The Cross
Perpetual Motion, Expansion, Sacrifice, and Balance in Life
Appearing in many forms throughout the oldest civilizations in history, the cross is an iconic, spiritual symbol that has a controversial past and holds a primordial meaning. This image is believed to be up to 10,000 years old and has been used by multiple cultures spanning the globe. The cross has always sparked a curiosity for me beginning in childhood. I was raised in a Christian household and was brought to church on a weekly basis by my parents, because of this the cross was a symbol I became familiar with early on in my life. As I moved away from this belief system I began taking notice of the uniqueness of this symbol and how people reacted to it around me. I have a natural affinity for anything that is debatable, and because of the polarizing emotions that the cross evokes and the variety of ways that this image is presented, it has made the cross an exciting symbol to research. We can look back into history to find the origins of these feelings and how our relationship with this symbol has changed over time, for better or for worse. In the modern era the cross is widely associated with Christianity and specifically with the crucifixion of Jesus. A more primitive version of the cross, the swastika, also holds a very different meaning today than it did throughout most of it’s lifetime. Although this more recent history plays a leading role in the present day symbolism of the cross, I want to explore the lesser known history of the crosses that came before the Common Era and what it meant to the people who created, and decorated their lives with them.
The oldest depiction of the cross was found in Eurasia during the Neolithic period but is recognized today as a symbol of hate, and one that was flown as Hitler led Germany into a genocide. The swastika has a dark, modern history and unfortunately cannot be separated from its association with white supremacy but the symbol can help us understand how the cross as we know today came to be. The swastika is characterized by it’s equilateral cross shape with the four arms bent at 90 degree angles. The word “swastika” is derived from the Sanskrit words “su” which means “good” and “asti” which means “exist,” and is defined as well being or good fortune. The swastika has been found on a wide variety of artifacts across the world and has proven to be an important symbol to multiple religions pre-dating Christianity. The symbol first appears in the Indus Valley civilization around 2500 BCE and was considered to be a representation of the universe. The image is constructed from nine connected dots to represent ancient planetary dieties or “Grahas” and is thought to hold the power of creation. Early Eastern religions such as Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism all used the swastika as a spiritual symbol. In Jainism the swastika symbolizes the perpetual nature of the universe. The four arms are believed to represent the four states of existence a person could be born into, based on their karmic past. In Hinduism the swastika has a different meaning depending on the direction that it is facing. The right facing swastika is representative of the sun god Vishnu and the left facing represents tantric aspects of the goddess Kali and the night. Hinduism also plays with the idea of the four arms representing different aspects of life such as the four vedas, four seasons, four directions, four epochs, as well as the four Purusharthas. The symbol was also used for ceremonies that represent beginnings such as birth or marriage. The fronts of homes and temples would also be adorned with this image. In Buddhism the swastika is held as a highly positive symbol and is said to be Buddha’s mind, footprints, and heart. To the West, in Europe, the swastika was a common symbol of Nordic tribes, it represented their god Odin who was imagined as a perpetual whirling disk looking down on the world from the heavens. The symbol also played a role in Armenian, Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic folk culture and represented forward motion, thunder, and the sun. Across the Atlantic Ocean the Americas also had early depictions of the swastika from the Navajo and Hopi tribes. The symbol was used for healing purposes and represents humanity, wandering, and seeking knowledge. For the Navajo tribe the symbol correlates to the story of the whirling log in which the hero hollows out a tree into a boat in order to go on an epic quest for knowledge. Through his trials and tribulations he gains wisdom to bring back to his people, a story that anyone can relate to. Throughout the world the ancient meaning of the swastika tells the karmic story of life and how overcoming chaos keeps us learning and in perpetual motion.
