Hey dear community, first of all I hope that you are all well and that you have had a day full of positive experiences! Today I would like to discuss an interesting topic and hope you can expand your knowledge.
You can see here a work of art that is supposed to represent the Baphomet which has the origin probably in France and was originally revered by the Templar and the first mentions date to the 6th century but however, the exact origin is often controversial. In 14 century, the traces become clearer that he was probably revered by the Templars and probably Baphomet was considered a deity who was revered in rituals and symbolically often associated with wisdom and these old writings come from the south part of France where some reported his origin, but no evidence of existence was found at that time and it is assumed that Baphomet had supported the Templars. Nowadays, it is often associated with occultism and is considered a mixture of an animal and a human with female or male aspects and its head is that of a goat that has a torch on its head that is reminiscent of the light bringer Lucifer and he has also has wings. In his representations, he usually sits on a sphere which is also supposed to represent the earth and his female characteristics are the breasts and the male ones are the phallus symbol and he is also associated with the symbolism of alchemy. First of all, the four elements probably stand out like the earth on which he sits, the torch which is supposed to present fire and if you take a closer look you can see fish scales in the middle which are based on the element water which is surrounded by an atmosphere which, together with the wings stands for the element air.
On his left arm is also the Latin word solve and on his right coagula which is reminiscent of the well-known alchemical sentence solve et coagula which means dissolve and coagulate and in the past I have already discussed it in more detail and if you want to learn more about it, you will find a contribution from me here. In the middle you can also find traces of the Greek mythology and the staff wrapped up by two snakes is probably a reference to the god Hermes who is also known as the messenger of the gods and the wings also fit well with this assumption, the snakes also surround the phalus symbol which presents the male aspects and thus Baphomet also embodies the different aspects of alchemy. It is also interesting that the two snakes are usually depicted differently and the left embodies darkness and the right light and he is usually also represented with two two crescents, which is unfortunately not to be seen in this work of art and also these can be associated with the alchemy and are associated symbolic of silver and the upper crescent presents the light and the lower one the darkness and also here, as with the snakes two aspects or the flowing transitions are expressed again. The hand signals also stand for as above and so below and Baphomet is an interesting figure which is full of different symbolism which is also well expressed in this work of art and if you take a closer look you will find even more symbolism such as the pentagram or crossed legs and I really like this artwork which has exactly the right level of detail.
Thank you very much for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about this interesting topic! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.
