23/07/2022
The sw****ka (卐) (Sanskrit: स्वस्तिक) is an equilateral cross with four arms bent at 90 degrees. The earliest archaeological evidence of sw****ka-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization, Ancient India as well as Classical Antiquity. Sw****kas have also been used in various other ancient civilizations around the world. It remains widely used in Indian religions, specifically in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, primarily as a ta***ic symbol to evoke shakti or the sacred symbol of auspiciousness. The word "sw****ka" comes from the Sanskrit svastika - "su" meaning "good" or "auspicious," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix. The sw****ka literally means "to be good". Or another translation can be made: "swa" is "higher self", "asti" meaning "being", and "ka" as a suffix, so the translation can be interpreted as "being with higher self".In East Asia, the sw****ka is a Chinese character, defined by Kangxi Dictionary, published in 1716, as "synonym of myriad, used mostly in Buddhist classic texts",[1] by extension, the word later evolved to represent eternity and Buddhism.The symbol has a long history in Europe reaching back to antiquity. In modern times, following a brief surge of popularity as a good luck symbol in Western culture, a sw****ka was adopted as a symbol of the N**i Party of Germany in 1920, who used the sw****ka as a symbol of the A***n race. After Adolf Hi**er came to power in 1933, a right-facing 45° rotated sw****ka was incorporated into the N**i party flag, which was made the state flag of Germany during N***sm. Hence, the sw****ka has become strongly associated with N***sm and related ideologies such as fascism and white supremacism in the Western world, and is now largely stigmatized there due to the changed connotations of the symbol. Notably, it has been outlawed in Germany and other countries if used as a symbol of N***sm. Many modern political extremists and Neo-N**i groups such as the Russian National Unity use stylized sw****kas or similar symbols.The word sw****ka came from the Sanskrit word, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote auspiciousness, or any piece of luck or well-being.It is composed of su- meaning "good, well" and asti "to be". Suasti thus means "well-being." The suffix -ka either forms a diminutive or intensifies the verbal meaning, and suastika might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious."[2] The word in this sense is first used in the Harivamsa. The Ramayana does have the word, but in an unrelated sense of "one who utters words of eulogy".The most traditional form of the sw****ka's symbolization in Jainism is that the four arms of the sw****ka remind us that during the cycles of birth and death we may be born into any one of the four destinies: heavenly beings, human beings, animal beings, (including birds, bugs, and plants) and hellish beings. Our aim should be the liberation and not the rebirth. To show how we can do this, the sw****ka reminds us that we should become the pillars of the four fold Jain Sangh, then only can we achieve liberation. The four pillars of the Jain Sangh are sädhus, sädhvis, shrävaks, and shrävikäs. This means that first, we should strive to be a true shrävaks or shrävikäs, and when we can overcome our social attachments, we should renounce the worldly life and follow the path of a sädhu or sädhvi to be liberated.The most traditional form of the sw****ka's symbolization in Hinduism is that the symbol represents the purusharthas: dharma (that which makes a human a human), artha (wealth), k**a (desire), and moksha (liberation). All four are needed for a full life. However, two (artha and k**a) are limited and can give only limited joy. They are the two closed arms of the sw****ka. The other two are unlimited and are the open arms of the sw****ka.The Mahabharata has the word in the sense of "the crossing of the arms or hands on the breast". Both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana also use the word in the sense of "a dish of a particular form" and "a kind of cake". The word does not occur in Vedic Sanskrit. As noted by Monier-Williams in his Sanskrit-English dictionary, according to Alexander Cunningham, its shape represents a monogram formed by interlacing of the letters of the auspicious words su-astí (svasti) written in Ashokan characters.Hindu child with head shaven and red Svastika painted on it. Upanayana is a very popular Hindu-tradition, a Samskara or Sanskar (consecration).The Sanskrit term has been in use in English since 1871, replacing gammadion (from Greek γαμμάδιον). Alternative historical English spellings of the Sanskrit phonological words with different meanings to include suastika, swastica, and svastica.Among the earliest cultures utilizing sw****ka is the neolithic Vinča culture of South-East Europe (see Vinča symbols). More extensive use of the Sw****ka can be traced to Ancient India, during the Indus Valley Civilization.
