Baphomet is an idol or image of a being typically described as demonic. The name first came to public consciousness as a part of the suppression of the Knights Templar.
In the Templar confessions
During the judicial proceedings against the Knights Templar, assertions were made that the knights engaged in pagan idolatry. Statements had been obtained from former knights, stating that the order secretly worshipped idols, one of which was named as Baphomet. These confessions were obtained under duress and were later recanted; therefore their validity is questionable. The Templar idols were variously described as having a human skull for a head, as having two faces, as a cat-like creature or alternately as a bearded head; most of these likely originated from the veneration of saint's relics, while the idol of Baphomet was thought to have been an Old French bastardization of the word Mohammed (see Etymology). In later legends, the idols were said to have been worshipped by the Knights Templar as their source of fertility and wealth.
Allegations of demonic activity on the Knights' part arose when Philip IV (who it is believed desired the wealth of the Templars, diminished influence of the Church in France, and probably was convinced of the Order's alleged heresy) plotted to destroy the order. On October 13th 1307, Philip IV had Grand Master Jacques de Molay and 140 other knights arrested in the Paris Temple. More arrests followed throughout France, and later throughout Europe after Pope Clement V annulled the French process and began papal proceedings.
During the suppression of the Knights Templar it was claimed by Royal officials acting only nominally under the Inquisition that the knights used worship of Baphomet as part of their initiation ceremonies. This, among other charges of spitting, trampling, defecating or urinating on the cross; while naked, being "kissed obscenely" by the receptor on the lips, navel, and base of the spine; heresy and worship of other idols; institutionalized homosexuality; and contempt of the Holy Mass and denial of the sacraments, was used to portray their Order as heretical.
The Templars were subjected to torture in the French secular process. There was secrecy surrounding their meetings and wild rumors spread concerning bizarre initiation rituals that did much to promote public suspicion of the order. Under torture, members of the order admitted to renouncing the Nazarene; spitting on, trampling and urinating on the crucifix; the "obscene kisses" of the initiation ceremony (though none admitted to sodomy); worship of idols; and accepting members through bribery. A total of fify-four Templars were burned at the stake by French authorities, as well as Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Geoffrey of Charney, the Preceptor of Normandy, who after being imprisoned for seven years were siezed and executed by French authorities as relapsed heretics after proclaiming their and the Order's innocence. Other Templars in France faced various prison terms, while very few Templars outside of France were convicted of charges.
Baphomet, by Eliphas Lévi. The arms bear the Latin words SOLVE (dissolve) and COAGULA (congeal).[edit]
Eliphas Levi and Baphomet
A much more recent and well known depiction shows Baphomet in the form of a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on his head between his horns. This image comes from Eliphas Lévi's 1854 Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (in English known as Transcendental Magic). Lévi considered the Baphomet to be a depiction of the absolute in symbolic form. Lévi on the symbolism of his drawing:
"The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of hermetism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah.