Sun cross

The wheel cross, sun cross too, is a subject of the iconography of the Nordic prehistory. It is a circular wheel whose spokes form a cross, the same divide the circle into four major areas. The motif occurs in petroglyphs, on how the rock carvings of Allinge - Sandvig and mostly Bronze Age finds. On the one hand the wheel cross is an image of the sun or the sun's disk, on the other hand, it can be interpreted as a symbol for the day - night cycle and the cycle of the seasons, according to Flemming Kaul.

A wheel wrench located on the capstone of the megalithic tomb of Bunsoh in Schleswig -Holstein. Boulders with corresponding representations are occupied in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern at megalithic sites in the region around Rerik. An approximately 60 kg heavier sandstone (0.54 x 0.49 x 0.26 m) was discovered by a fossil collector about 1988 at the Baltic beach at Rethwisch ( district of Rostock) in a cairns. The stone came in 2013 in the Museum of Rerik.

The wheel cross Europe in the Bronze Age

The presentation can be found in many Bronze Age cult objects, such as the sun chariot of Trundholm or on ornate bronze razors, eg in the form of the Sun Ship.

Wheel crosses are found particularly in rock paintings and stone ornaments, eg on Bornholm or Greby. Radsymbole are after bowls and vessels, the largest group of pictures of the rock carvings in Scandinavia. Petroglyph with four, rarely with eight spokes can be found in Denmark and Sweden.

In carvings wheel crosses are often depicted on pedestals ( Sun stelae ). Since petroglyphs probably are realistic representations of rituals can be assumed that real wheel crosses were used in ceremonies. Such findings are supported by, for example, by a miniature solar image on a stand ( National Museum of Denmark ) as well as a stone in wheel cross - shape with four cup marks, found on Zealand in 1999.

Symbolic meaning

In the free interpretation of the wheel cross as a representation of the cyclic passage of the sun's motion in the day - night rhythm, the horizontal cross-brace the Earth as a disc dar. The upper semicircle thus shows the path of the sun in the day, from the morning sunrise (left intersection ) on midday until evening sunset (right point). The lower semicircle stelt the path of the sun in the night through the underworld dar. When transferred to the cycle of the seasons of the sunrise with the spring, the midday with summer, the sunset with the autumn and the midnight is equivalent to the winter.

The wheel cross as a symbol in the presence

In the presence of the wheel cross is a modification continues as a symbol usage, eg in neo-paganism, mysticism and occultism, but also in groups with racist and neo-Nazi ideology.

Religious Symbol

How the Swastika is used as a sun cross of neo-pagan groups and organizations as a representation of the sun and the annual cycle the wheel wrench. Thus exists in the Wiccan religion a year wheel with four solar festivals. In various fire practices are wheels of fire, ie Wheel crosses of straw used.

The neo-pagan society Germanischer faith community used as a symbol of Thor's hammer in front of golden wheel cross on a blue background.

In Christianity, it is found as a consecration or apostle Cross in various churches. Obsolete it is also called the Papal Cross, because it also served as a papal emblem until the Reformation. However, the current Pope Cross has a different shape. In Memleben monastery ( of death Emperor Otto the Great) one finds a wheel spider in the wall of the east wing of the exam.

Political Symbol

The Swedish neo-Nazi party Nordiska rikspartiet used the black wheel cross on red flag. The Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling used a golden sun cross on a red background as its official symbol. Also the symbol of the racist secret society Ku Klux Klan, a white cross on a red background is inspired by the symbolism.

The European federalist Pan-European Union used a red wheel cross (symbol of humanity) with yellow background ( symbol of enlightenment ) in a blue flag. After the founding of Europe and the European Union Euros a circle of twelve stars, has been added.

Scientific symbol

In astronomy and astrology is a possible symbol for the earth. The cross in the circle stands for the equator and the prime meridian, astrological it symbolizes also in the horoscope chart the Part of Fortune ( Pars Fortuna). However, the other earth symbol, the glyph ♁, used more and more frequently.

In mathematics, a shortcut character for the vectorial sum of direct and logical contra-. The wheel cross is encoded in Unicode at U 1 F728.