Origin: ? Other Names: Octagon by: magpie The octagram has meanings in both the eastern and western hemispheres of the word, found in the tri-grams of the I Ching, the pagan wheel of the year, and Ogdoad. Ogdoad, you say? What in gods name is Ogdoad? Yes, exactly. The Ogdoad is the name given for the 8 deities in the Egyptian pantheon that came before the sun god. In fact, they helped create the sun god. The 8 gods that make up the Ogdoad are: Amon and Amaunet, Heh and Hehet, Kek and Keket, Nun and Naunet, seen as a set of four couples. I could go on for at least 8 pages about the intricasies of Egyptian legends and lore involving the Ogdoad, but my time is finite, and i can't begin to know how to sum it up. Let's just say that the Ogdoad represents infinity and call it gravy. Now. Moving right along, a symbol that is often tied in with the octagram is the lemniscate, the symbol for infinity. Take a look at the lemniscate, it's a figure 8 lying on it's side. The number 8 is very closely tied in with the concept of infinity. The previously mentioned pagan wheel of the year consists of 8 festivals. These festivals represent the cycle of life and death and the cyclical changing of the seasons throughout the year. The festivals are listed as follows: Samhain - November 1st Yule - Winter Solstice Imbolc - February 1st Ostara - Vernal Equinox Beltane - May 1st Litha - Summer Solstice Lughnassadh - August 1st Mabon - Autumnal Equinox Many pagans consider Samhain to be the start of the year, and interestingly enough, Samhain is the festival during which the veils between the physical and spiritual worlds are the thinnest, enabling better communcation between the two. This is the night that the dead are said to walk the earth. It's a time to reflect, a time to know that just as the earth "dies" in the winter, it will be reborn in the springtime, thus continuing the cycle of Life. These eight festivals all combine to make the infinite cycle of the seasons. It's not too big of a stretch to see the pagan connection between infinity and the number eight. To the Chinese, the number eight also had deeper ties to the changing of the seasons. For them, however, it's represented in the ancient Book of Changes, aka the I Ching. Ultimately, the main focus of the I Ching is the interactions between darkness and light, represented by the symbol of the Yin-Yang. The I Ching is actually a book of oracles, and one might consult the I Ching just as one might consult a tarot deck, except with the I Ching, coins or straws would be used instead of cards. There are 64 hexagrams that are each made up of two trigrams. Each trigram is three lines, with each of the lines being either broken (yin) or solid (yang). Out of all the trigrams, there are eight that are considered the most significant: K'un Chen - heaven Li - fire Tui - lake Ch'ien - heaven Sun - wind K'an - water Ken - mountain Interestingly enough, these 8 trigrams correspond quite eerily with the Pagan Wheel of the Year. There's another page that goes into this quite well, and instead of copying them or trying to paraphrase all that, i'll simply provide a link to it here: Byzant: The Wheel of Changes. The octagram itself carries meanings of infinity (and the mystery that it implies), the cycles of the year, of life, death and rebirth. The number 8 is associated with the planet Mercury, which represents communication. I've heard tell that in Norse magicks, it is considered to be an invokation of magick, however, i'm yet unable to find any solid information that points to that.