The Pentagram (additional illustrations)

Fulgour

The Pentagram (additional illustrations)

The Pentagram

from: Grand Lodge of British Columbia and the Yukon:

It can be seen, then, that the pentagram has evolved, from a pre-Christian symbol for a Mesopotamian city or later symbol for health or the heavens, to an early Christian symbol for Christ Transfigured, or truth, and then to a mediaeval talisman to guard against evil. Its re-emergence as a humanist or hermetic symbol of man's relationship to the cosmos and its later reversal from a symbol guarding against evil to a symbol representing evil has been ascribed to many causes. Midwifes and herbalists note that their practice of medicine has often been proscribed as witchcraft; their use of a symbol of health was as misunderstood as their own practices were reviled by paternalistic and oppressive theocracies.

(additional illustrations)