The pentagram has long been associated with mystery and magic. It is the simplest form of star shape that can be drawn unicursally, with a single line, hence it is sometimes called the Endless Knot. Other names are the Goblin's Cross, the Pentalpha, the Witch's Foot, the Devil's Star and the Seal of Solomon (more correctly attributed to the hexagram).

It has long been believed to be a potent protection against evil and demons, hence a symbol of safety, and was sometimes worn as an amulet for happy homecoming. The old folk‑song : "Green Grow the Rushes, O!" refers to the use of the pentagram above doors and windows in the line: " Five is the symbol at your door."

The potency and associations of the pentagram have evolved throughout history. Today it is an ubiquitous symbol of Neo‑Pagans with much depth of magickal and symbolic meaning.

The Pentagram Through History

The pentagram symbol today is ascribed many meanings and deep significance, though much of this is very recent. However, it has been used throughout history and in many contexts:

The earliest known use of the pentagram dates back to around the Uruk period around 3500BC at Ur of the Chaldees in Ancient Mesopotamia where it was found on potsherds together with other signs of the period associated with the earliest known developments of written language. In later periods of Mesopotamian art, the pentagram was used in royal inscriptions and was symbolic of imperial power extending out to "the four corners of the world". Amongst the Hebrews, the symbol was ascribed to Truth and to the five books of the Pentateuch. It is sometimes, incorrectly, called the Seal of Solomon (see Hexagram) though its usage was in parallel with the hexagram. In Ancient Greece, it was called the Pentalpha, being geometrically composed of five A's. Unlike earlier civilizations, the Greeks did not generally attribute other symbolic meanings to the letters of their alphabet, but certain symbols became connected with Greek letter shapes or positions (eg Gammadion, Alpha‑Omega). The geometry of the pentagram and its metaphysical associations were explored by the Pythagoreans (after Pythagoras 586‑506BC) who considered it an emblem of perfection. Together with other discovered knowledge of geometric figures and proportion, it passed down into post‑Hellenic art where the golden proportion may be seen in the designs of some temples.

 Early Christians attributed the pentagram to the Five Wounds of Christ and from then until medieval times, it was a lesser‑used Christian symbol. Prior to the time of the Inquisition, there were no evil associations to the pentagram. Rather its form implied Truth, Religious Mysticism and the work of The Creator. The Emperor Constantine I who, after gaining the help of the Christian church in his military and religious takeover of the Roman Empire in 312 AD, used the pentagram, together with the chi‑rho symbol (a symbolic form of cross) in his seal and amulet.

However, it was the cross (a symbol of suffering) rather than the pentagram (a symbol of truth) that was used as a symbol by the Church which subsequently came to power and who's manifest destiny was to usurp the supreme power of the Roman Empire.

The annual church feast of Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the three Magi to the infant Jesus as well as the Church's mission to bring truth to the Gentiles had as its symbol the pentagram, (although in present times the symbol has been changed to a five‑pointed star in reaction to the Neo‑Pagan use of the pentagram).

In the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the pentagram was Sir Gawain's glyph, inscribed in gold on his shield, symbolizing the five knightly virtues ‑ generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety.

In Medieval times, the Endless Knot was a symbol of Truth and was a protection against demons. It was used as an amulet of personal protection and to guard windows and doors. The pentagram with one point upwards symbolized summer; with two points upwards, it was a sign for winter.

During the long period of the Inquisition, there was much promulgation of lies and accusations in the interests of orthodoxy and elimination of heresy. The Church lapsed into a long period of the very diabolism it sought to oppose. The pentagram was seen to symbolize a Goat's Head or the Devil in the form of Baphomet and it was Baphomet whom the Inquisition accused the Templars of worshipping.

The Dominicans of the Inquisition moved their attention from the Christian heretics to the Pagan Witches, to those who only paid lip‑ service to Christianity but still followed an Old Religion and to the wise‑ ones amongst them. In the purge on Witches, other horned Gods such as Pan became equated with the Devil (a Christian concept) and the pentagram, the folk symbol of security, for the first time in history, was equated with evil and was called the Witch's Foot.

The Old Religion and its symbols went underground, in fear of the Church's persecution, and there it stayed, gradually withering, for centuries.

After The Inquisition

In the foundation of Hermeticism, in hidden societies of craftsmen and scholarly men, away from the eyes of the Church and its paranoia, the proto‑science of alchemy developed along with its occult philosophy and cryptical symbolism. Graphical and geometric symbolism became very important and the period of the Renaissance emerged.

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. An illustration attributed to Brae's contemporary Agrippa (Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim) is of similar proportion and shows the five planets and the moon, at the center point, the genitalia. Other illustrations of the period by Robert Fludd and Leonardo da Vinci show geometric relationships of man to the universe.

Later, the pentagram came to be symbolic of the relationship of the head to the four limbs and hence of the pure concentrated essence of anything (or the spirit) to the four traditional elements of matter, earth, water, air and fire ‑ spirit is The Quintessence.

 In Freemasonry, Man as Microprosopus was and is associated with the five‑pointed Pentalpha. The symbol was used, interlaced and upright for the sitting Master of the Lodge. The geometric properties and structure of the Endless Knot were appreciated and symbolically incorporated into the 72 degree angle of the compasses, the Masonic emblem of virtue and duty. The origins of freemasonry are lost in the depths of history, obscured by the traditional Craft secrecy of the order, but there are signs throughout history of the associations of craftsmanship and ritual and symbolism that have remained known only to a few, and the history of the pentagram has remained occluded in the same kind of mystery. The women's branch of freemasonry uses the five pointed Eastern Star with two points up as its emblem. Each point commemorates a heroine of biblical lore.

No known graphical illustration associating the pentagram with evil appears until the nineteenth century. Eliphaz Levi Zahed (actually the pen name of Alphonse Louis Constant, a defrocked French Catholic Abbé) illustrates the upright pentagram of microcosmic man beside an inverted pentagram with the goat's head of Baphomet. It is this illustration and juxtaposition that has led to the concept of different orientations of the pentagram being good and evil.

Against the rationalism of the 18th century came a reaction in the 19th century with the growth of a new mysticism owing much to the Holy Qabalah, the ancient oral tradition of Judaism relating the cosmogony of God and the universe and the moral and occult truths of their relationship to Man. It is not so much a religion as a system of understanding based upon symbolism and the numerical and alphabetical interrelationships of words and concepts, the Gematria.

