#orouboros

[pedro-reed]

Ke Huy Quan as Orouboros LOKI SEASON 2 (2023), created by Michael Waldron

[rastronomicals]

8:04 PM EST February 3, 2025:

Earth - "Orouboros" From the album Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars (2001)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

★★★★

--

  <664x654>

[groovy-ruins]

Orouboros can have a little Orouboros, at a treat

[thedamnedlamb]

An AU where the red crown and Narinder swap places. What do I mean by this exactly? Narinder is the crown and the crown the one who waits! Red being a snake. And Narinder being a crown that takes the shape of a cat.

Ananta- the bearer of the red crown. A Serpent. The deity of Death, Life, and rebirth. Orouboros / infinity themes. Has two eyes that can merge into one huge one.

The Red crown- likes taking on the shape of a black cat. Purrs. Secret domain of Sin. Has three red eyes.

Okay now imagine the other crowns swapping with their bishop.

[dairogo]

The arrays to connect souls to armour are really different for the all three suits we know. I'm sure I've read a post about it before, but I couldn't word a search that would make it pop up, so here's at least a small comparison.

Al's seal (picture from Chapter 9):

Al's is really simple. A circle because that's alchemy - the equivalent exchange/orouboros symbol of cycles, of wholeness in the process of change, etc. I think the starry kind of bit indicates a container, and the swirl is the soul being held. I'm making this up, but look at it.

Now let's look at the two Slicer seals.

Slicer's seal (helmet) (picture from chapter 11):

Slicer's seal (body) (picture from chapter 12):

There's the circle, and the star (fewer points this time - a Star of David).

So here's where my brain goes "is this about the Jewish connection to alchemy?" since I know there are connections, particularly the Sephirothic Tree that appears on Ed's door to Truth, "or since circles are special, do triangles mean anything special in alchemy?" and let me tell you: yes.

(First, this search led me to find that combined with the circle, this is more likely to be a reference back to the Seal of Solomon, from which I have now learned the Star of David was derived. The Star of David is more about the Jewish identity and Judaism, whereas the Seal of Solomon is connected to Jewish, Islamic and occultic and alchemic mysticism.)

To paraphrase the relevant parts of this site, a downward pointing triangle with a line through it (which these conjoined triangles give each other) symbolises Earth, considered a symbol for physical sensations/movements; while an upward pointing triangle with a line through it symbolises its opposite, Air, which is considered a symbol for the Holy Spirit and life-giving forces/sources of life such as breath (this source says it's associated with blood).

Slicer's seal is basically "give physicality and life"!

What then does that mean for Al's seal?

With those extra lines, what could the starry bit on Al's seal mean? It looks like Slicer's, plus more. I couldn't find anything on triangles pointing sideways instead of up or down.

If there is an intention behind it - which there so often is with Arakawa's little details, but I don't want to assume she always has to be meaning something when she was publishing chapters monthly, as she wrote them, and didn't get the chance to go back and edit as the story progressed. If, I say, there is an intention behind it, I wonder if it's like an inclusion of the two other triangles. Representing the other two elements (fire and water). They don't have a line through them, but consider this:

Fire represents the 'fiery' emotions (love, passion, compassion, hate, anger). It is considered masculine/male, and symbolises rising energy, aspirations to reach the divine above us.

Helloooo Father, and Roy Mustang.

Water represents intuition. Considered female/feminine. Combines with the Fire triangle to make the Seal of Solomon, which, if significant to alchemy, could be like Ed going "double powerful" by having the fire/water one plus the earth/air one.

But look at that. While Slicer's seals, designed by the military alchemists who were happy experimenting on people, are concerned with connecting motion and life, Al's has that plus Ed's care for his emotions and intuition (feelings and thoughts). Isn't that sweet? ;_; I wonder if it makes any difference.

Maybe there's more than one way to get a job done.

The only difference I can think of is how stable/unstable Al's connection is.

Back to Slicer

So in addition to the circle (alchemy) and the triangles (tethering, restoring), Slicer has the squiggles in the middle (soul?) and those lines on the outside.

I haven't uncovered any symbols that shed light on those, but it puts me in mind of in later chapters, Roy having his legs pinned by the unsuccessful Fuhrer candidates and his hands pinned by swords. Like swords pointing at the soul in the sigil, warning it to stay put.

Then, guys

Barry's seal (picture from chapter 39):

whAT is THIS.

Al gets this quickly formulated love-letter to alchemy begging for human life in all its beauty, Slicer gets a command to be functional, and Barry gets ... a whole new equation.

And we've just seen the mural on the wall under Lab 3, with the sun and the moon and all the alchemical theory to be hinted at later, so you know by now (30 chapters after the first seal) that Arakawa has an idea of what she's doing.