The sw****ka is a repeating design, created by the edges of the reeds in a square basket-weave. Other theories attempt to establish a connection via cultural diffusion or an explanation along the lines of Carl Jung's collective unconscious.The genesis of the sw****ka symbol is often treated in conjunction with cross symbols in general, such as the sun cross of pagan Bronze Age religion. Beyond its certain presence in the "proto-writing" symbol systems emerging in the Neolithic,[10] nothing certain is known about the symbol's origin. There are nevertheless a number of speculative hypotheses. One hypothesis is that the cross symbols and the sw****ka share a common origin in simply symbolizing the sun. Another hypothesis is that the 4 arms of the cross represent 4 aspects of nature - the sun, wind, water, soil. Some have said the 4 arms of cross are four seasons, where the division for 90-degree sections correspond to the solstices and equinoxes. The Hindus represent it as the Universe in our own spiral galaxy in the fore finger of Lord Vishnu. This carries most significance in establishing the creation of the Universe and the arms as 'kal' or time, a calendar that is seen to be more advanced than the lunar calendar (symbolized by the lunar crescent common to Islam) where the seasons drift from calendar year to calendar year. The luni-solar solution for correcting season drift was to intercalate an extra month in certain years to restore the lunar cycle to the solar-season cycle. The Star of David is thought to originate as a symbol of that calendar system, where the two overlapping triangles are seen to form a partition of 12 sections around the perimeter with a 13th section in the middle, representing the 12 and sometimes 13 months to a year. As such, the Christian cross, Jewish hexagram star and the Muslim crescent moon are seen to have their origins in different views regarding which calendar system is preferred for marking holy days. Groups in higher latitudes experience the seasons more strongly, offering more advantage to the calendar represented by the sw****ka/cross. (Note relation to the sun cross.).Carl Sagan in his book Comet (1985) reproduces Han period Chinese manuscript (the Book of Silk, 2nd century BC) 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 sw****ka. 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 sw****ka as a symbol across the world.Bob Kobres in Comets and the Bronze Age Collapse (1992) contends that the sw****ka like comet on the Han Dynasty silk comet atlas was labeled a "long tailed pheasant star" (Di-Xing) because of its resemblance to a bird's foot or track. Kobres goes on to suggest an association of mythological birds and comets also outside China.In Life's Other Secret (1999), Ian Stewart suggests the ubiquitous sw****ka pattern arises when parallel waves of neural activity sweep across the visual cortex during states of altered consciousness, producing a swirling sw****ka-like image, due to the way quadrants in the field of vision are mapped to opposite areas in the brain.Alexander Cunningham suggested that the Buddhist use of the shape arose from a combination of Brahmi characters abbreviating the words su astí.The earliest sw****ka known has been found from Mezine, Ukraine. It is carved on late paleolithic figurine of mammoth ivory, being dated as early as about 10,000 BC. It has been suggested this sw****ka is a stylized picture of a stork in flight.In India, Bronze Age sw****ka symbols were found at Lothal and Harappa, Pakistan on Indus Valley seals.In England, neolithic or Bronze Age stone carvings of the symbol have been found on Ilkley Moor.Sw****kas have also been found on pottery in archaeological digs in Africa, in the area of Kush and on pottery at the Jebel Barkal temples,in Iron Age designs of the northern Caucasus (Koban culture), and in Neolithic China in the Majiabang,Dawenkou and Xiaoheyan cultures.[18] Other Iron Age attestations of the sw****ka can be associated with Indo-European cultures such as the Indo-Iranians, Celts, Greeks, Germanics and Slavs.The sw****ka is also seen in Egypt during the Coptic period. Textile number T.231-1923 held at the V&A Museum in London includes small sw****kas in its design. This piece was found at Qau-el-Kebir, near Asyut, and is dated between AD300-600.The Tierwirbel (the German for "animal whorl" or "whirl of animals") is a characteristic motive in Bronze Age Central Asia, the Eurasian Steppe, and later also in Iron Age Scythian and European (Baltic and Germanic) culture, showing rotational symmetric arrangement of an animal motive, often four