Anime: The Future of Magic and Occult

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Magick or occult themes are around us everyday and most people dont even
realize it. The main areas where most people will witness these subjects are
encountered through their televisions. It starts off with kids shows and movies,
moves through adolescence and into adulthood. One of the most famous childrens
movies of all time is The Sword in the Stone. A young Arthur is mentored by Merlin
the wizard and his owl Archimedes to prepare him for his future role as king. Harry
Potter and his closest friends have captivated young adults while they fight the evil
wizard Voldemort in the Harry Potter Series. These movies contain everything from
giant spiders to transfigurations and even the famous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry. Adults will find The Illusionist, The Prestige or similar movies that deal
with magicians and their ability to perform magic tricks and illusions. Besides movies,
there are plenty of television series in the past and present dealing with magical
themes as well such as Bewitched, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sabrina, the
Teenage Witch. Although all of these movies and television shows deal with magic,
they arent true representations of magick and occult.
Magick and occult are the real world applications of traditions that date back
to the beginning of mankind. It all started with animism and then expanded in many
different directions into a worldwide network that is still thriving in todays times.
Although when most people think of magic they think of those movies and shows
above, it doesnt mean that there arent good examples in todays media of what
magick and occult are really about. While researching several different genres in both
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television and cinema, I kept coming across an unlikely area that had major occult
themes. There were some good movies like The Ninth Gate and Angel Heart dealing
with supernatural forces and voodoo magick. Supernatural is a television show on the
CW whose characters are mostly based on supernatural beings found in the history of
magick and occult. But Japanese animation or anime as it is sometimes referred to
has major occult themes in a wide variety of shows. Serial Experiments Lain,
Fullmetal Alchemist, and Bible Black are three series that delve into Magick and
Occult and the stories are greatly enhanced because of it.
Serial Experiments Lain or Shiriaru Ekusuperimentsu Rein is an animation
written by Chiaki J. Konaka and is directed by Ryutaro Nakamura. The story starts
out with Lain, a young lonely girl who seems to be an outsider among her classmates
and family. Along with a few of her classmates, Lain receives an email from beyond
the grave with a strange message. Its from Chisa, a former classmate who
committed suicide and it explains to Lain that she is not really dead and she only left
her physical body behind. She is currently alive and well in the Wired (a place very
similar to the internet) where a God exists. Lain convinces her father to get her an
upgraded NAVI or computer so she can explore the Wired. Its during this time that
Lain finds out she has an alter ego in the Wired who is almost her complete opposite
in regards to personality. At school rumors are being circulated that students all over
the country are starting to commit suicide after playing a game on the Wired. Lain
discovers these deaths are caused by a group called the Knights of the Eastern
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Calculus and theyve been spying on her for some time. Throughout the next few
episodes Lain and her Wired alter ego start to become one. They find out who the
Knights are and out their identities onto the Wired. The Knights are all killed and we
come to meet the God of the Wired whom was worshipped by the Knights. The
border between the real world and the Wired world is starting to breakdown and Eiri,
the Wired God, decides to reset Lain and there is battle that Lain eventually wins.
She has become powerful in both the real and Wired worlds and decides to remove
herself from everyones memories and the Wired altogether. The series ends as we
see Lain after many years being admired by one of her old friends.
The story being told in Serial Experiments Lain has parallels with Gnosticism in
many ways. The character Lain has many similarities to Sophia, a famous aeonial
being in Gnosticism
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. Stephen A. Hoeller explains her as such:
One of the aeonial beings who bears the name Sophia (Wisdom) is of great
importance to the Gnostic world view. In the course of her journeyings, Sophia
came to emanate from her own being a flawed consciousness, a being who
became the creator of the material and psychic cosmos, all of which he
created in the image of his own flaw. This being, unaware of his origins,
imagined himself to be the ultimate and absolute God. Since he took the
already existing divine essence and fashioned it into various forms, he is also
called the Demiurgos or half-maker There is an authentic half, a true deific
component within creation, but it is not recognized by the half-maker and by
his cosmic minions, the Archons or rulers.
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Lain emanated a flawed consciousness in the Wired and this consciousness stated
that she is omnipotent and omnipresent during the final episode. While this
consciousness is Demiurgos in Gnosticism, Chiaki Konaka decided to make him a
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separate character in the show. The God in Serial Experiments Lain claims he is a
God (thanks to the Knights of the Eastern Calculus) much like the Demiurge claims to
be a God in Gnosticism
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. The Knights of the Eastern Calculus are an easy equivalent
to the Knights Templar as they are both secret organizations whose members were
sought out and killed (not all Knights Templar were sentenced to death)
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. One of the
final scenes of the show has Lain seeing her father at home and remembering her
home much like a fallen soul is described in Gnosticism
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.
