Arcadia Discussion Zone

It really isn't about my opinion, and whether "it's one for me" or not. It's about proven facts. The only "head" associated with the Order in any way, shape or form, was a very Catholic reliquary.

Caput LVIII m was a very catholic reliquary, brought to the inquisitors by Paris Temple administrator Guillaume Pidoie, and recognised as such by the inquisitors. The interpretation of the "m" as the sign for Virgo, in this context, is a later invention of people desperately attempting to prove some hidden hermetic tradition within the Order. (an exercise similar to, say... attempting to use numerology to "interpret" a National Archives file number)

Similarly, erudite etymological and hallucinatory explanations of "bafomet", attempting to connect the word with gnostic greek schools, or islamic sects, is well within the transparent "neo-templar" movement's attempts to rope the Order into the sphere of more contemporary esoteric preoccupations that have absolutely nothing to do with the Order or the known facts.

In reality, there was never a "bafomet", there was, instead, a torture-induced confession (the torture interrogations were conducted by the abysmally ignorant henchmen of the King, not by the inquisitors) regarding worship of idols, and - upon further "prompting" the mention of a "bafometique" head.



In other words, it's simply an occitan word for Mohammed, from an occitan poem, well-known at the time. And that is the ONLY mention anywhere, at any time, of "bafometique" (note, not even "bafomet" as in the name of the head) throughout the prosecution of the Order. But the King's men didn't know this, nor did they know islam strictly forbids such things. Once this testimony was presented to the inquisitors, and once an inventory was made finding no such heads in any of the Order's facilities, the inquisitors wisely dropped that particular item. Such wisdom, of course, is sorely lacking amongst our most erudite and addle-pated modern esoterists, hence the over-abundance of very savant writings, studies and interpretations of/on something that never existed.

You will find, assuming some integrity and competence, that - should you be inclined to do the actual honest research - this same scenario of willful misinterpretation of history, of Templar symbology, of any number of other items attempting to tie the Order into a long tradition of hermetic practices and other sundry esoteric preoccupations, is prevalent everywhere and based on nothing more than the desperate desire to add a little bit of "Templar cachet" to one's particular sect or sub-masonic obedience. As a rule of thumb, I can guarantee you that, if someone waves the Templars at you in support of any alchemical, esoteric, hermetic argument or lineage, they are a charlatan, or a dolt, or brainwashed beyond salvation.

This FACT is EXACTLY that, a purely chance occurrence (with much twisted assistance from the arbitrary implication of codes and Hebrew, completely out of context).

The very word "bafomet" (the baphomet spelling is a later invention) comes from the Occitan, as a deformation of "mahomet". The source material proves it. The inquisition papers demonstrate the fallacy of the later far=fetched interpretations of the incident. I do believe the "wishful thinking" is exclusively yours, in this particular matter.

cj, what automaton head??????

un frère occitan de Montpezat, Gaucerant, avoue avoir adoré une "image bafométique", ce qui est une déformation de "Mahomettique" (voir le poeme de 1265, Ira et Dolor, E Bafomet obra de son goder, "Et Mahomet fait briller sa puissance").

..maybe Caput 58m is engraved on the automaton head..?

E Bafomet obra de son goder ---> Translation: Et Mahomet fait briller sa puissance. (From the Occitan poem: "Ira et dolor" dated 1265.)

No speculation, no two entities, merely a translation. I don't post this for those beyond redemption, but merely to aid those who might be similarly reading-challenged, and come by it honestly. Btw, this is easily researched and verified by anyone willing to challenge their preconceived notions.

from Greek baphe "immersion" + metis "wisdom"] "A medieval mystic term usually identified with the goat of Mendes. The Templars of Malta were accused of worshiping Baphomet as an idol. Baphomat signifies a baptism in wisdom or initiation, but became degraded and misunderstood when the keys to its real meaning were lost." The symbol of the Baphomet is related to Arcanum 15: Passion, as explained in The Initiatic Path in the Arcana of Tarot and Kabbalah. The term "baphomet" hides a message when read backwards: Tem-o-h-p-ab, which is the symbol of the Latin words Templi ommun hominum pacis abbas, which means "The Father of the temple of universal peace for men." See Typhon.

