| ALEF THINGS - SWASTIKAS |
(Edited and formatted by George ALEFantes)
Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Daddy, Sylvia Plath
The ancient Swastika symbol, turned forty-five degrees by the Nazis and color-coded black in a white circle against a red background
Why does it appear in so many emblems and logos since World War Two? Why is its inclusion so important that it is usually disguised and hidden? Why are those who cling to it so reluctant to part with it despite its recent and lasting associations with fascism, racism, White supremacy, hatred, and the Holocaust?
Derived from the Sanskrit "svastika," or any lucky or auspicious object, particularly a mark made on a person or thing for good luck. From "su," meaning 'well,' and "asti," meaning 'to be;' thus 'well-being.' With the suffix "ka," it becomes 'thing associated with well-being,' 'lucky charm,' or 'thing that is auspicious.'
It is described as an equilateral cross with half the length of the arms bent ninety degrees either clockwise or counter-clockwise, normally oriented horizontally and vertically, though rotated forty-five degrees by the Nazis, and with a dot in each quadrant in the Hindu version.
Found carved 7,000 years ago on cave walls in France; used by the Druids; found adorning ancient Greek pottery and covering the robes of Astarte and the Greek goddesses Athena and Artemis; discovered in extensive use by Schliemann at Troy; displayed on the floor of the synagogue at Ein Gedi built during the Roman occupation of Judea; displayed in a long list of churches and mosques throughout the ages; found on Norse weapons and implements; in use by numerous Tibetan faiths, Cao Dai of Vietnam, and Falun Gong of China; used extensively in Hinduism, Buddhism, and as the only holy symbol in Jainism; found among numerous Mesoamerican and Native American faiths, including the Navajo until 1933; incorporated into the seal of Madam Blavatsky's Theosophical Society; used by the 1917 Russian Provisional Government in the center of new bank notes (Alfred Rosenberg having been there at the time); placed on the spines of books by Rudyard Kipling; used by the Boy Scouts of America; displayed on the Laguna Bridge in Yuma, Arizona; used by Coca Cola in 1925 on novelty items; used by the Finnish Army and Air Force until 1944; used as the emblem of the British National War Savings Committee during Word War One; used by the US Army's 45th Infantry Division until the 1930s; found all over Hindu temples, signs, altars, pictures, and iconography in India and Nepal; included on Chinese food packaging to indicate vegetarian products for strict Buddhists; shown on Japanese maps to indicate the location of temples; and used as the name of the Alberta, Canada Hockey team until around 1916.
Even the Tic Tac Toe board, even two snakes crossing each other's paths on 5000 BC Pottery are representations of the Swastika, which, by the way, is precisely what comprises the medical symbol of the Caduceus.
A town in Ontario, Canada retains the name Swastika, despite years of protest, while murals at Indiana University continue to display them. The Raelian Movement, begun in the 1970s, used the Swastika interlaced with a Jewish Star. Almost a thousand swastika-decorated Glendale, California lampposts, made in the 1920s, had to be covered in the 1990s; and in 2004, Microsoft removed two swastikas and a Jewish Star from the Bookshelf Symbol Font that came bundled with Microsoft Office 2003.
Also known across Europe and Asia as Crooked cross, Cross cramponned, Cross gammadion, tetragammadion, gammadion, Fylfot, Sun wheel, Sun Cross, Tetraskelion, Thor's hammer, Hooked cross, hakenkruis, Hakakross, Hakenkreuz, hakaristi, Hakekors, Hakkors, croce uncinata, Black Spider, Omote Manji, and Ura Manji.
According to Carl Sagan in "Comet," the Swastika design is one of the variations of comet tail patterns depicted in an ancient Chinese manuscript. He suggested that a comet may once have passed so closely to Earth that the jets of gas streaming from it, bent by the comet's rotation, became visible and seared the symbol into the global consciousness. Others see the source of the Swastika as associated with the Sun, while still others imagine it as a symbol for the rotation of the night sky around Polaris.
