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Symbol of pacifism meaning. Hippie Sign: History and Mysteries

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This term has other meanings, see Pacific (meanings). Pacific

Pacific(English) Pacific - « peaceful, peaceful, conciliatory”) is an international symbol of peace, disarmament, anti-war movement. This sign (☮) was originally created for the British movement for nuclear disarmament. Designed and completed on February 21, 1958 by professional British artist and designer Gerald Holtom for the March of the Direct Action Committee against Atomic War. The march was scheduled to take place on April 4 from Trafalgar Square in London to the Atomic Weapons Research Office in Aldermaston in England. After that, the symbol was adopted by the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and in the 1960s became the international emblem of the anti-war movement and counterculture of the time.

Drawing

The sign is a combination of semaphore signals N and D, which means "nuclear disarmament" (Eng. nuclear disarmament

Holt later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of the magazine peace news("News of the World"), explaining the origin of the idea in more detail:

I was in despair. Deep despair. I depicted myself, a man in despair, with his arms lowered and outstretched to the sides, like a peasant before a firing squad at Goya. I formalized the drawing into a line and made a circle around it.

Another possible meaning of the sign "Pacific" can be the union of all roads into one as a symbol of the unity of mankind.

There are also interpretations of this symbol as the imprint of a pigeon's foot.

The peace sign first became known in the United States in 1958, after Albert Bigelow sailed in his small boat, adorned with a peace flag, to a nuclear test site. The badge with the symbol was brought to America in 1960 by Philip Altback, a student at the University of Chicago who traveled to England as a delegate from the Students' Peace Union (SPU) to meet with English peace activists. Altback bought a bag of "chicken mark" badges and brought them back to Chicago, where he convinced the SPU to reprint the badges and use the badge as their emblem. Over the next four years, SPU printed and sold thousands of dorm badges. By the end of the 1960s, the peace sign had become an international symbol adopted by opponents of the war.

A funny and perhaps the most famous fact of my biography is that I was the one who brought the symbol of peace (the sign "Pacific" or "cross of peace") to the United States. It was designed by the English professional artist Gerald Holt specifically for the 1958 Peace March, after a trip to England I convinced my comrades to use it as a symbol of our organization, and then it became a symbol of the struggle against the Vietnam War and a symbol of peace.

Facts

Emblem of the 3rd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht (1941-1945)
  • The "Pacific" pattern is completely identical to the version of the emblem of the 3rd Wehrmacht Panzer Division, used from 1941 to 1945.

Pacific is:

Pacific Pacific

Pacific(English) Pacific- "peaceful, peace-loving", "conciliatory") - an international symbol of peace, disarmament, anti-war movement. This sign (☮) was originally created for the British movement for nuclear disarmament. It was designed and finished on February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom ( English), a professional artist and designer from Britain for a march planned by the Direct Action Committee against Atomic War. The march was scheduled to take place on April 4 from Trafalgar Square in London to the Nuclear Weapons Research Office in Aldermaston in England. After that, the symbol was adopted by the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and in the 1960s became the international emblem of the anti-war movement and counterculture of that time.

By itself, this sign is a combination of semaphore signals N and D, which means "nuclear disarmament" (Eng. nuclear disarmament). In the semaphore alphabet, the letter N is transmitted by holding two flags in the form of an inverted V, and the letter D is sent by pointing one flag up and the second down. These two signals superimposed on each other form the shape of the peace sign. In the first official version of CND, the lines extended from the center and the sign was white on black.

Holtom later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of the News of the World, explaining the origin of the idea in more depth:

I was in despair. Deep despair. I depicted myself, a man in despair, with his arms lowered and outstretched to the sides, like a peasant before a firing squad at Goya. I formalized the drawing into a line, and made a circle around it.

