Led Zeppelin Symbols

These are the four symbols that first appeared on Led Zeppelin's fourth album, mostly thought of as Led Zeppelin IV, although technically the album was untitled.

What do the symbols represent? Well, each symbol supposedly represents a member of the band. From left to right, the symbols are for Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant. The reason for choosing the symbols was part of Page's response to the criticism of the band's third album:

After all this crap that we'd had with the critics, I put it to everybody else that it'd be a good idea to put out something totally anonymous. At first I wanted just one symbol on it, but then it was decided that since it was our fourth album and there were four of us, we could each choose our own symbol. I designed mine and everyone else had their own reasons for using the symbols that they used.

Page's symbol is often interpreted as 'Zoso' and he was highly secretive about the meaning or origin of the symbol. However, Wikipedia claims that the sign is centuries old and represents Saturn, which "rules over Page's astrological sun sign, Capricorn". John Paul Jones chose his symbol from a book, and it is symbolic of "a person who possesses both confidence and competence".

John Bonham's symbol is meant to represent the trinity of mother, father and child, but fittingly was also the logo for Ballantine beer. Something which the hard-partying drummer may have known when he chose the symbol!

Robert Plant's symbol was the only one which was specifically designed, although it is based on the sign of the Mu civilisation. Plant said of his symbol:

My symbol was drawn from sacred symbols of the ancient Mu civilization which existed about 15,000 years ago as part of a lost continent somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between China and Mexico. All sorts of things can be tied in with Mu civilization—even the Easter Island effigies. These Mu people left stone tablets with their symbols inscribed into them all over the places. And they all date from the same time period. The Chinese say these people came from the east and the Mexicans say they came from the west...obviously it was somewhere in between.

To the band's fans, the symbols are almost instantly recognisable as Led Zeppelin, which is ironic since they were originally supposed to hide the band's identity!