transcendental Magic_:quoted by tyagi in his post: > > The Gnostics represented [Azoth, the Universal Agent, Universal Medicine, > Philosopher's Stone, etc.] as the fiery body of the Holy Spirit; it was > the object of adoration in the Secret Rites of the Sabbath of the Temple, > under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the Androgyne of Mendes. > ---------- >***barry again-- >Levi puts azoth baphomet and templars together. i make no other claim than >this. > >in my own opinion the universal life force, Levi's magical agent/astral >light, which Hall calls "this fluidic essence" and what Levi says the >gnostics called Azoth are all the same and it manifests likewise as the >holy ghost fire of the pentecost and what is passes under the number 108 . >i appropriated the word, Azoth, to call them all and procceeded from this >point. NOTE: it is odd that the christians give the holy ghost a male >quality. according to Graves in TWG the gnostics identified it with Sophia. >se p157 > > some thoughts on the image: apart from any questionable link with the >Templars is there an alchemical concept displayed here? Levi's >androgyne/hermaphrodite, Baphomet, is pictured by night in-between the >first and last cresents, Mr. Dark-of-the-Moon. is the Goat of Mendes the >scapegoat sacrificed at the start of the agricultural year? See his raised >right arm which says "solve" on it and his lowered left which says >"coagila". combined with the two opposing cresents, this seems like tips on >moon phases for alchemical processes. to the extent that it is associated >with the moon, the energy in question seems at rest, or drawn into the >earth. contrast with its expression at full moon. Baphomet is seated on a >block atop a hemisphere looking very much like the king of the world. this >is the earth and the moon - the sublunar world - and its ruler. > it is dark, dark, dark. so where is the light -- solar, astral or >otherwise? the creature has a caduceus rising from his crotch. Reading from >alchemical texts transcribed in in M. Hall's book, i suspect this is >"Sophic Mercury" also called "Solar Azoth",ie the ascendant part - related >to all that stuff mentioned above. this is the golden/ solar/ heavenly >Whatever of which God and the Stone partake (AKA the Lapus Philosophorum or >L.P., for short). it contrasts with Baphomet and his reign over the world. >he is the black leaden saturnine gunk of disolution at the bottom of the >testtube, but in the alchemical context he is also some kind of cosmic >compost pile of rich potential--scarab/dungbeetle style. in spite of the >verbage. i feel inarticulate trying to get at this. > > barry writes-- >>> i would tie it in with similar dyadic heresies of near >>> east origin sprung from Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism that eventually >>> turned up in europe. this sort of thing inspired the Cather >>> philosophy, for example and seems in line with alchemical thought.. >>> also concepts like, "the body is the tomb of the soul", catch the grim >>> flavor of the "divine spirit trapped in matter" viewpoint. > >>cat answers-- >>The Cathari have always fascinated me (due to my name, no doubt) and i >>tend to spring to their defense; their reputation for sexual worship, >>including passive copulation and the offering of their conjoined sexual >>fluids on an altar certainly accords with my idea of a royal road to >>bliss. I have always had a difficult time reconciling those shenangians >>with their "grim," as you put it, imagery of Rex Mundi controlling the >>doomed world. Bi-Polar religion? > > >>***barry again-- >i'm out of contact with good cather source material. next time at the UT >libraries maybe as a break from the ohio valley archeological reports. i >simply felt if some one wanted to give form to the heresy of the templars >(an order started by a bunch of french norman knights), Levi's bogeyman is >close enough to Rex Mundi to give it the structure of a familiar >post-crusade french form of religious dissent. >(NOTE: if Rex Mundi is an unfamiliar word to any reader, Rex Mundi is a >devilish figure who has an antagonistic relationship with god ( promethean? >i'd have to check. or is he the creator as well as ruler or earth? i don't >remember) and who the Cathers in the south of medieval France believed >rules the world because god is too busy running heaven to be involved here. >the cathers had unique customs, some like what cat mentioned. the pope got >sick of these non-orthodox folks and finally sent an army of crusades >veterans to kill them all and redistribute their lands to church loyalists. >you can read about this.) > if the templars were trying to fashion anything heretical, consider how >many pre christian religions featured a dismemberment of the old worn out >form followed by a rebirth of some kind after a dark and fearful interval. >osirus/tammuz/bachus/dyonisius/orpheus. all this stuff can be interpreted >in an alchemical context too. > the T's had plenty of stuff to work with--and from the christian point of >view all filled with equally heretical and sorcerous rites. the masons use >a similar death and dismemberment motif re hiram, is this not so? somebody >organizing a new secret mystical rite might see glamor in a tie to those >old knights practicing pagan mysteries. > >barry writes-- >>> following the logic of the "trapped in matter" concept, the Azoth >>> principle must be released so some solar/jupiterian/alchemical >>> transformation/transmutation can take place presumably revealing the >>> higher form of matter >. >cat-- >>Well, there's the problem in a nutshell -- *releasing* the Azoth >>principle so that a transformation may occur. Sometimes it just >>solidifies in place, and you're stuck with an alembic full of base >>matter. It is *so* disappointing when that happens, but eventually i >>scrub out the alembic with Ivory Soap, air dry it, and start again with >>all new ingredients. I'm doing that right now, as a matter of fact. A >>new batch of Azoth has just come in and i have hopes that this time i >>may finally get beyond the hot air phase and into some real cooking. I'm >>still trying to understand Arthur Edward Waite's footnotes to the works >>of Paracelsus, but these ingredients look very promising. I'll let y'all >>know how it turns out. If i suddenly seem to have a lot of gold on me, >>you'll know i've discovered the secret. > >> ***Barry again-- > may your cup runneth over > >>> re mohamet as anti-christ:i wonder if the cubic kabba shrine of the >>> muslims was seen as same as the cubic throne of baphomet. >> >>cf Rufus Camphausen, "The Yoni" -- where the physical appearance of the >>kaaba meteorite in its opening at the South-East corner of the cubic >>building is very obviously shaped like a vulva. Citations are given from >>the Arabian philosopher and alchemist al-Kindi, who stated in the 9th >>century that the kaaba had originally been a temple to Al'Uzza, the moon >>goddess, whose vulva he meteorit represented. Modern scholars, according >>to Camphausen, identify Al'Uzza as one facet of the pre-Islamic Arabian >>triple goddess Al'Lat, converted by Mahomet into the male god Allah, >>while Al'Lat's vulva became the Right Hand of God. Those crafty Muslims >>seem to worshipping more than just the beard of the Prohet! > >***B-- >Wow >> >barry writes-- >>> re the rooster-headed fellow mentioned: he is ABRAXAS, an embodiment >>> of the combined 7 planetary powers--similar to that candle found in >>> stores. . an expert in this matter might have another opinion. > >>cat answers-- >>I have never seen an ABAXAS candle, but there is a rooster on the 7 >>African Powers and Justo Juez (Just Judge) candles used in Santeria. >>For more on ABRAXAS, see my web page at >>http://www.luckymojo.com/willss14abraxas.html > >***b again-- > no ABRAXAS candle in stores,cat. it just seemed his resume' was the same >as the 7 African powers, thats all. >> >>> PS ( is Mendes a person or a place?) B. > >>cat-- >>That's what i've been asking, too! Tyagi, do you know? > >>***b again-- >tyagi says egypt > >>catherine yronwode ------------------------------------------------ FIGURE To: cat@luckymojo.com (catherine yronwode) From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer) Subject: Re: history of baphomet: alchemy, templars (long) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 15:45:49 -0700 (PDT) 49980712 aa3 Hail Satan! (fwd to sacredlandscapes if applicable) catherine yronwode : # Any Christian can tell you that the Devil has cloven hooves, not # talons, carries a trident, not a baton, is thin, not paunchy, and, if he # has wings at all, hey are bat-wings. He doesn't have a face on his torso # and he is never sseen perched on an anvil. cf. texts like JBRussell's 4-volume series on the history of the concept of the Devil in Western society. there are a preponderance of Christian images surrounding the Christian Devil, Satan, through time. modern Christians don't usually make the best references on how a symbol has progressed, historically. Russell seems to be an exception, though I'm not sure if he identifies as Christian per se. # The devil, in Judeo-Christian terms, is a specific being never # named Baphomet in the Bible. the bulk of Satan-related Judeochristian mythology comes from sources other than the Christian Bible, OT or NT. some of it is apocrypha, some is other religious myths, some is popular folk and literary traditions (e.g. Dante). # In fact, his name is Satan. even this is not clear. Biblically the Bibliolaters ambiguously identified the Satan of Job and other books with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, some cobbled entity called 'Lucifer', and of course the NT names 'Beelzebub/uth/oul' and 'Mastema'. these don't even include the various *titles*, by which the ingenius apologist could include all of the above and more, like 'Father of Lies', 'Lord of This World' and even 'God of This World'. a great deal of power is ascribed to this being within the NT (esp. in certain understandings of John's Book of Revelations), and one of the first 'official' (RCC) descriptions for Satan included some of the features you mention which have become well-known to the bulk of Judeochristian culture. # It is almost as if the tarot card designers, starting around 1500, # slowly began to diverge from the Christian iconographers, and in due # time the two lines of imagery were so disimilar that Levi could apply # the name "Baphomet" the the "tarot devil" and people believed that he # was talking about an ancient entity. that's one way of looking at it. it is possible to look at just what the denomination or religious background was of those people who were fiddling with the imagery and what the cards were used for if they weren't just for games. there appear to be historical examples, for example, of cards of the Devil hung up in public places, where people could spit or throw stones at or in some other way castigate or cast-out their cosmic antagonist. it is possible that certain underground Gnostics (this may overlay into religious conspiracy theory) were instrumental in fostering such imagery as well, being inclined to interpret the Biblical Satan as not an evil but an heroic figure in a promethean role. Levi was a lapsed RC as were many who have been important to Hermetic/Satanic tradition. # The Christian Devil, a.k.a. Satan, Old Scratch, Old Nick, and so # forth, is a type of Pan figure. this isn't strictly true from what I have seen of the history of the iconography, though Pan was a major influence in the construction by the Church at various points. again, see Russell or any competent history of the Christian Devil. the TOKUS URL at the bottom of this post contains a variety of descriptions of Satan which vary at times (see the 'Propaganda' directory ;>). # The tarot Devil, a.k.a. Baphomet, seems, especiatlly in his # androgeny, to be drawn from a mixture of alchemical and Middle # Eastern sources, especially evident in the taloned feet. then again, BOTH figures seem to have varied considerably through their derivation. I'm not sure why they had to have been created completely apart from one another. however, the historical conflation of what developed into tarot illustrations, what was said of the Christian Devil and what it was said that the Templars worshipped does not seem easy to justify outside deception. # But what the heck EITHER of these figures has to do with # the Knights Templar or the poor Freemasons -- beyond Levi's # assertions -- i still can't see. the Templars were accused of heresy, as I recall. typically, from the conservative religious this includes the worshipping of the Devil, Satan. this is how many of the great heretical movements put down by the Church have been characterized, from the early Gnostics who competed for converts and basically had an inverted cosmological paradigm from those who