How little the philosophy of the old secret doctrine was understood, is illustrated in the atrocious persecutions of the Templars by the Church, and in the accusation of their worshipping the Devil under the shape of the goat -- Baphomet! Without going into the old Masonic mysteries, there is not a Mason -- of those we mean who do know something -- but has an idea of the true relation that Baphomet bore to Azaze, the scapegoat of the wilderness,***** whose character and meaning are entirely perverted in the Christian translations. "This terrible and venerable name of God," says Lanci,* librarian to the Vatican, "through the pen of biblical glossers, has been a devil, a mountain, a wilderness, and a he-goat." In Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, the author very correctly remarks that "this word should be divided into Azaz and El," for "it signifies God of Victory, but is here used in the sense of author of Death, in contrast to Jehovah, the author of Life; the latter received a dead goat as an offering."** The Hindu Trinity is composed of three personages, which are convertible into one. The Trimurti is one, and in its abstraction indivisible, and yet we see a metaphysical division taking place from the first, and while Brahma, though collectively representing the three, remains behind the scenes, Vishnu is the Life-Giver, the Creator, and the Preserver, and Siva is the Destroyer, and the Death-giving deity. "Death to the Life-Giver, life to the Death-dealer. The symbolical antithesis is grand and beautiful," says Gliddon.*** "Deus est Daemon inversus" of the kabalists now becomes clear. It is but the intense and cruel desire to crush out the last vestige of the old philosophies by perverting their meaning, for fear that their own dogmas should not be rightly fathered on them, which impels the Catholic Church to carry on such a systematic persecution in regard to Gnostics, Kabalists, and even the comparatively innocent Masons.

In order to begin to understand the RLC affair, one must instead turn to the religious and general history of the region, and have a modicum of theological knowledge.

It was Bishop Odo’s descendent, Serlo Fitz Odo who granted ‘the combe’ to the Knights Templar in 1185 A.D. Not much is known about the activities of any of the Templar preceptories apart from the obvious admitting new members, training of knights, the running of administration in local commerce, mostly the farming of livestock to raise funds. The trade and supply of goods, around the preceptory was done for over 120 years. In 1307 the Pope terminated the order of the Knights Templar, and most of their property including Templecombe preceptory was given to another order of knights called the Hospitallers.


In 1383 the Knights Hospitallers made an inventory of the land owned by the Templecombe preceptory 368 acres of land had belonged to the Templars here. The Hospitallers turned the preceptory into a commandery and they held the property until 1540 when Henry VIII dissolved all the monasteries. Henry VIII awarded Templecombe to William Sherrington who in turn, sold it to Richard Duke Esq. Richard Duke pulled down the Hospitallers commandery (which had incorporated the Templars preceptory) and used all the stone to create a substantial manor house. Nothing now survives in Templecombe of the Knights Templar, apart from the place name and possibly the Templecombe Head.

it is impossible to know who painted the head, or who owned it, or who hid it away and concealed it or why; there are many ideas but no evidence, as yet. It is also impossible to say who the head is meant to represent; Jesus? John the Baptist? Nobody knows for sure. Assuming that it has always been at Templecombe then the carbon dating of 1280 A.D. suggests that it belonged to the Knights Templar, as Templecombe belonged to them at the time it was painted. This is tantalizing to Templar scholars because during the Trial of the Templars many were accused of ‘worshipping a head’ (of uncertain identity.) Could the Templecombe Head be a representation of the head that they were accused of worshipping?


Many people think it to be a portrait of Jesus (now that it hangs in the local church it only helps to reinforce this idea) yet there is no halo, crown of thorns, or inscription to say that it is Jesus and it was not found in a church, chapel or temple. It has no body and so many people think that it depicts the severed head of John the Baptist (certainly, the Templars were known to of held the Baptist in very high regard.) Much about the Templar mystery suggests a pagan influence to their devotions so the ‘Head’ they worshipped could be the decapitated oracular head of Bran the Blessed (of British tradition) or even Mirmir’s head (of Norse tradition) indeed, the ‘Cult of the Head’ is ancient and comes from many cultural origins, any of which the Knights Templar may have been influenced by. The Templars are even believed by some to have been the guardians of the Holy Grail and in an old Welsh romance the grail is described as ‘a head swimming in blood!’

