FROM WEB SITE:
THE HISTORY OF SWASTIKA:
(http://www.hostultra.com/~Exidor/Swastika/Swastika.html)
Many of us are familiar with the
expression that one "Aw-Shit" can wipe out years of a "Atta-Boy"s. One of the
best examples of this concept (in my opinion, and through no fault of its own)
is that of the Swastika. It had millennia of good use, and in less than 20
years, it was effectively rendered an object to be detested. Intrigued? Willing
to chance learning something? Read on:
Page Last Updated: 29 December 2000
Symbols - Svastikah -
Striving for a Comeback - On
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Links
The History of
the Swastika
The Oldest Known
Symbol
The swastika (
) is an ancient symbol. Dating back 3,000 years, the swastika predates the
ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh ().
Approximately 3,000 years ago (1000 BCE), the swastika was commonly used;
swastikas have been found on many artifacts such as pottery and coins dating
from ancient Troy.
During the following
thousand years, the image of the swastika could be found in many cultures around
the world, including in China, Japan, India, and southern Europe.
By the Middle Ages, the
swastika was a well known, if not commonly used, symbol but was called by many
different names:
- China - wan
- England - fylfot
- Germany - Hakenkreuz
- Greece - tetraskelion and
gammadion
India - swastika
Though it is not known for
exactly how long, Native Americans also had long used the symbol of the
swastika.
Change in
Meaning
In the 1800s, countries
around Germany were growing much larger, forming empires; yet Germany was not a
unified country until 1871. To counter the feeling of vulnerability and the
stigma of youth, German nationalists in the mid-nineteenth century began to use
the swastika, because it had ancient Aryan/Indian origins, to represent a long
Germanic/Aryan history.
By the end of the nineteenth
century, the swastika could be found on nationalist German volkisch periodicals
and was the official emblem of the German Gymnasts' League.
In the beginning of the
twentieth century, the swastika was a common symbol of German nationalism and
could be found in a multitude of places such as the emblem for the Wandervogel,
a German youth movement; on Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels' antisemitic periodical
Ostara; on various Freikorps units; and as an emblem of the Thule Society.
Hitler and the
Nazis
In 1920, Adolf Hitler
decided that the Nazi Party needed its own insignia and flag. For Hitler, the
new flag had to be "a symbol of our own struggle" as well as "highly effective
as a poster." (Mein Kampf, pg. 495)
On August 7, 1920, at the
Salzburg Congress, this flag became the official emblem of the Nazi Party.
In Mein Kampf,
Hitler described the Nazis' new flag: "In red we see the social idea of
the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the
mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same
token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been
and always will be anti-Semitic." (pp. 496-497)
Because of the Nazis' flag,
the swastika soon became a symbol of hate, antisemitism, violence, death, and
murder.
What Does the
Swastika Mean Now?
There is a great debate as
to what the swastika means now. For 3,000 years, the swastika meant life and
good luck. But because of the Nazis, it has also taken on a meaning of death and
hate.
These conflicting meanings
are causing problems in today's society. For Buddhists and Hindus, the swastika
is a very religious symbol that is commonly used. Chirag Badlani shares a story
about one time when he went to make some photocopies of some Hindu Gods for his
temple. While standing in line to pay for the photocopies, some people behind
him in line noticed that one of the pictures had a swastika. They called him a
Nazi.
Unfortunately, the Nazis
were so effective at their use of the swastika emblem, that many do not even
know any other meaning for the swastika. Can there be two completely opposite
meanings for one symbol?
|
|
Clockwise
Swastika
|
Counter-Clockwise
Sauvastika
|
In ancient times, the
direction of the swastika was interchangeable as can be seen on an ancient
Chinese silk drawing.
Some cultures in the past
had differentiated between the clockwise swastika and the counter-clockwise
sauvastika. In these cultures the swastika symbolized health and life while the
sauvastika took on a mystical meaning of bad-luck or misfortune.
But since the Nazis use of
the swastika, some people are trying to differentiate the two meanings of the
swastika by varying its direction - trying to make the clockwise, Nazi version
of the swastika mean hate and death while the counter-clockwise version would
hold the ancient meaning of the symbol, life and good-luck.
Symbols
The power of a symbol is much
greater than a few, simple words. A symbol is a picture that represents or
stands for something. It does not have to be accompanied by words, for it has
meaning of its own. Symbols can also evoke emotions.
How do you feel when you
see this?
This is a picture that is
not a symbol. It has no meaning (I made it up), thus most likely evokes no
emotion.
How do you feel when you
see this?
Though this is a symbol,
you most likely don't know what the symbol represents. Symbols get their power
by being a visual representation of a meaning. If you don't know the meaning, no
amount of staring at the symbol will bring forth the meaning. (It is a symbol
for the asteroid Juno which is associated with marriage.)
How do you feel when you
see this?
This is a recognizable
symbol. It represents copyright. If you knew what the symbol represented, its
meaning should have been instantaneous. But does this symbol evoke emotions?
Most likely not. It is an informational symbol rather than an emotional one.
How do you feel when you
see this?
It evokes emotions. It is not an
informational symbol, but rather an emotional one. What this symbol represents,
its meaning, as well as the emotions it evokes have drastically changed during
this symbol's existence. But even if its meaning were changed, would your
emotional reaction to this symbol also change?
