A visitor to our library once asked why we keep a brass pentacle on the reading table but refuse to handle a pendant bearing an inverted pentagram. The answer is not superstition. It is a matter of orientation, history, and what each symbol does when you draw it in the air. The pentacle is a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, used in Western occult traditions as a tool of protection and invocation. The inverted pentagram is the same star turned upside down, with one point facing downward, and carries a separate set of meanings tied to materiality, rebellion, and modern Satanism. The two are not interchangeable, and confusing them obscures centuries of practice.
What Is a Pentacle? What Is an Inverted Pentagram?
The word pentacle comes from the Old French pentacol, meaning a pendant hung around the neck, but by the Renaissance it referred specifically to a disk engraved with a pentagram and other symbols, used in ceremonial magic. In modern Wicca and witchcraft, a pentacle is a flat disk (often clay, metal, or wood) inscribed with a five-pointed star inside a circle. It represents the element of Earth and is placed on the altar to ground energy, consecrate tools, and invoke protection.
The inverted pentagram is the same geometric figure rotated 180 degrees so that a single point faces downward. In this orientation, the star no longer points upward toward spirit. Instead, the two upper points suggest horns, and the single lower point suggests a tail. The inverted pentagram has been adopted as the primary symbol of the Church of Satan (founded 1966) and other modern Satanist groups, often with a goat’s head drawn inside it (the Sigil of Baphomet).
The difference is not merely aesthetic. The orientation changes the symbolic current.
Where Did the Pentagram Come From?
The five-pointed star appears in Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE as a symbol on pottery and seals, likely representing the goddess Ishtar or the planet Venus. The Greeks called it the pentalpha because it contains five overlapping letters alpha. Pythagoreans in the 6th century BCE used it as a secret sign of recognition and a symbol of mathematical perfection: the golden ratio appears in every intersection of its lines.
In medieval Europe, the pentagram was known as the pentacle of Solomon or the Seal of Solomon (though the actual Seal of Solomon is usually a hexagram). It appeared in grimoires such as the Key of Solomon (circa 14th–15th century) as a protective figure to command spirits and ward off demons. A pentagram drawn on a door or threshold was believed to prevent evil from entering. Households in parts of Germany and England scratched pentagrams into doorframes and cradles.
The circle around the star came later. In ceremonial magic, the circle binds the energy of the pentagram, creating a closed field. Without the circle, the pentagram is an open figure, still potent but less contained. The pentacle as a physical disk emerged in the Renaissance, when magicians like Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) described it in Three Books of Occult Philosophy as a tool for evocation and protection.
The Inversion: A 19th-Century Invention
The inverted pentagram does not appear in medieval grimoires as a symbol of evil. That association is modern. The first known depiction of an inverted pentagram with a goat’s head was drawn by the French occultist Éliphas Lévi in his 1854 book Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. Lévi called it the Baphomet of Mendes, a figure he invented to represent the absolute of the Kabbalistic tree of life. He intended it as a symbol of synthesis, not Satanism.
But Lévi’s drawing was later misinterpreted. In the 1890s, the French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans used the inverted pentagram in his occult novel Là-Bas as a sign of black magic. By the early 20th century, the symbol had been adopted by fringe occult orders and later by Anton LaVey, who founded the Church of Satan in 1966. LaVey placed a stylized inverted pentagram with a goat’s head inside the Sigil of Baphomet as the official emblem of the church.
The inversion was deliberate. LaVey wrote in The Satanic Bible (1969) that the inverted pentagram represents the triumph of matter over spirit, of carnal instinct over ascetic denial. It is a rejection of the upward-pointing pentagram’s traditional association with divine order.
How the Symbols Are Used Today
In our library, we keep a pentacle on the altar for practical work. When we cast a circle, we trace a pentagram in the air with the athame, starting at the point corresponding to the element we are invoking. The upward-pointing pentagram is the standard for banishing and invoking rituals in the Golden Dawn tradition and in Wicca. The pentacle disk itself is used to consecrate tools, to hold offerings, and to ground excess energy after a working.
The inverted pentagram is not used in Wiccan or traditional ceremonial magic. It appears in the practices of the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, where it is worn as a pendant, displayed on altars, and used in ritual to symbolize the self-deification of the practitioner. In LaVeyan Satanism, the inverted pentagram is not a tool of invocation but a statement of identity.
Outside organized groups, the inverted pentagram has become a generic symbol of rebellion, often worn by people who have no connection to any occult tradition. That is its own kind of meaning: a sign of outsider status, divorced from the history of the star.
Pentacle vs. Inverted Pentagram: Key Symbolic Differences
The upward-pointing pentagram (with or without the circle) places the single point at the top, representing spirit ruling over the four material elements. In the Golden Dawn system, the points correspond to the four classical elements plus spirit, with spirit at the apex. The star thus symbolizes the integration of matter and spirit under divine guidance.
The inverted pentagram reverses this hierarchy. The single point at the bottom places matter or the material world above spirit. The two upper points form horns, evoking the goat, a symbol of fertility, independence, and the carnal. This is not inherently evil, but it is a deliberate inversion of the traditional order.
The circle around the pentagram (making it a pentacle) adds a layer of containment and protection. An inverted pentagram inside a circle is still an inverted pentagram, but the circle can modify its meaning. Some modern occultists use an inverted pentacle (inverted pentagram inside a circle) as a symbol of the underworld or chthonic forces, distinct from the Satanic associations.
Common Misconceptions About the Pentacle and Inverted Pentagram
The inverted pentagram is always Satanic. It was not invented for Satanism. Éliphas Lévi’s Baphomet was a symbol of the absolute, not of evil. The association with Satanism is a 20th-century development, and many people who wear the inverted pentagram today have no connection to any religious tradition.
The pentacle is exclusively Wiccan. The pentacle predates modern Wicca by centuries. It appears in the Key of Solomon, in Agrippa, and in the grimoire tradition. Wicca adopted it, but it is not Wiccan property.
The pentacle and pentagram are the same thing. A pentagram is the five-pointed star alone. A pentacle is the star enclosed in a circle, often on a physical disk. In common speech, people use “pentagram” for the star and “pentacle” for the disk, but the distinction matters in ritual.
An inverted pentagram is a pentacle turned upside down. Technically yes, but the circle does not change the orientation. An inverted pentagram inside a circle is an inverted pentacle. The term “pentacle” does not imply any particular orientation.
FAQ
What is the difference between a pentacle and a pentagram? A pentagram is a five-pointed star. A pentacle is a pentagram enclosed in a circle, often engraved on a disk used in ritual.
Is the inverted pentagram always Satanic? No. It was first drawn by Éliphas Lévi in 1854 as a symbol of synthesis. Its Satanic association began with Anton LaVey in the 1960s.
Can a pentacle be inverted? Yes. An inverted pentagram inside a circle is an inverted pentacle. Some occultists use it to represent chthonic or underworld forces.
Why is the pentacle associated with Wicca? Gerald Gardner, the founder of modern Wicca, adopted the pentacle from the ceremonial magic tradition in the 1940s. It became a standard altar tool in Gardnerian and subsequent Wiccan traditions.
The pentacle and the inverted pentagram share the same geometry but face opposite directions. One points to spirit, the other to matter. One contains, the other inverts. Understanding the difference is not academic. It is the difference between drawing a circle to protect yourself and drawing a star to declare where you stand. For more on ritual tools and their meanings, see our guide to witchcraft tools and the glossary of occult symbols. If you are building an altar, our guide on ritual tools and their uses covers the pentacle in context.