The way alchemy works in FMA doesnāt resemble the way real-life alchemy is or was supposed to work, however, FMA is still packed full of references to real-life alchemy. The most obvious one is Hohenheimās name, but there are plenty more! (Ed and Al also share their names with real-life famous occultists, Edward Kelly and Alphonse Constant (Eliphas Levi), but this might be a coincidence.)Ā
It is probably no accident that Edās color scheme is black, white, and red. The three main stages of alchemy are names the nigredo, the albedo, and the rubedo. Nigredo, the black stage, is when the matter of the Stone ādiesā and putrefies, representing spiritual death. Albedo, the white stage, is when the matter of the Stone is washed, boiled, and turns to vapor, which condenses back into water, and the cycle repeats. This represents spiritual ascension and unification with the divine. Finally, during the rubedo, this āvolatileā matter becomes āfixed,ā crystallizing into the Philosopherās Stone. Ed also has gold hair and eyes, which is fairly self-explanatory. Gold is a metaphor for the state of spiritual perfection.
The āFlamelā symbol of a serpent nailed to a cross thatās on the back of Edās coat, painted on Alās pauldron, and tattooed on Izumiās chest is the ācrucified serpent,ā which actually does come from Nicolas Flamel. It represents the completion of the Great Work, the union of the fixed and volatile, the mercurial serpent physically nailed down to the cross with its four arms representing the Four Elements (with Quintessence in the center) and the reconciliation of polarities. It also demonstrates the death and mortification of the old body that is necessary for the Philosopherās Stone to be reborn:
The wings at the top of FMAās āFlamelā is probably meant to represent Mercuryās Caduceus, and maybe also the resurrection of the snake. The crown references the āKingā that is a metaphor for the Philosopherās Stone. The Flamel symbol also bears resemblance to the Staff of Asclepius, which represents medicine in the real world.
Another example is the āGreen Lionā on the flag of Amestris that acts a symbol of the military and is referenced a few other times:
In real alchemy, the āGreen Lionā is a symbol of antimony ore and represents the Philosopherās Stone in its āimperfectā state, before itās been purified. The Green Lion eats the Sun (representing perfection and Gold), causing a solar eclipse, representing the nigredo (death), the first stage of the Great Work. Amestris was created for almost exactly that reason, and it is far from āpurified,ā with corruption running deep into its core.
The image of the lion eating the sun appears in the show, when Ed and Ling are in Gluttonyās stomach:
Thereās also the transmutation circle itself, which looks so realistic, I actually thought it was real when I first saw it online:
Hereās a real magic circle:
Real magic circles are from ceremonial magic, not alchemy, but the text around the outside of the Human Transmutation Circle does reference alchemy. The āpeacockās feathers,ā the spotted panther and the green lion (as previously mentioned), the progression of black, gray, white, and red, all are metaphors for chemical reactions that are supposed to take place in an ideal alchemical procedure.
Some of the more complicated transmutation circles that appear throughout the show are also based on real designs from manuscripts. Thereās this design on the wall of the Fifth Laboratory:
Here we see the Sun and Moon (more on that in a minute) and three symbols of Mercury, which represent their unification. This looked very realistic, so I did some searching and this is what I found:
Itās not exactly the same, but itās clearly an image from an alchemical manuscript, and itās very similar.
The designs on Ed and Alās doors are real. The design on Edās door is the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as depicted by Robert Fludd in his seventeenth-century book Utriusque Cosmi:
The design on Alās door comes from an alchemical manuscript called The Marrow of Alchemy by George Ripley (as in, the Ripley Scroll). It depicts the alchemical process:
I havenāt managed to find where the design on Mustangās gate comes from, but I wouldnāt be surprised if that one was real, too.
One more thing I want to draw attention to is this dialogue between child-Ed and child-Al in āHe Who Would Swallow God.ā
Edward: āThe Sun is male, representing masculinity.ā
Alphonse: āThe Moon is female, representing femininity.ā
Edward: āWhen the Sun and the Moon overlap, then the two genders become one.ā
Alphonse: āIn other words, the union represents a perfect being.ā
The Sun and Moon are kind of a big deal in alchemy, and they are associated with maleness and femaleness respectively. Their role in real alchemy is as the metaphorical āparentsā of the androgynous Philosopherās Stone, the perfect being:
The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.
The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
Through the āchemical weddingā of the Sun and Moon (sulfur and mercury), the Philosopherās Stone is produced. I actually didnāt consider that a solar eclipse might be a symbol of the chemical wedding, until Ed and Al explicitly pointed it out in that episode. Thatās not what an eclipse traditionally represents in alchemy (thatās the Green Lion swallowing the sun, the nigredo and dark night of the soul that follows the first chemical wedding), but I still think it makes sense.Ā
(An image of the Chemical Wedding itself actually appears on the door to the exam room in the 2003 anime.)
