| For other uses, see Pentagram (disambiguation).Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia.The pentagram has magical associations, and many people who practice Neopagan faiths wear jewelry incorporating the symbol.The pentagram has long been associated with the planet Venus, and the worship of the goddess Venus, or her equivalent.It is also associated with the Roman Lucifer, who was Venus as the Morning Star, the bringer of light and knowledge.When viewed from Earth, successive inferior conjunctions of Venus plot a nearly perfect pentagram shape around the zodiac every eight years.The word "pentacle" is sometimes used synonymously with "pentagram", although their technical usages are different, and their etymologies may be unrelated.Successive inferior conjunctions of Venus repeat very near a 13:8 orbital resonance (The Earth orbits 8 times for every 13 orbits of Venus), creating a pentagrammic precession sequence.Sumer
The first known uses of the pentagram are found in Mesopotamian writings dating to about 3000 BC.The Sumerian pentagrams served as pictograms for the word "UB," meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall," suggesting something very similar to the pentemychos (see below on the Pythagorean use for what pentemychos means).In the Babylonian context, the edges of the pentagram were probably orientations: forward, backward, left, right, and "above".These directions also had an astrological meaning, representing the five planets Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, and Venus as the "Queen of Heaven" (Ishtar) above.Greek goddess of health, Hygieia), and saw in the pentagram a mathematical perfection (see Geometry section below).The ancient Pythagorean pentagram was drawn with two points up and represented the doctrine of Pentemychos.Pythagoras's teacher and friend Pherecydes of Syros.The pentemychos is in Tartaros, also known as "The Gates of Hell".In very early Greek thought, Tartaros (or Chaos, according to Hesiod) was the primordial Darkness from which the cosmos is born.Hades (the distinction between the two was very optional back then) in quest for Wisdom.The Underworld as the source of wisdom was the rule.Plato (in Cratylus) said that the aither had a penetrating power that permeates the whole world, and he found it both inside and outside of our bodies.This Underworld of the Greeks and Pythagoreans is also the "inmost chamber" and the Core of Inner Being.European occultism
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and others perpetuated the popularity of the pentagram as a magic symbol, keeping the Pythagorean attributions of elements to the five points.With a single point upwards it depicted spirit presiding over the four elements of matter, and was essentially "good".However the other way up was considered evil.Man inscribed in a pentagram, from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Libri tres de occulta philosophia.The five signs at the pentagram's vertices are astrological.Another pentagram from Agrippa's book.This one has the Pythagorean letters inscribed around the circle.The occultist and magician Eliphas Levi's pentagram, which he considered to be a symbol of the microcosm, or human.S, A, L, V, and S are inscribed in the points, it can be taken as a symbol of health (from Latin salus).The pentagram was believed to protect against witches and demons.Sir Gawain in the 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.Probably due to misinterpretation of symbols used by ceremonial magicians, it later became associated with Satanism and subsequently rejected by most of Christianity sometime in the twentieth century.These symbols derived from traditional morning star pentagrams that are no longer commonly used in mainstream Christianity.Judaism
The pentagram was the official seal of the city of Jerusalem for a time.La Clef de la Magie Noire by the Rosicrucian Stanislas de Guaita (1897).Satanists use a pentagram with two points up, often inscribed in a double circle, with the head of a goat inside the pentagram.They use it much the same way as the Pythagoreans, as Tartaros means Hell in Christian terminology (the word is used as such in the Bible, referring to the place where the fallen angels are fettered).Many Neopagans, especially Wiccans, use the pentagram as a symbol of faith similar to the Christian cross or the Jewish Star of David.Pythagorean understanding that the five vertices of the pentagram represent the four elements with the addition of Spirit as the uppermost point.As a representation of the elements, the pentagram is involved in the Wiccan practice of summoning the elemental spirits of the