To: alt.pagan
From: cal@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Colin Low)
Subject: Pentagram History/Symbolisms (9406.pnthist.cl)
Date: 49940610
Quoting: |Stephen R. Horton (srh1@Ra.MsState.Edu) 

|I need some quick help.  I have a friend who is looking for some historical
|information on the use of the pentagram as a wiccan/pagan symbol. 
|Information on its symbolic meaning and ritual uses would also be
|appreciated.  Thanks to anyone who will post what they know.

The pentagram has become a pagan symbol within the last 40 years, 
simultaneously with the invention of wicca (just as the swastika has very
little to do with the National Socialist Party, and can be found on temples
all over India).

It can be found in many churches here in the UK (so much for being a pagan
symbol). I understand it is a common motif in Moorish architecture,
although I cannot verify this from first hand. It is based (according to
legend) on Solomon's Seal, the magical device used by Solomon to command
the spirits, and is a very common component of Jewish and Islamic stories
about magic. It's appearance in wicca betrays the ritual/ceremonial
origins of modern witchcraft.

Many rituals involving the pentagram seem to have their origin in the
Lesser and Greater Banishing Rituals of the Pentagram, a part of the
Golden Dawn Knowledge Lectures. These rituals in turn draw in part on
a Jewish bedtime prayer still to be found in the authorised prayer book.

Isn't history fun?

Colin