❂ | Guanche sun

Google Guanche+sun, sol+guanche, sol+canario+simbolo etc. etc. and you’re bound to see this symbol. Come to any souvenir shop in Canaries and you’ll see it there.

I am not sure that it is even a solar symbol, maybe it is a star. It is known though that Guanches worshipped a solar deity named Magec.

I couldn’t find much information about this symbol on the web; it looks like most common “Guanche” design is based on the pintadera no. 3080 in El Museo Canario [M.ª del Carmen Cruz de Mercadal, Teresa Delgado Darias, Javier Velasco Vázquez, Pintaderas de El Museo Canario; El Museo Canario, 2013].

This symbol is based on a regular octagram (Schläfli symbol {8/3}) and not on the Star of Lakshmi (Schläfli symbol {8/2}) and its variants, Rub el Hizb and al-Quds star. However, you can clearly see that the eight intersecting lines of the octagram form the Star of Lakshmi which is completely covered by a circle in the “Guanche sun”.

More photos related to Guanches, sun, stars, octagrams and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

🟐 | al-Quds star

The al-Quds star (Arabic نجمة القدس, najmat al-Quds, “star of Jerusalem”) is an eight-pointed star associated, as its name suggests, with Jerusalem. It is said to be inspired by the octagonal ground-plan of the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem as well as by the Rub el Hizb symbol ۞.

Siddhartha Mukherjee writes in his illuminating article on Humayun’s mausoleum that

the eight-pointed star has also been observed to have existed in various renditions with civilizations and cultures. <...> The Islamic Najmat-al-Quds and its predecessor the Rub-el-Hizb, however, are two unique variations of the eight-pointed star that inherits at its core a set of overlapping squares and a symbol that can be more strongly and clearly traced to similar Roman-Byzantine designs that existed in the east <than to the star of Ishtar>, especially during Christianity’s early phase. Attested by findings in Akhmim, upper Egypt, by archaeologist Albert Kendrick in 1920, which revealed their existence in Christian graves, dating back to between the 2^nd and 4^th century A.D. — approximately two hundred years before the advent of Islam.

More photos of stars, octagrams and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

Star of Lakshmi

If we remove the little circle from Rub el Hizb ۞, we’ll get the Star of Lakshmi, a symbol representing Ashta Lakshmi (Sanskrit अष्टलक्ष्मी, Aṣṭalakṣmi), the eight manifestations of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth.

Is the Star of Lakshmi the ancestor of Rub el Hizb? After all, what we call now “Arabic numerals” were invented in India. The Arabs could well have adopted Star of Lakshmi for their purposes too.

Or these two symbols may have emerged independently. To me, the Star of Lakshmi looks the only elegant way to put one square on top of another.

More photos of stars, octagrams and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

۞ | Rub el Hizb

The Rub el Hizb (Arabic ربع الحزب‎, rubʿ al-ḥizb) is an Islamic symbol consisting of two overlapping squares with a circle in its centre. The symbol is used in the Qur’an to indicate the end of a chapter.

Rub el Hizb and its variation, the al-Quds star, are featured on a number of flags, coats of arms and emblems. Curiously, or maybe not, the modern coat of arms of Uzbekistan looks very much like the old coat of arms of Uzbek SSR, except the place of hammer and sickle ☭ is now taken by much larger Huma bird while the Rub El Hizb replaced the red star ★. Yet the five-pointed star is not gone: the star and crescent ☪ now live within the Rub El Hizb.

More photos of stars, octagrams and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

✴ | star of Ishtar

The eight-pointed Star of Inanna or Star of Ishtar (Arabic: نجمة عشتار , najmat eshtar) is a most common symbol of the Sumerian goddess (of sex, war, justice, and political power, in that order) Inanna and her Semitic equivalent Ishtar/Astarte. Because of the association with the planet Venus, the symbol is also known as the Star of Venus.

