The Pentagram – 118
Easter Eggs | Fringe - 118 Midnight | Theories & Speculation | Posted by ScullyOn several occasions during this week’s episode, I noticed a pentagram pattern. They were always in the bar or in reference to the bar, but there were too many of them to ignore.
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The first was on the door of the bar…
Image #1
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The second one was hanging from the ceiling inside the bar…
Image #2
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The third one was on the hand of the dead guy, who had been at the bar…
Image #3
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The fourth was a neon sign on the wall of the bar…
Image #4
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That’s a lot of pentagrams. I did a little research on star symbols and pentagrams. Here’s what I found…
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A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes.
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The Golden Ratio plays an important role in regular pentagons and pentagrams. Each intersection of edges sections the edges in golden ratio: the ratio of the length of the edge to the longer segment is Phi, as is the length of the longer segment to the shorter. Also, the ratio of the length of the shorter segment to the segment bounded by the 2 intersecting edges (a side of the pentagon in the pentagram’s center) is Phi. As the four-color illustration shows:
The pentagram includes ten isosceles triangles: five acute and five obtuse isosceles triangles. In all of them, the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side is ?. The acute triangles are golden triangles. The obtuse isosceles triangle highlighted via the colored lines in the illustration is a golden gnomon.
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In Astronomy successive inferior conjunctions of Venus repeat very near a 13:8 orbital resonance (The Earth orbits 8 times for every 13 orbits of Venus), creating a pentagrammic precession sequence. (There’s the number EIGHT again.)
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In human history, the pentagram first originated from the observations of Venus by prehistoric astronomers. When viewed from Earth, successive inferior conjunctions of Venus plot a regular pentagram shape around the Sun through the zodiac returning to the same point every EIGHT years.(EIGHT was the glyph code this week.)
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The pentagram has magical associations, and many people who practice Neopagan faiths wear jewelry incorporating the symbol. Christians once more commonly used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus, and it also has associations within Freemasonry.
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Before the extensive period of the Inquisition there were no evil associations to the pentagram, for its form implied Truth, religious mysticism and the work of the Creator. Eliphas Levi illustrated an upright pentagram of microcosmic man (good) beside an inverted pentagram with the goat’s head of Baphomet and therefore the devil. The juxtaposition of this illustration led to the different orientations of the pentagram being good and evil. In the time of the inquisition of witches, other horned gods such as Pan became equated with the devil and the pentagram and for the first time in history the pentagram was considered evil and called the Witch’s Foot.
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The Order of the Eastern Star, a fraternal organization associated with Freemasonry, has employed a point-down pentagram as its symbol, with the five isosceles triangles of the points colored red, blue, yellow, white and green. (Notice the word ‘FATAL’ in the center.)
In Goethe‘s Faust, the pentagram prevents Mephistopheles from leaving a room.
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Mephistopheles:
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- I must confess, my stepping o’er
- Thy threshold a slight hindrance doth impede;
- The wizard-foot doth me retain.
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Faust:
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- The pentagram thy peace doth mar?
- To me, thou son of hell, explain,
- How earnest thou in, if this thine exit bar?
- Could such a spirit aught ensnare?
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In Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, the pentagram represents Venus, based on the successive inferior conjunctions of Venus against the Zodiac.
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That’s a lot to take in, sorry, but I thought any or all of these points might be relevant in some way. The numbers are there, the colors are there and the symbolism is there. I didn’t want to leave any pentagram unturned.
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If anyone remembers ever seeing this symbol in any other episode, or at any other spot in this episode, please let me know.
May 4th, at 8:08 am
Holy Fringe! That is a lot to take in — and nice connections btw! I like how the Order of the Eastern Star’s symbol incorporates the colors highlighted in the Fringeverse as a possible pattern or code (the blue, red, yellow, and white plus the green). The fact that the Eastern Star order originated in Boston might further give credence to this connection
You know, when I saw the symbol my first thoughts (apart from Satanism of course) were Judaisim and a play off of the Star of David. I know it’s not exactly the Star of David, but what if it’s something similiar? In a twisted sort of way, the people at that club were like lambs to the slaughter, being branded on their hands, only to systematically and unsuspectingly be killed later by this spinal-fluid-vamp-feeder.
I originally dismissed this idea as far-fetched —- until Fringe Comic #4 came out the next day after Midnight, and we find …
*BEGIN SPOILER*
… Walter and Bell traveling back in time to Nazi Germany to meet Walter’s father, a ranking official in the Nazi regime. Not only this, but they are helped by a Jewish prisoner named Levi Berger.
*END SPOILER*
According to your research above, a man named Eliphas Levi was the first to associate the inverted star with evil … interesting possible connection …
And the associations with the number EIGHT in regards to Venus are fascinating. I actually had a thought on the meaning behind the code EIGHT. I don’t know if you ever did it, but when I was a kid we would always sign our “love letters” with the numbers 831 — 8 letters, 3 words, 1 meaning: I LOVE YOU. Considering the theme of “how far would you go for someone you love” throughout this episode, I was wondering if the EIGHT simply referenced ILOVEYOU?
I could be way off —- awesome connections you made though!
May 4th, at 11:05 am
This is great! I love the connection between the comic and the show. I also like the idea of the Star of David, I never thought of that. It does make sense.
I’ve never heard of ’831′ being used as ‘I Love You’, but it definitely could be one EIGHT theory, considering there did seem to be a lot that that in the episode.
Great work.
May 13th, at 3:42 pm
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
September 5th, at 6:06 pm
It’s all intriguing symbolism, but isn’t this basically the only time pentagram prominently shows up in the series?
I mean, if it were a subtle and recurring theme I’d be more inclined to believe that it had any kind of significance, but right now, I’m pretty sure it’s just the clubs logo.