The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.  Music provided by Joseph McDade.  Here’s your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to the ancient tradition.  I’m your host,  Jack Logan.

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I hope you’re all having a wonderful week. We’ve got a lot in this episode, so I’m gonna jump right in. I’m gonna pick up right where we left off in our last episode. As I’ve mentioned, we aren’t to the point in the podcast where we’re gonna discuss ritual in depth yet. There’s a bit more theological and symbolic ground that we need to cover before we can properly do that. I did though wanna pause while we were talking about God’s status as a married being to demonstrate to you how ritual

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In particular, the Hindu marriage ritual combines  many of the important theological tenants that we’ve discussed on the program, like the anointing and kingship, which we can trace all the way back to the dawn of civilization with key religious symbols that express the sacred center like the circumpunk, which we can also trace back to the dawn of civilization. And both of these, the theology of anointing and its association with kingship,

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and the symbolism of the sacred center found in the Hindu marriage ritual strongly suggest that the Hindu marriage rite grew out of the same theological system that as we’ve been arguing here on the program informed the religions of the ancient Near East, a theology which we refer to on this program  as the ancient tradition. Now it’s one thing to argue that the Hindu holiday ceremony is an echo.

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of the ancient kingship anointing rite, we see in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia,  and Israel. On the surface, it definitely looks that way. But the contention takes on much greater weight  when we dig a little deeper and ask Hindus about their religious beliefs,  what they believe the turmeric anointing has the power to do. This is where the Hindu holiday ceremony gets really interesting.

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because we find that Hindus associate the turmeric anointing with four important religious beliefs. They believe that turmeric paste has the power, number one, to heal. We discussed this a bit in the previous episode. Turmeric is known for its medicinal qualities and Hindus believe that when the paste is applied, it has the power to heal and renew the bride and groom’s bodies and protect them

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from infections and illnesses. And as part of this, they believe that it has the power to beautify. Number two, they believe the turmeric anointing has the power to purify and sanctify the bride and groom, which is essentially spiritual healing. Arav Worthington, who’s written about Hinduism  and Indians who live in the state of Tamil, India, says this of the Haldi anointing, quote,

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It symbolizes the purification and beautification of the body and soul. This belief is rooted in ancient customs that underscore how important it is to enter marriage as pure and untainted beings. An old Indian proverb states, the body is the temple. And by using turmeric, the soon to be wed couple anoints themselves in preparation for a new chapter together.

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I find what Araf says here quite interesting because in our last episode, this is also what the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews and early Christians believed, that the anointing had the power to fully sanctify one to the point of becoming a divine being, which is actually what Araf says next. He writes, quote,

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Legends suggest that the glow from the turmeric ensures the bride and groom are seen as divine like on their special day. Don’t lose sight of how remarkable what Arav is saying here. He’s telling us that some Hindus believe, like we contended in the last episode, that the Haldi paste makes the bride and groom, quote, divine like, divine like beings, glorious.

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radiant beings of fire as the bride Sita is described in the Ramayana after she completes the pre-marriage rituals. Now I bring this up because it’s one thing to say,  the Haldi ceremony looks  like an anointing ritual, kind of like what we see in the ancient world. You know, that’s interesting enough on its own, but it’s a whole different story when we discover that the very belief system tied to the Haldi anointing.

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still alive thousands of years later,  matches the same belief system that ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Israelites held about the anointing. It’s then that it becomes clear we’re not just dealing with coincidence, but with something that’s rooted in the same theological tradition. Number three, Hindus believe the Haldi anointing has the power to protect the one anointed from evil.

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They believe the anointing has the power to ward off evil spirits and bad omens. Apura Saxena, who writes on Indian wedding practices, notes,  if you ask the elders, they will tell you that the application of Haldi is a way of warding off the evil eye  or buri nuzir from the couple. If you’re familiar with Hinduism,  you may have noticed that some Hindus

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wear a thin red thread around their wrist. In some regions, as part of the Haldi ceremony, the bride’s mother ties a sacred red thread called a kautuka or a kavala around her wrist. This ritual is called the kungana-bundana, where kungana means bracelet and bundana means tying or binding. Or when put together,

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the tying of the bracelet. This thread symbolizes divine power, the divine power that has the power to protect the one who wears the red thread from evil. Number four, Hindus believe the Haldi anointing has the power to bless, to bless the bride and groom with prosperity, good fortune, fertility, and a happy married life.

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Now, if you’ve been following the program for a while, you should easily see that Hindus assign virtually the same meaning, the same belief system, the same transformative power to the anointing as civilizations across the ancient world did for millennia.  Wherever we find the anointing ritual in the world,  as extraordinary as this sounds, we find the same belief system associated with it.

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And that’s what’s truly remarkable. And what’s more, this rite is almost always performed as part of the kingship rite. In the ancient world, one was primarily anointed to become a king. As we saw in our last episode in traditional Hindu marriage rituals, we see remnants of the marriage rituals  royal heritage, when the young Indian groom dresses as a king and the young Indian bride dresses as a queen.

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they are replicating the royal marriage, even today. Now the Haldi ceremony gets even more interesting when we learn that in the past, before the swastika was usurped by the Nazis, Hindus placed a swastika made out of colored rice  underneath the bride and groom’s chair while he or she underwent the anointing rituals.

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Hindus will tell you that they do this to invoke good luck. But as you’re going to see in a couple of minutes, there’s way, way more to the swastika than meets the eye. The fact that Hindus used to place a swastika directly beneath the bride and groom. So they’re essentially sitting directly atop the swastika while they’re being anointed with turmeric paste  is actually quite astonishing. As you’re going to see doing this,

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conveys some pretty hefty cosmology and theology. Cosmology and theology that is in complete conformity with the cosmology and theology we see taught within the ancient tradition.  In a couple of minutes, I’ll break down the cosmology and theology for you. But before I do, give the symbolism some thought. Ask yourself these questions. What are some of the key things

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the anointing symbolizes. What are some of the key things the swastika symbolizes? And when you put the two symbols together, the anointing with turmeric paste and the swastika, what does that convey cosmologically and theologically? Why is it incredibly significant that the bride and groom are sitting atop swastikas? I know a few of you are interested in increasing your own symbolism literacy.

