How these symbols are drawn

Tone layers Primary Secondary Scaffolding

The Creative (Heaven)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Qian, lines 111 read bottom to top — U+2630

Audit trail

Authority

Qian (The Creative), the trigram whose image is Heaven — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Qian is 111 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 111

Sources

The Joyous (Lake)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Dui, lines 110 read bottom to top — U+2631

Audit trail

Authority

Dui (The Joyous), the trigram whose image is Lake — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Dui is 110 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 011

Sources

The Clinging (Fire)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Li, lines 101 read bottom to top — U+2632

Audit trail

Authority

Li (The Clinging), the trigram whose image is Fire — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Li is 101 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 101

Sources

The Arousing (Thunder)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Zhen, lines 100 read bottom to top — U+2633

Audit trail

Authority

Zhen (The Arousing), the trigram whose image is Thunder — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Zhen is 100 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 001

Sources

The Gentle (Wind)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Xun, lines 011 read bottom to top — U+2634

Audit trail

Authority

Xun (The Gentle), the trigram whose image is Wind — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Xun is 011 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 110

Sources

The Abysmal (Water)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Kan, lines 010 read bottom to top — U+2635

Audit trail

Authority

Kan (The Abysmal), the trigram whose image is Water — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Kan is 010 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 010

Sources

Keeping Still (Mountain)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Gen, lines 001 read bottom to top — U+2636

Audit trail

Authority

Gen (Keeping Still), the trigram whose image is Mountain — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Gen is 001 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 100

Sources

The Receptive (Earth)

Tier B — canonical convention

Trigram Kun, lines 000 read bottom to top — U+2637

Audit trail

Authority

Kun (The Receptive), the trigram whose image is Earth — one of the eight of the Bagua, encoded at U+2630..U+2637 in the order Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth

Must have

Exactly 3 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Three lines, not six

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws
Confused with its own vertical inverse: Kun is 000 read bottom-up, and reversing it gives 000

Sources

The Creative Heaven

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 1 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111111 read bottom to top — U+4DC0, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 1 of the King Wen sequence, "The Creative Heaven" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC0 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Receptive Earth

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 2 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000000 read bottom to top — U+4DC1, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 2 of the King Wen sequence, "The Receptive Earth" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC1 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Difficulty at the Beginning

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 3 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100010 read bottom to top — U+4DC2, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 3 of the King Wen sequence, "Difficulty at the Beginning" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC2 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Youthful Folly

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 4 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010001 read bottom to top — U+4DC3, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 4 of the King Wen sequence, "Youthful Folly" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC3 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Waiting

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 5 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111010 read bottom to top — U+4DC4, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 5 of the King Wen sequence, "Waiting" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC4 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Conflict

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 6 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010111 read bottom to top — U+4DC5, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 6 of the King Wen sequence, "Conflict" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC5 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Army

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 7 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010000 read bottom to top — U+4DC6, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 7 of the King Wen sequence, "The Army" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC6 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Holding Together

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 8 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000010 read bottom to top — U+4DC7, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 8 of the King Wen sequence, "Holding Together" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC7 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Small Taming

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 9 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111011 read bottom to top — U+4DC8, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 9 of the King Wen sequence, "Small Taming" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC8 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Treading

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 10 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110111 read bottom to top — U+4DC9, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 10 of the King Wen sequence, "Treading" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DC9 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Peace

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 11 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111000 read bottom to top — U+4DCA, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 11 of the King Wen sequence, "Peace" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DCA is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Standstill

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 12 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000111 read bottom to top — U+4DCB, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 12 of the King Wen sequence, "Standstill" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DCB is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Fellowship

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 13 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101111 read bottom to top — U+4DCC, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 13 of the King Wen sequence, "Fellowship" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DCC is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Great Possession

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 14 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111101 read bottom to top — U+4DCD, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 14 of the King Wen sequence, "Great Possession" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DCD is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Modesty

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 15 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001000 read bottom to top — U+4DCE, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 15 of the King Wen sequence, "Modesty" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DCE is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Enthusiasm

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 16 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000100 read bottom to top — U+4DCF, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 16 of the King Wen sequence, "Enthusiasm" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DCF is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Following

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 17 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100110 read bottom to top — U+4DD0, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 17 of the King Wen sequence, "Following" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD0 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Work on the Decayed

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 18 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011001 read bottom to top — U+4DD1, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 18 of the King Wen sequence, "Work on the Decayed" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD1 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Approach

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 19 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110000 read bottom to top — U+4DD2, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 19 of the King Wen sequence, "Approach" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD2 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Contemplation

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 20 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000011 read bottom to top — U+4DD3, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 20 of the King Wen sequence, "Contemplation" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD3 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Biting Through

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 21 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100101 read bottom to top — U+4DD4, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 21 of the King Wen sequence, "Biting Through" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD4 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Grace

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 22 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101001 read bottom to top — U+4DD5, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 22 of the King Wen sequence, "Grace" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD5 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Splitting Apart

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 23 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000001 read bottom to top — U+4DD6, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 23 of the King Wen sequence, "Splitting Apart" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD6 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Return

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 24 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100000 read bottom to top — U+4DD7, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 24 of the King Wen sequence, "Return" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD7 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Innocence

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 25 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100111 read bottom to top — U+4DD8, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 25 of the King Wen sequence, "Innocence" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD8 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Great Taming

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 26 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111001 read bottom to top — U+4DD9, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 26 of the King Wen sequence, "Great Taming" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DD9 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Mouth Corners

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 27 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100001 read bottom to top — U+4DDA, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 27 of the King Wen sequence, "Mouth Corners" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DDA is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Great Preponderance

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 28 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011110 read bottom to top — U+4DDB, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 28 of the King Wen sequence, "Great Preponderance" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DDB is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Abysmal Water

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 29 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010010 read bottom to top — U+4DDC, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 29 of the King Wen sequence, "The Abysmal Water" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DDC is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Clinging Fire

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 30 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101101 read bottom to top — U+4DDD, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 30 of the King Wen sequence, "The Clinging Fire" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DDD is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Influence

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 31 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001110 read bottom to top — U+4DDE, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 31 of the King Wen sequence, "Influence" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DDE is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Duration

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 32 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011100 read bottom to top — U+4DDF, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 32 of the King Wen sequence, "Duration" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DDF is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Retreat

