pentacle

Moon Owl Observations

Jazz June, 2011

The Pentagram and Pentacle

Pentacle on black 150x150 Moon Owl Observations

There are many different opinions and stereotypes when looking at a symbol like the pentagram or pentacle. Many people have misconceptions when it comes to them and here’s hoping for a little bit of clarification.

Both the pentagram and pentacle are both very significant and share many similarities, but let’s first look at the differences.  The pentacle is a five pointed star encased within a circle. The circle is known to represent infinity and protection, also the cycles of life and nature. The circle touches all the points of the star to show that the elements are all connected and balanced. Usually for clothing, jewelry, books, etc. It is the pentagram that is used. The pentagram is also a five pointed star, but is not encased in a circle. Some believers use this symbol to represent that they are open about their choices and have nothing to hide.  Other than the circle the two look exactly the same. It is up to one’s own personal beliefs on which symbol they choose to use, especially when it comes to calling the elements. Most find that adding the circle helps strengthen the casting and protects those inside from harm.

Now that you know the differences between them, let’s look at the pentagram and pentacle in general. Generally they are drawn with one point up and two down. With this kept in mind it is often thought that the uppermost point represents the Spirit, the top right Earth, top left Air, bottom right Fire and bottom left Water. It should always be drawn with one continuous line, which is often called the ‘endless knot’. Also, the direction in which you draw the star also plays a role; to invoke one must draw it in a clockwise direction, and to banish one must draw it in a counter clockwise way.

The five points have so much meaning it’s ridiculous. To touch the base of it the number five represents Mars, severity, the five wounds of christ, the star of Bethlehem, the five knightly virtues (under king hurs rule) and of course the Wiccan kiss. The pentagram was first seen around 3000BCE with the five points representing Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. It was also the symbol for the Goddess Kher (aka. Kore, Cara, Ceres, Kerma, Q’re, etc.)

The symbol was used widely by Christians, Israelites, Magicians, Pagans and more, but during the witch hunts the pentagram and pentacle became associated with evil. The Celts also used the pentacle as a sign for the ‘Goddess of the Underground‘, also known as Morrigan. In todays and past times, to wear either symbol is to say that you feel a connection with the elements and that you respect the earth and all its beauty. It is a symbol of unity, wholeness, infinity and protection. It is also strongly associated with the apple because when you slice an apple right in half you can see a five pointed star with a seed at each end.

One of the most controversial aspects of either symbol is when it is inverted. ( 2 points up, 1 down). It is seen as evil by not only Pagans, but Satanists, Christians and just the general public.  It is often seen with a goats head drawn inside it.  In my personal belief an inverted symbol is not evil at all, in fact even in Chinese Feng Shui and inverted pentagram can be used to banish.  An inverted Pentacle is even used in the Gardnarian 2nd degree initiation. It shows that you need to deal with the darkness within yourself before it can rise up. Most modern day people avoid it since it is widely associated with Satanism but in historical times it wasn’t nearly as taboo and was in fact often used in banishing spells.

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New to the Craft

Witch1979 October, 2009

Symbolism of the Pentagram

Symbols have held a special place with humankind across all cultures and ages.  Our brains are wired for language, itself a symbolic system substituting words for objects and concepts we know from experience.  The object you are sitting on is not inherently a “chair” anymore than it is a “chaise” or “silla”.  The individual words are arbitrary, but they serve the important purpose of allowing people to reference the same idea without constantly having to point to it in the physical world.  Imagine trying to have a conversation where the only things you can allude to are “this” or “that”!  Language allows us to advance from the concrete to the abstract – to ideas that transcend the physical world and speak to the interior human experience.  Herein lays the true power of symbols in any religion as tools which can represent that which is both intangible and universal.

