Ankh

The ankh (/ˈæŋk/ or /ˈɑːŋk/; Egyptian: IPA: [ʕaːnax]; U+2625 ☥ or U+132F9 𓋹), also known as breath of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata (Latin meaning "cross with a handle"), was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "life", a triliteral sign for the consonants Ayin-Nun-Het.

It represents the concept of life, which is the general meaning of the symbol. The Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest. The ankh appears in hand or in proximity of almost every deity in the Egyptian pantheon (including Pharaohs). Thus it is fairly and widely understood as a symbol of early religious pluralism: all sects believed in a common story of eternal life, and this is the literal meaning of the symbol. This rationale contributed to the adoption of the ankh by New Age mysticism in the 1960s.

The ankh symbol was so prevalent that it has been found in digs as far as Mesopotamia and Persia, and even on the seal of the biblical king Hezekiah.

Crux Ansata

Crux Ansata, subtitled 'An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church' by H. G. Wells is a (96 page) wartime book first published in 1943 by Penguin Books, Hammonsworth (Great Britain): Penguin Special No. 129. The U. S. edition was copyrighted and published in 1944 by Agora Publishing Company, New York, with a portrait frontispiece and an appendix of an interview with Wells recorded by John Rowland. The U.S. edition of 144 pages went into a third printing in August 1946.

H. G. Wells living in London under the regular bombings from across the English Channel extensively attacks Pope Pius XII and Roman Catholicism, beginning his polemic with "Why do we not bomb Rome?"

The book also forms a basic history of the Roman Catholic church and fulfils a positive propaganda role.

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