The Many Faces of Baphomet

God the Father by Julius Schnorr, 1860.

Growing up Mormon, I've been taught that God is this Being of Light and Purity and Love. I've learned to hate evil, to fight against it. I learned to hate parts of who I was, to hate certain actions and experiences and things others did.

Engraving of hermaphrodite from an 18th century version of the Rosarium philosophorum.

Baphomet has taught me to try to accept both the good and the bad, the strong and the weak. For me, Baphomet has come to become the Great Hermaphrodite. He/She represents me as a complete person, containing both good and bad, masculine and feminine, light and dark, weak and strong.

He/She also represents the Universe, full of good and evil, living and dead, human and animal. As I grow to love Him/Her, I grow to love every moment, both pleasurable and painful. At times, Baphomet has come to me in my mind's eye holding a yin yang symbol.

By Frederick C. Pape, from Children of the Dawn. 

Since He/She has taught me to love the moment, I've associated Him/Her with Pan, dancing in the forest. He/She teaches me to let go and love the moment. I see Hir handing me a goblet and telling me to drink of it and enjoy it fully so I can participate in Hir dance

Baphomet has also come to me in my mind's eye in the form of the Serpent, who I now view to be the hero in the Adam and Eve story. Here the Serpent was/is, trying to free us from this false dichotomy of good and evil, male and female, obedience and disobedience. (S)He helps us leave this childish, false utopia and enter a more complicated and unsure world we call Reality.

Since I'm a journalist and an activist, Hir form as the Serpent has been important for me. (S)He inspires me to bring the knowledge I find to the rest of humanity, to help bring the unknown and uncomfortable to light.

The Hermit from the Rider Waite Tarot.