Pentacle

❥×Enrolment Date : 2020-03-16

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The first documents to depict pentacles were the 1500s grimoires called the Heptameron by pseudo-Pietro d'Abano, and the Key of Solomon. In the Heptaméron, there is only one pentacle, whereas in the Key of Solomon, there are dozens of different pentacles. The Heptameron's pentacle is a hexagram that is embellished by patee crosses and letters, whereas the Key of Solomon's pentacles have a very broad variety of designs, only two of which are pentagrammic. That contrasts with the later popular definitions of pentacles from the 1900s, which state that pentacles are inherently pentagrammic.

Gerald Gardner, known by some as the 'Father of Wicca', got his concept of pentacles in large part from the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck[citation needed], in which the pentacles are disks that are covered with a pentagram. In Gardner's 1949 book High Magic's Aid and 1954 book Witchcraft Today, Gardner defined a pentacle as a "five-pointed star", intending to mean a pentagram. In his 1959 book The Meaning of Witchcraft, Gardner defined a pentacle as a synonym of 'pentagram'.

There is a particular definition of 'pentacle' among many latter-day Wiccans: Namely, a 'pentacle' refers to a 'pentagram' circumscribed by a circle.

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