The Golden Dawn did much to advance and disseminate the roots of modern Hermetic Qabalah around the world in its time of strength (from 1888 to around the start of the First World War), and through the writings and work of a number of its adepts and adherents have come some of the most important ideas of today's Qabalist philosophy and magick.

In the 1940's Gerald Gardner adopted the pentagram with two points upward as the sigil of second degree initiation in the newly emergent, Neo‑Pagan rituals of Witchcraft, later to become known as Wicca. The one‑point upward pentagram together with the upright triangle symbolized third degree initiation. (A point downwards triangle is the symbol of First Degree Initiates)

Today

It was not until the late 1960's that the pentagram again became an amuletic symbol to be worn. Co‑incidentally with the rise of popular interest in Witchcraft and Wicca and the publication of many books (including several novels) on the subject, there was a reaction to the Church.

In its extreme, one aspect of that reaction was in the establishment of the satanic cult ‑ The Church of Satan ‑ by Anton LaVay. For its emblem, this cult adopted the inverted pentagram after the Baphomet image of Eliphas Levi. The reaction of the Christian church was to condemn as evil all who took the pentalpha as a symbol and even to condemn the symbol itself, much as had been the post‑war attitude to the swastika.

The distinction between the point‑upwards and point‑downwards pentagram forms became accentuated in the minds of Pagans and led to the concepts of white Witchcraft and black. Those who took on board the strong personal ethical code of Wicca, the Wiccan Rede of "An it harm none, do what you will" did not wish to be tarred with the same brush as the Satanists who's philosophy is one of the domination of the spirit by the physical body ‑ the priority of matter and physical existence.

Hence, despite the use and the different meaning of the inverted pentagram as a symbol of Gardnerian initiation, other Wiccans, notably in the USA where the fundamentalist Christians are particularly aggressive to those who do not share their beliefs, are against any usage of the symbol. It is sad to say that even the use of the upright pentagram gives rise to social discrimination against Pagans in some communities.

Otherwise, the pentagram or pentacle has become firmly established as a common Neo‑Pagan and Wiccan symbol, acquiring many aspects of mystique and associations that are today often considered to be ancient folk‑lore !

The antiquity of the pentagram is certain; its meanings and associations have evolved and richened throughout its history. Its use within modern Neo‑Paganism as a group symbol is as important as the cross has been in the history of Christianity and it is in the ubiquity and the attributed meanings of the symbol that its potency lies rather than in its antiquity. From the Earth aware attitudes and respect of life of modern Pagans has already come the movement towards protecting and conserving the ecology and resources of our planet. Perhaps they will see the dawn of a real new age of hope or perhaps just the end of an age of humanity.

The History and Symbolism of the Pentagram

It seems to be a universal misconception that the Pentagram is a satanic symbol.  It is true that devil‑worshippers have appropriated the inverted Pentagram as their symbol, which is disrespectful, much like the inverted cross.  The Pentagram has had many different meanings and symbolisms throughout history, and Pythagoras used it in his theories.

The Pentagram is the simplest form of star shape that can be drawn unicursally‑‑with a single line‑‑which is why it is sometimes called the Endless Knot.  It’s also called the Goblin’s Cross, the Pentalpha, the Witch’s Foot, the Devil’s Star, and also the Seal of Solomon, although it would be more correctly attributed to the hexagram.

The five points of the Pentagram are symbolic in many ways. We have five fingers or toes on each limb.  Five‑fold symmetries are rarely found in non‑organic life forms, but are inherent to life in the human hand, starfish, flowers, plants, and many other things.  This pattern of five exists even down to a molecular level.  The number five is a prime number that embodies the form and foundation of life.

We have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.  We perceive five stages in our lives: birth, adolescence, coitus, parenthood, and death.  The number five is associated with Mars, denoting severity, conflict, and harmony through conflict.  Because it is a symbol of this conflict, the Pentagram is believed to be a potent protection against evil that shields the wearer and the home.  There were five wounds of Christ on the cross: both hands and feet, and head.  There are five pillars of Muslim faith and five daily times of prayer.  The Wiccan Kiss is Fivefold: feet, knees, womb, breasts, lips‑‑Blessed be.

The Pentagram has five spiked wards and a womb shaped defensive, protective pentagon at the center.  There are five elements, four of matter‑‑earth, air, fire, and water‑‑and the quintessential element, spirit.  The world "quintessential" derives from this fifth element.  The five elements can be arrayed around the Pentagram’s points.  Tracing a path around the Pentagram, the elements are places in order of density: spirit (or aether), fire, air, water, earth.  Earth and fire are basal, fixed; air and water are free and flowing.  Traditionally, each of the five angles have been attributed to the five metaphysical elements of the ancients:

Earth (lower left hand corner): stability and physical endurance

Fire (lower right hand corner): courage and daring

Water (upper right hand corner): emotions and intuition

Air (upper left hand corner): intelligence and the arts

Spirit (topmost point): the All and the Divine

When a single point is upwards, it signifies spirit ruling matter, or mind over body, a symbol of rightness.  With two points upward, and one, spirit, pointing downwards, or subservient, the emphasis is on the carnal nature of Man.  The inverted Pentagram is seen by many as representing the dark side and is abhorred as an evil symbol, but it should be seen as the need of a person to learn to face the darkness within so that it may not later rise up and take control.

The Pentagram may be shown as an interlaced line symbolic of the web‑weaving power of magic.  The descending spirit‑earth line may pass under, signifying male, or over, signifying female, the water‑air line to give two slightly different forms.

A Pentagram may be open, without a surrounding circle, as is sometimes seen.  This is the active form symbolizing an outgoing of oneself, prepared for conflict, aware, and active.  If one is wearing an open Pentagram, one must be aware simply to avoid any sharp points sticking their skin! A circle around a Pentagram contains and protects.  The circle symbolizes eternity and infinity, and the cycles of life and nature.  The center of a Pentagram implies a sixth, formative element of love and will, which controls from within, ruling matter and spirit by will.

