History of the Pentagram

The earliest known use of the pentagram dates back to around the Uruk period around 3500BC at Ur of the Chaldees in Ancient Mesopotamia where it was found on potsherds together with other signs of the period associated with the earliest known developments of written language. 

The geometry of the pentagram and it's metaphysical associations were explored by the Pythagoreans (after Pythagoras 586-506BC) who considered it an emblem of perfection. Together with other discovered knowledge of geometric figures and proportion, it passed down into post-Hellenic art where the golden proportion may be seen in the designs of some temples. 

To the Gnostics, the pentagram was the 'Blazing Star' and, like the crescent moon was a symbol relating to the magic and mystery of the nighttimes sky. 

For the Druids, it was a symbol of Godhead. 

In Egypt, it was a symbol of the 'underground womb' and bore a symbolic relationship to the concept of the pyramid form.. 

The Pagan Celts ascribed the pentagram to the underground goddess Morrigan.

Early Christians attributed the pentagram to the Five Wounds of Christ and from then until medieval times, it was a lesser-used Christian symbol. Prior to the time of the Inquisition, there were no 'evil' associations to the pentagram. Rather it's form implied Truth, religious mysticism and the work of The Creator.

In the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the pentagram was Sir Gawain's glyph, inscribed in gold on his shield, symbolizing the five knightly virtues - generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety.

In Medieval times, the 'Endless Knot' was a symbol of Truth and was a protection against demons. It was used as an amulet of personal protection and to guard windows and doors. 
The pentagram with one point upwards symbolized summer; with two points upwards, it was a sign for winter.

The Knights Templar, a military order of monks formed during the Crusades. gained great wealth and prominence from the donations of those who joined the order and from treasures looted from the Holy Land. 
The centre of the Templar order around Rennes du Chatres in France is noteworthy for the almost perfect natural pentangle of mountains spanning several miles around it. There is good evidence of the creation of other exact geomantic alignments and pentagrams as well as a hexagram in the area, centered on this natural pentagram, in the location of numerous chapels and shrines. 

It is clear from remaining traces of Templar architecture that architects and masons associated with the powerful order were well aware of the geometry of the pentangle and the golden proportion and incorporated that mysticism in their design. 

Alas, the whole Templar order fell victim to the avarice of the Church and of religious-fanatic Louis IX of France in 1303 and the black times of the Inquisition, of torture and false-witness, of purging and burning, began, spreading like a slow-motion replay of the Black Death, across Europe.

During the long period of the Inquisition, there was much promulgation of lies and accusations in the 'interests' of orthodoxy and elimination of heresy. The Church lapsed into a long period of the very diabolism it sought to oppose. The pentagram was seen to symbolizes a Goat's Head or the Devil in the form of Baphomet and it was Baphomet whom the Inquisition accused the Templars of worshipping. 

Around this time also, poisoning as a means of murder came into prominence. Potent herbs and drugs brought back from the East during the Crusades had entered the pharmacopeia s of the healers - the wise - the witches. Prominent deaths by poisoning caused the Dominicans of the Inquisition to move their attention from the Christian heretics to the pagan witches, to those who only paid lip-service to Christianity but still followed an Old Religion and to the wise-ones amongst them who knew about drugs and poisons.

In the purge on witches, other horned gods such as Pan became equated with the Devil (a Christian concept) and the pentagram - the folk-symbol of security - for the first time in history - was equated with 'evil' and was called the Witch's Foot. 

The Old Religion and it's symbols went underground, in fear of the Church's persecution, and there it stayed, gradually withering, for centuries.

Later, the pentagram came to be symbolic of the relationship of the head to the four limbs and hence of the pure concentrated essence of anything (or the spirit) to the four traditional elements of matter - earth, water, air and fire - spirit is The Quintessence. 

Against the rationalism of the 18th century came a reaction in the 19th century with the growth of a new mysticism owing much to the Holy Kabbalah, the ancient oral tradition of Judaism relating the cosmogony of God and the universe and the moral and occult truths of their relationship to Man. It is not so much a religion as a system of understanding based upon symbolism and the numerical and alphabetical interrelationships of words and concepts - the Gematria.

