About Me

I think it’s so funny that utena has literally no idea why anyone in the black rose arc got turned into a duelist. Like imagine someone pulls up in an intricate uniform holding one of your friend’s swords and says “HAHHAHA I GET IT NOW ALL OF MY DEEP PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS STEMMING FROM MY HIGHLY SPECIFIC INSECURITIES CAN BE SOLVED IF I KILL YOUR GIRLFRIEND!!!” and it’s sarah from math class who you only vaguely know

i need to right my wrongs... apparently both of them are 14 which is crazy to me cause i thought anthy would at least be 16 but here they are !!!

I know it's implied that Madoka was able to draw her magical girl costume because of her subconscious memories of being a magical girl in other timelines. But when my partner @joestarluxe and I were rewatching the series, they pointed out that Madoka has a plushie that vaguely resembles her magical girl form:

(shoutout to the Mami-like plushie too; out of frame there's also a Sayaka-like plushie)

Anyway, we know from the PSP game (as explained by Kyubey) that each magical girl's costume is unique and based on her attributes. I've always headcanoned that magical girls' costumes are something they love wearing (or at least something they think is cute/cool) and are in-line with their aesthetic preferences.

So what I'm getting at is, what if Madoka subconsciously based her magical girl form off one of her favorite plushies? Yeah, I know this plushie is probably just a quick visual reference, but I really love the idea of Madoka taking inspiration from one of her beloved plushies.

From a little zine I made :)

my brain wouldn’t let me rest until i made this

Walpurgisnacht

Sailor Moon | "Blue de Ciel"

I love these kinds of anthy pics

Rewatching Adolescence of Utena for like the 50th time is so interesting because I'm either 1, Overanalyzing every pixel.. 2, just watching for the "omg she said the thing!! The car thing!! AAA!!", Or 3, I'm just so happy to see this masterpiece again because it's my comfort movie and my spintrest.

I am extremely impressed about how popular my occult analysis of Utena became. Thanls to all. So, I thought lets continue and now, lets continue with the rose bride. To do this, lets do a small detour to another series Kunihiko Ikuhara was involved in. Lets talk about sailor moon. You read that I already talked about the masonic pillars and that they represent male and female spiritual energies as well as the moon and the Sun. And that the Middle between the pillars symbolises the unity between moon and Sun.

You might have noticed this composition which is frequently used in sailor moon. Sailor moon uses the same masonic symbolism as Utena.

In many spiritual traditions, male and female were originally united and one of the first stages of the fall of Man is seen as splitting up the male and the female. Plato is famous for talking about that but this is also part of the myth of the Zulu in africa (Credo Mutwa frequently talked about that.) and it also appeared in Hinduism and Kabbalism. Due to these ideas, in germany, its common to call ones wife your "other half" or "your better half" because its Custom to think that your spouse helped you regain that lost unity.

One of the first Actions of queen beryl in the Story was literally to make the boys (endymion and the shitennou) fight against the girls. That was the first Step of the fall.

Sailor Moon as the moon Princess also symbolises the divine feminine lunar principle. In tradition and esotericism, the lunar principle is associated with the virtue of care which usagi definitely displays and with a certain way of chaotic and highly Dynamic but less focused thinking and with emotions. All traits displayed by usagi. And usagis crystal is the silver crystal. In alchemy, silver represents femininity and the moon. (Interestingly, madoka in madoka magica is also connected to silver. Best example here the Song of "your silver garden" in the Ending of the third Film. )

Interestingly, sailor moon is often depicted as standing on the moon sickle. In traditional art, she shares this trait with depictions of the Virgin Mary, the ideal feminine in Christianity.

Mamoru got the Golden crystal. Gold is a symbol for the solar masculine principle. And he got the golden crystal from the sun God helios. And his zodiac sign is the lion. The lion mane is associated with the rays of the sun making the lion another sun symbol. (One other depiction of that is in pokemon Solgaleo which literally means Sun Lion.)

According to certain occultists like Julius Evola and the freemason Manly Palmer Hall, the role of the divine masculine is to help the feminine gain and maintain focus and Stability. This is exactly what Mamoru does to Usagi in the series and to his daughter. (When mistress nine steals chibiusas heart, he literally stabilizes her mind.)

Mamoru often does astonishingly few things in the fight. He mostly helps others do the right thing. This fits with the occult idea of the male as the immovable mover and the Calm stable principle. Like Taoist Lao Tsu wrote " the wise man does nothing but ensures that everything needed to do gets done"

In alchemy, the combination of Gold and silver, due to it meaning man and woman is called a chemical Wedding.

German has a certain trait that in older texts, you can replace the Letter E with Ü and Y. One of the few words where this is still common is the german word denkt (meaning someone thinks) or denken (to think). This can be written as Dünken or dünkt sometimes.

The most famous use of the Word chemical Wedding is in the foundational rosicrucian Text Die Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosenkreuz. There, this alchemical Ritual is performed in a tower to resurrect a Dead prince.

