Sun cross

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Sun cross
"Circled cross" redirects here. For the Christian symbol, see ringed cross.

A sun cross, solar cross, or wheel cross is a solar symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle.

The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of European prehistory. The symbol's ubiquity and apparent importance in prehistoric religion have given rise to its interpretation as a solar symbol, whence the modern English term "sun cross" (a calque of German: Sonnenkreuz). The symbol means village in Ancient Egyptian (Gardiner symbol O49).

The same symbol is in use as a modern

various/miscellaneous drugs
.

After World War II, variants of the symbol became associated with neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements.[1]

Interpretation as solar symbol

Chariot of the goddess of the Sun Sól with solar cross-shaped wheels (Trundholm sun chariot, Bronze Age, Denmark)

The interpretation of the simple equilateral cross as a solar symbol in Bronze Age religion was widespread in 19th-century scholarship. The cross-in-a-circle was interpreted as a solar symbol derived from the interpretation of the disc of the Sun as the wheel of the

Sun god.[2]
Wieseler (1881) postulated an (unattested)
Gothic rune hvel ("wheel") representing the solar deity by the "wheel" symbol of a cross-in-a-circle, reflected by the Gothic letter hwair (𐍈).[3]

The English term "Sun-Cross", on the other hand, is comparatively recent, apparently loaned from German Sonnenkreuz and used in the 1955 translation of Rudolf Koch's Book of Signs ("The Sun-Cross or Cross of Wotan", p. 94).

The German term Sonnenkreuz was used in 19th-century scholarly literature of any cross symbol interpreted as a solar symbol, an equilateral cross either with or without a circle, or an oblique cross (

völkisch German Faith Movement.[5]

Archaeological record

Bronze Age

In the

sun chariot, it may thus have had a "solar" connotation (compare the Trundholm sun chariot
).

Modern culture

Astronomy

The same symbol represents the Earth in astronomical symbols, while the Sun is represented by a circle with a center point.

Commerce

The

Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad
emblem was a cross in a circle with the words "Santa Fe" across the horizontal bar. In this case, the lines making up the cross were much wider than the circle.

Ethnography

The Sacred Hoop aka

Medicine Wheel is a similar symbol in widespread use by Native Americans including Plains Indians and previously by Hopewell cultures. Other indigenous peoples also use or used the solar cross on their symbolism and as decoration practices.[citation needed
]

Politics

The

Persia used a similar solar cross on their banner, called the Derafsh Kaviani
symbol.

The Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling used a golden sun cross on a red background as an official symbol from 1933 to 1945. The cross with the circle was associated with Olaf II of Norway, patron saint of Norway, and the colors were the coat of arms of Norway.

The Paneuropean Union, a European unification movement, uses this symbol as central element of its flag. [citation needed]

A square cross interlocking with or surrounded by a circle is one of the most popular symbols used by individuals and organisations to represent white nationalism, white supremacy, Neo-Nazism, and white pride.[1] In its Celtic cross form, it is used as the logo for white nationalist website Stormfront.[1] This stems from the use of a circled cross by Norwegian Nazis during World War II.[citation needed] In New Zealand, the Odin's cross was one of the symbols used by on Brenton Tarrant in the Christchurch mosque shootings.[citation needed]

In Germany, a "stylized" circled cross was adopted by a prohibited political party (VSBD/PdA), leading to a ban of the symbol if used within a context of promoting racism (see Strafgesetzbuch section 86a). Although there were doubts on the constitutionality of the ban, it was upheld in a decision of the supreme court.[8]

In Italy, there is a similar ban based on Legge Mancino (the "

Mancino Law", from the Minister of Interior who enacted the law),[9] although there are some examples of the use of the circled cross as a Roman Catholic symbol in Northern Italy.[citation needed
]

Tools

A similar glyph is used in tool sets to denote Phillips-head screws and screwdrivers.

Unicode

There is no formal code point in Unicode for this symbol, though other symbols representing the sun are included. Symbols designed for other purposes, such as U+1F728 🜨 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR VERDIGRIS, U+2295 ⊕ CIRCLED PLUS and U+2A01 ⨁ N-ARY CIRCLED PLUS OPERATOR, may be considered as alternatives.

Examples

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sun crosses.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Celtic Cross". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  2. ^ Martin Persson Nilsson (1950). The Minoan–Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 421. there is a wide-spread opinion that the equal-limbed cross is another symbol of the sun. It was, for example, a favorite theory of the late Professor Montelius, and has been embraced by many other archaeologists; its wide acceptance is due to an interest in finding a pre-Christian origin of the symbol of Christianity. The disc of the sun was regarded as a wheel; hence the myth that the sun-god drives in a chariot across the heavens.
  3. ^ Karl Georg Wieseler (1813–83), Untersuchungen Zur Geschichte Und Religion Der Alten Germanen in Asien und Europa, 1881, p. 157. The suggestion of a specifically Gothic variant of the runic alphabet partially preserved in the Gothic alphabet is due to Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie (1835).
  4. ^ Richard Nicolaus Graf von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Kampf um Paneuropa aus dem 1. Jahrgang von Paneuropa, Paneuropa Verlag, 1925, p. 36.
  5. ^ For example:
    • Karl Hans Strobl, Die Runen und das Marterholz, Zwinger-Verlag, 1936, p. 138
    • Waldemar Müller-Eberhart, Kopf und herz des Weltkrieges: General Ludendorffs Wertung als Deutscher, Georg Kummer, 1935, p. 244.
  6. Nebra sky disk
    exhibition site (landesmuseum-fuer-vorgeschichte-halle.de)
  7. ISBN 978-3-948618-22-3. Archived
    from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  8. ^ "BGH, Beschluss vom 01.10.2008 - 3 StR 164/08". Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  9. ^ "Criminal Code (1993) (excerpts)". LegislatiOnline.


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