Pentagram on The Salt Lake Temple: Satanic in Nature?
By Kerry A. Shirts
Apparently some anti-Mormon critics are declaring that the pentagram, that is, the five pointed star (from the Greek word "pentagrammon", the Greek word "Pantad" meaning a group of five of whatever it is that is grouped, See, "The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology," C. T. Onions, ed., Oxford at the Clarendon Press, reprint, 1983: 665), incised in the Salt Lake Temple structure is proof of Mormonism either being of Satanic origin, or of worshipping Satan and spreading his evil symbols all about on sacred buildings.
With a little time and effort, it can be shown that this simply cannot be the case. True to form, critics against Mormonism continue their efforts to disparage Mormonism with incomplete and skewed information. We thank them for that however, because in the process of working things out ourselves, we find our faith bolstered and our energies renewed in proclaiming Jesus Christ as our Savior and God.
The pentagram is a rather remarkable symbol. The Pentagram is the five sided star. In studying out the pentagram and the notions of the number 5, the significance of the symbolism becomes overwhelming as to why it is on the temple. It is literally built into the ancient temples of antiquity as well. There are reasons why this is so, which this article will explore.
As Herbert Westren Turnbull has noted in his article "The Great Mathematicians," that with a compass it is an easy thing to draw a circle and then cut the circumference into six equal parts. It is much more difficult to cut it into 5 equal parts. Yet the ancient Egyptians did so, and in fact, "the very shape of the Great Pyramid indicates a considerable familiarity with that of a regular pentagon." (in James R. Newman, ed/compiler, "The World of Mathematics," Tempus Books, 1988, 4 vols., idea found in vol. 1: 78). After Thales visited Egypt, he advised his student Pythagoras to go there also, which he did. The followers of this great thinker became Pythagoreans, those who loved number. The members of this society swore secrecy against revealing their secrets. When one Hippasus perished in a shipwreck, it was believed his fate was because he had revealed the secret of the sphere with its twelve pentagons. (Turnbull, p. 80-81). The societies badge of honor was the five sided star, the pentagram.
Through the centuries with either deliberate discoveries and explorations or accidental, the idea of the number five and what it meant came to be crystalized into a symbol for, of all things, life! "Five signals to man his proper foods. Five is dominant in the substructure of living forms, while 6 and 8 are most characteristic of the geometry of mineral, inanimate structures." (Robert Lawlor, "Sacred Geometry," Thames & Hudson, 1982: 58). In fact, based on the scientific studies of mathematicians of geometry we now know that in the Middle Ages, "the Pentagon as the symbol of life, particularly of human life, was the basis of many Gothic rose-window mandalas." (Lawlor, p. 58). In fact, the number 5, hence the symbols associated with it, such as the pentagram, the pentagon, etc., is very intimately associated with what Mathematicians call "The Fibonacci Series," and the "Golden Section," of geometry. These in turn have absolutely remarkable connections with spirals and whirls demonstrated in life all over the planet, and indeed, extending out into the infinite universe itself, as we shall see.
Indeed, the human body is divided by the rule of the Golden Section, exactly at the navel. (Lawlor, p. 59). The five pointed star is famous as a "Symbol of Health," the pentagon being understood to be the famous seal of King Solomon, which he used to perform his marvelous feats. (Harold Bayley, "The Lost Language of Symbolism," Citadel Press, 1988, 2 vols., quote in Vol. 1:256).
In the Royal Masonic Encyclopedia we read that the pentalpha was the triple triangle of Pythagoras, which had the letter A in five different positions. "It was regarded as a talisman, as a preservation from danger, and, inscribed on the threshold of a door, it kept out evil spirits… the Early Christians considered that it referred to the five wounds of Christ." (Kenneth MacKenzie, "The Royal Masonic Cyclopedia," Aquarian Press, 1987: 555.) Isn’t it interesting that the more we look into this symbol the less Satanic, and more Christian it becomes? It also appears to be rather typical that critics against Mormonism have gotten it backwards yet one more time. In fact, the letter "E" in our alphabet, is the fifth letter, being derived from the fifth letter of the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet: the "heh." The ancient letter Heh is a pictogram of a man raising his arms in prayer! "Prayer is translated by an invocation, whose melody becomes the natural sound of breath and breathing, "heh"… hence the name of the fifth letter "heh." (Marc-Alain Quaknin, "Mysteries of the Alphabet," Abbeville Press Publishers, 1999: 158.) The significance of the fifth letter being turned onto its side to make our letter "E" is that man, from invoking and recognizing Deity above, now turns to his fellow man and recognizes "transcendence directed towards the divinity to transcendence turned to face another person. It is a discovery that the godhead is in every human being…" (Quaknin, p. 161).
