Occult Symbols in Art: Sacred Geometry, Sigils, Alchemy & Witchcraft

Occult symbols have appeared in art, architecture, ritual objects, and illustrated manuscripts for centuries. From sacred geometry and alchemical diagrams to sigils, pentagrams, and imagery associated with witchcraft, these symbols form a visual language for ideas that are mystical, hidden, or difficult to express through words alone.

For artists drawn to the darker and more esoteric side of visual culture, occult symbolism offers an enormous archive of imagery. Historic diagrams by figures such as Robert Fludd sit alongside the sigils of Austin Osman Spare, the visionary paintings of Johfra Bosschart, and the surreal occult imagery of Alejandro Jodorowsky.

This guide explores some of the most recognizable forms of occult symbolism in art, including sacred geometry, sigils, alchemical symbols, witchcraft imagery, and the artists who incorporated them into their work.

Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652). Image via Public Domain Review .

What Is Occult Symbolism?

The word occult refers broadly to that which is hidden or concealed. Across traditions including Hermeticism, ceremonial magic, astrology, alchemy, Kabbalah, and forms of witchcraft, symbols have been used to communicate spiritual concepts, identify forces or entities, structure rituals, and represent relationships between the human and cosmic worlds.

Occult imagery can take many forms. Some symbols are geometric, while others derive from religious iconography, astrology, alchemy, magical texts, talismans, tarot cards, and grimoires. Their meanings can also change dramatically depending on historical period and context.

In dark art, these symbols are often used not only for their historical meanings but also for their visual power. Circles, stars, eyes, serpents, diagrams, and unfamiliar markings immediately suggest mystery, ritual, transformation, and hidden knowledge.

Sacred Geometry in Art

Sacred geometry assigns spiritual or symbolic meaning to geometric shapes, proportions, and patterns. Geometry has influenced religious architecture, ritual spaces, altars, mandalas, diagrams, and visual art across many cultures.

In ancient Egypt, geometric forms were important to the design of temples and tombs. Greek philosophical traditions connected geometry with ideas about cosmic order. Within Hinduism and Buddhism, geometric structures appear in mandalas and yantras used for contemplation and ritual practice.

The concept extends beyond individual symbols. Architecture itself can become a form of sacred geometry through circles, squares, symmetry, proportion, and repeating patterns used to organize spaces associated with religious or spiritual experience.

Metatron's Cube, a geometric symbol constructed from interconnected circles and lines.

Sacred Geometry in Architecture

Religious architecture has frequently employed geometry to organize sacred space. Circles, domes, squares, repeating tessellations, and symmetrical patterns appear across churches, mosques, temples, and ritual structures.

The dome of Florence Cathedral. Image via Wikimedia Commons .

Islamic art and architecture are particularly well known for elaborate geometric patterns constructed from circles, squares, stars, and repeating forms. Geometry can transform a physical surface into something that appears almost infinite, making it especially suited to visual representations of cosmic and spiritual ideas.

Geometric architectural detail at the Ālī Qāpū Palace in Isfahan.

Johannes Kepler and the Geometry of the Cosmos

Sacred and cosmic geometry also crossed into early scientific attempts to understand the structure of the universe. In Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596), Johannes Kepler explored a geometric model of the solar system using nested three-dimensional forms.

Although later astronomical discoveries superseded the model, images like these remain powerful examples of the historic overlap between mathematics, cosmology, philosophy, and symbolic representation.

Robert Fludd and Occult Cosmology

English physician, writer, and esoteric thinker Robert Fludd (1574–1637) created some of the most memorable diagrams associated with Renaissance occult philosophy. His illustrations explored correspondences between humanity, nature, and the greater cosmos.

One recurring idea was the relationship between the human being as a microcosm and the universe as a macrocosm. In this worldview, structures found within humanity reflected larger structures within creation.

Robert Fludd's illustration of man as microcosm within the universal macrocosm.

Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi, early 17th century.

Sigils and Magical Symbols

A sigil is a symbolic mark associated with magical or ritual practice. Historically, sigils could represent angels, demons, spirits, or other supernatural entities. Later occultists developed systems in which sigils represented personal intentions, desires, or magical concepts.

The Ars Goetia, the first section of the grimoire commonly known as The Lesser Key of Solomon, contains seals associated with seventy-two spirits. These intricate linear symbols became some of the most recognizable visual forms associated with ceremonial magic.

Four Goetic seals from The Lesser Key of Solomon.

The seventy-two Goetic sigils from The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King.

Austin Osman Spare and Modern Sigil Art

British artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare developed one of the most influential modern approaches to sigil making. Rather than using a traditional seal to represent a supernatural entity, Spare transformed statements of desire or intention into abstract visual symbols.

Spare's artwork combined drawing, automatism, symbolism, and esoteric ideas. His approach to sigils later became influential within forms of modern occult practice, particularly Chaos Magic.

Sigils associated with Austin Osman Spare.

The Pentagram, Pentacle and Unicursal Hexagram

Stars are among the most recognizable symbols associated with Western occultism. The five-pointed star appears in numerous religious, philosophical, and magical traditions, and its meaning varies significantly according to context.