The geometric proportions of the Pentagram are those of the Golden Section.  The Golden Proportion is one beloved by artists since Renaissance times, and is also found in post‑Hellenic art and in the geomantic planning of Templar sites, since the proportions of a rectangle were considered most pleasing to the eye.  The ratio of the lengths of the two sides is equal to the ratio of the longer side to the sum of the two sides.  Or a/b = b/a+b = a+b/a+2b = a+2b/2a+3b = 2a+3b/3a+5b and so on.  If a square is added to the long side of a golden rectangle, a larger golden rectangle is formed. Continuing this progression forms the basis for a nautilus spiral.  The ratio of the distance between two points of a Pentagram to its total width is in the golden proportion.  This ratio forms the foundation of the Fibonacci series of numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc., where each number is formed by adding the previous two numbers.  The Fibonacci series is much found in nature in the pattern arrangement of a fivefold symmetry in flower heads, leaves, and fruits.

The earliest known Pentagram dates back to around 3500 BC at the Ur of the Chaldees in Ancient Mesopotamia.  It was found on potsherds with other signs that are associated with early developments of written language.  In later Mesopotamian art, the Pentagram was used as a royal inscription, symbolizing the imperial power extending to the four corners of the world.  Its meaning in the cuneiform period, around 2600 BC, seems to be a Heavenly Quarter, and also the four directions: forward, backward, left and right, with the fifth direction being "above." The four directions corresponded to the planets Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn, with Venus, the Queen of Heaven, above.

The Pentagram was associated with Truth and to the five books of the Pentaleauch, the FIve Books of Moses, amongst the Hebrews and Jewish people, and in Ancient Greece, it was called the Pentalpha, literally meaning "five A’s."  They see it as being geometrically composed of five A’s.

To the Gnostics, the Pentagram was the "Blazing Star," and for the Druids, it was a symbol of the Godhead.  To the Pagan Celts, it was a symbol of the goddess Morrigan, wife of the Dagda.  The number five appears in many Celtic contexts: Ireland had five great roads, five provinces, and five paths of the law.  The fairy folk counted by fives, and the mythological figures wore five fold cloaks.  In Egypt, it was a symbol of the "underground womb" and was symbolically related to the pyramid.

Pythagoras considered the Pentagram a symbol of perfection and used it as part of his theories on mathematical correlation to music and sound.  It is possible that Pythagoras became acquainted with the Pentagram during his travels to Egypt and Babylon.  Pythagoreans call the Pentagram "Hugieia," which is literally translated as "Health," but has more of a connotation to a sense of soundness or wholeness, or, more generally, any Divine Blessing.  Hugieia is the Goddess of Health, and her name is a fairly common inscription on amulets.

Pythagoreans apparently labeled the points or angles of the Pentagram with the letters UGIEIA.  The fact that UGIEIA has six letters is merely an inconvenience, and it is observed that Pythagoreans wrote upsilon, gamma, iota, theta, and alpha at the points, perhaps because an adjacent epsilon and iota (EI) look something like a theta (T).  The letters labeling the corners of the Pentacle are the first letters of Greek words for the Elements.

U: Hudor = Water

G: Gaia = Earth

I: Idea = Form/Idea or Hieron = a divine, holy thing

EI: Heile = Sun’s warmth or Th: Therma = Heat

A: Aer = Air

Though the theta may be explained as a joined Epsilon and Iota, either is an abbreviate for the Fiery Element.

Early Christians used the Pentagram to represent the five wounds of Christ.  It’s form symbolized truth, religious mysticism, and the work of the Creator.  Emperor Constantine I, after gaining the help of the Christian church in his takeover of the Roman Empire, used the Pentagram, together with the chi‑rho, which is a symbolic form of the cross, in his seal and amulet.

In the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Stanzas 27‑28, the Pentagram, called the Pentangle, was inscribed in gold on his shield to symbolize the five knightly virtues: generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry, and piety.

"Then they showed him the shield of shining gules,

With the Pentangle in pure gold depicted thereon.

He brandished it by the baldric, and about his neck

He slung it in a seemly way, and it suited him well.

And I intend to tell you, though I tarry therefore,

Why the Pentangle is proper to this prince of knights.

It is a symbol which Solomon conceived once

To betoken holy truth, by its intrinsic right,

For it is a figure which has five points,

And each line overlaps and is locked with another;

And it is endless everywhere, and the English call it,

In all the land, I hear, the Endless Knot.

Therefore it goes with Sir Gawain and his gleaming armour,

For, ever faithful in five things, each in fivefold manner,

Gawain was reputed good and, like gold well refined,

He was devoid of all villainy, every virtue displaying

In the field.

Thus this Pentangle new

He carried on coat and shield,

As a man of troth most true

And knightly name annealed.

First he was found faultless in his five wits.

Next, his five fingers never failed the knights,

And all his trust on earth was in the five wounds

Which came to Christ on the Cross, as the Creed tells.

And whenever the bold man was busy on the battlefield,

Through all other things he thought on this,

That his prowess all depended on the five pure Joys

That the holy Queen of Heaven had of her Child.

Accordingly the courteous knight had that queen’s image

Etched on the inside of his armoured shield,

So that when he beheld her, his heart did not fail.

The fifth five I find the famous man practiced

Were‑ Liberality and Lovingkindness leading the rest;

Then his Continence and Courtesy, which were never corrupted;

And Piety, the surpassing virtue.  These pure five

Were more firmly fixed on that fine man

Than on any other, and every multiple,

Each interlocking with another, had no end,

Being fixed to five points which never failed,

Never assembling on one side, nor sundering either,

With no end at any angle; nor can I find

Where the design started or proceeded to its end.

Thus on his shining shield this knot was shaped

Royally in red gold upon red gules.

That is the pure Pentangle, so people who are wise

Are taught.

Now Gawain was ready and gay;

His spear he promptly caught

And gave them all good day

For ever, as he thought."

The "Endless Knot" referred to in Sir Gawain was a symbol of Truth and was a protection against demons.

During the period of the Inquisition, when many accusations and lies were made, the Pentagram was seen to symbolize a goat’s head, or the Devil as Baphomet, whom the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping.  In this purge of witches, the Pentagram first came to be seen as evil and was called the Witch’s Foot.

In Freemasonry, the Pentagram was used, interlaced and upright for the sitting Master of the Lodge, and was also incorporated into the 72 degree angel of the compass‑‑the masonic symbol of virtue and duty.  The women’s branch of freemasons uses the inverted five pointed "Eastern Star" as its emblem.  Each point of the star commemorates a heroine of biblical lore.

No known graphical illustration of the Pentagram is associated with evil until the nineteenth century.  Eliphaz Levi Zahed, the pen name of Alphonse Louis Constant, a defrocked French Catholic abbé, illustrated the upright Pentagram as microcosmic man beside an inverted Pentagram as a goat’s head of Baphomet.

