Historians will note that xtians didn't use the cross for the first hundred years when their faith was brought to Europe. They started using it after one of their many reformations (e.g. when they made up new stories that would be accepted by folk with less questions). It is also worth noting that the Romans NEVER crucified people on a cross shaped like the xtian cross. The cross that Romans used to crucify people was shaped like an 'x' as it is easier to lean it up against trees or buildings. The English word 'cross' comes from the Norse word for the Odin's Cross 'kros'. It has been theorized that xtians appropriated the European cross to stop our folk venerating it. You can come to your own conclusions.
The sun cross has been a sacred symbol in Europe for 10000 years, Often, with a circle around it. My favorite examples of ancient crosses in Europe are the spirit ship and sun cross petroglyphs found across Scandinavia. Some of these petroglyphs are 4000 years old. It's sometimes called Odin's Cross, Cross of Wotan, The Sun Cross, Sonnenkreuz, The wheel of life or the creation cross. The examples found in celtic countries often survived history as Celtic xtians carried on using the symbol after xtianity took over. Everywhere else that it existed xtians did their best to destroy any that they found so the people only knew about the xtian cross (kind of like ISIS destroying ancient statues of Buddha in Afghanistan or pyramids in Egypt). One of the pictures below is in Albania, the other pictures are in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Ukraine. The sun cross and its variants can be found all over Europe going back before the main tribes of Europe were even formed. The oldest being near Ukraine at 10000 years old. Interestingly, that area near Ukraine & the steppes of Russia is where the European languages first evolved.
Quite often you will hear people suggesting it is a hindu symbol from India. Yawn........ They don't mention that our Proto Indo European / Aryan ancestors went to India from Europe 3 or 4000 years ago before the Indians started using it. Again, come to your own conclusions.
Be wary of folk who try to tell you what the symbol means as a statement of fact. It is so ancient that we can only offer good theories as to its original meaning. The best ideas are that the symbol represents the circle of life, an engine from the sun that turns the wheel of life in this world and the next, fertility and also the part where the 2 arms of the cross meet in the middle may represent the physical worlds contact with the spiritual world. The idea that the 4 arms represents the seasons is a fake modern wicca idea as our ancestors only recognised 2 seasons.
The symbol is often used when venerating the God Ingui Freyr due to his power over fertility, crops etc. The famous spirit ship petroglyphs seem to depict a ship carrying the dead to the hidden world / after life represented by the Sun Cross. texts often refer to Ingui Freyr as owning a ship that he could fold up and put in his pocket when not using it to travel between realms. There is a lot of evidence that the Sun Cross is a symbol with spiritual significance. What we can say for sure is that this symbol is a sacred symbol for our European folk and has been for many thousands of years.
All of us as Odinists should look to this symbol, explore it with our imagination, use it when venerating our ancestors and look to our blood memory. It is part of who we are. If there was any symbol that might represent the European people it is the sun cross. Admin Gary
