Our Symbols: Ideograms East and West
Symbolism
To be brief, Eastern and Western symbolism share a deep archetypal resonance. I hope to illustrate simply and easily just how sympathetic our symbols are.
The Zodiac
The symbols of the zodiac exist for most as letters, not as pictures. They carry significance, but are not themselves the significant thing.
I’ll be releasing an in depth study of the Ideogrammic nature of Western symbols soon, but for now, the correspondence!
I was dissatisfied with the Chinese characters1 traditionally applied to translations of the Western Zodiac, so like the Norse Runes, I’ve developed my own system after studying the excellent work of Edoardo Fazzioli2.
Aries- Radical 123 Sheep
♈️ 羊
The similarity between these is obvious. To me it calls to mind the “Fiery Mercury” which bears the horns of the ram rather than the bull.
Taurus- Radical 93 Ox
♉️ 牛
Obvious horns, additional similarity to Neptune3, and his bullish symbol:
Gemini- Radical 55 Together
♊️ 廾
This ideogram depicts two hands coming together, reflecting the dual nature of Gemini.
Cancer- Radical 154 Shell
♋️ 貝
This ideogram depicts a crab and it’s pincers, as Cancer depicts pincers.
Leo- Radical 141 Tiger
♌️ 虍
As with Leo, this character depicts the mouth and tail of a big cat.
Virgo- Radical 38 Woman
♍️ 女
The ‘loop’ structure is very apparent here, with obvious Yonic imagery.
Libra- Radical 210 Even
♎️ 齊斉
The notion of “equality” is notable here, as both characters feature a sort of = sign, things of equivalence.
Scorpio- Radical 142 Insect
♏️ 虫
The stinging tail is particularly prominent here, the relationship to the Serpent and stinging insect is apparent, the realm of Scorpio. Something to note with this sign and Virgo is the reduction to the unique element, the “m” is reduced either to the Yonic loop or the piercing sting.
Sagittarius- Radical 111 (56) Arrow
♐️ 矢 ( 弋 )
The difficulty here is in discerning which “Arrow” radical truly corresponds to Sagittarius, while 56 is visually similar, the usage of 111 in words like:
Draw immediate connections to the 14th tarot card Temperance or Art.
Capricorn- Radical 212 Dragon
♑︎竜
A difficult comparison to pin, but the Chimeric nature of the Sea-Goat and the Dragon, the “Satanic” connection to the 15th tarot card, both point to Capricorn as the Dragon. Visually, the tail, arched back, and horns carry. The unicode doesn’t do the sign justice, here’s mine:
Aquarius- Radical 47 River
♒️ 巛
The similarities visually are obvious. Compare to Egyptian Hieroglyph N35 and N35A: 𓈖 𓈗.
Pisces- Radical 85 Water
♓️ 水
The resemblance is clear. This character, while not necessarily depicting fish, does depict the duality of water. The origin of this Ideogram lay in the I Ching, namely the Trigram kǎn, Water ☵.
Chinese Calligraphy from Pictograph to Ideogram: The History of 214 Essential Chinese/Japanese Characters
Neptune, like many old masculine Gods is associated with Bulls, consider his Greek epithet Poseidon Tavreios, (related with the Bull)
It is fascinating to see such striking similarities between different letter/symbol systems. The relation between all peoples is hard to deny when you put things like this side by side. I especially thought it was interesting that the Bronze symbol for woman bears a strong resemblance to the Kanji used for ocean, 海, in Japanese. Perhaps the association of the feminine with water is showing itself there.
I know that a lot was borrowed from Chinese text for Japan's Kanji system, but I have not studied Chinese yet and only have familiarity with the Japanese symbols.