OCTONIMOS: IL CAPUT NEGRO

By Azmareth Iº TOPH

The Union of Opposites and its’ inherent implications of sexuality which

this involves form a major underlying basis of both the theory and practice of
Magick. The Primal Gnosis of sex-magick and the range of concepts that “flesh”
it out fully, can be better understood starting with an investigation of the sphere of
Saturn, the Kabbalic sphere where creative/magickal energies first manifest in
our realm.

The Eighth sphere from the bottom of the Tree of Life is that of Saturn, or
Binah which means “understanding” .The concepts related to it are those of
Boundaries, Discipline, Death, Time and Isolation. This sphere is the point from
which the energies and the laws governing manifestation in our world emanate
from, so it is that this is the place where a fuller understanding of these things is
achieved. Binah is the “Mother”(the first “He” in the formula of manifestation of
cosmic energies known as the Tetragrammaton). It is also in the higher octave,
Lucifer in Tiphreth (the sun). Set, more than any other deity illustrates the
character of Binah. As Kenneth Grant notes, in the Egyptian pantheon, it was Set
who opened up” his mother, the Goddess, ”thereby revealing her
children”(“Hecates’ Foundation”,1998,pg.47).These children are the “Seven
stars” or Seven planets or Sephira of the Tree of Life, of which Set is the “first
male and therefore the summit, the height or eighth (ibid). He is the Height of
perfection as he is the number of perfection (seven) plus one. He exemplifies
Understanding because having isolated himself in the desert, he disciplined
himself to conquer and transcend the boundaries of Death and Time through the
Self-illuminated discovery of his own inner Strength and Understanding. The
numeral eight itself reminds one of the hourglass or leminscate, the symbol of the
recycling of energies. Similarly, in the sigil of Saturn is the concealed scythe. In
Sufic symbology, eight represents perfect expression, the cube, and is the
number of Balance, the way to the nine (which is Secret Knowledge)(“The Sufis”,
Indries Shah, pg.214). As the mythology of the Chaos-Dragon Tiamat illustrates,
the seven planets formed from her body end in the head which is Saturn. And it
is Chaos that we are led to understand (in its’ relation to the manifestation of
lower forms of energy) by the numbers from 1 to 8. Chaos forms the centre of the
Eight-Rayed Chaos Star, or ALGOL which we will consider later.

What is Chaos? Peter Carroll says it is the “thing” responsible for the
origin and continued action of events, the force which adds increasing complexity
to the universe (“ Liber Null”, pg. 28). Because we as humans view ourselves in
relation to the order and stability we perceive and find comfort in, we
misunderstand the full nature of life. The Magickian who understands that
“change is stability”(illustrated by the Thoth tarot “Change”) has an advantage.
By discipline and deeper isolation she/he can, like Set, make Chaos (Apep) a

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tool of his/her Will, no longer a servant to it. As the Tao te Ching and modern
psychology point out, we cannot prevent change from happening but we can
channel it in directions useful to us.

The Eight–Pointed Chaos Star is a perfect sigil for this type of magickal
focus and use of Chaos. Nick Hall in his book “Chaos and Sorcery, says that the
symbol was found to be used in Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C… It represented
“God”, ”Heaven (An)” and “Star”. This is fitting as the Book of the Law
says,”every man and women is a star“, and as the symbol of perfection achieved,
Lucifer is the Star to which we may become as gods/goddesses. In modern
usage, Andrew Chumbley first used it as a symbol of the transferring of
consciousness to the dreaming self in his Sabbatic rite.

As to our own use, it is the very foundation of our magickal work and is
called ALGOL, which is Arabic for “the Demons’ Head”. On 12th Century maps it
was “Caput Larvae (the Spectors’ Head)”(Michael W. Ford, ”Shades of Algol”,pg.
4). Also Algol was astronomically the Dark Star behind the moon and was related
to Lilith in symbolism. Michael W. Ford writes, “Algol is the Luciferian mirror of
immortality and obtainment, the depth of which the awakened mind shall emerge.
This is the chaos with the centre the inverted Pentagram. The Pentagram is the
Eye of Set, of self-deification, the Luciferian core-self, which is self-developing to
become as a god/goddess through Antinomianism (moving against the natural
order, isolating the Psyche and building the Will”(ibid.). The Eight-Pointed Star
has also been used to symbolize the eight spheres from Malkuth to Binah and
various magickal rites and workings arising from correspondences to them.
Some build an actual physical 3-dimensional model of the Chaos Star or
Chaosphere which is used to focus energy and store it as a battery, and to
alternately project energy onto the eight directions of space (the aethyr) at will in
line with ecstatic rites and desired results.

