❂ | 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”.

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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.

✴ | 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.

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♁ | Earth

⊕ and ♁ are the astronomical symbols representing the planet Earth.

Earth was not one of the seven classical planets. You’d think it would be natural for astrologers to put Earth in the centre. But no. Juan Eduardo Cirlot writes in his Dictionary of Symbols:

But astrology and traditional symbolism owe their inspiration not to the Copernican system but to that which had been accepted by the Ancients. <...> At the same time, the fact of there being seven planets responds to the idea of the seven planetary heavens, which in turn tallies with that of the seven Directions or areas in space (which in turn, when transposed into terms of time, becomes the origin of the seven days of the week). The relationship of the planets to the seven points in space is as follows: Sun — the zenith, Moon — the nadir, Mercury — the centre, Venus — the West, Mars — the South, Jupiter — the East, and Saturn — the North.

One of symbols for Earth is a cross in a circle ⊕ which could be thought of as a globe with equator and one meridian.

Another symbol is a stylised globus cruciger, ♁, which looks like the upside-down “mirror of Venus” ♀, or maybe it is just ⊕ where the cross went off-centre. Note its (unintentional) similarity with Chinese character 土 “earth”. ♁ is also an alchemical symbol for antimony.

Earth deities include goddesses Cel, Cybele, Demeter, Gaia, Jörð, Ki, Māra, Mat Zemlya (Мать-Сыра Земля), Mokoš (Мокошь), Pachamama, Papahānaumoku, Sif, Terra (Tellus), Urash and Žemyna as well as gods Geb, Tudigong and Veles.

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♀ | Venus

“The mirror of Venus” ♀ is an astrological and astronomical symbol representing the planet Venus.

The planet was named after Venus, the Roman goddess of sex, love, beauty, fertility and prosperity. Her Greek counterpart was Aphrodite. In alchemical tradition, Venus was associated with copper.

In many Romance languages, the word for Friday originates from Latin Veneris dies, i.e. “day of Venus” (divendres, vendredi, venerdì, viernes, vineri); Venus even found her way to Breton and Welsh (Gwener). In Germanic laguages, this day (fredag, Freitag, Friday, vrijdag) became connected with Freyja and/or Frigg, even it is not clear whether they were the same or two different goddesses.

According to Wikipedia, the mediaeval symbol for Venus did not have a horizontal stroke, which was added later to form a Christian cross, while “the idea that the symbol represents the goddess’ hand mirror dates to the 19^th century”. In biology, medicine and genealogy, ♀ symbolises the female sex; in sociology and gender politics, the female gender.

More photos related to mirrors, copper and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

☽ | Moon

The crescent ☽ is a symbol representing the Moon. Note the similarity between ☽ and archaic forms of Chinese character 月 (yuè).

In alchemical tradition, the Moon was associated with silver. In many European languages, the word for Monday originates from Latin Lunae dies, i.e. “moon day”, after Roman goddess Luna (lundi, lunedì, lunes, luni) or Germanic god Máni (maanantai, maandag, måndag, Montag, etc.). Other lunar deities include goddesses Anumati, Artemis, Chang’e, Hecate, Hina, Isis, Kuu, Mama Killa, Phoebe, Selene and Yemaya, as well as gods Ay Ata, Bahloo, Jarilo, Sin, Thoth and Tsukuyomi.

The crescent, typically in decrescent orientation ☾, is associated with Islam. Its combination with a five-pointed star, the star and crescent ☪, is used in a number of national flags. The flag of the Comoros shows the crescent and four stars; the Flag of Singapore has the crescent and five stars. The flag of the Maldives features a crescent without any stars.

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☉ | 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.