“Every magic power is found in the five pointed star. In the flaming star the entire science of Gnosis is summarized”.
-Samael Aun Weor, Pistis Sophia Unveiled
Excerpt from The Esoteric Pentagram, lecture by Samael Aun Weor:
The gnostic pentagram is the human figure with four members, and one single point which is the head. The sign of the pentagram, which is also known as the sign of the Microcosmos, represents what the Kabbalists of the Book of the Zohar call, the “Microprosopus”.
When the superior point of the pentagram is raised up in the air, it represents the saviour of the world. When the two lower legs of the pentagram are raised up in the air, it represents the male goat of the witches sabbath. A human figure, with the head pointing downwards, naturally, is a demon, that is to say, intellectual subversion, disorder or madness.
The pentagram, which in the gnostic schools is known as the flaming star, is the sign of magic omnipotence. The comprehension of the magic pentagram is the key of the Two Spaces. The sign of the pentagram must be composed of the seven metals, or at least to be traced with pure gold upon white marble. The seven metals are as follows: silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin and lead.
The pentagram, with the superior ray pointing upwards, makes the columns of demons flee. The pentagram, with the two inferior rays pointing upwards, attracts the tenebrous ones. The pentagram, when traced with coal, upon the threshold of the room, with the two inferior rays pointing outwards, does not allow the tenebrous ones to enter.
The pentagram must be consecrated with the four elements, by reciting the exorcisms of fire, air, water, and earth. Five breaths must be blown upon the magic figure; ritual water must be sprinkled upon the flaming star five times. The figure of the pentagram is dried with the smoke of five perfumes: frankincense, myrrh, aloe, sulphur, and camphor. Afterwards, the pentagram is placed on the floor, alternatively: towards the North, to the East at midday, and towards the west. The name of Aleph and the sacred name of Tau, joined together in the Kabbalistic name of Azoth, will be pronounced.
While blowing five times upon the flaming star, the five magic helpers will be invoked. The five magic helpers are the five genies: Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Michael, and Samael.
If we analyse the pentagram, we can see a four in the superior angle. That is the symbol of Jupiter, the Father of the Gods, the symbol of the Divine Spirit of every creature that comes to the world, the symbol of the eternal living God.
Below that four you will see some eyes that are always opened. They are specifically the eyes of divinity, of God. In the face of that symbol of Jupiter, with the eyes of the spirit always opened, the columns of angels and demons tremble. That symbol makes the tenebrous ones flee in terror.
The pentalpha opens its arms in an extraordinary manner, like when a man is standing with his arms and legs opened. However, if we carefully observe those open arms of the pentalpha, we will see on them the sign of Mars, the planet of war, and we already know that Martian occultism is terrible. In the inferior spheres Mars, (not the superior ones, but the inferior ones), we find terrible black magicians who tremble before that terrible sign of the pentalpha.
Obviously that Martian sign placed on the arms of the five pointed star—which is man— gives us force. Not that physical force, which is a very inferior type of force; no, it gives us the force of the Spirit, to defeat the wicked.
The two inferior angles which are opened, are the two legs of each one of us (when we stand up our legs open), they carry the signature of Saturn on them, and we already know what the negative aspect of the Sphere of Saturn is, what that terrible black magic is. Obviously if this sign is placed with the legs pointing downwards, the tenebrous ones understand it. If we have Jupiter upright with the eyes of the Spirit always open, obviously the tenebrous ones, upon seeing this feel horror, they cannot resist it, and they run away.
On the right side, placing the image facing towards us, we see the Moon and on the left side — the Sun. But if we don’t place it in front of us, but to our side, it is clear that the Sun will be on the right side, right? And the Moon on the left.
The Sun is represented by a circle with a point in the centre. That radiant Sun of the spirit, illuminates the path for us. On the left side is the Moon. The Sun represents the solar forces, the positive, masculine, forces. The Moon represents the negative, feminine forces. 
In the centre appears the Caduceus of Mercury, precisely beneath the sign of Mercury. That Caduceus of Mercury is very important, and above it is the sign of the planet Mercury.
It is obvious that Mercury is the Messenger of the Gods, it is the planet that is closest to the Sun, and it is “the Minister of the Sun”. Without Mercury it would not be possible to reach the intimate Self-Realization of the Being.
Specifically beneath Mercury appears his Caduceus, with the wings of the spirit always opened. That Caduceus is in the spinal column of man, in our spinal medulla, in that pair of sympathetic channels known in the Orient as Ida and Pingala: a pair of cords that are entwined in the way that you see in the Caduceus of Mercury. Through that pair of nervous cords, the creative energy rises to the brain.
Now, let’s further expand upon this quick explanation.
Okay, here we also have, on this Pentalpha, the Staff of the Patriarchs, the Rod Aaron, the bamboo cane with seven knots, the Sceptre of the Kings, Joseph’s blooming staff, which is the
spinal column.
Obviously, the sacred fire must rise through the spinal medullar canal to the brain, in order to then go to the heart-temple.
