The Symbols We Carry
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The Meaning Behind the Galen Naturals NYC Logo and Names
By Dr. Luis E. Solarte P.
Founder, Galen Naturals NYC
A name can simply identify an object. Or it can carry a story.
At Galen Naturals NYC, many of our names and symbols were chosen to do more than distinguish one product from another. They connect the ritual to ideas of medicine, nature, Colombian heritage, memory, portability and transformation.
That begins with the name Galen itself.
Galen Naturals NYC takes its name from Claudius Galenus, known as Galen, the physician of the ancient world whose writings influenced medicine for centuries. For our brand, the reference is not meant to suggest that a modern wellness product is medicine. It represents something more fundamental: observation, respect for nature and the long human history of learning from plants. That philosophy remains part of the foundation of GN NYC today.
A symbol where the ancient and modern meet
The GN NYC logo begins with the Rod of Asclepius, the ancient symbol of medicine: a serpent winding around a staff.
The serpent has long carried ideas of renewal and transformation. In the GN NYC interpretation, however, the staff does not end as a conventional medical symbol. It opens into the colorful form of a Bird of Paradise flower.
The flower brings botanical life, movement and tropical color into what would otherwise be a classical medical image. It represents the brand's connection with Colombia, its extraordinary plant traditions and the idea that wellness can look backward toward nature while still moving forward.
One botanical clarification is important: the familiar Strelitzia Bird of Paradise is botanically native to southern Africa, not Colombia. It is widely cultivated in tropical regions, and GN NYC uses its dramatic floral form as a visual symbol of tropical botanical abundance, rather than as a claim of Colombian botanical origin.
Hidden within the logo is another symbol from an entirely different world: 01010101, the current approved binary sequence.
Why place binary code inside a botanical medical symbol?
Because technology and nature are not opposites in the GN NYC philosophy. Modern digital tools, artificial intelligence, e-commerce and global research networks can help us rediscover, organize and reinterpret knowledge that began long before computers existed.
The binary code therefore represents technology in service of origin.
The serpent looks backward.
The flower grows forward.
The binary code belongs to the present.
Together, they express the idea behind our motto:
Return to the Origin. Move Forward with Wellness!
Guadua: the vessel as a symbol
That same philosophy continues in names such as the Guadua Pendant Diffuser and Guaduales Portable Calm Diffuser.
Guadua is the great bamboo of tropical America. Its structure naturally creates hollow chambers between its nodes—strong, light compartments that make the plant useful for building, carrying and containing.
This physical characteristic is important to the GN NYC symbolism.
Colombian archaeological and ethnographic traditions contain many examples of vessels used to carry water, plants and materials connected with everyday and ritual life. Museo del Oro documentation notes that, in parts of ancient Urabá and Chocó, vessels associated with ritual coca use reproduced the forms of guaduas and calabashes. In other regions, poporos—containers associated with coca traditions—were made in ceramic, metal or natural gourds.
GN NYC does not attempt to reproduce those sacred objects.
Instead, Guadua becomes a design metaphor.
The small cylindrical chamber of the Guadua Pendant carries an aromatic pad close to the person. The larger Guaduales Portable Calm Diffuser carries aroma into the space around the person.
One is intimate and wearable. The other creates an environment.
The name Guaduales—the Spanish word for groves of Guadua—expands the image from one bamboo chamber to an entire living landscape.
Our own Guadua narrative therefore connects the tool not simply with bamboo, but with the older idea of a natural vessel: something simple that carries what is needed from one place to another.
Mochila: carrying more than objects
The Mochila Ritual Pouch follows the same idea of portability, but through textile tradition rather than plant structure.
Across Colombia, and particularly among the Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the mochila is far more than an ordinary bag.
Artesanías de Colombia describes the Arhu mochila as an expression of identity and worldview. Its weaving can represent community, nature and cosmology; carrying the mochila has meaning beyond simply transporting possessions. The traditions of Arhuaco, Kogui and Kankuamo communities remain especially important in northern Colombia, including Magdalena and Cesar.
There is an even older Colombian connection. Museo del Oro preserves archaeological Muisca textile mochilas dating approximately from 600 to 1600 CE, demonstrating that carrying bags have deep roots in Colombian material culture.
The GN NYC Mochila Ritual Pouch is intentionally much simpler. It is not presented as an Indigenous artisan mochila.
Its name acknowledges the idea behind the traditional object: carry what is important with you.
In our case, it carries the pieces of a portable ritual.
Why the Chameleon has a reptile name
The Chameleon Tea Infuser Stick has a different origin.
Its name came first from its shape: a long body, narrow cylindrical section and curved upper hook. When viewed as an object rather than simply as a tea tool, its silhouette can suggest the elongated body and curved posture of a small reptile.
The connection becomes more interesting when placed beside Colombian pre-Columbian imagery.
