The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms
bent at right angles either right-handed or left-handed. 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. The earliest appearance of this symbol dates back to around the 5th millennium BCE. It came to be a universal symbol of good fortune, harmony, and protection. It is a cross-cultural symbol that was used by ancient
American Indians, Hindus, Buddhists, Vikings, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Mayans, Aztecs, and Persians. For most cultures a right-handed swastika (with the
top arm pointing right and the
bottom arm pointing left) represented life and good
luck, while a left-handed swastika (with the
top arm pointing left and the
bottom arm pointing right) represented death, evil, and bad
luck. Counterclockwise movements are thought to send energy out (white, bright, emanating) while clockwise movements are thought to pull energy in (black,
dark, devouring). Buddhists outside of India started using left-handed swastikas because the right-handed swastika was used by the Nazis. Early Christians used it as a symbol of the cross, possibly as the cross in a disguised form. In Asia it is still used to designate a
church on maps and the Kanji for 10,000 is derived from the swastika, which was associated with 10,000 gods. Many Hindus and Buddhists still consider it holy. The name is derived from the Sanskrit svastika, coming from su- meaning good or well, asti meaning being, and ka meaning little. Thus swastika means little thing associated with well being. A
German archealogist named Heinrich Schliemann had proposed that the swastika was a specifically Indo-European symbol and this theory had become
popular for a while leading to much use of it in the West between 1880-1920. It was because of this that the Nazis took up the symbol in the early twentieth century, seeing it as a symbol of the Aryan race. Of course, not only is the symbol not a specifically Indo-European symbol, but the Aryan race is a myth (the term Aryan refers to
people that were linked linguistically, but who were genetically very diverse). It is lamentable that such a beautiful and powerful symbol has been perhaps irrevocably tarnished and entangled with
racism and the holaucast.