The microcosmic man expresses the saying "Every man and every woman is a star." Leonardo da Vinci called it "the Divine Proportion."  We can juxtapose Man on a Pentagram with head and four limbs at the points and the genitalia exactly central.  This symbolizes our place in the Macrocosm, or Universe, and the Hermetic/Tantric philosophy of associativity: "As above, so below."

It was Zahed who was instrumental in taking tarot reading from being a gypsy fortune‑telling device to a powerful set of symbolic images relating closely to the Kabbalah, or Qabalah.  It was also he who renamed the suit of "coins" as "pentacles."

In the 1940s Gerald Gardner used the Pentagram with two points upward as the sigil of second degree initiation in Wicca.  The one‑point upward Pentagram together with the upright triangle symbolized third degree initiation.  It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Pentagram became known as an amuletic symbol to be worn.

When Anton LaVay established the Church of Satan, they adopted the inverted Pentagram after the Baphomet image of Satan that Eliphas Levi Zahed depicted.  The Christian Church reacted to this by condemning as "evil" everyone that took the Pentagram as a symbol, and condemning the symbol itself.

Today the inverted Pentagram forms part of the highest award bestowed by the United States, the Medal of Honor, which is presented "to those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty."  The upright Pentagram also forms part of the United States Distinguished Service Medal for the Navy‑Marines.

The antiquity of the Pentagram is certain, it’s meanings and associations have evolved and richened throughout it’s history.  Its use is as important as the cross has been to the history of Christianity and in understanding its history is to understand your own history and origins.  With education, people will come to see it not as a symbol of good or evil, but as a symbol that is rich with history and symbolism.

I worked hard on this paper. Please do not copy this work in whole or in part without written permission from me. This work is copyrighted material.

Thanks to the following websites for providing me with my information for this article!

Pentagram‑ It's History

Symbolic Meanings of the Pentagram

The Cauldron's Homepage

The Witches' Pentacle

The Pythagorean Pentacle

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was translated by Brian Stone.

The pentagram symbol today is ascribed many meanings and deep significance, though much of this is very recent. However, it has been used throughout history and in many contexts:

The earliest known use of the pentagram dates back to around the Uruk period around 3500BC at Ur of the Chaldees in Ancient Mesopotamia where it was found on potsherds together with other signs of the period associated with the earliest known developments of written language. In later periods of Mesopotamian art, the pentagram was used in royal inscriptions and was symbolic of imperial power extending out to "the four corners of the world".

Amongst the Hebrews, the symbol was ascribed to Truth and to the five books of the Pentateuch. It is sometimes, incorrectly, called the Seal of Solomon, though it's usage was in parallel with the hexagram. 

In Ancient Greece, it was called the Pentalpha, being geometrically composed of five A's. Unlike earlier civilisations, the Greeks did not generally attribute other symbolic meanings to the letters of their alphabet, but certain symbols became connected with Greek letter shapes or positions (eg Gammadion, Alpha‑Omega). 

The geometry of the pentagram and it's metaphysical associations were explored by the Pythagoreans (after Pythagoras 586‑506BC) who considered it an emblem of perfection. Together with other discovered knowledge of geometric figures and proportion, it passed down into post‑Hellenic art where the golden proportion may be seen in the designs of some temples.

Pythagoras was known to have travelled all over the ancient world from the mysteries into which he was initiated, and it seems likely that his travels took him to Egypt, to Chaldea and to lands around the Indus. There may be a connection here with the presence of the pentagram in Tantrik art.

To the Gnostics, the pentagram was the 'Blazing Star' and, like the crescent moon was a symbol relating to the magic and mystery of the nighttimes sky. 

For the Druids, it was a symbol of Godhead. 

In Egypt, it was a symbol of the 'underground womb' and bore a symbolic relationship to the concept of the pyramid form. 

The Pagan Celts ascribed the pentagram to the underground goddess Morrigan. 

Early Christians attributed the pentagram to the Five Wounds of Christ and from then until medieval times, it was a lesser‑used Christian symbol. Prior to the time of the Inquisition, there were no 'evil' associations to the pentagram. Rather its form implied Truth, religious mysticism and the work of The Creator.

The Emperor Constantine I who, after gaining the help of the Christian church in his military and religious takeover of the Roman Empire in 312 AD, used the pentagram, together with the chi‑rho symbol (a symbolic form of cross) in his seal and amulet.

However, it was the cross (a symbol of suffering) rather than the pentagram (a symbol of truth) that was used as a symbol by the Church which subsequently came to power and who's 'manifest destiny' was to usurp the supreme power of the Roman Empire, using as an instrument a forged document ‑ 'The Donation of Constantine'

The annual church feast of Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the three Magi to the infant Jesus as well as the Church's mission to bring 'truth' to the Gentiles had as it's symbol the pentagram, (although in present times the symbol has been changed to a five‑pointed star in reaction to the neo‑pagan use of the pentagram).

In the legend of Sir Gawain and the green knight, the pentagram was Sir Gawain's glyph, inscribed in gold on his shield, symbolizing the five knightly virtues ‑ generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety. 

In Medieval times, the 'Endless Knot' was a symbol of Truth and was a protection against demons. It was used as an amulet of personal protection and to guard windows and doors. The pentagram with one point upwards symbolized summer; with two points upwards, it was a sign for winter.

The Knights Templar, a military order of monks formed during the Crusades. Gained great wealth and prominence from the donations of those who joined the order and from treasures looted from the Holy Land.  The centre of the Templar order around Rennes du Chatres in France is noteworthy for the almost perfect natural pentangle of mountains spanning several miles around it. There is good evidence of the creation of other exact geomantic alignments and pentagrams as well as a hexagram in the area, centered on this natural pentagram, in the location of numerous chapels and shrines.

It is clear from remaining traces of Templar architecture that architects and masons associated with the powerful order were well aware of the geometry of the pentangle and the golden proportion and incorporated that mysticism in their design. Alas, the whole Templar order fell victim to the avarice of the Church and of religious‑fanatic Louis IX of France in 1303 and the black times of the Inquisition, of torture and false‑witness, of purging and burning, began, spreading like a slow‑motion replay of the Black Death, across Europe.

