On Friday 13th, 1307 – the Knights Templar were arrested en masse by order of the King of France and the Pope. They were imprisoned, tortured, and eventually executed. While held behind bars, confessions were extracted resulting in bizarre tales of secret rituals and the worship of a devilish head called Baphomet. But was there any truth in this? As William Shakespeare once noted, people will say anything when being stretched on the rack.
The Knights Templar alleged worship of Baphomet
The main accusations against the Templar knights were a mix of heresy and sodomy. They had rejected God, spitting on the crucifix. They had kissed each other “at the base of the spine”. And they had venerated some kind of demonic head – that some claimed spoke to them, issuing instructions.
The depiction of Baphomet is normally a goat-like devil with horns and a hairy face. It looks rather like the fifteenth card in the Tarot deck. A half-man/half-goat with its hand raised in mock benediction. Some believe this head or figure referenced a god of the old pre-Christian religions with that combination of animal and human.
However, that image of Baphomet was created in the 19th century by an occultist and ex-priest who adopted the pen name, Éliphas Lévi. His version of Baphomet is the familiar winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head, often referred to as the Sabbatic Goat. You’ve seen it on heavy metal T-shirts, album covers, and used by modern day Satanists. But would this image have been familiar to the Templars and those prosecuting them?
Many historians say that this image of Baphomet would have been unfamiliar. But actually, in medieval bibles and other documents, we see the devil as a reptilian or goat-like figure with horns, cloven-hooves, and a tail. Some believe that the association of the goat with the devil is based on the pre-Christian, Greek god Pan. Both Pan and the Devil are often depicted with horns, hooves, and goat-like features.
It’s possible that early Christian missionaries, trying to discourage the worship of Pan among the peasantry, associated this very popular God with the devil. Both became a byword for lust and promiscuity. Think about the way a lecherous person is called ‘an old goat’. You get the idea.
We do need to make a distinction at this point between Baphomet and the Devil. Strictly speaking, they are not the same thing. The Devil, or Satan, was an angel who rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven to hell below, becoming the embodiment of evil. Baphomet, on the other hand, is a pagan and gnostic idol with a much more vague backstory.
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Not Baphomet – but Jesus Christ
Then there is the heretical view that the head worshipped by the Templars was not Baphomet – but the head of Jesus Christ.
This would have been an unacceptable view in the medieval period when the Templars were on crusade. The church insisted that Jesus ascended bodily into heaven. Nothing was left behind. Well, apart from fingernails, and other discarded parts of his anatomy which became relics in several churches. Even his foreskin cut during the circumcision popped up around Europe. But not his head. So, if the Templars claimed to have that – they were in big trouble.
How then, might the Templars have got hold of the head of Jesus. One theory is that head worship had been common in the Levant for thousands of years. The heads of heroes, holy people, and even family members were removed and kept for veneration while the rest of the body was buried or cremated. Could the Templars have chanced upon the severed head of Jesus kept as a relic and maybe hidden away under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where they were based?
Or – one more theory for the road – it was the head of John the Baptist. That makes more sense and chimes with a popular theory that the Templars converted to the Johannite cause – a belief that John was the real Messiah and not Jesus of Nazareth. If you recall, John was beheaded and many Catholic churches today, claim to have a bit of his skull.
If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!
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