Actually the symbol of the swastika is an ancient buddhist one.
You have only to look at the Shorinji Temple, and the Martial arts people who train
in Shorinji-ryu.
Shorin-ji is Japanese for Shaolin Temple, or Small Pine Forest Temple.
Among their temple symbols is the Swastika, all black, worn on the front or back of their
Gi (Martial arts unifrom).
It is sad to have seen the swastika so perversely used and maligned because of one mentally ill
man.
please refer to the following links for further elucidation
www.indiaprofile.com/religion-culture/swastika.htm
www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/symbols/swastika.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
http://web.singnet.com/~sidneys/Swastika.htm
http://www.hantranslation.com/blog/2005/06/buddhism-swastika-awareness.html
http://www.experiencefestival.com/swastika_-_buddhism
and now, a dissertation about it, hopefully to finally put this topic into history
Swastika: Encyclopedia - Swastika
Swastika
For the town in Ontario, see Swastika, Ontario.
The swastika (from Sanskrit svastika) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles either left-facing (?)
or right-facing (?). It is traditionally oriented so that a main line is horizontal, though it is occasionally rotated
at forty-five degrees, and the Hindu version is often decorated with a dot in each quadrant.
Swastika - Overview
The swastika is a holy symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. In the West, it is more widely known as symbol of
Nazism.
The motif seems to have first been used by early inhabitants of Eurasia. However, it was also adopted in Native American
cultures, seemingly independently. The swastika is now used universally in religious and civil ceremonies in India. Most
Indian temples, wedding, festivals and celebrations are decorated with swastikas. The symbol was introduced to Southeast
Asia by Hindu kings and remains an integral part of Balinese Hinduism to this day, and a common sight in Indonesia. By
the early 20th century it was widely used worldwide, and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.
Since its adoption by the National Socialist German Workers Party and Adolf Hitler, the swastika has been associated
with fascism, racism (white supremacy), World War II, and the Holocaust in much of the Western world. Before this, it
was particularly well-recognized in Europe from the archaeological work of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the
symbol in the site of ancient Troy and who associated it with the ancient migrations of Indo-European ("Aryan")
peoples.[1] Nazi use derived from earlier German völkisch movements, for which the swastika was a symbol of "Aryan"
identity, a concept that came to be equated by theorists like Alfred Rosenberg with a Nordic master race originating in
northern Europe. The swastika remains a core symbol of Neo-Nazi groups, and is also regularly used by activist groups to
signify the supposed Nazi-like behaviour of organizations and individuals they oppose.
Brigid's cross, Celtic cross, Fylfot, Lauburu or Basque cross, Union of Poles in Germany, Sauwastika, Sun cross, a
traditional symbol also co-opted by many modern neo-Nazis, Triskelion, including the three-legged badge of the Isle of
Man, Wolfsangel
Swastika - Etymology and alternative names
The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit svastika (in Devanagari, ????????), meaning any lucky or auspicious
object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. It is composed of su- (cognate with
Greek ??-), meaning "good, well" and asti a verbal abstract to the root as "to be"; svasti thus means "well-being". The
suffix -ka forms a diminutive, and svastika might thus be translated literally as "little thing associated with
well-being", corresponding roughly to "lucky charm", or "thing that is auspicious".[2] The suffix -tika also literally
means mark; therefore a sometimes alternate name for swastika in India is shubhtika (literally good mark). The word
first appears in the Classical Sanskrit (in the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics).
Alternative historical English spellings of the Sanskrit word include suastika and svastica. Alternative names for the
shape are:
* Black Spider, to various peoples in middle and western Europe.
* crooked cross
* cross cramponned, ~nnée, or ~nny (in heraldry), as each arm resembles a crampon or angle-iron. (Compare
Winkelmaßkreuz in German.)
* cross gammadion, tetragammadion or just gammadion, as each arm resembles the Greek letter ? (gamma). (Compare
croiz gammée in Old French and croix gammée in French; cruz gamada in Spanish.)
* fylfot (meaning "four feet", chiefly in heraldry and architecture). (See Fylfot for a discussion of the
etymology.)
* hooked cross, (Dutch: hakenkruis,Serbian: kukasti krst, Icelandic: Hakakross German: Hakenkreuz, Finnish:
hakaristi, Norwegian: Hakekors Italian: croce uncinata Romanian: Cruce încârligata( and Swedish: Hakkors, Danish:
Hagekors, Hungarian: horogkereszt)
* sun wheel (German Sonnenrad), a name also used as a synonym for the sun cross.