four directions at the beginning of a ritual.The outer circle of the circumscribed pentagram is sometimes interpreted as binding the elements together or bringing them into harmony.The Neopagan pentagram is generally displayed with one point up, partly because of the "inverted" goat's head pentagram's association with Satanism; however, within traditional forms of Wicca a pentagram with two points up is associated with the Second Degree Initiation and in this context has no relation to Satanism.Because of a perceived association with Satanism and also because of negative societal attitudes towards Neopagan religions and the "occult", many United States schools have sought to prevent students from displaying the pentagram on clothing or jewelry.In public schools, such actions by administrators have been determined to be in violation of students' First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.Thelema
Aleister Crowley also made use of the pentagram and in his Thelemic system of magick: an adverse or inverted pentagram represents the descent of spirit into matter, not the triumph over matter which was considered evil as taught by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.Samael Aun Weor
Samael Aun Weor used the Pentagram to represent man's Atman, or Internal Christ.When a man's limbs are outstretched thus that his feet are planted on the ground while his head is situated atop his body it creates the omnipotent symbol of the pentagram.In contrast to representing one's Logos, the inverted pentagram represents one's Umbral Guardian, the malignant antithesis of the divine father.When the pentagram's inferior rays point upwards, it represents Satan.According to Ivan Sache, on the Moroccan flags, the pentagram represents the link between God and the nation.It is also possible that both flags use the pentagram as a symbol of King Solomon (see Seal of Solomon), the archetypal wise king of Jewish, Christian and Muslim lore.The pentagram also represents the five pillars of the Muslim faith and five daily times of prayer.In literature
In the medieval romance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the pentagram on Gawain's shield is given a Christian interpretation (see above).In Goethe's Faust, the pentagram prevents Mephistopheles from leaving a room.Faust:
The pentagram thy peace doth mar?Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories, the version of The Elder Sign devised by August Derleth is a warped pentagram with a flaming eye or pillar of flame in the center.In Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, the pentagram represents Venus, based on the successive inferior conjunctions of Venus against the Zodiac.The pentagram is the simplest regular star polygon.The pentagram contains ten points (the five points of the star, and the five vertices of the inner pentagon) and fifteen line segments.Like a regular pentagon, and a regular pentagon with a pentagram constructed inside it, the regular pentagram has as its symmetry group the dihedral group of order 10.Construction
The pentagram can be constructed by connecting alternate vertices of a pentagon; see details of the construction.The pentagram includes ten isosceles triangles: five acute and five obtuse isosceles triangles.The acute triangles are golden triangles."Pentagram" article in The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols Becker, Udo, ed.New York: Continuum Books, 1994, p."Pentacle", Oxford English Dictionary.The pentagram is symbol number 306 in this system.Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual.Christian Symbols Ancient and Modern, Child, Heather and Dorothy Colles."Religious Clothing in School", Robinson, B.Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 20 August, 1999, updated 29 April, 2005."ACLU Defends Honor Student Witch Pentacle" press release, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, 10 February, 1999.Federal judge upholds Indiana students' right to wear Wiccan symbols.Moroccan flag on Flagspot.ASI Conference on Polytopes ...Bisztriczky et al, Kluwer Academic (1994) pp.Weisstein, Pentagram at MathWorld.The Pythagorean Pentacle from the Biblioteca Arcana.