The Pentacle and Pentagram

Disclaimer: For the purpose of this post I am using the modern occult language of Pentacle to mean the up-right five pointed star within the circle and the word Pentagram to mean the ringless or free floating pentacle. An up-right five pointed star without the circle. So to simplify: Pentacle = Five pointed star with circle. Pentagram = Five pointed star without the circle. That is the language as it’ll be used in this post.

Secondary disclaimer: The etymology of these words both just roughly mean a five pointed shape. Neither, in their word origin, indicate a circle. So go figure. Now on with the rant.

Partly thanks to AI answers there has been a bit of a revisionist history about the symbol of the pentagram. The other night I was curious as to what others felt was the spiritual difference in the symbol of the Pentacle vs. The Pentagram.

I am aware that the ring in the symbol has had many meanings over the years from the cycles of life and the universe, to unity and balance, or contained within oneself or the human will represented as the circle. Or control. Or that the circle represents nature itself since all things in nature are cycler.

The five pointed star, itself, represents the elements of water, fire, Earth, air and spirit- the elements of nature and of magick. Now when I googled what the spiritual significance was in the difference between these two similar symbols I was surprised when the AI overview gave me an answer suggesting that the pentacle is magical and sacred and the Pentagram is just geometry. I know this to be a falsehood. And I realize that Googling different wordings can change how the AI answers the question. But this still struck me as wrong.

Another search result gave me Elphias Levi’s interpretation which claimed that the pentagram represented domination over the elements. Ironically I had once stumbled upon a similar interpretation for the pentacle within the circle with the circle representing control or dominion. It’s no wonder the meaning of these symbols has blurred and blended.

In the lore of werewolves as depicted in pop culture (Of the last eighty-five-years or so) the pentacle and pentagram have been used interchangeably to mean a ward against a werewolf, a warning as to who is the werewolf or who is doomed to be the next victim of the werewolf, and a symbol that could prevent the werewolf transformation if worn by a werewolf. In the lore of werewolf fiction the symbols of the Pentacle and Pentagram seem to have identical functions.

But that is pop culture and should be considered with some skepticism, despite it’s origin being derived from Germanic folklore, which also said that the pentacle could ward off demons, and trap the likes of the demon Mephistopheles (Goethe’s Faust Part 1 and the legend of Faust).

The pentagram was the sigil of Pythagoras (Father of music and mathematics) and was also a symbol of his followers. It was considered a keystone to modern geometry. But the symbol is more than geometry. It’s Sacred Geometry with a capital S.

There is an interesting phenomena where if you dig hard enough you’ll find a star, and in particular, the five pointed star, as a symbol of faith and protection in nearly all world religions. I’ll just name a few.

In Christianity in the middle ages it was believed that the ring given to King Solomon by the Archangel Michael depicted a pentagram or pentacle.

In medieval Germany until about the nineteenth century the pentacle was believed to ward off demons and hung over doorways as a symbol of protection.

Many medieval churches have a pentacle in the stain glass windows.

For a while Christians adopted the Pentacle and Pentagram to represent the wounds of Christ.

A version of the pentacle was used by Ancient Druids and The Ancient Greeks.

A crescent moon and five pointed star is the symbol of Islam. In Islam the star is supposed to represent God and his connection to humanity.

The pentagram without the circle is known in Baha’i as the Haykal and is symbolic of a person with his arms out stretched. People who follow Baha’i believe in harmony and acceptance of all people regardless of race, gender, or sexual identity. They also believe in equal access to education and that all religions have some truth to them.

Most Wiccans use a pentacle as their symbol of faith and magick while some use the pentagram. A few, like the Blue Star Wiccans, use a sepetegram (a seven sided star).

Other stars in faith to note include the Star of David of the Jewish Faith. The Star of Bethlehem that turns up in Catholicism and some other Christian denominations. And the five pointed star Pentagram that often tops Christmas trees though many don’t realize that actually is a pentagram.

Many police and sheriff badges have a five pointed star as a symbol of protection. Even Texas’s so-called “Lone Star” is actually a Pentacle. Many old barns and houses in upstate New York and New England feature a five pointed star or circular window with a five pointed star as an old symbol of protection, like hanging a horseshoe (which has its origin in warding off certain entities that are repulsed by or harmed by iron).

