Gunslinger (btw is this a Stephen King refference?), you aren't far from the truth, I read somewhere that the alchemical interpretation of the symbol originated in the biblical account of the life of Moses. The snake also appears in another part, when he transformed his staff into a serpent in front of Pharaoh. Moses is the Enlightened one, and the "transmutation of the serpent" is a symbol of turning the demonical aspect of the snake into the healing potential of the staff, through "deconstruction" followed by "reconstruction" (sounds familiar? ) - which kind of ties our Flamel, the hypocratic staff and the snake representing sin . I got this from a book on ezotheric symbols, I just want to (approximatively) quote one more line:



Oh and the caduceus (or cadeceus I don't know how it's spelled right) is a related symbol, whose two serpents can symbolize the two of the three main elements of alchemy (Sulphur/Soul and Mercury/Spirit). If we take the two serpents and the orb at the top of the staff, it can also be interpreted as the three stages of the alchemical process.

By the way, is there any topic dealic with alchemical refferences and symbols in FMA around here? I only found a closed thread...

A flamel eh? i always thought it was a caduceus... (the Hermatic staff) the staff of Heremes which later was the usual symbol for medicine these days because:
Hermes is kinda like the god of alchemy ( and messenger of the gods FYI) and the caduceus signifies the union between the male and the female shown by the two snakes but I was wondering why the Alchemists' symbol had only ONE snake so.... I may have been wrong all along! thanks for the info!

Well... the simbol in FMA is not precisely the cross of Flamel because, as you can see, there is a pair of wigns, and above those there is a crown...wel then, the crucified serepent represents the sacrifice of the flesh, the sins,our mortal bodies, the wings represents the soul, our desires to be good (things that are mostly supresed by the flesh), and the crown represents victory.
From there that the cross of flamel in FMA can be interpretated as the victory of the soul(the good) over the flesh (the evil).

Hope this helps!!!

That interpretation is awesome, Sagara.
Was that from one of the guide books?

A few individuals have made reference in this thread to the fact that the image of the crucified serpent has its roots in the Bible. As reference, I thought that it might be useful to provide the text of the two specific passages where the figure is discussed. Note that the first quote is taken from the Old Testament, and the second from the New Testament.

“Wherefore the Lord sent among the people fiery serpents, which bit them and killed many of them. Upon which they came to Moses, and said: We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and thee: pray that he may take away these serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to him: Make brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: whosoever being struck shall look on it, shall live. Moses therefore made a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: which when they that were bitten looked upon, they were healed.”

- Numbers 21:6-9 (D-R)

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him, may not perish; but may have life everlasting.”

- John 3:14-15 (D-R)

This is interesting, but you lost me at page one... "^_^
LOL

whoa! someones done thier research! lol ive done a little myself because i want izumis tattoo and didnt want to end up burning on the steak . the crucified snake represents that which is evil becoming purified and redeemed. the wings are a symbol of healing and uplifting. And the crown represents trimph and mastery.

~ Ed And Izumi's Cross: What are they? ~

so i definatley know this has been answerd before but i searched the forum and couldnt find it.
but im just curious of what the cross with snake means ive read about the ouroboros but cant find anything on the cross ? help me out pleasseeeee

In FMA, there is a symbol on the back of Ed's red coat and painted in red on 1 (or both, I forgot) of Al's armored shoulders. What exactly is that symbol? Is it symbol for the Elric family or what? I just want to get a firm understanding of everything in this awesome anime/manga/video-game/movie.

nyah~ I knew the whole thing about the ouroborus just from general knowledge (I have an interst in mythology, religion, philosphy etc and theres loads of stuff about and like the ouroborous in lots of cultures) but i never knew about the snake on the cross at all and thats really interesting so thanks for the post!

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post it, but I have some general informations about the Philosopher Stone and the sulphur chemical element. These curiosities can be related to the manga / FMAB as well.

I hope that I'm not writing something that has already been said somewhere P:

Studying mineralogy for my next exam I've found out an interesting mineral that is the Cinnabar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar
As you can see it is red as the philosopher stone should be, besides the chemical composition of this element is HgS that is mercury and sulphur. Well I've found out that this mineral was a chinese alchemical ingredient to reach the immortality and seems that some emperors died swallowing extracts of this mineral trying to lengthen their lives (due the mercury). Old chinese scrolls say that the famous "Terracotta Army" is surrounded by cinnabar rivers too. Isn't it similar to the whole Xing alchemy?

Besides in organic chemestry the SH (S=sulphur H=hydrogen) group is called "mercaptan". This word derives from latin and means "take the mercury" (mer=mercury* captio=take something) because compounds with this kind of group were used to extract the mercury. Now what this has to do with FMA? Well Kimbley's name "Zolf/Solf" is similar to the Italian (and other latin languages) word "zolfo" that means "sulphur" and funnily Kimbley has almost always a philosopher stone with him or two as seen in the manga and in FMAB

Probably I'm reading too much into it but it was funny to do this type of researches (and useful too 'cause I have to study these things)



*argentum vivum is the exact latin word for the mercury element but lately they started to use the word mercurius as the name of the god


Sources: Wikipedia and personal knowledges

I'm actually starting a Thesis Paper with Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood) as my subject and have been doing research on the religious / historical aspects of it. (Large part of why I joined this forum) Certainly interesting.

Here are some examples (I'll omit parts that've already been mentioned) purely on speculation, correct me if I have it wrong ><

- The entire Ishvalan war of Extermination started over the killing of a child by a soldier acting on his own will. A single person. This parallels WW1, where Austrian Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrillo Princip, part of a Bosnian terrorist group that certainly did not speak for the entire Serbian nation. In both of this incidences, outcry over these killings did not come until a while later and escalated to a huge scale.

- Yeah, Scar wears a cross on the back of his jacket, almost as if he's carrying a cross on his back. Like Jesus. Carrying the weight of humanity's sins and trying to rid the world of it.

- Gate of Truth = Gate to the garden of Eden, anyone? In FMA's case, however, it's reversed. In the original garden, Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden through the gate because they had committed a sin, and thus learned the 'truth'. In FMA, characters also commit the sin of human transmutation and also learn the 'truth'. However, both instances 'taint' their humanity, flawing them.

and etc.