The above data was
taken from
20th
Century History
All graphics above are
© 1999 Jennifer Rosenberg
The Swastika did not originate as a Nazi symbol of hatred. "SWASTIKA" is
derived from the Sanskrit word "SVASTIKAH", which means "being fortunate".
See the swastika for what it is: an ancient symbol of good luck,
prosperity, and long life, used in ancient cultures such as India and China,
where it is the central symbol of the FALUN Law Wheel.
To give you an idea of how long the Swastika has been a symbol in China,
look at an illustration of comets painted on silk about 2,300 years ago:
The silk was discovered during the 1970's at Mawangdui, near Changsa, in
Number Three Tomb. There were 29 comets illustrated on the
silk, of which the last four are shown in the picture above. As you can see, the
last comet, on the far left, is illustrated by a Swastika. In their book "Comet"
(Random House 1985) on page 186, Sagan and Druyan say "The twenty-ninth comet is
called 'Di-Xing', 'the long-tailed pheasant star'." As a comet form, the
Swastika looks like a spinning comet from which jets are erupting, like Comet
Hale-Bopp.
More details about the history of the swastika:
The English and German word "SWASTIKA" is derived from the Sanskrit word:
SVASTIKAH, which means 'being fortunate'. The first part of the word, SVASTI-,
can be divided into two parts: SU- 'good; well', and -ASTI- 'is'. The -ASTIKAH
part just means 'being'.
The word is associated with auspicious things in India - because it means
'auspicious'. In India, both clockwise and counterclockwise swastikas were used,
with different meanings. Since the swastika is a simple symbol, it has been
used, perhaps independently, by many human societies. One of the oldest known
swastikas was painted on a paleolithic cave at least 10,000 years ago.
About 2,500 years ago, when Sakyumuni brought Buddhism to China from
India, the Chinese also borrowed the swastika and its sense of auspiciousness.
In China, the swastika is considered to be a Chinese character with the reading
of WAN (in Mandarin). It is also thought to be equivalent to another Chinese
character with the same pronunciation, which means "ten thousand; a large
number; all"
The swastika symbol has been used for thousands of years among
practically every group of humans on the planet. It was known to Germanic tribes
as the "Cross of Thor", and it is interesting that the Nazis did not use that
term, which is consistent with German history, but instead preferred to "steal"
the Indian term "swastika". As the "Cross of Thor", the symbol was even brought
to England by Scandinavian settlers in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, long before
Hitler.
Even more interesting, the sign has been found on Jewish temples from
2000 years ago in Palestine, so Hitler was (inadvertently?) "stealing" a Jewish
symbol as well as an Indian one. In the Americas, the swastika was used by
Native Americans in North, Central, and South America.
Since the outer arms of the swastika can point either counterclockwise or
clockwise, the swastika has been used as a counterpart to the Taiji, or
Yin-Yang, symbol. If you look at the outer circle of the Falun Dafa symbol, you
will see that there are 4 swastikas (of Buddhas' School origin) and 4 Taiji, or
Yin-Yang, symbols (of Taoist origin). The Taiji are not black and white, as
those colors are a very low level manifestation. Of the 4 Taiji, 2 are red and
black (from the Tao as generally regarded) and 2 are red and blue (from the
School of the Primordial Great Tao, which includes the Rare Cultivation Way).
If you look at all the swastikas of the Falun Dafa symbol, you will see
that their arms all point counterclockwise. However, since the Falun Dafa can be
seen from above and below, as well as the 8 directions indicated on its outer
circle by the 4 Taiji and 4 swastikas, the Falun Dafa swastikas can be perceived
to be rotating either clockwise or counterclockwise: "When Falun rotates
clockwise, it can automatically absorb energy from the universe. While rotating
counterclockwise, it can give off energy." (Read Zhuan Falun for more details).
In India, both clockwise and counterclockwise swastikas were used, with
different meanings: the counterclockwise one is associated with the goddess
Kali-Maya mother of Buddha, associated with the Moon), and the clockwise one is
associated with Ganesha (elephant-headed father of Buddha, associated with the
Sun). Since the swastika is a simple symbol, it has been used, perhaps
independently, by many human societies. One of the oldest known swastikas was
painted on a paleolithic cave at least 10,000 years ago.
The book "In Search of the Cradle of Civilization" by Georg Feuerstein,
Subhash Kak, and David Frawley (Quest 1995) describes the history of India from
a perspective different from that of English colonialists.
According to Joe Hofler, who also refers to Dr. Kumbari of the museum of
Urimqi in Xinjiang, China, the Indo-Aryans of the Germanic branch traveled into
Europe around 2,000 BC and brought with them the"svastika" symbol (sun disk) of
their religious art at that time as shown by excavations of Kurgan graves on the
steppes of Russia and Indo-Aryan graves in Xinjiang, China.
Here are a few references with more information about the swastika:
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (Harper & Row,
1983) - by Barbara G. Walker
The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects (Harper &
Row, 1988) - by Barbara G. Walker
The Source - by James A. Michener
Klein's Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English
Language (Elsevier, 1971) - by Ernest Klein
Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (Harvard, 1966)- by Robert
H. Mathews
In Search of the Cradle of Civilization (Quest 1995) - by
Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, and David Frawley describes the history of India
from a perspective different from that of English colonialists.
