posted on Jan, 17 2010 @ 09:07 PM
RAIN MAN = Baphomet?
Baphomet
Baphomet is a pagan deity[citation needed], revived in the 19th century as a figure of Satanism and worshipped in baphomeries[1]. In the 19th century
the name came into popular English-speaking consciousness with the publication of various works of pseudo-history that tried to link the Knights
Templar with conspiracy theories elaborating on their suppression. The name Baphomet then became associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by
occult author Eliphas Lévi.
The name Baphomet first appears around 1195 in the Occitan poem "Senhors, per los nostres peccatz" by the troubadour Gavaudan.[2] Around 1250 in a
poem bewailing the defeat of the Seventh Crusade, Austorc d'Aorlhac refers to "Bafomet". De Bafomet is also the title of one of four surviving
chapters of an Occitan translation of Ramon Llull's earliest known work, the Libre de la doctrina pueril.[3]
When the medieval order of the Knights Templar was suppressed by King Philip IV of France, on October 13, 1307, Philip had many French Templars
simultaneously arrested, and then tortured into confessions. The name Baphomet comes up in several of these confessions, in reference to an idol of
some type that the Templars were alleged to have worshipped. The description of the object changed from confession to confession. Some Templars denied
any knowledge of it. Others, under torture, described it as being either a severed head, a cat, or a head with three faces.[4]
Von Hammer-Purgstall associated a series of carved or engraved figures found on a number of supposed 13th century Templar artifacts (such as cups,
bowls and coffers) with the Baphometic idol.
Over 100 different charges had been leveled against the Templars. Most of them were clearly false, as they were the same charges that were leveled
against many of King Philip's enemies. For example, he had earlier kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII and charged him with near identical offenses of
heresy, spitting and urinating on the cross, and sodomy. However, the claims of an idol named Baphomet were unique to the Inquisition of the
Templars.[5][6] As Karen Ralls, author of Knights Templar Encyclopedia argues that this is significant: "There is no mention of Baphomet either in
the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents".[7]
[edit on 17-1-2010 by OpTiMuS_PrImE]