Watch For: flowers, roses, mysterious hands, ribbons, pearls, chains, cages, feathers, wings, butterflies, skulls, crowns, crosses, chessboards, curtains, stars, rabbits, mirrors, earrings, colors. .

You can find crosses all over Pandora Hearts art. The most obvious one is the cross marking Lacie's grave. This likely evokes all the feelings that modern visitors to cemeteries have when they come to spend time with departed loved ones. However, in Victorian times, different kinds of crosses had their own meanings in a funerary setting. Lacie's Cross looks like a hybrid of an Ionic Cross standing on a Calvary Cross pedestal. The Ionic Cross means everlasting salvation, love, and glory, with the circle representing eternity. The three steps of the Calvary Cross base represent faith, hope, and love or charity.

Taken together this is powerful imagery of what Lacie must have meant to Jack and Glen, and perhaps who she is as a being. Glen's cover featured him beside Lacie's Cross, holding the Lacie music watch. There are also two elements of the "trinity" concept present in Lacie's Cross: the triune pedestal and the tri-flared ends of its arms. Needless to say the trinity of "Alice, Celia, Lacie" comes to mind, as well as "Alice, Alyss, Lacie." The circle in Pandora Hearts also has potential additional meanings. The Contractor symbol is a circle, and its progression is modeled after the arm of a circular clock (such as the prophecised one that stopped). By extension, these mean passage of time and completion of a cycle, or even prophetic events and a connection to the Abyss itself (where you go once the contract symbol goes full circle).

The arm ends of Lacie's Cross look a little like very toned down Fleur-de-lis symbols, or "lily flower" in French. These are strongly linked to royalty, and also to the purity and chastity of the Virgin Mary. The "virgin" who gave birth to a holy god-child... which in this case could be Alice... maybe... not...? Huge stretch I know, but given the prevalence of Christian symbols like crosses, and the twisted references to God in the Pandora Hearts pilot, other iconography might also be intentional. The Fleur-de-lis are more pronounced in the Lacie music watch. It might be relevant that the watch is on a chain. It is also made of gold, an Abyss property. Here the central Lacie Cross stands on a horizontal crescent moon. If the Fleur-de-lis link to the Virgin Mary can be made, then this alludes to religious imagery of her as Queen of Heaven (or, in this case, Queen of the Abyss), standing on a crescent moon. The watch also has several other interesting symbols, particularly related to twins. Aside from the large cross in the middle, there are two little pointed crosses, which might indicate twin graves. There are two crescent moons, one waxing and one waning - a very intriguing reference to increasing light (white) and decreasing light (black), a light/dark duality which could be indicating the Alice twins. There are two sickle or scythe-like designs poised over the little crosses. Both sickles and scythes are symbols of the harvest, and in particular of "death" as the last harvest. B-Rabbit's weapon is a scythe. Or is the design on the Lacie music watch more similar to the one on Glen's furniture?

It has a cross with flared, pointy vertical arms, and wavy horizontal arms that curl down like the sickle designs on the watch. This cross also has little diamonds on either side, in the same place that the twin crosses are on the watch. The cross likewise appears to be standing on a crescent moon, but now it has white wings. The cross itself resembles an exaggerated Fleur-de-lis, and a flower carving, possibly a lily, sits atop the central leg of the couch. Also notice the pearls. Alice has a downward Fleur-de-lis at the waist of her dress, as well as a trinity of diamond shapes (counting the pointy end of the Fleur-de-lis). Three arms of the Lacie Cross end in diamond shapes similar to those on the Pandora Cross: .

