By Stephen A. Dafoe

Continued From Part One

While it seems peculiar that the Templars would ever be involved with worshipping a cat, there are those who have offered that perhaps the Baphomet idol was a representation of the Egyptian cat goddesses Bast or Sekhmet. In reality the explanation of the cat worship accusation is far simpler. In Medieval times, those who the church wished to label as heretics were accused of using a witch's familiar. This type of heretical belief began in the 12th century in the very same century that the Templars formed. Essentially a Witch's familiar was, according to the church, the devil in animal form, usually a cat or goat. It was said that the devil would appear at the black masses of the witch's held at midnight, and thus we return to a motivation behind accusation number eight - that the Templars held their meetings in secret and at night.

Since the worship of a cat or witch's familiar is little more than a standard accusation of heresy, we can be certain that there is little of value in suggesting that it was the Baphomet enigma.

This leaves us with that portion of the accusation, which claims that the Templars worshipped an idol that was a head. Over the last few centuries, there have been many theories as to what this head may have been. Some of the theories are plausible while others are not as possible. What follows are some of the more popular notions as to what the head, if it existed, may have been.

Perhaps one of the most credible theories involves the Christian icon, known as the Shroud of Turin. It is generally accepted that the Templars were actively involved in the sac of Constantinople in 1204 and it has been said that they removed the Shroud at that time. When the shroud is folded in four it would depict the bearded head of a man, which fits with the description of the bearded head alleged to be the object of Templar devotions. Additionally one of the descriptions was an image with two heads and four feet. If one considers that the shroud, when laid open in its full form, depicts the front and back of Christ, then we can see that the description once again fits. In either case, if the Templar idol was the Shroud and the Shroud is the image of Christ, it could hardly be an image considered sinful. The interested reader would do well to read the article by John Ritchie, a Templar historian, from our fall 2001 issue for more info on the Shroud of Turin and the Mandylion.

But the head of Christ is not the only theory as to what the bearded head may have been. Some have put forth that it was none other than the severed head of John the Baptist. While this theory seems implausible at first glance, it should be pointed out that during the crusades, the trade in religious relics was as prevalent as the trading of baseball cards is today. It is generally accepted that there were several so-called John the Baptist heads circulating Christendom. What they were made of remains to be clearly explained, but it is possible that the Templars may have had one. Once again the herald of Christ could hardly be construed to have been anything of a sinister nature.

While both of the above theories have firm supporters and equally firm detractors, no trace of any such relic was found when the Templars were arrested throughout France and beyond. In fact, the only item found was a gilded head. This gilded head was the image of a woman and may well have been an image of the Virgin Mary, to whom all Templar preceptories and churches were dedicated.

Despite the lack of concrete evidence to support any such idol having ever existed, the accusations proceeded into trials and the trials into a verdict of guilty. As a result many Templars were burned at the stake as heretics including de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Order.

If then there is no evidence to finally solve what the idol was, perhaps we can shed some light onto the name itself. Baphomet's etymology has caused as much confusion and controversy as the theories as to what it may have been in a tangible form.

The most plausible explanation for the word Baphomet is that it is either Old French for or a corruption of the name Mohammed. Mohammed or Mahomet (which shows the similarity in spelling) is the Prophet of Islam. To those who were charged with extracting confessions from the imprisoned Templars, the confession that the Templars had switched faiths to become Moslems would be as good as that of any guilty verdict. In those days to be a Moslem was to be an infidel and as such, to be in league with the devil. It cannot be argued that men under excruciating forms of torture would have confessed to nearly anything in order to free themselves from the pain of the heinous forms of punishment that were inflicted upon them.

But this theory as sensible as it is does nothing to support an idol. For in the Islamic faith, the worship of any idol is forbidden. We saw this in recent years with the destruction of centuries old Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, during the dark days of the Taliban regime. If the Templars had indeed adapted the beliefs of Islam, then an idol of the Prophet Mohammed would surely have been taboo.

Another theory along Islamic lines is that Baphomet is a corruption of the Arabic, Abufihamat, which means Father of Understanding or Father of Wisdom. It cannot be argued that many Templars spoke Arabic, for this was a necessity in order to deal with their enemies and to survive in the communities in which they had business dealings. Perhaps the Templars adapted this common Arabic word as a name for King Solomon, whose Temple was the basis of their name.

Dr. Hugh Schonfield, whose work on the Dead Sea Scrolls is well known, developed one of the more interesting theories. Schonfield who had studied a Jewish cipher called the Atbash cipher, which was used on some of the scrolls, claimed that when one applied the cipher to the word Baphomet, it transposed into the Greek word Sophia, which means knowledge, but also is the name of the goddess.

While this theory is controversial to many, it cannot be argued, by anyone familiar with the code, that Baphomet does create Sophia, at least phonetically. It is also known, as we covered earlier in this article that the one object found in Templar possession that could be deemed an idol was the gilded head of a woman.

It has long been the belief of Alan Butler and myself that the Templars, while Christian on the surface were dedicated to reuniting the feminine aspect of divinity with the Godhead. It is not at all surprising to note that the patron of the order, St. Bernard of Clairvaux was an absolute devotee to the Virgin Mary and was largely responsible for her present place of prominence within Catholicism. The Templars, as stated earlier, dedicated all of their properties to the Virgin Mary.

Continue To Part Three