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Armenians and Swastika

By G. Ariyatsi

The symbol of the swastika, most commonly associated with the WWII era and the Nazi regime, has a much deeper history and has fascinated people throughout history by its complex, mystical meanings and codes. The understanding of these codes has been thought to be expressed through its symbol. The swastika has been widely used in various cultural symbolisms of religious and astronomical nature throughout the Armenian Highland, Mesopotamia, Africa, China, India and Mesoamerica.

After careful examination of the Armenian alphabet, one would find that half a dozen of its letters are nothing more than modified versions of the famous swastika symbol. Armenian letters such as: Ke, Kea, Xe, Pe, Fe, and Ea have their origins in the ancient proto-Armenian petroglyph writings found in the Armenian Highland.

The earliest depictions of the swastika found in Armenia, date back to the Neolithic Period of human cultural evolution (aprox. 7000-5000 B.C.E.) Very often, the swastika is symbolized in the form of the solar disk, commonly found in the stone carvings of the Armenian Plateau, Iranian Plateau and ancient civilizations of Anatolia and Mesoamerica.

Looking back through history the meaning of the word swastika is found in several languages. The Sanskrit root of the word swastika is svar, which means brilliance, illumination or shining. The closest contemporary equivalent to the word is found in the Russian language, where the word svet means light.

In the Armenian language, the second portion of the word swastika--the ast, also referred as asd--means power. This is also the root of the Armenian word Astvats, which means God. Thus, the word Astvats is translated as "all powerful" or "giver of power/s." In this context would refer to physical and spiritual health, clarity of mind or perhaps even salvation.

Thus our examination of the Sanskrit roots of the word brings us to the two archaic meanings of the words svar, (meaning brilliant or shinning) and asti meaning powerful or god. And so we get the meaning of the word swastika, which is: all powerful/shining God.

In ancient times, References such as, "all powerful" or "brilliant" were assigned to the many gods of polytheistic religions. Later these descriptions moved into the context of many current, established, monotheistic religions.

In the past when kings acquired their royal throne, they were also referred to as the 'shinning one.' This also allowed them to claim their divine right to rule over their dominions acquired "from the god's themselves."

The sun, our only source of light, has been symbolized by the swastika because in ancient times, many people, seeing the sun as a life giver considered a God itself.

As many other peoples world wide, the Armenids of the Armenian Highland and Mesopotamia had been referred to as: "the children of the light". This concept is found within the essence of the word "Ar-men,” where "Ar" is the name of the ancient Armenian sun god known as (referred to as Ra or Ra-Amon by ancient Egyptians). In addition, the word "men" theoretically would stand for the people or worshipers of the sun god, thus we get "Ar-men" and "Ar-men-ia", the "children of light" and their area of habitation becomes the land of the children of light.