Sumith Prasad
Netflix’s horror series ‘Devil in Ohio’ follows Mae Dodd, a teenage girl who runs away from a cult named Sliocht an Diabhail AKA Devil’s Own, led by her own father Malachi Dodd. When Mae gets hospitalized, psychiatrist Suzanne Mathis notices an inverted pentagram scar on her back. After welcoming Mae into her own family as her temporary guardian, Suzanne takes care of her scars and wounds. The particular scar also opens a gateway for Suzanne and Detective Lopez to unravel the truth behind Devil’s Own. Naturally, the viewers must be eager to discover the reality and meaning behind the pentagram.
The Inverted Pentagram: Baphomet and Satanism
The inverted pentagram is a real symbol used by several traditions of occult and satanism. The source of the pentagram seemingly is a deity named Baphomet, a half-human and half-goat entity with an upright pentagram in its head. The upright pentagram is discussed in esotericist Éliphas Lévi’s book titled ‘Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie.’ According to Lévi’s book, the pentagram represents binaries like “Lucifer or Vesper,” “the star of morning or evening,” “Mary or Lilith,” “victory or death,” “day or night,” etc. As far as the inverted pentagram is concerned, as per Lévi’s book, “two points in the ascendant represent Satan as the goat of the Sabbath [Baphomet].”
“This inversion [of the Pentagram] is Satan’s perception. It asks people to reconsider their cultural grounding, look at the evidence and reconsider their values,” said Greaves to BBC. When the Church of Satan was founded by Anton Szandor LaVey, the inverted pentagram became the official insignia of the same and it is referred to as the “Sigil of Baphomet.” The Church identifies the symbol as the “preeminent visual distillation of the iconoclastic philosophy of Satanism.” The star can also be seen in LaVey’s ‘The Satanic Bible,’ the central religious text of LaVeyan Satanism.
In the show, the inverted pentagram has its own fictional historical background and meaning. Caleb Dodd, the founder of Devil’s Own, aspired to marry his dead brother’s wife Mary. When Mary refused to comply with Caleb’s wish, he carved an inverted pentagram into her back as an act of jealous revenge and burnt her alive. Caleb then created a narrative that Mary willingly sacrificed herself to save the cult. Even after years, Caleb’s murder got misinterpreted as Mary’s noble sacrifice to save the followers of Lucifer. Every time the cult of Devil’s Own faced a challenge, they started to aspire for the sacrifice of “the chosen one.” The inverted pentagram became the symbol given to the person “chosen” by Lucifer as the sacrifice he wants.
When Devil’s Own leader and Mae’s father, Malachi Dodd, started to struggle with illness, which represents the displeasure of Lucifer, he started to believe that the sacrifice of “his own flesh and blood” was necessary to please the devil. He decided to materialize the same by forcing Mae to willingly sacrifice herself as Mary did. Malachi and Mae’s mother, Abigail, along with all the other members of the cult, believe that Mae’s sacrifice is necessary for the betterment of their community. Since the sacrifice is envisioned by Malachi, the human representation of Lucifer, they carved an inverted pentagram into the back of Mae to emphasize that she is chosen by Lucifer to be the next sacrificial lamb.
Read More: Devil in Ohio Ending, Explained: Why Does Mae Set Up Her Sacrifice?