Eliphas Levi was a profound expositor of the Kabbalah and was instrumental in opening the way for the rise of the Victorian lodges of western mystery tradition - the Order Temporal Orientals (O.T.O.), the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (G.D.), the Theosophical Society, the Rosicrucians (Fellowship of the Rosy Cross), and several others, even the modern lodges and traditions of speculative freemasonry.

Levi was also instrumental in taking the tarot from being a gipsy fortune-telling device to a powerful set of symbolic images relating closely to the Kabbalah (or as it is now called in the west, to distinguish it 's development from the original Judaic form - Qabalah). It was Levi who designed upon the form of the pentagram such associative inscriptions as in the Pentacle of the Tetragrammaton and he who renamed the suit of 'coins' as 'pentacles' .

The workings of ritual magick in the orders took the symbolism of the pentagram and it's elemental attributes, along with those of the hexagram and incorporated them as ritual flourishing or signing of the athame (ritual knife) to symbolize invoking or banishing in respect to elemental associations. 

The Golden Dawn did much to advance and disseminate the roots of modern hermetic Qabalah around the world in its time of strength (from 1888 to around the start of the First World War), and through the writings and work of a number of its adepts and adherents, notably Aleister Crowley, have come some of the most important ideas of today's Qabalist philosophy and magick. 

Aleister Crowley also had association with the remaining traces of the old pre-Reformation 'hereditary' witches, notably through Old George Pickingill and with Gerald Gardner, generally considered the founder of modern witchcraft. 

In the 1940's Gerald Gardner adopted the pentagram with two points upward as the sigil of second degree initiation in the newly emergent, neo-pagan rituals of witchcraft, later to become known as Wicca. The one-point upward pentagram together with the upright triangle symbolized third degree initiation. (A point downwards triangle is the symbol of First Degree Initiates) 

The pentagram was also inscribed on the altar pentacle, it's points symbolizing the three aspects of the Goddess plus the two aspects of the God in a special form of Gardnerian Pentacle.

The writings of Gerald Gardner, an initiate of old Dorothy Clutterbuck, and of his associate Doreen Valiente, brought the long-withered stem of witchcraft - the Old Religion - out into bloom once more, after centuries of occlusion, with the caution that the general misrepresentation of it's former nature had made wise, and the new religion of Wicca was born.

It was not until the late 1960's that the pentagram again became an amulet symbol to be worn. Co-incidentally with the rise of popular interest in witchcraft and Wicca and the publication of many books (including several novels) on the subject, there was a reaction to the Church. 

In it's extreme, one aspect of that reaction was in the establishment of the satanic cult - The Church of Satan - by Anton LaVay. For it's emblem, this cult adopted the inverted pentagram after the Baphomet image of Eliphas Levi. The reaction of the Christian church was to condemn as 'evil' all who took the pentalpha as a symbol and even to condemn the symbol itself, much as had been the post-war attitude to the swastika. 

The distinction between the point-upwards and point-downwards pentagram forms became accentuated in the minds of pagans and led to the concepts of 'white'-witchcraft and 'black'. Those who took on board the strong personal ethical code of wicca - the Wiccan Rede of "An it harm none, do what you will" did not wish to be tarred with the same brush as the Satanists who's philosophy is one of the domination of the spirit by the physical body - the priority of matter and physical existence. 

Hence, despite the use and the different meaning of the inverted pentagram as a symbol of Gardnerian initiation, other wiccans, notably in the USA where the fundamentalist Christians are particularly aggressive to those who do not share their beliefs, are against any usage of the symbol. It is sad to say that even the use of the 'upright' pentagram gives rise to social discrimination against pagans in some communities. 

Otherwise, the pentagram or pentacle has become firmly established as a common neo-pagan and wiccan symbol, acquiring many aspects of mystique and associations that are today often considered to be ancient folk-lore !

Meanings



The pentagram or five pointed star is an ancient Pagan symbol. (As is the pentacle--which is a pentagram inscribed in a circle.) Its history is probably one of the oldest in the Craft, as historians suspect that the Sumerians used the Pentagram in their rituals, and held it as a sacred object. It is for this reason that the pentagram has survived into Wicca as an object to encompass our belief system.

The top point of the pentagram represent the element of Spirit--it represent the ethereal, the everlasting, and the immanence of the Goddess. It represents our souls; it represents the parts of us that are dedicated to Witchcraft, and dedicated to a spiritual connection to the Earth and to each other. It symbolizes spiritual love.
All of the remaining points of the pentagram relate to the human experience--our lives as being purely profane creatures, made of body and material. The entire pentagram has been said to represent the human--the top point the head and the bottom four the body. In a sense, this is true. The bottom four points will be described below.

