PRELIMINARY DIVINATION
I’m not always very good about divining before enchanting, but I thought that this culminating ritual would be an exceptionally good time to observe best practices. Unfortunately, as you can see, the outcome is less than clear. Obviously, I decided to proceed anyway.
THE CONJURATION OF BAPHOMET
The ritual below was adapted from Peter Carol’s “Mass of Chaos” (Liber Null, pp130-132).
i. Preparation
Prepare a Seal of Baphomet and a Circle of the Art
Prepare the Mask for consecration
Perform the Pentagram Rite (enter “gnostic” state)
ii. Statement of Intent
Hold aloft the Mask (the “material basis”)
“It is my will that this mask be consecrated that it may house the aspect of Baphomet, sacred androgyne of Chaos, and that He be present within it.”
iii. Invocation of Chaos
Speak the Barbarous Words as you visualize the eight-rayed star of Chaos:
“OL SONUF VAROSAGAI GOHU
VOUINA VABZIR DE TEHOM QUADMONAH
ZIR ILE IAIDA DAYES PRAF ELIA
ZIRDO KIAFI CAOSAGO MOSPELEH TELOCH
PANPIRA MALPIRGAY CAOSAGI
ZAZAS ZAZAS NASTANATA ZAZAS”
iv. Invocation of Baphomet
Raise power for the invocation, then incant:
“In the first aeon, I was the Great Spirit
In the second aeon, Men knew me as the Horned God, Pangenitor Panphage
In the third aeon, I was the Dark One, the Devil
In the fourth aeon, Men know me not, for I am the Hidden One
In the new aeon, I appear before you as Baphomet
The God before all gods who shall endure to the end of the earth.”
Anoint the Mask as instructed by the God.
v. Oath
Hold the Mask aloft and intone:
“This is my will.”
vi. Closing
Repeat the Pentagram Rite
THE RESULTS
Half by accident, half by design, I settled on the Hour of Mercury on the Day of Saturn for my ritual. I painted my nails black to contrast with my white ritual robes, which I did not don until after the Invocation of Chaos. For my sacrament—both as an entheogen and to anoint the mask—I chose absinthe, louched this time to smooth the ride and to help make dosage easier. In between each of the first three stages, I spontaneously added some drumming to help boost the power and my trance.
The Barbarous Words of the Invocation of Chaos were … interesting. Something definitely answered that call.
The Invocation of Baphomet was likewise interesting. I was filled with conflicting urges: to hold the mask in my right hand or left, to rearrange my ritual jewelry, to wear the mask. Ultimately I held it in my left hand and raised my right to the sky to channel the power: the inverse of the way I usually do things. I anointed the mask with the sacrament, painting an inverted pentagram on its brow.
I closed the ritual by reversing the Pentagram Rite: starting at the North, moving widdershins, and using a banishing rather than invoking pentagram. Wholly myself again, I was still tingling. Finally, I lit a candle beside the mask as a thanks-offering to Baphomet.
Overall, I would call the conjuration a success. Taking about half an hour from beginning to end (though it felt longer), the ritual went so smoothly as to almost be anticlimactic. I felt the ressonance of the Barbarous Words and the Invocation. I felt the power run through me. Baphomet (or some entity answering to that name and description, anyway) now resides in a mask on my altar.