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and this would be a really great place to do that. I recommend stopping the podcast right here and giving yourself a few minutes to ponder  what or who  the swastika symbolizes and how it does that. And then ponder what that conveys about the person sitting on top of the swastika. In today’s episode, we’re gonna keep building on what we’ve been talking about.

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and take a closer look at how different parts of the traditional Hindu marriage ritual actually teach  and reinforce the same theology and symbols we see in the ancient tradition. I want to focus on the ritual itself because ritual is performative theology. Theology and symbol are combined in ritual to teach adherents profound spiritual truths. Spiritual truths

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which have to be expressed symbolically, because we just don’t have the words, say for example, in the English language, or any language on earth for that matter, that can accurately and  adequately express the realities of the spiritual world. There aren’t words, for example, in the English language that can express exactly how the anointing oil goes about

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actually sanctifying us personally. So God uses symbols to help guide our understanding. And when we understand this, when we understand how essential religious symbols are for our own spiritual growth and maturity, we then recognize that we must become familiar with them. We must ponder them. We must study them. We must seek divine guidance to understand them.

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because they are the way God teaches us. They are the way God teaches and guides our understanding of spiritual processes  and the constitution of the spiritual world. If we give no thought to the symbols  or discount them  as ancient devices that are completely irrelevant to the modern day, we’re missing why God uses symbols in the first place.  Ritual

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is particularly powerful because it directly involves  us,  the adherent,  in the symbolic actions and movements and gestures, which can help us internalize religious concepts in multifaceted, experiential ways instead of relying solely on intellectual understanding. The ritual can and I think is meant to provoke thought.

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even questions, where when we seek the answers to those questions and ultimately find those answers by way of divine insight, we gain personal knowledge of spiritual processes and personal knowledge of spiritual truths,  which is why I think William Shakespeare argues that knowledge, and I’d argue both intellectual and spiritual knowledge, is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

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When this happens, it makes a deep, deep impression, a lasting impression  on one’s innermost being. So let’s return to the Hindu marriage ritual and see how the rites  use ritual movements and sacred symbols to teach important theological doctrines about the spiritual world  and our relationship to it, all of which are tied to the ancient tradition. Now,

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There’s no single standard Hindu marriage ritual. It can vary from region to region. But I’m gonna walk you through a general sequence of ritual events. Just keep in mind that the sequence of these events can vary from region to region. The first is the engagement. It’s known as the mangni or the sagani. It’s a significant pre-wedding ritual usually held several days to a few months before the wedding ceremony.

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where the bride and groom’s families formally exchange gifts. It marks the formal agreement and betrothal between the two families and the couple.  After this,  much closer to the date of the marriage, usually a couple of days before the wedding, is the Haldi anointing ceremony where parts of the bride and groom’s body are anointed with turmeric paste, like we talked about. Now, typically,

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Following the Haldi ceremony is a ceremony known as the Mendi ceremony. In this ceremony, intricate henna designs are applied to the bride’s hands and feet. And this is done for decoration, and the henna is also believed to help reduce the bride’s wedding jitters.  On the day of the wedding, the ceremony usually begins with the Barat ceremony. Barat means groom.

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In this ceremony, the groom mounts a decorated white horse. Yes, a white horse called a goatee, which symbolizes his power. And get this, his nobility.  And processes with his family and friends with great fanfare and music to the wedding venue. In some places, he’ll even arrive on an elephant.  Nowadays though, he’ll often arrive in a decorated car or a Jeep or

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even a luxury vehicle like a Rolls-Royce or a sports car. So sitting atop  the white horse or the sports car like a crown prince, the groom makes a grand entrance. A beautiful turban crowning his head, robed in a beautifully embroidered ucccon or a sherwani. This is a long coat that extends to his knees. It’s lavishly decorated with embroidery and beads and gold and silver.

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The Shirwani wedding code is interesting because it was patterned in the early  1800s after Mughal  nobles of Northern India. And this is the interesting part. It was adopted by the royalty of India. So when the groom arrives, he arrives robed in royal regalia, again, like a king. And if that’s not enough, the royal status of the groom is made absolutely clear

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by an attendant who holds an umbrella called a chatra in Sanskrit. High above the groom’s head as he rides to the wedding ceremony on his white horse. This is what Wikipedia says about the chatra umbrella. Quote, in India, the chatra, the umbrella, was an ancient symbol of kingship and emperorship, representing both kingly power and righteousness.

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Now we can see from this that the umbrella marks the groom as a king. It’s a symbol quote of kingship and emperorship. The groom is absolutely meant to be understood as a prince or a king arriving for his royal marriage. What we need to know is how and why the umbrella represents kingship, which I’m going to answer towards the end of today’s episode if we have time.

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While you’re waiting, think on the umbrella. Maybe even stop the podcast again and ponder, what is it about the umbrella that represents kingship? Doing this will help you develop your symbolism literacy. I know it might sound crazy right now, but the umbrella is actually a fantastic symbol of some very important cosmological and theological concepts,  all of which

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are directly related to kingship. The second part of what Wikipedia says about the umbrella is also pretty interesting. It says that the umbrella, quote, represents both kingly power and  righteousness. Righteousness. The groom isn’t just a king, he’s a righteous king. Or as the Hebrews call it, a Melchizedek, a king of righteousness.

