THE NAUVOO PENTACLE
- Joshua Baird
- Feb 7, 2021
- 7 min read
Feb 7, 2021
Hey everyone!
I've been meaning to put some information together regarding the five-pointed star/pentagram/pentacle and it's relationship to Mormonism, specifically the Mormon Tarot. It is a very potent symbol in Mormonism, but often ignored; perhaps due to the fact that the pentagram itself is a very misunderstood symbol in general. Enjoy!
Best,
Josh
My parents brought me home a small stained glass "Nauvoo Star" from Nauvoo a few years ago. I attached it with a tiny suction cup to the center of our kitchen window and gaze at it on a regular basis. When searching for some kind of logo to go with the Mormon Tarot, it seemed the obvious choice...
Technically speaking the "Nauvoo Star" is a pentacle. If the 5 pointed star contains a pentagon at its center, it's a pentagram. If the pentagram is circumscribed by a circle, it's a pentacle. As many of you know, pentacles or coins are one of the four traditional suits of the tarot...
Pentagrams are such resonant symbols! There's something magical about how you can draw one in just a few quick strokes without lifting your pencil. As a kid, I found myself drawing them over and over when I was bored. Very few symbols are as timeless and universal as the pentagram; in fact the pentagram has historically been present in cultures on every continent across the globe. It's no wonder this symbol has such a rich and colorful history.
There's archealogical evidence showing the pentagram is as old as writing itself. We find the earliest known examples on potsherds in Sumer approximately 5500 years ago.
The pentagram may have been used as a seal for the city-state of Uruk; one of the first known cities and cradles of Western Civilization.
5000 years ago, Mesopotamian priests used the 5 pointed star as an astrological diagram to represent the 5 known planets: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. Venus was located at the top point of the pentagram as a representation of the Queen of Heaven.
Egyptians typically used 5 pointed stars to symbolize the stars of the heavens, but this Egyptian Stela showing the worship of Khepri, god of the rising sun; uses the pentacle or Duat to symbolize the afterlife.
The British Museum is in possession of the handle from a storage jar with the estimated production date of 400 BC. It is marked with the letters y-r-sh-l-m, 'Jerusalem' and was most likely created there while the city was being ruled by the Persians. The pentacle was associated with Solomon and for a time it was used as the seal of the city of Jerusalem. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1927-0530-83
For the pythagoreans, the pentagram was a greeting and sign of recognition that meant "Hugieia" or health. It also represented the 5 classical elements: fire, water, air, earth and idea (or the "divine thing"). The tarot is an emulation of these 5 elements with the suits: wands, cups, swords and pentacles representing each of the four elements. The fifth element represents the major arcana.
Amiens cathedral, built in the 13th century in Northern France, has a giant inverted pentagram centered in its North rose window. Tradition has it that it represents the holy spirit descending from above to the people below.
In the poem "Sir Gawain the Green Knight", the anonymous author examines whether heavenly virtue can function in a fallen world. Gawain, the hero, wears the pentagram on his shield. The poet mentions the pentagram originates with King Solomon and explains it symbolizes Gawain is perfect in his five senses and five fingers, faithful to the Five Wounds of Christ (hands, feet & chest); takes courage from the five joys that Mary had of Jesus (the Annunciation, Nativity, Ressurection, Ascension and Assumption); and exemplifies the five virtues of knighthood (friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy and piety). (2)
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, a German polymath and occult writer popularized the pentacle as a magic symbol. Each point represented one of the five neoplatonic elements of fire, water, air, earth and idea.
This Masonic apron once belonged to George Washington. The pentagram in the lower right corner symbolizes the "Five Points of Fellowship" taught in the Master Mason degree: "foot to foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, hand to back, and cheek to cheek, or mouth to ear."
