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Hello,

A few days ago when I cleaned my house I found relic coin from my great grand mother, There is symbol in the coin that often appear especially on hospital,

please take a look :

coin image

Could someone mention name and meaning of this symbol ?

Thanks
 
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It is too small to see clearly, but it looks like a caduceus←link.
 
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Campbell is correct, it's a caduceus (staff of Hermes/Mercury).

This symbol is used as the mintmark of the royal Dutch mint in Utrecht, the Netherlands. All coins that were minted in Utrecht since 1830 carry this symbol.
 
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And following the link I gave you earlier told me that the medicaal mark isn't a caduceus, but an Aesculapius' staff; that only has one snake on.
 
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:And following the link I gave you earlier told me that the medicaal mark isn't a caduceus, but an Aesculapius' staff; that only has one snake on.



Most people don't realize that. Including, alas, some medical facilities!
 
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The Wikipedia article gives some explanation for that, too.
 
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gong tji wrote:
Could someone mention name and meaning of this symbol ?

Thanks



Stays for symbol of immortality, health, is an hermetic symbol, I guess  and is my guess deriving from the two current of energy in the spine, the so called ida and pingala in the indian tradition, and imported in the west. Is popular because represents an invariant of all the life, that is transformation.
 
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The two different snake rods are symbolic of 2 different Greek gods.

The κηρύκειον (caduceus) is the often-winged double-snake staff held in the left hand of Hermes (it's not uncommon for trickster gods to be wrong-handed). It's actually supposed to indicate that the bearer is a herald (of the gods in particular). Hermes (Mercury) is the messenger and herald of the gods when he/she's not up to no good (Hermes is, and gives name to "hermaphrodite"). The wings are symbolic of Hermes' ability to travel at the speed of thought, as are the winged hat and sandals often portrayed.

The Rod of Asclepius (Ασκληπιού) is symbolic of the Greek god of healing and medicine and never has wings. The snake was originally part of healing rituals, and in fact, the Greek word "pharmakon" (φάρμᾰκον) means both medicinal drug and poison, indicating that even back then it was well known that the usage and dosage made the difference. Ivermectin is a famous modern example. Not because it can kill a virus, but because it can poison parasites.

Any attempt to specifically tie any of this back to Indian medicinal/spiritual concepts is probably pushing things, but there is evidence that some of the concepts and possibly god-prototypes may have come from Mesopotamia. Where they got it from one can only speculate.
 
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Tim Holloway wrote:The two different snake rods are symbolic of 2 different Greek gods.

The κηρύκειον (caduceus) is the often-winged double-snake staff held in the left hand of Hermes (it's not uncommon for trickster gods to be wrong-handed). It's actually supposed to indicate that the bearer is a herald (of the gods in particular). Hermes (Mercury) is the messenger and herald of the gods when he/she's not up to no good (Hermes is, and gives name to "hermaphrodite"). The wings are symbolic of Hermes' ability to travel at the speed of thought, as are the winged hat and sandals often portrayed.

The Rod of Asclepius (Ασκληπιού) is symbolic of the Greek god of healing and medicine and never has wings. The snake was originally part of healing rituals, and in fact, the Greek word "pharmakon" (φάρμᾰκον) means both medicinal drug and poison, indicating that even back then it was well known that the usage and dosage made the difference. Ivermectin is a famous modern example. Not because it can kill a virus, but because it can poison parasites.

Any attempt to specifically tie any of this back to Indian medicinal/spiritual concepts is probably pushing things, but there is evidence that some of the concepts and possibly god-prototypes may have come from Mesopotamia. Where they got it from one can only speculate.



When we speak about symbols, as the caduceus and the cross there are two out numerous factors I would like to point out, as I deem this discussion quite interesting.

The first one is linked to the historical roots the second one is the recurrence of the symbol in different geographies and times.

The first one is interesting  because allow to understand where originally a concept comes from. In this way the initiation mysteries (in the archaeologic and astronomic findings) appear historically coming from the old earth fertility cycles, the movement of the sun, the cult of the so called "grand mother". This is in my opinion like speaking about the history of the soccer! Knowing that English or Italians  founded this sport with some variation is not going to justify why is still so entertaining today.
A psychological, maybe Freudian approach may be preferable to understand this nuance.