The godform associated with the Chaos star is that of Baphomet and has
long been associated with the secret magickal understanding of the universe and
of the use of the forces of Chaos in magick. Much feared and admired in various
forms, he was known to the Gnostics as Octonimos, the Eightfold Word. Peter
Carrolls’ ”Invocation of Baphomet” traces its history: “In the first aeon, I was the
Great Spirit. In the second aeon men knew me as the Horned God, Pangenitor
Panphage. In the third aeon, I was the Dark One, the devil. In the fourth aeon,
Men knew me not, for I’m the Hidden One. In this new aeon, I appear before you
as the Baphomet, the God before all gods who shall endure to the end of the
Earth” (“Psychonaut “, pg.131-132). Carrol says of the Horned God “It was a face
without morality and it couldn’t be bargained with or placated…horned because it
conferred certain powers over animals and a horned man because it represented
something extra which men could acquire, the double horns representing the
bipolar nature of a force which was both good and evil, light and dark, beautiful
and terrible. Furthermore the Horned God image gives an impression of the
awesome and fearful nature of this type of power(ibid,pg.156).Though this

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describes aspects of the Honed God, it would be safe to assume these attributes
are also held by Baphomet as well.

The Baphomet allegedly worshipped by the Templar Knights of the 12th

Century was said to be a horned deity or the head of “a God”. When the Order
was dissembled by the Church, on charges of heresy among other things, such a
head was never found. It may have never been a physical object but there are
magickal traditions that do use skulls and other physical objects as the focus or
fetish-vessels for spirits. The Celts and the practioners of Voudoun and Santeria
as well as the German Order, the Fraternitas Saturni, are examples. Cain has
been suggested as the originator of this practice….

Some thought among other things that Baphomet was a variation of

Mahomet (Mohammed) because the Templars did have a close relationship with
various Sufi orders they came in contact with in the Holy Land. However, Indries
Shah, a Sufi himself says that the name likely comes from the Arabian
“abufihamat” meaning “the father of understanding” ;”father:” being the chief seat
or source(“The Sufis”, Indries Shah,pg.254). Another suggestion for the meaning
of the name is that it comes from ’Bathis Metes’ (“purification by wisdom”).
Kenneth Grant writes: The root of Baphomet is ‘Mete’(“one and seven” ie. the
eighth (Set) with all the wealth of symbolism implied by the formula of Hoor–
Par–Kraat the “hidden God”(“Nightside of Eden”,pg.57).

Baphomet appeared later in European Witchcraft as the Black Spirit of

the Sabbat. Its’ appearance in various witchcraft traditions is explained by its’
generally obscure origin in the Sufic rites of the Arabian Aniza tribes, the “Wise
Ones”. As goat-herding was their livelihood, they used a goat as the symbol of
their leader. The torch between his horns signified the torch of illumination from
the intellect (head) of their teacher. Also in certain Sufi orders, the leaders
blackened their faces with coal to denote their position as the “Coalmen”. Though
Indries Shah says the Sufic element became separated from its’ origins, the
Black Goat of the Sabbat took the place of the Horned God in Witchcraft (ibid,
pg.240). Also Cain is also referred to as the Blacksmith and the Black Man of the
Sabbat. The Goat as an early symbol of Azazel must also be mentioned.

Eliphas Levi, in his “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute-Magie” illustrated

Baphomet to show that it was indeed the ideal archetypal image of the Hermetic
axiom; ”As above, so below”. His Baphomet was a human with the head of a
black goat, a pentagram (symbolizing perfection) between its’ horns. It had
female breasts, hermaphroditic (euphemized-caduceus) sex –organs, sat
crossed-legged on a globe, and its’ hairy goat-legs ending in cloven hooves.
Reptilian scales on its’ belly (a reference to the Biblical “on its’ belly it shall
crawl”(?)), it’s left hand points in a magickal gesture down to a waning moon in a
dark sky, while it right hand points up to a waxing moon in a brighter sky Also

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between its’ horns is the torch symbolizing illumination. Folded on its’ back are
black wings speaking of its’ Nephilimic origin and aspiration of ascension.

