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Bardo Thödol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) 21
well as in a lower level altar in the infamous Black
House, LaVey’s home and the original headquarters
of the Church of Satan. LaVey never claimed
to have designed the Bessy version of this symbol,
as has been asserted by some of the church’s
detractors. In its early days, the Church of Satan
used the version seen on the cover of the Bessy
book on its membership cards and stationery as
well as on the medallions that were created both
by hand and by professional manufacturers. There
were, in fact, many variations, depending on the
skill of the renderers and on the means used to
create the final product.
While The Satanic Bible was being written, it
was decided that a unique version of this symbol
should be rendered to be identified exclusively
with the Church of Satan. The pentagram was
made geometrically precise, the two circles perfect,
the Hebrew characters were distorted to make
them look more sharply serpentine, while the goat
face was redrawn with particular attention paid to
the eyes. This version was copyrighted by the
Church of Satan. The original highly detailed
artwork was first used to create altar plaques. This
new version was then used on the cover of the
1968 LP, The Satanic Mass, produced by the
Church of Satan. Finally, this symbol was widely
released with the publication of The Satanic Bible
in 1969, where it adorned the cover and appeared
on the interior page introducing the section
detailing the Satanic Ritual. It was in The Satanic
Bible that this graphic was first referred to as the
symbol of Baphomet in any publication available
to a mass audience:
The symbol of Baphomet was used by the
Knights Templar to represent Satan. Through
the ages this symbol has been called by many
different names. Among these are: The Goat
of Mendes, The Goat of a Thousand Young,
The Black Goat, The Judas Goat, and perhaps
most appropriately, The Scapegoat.
Baphomet represents the Powers of
Darkness combined with the generative fertility
of the goat. In its “pure” form the pentagram is
shown encompassing the figure of a man in
the five points of the star—three points up, two
points down—symbolizing man’s spiritual
nature. In Satanism the pentagram is also used,
but since Satanism represents the carnal
instincts of man, or the opposite of the
spiritual nature, the pentagram is inverted to
perfectly accommodate the head of the goat—
its horns, representing duality, thrust upwards
in defiance; the other three points inverted, or
the trinity denied. The Hebraic figures around
the outer circle of the symbol which stem from
the magical teachings of the Kabala, spell out
“Leviathan,” the serpent of the watery abyss,
and identified with Satan.
These figures correspond to the five points
of the inverted star. (136)
—Peter H. Gilmore
See also Church of Satan; LaVey, Anton
For Further Reading:
Bessy, Maurice. A Pictorial History of Magic and the
Supernatural. London: Spring Books, 1964. First
published as Histoire en 1000 Images de la
Magie. Paris: Editions du Pont Royal, 1961.
Howard, Michael. The Occult Conspiracy. London:
Rider, 1989.
LaVey, Anton Szandor. The Satanic Bible. New York:
Avon, 1969.
Wirth, Oswald. La Franc-Maconnerie rendue
intelligible a ces adeptes. 3 vols. Paris: Derry-
Livres, 1931. Reprinted Laval, France: n.p.
1962–1963.
Bardo Thödol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead)
Nowhere is the art of dying more sophisticated
than in the culture of Tibet, whose religion evolved
from the shamanistic Bön into Tantric Buddhism
beginning in the eighth century. In Tibetan
thought, the process of right dying is as important
as right living. A high form of yoga—a spiritual
discipline of meditation—has developed over the
centuries to speed the spirits of the death on their
afterlife spiritual journey and enable them to be
conscious of the experiences waiting to greet them.
The Bardo Thödol, the Tibetan handbook on
dying, the afterlife, and rebirth, is of remote antiquity.
There is no known author or authors; more
than likely, it was honed and refined over the
course of history. It was first written down in the
eighth century. The dying are warned that they
will encounter fearsome demons after death—