One of the World’s Oldest Symbols Strives to make a Comeback
THINK TANK; A Symbol of Hatred Pleads Not Guilty
By SARAH BOXER July 29, 2000
c.2000 N.Y. Times News Service
It’s a simple question: Can the swastika ever be redeemed? Before the Nazi
Party adopted the swastika and turned it into the most potent icon of racial
hatred, it traveled the world as a good luck symbol. It was known in France,
Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, China, Japan, India and the United States.
Buddha’s footprints were said to be swastikas. Navajo blankets were woven with
swastikas. Synagogues in North Africa, Palestine and Hartford, Conn., were built
with swastika mosaics. Now there is a small movement afoot to help “the swastika
get on with its benign life,” to separate it from “the sins of the Nazis.” Is
that really possible? Should it be possible? The swastika gets its name from the
Sanskrit word svastika, meaning well-being and good fortune. The earliest known
swastikas date from 2500 or 3000 B.C. in India and in Central Asia. A 1933 study
suggests that the swastika migrated from India across Persia and Asia Minor to
Greece, then to Italy and on to Germany, probably in the first millennium B.C.
The fateful link was made by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. From
1871 to 1875, Schliemann excavated the site of Homer’s Troy on the shores of the
Dardanelles. When he found artifacts with swastikas, he quickly associated them
with the swastikas he had seen near the Oder River in Germany. As Steven Heller,
the art director of The New York Times Book Review, writes in “The Swastika:
Symbol Beyond Redemption,” “Schliemann presumed that the swastika was a
religious symbol of his German ancestors which linked ancient Teutons, Homeric
Greeks and Vedic India.” Pretty soon swastikas were everywhere, rotating both
clockwise and counterclockwise. Madame Blavatsky, the founder of the
Theosophical Society, included the swastika in the seal of the society. “Rudyard
Kipling combined a swastika with his signature in a circle as a personal logo,”
Heller reports. And the swastika was part of the logo of the Bauhaus, under Paul
Klee. The swastika spread to the United States, too. Coca-Cola issued a swastika
pendant. Carlsberg beer etched swastikas onto its bottles. During World War I,
the American 45th Infantry division wore an orange swastika as a shoulder patch.
At least one railway had swastikas on some of its cars. The Girls’ Club
published a magazine called The Swastika. And until 1940, the Boy Scouts gave
out a swastika badge. How did the Nazis get hold of it? According to Heller, the
Germanen order, an anti-Semitic group that wore helmets with Wotan horns and
plotted “against Jewish elements in German life,” used a curved swastika on a
cross as its insignia. By 1914, the Wandervogel, a German youth movement, made
it a nationalist emblem. The Nazi party did not claim it until around 1920. In
“Mein Kampf,” Hitler, who had artistic aspirations as well as political ones,
described “his quest to find the perfect symbol for the party.” He toyed with
the idea of using swastikas. But it was Friedrich Krohn, a dentist from
Starnberg, who designed the flag with a black swastika in its center. “Hitler’s
major contribution,” Heller writes, “was to reverse the direction of the
swastika” so that it appears to spin clockwise. The swastika came down as
quickly as it ascended. In 1946, it was constitutionally banned from any public
display in Germany. In the United States, there has never been a law prohibiting
the display of swastikas, but the aversion is still there. The question now is,
should the swastika be reclaimed from the Nazis or should it, as Heller argues,
continue to represent their “unspeakable crimes”? The issue is complicated by
the swastika’s history in India and other parts of Asia, where it has none of
the connotations it has in the West. In India, there is Swastik soap; in
Malaysia, a Swastika photograph studio; in Japan, there are Pokemon cards that
have “manji,” counterclockwise swastikas; in China, the Falun Gong uses the
counterclockwise swastika as its emblem. And now swastikas have crept back into
sight in the Western world. In the 1960s, for example, the swastika was a
recurring motif in geometric abstract art and hard-edge painting, notably in an
exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. But the most concerted effort to redeem the
swastika comes from Friends of the Swastika, a group formed in 1985 and based in
the United States. The group, whose Web site promises that it “has no
connections to any racist propaganda” and no intention of denying the Holocaust,
is led by an artist named ManWoman who claims to have 200 swastikas tattooed on
his body. In order to “detoxify” and “resanctify” the swastika, the group sells
T-shirts, stamps, postcards and “other cool stuff” with swastikas. Their
watchword is, “To hell with Hitler!” And already, they say, their mission is
working. “The swastika is re-emerging in the alternative pop culture ... in the
punk rock world, in the flying saucer cults, in the street gangs.” There are
teenagers wearing swastikas just because they think they look cool. “In the 1973
film "Sleeper,”’ Heller notes, “Woody Allen sarcastically predicted that in the
distant future, the swastika will be worn as a fashion accessory.” The distant
future is now. It has become an icon of rebellion. The logo for ZZ Flex
skateboards looks a lot like a swastika. The label on the heavy metal CD Sacred
Reich has interlocking swastikas. The logo for the band Kiss, which originally
had three Jewish members, was made to look just like the insignia of the SS —
not a swastika but rather two parallel, jagged s’s made to look like lightning.
Does it matter whether swastikas are used in ignorance or in hatred or to
rehabilitate a symbol? No, Heller says: “Nazi icons were strong enough to seduce
a nation and still contain a graphic power that can be unleashed today.” The
swastika defenders counter with the question: “How can a symbol be guilty for
the acts of a madman?”
