"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)
“In the esoteric tradition, the Templar Baphomet signifies the 'Baptism of Light' (Baph-Metis), an initiation into the hidden Gnosis that the Order supposedly discovered beneath the Temple of Solomon.” ― Pike, A. (1871). Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Charleston: L.H. Jenkins. Page 818.
“Whether the head of Baphomet was a reliquary of a saint, a representation of the face of Christ on the Shroud, or a Gnostic symbol of Sophia, it remains the central enigma of the Templar downfall.” ― Picknett, L., & Prince, C. (1997). The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ. London: Bantam Press. Page 138.
“Baphomet was not a deity of evil, but a symbol of the 'mysterium magnum,' representing the union of opposites and the alchemical transformation of the soul sought by the inner circle of the Temple.” ― Lévi, E. (1896). Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual. (A. E. Waite, Trans.). London: George Redway. Page 307.