* tetraskelion, Greek "four legged", especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare triskelion).
* Thor's hammer, from its supposed association with Thor, the Norse god of thunder, but this may be a
misappropriation of a name that properly belongs to a Y-shaped or T-shaped symbol. (See Thomas Wilson, below.) - The
Swastika shape appears in Icelandic grimoires where in it is named Þórshamar
* thunder cross (Latvian: perkonkrusts)
* twisted cross
* cross surprise or highlander cross (Polish : krzyzyk niespodziany lub/oraz goralski krzyz)
Swastika - History
The earliest swastika-like symbols preserved appear on pottery dating to the 5th millennium BC, as part of the "Vinca
script". Pottery dating to ca. 2000 BC found at Sintashta is also decorated with the swastika symbol [3]. Swastika-like
symbols also appear in Bronze and Iron Age designs of the northern Caucasus (Koban culture), and Azerbayjan, as well as
of Scythians and Sarmatians [4]. In all these cultures, the swastika symbol does not appear to occupy any marked
position or significance, but appears as just one form of a series of similar symbols of varying complexity.
In antiquity, the swastika was used extensively by Hittites,[5] Celts and Greeks, among others. It occurs in other
Asian, European, African and Native American cultures – sometimes as a geometrical motif, sometimes as a religious
symbol. The swastika is the sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The ubiquity of the swastika symbol is easily explained by it being a very simple symbol that will arise independently
when people incise patterns on pottery or stone. Other theories attempt to establish a connection via cultural diffusion
or an explanation along the lines of Carl Jung's collective unconscious.
Yet another explanation is suggested by Carl Sagan in his book Comet. Sagan reproduces an ancient Chinese manuscript
that shows comet tail varieties: most are variations on simple comet tails, but the last shows the comet nucleus with
four bent arms extending from it, recalling a swastika. Sagan suggests that in antiquity a comet could have approached
so close to Earth that the jets of gas streaming from it, bent by the comet's rotation, became visible, leading to the
adoption of the swastika as a symbol across the world.
The swastika symbol is sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, both dating from about the sixth century BC. In
Hinduism, the swastika symbolizes, in various contexts: luck, the sun, Brahma, or the concept of samsara. Buddhism in
particular enjoyed great success, spreading eastward and taking hold in southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan by the
end of the first millennium. The use of the swastika by the indigenous Bön faith of Tibet, as well as syncretic
religions, such as Cao Dai of Vietnam and Falun Gong of China, is thought to be borrowed from Buddhism as well.
Similarly, the existence of the swastika as a solar symbol among the Akan civilization of southwest Africa may have been
the result of cultural transfer along the African slave routes around AD 1500.
The existence of the swastika symbol in the Americas is a clear challenge to the diffusion theory. While some have
proposed that the swastika was secretly transferred to North America by an early seafaring civilization on Eurasia, a
separate but parallel development of religious symbolism is considered the most likely explanation.
Swastika - Adoption of the swastika in the West
The discovery of the Indo-European language group in the 1790s led to a great effort by archaeologists to link the
pre-history of European peoples to the ancient Aryans (Indo-Iranians). Following his discovery of objects bearing the
swastika in the ruins of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann consulted two leading Sanskrit scholars of the day, Emile Burnouf and
Max Müller. Schliemann concluded that the Swastika was a specifically Indo-European symbol. Later discoveries of the
motif among the remains of the Hittites and of ancient Iran seemed to confirm this theory. This idea was taken up by
many other writers, and the swastika quickly became popular in the West, appearing in many designs from the 1880s to the
1920s.
The religious meanings of the symbol were subverted in the early twentieth century when it was adopted as the emblem of
the National Socialist German Workers Party. This association occurred because Nazism stated that the historical Aryans
were the forefathers of modern Germans and then proposed that, because of this, the subjugation of the world by Germany
was desirable, and even predestined. The swastika was used as a convenient symbol to emphasize this mythical
Aryan-German correspondence. Since World War II, some Westerners see the swastika as solely a Nazi symbol, leading to
incorrect assumptions about its pre-Nazi use and confusion about its sacred religious status in Hinduism.
Swastika - Geometry and symbolism
Geometrically, the swastika can be regarded as an irregular icosagon or 20-sided polygon. The arms are of varying width
and are often rectilinear (but need not be). However, the proportions of the Nazi swastika were fixed: they were based
on a 5x5 grid.[6]
Characteristic is the 90° rotational symmetry (that is, the symmetry of the cyclic group C4h) and chirality, hence the
absence of reflectional symmetry, and the existence of two versions which are each other's mirror image.