The Baphomet is the symbol of the complete man, the summit of

attainment (“Nightside of Eden”,pg.273). As such, Baphomet is the Eight-Headed
body concealed in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The combined reptilian,
mammalian and human features symbolize evolution (reaching forward (Lucifer)
and reaching backward (Shaitan),an atavistic reaching back to our past to the
primal power and instincts we have access to through Magick.

There is a very good reason Baphomet is Black. The Arabic word for
black, FHM, also denotes Wisdom and is the word used when magick and
alchemy is described as the Black Arts. Black is the wisdom that comes from the
spiritual depths of the unconsciousness. Also in the legend of the Nephilim, it is
from beneath the Earth that the bodies of some of the fallen Watchers lay. Their
spirits come to us, some would say from beneath the Earth. This is where it is
that the Qlippoth is regarded as being located, the roots from which Life comes.
In Egypt, the direction of the Earth was represented by the colour black and by
Set (or Sut) whose name means the same.

According to Crowley, Baphomet is the Devil of the “Thoth Tarot”or the

emblem of Satan who is the Supreme soul behind Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the Lord of this
particular unit of the starry universe. ”He who made the Gods of our race
knowing Good and Evil. He bade “know thyself” and taught initiation.”(“Magick:
Book 4”)

Kenneth Grant relates that the Beast and the Woman conjoined is the
formula of the androgynous Baphomet which was represented by the head of an
ass (Set?). This creature was a Typhonian symbol of the backwards way.

For ourselves, Baphomet is variously the Eighth of Seven (Seven

referring to the Three Guardians of the Four directions at the Crossroads who are
Hecate, Baron Carrefour and Cain). He is Set (the initiator of Magick himself),
Nylarlathotep, the Black Man of the Sabbat, and in the mask of Baphomet, Cain,
the child of the union of Samael, the fallen Seraph and Lilith,the Queen of the
Night. As such it also represents the union of the fire Djinn and the Lilitu (vampire
phantom and succubi). Thus Baphomet is the initiation of becoming and self-
deification. He is the connector between the Nightside (and the Astral Sabbat)
and the Dayside,and Feminine and Masculine energies. The Chaos Sphere
ALGOL is a portal for Baphometic Attainment.

How are the forces of Baphomet accessed? In Liber Samekh,(“Magick:

Book 4”, pg. 25-26 Appendix 4) Crowley speaks of “that bodily vehicle of the Holy
Ghost which is sacred to Baphomet, by its’ virtue that concealeth the icon and

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the serpent that his image may appear adorable upon the Earth forever”.The fact
that the Wand and Cup are held for the Rite of the Bornless One, as well as the
fact that Baphomets’ number is 131 (being the same as Pan and Samael), is an
indication of the sexual nature of this essence, which is also that of life, of
Magick. It only makes sense that method of achieving this Primal Gnosis be that
through sexuality (the goat represents sexuality and unrestrained force); sex-
magick being a gateway to the knowledge of Baphomet.

In a method pioneered by A.O. Spare, a small sentence describing the

essence of the Desire is written. Letters that appear twice are crossed out and
the remaining ones are used to form a symbol in which the original desire is
locked inside. Similarily, a picture sigil may be used. The consciousness is then
disciplined to forget the meaning, and while staring at the sigil, raise sexual
energy by self-stimulation or otherwise, and to release it along with the visualized
sigil into the aethyr at the moment of the blackout of orgasm. The initiate then
banishes all thoughts of their operation and allows it to do its’ work. Magick
related to all of the Kabbalistic planets can be worked through this method; to
harness the forces of chaos to the disciplined Will of the Witch or Magickian. It is
a powerful method and a key to magickal freedom; the exploration and use of our
own inherent power uncontrolled by anyone else. Sexuality has always been
repressed by the moralisms of society as a whole throughout history. By
expressing it magickally, we create our own world and self- willed limitations.

The Black Head of Wisdom, Baphomet and the star ALGOL hold the
secrets of personal attainment of the Primal Gnosis, occult understanding
through manipulation of our own life-energy and sexuality. It’s so simple and
hidden right before those with closed eyes to its’ potential.