The urban legend of the Soviet pioneers said that the swastika is the four letters G assembled in a circle: Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, Himmler. The children did not think that the German Gs are actually different letters - H and G. Although the number of leading Nazis on G really went off scale - you can also remember Groe, and Hess, and many others. But it's better not to remember.
The German Nazis used this sign even before Hitler came to power. And why they showed such interest in the swastika is not at all surprising: for them it was an object of mystical power, originally from India, from the original Aryan territories. Well, it also looked beautiful, and the leaders of the National Socialist movement always attached great importance to aesthetics.
A statue of an Indian elephant with a swastika on the grounds of the old Carlsberg brewery in Copenhagen. The statue has nothing to do with Nazism: pay attention to the dots near the center
If we consider the swastika not as part of patterns and drawings, but as an independent object, then its first appearance dates back to about the 6th-5th centuries BC. It can be seen on objects found at excavations in the Middle East. Why is it customary to call India the birthplace of the swastika? Because the word "swastika" itself is taken from Sanskrit (literary ancient Indian language), means "well-being", and purely graphically (according to the most common theory) symbolizes the Sun. Four-pointedness is far from obligatory for her, there is also a wide variety of angles of rotation, inclination of the rays and additional patterns. In the classical Hindu form, she is usually depicted as in the figure below.
There are many interpretations of which way the swastika should rotate. Even their division into female and male is discussed, depending on the direction
Due to the high popularity of the Sun among people of all races, it logically developed that the swastika is an element of symbolism, writing and graphics among hundreds and hundreds of ancient peoples scattered all over the planet. Even in Christianity, she found her place, and there is an opinion that the Christian cross is her direct descendant. Family traits are really easy to see. In our dear Orthodoxy, swastika-like elements were called "gamma cross" and were often used in the design of temples. True, now it is not so easy to find their traces in Russia, since after the start of the Great Patriotic War, even harmless Orthodox swastikas were eliminated.
Orthodox gamma cross
The swastika is such a widespread object of world culture and religion that it is rather surprising that it rarely appears in the modern world. Logically, it should follow us everywhere. The answer is really simple: after the collapse of the Third Reich, she began to evoke such unpleasant associations that they got rid of her with unprecedented zeal. This is amusingly reminiscent of the story of the name Adolf, which was extremely popular in Germany at all times, but almost disappeared from use after 1945.
Craftsmen have adapted to find the swastika in the most unexpected places. With the advent of open access to space images of the Earth, the search for natural and architectural incidents has become a kind of sport. The most popular object for conspiracy theorists and swastikophiles is the naval base building in San Diego, California, designed in 1967.
The US Navy spent 600 thousand dollars to somehow rid this building of the resemblance to the swastika, but the final result is disappointing
The Russian Internet and some railway station trays are crammed with all sorts of interpreters of Slavic pagan swastikas, where it is meticulously explained in pictures what “yarovrat”, “svitovit” or “salting” means. Sounds and looks exciting, but keep in mind that there is no scientific basis for these myths at all. Even the term “Kolovrat”, which is supposedly the Slavic name of the swastika, which has come into use, is a product of conjecture and myth-making.
A beautiful example of a rich Slavophile fantasy. Pay special attention to the name of the first swastika on the second page.
Outlandish mystical powers are attributed to the swastika, hence it is understandable that people who are suspicious, superstitious or prone to the occult are interested in it. Does it bring happiness to the wearer? Think for yourself: Hitler used her both in the tail and in the mane, and ended up so badly that you would not wish the enemy.
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was a great lover of swastikas. She drew the symbol wherever her pencils and paints reached, especially in the rooms of her children, so that they would grow up healthy and not grieve about anything. But the empress was shot by the Bolsheviks along with the whole family. The conclusions are obvious.
In the textbooks of world history, documentaries about the Second World War, we see a sign that carries the ideology of fascism. A frightening sign is drawn on the armbands of the SS men, on the fascist flag. They marked the captured objects. Many countries were afraid of the bloody symbol and, of course, no one thought about what the fascist swastika meant.
Historical roots
Contrary to our assumptions, the swastika is not a Hitlerian invention. This symbol begins its history far before our era. In the process of studying different eras, archaeologists see this ornament on clothes and various household items.