During the long period of the Inquisition, there was much promulgation of lies and accusations in the 'interests' of orthodoxy and elimination of heresy. The Church lapsed into a long period of the very diabolism it sought to oppose. The pentagram was seen to symbolize a Goat's Head or the Devil in the form of Baphomet and it was Baphomet whom the Inquisition accused the Templars of worshipping.

Around this time also, poisoning as a means of murder came into prominence. Potent herbs and drugs brought back from the East during the Crusades had entered the pharmacopoeias of the healers ‑ the wise ‑ the witches. Prominent deaths by poisoning caused the Dominicans of the Inquisition to move their attention from the Christian heretics to the pagan witches, to those who only paid lip service to Christianity but still followed an Old Religion and to the wise‑ones amongst them who knew about drugs and poisons.

In the purge on witches, other horned gods such as Pan became equated with the Devil (a Christian concept) and the pentagram ‑ the folk‑symbol of security ‑ for the first time in history ‑ was equated with 'evil' and was called the Witch's Foot. The Old Religion and its symbols went underground, in fear of the Church's persecution, and there it stayed, gradually withering, for centuries.

In the foundation of Hermeticism, in hidden societies of craftsmen and scholarly men, away from the eyes of the Church and it's paranoia, the proto‑science of alchemy developed along with it's occult philosophy and cryptical symbolism. Graphical and geometric symbolism became very important and the period of the Renaissance emerged. 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', symbolised 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. An illustration attributed to Brae's contemporary Agrippa (Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim) is of similar proportion and shows the five planets and the moon at the centre point ‑ the genitalia. Other illustrations of the period by Robert Fludd and Leonardo da Vinci show geometric relationships of man to the universe. Later, the pentagram came to be symbolic of the relationship of the head to the four limbs and hence of the pure concentrated essence of anything (or the spirit) to the four traditional elements of matter ‑ earth, water, air and fire ‑ spirit is The Quintessence.

In Freemasonry, Man as Microprosopus was and is associated with the five‑pointed Pentalpha. The symbol was used, interlaced and upright for the sitting Master of the Lodge. The geometric properties and structure of the Endless Knot were appreciated and symbolically incorporated into the 72 degree angle of the compasses – the Masonic emblem of virtue and duty.

The origins of freemasonry are lost in the depths of history, obscured by the traditional 'craft'‑secrecy of the order, but there are signs throughout history of the associations of craftsmanship and ritual and symbolism that have remained known only to a few, and the history of the pentagram has remained occluded in the same kind of mystery. The women’s branch of freemasonry uses the five pointed 'Eastern Star' as its emblem. Each point commemorates a heroine of biblical lore.

No known graphical illustration associating the pentagram with evil appears until the nineteenth century. Eliphaz Levi Zahed (actually the pen name of Alphonse Louis Constant, a defrocked French Catholic abbé) illustrates the upright pentagram of microcosmic man beside an inverted pentagram with the goat's head of Baphomet. It is this illustration and juxtaposition that has led to the concept of different orientations of the pentagram being 'good' and 'evil'.

Against the rationalism of the 18th century came a reaction in the 19th century with the growth of a new mysticism owing much to the Holy Kabbalah, the ancient oral tradition of Judaism relating the cosmogony of God and the universe and the moral and occult truths of their relationship to Man. It is not so much a religion as a system of understanding based upon symbolism and the numerical and alphabetical interrelationships of words and concepts ‑ the Gematria. Eliphas Levi was a profound expositor of the Kabbalah and was instrumental in opening the way for the rise of the Victorian lodges of western mystery tradition ‑ the Order Temporale Orientalis (O.T.O.), the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (G.D.), the Theosophical Society, the Rosicrucians (Fellowship of the Rosy Cross), and several others, even the modern lodges and traditions of speculative freemasonry. Levi was also instrumental in taking the tarot from being a gipsy fortune‑telling device to a powerful set of symbolic images relating closely to the Kabbalah (or as it is now called in the west, to distinguish it 's development from the original Judaic form ‑ Qabalah). It was Levi who designed upon the form of the pentagram such associative inscriptions as in the pentacle of the Tetragrammationand he who renamed the suit of 'coins' as 'pentacles' .

The workings of ritual magick in the orders took the symbolism of the pentagram and it's elemental attributes, along with those of the hexagram and incorporated them as ritual flourishing or signing of the athame (ritual knife) to symbolise invoking or banishing in respect to elemental associations. The Golden Dawn did much to advance and disseminate the roots of modern hermetic Qabalah around the world in its time of strength (from 1888 to around the start of the First World War), and through the writings and work of a number of its adepts and adherents, notably Aleister Crowley, have come some of the most important ideas of today's Qabalist philosophy and magick.

Aleister Crowley also had association with the remaining traces of the old pre‑Reformation 'hereditary' witches, notably through Old George Pickingill and with Gerald Gardner, generally considered the founder of modern witchcraft. In the 1940's Gerald Gardner adopted the pentagram with two points upward as the sigil of second‑degree initiation in the newly emergent, neo‑pagan rituals of witchcraft, later to become known as Wicca. The one‑point upward pentagram together with the upright triangle symbolized third degree initiation. (A point downwards triangle is the symbol of First Degree Initiates) The pentagram was also inscribed on the altar pentacle, it's points symbolizing the three aspects of the Goddess plus the two aspects of the God in a special form of Gardnerian Pentacle.The writings of Gerald Gardner, an initiate of old Dorothy Clutterbuck, and of his associate Doreen Valiente, brought the long‑withered stem of witchcraft ‑ the Old Religion ‑ out into bloom once more, after centuries of occlusion, with the caution that the general misrepresentation of it's former nature had made wise, and the new religion of Wicca was born. It was not until the late 1960's that the pentagram again became an amuletic symbol to be worn. Co‑incidentally with the rise of popular interest in witchcraft and Wicca and the publication of many books (including several novels) on the subject, there was a reaction to the Church.

In it's extreme, one aspect of that reaction was in the establishment of the satanic cult ‑ The Church of Satan ‑ by Anton LaVay. For it's emblem, this cult adopted the inverted pentagram after the Baphomet image of Eliphas Levi. The reaction of the Christian church was to condemn as 'evil' all who took the pentalpha as a symbol and even to condemn the symbol itself, much as had been the post‑war attitude to the swastika. The distinction between the point‑upwards and point‑downwards pentagram forms became accentuated in the minds of pagans and led to the concepts of 'white'‑witchcraft and 'black'. Those who took on board the strong personal ethical code of wicca ‑ the Wiccan Rede of "An it harm none, do what you will" did not wish to be tarred with the same brush as the satanists who's philosophy is one of the domination of the spirit by the physical body ‑ the priority of matter and physical existence.