birds' heads. Even wider diffusion of this "Asiatic" theme has been proposed, to the Pacific and even North America (especially Moundville).The sw****ka is a historical sacred symbol both to evoke 'Shakti' in ta***ic rituals and evoke the gods for blessings in Indian religions. It first appears in the archaeological record here around2500 BC in the Indus Valley Civilization. It also appears in the Bronze and Iron Age cultures around the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. In all these cultures the sw****ka 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 the Zoroastrian religion of Persia, the sw****ka was a symbol of the revolving sun, infinity, or continuing creation.It rose to importance in Buddhism during the Mauryan Empire and in Hinduism with the decline of Buddhism in India during the Gupta Empire. With the spread of Buddhism, the Buddhist sw****ka reached Tibet and China. The symbol was also introduced to Balinese Hinduism by Hindu kings. The use of the sw****ka by the Bön faith of Tibet, as well as later syncretic religions, such as Cao Dai of Vietnam and Falun Gong of China, can also be traced to Buddhist influence.Jainism gives even more prominence to the sw****ka as a ta**ra than Hinduism does. It is a symbol of the seventh Tirthankara, Suparshvanath. In the Svetambara tradition, it is also one of the symbols of the ashtamangala. All derasars and holy books must contain the sw****ka and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a sw****ka mark several times with rice around the altar. Jains use rice to make a sw****ka in front of statues in a temple. Jains then put an offering on this sw****ka, usually a ripe or dried fruit, a sweet (Hindi: मिठाई, Miṭhāī), or a coin or currency note.The sw****ka is recognized as a Hindu symbol in most parts of the world. In Hinduism, the sw****ka is at times in certain sects considered a symbolic representation of Ganesha. In Hindu rites, Ganesha is offered first offerings in every pooja. The sw****ka is made with Sindoor during Hindu religious rites.Among the Hindus of Bengal, it is common to see the name "sw****ka" (Bengali: স্বস্তিক shostik) applied to a slightly different symbol, which has the same significance as the common sw****ka, and both symbols are used as auspicious signs. This symbol looks something like a stick figure of a human being.Right-facing sw****ka in the decorative Hindu form is used to evoke "shakti".Buddhism originated in the 5th century BC and spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BC (Maurya Empire). Known as a "yungdrung" in ancient Tibet, it was a graphical representation of eternity.The paired sw****ka symbols are included, at least since the Liao Dynasty, as part of the Chinese writing system (卍 and 卐) and are variant characters for 萬 or 万 (wàn in Mandarin, man in Korean, Cantonese and Japanese, vạn in Vietnamese) meaning "all" or "eternity" (lit. myriad). The sw****ka marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. In East Asian countries, the left-facing character is often used as symbol for Buddhism and marks the site of a Buddhist temple on maps.In Chinese and Japanese the sw****ka is also a homonym of the number 10,000, and is commonly used to represent the whole of Creation, e.g. 'the myriad things' in the Dao De Jing. During the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian (684-704) decreed that the sw****ka would also be used as an alternative symbol of the Sun.In Japan, the sw****ka is called manji. Since the Middle Ages, it has been used as a coat of arms by various Japanese families such as Tsugaru clan, Hachisuka clan or around 60 clans that belong to Tokugawa clan.On Japanese maps, a sw****ka (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing manji is often referred to as the gyaku manji (逆卍, lit. "reverse manji") or migi manji (右卍, lit. "right manji"), and can also be called kagi jūji (literally "hook cross").In Chinese and Japanese art, the sw****ka is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called sayagata in Japanese, comprises left- and right-facing sw****kas joined by lines.As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.As a pottery graph of unknown provision and meaning the swastka-like sign is known in Chinese Neolithic culture (2400-2000 BCE, Liu wan 柳湾, Qinghai province).In Armenia sw****ka is called "vardan", "arevakhach" and "ker khach" and is the ancient symbol of eternal light (i.e. God). Sw****kas in Armenia were founded on petroglyphs. Among the oldest petroglyphs is the seventh letter of the Armenian alphabet - "E" (which means "is" or "to be") - depicted