The Truth About The Pentagram

Though the Pentagram is often portrayed as a symbol of evil in modern media, we can look it here as something different. Throughout the ages this image has been seen both as an example of the structure of life and as a spiritual connection with god.

3D Pentagram courtesy of Morguefile.com

Early Pentagram Designs

The Pentagram or the five pointed star has been around as a symbol since the earliest evidence of civilized man. It was inscribed in stone tablets recovered from archaeological digs in Mesopotamia as early as 3500 BC. Pottery shards and remains found in the city of Uruk or Erech as it is called in the bible have been seen to bear the image. A stone tablet found in the remains of Nineveh shows the image as "The Disc of Shamash". It was know to represent "heavenly body" or "heavenly power"and its use has been widespread for thousands of years. In Ancient Greece it was called the Pentalpha and Pythagoreans considered it an emblem of perfection or the symbol of the human being. It was used as a talisman for health or good fortune and has been found on Egyptian statues and Gaulish coins.

Pentagram Star courtesy of http://www.maverickscience.com

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The Pentagram and Pentagon occur in nature. From the basic building blocks of life to designs brought about by mother nature herself, the symbol is everywhere all around us.

Carbon Molecule

Pentagon Molecule

Periwinkle

Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons.org

We have powerful scientific instruments such as the Electron Microscope which the ancients supposedly did not have. In the time of Pythagoras matter was seen as an order of geometric solids known later known as the Platonic solids. Named after the famous philosopher Plato they were depicted in the shapes of cubes, tetrahedrons and pentagonal three dimensional structures.

Courtesy:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid

The five pointed structure is easily seen in observable nature. Leaves and flowers describe the symbol and sea creatures known as the Starfish and Pentagon crab are born with the design. One has to only look at the back of a common rose to see a perfect example of the Pentagram. Is this then the work of the Devil?

"So God created sea creatures and every living thing." Genesis 1 v.21.

Courtesy:http://www.public.asu.edu/

Early Christians Used the Pentagram

In Christianity the pentacle represented the five wounds of Christ, the five pure joys of Heaven's queen with her child and the five virtues: generosity, fellowship, purity, courtesy and mercy. Early Christians were known to wear them as protective amulets. Though the inverted star has an evil significance today there are numerous inverted stars that surround a statue of Mary and the Christ Child in Chartres Cathedral circa 1150 C.E. The Pentagram is even seen as a symbol of the medical profession from the 16th century forward. (Dr. J. Schouten: The Pentagram as a Medical Symbol) The image is seen throughout history in many forms and was not used as a symbol of evil until recent times.

Image courtesy of http://en.fairmormon.org/

Pentagrams and Pentacles

The question is, how did it become the symbol of evil or the sign of Satan? The modern media uses the symbol as a representation of evil in the form of sexy young vampires and devil familiars that are the minions of the root of all evil, the Devil himself. Books and movies display the Pentagram as an icon for a genre of story type and you can expect that when the symbol is present a visit from the supernatural will be close at hand. So how did the Pentagram or Pentacle become associated with this modern stereotype? There are some unique facts about the Pentagram that can perhaps give us an understanding. Depictions of the Pentagram and Jesus are rare but do exist. It should be noted however that they are no depictions associating the symbol with the Devil or Satan before Ãliphas Lévi's nineteenth century image of Baphomet. The downward pointing five pointed star was in use by King Ra-Neb, the second Pharaoh of the second dynasty of Egypt, about 2850 B.C. as the veneration of the Goat of Mendes. Today it is seen as an evil symbol even by those who acknowledge the Pentagram as a sign of protection. Clearly there is still a misunderstanding of the Pentagram and it's associations with human kind.

Inverted Pentagram Image courtesy of Chevalier David Wood

Greek Sartre

Why would we associate the term with the Devil ? Perhaps it is because of the ancient worship of the horned Sartre Pan. In the early religious beliefs he was the symbol of male fertility and was depicted perusing ancient forests in search of wood nymphs or sexy young females. Significantly he was seen as having the lower torso of a goat and sporting a pair of horns on his head. Christianity in it's fervor to spread it's message and stifle any form of so called "pagan" worship was quick to label the forest god as "Satanic" The goat symbol over the star came to adopt the same meaning after the image of Baphomet was used by Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) in his depiction of the quasi-figure of Baphomet with a goat's head. Thus the Pentagram was then associated with the goat and the evil figure now called Satan. Though it had been seen as a sign of protection and a symbol of life in the past, the figure now stood for mankind's ultimate enemy.

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The course of Venus through the night sky can be seen as beautiful Pentagram. The ancients knew this and could use it to measure accurate passages of time.

Venus Pentagram courtesy of Youtube topaz84

Of particular Interest, the orbit of Venus when viewed against the backdrop of the stars known as the Zodiac can be seen in the pattern of a perfect pentagram and throughout history the five pointed star has been a symbol of the planet Venus.This is best exemplified by the Pythagoreans who revered Venus and the pentagram was a key symbol in their secret brotherhood. They observed the symbol as a "Pentad" and used it as a secret sign to identify each other. In Egypt Venus was symbolized by the Ankh and was translated as "Sacred Knowledge". It is the second brightest object in the night sky and is bright enough to cast a shadow on a moonless night. Venus is never too far from the Sun having an orbit inside that of Earth and can be seen shortly before sunrise and shortly after sunset. That is why it is referred to as both the Morning Star and the Evening Star.

Courtesy of The Mindful Mystic

Venus As Lucifer

Another reason for an evil association can be seen from the relationship between Venus and the term Lucifer. Manly P. Hall wrote in his Secret Teachings of All The Ages, "and as it arose before the sun, it was called the false light, the star of the morning, or Lucifer, which means the light-bearer." The term Lucifer came to be connected with the Devil when Gregory the Great, (540-604 A.D.) applied the term to Satan from a passage of Isaiah, 14,12, "How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning". He continued an interpretation that had been used by the Christian father Origen (185-254 A.D.) Origen brought together diverse Old Testament references from Job, Ezekiel and Isaiah and argued that Lucifer, the Prince of Tyre, and the Leviathan of Job, were all identical with the Devil. However the term "Lucifer" comes from the Latin "Luciferi". It has two roots, "Lux" or "Lucis" meaning "light" and "Ferre" meaning "bringer" or "bearer". Because of Venus's brightness the ancients regarded it as "Lucifer" the "destroyer of darkness". It was never meant to be used as a reference to evil ."When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the Moon and the stars which you have ordained." Psalms 8, v3. There are examples of the symbol throughout history showing that these civilizations not only understood the geometric proportions of the symbol but assigned spiritual meaning to it. It is inherent in nature, seen in the stars and exists as a building block of life. The truth about the Pentagram is that it is a symbol of our unity with god and the universe and is something to be used in contemplation of our place in the world.

In Celtic times the Pentagram was a sign of the Goddess Kore who was worshipped over a vast area and whose sacred fruit was the apple. Today the Pentagram has a great tradition in symbolism and can be seen in the many works of art and jewelry that abound throughout the northern islands of Ireland, Britain and Scotland.

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