Africa also holds a key to the history and symbolism of the cross through the image of the ankh. Although the origin of the ankh is unknown we can find the first artifacts of this emblem during the Dynastic period in Egypt. During this time we see the rise of the Isis and Osiris cults in which the ankh was used as a symbol to celebrate both. The ankh’s unique shape can be thought of in two parts, the bottom of the image is a “T” shape which is thought to represent the male sex organs and the top of the image forms a loop that is meant to represent a womb. It is an androgynous symbol that is meant to be the perfect balance of the masculine and feminine and has the power to create life, representing no beginning or end. Another theory for the top of the ankh is that it symbolizes the “knot of Isis,” representing the magical bond that brings all things together. The Egyptians also believed that the key like shape was carried by the gods and could unlock the gates to the world of the dead. At the time, Egyptians had a deep relationship with death. They believed in an afterlife that was eternal, and death was a transitional phase into that world. The ankh plays a powerful role in the realms of life and death and was used in burial rituals and adorned mummies, tombs, and caskets. The ankh is also believed to symbolize the union of heaven and earth and the idea of the sun coming over the horizon, another correlation with the cycle of life and death. Ankhs were also used for other purposes, they would be worn as amulets, painted into artwork, inscribed into stone, and were thought to bring protection and have healing energy. During the middle kingdom ankhs even decorated hand mirrors, which Egyptians thought had magical properties, and were used for divination purposes. They used mirrors in this way because the popular opinion of the time was that the world of the after life was a mirror image of the earthly realm. Eventually Coptic Christians made their way into Egypt bringing their own religious views and ideas with them and the ankh would be one of the only symbols that survived, making it’s way into the Common era with a sustained meaning. The ankh teaches us of the universal idea of expansion through different phases of life and death, and reminds us that we are all connected through these cycles.
The history of the Tau cross allows us to complete the story of how the modern cross came to be. The Tau cross comes from the early Dynastic period and first appears between 2600-2334 BCE. This cross is in the form of a “T” and was used as a symbol for the pagan god Tammuz of the Mesopotamian civilization. Tammuz was a nature deity, the god of fertility, and the sun. The word “Tau” would eventually come from the Greek letter “T.” As the Tau cross spread from Mesopotamia into Europe, it developed into a cross made up of 90 degree angles and sometimes was encased in a circle to represent the sun. The Greek and Roman empires would also use similar crosses to represent gods of their own, such as Attis and Mithras. To them the cross symbolized the universal soul and the idea of infinite, equal, and harmonious expansion. It was also seen as the perfect balance of masculine and feminine and mimics the idea of the eastern symbolism of yin and yang. Other pagan European religions also used this symbol to represent gods of their own. Artifacts show that Norse people saw the Tau cross as a symbol to represent their god, Thor’s, hammer while Celtic druids inscribed these crosses onto oak bark. Pagan rituals foreshadowed the Christian use of the symbol in which priests would mark the Tau cross on the foreheads of people being baptized and would wear cross amulets around their necks symbolizing great divinity and a “sign of life”. These practices are now used today by Christian priests. In the 3rd century BCE the sentiment towards the Tau cross took a sharp turn when Phonecians introduced crucifixion to the Romans. “T” shaped crosses were used to crucify slaves, christians, foreigners, and sometime their own soldiers. Christians believe that Jesus, the son of their god, was crucified on a cross in this manner and is partially how it grew into a symbol of sacrifice. History shows that Constantine was the first Roman emperor to widely accept Christianity. He also played a part in introducing the cross as a Christian symbol. Constantine claimed he saw the image in a divine vision and was to paint the symbol on the shields of his men to be used in a battle which he would win. Contrary to this belief, historians think he was inspired to use this symbol due to the wide use of the cross in paganism, something that he became aware of as he traveled through Italy and France. The transformation in the symbolism of the Tau cross brings us into the modern era but also marks a shift in consciousness away from the idea of positive forward motion through balance into the idea of achieving the same through sacrifice.
The further I look into symbolism the more I am able to understand how images evolve over time. The cross’ checkered past is a great example of how much a symbol can change both visually and philosophically. The actions and beliefs of our ancestors shape our history and the way we view the world down to the everyday images in our lives. Even though I will always associate the cross with it’s more recent history, taking a moment to zoom out to see the full picture has revealed a poetic image and one that holds valuable advice on how to move through life. Christianity has left us with many parables but perhaps some of the most valuable ones have been hidden in the symbolism of the cross by the people who originally imagined it.
