296 A cognitive and epistemological review lines in a pentagram are all based on Phi ( ), a ‘golden ratio’ close to 1.618, which also accounts for many ‘harmonious’ or ‘divine proportion’ found in nature (Fig. 4) (21,22). Overall, it seems reasonable to relate Chinese natural philosophy and medicine to what Isaac Bonewits has termed ‘Meso-paganism,’ meaning a group of spiritual or sacred beliefs and practices of natural or polytheistic beliefs that have been significantly influenced by mono- theistic, dualistic or non-theistic worldviews. This group includes a vast array of beliefs and practices ranging from the Native American and Australian Aborigine spiritualities to Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and Theosophy (23,24). The Origins of the Pentagram Paul Unschuld points out that the Yin-Yang model seems to be a purely Chinese construct; and that a ‘five-fold categorization of all phenomena’ seems to have been adopted at a later period (5). Further, Maciocia relates that the dualistic model dates back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (c.1000–711 BC), while the first recorded reference to the pentic model dates only back to the Warring States Period (476–221 BC) (18). It therefore seems reasonable to hypothesize that this late addition might have been the result of a cross-cultural exchange with the Mesopotamian or Hellenistic cultures. This suggestion relies on the fact that representations of a 5-pointed shape as a divine symbol date back to ancient Mesopotamia, where according to de Vogel it symbolized a ‘heavenly body’ (c.3500 BC). The same 5-pointed shape is found on Proto-Elamite tablets of the Susiana plain and the Iranian highlands east of the Tigris–Euphrates region where the pictogram signified the five directions: forward, backward, left, right and above, corresponding to the planets Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Venus (3000–2500 BC) (Fig. 5) (25,26). This semantic associa- tion is comparable to the Chinese correlation between directions and planets (Table 1). The pictogram is also found in Greece among the Pythagoreans and in the context of the cult of Hygieia, (2g" a, Salus in Latin) the Greek patron of well-being, sanitation and the prevention of disease. The words ‘hygiene,’ ‘salute’ and ‘salvation’ originate from her name. Hygieia was the daughter of Aesculapius (’A k o´ ”), the God of medicine and healing, and the son of Apollo (’A o´ ! or ’A 0! ), the God of life-giving Sun. Coincidently or not, the letters u-g- -" -a in her name also correspond to the initial letters of the five Pythagorean elements (Fig. 6): Hydor (2! , Water), Gaia (ga a, Earth), Idea (0 0a, Idea), Heile (0 0, Heat or Fire), and Aer (00 , Air). The Pythagorean brotherhood which resembled a mystical circle for its ascetic living and its cultivation of health and ‘divine blessing,’ combined catharsis (Latin from the Greek Figure 4. The golden ratio, or Phi ( ) in the pentagram’s geometry. Image based on a drawing by Steve Edwards of SPSU Math Department available at: www.spsu.edu/math/edwards/main.html. Drawing used with permission. Figure 5. The pentagram in Proto-cuneiform text from Jemdet Nasr (3000–2500 BC). Source: Englund RK et al. (27). K0 a ”, purification), numerology and geometric symbolism, and similarly, to the Chinese, believed in the existence of magick correlations between numbers, virtues, tastes, colors and sounds (25,28,29).