emerged victorious on account of Roman dominance, to the Lutherans, whose founder the Church painted as the very incarnation of the Devil in some propaganda. books like Sam Keen's _Faces of the Enemy_ bring to light the propagandistic element of warring religious factions as well as how easily we can see projected shadow imagery come to be applied to political and religious adversaries. the Templars were on the wrong side of the political fence from those who maintained social power. their own power in monetary circles made them ripe for plunder. the motive for the (poor? hehe) Freemasons seems to be much more clear. they constituted and still do constitute a rival for social and religious authority in the juridictions in which they were becoming popular. the Church (later RC) sought the most effective means of putting it down that it knew -- the ascription of heresy and Satan-worship in order to whip up the masses and bring down a host of condemnation to drum them out of town. you can still see this in Chic tracts. the writers and propagandists of the late 1800s appear to have been trying to capitalize on the popularity of their respective readers (with Levi the French salons, with Pike I am guessing a certain faction of Freemasons) and the waning of the power of the Church in order to fuse the association of Luciferianism and liberation in a manner not unlike that of previous literary greats who did something similar in fictional form (e.g. George Bernard Shaw) or those who identified the 'Light-Bearer' as the *heroic* antagonist to the Biblical God (there have been many, inclusive of Romantic poets who co-opted works like that of Milton or Goethe for their own purposes). this propagandistic tradition continues more overtly in the writings of Aleister Crowley and the great success of Anton Szandor LaVey, who finally achieved a conventionality atop the shoulders of liberationists ages old without much mention of his sources or inspiration. as establishing a 'Satanic religion' legitimated it in the eyes of anyone who fought for the freedom of law-abiding religion (which, in general, LaVeyan Satanism surely was and is), complete with its own (heh) _Satanic Bible_ and 'Satanic Sins', it is not surprising that these platforms were further used (with some backlash in the Satanic Ritual Abuse scares during the last few decades) to promote individualist, hedonistic and liberationist religious principles. one might say that it is the natural development of the Protestant Reformation (as is 'Thelema', that stream of the religious current which proceeds from Aleister Crowley that integrates Baphomet and Satan in very important ways). nocTifer: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com ------------------------------------- FIGURE Orig-To: From: danw@netmastersinc.com (Dan Washburn) Subject: re: history of baphomet: alchemy, templars (long) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 18:16:59 -0800 Dear Baphomet Researchers: My own intuition on the Templars' Head is that it was a head of John the Baptist that they picked up very early in the history of the order as a religious relic. Its known that the order felt some sort of connection with John the Baptist. Hugues de Payen had three black heads on his shield. "Another possibility for the origin of the Head relates to the imagery on the first Grand Master's shield, which consisted of three black heads on a gold field. - Forrest Jackson, "The Baphomet in History and Symbolism" Another theory suggests that Baphomet is a compound of the words 'baphe' (baptism) and 'metis' (wisdom) - Encounters magazine, issue 11: 45 So Baphomet would mean 'the wisdom given in baptism,' or even 'the wisdom of the Baptist'. But the shield had three heads on it. Where are the other two? Perhaps in reliquaries such as the one described below: "A great head of gilded silver, most beautiful, and constituting the image of a woman. "Inside were two head bones, wrapped in a cloth of white linen, with another red cloth around it. A label was attached, on which was written the legend CAPUT LVIIIm. The bones inside were those of a rather small woman." - Oursel, Le Proc=E9s des Templier My theory is that early on when Hugues de Payen and his companions were in Jerusalem, they acquired a head of John the Baptist as a religious relic, plus the skulls of two other saints. These became objects of veneration within the order and inspired the design on Hugues' shield. When the end came and the Inquisition began torturing its victims, ordinary veneration of the relics of saints was transformed into the worship of an evil Head, with a sprikle of Islamic overlay thrown in for good measure. The Templars in their secret initiation rites are reported to have been required to kiss the hind end of a goat. The 19th century occult crew seem to have picked up this slander and conflated it with Baphomet and the Templar Head. The Templar Head was supposed to have very long hair, perhaps a source for some of the androgeny in Baphomet imagery. Dan Washburn --------------------------- FIGURE To: From: "Pam Giese" Subject: Re: history of baphomet:back again. Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 23:06:23 -0500 Does the term Goat of Mendes relate to the Maenads? Or is it just my midwestern twang getting in the way? Coincindently (oh, yeah, like I believe in coincidence) I got a Toscano catalog today that offered a replicate of "the Urn of Maenads" which deipicts "mythical female Maenads, spinning wildly in their spirited Baccahanalian dance". A quick infoseek search of the Maenads brings up the following interesting quote from The Bacchantes by Euripides: "I hear that our women-folk have left their homes on pretence of Bacchic rites, and on the wooded hills rush wildly to and fro, honouring in the dance this new god Dionysus, whoe'er he is; and in the midst of each revel-rout the brimming wine-bowl stands, and one by one they steal away to lonely spots to gratify their lust, pretending forsooth that they are Maenads bent on sacrifice, though it is Aphrodite they are placing before the Bacchic god." At this point we're quickly back to the Pan image as animal/human lust. I wouldn't jump too fast to bring the goat-man into a "scapegoat" archetype. One reason is that the Dionysian festivals were associated with the harvest/autumn equinox. This is also the beginning of the time of the goat (and similar ruminants) "rut" or breeding cycle. If you've even spent any time with male goats between September-December, you'll quickly realize that they'll try to mount anything/body within their proximity. [They make a pecular "whoop" sound when excited, that if you ever hear it, permantly disrupts any association with the word, whoopie.] When we talk about sacrifice during this period, we're talking about male "seed". For northern climates, this is the time were fertilization brings spring/summer births --much more advantageous that trying to nurture a new-born through the winter. I think this is an area were popular neo-paganism misses with the emphasis on May-day as a fertility holiday. Yes, crops should either be planted or close to it. But for mammals, if you conceive in April/May, you're looking at a birth in the hardest time of the year. Not good for a newborn. However, if you revel with the Dionysian throngs and conceive in September, you're looking at a summer/spring birth and an easier food supply and surival rate. I'm thinking that the Baphomet was an intellectual contrivance that rested to a large degree on the suppressed archetypes of Pan, the devil, Thor's goats, and probably other images for fertility and substinance. The whole Pan image of lust/evil seems to ride the archetype/mythic border, such that it never really disappeared from the scene. Pam pgiese@snd.softfarm.com ----------------------------------------------- TERM/FIGURE To: alt.satanism,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.mythology,alt.magick, talk.religion.misc From: catherine yronwode Subject: Re: Goat of Mendes (Baphomet) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 17:53:17 -0800 Dan Washburn wrote: > > A while back we were inquiring into the meaning of Baphomet. In the > course of that discussion questions were asked about the meaning of > the Goat of Mendes. Dan, thanks for keeping this in mind as you net-surfed. You are a very good researcher! Our discussion arose (in the sacredlandscape-list) because the 19th century French occultist Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant, 1810-1875), writing in "Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual," (translated and annotated by Arthur Edward Waite) identified "The Sabbatic Goat" (an idol he claimed was worshipped by Satanists and/or witches) with "Baphomet" (the name of an entity the Knights Teplar were charged with worshipping when their order was disbanded by the Catholic Church) and with "The Goat of Mendes" (an ancient Egyptian deity). Levi drew an image of this entity, which has been copied widely and is familiar to many contemporary students of magic and occultism, especially those who follow the writings of Arthur Edward Waite, Paul Foster Case, and Aleister Crowley. The picture shows a goat-headed hermaphroditic humanoid with a five-pointed star on his head, female breasts, and a caduceus in place of his male genitalia. This hermaphroditic goat is sometimes identified as "The Devil" (e.g. by Waite and Case) -- and Levi's claim that the "inverted" pentagram is a symbol of devil-worship is derived in part from his identification of the geometric figure of a pentagram with "the head of the Goat of Mendes." > The excerpt below may shed some light on those questions. Believe it > or not it is from the official Egyptian Tourism web site. It has a > section called Egyptian Antiquities which it describes as 'A vast > resource of Egyptian history, including an in-depth historical > archive, plus information on monuments and artifacts.' > > http://touregypt.net/index.htm > >[begin quoted text; i've inserted breaks and added my own comments] > > Coming now to the second great form of Khenmu, that under which he > was worshipped at Mendes, we find that at a very early date he was > identified with the great god of that city, and was known as > Ba-neb-Tettu, i.e., the Ram, lord of Tettu. Obviously, this local form of Khenmu was one of the many male goat/sheep gods the Egyptians worshipped at various sites. As i recall (after decades of slowly decaying memory), the original Egyptian ram-god was Ptah, the creator, who is presumed to be of a wild species of goat with long, outwardly-twirled horns). He was followed in time (at at a different locale) by Amon-Ra a.k.a. Ra, a more conventionally sheepish-looking ram with backwards-curved horns. Ptah and Ra were identified with each other, and thus Ba-neb-Tettu was identified with both. The taxonomic distinctions between goats and sheep were not always clear to folks in earlier times; it is easy to assign any given domestic animal to the "sheep" category or "goat" category, but wild species are harder to distinguish, and that's why it was said of YHVH that he would separate the sheep from the goats. He made 'em, after all! > Now as the word for "soul" in Egyptian was Ba, the title Ba-neb-Tettu > was sometimes held to mean the "Soul, the lord Tettu," > and this was the name of the ram. Notice that both goats and sheep say "baaa" and so there is a pun in the name. I myself have owned a number of rams and named them all with such onomotopaeic titles as Ba-Ba-Louie, Ba-Ba-Ram-Das, and Ba-Ga-Vad-Gita > Ba-neb-Tettu, whose name was corrupted by the Greeks into Mevons, Mevons for Ba-neb or Mevons for Khenmu? Either one is worse than corrupting Beijing to Pekin! > and Tamai al-Amdid by the Arabs, Tamai al-Amdid? Anyone know what that means? > was said to be the "living soul of Ra, the holy Sekhem "who dwelleth > within Hat-mehit, and the "life of Ra," and he was worshipped > throughout the sixteenth nome from the earliest times. In other words, Ba-neb-Tettu, the Goat of Mendes was an local, pre-dynastic deity. (An Egyptian nome, by the way, was a delineated region, equivalent to a parish, county, or other such division.) > He was regarded as the virile principle in the gods and men, and is > styled, "King of the South and North, the Ram, the virile male, the > holy phallus, which stirreth up the passions of love, the Ram of rams, > whose gifts are brought forth by the earth after it hath been flooded > by the Nile, the Soul, the life of Ra, who is united with Shu and > Tefnut, the One god, who is mighty in strength, who riseth in the > heavens and the earth {like Ra}, who appeareth in the form of the Nile > like {Osiris}, who vivifieth the earth {like Seb}, and who formeth the > breath of life for all men, the chief of the gods, the lord of heaven > and the king of the gods." > > Ba-neb-Tettu was originally