ON THE SWASTICKA
by
"the Bard"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a precis of information
found on the use and meaning of the
swasticka in various cultures
and ideologies.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Swastica: Sanscrit "su" meaning
"good" and "asti" meaning "to be"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cross Cramponned: English
heraldic term relating to angle-irons (crampons)
Cross Gammadion: Greek,
pertaining to the Greek letter "G" or "Gamma" (it
looks like an
inverted Roman alphabet "L".)
Crux Dissimulata: Latin "Cross
Dissimulated" used as a Christian symbol by
the early
Christians to avoid persecution. (see below)
Hakenkreuz: German "hooked cross"
Jaina Cross: a swasticka-like
symbol of the Jains of India.
Pramantha: Brahmin (supposedly as
some sort of fire-making tool, though
never having seen one used as such
I can't figure out how.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In order to discuss this
symbol, we must first do a little
backtracking, with -some-
speculation.
It has been postulated that
the first method of measuring time was
by the moon's phases. These are
obvious, easy ways of measuring the year,
and we find it, for example, in
Woodland AmerIndian culture, along with
naming the years by what happened
of note that year. The female menstrual
cycle seems to follow it, and that
would tend to make the moon-calendar
(and Goddess concepts) almost
universal in hunter-gatherer cultures, and so
it is, in the remaining such
cultures on our planet.
But this moon-calendar,
while quite sufficient for hunter-gatherer
cultures, is NOT sufficient for the
next "level" of civilization: farmers.
It is not sufficient
because it shows a year that, due to the
variant lengths of the moon-months,
tends to mess up the calculations for
harvest time and planting time.
Look at the (Lunar-based) Islamic calendar.
The months do not fall in the same
seasons with regularity, making Ramadan
(the fasting month) a real burden
when it falls in the heat of summer. Any
Muslim or Baha'i can vouch for this
(both use a Lunar calendar). You must
add an intercalary month (or days)
from time to time to make it come out
right.
But a -solar- calendar is
more accurate. Indeed, you can make a
solar calendar at home. Just wait
till Midsummer, and mark where the Sun
rises on the horizon, from a fixed
viewpoint. Then mark Midwinter, and
whatever other calendar points
strike your fancy. With both of those, plus
the Spring and Autumn equinoxes,
you will get a layout on the ground that
looks a bit like this: (tho this
one is more regular than most of the real
ones)
*
* *
*
The Sun moves in an
apparent circle, so connecting the dots in a
ring is a logical next design step.
This would be facilitated by taking
astronomical observations, adding
the directions of the compass, and such
other doo-dads to the four seasonal
points. When we add the central
observation point, we get the
Sun-Wheel:
. * .
. | .
. |
. (which also appears in the
*------0------* center of the Celtic Cross)
. | .
. | .
. |.
*
Stonehenge (which was
-not- built by those naughty Druids) and
many, many other such circles all
over the world all seem to do the same
thing: point to the seasonal
position of the Sun and stars.
If you have an accurate
calendar, you know to a pinpoint when you
need to plant. This is a simple
-survival- thing. If you plant at the wrong
time, you, your family and friends
all starve to death. This tends to make
such things IMPORTANT, and they
would be a commonly repeated religous /
artistic motif in such cultures.
What with the Milky Way and it's apparent
"belting" of the Earth, the Zodiac,
and the apparent circular motion of the
Sun, we get a -repeating- theme of
circularity that perhaps might lead to
the dichotomies of light/dark,
alive/dead, and so forth in an endlessly
recurring cycle. This makes the
circle seem to have some religious
significance, and may have led to
the -spiral- design (another very common
artistic theme in primitive
cultures) having a related meaning, but a bit
more esoteric.
It is an easy design-step
from this to the swasticka. There is no
occult origin here. Just a very
clever Sun calendar illustration that is
found all over the world......and
most probably for the same reason: it
told the time.
It is such an ancient
symbol that its true origins are lost in
pre-History, but I feel that the
above -speculation- is probably hitting
pretty close to the mark.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, let's get a little
more specific:
The symbol is pretty
much universal throughout the world. It is
found in such diverse cultures as:
China India
Japan Tibet
Egypt Ancient Crete
Ancient Troy (level of excavation
unknown) Scotland (Picts)
Ancient
Ireland Kickapoo Indians
Tennessee and Ohio Indian burial
mounds (Hopewell Mound)
Pottawatomie
Indians Hopi Indians
Zuni
Indians Old Norse
Plains Indians (who were
originally -farmers- until they were pushed
into the Plains by neighboring
tribes, and then became
nomadic)
Central American Maya and Aztec
(two -very- different cultures!)
Buddhist (found on the soles of
the Buddha's feet, in statuary)
Pre-Hejira Arabs
Seen on a quilt pattern (age and
pattern name unknown)
A variant with only three arms is
used on the Isle of Man, and is known
as a "triskeleon." It is
usually represented as three -legs- and
thus suggests the act of
running.
Found in the Catacombs of Rome
(see Crux Dissimulata)
A coin of Ethelred of Northumbria
(9th cent. CE)
Embroidered on Christian vestments
(8th and 9th cent. CE)
English heraldry: CHAMBERLAYNE
(Argent, a chevron between three fylfots
gules) circa
1394 CE
German heraldry: VON TALE
(Ecartele en equerre de gueules et d'argent)
(date unknown)
(English blazon: Quarterly per fylfot
gules and
argent.) "Equerre" refers to the carpenter's
square, and may
be a clue as to the usage of it by the
early Christians,
due to Joseph's occupation as a
carpenter.
