"It's used in Gardinarian Wicca when one reaches the second degree initation..representing the need of the witch to learn to face the darkness within so that it may not later rise up to take control. The centre of a pentagram implies a sixth formative element - love/will which controls from within, ruling matter and spirit by Will and the controlled magickal direction of sexual energies. This is another lesson of initiation.(angelfire.com)
it is also said that the two points uppermost represent the horns of light, symbol of 'the Horned God', consort to the Great Goddess (like the Greek god Pan). (Mike Nichols, geocities.com)"
--
"In my Trad we viewed the upright pentacle at 1st Degree as our reaching upwards towards spiritual enlightenment. The inverted pentacle at 2nd Degree represented our turning our attention towards returning Spirit and our energy to the benefit of the community."

"So enough of all the cant—religious, political, nationalist, whatever. Overboard with the lot of it. And this is where your little gesture comes in. No, we are not going to ask you to burn a draft card or an American flag; the time-honoured tradition of repeating the so-called Lord's Prayer backwards is all you have to observe. Whether you are or were a practising Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Mohammedan,Parsee, Hindu, whatever, make no difference at all. As long as you are living in a "Christian" country, the gesture is most effective.
It is a defiant relic from the days of the great witch persecutions, and though witches used not to be specifically anti-Christian, many of them became so, not unnaturally, with the advent of that tide of religiously motivated oppression and bloodshed. It is a symbol of defiance towards the dead letter as opposed to the living spirit of organized religion.
This is what you must do:
When you are quite sure you wish to take this first step, prior to going to bed on three successive nights, making quite sure you are not observed, light a candle and address yourself to it with the following words. This gibberish is, in fact, the Lord's Prayer written out backwards. It is somewhat difficult to pronounce, but struggle through as best you can. It will be no more complicated than some of the peculiar words of power you will encounter later on, and it will be good practice for you. You should find it easier to say on each successive occasion; the third time you will be fairly fluent. I have
written it phonetically, hence the slight difference from the usual backward spelling.

N*ma! Liv*e mo*f su re*illed tub
Noish*y*pmet ootni t*n suh deel
Suh ts*aiga sap*ert tath yeth
V*g*awf eu za se*apsert rua suh vigrawf.
De*b il*id rua y*d sith suh vig
Ne*eh ni *i za thre ni
Nud eeb liw eyth
M*ck m*d-*gik eyth
M*in *yth eeb dwohlah
Ne*eh 8i tra chioo
R*rt*arf r*a! <<<<<(Yah, I censored it..Eliyahu)

As you chant the words, use your imagination to visualize great iron shackles struck off your hands and feet by sizzling bolts of lightning and disintegrating into molten shards to either side of you. Hear the whine and crackle of the searing flashes as they accomplish the work of liberation, and consciously try to feel the burden of all your inherited guilts, all those awful shalt's and shalt not's, all that vast edifice of twaddle and claptrap, sliding easefully from your back.

When all is over, blow out the candle, uttering the witch words "So mote it be!" Should you feel any frissons of fear creeping up your spine during the performance of what may appear to you palpable blasphemy, it is all to the good. This is a process of purgation and catharsis and often carries with it a certain echo of childhood fears. Don't worry, though; any cold shivers only herald the fact that your deep mind is sitting up and taking notice. It is through your deep mind that you will develop your powers once you have cleared away the litter and debris that usually clogs it, as indeed is generally
the case of the ordinary man-in-the-street."

I think we should be clear here.."pagan" means "country dweller"..it does not refer to any one culture..just country people. The church(rome) began calling anyone non christian pagans and demonizing them.

Hell, even jesus was a jew..

The pentagram.....is a symbolic construct. Give me a compass and a straight edge and some some time and I'll produce one. Fine, it's a tricksee beast, I'll need to reference a book on sacred geometry first and unless you give e a cookie as incentive I'll probably cheat and trace it.

Yeah, it's a symbolic construct, related to phi.

Also related to human proportions. There is Davinci's famous drawing....but I've seen photos of well proportioned humans with multiple pentegrams super-imposed unto their bodies and faces, some with one point up, others with two points up. the regions of the human body that happen to corespond to a pentagram with two pints up...are these regions "evil"? Is that a weird thought? What if I told you one of these regions was in the pelvic area.....have we been having unclean thoughts? How weird is this?

I dunno, MAYBE an "averse" pentagram does somehow invite negative energies....but the two horns up, well.... Pan represents the masculine aspect of nature, a primordial force. Villanizing this, again, it just feels like villainizing those nether regions of our bodies, and I'll have nothing to do with it.

With a single point upwards it depicted spirit presiding over the four elements of matter, and was essentially "good". However, the influential writer Eliphas Levi called it evil whenever the symbol appeared the other way up.
"A reversed pentagram, with two points projecting upwards, is a symbol of evil and attracts sinister forces because it overturns the proper order of things and demonstrates the triumph of matter over spirit. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns, a sign execrated by initiates."[16]
"The flaming star, which, when turned upside down, is the hierolgyphic [sic] sign of the goat of Black Magic, whose head may be drawn in the star, the two horns at the top, the ears to the right and left, the beard at the bottom. It is the sign of antagonism and fatality. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns."[17]
"Let us keep the figure of the Five-pointed Star always upright, with the topmost triangle pointing to heaven, for it is the seat of wisdom, and if the figure is reversed, perversion and evil will be the result."[18]

Pan is famous for his sexual powers, and is often depicted with a phallus. Diogenes of Sinope, speaking in jest, related a myth of Pan learning masturbation from his father, Hermes, and teaching the habit to shepherds.[17]
Pan's greatest conquest was that of the moon goddess Selene. He accomplished this by wrapping himself in a sheepskin[18] to hide his hairy black goat form, and drew her down from the sky into the forest where he seduced her.

Neopaganism
In 1933, the Egyptologist Margaret Murray published the book, The God of the Witches, in which she theorised that Pan was merely one form of a horned god who was worshipped across Europe by a witch-cult.[41] This theory influenced the Neopagan notion of the Horned God, as an archetype of male virility and sexuality.

when you say "mark of the beast" it does sound dogmatic. Lucifer was a fallen angel..he was also the light bringer. I really dont see the story of lucifer as a negative thing persay.

The "beast" sounds like some christian appropriation of the pagan forest diety Pan..trying to link him with the "devil" or satan..which is just bs.

People think of the beast as a horned god and the number 666..the fact that people associate these thing with each other just demonstrates a lack of understanding here. It is best to be clear about this and not use confusing terms that are rooted in dogmatism.

Even the number "666" and its relation to evil is just grossly dogmatic and based on misunderstanding.

"IMO 666 is kabbalistic mystery of all its' own having very litte if anything to do with satan."

Yes Eliyahu..interestingly carbon contains 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons and is the building block of organic life

i believe some old texts list the number of the beast as 616 rather than 666. also i was told that the number's significance is in six-hundred sixty six, rather than 6-6-6 or anything like that, so the number stays significant outside of base ten math, but this is me parroting theologically oriented christians (who i never much cared for but was raised with).

that barashyt is interesting, seems reminiscent of the flower of life (what with 6 petals and all).