This looks like a flared out Greek Cross with rounded ends. The distinctive characteristic of the Greek Cross are its equal-length arms, and since it's one of the earliest Christian symbols, it also draws on pre-Christian polytheistic symbolism of planet Earth with its four cardinal directions, and the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, with ether, the fifth element, at the center. These elements correspond to the body, mind, will, emotion, and spirit respectively. It's easy to guess what the designs on the Pandora Cross stand for: the diamonds on the arms are the four Abyss gates claimed by four dukedoms who formed Pandora, making available to them four of Glen's Chains: Owl, Dodo, Griffon, and Raven. The square at the center represents both the Abyss itself, which the four gates link into for access, as well as the fifth gate, still owned by the Baskervilles and giving access to Jabberwocky. I'm not sure if it would be make sense to try aligning these with the four elements and their correspondences (Dodo=Barma=Mind=Air?? D:), but I do think it makes sense to say that the central square corresponds to the spiritual element of ether. The Abyss seems to play the role of an afterlife in Pandora Hearts, so it being linked with funerary symbols like crosses isn't that unusual. All the dead people hang out in the Abyss (Alice, Alyss, Cheshire, Jack, Glen, and now Lacie), and the Abyss "grants will to those without life." Disembodied souls journey through the Golden World of the Abyss for 100 years before reincarnating. Jack repeats this idea to Isla Yura before killing him: "may your soul be banished from this world for 100 years." And here again we see a cross, but this time in the guise of a sword: .

It looks like a Botonee Cross, with its three-pronged arm ends symbolic of the Trinity. The sword shows the more violent aspect of the Cross-as-Death symbolism. A pointed sword-cross is the crest of the Nightray dukedom, and is worn by both Gilbert and Vincent.

Gil doesn't wear his very often, but he does wear a cross once outside of the Nightray context: in the picture of him in mourning and cradling a skull. That's probably for the death of his Master, though. Vincent wears his Nightray cross all the time. Elliot, of course, also wore the cross emblem. It features boldly behind him on the cover of Volume 14, along with tattered black ribbons wrapped around chains, and he wore it all through the Yura's Mansion arc. All the Nightrays wear it, and we all know what happened to the Nightray bloodline... .

It's almost as if running around flaunting a funerary ornament marks you for death... which doesn't bode well for Gilbert, or especially Vincent... and everybody in Pandora, for that matter. But I wouldn't panic just yet. Break, who is virtually guaranteed to die by the end of the story, doesn't wear crosses. Not even his cane-sword resembles a cross. The only time I can recall him having one is when he showed his Pandora Cross to Oz. Leo, however, has a cross on top of the pearled crown he wears as King of the Baskervilles.

Alice, and various stuffed rabbits, are seen with crosses quite often. That's a sword-cross in her garter, similar to both the Nightray crest and the twin pointed crosses on the Lacie watch. Behind her are three windows, each with three sections and three encircled crosses, invoking a powerful image of triple Trinity. Windows with a similar encircled cross, plus three tri-pronged shapes dividing the glass into thirds can be found in Alice's room. Using Black Rabbit power, Alice has red eyes instead of violet. She's holding a black rabbit Oz doll while asserting dominance by standing with her right leg on top of a white rabbit, who she has collared on a chain. The theme of black and white rabbits is echoed in the black and white chessboard on the floor, symbolizing dark Alice's duality with her light twin. This looks like a church setting, and indeed the white rabbit on the floor is holding a golden cross. This is a man with a rabbit mask on. Specifically, Father Harris Watson from the Pandora Hearts pilot, whose robes and cross match the ones here. He was taken over by a servant of the Will, and was defeated by the power of Black Rabbit. The pink rabbit next to Alice in the picture below is also holding a cross, and there is a cross next to the mirror in Alice's room. Of course, human Alice died in that room during the Sablier tragedy, so it being there and her being linked to funerary symbols in general isn't that unusual. It is, however, interesting that the cross is on what looks like a coffin, and that there seems to be another coffin - and possibly more - stashed behind the mirror. Why would Alice be hoarding coffins? Are they for her and her twin? For Jack and Glen? Or something else? The picture of Alice with skulls at her feet comes to mind yet again. Notice also how the mirror here is cracked. It might not be a direct reflection of the dark Alice on the bed, but instead show of a severance of connection with the mirror world of the Abyss where Alyss is, trapping her on the other side as dark Alice dominates. Mirrors in Pandora Hearts are very interactive, after all, and have been used as portals for entities to come through.

<<< Stuff in Cages   HOME >>> DISCLAIMER: Pandora Hearts and all the characters, story, and art therein is copyright Jun Mochizuki. No copyright infringement is intended, and I hope that this essay inspires more people to read/watch Pandora Hearts! Translations are by Yen Press and Fallen Syndicate. Visit the Thanks page to see who else helped!