“…the Necronomicon, a highly secret magical text released in paperback.” – William S. Burroughs.

This symbol, called the Necronomicon gate, or the”gate of Yog-Sohoth,” is a faux sigil usually found on the cover of an edition of the legendary and quite fake “Necronomicon,” a falsified grimoire based on the work of horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft.
For a more detailed look at this fabled work, see: Necronomicon, truth or fiction?

Necronomicon Gate

Halo (Aura, Nimbus)

A Halo in religious art is a symbolic representation of the aura or nimbus of light believed in many cultures to surround a Godly or enlightened person. Halos are used especially in Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, and Hindu religious images to depict holiness. Halos can also be found in ancient Roman and Greek art, which were direct influences on the practice in Christian art.

The practice is more than likely a holdover from the identification of deities with the sun.


Hindu Krishna; Apollo with halo; pre-Christian Buddha

Messianic Seal (Messianic Christianity)

The “Messianic Seal,” has been adopted as an emblem of the Messianic Christian movement.* It consists of a fish emblem, or vesica pisces, surmounted by a Magen David, and topped with a Menorah. The original was patterned after emblems found on a number of artifacts believed to have been used by first century Jewish followers of Christ. 


First century inscription in stone.


First century; anointing jar

*”Messianic” religious groups are Christian groups who adopt certain Jewish practices in an attempt to practice an earlier, purer, form of Christianity, and often focus (usually unsuccessfully) on converting Jews to Christianity, a practice considered highly offensive by many followers of Judaism.

The IHS is a symbolic monogram of Christ used by the Roman Catholic Church. This monogram consists of the Greek letters iota, eta, and sigma, the first three letters of the name Iesous (Greek for Jesus), the letters of which are also used to spell out the Latin phrase “Iesous Hominem Salvator,” “Jesus, savior of man.” It relates to the story of Constantine, whose vision of the Chi-Rho was recorded by Church Father Eusebius. In the vision, Constantine was reported to have heard a voice proclaim, “In this symbol, thou shalt conquer.” Therefore, the IHS has also stood for “In Hoc Signo,” in this sign. 

The symbol as it appears at right originated in Rome with the early Christians, and was popularized in the fifteenth century by Franciscan disciple Bernardine of Sienna, who promoted it as a symbol of peace.

Some evangelicals have theorized that the initials stand for “Isis, Horus, and Seb,” and are related to Egyptian sun worship, but this is a spurious claim that has never been supported by any solid evidence. Solar and Lunar symbolism have been in continual use by the Church and are most likely continuances of Roman ceremonial symbolism. There is, however, good evidence that the initials were once used to represent Bacchus, the god of wine, who early Christians identified with Jesus. 

The IHS emblem today most commonly represents the communion wafer, and is closely associated with the Jesuit Order. The solar rays often depicted surrounding the emblem represent the monstrance (Ostensorium),* a decorated vessel used to display the Communion Host. The solar symbolism is probably ancient in origin, and probably borrowed from Roman ritual implements.
The three nails pictured on some examples represent the nails of the crucifix.

IHS carving in the Roman catacombs	Another style

*A monstrance or ostensorium is any decorative vessel used to display relics or holy objects, but most often refers to those used to display the consecrated Host.

IHS Monogram

Christogram (Blessing)

This is a gesture known as the Christogram, and is considered the original “sign of the cross.” The fingers are positioned to form the Greek letters ICXC, an abbreviation of the Greek name of Christ: IHCOYC XRICTOC. This gesture is ubiquitous in Renaissance images of Christ and the apostles, as well as in portraits of Saints and clergy. 

The Christogram is used today as a traditional gesture of blessing by priests in the Eastern Orthodox Church. 

Curiously, the same gesture is known in Hindu and Buddhist traditions as the prana mudra, a symbol of healing. 


Hans Memling, Christ blessing

The gruesome symbol of a crucified serpent is an old alchemical drawing representing the “fixing of the volatile,” or, making the elixir of mercury, a legendary curative, by removing the ‘volatile’ or poisonous element. The picture is derived from the biblical story of Moses, who erected a brazen snake as a charm against plague.


Fixing the volatile; from the notebook of Nicholas Flamel 

Crucified Serpent (Alchemical Cross)

Chi-Rho (labarum, Constantine’s cross, Christogram, Monogram of Christ)

The Chi-Rho emblem can be viewed as the first Christian Cross.

