A 19th century image of Baphomet
Baphomet is an imagined pagan deity (i.e., a product of Christian folklore concerning pagans), revived in the 19th century as a figure of occultism and Satanism. Often mistaken for Satan, it represents the duality of male and female, as well as Heaven and Hell or night and day signified by the raising of one arm and the downward gesture of the other. It can be taken in fact, to represent any of the major harmonious dichotomies of the cosmos. It first appeared in 11th and 12th century Latin and Provençal as a corruption of "Mahomet", the Latinisation of "Muhammad", but later it appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century.
In Return to House on Haunted Hill[]
The Baphomet Idol, a statuette of Baphomet which was used as an idol by Baphomet cults in the Dark Ages, is apparently possessed by Baphomet's power and evil. When the Idol was found by Dr. Vannacutt in the early 20th century after being lost for hundreds of years, Vannacutt hid it in the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane; giving Baphomet a hold over the house and forcing the souls of everyone who died in the building over the years to remain in the facility and to do Baphomet's bidding.
After approximately 100 years, Baphomet's power over the Vannacutt facility was broken in 2007 when Ariel Wolfe removed the Baphomet Idol from the building.