Protect the Health of the Whole
The deeper origin of the peace symbol.
I’ve read the typical story that has been popularized about the origin of the peace symbol often. How the English artist Gerald Holtom created it for an anti-nuclear protest march. It is a symbol that has become much more than that, as in my mind it should, an international symbol for peace. Whatever Holtom’s inspiration it was inspired. Certainly, all of that is true except that I think the symbol is much older than that, it is an ancient runic symbol.
Runes are the symbols of an ancient alphabet that evolved into use throughout northern Europe. They were carved into wood or stone. Rune stones with inscriptions were erected in the 4th century honoring the dead, marking a sacred well or as signage for travelers, even laws were written in it. It was in broad use in the Middle Ages. Runes can be found in the Great Cathedrals built during the High Middle Ages while the clergy used the Latin alphabet penned with quill and ink on expensive parchment.
I had a set of Rune stones someone gave me as a kind of divination tool. Anyway, when I saw the symbol carried at anti-nuclear protests it made perfect sense to me. I didn’t hear the story about Gerald Holtom until years later and was disappointed that being European he didn’t seem to know its Runic meaning. Here is how it is constructed.
This is the symbol called Algiz which symbolizes Protection as it pertains to a physical threat or danger. It is the stick figure holding its arms up as if to say, “stop go back, danger ahead.”
This is the symbol turned on its head like the yogi in Sirsasana (headstand). It is Protection as it pertains to health.
This symbol is not typically in the Rune alphabets we see but typically symbolizes everything together, the whole.
Thus, the symbol I saw that made so much sense to me as a symbol carried by nuclear war protestors was because to me it said, Protect the Health of the Whole.
I think Protect the Health of the Whole is a very appropriate symbol for world peace and caring for the future in this world of converging crises.