Paisley Daily Express

WAY Secret of abbey’s symbols

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WE REVISIT DEREK PARKER’S RAMBLES THROUGH RENFREWSHI­RE

Mine of informatio­n

Wednesday is the 63rd anniversar­y of the death of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who shot himself in a Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945.

Hitler was influenced by black magic and his vision of a new world order was rooted in pagan ritual and Germanic racial purity.

Significan­tly, he died on Walpurgis Night – May Day Eve – when witches and wizards mark winter’s end with mountain-top revelries.

Nazism’s most striking symbol was the swastika – an equal-armed black cross with each arm continuing at right angles.

Visitors to Paisley’s hallowed abbey wonder why swastikas are sculpted into stone pillars forming the cloistered walk. There’s an explanatio­n.

The stone swastikas – builders’ marks about one- inch high – were carved during the 1914 renovation of the cloisters, 20 years before Hitler’s rise to power.

Originally, swastikas – the word derives from Sanskrit ‘svastika,’ meaning ‘it is good’ – symbolised the sun and its

Derek Parker knew many of Paisley’s secrets – the grimy and the good.

He wandered every corner in search of the clues that would unlock Renfrewshi­re’s rich history.

These tales were shared with readers in his hugely popular Parker’s Way column.

We’ve opened our vault to handpick our favourites for you.

powers of life and light.

Also known as the fylfot – from Old English describing building material cementing the foot of windows in medieval cathedrals – the swastika solar wheel symbol was identified with nature’s life-nurturing forces in Viking, Native American, Chinese and Indian religion.

Noticeably, Hitler reversed the swastika by orienting it in an anticlockw­ise, rather than clockwise, direction – tainting forever a symbol of long life and good fortune with the contradict­ory forces of evil and death.

The Unforgivab­le Sin is described in St Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 12 as ‘All manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven unto men except the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven in this world nor the world to come.’

This dire warning targets those who pervert the natural order by portraying evil actions as good – and vice versa – as did Adolf Hitler, the Supreme Black Magician, who hijacked the swastika for his own wicked ways.

Hitler and his would-be masters of the universe evoked the forces of evil and were destroyed by them on Walpurgis Night, when the powers of darkness are at their zenith.

The swastika symbols of the flaming sun on the cloister columns of Paisley Abbey are stony sermons about the consequenc­es of playing with fire in the pursuit of evil.

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Paisley Abbey
Historic symbols Paisley Abbey
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