The peace sign first became known in the United States in 1958, after Albert Bigelow sailed in his small boat, adorned with a peace flag, to a nuclear test site. The badge with the symbol was brought to America in 1960 by Philip Eltback, a student at the University of Chicago who traveled to England as a delegate from the Students' Peace Union (SPU) to meet with English peace activists. Eltbeck bought a bag of "chicken mark" badges and brought them back to Chicago, where he persuaded the SPU to reprint the badges and use the badge as their emblem. Over the next four years, SPU printed and sold thousands of dorm badges. By the end of the 1960s, the sign of peace had become an international symbol adopted by opponents of the war.

In Unicode, the peace sign is U+262E: ☮ and can therefore be rendered in HTML as ☮ or ☮. However, the browser may not have the correct font to display it.

The original image of the CND sign is kept in the World Museum in England, where an exact copy is on public display.

Links

  • S. Curii. Symbols of the struggle for peace (Picasso's dove, Sadako's crane and Holtom's "pacific") // Highway, 2006
  • Peace symbol "Pacific" celebrates its 50th anniversary

Notes

  1. A Piece of Our Time. time magazine. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2008.
  2. The CND logo. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2008.
  3. Ken Kolsbun with Mike Sweeney Peace: The Biography of a Symbol. - National Geographic Books. - ISBN 9781426202940
  4. The Peace Museum, Bradford

see also

  • Pacifism
  • Dove of peace
Hippie Lifestyle Places Festivals Related Articles Movies about hippies Categories:
  • Symbols
  • Hippie
  • Pacifism
  • Appeared in 1958

lieutenant colombo

The "Pacific" or the so-called "Cross of Peace" is a symbol invented quite recently, in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, for the emerging "Movement for Nuclear Disarmament". On February 21, 1958, the British Royal College of Art announced a competition for the best logo for the Campaign Against the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Holtom was inspired by the semaphore alphabet. He made a cross out of her symbols for "N" (nuclear, nuclear) and "D" (disarmament, disarmament), and placed them in a circle, which symbolized a global agreement. This symbol attracted public attention after the first protest march from London to the Berkshire Nuclear Research Center on April 4, 1958. Soon this cross became one of the most common signs of the 60s, symbolizing both peace and anarchy. This is a sign that has become a symbol of world pacifism
The basis of the Pacific is the inverted rune Algiz known in two forms: direct and reverse.
In the Scandinavian futhark, the straight line Algiz is also called Mannar (from man - man), schematically depicting a man with his hands raised to the sky, which symbolizes the aspiration of consciousness upwards. In an inverted form, Algiz symbolizes the roots of the world tree, going underground to the kingdom of the dead, to the lower worlds. In the occult tradition, the bowels of the earth are associated with the feminine. Matriarchal and internal ideology: universal love, protest against wars and in general any violence. "Make Love Not War". But the most important thing is an appeal to one's own subconscious, intuition, dreams, an altered state of consciousness; high interest in folk traditions, ancient world cultures, philosophical and esoteric teachings.
In the 60s, in the United States, this symbol was an attribute of all opponents of the Vietnam War. In 68, this sign was seen on a wall in Prague, during the introduction of tanks into the city by Soviet troops. In the 90s, the symbol could be seen on the destroyed Berlin Wall and during the war in Yugoslavia.

the same

This "chicken foot" has ancient roots .... not inscribed in a circle - depicted the concept of "world" (as in the figure) ... and turned back (with a fork up) - a sign of absolute weapons, the Varangians also depicted on swords and knives , Normans .... in general, this sign is from runic fun.

What does this sign mean?

Pacific
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Pacific

Pacific (English pacific - “peaceful, peaceful”, “conciliatory”) is an international symbol of peace, disarmament, and the anti-war movement. This sign (☮) was originally created for the British movement for nuclear disarmament. It was designed and completed on 21 February 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a British professional artist and designer, for a march planned by the Direct Action Committee Against Atomic War. The march was scheduled to take place on April 4 from Trafalgar Square in London to the Atomic Weapons Research Office in Aldermaston in England. . After that, the symbol was adopted by the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and in the 1960s became the international emblem of the anti-war movement and counterculture of the time.

