Symbols of Power and Protection

Across the long history of the Western esoteric tradition, a small set of symbols has been used again and again to mark, to protect, to empower, and to invoke. Some of these symbols are among the oldest in human culture, with roots that can be traced back to the prehistoric period. Some are products of the more recent esoteric tradition, worked out in the Renaissance and refined in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some are common property of the wider culture, used in religious, civil, and commercial contexts that have nothing to do with the esoteric. The symbols treated here are the ones that have been most consistently used in the Western esoteric tradition for the purposes of protection and empowerment: the pentagram and pentacle, the ankh, the Eye of Horus, the Hamsa, the unicursal hexagram, the Cross of the Rose, the ouroboros, the Eye of Providence, the bindrune, the sigil, and the Seal of Solomon. For each, the origin, the traditional meaning, and the ritual context are given, with a note on the distinction between esoteric usage and cultural appropriation (Harpur 2002; Michell 1988).

The Pentagram and Pentacle

The five-pointed star, the pentagram, is one of the most ancient and most widely used of all symbols. It appears in Mesopotamian cuneiform texts, in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, in the Pythagorean tradition of ancient Greece, in early Christian art, in Islamic decorative art, in medieval European magical texts, and in the contemporary Wiccan and witchcraft tradition. The pentagram is a symbol of the microcosm, the human being as a small image of the cosmos: the five points are often associated with the five elements, the five senses, the five fingers, and (in the Christian tradition) the five wounds of Christ. The pentagram with a circle around it, the pentacle, is the symbol used in the Western ceremonial-magic tradition as the principal sign of the magician and as the figure on which the elemental weapons of the Golden Dawn tradition are based. The pentagram and pentacle are treated in more detail in a separate article.

The Ankh

The ankh is the Egyptian hieroglyph that represents life, both physical and eternal. It is a cross with a loop at the top, and it appears in Egyptian art from the earliest dynastic period onward, often held by the gods and goddesses as a sign of their power to give and to sustain life. The ankh was adopted into the Coptic Christian tradition, where it became a symbol of the eternal life given by Christ, and from the Coptic tradition it passed into the wider Christian iconography of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. In the modern Western esoteric tradition, the ankh is used as a symbol of life, of the union of the opposites (the cross of matter and the loop of spirit), and of the Egyptian roots of the Hermetic tradition.

The Eye of Horus

The Eye of Horus, also called the Wedjat or Udjat, is the Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power, and good health. The eye is the eye of the god Horus, which was wounded in his battle with his uncle Seth and was restored by the magic of the god Thoth. The Eye of Horus is related to but distinct from the Eye of Ra, which is a different symbol representing the sun’s destructive power, often associated with the goddesses Sekhmet, Hathor, and Tefnut. The two eyes are not synonymous, though they are sometimes confused. The symbol is one of the most common in Egyptian art, and it appears on mummiform coffins, on amulets, on jewelry, and on the prow of the sacred barque. The Eye of Horus was adopted into the Coptic Christian tradition, where it became a symbol of the watchful eye of God, and from the Coptic tradition it passed into the wider Mediterranean tradition.

The Hamsa

The Hamsa, also called the Hand of Fatima in the Islamic tradition and the Hand of Miriam in the Jewish tradition, is the symbol of the open hand with the five fingers extended, often with an eye in the center. The symbol is widely used across the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean, and it appears in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions as a sign of protection against the evil eye. The Hamsa is one of the most popular protective amulets in the modern world, and it is widely used in jewelry, in home decoration, and in the ritual practices of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic communities. In the modern Western esoteric tradition, the Hamsa is used as a symbol of protection, of the fivefold blessing, and of the unity of the Abrahamic traditions. The Hamsa is also widely used in the contemporary witchcraft and pagan traditions.

The Unicursal Hexagram and the Seal of Solomon

The unicursal hexagram is a six-pointed star drawn in a single continuous line, in contrast to the two interlocking triangles of the more familiar hexagram. The figure was introduced into the Western esoteric tradition by Aleister Crowley in 1907, as the principal symbol of Thelema, the religious and magical system he founded with the Book of the Law. The unicursal hexagram is the symbol of the union of the solar and the lunar, the masculine and the feminine, the upper and the lower triangles of the Tree of Life, and the figure is the principal sign of the magician in the Thelemic tradition.

The unicursal hexagram is distinct from the older Seal of Solomon (also called the Magical Seal of Solomon or the Hexagram of Solomon), which is a six-pointed star formed of two interlaced triangles, and which appears in the Testament of Solomon and in the later Solomonic grimoire tradition, including the Lesser Key of Solomon (the Clavicula Salomonis) and the Greater Key of Solomon. The Seal of Solomon is used in the older Solomonic tradition as a figure of conjuration and protection, and it is the symbol traditionally associated with the ring of Solomon used to command demons. The two figures are routinely confused in popular writing; they are different figures with different histories and different uses.

