The Revelation of the Pentagram

The pentagram has been a significant sign throughout man's history, and I always used to wonder if it is because in some secret way it has a hidden function of being a template for an arcane and mysterious purpose. The television media and fiction have always implied this and produced their nondescript versions of its usage — but without qualification and why. The pentagram is a sign, and a sign will always point to something, and here I hope to show what it is pointing to and unhide its true meaning.

•••

Imagine the encircling of a sphere, which unlike a great circle which travels from pole to pole, it is bifurcated by being split away from rejoining and continues its path around the globe, many times until it finally re-meets its origin. I have discovered that this path circumnavigates the sphere a minimum of five times before it rejoins with itself, and when looked at from one angle, it forms a perfect pentagram. The interactive 3D model below illustrates this path:

The pentagram's usage is as a template for performing this 3 dimensional encircling. This means that the pentagram is the signature for the revolution around a sphere, and this is not what it is normally known for. If it is not being kept a secret it is possible that this knowledge has been lost, or at the least very well hidden, and the Latin word for hidden is occult.

Perspective Orthographic

~

From what I have discovered so far, the earliest depictions of the pentagram come from the Sumerian’s more than 3,000 years ago, but I have found no references to its spherical function, anywhere yet. Even Pythagoras — who adopted the symbol for his system — seemed not to know that it is a map for the encircling of a sphere, and it would seem neither did Eliphas Levy in his Transcendental Magic 2,000 years later. Indeed, I have yet to find any esoteric mention that the pentagram has association with this divine geometry, which I find strange. Or perhaps it is an insight into the lack of understanding that lies behind the esoteric systems.

The pentagram symbol drawn with straight sides is the orthographic 3D view, which is the view you would have from a position of infinity — a divine perspective. It is this divine perspective that has been used as a symbol by people in their ceremonies and observances for centuries or millennia, while the 3D perspective is something which might only be known from computer aided design 3D models, and is a possible excuse for why it has only ever be drawn in orthographic view throughout history. It is an extraordinarily difficult thing to construct in 3D and I have not seen this aspect of it demonstrated in any occult or science fiction productions in cinema or TV. Again, rather strange, especially considering the cgi potential.

The Pentacle

The 3D construction of a pentagram consists of 5 circles, and I wonder if the pentacle — with its circle around the pentagram — is the symbol for this spherical helix (which I call the Aster). It is interesting that there is a pentacle but no hexacle! The hexagon can have a circle drawn around it too, but it is not given a special name, and you cannot create a 3D path with 6 circles that circumnavigates a sphere from it, like you can from the 5 circles of the pentagram. The pentacle (in my opinion) is the declaration of secret knowledge which it would seem no one has been able to decode and fully reveal until now.

So, despite the lack of evidence of ancient usage in its three dimensional form, I still want to believe that the pentagram's pre-eminence as a sacred symbol throughout history might be because of some lost knowledge that it is the sign of the perfect encircling of a sphere — and the pentacle the symbol to allude to this. The perfect path around the perfect form. This is why the pentagram should be important, though I think this aspect of it might have been lost in modern occult usage. If things are hidden, it is hardly surprising.

But why is this function of the pentagram not in any of the basic literature? What would be the point of concealing it? Without the help of 3D computer programs, I would not have been able to work it out, so perhaps this is something that gets discovered now, though I find it hard to believe that others have not done it before me, and I do not believe that this is new. My discovery of it has been with the feeling that this is very ancient indeed; even preceding civilization.

~

Performing the Pentagram

The Aster is what I call the performance of the pentagram, and is a three dimensional path around a sphere that produces a perfect pentagram when seen from one direction. This path does not exist in nature as far as I am aware. It is a constrained helix which is forced back into itself against its natural inclination, producing an infinite encircling. Perhaps the electron or other sub-atomic particles use this path around their nucleus, if indeed they could be considered to be something other than a field of interaction. But in a human performance the path does not feel natural and is constantly fighting against you by trying to spin off into helices. But it is this aspect of its manifestation that lends itself to magick as a powerful containment sigil, used to represent the bending of nature to the will of the practitioner. This is where physical reality can cross over into the divine by the use of the sacred geometry that belongs to it. It may be alien to physical performance but it is demonstratively pure and valid as a divine form.

The path's curves carve out an orb in space, a perpetual helix turning back into itself as its partial circles eventually re-join to fulfil a wholesome encircling of an invisible sphere. This is the ultimate infinity symbol, one that fulfils the role for a sign for the universe (as I use in One Turning), showing a perpetual twisting in the three dimensions of space, while time is represented in the unending path itself, which would not exist without it.

~

It is tempting to use geometrical forms to provide a framework of presentation for philosophy, but they will inevitably become a constriction to explaining what is in actuality unbounded, and may hinder the traveller on their journey if used as a map. Man is drawn to using these methods as history shows us, but each one ends up with the method being confused for the message, and signs and symbols given importance beyond their true function. The pentagram is typical of this. I have a theory about the Taijitu too.

In the esoterical expansion to Pentegraph of Megâk, the paradigm to be sought for during the performance of the Aster, is of an invisible sphere formed by the producing of the path, and the imagination of this creating a magical world. It is this realm of psyche that allows it to be a sacred germination chamber, where the world that is created can be the womb for anything you wish for.

~