As a pre-Christian symbol, the Chi-rho signified good fortune. The Chi ro became an important Christian symbol when adopted by the Roman Emperor Constantine, representing the first two letters in the name of Christ- the Chi, or ‘ch,’ and Rho, or ‘r.’ According to Church Father Eusebius, on the eve of the Battle of the Milvan Bridge, the Emperor saw the emblem in a dream, with the inscription, “By this sign, you shall conquer.” According to the story, the battle was won. In return for the victory, Constantine legalized the religion and erected Christian churches.

There is some speculation that the ‘sign’ witnessed by Constantine was an occurrence of the sun dogs phenomena.

Unfortunately, this story is very unlikely, as Constantine’s conversion occured on his deathbed, if at all. In any case, the symbol was the standard of the Emperor’s army, prominently displayed on the Emperor’s labarum, or battle standard.

Before it became the monogram of Christ, the chi rho was the monogram of Chronos (whose name also begins with a Chi-rho), the god of time, and an emblem of several solar deities.
 
The Chi-ro is also the origin of the tradition of abbreviating “Christ” in “christian” or “Christmas” to “X.” The small letters in the image are the alpha and omega.
In Hebrew, Chi-Rho equates to Tav-Resh. The chi rho was used in hermetic alchemical texts to denote time. 
 


Chi-Rho (labarum, Constantine’s cross, Christogram, Monogram of Christ)

Alexamenos Graffitti (Crucified Ass)

This crude graffiti cartoon from the early second century, may be the oldest known depiction of Christ. The image is scratched into the plaster wall of that barracks of a Roman slave-training school, and depicts a donkey headed man on a crucifix. Next to him is a figure with a raised arm, ostensibly Alexamenos, the butt of the joke. The Greek caption reads “Alexamenos sebete theon” (Alexamenos worships his god.)

Some scholars disagree that the figure is meant to represent Christianity; some believe the Donkey headed figure may represent Bacchus. Still others point to the drawing as evidence of a close relation between the cults of Jesus and Bacchus/Dionysus).

Alexamenos Graffitti (Crucified Ass)

Anchor Cross (Crux Dissimulata)

The Anchor Cross An early covert Christian symbol. It continues the symbolism of the ichthus, or “Jesus fish,” and represented the Church. It is one of several cross forms called dissimulata, meaning “dissimilar.” It is a symbol commonly found in the Christian catacombs. The sybol predates Christianity as a pagan symbol.

Today, the lower portion of the anchor represents Mary’s symbol, the crescent moon, surmounted by the cross of the son, Christ.

Anchor Cross (Crux Dissimulata)

Alpha and Omega

As a Christian symbol, the Alpha and Omega represent the eternal nature of Jesus Christ. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The symbol recalls a line in the Book of Revelation:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.”

The alpha and omega as symbols of eternity pre-existed Christianity, the letters are commonly found in similar context in the pagan mysteries. The omega itself is an ancient symbol of the goddess Ishtar, and originally represented her head-dress (and later that of the goddess Hathor), while the alpha is derived from the ox-horn headdress ascribed to a series of male deities and divine kings.

The Alpha and Omega are included also in the name IAO, a Greco-Roman rendition of the Hebrew tetragrammaton which was also used as a sacred name of Bacchus/Dionysus and as “Iao Sabaoth” represented the Gnostic demiurge.

Alpha and Omega

Star of Ishtar

 

A symbol of the Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar (Anath, Astarte, Inanna). The eight points represent the movements of the planet Venus associated with this Goddess, and the eight gates of the city of Babylon.


Ishtar

Latin Cross (Christian Cross)

The most well known cross is the Latin cross, which to Christians, represents the cross of Christ’s crucifixion. When shown with the image of Christ, it is called a crucifix.
The shape of a true Latin cross, when folded, creates a cube, an ancient symbol of earthly authority. 

The cross of Christianity was a later symbol of the faith, replacing the lamb, fish, alpha/omega, and phoenix as emblems. It was previously considered a pagan symbol, with several early church fathers objecting to its use. 

Wrote Christian father Minucius Felix, “You certainly, who worship wooden gods, are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses, as being parts with the same substance as your deities. For what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards but crosses gilt and purified? Your victorious trophies not only represent a simple cross, but a cross with a man upon it. When a pure worshiper adores the true God with hands extended, he makes the figure of a cross. Thus you see that the sign of the cross has either some foundation in Nature, or in your own religion, and therefore not to be objected against Christians.” 

