G is for Goat

G is for Goat

I first heard of the Goat in reference to a ritual as a joke - it was when my husband became a Mason and when initiated it is jokingly called 'riding the goat.'

Witches Sabbat by Francisco de Goya

Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat is generally assumed to be a satire on the credulity of the age and a mocking condemnation of both popular superstition and the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition.

Two figures in Paganism use the Goat figure prominently; Baphomet and Pan or The Horned God.

Baphomet
The figure most people associate with an image of the Judeo-Christian Satan or Devil.

Baphomet is the god who is called Lord of Perversions, because He takes those things that others consider perversions and redeems them into holy acts. (Welcoming to the Temple of Baphomet)
Baphomet first appeared in 11th and 12th century Latin and Provençal as a corruption of "Mahomet" the Latinisation of "Muhammad," but later it appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century.

Since 1855, the name Baphomet has been associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Lévi. It represents the duality of male and female, as well as Heaven and Hell or night and day signified by the raising of one arm and the downward gesture of the other. It can be taken in fact, to represent any of the major harmonious dichotomies of the cosmos. However, Baphomet has been connected with Satanism as well, primarily due to the adoption of its symbol by the Church of Satan.

Lévi called his image "The Goat of Mendes", presumably following Herodotus' account that the god of Mendes, the Greek name for Djedet, Egypt, was depicted with a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were held in great reverence by the Mendesians, and how in his time a woman publicly copulated with a goat.
Historically, the deity that was venerated at Egyptian Mendes was a ram deity Banebdjed, who was the soul of Osiris.
The concept of a downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead was enlarged upon by Lévi in his discussion (without illustration) of the Goat of Mendes arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasted with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram.

Baphomet features in the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church recited by the congregation in The Gnostic Mass, in the sentence: "And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET."
For Crowley, Baphomet is further a representative of the spiritual nature of the spermatozoa while also being symbolic of the "magical child" produced as a result of sex magic. As such, Baphomet represents the Union of Opposites, especially as mystically personified in Chaos and Babalon combined and biologically manifested.

I am Baphomet 

Lord of Perversions 

What they throw away I save 

What they devalue I hold holy 

What they tread underfoot I raise up 

What they cast off as ugly decorates my holy raiment 

What they fear becomes my weapon 

I am both man and woman 

I am filled with lust for both man and woman 

I am only as cruel as your own repressed desires 

    and only as hard on you as you are on yourself 

I will prey on your mind, legions of sterility! 

Here I stand with horns and hooves and hair 

    and I cannot be made pure and heavenly. 

Here I stand with goat's beard and woman's breasts 

    and I cannot be made simply man or woman 

Here I stand with hard cock and wet cunt 

    and I cannot be made into a safely sexless androgyne 

Here I stand with whips in my hand 

        --those whom I love I chastise with many rods-- 

    and I cannot be made to kneel and serve 

Here I stand, Mr. Falwell, Mr. Robertson-- 

    are you ready for me? 

Pray to me for the perversion of your enemies 

    for I shall turn them upside down 

        and dangle them in the filth of their own making. 

Excerpt from Hymn to Baphomet

from Hermaphrodeities by Raven Kaldera

The Horned God
Also known as Pan, Hern, Cernnunos, Dionysis, etc.


The consort of the Goddess and symbol of male energy, he is the personification of the Sacred Masculine. He is the lord of the woodlands, the hunt and animals. He provides for the tribe through the hunt. He is honored for his deed by joining with the Goddess through the Great Rite.

The Horned God is is the lord of life, death and the underworld. He is also the Sun to the Goddess' Moon. He alternates with the Goddess in ruling over the fertility cycle of birth, death and rebirth. He is born at the winter solstice, unites with the Goddess in marriage at Beltane  and dies at the summer solstice to bring fertility to the land as the Sacred King.

Paintings discovered in the Caverne des Trois Freres at Ariege, France provides evidence of the first views of the Horned One. Depicted as a stag standing upright on hind legs with the upper body of a man, the figure is celebrating what appears to be a hunt and wooing a woman.

To the Celts as Cernunnos, the Horned God was more than just a fertile being. He is found throughout the Celtic lands and folklore as the guardian of the portal leading to the Otherworld. The name Cernunnos is known only through damaged carvings found at Notre Dame. In these carvings, a deity with short horns carries the incomplete inscription 'ERNUNNO'. In his earliest of days he was probably the fertility god to the Gauls. But as time progressed and his legends grew, he became associated with wealth and prosperity.

As the Greek deity of pastures, flocks and herds, Pan was half man and half goat. With the legs and horns and beard of a goat. He is the offspring of Hermes, but his mothers lineage is in question. Either he is the result of Hermes and Dryope daughter of King Dropys, who's flocks he tended. Or Hermes and Penelope. His cult is centered around Arcadia where he is reported to haunt the woodlands, hills and mountains. Sleeping at noon and then dancing through the woods as he played the panpipes, which he is credited with inventing. He is the lusty leader of the satyrs (woodland deities), and continually chases the nymphs (the beautiful nature goddesses). During rituals, his essence is invoked to for fertility of the flocks or for an abundant hunt. Associating him with the legends of the Horned God.