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Or as the Hindus would say,  one who upholds Dharma, the cosmic law, Rita. Listen to what else Wikipedia says. In particular,  it, referring to the umbrella, is employed in depictions of Chakravartis. Okay, so who are Chakravartis? Well, again, this is where things get really interesting in terms of the ancient tradition. See, Chakravartis are universal,

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rulers,  universal rulers. The Chakravala Chakravardhi is an emperor or king who Wikipedia tells us quote  rules  over all four of the continents. Did you catch the number four there? You should. And what have we learned? The number four symbolizes in the ancient world, it symbolizes geographic totality. So when we read that a Chakravala Chakravardhi

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is an emperor or king who rules over the four continents, we know it’s talking about a king of the four corners.  And that’s just what Wikipedia says.  It says that a Chakravala Chakravarie is quote, a universal  monarch. So  take note that the umbrella  marks the groom  as a king of the four continents.

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or a universal monarch, a king of the entire world. And if you’ve been listening to the program for a while, you should know exactly where a king of the four corners sits on his throne. And that should give you a clue as to why the umbrella  is a symbol of universal kings, which I’ll explain later on. But again, give the umbrella a little thought. Maybe stop the podcast again and ask yourself, how might

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and umbrella symbolize a universal monarch. You should clearly see with the white horse, the Aachen coat, turban, and umbrella that the groom’s procession to the wedding arena isn’t just your average groom’s procession. It’s a universal king’s procession to his royal wedding. See,  symbols

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matter. Symbols matter because they express the deeper cosmological and theological framework within which the Hindu marriage is taking place. When the groom arrives, the groom is required to remove his shoes before he steps into the mandap, the sacred four-pillared canopy where the wedding ritual is going to take place. Removing his shoes

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symbolizes that he is now entering sacred space like a Hindu temple where shoes are not permitted. See, the groom is just about to cross the threshold or gateway  into the divine abode, into the presence of God or the gods. At the heart of the mandap is the sacred fire we talked about last time. That fire represents the divine presence.

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and it’s the divine presence that bears witness to the wedding ceremony. Following the groom’s procession is a ritual called the Varpujja. This is a sacred ritual that symbolizes the giving away of the bride by her parents, especially her father, to the groom. The Varpujja is part of the Kanyadin ceremony. Kanyadin is derived from the Sanskrit where Kanya means daughter,

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and daan means giving or the giving of the daughter. As part of this ritual, a part known as the pada puja, where pada means foot in Sanskrit and puja means a type of ritual worship. The bride’s father or family  ceremonially washes the feet of the groom. To understand this ritual, we have to understand that during the wedding,

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The bride and groom are considered a form of the god Vishnu and the goddess Lakshmi. The bride’s father washes the groom’s feet  as if the groom were the lord  Vishnu himself. According to Braja Mandala, a practicing Hindu and devotee of Guru Radhanath Swami writes, quote, the ritual of washing the groom’s feet

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at an Indian wedding is a profound gesture representing respect, purification, humility, and blessings. Sometimes the ritual may also involve applying turmeric paste, vermilion, and sandalwood paste to the groom’s feet as additional blessings  and symbols of auspiciousness. So here we see that the father of the bride washes the groom’s feet as if he is the god Vishnu.

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and then anoints his feet again with turmeric paste. This washing of the groom’s feet ritual is considered one of the highest forms of respect and honor in Hinduism. The act of washing carries deep meaning. The washing symbolizes the purification and the readiness of the groom to take on the responsibilities of marriage, as well as symbolizes

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the transfer of the guardianship of the bride from the father of the bride to the groom. After the groom’s feet have been washed, the bride’s father or relatives perform a ceremony called the Milni or Pokwanu ceremony. Milni comes from the Sanskrit word meaning coming together, which signifies the unification of the bride and groom’s families. In the Pokwanu ceremony, the bride’s father or relatives

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apply a red tilak mark in the center of the groom’s forehead. Tilak comes from the Sanskrit word  mark. The tilak is similar, though not exactly the same as the bindu we discussed in episode number 39, symbols of the sacred center, the circumpunked and the bindu. You can learn more about the sacred bindu mark there. In Hinduism, the tilak symbolizes blessing, protection from evil,

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devotion to the divine  and auspiciousness for marriage. Having had his feet washed and a tillock mark placed on his forehead, the groom’s now ready to enter the mandop. The groom enters the mandop and takes his seat under the canopy in front of the sacred fire that has yet to be lit. There, the priest draws a swastika in the center of the mandop with a colored powder.

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called Kumkum. It’s red vermilion powder or sometimes he’ll make it out of yellow turmeric powder. Keep in mind though the priest doesn’t always do this. There are plenty of regional and cultural variations to this part of the ceremony. Okay so why would the priest draw a swastika in the center of the mandap? Think about the symbolism here for a minute. Again  what does the swastika symbolize? Give that a little thought.

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At this point, the priest takes a  miniature idol of Lord Ganesh and places him on a bed of  lotus petals in the very center of the swastika. Sometimes the priest even covers the idol in turmeric paste. So Lord Ganesh looks like a glorious divine being seated in the center of the swastika. So picture this ritual in your mind. Picture the priest

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pinching between his fingers grains  of vermilion powder, which the Hindu leader Thakura tells us in his commentary on the Kaitanya Bhagavata 1.4.80 represents the color of blood  and patiently forming a swastika. Then picture him making a bed of lotus petals in the center of the swastika and placing a miniature idol of Lord Ganesh

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covered in yellow turmeric paste atop the lotus petals where the four  arms of the swastika meet. Are you starting to get an idea of what the swastika symbolizes? If you are, you are starting to hone your symbolism literacy. Why Lord Ganesh? Well, it’s because Lord Ganesh is regarded as the remover of obstacles.