The original Christian cross, today called the Greek cross, is shaped like an X. The Greek Cross was an abbreviation of the name “Christ,” not a representation of the cross of the crucifixion. The Chi-Ro monogram of Constantine is closely related to this symbol. The latin cross came into favor later, when the mother of Constantine, the Empress Helena, claimed to have discovered the “true cross” of the crucifixion, the beginning of an endless trade in holy ‘relics.’
Some crosses of various Christian Churches are variants of the Latin cross:

Orthodox Cross (Eastern Orthodox)

The Orthodox cross, made up of two horizontal and one diagonal bar crossing a vertical pole, is the symbol of the Russian Orthodox Church. The upper bar represents the sign “INRI,” (“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”) the mocking title bestowed on Christ by the Romans in the New testament account of the crucifixion. 

The lower, slanted bar is simply a stylized footrest, a common design in early Christian crosses. Later folklore holds that the lower end points to hell, and the upper to heaven, representing the destinies of the two thieves crucified with Christ. The first thief, repentant, went to heaven, the second, who did not regret his sin, to hell. 

 Orthodox Cross (Eastern Orthodox)

Triquetra (Triqueta, Trinity Knot)

The triquetra (sometimes, triqueta) is a tripartate symbol composed of three interlocked vesica pisces, marking the intersection of three circles. It is most commonly a symbol of the Holy Trinity (Father, son, Holy spirit) used by the Celtic Christian Church, sometimes stylized as three interlaced fish:

The triqueta symbol predates Christianity and was likely a Celtic symbol of the Goddess, and in the North, a symbol of the god Odin. Although it is often asserted that the triquetra is a symbol of a tripartite goddess, no such goddess has been identified with the symbol. Similar symbols do occur in some Norse and Celtic goddess imagery, but most likely represents the divisions of the animal kingdom and the three domains of earth mentioned above.  Triplicities were common symbols in Celtic myth and legend, one of the possible reasons Christian beliefs were so easily adopted by the Celtic people. The triqueta makes an ideal Christian symbol. It is a perfect representation of the concept of “three in one” in Christian trinity beliefs, and incorporates another popular Christian symbol, the fish, in its original form of the vesica pisces. It is sometimes enclosed within a circle to emphasize the unity aspect.

In Wiccan and Neopagan belief, the triqueta symbolizes the triple aspected goddess (maid, mother, and crone). Some Christians have protested this “appropriation” of the symbol…however, ironically enough, the original Christian fish symbol was derived from an early symbol of venus, one representing female generative organs- making the triquetra perfectly appropriate symbol for a Goddess revival. The triquetra is also considered to represent the triplicities of mind, body, and soul, as well as the three domains of earth according to Celtic mythology- earth, sea, and sky. The triquetra also appears on the television series Charmed, probably as a less threatening alternative to the pentacle (the preferred emblem of witches real and imaginary). In the show, it represents the “power of three, acting as one,” which in turn represents the three sisters.Evangelical tract writers and conspiracy theorists like to label the triquetra a ‘satanic’ symbol, claiming it is a ‘stylized’ 666, an allusion to the ‘number of the beast’ in the Book of Revelation. This, however, is simply wishful thinking. The triquetra of interlaced fishes is one of the very earliest of Christian symbols, predating the crucifix by hundreds of years. The purported ‘satanic’ meaning of the symbol is a modern evangelical interpolation.

Triqueta of interlaced fish from the Roman Catacombs

Triqueta of fish from an Egyptian bowl

Vesica Pisces (Ichthys, Jesus Fish, Mandorla)

This symbol, called the vesica pisces (piscis) or “Jesus fish,” has an unusual history. Used almost exclusively today to denote membership in the Christian religion, the symbol once held a very different meaning (even to the early Christians who adopted it). The word usually found inscribed within, IXOYE (Ichthus), is Greek, meaning fish. The emblem became significant to Christians after St. Augustine, who extracted the word from the acrostic prophecy* of the Erythraean Sibyl, and applied the kabbalistic technique of notarikon (acrostic) to the word to reveal “Jesus Christ, God’s son, savior.”
The custom of early Christians to communicate by drawing a portion in the dust was carried over from the practice of the ancient Pythagoreans, who discovered the shape’s unique properties and made it an important part of their teachings. In earlier times, this glyph was associated with the Goddess Venus, and represented female genitalia. Early depictions of Christ depict him as an infant within the vesica (In this context, it is usually referred to as a mandorla, meaning ‘almond shaped.’), which represented the womb of Mary, and often, the coming together of heaven and earth in the body of Jesus (part man, part god). As such, it is also a doorway or portal between worlds, and symbolizes the intersection between the heavens and the material plane.
The shape of arches in Gothic architecture is based on the vesica. The shape of the vesica pisces is derived from the intersection of two circles, the Pythagorean “measure of the fish” that was a mystical symbol of the intersection of the world of the divine with the world of matter and the beginning of creation.
To the Pythagoreans, the whole of creation was based on number, and by studying the properties of number, they believed one could achieve spiritual liberation. The vesica pisces was the symbol of the first manifestation, the dyad (reflection) that gaves birth to the entire manifest universe. Within the vesica can be found the triangle, the tetrad, the square, the pentacle, and many more polygons, making the vesica a true symbolic womb. Adding a third circle creates a triquetra representing the trinity; continuing the pattern generates an image of the “flower of life” or “fisherman’s net.”

