A pentacle (also spelled and pronounced as ''pantacle'' in

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esotericism, Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial ma ...

, following

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

, though that spelling ultimately derived from

Éliphas Lévi Éliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant (8 February 1810 – 31 May 1875), was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenti ...

) "The Pantacle of Frater V. I. O." is a

talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

that is used in magical

evocation Evocation is the act of evoking, calling upon, or summoning a Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit, demon, deity or other supernatural agents, in the Western mystery tradition. Conjuration also refers to a summoning, often by the use of a magic ...

, and is usually made of

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

, paper, cloth, or metal (although it can be of other materials), upon which a magical design is drawn. Symbols may also be included (sometimes on the reverse), a common one being the six-point form of the Seal of Solomon. Pentacles may be sewn to the chest of one's garment, or may be flat objects that hang from one's neck or are placed flat upon the ground or altar. Pentacles are almost always shaped as disks or flat circles. In the

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as a magical order, ...

, though, a pentacle is placed within the triangle of evocation. Many varieties of pentacle can be found in the

grimoire A grimoire () (also known as a book of spells, magic book, or a spellbook) is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms, and divin ...

called the ''

Key of Solomon The ''Key of Solomon'' (; ), also known as the ''Greater Key of Solomon'', is a pseudepigraphical grimoire attributed to Solomon, King Solomon. It probably dates back to the 14th or 15th century Italian Renaissance. It presents a typical exampl ...

''. Pentacles are also used in the neopagan magical religion called

Wicca Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a Modern paganism, modern pagan, syncretic, Earth religion, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esote ...

, alongside other magical tools. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Wicca, pentacles symbolize the

classical element The classical elements typically refer to Earth (classical element), earth, Water (classical element), water, Air (classical element), air, Fire (classical element), fire, and (later) Aether (classical element), aether which were proposed to ...

earth. In the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck (the pentacles of which were designed by

Arthur Edward Waite Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942) was a British poet and scholarly Mysticism, mystic who wrote extensively on occult and Western esotericism, esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider–Waite Tarot (also called th ...

), and subsequent

tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

decks that are based upon it, and in Wicca, pentacles prominently incorporate a

pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle around ...

in their design. This form of pentacle is formed upon a disk which may be used either upon an altar or as a sacred space of its own.

Definitions

The first documents to depict pentacles were the 16th-century grimoires called the ''Heptameron'' by pseudo-Pietro d'Abano, and the ''

''. In the ''Heptaméron'', there is only one pentacle, whereas in the ''Key of Solomon'', there are dozens of different pentacles. The ''Heptameron'' pentacle is a hexagram that is embellished by patee crosses and letters, whereas the ''Key of Solomon'' pentacles have a very broad variety of designs, only two of which are pentagrammic. That contrasts with the later popular definitions of pentacles from the 1900s, which state that pentacles are inherently pentagrammic. Gerald Gardner, known by some as the 'Father of

', got his concept of pentacles in large part from the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck, in which the pentacles are disks that are covered with a pentagram. In Gardner's 1949 book '' High Magic's Aid'' and 1954 book '' Witchcraft Today'', Gardner defined a pentacle as a "five-pointed star", intending to mean a pentagram. In his 1959 book '' The Meaning of Witchcraft'', Gardner defined a pentacle as a synonym of 'pentagram'. There is a particular definition of 'pentacle' among many latter-day Wiccans: Namely, a 'pentacle' refers to a 'pentagram' circumscribed by a circle.

Etymology

The word is first recorded in English usage in 1561, from earlier French use. The French word had the meaning of "talisman". The French word is in turn from the Latinized word 'pentaculum' (using the Latin diminutive suffix ''-culum''), which is in turn from the Italian word 'pentacolo'. The ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' in earlier editions (2nd edition 1989) went on to say that "some would connect it" with the

Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...

word 'pentacol' (1328) or 'pendacol' (1418), a jewel or ornament worn around the neck (from ''pend-'' hang, ''à'' to, ''col'' or ''cou'' neck). This is the derivation the

Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S.A. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the ...

employ in their glossary:

...it seems most likely that it comes through Italian and French from the root pend- "to hang", and so is equivalent to a
pendant A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ...
or charm hung about the neck. From the fact that one form of pentacle was the pentagram or star-pentagon, the word itself has been connected with the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
pente (five).

