| The Cross
Swastika,Fish, Cross, Pentagram Wisdom
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...................The Cross Long a symbol of the Christian faith, has origins in Pagan history. Assyrians used the cross to represent the four directions in which the sun shone. The Egyptian ankh, a cross with a tear shape as the upper leg, was a strong symbol of Truth and is associated with the God Osiris, and the Goddesses Isis and Maat. And in ancient Europe, according to the OCRT, "The use of a human effigy on a cross in the form of a scarecrow has been used from ancient times. In prehistoric times, a human would be sacrificed and hung on a cross. The sacrifice would later be chopped to pieces; his blood and pieces of flesh were widely distributed and buried to encourage the crop fertility." The first use of the Latin or Christian cross symbol (seen above) may have been as the staff of Apollo. Greeks used the symbol on coins and buildings to represent the wisdom, light and love of the Sun god. |
Christians adopted the symbol sometime around the 3rd to 5th century C.E., although it's current state was not adopted immediately. Early Christian art includes not only the Latin cross, but equal-armed and Tau (shaped like a T) crosses as well.
The 'Christian fish',
Or icthus, is used by many followers of Christ to signify their devotion. The symbol, however, is not originally of Christian origin. The symbol has been used for millennia as a representation of the Great Mother Goddess of the many pagan faiths. The two crescents used to draw the symbol are identified with the moon - another symbol of the primordial goddess. The outline of the 'fish' is, in some instances, seen as the outline of the Goddess' vulva.
The early Christian community did adopt the fish symbol as a logical sign of their faith - the Bible is, after all, rife with stories and allegorical asides related to fish and fishermen. One report credits the simplicity and inconspicuous nature of the symbol for it's adoption by early Christian adherents: when a member of the faith would encounter another, they would draw an arc in the dust. If the other person was also a Christian, they would complete the symbol. The fish is making a comeback as a symbol of the Christian faith, especially on cars. It has also spawned a host of 'spin-off' fishes symbolizing everything from Evolution and free love to harmony and lawyers.
The Swastika,
For example, was a universal sign of good luck and harmony before the Nazi party adopted it in the 1930's as the symbol of their movement. The symbol was commonplace in the Western cultures at the turn of the 20th century: one postcard from 1907 describes it (erroneously) as "a combination of four "L's" standing for Luck, Light, Love and Life". The swastika has been associated with the sun wheel, the spinning hammer of Thor and the footprints of Buddha. It was used by American Indians, Vikings, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Mayans, Aztecs, Persians, Christians, and neolithic tribes, and is still a sacred symbol to many Hindus and Buddhists.
Other signs have less sinister common meanings.
The Pentagram
Pentacle , considered by many Christians as signs of 'the devil', also have a benign history. One of the earliest use of the pentagram was as a symbol of the goddess Kore, also known as Ceres. The Greek Pythagoreans considered its geometric symmetry to be a sign of perfection. Hebrews viewed the sign as a symbol of the five books of the Pentateuch, and viewed it as a symbol of Truth. Even the early Christians viewed it as a holy symbol, equating the five points of the star with the five wounds suffered by Christ on the cross. The pentagram began to get a bad reputation during the Middle Ages. Christians, in the heat of the Inquisition, began to equate the pentagram with the sign of ancient gods, now viewed as representations of the devil. For the first time in history, the benign symbol of security was viewed as a symbol of evil. In the 19th century, Eliphas Levi, a magician and magical philosopher, used an inverted pentacle to signify the god Baphomet, a goat-headed god of Evil. The ensuing symbol, known as the sign of Baphomet, has been adopted to signify the Church of Satan and other Left Hand Path religions.
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