Texts>Ancient Pagan Symbols

XIV.-THE TRISULA

"The plasticity of the Trisula is only equalled by its powers of absorption. It borrows from the vegetable kingdom as well as from man and the moon and the sun or ftames."-D'Alviella.

The Trisula has been called a form of the thunderbolt, of the trident, of the Sacred Tree, a conventionalised form of the !leur de lys, a combination of sun disk and crescent, a form of the flame symbol,¹ and the caduceus of India. However widely scholars may differ as to their interpretation, ail agree that it is universal, that it is one of the most important symbols of the ancient world, and so old that its origin is lost in the mists of a dateless antiquity.

As the vajra-"diamond or that which is indestructible" (usually translated thunderbolt)-the

¹"If the moon crescent which arose above the lotus flower is represented with the flame symbol in the centre instead of the image, it forms a trident." A. Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism

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