Thursday, April 20, 2006

ZOMG! Alchemy! Vol. 1
With the help of a friend (whom I affectionately call Elgie), I was able to piece together a great deal of information concerning various symbols used in FMA. You might have already figured this out, but I have pictures and I know how to use them. Even if they are mostly crapaliciously scanned and/or cropped. (You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a picture of an FMA flamel!)

1. The Flamel
If you're a true blue FMA fan you probably picked up somewhere that the cross with a snake, crown, and wings (pictured here) is called a flamel. You might not know, however, that it is a traditional alchemical symbol, or just what it means. I'm here to fix that. ^_^
Firstly, the flamel is often mistaken for what is known as the Hermetic staff or caduceus, often used by hospitals and health insurance companies. They do look quite similar, as demonstrated by this picture. The Hermetic staff is pictured in the center, a wingless flamel in the upper left corner.
Here is my picture, scanned sloppily from my beloved book Alchemy: The Great Secret by somebody whose name I can't find. Look it up, I'm sure you'll find it.
As you can see, this picture shows not only a flamel, but also a variation on a symbol we will discuss a little later.
As my lovely book says, "At center is a famous emblem called the 'crucified snake of Flamel,' a synoptic image that unites the symbols of sulfur and mercury, the opposing metals of fire (dryness) and fusibility (liquid) that together create gold (the Philosopher's Stone)." The union of sulfur and mercury is important, as I will explain in a later post when I get into actual alchemy.
So the original meaning of the flamel was simply a symbol for the Philosopher's Stone. FMA took it in a different direction and (spoiler, as if you haven't seen the whole series and all 3 movies already) incorporates it into the transmutation circle that "seals" a homunculus, preventing it from regenerating. This brings us to our next symbol.

2. The Ouroboros Tattoo
This was an immensely interesting subject to look into because the Ouroboros appears in several different cultures with almost exactly the same meaning, which resulted in a number of different representations of it.
So, what is an Ouroboros anyway? It's a dragon or serpent depicted as eating its own tail, and it symbolizes eternity, the lack of a beginning or end. As a site that Elgie found and therefore didn't give me the address of says, "Four of the continents of the world have had cultures that depicted this creature. In Asia, India and Japan both have had this creature appear. In Egypt, this creature appears, perhaps for the first time and is introduced to Greece. It is also interesting to see that Ouroboros was absorbed into Norse mythology as Jormungand, although this dragon does not hold the same symbolism as most Ourobori. However, the most noted use and origin of this dragon is alchemy; one of the most famous pictures of Ouroboros is from Cleopatra's Chrysopoeia, which means 'Gold-making'." (Please don't sue me for not citing you properly, mystery site! T_T)
This gets us halfway through understand the homunculi's strange tattoo. But what's that Star of David doing there? Well, for one thing, it's not a Star of David, at least in meaning (so stop asking me about my necklace, stupid frosh! I'm not Jewish! Or a Nazi!). By itself, it is often interpreted as the Mark of the Beast or part of a curse, which is fitting for homunculi. However, paired with the Ouroboros, as it can be traditionally found, it has an entirely different meaning which serves to enforce the symbolism of the Ouroboros itself.
"The six-pointed star is found in symbolical representations of the earliest cosmogonies. When the six-pointed star is formed of two interlaced equilateral triangles -- one light with the apex pointing upward, the other dark with the apex pointing downward, both triangles being symmetrically placed with regard to one central point -- and the double figure is surrounded by a circle, the sign represents the universe, spirit and matter, the alpha and omega in the cosmos, and involution and evolution. In the Qabbalistic presentation of the figure, instead of a circle surrounding the star a serpent is portrayed as swallowing its tail, as in the seal of the Theosophical Society." (Found here.)
I know, lots of big words. Basically what it means is that the symbol is the composition of a light triangle pointing up (sun-man) and a dark triangle pointing down (moon-woman), surrounded by a circle, or in the Qabbalistic style, by an Ouroboros. Elgie found some nice pictures for me, one of the Qabbalistic style and one that looks as though it would be used in alchemy because it is interspersed with the symbols of the seven planetary gods, common symbols in alchemical works.
So, since the symbol incorporates several themes prevalent in alchemy, it is appropriate for creatures created by alchemy, and its individual components make it even moreso. The Ouroboros represents the supposedly unending life of a homunculus, and the Mark of the Beast signifies their inherently evil nature.

3. The Chimera
This was a bit of a wild goose chase. At first I found this picture in two books on traditional alchemy, and immediately thought of the symbol used by the state military. Unfortunately, as you can see, when comparing them side by side there is little similarity. Thank you again, Elgie, who copied a passage from a magazine that properly identified the symbol.
"Chimera, according to the Greek mythology, was the daughter of Echidna and Typhon. Chimera had the head of the lion, the body of the goat and the hindquarters of the snake. ... The term 'chimera' is often used metaphorically to describe things that have combined attributes from different sources. One example would be the horrific creations of the Sewing Life Alchemist, Shou Tucker."
It was difficult to find a picture of a real traditional chimera; the term has become so muddled these days that there are two "correct" interpretations of its appearance. The first and most common is the one I grew up with--a lion's head and body, a goat's head protruding from its back, and a snake for a tail. However, the military uses a different and more accurate depiction. The best picture I could dig up was a logo, so ignore the globe. And, uh, thanks, I guess, to Chimera Travel.

4. The 8-Pointed Star
This one was of more personal interest to me because one rarely sees 8-pointed stars. In fact, flipping through my books on alchemy I found only 5- and 6-pointed stars. That is, until I stumbled across this little gem. It is also adorned with the symbols of the seven planetary gods, as well as an eighth symbol which appears to be just a simple circle.
Why did I care about the 8-pointed star? What does it have to do with FMA? Well, it started when Elgie suggested that the 6-pointed star was part of Al's blood seal. So I ran off and checked my jacket, and found that Al's blood seal is comprised mainly of not a 6-pointed but an 8-pointed star. Curious, I went on a search, and found the medal you see above. According to my favorite FMA site (now part of a group of sites titled Anime Indepth), the meaning of the 8-pointed star in FMA transmutation circles is "creation". So there it is.
EDIT (4/23): The same picture also appears in the Ready Steady Go opening sequence, right in the beginning before the perty flowers.

*deep breath* I hope that was worth your while. Soon I will do an article on Alchemy 101--the "real" stuff. It's an interesting culture, or science, or whatever you want to call it. See you next time.
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