What does the falcon mean in ancient Egypt?

Horus, lord of the sky and of kingship. Every king of Egypt was “the Horus”.

What the sign shows: A falcon.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: He calls it the hawk and treats it as the bird of the soul and of the sun, shared by Ra the father and Horus the son.
Where you see it today: The falcon of Horus is still the emblem on the tail of EgyptAir’s aircraft.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 155 times across the book. Book I, p. 18: “The hero who becomes a hawk”; Book V, p. 263: “Hathor, mistress of the mines”; Book IV, p. 225: “The hawk that pierces the veil”.
Signs that look like it: Vulture, Goose and Benu bird. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The hawk was now the symbol of the father and the son, that is, of Ra and Horus.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book XII, p. 762)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Falcon. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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