COMPILATION ON 'THE MEANING OF BAPHOMET' from Usenet compiled by tn and formatted on 49970408 -------------------------------------------------------- [COS] On 15 Nov 1996, Ditmar Van Belle wrote: > What does this Sigil look like (description or graphics image welcome), > and what does it stand for? (stupid question I guess) Ugh. Look at the cover of LaVey's books e.g. _Satanic Bible_ etc. See the inverted pentagram with the goat's head, Hebrew letters, & all that other fun stuff. Well that's the Baphomet. It stands for the three ancient clans which met a Mahdia to declare a sort of warfare against Setian-Jews. The three clans are: (1) Pan/Arcadia - the goat (2) Ophite Jews - the Hebrew letters for LVYTHN (3) Pythagorean - the pentacle, or pent-alpha, most commonly called the pentagram. "Adam D. Willson" =========================================== [TOS] "The Baphomet emblem as used by the Church of Satan was not original to it nor created by Anton LaVey, hence cannot be trademarked. The original Baphomet dates at least as far back as the medieval Knights Templar. The artwork for the current emblem's goat/pentagram first appears in Oswald Wirth, _La fran-maconnerie rendue intelligible a ces adeptes - II. 'Le compagnon'_, Paris: Derry-Livres, 1931, page #60. The complete emblem with the added circles and 'LVYTHN' Hebrew letters appears on the cover of Maurice Bessy, _A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural_, London: Spring Books, 1964 - two years before the creation of the Church of Satan. {The original edition of this work - _Histoire en 1000 images de la magie_ - was published in 1961 by Editions du Pont Royal.} Early photos of Church activities often show Anton or his disciples using the Bessy book as a photo-prop because of the large cover-emblem, and he included it in his _Compleat Witch_ bibliography. The Baphomet is clearly in the public domain." Michael A. Aquino, _The Church of Satan_, 1983. gollux@aol.com ============== [OSV] Baphomet: The Dark Goddess of Sinister Tradition. She is both Bride and lover to Satan. It is She who re-presents the distaff aspects of The Fiery Path. Baphomet is the archetypal Mistress of The Earth; the synthesis of two facets: Gaia, the Earth Mother (Light); and Baphomet, the Sinister Goddess (Dark). She is a violent goddess whose name is derived from Greek, as the Mistress who is stained by blood. Traditionally, Baphomet is depicted as a dark and beautiful woman who is seated cross-legged, She is naked from the waist up; and in Her right hand She holds a burning torch. In Her left hand She holds the severed head of a man which drips blood onto Her lower - white - garment. Baphomet's terrible trophy is held in such a way as to obscure the left side of Her smiling face. OSV's "DARK GODS" ================= EOF