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the God who clears the path for success and harmony and auspicious beginnings, as well as the God of intellect and wisdom, you all the things that new married couples could benefit from. Now this is where it gets pretty interesting. The priest then invokes Lord Ganesh’s blessings by ritually turning Lord Ganesh to each of the four cardinal points, north, east, south, and west.

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Why would the priest do this? Well, symbolically, it represents that Lord Ganesha’s blessings reach and cover the four corners of the earth, or cosmologically, the four corners of the cosmos. After the priest has done this, the bride makes her appearance. Sometimes she arrives in a carriage, other times she arrives…

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carried atop the shoulders of male relatives in what is called a dolly, an ornate carriage without wheels.  Women of high nobility or high social rank were carried in dollies. So for the bride to arrive in this manner conveys again that we aren’t talking about any old wedding here. We’re about to witness  a royal wedding. In modern times, the bride usually enters the marriage arena by foot, covered

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by a beautiful fabric canopy held above her head by her relatives. Now, the canopy is significant because the canopy designates the space underneath it  as sacred space, just like we see with the Mundop itself. So when the bride arrives covered by a carriage, a dolly, or a canopy, it signifies that the bride herself

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is sacred space, which is pretty darn intriguing considering the association between God’s wife and sacred space that we discussed in episode number 57, Who is God? A Married Being, part two. Before she enters the mandap, she too must remove her shoes. The next part of the ritual is called the Granthi Bandhanam, which literally translates in Sanskrit  as

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tying the sacred knot. In this ritual, the bride’s brother ties one end of a white cloth or a sacred thread to the bride’s sare, and the other end is draped over the groom’s shoulder, effectively tying them together. The knot represents the unity between the two families, symbolizing that they’re now bonded as one. After this, one of the most sacred and important rituals in the Hindu wedding ceremony takes place.

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It’s called the Pani Grahana, which in Sanskrit means taking the hand. In most regions, it’s known as the Husta Milap, which means the meeting of hands. This is a symbolic act where the father of the bride or the bride’s parents take the bride’s right hand and place it in the groom’s right hand. With the bride’s hand in his hand, the groom takes his left hand

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and places it on the bride’s right shoulder. A scholar by the name of Opiliyappan, a distinguished scholar of the Vishnava tradition, one of the major branches of Hinduism,  notes that while the groom is holding the bride’s hand, the groom, quote, praise for long life, progeny, prosperity,  and harmony with the bride during their married life.

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After the bride and groom’s hands have been joined together, the bride’s mother usually pours sacred water over their hands  and lets the water flow from the bride’s hand to the groom’s while the priest chants mantras. Hindus tell us that the taking of the hand symbolizes the groom’s receiving of the bride, that it marks the formal acceptance of the bride as his wife and the beginning of their marital union.

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that the placement of the groom’s free hand on the bride’s shoulder Symbolizes his taking responsibility for her well-being and happiness in some traditions  like the Marathi tradition of Western India One of the most meaningful moments takes place right before the taking of the hand ceremony In this ritual a white curtain or veil called an unter pot Which literally translates to cloth?

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of distance  is placed between the bride and groom. The groom stands on one side of the veil  at either the entrance to the mandop with the mandop behind him, or he stands just inside the mandop himself. And the bride stands on the other side of the veil waiting to join him in the mandop. You can find pictures of this on the webpage for this episode. When this ritual is strictly followed,

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and the veil is lifted, this marks the first time the bride and groom will see each other on their wedding day. Immediately after this joyful moment, the taking of the hand ceremony is performed. After the hand ritual is the viva homa ritual. Viva means marriage or wedding, and homa means sacred fire ritual. So viva homa means the sacred fire ritual of marriage. In this ritual,

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The lights the fire on the altar, which has been placed in the center of the mandap like we mentioned in our last episode. The couple along with the priest recite mantras and they offer symbolic items like crushed herbs and sugar and rice or ghee into the fire. The offerings are intended to invoke the presence and blessings of the god Vishnu and the god Agni who is revered as the mouth of Vishnu.

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Once the fire has been lit, this marks the Agni, the fire god, believed to be the divine link between humans and gods, has witnessed the marriage and his witness formalizes the union. The remainder of the marriage ceremony, which we’ll finish up in our next episode, takes place around this fire. All right, there’s so much we could talk about up to this point in the wedding ceremony, but I want to focus on two symbols.

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the swastika and the umbrella. I wanna start with the swastika, because I think it’ll help you better understand the umbrella. As most of you are very well aware, the swastika is instantly recognizable today because of its connection to Nazi Germany. Just a single glance at the swastika, and it’s hard to keep our minds from going straight to the horrors and atrocities carried out.

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by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. It’s hard, almost impossible, to separate the swastika from that history. But in terms of the podcast, Sacred Symbols and the Ancient Tradition, it’s absolutely imperative that we do. Because when Hitler hijacked the swastika, he robbed humanity of one of its most sacred and widespread ancient symbols.

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Before I get into the religious significance of the swastika, I want to give you a brief history of how Hitler came to adopt the swastika in the first place. It all started  in 1868 when a German archeologist by the name of Heinrich Schleeman traveled to Ithaca, Greece and discovered the ancient city of Troy. During the excavation of the site in the 1870s,

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Schliemann uncovered more than 1800 variations of the Swastika on potsherds and various other artifacts. Schliemann didn’t have any idea what the symbol meant, so he relied on his colleague, Emil Luis Bernof, who was an avowed anti-Semite to give him some insight. Now, Bernof was a scholar of Indian literature, and he argued that the Swastika

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was a religious symbol of the Aryan people, an ancient group of people that are mentioned in the Hindu Rigveda whose name means honorable or noble. Bernhoff misinterpreted it. Some think deliberately the honorable and noble stature of the Aryan people and used it to claim that the Aryans were a distinct race  of superior human beings. When Schliemann uncovered swastikas at Troy,

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He jumped on the idea that this proved that the Aryans once lived there.  Linguists then linked the Aryan language to German, which gave German nationalists a supposed historical and cultural claim to being the direct descendants of this imagined race. And when swastikas were found on artifacts in Germany, that kind of sealed the connection. Of course, we know today that Schliemann and Bernhoff were dead wrong on  all counts.

