What's in a Name? (by Fay Bailey, Founder of Bark of the Willow)

Bark of the Willow was born in January 2007, the reason for it's name and logo came from wanting to have a representation of our locality in the Lake District and also leanings towards ancient times and healing.

The name Willow came quickly, very prevalent in our beautiful county. However so many organisations and businesses had Willow in their title. Then I remembered Willow Bark, and recalled its' uses which dates back thousands of years, to the time of Hippocrates (400 BC) when patients' were advised to chew on the bark to reduce fever and inflammation. Willow bark, used throughout the centuries in China and Europe, and which continues to be used today for the treatment of pain. The bark of white willow containing salicin, which is a chemical similar to aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid). It is thought to be responsible for the pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects of many painful ailments. In fact, in the 1800s, salicin was used to develop aspirin. However more studies have identified several other components of willow bark that have antioxidant, fever-reducing, antiseptic, and immune-boosting properties.

Willow bark - a good name but didn't sit right, I was playing with my now 18 year old dog, she has a distinctive bark, a sound like that of a baby, only a mother can recognise.

Bark of the Willow is the Sound of the Willow that we as healers can hear, just like the sound of my lovely little Poppy dog.

The name was born, and now how to fix a logo to the name, a friend Clare and myself designing the willow leaves made a collage first and noticed the leaves seemed to fall and fold into a symbol, that's it! The Yin and the Yang fell behind the sweep of the leaves.

The Yin - Yang - The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine, supposed to have been written during the third millennium BCE by the mythical Yellow Emperor. A small portion of it is given below.

The Yellow Emperor said "The principle of Yin and Yang is the foundation of the entire universe. It underlies everything in creation. It brings about the development of parenthood; it is the root and source of life and death it is found within the temples of the gods in order to treat and cure diseases" from Patricia Ebrey, Chinese Civilization : A Sourcebook, 2d ed. (New York: Free Press, 1993), pp. 77-79

This Symbol represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle represents "everything", while the black and white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called "yin" (black) and "yang" (white), which cause everything to happen. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other.

While "yin" would be dark, passive, downward, cold, contracting, and weak, &"yang" would be bright, active, upward, hot, expanding, and strong. The shape of the yin and yang sections of the symbol, actually gives you a sense of the continual movement of these two energies, yin to yang and yang to yin, causing everything to happen: just as things expand and contract, and temperature changes from hot to cold.

So now with the help of artist David Hartley our logo was born.