Pentagrams

This symbol has had many names and many different meanings throughout history. The first usages of the pentagram can be dated as far back as 3,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Its astrological roots representing Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Venus. It is also thought that the 5 points of the star could be defined as orientations. Such as forward, backward, left, right and of course, above. Religion has also seen the star incorporated into its belief structures. Both conveying a positive and negative connotation depending upon where and how it was used. For example, Christianity displayed the pentagram to mean the 5 wounds that Christ endured on the cross. Also used in literature representations of the 5 senses and 5 fingers.

Judaism donned the star as the official seal of the city of Jerusalem for a time. And due to some similarities, has also been confused with the star of David. The pagan nature-based worship known as Wicca, has used the star to interpret the 5 elements. Air, water, fire, earth, and aether, or “spirit”. When the star is encompassed by a circle, this is also represents a symbol of the Wiccan faith. In this sense usually displayed through jewelry or ornamentation. The pentagram is also thought to bear magical translation. In association with the Thelemic system of Magick. This interpretation has the star defining the ascent of spirit into matter. And thus has been used throughout history in ritualistic form by ceremonial magicians.

The way in which the actual pentagram is depicted also bears meaning. For example, in Satanic ritual, 2 points of the star face upwards, representing the horns of a goat. In ancient Egypt goats were used to symbolize lust, considered by Satanists to be an important matter of biology keeping the human race going. It is also thought that the 3 downward points represent rejection of the Holy Trinity. One of the oldest interpretations of the pentagram is through Pythagoreanism. Pythagoras, a Greek mathematician and his followers devoted themselves to the mathematics of nature.

A secretive religion that based its teaching and beliefs on the philosophy of numbers. Pythagoras is to have once been quoted as saying, “number is the ruler of forms and ideas and the cause of gods and demons.” Pythagoreans, saw the pentagram as a mathematical perfection, and deemed it as a symbol of health. With 2 points facing up and 3 down, it represented the 5 chambers of Tataros, or gates of hell. This was the “place” where the first pre-cosmic offspring had to be put in order for the ordered cosmos to appear. While the pentagram varries in meaning to each and every person, religious or not. In actuality, when stripped bare, is nothing more than a simple pentagonic shape in the form of a star. With each point being the precise exact length as the other. A geometrical, mathematical perfection.