By itself, this sign is a combination of semaphore signals N and D, which means "nuclear disarmament" (English nuclear disarmament). In the semaphore alphabet, the letter N is transmitted by holding two flags in the form of an inverted V, and the letter D is sent by pointing one flag up and the second down. These two signals superimposed on each other form the shape of the peace sign. In the first official version of the CND, the lines extended from the center and the sign was white on black.

Holt later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of The News of the World, explaining the origins of the idea in more depth:

I was in despair. Deep despair. I depicted myself, a man in despair, with his arms lowered and outstretched to the sides, like a peasant before a firing squad at Goya. I formalized the drawing into a line, and made a circle around it.

The peace sign first became known in the United States in 1958, after Albert Bigelow sailed in his small boat, adorned with a peace flag, to a nuclear test site. The badge with the symbol was brought to America in 1960 by Philip Eltback, a student at the University of Chicago who traveled to England as a delegate from the Students' Peace Union (SPU) to meet with English peace activists. Eltbeck bought a bag of "chicken mark" badges and brought them back to Chicago, where he persuaded the SPU to reprint the badges and use the badge as their emblem. Over the next four years, SPU printed and sold thousands of dorm badges. By the end of the 1960s, the sign of peace had become an international symbol adopted by opponents of the war.

In Unicode, the peace sign is U+262E: ☮ and can therefore be rendered in HTML as ☮ or ☮. However, the browser may not have the correct font to display it.

The original image of the CND sign is kept in the Peace Museum in England, where a replica is on public display.
Links

S. Curii. Symbols of the struggle for peace (Picasso's dove, Sadako's crane and Holtom's "pacific") // Highway, 2006
Peace symbol "Pacific" celebrates its 50th anniversary

Notes

A Piece of Our Time. time magazine. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2008.
The CND logo. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2008.
Ken Kolsbun with Mike Sweeney Peace: The Biography of a Symbol. - National Geographic Books. - ISBN 9781426202940
The Peace Museum, Bradford

see also

Pacifism
Dove of peace

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Symbols
Hippie
Pacifism
Appeared in 1958

What is a "sign, hippie symbol"? What does it look like, what does it mean?

What is the sign of the hippie subculture?

What does the sign, hippie symbol look like?

What does the sign, hippie symbol mean?

Inna interviewed


Everyone associates the symbol of peace with the hippie movement, which appeared in the 60s of the last century.

Surprisingly, this symbol, unlike many others, has no analogues from the past.

It was coined by Gerald Holtom to denote the expression "British nuclear weapons", combining the two English letters N and D from "Nuclear Disarmamend" (nuclear disarmament). Holtom himself explained the image as follows: The lines enclosed in a circle are a man in despair and hopelessness, with his arms extended down.

Interestingly, Holtom did not copyright this symbol, and over time it became a symbol of peace, freedom, and the hippie movement.

Help to

The hippie sign is called Pacific.

Obviously, this symbol carries a good intention: against weapons, war and for disarmament.

The first to use it was the British organization CND, which led an active campaign for nuclear disarmament.

The sign appeared in 1958.

Here is this sign in text form ☮ (you can copy it).


The hippies used (and still use) a sign called "Pacific". It translates as "peaceful". It was originally used by another organization that was against nuclear weapons, and then was adopted by the hippies.


Originally posted by dolboboot at where did the pacifist sign ("pacifik") come from

if not everyone knows this symbol, then very many. in Russia it is known as "chicken foot" or

but few people know that the Pacific, he pacifist sign did not appear from scratch and was not invented by stoned hippies, nor does it carry any sacred symbols. pacifist sign designed by a professional British designer Gerald Holtom(Gerald Herbert Holtom) in 1958 (exactly!)

the Pacific was based on two semaphore signals adopted by the navy, namely the letters "D" and "N":

why these two letters? everything ingenious is simple, the sign of the pacifist Holt developed for a British organization called Campaign for nuclear disarmament(Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND), and specifically for the anti-nuclear march that was supposed to take place in London. the abbreviation DN stands for "nuclear disarmament", i.e. nuclear disarmament

so two signs of the semaphore alphabet, combined into one, became a cult symbol of pacifism.
and if Sir Holtom were more conservative and less creative, the pacifist could well get the look of a Christian cross - this is exactly what, according to the recollections of the designer's widow, the numerous initial sketches looked like, a cross framed by a circle.
It's true, history sometimes brings interesting surprises =)

