A circle around a pentagram contains and protects. The circle symbolises eternity and infinity, the cycles of life and of nature. The circled pentagram is the passive form implying spiritual containment of the magick circle the individual nature of the Wiccan religious path.

The implication of inversion of a pentagram is that the spirit is subservient to matter, man subservient to his carnal desires. It has come to represent the dark side, and is considered a symbol of evil by Christians. In the 1940s Gerald Gardner adopted the inverted pentagram as a symbol of second degree initiation in the newly emergent, neo-pagan rituals in what was to become Wicca. It represents the need of the witch to learn to face the darkness within so it will not rise to take control. First degree uses a downward pointing triangle, third degree uses one-point up pentagram together with an upright triangle.