Damigeron's Dungeon: Intriguing Instruments: The Pentagram 01

An Introduction to the Pentagram

The Pentagram

01 - Introduction to the Pentagram
02 - Structure of the Pentagram [PENDING]
03 - Pentagram Magic [PENDING]
04 - Pentagram Analogs and Substitutes [PENDING]

The first of the classical magician’s tools is the pentagram or pentacle. Beloved of metal album cover artists and Satanic-Panickers alike, it might be the most misunderstood symbol in the common iconographic index. We hope that this article series will help dispel the reader's misconceptions, allowing them to fully appreciate the memetic potential of this ancient icon.

It’s this thing:

Or, maybe it’s this thing:

“Wait,” you might be saying, “That’s not a pentagram, that’s a pentacle!”

For all practical purposes, they are the same thing.

“No, the pentagram and pentacle are different!”

Some of you may have heard this. Some of you may be thinking this very aggressively in the direction of the screen right now.

As this is the most convenient place for us to begin the larger topic, let us dispel unnecessary dogma and prime you to engage magical memetics.

Five Definitions

While the formulae distinguishing these two words are numerous, we’ll limit ourselves to the five most common/persistent models:

1) Circle Distinction

Pentagram: Five-pointed star only
Pentacle: Five-pointed star enclosed within a circle
Authorities: Wikipedia, Britannica, modern Wiccan/pagan sources
Usage: Dominates contemporary occult/spiritual communities

2) Gardner/Wiccan Conflation

Both Terms: Synonymous in the works of Gerald Gardner from 1949-1959
Authority: Gerald Gardner is the father of Wicca, and was a close associate of Aleister Crowley

3) Historical/Academic

Pentagram: The geometric five-pointed star figure
Pentacle: Any magical talisman or disk inscribed with symbols (which frequently featured hexagrams rather than pentagrams, or even other wildly divergent images)
Authorities: Historical grimoires and the historians who write about them

4) Merriam-Webster Simplification

Pentacle: Defined simply as “pentagram”
Authority: The dictionary
Usage: Reflects the conflation in general usage

5) Tarot/Material Distinction

Pentacle: Refers specifically to the coins/disks representing the earth element and material concerns
Pentagram: The star symbol itself
Context: Primarily tarot and some ceremonial magical traditions

As you can see, this is a damn mess.

Rejecting the Dogma

By far the most prevalent distinction is based on the presence or absence of the circle. This Compiler has personally argued with several occultists on this matter, and we reject this dogma as non-instructive. We recently had someone tell us that the lazy or ignorant dismissal of the distinction was only employed by the “uninitiated.”

Frankly, this is claptrap.

Say what you will about Gerald Gardner (and many things can be), but it cannot be argued that he was in any way uninitiated.

Gerald Gardner, Father of Wicca.

Yes, whatever distinction you accept on this topic is a dogma, received wisdom. It is wisdom you accept as authoritative from a source, making that source an authority.

In a social environment where “secret knowledge” is the currency of status, any explorer needs to be especially careful of who they allow to have authority over their journey. Occultists absolutely employ this to place themselves in a position of information superiority in conversation, and for the malevolent among them to manipulate the gullible.

Even in an environment full of schools of organized practice and common touchstone texts, there is no magical canon. There is no orthodoxy. There is no orthopraxis. Despite the ambitions of some, there is no magic pope. You are not obligated to adopt language that fails to illuminate or instruct.

For figures like MacGregor Mathers, the ambition of magical Magisterium eluded them.

Negation by Etymology

We can demonstrate this effectively through the etymology of both terms.

Penta is Greek for “five,” while gram/gramma means “line/letter/something written/small weight/small part” in both the Greek and Latin contexts.

Pentagram - Five-line; five-letter; five-part; five-thing

The assumption is that since both share the penta root, they must mean something similar, hence it must come from the Latin pentaculum (“small five-thing”).

Except, that’s not how it’s used at all in the grimoires! Referring back to the historical/academic distinction, the term “pentacle” was most often used in contexts of worn amulets and talismans that depicted six-pointed stars more frequently than five-pointed ones. In the 14th- or 15th-century manuscript Clavicula Salomonis, only two of its dozens of pentacles are pentagrammic, with many depicting non-geometric representational images!

Where's the five?!

This independence from the numerical dimension has led some to posit a different etymological root, pentacole or pendacole, cognate with pendant, from the Middle French: pend/t (“hangs”), a (“from”), col (“neck”).

Pentacle (Latin-root) - Small-five-thing

Pentacle (Middle French-root) - Neck-hanging-thing

So, which is it?

The use in the old grimoire traditions suggests the Middle French etymology. Still, the reality is that these etymologies are so heavily conflated that extricating them from each other could only be of interest to academics. Who’s to say some of the grimoire magicians weren’t as confused as we, or even making a deliberate pun?

