Cup Veil with Pentagram
$38.00
Aleister Crowley once wrote on his Liber ABA that «the magick Cup must have no lid, yet it must be kept veiled most carefully at all times, except when invocation of the Highest is being made.This Cup must also be hidden from the profane…».
The magic Chalice is the central piece of any ritual where the union of opposites takes place. The manner of this union is secret. Not because it shouldn’t be revealed to anybody. It is secret because it is an inner experience which by its nature cannot be communicated with simple words but only with symbols.
Thus, symbols as well may cover the Cup on our altar, to shield from profane eyes the point where the sacrament takes place. Among these symbols, the most common are the Rose, the Isosceles Cross and the Pentacle…
The artistic workshop LOGOS 373 offers practitioners of all traditions (Thelema, Golden Dawn, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Wiccans, Neopagans etc) special covers for the ritual Chalice made of velvet fabric and embroidered with the Pentagram, perhaps the most ancient of all magical emblems in history of the Occult.
- What is the meaning of the Pentagram?
What is the meaning of the Pentagram?
From the ancient Sumerians to the modern Pagans, the Pentagram or Pentalpha (the five Virtues of the initiate: Fraternity, Loyalty, Love, Truth) is perhaps the most widespread of all magical symbols.
The movement of Venus in the sky forms a pentacle, which is why many associate the symbol with the Great Goddess. After all, the Greeks called number five “gamos” – marriage, since it is the union of the male 3 and the female 2 and, as such, is the number of love and Aphrodite.
The five ends of the Pentacle correspond to the four elements plus the spirit, thus composing a balanced picture of the natural forces. This harmony caused the Pythagoreans to read in the Pentalpha the complete and fit man, and for this reason they stamped their letters with this symbol, while in a circle they wrote the word “Ygeia” – Health, which also has five letters.
Furthermore, the dominance of the spirit in the upright Pentacle (with only one corner pointing up) denotes the union of the individual elements of man, which makes it an ideal protective emblem. Does this mean that the inverted Pentacle (with two corners pointing up) symbolizes disharmony and disunity?
Many practitioners today use the inverted version of the symbol, wanting to express the antinomian cosmic forces and the aversion to the Divine Word. This interpretation, however, is just a modern invention.
Upside down Pentacles are found on coins from ancient Thrace of the 4th century BCE. until the 1st century BCE, where the emblem of Jerusalem was an inverted pentacle within a circle.
No wonder, then, that Aleister Crowley, in his attempt to correct the misunderstanding, notes that there is nothing diabolical about the upside-down Pentacle, rather it symbolizes the descent of the spirit into the material realm!
