The Pentagram

[1137]

I think that it is safe to say that most (not all) of us associate with the pentagram. In most cases the inverted pentagram. Now, symbols, especially in occultism really have no set meaning, they mean what you apply to them. I am wondering if any of you are willing to share what the pentagram means to you.

For me personally, it changes. Simply it stands for the constant quest for self mastery. I associate it with the golden ratio also, how math and nature, religion and science, can come together in harmony. I never really associated it with elements or anything of the sort.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Good question!

I really am just used to drawing it, if I have a paper and pen and I'm bored, that'll be the first thing I'll draw.

Giving it meaning, I guess it means Hedonism for me.

 

[Kathryn]

From another thread - and I mean no disrespect, I am really curious about what you make of this:

You know what though - I did have a very odd experience a few years ago - about ten years ago, involving a house I was selling (I was a realtor) and a pentagram on the ceiling. The pentagram was drawn on the ceiling by a teenager who seemed to also be very disturbed - he had written all over his walls in permanent ink and highlighter - all sorts of weird, cryptic messages and lyrics from songs. I didn't really think anything of it (the house was vacant) and a team of painters was hired to paint the house since basically the entire house had been trashed by this very disturbed kid (he had also ripped fixtures out of the house as well).

I got a call from the painters who told me that they refused to work in that boy's room anymore because their Kilz paint primer was not working on the pentagram. I was bemused and went by there and was met by a team of very upset painters, who told me that they had tried to paint Kilz primer over the pentagram six different times and that it kept seeping through the primer and they were scared now.

I couldn't believe it. I marched into that room and looked up and sure enough, you could see all the layers of Kilz and you could see the marker seeping through the primer. It seemed to be the same sort of marker that was used all over the room and that had been successfully painted over.

I asked them to please humor me and paint over it one more time. They painted a portion, and within five minutes it had bled back through.

I was stymied.

I had a crucifix in my car (I was Catholic at the time). I went outside, got the crucifix, and marched back into the room and hung the crucifix in the window. I then said the Lord's Prayer out loud and then loudly proclaimed, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to leave this room - you have no right to be here." The painters were all watching me with amazement. I turned to them and said, "There. You should have no problems in here anymore. Please come back in and paint this ceiling."

They did so - the seventh time, and the pentagram was successfully covered.

I did think that was odd - I gotta tell you.

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/paranormal-activities/132630-psychology-kids-seeing-ghosts.html

 

[1137]

From another thread - and I mean no disrespect, I am really curious about what you make of this:



http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/paranormal-activities/132630-psychology-kids-seeing-ghosts.html

No disrespect taken. The mind is extremely powerful, and symbolism has a great affect on the mind which we LHPers take full advantage of. A star drawn on the ceiling has absolutely no power whatsoever except that which it is given. Many people recognized it as an evil and satanic symbol, although that is one of it's newest meanings. Even Christianity has used it. There is no doubt that our minds affect "reality", as all we perceive is subjective. Those painters and believers gave it the power to stay there, a sort of hive mind thinking where everyone in that room gave it the power to do so, projecting their subjective beliefs into "reality". Then, obviously, the person with the crucifix believed it to be evil and less powerful than her symbol, making it useful. Nothing magical about it.

 

[1137]

Good question!

I really am just used to drawing it, if I have a paper and pen and I'm bored, that'll be the first thing I'll draw.

Giving it meaning, I guess it means Hedonism for me.

Haha I draw a point, a line, a triangle, a square, a pentagram, a unicursal hexagram, and then a septagram. I get pretty bored in classes though haha

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Haha I draw a point, a line, a triangle, a square, a pentagram, a unicursal hexagram, and then a septagram. I get pretty bored in classes though haha

I was talking about transverse pentagrams.

Regular pentagrams I don't usually draw, all I think about is Wicca when I see those.

 

[1137]

I was talking about transverse pentagrams.

Regular pentagrams I don't usually draw, all I think about is Wicca when I see those.

I was as well.

Also to everyone, do you wear a pentagram or any other symbols?

 

[Infinitum]

To me the pentagram has come to mean magic, power and freedom. Magic because the use in occult systems, power because of the power it has in our culture (like Kathryn's wonderful example showed) and freedom because of personal reasons, mainly because it's one of those symbols I haven't been able to use to express myself before just some time ago. Nowadays whenever I'm bored and want to doodle a bit, I end up drawing pentagrams. I've also incorporated it in my lesser magic, because for some reason tracing a pentagram inside a circle calms me down and works therefore perfectly as an opening gesture.

I don't have any jewelry with the pentagram, mostly because it feels like it's everywhere already and doesn't need me to carry it around.

 

[Mindmaster]

I was as well.

Also to everyone, do you wear a pentagram or any other symbols?

I wear them, and probably am looking to have one tattooed. Baphomet on the other hand is probably more relevant to Thelemites in my estimation. Likewise, the Seal of Lucifer is more connected to Luciferians than theistic Satanists at this juncture. Strangely enough, in antiquity... The Greek Pythagorean schools and Egyptians (whom as far as we are aware originated the symbol) only ever used it two points up. Western Mysticism has basically been using it wrong way up for awhile, but the pagans have shamelessly stolen it from Golden Dawn, and OTO (of which Gardner was a member..) I am sure they can attribute all sorts of rationale to this decision, but it probably boiled down to it resembling something like a goats head. I think it is sort of funny that inverse means 'two points up' when really it is the other way around.

