Sun = cosmic power (duh), the cosmic whole, the cosmic eye (Chinese mythology, also the eye of Greek mythology’s ultimate god Zeus and Hindu mythology’s ultimate god Varuna – Keeper of the souls of the Dead and twin of Mitra, the other solar deity), GOD (or in most polytheistic mythologies, the ultimate, or close-enough-to-ultimate, God.) And this one of the reasons I think the Millennium Earl is God. As in, God God. We’ll eventually talk about the other reasons as we go along.
Sun = healing power. The eye of Varuna is called the “divine rejuvenator”.
While in most cultures, like in the Chinese and Greek cultures, the sun represents the male power, in some ancient cultures, like in the Celtic, Japanese, ancient African and Germanic cultures, the sun represents the feminine power, so as a whole, the sun has both male and female attributes, just like Alma Karma, who resembles Allen, who is probably playing Eve at the moment.
In Christianity, sun = home of “Who is like God” Michael – the second creation, the merciful and the long-suffering, the prince of angels, defeater of Satan, the spiritual warrior carrying the perfectly balanced scale, fighting the battle within, and also the angel form of Jesus Christ, according to the early Protestants. In the Old Testament, instead of just being a herald like in the New Testament, Michael would also be THE ANGEL of end times, who would rise and protect humanity, or something… Also note that in the Old Testament, Satan was the adversary, or the prosecuting lawyer (*cough proof that all lawyers are evil cough*), in modern speech, rather than the Devil like in the New Testament, so the fact that Michael’s symbol is identified with the Satan figures in the 219 cover is quite telling of this God/Devil’s intention, really.
New beginnings (both in-series and in Real Life), freedom from doubts and fear, the light after the dark night, the breakthrough.
The opportunity that you’ve been waiting for a long time for. *cough Their date cough*
HOPE.
Illumination. You can now see the world for what it is, unbidden by the darkness (Black Order.)
Sun symbol: see above.
Nudity = freedom, letting your mask/guard down (As mentioned above, both of them have shed one layer of the mask. Mana has shed the mask of the Earl/Adam, and Nea has shed the mask of an exorcist) and let your true nature come forth. Mana had forgotten about Nea, who has taken upon himself to bear that love, to remember for Mana both as Nea and as Red, about his and Nea’s relationship – the memories that Nea was trying to get Mana to remember even though he was obviously breaking down behind the Clown Mask/Poker Face. And the name of the chapter is “He has forgotten Love”. Excuse me, there’s something in my eyes.
Instead of sunflowers (passionate love, radiance, only having eyes for you in hanakotoba, false wealth in Victorian flower language), we have poppies. Meanings of poppies are below.
No wall = no barrier, against each other or against their natures. A moment of truth.
Meaning of poppies:
Poppies in general symbolise sleep, peace and death because of the opiates, which can be used for a plethora of purposes, from analgesia to recreational drug use, and will cause addiction if used incorrectly, extracted from their seeds.
The white poppy (Allen’s flowers) is an artificial flower that that was created to symbolise peace (as in, the end of war), remembrance of ALL victims of wars, pacifism and disarmament. While in hanakotoba, the white poppy’s meaning is rejoice, in the Victorian (as in, the period they’re living in) flower language, white poppy symbolises consolation and sleep.
On the other hand, the yellow poppy (Mana’s flowers) is a very natural flower that symbolises wealth and success. This can mean anything, really, from Nea’s success in consolidating and putting Mana to sleep, to the success of Nea’s Grand Plan, the general gist of which I highly suspect is the the same as Alma’s, to the success of their love story (unlikely as hell, considering they’re all still poppies).
An interesting thing to note is that Allen’s colour used to red instead of white. It was only white after Mana cursed him, so his flowers should have been red instead of white poppy. Red poppy, in hanakotoba, means fun-loving, pleasure, fantastic extravaganza. In modern day, it, like the white poppy, is the flower of remembrance. However, different from the white poppy, many people have argued that the red poppy is exclusive to the casualties outside of the military *cough Black Order cough*, as was shown in the link at white poppy above. Furthermore, according to wikipedia, in Persian literature, red poppy is the eternal lover flower, and in Urdu literature, it’s the symbol for martyrdom. And Persia and Pakistan are in the general vicinity of the birthplace of the Abrahamic religions.
So at some point in time, Nea switched from red to white for Mana, and in turn, Mana switched from white to yellow for Mana. Well, Allen’s still got a bit of red also because of Mana though. Hmm…
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