*wince* Ow, typo! This is the problem with rewriting sentences about fifteen times -- bits of the previous versions start hanging around in vestigial form and mucking up the grammar! *hurries to fix*
Anyway, the reason I am attempting to come to terms with elemental symbolism is because of this series. I really like the way water -- which is so changeable, existing in three different physical states without any special laboratory conditions -- is also in some ways the least mutable of the classic four 'elements.' Earth and air are conglomerations of many things, fire is by definition change, but water... freeze it, boil it, mix in all the other things you want, and at the end you it's still water, unchanged, easily purified and restored. It shapes itself to its container, it flows downhill, and yet it retains its essential self.
And that is really fun to play around with when dealing with reincarnation!
(Lucifer gets darkness/shadows, fire, ice, and sometimes blood as his symbolic attributes. Alexiel gets storm-related metaphors, and also blood. Those weren't intentional choices at first -- except for the fire, which is there because Lucifer is, after all, Michael's twin brother -- but I do like them. I especially like Alexiel and Setsuna as a storm, since that can encompass violence, nurture [via the rain], and just the sheer magnetic ability to sweep everyone up in her/his path.)
...
And I should really stop blathering and get to bed before I get even more incoherent. :-)
no subject
*wince* Ow, typo! This is the problem with rewriting sentences about fifteen times -- bits of the previous versions start hanging around in vestigial form and mucking up the grammar! *hurries to fix*
Anyway, the reason I am attempting to come to terms with elemental symbolism is because of this series. I really like the way water -- which is so changeable, existing in three different physical states without any special laboratory conditions -- is also in some ways the least mutable of the classic four 'elements.' Earth and air are conglomerations of many things, fire is by definition change, but water... freeze it, boil it, mix in all the other things you want, and at the end you it's still water, unchanged, easily purified and restored. It shapes itself to its container, it flows downhill, and yet it retains its essential self.
And that is really fun to play around with when dealing with reincarnation!
(Lucifer gets darkness/shadows, fire, ice, and sometimes blood as his symbolic attributes. Alexiel gets storm-related metaphors, and also blood. Those weren't intentional choices at first -- except for the fire, which is there because Lucifer is, after all, Michael's twin brother -- but I do like them. I especially like Alexiel and Setsuna as a storm, since that can encompass violence, nurture [via the rain], and just the sheer magnetic ability to sweep everyone up in her/his path.)
...
And I should really stop blathering and get to bed before I get even more incoherent. :-)