The mirror-image forms are often described as:
* left-facing and (as depicted above) right-facing;
* left-hand and right-hand;
* clockwise and counterclockwise.
"Left-facing" and "right-facing" are used mostly consistently. Looking at an upright swastika, the upper arm clearly
faces towards the viewer's left (?) or right (?). The other two descriptions are ambiguous as it is unclear if they
refer to the direction of the bend in each arm or to the implied rotation of the symbol. If the latter, whether the arms
lead or trail remains unclear. The terms are used inconsistently (sometimes even by the same writer) which is confusing
and may obfuscate an important point, that the rotation of the swastika may have symbolic relevance.
Nazi ensigns had a through and through image, so each version was present on one side, but the Nazi flag on land was
right-facing on both sides ([7], at the bottom).
The swastika is, after the simple equilateral cross (the "Greek cross"), the next most commonly found version of the
cross.
Seen as a cross, the four lines emanating from the center point to the four cardinal directions. The most common
association is with the Sun. Other proposed correspondences are to the visible rotation of the night sky in the Northern
Hemisphere around Polaris.
Swastika - Sauwastika
See main article: Sauwastika
The name sauwastika is sometimes given for the supposedly "evil", left-facing, form of the swastika (?). A common myth
is that the left-facing swastika is generally regarded as evil in Hindu tradition. This is because the much more common
form in India is the right-facing swastika. Indians of all faiths sometimes use the symbol in both orientations - mostly
for symmetry. Buddhists (outside India) generally use the left-facing swastika over the right-facing swastika although,
again, both can be used. Despite this, the misconception that the left-facing swastika is evil is widespread, even among
some contemorary Indian communities.
Some contemporary writers — Servando González, for example — confuse matters even further by asserting that the
right-facing swastika, used by the Nazis is in fact the "evil" sauwastika.[8] (González "proves" that the left-facing
swastika is the sunwise one with reference to a 1930's box of Standard fireworks from Sivakasi, India.) This inversion –
whether intentional or not – might derive from a desire to prove that the Nazi's use of the right-handed swastika was
expressive of their "evil" intent. (See also Taboo in Western countries.) But the notion that Adolf Hitler deliberately
inverted the "good left-facing" swastika is wholly unsupported by any historical evidence.[9]
Swastika - Art and architecture
The swastika is common as a design motif in current Hindu architecture and Indian artwork as well as in ancient Western
architecture, frequently appearing in mosaics, friezes, and other works across the ancient world. Ancient Greek
architectural designs are replete with interlinking swastika motifs. Related symbols in classical Western architecture
include the cross, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The swastika symbol is also known in
these contexts by a number of names, especially gammadion. Pictish rock carvings, adorning ancient Greek pottery, and on
Norse weapons and implements. It was scratched on cave walls in France seven thousand years ago.
In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese art, the swastika is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern,
called sayagata in Japanese, comprises left and right facing swastikas joined by lines.[10] As the negative space
between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.
The swastika symbol was found extensively in the ruins of the ancient city of Troy.
In Greco-Roman art and architecture, and in Romanesque and Gothic art in the West, isolated swastikas are relatively
rare, and the swastika is more commonly found as a repeated element in a border or tessellation. A design of
interlocking swastikas is one of several tessellations on the floor of the cathedral of Amiens, France.[11] A border of
linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif,[12] and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical
element. A swastika border is one form of meander, and the individual swastikas in such border are sometimes called
Greek keys.
The Laguna Bridge in Yuma, Arizona was built in 1905 by the U.S. Reclamation Department and is decorated with a row of
swastikas.
The Canadian artist ManWoman has attempted to rehabilitate the "gentle swastika".
Swastika - Religion and mythology
Swastika - Hinduism
The swastika is found all over Hindu temples, signs, altars, pictures and iconography where it is sacred. It is used in
all Hindu weddings, festivals, ceromonies, houses and doorways, clothing and jewelry, motor transport and even
decorations on food items like cakes and pastries.
It is interesting to note that along with the swastika, the Aum symbol is also sacred in Hinduism. However, whereas Aum
is representative of a single primordial tone of creation, the swastika is a pure geometrical mark and has no syllabic
tone associated with it.
