Post by Mlle Bienvenu on Feb 12, 2005 18:05:39 GMT -5
Al's character design got me to thinking, with the spike on his forehead and his ponytail style ribbon on his helmet, he looks a bit like a unicorn.
Unicorns are known for their purity and innocence. Al's character always exibits a certain innocence compared to Ed's cynicism. When Ed and Al meet Siren, a thief who moonlights as a nurse. Al see's the good in her, because she is caring when she's a nurse (or later a nun and then a schoolteacher). She reminds Alphonse of his mother, while Ed only sees the thief. and believes she's only a nurse/nun/teacher as a con. (her story was that she was a thief in order to raise money to save the hospital/church/school in a dying city that was slowly sinking into the sea, much like Venice)
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From "Animal Symbolism in Alchemy" www.levity.com/alchemy/animal.html
The white stage was the formation of the white tincture or stone, and was derived from though not to be confused with the earlier whitening which followed the calcination or putrefaction, for to have proceeded to this stage meant one was on a higher level of spiritual attainment. This was often pictured as the appearance of a queen dressed in shining white robes in the flask. The white tincture marked a process of inner change when the alchemist was able to experience and bring into an integrated harmony the feminine component of the soul. [...] They saw metals, plants and minerals as being masculine and feminine in some degree and projected the transformations of these in their retorts into their inner space, in order to explore their own masculine and feminine natures. Acids, for example, which could penetrate and dissolve metal ores, were seen as masculine. Substances exhibited a femininity when they were connected with the forces of growth and nourishment of processes in the flask and the melding of substances together into a new unity. Metallic Mercury was seen as hermaphrodite as it both dissolved and brought together other metals into an amalgam.
The White Stone was sometimes symbolised by the Unicorn, partly because of its white horn, but also because the Unicorn could only be tamed by the touch of a pure woman. Thus the White Tincture can only be experienced by purifying the feminine forces within our beings.
Unicorns are known for their purity and innocence. Al's character always exibits a certain innocence compared to Ed's cynicism. When Ed and Al meet Siren, a thief who moonlights as a nurse. Al see's the good in her, because she is caring when she's a nurse (or later a nun and then a schoolteacher). She reminds Alphonse of his mother, while Ed only sees the thief. and believes she's only a nurse/nun/teacher as a con. (her story was that she was a thief in order to raise money to save the hospital/church/school in a dying city that was slowly sinking into the sea, much like Venice)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From "Animal Symbolism in Alchemy" www.levity.com/alchemy/animal.html
The white stage was the formation of the white tincture or stone, and was derived from though not to be confused with the earlier whitening which followed the calcination or putrefaction, for to have proceeded to this stage meant one was on a higher level of spiritual attainment. This was often pictured as the appearance of a queen dressed in shining white robes in the flask. The white tincture marked a process of inner change when the alchemist was able to experience and bring into an integrated harmony the feminine component of the soul. [...] They saw metals, plants and minerals as being masculine and feminine in some degree and projected the transformations of these in their retorts into their inner space, in order to explore their own masculine and feminine natures. Acids, for example, which could penetrate and dissolve metal ores, were seen as masculine. Substances exhibited a femininity when they were connected with the forces of growth and nourishment of processes in the flask and the melding of substances together into a new unity. Metallic Mercury was seen as hermaphrodite as it both dissolved and brought together other metals into an amalgam.
The White Stone was sometimes symbolised by the Unicorn, partly because of its white horn, but also because the Unicorn could only be tamed by the touch of a pure woman. Thus the White Tincture can only be experienced by purifying the feminine forces within our beings.