This tower is the symbolism between Akio and his Tower.

(By the way. Some depictions of the tower in the rosicrucian book depict the tower as an Obelisk and in ancient egypt, the tower represents the lost phallus of Osiris.)

CG Jung called the solar and lunar principle Anima and Animus. They are also frequently depicted as twins. Like anthy and akio.

Now, lets finally go to anthy. Her symbolism is more complex. She has traits of the biblical whore of Babylon. Especially in her colour symbolism (Red and purple) . Interestingly, sailor moon uses the exact same symbolisms for its female villains. Especially queen berlin and mistress nine. Anthys Name is connected to the greek godess hera and she shares some similarities to the Pistis Sophia in gnosticism. (Similar to Eve Tokimatsuri in megazone 23)

But now, I want to talk about something else. You know Anthy looks Hindu.

There is a certain left hand path tradition called Tantra which is heavily connected to both Hinduism and Buddhism. (Some anthropologists suggests tantra is a kind of tribal tradition originating from people conquered by the Indians.)

Part of Hinduism is the concept of the divine feminine as Shakti. Shakti is on the one hand this split of feminine site as explained above.

The other aspect is the idea of the divine female principle as energy, power and the ability to do something. (Shakti also literally means energy. There is a certain Ritual to energize someone in tantrism called a Shaktipat.) Kabbala has similar ideas which is an explaination for the so called kabbalistic Flash (where every male Action needs to be Enhanced by a feminine sephiroth leading to a zick zack path)

This concept is also linked to the concept of practical intelligence versus conceptual intelligence. (And interestingly, according to neurologist Simon Baron Cohen, certain people whose brain development was influenced by too much Testosterone have problems with practical intelligence leading to problems in hand eye coordination and movement. This is one origin of the trope of the Nerd who is terrible at sports.)

Due to this, another metaphor for the Shakti is the sword, because the warrior is able to Perform an Action due to having a sword. In Utena, swords are famously generated by womans bodies.

Another metaphor for the Shakti is the term "the bride". And according to occultist Julius Evola, in tantric groups, there are spiritual Contests and only the spiritually strongest is said to fully pocess "the bride". In the context of Utena, this sounds very familiar.

By the way, one infamous aspect of Tantra is orgies. While Utena does not depict that, the series is very promiscous with changing relationships. Sometimes in the Show it really seemed that almost everyone at least once had a relationship with almost everyone else.😅 (By the way, the most famous tantric book is the Kama Sutra.)

One other aspect here. Utena as a character is infamously based on Haruka from sailor moon

And both Haruka and Utena are the most famous tomboys in anime history. While both indeed have a certain small connection to the solar principle (both their Names Tenoh and Tenjou refer to the heaven and the idea of heaven is connected to the solar principle via the greek god Apollon), both of them do not Meet the idea of the "immovable mover".

And tomboys both in Literature and in real life are more associated with energy, dynamism and being wild. ( For example, marle from chrono trigger is once called a tomboy and there is a dialogue where in the next sentence is said "I would like to know how wild she really is")

You see, this fits VERY well with the idea of the feminine as Shakti and energy. (By the way, my girlfriend is a tomboy as well and the idea of shakti energy fits her very well, as well as the tantric metaphor to "ride the tiger")

Utena is more Shakti than solar "immovable mover"

And like I said, Tantra is connected to nomadic, tribal people. The idea of the tomboy is frequently connected to huntresses in civilizations like Mongolia or the japanese Ainu. (Nakoruru from samurai shodown with her pet wolf is also a very good example here.) Sometimes, the greek godess Diana is also mentioned here.

There is also a certain theory that the metaphor of the trapped, oppressed godess (like the gnostic Pistis Sophia and the greek Hera which was one influence on Anthy) might represent the conquering of nomadic civilizations by partriarchical agrarian "right hand path" civilizations.

Aleister crowleys successor Kenneth Grant and the Hippie Philosopher terrence McKenna both also associated the left hand path with nomadic, tribal, paleolithic cultures.

Another aspect about the whole thing. According to the anthropologist and occult researcher Herman Wirth, ancient Germanic Tribes had female priestresses. These priestresses which used magic cauldrons were called the So called Hags. This is where the english term old hag comes from. The german word Hexe (meaning witch) is also derived from the term hag. They were also Experts in medicine etc.

But when the Odin worship was established, the Hags were more and more ostracized, oppressed and sidelined. Later leading to Christian witch hunts. The war between the aesir and the nature gods of the vanir is also seen as a metaphor for the depowerment of the witches and this war in myth has a function akin to the original sin.)

Anthys role as a witch and her slow demonization parallels these theories about real witches rather well.

(Side Note. Herman Wirth is also referenced in Final Fantasy 7. Professor Gast has a similar history and a similar appereance to Herman Wirth and in german, a Gast is a term which can refer to a customer of a Wirth. This also connects Aerith to this topic.)

Madoka Magica has a similar witch symbolism but uses it more as a metaphor for Kierkegaards existential despair and sin as a result of despair.