BAPHOMET

A vastly misused term, there are really two quite separate concepts here.

The first comes from the Inquisition's claims from the torture of the Knights Templar. It was said that the Templars worshipped "a head" called Baphomet. No explanation was given for this term, but perhaps rumours of "head" worship reflect a jumble of misinformation. First is the idea that the Knights followed a heresy similar to the Mandaean religion, elevating the beheaded John the Baptist and denigrating Jesus. While some sects no doubt did this, and the Mandaeans still do, the Templar connection is obscure, although "The Templar Revelation" by Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett makes suggestive points on this matter. There is also the rumour that the Templars were allied to the Assassins, whose leader is supposed to have convinced his Ishmaeli followers of his divinity by faking a beheading and then getting the severed head to talk (by burying the supposedly dead man up to his neck). There is practically no evidence for any of this, and it is probable that the Inquisition used various weird rumours to create a standard story for the Templars to confess to.

It has been shown that in Greek, a method of alphabetic reversal makes "Baphomet" into "Sophia", the Gnostic deity of wisdom, but this could be coincidence since it involves losing one of the vowels.

The other Baphomet was introduced by Eliphas Levi, who claimed that this was actually the Goat of the Sabbat, pictured as a bisexual squatting figure familiar to "The Devil" in the Tarot.

There is no evidence whatsoever for this concept of Baphomet, with the result that it has become one of the most popular beings in modern occultism. Indeed, there are so many Frater Baphomets around who prefer this form (starting with Crowley) that it would appear that Wisdom has fewer adherents than a god with a big penis.