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So far, we've looked at snakes and owls as ancient symbols with occult associations that continue into the present day. The goat is another animal with a long history of dark connotations that need to be untangled. In order to keep these from running too long, we'll break down the occult goat over two shorter posts.
"Vintage style" Halloween postcard from ebay
This is typical of a recent tendency to make symbols of evil "cute" or funny. But when you look at the history, there is nothing funny about them. What's wrong with things that actually are cute? Even better, ask what sort of person might want to push this.
We'll start with the problem with any old and popular symbol - it doesn't stay exactly the same. Symbols keep their meanings over the years because like-minded people keep using them, but the cultural context can be different. New users choose a symbol for its associations, but apply it to their circumstances and point of view. How the symbol was used - its exact meaning - depends on the time and place. For symbols like goats and owls, the chain of uses that make up the full set of connotations goes back thousands of years. This makes the use of the symbol difficult to straighten out for several reasons.
1. Ancient Origins
When symbols date back to ancient times, their origins are generally lost in time.
Greek Bronze Goat, circa 550-500 BC, 7.8 cm, Private collection
Historians and archaeologists find examples of their use, but lack the information to tell a conclusive story. Sometimes the same symbol will turn up in different cultures, but it is impossible to say whether these are separate parallel developments or evidence of lost contacts. We can form a pretty good idea of the meaning of an ancient symbol, but we don't know where or why it first appeared.
2. Historical Meanings
This is complicated because symbols develop a set of meanings, but the historical perspectives of the users don't stay the same. Over a long period of time uses can build up to the point where one symbol can have a whole range of associations that are related, but with differences.
Christus-Helios, (Christ as the Sun), 3rd century AD, vault mosaic in the Mausoleum of the Julii, Grotte Vaticane, Rome
When Christian symbolism was forming, older symbols got new roles. The cult of Sol Invictus or unconquered sun combined worship of the pagan God Helios/Apollo with the emperor. Imperial Christianity turned this into a representation of Christ. Worship of pagan gods and emperors is antithetical to Christian belief, but the other associations with divine radiance and enlightened authority let it move from one group of users to a new one.
One other complication with historical meanings are the reliability of the sources. Occultists were often persecuted for their views, making them prone to secrecy and misdirection, although serving the Father of Lies isn't great for your credibility at the best of times. Many historical accounts are as fake as today's news.
3. Meaning in the Present or Recent Past
Who is using the symbol today, and for what reason? This is just number 2 carried into the present. But it does underscore the importance of user belief in understanding how occult symbols are treated. Many New Agey types are either just LARPers or modern animists and/or polytheists, viewing the supernatural as a bucket of disconnected entities and forces. Nineteenth-century "supernaturalists" fit this category, as do the various earth-spirit wiccans and neo-pagans. These are the people likely to sperg out over the subtle differences between a "Baphomet" and a "Moloch", because they see these as completely historically distinct.
Eliphas Levi, Baphomet, or the Sabbatic Goat, drawing for his Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual, 1854 (click for the 1896 English translation)
Levi's abomination was a mash-up of occult symbols in the form beloved by Satanists. It supposedly represents the coming together of all opposites - the Latin words on the arms mean to separate and join. The gestures, hermaphrodism, caduceus, etc. all refer to the reconciling of opposites (click for a breakdown of the symbolism without having to slog through Levi's pompous dreck).
As an absolute principle, the reconciling of all opposites is profoundly immoral. It essentially means all perspectives are equally beneficial to human well-being. Or pink slime. No society can exist without some ethical framework. It is historically and logically obvious that this extreme permissiveness leads only to anarchy and tyranny. Coincidence?
Occultists who truly believe in Satanic power are operating within a Christian metaphysics, where supernatural powers are either divine or demonic, good or evil. The historical variations between demons is not significant from this point of view because they are all claws on the same taloned hand. This is the idea behind the occult pyramid - on the surface there are many groups believing themselves independent, but move up and the all dance to the same dark piper.
