Swastikas

I began collecting swastikas when I came across a good luck token from around 1920 or so that featured a swami figure looking into a crystal ball with the words, “Good Luck Will Accompany the Bearer” stamped underneath. In the center of the crystal ball was a very clearly stamped swastika. The verso depicts a large eye reading, “The All Seeing Eye Guards You From All” surrounded by a horseshoe, wishbone, rabbit’s foot, elephant, heart and key, four-leafed clover, and another swastika; ostensibly all common and popular symbols of good luck and protection. 

I was of course aware of the use of the swastika outside of the modern west, Hindu usage is generally the first touchstone, but the Greek meander is effectively a repeating pattern of swastikas. There is also a robust tradition of swastikas in indigenous Northern American visual culture, most commonly Navajo and Zuni, where it’s called a whirling log. I’m sure I’m butchering the origin story but in the Navajo tradition it’s something along the lines of a traveler was given a log by the gods to help in his travels and he eventually goes through many tribulations and learns a lot of important things and finds a whirling cross with yeis on each point. The symbol becomes a common motif in sand paintings and eventually makes its way into rugs and jewelry, etc. In response to Hitler’s regime, it also dies out in Native American culture in the 1930s (outside of ceremonial use). 

But this was my first encounter with an apparently modern, western use of a swastika (hopefully) outside of the Third Reich. This immediately opened up for the wide world of good luck swastikas that was wildly common in the US and England prior to the 1930s. The massively widespread use of the symbol in almost every culture prior to the 1930s is overwhelming. As far as historians can tell the earliest use is at least 4000 BCE in India, though it’s likely to be earlier. It appears in the visual culture of almost every civilization, though as a major motif it is most common in Indian cultures, Northern American indigenous cultures, and after the late 19th century, American good luck culture. It is quite difficult to draw any straight lines to how and why the swastika erupted as a good luck symbol in the United States but it does seem to be linked to its use in Native American culture. The swastika appears in American advertisements, in postcards, in novelties, as sports emblems, as architectural adornments, absolutely everywhere. I have owned trivets, car hardware, blade hones, silverware, blankets, jewelry, postcards, stationary, coins, and so many other things all adorned clearly and explicitly with swastikas. 

Much of it’s ubiquity can be attributed to how instantly recognizable it is. It is clear, it is repeatable, it can be stretched and manipulated and still be immediately clear. It can be the border of a postcard, or the shape of a watch fob and it’s still absolutely certain what the symbol is. That is powerful and valuable from a design standpoint. Hitler was a garbage human but he was not stupid or ineffective, and his choice of this symbol was obviously powerful and effective as well. 

I choose to refrain from using names here but I had a very interesting experience with selling one of my pre-Nazi swastika items at an antique show several years ago. This was a very focused show featuring all very smart, experienced dealers serving a very specific, careful audience. One of my objects was a circa 1900 cattle brand from a many generation Texas family which featured a swastika as the brand. I was confident in the object's history and I had evidence of the swastika being a known brand in Texas around 1900. The show runner loved the object in this context and I was confident of both the other dealer’s and the audience understanding it’s context and why I found the brand so interesting. The legacy of the Third Reich is so powerful that it is reasonable to believe that human beings were branded like livestock. There is no evidence of this happening specifically, but generally most people’s reaction to this object is along these lines. But the reality of the object as a piece of Texas history with a very common good luck symbol of the era is hard to square with such an extreme reaction, even when the obviousness of the reality of the brand is made clear. That is the power of this object, that is why it fascinates me and why I stand by it as a powerful and captivating thing. One of the dealer’s next to me inquired about it on the second day of the show. He is far older than me and very respected and experienced in this field. He is also Jewish. He expressed horror in the item and questioned it being unrelated to the Nazis. I assured him of its history and its provenance and why that context made it more interesting and powerful. Despite this, he focused on his negative reaction and did not allow the power of that reaction to be contextualized and insisted I remove the item from the show. I did so, as I did not care to make anyone uncomfortable with any of my things (it’s just an antique show), but did point out that while my item was completely unassociated with bigotry or hate or human violence, he in fact had a sign reading “Gypsy Camp”, a term which in any context is a racial slur, and is in any context tied to bigotry and hatred. 

I was very surprised by this interaction and very dismayed. I want to interact with the messy parts of history. I like buying pretty stuff. I like buying valuable stuff. I like buying weird folk art that has zero historical and cultural imperative. But I also really like buying stuff that has emotional impact, historical relevance. I like buying letters from soldiers complaining about how miserable they are. I like buying depression era advertisements decrying the evils of credit. I want objects that are able to make people feel things viscerally. That was the whole point of this cattle brand, and the fact that that was missed by one of the leading deals in my arena horrified me. I have fully come to terms with that, but it made me want to investigate further the outer reaches of collecting. The motivations in owning things. The motivations in amassing collections. Why this thing? Why 800 of them? Why all of them? Why every variation of them? Why this thing that is violent? Why this thing makes some people think and other people run? I collected swastikas because they explored all these questions for me. I learned a lot about history when I first bought that token, I dove deep and found a lot. The swastika became a symbol of that for me. It ties directly to so many areas of interest for me: luck, history, interpretation, cultural changes over time. I’ve since released most of my collection as amassing these things did little for me over time and it became taxing to have to explain it to new visitors of my home. I have retained a few choice pieces, some odd folk art examples, some particularly potent postcards, and of course the now very worn down good luck token that started it.