The Pentacle

There are a lot of misconceptions about this symbol. 

Pentacle

In it's basic description, the pentacle is nothing more than a pentagram encased in a circle. A pentagram is nothing more than a geometric shape, consisting of five lines intersecting to make what we would call a "star".

"Pentagram" comes from the latin word "pentagrammon". Penta meaning 5 and gramma meaning what is written

The pentagram has been used by NUMEROUS people and organizations over numerous centuries. Only much more recently has it been seen as a sinister symbol thanks to popular media and heavy metal music. The earliest known use of the word (that I know of) is from Mesopotamia or Sumer, in which it was used to represent the word "Ub", meaning angled or cornered. Glyphic writing or using characters to represent words is an ancient concept. It would make sense to use a symbol such as a pentagram to represent a corner, considering it has 5. 

Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician used the pentagram to represent what he felt was "mathematical perfection". Thus we get mathematical concepts like the Pythagorean theorm, and the Golden Ratio.

Babylonians used the pentagram to indicate direction (back, forth, left, right and above)

Egyptians and Celts saw it as representing the "underground womb"...that from which we all come from.

Various cultures have used the pentagram to represent natural elements such as Earth, Air, Fire and water. Depending on the culture, the fifth element differs from idea to spirit, to wood. Today, modern Pagan movements have adopted this concept and implement them into their spiritualities. 

The Jewish called it the "Seal of Solomon", and used it to represent the five books of the Pentateuch (see..."Penta")

In medieval times it was called the "Endless Knot" and used to ward off "demons".

Pentagram

So as you can see...there were SO, so many different used for this symbol. Surprisingly enough, even Christianity jumped on the Pentagram wagon. It was used to represent the five wounds of Christ, the five points of the human body, the five senses..."5" plays a big role in humanity; five fingers, five toes included.

For some reason, Christianity (being rather popular and being a major influence on society) decided to go from using this symbol as a major representation of their faith, to having it representing that of its adversary. Common theories are that Christianity adopted the image of Pan to represent "Satan" or "The Devil", and when reversed, the pentagram, crudely looked like that of a goat's head (see image of the Baphomet). And when Satanism began to rise, they adopted this symbol. I assume (and anyone, please correct me if I am wrong), Satanism began as more or less a rebellion of the Christian religion and the restraints it puts on its followers. Because of this "rebellion", Christians began to implement ideas that Satanists participated in orgies, and ritualistic sacrifices to appease this sinister anti-deity (with this said, today Satanism is far, FAR different from this earlier assumed concept...it implements strong morals and ethics on its followers).

So, looking at things logically, the pentagram is just a shape; open to interpretation, as you can see from the examples listed above (and found here). So much fear and confusion over a shape.