#robert fludd tree of life

[businesstiramisu]

Actually you know what, I've been meaning to research this myself for years but i'm lazy, let's try crowdsourcing this.

if you have seen this design in anime please tell me about it! I already know about FMA, NGE, and ?Black Clover? (I should double check that one) but go ahead and tell me anyways.

[businesstiramisu]

[re: me pointing out in the tags that Roy acquired stigmata in bhood/manga story] #prev tags not only did Roy get stigmata he also (previously) got impaled (by Lust’s finger spears) in his side#like that man’s wounds literally echo the wounds of Christ#I feel like probably a coincidence tho#cause firstly I imagine that while arakawa is aware of Christian symbolism#it isn’t (afaik) as culturally prominent and so baked into everything in Japan that it would be present in her work w/o being deliberate#and if there is any deliberate Christ figure in fma it’s definitely Ed not Roy#like I love Roy he is my ultimate blorbo and I am obsessed with him#but I gotta admit he’s not a (deliberate) Christ allegory (via poorpoorpitifulme)

yeah my thoughts basically align. To elaborate though b/c you've given me an excuse:

probably depends on who you talk to but according to wikipedia the spear wound is also included in stigmata! So yeah i was referring to the Promised Day stuff *and* Lust's attack

Arakawa did research about European culture & historical alchemy mysticism (she jokes about it in the omakes). I think she chose a lot of minor worldbuilding details to "feel" more European than Japanese (to me at least), and it sticks out because the 2003 anime reversed some of them - for example Ed eating dango on a train in episode 10. I don't think you ever see dango or other Japanese snack foods in the manga (though it's been a while since i read, so i'm not sure)

One place in Japanese culture where Christian symbolism *is* pretty prominent in post-Evangelion anime, and that absolutely applies to FMA. I think the Evangelion influence is much more prominent in the 2003 anime than the manga (I had a whole list of possible NGE references in the old anime, i wonder if I could dig that up) -- but one example in manga/Brotherhood is Robert Fludd's Tree of Life woodblock on Ed's Door of Truth-- the same design is prominent in the Evangelion OP. I've also seen it turn up in other anime though (e.g. Black Clover) so idk maybe it's just well-known in Japan?

That said, agreed there's a lot more Christ-figure comparisons to be made with Ed (once again, even moreso in the old anime, like holy shit guys)

And the old anime (more possibly-Christian references & plot) didn't give any of these wounds to Roy. Like, Lust has this whole subplot with Scar, she didn't even fight Roy as far as I remember. So, stigmata? Intentional? Coincidence? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

anyways agreed Roy is one of the blorbos of all time 👍

fullmetal alchemist fans will say shit like 'tbh him getting impaled was one of my favorite moments in the story' and they will be talking about their beloved protagonist.

[shiny-huntress]

So in @asthmaticbee FMA/HP crossover fic, The Truth Will Out (and you will pay your dues), Ed’s wand is one made of Ebony wood with carvings that remind him of the/his gate. Always a sucker for designing wands for characters from other franchises wands, I took up that challenge.

Btw, Ed has by far the most annoying gate to try and convert into wand carving. Like look at these three side by side and tell me Al’s would not be the easiest to turn into a wand

Anyways, I chose the Madagascar Ebony for the species of wood due to it having a reddish tint to it. I also found a picture that made the color picking really easy and all the colors (not the yellow) for the raised and lower sections are picked from that picture and tweaked with darkening color effects and opacity sliders. 

I wanted the carvings to echo the many staggered circles of Robert Fludd’s interpretation of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, as do the raised feathers that are tinted a deeper red at the base of the wand, though I couldn’t include all ten of them. At the top, we get the crown, tinted yellow to stand out from the darker carvings around it and flames coming out from the top. The feathers also have little circles on them that I think are even more raised and are polished to the point of looking like stones are inlaid into the wand. I mean the wand is made by Truth, I can theoretically make it as extra complex as I want.

[silvyavan]

SO NEW CHAPTER NEW THEORY ABOUT MYTHOS

THIS TIME: LAYERS OF THE KABBALAH

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

So the new chapter dropped and while this is not the Yggdrasil theory that had come around previously, it IS very similar in terms of technicalities

So right off the bat, we see that Dante calls the path to the demon realm the Tree Qliphoth while some earlier (non-official tho) translations called it the Tree of Yggdrasil but the point still stands:

Big mythical Tree taht uses magic, has access to multiple realms and is more or less dangerous

But the picture that appears specifically when mentions the tree is this

And is the tree of life from the Kabbalah depicted by Robert Fludd.

