The ankh was a widespread decorative motif in ancient Egypt, also used decoratively by neighbouring cultures. Copts adapted it into the crux ansata, a shape with a circular rather than droplet loop, and used it as a variant of the Christian cross.

the ankh (☥) is the “sign of life” — not just physical life, but vitality sustained by the divine, the cosmic force that endures beyond death.

It’s often held by gods to the lips of the pharaoh, symbolizing the “breath of life” in eternity.

Its loop (crux ansata) is sometimes seen as the horizon where the sun rises — union of heaven (circle/loop) and earth (vertical bar) — or as a key unlocking the gates of the afterlife.

In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, the ankh was a triliteral sign: one that represented a sequence of three consonant sounds. The ankh stood for the sequence Ꜥ-n-ḫ, where n is pronounced like the English letter n, Ꜥ is a voiced pharyngeal fricative, and ḫ is a voiceless or voiced velar fricative (sounds not found in English).[2] In the Egyptian language, these consonants were found in the verb meaning "live", the noun meaning "life", and words derived from them, such as sꜤnḫ, which means "cause to live" or "nourish";[1] Ꜥnḫ evolved into ⲱⲛϩ (onh) in the Coptic stage of the language.[3] The sign is known in English as the "ankh", based on the hypothetical pronunciation of the Egyptian word, or as the "key of life", based on its meaning.

𓋹 ☥

Thomas Inman, an amateur mythologist in the nineteenth century, thought the sign represented the male and female reproductive organs, joined into a single sign

The Ankh and the Rose Cross

both are cross-forms whose “center” is the mystery of life eternal.

Both are carried/worn as talismans of the victory of life over death.