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We know today that the idea of a genetically distinct Aryan race has no scientific basis. Genetic research is crystal clear. Humans share 99.9 % of their DNA. People within the same so-called race can be more genetically different from each other than any other so-called race. And there are no clear genetic lines that divide people.

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into so-called biological races. On top of that, our species simply hasn’t been around long enough or been isolated enough for distinct biological races to evolve. Human populations would have to remain isolated for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years to evolve into distinct biological races. Geneticists have only ever found  one biological race of human beings.

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The notion of a genetically superior Aryan race was and still is pure invention. Smithsonian Magazine notes in the April 2017 edition, quote, for the nationalists, the finding of Schliemann’s dig in Turkey took on a new ideological meaning. They saw the swastika, the quote, purely Aryan symbol,

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Schliemann uncovered as a symbol of their superiority. German groups like the Reichshammerbund, an anti-Semitic movement founded in 1912,  used the Swastika to reflect their newly discovered, in quotes, identity as the master race. It didn’t matter that the symbol was found everywhere, from Native American sites to Greek monuments to Buddhist and Hindu artifacts.

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Anthropologist Gwendolyn Leich in the 1997 edition of the journal Folklore noted that once the link between the Schwastika and the so-called Aryan race was forged, it was, quote, impossible to discard. By the time Adolf Hitler considered adopting the Schwastika as the symbol of the Nazi party, it was already being used by other nationalist racialist groups.

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In volume two, chapter seven of Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, he took full credit for using the Schwastika to represent the Nazi party. This is what Hitler wrote, quote, after innumerable trials, I decided upon a final form, a flag of red material with a white disc bearing in its center a black Schwastika.

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After many trials, I obtained the correct proportions between the dimensions of the flag and the white central disc, as well as that of the swastika. The new flag appeared in public in the midsummer of 1920. The swastika signified the mission allotted to us, the struggle for the victory of Aryan mankind, and at the same time, the triumph of the ideal of creative work,

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which is in itself and always will be anti-Semitic. Those are Adolf Hitler’s own words, chilling, just chilling. In terms of this podcast, it’s important to stress that Schliemann, Bernhoff and Hitler  all  absolutely and manifestly got the meaning of the swastika symbol wrong.

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The Swastikas Schleeman found in Troy and the Swastikas we find all over the planet never ever were a symbol of the Aryan people, regardless of how that group is defined. Schleeman was  correct though on one front when he wrote in 1875 in his book, Troy and Its Remains, that the Swastika was, quote, an exceedingly significant religious symbol. Even though Schleeman recognized that the Swastika was,

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an exceedingly significant religious symbol. He really had no idea what the symbol itself actually symbolized. On pages 67 and 68 of his book, Mycenae, a narrative of researches and discoveries of Mycenae and Tyrants, he hypothesized, referring to swastikas he found on terracotta vases there, quote, these signs cannot but represent the swastika.

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formed by two pieces of wood, which were laid across and fixed with four nails. And in the joint of which the holy fire was produced by friction by a third piece of wood. Now, Schliemann’s hypothesized explanation here doesn’t completely add up because  he doesn’t explain why the wood needs to be fixed with four nails. And it’s unclear if by nails he’s referring to the four dots.

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that traditionally show up as part of Hindu swastikas, or if he’s talking about the arms that extend at right angles from the arms of the cross. Still the same, his hypothesis that the swastika is linked to the holy fire is actually a good one, which we’ll come back to in a second. Before I get into the symbolic meaning of the swastika, it’s important to recognize just how ancient and widespread the swastika symbol is. It’s one of the  oldest,

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known symbols in human history  dating back to the Paleolithic period. One of the earliest discovered artifacts featuring a swastika pattern is a bird figurine carved on mammoth ivory found in Mazine near Kyiv, Ukraine, which dates back approximately 15,000 years. If you’d like to see a picture of this, you can find it on the webpage for this episode. Swastikas have also been found  on prehistoric

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petroglyphs in Armenia and designs found in Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures such as the Vinca culture in the Balkans, which dates to between 5500 and 4500 BC  and the Indus Valley civilization around 3000 BC where it shows up prominently on seals and pottery. Archaeologists have found the Swastika literally  all over the world.

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It’s been discovered on a 2300 year old Celtic sword in France. In Europe, swastikas appear on artifacts from Iron Age cultures such as the Celts, Greeks, Germanic peoples and Slavs, including funerary items like those that are found in Anglo-Saxon graves in England and on the holy Battersea shield from the Thames River. Other significant finds are from ancient China’s Magyiao culture.

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and on Iron Age pottery in Africa. The Swastika also appears  in religious contexts, such as Buddhist statues and Christian catacombs in Rome, as well as in churches in Ethiopia. The Swastika has also been found among ancient and indigenous peoples of South and Central America. It also appears in the artifacts and art of Native American cultures.