Curiously, the New Testament story of the loaves and fishes secretly reveals the geometric formula for the fish shaped device, as does the story of the miraculous catch: “Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. (John 21:11) ” 

The construction of the vesica is also detailed in the Parable of the net. (Mathew 13:47-53)
This is little remarked upon by Bible scholars and usually ignored by Christian bible interpreters. You can read more about the hidden biblical symbolism of the Vesica Pisces here.

Saint pictured within a mandorla		Concealed vesica pisces in an Albrecht Durer engraving

* According to St. Augustine: “the verses are twenty-seven, which is the cube of three. For three times three are nine, and nine itself, if tripled, so as to rise from the superficial square to the cube, comes to twenty-seven. But if you join the initial letters of the five Greek words which mean, ‘Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour,’ they will make the word, that is, fish, in which word Christ is mystically understood, because he was able to live, that is, to exist, without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters.” 

Vesica Pisces

Cross of Lorraine (Cross of Anjou)

The Cross of Lorraine consists of one vertical and two evenly spaced horizontal bars. It is a heraldic cross, used by the Dukes of Lorraine (previously known as the Dukes of Anjou). This cross is related to the Crusader’s cross, the standard of Joan of Arc, and the six globes of the Medici family. The Lorraine cross was carried to the Crusades by the original Knights Templar, granted to them for their use by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Hermetic alchemists of the Renaissance used the emblem as a symbol of earth and spirit by combining the square earth cross with the cross of Christ. 
 
When drawn symmetrically, it symbolized the hermetic maxim, “As above, so below.” The Lorraine Cross is used in Freemasonry as a degree symbol. In the Catholic Church, the equal-armed Lorraine Cross denotes the office of Cardinal.
 
In 1940, the cross of Lorraine was adopted by Admiral d’Argenlieu (commander of the Free French Forces) as a symbol of the French Resistance, chosen as a symbol to stand against the Nazi Swastika. A very old form of this cross, a depiction of a shepherd’s staff, was used in ancient Sumeria as an ideogram for rulership. The Cross of Lorraine is not a “Gothic” symbol, or a symbol of Satanism.
 
Another Lorraine cross:

Jerusalem Cross (Crusader’s Cross)

The Jerusalem cross was the emblem of Templar Crusaders, and may have been the personal arms of Templar Godfrey de Bouillon.

The Jerusalem cross has four arms at equal distances, symbolizing the four directions, and the belief that Jerusalem was the spiritual center of the earth. 



The more complex version of the symbol below represented the spread of Christ’s message through the four evangelists (Mathew, mark, Luke, and John), who are represented by the four additional crosslets.


Templar Knight wearing Crusader’s cross

Ankh (Crux ansata, Key of Life, Key of the Nile)

The ankh is an ancient Egyptian symbol of life. Also known as an Ansata (latin; handle) cross, it is a visual representation of a sandal strap. The horizontal and vertical bars of the lower tau cross represent the feminine and masculine energy, respectively. This combination of male and female symbols (the cross and circle) in the ankh suggest fertility and creative power. The top loop also symbolises the sun on the horizon, and suggests reincarnation and rebirth. The ankh appears frequently in Egyptian writings about rebirth, and this symbolism was adopted by Coptic Christians, especially gnostic sects, to symbolize the resurrection of Christ and the heavenly marriage. The ankh was an earlier form of the cross than the better known “Latin” cross.

Gnostic Ankh, from the Gospel of Judas

The Ankh is also considered to have meaning in Ritual magick and in Wiccan/Neopagan traditions, as a symbol of immortality and completion.

Ankh with djed pillar	Christian-style ankh from Alexandria	More on Ankh