Hence, despite the use and the different meaning of the inverted pentagram as a symbol of Gardnerian initiation, other wiccans, notably in the USA where the fundamentalist Christians are particularly aggressive to those who do not share their beliefs, are against any usage of the symbol. It is sad to say that even the use of the 'upright' pentagram gives rise to social discrimination against pagans in some communities.

Otherwise, the pentagram or pentacle has become firmly established as a common neo‑pagan and wiccan symbol, acquiring many aspects of mystique and associations that are today often considered to be ancient folk‑lore!

The number '5' has always been regarded as mystical and magical, yet essentially 'human'. We have five fingers/toes on each limb extremity. We commonly note five senses ‑ sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. We perceive five stages or initiations in our lives ‑ e.g. birth, adolescence, coitus, parenthood and death. (There are other numbers/ initiations/stages/attributions).The number 5 is associated with Mars. It signifies severity, conflict and harmony through conflict. In Christianity, five were the wounds of Christ on the cross. There are five pillars of the Muslim faith and five daily times of prayer. Five were the virtues of the medieval knight ‑ generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety as symbolised in the pentagram device of Sir Gawain. The Wiccan Kiss is Fivefold ‑ feet, knees, womb, breasts, lips ‑ Blessed be. Expressing the saying "Every man and every woman is a star", we can juxtapose Man on a pentagram with head and four limbs at the points and the genitalia exactly central.The number 5 is prime. The simplest star ‑ the pentagram‑ requires five lines to draw and it is unicursal; it is a continuous loop.This is Man in microcosm, symbolising our place in the Macrocosm or universe and the Hermetic/Tantric philosophy of associativity ‑ "As above, so below"

The geometric proportions of the regular pentagram are those of the Golden Section. The Golden Proportion is one beloved of artists since Renaissance times and also to be found in post‑Hellenic art and in the geomantic planning of Templar sites, being those proportions of a rectangle considered most pleasing to the eye. Here, the ratio of the lengths of the two sides is equal to the ratio of the longer side to the sum of the two sides. Or :

a/b = b/a+b = a+b/a+2b = a+2b/2a+3b = 2a+3b/3a+5b ....etc. If a square is added to the long side of a golden rectangle, a larger golden rectangle is formed. Continuing this progression forms the basis for a nautilus spiral. The ratio of the distance between two points of a pentagram to its total width is in the golden proportion, as is the ratio of the height above the horizontal bar to that below, as is the ratio of a central part of a line to the outer part. This ratio forms the foundation of the Fibonacci series of numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144, etc where each number is formed by adding the previous two numbers. The Fibonacci series is much found in nature in the pattern arrangement of flower heads and leaves and many flower heads and fruits themselves exhibit a fivefold symmetry.

The pentagram has long been believed to be a potent protection against evil, a symbol of conflict that shields the wearer and the home. The pentagram has five spiked wards and a womb shaped defensive, protective pentagon at the centre. There are five elements, four of matter (earth, air, fire and water) and THE quintessential ‑ spirit. These may be arrayed around the pentagrams points. The word 'quintessential' derives from this fifth element ‑ the spirit. Tracing a path around the pentagram, the elements are placed in order of density ‑ spirit (or aether). fire, air, water, earth. Earth and fire are basal, fixed; air and water are free, flowing.

Single point upwards signifies the spirit ruling matter (mind ruling limbs); is a symbol of rightness. With two points up and one (spirit) downwards, subservient, the emphasis is on the carnal nature of Man. These point attributions are used in ritually inscribing, as a flourish of the hands or the athame, different forms of pentagram for invoking or banishing (grounding) each of the elementals according to the nature of the ritual. The line traces as illustrated for earth (the last stroke is optional). Another way of seeing this path is as Man's spiritual journey through evolution. The spark of Life descending from God, the divine source of life to the simplest embryonic form (earth), rising to flow (water ‑ air) on our plane of existence (compare with the intonation of the AUM mantra), then again descending to the fire of purification before again rising as a divine spark to find again his spiritual source. The pentagram may be shown as an interlaced line symbolic of the web‑weaving power of magick.

The descending spirit‑earth line may pass under (male) or over (female) the water‑air line to give two slightly differing forms

A pentagram may be open, without a surrounding circle.

This is the active form symbolising an outgoing of oneself, prepared for conflict, aware, active. (One wearing an open pentagram must be physically aware of the danger of sharp points sticking in their skin from time to time!).

As a pagan religious symbol, the open pentagram represents an open, active approach. A circle around a pentagram contains and protects. The circle symbolises eternity and infinity, the cycles of life and nature. The circled pentagram is the passive form implying spiritual containment of the magic circle, in keeping with the traditional secrecy of witchcraft, and the personal, individual nature of the pagan religious path, of its non‑proselytising character. The pentagram may be inverted with one point down. The implication is of spirit subservient to matter, of man subservient to his carnal desires. The inverted pentagram has come to be seen by many pagans as representing the dark side and it is abhorred as an evil symbol. Fundamental Christians, indeed, see any form of pentagram as such.However, these are recent developments and the inverted pentagram is the symbol of Gardnerian second degree initiation, representing the need of the witch to learn to face the darkness within so that it may not later rise up to take control.The centre of a pentagram implies a sixth formative element ‑ love/will which controls from within, ruling matter and spirit by Will and the controlled magickal direction of sexual energies. This is another lesson of initiation. In physical form, the pentagram may be worn as an amulet ‑ as jewellery ‑ pendant, ring, earrings, buckle, etc.

Baphomet ‑ The Pentagram Connection

As we examined on another page, it was the nineteenth century Occultist, Eliphas Lévi who first differentiated between the good and evil aspects of the five‑pointed star or pentagram. Lévi envisioned two points down, as being magical in a good way, while one point down was indicative of the opposite magical reaction. Whether inverted or straight up, today's society views and perhaps wrongly so the pentagram as a symbol of evil. Let's look at some of the history of the pentagram to understand where along the way it changed from an inherently good thing to a perception of wrong.

