Pentacles, Pentagrams and their associations with Witchcraft and Satanism

In the ancient world, survival was such a problematic thing that protective symbols emerged within most cultures to provide reassurance to the ancient people. The pentacle is one of them.

Many of these symbols, such as the pentacle, started off as a linear motif with forgotten origins but that gained importance as time went on and traditions gathered about them.

Eventually, the pentacle was thought to have talismanic power in Medieval Europe and was used to ward off everything from illness to Satan and was based on older star signs, most likely representing the movements of Venus and thus evoking her protection.

Pentacle-shaped hats were worn by Medieval Magicians and pentacles were inscribed on rocks, wood and amulets to ward against the Evil Eye.

There are similar patterns in India with cosmic significance but instead of a 5-pointed star, it's a 6-pointed hexagram called the Star of Lakshmi, (Goddess of Blessings) and are drawn with powder on thresholds to ward off the hostile spirits of the dead.

In modern day, the pentacle is used in magical invocations and by the Wiccan and witchcradft communities.

There are 2 'versions' of this star that is often muddled up.

The first is a 5 pointed star inside a circle. This is called a pentacle.

The second is a 5 pointed star on its own which is called a Pentagram.

If the pentagram is upright (with 1 point facing up) then it is associated with positive things and is a prominent sign of modern witchcraft but if it is inverted (with 2 points facing up) then it has nothing to do with witchcraft.

There are Mesoptamian clay pots from the 4th Millenium B.C.E that feature the pentagram and in ancient Greece, Pythagoras (cue the PTSD to learning Pythagoras Theory in Secondary School) made the pentagram a symbol of physical and mental harmony.

Christians associated it with humankind, God and the 5 wounds of Christ, in the Renaissance and Early Modern periods, magicians used it in their magical writings, in late 19th-early 20th centuries, the magical tradition of the Golden Dawn gave it a high-status as a major ritual tool and now, in the 20th Century, modern wiccans and Neopagan groups use it as a symbol of their faith.

It wasn't until the 1800s, when French occultist Eliphas Levi associated the inverted pentagram with evil, specifically with the horns of Baphomet (the goat of the witche's sabbat (or holy day)), that represents the demon or devil (something which is a Christian concept and in Pagan belief, does not exist).

In Modern Witchcraft, the 5 points of a pentagram or pentacle represent the elements; earth, air, water, fire and spirit with the top point being for spirit and the upright pentagram, as well as being used for faith, protection, invocation and banishing spells, represents the power of spirit over the material whereas the inverted pentagram represents the domination of material over spirit.

The inverted Pentagram is often associated with evil and Satanists and in 1966, Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan (in San Francisco) using an image of Baphomet as its main symbol with an inverted pentacle and as such many witches will refrain from the use of the inverted version but in the Gardnerian tradition of Wicca, it may be used to represent a Second Degree Initiation.

Whilst both Neopagans and Satanists both use the inverted pentagram, and the upright pentagram has been used by many including Freemasons, Babylonians and the Baha'i and Christian faiths, they are not synonymous with each other.

Wicca (often referred to as modern witchcraft) is a religion that originated in the early 1900s in England and later in the USA in the 1990s and is a reinvention of the ancient religion of paganism (or earth-based religions).

Satanism is a term that represents diverse beliefs with the main archetype being Satan (the fallen angel turned demon of Christian lore) and as such, is a Christian concept with Christians being opposed to it.

Satanists can be theists, worshipping Satan as a deity and can also be an atheist, focussing more on the archetypal and mythological symbolism of Satan.

Paganism, Wicca and Satanism have been widely condemned worldwide throughout history by mainly Christian groups with many famous historical incidents of cruelty, torture, and serial and mass murder being mostly incorrectly attributed to their practices.

Sources: 1001 symbols: The Illustrated key to the world of symbols by Jack Tresidder

https://classroom.synonym.com/the-difference-between-the-star-of-david-and-a-pentagram-12083533.html

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