In common with other universal symbols the cross emblem presents four clearly marked stages in its development, a simple idea, elaboration, sanctity and decadence. The crux ansata of Egypt, which was originally a water gauge beginning with a simple stick set upright on the banks of the Nile to indicate the height of the annual overflow, was elaborated, first, by the addition of a short horizontal bar, thus forming a tau-cross, the masculine symbol sacred in Phoenicia to Tammuz, and later by the sun-circle, finally changed to a loop, making the object a handled cross. Thus juxtaposed, the fertility of sun and waters suggest the generative powers of nature. This symbol appears in the catacombs with the sun circle transformed into a laurel wreath, expressive of the triumphant faith and hope of christians. The first historical appearance of the swastika, fourteenth (?) century B.C., is apparently on a small leaden figure three and a half inches long, found by Dr. Schliemann in the second city of the ruins of Troy together with many crosses of gold, silver, etc., the location of the symbol on the figure having generative significance. The swastika indicated the sun — the feet referring to the rays, then fire and finally life. In India, the swastika (arani) formed by the two firesticks — the feet indicating flames — was the emblem of fire, then, by an association of ideas, the flame of being. Thor's hammer, identical in form with the Phoenician masculine cross, was the sacred symbol of fire, the hearth, marriage and fertility, and in the god's use of this hammer to restore his two dead goats, the symbol suggests immortality. The paper traced the gathering of various national crosses by the early converts to the catacombs of Rome, where the crux ansata, swastika, tau-cross and modifications of them all, appear on the walls and tombs. The wave of enthusiasm occasioned by the discovery of America brought many missionaries across the Atlantic—following the reports of those who took possession of the soil under the sign of the cross — and they were amazed to find the cross already so prevalent, attributing its presence to some early christian missionary, traditionally St. Thomas. Its use on altars, tablets and pottery, in weaving, in ceremonies, as well as in representing the orientation of the earth and the heavens, the material and the invisible world, were suggested in support of the thesis that whether as swastika, emblem of fire, wind or water, crux ansata emblem of reproduction, the tau-cross suggestive of the masculine function, or the Latin cross with its acquired ethical suggestion, the cross has always been the generic symbol of the impartation and maintenance of life.
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