My chosen role as a Black Cleric of Lucifer requires that I act to minister to those followers of Lucifer and the LHP. My aspirant from a previous post, Lucifer’s Choices, has requested my advice on more questions regarding his faith, this time asking if the entity he has been contacting is indeed, Baphomet, and what Baphomet might expect of him.

Visitations

The practice of every LHP practitioner represents a personal experience between them, their spirit/soul, and the entity or entities they contact. As a Black Cleric, I act in support of the magick of others, not as a Priest who defines roles or dictates actions or dogma; in fact, if I were to dictate either, I would be committing what I consider as heresy or blasphemy.

Yet, I have been granted the power by my Patrons to contact the demon world and making inquiries on behalf of others is within my ideological purview. This instance will be the first time I have contacted a demon, Baphomet, with whom I do not have a relationship on behalf of someone who does. Because this is unfamiliar, I have developed a slightly different method of performing the contact.

Because my strongest divination method is currently the Tarot and because my current main Tarot Deck is the AttendTheSabbath deck, I chose these tools for the contact. I felt that the familiarity with these tools will help me stay grounded and anchored while I contact a new entity.

The spread I will use evolves from the questions that the aspirant has asked:

• Card 1: What interest does Baphomet Have in the Aspirant?
• Card 2: What are Baphomet’s goals for the Aspirant?
• Card 3: What is the Near-Term Outcome of Pursuing Those Goals?

Baphomet

When the aspirant contacted me before, he had mentioned transgender imagery in his visions and the idea that he himself might be somewhat transgender by nature. He mentioned that has felt that his inner demon presents as female. In his second communication with me, he has mentioned looking in the mirror and viewing dark, indistinct shadow, but feeling the weight of breasts on his chest, feeling them being touched by his hands. This has led to his desire for confirmation of whether the indistinct shadow is indeed Baphomet or another demonic presence.

The aspirant also questions his path toward becoming a “sacred whore” for Satanic worshipers and/or how to move forward toward that goal.

Because of these energies in the aspirant, my Magus and I were guided to suggest he contact Baphomet because of Baphomet’s representation of duality, particularly of a transgender nature; most depictions of Baphomet picture him with breast and a phallus. Further, Baphomet represents the duality in existence, pointing both upward (“as above”) and downward (“as below”) to connect the opposites, to serve as a bridge for opposing energies. Key concepts associated with Baphome are “Solve” and “Coagula,” literally to “separate” and “join,” again pointing to the union of opposites.

Being a gay male magical practitioner, I have not felt much resonance with the female aspect of energies so this has led me away from exalting demons or deities that represent those energies, Baphomet included. But, as a Black Cleric, it’s my duty to engage them on the behalf of the others. So, this will be a learning experience for me, as well.

To learn more about Baphomet, follow these links: Wikipedia; Black Witch Coven; Church of Satan.

The Reading

To begin the reading, I invoked Lucifer, as is typical of my practice. I recited the enn of Lucifer and then listed his honorifics as the King of Inspiration, King of Free Though and Instigation of Rebellion against fascism. I honored him for being the “Keeper of Necessary Shadow and Secrets” and as the “Keeper of the Black Flame of Sorcery.” I thanked him for accepting me as his Black Cleric and empowering me and asked that he lend him his skill at this act of sorcerous divination.

I then invoked Philotanus, the patron of one of my alters (The Magister) and honored him as the “Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge.” I asked him to guide my intuition in reading the cards and to reveal to me the truths behind the questions being asked.

I then pulled the three cards:

• Card 1 — What Interest Does Baphomet Have in the Aspirant? — XV Diabolus — Temptation as Virtue, the Shadow Self, Sexuality, Witchcraft, and the Material Attachments of the World
• Card 2 — What Goals Does Baphomet Have for the Aspirant? — XVIII The Moon — Intuition, Awareness, Psychic Abilities, Revelation of Hidden Turmoils
• Card 3 — What is the Near-Term Outcome of These Goals? — VI Love — Love v. Lust, a Harmonious Relationship

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What struck me first was the duality in the first card drawn. This depiction of “The Devil” shows his traditional image of three fused faces, two of which are about to devour both a male and female LHP practitioner. (XV Diabolus). The image of multiple minds and faces fused into a single entity together with the presence of both male and female aspects, leads me to conclude that Baphomet does indeed have an interest in this aspirant and that the aspirant’s experiences were truly contacting Baphomet, or a shadow self echo of the deity itself.

Baphomet invoked XVIII The Moon card to represent the goals. Here the moon serves as a symbol for intuition, hidden knowledge that the aspirant has buried but which is coming to consciousness in the silvery light of the shining moon. The aspirant already knows of the trauma on a subconscious level and is now working to make these traumas conscious so that they can be face. It’s possible that the shadow image he has seen in the mirror is a demonically inspired image of his own shadow self, presenting itself to him on a more conscious level. It’s shadow will depart the more the aspirant reaches out and engages it, bringing it into clarity.

The near-term outcome feels positive as well, and while simple readings of the card might point toward a romantic love relationship with another (VI Love), it’s possible the union referred to could be the aspirant and his own shadow self, meaning the trauma from the previous card would be resolved and the aspirant can move to a more positive, life-affirming love of self. Given the duality represented throughout the aspirant’s spiritual landscape, this seems a more apt reading than that he will find a new love interest in another person.

Conclusions

This reading feels to me that the aspirant walks the correct path, leading him to a deeper understanding of himself and his relationship with the LHP through Baphomet. As any walker of that path knows, the choices are his alone to make and his own intuition regarding the interpretation of the cards above should be employed to make the reading personally true for him.