Another Japanese animation series using magick and occult is Fullmetal
Alchemist, written by Hiromu Arakawa and based on the comic books. This show is
much different than Serial Experiments Lain in that it has many storylines spanning 51
episodes and multiple seasons. Serial Experiments Lain was only one season and 13
episodes and there was one main story.
Fullmetal Alchemist is the story of Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric and their
quest to find the philosophers stone to restore Alphonses body. It starts out with
Edward and Alphonse performing and alchemy experiment to bring back their late
mother that goes terribly wrong. Alphonses human form disappears (he is a metal
being) and Edward loses his left leg because they ignored one of the two main laws:
transmuting gold and bringing a person back from the dead are not allowed. The
philosophers stone will bring back their mother, restore Alphonses body as well as
Edwards leg and arm. We learn later that after the failed experiment, Edward gave
his arm to his brothers suit of armor so he could continue on. During their journey,
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Edward continues pursuing alchemy to the point that he passes his state alchemy
examination. We also come to find that their fathers name is Hohenheim. During
their journey to find and use the philosophers stone, Alphonse and Edward come
across many enemies and allies. They are good heroes as they somehow always find
a way to come out on top.
Magick and occult themes in Fullmetal Alchemist are everywhere starting with
the title of the series. Alchemy started in the ancient world before the 400s CE and
continues up until around 1200 CE
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. Its very similar to chemistry and basically
involves transforming one substance into another.
The character names in Fullmetal Alchemy seem to come from famous
occultists from the past. Alphonse refers to Alphonse Louis Constant, which was the
pen name for Eliphas Levi. Eliphas combines the Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and Alchemy
in his book Transcendental Magick: Its Doctrine and Ritual
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and is an important figure
in the 19
th
century occult revival. The character Edward comes from Aleister Crowley
whose original name was Edward Alexander Crowley. Aleister Crowley is maybe the
most influential occultist in all of modern magick and occult. Not only is he a brilliant
synthesizer but also comes up with the 3 Aeons and starts the Argentum Astrum. In
The Book of the Law he states, There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
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This is
how the brothers in Fullmetal Alchemy live their lives. However, they are not the only
characters with ties to magick and occult. Their father Hohenheim is the last name of
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Auroleus Phillipus Theophratus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) and is
considered a genious of alchemy during the middle ages.
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Along with the characters, there is a great deal of symbolism in the series.
Alphonse has a seal of a 8 point star with a circle around it and a wavy line from the
top to the middle
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. The star represents the symbol for
creation and the wavy line is the symbol for the soul
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. This
essentially means a created soul and it makes sense since
he has no body and is only the armor with his soul. Roy
Mustang is known as the flame alchemist and has a symbol
on the outside of his right hand. The ring at the top is obviously a symbol of fire
along with the center most triangle
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. The four triangles connecting at their apexes
represent earth (pointing down) or the fuel for the fire and
air (pointing up) or the oxygen
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. The final symbol is a
salamander, which is also a representation of fire
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. During
ancient times when rotting logs would be set on fire
salamanders would come running out. People believed that
these lizards were born of fire. Roy creates his flame seemingly out of nowhere and
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so the salamander is a fitting symbol. The most prolific symbol in the series is the
transmutation symbol that Edward and Alphonse try to use to bring their mother back
to life
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. The three large symbols in the
middle of the circle refer to the Three
Primes in alchemy: Sulphur(1) or the soul,
Mercury(2) or the spirit, and Salt(3) or the
body. The hexagon connects six of the
seven planetary metals that rule over all
metals. These six planetary metals are
Silver(4) representing the emotions of the
human being, Tin(5) representing morals and philosophy, Gold(6) representing
individuality, Lead(7) representing discipline and responsibility, Copper(8) representing
love and affection, and Iron(9) representing energy and drive
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. While these are just
some of the symbols and themes in this show, there are a great deal more throughout.
Bible Black is a miniseries that involves a group of witches and deals heavily
with divination, magick and occult. This series is only for adult extremists as it is
exceedingly pornographic to the point of perversion. That being said, it is well
documented by Inquisitors that witches would meet and honor their Devil or Demon
with sex and possible orgies. The Malleus Maleficarum states All witchcraft comes
from carnal lust, which is in women insatiableWherefore for the sake of fulfilling
their lusts they consort even with devils.
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Bible Black is probably a good
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representation of what the inquisitors thought was happening during these meetings
or Sabbaths.
