Tecla said:
Could it be a sickle as suggested by Lon Milo Duquette? Then why would she stick this sharp end of it in the big eye at the top of the card?
I think Duquette was on the right track with the sickle idea, but where he comes up with the idea that she is poking it into the eye is truly beyond me.
Crowley never says what the symbol actually is, but he does say what this card represents: "The Fool is the negative issuing into manifestation; the Universe is that manifestation, its purpose accomplished, ready to return." - Book of Thoth; Page 118. The overall meaning then, according to Crowley, is that of
return. The woman represents the World Spirit returning to source. I believe the crescent, sickle, or fish hook are all correct to some degree.
"In ancient Egypt, fishing was responsible for restoring Osiris to his original shape. The moon, which was an eye torn from Horus, was found in a fishing net; the hands severed from the god were discovered in a fishing basket." - Penguin Dictionary of Symbols; Page 385. After Isis had retrieved the dismembered parts of Osiris, with the help of Horus, she restored him to life (spiritually) through magic and he became the Lord of the Dead in the spirit world. Crowley makes clear in his description of the Tower that the eye in that card is the eye of Horus, so it seems reasonable to assume that this same eye is the one we see in the Universe card. They look exactly alike anyway.
"Fishing amounts to extracting the unconscious elements from deep-lying sources - the 'elusive treasure' of legend, or, in other words, wisdom." - A Dictionary of Symbols; J.E. Cirlot; Page 108
Taken together - the fish hook (fishing,
extraction), the sickle (the harvest), and the crescent (spiritual renewal) - all paint a picture of the World Spirit, Sophia (wisdom) being liberated from material form.
It is also interesting that the Universe's dancing partner just happens to be a serpent, fequently a symbol for wisdom.
Just a few thoughts. I could be way off.