Why am I writing all this? Well, the point is simple. The five pointed star without the circle is just as sacred and just as valid as the version with the circle even if the meaning might be slightly different for some.

The pentagram is not just geometry. Nor does it have to mean “Dominion” over the elements (again, I’ve happened upon those who think the circle represents that). Like the pentacle, the pentagram is ancient, sacred, and bundled in meaning by different people.

There’s even the rhyme “Rowan twigs and strings of red, deflect all harm, gossip, and dread.” This is in regard to rowan twigs (twigs from a mountain ash tree) forming a pentagram and secured with red string (or ribbon or thread, yarn, etc).

So yes, the use of the pentagram (without the ring) is just as valid as a spiritual symbol and symbol of protection, and the five elements of nature and magick.

The use of the ring around it to represent unity, or the cosmos, or will, or nature itself, is your choice. The loss of the ring does not diminish the innate symbolic value of the five elements configured as an even pointed, upright, star.

I made this post because I happen to like the pentagram as much as I like the ringed pentacle version. And I don’t want the symbol diminished for anyone because of a misleading AI or some nineteenth century occultist. Is it geometry? Yes. Is it sacred and symbolic of the wonders of nature, spirituality, and magick, also yes.

Happy Ostara / Spring Equinox!

Ostara is the ancient holiday celebrated by Wiccans and other Neo Pagans that overlaps with the Easter season. Ostara is named for the goddess Eostre, The celebration of Ostara started the traditions of baskets of treats, rabbits, and, yes, colored eggs that were later adapted for the Christian Easter.

Ostara celebrates day and night being perfectly balanced, and the full return of spring.

So I was in another Witchcraft group on Facebook (surprise, surprise...) and it's one of those Witchcraft Collective groups so they allow Baneful magick. Anyway, someone posted one of those "Hex your ex" spells, consisting of rusty nails, peppers, black candle, etc... Ignoring that it felt like hodgepodge of other spells stapled together the very first comment was preaching about how "evil is a point of view." It felt like a direct knock-off of Lestat's speech from Interview with the vampire. I was so tempted to say "You know, the character himself, didn't really believe that, right?" She waxed poetic about how if you subject yourself to a binary of good and evil you are just restricting your power. And that witches are supposed to be about power, not chained by someone else's morality and how hexes are neither good nor evil, just a tool. Yeah, okay, your tool literally says on the label "To do serious harm to another person." by most sane standards that's not a good thing. That's not a tool. If you truly believe this is real and will work, it's the equivalent of saying duct tape, butcher knife, the person's home address, and a meat hook are "just tools." You want to do something baneful fine. Just remember bane means poison, as in HARM! You want to do harm, okay, that's on you. But don't preach about how having a sense of right and wrong is a weakness and restrictive. Have you ever noticed it's only people who want to do something terrible to another person without consequence who preaches things like "There's no such thing as good or evil"? I'm not talking about the ten commandments, Christian definitions of good and evil here, I'm talking primal. Creation and destruction. When you break down Good and Evil at their roots you have forces for creation and preserving life and forces for willful harm and destruction. Yes, personal morality is subjective but at their heart you have real, basic elemental forces. Creation and Destruction. And frankly, it feels sociopathic when someone rants about how there's no good or evil, only power and those willing to wield it. It feels like cheesy villain dialogue. And the real obnoxious thing? She got a bunch of replies about how right she was and how eloquently she put it. She plagiarized Interview with The vampire and a bunch of sheep like wanna-be Sanderson Sisters were like "Well said, fellow sister in hate!" (That's exaggeration but just barely...) And this is why I stick with the "Fluffy Bunny" spirituality of Wicca. I'm much more comfortable with "Harm none" rather than "If you don't hurt people you are limiting yourself. Using poison on other people is just a tool!" (That's literally what you're saying when you say a hex is just a tool.)

Two things about the meme that says "It's odd that we were taught to fear the witches and not those that burned them at the stake."

