The Symbolic History Of The Lotus Flower In Jewellery

The start of a year is about rebirth, and because of this, it is far from surprising that when the new year dawns, many people are drawn to symbols in crystal jewellery that capture this fresh start and allow for a new, purifying focus to dictate the year.

For many people, that symbol will take the form of the lotus flower, a loose group of plant species found in several different countries in Asia and the Middle East, most prominently India, Egypt and China.

It is an exceptionally popular symbol used in a variety of different contexts, with a particularly large footprint in architecture, as well as being the national flower of India.

However, whilst it has a cultural and symbolic significance that has only intensified and expanded as many elements of Indian and Buddhist culture have permeated the rest of the world, it also has a fascinatingly lengthy and surprisingly disparate history as well.

Rise of the Seshen

The origins of the lotus as a symbol emerge, as many natural images we still use today, from Ancient Egypt, where two different species of lotus (white and blue) were naturally grown and a third (the Indian or sacred lotus) was widely imported before Egypt’s ultimate conquest.

Even at this early stage, the lotus, known in Egypt as the “seshen” and given its own hieroglyph, was a symbol of creation, rebirth and the sun itself.

The reason for this is that the lotus opens its petals and floats to the surface of the water at the start of the day and sinks to the bottom at the end, mirroring sunrise and sunset.

Whilst Ancient Egypt has a lot of creation myths, the one found in the city of Hermopolis posited that the sun-god Ra emerged from a giant lotus blossom that bloomed, with several works of art depicting this. This is also why the lotus is a symbol of the rising sun.

By contrast, it was also seen as a sacred image related to purification and rebirth, with some of the earliest depictions of what is commonly known now as a lotus throne being used to depict the four sons of Horus that protected people entering the next life.

The Book of the Dead even contained rituals that claimed to transform people into lotus flowers, becoming reborn as a symbol of rebirth. Because of this, the lotus also represented alternative realms of existence.

When Egypt was conquered by the Ancient Greeks, the symbol spread across the empire as a symbol of innocence and purity, whilst it also started to appear in Indian art, which is how it has since been used and depicted in several religions.

The Lotus Eaters

A curious question when it comes to lotus symbolism is the question of the lotus tree and the lotus-eaters, a curious and enigmatic part of Greek mythology, most prominently depicted in Homer’s Odyssey.

The myth discusses an island, believed to be near the country of Tunisia, where people eat the fruits and flowers of the lotus tree, living their days in a forgetful daze, never wanting to leave the island and forgetting everything else that matters.

The lotus tree depicted is somewhat enigmatic, and whilst it could be the blue lotus used in Ancient Egypt and known to have properties that could alter states, but it could also be the persimmon, the nettle tree, the jujube or another, similar plant.