a local form of Ra, but he subsequently > was made to include within himself not only the Soul of Ra, but the > Souls of Osiris, and Seb, and Shu. These four Souls are reproduced by > Signor Lanzone, and appear in the form of four rams, the horns of each > being surmounted by a uraeus, they are described as "The Soul of Seb, > lord of Het- teft; the Soul of Osiris, lord of Ta-sent; the Soul of > Shu, lord of Anit ; and the Soul of Ra, dweller in ....." > > In allusion to these Souls the Ram of Mendes is sometimes described as > the Ram with "Four faces {or, heads} on the neck," Here i want to note (not for the first time!) that Eliphas Levi seems to have discarded any semblence of historicity when he identified this all-male, virile-phallused, four-headed Egyptian ram creator-god as a "hermaphrodite" analogue of the Judeo-Christian adversary-demon Satan. > The female counterpart of Ba-neb-Tettu was Hat-Mehit, and her son by > the god was Heru-pa-khart, the dweller in Atemet, and she > was in some way connected with Punt, but the center of her worship in > Egypt was the city of Mendes, of which she is called the "Mother;" > she was, of course, a form of Isis and Hathor, and as such was called > "the Eye of Ra, the lady of heaven, and the mistress of the gods." This makes perfect sense in Egyptian terms...and ipso facto makes NO sense in terms of 19th and 20th century French and British occultism. The so-called "hermaphroditic" Goat of Mendes that Levi presented to the public is a goat-headed -- not ram-headed -- humanoid with supposedly male genitalia (but, more truthfully, he simply has Mercury's caduceus in place of his penis) and female breasts. The Egyptians were not prudes -- if they wanted to represent a combined male-female deity, they COULD have done so. However, it seems that they did not do this with the Goat of Mendes. Instead, their male god Ba-neb-tettu, was married to his sister, Hat-Mehgit, and they had a son named Heru-pa-khart (a.k.a. Harpocrates). > In late dynastic times, when Ba-neb-Tettu was especially regarded as > the Soul of Orisis, and when the other aspects of the god were not > considered of so much importance, Hat-Mehit was wholly identified with > Isis, and her son "Harpocrates, the dweller in Mendes," became to all > intents and purposes Horus, the son of Isis, by Osiris. In other words, Ba-neb-Tettu, a form of Khenmu, was a local male goat-sheep Ra or Ptah analogue later identified also with Osiris. His sister-spouse was Hat-Mehit, a local Isis or Hathor analogue. Their son was Heru-pa-khart a.k.a. Harpocrates, later identied as a Horus analogue. > The priests however, were careful to preserve the peculiar > characteristics of their god, i.e., virility and the power to create, > and to recreate, and they did so by declaring that the phallus and the > lower part of the backbone, of Osiris were preserved in the temple of > the city which bore the name of Per-khet, i.e., the "House of the > staircase." > > The Ram of Mendes was then a form of "Osiris as the Generator," > as he is called in Chapters cxli, and cxlii. of the Book > Of the Dead, and the Delta was probably due to the elaborate > phallic ceremonies which were celebrated at Mendes and the > neighborhood annually. I am certain that it was the unabashed male virility of this deity that attracted the prurient attention of Eliphas Levi, Aleister Crowley, et al, as they popularlized him erroneously as a form of "Satan." These folks had been subjected to cruel and repressive Victorian sexual training which made noraml human sexuality appear "sinful" and hence "Satanic." I know nothing of Levi's sexual inclinations, but Crowley was a bisexual who could not bear to express his sexual preferences openly. (See his pseudonymous parody of Richerd Burton's "Perfumed Garden" for a sample of his pathetic attempts to simulatneously conceal and reveal his love affair with Herbert Charles Jerome Pollitt.) The conflation of male virility with "demonic" bisexuality and hence androgyny is something personal to these particular Victorians; the fact that they presented spurious ancient sources to justify their needs for personal expression of "sinful" longings is symptomatic of Victorian European hegemonic Orientalism at its worst. > Before the close of the Ptolemaic period, however, some calamity seems > to have fallen upon Mendes, and her sanctuary was forsaken and her god > forgotten; on the other hand, the portion of the city which was known > by the name Thmuis, Ouovis, survived, and was sufficiently important > in Christian times to possess a bishop of its own. The Copts called > the place Ollovewc, or Tbaki Ollovi, and a Bishop of Thmoui was > present both at the Council of Nice and the Council of Ephesus. > > Finally, we have to note that Khenmu as a form of Shu, i.e., as a > personification of the wind, and the atmosphere, and the supporter of > heaven, and the light of the Sun and Moon, was worshipped at several > places in Upper Egypt and in Heliopolis under the form of a ram; the > center of his worship at last-named place was Het-Benben, or "the > House of the Obelisk." At Latopolis he absorbed the attributes of > Tem, and he was identified with Nu, the maker of the universe and > creator of the gods; similarly, he was regarded as a form of Ptah and > of Ptah-Tanen, Ptah is, of course, the "maker of the gods" and is goat-headed. > and his female counterparts were Menhit, Seket, and Tefnut. > > In a hymn which is inscribed on the walls of the temple of Esna he is > called, "The prop of heaven who hath spread out the same with his > hands," and the sky is said to "rest upon his head whilst the earth > beareth up his feet." He is "the creator of heaven and earth and all > that herein is, and the maker of whatsoever is; he formed the company > of the gods and he made man upon his potter's wheel." Again, here is a Ptah reference, for this deity is often shown at a potter's wheel, creating the universe. Ptah was never a hermaphrodite or a bisexual, nor was he associated with "Satanic" things such as deceit, trickery, the underworld, the land of the dead, "sin," flames, brimstone, suphur, soul-stealing, pacts, or the whole panoply of "demonic" concepts. That Levi, Crowley et al made this correspondence shames them, not Ptah or his representative in Mendes, Ba-neb-Tettu, needless to say. > He is "the One god, the source from which sprang the regions on high, > the primeval architect, the maker of the stars, the creator of the > gods, who was never born, and the begetter or maker of his own being, > whom no man can understand or comprehend." Typical creator-god attributions, usually encountered in connection with the deity Ptah. . > Many other passages in the inscriptions at Esna ascribe to him > naturally all the powers and attributes of Ptah. Among several > interesting addresses to the god may be mentioned [one] wherein it > is said, "Thou hast raised up heaven to be a dwelling-place for the > soul, and thou didst make the great deep that it might serve as a > hiding-place for the body." That Ba-neb-tettu created Heaven as well as the Abyss certainly removes him from the class of the demi-urge or demon. > Finally, it may be noted that as Khenmu-shu absorbed the attributes of > Nu, Ra, Ptah, Thoth, etc., so several great goddesses, besides those > already mentioned, were identified with his female counterparts, > e.g., Nut, Net, {Neith}, Nebuut, etc. > > [end quoted text] > > http://touregypt.net/khnemfor.htm > > Dan W. Now, just to lock this down, as best i can -- from this material on ancient Egypt, supplied by the Egyptian govenrment, i have learned the following: 1) The Goat of Mendes was named Ba-neb-Tettu and was a form of Khenmu. Two translations for his name are: The Ram, Lord of Tettu Soul, the Lord Tettu 2) The word Ba-neb-Tettu refers to the soul (Ba); Ba also means "ram." 3) Ba-neb-Tettu was at various times an analogue for: Ra (a.k.a. Amon-Ra), a ram-(sheep)-headed god, Ptah, a very ancient goat-headed creator (potter) god, Osiris, a latterly-popular "saviour" god. Shu, a wind-god 4) In latter times Ba-neb-Tettu was called the "soul" of four gods: the Soul of Ra, the Soul of Osiris, the Soul of Seb, the Soul of Shu. 5) As the Soul of these four gods, Ba-neb-Tettu was sometimes portrayed as a four-headed or four-faced ram. 6) Ba-neb-Tettu was not a hermaphrodite but a heterosexual male whose mate was his sister-goddess. 7) The Greeks called Ba-neb-Tettu "Mevons." 8) The Arabs called Ba-neb-Tettu "Tamai al-Amdid," a name not at all related to "Baphomet." Most scholars presume that Baphomet is a corruption of the word "Mahomet" or "Mohammed." Mohammad is NOT the "creator god" of the Arabs. Eliphas Levi gives the derivation of Baphomet "Kabalistically backwards" (sic!) as "Tem. ohp. ab." which he interprets as "Templi Omnium Hominum Pacis Abbas," and translates as "The Father of the Temple of Peace of All Men." Thus his identification of Baphomet with The Goat of Mendes is not only a fabrication but a stupidly inconsistent one with he drops when he wishes to identify Baphomet with the Knights Templar. 9) Ba-neb-Tettu, the ram-headed creator god a.k.a. The Goat of Mendes was never iconographically associated with the following visual images found in the Eliphas Levi renditon of "The Sabbatic Goat" a.k.a. "Baphomet" a.k.a."the spirit of the earth...Azoth [with] the head of The Goat of Mendes" or with the subsequent reinterpretation of this image (as "The Devil") in the tarot cards of Pamela Coleman Smith and Arthur Edward Waite: A) a five-pointed star or inverted pentagram (Levi wrote: "By placing [the Pentagram] in such a manner that two of its points are in the ascendent and one is below, we may see the horns, ears, and beard of the heirarchic Goat of Mendes, when it becomes the sign of infernal evocations.") B) a burning torch (between the horns in the Levi verison; in the hand in the Smith-Waite version) , C) chains (Smith-Waite), D) flames (in both versions), E) the caduceus of Mercury (Levi), F) female breasts (Levi), G) a cubic throne (both versions), H) two crescent moons (Levi), I) bat-wings (Smith-Waite) or bird-wings (Levi) J) Captive humanoids (Smith-Waite) 10) Ba-neb-Tettu was not identified with Satan, demons, trickery, "sin," a "fall from grace," eternal damnation, judgement, hell, "infernal evocations," or adversarial conditions of any kind; in contradistinction, he was considered to be a masculine-virile "creator" god. 11) Eliphas Levi was full of shit. catherine yronwode --------------------------------- FIGURE To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.mythology,alt.magick,talk.religion.misc From: grifcon@mindspring.com (Katherine Griffis) Subject: Ram of Mendes [WAS Re: Goat of Mendes (Baphomet)] Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 21:26:04 GMT On Thu, 17 Dec 1998 17:53:17 -0800, catherine yronwode wrote: >>Dan Washburn wrote: >> The excerpt below may shed some light on those questions. Believe it >> or not it is from the official Egyptian Tourism web site. It has a >> section called Egyptian Antiquities which it describes as 'A vast >> resource of Egyptian history, including an in-depth historical >> archive, plus information on monuments and artifacts.' >> >> http://touregypt.net/index.htm >> >>[begin quoted text; i've inserted breaks and added my own comments] >> >> Coming now to the second great form of Khenmu, that under which he >> was worshipped at Mendes, we find that at a very early date he was >> identified with the great god of that city, and was known as >> Ba-neb-Tettu, i.e., the Ram, lord of Tettu. > >Obviously, this local form of Khenmu was one of the many male goat/sheep >gods the Egyptians worshipped at various sites. As i recall (after >decades of slowly decaying memory), the original Egyptian ram-god was >Ptah, the creator, who is presumed to be of a wild species of goat with >long, outwardly-twirled horns). He was followed in time (at at a >different locale) by Amon-Ra a.k.a. Ra, a more conventionally >sheepish-looking ram with backwards-curved horns. Ptah and Ra were >identified with each other, and thus Ba-neb-Tettu was identified with >both. > >The taxonomic distinctions between goats and sheep were not always clear >to folks in earlier times; it is easy to assign any given domestic >animal to the "sheep" category or "goat" category, but wild species are >harder to distinguish, and that's why it was said of YHVH that he would >separate the sheep from the goats. He made 'em, after all! On the contrary, the Egyptians were keen observers of nature; it is the reference in Herodotus to the sacrifice of goats at Mendes which has been questioned repeatedly as part of the confusion. In Egyptian art, the ram is represented in two distinct types, Ovis longpipes paleoaegyptica [used primarily in the representations of Khnum, Osiris, and the Ram at Mendes [Banebdjedet], with