Lucifer & Baphomet (killing two birds)

[Thoth]

Im more of an RHP kinda guy, but I venture because life is one duality to me.
I wish to create somewhat of a relationship with the angel Lucifer.
I also wish to find more reasoning and background/historical information on Baphomet, as this entire 'church of laveyan satanism' sigil of baphomet bullshit is just that, complete fucked up cliche bullshit.
So, without offending any of you "humanist" -types or whatever you call yourselves, Id like to find more books, more information on both of these characters, ancient texts that refer to characters similar to Baphomet, etc.
can you guys help me with that?
In return Ill let you name an author and Ill up a ebook in epub, mobi or pdf, your choice. thanks. the baphomet thing is a big deal to me, I want to have 'Met as a relational deity but I cant without having a strong, REALISTIC knowledge of its history.
I have studied even as far as into templars, but still havent found that one or two pieces of literature that connects the dots.

also, ancient Luciferian literature, please, post that or give me names.

once more, thank you.

[AIN666]

A long time ago, the Roman Catholic Church became indebted to the Knights Templar. They owed them so much money and property that the Church would have gone bankrupt if they had paid the full bill. In order to get out of debt to the templars, they fabricated rumors about them. They claimed the Templars engaged in homosexual practices, practiced sorcery, and worshipped a false god called "Baphomet." Baphomet, was originally the head of a goat (the goat was a popular pagan symbol in those times relating to Pan, and in Christiandom, was a general symbol for Paganism). Long story short, their smear campaigned worked. They prosecuted the Knights Templar and they officially disbanded - most were killed as heretics while a few escaped and went underground. Baphomet was originally a Christian invention used to persecute the Knights Templar in order to get out of paying a debt to them. Later, Occultist and author Eliphas Levi used the symbol of Baphomet as being the grand symbol of the Left-Hand Path. And this is where we get today's image of the Baphomet. You can read about this here : http://altreligion.about.com/od/symbols/a/baphomet.htm

A couple of Left-Hand Path authors you might enjoy are Michael Ford and Connolly. Keep in mind these authors are of the Western LHP tradition, and there is a left-handed tradition in most if not all cultures. So theres a huge body of knowledge about the LHP that you can find from the West to Buddhism to Hinduism, etc.

[thestudyingalchemist]

The baphomet is tipically a perfect representation of different elements in the alchemy.
If you apply an old ebraic cryptage to the "word" baphomet it gives sophia wich means widsome in greek. Combining the opposites, the alchemical marriage, the work of widsome.



-A goat head (horns signifying of power)

The combining of the oposites
-Light/darkness
-water/fire
-air/earth
-man/woman
-serpent/wings (serpent signifying bioelectrical force)
(one of the main idea in alchemy is that the opposites needs to work together)

Solve & Coagula written on his arms:
Solve pointing the light, Coagula pointing the dark.
Solve/solutio means breaking down the elements, Coagula means combining them. Breaking down the elements from their negativ form to a more positif/purer form. (base metal into gold, the philosophycal stone) Then the catholics asociated it with the image of the devil like they always did to everything that wasn't part of them to keep power on their sheep.

[Bohemian Alchemyst]

What most people think of as Baphomet is the invention of Eliphas Levi who drew on popular misconceptions (Levi himself believed that the Templars worshipped the Devil) and passed them onto Crowley and LaVey.

In the actual records of the Templars' confessions there is no reference whatsoever to anything that looks anything like what Levi describes. The earliest "confessions" describe Baphomet as a severed head and, in some later descriptions, as a cat. I would suggest looking at Peter Partner's The Murdered Magicians for an understanding of Baphomet as it was. If nothing else, it'll point you to the roots of what later evolved into Levi's symbol.

You might also want to consider what happens when the atbash ciper is applied to Baphomet...

[DawningSun777]

Levi described his Baphomet in a positive way. It is like the ultimate symbol of western occultism that both paths benefit from. Historically we don't know much, the name may be a perversion of the name Mohammed (sp?), may mean "baptism of wisdom", we really don't know. Baphomet, as the world knows it, is Hermetic. The Templars were rounded up simply because they were rich and powerful. The only reason Baphomet gets any acknowledged connection is it is unique to Templar confessions. Under severe torture Templars gave a name similar to a Muslim prophet, they were around Muslims! No ancient wisdom to be found in it.

Also, occultism IS a humanist practice, whether people want to accept that or not. Use Baphomet however you want.

[ExCineribus]

Levi described his Baphomet in a positive way. It is like the ultimate symbol of western occultism that both paths benefit from. Historically we don't know much, the name may be a perversion of the name Mohammed (sp?), may mean "baptism of wisdom", we really don't know. Baphomet, as the world knows it, is Hermetic. The Templars were rounded up simply because they were rich and powerful. The only reason Baphomet gets any acknowledged connection is it is unique to Templar confessions. Under severe torture Templars gave a name similar to a Muslim prophet, they were around Muslims! No ancient wisdom to be found in it.

Also, occultism IS a humanist practice, whether people want to accept that or not. Use Baphomet however you want.

I agree that it is most likely a corruption of the French word for Mohammed (Mohamet), used by the templars in writings and possibly depicted in a grotesque manner as a sign of discontent (not worship). This seems to be the most common definition from people I've talked to. In fact, my old unabridged dictionary literally defines Baphomet as simply, "Mohammed" without any elaboration.

Levi adopted it as a symbol for his means, and that is what people think of today - though that is almost certainly different than how the templars used it. It is still not without value as a symbol, though... as it portrays a variety of important esoteric concepts. For some more background on lucifer and how the term is technically distinct from the 'devil', see: http://www.occultforum.org/forum/viewto ... 4&p=480117