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.For the Indian band who shares the same name, see Pentagram (Indian band).For the Turkish heavy metal band sometimes known as Pentagram, see Mezarkabul.For other uses, see Pentagram (disambiguation).American heavy metal band from Virginia, most famous as performers of Sabbathesque doom metal.Throughout the band's history the only constant member has been vocalist Bobby Liebling.The revolving lineup of Pentagram has featured many well respected musicians in the local doom metal scene, with members spending time in other acts such as Place of Skulls, Internal Void, Spirit Caravan, among many others.Keefe decided to leave their previous bands (Shades of Darkness and Space Meat, respectively) to form a new band that reflected their interest in emerging metal acts such as UFO, Uriah Heep and Sir Lord Baltimore.Pentagram, a sinister moniker that reflected the gloomy subject matter of their material.Rolling Stone, Creem and Circus.The initial Pentagram lineup consisted of Bobby Liebling (vocals) Geof O'Keefe (guitar), Vincent McAllister (bass), and Steve Martin (drums).This "Mark III" lineup of Pentagram was a strong one, and at the time, it seemed like Pentagram had found a permanent lineup.Prior to this revelatory moment, O'Keefe and Liebling could not have possibly anticipated that their humble bassist would go on to become Pentagram's resident guitar god for the next five years.McAllister would later leave for California (1980) to attend classes at the Guitar Institute of Technology (G.Cult) to see them rehearse.Initial Breakup
On December 16th 1975, Bobby Liebling and his girlfriend were arrested, leading to the other members of the band meeting on New Year's Eve to discuss their status.The decision was made that the rest of the band would quit Pentagram, because Liebling owned the rights for the name Pentagram, and they could not continue under that name without him.However, after beginning a recording session at Underground Sound, the band split from Liebling again, leaving the sessions unfinished and unmixed.Many of these rehearsal tapes are now traded amongst Pentagram fans and offer recordings of the many early lineups the group went through in the early 70's.The record was produced by Phillip Knudsen and released on Intermedia (TBSM 003).American Mailing Warehouse, Alexandria, VA, in December 1972 and on 2 February 1973 (featuring "Virgin Death", "Yes I Do", "Ask No More", "Man", "Be Forewarned", "Catwalk", "Die in Your Sleep", "Forever My Queen", "Review Your Choices", "Walk in the Blue Light" and "Downhill Slope").Underground Sound, Largo, MD, on 4th, 12th and 23 September 1976 (featuring "Smokescreen", "Teaser", "Much Too Young to Know", "Little Games" and "Starlady").High Voltage Era
After O'Keefe, McAllister, and Mayne split from Liebling, a new lineup consisting of Liebling (vocals), Randy Palmer (guitar), John Ossea (drums), and an unknown lead guitarist began rehearsing in the basement of a dentist's office.Pentagram and The Boyz (Hasselvander's previous band).Richard Kueht (guitar), Paul Trowbridge (guitar), and Marty Swaney (bass).It has been come to be known as the High Voltage Era of Pentagram.Following two demos in 1982 and 1983, respectively, pressure from friends and fans ended up in Liebling dubbing the band Pentagram and continuing on with the new lineup.The album contains a mix of new songs and 70s era songs, as will all the Pentagram albums to follow.After recording their second album, Day of Reckoning, the band folded yet again.They reformed in 1993 and Peaceville Records reissued the first two albums.The band split up again and emerged as duo, with Liebling retaining vocal duties and Joe Hasselvander taking care of all instrumentation.In 1998, Downtime Records released a number of early recordings on a compilation album entitled Human Hurricane.Pentagram songs and three originals.Recent activity
After Show 'em How the band has been somewhat in limbo due to Liebling's unstable behavior, including collapsing in the intro to an important show at the Black Cat Club in Washington, DC, forcing the band to recruit Hasselvander and others from the audience to perform in his stead.Hank Williams III has included a rendition of the classic versions of Pentagram's "Be Forwarned" and "Forever My Queen" in his live set.Black Cat club in 2006, Liebling joined Williams onstage and performed the songs himself.Also in 2006, Liebling joined Witchcraft onstage at their DC show to sing Pentagram covers "When the Screams Come" and "Yes I Do".Former members Griffin and Abney formed Place of Skulls following their departure from Pentagram.The band's music is akin to Pentagram's more recent sound.The band briefly featured doom metal legend Scott "Wino" Weinrich on their With Vision album, though he has since left to concentrate on The Hidden Hand.Pentagram drummer and Maryland doom mainstay, Gary Isom on drums.Hasselvander also contributed to Blue Cheer's latest album, What Doesn't Kill You (2007).Reissued