More photos of stars and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

行 | xíng | háng

In Mandarin Chinese, 行 is an interesting word with a number of pronunciations and meanings. As a verb (Pinyin: xíng 🔊), it could mean “to walk”, “to go”, “to move”, “to carry out”, “to execute”, “to perform”, “to be good”, “to work” etc. Some compound words of 行 (xíng) include

• 行 + 云 = 行云 (xíngyún): a drifting cloud
• 行 + 星 = 行星 (xíngxīng): “moving star”, i.e. planet
• 五 + 行 = 五行 (Wǔ Xíng): although widely known as “the Five Elements”, it is better translated as “the Five Movements”; historically, the five planets
• 出 + 行 = 出行 (chūxíng): to set out on a long journey
• 风 + 行 = 风行 (fēngxíng): to spread or proceed quickly; to be in fashion

As a noun (háng), it could mean “profession”, “trade”, “business”, “place”, “line” (of objects) or “row”. Yet as another noun (pronounced either xíng 🔊 or xìng 🔊) it also could mean “behaviour” or “conduct”.

行 is derived from a pictogram of a street intersection. According to Wiktionary,

Originally symmetric, it has been simplified asymmetrically; the left half 彳 is widely used as a radical, while the right half 亍 finds occasional use, and the character can be broken up as 彳 + 亍, though originally it was not a compound.

But how “crossroads” came to represent all those disparate concepts? Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters provides the following connection:

A depiction of straight and crossing roads extending into the distance → go; movement; procession; road → line (of people) → conduct; do; perform (← carry out an action).

tournez à droite, tournez à gauche, tout droit, carrefour, La maison du Matcha, waka waka //
turn right, turn left, straight ahead, crossroads, The House of Matcha, waka waka

More photos related to roads and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

More adventures of sumo wrestler cat @ My leçons de French.

辰 | chén

In Mandarin Chinese, 辰 (Pinyin: chén 🔊) is the fifth of twelve earthly branches. It corresponds to the Year of the Dragon (龙) of the Chinese zodiac; the third month; the hour of the Dragon (7 am to 9 am, “the time when Dragons are hovering in the sky to give rain”); and the direction 120° (where 0° is north). Its associated “fixed element” is Earth, 土. Note that the character 龙 refers to any common-or-garden dragon while 辰 refers only to the zodiac dragon.

Uncle Hanzi says that 辰 is a pictogram of “an Egyptian type hoe, or hoe type plow”. According to Wikipedia,

It has been proposed by one academic researcher that the Earthly Branch character may have been associated with scorpions; it may have symbolized the star Antares.

More photos related to dragons, zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

〇 | líng

In Mandarin Chinese, 〇 (Pinyin: líng 🔊) is a word for number zero.

In AD 690, Wu Zetian (624—705), the only Empress Regnant in the history of China, adopted a number of new characters, one of which was 〇. Originally, it was meant to replace the unwieldy character 星 “star”. After the Empress’s death, the new characters fell into disuse. In 1247, Qin Jiushao (ca. 1202—1261) found a new job for 〇. It was introduced as the symbol for zero in his work 數書九章 (Shùshū Jiǔzhāng, “Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections”). Another hanzi with the same meaning, 零, is mainly used for financial purposes.

More photos related to numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

ε | epsilon

The Greek letter ε (epsilon) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤄 (hē) which meant “window”. In its turn, ε gave rise to the Latin e and a number of other letters.

The lower-case letter ε has a number of uses in maths and sciences:

• in analytical chemistry: ε_i, molar attenuation coefficient, also known as the molar extinction coefficient and molar absorptivity
• in astronomy: the fifth brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Alnilam is designated as ε Orionis.
• in calculus: (ε, δ)-definition of limit
• in medicine: ε-wave, a feature of electrocardiograms of many arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVC) patients
• in organic chemistry: ε, the fifth atom in a chain when counting from a functional group. The names such as ε-aminocaproic acid make use of this nomenclature.
• in phonetics: Latin epsilon, ɛ, representing the open-mid front unrounded vowel, as in epsilon /ɛpˈsaɪ.lən/ or /ˈɛp.sɪˌlɒn/
• in physics: ε₀, vacuum permittivity constant

α through ɛ appears to be the extent to which most people know the letter sequence of the Greek alphabet.