Nonetheless, its recent current associations with Nazism, fascism, racism, White supremacy, World War Two, Hatred, and the Holocaust would make any decent entity avoid the controversy and respect the memories of those victimized and not be driven to use such a symbol, intent at any cost. But, yet, we still encounter a slew of uses in modern emblems and corporate logos. No longer outwardly displayed as before (and even after) World War Two, but now covertly hidden and disguised. Why?
Neither are they endorsed, admired, condoned, or appreciated here, but quite the contrary. Swastikas, no matter what they may have been in a different place and time, are damaged goods today, and there is no place for them. They represent a manifestation of the most deplorable time in our history.
The problem arises from the fact that so many companies, trans-nationals, institutions, schools of thought, and more cherish and hold them so dear and must be acknowledged as finding importance in the use of Swastikas in their dearest association, their logo: Be it implicit, partial, similar, exaggerated, stylized, or blatant.
ALEF Swastika
Created by George ALEFantes
AVG Antivirus System Logo, Also Has Greek Key Swastika in Green Arm
Bank of America Logo, Also Has Six Stripes
Google Chrome, Swastika and 666
Created by George ALEFantes
A swastika made of four houses. How quaint. How Homeland Security.
Fox Parks, St Louis
The arms (literally) on this Swastika logo come inward from the outside and surround the pretty flower rather than emanating outward from a common center.
The GE Logo also contains an embedded 666 (see 666s). As far as it's Swastika, It is a clever and fashionable logo for the post-1945 modern secret Nazi set. It is a circular Swastika with its four arms/points instead pointing inward into the circle. It is reminiscent of Hoerbiger "Cosmic Ice Theory," or Eternal Ice Theory, and the cosmic force called Vril (along with the Thule Society, the name of the other guiding secret society in Nazi Germany), and the hollow earth theory.
You will remember that the sphere which is the earth is supposedly hollow. Humans exist on the inside of the hollow sphere. Towards the center of the sphere is the sun, which is actually internal. Our universe of empty space, everything beyond the hollow sphere is solid ice. A radically different cosmology. Probably in part a rapid social conditioning experiment.
But if that's all a bit too much to accept about the artists and creative minds at GE, then behold instead the following implied conventional Nazi Swastika in their logo implied by the four drips of molten metal preparing to drip into a Swastika shape.
The Greek Key
The aerial view of the Georgia Guidestones.
Isle of Man Bank Logo
Even removing a quarter of its elements, the Swastika is still prominent in the remaining three human body parts.
Joining Hands Against Hate
Likewise, adding a fifth element still retains the Swastika in the body parts in this logo.
Charles Manson
At first, we were not going to include Charles Manson's self-inflicted Swastika tattoo on the premise that there is no nefarious intrigue in such action by an individual whose conduct can be better explained by more basic disciplines, choosing instead to focus on organizations and entities and their more mysterious and sickening motivations. But in the end, we remembered that Charles Manson is also, both directly and indirectly, but a product and production of such entities.
"The hatred of Jews has become a disease in the world, which has spread. Microsoft Corporation has picked up the anti-Semitism which is so common in today's world as well. Without much fanfare, Microsoft Corporation has deliberately removed the "Star of David" that represents Judaism from their Microsoft Windows Software Symbols. Apparently people complained about the fact Microsoft had a different symbol in their software. The Nazi Swastika. And pretending to be politically correct rather then anti-Semitic, Microsoft decided to remove both the Nazi Swastika and the Jewish Star of David from their software symbols at the same time. So rather then remove only the evil symbol of the Nazis who murdered six million Jews, Microsoft also removed the symbol of Judaism, of life, and of peace called the Star of David. The Nazi Swastika and the Star of David were the two symbols that Microsoft removed together from their software. This move on the part of Microsoft put the Star of David in the same category as the Nazi Swastika. One can only wonder if Microsoft would like to remove the symbol for Christianity, the cross, from their software as well."
