
Star of David between two carrier pigeons with letters in their beaks. Issued on 16/09/1951
This blog (by Zeev Barkan) is dedicated to the Star of David, its history, its various meanings and usages in different cultures. It includes thousands of pictures of Star of David, six-pointed stars, hexagrams, Solomon's Seals, Magen Davids and yellow badges,and served as a resource for three books and four art exhibitions.
Eliphas Levy drew this impressive Solomon’s seal and published it in his book Transcendental Magic in 1896. It was meant to illustrate his concept of the Unity of the Opposites: light and dark, mind and matter, good and evil… Legend has it that Jewish King Solomon controlled demons with his seal- no wonder that mystics like Eliphas Levy, who wished to control demons, used this emblem.
Famous Jewish Anti-Zionist Dr. Israel Shahak (1933 - 2001) wrote an “original” article titled Where Does the Star of David Come from? It’s a pity he didn’t specify his resources, but I suspect he fabricated them, as well as other original “facts”, in order to win his cases. Dr. Israel Shahak claiimed that the Catholic Order of the Jesuits selected the Star of David as a Jewish symbol in the year 1648 after Prague was rescued from the Swedish army. German Emperor Ferdinand III decided to give honor flags and other decorations to all the defenders, included the Jewsish unit, but no one in Vienna knew what kind of symbol to put on the flag, until the scholarly Jesuits in Vienna suggested that King David must have had a shield in the shape of the six-pointed star.