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 33 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001111 read bottom to top — U+4DE0, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 33 of the King Wen sequence, "Retreat" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE0 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Great Power

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 34 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111100 read bottom to top — U+4DE1, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 34 of the King Wen sequence, "Great Power" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE1 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Progress

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 35 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000101 read bottom to top — U+4DE2, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 35 of the King Wen sequence, "Progress" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE2 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Darkening of the Light

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 36 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101000 read bottom to top — U+4DE3, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 36 of the King Wen sequence, "Darkening of the Light" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE3 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Family

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 37 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101011 read bottom to top — U+4DE4, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 37 of the King Wen sequence, "The Family" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE4 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Opposition

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 38 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110101 read bottom to top — U+4DE5, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 38 of the King Wen sequence, "Opposition" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE5 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Obstruction

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 39 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001010 read bottom to top — U+4DE6, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 39 of the King Wen sequence, "Obstruction" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE6 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Deliverance

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 40 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010100 read bottom to top — U+4DE7, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 40 of the King Wen sequence, "Deliverance" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE7 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Decrease

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 41 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110001 read bottom to top — U+4DE8, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 41 of the King Wen sequence, "Decrease" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE8 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Increase

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 42 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100011 read bottom to top — U+4DE9, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 42 of the King Wen sequence, "Increase" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DE9 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Breakthrough

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 43 of the King Wen sequence, lines 111110 read bottom to top — U+4DEA, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 43 of the King Wen sequence, "Breakthrough" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DEA is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, whole, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 111 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Coming to Meet

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 44 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011111 read bottom to top — U+4DEB, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 44 of the King Wen sequence, "Coming to Meet" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DEB is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, whole, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 111

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Gathering Together

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 45 of the King Wen sequence, lines 000110 read bottom to top — U+4DEC, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 45 of the King Wen sequence, "Gathering Together" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DEC is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, broken, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 000 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Pushing Upward

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 46 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011000 read bottom to top — U+4DED, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 46 of the King Wen sequence, "Pushing Upward" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DED is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, broken, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 000

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Oppression

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 47 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010110 read bottom to top — U+4DEE, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 47 of the King Wen sequence, "Oppression" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DEE is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Well

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 48 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011010 read bottom to top — U+4DEF, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 48 of the King Wen sequence, "The Well" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DEF is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Revolution

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 49 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101110 read bottom to top — U+4DF0, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 49 of the King Wen sequence, "Revolution" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF0 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Cauldron

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 50 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011101 read bottom to top — U+4DF1, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 50 of the King Wen sequence, "The Cauldron" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF1 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Arousing Thunder

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 51 of the King Wen sequence, lines 100100 read bottom to top — U+4DF2, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 51 of the King Wen sequence, "The Arousing Thunder" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF2 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, broken, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 100 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Keeping Still Mountain

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 52 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001001 read bottom to top — U+4DF3, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 52 of the King Wen sequence, "The Keeping Still Mountain" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF3 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, broken, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 001

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Development

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 53 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001011 read bottom to top — U+4DF4, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 53 of the King Wen sequence, "Development" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF4 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Marrying Maiden

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 54 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110100 read bottom to top — U+4DF5, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 54 of the King Wen sequence, "The Marrying Maiden" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF5 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Abundance

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 55 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101100 read bottom to top — U+4DF6, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 55 of the King Wen sequence, "Abundance" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF6 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Wanderer

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 56 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001101 read bottom to top — U+4DF7, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 56 of the King Wen sequence, "The Wanderer" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF7 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Gentle Wind

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 57 of the King Wen sequence, lines 011011 read bottom to top — U+4DF8, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 57 of the King Wen sequence, "The Gentle Wind" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF8 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, whole, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 011 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Joyous Lake

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 58 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110110 read bottom to top — U+4DF9, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 58 of the King Wen sequence, "The Joyous Lake" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DF9 is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, whole, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 110

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Dispersion

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 59 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010011 read bottom to top — U+4DFA, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 59 of the King Wen sequence, "Dispersion" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DFA is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Limitation

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 60 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110010 read bottom to top — U+4DFB, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 60 of the King Wen sequence, "Limitation" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DFB is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Inner Truth

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 61 of the King Wen sequence, lines 110011 read bottom to top — U+4DFC, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 61 of the King Wen sequence, "Inner Truth" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DFC is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, whole, broken, broken, whole, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 110 and the upper three are 011

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Small Preponderance

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 62 of the King Wen sequence, lines 001100 read bottom to top — U+4DFD, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 62 of the King Wen sequence, "Small Preponderance" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DFD is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, broken, whole, whole, broken, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 001 and the upper three are 100

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

After Completion

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 63 of the King Wen sequence, lines 101010 read bottom to top — U+4DFE, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 63 of the King Wen sequence, "After Completion" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DFE is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are whole, broken, whole, broken, whole, broken
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 101 and the upper three are 010

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

Before Completion

Tier B — canonical convention

Hexagram 64 of the King Wen sequence, lines 010101 read bottom to top — U+4DFF, whose Unicode name is the Wilhelm/Baynes title

Audit trail

Authority

Hexagram 64 of the King Wen sequence, "Before Completion" — the received order, encoded at U+4DC0..U+4DFF, where the Unicode name of U+4DFF is the Wilhelm/Baynes English title

Must have

Exactly 6 horizontal lines, evenly spaced, all of the same length and thickness
Reading from the BOTTOM up, the lines are broken, whole, broken, whole, broken, whole
The vertical gap between lines equals the thickness of a line
Every broken line is split by a central gap into two equal halves, and that gap is about a quarter of the line's length
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis
Six lines, not five or seven — a trigram has three and the two must not be confused
The lower three lines are the trigram 010 and the upper three are 101

Common errors checked for

Read top-down instead of bottom-up, which silently ships a hexagram as its own vertical inverse — and because the King Wen sequence pairs inverses, that means shipping it under its PARTNER's name
Broken lines drawn with a gap too narrow to read, so a yin line looks like a yang line with a scratch in it
Lines unevenly spaced, so the figure reads as separate marks rather than one stack
A broken line whose two halves are unequal, which no source draws

Sources

The Cross

Tier B — canonical convention

Latin cross (crux immissa) — crossbar at one third of the height, arms of equal width

