If you look at any Satanic statue you’ll find yourself peering into the infinite gaze of the Baphomet. While you may be asking “are Satan and Baphomet the same?” after studying its goat horned head, you would be wrong to assume that they have anything to do with each other beyond an affinity for goats. This deity was actually taken on as a Satanic symbol hundreds of years before it first came into the cultural consciousness. This collection of things you didnt know about Baphomet will attempt to sort out the creature’s myriad origins while providing some terrifying Baphomet facts.
So what is the difference between Satan and Baphomet? For one, Satan is a purely Christian entity while the Baphomet is a combination of Egyptian and Islamic folklore that’s been adapted into the Judeo-Christian mythology. While Satan is more known for demonic possession, Baphomet would rather provide knowledge to the people than use their bodies for cheap means of transit.
Prepare to baptize yourself in wisdom as you read about the mystical origins of the Baphomet.
The Baphomet Began As An Egyptian God Stolen By The Knights Templar
The Baphomet hasn't always been the goat headed statue that you're thinking of - that imagery came hundreds of years after the initial design. The original Baphomet (even though people weren't calling it that yet) was the Egyptian god Banebdjedet, a creature with a ram's head and a human's body. The Knights Templar saw this deity and began working it into their cosmology.
Author Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall says the imagery of the deity used by the Knights Templar was an updated hermaphroditic stone version of Banebdjedet whose features had been mixed with features taken from the Devil card in the Marseille Tarot.
The Knights Templar Were Tortured For Worshipping The Baphomet
The Knights Templar, a group of Christian soldiers who protected true believers in the Holy Land, supposedly began working the Baphomet into their temples and designs around the 12th century after spending a considerable amount of time in the Middle East. Some scholars believe that "Baphomet" is either a reference to or a bastardization of "Mohammed."
In 1307 King Philip IV accused the Knights of heresy and subjected them to torture that rivaled the Spanish Inquisition. Under torture many members of the Templar admitted to worshipping a false idol, although their descriptions of the idol were all over the place and nothing like Banebdjedet or the modern version of Baphomet.
There are a few different schools of thought when it comes to the origins of the word "Baphomet". Many people believe that "Baphomet" is a 10th century French translation for "Mohammad," and that it was first heard by soldiers calling out for "Baphomet" before going into battle. The word may also come from the Knights Templars referring to mosques as "Bafumarias." Specifically "la bafumaria" is a castle built over the Orontes River which flows through Syria and Turkey.
It's unclear exactly how the Knights Templar attached the Baphomet to a physical idol, but within a few hundred years the Baphomet had gone from a possible mishearing of Mohammed to a full on deity.
The first thing that most people notice about the Baphomet is the juxtaposition of a goat head on top of a man's body. It's believed that French occultist Elphias Levi drew inspiration from a variety of sources in order to create the striking visuals of the Baphomet including the Banebdjedet, the Devil card from the Tarot deck, and Pan from Greek mythology.
Each of his inspirations, be it Pan or Banebdjedet, combine human and animal in a perversion of the Catholic God's creation.
Overall the idea of the Baphomet is one of pure wisdom. This possible definition is why many scholars believe that the deity comes from the Greeks. When the Greek phrase "absorption into wisdom," also referred to as "baptized in wisdom," is combined together in the original Greek it becomes "Baphomet."
The Templars likely took on the idea of pure knowledge as a deity and as an idea that they could wrap their heads around. As a group of people who dedicated their lives to the concept of God it's not out of the question that they would be attracted to worshipping at the altar of wisdom.
The Baphomet Was Modernized To Subvert The Catholic Origins
Elphias Levi, a French magician born Alphonse Louis Constant, wrote about ritual magic in his tome Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. He took the idea of the Baphomet and combined it with a goat, creating the "Sabbatic Goat." This deity purposefully bastardized Catholic teaching by combining it with Kabbalistic teachings, taking the deity from an ideology into something more concrete.
The Knights Templar may have worshipped the Baphomet as a deity of wisdom, but they didn't have the optics down. When King Philip IV tortured the Knights for heresy they weren't able to put a face to a name, but Levi finally gave occultists worldwide something to worship.