I think of it more interesting to contemplate the meaning of the pentagram inverted. Upward it is basically a spiritual glyph divine nature, but inverted it is symbolic of self-apotheosis and personal power over nature; hinting primarily at the idea that man is part of Satan and through this spiritual link can master his nature and the surrounding world. As an archetype it never fails to stimulate. I find it interesting that Venus' orbit around the earth (relatively) matches the shape of the pentagram which makes one wonder if the ancients themselves were aware of this association when they identified Lucifer with that planet. Mechanically I am likely to use either as the purpose fits my use -- I do not feel there is any good or bad in nature and or spirit. It remains the only true Satanic symbol as everything else infers a lot of additional concepts that remain completely non-related.

 

[1137]

Mindmaster, are you sure the Egyptians used it? What for?

 

[Mindmaster]

Mindmaster, are you sure the Egyptians used it?

I do not know if they used it directly in their theology, but they certainly were certainly privy to the information due to being associated with Greek scholars at Alexandria. How or if they used it is debatable, but there was a lot of cultural mingling going on. On a historical basis there was nearly complete cross-polination of ideas between these cultures for about three-hundred years before Rome got involved.

 

[Twig pentagram]

POINTING ABOVE;
1= Love & Arm
2= Truth & Leg
3= Peace & Leg
4= Feeedom & Arm
5= Justice & Head


POINTING BELOW;
Earth
Air
Water
Fire
Essence / Energy / Spirit / Source / Deity

 

[blackout]

Funny, Kathryn's example actually demonstrates my own meaning for the pentagram beautifully.

As above- As below
As below- As above

I deliberately turn/depict 'stars' both ways,
up and down,
(and then tip them sideways to boot).
This must be the discordian/chaote in me.

If I wear one, I wear one of each,
one up, one down,
side by side
or overlayed.

You might say that one is 'seer' and the other 'initiator'.

We 'see'
and then 'initiate'

We 'initiate'
and then we 'look again'

It's a bit like breathing in what surrounds us
and breathing out Self.

We see as we believe,
we believe as we see.
We act as we believe,
we believe as we act.


Life is cyclical and interactive.
We live in relation/relationship
to all that surrounds us.

We are the Stars of our own subjective UniVerses.
The World is our Set.

The upright star reminds me to think and see with intuitive clarity,
free of taboo and mass conditioning.

The downward star inspires me to act with resolve, confidence,
and focus of personal will.

Mine really is the ten pointed star.

As well, I really like to think of mySelf as 'Ambidextrous'.
Not "left handed".

I once called mine the "At Hand Path" on the forum.

TBH, the thought of such path, in'spires me like no other.
This morning, I have decided to Own it.

I walk the At Hand Path,
(or the 'Ambidextrous' Path)
and I embody the 10 pointed star.

"coined" and "cast".

It's very me.

 

[blackout]

POINTING ABOVE;
1= Love & Arm
2= Truth & Leg
3= Peace & Leg
4= Feeedom & Arm
5= Justice & Head


POINTING BELOW;
Earth
Air
Water
Fire
Essence / Energy / Spirit / Source / Deity

I like that. :rainbow1:

I think maybe yours is the 10 pointed star as well Twig.

 

[blackout]

On second thought,
it's not really a ten pointed star,
but a pentagram SET.

Two stars,
Two hands.

Even when I overlay the two stars,
I make sure each one is distinctly visible from the other.

I guess then it's the 'double pentagram'?
One for each hand.
Right and Left.


'on the other hand'.... for discordians.

 

[blackout]

Heh. I don a Pentagram Set,
instead of a Set Pentagram.

 

[Iti oj]

it was never my thing. even from the start. I was all like **** that ima use a circle and thus it was so. Recently i have been considering using them for the mindsets that come with.

 

[Sylvan]

My use of pentagrams and thoughts about them and "handedness" very much match UltraViolet's, actually uncannily so, although I usually don't wear them as jewelry.

One thing that I bet not a lot of you were aware of is that in Alexandrian craft and a lot of coven lineages descended from it (such as the one i was initiated into) the so-called inverse pentagram was worn during the entire 2nd degree. It was only after the 3rd degree that you got to flip it around again. I doubt a lot of modern wiccans know this either, as willful ignorance of history appears to be a popular trait.

 

[Gjallarhorn]

It usually just means "power" or "change" to me. I typically draw it upside down. It seems more aesthetically pleasing that way.

 

[Adramelek]

Mindmaster, are you sure the Egyptians used it? What for?

The Egyptians Understood mathematics and geometry and used the pentagram which is the perfect embodiment of the phi ratio in the architecture of the pyramids.

I personally only use the inverse pentagram which symbolizes to me creation and change. The Pentagram of Set which is an inverse pentragram encompassed within a circle, but whose five points do not touch the circle symbolizing the psyche or the Essence of the Black Flame as distinct and seperate from the laws of the natural order. During ritual workings the Pentagram also serves as a focal point and becomes as a gateway linking my mind with the mind of Set, and linking my subjective universe with the objective universe. I also use the pentagram whose five points pierce through and outside of the circle, which symbolizes that the Powers of Darkness transcend the laws of the Order of the Cosmos. To me, the Pentagram is the most powerful of all Magical symbols.

The Book of Coming Forth by Night:
"When I (Set) came first to this world I gave to you my great Pentagram, symbol of timeless measure of beauty through proportion. And it was shown inverse, that creation and change be exalted above stasis and rest...

The Setian need conjure neither curse nor kindness from me, for by the magic of my great Pentagram I shall see with his eyes, and the strength that is mine shall be the strength of the Setian, and against the Will of Set no creature of the Universe may stand."

Xeper.
/Adramelek\