The Baphomet and Its Origins (History)

[Jaq White]

I can answer some questions on Kabbalah; I've studied it for a few years but it's a huge area and the modern popular version is more about money and feel-good soundbites than anything else.

As I was already studying it, I went along to an advertised introductory lecture at the Kabbalah Centre in London. I was disgusted and walked out before the lecture began - not only by the price of the lectures, but by the blatant commercialism of the whole enterprise. I have unsubscribed from their mailing list, and even tried "block sender" when they've sent me e-mails, but still I got one fom them yesterday, entitled "Spirituality for Kids" advertising classes (usually anything from £90 upwards!!) which Madonna is endorsing. I find it really creepy, whereas on the other hand, I fully recommend Kabbalah...just not the "cult" version.

This is the way the current Madonna and Co.lot present it:

www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/' target='_blank'>www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/
www.meta-religion.com/Esoterism/Kabbalah/kabbalah.htm
www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/bigpicture/bigpicture.htm
www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tku/tku03.htm

"Equilibrium is that harmony which results from the analogy of contraries, it is the dead centre where, the opposition of opposing forces being equal in strength, rest succeeds motion. It is the central point. It is the "point within the circle" of ancient symbolism. It is the living synthesis of counterbalanced power. Thus form may be described as the equilibrium of light and shade; take away either factor, and form is viewless. The term balance is applied to the two opposite natures in each triad of the Sephiroth, their equilibrium forming the third Sephira in each ternary. This doctrine of equilibrium and balance is a fundamental qabalistical idea."

[Oakey Dokey]

Kabbalah is pretty much at the heart of these types of investigations. If anyone has read Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval's latest book they will see the depth to which these types of 'initiated' religions penetrate modern lives.

Having recently read 'Talisman' and found it repetitive and nauseating to read, I was pleasantly suprised at how it reinforced what I have found very suggestive in recent months in research of Masons and age-old religions. If you haven't read this book yet then I will not spoil it but to say its main aim - to prove a correlation of sky-ground, Egyptian, western hidden city similarities, takes an age and could have been achieved in a book a quarter of the size without the 'padding'.

The original Kabbala was a sort of mystical 'tag on' to the Hebrew beliefs using the Hebrew alphabet as its template.

There are basically two types of religion -- literal and allegorical.
The Masonic rites and the Kabbalah belong to the allegorical category with the deliberate intention to replace literal facts and events with symbolism and deeper meaning without the intention to deceive (the initiated). The Masonic degrees, at least up to the 30th, make no apology for getting history wrong.

For an example, different types of Masonic practice believe that it is founded from the builders of the second Solomon temple, others from the Tower of Babel (Israel's imprisonment and slavery in Babylon). The history time-lines are also skewed such as the lineage unbroken from before the great flood (of Noah) to David and the first temple, even though there are in some cases obvious gaps. The most interesting point is that the story they tell is more important to their ideology than the accuracy.

This is where things start to break down, or at least for me as I'm not adept at seeing symbolism above facts, so find great dificulty in understanding why such an eastern way of doing things is prevalent today amongst the learned and influential of Western culture.

As mentioned before, the modern Kabbalah is typical of the type of organisation that insists on contributions, but then don't forget that Masonic orders also practise this (in various ways). Interesting eh?

[Hatty]

Interesting article by a Reform rabbi, Jonathan Romain, on the fashion for Kabala

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3933-1386609,00.html

[Oakey Dokey]

According to Masonic rites, they are the oldest by far. The exact region or location may have been world-wide if they are to be believed.

Best thing to do is look up Adona and Lucifer in Google and read through it. Just as a taster, the Jews believe their god was Adona and the Masons believe the point of existence is to fight the good fight against Adona. That's right, the Masons believe the Jewish, and consequently the Christian, god known as the 'lord' is in battle with their god the 'morning light' or adona. It's a dualistic view supported by many early religions and often symbolised by the same imagery.

