The Mindful Migraine

OK, so I thought I knew something… but it turns out I only sort of knew about this something… and since it was super-trippy for me to discover the other half of what I knew about this fact, I thought it might be an eye-opener for you too, hence today’s share.

A very common symbol for health is a cross. I’ve written before (here) about how hospitals, pharmacies, first aid kits etc all have a positive-sign of a cross on them to say “healing here”.

But there’s another symbol that also gets a big workout. I’m sure you’ve seen it too, either on TV or in real life: it is a snake (or two) wrapped around a stick. You might have guessed, as I did, that it was a symbol from ancient Greek times about a God-of-health, and you’d be right.

BUT…

It turns out there are TWO versions of the snakey-stick-thing, and they have VERY different meanings.

The Rod of Asclepius: This rod has ONE snake coiled around a walking stick, or rough-hewn staff. Historically it is known around the world as an emblem of medicine and healthcare, and has been in use since 800 BCE. The origin story, according to Wikipedia, is a little cloudy, but apparently Asclepius (or Aesculapius) was a god of healing, and the snake might have been a reference to shedding skin as a form of renewal and rejuvenation, or else, it related to the fact that snake venom was occasionally used as a cure by medical experts (whilst it was a curse to regular humans).

[There’s a whole other post I could write about phármakon which is the Greek word for BOTH ‘drug’ and ‘poison’… it is something that can heal OR harm… the platitude ‘everything in moderation comes to mind’… as does the rise of fentanyl which used to be a pain-reduction drug but is now a poisonous epidemic… sigh.]

Anyway – back to snakes.

The World Health Organisation uses the Rod of Asclepius on it’s logo (superimposed on a map). So does our Australian Medical Association (AMA), placed on top of a cross.

Here’s a picture of Asclepius that I uploaded in 2024 on a blog post about Royalty Free Images (here). As I noted in the previous post; “There seems to be a real intimacy between Asclepius and the snake, it’s almost as if he’s stroking its forehead as you would a pet”:

[Image source: Vatican (Getty Museum)]

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There is, however, a second symbol that has snakes on a staff, and it is often (mis)used as a replacement for the first:

The Caduceus: This wand has TWO snakes entwined around a staff and often has a pair of outstretched wings on the top. In Greek mythology, the Caduceus belonged to Hermes (or Mercury), the God of Messages, and this god is often depicted with winged heels for speedy delivery of said messages. According to Wikipedia, this symbol traditionally represents commerce and negotiation. It can also be used as a symbol of writing, rhetoric and eloquence due to the transfer of messages. Some other sites I read, however, said that Mercury was one of the joker-gods and as such, the symbol can also be related to deception and trickery.

HEALS versus HEELS is how I will think of it moving forward… one symbol was about healing, the other shared the winged heels of a quick win, but not necessarily the right message.

Apparently the mix-up (or not (if you want to lean into conspiracy theories)) came from the initial use of the Caduceus by the US Army Medical Corps in 1902. Since then, many commercial health organisations have accidentally swapped one snake for two, and, ahem… inadvertently made themselves twice as snakey… twice as slippery…

Surely health professionals (public or private) would know the difference?

Nope.

I found a short journal article from 2019 in the Missouri Medicine Journal, called “The Caduceus vs. Staff of Aesculapius – One Snake or Two?” authored by George Bohigian (here) which says the confusion is real. In India, for example, a survey conducted in 2014 found that only 6% of physicians knew that healing only required one snake… as it were.

Super interestingly (to me) the paper notes that Aesculapius was the son of Apollo the Sun God and that Aesculapius was eventually killed off by his grandfather Zeus (via a thunderbolt) because he was too good at his job – Aesculapius was healing too many people, so not enough humans were dying and going to the underworld… oh Zeus… priorities much?

In the article, the author notes: “The Caduceus is from the Greek root meaning “herald’s wand” and was a badge of diplomatic ambassadors associated with commerce, eloquence, alchemy, thievery, and lying.”

Ok, wow, that turns up the negativity a new notch, The Caduceus stands not just for commerce, but thievery and lying… ouch!!

The author defends the choice, however, noting the double snake has a nice symmetry to it that looks neater and more sophisticated than the single snake (and I’d say the wings give it an extra bit of flair too).

Also interesting to note is that Hippocrates (c.450-380 BCE), who is often considered the ‘father of Western Medicine’, also relates back to Aesculapius. As the journal author writes: “Hopefully, most of you know the Hippocratic Oath begins with the words ‘I swear by Apollo, the physician, and by Aesculapius’…”

I had to stop there and declare an out loud WTF. Surely there is no way that a modern doctor in Australia is swearing to the god Apollo…?!?!

They don’t.

A super quick side quest (i.e. google search) revealed that in Australia, doctors graduate by making a modern ethical pledge, often based on the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Geneva that begins something like “I do solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity”. (And if you clicked on the link, you would have seen that the World Medical Association site uses a tilted one-snaked Rod of Asclepius – good job.)

Anyway, the paper ended with a quick shout out to the innocent misunderstanding of the US army, and ends with the sentence: “The Staff of Aesculapius is the only true symbol of medicine.”

I tend to agree – I would prefer healing to stealing as a back-story to my health care providers. BUT – there might be occasional exceptions. I did a super quick search on the internet for Australian companies to see what evidence I could find of (mis)use and it turns out that our Royal Flying Doctors use the two-snake version, presumably because of those snazzy wings, which I think deserves a free pass in this instance.

A lot to think about… provided you don’t mind snakes!

Take care taking care out there,

Linda x

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PS: one other symbol that you sometimes see on pharmacies is what I had assumed was a mortar and pestle, which it could be, but if it has a snake, it’s the “Bowl of Hygieia” which belongs to Asclepius’s daughter Hygieia. Unlike her father who cured sick people, Hygieia represented the prevention of sickness and the preservation of health… apparently she avoided Zeus’ wrathful thunderbolt and lived forever… and gave us the word ‘hygiene’… and she has a sister called Panacea (the goddess of universal remedies)… what a fab family!

PPS: If you want to read more on conspiracy theories, here’s a couple of past posts where I explored them: conspiracy-theories-and-chronic-pain / the-art-of-critical-ignoring

PPPS – if you want something more upbeat and quite literally, hands-on, then click to see the craft project I made: DIY Healing Wand.