Pentagram appears in 2 systems: the same name is used for more than one thing. Both are shown below.
Sacred geometry
Pentagram
The five-pointed star traced by joining every second vertex of a regular pentagon. Because the diagonals cut one another in extreme and mean ratio, the pentagram is the golden ratio drawn rather than computed, and it was the Pythagorean sign of recognition.
The five-elements reading, with aether or spirit at the top point, is a Renaissance and later Hermetic overlay; the Pythagorean pentad is a number doctrine, not an elemental one. The inverted pentagram as a sign of evil is a 19th-century reading, fixed in the occult revival, and has no medieval authority. pentagon is catalogued separately as the figure the pentagram is drawn from.
Correspondences
- Element
- Aether
- Chakra
- Heart Chakra
Practice
- Magical Uses
- ProtectionBanishingInvocationConsecrationElemental work
Nature and meaning
- Meaning
The five-pointed star traced by joining every second vertex of a regular pentagon. Because the diagonals cut one another in extreme and mean ratio, the pentagram is the golden ratio drawn rather than computed, and it was the Pythagorean sign of recognition. In the Western magical tradition it is the figure of the five elements and the standard mark of a consecrated space.
Details
- Dimensions
- 2D
- Keywords
- FivePentadPythagoreanGolden ratioProtection
- Sacred Ratio
- phi (its diagonals cut one another in the extreme and mean ratio)
- Construction
Draw a regular pentagon (Euclid, Elements IV.11) and connect each vertex to the second vertex from it, skipping one; the five lines close and cross five times. The inner figure is a smaller pentagon, and the operation can be repeated inside it without end, which is the self-similarity that produces phi.
- Appears in
- PentaclesTalismansRitual geometryFlags
Symbols
The pentacle entry already carries the encircled form; this entry is the star itself, the line without the circle.
Correspondences
- Element
- AllAether
- Chakra
- All chakras
Practice
- Magical Uses
- ProtectionBanishingInvokingElemental workConsecration
Nature and meaning
- Meaning
The five-pointed star drawn in one stroke: the four elements plus spirit, and the human figure with arms and legs outstretched.
- Deities
- All gods
Details
- Keywords
- ProtectionFive elementsMicrocosmWill
- Orientation
- Upright protectionInverted matter
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More in Sacred geometry
The entries either side of this one in the same catalogue.
- Squared Circle
- Enneagram
- Seed of Life
- Rodin Vortex (Vortex Mathematics, 369)
- Golden Ratio (Phi)
- Circle
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