Returning to the etymological point, if “pentacle” must mean the symbol in the circle, that’s because its root is from the common circular form of pentacoles. Following the impulse of etymological correctness, if all star symbols inscribed in circles are pentacles, they must also be worn, because that’s what the word means.

For those who perform high ceremonial magic, where common practice is to stand within the pentacle, the logistical problem is impossible to ignore: you cannot wear the floor.

Look at these animals, just leaving their floor on the floor!

Consideration for Writers

Our purpose is not to dissuade you, writers (or even practitioners), from employing the pentagram/pentacle distinction in your own works. Our purpose is to expose its fundamental artifice so that you may freely research and engage the pentagram as a dynamic meme for art, storytelling, and any other workings.

The linguistic determinations you make for your work are your business. Still, you should be able to make those meaningful determinations yourself, rather than regurgitating one or the other occult commentator downstream from the Golden Dawn or Thelema or any other 19th- or 20th-century fraternity.

It’s this thing:

Okay, that’s not a very helpful answer. It just shows the thing instead of explaining what it is.

We have touched on the idea of the pentagram before in our article on the Magician’s Tools and promised a deeper explanation. Why so obtuse?

Simple: because there’s still more baggage.

Addressing the Baggage

You might be coming to this article with such notions as “the pentagram is a Satanic symbol,” or “the pentagram is a protective symbol that is misunderstood,” or something about orientation or other, or a quibble about phraseology, or its use in Eastern religions, etc., etc.

This mess of associations is difficult to navigate unless you follow the symbol’s history, use, and its more extensive practical definitions, and we shall attempt to do so to the best of our knowledge. However, we need to get the big sticking points.

Is the Pentagram a Satanic symbol?

Yes, but also no. The symbol is non-exclusive to who uses it and for what reason.

Its application in Satanism is diverse across the theistic and atheistic branches in that family of occult practice, employed as much for sorcery as to agitate Christian conservatives.

However, claiming the symbol is Satanic de facto is the same as claiming it to be the exclusive preserve of the Sumerians, or the Chinese, or the Pythagoreans, or the Hebrews, or the Neoplatonists, or the Christians, etc., etc.

Is the Pentagram a protective ward?

Not exclusively. It is not a ward de facto, but it has several features that lend themselves well to that application.

Does point-up or point-down orientation matter?

Sometimes.

If it mattered to the person(s) who placed the pentagram, then the orientation matters. An upside-down pentagram painted on the wall in human blood, for example, is obviously bad because the person who put it there clearly wanted it to communicate something bad. We will return to the matter of orientation shortly.

Pentagram (Holotype) - A five-pointed unicursal star, usually placed inside a circle.

Pentagram (Gloss) - Any magical sign or figure.

Pentagram (Religious/Occult) - An abstract representation of the universe (cosmogram), in whole or in part, articulating Totality.

Pentagram (Magician’s Tool) - The stage of magical action.

Pentacle - A pentagram (any of the above), usually (but not exclusively) referring to a worn article.

HISTORY

Our earliest evidence of the symbol (to the best of this Compiler’s limited research) is in ancient Sumeria, dating to before 3500 BC. In the cuneiform they stood for UB*, which meant “heavenly body” and then later (~2600BC) something like “quarter” (as in section), “region,” or “direction,” and was employed to signify the heavenly orientation of a god or ruler with mastery of the cardinal directions. And what is the dominion of divine Kingship if not the whole world?

The Sumerian UB, circa 3500 BC.

The specific associations made by various cultures and their implementations diversified over the next several thousand years. To understand its use in the West, three dominant points of interest must be understood: its universal celestial observation, its adoption by the Pythagoreans, and its association with the elements. From there, we can make sense of the Satanic baggage and replace our prejudices with discernment and wisdom.

*Compiler’s Note: The cuneiform UB (meaning 'heavenly body' and later 'region/direction') should not be confused with the different sign UB (𒌒), which meant 'corner.' Unfortunately, no Unicode character exists for the heavenly/pentagrammic UB outside of specialized academic databases beyond this Compiler’s reach. Our research indicates this pentagrammic UB was a product of earlier pictographic cuneiform, prior to the wedge-shaped standardization that produced the forms more readily available in Unicode.

Universal Celestial Observation: The Rose of Venus

Nearly all cultures have observed a curious artifact of Venus’s course through the sky: the “Rose of Venus.”

Venus appears to travel through the night sky in a regular pattern resembling a five-pointed flower. If one maps the intersection of its course or the zenith/nadir of each arc, the product is a five-pointed star.

Venus is one of the more influential planets, being both the morning and evening star for its brightness. Its perceived cosmic influence was of universal interest and being more regular than the courses of other planets, it came to be associated heavily with stability, the grand cosmic order, and kingly greatness. The symbol became synonymous with the vault of the heavens.

This broad spread of meanings and applications not only demonstrates the symbol’s utility to ancient people but also explains its persistence and omnipresence.

Universality

This observation was, in fact, universal, as we find the Rose of Venus expressed not only in the ancient Near East but in the New World.

