Sanctum Hex

Vanitas Symbols

13 symbols to explore

Meaning & historical context

Browse vanitas symbols

13 symbols.

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Rose and Ash Device preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Rose and Ash Device

The rose holds beauty, love, and memory in a recognisable form while ash shows what form eventually becomes, creating a deliberate contrast between what is cherished, what is lost, and what remains.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathLoveMemoryHistorically supported
Candle Skull Seal preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Candle Skull Seal

Bone and flame make the message immediate: the skull names mortality, while the candle turns a human lifespan into light that burns brightly, diminishes, and eventually goes out.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryFaithHistorically supported
Bone Circle Mark preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Bone Circle Mark

Bones arranged into a closed circle turn the body's remains into a stark image of equality and return: status falls away, memory persists, and every life meets the same physical limit.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathBalanceMemoryHistorically supported
Fading Crown Seal preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Fading Crown Seal

A crown losing its form strips rank of permanence, turning an emblem of status into a reminder that achievement, authority, and possession cannot place anyone beyond mortality.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathHumilityMemoryHistorically supported
Ash Flower Sign preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Ash Flower Sign

Flower and ash occupy opposite ends of the same image: one still holds form, the other has returned to residue, creating a quiet meditation on beauty, loss, memory, and renewal.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryRenewalHistorically supported
Hourglass Rose Mark preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Hourglass Rose Mark

An hourglass beside a rose sets measured time against living beauty, creating a reminder that what is cherished is made more precious by its impermanence.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryLoveHistorically supported
Broken Clock Mark preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Broken Clock Mark

A damaged clock turns the steady measurement of time into interruption, making the mark especially resonant with endings that arrive before plans, relationships, or ambitions feel complete.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryHumilityHistorically supported
Dead Branch Seal preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Dead Branch Seal

A bare branch records absence through what is missing—leaf, flower, fruit—making the seal a restrained image of mortality, endurance, seasonal change, and the possibility that barrenness is not always final.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathTransformationMemoryHistorically supported
Skull Window Emblem preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Skull Window Emblem

Framing the skull as a window makes mortality something to look through rather than simply look at, turning the emblem toward perspective, memory, humility, and reflection on how life is used.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryWisdomHistorically supported
Last Flame Seal preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Last Flame Seal

A final flame holds at the edge of darkness, capturing the fragile interval before extinction while leaving open another reading: that even a small surviving light can become memory, vigil, faith, or hope.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryHopeHistorically supported
Memory Bone Frame preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Memory Bone Frame

Bones form a boundary around an imagined memory, shifting human remains from a warning about death into a frame for what death cannot contain completely: name, relationship, identity, and remembrance.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryIdentityHistorically supported
Dust Crown Mark preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Dust Crown Mark

A crown collapsing into dust reduces authority to the same material end as every other body, making the mark a direct statement about mortality, humility, equality, and the temporary nature of status.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathHumilityBalanceHistorically supported
Wilted Lily Device preview
Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Wilted Lily Device

The lily is shown after its moment of fullness, making the bend of the stem and fading bloom a restrained image of mourning, impermanence, memory, and renewal.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryRenewalHistorically supported

About vanitas symbols

Vanitas symbols and their researched historical, cultural, and practical relationships.

Sanctum Hex Journal

Read beyond the catalogue.

Editorial research connected to vanitas and its historical settings.

Memento Mori Mortality Symbols: Meanings, Origins, and Visual Language

Memento Mori Mortality Symbols shapes mortality, time, and remembrance motifs into restrained symbolic marks.

Read article →

Curated sets

Collections with related symbols.

Collection overlap is shown against the symbols on this meaning page.

13 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.