Unraveling the Many Secrets of the Rod of Caduceus: The Mystery of Baphomet … and Pine Cones???

Almost any time you see a pine cone depicted in ancient art, it’s there to represent the third eye. That may sound a little silly, but the pine cone being associated with third eye philosophy is common throughout the entire world.

Here, we see it on a building at the top of a cleverly disguised caduceus.

Remember, the pineal gland just so happens to be shaped like a pine cone and represents “wisdom”. If you view a pine cone from above, you’ll see what looks very much like the symbol for the 1,000 petal lotus (see featured image).

And here it is again, this time not as disguised. It’s plain to see that this is a rod of caduceus, and that the pine cone is being used as a symbol to represent the third eye. The sun above it represents the crown. This architectural sculpture also features two burning pillars, which represent male and female (The pillars are named Jachin and Boaz). Male is always on the left, and female is always on the right if the subject is facing the viewer. This is because they believe, much like with the ideas behind ida and pingala (the snakes), the right side of your body is male-attuned, and the left side of your body is female-attuned.

Now we see a man wearing a crown while wielding two caducei as weapons. There is also a caduceus above his head, and he’s wearing the wings of Hermes. This man has clearly reached “full enlightenment”, and the artist is trying to say his two opponents don’t stand a chance in this fight (because this man has already slain all his worldly temptations … except for his lust for power, of course). In fact, one of his “unenlightened” opponents must stoop to shield his eyes from the radiance. Also note the sun (male) is on the left and the moon (female) is on the right.

And here, we have a crowned male on the left and a crowned female on the right, both holding hands inside an elixir bottle. The figures are either nagas or part-aquatic, like Columbia, and what else would be at the top but a pine cone?

I want you to understand that pine cones are fundamentally sacred to the Hermetic Qabalah crowd, because it represents their ability to receive messages from what they perceive as the heavens. But what they fail to consider is that, even if the pineal gland is able to pick up otherworldly messages like some kind of supernatural radio antenna, couldn’t a demon communicate with you through the same method, pretending to be God?

The Eye of Horus also represents the third eye. In fact, if you were to cut a brain in half, you would find the same shape around the pineal gland, the shape which forms the limbic system.

Knowing what you now know, it should come as no surprise at all to see where the caduceus is located on depictions of Baphomet.

And then it becomes clear as day–if it wasn’t already–that the center of the caduceus doesn’t just represent the spinal column, it also represents a phallus. The twin snakes are wrapped around the shaft to tempt and tease. And the anja is the “Holy of Holies”. It should also come as no surprise that Baphomet has the star of Venus on his forehead, or that he is depicted with the wings of a fallen angel, or that he has the Torch of Lucifer burning upon his head, or that he has both male and female body parts. Here, he is also depicted showing the left and right-handed path, his left leading down to a black moon, the right leading up to a white moon. The words etched into his arms are from the phrase, “Solve et coagula,” which has to do with alchemical transformations (“Dissolve and coagulate”). Author J.K Rowling also happens to have this enigmatic alchemist formula tattooed on her arm. In 1633, poet William Backhouse let this phrase inspire an entire book of poetry about alchemy called The Magistery. Here is an excerpt:

The Eagle which aloft doth fly
See that thou bring to ground;
And give unto the Snake some wings,
Which in the Earth is found.

The left-handed path is called “black tantra”, which is any practice that encourages excessive self-indulgence and “short circuiting”. It teaches self-identification and fornication.

“White tantra” is the right-handed path, which teaches about sacrifice for others, the elevation of the soul, and the elimination of desire.

“Grey tantra” lays somewhere in between, but it is said that gray tantra inevitably leads to black.

Why a goat’s head? The goat in particular is full of “sexual energy” compared to most other mammals, and has therefore been used in world history as a symbol of fertility. This is why Pan is a half-goat and represents lust. Many pagan religions use “goat essence” as a “powerful magic inducer”. That is the true meaning of the Capricorn, and the reason an androgynous goat was chosen to represent Baphomet.

Baphomet’s name was determined using a numerical cypher to come up with the reverse of the name “Sophia”, which means “wisdom”. Therefore, Baphomet represents the opposite of wisdom. And so does the caduceus. That is the real secret beyond the secret. The real truth of the matter. As Pythagoras famously said, “All is numbers.” The Hebrew translation for Sophia just so happens to be “chokhmah”, which I mentioned earlier is the sphere on the Sephirothic Tree that correlates to the third eye. But in the next post, we will discuss why “wisdom” is hardly the right word for what this is.