# What (In the Simplest of Terms) Does A Pentagram Represent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638 "2017-08-02T17:23:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/21 "2017-08-03T11:31:02Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > 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. This is the explanation I heard when I was looking into pagan/occult stuff twenty years ago. I liked this as it provided an excuse to use the word ‘quintessence’ (as in ‘fifth element’). I also heard another explanation that the five points represent the limbs and head of a human, making the star a simplistic ‘person’ diagram. I like how prosaic that is. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/22 "2017-08-03T11:38:33Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Sorry folks. The phone in my pocket posted the above on its own. I had almost figured out the meaning… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/23 "2017-08-03T12:45:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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. As a strictly mathematical/geometric property, the pentagram has the interesting fact that you can create one by some trivially simple paper-folding. Get a narrow strip of paper, say 1" wide and several inches long. Tie a simple knot in it. Pull the knot as tight as you can without making a mess of it. Flatten the knot on a flat surface, gently pulling it tighter as you go. See [here](http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/strip.html) (scroll down about one screen-full) for illustration. Hold it up to a light to see the complete pentagram showing through. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/24 "2017-08-03T12:56:05Z")
The outsides of some Mormon Temples feature dozens of inverted pentagrams. These Temples were planned before Éliphas Lévi connected the bottom placement of the quintessential point to the triumph of man’s carnal nature; thus presumably the Mormon symbols are not intended as Satanic. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/25 "2017-08-03T15:25:31Z")
The “five wounds of Jesus” idea goes back at least as far as the fourteenth-century poem _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, in which Sir Gawain has a five-pointed star on his shield: > [@](#): > > And quy þe pentangel apendez to þat prynce noble > I am in tent yow to telle, þof tary hyt me schulde: > Hit is a syngne þat Salamon set sumquyle > In bytoknyng of trawþe, bi tytle þat hit habbez, > For hit is a figure þat haldez fyue poyntez, > And vche lyne vmbelappez and loukez in oþer, > And ayquere hit is endelez; and Englych hit callen > Oueral, as I here, þe endeles knot. > Forþy hit acordez to þis knyȝt and to his cler armez, > For ay faythful in fyue and sere fyue syþez > Gawan watz for gode knawen, and as golde pured, > Voyded of vche vylany, wyth vertuez ennourned > in mote; > Forþy þe pentangel nwe > He ber in schelde and cote, > As tulk of tale most trwe > And gentylest knyȝt of lote. > > Fyrst he watz funden fautlez in his fyue wyttez, > And efte fayled neuer þe freke in his fyue fyngres, > And alle his afyaunce vpon folde watz in þe fyue woundez > Þat Cryst kaȝt on þe croys, as þe crede tellez; > And quere-so-euer þys mon in melly watz stad, > His þro þoȝt watz in þat, þurȝ alle oþer þyngez, > Þat alle his forsnes he feng at þe fyue joyez > Þat þe hende heuen-quene had of hir chylde; > At þis cause þe knyȝt comlyche hade > In þe inore half of his schelde hir ymage depaynted, > Þat quen he blusched þerto his belde neuer payred. > Þe fyft fyue þat I finde þat þe frek vsed > Watz fraunchyse and felaȝschyp forbe al þyng, > His clannes and his cortaysye croked were neuer, > And pité, þat passez alle poyntez, þyse pure fyue > Were harder happed on þat haþel þen on any oþer. > Now alle þese fyue syþez, for soþe, were fetled on þis knyȝt, > And vchone halched in oþer, þat non ende hade, > And fyched vpon fyue poyntez, þat fayld neuer, > Ne samned neuer in no syde, ne sundred nouþer, > Withouten ende at any noke I oquere fynde, > Whereeuer þe gomen bygan, or glod to an ende. > Þerfore on his schene schelde schapen watz þe knot > Ryally wyth red golde vpon rede gowlez, > Þat is þe pure pentaungel wyth þe peple called > with lore. A rough modern English summary: The pentangle or “endless knot” is a symbol that Solomon created, betokening “trawthe” (the ancestor of our modern English word “truth,” but closer in connotation to modern English “fidelity”), and it’s appropriate to Gawain because he is the truest knight out there. The five points represent all sorts of things in which Gawain is perfect: his five senses, his five fingers, his faith in the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary, and especially, the five virtues in which Gawain never fails: “franchise” (generosity), “fellowship,” “cleanness” (purity), “courtesy,” and “pité” (a word that expresses both modern English “pity” – i.e. compassion – and “piety”). In addition to all of these symbolic fives, the poet makes much of the fact that the line used to draw the pentangle is never broken; it has no beginning or end, representing another sort of perfection. Of course, in the rest of the poem we find out that no one, including Gawain, is perfect and that the desire to be perfect can itself be a temptation to sin, so whether the pentangle is a good or evil symbol really depends on your point of view… ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/26 "2017-08-03T16:28:59Z")
I’m sure there is many interpretations and as I know it the star is an angel, or a person using angelic like powers, and being protected while doing so(by the outline - hedge of protection) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/27 "2017-08-03T16:47:01Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I had almost figured out the meaning… It’s occult; very, very occult. Recognizing that “occult” simply means “hidden from view.” 😃 [aside] The latest version of Android Tapatalk is shite; they’ve eliminated most of its useful features. Including the ability to not post one’s sig in every post. Bastards. [/aside] ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2017, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/28 "2017-08-10T13:01:54Z")
My Gosh! I am suddenly reminded of this thread. I decoded an old Illuminati text, typed the (French-style) coordinates into a mapping site [and found this inverted pentacle](https://mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?ll=52.479806,62.185696&z=17&t=s) ! :eek: The text also pointed to another location two miles south of Guerneville, California, but that area is heavily forested and Google maps doesn’t appear to show any pentacle there. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638/29 "2017-08-10T14:38:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Sorry folks. The phone in my pocket posted the above on its own. A variant of the “butt dial”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-simplest-of-terms-does-a-pentagram-represent/792638.md?page=1)