The Pentagram

Hi

Can anyone tell me why Pentagrams are used in imagery on tarot cards and what the meaning is? They get associated with evil but I have read that is only when it's inverted or tilted but that doesn't appear so in tarot imagery.

Thanks

Peace

))) well for start google and wikipedia!^^))
imo if you check pent history/meaning/simbology this association is visible!^^))

Anything can be associated with evil - black cats, full moons, butter knives, Styrofoam cups ... nothing is evil until someone turns it to an evil purpose - look at the swastika before Hitler got ahold of it - it was a 'good luck' symbol.

"Pentacles" - not pentagrams - in Tarot are sometimes called Coins, Shields, Disks, etc., and the suit of Pentacles usually refers to material things in the Querent's (that is the person who is asking the question) world, although most people associate Pentacles with money and financial questions.

Thanks

Thanks for the informative explanation on pentacles and insight I concur

reall said:

))) well for start google and wikipedia!^^))
imo if you check pent history/meaning/simbology this association is visible!^^))

Click to expand...

Maybe King is looking for conversation...there would be no forum if we all googled everything.
Welcome KingArthur2014. I just cut out the middle man and call them all coins.

It really depends on which deck is being discussed, and which symbolic background it comes from. As far as I know, the most popular interpretation is that the pentagram in relation to Tarot shows all four elements plus the fifth element of spirit. In this case spirit refers to the animating force, not necessarily in the religious sense.

The pentagram can be thought of as our own hand. One of the defining attributes of humanity is the opposable thumb, it is what allows us to pick up things and interact with our environment. Four fingers for the four elements, and the thumb as that which binds them all together and makes them useful.

On the Tree of Life five is the number of Geburah, which relates to the concept of motion, fitting in well with the above. The fifth card is the Hierophant, the figure of initiation and inner wisdom. All kinds of neat things can be done with the number five.

When I think of the pentacle I think of Da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man
With his arms and legs out (and including his head), he resembles a pentacle shape. So for me it makes sense that in tarot "pentacles" are part of the human, physical realm.

BodhiSeed said:

When I think of the pentacle I think of Da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man
With his arms and legs out (and including his head), he resembles a pentacle shape. So for me it makes sense that in tarot "pentacles" are part of the human, physical realm.

Click to expand...

Exactly! "Every man and woman is a star."--A. Crowley.

The five-pointed star was used in the Renaissance just as Da Vinci used it here, to indicate the five points on a man. Arms, Legs, head (it also, by the way, indicates the five senses). Thus, the pentagram is an apt stamp on the coins (pentacles) to indicate that they are about the physical world, including our bodies (health, fitness and labor) money (earning money as well, meaning a job), and also luck, as coins are often about things like gambling and chance.

Good question, King Arthur!