In Hinduism, the two symbols represent the two forms of the creator god Brahma: facing right it represents the evolution
of the universe (Pravritti), facing left it represents the involution of the universe (Nivritti). It is also seen as
pointing in all four directions (North, East, South and West) and thus signifies stability and groundedness. Its use as
a sun symbol can first be seen in its representation of Surya, the Hindu lord of the Sun. The swastika is considered
extremely holy and auspicious by all Hindus, and is regularly used to decorate all sorts of items to do with Hindu
culture. It is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs. Throughout the subcontinent of India it can be seen on
the sides of temples, written on religious scriptures, on gift items, and on letterhead. The Hindu God Ganesh is often
shown as sitting on a lotus flower on a bed of swastikas.
Amongst the Hindus of Bengal, it is common to see the name "swastika" applied to a slightly different symbol, which has
the same significance as the common swastika, and both symbols are used as auspicious signs. This symbol looks something
like a stick figure of a human being.[13] "Swastika" is a common given name amongst Bengalis and a prominent literary
magazine in Calcutta is called the Swastika. The stick figure, however, is not mainstream usage in India.
Swastika - Buddhism
Buddhism was founded by a Hindu Prince and has thus inherited the swastika. These two symbols are included, at least
since the Liao Dynasty, as part of the Chinese language, the symbolic sign for the character ? (wàn) meaning "all", and
"eternality" (lit. myriad) and as ? which is seldom used. A swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures.
The swastikas (in either orientation) appear on the chest of some statues of Gautama Buddha and is often incised on the
soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary. Because of the association with the right facing swastika with Nazism,
Buddhist swastikas (outside India only) after the mid-20th century are almost universally left-facing: ?. This form of
the swastika is often found on Chinese food packaging to signify that the product is vegetarian and can be consumed by
strict Buddhists. It is often sewn into the collars of Chinese children's clothing to protect them from evil spirits.
In 1922, the chinese syncretist movement Daoyuan founded the philanthropic association Red Swastika Society in imitation
of the Red Cross. The association was very active in China the 1920's and the 1930's.
Left facing swastikas are seldom, if ever, found in Buddhism's home country of India. They are considered evil in Indian
Buddhism, as in Hinduism or Jainism.
The swastika used in Buddhist art and scripture is known in Japanese as a manji, and represents Dharma, universal
harmony, and the balance of opposites. When facing left, it is the omote (front) manji, representing love and mercy.
Facing right, it represents strength and intelligence, and is called the ura (rear) manji. Balanced manji are often
found at the beginning and end of Buddhist scriptures (outside India).
Swastika - Jainism
Jainism gives even more prominence to the swastika than Hinduism. It is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the
Tirthankara Suparsva. It is considered to be one of the 24 auspicious marks and the emblem of the seventh arhat of the
present age. All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with
creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar. Jains use rice to make a swastika (also known as
"Sathiyo" in the state of Gujarat, India) in front of idols in temple. Jains then put an offering on top of this
swastika - this offering is usually a fruit, a sweet (mithai), a dry-fruit or sometimes coin/currency note.
Swastika - The Abrahamic religions
The swastika was not widely utilized by followers of the Abrahamic religions. Where it does exist, it is not portrayed
as an explicitly religious symbol and is often purely decorative or, at most, a symbol of good luck. Examples of
scattered use includes the floor of the synagogue at Ein Gedi, built during the Roman occupation of Judea, was decorated
with a swastika.[14]
Some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier
Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a mosaic in the St. Sophia church of Kiev, Ukraine dating to the
12th century. They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan.
However, a proposed direct link between it and a swastika floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens, which was
built on top of a pagan site at Amiens, France in the 1200s, is considered unlikely.
The Muslim "Friday" mosque of Isfahan, Iran and the Taynal Mosque in Tripoli, Lebanon both have swastika motifs.
Swastika - Other Asian traditions
Some sources indicate that the Chinese Empress Wu (684-704) of the Tang Dynasty decreed that the swastika would be used
as an alternative symbol of the sun. The Chinese character ? has developed into the modern one ?, pronounced fa-ng in
Standard Mandarin, and has the main meaning of "square". As part of the Chinese script, the swastika has Unicode
encodings U+534D ? (pronounciation following the Chinese character "?": Cantonese: "man"; Mandarin: wan); (left-facing)
and U+5350 ? (right-facing).[15]
In Japan, the swastika is called manji (?). On Japanese maps, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark
the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing manji is often referred as the gyaku manji (??, lit. "reverse
manji"), and can also be called kagi ju-ji, literally "hook cross."
