We owe our modern portrait of Baphomet almost exclusively to 19th-century occultist and writer Alphonse Louis Constant, aka, Eliphas Levi. Levi was highly knowledgeable about esoteric practices, particularly Kabbalah, i.e., Jewish mysticism, and compiled much of what he knew into his landmark book, "Dogme et rituel de la haute magie," published between 1854 and 1856. This book was translated into English in 1896 as "Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual."
Levi's original French book cover portrayed the well-known, goat-headed, bare-chested, cross-legged figure that's come to be called "Baphomet." As the University of Amsterdam explains, Levi intended his drawing to be a "symbolization of the equilibrium of opposites," one that had nothing to do with Baphomet, Satan, the Knights Templar, the Crusades, etc. He dubbed his figure the "Androgynous Goat of Mendes," or "sabbatical goat," and took visual inspiration from the 1608 witch-hunting bestiary, "Compendium Maleficarum," which contains a similarly goat-headed, winged creature. Levi did comment on the name "Baphomet" at one point, saying that it was a reverse-spelled Latin acronym for "the father of the temple of universal peace among men."
None of this is particularly disturbing, at least until we run into Anton LaVey. LaVey is the founder of the Church of Satan and author of 1969's "Satanic Bible," a book that all but single-handedly generated every modern stereotype about pentagram-doodling devil worshippers sacrificing animals in basements. LaVey took Levi's drawing and adopted it as the official symbol of the Church of Satan in 1966.