In the 80-90s of the 20th century, a record number of youth subcultures existed in the post-Soviet space. In connection with the fall of the Iron Curtain, all kinds of symbols and pictograms that came from other countries were “snatched up” like hot cakes by representatives of various youth movements. And some symbols that came from the West and East are still interpreted one-sidedly or stereotypically. This material will help to understand the true meaning of such "affected" cult symbols.

Pentagram


In one of the most popular books of the 21st century, The Da Vinci Code, the writer and culturologist Dan Brown, through the mouth of the antagonist Professor Langdon, tells the true meaning of the pentagram or pentacle - a pictogram in the form of a five-pointed star, in which each line is equal in length to all the others. This symbol is one of the most powerful images, which for thousands of years in many cultures was considered divine or magical. If you draw a pentagram and draw all the diagonals in it, then they are automatically divided into segments corresponding to the famous "divine proportion". It is for this reason that the five-pointed star has always been a symbol of beauty and perfection and has been associated with Venus, the goddess of beauty, as well as the sacred feminine. In view of the patriarchal nature of most religions of the world, they simply began to forget about the connection of the pentagram with Venus and the feminine principle.


Due to the fact that in the 80-90s of the 20th century a wave of shocking ritual murders swept around the world, committed within the framework of a sect that called itself Satanists, where the inverted pentacle was used as the main symbolism, people began to fear this sign, associating it with nothing less than satanists and brutal murders. In fact, the participants in this well-known sect set themselves such a goal as the realization of their own sadistic inclinations, but not serving the Devil.


The pentagram is an ancient Slavic universal amulet. To this day, East Slavic healers recommend wearing a pendant in the form of a pentacle somewhere on oneself (under clothes as a pendant or in a pocket) as a universal protection against the evil eye and damage.

Pacifist sign


In the 90s of the 20th century, the informal youth movement was very popular in the post-Soviet space, which the editors of the site remember very well: they rarely washed their hair, wore plaid shirts and listened to Kurt Cobain. Informals (like their hippie forefathers) chose the international sign of pacifism as their main symbol, in connection with which some people still associate this most peaceful sign with a rebellion against society, because then informals loved to skip school, smoke, drink and quarrel with non-informals. The association with the rebellion would truly surprise the creator of this symbol if he knew in 1958 what would happen to his offspring in the minds of fairly broad masses.


The sign was originally designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement by British graphic designer Gerald Holtom for the Committee of Direct Action march against atomic war in 1958. The march was held on 4 April from Trafalgar Square in London to the Atomic Weapons Research Office in Aldermaston in England. After that, the symbol was adopted by the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament and in the 1960s became the international emblem of the anti-war movement and countercultures (hippies, etc.) of that time.

Yin Yang


Everyone believes that yin-yang (this is how the name of the symbol is correctly pronounced) is a symbol of the male and female principles and nothing more. But this is fundamentally wrong. This pictogram came from the Buddhists around the 2nd or 3rd century AD. In the East, it is considered the model of all things. The word 'yin' means 'shady mountainside' and 'yang' means 'sunny mountainside'. Therefore, the main interpretation of this symbol is the endless interaction of contrasts.


Polar forces complement each other: each of them carries a piece of the opposite. This symbol is a peaceful struggle in which a final victory is impossible, since, according to Eastern philosophy, there is no end to anything (even human life, because Buddhists believe in the transmigration of souls).

Star of David


The vast majority of people believe that the six-pointed star, in which all lines are equal in length to each other, is exclusively a symbol of the Jews or everything connected with such a nationality as the Jews. This sign is indeed located on the flag of Israel and is revered by Jews around the world as sacred. That's just the sphere of influence of this symbol is not limited.


