Reddit user toshu recently posted in the Mildly Interesting community a photo of a pair of tights that look like they were trying to display the Halloween spirit but instead appear to be showing off semitic sentiments.

Reddit user Toshu

This post brings up an important topic, especially as Halloween is almost upon us: There’s a significant difference between the Star of David, a symbol often associated with Judaism and Israel, and a pentagram, a symbol commonly used to evoke the occult and Satanism. Thinking they’re interchangeable will have you come off looking like those tights toshu posted: stupid with no one wanting to bee seen in public with you. Unless you’re attending a certain special occasion, according to user 1peekay1

Star of David

Israeli flag (Creative Commons Wikimedia)

Let’s start with this emblem’s most defining characteristic that makes it distinct from the pentagram: It’s a hexagram—emphasis on hex—meaning it has six points (think hexagon), not that it’s connected to magical spells and curses. (Stupid multilingual homonyms!) Conversely, the pentagram—emphasis on penta—has five points (think pentagon, as well as the Pentagon).

Interestingly, the Star of David, also known as the Shield of David, has been exclusively synonymous with Jewish culture for only around 200 years, which isn’t that long in comparison to how old the religion is. Before the 19th century, the star was used by both the Jewish and Christian faiths.

Pentagram

The “Samael/Lilith goat pentagram” created by Stanislas de Guaita (Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

To begin with: The pentagram is not a universal symbol for “evil.” But some people and institutions have aligned it as such.

That being sad, if you’re looking for a shorthand way to represent devil worshipping and a general, unspecified sense of dread, the pentagram might be your symbol of choice. Just make sure to construct it the right way, with two points at the top. If the pentagram has simply a single point at the top, it pretty much signifies you’re either a practicing Wiccan, a crummy artist who can’t draw stars, or a first-grade teacher marking phonics worksheets.

Famed occultist, sex fiend, and attention seeker Aleister Crowley used the pentagram in his system of ritualistic magic (or magick, if you’re nasty) as a representation of evil and the descent of the spirit.

The inverted pentagram also is the familiar—as well as copyrighted—Sigil of Baphoment, the brand insignia for Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. The church’s emblem was taken from the 19th century “goat pentagram” created by occultist Stanislas de Guaita.

Trippy fun fact: The publishing of de Guaita’s pentagram in La Clef de la Magie Noire and the adoption of the flag that represents the State of Israel and the worldwide Zionist community happened in the same year, 1897.