Audit trail

Authority

Latin cross, U+271D. No canonical proportion exists; ours is documented

Must have

A vertical stroke crossed by a shorter horizontal stroke
The crossbar sits ABOVE the vertical midpoint, so the lower limb is the longest
Left and right arms are equal length

Common errors checked for

Crossbar at the exact centre (that is a Greek cross, not Latin)
Crossbar wider than the vertical stroke is tall
Asymmetric arms

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_cross

Pentacle

Tier A — exactly constructible

Star polygon {5/2} inscribed in a circle — vertices at 72 degree spacing, joined every second point

Audit trail

Authority

The pentacle — the star polygon {5/2} enclosed in a circle. The bare star is the pentagram; adding the ring makes it the pentacle, and in ritual use a consecrated disc bearing that figure

Must have

Five-pointed star drawn as one continuous unicursal line
One point directed upward
Five internal crossings forming a regular inner pentagon
An enclosing circle, concentric with the star and not touching its points — without it the figure is a pentagram, which is a different symbol

Common errors checked for

Inverted (point down) when upright is intended
Drawn as 5 separate triangles on a pentagon rather than a unicursal star
Titled "pentagram" while drawing the circled figure — the two names are used interchangeably almost everywhere, and this entry shipped that way itself until 2026-09-09

Sources

Yin and Yang

Tier A — exactly constructible

Taijitu — two equal halves divided by semicircles of half the radius, each carrying the other’s eye

Audit trail

Authority

Taijitu, Lai Zhide form

Must have

A circle divided by an S-curve into two equal halves
The S-curve is made of two semicircles each of half the outer radius
Two small dots, one in each half, on the vertical centre line

Common errors checked for

S-curve drawn as a simple diagonal or sine wave rather than two tangent semicircles
Dots off-centre or wrongly sized

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taijitu

Seed of Life

Tier A — exactly constructible

Seven circles, six centred on the circumference of the seventh; neighbour spacing equals the radius

Audit trail

Authority

7 circles, centre spacing = radius

Must have

Exactly 7 equal circles — one centre, six around it
Each outer circle passes through the central circle's centre
Six-fold rotational symmetry

Common errors checked for

Using 19 circles (that is the Flower of Life)
Circles merely tangent rather than overlapping

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlapping_circles_grid

Vesica Piscis

Tier A — exactly constructible

Two circles, centre separation = radius; lens ratio √3 (Wikipedia: Vesica piscis)

Audit trail

Authority

Two circles, centre separation = radius

Must have

Exactly 2 equal overlapping circles
Each circle passes through the other's centre
The almond-shaped overlap is taller than it is wide (ratio √3 ≈ 1.73)

Common errors checked for

Circles too far apart or too close, so the lens ratio is not √3

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesica_piscis

Flower of Life

Tier A — exactly constructible

19-circle overlapping circles grid, nearest-neighbour spacing = r

Audit trail

Authority

Overlapping circles grid — 19 circles, nearest-neighbour spacing exactly r

Must have

Exactly 19 equal circles in a hexagonal arrangement
Every circle passes through the centres of its neighbours
Overlaps form the characteristic petal/vesica shapes
Six-fold rotational symmetry
Outer bounding circle(s)

Common errors checked for

Circles spaced r√3 apart (a plain hex grid) so they only touch or barely overlap and do NOT pass through neighbouring centres — this is the single most common error
Wrong circle count (7 is a Seed of Life, not a Flower)
Petals not forming cleanly because spacing is off

Sources

Tetractys

Tier A — exactly constructible

Pythagorean triangular number T4 — 10 points in rows 1,2,3,4

Audit trail

Authority

Pythagorean triangular number T4

Must have

Exactly 10 dots
Arranged in 4 rows of 1, 2, 3, 4 from top to bottom
Forms an equilateral triangle

Common errors checked for

Wrong dot count
Rows not forming an equilateral triangle

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys

Triquetra

Tier A — exactly constructible

Union of three vesica lenses on an equilateral triangle of side = r; tip:node radius = 2

Audit trail

Authority

Three interlocking vesica arcs on an equilateral triangle

Must have

Three-fold rotational symmetry
Three pointed lobes/petals meeting at the centre
Each pair of arcs forms a vesica shape

Common errors checked for

Lobes rounded rather than pointed
Only two-fold symmetry

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triquetra

Merkaba

Tier A — exactly constructible

Stellated octahedron (star tetrahedron): two dual regular tetrahedra on alternating cube vertices, 8 vertices and 12 edges, in the isometric projection the tesseract uses

Audit trail

Authority

Stellated octahedron (star tetrahedron) — two dual regular tetrahedra

Must have

A three-dimensional figure: two interpenetrating regular tetrahedra, not two flat triangles
Twelve edges — six per tetrahedron — of which the interior ones are visible
Eight vertices, being the vertices of a cube taken alternately
Edges crossing INSIDE the figure, where a hexagram encloses an empty hexagon
Two-fold rotational symmetry, not six-fold: a solid seen obliquely cannot have the symmetry of its own silhouette

Common errors checked for

Drawing the SILHOUETTE — two overlapping triangles — which is a hexagram (Seal of Solomon), a different symbol
Tinting one tetrahedron to suggest depth: they interpenetrate symmetrically and neither is behind the other
Projecting with a different transform from the tesseract, so the catalogue disagrees with itself about what a projection is

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellated_octahedron

Squaring the Circle

Tier A — exactly constructible

Equal-area construction: square side = r√π

Audit trail

Authority

Equal-area construction, square side = r√π

Must have

One circle and one square, concentric
They visibly overlap — the square's corners fall outside the circle while its edge midpoints fall inside

Common errors checked for

Square inscribed in or circumscribed about the circle instead of equal-area

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle

Philosopher's Stone

Tier A — exactly constructible

Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (1617) Emblem XXI: circle > square > triangle > circle

Audit trail

Authority

Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (1617), Emblem XXI

Must have

Four nested figures, outermost to innermost: circle, square, triangle, circle
The square is inscribed in the outer circle
The triangle is inscribed in the square
The innermost circle is inside the triangle

Common errors checked for

Triangle and square transposed (circle→triangle→square→circle) — contradicts the emblem motto
Omitting the innermost circle

Sources

https://furnaceandfugue.org/atalanta-fugiens/emblem21.html

Tree of Life

Tier A — exactly constructible

Kircher tree (Oedipus Aegyptiacus, 1652) via the Golden Dawn; exact triangular lattice, pillar offset (√3/2)·L

