A pentacle is a magical talisman that is generally composed of parchment, paper, fabric, or metal (though it can be constructed of other materials) and on which a magical design is drawn. Protective symbols, such as the six-pointed version of the Seal of Solomon, may also be added (occasionally on the reverse).

Pentacles can be stitched to one’s breast, or they can be flat items that dangle from one’s neck or are laid flat on the ground or altar. Almost all pentacles are formed like discs or flat circles. However, in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a pentacle is put within the evocation triangle.

In the grimoire known as the Key of Solomon, there are many different types of pentacles. Pentacles, along with other magical instruments, are employed in Wicca, a neopagan magical religion. Pentacles represent the traditional element earth in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Wicca. Pentacles prominently include a pentagram in its design in the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck (the pentacles of which were designed by Arthur Edward Waite) and later tarot decks that are based on it, as well as in Wicca. This pentacle is made up of a disc that may be placed on an altar or utilized as a holy area in and of itself.

The Heptameron, written by pseudo-Pietro d’Abano in the 1500s, and the Key of Solomon were the first publications to illustrate pentacles. There is just one pentacle in the Heptaméron, but there are dozens of distinct pentacles in the Key of Solomon. The pentacle in the Heptameron is a hexagram with Patee crosses and letters, but the pentacles in the Key of Solomon contain a wide range of patterns, just two of which are pentagrammic. This differs from subsequent common erroneous definitions of pentacles from the 1900s, which claim that they are intrinsically pentagrammic.

Gerald Gardner dubbed the “Father of Wicca,” drew inspiration for pentacles in part from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck of 1909, in which the pentacles are discs encircled by a pentagram. Gardner defined a pentacle as a “five-pointed star” in his 1949 book High Magic’s Aid and 1954 book Witchcraft Today, meaning to signify a pentagram. Gardner described a pentacle as a synonym for ‘pentagram’ in his 1959 book The Meaning of Witchcraft. Gerald Gardner’s definition of the word “pentacle” has been adopted by major dictionaries, despite the fact that it is historically inaccurate. The phrases ‘pentacle’ and ‘pentagram’ (a five-point unicursal star) are fundamentally identical, according to the Online Oxford English Dictionary (2007 edition).

Among many modern Wiccans, the term “pentacle” has a specific meaning: A ‘pentacle,’ in this case, is a ‘pentagram’ encircled by a circle.

The word was first used in English in 1561, and it was derived from previous French use. “Talisman” was the meaning of the French term. The Latinized term ‘pentaculum’ (with the Latin diminutive suffix -culum) is derived from the Italian word ‘Pensacola.’

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