undulating horizontal long horns, and a heavy build. This is the species known from predynastic times. The other type is the Ovis aries platyra aegyptiaca , or curved-horn ram [which makes up the representations of Amun, for example], and known from the Middle Kingdom onwards. Most of the literature and evidence indicate that the Egyptians worshipped rams, although sheep were considered ritually unclean. I am not aware of any references to goats in the literature, except for Herodotus' statement, and it is generally thought he mistook the ram sacrifices for "goats." >> Now as the word for "soul" in Egyptian was Ba, the title Ba-neb-Tettu >> was sometimes held to mean the "Soul, the lord Tettu," >> and this was the name of the ram. > >Notice that both goats and sheep say "baaa" and so there is a pun in the >name. I myself have owned a number of rams and named them all with such >onomotopaeic titles as Ba-Ba-Louie, Ba-Ba-Ram-Das, and Ba-Ga-Vad-Gita It is thought that the word 'ba", which means [loosely] "soul" and the reference to the ram (also called 'ba') are based upon an onomatopoeia. ;) >> In allusion to these Souls the Ram of Mendes is sometimes described as >> the Ram with "Four faces {or, heads} on the neck," Here it should be noted that these associations are _very late_ in Egyptian religion, and come from about the 20th Dynasty. >> The female counterpart of Ba-neb-Tettu was Hat-Mehit, and her son by >> the god was Heru-pa-khart, the dweller in Atemet, and she >> was in some way connected with Punt, but the center of her worship in >> Egypt was the city of Mendes, of which she is called the "Mother;" >> she was, of course, a form of Isis and Hathor, and as such was called >> "the Eye of Ra, the lady of heaven, and the mistress of the gods." Hat-Mehit was possibly syncretized into Isis as well, but this again was VERY late, when almost ALL female deities became associated as facets of Isis. However, Hat-Mehit's cult seems to have eclipsed in Mendes about the Middle Kingdom. >This makes perfect sense in Egyptian terms...and ipso facto makes NO >sense in terms of 19th and 20th century French and British occultism. >The so-called "hermaphroditic" Goat of Mendes that Levi presented to the >public is a goat-headed -- not ram-headed -- humanoid with supposedly >male genitalia (but, more truthfully, he simply has Mercury's caduceus >in place of his penis) and female breasts. The Egyptians were not prudes >-- if they wanted to represent a combined male-female deity, they COULD >have done so. However, it seems that they did not do this with the Goat >of Mendes. Instead, their male god Ba-neb-tettu, was married to his >sister, Hat-Mehgit, and they had a son named Heru-pa-khart (a.k.a. >Harpocrates). Likely the confusion comes form the late association of Banebdjedet with the creator-god Khnum very late in Egyptian literature, which is in the Chester Beatty I Papyrus [Contendings of Horus and Seth], in which the god is claimed to "dwell in Setit" - which is identified as an island Seheil located at the First Cataract of the Nile in Aswan. Since Khnum's cult was located at nearby Elephantine, it is apparent that the syncretism of the two different ram-gods had occurred by this period (again, Dynasty 20). >> In late dynastic times, when Ba-neb-Tettu was especially regarded as >> the Soul of Orisis, and when the other aspects of the god were not >> considered of so much importance, Hat-Mehit was wholly identified with >> Isis, and her son "Harpocrates, the dweller in Mendes," became to all >> intents and purposes Horus, the son of Isis, by Osiris. > >In other words, Ba-neb-Tettu, a form of Khenmu, was a local male >goat-sheep Ra or Ptah analogue later identified also with Osiris. His >sister-spouse was Hat-Mehit, a local Isis or Hathor analogue. Their son >was Heru-pa-khart a.k.a. Harpocrates, later identied as a Horus >analogue. Khnum is a southern god, and Banebdjedet a god of the northeastern Delta. They are distinct gods, which had their own "families" of worship: Banebdjedet/Hat-Mehit/Harpocrates Khnum/Satis or Anuket as consort >> Finally, we have to note that Khenmu as a form of Shu, i.e., as a >> personification of the wind, and the atmosphere, and the supporter of >> heaven, and the light of the Sun and Moon, was worshipped at several >> places in Upper Egypt and in Heliopolis under the form of a ram; the >> center of his worship at last-named place was Het-Benben, or "the >> House of the Obelisk." At Latopolis he absorbed the attributes of >> Tem, and he was identified with Nu, the maker of the universe and >> creator of the gods; similarly, he was regarded as a form of Ptah and >> of Ptah-Tanen, > >Ptah is, of course, the "maker of the gods" and is goat-headed. Does anyone have a visual example of Ptah as "ram" or "goatheaded"? I have never seen one, and Ptah is particularly represented as a totally humanoid figure, with a blue skullcap and mummiform body. This imagery was in place by Dynasty 1, and AFAIK, the representation never waivered. However, Ptah IS a creator, and again, androgynous in his form as a creator deity. Perhaps the wesbite is referring to Ptah's association with the earth/chthonic deity Tatanen, which occurred in the Old Kingdom. >> and his female counterparts were Menhit, Seket, and Tefnut. Ptah is primarily associated with Sekhmet, goddess of destruction (while he represented order). These deities you mention were not associated with Ptah although there may be some confusion since they are all lioness goddesses, as was Sekhmet. The Memphite Triad consisted of Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertum. A later "son" addition was the deified mortal, Imhotep, the architect of the Step Pyramid of Djoser. [See comments about Ptah as an intellectual god of "crafts", below]. >> In a hymn which is inscribed on the walls of the temple of Esna he is >> called, "The prop of heaven who hath spread out the same with his >> hands," and the sky is said to "rest upon his head whilst the earth >> beareth up his feet." He is "the creator of heaven and earth and all >> that herein is, and the maker of whatsoever is; he formed the company >> of the gods and he made man upon his potter's wheel." > >Again, here is a Ptah reference, for this deity is often shown at a >potter's wheel, creating the universe. Ptah was never a hermaphrodite or >a bisexual, But he was. In his form as Ptah-Naunet, he was known as the "father-mother" who bore Atum, in the Memphite theology. Also, here you have a confusion of Ptah with Khnum, for Ptah was not a "potter god." See below. >> He is "the One god, the source from which sprang the regions on high, >> the primeval architect, the maker of the stars, the creator of the >> gods, who was never born, and the begetter or maker of his own being, >> whom no man can understand or comprehend." > >Typical creator-god attributions, usually encountered in connection with >the deity Ptah. . Or with most creator deities. The Egyptians made a distinction between gods who were born (msw) and gods who "come into being" (xprw). Creator deities, by their very nature, "came into being" for they could not be born of another. Atum is considered the first "completed" being, and was bisexual, although the Heliopolitan Theology claims him as "coming to being" while other literature claims he is a creation of Neith or Ptah. >Now, just to lock this down, as best i can -- from this material on >ancient Egypt, supplied by the Egyptian govenrment, i have learned the >following: > >1) The Goat of Mendes was named Ba-neb-Tettu and was a form of Khenmu. Not quite. We're talking about distinct deities associated with Mendes at various times. Originally, the deity associated with Mendes is a goddess, Hat-Mehit, which was a fish-goddess.This goddess first appears in dynastic periods, from the 2nd Dynasty onwards. She is supplanted by her consort introduced later, Banebdjedet, a ram-god, which literally means "Soul [manifestation] of the Lord of the Djedet [Mendes]." Khnum, OTOH, a deity from the Southern Egyptian area, is known from the predynastic periods, and is associated with fertility, especially in line with the Nile inundation. >2) The word Ba-neb-Tettu refers to the soul (Ba); Ba also means "ram." Here we're literally talking about the name as the "soul of [locale]." The ram symbolism is likely part of the onomatopoeia, and the sexual side of the ram symbolism seems to be part of the late (post Dyn 20) symbolism . >3) Ba-neb-Tettu was at various times an analogue for: I think "analogue" may be a bit much. Most of the references here are talking about "ba" [soul], where syncretized deities occur, and not with the deity Banebdjedet, specifically. > Ra (a.k.a. Amon-Ra), a ram-(sheep)-headed god, No, this is Khnum in most instances. The only other association of a "ram" with Re is in his chthonic "soul" personification, and this is again part of his association with Khnum, at least in the southern Egyptian belief system. This means that this is not Banebdjedet, though. > Ptah, a very ancient goat-headed creator (potter) god, Again, this is a late syncretism, and the Banebdjedet deity is stated only in the birth story of Ramses III, which is late (Dyn. 20). In this case, the god Tatanen, which is an earth deity (thus the confusion with Geb) is referred to here. He is often seen as androgynous and/or as bisexual. Tatanen was a chthonic deity of vegetation shown as a man with ram horns and two feathers. Ptah and Tatanen were syncretized by the Old Kingdom [sometimes called "Ptah-tanen"], but not with Banebdjedet until Dyn. 20. Further, Ptah was not a "potter god" (this is Khnum again), but an artisan god, who fashions from rich materials (such as the body of Ramses II, which it is said he fashions from electrum, and his limbs from copper and iron). Ptah is a god of architects, craftsmen and sculptors [intellectual skills of deign and carving], while Khnum was associated with skills of pottery, which was made with hands. Thus Khnum "throws" the material world into existence, made out of water and mud. > Osiris, a latterly-popular "saviour" god. Not sure where the website is getting this: Spell 142 names Osiris as the "lord of Mendes", but as the "begetter of life" refers not to his personification as a ram [ergo, sexual] deity but as the "corn god", the lord of vegetation (Osiris is, after all, a chthonic deity]. > Shu, a wind-god Again, this is Khnum [chthonic] who is associated with Shu, a defender of the solar deities. This association comes from Esna inscriptions, which are, again, very late in Egyptian religion. >4) In latter times Ba-neb-Tettu was called the "soul" of four gods: > the Soul of Ra, > the Soul of Osiris, > the Soul of Seb, > the Soul of Shu. Of these, the only association with the "soul" of any god listed here is possibly with Re, once again referring back to the story of the procreation scene of Ramses III where Tatanen becomes Banebdjedet to copulate with Ramses III's mother. Hart has pointed out that this inscription is "attempting to identify the chthonic deity Ptah-tanen with the sun-god, the traditional father of the Egyptian Pharaoh since the ram-god in the religious text known as the Litany of Re is represented as the 'lord of the sky and the 'life of Re.' " Hart here is referring to Ra's chthonic personification [Litany of Re]. Re is the "soul of Osiris" in the underworld [in fact, the souls must necessarily combine to effect the rebirth of both deities], while Khnum is associated with the "souls" of Geb/Seb and Shu. There may have been an occasion in the Middle Kingdom that the "Soul of Mendes" ram was associated with Osiris, which was symbolically retained in the Osiris Atef crown. >6) Ba-neb-Tettu was not a hermaphrodite but a heterosexual male > whose mate was his sister-goddess. True: the god Khnum is androgynous, however. >10) Ba-neb-Tettu was not identified with Satan, demons, trickery, > "sin," a "fall from grace," eternal damnation, judgement, hell, > "infernal evocations," or adversarial conditions of any kind; in > contradistinction, he was considered to be a masculine-virile > "creator" god. Again, I think this is a confusion with Khnum, for neither Banebdjedet or his Osirian associations place this deity as a "creator" god; that would be Khnum, and not part of the original syncretism. Post Dynasty 20 is when you see the confusion between the two deities (likely due to both being representations of Ovis longpipes paleoaegyptica). Katherine Griffis-Greenberg Member, American Research Center in Egypt International Association of Egyptologists University of Alabama at Birmingham Special Studies http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/1692/index.html ---------------------------------- FIGURE To: alt.satanism,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.mythology,alt.magick, talk.religion.misc From: "wil326" Subject: Re: Goat of Mendes (Baphomet) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 10:46:22 +0800 There was no Goat of Mendes it was a Ram of Mendes. Ptah was the patron of craftsmen a creator god later merging with necropolis god Sokor and Osiris into Ptah-Sokar-Osiris connected with Apis bull. Amon-Ra was most commonly found in the form of a man/Pharaoh with a solar disk and two tall plumes as head dress, he was the king of the gods, patron of the pharaohs, and god of fertility. Amon-Ra spirit dwelt in the ram headed sphinx. Ba a human headed hawk traveled about at will and carried the ring of eternity form its mummy with it. neb is the word for Lord/master and tettu (I think I'll have to look it up) is endure and can be translated as great everlasting soul/sprit. The Khenmu or more correctly Khnum(and Harsaphes and Amon) were rams and I will search for goats but cannot recall any mentions in Egyptian mythology. The ram of Mendes(Banebdetet- Soul,Lord of Buriris/Osiris) actually had four heads for the souls of Ra, Shu, Ged, and Osiris. When he was connected to Ptah Ptah took his form to create Rameses II (19 dynasty -military dynasty). Hat-mehit was his wife the dolphin goddess. Alot of confusion and misunderstanding is created because of the horizontal horns from the rams head. But the conclusions drawn are close to the mark. Your quoted author is under researched. And a contributing reason to alot of male statues and deities had breasts was due to the expression of Klienfelder's disease prevalent in the in bred population of the Monarchy of Egypt. Have a good look at alot of the statues and read up on some genetic/mummy studies. Rhubarb Rhubarb if you want more of my opinion mail me J. ------------------------------------ FIGURE Herodotus writes in "The Histories": I mentioned above that some of the Egyptians abstain from sacrificing goats, either male or female. The reason is the following: - These Egyptians, who are the Mendesians, consider Pan to be one of the eight gods who existed before the twelve, and Pan is represented in Egypt by the painters and the sculptors, just as he is in Greece with the face and legs of a goat. They do not, however, believe this to be his shape, or consider him in any respect unlike the other gods; but they represent him thus for a reason which I prefer not to relate. The Mendesians hold all goats in veneration, but the male more than the female, giving the goatherds of the males especial honour. One is venerated more highly than all the rest, and when he dies there is a great mourning throughout all the Mendesian canton. In Egyptian, the goat and Pan are both called Mendes. A marvel occurred in my time in this canton: a goat coupled openly with a woman, in full view. This was done as a public exhibition." (Book II Chap.46) -------------------------- FIGURE/TERM [from http://home.fireplug.net/~rshand/streams/masons/mysteries.html] Mysteries of the Templars The Baphomet (1) Rumors and Charges "Public indignation was aroused by...charges of ...worshipping the devil in the form of an idol called Baphomet." Baphomet was "the Templar symbol of Gnostic rites based on phallic worship and the power of directed will. The androgynous figure with a goat's beard and cloven hooves is linked to the horned god of antiquity, the goat of Mendes." - Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks "Some confessed that they had also worshipped an idol in the form of a cat, witch was red, or gray, or black, or mottled. Sometimes the idol worship required kissing the cat below the tail. Sometimes the cat was greased with the fat from roasted babies. The Templars were forced to eat food that contained the ashes of dead Templars, a form of witchcraft that passed on the courage of the fallen knights." - John J. Robinson, Dungeon, Fire and Sword (1991) In the list of charges drawn up by the Inquisition against the Templars on 12 August 1308, there appears the following: "Item, that in each province the order had idols, namely heads, of which some had three races and some one, and others had a human skull. Item, that they adored these idols or that idol, and especially in their great chapters and assemblies. Item, that they venerated (them). Item, that (they venerated them) as God. Item, that (they venerated them) as their Savior.... Item, that they said that the head could save them. Item, that [it could] make riches. Item, that it made the trees flower. Item, that [it made] the land germinate. Item, that they surrounded or touched each head of the aforesaid idols with small cords, which they wore around themselves next to the shirt or the flesh. Item, that in his reception, the aforesaid small cords or some lengths of them were given to each of the brethren. Item, that they did this in veneration of an idol. Item, that they (the receptors) enjoined them (the postulants) on oath not to reveal the aforesaid to anyone." - The Articles of the Accusations "...They bestowed worship in their chapter on a heathen idol, variously described as to its physical characteristics, but known as a 'Baphomet', which etymologically was the same word [in Old French] as 'Mohammed'. [Once or twice the form Mahomet is actually used by witnesses in the trial.] Like so many persecuted heretical groups of the past, they were said to hold their chapters only secretly and at night." "It was impossible for the Templars to have 'picked up in the East' the practice of worshipping an idol bearing the name of the Prophet Mohammed, since no such idol existed anywhere in the Levant, even among breakaway sects such as the Ismailis or the Druse. The idea that Muslims were idolaters was itself a part of another system of 'smears', the pejorative representation of the oriental world by western Christians." - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians "Probably relying upon contemporary Eastern sources, Western scholars have recently supposed that 'Bafomet' has no connection with Mohammed, but could well be a corruption of the Arabic abufihamat (pronounced in the Moorish Spanish something like bufihimat). The word means 'father of understanding.' In Arabic, 'father' is taken to mean 'source, chief seat of,' and so on. In Sufi terminology, ras el-fahmat (head of knowledge) means the mentation of man after undergoing refinement - the transmuted consciousness." - Idries Shah, The Sufis "Another theory suggests that Baphomet is a compound of the words 'baphe' (baptism) and 'metis' (wisdom) ...Both theories imply the Templars were worshipping, or at least privy to, a secret knowledge. Several commentators believed this points to the Templars having been gnostics ('gnosis' meaning knowing)." - Encounters magazine, issue 11: 45 "In the Inquisition evidence there are several references to members of the order receiving on initiation a little cord that had been in contact with the 'head'." - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? Upon being initiated into the Order of the Peacock Angel (Yezidis),"a holy thread, of intertwined black and red wool, is put around the neck. Like the sacred thread of the Parsis and other ancient Middle Eastern cults, this must never be removed; and it sounds like the cord that the Templars were accused of wearing when the Order was suppressed as heretic." - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies ____________________________________________________________ (2) Descriptions of the Idol The idol was described by Philip the Fair as: "...a man's head with a large beard, which head they kiss and worship at all their provincial chapters, but this not all the brothers know, save only the Grand Master and the old ones." - Philip's instructions to his seneschals During The Trial of the Templars in 1307 Brother Jean Taillefer of Genay gave evidence. He "was received into the order at Mormant, one of the three perceptories under the jurisdiction of the Grand Priory of Champagne at Voulaine. He said at his initiation 'an idol representing a human face' was placed on the altar before him. Hughes de Bure, another Burgundian from a daughter house of Voulaine, described how the 'head' was taken out of a cupboard, or aumbry, in the chapel, and that it seemed to him to be of gold or silver, and to represent the head of a man with a long beard. Brother Pierre d'Arbley suspected that the 'idol' had two faces, and his kinsman Guillaume d'Arbley made the point that the 'idol' itself, as distinct from copies, was exhibited at general chapters, implying that it was only shown to senior members of the order on special occasions." "The treasurer of the Paris temple, Jean de Turn, spoke of a painted head in the form of a picture, which he had adored at one of these chapters." "Nearly all the brethren agreed that the head was bearded and had long hair, and the Templars, like the majority of their contemporaries, regarded long hair as effeminate, so the length of the 'idol's hair was remarkable for this, if for no other reason." - Noel Currer-Briggs, The Shroud and the Grail - A Modern Quest for the True Grail According to the most consistent accounts, the idol was: "...about the natural size of a man's head, with a very fierce-looking face and beard." - Deposition of Jean Tallefer "He went on to say that he could not describe it more particularly, except that he thought it was of a reddish color." - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? The mysterious object at one of the Templars' Paris ceremonies was "brought in by the priest in a procession of the brethren with lights; it was laid on the altar; it was a human head without any silver or gold, very pale and discolored, with a grizzled beard like a Templars." - Stephen of Troyes "Other descriptions, clearly referring to copies, included mention of gold and silver cases, wooden panels, and the like. But the Paris head is different. One gets the distinct impression that this was the holy of holies, accorded ceremonial strikingly reminiscent of that used by the Byzantines." - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? ____________________________________________________________ (3) Theories About the Head It is possible that the head idol was intended to represent the severed head of John the Baptist, based on allegations that he was revered by the Order. The Templars took part in the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1203-4. Robert de Clari described the opulence and numerous relics at the sacred chapel of the Boucoleon Palace, amongst them supposedly the head of John the Baptist. An egregore is a magical entity that is artificially created by the focused thoughts and desires of a medium (analogous in many ways to Tibetan tulpas.) Supposedly a medium or statue could then serve as a tenant for the egregore, nourished by the sexual life-powers of the members. "The Egregora does [sic] exist in the so-called 'astral plane' and it is a demon, that is to say, an illusory entity. It is not a true Microcosm, but a gestalt of vitalized shells, a focus for everything that is negative, defeatist, maudlin, bigoted, introverted in human nature - a morass completely hostile to progress and to the spiritual evolution of mankind." - Marcel Ramos Motta (from P. R. Koenig below) "The representation of the egregore as bust recalls the ancient literary tradition of animated statues or Salome, who wanted the head of John the Baptist, probably to master his visionary powers.....The classic prototype of such an egregore is Baphomet, the alleged egregore of the Templars, who was (as the Roman Emperor of the Gods) likewise worshipped in the form of a bust. In the secret statutes of the Templars, Baphomet was besought with the introduction to the Qu'ran and dismissed with the 24th chapter of the Book of Sirach." - P. R. Koenig, "Too Hot to Handle" Another possibility as to the identity of the Baphomet may lie with Nicodemus, who in the Gospel of John who brought spices for Christ's burial. He is also mentioned in the apocryphal Evangelium Nicodemi (4th C.) as a ruler of the Jews who testified in Christ's favor. The Interpolation in the First Continuation of Chrétien's Perceval (12??) tells of the flight of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to England and includes the following intriguing passage: "Nicodemus had carved and fashioned a head in the likeness of the Lord on the day that he had seen Him on the cross. But of this I am sure, that the Lord God set His hand to the shaping of it, as they say; for no man ever saw one like it nor could it be made by human hands. Most of you who have been at Lucca know it and have seen it." - Interpolation in the First Continuation of Chrétien's Perceval "Another possibility for the origin of the Head relates to the imagery on the first Grand Master's shield, which consisted of three black heads on a gold field. After about two hundred years, it is plausible that this head imagery could have worked itself into