NSDAP (Nazi
Party) (Gules, on a roundel argent a fylfot
reversed in bend
sable) circa 1920-1945 CE.
(note: many other
combinations of designs were used by
the NSDAP,
usually combining gules, sable and argent with
the swasticka.)
German medieval brasses (usage
unknown)
MS Landsdowne, no. 874, circa 1480
CE, uses the name "fylfot" to describe
a monogram of the initials
"F.F."
Austria (an anti-Semetic emblem
used post WW-I)
Estonia (circa WW-I and post-War)
Finland (circa WW-I and post-War)
"There is no reason to
suppose that all of these have been derived
from a common source...." (Gough &
Parker)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The swasticka has
appeared in different forms, in different places
and for different reasons, in human
culture since pre-historic times. The
meaning has been a "Wheel of Life,"
a "Sun-Wheel," the four points of the
compass, the four winds, Man
himself, a symbol of the Hopi emergence into
the current world (showing the
directions taken by the various tribes in
their wanderings) ... many, many
interpetations have been given to this
most ancient symbol.
It can be found with both
right-angled arms, and with curved arms
rather like two letters "S"
superimposed at right-angles to each other.
It's wide distribution in
so many varying cultures shows quite
conclusively that it is neither an
"Aryan" nor an non-"Aryan" symbol, the
pretensions of the NSDAP (German
Nazi Party) and their descendants
notwithstanding.
The Oriental interpetation
has been that of a "Sun-Wheel," with the
right-handed version being for
"life" or the Sun, and the left-handed
version being for "death" or the
Moon.
---- ----
|
| | |
--------- ---------
|
| | |
---- ----
"right
handed" "left handed"
------> Sunwise
(deasil) <------ Widdershins rotation
rotation
(heraldic default position)
(heraldic reversed position)
It is interesting to
note that the original designer of the
insignia of the NSDAP, Dr.
Freidrich Krohn (see below), initially drew it
right-handed, but Hitler insisted
on its being changed to the left-handed
version.
The Brahmins use it to make
fire within an "arani," a disc-like
wooden object where fire is made by
friction with the pramantha (see above)
symbolizing the male generator. The
symbol is regarded as the "womb of the
world" in a ceremonial/mystical
sense.
The Old Norse -may- have
used it as a symbol for Thor, i.e. for the
thunder and lightning, and this (if
true) could very well be the source of
its use in England (from the Norse
invasions of the 9th and 10th centuries
CE) and its use in the other
Germanic countries. The Old Norse -may- have
gotten it thru their trade contacts
with Byzantium and China. (The Norse
tended to trade more than raid,
popular modern legends notwithstanding.)
The common Norse
shield-decoration, called by heralds a "gyronny -
arondee" may have evolved from the
crossed "S" form. The "Hammer" (an
inverted "T") was the most common
symbol for Thor, however.
Heraldic usage regards it
as just another Cross, though its usage
in new heraldry is actively
discouraged, and in some heraldic jurisdictions
outright forbidden, due to the
connotations of shame and evil that it has
gathered from its Nazi
associations.
Nazi Germany's use of it
has an interesting history. The initial
association that the symbol seems
to have had was that of extreme
nationalism, but not necessarily
associated with the Nazi Party. It was
first used in this context about
1870 CE by the Austrian Pan-German
followers of Schoenerer.
Wilhelm Schwaner displayed
a swasticka on the title page of his
"voelkish" periodical "Der
Volkserzeiher" in 1897 CE as a symbol of the
paper's "voelkish" sentiments, and
this may be the first printed usage of
it in this context.
(nb: the German word
"voelkish" is essentially untranslatable to
English. It means a "German-ness,"
a patriotism that transends national
boundaries and time, to include
everything that is truly "Germanic," a
"cult of the race," if you will.)
By 1912, the swasticka was
seen in use by many "voelkish" groups,
and the "voelkish" thought began to
take on an anti-Semitic cast. It was
popular enough that the firm of
Eckloeh began manufacturing badges, tie
pins, buckles, and other such
artifacts incorporating the device.
It was also used as a
national emblem by Estonia and Finland in
this period, being most familiar in
photos of the Finnish Air Force during
the Winter War with the Soviet
Union.
The "Wandervoegel" youth
movement became very familiar with the
symbol, being very "voelkish" in
nature, and thus, the soldiers of Imperial
Germany in WW I knew of the
swasticka and associated it with "voelkish"
sentiments.
These "voelkish" sentiments
included a reverence for the operatic
works of Wagner, an interest in the
Grail Cycle of legends, the belief that
the "Aryan" race is the
"Herrenvolk" or "Master Race" of humanity, and a
belief in an international Jewish
conspiracy to control the world, as
outlined in the so-called
"Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion."
One can only imagine the
consternation that may have resulted when
these soldiers of Germany saw the
device being used as part of the insignia
of the famous "Lafayette
Escadrille," the American pilots that fought for
the Allies before America's entry
into WW I (the "Great War.")
After 1918, the swasticka
was adopted by many of the "Freikorps"
units, being seen in photographs of
the Erhardt Brigade in its liberation
of Munich from the Communists in
April of 1919. Very soon after, the
Hakenkreuz was no longer a romantic
"voelkish" symbol, but an expression of
right-wing opposition to the Weimar
Republic.
