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Flowers In Sailor Moon
Floral symbolism, particularly Christian floral symbolism in Sailor Moon, starts popping up long before the Messiah and Holy Grail concepts appear.
The biblical symbolism of flowers recurrs throughout the Sailor Moon "R" movie. First, the red rose appears, symbolizing passion, and then there's the appearance of flowers covering all the landscape, like flowers on a grave, and then Fiore gives Mamoru, not a rose, but a white lily--the White Lily of the Resurrection. He sacrifices his own life for Usagi's--a Christ-like act of redemption.
LILIES
Easter Lilies are used to decorate churches and homes. The large,
pure white blossoms remind Christians of the pure new life that comes to
them through the Resurrection of Jesus. LILY. The white lily stands for
purity. Artists for centuries have pictured the angel Gabriel coming to
the Virgin Mary with a spray of lilies in his hand, to announce that she
is to be the mother of the Christ child. The lily is also the sign of the
Resurrection. The lovely white Madonna lily was used for years as the
Easter lily. It often failed to bloom in time for Easter, however, and so
Bermuda lilies were substituted. They have six-part flowers (three petals
and three sepals colored alike) and usually six stamens.
The Lily in the BIBLE:
Lilies Represent Purity "And the stately lilies stand There are also two species of plants which refer to the Virgin Mary-- the Annunciation Lily a.k.a. the Madonna Lily [lilium candidum] , and the Assumption Lily a.k.a. Funkia [Hosta plantagenia].
The Easter Lily The Easter lily is also deeply rooted in Pagan symbolism. The lily is a sacred emblem of Lilith, the Sumero-Babylonian creation Goddess; the lilu (the lotus or lily) symbolizes her magic genitals. The lily often represents the virginal aspect of the Triple Goddess (the original "Lily Maid"), while the rose represents her maternal aspect.
[The lily--purity, the rose--passion and maternal instinct. And what does Chibi Usa say to Artemis & Luna, in the R Movie--that Sailor Moon is a mother (protective figure) to us all!] Similarly, the lily was sacred to Eostre-Astarte, Goddess of the "Easter" lilies. The lily as the Goddess' triple yonic emblem can be seen in the French fleur-de-lis, which is a stylized lily; and the Celtic shamrock, which is identified with the lily. The shamrock did not originate in Ireland, but was a sacred symbol among the people of the Indus Valley some 6000 years before Christianity.
[Hey, lookit!--I managed to sneak in a reference to St. Patrick's Day (I have Irish ancestry on both sides ;-). Here's hoping someone remembered to get me a little pot of green shamrocks ;-) ]
Other Goddesses who claim the lily as their sacred symbol include Juno, Uni, Venus, the Virgin Mary, and Hera. [Sacred to Venus AND the Virgin Mary, my goodness ;-)] When Hera's milk spurted from her breasts to form the Milky Way, the
drops that fell to Earth became lilies. The Easter lily was the medieval
pas-flower, from Latin passus, to step or pass over, cognate of pasha, the
Passover. The lily was also called Pash-flower, Pasque flower, and Passion
flower. Christians understood this last to refer to the passion of Christ;
Pagans understood it to represent the Spring passion of the Vegetation God
for union in love-death with the Earth Goddess. That somehow does remind me of Fiore's (the name means "Flower") death in union with the Kisenian, who is like an evil version of an Earth Goddess. SOON TO COME...ROSES, CHERRY BLOSSOMS SYMBOLISM...WATCH THIS PAGE.
Lessons to trust are gathered from the Lily: Matthew 6: 28-30
Molded in the rim of the molten laver in the temple: 1 Kings 7:26 & 2 Chronicles 4:5
The principle capitals of the temple ornamented withcarvings of lilies: 1 Kings 7:19, 22,26
Used in a figurative sense, of the lips of the beloved: Song of Solomon 5:13
Fair in the silvery light..." (Julia C.R. Dorr, "A Red Rose".)
"The purity of his life was the brightness of his glory."(Sir James Mackintosh, of Henry Grattan.)
