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See also free ankh pictures and clip-art. The Ankh Cross represents life (immortality) and death, male and female, balance. It can also represent zest, joy of life, and energy. It's closely related to the looped cross that can mean fertility and life. The Ancient Egyptians used the ankh to stand for a word meaning life. It is also called crux ansata, Latin for crosswith-a-handle. When the Roman Emperor Constantine claimed to have had a vision of death outside the walls of Jerusalem he made the symbol of punishment and death (the cross) synonymous with Christianity; Constantine's cross was made from a sword and a spear, a sign that a soldier could make, and non-Christians learned to hate and fear the brutality that was associated with this symbol for over a thousand years. As a result, the Ankh Cross, like the swastica usurped by the Nazis, has become associated also with Christianity.
Like most religious or spiritual symbols, the Ankh Cross doesn't have a single simple meaning. The following extracts from books on symbols might help you get a feeling for it, though.
is sometimes called the key of the Nile. The symbol is associated with Imkotep (living
aroung 3000 B.C.), physician for the pharaoh's family. Long after his death Imkotep was made the god of medicine of healing in Egypt. That is why this symbol is used as the logotype for a multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer. The same sign structure, but with the closed element filled in, Mochica culture around the seventh century. , has been found in Peru used by the
The above entry sign was adopted by Christian symbolism and given the name crux ansata or Coptic cross. The crux ansata, or handlebar cross, was also drawn Compare with in Group 41:b and also with in this group. .
This sign has been used to represent copper during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries instead of the more common .
Dictionary of Symbols, Carl G. Liungman, 1991; originally published as Symboler - vsterlmdskala ideogram in Sweden in 1974, translated to English by the author.
The significance of the Girdle of Isis is far more complex. Like ropework or plaited hair round the arms and the loop of the cross, it infuses the concept of life and of immortality with the concept of the knots which tie down mortal life on Earth and which must be unravelled to enjoy immortality. `Free your bonds,' says The Egyptian Book of the Dead, `untie the knots of Nephthys.' And again: `Shining are those who carry the girdle. Oh! Bearers of the Girdle.' The same meaning is conveyed by the Tibetan Buddhist book called The Book of the Untying of the Knots. While the plain looped cross symbolizes divine immortality, sought orattained, the Girdle of Isis makes clear the conditions under which that immortality is obtained - by the untying of knots - dnouement in the true sense of the word. A Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, translated from the French by John Buchan-Brown, Blackwell, 1994 (the French edition was originally published by ditions Robert Laffront S.A. in 1969, 2nd ed. 1982) If you get this book, try and get the hardback edition: the reviews at Amazon say the Penguin paperback is on cheap paper, at least in the US. Note also that the English edition is not illustrated.
Links
Some other Web pages about the ankh: 1. The Afrocentric Experience said The Ankh is defined as: The symbolic representation of both Physical and Eternal life. It is known as the original cross, which is a powerful symbol that was first created by Africans in Ancient Egypt. 2. pantheon.org says It is also known as the Key of the Nile, representing the union of Isis and Osiris. It is said that this mystic union would initiate the annual flooding of the Nile, providing Egypt with her various means to survive. The meaning of the ankh as womb, thus fertility and reproduction, is well-illustrated in this particular legend. See also the wikipedia, and also I have some free ankh images.