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including the Mississippian culture of the mound builders in North America. Various tribes, such as the Navajo, incorporated Swastikas into their woven blankets and other crafts. In Central America, the Swastika motif has been documented among indigenous peoples, such as the Tule Indians along the coast of Panama, where it appeared on flags and cultural objects. Overall,

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the swastika has been found throughout the world in Asia,  Europe, Africa, and the Americas. If you’d like to see examples of this, you can find them on the webpage for this episode. Diolaviella, who wrote a seminal work on symbols titled Migration of Symbols, I think I’ve talked about it on the program, wrote this of the swastika on page 33, quote, with the exception of the solar disk,

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and the Greek cross, there are few symbolical marks  so  widely distributed. If you’d like to read more about the Swastika and see some of the examples found around the world, Dale Viello wrote a great chapter on it, some 52 pages long in the book, Migration of Symbols, which if you’re interested, you can find it and read it for free  on Internet Archive. Okay, so what does

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the Swastika symbolize? Well, that depends on who you ask. De Alveola notes on page 45, speaking of the Swastika, quote, there is hardly a symbol which has given rise to more varied interpretations, not even the trisala, which is a symbol of the Buddhists, which is saying a great deal.

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I’m not gonna walk you through all of the various interpretations that scholars and lay people have come up with. If you’re interested in those interpretation, De’avella covers quite a few of them in chapter two. But I do wanna highlight two, De’avella’s interpretation  and modern day Hindu’s interpretation of the Swastika. On page 51, De’avella posits that the Swastika symbolizes the sun. He writes, referring to the Swastika,

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quote, this  symbol doubtlessly renders the idea of the solar radiation in the four directions of space. But the sun does not restrict itself to darting its rays in all directions. It seems further animated by a circular movement from east to west. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Diavila’s association here between the swastika and the sun.

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I mean, this aligns with Schliemann’s hypothesis that the swastika represents the holy fire. The sun is clearly a ball of fire. In the ancient world, we know that the sun was used to symbolize God and his glory. And we saw fire linked to God in the Hindu marriage ritual when we read that the fire atop the altar represented the divine presence. That meshes. What doesn’t seem to mesh though,

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In either Schliemann’s interpretation of the swastika as the holy fire or de Aviela’s interpretation of the swastika as the sun  is the right angle arms that extend from the equilateral cross.  Why did the ancients put arms on the cross? The arms are clearly meant to symbolize rotation, a circular rotation. How is circular rotation possibly linked to the wood logs  used to create the holy fire?

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And that doesn’t seem to make sense. And how is the circular rotation linked to the sun? De Avella asks us to consider that it represents the circular rotation of the sun from east to west. Maybe, but I don’t see it. The symbol as constructed, if it’s meant to be the sun, suggests that the sun itself is rotating in a circular motion, kind of like a spinning top.

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The symbol doesn’t suggest that the sun is rotating around another object, like he suggests east to west. So I just don’t see it.  If,  however, we take  everything we’ve learned up to this point on the program, the cosmology and theology taught within the ancient tradition, we find that the meaning of the swastika  is not hard to decipher at all.

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not at all. We find that it’s actually very, very easy to interpret the meaning of the swastika because we can see how it perfectly squares with, how it perfectly illustrates key doctrines, key doctrines that the ancients taught about gods and kings. I’m hoping that a few of you stopped the podcast earlier and gave the meaning of the swastika some thought. There’s something beautiful when we let the symbol teach us.

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And when we come to that understanding on our own, to me, it’s like a religious aha. I want to preface the interpretation I’m going to give you by stating, like I’ve stated several times on the program, that religious symbols by design are multifaceted. There are usually layers and layers and layers of meaning there. So the interpretation I’m going to provide is by no means the only interpretation of the swastika, but I would

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would definitely argue that it’s one of the primary interpretations of the swastika. So let’s break it down. For starters, we see that the swastika is formed first and foremost by an equilateral cross where each arm points to one of the cardinal points, north, south, east, and west. And as you know, if you’ve been listening to the program for a while, in the ancient world, the cardinal points were used to designate

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draw one’s attention to the center.  And this center marked the  absolute holiest place in the cosmos because that was where God dwelt. God dwelt in the sacred center.  And the equilateral cross marked the holiest place  on earth, the center of the earth because that’s where God dwelt when he visited the earth.

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Where the cardinal points intersected on earth was the Temenos, which is where we get our English word temple. The center marked the temple where God dwelt  on earth. And the earthly temple itself was a symbolic microcosm of God’s grand celestial temple in the cosmos.  All of this is symbolically depicted by the Swastika. Okay,  so what are the right

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angle arms on the ends of the equilateral cross represent?  Ah, this is where the symbolism gets mysterious for most, but it doesn’t have to. Like we mentioned, the right angle arms clearly represent motion, a circular motion. If we were to cut out and place a cardboard swastika on the ground and spin it, what would you see? You would see a circumpunk.

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Yes, a circum punct. If you’re new to the program, a circum punct is a dot circumscribed by a circle. And in the ancient world, this symbol too was a symbolic representation of the sacred center of God seated in the sacred center of the cosmos. In episode number 39, symbols of the sacred center, the circum punct and the bendu. And in episode number 40, the compass stone and the ring dance.

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We demonstrated that the circle dance that we find all over the world is a ritual performance  or enactment  of the circum-punked. For example, we see this when Scandinavian peoples form a circle, hold hands and dance around the Christmas tree, the tannenbaum, during the Christmas season.  Or when Europeans form a circle and dance around the maypole on the 1st of May. I don’t believe we’ve discussed this on the program yet.

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We will when we get more into architecture and ritual, but there’s also reason to believe that there’s a connection between the ancient circle dance and their erection of ancient stone circle monuments like Stonehenge or Avebury that are found all over the British Isles. There’s a rich tradition of the circle dance having been performed in these areas, and some scholars have suggested that the stone circles share  a ritualistic and symbolic relationship to the circle dance.

