The East Pacific - Looking Forward to the Future
The East Pacific recently redesigned its flag and symbol transitioning to a white lotus symbol against verdant green. The lotus flower symbolizes rebirth, spiritual enlightenment, and has been a central symbol across the world and a part of major ancient cultures and religions.
Of the design changes, the main contributors to the re-theming were TEPers Libertanny, Pakitsk, Fedele, Elfine, Aeneas, and Marrabuk. On the design overhaul they had to say that it represented both a return to tradition in TEP, in keeping the verdant green, as well as the lotus symbolizing the harmony, calmness and growth that the region wants to focus on in this period of time.
The Science of the Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)
The lotus, sometimes mistaken with a water lily, has a unique life cycle. It’s roots are based in the mud and the plant submerges each night into muddy water. Miraculously, it re-blooms each morning without any stain on its petals. The Chinese Confucian scholar, Zhou Dunyi, said, “I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained.”
The plant is also extremely hardy even though it looks dainty. Lotus seeds, aged approximately 1,300 years, were found in an a dried out lake-bed in northeastern China. In 1994, the seeds were successfully germinated and bloomed. Scientists have also found that the lotus can self-regulate the temperature of its flowers to within a range similar to those of warm blooded animals and humans.
The lotus exists in five natural colors: white, pink, blue, red and purple. The white lotus, chosen for the TEP redesign, is revered for its purity and referred to as the “womb of the world.”
Ancient Egypt and the Lotus
The Egyptians depicted one of their significant gods, Horus, sitting on a lotus flower with his mother. Known as the god of the sky he was said to contain the sun and the moon. Egyptian primeval goddess Hathor’s major sacred symbol was the blue lotus and was dedicated to her son the god of perfume and beauty.
King Tut and his wife depicted with lotus
The lotus symbol is found in honored places from ancient Egyptian tombs, to architecture, and royal headdresses. Egyptian women wore amulets emblazoned with the lotus during childbirth for its associations with the sun, creation, rebirth and fertility. The Egyptian hieroglyphic for the significant cardinal number, 1000, was a lotus. While the white lotus and the blue lotus were both native to Egypt and cultivated extensively, the blue lotus was preferred for its exquisite scent and associated with the sacred.
Asian Cultures and the Lotus
The lotus is a sacred and polyvalent symbol in Buddhist and Hindu religions and in the countries of China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Many deities are depicted sitting on a lotus as it embodies divinity and perfection. Gautam Buddha, a monk whose teachings became the foundations of Buddhism, was believed to have lotus flowers bloom where he walked. Indeed the lotus forms the teachings of the Eightfold Path in Buddhism to spiritual enlightenment.
A Tibetan depiction of Buddha seated on a pink lotus. In Buddhism, the pink lotus is considered the supreme lotus while the blue represents wisdom and the white purity.
The lotus symbolizes the purity of body, speech, and mind and the human soul. The flower is rooted in the mud and each night submerged underwater into the murky, muddy waters. However, the flower emerges, as almost a resurrection, each morning without its petals being defiled by the impurities. It therefore represents the ability of the soul to transcend earthly trappings and to remain whole and pure.
Delegate Fedele, who commissioned the new theme, stated that, “it was prompted by a perceived need for a new beginning” and reiterated how the white lotus represents rebirth and purity resurrecting out of the darkness of the black and the green represents progress to a better future.
With a new theme and several changes internally, we hope to see the East Pacific thrive in harmony and prosperity.
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