Egyptian Symbols

When one talks about Egypt, the pyramids loom large in our imagination. Everything about this ancient civilization is awe inspiring and intriguing. One of the biggest enigmas beside the Egyptian pyramids, was the pictographic script of those people, that is painted and carved extensively on every wall and pillar that the mighty pharaohs built. Archeologists or Egyptologists as they were called later had little clue of what the Egyptian symbols meant until the Rosetta stone was discovered. It provided the first clues of how to decipher the pictographic Egyptian script. Once they got a hang of it, they read off the Egyptian symbols which revealed the intricacies and happenings of their ancient world. It gave an insight into the spiritual and religious beliefs of the Egyptians. In this article, I talk about some Egyptian symbols and their meanings.

Egyptian Symbols and Their Meanings

These are some of the select ancient Egyptian symbols, that provide you an insight into how the Egyptians saw this world. They will take you back into ancient Egypt and its rich mythology.

Eye of Horus
The eye of Horus symbol, also known as Udjat is pictured as the right human eye with markings that usually accompanied the eyes of hawks. This is the symbol of Egyptian God Horus. Known as the son of Osiris and Isis, who were some of the greatest Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, he was the Egyptian God of war, sky and protection. Blue or green amulets bearing the eye of Horus were supposed to protect people from sickness and bring them back to life. This is one of the most popular Egyptian symbol tattoos.

Sekhem Scepter
Shaped in the form of a scepter, this was the Egyptian symbol of power and might. It was used as a symbol of the God Osiris and Anubis. It signified the might of the pharaohs.

Shen Ring
This symbol is shown in the form of a circle with a tangential horizontal line at the bottom. It is the Egyptian symbol eternity and the infinite. The shen ring symbolized the eternal circle of birth, death and afterlife.

Heart
The heart or Ieb symbol was a surprisingly accurate representation of the heart. Shaped in the form of a vase with arm like openings on both sides, it was a representation of the human heart with its arteries. Egyptians believed that mind and the soul of a person reside in the heart. Popular understanding would call this one of the Egyptian symbols for love, but there is not much evidence supporting this theory.

Ankh
This symbol was shaped in the form of a cross with a loop at the top. This is the Egyptian symbol of life and represents all the life giving elements of nature including earth, air and water. It symbolizes the life giving force of nature.

Ba
This Egyptian symbol was shaped in the form of a body of a bird and the face of a human. This human headed falcon or Ba as it was known, was the spiritual manifestation of the life force or the soul of a person. It represented the deathless soul of a person that survived death to travel into the afterlife.

Ka
One of the most important of Egyptian symbols, Ka is shown in the form of two joined shoulders with raised arms. Its symbolism and meaning behind it is complex. It represents the process of reception of life and spiritual forces from the Gods. It also represented the life force or spiritual power that lived within the body of a person and survived death. It represented the spiritual double of a person and it survived as long as the body of the dead person was preserved. That is why, Egyptians started the mummification process to preserve the Ka of the person.

These Egyptian symbols reveal the beliefs and the philosophy of the Egyptians about life and the nature of the world. Even thousands of years after its fall, the Egyptian symbols offer us an insight into the world that was! Hope this article has kindled your curiosity about the Egyptian culture and mythology and prompts you to explore it more deeply.