Faith Javane and Dusty Bunker say the number 5 "metaphysically a "river" represents vital force. Human beings are the container of this force, as a ‘garden’ symbolizes the body. The river of Genesis 2:10-14 represents the flow of humanity itself throughout the earth, which divides and divides until it covers all the earth. The five senses are introduced in the early chapters of Genesis to indicate that the senses are essential in human creation; and therefore 5 is the number of humanity." ("Numerology and The Divine Triangle," Para Research, 1979: 112.) Further in Biblical Symbology, the number 5 stands for Mediation, judgment and understanding. 5 also represented the four elements, earth, air, fire, water, along with the fifth, the aether or spirit. (Javane, p. 116). But further than this, five is considered to be numerically, the number of Divine Grace. (E. W. Bullinger, "Number in Scripture," Kregel Publications, 1991: 135). Israel’s Tabernacle had the number 5 associated with it in numerous ways. Nearly every measurement was a multiple of 5. (Bullinger, p. 140). What makes this interesting is Marion D. Hanks demonstrating that the Bible calls the Tabernacle a temple and a House of the Lord, (1 Samuel 1:7, 9, 24; 3:3. See his "Christ Manifested to His People," in Donald W. Parry, ed., "Temples of the Ancient World," Deseret Book/FARMS, 1994: 7). So for the Salt Lake Temple to have a pentagram is in line with the idea of the number 5, as a symbol to be on and directly, intimately involved in the very measurements of Israel’s ancient Tabernacle in the wilderness. Hugh Nibley has shown that the ancient cosmological pattern is presented in every aspect of the Salt Lake Temple. At the dedication of it, Brigham Young explained that they layed the stone on the southeast corner because there is the most light. (Hugh Nibley, "Temple and Cosmos," Deseret Books/FARMS, 1992: 48. This is also very well illustrated in the same book on pages 16-17 where the cosmological symbols are drawn and shown where they are placed on the Salt Lake Temple.)
It is also worth noting that in the Kabbalah of the Jews, the number 5 is called "Geburah" on the Tree of Life symbol of the Kabbalah. Five represents severity/justice. (Ann Williams-Heller, "Kabbalah: Your Path to Inner Freedom," Quest Books, 3rd print, 1997: 55.) Further on she notes how the number 5 is "composed of a duality [2] and a triad [3], it brings order into the disorder caused by an overabundance of Tree branch Number Four. It is at once the number of justice and destiny, and the number of humanity. Its form is the Pentagram." (Heller, p. 101). In fact, the Hebrew mysteries, according to Heller, it is the five pointed star which "expresses God’s will for humankind… the star personifies the five component parts of the body; the head and four limbs. It also reflects the five senses which protect one in the jungle of earthly existence; sight, sound, small, taste, and touch… with five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot, a covenant was made between the Lord God and the patriarch Abraham (Gen. Chapter 17). Five sacrifices were demanded of Abraham (Gen. 15:9). The Torah consists of 5 books of scripture, five wounds were inflicted on the Nazarene during his crucifixion… the Pentagram shape itslef represents the mortal yet evolving human being…the Pentagram is the only geometric shape able to move in two opposing directions: it can be either an expansion ot a contraction." (Heller, pp. 102-103).
