Symbols of the Religions
Thread · Symbols of the Religions○
Casting Lots
Divination by randomly drawn objects, from biblical sacred lots to Roman dice oracles to the yarrow stalks of the I Ching.
SignificanceThis is likely the single divinatory technique attested on every inhabited continent, appearing independently in biblical, Roman, Chinese and West African sources. Some living forms of the practice, including the sixteen-fold Yoruba Ifá corpus, remain initiatory knowledge with recognised living custodians, and are reported here as such rather than reproduced.
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The Descent to the Underworld
A recurring mythic pattern of a hero or deity journeying down into the land of the dead and returning, found in Sumerian, Greek, Roman and Japanese sources.
SignificanceIn the Sumerian version, the goddess passes through seven separate gates, removing one garment of power at each until she arrives naked and stripped of authority — a specific, textually documented structural detail, not simply a vague comparative theme. Whether every version of this pattern across cultures represents a real initiation ritual, as one influential scholar argued, remains genuinely debated.
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The Seven Sisters
A star cluster known across unconnected cultures worldwide as seven sisters, often with a story explaining why only six are now visible.
SignificanceAcross cultures the cluster carries stories of sisterhood, pursuit and loss. In Aboriginal Australia the Seven Sisters songline maps women's law across the land as the sisters flee a pursuer; in Greece and elsewhere its rising and setting marked the turning of the farming year.
The FindingGreek, Aboriginal Australian, Japanese and Nordic traditions independently tell versions of the same 'lost sister' story. Two astronomers proposed in 2021 that this widespread detail might preserve a real change in the cluster's visible stars roughly 100,000 years ago — an extraordinary claim of oral memory that rests on a striking coincidence, not proof.
- Casting LotsCross-Tradition
- Images ForbiddenCross-Tradition
- Left and RightComparative Religion
- Microcosm and MacrocosmCross-Tradition
- Stones That Fell From HeavenCross-Tradition
- Symbols Captured by the Far RightComparative Religion
- The Alphabet as Building MaterialCross-Tradition
- The Descent to the UnderworldCross-Tradition
- The Evil EyeCross-Tradition
- The Evil Eye and the NazarMediterranean / Near Eastern
- The Four DirectionsCross-Tradition
- The Labyrinth Across CulturesCross-Tradition
- The Seal of SolomonIslamic Esotericism
- The SerpentCross-Tradition
- The Seven SistersCross-Tradition
- Wisdom as a WomanCross-Tradition