In 2001, Relapse Records issued First Daze Here (The Vintage Collection).The consisted of unreleased material from the 70s.In 2002, Peaceville Records released a compilation of songs from the first three albums entitled Turn to Stone.CD in digipak format in 2005.These reissues allowed Pentagram's early material and albums to finally be widely available.Bedemon
Bedemon was an offshoot of Pentagram in the early 70s (circa 1973).Prior to joining Pentagram, Randy Palmer and his friend Mike Matthews along with Bobby Liebling and Geof O'Keefe (then current members of Pentagram) got together to record some of Palmer's compositions.When Palmer officially joined Pentagram he brought two tracks with him, "Starlady," and "Touch the Sky."After Palmer's departure from Pentagram the Bedemon got together in 1979 to record three more songs: "Time Bomb," "Nighttime Killer" and an unnamed composition by O'Keefe.Pentagram member Greg Mayne on bass) recorded "Night of the Demon" along with some older songs in 1986.Many songs from the Bedemon sessions were released on various bootlegs throughout the years, but were never officially released until 2005, when Black Widow Records released Child of Darkness.We remain independent and owned by our partners, who are all designers.There is apparently something attractive about the
figure's geometry and proportions.To invert the figure is considered by some as a sign of relegating Spirit to the
bottom of the metaphysical heap.Some say the pentagram is mystical because 5 is mystical.Most importantly, we have five fingers, toes and senses.Some Christian watchdogs apparently think the pentagram is the devil's hoof print.Of course, it can be bad for business if rumors are spread that
one's company uses the pentagram or any other symbol deemed to be diabolical.Others saw a goat, surely a sign of the devil.Amway but it was eventually thrown out of court.To the Wiccan, the five points of the pentagram represent Air, Fire, Water, Earth and
Spirit.Wiccans usually put the symbol in a circle, which has traditionally represented
the endless or eternity.Ching uses six as its base number.Occultists of all sorts wear pentagram talismans to protect
them from evil or to help them get occult knowledge and power.They even draw pentagrams
on the ground and stand within them to better call upon occult powers.However, if the point is aimed
south, they are.So say the Christian watchdogs.Las Vegas Life is a city magazine with Vegas style."DJ Stout and Julie Savasky have redesigned Las Vegas Life magazine.Paula Scher has designed a new identity and promotional campaign for the New York City Ballet, one of the largest and most prominent dance companies in the world.Packard, the Israel Museum, JP Morgan, Michelin and the Savoy Group.Julie Savasky has spent the last twelve years at Pentagram and has worked for both Lowell Williams and DJ Stout.End, the book Longhorn Football: An Illustrated History and the redesign of Las Vegas Life magazine.Luke Hayman at Magazines Are Dead!Unbeige checks out our environmental graphics for Cardinals Stadium during a trip home to Glendale, AZ.Lorenzo Apicella designed for Sonance in its December issue.Scriptures, especially Hebrew, are abundant with references
to pentagrams.So, why does this symbol have such a sinister reputation
today?Pentagrams served to mark directions in Sumerian texts, and represented
the five visible planets.Later, it was the sign of the planet Venus
and the goddess .Greek division of the soul.Christ, or possibly
due to connections between early Christians and the Pythagorean mysteries.Greeks, used the Pentagram as a microcosm of the
human body.The pentagram is still central to the practice of ritual magick, and
is used in the foundation of many of its rituals.Holy Spirit manifest in the flesh.Arthurian Grail romances, which are Gnostic
and kabbalistic teachings disguised as tales of knightly quests.Satanism has made the pentagram a feared
symbol to many, and the subject of countless conspiracy theories.In this, it represents the Star
of Bethlehem.Levi's 'Mendes' pentacle was adopted as
an emblem of modern Satanism.Many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons,
to whom the Pentagram is an important symbol (see above).Masonic Enlightenment and the symbols of America.Something missing, broken, or incorrect?From Jennifer Emick,Your Guide to Alternative Religions.It is a pagan religious symbol that is one of the oldest symbols on Earth and is known to have been used as early as 4000 years B.The tips of the pentagram are therefore
golden triangles.Small Stellated Dodecahedron, Star
Figure, Star of Lakshmi.New York: Doubleday, 2003.New York: Broadway Books, pp.The Words of Mathematics: An Etymological Dictionary of Mathematical
