Buddhist Icons

emmak

I had forgotten all about this particular icon - the swastika. It is such a shame that in the western world this sybol is associated with Nazi Germany more than it is it's original meaning. (I realise that they twiddled it around.) Anyone know why it became the symbol of the Nazi Party?

Jason

Swastika is from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning well-being and good fortune.

As for the Nazi Party's use of it - A German archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann uncovered swastikas while excavating the site of Homer's Troy on the shores of the Dardanelles between 1871 and 1875. He immediately associated them with swastikas he had seen near the Oder River in Germany. He assumed it was a religious symbol of his German ancestors which linked ancient Teutons, Homeric Greeks and Vedic India. (The symbol seemed to have migrated from India to Germany in about the first millennium B.C.) Eventually, according to Mr. Heller, anti-semite groups wore the symbol on their helmets along with Wotan horns, as well as a curved swastikas on a cross as an insignia. By 1914, the Wandervogel, a militarist German youth movement, made it a nationalist emblem. The Nazi party claimed it 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,'' Mr. Heller writes, ''was to reverse the direction of the swastika'' so that it appears to spin clockwise.

* This information comes from the New York Times. It was a long article so I condensed it to what was relevant. Hope it's accurate. *

emmak

Thanks. I probably could have googled it but thought someone would already know. Again you are a wealth of information...
Isn't it a little ironic that a symbol with such a 'good' meaning was turned into one that represents such negativity. Shame.

Simonthepilgrim

Happened the other way around with the cross: the method of excruciating torture and death turned into a fashion item.

As someone has said, it's a good thing Jesus wasn't fried in "Old Sparky": we'd be walking around with model electric chairs around our necks.

The 'Greek key' design is one which is found across the world, in all post-matriarchal societies. I have always had the feeling that its use of straight lines and right angles was very phallo-centric.

emmak

Is that the cross with the circle? I always liked that for some reason.
I think if one looked, one would find phallic references in nearly all post-matriarchal societies. Even going back to Roman times when they had statues of little men with erect willies.

Simonthepilgrim

The croiss with a circle round it is the "Celtic cross". Until recently, many non-Celtic Christians objected to it, because it is pre-Christian., like the Egyptian ankh. The 'true' Celtic cross has no straight lines or right angles: the 'lines' of the cross are curves.

starstuff

Cross with a circle? Do you mean the celtic cross?

http://www.craytech.com/drew/knotwork/celtic-cross-1a.jpeg

Edit: Haha I think me and Simon posted at the same time.

emmak

Ok, had a look, found a greek key, found a celtic cross. If the celtic cross is pre-christian, what does it mean?
The greek key is pretty cool. What does that represent?

Simonthepilgrim

Greek key is the same as the swastika, altho, ususally, turning widdershins (anti-clockwise or 'moonwise'). The clockwise version was seen by many, after the rise of Nazism, as a symbol of the use by the Nazis of 'black' magic. For this reason, HMG, under Churchill, set up a coven of 'white' magicians in Glastonbury, led by Dion Fortune, during the War, to counter any possible evil spells.

Windwalker

Do we think the swastika can ever be 'recovered' or is it now lost to the Nazi's?

Simonthepilgrim

I think that it will take a very long time before Europe can see that symbol without remembering. And a bloody good thing too, IMHO!