The geography of the finds is extensive: Iraq, India, China, and even in Africa, a funerary fresco with a swastika was found. However, the largest number of evidence of the use of the swastika in the daily life of people was collected on the territory of Russia.
The word itself is translated from Sanskrit - happiness, prosperity. The sign of a rotating cross, according to some guesses of scientists, symbolizes path of the sun across the dome of heaven, is a symbol of fire and hearth. Protects the house and the temple.
Initially, in everyday life, the sign of a rotating cross began to be used by tribes of white people, the so-called Aryan race. However, Aryans are historically Indo-Iranians. Presumably, the native territory is the Eurasian circumpolar region, the region of the Ural Mountains, which means that the close connection with the Slavic peoples is quite understandable.
Later, these tribes actively moved south and settled in Iraq and India, bringing culture and religion with them to these lands.
What does the German swastika mean?
The sign of the rotating cross was revived in the 19th century thanks to active archaeological activities. Then it was used in Europe as a talisman that brings good luck. Later, a theory about the exclusivity of the German race appeared, and the swastika acquired the status symbol of many far-right German parties.
In his autobiographical book, Hitler indicated that he came up with the emblem of the new Germany on his own. However, in fact it was already a well-known sign for a long time. Hitler depicted him in black, in a white ring, on a red background and called Hakenkreuz, which in German means " hook cross».
The blood-red canvas was deliberately proposed in order to attract the attention of the Soviet people and taking into account the psychological influence of such a shade. The white ring is a sign of national socialism, and the swastika is a sign of the struggle of the Aryans for their pure blood.
According to Hitler's idea, hooks are knives prepared for Jews, gypsies and unclean people.
Swastika of Slavs and Nazis: differences
However, when compared with the fascist ideological emblem, a number of distinctive features were found:
- The Slavs did not have clear rules for the image of the sign. A fairly large number of ornaments were considered a swastika, all of them had their own names and had a special power. There were intersecting lines, frequent forks, or even curved curves. As you know, in the Hitlerite emblem there is only a four-sided cross with sharp curved tips to the left. All intersections and bends at right angles;
- The Indo-Iranians painted the sign in red on a white background, but other cultures: Buddhist and Indian used blue or yellow;
- The Aryan sign was a powerful noble amulet that symbolized wisdom, family values and self-knowledge. According to their idea, the German cross is a weapon against an unclean race;
- Ancestors used the ornament in household items. They decorated their clothes, handbrakes, napkins, painted vases for them. The Nazis used the swastika for military and political purposes.
Thus, it is impossible to put both of these signs in one line. They have a lot of differences, both in writing, and in use and ideology.
Myths about the swastika
Allocate some delusions concerning the ancient graphic ornament:
- The direction of rotation does not matter. According to one theory, the direction of the sun to the right means peaceful creative energy, and if the rays look to the left, then the energy becomes destructive. The Slavs, among other things, used the left-sided ornament to attract the patronage of their ancestors and increase the strength of the clan;
- The author of the German swastika is not Hitler. For the first time, a mythical sign was brought to the territory of Austria by a traveler - the abbot of the monastery Theodor Hagen at the end of the 19th century, from where it spread to German soil;
- The swastika in the form of a military sign was used not only in Germany. Since 1919, the RSFSR has used sleeve badges with a swastika to designate the Kalmyk military.
In connection with the difficult events of the war, the swastika cross acquired a sharply negative ideological connotation and, by decision of the post-war tribunal was banned.
Rehabilitation of the Aryan symbol
Various states today treat the swastika differently:
- In America, a certain sect is actively trying to rehabilitate the swastika. There is even a holiday for the rehabilitation of the swastika, which is called the World Day and is celebrated on June 23;
- In Latvia, before a hockey match, during a demonstration flash mob, dancers unfurled a large swastika on an ice rink;
- In Finland, the swastika is used on the official flag of the air force;
- In Russia, heated debates are still raging on the subject of restoring the sign in rights. There are whole groups of swastikophiles who make various positive arguments. In 2015, Roskomnadzor spoke about the permissibility of displaying the swastika without its ideological propaganda. In the same year, the Constitutional Court banned the use of the swastika in any form, due to the fact that it is immoral in relation to veterans and their descendants.
Thus, the attitude towards the Aryan sign is different all over the world. However, we all need to remember what the fascist swastika means, since it was a symbol of the most destructive ideology in the history of mankind and has nothing to do with the ancient Slavic sign in terms of meaning.
