In summer of 2018, the Atheopagan community went through a process of selecting a symbol for our path. Many designs were submitted, and after several rounds of voting, we settled on the Suntree.
The Suntree carries many symbolic meanings. First, there is the green tree of the Earth and the golden rays of the Sun: the two most significant presences in our lives. Our symbol embodies the Sacred Earth and Cosmos, the Great Below and the Great Above.
Next, there are the numbers. The Sun has eight rays which equate to the eight Sabbaths of the Wheel of the Year. And when you add the five branches of the tree, you get 13: the number of Atheopagan Principles.
Of course, all of this is just pattern-projection onto a symbol for which few, if any of these meanings were originally intended. But that doesn’t make the symbol any less meaningful.
Small as we are, we’re a community and an identity, and we have a symbol that captures much of what we’re about.
The Atheopagan Society 