As its New Year, and this is the season for ghost stories and other satanic tales ..... I thought I might end the years posts with a story of Baphomet.
The Chicago chapter of the Temple of Satan made the news recently, when they added a four-foot statue of a snake, coiled around an outstretched arm, holding an apple to the Government building, of the US state of Illinois to mark the festive season.
The sculpture joined a Jewish Menorah, a Christmas tree and other religious symbols, in a display in the statehouse rotunda in the state capital Springfield. All are there because the First Amendment of the US Constitution, allows people the right to express their feelings, their thoughts etc. Not unnaturally this statue raised some adverse comment ..... but them's the rules.
However the Temple of Satan has quite a history of breaking ground in the USA. They were founded in 2012 in Salem, Massachusetts (nice touch) as a non-theistic group (they don't actually worship Satan, but if that's your wish), that aims to "encourage benevolence and empathy among all people". The 'Satan' of Modern Satanism is said by the temple co-founder Lucien Greaves (aka as Harvard graduate Doug Mesner), to be a metaphorical icon for the values of the Enlightenment.
So the temple membership is made up of a group of atheists, humanists and free-speech activists ... with possibly the odd Satan worshipper. It has expanded quickly (it claims the the election of Donald Trump boosted membership), and has 15 official chapter houses in the US, the biggest of which is based in Michigan.
These are not passive followers, as witnessed by the fact in 2015, the Satanic Temple unveiled a one-ton bronze-coated rendering of Baphomet, with two little kids at his side (presumably to make the statue more publicly palatable). The temple hoped to install it next to a Ten Commandments monument at the Oklahoma Capitol. But when the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the Ten Commandments taken down, because they violated state laws on the separation of church and state, the temple plan fell through, as that ruling removed the raison d'être for their own statue.
However the same plan arose again, after the Arkansas state legislature passed a bill to erect a Ten Commandments monument in Little Rock (the first commandments were installed in Arkansas in 2017, but was instantly destroyed after a protester rammed a Dodge truck into it and shattered it).
The new templars were physically blocked from placing the statue of Baphomet in the same location as the second commandments monument at a first amendment rally, by protesters holding Bible verses when the goat rolled up to the Capitol building on a flat-bed truck. They did pull a veil off the statue while it was still on the flat-bed, but they only stayed in Little Rock for a few hours, after a brief speech from Mr Greaves (who police protected), extolling first amendment rights for all, which he rightly pointed out were being blocked, by the Christians stopping his statue being placed next to the commandments monument.
Not that logic played out much with the religious protesters .... "It will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us," wrote state Sen. Jason Rapert, a Republican, and a major supporter of the Ten Commandments display in Little Rock, on the day of Baphomet's arrival.
In 2016 a city council meeting in Pensacola, Florida, came to resemble some sort of scene from The Exorcist, when a cowled Satanist showed up to give the opening prayer, prompting nearly everyone else in the room to recite Bible verses at him .... that must have been very funny to witness!
The temple followers have also been involved in a long and expensive law suit with Netflix and Warner Bros, over their use of a statue of Baphomet in the TV series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The Temple of Satan claimed copyright infringement in a $50m lawsuit.
This is actually all rather odd as Baphomet is hardly a new demon (The Knights Templar were falsely accused of worshipping him in AD 1307), but he didn't acquire his popular goat-human avatar until occultist author Eliphas Levi, made it up in the 19th century. But apparently in the US, the Satanic Temple's had copyrighted their version of the the deity (left off was Baphomet's traditional hermaphroditic breasts), and the one depicted on the TV show was 'substantially similar to the copy righted version', according to Mr Greaves.
The case was settled amicably settled according to Mr Greaves, with Netflick crediting the similarities to the Temples icon and the rest of the settlement (money), subject to confidentiality rules.
