The infinity symbol — the lemniscate, a figure-eight lying on its side — was introduced to mathematics in 1655 by the English clergyman-mathematician John Wallis, though he never explained his choice; it may echo the Roman numeral for a thousand or the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Mystics adopted it swiftly: the lemniscate floats above the Magician in the Tarot as the sign of unlimited spirit, and alchemical and Hermetic imagery embraced its endless self-crossing loop. Older cousins abound, from the ouroboros to endless knots — humanity has always drawn the boundless as a line that returns.
The infinity symbol represents limitlessness — endless possibility, endless love, endless being — held in a form the eye can follow. Its two lobes read as every great polarity, spirit and matter, giving and receiving, self and other, joined at a single crossing point of perfect balance: duality flowing eternally into unity. Unlike the circle's closed perfection, the lemniscate moves — it is eternity as current rather than boundary. What it promises is not endless sameness but endless flow.
Today the infinity symbol is one of the world's most worn emblems: on rings and bracelets promising boundless love, in friendship and sisterhood jewellery, in tattoos — often woven with names, anchors or the word 'love' — marking bonds beyond limit. Mathematics and physics keep its rigorous sense alive, while wellness culture borrows it for infinite potential. Few symbols pass so easily between the equation and the engagement ring.
Spiritually, the lemniscate is a breathing diagram: one lobe fills as the other empties, giving becomes receiving, effort becomes rest, endlessly through the still point at the crossing. Meditating on it — tracing the figure-eight with eyes, hand or breath — balances the two sides of one's nature and restores flow where life has clenched. It teaches that infinity is not far away and enormous but here and moving: every exchange of love runs on this loop. The seeker learns to live at the crossing point — the calm centre where all opposites trade places.
The Tarot speaks the same ancient language of symbols — draw your cards and see which signs the deck holds for you.
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