The left-facing Buddhist swastika also appears on the emblem of Falun Gong. This has generated considerable controversy,
particularly in Germany, where the police have reportedly confiscated several banners featuring the emblem. A court
ruling subsequently allowed Falun Gong followers in Germany to continue the use of the emblem.
Swastika - Native American traditions
The swastika shape was used by some Native Americans. It has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the
Ohio valley. It was widely used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among different tribes the
swastika carried various meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clans; to the Navajo it was one symbol
for a whirling log (tsil no'oli'), a sacred image representing a legend that was used in healing rituals.[16]
Swastika - Pre-Christian European traditions
The swastika (also called a fylfot, a term coined in the 19th century from a 1500 reference to a figure used to fill
empty space at the foot of stained-glass windows in medieval churches) appears as an ornament on many pre-Christian
artefacts, drawn both clockwise and counterclockwise, within a circle or in a swirling form. The Greek goddess Athena
was sometimes portrayed as wearing robes covered with swastikas. The "Ogham stone" found in County Kerry, Ireland is
inscribed with several swastikas dating to the fifth century AD, and is believed to have been an altar stone of the
Druids. The pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contains gold cups and shields bearing
swastikas.
The swastika was also present in pre-Christian Slavic mythology. It was dedicated to the sun god named Svarog and called
kolovrat. In the Polish first Republic the symbol of Swastika was also popular with the nobility. According to
chronicles, Varangians prince Oleg who in the 9th century with his Rus Vikings had captured Constantinople, had nailed
his shield to the cities gates, which had a large red Swastika painted on it. The several polish noble houses f.e.
Boreyko, Borzym, Radziechowski from Ruthenia also had Swastikas as their coat of arms. The family had reached its
greatness in the 14-15th centuries and their crest can be seen in many heraldry books produced at that time.
Swastika - Asatru
The left-turning swastika (the upper branch is shaped like the greek letter gamma) is used by Odinic Rite as a symbol
for their religion. It is seen by some[citation needed] as a cross made of two Sowilo runes.
Swastika - Early 20th century
Swastika - Europe
The British author Rudyard Kipling, who was strongly influenced by Indian culture, had a swastika on the dust jackets of
all his books until the rise of Nazism made this inappropriate. One of Kipling's Just So Stories, "The Crab That Played
With The Sea", had an elaborate full-page illustration by Kipling including a stone bearing what was called "a magic
mark" (a swastika); some later editions of the stories blotted out the mark, but not its captioned reference, making the
readers wonder what the "mark" was.
The swastika was also used as a symbol by the Boy Scouts in Britain, and worldwide. According to "Johnny" Walker,[17]
the earliest Scouting use was on the first Thanks Badge introduced in 1911. Robert Baden-Powell's 1922 Medal of Merit
design adds a swastika to the Scout fleur-de-lis as good luck to the person receiving the medal. Like Kipling, he would
have come across this symbol in India. During 1934 many Scouters requested a change of design because of the use of the
swastika by the Nazis. A new British Medal of Merit was issued in 1935.
During World War I, the swastika was used as the emblem of the British National War Savings Committee.[18]
The Russian Provisional Government of 1917 printed a number of new bank notes with right-facing, diagonally rotated
swastikas in their centres. Some have suggested that this may have been the inspiration behind the Nazis adoption of
this symbol as Alfred Rosenberg was in Russia at this time.
Since early Middle Ages the sign of swastika was well-established among all Slavic lands. Known as swarzyca, it was
primarily associated with one of Slavic gods named Swarog. With time the significance of the symbol faded, but it was
preserved in numerous cases as a personal symbol of various personalities, as was the case of the Boreyko Coat of Arms.
It was also preserved in the folk culture of the region of Podhale, where it was used as a talisman well into 20th
century. As a solar symbol, it was painted or carved on various parts of houses in the Tatra Mountains and was thought
to save the household from the evil.
The ancient symbol used by the Góral societies was adopted by the Polish mountain infantry units in the 1920's. It was
adopted as a regimental insignia by the artillery units of the 21st and 22nd Infantry Divisions, as well as by the
soldiers of the 4th Legions' Infantry, the 2nd and 4th Podhale Rifles. A distinctive blue swastika was a background
emblem of The Airborne and Antigas Defence League (1928-1939, LOPP), which had circa 1,5 million members in 1937.
