"The Baphomet is not a devil but a symbol of divine wisdom, the perfect equilibrium of opposites.” - Manly Palmer Hall
“The name of the Templar Baphomet, which should be spelt Kabbalistically backwards, is composed of three abbreviations: Tem. ohp. AB., that is to say, Templi omnium hominum pacis abbas — ‘the Father of the Universal Peace of Men.’
In the Middle Ages, when the Order of the Temple was accused of heresy, this mysterious name was alleged to signify an idol which the Templars were said to adore, and which was described as a monstrous head, sometimes with three faces, and sometimes as a demonic goat.
But the true initiates of the Temple, heirs of ancient Gnosis and Hermetic wisdom, adored not a demon, but the symbolic figure of the Magnum Opus, the Great Work of spiritual illumination. For them, ‘Baphomet’ was the symbol of the equilibrium of the opposites, the reconciliation of Spirit and Matter, and the key to the transformation of Man into the divine image.
Thus, the Templar Baphomet was none other than the secret image of the philosophical stone — the union of intellect and nature, of male and female, of good and evil understood as complementary forces of creation.”
— Eliphas Lévi, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1854–1856)
