The Widower symbolises a profound separation from our point of origin—our celestial home, the primordial sun. This is not only a physical departure but a metaphysical one, representing the soul’s movement away from the unified source of light, life, and creation. The Widower carries the weight of loss and transformation, holding memory without the ability to transmit it—sentiment replacing signal.
A key to this symbol lies in the word labyrinth and its ancient meaning. The term traces back to the Sanskrit lavarNa (Tau), meaning “T departing”, a concept deeply tied to pollination and emergence. The pentagram—originally a symbol of pollination and creation—illustrates this departure: leaving our home and beginning new life. Minoti + Tau translates to “Builder of the Crossing”, “Carrier of the Seed”, or “Generator who gives weight to form.”
Over time, mistranslations reshaped this meaning. What once described creation and birth became the monstrous Minotaur and the labyrinth as a place of violence. In Minoan and Greek traditions, it shifted into the “Home of the Double Axe,” losing its original reference to new life. The sun—often symbolised with the letter U—was mistakenly linked to the bull’s horn.
Phoenician writing corrects this distortion. The horn derives from the letters U and V, pronounced U-da or V-da, meaning “truth.” For the ancients, truth signified alignment with universal order—the assurance of balance through constant change. Thus, the Minotaur myth, the linguistic root of labyrinth, and Phoenician symbolism converge: a teaching on the cyclical interplay of change and constancy.
The Widower’s sign is the pentagram, representing the pollination of the universe and the creation of the 56th element—Barium (Sanskrit bhArin, “bearing a load”), hence its association with heaviness. The Widower corresponds to the archetype of the Skywalker and, in Greek tradition, to figures like Ulysses and Odysseus—symbols of endurance, wandering, and the search for meaning.
The pentagram’s Sanskrit roots deepen its significance. From pajca (five) and bhuja (branch) to paJcAttApa (sincere remorse), the symbol spans physical, emotional, and metaphysical states. Further meanings—foam, vapour, transience, compression, the five elements—show how heavily Sanskrit compresses layered concepts into single symbols. This web of meanings ties the pentagram to AstraRatnam, later known as Astarte.
Astarte / Asta-Ratnam: Mapping the Eight Jewels
The name Astaratnam—today linked to the Eight Jewels of Buddhism—is no mistranslation. When Phoenician knowledge spread through Mesopotamia, its meaning was dulled into “desires.” But Astarte’s original function was transmission: a moral and cosmological code preserved through symbols.
Asta-ratnam: eight jewels—an encoded memory map.
Astara: star, breath, transmission.
Ratna: jewel, rhythm, resonance.
The Phoenicians treated the constellation as symbolic geometry—eight coordinates of moral understanding. Later cultures twisted the figure of AstaRatnam to Astarte into lust, war, or fertility. The jewels were never meant for seduction or dominance, but for remembrance.
The Eight Jewels (Astaratna)
Each jewel encodes a principle, not as a command but as a resonance:
Compassion – The Precious Parasol: protection from ignorance and harmful influence.
Truthfulness – The White Conch Shell: breath, frequency, the right-turning spiral of cosmic harmony.
Restraint – The Two Golden Fish: freedom from suffering, spontaneous movement through existence.
Generosity – The Endless Knot: interdependence, unity, and non-duality.
Presence – The Treasure Vase / Holy Grail: the primordial curve (U-DA), the resonator, the vessel of abundance.
Courage – The Victory Banner: triumph over illusion and fear.
Wisdom – The Lotus: purity, non-attachment, emergence from obscurity.
Joy – The Eight-Spoked Wheel: cosmic order and the pathway to liberation.
These are living symbols, designed to transmit awareness across generations.
