Baphomet Solve et Coagula by SantosChristos

The Bathomet of Levi — Here’s how Eliphas Levi himself interpreted his Bathomet drawing.

The goat which is represented in our frontispiece bears upon its forehead the Sign of the Pentagram with one point in the ascendant, which is sufficient to distinguish it as a symbol of the light. Moreover, the sign of occultism is made with both hands, pointing upward to the white moon of Chesed, and downward to the black moon of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect concord between mercy and justice.

One of the arms is feminine and the other masculine, as in the androgyne of Khunrath, those attributes we have combined with those of our goat, since they are one and the same symbol. The torch of intelligence burning between the horns is the magical light of universal equilibrium; it is also the type of the soul, exalted above matter, even while cleaving to matter, as the flame cleaves to the torch.

The monstrous head of the animal expresses horror of sin, for which the material agent, alone responsible, must alone and for ever bear the penalty, because the soul is impassible in its nature and can suffer only by materializing.

The caduceus, which, replaces the generative organ, represents eternal life; the scale-covered belly typifies water; the circle above it is the atmosphere, the feathers still higher up signify the volatile; lastly, humanity is depicted by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences. Behold the shadows of the infernal sanctuary dissipated! Behold the sphinx of mediaeval terrors unveiled and cast from his throne! Quomodo cedidisti, Lucifer! Eliphas Levi’s Baphomet (1856) from his 1854 Transcendental Magic.

The Baphomet, which has been connected to Satanism and black magic is actually a depiction of the union of opposites. Its right arm, which points to the above reads “Solve” which means dissolve, and the left arm, which points to the below, reads “Coagula”.

Thus, the alchemical maxim “Solve et Coagula,” or “Dissolve and Coagulate” which is connected to the ouroboros, was understood by Levi to be a representation of the connection between the above and the below. Further, the hermaphroditic Baphomet has a phallus that is the caduceus.