Video about the meaning of the fascist symbol
In this video, Vitaly Derzhavin will talk about a few more meanings of the swastika, how it appeared and who first started using this symbol:
Hello, dear readers - seekers of knowledge and truth!
The symbol of the swastika is firmly rooted in our minds as the personification of fascism and Nazi Germany, as the embodiment of violence and genocide of entire nations. However, initially it has a completely different meaning.
Having visited the Asian lands, one may be surprised at the sight of the "fascist" sign, which is found here in almost every Buddhist and Hindu temple.
What's the matter?
We suggest you try to figure out what the swastika is in Buddhism. Today we will tell you what the word “swastika” really means, where this concept came from, what it symbolizes in different cultures, and most importantly, in Buddhist philosophy.
What it is
If you delve into the etymology, it turns out that the very word "swastika" goes back to the ancient language of Sanskrit.
His translation will surely surprise you. The concept consists of two Sanskrit roots:
- su - goodness, goodness;
- asti - to be.
It turns out that in the literal sense, the concept of "swastika" is translated as "good to be", and if we move away from the literal translation in favor of a more accurate one - "greet, wish success."
This surprisingly harmless sign is depicted as a cross, the ends of which are bent at a right angle. They can be directed both clockwise and counterclockwise.
This is one of the most ancient symbols, which is also distributed almost throughout the planet. Studying the features of the formation of peoples on different continents, their culture, you can see that many of them used the image of the swastika: in national clothes, household items, money, flags, protective equipment, on the facades of buildings.
Its appearance is attributed to approximately the end of the Paleolithic period - and this was ten thousand years ago. It is believed that he appeared, "evolving" from a pattern that combined rhombuses and a meander. The symbol is found quite early in the cultures of Asia, Africa, Europe, America, in different religions: in Christianity, Hinduism and the ancient Tibetan religion of Bon.
In every culture, the swastika means something different. So, for example, for the Slavs, it was a "kolovrat" - a symbol of the eternal movement of the sky, and therefore - life.
But despite minor differences, this symbol often repeated its meaning among many peoples: it personified movement, life, light, radiance, the Sun, good luck, happiness.
And not just movement as such, but a continuous flow of life. Our planet rotates around its axis over and over again, goes around the sun, the day ends at night, the seasons come to replace each other - this is the unceasing stream of the universe.
The last century completely distorted the bright concept of the swastika, when Hitler made it his "guiding star" and under its auspices tried to capture the whole world. While the majority of the western population of the Earth is still a little afraid of this sign, in Asia it does not cease to be the embodiment of goodness and a greeting to all living things.
How did she get to Asia?
The swastika, the direction of the rays of which was turned both clockwise and counterclockwise, came to the Asian part of the planet, presumably due to the culture that existed even before the emergence of the Aryan race. It was called Mohenjo-Daro and flourished along the banks of the Indus River.
Later, in the second millennium BC, it appeared beyond the Caucasus Mountains and in Ancient China. Still later reached the borders of India. Even then, the swastika symbol was mentioned in the Ramayana.
Now he is especially revered by Hindu Vaishnavas and Jains. In these beliefs, the swastika is associated with the four levels of samsara. In northern India, it accompanies every beginning, be it marriage or the birth of a child.
What does it mean in Buddhism
Almost everywhere where Buddhist thought reigned, you can see the signs of the swastika: in Tibet, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka. Some Buddhists also call it "manji", which literally means "whirlwind".
Manji reflects the ambiguity of the world order. A vertical dash is opposed by a horizontal dash, and at the same time they are indivisible at the same time, they are a single whole, like heaven and earth, male and female energy, yin and yang.
Manji is usually twisted counter-clockwise. At the same time, the rays directed to the left side become a reflection of love, compassion, empathy, empathy, kindness, tenderness. In contrast to them - the rays looking to the right, which personify strength, firmness of mind, stamina, wisdom.
This combination is harmony, a trace on the path , its immutable law. One is impossible without the other - this is the secret of the universe. The world cannot be one-sided, therefore force does not exist without goodness. Good deeds without strength are weak, and strength without goodness breeds evil.
Sometimes it is believed that the swastika is the "Seal of the Heart", because it was imprinted on the heart of the Master himself. And this seal was deposited in many temples, monasteries, hills in all Asian countries, where it came along with the development of Buddha's thought.