Zahari Zograf, Dimitar Zograf, and others, Magicians and Healers are Servants of the Devil, completed in 1846, Rila Monastery church, Bulgaria
This painting includes inscriptions that explain how folk magic is just veiled Satanism.
The rest of this post will look at the ancient associations that made the goat meaningful for more recent users. The next post will take these into the modern world and look at the sort of characters who might be drawn to them.
Cylinder seal with two goats, Proto-Elamite, 3100-3000 BC, steatite or calcite, 6.2 x 1.9 cm, British Museum
These seals could be rolled on clay to make an imprint. This one from ancient Iran is over 5000 years old.
Goats are believed to be one of the domesticated animals, so they've been around humans for a long time.
Early people tended to imagine gods and other supernatural creatures with animal characteristics, so goat symbols are as old as civilization.
The Adda Seal, Akkadian, 2300 BC, greenstone, 3.9 x 2.55 cm, British Museum, London
The ancient Middle Eastern ibex or wild goat (not an antelope) was a symbol of the Sumerian god Enki (Akkadian Ea).
Roman Capricorn mosaic, second century AD, Room 4 of the Baths of Neptune, Ostia Antica, Italy.
In ancient Sumer, the goat and fish were both associated with creator gods because became symbols of fertility and generation. Over time, the two were combined into the strange kusarikku, or Goat-Fish, which became the weird Zodiac sign of Capricorn. Remember that the Western Zodiac was an ancient Middle Eastern invention, either from Babylon or the older Sumeria.
Most early animal symbols were based on simple associations. Owls have bright eyes that penetrate the dark, so they became associated with knowledge and insight. Dogs are faithful, big predators like bears and lions are strong, lambs are gentle, and so on. The connection between goats and fertility seems to come from the sexual aggressiveness of a male goat in heat. This is certainly the case as we move ahead in time to ancient Greece.
Silenus and billy goat. Side A of an Attic black-figure kyathos, circa 520 BCE, terracotta, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Greek myths are filled with magical human-animal hybrids like centaurs and the Minotaur. Satyrs were wild part-humans with goat legs known for unbridled lust. Silenus was a follower of the frenzied wine-god Dionysios and was often depicted as a satyr.
Michelangelo, Bacchus, 1496-7, marble, 203 cm, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
The Greeks divided human nature into rational and animal sides, often symbolized by Apollo, god of light, and Dionysios (Roman Bacchus), god of wine and madness. Intoxication, anarchy, and raw libido were seen as expressions of the animal side, so the half-goat satyrs were connected with the latter.
Here, the satyr eats grapes while ignoring the lion skin or symbol of death. Pursuing only the pleasures of the flesh is a metaphysical dead end. This is a more realistic interpretation than the childish, self-destructive hedonism of Baphomet.
Ithyphallic statue of Pan, 5th century BC, Musée de Mariemont, Belgium
Pan was a rustic Greek god who was not included among the Olympians. He was represented as a satyr and associated with shepherds and other rural folk. His enlarged phallus is a sign of the connection between fertility and the sexual aggressiveness symbolized by goats.
For the Greeks, sexual lust represented carnal animal pleasure, which made it morally inferior to the more intellectualized life of the mind. It is reason that separates humans from beasts, and unchecked hedonism is a threat to the higher achievements of rational beings. The feral man-goat personifies these dangerous impulses.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros, circa 100 BC, 1.55 m, National Archaeological Museum, Athens
On first glance, this statue just seems typical of the collapse of classical vales in the Hellenistic world. There are parallels between that hedonistic polyglot culture and the moral decay of our own globalist consumerism. But there is a message here as well. Mindless animal libido - represented by Pan - is an active threat to rational sexual discrimination. The goddess of love's hand is in a pose known as the Venus pudica, suggesting a coy modesty while calling attention to the concealed genitals. The idea is that female restraint is a fig leaf easily pulled off in the heat of the moment.
