The Handle Cross (or Ankh), is also known as breath of life, the key to the Nile or the crux ansata (Latin, meaning “cross with a handle).
This sign was an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph; a sign that means life or life-giving forces.
Prior to Christianity, the sign was combined with figures and gestures to represent life forces in different aspects, as air, water, food, plants, and sex.
The ankh represents the concept of life, the general meaning of the symbol. The Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest. The ankh appears either in the hands of, or in proximity to, almost every deity in the Egyptian pantheon (including Pharaohs). It is widely understood as a symbol of early religious pluralism: all sects believed in a common story of eternal life, and this is the literal meaning of the symbol. This rationale contributed to the adoption of the ankh by New Age mystics in the 1960s.
The symbol is often found in early Coptic art and represents the Tree of Life. In appearance, it resembles a man with outstretched arms. The Coptic Church accepted the ankh as a Christian symbol as early as the fourth century. In a number of murals and carvings from the 4th to the 9th century, the ankh is shown together with a Greek cross and a Chi Rho, representing the merging of meanings. In heraldry, the ankh is the crux ansata, relating to how the ankh is often held in the hand by Egyptian figures (Latin, ansa, "handles").
Cannuyer, 46-47. Wilkinson, 168-69. Pastoureau, 13-67. Neubecker, 106-107. Murray, 296-297.
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