Misuse of Symbolism

I have something for you:

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First Impression

What's the first impression or the first thing you think about when seeing this? Think about it for a moment. Are there any other impressions you get from this?

I would assume most people would think of Nazism first. Of course, it's famous, the oh-so-famous swastika of the Nazi's. Unfortunately, the symbol was more or less stolen and changed to what it is now known for. Officially the symbol represented spiritual principles and looked more like this:

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But this is not the only symbol that has been mistreated by the national socialists. Check these out:

The SS Misuses a Rune:

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Comparing the images these symbols don't seem similar at all.

Image 5

However, the rune Sowilo can also be written like in image 5 as well. Now, this looks almost exactly like the symbol the SS used. Sowilo is the rune of victory, of being successful. That might be the reason the SS used this rune.

Misunderstanding of the Pentagram

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The pentagram has been used for all kinds of rituals and magic, even alchemy. However, the pentagram has nothing to do with the devil as common belief lets us think. I often hear people associate it with Satanists and the devil which is technically not right nor wrong.

Satanists also use rituals that are deeply inspired by the older rituals that are used in ritualism and magic and yet both shouldn't be lumped together.

If you see a pentagram don't jump to conclusions to say someone is a satanist. I have a perfect example in this regard.

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Meet Aleister Crowley. Edward Alexander Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist and mountaineer who lived from 1875 to 1947. His most famous quote and book of the same name: "Do what thou wilt" tells people to align with their true will. However many people misinterpreted and took that quote out of context. The new interpretation was "Do what you want" which was allocated to satanism. He didn't seem to mind according to sources though. Anyways if you're interested in him, then check him out.

Misunderstanding of the Hexagram

On we go with the next symbol. Similar to the pentagram the hexagram is used for all kinds of magic rituals and ritualism. It symbolizes the union of the female principle and the male principle as well as 6 planets on each corner instead of the 5 elements of the pentagram. The hexagram is often assigned to witchcraft and/or satanism as well. Another symbol that falls victim to the misunderstanding of symbolism and just like the pentagram the symbol itself has no fixed assignment. It all depends on who uses it for what. So you could say it's neutral. It has been used as the symbol to unify two equal triangles, to symbolize the planets and the energy in or between them, to represent the six elements of nature, as the star of David or as seal of Solomon. As you can see the usage is vast, just like the pentagram.

Conclusion

So what's my goal here? Simple. I want people to stop misjudge symbolism and symbols. I want people to stop having prejudices when they see those symbols. I want people to give others using certain symbols a benefit of a doubt. Just because someone uses the pentagram for anything or a ritual doesn't necessarily mean they're a satanist. Just because someone uses the swastika or the Sowilo rune doesn't mean they're racist. At the same time, the ban of the swastika used in Hinduism just because it looks similar to the swastika of the national socialists is the same problem. Of course, there are tons of symbols to use, but if at some point every single symbol gets ruined due to a group of people, what are you supposed to work within the end? All I'm saying is have an open mind, stay skeptical if you want but don't judge too early without knowing the whole story.

Sources

Image 1: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/SWASTIKA_%CE%A6_%28%CF%83%CF%87%CE%AD%CE%B4%CE%B9%CE%BF%29.jpg

Image 2: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/HinduSwastika.svg/1003px-HinduSwastika.svg.png

Image 3: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Flag_of_the_Schutzstaffel.svg/2000px-Flag_of_the_Schutzstaffel.svg.png

Image 4: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

commons/thumb/f/f3/Rune_letters_sample.svg/1280px-Rune_letters_sample.svg.png

Image 5: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Sowilo.png
Image 6: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/07/12/18/57/pagan-154085_960_720.png
Image 7: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Aleister_Crowley_as_Osiris.png