{It is absurd to suppose that men of intellect adored a monstrous
idol called Baphomet, or recognized Mahomet as an inspired prophet.
Their symbolism, invented ages before, to conceal what it was dangerous
to avow, was of course misunderstood by those who were not adepts, and
to their enemies seemed to be pantheistic....}
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_Morals and Dogma_, by Albert Pike, L.H. Jenkins, Inc., 1950; p. 818.
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To know how to extract from all matter the pure salt concealed in it,
is to have the Secret of the Stone.  Wherefore this is a Saline stone,
which the Od or universal astral light decomposes or re-compounds: it
is single and manifold; for it may be dissolved like ordinary salt,
and incorporated with other substances.  Obtained by analysis, we
might term it *the Universal Sublimate:* found by way of synthesis,
it is the true *panacea* of the ancients, for it cures all maladies
of soul and body, and has been styled, *par-excellence*, the medicine
of all nature.  When one, by absolute initiation, comes to control
the forces of the universal agent, he always has this stone at his
disposal, for its extraction is then a simple and easy operation,
very distinct from the metallic projection or realization.  This
stone, when in a state of sublimation, must not be exposed to contact
with the atmospheric air, which might partially dissolve it and
deprive it of its virue; nor could its emanations be inhaled without
danger.  The Sage prefers to preserve it in its natural envelopes,
assured as he is of extracting it by a single effort of will, and a
single application of the Universal Agent to the envelopes, which
the Kabalists call *cortices*, the shells, bark, or integuments.

Hieroglyphically to express this law of prudence, they gave their
Mercury, personified in Egypt as Hermanubis, a dog's head; and to
their Sulphur, represented by the Baphomet of the Temple, the goat's
head which brought into such disrepute the occult Mediaeval
associations.

Ibid., p. 779.
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There is in nature one most potent force, by means whereof a single
man, who could possess himself of it, and should know how to direct
it, could revolutionize and change the face of the world.

This force was known to the ancients.  It is a universal agent,
whose Supreme law is equilibrium; and whereby, if science can but
learn how to control it, it will be possible to change the order
of the Seasons, to produce in night the phenomena of day, to send
a thought in an instant round the world, to heal or slay at a
distance, to give our words universal success, and make them
reverberate everywhere.

This agent, partially revealed by the blind guesses of the disciples
of Mesmer, is percisely what the Adepts of the middle ages called the
elementary matter of the great work.  The Gnostics held that it
composed the igneous body of the Holy Spirit; and it was adored in
the secret rites of the Sabbat or the Temple, under the hieroglyphic
figure of Baphomet or the hermaphroditic goat of Mendes.

Ibid., p. 734.
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