Pentacle

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A pentacle or pantacle is a magical amulet, generally made of parchment, paper or metal (although it can be of other materials), on which the symbol of a spirit being evoked is drawn. It is often worn around the neck, or placed within the triangle of evocation. Protective symbols may also be included (sometimes on the reverse), a common one being the five-point Seal of Solomon. Many varieties of pentacle can be found in the grimoires of Solomonic magic; they are also used in some neopagan magical traditions, such as Wicca.

The term pentacle is sometimes confused with pentagram, meaning a five-point unicursal star. This is perhaps due to the fact that the five-point Seal of Solomon is a common symbol employed on pentacles, particularly as depicted in the Tarot.

Francis Barrett, in his influential work The Magus (Book 2, part 2) describes pentacles as follows:

We now proceed to speak of the holy and sacred Pentacles and Seals. For these pentacles are certain holy signs and characters, preserving us from evil chances and events, helping and assisting us to bind, exterminate, and drive away evil spirits, alluring the good spirits, and reconciling them to us. These pentacles consist either of characters of good spirits of the superior order, or of sacred pictures of holy letters or revelations, with apt and proper versicles, which are composed either of geometrical figures and holy names of God, according to the course and manner of many of them, or they are compounded of all of them, or many of them mixed.

Another common design employed in pentacles is a magic square, such as the Sator-Arepo-Tenet square.<ref>As described in Mathers' introduction to Abramelin.</ref>

Pentacles in the Tarot

Pentacles feature prominently in the Tarot, where they are typically depicted as coins marked with a pentagram. In this context they represent divinity manifesting in matter.Template:Fact

Etymology

According to the Theosophical Society's Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary<ref> The Theosophical Society's Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary accessed 20 March 2006. </ref> a pantacle or pentacle is

An amulet, talisman, a geometrical figure so used. There is much confusion as to the derivation of this word, but it seems most likely that it comes through Italian and French from the root pend- "to hang," and so is equivalent to a pendant or charm hung about the neck. From the fact that one form of pentacle was the pentagram or star-pentagon, the word itself has been connected with the Greek pente (five).

In Latin translations (many grimoires first appeared in Latin) the word is pentaculum, which does not refer to five, since the Latin root for five is quinqu-; the words pentacle and pentagram are not from the same language root. Latin pend-, however, is the root to hang, as in suspend, pendulum, appendix.

Pentacle in mathematics

The term pentacle is used in Tilings and Patterns by Grumbaum and Shepard to indicate a five-pointed star composed of ten line-segments, similar to a pentagram but containing no interior lines.

References

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