Today’s episode is brought to you by Wondrium
Many of us are familiar with the Knights Templar - or simply, the Templars - a Catholic military
order formed in the mid 12th century who rose to surprising heights of power in such a short
space of time. The Knights themselves were often thought to be some of the most skilled warriors
in Crusades and donning foreboding armour, those that were not without their distinct white mantles
bearing the red cross, they were certainly a force to be reckoned with
and not one that you’d want to be on the bad side of. But most of the Templars weren’t
actually fighters but were instead more like financiers and those more interested
in the economic infrastructure throughout not just in their own Christian kingdom,
but the rest of the world too. In fact, it can be argued that given the global reach of the templars
during their century long operation, that they were the first multinational corporation.
But when the Holy Land was lost and support for the order waned, rumours about the Templars
began to circulate, those very rumours which came to cast a most ominous and spine-chilling
shadow around this most suspicious group. In fact, these rumours became so palpable
that King Phillip IV of France, who happened to also be in debt to the order - took advantage
of the Templars' decline and seeking to erase his debts, had many of the Templars arrested, tortured
and executed. After harassing Pope Clement V for long enough, the Pope disbanded the Templar Order,
but those rumours that had permeated the air would live long throughout the ages and spur
on speculation that the Templars were far more sinister than one might’ve realised… perhaps even,
owing to the supernatural. Amongst those rumours was the idea that the Knights Templar worshipped
not the Christian god to whom their operations seemed to revolve around, but instead a more
fiendish and hellish deity known as Baphomet. Today’s video is brought to you by Wondrium.
[You’ve heard me talk about The Great Courses Plus before… well, the folks behind The Great
Courses are making big moves to create even better, broader, bigger, and more mind-blowing
educational experiences—and giving you even more reasons to love learning. Enter, Wondrium:
where you can find all of the tried and true Great Courses Plus content plus more!]
Wondrium is a subscription on-demand video learning service that features lectures and
courses from some of the top professors around the world - some even from the Ivy League and other
prestigious universities. You’ll also find courses run by experts from the National Geographic,
The Smithsonian and the Culinary Institute of America. By signing up to Wondrium, you can
gain access to a library of over 11,000 videos and lectures about… well, pretty much anything
from science, maths, history, literature or even the more creative arts like photography.
If you’re enjoying hearing about the demons in my recent videos, you might like to explore the
origins and the theme of evil within various religions and a really insightful course that
supports this is ‘Why Evil Exists’ by Charles Matthewes (PHD). Why Evil Exists dives into
the concept of evil throughout human history and examines both the historical and religious
nature of evil in each video. There’s such a huge selection to choose from Wondrium and so I’m sure
you won’t have difficulty finding something that tickles your fancy. You can access the Wondrium
via your PC, Tablet or even your phone and you can learn university grade content at your own pace.
Right now, Wondrium are offering a free trial, so if you love learning as much as I do, be sure to
head on over to Wondrium.com/TheLegendsofHistory to gain access to a lecture library of over 10,000
videos or hit the link in the description below. And now back to Baphomet...
Amongst the crimes that the Templars were accused of, some were more outrageous than others.
Accusations of the usual heresy, homosexual activity and spitting and or urinating on the
cross were all quite typical, but the latter of these crimes - the spitting and urinating
on the cross were thought by some historians to have actually been conducted by the Templars so
as to mentally prepare them for violations they might have been forced to commit should
they have been captured. But interestingly, there exists accounts that the spitting on the cross was
also a ritual commanded by the cult of Baphomet and that this was seen as an initiation process
within the Knights Templar. With this idea, the Templars, or at least a sect of them, were not
actually Christians and were using the image of Christ as a guise for much more sinister antics.
In his book The Knights Templar and their Myth, Peter Partner states that one of the
main accusations made against the Templars was their worship of the deity Baphomet,
but that the description of Baphomet varied from confession to confession,
leading many to believe that the Templars who were accused of this were tortured for their admissions
until they just made something up. Some were resolute in their denial of Baphomet and explained
that they knew nothing of this deity, but others would confess that they had worshipped the deity
and described him as being anything between a severed head to a being with three faces.
Others spoke of it taking a zoomorphic form and possessing limbs and features incongruent with
the standardised image of God. Yet despite these accusations, there did not seem to be any concrete
evidence from this time period that suggests the Templars were in league with Baphomet,
further suggesting that those who confessed did so out of desperation to end their suffering.
Another idea proposes that the Templar Knights who were posted in the Crusader states
had come to adopt Islamic doctrine into their own beliefs and either discovered a dual faith, or
had outright converted. This would of course have been viewed as the utmost heresy in a time where
Medieval Christians believed that the Muslims were idolaters and that the prophet Muhammed
was a false prophet. In fact, Muhammed would have been referred to as Mahomet in Old French and by
some, it was believed that the name Mahomet was at some point transformed into Baphomet. Mahomet
would also become ‘mammet’ in old English and as one might imagine, it would become the definition
of a false god. It might also be the case that Baphomet had more Byzantine Greek influence
and that the name Baphomet originated from the Greek name for Muhammed - Moameth. This is further
substantiated by the fact that the Templars were exposed to Greek culture in the first crusade
and would have come to learn of Moameth and the sinister reputation he had
amongst the contemporary Greeks. BIblical scholar Hugh J Schonfield argues
in his book The Essene Odyssey that the word Baphomet came about with the Atbash substitution
cipher in mind - a complex system which replaces the first letter of the alphabet for the last,
and the second for the second last and so on. Using this system, the word Baphomet becomes
‘Shofya’ which can be interpreted as the name Sophia - meaning wisdom. With this, not only
does Baphomet become a more androgynous figure as the name Sophia is adopted, but also comes to
stand for sagacity and intelligence - elements that perhaps the Templars were keen to absorb.
