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A crossed sickle shape — Saturn, and lead.
Also known as: Kronos symbol, Lead symbol, Sickle symbol, Crossed h symbol
Saturn's symbol is usually read as a monogram of the Greek initial of Kronos, drawn as a sickle. Alchemists used it for lead, the heaviest and basest of the seven metals, matching Saturn as the slowest and outermost known planet.
Denotes the planet Saturn in astronomical notation.
Contexts: History
Denoted lead in alchemical writing.
A record of what alchemists wrote, not a claim that the association holds. The planet–metal correspondences were a system of belief, and the chemistry they rest on is not sound.
Medieval and early modern alchemy · Contexts: History
Is held in astrological tradition to signify limitation, discipline and time.
Recorded as what astrological tradition assigns, not as a finding. Symbolwise does not assert that any planet influences anything, and astrology has no empirical standing.
Contexts: History
Sits at the far end of an ordering the alchemists took seriously: Saturn was the slowest and outermost planet they knew, and lead the heaviest and least noble metal, so the pairing was read as meaningful rather than arbitrary.
Medieval and early modern alchemy · Contexts: History
Is generally read as a stylised scythe or sickle, the attribute of the god of harvest and time, drawn as a cross over a curved stroke. Like the rest of the planetary set the derivation is inferred from the shapes manuscripts actually used rather than attested at the moment of invention.
Medieval and early modern astronomical manuscripts · Contexts: History
Denoted lead in alchemical writing — the heaviest and slowest of the metals matched to the slowest of the visible planets.
Medieval and early modern alchemy · Contexts: History
Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.
Unicode SATURN
U+2644, the encoded character.
A downward hook or sickle curve with a small cross-stroke through its upper stem, like a lowercase h with a crossed ascender.