#the great work

[book-of-forbidden-knowledge]

What is Baphomet?

Baphomet is simultaneously one of the most iconic and enigmatic occult symbols, practically synonymous with occultism itself. Most people don’t know what it means or where it comes from, they just know that it’s the goat-headed thing.

The name “Baphomet” comes from a conspiracy involving the Knights Templar in the eleventh century. I’m not going to go through the whole history of the Templars here — the short version is that they were an independent Catholic military that was getting too rich and too powerful, so they were accused of heresy and shut down. Specifically, they were accused of idolatry, of worshipping a figure called “Baphomet.” Baphomet was not a goat-headed figure, not yet. “Baphomet” was originally a corruption of “Mahamut,” Mohammed. The Templars were accused of being Muslims. To medieval Catholics, there wasn’t a meaningful difference between being Muslim and worshipping Satan, so, it amounted to the same thing.

Fast forward to the nineteenth century, and a French occultist named Alphonse Constant, using the pen name Eliphas Levi, wrote a book called The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic. This was one of the most influential occult books of the nineteenth century. For this book, Levi designed the goat-headed figure that most of us associate with the name Baphomet:

It’s a striking, disquieting image, and I believe that Levi intended for people to misinterpret it. Most people think it’s supposed to represent Satan, because of the goat’s head (and because the Satanic Temple has adopted it as a mascot). And that’s sort of true? Levi did base his picture in part on XV The Devil from the Tarot de Marseille (and the Rider-Waite card was, in turn, based on Baphomet), and he begins Chapter 15 of Ritual by saying that the frontispiece to the book (i.e. the image above) depicts the Devil: “the exact figure of the terrible emperor of the night.” But he seems to have interpreted The Devil itself not in the traditional way, but as a personification of raw magical force.

According to Levi himself, in the book that originated the image, here’s what it’s supposed to represent:

The goat which is represented in our frontispiece bears upon its forehead the Sign of the Pentagram with one point in the ascendant, which is sufficient to distinguish it as a symbol of the light. Moreover, the sign of occultism is made with both hands, pointing upward to the white moon of Chesed, and downward to the black moon of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect concord between mercy and justice. One of the arms is feminine and the other masculine, as in the androgyne of Khunrath, those attributes we have combined with those of our goat, since they are one and the same symbol. The torch of intelligence burning between the horns is the magical light of universal equilibrium; it is also the type of the soul, exalted above matter, even while cleaving to matter, as the flame cleaves to the torch. The monstrous head of the animal expresses horror of sin, for which the material agent, alone responsible, must alone and for ever bear the penalty, because the soul is impassible in its nature and can suffer only by materializing. The caduceus, which, replaces the generative organ, represents eternal life; the scale-covered belly typifies water; the circle above it is the atmosphere, the feathers still higher up signify the volatile; lastly, humanity is depicted by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences. Behold the shadows of the infernal sanctuary dissipated! Behold the sphinx of mediaeval terrors unveiled and cast from his throne! Quomodo cedidisti, Lucifer! —The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, chapter 15

Let’s break this down:

Baphomet has an upright pentagram on its forehead. It was Levi himself who first identified the upright pentagram as divine and the inverted pentagram as Satanic — a single point up represents spirit over matter, and two points up represents matter over spirit. So, by putting an upright pentagram on its head, he identifies Baphomet as a divine being.

It makes the gesture of benediction with its hands. (I found a question on this site asking if the gesture of benediction was Satanic because Baphomet was making it. *sigh*) One hand is pointing up, and one is pointing down, signifying “as above, so below.” The “above” is the macrocosm, either the literal universe at large or the divine realms. The “below” is the microcosm, life on earth or the human body itself. If you affect one, you affect the other. (Rider-Waite’s “The Magician” card makes a similar above/below gesture.)

