The so called 'inverted' pentagram
will be familiar to everyone as the ubiquitous symbol of evil, common to Hollywood movies and satanic societies alike. The
‘upright’ pentagram is also a common and well known occult symbol, which can be found in many diverse spiritual
traditions. One religion in which this symbol is particularly prominent is the modern Pagan practice of Wicca.
The association between witchcraft
and the five pointed star is a long one, reaching back towards the obscure origins of the craft itself. In the past it is
known that the inverted version of the pentagram was used as a symbol of witchcraft.
Most witches today, however, seem to prefer using the symbol in what is generally called the upright position. Whether
this switch happened due to a feeling that the inverse symbol was just a Christian slur and an attempt to condemn the practice
of witchcraft with what is, in truth, a symbol of evil, or whether the strong association of the symbol with evil in the public
imagination simply made it too distasteful to use is not at all clear to me. But what is clear to me is that this change was
a mistake.
Feel very confident that a thoughtful study of the actual meaning of the pentagram, in both positions, shows
that the ‘inverse’ position is the proper symbol of witchcraft.
The basics are not disputed, and are
common knowledge: the five points of the star represent the four elements of
material existence – earth, water, fire and air – and the fifth element of quintessence, or pure spirit. The interpretation
of the so called ‘upright’ pentagram is also commonly known, and I do not dispute it. The single point of spiritual
essence depicted at the apex, above the other four points, represents the superiority and dominance of spiritual existence
over material existence.
The problem occurs when you over-simplistically
assume that reversing the orientation of the symbol yields an identical but opposite meaning, i.e. the dominance and victory
of the material over the spiritual. This logic is most probably derived from that of that other popular satanic symbol –
the inverted cross – which actually has no esoteric meaning at all, and is merely a symbolic act of desecration, perversion,
and enmity towards Christianity and what it represents.
