What is this symbol?

April 14, 2025 7:55 PM

Ive been driving past this image for a while, what is it?
posted by kittensofthenight to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Looks like the astrological symbol for Jupiter. Not sure why you'd graffiti that.
posted by Birds, snakes, and aeroplanes at 7:59 PM on April 14 [3 favorites]

Or, no, not quite. It's got an extra crossbar.
posted by Birds, snakes, and aeroplanes at 8:00 PM on April 14 [2 favorites]

Probably not too far off with Jupiter - the wiki article mentions something about a crossbar indicating an abbreviation (for what?), and then Saturn's symbol in the next row has a crossbar shown indicating an abbreviation.
posted by LionIndex at 8:10 PM on April 14

My thought was hobo symbol (variations on that seem to mean "stop"). I'd guess it's a graffito based off that because someone thought it was cool (and since actual hoboes probably never had a code, and even if they did, it's not 100 years ago).
posted by axiom at 8:18 PM on April 14

and even if they did, it's not 100 years ago

I did have the thought that it might be warchalking (a modern enough phenomenon) but it didn't match anything that a quick search turned up.
posted by juv3nal at 9:27 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: This is in Seattle, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, so lots of possibilities. The witchy/astrology vibe and the hobo symbols make sense. Been there for a while, couple months at least.
posted by kittensofthenight at 9:45 PM on April 14

Best answer: Humans have been playing with those shapes for millennia. None of the major image recognizers are popping out an answer, which generally would be true if this were an common historic rune etc, so I'm inclined to say it's something not terribly well known that's uncommon but part of traditions like that or something created by a modern group inspired by them. D&D and similar games have tons of stuff like this as do neopagan religions.

It doesn't feel strongly Norse or Icelandic to me but more someone borrowing from both traditions. The basic cross shape is aligned with the pictographs for hand in Kanji but the curve on the left doesn't seem to match Japanese style curves. I would very much say not Jupiter, which descends from Zeta, which is very different IMO. I can see why Google's AI is being thrown by it but this screams double cross with modification rather than modified Zeta. Similarly, I can see the resemblance to stop in hobo symbols but the fundamental shape is so dramatically different that I wouldn't expect them to be from the same tradition.

The good news is that it also doesn't line up stylistically with any neonazi etc. icons that I'm aware of.
posted by Candleman at 11:01 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]

Google Translate thinks it’s Kanji written sideways and means ‘too’, but it doesn’t look like it to me.
posted by Phanx at 11:15 PM on April 14

Best answer: Possibly Rhea asteroid symbol (mother of Jupiter)
posted by Lanark at 4:16 AM on April 15 [11 favorites]

Definitely not a Japanese or Chinese character.
posted by adamrice at 7:39 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]

I'm surprised no one has suggested gang graffiti yet? Looks like someone practicing a tag.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:12 AM on April 15

I recently heard of the existence of "asteroid astrology", so in light of Lanark's answer, perhaps it's an outcropping of that.
posted by jamjam at 9:53 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]