From: hz225wu@unidui.uni-duisburg.de (Micaela Pantke)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Why the Cross?
Followup-To: alt.pagan
Date: 29 Dec 1992 10:23:12 +0100
Organization: University of Duisburg
Reply-To: hz225wu@unidui.UUCP (Micaela "Stayka" Pantke)
NNTP-Posting-Host: unidui.uni-duisburg.de
Summary: Meanings of and thought about the symbol 'Cross'

Hi there - Stayka is here!

During Xmas time something strange occured to me: I saw a Cross.
Well, that might not be too strange considering the fact that it's
one of the Holy Symbols of Xianity - but this time I wondered - 
why in Zandru's Hells do they WORSHIP it? 

In my eyes the Cross is nothing else than the murdering instrument
which killed the Xian Messiah Jesus Christ. And then I kept on 
wondering... What would have happened if Jesus would have been shot 
down with a rifle? Would the rifle have become a Holy Symbol of
Xianity?  

(Of course I couldn't help writing a short story about just that - 
 unfortunately in German, else I might have posted it...) 

Just pondering... 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

BTW, I looked up what I found about crosses in several religions...

Cross (Lotus) als Image of the World in the Hindu World view:  The
flower (earth) swimming on the water (ocean).  In the middle of the
flower there's the Mountain of the God (Mount Meru) and the four 
petals are the four main continents. 

- A cross in a square: material world, with the arms of the cross
  symbolizing the four elements.
- A cross under a square: symbol of earth's heaviness, the symbol that
  there is nothing higher than the workings of the elements, the world 
  as a hopeless abyss, Tartarus
- A cross above a square: symbol of hope, the Tree of Life growing
  from a grave, a symbol for the Stone of the Wise Ones
(Those three belonged to the section of 'Ancient Symbols' in the book)

Swastika: In the early chinese culture it was the sign for area, region
In the old Germanic culture it was representation of the four main
powers, directions and elements. In it there is the idea of the wheel
contrary to the fixed 'normal' cross. 
(Unfortunately this symbol was horribly abused by Hitler in the Third
 Reich so that it's nowadays banned in Germany as sign of the fascists.
 The original meanings of the symbol were lost through this abuse.)

Tree of the Cross, leaf-clad Cross: An Indian (tribe of the Chortis)
symbol which represents the Tree of Life.  It is a magic item that
brings rain and good harvests.  (A similar symbol existed in several
other Indian tribes, even amidst the mexican Codices. 

Christian Cross: 
- Early Xianity: A snake wound around a T-shaped cross: a secret 
  symbol in the beginnings of the religion.  The snake was the symbol 
  of Christ.  
- It was said that the Emperor Constantine begged the Xian God to give
  him the victory in a hopeless battle. In the night he had a dream of 
  a face in which he saw a cross with the writing "Be victorious in 
  this sign!" Then he won the battle and was converted to Xianity. 
- Xianity: the cross symbolizes the union of the opposites, the
  horizonatal line as the female principle (earth, matter) and the
  vertical one the male principle (Heaven/Sky, Spirit). 
  Also the opposites can be seen as time (horizontal) and eternity 
  (vertical) with eternity intersecting time in every possible spot.
  The intersection in a Point of Power from which the whole world unfolds
  in the four directions. 
(Note that in German there is only one word describing sky AND heaven!)

Source: "Lexikon der Symbole", W.Bauer/I.Duemotz/S.Golowin, Heyne-Verlag 

Well, that's what I found out about crosses...  I know there are even
more of them (i.e.  the Egyptian Ankh) but that was under another
key-word, and I think I already had enough.  It seems to me that the
Xians gave their cross the meanings only later on...  But that's only my
hypothesis... 

Blessed be!
               Stayka deyAvemta

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Micaela "Stayka" Pantke  |  Now I set off for the light
Westhoffstrasse 111      |  I walk the Golden Lanes
W-4200 Oberhausen 11     |  I reached out in mind-flight
Germany                  |  I shook off all chains!
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