From: hayesstw@risc1.unisa.ac.za (Steve Hayes)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc,alt.pagan,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Peace Symbol
Date: 27 Jan 93 09:39:55 GMT
Organization: University of South Africa
NNTP-Posting-Host: pchayest.unisa.ac.za

In article <C1GMq4.CA7@gabriel.keele.ac.uk> u0d05@keele.ac.uk (PG Herzberg) writes:

>: ] Recently several articles have been on the ankh and I thought I would
>: ] ask if anyone has information on where the "peace symbol" is derived
>: ] from. I have heard that its origins are occultic and was used by some
>: ] ancient pagan societies. Is this true? If so, who? Anyone care to 
>: ] offer some reliable info?
>: 
>: 
>: Well depends on who you talk to.
>: 
>: Theory One: the CND [Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament] was
>: alledged to have brought it about as a 'signal flag' representation
>: of their call letters.
>: 
>: theory two: {More Probable} Given that the CND folks were lead
>: by folks Like Bertrand Russell, who was SOFT on Communism, it
>: is CLEARLY a Satanic Kult Ritual Sign indicative of a broken
>: Upside down cross used during Black Masses and Communist
>: Inner Party Meetings. {Sorry, those are redundently reptative,
>: as Black Masses and Communist Inner Party Meetings are one
>: and the same thing.}
>:
>A while ago The Grauniad had something on this in its Notes & Queries
>section I haven't got the article with me and neither can I give an
>exact reference , but another two explainations are:-
>
>theory three: Apparently it is semaphore. If you split it up into
>three component parts you get 0,| and Y(inverted) the O stands for
>whole and the other two are semaphore for  N and D (ie total Nuclear
>Disarmament). (This sounds very silly I know but it wasn't me who
>dreamed it up).

Maybe I'll manage to get it posted this time ...

The peace symbol has produced many urban legends, and the ones above are 
just a few of them.

I published the last one about the semaphore, and had a letter from Laurens 
Otter, editor of a Christian anarchists' periodical. He said he was at the 
meetings where it was designed, and if so his account should be nearest the 
truth.

They were looking for a logo, and wanted a variation on the cross. They 
tried raised arms, but it seemed too joyful. They then tried drooping arms, 
which looked sad enough, and agreed to think about it and make a final 
decision at the next meeting.

At the next meeting Jerry Horton said he had been to the library and found 
that the cross with drooping arms was used by medieval monks as a symbol for 
a dead man, and the circle was the symbol for an unborn child. They adopted 
the comination, as it seemed to express the effects of Strontium 90 on 
unborn children.

This was in about 1957, and the peace symbol was not used by the Campaign 
for Nuclear Disarmament until a couple of years later. The semaphore 
interpretation was an afterthought, though a happy coincidence.

It seems to me that the peace symbol might be a suitable emblem for anti-
abortion campaigners nowadays, as in our time abortion seems to be a greater 
threat to unborn children than Strontium 90.

============================================================
Steve Hayes, Department of Missiology & Editorial Department
Univ. of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria, 0001 South Africa
Internet: hayesstw@risc1.unisa.ac.za
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Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc