The Story of the Swastika

1916

The Most Ancient of All Symbols of Good Luck

It Comes Down to Us with Undiminished Reputation

BY GARRETT P. SERVISS

Have you a "swastika" about you, or in your house, as a fetish or symbol of good luck? If so you possess perhaps the oldest of all talismans. Prof. George MacCurdy, the archaeologist, says that the swastika is supposed to date as far back as the neolithic period, or the later stone age, which came just before the age of bronze, which in turn preceded the age of iron.

Modern discoveries are beginning to make us somewhat familiar with the people who lived in those prehistoric ages, and it is interesting to find this thread of superstition running through them from some dim anterior period, when man first conceived the idea of controlling his luck by the aid of a magic figure, cut or drawn on wood or bone or stone. The thing about the swastika that has excited the most comment is the form, which is essentially that of a cross. This has been treated as a great mystery by those who suppose that the cross, as a symbol, was invented by Christians, and that all similar forms in ante-Christian art are prophetic prefigurements. As a matter of fact, the figure of a cross, in its many variations, is immeasurably ancient.

The swastika has been found in every quarter of the world, and among the relics of nearly all early peoples. Its connection with other religious emblems, and the traditions which have everywhere clung to it, lead to the conclusion that from time immemorial the idea of good fortune has been associated with it. Various explanations have been offered of its peculiar form.

It was sometimes called "the gammadion," because it is made up of the outlines of four capital Greek letters, gamma, united at their bases. Some have suggested that it originally represented a sheaf of flames, or a flash of lightning, or the rays of the sun — but these explanations are all as fanciful as the figure itself. There are many appearances in nature, among trees, plants and rocks which might have served for its original.

The interesting thing is that it has endured so long, handed down from generation to generation, and from age to age, retaining substantially the same form, although used for a great variety of ornaments, all of which seem to have had an identical signification. Its universality is well summed up by the Standard Dictionary, which says, "It has been found depicted on tombs at Hissarlik, near ancient Troy, on Buddhistic inscriptions in India, in Etruscan necropolises, on coins of Gaza and Corinth, on rock carvings in Sweden and on Celtic stones in Britain. In America in pre-Columbian times it was in common use by the aborigines."

These striking sentences do not cover by any means all the places where the swastika symbol has been found. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes a fine sepulchral urn found in Norfolk, and now in the British museum which has three bands of cruciform ornaments round it. "The two uppermost of these are plain circles, each of which contains a plain cross, the lowest band is formed of a series of squares, in each of which is a swastika."

Among the beautifully ornamented swords of the bronze age that have been discovered in Europe this strange figure appears. One writer says of it, "What is remarkable is that the swords not only show the design of the cross in the shape of the handle, but also in tracery what is believed to be an imitation of the swastika, that ancient Aryan symbol, which was probably the first to be made with a definite intention and a consecutive meaning."

The perpetuation of this emblem of good luck through thousands of years is, in itself, a most remarkable thing. It shows the immense value of reputation. It reveals the secret of the indestructibility of superstition. Once let any object, or belief, become established in the imagination as superhuman in power or origin, and a flood of disproof cannot wash it away, and failure upon failure will not shake it. Under the cloak of a legend the falsest prophet may flourish like a green bay tree, and laugh at exposes. His dupes are like the obstinate opponents of Galileo, who, rather than admit that there were spots on the sun, refused to look through the telescope.

So the swastika is founded on the rock of untold ages of tradition, and in the most enlightened days that the world has ever known educated people feel safer if they have the antique symbol of human credulity cut on a finger ring or embroidered on a pocket handkerchief. There is one beside me as I write, sewn on a table cover, and its silky red gleam and bent arms make me thoughtful when I reflect upon the thousands of years during which its unchanging form has thrilled and fascinated mankind. What stories of faith, hope, desire, disappointment, despair it might tell — this emblem from the stone age.

—The Lincoln Daily Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, Nov. 12, 1916, p. 7.

Comment: Wow, too bad the Nazis ruined this symbol or sign for us. Of course it'd be impossible for us now to simply associate the swastika with good luck or pleasant feelings of security. One place where I lived there was an old house that had swastikas etched in the rock work on each side, up toward the top of the house. Obviously predated Hitler. I used to wonder what kind of comments they got during the war years, not to mention after. And I've had old postcards that were sent as "A wish for good luck" greetings that had the swastika symbol on them. But we can't go back now!