the legend of the Baphomet. According to more than one account, the Head was the actual skull of Hugues de Payen, which was preserved as an object of veneration." - Forrest Jackson, "The Baphomet in History and Symbolism" "Surely this evidence [given by Templars at their trial] suggests that copies of the head, perhaps some of them not unlike the Sainte Face de Laon, others of carved stone or alabaster, such as those of the Nottingham School of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were widely distributed throughout the order's houses. This would at least explain why nothing resembling a pagan idol was found after the brethren had been arrested, and why none of the pictures found in their chapels raised so much as an eyebrow." - Noel Currer-Briggs, The Shroud and the Grail - A Modern Quest for the True Grail The idol was also described as: "...An old piece of skin, as though all embalmed and like polished cloth." - Chronicles of St. Denis Ian Wilson also hypothesizes that the Templar idols were representations of Christ's face copied from the Mandylion/Shroud. A possible surviving example, on a painted panel found at Templecombe, England, shows "a bearded male head, with a reddish beard, lifesize, disembodied, and, above all, lacking in any identification mark....It conforms too, to some of the most rational Templar descriptions: 'a painting on a plaque', 'a bearded male head', 'lifesize', 'with a grizzled beard like a Templars'. (The Templars cultivated their beards in the style of Christ)." - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? "...The descriptions given of it [the Baphomet] varied wildly. The physical characteristics assigned to the 'Baphomet' seemed to come either from the maufé or demon of northern folklore, or from church reliquaries. It was often said to represent a cat, a beast traditionally associated with witchcraft and heresy." - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians "INQUISITOR: Now tell us about the head. BROTHER RAOUL: Well, the head. I've seen it at seven chapters held by Brother Hugh de Peraud and others. INQUISITOR: What did one do to worship it? BROTHER RAOUL: Well, it was like this. It was presented, and everyone threw himself on the ground, pushed back his cowl, and worshipped it. INQUISITOR: What was its face like? BROTHER RAOUL: Terrible. It seemed to me that it was the face of a demon, of a maufé [evil spirit]. Every time I saw it I was filled with such terror I could scarcely look at it, trembling in all my members." - from M. Michelet, Procés des Templiers Based upon the idol's description as a "demon" having "very fierce-looking face and beard", the idol very likely could have been Asmodeus, the "daemon guardian" who helped Solomon build his Temple. A statue of the demon guards the door of the parish church at Rennes-le-Château. "The Templars' stronghold in Jerusalem, the site of their foundation, was finally overrun by the Moslems in 1244. Thirty-three years later the victorious sultan, Baibars, inspected their castle and is recorded to have discovered inside the tower 'a great idol, in whose protection the castle had been placed: according to the Frank who had given it its name [this is an unreadable word, made in diacritic letters]. He ordered this to be destroyed and a mihrab [Moslem prayer niche] constructed in its place." - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? ____________________________________________________________ (4) A Feminine Origin? "...We found indisputable evidence for the charge of secret ceremonies involving a head of some kind. Indeed the existence of such a head proved to be one of the dominant themes running through the Inquisition records....Among the confiscated goods of the Paris preceptory a reliquary in the shape of a woman's head was found. It was hinged on top, and contained what appeared to have been relics of a peculiar kind." - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The reliquary was: "A great head of gilded silver, most beautiful, and constituting the image of a woman. Inside were two head bones, wrapped in a cloth of white linen, with another red cloth around it. A label was attached, on which was written the legend CAPUT LVIIIm. The bones inside were those of a rather small woman." - Oursel, Le Procés des Templiers "Caput LVIIIm - 'Head 58m' - remains a baffling enigma. But it is worth noting that the 'm' may not be an 'm' at all, but the astrological symbol for Virgo." - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail "The number 58 is less puzzling if one remembers that five (5) is the number of the pentagram and eight (8) is indicative of Isis. We may now complete the simple equation which exposes her secret number: 5 X 8 = 40 = 58 - 18 ISIS "The numbers 5 and 8 are also exhibited in the beliefs of the 'Brothers of the Rose Cross', where the rose is constructed with a centre of five petals, surrounded by eight petals." - David Wood, GENISIS (1986) "That it had a feminine origin is shown by Gerald Massey who writes 'METE was the BAPHOMET or mother of breath'. According to Von Hammer, the formula of faith inscribed on a chalice belonging to the Templars is as follows: Let METE be exalted who causes all things to bud and blossom, it is our root; it is one and seven; it is octinimous, the eight-fold name." - Kenneth Grant, Nightside of Eden "Herodotus (4:26) speaks of the practice in the obscure Issedones of gilding a head and sacrificing to it. Cleomenes of Sparta is said to have preserved the head of Archonides in honey and consulted it before undertaking an important task. Several vases of the fourth century BC in Etruria depict scenes of persons interrogating oracular heads. And the severed head of the rustic Carians which continues to 'speak' is mentioned derisively by Aristotle." - Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind A similar tradition could be found in the Celtic cult of the severed head which figured predominently in Peredur, a Welsh romance about the Holy Grail. "A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, a Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him 'guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things', and so he carried it away with him." - Ward, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods "One chronicler cites the name of the woman in the story - Yse, which would seem quite clearly to derive from Isis." - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail "At one time there was only God. He was all omnipotent and existed alone. This caused him to become discontented, thus he split himself in two in order to create a mate. He kept the elements of Order and Logic for his own being and gave his mate the elements of Chaos and Emotion for her being. Her name is Yse (pron. Issa). She became so overwhelmed with love at her creation that when he kissed her, she gave him a reaction which was to become known as the 'Chosen Response'. The Chosen Response was the first acknowledgement and reaction of love between a male and female in the universe, and this became the greatest secret of and mystery of mankind, being 'The Holy Grail'." - Synopsis from the Merovingian Bible, "Angels Among Us! The Gnostic (Johannine) Christian Path" Dr. Hugh Schonfield in The Essene Odyssey "had discovered a system of cryptography - he called it the 'Atbash Cipher' - which had been used to conceal certain names in Essene/Zadokite/Nazarene texts. This system of coding figured, for example, in a number of the scrolls found at Qumran." - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy Schonfield "showed that by applying the Hebrew Atbash code to the name Baphomet, the name Sophia [ShVPIA], female wisdom, is revealed. Sophia is equated with Isis by Plutarch." - David Wood, Genisis Isis's magic was allied to the wisdom of the Egyptian god Thoth. His wife or consort, Nehemaut, was known to the Gnostics as Sophia. "By this analysis, therefore, when the Templars worshipped Baphomet what they were really doing was worshipping the principle of Wisdom." - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal "From the Templars' use of the Atbash Cipher, it is probable that some form of Nazarean or neo-Nazarean sect had continued to survive in the Middle East as late as the twelfth century, and had made its teachings available to the West." - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy ____________________________________________________________ [from http://www.hollyfeld.org/Esoteric/Text/Necronomicon/rpnconrvw.txt ] RE Lovecraft's Shub-Niggurath: The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young traces back to ancient Egypt and Sumeria. While both Egypt and Sumeria had Goat cults it was probably the Egyptian version that was most influential. The so-called Goat of Mendes was a "black" incarnation of Asar. The cult was fertility based. Aspects of these Goat cults were absorbed into Arab magickal systems. For instance, the Aniz tribe is designated as the Goat Anz. (Anz and Aniz are cognates.) The Aniz are called the Goat because their founder practiced fertility based magick. The Symbol of this cult is a torch between two Goats horns. This symbol has become important in Western magickal traditions. [from http://www.Saintsalive.com/freemasonry/goatofmendes.htm] The Goat of Mendes or Baphomet Copy of a letter sent to an inquirer asking for the origins of the Masonic ties to it. Thank you very much for your letter. It was forwarded to me from Chick Publications since I helped them put together the tract, "The Curse of Baphomet" and am the author of MASONRY: BEYOND THE LIGHT . I am a former 32o Mason, and am now an evangelist and an associate of Ed Decker's the fellow you mentioned who wrote The Question of Freemasonry. At the risk of sounding a bit venal, some of your questions are answered in a much more comprehensive way than I could possibly manage here in a letter in my book, mentioned above, which Chick sells. However, I will endeavor to help out as much as possible. 1)Masonic writer Manly P. Hall (33o)-just recently deceased (9/90) and eulogized and lionized at great length in the SCOTTISH RITE JOURNAL-stated that Baphomet was another name for the satanic "Goat of Mendez" whose picture is featured prominently in the tract. The Goat of Mendez is, of course, the god of the witches. (Mendez is another spelling of Mendes, a city of ancient Egypt where fertility worship-Ba'al worship-was practiced). This god, also known as the Horned God, is evidently the oldest fertility god in human history. His representation is found on paintings from cavemen in Ariége, France. Nimrod, the founder of Baëal worship, is often represented wearing a horned headdress. The leader of the most powerful occult/Masonic organization in the world (the Ordo Templi Orientis-Order of Eastern Templars), Kenneth Grant, says that Baphomet actually means Bapho-Mitras-son of Mithras. Mithras was the bull-god (Bull = Ba'al?) worshipped in the Roman empire about the time of Christ. Again, the Horned God of witchcraft. Thus, while Ba'al was not actually called "Baphomet" until well after the time of Christ; even Masons admit readily that Baphomet is a pagan fertility god-and more importantly, that Freemasonry is a fertility cult religion. Supreme Masonic leader of the Scottish Rite in the 19th century Albert Pike also clearly equates Freemasonry with "occult science" and Templary. This certainly ought to be enough to convince any sane Christian that Masonry is of the devil! 2) We do not have a copy of the article from the English publication, but are working on getting one. In the meantime, I am enclosing copies of the article which referenced the article (secondary source); and more importantly, the primary source of the quote in the original French document which the English Masonic magazine quoted (primary source). Naturally, it is in French, and it is a bad photocopy, because it is a rare book. However, it is readable and easy to determine that it is the original quote. 3) THE EQUINOX, vol.3, no.1 is (sadly) currently in storage. Our ministry moved in the past two months; and about half of our library had to go into storage. It would be impossible to currently find. Write me again after the end of January and I will send it to you. 4) The fact that the obelisk is a phallic symbol is something so readily known that it hardly needs to be proven. As for it being a Masonic symbol, why else do you think it is the symbol of the Washington monument? I would really recommend that you get the book, THE TWO BABYLONS by Rev. Hislop. It will exhaustively deal with this entire line of research, from a Biblical Christian perspective. The so-called "All-Seeing Eye" is actually the Ut Chut (also spelled Wedjat) Eye is associated both with Osiris and satanist Aleister Crowley's god, Horus (Ra Hoor Khuit). An ancient Egyptian coffin text even refers to it as the "all-seeing eye of Horus." 