Baphomet Was Invented by French Inquisitors

One of the most ridiculous charges leveled against the Templars by French inquisitors (pawns of King Philip IV) was worshipping the idol called Baphomet.

The indictment read

“… that in all the provinces they had idols, that is to say, heads, some of which had three faces, others but one; sometimes, it was a human skull … That in their assemblies, and especially in their grand chapters, they worshipped the idol as a god, as their savior, saying that this head could save them, that it bestowed on the order all its wealth, made the trees flower, and the plants of the earth to sprout forth.”

Confessions (no surprise here) were obtained under torture; however, despite all the efforts of inquisitors and their henchmen, there was no uniformity in confessions. Some Templars denied any knowledge of it, while others, who confessed under torture, described it as being either a severed head, a cat, or a head with three faces… etc.

Gauserand de Montpesant, a knight of Provence, said that their superior showed him an idol made in the form of Baphomet; another, named Raymond Rubei, described it as a wooden head, on which the figure of Baphomet was painted.

He added, that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming, ‘Yalla’, which was a word taken from the Muslims. A templar of Florence declared that, in the secret chapters of the order, one brother said to the other, showing the idol,

“Adore this head—this head is your god and your Mahomet”

As no specific evidence of Baphomet appears in either the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents, it is obvious that Baphomet was invented by French inquisitors and based on Mahomet (distorted Muhammad).

This conclusion is supported by the well-established fact that accusations of worshipping the idol named Baphomet were unique to the trials of the Templars. And were totally bogus – as just about all other charges against the latter.

The modern image of Baphomet (an entity incorporated into various occult and Western esoteric traditions) is an invention of an (in)famous French esotericist ;liphas L;vi (surprise, surprise).

He drew a picture of winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns. This image has become the standard representation of Baphomet… but has nothing to do with the image invented by French inquisitors.