Re: Is the Swastika evidence of a common origin?

Gerry Palo (palo@netcom.com)
Fri, 17 Jan 1997 05:05:55 GMT

In article <32DE2CE5.6E7D@columbia-center.org>,
Dan Clore <clore@columbia-center.org> wrote:
>Gerry Palo wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>
>The Nazis got the symbol from an earlier group, the Thule Gesellschaft,
>which was a sort of Theosophical offshoot that believed in the lost
>continent Thule as homeland of the Aryan race. (Point: Theosophy was
>illegal in Nazi Germany and known members were sent to concentration
>camps; don't bother trying to blame them for the Nazis because of a
>connection like this.)

There does seem to be a connection with the Thule Society, but I don't
recall seeing any evidence that the Theosophical Society had any
connection with the Nazis. There was much interest at all intellectual
and soocial levels in the esoteric streams from central Europe's past.
And certainly the hooked cross was an important occult symbol.

>
>> 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.
>> --
>
>In some traditions the one way is good and the other bad. The pattern
>shows up all over the place: in Native American traditions, Hindu,
>Buddhist (a sign of a Buddha is being born with the chest hair arranged
>as a swastika) and even in common English sewing patterns -- called a
>fylfot.

I think it may have something to do with one of the organs of higher
perception called "lotus blossoms" in Hindu terminology, namely the four
petaled lotus. This one, I believe, is located somewhere near the solar
plexus. The image of the Buddha with this image on his chest would point
in that direction. I wonder what the word "fylfot" derives from. No doubt
each tradition is very specific about which direction is the right one.
It is possible that the Nazis understood the psychological power of this
symbol, as they used it to great effect.

-- 



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Gerry Palo                               Denver, Colorado

palo@netcom.com