Outside of the military traditions, the mountaneer's swastika also influenced a number of other symbols and logos used
on Polish soil. Among such was the logo of the IGNIS publishing company (est. 1822), and the personal symbol of
Mieczys?aw Kar?owicz, a notable composer an admirer of the Tatras. After his tragic death in the mountains in 1909, the
place of his death was marked by a memorial stone and a swastika. Finally, it was also used as a personal logo and ex
libris by Walery Eliasz-Radzikowski of Boreyko Coat of Arms, a Polish author who was also strongly influenced by the
Polish mountaneers and had a swastika on the dust jackets of all his books and letters.
The Swedish company ASEA, now a part of Asea Brown Boveri, used the swastika in its logo from the 1800s to 1933, when it
was removed from the logo.
In Latvia, too, the swastika (known as Thunder Cross and Fire Cross) was used as the marking of the Latvian Air Force
between 1918 and 1934, as well as in insignias of some military units.[19] It was also used by the Latvian fascist
movement Perkonkrusts (Thunder Cross in Latvian), as well as by other non-political organizations.
The Icelandic Steamship Company, Eimskip (founded in 1914), used a swastika in its logo until recently.
In Dublin, Ireland, a laundry company known as the Swastika Laundry existed for many years in Ballsbridge on the south
side of the city. The company's fleet of electric delivery vans were red, and featured a black swastika on a white
background. The business started in the early 20th century and continued up until recent times. The name and logo
eventually disappeared when the laundry was absorbed into the Spring Grove company.
Swastika - North America
The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, incorporated the Swastika into its seal because of the Hindu and
Buddhist associations of the symbol.
The swastika's use by the Navajo and other tribes made it a popular symbol for the Southwestern United States. Until the
1930s blankets, metalwork, and other Southwestern souvenirs were often made with swastikas.
Arizona state highway markers up until 1940 featured a right-facing swastika superimposed on an arrowhead (Arizona
Roads)
* Shortly after the beginning of World War II, several Native American tribes (the Navajo, Apache, Tohono O'odham,
and Hopi) published a decree stating that they would no longer use the swastika in their artwork. This was because the
swastika had come to symbolize evil to them. This decree was signed by representatives of these tribes. The decree
states:
Because the above ornament which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries has been
desecrated recently by another nation of peoples. Therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever
more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly known today as the swastika or fylfot on our blankets, baskets,
art objects, sandpainting, and clothing.
* in 1922, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, featured a design that had a swastika on one of the towers.
* Swastika is the name of a small community in northern Ontario, Canada, approximately 580 kilometres north of
Toronto, and 5 kilometres west of Kirkland Lake, the town of which it is now part. The town of Swastika was founded in
1906. Gold was discovered nearby and the Swastika Mining Company was formed in 1908. The government of Ontario attempted
to change the town's name during World War II, but the town resisted.
* In Windsor, Nova Scotia, there was an ice hockey team from 1905 to 1916 named the Swastikas, and their uniforms
featured swastika symbols. There were also hockey teams named the Swastikas in Edmonton, Alberta (circa 1916), and
Fernie, British Columbia (circa 1922).
* The 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army used a yellow swastika on a red background as a unit symbol
until the 1930s, when it was switched to a thunderbird.[20]~[21]
* In 1925, Coca-Cola made a lucky watch fob in the shape of a swastika with the slogan, "Drink Coca Cola five cents
in bottles".
* The Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building (HPER) at Indiana University contains decorative Native
American-inspired reverse swastika tilework on the walls of the foyer and stairwells on the southeast side of the
building. HPER was built as the university fieldhouse in the 1920s, before the Nazi party came to power in Germany. In
recent years, the HPER swastika motif, along with the Thomas Hart Benton murals in nearby Woodburn Hall have been the
cause of much controversy on campus.
* The third dungeon of the classic video game The Legend of Zelda is shaped very similarly to a left-facing
swastika, causing some surprise among Western players; see The Legend Of Zelda controversy.
* In the original release of the video game Doom, a floor area in one level took on the shape of a swastika. It was
removed in a later version.
* Crispian Mills, lead singer of Indian-influenced rock group Kula Shaker once said that the swastika was a
beautiful symbol and that 'Hitler knew more than he was letting on'.
Swastika - Nazi Germany
The National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) formally adopted
the swastika or Hakenkreuz (hooked cross) in 1920. This was used on the party's flag (right), badge, and armband. (It
had been used unofficially by the NSDAP and its predecessor, the German Workers Party, Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP),
however.)
In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote:
I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk,
and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag
and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika.
(Red, white, and black were the colors of the flag of the old German Empire.)
