But over the years as the mystery and speculation around the Templars has grown, so too have the interpretations of the word and its meaning. Some scholars believe “Baphometh” was simply a corruption of “Mahomet” – the Prophet Muhammad. The name dates back to the Inquisition and torture of the Knights Templar about 1100 who, according to French chroniclers of the Crusades, confessed to worshipping a heathen idol called Baphometh. The baphomet is a symbol of occultism, whose meaning has evolved over the centuries. The phrase is also used in relation to science, the universe and God, but Levi wrote that, by making the gesture, his Baphomet “expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice”. They are drawn from the ancient works of Hermes Trismegistus, whose writings became popular during the Renaissance and Reformation. These words and the accompanying gesture are familiar to occultists. Two fingers on the right hand point up and two on the left hand point down, meaning “as above, so below”. Its arms bore the Latin words SOLVE (separate) and COAGULA (join together) – the powers of “binding and loosing” usurped from God. He envisaged a winged hermaphrodite with a torch between his horns and a pentagram on his forehead. The best-known modern image of Baphomet was drawn in 1856 by the French occultist Eliphas Levi, in his book Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual. His Goat of Mendes, or Sabbatic Goat was a visual manifestation of the unification of opposites and elements of the universe to represent the “Universal Agent.” Levi’s understanding of “God” was something more natural, elemental and primal, and one that still extended throughout the universe, into the heavens and cosmos.
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