Bows to the mighty Arakawa-Sensei

[Mlle Bienvenu]

:squees with delight:

I was trying to look up one of the symbols contained in the seal in the philosopher's stone room in the manga, when I came across one that looks like the one on Envy's headband. . . it's the symbol for "Resina" which I then looked up. . . and it turns out this substance is thought to be of an androgynus nature. . . and who is more androgynus than Envy?

EDIT: Bah, I'm wrong, but this is just as good :-) Envy's triangle is pointing downwards. . .which means it's the symbol for clay. And who is more claylike than Envy? (except Sloth, but she doesn't count because she's not in the manga as such )

www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/24/2439.html

[Lolua]

www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/41a/41a12.html

So you said last night that the three identical symbols inside the star at the center of the seal stood for Mercury.... do you think that's because it's the smaller-than-average planet that got too close too the sun, or because of the god Hermes/Mercury's snake-entwined caduceus, or because Ed, with his pretty long braid, is somewhat hermaphroditic as well?

It's also one of the symbols in the sign for the Philosopher's Stone itself (www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/53/5326.html) and symbolizes Wednesday in this suspiciously familiar-looking heptagram (www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/29/2915.html).

[Mlle Bienvenu]

Heheee... I love this site. . . Here's the entry for the 'X' shape. . . emphasis added by me. . .


9:13 · The diagonal cross with arms of equal length is an extremely old sign.
Like 09:1, it has been found engraved on the walls of prehistoric caves in Europe. In early Chinese ideography it stood for the number 5. As an Egyptian hieroglyph it meant to damage, divide, count, or break into parts. Compare this with its use as multiplication sign from the beginning of the seventeenth century. The law of the polarity of meanings of elementary graphs applies.
The very similar is a rune used in some of the old Nordic rune alphabets. Its name is gif or geba, meaning gift, especially a gift from a chief to a loyal warrior or subject.
As a modern ideogram the diagonal cross has a wide spectrum of meanings from confrontation, annulment, cancellation, over opposing forces, hindrances, obstruction, to unknown, undecided, unsettled.
Here are a number of examples of the specific meanings of 09:13 in different systems: a crossbreed between different species, varieties or races (in botany and biology), takes (chess), printing error (printing), I/we can not continue (ground-to-air emergency code), unknown number or multiply (mathematics), unknown person (Mr. X), and road obstruction (military).
The diagonal cross is sometimes used as a symbol for Christ, whose name in Greek begins with the Greek letter X. It also stands for the number 1,000 in ancient Greece, and even represented Chronos, the god of time, the planet Saturn and the god Saturn in Roman mythology. When the diagonal cross appears as a closed or filled sign, 28:32, it becomes the cross of St. Andrew (refer to this sign in Group 28). According to tradition, St. Andrew was too humble to allow himself to be crucified on the same type of cross as Christ.
In everyday use over, or very close to another ideogram means that what it denotes no longer counts, is wrong, is forbidden, or is cancelled. Examples are the road sign 29:2 and the washing sign , do not bleach (from 28:1, can be bleached).
In Sweden, 09:13 is used by the armed forces on maps to denote that blasting or other type of destruction has been prepared.
In the French hobo or gypsy sign system 09:13 means this apartment/house is a good project for a burglary. As an English hobo sign, it means don't knock here. As a Swedish boy-scout sign it is used with a similar meaning: don't take this road.
In seventeenth-century alchemy 09:13 denoted talc.
In musical notation 09:13 is called double cross.
See 11:3 in Group 11 for more data.
The closed variation, 28:32, is found on some telephone answering machines indicating the control for the wiping out of taped messages.


hehee...I'm soo calling Scar 'Mr. X' now... LOL