Prior to the worldwide press given the Church of Satan—and later the publication of The Satanic Bible the now familiar goat / pentagram / “Leviathan” graphic had not been used as THE symbol for Satanism. Our younger readers may find this hard to believe, but it is a fact.
Look at the literature and imagery predating the founding of the Church of Satan in 1966: Satanism is denoted by inverted crosses or crucifixes and blasphemous parodies of Christian art. There are also images of goats and devils, and demons—along with their sigils from grimoires—all used to represent the “satanic.” However, the complete graphic which we call the “Sigil of Baphomet” only became associated as the foremost symbol of Satanism in the public and media consciousness after the founding of the Church of Satan and Dr. LaVey’s use of it. From its inception, the Church of Satan has been constantly spotlighted in print, film, and television media all over the globe, so this was to be expected.
The word “Baphomet” dates back to records of Templar trials, and there are ongoing discussions concerning its derivation and meaning. However, there is no clear evidence that the SYMBOL which we call “Baphomet” is derived similarly; it might be, it might not—the evidence, if any, has not yet been released in ANY public forum.
The first artwork for an image of a goat face in a pentagram appeared in a 1931 book concerning Freemasonry by Oswald Wirth (Oswald Wirth, La Franc-Maçonnerie rendue intelligible a ces adeptes II, “Le compagnon,” Paris: Derry-Livres, 1931, page #60). The source of the image for this book has not been detailed, to our knowledge.
Note that this is only a pentagram with a goat’s face. It is not the full Sigil of Baphomet as defined in The Satanic Bible, nor is the image of the goat and pentagram the same. The concept is the same, but the actual art is not. The star itself is not a “perfect” pentagram, as the five “alphas” that make up the star’s points are not identical. The rendition of the goat face is also not the same—it has a rather different “personality.”
The first version of the goat-faced pentagram surrounded by two circles with “Leviathan” written between them appeared in and on the cover of a book by Maurice Bessy: A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural (English first edition 1964, French first edition: Histoire en 1000 Images de la Magie, Editions du Pont Royal, 1961.
The graphic image in the Bessy book (English edition, page 198 under the heading “Satanic Sciences”) has a caption which reads:
“624-625. Pentagrams are the result of obscure numerological speculations. The five-pointed star, for example, seems to be characteristic of the Christian era, while the cross is the symbol (amongst others) of the figure five: four arms and the centre. By a strange coincidence, the Holy Spirit, the United States, and the U.S.S.R. and Islam use the fivepointed star as their emblem. (The opposition of good and evil is indicated through the inverted triangles).”
The above illustration is to the right of this caption.
NOWHERE in this book is #625 referred to as “The Sigil of Baphomet.”
For the actual cover of this hard-bound book, an artist rendered symbol #625, minus the words “Lilith” and “Samael,” and it was printed in white on the black cloth cover. Very striking.
During his years of research into the “Black Arts,” Anton LaVey had come across this book and added it to his collection. So when he chose to metamorphose his magic circle, “The Order of the Trapezoid,” into the Church of Satan, he decided that this particular symbol was the one which most fully embodied the principles which were the bedrock of the first aboveground Satanic church.
The pentagram (pentalpha) comes from the Pythagorean tradition. The goat’s or ram’s head within it refers to the Goat of Mendes, a symbol of the Egyptian Neter Amon, who was called “the hidden one, he who abides in all things, the soul of all phenomena” and is thus the closest Neter to the Dark Force which permeates and motivates all nature. The two concentric circles which contain the word “Leviathan” written in Hebrew (starting at the lowermost point and moving counterclockwise) stem from the traditions of the Ophite (serpent) Jews, and this is the essence of the Dragon of the Abyss, sometimes symbolized as an ouroboros (serpent biting its own tail forming a circle). Thus, in one sigil, we find a confluence of several cultures’ approach to embodying what we call Satan.
