Monday, March 05, 2007

Pentacle

One of the reasons why it is so hard to find new info about hexagrams is that it has so many synonyms:
Star of David
Magen David
Mogen Dovid
Seal of Solomon
Six-pointed Star
Shield of David
David's Star
Judenstern
Yellow Patch
Hex-alpha
...and now I stumbled upon another name, Pentacle, that is used for pentagrams as well.

Hexagram on a pentacle taken from Israel Regardie’s book The Golden Dawn.
Photo is copied from Wikipedia.

Astronomical Explanation

After I saw the 4500 years old Sumerian Cylinder Seal showing the hexagram surrounded by all the planets I felt the need to find out more about the astronomical angel of the story of this emblem's origin. Here is one such explanation:
Mercury, like Venus has a shorter orbit than Earth; in the case of Mercury, very much shorter. Mercury completes three orbits in just under 50 weeks, so that there are six conjunctions ­ three inferior and three superior in each year. If all six are marked on the circle of the zodiac and the three inferior joined by lines drawn 1-2-3-1 and the three superior joined 1-2-3-1. The result is a hexagram ­ the Star of David or Seal of Solomon. 
The information…came from: Movement and Rhythms of the Stars; SCHULTZ, Joachim (translated by John Meeks); 

First Jewish Flag in Jerusalem

Today I got the Brit-Am Now-871 newsletter with the following story:
In 1917 the British forces that conquered (then) Palestine
included a contingent of Anzac soldiers. Among them was a Jewish soldier
from New Zealand named Louis Salek. While serving in Egypt he had made
contact with the local Jewish community and was given a Jewish flag, half
blue and half white, with a Star of David in the middle.
In December 1917, Allenby, the British commander, made his official entry
into Jerusalem on foot, through the Jaffa Gate. Corporal Louis Salek (Za"L)
who had prepared for the moment and had the flag in his backpack, quietly
detached himself from the soldiers and climbed up to the top of David's
Tower and flew the flag! As a result for the first 20 minutes of the
official ceremony in Jerusalem of the British conquest of Palestine, a
Jewish flag was flying from David's Tower.