The Pentagram: Origins And Historical Usage

 The pentagram at left is the traditional pentagram with the five points of the star, one up two down enclosed inside a circle. This style of pentagram has existed for countless thousands of years, first dating back to around 3500 B.C.E. where it was used in Ancient Mesopotamia, at least latterly, by rulers as a symbol indicating that their power breadth the four corners of the known world.

The early Greeks called the pentagram the Pentalpha. Pent for the number five and Alpha being the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The Pythagoreans considered its geometric qualities to be symbolic, both mathematically and metaphysically, of absolute perfection.

To the Hebrews the five points of the pentagram were tied to the Pentateuch which is the first five books of the bible and represented as a whole the concept of truth. Although occasionally referred to as the Seal of Solomon, it is important to note that this is incorrect and that the Star of David or double triangle is the true Seal of Solomon.

The Pentagram As A Christian Symbol

Perhaps most curious is the pentagram as it relates to early Christianity. Up until medieval times, the five points of the pentagram represented the five wounds of Christ on the Cross. During these times the pentagram, so criticized by modern Fundamentalist Christians, carried no evil implications at all and in fact, in a lesser way than the cross, was symbolic of the Savior.

Constantine the Roman Emperor who converted to Christianity, and whose mother Helena discovered the religious relic known as the True Cross, chose to use the pentagram on his seal and amulet. In the ensuing church that grew from Constantine's takeover of the Roman Empire, the cross became the chosen symbol of Christianity rather than the pentagram. Perhaps ironic, that by a mere choice of iconography, the pentagram could have been hanging around the necks of millions of Christians worldwide.

The Pentagram As A Symbol Of Evil

Beginning with the destruction of the Knights Templar by the combined treachery of King Philip IV and Pope Clement V, the inquisition of the church moved into full swing starting with the Templars, who fell partly under accusations of worshipping an idol called Baphomet. It is highly unlikely that the Baphomet of the Templars, if it existed at all, resembled anything like Lévi's Baphomet, which we examined on another page. Still the order was squashed by torture, death and Papal dissolution by 1314. Like the torture of the Albigensian Cathari, and the aforementioned Templar order, the church began to destroy all that opposed the rule of the Holy See. Alleged heretics, Pagans witches all met with the same fate of conversion or death.

It was at this time that the horned gods still worshipped by the peasants and folk peoples of Europe, such as Pan became the accepted imagery for the Devil by the Christian Church. Therefore in the eyes of the church if the peasants worshipped false, evil gods, then the Pentagram symbol, used by those people as a symbol of security, must therefore be evil as well.

The Nineteenth Century And The Birth Of The Baphomet Sigil

 Eliphas Lévi, was the first to adapt the inverted pentagram shown right as symbolic of evil. In the Middle Ages the upright pentagram represented summer, while the inverted or points down pentagram was a representation of winter. It is rumored that Lévi formed two illustrations of the pentagram. The first, his good orientation, featured the five points of a man within the points of the Pentagram. This is called the microcosmic man and represents the four elements, earth, wind, fire and water represented as the man's limbs with his head representing the spirit.

Next to the Microcosmic Man, he drew the inverted pentagram as the goat's head or Baphomet. In so doing, he formed for the first time, a differentiation between good and evil symbolized by the pentagram.

The Baphomet sigil or simply Baphomet has become the official symbol of The Church Of Satan, which was started by Anton Szandor La Vey in 1966. Satanists and pseudo‑Satanists have used this sigil all over the world. The illustration below shows Lévi's two sketches.

Conclusions And Observations

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?" As I've shown the Pentagram has devolved from a one‑time symbol of faith and knowledge to today being representative of all that is evil. We have also seen how the artwork of one man, Eliphas Lévi became associated with the evil aspect of the pentagram and an accepted image of the Christian Devil through his androgynous illustration of the Baphomet.

It is highly unlikely that the Templar Knights worshipped a demonic entity in the image of the goat, but due to the chain of events shown in these pages, it has come to be an accepted belief or to quote Napoleon, "a fable agreed upon" by many Fundamentalist Christians.

Any look at the meaning of the pentagram would be incomplete without first looking at the meaning of the 5 elements. In western thought these elements consist of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit (Ether). The typical four elements (of the West) are well enough known that they can be skipped for the intents and purposes of this discussion. Ether is probably the most obscure of the elements.

      The idea of Ether comes originally from early Alchemy. Einstien provides a very eloquent discription of the principal of Ether and it's connection to relativity, but actually Newton was not the originator of the theory, as Einstein suggests. In fact Pythagoras was the first Western figure credited with the specific mention of a fifth element which he titled 'Aether' (or 'Aither'). Pythagoras also borrowed from the teachings of the philosopher Empedocles who had first posited the existence of 4 basic elements which he corresponded with 4 of the Greek Gods (book 1.33). Earlier (~600bce) the philosopher Anaximander (Pythagorus' teacher) had theorised the existence of 4 basic qualities (Hot, Dry, Cold, Wet) which eventually were combined with Empedocles' elements by Aristotle1, thus forming what is now known as the "elemental humours".

         In addition the Eastern philosophers of the Indus river valley had a fifth element which they referred to in the Sanskrit language as 'Akasha' (meaning void). To be thorough, the elements also existed in a different fashion on the opposite side of the Himalayan mountains in the form of the Chinese elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. To properly describe the complete characteristics of this ancient and distinct system of elements is beyond the scope of this essay, but I have made a brief discription of the basic history and properties of the Chinese elements at the bottom for those who are sufficiently interested. The 4 elements did and still do have an important place in the various African Traditional Religions amounst the Bantu, Fon, and others of the Kongo delta region including their contemporary diasporia, aswell as amoungst the Celtic tribes, and Amerindians.

         Having briefly considered the origin of the 5th element, lets now look at the antiquity and various meanings ascribed to the pentagram (5 pointed star) and pentacle (5 pointed star within a circle). The earliest physical evidence of the existence of the pentagram comes from the very place where agricultural civilization is popularly believed to have started. The pentagram was frequently found on potsherds and tablets (which have been dated to as early as 3500 BCE) in the location of the Kingdom of Uruk (at the mouth of the Tigris‑Euphrates valley). The symbol was found accompanying signs relating to the foundation of written language. There is also evidence that the pentagram was used in ancient Mesopotamia to indicate the seal of royalty, and power which extends to the four corners of the earth.

