Symbols: That Evil Pentagram

Symbols carry large amounts of information. Consider road signs, such as a Stop Sign, a Hurricane Evacuation Route Sign, or a Falling Rock sign. Seeing a road sign tells our brain information about immediate action to be taken as well as a warning against what may happen if the sign is ignored.

But road signs are a relatively new concept. For older symbols, we must remember that their meaning can change with time and culture. Consider the Peace Symbol. Many people think of the Peace Symbol as something that came into being in the 1960s, but in the 1950s the Peace Symbol was the logo for The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It was designed from the naval code of semaphore, and the symbol represents the code letters for ND. But did the CND create this symbol? No, they simply borrowed it from the Saracens, who were using this symbol as early as 711AD. For the Saracens, the image placed on their shields symbolized the breaking of the Christian cross. Even prior to that, the Roman emperor Nero (37AD – 68AD) is remembered in history for persecuting Christians. Nero’s rule was so wicked he even had his mother executed. The First Roman-Jewish War (66AD – 70AD) started during his reign and today the term “Nero Cross” is the symbol of the “broken Jew” or “broken cross.” The most famous person believed to be crucified by Nero was the Apostle Peter. To symbolize his humility and unworthiness in comparison to Christ, Peter requested that he be crucified with his head toward the ground. As a result of Peter’s type of death, the upside down cross was used by early Christians as a positive symbol for peace. The symbol of the upside down cross changes its meaning when the person on the upside down cross is no longer Peter but Jesus. Anti-religious and satanic groups use the “Nero Cross” or inverted “Latin Cross” to symbolize everything opposite of Christianity. One simple symbol, the Peace Symbol, has varied in meanings and raised various emotions across hundreds of years.

The same can be said for the Swastika. Once a positive and wonderful Sun Symbol used by both the Nordic Tribes and the American Indians, the Swastika has been so ruined by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party that it now cannot be displayed without one being thought of as a white supremist.

The Cross is a pagan symbol that was incorporated into the Christian religion. The word “cross” was introduced to English in the 10th century as the term for the instrument of the torturous execution of Christ (gradually replacing the earlier word rood), ultimately from Latin crux, via Old Irish cros. The Latin Crux (translating Greek stauros) was a Roman torture device used for crucifixion.

It is not known when the first cross image was made. After circles, crosses are one of the first symbols drawn by children of all cultures. There are many cross-shaped incisions in European cult caves, dating back to the earliest stages of human cultural development in the Stone Age. Like other symbols from this period, their use continued in the Celtic and Germanic cultures in Europe. For example, Celtic coins minted many centuries before the Christian era have an entire side showing this type of cross, sometimes with the cardinal points marked by concave depressions in the same style as in Stone Age carvings. Other coins show the cross held by a rider on a horse and springing a fern leaf, sometimes identified as a Tree of Life symbol. Crosses are found in all regions of the world in many religions and cultures prior to Christianity.

The Jewish Star of David is a Hexagram, and was also a well-known pagan symbol before it became known as a Jewish symbol. The Hexagram is a mandala symbol found on ancient South Indian Hindu temples built thousands of years ago. It symbolizes the perfect meditative state of balance achieved between a person and The Creator. In antique papyri, pentagrams, together with stars and other signs, are frequently found on amulets bearing the Jewish names of God, and used to guard against fever and other diseases. Curiously the hexagram is not found among these signs. The Pennsylvania Dutch and the Amish are known for their usage of hex signs. We have heard people talk about a HEX being placed on them. Have you ever heard of a PENT being placed on someone?

And now, the Pentagram, one of the most widely misunderstood symbols in current culture. The first known uses of the pentagram are found in Mesopotamian writings dating to about 3000BC. The Pythagoreans saw in the pentagram mathematical perfection. The pentagram was the official seal of the city of Jerusalem for a time, but was discontinued due to the similarity of other star shapes and its occasional confusion with the Star of David by those unfamiliar with the symbols.

At one time, Christians commonly used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus. Medieval Christians believed it to symbolize the five wounds of Christ. The pentagram was believed to protect against demons and also used to represent the five joys that Mary had of Jesus (the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Assumption).

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim was a German magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist in the 16th century. Agrippa von Nettesheim and others began to propagandize the usage of the pentagram as a magic symbol, most likely due to its perfection as a representation of The Golden Ratio. The four lengths of a pentagram are in Golden Ratio to one another.
Most Christians, probably due to their misinterpretation of symbols used by ceremonial magicians, came to associate The Pentagram with Satanism and subsequently rejected the symbol in the last century.

There are a lot of people and groups out there using, misusing and abusing Scripture for personal and political gain or even for true evil. Do I completely disregard the Scriptures due to these misguided people? The problem is not the Scriptures. Just because there are pedophiles and rapists, I am not going to abstain from sexual relations with my husband. The problem is not sex. No created thing is inherently evil. People’s purposes and intents may be, but I will not disregard what my Creator has made for me just because some people choose to use good things for evil. That includes the Pentagram!