Anyone got any insight into what
literally means and why Prince chose it?

i know! it meant 2 kill one's career with one swift blow.

FreeChild said:

Isnt it supposed to be a symbol of a man and women symbol combined?
All I know is I only think of Prince when I C it!

PlastikLuvAffair said:

Good one! But seriously anyone got a clue?

It's the soapstone symbol...see my thread about favorite Prince sites that no longer exist...

See Dauphin's posts: http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_256160

Word document: http://www.pyramax.demon....artist.doc

I googled that. Also, It has been rumored that the symbol, when its pieces are broken and rearranged, spell "VICTOR."

it was a combining of male and female...i think the horn part was added for trademark purposes...i don't think the male/female could be registered in and of itself...
the final symbol is different from it's earliest incarnations with the addition of the horn part...

..i am quite possibly wrong...

FreeChild said:

i believe it means GOD
and i believe the reason Prince chose it is because,
he wanted out of a situation that only God could get him out of. and i believe he wrote Slave on his face because he was a slave to GOD. was the way 2 his freedom. took on a wife, and concieved a child. when the work was completed Prince was restored. Slave was wiped of his face, the marriage anulled, and the child... only God knows.

question 4 you ...

was more than Prince could handle.

HRHthesmellofJazmin said:

and if was to much to handle... what do u think will do to DreamFirstBorn, Jew

ponder this 4 a moment.

-HRH
@The DownLoad Society

HRHthesmellofJazmin said:

Now that's an interesting way 2 interpret that...

rio said:

I actually think that you're closer to the truth than most.

Prince had been using the basic 0+> symbol on and off since about 1981. A combination of the male and female symbols, it played on Prince's own androgenous image, and also represented the union between man and woman in love, sex & spirituality. The 'horn' section was only added to the symbol sometime between 15-24 June 1992 while Prince was playing 8 nights at Earls Court in the UK on the Diamonds And Pearls tour.

Prince had been toying with minor changes to his trademark symbol for a while, because as it stood, the symbol couldn't be copyrighted. The horn part was added to express the concept of 'music' to the existing symbol, and now made the symbol unique enough to be granted copyright. At that point it was only intended to be used as the album title for his next album, but once the new symbol was finalised it really struck a chord with Prince, and he's used it ever since.
[This message was edited Tue Sep 24 16:55:03 PDT 2002 by BorisFishpaw]

if u really want to know the story behind the symbol, see the liner notes to the kamasutra cassette and/or and mayte's wedding program...it's all there 4 ya'

OK-now, don't laugh at this one, BUT it does kinda look like it.Look at any pic of prince round about D&P release and tour.BEFORE the androgeny symbol had the curved bit added to it, and it was simply the male and female combined shape.U know circle at top,line down middle,two little bits at either side, and arrow at bottom.
Okay-take a look at a pic of him face-on, during 92.NOW, look hard.The circle at the top(his typhoon-do)
The line down the middle(nose)
The bits either side of the line(eyebrows)
Arrow at bottom(The little beard thing either side of his face he had going on then)

Either that-or this is shit!-but I DO have a pic of that era, and its uncanny.

---

I put up a post on AMP about ten years ago giving my explanation that the symbol means:
1+1+1=1 God + man + woman = 3

O = God the Father (sometimes represented as a sun)
+ = Jesus (represented as a cross)
V = Holy Spirit (sometimes represented as a dove)

Check out the purple CD disc of the album.

Then of course, the symbol is a mixture of O+ and O-> symbols for male and female.

The part that has me confused is why he chose the "soapstone" (horn) part of it? Maybe because it just looks fancy?

Jasziah said:

God the Father represented as the sun? What are you people on?

"What make a man wanna rule the world? Arrogance! Make him man enough to say he - [pay attention here] - 50/50 girl? Arrogance!"

How's this? http://websites.ntl.com/~.../rune.html

All that talk about God and spirituality is apologetics. He changed his name to get out of his contract.

Prince is the one who's into Egyptology, so I don't doubt that he'd see God as being represented by the "sun". Cool link by the way. It'd be cool to know how much of this really applies to the reason why Prince chose the name and/or if he believes in any of these connections to the symbol. Also, the entire symbol (without the horn) appears among ancient masonic symbols, many of which were found on artifacts of ancient Egypt.

When Prince first started using this sign, he said that it was Man and Woman united by God. A perfect Love Sign.

The Male sign 0-> joined with the female sign, 0+ by a Cross +, instead of by the head (0) Joined by the + = perfect Love. He said this in a interview on MTV.
o+> instead of +0->

There was an excellent discussion on this a few years ago. It went wayyy to far ending up with as Prince/ being some religious androgynous alchemist. Search the org for "soapstone" (ignoring my crappy posts) or better still "alchemy" and I believe it's still in the archives. I wasted a whole day reading posts over that stuff. Stuck with me though, interesting.

The symbol for soapstone (predominantly magnesium carbonate) probably just fit with the old androgyny symbol and prince added the "Horn" (why "horn" I don't know, it's just about the only instrument he DOESN'T play!) cus it looked good. You could always start throwing around ideas of alchemy and religion and eternal live, read into it what you will.

HRHthesmellofJazmin said:

Uhh, do I have to?

It cant possibly be an existing symbol. It was Princes creation. Thats why he could sue for unauthorised use.

I have a book of symbols that dates symbols back 1000's of years. In the book it states that the symbol is the Viking symbol for Prince.

It means man and woman combined in the beautiful experience.Love.

It meant "Get me out of this damn contract!!!"

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it" (Revelation 2:17).

Soapstone... yeah.