Knights Templar

The Knights Templar was a group of mainly French Christian crusaders who fought various religious wars against the Saracen Muslims from 1118 until 1312, when Pope Clement V disbanded the Order, under pressure from King Philip IV of France.

During the Crusades the Knights Templar became very wealthy. King Philip sought to seize the money accrued by the Knights Templar and so had many of the Templars, including their final leader, Jacques de Molay, Grand master of the Knights Templar, burned at the stake.

Through their exposure to Islam at the time of the Crusades, the Knights Templar began to explore Islamic customs, the most significant being their adopted worship of a deity known as Baphomet, a derivation of Mahomet.

Evolution

For thousands of years, horned creatures, whether goats, rams or stags have been seen as a representation of fertility and of male feral power and worldliness.

There is a cave painting from the Stone Age that represents a horned figure standing like a man which is considered to be one the earliest representations on Earth of a religion followed by man, along with snakes and serpents.

Such creatures have been venerated as the Goat of Mendes (or the Ram of Mendes), Cernunnos or Herne, the Stag Lord, who is also often depicted with a horned viper, and Pan.

The Baphomet is a representation of the intelligence of man, intermingled with the intelligence of Spirit.

Origins

The name Baphomet originally comes from the name Mahomet and was used by the Knights Templar of the Middle Ages and the Gnostic Ophites of Islam whose doctrines and teachings many of the Knights secretly followed. The Knights Templar greeted Baphomet with cries of ‘Yallah’.

Whilst many people may associate Gnosticism with a form of Hebrew beliefs, there was also a branch of Gnostics that adapted Islamic teachings into their own religious system.

The Ophites believed that the serpent gave Adam and Eve ‘The Knowledge’ – Gnosticism and the Gnostic Ophites of Islam took this one step further, combining Islamic teachings with their own.

The Baphomet has the head of a goat. The torch between the horns represents knowledge but also the symbolic expulsion of physical sins from the body. The human hands of Baphomet show the goodness of physical work. Pointed above and below are two crescent moons, the upper one white and the lower one black, representing good and evil, mercy and justice. The veiled organs of generation are a representation of the mystery of creation.

Philosophy

The Society of Baphomet proposes what could be described as a ‘Worldly Truth’ as its philosophy.

Many groups, societies and religions are very dogmatic and rigid as suggested within their respective and varied doctrines. Without justified reason they have to categorize every perception beginning with what is deemed good and bad and indeed they bestow upon themselves a duty to follow this dogma with such an ignorant determination that those in disagreement may be crushed underfoot as they march forth. Everything beyond the initial concepts of such organisations is thought bad, even evil, for they believe that only evil has the power to question and that the broadening of a physical and spiritual mind may lead one astray.

The Society of Baphomet is a realist organisation, preferring to see things as they really are, raise questions as to their existence and understand their function and purpose as part of a complete World view, be it a source of joy or pain.