Pan Teaching Daphnis to Play the Panpipes, Roman copy after a Greek original by Heliodoros from the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, 158 cm, National Archaeological Museum, Naples
Naked lust knows no natural boundaries and Pan was a willing switch-hitter. The sexual overtones are obvious in the goat-god's expression and the placement of his leg. The connection between the wild music of the pipes, sexual abandon, and transgressive behavior is also clear.
The way these later Hellenistic statues seem to celebrate sexual hedonism is very different tone from the older values of Classical Greece. The earlier Greeks saw the dyscivic outcome of the "if it feel's good do it" way of life as something to warn against. Tearing down social norms for thoughtless momentary impulses is something the Hellenistic elites share with modern leftists and SJWs.
Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas, circa 1570-76, oil on canvas, 212 x 207 cm, National Museum, KroměřÞ, Czech Republic
Renaissance master Titian shows the gruesome fate of Marsyas, a satyr that challenged Apollo to a music contest for his skin and lost. This was interpreted as the triumph of rational harmonic "Apollonian" music over the wild, carnal "Dionysian" music of the satyr's Pan pipes.
Renaissance thinkers agreed with the Classical moral message of reason over animal passion, and civilization over savagery, no matter how strong the impulse might be in the moment.
The Greeks realized that a wild, lustful animal nature was part of being human, but unlike Postmoderns, were smart enough to realize that it had to be contained to maintain a functioning social order. They invented cathartic festivals and performances as a way to release pressure. Greek drama appears to have been invented for the Dionysian festival in Athens to provide a powerful emotional experience that was socially safe. Designating a special time, giving oneself up to a deity, or playing a character, are all ways from taking a break from regular life without breaking it.
Johannes Lingelbach, Carneval in Rome, circa 1650, oil on canvas, 42.5 x 51.5 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
This was the same idea as the Christian Carneval or Mardi Gras. Notice the use of masks - anonymity adds to the sense of a break from the normal order. The idea is that afterwards, there is a return to civilized life. The Dionysia wraps up, the play comes to an end, and Carneval gives way to the atonement of Lent. It's not supposed to become the new normal.
Blowing off steam still had to be contained in a functioning society, or else you get the sort of cultural decay we see in the modern West.
Pan Copulating with a She-goat, second-first century BC, 44.4 cm, National Archaeological Museum, Naples
Presented without further comment.
Coming back to Levi's occult figure of Baphomet, the combination of goat parts and the notion of tearing down, ahem, "unifying", boundaries and distinctions makes more sense. There is a lot more to the Baphomet that we will look at in the next post, but anarchy and degradation dressed up as sexual "freedom" or " being fluid" - Baphomet is literally a hermaphrodite - goes way back. The difference is, the modern occult takes this hatred for reason and nation to an extreme and then turns it into a god. In a world without order, the biggest sociopath is king.
The Christian Goat
Satanists are quick to disavow any belief in God, but all the historical weight behind their symbolism - even the name of their "religion" - is based on a Christian framework. True believers are inverting Christian morality and the meaning of Satan, but the terms they are using and the structure they are inverting IS Christian. To understand goat symbolism in the modern occult, we have to run the ancient goat through a Christian filter.
Gustave Doré, The Triumph Of Christianity Over Paganism, 1868, oil on canvas, 118 x 79 cm, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canada
Christianity adopted some aspects of Classical thought, but changed them to fit their viewpoint. Humans were still seen as having two natures, only the higher rational part was connected to the soul. Christian morality - actual Christian morality, not the man-made dogma of contemporary churchians - rejects excessive interest in worldly pleasures because it distracts from spiritual things. There is an order to nature, and to productive societies, because they reflect God's order or plan for Creation.
The Christian emphasis on orderly restraint when it comes to hedonistic impulses - behavioral extremes in general, really - gives the goat new life as a symbol of immoral lust. But now this debauchery has a spiritual dimension. It isn't just a transgression against reason and the national good, it is a rebellion against God's order.
And we know who that means...
Francisco de Goya, Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat, 1821–23, oil on plaster transferred to canvas, 140.5 × 435.7 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
The next post will look more modern, Satanic associations with the goat.
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