The flaming sword also appears on the pentalpha, which is nothing other than the sacred fire in each one of us. Without the flaming sword, we would truly not be worthy. When an angel loses his sword, that angel has fallen, therefore he is hurled into the atomic infernos.
On the pentalpha, in the upper part, there also appears the chalice. So, we see the chalice, the staff and the sword. That chalice undoubtedly represents the yoni – the womb – just as the staff represents the phallus, the masculine principle, and the sword the sacred fire.
Undoubtedly, we have to learn to manage the staff and the sword, and we also have to work with the Vase of Hermes, if in truth we want to realize the Great Work.
The word Tetragrammaton is very interesting. Tetra is the unity within the trinity. So, Tetragrammaton is exactly the number four. Because the Father is number one, the Son is two, and the Holy Spirit is three; but all three of them emanate from the Ain Soph, that is to say, from the Interior Atomic Star “which has always smiled upon us”, and the three, emanating from the Ain Soph, form the four: the Tetragrammaton. The word, Tetragrammaton, is mantric.
One day I wanted to experiment with the Tetragrammaton: I vocalized it in the superior worlds of cosmic consciousness, and then many ineffable ones from the nine heavens: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, emerged in order to see what was going on, as if to say: “Why have you pronounced the name of the Eternal in vane?” I myself felt perplexed, confused.
If we place the pentagram like this, with the superior angle downwards and the two inferior angles upwards, we have the symbol of black magic: instead of the legions of angels coming to our invocations, the legions of demons will come. When an initiate falls, when he spills the “Vase of Hermes Trismegistus”, he is then fulminated by Arcanum 16 of Kabbalah, and he falls head first with his legs in the air, in the form of the inverted pentalpha. This is how the great initiates have fallen.
If the sign of the pentalpha is traced at the entrance of our room with coal, with the upper angle pointing inwards and the two inferior rays pointing outwards, the tenebrous will flee from our room. However, if we trace it with the superior ray outwards and the inferior rays pointing inwards, the tenebrous will come to our room.
When the Pentagram is placed on glass —that’s to say, in a frame—, that terribly frightens the wicked. And if it is painted on glass, it also makes the terrified ones run away, and if it is worn on the chest, whether its in gold or silver, we will be well protected against the forces of darkness.
The pentagram has a really surprising magical power.
We can see several Hebrew letters on the arms. IOD-HE-VAU-HE appears there. That word IOD, as a masculine principle, or divine particle, or better yet virginal spark, is terrible.
IOD-HE, here we have the masculine and feminine sex of divinity; IOD, masculine-divine principle; HE, feminine-divine principle; VAU, masculine-sexual principle, or in others words, the lingam; He, the yoni, the feminine yoni.
There is a way to pronounce the Hebrew letters IOD-HE-VAU-HE, but it is terribly divine and
those mantras must not be sung in vane, because those four letters make the interior divinity to
vibrate. It is said that it is the name of the Eternal and that it must never be pronounced in vane. This invites us to reflect.
Other Hebrew letters appear here to remind us of certain processes of divinity, but I will remain silent about that now.
There are numbers that appear there so as to remind us of the trinity within the unity—the Tetragrammaton—but is not mandatory that those numbers are there; they are now perfectly conventional. What is important is to have the Tetragrammaton, which as we already know is the trinity within the unity of life: the Holy Four.
Undoubtedly my dear brothers, the pentagram is the human being, the microcosmos, within which—as I have said — is the infinite.
It is necessary to work with the Caduceus of Mercury that appears on the pentalpha, that is to say, it is necessary to transmute the sperm into energy, in order to awaken the sacred fire and make it rise through the spinal column to the brain. Only in this way will it be possible to develop all our faculties and powers!
It is necessary to work with that Caduceus of Mercury that we have in our spinal column.
Obviously, when we know how to transmute the sperm into energy, when we do not commit the crime of spilling the Vase of Hermes Trismegistus, then the sperm that is not ejaculated, is transformed into seminal energy. That energy, in turn, bipolarizes itself into solar and lunar atoms of a very high voltage that ascend through two nervous cords that are entwined along the spinal column, the two cords that appear on the Caduceus of Mercury.
Then, the solar and lunar atoms make contact in the Triveni, near the coccyx, and then by means of induction, a third force awakens. I want to refer emphatically to the sacred fire of the spinal column, the Pentecostal fire, the Jehovistic fire, the sexual fire. That fire, ascending slowly, from vertebra to vertebra, awakes different powers in man.
Undoubtedly, it is necessary to work with the Sun and the Moon—the masculine and feminine principles—, that is to say, man with his wife, and woman with man. Only in this way is it possible to awaken that sacred fire that must transform us radically.
It is necessary to learn to manage the staff and the sword; it is necessary to learn to manage the Vase of Hermes, the sacred cup. Only in this way is the total transformation possible.
-Samael Aun Weor, The Esoteric Pentagram, lecture