Terms Used in English.The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers.Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, p.The Geometrical Foundation of Natural Structure: A Source Book
of Design.March 19, 2006
CITE THIS AS:
Weisstein, Eric W.In PENTAGRAM we do pay a lot of attention to the products' quality, so everything that we produce is the best in its market category.Only top quality products that fit all needs of the local market pass our rigorous tests.The latest unique mp3 player from PENTAGRAM.PENTAGRAM is delighted to present the latest mp3 player.It's tiny, trendy and comes in four unique colours.HOT PREMIERES season at PENTAGRAM!In PENTAGRAM we do pay a lot of attention to the products' quality, so everything that we produce is the best in its market category.Pentagram, not everything is fully working yet.Pentagram still require manual configuration.December 2007
Despite the lack of updates to the website, work on Pentagram has
been progressing.Among other things, combat music now works,
avatar attack speed has been improved, many rendering order problems
are fixed, and falling and throwing are now working much better.The Pentagram main menu has also been improved, and now supports
loading savegames directly.Avatar movement has been enhanced a bit, as well as item manipulation
and missile trajectories.January 2007
A new developer, Brian Tietz, has joined our team, and has improved
the pathfinding in Pentagram.July 2006
For the last few weeks, we made efforts to improve support for
Mac OS X.Snapshot binaries are now available on the download page.This version is a universal binary and should work on 10.The combat behaviour of monsters has also
been improved a bit, although it is still far from perfect.Furthermore, support for the Japanese version of Ultima 8
should now be at the same level as that for the other languages.February 2006
The last few months have been a bit quiet, but development has been
moving forward.Japanese version
of Ultima 8 has also been added.November 2005
Today we have fixed the Pentagram savegame format.This means that
from this point onward, we will try our best to maintain backward
compatibility for savegames, so you can be fairly sure next month's
version of Pentagram will still be able to load tomorrow's savegames.Unfortunately this comes at a price: all savegames created before
today can no longer be loaded in new builds of Pentagram.Other changes this last month include a rudimentary game selection
menu, fixes to last month's improvements to Avatar movement and
various minor bug fixes.The more visible changes include antialiasing of the truetype fonts,
detection of stealing and hopefully improved Avatar movement.Various bugs related to combat, pathfinding and object collisions
have been fixed.March 2005
Another major update this week: sound effects!March 2005
New this week, a Minimap!Check
out the screenshots section to see it in action.Scaling has been added to Pentagram.NPC
schedules are properly set every hour.January 2005
Happy New Year!We've recently implemented compressed savegames, which
has shrunk them to under 200Kb.Additionally, more
work has been done on combat: be careful, since monsters will now
hit you if you're standing right in front of them.November 2004
We've fixed a number of bugs last week, including two plot stoppers.October 2004
Since last week, Pentagram will automatically play the introductory
sequence at startup (Camera scrolling to the Avatar, Avatar getting
up and talking to Devon).There
have also been some bugfixes and improvements related to the user
interface.We've even fixed a bug in U8's usecode that
occurred in the original game too.Targeted jumping
has been implemented, and this is now the default jumping
mode.The jumping mode will become an option later.July 2004
Since last week, you can climb walls and other objects.July 2004
This week we have added the beginnings of combat to Pentagram.You can now hit people and monsters and they will take damage
and die.It will probably
take quite some time before we implemented monster AI.Pentagram status update: work has been progressing steadily.As you
can see in our screenshots section, a lot
of the Ultima 8 plot is working quite well.However, other major parts
of the game, such as combat, still need a lot of work.We recently managed to decode the SFX file format used, as well as the
cutscene format used in the intro and endgame movies, which means that
all of the file formats used by Ultima 8 have now been decoded
for the most part, although there are still some remaining details
to be worked out.March 2004
UltimaDot published an interview with the Pentagram team, including a screenshot gallery. |
