Some kind of gorgeous weeping fir tree with new cones forming, Idaho Botanical Gardens, Boise Idaho
(c) riverwindphotography, June 2023
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Ch198, Cover art flower language
@jack-littlecrow asks on this post what Sebastian's carrying in the cover art.
First off, Finny is carrying that decent-sized fir tree around like it's nothing, as expected of him. Germanic peoples were decorating such trees for Winter Solstice long before it became a Christmas tradition. To Pagans, such trees decorated with lights meant light after the dark, everlasting life, as well as fertility. To Christians, the decorated tree, particularly with lights, is symbolic of Jesus being a light in the dark world. It's also seen as a symbol of the Tree of Life in Eden.
All the Christians had to do was ascribe that light in the dark to Jesus and make the everlasting life part of it harken back to the Book of Genesis.
What Sebastian is carrying was also used in an ancient Pagan tradition before it became a staple of Victorian winter-time decorations. It's not as popular now as the trees still are, but you will still see references to them, and some people still bring real or fake ones into their homes. It's also a type of evergreen, but of a very different nature.
Mistletoe.
In Victorian and other western flower languages, mistletoe is given meanings like these: love/romance, friendship, life/vitality, survival during hardship, wisdom, and even fertility.
Hanakotoba, or Japanese flower language, gives similar meanings about love/romance and surmounting difficulties.
As a contracted demon, Sebastian is all about surmounting difficulties for his young master. And by this time, our earl's mere existence is a testament to survival during hardship.
But also keep in mind that mistletoe is a poisonous and parasitic plant.
So, the mistletoe emphasizes that Sebastian surmounts difficulties and provides our earl with continued survival during hardship... but he's essentially poison and a parasite.
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Attention Time Agents:
It has come to our attention that certain individuals have been using their time travel privileges for ‘personal projects’.
(i.e. growing bonsai trees in outrageously photogenic places for future Instagram clout)
This is NOT an appropriate use of agency resources! Beside the wasted time jumps, what are the original timeline inhabitants going to think? That fairies are real? That life is infinitely more delicate and resilient than the human mind can comprehend?? Absolutely NOT.
Unapproved escapades like these can lead to aesthetic confusion among local populations and possible discovery of the Agency.
Do NOT let it happen again!
V/r,
Agent Kay
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A branch of Japanese fir (Abies firma).
Watercolour by S. Kawano.
https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/V0043610.html
Wikimedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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Tao Lengyue - Full Moon
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/36322
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