In the Jewish Kabbalah, the tree of life is has emanations/attributes called sephiroth (nobody laugh, this is real), and Tree of Life has an opposite called the Tree of Death, and in turn the Sephiroth have opposites - the Qliphoth (impure or evil spiritual forces)

Now there are theories about how each arcane mage has represents a different realm in Yggdrasil, but later in the chapter we see that Dante has documents of THIS

IN HIS ROOM

And that's most likely a more accurate diagram of the Tree of Life or the Tree of Death but you can't tell because they're both depicted as that when they're not together so let's assume it's Tree of Death/Qliphoth

Which makes you think, if they're after arcane mages, why William and Yami specifically.

Now the thing about these trees is that both are counter opposites but the first Sephiroth, Jesod or Yesod, depending on the translation, is representative of foundation and in most diagrams is second from the bottom.

Considering that the Qliphoth is A Tree, William would arguably be the the Yesod of the tree, seeing as how his World Tree Magic would be the foundation for the magic path.

But Why Yami? Well, if we're thinking about this, Dante, using the Qliphoth, could open a tunnel to the Demon world but If we're going by Jewish Kabbalah, then it's likely that place might be based off of Sitra Achra (the term for the realm of evil in the kabbalah as well as the Other Side opposite to holliness/ the side of impurity)

But here's the thing.

Sitra Achra has LAYERS. In Hermetic Kabbalah, it's said that Hell has seven divisions :

The pit of corruption (Mashchit/Be'er Shachat);

Cistern of sounds/clinging mud (Bar Shaon/ Titha-Yaven);

Abaddon (not the demon, yall)/Tzoah Rotachat

Sheol/Tehom

The gates of death (Dumah/Sha'are Mavet)

Limbo/oblivion (Neshiyyah/Tzalmavet)

And the lowest earth, Gehenna (Erestz Tachtit)!

So big question: If Dante's gonna let the demons loose from the underworld, which underworld are they gonna come from.

And while I cannot predict which one it's gonna be (probably Gehenna, Limbo or Abaddon, if we're going by tropes) it's likely that that place will have magic that is similar to Yami's magic.

Seeing as how William is the foundation, the arcane stage who's magic follows will probably have a connection corresponding to each division, since there are more than one. Since its Yami, it's likely he'll be represented as Geburah, Binah or Chokmah but it's a shot in the dark since I'm going off of defining characteristics with Yami's almost unique art of Ki, acceptance of the black bulls or headstrong personality.

So.

Where does that take us? Well, if Dante DOES in fact have a specific division of Sitra Achra, then theoretically if he does manage to snatch Yami, that's not the imminent apocalypse. Because if they use Williams magic as a foundation and Yami's magic to infuse into that foundation, then technically the rescue party would be able to derail his plan via pouring a different magic into the tree.

So technically, if for example, Asta were to accidentally do it first (because he's our self sacrificing idiot), then combined with his antimagic which may or may not actually a magic of nothingness (since it technically works in the same way as antimatter but that's a theory for a later date) then rather than going to, let's say, Gehenna, the tunnel would instead lead to Limbo, a dimension of nothingness.

So while Dante's plan is pretty fucking terrifying, there's no guarantee that our protags won't just go "eye of tiger" and literally open a completely different dimension open.

While this is only a theory, I'd love to see how this plays out in any way.

[noise-vs-signal]

“Tree of Life” by Robert Fludd (1621).

[businesstiramisu]

I mean, I've heard of (and watched most of) Gunbuster and without being even slightly into mecha. But that's because the weebs I hung out with when I got into anime in 2020 were really into Anime History and Hideaki Anno's body of work in particular. I guess I don't know how common that is, maybe my special talent is that I keep running into them.

I am pretty surprised that OP has been an Influential Anime Poster here on tumblr for years without anyone mentioning Gunbuster to her.

"How have you, a european girl in her 20s who just got into mecha last year, never heard of this obscure mecha OVA from 1988"

[authoratmidnight]

Try centuries.

The symbol used in the FMA pic up there was designed by some guy named Robert Fludd in the 1500-1600's (who as best as I can tell was not Jewish, you can find it if you google 'Robert Fludd Tree of Life' you can find it). And yes his tree of life is based on the Jewish Tree of Life/Kabbalah. So alas this is like, ancient appropriation unfortunately.

The author just, lifted from him (b/c of his ties to alchemy/alchemists and shit I'm sure). Stealing someone else's appropriation basically.

Also, the one above THAT is from Neon Genesis Evengalion, and it's straight up a Tree of Life/Kabbalah (but like, inverted I think? im not too well versed on Eva but that's what the wiki says, it's even more blatent). So it's not just FMA doing it. Eva beat them to the punch (also apparently the version used in FMA also appears in Eva, going by the google image results that came up).