A practitioner sets down a silver disk on the altar. Inside a carefully incised circle, a five-pointed star reaches outward. Across the room, a student unfolds a facsimile of the Cotton Nero A.x. manuscript: Sir Gawain’s shield bears a pentangle drawn in a single unbroken line, no circle around it. Both are five-pointed stars. They are not the same thing.
The pentacle is a five-pointed star enclosed by a circle, used as a ritual tool and protective symbol in Wicca and ceremonial magic. The pentangle is a five-pointed star formed by a continuous line, found in medieval Christian iconography and heraldry. The critical difference is the enclosing circle and the tradition that gives each its meaning.
Where Each Symbol First Appears
The word pentacle enters European magical texts in the sixteenth century. Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1531) describes pentacles as geometric figures inscribed on metal or parchment “for the communicating of supernatural virtue.” Agrippa drew on earlier Jewish Kabbalistic and Greek astrological traditions, but the specific term pentaculum (Latin, from Greek pente – five) first becomes common in his work. By the time of the Key of Solomon (a grimoire circulating in manuscript form by the late sixteenth century at the latest), the pentacle had become a standard ritual implement: a metal disc with a pentagram inside a circle, consecrated and used to contain spirits.
The pentangle appears earlier in a completely different context. The alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, composed around 1390 in the West Midlands of England, describes Gawain’s shield painted with “a pentangle that belongs to Solomon.” The poet explains the symbol in detail: it represents the five sets of virtues Gawain must embody – his five senses, his five fingers, the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary, and the five virtues of knighthood (generosity, fellowship, chastity, courtesy, pity). The key phrase is that the pentangle is “an endless knot” formed by a single continuous line, without beginning or end. The poem specifies there is no circle around it.
Why the Circle Matters
The difference between the two symbols is not decorative. It is structural.
A pentagram (the five-pointed star alone) can be drawn in one continuous line. The pentangle is a pentagram drawn that way – technically a unicursal pentagram, though medieval sources do not use that term. The unbroken line signifies infinitude, the interconnectedness of the five points. In Gawain’s case, it means that each virtue is linked to all the others; fail in one, and you fail in all.
The circle that makes a pentagram into a pentacle does something else. It contains the star. In ceremonial magic, the circle represents the boundary between the material and spiritual worlds. The pentagram inside the circle is a microcosm of the universe – the five points correspond to the four classical elements plus spirit, all held within the sphere of the divine. No such enclosing boundary exists in the pentangle. The pentangle is open, its points reaching outward. The pentacle is closed, its power channeled inside the rim.
What Each Symbol Stands For
In the Western esoteric tradition that crystallized in the Renaissance and was revived by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (founded 1888), the pentacle acquired a dense layer of meanings. Each point corresponds to a Platonic element – earth, air, fire, water, and spirit (or akasha) – arranged so that spirit governs the material four. The circle binds them into a single talisman. In the Golden Dawn system, the pentacle is the instrument of Earth, placed in the North quarter of the ritual circle. It is used to banish or invoke, to represent the material world consecrated to magical work.
The pentangle, by contrast, never became a ritual tool. Its meaning remained tied to Christian knighthood: the five wounds, the five joys, the five virtues. In heraldry, it appears as a charge on shields, often called a “pentagram” but always drawn with the continuous line. It signified truth, protection, and the ideal of the perfect knight. A few medieval amulets survive, metal disks inscribed with a pentangle and prayers, suggesting it was used for protection in folk magic as well – but less common than the cross or the hexagram.
How They Are Used in Practice
We encounter the pentacle most often on altars. In Wicca and modern witchcraft, it represents the element Earth and the material manifestation of spirit. It is not simply a symbol – it is a thing. A disk of copper, brass, silver, or wood, consecrated in a ritual that may involve anointing with oil, exposure to moonlight, or the four elements. On the altar it holds the offerings of salt or bread. It is also drawn in the air with a wand or athame to cast the magic circle.
We encounter the pentangle most often in literature and iconography. You will not find it on a modern Wiccan altar unless the practitioner has a specific historical interest. But you will find it in medieval manuscript illuminations, on church misericords, and on some British pub signs that preserve old heraldic devices. It was also used in some folk magical charms – to protect a door, for instance, by scratching a pentangle into the wood with a knife, then reciting a prayer.
Where the Confusion Begins
Why do so many people treat the words as interchangeable? The trouble started in the nineteenth century.
Occult revivalists found the medieval pentangle in Sir Gawain and assumed it was the same as the Renaissance pentacle. The French occultist Éliphas Lévi (1810–1875) popularized the term “pentagram” and used it to mean both the star alone and the star in a circle, often inconsistently. His influential Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1854) described the pentagram as “the sign of the microcosm” and drew it both ways.
By the time Gerald Gardner popularized Wicca in the 1950s, the word “pentacle” had become the standard English term for the circle-enclosed symbol, while “pentagram” referred to the star alone. But “pentangle” was largely forgotten outside medieval studies. The result is a muddle: a Gardnerian witch calls her ritual disk a pentacle; a reader of Arthurian legend calls Gawain’s shield a pentangle; neither is wrong, but they are describing different objects.
Common Misconceptions
“The pentacle and pentangle are the same.” No. The pentangle lacks the enclosing circle and originates in medieval Christianity, not Renaissance magic.
“An upside-down pentacle is evil.” Inverted, the star places the spirit point at the bottom and the two earth points at the top. Some modern Satanic groups use this version, but historically it was rare. In early grimoires, the orientation depended on the purpose of the ritual. There is no inherent evil in an inverted pentagram. The pentangle, because it is formed by a continuous line without a top or bottom, cannot truly be inverted – it is symmetrical.
“The pentacle is exclusively Wiccan.” No. It appears in ceremonial magic, Thelema, and some Christian folk magic traditions. Wicca made it famous, but did not invent it.
FAQ
What is the main difference between a pentacle and a pentangle?
The pentacle is a five-pointed star inside a circle; the pentangle is a five-pointed star drawn as a continuous knot, traditionally without a circle.
Can a pentangle have a circle around it?
Medieval examples do not, but some modern artists add one. That makes it a pentacle, not a pentangle. The term “pentangle” specifically describes a star drawn in one unbroken line.
Is a pentagram the same as a pentacle?
A pentagram is the star alone. A pentacle is the star plus the circle. The words are often confused, but in ritual practice the distinction matters.
Did Sir Gawain’s shield actually have a pentangle?
The poem says so explicitly. No historical shield survives, but the description in the Cotton Nero A.x. manuscript (British Library) is detailed enough to reconstruct.
Further Reading
The pentacle and pentangle are only two of many star symbols in the occult tradition. For a broader look at ritual tools, see our guide to the elements of a witchcraft altar. If the history of the pentagram itself interests you, the glossary entry on pentagrams traces it from Pythagoras to modern practice. And for a deeper study of how medieval magic fed into the Renaissance, read our guide on grimoires and their symbols.