The Power Of Symbols
Dean
We were having a surprisingly interesting discussion here (sometimes the most mundane topics generate the most diverse conversations around here) when the subject of the swastika of all things came up. Which brought to mind the various ways that particular symbol has been used throughout history--and how much meaning humans pour into the symbols they see. For example, what would you think if someone handed you the following trinket?
Would you think that the Coca-Cola company used to be a German company? Or that they once did business with Nazi Germany? You wouldn't be stupid to think that, but you'd be wrong. The Coke people brought that out as a watch fob trinket in 1925, years before anyone had even heard of Adolph Hitler. Oh yeah, and the Coca-Cola Company was founded in Georgia and is as American as they come.
So what was the point? The point is that for thousands--literally, thousnads--of years the swastika has been considered a good luck symbol. At one time, a swastika token was like having a rabbit's foot, or a horseshoe over your door, or a four-leaf clover. It was just considered a good luck symbol.
This 1907 postcard helps drive the point home:
(Click to see an enlarged image.)
Note how both the swastika and the horseshoe are "good luck" motifs on this postcard, as is the "lucky penny" and the heart with an arrow through it. This is a postcard that was sold in drug stores back in 1907, when Adolph Hitler was only 18 years old, a soon-to-be college dropout of no particular fame or merit. He did not rise to power until 1933, until which time, for most people in the West, this was just a good luck symbol not unlike a rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover. In some cultures it was a religious symbol; some Christian churches have had swastikas in them for centuries, and you can even find ancient Jewish synagogues that are thousands of years old with swastikas side-by-side with stars of David. Swastikas have even been found ing cave paintings and artifacts dated more than 8,000 years old.
Funny how hard it is to look at it that way, isn't it? You almost have to force your brain to see it in anything other than negative terms. But in truth, it has been a popular symbol around the globe for thousands of years, across multiple cultures and religions and continents. Read more about it here.
In fact, here's one that'll interest you military geeks: in World War I (which ended in 1918), some of America's 45th Infantry wore the following arm patch:
That, again, was American soldiers. What did it mean? Nothing special. It was just a distinctive emblem, like a star or a saber or or a triangle. No different from the other patches military people have been wearing for generations. And remember, this was around 1918, long before anyone had ever heard from that obscure little corporal from Austria named Hitler.
We can credit Hitler with a couple of innovations in his use of the sumbol though. He actually did do something subtle to make the symbol match his regime. Know what it was? It was pretty minor:
Can you spot it yet? When you look at that it should suddenly scream "Nazi!" But why? What's different?
First, he tilted it 45 degrees. (He wasn't the first to do that, but it was a bit unusual.) Then he put it in a white circle with a burgundy background (I think you'd call that burgundy anyway).
It's hard to find a more electrifyingly negative symbol in the modern world, isn't it? Yet historically it was always considered utterly benign. It's one of the humanity's oldest symbols, and never meant anything particularly bad until Hitler.
I have absolutely no overarching point or theme I want to make out of this, except that it's just interesting the power that symbols hold on the human imagination. That and how a symbol can mean one thing in some contexts and completely, radically different things in others.
Symbols. They're powerful, aren't they?
* Update * AZ Perspective notes that the swastika had associations in Navajo myth.
And now, like the Swastika, the Confederate Flag has become a symbol of hatred and a shameful era to many, many people.
It actually does look cooler that way if you ask me.
Damned double standards.
"Nimoy is Jewish, and he said he spotted it being used by Rabbis in a religious ceremony where everyone was expected to close their eyes and not look. I'm not sure what that ceremony was, nor what variant of Judaism he practiced, but it was a Jewish ceremony."
Blessing by the Priests.
I don't close my eyes, but the hands are under the prayer shawl, so no one can see the V sign. I believe Nimoy is a priest (cohen) and has performed the ceremony himself when he was very young (one begins at age 13). It is not done by rabbis (unless the rabbi is also a cohen).
Also, I think one puts the hands together to make a triangle, not individual V's.
Chapter 7 of the 2nd volume of Mein Kampf:
"As National Socialists we see our program in our flag. In the red, we see the social idea of the movement, in the white, the nationalistic idea, in the Swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of Aryan man, and at the same time, also the victory of the idea of creative work, which in itself is, and will always be, anti-Semitic."
