Reference · Symbols · Overview

Symbols

A symbol here is a sign a tradition writes with: a planet or a zodiac sign in a chart, a metal or an operation in an alchemical recipe, a figure of points in a geomantic shield. Each is drawn from the character Unicode encodes for it and named as Unicode names it, and where this study says more about the thing a symbol stands for, its card links there.

Unicode's own notes carry some of the history. They record that the sign of Saturn is also alchemy's lead and the Sun's is its gold, and that an astrologer's square is the same mark as a white square, which is why the seven metals can sit under the planets here without this study claiming it.

By tradition

  • Astrology 29 symbols: planets, signs, aspects and the Moon's nodes.
  • Alchemy 96 symbols: elements, the seven metals, ores and minerals, substances, operations, apparatus, emblems and times and measures.
  • Geomancy 16 symbols: the sixteen figures.
  • Hermetic and Golden Dawn 2 symbols: in the ritual of the pentagram. Rose Cross is listed but not drawn: Unicode has no character for it.

Where each part comes from

The drawings
The outline of each character in Noto Sans Symbols and Noto Sans Symbols 2, under the SIL Open Font License, turned into vector paths by a script (script/build_symbols.mjs) rather than drawn. A different font would draw the same character differently; the character is the symbol.
The names, aliases and notes
Unicode 16.0.0: each official name from the Unicode Character Database, and each alias and note from its names list. That is where “alchemical symbol for lead” under Saturn comes from: Unicode's own annotation of the character, not this study's claim.
The groupings
This site's headings. Every character in Unicode's alchemical block is filed under one of them, and the script refuses to run if a character is left unfiled.
Geomancy
The sixteen figures are drawn from the lines the site stores for each one, as they are everywhere else on the site. A geomantic figure is four rows of one or two points, and there is nothing to fetch.