The moons represent Chesed and Gevurah, Mercy and Severity (respectively). These are two of the Sephiroth on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, dual aspects of God. The white/black could also stand in for the pillars of the temple of Solomon, which are also represented in the Rider-Waite High Priestess card and the Chariot card (as the black and white sphinxes), and also appear in a lot of Masonic imagery. Unification of opposites is a generally important idea in occultism.

Baphomet is an androgyne, with female breasts and a very phallic caduceus, reiterating the theme of unification of opposites. In alchemical art, the Philosopher’s Stone is often represented by an equally weird image called a rebis, which is half-male and half-female, and often has dragon-like wings.

The words on its arms, “solve” and “coagula,” mean “to separate” and “to bring together.” They summarize the alchemical Great Work, which is a cyclical process of constantly dissolving and combining matter in order to refine it. The process of spiritual advancement works the same way.

The torch on its head represents intelligence, divine knowledge, and enlightenment, the soul over the body. The wings represent spirituality and the ascension of the soul (i.e. the volatile), while the goat’s head and other animal features represent materiality and corporeality, the sinfulness or heaviness that binds one to the earth during life (i.e. the fixed).

All four elements and all types of beings are represented by its body: The torch represents fire, the wings represent air and birds, the goat’s head and feet represent earth and mammals, the scales on its belly represent water and fish, and the human torso represents mankind.

The caduceus in its lap, in addition to being a phallic symbol, is representative of magical power, healing, and bringing together of opposites. (Apparently also “eternal life,” which is probably an extension of the phallic ability to beget life.) The circle behind it also resembles an ouroboros, which has a range of important meanings — pantheism (all the universe is in the mind of God), the primordial darkness before creation (prima materia), eternity, cyclical generation and destruction.

TL;DR: Baphomet is a symbol of all significant occult principles, and the entire Great Work of alchemy.

According to Raven Digitalis, you could also see the entire Kabbalistic Tree of Life in this image (the torch is Kether, the horns Binah and Chokmah, the pentagram Da’ath, the hands/moons Chesed and Gevurah, the breasts Tiphereth, the legs Hod and Netzach, the caduceus Yesod, and the feet Malkuth). In chapter six of Ritual, Levi says that Baphomet or the Devil is one of many forms of the “Great Magical Agent,” the force behind magic itself. Other symbols of it include the primordial serpent that appears throughout world mythology, and the Gnostic Abrasax. (Carl Jung called it Atmaviktu.). It is a powerful, primeval force that must be in service of the magician, rather than the magician in service of it. To Levi, the Devil of the Witches’ Sabbath is one form of an ancient god, whom he identifies with Pan and Banebdjedet (Khnum). Personally, I identify the Baphomet image as a form of Mercurius, since the alchemical tradition uses Hermes to represent all of the stuff in the above list. Baphomet is a personification of Magic, both its force and its process.

In short, it’s genius. Levi manages to communicate so much through this one image, but all people seem to remember is the goat’s head.

People are repulsed by Baphomet, and that’s part of the point. The idea is that the uninitiated will look at this image and see merely the Devil, missing all of the intricate magical symbolism within it, no matter how blatantly obvious it is. The image acts like one of those alchemical emblems — a cryptic and maybe disturbing image, the real meaning of which will only be understood by a few. The Latin at the end of Levi’s explanation means, roughly, “How you have fallen, Lucifer!” We’ve revealed the secrets of Baphomet, so, we’ve mastered and disempowered him. But for the average person looking at that image, it’s still an arcane idol that reigns on its throne. That makes it an ideal tool for the Satanic Temple to use in order to troll ignorant Christians who want the Ten Commandments in government buildings.