In America, it remained an
AmerIndian symbol, and was quite
commonly used in "Indian Lore" of
the Boy Scouts, as evidenced by its usage
on the back cover of my copy
(original) of William Tomkins' "American
Indian Sign Language." (circa 1928;
currently in reprint from Dover
Publications.) The German
fascination with "Cowboys and Indians" in the
books of Karl May ("Der Alte
Shatterhand") may have served in another way
to bring this symbol forward in the
minds of the people. It is known that
Hitler had quite a large collection
of Karl May's novels. I have no
information at this time as to when
Karl May first became popular in
Germany, whether before or after WW
I.
Therefore, when Hitler
chose the swasticka as the symbol of the
NSDAP, he was quite probably
conciously choosing an already familiar symbol
that already had the tenets of
National Socialist ideology attached to it
in the minds of the German public.
This act of adopting an already familiar
badge is just one more point of
evidence that Hitler was a canny and
cunning man, and willing to steal
and pervert whatever would advance his
program.
The badge of the NSDAP was
designed by Dr. Friedrich Krohn, a
dentist who had belonged to several
"voelkish" groups, including the
"Germanen Order" (membership in
which, incidentally, precluded -any-
advancement in the NSDAP). As
mentioned above, the symbol was originally
drawn right-handed, and Adolph
Hitler insisted on its being reversed. Many
occultists shook their heads at
this, thinking (rightly) that it presaged a
bad end for Hilter's Germany.
The Nazis tended to
extremes in their interpetations of the meaning
behind the swasticka, from Guido
von List's insistence that it was related
to the Runic letter "G" and thus
had meaning to ancient Scandanavian scops
(I have -never- found such in -my-
readings....!!) to Friedrich Dolleger's
attempt to tie in the Cretans and
others of the Near East as Germanic
peoples, to Ludwig Fahrenkrog's
Buddhist-derived Theosophic analysis that
the right handed form meant "to
God" and the left handed form "away from
God."
Nazi Germany took an
ancient symbol and perverted it to such a
degree that it can never be used
again without bringing up all the
associations of death, destruction,
hatred and vileness that the NSDAP
perpetrated. If the Swasticka is
displayed in any of the "civilized" parts
of the earth, the reactions of the
viewer are universally of rage and
disgust. This perversion of "right"
may be one of the prime evils of the
Nazis; they took patriotism,
honorable military service and its associated
ritual, chivalry, and the concept
of "voelkishness," among so many other
good and useful things, and
perverted them into something so bad, so evil
and vile, that to call a person a
"Nazi" is one of the most terrible
epithets a human can use.
The "Aryan" "Herrenvolk"
(Master Race) myth is still with us, in
the mythos' of the "skinheads" and
of the (pseudo) Christian "Identity"
Church/ Movement in North America,
not to mention the well-known Ku Klux
Klan and its various offshoots.
(who have taken another ancient and
honorable symbol, the Scots "fiery
Cross" clan rallying sign, and perverted
it to a degraded usage.)
Some groups of the
"Odinist" tradition tend towards an "Aryan"
Master Race attitude also, although
this is dying out quickly.
The "separate-but-equal"
doctrine preached by some of the "King
James (Bible) Only" Christian
Fundamentalist groups does -not- (apparently)
include a regard of non-white races
as inferior, however.
An interesting -reversal-
has been seen in the theory that the
"Aryans" are a "satanic" influenced
"race," fathered by the "giants" of
Biblical reference (the basis being
the belief that the "giants" mentioned
in the Bible were the offspring of
angels that mated with human women) and
that the "race" thus produced has
been working against Christianity for
thousands of years, taking the
widespread use of the swasticka and using
this as "evidence" of sun-worship
in any culture that uses/used it. (and
taking sun-worship as "satanic...")
With some rather strained linguistic
analysis, some rather fuzzy and
sloppily documented books, and the known
involvement of a few of the leaders
of the NSDAP with "occult" groups in
pre-WW II Germany, a picture
emerges of a world-wide and history-wide
conspiracy.
This can be seen as a
typical "Conspiracy Theory Of History,"
bringing in everything from the
ancient Druids, Theosophy, the World Bank,
the Council On Foreign Relations,
the Rockefellers, the Merovingian
dynasty, the Illuminatti, modern
neo-Pagans and the so-called "New Age
Movement" (and, seemingly,
everything else that can be made to fit) into a
"Great Conspiracy." It is
fascinating to watch the parallels in the
rhetoric of these belief systems
with that of the Nazis, and to see how
much it "buys into" the Nazi Big
Lie.
The "Black Muslim" mythos
of the "devil white man" is another
example of the reversal of the
"Herrenvolk" myth by an oppressed racial
minority. So far I have not seen
any other such beliefs in other minorities
within the USA.
Both the "Herrenvolk" myth,
and its reversals, perpetuate the cycle
of hatred against those who are not
"our kind of people;" the attitude of
"us against them;" thus forwarding
the Nazi mind-set into the modern world,
and encouraging division and
suspicion in humanity.
If Satan has a program,
this division and hatred certainly would
suit his purposes very well indeed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"A Treasury Of American
Superstions"
De Lys, Claudia; Philosophical
Library, NY MCMXLVIII
"A Dictionary Of Heraldry"
Friar, Stephen; Harmony Books, NY
1987
"A Glossary Of The Terms Used
In Heraldry"
Gough & Parker, Gale Research Co.
