Edward Elric, the main character of a wonderful Japanese manga, Full Metal Alchemist, is an alchemist, miracle man who wears an odd symbol on his clothes. It’s called a flamel and consists of a snake on a cross with a crown and wings. Fitting with the story, it was the symbol of a famous French author and alchemist of the 1300s, Nicholas Flamel who was supposed to have made a philosopher’s stone. The stone, supposedly changed lead into gold and allowed Flamel and his wife to escape death, a story that appears also in the first Harry Potter book. But where does this symbol fit in?
Edward Elric wears a snake-cross, “Flamel” on his back.
Current symbol of the AMA
A first though regarding the symbol is that it’s related to the Asclepius, the snake-on-a-staff symbol of the American Medical Association. Asclepius was an ancient Greek doctor who cured parasitic snakes under the skin by wrapping them around a stick. In mythology, he was the ship’s doctor on Jason’s voyage, and was so good at curing that Hades told Zeus he revived the dead. Zeus then killed Asclepius, and set him among the stars as a constellation. The constellation, snake-handler, is visible in the winter sky between Scorpius and Hercules. Sorry to say, the Asclepius don’t look particularly like Elric’s Flamel, and the constellation looks even less like it. Asclepius had two daughters, Hygeia (hygiene), and Panacea (drugs?). The cup of Hygeia is a symbol of apothecaries, but it too isn’t that similar to Ed’s Flamel.
The cup of Hygeia, the symbol of pharmacy.
Staff of Hermes, symbol of the AMA till 2005
Another similar-looking symbol is the Caduceus, symbol of Hermes/ Mercury, left. It has wings like the Flamel, but two snakes and no cross or crown. It was the symbol of the AMA until 2005, but the AMA switched from the Caduceus when they realized that Hermes/ Mercury was not a god of healing, but of merchants, liars, and thieves. Two snakes fighting each other is how the Greeks viewed business. The AMA, it seems, made a Freudian mistake in using a symbol of fast work and thievery.
The true source of the Flamel, I think, is the Bible. In Numbers, 21:8-9, The Jews complain about the manna in the desert and God sends fiery snakes to bite them. Moses prays and is told to make a bronze snake and put it on staff. While one might assume the staff was just a stick, it might have been a cross. This version appears on the silver German coin below with the reverse showing Christ on the cross. The snake on the stick is a symbol of healing; anyone who looked on it was cured. As for the wings and crown, these might refer to Christ or to some hidden wisdom (gnostic teaching) about the holiness of the snake. The New Testament, John 3:16-17, says: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up … ” The quote might suggest that both Christ and the snake was lifted up to holiness.
German coin, 1500s showing Jesus, a snake and cross on one side. Christ on the other. Suggests two sides of the same.
Edward might have adopted this view in order to be annoying to those around him. He had a peculiar, anti-religious view of religion despite being able to do miracles himself.
Roy: I thought you didn’t believe in gods, Full metal.
Edward: I don’t. That’s the thing. I think they can tell, and it pisses them off.
I should mention that Flamel died in 1418. His tomb was found empty. His home is now a restaurant. Flamel claimed the symbol related to fixing the volatile, perhaps the preparation of red mercuric oxide from volatile mercury, or of fixing the volatile thing called life. I should also mention that a similar symbol appears in a horror story, Lair of the White Worm, by Bram Stoker, and that a similar symbol appears as the salvation army crest. There is a crown above and the words “Blood and Fire.” In the manga, life-blood and fire appear to be the ingredients for making a philosopher’s stone.
Robert E. Buxbaum, February 2, 2017. I’ve also opined on the Holy Grail, and on Jack Kelly of Newsies, and on the humor of The Devine comedy.