Alchemy in FMA mostly doesnāt resemble real alchemy beyond those references. Real alchemy isnāt equivalent exchange ā changing something into something else of equal value ā but rather, metamorphosing something into a more improved version of itself. Theoretically, this would be turning āleadā into āgold,ā the most base form of metal into the most perfect form of metal (as was believed). But real alchemy isnāt about chemicals, and it never really was. Real alchemy is a spiritual process, meant to transmute the soul from its ābaseā human state into a āperfectā spiritual state. The way to do this is to separate out the āsubtleā from the āgross,ā i.e. the higher spiritual self from the mundane and earthly human self, and then joining them back together so that the spiritual self purifies the mundane self. This is summarized by the Latin phrase āsolve et coagula,ā to dissolve and to congeal, or alternately, to separate and to bring together. FMA parallels this with its two parts of alchemy being deconstruction (solve) and reconstruction (coagula). Therefore, the character whose goals and motivations come the closest to those of real alchemists isā¦ believe it or notā¦ Father.
What Father wants, or at least what he says he wants, is knowledge. He wants all the knowledge in the universe. Thatās what most occultists want, actually. Most occultists want to either merge with or become alike to God, although they all have different theories and methods of doing that. In FMA, the Philosopherās Stone is an alchemical catalyst powered by human souls, but in real life, the Philosopherās Stone is (long story short) a metaphor for the perfect being that Father wants to become. The real Philosopherās Stone is a being that is a perfect balance of male and female, sun and moon, dark and light, human and divine. It is therefore whole and complete. As I understand it, a person who has become the Philosopherās Stone can, theoretically, have the power and knowledge of a god whilst still being able to live on earth as a human.
By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force,
for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
So was the world created.
Fatherās āperfectā form is a perverse version of this ideal.
(This form gives me some very confusing emotions.)
āAs above, so belowā is the Hermetic Principle of Correspondence, the closest thing to a real Law of Equivalent Exchange ā it is the idea that the Macrocosm (God, the Universe, Truth) reflects the microcosm (humanity), and that by affecting one, you affect the other. The goal of the alchemist is to become the Philosopherās Stone, the place where Human and Divine meet and become one thing.
I canāt believe it took me until now to see āAs above, so belowā represented here. Even the episodeās title makes that obvious! But despite that blatant symbolism, there is no healthy convergence of divine and human here. Many occultists believe in something called āego death,ā which I used to think meant losing oneās individuality, which sounded a lot like being trapped in a homunculus with a torrent of other screaming souls. Only now, after watching this show, do I understand what āego deathā really means. This scene is pure ego on Fatherās part:
HEAR ME GOD! I DEMAND YOU ANSWER THE CRY OF MY SOUL! COME TO ME! JOIN ME! YES, I WILL NO LONGER BE BOUND TO YOU OR YOUR CONSEQUENCES! IāLL FORCE YOU DOWN TO THIS EARTH AND INTO MY BOWELS! YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BE ABSORBED!
āāEye of Heaven, Gateway of Earth.ā
This isnāt a genuine attempt to understand God, this is just an inferiority-superiority complex. Father doesnāt care to understand anything about God. All he cares about is himself, and acquiring power for himself. Power is all heās after, to assuage his inferiority complex. And thereās nothing inherently wrong with wanting power (e.g. Mustang), but godlike power to command the universe is a byproduct of having properly completed the alchemical process and become the Philosopherās Stone. It is not the end in and of itself. āEgoā isnāt having a sense of self, itās the inability to understand the spiritual. Itās viewing everything in a mundane lens, having all your motivations be ultimately small and petty, no matter how grand the spectacle. Itās wanting power or glory or whatnot just to make yourself feel better, but not having the self-awareness to actually admit that. The first stage of the alchemical process is nigredo, death ā watching your old self die away so that it can be reborn as a better version of itself. Father never understands this, and The Truth says as much.
The Truth is a personification of the Hermetic Principle of Mentalism:
Who am I? One name you might have for me is The World. Or you might call me The Universe. Or perhaps āGod.ā Or perhaps āThe Truth.ā I am All, and I am One. So of course, this also means that I am you.
Thatās basically it right there. God is All. All is God.
The reason why the Homunculus never grew beyond his days in the flask is because, despite wanting to acquire knowledge, he never actually learned anything. Trying to drag God down to Earth is sheer hubris, not because Earth is too far beneath it, but for the opposite reason ā it can come down to Earth whenever it likes. It is everywhere and everything. And the Homunculus never did any of the introspective work needed to find God within himself. He tried to separate out (solve) his perceived āflawsā (the Seven Deadly Sins, i.e. the other homunculi) but did not reintegrate them back into himself (coagula), thus only completing half the alchemical process. He is neither human, nor divine, he only steals Hohenheimās human shape and Truthās divine power. He never broadened his thinking or improved himself mentally/spiritually, and thus canāt become alike to God. He never became more than what he is, the dwarf in the flask, and thus his Gate is blank.
Edward, by contrast, loses almost everything in attempting human transmutation (nigredo), and then accepts his own humanity at the gate of Truth (albedo), losing the ability to perform alchemy but becoming a better version of himself (rubedo) ā thus, completing the alchemical process. In the end, heās free, which is all Father wanted to be. He acknowledges that you donāt have to use alchemy or whatnot to become more than you are, because who you are is enough.
Thus, Edward becomes the best version of himself, which is what real alchemists aspired to be. Heās completed the Great Work, and therefore has no need for alchemy anymore. āThat is the correct answer, alchemist!ā
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