That the original source for this symbol was the Maurice Bessy book was well-known among the members who attended rituals at the Black House during our formative years. The book was constantly being perused by them, and was often used as a prop in photo shoots (minus the dust jacket which did not include this symbol). Anton LaVey never claimed to have designed the Bessy version of this symbol (as falsely stated by some of our 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 which were created both by hand and by professional manufacturers. Indeed, there were many variations, based on the skill of the renderers as well as on the resolution for detail of 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 must 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 and “corrupted with time,” while the goat face was redrawn with particular attention paid toward the eyes. The original highly-detailed artwork was first used to create altar plaques which were available only to local Church of Satan members (later, in February of 1970, they were made available to the general membership). This new version was then used on the cover of the groundbreaking LP, The Satanic Mass (©1968), produced by the Church of Satan. In addition to a recorded Satanic Mass, this LP included the “Prologue” and “Books of Satan: Verses I through V” from the then-unreleased book, The Satanic Bible. The album’s cover design was credited to “Hugo Zorilla,” a pseudonym used by Anton LaVey for some of his artwork. The liner notes, attributed to Franklin Kincaid, say that “the Satanic symbol, Baphomet,” was adopted from the Knights Templar. This symbol was finally widely-released to the general public in December of 1969 with the publication of The Satanic Bible, where it adorned the cover and appeared on the interior page introducing the section detailing the Satanic Ritual. And, significantly, here in this book was the very first time that this sigil was referred to as the “symbol of Baphomet” in any publication available to a mass audience. It was this version which the Church of Satan then had made into cloisonné medallions (which were only available to members) and it became the standard logo for all Church of Satan materials. We began calling it more precisely the “Sigil of Baphomet” and so it was named in print in The Satanic Rituals (released in December of 1972). It should be noted that this version is a copyrighted graphic which belongs to the Church of Satan alone. We have the legal right to place the © symbol next to this rendering, should we care to do so.
The Church of Satan did file for (1981) and then received (1983) a trademark which protects the use of the Sigil of Baphomet with the words “Church of Satan.” The Church of Satan therefore has the legal right to place the ® symbol meaning “registered trademark” next to this combination of symbol and words. This trademark also prohibits anyone from using something similar in name and symbol, which could constitute an illegal dilution or blurring of the trademark.
Current trademark laws are now in flux regarding this issue of trademark blurring—the use of marks similar to existing trademarks—but they are moving in the direction of favoring the forbidding of marks that could be considered misleading in any way, shape, or form.
Anton LaVey authorized Hell’s Kitchen Productions, Inc. to produce a Sigil of Baphomet medallion, and so a minor variation of the Church’s official Sigil of Baphomet was created in which the Hebrew characters between the circles were no longer outlines, but filled-in (a minor change). This authorized variation is also used exclusively on the official website and can be seen at the top of this page and throughout this site. This rendering is also protected by copyright laws.
The copyright for the artwork that appears on the cover of the Bessy book belonged to the publisher of that book. Since that book is out of print, the copyright has lapsed, and thus the rights for the text reverted to the author, and the rights for the graphics contained therein would need to be determined—usually they revert to the artist or other source of origin. After passage of enough time, if the estates of the authors/creators do not renew the copyrights, the items in question then enter public domain. Thus, the Bessy rendition (both interior and exterior) is most probably now in the public domain.
The source from which Bessy garnered the interior symbol has not yet been determined (similarly, Wirth’s source is also unknown). If that information arises, we will be delighted to include it (scholars take note!).
So that there can be no misunderstanding: The use of the rendering that appears on and in The Satanic Bible and other Church of Satan materials (which is NOT THE SAME as the Bessy rendition) IS protected by copyright laws—this art is NOT in the public domain, particularly as The Satanic Bible has remained continuously in print since 1969. The renderings of the Sigil of Baphomet used on the Church of Satan site were created by and for the exclusive use of Hell’s Kitchen Productions, Inc. and the Church of Satan and thus their copyright is also quite clear.
Those are the facts.
If anyone wants to legally use our version of the “Sigil of Baphomet,” they may ask for permission, and we have generally been quite liberal in licensing people to use this for various projects and goods—though we generally only allow its use on websites when (and where) they are mentioning the Church of Satan. Otherwise, those wishing to use a public domain version of a goat / pentagram / “Leviathan” symbol must go back to the Bessy book, or if they just want a goat/pentagram, to the Wirth book, or they may take the challenge to draw a fresh one (not simply scan a copyrighted image and make some alterations)—but no one has the right to unauthorized use of the version from The Satanic Bible which, as documented above, also appears in the other materials produced under the aegis of the Church of Satan (our publications, jewelry, audio/video releases, and so on). We trust that this clarifies the pedigree of what we call the “Sigil of Baphomet.”
Magister Peter H. Gilmore
Walpurgisnacht, XXXV A.S.
by Church of Satan