As magical objects

''Pentacles'', despite the sound of the word, often had no connotation of "five" in the old magical texts, but were, rather, magical talismans inscribed with any symbol or character. When they incorporated star-shaped figures, these were more often

hexagram , can be seen as a compound polygon, compound composed of an upwards (blue here) and downwards (pink) facing equilateral triangle, with their intersection as a regular hexagon (in green). A hexagram (Greek language, Greek) or sexagram (Latin l ...

s than

s. Pentacles showing a great variety of shapes and images appear in the old magical

s, such as the ''

''; as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa summarises it, their use was to "fore-know all future things, & command whole nature, have power over devils, and Angels, and do miracles." Agrippa attributes

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

' feats of magic in part to his knowledge of various pentacles. A ''Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy'' (c. 1565), which was falsely attributed to Agrippa, gives detailed instructions as to how pentacles should be formulated:

But we now come to speak of the holy and sacred Pentacles and Sigils. Now these pentacles, are as it were certain holy signes preserving us from evil chances and events, and helping and assisting us to binde, exterminate, and drive away evil spirits, and alluring the good spirits, and reconciling them unto us. And these pentacles do consist either of Characters of the good spirits of the superiour order, or of sacred pictures of holy letters or revelations, with apt and fit versicles, which are composed either of Geometrical figures and holy names of God, according to the course and maner of many of them; or they are compounded of all of them, or very many of them mixt.

Francis Barrett, in his influential work '' The Magus'' of 1801 (Book 2, part 2), repeats these instructions almost verbatim. Another common design employed in pentacles is a

magic square In mathematics, especially History of mathematics, historical and recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diago ...

, such as the Sator-Arepo-Tenet square. In the Golden Dawn magical system, the Earth Pentacle is one of four

elemental An elemental is a mythic supernatural being that is described in occult and alchemy, alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance, and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. According to Paracelsu ...

"weapons" or tools of an Adept. These weapons are "symbolical representations of the forces employed for the manifestation of the inner self, the elements required for the incarnation of the divine." Other pentacles for the evocation of spirits are also employed in the Golden Dawn system; these are engraved with the name and sigil of the spirit to be invoked, inside three concentric circles, having painted on their reverse a circle and cross like a

celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...

. According to

's instructions for the

A∴A∴ The A∴A∴ ( ) is a magical organization established in 1907 by Aleister Crowley, a Western esotericist. Its members are dedicated to the advancement of humanity by perfection of the individual on every plane through a graded series of univ ...

, the pentacle is a disc of wax, gold, silver-gilt or Electrum Magicum, eight inches diameter and half an inch thick; the Neophyte should "by his understanding and ingenium devise a symbol to represent the Universe", and engrave this on the disc.

There is, therefore, nothing movable or immovable under the whole firmament of heaven which is not included in this pantacle, though it be but "eight inches in diameter, and in thickness half an inch." Fire is not matter at all; water is a combination of elements; air almost entirely a mixture of elements; earth contains all both in admixture and in combination. So must it be with this Pantacle, the symbol of earth.

A pentacle is also employed as a magical tool within

, generally to summon certain energies or summon spirits.

Method of employment

In many old grimoires dealing with magical evocation, the pentacle is described as being hung about the neck, providing protection and authority to the operator.

Johannes Trithemius Johannes Trithemius (; 1 February 1462 – 13 December 1516), born Johann Heidenberg, was a German Benedictine abbot and a polymath who was active in the German Renaissance as a Lexicography, lexicographer, chronicler, Cryptography, cryptograph ...

has the magician donning the pentacle just before casting the protective circle:

Then taking your ring and pentacle, put the ring on the little finger of your right hand; hang the pentacle round thy neck; (Note, the pentacle may be either wrote on clean virgin parchment, or engraven on a square plate of silver and suspended from thy neck to the breast)....

One version of the ''

'' mentions both a "Great Pentacle" which is drawn in a book, as well as a collection of other pentacles which are drawn in ink on separate pieces of parchment for use as amulets:

Thou shalt preserve them to suspend from thy neck, whichever thou wilt, on the day and hour wherein thou wast born, after which thou shalt take heed to name every day ten times, the Name which is hung from thy neck, turning towards the East, and thou mayest be assured that no enchantment or any other danger shall have power to harm thee.

