In the first Shamanistic aeon, men recognized the animating spirit of living beings. It was often depicted as a Horned God, a man with antlers. It was a force without morality, and it could not be bargained with nor placated. However, by careful observation, mediation, and training it was possible to give oneself and one’s tribe a psychic edge in a hostile environment by its appreciation. These early psychic abilities, coupled with a high intelligence, rapidly made the puny humans into the planet’s most successful species. The force that made this possible was universally symbolized as the Horned God. Horned because it conferred certain powers over animals and a horned man because it represented something extra which men could acquire. The double horns symbolize the bipolar nature of a force which was both good and evil, light and dark, beautiful and terrible. Furthermore, the Horned God image gives an impression of the awesome and fearful nature of this type of power.
Baphomet is the psychic field generated by the totality of living beings on this planet. Since the Shamanic aeon, it has been variously represented as Pan, Pangenitor, Pamphage, All-Begetter, All-Destroyer, as Shiva-Kali - creative phallus and abominable mother and destroyer - as Abraxas - polymorphic god who is both good and evil - as the animal headed Devil of sex and death, as the evil Archon set over this world, as Ishtar or Astaroth - goddess of love and war - as the Anima Mundi or World soul, or simply as “Goddess.†Other representations include the Eagle, or Baron Samedi, or Thanateros, or Cernunnos - the horned god of the Celts.
-Peter J. Carroll
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 materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes 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.
-Eliphas Levi
The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God... 'The Devil' is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation. He is 'The Devil' of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection... He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty.
-Aleister Crowley
Perfection, to be fully such, must be born out of imperfection, the incorruptible must grow out of the corruptible, having the latter, as its vehicle and basis and contrast. Absolute light is absolute darkness, and vice versa. In fact, there is neither light nor darkness in the realms of truth. Good and Evil are twins, the progeny of Space and Time, under the sway of Maya. Separate them, by cutting off one from the other, and they will both die. Neither exists per se, since each has to be generated and created out of the other, in order to come into being; both must be known and appreciated before becoming objects of perception, hence, in mortal mind, they must be divided.
-Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Isis and Osiris
The brightest star
And the black god
The Ajna center
The third eye
Of our great body.
The peopled energies
Around the heart
Your Sun and savior
Follow the biological processes
Of its beating satellites
In the form of the blazing star.
The cells that carry the energy
Of the orbiting bodies of your heart
Will ascend the celestial backbone
To the watchful eye
When the cycle is self-realized.
From blazing star to blazing star
The pattern of the heart
Reaches for the pattern of the eye.
From the Sun of man
Carried by the gate of love through Venus
To the eye of Sirius
And beyond forever.