Audit trail

Authority

Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652), via the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Must have

Exactly 10 solid nodes (sephiroth) plus an 11th fainter node (Da'at)
Exactly 22 connecting paths
Three vertical pillars; the middle pillar carries 4 nodes (top, centre, and two below)
The centre node (Tiferet) has the most connections of any node — 8
The diagram is left-right mirror symmetric
Da'at sits on the middle pillar exactly midway between the top node and the centre node, and has NO paths of its own
The bottom node (Malkhut) sits alone, lower than the rest, connected by 3 paths

Common errors checked for

Drawing a literal botanical tree instead of the 10-node diagram
Wrong number of paths (22 is definitive)
Connecting Da'at to anything
Using the Ari/Lurianic variant (Malkhut would have only ONE path) when Kircher is intended
Breaking the left-right mirror symmetry

Sources

Triple Moon

Tier B — canonical convention

Waxing crescent, full moon, waning crescent — colinear and tangent

Audit trail

Authority

Neopagan Triple Goddess — waxing, full, waning

Must have

Three elements in a horizontal row
A full circle in the middle
A crescent on each side, each opening AWAY from the centre circle
All three vertically centred on one line

Common errors checked for

Crescents facing the same direction rather than mirroring each other
Crescents opening toward the centre circle
Elements not colinear

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Goddess_(Neopaganism)

Tesseract

Tier A — exactly constructible

4-cube Schlegel projection — 16 vertices, 32 edges, cube within a cube

Audit trail

Authority

4-cube Schlegel projection

Must have

A smaller cube nested inside a larger cube
Corresponding corners of the two cubes joined by 8 lines
16 vertices and 32 edges in total

Common errors checked for

Missing the connecting edges
Inner cube not centred
Drawn as a plain 2D square grid

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract

Labyrinth

Tier A — exactly constructible

Classical 7-circuit Cretan labyrinth, expanded from the seed pattern; level sequence 0-3-2-1-4-7-6-5-8 (Phillips)

Audit trail

Authority

Classical 7-circuit Cretan labyrinth — seed pattern expansion; level sequence 0-3-2-1-4-7-6-5-8 (Tony Phillips)

Must have

Seven circuits between eight walls, with a single unbranching path from entrance to goal
The seed cross is TWO full strokes crossing at the centre, so the two wall-curves touch at that one point
Four dots at the corners of the seed square, which are the four free wall ends
One entrance gap on the bottom edge, and no other break in the outer wall
Arcs centred on a post half a path width off the cross axis, NOT on the cross itself

Common errors checked for

Omitting the four dots, which turns each corner pocket into a dead end — five circuits and a maze rather than a labyrinth
Starting the first arc one step further round, which gives a clean symmetrical labyrinth with the sequence 0-1-2-5-4-3-6-7-8 — walkable, plausible, and not the Cretan one
Drawing the cross as four separate radial arms, which breaks the goal cell and the level 4 and 5 turns
Centring the arcs on the cross, which forces the figure symmetric and destroys the turns
Drawing concentric closed rings with a couple of bridges, which is not a labyrinth at all because no path runs through it

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth

Valknut

Tier A — exactly constructible

Borromean form, as on the Oseberg ship burial bedpost and the Stora Hammars I stone, Gotland (8th-9th c.): three congruent equilateral triangles at 120 degrees, woven over-under so each pair is unlinked while the three are inseparable

Audit trail

Authority

Oseberg ship burial bedpost (c. 834) and the Stora Hammars I picture stone, Gotland (8th-9th c.) — the Borromean form, three separate triangles

Must have

Exactly three congruent equilateral triangles — not one triangle subdivided by lines
Exactly six crossings, two between each pair of triangles
Walking any one triangle, the crossings read over, under, over, under — a strand that reads over twice in a row is lying on top of its neighbour, not through it
Each PAIR of triangles is unlinked: the same triangle is on top at both of that pair's crossings
Three-fold rotational symmetry
NO mirror symmetry — a woven knot is chiral, and a valknut you can reflect onto itself is not woven
One triangle upright at the top, two below (the Oseberg orientation)

Common errors checked for

Drawing the outlines overlapping with no breaks, so the figure is a pile rather than a knot
Placing the three triangles at a shared rotation, which puts a corner exactly on a neighbour's edge and collapses the figure into one subdivided triangle
Spreading the triangles too far apart: past a spread:size ratio of 0.6 the weave stops alternating and it is no longer a knot
Drawing the unicursal form (one continuous strand, as on the Tangelgarda stone) and calling it the Borromean one
Breaks so narrow the strand passing over them appears to touch, which reads as a join rather than as an under

Sources

Aries

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2648 ♈ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2648 ARIES — ram's horns

Must have

Two curves meeting at a point at the bottom
Curves sweep outward and upward like ram's horns
Left-right symmetry

Common errors checked for

Reads as a simple V or heart shape without the outward horn curl
Asymmetric horns

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Taurus

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2649 ♉ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2649 TAURUS — bull's head

Must have

A closed ring forming the bull's head
Two curved horns rising from the top of the circle
Left-right symmetry about the vertical axis

Common errors checked for

Horns missing or not attached to the circle
Circle too small relative to the horns

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Gemini

Tier B — canonical convention

U+264A ♊ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+264A GEMINI — Roman numeral II with serifs

Must have

Two parallel vertical strokes
A horizontal bar across the top of both
A horizontal bar across the bottom of both

Common errors checked for

Missing top or bottom bar
Verticals not parallel

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Cancer

Tier B — canonical convention

U+264B ♋ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+264B CANCER — two point-symmetric curls

Must have

Two loop/curl shapes
180-degree rotational symmetry about the centre (not a mirror)
Resembles a sideways "69"

Common errors checked for

Mirror symmetry instead of point symmetry
Only one curl

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Leo

Tier B — canonical convention

U+264C ♌ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+264C LEO — mane curl with a loop tail

Must have

A long sweeping curve
A closed circular loop at one end (the tail)

Common errors checked for

Loop missing, leaving just an open curve
Loop disconnected from the curve

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Virgo

Tier B — canonical convention

U+264D ♍ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+264D VIRGO — M-form with a crossed final stroke

Must have

Three or four looped/curved vertical strokes resembling a cursive M
The final stroke curls back and is crossed by a short horizontal line

