The dove as a symbol of innocence and gentleness is derived from the habits of the bird, which prompted Christ to advise His disciples, when sending them out to teach His gospel to be 'harmless as doves' (Matthew 10.16). And the peacefulness of such a gentle bird's life receives tribute from David when, in the midst of the pain and troubles of his old age, he cries: 'Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest.' (Psalm 55.6).

From pagan times it has been widely understood as a symbol of conjugal affection and constancy, because of the affectionate mating habits and constancy of the species popularly known as turtle doves. On ancient monuments, gems, and coins of Assyria, Libya, Mycenae, and Phoenicia representations of two doves have been recognized which, according to Goblet D'Alviella, probably had some religious significance 'in the symbolism of the worship paid in Asia Minor to the great goddess of nature, venerated by the Phoenician population under the name of Astarte'. (Migration of Symbols, p. 91) Similar representations can be seen in the catacombs, a particularly good example being where two doves with olive branches stand on either side of a vessel over which is placed the sacred monogram. (Louisa Twining, Symbols of Early Christian Art, p. 183)

DOVE WITH OLIVE BRANCH IN ITS BEAK— Symbol of peace and good tidings. The dove, which is a species of pigeon, has been employed as a messenger from the earliest civilizations to the present day. It was trained in that capacity by the Greeks and Romans, and in all the ages of the Christian era, and was so used in the First World War. Its use as a Christian symbol of peace and good tidings originates from the return of the dove to the ark with the olive leaf, which, as a confirmation of the abatement of the flood, delivered Noah from anxiety— 'And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.' (Genesis 8.11)

Arnold Whittick, Symbols: Signs and their Meaning and Uses in Design (2nd Ed.), Charles T. Branford Co., Newton, Massachusetts, 1971, pp. 234-235

District of Columbia Seal: The statue on the pedestal is of George Washington. The female figure is of Justice blinded with a wreath in her right hand and a tablet in her left, on which is written 'Constitution'. To her right is an eagle, a sheaf of wheat, and agricultural produce. In the background is the Virginia shore with the Potamac river flowing between Virginia and the city of Washington. To the left is the rising sun and to the right the Capitol of the United States. The seal was adopted in 1871 as shown in the wreath with the motto 'Justitia Omnibus'— 'Justice for all'. (p. 57)

The American beauty rose was adopted by the District of Columbia in 1916, but there is some doubt whether this flower is indigenous to the country as stated in the enactment, for it may have been introduced from China by way of England. (p. 303)

The woodthrush (Hylocichla mustelina) is regarded unofficially as the emblematic bird of the District of Columbia, having been selected by the District Federation of Women's Clubs. (p. 351)

Arnold Whittick, Symbols: Signs and their Meaning and Uses in Design (1971)

Saint Columba / Columcille (c. 521-597)
He was born in Donegal of the royal Ui Neill line and was trained as a monk under Saint Finnian of Moville. He borrowed a copy of Jerome's new translations of the Psalms from the Magh Bile monastery in order to copy it. The original owners judged that the copy should remain with them since 'every cow has its calf'. The resulting battle at Cooldrebhne saw Columba as an opponent in arms, rather than in Christian temperance, and he sent himself into exile from Ireland, in remorse. He converted many of the Irish settlers in Scotland, as well as King Brude of the Picts. He founded his monastery on Iona which became in time the burial place and assembly of Scottish kings. Many monastic settlements sprang from the influence of Iona. Columba, although he swore never to see Ireland again, returned to champion the social obligations of the Irish in Scotland to the Irish High Kings. He also arbitrated between the Church and the bards, whose position was seriously endangered: Irish poets had become feared and hated due to their practice of satirizing ungenerous patrons (considered in its magical light, since satires could cause physical effects) and because of their extortionate retainers. Columba was himself a poet and his arbitration ensured that Irish poets should be allowed to exercise their ancient function. He is remembered on 9 June [His Feast Day].

John & Caitlín Matthews, British & Irish Mythology
Diamond Books, London, UK, 1995, pp. 48-49

