A
pentacle (also spelled and pronounced as
pantacle in
Thelema, following
Aleister Crowley, though that spelling ultimately derived from
Éliphas Lévi)
[1] is a
talisman that is used in
magical evocation, and is usually made of
parchment, paper, cloth, or metal (although it can be of other materials), upon which a magical design is drawn. Protective symbols may also be included (sometimes on the reverse), a common one being the six-point form of the
Seal of Solomon.
Pentacles may be sewn to the chest of one's garment, or may be flat objects that hang from one's neck or are placed flat upon the ground or altar. Pentacles are almost always shaped as disks or flat circles. In the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, though, a pentacle is placed within the triangle of evocation.
Many varieties of pentacle can be found in the
grimoire called the
Key of Solomon. Pentacles are also used in the
neopagan magical religion called
Wicca, alongside other
magical tools. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Wicca, pentacles symbolize the
classical element earth.
[2][3] In the 1909
Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck (the pentacles of which were designed by
Arthur Edward Waite), and subsequent
tarot decks that are based upon it, and in Wicca, pentacles prominently incorporate a pentagram in their design. This form of pentacle is formed upon a disk which may be used either upon an altar or as a sacred space of its own.