Description

Origin & Traditional Use

An altar pentacle is a flat disc engraved with a pentagram, placed at the centre of the altar. In witchcraft it represents the element of earth, and in ceremonial magic the pentacle is the magician’s shield and the seat of the working.

Uses in the Work

Place it at the centre of the altar and set tools, offerings, candles or charged objects on it to consecrate and empower them. Use it to represent earth at the north quarter, and place a sigil, petition or poppet on it during a working so the pentagram anchors the spell. Inverted, the pentagram marks a left-hand path altar: spirit beneath matter, the carnal and earthly honoured first.

Pairs Well With

Black Tourmaline – 1 lb Tumbled; Solomon’s Seal Amulet; Black Velveteen Tool Bag 4″ x 6″

Lore

The pentagram was used by the Pythagoreans as a sign of health and as a secret greeting. Its five points have been linked to the five wounds of Christ, the five senses and the five elements. It was Éliphas Lévi who popularised the idea that an inverted pentagram was the sign of the goat of the sabbat.