(Struggle Sounds)
What is this?
It's the price paying for stepping inside the pentagram
So we're the trapped inside the circle?
Yes
[Music]
Look at that
Yeah what about it?
It's a five-pointed star
Oh come on! Surely this isn't a sign from the universe to make a pentagram video
Hey Look! A Pentagram
All right that does it...
There are many symbols in the world and throughout history that can invoke a myriad of emotions.
Symbols can inspire us, they can provide comfort, they can instill in us hope, joy, love and perhaps
even a sense of belonging. But then, there are also symbols that can do quite the opposite,
eliciting panic, dread and fear. One such symbol that comes under such scrutiny is indeed
the pentagram - something that has since been twisted into something wicked and even demonic.
Indeed, it is true that the meaning behind any symbol can drastically
change throughout history - the swastika once believed to be Buddha’s footprint and
a sign of a spiritual savior did become the official symbol of the Nazi party,
The Eye of Providence, thought to be representative of the all seeing eye
of God has since become the conspiracy theorist’s idea of the Illuminati. Even seemingly innocent
hand symbols can become expressions of white supremacy. Indeed, symbols are always changing
throughout time, and the pentagram is a pretty good example of this - a symbol
that was once used by the Greeks to represent Pythagoras, but is now used to signify Satan.
I blame Hollywood, mostly. Indeed, there are connections between the pentagram and the
Church of Satan - most notably, the Sigil of Baphomet which we’ll talk about later,
but the way some horror movies throw around the pentagram, you’d think it was going out in style.
Often, it’s not even integral to the plot - it’s just kinda thrown in there like overly dramatic
trite and then they expect us the viewer to gasp and shudder that Satan has left his calling card.
Interestingly, I’ve noticed a lot of directors just shoehorn in random demonic images in an
effort to build up their big bad villain, which is perfectly fine for an audience
who don’t know much about demonology, but for me it breaks the immersion, damn it!
But in any case, I can appreciate what they’re trying to do, but the demonic pentagram is a
cliche I can no longer abide by. But since we’re on the subject, let’s explore the history of the
pentagram and see if we can determine how much influence Satan actually has behind it.
First things first, what is a pentagram? A pentagram is simply known as a five pointed
star shape, drawn with a continuous line through five straight segments. Drawing a circle around
the five points can create a brand new symbol however; the pentacle, which is used by those
associated with the practice of Wicca, which is also something we’ll be getting into later.
As for its etymology, the word pentagram comes from the Greek ‘pentagrammon’ - penta
(pente) meaning ‘five’ and gramm (gramme) meaning line.
One of the earliest uses of the pentagrammon was by Pythagoras and his disciples, some time
around the year 540 before the common era. The purpose of the shape isn’t exactly agreed upon,
though a common suggestion is that mathematically, the segments of the pentagram demonstrate
Pythagoras’ golden ratio, thus making it quite an aesthetically pleasing shape.
Another concept is that Pythagoras’ followers, the Pythagoreans, used the
symbol as a means to recognise each other - a sort of sign of allegiance, if you will.
Ironically, whilst the pentagram has now become a sign of evil in modern Hollywood and perhaps,
modern times, to the ancient Greeks it may have been used as a sign to ward off evil, as well as
a possible artistic choice given that it has since been found on pottery from that era. To
the Greeks, in conjunction with the golden ratio, the pentagram may have been sign for perfection.
However, the pentagram has actually seen use in civilizations even older than the
Greeks - most notably the Mesoptamians when we consider the goddess Ishtar.
Pentagrams - or eight pointed stars - were thought to be representative of this prominent Goddess,
whose realm of influence extended to love, war and sexuality. The star was also believed
to be associated with the heavens or Venus. There are also accounts of slaves who worked
in Ishtar’s temples being branded with the star symbol during Babylonian times.
Another symbol often associated with Inanna are the knot of reeds that represent the doorpost of a
storehouse - that which was thought of as a symbol of fertility. A rosette - a round flowery design
was also commonly associated with Ishtar and would eventually replace the star as her primary symbol.
By the middle ages, the pentagram had taken on a more religious meaning - serving as both
a visual representation of the five senses, but also as the Five Sacred wounds of Christ.
According to Catholicism, Jesus suffered five piercing wounds during his crucifixion and as the
pentagram maintained five points, there was some affinity established between the two. In a way,
the pentagram could be seen in the middle ages with the same reverence that one may see
the cross today - both of which are symbolic for the crucifixion itself and for Jesus’ sacrifice.
By the Renaissance period between the 14th and 16th century, the pentagram
began to get a bit more notoriety. German occult writer Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Von Nettesheim wrote in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy that the pentagram was a
magical symbol - a sentiment that was echoed by other contemporary occult writers at the time.
Yet still, it wasn’t considered to be an evil or Satanic symbol, it just happened to gain a
more mystical effect courtesy of writers that were fascinated or intrigued by its design.
On the topic of occult writers, and perhaps where the pentagram began to get its more
ominous connotation, we should acknowledge the 19th century poet Eliphas Levi Zahed,
an author of several magical books and alchemical studies.
What Levi came up with was that when the pentagram was positioned with its single point upwards,
it was still a magical symbol - possibly even a good omen or a symbol one might feel empowered
by when we consider the earlier Catholic use. However, Levi continued that when the single
point of the pentagram faced downwards - that’s when it became a symbol of evil. He is quoted in
his book Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual as saying ‘A reversed pentagram,
with two points projecting upwards, is a symbol of evil and attracts sinister forces because
it overturns the proper order of things and demonstrates the triumph of matter over spirit.
It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns, a sign execrated by initiates.’
