I find this most appealing to the coming season, Spring.
from National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/ancient/artifacts-symbols.html
"The ankh is a symbol of life often shown in the hands of Egyptian gods or pharaohs. The gods are sometimes depicted giving the ankh, and thus giving life, to a human.
The origins of this widespread symbol are much disputed. Whatever its original symbolic meaning (theories range from a sandal loop to a sunrise) the ankh was widely adopted first by Egyptian religions and later by early Christians for whom it linked the cross with eternal life."
My personal preference would be that its meaning comes from the sunrise over water. Here is my reasoning. Man was drawing what he observed around him before he wore shoes, much like our cousin the ape. Conceptually, the symbolism of it relating to the sandal is a bit contrived. This idea does not relate to nature as our source for most of our symbolisms. Visually the sandal really doesn't look anything like an Ankh. The dots don't connect. Typically the Ankh is associated with "life". We realize that the water and the sun (light) are the great sources of life. Water is teeming with a major food source for us. Birth, delivering from the womb protectively within the water that streams forth as the "water breaks". Another interpretation of its symbolistic origins is associated with the lingum, or penis. This also would imply life as it sourcing the seed of life, also transmitted in the seminal fluid, a body of water. The Sanskrit word for the male sexual organ is Lingam and is loosely translated as "Wand of Light."
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