Pentagram Is Misused as a Satanic Symbol

* As an elder high priestess of the goddess-centered religion of witchcraft, I must take exception to the inaccurate characterization of the pentagram as “a five-pointed star associated with satanic rituals” in your Feb. 26 story on a hatchet killing.

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, known as the “star of knowledge.” The Pythagoreans revered this symbol as the pentalpha, the letter A (called the “birth letter”) interlaced five times.

It is a beautiful, positive symbol of my spiritual path and that of my ancestors, the Wiccan. In essence, the pentagram means life.

It has received an enormous load of bad press at the hands of “satanists” who practice a twisted form of anti-Christianity.

Nonetheless, the pentagram is no more their symbol than the cross is the Ku Klux Klan’s.

MARSHA SMITH SHAW

West Hills