The use of the swastika was associated by Nazi theorists with their conjecture of Aryan cultural descent of the German
people. Following the Nordicist version of the Aryan invasion theory, the Nazis claimed that the early Aryans of India,
from whose Vedic tradition the swastika sprang, were the prototypical white invaders. It was also widely believed that
the Indian caste system had originated as as a means to avoid racial mixing. The concept of Racial purity was an
ideology central to Nazism though it is now considered unscientific. For Rosenberg, the Aryans of India were both a
model to be imitated and a warning of the dangers of the spiritual and racial "confusion" that, he believed, arose from
the close proximity of races.
Thus, they saw fit to co-opt the sign as a symbol of the Aryan master race. The use of swastika as a symbol of the Aryan
race dates back to writings of Emile Burnouf. Following many other writers, the German nationalist poet Guido von List
believed it to be a uniquely Aryan symbol. Hitler referred to the swastika as the symbol of "the fight for the victory
of Aryan man" (Mein Kampf).
In fact, the swastika was already in use as a symbol of German volkisch nationalist movements. In Deutschland Erwache
(ISBN 0912138696), Ulric of England (sic) says —
… what inspired Hitler to use the swastika as a symbol for the NSDAP was its use by the Thule Society (Gr.
Thule-Gesellschaft) since there were many connections between them and the DAP … from 1919 until the summer of 1921
Hitler used the special Nationalsozialistische library of Dr. Friedich Krohn, a very active member of the
Thule-Gesellschaft, … Dr. Krohn was also the dentist from Sternberg who was named by Hitler in Mein Kampf as the
designer of a flag very similar to one that Hitler designed in 1920 … during the summer of 1920, the first party flag
was shown at Lake Tegernsee … these home-made … early flags were not preserved, the Ortsgruppe München flag was
generally regarded as the first flag of the Party.
José Manuel Erbez says —
The first time the swastika was used with an "Aryan" meaning was on December 25, 1907, when the self-named Order of the
New Templars, a secret society founded by [Adolf Joseph] Lanz von Liebenfels, hoisted at Werfenstein Castle (Austria) a
yellow flag with a swastika and four fleurs-de-lys.[22]
However, Liebenfels was drawing on an already established use of the symbol.
On 14 March 1933, shortly after Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the NSDAP flag was hoisted alongside
Germany's national colors. It was adopted as the sole national flag on 15 September 1935.
The swastika was used for badges and flags throughout Nazi Germany, particularly for government and military
organizations, but also for "popular" organizations such as the Reichsbund Deutsche Jägerschaft.[23]
Several variants are found:
* a 45° black swastika on a white disc as in the NSDAP and national flags;
* a 45° black swastika on a white lozenge (e.g., Hitler Youth[25]);
* a 45° black swastika with a white outline was painted on the tail of aircraft of the Luftwaffe;
* a 45° black swastika outlined by thin white and black lines on a white disc (e.g., the German War Ensign[26]);
* an upright black swastika outlined by thin white and black lines on a white disc (e.g., Hitler's personal flag, in
which a gold wreath encircles the swastika; the Schutzstaffel; and the Reichsdienstflagge, in which a black circle
encircles the swastika);
* small gold, silver, black, or white 45° swastikas, often lying on or being held by an eagle, on many badges and
flags.[27]
* a swastika with curved outer arms forming a broken circle, as worn by the SS Nordland Division. (See photo at
"Nordland Reenactors".)
There were attempts to amalgamate Nazi and Hindu use of the swastika. Notably by Savitri Devi Mukherji who declared
Hitler an avatar of Vishnu (see Nazi mysticism).
Swastika - Taboo in Western countries
Because of its use by Hitler and the Nazis and, in modern times, by neo-Nazis and other hate groups, for many people in
the West, the swastika is associated primarily with Nazism, fascism, and white supremacy in general. Hence, outside
historical contexts, it has become taboo in Western countries. For example, the German postwar criminal code makes the
public showing of the Hakenkreuz (the swastika) and other Nazi symbols illegal and punishable, except for scholarly
reasons.
However, since it is a holy symbol for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, it is not clear whether the German postwar code
actually bans the construction of Hindu and Jain temples in Germany (Jain temples always have the swastika on their
entrance and Jain ritual typically involves creating seven swastikas from grains of rice around the altar during
prayer).
In Finland some military units still use swastika ([28],[29], [30]). In 1944 the Air Force changed its national emblem
to a roundel but continued to use the swastika elsewhere. In 1963 the chain of the Grand Cross of the Order of the White
Rose was changed. More recently, in 25 October 2005 an official swastika emblem was adopted for use by the Air Force
[31].