On another level there are reasons for the Pentagram being such a significant symbol of and for our existence. In the Tarot card deck, the one card in the Major Arcana, the Hierophant, has the number 5 attatched to him. In the Aleister Crowley Tarot card deck, the Hierophant is illustrated as holding onto a pentacle. Crowley even notes that the Hierophant represents and is also Osiris, the Egyptian God of the resurrection. (Aleister Crowley, "The Book of Thoth," U. S. Games Systems, Inc., 1996: 24). The symbolism of the Hierophant is further expounded as being "the uniting of the microcosm with the macrocosm… before the Manifestor of the Mystery is a hexagram representing the macrocosm. In its center is a pentagram, representing a dancing male child. This symbolizes the law of the new Aeon of the child Horus, which has supplanted that Aeon of the ‘Dying God’ which governed the world for two thousand years. (Crowley, p. 78). William G. Gray noted that the Hierophant is "supposed to symbolize the height of our spirituality and initiated Wisdom…" (William G. Gray, "Qabalistic Concepts" Living the Tree," Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1997: 215.) Israel Regardie noted that the adding of the letter shin in Hebrew to the Tetragrammaton, forms a new word "Yeheshua" the Pentagrammaton, the symbol of a new being, the adept or "tsaddik" in whom the birth of Spirit (the Hebrew letter Shin was symbolizing the ancient Shechinah, or the Holy Spirit) has equilibrized the base and unredeemed elements of matter." ("A Garden of Pomegranates," Llewellyn Publications, 3rd ed., 1999: 116.) Breaking down the pentagrammaton, Regardie notes that "The Yod represents fire; the Heh primal is Water; Shin, the crowning point is the Shechinah, the Holy Spirit; Vav is air; and Heh final is Earth, the synthesis of all the other elements and principles. The symbol is therefore one which denotes the whole of the constitution of man." (Regardie, p. 117). Later on the pentagram is described as "a powerful emblem of Spirit which guides, unites, and dominates the other four elements. It is a worthy symbol for the realm of strength." (Regardie, p. 371). Moses Maimonides described man as the microcosm of the universe, the macrocosm as well. ("The Guide for the Perplexed," Dover, 1956: 113-114).
The Hierophant of the Tarot card deck is also called the Pope, and is pictured as such in some Tarot decks. The Pope’s number is 5. "The number 5 makes a bridge between man’s physical being and the archtypal mystery of numbers…five has a magical quality: when you square it, it always returns upon itself. For this reason, the ancients called it a spherical number and thought of it as connected with infinity…it has been said that the first four numbers represents principles of reality, whereas the number five stands for ultmiate reality." (Sallie Nichols, "Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey," Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1984: 126).
The five pointed star was recognizable as the gypsies cut apples transversely, showing the 5 legged star embedded in the fruit, which they called "the Star of Knowledge." To the Greeks this is the revelation of Kore, the virgin Goddess in the heart of the earth. In Egypt it was the female regenerative spirit in the womb of the earth. The Egyptians five pointed hieroglyph became the symbol for St. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. "Christian mystics claimed the Virgin Mary was a reincarnation of the Apple-Goddess Eve, who was once worshipped as the soul of the earth. She was Hvov in Persia, Hebe or Hebat in Anatolia, Eveh in Assyria, Hawwa or ‘Life’ in the Land of Hatti." (Barbara Walker, "The Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History, and Symbolism," Harper and Row Publishers, 1984: 185-186). She further expounds that the Ace of Pentacles in the Tarot Card Deck "meant creation and giving; the birth of material wealth from the mater, Earth or Eve. Pythagoreans called the pentacle a prime symbol of beginning, because its endless angles repeated the birth-letter Alpha." (Walker, p. 186). It is quite remarkable that the origin of the letter Alpha was found in the Proto-Sinaitic Aleph, meaning an ox. But the symbolism is of strength, or primal energy. The derived meaning is strength, being, human being, living being, man. (Quaknin, "Mysteries of the Alphabet, p. 123) The Hebrew Aleph has the softest pronunciation of the guttural letters, and when its pronounced it’s done with a light breathing. (Gesenius, "Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament," Baker Book House, 1979: 1).
The pentacle was used in ancient Babylon as a mode of healing. "The amulet known as the Seven Seals shows a pentacle as the first of its holy signs." (Barbara Walker, "The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets," Harper And Row Publishers, 1983: 782). Indeed, far from being a sign of Satanic origin, "like other figures constructed of a single unbroken line, the pentacle was believed to afford protection from spirits." (Walker, "Women’s Encyclopedia," p. 783). It was the late Medieval churchmen who took to calling it "Devil’s sign," "Witches Cross," etc. (Walker, p. 783). People did not use it to worship Satan at all. "the pentacle was thought to be such a powerful protection sign," that Walker supposes some in Medieval times crossed themselves more with it than with the 4 pointed cross. (Barbara Walker, "The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects," Harper & Row, 1988: 73).