1. The text IS accurate. The problem with the meme is most versions of it use an image of Saint Joan of Arc being burnt at the stake as a "Relapsed heretic." Though witches were considered heretics, not all people condemned as heretics were considered witches.

The cross isn't in the picture to torment her. She (while dying) begged someone to hold up her cross for her so she could see it as she died.

2. Obnoxiously a LOT of comments are annoyingly ill-informed and equatable to a bad "Umm actually" going "Umm actually witches weren't burnt at the stake. They were hanged."

Several things wrong with that comment.

A. England and the American colonies didn't burn witches but that doesn't account for the rest of Europe or world history. Does no one remember a little thing called the inquisition? Also France didn't just burn witches. They had supposed werewolf burnings too, particularly in the Auvergne region.

B. Salem had hangings and one man was pressed to death with heavy rocks when he didn't "confess" to witchcraft. You really think that's much better?

C. The point of the meme isn't the HOW of them being put to death but that they were put to death. To quibble over the method is petty. What is the point of trying to diminish the meme's message?

Be critical of the fact that most versions of the meme accidentally use a picture of a Catholic Saint being martyred for her cause instead of someone condemned for witchcraft. But don't quibble over IF people were burnt as witches. YES, there were people burnt at the stake as witches. Just because you were half-paying-attention in social studies and misheard a passage about Salem doesn't mean that's how it was all through history.

Salem = No Burnings.

England = Made witch burning illegal (and pretty late in the game too.)

Europe in the middle ages until the eighteenth century = They were practically selling marshmallows to roast with them...

Hey, folks. THIS is a meme fail.

I saw this on a Witch page and now I feel I need to explain what's wrong with it. The text on this is quite old and circulated just fine on its own.

This added picture is the fail.

That's not even a woman being condemned as a witch. That's Joan of Arc. Condemned for hearsay because she claimed to hear the voices of the saints, but not condemned for witchcraft. She was later canonized as a Catholic Saint.

The painting depicts Saint Joan asking for her cross. She begged that someone hold up a cross for her so she could hold it or at least look at it as she died. ...Not sure why someone chose Saint Joan for a Witch meme...

Did they just Google "Woman burned at stake" and didn't realize it was Saint Joan?

Why the word witch is unisex (and why so many men who identify as witches don't like the word "Warlock.")

Okay, there's a lot to unpack here and I'm going to try to streamline things so bear with me if I leave out details. My sources are etymonline.com and dictionary.com . I am saying this now because every time I post something like this there's always someone who demands sources like I'd bother making this up. Now...

The word witch comes from the Old English (pre-Middle English) Wicce and Wicca. Wicce being feminine. Wicca being masculine. Pronounced as witch-uh, and witch-ah. As the English language evolved into Middle and Modern English the word's spelling shifted to match the phonetics and the gender specific aspects were dropped and we got the modern "witch." Witch originally meant "One with wisdom." or "One who seeks wisdom / has wisdom." The spiritual belief of Wicca, though taking it's spelling from this archaic word for wisdom seeker, is not pronounced as witch-uh but rather uses modern phonetics of Wick-ah, like the wick of a candle. The word wizard has a similar origin in that it means "One who is wise." or "One who has the wisdom." The word "Witch" became associated with Satan worship in the dark ages and into renaissance, partly thanks to books like Malleus Maleficarum (used by witch hunters in 1448). People really should question when a culture decides the word that means "wise person" now means "evil." The earliest use of the word "Warlock" was in Scotland. And it was used against men accused of witchcraft. Warlock did not specifically mean "male witch" yet, though it was reserved for use against men. It meant "Oath-breaker." Specifically it meant a man who broke his vow to God by bargaining with The Devil. It was meant to be a serious mark against a man's character, his honor, and integrity. When not a criminal offense it was meant to be a serious insult up there with wh0re. This is why men who identify as witches often do not like the term Warlock.

