EvilHomer - 2014-12-12
Symbolism in MLP:FIM and hidden knowledge
I couldn't find here on these forums anything similar to this, so I decided to share with you what I wrote once about MLP:FIM on a Polish forum about Sacred Geometry, since I noticed many interesting symbols and messages sneaked in the MLP series. Below is a translation of that text (a little bit edited, because I don't need to introduce you to the series -- you already know it ;-) ).
I found about MLP:FIM when looking through many different Internet memes. I read that the series was originally targeted for little girls, but surprisingly it started to draw attention of more adolescent people, especially grown up men, who didn't seem wussy at all (eg. professional soldiers). My first thought was like: "WTF? Tough guys watching pony tales for baby girls? o_O Something strange must be going on here."
But then I found that this is a new 20% cooler version of MLP, refreshed by Lauren Faust. And I remembered that her other creation ("The Power Puff Girls") was causing similar effects, but at somewhat lesser scale. This has made me curious. And since I usually try everything on my own before I make up my mind, I decided to follow the same pattern here too. After watching several reviews and trailers in the Net, I decided to watch one or two episodes, just for test. And I watched, and watched... and now I'm at 24th episode and still counting :-D {This was then, when I was writing that article. Now I'm after watching all episodes at least twice ;-D }
img-1078859-1-MeGusta.jpg
I still haven't figured out what is so hypnotizing in this series (although I have some theories), but something is really going on there, and if there's really any psycho-manipulation, then it must be on a very deep level indeed, because I couldn't spot any obvious clues. But I found instead lots of interesting symbolics which looks curiously familiar (at least for me). Not only from the point of view of Esoterics or Sacred Geometry, but also Science! Because it turns out that in many episodes, in many different places, one can find some strange mathematical formulas and equations known from Physics (or very similar), or some geometrical diagrams. So it looks like someone is trolling us here royally, and since I'm deeply interested in Physics, ancient knowledge, secret societies, occult & fringe science etc., I decided to share with you my observations and thoughts on this subject and what I found in MLP:FIM.
I don't know if some of you had found any symbols there yet or not, so I'll just describe everything I've found so far, so you can compare my findings with yours, or learn something new about your favorite series ;-)
I'll start from the esoteric, occult and spiritual, and then I'll move to the more scientific stuff, because this is the original sequence I was describing it on that Polish forum. I decided to split my message into several subsequent posts, each for one subject, for easier referencing and to let people choose easier the subjects they're interested in. When I'll post it all. then I'm open to your questions and I hope for interesting discussion ;-)
Here is the first part.
The Balance
Straight from the begining of the first episode we are told that the world of Equestria (from Latin equus = horse) is governed by two opposing forces, represented by two royal sisters: princess Celestia (from Latin caelestia = heavenly, divine, from caelum = heavens, or the Universe) and princess Luna (lat. luna = the Moon). The former governs the Sun and daylight time, and the later governs the Moon and night time. The ancient books depict this situation this way (on the left):
img-1078859-2-YinYang.jpgimg-1078859-3-20120220_yin-yang.jpg
which is an obvious reference to the Taoistic symbol depicting two opposing forces of Nature: Yin and Yang, in perfect balance with each other (on the right). But this symbol is more universal. It doesn't limit to Taoism, but is present in many different ancient cultures in that way or another. And these opposing forces were often symbolized by the Sun and the Moon, or day and night. For example, in Ancient Egypt we can find the following picture of Geb and Nut (they were Celestia and Luna of the Ancient Egypt ;-) ):
img-1078859-4-GebNut.jpeg
The Sun and Moon symbolism can be also found in Masonic art in a similar fashion as below. On the left is a picture from the series, from the book Twilight Sparkle reads by the river in the 1st Episode, and on the right there is a stained glass from a Masonic temple. As you can see, even the sides are the same ;-)
img-1078859-5-Celestia.jpgimg-1078859-6-Lodge.jpg
But it's also not purely Masonic. I'd rather say it's one of the most ancient symbolism on Earth, and it counts thousands of years of tradition. It was used in many ancient mystery schools, like Alchemy or Hermetism, because these sciences were based on the equilibrium of the opposites as the deepest principle of the Universe.
It turns out quickly that this perfect balance between the opposites is about to be disturbed, because one of the royal sisters, caused by envy, tuns against the other sister and wants to rule Equestria herself, bringing eternal night. This age-old struggle between day and night and the solar/lunar deities related to them, you can find nearly everywhere through the mythologies of the ancient world. Let the fight between Seth and Horus in Ancient Egyptian mythology be one such example. If you dig deeper, you'll probably find similar myths yourself in other cultures too.
