Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 086

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 086

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/086

This is one of the Academy's earliest reports. We are not confident that these early reports are accurate. Please use it with caution.

Here is the information we found on pentacles in period.

The pentacle was very widely associated with Christian mysticism in period, having been adopted into medieval mysticism from earlier use by the Pythagoreans and the Gnostics. (1)

The author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight assigned Gawain the arms "Gules, a pentacle Or," and has an elaborate explanation of the Christian symbolism. The five points represent the five wounds of Christ, for example.

We found two pentagrams in Swedish seals. (This doesn't mean that the use of pentagrams is limited to Sweden; the person who researched this is Swedish). Peter Johansson, d. 1428, used "a pentagram." A man named Bengt, who was the dean of the cathedral in Vatseras, Sweden, used "A pentagram inverted" in 1484.

We also found three (and possibly four) arms using stars in circles. One is dated to 1494. A second was borne by a German family who were known in Sweden from 1399-1421. The third and fourth are dated to 1260 and the later 15th century, but these may be two examples of the same arms. (2) We can provide page numbers and original sources if you would like them.

The modern uses of the pentacle grow out of the Hermetic tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries and most notably from the work of Alistair Crowley and the Society of the Golden Dawn. These movements invented a new mysticism, built from elements of previous traditions, including those of ancient Babylonia, classical Greece and Rome, pre-Christian Ireland, medieval Christianity, and Jewish kaballa. They adopted the pentacle as a central symbol, primarily drawing on its use by pre- and early Christian groups like the Gnostics and Pythagoreans. The modern American traditions of anti-Christian satanism and non-Christian neo-paganism derive their symbolism, in large part, from these 19th century roots, though they each modified it to their own needs in very different ways.

Lindorm Eriksson and Arval D'Espas Nord researched this question.

If you need any further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Brian Stone, Penguin Classics, 1974; Rudolf Koch, The Book of Signs, Dover Publications)

(2) Raneke, J. Svenska medeltidsvapen. v. 1 & 2, Lund: Bokforlaget Doxa AB, 1982. v. 3, Lund: privately published, 1985.