The Dual Nature of Symbols – Part One: Do Symbols Have Power?

Posted by: Brittney Zellner

I was reading this Facebook post the other day where a woman told of her daughter’s dream with this symbol in it. She was in her home and somewhere hidden in her house was the encircled upright pentagram.

There were a ton of responses from people trying to give dream interpretations and advice. Most of these were extensive warnings about how there was an evil spirit in her house or that there was something left over in her house from the past that was now haunting her daughter or affecting her in some way.

After reading many of the responses I was reminded of many of the conversations I heard growing up. My Christian mother, for example, believed that certain stones attracted spirits and that if somehow the number 666 came up randomly in life, that it was bad luck or obviously meant something awful.

I’m not surprised that people believe these things or have superstitions given that they don’t really have any reason not to that they are aware of. However, none of us have ever lived in what we imagine the “spiritual realm” to be. We tend to make things up as if we are all experts and believe what others tell us just as easily without any balanced logic or proof. The bible does talk about satan and demons after all and also does a good job of making him out to be the scary bad guy who attacks us to destroy us all…which is of course who he is… but do we really know for certain what we are talking about in the spiritual realm or do we make things up out of a fear of the unknown?

What I want those reading this post to understand is that symbols are not the devil and just like a hammer or a weapon, they have no power in and of themselves. Symbols actually hold no power at all, even less than a hammer or weapon. They simply show the intentions, thoughts, and actions of the person using them. Over time the person using the symbol becomes associated with the symbol and those who know of its use will assume it has an evil power of its own. I am not advocating the use of certain symbols as much as I am trying to push forward the notion that things only have the power that we give them by convincing ourselves that they do. Words, for example, have literally only the power bestowed by Yah and nothing at all if he desires them not to. A king’s order of death even carries no power if it is against the will of Yah. However, there are certain words we stay away from using so as not to offend others so that we can be a light that attracts others to Yah and this same idea can be carried over to our use of certain symbols with others.

In recent history, the encircled pentagram pointed down has been used by Wiccans and those professing to worship satan to perform the sin of witchcraft. They often use this symbol in their practices and believe it has power. However, the only power they have are the decisions in their own mind that lead to death, which is no real power at all. The truth is that the upside down encircled pentagram symbolizes repetitive ever spreading negative changing behavior that in their lives will likely only lead to more sin. As we all know, more sin leads to death. The symbol itself has only the power to reveal the truth about the mind of the person using it. Anyone not knowing its symbolism will just associate it with those evil ones that use it. People will generally believe these things deeply and so without a desire for logic and truth their revelation will stay hidden until they are ready to listen.

The encircled pentagram girl’s dream is an example of this. This symbol and dozens of other common symbols including the regular circle, moon shape, heart, cross, the stick man and even Hebrew letters are also used by Wiccan’s in all of their vain traditions and practices. The girl’s dream showed this slightly different symbol in her house in her dream but a pentagram is nothing but a star, which symbolizes change that grows outwardly and also a possible opportunity.Facing north symbolizes a positive attitude or expectations. A circle simply means that this is cyclical behavior. A house represents the girl’s mind. So that means that Abba was telling her mama that somewhere in this girl’s mind was some regular behavior that was growing in positivity. It  sounded like it maybe was a good message from Abba. Had her mother known this she might have been able to guide this behavior further. Since she did not and took the only advice she could on Facebook, she likely had a lot of anxiety, fear, and worry in her mind that some evil actually existed in her house or was somehow attached to her daughter.

All of that said, any one of these symbols that seem positive can actually represent something negative and vice versa like in my example. It all depends on your point of view and understanding of the hearts of people and their situations. The previous dream shows that what could have been a reassurance to the mother turned into fear because of a simple lack of understanding but with that aspect is the other that shows that within the girl was a hope for ever-growing positive change.

When you see something that is generally thought of as a bad symbol such as an upside-down encircled pentagram, keep in mind that a symbol can be communication from Yah to show an opportunity to change something negative into something positive. If your friend dreams of the upside-down encircled pentagram but is not a devil-worshiping witch, you can know that you have been given an opportunity to help (not demand) them to reverse their actions that are leading them to an increase of negative cyclical behavior. It’s potentially vital information granted for you to know by Yah to test your trustworthiness to guide your spiritual sibling gently towards the kingdom and away from death.