The logo of the World Community for Christian Meditation shows a pair of doves perched on the rim of a chalice-shaped dish. It derives from an ancient symbolic tradition that came from the Byzantine and early-Christian period via bas-relief, pottery, textile and mosaic.
The deep dynamic of the friendship is reflected in the logo of the community, the two doves representing the inner and outer, contemplative and active, the yin and the yang. The psychological agitation of our culture can be traced in large part to the disruption of the harmony between these two aspects of our human soul. To teach meditation is to affirm friendship with and between ourselves, which is a preparation for seeing the non-duality of the Kingdom that is ‘within you’ and ‘among you’. (Laurence Freeman, O.S.B.)
The logo is inspired by the image of the tiled mosaic beside it, which was found in an early Christian church in Ravenna, Italy and of which there is an excellent copy in the Palatine Museum in Rome.
The symbols also represent universal sacred archetypes. It is the nature of a symbol, that while it may have no value as a fact, it can point towards a truth which can be experienced but not described, a truth which, when apprehended – albeit never fully comprehended, can stir something primordial within us; it can awaken our innate spirituality. Symbols by their very nature are energy releasing and guiding signs, pointing to an inner reality that we all participate in.
Water traditionally stands as a symbol of purification. And so, in Christian ritual, it is seen as an archetype of regeneration and resurrection, while the dove represents the spirit. In the WCCM logo we see a pair of doves on the rim of a chalice-shaped vessel filled with water – One can interpret the logo as a symbol of meditation because it represents both stillness and action; one bird is in doing mode, albeit accessing life-giving water, while the other is simply being.
But the two doves also call to mind the Gospel story of Mary, who sat quietly with Jesus while Martha busied herself, agitatedly, preparing a meal. The two sisters may be considered to represent not just two personality types but the two elements of our humanity – the head and the heart. When Martha asks Jesus to tell her sister to help her, Jesus says “Martha, Martha, you are fussing and fretting about so many things”. She has become unnecessarily stressed in her many tasks whereas “only one thing is necessary.”
The universal nature of this symbolism is revealed too in an ancient verse from the Sanskrit Svestasvatara Upanishad written down over 2,500 years ago. It reads: [Personhood] is like two birds of golden plumage, inseparable companions, perched on the branch of the same tree. One of them tastes the sweet and bitter fruits of the tree; the other, tasting neither, calmly looks on.
These parables remind us of the need to re-integrate the divided self to restore a necessary balance between action and contemplation. Martha had forgotten the value of Mary’s stillness. Even though she seems to be passive and inactive, doing nothing, she is in fact doing the important work of paying attention and being still.