I’m the sort of person who wants all the Mysteries to be made public. That’s why I write stuff like this, to explain what all this stuff means. So, I want people to understand what Baphomet is actually supposed to be, instead of just assuming it’s Satan. Is Baphomet Satan? Yes, and no. Levi does not believe in Satan as an actual entity representing metaphysical evil — he believes that Satan is a “misdirected” projection of all of our own sins, shortcomings, and instincts (what Jung called the Shadow). If God is pure Being, then Satan is necessarily Nonbeing. Levi writes, “No one has ever blasphemed God. The insults and mockeries addressed to His disfigured images attain Him not.” If Baphomet is the Shadow of God, then the Shadow aspect of God is the one that attends upon magicians. The mystical God, the god of magic, is much more terrifying and off-putting than the vanilla version. But part of being an occultist is being able to stare down the dark God, and come away with mystical insight, a better understanding of the spiritual world than everyone else has. Baphomet is God at its most obscure and its most revealing.

[homebrewstims]

Alchemy stimboard (based on real-life historical alchemy)

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Though it isn’t my footage, I took the time to make the gif in the center. See my terms of use BEFORE you reupload!

Also, please do NOT tag with HP tags or use for HP content. Thank you for honoring my consent!

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

The Great Work by Campbell White

[minweber]

You know, I really don't think that Guy Haley had the whole Cawl/Qvo dynamic fully planned out even as he was finishing up The Great Work. Well, either that, or he is one of the funniest motherfuckers on the planet. Because going by how Qvo-89's awakening went in Genefather, Qvo-88's must have been something like:

"Hello, dear Friedisch... Yes, yes, okay, Qvo. Please listen. Please get up and listen. No, stop crying. Qvo, please. I really, really need you to go over to Felix's ship and explain to him what the fuck has just happened. Better make it sound good too, Qvo, because that mountain is gone. Try not to mention the loose C'tan. Make something up. Be a dear and do it Qvo. Okay? Good, the shuttle will pick you up in fifteen minutes."

[eyeoftheheart]

“I can tell you this much: you are aware that in the official science of today the role of the observer becomes more and more important. Relativity, the principle of indeterminacy, show the extent to which the observer today intervenes in all these phenomena. The secret of alchemy is: there is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call ‘a field of force’. This field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-a-vis the Universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call “The Great Work’.”

“But what about the philosopher’s stone? The fabrication of gold?”

“These are only applications, particular cases. The essential thing is not the transmutation of metals, but that of the experimenter himself. It’s an ancient secret that a few men rediscover once in a century.””

― The People of the Secret by Ernest Scott

(Artwork + Gandalf in the Library of Gondor)

[mccdreamys-writes]

alex blake in 8x13

- alex blake gifs | criminal minds 8x13 - the great work

[sororalice]

Sun Becoming

Mystical poem finished 7-28-24. With all due honor to Maynard Keenan for the title.

