The Pentagram is one of the most powerful and emotion provoking religious symbols found today. Although associated with Pagan religions of today the history of the pentagram dates back thousands of years. The earliest known use of the symbol was found in ancient Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C.. It was used as an imperial symbol and later by rulers to tell that their power reached the Four Corners of the known world. The Pyhagoreans considered it a symbol of perfection. To the Gnostics, calling it the Blazing Star, the pentagram like the crescent moon, was associated with magic and the mysteries of the night sky.
The Hebrews associated the five points of the pentagram to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible which represented the whole truth. It is sometimes mistaken for the Star of David or the Seal of Solomon, both of which are made by two interlocking triangles.
The Pentagram also made an appearance in early Christianity. Until medieval times, the five points of the pentagram represented the five wounds of Christ on the Holy Cross. In medieval times the symbol was used to represent truth and protection from demons and was referred to as the Endless Knot. Worn as personal protection and to guard windows and doors. During these times the pentagram carried no evil implications instead it was considered to respresent truth, religious mysticism and the work of the Divine Creator.
Constantine, the Roman Emperor who converted to Christianity, chose to use the pentagram on his personal seal and amulet. The church that grew from the takeover of the Roman Empire by Constantine chose to use the now familiar cross as the symbol for Christianity.
The first association of evil came when a defrock French Catholic deacon , Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), who took the name of Eliphas Levi associated the double points down with positive magic and one point down with negative.
The Baphomet was adopted as the official symbol of the Church of Satan founded by Anton Szandor La Vay in 1966. It is important to note that not all inverted pentagrams represent the Church of Satan, you will see it used by the Eastern Star, the woman's division of the Masons, in some Wiccans traditions as a sign of second degree initiation, even in our own countries distinguished Medal of Honor.
The concept of the microcosmic world of Man as analogous to the macrocosm, the greater universe of spirit and elemental matter became a part of traditional western occult teaching, as it had long been in eastern philosophies." As above, so below" The pentagram, the 'Star of the Microcosm', symbolized Man within the microcosm, representing in analogy the Macrocosmic universe.
The upright pentagram bears some resemblance to the shape of man with his legs and arms outstretched. In Tycho Brahe's Calendarium Naturale Magicum Perpetuum (1582)occurs a pentagram with human body imposed and the Hebrew for YHSVH associated with the elements.
During the Inquisition of Europe the church in its attempt to eliminate Christian heretics and later all followers of the Old Religion, linked the pentagram and all those associated with it to evil. They associated the horned Gods of the peasants with evil (due to the drawing of the Baphomet a horned goat by Levi) and thus the followers of the Old Religion, those knowledgeable in the healing arts and herbs took their ways underground. Staying underground the traditions and ways of old were passed from one to another by word of mouth. In time, the ficticious deity that the church created became known as "Lucifer" And the pentagram is still sometimes mistaken by the profane as associated with this man-made advisary.
Today a Pentacle which has a circle surrounding the upright five pointed, interlaced star, has become the symbol of Wicca and Neo-Paganism. The top most point symbolizes Spirit and the next four each of the elements, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Point up, symblizes the positive, and is considered to represent the mastery of mind/spirit over matter, while point down being negative, represents spirit is still being ruled by the physical plane.
