In 1854, Eliphas Lévi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (" Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic "), in which he included an image he had drawn himself which he described as Baphomet and " The Sabbatic Goat ", showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns ( illustration, top ).

Lévi considered the Baphomet to be a depiction of the absolute in symbolic form and explicated in detail his symbolism in the drawing that served as the frontispiece:

Eliphas Lévi | Lévi's Baphomet image employed in the later 19th century to suggest Baphomet worship by Freemasonry | Freemasons.

: we may believe that here Lovecraft was inspired by the traditional Christian depiction of the Baphomet Goat, an image of Satan harking back to the pre-Christian woodland deity Pan, he of the goatish horns and shanks.

Similarly Michael Haag suggests that the simulated worship of Baphomet did indeed form part of a Templar initiation ritual, but that this was a kind of hazing intended to convey the message that this was what they had to expect if captured by the Muslims.

Peter Partner states in his 1987 book The Knights Templar and their Myth, " In the trial of the Templars one of their main charges was their supposed worship of a heathen idol-head known as a ' Baphomet ' (' Baphomet '

Modern scholars such as Peter Partner and Malcolm Barber agree that the name of Baphomet was an Old French corruption of the name Muhammad, with the interpretation being that some of the Templars, through their long military occupation of the Outremer, had begun incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system, and that this was seen and documented by the Inquisitors as heresy.

While modern scholars and the Oxford English Dictionary state that the origin of the name Baphomet was a probable Old French version of " Mahomet ", alternative etymologies have also been proposed:

Bookseller, Freemason and Illuminist Friedrich Nicolai ( 1733 – 1811 ), in Versuch über die Beschuldigungen welche dem Tempelherrenorden gemacht worden, und über dessen Geheimniß ( 1782 ), was the first to claim that the Templars were Gnostics, and that " Baphomet " was formed from the Greek words βαφη μητȢς, baphe metous, to mean Taufe der Weisheit, " Baptism of Wisdom ".

* Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield ( 1901 – 1988 ), one of the scholars who worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls, argued in his book The Essene Odyssey that the word " Baphomet " was created with knowledge of the Atbash substitution cipher, which substitutes the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the last, the second for the second last, and so on.

Following Nicolai, he argued, using as archaeological evidence " Baphomets " faked by earlier scholars and literary evidence such as the Grail romances, that the Templars were Gnostics and the " Templars ' head " was a Gnostic idol called Baphomet.

In Magick ( Book 4 ), Crowley asserted that Baphomet was a divine androgyne and " the hieroglyph of arcane perfection ":

Crowley proposed that Baphomet was derived from " Father Mithras ".

For a time Housecore was merged with Baphomet Records, owned by Philip's friend and ex-bandmate Killjoy of Necrophagia, to form Baphomet / Housecore Records.

When the Knights Templar were being tried for heresy, reference was often made to their worship of a demon Baphomet, which was notable, by implication, for its similarity to Muhammad's name when transliterated in to Latin, " Mahomet ", that was used by contemporary Christian authors, given that Latin would be for another 500 years the language of scholarship and erudition for most of Europe.

In Occitan literature the name Muhammed was corrupted as " Bafomet ", forming the basis for the legendary Baphomet, at different times an idol, a " sabbatic goat ", and key link in conspiracy theories.

Angel Witch's first song to achieve mainstream popularity was " Baphomet ", which was included on a compilation titled Metal for Muthas.

Former vocalist Tom " T. J ." Frost was the vocalist for Buffalo NY death metal band Baphomet ( later Banished ).

A video for " Horns of Baphomet " was also released in 2001.

This image has become the best-known representation of Baphomet.

The Gnostics represented it as the fiery body of the Holy Spirit ; it was the object of adoration in the secret rites of the Sabbath and the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the Androgyne of Mendes.

The Priest entreats Baphomet — " O Lion and O Serpent " — to be “ mighty among us .” He then declares the Law of Thelema to the People-" Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law "-who return with “ Love is the law, love under will .” He finally partakes of the Eucharist with the words, “ In my mouth be the essence of the life of the Sun ” ( with the Host ) and “ In my mouth be the essence of the joy of the earth ” ( with the Wine ).

