Origins of the swastika

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Origins of the swastika

 

By 1945 the Thousand Year Reich had become a smoking ruin. Russian

soldiers pressed through the rubble, fighting from house to house,

from street to street in order to link up with their British and

American allies who also pressed in inexorably on the heart of the

dying capital. Before they overran the eastern sector of Berlin,

these Russian troops came across something very strange: vast numbers

of Tibetan corpses. The fact is mentioned by Maurice Bessy and again

by Pauwels and Bergier, who set the actual number of bodies at a

thousand. They wore German uniform, but without the usual insignia of

rank.

 

The religion of Tibet is Buddhism, but like the Zen of Japan, it is a

brand of Buddhism far divorced from the Indian original. Many

scholars prefer the term "Lamaism" to distinguish between Tibetan

Buddhism and its parent root. The religious life of the country is

concentrated in a multitude of monasteries, many of them built in

almost inaccessible mountain regions. Side by side with the state

religion of Lamaism, and flourishing particularly in the rural

districts, is Tibet's aboriginal religion of Bon. The Bon-Pas follow

a primitive, animistic creed, full of dark rituals and spells. If the

holy Lamas of the Buddhist sects were looked on as personifications

of spiritual wisdom, the priests of Bon had a potent reputation with

the common people as magicians.

 

The Nazi leaders were attracted to Tibet by those of its secret

doctrines which filtered through to the west. They believed, those

members of the Thule group, the Luminous Lodge, and the various other

occult organizations which helped shape the Third Reich, in an

esoteric history of mankind. And it was in the archives of Tibetan

monasteries that this history was preserved in its purest form.

 

Already, in the latter half of the previous century, intriguing hints

about Tibetan secret teachings had been carried to the west by Helena

Blavatsky, who claimed initiation at the hands of the Holy Lamas

themselves. Blavatsky taught that her "Hidden Masters" and "Secret

Chiefs" had their earthly residence in the Himalayan region. As soon

as the Nazi movement had sufficient funds, it began to organize a

number of expeditions to Tibet and these succeeded one another

practically without interruption until 1943. One of the most tangible

expressions of Nazi interest in Tibet was the party`s adoption of its

deepest and most mystical of symbols-the swastika.

 

The swastika is one of mankind's oldest symbols, and apart from the

cross and the circle, probably the most widely distributed. It is

shown on pottery fragments from Greece dating back to the eighth

century b.c. It was used in ancient Egypt, India and China. The

Navaho indians of North America have a traditional swastika pattern.

Arab-Islamic sorcerers used it. In more recent times, it was

incorporated in the flags of certain baltic states.

 

The idea for the use of the swastika by the Nazis came from a dentist

named Dr. Friedrich Krohn who was a member of the secret Germanen

order. Krohn produced the design for the actual form in which the

Nazis came to use the symbol, that is reversed, spinning in an anti-

clockwise direction. As a solar symbol, the swastika is properly

thought of as spinning, and the Buddhists have always believed the

symbol attracted luck. The Sanskrit word "svastika" means good

fortune and well being. According to Cabbalistic lore and occult

theory, chaotic force can be evoked by revers- ing the symbol. And so

the symbol appeared as the flag of Nazi Germany and the insignia of

the Nazi party, an indication for those who had eyes to see, as to

the occult nature of the Third Reich.