At the same time recent speculation had linked the head, at least tentatively, with the severed head of John the Baptist; and certain writers have suggested that the Templars were “infected’ with the johannite or Mandaean heresy which denounced Jesus as a ‘false prophet’ and acknowledged John as the true Messiah. In the course of their activities in the Middle East the Templars undoubtedly established contact with johannite sects, and the possibility of Johannite tendencies in the Order is not altogether unlikely. But one cannot say that such tendencies obtained for the Order as a whole, nor that they were a matter of official policy.
During the interrogations following the arrests in 1307, a head also figured in two other connections. According to the Inquisition records, among the confiscated goods of the Paris preceptory a reliquary in the shape of a woman’s head was found. It was hinged on top, and contained what appeared to have been relics of a peculiar kind. It is described as follows:

a great head of gilded silver, most beautiful, and constituting the image of a woman. Inside were two head bones wrapped in a cloth of white linen, with another red cloth around it. A label was attached, on which was written the legend CAPUT LVIIIm. The bones inside were those of a rather small woman.


A curious relic especially for a rigidly monastic, military institution like the Templars. Yet a knight under interrogation, when confronted with this feminine head, declared it had no relation to the bearded male head used in the Order’s rituals. Caput LVIIIm -“Head 58m’ remains a baffling enigma. But it is worth noting that the ‘m’ may not be an ‘m’ at all, but , the astrological symbol for Virgo .

The head figures again in another mysterious story traditionally linked with the Templars. It is worth quoting in one of its several variants:

A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, a Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him’ guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things’, and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed into the possession of the Order .
This grisly narrative can be traced at least as far back as one Walter Map, writing in the late twelfth century. But neither he nor another writer, who recounts the same tale nearly a century later, specifies that the necrophiliac rapist was a Templar. Nevertheless, by 1307 the story had become closely associated with the Order. It is mentioned repeatedly in the Inquisition’s records, and at least two knights under interrogation confessed their familiarity with it. In subsequent accounts, like the one quoted above, the rapist himself is identified as a Templar, and he remains so in the versions preserved by Freemasonry - which adopted the skull and crossbones, and often employed it as a device on tombstones.

The only "head" associated with the Order in any way, shape or form, was a very Catholic reliquary.

A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, a Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton The same voice bade him’ guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things’, and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed into the possession of the Order .

“...She died and, like Periander of Corinth, on the sight of her burial he opened her tomb and gratified his passion. A mysterious voice said “Return in nine months and you will find a head, your son!”

A certain noble had deeply loved a certain damsel of the Castle of Maraclea in the County of Tripoli and since he could not have her in her lifetime, when he heard that she was dead he caused her to be exhumed and had intercourse with her. Afterwards he cut off the head for himself and a certain voice rang out that he should take good care of the said head since whoever saw the head would be totally destroyed and routed.

Are you going to argue with Helena Blavatsky?

Well the notion that the "Cathars held the knowledge" is a testament to the power of fantasy over fact and to the phenomenal success of the complete Cathar reinvention (and rehabilitation) over the last century and a half.

Well the notion that the "Cathars held the knowledge" is a testament to the power of fantasy over fact and to the phenomenal success of the complete Cathar reinvention (and rehabilitation) over the last century and a half.

Seconded. Well put.
These romantic cathars-templars-grail-secret-fantasies might be a heritage of the "Grand Tour", who knows.

Eginolf, you are also the person who seconded Roger, in saying there were no Templar vessels at La Rochelle, when in fact we know for sure that they had controlled that port for 168 years.---Bill

To control a port means to have guardians there. At La Rochelle were 4 templar ships at the max. And the order mostly rented ships, did not own them. Your theory walks on thin ice, Bill.