More photos related to letters, numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

δ | delta

The Greek letter δ (delta) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤃 (dālet) which, in turn, was derived from 𓉿, an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting a door.

The lower-case letter δ has many uses in maths and sciences, such as:

• in astronomy: the fourth brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Mintaka is designated as δ Orionis.
• in chemistry: δ bond, a type of covalent chemical bond formed by overlapping lobes of d orbitals
• in chemistry: a symbol for partial charge, δ− or δ+
• in earth sciences: to express stable isotope ratios, for example δ²H, δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O
• in mathematics: δ, the first Feigenbaum constant (approximately 4.669201)
• in maths and science: Dirac δ function
• in neurophysiology: δ-waves, a type of brain waves detected by electroencephalography
• in pharmacology: a type of opioid receptor
• in thermodynamics: inexact differential. For example, the first law of thermodynamics is expressed as

  dU = δQ – δW

  where U is internal energy, Q is heat and W is work.

More photos related to letters, numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

γ | gamma

The Greek letter γ (gamma) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤂 (gīml). One theory says that it represented a throwing stick, another links it to (an image of) a camel.

The lower-case letter γ has a number of uses in maths and sciences, for example:

• in astronomy: the third brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Bellatrix is designated as γ Orionis.
• in inorganic chemistry: a symbol for certain allotropes, for example γ-iron (austenite) or γ-sulfur
• in mathematics: the Euler—Mascheroni constant, a mathematical constant with approximate value of 0.57721
• in organic chemistry: γ-carbon, the third carbon atom in a chain when counting from a functional group. The names such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) make use of this nomenclature.
• in neurophysiology: γ-waves, a type of brain waves detected by electroencephalography
• in phonetics: voiced velar fricative (IPA symbol ɣ)
• in physics: γ is the symbol for a photon, probably derived from γ-rays or γ-radiation, a kind of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay (γ-decay)
• in special relativity: Lorentz factor

More photos related to letters, numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

β | beta

The Greek letter β (beta) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤁 (bet). The word alphabet originates from the Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphabētos), from ἄλφα (“alpha”) + βῆτα (“beta”).

The lower-case letter β has found many uses in maths and sciences:

• in astronomy: the second brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Rigel is designated as β Orionis
• in biochemistry: β-sheet, a type of protein secondary structure
• in biology: β cell, a type of cell found in the pancreatic islets of the pancreas. The primary function of a β cell is to produce insulin.
• in inorganic chemistry: a symbol for certain allotropes, for example β-tetragonal boron, β-germanium, and β-tin
• in mathematics: β(s), the Dirichlet beta function
• in natural product chemistry: a stereodescriptor used in a number of different ways
• in nuclear physics: beta particle, a high-energy electron (β⁻) or positron (β⁺) emitted in the radioactive decay; β-decay is a radioactive process in which an atomic nucleus emits an β-particle
• in organic chemistry: β-carbon, the second carbon atom in a chain when counting from a functional group
• in pharmacology: β₁, β₂ and β₃, subtypes of adrenergic receptors
• in phonetics: voiced bilabial fricative (IPA symbol β)
• in special relativity: a symbol for the speed of an object relative to the speed of light: β = v/c
• in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics: a symbol for compressibility
• in zoology: β animals, which often act as second-in-command to the reigning α-males and/or α-females

More photos related to letters, numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

α | alpha

The Greek letter α (alpha) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾālep) which, in turn, was derived from 𓃾, the Egyptian hieroglyph of an ox’s head.