If you look at the sign carefully, you can easily understand that these are two isosceles triangles inscribed in each other. One is directed with its sharp part down, and the second, respectively, up. In many cultures of the world, the triangle looking down symbolizes the feminine (“bosom”), and looking down - the masculine (“sword” as a universal phallic symbol). Thus, this sign denotes the unity of the male and female principles (as the only ones conceived by nature or God) as well as the harmony of all things.

wind rose


Most people believe that this symbol means the direction of the winds and nothing more. But this is too narrow an approach. The first mention of this symbol dates back to about 1300 AD, the time of the active development of navigation. The pictogram was a symbol of the guiding star and a talisman for all sailors. They applied tattoos in the form of a wind rose on their bodies in order to return home unharmed from each voyage.

Jolly Roger


In fact, pirates never flew flags with a skull and crossbones (as an option - a sword) on a black background. This recognizable symbol, which is called the Jolly Roger, was already generated at a time when pirates went down in history, thanks to such an art form as cinema. But the truth is that sailors (not only pirates !!!) applied skull tattoos to their bodies, but every sailor had a good reason for this. They believed that if Death itself came to them with a scythe and saw a skull on the body of a sailor who was injured due to a storm or a shipwreck, he would decide that he had already died, which means he would pass by (the person would survive).


To this day, many tattoo lovers tattoo themselves with a skull because they adhere to the same superstition (tattoo as a talisman against death by accident). And in Mexican culture, the image of the skull is not negative, but purely positive, because it is a reminder of the endless gratitude to the spirits of the ancestors!


Images with skulls are placed in every home, as a rule, the skull is combined with red marigold flowers. It is through their petals, according to the beliefs of the Mexicans, that the spirits find their way to the world of living people during the main holiday of the year - the Day of the Dead, which is celebrated on the same scale as, for example, in Russia - the New Year.

masonic eye


Many people believe that since this image is on the banknote of such a religious country as the United States, it certainly means that it means the eye of God or the All-Seeing Eye of the Almighty. Only here are the pipes! This is a sign of such an intellectual and philosophical trend as the Masons. The main activity of Masons has always been and remains charity, at the forefront for them is moral perfection (in most cases requiring faith in the Supreme Being), as well as the development and preservation of fraternal friendship in a fraternal environment. Culturologist and writer Dan Brown is sure that under any ruling power in the United States, Masons have always been the most influential members of parliament, which is why this sign has penetrated the main currency of the world.


Crescent


This symbol has a sacred meaning in many cultures. It originated around 4000 BC. It is found in Egypt, Greece, India, Byzantium and Sumer, where it represents rebirth and immortality. In Hinduism, the crescent represents a person's control over his mind. In Christianity, this is the sign of the Virgin Mary. In modern tradition, it is indeed most widely known as the sign of the Muslims (along with the star).

Swastika


The ancient international symbol of the sun, which was found throughout Eurasia and was a universal amulet and sign of the sun, was forever trampled into the mud by the fascists of the first half of the 20th century and their leader Adolf Hitler. Millions of people were killed in the name of this sign. It is unlikely that the sign of the sun will be able to rehabilitate itself in the next 100-200 years.


In the fictional universe of the Harry Potter books by the English writer J. K. Rowling, there is such a character as the evil magician Grindelwald, who wants to enslave the whole world and kill a large number of social groups that he does not like (especially non-magicians). There is an obvious parallel between the sign of Grindelwald, who wanted to enslave non-Magi, and the Nazi swastika of Adolf Hitler, who exterminated non-Aryans.


Initially, both signs did not carry any aggression in themselves, remaining only symbols of bygone days. The circle in Rowling's triangle is originally a sign of the Deathly Hallows from a children's fairy tale, which at one time became a kind of flag for those who believed in the real roots of this story. The swastika is a solar (relating to the sun) universal ancient symbol used by many ancient peoples of the world (from India to Russia), meaning the movement of life, the sun, light and well-being. Both signs with the light hand of Grindelwald and Hitler became symbols of oppression, persecution, violence and terror.

The material will immerse you even deeper into the life of past generations.

