Spiritual Meaning of Swastika


Swastika is arguably one of the oldest symbols, at least in the VII century millennium BC. Swastika is found in many prehistoric archeological remains as diverse as rock art and pottery among other artifacts and monuments. Some researchers dismiss it by calling it “decoration”, while others consider it merely as a symbol.

There are indeed a number of ways that swastikas occur through space and time and which must be analyzed with a contextual approach. In 1978, the discovery of the Chinese comet Atlas in Mawangdui (4th century BC), was a turning point in the interpretation of the Swastika. because one comet has the shape of a swastika symbol.

In Hindu mythology, the twenty-seven great places are daughters of Daksha, the first descendants of this union are the four planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter (Danielou 1964: 98; Bentley 1970: 2-5). Bentley (1970: 4-5) links this myth to “occultation of the planets by the Moon in each of the Moon’s places. Saturn is not mentioned among these, perhaps because it is outside the path of the Moon. Thus, the four points on the swastika corner can represent the four planets of the union of the Moon and the four nakshatra, this additional symbolic element is appropriate in the ceremony held for the nakshatra.The swastika symbolism is consistently the same as the planetary gods.

The swastika appears on the seal of the Harappan civilization, originating from the third millennium, as does the other symbol, the grid, which also represents nine points and may represent other gods in planet-panets. In addition, there is more than one representation on the Harappan seal of a deity that is very similar to the modern Hindu Shiva god as ruler and Yogi. Worship of the mother goddess, Hindu features in the Harappan religion; there is also evidence of some form of phallic worship and the sanctity of the pipal tree (Piggott 1950: 201-203). Piggott concluded that Harappan religion “was basically Indian from the start.” The link between Harappan Religion and modern Hinduism seems to have been established and the relationship of the swastika and the planetary gods might be one of the links.

The relationship between the swastika and the planet gods is very compatible with the history and distribution of symbols. If it originated in the common regions of Mesopotamia and western Iran (John 1941: 50, 54; White 1909: 92), Mesopotamia has identified five planets and they have also learned to predict eclipses (Kroeber 1948: 485). As such, they know about the rising and falling points of the moon, which is the only time an eclipse occurs. In addition, they identified the planets as gods.

The acceptance of the swastika as a symbol of planetary gods will simplify some of the things that have occupied archaeologists and historians.

There are indeed a number of ways that swastikas occur through space and time and which must be analyzed with a contextual approach. In 1978, the discovery of the Chinese comet Atlas in Mawangdui (4th century BC), was a turning point in the interpretation of the Swastika. because one comet has the shape of a swastika symbol.

During Prehistory the relationship between comets and religion was very close, therefore astronomical events left a deep impression on the minds of observers, the visual impact they produced was considered as a manifestation of the Gods.

Tracing exactly where the symbol first appeared is an almost impossible task. Indeed, new archeological findings make a theory of change that seems quite coherent. During the 19th century, some writers regarded it as an Arian symbol, that is, after the discovery of Schliemann in Hissarlik.

A few decades later, in Mesopotamia, several potteries emerged with this motif dating from the VI and V centuries BC, as in Eastern Europe, before pre-Arians (Coimbra, 1999).

During the 19th-20th centuries, many writers wrote about the swastika as a symbol of time and sun (Gobelet d’Avivi, 1891; Déchelette, 1924). Despite having the meaning of the sun, in fact, swastika arises through space and time represented in many different contexts that have nothing to do with the meaning of the sun.

Furthermore, the discovery of the Chinese comet Atlas in 1973 at Mawangdui, dating from the 4th century BC (Xi, 1984), was a turning point in the interpretation of swastikas, with one of the comets depicted as symbols.

But how can a comet get such a shape?

According to some astronomers, when ice impurities with comet silicates approach the sun, the cloak converts ice silicates into gas, dust and other components. Then, comet jets can be formed due to the action of sunlight and solar wind, pushing gas and dust in certain directions to form the comet’s tail (Xi, 1984). Then, if the nucleus rotates the comet jet looks like a swastika.

In the 16th century a comet seen in Italy, pictured in the small church of San Martino in Eupilio (Como), had four branches produced from comet jets, two of which were in the form of swastika motifs (Manca; Sicoli, 2006). Three centuries later, in 1861, the Comet Tebbutt image showed six comet jets in the nucleus as well as swastika motifs.

CJ Ransom and Hans Schluter, from Texas University, exposed some hydrogen and helium (comet elements) to electricity and magnetism, starting the gases to shine intensively and then starting to spin in a vortex, forming a swastika with four curved branches.

Greenberg, 1997: 54 says that the results of this experiment to the macrocosm will be the same because the Earth’s magnetosphere has the same conditions for repeating phenomena that occur in the laboratory.

There is no doubt that the comet’s atlas and the experiments mentioned above are indisputable facts that modified previous theories about swastikas and created other theories that would be used in preparing new facts.

In this way, this symbol can first appear in humans as a natural phenomenon, which was changed by the ancients to be a supernatural sign.

In that case, the swastika is associated with the idea of ​​comets and not with the idea of ​​the sun, because the atlas is about the first type of astronomical objects. Then all considerations about whether swastikas are human creations or representations of astronomical events seem to require further hypotheses.

It makes no sense to interpret all swastikas as a consequence of the appearance of comets with that shape in the past. The same thing happened about symbols with apotropaic characters such as swastikas, which, beginning in the Bronze Age, appeared throughout Europe as symbols for protection in wars between cultures such as shields, helmets, belts (defensive weapons), on axes, spearheads, swords, and daggers (offensive weapons).

Still, in the same line of thought, Boyer mentioned that some aspects of religious traditions could be explained by intellectual factors, namely the cognitive need to explain and control natural phenomena (Boyer, 1993). In fact, during prehistory and even later, astronomy and religion were very close, because astronomical events were usually interpreted as manifestations of the gods.

Some comets also seem to have been interpreted as divine cosmic birds. For example in the Hindu Epic, Garuda is a mythological bird with these characteristics, becoming




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