I guess I can tell you all, about 30 years ago, when I had just turned an adult, I became interested in Wicca and occult in general. I never became a Wiccan or occultist. Actually, strange as it may sound, it kind of turned me back a little bit to Roman Catholicism, as I was raised. But I digress.
But one of the strangest thing I found, was the symbolism of the pentagram, or five-pointed star, if you will. The simplest explanation, I learned, is that it symbolizes the five wounds of Jesus. So thus, it is considered a kind of talisman against evil, by occultists.
That couldn’t entirely be correct, though. I have been in the RC church for almost 50 years now. And I can honestly tell you, it is definitely not a Christian symbol. I have encountered a lot of Christian symbols over the years. The cross. The crucifix. The medal of St. Benedict. The Chi-Rho. I could go on and on. But never the pentagram.
And why do Wiccans use it? What does it symbolize to them? And what about people who claim it is a symbol of evil? They may be incorrect. And the church of Satan arguably uses the inverted pentagram, not upright one. But still, how valid is that argument?
So I guess my question then is three-fold: Where (in the simplest of terms) did it originate? What (in the simplest of terms) does it symbolize? And also, in the simplest of terms, is a good or evil symbol? Please don’t interject your private religious views for the last one. I want a simple, historical answer to this one.
First we need to define exactly what you mean by a “pentagram”. Depending on context, it can refer to the five-pointed star formed by connecting five vertices, or it can refer to such a figure inscribed in the convex pentagon formed by the same vertices, or it can refer to such a figure inscribed (or not-quite-inscribed, poking a bit out of the boundaries) in a circle, or it can refer to the star-in-a-pentagon with another star inscribed inside the central pentagon with another inscribed in that one’s center, and so on.
And then you have to define which origin you mean. Like the cross, the swastika, and the six-pointed star, it’s a simple enough geometric figure (in most of its forms, at least) that it’s arisen independently multiple times in multiple cultures, with completely different meanings.
And even if it did converge on one meaning in European pagan cultures, there’s no reason to expect that that meaning would be at all related to its meaning or meanings in modern Wicca, or any other modern neo-pagan context, since Wicca and the other neo-pagan movements have no continuity whatsoever with the historical pagans.
I mean, in the simplest of terms, but also as the Wiccans would transcribe it. So I guess that would be, five lines, maybe in a circle.
Another thing too, I think I may have read somewhere (prob. a long time ago too), it has mathematical significance. I know each point has 36° to it. What, if anything, does that symbolize?
The most mathematically-significant one would probably be the one inscribed inside a pentagon, because that’s what’s called an order-5 simplex. Which really just means that you have five points, and every pair of points is connected by a line. I hope you weren’t expecting anything deeper than that.
I used to do a bit of occult reading myself – one interpretation I remember is that the two standard orientations (horns-up-point-down or point-up-horns-down, if that makes sense) are symbolic of unions of the male and female sex organs with one or the other dominant, therefore of left- or right-hand approaches to magick, yadda yadda. But that’s one of many readings, and I’d guess it’s a fairly recent one. For a simple symbol like this, as Chronos says, its history and symbolic meanings will be manifold, complex, and contradictory. And most importantly, when talking about what it ORIGINALLY meant to ancient people – largely unknown.
Did you look at the Wikipedia article yet? It might give you a decent overview of conventional wisdom. Pentagram - Wikipedia
I believe the star-in-a-circle pentagram came to modern neopaganism through High Magic, which is very definitely a Judeo-Christian thing. It is originally a protective symbol, but many pagans wear it in the same spirit in which another person might wear a cross - as a symbol of faith.
It’s also chock full of golden ratios which certain types go bananas over. I’d explain but it’s probably easier to just Google image search “pentagram golden ratio”.
I believe read somewhere that ancient Greeks thought the pentagram was special for this reason, but I don’t know if that’s true because around 90% of claims about the golden ratio are bogus.
This just might be your answer … New Age religions choosing symbols to show they aren’t Christians by using ones that aren’t typically associated with Christians …
But according to Maggie the Ocelot, since the Renaissance these symbols are specifically associated with Christians, though presumably there were kabbalistic and other influences. Consider all the Key of Solomon-type stuff which says that wearing such symbols will protect you from evil.
I can’t find a cite but my guess is the association with the paganism is an early 20th century thing (possibly part of the invention of Wicca by Gerald Gardner)
The specific association with the Church of Satan was definitely Anton Levey’s doing but the association with the Devil Worship goes back before that to Aleister Crowley.
Specific association with magic and sorcery (but not the “occult” as it would be understood in modern times) and the pentagram go back to the renaissance
I’ve read (but can’t cite right now) that the traditional image of a magician’s wand with a star on the end is actually a misinterpretation of old drawings that actually depicted a magician drawing a pentagram with a plain wand. That is, the star was not supposed to be part of the wand, it was showing the shape that the tip of the wand was tracing.
It symbolizes whatever people want it to symbolize (that is how symbols work) and it is safe to say (outside of Morocco which uses it in the their flag) most people in the 21st century associate the pentagram with the occult and devil worship. Whatever it may have symbolized in the past, nowadays that is the meaning it had.
It is plausible (though I do not know a reference) that 20th-century pagan/witchy/satanist occultists adopted the symbol for the same reason earlier Christian and Jewish occultists did, namely, that it was an established magical symbol.
I’ve been neoPagan for over 40 years and honestly this is the very first time I’ve ever heard that explanation.
But then, I have never been a Christian so maybe that’s not so surprising?
Well, to start, you have to remember that if you have two Wiccans you have at least three opinions. Wiccas, and neoPagans, are not at all uniform.
In my background as a NeoPagan it’s usually said to represent the four elements (occult, not scientific) of earth, air, fire, and water with the “fifth element” of the human spirit. It’s far from the only one, though. And usually represented with a single point upwards.
There is the “inverted pentagram”, with two points up,which I’ve heard as representing the horns of a goat and thus a male principal… or, if you’re a Satanist or similar, it represents the horns of the devil. Whether or not that’s official for something like Anton LeVey’s Church of Satan group or not I can’t say because I’ve never associated with those folks.
As noted, there is not a single interpretation. Different people read different things into it.
Depends on context. The cross is usually seen as a good symbol, but inverted and used by Satanists it’s seen as the opposite. In many cultures a swastika type symbol is seen as a good one, but in our culture it’s associated with some pretty evil stuff
For some of your questions one simple easy answer just doesn’t exist.