         The pentagram has appeared in myth and folk lore ever since that time. The Greek Pythagoreans (Pythagoras 586‑506 BCE) referred to the pentagram as 'pentalpha' because it could also be formed by laying 5 alphas (A) together. The Jews attribute the pentagram to the five books of the Pentateuse. The Muslims attribute the pentagram to the five pillars of faith and the five times of daily prayer. The symbol is prevailent throughout Islam and is featured both upright and inverted. Within Christainity the pentagram symbolises the 5 wounds of Christ on the cross. In it's inverted form it is referred to as St. Peter's Cross. According to legend St. Peter considered himself unworthy to be crucified upright as was Jesus, so instead he was crucified upside down.

         One of the last Pagan Roman Emperors, Constantine (who converted to Christianity on his death bed in the mid 300's CE) used the pentacle as the symbol of his royal office. In Aurthurian legend the pentagram was emblazoned in gold upon the shield of Sir Gawain and symbolised his mastery of the 5 virtues (generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety). In the legend and thense forth throughout England the pentagram is known as the "Endless Knot". In Freemasonry the pentagram or 5 pointed "Seal of Solomon", is associated with Man as Microprosopus. The pentagram was particularly popular in the Brittish traditions of Freemasonry in the 18th and 19th centuries and is still often used to represent the seated Master of the Lodge. The Masonic symbol of the compass is set precisely to 72 degrees (1/5th of a circle) thus covertly and very intentionally associating it with the pentagram. In the order of the Eastern Star (the female counterpart to Masonry) no such subterfuge is employed. The symbol of the Sisterhood is a pentagram either upright or inverted depending on the Lodge. In the case of the Order of the Eastern Star, each point of the pentagram represents a heroine of Biblical lore (and possibly also associated with Goddesses of pre‑Biblical times).

         Another angle to consider is the numerology of the Pentacle. 5 corresponds to 'change' according to the contemporary Pythagorean system. In Kabbalistic thought (at least the tradition of modern, post 15th century Ceremonial Magic) the number 5 corresponds to the sephiroth Geburah (glory). Geburah is in turn associated with the planet Mars (named after the Roman God of agricultural, who in later Classical times also became God of war).

         The pentagram does not appear to have gained disrepute until the works of Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant, a French Catholic deacon who lived from 1810‑1875) were put into print. In his famous diagram of Baphomet (an alchemical symbol of balance), the pentagram gains it's first association with a goat's head. It is around this time that the inquisition featured groups of women consorting with a cloven hooved devil, and thus began the demonisation of what had once even been a revered symbol within Christainity. During the Dark Ages the pentacle also went by the names of Goblin Cross, Witch's Foot and Devil's Star.

         Due to the church's perscution of anyone who posed a political threat, the Masons were forced to flee to the border of Poland and Germany, which had become a gathering place for free thinkers of all kinds. Many occult organisations derive their history from that time and place, and so too does the decemination of the pentagram's symbolism into western occult usage. It is at this time also that it appears to have gained it's contemporary association with the 5 elements.

         Finally in around 1949, Gerald Gardner (who came from a back ground of Ceremonial Magic) brought the pentagram into association with Wicca, wherein it is used in both upright and inverted form as a symbol for the three degrees of initiation. In contemporary America the symbol of the pentagram has gained the most noteriety through the works of Anton Zandor LaVey. LaVey borrowed almost entirely from the illustrations of Francis Barret and Eliphas Levi, and subsequently lumped them together to create the modern association between the inverted pentacle and the goat head.

CHINESE 5 ELEMENTS

===================

         Though the principals behind the (Chinese) elemental system were in common use for around two thousand years prior, it was eventually immortalised in print in a comprehensive compilation of Chinese medical knowledge called 'The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine' (Huang Ti Nei Ching) in about the 3rd century BCE. 'The Yellow Emperor's Classic' states: 'The five Elemental Activities (Wu‑hsing) of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water encompass all phenomena of nature. It is a symbolism that applies equally to man.' The use of this system of elements in combination with the Taoist principals of Yin and Yang, and the 'Three Treasures' of 'essense' (jing), 'energy' (chee), and 'spirit' (shen), was brought into common practice by Dr. Chang Chung‑ching as a method of medical diagnosis. Some of the details of his system are presented in his book 'Discussion of Fevers' (Shang‑Han‑Lun) written about 200BCE.

         The Chinese 5 elements (Wu‑hsing) themselves have a distinctly different character and operation than the Western 5 elements that we are familiar with. Each of the Wu‑hsing are considered to represent cosmic forces, and exist only as physical elements in analogy. "These five primordial cosmic forces function according to patterned relationships based on their relative characteristics. Each force is generated ('given birth') by one of the other forces and suppressed ('conquered') by a different one, as follows: Generative (Mother/Son) cycle; [Wood ‑‑> Fire ‑‑> Earth ‑‑> Metal ‑‑> Water ‑‑>]; and Suppressive (Victor/Vanquished) cycle; [Wood ‑‑> Earth ‑‑> Water ‑‑> Fire ‑‑> Metal ‑‑>]. A litteral look at the symbols explains their relationships. Wood burns to generate Fire, Fire produces ash, which generates Earth, Earth generates and yields forth Metal. When heated, Metal becomes molten, generating the Water element. Water promotes plant growth, thereby generating Wood. Following the suppressive cycle, Wood depletes soil of nutrients, thereby suppressing Earth. Earth soils and channels Water, thereby 'conquering' it. Water suppresses fire by extinguishing it. Fire suppresses Metal by melting it, and Metal suppresses Wood by cutting it. ... Their constant interactions produce the myriad phenomena of the universe." Like the Western elements, each of the Wu‑hsing has various correspondences to internal organs, functions of the body, herbs, planets, real and mythical animals, numbers, etc, and also importantly has both a Yin and Yang polarity. Though the pentacle is often used to pictorially illustrate the creative or destructive interactions of the Wu‑hsing (the 'Mother/son' cycle going around the outer circle clockwise & the 'Victor/Vanquished' cycle going around the pentagram clockwise), the symbol of the pentacle itself was never (to my knowledge) an important part of the Chinese elemental lore or magical practice. The pentacle instead was a teaching tool used to describe the order of interactions, so that the elemental forces could more easily be recognised as they take place in the world (both within and without).

‑‑‑the majority of info (and specifically quoted paragraphs) for this description of the Wu‑hsing was taken from "The Tao of Health, Sex, & Longevity" by Daniel P. Reid. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in this particular subject area.‑‑‑ Also see this web‑site (though I didn't read it thoroughly).