Circle - that's familiar. But with a second circle inside! New, chic, beautiful. Between the two circles there's some fancy writing. Too small to be read (I bet she was getting tired of coming up with new alchemical symbolism to add but it seemed cool, or it was meant to reflect the precision of the alchemist making it).

Something in the middle - it's a bit different. An arrow crossing a boundary, within a squashed rectangle.

Something on the outside - the flourishes on the leftmost side of the extruding bits look not like the head of an arrow, but similar in signifying a direction. Maybe following the same direction the inner arrow is, like to say you poke his soul out from the body and into something else.

And I think this may be a significant answer to why Barry's array is so different:

As you can see, when Barry's body (whoever is in there, with very little of their mental faculties remaining to them) destroys the array, it kills the both of them.

The one array is tethering both of them.

Its considerable complexity is something Ed would never reach for - he's not looking to kick a soul out of their body - and we don't hear anything about the Slicer Brothers' bodies, so maybe they were disposed of in a regular way - or simply a different one.

Barry tells us a soul can reject a body - or a body a soul - and that's why this man is deteriorating so much. His body is rotting and the soul is incoherent, while the metal containers have kept the armoured souls more stable. The array on Barry's armour is too distant to maintain the body's life, if it is even designed to do such a thing.

Wrapping up

All the arrays are different. Barry's serves a significantly different purpose, with the additional soul to pin down. Al's lacks the external flourishes that could act as tethers. Slicer's is duplicated for the brothers, except for the individualised soul mark in the centre - showing us that they don't all have to be unique in design.

And a lot of the stuff in there is researched and intentional, instead of just slapped together.

The attention to detail even in the variations of symbols meant for the same purpose gives so much to chew on. This is why FMA is such an enduring series.

[icy-watch]

Orou

Orouboros?

[estrogenerational-trauma]

the most important meal of the day.

air fried chicken nuggets, curly fries, a diet pepsi, and ace combat 3 electrosphere orouboros ii route

good morning tumblr

[redstrewn]

Me: im bored i need more things to think about w leander

Brain: well theres still frankenstein and othello that you havent read up on you can read that stuff

Me: i wish there was more things to think about with leander

Brain: literally frankenstein is in the uquiz and othello has both orouboros and green eyed monster. I think you can find a lot of stuff there

Me: if only there was something

Brain: SERIOUSLY—

[comicaurora]

damn, terfs in the notes so desperate for friends they're trying to claim us all for Team Shithead With Bad Reading Comprehension as if "being misgendered is bad" is in any way a thing they believe. methinks the orouboros has consumed its own ass. anyway trans rights I love nonbinary genders and personally being a woman who gets to do whatever I want forever

girl help I'm getting they/them'd by well-meaning people who don't know what a tomboy is

[ratempirearise]

what if orouboros had an ingrown toenail would that solve generational trauma

[tgirl-autumn]

oh god damn it that’s why I like kueshida minori so much too. and twilight as a concept. and orouboros too. i hate it when Im consistent gah

[starfireandraven]

Orouboros

[rastronomicals]

6:11 PM EDT March 20, 2024:

Earth - "Orouboros" From the album Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars (2001)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

★★★★

--

  <664x654>

[wwwbarbiecom]

     /introduction.pin

hi! i'm blissa (aka bliss!) ♡ [ it/she + neos ] ; an editive orouboros sys alter ; sideblog of a loveplural system

i'm internet Barbie; a Barbie line that was never produced in physical form, instead was always the online depiction of the Barbie idol.

💋 body age 22 / alter age ageless (appears as 20s) 🍒 preferred prns it/its/itself 🕊️ neogenders epographic, dorkfemme, dollgender/bimbodollic 🍰 transids permablonde, transmarysue, alterhuman (transAI), trace (transkorean) 💗 sexuality polyamorous boyfevered androsexual / taken ♡ i love the internet!!!             + btw i follow back from @philosophicallie ♡

tags / prns / main / coining blog / post deco / dating form

[dairogo]

Pictured: Ed Elric getting a good look at an orouboros in the 5th laboratory. Thanks Envy. I'm not sure he would have totally picked it up with just Lust around.

[increduloussausage]

im gonna rant to myself here i just like the formatting makes me nngh

Xie lian as a fool, (talked about in varied depictions of the fool, from contrasting backgrounds, talks about don qixote, the idiot, ivan the fool, etc) Xie lian as the fisher king, (parsifal)

Elaborate?

