Our Symbols: Ideograms East and West II
In my researching the Chinese radicals, I have noticed symmetry between Eastern and Western symbols, this is not a translation so much as a study in Synchronicity. In my previous piece I corresponded Zodiacal symbols, here are the Western planets corresponded to Radicals.
Sun and Radical 72 Sun
Both Sun and Moon are pictograms, direct representations of their respective Heavenly bodies.
Moon and Radical 74 Moon
Mercury and Radical 133 Reach
According to Fazziola, Radical 133 depict a bird in flight, a thematic fit for Mercury, patron of birds, and the God who flies.
Venus and Radical 39 Child
Venus, a sign of Beauty and joy mirrors the joy of the child well. Both symbols are simple depictions of people.
Mars and Radical 62 Halberd
Perhaps the biggest “stretch”, both of these signs depict weaponry, though Radical 62 is more complex. Compare with the 6th century Mars symbol:
![The symbol for Mars in late Classical (6th c.) and medieval Byzantine (11th c.) mss.[4]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fec1798c9-fb2e-4881-bceb-6ff5759faf4f_120x63.png "The symbol for Mars in late Classical (6th c.) and medieval Byzantine (11th c.) mss.[4]")
Jupiter and Radical 19 Strength
Both depict figures with flexing arms, a show of power. If 19 is rotated, the similarity is obvious.
Saturn and Radical 5 Sickle
Both depict a sickle. The cross in Saturn is a recent addition, compare with 4th-11th century depictions.
Earth and Radical 32 Earth
Both signs depict the Quaternity that forms the Earth.
ah that's neat... it reminds me, tibet is one place where there is just a bit of an amalgamation between hellenistic astrology (via buddhism via sanskrit jyotish traditions) and the chinese zodiac. i'm wondering if you've seen the tibetan thangka painting template of a turtle with the chinese trigrams, but then below it the planets are all depicted by hand emblems: the sun and moon are like those here, but mars, i believe is an eye, jupiter is a phurba, saturn is a noose (i think). i'm not sure about the others, but there is also ketu and rahu. i'm not sure if that gives you any clues for your correlations here, but i was wondering if you have thought about it.