The powerful symbolism acquired by the swastika has often been used in graphic design and propaganda as a means of
drawing Nazi comparisons; examples include the cover of Stuart Eizenstat's 2003 book Imperfect Justice,[32] publicity
materials for Costa-Gavras's 2002 film Amen,[33] and a billboard that was erected opposite the U.S. Interests Section in
Havana, Cuba, in 2004, which juxtaposed images of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse pictures with a swastika. It
is even censored from the lithographs on boxes of model kits sold in Germany, and the decals that come in the box.
Founded in the 1970s, the Raëlian Movement, a religious sect believing in the possibility of immortality by scientific
progress, used a symbol that was the source of considerable controversy: an interlaced Star of David and swastika. In
1991, the symbol was changed to remove the swastika and deflect public criticism. The Society for Creative Anachronism,
which aims to study and recreate Medieval and Renaissance history, imposes restrictions on its members' use of the
swastika on their arms,[34] although some arms dating to the early days of the group have the symbol.
Punk rockers like Siouxsie Sioux, Sid Vicious and John Lydon used, and were photographed using, the Nazi version of the
swastika for its shock value, notwithstanding that Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols' manager, was Jewish. But the punk
rock enthusiasm for swastikas ended abruptly in 1981 with the release of the Dead Kennedys song Nazi Punks Fuck Off!
After the song was released, not only did swastikas become verboten in punk rock culture, many punks had their swastika
tattoos either removed or turned into less racist images (e.g., a window).
The previously successful career of the British band Kula Shaker virtually collapsed in the 1990s after the band's
frontman, Crispian Mills, son of actress Hayley Mills, expressed his desire to use Swastikas as part of the imagery of
their live show; because of this, and additional remarks he made, he was widely accused of holding Nazi sympathies.
However, the band was musically influenced by Indian styles, and Mills asserted that his attraction to the swastika was
part of an attempt to reclaim the Indian usage of the symbol in the West.
In January 2005 there was much criticism when Prince Harry of Wales, third in line of succession to the British throne,
was photographed wearing what appeared to be intended as a German Afrika Korps uniform, plus a Nazi swastika armband, to
a costume party.[38]
Swastika - Apperance in Media
The swastika's lack of a negative connotation in the East has led to its appearances in various games, comics, and other
media. While Western society is wary of such symbolism, it is seen more often in the East.
* A Pokémon playing card sold in Japan had a manji graphic. Because of its resemblance to the Nazi swastika, the
card was altered for Western translations, and eventually withdrawn in Japan following Western complaints.
* A manji symbol was incorporated as a level design in both the Japanese and U.S. versions of the 1986 The Legend of
Zelda video game.
* The manga and anime Naruto, one of the characters, Hyu-ga Neji, has a manji-shaped seal with hooked ends on his
forehead, imprinted there when he was young.
* The manga and anime Bleach, the main character Ichigo Kurosaki wields a sword with a manji-shaped crossguard.
See also
* Brigid's cross
* Celtic cross
* Fylfot
* Lauburu or Basque cross
* Union of Poles in Germany
* Sauwastika
* Sun cross, a traditional symbol also co-opted by many modern neo-Nazis
* Triskelion, including the three-legged badge of the Isle of Man
* Wolfsangel
See also: Fascist symbolism, Karl Haushofer.
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Post by r***@ij.netA historic discovery of a 1935 Youth's booklet from the National
Socialist German Workers' Party shows that the Hakenkreuz-swastika was
used to symbolize intertwined "S" shapes for the Party.
http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter4a1a3.html The pictures at
http://rexcurry.net/swastika-socialism1.jpg (below) and at
http://rexcurry.net/swastika-socialism2.jpg are consecutive pages from
the book. The entire book was uncovered by RexCurry.net and it is the
only example known to exist. Although the book is in its original
German language, the illustrations clearly reflect the text which
explains that common symbols under the National Socialist German
Workers' Party often used the "S" shape, including the side-by-side use
in the "SS" Divison and the overlapping use in the Hakenkreuz.
Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, the booklet serves as
important primary source evidence that the Hakenkreuz was used also to
represent intertwined "sieg" runes for the victory of socialism under
the horrid National Socialist German Workers' Party. For additional
proof see posters http://rexcurry.net/socialism-posters/posters2.html
and posters at http://rexcurry.net/socialist-propaganda/posters1.html
and German medals at http://rexcurry.net/socialism/germany.html and
flags and banners at http://rexcurry.net/swastikaflags.html and for a
fuller explanation see http://rexcurry.net/swastikanews.html
