Template:Shared Draft 195

It's been quite some time since the previous post in this project, seeing as we've been very busy tackling a prolonged and immense workload as part of general updates with the new releases in the Toaru series and the Toaru Project and the wiki-wide overhaul known as the Series Three Overhaul Project (STOP). However, given recent circumstances in the latest part of the story, and the need for a short break and mood-lifter, I thought it might be time to try another one.

The subject this time is the Rose Cross - a key symbol and tool used by the Rosicrucian Order and the Golden Dawn, and the many groups derived from them. A symbol which in turn incorporates many other key symbols used in the magical systems of the Golden and the Rosen, many aspects of it have cropped up in the series and played a role in various spells seen in the story.

Note: Be aware that this post contains information pertaining to the latter part of Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index and the events of Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index, and as such, there will be spoilers for them below. You have been warned.

Note: Bear in mind that a number of the subjects which might be involved have differing interpretations and disagreements concerning them. Also, I'm just a casual reader in these areas, so there may be some mistakes at times, though I try to avoid them as much as possible. If there are any points for improvement, correction or discussion, please feel free to discuss them in a constructive manner in the comments section below.

Introduction

 * Introduction (The Rose Cross, RL and Toaru)

Rose cross medals are featured in the Toaru series as all-purpose spiritual items, which among other things can be used to mass-produce sigils. Two notable characters in the Coronzon Arc were shown to possess rose cross medals; Madame Horos, who brandished hers while approaching Aleister in the guise of Anna Sprengel, and Dion Fortune, who popped a worn one into her Archetype Processor for a piece of randomized magic. Leivinia Birdway also has one and apparently still relies on it for sigils.

The Rose and the Cross

 * The Rose and the Cross (Overall Symbol, RL and Toaru)
 * Rosenkreuz, Rosicrucianism and the Rosicrucian Order
 * Ten petal, man/woman, cross - body

The Hermetic Rose
Introduction to the Rose
 * Central Rose (22 Petals, RL and Toaru)
 * 22-Petal Rose (Kabbalah, Hermeticism)


 * The petals are coloured according to the King Scale colour scheme, with their letters in complimentary colours.

Sigils
 * Leivinia Birdway (Sigil): During the confrontation between Kanzaki Kaori and Leivinia Birdway as the two were going after Orlentz Trice and losing their tempers, Birdway ordered Mark Space to bring her a magic sword, intending to take Hebrew text from a cross medal and draw a sigil to use against Kanzaki.

The twenty-two Hebrew letters inscribed on the rose's petals are also connected to the twenty-two paths on the Sephiroth, the Tree of Life in Kabbalah. As has been stated in the early volumes of the series and demonstrated in more recent volumes, the Sephiroth is a very important concept in the world of magic and the Toaru series. It has multiple functions, acting as a map of spiritual and material realms, a diagram for the human body and soul, a guide to properly building up one's soul, and more. The twenty-two paths and ten spheres together make up the so-called Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom, and form the structure of the magical correspondence table in Aleister Crowley's Liber 777 that is key to the systems of Magick and Modern Western Magic. In certain traditions, each of the spheres is protected by a specific angel, and in , Neoka Norito's amateur Golden-style magic involved the creation of imaginary angels and temporary spheres within the existing paths to produce an effect in the world, utilizing the association between the spheres, planets and metals (more on that in the planetary hexagram section below).

The outer ring consists of twelve petals, which are associated with the constellations making up the Western Zodiac. The petals are arranged in order from Aries to Pisces, starting with Aries at the top and going anti-clockwise, with Libra at the bottom. They are also in anti-clockwise order of colour (Red to Orange to Yellow to Green to Blue to Purple to Red), following the King Scale. These associations have been seen once in Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index, when Karasuma Fran attempted to invoke an angel associated with Virgo (with a yellow-green light), only for the opposing Karma-bearing chain to interfere with the colouration and have the red Aries activate instead, causing the spell to fail. The letters on this ring are (from Aries to Pisces) Heh, Vau, Zayin, Chet(h), Tet(h), Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samech, Ayin, Tsade/Tzaddi and Qof/Qoph.

The next ring is also in anti-clockwise colour order and its seven petals are associated with the seven planets and their associated metals (which will be covered in the section about the planetary hexagram below). The letters on this ring (the Seven Double Letters) are Peh, Resh, Beth, Dalet(h), Gimel, Kaf/Caph and Tau

The innermost ring has three petals and letters (known as the Three Mother Letters), representing three of the four elements. These are Shin (ש), Mem (ם) and Aleph (א), representing the elements of fire, water and wind/air respectively. The element of earth is not present. The Aleph petal representing air is beneath the arm of the cross assigned to air, while the Shin and Mem petals representing fire and water are on the opposite sides to the arms assigned to those elements.

The very centre of the rose is coloured white, symbolizing the light of Keter. On top of it is a smaller and more simplified version of the Rose Cross, with a gold six-square cross, a five-petal red rose at the centre, and four green barbs from between the arms of the cross. It symbolizes the microcosmic within the macrocosmic (the twenty-two petal rose symbolizing the world or the larger Rose Cross itself), with the numbers also being associated with the microcosm (5) and the macrocosm (6) - also seen on certain versions of the Thelemic. The connection between the microcosm and the macrocosm is an important element of the supernatural systems within the Toaru series, for both espers and magic.