1966
"The Book Of Signs"
Koch, Rudolph; Dover Publications
1955
"The Holy Bible"
King James Version
"Man, Myth and Magic"
Marshall Cavendish Corp., NY 1970
"The Spear Of Destiny"
Ravenscroft, Trevor; G.P.
Putnam's Sons 1973
(note: most of this book's core
concepts are -not- referenced,
being "written from memory" or
"seen in visions" or "seen in
astral travel" and thus must not
be taken as "hard" information.)
"The Rise And Fall Of The
Third Reich"
Shirer, Wm. L.; Simon & Schuster,
NY 1960
"Adolph Hitler"
Tolland, John; Doubleday 1976
"Dictionary Of Pagan
Religions"
Wedeck, H.E. and Baskin, Wade;
Philosophical Library
NY, 1971
"Woodward's A Treatise On
Heraldry, British And Foreign"
Woodward, John and Burnett, Chas.
E.; Charles E. Tuttle Co.
Rutland, Vermont 1969
"The Book Of The Hopi"
(my copy currently is mislaid, so
no biblio info at this time)
Various conversations
monitored on Computer Bulletin Board message
areas:
OPEN_BIBLE: "Rick Savage,"
"Michael Haight," "Ralph Stokes" et. al.
CULT_WATCH: "Robert Lee" et. al.
-end-
Permission is granted for
re-publication of this article, so long as it
is not edited or changed. Send a
courtesy copy of the publication to
PO Box 35190, Phoenix, AZ 85069
and it will be forwarded to the author.
Comments and further research are
welcomed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From Tribune India. I've added
links to certain pictures that were referenced, but not presented in thi
article.
Sunday, May 23, 1999 Chandigarh,
India
The
mystique of Swastika
By
Shiv Darshanlal Sharma
A SURVEY of literature reveals
that the Swastika symbol is generally referred to as the gamma-like cross by
western scholars because it can be resolved into four gammas joined at right
angles. It is perhaps one of the most ancient symbols associated with the sun.
The most ancient Swastikas have been discovered in Susa in Persia, Mohenjodaro
and Harappa in Pakistan and Sammarra in Mesopotamia. It has been seen on
terracotta articles as well as ancient vases of Greece,
Cyprus,
Crete and Rhodes. On an Athenian vase it appears thrice. On a vase now at Vienna
it is depicted as an ornament on the breast of Apollo. It was a favourite symbol
on the coins of ancient Greece and India. Swastika is also found engraved on
funeral urns which have been dug up in northern Italy.
It is found as a religious and
ornamental symbol in ancient Egypt. The excavations undertaken recently by the
Turkish Government at Aladja-Hoyuk uncovered the so-called standards made out of
Swastika symbols. These metallic articles were buried along with corpses during
the 22nd century B.C. Probably these were kept there to ensure the safety and
wellbeing of the deceased. In Lycaonia, on a Hittite monument, it appears as an
ornament on the border of the robe of a person engaged in offering sacrifice. In
the designs on jars excavated in Cappadocia, spirals, Swastikas and Crosses are
found. All these vases belong to the Hittite age, about 2200-1200 B.C. Swastika,
called as `flyfot’, was a popular artistic and sacred symbol throughout the
Teutonic age in Europe. It appeared on jewels and weapons, not only of Gallic,
but also of German and Scandanavian people. When placed beside a human head, it
represented God. In company with the thunderbolt and the wheel it is seen
inscribed on the altars of the Gallic-Roman period. It is regarded as the sacred
symbol in Roman England. It adorned the floor of the thresholds of the famous
Roman villa excavated at Lullingstone in Britain.
Swastika is marked on a number
of early Christian tombs. It was an archaic custom to mark the tombs with this
symbol or to place vases with Swastika symbols in tombs. It was performed to
ensure the safety of the departed soul or to fend off demonic spirits.
Subsequently, the Swastika was replaced by the Cross. Swastika has been
discovered at several locations in the New World. It was considered as an
auspicious sign by some of the original inhabitants of America. Swastika is
found in monumental remains of the primitive Mexicans and Peruvians and on
objects exhumed from prehistoric burial mounds within the limits of the USA.
It was revived by Hitler when
he made it the national emblem of Nazi Germany. He believed that this ancient
Aryan sign brought prosperity and victory. It has been the sacred symbol of the
Buddhists and the
Jains.
It bears the name of Swastika when the limbs are bent towards the right, and
Suavastika when they are turned to the left. It is believed that the first
represents Lord Ganesha, while the second represents goddess Kali. According to
the other school of thought, the first stands for the sun, for light and life;
the second stands for night and destruction. Indians inscribe it on the opening
page of their account books. In ceremonies associated with marriages, mundan,
the worship of luxmi etc the Swastika is worshipped as the symbol of
Ganesha. It is marked along with the sign of Navagrahas.
Swastika is one of the eight
types of yogic seats mentioned in the Vayaviya-samhita of the Shiv Purana. The
discovery of Swastika in almost all parts of the globe has given rise to so many
interpretations.
Certain authorities believe
that Ganesha on his Vahana, the rat, symbolised a sun-god, overcoming the
animals. Which, in archaic mythology was a sign of night. The cult of sun
worship is probably the most primitive one. The sun brings joy, light and life
for mankind. People belonging to the Indus Valley civilisation believed in sun
worshipping, which is evident from the discovery of a number of signs and
symbols associated with the sun. These signs are found on several so-called
punch marked coins that have been excavated from many places in India. These are
called Vishnu Chakras. Vishnu’s incarnations are said to have killed their
enemies by using these chakras. Krishna’s Sudarshan Chakra can be referred to in
this connection. Like Indra, Vishnu is said to have subdued serpents. Krishna
defeated Kalinaga while Vishnu is depicted as reclining on Sesnaga, who has one
thousand hoods.