Conclusion
Thank you very much for your attention, dear readers! May goodness, love, strength and harmony live within you.
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Swastika(character "卐" or "卍", स्वस्तिक from स्वस्ति, match- greeting, good luck, prosperity) - a sign in the form of an equilateral cross with ends bent in one of two directions: clockwise or counterclockwise. As a development of the simplest graphic symbol - the cross, the swastika has been found since the Stone Age (the oldest one is at the Mezin site). In the future, the swastika is found, in the form of a separate sign or part of a meander ornament, in the cultures of all continents except Australia.
In the summer of 1920, Adolf Hitler approved the swastika as the political emblem of the NSDAP. From that moment, as the understanding of the civilizational danger of fascism as an ideology and aggressive doctrine expands, the world gradually comes to understand the negative background “sanctified” by this hitherto harmless ancient symbol. Already at the end of the 1920s, the Soviet ideology formulated an unambiguously critical attitude towards this (“it was chosen as a political emblem by the German anti-Semitic fascists, who mistakenly consider the swastika the exclusive emblem of the Aryan race”). And after the outbreak of World War II and the perfidious attack of the Nazi fascists on the USSR, the whole world began to unambiguously associate the swastika only with the Nazi regime and its crimes against humanity.
Hitler and the German fascists placed the swastika in a global civilizational context. By virtue of this position alone in a number of elements of the sign system of mankind, a neutral assessment turns out to be inapplicable to it, and attempts to "moral rehabilitation" of it are perceived as immoral - no matter what counterarguments are given to this.
In relation to the sign system, as a special, subcorrectly acting element of world perception, such a “newly acquired negative” is normal. At a more primitive, everyday level, one can point to well-known signs constructed from one or more fingers and perceived by others as an axiomatically negative symbol. Any attempts to “justify” the figurine or a separately raised finger, to force these figures to be rethought in the light of certain exceptions sought in prehistory, are doomed to failure due to the persistent unambiguous association that has entered the modern cultural stereotype in relation to these signs.
The swastika and its antagonists in the 20th century
Before the swastika found its place in a number of political symbols, until the beginning of the 20th century, it fell into the field of view of scientists in two directions. In art history - as an element of a meander pattern (rhombo-meander ornament). In stavrography (from σταυρος tree, cross, And γράφω writing; auxiliary discipline that studies the history and iconography of the cross) - as an element of the genesis of this fundamental symbol of Christianity. An example of research in the latter direction is given, for example, in the classic entry in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.
However, in none of these directions of analysis did the swastika, by definition, have an antagonistic sign to it; the main culturological antagonism of the era, starting from the fall of Ancient Rome and ending with the New (if not the Newest) time, was reflected by the opposition of another pair of globalistic symbols - cross(Christianity) and crescent(Islam). At the same time, as of the end of the 19th century, the swastika, as a derivative of the cross, did not have an independent meaning of a symbol of any faith or that made geopolitically significant claims.
Meanwhile, against the background of the rapid development of Oriental studies, observed in Christian civilization during the second half of the 19th century, the amateurish public, fed by popular presentations of newly acquired information on the ancient history of India and its neighboring countries, "discovers" for itself, among others, swastika-like symbols . It is a Buddhist symbol of perfection " manji”, “Buddhist cross” (such as the Maltese), as well as the “four hands” of the Jains. And although in none of these religions, none of these symbols claims to be the main one (like the cross and the crescent) - nevertheless, already from the pen of European (according to their original education and culture) writers and compilers, comments begin to appear, in which the meaning of the swastika-like symbols of the East is obviously exaggerated. This paves the way for the mythologized perception of the swastika as a symbol of some mystery, power, magic, etc. in the mass consciousness of Europeans.
To the greatest extent, this esoteric fad is infected with the societies of those countries where, for one reason or another, there is the deepest crisis of the dominant ideology and / or church. The craze for "paganism", "gypsyism", collected and falsified samples of "folklore" - all this is a massive protest against classical Christian values in the form in which they were planted by clergy with the powerful support of the administrative and legislative resources of the respective countries. And although a certain part of the population, due to its consciousness, took a really antagonistic position, atheism, the majority, nevertheless, rejected one religious cult in favor of another, or designed for themselves variants of their eclectic combination.
