Comments on: The Enduring Symbolism of Doves

By: andrew mathew

andrew mathew — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:25:15 +0000

is it real or fake (not real)

By: Peter Aleff

Peter Aleff — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:47:01 +0000

The dove appears also prominently on the Phaistos Disk as a symbol for the mother goddess and is there already associated with the “initiation” of the ray-haired head that represents the sun god. The ancient initiation ceremony was a forerunner of baptism, and the presence of the dove in this “initiation” context confirms the continuity of this symbolism. For details, see http://phaistosgame.com/Phaistos38.htm

By: Dallas Kennedy

Dallas Kennedy — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:49:35 +0000

An amazing use of the dove to represent the soul or spirit comes toward the end of the classic science fiction movie, Blade Runner, based loosely on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? A replicant (android hard to distinguish from human) named Roy Batty is about to be turned off (die?). When he shuts down, a dove he is holding flies away. Was he human after all, and are the replicants perhaps morally superior?

I don’t know if the director (Ridley Scott) or someone else involved with the movie got this idea from the original novel, as I can’t find it there. Dick was a strange, strange man, but also a devoted Anglo-Catholic after his own fashion. The poignant tension brought out so forcefully in the movie is, who is human, or who is not? The dove, representing the soul, may provide the answer.

By: Allan Richardson

Allan Richardson — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:01:39 +0000

One of the ideas promoted in the Bible is the presence of Divine Power and majesty disguised in “ordinary” or “unimpressive” people, things and circumstances: God with the Israelites enslaved in Egypt; God with Naomi and her daughters-in-law in Edom, all three widowed; and of course Jesus, divinity incarnate in a lowly peasant baby, and later as a rebel peasant dying the most painful and degraded death.

I see an analogy with doves and pigeons. Even outside of the Judeo-Christian community, doves are considered noble and beautiful, while their wild pigeon cousins are despised, and sometimes called “flying rats” because of their overpopulation in urban environments. So, the pigeon perceived by divine inspiration as a dove is like the perception of the divine and majestic in the lowliest and most common people and things.

By: Michael Newton

Michael Newton — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 04:03:38 +0000

hi
it’s worth remebering that the association of doves with gods and goddesses extends deeply in to the Greek world, as well as the Holy Land – refer to Roman coins that show the snctuary of Aphrodite in Cyprus that clearly show doves flanking the alter. Equally usage of doves as ritual offerings reach in to other Semitic settings in the classical period – there is a well known, but so far undated, columbarium at Petra! And many, including me, believe that the “grooves” along side the main facade of the Khazneh in Petra are dovecotes, and thus associated in some way with whatever ritual took place in, or outside, that building.

By: Rose Stauros

Rose Stauros — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:35:38 +0000

There are a lot of doves in the engravings from the works of Jacob Boehme (1682).

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/jpg/Weg_zu_Christ.jpeg

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/jpg/Send-Briefe.jpeg

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/jpg/De_Testamentis_Christi.jpeg

By: aa

aa — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 06:43:16 +0000

See also : Ziffer, Irit. 1998 “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock. The dove allegory in antiquity”. Exibition catalogue by Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv

By: Alfredo

Alfredo — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:19:01 +0000

In Hebrew, yônâh (yo-naw’) is dove. It probably comes from the same root as yayin (yah’-yin) = “from an unused root meaning to effervesce; wine (as fermented); by implication intoxication: – banqueting, wine, wine [-bibber].” Thus, in Acts they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) making them act as if they were mestoō (mes-to’-o), greek for intoxicated (Acts 2:13)

By: Robert Roberg

Robert Roberg — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:04:27 +0000

I think a mention by Jesus that his followers were to be as harmless as doves would be fitting…since today most churches bless their males who go off to wars and be anything but dove-like.

By: Frans Chircop

Frans Chircop — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:52:26 +0000

Hi,
Thanks for the article you wrote about the
The Enduring Symbolism of Doves. I am the editor of a magazine called “Il-Presepju” issued by the Maltese Friends of the Crib-Malta and I would like to translate it in Maltese and publish it. I would like your permission to do so. I really appreciate it if it is in the affermative. I would list from where I got the article.
Thanks
Frans Chircop