According to Vayu Purana, "the
lord of serpents, who lives on the Devakuta mountain, has one hundred hoods and
is marked with the Chakras (Swastika) of Vishnu." According to the same source,
Brahma was practicing severe penance, as a result of which sweat came from his
body which gave rise to the serpent world, which had marks of Swastika on them.
It is interesting to note that on prehistoric bowls found at Sammarra, serpents
are shown as moving around the sun. Being a symbol of the sun, the chakra
represents life and movement, which transform the dwarf into the giant or the
microcosm into macrocosm or again the centre into its diameter.
Aladja-Hoyuk, which is
identified with the Hittite city Ariana, was the seat of the cult of sun god.
The Buddhists inherited reverence of Swastika from the belief that Lord Buddha
is the incarnation of Vishnu, and carried it to Tibet, China, Japan and Korea.
Swastika is found on the images of the lord. It is seen on the footprint of Lord
Buddha. In China, swastika found a place among written characters, where it
contains the notion of abundance, prosperity and long life. In Japan, it
represents the number 10,000. The Chinese empress Wu (684-704 A.D.) decreed that
it should be used as sign for the sun. The seal of the Harappan period shows a
man carrying a manger with propitiatory offering for a tiger standing in front
of him. On the reverse the same inscription is repeated, besides a row of five
Swastikas as auspicious symbols signifying security and good luck.
According to K.N. Shastri, the
sealing was obviously an amulet against possible dangers arising from the
depredations of tigers. Ideas and beliefs migrate with traders, soldiers and
migrants. The ancient western Asia had trade relations with the people of the
Indus. Valley. It is evident from the discovery of Indus Valley seals in
Mesopotamia at the level dating between 2300 and 2000 B.C. Some particular seals
found in Crete proved to be of exactly of the same material as those found in
the Indus Valley. The figures of animals and birds with fish in their beaks
appearing on vases found from the tombs in Sammarra (dating 4000 B.C.) are
significantly similar to that painted on potteries found from tombs in Harappa.
The pipal tree (Ficus
religiosa) was regarded as sacred both in Harappa and Elam (It may be due to the
fact that this is the only plant in the plant kingdom which releases more amount
of oxygen day and night, than any other plant). These instances prove that
Palestine, Elam and Harappa had close trade and cultural relations. The
appearance of the Swastika on vases belonging to this period proves that the
symbol of Swastika was travelling from one place to other along with the normal
merchandise.
The Swastika was a very
popular symbol in ancient Turkey, where it was frequently applied by the smiths
of Anatolia. It is interesting to note that two kinds of Swastikas, one
revolving to the right and other to the left have been excavated from a tomb in
Aladja-Hoyuk. These could be interpreted as the rising and setting the sun. The
Swastika is found on the megalithic pottery from Kunnatur, Coorg and Coimbatore.
It has also been traced on a red ware belonging to the Chalcolithic phase on the
site of Rangpur. These instances prove that the sacredness of the Swastika was
the most primitive belief in India. It seems that the people of the Indus
Valley, who inherited this symbol, believed in sun worship and spread this cult
to Elam. Mesopotamia and Asia Minor or the people of these countries got it from
Indians migrants even before the prosperous settlements of the Indus Valley came
into being. A scene of Swastika worship is found in the rock paintings of Paria
Bari. It is mentioned in the Puranas that the masses worshipped the solar deity
in its symbolic forms of disc, wheel, lotus and Swastika.
The discovery of the Swastika
in the New World should not be explained away by the so-called theory of
independent origin. It may have been carried to the New World by Asian Traders
in the most archaic times. Some historians claim that long before the voyage
undertaken by Columbus, America was discovered by the Phoenicians, and the
Chinese. The discovery of images, said to be of the Lord Buddha, in America is
really a significant event.
The following are pre-WWII as near as I'm able to gather:
An English postcard from the early 1900's |
Another postcard from the early 1900's |
American postcard |
American postcard |
A Birthday Card |
United States Army 45th Division Insignias (Pre 1940's, of course)
|
Finlan Flag (1920's) |
Judging from the fashion of their clothing, I judge this picture to be late
1800's
(linked to larger picture) |
This one comes from the Scouts
(read about it at the Baden-Powell site referenced below) |
Laguna Bridge (Built in 1905 by U.S. Reclamation Department) |
1894 research article on
the Swastika - an online edition of an article originally published in 1894
by Thomas Wilson, curator of the Dept. of
Prehistoric Anthropology at the U.S. National Museum. He delves into the
history of the Swastika before Hitler was even born. Reading the pages online
requires downloading a free plugin. This a long and fascinating read.
Spiritual Secrets in the Carbon
Atom - Another fascinating article.
Nazi
Swastika or Ancient Symbol?
The Swastika - From
Baden-Powell, What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns, 1921
The Swastica - Lucky Mojo
Amulet Archive
The History of the
Swastika - by W. J. Bethancourt III
The Swastica at
Symbols.com
(I'm not a member of the web-ring, but it's a good place to learn more - if one
is willing to risk the education)
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