Swastika on the hood of Nicholas II's car. Tsarskoye Selo, 1913.
This crisis path of development was also observed in Tsarist Russia, starting with the petty-bourgeois circles of the literary intelligentsia of the "Silver Age" with its exotic spectrum of cultural orientation, and ending with the family of the last emperor, who - with an ostentatious adherence to Orthodoxy - in their narrow circle showed weakness in terms of superstition , and in relation to specific charlatans. Swastika (sometimes Alexandra Feodorovna wrote owlstick) was one of the favorite non-Christian symbols of the Empress
In his memoirs, Pierre Gilliard, a teacher of the royal children, recalled: “Then I noticed on the wall near one of the windows of the room of their majesties the empress’s favorite sign, the “owl”, which she ordered to depict everywhere for good luck.” And already in 1913, the swastika was emblazoned on the hood of the personal car of the Russian Tsar, causing bewilderment among those who knew that this was by no means the brand logo of the manufacturer, the Delano-Belleville company. The hypotheses that the Romanov family thus surreptitiously promoted the new state symbol prepared for them for Russia - on the one hand, seems implausible: after all, the “God-bearing people” for 900 years have become accustomed to worshiping another cross. True, in Courland, the Latvian riflemen of the tsarist army already in 1915 picked up this symbol on their banners.
But on the other hand, there is the same “Sovereign” icon, newly appeared by churchmen in the first days after the abdication of the king, i.e. the first icon of republican Russia: on it the swastika is inscribed in the headdress of the Mother of God! And right after that, a few months later, on the newly put into circulation kerenkas, the same swastika from the Sovereign icon (or the hood of the car of Nicholas II?) seems to replace the imperial regalia that disappeared from the chest of the imperial eagle.
One way or another, these incidents with the phenomena of the swastika among the symbols used in tsarist Russia and in the first years after its collapse did not manage to create a significant precedent, on the basis of which it would be possible to draw far-reaching conclusions and build concepts that “rehabilitate” the swastika in perception of the peoples of the Russian Empire and, later, the USSR. Only a few years have passed, and all these funny precedents were pushed aside by the swastika in its German fascist design.
The main political competitor of the NSDAP in the political arena of the Weimar Republic is the German communists, and thus, translated into the language of political symbols, the antagonist of the swastika becomes the global symbol of social democracy and communists, hammer and sickle. 8 years after coming to power, Hitler unleashes a war with the USSR, and the concept of "fascist" (symbolized by a swastika) becomes one of the extreme expressions of the category "anti-Soviet". The raising of the Banner of Victory with a hammer and sickle over the Reichstag draws a symbolic line under this historical confrontation.
Fascism, which collapsed in 1945 primarily due to the uncompromising struggle of the peoples of the Soviet Union against the German invaders, was the most dangerous, but not the only representative of the forces of anti-Soviet orientation. Solving their own problems of inter-imperialist rivalry, Germany's largest geopolitical rivals only by chance found themselves in the "same trenches" with the Soviet Union - back in 1938, entering the Munich agreement with Hitler, they hoped to strengthen his position in a future war against the USSR, in which the British imperialists and France were supposed to be only bystanders.
Postponing the opening of the "second front", preventing any excessive increase in the production potential of the USSR in the course of military deliveries under lend-lease, at the end of World War II, the imperialist powers almost immediately transferred the relations of the USSR to the level of balancing between war and peace. However, given that the course and outcome of the Second World War, as well as the contribution of the USSR to the victory over fascism, was well known, anti-Soviet propaganda and the political course of the imperialist states were forced to be accompanied by a condemnation of fascism (with a certain connivance of neo-fascism). That is, while numerous contemporaries and participants in the war were still alive, the concepts of "anti-Sovietism" and "fascism" were divorced.
As generations of contemporaries of the war against fascism died out, a new stratum gradually formed in the ranks of anti-Soviet inside the USSR itself, with powerful information and propaganda support from the anti-Soviet centers of the West. New generations of anti-Sovietists, by virtue of their rejection of any "official" history, readily accepted new historiographic schemes "thrown" by foreign analysts. In these schemes, contrary to historical facts, preparations were made - through manipulative constructions - to prove the alleged identity of the two antagonistic subjects of history - Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union - and their ideologies - National Socialism and (proletarian) internationalism.