In the mid 19th century, the pentagram and pentacle were popularized throughout the world of Freemasonry and related societies. Eliphas Levi, considered the greatest occultist of the 19th century, used the pentagram to represent the microcosm, or human being. "As will be seen, all mysteries of magic, all symbols of the gnosis, all figures of occultism, all kabbalistic keys of prophecy, are summed up in the sign of the pentagram, which Paracelsus proclaims to be the greatest and most potent of all signs." — Éliphas Lévi, “The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic”
In 1850, about the same time Levi was learning from his mentors and developing the ideas he later presents in his book, "Dogma and Ritual of High Magic"; the coed Masonic Order of the Eastern Star was being developed by Rob Morris downriver from Nauvoo in Richland Mississippi. This group would use an inverted pentacle similar to the Nauvoo Pentacle. Each point of the pentagram represents a different heroine from the bible: Adah = fidelity, Ruth = constancy, Esther = loyalty, Martha = faith, Electa = love. At the base of each point are letters that spell "F.A.T.A.L." which is a reference to a line in the Song of Solomon that says "Fairest Among Thousands, Altogether Lovely."
The United States Medal of Honor was created by Abraham Lincoln in 1861 and first issued to 6 U.S. Army soldiers who hijacked a Confederate locomotive called "The General". Since its inception, the inverted star found in the medal's design has never changed.
In the 1840s, only a decade or two before Levi's famous book, the O.E.S. and the U.S. Medal of Honor, Joseph Smith and the Mormons were building the Nauvoo temple which appropriated the inverted star on stones and the inverted pentacle in 26 stained glass windows encircling the top floor of the temple. I'm not sure of the origin of the Nauvoo Pentacle design, but my guess is it came from the masonic influences surrounding Smith in the years prior to building the Nauvoo Temple.
Here's the best explanation I've heard for the use of the Nauvoo Pentacle in Mormon theology:
The inverted pentacle represents Christ, the first born son of God and morning star. In ancient times the morning star was the planet Venus. It is often so bright that as the sky gets dark, Venus is the first "star" that is born from the darkness. The stained glass windows in the Nauvoo Temple are each surrounded by 12 stones pointing in the four cardinal directions. Most likely these stones represent the 12 apostles and the Mormon belief in the gathering of the 12 tribes of Israel from the four corners of the Earth.
Venus also makes a sort of 5 pointed geometry as it orbits the sun in relation to planet Earth. Sir Isaac Newton learned this after studying the retrograde motion of the path of Venus for many years. The image above shows Venus coming very close to Earth before repeating the rose shaped cycle.
The star is upside down as a way of suggesting the star of Bethlehem and Christ's descent to Earth in order to fulfill the Mormon "Plan of Salvation" illuminated by the colors in the star.
The colors in the red, blue & white stained glass window symbolize the blood, water and spirit found in the verses below from Moses.
"59 By reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;
60 For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified;" —Moses 6:59-60
The 78 cards of the tarot represent the journey of the soul through life. One could say the same about the Nauvoo Pentacle. Afterall Mormons believe they are to follow the pattern of redemption Christ established by being baptized by blood (being born), and water (by immersion) and the spirit (through confirmation).
Lastly, my goal for the Mormon Tarot is to be a visual and archetypal telling of the history of Mormonism as an American oddysey. I can't help but think of the Nauvoo Pentacle as being a nod to the colors of the American flag; whether intentional or not, I'm fascinated by this fact... (Note the inverted five-pointed stars on this flag from the late 1800s.)
The story of Mormonism stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico. The ancestors of Joseph Smith arrived in the Americas via the Mayflower. The Mormon Church was founded in New York State, but was soon on the move to Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and the Great Basin. Mormons settled San Bernadino and were directly involved in the gold rush at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, CA...
The narrative of Mormon history is a significant strand in the web of American history. It's not just a truly American religion, but also one of it’s greatest curiosities. As you explore Mormon history, you get an intimate view of the people, places, attitudes, beliefs, and events of American history.
There's a Mormon scripture that mentions "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6). The Nauvoo Pentacle speaks volumes about why generations of Mormons made the difficult choices they made. They abandoned their home countries, their families and their friends. They spent their fortunes to travel vast distances, face horrible persecution and risk their lives for a set of peculiar ideals that can mostly be summed up in five lines, a circle and a few pieces of colored glass like the one hanging in the middle of my kitchen window.
NOTES:
1. Allman, G. J., Greek Geometry From Thales to Euclid, part I (1877), in Hermathena 3.5, pp. 183, 197,
2. Morgan, Gerald (1979). "The Significance of the Pentangle Symbolism in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"". The Modern Language Review. 74 (4): 769–790.
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