The fish symbol for Christianity comes from the Greek ἰχθύς (ichthys, fish), which is an acronym for Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ, Iēsoûs Khrīstós, Theoû, Yuiós, Sōtḗr: Jesus Christ—God, Son, Savior. Now, you might already know the above trivia, as I do, but here's something I just realized: maybe there's more to this story. Wikipedia has a picture of an ancient ichthys image that also shows an eight-spoked wheel:
Look carefully, and you'll see each Greek letter inside the wheel: Ἰ Χ Θ Υ Σ.
This sparked a thought—a weird connection in my brain. There is another religion that features, in its iconography, an eight-spoked wheel: Buddhism. Specifically, the eight-spoked dharmacakra, or Wheel of the Law. To wit:
Each spoke of the eight-spoked wheel represents one part of the Buddha's Eightfold Path: right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
On the level of doctrine and metaphysics, I think it's safe to say that the resemblance between these two wheels is purely coincidental. But at the level of archetypes, of the weird and occult workings of human consciousness, it's tempting to say that a real connection exists between these two traditions that arrived at similar symbols for different reasons. Maybe, on some deep level, ichthys is Christianity's dharmacakra, and vice versa.
Just an idle thought.
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