[Elspode]

I just did a coven class on the history and meaning of the Pentagram and Pentacle on Sunday night. It might well surprise some to learn the pentagram was used as a Christian symbol for a long, long time. One of its original meanings was the unity of corporeal Man with the Divine, with the five points symbolizing the head and appendages of the human body. Those familiar with DaVinci's drawing which demonstrates the geometric symmetry of the human form have seen one representation of this same concept. Early Christians adopted it as representational of the five wounds of Christ, the five virtues of Mary, and other Pentacostal expressions. In fact, its use endures in the form of the familiar five-petaled rose seen in many church structures.

Further, the pentagram is one of many geometric expressions of the Golden Ratio, a mathematical formula which appears in Nature in countless forms, and the underlying beauty of which was used prominently as a plot factor in "The DaVinci Code".

In short, the Pentagram is the heritage of all Mankind. Its direct association with Wicca, and the subsequent tendency by other more mainstream religions to incorrectly ascribe its meaning as Satanic or dark, is a relatively recent thing. In fact, the pentagram has been used for nearly six thousand years in one orientation or other (one point up/two points up), and only since the late 19th Century has there been *any* baleful association with this enduring symbol.

Attempts to demonize such a fundamental and sociolgically meaningful icon are shortsighted, selfish and unnecessarily antagonistic.