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A winged sun hovers over a sepulchre filled with water; an alchemical symbol from the Rosary of the Philosophers. The winged sun is a solar symbol associated with divinity, royalty, and power in the Ancient Near East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Persia). The Illyrian Sun-deity is also represented as a winged sun.
The most usual form, often called sun in splendour or in his glory, consists of a round disc with the features of a human face surrounded by twelve or sixteen rays alternating wavy and straight. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The alternating straight and wavy rays are often said to represent the light and heat of the sun respectively.
The symbol of light was a pagan device adopted by Christians, and perhaps the most important one that did not come from Jewish traditions. Christian churches were built so that the congregation faced toward the sunrise. [18] Tonatiuh, the Aztec god of the sun, [19] was closely associated with the practice of human sacrifice. [19]
A green lion consuming the Sun is a common alchemical image and is seen in texts such as the Rosary of the Philosophers. The symbol is a metaphor for aqua regia (the green lion) consuming matter (the Sun), gold. In alchemical and Hermetic traditions, suns are used to symbolize a variety of concepts, much like the Sun in astrology.
The solar disk, crescent Moon and stars as shown on the Nebra sky disk (c. 1600 BC) The basic element of most solar symbols is the circular solar disk. The disk can be modified in various ways, notably by adding rays (found in the Bronze Age in Egyptian depictions of Aten) or a cross.
The early Church linked Jesus Christ to the Sun and referred to him as the 'true Sun' (Sol verus), [62] or the 'Sun of Righteousness' (Sol Justitiae) prophesied by Malachi. [59] The Christian treatise De solstitiis et aequinoctiis, from the late fourth century AD, associates Jesus' birth with the "birthday of the sun" and Sol Invictus:
A serpent or dragon consuming its own tail, it is a symbol of infinity, unity, and the cycle of death and rebirth. Pentacle: Mesopotamia: An ancient symbol of a unicursal five-pointed star circumscribed by a circle with many meanings, including but not limited to, the five wounds of Christ and the five elements (earth, fire, water, air, and soul).
The Kongo cosmogram (also called yowa or dikenga cross, Kikongo: dikenga dia Kongo or tendwa kia nza-n' Kongo) is a core symbol in Bakongo religion that depicts the physical world (Ku Nseke), the spiritual world (Ku Mpémba), the Kalûnga line that runs between the two worlds, the sacred river that forms a circle through the two worlds, the four moments of the sun, and the four elements.