Sigil of Baphomet
A goat-headed symbol of carnality and earthly principles.
The sigil of Baphomet is a symbol of the material world, representing carnality and earthly principles. It was largely popularized by the modern Church of Satan, founded in 1966, which adopted it as their official insignia. The Church described the symbol as the preeminent visual distillation of the iconoclastic philosophy of Satanism.
Quick Facts
- First appearance in print
- 1897
- Author of that book
- Stanislas de Guaita
Facts from the source article.
Origins
An inverted pentagram with a goat's head and five Hebrew letters first appeared in 1897 in La Clef de la Magie Noire by French occultist Stanislas de Guaita. The Hebrew letters spell Leviathan, the ancient serpent from the biblical Chaoskampf, and the symbol also includes the text Samael and Lilith. With the pentagram inverted, matter rules over spirit, a condition associated with evil. De Guaita also illustrated an upright pentagram with the Pentagrammaton at its vertices, representing spirit ruling over the four elements of the material world.
Modern Satanism
Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, acquired the symbol from Maurice Bessy's A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural. LaVey adapted it by removing the Samael and Lilith text, and this version was drawn by LaVey under the pseudonym Hugo Zorilla. The symbol was used on membership cards, stationery, medallions, and above the altar in the Black House. It first appeared publicly on The Satanic Mass album cover in 1968, then on The Satanic Bible in 1969, and was first named the Sigil of Baphomet in The Satanic Rituals in 1972. Later Satanic organizations have subsequently adapted the sigil.
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