Sources of Symbols

Christian

(Important Note: I have only uploaded the glyphs I have used in practice sentences and sample constructions. Therefore, not every glyph indicated on these "source" pages is available on my website at the moment. Instead, you'll probably see a lot of these little guys, , indicating that the image can't be loaded.)

Christianity is central to the traditional Western world view, so a huge chunk of our symbolic vocabulary is based on Christian imagery. In fact, once you start researching it, it looks like just about every object imaginable has some sort of Christian symbolism. Like frogs. In cemeteries, a frog symbolizes resurrection. In medieval art, it would indicate the sin of lust. Now, the lady in the next cubicle tells me that her stuffed frog stands for "Fully Rely On God."

Or we can go at it from the other direction and Google the phrase "symbolizes resurrection". The results? In addition to frogs, it would appear that a vine, a butterfly, baptism, a shell, a torch, wheat and, of course, the cross also symbolize resurrection.

See also the symbolism for Saints and Cemetaries

Image	Object	Christian Symbolism
	Anchor	Hope, steadiness, secret cross
	Angel
	Apple	Sin
	Beehive	Activity, Teamwork, Hard work
	Bell	Call to worship
	Benediction	The Trinity
	Bishop
	Book	The Bible, The Word of God
	Butterfly	Resurrection
	Candle	Light
	Celtic Cross
	Church
	Crook	The Good Shepherd
	Cross	Christ
	Crown	Kingdom of God
	Cup	Last Supper, the blood of Christ
	Devil	The Enemy
	Dove	The Holy Spirit
	Fish	Greek ("fish"), an anagram for ("Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior")
	Gamma Cross
	Goat	Sinner
	Grapes	Holy Communion
	Key
	Lamb	Sacrifice
	Lamp	Word of God
	Lily	Easter, Resurrection
	Maltese Cross
	Orb
	Ox	Strength, Service, Patience
	Providence	God
	Sheep	Congregation
	Shell	Baptism
	Tablets	The Ten Commandments
	Torch	Witnessing for Christ
	Triquetra	The Trinity
	Unicorn	Strength, Virginity

So, with apologies to the heathens among us, it will be difficult to create an iconic language based on Western symbols that is free of imbedded Christianity. On the other hand, we should note that just because a word has an etymology rooted in Christian symbolism, this isn't necessarily a ringing endorsement for the faith:

bedlam (from Bethlehem)
cretin (from Christian)
macabre (from Macabees)
maudlin (from Mary Magdalen)
tawdry (from St. Audrey)

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Last updated December 2003