Jewish Swastikas

> > Two ancient Vedic Swastika Mosaics from Jewish Synagogues were
> > discovered in Maoz-Haim, Israel and Ein Gedi, Israel
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vediculture/

An Investigation into the Origin/Migration of the Swastika as a Symbol 
in Celtic & Early Cultures

Introduction.
In course of my business of creating and selling Celtic scarves and
Celtic Jewellery, I realised that the Celtic designs are very much
like symbols associated with Aryan culture. It triggered further
question, who were the Aryans, and who are the Celts, what is the role
of symbols; what do symbols mean, how, and why some of the same
symbols appear all over the globe associated with different cultures
at different period of time.
A symbol is something which stands for something else. It represents
an idea.
Here below some of the Celtic symbols.

Popular Aryan/Jain symbols


The symbols have been used by the humanity from time immemorial, just
to mention a few ,as explained by (Symbolism in Religion and
Literature Rollo May; George Braziller, 1960) , the crucifix, points
to Jesus' sacrificial death-- even the magic act of apostrophic
conjuration is still present in a person's making the sign of the
cross. The Indian symbol of the multi headed snake, called the
Remainder, the Residue (Avshesh), signifies "the residue that remained
after the earth, the upper and infernal regions, and all their beings,
had been shaped out of the cosmic waters of the abyss. The Phallus, or
Lingam, originally a deity in itself, later recalls the creative
capacity of Greek chthonic gods like Dionysos and the Cabiri
(Kabeiroi), or the Indian Shiva. The she-bear or hind of the huntress
Artemis indicates her nature and natural sphere. The wheel or hooked
cross (swastika), represents the dynamic shape of the worshipped
sun-god. Rolo May thus argues that the religious symbols has and have
always been a part of the humanity.
The symbol like Swastika, spiral had a profound meaning to the
people, it meant a paragon of very strong complex beliefs which have
been acquired from ancient centres of civilisation." for example the
complex beliefs of Polynesians have been inherited from the ancient
civilisations with which the ancestors of the sea fairing Polynesians
were originally in direct touch. It may not therefore be merely a
coincidence that the banyan tree is sacred in Polynesia as in
India."(Mackenzie Donald A1926))

For the purpose of this paper I propose to restrict my self to only
one common symbol " Swastika" and will attempt to trace its journey
and its meaning using historical and archaeological evidence.

It has been suggested by various scholars that, these symbols could
have originated independently and insist on "psychic unity" of all
mankind.. ( The theory of Diffusion vs Theory of Independent origin )
Various theories have been advanced from time to time to explain the
swastika as a pagan symbol and to discover its area of origin; while
some insist that it appeared in different parts of the world
spontaneously. in different parts of the world. It has been referred
to as phallic symbol, a symbol of the female principle, a symbol of
conception and birth, a mere ornament, a symbol of fire, a symbol of
lightning, a thunderbolt, a symbol of water, an astronomical symbol, a
symbol of the four castes of India, a bird in flight, representation
of the argonaut or octopus, the cross of four " gammas ") as a
"fylfot"(many footed)
The Migration of Symbols and their relations to beliefs and customs.
Mackenzie, Donald A. (1926)

The origin and migration of swastika is linked with the migration of
the people with which it has been associated with. If it is linked
with Aryans; the origins of Aryans itself is a debatable issue on
which there is no unanimity. Aryan themselves are surrounded in a
mystery as Vedic people and the date of the appearance of Vedas varies
from 1200B.C (Max muller) to 3000 B.C, and this in turn is linked with
Indus civilisation, Harrapa and Mohenjadaro. The task becomes even
more complicated in view of the fact that the writing on the seals of
Harrapa and Mohanjodaro has not been deciphered as yet.
As per Malcolm Quinn" 'Aryan man' was a creature born of abstraction
and deracination; and the swastika, a globally distributed mark with
no discernible point of origin, was his heraldic device. In the
nineteenth century, the swastika was used as both Aryan sign and Aryan
evidence, place and race in one."
"It is for these reasons that the modern and Occidental swastika
presents a particular set of problems to the analysis of material
culture. Since it must be simultaneously read as contextually placed
and displaced, as presenting meaning and identity and at the same time
deferring postponing it. Insofar as the term Aryan (where used in an
academic sense) has historically represented an unresolved problem of
material evidence in the gap between Indo-European language theory and
archaeology, the swastika as a supposedly 'Aryan sign' has instead
been used as a substitute for and evasion of the archaeological
problems of accurate representation, reference and material
evidence".(Quin page 1)
. Identifying the unresolved issue of the origin of Swastika and its
link with Aryans, he adds "Insofar as the term Aryan (where used in an
academic sense) has historically represented an unresolved problem of
material evidence in the gap between Indo-European language theory and
archaeology, the swastika as a supposedly 'Aryan sign' has instead
been used as a substitute for and evasion of the archaeological
problems of accurate representation, reference and material evidence.
In 1880, the German scholar Rudolf Virchow ruled the swastika out of
court not simply as evidence of the Aryan race but as archaeological
evidence per se, suggesting that its wide spatial distribution
rendered it useless for the determination of time: for Virchow, a
liberal politician, a rigorous scientist and sceptic on the Aryan
issue, the swastika was trivial, marginal and unreadable. However, the
obstacles which the swastika presented to an orthodox archaeological
reading must be set against the construction of the Aryan symbol, with
its placement and displacement of meaning from sign to identical sign
across an immobile space and a frozen time.