Let's talk about Baphomet.

 Explaining what Baphomet is: symbolically and historically.

 Originally written the 17/08/2025

In both theistic and atheistic sides, even outside of Satanism itself, as for example with Thelema and the occult, Baphomet has been influenced all across the philosophies, thus, I want to represent it on a bulletin. The name 'Baphomet' first appeared in the early 1300s during the trials of the Knight Templar, under torture, members of the order confessed to worshipping an idol by this name, often described as a severed head or a humanlike statue. In truth, these confessions were nothing but coercion and political maneuvering, at the time, it was to justify the French crown's destruction of the Templars. 'Baphomet' did not carry any occult connection, infact, many historians recognise it as a corruption of the name 'Mohamet' (Muhammad) in Old French, reflecting anti-Islamic sentiment of Christendom and a convenient slur to frame the Templars as heretics. Most if not all connections to a 'Templar ritual' with baphomet is associated to accusations. Centuries later, the image of Baphomet was transformed by the 19th century occultist 'Éliphas Lévi', he made a now-famous illustration of the Sabbatic Goat, a figure of balance and reconciliation of the opposites; Male and female, animal and human, light and dark, spiritual and material. The figure sits with wings yet grounded, a flame of divine intellect between the horns, and hands raised in the hermatic gesture of As above, So below. On it's arms, there are inscribed words 'Solve et Coagula' which mean 'Dissolve and Recombine', expressing the eternal cycle of breaking down and reforming, spirit united within matter. For Lévi, this representation was never a deity, it was a symbolisation of the universal equilibrium, the union of instinct with reason, and the eternal life force that pervades existence. Baphomet was later taken by Aleister Crowley, who incorporated it into OTO (Order Templi Orientis) and other bodies within Thelema, it was used as a symbol of the perfected self, of magick, and divine energy in the rawest form. Crowley saw Baphomet not as Devil but as a representation of arcane perfection, strength, and nature.

Source: Crowley's stance And then came Anton LaVey, incorporating Baphomet into the codified version of LaVeyan Satanism, Baphomet became part of the 'Sigil of Baphomet', a goat's head within the inverted pentagram. Representing carnality, the will of the individual, and embracing human's nature without guilt. It symbolises inversion as a deliberate revaluation of the self, offering self-direction and precedence over submission and denial. The sigil unites the historical threats into a single emblem of Satanism. Baphomet is a synthesis within all the philosophies as a symbol of balance and unapologetic Humanity.