One Mayan glyph, -ek (“-star”), has strong associations with the god Kukulkan (Quetzalcoatl), who is regarded as an aspect of Venus throughout Mesoamerica.

Can be read as noh-ek "great star," sastal-ek "bright star," xux-ek "wasp star," or chac-ek "red star."

This is similar to the star symbol of the Sumerian deity Inannu-Ishtar, who is likewise tied to Venus.

Sumeria, circa 3000 BC

While some sources suggest a transmission between the Old World and the New World, a more likely and meaningful explanation is the shared observation of Venus’s regular course by different civilizations renowned for their interest in astrology.

This shared understanding of the symbol’s ties to Venus lends the symbol a quality of divinity and, consequently, magical powers. It mirrors a celestial pattern to which the observers believed themselves subject.

Aside: Regarding “Lucifer”

Here is where one will be tempted to make associations with the modern image of the Devil through Lucifer, Latin for “light bearer,” a Roman name for Venus. This identification is murkier than it first appears.

“Lucifer” really only becomes a biblical name in the King James Version of the Christian Bible, after Christians had long come to the Old Testament with New Testament starting positions. Those positions and the progress of time led to the amalgamation of the prophecy of the fall of Biblical Nebuchadnezzar and the failure of Babylon’s astral deities with the apocalyptic imagery of the Revelation of St. John.

Without this skewing, the original terms, which are translated as “Lucifer” in more recent translations, are used both positively and negatively, depending on the context, referring to a subject by the qualities of Venus.

This topic itself has a lot of complexities, but this Compiler does not believe the pentagram's ancient Venus relation inform contemporary Satanic associations.

The Pythagoreans employed the pentagram, called a "pentalpha," as a symbol of recognition among themselves in the 6th century BC.

Much has been said on this in the fantastical attributions to the Pythagoreans by 4th-century BC commentators, which appear to have been accepted wholesale by Neopythagorean philosophers. Whether true of the 6th-century mathematikoi or not, it is the mystical mathematical attributions of the Pythagorean pentagram that persist in modern traditions, such as Freemasonry.

(Compiler's note: Walt Disney was a member of DeMolay International in his youth, and was known to admire Freemasonry, though his membership status is not known to the public.)

To the Pythagoreans (or Neopythagoreans), the pentagram was a recursive fractal of the golden ratio, an expression of universal mathematical harmony that also supposedly meant well-being, charity, and the other assorted positives that come with adaptable protective symbols. This is also their development of the pentatonic musical scale, which shaped music in Europe for millennia.

These interpretations were carried on through the tradition of the masonry and engineering trades, a fact clearly expressed in European church architecture. Without making determinations on a living continuity between modern Freemasonry and the men who built Europe’s cathedrals, the proof of the ideas expressed in the Pythagorean pentagram can be both seen and heard by all.

Church of Saint Barnabas at Bethnal Green, London, England.

Point of order, the Greeks had a mathematical, numerological basis for mystical qualities that existed independent of other considerations, but that was completely compatible with them. When mathematically pleasing aesthetics found parallels in the movements of astrological bodies, this merely reinforced investment in the pentagram’s role as a symbol of cosmic harmony. Further, it found ready adaptability in elemental theory.

As discussed in our previous articles on the subject, the ancients recognized a system of five elements:

Earth (solid)
Water (liquid)
Air (gas)
Fire (light/reaction)
Aether/Spirit (the immaterial quality of animation)

This neatly covers all phenomena observed at the human scale - the only point of reference for the people in question. (Modern physics, with its exotic states and quantum mechanics, is irrelevant to understanding historical magical thought.)

There are only four states of matter, and wiggling.

When read as a unicursal five-pointed star within the pentagram, it indicates both the distinction and continuity of the elements. This conveys they have a systematic relationship to one another. In other words, the elements are features of an ordered universe, rather than undifferentiated chaos.

The circle serves as an emblem of the world/universe, so when the pentagram is placed within it, the combination represents phenomena within existence. The circumscribed pentagram thus represents the totality of worldly phenomena — meaning not just every instance of earth, water, air, fire, and spirit, but the principles that govern all substance and action.

Now recognized as a potent cosmogram, the circumscribed pentagram represents the normal/ideal world.

It's almost like the world was reborn by the Crucifixion or something.

As an emblem of cosmic order, it has significant apotropaic qualities, pushing unharmonious influences of chaos to the boundaries.

For example, a demon or other spirit is not part of that harmony and is therefore unable to cross the circle. This is how it is often employed in Western Solomonic sorcery and the practices of high ceremonial magic downstream of the grimoires.