Pacific- "peaceful, peace-loving", "conciliatory") - an international symbol of peace, disarmament, anti-war movement. This sign (☮) was originally created for the British movement for nuclear disarmament. It was designed and finished on February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom ( English), a professional artist and designer from Britain for a march planned by the Direct Action Committee against Atomic War. The march was scheduled to take place on April 4 from Trafalgar Square in London to the Atomic Weapons Research Office in Aldermaston in England. . After that, the symbol was adopted by the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and in the 1960s became the international emblem of the anti-war movement and counterculture of the time.

By itself, this sign is a combination of semaphore signals N and D, which means "nuclear disarmament" (Eng. nuclear disarmament). In the semaphore alphabet, the letter N is transmitted by holding two flags in the form of an inverted V, and the letter D is sent by pointing one flag up and the second down. These two signals superimposed on each other form the shape of the peace sign. In the first official version of the CND, the lines extended from the center and the sign was white on black.

Holtom later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of the News of the World, explaining the origin of the idea in more depth:

I was in despair. Deep despair. I depicted myself, a man in despair, with his arms lowered and outstretched to the sides, like a peasant before a firing squad at Goya. I formalized the drawing into a line, and made a circle around it.

The sign of peace first became known in the United States in , after Albert Bigelow sailed in his small boat, decorated with a flag with a peace sign, to a nuclear test site. The badge with the symbol was brought to America by Philip Eltback, a student at the University of Chicago who traveled to England as a delegate from the Student Peace Union (SPU) to meet with English peace activists. Eltbeck bought a bag of "chicken mark" badges and brought them back to Chicago, where he persuaded the SPU to reprint the badges and use the badge as their emblem. Over the next four years, SPU printed and sold thousands of dorm badges. By the end of the 1960s, the sign of peace had become an international symbol adopted by opponents of the war.

In Unicode, the peace sign is U+262E: ☮ and can therefore be rendered in HTML as ☮ or ☮. However, the browser may not have the correct font to display it.

The original image of the CND sign is kept in the Peace Museum in England, where a replica is on public display.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what "Pacific" is in other dictionaries:

    Pacific- PACIFIK, a, m. Pacifist; everything related to the pacifist movement, for example. icon, the movement itself, etc. From the international; most likely through English. pacific in the same sign… Dictionary of Russian Argo

    PACIFIC- Metro station Mira Square. Now Sennaya Square. By association with: pacifist. Compare: HORSE IRA, HORSE OF THE WORLD, BLUE STATION ... Dictionary of the Petersburger

    Pacific- (lat. pacificus) Pacific Ocean ... Macedonian dictionary

    Patrol boats of the "Pacific" type Pacific class patrol boat ... Wikipedia

    Pacific class patrol boat ... Wikipedia

    - (Bizza) genus. in Raab, in Dalmatia in 1696, he received a doctorate in Padua, then he helped the Italian Richeputi write the history of the Illyrian region, in 1739 he was appointed bishop of Raab, and in 1746 archbishop in Splet, he founded in Omisha in 1750 the Slavic ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

    Pacific in the center of the Strawberry Fields mosaic New section ... Wikipedia

    Pacific hippie symbol Hippie season usually lasts from spring to autumn, the height of hippie festivals, promotion of free love, etc. falls in March ... Wikipedia

    pacification- pacification, and ... Russian spelling dictionary

    Men s League 2009 Championship details Time June 7 September 13 Number of participants 7 Cities ... Wikipedia

Books

  • Pacific 231, A. Honneger. Reprinted music edition of Honegger, Arthur`Pacific 231`. Genres: Symphonic poems; for orchestra; Scores featuring the orchestra. We have created especially for you, using our own…

Most likely, everyone has seen this sign. You can meet him everywhere - from neck pendants to buses. But what it symbolizes is not known to everyone. Some have heard that this is a sign of hippies. But what it means is a mystery to them. Someone even knows what the hippie sign is called.

