Here’s another page offering further details about the history of pentagrams and pentacles. As far as I can tell, they are saying the difference between the two is that a pentagram, formally, just consists of the five pointed star, whereas a pentacle also includes the circle around it. Additional details found here:

I’ll tell you what though, Christian fundamentalists have some fucking crazy ideas about this and other symbols. I love how, instead of doing thoughtful research into symbols and their complex use and origins, they just immediately label EVERYTHING as a sign of the devil.

Take this fun page of “Occult Signs & Symbols” as a prime example. Some of my favorites on this page are the Star of David, which is cleverly labelled “This is not the Star of David,” and is instead called one of the “most potent symbols used in the working of the powers of darkness.” Talk about thinly-veiled anti-semitism. Don’t worry though, their hate isn’t exclusive: they also include the Star & Crescent moon of Islam and the Yin-Yang symbol. Another fun one is that they have a picture of that surfer “hang-loose” hand gesture, which they suggest is “used to salute the rising moon.” I also love that they include the upside-down cross here. I mean, I know Satanists have adopted it, but it was originally called St. Peter’s Cross. According to legend, he was crucified as well, but felt he wasn’t worthy to die as Christ did, so he had them put the cross upside down. (Although, historically, from what I’ve heard, Roman crucixion devices were more like capital letter “T”’s, or what they call the Tau cross.)

Another zany Christian website has this to say about the “Gay Symbol”:

a pink triangle in a circle is used by gays to let other gays know their homosexuality, but it is also used by some Satan worshippers to conjure demons directly from hell. The circle represents a boundary of power so they don’t get hurt by the demon. Some use the triangle without the circle because they want to be possessed.

I don’t know much about the Church of Satan, or Satanism in general. And maybe that’s true, that they use it that way. But clearly, the implication in the above statemnt, by putting those two things together, is that gay people conjure and are possessed by demons. I don’t have to point out how insane that is…

Switching gears, I’ve also come across some discussion of the origin of the peace symbol. This page refers to it as “Nero’s Cross”. He supposedly hated and persecuted Christians (although I’ve also heard it said that persecution of Christians was largely invented after the fact, since Rome was a tolerant polytheist country, who’d been conquering cultures and adapting to their religions for thousands of years). Here’s a little bit more (but not very good info) about the Cross of Nero. Another obviously Christian site comparing “evil” symbols has this to say about the Peace Sign:

Nero believed that there would be world peace without Christianity, thousands of Christians were martyred under the rule of Nero. This is what the “peace symbol” represents regardless of what it means to you.

You know, I’m gonna make a really bold and possibly offensive generalization here… but let me just say, that based on all the wars, small-mindedness, persecution, hatred and bigotry that have surrounded Christianity throughout its entire history, and whose stench lingers even today, I might have to agree with “Nero’s” assertion, that, without Christianity, we very well might be closer to world peace. Although, having said that, it’s stupid people, not religions that cause problems. I’m sure without Christianity, some other group would just go nuts and take up their position in the drama.

Before I go watch the Simpsons, I’d like to make one final observation, which I haven’t seen anybody else do during my search. I never realized it before, but the Anarchy symbol, the circle-A, is almost exactly an upright pentagram, but with the two bottom diagonal lines removed. Cool.

UPDATE!

I did some more research as to the “official” origin of the peace sign, as far as it is used today, and came across this document from Berkeley, saying that it was designed “from scratch” in 1958 as a logo for the nuclear disarmament movement in Great Britain. They try to brush aside the possibility that it existed as a symbol before that, or had any other uses and meanings. In my mind, the fact that it’s so simple and iconic indicates that it must have been used before, seeing as people having been creating and using symbols for thousands of years. To me, one of the best parts of symbols is that you can never really hammer them down. Their meaning always shifts and twists and adapts based on who is using it, and who is talking about it. In that way, it makes sense that symbols are at the hearts of so many religious and occult systems.