The top left point of the pentagram represents Earth. Earth is the Mother element. It is that element that represent rootedness. It symbolizes security, growth, nourishment--all of the things that the Earth Mother provides for us. The elements Earth is what offers us the ability to explore the spirit, because it gives us grounding. Without Earth we would always have our head in the clouds. Earth is represented by Coins/Pentacles in the tarot deck.

The top right point of the pentagram represents .Air is the element of the mind. It represents thought, intelligence, rationale. It is the element that allows us to examine the spirit and discover where it fits in our lives. Without air, the element of Earth would have little use, for though we are grounded in Earth, we are allowed to reason out our spirits with Air. Air is represented by Wands/Staves in the Tarot deck.

The bottom left point in the pentagram represents Fire. Fire is the element of the loins. Fire represents passion. It represents that part of us that wants to overthrow reason, to lead by the horns, to plunge on without thinking about our actions. Fire is symbolic of adrenaline, of testosterone, of brashness. Once we have progress past air and have analyzed our spirits and our paths in life, fire allows us determine whether that analysis is right for our lives. Fire is what allows us to say, “I don’t care if it makes sense, this is what I believe." Without fire, we could not perform magick, we could not link ourselves to each other. Fire overrides the intellect. Fire is represented by Swords in the tarot deck.

The last point, the bottom right, is the element Water. Water represents the cycle of life: we came from the watery dark of the womb, and we return to watery tears of death. Water is the element of emotion. Water is the element that validates our existence as sentient beings, because it allows us to have feelings, but not the brash, unwarranted feelings of fire. Water is the emotion that comes along with understanding ourselves and each other after all else has been discovered. Water is is pure love, pure joy, pure sadness, pure anger. Water is not childish--it knows why we feel the way we do. Water is the element that calms fire--it it emotion with reason. Water is represented by Cups in the tarot deck. 

When the pentagram is inscribed in a circle--a pentacle--it unites all of the aspects of man. It unites the body with the mind, the spiritual with the profane. It reminds us that we need all of our aspects to fulfill our lives as human beings. It reminds us also everything is a cycle--that we will not experience joy without pain, but pain will again give way to joy.

When the pentacle is worn right side up, it represent “spirit over the body”. This means that witches who wear it like that recognize the importance of all things, but when they get right down to it, they strive to serve the spirit and not solely our bodies. “An it harm none” means that serving the spirit may mean sacrificing bodily pleasures, but if they are serving the spirit, they can never harm. When the pentacle is worn upside down in Satanism, it means “flesh over the spirit”, meaning, if it feels good, do it, regardless of who you hurt. This symbol has no meaning in witchcraft. If a witch wears the pentacle inverted, it means that she is undergoing a period of introspection and self discovery, and that she is going through the underworld to confront her fears and demons and conquer them. 
Symbolism

The number '5' has always been regarded as mystical and magical, yet essentially 'human'. 
We have five fingers/toes on each limb extremity.
We commonly note five senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. 
We perceive five stages or initiations in our lives - eg. birth, adolescence, coitus, parenthood and death. (There are other numbers/ initiations/stages/attributions).
The number 5 is associated with Mars. It signifies severity, conflict and harmony through conflict. 
In Christianity, five were the wounds of Christ on the cross. 
There are five pillars of the Muslim faith and five daily times of prayer. 
Five were the virtues of the medieval knight - generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety as symbolized in the pentagram device of Sir Gawain. 
The Wiccan Kiss is Fivefold - feet, knees, womb, breasts, lips - Blessed be. 

The number 5 is prime. The simplest star - the pentagram- requires five lines to draw and it is unicursal; it is a continuous loop. 

Expressing the saying "Every man and every woman is a star", we can juxtapose Man on a pentagram with head and four limbs at the points and the genitalia exactly central. 

This is Man in microcosm, symbolizing our place in the Macrocosm or universe and the Hermetic/Tantric philosophy of associatively -

"As above, so below".

