Peace symbol turns 50

The well-known Peace Symbol was designed in 1958. This year is its 50th birthday.

Wikipedia says, “This forked symbol was designed for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Britain, and originally was used by the British nuclear disarmament movement. It was later generalized to become an international icon for the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time.

“It was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist in Britain for the April 4 march planned by DAC from Trafalgar Square, London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England.

“The symbol itself is a combination of the semaphoric signals for the letters "N" and "D," standing for Nuclear Disarmament. In semaphore the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. These two signals imposed over each other form the shape of the peace symbol.

“However, Holtom, a conscientious objector during the Second World War, subverted this use of semaphores by placing the D over the N, the “upside down logo” signifying his anti-military principles. In the first official CND version (preceeded by a ceramic pin version that had straight lines, but was short lived) the lines widened at the edge of the circle which was white on black.

Semaphore 'N'

Semaphore 'D'

“Holtom later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater depth: ‘I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle round it.’

“The peace symbol flag first became known in the United States in 1958 when Albert Bigelow, a pacifist protester, sailed his small boat outfitted with the CND banner into the vicinity of a nuclear test. The peace symbol button was imported into the United States in 1960 by Philip Altbach, a freshman at the University of Chicago, who traveled to England to meet with British peace groups as a delegate from the Student Peace Union (SPU). Altbach purchased a bag of the "chickentrack" buttons while he was in England, and brought them back to Chicago, where he convinced SPU to reprint the button and adopt it as its symbol. Over the next four years, SPU reproduced and sold thousands of the buttons on college campuses.”

The history of the symbol, and the meaning for Mr. Holtom, are too poignant not to include here.

Symbols perform a marvelous function in our world. They act as shorthand for meaning. My own experience of the Peace Symbol comes from the Scandinavian spiritual discipline of the Runes. It is the reversed position of the tenth Rune, called Algiz, which means protection.

Ralph Blum calls it “a mirror for the Spiritual Warrior.” How apt. His interpretation of this Rune reversed includes, “You may not win, but you will never lose, for you will always learn from what takes place. Temperance and courtesy are the sinews of this Rune’s protective powers.”

Isn’t it delightful that such a “new” symbol comes from such an “old” one? Wisdom is the same the world over. It’s knowledge that comes from experience.

Peace, too, dear one. It’s the action that comes from love.