Chemical Serpents: Baphomet
Behemoth digital art by @janiceduke
In 1854, Eliphas Lévi published his first book on magic, 'Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie'. In it we find the first known depiction of Baphomet as a hermaphrodite, whom he described as a 'pantheistic and magical figure of the absolute'. Baphomet has Solve and Coagula, the alchemical formula of dividing and uniting, written on their arms, one of which he describes as female. The Hermaphrodite nature is emphasised with the use of a caduceus to represent a phallus, and breasts, representing the male and female natures respectively. One arm points up to a light moon crescent and the other down to a dark one, both a reference to the alchemical formula of 'As above, so below', but also to the kabbalistic pillars of Justice and Mercy. The light and dark moons also represented Set and Osiris in ancient Egypt, who were said to fight in the form of two wild boars.
Baphomet by Eliphas Levi
Lévi depicted Baphomet with the head and legs of a goat, in a reference to 'The Goat of Mendes', Banebdjedet mentioned in a mistranslation of the historian, Herodotus. However, in the original Herodotus calls Banebdjedet the Ram of Mendes, not goat. Banebdjedet translates as the Ram or Soul of Djedet. The Egyptian word Ba means both Soul and the animal of the Ram. Accordingly they depicted the soul of a god with a rams head. The Egyptian name for the town the Greeks called Mendes was Djedet, so Banebdjedet literally means the soul of the lord of that town. The name can also refer to the 'soul of the lord of djed'. Djed means the pillar of stability, and can refer to both the backbone of Osiris and the river Nile, thought of as the backbone of Egypt itself. Herodotus also told a story about Zeus appearing to Heracles, hiding behind the severed head of a ram so as not to reveal his true face, using it to explain why Egyptians depicted Zeus with a ram's head. It seems the Greeks saw Banebdjedet as a form of Zeus. Certainly both gods were associated with prolific sexual virility. The sexual nature of the gods cult led to early Christians demonising him.
Lévi imagined Banebdjedet as the origin of the name Baphomet, the name of the devil or idol the Inquisition accused the Knights Templar of worshipping. Evidence fails to support this hypothesis, although the use in magic of Baphomet as the Goat of Mendes developed a history and set of mysteries of its own.
According to Peter Partner’s book ‘The Knights Templar and their Myths’, the name Bafometz first appears in a poem by a troubadour in the 1260’s: “And daily they impose new defeats on us: for God, who used to watch on our behalf, is now asleep, and Bafometz puts forth his power to support the Sultan.” Most scholars interpret ‘Bafometz’ in this context as a Provençal corruption of Muhammed, the prophet of Islam. I would speculate that the corruption may have its origins in confusion with another, albeit more obscure, name from the Arabic world, Bahumed.
In ‘Witches, Druids and King Arthur’, Professor Ronald Hutton mentions that the name ‘Bahumed’ appears in a book of alphabets by Ibn Wahshiyya, as a bogus translation of an Egyptian hieroglyph. Whether bogus or not, if the text is genuinely by Ibn Wahshiyya, this would place its first, (known), use around the 9th or 10th century. Hutton describes the name Bahumed being used in a context that ‘concerns a figure used to represent the secret of the world’s nature’. This may or may not be a reference to the pre-Islamic beast mentioned in Arabic folklore, ‘Bahamut’, described as a giant fish with the head of a hippopotamus or elephant. This name in turn has etymological links to the Biblical ‘Behemoth’, a beast which some have also linked to these same animals. Of course the Biblical Behemoth was not a giant fish, but definitely a beast of the land, the Arabic version also inheriting the physical sea dwelling characteristics of the Biblical Leviathan. My own speculation would be that the Provençal name Bafometz came at least in part from either Bahamut or Bahumed, possibly as a result of getting these names confused with that of the Muslim prophet, or deliberately confusing them for purposes of political propaganda.
Behemoth, or Beemoth also appears in the Ophite Gnostic system. Whereas the watery serpent Leviathan Ouroboros coils about the heavens above the seven planets, Beemoth they saw as the air surrounding the Earth below. In his work 'Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit', the German Lutherian pastor, Hermann Gunkel, speculated that Leviathan and Behemoth corresponded to the Babylonian Tiamat and Kingu.
The elephant connection reminds me of the ancient cave painting behind the Python stone in Botswana, and its relevance in local San creation myth today as a symbol of the Python creator because of its serpentine trunk. It also reminds me of the Hindu Ganesha, whose head Shiva replaced with one from a monster with the head of an elephant. This could mean that Ganesha obtained the head of Behemoth.
