In this work, we introduce the concept of Majorana-like photonic molecules in higher-order topological photonic crystals. Here, we provide a route to combine the spectral control of conventional photonic molecules with gap-centered physics protected by symmetries. By projecting Maxwell's Hermitian operator onto a subspace of corner modes, we derive an effective Majorana-like Hamiltonian, where an analog of particle-hole symmetry enforces the Hamiltonian parameters to be real and antisymmetric. This structure organizes the spectrum into symmetric pairs and guarantees the existence of an unpaired mode, a direct feature of topological chemistry in photonic molecules. We connect this framework to accessible experimental signatures, since anticrossing patterns remain the key fingerprint inheriting symmetry protection. Finally, we validate the theory with a photonic crystal with $C_3$ symmetry harboring $p$- and $d$-orbital corner states, where the control of geometric displacements tunes the coupling and reproduces both the organization of eigenfrequencies and the anticrossing in the energy density spectrum.

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• Majorana zero modes
• Photonic crystals
• Topological effects in photonic systems
• Topological materials