The Five Point Star

Five point stars, or pentagrams, were first found scratched into Stone Age caves. In ancient Babylonia, the five points represented the five visible planets in the sky. In ancient Greece, the mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras wrote that the number five represented the human, due to the fivefold division of the body, and the pentagram was used as a symbol of health. He also wrote that the five points of the pentagram represented the classical elements, the initials of which spelt out the name of the Greek goddess of health, HYGEA.

Medieval Christians wore the pentagram as a symbol of Christ's five wounds, as it was believed to ward off evil. The pentagram was also believed to represent the five senses of touch, taste, sound, sight, and smell. According to the Kabbalah, the five points represent the five upper sephiroth of the Tree of Life, which are known as Justice, Mercy, Wisdom, Understanding, and Transcendence. The pentagram can be found in the stone work of Gothic cathedrals, and was adopted by Freemasons as the Star of Bethlehem.

Until 1854 the pentagram, no matter which way up it was drawn, was believed to ward off evil. In that year however, the French occultist Eliphas Levi wrote that the one-point-down pentagram was evil, and only the one-point-up pentagram was good. Other occultists have rejected this idea, and embrace the down-point pentagram as equally good. Levi also invented the invoking pentagram, developing the use of the five point star in ceremonial magic.

The following diagram is my own invention, to show the symbolic significance of the pentagram. The pentagram may be seen as a symbol of the physical universe, as perceived with the senses. It can be associated with anything that is five-fold, such as fingers and toes, the extremities of the body, the petals of a flower, or seeds of a fruit. The Kabbalah teaches that the universe manifested in five phases, the fifth phase being Assiah, which is material existence. The pentagram has no beginning and no end, it is drawn in a continuous flow, so we can say that it represents Nature as a whole.

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