Pentacles & Pentagrams?!

[Distant]

o.k.-I'm confused.....I read somewhere that pentacles are the rightside-up stars with a circle around them;& pentagrams were just the star(no circle),but I've always thought of pentagrams as the inverted stars (with the circle.......& also,you always hear about pentarams(inverted) as being negative.......but then I see in this(WICCAN) book where they say that it's the symbol for the 3rd Degree...SO WHAT IS IT?!!!!!Thanx!!!

[Moon_Stone]

Good question, Distant. I've heard many different answers to this myself. What I've always believed is that a pentacle is a star within a circle that is anything other than written/drawn, where the pentagram is the same symbol, just written or drawn.

So far as the inversion of a pentacle/pentagram, there is no significance here. There is no "evil" connotation to an inverted symbol, it has just been adopted and used that way in different circumstances.

Per my online dictionary:

Pentagram: see pentacle

Pentacle (n): A five-pointed star, often held to have magical or mystical significance, formed by five straight lines connecting the vertices of a pentagon and enclosing another pentagon in the completed figure. Also called pentagram.

[Wolf*]

the inverted pentagram is not exactly negative, depending on your point of view. It symbolises material and self worship rather than worshipping a higher power other than yourself. I could go on a detailed speach but I don't want to babble lol