5) The MYSTIC SHRINE ritual book is difficult to acquire. If there are pages that you need out of it, we will be happy to photocopy them for you. It would be nice if you could send a small donation to cover the cost. We certainly do appreciate all that you are trying to do here. However, if I can address a broader philosophical point here; you may be working harder than you need to. You may be trying to swat a fly with an H-bomb! Let me explain. From bitter experience, I can tell you that you can provide all the documents you have requested and Masons will still not believe you. First of all, you must pray for them; that the spiritual darkness over their eyes might be broken by the power of the Lodge. You need to assert your authority in Jesus Christ and follow the mandate of 2Cor. 10:4-5: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; You also need to realize that you don't need to deal with all of these issues necessarily. There are simple things which every Mason knows and does not need to be educated about which will more than establish the anti-Biblical nature of the Lodge. I am enclosing a tract of ours, called "Shedding Light on the Lodge" which deals with some simpler approaches. Don't get me wrong! The "Baphomet" tract is great, and we have had dozens of letters of people who have gotten saved out of Masonry because of it. It just needs to be used with prayer and sensitivity. If the Lord really leads you to share it with a Mason then do so! The Mason's heart might be ready to receive it. However, in many cases, most Masons have never heard of this stuff (just like the Mason in the tract itself!) and unless you happen to have a trunk full of documentation down the block, your efforts may be wasted. However, the simpler approach doesn't need so many arcane documents to be proven, and most Masons will readily acknowledge the truth of what is being said. I hope that this material helps. God bless you richly, and sorry that you had to wait so long for this answer; but we get hundreds of letters a month to answer (as you can imagine). Praising the name of Jesus forever, Bill Schnoebelen Saints Alive Box 1076 Issaquah, WA. 98027 ------------------------------- FIGURE/TERM source was lost; contact the editor for credit: Dr. Franz Spunda`s (1890-1963) alchemical novel 'Baphomet, the secret God of the Templars', (Villach 1942) indicates some connections between the fictional descendent (Vincente Lascari) of the 18th Cent. alchemist Lascari, who inherited important manuscripts and finally the P. Stone to him, and an certain malicious group of the Templars. the story happens at the beginning of the 20th century. from the 'Lexikon des Geheimwissens' edited by Horst E. Miers: Baphomet or Bafomet, a adored symbol of the Templars (alleged), which origin is unkown.The figure of the Baphomet had a white beard and two carbuncles in its eyes. After the doctrines of the 'Grolden Landesloge' where Baphomet plays a certain role, the right spelling is 'Baffometus' and means 'the man with a beard', originating from the Italian 'bafil = beard' in the sense of 'soul of the world'.... Aleister Crowley claimed to have found the right cabbalistic style: BAFOMIThR. After Th. Reuss (O.T.O) Baphomet means: Nature, the androgyne being, representing fire, pure Akasha, Air, the breath of the celestial being, water, the living soul and the being of the earth... A.E. Waite wrote in his 'Mysteries of Magic': Baphomet has to be read backwards, because that name, originally was written in Hebrew, and is compounded out of three abreviations: TEM OHP AB = (lat.) Templi omnium pacis abbas = the father of the temple, universal freedom of mankind. An occultist, Von Hammer, interprets the word "Baphomet" simply as a accidental style of writing "Baptimus" = Baptism or consecration into wisdom. In former times, Baphomet, also was interpreted as a wrong style of writing "Mohammed" and particulary as a kind of an artificial head, which was able to speak, and the Templars (alleged) were forced to adore to this head. In 1932, Kuno, Count of Hardenberg, claimed to have found the right solution of this problem, when he analyzed a square of letters of the Templars. a) original: S A T A N A D A M A T A B A T A M A D A N A T A S b) after removing all letters except A and B: * A * A * A * A * A * A B A * A * A * A * A * A * c) after removing B:possible drawing of the Cross of the Templars * A * A * A * A * A * A * A * A * A * A * A * A * d) Resulting 2 heraldic figures, called Fyrfos. S * T * N * D * M * T * B * T * M * O * N * T * S the letters which were removed: S,T,N,D,M,T: Salomonis Templum ovum Dominorum Militiae Templariorum. The remaining "B" would be the sign of the "Logos". Through Fyrfos it will lead to solution, viz. "The fire of believe will be inflamed". In Latin "igniter" will be "fomes", and therefore, the Templars spoke in their rituals: "Ex literaris B A fomitem habemus" = out of the letters A + B we will receive the igniter; the abreviation of this saying: B A fomes or B A fomit = Bafomet. ------------------------------ FIGURE from the 1993 Llewellyn Edition of Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia: According to Lewis Spence, it was revealed in 1818 that in the imperial museum of Vienna had been discovered several heads of Baphomet, the god of the Knights Templars: "These heads represent the divinity of the gnostics, named Mete, or Wisdom. For a long time there was preserved at Marseilles one of these gilded heads, seized in a retreat of the Templars when the latter were pursued by the law." (Spence 1920, 203). (p. 236 of the Agrippa) --------------------------------- SIGIL To: alt.antichristnet,alt.christnet.satanism,alt.satanism,alt.satannet From: "The Satanic Network" Subject: Re: Baphomet sigil (FCoS FAQ) Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 13:05:23 -0600 Below lists the Legal Info about the Trade mark. Take it as you see fit, BUT it is there. If you want to look for yourself it is registered with the US Patent Office ----------------------------------------------------------------- Word Mark CHURCH OF SATAN Owner Name (REGISTRANT) Church of Satan, Incorporated, The Owner Address P.O. Box 896 Daly City CALIFORNIA 94017 CORPORATION CALIFORNIA Attorney of Record Paul W. Vapnek, Esq. Serial Number 73-341434 Registration Number 1236878 Filing Date 12/14/1981 Registration Date 05/03/1983 Design Search Code 01.01.03; 03.07.10; 03.07.11; 03.07.24; 26.01.07; 28.01.07 Description of Mark THE DESIGN ELEMENT OF THE MARK CONSISTS OF A STAR WHICH CONTAINS A GOAT'S HEAD, AND SURROUNDING WHICH APPEAR TWO CONCENTRIC CIRCLES. BETWEEN THESE CIRCLES APPEAR FIVE HEBRAIC CHARACTERS.; LINING AND/OR STIPPLING SHOWN IN THE MARK ON THE DRAWING IS A FEATURE OF THE MARK AND DOES NOT INDICATE COLOR. Mark Drawing Code (3) DESIGN PLUS WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE No claim is made to the exclusive right to use the words "Church Of Satan", apart from the mark as shown. APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN Register PRINCIPAL Published for Opposition 02/08/1983 Affidavits SECT 8.; SECT 15.; COMBINED SECT 8 AND SECT 15. Type of Mark COLLECTIVE MEMBERSHIP MARK ----------------------- International Class 200 Goods and Services Church Membership; DATE OF FIRST USE: 1966.04.30; DATE OF FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 1967.09.01 the Daemon Egan wrote in message <7b80ve$4bn$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>... > The following information has been added to the FCoS FAQ > http://www.churchofsatan.org/faq.html > > The sigil of Baphomet is the five-pointed star superimposed over > the head of a goat which appears next to our name - it is not a > legal trademark or corporate logo as other would have you believe! > Why? Because it was not created in this century! Anyone can use > this symbol - it is in the public domain, just like the christian > crucifix and jewish star of david. If any person or organization > threatens to sue you for using, advertising, posting or > merchandising items displaying this symbol, please report it to us > immediately! They are perpetrating fraud and will be dealt with > swiftly and severely. If you would like in-depth, factual > information regarding the sigil of Baphomet please follow this link: > http://www.intranet.ca/~magicworks/knights/baphomet.html > -- > the Daemon Egan > Official High Priest > First Church of Satan > http://churchofsatan.org ------------------------------ SIGIL Newsgroups: alt.satanism From: Xaphan@satanism.net (Xaphan) Subject: Re: Baphomet sigil (FCoS FAQ) Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 02:01:34 GMT In article <19990301205415.28348.00000558@ng52.aol.com>, rmerciless@aol.commit2hell (RMerciless) wrote: > Enough of generalities. Let us hear of SPECIFIC cited appearances > of the sigil prior to 1966 or so. That would, I think, go a long > way toward making the "public domain" argument. Merely saying it > is public domain does not make it so. Maurice Bessy, _A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural_, London: Spring Books, 1964 [the original edition of this work - _Histoire en 1000 images de la magie_ - was published in 1961 by Editions du Pont Royal] Oswald Wirth, _La fran-maconnerie rendue intelligible a ces adeptes - II, "Le compagnon"_, Paris: Derry-Livres, 1931, page #60 Eliphas Levi did also have the same Baphomet in one of his books, with 'samael' and 'lillith' inside of it. A picture of Levi's drawing can be seen at: http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~ringmaker/symbols/penthist.html I'm not a stickler for Levi really, though he was interesting in some respects. I'm sure someone more inclined toward Levi could confirm the appearence of the Baphomet better. I just happened to come across this while on a ringmaker's page. The examples above it are from everyones favorite 'Legend and Reality' article, which are easy enough for one to try and confirm. Regards, Xaphan -------------------------------- SIGIL To: alt.satanism From: doctorlao@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Baphomet sigil (FCoS FAQ) Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 02:40:07 GMT R. Merciless wrote: > I seem to recall Dr. Aquino posting something here that he first > saw the sigil (of Baphomet) on the cover of some old book LaVey > had showed him. Anyone recall what that was? Dr. LaVey took the symbol of the Baphomet from the cover of "A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural" by Maurice Bessy, Spring Books, Drury House, Russell St. London. 1964. He never made a secret of this and showed the book frequently. It is a myth that Dr. LaVey ever claimed that he "invented" the symbol. The official CofS Baphomet for use on stationary, medallions, and silk screened 12" altar plaques was a slightly modified version of the Bessy. This is the version you see today. The Baphomets above the altars in the ritual chambers (upstairs and down) at the Central Grotto were Bessy versions. Dr. Lao http://www.angelfire.com/co/doctorlao/index.html -------------------------------- SIGIL To: alt.satanism From: xeper@aol.com (Xeper) Subject: Re: Baphomet sigil (FCoS FAQ) Date: 02 Mar 1999 19:06:09 GMT In article , Xaphan@satanism.net wrote: >The examples above it are from everyones favorite 'Legend >and Reality' article, which are easy enough for one to try and >confirm. The item in the "Legend & Reality" paper concerning the Baphomet was sourced to my _Church of Satan_ history. The _COS_ paragraph in its entirety: ********** The Baphomet emblem as used by the Church of Satan was not original to it nor created by Anton LaVey, hence cannot be trademarked. The original Baphomet dates at least as far back as the medieval Knights Templar. The artwork for the current emblem's goat/pentagram first appears in Oswald Wirth, _La fran-maconnerie rendue intelligible 'a ces adeptes - II. "Le compagnon", Paris: Derry-Livres, 1931, page #60. The complete emblem, with the added circles and "LVYThN" letters, appears on the cover of Maurice Bessy, _A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural_, London: Spring Books, 1964 - two years before the creation of the Church of Satan. [The original adition of this book - _Histoire en 1000 images de la magie_ - was published in 1961 by Editions du Pont Royal.] Early photos of Church activities often show Anton or his disciples using the Bessy book as a photo prop because of the large cover emblem, and he included it in his _Compleat Witch_ bibliography. [See Appendix #22.] The Baphomet is clearly in the public domain. ********** Though as posted by the "Satanic Network" here, Anton's 1981 trademark registration applies only to the emblem used together with the words "Church of Satan", it was quite clearly Barton's policy to intimidate others into thinking that the emblem *alone* was