insert universe of pythagoras or cosmos image
The orb or ball seems to be a later attribute of the classical Fortuna, and one which became prominent in medieval and Renaissance conceptions of the Goddess. It suggests the spheres of classical cosmology, and as with the orb held in the hand of a monarch, sovereignty or completedness. The sphere is considered a "perfect" shape, whole unto itself. Navigators, astrologers and mathematicians new in very remote times that the earth is spheroid, and the spherical planets were said to move within spherical orbits like cosmic nesting dolls. These are, astrologically and energetically, "spheres of influence" that have a deep validity understandable through the language and practice of correspondence. The sphere or orb, therefore, symbolizes the wholeness or perfection of the Goddess and Her resonant influence throughout the cosmos, which She rides or holds like a bauble.
