by Jess Howe

Created on: August 27, 2009

It is very hard not to be swayed by symbols, actually. We as a human race have used symbols for things for centuries: they were originally for the heraldry of rulers and for religion, as well as a way to distinguish fighters on a field from one another. Today those symbols survive in the flags of countries, and sometimes in the tartans and badges of real clans and of societies. The cross, though, is probably the most powerful of all these symbols.

THE CROSS

The cross started out in the very early times, far before Christianity, in fact. The solar or wheel cross, for instance, has been found in France as a neolithic image. The Ancient Egyptians used something that looks like a letter T, called the Tau Cross. It wasn't until around 1500 BC in Greece that the cross we recognize best appeared; this cross has four sides like one we know, but all the arms of it are equal in length. At the same time, the Coptic Cross appeared, which looks most like the cross we know but with a circle on the upper spoke. So it's very like a Sun Cross mixed with the Latin Cross. The Latin Cross started about 1000 AD though descriptions of it are still found in writings from two hundred years before that!

... and there are hundreds more versions of the cross. For it to have survived for so many thousands of years, it would have to be an important and powerful symbol - however you or I look at it, whatever we see in it, the cross has remained with us in its varying forms throughout history and into the current day. Today, we still use the Coptic Cross, the Latin Cross, Brigit's Cross, the Papal Cross, and many others. The cross is even found in mathematics: it's our plus sign, part of a language that moves over all borders. There are so many words that incorporate a cross, like "across," "crossed-out", "double-crossed," and so on. And in medicine, worldwide the Red Cross is recognized as the symbol of that organization, one which gives aid and healing to anyone in need. That's a red Greek Cross, actually.

The cross has been a symbol of peace, love, and healing, since centuries before Christ. Today, there are thousands of Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, and Rosicrucians, among others, who use it as a religious symbol, and millions of mathematicians, not to mention the billions of humans on Earth, who use it every day in addition and formulas. Scientists also use it in the symbols of some elements, like mercury. The cross is literally everywhere.

THE SWASTIKA

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