- Related Topics:
- modern Paganism
- golden ratio
- symbol
- the number five
pentagram
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What is a pentagram?
A pentagram is a five-pointed star typically drawn with a continuous line of five segments. It has served as a symbol in different contexts, including magic and the occult, throughout history.
Its meaning has varied significantly, representing protection, perfection, the Devil, and humanity, among other things. The pentagram has been used for thousands of years. It appeared in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia tombs and seals, as well as on Greek coins. The Greek mathematician Pythagoras and his followers used the pentagram as a symbol, possibly for identification. Some believe the Pythagoreans saw it as a symbol of health and knowledge.
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How is a pentagram drawn or formed?
A pentagram, a five-pointed star, is typically drawn using a continuous line with five straight segments. Throughout history, it has served as a symbol in various contexts, including magic and the occult.
Its significance has varied, representing protection, perfection, the Devil, and humanity, among other things. The pentagram's segments exhibit the golden ratio, potentially contributing to its aesthetic appeal.
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What are some ways pentagrams have been used as symbols?
The pentagram, a five-pointed star, has served diverse symbolic roles throughout history.
- Ancient times It appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia tombs and seals and on Greek coins. Followers of Pythagoras saw it as a symbol of health and knowledge and as a way to recognize each other. It may have also been generally used to ward off evil.
- Middle Ages In Europe, it represented the five knightly virtues and served as a defense against evil spirits and witches.
- More recently It has been used to symbolize humanity, good, evil, and protection. In Neo-Pagan religions like Wicca, the five points can represent the elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit.
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What meanings has the pentagram had in different cultures or religions?
The pentagram, a five-pointed star formed by five continuous lines, has varied meanings across cultures and religions.
- Ancient Greece For Pythagoras and his followers, the pentagram was a symbol of health and knowledge, and a way for them to recognize each other. It also warded off evil and was featured on coins.
- Medieval Europe Represented the five knightly virtues and defended against evil spirits.
- Islamic cultures Known as Solomon’s seal, its points symbolize love, truth, peace, freedom, and justice.
- Baháʼí Faith Known as the haykal, meaning "temple" or "body".
- Christianity Symbolized the five wounds of Christ and the Star of Bethlehem.
- Neo-Pagan religions (Especially Wicca) Represents the five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. It symbolizes masculine and feminine, and is used for protection and to invoke spirits.
- Church of Satan The inverted pentagram is associated with the sigil of Baphomet and symbolizes "black" magic.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why do some people associate pentagrams with magic or protection?
The pentagram, a five-pointed star, has been linked to magic and protection across history due to its varied symbolism.
In medieval Europe, pentagrams represented the five knightly virtues and warded off evil spirits and witches. Modern Neo-Pagan religions, especially Wicca, use the pentagram (often within a circle, called a pentacle) to symbolize the elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. Many Wiccans view the pentagram as a symbol of protection used to invoke or banish spirits.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
pentagram, a five-pointed star, usually drawn by using one continuous line of five straight segments. It has been used throughout history as a symbol, often in magic or the occult. Its meaning has varied wildly over time, and it has functioned as a symbol of protection, of perfection, of the Devil, and of humanity, among others. Mathematically, the segments of the pentagram exhibit the golden ratio, which perhaps makes the figure especially aesthetically pleasing.
The pentagram has been in use for thousands of years. In ancient times it was featured in tombs and seals of Egypt and Mesopotamia and coins of Greece. The pentagram was a symbol of the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras and his disciples, probably in part as a way for followers to recognize each other. Some sources say the Pythagoreans regarded it as a symbol of health and knowledge, and in some depictions the Greek letters for the word “health” are placed at its points. It may also have been used by the Greeks and others generally as a symbol to ward off evil, and it has been seen in pottery of the ancient kingdom of Judaea, maybe as a mark of tax collectors.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, pentagrams were used as a symbol of the five knightly virtues. In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the titular Sir Gawain wears a golden pentagram on both his shawl and his shield as a mark of his virtue, loyalty, and kindness. Pentagrams were also used to defend against witches, evil spirits, and demons.
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In the 16th century, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim published a version of the pentagram that symbolized man as a perfected work of God, with head, hands, and feet representing the five points and symbols of the five (known) planets around them. The French occultist Éliphas Lévi in the 19th century expanded on this concept with the “tetragrammaton pentagram,” which includes a variety of symbols that represent human existence. In addition to planetary and astrological symbols, this pentagram includes symbols of the four elements and Hebrew letters. The pentagram was also used by the Freemasons, who sometimes placed a G in the centre for gnosis, generation, and the Grand Architect. A history of the Freemasons from the late 19th century notes the variety of uses—as a symbol of man, a demon, protection, magic, and others.
Pentagrams have also been used in a variety of religious contexts. Among Muslims the pentagram is known as Solomon’s seal, and its five points are regarded in at least one tradition as representing love, truth, peace, freedom, and justice, respectively. It is also the official symbol of the Bahāʾī Faith, though not its most prevalent. For the Bahāʾī it is sometimes called the haykal, which means “temple” or “body” in Arabic. Among Christians it has symbolized the five wounds of Christ—his hands and feet punctured by the Crucifixion and his side pierced by a soldier’s spear—as well as the Star of Bethlehem and Christ himself.
In modern times the pentagram is most often associated with Neo-Pagan religions, especially Wicca. It is often depicted enclosed in a circle, a symbol known as a pentacle. In these traditions the five points often represent the five elements of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. For Wiccans the pentagram may also symbolize masculine and feminine, or the Triple Goddess (three points) and the Horned God (two points). Many Neo-Pagans consider the pentagram a symbol of protection and may use it to invoke or banish spirits. The pentacle is the approved symbol of the Wiccan faith to be used on headstones in U.S. government cemeteries.
Sometimes the inverted figure of the pentagram, with two points facing upward and one facing down, is associated with negative or “black” magic and devil worship. Indeed, the inverted pentagram figures in the sigil of Baphomet, one of the main symbols of the Church of Satan, an atheistic organization that evokes in its imagery the Devil as viewed in Christianity but does not worship any god or being or require that its members perform any rituals, magical or otherwise. The sigil of Baphomet depicts a goat with its horns in the upturned points of the star. This likely stems from the 19th-century European revival of occult studies, during which time it was held that a pentagram with one point facing upward symbolized ascendance, God, and supremacy of the spirit and a pentagram with one point facing downward symbolized Satan, infernalism (everlasting torment), and descent of the spirit. This is perhaps why in Wicca the pentagram is most often depicted with one point facing upward.
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