01
Name the form of love
Romantic love, friendship, devotion, care, and remembrance should not be flattened into one generic message.
Love Symbols
41 symbols to explore
Meaning & historical contextBrowse love symbols
41 symbols, with primary meanings first.
About love symbols
Love symbols can express romance, devotion, friendship, care, fidelity, or grief for someone loved. Their emotional force often comes from context, pairing, inscription, and use rather than the motif alone.
Historical context
Love has been represented through gifts, rings, knots, flowers, clasped hands, paired figures, hearts, devotional images, and poetic or heraldic devices. Some forms marked betrothal or marriage; others expressed religious devotion, loyalty, remembrance, or an ideal of courtly affection.
Modern designs frequently combine these histories. A heart may be immediately legible, while a plant, animal, or personal object can carry a more private meaning. The page therefore connects love with both emotion and historical function.
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 love.
Start with the exact idea, then narrow it through history, tradition, and intended use.
02
Look for a shared reference
A personally meaningful flower, place, or object can say more than an impersonal romantic emblem.
03
Consider permanence
For tattoos and memorial objects, choose imagery whose meaning remains clear without a temporary trend.
Follow the context
Explore the worlds around love.
These routes are generated from the structured metadata shared by the matching symbols.
Traditions
Eras
Objects
Uses
Styles
Emotions
Related meanings
Sanctum Hex Journal
Read beyond the catalogue.
Editorial research connected to love and its historical settings.
Curated sets
Collections with related symbols.
Collection overlap is shown against the symbols on this meaning page.
11 matching symbols
Botanical Silhouettes — Flowers, Leaves & Plants in Simplified Nineteenth-Century Style
Botanical Silhouettes brings together 25 flowers, leaves and plants rendered as bold, simplified botanical emblems. Inspired by nineteenth-century botanical illustration and decorative arts, the collection focuses on recognisable plant forms translated into clean silhouettes suitable for engraving, cutting and print. Many of these plants also appear in historical traditions of botanical symbolism. Where a historical symbolic association is documented, individual entries should distinguish period evidence from later or modern interpretations.
7 matching symbols
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.
5 matching symbols
Emblems and Symbols of Secret Societies and Initiatory Orders
A diverse selection of historically documented emblems and insignia used by secret societies, initiatory orders, and fraternal organisations worldwide.
5 matching symbols
Memento Mori Mortality Symbols Collection
Memento Mori Mortality Symbols gathers 25 symbols shaped around hourglasses, candles, skull-adjacent marks, decay and renewal motifs, time symbols, and mortality emblems, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.
4 matching symbols
Nautical & Maritime Symbols Collection
Nautical & Maritime Symbols gathers 25 symbols shaped around ropework, anchors, beacons, ships, swallows, hearts, stars, and the symbolic shorthand of maritime life, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.
3 matching symbols
Sanctum Hex Style Sacred Geometry Collection
Sanctum Hex Style Sacred Geometry gathers 25 symbols shaped around hex-based geometry, interlocking forms, measured circles, sigil-like grids, and clean sacred-geometry constructions, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.
2 matching symbols
Alchemical Symbols Collection
Alchemical Symbols gathers 25 symbols shaped around alchemy, transmutation, planetary correspondences, and the symbolic language of matter, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.
2 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.
2 matching symbols
Norse Symbols & Runes
A researched set spanning early Germanic Elder Futhark runes, Viking-age Norse motifs, medieval mythology, and later Icelandic magical staves. Each symbol distinguishes documented historical evidence from modern meanings such as guidance, protection, strength, memory, resilience, and renewal.
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.
Language of Flowers
Kate Greenaway, Language of Flowers, late nineteenth century, “Sunflower, Dwarf — Adoration” and “Sunflower, Tall — Haughtiness.”
Project Gutenberg
The Language of Flowers, or, Floral Emblems of Thoughts, Feelings, and Sentiments
Robert Tyas, The Language of Flowers, nineteenth-century edition, Honeysuckle chapter: “Bonds of Love.”
Internet Archive scan via Wikimedia Commons
The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering; a Token of Affection and Esteem
Henrietta Dumont, The Floral Offering (1851), “Myrtle — Love,” with discussion of the plant's association with Venus.
Project Gutenberg / H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss
Body Art During World War II
Russo, Carolyn. Body Art During World War II, from the Lyle Tuttle Tattoo Art Collection, 9 September 2020.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Sailors' Tattoos
Sailors' Tattoos. Naval History and Heritage Command, updated 2026.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
Tattoo Flash
Unidentified artist. Tattoo Flash, twentieth century, object 1998.84.50F.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Tattoo Flash Sample Book
Unidentified artist. Tattoo Flash Sample Book, twentieth century, object VR.1998.84.50A-F.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Runes – write as a Viking
Runes – write as a Viking. Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde.
Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde
The Rune Poem
The Rune Poem. Old English Poetry Project.
Rutgers University–Camden
Swords of the Knights of Pythias
Grand Lodge of Missouri, Knights of Pythias, “Swords of the Knights of Pythias.”
Grand Lodge of Missouri, Knights of Pythias
Knights of Pythias
Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias, official website.
Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias
Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet (c. 1890)
Virginia Museum of History & Culture, “Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet (c. 1890).”
Virginia Museum of History & Culture