Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained.
In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Baphomet, an entity worshipped as an idol,
demon, and deity, depending on the group, particularly by pagans and Gnostics, and depending
on the time, as documentation of him goes back almost 1,000 years.
Some modern conceptualizations present him as a nexus of opposites, comprising a network
of dichotomies and thereby personifying balance.
Also called the Goat of Mendes, the Judas Goat, and the Black Goat, Baphomet is, today,
either portrayed as a half-human, half-goat figure, or as a goat head.
These depictions largely stem from a French occult book written in the 19th century, as
we’ll see.
In the middle ages, idols of Baphomet included: human heads carved of wood or wrought of metal,
decorated with curly black hair, stuffed human heads, and human skulls.
He became inextricably linked with the Knights Templar when several heinous accusations,
such as the worship of Baphomet, were levelled against this order of monastic knights.
Let’s get into it.
The first record of Baphomet comes from a letter written by Anselm of Ribemont in 1098
that describes the Siege of Antioch, which took place during the First Crusade.
One line says the Turks “called loudly upon Baphomet”.
It has been suggested that the name could be a corruption of Muhammad or Mahomet.
Another theory, this one from Montague Summers, an English occult historian, postulates that
it could be the combination of two Greek words, baphe and metis, which, put together, would
mean something like ‘absorption of knowledge.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Baphomet's history is his relationship with the Knights
Templar, which we’re going to unpack by first spending a little time on what the Knights
Templar was, followed by how the two, a demonic god and Christian knights, became connected.
The inception of the Knights Templar was in the year 1119 CE. 10 years later, they became
officially sanctioned through papal recognition, and for long years they were a formidable
force; and paradoxically, it is this power, ultimately, that sows the seeds of its own
ruination.
Basically, the Knights Templar was an order of monastic knights, warriors of God who combined
battle prowess with abstinence and asceticism.
The original purpose on which the order was founded was to protect pilgrims and Christian
holy sites.
Among the most elite warriors in the Crusader armies, the order amassed considerable power
over time, coming to control lands and castles of its own.
Later, all manner of accusations were levelled against them, including: corruption, heresy,
and performing forbidden practices.
In particular, it was targeted by King Philip IV in the year 1307 CE.
Five years later, the order was abolished when it was officially dissolved by the papacy.
You see, in a way, the Knights Templar became a scapegoat for a variety of military orders
with religious ties, singled-out and sacrificed for the transgressions - perhaps real, perhaps
invented - of a number of powerful orders that had emerged, many of them perceived as
threats towards existing structures like Monarchies and the Nobility - the vast land networks
and rich cash reserves accumulated not helping to mitigate this view.
Among the litany of offences levelled against them were: abusing privileges, exploiting
and extorting for profit, and scorning their founding edicts by succumbing to vice and
sin, especially pride and avarice.
Critics disparaged them, claiming they lived too fat and contributed too little, that the
rot of self-indulgence had eaten away and replaced all that was once pure and productive.
Following the attack by King Philip, the accusations drastically escalated in severity and gained
unholy specificity.
It was asserted that the Order was an affront to God, denying Christ, the crucifixion, and
the cross, and worshipping Baphomet.
Furthermore, of the initiation into the order, it was claimed that trampling, spitting, and
urinating on the crucifix were among the practices involved.
That the Knights Templar were indeed guilty of sacrilege and desecration is seen as dubious
and unlikely by most; rather, the common belief is that these accusations were the tip of
the dagger in a plot to disband and destroy the order, a plan that enriched and empowered
the coalition that contrived this outcome.
Deciding to move against the order was likely the culmination of an array of reasons, including:
preempting a possible military threat, amassing wealth through cash reserves and land holdings,
and for secular institutions to gain advantage over the papacy.
However, it is also possible that King Phillip believed in earnest the rumours about the
Knights Templar.
The depiction of Baphomet well known today originates from a French book, 'Dogme et Rituel
de la Haute Magie', written in 1861 by Éliphas Lévi, an occultist who inspired the cult
icon Baphomet has become today.
The cover art of the book is the photo used in this video’s thumbnail, which portrays
Baphomet as a “Sabbatic Goat” - in appearance, having a hermaphroditic, humanoid body with
wings opening up behind and surmounted by a goat's head, a pentagram emblazoned on the
forehead.
Inspirations for the design were the Tarot Devil card, as well as some version of the
goat of Mendes, Mendes being the eponymous city in which this goat was either worshipped
or used in cult practices during antiquity.
One account says that it was a temple goat that would copulate with priestestess, another
that it was a defied goat-man that would copulate with its worshippers; in either case, it’s
possible that this was an antecedent for a notion about the Devil that propagated in
the middle-ages, which was that he engaged in sexual unions with his female desciples,
witches.
Per the book's description of Baphomet’s appearance, he embodies the equilibrium of
opposites.
Major dichotomies encapsulated by him are: male and female, good and evil, human and
animal, and light and dark.
Though his half-human, half-animal appearance conjures up notions like wickedness, the author's
intent is for Baphomet to incarnate balance, the whole constellation of opposites coalescing
into something transcendent.
Founded in 1966, The Church of Satan began using a representation of Baphomet as the
symbol for their religion.
(The symbol is a goat head encased in an inverted pentacle enclosed by two rings, and between
the two rings are Hebraic figures that spell Leviathan, a colossal sea monster sometimes
associated with the Devil.)
Quite recently, in 2015, a statue of Baphomet was commissioned by the Satanic Temple.
In protest, it was moved next to other public religious displays, like the monument of the
Ten Commandments in Oklahoma, and ultimately, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled public religious
displays illegal.
And that’s it for this video!
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