Geometric figures are some of the most common symbols found in spiritual symbology.  Wicca adopted one of these early on and is now commonly associated in popular thought with the pentagram.

pentagram New to the Craft

In the ancient world the five points of the pentagram were determined to represent the five classical elements of fire, water, air, earth, and spirit, thus symbolizing the whole of the cosmos as shown by its constituent parts.  This meaning was kept by magical practitioners down the ages and explains its presence in Wicca today.  The specific orientation of the elements and the points were most likely adopted from ceremonial magicians.  Eliphas Levi, a 19th century writer and magician, determined that the upright pentagram should be used to symbolize spirit as ruling over the other four elements (or matter).  Conversely the pentagram with spirit below would indicate matter ruling over spirit, which Levi considered evil.  These ideas became popular, and the downward facing pentagram is commonly taboo today because of them.  Yet it is important to remember that any symbol’s meaning is somewhat arbitrary.  Evil is not intrinsic to a pentagram with its point down anymore than it is to a fylfot cross (twisted by the Nazis into its swastika but actually an ancient symbol of the sun).  History and our experience can taint certain images by association, but any group or solitary must ultimately define a symbol by what is meaningful to them.

The pentagram is also significant in magic based on its proportions.  Each line exhibits what is known as the golden ratio, or phi, where it intersects with the others.  The ratio of the longer segment to the shorter segment is a constant 1.6180339887.  This ratio corresponds with the famed Fibonacci sequence and select occurrences in nature such as shell spirals and certain plant branching patterns.  It has been intentionally incorporated into works of art by painters and architects based on its aesthetic appeal.  Some claim that Da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man exhibits these proportions.  Phi also connects the pentagram with the goddess of perfect beauty, Venus.  For Wiccans, it can symbolize the Goddess in this aspect, and for all practitioners it serves as a fitting symbol of idealized power defining the quarters of the magical circle.

Journal for the Month of September:

Since Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol came out recently I couldn’t get the topic of symbols out of my head.  There’s an extremely sadistic and messed-up bad guy this time around who is a practitioner of black magic.  The balance to that negative stereotype is a discussion of Noetic theory, which amounts to a scientific inquiry into the extraordinary powers of the mind.  The main protagonists promote the concept that the ancients knew how to harness the mind through intention and focus to perform magic and miracles, abilities we are only “re”-discovering in the modern age.  Wicca even gets a one-line mention in the book, woohoo!  It was a good read, although not my favorite of Brown’s books, and without giving anything away I was slightly annoyed at the ending – rather anti-climactic in my opinion.

A happy Celtic New Years to all at this approaching Samhain!!!

Until next month, blessed be! )O(

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The Everyday Witch

Onagh Hopke February, 2009

The Everyday Witch notices the magic in the mundane and uses the images of her environmental space to conduct effective Spelling.   In order to get to that point in our daily lives, where the magic is obvious, we must have the tools to visualize our space and experience the magic.

For my introductory column, I am supposed to write some flowery stuff about me and my heritage and what I know.  Instead, I will direct you to my new MySpace and The Everyday Witch website to give you the update on me.  I would much prefer for you to be thinking about

    • Correspondences

    • and what they mean to you, what images you personally associate with Fire or with East.  I have included a

      Correspondences

     .htm">Correspondence table for you to read.  You can also use this Google Search link which looks for the key words “witchcraft correspondences”.

    The first thing one must possess to practice effective Magic is Belief.  Correspondence Witchcraft gives the Witch an edge on Belief.  The corresponding ideas work together to form a synergy which aids in the visualization.  What I would like to focus on for my first column is to give you something useful and relevant to the

    • Correspondences

    • that Everyday Witches use in their Craft.  A project of sorts, timed to the moon and designed to assist you in visualization in time for Ostara 2009.  You will need 6 panels.  A box or heavy paper is sufficient.  If you aren’t the creative type, a journal with 6 entries on 6 pages will suffice.  I do however, believe strongly in visualization as a means to success, so please make an effort to print or draw images during the exercise to help guide your learning process.  This would make an interesting addition to a BOS or a Scrapbook on Wicca. The 6 panels will represent the 6 Cardinal Directions.  North, East, South, West, Above and Below.  It will also encompass the 5 basic elements of Earth, Air Fire Water and Spirit. This is the over arching Theme to my column,

    • Correspondences

    • .  You could call it “Foundations for Successful Witchcraft”.  The best way to classify the information in my column is “The rudimentary knowledge one should have before committing oneself to the Craft”.  I may want to be a Plumber, but without a wrench I’m just a bald guy with bad butt crack.  The tool is very important to the Craft.

