The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

fear of those who lived in the rural
villes
that the once innocuous word for “villager”—
villain
—came to mean a wicked soul.
    “The pentacle,” Langdon clarified, “is a pre-Christian symbol that relates to Nature worship. The ancients envisioned their world in two halves—masculine and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to keep a balance of power. Yin and yang. When male and female were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced, there was chaos.” Langdon motioned to Saunière's stomach. “This pentacle is representative of the
female
half of all things—a concept religious historians call the ‘sacred feminine' or the ‘divine goddess.' Saunière, of all people, would know this.”
    “Saunière drew a
goddess
symbol on his stomach?”
    Langdon had to admit, it seemed odd. “In its most specific interpretation, the pentacle symbolizes Venus—the goddess of female sexual love and beauty.”
    Fache eyed the naked man, and grunted.
    “Early religion was based on the divine order of Nature. The goddess Venus and the planet Venus were one and the same. The goddess had a place in the nighttime sky and was known by many names—Venus, the Eastern Star, Ishtar, Astarte—all of them powerful female concepts with ties to Nature and Mother Earth.”
    Fache looked more troubled now, as if he somehow preferred the idea of devil worship.
    Langdon decided not to share the pentacle's most astonishing property—the
graphic
origin of its ties to Venus. As a young astronomy student, Langdon had been stunned to learn the planet Venus traced a
perfect
pentacle across the ecliptic sky every four years. So astonished were the ancients to observe this phenomenon, that Venus and her pentacle became symbols of perfection, beauty, and the cyclic qualities of sexual love. As a tribute to the magic of Venus, the Greeks used her four-year cycle to organize their Olympiads. Nowadays, few people realized that the four-year schedule of modern Olympic Games still followed the cycles of Venus. Even fewer people knew that the five-pointed star had almost become the official Olympic seal but was modified at the last moment—its five points exchanged for five intersecting rings to better reflect the games' spirit of inclusion and harmony.
    “Mr. Langdon,” Fache said abruptly. “Obviously, the pentacle must
also
relate to the devil. Your American horror movies make that point clearly.”
    Langdon frowned.
Thank you, Hollywood
. The five-pointed star was now a virtual cliché in Satanic serial killer movies, usually scrawled on the wall of some Satanist's apartment along with other alleged demonic symbology. Langdon was always frustrated when he saw the symbol in this context; the pentacle's true origins were actually quite godly.
    “I assure you,” Langdon said, “despite what you see in the movies, the pentacle's demonic interpretation is historically inaccurate. The original feminine meaning is correct, but the symbolism of the pentacle has been distorted over the millennia. In this case, through bloodshed.”
    “I'm not sure I follow.”
    Langdon glanced at Fache's crucifix, uncertain how to phrase his next point. “The Church, sir. Symbols are very resilient, but the pentacle was altered by the early Roman Catholic Church. As part of the Vatican's campaign to eradicate pagan religions and convert the masses to Christianity, the Church launched a smear campaign against the pagan gods and goddesses, recasting their divine symbols as evil.”
    “Go on.”
    “This is very common in times of turmoil,” Langdon continued. “A newly emerging power will take over the existing symbols and degrade them over time in an attempt to erase their meaning. In the battle between the pagan symbols and Christian symbols, the pagans lost; Poseidon's trident became the devil's pitchfork, the wise crone's pointed hat became the symbol of a witch, and Venus's pentacle became a sign of the devil.” Langdon paused.