Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Charismatics, Donald Trump and the Mysterious Pentagram

Charismatics, Donald Trump and the Mysterious Pentagram

Last updated on: January 30, 2017 at 2:38 pm by Mary Pezzulo

Charismatics, Donald Trump and the Mysterious Pentagram 2017-01-30T14:38:59-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

pentagram-159044_640

It’s very important to have friends who will help you fill in the parts of your education you’ve missed by being raised on the Planet Charismatic. I know I’m grateful to mine.

This morning, I started to get a very small fit of the scruples. Most people raised in spiritually abusive homes are subject to this sort of thing. I start every morning on edge at the best of times, and the past eight days haven’t been good for anybody’s equilibrium. As I went to read the news, I kept seeing photos of TV’s Donald Trump posing in front of what looked like a pentagram in brass-plated bas relief on a dark blue wall. There was an eagle on top of the pentagram; in some photos, Donald stood directly in front of the eagle, and looked as though his head had sprouted brass wings.

And I started to get nervous.

You have to understand my terror of pentagrams. I don’t know the first thing about them except that they’re on the long list of things that terrified people in my insane Charismatic prayer group growing up. My mother stopped allowing us to check Bedknobs and Broomsticks out of the library, when we joined the “Community.” We tried to walk on the opposite side of the street, when we passed stores that sold Dungeons and Dragons. We weren’t allowed to read books with vampires in them. The creepy Charismatic church ladies railed against Halloween parties and the Goosebumps series. Such things were of the devil. They would cause you to come down with a demonic oppression, if not a full-blown possession, and then you’d have to be prayed over by the creepy ladies with their vials of oil.

Once, my mother walked into the room where my brothers were watching an episode of the late 90s series Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? and ominously declared, “You can’t tell me this isn’t demonic.”

This is the background I lived in for several years, relaxing gradually in my teens until we were almost normal. Certain emblems were “pagan” and symbols of “witchcraft,” and among them were the upside-down cross, the ankh, the peace sign, and certainly the pentagram.

I went ahead and asked my friends on Facebook. “Okay, dumb question. Where is that dark blue corner where Trump apparently goes to sign his documents? It’s not the Oval Office. The Oval Office has windows behind the desk. This one has a pentagram and a golden eagle in the back so it makes Trump look like he has a winged scalp. What is that place?”

A flurry of searching began. No, it wasn’t any part of the Oval Office. The Oval Office is cream and yellow. No, it wasn’t the Blue Room; the Blue Room’s walls don’t look like that.

Finally, a friend realized it was not in the White House at all, but the Pentagon. She zoomed in on the mystery symbol.

I had to come out and admit what was bothering me. “Why is the star upside down, the symbol of black magic?”

A theologian friend answered instantly. “Because some people tried to make it look like a goat’s head, but really, it has positive values in Christian history like the five wounds of Christ.”

Oh.

My friend who reads a lot of Tolkien got on next. “Hell, Sir Gawain had a pentagram on his shield. Because

“First, he was found faultless in his five senses,
and his five fingers never failed him in any deed,
and all his faith in this world was in the five wounds
that Christ carried on the cross, as the Creed informs us.
No matter where he moved in melee or in battle
it was his fervent thought through thick or thin
that when he fought his courage came from the five joys
the high Queen of Heaven had of her child.
(And so the noble knight would never wear his shield
till her image had been painted on the inner half;
for when he saw her face his courage never failed.)
And a fifth five was found in Gawain:
bounty and brotherhood above all else;
courtesy and a clean heart (these were never crooked)
and the finest point, compassion — these five virtues
marked him more than any man alive.
Now all these five fives were fastened round this knight
and each embraced the others in unbroken pattern
and met in five fixed points that never failed,
nor bunched together, nor split in pieces,
but ran on endlessly at every point —
where the figure failed, it found new beginnings.
Therefore the shield shone with the knot thus shaped,
gold royally arranged against red gules —
the noble pentacle as it is known by men
of lore.

Now ready to go his way,
he lifted his lance as if for war,
gave them all good day —
and left them there forevermore.”

Oh.

Finally, another friend had the answer: “That’s the Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military award. Most people awarded it are dead. Sacrificed their lives to save others. It’s an insult to every person awarded the MOH that he uses it as a backdrop.”

Oh.

The Congressional Medal of Honor was one of those things my pious home school never mentioned, along with the civil-rights movement; they were too busy having us memorize the Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism and read protestant science texts about how the Grand Canyon was caused by the flood of Noah. I had to look it up.

The symbol on the wall of the Pentagon has the head of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and also of war, which replaces and symbolizes a larger scene depicting “Minerva repulsing discord,” inside of the five-pointed star. The upside-down star has been a sign of military excellence since at least the Middle Ages. The little fluted edges of the star represent the oak, which is a symbol of strength. It’s topped with an eagle because America.

I’m not saying it’s 100% NOT pagan, but not at all in the way I thought.

So, I want to assure any scrupulous people like me that Donald Trump is not betraying every positive value our country stands for while standing in front of a symbol of black magic. Rest easy. He’s betraying every positive value our country stands for, while standing in front of a Congressional Medal of Honor and sometimes posing for the camera with the eagle wings looking like a hat.

Glad we cleared that up.

(image via Pixabay)

Congressional Medal of Honor

Previous Post

January 29, 2017

The Gift of Hope

Next Post

January 30, 2017 Chaldean Patriarch Denounces Preference for Christian Refugees

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Rabboni" mean, as Mary Magdalene called Jesus after the resurrection?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Savior Messenger Shepherd Teacher