Fylfot

From Metapedia

Fylfot, Hakenkreuz, or Swastika is is an equilateral cross with its arms bent or curved in one direction.

[edit] Etymology and Alternative Names

• fylfot, possibly meaning "four feet", chiefly in heraldry and architecture.
• hooked cross (German: Hakenkreuz)
• swastika Sanskrit word, meaning any lucky or auspicious object.
• crooked cross
• cross cramponned, ~nnée, or ~nny (in heraldry), as each arm resembles a crampon or angle-iron (German: Winkelmaßkreuz)
• double cross
• gammadion, tetragammadion (Greek: τέτραγαμμάδιον), or cross gammadion (Latin: crux gammata; Old French: croiz gammée), as each arm resembles the Greek letter Γ (gamma)
• sun wheel, a name also used as a synonym for the sun cross
• tetraskelion (Greek: τετρασκέλιον), "four legged", especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare triskelion (Greek: τρισκέλιον))
• Thor's hammer, from its supposed association with Thor, the Norse god of the weather, but this may be a misappropriation of a name that properly belongs to a Y-shaped or T-shaped symbol[2]. The fylfot shape appears in Icelandic grimoires wherein it is named Þórshamar[citation needed]
• The Tibetan fylfot is known as nor bu bzhi -khyil, or quadruple body symbol.

[edit] History

The Fylfot has an extensive history. The motif seems to have first been used in Neolithic Eurasia. The symbol has an ancient history in Europe, appearing on artifacts from pre-Christian European cultures. In antiquity, the fylfot was used extensively by the Indo-Aryans, Hittites, Celts and Greeks, among others. In particular, the Fylfot is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism — religions with over 1 billion adherents worldwide, making the Fylfot ubiquitous in both historical and contemporary society. The symbol was introduced to Southeast Asia by Hindu kings and remains an integral part of Balinese Hinduism to this day, and it is a common sight in Indonesia.

Among European peoples, the symbol experienced a resurgence following the archaeological work in the late 19th century of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorized that the Fylfot was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors", linking Germanic, Greek and Persian cultures. By the early 20th century it was widely used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and success.

The work of Schliemann soon became intertwined with the völkisch movements, for which the Fylfot was a symbol of "Aryan" identity, a concept that came to be equated by theorists like Alfred Rosenberg with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe. Since its adoption by the NSDAP of Adolf Hitler, the Fylfot has been associated with fascism, Racialism, World War II.The Fylfot remains a core symbol of modern National Socialist groups, and is also regularly used by activist groups to signify Germany's National Socialist behavior of organizations and individuals they oppose.