How the number five relates to life in the universe is a fascinating journey, and not too terribly long either. Well worth the trek. Here we go. The Pythagoreans knew that four could account for matter, (Earth, wind, fire, water). But four could not account for its creation of substance. "It is five – the union of male and female – that enables it to happen." (John Anthony West, "Serpent in the Sky," Quest Books, 1993: 40). West shows how in ancient Egypt, man was, after his death, supposed to become a star, as well as to become one in the company of Re, the Sun-God. (West, p. 41). West further explains that the great scholar Schwaller de Lubicz "found the square root of five commanding the proportions of the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Luxor. Many of the ancient Egyptian edifices were directly built and incorporated the number five into their very structures. The Egyptians also made extensive use of the Golden Section, which commands the flow of numbers up to the number five. The pentagram, made up of Golden Section segments, is the symbol of "unremitting activity." (West, p. 42). "Five is the key to the vitality of the universe, its creative nature…Five terms are required to account for the principle of creation; five is accordingly the number of potentiality. Potentiality exists outside time. Five is therefore the number of eternity and of the principle of eternal creation, union of male and female…" (West, p. 42).
Anyone with an inkling of understanding about Mormon temples will certainly see the astounding relevance of this to the pentagram! And other authors also expound this phenomenal aspect of the number five with the Golden Section. "The square root of five transverses two worlds…the world of spirit and the world of body. And all the forms of bonding or the mediating principles between these cosmic extremes we will consider as the ‘Christic Principle.’ The square root of 5 is the proportion which opens the way for the family of relationships called the Golden Proportion. The Golden Proportion generates a set of symbols which were used by the Platonic Philosophers as a support for the ideal or divine or universal love. It is through the Golden Division that we can contemplate the fact that the Creator planted a regenerative seed which will lift the mortal realms of duality and confusion back towards the image of God." (Lawlor, "Sacred Geometry," p. 37).
It appears that whether 5 is used, or other mathematical manipulations of 5, such as the square root, etc., of 5, produces astonishing things directly related to God and man in their relationship to the cosmos, not to Satan.
The ground plan of the ancient Egyptian Osirian was laid out according to the mathematical principles of the Golden Section, or Proportion, the square root of 5 as symbolic of rebirth and regeneration, and the square root of 2 as the symbol for the procreative, self-generative power of life. (Lawlor, p. 61). The Parthenon of Athens fits comfortably with its dimensions exactly into a Golden Rectangle. (H. E. Huntley, "The Divine Proportion: A Study in Mathematical Beauty," Dover, 1970: 63).
That these ideas are also on the Salt Lake Temple, is indeed remarkably insightful of the early Saints of the Salt Lake Valley.
The Golden Section, or spiral is also found in nature itself, the most famous perhaps, is the spiral of the Nautilus shell. The same proportion of spiral in a 3-D Golden Section spiral can be found in numerous horns of African wildlife, as well as in plants, the spiral of the sunflower best known. It is also in the Phyllotaxis of certain plants, that is, in how the leaves are arranged on the plant as it grows. (see Huntley, p. 161-165). This extends beyond our earth into our own Solar System! Our bodies are created with the Phi proportion of the Golden Section and Fibonacci Series of numbers. "The human body itself models greater self-replicating wholes. Its expanding Phi proportion recurs in the larger structure of the solar system, in the distances of the planets from the sun and each other. Here the additive Fibonacci process is at work: the distance from the sun to Mercury plus Mercury’s distance to Venus equals the distance between Venus and Earth. The solar system is modeled in the proportions of your body." (Michael S. Schneider, "A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science," HarperPerennial, 1995: 127). Schneider notes how King Tut’s rectangular pectoral "symbolizes the creation of the universe by the sun above the waters of chaos, while the nearly triangular pectoral represents the birth of the sun and the moon. Both were designed using pentagonal symmetry." (Schneider, p. 137). The spirals formed in nature from the Golden Section are in Nautilus shells, as I have already noted. They are also found in red cabbage as you cross cut it, and also in whirlpools of water here on earth, and even extend out into the galaxies as they whirl with the same relationship, only on a much larger scale. (Schneider, p. 141 for pictures of this interesting phenomena).
So to summarize:
The Number 5, symbolized by the pentagram, was a sacred number, a number and symbol of life, health, love, creation, regeneration, strength, it transverses the world of spirit and body, is the dominant substructure of living forms, a protection and preservation of life against evil spirits, can represent severity/justice, is the number of humanity, it is connected to infinity and ultimate reality, the key to the vitality of the universe, seen in the union of male and female. It also constitutes universal love, and eternal creation. The pentagram certainly is not out of place being inscribed on the Salt Lake Temple based on what the symbolism of it represents. In short, the pentagram as a symbol, along with its number 5 is the shortest, finest symbol of the Temple Endowment I have ever seen.