Pop culture depictions like Bewitched and Sabrina: The Teenage Witch got people thinking that Warlock means male witch. J. K. Rowling is guilty of this with her Harry Potter books, popularizing the idea that wizard is the male word for witch. And Witch is female. This perpetuates the pop culture stereotype of the term. It is true that disproportionately women have been accused of witches significantly more than men but men were accused of being witches and many died because of those accusations. The notion that witch is a unisex term is quite ancient and even survived the pop culture attempt to conform to a gender binary of terminology. The author Ray Bradbury had a boy dressed as a witch in his novel The Halloween Tree. The character, Henry, was changed into the girl, Jenny, for the animated movie adaptation of the novel. Even The Witcher books, which were originally called Wiedźmin in the original Polish means "witch man" or "male witch." Because of his knowledge that the English word for witch is unisexual, Andrzej Sapkowski (author of The Witcher), originally wanted the English title of the books to be "Hexer." So yes, men can and often do identify as witches. The term (being used to mean wise one or seeker of wisdom) is used by practitioners of Wicca and various versions of Neo paganism today. Please respect it.

The problem with Ancestor worship

One problem with modern Wicca and other forms of Neo Paganism is the fixation on ancestor worship and appreciation. "Honor your ancestors" can be found in pretty much every cultural tradition but it's abundant with Wiccans and Neo Pagans. And this fixation has a way of othering people whose family were... not that good. Suppose you find out you had Yahtzee (word that starts with an N and rhymes with Yahtzee) in your family tree. Or what if you came from an abusive household? Suppose you were disowned by your family, or your blood family has a history of generational abuse or bigotry. What then? How can you do Wiccan ancestor worship if you find out your kin were witch hunters or inquisitors? And what if you're adopted and find out your birth parents never wanted you because they were busy getting high on meth? Sometimes the whole "honor the ancestors" doesn't work. Yes, there are thousands upon thousands of years of human bloodlines that make you who you are and no matter how awful some ancestors were, they can't all have been that bad. But there could still be trauma attached to the very idea of worshipping your previous blood kin.

So here's my solution. Ancestor worship that is not about blood kin. "Ancestors in magick." Think of all the unmarried, child-less witches, Neo-Pagans, Wiccans out there. Why should they go un-honored just because they opted to not have children or couldn't have children?

They were bachelors and "Spinsters" and they were also teachers, healers, companions, guides, leaders, and friends. And they deserve appreciation. And sometimes their spirits linger to guide and educate others. It's not right that practitioners of ages past tend to get overlooked if they don't have biological children and spawned giant family trees. These are people who deserve honor and respect. So I propose the name for them. "Ancestors in Magick." And these ancestors deserve worship too and perhaps those who don't have blood family they can fondly look back on, can think fondly of them. These previous practitioners who had no blood-descendants are family by faith and knowledge if not blood and they deserve appreciation.

I VERY briefly joined a Facebook group recommended to me by Facebook called "B-tch please, I'm a witch." (not censored.)

I joined that group because I was curious but the entrance asking for my moon sign (read: birthday) and then the very first post I saw asked all our locations "So you can find out if any member is in your area". This was a big red flag for me. And no member questioned it.

I strongly think the group was just a thinly disguised marketing info harvesting mechanism.

Explaining Binding Spells

Last night I was forced to come to the unpleasant realization that a lot of people don't really do their research. They just assume that what they see in the movies or TV is accurate and then emulate it.

I was in a witch group on Facebook (those places are cesspits of misinformation) and there was someone there completely convinced that binding spells strip a witch of her powers and "sometimes that's necessary."

Okay. There's a lot to unpack here. The very first time I have ever so much as heard of a binding spell taking a witch's ability to use magick was in The Craft movies and later in the TV show Charmed. Charmed borrowed a lot from The Craft right down to using "How Soon is Now?" for the theme song.

At first I tried to calmly explain to that person that binding spells are to bind against "doing harm." There was no binding spell (before those movies and TV show) that ever suggested "I bind you from ever being able to use magick ever again."

"From doing harm" is not a blanket term to mean 'stripped of being able to cast spells." It simply means what it says on the label, "doing harm."

This does not take away benign spells or even defensive magick. If "doing harm" meant stripped of all magick that is the same as insultingly suggesting all magick is harmful by default. And that is not something most practitioners would ever claim.

The person rudely replied by condescendingly asking "Have you ever worked with deities or angels? I have seen Hecate take away a person's magick because they were misusing it. And I know for a fact binding spells work. Do your research!"

