To begin with the first known uses of pentagram are found in Mesopotamian writings around 3000BC. The first time the pentacle (reversed) was used as a satanic symbol was from the Church of Satan in the 1960’s! So the pentacle (even the reversed one) was around almost 5000 years before it was used as a satanic occult symbol! But what exactly happened and the great and powerful pentacle became associated with Satanism?
Everything began when Eliphas Levi supported, without any actual clue, that if the pentacle represents the Divine energy and light then the reversed pentacle represents the power of chaos and darkness. After he got this idea he draw the reversed pentacle with the head of a pagan deity in it, Baphomet (*Baphomet was a pagan deity that appeared for the first time around 11th century. He was supposed to be, among others, the wise god of balance, justice and occult! Baphomet is said to be the evolution of the ancient Greek god Pan). Just to be clear, it was never Levi’s intention to confuse this symbol with Satanism he just made this as a symbol of the balance of our world!
It did not take long before the wild horned form of Baphomet was confused with the church’s description of Satan! It began back at the dusk of the 19th century when people started thinking that the reversed pentacle, with Baphomet’s head in it, was some kind of satanic symbol. All these was nothing but rumors until the late 1960’s when Anton Szandor LaVey formed a group with the name Church of Satan, in the US, and used the reversed pentacle, with Baphomet’s head in it, as their symbol! Since then the reversed pentacle with, or without, Baphomet has been recognized as a satanic symbol!
That’s how the pentacle, a symbol that had always represented greater good and wisdom, became a symbol of fear and darkness! The funny thing is that the reversed pentacle during medieval times has been used to represent health and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and not even the Holy Office never condemn the pentacle as a satanic symbol nor punish anyone who had to do with it.
In paganism the reversed pentacle had a very big variety of meanings in different traditions. First of all students that had not finished their studies were wearing a reversed pentacle as a sign of their apprenticeship. Moreover the upright pentacle was supposed to emphasising the spiritual over the material when the reversed one was emphasising the material over spiritual. In some traditions the reversed pentacle has been representing the horned God and the male aspect. The combination of the upright and reversed pentacle (double pentacle) is a symbol of the balance in our world. Some others believe that the reversed pentacle can help the recovery process of our body when we are ill or injured!
As you can see the satanic essence of the reversed pentacle is an absolutely arbiter symbolism and has not any substantive provenance after all!
The Brotherhood Of Light
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