Subject: symbols

From: [email-masked] (ThomasB808)
Date: 29 Jan 1995 10:39:13 -0500

you folks seem to be the only ones on-line having to do with any facet of
folklore ( good or evil) so i guess i'll ask my question here.  thirty
some years ago as a lark, (i was very impressionable then) i purchased a
silver-like symbol on a chain. it was shaped like a swastika with the
bottom leg curved instead of angled.  i was in Iceland at the time and was
told that it was a icelandic witchcraft symbol.  can anyone or anyone you
know explain its significance?  i no longer have the symbol and have
contemplated making another but want to know what it stands for first.

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From: [email-masked] (Mar)
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 22:38:27 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
>contemplated making another but want to know what it stands for first.

Hmm. I'm only slightly knowledgeable about Norse runes, so someone please
correct me if I get this wrong.

Well, the swastika is an old bind-rune.  That means it's made up of
several smaller runes, assembled together to combine their power.  This
rune has shown up in several (many??) unrelated cultures, such as the 
Anasazi (sp) Native Americans.  It is not an evil symbol in and of itself,
though Hitler certainly used it for evil purposes.

My guess is that your semi-swastika is some sort of bind-rune. *IF* that is
the case, I would try to find out what it meant before I went and made
another.  If you cannot find this out, you might want to do some 
careful thinking about what happened to you and your surroundings while
this symbol was in your ownership. Did anything untoward happen to you, your
family or friends while you had it? Did it leave your ownership under
unusual circumstances?  Think about all these things, and what they may
have meant about the rune's meaning. A plain meditation on the symbol
itself might also be very useful.  Once you have satisfied yourself about
the symbol's possible meanings, you can decide whether you want to
make a new one....

Hope that helped.

BB,
Mar

-- 
 "'Progress in ethics is the only cure for progress | [email-masked]    
 in science.'" -- Freeman Dyson quoting Haldane     |    Blessed Be!

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From: [email-masked] (Sunnyway)
Date: 31 Jan 1995 04:16:56 -0500

Thomas, your swastika symbol from Iceland is indeed a runic symbol, a
bindrune called the sun-wheel and bearing "good luck". It is associated
with Thorr as Hallower.  According to Kveldulf Gundarsson's Teutonic
Magic, "Both deosil and widdershins forms are among the most often-used
symbols empowering magical and religious workings...the swastika may be
traced over food and drink to hallow it." 

The sun-wheel has several variations including a more "swirling circular
form", which "may be less distressing to some than the standard swastika".

For more information on runes, see the alt.divination newsgroup, or on
AOL, see the Asatru and Futhorc folders in the Pagan/Metaphics board
located in the Religion and Ethics area.

P.S. (Deosil and widdershins mean clockwise and counterclockwise.)