A symbol of peace

The word "pacific" means "peaceful". The hippie movement is not only about sex, drugs and rock and roll. In addition to the struggle for personal emancipation, which is always popular among young people, this counter-culture absorbed people who seriously thought about politics and even the fate of the planet. They fought against wars and all forms of violence. In addition, some of the first hippies raised environmental issues.

Symbol author

The sign of peace does not have a long history lost through the ages. It has a very specific author. True, the Pacific is not patented, but it was already a matter of principle. The British artist Gerald Holtom believed that the struggle for peace is a common cause, therefore he considers it senseless and unethical to assign even one sign.

A young artist and designer recently graduated from the Royal College of Art in London created this sign in 1958 for the nuclear weapons movement. The terrible prospect of the destruction of countries and continents, and even life on the planet, was drawn by many people who were concerned about the ever more active use of nuclear weapons. The consequences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where an explosion occurred in 1945, made themselves felt with genetic anomalies in children and disruption of the ecosystem in the affected areas.

Among the hot, enthusiastic youth there are always people who think broadly and globally. They have the most and hurts the soul for the world. These are the people who have gathered to fight for nuclear disarmament.

In the fight for nuclear disarmament

A talented designer is resourceful and can find a non-standard solution. And yet - all ingenious is simple. Gerald Holtom managed to come up with a simple and expressive sign consisting of two letters N and D (‘Nuclear Disarmament’ - nuclear disarmament). But here we will not find the usual outlines of Latin letters. The fact is that letters from the marine flag alphabet were used for the symbol. To show the letter N, the sailor had to hold his hands down and to the sides, and the letter D was indicated by pointing one hand up and the other down, which formed the vertical line of the sign. That was the original meaning of the hippie sign. The outlines of the symbol are clear and specific, so any student who is not trained in drawing can copy it.

The man with his hands down

And yet, not everyone is sure that the official version of the creation of the sign is true. What does the hippie sign mean? This symbol is overgrown with legends, and it is difficult to establish exactly where the truth is. What if Gerald wasn't inspired by the nautical alphabet? He himself admits that the sign had another meaning. The designer was depressed and expressed the helplessness of a person in front of the formidable power of nuclear weapons. Therefore, divorced and lowered, as for the letter N, hands can mean exactly this feeling.

Pigeon or rocket?

Some believe that the hippie sign is formed from a dove's foot enclosed in a circle. After all, the dove is a symbol of peace. And someone, on the contrary, sees in it the outlines of a nuclear missile. Only now the circle that covers it means restrictions - we will not let this rocket move!

Rune vice versa

It has a sign and resemblance to one of the runes of the Old Norse alphabet. In this case, the symbol takes on a gloomy meaning. After all, the rune Algiz, the side "branches" of which are raised up, means life, protection and the world tree, therefore its inverted version is associated with death and the roots of this tree, which are deepened into the other world. Some hippies themselves are not at all against such an interpretation. The roots of the tree of life and the earth, in addition, symbolize the mother's womb, the feminine.

And the hippie movement, directed against wars and any aggression, prone to merging with nature and seeking harmony, has noticeable feminine notes. For example, men wear long hair, weave flowers into them or into their beards. Hippie clothing is rich in colorful ornaments; representatives of this counterculture love an abundance of jewelry. Well, many hippies are far from indifferent to the other world - they are interested in meditation, shamanic spiritual practices. The desire for altered states of consciousness led to the spread of drugs among them.

In addition, the Algiz rune symbolizes protection, courage, upward striving, it protects a person from dangers and enemies, from defeats, but not from pride. Therefore, its opposite meaning is humility and vulnerability, a fundamental refusal to protect, which is very appealing to pacifism.

inverted cross

In addition, such a sign is also found in the satanic bible, where it symbolizes an inverted cross with broken beams. In this sense, the pacific can symbolize the destruction of Western Christian civilization and conventional morality. In the hippie movement, both interest in Eastern religions and the rejection of traditional norms of behavior are clearly visible. But perhaps Western culture itself has “tightened the screws” too much, pushing creative and searching youth to revolt.

That's how ambiguous the symbol is. One can only guess what is actually invested in it - the struggle for peace and life or going to the other world to death?