Dancing in the Dark, Part 2 (July 2009)
Article: Dancing in the Dark Part 2: Shadow Puppets
Last month, we talked a lot about some of the ‘big and scaries’. This month, let’s talk about some more of the big bads and where they came from. Specifically, let’s talk about some of the old Mystery Traditions. We’ll start with an oldie but goodie – the Knights Templar.
This won’t be such a big surprise for those Da Vinci Code buffs out there. The big bad scary picture of the Christian devil (referred to as the Sabbatic Goat) is derived from the practice of the Templars. The name of this idol is actually Baphomet. The secret behind this idol is all in the name. There are three interpretations to his (or her) name that we are going to focus on.
The first is the interpretation by Idries Shah. According to this scholar, Baphomet is derived from the Arabic abu fihama(t), meaning the Father of Understanding. The Templar aren’t particularly Arabic in origin, but held a great influence from Islam and the Middle Eastern cultures. This makes Shah’s interpretation a viable one, but not the only one.
The second is the etymology of Baphomet from Greek form. Baphomet could be derived from baphe and metis, which is interpreted as ‘Baptism of Wisdom’. On it’s own, this looks pretty interesting (and a far cry from the devil), but takes even more meaning when looking at the third interpretation.
The third we’re going to address is the one that I find most interesting. The Atbash Cipher is applied to several apocryphal texts (most notably the Dead Sea Scrolls) to decipher hidden messages. I’m not going to pretend that I can explain how it works, but it involves the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet being substituted with the last, the second to the second to last, and so on. When this is applied to Baphomet, the result is Sophia – the name of the ‘Holy Spirit’ in Christianity, and can be viewed as the feminine personification of wisdom.
As you can see, Baphomet seems to be a far cry from a goat headed demon or devil. It seems safe to assume that Baphomet had to do with wisdom or understanding, and seems to be a throwback to Templars being involved in the Gnostic Christian traditions.
Alchemy was a tradition of Western Magick that has many misconceptions surrounding it. Most people believed that alchemists’ main goal was to transmute lead into gold. Most of these practitioners were happy to let the masses hold this misleading belief. The true goals of alchemy were to refine one’s self into a pure spirit and to harness immortality. Knowing the true underlying goals of the alchemists allows us to see the ‘lead into gold’ bit as a metaphor for the hidden practices!
The ancient Greeks and Romans had many ‘mystery religions’, existing alongside the mainstream worship practices of the day. These mystery traditions were called such as only the initiated truly understood the rites put forth by them. The general public would attend the public rites, and would frequently witness rituals, gestures and invocations that they would have a rudimentary understanding of, but left the doors wide open from wild speculation.
The Dionysian Mysteries became affiliated with drunkenness and orgies. It was said that the Eleusinian Mysteries opened a portal into the other world for people to visit the dead and dark spirits, sometimes never to return. The Orphic Mysteries involved a combination of the first two, with an additional emphasis likely being placed on ascetic lifestyle and the Orphic literature. The Mithraic Mysteries are more elusive in their subject matter, but seemed to have a massive influence on early Christianity. Like the other mystery traditions, the rites and understandings were reserved for the initiated.
Many of these affiliations seem unsavory or downright scary, so why would the participants allow the spread of misinformation about them? The answer seems to be many faceted. Partly there was a respect and reverence involved with the secretiveness of the rituals and their meanings. Also, sometimes the private rites involved the use or practice of something illegal at the time.
The biggest reasoning that I can see, though, is that the participants didn’t want to waste their time working with people who were only fashionably interested or interested for the ‘wrong’ reasons – early historic posers!! Let’s take the Dionysian Mysteries for example. You hear about wild orgies and drunken rituals, then you think one of two things: Oh my, who would do such things! What if the neighbors found out?, or Hell yeah! I want some of that! Either of these responses are normal, if not a little bit frowned upon. It’s not the initial thoughts that are important, though. It’s whether or not you actually sought out the answers to the most important word in spiritual development: Why!
In the wonderful world of mystery traditions, the very basis of the schools (ie the ‘mystery’) was mysterious, even to those who were initiated. In other words the topics or subject matter was hard to define with something as rigid as words. To truly understand the mysteries, you MUST experience them. The sometimes macabre symbols that became affiliated with each tradition became a symbol of what each tradition dealt with.
Skulls became affiliated with practices that involved contacting the dead (mediumship), venerating the ancestors, or when the benefits of practice came to fruition in the afterlife (like getting prime real estate in heaven or the elysian fields).
The Sabbatic Goat was never originally intended to become the symbol of Satanism that it did, but then again when the Romans crucified Jesus, they never thought that the cross would become the universal symbol for his teachings either. In it’s original context, Baphomet’s image is said to represent the four elements (wings – air, torch between horns – fire, surrounded by water, and sit atop the earth) as well as representing wisdom and knowledge.
Participating in the teachings of a mystery school are not for the faint of heart. To truly understand the teachings inherent in a mystery, you must be ready to face your fears, dedicate yourself to learning, and dig deep within to find your own sense of understanding. While many of the symbols were used to deter those without the conviction to experience the mysteries, you’ve made it this far! Perhaps the path isn’t quite as foreboding as you once thought.