Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia, and are used today as a symbol of faith by many Wiccans, akin to the use of the cross by Christians and the Star of David by Jews. The pentagram has magical associations, and many people who practice Neopagan faiths wear jewelry incorporating the symbol. Christians once more commonly used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus. The pentagram has associations with Freemasonry and is also utilized by other belief systems.
The first known uses of the pentagram are found in Mesopotamian writings dating to about 3000 BC. The Sumerian pentagrams served as pictograms for the word "UB" meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall," suggesting something very similar to the pentemychos (see below on the Pythagorean use for what pentemychos means). In René Labat's index system of Sumerian hieroglyphs/pictograms it is shown with two points up. In the Babylonian context, the edges of the pentagram were probably orientations: forward, backward, left, right, and "above". These directions also had an astrological meaning, representing the five planets Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, and Venus as the "Queen of Heaven" (Ishtar) above.
The Pythagoreans called the pentagram ὑγιεία Hugieia ("health"; also the Greek goddess of health, Hygieia), and saw in the pentagram a mathematical perfection (see Geometry section below).
The ancient Pythagorean pentagram, with two legs up, represented the Pentemychos (πεντέμυχος "of five sanctuaries"), a cosmogony written by Pythagoras' teacher and friend Pherecydes of Syros. It was the "island" or "cave" where the first pre-cosmic-offspring had to be put in order for the cosmos to appear: "the divine products of Chronos' seed [σπέρμα spérma], when disposed in five recesses, were called Πεντέμυχος (Pentemuxos)".
Wu Xing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: Wǔ Xíng), the five phases, or five elements, is an ancient Chinese mnemonic and symbolic figure widely known in East Asia and used traditionally in applications such as medicine, acupuncture, feng shui, and Taoism. They are similar to the ancient Greek elements, with more emphasis on their cyclic transformation than on their material aspects. The five phases are: Fire (火 huǒ), Earth (土 tǔ), Metal (金 jīn), Water (水 shuǐ), and Wood (木 mù).
The vectors of the overcoming or controlling cycle visually form a pentagram which is commonly incorporated into depictions. Generative and destructive cycles are shown as clockwise and counter-clockwise circular motion.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and others perpetuated the popularity of the pentagram as a magic symbol, keeping the Pythagorean attributions of elements to the five points. By the mid-19th century a further distinction had developed amongst occultists regarding the pentagram's orientation. With a single point upwards it depicted spirit presiding over the four elements of matter, and was essentially "good". However, the influential writer Eliphas Levi called it evil whenever the symbol appeared the other way up. Man inscribed in a pentagram, from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's De occulta philosophia libri tres. The five signs at the pentagram's vertices are astrological. Another pentagram from Agrippa's book. This one has the Pythagorean letters inscribed around the circle.
The first known uses of the pentagram are found in Mesopotamian writings dating to about 3000 BC. The Sumerian pentagrams served as pictograms for the word "UB" meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall," suggesting something very similar to the pentemychos (see below on the Pythagorean use for what pentemychos means). In René Labat's index system of Sumerian hieroglyphs/pictograms it is shown with two points up. In the Babylonian context, the edges of the pentagram were probably orientations: forward, backward, left, right, and "above". These directions also had an astrological meaning, representing the five planets Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, and Venus as the "Queen of Heaven" (Ishtar) above.
The Pythagoreans called the pentagram ὑγιεία Hugieia ("health"; also the Greek goddess of health, Hygieia), and saw in the pentagram a mathematical perfection (see Geometry section below).
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The vectors of the overcoming or controlling cycle visually form a pentagram which is commonly incorporated into depictions. Generative and destructive cycles are shown as clockwise and counter-clockwise circular motion.
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