question about symbols for the signs

Where or how did the glyphs (I think that's the right word) for the astrological signs originate?

-- Kyrielle

the glyphs for mars and venus are the general male and female symbils. mercury is a combination of venus and taurus with the curve above. jupiter and saturns are oppisite in general, whre as neptune resemlbes the psi, a greek letter.

I believe that most of them originated iwht Greece and /or rome, although Egyps and/or Persia coudl be the origion of some of hte symbols. Its hard to pinpoint any one spot but the Roman European and the Arabian areas are a good place to start.

There actually is an older version of the Mars glyph - an upturned Venus - the cross on top of the circle instead of under it.

The glyphs tend to use three symbols - the cross of matter, the circle of spirit and the semi-circle of the soul/imagination. Thus Venus shows the spirit rising above matter but Mars shows matter rising above the spirit. Jupiter shows the semi-circle of the soul beginning to rise above the cross of matter and Saturn shows the cross of matter rising over the semicircle of the soul.

The latter imagery suggests that Jupiter shows our capacity to rise above the material and to be guided by our soul urge or imagination, whereas Saturn tells us that the material world has to be harmonised with our soul/imagination if we are to live from day to day - it shows the material limitations on life.

Even the outer planets can be interpreted in this way - Uranus shows two semicircles open in opposite directions joined by the cross of matter.