Common errors checked for

Reads as a plain M with no final crossed curl
Missing the cross stroke

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Libra

Tier B — canonical convention

U+264E ♎ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+264E LIBRA — balance beam over a base line

Must have

A horizontal line above
A curved balance beam shape below it
A second horizontal base line beneath that

Common errors checked for

Missing the top horizontal line (reads as an omega instead of scales)
No base line

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Scorpio

Tier B — canonical convention

U+264F ♏ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+264F SCORPIO — M-form with an arrow-barbed tail

Must have

Same M-form base as Virgo
The final stroke ends in an arrowhead (barb) rather than a crossed loop

Common errors checked for

Ending matches Virgo's crossed loop instead of an arrow
Arrowhead missing

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Sagittarius

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2650 ♐ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2650 SAGITTARIUS — arrow

Must have

A diagonal shaft pointing to the upper right
A visible arrowhead at the upper-right tip
A short fletch mark crossing the lower-left of the shaft

Common errors checked for

Arrowhead missing (reads as a bare diagonal line)
Fletch mark missing

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Capricorn

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2651 ♑ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2651 CAPRICORN — sea-goat horn into a looped fish tail

Must have

A vertical stroke curving into a horizontal sweep
A closed loop at the end (the fish tail)

Common errors checked for

Loop missing
Reads as unrelated to Leo's glyph despite sharing a loop-and-curve structure — the curve shapes must differ

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Aquarius

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2652 ♒ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2652 AQUARIUS — two parallel zigzag water lines

Must have

Two separate zigzag (wave) lines, stacked
Each zigzag has the same shape
Lines are horizontal overall, not diagonal

Common errors checked for

Only one wave line
Waves not parallel/matching

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Pisces

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2653 ♓ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2653 PISCES — two crescents joined by a crossbar

Must have

Two crescent curves, opening away from each other (left one opens left, right one opens right)
A horizontal line connecting them at the middle

Common errors checked for

Crescents facing the same direction
Crossbar missing

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_symbols

Mercury

Tier B — canonical convention

U+263F ☿ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+263F MERCURY

Must have

Three stacked elements, top to bottom: crescent, circle, cross
All vertically aligned on one axis
Crescent horns pointing upward

Common errors checked for

Omitting the crescent (that yields Venus)
Crescent horns pointing down
Elements not sharing a vertical axis

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_symbol

Venus

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2640 ♀ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2640 FEMALE SIGN / Venus

Must have

A circle above
A cross directly below it, vertically aligned
The cross has a clear horizontal bar

Common errors checked for

Cross bar missing, leaving a bare stem
Circle and cross not aligned
Cross above the circle

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_symbol

Mars

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2642 ♂ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2642 MALE SIGN / Mars

Must have

A closed ring forming the body of the sign
An arrow leaving the circle at roughly 45 degrees toward the upper right
The arrow has two visible barbs forming a head

Common errors checked for

Arrow pointing in the wrong direction
Arrowhead missing or malformed
Arrow not touching the circle

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_symbol

Jupiter

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2643 ♃ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2643 JUPITER — Greek zeta (Zeus) monogram

Must have

A curved stroke resembling a numeral 4 or Greek zeta
A crossbar intersecting the stroke
A horizontal base stroke

Common errors checked for

Reads as an unrelated squiggle
Crossbar missing
Mirrored left-to-right, so the bowl opens the wrong way

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_symbol

Saturn

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2644 ♄ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2644 SATURN — Greek monogram with abbreviation bar

Must have

A vertical stroke with a horizontal crossbar near the top
A hooked/looping descender at the lower right

Common errors checked for

Reads as a lowercase h or b
Hook missing
Mirrored left-to-right

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_symbol

Caduceus

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2624 ☤ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2624 CADUCEUS — the staff of Hermes

Must have

A central staff running the full height of the figure
TWO serpents entwined symmetrically around the staff
A pair of wings at the top of the staff

Common errors checked for

Drawn with one serpent and no wings, which is the Rod of Asclepius and a different symbol entirely
Serpents crossing asymmetrically so the figure loses its mirror balance
Wings omitted, leaving an ambiguous staff-and-snakes figure

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus

Rod of Asclepius

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2695 ⚕ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2695 STAFF OF AESCULAPIUS — the rod of the physician

Must have

A single plain staff with no wings anywhere on it
Exactly ONE serpent coiled around that staff

Common errors checked for

Substituting the Caduceus — two serpents and wings — which is Hermes, not Asclepius, and is the single most common error with this symbol
Adding wings to the staff, which makes it a caduceus

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius

Ankh

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2625 ☥ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+2625 — The ankh, ꜥnḫ (Gardiner S34) — a loop above a tau cross, the hieroglyph for "life". Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Egyptian)

Must have

A closed loop sitting directly on the crossbar, not overlapping it
A horizontal crossbar wider than the loop
A vertical stem below the crossbar, longer than the loop is tall

Common errors checked for

Drawn with the loop as a full circle — the Egyptian form is a narrow oval
Confused with the Coptic crux ansata, which is the same figure in a Christian context and not a separate sign
Given a crossbar shorter than the loop, which makes it read as a key

Sources

Star of David

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2721 ✡ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+2721 — The Magen David — a hexagram of two overlapping equilateral triangles, drawn interlaced. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Judaism)

Must have

Six points, formed by two overlapping equilateral triangles
One triangle apex-up and one apex-down
A regular hexagon at the centre where they overlap
Six-fold rotational symmetry

Common errors checked for

Confused with the merkaba, which in this catalogue is a stellated OCTAHEDRON — a three-dimensional solid, not this flat figure. That confusion is exactly why the merkaba was rebuilt
Drawn as a unicursal star polygon {6/2}, which cannot be drawn in one stroke and is not this figure
Triangles of unequal size, so the central hexagon is not regular

Sources

Chi-Rho

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2627 ☧ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+2627 — The Chi-Rho or labarum — the Greek letters Χ and Ρ, the first two of ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, superimposed. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Christianity)

Must have

A rho (P) whose stem passes through the centre of a chi (X)
The bowl of the P on the upper right of the stem
Four arms of the X, of equal length

Common errors checked for

Drawn with the P bowl on the wrong side
Confused with the Chi-Rho-Iota or with a plain saltire
Given a closed bowl that reads as a Latin R rather than a Greek rho