as half-sw****ka.Sw****kas can also be seen on early Medieval churches and fortresses, including the principal tower in Armenia's historical capital city of Ani. The same symbol can be found on Armenian carpets, cross-stones (khachkar) and in medieval manuscripts.In Iran, a golden necklace of three sw****kas found in Marlik, Gilan province Iran, dates back to first millennium BC. There is a Sw****ka on the hip of a lion in the Golden cup of Hasanlu (1200 BC) and the Golden Cup of Kelardasht.The sw****ka motif was used by some Native American groups. It has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. It is frequently used as a motif on objects associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). It was also widely used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among various tribes, the sw****ka carried different meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clan; 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.A brightly colored First Nations saddle featuring sw****ka designs is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.A sw****ka shape is a symbol in the culture of the Kuna people of Kuna Yala, Panama. In Kuna tradition it symbolizes the octopus that created the world, its tentacles pointing to the four cardinal points.In February 1925 the Kuna revolted vigorously against Panamanian suppression of their culture, and in 1930 they assumed autonomy. The flag they adopted at that time is based on the sw****ka shape, and remains the official flag of Kuna Yala. A number of variations on the flag have been used over the years: red top and bottom bands instead of orange were previously used, and in 1942 a ring (representing the traditional Kuna nose-ring) was added to the center of the flag to distance it from the symbol of the N**i party.The sw****ka is also a motif used by certain African groups. One of the oldest recorded uses of the sw****ka is in the adinkra artwork of the Akan people in Ghana. Referred to as nkotimsefuopua The sw****ka was used in akan goldweights as early as 1400. In 1927, Scottish anthropologist Robert Sutherland Rattray noted servants in Ashanti Empire wearing the image on their dresses.Ancient Greek architectural, clothing and coin designs are replete with single or interlinking sw****ka motifs. There are also found gold plate fibulae from the 8th century BC decorated with an engraved sw****ka.Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The sw****ka symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names, especially gammadion,or rather the tetra-gammadion. The name gammadion comes from the fact that it can be seen as being made up of four Greek gamma (Γ) letters. Ancient Greek priestesses would tattoo the symbol, along with the tetraskelion, on their bodies. Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with the interlinking symbol.In alchemy, the gammadion was used to symbolise the four cardinal corners of the world and the guardianship of this world.In Greco-Roman art and architecture, and in Romanesque and Gothic art in the West, isolated sw****kas are relatively rare, and the sw****ka is more commonly found as a repeated element in a border or tessellation. The sw****ka often represented perpetual motion, reflecting the design of a rotating windmill or watermill. A meander of connected sw****kas makes up the large band that surrounds the Augustan Ara Pacis. A design of interlocking sw****kas is one of several tessellations on the floor of the cathedral of Amiens, France.A border of linked sw****kas was a common Roman architectural motif,and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical element. A sw****ka border is one form of meander, and the individual sw****kas in such a border are sometimes called Greek keys. There have also been sw****kas found on the floors of Pompeii.The bronze frontspiece of a ritual pre-Christian (c. 350-50 BC) shield found in the River Thames near Battersea Bridge (hence "Battersea Shield") is embossed with 27 sw****kas in bronze and red enamel.An Ogham stone found in Anglish, Co Kerry, Ireland (CIIC 141) was modified into an early Christian gravestone, and was decorated with a cross pattée and two sw****kas.The Book of Kells (ca. 800) contains sw****ka-shaped ornamentation. At the Northern edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire, there is a sw****ka-shaped pattern engraved in a stone known as the Sw****ka Stone.The figure in the foreground of the picture is a 20th century replica; the original carving can be seen a little farther away, at left of center.The sw****ka shape (also called a