Swastika
Patricia Anne Davis
My English name is Patricia Anne Davis and my ceremonial Dineh name is “one who greets the enemy with peace” or “peace-maker.” I am born of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw tothe yei dine ee ta chii’ nii clan (“red streak running into the water”). My maternalgrandparents are of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw- Chahta and my paternal grandparents are of the kin yaa aanii clan (“towering house” people) of the Dineh Nation. My late father was Anselm G. Davis, Sr., a Native American Church roadman, who gave forty years of service to three generations of Native people. I am a Dineh practitioner of the sacred circle ceremony principles from Dineh oral tradition. I translate the blessing way of life concepts in the four cardinal directions format into therapeutic English concepts. I teach universal holistic health and healing promotion concepts with practical application to all people. I have traveled to England, Canada, Mexico, France, New Zealand and Egypt as a Native American spirituality diagnostician and practitioner.Although the common name for my late father’s tribe is “Navajo”, it is not the name we call ourselves. The spiritual names we call ourselves in our own language are these: precious children of the holy people, earth-surface people; and five-fingered humane beings or, the people – Dineh. Thus, you can see that the word “Navajo” is an imposed English name by the European conquerors of our land in North American. You can also see that the literal translation of our spiritual names for our selves is inclusive of all people. Therefore, the following interpretation of the universal symbol, called the “swastika” from the Sanskrit language in India, is within the context of the Dineh language world-view, hozho.
The term hozho describes an all encompassing concept of holiness and wholeness without competing collectivities that represent competing ideologies. This term is descriptive of spiritual purpose within natural order that can also be called divine law, natural law or the laws of nature. Spirituality concepts described from the Dineh Native American tribal language world-view are in the context of the spiritual purpose of natural order. Every culture that used the “swastika” symbol has a name for it from that language world-view. The Dineh have used this symbol as a life-promoting symbol of the galaxy in the cosmos. At the macrocosmic level of interpretation our solar system is shaped into a group formation of stars in the sky that looks similar to the “swastika” symbol. At the microcosmic level, each person is a five-pointed “star” symbolic of the head, two arms and two legs. The holistic-SELF of every person is represented by air-spiritual wellbeing; fire-mental wellbeing; water-emotive wellbeing; earth-physical wellbeing and corn-social/financial wellbeing. This makes the five-pointed star analogy of the holistic-SELF.
In the Dineh view, the holistic-SELF eternally exists within theholographic universe, which I will call the holographic holistic thinking system to give spiritual meaning to the integrated description of the purpose of natural order. The holistic-SELF eternally existing within the holistic thinking system holographic is hozho, which is oneness within the Creator. The “swastika” symbol is a sacred symbol representing the forces of destruction and construction; the life and death processes simultaneously in motion. It is entity and process; structure and movement; construct and action; particle and wave synchronistically interrelated. A humane being is both living within the universe and also composed of the sacred elements of divine creation living within the natural order. The clockwise and counter-clockwise directional motion represented by this symbol is holiness and wholeness in hozho.
In and of itself this symbol is not “evil.” It is the intention of using this symbol for life-producing choices or death-producing choices applied in the decision-making process which results in the intended outcome. The human mind chooses the intent for using the symbol, which is a misuse of thinking power if used for destroying the sacred-SELF and others. In the Dineh language there is a word to describe people who use their five-senses as a weapon against themselves and others. This is how this symbol was misused. The issue for educating the people about this symbol is not in its misused and misunderstood meaning, but to correct the appropriate purpose of the mind for using cross-cultural wisdom, knowledge, symbols for the common benefit and giving voice to life-producing intention and outcomes for future generations.
The holistic-SELF eternally exists within the holographic thinking system and experiences the two life forces in the biological anabolic and catabolic processes of living in hozho. The mind can deny or affirm the sacred-SELF or deny or affirm the trickster-self. One manifests and the other is un-manifested as the mind chooses. When the trickster-self chooses to manifest in the dualistic thinking system, the outcome is a win-lose and no-win for all concerned. The intent and outcome is within the failure paradigm. When the holistic-SELF chooses to manifest in the holographic thinking system, the outcome is a win-win for all concerned and the sacred-SELF is affirmed in oneness with the Creator.
Patricia Anne Davis 2006
Friday, June 09, 2006