In Ancient Israel, the pentagram was a prevalent symbol, likely adopted through cultural transmission from the region of Mesopotamia. Digging into the particulars of its meaning in this period is beyond the means of this Compiler’s knowledge and time, but we have a few comments:

To the best of our knowledge, worship of the First Temple period wasn’t as invested in Astrology as the various Mesopotamian civilizations, so that dimension was probably de-emphasized, whilst still accepting the meaning of heavenly dominion.
We’ve seen some connect the five-pointed star to the five books of the Pentateuch. This Compiler instinctively interprets such claims as a post-hoc attribution, typical of later attempts to find Hebrew precedent for symbols that entered Jewish practice through cultural contact. In either case, the truth of the matter has little bearing on later use.

The history of the symbol in Ancient Israel is mostly of distant academic interest, until some time (probably) between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, with the penning of the Testament of Solomon. The Testament is a medical spellbook of folk remedies from Jewish, Christian, Syrian pagan, and Greek Gnostic influences, framed within the folk narrative of King Solomon as a heaven-ordained sorcerer supreme. While the Testament is a fascinating text that allows one to examine the folk theology of multiple contemporary religions (including an early model of Trinitarian folk theology in the origin story of the demon Asmodeus), what’s most significant to this topic is the textual introduction of the Seal of Solomon.

In the narrative, the Archangel Michael delivers a ring to Solomon marked with the pentalpha. Power was obtained over demons by throwing the ring at them, and if the ring connected, the demon was bound by Heaven to Solomon’s service. Solomon didn’t even need to be the person to throw the ring; he handed it to the son of the temple architect, who suffered sleep paralysis, and had the kid bring him his sleep paralysis demon, who Solomon then ordered to bring him more demons!

The Seal of Solomon

The hexagrammic circle was also a popular symbol during this period (in part one of the reasons for its use on the modern flag of Israel), and even in late antiquity, these were conflated. As the years wore on, the six-pointed star became the more prominent reference, despite often still being called a “pentagram.”

Also the Seal of Solomon

This trend in loose terminology continued into the Middle Ages as the Solomonic tradition developed.

Taking a moment away from the direct subject, we choose to share some of our research processes with the reader, as we think it an effective model for navigating texts of dubious origins (which is mostly what we have to work with in this field). We share this in the interest of transparency, but also because we believe the movement of texts is as valid a point of storytelling inspiration as the literal contents of the books. (We also point out that H.P. Lovecraft agreed with us, as the following matches the movement of his fictional Al Azif by Abdul Alhazred into the horror fiction icon that is John Dee’s Necronomicon.)

A few years ago, this Compiler came across a .pdf for a Solomonic text from the limited print run of its English translation. While its front and back cover, as well as its title, The Book of Deadly Names, did not inspire confidence, its interior is worth serious consideration as relevant to the history, as its features (if genuine) suggest something significant about the reintroduction of Solomonic Sorcery to Medieval Europe.

The narrative claims that the work is a translation of the Spanish-titled Miscellaneo de Salomon, supposedly found in the wall of a castle in Ocana in 1969.

This story, as well as the book’s edgy 90s publishing trappings and the (presumed pseudonymous) name of Ninevah Shadrach (of the apparently still active Magic Society of the White Flame), gave this Compiler the knee-jerk reaction that it was probably a forgery.

You can appreciate our difficulty taking this seriously.

However, having shown it to an East African acquaintance who is a hobby linguist in Semitic languages, the character and tone of the original Arabic are preserved in the English (apparently quite a feat).

Furthermore, the Jinn being brought to heel in the text involves a great deal of personal shaming and berating, with lines such as, “What are you, indifferent to God?” This is consistent with Islamic theology, where Jinn are created beings with personhood similar to humans, capable of faith, and therefore subject to the same moral and religious framework as humans. This character is consistent throughout the work, which suggests to this Compiler that the text is genuine.

Nineveh Shadrach intimated in the introduction that the Miscellaneo may have been what reintroduced the Solomonic tradition to Europe. The problem with that claim is that the Ocana castle manuscript is (supposedly) dated to 1428, two centuries after the Solomonic tradition reemerges in Christian Europe sometime between the 12th and 13th centuries in the early grimoires (which were later codified into the 14th-15th century Clavicula Salomonis).

This dating problem is resolved, however, if one considers the Miscellaneo a copy of an earlier work, or at least reflective of earlier Arabic Solomonic texts. The timeline also aligns nicely with the peak period of translation activity between Islamic Spain and Christian Europe, which occurred between the 11th and 12th centuries.

We know esoteric knowledge flowed from Islamic Spain to Christian Europe because we have a solid record of it happening with another text! The 10th-century Ghâyat al-Hakîm circulated Europe for nearly 300 years before being translated into Latin and retitled The Picatrix.

Why is any of this history of transmission significant? By the 14th century, European Solomonic texts had become quite strange.

The Clavicula Salomonis is a strange, strange work, but it is particularly instructive to this Compiler on the previous pentagram/pentacle matter.

First, let’s give you an idea of how far along we are on this journey. This is the Seal of Solomon, according to Book III, “The Order of Pentacles”:

Also also the Seal of Solomon

We’re a long way from five or six-pointed stars here.

