Identity Symbols

238 symbols to explore

Meaning & historical context

The composite emblem of the Theosophical Society, combining symbols drawn from several religious and philosophical traditions.

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CommercialWisdomTransformationIdentityHistorically supported

About identity symbols

Identity symbols communicate belonging, status, belief, profession, ancestry, place, or an individual sense of self. Because identity is both chosen and assigned, the same emblem can affirm community for one person and impose a label on another.

Historical context

Seals, heraldry, dress, badges, names, portraits, tools, religious signs, civic emblems, and family objects have all made identity visible. Such systems could grant recognition and solidarity, but they could also enforce hierarchy, ownership, exclusion, or political power. Contemporary identity artwork often combines inherited signs with personal experience. Responsible use asks who has authority to use the emblem, what history travels with it, and whether a newly made mark should be described as personal rather than traditional.

A note on interpretation

Symbolic meanings are not universal definitions. They change with period, place, material, belief, and use. Sanctum Hex separates documented historical context from later convention and modern personal interpretation.

Explore the Journal →

Choose with context

How to choose a symbol for identity.

Traditional Nautical Tattoo Collection

Traditional Nautical Tattoo gathers 25 symbols shaped around traditional flash language, protection motifs, bold line symbolism, and heirloom Americana composition, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.

11 matching symbols

Medieval Pilgrim Protective Symbols (1100-1600) Collection

Medieval Pilgrim Protective Symbols (1100-1600) gathers 25 symbols shaped around pilgrim badges, journey signs, devotional monograms, protective emblems, shrine souvenirs, manuscript motifs, and symbols of faith, endurance, healing, identity, and safe return, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.

Research trail

Sources behind the matching entries.

These references support the individual symbol histories on this page. They are not presented as evidence for one universal meaning.

Sword, museum number 1858,1116.5

British Museum collection record for a sword found near Lincoln in the River Witham, dated c. 1250–1330.

The British Museum

Morgan Seal 147 (Porada, CANES)

Porada, Edith. Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North American Collections I. The Collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York: Pantheon, 1948, p. 21, Morgan Seal 147.

The Morgan Library & Museum

Black and Green on the human-headed bull

Black, Jeremy, and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. London: British Museum Press, 1992, s.v. human-headed bull. Distinguishes the third-millennium glyptic type from first-millennium winged gate-colossi.

British Museum Press

Ur Royal Cemetery contest glyptic

Woolley, C. Leonard. Ur Excavations II: The Royal Cemetery. London: British Museum / University Museum, 1934, contest seals with human-headed bulls. See also Porada, CANES, Early Dynastic III-Akkadian contest groups.

British Museum / University Museum of Pennsylvania

Tirailleurs sénégalais : quelques objets du Musée

Musée de l’Armée, “Tirailleurs sénégalais : quelques objets du Musée,” 16 January 2023.

Musée de l’Armée

Baptême du premier stage déconcentré d’élèves gendarmes

Gendarmerie nationale, “Baptême du premier stage déconcentré d’élèves gendarmes adjoints volontaires à Mayenne,” 17 August 2020.

Gendarmerie nationale

À la découverte des symboles militaires

Gendarmerie nationale, “À la découverte des symboles militaires,” 6 February 2021.

Gendarmerie nationale

Statue de Gudea dite « au vase jaillissant », Louvre AO 22126

Musée du Louvre AO 22126, Statue N of Gudea, Girsu (Tello), Neo-Sumerian, c. 2120–2110 BCE.

Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités orientales

Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia

Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary (British Museum Press, 1992), s.v. “flowing vase,” “Ea.”

British Museum Press

The Adda Seal, British Museum 89115 (discriminator)

British Museum 89115 (1891,0509.2553), Akkadian greenstone cylinder seal of Adda.

British Museum

Kenmon Shokamon (見聞諸家紋)

Kenmon Shokamon (見聞諸家紋), compiled c. 1467–1470. Album of house-paired drawings; later catalogues apply type-names as labels on those drawings, not as Muromachi captions on the plates.

Kan’ei fu and Kansei fu (Edo genealogies)

Edo genealogies (Kan’ei fu; Kansei fu) name maru-ni kuginuki and nijū-kuginuki for Ichiyanagi, and kuginuki as Kawakatsu (川勝) jōmon (Kan’ei fu). Hori and Ogyū-Matsudaira remain unread at fu-page in the Historian pass.