"It is a symbol which Solomon conceived once

To betoken holy truth, by its intrinsic right,

For it is a figure which has five points,
And each line overlaps and is locked with another;
And it is endless everywhere, and the English call it,
In all the land, I hear, the Endless Knot."

poem of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

A pentagram, a five sided star, constructed by intersected five straight lines, is one of the
oldest markings known to humanity. It is a symbol fraught with mystery, intrigue, and
meaning. It is also called a pentacle or Pentalpha, and gets its name from the Greek penta,
meaning “five”, and gramma, meaning “a letter”.

The pentagram is one of the oldest markings known to humankind, apparently discovered by
astronomical research in the Tigris-Euphrates region of the Middle East as far back as
6000 B.C.E. Mesopotamian writings showed the first use of pentagrams. Sumerian
pictograms were used to depict the word “ub”, meaning a small nook and cavity. Pentagrams
have been found in Israel, in layers dating to 4000 B.C.E. It’s been discovered among
the Sumerians, with the five points believed to represent either the four corners of the earth
and "the vault of heaven," or the five visible planets of the night
sky: Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Venus (with Venus a representative of the Queen of
Heaven, as Venus traces an almost perfect pentagram across the night sky every eight years.)

In ancient Greece, the symbol was of interest to Pythagoras, who believed that the pentagram
was a symbol of perfection. He called it the Pentalpha, because he noted that it was
comprised of five geometrically perfect A’s. In his world travels, it was believed that he had
influenced other cultures, and the current theory is that Pythagoras is the reason that the
Pentagram shows up in Tantric art. In many cases, early Hindu and Buddhist writing shares
the same symbolism as what Pythagoras has written. The Pythagoreans were driven
underground, and used the pentagram to identify themselves to each other, signing letters and
communications with it. During this time, the pentagram represented the five points of a
human being: Two feet, two hands, and one head, although this seems to underestimate the
knowledge of the Pythagoreans, as they were almost undoubtedly aware of its mathematical
properties.
The Pythagoreans called the pentagram, ύγιεια Hygieia meaning "health" (also the Greek
goddess of health, Hygieia), and saw in the pentagram a mathematical perfection, as the
pentagram divides itself automatically in accordance to the golden ratio.

In mathematics, the Golden ratio, often represented by φ, denotes the non-repeating, non-
terminating number 1.618033988… Two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio
between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the
larger one and the smaller. Each intersection of edges sections the edges in golden ratio: The
ratio of the length of the edge to the longer segment is φ, as is the length of the longer
segment to the shorter. Also, the ratio of the length of the shorter segment to the segment
bounded by the 2 intersecting edges (a side of the pentagon in the pentagram's centre) is φ.

During the times of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), the pentacle was the first and
most important of the Seven Seals – an amulet whose seals represented the seven secret
names of God. It was inscribed on King Solomon’s ring, which is often called Solomon’s
Seal in error. Each point of the pentagram was also interpreted as referring to the five
books of the Pentateuch – the first five books in the Hebrew Scriptures; the Torah.

To the Hebrews the five points of the pentagram were tied to the Pentateuch (the first five
books of the bible) and represented as a whole the concept of truth

The Celtic Druids seemed to believe that the pentagram was a representation of the sacred
nature of five. It was common that the pentagram was also a symbol for the underground
Goddess, Morrigan. Much of today’s neo-pagan movement was based on remnants of the old
Celtic traditions and symbols, which is interesting to note.

In Nordic countries the pentagram was used to ward off trolls and evil, in general, and was
drawn on doors and walls.

There are also many connections between the pentagram and Christianity. Before the cross, it
was a preferred emblem to adorn the jewellery of early Christians. It has represented truth
and has acted as a medieval talisman. The pentagram was associated with the five wounds of
Christ, and because it could be drawn in one continuous movement of the pen, the Alpha
and the Omega as one. It also represented the five virtues: generosity, fellowship, purity,
courtesy and Mercy.

Constantine used the symbol on his seal and amulet. It has been referred to as the Star of
Bethlehem. It symbolizes the star that led Zoroastrian astrologers to baby Jesus.

Some also theorize that the pentagram was an expression of an early, secret Gnostic heresy,
found hidden here and there throughout Christianity's history, a symbol of Isis/Venus as the
"secret goddess," or female principle. This symbolism commonly shows up in the Arthurian
Grail romances, which many see as Gnostic teachings disguised as knightly quests and their
tales.