The Elements of Harmony
Everytime the perfect balance turns out to be disturbed, there's only one power able to restore it back. It's activated by the so-called Elements of Harmony, which are represented by five gems (or crystals, that is, geometrically ordered atomic structures), in different shapes and colors:
img-1078859-7-Elements.jpg
For me it's very hard to resist the feeling that these Elements of Harmony are just a cartoonized version of the five platonic solids shown below:
img-1078859-8-Platonics.jpg
Ancient Greeks also called them Elements, and related each of these geometrical solids to one particular natural element, like Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and the last one you've probably hadn't heard of in that context: the Quintessence (which just means the Fifth Element). Contrary to what modern scientists would say to you, they were not just some ancient mumbo-jumbo of primitive village people: they've had precise scientific meaning. They described the phases of physical matter. The first three (Earth, Water and Air) represent solid, liquid, and gaseous phase. The fourth (Fire) represents the plasma, or the state of ionized matter, in which electrons and protons are not bond into atoms, but move freely. The last one was sacred, and it was hidden, because it represented the empty space itself, or what 19th century scientists called the Ether. It was the Prima Materia of Alchemists -- the primordial fabric which all matter is made of after it gains its material form. Knowledge of this "purely spiritual" phase of matter allows for the alchemical transmutation of one chemical element into another, by manipulating matter at the deepest level.
But let's get back to the picture from the show.
The green triangle gem is similar to the first Platonic Solid called Tetrahedron. It's a solid made of four faces being perfect equilateral triangles (all Platonic Solids except the cube and last one are made of such triangles).
The yellow rhomboidal figure resembles the Octahedron. It's a solid made of eight perfect triangles. It looks like two pyramids connected with bottoms.
The blue gem is roughly a Cube (though it has somewhat truncated corners, but the overall shape is rectangular).
The red gem is quite similar to the Icosahedron (the Platonic Solid with 20 triangular sides), if it hadn't had hexagonal faces instead of triangular ones (though of course triangular symmetry is contained in hexagonal symmetry).
The last gem (the violet one) is the most round-shaped of them, so it could be considered to be the Dodecahedron (which is the most "football-shaped" from all Platonic Solids). But this one also has wrong shape of its faces (octagons instead of pentagons).
But not counting those little deviations, the overall idea is quite clear. If you're still not convinced that the Elements of Harmony are supposed to represent Platonic Solids, then read further.
In three dimensions of space, there are five and only five ways for making ordered and symmetric structures (that is, harmony). These are exactly those five Platonic Solids! You can check this out by taking some marble balls of equal size (or NeoMag magnetic balls, if you have such thingy, is even better) and checking in how many different ways you can connect them together in space, and what geometrical forms you can get. You'll find that all and only possible ways are those Platonic Solids, with vertices representing the centers of those balls, and edges representing the lines connecting these centers. If you've ever studied crystallography (the science about shapes of crystals, that is, gemstones), then you'll probably notice now that most of crystalline structures follow these shapes in one way or another. Not only at the visible level, but also in the microscopic atomic level. This is really a knowledge about the structure of matter and geometrical harmony! :-)
The Sixth Element
In the show there is one more Element of Harmony, which remains hidden. To find it, one needs first to find and collect the remaining five, and then use the "Sparkle of Magic" to activate them. Then the sixth Element shows up. Again, it reminds me those Greek elements, but there it was the Fifth Element, which was hidden and invisible, but connected the remaining five together. I hadn't figured out yet why in the cartoon we have six of them. Maybe it's more like Chinese elements, which was five, and the hidden one was the sixth? Or maybe the hint is to look closer on the characters of those ponies, which are assigned to particular gems? Maybe the features of their character could help us in assigning them to shose gems:
img-1078859-9-Elements-of-Harmony-ponies
I could surely connect Applejack with the element of Earth, and Rainbow Dash is mostly Air, but it has a little bit of fire too. But I'm not so sure about the others. This case is still open, so you can be the first one to solve it :-)
But it is a recurring pattern in all these "elementary knowledge" of ancient cultures, that there was always one Element which was hidden, and that it was related to something more spiritual and immaterial, like the Mind or Spirit, or Prima Materia, or Ether, or Apeiron, or vacuum, or... well, Magic :-)
"...and Magic makes it all complete..."
On the last picture you can also see that although the gems are all the same, these five visible Elements of Harmony are arranged into vertices of a pentagon, and the sixth Element of Magic (the hidden one) is at the center and connects together the remaining five. It connects quite interestingly with Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark:
img-1078859-10-TwilightSparkle_CutieMark
and the history from her childhood, when she have received that cutie mark (see Eposode 23 "Cutie Mark Chronicles"). The five white little stars surrounding the central one represent the five Elements of Harmoniy, controlled by her five friends. The six-pointed star at the center is Twilight herself, that is, the sixth Element representing the Magical Power. So this cutie mark perfectly reflects the role of Twilight as the central axis of this magical circle (or the Hub :-D ), which connects it all together and makes it complete.
OK it looks like I cannot post more images in one post, so you need to interrupt me and post something here. Then I'll continue...
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