The Four Arms of Destiny

Swastika in the Hopi World

Gary A. David

When masked kachinas dance in the plazas of Hopi villages in northern Arizona during annual ceremonies to pray for rainfall and fecundity, they usually carry a flat gourd rattle in their right hand. Sometimes these rattles bear the icon of the swastika. Far older than Germany’s Nazi regime, this Anasazi (or ancient Hopi) symbol once conveyed a sacred rather than a malevolent meaning. Specifically, it represented the center of ancestral Hopi land.

Author Frank Waters explains the swastika in terms of the tribe’s prehistoric migrations. “We can now see that the complete pattern formed by the migrations was a great cross whose center, Túwanasavi [Center of the Universe], lay in what is now the Hopi country in the southwestern part of the United States, and whose arms extended to the four directional pásos.” 1

In early times at the start of the Fourth World (the current epoch), one Hopi clan after another began great migrations to the four directions represented by the venerable symbol of the swastika. Waters believes that the Hopi migrated from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast and from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego, though the range may actually be narrower. Certainly the Anasazi traveled from the Colorado River to the Rio Grande, and from the San Juan River south to the lands of the Toltecs in Mexico and the Maya in Central America. Macaw and parrot feathers or even whole birds have been found in burial sites around the Colorado Plateau. This indicates that the Anasazi had well established trade routes to the south.

Regardless of what the farthest limits of actual migration were, the point where the four arms of the geo-morphic swastika meet is known as the Center of the World, the Tuuwanasavi, supposedly a spot a few miles from the Arizona village of Oraibi on the Hopi Third Mesa. Founded about 1120 AD, Oraibi has been continuously inhabited longer than any community on the North American continent. Oraibi literally means “Round Rock,” but the full name of this village is Sip Oraibi, “the place where the earth was made solid” or “the place where the roots solidify.” The first syllable of the name is similar to the Hopi word for navel: sipna’at. Hence, this tribe considers the spot to be the navel of the world.

Waters also suggests that a counterclockwise-turning swastika represents the earth, whereas a clockwise-turning one represents the sun in its movement across the sky. This indicates the dynamically potent nature of the symbol.

In addition to its importance in the beginning times, the swastika also plays a key role in Hopi prophecy of the end times. In a period preordained by the Creator, the enigmatic figure of Pahana will return wearing a red cap or a red cape. Incidentally, some modern Knights Templar orders wear a red pillbox hat, and the traditional Shriners’ red fez also comes to mind. The red Templar cross on the white mantle might possibly fit the “red cape” description as well.

Pahana will verify his authenticity by bearing a stone piece that will match up with the rest of the sacred tablet the Creator had given the Hopi before they began their migrations. Two helpers will accompany Pahana, one of which carries a masculine swastika representing purity and the four directions. The first helper also brings a Maltese cross with lines between the arms signifying menstrual blood, while the second helper holds merely a sun symbol. The combined forces of these three icons will “shake the world” and bring about global purification. 2

Some commentators have noted that these hoary emblems of Hopi prophecy represent the Central Powers of World War I (the Iron Cross) and the Axis Powers of World War II (the Swastika and the Rising Sun), whereas the final purification of the planet will present itself as World War III.

Pahana is probably not a single figure but an anthropomorphized composite, since it is said that his population will be great. In addition, Pahana supposedly has no religion but his own. This sounds very much like the charge that fundamentalist opponents make against the Freemasons. This was partially the reason why leaders of the Knights Templar were tortured and executed in the early 14th century. At any rate, if Pahana and his two helpers fail to stop human inequities, an unnamed figure from the west will come “like a big storm.” He will unmercifully purge evil-doers, though he too is said to be a large number of people. 3

“The Purifier, commanded by the Red symbol [Maltese cross], with the help of the Sun and the Meha [swastika], will weed out the wicked who have disturbed the way of life of the Hopi, the true way of life on Earth. The wicked will be beheaded and will speak no more. This will be the purification for all the righteous people, the Earth, and all living things on the Earth. The ills of the Earth will be cured. Mother Earth will bloom again and all the people will unite into peace and harmony for a long time to come.” 4

However, if the Hopi nation disappears totally, the motion of the planet will become eccentric, and a great flood will again engulf the land as it did at the end of the Third World. Eventually, hordes of ants will inherit the Earth.

Whatever the Hopi connotations of the swastika may be, this icon transcends any specific culture by virtue of its global occurrence. J.E. Cirlot comments on its universality: “The graphic symbol is to be found in almost every ancient and primitive cult all over the world-- in Christian catacombs, in Britain, Ireland, Mycenae and Gascony; among the Etruscans, the Hindus, the Celts and the Germanic peoples; in central Asia as well as in pre-Columbian America.” 5

Despite the negative associations of Fascism in the modern consciousness, swastikas still hold inestimable power and beauty that resonate deep within the human soul. It remains to be seen whether or not these four-armed emblems will usher in the termination of our current age of chaos (the Hopi Fourth World) and the advent of an age of peace.

Sources

1. Frank Waters, and Oswald White Bear Fredericks, Book of the Hopi (New York: Penguin Books, 1987, reprint 1963, p. 113.

2. Thomas E. Mails and Dan Evehema, Hotevilla: Hopi Shrine of the Covenant, Microcosm of the World (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1995), p. 491.

3. Rudolf Kaiser, The Voice of the Great Spirit: Prophecies of the Hopi Indians (Boston, Massachusetts: Shambala Publications, Inc., 1991, 1989), pp. 42-44.

4. Dan Katchongva, Danaqyumtewa, trans., Thomas Francis, ed. “From the Beginning of Life to the Day of Purification: Teachings, History & Prophecies of the Hopi People” [online]. The Hopi Information Network, http://www.recycles.org/hopi/messages/prophecy/katch-1.htm, originally published by the Committee for Traditional Indian Land and Life, Los Angeles, 1972, p. 9.

5. J.E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, trans. Jack Sage, (New York: Philosophical Library, Inc. 1962), p. 307.

Gary A. David is an independent researcher and writer living in rural Arizona. The Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest was recently published by Hayriver Press, a division of Ancient American magazine. (See www.theorionzone.com) This book discusses a correlation between the stars of Orion and the Hopi villages and ruins in the Four Corners region of the US. Recently Mr. David’s articles have appeared in Atlantis Rising magazine. He earned a master’s degree in English literature and formerly taught composition and creative writing at Yavapai College in Arizona, Black Hills State University in South Dakota, and the University of Colorado.

Friday, June 09, 2006