The series begins as Minase, a university student, discovers a book in the
basement of his school dealing with Kabbalistic Satanism. He casts a love spell on a
girl and realizes the power of the book he has. Kitami, the school nurse notices
whats going on and uses her influence to get the book from Minase for herself. She
was sacrificed during a Sabbath twelve years earlier and had to make a deal with the
devil to save her life. The book will provide her with a soul transfer spell to enter
another body since her deal is running out of time. After searching for a virgin to
sacrifice, she finds Imuri and will perform the ritual on her with other witches present.
During the ritual, the demon possessing Minase leaves and he realizes he loves Imuri,
his childhood best friend. He casts a spell at the last minute saving Imuri and Kitami
is not able to transfer herself into Imuri. The season ends when Imuri destroys the
book and we find out that Kitami is in her and the spell was successful unbeknownst
to everyone.
Throughout this show there are scenes of witches gathered around a circle
chanting, Zazas, zazas, Nastanada Zazas. This chant comes from the Jewish
Kabbalah and is a famous sacred mantra of Choronzon, the Demon of Dispersion.
Supposedly this will open the Hidden Sephirah Daath guarded by Choronzon for
communication and to possibly make a deal. The Bible Black in this show is a
depiction of both The Black Pullet
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and The Lessor Key of Solomon (Lemegeton)
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.
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These grimoires focus on demonology or black magic and can be used by witches
for a number of things including transferring oneself to another body as accomplished
by Kitami. The Walpurgis is the night Kitami and her fellow witches try to conjure up
spirits and it coincides with the descriptions inquisitors made of witches during the
inquisition
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. While I havent seen the second season of Bible Black, Im aware that
a new character is introduced by the name of Jody Crowley, a descendant of Aleister
Crowley as mentioned in Fullmetal Alchemist.
Serial Experiments Lain, Fullmetal Alchemy, and Bible Black are three very
interesting Japanese animated series with strong magick and occult themes tied
accurately to historical figures and events. These shows are just three of many in
the anime category that explore magick or occult themes and they have found that
great stories can be created with a foundation as interesting and diverse as magick
and occult provides. This is a great way to expose people to an idea or beliefs that
usually come with a negative or unrealistic perception. Even if a person does know
the underlying theme and are skeptical about it, they will watch if its a good story.
The companies producing Japanese animation along with the writers are doing a
fantastic job of incorporating magick and occult into their creations and should
continue to do so for the benefit of everyone.


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References:
Works Cited
1. Aikawa, Sho. "Fullmetal Alchemist." Fullmetal Alchemist. Cartoon Network. 4 Oct.
2003. Television.
2. "The Alchemy Web Site." The Alchemy Web Site. Adam McLean, May 1995. Web. 23
Apr. 2014.
3. Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.
4. The Black Pullet: Science of Magical Talisman. York Beach, Me.: Samuel Weiser, 2000.
Print.
5. Cotnoir, Brian. The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy. San Francisco.: Samuel Weiser,
2006. Print.
6. Gnostic 3: Featuring Jung and the Red Book. S.l.: Bardic, 2010. Print.
7. Hamuo, dir. "Bible Black." Bible Black. Prod. Milky Studio. 25 May 2002. Television.
8. Hoeller, Stephan A. "The Gnosis Archive: Resources on Gnosticism and Gnostic
Tradition." The Gnosis Archive: Resources on Gnosticism and Gnostic Tradition.
Lance Owens, MD, 1995. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
9. Hoeller, Stephan A. "The Gnostic World View: A Brief Summary of Gnosticism." The
Gnostic World View: A Brief Summary of Gnosticism. The Gnosis Archive, 1995. Web.
23 Apr. 2014.
10. Hoeller, Stephan A. Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing.
Wheaton, IL: Quest, 2002. Print.
11. Konaka, Chiaki. "Serial Experiments Lain." Serial Experiments Lain. TV Tokyo. Tokyo,
Japan, 6 July 1998. Television.
12. Kramer, Heinrich. The Malleus Maleficarum. New York: Cosimos Classics, 2008. Print.
13. Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, Aleister Crowley, and Hymenaeus Beta. The Goetia: The
Lesser Key of Solomon the King: Lemegeton, Book I--Clavicula Salomonis Regis. York
Beach, Me.: Samuel Weiser, 1997. Print.
14. Waite, Arthur E., and Alphonse L. Constant. Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and
Ritual. London: Rider, 1968. Print.
15. Crowley, Aleister. The Book of the Law. Kings Beach Caif.: Thelema Pubs., 1974.
Print.