Of course they work, but not in the way she thinks. They were never meant to strip someone of all ability to use magick. In witchcraft that is the same as crippling. You might as well ask that the person's eyes be gouged out or their hands be cut off. Magick is an essential aspect of all life.

Outside of Wicca there are few versions of witchcraft that would even believe Hecate would consider any use of magick a "misuse." She's the goddess of ALL witchcraft. Not just "light and love."

Not to mention taking away the ability to cast magick could never be justified. It's like taking away one of someone's senses. That doesn't fall into the rule of three. It's exponential harm. There's nothing that can justify it and you're likely to offend whatever you invoke to try to ask it be done.

I tried to explain to the person that to believe "I bind you from doing harm" means "never use magick again" is very insulting and implies that all magick is harmful by default. And that is not how binding spells even work. There are no real spells for stripping another witch of all her power forever and ever. This was something invented for the plot convenience of The Craft movies and the TV show Charmed.

It's far worse than even the silly phone emoji spells that sometimes turn up on Tumblr.

She replied by saying "You sure were triggered by that movie!"

No, I'm just explaining that it IS fiction. Back in the 90s I knew of a lot of Wiccans and other Neo Pagans who were very bothered by The Craft movie and its depictions but The Craft 2 made it so much worse by explicitly claiming binding spells take away a witch's ability to use any and all magick even to protect herself. And the TV show Charmed is equally as guilty of perpetuating this idea.

That's not how it works.

Think of an actual binding spell as being like having a profanity filter on your phone. The person can still text. They just can't text the F word to you. That's what a binding spell does. It prevents harm.

You won't find any spell from before 1996 that claims a binding spell is the same as "You will never be able to use magick ever again." No witch has that kind of power to take away another's power, and no entity invoked would ever want to do that for you, they are not your hired thugs. That's the magical equivalent of asking that an artist's hands be smashed with a mallet on your behalf.

In fact to even try casting that kind of spell is pretty offensive. And not only not likely to work but also likely to backfire.

But, you can't tell Facebook occultists anything.

The fact that this person suggested I "do my research" was very dismissive and insulting. I'm forty-two-years-old. I've studied the arcane since I was a teenager. I have an honorary doctorate in Divinity and another in Metaphysics. I have a diploma in Parapsychology / Astrology from SCI (Stratford Career Institute).

Please... for the sake of the sanity of elder witches... Stop trusting TV shows and movies to be accurate.

Magical common sense! Do NOT use a "Binding Spell" that supposedly takes another magical practitioner's power!

I just saw a a Facebook post with a "Spell" invoking the name of Hecate to strip another magical practitioner of their ability to use magick. Just pause to grasp the vulgarity of it. Preventing another person from using witchcraft... in the name of Hecate, and invoking the law of three... Supposedly it's for use against someone who has used magick against you. Do NOT cast this spell on ANYONE! It's practically a booby trap designed to harm its caster. There were a few Neo Pagans in the comments insisting that the spell was "Just Wiccan nonsense" because it had mentioned the rule of three (which is a mostly Wiccan concept).

Let me just tell you, that spell isn't even Wiccan. This is very anti-Wiccan. It isn't defensive magick to take another witch's abilities. To strip another witch of her ability to use magick is NOT a mere binding spell, It's a crippling spell. You might as well try to take away her power to walk or speak. No witch has ever committed an offense worthy of crippling. That's not "law of three." That's an expential HARM and that's why it's NOT Wiccan. "Harm None." remember. Binding spells do NOT take away another witch's magick. That is nonsense from The Craft movies or the TV show Charmed. Binding spells prevent someone from doing harm, period. Just harm. And defense doesn't count.

Also there were / are no spells in any neo Pagan practice for actually removing another witch's ability to use magick (period). That was an invention of The Craft movies, particularly that really awful sequel and the TV show Charmed. It's like trying to ensnare another person's soul or reverse the rotation of the Earth. No one truly has that kind of power. Calling upon Hecate, the Goddess of WITCHCRAFT, to STEAL another witch's ability to USE witchcraft is just asking for a train load of negativity and not necessarily from the rule of three. I'm talking the wrath of offended deities here. They aren't your thugs for hire. And Hecate isn't incline to remove her gifts from someone just because you don't like / don't trust someone. You might earn the anger and offense of that which you intend to invoke. As I said, the spell is practically a booby trap designed to backfire on the caster. That sort of spell is not only impossible to truly work, but also potentially very offensive to the Goddess you mean to invoke.

