What does a pentagram mean?

Historically, protection, by way of a line drawn without lifting the pen so that the figure has no opening. Before that it was a Mesopotamian sign for a quarter or corner of the heavens, and a Pythagorean token of recognition. It has also carried Christian and elemental meanings at different times, and since the mid twentieth century it has been the principal religious emblem of Wicca and modern Paganism.

Is an upside-down pentagram evil?

That reading dates to the mid nineteenth century and to Éliphas Lévi in particular. Before then the direction was largely incidental and medieval examples point whichever way the space allowed. Some modern groups use the point-down form deliberately, in senses ranging from the entirely benign to the intentionally transgressive.

What is the difference between a pentagram and a pentacle?

In common modern use, a pentagram is the star and a pentacle is the star inside a circle. In older magical literature a pentacle is any consecrated engraved disc, whatever figure is on it, which is worth remembering when reading grimoires.

Why is the pentagram associated with Solomon?

Because medieval and Renaissance magical texts attributed a large collection of seals and diagrams to Solomon, on the strength of the legend that he commanded spirits with a ring. Both the pentagram and the hexagram were folded into that literature, and both are called the Seal of Solomon in different sources.

Is a pentagram safe to wear?

It is an ordinary protective sign with a long history, and there is nothing in the tradition that makes wearing one hazardous. The practical consideration is social rather than magical: in some places it will be read as a specific religious statement.

Talismans · Signs and seals

The pentagram

Also called: Pentalpha, pentacle, Drudenfuss

Five lines drawn without lifting the pen, so the figure closes on itself and nothing gets in.

At a glance

Shape: A five-pointed star drawn in one unbroken line
Earliest use: Mesopotamian UB sign, 3rd millennium BCE
Greek name: Pentalpha
German name: Drudenfuss, the hag's foot
Point up: Spirit over matter, the standard protective form
Pentacle: The star set inside a circle

What makes it work

The pentagram is drawn in a single continuous stroke that crosses itself five times and returns to where it started. That is the whole of its magical logic in most of the traditions that use it. A closed line has no gap, and a figure with no gap cannot be entered.

The German folk name says it outright: Drudenfuss, the foot of the Drude, a night-hag that presses on sleepers. Carved on a bedpost, a cradle or a threshold, the star was there to catch the creature in the line and hold it. The same reasoning appears in the endless-knot charms of northern Europe and in the labyrinth scratched at a door.

Where it comes from

Five-pointed stars appear in Mesopotamian cuneiform from the third millennium BCE as the UB sign, used for a corner or a quarter and by extension for the four quarters of heaven, without the later protective meaning. The Pythagoreans, several thousand years later, used the pentalpha as a token of recognition between members of the sect and were interested in the fact that its internal proportions are governed by the golden ratio.

Medieval Europe attached it to Solomon, along with the hexagram, and to the five wounds of Christ. Sir Gawain carries it on his shield in the fourteenth-century poem, where the poet spends thirty lines explaining that its virtue is that it is endless. Renaissance magic put it into circles and gave the points elemental assignments, and nineteenth-century French occultism completed the scheme with spirit at the top. Its final shift came in the mid twentieth century, when it became the principal religious emblem of Wicca and modern Paganism.

Up, down, and the argument

The idea that a star pointing up is good and one pointing down is evil is recent and is largely one man's doing. Éliphas Lévi, writing in the mid nineteenth century, described the reversed pentagram as the sign of the goat and of inverted order, and the reading stuck hard enough that a great deal of the modern world now treats it as a fact.

Before that, direction was mostly incidental. Medieval carvings and manuscript diagrams point the star whichever way the space allows. Some modern traditions use the point-down form for entirely non-sinister purposes, and some religious groups have adopted it deliberately.

For amuletic use, point up is the standard, and it is what almost every historical protective example shows.

Pentagram and pentacle

The two words are used loosely. The commonest modern convention is that a pentagram is the star and a pentacle is the star enclosed in a circle, worn as a disc.

The older sense of pentacle is broader and has nothing necessarily to do with five: in the grimoire literature a pentacle is any consecrated disc or diagram engraved with signs and names, of which the Solomonic seals are the best-known set. If you are reading a pre-modern text, take pentacle to mean a disc rather than a star, and check the diagram.

How a pentagram is drawn and used

The drawing rules are the substance of the tradition; the material is not.

Draw it in one unbroken stroke, without lifting the pen or the knife, and close the line where it began.
Point it up for protective use. This is what almost every surviving carved and inscribed example does.
Carve or scratch it at the entrance to a space: a threshold, a bedpost, a cradle, a barn door.
Enclose it in a circle if you want the disc form, which is what most worn pentacles are.
Do not leave a gap. The whole claim rests on the line being continuous, and a broken star is treated as void.

In contemporary use the pentagram is a religious emblem for Wiccans and other Pagans, and is protected as such in several countries. Treat a worn one as a statement of faith rather than as decoration.

What the pentagram belongs with

The signs it sits beside and the purposes it served.

Questions for reflection

The star's power is that the line never ends. What else in your life gets its strength from having no gap?
One nineteenth-century author changed how a five-thousand-year-old sign is read. How much of what you know about symbols is that recent?
Would you carve a protective mark somewhere permanent, or does a charm need to be removable?

Frequently asked questions

: Historically, protection, by way of a line drawn without lifting the pen so that the figure has no opening. Before that it was a Mesopotamian sign for a quarter or corner of the heavens, and a Pythagorean token of recognition. It has also carried Christian and elemental meanings at different times, and since the mid twentieth century it has been the principal religious emblem of Wicca and modern Paganism.
: That reading dates to the mid nineteenth century and to Éliphas Lévi in particular. Before then the direction was largely incidental and medieval examples point whichever way the space allowed. Some modern groups use the point-down form deliberately, in senses ranging from the entirely benign to the intentionally transgressive.
: In common modern use, a pentagram is the star and a pentacle is the star inside a circle. In older magical literature a pentacle is any consecrated engraved disc, whatever figure is on it, which is worth remembering when reading grimoires.
: Because medieval and Renaissance magical texts attributed a large collection of seals and diagrams to Solomon, on the strength of the legend that he commanded spirits with a ring. Both the pentagram and the hexagram were folded into that literature, and both are called the Seal of Solomon in different sources.
: It is an ordinary protective sign with a long history, and there is nothing in the tradition that makes wearing one hazardous. The practical consideration is social rather than magical: in some places it will be read as a specific religious statement.

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