The pentacle is of central importance in the evocation of spirits. A fairly typical evocation involves a series of conjurations of increasing potency, each involving the display of the pentacle:

... If they then immediately appear, it is well; if not, let the master uncover the consecrated pentacles which he should have made to constrain and command the spirits, and which he should wear fastened round his neck, holding the medals (or pentacles) in his left hand, and the consecrated knife in his right; and encouraging his companions, he shall say with a loud voice: : Here be the symbols of secret things, the standards, the ensigns, and the banners, of God the conqueror; and the arms of the almighty One, to compel the aerial potencies. I command ye absolutely by their power and virtue that ye come near unto us, into our presence, from whatsoever part of the world ye may be in, and that ye delay not to obey us in all things wherein we shall command ye by the virtue of God the mighty One. Come ye promptly, and delay not to appear, and answer us with humility. If they appear at this time, show them the pentacles, and receive them with kindness, gentleness, and courtesy; reason and speak with them, question them, and ask from them all things which thou hast proposed to demand. But if, on the contrary, they do not yet make their appearance, holding the consecrated knife in the right hand, and the pentacles being uncovered by the removal of their consecrated covering, strike and beat the air with the knife as if wishing to commence a combat, comfort and exhort thy companions, and then in a loud and stern voice repeat the following conjuration: ...

Once the spirit has appeared and been constrained, the pentacle is covered again, but is uncovered whenever demands are made of the spirit or when it is compelled to depart. In the Golden Dawn system, the pentacles are not suspended from the neck, but wrapped in a cloth covering. Instead of wearing a pentacle, the magician wears fastened to their breast a lamen.

Gallery

Image:Goetia seal of solomon.svg, The "Pentacle of Solomon" from the 17th century

'' Lesser Key of Solomon''. Its purpose is to constrain spirits during magical evocation. Image:Second Pentacle of Jupiter.jpg, The Second Pentacle of Jupiter, from the ''

'' (''Clavicula Salomonis''). This was found on the body of Anselm,

Bishop of Würzburg A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

, on the night of his death in 1749. He was rumored to be an

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

. Image:Heptameron Pentacle.jpg, The pentacle in the 1500s grimoire '' Heptaméron''. It is to be drawn on kid-skin parchment on the day and in the hour of Mercury, the Moon increasing. Image:First Pentacle of the Moon.png, The "First Pentacle of the Moon" from the ''Key of Solomon''. It serves "to call forth and invoke the spirits of the moon, and further serveth to open doors, in whatever way they may be fastened." It is to be drawn in silver or grey. Image:Golden Dawn Earth Pentacle.svg, The Earth Pentacle in the Golden Dawn system of magic, one of the elemental "weapons" or tools of an adept. File:Emb-37.svg, USVA Headstone Emblem 37.

In tarot

Much like conventional

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

s, the

Minor Arcana The Minor Arcana, sometimes known as the Lesser Arcana, are the Suit (cards), suit cards in a Cartomancy, cartomantic tarot deck. Ordinary tarot cards first appeared in northern Italy in the 1440s and were designed for tarot card games. They typi ...

of the

are divided into four suits. The suit names have evolved over time, and based on the innovation of

, contemporary English-language writers on tarot divination often prefer "pentacles" for the suit of coins. The 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck was the first to use an ''actual'' suit of pentacles, where

designed the pentacles as golden disks with a pentagram on them. The influence of that deck resulted in widespread use of the pentacle symbol, particularly among Wiccans.

In mathematics

The term ''pentacle'' is used in ''

Tilings and patterns ''Tilings and patterns'' is a book by mathematicians Branko Grünbaum and Geoffrey Colin Shephard published in 1987 by W.H. Freeman. The book was 10 years in development, and upon publication it was widely reviewed and highly acclaimed. Structu ...

'' by

Branko Grünbaum Branko Grünbaum (; 2 October 1929 – 14 September 2018) was a Croatian-born mathematician of Jewish descentG. C. Shephard to indicate a

five-pointed star A five-pointed star (☆), geometrically an equilateral concave decagon, is a common ideogram in modern culture. Comparatively rare in classical heraldry, it was notably introduced for the flag of the United States in the Flag Act of 1777 and si ...

composed of ten

line segment In geometry, a line segment is a part of a line (mathematics), straight line that is bounded by two distinct endpoints (its extreme points), and contains every Point (geometry), point on the line that is between its endpoints. It is a special c ...

s, similar to a

but containing no interior lines.

References

External links

Symbol 29:14—Pentagram inscribed in a circle
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