What does it mean when there is a star and then a circle around it? what is that?

Answer 1

Its a pentagram also known as the pentacle. The classic Greeks believed it had magical properties. For a little while it was the official seal of the city of Jerusalem. The Christians used it to represent the 5 wounds of christ. In arthurian it represented the proportions of the human body.
Due to misinterpretation of symbols used by ceremonial magicians this became associated with satanism and the devil.
In Wiccan/Pagan religion it symbolizes the five elements- earth, air, water, fire, and spirit. The Wiccan emblematic pentagram faces point upward to symbolize the triumph of spirit over matter; the Satanic pentagram is transposed, point downwards, to symbolize earthly gratification, or the triumph of the individual over dissolution. Some Wiccan grades also utilize a reversed pentacle, although for different purposes.

Answer 2

If it's a 5-pointed star with the single point facing up, it's a pentacle. If it's a 5-pointed star with dual-points facing up, it's a pentagram. If it's that same dual-points-facing-up with a goat's head in it, it's a Baphomet. If it has more than 5 points, I couldn't say. Masons, Crowley followers, Judaism and more all have stars with circles around them.

Answer 3

I believe you are talking about a pentagram the circle is a place of safety where evil cannot hurt you.

It has to do with magic, wicca, the occult.

Answer 4

water and ice crystals in the atmosphere reflect the light in a way that makes the ring appear to be around the light source. the moon does it as well.

Answer 5

The five-pointed star, or pentagram is one of the most potent, powerful, and persistent symbols in human history. It has been important to almost every ancient culture, from the Mayans of Latin America, to India, China, Greece, and Egypt. It has been found scratched on the walls of Neolithic caves, and in Babylonian drawings, where it marks the pattern the planet Venus makes on its travels- a secret symbol of the Goddess Ishtar. Scriptures, especially Hebrew, are abundant with references to pentagrams.
The earliest pentagrams were rough diagrams found scratched into stone age caves. While they are believed to have some spiritual significance, the meaning of the star-shape to early humans is a mystery. In the civilizations that followed, it held various meanings, usually astronomical and religious. Pentagrams served to mark directions in Sumerian texts, and represented the five visible planets. Later, it was the sign of the planet Venus and the goddess .
According to the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, five was the number of man, because of the fivefold division of the body, and the ancient Greek division of the soul. According to Pythagoras, the five points of the pentagram each represent one of the five elements that make up man: fire, water, air, earth, and psyche. (energy, fluid, breath, matter, and mind; liquid, gas, solid, plasma and aethyr) The Pythagoreans held the pentacle sacred to Hygeia, the Goddess of healing, whose name (HGIEiA) was an anagram in Greek for the elements water, earth, spirit, fire, and air.
This particular symbolism has persisted for centuries, and has greatly influenced theologies of diverse traditions. Early Christians wore it as an emblem, possibly to represent the wounds of Christ, or possibly due to connections between early Christians and the Pythagorean mysteries.* Later, the pentacle was important to many doctrines of esoteric Medieval and Renaissance belief systems- alchemy, kabbalah, and Ceremonial magick.
Ritual magicians, like the Greeks, used the Pentagram as a microcosm of the human body. The practice of Ritual Magick was used to create a state of closeness with god through the use of symbols and rituals to imitate the divine state. It was believed that like affects like, that the connection between the world of symbols and the world of actions could also be manipulated for evil purposes. One of these magicians, Giordano Bruno, warned of such misuse of the powerful pentacle by Black magicians. (The pentagram is still central to the practice of ritual magick, and is used in the foundation of many of its rituals.)
In the Jewish kabbalistic tradition, which borrows many Pythagorean ideas, the pentagram represents the five upper sephiroth on the Tree of Life- five numbers, being indivisible by any but themselves, which represent pure archetypal forces: justice, mercy, wisdom, understanding, and transcendent splendor.
Christian Kabbalists of the renaissance were especially enamored of the pentagram, which they viewed as a mystical proof of the divinity of Christ - to them, it symbolized Christ as the Holy Spirit manifest in the flesh. A favorite gematric feat was to add the Hebrew letter Shin (symbolizing fire and the holy spirit of pentecost) to the Biblical four letter name of God (YHVH, most commonly [and incorrectly] pronounced 'Jehovah') yielding YHShVH- Y'heshua, or Jesus. (There is a secret biblical connection, as well, in the name of the Christian holiday of Pentecost- the day the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles of Jesus is one of many geometrical 'proofs' in the New Testament disguised as stories)
There are many connections between the pentagram and Christianity. Before the cross, it was a preferred emblem to adorn the jewelry and amulets of early Christians (followed by an 'x' or a phoenix). The pentagram was associated with the five wounds of Christ, and because it could be drawn in one continuous movement of the pen, the Alpha and the Omega as one. It was also an expression of a secret Gnostic heresy, found hidden here and there throughout Christian history- a symbol of Isis/Venus as the secret goddess, the female principle. The most notable instance of this symbolism is in the Arthurian Grail romances, which are Gnostic and kabbalistic teachings disguised as tales of knightly quests.
The pentacle as a symbol of the feminine principle was was embodied by the rose. The small, five petalled roses found in many gothic cathedral ornamentation are not-so-secret pentagrams.
Currently, the most common religious uses of the pentagram are by Wiccan, Neopagan, and Satanic groups. In most Wiccan and Neopagan traditions, its symbolic meaning is derived from Ceremonial magick and nineteenth century occultism- the four elements ruled by the spirit- although as these theologies mature, they have added to its meaning. In many of these traditions, it can also symbolize the unity of mankind with the earth or with the realm of the spirit, the human body, and more.
In the minds of many , the pentagram is inextricably linked with black magick and Satan worship. The Satanic pentagram is a difficult symbol- it is the newest and least used, but at the same time the best known and most controversial. The Satanic pentacle is almost always presented upside down, or inverted, with a single point facing downward, and it is this pentacle that is presented incorrectly as 'evil.'
The adoption of the pentacle as a Satanic emblem is quite recent, dating only to the latter half of the twentieth century. To the Satanist, this glyph is a representation of "Black magic," symbolizing the triumph of matter and individual desires over religious dogma- earth over an illusory promise of heaven. It is not analogous to the upturned cross (which is a symbol of rebellion against Christian culture), and is not "anti-Wiccan."
In modern Satanic theology, the pentagram is far more likely to represent the individual, or the choice to pursue individual glory or immortality rather than union or absorption with the divine- where some traditions advocate the sublimation of the ego or submission to god, Satanism exalts and glorifies it, deifying the human being. The symbol most commonly associated with Satanic practices is the "Sabbatic goat" or Goat of Mendes pentacle, often confused with Baphomet, a figure from Templar legend, and Pan, the Greek goat God. It rarely has any deeper meaning; an irony when one considers that its association with Satanism has made the pentagram a feared symbol to many, and the subject of countless conspiracy theories.

Answer 6

pentagram, the sign of the devil

Answer 7

an omen

Answer 8

devil worship