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The five-pointed
star, or pentagram is one of the most potent, powerful, and persistent
symbols in human history. It has been important to almost every ancient
culture, from the Mayans of Latin America, to India, China, Greece,
and Egypt. It has been found scratched on the walls of Neolithic
caves, and in Babylonian drawings, where it marks the pattern the
planet Venus makes on its travels- a secret symbol of the Goddess
Ishtar. Scriptures, especially Hebrew, are abundant with references
to pentagrams. So, why does this symbol have such a sinister reputation
today?
The
Pentagram in the Ancient World
The earliest
pentagrams were rough diagrams found scratched into stone age caves.
While they are believed to have some spiritual significance, the meaning
of the star-shape to early humans is a mystery. In the civilizations
that followed, it held various meanings, usually astronomical and religious.
Pentagrams served to mark directions in Sumerian texts, and represented
the five visible planets. Later, it was the sign of the planet Venus
and the goddess .
According
to the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, five was
the number of man, because of the fivefold division of the body,
and the ancient Greek division of the soul. According to Pythagoras,
the five points of the pentagram each represent one of the five
elements that make up man: fire, water, air, earth, and psyche.
(energy, fluid, breath, matter, and mind; liquid, gas, solid, plasma
and aethyr) The Pythagoreans held the pentacle sacred to Hygeia,
the Goddess of healing, whose name (HGIEiA) was an anagram in Greek
for the elements water, earth, spirit, fire, and air.
This particular
symbolism has persisted for centuries, and has greatly influenced
theologies of diverse traditions. Early Christians wore it as an
emblem, possibly to represent the wounds of Christ, or possibly
due to connections between early Christians and the Pythagorean mysteries.*
Later, the pentacle was important to many doctrines of esoteric Medieval
and Renaissance belief systems- alchemy, kabbalah, and Ceremonial
magick.
The
Pentacle and Magick
Ritual
magicians, like the Greeks, used the Pentagram as a microcosm of the
human body. The practice of Ritual Magick was used to create a state
of closeness with god through the use of symbols and rituals to imitate
the divine state. It was believed that like affects like, that the connection
between the world of symbols and the world of actions could also be
manipulated for evil purposes. One of these magicians, Giordano
Bruno, warned of such misuse of the powerful pentacle by Black magicians.
(The pentagram is still central to the practice of ritual magick, and
is used in the foundation of many of its rituals.)
In the
Jewish kabbalistic tradition, which borrows many Pythagorean ideas,
the pentagram represents the five upper sephiroth
on the Tree
of Life- five numbers, being indivisible by any but themselves,
which represent pure archetypal forces: justice, mercy, wisdom, understanding,
and transcendent splendor.
The
Christian Pentagram?
Christian
Kabbalists of the renaissance were especially enamored of the
pentagram, which they viewed as a mystical
proof of the divinity of Christ - to them, it symbolized Christ
as the Holy Spirit manifest in the flesh. A favorite gematric feat
was to add the Hebrew letter Shin (symbolizing fire and the holy
spirit of pentecost) to the Biblical four letter name of God (YHVH,
most commonly [and incorrectly] pronounced 'Jehovah') yielding
YHShVH- Y'heshua, or Jesus. (There is a secret biblical connection,
as well, in the name of the Christian holiday of Pentecost-
the day the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles of Jesus is one
of many geometrical 'proofs' in the New Testament disguised as
stories)
There are
many connections between the pentagram and Christianity. Before the
cross, it was a preferred emblem to adorn the jewelry and amulets
of early Christians (followed by an 'x' or a phoenix). The pentagram
was associated with the five wounds of Christ, and because it could
be drawn in one continuous movement of the pen, the Alpha
and the Omega as one. It
was also an expression of a secret Gnostic heresy, found hidden here
and there throughout Christian history- a symbol of Isis/Venus as the
secret goddess, the female principle. The most notable instance of
this symbolism is in the Arthurian Grail romances, which are Gnostic
and kabbalistic teachings disguised as tales of knightly quests.
The pentacle
as a symbol of the feminine principle was was embodied by the rose.
The small, five petalled roses found in many gothic cathedral ornamentation
are not-so-secret pentagrams:
The
Pentacle in Wicca and other Neopagan Traditions
Currently,
the most common religious uses of the pentagram are by Wiccan, Neopagan,
and Satanic groups. In most Wiccan and Neopagan traditions, its
symbolic meaning is derived from Ceremonial magick and
nineteenth century occultism- the four elements ruled by the spirit-
although as these theologies mature, they have added to its meaning.
