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 circle above a cross — Venus, the female sign, and copper.
Also known as: Female symbol, Female sign, Woman symbol, Copper symbol, Hand mirror symbol
The counterpart of the Mars symbol, and equally overloaded: Venus in astronomy, the female sign in biology and social use, and copper in alchemy. The popular 'hand mirror' explanation of its shape is a later story rather than its origin.
Denoted copper in alchemical writing, under the planet–metal correspondences.
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 attraction, harmony and affection.
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
Marks the female sex in biology, medicine and genealogy, and women or women's facilities in general signage — its commonest use today, and the reason Unicode names the character FEMALE SIGN.
Contexts: History
Is widely explained as Venus's hand mirror. As with the Mars symbol's shield and spear, this reading is a later rationalisation rather than a documented origin, and the glyph more plausibly derives from a contracted Greek word.
The mirror story is repeated far more often than the evidence supports. Symbolwise records that it is contested rather than settling it.
Contexts: History
Is used doubled or combined in symbols adopted by various social movements, which are distinct marks built from this character rather than uses of it.
Contexts: History
Is met far more often as a gender sign than as a planet: on lavatory and changing-room doors, in biological keys, in medical and genealogical records, in feminist emblems where the cross is combined with a raised fist, and as jewellery and tattoo work.
Contexts: Jewellery, Medicine, Public information, Tattoo
Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.
Unicode FEMALE SIGN
U+2640, the encoded character — named for the gender use rather than for the planet, exactly as its counterpart is.
Alchemical copper form
The same circle and cross used in alchemical writing to denote copper, under the planet–metal correspondences. Drawn identically; only the context distinguishes the two readings.
A circle sitting directly above a small upright cross, joined at the circle's base.
Paired as the female and male signs, and as Venus and Mars.