The pentagram was embodied as a symbol of this feminine principle by the five petaled rose,
found in many gothic cathedral ornamentations—they are truly subtle, not quite secret
pentagrams.

It has then re-emerged as a sign of humanism. It signifies man’s relation with the cosmos and
also is seen as a guard against evil. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa created a pentagram aligned
with the shape of a man inside of a circle. Here the pentagram represented the Universe, and
the five points aligned with the figure of the man represented jointly the parts of the body and
the planets. Unlike previous ancient lore from Sumer, the planets changed alignment on the
pentagram: Mars was at the head and top point, Venus to the left, Jupiter to the right, and
Mercury and Saturn at the bottom. With the single point upward, the pentacle came at this
time to symbolize the universal human, with the points aligning with the head, legs, and
arms. Due largely to Agrippa and Leonardo da Vinci, the pentacle represented not only the
human aspect but the creative spirit that lifts people away from the physical world to the
spiritual world.

Christians of the renaissance were especially enamored of the pentagram, which they viewed
as a mystical proof of the divinity of Christ – to them, it symbolized Christ as the Holy Spirit
manifest in the flesh. A favorite gematric feat was to add the Hebrew letter Shin (symbolizing
fire and the holy spirit of Pentecost) to the Biblical four-letter name of God YHVH yielding
YHShVH- Y’heshua, or Jesus.

Renaissance-era ritual magicians used the Pentagram as a microcosm of the human body. The
practice of Ritual Magic was used to create a state of closeness with god through the use of
symbols and rituals to imitate the divine state. It was believed that like affects like, that the
connection between the world of symbols and the world of actions could also be manipulated
for evil purposes. One of these magicians, Giordano Bruno, warned of such misuse of the
powerful pentacle by Black magicians. In the Jewish kabbalistic tradition, which borrows
many Pythagorean ideas, the pentagram represents the five upper sephiroth on the Tree of
Life five numbers, being indivisible by any but themselves, which represent pure archetypal
forces: justice, mercy, wisdom, understanding, and transcendent splendor.

Today the pentagram’s religious symbolism is commonly explained by reference to the neo-
Pythagorean understanding that the five points of the pentagram represent the four elements
(earth, fire, air, water) with the addition of Spirit as the uppermost point.

As a representation of the elements, the pentagram is involved in the Wiccan practice of

summoning the elemental spirits of the four directions at the beginning of a ritual. The outer
circle of the circumscribed pentagram is sometimes interpreted as binding the elements
together or bringing them into harmony with each other.

It has long been a cliché within occult circles that the pentagram, when one point is rising, is
a symbol for the positive principle, and when two points are ascendant it is a symbol for the
negative principle. This is consequent from a claim that the direction of the rays of the
pentagram establish if it represents the good or evil principle: one point up representing order
and light, two points up representing disorder and darkness. The point down pentagram
indicates the individual (microcosm) in a "Solar orientation", meaning not "earth oriented”.
No known graphic associating the pentagram with iniquity appears until the nineteenth
century. The Inquisition of the early 1300s does not appear to have made a connection
between the pentagram and the Knights Templar’s assumed reverence of the Baphomet. It is
only in the later twentieth century, and the foundation of the American Church of Satan, that
the inverted pentagram has become a accepted symbol for Satan.

Satanists use a pentagram with two points up, often inscribed in a double circle, with the head
of a goat inside the pentagram. It is called the Sigil of Baphomet, the God of fertility and
reproduction. The term may have come from two Greek words, baphe and metis, meaning
"absorption of knowledge." It has also been called the Black Goat, Devil's Goat, Goat Head,
Goat of Mendes, and Judas Goat. Its first appearance appears to have been during the sadistic
interrogation of members of the Knights Templar by the Christian Inquisition. The
Pythagorean Greek letters are most often replaced by the Hebrew letters, ‫ לויתן‬forming the
name Leviathan. Less esoteric LaVeyan Satanists use it as a sign of rebellion or religious
identification, the three downward points symbolizing rejection of the holy Trinity. Possibly
due to this the pentagram later became associated with Satanism and subsequently rejected by
most of Christianity sometime in the twentieth century.

However, within traditional forms of Wicca a pentagram with two points up is associated
with the Second Degree Initiation and in this context has no relation to Satanism.