Dove

The dove is the classical messenger of peace. The Genesis flood narrative gives us the dove returning with an olive leaf, signaling dry land; Christian iconography adds the dove as the Holy Spirit descending. Greek tradition associated the dove with Aphrodite, linking the symbol to love’s gentler forms. Jungian analysis reads dove-dreams as reconciliation offered — within the self, between the dreamer and another, or between the dreamer and a truth long held at war. A wounded dove signals a peace under threat; a dove released from the hand, a reconciliation the dreamer is finally able to give. Notice the color and whether the dove returns to you or flies away.