CONSPIRACY CLAIM #01

This story is older than you might think. It traces back more than 700 years, to Friday the 13th of October 1307 — yes, that Friday the 13th — when, as one account puts it, “hundreds of the Knights Templar were arrested in France, an action clearly financially motivated and undertaken by the efficient royal bureaucracy to increase the prestige of the crown.

Why? Follow the money

King Philip IV was the force behind this move, but it has also embellished the historical reputation of Pope Clement V. From the very day of Clement V’s coronation, the king charged the Templars with usury, credit inflation, fraud, heresy, sodomy, immorality, and abuses, and the scruples of the Pope were heightened by a growing sense that the burgeoning French State might not wait for the Church, but would proceed independently.”

And King Philip, conveniently, owed the Templars a great deal of money. Nothing clears a debt quite like an accusation of devil-worship.

The modern version of the tale has a far more entertaining author. In the 1890s a Frenchman named Léo Taxil published a book that was entirely fictional — a prank that mocked not only Freemasonry but also the Catholic Church’s opposition to it. To decorate it, he borrowed an image that had nothing to do with Freemasons: the Baphomet, drawn by Éliphas Lévi for his own book, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie.

So who was Léo Taxil? “Léo Taxil was the pen name of Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès, who had been accused earlier of libel regarding a book he wrote called The Secret Loves of Pope Pius IX. On April 20, 1884, Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical, Humanum genus, that said that the human race was separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth.

The one is the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ… The other is the kingdom of Satan… At this period, however, the partisans of evil seems to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organised and widespread association called the Freemasons.”

One of the first times Baphomet was ever linked to Freemasonry is the cover of Taxil’s own book, “Les Mysteres De La Franc-Maconnerie Devdiles Par Leo Taxil”, shown at the top of this page.

And here’s the twist: the whole book was fiction, and in 1897 Taxil stood up in public and confessed it. In his own words: “The public made me what I am; the arch-liar of the period” confessed Taxil, “for when I first commenced to write against the Masons my object was amusement pure and simple. The crimes I laid at their door were so grotesque, so impossible, so widely exaggerated, I thought everybody would see the joke and give me credit for originating a new line of humor. But my readers wouldn’t have it so; they accepted my fables as gospel truth, and the more I lied for the purpose of showing that I lied, the more convinced became they that I was a paragon of veracity.” The man who invented the story told everyone he had invented it. Over a century later, some people still haven’t heard.

Yet the story didn’t die with the confession — more than a century later it’s still going, and the internet has given it a turbo-charge over the last decade or so. For the record: before Taxil’s book, Freemasonry contains no references to Baphomet. Not one. Ever.

As for that Papal Bull: Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, Latin for “Pastoral Preeminence,” was issued by Pope Clement V on 22 November 1307. It was sent to all Christian monarchs and ordered the arrest of all Knights Templar and the seizure of all their properties. Not every monarch rushed to comply — some simply didn’t believe the accusations, and in places like England the Church had to push harder before any arrests, confiscations or investigations took place.

Any Baphomet statues or idols?

Walk into any lodge room in the world and you’ll find a lot of chairs, some very old furniture and possibly a slightly dusty organ — but no Baphomet. There are no Satanic or Luciferian references in Freemasonry at all. Think about it: one of the requirements to join is a belief in a Supreme Being. Satan doesn’t qualify.

Freemasonry also lacks everything that makes something a religion: it has no dogma or theology, no wish or means to enforce religious orthodoxy, it offers no sacraments, and it does not claim to lead to salvation by works, secret knowledge or by any other means. Its famous “secrets” are about how members recognise one another — not about saving anyone’s soul.

So why won’t this story die?

Honestly, there are a few reasons. Sometimes it’s simply that people haven’t seen the evidence above. Sometimes it’s fear of the unknown — a closed door invites imagination.

And sometimes it’s spread on purpose, by people who find a frightening story more useful than a true one.

Then there’s the oldest reason of all on the internet: a scary headline gets more clicks than a history lesson. Devil-worship sells; “men in aprons discuss charity and geometry” does not.

Where did the image of Baphomet come from?

The image of Baphomet was created by the occultist Éliphas Lévi for his book “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie” (“Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic”), published in two volumes — Dogme in 1854 and Rituel in 1856. The drawing first appeared in 1856, as the frontispiece of the second volume. Before that, no image of Baphomet existed — none, ever.

Lévi’s drawing was meant to capture a number of principles considered fundamental to occultists, influenced by Hermeticism, Kabbalah and alchemy, among other sources.

