[from http://www.nasz-dom.net/jupiter/baphnote2.html ]

                        Baphomet - A Note on the Name II
   
   There is a tradition regarding the origin of the name Baphomet which
   deserves recording, even though it is not regarded as authentic, having no
   present-day proponents.
   
   This tradition regards the name as deriving from  [baph4.jpg] - the Greek
   name for the Egyptian goddess Bastet, recorded by Herodotus (2.137 ff). It
   is interesting that Herodotus identifies the goddess with Artemis, the
   goddess of the moon. Bubastis was regarded as the daughter of Osiris and
   Isis and often represented as a female with the head of a cat - cats were
   regarded as sacred to her. Artemis was a goddess unmoved by love and she
   was regarded as Apollo's twin sister (the identification of her as a moon
   goddess followed naturally from this since Apollo was linked with the sun).
   Like Apollo, she often sent death and plagues, and was propitiated
   sometimes with sacrifices.
   
   It is interesting that (a)  [baph5.jpg] is the Pythagorean name for five
   [qv. Iamblicus: Theologumena Arithmeticae, 31] - perhaps a link with the
   pentagram?; (b) the Templars, with whom the name Baphomet is associated,
   were said to have worshipped their deity in the form of a cat.
   
   
                                       ***
                                        
   The tradition recorded above, and the one described in part I, both regard
   Baphomet as a female divinity - and both are esoteric traditions, hitherto
   unrecorded. It is possible that both are correct that is, that the actual
   name Baphomet derives (as mentioned in part I) from the Greek  [baph1.jpg]
   : the prefix referring to being dyed/stained or dipped in blood. The suffix
   derives from mother or mistress used in a religious sense (qv. Iamblicus De
   Mysteriis). This name - Baphomet - is thus a descriptive one for the "dark"
   (i.e lunar) goddess, to whom sacrifices were made, and which was actually
   known in former times as Bubastis - that is, Bastet, to whom cats were
   sacred. Thus, Baphomet could be regarded as a form of Artemis/Bastet - a
   female divinity with a dark side or nature (when viewed via conventional
   morality) to whom sacrifices have been, and continue to be, made. Sinister
   tradition regards Baphomet as the Bride of Satan/Lucifer - this would fit
   well since Lucifer is often regarded as a form of Apollo: Artemis is the
   female form ('sister')of Apollo. Here, it must be remembered that both
   Apollo and Artemis were not aetherial, moral and lofty divinities (the
   classical gods have been romantically misinterpreted) - they could be, and
   often were, deadly and dark: both sinister and light.
   
                            - Order of Nine Angles -
                            http://www.nasz-dom.net/

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