Sometimes I think Wizards of the coast has no idea what they're doing...

They've decided to remove "witch" from things like Magic: The Gathering playing cards. And they are considering removing "Druid" and "Shaman" for the same reasons. The reason... They don't want to accidentally offend Wiccans and Neo-Pagans. And some people identify as "witch" for religious reasons.

Many Wiccans do use the term witch to mean "one who is enlightened." as the origin of the word comes from having your wits.

In fact Wicca (pronounced as Witch-a in Old English) was the masculine variation of the term, Wicce bein the feminine and witch being unisex.

But as with Fantasy dwarfs and little people who have the medical condition of dwarfism, we know the difference between the fantasy version and the real world.

I don't know of any Wiccan or Neo-Pagan offended by "witch" or "Druid" in fantasy literature or games.

It's not the same thing.

Also there seems to be some cognitive dissonance since the company is called Wizards of The Coast. Wizard comes from the same etymological root origin as Witch as it came from being "wise" or "wizened."

Also weird to announce this in October, the season where there are so many fantasy witches on display. It's almost like this was a publicity stunt to see if anyone would get angry at their misguided attempt at "sensitivity" gone to ridiculous lengths.

The normies are being stupid again...

I am old enough to remember the rather small (and stupid) backlash from the Corpse Bride movie's official website having a Magic 8 Ball-style fortune-telling app where "the Dead" answer your questions.  (It was "Yes, No, or Maybe." in varying wordings.)   This was back in 2005 / 2006. Now I'm seeing a similar backlash because Disney's Hocus Pocus 2 has a tie-in "Spell book" and some people are afraid Disney is teaching kids to get involved with Satanism and the occult.  The funny thing is... It's not even actually a spell book.   It's mostly like a companion book to the movie.  It's a guide of whose who and what's what in the movie.  And it's written so a kid can follow it.  It's a children's book with illustrations.  The first few pages are character bios and after that it teaches you about some of the folklore the movie uses in the guise of "Spells."  Come on, guys,  It's Disney.  Disney isn't going to teach you any real magick (other than that salt is used to protect against evil.  That's like learning garlic wards against vampires.  Everyone knows that.)  Disney is not being run by Aleister Crowley. You're not going to get a real levitation spell in a ten dollar book published by Disney. There's also a coloring book and an illustrated tie-in story book (really beautifully drawn, by the way).   You're not going to learn the secrets of the occult by coloring in the black kitty cat. Again: This is not really a spell book, folks.  They don't sell Disney tie-in spell books in the childrens' section of Barnes and Noble.   It's a thinly disguised guide book for the characters and lore of the movies.

A Blood Moon after a Beltane Eve Black Moon is extremely rare.

The second full moon in a single month is a blue moon but if there are two New Moons, the second New Moon is called a Black Moon. On April 30th, known as Beltane Eve or Walpurgisnacht, there was a very rare Black Moon, about as rare as a blue full moon on Halloween. It symbolizes great change.  The next full moon will be a blood moon because of the lunar eclipse.  

Happy Walpurgisnacht!

Happy Walpurgisnacht! April 30th is the Night of Saint Walpurgis, a Germanic holiday that was the medieval spring equivalent of Halloween, celebrated roughly at the half-way point to Halloween. It is a night when witches supposedly gather and hold festivals in the woods with goblins, fae and the like to trade spells and potions.   The night gets mentioned in Goethe's Faust and in Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker.  

Some guy on Facebook claimed he had me on block but couldn't remember why.   I ...really don't care.

  Today he tried calling me over Facebook.  I got a notice telling me he did.

This is probably the most interesting reason for being blocked yet.  I’m not even mad.  It’s certainly better than the lies used to justify blocking me on Tumblr.  At least this one has a grain of truth to it.