There was a time when the Swastika also stood for Thor's hammer, I've seen variants like that....
Something more to the point is that most folks don't know that the original shoulder patch for the 45th Infantry Division ("Thunderbirds") originally sported a gold hakenkreuz on a red background, that being an Indian good luck symbol.
The famous WW2 cartoonist Bill Mauldin originally belonged to the 45th ID.
In the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, there are a few (I think three) First Nations objects (a saddle and I don't know what else) that have swastikas on them. All were made pre-1920 and the text identifies the swastika by another name: the running wheel.
Melissa
Just for that, I'll point out that the Beer Hall Putch took place in 1923. Hah! Mister smarty pants, "no one heard of Hitler!"
But I'm feeling much better after the meds kick in...
Uumhh, a watch fob from Coca Cola.
So far as I'm aware, the Swastika is a Solar symbol, tracing the path of the sun at the four equinoxes/solstices.
Coincidence? I think not!
Was there ever a Christian twisted cross?
When you asked last week why we read, this is it. A great treatment of an interesting topic.
My own, hopefully, intereting contribution. There is a church in my home town, Roman Catholic, built about a century ago. Every 15th or so tile down the center isle bears the impression of a swastika. I've always been a bit bemused by the site. The syumbology now makes it fit a bit better. I knew the symbol pre-dated Nazis, but had never explored it enough to figure out what it had meant.
Look into any of the geomtrid art of medieval Islam, or of other cultures, and "swastikas" pop up all over the place.
I found the Navaho also used the symbol:"The American Indians recognize the difference between the ghost and the actual soul of a dead person, a knowledge restricted to initiates of the Mysteries. In common with the Platonists they also understood the principles of an archetypal sphere wherein exist the [?, sentence ends]
[anti-swastika, somewhat encircled, etc.]
Click to enlarge
NAVAHO SAND PAINTING.
From an original drawing by Hasteen Klah.
The Navaho dry or sand paintings are made by sprinkling varicolored ground pigment upon a base of smooth sand. The one here reproduced is encircled by the rainbow goddess, and portrays an episode from the Navaho cosmogony myth. According to Hasteen Klah, the Navaho sand priest who designed this painting, the Navahos do not believe in idolatry, hence they make no images of their gods, but perpetuate only the mental concept of them. Just as the gods draw pictures upon the moving clouds, so the priests make paintings on the sand, and when the purpose of the drawing has been fulfilled it is effaced by a sweep of the hand."
Did the Nazis know these kind of things, and sought to reverse them, also perhaps betraying the weakness of their own world view?
Hinduism seems to have invented "Aryans" as well, which you could say Hitler co-opted as well, except that it seems there never was a benign way to declare one race superior to another.
Hitler, Buddha, Krishna----book review
It was often (and is still occasionlly) called the "Greek Cross" because it was found so often in Greek christian churches.
As Andrew points out, Hitler had a fascination with the occult. He also had a tendency (like a lot of people) to just make up things that were convenient to his ideology. Seeing the heavy use of the swastika probably buggeed him given that he privately viewed Christianity a religion of "martyrs and faggots" and a "terroristic" religion that messed up the once much-freer Pagan world.
That would probably explain his obsession with viewing the swastika as having a Hindu connection, come to think of it. Never mind its deep roots in Christian and Jewish symbology.
Yes, we know it is found on early buddhists icons or iconographs or parchments whatever, that it represents a symbol of religious thought etc. Then prior to WW II, Mr. Hitler promoted it as a Nazi (National Socialist Party) symbol of his new world order to be established, then strangely enough over 50 million deaths largely related to Adolph and company ensued during the WW II war years.
Today, the skinheads in Europe and in USA still use the symbol and decorate certain and mostly jewish building structures and at least once a year or more, some people are convicted of hate crimes and as well various murders under the auspices of the swastika symbol.
To this viewer that is the only context within which the swastika is functional valid as mentioning in the public forum.
The historical references certainly are appreciated but as long as the skinheads and the
anarchist types use it in a fashion that is opposed by the Simon Weisenthal Center and those that support such anti-Nazi thought, I might ask what the hell is the point ?
