(I should really point out that I’m not an expert on anything. This essay is part personal experience, part faded memories of books read both recently and long ago, and part stuff I found on the internet while looking for public domain images to use. Any correction or discussion is most welcome.)

I’ve always liked symbols, sigils, and signs. My mother tells me that before I started preschool she would sit with me and point out car company emblems in the newspaper, teaching me to recognize them. She thought it would be good preparation for reading. Perhaps my lifelong love of symbols stems from that game, perhaps not, but I’ve always liked the idea that a shape can mean something, can represent a concept, complex or simple, if only you know what the person who made it had in mind.

Anyway, since I need to write more and I’m sick of stuff that makes me angry or depressed, I’m going to write about symbols. Maybe I’ll make a series out of it, there are certainly enough interesting symbols to keep going for a long time. We’ll see.

Right now I’m going to discuss my personal favorite, the pentagram.

As symbols go, this one has some serious history. Variations of this basic shape have been in use for at least five thousand years. It has been a pictogram, standing for the Sumerian word UB meaning angle or corner. It has been a symbol of peace and protection, and also of pain and death. It’s been a part of magic and mathematics. Secret societies and sovereign governments have both used it.  In fact so many different and diverse groups have used it in so many different ways that any given pentagram could be intended to mean almost anything. Read the rest of this entry →