[meteorite-list] OT: five-pointed stars vs six-pointed stars

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

Hola,

My inclination is just based on  SIMPLICITY and PERFECTION with a little awe 
from peasants admiring the  intellectuals.

The five pointed star has a much more robust history than  being explained 
away so offhandedly (and incorrectly regarding its  origin) as the five elements 
of alchemy (or more graciously the Greeks'  five elements).  I would think 
that Alexander of Macedonia under the great  Greek tutors like Aristotle bridged 
the awe of the ancients with his golden  chestplate logo symbol (five pointed 
star) to the modern world.  He dreamed  of folding Persia into his Greek 
empire and no doubt Greek intellectuals  attributed the 5-pointer to Mesopotamia - 
that was Alexander's style when  melding cultures.  Pythagoras ( a couple 
hundred years earlier) wrote about  the characteristics of the 5-pointer, which 
has two important  characteristics:

1.  It is the simplest astersketch that doesn't  require the quill to be 
removed from the parchament resulting in a perfectly  symmetric sketch easily done 
by a child - making a very powerful argument for  perfection that anyone can 
draw.
2.  It's geometrical proportions  reporduce the golden ratio that Pythagoras 
_et. al._ and contemporaries, and  then later DaVinci were so inspired with - 
called golden for the perfection of  nature.  The proportion is the same one 
as in the Golden Rectangle and  apparent in ammonites, nautili, rabbit 
reproduction, as well as arguably human  physical beauty, and many other places you 
can look.  The Golden Proportion  is found as follows in the five pointed star 
by simply taking the ratio of the  

A six-pointed star is drawn most easily by two superimposed equilateral  
triangles and has other arguments of perfection.  But it has no irrational  
numbers, or pleasing ratios like the golden proportion and does require two  
separate strokes.  Pythagoras, a great influence on Aristotle and the rest  of the 
intellectual pantheon and his school also found that, just like the  famous 
golden rectangle with the same proportion, the three isoceles triangles  of the 
five pointed star via bisecting the base angles could be made into an  
infiinitely repeating triangle of those proportions terroriferically excitingly  - with 
the golden proportion falling out.  So the mathematicians had a lot  to be 
occupied about.  The were revered, sometimes secretive and planted  the seeds 
for the mystics...who were originally just intellectuals following in  their 
footsteps as the ages darkened.

Of course, Christianity couldn't  have a competitive symbol to the cross so 
you were persecuted for using it and  no doubt it turned into a witchhunt in 
the Inquisition.  But the devil and  evil and other stupidity attributed to the 
five-pinted star whether inscribed in  a pentagon or upside down or in the 
missionary position or whatever is more of a  recent product of cults desperately 
trying to appropiate an icon that expresses  power knowledge and the 
rebellous side.  But really this devil nonesense  couldn't be much more than 100-200 
years old for the golden symbol of  perfection.  And the USA making the central 
war waging facility called the  "Pentagon" probably gave it an extra ominous 
push...So chalk up the evilness to  the church monopoly and teachings about 
other icons.

As the six-pointed  star was appropiated by King Solomon, and generally had a 
more respected patent  protection since it had less fun mathematics behind it 
and turned on the  Pythagoreans much less...and through the ages, the quest 
for the most simple  perfect icon (whether for Alexander or, good one, 
Mercedes:) ) has been  contentious, all kinds of symbolism from the head and four 
limbs being a  crucified man, toi the elements to the mountains of of the 
Templars, to the five  known wanderer planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), 
bla bla bla, we  can find as many meanings as we want for different 
compassionate or witchy  companies through the ages if you like Freemason Egyptian 
Mesopotamian stuff,  persecutions for competion from the cross, etc.  Even in 
Chinese  numismatics - thanks for the trivia, Dirk..., or in the US 18th century  
Freemason intellectualism.

But as a symbol the power (=>godliness and  the heavens where constellations 
were rewards for heroic ascentions) of the five  pointer is in the golden 
ratio, its golden triangles, and the ability to draw it  without lifting the pen, 
and play with the geometry for the all its  entertainment value --- and then 
that the first World conquerer picked it  because he hung with the intellectual 
crowd as a kid and was obsessed with the  lands where the five pointer was 
first used - as previously pointed out - not to  represent heavenly bodies, but 
rather the fusion of math, biology (creation) and  art...

Saludos, Doug

Dirk R. wrote:
Nick and List,
I  have done some further digging.  The five  pointed
stars represent  the five elements of alchemy, water,
wind, fire, wood, stone in different  forms.
The center of the star representing the Earth.
Both  forms contain symbols that are not apparent to
most of the the modern  world.  Thanks for you kind
reply. 
As a side note:  The  ancient Chinese used the circle
to represent Heaven and the square, Earth  (this is the
reason  that ancient Chinese coins had a square hole
in  their center).
Dirk...Tokyo

--- Nicholas Gessler  <gessler at ucla.edu> wrote:

> Hello Dirk,
> Or four or seven  points?
> Or pointy stars:  3 points for Mercedes, 5 points
>  for Chrysler?
> Or no points, as our sky atlases depict?
> Are you  deconstructing artists' renderings of the
> heavens and meteorite  falls?
> Or any number of points depending on which camera
> filter  we choose to use?
> Independent invention?
> Random  variation?
> The wish to have a different sort of star from the
>  other folks?
> 5-points is demonic only if the point is down.
>  Star-struck,
> Nick