A Druidic Cosmos Sigil

This sigil has begun to appear more often both in-house in ADF, and randomly out in Pagandom. I was asked for a more complete discussion of the origin and meaning of this fairly complex symbol. I invented this design in the 1990s, some time, as part of an effort to create some evocative line-art sigils to be used in our growing Druidic Occultism. The family of sigils from that effort includes simple signs for the Three Kindreds of Gods, Dead, and Landspirits, and various gates, triskels etc. Out of all of those, the Cosmos Sigil seems to ‘have legs’, as they probably used to say – I don’t keep up.

ADF published some of those sigils in an article, and the Cosmos sigil seems to have begun to appear in google searches for things like ‘Druid Symbols’. It had caught on in ADF to a degree, most commonly used as a symbol of the World Tree. As a result, I think, of Google placement it has begun to appear randomly on handcrafted Etsy items, and most recently in lovely metal tokens from some trans-pacific tokener. Mainly I have refrained from protest or efforts to Get Money – I’ll take my smug pleasure in seeing my work’s influence for reward. 

Slavic and Euro Tree motifs

It brings together a number of influences, along with my personal aesthetic sense about cool occult sigils. One primary influence in the overall structure of the piece is the so-called ‘Tree of Life’ motif common in folk patterns, embroidery and crafts. It is fair to call the symbol a Tree of Life, adapted to our threefold cosmology. I began with a simple stylized tree, with a Druidical three roots reaching down and three branches reaching up. Looking for a way to more directly depict the Underworld and Heavens concepts I placed a display-circle in the center branch, and curved the other two branches in cool pointy crescent. Note the extending center branch or root past the circle.

In the upper circle is the eight-spoked wheel that stands for the turning order of the Heavenly Lights – sun, moon and stars. In the lower circle is the spiral that stands for the swirling Underworld Waters, the wells and springs of the deep. I simple graphic element divides each from the center, because I liked it.

The square, nine-chambered figure in the center represents the manifest world, arising in the tension between depth and height. The figure is a European folk-motif with many meanings – for instance it is the playing-board for the game of Nine-man Morris. In my mind it is specifically the so-called Nine-Chambered Hall of Tara, as sort-of described in the cryptic Irish tale “TheSettling of the Manor of Tara”. So the King is seated in the center, and the Four Kings seated around him, and the Nobles of each king around them.

 

So, I mean the Cosmos sigil to represent eh whole of what Our Druidry sometimes calls the ‘Vertical Axis’ – the root and crown that reaches from the Underworld Wells to the Center of the Sky, with our whole turning world in the midst. Thus is it both an affirmation of place and power for those who bear, wear or show it, and even a protective symbol, in that it affirms the Way of Things against chaos and ill-turning. May my work have value to The Work.