The Baphomet we recognize today is a
winged goat with a masculine torso and breasts; he has a blazing torch
between his horns, and cloven feet. Adding to the confusion, one arm is
male and the other is female, and all in all this has become a real
bogeyman of a symbol, inspiring fright and terror.
The image made its first appearance relatively recently, in Eliphas Levi’s Dogma and Rituals of High Magic
(1854). Although Levi intended the creature (also called the Goat of
Mendes) to be an idealized symbolic form, an amalgam of images from all
disciplines including the Kabbalah, he actually created something that
looks far more terrifying than he may have originally intended. The
picture influenced illustrations of the Devil, not only in Tarot card
illustrations but also among latter-day rock bands and, as already
mentioned, among Satanists.
Baphomet himself
was first described at the trials of the Knights Templar, centuries
before Levi’s interpretation. When the Order began in the twelfth
century, it was designed to protect pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem.
Because the Knights were exempt from taxation, they amassed a huge
amount of wealth and, consequently, power. When they became a threat to
the establishment, they were persecuted, and part of this persecution
included accusations of heresy including the worship of a peculiar
looking goat-headed creature.
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