The Meaning of the Swastika Cross and Other Emblems of the Same Nature

The Meaning of the Swastika Cross
and Other Emblems of the Same Nature

by Henri Martin

(Chief of the Archives Division
of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1880)

Robert K. Stevenson: Translator and Editor

Thor, Norse god of thunder and lightning

"The Meaning of the Swastika Cross and Other
Emblems of the Same Nature"

by Girard de Rialle

ANTHROPOLOGY SOCIETY OF PARIS
Meeting of January 8, 1880

Messieurs, among the decorative motifs found on ceramic and metal objects dating
back to the Bronze Age, I wish to discuss today one which has drawn a great deal of attention
from archeologists. I am referring, of course, to the cross whose branches are bent back in
the shape of a hook:

This cross is considered native to India, where one comes across it and where it takes
the name of the swastika. Also, from this fact can be drawn the conclusion that the various
objects which bear this sign and which one finds in prehistoric sites in Europe are of Indian
origin or, more correctly speaking, are the products of an art and industry intimately related
to those of ancient India.

I shall not concern myself here with enumerating the numerous finds from sifted
through debris of this hook-shaped cross. It is sufficient to point out that some have been
discovered in most parts of Europe and also in Asia Minor. Additionally, the hypothesis
that considers this sign a characteristic mark of the Aryan conquest does not appear to
me to be denuded of likelihood.

But, given that this cross was so widespread and occupies, as it does, the center of
an ensemble of ornamentation, must it not have some special meaning? Indeed, it does. In
India, messieurs, the swastika possesses a sacred quality; it is a mystical sign. Unfortunately,
the word itself does not reveal to us with precision through its constituent elements the
original meaning that it had. It is by extension that it has acquired the meaning of
the crossroads — the intersections of lines or ways — of the cross. In fact, it is composed of
the word swasti and the adjectival suffix ka. Now, swasti is itself a form of blessing,
salutation, and approbation, composed in its turn of the adverb su — "rightly" or "well" —
and of the third person present indicative of the verb asti — "to be." Therefore we can see that
swasti is but a simple expression, something like our "c'est bien," that over time and with
continued use has become a sacred formula, being somewhat analogous to the amen of
Christians. Moreover, the employment of this formula dates back to very ancient times
inasmuch as we already find it being used in its hieratic sense in the Rig- Veda (verse 3
of hymn 14 of the 7th mandala). Etymologically, swastika therefore only signifies "that which
belongs to the form of blessing," in other words, "a good luck charm."

We can see that there already existed a sufficient motive for this specially shaped cross
to figure so often in common objects, weapons, and jewelry. In abundantly producing and
representing the swastika, the various peoples who spread into Asia and Europe at first were
obedient to a superstitious sentiment, then later on to a custom. Since the diffusion
of Christianity a similar process has occurred with regard to the emblem of redemption.
Likewise Sivaism has propagated at all times the lingam as an object of piety and decorative
motif; but, unlike with the swastika we do not possess for it the original and inner meaning.

A short time ago I read a recent German work on prehistoric archeology in Eastern
Europe (Materialien zur Urgeschichle des Menschen in xstlichen Europa, by Messieurs Kohn
and Mehlis, 2 volumes, 1 879). Now, in the account by Monsieur Jasmin of the diggings of
the tumulus of Legnica in Poland I came across the representation of a small, yellow clay vase
with handle, on the lowest part of which the following design manifests itself: a swastika
centered between four groups of three chevrons inserted one inside the other. The swastika
presents also a second hook. This shape is even, it seems, more accentuated in other cases
and each branch of the cross presents the aspect of a repeatedly broken line:

Now, this sign is called in Poland, after the local tradition, "the thunderbolts ofPerun."

This indication, in my opinion, casts great light on the original meaning of the
swastika. It is the mythological representation of lightning, that is to say of the thunderbolts
of the thunder god, and the four broken lines thus simulate the zigzags of lightning.

The thunder god has been the great national divinity of the bellicose and conquering
peoples of Aryan origin. In nearly all branches of this family, it is he who has preeminence
or who is the most ardently invoked. With the Slavs, Perun (with the Lithuanians, Perkunas)
is the chief god — the king of gods — and by his name and also by his attributes and
duties he corresponds to the old Vedic god Parjanya, the divine bull who bellows during
storms and sprays, in the shape of rain, his semen over the earth in order to fecundate it. The
Aryans of the Vedic era transferred their belief in this cult to another thunder god — Indra.

The Greeks and the Romans had Zeus and Jupiter respectively, each being god of the
heavens and lightning, victorious enemy of the giants and malevolent genies hidden in the
dark clouds who he tears apart with great blows of his thunder. For the Germans and
the Scandinavians, Donar or Thor, although subordinate to Woden or Odin, were not any
less powerful than the latter. That the representation of the weapon of the god of lightning,
that the hook-shaped cross — the swastika — has thus become the preferred sign and mark of
the Aryo-Europeans, altogether their "good luck charm," to my eyes makes total sense, and I
propose that we accept this as the most likely meaning until we are more amply informed.

This symbolization of god by his weapon is, moreover, nothing new. Thor, who I
just mentioned, is armed, according to tradition, with a magic ax-hammer which he flings
upon his adversaries and which returns itself to his hands. Now, messieurs, it turns out that
ax-hammers were used by men throughout northern Europe during both the Stone Age and
Bronze Age; therefore the mythological tradition of Thor should come as no surprise.

In Greece and in Asia Minor, the lonians, Carians, and Lydians had as their national
weapon the double-headed ax. Now, this ax has been the emblem of Zeus who at Miletus
and Halicarnassus took the surname Labrandeus (Plutarch said that "ax" is called labrus in
Lydia), and who was represented in the temples and on coins as holding this ax in one hand
and a lance in the other. Additionally, he was Zeus Chrysaorias, with gold sword in hand,
that is to say, he was the god of the heavens and lightning.

DISCUSSION

Monsieur GABRIEL de MORTILLET. What I see in the swastika is a representation
of the instrument that serves to make fire; my opinion nevertheless also lends support to
your well-reasoned conclusion, Monsieur de Rialle.