Another direction of destructive influence on the mass perception of the phenomenon of fascism, which was developed as a result of the degeneration of ideological and educational work under Gorbachev and Yakovlev, appealed to those whose psychotype was favorable for the development of the "cult of a strong hand." It should be noted that the very concept of “atrocities of the fascist occupiers” (pervertedly perceived by these types of anti-Soviet extras as a manifestation of strength) objectively became more and more abstract every year. And this type of manipulation would not have been so successful if it were not for the events of 1973 in Chile, when the most disgusting and inhuman manifestations of fascism again became a modern reality.
Hence, it no longer seems accidental that it was the Chilean junta and even the personality of Pinochet that began to be presented during the perestroika years with the opposite sign - as an example of positive actions. The affirmation of fascist practice in the reality of post-Soviet Russia - when in October 1993 the riot police literally echoed the atrocities of their fascist predecessors in Chile, and created an analogue of the stadium as a place of mass torture, abuse and murder of civilians. The “amnesty” announced after that to the perpetrators left unpunished the precedent of actions confusingly similar to fascist ones, and thus indirectly inspired various extremist forces to rely precisely on the use of force, the most bloody and inhuman ways to solve the problems of the capitalist existence of modern Russia . Hence the appearance of the swastika or its modified variants in the symbolism of some movements does not seem strange.
What is a swastika? Many, without hesitation, will answer - the fascists used the swastika symbol. Someone will say - this is an ancient Slavic amulet, and both will be right and wrong at the same time. How many legends and myths are around this sign? They say that on the very shield that Prophetic Oleg nailed to the doors of Constantinople, a swastika was depicted.
What is a swastika?
The swastika is an ancient symbol that appeared before our era and has a rich history. Many nations dispute each other's right to its invention. Images of the swastika were found in China, India. This is a very significant symbol. What does the swastika mean - creation, the sun, well-being. The translation of the word "swastika" from Sanskrit means - a wish for good and good luck.
Swastika - the origin of the symbol
The swastika symbol is a solar, solar sign. The main idea is movement. The earth moves around the sun, the four seasons constantly replace each other - it is easy to see that the main meaning of the symbol is not just movement, but the eternal movement of the universe. Some researchers declare the swastika to be a reflection of the eternal rotation of the galaxy. The swastika is a symbol of the sun, all ancient peoples have references to it: fabrics with the image of the swastika were found at the excavations of the Inca settlements, it is on ancient Greek coins, even on the stone idols of Easter Island there are swastika signs.
The original drawing of the sun is a circle. Then, noticing the four-part picture of being, people began to add a cross with four rays to the circle. However, the picture turned out to be static - and the universe is eternally in dynamics, and then the ends of the rays were bent - the cross turned out to be moving. These rays also symbolize four significant days of the year for our ancestors - the days of the summer / winter solstice, spring and autumn equinoxes. These days determine the astronomical change of seasons and served as signs when to engage in agriculture, when construction and other important matters for society.
Swastika left and right
We see how comprehensive this sign is. It is very difficult to explain in one word what the swastika means. It is multifaceted and multi-valued, it is a sign of the fundamental principle of being with all its manifestations, and among other things, the swastika is dynamic. It can rotate both to the right and to the left. Many people confuse and consider the side of rotation to be the direction where the ends of the rays look. It is not right. The side of rotation is determined by the bending angles. Compare with the human leg - the movement is directed where the bent knee is directed, and not the heel at all.
Left handed swastika
There is a theory that says that clockwise rotation is the correct swastika, and against it is a bad, dark, reverse swastika. However, it would be too banal - right and left, black and white. In nature, everything is justified - day turns into night, summer - in winter, there is no division into good and bad - everything that exists is needed for something. So it is with the swastika - there is no good or bad, there is a left-handed and a right-handed one.
Left-handed swastika - rotates counterclockwise. This is the meaning of cleansing, restoration. Sometimes it is called a sign of destruction - in order to build something light, you need to destroy the old and dark. The swastika could be worn with a left rotation, it was called the “Heavenly Cross” and was a symbol of tribal unity, an offering to the one who wears it, the help of all the ancestors of the clan and the protection of heavenly forces. The left-handed swastika was considered a sign of the autumn sun - collective.