Transgression from naivety into self consciousness,

A fisher king wound is a wound that hurts but doesn’t kill

King fisher plagued with a fatal wound, yet fatality was proven futile. He was infertile, and his kingdom had fallen (just as xianle was damned to demolition, along with xie lian and his erectile dysfunction)

““A man must consent to look to a foolish, innocent, adolescent part of himself for his cure. The inner fool is the only one who can touch his Fisher King wound.”

Don quixote, quixotic, unable to distinguish reality from imagination. (jun wu????)”tilting at windmills” fighting imaginary enemies

And sancho pantha, (mu qing????) 

“Sancho’s realism contrast with his master’s idealism” AAAAAAAAAAA its tgem. Itrs them!!!! (xie lian and mu qing) the donkey can be feng xin. Lol

Fuck. the actual novel is sad… don qixote falls asleep, awaken by a dream, awakened from his madness, realising he’s spiralled down into insanity. And that he has wasted his life (lol jun wu) dies from an overdose of reality. And what did jun wu die realising? Actually idk, bro was relieved to find someone who couldve actually defeated him. 

Dsbkhdrfvgsk.j  

Ivan the fool leo tolstoy,

Ivan’s goodness piques the devil’s interest. Overcomes the devil, himself. Relies on his heart, his brothers relies on their mind. (i wish i was foolish) 

The idiot, fyodor dostoevsky, the prince is a fool. The price is an idiot. Paralleled to xie lian in the heavens. Prince myshkin, contrasts the world he lives in. he says what is on his mind, regardless of social setting “save the common people!” 

“The price assures that beauty will save the world!”

Always this fool who is the hero.

Fool, knows nothing of the world. And has no place in it.

The fool’s journey and the hero’s journey, defeat his “dragon” (bai wuxiang) “treasure hard to attain” idk… about birth and rebirth. Return as ordinary, as xie lian does. Gasps “the fool is a wanderer, energetic, ubiquitous and immortal” XIE LIAN…..svbkgrdvb he is the most powerful of the tarot trumps. (trionfi, to trachotti, to tarot) (just info) journey to self realisation…

Carl jung… what does he say. Individuation!!! What is that. Omg… the fool is linked to the number zero. Why? Circular signifies infinity. Pleroma!! Ancient egyptian symbol of orouboros (tail devorurer) “one is all, all is one” fullness of being of past, present and future. God is an infinite sphere!! He is god.  Zero as in, no one believed in him anymore? He had no one!!! (hua chengzhu sit down you’ll be relevant soon….) (i hope….) 

Paradise. Bliss state of unconscious nature before falling into the reality of consciousness, the fool’s paradise, they call it. 

Learn about jungian psychology!!!! 

OMGGGGG XIE LIAN IS THE… what is it. THE tarot of marseilles, the butterfly one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT HAS A FLOWER ON IT TOOVJHGJHBVNJHV>>><ML<ML<KM>>>.... Fool depicted as, insight over eye sight. (french tarot, fool) Okie. cool…. Cool….. Omh….. the rider wwaite tarot….. Is holding a flower. In his hand……….. One sword, one flower. Srvjhyrebslkf what does the cliff fall mean… hua cheng? Idk,,, fall from grace. While also BASKING IN his GLORY MOMENTS PRIOR? HNN WAIT…… pamela colman smith. Arthur edward waite, hermetic order of the golden dawn. Precursor of transformation….. Xie lian is the start of everything. Nothing would start without a fool. Bvnjhbfjjhnjhbn….. The idiot, dostoevsky, “geniuses seen as fool at the start of their career, at the end of them too” “beginner’s mind” (shoshin) “the soul demands your folly, not your wisdom” Car jung… xie lian. Xie lian… folly!!! Be foolish!!!! Omg. “it is the fear of uncertainty that scares many to the point of paralysis” good lord this video… (me and amina) rumination, < failure. Rumination, spends more time in imagination than reality. (quixotic….) failure is beyond your imagination. “In filth it will be found.” (xie lian) he keeps going. “I WONT CHANGE!!!!” 

Omg… dark side of the fool… the voice of conformity. Omg (use that now lol) omg.. We need to be conscious of the fool within, the start of the video said the wisest people are the fools who acknowledge they are foolish. The dark side is when we don’t. Child, half into the world. Madman, half escaped from it. The fool is an archetypal religious figure…. XIE LIAN IS THE HOLY FOOL. “is one who is willing to risk ridicule, scorn and rejection to pursue the path of truth and love.” not conformist out of fear, not needing to be defined by others. Be himself in all circumstances. “The most threatening to the authorities and powers” hehhehe. Saint Paul, “god has made foolish the wisdom of this world.” inferior function leads to the healing of fisher wound… (elaborate. Will do. At some point.)