Sources

Orthodox Cross

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2626 ☦ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+2626 — The Russian Orthodox cross — three bars, the lowest slanted. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Eastern Christianity)

Must have

Exactly three horizontal bars on one vertical stem
The topmost bar short (the titulus), the middle bar longest
The lowest bar SLANTED, not horizontal — its right end lower than its left as drawn

Common errors checked for

The footrest drawn level, which makes it a Lorraine or patriarchal cross instead
The slant reversed — the direction carries the traditional reading of the two thieves
Only two bars, which is the Cross of Lorraine

Sources

Star and Crescent

Tier B — canonical convention

U+262A ☪ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+262A — The star and crescent, the emblem carried on Ottoman flags from the late 18th century and now widely used for Islam. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Islam)

Must have

A crescent whose horns point away from the star
A five-pointed star sitting in the crescent's opening, not touching it
The crescent formed as the difference of two circles, tapering to points

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a constant-width arc rather than a lune, so the horns do not taper
The star placed outside the crescent's opening
Presented as a doctrinally required symbol of Islam — it is a late and largely political emblem, and many Muslims reject it

Sources

Om

Tier B — canonical convention

U+1F549 🕉 — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+1F549 — Om — the Devanagari syllable ॐ. U+1F549 is the symbol-block encoding of the same figure; the script-block codepoint is U+0950, which this font does not cover. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism)

Must have

The lower curve and the upper curve, joined, with a tail to the right
A crescent above, with a dot (bindu) above that
The dot separate from the crescent, not touching it

Common errors checked for

The bindu omitted, or fused into the crescent
Drawn from the Tibetan syllable ༀ (U+0F00) or the Gurmukhi Ik Onkar ੴ (U+0A74), which are different shapes for related ideas and not this glyph
Mirrored — the tail goes to the right

Sources

Dharmachakra

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2638 ☸ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+2638 — The Dharmachakra, the wheel of the law — an eight-spoked wheel for the Noble Eightfold Path. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Buddhism)

Must have

Exactly EIGHT spokes, evenly spaced
A hub at the centre, open rather than solid
A continuous outer rim
The gaps between spokes open, not filled

Common errors checked for

A spoke count other than eight — six, twelve and twenty-four all occur in the tradition but mean different things, and eight is what this character encodes
Spokes drawn as a solid disc with cuts, so the wheel reads as a rosette
Confused with a ship's wheel, which has handles projecting beyond the rim

Sources

Khanda

Tier B — canonical convention

U+262C ☬ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+262C — The Khanda — the double-edged khanda sword, within a chakkar, flanked by two kirpans. The outline is quoted from U+262C, whose Unicode name is ADI SHAKTI — a name from outside mainstream Sikh usage. Unicode added a second character under the community's own name, U+1FAAF KHANDA, in 2022; it is NOT in the vendored font (checked), so U+262C remains the only quotable source here and the discrepancy is recorded rather than hidden. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL), the same route the zodiac takes (Sikhism)

Must have

A vertical double-edged blade at the centre
A closed circle (the chakkar) around the middle of that blade
Two curved swords outside the circle, one on each side, curving inward
Bilateral symmetry about the vertical axis

Common errors checked for

The two kirpans drawn curving outward
The chakkar drawn as a broken arc rather than a closed circle
The central khanda drawn single-edged, which makes it a kirpan and loses the distinction the emblem is built on

Sources

Fehu

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16A0 ᚠ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16A0 — the Elder Futhark letter fehu, cattle, and so movable wealth. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Uruz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16A2 ᚢ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16A2 — the Elder Futhark letter uruz, the aurochs. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Thurisaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16A6 ᚦ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16A6 — the Elder Futhark letter thurisaz, the thurs, a giant. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Ansuz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16A8 ᚨ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16A8 — the Elder Futhark letter ansuz, a god, or the mouth. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Raido

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16B1 ᚱ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16B1 — the Elder Futhark letter raido, riding, a journey. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Kaunan

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16B2 ᚲ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16B2 — the Elder Futhark letter kaunan, the ulcer, or the torch. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Gebo

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16B7 ᚷ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16B7 — the Elder Futhark letter gebo, a gift. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Wunjo

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16B9 ᚹ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16B9 — the Elder Futhark letter wunjo, joy. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Hagalaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16BA ᚺ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16BA — the Elder Futhark letter hagalaz, hail. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Naudiz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16BE ᚾ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16BE — the Elder Futhark letter naudiz, need, constraint. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Isaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16C1 ᛁ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16C1 — the Elder Futhark letter isaz, ice. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Jera

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16C3 ᛃ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16C3 — the Elder Futhark letter jera, the year, the harvest. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Eihwaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16C7 ᛇ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16C7 — the Elder Futhark letter eihwaz, the yew. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Perth

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16C8 ᛈ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16C8 — the Elder Futhark letter perth, of disputed meaning — the rune poems disagree. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Algiz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16C9 ᛉ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16C9 — the Elder Futhark letter algiz, the elk, or protection. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Sowilo

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16CA ᛊ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16CA — the Elder Futhark letter sowilo, the sun. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Tiwaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16CF ᛏ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16CF — the Elder Futhark letter tiwaz, the god Tyr. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Berkanan

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16D2 ᛒ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16D2 — the Elder Futhark letter berkanan, the birch. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Ehwaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16D6 ᛖ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16D6 — the Elder Futhark letter ehwaz, the horse. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Mannaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16D7 ᛗ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16D7 — the Elder Futhark letter mannaz, man, humankind. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Laguz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16DA ᛚ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16DA — the Elder Futhark letter laguz, water, a lake. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Ingwaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16DC ᛜ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16DC — the Elder Futhark letter ingwaz, the god Ing. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Dagaz

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16DE ᛞ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16DE — the Elder Futhark letter dagaz, day. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

Othala

Tier B — canonical convention

U+16DF ᛟ — outline from Noto Sans Runic (OFL)

Audit trail

Authority

U+16DF — the Elder Futhark letter othala, the inherited estate. Outline quoted from Noto Sans Runic (OFL, vendored with its licence)

Must have

Drawn with straight strokes only — runes were cut into wood and stone, and no Elder Futhark letter has a curve
No horizontal strokes: a rune cut across the grain of a wooden stave would split it, which is why the alphabet avoids them
The staves meet cleanly, with no stroke overshooting a junction