Book III contains 44 pentacles:

Seven for Saturn
Seven for Jupiter
Seven for Mars
Seven for the Sun
Five for Venus
Five for Mercury
Six for the Moon

Their formats are wildly diverse. Without giving a complete survey:

Two are pentagrammic
Two (arguably three) are hexagrammic
One is octogrammic
One is dodecagrammic
Two are magic letter squares
Four are triangles
Eleven are eight-spoked wheels like the Icelandic Vegvísir stave (its origin is in Solomonic magic, not Nordic Paganism)

The Icelandic Vegvísir or "Viking's compass" (Left), and the First Pentacle of Jupiter (Right).

And that doesn’t even cover all the representational designs. Here’s the Fifth Pentacle of Mars:

The Fifth Pentacle of Mars

It’s just a drawing of a scorpion! And here’s the First Pentacle of the Sun:

First Pentacle of the Sun, again.

That’s supposed to be a drawing of El Shaddai, God!

It gets weirder, because the Second through the Fifth Pentacles of the Moon are all drawings of arms pointing:

The Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Pentacles of the Moon

And speaking of the Pentacles of the Moon, the First isn’t even circumscribed:

First Pentacle of the Moon. Not even a damn circle.

It’s a hieroglyphic representation of a gateway, bearing the names of several angels, and the text of Psalm 107:16: “He hath broken the Gates of brass, and smitten the bars of iron in sunder.”

Continuing Strangeness

The loose terminology isn’t unique to the Key, as it appears in later works. Here’s the Seal of Solomon according to the 14th-15th century Lemegeton, from the first book, the Ars Goetia:

Also also also the Seal of Solomon

And from the 15th-century Heptameron, the magician is instructed to craft this pentacle from kidskin:

Magician's Pentacle from the Heptameron.

As you can see, this is a hexagram without circumscription.

The loose terminology of “pentagram” and “pentacle” conflating a broad category of symbols into a practical iconographic family was the norm for historical magicians.

The Law and Orthodox Authorities

This practical gloss internal to the part of sorcery mirrored the practical gloss external to the art. Laypersons, law enforcement, and judges, who had no care for the particularities of a forbidden jargon, similarly lumped all symbols and icons employed in forbidden magical practice as “pentagrams” or “pentacles.”

It should be instructive to the reader that by this point in history, both the occult initiate and uninitiated orthodox authorities were using the terms interchangeably for a range of symbols, identically, for very different reasons.

The loose approach to terminology IS the historical approach; do not allow anyone else to tell you differently.

Finally, we arrive at the period that produced most of our misconceptions about the pentagram.

During the 19th century, significant counter-culture movements developed within political and religious circles, spurred on by dissatisfaction with the decrepit institution of nobility and the fading decadence of the Catholic Church. The paucity of iconographic representation in the iconoclastic world of Protestantism left much to be desired for those with natural tendencies towards representational art. At the same time, the frivolity of Rococo Catholic iconography alienated the same people with its cheery weightlessness.

So rose supposedly revivalist neopagan movements, in tandem with a surge in organized occultism, itself an outgrowth of the secret rites of the fraternal organizations of previous years, like the Freemasons.

Due to a lack of decent materials and the exclusivity of access to manuscripts and limited republishing from the previous century, whoever had something was suddenly an authority in a closed social circle filled with the bored wealthy. The spirit of codification and systematics in the post-Enlightenment sciences, running parallel with these movements, produced a demand for specificity and rules, for magic to be a science of discrete meanings.

The environment was ripe for exploitation by forgers, fraudsters, abusers, egomaniacs, and general charlatans.

Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams, 1747-1826), the Welsh antiquarian and literary forger who fraudulently created "ancient" Welsh Druidic texts that served as the foundation of Welsh Neopagan culture for a century.

The reader will forgive this Compiler for being brief on this subject, as a more detailed treatment would fill a book and would not be instructive on the topic at hand. We have tackled one of the major misconceptions stemming from this period already, and now we finally tackle the last two with the same thrust: Pentagram orientation and Satanism.

At some point in the 19th century, or possibly the early 20th, Neopagans and Witchcraft revivalists began emphasizing the pentagram's orientation, with the point up (good) or the point down (bad) as part of their interpretative framework. The logic of the orientation’s moral and spiritual charge was that the directional point of the star was indicative of “spirit.” Under this framework, the upward point indicated the supremacy of the spirit over the base nature of matter. In contrast, the point down indicated the subjugation of the spirit to the profanity of the material world.

They used names like “Druid’s Foot” or “Witch’s Foot” for the “good” pentagram, and “Devil’s Hoof” for the bad one. And, sometimes, they were inconsistent on this, too.

Point up good; point down bad.

This Compiler does not know if this happened before or after orientation was codified in occultism, but they most certainly spread the convention far and wide.

Unlike with the Neopagans, we know when the orientation convention entered the occult literature. It was in 1856, with the publishing of Éliphas Lévi’s Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (Dogma and Ritual of Transcendental Magic).

Éliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant, 1810-1875), the father of modern occultism, and one goofy goober.

We feel the need to make an aside here: while we have poo-pooed the dubious contributions of the 19th-century occultists, we genuinely enjoy the works and observations of Éliphas Lévi.

Éliphas Lévi was a former Catholic seminarian, turned socialist, turned Freemason, turned High Ceremonial Magician and Necromancer, turned Kabbalist. In his Dogma and Ritual, he articulated to us many conventions of revealed Christian theology embedded in occult iconography, which we would later find similarly articulated in the works of C.S. Lewis.

When C.S. Lewis and a self-professed necromancer are saying the same things about finer points of Christian theology, those points warrant attention.

In any case, Lévi was a devout Christian, if a bit heterodox (now there’s a euphemism!). In Dogma and Ritual, he espoused the biblical narratives as one of the three pillars of supreme occult knowledge, being the pillar of “perfect analogy.” He engaged in primitive comparative mythology, but did so sincerely. He was observant, recognizing that the major arcana of the Tarot mapped to the paths between the sephirot of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. He was genuinely creative, innovative, and vocal in his veneration of God and Christ. He also actively guided those interested in magical practice away from many of the errors of his own occult explorations.

Ironically, in the same work, he made one of his greatest mistakes, one quite familiar to pop culture:

The Baphomet of Mendes

This is the Baphomet, or the Goat of Mendes, likely better known to our reader as the Devil.

Masonry and the Baphomet

We have highlighted Lévi’s Christian roots because we need to explain one of his most notable impulses: the need to employ negative, even demonic iconography to point towards what he believes is transcendental truth.

This begins with his departure from Catholicism and his association with Masonry. For those not in the know, the Catholic Church barred those under papal spiritual authority from membership in fraternal orders where one must swear themselves to secrecy before knowing what they must keep quiet about. This barred Catholics from the Masonic Orders, and the Masons have since been an outwardly anti-Catholic body.

This antagonistic relationship is reinforced by the dubious historical claim by the Masons that their order absorbed the Knights Templar after they were disbanded by the Church and slaughtered on Friday the 13th, in October of 1307.

Relevant to the topic, they were disbanded based on testimony produced for King Philip IV of France by tortured Templars. According to this testimony, they performed depraved rites of initiation to a deity they called “the Baphomet.” According to the narrative, this “Baphomet” was some sculpture of a winged cat they brought back to their cloisters from the Holy Land.

While the claims of the rite themselves are suspect, some basic etymological digging reveals the likely purpose of the rite: Baphomet is a corruption of Mahomet, the French pronunciation of Muhammad. Given the Templar’s founding crusading function, this tracks and reveals the function of the rite: to perform the scenario of the Templar’s capture by the Saracens and the demand to succumb to idolatry in the worship of Muhammad. This gels with the common European Christian belief that mosques were houses of idols. Those better informed may still have regarded veneration of the prophet of Islam as idolatrous.

Whether any of the above story is a historical fact or not, it is the narrative that has been accepted by Masonic circles and other fraternal orders who claim descent from the Templars. This includes Lévi, who isn’t at all shy about his beliefs in Dogma and Ritual.

Building the Baphomet

Lévi shifted from Catholicism to Freemasonry, then into other practices. Among them was the study of the Tarot and Alchemy. This is essential to understanding what he was trying to do with the Baphomet, because he was attempting to invert the Devil.

Lévi was temperamentally and aesthetically contrarian. Despite this, he clung to his Christian values, and after his journey through numerous dubious practices, he turned his creativity to refurbishing or redeeming icons.

The Baphomet is his Tarot of the Devil.

The Rider-Waite Devil Card (Right) post-dates Levi's influence (published 1909), hence the orientation of the pentagram here, but it preserves the archetypal card model, with man and woman chained to the Devil in sin.

As Lévi articulates in Ch. 15 of Book 2 of Dogma and Ritual, this twisted image of the Sabbatic Goat is a symbol of Gnosis, self-awareness of one’s own bestial nature, and horror at one's own sin. To the initiated, he claims, it is an emblem of arcane sainthood.

"WE recur once more to that terrible number fifteen, symbolized in the Tarot by a monster throned upon an altar, mitred and horned, having a woman's breasts and the generative organs of a man – a chimera, a malformed sphinx, a synthesis of deformities. Below this figure we read a frank and simple inscription – THE DEVIL. Yes, we confront here that phantom of all terrors, the dragon of all theogonies, the Ahriman of the Persians, the Typhon of the Egyptians, the Python of the Greeks, the old serpent of the Hebrews, the fantastic monster, the nightmare, the Croquemitaine, the gargoyle, the great beast of the Middle Ages, and – worse than all these – the Baphomet of the Templars, the bearded idol of the alchemist, the obscene deity of Mendes, the goat of the Sabbath. The frontispiece to this “Ritual” reproduces the exact figure of the terrible emperor of night, with all his attributes and all his characters.

