Baphomet (/ËˆbÃ¦fÉµmÉ›t/; from medieval Latin Baphometh, baffometi, Occitan Bafometz) is an imagined pagan deity (i.e., a product of Christian folklore concerning pagans), revived in the 19th century as a figure of occultism and Satanism. Often mistaken for Satan, it represents the duality of male and female, as well as Heaven and Hell or night and day signified by the raising of one arm and the downward gesture of the other. It can be taken in fact, to represent any of the major harmonious dichotomies of the cosmos. It first appeared in 11th and 12th century Latin and ProvenÃ§al as a corruption of "Mahomet", the Latinisation of "Muhammad",[1] but later it appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century. The name first came into popular English-speaking consciousness in the 19th century, with debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templars.[2] Since 1855, the name Baphomet has been associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas LÃ©vi.

1 History
2 Alternative etymologies
3 Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall
4 Eliphas LÃ©vi
- 4.1 Goat of Mendes
5 Aleister Crowley
6 As a demon
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links

HistoryThe name Baphomet appears in July 1098 in a letter by the crusader Anselm of Ribemont:Sequenti die aurora apparente, altis vocibus Baphometh invocaverunt; et nos Deum nostrum in cordibus nostris deprecantes, impetum facientes in eos, de muris civitatis omnes expulimus.[3]

As the next day dawned they called loudly upon Baphomethwhile we prayed silently in our hearts to God; then we attacked and forced all of them outside the city walls ...[4]

A chronicler of the First Crusade, Raymond of Aguilers, calls the mosques Bafumarias.[5] The name Bafometz later appears around 1195 in the Occitan poem "Senhors, per los nostres peccatz" by the troubadour Gavaudan.[1] Around 1250 in a poem bewailing the defeat of the Seventh Crusade by Austorc d'Aorlhac refers to Bafomet.[6] De Bafomet is also the title of one of four surviving chapters of an Occitan translation of Ramon Llull's earliest known work, the Libre de la doctrina pueril, "book on the instruction of children".[7] Two Templars burned at the stake, from a French 15th century manuscript

When the medieval order of the Knights Templar was suppressed by King Philip IV of France, on October 13, 1307, Philip had many French Templars simultaneously arrested, and then tortured into confessions. Over 100 different charges had been leveled against the Templars. Most of them were dubious, as they were the same charges that were leveled against the Cathars[8] and many of King Philip's enemies; he had earlier kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII and charged him with near identical offenses of heresy, spitting and urinating on the cross, and sodomy. Yet Malcolm Barber observes that historians "find it difficult to accept that an affair of such enormity rests upon total fabrication".[9] The "Chinon Parchment suggests that the Templars did indeed spit on the cross," says Sean Martin, and that these acts were intended to simulate the kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to if captured by the Saracens, where they were taught how to commit apostasy "with the mind only and not with the heart".[10]The indictment (acte d'accusation) published by the court of Rome set forth ... "that in all the provinces they had idols, that is to say, heads, some of which had three faces, others but one; sometimes, it was a human skull ... That in their assemblies, and especially in their grand chapters, they worshipped the idol as a god, as their saviour, saying that this head could save them, that it bestowed on the order all its wealth, made the trees flower, and the plants of the earth to sprout forth."[11]

The name Baphomet comes up in several of these confessions. Peter Partner states in his 1987 book The Knights Templar and their Myth, "In the trial of the Templars one of their main charges was their supposed worship of a heathen idol-head known as a 'Baphomet' ('Baphomet' = Mahomet = Muhammad)."[12] The description of the object changed from confession to confession. Some Templars denied any knowledge of it. Others, under torture, described it as being either a severed head, a cat, or a head with three faces.[13] The Templars did possess several silver-gilt heads as reliquaries,[14] including one marked capud lviiim,[15] another said to be St. Euphemia,[16] and possibly the actual head of Hugh de Payns.[17] The claims of an idol named Baphomet were unique to the Inquisition of the Templars.[18][19] Karen Ralls, author of the Knights Templar Encyclopedia, argues that this is significant: "There is no mention of Baphomet either in the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents".[20]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."[21]

Modern scholars such as Peter Partner and Malcolm Barber agree that the name of Baphomet was an Old French corruption of the name Muhammad, with the interpretation being that some of the Templars, through their long military occupation of the Outremer, had begun incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system, and that this was seen and documented by the Inquisitors as heresy.[22] Alain Demurger, however, rejects the idea that the Templars could have adopted the doctrines of their enemies.[23] Helen Nicholson writes that the charges were essentially "manipulative"-the Templars "were accused of becoming fairy-tale Muslims."[23] Medieval Christians falsely believed that Muslims were idolatrous and worshipped Muhammad as a god, with mahomet becoming mammet in English, meaning an idol or false god.[24] This idol-worship is attributed to Muslims in several chansons de geste. For example, one finds the gods Bafum e Travagan in a ProvenÃ§al poem on the life of St. Honorat, completed in 1300.[25] In the Chanson de Simon Pouille, written before 1235, a Saracen idol is called Bafumetz.[26] Partner's book provides a quote from a poem written in a ProvenÃ§al dialect by a troubadour who is thought to have been a Templar. The poem is in reference to some battles in 1265 that were not going well for the Crusaders:

And daily they impose new defeats on us: for God, who used to watch on our behalf, is now asleep, and Muhammad [Bafometz] puts forth his power to support the Sultan

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