The Cross of the Rose

The Cross of the Rose, also called the Rosy Cross, the Rosicrucian Cross, or the Rose-Cross, is a Latin cross with a rose at its center, often with a smaller rose at each of the four extremities. The figure is the principal symbol of the Rosicrucian tradition, the esoteric and fraternal order that emerged in early seventeenth-century Europe with the publication of the Rosicrucian manifestos of 1614 (Fama Fraternitatis), 1615 (Confessio Fraternitatis), and 1616 (Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz). The Rosy Cross is the symbol of the union of the cross and the rose, of the Christian and the esoteric, of the outer and the inner. It is the principal emblem of the Societas Rosicruciana, the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), and the many later Rosicrucian orders and societies.

The Ouroboros

The ouroboros, the serpent or dragon that devours its own tail, is one of the oldest symbols in the Western esoteric tradition. It appears in Egyptian funerary art, in Gnostic texts, in the magical papyri of late antiquity, in the alchemical tradition, and in the modern Western esoteric revival. The ouroboros is the symbol of the cycle, of the eternal return, of the unity of the beginning and the end, of the self-sufficient and self-consuming nature of the cosmos. In the alchemical tradition, the ouroboros is the symbol of the work as a cycle, of the prima materia as the product of the work, of the unity of the work and the worker. The most famous alchemical ouroboros illustration, from the Theatrum Chemicum of 1659, carries the inscriptions Unus est Omnia and Hen to pan (“The All is One”), drawing on the formula that the alchemists inherited from the Greek and Arabic traditions.

The Eye of Providence

The Eye of Providence, the single eye enclosed in a triangle, often surrounded by rays of light, is the symbol of the all-seeing eye of God, watching over the affairs of humanity. The figure is used in Christian art from at least the Renaissance, and it became one of the symbols of Freemasonry in the eighteenth century, where it represents the Great Architect of the Universe watching over the work of the lodge. The Eye of Providence is also used in the iconography of the United States, where it appears on the Great Seal (adopted by the Continental Congress in 1782) and on the one-dollar bill. In the modern Western esoteric tradition, the Eye of Providence is sometimes used as a symbol of the third eye, the inner eye of vision, and the awakened perception of the practitioner. The popular association of the Eye of Providence with conspiracy theories of various kinds has, in some modern contexts, complicated the esoteric use of the symbol.

The Bindrune

A bindrune is a figure in which two or more runes of the runic alphabet are bound together into a single composite symbol. The bindrune is a form of the runic magical tradition, particularly developed in the Icelandic and Scandinavian magical texts of the medieval and early modern periods — most notably the Galdrabók, an Icelandic grimoire of c. 1600, and the later stave-tradition manuscripts. The bindrune is used in the modern Western esoteric tradition as a sign of compounded intention, in which several powers are joined into a single image. The modern bindrune tradition has been developed further in the contemporary Asatru and Heathen communities, which have been among the most active users of bindrunes in the present day.

Sigil Magic

The modern sigil is a symbol designed for a specific purpose, charged with a specific intention, and then released into the world to work on behalf of the maker. The modern sigil tradition was developed by the artist and magician Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956) in the early twentieth century, and it has been developed further in the chaos-magic tradition of the late twentieth century by Peter J. Carroll and others. Spare set out the method in The Focus of Life (1921) and in his Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy (1913). The modern sigil is typically made by writing the letters of a statement of intention, removing the duplicate letters, combining the remaining letters into a single figure, and then charging the figure by concentration, by meditation, by sexual excitation, by pain, by intoxication, or by any other method that raises the energy of the maker. The sigil is then forgotten, and it works in the unconscious until the intention is realized. The modern sigil tradition is closely related to the older magical tradition of the sigillum, the seal, the character, and the yantra, and it is one of the most widely used practical techniques in the contemporary Western esoteric community.

Cultural Appropriation and the Esoteric Use of Symbols

The use of symbols drawn from cultures other than one’s own is one of the most debated issues in the contemporary Western esoteric community. Some of the symbols treated above — the pentagram, the cross, the ouroboros, the Eye of Providence, the bindrune, the modern sigil, the Seal of Solomon — are common property of the wider Western tradition, and their use in the Western esoteric context is uncontroversial. Others — the ankh, the Eye of Horus, the Hamsa, the Sri Yantra, the mandala — are drawn from specific religious and cultural traditions, and their use outside those traditions is sometimes regarded as inappropriate by members of the originating communities.

The most responsible approach is one that takes the originating tradition seriously, that learns the symbol in the context of that tradition, that uses the symbol in ways that are respectful of the tradition, and that does not use the symbol in ways that are offensive to members of the tradition. The symbol, in this view, is not the property of any one practitioner or any one community, but it is also not free for the taking.

Sources and Further Reading

Baker, Phil. Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London’s Lost Artist. London: Strange Attractor Press, 2011.
David, Rosalie. Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts on File, 1998.
Harpur, Patrick. The Philosopher’s Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination. London: Viking, 2002.
Heath, Robin. A Key to Stonehenge: Prehistoric Mysteries of the Wiltshire Downs. London: Bluestone Press, 1993.
Michell, John. The Dimensions of Paradise: The Proportions and Symbolic Numbers of Ancient Cosmology. London: Thames & Hudson, 1988.
Skinner, Stephen. The Living Stone. London: Penguin, 1993.