It seems that Baphomet's time has come.
 |
| Satans Gift - Plinth Legend "Knowledge Is The Greatest Gift" |
The Chicago chapter of the Temple of Satan made the news recently, when they added a four-foot statue of a snake, coiled around an outstretched arm, holding an apple to the Government building, of the US state of Illinois to mark the festive season.
The sculpture joined a Jewish Menorah, a Christmas tree and other religious symbols, in a display in the statehouse rotunda in the state capital Springfield. All are there because the First Amendment of the US Constitution, allows people the right to express their feelings, their thoughts etc. Not unnaturally this statue raised some adverse comment ..... but them's the rules.
 |
| First Amendment Rules Apply To All |
However the Temple of Satan has quite a history of breaking ground in the USA. They were founded in 2012 in Salem, Massachusetts (nice touch) as a non-theistic group (they don't actually worship Satan, but if that's your wish), that aims to "encourage benevolence and empathy among all people". The 'Satan' of Modern Satanism is said by the temple co-founder Lucien Greaves (aka as Harvard graduate Doug Mesner), to be a metaphorical icon for the values of the Enlightenment.
So the temple membership is made up of a group of atheists, humanists and free-speech activists ... with possibly the odd Satan worshipper. It has expanded quickly (it claims the the election of Donald Trump boosted membership), and has 15 official chapter houses in the US, the biggest of which is based in Michigan.
 |
| Baphomet - The Satanic Temple Version .... |
These are not passive followers, as witnessed by the fact in 2015, the Satanic Temple unveiled a one-ton bronze-coated rendering of Baphomet, with two little kids at his side (presumably to make the statue more publicly palatable). The temple hoped to install it next to a Ten Commandments monument at the Oklahoma Capitol. But when the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the Ten Commandments taken down, because they violated state laws on the separation of church and state, the temple plan fell through, as that ruling removed the raison d'être for their own statue.
However the same plan arose again, after the Arkansas state legislature passed a bill to erect a Ten Commandments monument in Little Rock (the first commandments were installed in Arkansas in 2017, but was instantly destroyed after a protester rammed a Dodge truck into it and shattered it).
The new templars were physically blocked from placing the statue of Baphomet in the same location as the second commandments monument at a first amendment rally, by protesters holding Bible verses when the goat rolled up to the Capitol building on a flat-bed truck. They did pull a veil off the statue while it was still on the flat-bed, but they only stayed in Little Rock for a few hours, after a brief speech from Mr Greaves (who police protected), extolling first amendment rights for all, which he rightly pointed out were being blocked, by the Christians stopping his statue being placed next to the commandments monument.
Not that logic played out much with the religious protesters .... "It will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us," wrote state Sen. Jason Rapert, a Republican, and a major supporter of the Ten Commandments display in Little Rock, on the day of Baphomet's arrival.
In 2016 a city council meeting in Pensacola, Florida, came to resemble some sort of scene from The Exorcist, when a cowled Satanist showed up to give the opening prayer, prompting nearly everyone else in the room to recite Bible verses at him .... that must have been very funny to witness!
 |
| Baphomet - The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina |
The temple followers have also been involved in a long and expensive law suit with Netflix and Warner Bros, over their use of a statue of Baphomet in the TV series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The Temple of Satan claimed copyright infringement in a $50m lawsuit.
 |
| Baphomet - Eliphas Levi |
This is actually all rather odd as Baphomet is hardly a new demon (The Knights Templar were falsely accused of worshipping him in AD 1307), but he didn't acquire his popular goat-human avatar until occultist author Eliphas Levi, made it up in the 19th century. But apparently in the US, the Satanic Temple's had copyrighted their version of the the deity (left off was Baphomet's traditional hermaphroditic breasts), and the one depicted on the TV show was 'substantially similar to the copy righted version', according to Mr Greaves.
The case was settled amicably settled according to Mr Greaves, with Netflick crediting the similarities to the Temples icon and the rest of the settlement (money), subject to confidentiality rules.
It seems that Baphomet's time has come.
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