Let us state now for the edification of the vulgar, for the satisfaction of M. le Comte de Mirville, for the justification of the demonologist Bodin, for the greater glory of the Church, which persecuted Templars, burnt magicians, excommunicated Freemasons, etc. – let us state boldly and precisely that all inferior initiates of the occult science and profaners of the Great Arcanum, not only did in the past but do now, and will ever, adore what is signified by this alarming symbol. Yes, in our profound conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of the Templars worshipped the Baphomet, and caused it to be worshipped by their initiates; yes, there existed in the past, and there may be still in the present, assemblies which are presided over by this figure, seated on a throne and having a flaming torch between the horns. But the adorers of this sign do not consider, as do we, that it is a representation of the devil: on the contrary, for them it is that of the god Pan, the god of our modern schools of philosophy, the god of the Alexandrian theurgic school and of our own mystical Neo-platonists, the god of Lamartine and Victor Cousin, the god of Spinoza and Plato, the god of the primitive Gnostic schools; the Christ also of the dissident priesthood. This last qualification, ascribed to the goat of Black Magic, will not astonish students of religious antiquities who are acquainted with the phases of symbolism and doctrine in their various transformations, whether in India, Egypt or Judea."
-Ritual, Chapter 15, "The Sabbath of the Sorcerers"

In Jungian terms, the Tarot Baphomet is the integrated shadow.

This is a subversion of traditional Christian imagery of the Devil to recognize the self as the evil one, and in that self-awareness, realize the transcendent orientation towards God. He justifies it, thus:

"The dread Baphomet henceforth, like all monstrous idols, enigmas of antique science and its dreams, is only an innocent and even pious hieroglyph. How should man adore the beast, since he exercises a sovereign power over it? Let us affirm, for the honour of humanity, that it has never worshipped dogs and goats any more than lambs or pigeons. In the hieroglyphic orders, why not a goat as much as a lamb? On the sacred stones of Gnostic Christians of the Basilidean sect there are representations of Christ under the diverse figures of kabalistic animals – sometimes a bird, at others a lion, and again a serpent with the head of lion or bull; but in all cases He bears invariably the same attributes of light, even as our goat, which cannot be confounded with fabulous images of Satan, owing to the Sign of the Pentagram [point up].

Let us affirm categorically, to combat the remnants of Manichaeanism which are appearing sporadically among Christians, that as a superior personality and power Satan does not exist. He is the personification of all errors, perversities and consequently of all weaknesses. If God may be defined as He Who exists of necessity, may we not define His antagonist and enemy as necessarily he who does not exist at all? The absolute affirmation of good implies an absolute negation of evil: so also in the light, shadow itself is luminous. Thus, erring spirits are good to the extent of their participation in being and in truth. There are no shadows without reflections, no nights without moon, the planet of morning and stars. If hell be just, it is good. No one has ever blasphemed God. The insults and mockeries addressed to His disfigured images attain Him not."
-Ritual, Chapter 15, "The Sabbath of the Sorcerers"

This logic of transcendence above duality is reinforced by the hermaphroditic qualities of the breasts and the Caduceus as phallus, as this transcendent integration of the self has expression in alchemy, through the Rebis.

The Rebis, as it appears in Heinrich Nollius's Theoria Philosophiae Hermeticae.

Lévi’s hermaphrodite is a refinement of this earlier representation, depicting a fully realized hypostasis of the masculine (shaping) and feminine (generating) principles through a figure that is both 100% male and 100% female.

No tits? Tourists. Posers. F-. 0/10. No Credit. Would not recommend.

This integration project also includes the four elements, with a crown of fire, wings, fish scales on the belly, and hooves upon the sphere of the earth.

It all Falls Apart

Reframing the imagery of the Devil as an emblem of virtuous self-realization is a delicate maneuver, especially in light of the Christian admonition not to confuse evil with good and good with evil.

But it’s not like iconographic reversals haven’t been done before. Christianity itself successfully recast an instrument of torture and execution as the Tree of Life.

Bet you didn't think we'd got there, did you?

While this Compiler shares many of Lévi’s contrarian impulses, and we fully appreciate what he was trying to accomplish, this iconography is high risk by design. And, given how the occult and modern gnostic traditions have yanked the Baphomet from Levi’s “pillar of perfect analogy” in Christianity and scripture, it’s a practical failure. As an icon, it’s too alienating and self-selecting for people who do not appreciate Lévi’s essential propositions.

It also doesn’t help that he references the “goat of the Sabbath” elsewhere in the universal negative! It’s in Chapter 5 of the first book of Dogma and Ritual that he introduces the interpretation of orientation, and in Chapter 5 of the second book he elaborates, identifying the inverted pentagram with Satan, who is distinct from his Baphomet, while sharing the goat/Sabbath framing:

"The direction of the points of the star is in no sense arbitrary, and may change the entire character of an operation, as we shall explain in the 'Ritual'.
-Dogma, Chapter 5, “The Pentagram”

"The Pentagram with two points in the ascendant represents Satan as the goat of the Sabbath; when one point is in the ascendant, it is the sign of the Saviour. The Pentagram is the figure of the human body, having the four limbs and a single point representing the head. A human figure head downwards naturally represents a demon that is, intellectual subversion, disorder or madness."
-Ritual, Chapter 5, “The Blazing Pentagram”

Ironically, this directly contradicts Church architectural tradition, where the inverted pentagram is indicative of the descent of the Holy Spirit to the congregation, as seen in the window of Amiens Cathedral.