The lower-case letter α has found many uses in maths and sciences:

• in astronomy: the brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Betelgeuse is designated as α Orionis
• in biochemistry: α-helix, a type of protein secondary structure
• in inorganic chemistry: a symbol for certain (usually the most common) allotropes, for example α-iron, α-phosphorus, and α-sulphur
• in natural product chemistry: a stereodescriptor used in a number of different ways
• in navigation: a symbol for azimuth
• in neurophysiology: α-waves, a type of brain waves detected by electroencephalography
• in nuclear physics: alpha particle, α or α²⁺, a historical name of doubly ionised helium nuclei (He²⁺) ; α-decay is a radioactive process in which an atomic nucleus emits an α-particle
• in organic chemistry: the α-carbon is the first carbon atom attached to a functional group; α-amino acids are amino acids with an amino group bound directly to the α-carbon
• in pharmacology: α₁ and α₂, subtypes of adrenergic receptors
• in physics: a symbol for angular acceleration
• in physics: the fine-structure constant
• in zoology: α-males and α-females, the highest ranking individuals in a community of social animals

More photos related to letters, numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

星 | xīng

In Mandarin Chinese, 星 (Pinyin: xīng 🔊) means “star”, broadly speaking: it could be any heavenly body, celebrity, or a star shape. “Star” in a purely astronomical sense is 星星 (xīngxing) — not to be confused with 行星 (xíngxīng), “planet”.

You’d think that the Chinese could have chosen something like ★ to represent a star, but no. The original form of 星 was 曐, which is made of 晶 (jīng) “sparkling” on top of now-familiar 生 (shēng) “to give birth”, “to grow”, etc. In its turn, 晶 consists of three radicals 日 (rì), “sun”. In 星, only one sun is left, but you get the picture. Many historical forms of this character look surprisingly similar to the Western astrological or astronomical symbols.

According to Wǔ Xíng, the five elements correspond to the five visible planets (and vice versa) as follows:

• 水 + 星 = 水星 (Shuǐxīng) “water star” = Mercury
• 金 + 星 = 金星 (Jīnxīng) “metal star” = Venus
• 火 + 星 = 火星 (Huǒxīng) “fire star” = Mars
• 木 + 星 = 木星 (Mùxīng) “wood star” = Jupiter
• 土 + 星 = 土星 (Tǔxīng) “earth star” = Saturn

More photos of stars and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

☉ | Sun

The circled dot ☉ is an ancient symbol representing the Sun. Note the similarity between ☉ and Chinese 日 (rì).

In alchemical tradition, seven metals were associated with the seven classical planets, which included the Sun and the Moon (but not Earth). The Sun’s metal was gold. In Hellenistic astrology, each classical planet had its own day of the week. Sól or Sunna was the name of the Sun goddess in Germanic mythology. English and other Germanic languages keep the association of Sun and Sunday. Other solar deities include goddesses Amaterasu, Grian, Marici, Saulė, Sulis and Xihe as well as gods Amun, Apollo, Helios, Ra, Shamash, Surya, Tonatiuh and Utu; the gender of the Guanche solar deity Magec is unknown.

More photos of sun and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

⛤| pentagram

If you draw a star with five straight strokes, you’ll get a pentagram ⛤, also known as pantacle, pentacle, pentalpha, pentangle or Pythagorean star. While solid five-pointed stars are widely used in heraldry, the pentagram has been more typically employed in religious or occult contexts.

In Spanish and Portuguese, the word pentagrama could refer both to pentagram and musical stave.

More photos of stars and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

★ | star

A five-pointed star, ☆, is a regular concave decagon.

It is found on many flags and coats of arms, usually in solid form, and often used as military insignia. A red star ★ is often associated with communist ideology while a green star ★ is a symbol of Esperanto. More than 2600 coral-pink stars ★ grace the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

More photos of stars and flowers @ Shutterstock.