⚕️

Medical Symbol Emoji ⚕️

A single snake wound around a plain staff: the Rod of Asclepius, medicine's real emblem, not the two-snake, winged caduceus people mistake it for. The WHO and AMA both use the one-snake version. The caduceus, Hermes's staff, only became U.S. Army insignia in 1902, over doctors' own objections.

What ⚕️ means

A tapering rod or needle-like structure circularly wrapped by a snake. It is either shown completely black or with a dash of color along with a square background.

The ⚕️ Medical Symbol represents the Rod of Asclepius, which is often shown with a pair of entwining snakes and not a single one. It symbolizes medicine, the medical department, and the overall theme of healing.

How and when to use it

Very similar to the usage of ⛎ Ophiuchus, ⚕️ too could be brought into the caption for posts/reposts that are about healing; physical healing; frontline workers, the medical department, along with mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing too.
Contrary to popular belief, the snake in ⚕️ is believed to be sacred and full of wisdom and healing. This means, you can use this emoji even while talking about knowledge; the kind of knowledge that heals. Like, "You could heal yourself ⚕️ With knowledge of the right things".
Generally, a snake is associated with poison and venom, which is exactly the opposite of its image in ⚕️. So, in cases of contradiction, this emoji may be helpful. For example, "Simplicity and complexity need each other ⚕️" or "Opposites attract ⚕️".
Since ⚕️ has a heavy reference to Greek mythology, you could use this emoji in general contexts either about or referring to the Greek myth.
⚕️ can be used for all forms and types of medication and healing; both mainstream and alternative/niche aspects.

Other Names

⚕️ Rod of Asclepius
⚕️ Snake Entwining a Rod
⚕️ Aesculapius
⚕️ Asklepios
⚕️ Asklepian
⚕️ Rod of Asclepius
⚕️ Staff of Asclepius
⚕️ Greek Mythology
⚕️ Greek Symbol of Medicine

The lowdown

Category: Symbols › other-symbol
Codepoints: U+2695 U+FE0F
Emoji version: Emoji 4.0
Shortcodes: :medical_symbol: GitHub
Keywords: aesculapius, medical, medicine, staff, symbol

How it looks across platforms

Seeing a blank box instead of the emoji somewhere? Here's why that happens. Curious why the designs above don't match to begin with? Here's why that happens too.