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Ancient Pagan Symbols
Elisabeth Goldsmith
Texts>Ancient Pagan Symbols
The Sacred Double Axe as a religious symbol of
the sun is pre-eminently associated with the island of
Crete.
The Axe among
the Egyptians was also a symbol of the sun, and called the "Clever one," the "Cleaver
of the way." and belongs to the same class of symbols
as the hammer, sword, cross. Why marking a track
through a forest with an axe is still spoken of as
"blazing a trail," is an interesting speculation on the
persistence of ancient customs and ideas.
The Egyptian
hieroglyph of the sun-god Ra was a point within a circle. The life of
Indian and Egyptian gods was in the egg. The "dot within the
circle," a symbol that goes back to remotest times
may have typified the seed within the egg. This is
the Orphic egg, symbol of 'the universe whose yolk in
the middle of a liquid surrounded by an encompassing
vault, represented the globe of the sun floating in
ether, and surrounded by the vault of heaven.
A Point within a Circle is still used as the astronomical sign of the
sun. In Egypt the Circle also symbolised
the course of the sun about the universe.
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