fylfot) appears on various Germanic Migration Period and Viking Age artifacts, such as the 3rd century Værløse Fibula from Zealand, Denmark, the Gothic spearhead from Brest-Litovsk, today in Belarus, the 9th century Snoldelev Stone from Ramsø, Denmark, and numerous Migration Period bracteates drawn left-facing or right-facing.A comb with a sw****ka found in Nydam Mose, Denmark.The pagan Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contained numerous items bearing the sw****ka, now housed in the collection of the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.The Sw****ka is clearly marked on a hilt and sword belt found at Bifrons in Kent, in a grave of about the 6th century.Hilda Ellis Davidson theorized that the sw****ka symbol was associated with Thor, possibly representing his hammer Mjolnir - symbolic of thunder - and possibly being connected to the Bronze Age sun cross.Davidson cites "many examples" of the sw****ka symbol from Anglo-Saxon graves of the pagan period, with particular prominence on cremation urns from the cemeteries of East Anglia.Some of the sw****kas on the items, on display at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, are depicted with such care and art that, according to Davidson, it must have possessed special significance as a funerary symbol.The runic inscription on the 8th-century Sæbø sword has been taken as evidence of the sw****ka as a symbol of Thor in Norse paganism.Sw****ka was wide spread among the Illyrians, symbolizing the Sun. The Sun cult was the main Illyrian cult, and the Sun was represented by a sw****ka in clockwise motion, and it stood for the movement of the Sun.In the wake of widespread popular usage, the N**i Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) formally adopted the sw****ka (in German: Hakenkreuz (hook-cross)) in 1920. This was used on the party's flag (right), badge, and armband.In his 1925 work Mein Kampf, Adolf Hi**er wrote that: I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black sw****ka 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 sw****ka.When Hi**er created a flag for the N**i Party, he sought to incorporate both the sw****ka and "those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation." (Red, white, and black were the colors of the flag of the old German Empire.) He also stated: "As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the sw****ka, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the A***n man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work."The sw****ka was also understood as "the symbol of the creating, effecting life" (das Symbol des schaffenden, wirkenden Lebens) and as "race emblem of Germanism" (Rasseabzeichen des Germanentums).The use of the sw****ka was incorporated by N**i theorists with their conjecture of A***n cultural descent of the German people. Following the Nordicist version of the A***n invasion theory, the N***s claimed that the early A***ns of India, from whose Vedic tradition the sw****ka sprang, were the prototypical white invaders. The concept of racial purity was an ideology central to N***sm, though it is now considered unscientific. For Alfred Rosenberg, the A***ns 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 A***n master race. The use of the sw****ka as a symbol of the A***n 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 A***n symbol.
Indische Legion and sw****ka, 1942Before the N***s, the sw****ka was already in use as a symbol of German völkisch nationalist movements (Völkische Bewegung). In Deutschland Erwache (ISBN 0-912138-69-6), Ulric of England (sic) says:
[...] what inspired Hi**er to use the sw****ka as a symbol for the NSDAP was its use by the Thule Society (German: Thule-Gesellschaft) since there were many connections between them and the DAP ... from 1919 until the summer of 1921 Hi**er used the special Nationalsozialistische library of Dr. Friedrich Krohn, a very active member of the Thule-Gesellschaft ... Dr. Krohn was also the dentist from Sternberg who was named by Hi**er in Mein Kampf as the designer of a flag very similar to one that Hi**er 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 (Munich Local Group) flag was generally regarded as the first flag of the Party.
José Manuel Erbez says:
The first time the sw****ka was used with an "A***n" 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 sw****ka and four fleurs-de-lys.However, Liebenfels was drawing on an already established use of the symbol. On March 14, 1933, shortly after Hi**er'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 September 15, 1935 (see N**i Germany).