The name is much older than the picture. The first known mention of Baphomet is in a letter written in 1098 by Anselm of Ribemont, describing the Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade. Anselm stated that the Turks “called loudly upon Baphomet.”

Some scholars believe the word refers to the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. In 1307 Philip IV of France had every Templar in France arrested, accusing them of heretical acts such as the idolatrous worship of a bearded male head called Baphomet. By the 19th century, Freemasons were also being (falsely) accused of worshipping Baphomet — an echo of that same 1307 accusation.

In Lévi’s book “Dogme et ritual de la haute magie” (1861; Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual), the influential French occultist created the Baphomet that has since become a recognised occult icon. The book’s frontispiece was a drawing of Baphomet imagined as a “Sabbatic Goat”: a hermaphroditic winged human figure with the head and feet of a goat, adorned with numerous esoteric symbols. Lévi describes the meaning of each element of the drawing, which is defined by its profound and pervasive duality.

The term Baphomet is almost certainly a corruption of the name Muhammad, the last prophet of Islam — it has long been thought to derive from Mahomet, the French name for the prophet. It gained notoriety during the trials of the Knights Templar in the 14th century, when the Templars were accused of, among other things, worshipping an idol called Baphomet. Many of the accusations against the Templars were clearly false, which led many to conclude that this charge, too, was invented by a king (Philip IV of France) trying to get rid of a rich Order to which he was indebted.

What does Lévi’s Baphomet actually mean?

Lévi’s illustration has nothing to do with Islam, although tales of the Templars’ secret knowledge may have inspired him to borrow the name.

Lévi himself described the meaning of the symbol thus in “Dogme et Rituel”:
“The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of hermetism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah.

This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyn of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it.

The beast’s head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materialises. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolises eternal life, the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyn arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences.”

Webmaster’s note

The “dual-gender” symbolism in Lévi’s drawing has lately been used to claim that Freemasons are behind a “push for transgender children”. That’s not true. Freemasonry teaches no such doctrine, takes no political positions, and has nothing to do with anyone’s children. The link only exists because Lévi’s invented image was falsely attached to Freemasonry in the first place — and a claim repeated often enough can start to sound true. “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth” is a law of propaganda attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels.

For readers of faith, the Bible is clear about spreading false claims about others: 1 Peter 3:16, Exodus 20:16, Exodus 23:1, Isaiah 54:17, 1 Peter 2:1-12, Genesis 50:20, Leviticus 19:16, 1 Peter 2:1-25, Proverbs 3:30, Deuteronomy 19:16-19, Proverbs 11:9, Psalm 35:20, Titus 2:3, 1 Peter 3:9, 2 Timothy 3:3, Proverbs 25:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:15.

Attributes of Lévi’s Baphomet

POLARITY
• The idea of polarity, such as dividing the world into male and female energies, was a central concept within 19th-century occultism. This influence is obvious in Levi’s Baphomet in several places.

• The gesture of one hand pointing up while the other hand points down. This expresses the Hermetic concept “As above, so below.” It reflects how different levels of existence influence one another, whether those levels be intellectual versus physical, the spiritual world versus the material world, or microcosm versus macrocosm.

• Chesed and Geburah, are two Sephirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, which maps out aspects of existence. They are on opposite sides of the tree, which are commonly understood to be male and female, severity and mercy. Chesed represents kindness and love, while Geburah represents power, strength, and judgment.

• The Latin terms “Solve” and “Coagula” written upon Baphomet’s arms. These translate to dissolve and coagulate, which are opposing alchemical processes.

• Multiple physical examples of Baphomet being both male and female (e.g., breasts and phallus; one male arm, one female arm).

• The caduceus-like image replacing the phallus, in which the two snakes frequently represent male and female.

ELEMENTAL FORCES
• Baphomet also represents the unity of the four Platonic elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Air and water are the easiest to identify through the fish scales (water) and the symbolic semi-circle of the atmosphere (air). Baphomet’s feet are planted on the sphere of the earth, while a fire burns from his crown.

FERTILITY AND LIFE
• The choice of goat-like features for Baphomet comes from several connections between goats and fertility. Levi himself called the figure Baphomet of Mendes, comparing him to a what he believed was a goat-headed Egyptian god honored for fertility purposes. Pan, a Greek god with goat features, was likewise commonly associated with fertility in the 19th-century. In addition, Baphomet’s phallus has been replaced with a caduceus, which is considered by some to be a symbol of fertility. Certainly, the phallic emphasis can only encourage notions of fertility.