The pentagram is an extremely ancient and natural symbol that can be seen in the stars, flowers, crystals, starfish and the extremities of the human body. It is also the shape created when two arrowheads are laid on top of the other.

It’s an easy symbol to draw and so it is not surprising that it has been used to represent a wide range of values, beliefs and nations. One source claims that the pentagram was used as the symbol of imperial power in the city of Ur some 5500 years ago. It has certainly been used by alchemists, pagans, freemasons and, more recently, the modern Wicca movement since then. In 1854, Eliphas Levi published “Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic” and in this work used the upright pentagram to depict man and the inverted pentagram to reveal the goat’s-head of Baphomet – a demon or idol of uncertain origins allegedly once worshipped by the Knights Templar.

It’s worth noting that the original descriptions of Baphomet not once described a goat’s head. The symbol of the inverted pentagram was adopted by the various occult churches and it is these two main incidents that have given this symbol its negative modern connotations.