The Christian Usage of the Pentagram

by The Most Rev. Jon Ryner

Author's notes: This article was distributed at a metaphysical bookstore in Savannah, Illinois where I was playing my harp. For cost and time purposes, it had to fit on one side of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet, which is why much more material, including references does not appear. The town had had such a "pentagram incident" as referred to in this article. Typos in the original edition have here been corrected.

Given events that have transpired in a number of schools across the U.S.A. in recent years relating to the destruction of private property, libel, and even assault by public school employees, it seems prudent to present a few relevant, salient facts about this much-maligned symbol. Whether it was really used by Solomon in his magical workings is quite debatable (even though the famous City Seal of Jerusalem is designed around it and it does have a long history of preChristian use), but in its Christian history being discussed here, we are on much firmer ground.

Early Christians used the pentagram to symbolize the Five Stigmata (wounds) of Christ or the doctrine of the Trinity plus that of the two natures of Christ. Hans Biedermann relates that from then until medieval times, it was a lesser-used Christian symbol. Its form implied truth, religious mysticism, and the work of the Creator. Indeed, the former is explicitly stated in Gawain and the Green Knight to be the reason why Gawain's arms were the pentagram:

"And I intend to tell you, though I tarry therefore,
Why the Pentangle is proper to this prince of knights.
It is a symbol which Solomon conceived once
To betoken holy truth, by its intrinsic right,
For it is a figure which has five points,
And each line overlaps and is locked with another;
And it is endless everywhere, and the English call it,
In all the land, I hear, the Endless Knot."

The Roman Emperor Constantine I, after his defeat of Maxentius and the issuance of the Edict of Milan in 312 CE, ascribed his success to his conversion to Christianity and incorporated the pentagram, one point down (sic), into his seal and amulet. While most people know about the Labarum or Chi-Rho, they seem to be unaware that this symbol is on the other side! F. Edward Hume records that "It was at one time used by the Greek Christians in liu of the cross at the beginning of inscriptions."

The pentagram was the symbol carved on the graves of Knights Templar (such as at Tomar and the Church of Santa Maria do Olival, both in Portugal, where this device is frequently found), and is featured in many Orthodox and Catholic churches and cathedrals, sometimes quite prominently, including the Church of St. Abbondio (founded 1013 CE), the baptismal font of Sibenik Cathedral, a carving on the baptistry wall of St. John at Split in Yugoslavia (11th c.), the huge and freakish stained glass window with its "face" in the north transept of Amiens Cathedral, etc.

Even in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the pentagram was frequently featured on Catholic altars. A common pattern on the long tubes of the candlesticks and crucifixes thereon was an alternating one of equal-armed crosses and pentagrams, no doubt the former for Jesus and the latter for Mary as the Star of the Sea.

The pentagram's orientation made no difference until Eliphas Levi, who was responsible for the origins of its "Satanic" references in the late 19th c., but even he warned readers of his Dogma and Ritual that "the ignorant and superstitious...will either see nothing but darkness, or they will be scandalised." He seemed to rightly prophecy what some such people are now saying about this ancient and precious symbol!

New Addition:

This is a modern Pentecostal pin. Please note the prominent pentagram.

The Avalonian Catholic Church
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Clinton, IA 52733-0096

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