An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present - Doreen Valiente 2018

Pentagram, The

The pentagram, or five-pointed star, is a favourite symbol of witches and magicians. It has been so widely used throughout the centuries that the word ’pentacle’, also originally meaning a five-pointed star, has come to designate any disc or plate of metal or wood, engraved with magical symbols, and used in magical rites.

The origin of the magical five-pointed star is lost in the mists of time. Early examples occur in the relics of Babylon. The Christians regarded it as representing the Five Wounds of Christ, and hence it is sometimes found in church architecture. There is a very beautiful form of a pentagram in one of the windows of Exeter Cathedral.

This sign also occurs among the emblems of Freemasonry. Some regard it as being the Seal of Solomon; though this designation is more often given to the six-pointed star, formed by two interlaced triangles, which is the sign of the Jewish faith. However, the pentagram is certainly a Qabalistic sign, known to those occult fraternities which claim to derive from the Rosicrucians.

The followers of Pythagoras called the pentagram the pentalpha, regarding it as being formed of five letter A’s. In medieval Europe it was known as ’The Druid’s Foot’, or ’Wizard’s Foot’; and sometimes as ’The Goblins’ Cross.’ In the old romance of Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, it is the device which Gawaine bears on his shield.

It also occurs in the old song ’Green Grow the Rushes-O’. This curious old chant of questions and responses contains hints of hidden meanings; and one of its lines is “Five is the symbol at your door” meaning the pentagram, which was inscribed on doors and windows to keep out evil.

PENTAGRAM, THE. (above left) Man the microcosm, the pentagram of Cornelius Agrippa. (above right) The pentagram from a modern witch’s altar.

Some old Celtic coins show the figure of a pentagram upon them. Something very like the five-pointed star occurs naturally upon some fossils, and these objects have always been prized by witches for this reason, as being highly magical. One kind of fossil with a five-pointed figure upon it is the so-called shepherd’s crown, a fossil sea-urchin. (See FOSSILS USED AS CHARMS.) But an even more potent magical object than this is the true star stone, a fossil which occurs in the perfect shape of a five-pointed star. It is actually part of the fossilised stem of a Crinoid or sea lily.

The reason why the pentagram is regarded as the symbol of magic is because its five points represent the Four Elements of Life, plus Spirit, the Unseen, the Beyond, the source of occult power. For this reason, the pentagram should be drawn with one point upwards, the point of Spirit presiding over the other four. It is Mind ruling over the World of Matter.

The other way up, the pentagram is often regarded as a more sinister symbol. According to Madame Blavatsky, in her Secret Doctrine (Theosophical Publishing Co., London, 1888), the reversed pentagram is the symbol of Kali Yuga, the Dark Age in which we live, an age of materialism, sensuality and violence. Other occultists have regarded the reversed pentagram as the face of the Goat of Mendes, with the two upward points representing the goat’s horns. In this sense, it is the face of the Horned God. It has sometimes been called a symbol of black magic; but what it really represents is the light of the Spirit hidden in Matter.

The pentagram with one point upwards is used by occultists to control elementals, because of its inner meaning. Worn as a lamen upon the breast, it is a protection in magical rites, against hostile or undesirable influences.

It is sometimes called the Star of the Microcosm, because it has the shape of a human being with arms and legs outstretched. The old occult philosophers regarded man as a microcosm, or little world in himself, containing in potentiality all that was in the cosmos without him. The pentagram also represents the five senses of man, the gateways by which impressions of the outer world reach him.

Yet another name for the pentagram is the Endless Knot, because it can be drawn without lifting the pen from the paper, though it requires concentration and care to draw a symmetrical figure in this way; qualities which were necessary for the successful making of a magical sign.