The geometric proportions of the regular pentagram are those of the Golden Section. 
The Golden Proportion is one beloved of artists since Renaissance times and also to be found in post-Hellenic art and in the geomantic planning of Templar sites, being those proportion's of a rectangle considered most pleasing to the eye. Here, the ratio of the lengths of the two sides is equal to the ratio of the longer side to the sum of the two sides. Or :
a/b = b/a+b = a+b/a+2b = a+2b/2a+3b = 2a+3b/3a+5b ....etc. 
If a square is added to the long side of a golden rectangle, a larger golden rectangle is formed. Continuing this progression forms the basis for a nautilus spiral. 
The ratio of the distance between two points of a pentagram to its total width is in the golden proportion, as is the ratio of the height above the horizontal bar to that below, as is the ratio of a central part of a line to the outer part.

This ratio forms the foundation of the Fibonacci series of numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144, etc where each number is formed by adding the previous two numbers. 
The Fibonacci series is much found in nature in the pattern arrangement of flower heads and leaves and many flower heads and fruits themselves exhibit a fivefold symmetry. 

The pentagram has long been believed to be a potent protection against evil, a symbol of conflict that shields the wearer and the home. 

The pentagram has five spiked wards and a womb shaped defensive, protective pentagon at the centre. 

There are five elements, four of matter (earth, air, fire and water) and THE quintessential - spirit. These may be arrayed around the pentagrams points. 

The word 'quintessential' derives from this fifth element - the spirit.

Tracing a path around the pentagram, the elements are placed in order of density - spirit (or get her). fire, air, water, earth. Earth and fire are basal, fixed; air and water are free, flowing. 

Single point upwards signifies the spirit ruling matter (mind ruling limbs); is a symbol of rightness. With two points up and one (spirit) downwards, subservient, the emphasis is on the carnal nature of Man. 

These point attributions are used in ritually inscribing, as a flourish of the hands or the athame, different forms of pentagram for invoking or banishing (grounding) each of the elementals according to the nature of the ritual. The line traces as illustrated for earth (the last stroke is optional). 

Another way of seeing this path is as Man's spiritual journey through evolution. The spark of Life descending from God, the divine source of life to the simplest embryonic form (earth), rising to flow (water - air) on our plane of existence (compare with the intonation of the AUM mantra), then again descending to the fire of purification before again rising as a divine spark to find again his spiritual source.

The pentagram may be shown as an interlaced line symbolic of the web-weaving power of magick.
The descending spirit-earth line may pass under (male) or over (female) the water-air line to give two slightly differing forms 

Open Pentagram
A pentagram may be open, without a surrounding circle. 
This is the active form symbolizing an outgoing of oneself, prepared for conflict, aware, active. (One wearing an open pentagram must be physically aware of the danger of sharp points sticking in their skin from time to time !). 
As a pagan religious symbols, the open pentagram represents an open, active approach.

Circled Pentagram
A circle around a pentagram contains and protects. The circle symbolizes eternity and infinity, the cycles of life and nature. The circled pentagram is the passive form implying spiritual containment of the magic circle, in keeping with the traditional secrecy of witchcraft, and the personal, individual nature of the pagan religious path, of its non-proselytizing character.

Inverted Pentagram
The pentagram may be inverted with one point down. The implication is of spirit subservient to matter, of man subservient to his carnal desires. 

The inverted pentagram has come to be seen by many pagans as representing the dark side and it is abhorred as an evil symbol. Fundamental Christians, indeed, see any form of pentagram as such. 

However, these are recent developments and the inverted pentagram is the symbol of Gardnerian second degree initiation, representing the need of the witch to learn to face the darkness within so that it may not later rise up to take control. 

The centre of a pentagram implies a sixth formative element - love/will which controls from within, ruling matter and spirit by Will and the controlled magickal direction of sexual energies. This is another lesson of initiation. 

Pentacle

Pentacle is a pentagram inscribed in a circle.

The best explanation I have found as to where the word 'Pentacle" came from is this:
'Penta'-meaning 'five'.
Joined with the ending of 'Circle' = 'cle'.
Thus: Pentacle
A Pentagram is a Five Pointed Star.
Representing the four basic elements which make up everything contained in our world.
With the top point representing our own 'Spirit'. Followed by Air, Water, Earth & Fire.
All the things contained in our World Joined in a Never-ending Cycle.
By adding the Circle around these Elements you make a Pentacle.
The Pentacle is a Symbol of Protection
Life goes on!