Why Are the Pentagrams Drawn that Way?

            Some time ago, I ranted about the contemporary inclination of some modern witches to modify the invoking and banishing pentagrams. You can read that post here. In that post, I noted the high likelihood that people wanted to change these pentagrams because they didn't understand the logic behind the originals' creation. I've even read blogs by witches or magicians who claim, "they made it up." Well, yes, I'm sure they did at some point. But wanting to change something without understanding the principles that brought them about is disrespectful to the occult heritage, not to mention sloppy. However, if your goal is to teach a new and different method, then make your reasoning plain. But there is a difference between adding a new technique and reworking one because you think it's wrong. Both methods can exist in the world and the world won't implode, I promise. However, don't tell people, especially your coven students, that other ways are wrong while yours is right. 

            Since my other post, I've discovered some new information that is both simple and more sensical. I would like to present that information to you, as well as offer another explanation for why the alchemical elements are found at the pentagram points we know them today.

First, we should understand some context. The pentagram was not used as a feature in the preparation of a magician’s (read: witch’s) circle until Éliphas Lévi in 1856. He was the first to claim that the summoning or banishment of certain demons (his word) could be achieved by the way in which the pentagram was drawn, by suggesting that its upright or inverse presentation had powers over good or evil, respectively. Lévi was the primary source material for the spiritual order responsible for the elemental pentagrams’ creation.

The credit for creating the invoking and banishing pentagrams goes to S. L. Macgregor Mathers, who was one of three founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (GD) in the late nineteenth century. The drawing of the pentagrams in the air was taught to neophytes during the beginner grades. They were taught as a physical action because they function as mudras – physical gestures that symbolize spiritual truths to the conscious mind. This highly probable claim comes from the astute Thelemites (students of Aleister Crowley) at their Thelemistas website. The GD pulled heavily from the works of Lévi when developing their system, though Lévi does not specifically state how to draw pentagrams related to each element. If Mathers had a specific source of inspiration for the pentagrams, that source has become occluded.

The Thelemistas also suggested that Mathers laid out the elements on the pentagram to place spirit at the top and to arrange the remaining elements to correspond to their zodiac signs in the sky. That clever insight agrees with the zodiac arrangement that is present in the Heavenly Cross of the Ancient Chaldeans, the appearance of which defined the seasons of the year and underpins all of ancient astrology. These zodiac are the angels invoked during the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. These same four sacred beings of heaven are described in the prophetic dream of Ezekiel 1:10 (considered by many to be a Kabbalistic code), as well as seen in the tarot cards of The Wheel of Fortune and The World, as commissioned by A.E. Waite (also a GD member), which were largely based on Lévi’s card designs. Clearly, this zodiac quaternary was a highly important symbol to the GD. Following, I have duplicated several of the images from the Thelemistas website. This one shows the elements around the pentagram and the corresponding zodiac:

The figure above on the left shows arrows connecting to each other the elements which have an alchemically active nature (air and fire), as well as a passive nature (water and earth). The speculation is that these lines would then be used by Mathers to denote two very important pentagrams used by the GD, the Active and Passive Spirit Pentagrams. The Active Pentagrams can be drawn by tracing the line joining Air and Fire, while the Passive Pentagrams could be drawn by tracing the line joining Water and Earth. If the arm ascended, the pentagram was of an invoking quality, while if the arm descended, it was of a banishing quality. We can see those pentagrams drawn here:

Interestingly, the active quality was also the masculine quality, so these pentagrams could have been called the Masculine and Feminine Spirit Pentagrams. Similarly, they could have been the Expansive and Condensive Pentagrams.

It is important to note that these Spirit pentagrams held more importance to the GD than they do to most of witchcraft today. Many of us who are not students of the GD have never even heard of these pentagrams, so their influence on this story can seem unlikely to us. However, because these pentagrams communicate the union of the active and passive energies, either toward or away from the plane of manifestation, their meaning and importance to the GD was greater than that of any pentagram of any individual element. This would have meant that the motions for drawing the Spirit pentagrams took precedence over all others.

When it came time to craft the pentagrams related to the individual elements, two of the lines that make up the elemental pentagrams were already in use. Because the lines connecting the active and passive elements were used for the Spirit pentagrams, the earth and fire pentagrams were drawn using the lines that touch Spirit.

Let’s remember that the GD was a group of Hermetic Kabbalists. This is important for two reasons. First, the curving directions of doesil and widdershins meant little to them because their lessons came from the straight paths between the sefirot on the Tree of Life. The lines used to draw the elemental pentagrams are not intended to show any particular direction of spin; they are meant to represent esoteric connections between elements and to physically represent sacred understanding through gesture.

The second reason is more speculative, though interesting to note. The GD was connected to the Hermeticists of Ancient Greece, who viewed the power of the pentagram as the “pent-alpha,” a figure made of five A’s. Since the alpha is an angle, the elemental pentagrams build these angles in a specific order. The instruction commonly used to teach the elemental pentagrams is a bit of a simplification: “Draw toward the element to invoke it, or away from the element to banish it.” However, every angle is built from two lines, not one. Therefore, it is more correct to teach that when invoking, draw the pentagram so the particular element is the first angle created. Conversely, when banishing, draw the pentagram so the particular element is the last angle created. Below left is a table showing the order of the angles, or alphas, that are created by each of the GD elemental pentagrams. Notice that the particular element is always the first angle created in invoking pentagrams, while it is the last angle created in banishing pentagrams. All of the GD pentagrams are also shown at right for comparison. 

 

	Invoking Angle Order	Banishing Angle Order
Earth	E	S
	W	F
	A	A
	F	W
	S	E
Fire	F	S
	A	E
	W	W
	E	A
	S	F
Air	A	W
	F	E
	S	S
	E	F
	W	A
Water	W	A
	E	F
	S	S
	F	E
	A	W

Additionally, no matter which pentagram is drawn, the elements will always follow the cyclical order through the alchemical spheres of earth, water, air, fire, and then spirit. In some cases, this list ascends and in others it descends. Sometimes it is split, so it must wrap to the other end of the order like a wheel, but the pentagrams always follow this pattern and, in every case, the banishing order of angles is exactly the reverse of the invoking order. Notice also that the Air and Water pentagrams are the inverse of each other. Those who are acquainted with the alchemical properties of the elements will likely find this relationship particularly interesting.