by John Devera

Created on: May 13, 2008   Last Updated: May 16, 2008

Wicca has a variety of paths and traditions, and each of them has adopted symbols that are relevant to them. Although all these symbols have been adopted by various Wiccan groups, not everyone will recognize the symbols as part of their individual tradition.

THE PENTACLE or Pentalpha is used by Wiccans to represent the four elements: fire, water, earth, air, as well as a fifth element, spirit. Each point represents one of these elements, the topmost point representing the rising spirit. An inverted pentacle, often associated with satanism, or LaVeyan satanism, is also used by Wiccans to represent the second degree initiation. In Wicca, there is nothing satanic or evil about an inverted pentacle. Traditionally, though, going back a couple of thousand years to the teachings of Pythagoras, the five points of the pentacle were to symbolize:

*Hydor, water
*Gaia earth
*Idea or , Hieron "a divine thing"
*Heile, heat (fire)
*Aer, air.

The single circle around the pentacle has a number of meanings, but most common is the belief that it symbolizes the harmony of nature, the circle of being and the unity of the craft.

THE HIDDEN PENTACLE is a kind of pentacle that is disguised in a complex pattern to look like a flower. This is used in times when displaying the traditional pentacle, either inverted or not, might be unadvisable.

THE HORNED GOD symbol is a less common symbol for the male aspect of the dual deities of Wicca. The most common form of this symbol is a circle with a crescent moon on top, the points of the crescent moon pointing up. A less common symbol is the goat head, which the LaVeyan Church of Satan adopted for its symbol, even though its origins are in Wicca and not Satanism. Egyptian Recon and several of the feminist paths of Wicca have adopted the cow goddess Hathor's symbol in the horned god's place. The horned god is sometimes called Cernunnos, a horned deity from Celtic myth.

THE TRIPLE GODDESS represents the aspects of the feminine aspect of the dual deities of Wicca. The goddess has three personas, a kind of trinity of the virgin, the wife and the crone, or alternately as the maiden, mother, hag. The hag, or crone, does not have the negative association that popular culture has placed on it, but rather the connotation of the wisdom, maturity, power an authority that comes with age.

This symbol has numerous forms, but all involve the lunar cycles. The most common is a waxing, full and waning moon. Another is an interconnected three crescents.

THE WHEEL OF THE

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