We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
A six-petalled rosette drawn with a compass inside a circle.
Also known as: Daisy wheel, Witch mark, Rosette (apotropaic)
A six-petalled flower made by stepping a compass round a circle at its own radius — the simplest construction in geometry. Scratched into beams, doorways and fireplaces across England as a protective mark, and among the commonest ritual marks recorded in historic buildings.
A compass-drawn six-petalled rosette, incised into timber and stone at doors, windows, fireplaces and other openings in historic buildings, understood as a protective mark against harmful influences entering.
England · Roughly 15th–19th century
Among the most frequently recorded ritual protection marks in English historic buildings, concentrated at thresholds — the points a building was held to be vulnerable at.
England
Its construction requires only a pair of compasses set to the circle's radius, which is part of why it is so widespread: any carpenter with dividers could make one without measuring.
Not every hexafoil is apotropaic. The same figure appears as carpenter's setting-out geometry and as ornament, and distinguishing intent depends on position and context rather than on the mark itself.
Historic England is explicit that identification depends on context. A hexafoil alone does not establish protective intent.
A circle containing six pointed petals formed by six overlapping arcs, each petal meeting at the centre.
Both are ritual protection marks recorded in English historic buildings.