Gabriel Stiles, from NewsFromIsrael.Org
Award for probably the most creatively disguised and incorporated representation of the Swastika. Using puzzle pieces associated with children, Hitler would have been proud and might have even placed the designer in a position of trust within the Hitler Youth program.
Microsoft Reich Windows Nazi Flag
Microsoft Windows 98 Logo
In addition, of course, to the Swastika "hidden in plain sight," is the number 666 encoded in the six black squares emanating from each of the three tails,
Same Microsoft Windows 98 Swastika reoriented approximately 45 degrees, as Hitler was famous for having done to the Nazi Swastika.
Here it is annotated.
And here it is further annotated.
Though not specifically a swastika, Microsoft has been so blatant and voluminous in its rendering of them that this seems quite related. In the Microsoft Wing Ding font, pressing "NYC" produces the sequence of characters above. The vile message is self-explanatory. Though Microsoft denied any intention and produced statistical studies about the random possibility of its occurrence.
Though at the same time, their other Web Ding font used the very same sequence of letters though this time to say, "I love New York."
This other discovery which shows a plane approaching two buildings and blames the deaths on the Jews, is a bit of a stretch. Since it requires the sequence Q33NY to achieve it. And, aside from a theory that it refers to the 33rd verse in the Koran (Quran), and putting aside the fact that this is one of Mel Gibson's favorite fonts, Microsoft should probably be acquitted of this single accusation.
Navy Barracks in Coronado, California, near San Diego, discovered at 32 degrees, 40 minutes, 34 seconds North Latitude 117 degrees, 9 minutes, 28 seconds West Longitude (essentially on the 33rd Parallel where so many other fascinating things have occurred) via Google Earth.
Navy "officials" claim to have discovered it themselves sometime after it was built in 1967, but took no action since it could not be seen from the ground.
In 2007, after calls from the Anti-Defamation League and US Representative Susan Davis, the Navy claims that it will alter the building.
Amazing that all of the haphazard and accidental designs always just happen to turn out to be Swastikas and never just Crosses or Jewish Stars. To what secret club do you gain admission by doing these things?
As with the artists who painted the horrific murals in the Denver Airport, certainly no one has bothered to find the original designers and inquire as to the precise instructions they received and from whom.
Swastikas and Oven
Oppenheimer Funds
No matter the decade since World War Two or the artist involved, this company insists on a Swastika logo and particularly the body parts type.
Singapore Furniture Company's Swastika Line
I wouldn't say there's anything particularly bold about the style itself, but it is certainly bold and beyond insensitive to celebrate a furniture line called The Swastika. Like the abundance of Japanese products such as the chocolate milk called "Darkie" with the face of a Black person on the package.
Satanic "S," Nazi "SS"
Worn by the Nazi SS, when the two elements are turned perpendicular to each other, they become a perfect Swastika.
Space Age Swastika
Stylized Swastika
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Annotated
Sun Wheel
Assyrian Solar Wheel
Swastika, Ontario
The Bird and The Bee Music Group, Combination Swastika and 6s
PC Linux OS Swastika
Sadly, one of our two favorite Linux versions employs the Swastika motif.
Ubuntu Human Swastika
Even the popular South African Linux company likes the Swastika theme.
In late 2007, Rachel Hatton, 19, of Ashford, Kent, found Swastikas decorating the handbag she purchased from English retailer, Zara, a subsidiary of Spanish enterprise, Inditex Group.
Spain, as you know, has also brought us the Running of the Bulls, the institutionalized torture of donkeys in festivals, including the ceremonial throwing-out of a donkey from a multi-storied window, and, of course, the brutal genocides of the great civilizations of the New World.
They try to remind us that the Swastika was once a vibrant symbol of life used by the Hindus, the Ancient Greeks, the Mesopotamians, the Mayans, and others. But that all changed in the 20th Century.
"The bags are sold in Europe where the meaning is different," they said, while demonstrating their initial reluctance to pull the product.
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