I've lost count at the amount of times I've seen people recoil at the sight of a pentagram, because for some reason, it's associated with Devil worship. Even the tattoo artist that etched the symbol into my skin when I was 16 informed me that it was Satanic. In the 90s, US schools tried to stop students wearing pentagrams upon the increasing interest in Wicca, thankfully with little success.
Witching Hour on Female First
The truth is that this simple five-pointed star has been used to represent a variety of different things since pretty much the dawn of time. For me, it is a very important protective symbol of the Wiccan faith, and many other Neopagan religions, with each point representing a different element; Air, Earth, Water, Fire and Spirit. The pentagram (also known as the pentacle) is used in magical invocations, and appears in the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck as one of the Minor Arcana suits (the pentacles), representing all earthly things such as the body, money, work and the home.
The terms "pentagram" and "pentacle" are used interchangeably, though many will try and define them as two separate things, such as the pentagram being the star without the enclosing circle, and the pentacle being the star and circle. The truth is, there really is no solid distinction between the two words barring etymology.
The image crops up numerous times in ancient history, stretching back as far as Ancient Greece and Babylonia. The symbol was used as a logogram in Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform and is thought to have meant "corner; cavity; pitfall" among other definitions. It was also recognised by the Pythagoreans to mean "health", and used by Pherecydes of Syros in 6th century BCE to mean the "five corners" or "five recesses" of the cosmos. It also appears in the Kabbalah as part of ancient Jewish mysticism.
It is still used in many different traditions; relating to the Chinese concept of Wu Xing (the five phases, or five elements), the Middle Eastern Bahá'í Faith, the Serer religion from West Africa and the West Asian Druze religion. You may also recognise the symbol from many flags, including Morocco, Ethiopia and the Dutch city of Haaksbergen.
Ironically, given the "Satanic" connotation, the symbol was incorporated into Christianity to represent the five sacred wounds of Jesus Christ following his crucifixion, as well as the five senses, and it is thought that the star of Bethlehem was also a five-pointed star. The 14th-century English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight sees the symbol appear on our hero's shield as a nod to his Christian faith. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still use the symbol in their Temples.
One of the main reasons why it is now associated with witchcraft is thanks to occult writings that show it being used a lot in ceremonial magick such as the rituals that appear in the Key of Solomon. People like Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa also published the symbol in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, and it frequently appears in the writings of French occultist Éliphas Lévi. It was also mentioned in the Goethe's 1808 play Faust as a symbol to ward off evil.
Many people can accept that the pentagram is a benevolent symbol, but insist that its reversed position is characteristic of evil. This is because of Lévi's claim in the 19th Century that "a reversed pentagram, with two points projecting upwards, is a symbol of evil and attracts sinister forces because it overturns the proper order of things and demonstrates the triumph of matter over spirit" (Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual). The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn agreed with this statement, but Aleister Crowley explained the use of an inverted pentagram in his Thelemic magick to represent "the descent of spirit into matter". The Church of Satan use the Sigil of Baphomet (an inverted pentagram with the image of a goat's head) as their official insignia.
Personally, I don't see the inverted pentagram as being evil. Witchcraft, like nature, can never be truly good or truly evil. The pentagram is representative of the Earth and of nature, and as such incorporates both in whatever form it chooses to take. Five-pointed stars are seen in nature all the time both reversed and otherwise, you just have to look. It's there in flowers, the centre of apple cores, starfish and some fossils. Next time you find yourself in nature, see how many you can find...
Author
Holly Mosley is a Wiccan witch who has been practising consistently for three years, enjoys monthly meet-ups in the Pagan community and spends her time studying Tarot which she first discovered at the age of 10. She publishes weekly Tarot readings on Female First, alongside her informative Witching Hour series about all things esoteric, and recently set up her own Tarot reading service under the moniker Mistress Wyrd.
Tagged in witchcraft