Inversed pentagrams on my staircase

[jamesstatic]

Hi all, joined up here to ask you a question.

I recently bought a house in the ancient coaching town of Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, UK. The front portion of the house including the staircase was built in 1703 although other parts date from the 1500s.

I have two inversed pentagrams on the staircase, although not quite in the usual transected pentagram design. These have two inner circles. I was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light on why I have these on the stairs, the relevance of their being inversed etc.

Your thoughts would be very interesting to hear! Will upload a picture as soon as I can get to my laptop.

Edit: Here's the image. I have two like this, one halfway up the stairs by a sash window, and another at the top.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7113/7023641219_6befd15f98_c.jpg

[jamesstatic]

Noone particularly famous afaik. There is a *rumour* that Sir Christopher Wren may have had something to do with building the house or the staircase, although this has never been substantiated. Wren became an honorary mason in 1691, so if he was involved then it's possible the pentagrams relate to freemasonry in some way. Although I've never seen these symbols used specifically. They look quite satanic and imposing.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7113/7023641219_6befd15f98_c.jpg

[jamesstatic]

There are two rest points on the stairs (where they widen into squares before changing direction) and that is where the pentagrams appear. The first is halfway up, the other is near the top. The stairs themselves are quite grand-looking, so perhaps these "rest points" (maybe there is a proper word for them, can't think what it is...) were an obvious opportunity to do something creative and flamboyant.

That's fair enough I think, perhaps they are merely decorative. But something about the era in which they were carved, the fact they are inverse pentagrams specifically, and that Georgian houses of this era are not infrequently known to have other superstitious artifacts (cat skeletons buried behind chimneys, children's shoes under the floorboards and the like) tells me it might mean more.