Last modified: 2025-08-02 by tomislav todorovic
Keywords: astronomy | astrology | alchemy | planet |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
| symbol | “planet” | alchem. ass. | symb. origin/mnem. |
|---|---|---|---|
| ♁ | Earth | ||
| ☾ | Moon | silver (Ag) | crescent |
| ☿ | Mercury | mercury (Hg) | Hermes’ staff |
| ♀ | Venus | copper (Cu) | handheld mirror |
| ☉ | Sun | gold (Au) | Sun disc |
| ♂ | Mars | iron (Fe) | shield and spear |
| ♃ | Jupiter | tin (Sn) | |
| ♄ | Saturn | lead (Pb) | sickle |
| ♅ | Uranus | letter "H" | |
| ♆ | Neptune | trident | |
| ♇ | Pluto | "P"+"L" monogram |
The traditional astrological symbol for Mars is also used as the
scientific symbol for male, in the same way that the astrological symbol
for Venus, a circle with a cross below it, is used scientifically for
female. All the planets (plus the sun and moon) have similar
representations.
James Dignan, 19 Jul 2004
The Mars symbol is
basically a shield and spear (Mars/Ares was the god of war.) Each of the
“planets” (that included the sun and moon in those days) was
also associated with a metal in medieval alchemy
Albert Kirsch, 19 Jul 2004
The symbol used for Pluto is a combination
of the letters "P" and "L", representing both the planet and Percival
Lowell, the Astronomer who predicted its discovery and spent much of his
career searching for it in the early years of the 20th century (it was
discovered 14 years after his death).
James Dignan, 14 Jul 2005
The symbol of Pluto is monogram "PL". These are not only the first two letters of the planet’s name, but also the initials of Percival Lowell (1855-1916), the U.S. astronomer whose calculations of 1905 had predicted the discovery of Pluto, which took place in 1930 at the Flagstaff observatory, Arizona, USA, whose founder was Lowell himself. (These connections of Lowell and Pluto had originally produced the suggestions that the planet should be named Lowell, but eventually a name was chosen which gets along with other planets’ names, but also contains a hidden reminder of the man who predicted the planet’s existence.)
There is also an alternative symbol of Pluto
"
",
used much more in astrology than in astronomy, consisting
of a big semi-circle, set on the top of a vertical
line with a cross at its bottom end, which partly
surrounds a small circle set above it. I was not able
to find any explanations of that symbol. All I can say
about it is that it vaguely resembles the human figure
and is composed of the same elements as the earliest
planets’ symbols: circle, semi-circle and cross. These
elements and their combinations are the subject of
various esoteric teachings, what explains why such a
combination was created for Pluto as well.
Tomislav Todorovic and Mladen Mijatov, 11 Jan 2006
Unlike the other planets, Uranus has two astronomical symbols. The first one (♅) displays the letter H, which is placed over a vertical stroke issuant from a circle; the letter stands for Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who discovered the planet in 1781 [1, 2, 3]. The symbol is also much used in astrology, being more distinctive than the other one; this also means that it may be the one which is more used nowadays, since both symbols' use in astronomy has decreased, the International Astronomical Union discouraging the use of pictorial symbols for planets [1]. The precise shape of the symbol varies a lot: letter H was originally much larger than the circle (see fig. 1 below), its vertical strokes having later evolved into the shapes resembling square brackets (see fig. 2 below), which might currently be the most frequently used form. The circle may also be larger, and the H-shape smaller, to better match the shapes of other planets' symbols (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), the distinctive part of the symbol being identical to the letter H (see fig. 3 below), or with the vertical segments resembling square brackets (see fig. 4 below) or even round brackets (see fig. 5 below).
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | Images by Tomislav Todorovic and Mladen Mijatov, 01 Aug 2020 |
The alternative symbol of Uranus (⛢) resembles the symbol of Mars, but with the arrow pointing upwards and an additional dot in the center of the circle. It was created by combining the symbols of Sun and Mars, the classical planets which were believed to jointly dominate the sky (entity represented by god Uranus); in alchemy, those two symbols represented gold and iron, respectively and this combination of theirs had previously been attributed to the element platinum, which was considered to combine the properties of those two metals [1, 2, 4]. This symbol might have been the one with greater use in astronomy while the pictorial symbols for planets were widely used, but much less so in astrology, where a confusion with the symbol of Mars would be more critical; as the pictorial symbols are now used much more in astrology than in astronomy, it makes this symbol the less used one. This was also the symbol of Uranus which was included into the arms of Sir William Herschel and of his descendants, Herschel Baronets of Slough [5].
Sources:
[1] Astronomical symbols at Wikipedia
[2] Gould, Benjamin Apthorp: Report on the history of the discovery of Neptune, p. 5
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1850 (Saved at the Internet Archive)
[3] Marč, Marion D, i Mekevers, Džoan: Najbolji način da se nauči astrologija; vol. I: Osnovna načela (2nd ed.)
(Original title: March, Marion D, and McEvers, Joan: The only way to... Learn astrology; vol. I: Basic principles)
Gornji Milanovac: Dečje novine, 1990
ISBN 86-367-0265-8
[4] Bode, Johann Elert: Von dem neu entdeckten Planeten, pp. 95-96
Berlin: Verfasser, 1784 (Saved at the Internet Archive)
[5] Picture of Herschel arms at Wikimedia Commons
Tomislav Todorovic, 01 Aug 2020