In many of these traditions, it can also symbolize the unity of mankind
with the earth or with the realm of the spirit, the human body, and
more.
Point
up, or Point Down?
A
"point down" pentacle is nothing new- nor is it necessarily
Satanic when it appears as such. Historical depictions of the pentagram
were as likely to be points down as point up- a distinction between
one or the other was rarely made by the ancients. Even today, one must
not assume a point down pentagram is Satanic, as it is just likely to
be Masonic, Wiccan, or simply upside-down. Some inexperienced Wiccans
will occasionally claim that a point down pentacle is Satanic, but such
a symbol has at times represented the Wiccan horned God, and is still
today an emblem of the Second Degree initiation in Gardnerian Wicca.
The
Satanic Pentagram
In the
minds of many ,
the pentagram is inextricably linked with black magick and Satan
worship. The Satanic pentagram is a difficult symbol- it is the newest
and least used, but at the same time the best known and most controversial.
The Satanic pentacle is almost always presented upside down, or inverted,
with a single point facing downward, and it is this pentacle that
is presented incorrectly as 'evil.'
The adoption
of the pentacle as a Satanic emblem is quite recent, dating only
to the latter half of the twentieth century. To the Satanist, this
glyph is a representation of
"Black magic," symbolizing the triumph of matter and individual
desires over religious dogma- earth over an illusory promise of heaven.
It is not analogous to the upturned cross (which is a symbol of rebellion
against Christian culture), and is not "anti-Wiccan."
In modern Satanic theology, the pentagram is far more likely to represent
the individual, or the choice to pursue individual glory or immortality
rather than union or absorption with the divine- where some traditions
advocate the sublimation of the ego or submission to god, Satanism
exalts and glorifies it, deifying the human being. The symbol most
commonly associated with Satanic practices is the "Sabbatic
goat" or Goat of Mendes pentacle, often confused with Baphomet,
a figure from Templar legend, and Pan, the Greek goat God. It
rarely has any deeper meaning; an irony when one considers that
its association with Satanism has made the pentagram a feared
symbol to many, and the subject of countless conspiracy theories.
The Goat's Head
The
goat itself is related to medieval superstitions about the behavior
of witches, who were often depicted dancing with or riding on goats
(who often represented Satan himself). The goat in that context
is often seen as an ironic symbol of sexual repression (the association
being a clear allusion to the unrestrained sexuality represented
by this ancient fertility symbol), so one
can see why the symbolism might appeal to modern Satanists, as
a symbol of freedom from sexual and religious taboos.
The
Pentagram in Freemasonry
In Freemasonry
and related traditions, the pentagram is usually referred to as the "blazing
star," and in addition to more traditional Pythagorian symbolism,
is sometimes symbolic of the descent of the divinity of Christ into
the world of matter, a remnant of Masonry's ties with medieval Christian
Kabbalah and hermeticv tradition. In this, it represents the Star
of Bethlehem. Freemasonry emphasizes Pythagorean geometry in its
system of allegorical symbology, and as the pentagram was the chief
of the Pythagorean symbols, it is not at all surprising to find it
among Masonic symbols. Even so, it is still a relatively minor symbol
in freemasonry, and largely ignored in today's lodges.
The Masonic
use of the pentagram has nevertheless provided endless fodder for
conspiracy minded evangelicals who see its use as proof of a vast Satanic
Masonic network. Many absurd connections have been made between the
Satanic pentagram and the Masonic star by enthusiastic conspiracy theorists,
who fail to note that the first association of the reversed pentacle
with 'evil' is a relatively recent attitude- adopted long after Masons
had been using the star without controversy for a very long time. The
19th century magical scholar Eliphas Levi is the first known to have
vested the downward pointing pentacle with any real negative meaning,
elaborating perhaps on Bruno's earlier claims. It was not until the
mid twentieth century that Levi's 'Mendes' pentacle was adopted as
an emblem of modern Satanism. No Satanic or black magic group is known
to have used a pentagram before then, and even the oldest representations
of black masses and other 'satanic' activities contain no pentagrams.
The
Pentagram of the Founders
Surprisingly,
the pentagram also plays an important part in the symbology of the
early United States government (a fact not lost on the conspiracy
theorists, of course.). Many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons,
to whom the Pentagram is an important symbol (see above). The five
pointed star appears in much of our early iconography- the US flag,
the Great Seal, and on our currency. It is even to be found in the
Capitol, where the White House sits at the apex of a giant pentagram,
one of many interesting features in Capitol geometry:
Pentacle Gallery
Related
Articles:
A
New Order of Ages
The
Masonic Enlightenment and the symbols of America.
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