The observation that the Tree of Life would rotate clockwise in the
northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern probably doesn't
give enough consideration to the feebleness of the Coriolis force compared
to, say, the phototropism of vegetation.  A much more likely explanation
is the classic one: that the clockwise swastika is the Sun-wheel, because
the sun progresses across the sky that way.  (Although that's not the
historical way it happened; clocks were first made as little imitation
images of the sun moving thru the heavens.  So it's more valid to talk of
the clock going sunwise, but do the engineers listen to me?  Of course
not.)  Anyway, there is still much uncertainty about whether the
anti-swastika goes counter-sunwise because that represents Evil, or
because it is the Sun's twin-opposite, the Moonwheel.  The use of anti-Sun
to represent Evil may be because humans are so strongly visually-oriented,
but I'm not going to try to settle THAT one just now.
-- Diccon Frankborn (dickeney@access.digex.com)