Common errors checked for

Confused with a Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon form — the three alphabets share shapes but differ in sound and count (24, 16 and up to 33 letters)
Drawn with curves, which belongs to later manuscript hands rather than to cut inscription
Given a meaning from modern rune-reading books rather than from the three rune poems, which are the only medieval glosses that exist

Sources

The Sun

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2609 — a circle with a central point

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+2609 SUN / U+1F71A ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR GOLD

Must have

A single circle
A filled or solid dot at the exact centre

Common errors checked for

Dot missing
Dot off-centre
Adding rays (that is a different, modern sun symbol)

Sources

The Moon

Tier B — canonical convention

U+263D — a lune: the difference of two circles of unequal radius, horns to the left

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+263D FIRST QUARTER MOON / U+1F71B ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR SILVER

Must have

A crescent (lune) shape
Formed by two arcs of different radii
Horns pointing to one side, not up

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a filled circle
Crescent too thin or too thick to read
Horns pointing upward like a cup

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_symbol

Alchemical Salt

Tier B — canonical convention

U+1F714 — a circle bisected by a horizontal diameter

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+1F714 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR SALT

Must have

A single circle
One horizontal line through its full diameter, splitting it in half

Common errors checked for

Line not passing through the centre
Line short of the circumference
Using a vertical line

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol

Alchemical Sulfur

Tier B — canonical convention

U+1F70D — an equilateral triangle above a cross

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+1F70D ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR SULFUR

Must have

An upward-pointing triangle on top
A cross directly below the triangle
Both on a shared vertical axis

Common errors checked for

Triangle pointing down (that is water/earth)
Cross missing
Cross overlapping the triangle

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol

Alchemical Fire

Tier B — canonical convention

U+1F702 — an equilateral triangle, apex up

Audit trail

Authority

U+1F702 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR FIRE — an equilateral triangle, apex up, with no bar. The apex direction and the presence of the bar are quoted from Noto Sans Symbols; the equilateral proportion is the equation, NOT the font, which draws these triangles at an aspect of 0.955 against the equilateral 0.866

Must have

An equilateral triangle: all three sides the same length, measured on the band centrelines rather than the ink bounding box
The apex points upward
No bar of any kind — a bar would make this air
Struck as an outline band, so the interior is open rather than filled
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a solid plate rather than a struck band, which does not match the rest of the alchemical shelf
A triangle that is not equilateral — most published versions are noticeably taller than wide, and the retired stroked sulfur in this catalogue failed the same way at 60 wide by 45 tall
The bar placed by eye rather than on the midsegment, so it is not half the base long and does not sit at half the height
The bar overhanging the sides or stopping short of them, which happens when its ends are put on the outer edge of the legs instead of on their centrelines
The bar added to fire or water, or omitted from air or earth — the bar is the ONLY difference within each apex pair, so getting it wrong silently ships one element under the other's name

Sources

Alchemical Water

Tier B — canonical convention

U+1F704 — an equilateral triangle, apex down

Audit trail

Authority

U+1F704 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR WATER — an equilateral triangle, apex down, with no bar. The apex direction and the presence of the bar are quoted from Noto Sans Symbols; the equilateral proportion is the equation, NOT the font, which draws these triangles at an aspect of 0.955 against the equilateral 0.866

Must have

An equilateral triangle: all three sides the same length, measured on the band centrelines rather than the ink bounding box
The apex points downward
No bar of any kind — a bar would make this earth
Struck as an outline band, so the interior is open rather than filled
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a solid plate rather than a struck band, which does not match the rest of the alchemical shelf
A triangle that is not equilateral — most published versions are noticeably taller than wide, and the retired stroked sulfur in this catalogue failed the same way at 60 wide by 45 tall
The bar placed by eye rather than on the midsegment, so it is not half the base long and does not sit at half the height
The bar overhanging the sides or stopping short of them, which happens when its ends are put on the outer edge of the legs instead of on their centrelines
The bar added to fire or water, or omitted from air or earth — the bar is the ONLY difference within each apex pair, so getting it wrong silently ships one element under the other's name

Sources

Alchemical Air

Tier B — canonical convention

U+1F701 — an equilateral triangle, apex up, crossed by a horizontal bar

Audit trail

Authority

U+1F701 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR AIR — an equilateral triangle, apex up, crossed by a horizontal bar. The apex direction and the presence of the bar are quoted from Noto Sans Symbols; the equilateral proportion is the equation, NOT the font, which draws these triangles at an aspect of 0.955 against the equilateral 0.866

Must have

An equilateral triangle: all three sides the same length, measured on the band centrelines rather than the ink bounding box
The apex points upward
A single horizontal bar crossing the triangle at half its height, exactly half the base long, with its ends meeting the two slanted sides
Struck as an outline band, so the interior is open rather than filled
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a solid plate rather than a struck band, which does not match the rest of the alchemical shelf
A triangle that is not equilateral — most published versions are noticeably taller than wide, and the retired stroked sulfur in this catalogue failed the same way at 60 wide by 45 tall
The bar placed by eye rather than on the midsegment, so it is not half the base long and does not sit at half the height
The bar overhanging the sides or stopping short of them, which happens when its ends are put on the outer edge of the legs instead of on their centrelines
The bar added to fire or water, or omitted from air or earth — the bar is the ONLY difference within each apex pair, so getting it wrong silently ships one element under the other's name

Sources

Alchemical Earth

Tier B — canonical convention

U+1F703 — an equilateral triangle, apex down, crossed by a horizontal bar

Audit trail

Authority

U+1F703 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR EARTH — an equilateral triangle, apex down, crossed by a horizontal bar. The apex direction and the presence of the bar are quoted from Noto Sans Symbols; the equilateral proportion is the equation, NOT the font, which draws these triangles at an aspect of 0.955 against the equilateral 0.866

Must have

An equilateral triangle: all three sides the same length, measured on the band centrelines rather than the ink bounding box
The apex points downward
A single horizontal bar crossing the triangle at half its height, exactly half the base long, with its ends meeting the two slanted sides
Struck as an outline band, so the interior is open rather than filled
Bilaterally symmetric about the vertical axis