    While you are deciding between the journal and the box, I will tell you that I have always considered the world around me in a relational sense.  This is related to that through this relationship.  It’s like an odd “six degrees of separation”.  For me,

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    • make sense of those relationships and gives them an order that no other religion or path of faith has provided me.  Only witchcraft with the belief in the Goddess incorporated into ritual, has provided a sense of order and structure in my life.

    I think it is best to say that my column is about the magic of ordinary things.  In the 1970’s, the Scholastic Book Club carried books by Ruth Chew.  What the Witch Left and The Wednesday Witch.  This genre of fairy tales that best describes Witchcraft are those of ordinary household items being magical tools.  The Folk Practices of the 1600’s Scotland included this tradition of Kitchen Witchery for the benefit of healing and family prosperity.  It’s not just a kettle, it’s a magical cauldron!  That is the stalk from which I am raised.  The Hippie Love Flower Child of the 1970’s with a spiritual philosophy of LOVE and The Brother’s Grimm Fairy Tales are the tacky metallic wallpaper which cover the walls of my sacred space.  I am a city witch, growing up primarily in the crowded apartment complexes and “designed neighborhood community”, with summer visits to the Southern California Desert and teenage years spent roaming the fields of the Silicon Valley… before it was the Silicon Valley.

    You will find a book list in the coming months which focuses on the beginners path, and hopefully there will be some more “advanced” discussions on religion, magic and the need for Ritual in our ordinary lives.  To start with, I use the Seasons of the Witch Planner from 7th House, as I find the information interesting – the mundane stuff like Planetary Hours can be found anywhere on the internet.  Having a good calendar geared for Moon phases, Sabbats, and other helpful information like Astrology and Tarot is very nice to have in practicing the Craft.  I’ve used a lot of them, Seasons of the Witch is by far my most favorite.

    The candles, the incense the altar, the chalice, the bread, the wine, all are part of the Witchcraft ritual.  For people on the Catholic path, Witchcraft should appear familiar and easy.  Witchcraft is very ceremonial – but it is not the ceremony which makes the magic, it is the belief and our ability to visualize our intentions.  The ceremony is simply the descriptor for our Sacred Space.

    Correspondence Witchcraft takes advantage of the visualization, providing a 6 sided “space” with which to define our environmental space.  Correspondence Witchcraft can be likened to the work of Carl Jung.  The importance of imagery and visualization is very central to both his psychology and his other writings.  The Correspondence Table for my personal brand of Correspondence Witchcraft is included with this column, as mentioned above. 

    .htm">Here’s the link again. Keep in mind that you will most probably have a different path, a different set of

    • Correspondences

    • .  You may be from the Southern Hemisphere reading this column on the Web, and of course it will be very different for you!

    The Beginning is very important to one’s beliefs.  While the Wheel of the Year is a pretty picture, there isn’t a lot to guide an inquiring Witch to understanding how the Wheel is read.  So, “ Where do you start?”  I personally start in the East.  When I finish my circle, I want to be standing firmly on the ground, therefore I end my Quarter Calls in the North, or Yule.  Or think of it as, I start on the shoreline with the rising sun on the East and I end on the shoreline in the North.  This makes Imbolg the first ceremony of the new year.  It also makes Imbolg a Cross Quarter Sabbat.  But we will get into all that in a future column.

    Only you can decide the start of your Year.  Is your path more Wiccan, does your Wheel start at Samhain, making your first Sabbat of the year Yule?  Or is the wheel not a consideration and you begin every Ritual facing East?  There are a multitude of justifications for where your box should “begin”.  Pick one that is right for you.

    My background in

    • Correspondences

    • began when I was a child.  My grandmother and grandfather secretly practiced and taught me the importance of the relationship of “things”. By the age of 34 I had become a Level 2 Energetic Healer and a 2nd Degree Priestess of Sankofa Pride.  It was with Sankofa Pride that I discovered my knack for

    • Correspondences

    • and how easily I could associate colors and stars and goddesses.  I worked with the Temple of Isis, Iseum of Isis Padeusis and remained close with Lady Sankofa.  I established a “Big Witch” Circle in Long Beach CA where ritual witchcraft was practiced on a monthly basis.  The Grotto enjoyed a full year and several months in Long Beach.  I am finding it harder and harder to find the “big witches” simply because most of us, at this point, retire and teach only our family.  I hope that by laying down the basics, I can provide the impetus for a future Big Witch to carry on.