Ganesha digital art by @janiceduke
Depictions of Ganesha as a thin god with cowrie shell eyes also link him to the gods Eshu and Legba, both of whom get depicted with these shells for eyes. We might also note that the mother of Buddha, Maya, dreamt of a child riding a white elephant that announced his conception.
Interestingly, some conspiracy theorists try to claim that the statue of George Washington, by Horatio Greenough, was modelled on Eliphas Lévi’s famous depiction of Baphomet. However, the statue was commissioned in 1832 and completed in 1840, whereas the Elpihas Levi’s book wasn’t published until 1855, fifteen years later. Greenough apparently modelled the statue of the first US president upon the statue of Zeus at Olympus by the ancient Greek scupltor Phidias. In some myths, the infant Zeus is said to have suckled from the breast of the goat Amalthea, whose name is Greek for ‘tender goddess’, and in others he was raised by Melissa on goats' milk and honey. Melissa is Greek for ‘Honey Bee’. Perhaps the same statue of Zeus inspired the Baphomet illustration. Some cite the 1798 painting, 'The Witches Sabbat', by Francisco Goya, as another influence.
Ask people for a god associated with goats and I suspect many would answer ‘Pan’. Whilst the Greek word pan means ‘all’, the name of the god most likely originates in the word ‘paein’ which means ‘to pasture’. Like Baphomet, Pan has the legs of a goat, although facially he is depicted as a bearded man with goat horns rather than a full goat head. Generally Pan is depicted in the manner of a faun. His father is said to be either Zeus, Hermes or Dionysus. The theme of highly sexual virile gods is maintained. In some Hellenistic mystery cults, Zeus, Phanes, Dionysus, Pan and Eros were all considered cognate, different masks of the same essential mystery.
So what mysteries do these goat deities reveal to us about the significance of Baphomet’s goat head and legs? Well the theme of sexual potency is very strong from many of the male gods associated with goats, so this would definitely be a part of Baphomet in that regard. Of course Levi depicts Baphomet as Hermaphrodite so goddesses associated with goats also come into the picture, such as Amalthea, the tender goddess who nursed the infant Zeus. According to some versions, ambrosia, the food of the gods, came forth from her horns to feed him. This brings to mind the cornucopia, the horn of plenty, although the word horns in this myth could be a euphamism or innuendo for breasts. Either way the divine goat also manifests a strong nurturing aspect.
Lévi's hermaphrodite form endures as a popular image for depicting Baphomet, and not surprisingly really considering the mysteries contained within. This seated horned figure, with Lévi's symbol for the microcosm, the pentagram, on his forehead also puts me in mind of the central glyph in Dee's 'Monas Hieroglyph', which itself resembles the symbol for mercury, based on the caduceus, which itself appears in the Baphomet image.
The arm marked 'Solve' points upwards, whereas the arm marked 'Coagula' points to the below, representing that in ascent we divide and to descend we unify. Unity comes from allowing our conscious 'higher' nature, or mind, to descend into awareness of our bodies. In other words shifting our awareness from intellectual abstraction to bodily awareness and mindfulness of the now and our immediate surroundings.
Since the origin of name Baphomet seems veiled in mystery, even now, one feels no surprise that occultists, magicians and scholars offer us a plethora of alternative origins for the name.
Lévi also proposed the name as a backwards spelling of tem. o. h. p. ab an abbreviation of templi omnium hominum pacis abbas, “Abbot” or “Father of the Temple of Peace of all men.”
Arkon Daraul, thought to be a pseudonym of Idries Shah, proposed the name came from the Arabic, Abu fihamat, meaning “The Father of Understanding”.
Montague Summers proposed the names came from the Greek words Baphe and Metis, “Baptism of Wisdom” or “To Absorb Knowledge”. Peter Carroll in 'Liber Null & Psychonaut' translates this as “Union with Wisdom”. Carroll goes on to describe Chaos as 'an inexpressible pregnant void' and claims that 'Almost any attempt to say anything about it would be a denial of its other properties, and so a lie.' Whilst he describes the vastness of Chaos to be of little use to the human magician, he goes on to describe Baphomet as a part of the Chaos more locally relevant to us, the animating life force of our planet.
Contents
Introduction
Serpents
Eggs and the Androgynous Child
- The Philosophers Egg and The Cosmic Egg
- The Monas Hieroglyph
- The Androgyne
- Baphomet
- N'Aton and Sophia
Mental expansion and Baphomet love, always a good time :)
Indeed. Glad you like my write up. :)
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