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a solid plate rather than a struck band, which does not match the rest of the alchemical shelf
A triangle that is not equilateral — most published versions are noticeably taller than wide, and the retired stroked sulfur in this catalogue failed the same way at 60 wide by 45 tall
The bar placed by eye rather than on the midsegment, so it is not half the base long and does not sit at half the height
The bar overhanging the sides or stopping short of them, which happens when its ends are put on the outer edge of the legs instead of on their centrelines
The bar added to fire or water, or omitted from air or earth — the bar is the ONLY difference within each apex pair, so getting it wrong silently ships one element under the other's name

Sources

Gold

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2609 — a circle with a central point — alchemy uses the planetary sign unchanged for the metal

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+1F71A — gold/sun, circle with central point

Must have

Circle with a central dot

Common errors checked for

Differs from the Sun glyph — they must be identical

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol

Silver

Tier B — canonical convention

U+263D — a lune: the difference of two circles of unequal radius, horns to the left — alchemy uses the planetary sign unchanged for the metal

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+1F71B — silver/moon crescent

Must have

A crescent lune

Common errors checked for

Differs from the Moon glyph — they must be identical

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol

Quicksilver

Tier B — canonical convention

U+263F ☿ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL) — alchemy uses the planetary sign unchanged for the metal

Audit trail

Authority

Unicode U+263F — same glyph as the planet Mercury

Must have

Crescent above circle above cross
Vertically aligned

Common errors checked for

Differs from the planetary Mercury glyph — they must be identical

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol

Copper

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2640 ♀ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL) — alchemy uses the planetary sign unchanged for the metal

Audit trail

Authority

The sign for copper IS the sign for Venus, ♀, used unchanged. Alchemy did not distinguish the metal from its planet, so this aliases the planetary construction rather than copying it — one outline, two slugs

Must have

Identical to the Venus glyph in every respect — not a variant of it, and not redrawn
Taken from the reference font like the planet it aliases, rather than constructed separately

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a deliberate variant of Venus, which invents a distinction the tradition does not make
Confused with another metal: the seven are gold/Sun, silver/Moon, quicksilver/Mercury, copper/Venus, iron/Mars, tin/Jupiter and lead/Saturn

Sources

Iron

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2642 ♂ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL) — alchemy uses the planetary sign unchanged for the metal

Audit trail

Authority

The sign for iron IS the sign for Mars, ♂, used unchanged. Alchemy did not distinguish the metal from its planet, so this aliases the planetary construction rather than copying it — one outline, two slugs

Must have

Identical to the Mars glyph in every respect — not a variant of it, and not redrawn
Taken from the reference font like the planet it aliases, rather than constructed separately

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a deliberate variant of Mars, which invents a distinction the tradition does not make
Confused with another metal: the seven are gold/Sun, silver/Moon, quicksilver/Mercury, copper/Venus, iron/Mars, tin/Jupiter and lead/Saturn

Sources

Tin

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2643 ♃ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL) — alchemy uses the planetary sign unchanged for the metal

Audit trail

Authority

The sign for tin IS the sign for Jupiter, ♃, used unchanged. Alchemy did not distinguish the metal from its planet, so this aliases the planetary construction rather than copying it — one outline, two slugs

Must have

Identical to the Jupiter glyph in every respect — not a variant of it, and not redrawn
Taken from the reference font like the planet it aliases, rather than constructed separately

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a deliberate variant of Jupiter, which invents a distinction the tradition does not make
Confused with another metal: the seven are gold/Sun, silver/Moon, quicksilver/Mercury, copper/Venus, iron/Mars, tin/Jupiter and lead/Saturn

Sources

Lead

Tier B — canonical convention

U+2644 ♄ — outline from Noto Sans Symbols (OFL) — alchemy uses the planetary sign unchanged for the metal

Audit trail

Authority

The sign for lead IS the sign for Saturn, ♄, used unchanged. Alchemy did not distinguish the metal from its planet, so this aliases the planetary construction rather than copying it — one outline, two slugs

Must have

Identical to the Saturn glyph in every respect — not a variant of it, and not redrawn
Taken from the reference font like the planet it aliases, rather than constructed separately

Common errors checked for

Drawn as a deliberate variant of Saturn, which invents a distinction the tradition does not make
Confused with another metal: the seven are gold/Sun, silver/Moon, quicksilver/Mercury, copper/Venus, iron/Mars, tin/Jupiter and lead/Saturn

Sources

The Golden Ratio

Tier A — exactly constructible

A rectangle of ratio phi, divided into its square and the smaller golden rectangle

Audit trail

Authority

phi = (1+√5)/2; logarithmic spiral r = a·e^(bθ)

Must have

A rectangle whose width:height ratio is about 1.618
Subdivided into progressively smaller squares
A spiral growing through the subdivisions

Common errors checked for

Spiral not aligned to the square subdivisions
Rectangle proportion not φ

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral

Fibonacci Spiral

Tier A — exactly constructible

Quarter arcs of radii 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 — each centred on the corner the previous square shares

Audit trail

Authority

Quarter arcs on a Fibonacci tiling — radii 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13

Must have

ONE continuous curve — every quarter arc begins exactly where the previous one ended
Each arc is a quarter turn, all turning the same way
Radii follow the Fibonacci sequence, so each arc is the sum of the two before it
The curve is open: it encloses no region and never crosses itself

Common errors checked for

Arcs placed so their centres sit at the previous arc end, which leaves each quarter starting a full radius away and breaks the curve into fragments
Drawing a freehand or logarithmic curve that is neither golden nor built from the sequence
Radii that grow by a constant factor rather than by the Fibonacci recurrence

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral

Monas Hieroglyphica

Tier B — canonical convention

John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica (1564) — Moon, Sun, elemental Cross and Aries on one axis

Audit trail

Authority

John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica (Antwerp, 1564) — Theorems I, IV, XII and XIII

Must have

Four signs stacked on ONE vertical axis, in this order from the top
A crescent moon at the top with its horns pointing UP
Below it the sun: a ring with a point at its centre
Below that a cross, its bar crossing the descending stem
At the foot the sign of Aries: two arches opening DOWNWARD, joined at a cusp, free ends hanging down
The whole figure is symmetric about the vertical axis

Common errors checked for

Crescent inverted so the horns point down, which reads as a cap over the sun rather than the moon above it
Aries drawn as two sideways C shapes, which reads as a moustache
Aries inverted into two upward-opening bowls — the arches must hang down, as in Dee's own woodcut
Omitting the point at the centre of the sun, leaving a plain ring
The cross bar placed so low that it tangles with the horns

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monas_Hieroglyphica