Today’s post is an edited response to an email I just received, asking about the pentagram (or pentacle) and its cultural associations.
Hello again. It’s been a few years since I last emailed you and this time I have to ask you for some advice. … I have been interested in sacred geometry since I visited your previous site. I think it was called ‘Intent’. … I felt a strong correlation between the traditions of …, sacred geometry, alchemy, and mystic symbolism.
I am currently designing a range of posters around the four seasons which is loosely based on I think it’s the ‘Ryder’ tarot deck. I am drawn to using some of the symbolism but the one that I am having a bit of difficulty deciding on, is the use of the Pentacle or Pentagram. I think it is also referred to the ‘morning star’.
The rub for me is not so much the symbols themselves but their association with Illuminati or satanic symbolism that is used as subliminals in some advertising. I might be barking up the wrong tree but I feel the miss use of these elements might be clouding the higher message that these symbolic elements and resultant graphic language hold for humanity. This is the message that I understand in your work. I really want to help people realise a higher potential and level of conciousness in themselves but the last thing I wish to do is propagate any luciferic conciousness.
I guess my confusion stems from not knowing enough, and maybe I shouldn’t be meddling in things I don’t understand. Could you please steer me in the right direction with regard to this issue.
Sincerely (name omitted)
To answer your question about pentagrams, or pentacles, I always like to “back up” to a more fundamental question. What is the thought system, intention, perspective, or attitude of the question? If it is an inclusive, all-encompassing, transpersonal one, then the issues around any malevolence disappear, regardless of the symbol or form, because the content will be one of kindness and integrity. If the thought system is divisive, petty, personal, and based on the fantasy of separation that inevitably occurs when we take sensory data as evidence of isolation or differences, then we will see whatever symbol appears to us from an egoic orientation.
In the specific case of pentagrams, or pentacles, synchronistically I’ve been reviewing the movie “The DaVinci Code” this week and the “Langdon” character played by Tom Hanks in the movie describes (I’m paraphrasing here) how the pentagram has been used by pagan cultures as a symbol for the divine feminine principle. I would suggest that any shape with 5-sided (pentagonal) symmetry intrinsically has metaphoric connections to the principle of interconnectedness since the pentagram has the golden ratio (approximately 1.618) encoded in every proportion. There are numerous references on my GeometryCode.com website (particularly the tutorial page) about how this ratio represents the idea that there is no separation, with examples from the cross-section of every DNA molecule (and also the shape of several of the molecular chains that are attached to each turn of its helical design, to spiral galaxies, Chambered Nautilus shells and countless other examples in nature, art and architecture, including the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt.
Like anything else, motivation is the key. We can use a hammer to build or destroy a house, and our thoughts and the intentions they serve are no different in this regard. Historically, there have been associations with the pentagram and both benevolent and malevolent intentions. But the same can be said about any other shape, symbol, or design. The swastika has been used by Nazi Germany as an emblem of world conquest, yet also by native Americans to represent healing.
The vesica piscis has been used by a major financial institution as their commercial (credit card) logo, on the cover of the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, Somerset, England, and countless examples of medieval religious art to represent Christ.
(I also found this interesting geometric connection – Villarceau circles – with the torus, while exploring this idea this morning):
One might suggest that the PRINCIPLE of Christ (that there IS no separation) is what is being depicted in this symbol. Returning to the original premise of this writing, perhaps one can – and I make every effort to do so! – recall that ANY symbol can be used in the service of truth (beyond our finite perceptions limited by space, time, matter, and duality) or enslaved by the realm of apparent separation and its attendant motivations.
I hope this is helpful!