DOVE— A departed spirit, herald of heavenly news. Amorous delight, constancy, fruitfulness, gentleness, harmlessness, innocence, love, meekness, purity, sacrifice, sincerity, soul, tenderness, timidity, truth, winged aspiration. A good spirit, a loved one. Sexual emblem sacred to love and mother goddesses. As a fertility symbol of Adonis, Aphrodite, Astarte, Atargatis, Dionysis, Ishtar, Juno, Jupiter, Shulamite, Venus, Zeus, etc., often appears with the fish. In nature worship closely associated with rain clouds. Ancients sometimes substituted a dove for a human when offerings were being made to a deity. Dream significance: happy event. In heraldry loving constancy and peace. With an olive branch, harbinger of good news. A constellation in the Southern Sky, known as Columba and Noah's Dove. In China symbolic of good digestion, impartial filial duty, and long life. In Christian tradition the Holy Ghost. A symbol of the annunciation and baptism. Emblem of an apostle or saint divinely inspired. In Christian art identical with the winged disk of pagan art as a symbol of eternity, immortality, soul, spirit, sun. As a soul symbol issues from the mouth of dying martyrs. Sacred bird of ancient Egypt, Greece and Phoenicia. In Greece the equivalent of alpha-omega because the numerical value of the Greek word for dove 801, is the same as the numerical value of AO written backwards. In Hebrew tradition the dove was clean according to Mosaic law and sacrificed in rituals of expiation, especially by the poor. It was a symbol of gentleness, peace, and divine guidance, as in the legend of Noah. Among early Semites sacrificed to Jahveh as an atonement for impurity of childbirth; similar offerings were brought by Virgin Mary to the temple at Jerusalem after the birth of Christ. In Hebraic-Christian tradition, the dove compares with the Buddhist white swan. In Japan a good omen symbolizing tender sentiments. Emblem of the warrior deity Hachiman and of the Minemoto clan. One of the ten animals in the Moslem heaven. In Roman antiquity sacred to Bacchus, Jupiter, and Venus.

Black dove: Widowhood.
Dove of Christ: Salvation.
Dove of David: Peace.
Dove dung: The chick-pea, so called because of its appearance.
    A nourishment for those who cross the desert.
Dove egg: In a medical superstition eaten as a smallpox preventive.
Dove, gold & silver plumed: Treasures of purity and innocence.
Dove and lily: Christian annuciation. Parallels the white swan
    and lotus of Eastern religions.
Dove and Nimbus: Christian Holy Ghost.
Dove and olive branch: Good tidings, peace. In Greek mythology
    emblem of Athena. In middle ages talisman to ensure pilgrims
    hospitality wherever they traveled. In Old Testament renewed
    life; sign which informed Noah he could safely leave the Ark.
Dove, ring around its neck: Christian art: encircling sweetness of the Divine Word.
Holy dove: In Christian art sometimes depicted as a rose.
Seven doves: In Christianity the Holy Spirit in His seven-fold
    manifestations of grace. In Old Teatament the seven gifts of God:
    counsel, fear of God, knowledge, pity, strength, understanding, wisdom.
Twelve doves: Christian apostles.
Two wings of a dove: Love of God, love of man; active and meditative life.
White dove: A health talisman; eaten as an antidote against infection.
White dove with changeable tints: In Christian tradition spirit of chastity
    in conflict with fickle and rebellious passions.

Gertrude Jobes, Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore and Symbols
Scarecrow Press, New York, 1962, Volume 1, pp. 466-467

Dove
Aphrodite's totem, the bird of sexual passion, symbolically equivalent to the yoni. In India, too, the dove was paravata, the symbol of lust. Joined to her consort the phallic serpent, the Dove-goddess stood for sexual union and "Life".
    The phrase attributed to Jesus, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10.16), was no random metaphor but a traditional invocation of the Syrian God and Goddess [Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (1956), 118]. The Oriental meaning was remembered by the gypsies, whose folk tales said the souls of ancestors lived inside magic hollow mountains, the men having been changed into serpents and the women into doves. [Elwood B. Trigg, Gypsy Demons and Divinities (1973) 196]
    Christians adopted the feminine dove as a symbol of the Holy Ghost, originally the Goddess Sophia, representing God's "Wisdom" as the Goddess Metis represented the "Wisdom" of Zeus. Gnostic Christians said Sophia was incarnate in the dove that impregnated the virgin Mary, the same dove that descended on Jesus at his baptism to impregnate his mind (Matthew 3.16). Pious admirers of Pope Gregory the Great made him even more saintly than Jesus by reporting that the Holy Ghost in dove shape descended on him not once but many times. [Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (1941) 188] All this was copied from Roman iconography which showed the human soul as a dove that descended from the Dove-goddess's oversoul to animate the body. [Eugenia Sellers Strong, Apotheosis and After Life (1969) 136]
    Aphrodite as a bringer of death, or "peace", sometimes bore the name of Irene, Dove of Peace. Another of her death-goddess names was Epitymbria, "She of the Tombs". Romans called her Venus Columba, Venus-the-Dove. Her catacombs, mausoleums, and necropoli were known as columaria, "dovecotes". Thus the soul returning to the Goddess after death was again envisioned as a dove. From this image, Christians copied their belief that the souls of saints became white doves that flew out of their mouths at the moment of death. In the Catholic ceremony of canonization, white doves are released from cages at the crucial moment of the ritual.
    Christian iconography showed seven rays emanating from the dove of the Holy Ghost: an image that went back to some of the most primitive manifestations of the Goddess. In the Orient, the mystic seven were the Pleiades or "Seven Sisters", whose Greek name meant "a flock of doves". They were daughters or "rays" of Aphrodite under her title of Pleione, Queen of the Sea. Herodotus said seven holy women known as Doves founded the oracles of Dodona, Epirus, and Theban Amon. They were worshipped in the Middle East as Seven Sages or Seven Pillars of Wisdom: the seven woman-shaped pillars that had been upholding temples of the Goddess since the third millenium B.C. [Theodor Gaster, Myth, Legend and Custom in the Old Testament (1969) 804] Arabs still revere the Seven Sages, and some remember that they were women, or "doves". [Robert Briffault, The Mothers (1927), Vol. 1, 377] The Semitic word for "dove", ione, was a cognate on "yoni" and related to the Goddess Uni, who later became Iune, or Juno.
    The cult of the Doves used to incorporate primitive rites of castration and its modification, circumcision. India called the seven Sisters "razors" or "cutters" who judged and "critically" wounded men, the Krittikas, "Seven Mothers of the World," root of the Greek Kritikos, "judge". They killed and gave rebirth to gods who were Semiramis, legendary founder of Babylon, also meant "Dove" in the Syrian tongue. She was said to have castrated all her consorts.
    When circumcision replaced castration, the doves were involved in that too. Even Christian symbolism made the connection. The official symbol of the Festival of the Circumcision of Christ was a dove, holding in its beak a ring representing the Holy Prepuce. "Christ's fructifying blood" was linked with the similar emblem of Pentecost, which showed the descending dove on a background of blood red, officially described as a representation of the church fertilized by the blood of Christ and the martyrs.
    A certain "maiden martyr" called St. Columa (Holy Dove) was widely revered, especially in France, although she never existed as a human being. [Donald Attwater, The Penguin Dictionary of Saints (1965), 92] Another curious survival may have been invented to explain the doves appearing on ancient coins as symbols of Aphrodite and Astarte. [Goblet d'Alviella, Migration of Symbols (1960) 91-92]

Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1983, pp. 252-254

Linda Hampton Schiffer's Review of Walker's Book (1988):
http://www.moondance.org/1996/winter96/short8.html

For example, to choose a single symbol at random, I decided to look up "dove" in the index and found the following references: "Dove": pages 29, 76, 100, 108, 206, 361, 399, 424, 490. I was delighted to find that all indexed terms are bolded in the text of Walker's book, making cross reference discovery easier.

My search for information on "dove" yielded the following:

page 29: under "rod": "...'dove of the Goddess' perched on Joseph's rod of office...";

page 76: under "Star of the Seven Sisters": "Pleiades...whose name is Greek for 'a flock of doves'.";

page 100: under "Omphalos": "..frequent appearance on ancient coins...flanked by two doves.";

page 108: under "Tomb": "Venus Columba, whose symbol the Holy Dove...";

page 206: under "Hokmah/Holy Ghost": "..the triumphant dove having been the most common symbol of the Goddess's spirit brooding over the waters of creation...";

page 361: introduction to "Animals": "The Moslems placed ten famous animals in heaven among the stars....Noah's dove...";

page 399: One and a half page article about "Dove": A discussion of how the Dove, originally the symbol of female sexuality and Goddess energy came to represent the soul, in general, and the Holy Ghost, specifically, in Christianity.;

page 424: Under "Columbine": "The columbine was named after Columba, The Dove, once a universally recognized symbol of the Goddess Aphrodite or Venus (see Dove).";

page 490: Under "Olive": "The olive was often associated with the Dove, both symbolizing the Peace of the Goddess."

Having done this randomly selected research, I now know that the dove is a prehistoric symbol and that the present day celebratory release of white doves during triumphal ceremonies has extremely ancient antecedents. The dove as symbol for the soul intrigues the visual artist in me; it is an image I will file in my personal "to be developed" image folder.

Dove— (1) In the Near East, the dove was associated with the fertility goddess Ishtar; in Phoenicia, it was associated with the Astarte cult. In Greece, the dove was sacred to Aphrodite. * In India, and to some extent in ancient Germany as well, a dark dove was regarded as a bird of the spirit, yet also of death and misfortune. * Islam sees it as a sacred bird because it supposedly protected Mohammed during his flight. * In the Bible, Noah lets out three doves after the Flood, one of which returns with an olive branch; it is a sign of reconciliation with God and has since then been a symbol of simplicity and purity and, especially in Christian art, a symbol of the Holy Spirit; yet it can also occasionally be a symbol of a baptized Christian, of a martyr (with a laurel or a martyr's crown in its beak), or of the soul in a state of heavenly peace (for example, when it is perched on the tree of life or on a vessel bearing the water of life). * In conjunction with the four cardinal virtues, the dove symbolizes temperance. * A white dove pair is a popular love symbol. (2) "Eucharist dove"— a tabernacle in the form of a dove that hangs over the altar and has a tray for the consecrated host; first mentioned in the 7th century.

Udo Becker, The Element Encyclopedia of Symbols
Element Books, Shaftesbury, Dorset, UK, 1994, pp. 86-87

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