What is the Origin of the Peace Sign?

Credit for this goes to akston. Thank you.

Some of you have no doubt heard that this is the 50th anniversary of the creation of the ubiquitous peace symbol.

All the stories I’ve read about it state clearly that the origin of the peace symbol is in the semaphor letters for N and D, meaning, ‘Nuclear Disarmament’.

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However, there are alternative explanations out there which may be of interest given the occultist, National Socialist roots of the current regime in the White House. The Elder Germanic runes, which are often used in divination, contain the rune Algiz:

Algiz: (Z or -R: Elk, protection.) Protection, a shield. The protective urge to shelter oneself or others. Defense, warding off of evil, shield, guardian. Connection with the gods, awakening, higher life. It can be used to channel energies appropriately. Follow your instincts. Keep hold of success or maintain a position won or earned. Algiz Reversed: or Merkstave: Hidden danger, consumption by divine forces, loss of divine link. Taboo, warning, turning away, that which repels.

The Nazis were known to invoke the runes. The Symbol for the SS, for example, was comprised of two images of Sowilho, the sun rune, which has its meaning described as “Success, goals achieved, honor. The life-force, health. A time when power will be available to you for positive changes in your life, victory, health, and success.”

Sowilo: (S: The sun.) Success, goals achieved, honor. The life-force, health. A time when power will be available to you for positive changes in your life, victory, health, and success. Contact between the higher self and the unconscious. Wholeness, power, elemental force, sword of flame, cleansing fire. Sowilo Merkstave (Sowilo cannot be reversed, but may lie in opposition): False goals, bad counsel, false success, gullibility, loss of goals. Destruction, retribution, justice, casting down of vanity. Wrath of god.

The variant of the name used in National Socialist Germany was ‘Sig’. The usage would appear to be one of sympathetic magic.

I discovered that I’m not the first by any means to make the connection. The John Birch Society has an article on the subject here.
http://www.jbs.org/node/2050

One of the most important things in the article, which restates much of the foregoing, is that the purported inventor of the peace symbol wasn’t alone in his adoption, but had some important contacts. Bertrand Russell was a prominent member of the Pugwash group, which campaigned for disarmament:

At least some, and possibly all, of this was known to those who created the modern peace symbol. Philosopher Bertrand Russell, who played a role in its adoption, was notorious for his socialist political beliefs and his anti-Christian bias. He was also thoroughly versed in ancient history and symbolism. Eric Austin was another member of the group that adopted the peace symbol in 1958. Austin campaigned for the symbol and wrote a pamphlet entitled The Campaign Emblem describing the symbol. Writing in the journal Peace Review in 1998, University of Bradford scholar Andrew Rigby noted that, at the time the peace symbol was being created, Austin “was reading a book on the runes, the ancient signs of the Norse world. He discovered that: in past ages the central motif of the current nuclear disarmament symbol, the ‘bent cross,’ had symbolized the death of man.”

We may recall Bertrand Russell fondly for his statement on public education that “Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.”
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/010408_mass.htm

Russell was quite an interesting figure. He campaigned vigorously against Hitler and was in fact kicked out of Trinity College for his pacifist activities as a youth. As an adult, he associated with Jiddu Krishnamurti, who had been regarded by the Theosophists as some sort of Messiah before his abrupt break with the religion, whichmay have had something to do with Charles Leadbeater’s tendencies towards pederasty. Russell’s parents were early advocates of birth control and moved in the circles of the peerage. Russell’s tutor as a child was the biologist Douglas Spalding, who created the psychological theory of IMPRINTING, which is described as

“any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior. It was first used to describe situations in which an animal or person learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be “imprinted” onto the subject.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_%28psychology%29

this obviously has implications for social education and youth culture. It bears more research.

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