The sw****ka was used for badges and flags throughout N**i Germany, particularly for government and military organizations, but also for "popular" organizations such as the Reichsbund Deutsche Jägerschaft (German Hunting Society).While the DAP and the NSDAP had used both right-facing and left-facing sw****kas, the right-facing sw****ka was used consistently from 1920 onwards. However, Ralf Stelter notes that the sw****ka flag used on land had a right-facing sw****ka on both sides, while the ensign (naval flag) had it printed through so that a left-facing sw****ka would be seen when looking at the ensign with the flagpole to the right.Because of its use by N**i Germany, the sw****ka since the 1930s has been largely associated with N***sm and white supremacy in most Western countries. As a result, all of its use, or its use as a N**i or hate symbol is prohibited in some jurisdictions. Because of the stigma attached to the symbol, many buildings that have contained the symbol as decoration have had the symbol removed.The German and Austrian postwar criminal code makes the public showing of the Hakenkreuz (the sw****ka), the SS-Rune (also called Sigrune), the Celtic cross (the variations used by the White-Power-Activists), the wolfsrune, the odalrune and the SS-Skull (which was used by the so-called SS-Totenkopfdivision) illegal, except for scholarly reasons (and - in the case of the odalrune - as the insignia of the rank of sergeant major, Hauptfeldwebel,in the modern German Bundeswehr). It is also censored from the reprints of 1930s railway timetables published by the Reichsbahn. The eagle remains, but appears to be holding a solid black circle between its talons. The sw****kas on Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples are exempt, as religious symbols cannot be banned in Germany.A German fashion company was investigated for using traditional British-made folded leather buttons after complaints that they resembled sw****kas. In response, Esprit destroyed two hundred thousand catalogues.A controversy was stirred by the decision of several police departments to begin inquiries against anti-fascists.In late 2005 police raided the offices of the punk rock label and mail order store "Nix Gut Records" and confiscated merchandise depicting crossed-out sw****kas and fists smashing sw****kas. In 2006 the Stade police department started an inquiry against anti-fascist youths using a placard depicting a person dumping a sw****ka into a trashcan. The placard was displayed in opposition to the campaign of right-wing nationalist parties for local elections.On Friday, March 17, 2006, a member of the Bundestag, Claudia Roth reported herself to the German police for displaying a crossed-out sw****ka in multiple demonstrations against Neo-N***s, and subsequently got the Bundestag to suspend her immunity from prosecution. She intended to show the absurdity of charging anti-fascists with using fascist symbols: "We don't need prosecution of non-violent young people engaging against right-wing extremism." On March 15, 2007, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof) holding that the crossed-out symbols were "clearly directed against a revival of national-socialist endeavors", thereby settling the dispute for the future.Besides the use as a religious symbol in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, which can be traced to pre-modern traditions, the sw****ka is also used by a number of new religious movements established in the modern period.
The Theosophical Society uses a sw****ka as part of its seal, along with an Om, a hexagram or star of David, an Ankh and an Ouroboros. Unlike the much more recent Raëlian movement (see below), the Theosophical Society symbol has been free from controversy, and the seal is still used. The current seal also includes the text "There is no religion higher than truth."
The Raëlian Movement, who believe that Extra-Terrestrials originally created all life on earth, use a symbol that is often the source of considerable controversy: an interlaced star of David and a sw****ka. The Raelians state that the Star of David represents infinity in space whereas the sw****ka represents infinity in time i.e. there being no beginning and no end in time, and everything being cyclic.In 1991, the symbol was changed to remove the sw****ka, out of respect to the victims of the Holocaust, but as of 2007 has been restored to its original form.
The Tantra-based new religious movement Ananda Marga (Devanagari: आनन्द मार्ग, meaning Path of Bliss) uses a motif similar to the Raëlians, but in their case the apparent star of David is defined as intersecting triangles with no specific reference to Jewish culture.
The Falun Gong qigong movement uses a symbol that features a large sw****ka surrounded by four smaller (and rounded) ones, interspersed with yin-and-yang symbols. The usage is taken from traditional Chinese symbolism, and here alludes to a chakra-like portion of the esoteric human anatomy, located in the stomach.
The Odinic Rite claims the fylfot as a holy symbol of Odinism, citing the pre-Christian Germanic use of the symbol.