Another idea regarding the Templars association with Baphomet comes from a
belief that the Templars were actually gnostics and thus, subscribed to polytheism. Of course,
Baphomet was thought to be one of these deities that they worshipped, though given their secrecy
it’s possible that this was kept under wraps so as to avoid public outcry and political admonishing.
Furthermore, some ideas - chiefly from Viennese Orientalist Jacob Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall,
suggests that Baphomet was indeed an androgynous figure based on various stone
antiquities that share the same name. These Baphomets were thought to be hermaphrodites
and possessed additional limbs or even features that were placed in unconventional places.
Hammer-Purgstall argued that many of these stone ‘Baphomets’ were inscribed with Arabic,
furthermore suggesting an Islamic origin, but this link is hard to determine.
There are also claims by Hammer-Purgstall that the Templars carried these Baphomets in their luggage
and that these were indeed articles that served as idols, but again these claims
are almost certainly born out of assumption. By the mid 19th century, Baphomet would become
popularised by the French esoterosit and poet Eliphas Levi who likened Baphomet to that of the
Sabbatic Goat. In fact, in his book Dogma and Rituals of High Magic, he illustrated his own
idea of Baphomet that would become known as the Goat of Mendes. It’s likely that this followed
the account by Greek writer and geographer Herodotus, who spoke of the God of Mendes
(Mendes being an Egyptian city) as having a goat’s face and a goat's legs. Levi depicts the deity
as a winged humanoid goat that much like Hammer-Purgstall’s idea, also possessed
breasts and thus adopted a more androgynous form. There was also a torch sported atop the goat’s
head where the sign of a pentagram can also be found. Baphomet’s hands are also positioned to
form the sign of the occult, according to Levi, with one hand pointing up to promote kindness
and love and the other pointing down to promote judgement and limitation. It was believed by Levi
that the positioning of Baphomet’s hands promoted the perfect harmony between mercy
and justice - one hand that expressed love and the other which expressed judgement.
One of his arms is female and the other is male, yet again incorporating the blend of both sexes
and forming something of a representation for everyone in existence. The torch
positioned between his horns was thought to be either symbolic for intelligence
or symbolic for the soul itself, which through Baphomet could elevate beyond the physical state.
Levi tells us himself in Dogma and Rituals of High Magic: “The beast's head expresses
the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear
the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only
suffer when it materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life,
the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the
feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyne
arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences.” The depiction of Baphomet by Levi
was also believed to have been a symbol for a more heretical tradition
that existed outside of typical religious belief and that the symbol stood for the emancipation
of humanity and a perfect social order. He would also come to speak of his own belief
in the ‘astral light’ that shone from between the horns of Baphomet - that which was a magical light
that promoted the progressive idea of blending religion and science. Or at least, advocated a
social system that championed both religion and science without one impeding the other.
But many might be wondering why a goat was used for Baphomet’s face at all - other than
the possible inspiration that Levi may have drawn from Herodotus. Well, Herodotus did
speak of goats being revered creatures in Egypt and that by one of his observations,
he saw a woman having sex with one - thus was the prominence of the goat in the region of Mendes.
Furthermore, some goats that were worshipped were even believed to have been given ceremonial
burials when they died and that public mourning of the goat was not uncommon.
Fans of Aleister Crowley might also be interested to know that the Occultist recognised Baphomet
as the ‘hieroglyph of arcane perfection’ and that this deity was a reflection of ourselves.
Baphomet would become an important figure within Crowley’s cult of Thelema in the early
20th century and he would also be recognised by Crowley’s writing as an androgynous being that
stood for life and love. As anyone who’s studied Crowley for more than a minute, you’ll know that
sex magic played an integral role in his beliefs and according to Crowley, Baphomet was also
symbolic of the ‘magical child’ that was produced through such sex magic. With this in mind, it was
believed by Crowley that Baphomet represented the convergence of opposites; especially in this
instance where the magically infused child would be conceived through the physical act of sex.
Both magic in the ritualistic copulation and the biological fusing of sperm and egg
would in a sense become a representation of Baphomet, he who resembled the opposites.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that Baphomet has been addressed as a deity who marries
up the opposite elements, for Levi himself in his illustration of the Goat of Mendes details
him as having the Latin word Solve (meaning dissolve) on one arm and the Latin word Coagula,
(meaning coagulate) on the other- yet again supporting this idea of two opposites coinciding.
But let me know of any tales that you might have heard in regards to Baphomet in the comments below
and as always, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, then don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up
and don’t forget to subscribe for more content just like this.
Until next time