Early swastika interpretations

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in the following Straight Dope Classic article:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_156.html ,
Unca Cece says of the swastika:
Originally it probably symbolized the sun circling through the sky, although many other explanations have also been offered.
My "favorite" theory about what the swastika symbolized comes from the works of my favorite crackpot, Wilhelm Reich. In his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism, he proclaims that it's obvious what the swastika represents: a couple Doing It doggy style. The woman is lying prone with her knees bent and her arms flopping down over the edge of the bed. The man is kneeling behind her with his groin up against hers and (apparently) his head craning forward in what must be a rather painful position. (Either that, or he likes to stick his arms out in front of him like a walking mummy or zombie or Frankenstein's monster.)

Note that this was the same Wilhelm Reich who believed he'd discovered abiogenesis and omnipresent sexual energy.

[Askance]

Now it just remains to link him up with the Third Reich and the Reichenbach Falls, and you have material for the next Da Vinci Code.

[Cervaise]

It was in the work of Carl Sagan that I read one very appealing hypothesis about the figure and its apparent universality, i.e. why it seems to pop up in diverse cultures around the globe in roughly the same time frame:

It might be a comet, positioned so humans were looking at it head on, the tail streamers behind it forming a long curl that in the foreshortened point of view would look like a spiral.

Or it might just be a cognitive artifact of the widespread human habit of dividing things into twos and then twos again to make squares and crosses. No conspiracy necessary.

[UselessGit]

I definately don't aggree with the swastika originating in Thor's Hammer. The original Nordic rune (http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/thorshamar.gif) doesn't really look like it, (nordic runes generally weren't as symmetric as the swastica is, with rare exceptions like the powerful Helm of Awe (http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/runecircle.gif) ) and there are much older instances of icons that look much more like the Swastika, for example on these Roman carvings (1 (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/archeometrie/images/fg0.jpg) 2 (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/archeometrie/images/fg1.jpg)). The only times I've seen Thor's Hammer depicted otherwise than in the link above is when it is shown as his actual hammer like so (http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/Romersdal_thors_hammer.gif). There is, however, a huge 'swastika' on the front of one of our most notable downtown buildings (http://www.eimskip.is/images/innlent/originals/P2.jpg) (causing delightful misunderstandings and infuriation (http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/4201.htm) ), which must be derived from Thor's hammer, so I might be communicating via my rectum, as usual. :confused:

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(nordic runes generally weren't as symmetric as the swastica is, with rare exceptions like the powerful Helm of Awe (http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/runecircle.gif) )
The Helm of Awe is the one that gives your character a +6 Charisma bonus, right?

(Er, sorry.)