I have absolutely no overarching point or theme I want to make out of this, except that it's just interesting the power that symbols hold on the human imagination. That and how a symbol can mean one thing in some contexts and completely, radically different things in others.
As others have pointed out, the symbol is still used in Christian churches across the East, in Korean society, among some Hindu and American Indian religions. In those contexts it means one thing. In others it means death and repression. It is fascinating how much meaning humans pour into a single icon, and how radically different that meaning can be for various people.
For well over a thousand years some Christian groups have used this as a representation of Christ. It's rather sad how Hitler expropriated that symbol for his ends, isn't it?
Casey: Whoops, I caught that typo, thanks!
also, i lived in thailand years ago and speak the language well. some of you may be familiar with the thai greeting "sawasdee (ka)". the literal meaning of this phrase is "blessings to you", and the way that it is written in thai (as opposed to pronounced, which is difficult to explain succinctly without giving everyone a lesson in the thai alphabet and spelling) is "swasti (ka)". coincidence? no. the thai alphabet and much of the spken language are based on sanskrit, which is one of the indo-aryan (i think that`s the group, or else it`s indo-european...) languages, to which many indian (buddha`s birthplace) dialects and other languages belong.
thanks for reading!
-n-
Dean wrote, a propos the Nazi variant:
"It actually does look cooler that way if you ask me."
That's because the arms are diagonal, and therefore have the appearance of being in motion. Much like the original meaning (one of them) of the swastika, symbolizing the revolution of the Sun. On that white disk it looks even more like a solar symbol. I wonder if it's a coincidence that, at that same time, the Japanese flag was a red dot symbolizing the Sun Goddess, and had rays shooting out.
"In Chapter 7 of the 2nd volume of Mein Krapp, Hitler wrote:
"As National Socialists we see our program in our flag. In the red, we see the social idea of the movement, in the white, the nationalistic idea, in the Swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of Aryan man, and at the same time, also the victory of the idea of creative work, which in itself is, and will always be, anti-Semitic."
I'm going to reply with this:
"In Chapter 7 of the 2nd volume of Mein Uberkampf, Herr Doktor Professor Karl Austin Bieberholtz wrote:
"As Polytheistic Individualists we see our program in our flag. In the blue, we see the anti-social idea of the movement, in the red, the polytheistic idea, in the Swastika, the mission of the struggle for the fight for the battle for the conflict for the opposition for the victory of Lesbian woman, and at the same time, also the victory of the idea of creative work, which in itself is, and will always be, the special province of the Jewish people."
We must recapture and reconsecrate these symbols from those who so profaned them. The Swastika, Norse mythology, Romanticism, classical music and opera, Nietzsche, Spengler, the Ostwald color theory -- none of these are Nazi! I'm taking them back!
Sometimes it's not where you're going. It's the ride.
1) Who would be more likely to get chewed out, beat up, ostracized, etc., today: a man wearing a swastika to symbolize a religious belief or something else non-Nazi or anti-Nazi -- or a man wearing a T-shirt with the Communist murderer Che Guevara? The moral inversion is clear, but few of us recognize it.
2) The aesthetics and symbolism of the swastika itself. As I say, the diagonal version of the swastika looks more dynamic. It also looks more feminine in a certain way, particularly within a circle. But the non-diagonal, horizontal-vertical swastika also looks good. I used to much prefer the clockwise swastika to the counter-clockwise swastika, just instinctually. But I have a picture of Dawn in a position reminiscent of the counter-clockwise swastika, her left arm bent over her head, so I have come to associate it with her, and it ties in with a spectrum. The swastika has long symbolized the union of male and female or of other complementary opposites. And I find that the two swastikas together, the clockwise and the counter-clockwise, facing each other, also symbolize complementary opposites. And if you fuse the two, they form the four squares of a spectrum....
Most fascinating about it all....
"Yes, it's true that the Nazis occasionally used the non-tilted version, or a version tilted in the other direction."
I trust you mean pointing, as tilting a swastika 45 degrees to the left looks exactly the same as tilting one 45 degrees to the right.
Just a little nit I had to pick :)