trademarked. On various occasions I received letters from independent jewelry, etc. manufacturers, enclosing such threats from Barton. I just sent them photocopies of the Wirth and Bessy documents, whereupon they went happily off to do their thing and presumably told her to pound salt. As an example of Barton's threats in this regard, note the following from the Autumn 1985 issue of the _Cloven Hoof_: "Every so often we receive letters or solicitations from individuals in which, for reasons of either presumptuousness or benign role emulation, the Sigil of Baphomet is depicted as a personal or corporate logo. While we can give the benefit of the doubt in most cases, and presume that the correspondent is unaware of his _faux pas_, it must be stated here that the Sigil of Baphomet is a copyrighted insignia, registered to the Church of Satan. Its likeness cannot be used without written permission from the Church of Satan, nor can it be commercially reproduced for profit without consideration of the Church of Satan. In essence, it is a corporate *and* religious logo, much as the symbols of Proctor & Gamble, McDonald's, or ITT. Those currently using this symbol in their personal or professional business ventures *without Church of Satan sanction* are subject to prosecution." As you can see, the attempt is to claim the emblem _per se_, not the "emblem-with-CS-name" as the trademark (not "copyright") actually states. Shortly thereafter the _CH_ began displaying the Baphomet on its cover with (R) next to it [but without "Church of Satan" as a part of the design, hence a misuse of the (R)]. In fact, I think that for the (R) to work, the words "CoS" would have to be used as a standard, integral part of the *Baphomet design* - not simply appear somewhere on the same page in various ways. Anton did not show me the Bessy book. It was, as noted, used as a prop in various publicity photos ca. 68, and later on Fields Bookstore in San Francisco obtained a copy for me. It is identical to the emblem used by the Church of Satan for its stationery, altar plaques, and medallions. There was no "Anton LaVey variation". The Wirth illustration was discovered by the Temple of Set's senior official in Germany during his research. It is the same goat-and-pentagram, but with the goat's head much more finely executed. Presumably the Bessy emblem is a modification of Wirth, with the goat simplified. I don't recall Anton explicitly claiming to have authored the Bessy Baphomet, but the _Satanic Bible_ and _Rituals_, with no other credit for cover art, certainly gave that impression, as did the Bessy- emblazoned 1968 _Satanic Mass_ record album, whose cover design was "by Hugo Zorilla" (one of Anton's pen-names). Curious how the Bartonites' admission of the Bessy artwork came out only *after* it was exposed in my _Church of Satan_, as was also the case with the Ragnar Redbeard "Book of Satan" plagiarism and the Edith Eyde _Hymn to Satan_ plagiarism, Jack London scam, etc., etc. And like the other cases, this was a pointless act of deception/plagiarism - all the more so since Anton was a very skilled artist and quite capable of drawing a Baphomet of his own creation anytime (as he did, on my request, for the 1971-72 "red goat" _Cloven Hoofs_). On 10/23/71 he wrote to me: "For the masthead my prime thought was that the design employed should incorporate cloven hooves, thereby reinforcing the image conveyed by the title. After drawing a succession of devils, most looking either like fugitives from a tin of ham or third rate opera company rejects from _Faust_ auditions, I started a rather panoramic thing showing a Devil’s herd, a la 'Ghost Riders', galloping across the top of the page. My intentions were the best, but alas, the page was too small, and what started as a DeMille- type hippodrome petered out to a shopping center dog and pony circus. "A stylized version of Baphomet was decided upon because I felt that Levi’s version, while luridly graphic for the nineteenth century, is far too euphemistic for today’s climate. Such concessions as the ill-fitted 'good' pentagram on the forehead, the caduceus in lieu of a virile member, the lap robe to avoid exposure of the caduceus' point of origin, a rather unimaginative pair of 39 D-cup mammary glands, arms that would better serve in an ad for Jergens Lotion, a right hand apparently in the act of hailing a cab, and a Roman candle perched atop the head do little to advance the impression of the truly base and carnal aspect of the Beast of the World. "I have attempted to beef up the aforementioned and drawn the horns in the manner of certain eastern and African wild goats rather than the usual, domestic variety. The membranous wings and scales have been added to graphically intensify the Hellish origin. Use your own judgment as to the color rendition. I have enclosed a couple of suggestions. Using red in only the eyes and the smoke from the cranial exhaust (mistakenly assumed by most occultists to be some sort of candle) would certainly give the impression of a head 'filled up with burning mist and golden mire' as well as direct the reader's gaze towards the title. Allusions to red, blazing eyes can be found throughout the lore of Satan, from the ghouls and afrits of Persia to Dracula himself. Or, if you feel it is more striking in black and white, please don’t hesitate to forgo color altogether. I am frankly undecided. Diane prefers either the plain black and white or black and white with just the touch of red in the eyes and smoke." Figuring "pedal to the metal", I decided on all-red, hence those two years' issues' nickname as the "Red Goats". Ironically we got more than a few complaints about it because of Mr. B's big hairy erection, which apparently deterred some recipients from leaving issues around on their coffee-tables. :-) Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D. --------------------------------------------- SIGIL To: alt.satanism From: doctorlao@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Baphomet sigil (FCoS FAQ) Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 20:39:48 GMT Xeper wrote: > Anton did not show me the Bessy book. It was, as > noted, used as a prop in various publicity photos > ca. 68, and later on Fields Bookstore in San > Francisco obtained a copy for me. Michael Aquino did not see the book because he was only at the Central Grotto a couple of times. Anton showed the Bessy book frequently both in the Purple Room to members and guests and during his lectures in the Front (Ritual Chamber). Most of the members at the Central Grotto had seen the book at some time or another. If Michael Aquino knows any of them, he may check to confirm this. > It is identical to the emblem used by the Church of Satan for > its stationery, altar plaques, and medallions. > There was no "Anton LaVey variation". Dr. Lao was referring to the "cleaning up" of the goat within the pentagram and the obvious change to the right eyebrow (a fork). Diane LaVey takes credit for these artistic variations however small. This is the version seen today. Should Michael Aquino have difficulty seeing the difference, he need only hold his hardcover copy of the Satanic Bible next to the Bessy book and look closely. Or perhaps he could just inspect some of those snapshots he took with his Brownie the one time he was in the Ritual Chamber. Should he still have a problem, Dr. Lao recommends a pair of Dean Edell's optical readers, perhaps with a strength of +3.00. > Curious how the Bartonites' admission > of the Bessy artwork came out only *after* > it was exposed in my _Church of Satan_, > as was also the case with the Ragnar > Redbeard "Book of Satan" plagiarism > and the Edith Eyde _Hymn to Satan_ > plagiarism, Jack London scam, etc., etc. Ridiculous. Dr. LaVey held court in the kitchen and answered all questions following rituals. We all knew of the Bessy book, Ragnar Redbeard, the Hymn to Satan and all the rest. Michael Aquino doesn't know this because he wasn't *there.* Anton did like members to "do their own homework" but short of rubbing people's noses in the stuff, he was quite open. There is no admission to be made by any "Bartonites" whoever those may be. That is utterly preposterous. Michael Aquino exposed nothing in his laughable "_Church of Satan_" sinker except his own obsession, boring writing style, and inability to get a life. Dr. Lao http://www.angelfire.com/co/doctorlao/index.html --------------------------------- To: alt.satanism From: xeper@aol.com (Xeper) Subject: Re: Baphomet sigil (FCoS FAQ) Date: 03 Mar 1999 03:11:10 GMT In article <7bhiai$eg1$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, doctorlao@hotmail.com wrote: >> Anton did not show me the Bessy book. It was, as >> noted, used as a prop in various publicity photos >> ca. 68, and later on Fields Bookstore in San >> Francisco obtained a copy for me. > > Michael Aquino did not see the book because he was > only at the Central Grotto a couple of times. I visited the LaVeys at their home many times 1970- 75, as they did mine in Louisville and Santa Barbara. Neither the permission nor the presence of "Dr. Lao" was sought, much less required by Anton, Diane, or yours truly. Presumably the Bessy book was sitting right there on the Purple Room bookshelves somewhere, and I didn't see it because on none of my visits did either the LaVeys or I have any reason to refer to it. The authorship of the Bessy Baphomet design was never a question that arose during those years. >> There was no "Anton LaVey variation". > > Dr. Lao was referring to the "cleaning up" of the goat > within the pentagram and the obvious change to the > right eyebrow (a fork). Well, whoopie do. "Dr. Lao" is referred to the dictionary to look up the word "quibble". >> Curious how the Bartonites' admission >> of the Bessy artwork came out only *after* >> it was exposed in my _Church of Satan_, >> as was also the case with the Ragnar >> Redbeard "Book of Satan" plagiarism >> and the Edith Eyde _Hymn to Satan_ >> plagiarism, Jack London scam, etc., etc. > > Ridiculous. Dr. LaVey held court in the kitchen and > answered all questions following rituals. We all knew > of the Bessy book, Ragnar Redbeard, the Hymn to > Satan and all the rest. And so it is claimed in 1999 CE. The problem, "Dr. Lao", is that the non-C/S origins [and un(R)ability] of the Baphomet emblem were not mentioned in the 1980s, when Barton was threatening other persons who used it. The problem is that the Bessy art was not mentioned in the credits of the _SB_/_SR_, nor on the jacket of the _Satanic Mass_. The problem is that on the jacket of the _SM_ Anton also claimed false authorship of the "Hymn to Satan", as he again did in _The Devil's Avenger_. [Only when I happened to meet the real author one evening 12/21/74 at Forry Ackerman's home did that balloon pop. Eyde was astonished to learn that Anton and the C/S had been using her song those many years without her knowledge and with no credit to her. She composed it in 1939, to which Forry also attested. She then played it on Forry's piano, and he obliged by singing the words.] So your credibility would be a tad stronger if you had mentioned any of these things *before* they were exposed by others, not *after*. > Michael Aquino exposed nothing in his laughable > "_Church of Satan_" sinker except his own obsession, > boring writing style, and inability to get a life. Well, that's rather at odds with the reader feedback I've received to that volume since 1982, which has been quite appreciative. So I guess I'll just have to suffer with the thought that this _Circus of Dr. Lao_ fetishist resents being reminded of the vast international activities of the Church 1970-75 in which *he* was apparently worthless, useless, and not even missed. [This stands to be amended once "Lao" IDs himself, if he turns out to be someone who participated actively in the Church - Grottos, Conclaves, _CH_ articles, Regional Agent, etc. - during those years. Credit where credit is due & all that.] For that matter, _COS_ talks a lot about _CODL_ in Chapter #26. Anton contributed an essay about it in the July-August 73 _Cloven Hoof_, following my "The 'Yellow Peril': Satanism in China" article the preceding issue. Finney/_CODL_ had never been mentioned on any previous Church reading list, nor in the _SB_ or _CW_ bibliography. Finney's name pops up first on the dedication page of the 1972 _SR_, so I assume that's about when Anton got interested in _CODL_ beyond the 1964 _Seven Faces of Dr. Lao_ movie-level. The difference is that Anton LaVey had something interesting to say about _CODL_, while so far you haven't done anything here but masturbate with it. Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D. --------------------------------------- SUGGESTED REFERENCES Hammer's 'Mystery of Baphomet Revealed' Peter Partner 1981 "The Knights Templar and their Myth" Oxford Univ Press EOF