Kinda hard to miss this.

It was in Chapter 5 of Lévi’s Dogma and Ritual that the Baphomet was bound to the inverted pentagram textually, before the Tarot formulation even had a chance to spread its wings.

It was 1897 when this icon was translated from text to image, in Stanislas de Guaita’s “Samael-Lilith” pentagram in La Clef de la Magie Noire.

So much for “cannot be confounded with fabulous images of Satan.”

Here’s how it actually appears in the book, btw:

As you can see, the orientation logic is firmly cemented by this point.

De Guaita was a historical person and the villainous Satanic sorcerer in Joris Karl Huysman’s pseudo-autobiographical La-Bas, a dramatized and mostly fictional account of the occult tiff between de Guaita and rival occultist Joseph-Antoine Boullan. (That conflict itself is a damn rollercoaster of nonsense fit for an early 2000’s webforum).

La-Bas is one of the foundational works of Satanic fiction. De Guaita’s iconographic work is perhaps even more influential, as nearly every permutation of imagery employed by modern Satanism, dissident Gnosticism, heavy metal shock art, and pearl-clutching Satanic-Panickers is downstream of this printed figure.

With the public perception of the pentagram already perturbed by the sorcerers and their grimoires, this explicitly Satanic iconography fixed the pentagram as a device of the Devil in popular consciousness for the next century, leading up to the present day.

Conclusion

The pentagram is a dynamic icon with multiple potential meanings. You’re not beholden to particular language or even forms. Nothing in the historical tradition that dictates how you have to employ it in your stories, your art, or your religious or magical practice.

With the scales removed from our eyes, we move on to direct engagement with the common features of the pentagram and its creative possibilities.

The Magician's Tools

The Pentagram

01 - Introduction to the Pentagram
02 - Structure of the Pentagram [PENDING]
03 - Pentagram Magic [PENDING]
04 - Pentagram Analogs and Substitutes [PENDING]

The Cup [PENDING]
The Wand [PENDING]
The Sword [PENDING]

An Introduction to the Four Elements

Quintessence
Earth

Water [PENDING]
Air [PENDING]
Fire [PENDING]

-Abano, Peter de. Heptameron: or, Magical Elements of Peter de Abano, philosopher. Translated and edited by Robert Turner, 1657. Adobe Acrobat edition by Benjamin Rowe, July 1, 2000.

-Conybeare, F. C., translator. Testament of Solomon. Jewish Quarterly Review, October 1898. Digital edition by Joseph H. Peterson, esotericarchives.com, 1997.

-Drury, N. (2004). The Dictionary of the Esoteric: 3000 entries on the mystical and occult traditions. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.

-Drury, N. (2005). The Watkins Dictionary of Magic: 3000 entries on the magical traditions. Watkins.

-Guaita, Stanislas de. Essais de sciences maudites, Le Serpent de la Genèse. Seconde septaine (livre II) : La Clef de la Magie Noire. 1920. Gallica digital collection, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

-Lévi, Éliphas (Alphonse Louis Constant). Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie Part I: The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic. Translated by A. E. Waite, Rider & Company, 1896. Adobe Acrobat edition by Benjamin Rowe, June 2001.

-Lévi, Éliphas (Alphonse Louis Constant). Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie Part II: The Ritual of Transcendental Magic. Translated by A. E. Waite, Rider & Company, 1896. Adobe Acrobat edition by Benjamin Rowe, January 2002.

-Mathers, Samuel Liddel MacGregor, translator. The Key of Solomon the King: A Magical Grimoire of Sigils and Rituals for Summoning and Mastering Spirits. Edited by Joseph H. Peterson, Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, 2016.

-Shadrach, Nineveh, translator. Book of Deadly Names As Revealed to King Solomon by Jinn King Fiqitush. Ishtar Publishing, 2007, Burnaby, BC, Canada.

-Tresidder, J. (2008). The Watkins Dictionary of Symbols. Watkins.

Video

-Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land. Directed by Hamilton Luske, Walt Disney Productions, 1959.

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BqnN72OlqA ]

Websites

[ http://www.crivoice.org/lucifer.html ]

[ https://djonscott.com/pent-hist ] - (DEFUNCT)

[ https://web.archive.org/web/20230307210456/https://djonscott.com/pent-hist ]

[ https://www.etymonline.com/word/pentacle ]

[ https://www.etymonline.com/word/pentagram ]

[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagram ]

[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoreanism ]