X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,49782ae7cf64acb1 X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public From: "Mr. Scratch" Subject: Re: Looking for *stars* Date: 1996/10/04 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 187574903 references: <5134fg$rmu@freenet-news.carleton.ca> content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII organization: University of Oregon Computing Center mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: alt.ascii-art On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Dave Bird---St Hippo of Augustine wrote: > > Off topic question: I thought the satanists had the pentacle "right- > >side-up" > >and the pagans had it "upside-down"? > > Nope. Upside down pentagram is a black magic symbol > for the inverse of the normal penragram, just as an > upside down cross is an inversion of the usual Xian cross. Not entirely. Paganism as a movement did not adapt the pentagram as a symbol (indeed, there wasn't much of a movement to begin with) until Gerald Gardner began formulating Wicca in the 1940's. The pentagram had already become popularized within the occult community by Levi in the 19th century, who drew _two_ forms of the pentagram; one point-up (with a man inside the star), and another with two points up (with a goat's head within, called the Baphomet). The Satanic Baphomet is not an inversion of a pagan symbol; at the time it was devised, paganism as a movement did not exist. Mr. Scratch