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Raelian swastika

To: alt.magick
From: catherine yronwode 
Subject: Raelian swastika (was: Re: FIRST CLONED HUMAN
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 01:58:08 GMT

John B wrote:
> 
> I looked up their
> interpretation of the symbol and this is what I found:
> 
> http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/rael.html
> 
> "The Raelian Religion's original symbol was the Star of David with a
> Swastika inserted in its center. The Raelians believe that the Star
> of  David represents infinite space, a concept defined in the
> beliefs section above. The two triangles of the Star of David
> therefore symbolize "as above, so below," meaning that there are
> infinitely large galaxies just as there are infinitely small
> galaxies. The  Raelians claim that the swastika originally framed by
> the Star of David represents infinity of time, and trace its origins
> to Sanskrit and Buddhist symbols, to the Chinese character for
> temple, and to ancient catacombs, mosques, and synagogues. (Official
> Homepage of the Raelian Religion)

The occult author-artist who first interlinked the Swastika inside a
Star of David to create a new symbol was the French artist Oswald
Wirth, also known as the designer of a set of Tarot cards (usually
referred to as the Wirth Tarot or Tarot of the Magicians). 

The image, which is topologically identical to Aleister Crowley's
Unicursal Hexagram, appears in Wirth's 1927 book "Le Tarot, des
Imagiers du Moyen Age," which is available in English translation as
"The Tarot of the Magicians" (Weiser, 1985). 

Obviously the Raelians picked up the image from Wirth, for it is
unique to him and has no historical precedent. He was a very gifted
artist and designer, and he deserves more recognition in the world of
hermetic occultism than he currently gets. 

Note that Wirth's combination of the Swastika and Star of David
appeared before Hitler's rise to power in Germany and has no
connection to Nazism. 

Interestingly, it is also Oswald Wirth who -- in the same book (and on
the same PAGE, in the American edition cited above) -- created the
image of the goat-head inside the downward-pointing Pentacle, which
became the symbol on the cover of Maurice Bessy's book on Magic and
was picked up from there by Anton LaVey for use as the logo of his
Church of Satan. 

Oswald Wirth. 

Check him out. 

cat yronwode 

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