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Some even suggest that the stones may represent petrified dancers or serve as a permanent stone monument of the dance. We know that most of these stone circles were deliberately aligned to the solstice so that on the summer solstice when the sun peeked over the horizon, it would shine directly in the center of the circle, creating a powerful circum-punt. It’s not unfathomable to contend that the stones we find in megalithic monuments

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were intended to represent people. There’s actually powerful evidence of this in the Judeo-Christian tradition in the Bible, in the book of Joshua. In Joshua chapter four, after the children of Israel have crossed the river Jordan, Yahweh commands Joshua to erect 12 stones,  one for each of the tribes of Israel, as a memorial of the crossing. Joshua chapter four, verses two, three, and nine read,

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And this is the King James version. And keep in mind that it is Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, that’s commanding Joshua to create this symbolic  lithic monument. This is Yahweh speaking to Joshua, quote, take you 12 men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command you them saying, take you hence  out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest’s feet stood firm.

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12 stones. And Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests, which bear the ark of the covenant, stood. And they are there unto this day. Now,  nowhere in this text does it say Joshua erected the 12 stones in a circle. But there are actually a couple of really good reasons to believe that he did.

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The first is that in the book of Numbers chapter two, we learned that the 12 tribes arranged their tents around the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, God’s throne was housed. And they did it in either a square or a circular pattern. We read in chapter two that Judah was assigned to the east and Issachar and Zebulon were assigned to pitch their tents by him. Reuben to the south,

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and Simeon and Benjamin were assigned to pitch their tents by him. Ephraim to the west, and Manasseh and Benjamin were assigned to pitch their tents by him. And Dan to the north, and Asher and Naphtali were assigned to pitch their tents by him. So we clearly see the cardinal points emphasized in this chapter. And we know that the cardinal points are used to designate  and direct our attention to the center.

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And what was in the center? The Ark of the Covenant, God’s mercy seat, the seat upon which Yahweh sits when he visits his people in the Tabernacle, in the sacred center.  So picture this in your mind. Picture the Mosaic Tabernacle in the desert. Now picture  all of the tents  of the tribe of Judah set up east of the Tabernacle. All of the tents of the tribe Reuben set up to the south of the Tabernacle.

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All of the tents of the tribe of Ephraim set up to the west of the Tabernacle, and all of the tents of the tribe of Dan set up to the north of the Tabernacle. Now Numbers chapter two doesn’t tell us where or how the tribes that were assigned to pitch their tents near the cardinal tribes were positioned. They could have been pitched on either side of the cardinal tribe in a straight line, which would mean that the 12 tribes created a square around the Tabernacle.

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which is what a lot of people think.  Or they could have pitched their tents on either side of the cardinal tribe in a semi-circular fashion, which would mean that the 12 tribes created a circle around the tabernacle. If it’s the latter, which there is evidence in Joshua chapter four that it was, then do you see what we get? We get the creation of a massive

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in the Sinai desert. See, what we have is four tribes of Israel assigned to the cardinal points, Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan, creating the equilateral cross. And the other tribes positioned on either side of them in a manner that forms a circle. In essence, creating a giant squared circle or swastika in motion.

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This is pretty remarkable. It’s like the house of Israel is creating a giant  circle dance  around Yahweh in the sacred center. We’ll talk a lot more about the significance of the squared circle down the line. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, but the text doesn’t actually say the tribes formed a circle around the tabernacle. True, but when we return to Joshua chapter four,

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and read about Joshua erecting 12 stones to represent the tribes of Israel in the midst of the dry Jordan riverbed. Right, as it says in verse nine, in the place where the feet of the priest, which bear the Ark of the Covenant, stood. We know that we’re getting symbolic emphasis on the sacred center again, where the Ark of the Covenant stood. So this makes me think that

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Joshua erected the stones in a manner that replicated the pattern of the camp of Israel laid out in Numbers chapter two. The circle side of this takes shape. When we read in Joshua chapter four, verses 19 to 20, that Joshua took the 12 stones that the 12 men had chosen from the dry Jordan riverbed and erected them on the other side of the river in a place called Gilgal.

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Verses 19 and 20 read, quote, and the people came up out of Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal in the east border of Jericho. And those 12 stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. Now, the name of the place where the tribes camped and where Joshua erected the stones, Gilgal, is what’s of interest here.

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The pulpit commentary says this of Gilgal, quote, Gilgal, the Gilgal according to Maserites was called such no doubt from it being a circular encampment. The Maserites are the Jewish scribes and scholars who copied and preserved the standardized Hebrew Bible. So the pulpit commentators are arguing that the Maserites called the place where Joshua erected the stones Gilgal,

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because their camp was  circular. Well, that’s interesting. How is Gilgal connected to circular encampments? Well, when we look up the Hebrew word Gilgal, not as a proper name, but as a general noun, the NAS exhaustive concordance defines Gilgal  as, quote, circle. And then it has stones in parentheses.

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The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English lexicon defines Gilgal as  a quote, sacred circle of stones. The topical lexicon notes that Gilgal is mentioned as part of several locations in that quote, these discrete locations share a name that evokes a rolling  or  circle. So there you have it.

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It looks like Joshua created a stone circle around where once stood the Ark of the Covenant in a manner that replicated the squared circle or swastika shape of the original camp of Israel. Now clearly this is a powerful example of how the cardinal points, the circle, possibly the circle dance, stone circles and the swastika come together in a very powerful religious context in the Bible.

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All of this is pretty incredible because it was Yahweh who commanded the entire camp of Israel to create this symbol. And it was Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, who commanded Joshua to create the same symbol with stones on the floor of the dry riverbed Jordan and on the other side of the river Jordan in Gilgal. And this is quite interesting because this is textual evidence

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of the point I made earlier that it’s God Himself who uses symbols as a way to teach human beings important spiritual truths.  And  what  spiritual truth did Yahweh want to teach the Israelites by having them form their camp in this formation? Well, there were probably several, but I’ll share  just one with you in just a minute.

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Before I get to that though, as a quick aside, I want to draw your attention to the fact that God parted the Jordan River for Joshua and the Israelites just like he parted the Red Sea for Moses. Joshua chapter 4 verse 23 even points this out. Verse 23 reads,  for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea.

