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The Pentagram, a written, carved or modeled version of the
pentacle, is a five-pointed star with one point upward. It
is often worn as jewelry by Wiccans, and as such, it is a
religious symbol as significant to the wearer as is the cross
to a Christian or the six-pointed star to a Jew. Its basic
symbolism is the four elements-fire, earth, air and water-plus
the fifth (and upward pointing) realm of Spirit, which
transcends, encompasses and permeates the material world.
More often than not, the pentagram is enclosed within a circle,
although this is not always the case. Upright pentagrams are
drawn in the air as part of the ritual practice within a Wiccan
magickal circle. This is done precisely, and with will and
purpose. The point at which one begins the drawing of the
pentagram has meaning in correspondence to the elements, or to
whether one is banishing or invoking.
The pentagram, when inverted (single point down, double points
up), has been used as a symbolic depiction of the Horned God.
In occult symbolism, this is akin to the Spirit of God taking
on physical form in the world of matter. Interestingly, this
corresponds in basic symbolism to the Christian cross, which is
made up of the vertical line of Spirit descending into the
horizontal line of the material world. The longer length of the
vertical line below the horizontal one indicates the Spirit's
entrapment in matter-Christ on the cross. In resurrection, Spirit
would transcend the material, which could be depicted by the
vertical line moving upward, superceding and escaping from the
material. Still, when the Black Mass was developed by disgruntled
priests during the times of the Inquisition, the inverted cross
with its vertical line moving upward, as their symbol, took on
an evil connotation just the opposite of what simple geometric
symbolism would suggest. Also, during the Inquisition, the
Pagan Horned God, sometimes depicted as a goat, otherwise as a
stag, was characterized by Inquisitors as Satan, in one of many
deliberate, false and very often violent attempts to suppress
the Old Religion. As if that was not bad enough, the Church of
Satan, founded in America in 1966, chose the inverted pentagram
as its symbol. Since then, Satanic fears and fantasies, have
caused the inverted pentagram to be thoroughly suppressed in
any use by Wiccans, especially in the USA. Here it is largely
viewed as the antithesis of Wicca, just as the inverted cross
is viewed within Christianity.
Be it known that Satan is not, nor has he ever been, a concept
of either medieval witchcraft or modern Wicca! Instead, he is
strictly a concept of the Christian tradition, derived from the
earlier extreme good/evil dualism of its more ancient predecessor,
Zoroastrianism.
Studying the basic forms of symbolism offers fascinating insights
into how meanings change over the passage of time. Some
fundamentalist Christians of present time so fear Satan and any
religious concepts not their own, that they erroneously consider
all pentagrams, either upright or inverted to be equally evil,
quite forgetting that their own widely depicted Christmas star
is an upright pentagram! As for the inverted pentagram, it is worn
by every holder of the United States' highest medal for valor,
the Medal of Honor.
Copyright © 2000-2008
Maria Kay Simms
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THE CRAFT
Facts about The Craft
What are Wicca and Witchcraft?
The Wiccan Rede
& the Law of Three
The Pentagram
The Elements
Air |
Fire |
Water |
Earth
The Wheel of the Year
The Timing of the Sabbats
Samhain |
Yule |
Imbolc |
Ostara
Beltane |
Litha |
Lughnasad |
Mabon
Magical Moon
Maria Kay Simms' monthly column on
lunar and astrological events to
help you plan your magickal calendar.
Recommended Reading
Moon Tides, Soul Passages,
The Witch's Circle,
A Time for Magick,
Future Signs, and
Your Magical Child
by
Maria Kay Simms
Books on Spellcraft
Books on Wicca & related subjects
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