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Baphomet - A Note on the Name

[from http://www.satanism.net/iss/ona/baphomet.html ]

Subject: Baphomet - A Note on the Name
   ONA
   
   It is interesting to note that, according to esoteric Tradition,
   the grail was actually used c.700 eh to inaugurate the Western
   Aeon. Authorities concur that the grail of legend was not a
   chalice but a large crystal, as per 'Nine Angles' rite (qv.
   Phereder and ben Beirdd. Von Eschenbach revealed part of this
   truth when he called the grail 'lapsit ex coelis'. The distortion
   into a 'Nazarene holy vessel' began with a Nazarene hermit,
   remembered by Heliandrus).
   
   The rites of Chaos Magic enhance 'old aeon' values and archetypes
   because they provide an illusion within the individual of
   'achievement', 'understanding' and participation in the psyche.
   Old aeon values, particularly those adhered to by Thelema, are
   Nazarene distortions of the Western Tradition. Consider
   "Baphomet":
   
   The name of Baphomet is regarded by Traditional Satanists as
   meaning "the mistress/mother of blood" - the Mistress who
   sometimes washes in the blood of her foes and whose hands are
   thereby stained.
   
   The supposed derivation is from the Greek and not, as is
   sometimes said, from the Attic form for 'wise'. Such a use of the
   term 'mother'/Mistress was quite common in later Greek alchemical
   writings - e.g. Iamblichus' use in "De Mysteriis" to signify
   possession by the mother of the gods.
   
   Later alchemical writings tended to use the prefix to signify a
   specific type of 'amalgam' (and some take this to be a metaphor
   for the amalgam of Sol with Luna, in the sexual sense). The
   prefix originally refers to being 'dyed/stained' or 'dripped' in
   blood - qv. Euripides, Hercules Furens.
   
   In the Septenary System, Baphomet, as Mistress of Earth, is
   linked to the sixth sphere of the Septenary Tree of Wyrd
   (Jupiter) and the star Deneb. She is thus in one sense a magickal
   "Earth Gate" (qv. the Nine Angles), and Her reflexion (or
   'causal' nature - as against Her acausal or Sinister nature) is
   the third sphere (Venus) related to the star Antares.
   
   According to esoteric Tradition, the Antares aspect was
   celebrated by rites in Albion c.3,000 BP (Before Present) -
   towards the month of May. Some stone circles/sacred sites were
   said to be aligned for Antares. In contrast, the Sinister aspect
   of the Mistress (i.e. Baphomet) was celebrated in the Autumn and
   was linked to the rising of Arcturus, Arcturus itself being
   related to the Sinister male aspect (Mercury - second sphere),
   later identified with Lucifer/ Satan. Thus, the August
   celebration was a Sinister Hierosgamos - the union of Baphomet
   with Her spouse (or 'Priest' who took on the role of the Sinister
   male aspect). According to Tradition, the Priest was sacrificed
   after the sexual union, where the role of Baphomet was assumed by
   the Priestess/ Mistress of the cult. Thus the May celebration was
   the (re)birth of new energies (and the child of the Union).
   Tradition relates this Sinister, sacred Arcturian rite as taking
   place once every seventeen years, the sacrificial aspect being
   regarded as necessary to retain the "Cosmic Balance" - in modern
   terms, to keep a Nexion open (and thus preserve the associated
   higher civilization, etc.). The Chosen One, or 'Opfer', was able
   - because of the sacrifice - to partake of an 'acausal existence'
   - becoming thus an 'Immortal. Thus, willing sacrifice was
   possible, although it is easy to imagine that in later times the
   Opfer was not so willing. Once again, some sacred sites in Albion
   are said to be aligned to the rising of Arcturus, over three
   thousand years ago. The association of Baphomet with Satan
   probably derives from the 10th or 11th Century. The Traditional
   depiction of Baphomet - a mature woman (often shown naked and
   seated upon a pile of skulls) holding up the severed head of the
   Sacrificed Priest - is undoubtedly much older.
   
   To some extent the Templars revived part of this cult, but
   without any real esoteric understanding, and for their own
   purposes. The adopted Baphomet as a type of female Yeshua, but
   with some bloody/ Sinister aspects - and contrary to most
   accepted ideas, they were not especially 'Satanic'. Rather, they
   saw themselves as holy Warriors, and became a military cult with
   bonds of Honour, although their concept of "holy" differed
   somewhat from that of the church of the time, including as it did
   dark/Gnostic aspects. Their sacrifices were in battle and not
   part of a specific rite.
   
   There is another tradition regarding the origin of the name which
   deserves recording, even though it is not regarded as authentic,
   having no present-day proponents. This tradition regards the name
   as deriving from the Greek name for the Egyptian goddess Bastet,
   recorded bu 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 is 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 indentification of Her as a 'Moon goddess' followed
   naturally from this, since Apollo was linked with the Sun). Like
   Apollo, she often sent plagues and death, and was propitiated
   with sacrifices. It is interesting to note that (a) a derivative
   of the Greek name for Bastet - mentioned above - is the
   Pythagorean name for 'five' (qv. Iamblichus: Theolugumena
   Arithmeticae, 31) - perhaps a link with the pentagram? The
   Templars were said to have worshipped their deity in the form of
   a cat.
   
   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 to be
   the bride of Satan/Lucifer - this would fit well, since Lucifer
   is often regarded as a form of Apollo; Artemis is the female form
   (or 'sister') of Apollo. Here it must be remembered, that Artemis
   and Apollo 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' (cf. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, where Apollo is invoked
   as Lyceus: a patron of wolves, a hunter who destroys his enemies
   - and not the 'god of light', as is normally translated).
   Further, the epithet given in "Electra is not 'wolf-slayer' but
   "killer-wolf".
    
                                             http://www.satanism.net

EOF

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