Modern

Modern symbols and meanings

Signs with an author, a year, or a use that outran the original brief.

28 marks in the lexicon. A symbol can sit in more than one tradition. The page says which use is which.

• PentagramFive lines in one stroke. The doctrines came later, and they disagree.
• CaduceusHermes’ staff: messages, trade, borders, and the road of the dead.
• Rod of AsclepiusOne serpent, one staff. The sign a hospital ought to mean.
• LabrysA blade that faces two ways, and a cult object that became a banner.
• VenusCopper’s mark, long before it was a gender icon.
• MarsIron’s mark: a blade’s metal, and later a sex.
• Peace signA designed mark, with an author, a day, and a brief.
• InfinityA typesetter’s sign that escaped into metaphysics.
• Eye of ProvidenceA claim that you are seen. The dollar bill did not invent it.
• Golden ratioA cut where the whole stands to the larger part as that part stands to the smaller.
• PiHow many diameters fit around a circle. The letter came later, from a printer’s book.
• EqualsTwo parallels of one length, because nothing is more equal than that.
• Radical signThe check that asks what number, times itself, makes this one.
• ThereforeThe hinge between a reason and the line that follows.
• AlephAn infinity with a size. Not the same as an infinity you pray to.
• Evil eyeA look that harms, and a glass eye that looks back.
• BaphometA name extracted under torture, and a goat drawn centuries later.
• Fleur-de-lisA heraldic lily. France wore it. So did Mary. So did a city.
• CladdaghTwo hands, a heart, a crown. Love, friendship, loyalty — and a legend.
• Möbius stripA strip with a half-twist. One side. One edge. A dated invention.
• VegvísirA stave against getting lost. Not a Viking-age compass.
• Cross of Saint PeterPeter’s cross, turned over. The devil’s version is a later story about that story.
• Ω
  OmegaThe last letter of the Greek alphabet. Later, a unit of resistance.
• DeltaA triangle that is a letter. Change, in a mathematician’s hand.
• §
  Section signThe mark that means “section,” built like two S letters.
• &
  AmpersandA tied-together “et.” The word ampersand is a schoolroom joke that stuck.
• HeartA suit of cards that became the picture of love. Not a diagram of the organ.
• Elder FutharkAn alphabet for a language. Not a pack of personality runes.