The Pentagram: What It Means

I commend The Times for reporting on the civil trial in Santa Ana concerning a 48-year-old woman and her younger sister against their 76-year-old mother, alleging torture and ritual abuse from a “satanic” cult during their childhood (“Forced to Kill Her Baby, Woman Says,” March 21).

While I have many reservations about the facts of the case and have yet to see any real evidence of “generational satanists,” as a witch and elder high priestess of two covens, I would like to make certain that Times readers are aware that the pentacle/pentagram is not a “satanic” symbol. The five-pointed star has been revered for many ages and in many cultures as a symbol of the unity of all things and the essence of the life force.

The pentagram is the symbol of the Goddess Kore when revealed in the core of an apple. The Pythagoreans revered this symbol as the Pentalpha--the letter A interlaced five times. It has been called the Star of Ishtar, Astarte and many other goddesses.

The points of the star represent the four esoteric elements (earth, air, fire and water), which make up the material universe, infused with the fifth element of Spirit/Life Force. The circle usually seen around the star symbolizes the eternal cycle of birth-death-rebirth (reincarnation). In essence then, the pentagram means “Life.”

The pentagram has received an enormous load of bad press at the hands of “satanists,” those who practice a twisted form of anti-Christianity, who have perverted the use of the symbol, just as they have done with the cross of the Crucifixion.

MARSHA SMITH SHAW, Laguna Niguel