Right hand swastika
The right-handed swastika rotates clockwise and denotes the beginning of all things - birth, development. This is a symbol of the spring sun - creative energy. It was also called Newborn or Solar Cross. He symbolized the power of the sun and the prosperity of the family. The sign of the sun and the swastika in this case are equal. It was believed that he gives the greatest power to the priests. The prophetic Oleg, whom they spoke about at the beginning, had the right to wear this sign on his shield, since he knew, that is, he knew the Ancient Wisdom. From these beliefs came theories proving the ancient Slavic origin of the swastika.
Slavic swastika
The left-handed and right-handed swastika of the Slavs is called - and salting. The Kolovrat swastika fills with light, protects from darkness, salting gives diligence and spiritual stamina, the sign serves as a reminder that a person was created for development. These names are only two of a large group of Slavic swastika signs. They had crosses with curved rays in common. There could be six or eight rays, they are bent both to the right and to the left, each sign had its own name and was responsible for a certain security function. The main swastika symbols among the Slavs are 144. In addition to the above, the Slavs had:
- solstice;
- England;
- Svarozhich;
- Wedding attendant;
- Perunov light;
- The sky boar and many other variations based on the solar elements of the swastika.
Swastika of Slavs and Nazis - differences
Unlike the fascist, the Slavs did not have strict canons in the image of this sign. There could be any number of rays, they could be broken at different angles, they could be rounded. The symbol of the swastika among the Slavs is a greeting, a wish of good luck, while at the Nazi congress in 1923, Hitler convinced supporters that the swastika meant the fight against Jews and communists for the purity of blood and the superiority of the Aryan race. The fascist swastika has its own stringent requirements. This and only this image is the German swastika:
- The ends of the cross must be broken to the right;
- All lines intersect strictly at an angle of 90 °;
- The cross must be in a white circle on a red background.
- It is correct to say not "swastika", but Hakkenkreyz
Swastika in Christianity
In early Christianity, the swastika was often used. It was called the "gammed cross" because of its similarity with the Greek letter gamma. A cross was masked with a swastika during the time of persecution of Christians - catacomb Christianity. The swastika or Gammadion was the main emblem of Christ until the end of the Middle Ages. Some experts draw a direct parallel between the Christian and swastika crosses, calling the latter "circling cross".
The swastika in Orthodoxy was actively used before the revolution: as part of the ornament of priestly vestments, in icon painting, in frescoes that painted the walls of churches. However, there is a directly opposite opinion - the gammadion is a broken cross, a pagan symbol that has nothing to do with Orthodoxy.
Swastika in Buddhism
The swastika can be encountered wherever there are traces of Buddhist culture, it is the footprint of the Buddha. The Buddhist swastika, or "manji", denotes the versatility of the world order. The vertical line is opposed to the horizontal one, as the relation of heaven/earth to the relation between male and female. Turning the rays in one direction emphasizes the desire for kindness, softness, in the opposite direction - for hardness, strength. This gives an understanding of the impossibility of the existence of force without compassion, and compassion without force, the denial of any one-sidedness, as a violation of world harmony.
Indian swastika
The swastika in India is no less common. There are left- and right-handed swastikas. Rotation clockwise symbolizes the male energy "yin", against - the female "yang". Sometimes this sign denotes all the gods and goddesses in Hinduism, then, on the line of intersection of the rays, the sign “om” is added - a symbol that all gods have a common beginning.
- Right rotation: denotes the sun, its movement from east to west is the development of the universe.
- The left rotation personifies the goddess Kali, magic, night - the folding of the universe.
Is the swastika banned?
The swastika was banned by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Ignorance gave rise to a lot of myths, for example, that the swastika stands for four connected letters "G" - Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels. However, this version turned out to be completely untenable. Hitler, Himmler, Göring, Goebbels - not a single surname begins with this letter. There are cases when the most valuable specimens containing images of the swastika in embroidery, on jewelry, ancient Slavic and early Christian amulets were confiscated and destroyed from museums.
Many European countries have laws that prohibit Nazi symbols, but the principle of freedom of speech is almost undeniable. Each case of using the symbols of Nazism or the swastika has the form of a separate trial.
- In 2015, Roskomnazor allowed the use of images of the swastika without propaganda purposes.
- Germany has strict laws governing the image of the swastika. There are several known court decisions prohibiting or allowing images.
- France passed a law banning the public display of Nazi symbols.