Interestingly Masons make a distinction between Lucifer and Satan. They believe Satan is evil as is Adona but Lucifer is the god of light and knowledge, this is the reason for the encouragement of learning and lack of adherence to a one-god faith needed to become a Mason. Basically if you can accept that there is a great architect or creator then that's enough. No further need for blind faith or sacrifice in their eyes. The repeating of the number 3 in Masonic rites also harks back to ancient religions as many religions of old had trinities (including its incorporation into Christianity) which symbolises the 3 sides of a triangle or the one face of a pyramid---basically science or learning.

Worth further reading I would think.

[Bronwyn]

"James Ussher, an Anglican priest born in Dublin in 1580, interpreted the time of the Creation in the Bible as 4,004 BC. This was generally accepted by the Church as well..."

Masonic calendar dates from the year when God said, "Let there be Light", and is designated as A.L. Anno Lucis:Latin meaning "in the Year of Light", the current date used by Ancient Craft Masonry (adds 4000 to the current date).

So now the question is why did James Ussher define 4004 BC as the date of Creation?

[Mick Harper]

As I understand it, he took all the ages of the people mentioned in Genesis as being generational (whatsit begat whosit etc) and added them up. As I recall, he was even able to say that the Creation took place at 5.34 pm on 5th August (or somesuch) as well as getting the exact date of 4004 BC.

How he was able to be so sure, and why everybody believed him (and still do in parts of the Bible Belt) is something for psychiatrists rather than historians.

But if the Masons use him then I expect there's some other, more significant, activity being recorded here. But I thought the Masons used the Jewish calendar, which is somewhat different.

[Bronwyn]

Well, the good Bishop Samuel Wilberforce way back in 1860, "believed the world to be around 6,000 years old, created by the hand of God on 23 October 4004 BC, a date obtained by counting back through the genealogy described in the Bible" So Mick, you were very close.

Various Masonic bodies used different dating methods.

Knights Kadosh of the Scottish Rite use ganno hebraico (a.k.a. anno mundi) taken from Hebrew months and a calendar based on Jewish chronology. This thinking begins in September and adds 3,760 years on the Gregorian calendar.

The Royal and Select Masters degree uses the time of the dedication of K.S. Temple, or 1,000 BC.ganno depositionis.

The Templars (especially in Europe) count the beginning as 1,118 AD, the founding of the Order and is called ganno ordinis.

In the Royal Arch, the date of Creation is ganno inventionis or 530 BC, the date when work commences on the second temple by Zerubbabel.

[TelMiles]

[wizard]

AJMorton wrote:

[Mick Harper]

Wizard, we don't allow academese on this site, and while there is no agreed word for your particular style, it is equally opaque. I am formally requesting you to write in good, plain English. You will be amazed at how much shorter your posts will get. And how many more women will sleep with you.

[wizard]

Sorry!

[Mick Harper]

I didn't mean you to bodily remove it! It was, amidst it all, quite interesting. Please re-present.

[wizard]

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on:

[Ray]

It seems to me that the severed head, magic head - call it what you like - has got to be a metaphor for head over body. As such it will be as old as mankind in one form or another. You only have to look at therianthropic rock art from the Palaeolichic Age to see that this must be so, but first you have to understand what those strange depictions represent.

The earliest art forms were, almost without exception, representations, explanations, illustrations of the way in which the phenomenal world connects - or may be connected - with the greater world. Until the advent of the modern era this was always the prime function of art - in whatever form it took. Later it acquired secondary functions - providing status, say, or 'beauty', and these secondary applications gradually superceded the original intent until all memory of their true purpose was lost.

From this point of view the question of whether the Templars et al actually had 'knowledge' of this head is almost neither here nor there. What it represented to them was the existence of a certain type of knowledge in the East that they had latched onto during the Crusades. The fact that they did know of it is preserved in certain pub names - The Turks Head, Saracen's Head, and more commonly, The Kings Head. The King of course represents the ruler, but ruler of what? Eh?

[Mick Harper]

Pub names have long been a minor beef of mine. The fact that there are the various heads, plus various other allusions to, we might say, esoteric knowledge, such as the Green Man, the White Horse, the Seven Stars, the Trip to Jerusalem etc etc seems to suggest an informal network.

And after all just ordinary masons would need to know where the next job was coming from as they pursued their peripatetic wanderings from town to town. Beats Masonic lodges every time.