Levi’s ideas on the pentagram were so intriguing, that it even inspired the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn, a society dedicated to the study of the occult and metaphysics, to incorporate such
beliefs into their own rituals. Known simply as the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, the ceremonial
ritual features in the order of the Golden Dawn as something of a gateway to other magical works and
can serve as an initiation to members before they advance up the hierarchy of the order.
The ritual is believed to include drawing the pentagram in the air,
as well as using visualization and certain words and prayers to banish impure or negative energies.
In some instances, the ‘magician’s circle’, which is also drawn on the ground in the
form of a pentacle might also be used in conjunction with the summoning of archangels,
all of which can be used again to banish or even invoke energies.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is still in operation today and the Lesser Ritual of
the Pentagram, as well as the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram are still practiced.
So, indeed - you’ll find that though the pentagram has earned itself a bit of a dark reputation,
there are those who still value it as a good sign and even find it useful.
In fact, the use of the Pentagram by the Golden Dawn is actually just the tip of the iceberg.
When we look at the Baháʼí Faith, a religion founded in the 19th century in Iran that
teaches the basic concept of unification of all religions and people, the pentagram once again
has a more wholesome use. It is believed that the pentagram, known simply as the ‘five pointed
star’ is used by the Báb- that is, the messianic founder, to deliver his message - those which
are written in the shape of a pentagram. The pentagram, also known as the Haykal,
is believed to be representative of the human body itself with the top point being the human head,
the second parallel points being the arms and the last two parallel points being the legs.
The pentagram has since made its way into Neo Pagan religions, most notably Wicca, where the
pentagram (with a circle drawn around it making it a pentacle) has been adopted. The pentacle in
this belief system is believed to represent good vs evil, but it can be more commonly seen as a
symbol of faith. Each point on the star can also be representative of the five elements,
earth, water, fire, air and spirit, whilst the circle encapsulating the star can be seen as the
universe. In other traditions, the pentacle may also represent the masculine and the feminine,
or may even have spiritual function, serving to banish negative spirits.
This brings us to our last major use of the pentagram and probably where most
horror movies decide to trigger the audience into saying (SATAN). It’s the Satanic church.
Now, I won’t be going too much into the Satanic church and its many variations - a
lot of which aren’t actually as foreboding as it actually sounds. But I will be homing
in on the Satanic use of the Pentagram and how it is indeed flipped upside down,
which according to Eliphas Levi would be exemplary of good on the bottom and evil
on top - the horns of the devil, if you will, pointing up towards the heavens.
Put very simply, theistic satanists do believe in the actual devil and essentially worship him as a
deity or a supernatural entity, in which case, this symbol may have some affinity with people
of such communities. However, because there isn’t an officially organized ‘religion’ of
these theistic Satanists per say, not all of them recognise the upside down pentagram as a
symbol of identification, nor would they necessarily have an association with it.
On the other hand, you have nontheistic Satanists, those like the LaVeyan Satanists of the Church of
Satan - those who don’t actually believe in the devil or worship him, but instead use the devil as
a kind of a metaphor, where many of his traits are are considered positive - such as pride,
carnality and a certain rebelliousness. These worshippers actually reject the idea
of the supernatural deities, religion and even life after death, and so yes, whilst a
‘church of Satan’ may sound quite provocative, it’s actually not spiritually menacing at all.
The use of the Pentacle here by the Church of Satan is probably where the
shape got its demonic reputation from. As mentioned, according to Eliphas Levi,
the pentagram is upside down, which going by tradition has come to demonstrate disorder,
imbalance and the triumph of evil over good. But additionally, the three downward points
of the pentacle could also be considered as the rejection of the holy trinity. But to
make matters even more convoluted - and pretty ominous - the Church of Satan decided to tweak
the symbol which would become their official insignia, by adding the goat’s head of Baphomet.
Who is Baphomet, I hear you ask…
Put simply, Baphomet was a deity that was apparently worshiped by the Knights Templar.
Since then, the deity has become absorbed by various occult communities where it is
now a symbol of balance. Now, it didn’t always start that way and we cannot be sure just how
Baphomet was being worshiped by the Templars - or if they even did worship him, but in 1856,
this illustration was made of Baphomet which considering the symmetry of the image has come
to represent the equilibrium of opposites. You’ll notice that the figure is half human and half
animal, it appears to be both male and female, it points up and it points down - presumably good and
bad - as above, so below, if you will. This all seems pretty random, but when you consider the
artist of this piece was none other than our boy Eliphas Levi, well it kinda all ties in.
Because Levi proposed that Baphomet represented perfect social order, the deity’s face was
effectively slapped on the pentagram and used as the official insignia of the Church of Satan.
Now to anyone on the outside looking in, because Baphomet has a goat for a head and because Satan
is commonly depicted as a goat, it’s very easy to mistakenly conflate the two. Throw in an
upside down pentagram that represents evil (and probably carved into someone’s back) and boom,
you have the perfect recipe for a cliche horror movie. But is Hollywood the only
culprit to blame for this misrepresentation of the pentacle? Well, no actually…
The biggest rise of LaVeyan Satanism during the 1970s and 80s happened to come about when
serial killer cases were being highly publicized and those who ‘killed’ in the name of Satan, or
who promoted this idea of Satan and the pentacle only helped to further condemn the symbol by its
association. Christian fundamentalists, as well as the news broadcasts at the time were fanning the
flames against Satanism and connecting the many violent murders of the time to Satanic cults. This
of course had the effect of causing the pentacle to become vilified, abhorred and even feared - so
it makes sense why some horror movies are so quick to play the pentacle card, because even today
the idea of such a symbol still suffers residual damage from its tarnishing some 40 years earlier.
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Until next time.