Quimbaya material culture frequently incorporated animal forms. Banco de la República's description of Late Quimbaya visual culture specifically refers to leaders represented as "hombres-jaguar, hombres-rana y hombres-lagartija"—jaguar-men, frog-men and lizard-men.
The name Chameleon, however, is a modern GN NYC interpretation. It should not be read as a claim that the Quimbaya or Pijao used the chameleon itself as a specific symbol.
Instead, the name creates a visual echo: an adaptable, elongated ritual tool whose shape recalls the reptilian forms that appear throughout ancient Colombian art.
And adaptability is appropriate for an object designed to travel.
Names that tell you when the ritual belongs
Not every GN NYC name refers to an ancient object or civilization.
Sometimes the symbolism is simpler: the name tells you the emotional direction or time of the ritual.
Noches Doradas Herbal Tea—Golden Nights—belongs naturally to the evening. Its name suggests warmth, darkness and the transition toward rest.
Selva Tropical Nights Essential Oil places that same evening idea inside another Colombian image: the tropical forest after nightfall.
Golden Berry Tranquila combines the English reference to the golden berry—uchuva—with the Spanish tranquila: calm, quiet, at ease.
The daytime names move in the opposite direction.
Café Dulce Botanical Coffee Infusion uses Colombian coffee as the recognizable center of a gentle, aromatic daytime infusion, while Café Energía Morning Essential Oil clearly signals morning, movement and activation. Golden Sun Wellness Tea continues that language of daylight and forward motion. The current Ritual System separates these functions clearly: infusions belong to SIP, while the essential oils belong to BREATHE.
Shen-M: a name built around balance
The Shen-M Stability Ear Clip adds a different cultural tradition to the GN NYC system.
Its name refers to Shen Men, traditionally translated as “Spirit Gate,” an auricular point located in the triangular fossa of the external ear. Shen Men has a long history within Chinese ear-pressure traditions and has also been studied in contemporary auricular research.
The word Stability is deliberate.
It does not promise a medical outcome. It describes the role the object is meant to play within the ritual: a physical point of attention associated with the broader GN NYC idea of returning to balance.
That distinction matters. GN NYC describes Shen-M as a wellness accessory rooted in the ancient Chinese ear pressure-point tradition, not as a medical device and not as a treatment for a disease or condition.
A language between origin and movement
Taken together, these symbols reveal something about Galen Naturals NYC.
Galen recalls observation and the history of medicine.
The serpent represents renewal.
The flower represents botanical life.
The binary code represents technology.
Guadua represents the vessel.
Mochila represents carrying.
Chameleon represents form and adaptability.
Noches, Selva, Tranquila, Café, Energía and Golden Sun describe moments and intentions.
And Shen-M Stability introduces another ancient wellness tradition into the sequence.
None of these names needs to carry the entire history alone.
Their purpose is to create small connections—to place a modern ritual inside a longer human story of plants, objects, senses, memory and intentional pauses.
That is the meaning behind the symbolism of GN NYC:
Carry something from the past, give it a useful form in the present, and allow it to help shape the way we move forward.
Return to the Origin. Move Forward with Wellness! — Portable botanical rituals for modern life.
Dr. Luis E. Solarte P., FMG, MSHI
Founder & CEO | Galen NYC LLC | Hudson Heights, New York City
References
Artesanias de Colombia. (2026, September 10). Mochila Arhuaca. https://artesaniasdecolombia.com.co/PortalAC/Productos/mochila-arhuaca_22
Banco de la Republica. (n.d.-a). Mochila: Cordillera Oriental - Muisca, 600 d.C.-1600 d.C. Coleccion Arqueologica de los Museos del Oro. https://colecciones.banrepcultural.org/es/documento/mochila/63a069095d96b8790f2d3a18
Banco de la Republica. (n.d.-b). Quimbaya. Enciclopedia Banrepcultural. https://enciclopedia.banrepcultural.org/index.php?title=Quimbaya
Banco de la Republica. (n.d.-c). Uraba y Choco. Enciclopedia Banrepcultural. https://enciclopedia.banrepcultural.org/index.php?title=Urab%C3%A1_y_Choc%C3%B3
National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). Greek medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/topics/greek-medicine/index.html
Round, R., Litscher, G., & Bahr, F. (2013). Auricular acupuncture with laser. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013, 984763. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/984763
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (n.d.). Strelitzia reginae Banks. Plants of the World Online. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn%3Alsid%3Aipni.org%3Anames%3A798194-1/general-information
Young, P., Finn, B. C., Bruetman, J. E., Cesaro Gelos, J., & Trimarchi, H. (2013). Rod of Asclepius: Symbol of medicine. Revista Medica de Chile, 141(9), 1197-1201. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0034-98872013000900013
Dr. Luis E. Solarte P., FMG, MSHI