Pas's gammadion and the voided cross

Chris Mulder · 22 Jan 2007, 04:31 · from 2007-January.txt.gz

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From: chris_mulder at sbcglobal.net (Chris Mulder)
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:31:36 -0800 (PST)
Subject: (urth) Pas's gammadion and the voided cross
In-Reply-To: <39ed084f0701211827m19bd6ed8mb7fad2afe72c535 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <20070122043136.69855.qmail at web82101.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Well, the more I read, the less of a firm idea I have of what it looks like. I guess the sign of addition is a plus-type cross, but a voided cross? what does it mean to void a cross? Like a null sign through a cross? or like the four 90 degree angles of a maltese cross?  A photo would be most illuminating.
  Welcome, Groves, I'm a reader and lurker who rarely posts too.  Though I have read about 40% of the entire archive, in order.
  And it was very informative. Keep after it.
   
  cm

Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com> wrote:
    Well, it turns out the answer was right in front of me if I'd had a little more imagination or more knowledge of heraldic crosses.  I just started leafing through the Long Sun novels in search of the first mention of the gammadion.  The "voided cross" and the "gammadion" are indeed the same thing, as proved in this passage (on p. 172 in the omnibus edition "Litany of the Long Sun") when Silk is warding Teasel's window from the return of the creature that had preyed upon her in the night.  Silk leans out the window to reach outside wall above it, and... 
   
  "With the pointed corner of the one of the four gammadions that made up the cross, he scratched the sign of addition on the bricks."
   
  When I first read this, I struggled to imagine a voided cross each of whose four arms was itself a swastika, and I was more confused than ever.  But it's much simpler than this, as I learned after a little poking around on the internet: 
   
  If you take a Greek cross (whose arms are of equal length) and you void it *all the way through the ends*, then you end up with four gammas in four different orientations.  (I wish I could draw this for you, but no doubt you all know this already and are wondering why it ever puzzled me in the first place; but I was imagining an outline drawing of a cross ( i.e., with *closed* ends), and so I couldn't pick out any satisfactory gammas.)  Apparently, any such symbol, being made up of gammas, may be called a "gammadion," not just those that are pinwheel-like (although I'm guessing it has to be symmetrical). 
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