Re: Is the Swastika evidence of a common origin?
Gerry Palo (palo@netcom.com)
Mon, 13 Jan 1997 16:42:24 GMT
In article <1997Jan9.201830.8899@atl.com>,
Pastor Bob <pbob@jacobs.ladder.com> wrote:
>In article <5b0g3b$26i@bcarh8ab.bnr.ca>, swatson@bnr.ca (Stephen Watson) says:
>
>>In article <01bbfcfb$40aef7e0$1d3ae9cd@wintermute>,
>>Gord Bowman <gbowman@atlsci.com> wrote:
>
>>>The Swastika (the original, not the flipped Nazi version) is an ancient
>>>symbol of unknown origin that has been employed for thousands of years as a
>>>religious sign and a decorative emblem.
There is a popular notion that the Nazis reversed the direction of the
arms of the swastika, perhaps as somee kind of dark perversion of an
otherwise innocent symbol. But this is not true. The swastika appears in
many places in both orientations. It was a common esoteric symbol in a
variety of European esoteric movements, including the Theosophical Society
before and just after the turn of the century. Many publications from that
time bear the "Nazi" type symbol. It goes back further, certainly to
India. I believe the word swastika is Sanscrit.
I think the legend of the Nazi flipping came about in America when the
opposite-oriented swastika was found to be a sacred symbol among Native
Americans. Naturally one would want to distance oneself from the Nazi
sign, so the notion came about, based on incomplete information, that the
"true" swastika spins clockwise where the false, bad Nazi one goes the
other way.
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Gerry Palo Denver, Colorado
palo@netcom.com
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