Baphomet's Boon

Hello everybody! So my brilliant graphic designer designed a picture of the mysterious Baphomet last month and I've been thinking about that magickal archetype ever since. Decided to include an article about it in next month's run so here's an excerpt. It's unedited but you'll get the idea! Enjoy.

Baphomet’s Boon

It appears like a devil. Cloven-hooved with goat features and horns on its head. It conjures up images of the demonic. Instant feelings of foreboding and precariousness are evoked when just looking at this seemingly monstrous entity. It is Baphomet. Recognized and popularized by many occult groups, the being known as Baphomet is enveloped in mystery and mysticism. How could something that appears so ‘evil’ be important to groups such as the Knights Templar and their modern equivalents? Did this demon bring about the downfall of the Templar and does it continue to maliciously infect all who dare practice the occult arts? I suspect these questions have passed through the mind of every wary occultist first embarking on the Baphomet legend. Somehow, I imagine our wizarding adept glimpsing this monstrous nightmare and running for the hills in a mad dash of crazed lunacy. Screaming counter-curses and melting into a pool of Hebraic gibberish, the unlucky magician finds himself facedown in a quagmire of frantic paranoia. But Baphomet is largely misunderstood and the boon that accompanies this horrific goat-faced pet can aid anybody who seeks esoteric knowledge. In fact, for many occult practitioners, the idea of Baphomet hearkens back to Gnostic teachings of spiritual awakening. Also reminiscent of P.D. Ouspensky’s idea of ‘Will Action’[1], Baphomet is an archetype of becoming a completed human being. As a symbol of spiritual growth and realization, Baphometic understanding is essential to any novice occult practitioner.

The folklore attached to Baphomet largely takes the form of legendry and superstition. The Templars were rumored to have worshipped the “sabbatic-goat” and this charge was one of many that led to their downfall. According to Piers Paul Read, “Templar priests were said to have omitted the words of consecration during Mass. At secret societies, they worshipped a demon called Baphomet who appeared in the form of a cat, or a skull, or a head with three faces” (Read, 266: 1999). Anybody familiar with cat folklore will instantly recognize the correspondences to witch-lore and magic.

The idea of worshipping a skull has always been prevalent in marginalized religious factions and so it is no surprise that there would be correlations within Bapho-lore. For example, some legends claim that the entire reason for the creation of the Templars was to excavate beneath the Temple Mount in order to retrieve the embalmed head of Jesus Christ.[2] Also, those familiar with the seemingly endless Leonardo Da Vinci conspiracy theories will immediately recognize the connections to Mandaeism and its assertion that St. John the Baptist was the true Christian messiah. This legend takes a myriad of forms and assumptions when taking into account the ubiquitous representations of a symbolic skull in religious art of the past. Works such as Francisco de Zurbaran’s, St. Francis with a skull in his hands, and Guercino’s Et in arcadia ego, include subtle indications of occult ideas in their iconography.  Could this be the reason why the Templars were accused to spitting on the cross and worshipping a disembodied skull? Is this our ass-headed demon we have lovingly attributed the name Baphomet?

If it seems that frantic paranoia and being confounded to the point of frusturated mumbling is a product of Baphometic understanding, then you’re probably on the right track...

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[1] The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution, 1973:36

[2] See author Keith Laudlin