I'm not really sure if I've put this topic in the right category, if not, I apologize. I'm very curious though to know what exactly the symbol for Prana is? Prana -"Sanskrit word meaning 'breath' and refers to a vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and vital energy in natural processes of the universe." It's equivalent to Qi in traditional Chinese culture, Mana in Polynesian mythology, and Ka in Egyptian mythology and so on..

Right now I'm reading a book called "The secret language of symbols" and when I came across Prana, this was the symbol they showed for it;

(Sorry it's kind of bad quality. I took a picture of the page in the book with my camera phone..)
Well, anyways, they refer to that symbol as being "Prana", but since I can't find anything at all that looks like this on the web I'm wondering if maybe the author made an "oops" and it isn't correct. So if anybody can tell me if that really is the symbol for Prana? Or if they can find the Prana symbol online and link it to me that would be greatly appreciated~!!!


Also, the reason I'm so curious about this is because I plan on getting a tattoo of the Prana symbol and I'm sure you can understand why I would want to make sure I'm getting the right symbol to permanently put on my body~! Lol, It would suck if I ended up getting the wrong thing.. So any info on this or comments would be great.


Thanks in advance.

My mother has a pendant of Prana she was given at an Ashram in India, not surprisingly she runs a yoga studio, but she's also has been practicing a form of eastern mysticsm for 40+ years.

I can't say that the symbol you see in the middle is accurate, my mothers necklace doesn't really look like that, it's more stylized I suppose, like a Mandala--the outer ring is very similar. But I'm no expert, she is.

She's out of town until mid-next week, but if you don't get an answer about the symbol before then, let me know and I'll ask her -- she should know if what you have there in that book is correct or not.

Thanks for the comment, that's interesting to know about your mother If I don't get a answer to this then I'll send you a message. Thank you again!

Can anybody else help me out with this?! It would be very greatly appreciated ~!!

Well, I'm not sure if i can help you, but I did a little research on this. I have not been able to find the exact inner symbol that you are asking about, but the outer symbol is the lotus flower, which is VERY common in the art of prana. What I have determined is that there is no one particular symbol. It all depends on what exactly you're looking for, and what you want it to mean. There is the terra prana star, the tantric prana star, the OM symbol. There is many to choose from, but the basic idea, is to stick with the 8 Auspicious symbols. The conch shell, the lotus flower, a wheel, a parasol, an endless knot, a pair of golden fishes, a banner proclaiming victory, and a treasure vase. All of these are a symbol of some sort for the prana, they all just have different meanings. From what I read, the stars seem to focus on sexual heightening. I'm sorry that I couldn't be of more help to you, but the most frequent one that I did come across was the OM prana symbol though.

Thankyou for your response! Yeah, I think you are right, there is not just one particular symbol for Prana I suppose. The more I looked into it I learned that the symbol in the middle of the picture I posted is the sound 'YAM' in the bija mantra for the heart chakra, and so I can understand how that would easily be associated with representing Prana. I guess what I am really looking for then is the actual word prana translated into Sanskrit text, or Devanagari text. Or maybe I should make my own personal symbol to represent prana.


Thankyou again Airika for your comment and posting the pictures and taking time to look into this for me~!

LOL....you're welcome my dear...I just wish that I could have helped you a bit more. I have to agree with you on the making up of your own personal symbol. It will have more meaning that way.

This Wiki page explains a bit more about Prana and also has the Indic form of Prana on the page (although it is in rather small font). Maybe the Indic text for the word would be appropriate?

Also prana is equivalent to qi

edit__ I just noticed a qi sentence in your first post.

Thankyou for your post Leonardo I'm not sure if that writting on there is in Sanskrit but I'm pretty sure it is. It is rather small but I can just copy and paste it and make the font bigger, so thankyou very much for that, helped alot.

Lol and thankyou though Artymoon for your comment too, any input is appreciated I think it would be cool to get chinese calligraphy of "Qi" as a tattoo as well as one in Sanskrit.

If your tattoo artist is particularly skilled, the book The Magician's Companion contains a Sanskrit alphabet in fairly large type.

Thankyou for telling me about that, that's a good idea. I looked up the book and it's contents seem really interesting, so I might just get it.

No problem. Yeah that book has been very handy.

I wanted to get a tattoo of the symbol to the right in my sig (a key/angelic script I saw in Heaven) but I don;t think a tatto will suit me lol. So, I'm going to get it made up as a pendant in white gold about 2 inches big with pave blue and white diamonds, if I could jsut get someone to make it up for me! lol

hehe here is my own symbol