In fact this second aspect can be explained at my advice with the second component i quoted at the beginning, namely the anthropological study of the recurrence of a symbol, even incorporating  the knowledge of the underlying philosophy as you do. For instance there are some treatises (in Italian) really beautiful  about the meaning of the farmakon  that you quote in Plato, by one of the best Platonist ever. https://www.amazon.com/Quindici-lezioni-su-Platone/dp/8806164414 Reading them can give some insights, food for thought to fantasize  about the recurrence instead of historical aspect. Fantasizing is at my advice a good approach  because as Umberto Eco said the fiction can be more interesting of the reality to understand the symbolical implication to the human psychology.

The indian approach linked to the kundalini is really interesting because brings inbuilt the power of a mystical experience, although does not have the certitude of  philological historical research that can be instead detached from the pathos of the experience itself. I am thinking for instance to the discrepancy between the Baccae from Euripides and the Dyonisiac rituals. The symbol instead because can have more linguistic significants without expressing solutions  gives me more fascination that the linguistic concept of significance, and I am not alone in that, I am thinking to the studies from de Saussure.

As Claude Levi Strauss, one of my favorite structural thinkers of the past century express in the astonishing introduction of the second volume of the raw and cooked : the symbol has variations and we can read them not as a musical score, an historical succession of notes (a coding sequence of instructions) but ..vertically.  There are libraries of studies about the greek mysteries (and their possible influence on Christian religion) and their derivation from the west through so called sarmatic plain and the thesis of the Indoeuropean linguistic roots but still is not possible as you remark to prove the influence of the vedic spiritual texts as cornerstone of the middle age and renaissance European culture. Without internet and television a curious person had only one way to improve his cultural needs to test the content of the books, and that was traveling.
 
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I think what you call the "grand mother" is what English calls the Great Mother. Or more frequently, its Latin version: Magna Mater. A concept that comes again from Mesopotamia and sweeps through Greece into Europe and counts the Catholic Cult of the Virgin as one of its modern descendants. An apparent legacy of more matriarchal times.

Ishtar provides a spin-off, hence to the Egyptian goddess Isis, although I don't believe that She ever reigned supreme there. Then again, the Egyptians re-worked their pantheons multiple times over history and not uncommonly for political purposes.

The Kundalini Serpent is internal, and not directly related to Asclepius, as the Geeks were using very concrete serpents and their venom externally. Hermes' serpents are more abstract, but likewise viewed as external. But serpents in general are often closely related to religion and magic. They have perpetually wise/evil (often viewed as the same thing) expressions on their faces, they move without legs, and they assassinate via poisons, often without apparent warning. In some American Indian cultures there are stories which may be only told in Winter, "when the snakes are asleep". It is commonly held that the snakes would steal the stories otherwise.
 
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Tim Holloway wrote:I think what you call the "grand mother" is what English calls the Great Mother. Or more frequently, its Latin version: Magna Mater. A concept that comes again from Mesopotamia and sweeps through Greece into Europe and counts the Catholic Cult of the Virgin as one of its modern descendants. An apparent legacy of more matriarchal times.

Ishtar provides a spin-off, hence to the Egyptian goddess Isis, although I don't believe that She ever reigned supreme there. Then again, the Egyptians re-worked their pantheons multiple times over history and not uncommonly for political purposes.

The Kundalini Serpent is internal, and not directly related to Asclepius, as the Geeks were using very concrete serpents and their venom externally. Hermes' serpents are more abstract, but likewise viewed as external. But serpents in general are often closely related to religion and magic. They have perpetually wise/evil (often viewed as the same thing) expressions on their faces, they move without legs, and they assassinate via poisons, often without apparent warning. In some American Indian cultures there are stories which may be only told in Winter, "when the snakes are asleep". It is commonly held that the snakes would steal the stories otherwise.



Interesting point the one about an external snake, they are figuratively used to indicate different things, I am thinking to the staff of Moses, a really riveting iconographic image. I would have a lot to say about the cult of Isis and the Catholic church, is noticeable that there are ancient artworks of the Virgo giving milk to his son, they are not known, and remand to the Egyptian tradition of Isis. Spoke with a theologist, university professor about this aspect, he was also even openly free-mason and so really interested to the mystery aspect of the religions, as I like this field he read me some ancient isis prayers 20 yeas ago, so do not remember exactly maybe this http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/royaltyr/AncientCities/web/rel%20372%20project/invocation.htm is really interesting to see how the invocations are similar to the ones of the texts from the Catholic tradition.
 
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