Mythbusting Pentagrams: Spoiler Alert, They’re NOT Satanic

Buckle up kids, this is a fun one. 

Pentagrams have been around forever—seriously, they go way back. We're talking ancient Greece and Babylon. Over time, they found their way into Wiccan tradition, kind of like their version of the Christian cross. Magic, mysticism, and general spooky vibes have followed the pentagram for about as long as it’s been on the cultural radar.

Modern Pagans ended up turning it into the ‘pentacle’—that’s the star enclosed in a circle. For clarity: the pentagram is just the five-pointed star; the pentacle is that star with a circle around it. Big difference to some, especially if you’re drawing it on the floor in chalk at 3 a.m.

From roughly 300–150 BC, the pentagram was used as a symbol of Jerusalem, with five Hebrew letters representing the city. Over in ancient Greek philosophy, Pherecydes of Syros used the word Pentemychos—which means “five corners” or “recesses”—to describe parts of the cosmos. In his version, time (personified by the Titan Chronos) planted the seeds of creation into five parts of the Earth, which led to existence.

Here’s where it gets funny: Christians also used the pentagram for a while. Beleiving it symbolized the five wounds of Christ from the crucifixion or, alternatively, the five senses. Not exactly the hellish reputation it has now. In the Middle Ages, the pentagram popped up in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where it was a symbol of virtue on Gawain’s shield. A Christian knight rocking a symbol we now associate with demon traps? Ironic. You even can spot a downward-pointing pentagram in a stained-glass window at the 13th-century Amiens Cathedral in France.

Then came the 19th century, and with it the rise of Romanticism and the occult. Mystics and spiritualists began assigning more layered meanings to the pentagram, claiming it depicted spirit over the four elements. But as soon as it was drawn upside-down? Suddenly it was evil. This is where a lot of the “Satanic symbol” panic started to stick.

Fast forward to the late '90s, and the U.S. had a mini-meltdown over the symbol. Some schools tried banning it, saying it was satanic. falling back on a fear goes all the way back to Renaissance and medieval whispers claiming the upside-down pentagram gave the devil power over the senses.

Pop culture hasn’t exactly helped its case either. Shows like Supernatural loved using it, adding a flaming ring round the symbol, claiming it trapped demons and stopped possessions. According to Supernatural’s own lore, the pentagram is tied to the Seal of Solomon, and plenty of magical grimoires used different pentacle variations that made their way into modern neo-pagan practices.

Nowadays, horror movies, fantasy shows, and even metal bands lean into the pentagram's darker associations. It's basically shorthand for something edgy, evil, or supernatural.

Honestly, it’s kind of wild that a symbol tied to Hebrew philosophers and King Solomon has had such a chaotic legacy. Once holy, now gimmicky. The irony’s thick: Christians used to love this symbol, and now some American schools panic over it. But that’s the pattern, isn’t it? Stuff old Christians used or believed in gets recycled into something "evil" centuries later. The Satanic Panic really messed with a lot of history—and frankly, a lot of that comes down to misogyny and good old-fashioned male anxiety. Maybe it’s time we all just chill out and let symbols be symbols.