Baphomet – a demon from hell? The embodiment of human nature? Whatever Baphomet is – the Knights Templar stood accused of worshipping this being during their trials between 1307 and 1314. Several knights confessed, most likely under torture, to bowing before this entity. But what was it – and what did it command them to do?
Variously described as the head of John the Baptist; the head of a devil that talked; a many-faced demon; a cat; a prophet and possibly Jesus Christ. You name it – there are many candidates for the identity of Baphomet. Some have even argued that the word ‘Baphomet’ was a medieval term for the Prophet Muhammad, the messenger in Islam.
But that makes little sense. Why would the Templars be venerating the Muslim prophet? And if they had converted on the sly to Islam, they’d have known that worshipping idols is forbidden.
Add to this that the popular image we have today of Baphomet as a goat-headed demon with a pentagram on its forehead was first published in the 19th century by an ex-priest turned occultist, Éliphas Lévi. He was the first to declare that a pentagram with one point down and two points up represents evil while the other way denotes good. Lévi was an early influence on the British occultist, Aleister Crowley.
There were attempts in the 19th century to prove Baphomet worship by the Knights Templar through the discovery of artefacts said to be devilish idols from Templar owned properties. Most if not all of these were of questionable provenance and basically – totally dubious.
Did the Knights Templar steal Baphomet from Constantinople?
Which doesn’t mean the Templars didn’t worship Baphomet…
In the Fourth Crusade, a huge crusader force sacked the Christian city of Constantinople. This action was condemned by the Pope and flew in the face of the stated objective of the Crusades – to recover the Christian holy places from Muslim rule. Instead, another (very rich) Christian city was despoiled.
Once the crusaders got in to the city, they burnt and plundered with an unseemly ferocity and made a point of desecrating the ancient cathedral of the Hagia Sophia (holy wisdom). This included crowning a whore on the bishop’s throne. There is a contemporary description of this event:
Nay more, a certain harlot, a sharer in their guilt, a minister of the furies, a servant of the demons, a worker of incantations and poisonings, insulting Christ, sat in the patriarch’s seat, singing an obscene song and dancing frequently.
Did the Knights Templar make off with the head of Baphomet?
Constantinople was dripping with holy relics. If you wanted a crumb from the Last Supper or a fish from the miracle of the loaves and the fishes – this was the place! Could it be that during the destruction of the city, the Knights Templar acquired the head of Baphomet, which they subsequently worshipped in a heretical manner?
READ MORE: Templars and Islam – friends or enemies?
The truth is we don’t know. But under torture many Knights Templar were adamant they had worshipped such a head and hung on its every demonic word.
The familiar and very misunderstood Baphomet image (that was adopted by Alastaire Crowley in the early 20th century as well as by the Satanic Church in the 1960’s) was actually a very positive (yet confusing) spiritual icon developed by Eliphas Levi in the mid-1800’s. Levi infused many positive esoteric and occult meanings into his strange image. However, also in the mid-1800’s, Frenchman, Leo Taxil, who hated the Catholic Church, played an elaborate prank to try to prove the gullibility of the Catholic clergy. This included printing pamphlets with Levi’s Baphomet in a very intentionally negative association with Freemasonry, as if Masons worshipped Satan. The Catholic clergy lapped it up, of course. Leo Taxil finally and publicly admitted to his haox, proving the gullibility of the clergy and others, but the damage was done and his pamphlets and the fancifully false information contained in them lives on to this very day.
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I didn’t make that connection – this is something that has been written about over the centuries. Of course it’s nonsense but it’s what ignorant people have believed.
There is no relation between the devil and Prophet Muhammad, it is utterly wrong to relate the sign of the enemy of God to the last prophet sent by the God.