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Why this is important, if you’ll recall, is because in episode number 53, the cosmic wall, the compass and the firmament, I talked about how Moses is partying of the Red Sea, paralleled the account of Yahweh partying the waters of chaos in Genesis. In that episode, I argued that when God parted the waters, he was in fact beginning the creation of his cosmic kingdom by first separating cosmicized elements from uncosmicized elements.

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or the sacred from the profane, thereby creating a grand cosmic temple. When Moses parted the Red Sea, it created a safe, protective space for the Israelites, much like when God parted the waters of chaos, created a safe, protective, sacred space, a cosmic temple in the cosmos. So I’m amazed

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When I read in Joshua chapter four that Yahweh commanded Joshua after he’d parted the Jordan River to walk out to the middle of the dry river bed and take 12 stones that represented the 12 tribes of Israel and place them in a circle around the very spot where stood the Ark of the Covenant, creating a squared circle or swastika, which are symbols of the sacred center. And as you’re gonna see down the line,

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actually symbolize a temple.  All of this is cosmological. God’s trying to help the Israelites understand that the space created by parting the Jordan River is akin to the temple God created in the cosmos. This couldn’t be more straightforward than building a monument  on the riverbed that symbolized a temple, which is exactly what God asked Joshua to do.

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God asked Joshua to build a stone monument that was a microcosm of the macrocosm. As above, so below. So in the Judeo-Christian tradition, what could be one of the sacred truths God was trying to teach the ancient Israelites when he asked them to build a stone circle, which if it was patterned after the camp of Israel in the Sinai, represented both a circumpunked and a swastika.

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For the answer to that, we need to turn to the New Testament to the Book of Revelation. In Revelation chapter seven, we get the impression from John the Revelator who saw into the heavens that the circle that the 12 tribes formed around the Ark of the Covenant  is a microcosmic representation of the macrocosm where angels surround the throne of God.

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and worship and praise him. Verses 11 and 12 read, and this is the King James Version, quote, and all the angels stood round about the throne saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever, amen.

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We can see in these verses that John saw quote all the angels surrounding God’s throne and it appears from what he wrote that they were in the act of giving praise and honor to God. In Revelation chapter 5 John tells us that he saw thousands and thousands of angels surrounding which is a circle God’s throne. Verses 11, 12, and 13 read

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And this is the King James Version, quote, and I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever.

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It appears  that the Swastika is one of the most profound religious symbols in the world because at its core it is a symbol of God enthroned in the sacred center of the cosmos,  circled by thousands upon thousands of angels in the act of praising and honoring his name. The circumpunked and Swastika appear to be a symbolic representation of this cosmic reality.

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of this spiritual truth. And the circle dance is probably the performance or enactment  of  as above, so below. You can see how Schliemann’s interpretation of the swastika as the holy fire and Aldeviéla’s interpretation of the swastika as the solar disc aren’t necessarily that far off, but they fail to capture some of the other really important aspects of the symbol like we just discussed.

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René Gounon, whom I’ve mentioned several times on the podcast, who’s listed under notable scholars on the Ancient Tradition website, was an expert in religious symbolism. And he wrote a seminal book on the subject titled Symbols of Sacred Science. And on page 64 and 67, he too argues that the swastika is fundamentally a symbol of the sacred center. He writes, quote, most often it

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and he was referring to the swastika, is made out to be a solar sign, which it could have become only accidentally. Those have come nearest the truth who have seen in the swastika a symbol of movement. But this interpretation is still insufficient for it is not a question of just any movement, but of a rotational movement around a center  or an immutable axis. And the fixed point is precisely the essential element

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to which the swastika is directly related. All the powers of the being must be directed toward the divine principle. The center is at once the beginning and the end of all things. It is the alpha and the omega. Now, we aren’t done with the swastika. There’s actually a lot more to this symbol than I’ve talked about today. So we’re gonna come back to it down the line when we get to those pertinent sections.

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So back to Hinduism and the ritual use of the swastika in the Hindu marriage ceremony. It makes sense now why the priest would ritually draw a swastika under the mandop and place an idol of Lord Ganesh  on a bed of lotus leaves right in the center of the swastika. Because it symbolizes that all blessings come out of the center from God and flow to the four corners of the cosmos and the earth.

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This is interesting because this suggests that some Hindu priests are  well aware that the swastika represents the sacred center. Most Hindus, however, if you ask them what the swastika means, they’re going to tell you that it’s a symbol of good luck or auspiciousness. In fact, the word swastika in Sanskrit is derived from suh, meaning good or auspicious.  Asti, meaning it is  or to be.

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together with the diminutive suffix ka, swastika, literally means it is good or all is well. There’s nothing wrong with this interpretation, but just know that many Hindu priests know there’s a lot more to the swastika than the general public recognizes. It gets really intriguing though when the priest places a swastika under the bride and groom’s chairs during the Hali ceremony. Most priests no longer do this because of the stigma surrounding the swastika.

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They usually replace the swastika with a heart, but the symbolic implications of having the groom who represents a king sit atop the swastika during the turmeric anointing and having the bride who represents a queen sit atop the swastika during the turmeric anointing is nothing short of theologically profound. And what it conveys is completely in alignment with the theology of kingship and queenship.

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taught by the ancients.  All in all, there’s a lot of amazing cosmology and theology wrapped up in the Swastika. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to the significance of the umbrella today. I’ll do that first thing in our next episode. Until then, I hope you’ll ponder over and perhaps even study a few of the things we discussed in today’s episode. Maybe you’ll even crack the symbolism of the umbrella.

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before our next episode. I hope you have a wonderful week. I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare,  knowledge  is the wing we’re with we fly to heaven.  I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.