Let the Symbols do the Talking

So many people in the world, of all ages, look at the symbol we call the pentagram and immediately refer to it as a symbol of evil. I have to assume it is because they were taught that it is a symbol of the devil. I'm not entirely certain, but I'm inclined to believe this has a lot to do with the large amount of media attention Anton Levey had and his use of the inverted pentagram with the superimposed Goat Head as the logo for his Church of Satan. His attribution of the goat to the inverted pentagram is not unique, as even the Golden Dawn teaches that the inverted pentagram is one of evil and of the Goat of Mendes.

For those people, it is a symbol of evil, but that doesn't mean it truly is. This is a trained emotional response. This is an illusion that our mind has been trained to accept, because someone else says it is so. That doesn't make the experience for such a person any less valid, but it is based upon a filtered automatic response that when a pentagram (inverted or otherwise) is seen they, in some cases for some people, experience fear and anxiety over evil.

An image of the pentagram entering the sphere of sensation and magically transforming into evil
He is supposed to look surprised by all the evil in that pentagram

That is to say, when anything enters our sphere of sensation, it is subject to modification by our automated mental and emotional response to it. In the case of those trained to be offended by a pentagram, it arouses a corresponding emotional response. (The point of this post is the overcoming of these barriers.)

The same can really be said of non-offensive symbols as well. The symbols/letters we use for the "A" only refer to those corresponding sounds because we say it does. But that's okay, because we want that symbol to mean that. However, in the case of occult symbolism, while there are often specific applications of a symbol, the symbols themselves have significant meaning that is beyond mere human definition.

"A" is for "Apple"
...but that doesn't mean "A" is an Apple

Get out of the way and let the symbols do the talking! One problem I have noticed over the years with so much learning and theory in training is that some students aren't able to evaluate whether their experiences are actually happening or if they are projecting meaning upon the symbols during meditations and scrying sessions. When I work with people who don't have the background in occult theory and correspondences, they don't have this problem. The theory and knowledge lectures serve a purpose, as without it we have no way of knowing if our experiences were consistent with the centuries of experiences of other initiates, but it also brings in another issue altogether. To overcome this obstacle, key skill that must be developed is discernment. There are other times however that we intentionally and properly project meaning onto a symbol as part of a magical formula.

Using the pentagram as our example, we generally ascribe the pentagram to the five classical Greek elements. Does this system work, utilizing the pentagram as a model? YES! Does that mean the pentagram IS the elements? No.

The pentagram is a great model for the harmony of the elements. There are multiple correct ways to perceive the model of the elements upon the pentagram. The one that is most obvious is the Pentagrammaton, and the elements corresponding to the letters, superimposed upon the pentagram from the bottom right around to the bottom left. The other I have found is that which emerges when tracing the pentagram. The energies, following the path of the invoking fire pentagram, go from Spirit down to Earth(matter), from the most volatile to the most fixed. The system is effective.

However, the pentagram itself has significance, meaning, and energy outside this specific use and meaning which we have ascribed it. The pentagram is a visual, geometric expression of the number five, and as such is a symbol pertaining not only in theory, but also in practice has an affinity to the energies of Geburah. If one shuts off the mind and what we have been taught about a symbol, and get out of the way of the purity of that symbol's expression, we can access its energy and force. Many symbols are "occult" because we have blinded ourselves to them with culture, education, and personally constructed thought-forms.

In my opinion, it is only by removing these filters and obstacles between our mind and the truth that we can actually gain access to the powers which a symbol "awakens." We first have to wake up from the dream world of our own mind's making.