Levi created his image of Baphomet, published in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ( 1855 ), by combining symbolism from diverse traditions, including the Diable card of the 16th and 17th century Tarot of Marseille.

Presumably following Herodotus ' description, the occultist Eliphas Levi in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ( 1855 ) called his goat-headed conception of Baphomet the " Baphomet of Mendes ", thus popularizing and perpetuating this incorrect attribution, which has given rise to a flood of spurious connections, such as " The Goat of Mendes " by the blackened death metal band Akercocke.

The Knights Templar were destroyed by accusations that they worshipped Baphomet from King Philip the Fair.

Baphomet (; from medieval Latin Baphometh, baffometi, Occitan Bafometz ) is an imagined The name Bafometz later appears around 1195 in the Occitan poem " Senhors, per los nostres peccatz " by the troubadour Gavaudan.

In 1818, the name Baphomet appeared in the essay by the Viennese Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, Mysterium Baphometis revelatum, seu Fratres Militiæ Templi, qua Gnostici et quidem Ophiani, Apostasiæ, Idoloduliæ et Impuritatis convicti, per ipsa eorum Monumenta (" Discovery of the Mystery of Baphomet, by which the Knights Templars, like the Gnostics and Ophites, are convicted of Apostasy, of Idolatry and of moral Impurity, by their own Monuments "), which presented an elaborate pseudohistory constructed to discredit Templarist Masonry and, by extension, Freemasonry itself.

Baphomet features in the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church recited by the congregation in The Gnostic Mass, in the sentence: " And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET.

The actual image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire by Stanislas de Guaita, later adopted as the official symbol — called the Sigil of Baphomet — of the Church of Satan, and continues to be used among Satanists.

Christian evangelist Jack Chick claims that Baphomet is a demon worshipped by Freemasons, a claim that apparently originated with the Taxil hoax.

In the course of the story he upsets a plot by the archfiend Baphomet on modern Earth.

The album contains many mythological and occult references, encompassing Set, the Valkyrie, Hecate, Baphomet, Artemis, Bastet, Astarte, Ishtar, Khem, Uzza, Eve, Aleister Crowley ( through quotation of " Do what thou wilt "), Diana and Lilith.

At the end of the track " Horns ov Baphomet ", the person speaking is Aleister Crowley.

For Crowley, Baphomet is further a representative of the spiritual nature of the spermatozoa while also being symbolic of the " magical child " produced as a result of sex magic.

Although versions of the Sigil of Baphomet appear as early as the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire by Stanislas de Guaita, the variant in common use by the Church of Satan is known as the Hell's Kitchen Baphomet, a slightly modified version of an original which appeared on the cover Maurice Bessy's 1964 book A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural.

Later in the 19th century, the name of Baphomet became further associated with the occult.

Baphomet serves as a historical model for Murrays concept.

Eliphas Levi's image of " Baphomet " serves as an example of the transformation of the Devil into a benevolent fertility deity and provided the prototype for Murray's horned god.

The Templars were also known to possess the head of Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon, and the subject of relics came up during the Inquisition of the Templars, as several trial documents refer to the worship of an idol of some type, referred to in some cases as a cat, a bearded head, or in some cases as Baphomet.

In the modern occultism of Madeline Montalban, Lucifer's identification as the Morning Star ( Venus ) equates him with Lumiel, whom she regarded as the Archangel of Light, and among Satanists he is seen as the " Torch of Baphomet " and Azazel.

Chick Publications publishes such a tract called The Curse of Baphomet and Randy Noblitt's book on satanic ritual abuse, Cult and Ritual Abuse also cites the Taxil hoax.

The Church of Satan uses the Hebrew letters at each of the points of the Sigil of Baphomet to represent Leviathan.

The name Baphomet comes up in several of these confessions.

The claims of an idol named Baphomet were unique to the Inquisition of the Templars.

" Baphomet " rendered in Hebrew is בפומת ; interpreted using Atbash, it becomes שופיא, which can be interpreted as the Greek word " Sophia ", or wisdom.