    For the month of February, you should be preparing and gathering items to make your box, your 6 scrap book pages or your 6 journal entries.  The craft store Michael’s has some lovely sized affordable boxes to decoupage or paint.  Your thoughts should cover what you want to do – box, panels – how involved you want to be – easy glue on or in depth detailed painting – and of course the visualizations.

    I will let you be the guide to your own creativity.  However, may I suggest using the Google Image Search to gather and meditate on your

    • Correspondences

    • ?  I have provided a link here for you which searches the Google Images for “witchcraft correspondences East”. That should get you on your way to visualizations!  Mix up the key words and see what comes up for “Animal Totem West” or “Water Undine”.  Save the images you most relate to or that speaks to you strongly.  You will want to print those images in color for later decoupage (gluing) on to the box or panels.

    Using basic Wicca concepts, your 6 panels will become the visual representations of North, East, South, West, Above and Below.  Not everyone likes to do Below since the box is sitting on that panel.  For the Ceremonialists reading along, please, note I am including this portion especially for you.

    Starting in the East, you will want to sketch out the 4 cardinal points and their correspondences.  You can also use the Season and the Sabbat correspondences to the cardinal points.

    All of the panels should be sketched out as you want them by the first weekend of February.  Decide where on your box or object the elementals will be placed, color choices for each Element should be identified and any photos or pictures you want to glue/decoupage on the box should be printed in color and ready for application. The first Elemental Panel (your choice) should be traced or outlined on the box at the very least.  Ideally you should be well underway with painting or applying the first panel.  If you are using a journal or 6 scrapbook pages, you will want the Elemental panels sketched out, and your visual materials ready to be glued or stapled in place.

    The Dedication Full Moon is February 9th.  You will want to have the majority of the Elementals Sketches complete by now and well underway.  If you are using a box, the material should be prepped – base coats applied, etc and so on.  During your regular February Full Moon observance, you want to hold each of the elemental panels in your mind and meditate on their magic.  As you attend Full Moon Circle for February, reflect on the images you have chosen to remind you of the Elemental Beings, the Animals and the Star Watch Tower.  In your mind, go through all of the Elemental Beings and the ritual tools and the colors, for East, and for South, for West and for North.  Hold these images in your mind and let them interact, let their synergy mingle. Hold this synergy in your thoughts and dedicate it to your future spells and intentions.  This energy should be channeled into your box, your journal or your pages, for the seeding and planting of the magical tool which will aid your future intentions in magic working yet to come.

    For the remainder of February, the Elemental Panels should be completed and/or applied.  Instead of playing Solitaire this month, spend those 3 hours a day researching the Goddess which corresponds to West?  This is the “get your hands dirty” kind of Witchcraft preparation work that inspires the mind.  Spelling is not just about words.  Spelling is about visual images and 3 dimensional ideas we can hold in our mind.

    For the March column, we will cover the structure of a Full Moon Spell used in conjunction with a Sabbat Ritual.  You will need your box or your panels as Correspondence will be a central component.

    Correspondence is the foundation, Spelling is the structure.

    Book List and URL References

    The Everyday Witch – http://www.geocities.com/girleegeek/

    The Everyday Witch at Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/theeverydaywitch

    Correspondence table –

    .htm">http://www.geocities.com/girleegeek/TheEveryDayWitch/Witchcraft_

    • Correspondences

    • .htm

    To Ride a Silver Broomstick – Silver Raven Wolf  http://www.amazon.com/Ride-Silver-Broomstick-Generational-Witchcraft/dp/087542791X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232566860&sr=1-1

    To Stir a Magic Cauldron – Silver Ravenwolf  http://www.amazon.com/Stir-Magick-Cauldron-Casting-Conjuring/dp/1567184243/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232566860&sr=1-3

    Moon Magik – DJ Conway 

    -Llewellyns-Practical/dp/1567181678">http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Magick-

    • Recipes

    • -Llewellyns-Practical/dp/1567181678

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