Goats!

Can anyone–er “Will” anyone tell me what is meant by the phrase, “Riding the goat”? I just heard a large fellow on MSNBC television, he was all painted in red and black symbols saying that he wished he would find a large Goat.
What is this Goat business???

I’ve never heard of “riding” a goat, but a guy in red with black symbols looking/calling for a goat suggests Satanic Ritual to me. Part of the rituals and symbolism of Satanism are purported to revolve about a goat (noted for its sexual potency–i.e., a goat will try to hump anything when it is in rut, and anything that doesn’t move fast enough when it is not in rut.)

The goat is sometimes referred to as Baphomet (which has no fewer than seven alleged origins that I have found, most of them being the leading letters from some names arranged backwards).

Huh. I didn’t know goats were as promiscuous as rabbits when they were in heat. That would explain the whole “satyr” thing.

BTW, does “Baphomet” have any mythological relation to “Bahamut”?

Female goats are not necessarily any more “promiscuous” than any other female mammal. Male goats, however, have been known to go after dogs, pigs, ducks!, and lots of other critters when in rut.

I think I have seen Baphomet and Bahamut linked in some variations (although they are distinct in D&D).

[Moderator Hat: ON]

This is not a Great Debate. I guess it’s a General Question, so that’s where I’m moving it.


David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator

[Moderator Hat: OFF]

Here’s some info on the original connection of the word “Baphomet” with devil worship. Hint: Philip almost certainly made this stuff up as an excuse to confiscate the Templars’ property. Scroll down a bit to see Levi’s famous illustration that tends to inform the modern “goat” conception.

Oh, and Here’s some discussion of where the name may have come from. I tend to feel that the “corruption of Muhammad” theory is most likely the correct one. It has nothing to do with Bahamut, which is linguistically related to Behemoth (here’s a [cite for that.

I’d like to point out that I’m not advocating the truth of anything else located on the templarhistory webpages (unfortunately, the other links I found were all of even lower quality).

tomndebb, I generally respect you quite highly, but I’m going to have to take issue with your immediate screaming of “SATANISM!!” here. What we have here is one person’s incomplete description of something he saw on TV, hardly enough to justify turning into Bob Larson over it.

BTW, Mr. Carpenter, any chance that whatever story you were watching is covered on http://www.msnbc.com](http://pubpages.unh.edu/~cbsiren/assyrbabyl-faq.html#a1.6) ? I’d genuinely like to see a cite for what you’re describing, not because I think you made it up, but because I’d like to see more context than your OP provided.

Goat Porn for those who haven’t read it already.

I didn’t think I was yelling that loudly, but I’d be curious to know what other explanation pops up. It actually sounded as though it was intended as humor, but (lacking more information, as you have asked), the humor would seem to have been based on an image of Satanism.

Since my wife actually breeds the devil-spawned critters, I have more acquaintance with them than I would prefer, but I’m pretty sure that neither American Dairy Goat Association nor the National Pygmy Goat Association has any offices or protocols calling for large red and black painted people. (Now an organization that was limited to Nubians. . . .)

I agree, more context would be appreciated.

I recall an old Voodoo/Hoodoo/some-funky-religious-belief thing that said that, during some rituals, a person would send their soul into a goat being sacrificed, thus making the sacrifice a “human” sacrifice. I guess they get their soul back after the goat died.

Anectdotal evidence, no cites, take it with a grain of salt. But that’s one explanation.