BAPH-METIS: Birthing The Second Child of Metis

(c) Linda Falorio 1990

Ages of transition demand transitional goddesses and gods. Baph-Metis, both androgyne and gyander, the Double-Wanded One, is just such a transitional being. 

The god name "Baphomet", or, "Baphmetis" is said to derive from the title of Zeus as "Father Wisdom", and the myth proceeds thus: Metis, meaning "counsel", at one time lived by the Ocean Stream, and was the Titaness of Wisdom, of the Fourth Day, and of the planet Mercury. Among her powers was shape-shifting. It was Metis who was consulted by young Zeus in the matter of liberating his elder brothers and sisters from the belly of Cronus. And it was Metis who advised Zeus to mix the emetic potion which was given to Cronus by Rhea in his honeyed drink, causing disgorgement of the Elder Gods. Zeus, coming at last into his power lusted for Metis, and she used her shape-shifting powers to evade his amourous advances as he chased her through the worlds. Yet Zeus caught her and got her with child. An oracle of Mother Earth then prophesied that the child would be a girl-child, and that this, Metis' second child was destined to depose hir father Zeus, as Zeus had deposed Cronus, and Cronus in turn had deposed his father Uranus. Determined to avoid a similar fate, Zeus coaxed Metis to his couch, and, suddenly opening his mouth he swallowed the pregnant Metis. Thus usurping from Metis her titular powers, Zeus claimed for himself the title "Father Wisdom", thereafter declaring Wisdom as a male prerogative, where hitherto, only the Goddess had been wise. 

It was some time later, that as Zeus walked the shore of Lake Triton in Libya he was seized with a raging headache. Hermes, hearing his howl of pain divined the cause and persuaded Hephaestus to fetch his wedge and make a breech in Zeus' skull from which Athene sprang "fully armed, with a mighty shout" — "olulu, ololu", being the Libyan cries of triumph uttered in her honor. 

Yet, our intuition tells us there is more to be mined in the name "Baph-Metis". By English qabalah we find "Baph-Metis" equals 53, the number also of "twins". Thus we encounter Zeus and Metis as immortal twins, joined via tantric embrace, and combined into a single albeit dual being. This brings the important realization of the interdependent union of the powers of Zeus and Metis as they exist and interplay within our psyches: Zeus, the Inventor of Time and History relates to left brain knowledge, to logic, and linearity. While Metis, the Immortal Titaness of Wisdom relates to right-brain creativity, to divination, and to the timelessness of wavering myth. In their union is birthed the child who will depose the father — inspiration, joy, immortality — the experience of which makes us as the gods. "Zeus-Metis" by English Qabalah equals 93, number of the double current of the Aeon of the Child, while "Metis" yields the number 38, number of "magick", "child", and "light".

"Father Zeus" by English qabalah equals 92, the number of the Tunnel of "Saksaksalim", of "pure whiteness", and of "glittering gold". This is the tunnel wherein rare endocrine elixirs are distilled whose powers are bi-sexualization. Thus in the union of Zeus and Metis in the tunnel of Saksaksalim, we find transcendence of the yin-yang of polarized existence by uniting male/female, right brain/left brain, positive/negative, matter/anti-matter within oneself in order to transcend mammalian levels of awareness. In this union we achieve immortality within the living flesh via the Taoist yoga of dual cultivation. We note too that ninety-two — 4 x 23 — is also the number of "Shaitan-Aiwass", the "Double-Wanded", and the "Dark Companion". It is associated with peacock feathers, with whirling swastika-thunderbolts, and with the color red.

Thus we may envision "Baph-Metis" sitting Kali-like upon a pile of human skulls, and flanked by peacock feathers of the Devil-worshipping Yezidi. Hir eyes rolled back beneath their lids are turned to the mystery of alchemical transformation wrought within — symbolized as the Gnostic serpent Agathadaemon. Hir body like a flame bears both phallus and kteis, s/he wields double-terminated crystal wands of will-desire. Thus transforming male and female within hir body's crucible by distillation and imbibition of strange endocrine elixirs, s/he transmutes the double-spiraled DNA, and dreams into existence new images for human evolution.