A pentacle commonly refers to a pentagram enclosed within a circle, although historical uses of the term are broader. The symbol predates its modern association with Satanism and has appeared in magical, religious, and protective contexts.

The Unicursal Hexagram is a six-pointed figure that can be drawn as a single continuous line. It became particularly associated with Aleister Crowley and Thelema, where a five-petalled flower is sometimes placed at its center.

Understanding historical context is important because the same symbol can acquire dramatically different meanings as it moves between religious, magical, artistic, and popular-cultural settings.

Baphomet and the Sigil of Baphomet

The image commonly known as Baphomet became one of the most recognizable figures in modern occult visual culture following the famous nineteenth-century illustration by French occult writer Éliphas Lévi in Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie.

Éliphas Lévi's depiction of Baphomet from Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie.

A related but distinct image, the Sigil of Baphomet, combines an inverted pentagram with a goat's head and Hebrew lettering. A version of the design was later adopted by the Church of Satan.

The Sigil of Baphomet.

The Eye of Providence

The Eye of Providence, often called the all-seeing eye, depicts an eye usually surrounded by rays of light and sometimes enclosed within a triangle. The image has appeared in Christian art and later became associated with Freemasonry and other symbolic traditions.

An early Masonic representation of the Eye of Providence.

Alchemy and Occult Symbols

Alchemy developed its own extensive visual vocabulary. Symbols were used to identify substances, planets, processes, and philosophical concepts, creating diagrams that could function simultaneously as practical notation and symbolic imagery.

These signs have become especially influential in contemporary occult and dark art because they are visually simple while carrying layers of historical association.

The alchemical symbol associated with sulfur.

Witchcraft Symbols in Art

Witchcraft has been represented in Western art through both symbolic objects and narrative scenes. Pentagrams, magic circles, cauldrons, wands, moons, animals, herbs, and ritual objects are among the motifs frequently associated with witchcraft imagery.

Historic representations of witches also reveal the attitudes of the societies that created them. Images of witches' sabbaths, nocturnal gatherings, transformation, and supernatural flight became recurring subjects in prints and paintings, while contemporary artists often reclaim similar imagery in entirely different ways.

Nature also plays an important role in modern witchcraft imagery. Plants, animals, lunar cycles, and landscapes frequently appear alongside more explicitly magical symbols, connecting occult art with folklore and the natural world.

Johfra Bosschart and Occult Surrealism

Dutch artist Johfra Bosschart, commonly known simply as Johfra, brought astrology, mythology, magic, and occult symbolism into extraordinarily detailed surrealist paintings.

His work combines organic forms, visionary landscapes, religious references, and esoteric symbols. Johfra's famous Zodiac series is particularly rich in astrological and occult imagery, with each painting constructing an elaborate symbolic world around one of the twelve signs.

Unio Mystica by Johfra Bosschart.

Aquarius from Johfra Bosschart's Zodiac series.

Witches' Sabbath by Johfra Bosschart.

Alejandro Jodorowsky and Occult Imagery

Filmmaker, writer, and artist Alejandro Jodorowsky has incorporated Tarot, alchemy, religious imagery, and occult symbolism throughout his work. His 1973 film The Holy Mountain is particularly dense with ritual images, esoteric references, and surreal transformations.

Occult imagery from Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain.

Jodorowsky demonstrates how the visual language of occultism can move beyond ceremonial or religious contexts and become material for experimental cinema, surrealism, and contemporary art.

Occult Symbols in Contemporary Dark Art

Occult symbolism continues to appear throughout contemporary dark art. Modern artists draw from ceremonial magic, sacred geometry, alchemical diagrams, tarot, astrology, sigils, and historic occult texts while combining those references with surrealism, psychedelic art, tattoo imagery, illustration, and modern design.

Visionary artist Alex Grey, for example, frequently incorporates geometric structures into psychedelic images of interconnected bodies and consciousness.

Collective Vision by contemporary artist Alex Grey.

Artist and author Damien Echols has likewise created works drawing upon ceremonial magic, the Tree of Life, and related esoteric traditions.

Tree of Life print by Damien Echols.

Why Occult Symbolism Remains Powerful in Art

The appeal of occult imagery comes partly from ambiguity. A geometric diagram, unfamiliar sigil, or ancient symbol can communicate meaning without explaining itself completely. It asks the viewer to investigate.

That quality makes occult symbolism especially compatible with dark art, where artists frequently explore death, transformation, spirituality, dreams, the subconscious, mythology, and the unknown.

At the same time, these symbols have long histories that extend far beyond contemporary aesthetics. Their meanings can shift dramatically depending on culture, period, and use, making historical context an important part of understanding the imagery.

From Renaissance cosmological diagrams and magical grimoires to surrealist painting and contemporary illustration, the visual language of the occult remains one of art's richest sources of mysterious and symbolic imagery.

Explore Occult and Sacred Geometry Art

Explore our collection of sacred geometry and occult symbol art , featuring work inspired by esoteric diagrams, sigils, ritual imagery, and the darker history of symbolic art.