1. Lust

For I am a lover,

Tossed and turned,

From one broken heart,

To the next

Grand ambitions,

Wed to grander passions,

Walking the world,

In seven-league boots

A thread of a life,

Spun wide and twisting,

But still found loving,

And loved in turn

2. Prince Of Wands

For I am a penitent,

In sackcloth and ashes,

Molten in my passions,

Legs bruised by prostrations

Abandoned by sunlight,

And nursed upon regret,

Because nothing else,

Will stay down

Wounded and wincing,

Grown thin from fasting,

Half-hidden by hair,

Aching always and small

3. Five of Wands

For I am a warrior,

My blazing sword,

Inscribed with sigils,

Of a better world

Searching the Playground,

Stalking the sides,

Of empty roads,

With thumb outstretched

I watch the sky,

Spinning and tumbling,

And stars show me,

The patterns of being

4. The Fool

For I am a dreamer,

Looking through stained glass,

At a world made,

Suddenly, madly, large

Singing and screeching,

Hawks and bats dancing,

In flight across a land,

Now stretched green and violet

I laugh and play,

At the feet of The Dutiful,

The Old Man who,

Taught me the Mysteries

5. The Devil

For I am a monster,

Bloody-mouthed and grinning,

Beneath eyes grown,

Colorless and stale

A violent breed,

From a savage country,

Far from any hope,

Of help or reason

A bullet for any gun,

That will offer a smile,

And moments,

In from the cold

6. The Lovers

For I am a wife,

A partner in joy,

And true yokefellow,

Freely bound

Loss and pain,

Almost more than,

I could ever stand,

With you beside me

The very best,

I can ever begin,

To aspire to be,

Is yours

7. The Hermit

For I am a Mistress,

Shoved into the Temple,

Across that ancient gulf,

Against my will

Forced to creep,

The Mushroom Forest,

Sword at ready,

For the dispersion ahead

Only to find friends,

In the maelstrom,

And sweet rest,

In the Desert

8. The Magus

For I am a stranger,

Wandering an alien land,

Hand held out,

To the whole world

Begging on the corner,

And making do,

Chanting holy songs,

For the listening Lion

Held tightly,

Behind the screen,

And dancing alone,

For the sake of shadows

9. The Empress

For I am a priestess,

Welding together,

Sacraments and love,

From twine and old toys

Lamp burnt low,

And incense in the air,

Water dripping down,

The lip of the chalice

Forgotten dreams,

Of the Nameless City,

Where I hear You always,

Whispering my name

10. The Hierophant

For I am an angel divided,

Being and Nothingness,

Bound joyfully,

At the soles of my feet

Seeing through,

A mirror darkly,

Eating the worm,

And saving the apple

Led to stretch out,

Across eternity,

To reach out carefully,

And hold my own hands

Art: Unknown Artist, “Alchemical Image Of The Green Lion Eating the Sun”, (unknown date)

[almostlookedhuman]

[arbiterofthedead]

Shadows. Decay. The Deceased. The Living.

All serve a grand cycle.

[curly4830]

who wants to join my girls night out(completing the great work)

[lovesinistra]

[homebrewstims]

Magnum Opus: Nigredo (part #2 of real-life alchemy series)

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Please do NOT tag with HP tags or use for HP content. Thank you for honoring my consent!

[saganssorcery]

🎨Artist: Noha Tosson 🔥🖌️

[eyeoftheheart]

“The alchemical operations were real, only this reality was not physical but psychological. Alchemy represents the projection of a drama both cosmic and spiritual in laboratory terms. The opus magnum had two aims: the rescue of the human soul, and the salvation of the cosmos.”

― Carl Jung

[ Artist • Jakob Böhme ]

[clover-cat-commissions]

UPDATE WITH PROGRESS PICS! It’s been awhile, i started a new job and have been working on starting my own painting biz, setting up as a commission artist isn’t easy! But i started a new army, Scythes of the Emperor! An all primaris chapter after their firstborn perished at the hands of Tyranids

[sororalice]

An Ornamental Hermit

Mystical poem written 4-12-24.

1.

Once I was,

A Woman of Earth,

Walking to and fro,

Across the face of the land

I wrestled with the spinning disc,

Danced with the bridging blade,

Was washed away by the flowing chalice,

And transformed by the burning wand

2.

Then in aspiration I reached up, up, up,

And bent down, down, down,

Until a divided angel, supple and sound,

Appeared to me

My companion, my friend,

My counselor and comforter,

When 4am knows all my secrets,

He is there to share them

3.

Led to learning by the Wise One,

I worked and wrote,

And taught and wrought,

The theory and practice of reason

I found those few,

Who spoke to my mind,

Who inspired my heart,

Who bade me be free

4.

Storm clouds grew,

As a path appeared,

Through a vast fungal forest,

In the hungering dark between ideal and actual

At its far edge,

A sandy relic,

With a pillar at its point,

Upon which rests my grave

5.

Now I wander the estate,

Stricken and hollow,

Wandering at the edges,

Of other people’s lives

An ornamental hermit,

Scribbling and muttering,

Answers to questions,

That no one asked

Art: Gerrit Dou, “The Hermit”, 1670