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Written by
Alison Eldridge
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pentagram
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- modern Paganism
- golden ratio
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- the number five
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pentagram, a five-pointed star, usually drawn by using one continuous line of five straight segments. It has been used throughout history as a symbol, often in magic or the occult. Its meaning has varied wildly over time, and it has functioned as a symbol of protection, of perfection, of the Devil, and of humanity, among others. Mathematically, the segments of the pentagram exhibit the golden ratio, which perhaps makes the figure especially aesthetically pleasing.
The pentagram has been in use for thousands of years. In ancient times it was featured in tombs and seals of Egypt and Mesopotamia and coins of Greece. The pentagram was a symbol of the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras and his disciples, probably in part as a way for followers to recognize each other. Some sources say the Pythagoreans regarded it as a symbol of health and knowledge, and in some depictions the Greek letters for the word “health” are placed at its points. It may also have been used by the Greeks and others generally as a symbol to ward off evil, and it has been seen in pottery of the ancient kingdom of Judaea, maybe as a mark of tax collectors.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, pentagrams were used as a symbol of the five knightly virtues. In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the titular Sir Gawain wears a golden pentagram on both his shawl and his shield as a mark of his virtue, loyalty, and kindness. Pentagrams were also used to defend against witches, evil spirits, and demons.
In the 16th century, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim published a version of the pentagram that symbolized man as a perfected work of God, with head, hands, and feet representing the five points and symbols of the five (known) planets around them. The French occultist Éliphas Lévi in the 19th century expanded on this concept with the “tetragrammaton pentagram,” which includes a variety of symbols that represent human existence. In addition to planetary and astrological symbols, this pentagram includes symbols of the four elements and Hebrew letters. The pentagram was also used by the Freemasons, who sometimes placed a G in the centre for gnosis, generation, and the Grand Architect. A history of the Freemasons from the late 19th century notes the variety of uses—as a symbol of man, a demon, protection, magic, and others.
Pentagrams have also been used in a variety of religious contexts. Among Muslims the pentagram is known as Solomon’s seal, and its five points are regarded in at least one tradition as representing love, truth, peace, freedom, and justice, respectively. It is also the official symbol of the Bahāʾī Faith, though not its most prevalent. For the Bahāʾī it is sometimes called the haykal, which means “temple” or “body” in Arabic. Among Christians it has symbolized the five wounds of Christ—his hands and feet punctured by the Crucifixion and his side pierced by a soldier’s spear—as well as the Star of Bethlehem and Christ himself.
In modern times the pentagram is most often associated with Neo-Pagan religions, especially Wicca. It is often depicted enclosed in a circle, a symbol known as a pentacle. In these traditions the five points often represent the five elements of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. For Wiccans the pentagram may also symbolize masculine and feminine, or the Triple Goddess (three points) and the Horned God (two points). Many Neo-Pagans consider the pentagram a symbol of protection and may use it to invoke or banish spirits. The pentacle is the approved symbol of the Wiccan faith to be used on headstones in U.S. government cemeteries.
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Sometimes the inverted figure of the pentagram, with two points facing upward and one facing down, is associated with negative or “black” magic and devil worship. Indeed, the inverted pentagram figures in the sigil of Baphomet, one of the main symbols of the Church of Satan, an atheistic organization that evokes in its imagery the Devil as viewed in Christianity but does not worship any god or being or require that its members perform any rituals, magical or otherwise. The sigil of Baphomet depicts a goat with its horns in the upturned points of the star. This likely stems from the 19th-century European revival of occult studies, during which time it was held that a pentagram with one point facing upward symbolized ascendance, God, and supremacy of the spirit and a pentagram with one point facing downward symbolized Satan, infernalism (everlasting torment), and descent of the spirit. This is perhaps why in Wicca the pentagram is most often depicted with one point facing upward.
Alison Eldridge