The most recent and potent use of the rose symbol was in , the most recent light novel volume released at the time of writing, where Anna Sprengel used it in the control mechanism for the nature of the imitation "Breaker" powers she was forming in her right hand using Aiwass's energy. Rather than a physical rose symbol, Anna made use of the elemental symbolism of the digits on her left hand to switch the central three elements on and off and the coding system known as Gematria (which assigns each Hebrew character a numerical value (e.g. Shin=1, Mem=40, Aleph=300), with many ways to apply and interpret these values) to derive the meaning. In the conclusion of the battle, Touma threw a Capricorn decoration, associated with the element of Earth which has no place in the central part of the rose, to cause a malfunction in Anna's spell.

The Four Arms of the Cross

 * Cross Arms (Four Elements, Sephiroth)
 * Lower arm (black, green or four as Malkuth/receiving the other elements)
 * Inscription colours

The positions of the elements on the cross are not the common arrangement seen in the Toaru series (though the colours for three of the elements are definitely the same), one also connected to the four cardinal directions and archangels, and based on a distorted form of an arrangement from the Golden Dawn's. Instead, these ends are associated with four of the Sephirah, spheres of the Sephiroth - the upper arm is associated with air, yellow and Tiphareth, the left arm with fire, red and Gevurah, and the right arm with water, blue and Chesed.

While the end of the lower arm associated with earth is sometimes coloured green, it is often coloured with four colours, being associated with Malkuth (the lowest Sephirah, representing the material world), with the nature of a container and receiver of other influences. These four parts, in each of the four directions and in a similar arrangement to the cross as a whole, are associated with the elemental parts of the element of earth - Citrine for the airy part, Olive for water, Russet for fire, and black for the lowest one, earth of earth.

Rays behind the Cross
Behind the rose and between the arms of the cross, are several triangular protrusions, colored white and referred to as rays, symbolizing divine light. The rays consist of four larger ones, each one halfway between the arms and each with two smaller ones either side, between itself and the arm.

Inscribed on the larger rays are the letters (short in Latin for Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum, which translates to "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews"), which are believed to have been carved in the original cross, on which  was crucified. Each ray has one letter, inscribed in order from left to right and top to bottom. Additionally, an astrological symbol is inscribed above each of the letters (in INRI order - Virgo (Isis), Scorpio (Apophis), Sun (Osiris), Virgo).

Inscribed on the smaller rays in the same way are letters comprising other magical formulae. On the counter-clockwise side of the larger rays, letters spell out LVX ("lux" - Latin for light). On the clockwise side of the larger rays, the letters spell out IAO (Isis, Apophis, Osiris - birth, death/destruction, slain/resurrection). The rays besides the final "I" merely repeat the "X" and "I" from before.

INRI has hardly been used in the Toaru series, with the main use occurring during Aleister Crowley's final battle with the recreated Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers at the church in Scotland where Aleister had married Rose Edith Kelly. In response to Aleister using the symbol of the (Y-H-Sh-V-H), derived from the tetragrammaton (Y-H-V-H) and linked to the Son of God, to build his body up to a higher level, Mathers improvised a method from the same system to purify and enhance his body in a similar fashion. His method was based around INRI, being the holy letters carved into the original cross on which the Son of God died.

One little thing of note regarding Mathers and INRI here are associations for both with the four elements. Although INRI was not originally associated with the four elements, certain occult texts from the 19th and 20th centuries gave other interpretations and backronyms to the letters - one of these was the Hebrew "Iamin, Nour, Rouach, Iebeschal" ("water, fire, wind, earth"), which was given in a 1825 book on Freemasonry by Marcello Reghellini de Schio, who claimed that it was an alchemical meaning given by the Rosicrucians. The letters of the tetragrammaton have also been associated with the four elements in a similar manner. As for Mathers, in the Toaru series his signature spiritual items are the four symbolic weapons which represent the four elements.

Elemental Pentagrams

 * Magic Circle, Five Elements
 * Top point - Aether/Spirit
 * Upper right - Water
 * Lower right - Fire
 * Upper left - Air
 * Lower left - Earth
 * Order correspondence:

Planetary Hexagram

 * Magic Circle, Seven Metals, Astrology
 * Neoka Norito

Three Principles
At the very end of the arms of the cross are three symbols, in different positions depending on the element. There represent the three alchemical, also known as the 'three primes' or tria prima. The three principles, each of which represent an aspect of a person, are salt (body or base matter, 🜔), sulfur (soul, 🜍) and mercury (mind, ☿) - not to be confused with the more mundane substances of the same name. The concept of the three principles and the relationships between them was one of the ideas developed by the famous alchemist (born Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), who was mentioned in  during the events involving alchemist Aureolus Izzard, said to be a descendant of Paracelsus.

The symbols for the three principles are present at the very end of each arm of the cross, but they are arranged in different orders depending on the arm's element. The central symbol is the principle whose nature is chief for the particular element (e.g. Mercury for Air, Sulphur for Fire, Salt for Water), while the positions of the other two symbols are determined by the elements of the arms on the respective sides (e.g. for the upmost arm assigned to Air, Mercury is chief (flowing and ever-moving), the Sulphur side is drawn from the part of Fire (associated with luminous and electrical qualities) and the Salt side from Water (associated with clouds and rain)).

The three principles have not been featured all that much in the Toaru series, being mentioned during the events of the Coronzon Arc, during the events in the United Kingdom involving the reproduced Golden Dawn. Although they have not been featured much, they are noted as important magical concepts. In terms of use, several of the summoning ceremonies involved in the second chapter of the recent Agnese SS were said to utilize the principles in their construction (namely an astral projection attempt, a murder attempt trying to disembody and destabilize the victim so their own power destroys them, and claims connected to the creation of feminine mandrakes).