#implied that Sumeru is going to hold as a thematic

[reginrokkr]

                                                 To see a World in a Grain of Sand                                                    And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,                                                Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand                                                           And Eternity in an hour.

The beginning of the poem, in essence there isn’t much to look into it other than what it’s said. However, it holds a deep meaning if analyzed in depth. In order for the explanation to make more sense than if I were to do otherwise, I’ll start with the last two lines and move from there to the top. We have two strong notions here which are Infinity and Eternity: the former is a measure of space while the latter is a measure of time. The author urges us to have these two abstract notions in a much smaller measure of space and time respectively.

A first direct parallel we can draw from this is the final cutscene of Imperatrix Umbrosa Act II, when we witness Makoto’s last shred of consciousness about to fade away. In actuality, she says an interesting quote verbatim: 

Eternity [limitless, unknown measure of time] stretches time into infinity [limitless, unknown measure of space], dreams illuminate each moment [regardless of their duration, it encompasses all measure of time: every second] within. When both (eternity and dreams, one would encompass the limitless time while the other would encompass that which every ounce of time is filled with) shine in unison, the Sacred Sakura blooms from the darkness. Finally free from the clutches of the Heavenly Principles.

And before this, she says:

The miracle tree that blesses the people, in this moment new to the world and yet to be known. When to plant it, where it shall bloom... She who it into being must let her heart and dreams decide.

Why am I bringing this to your attention, you may ask? It’s because context-wise, we’re standing in a realm of consciousness that timeline wise suggests that the Sacred Sakura wasn’t planted yet even though we know it’s right there in the material world. And even before this, when the Traveler returns to the realm of consciousness before the final showdown between Ei and the Raiden Shogun, the latter both believed that it’s been centuries since they started to fight until the Traveler came back.

This leaves us with the idea that time doesn’t matter. As well as space doesn’t. Ei is coaxed to let her heart and dreams decide before planting the seed, but why her heart and dreams? If we’re to look deeper into it, dreams are an abstract manifestation of one’s wishes, something that can turn from abstraction to tangible reality. Meanwhile the heart represents the willpower to make it happen, to make it become true. In this case, if Ei’s dream consisted of seeing the Sacred Sakura on the top of Mt.Yougou at the Grand Narukami Shrine, her will was the final piece to let it happen.

So returning once again to the concept of time and space in this realm of consciousness: we may refer to eternity to the abstract idea where time measure doesn’t matter— we know that time passes, but how much or how fast it passes isn’t important. In a place where the notion of eternity is literal, regardless of the incoherence that its bloom brings from the perspective of a lineal timeline (the tree was there since hundreds of years, but its seed is planted at a later time), the tree can be brought to life anytime. As for space, we’re starting off from a realm of consciousness, the location of the tree’s birth is an abstract place that it’s being transcended into a more tangible location that is the Grand Narukami Shrine. In view of this event, we can go back to the first four lines of the poetry and take them in order to interpret them as: 

[You can] see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower [IF] [you] hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.

The reason you would be able to see such big notions as a world and a heaven in smaller, arguably unimportant solid manifestations like a grain of sand and a wild flower is because you can make it happen via dreams. Just like Ei was able to make the Sacred Sakura bloom when and where she wanted through her dreams, she made it possible through the will of her heart to make it manifest into a tangible reality.

PS: There is an arguably more straightforward and recent incident where time and space don’t matter which is none other than Kazuha’s domain in the GAA event. His domain [a specific location] is a trip down memory lane that potentially encompasses several years of his life even though it takes the group (presumably) less than a day to witness. In such a short timespan, not only they saw an amount of several years worth of memories, but the space around them warped and was given shape and form according to what these memories looked like despite being technically in one same place, a domain.

#◟༺✦༻◞ Nexus of infinity; eternity and judgement┊Auguries of Innocence.┊ #the mention that the conception #of the Sacred Sakura is free from #the clutches of the Heavenly Principles #may suggest that dreams > Heavenly Principles #and what's more about this #is that /anyone/ can dream #the gist is whether /everyone/ has the heart #to make them happen or not #a somehow related incident is the 2.6 quest #in the bed of the Chasm with Xiao and company #where their will created the fantastic compass #to get out of there #or where Bosacius himself who even forgot his name #must've wished fervently #to remember not only that but those #his name is associated to #which is the other 4 Yakshas included Xiao #at any rate the end of the GAA #implied that Sumeru is going to hold as a thematic #dreams through its Archon #so I can't wait to see more of that #but after putting this in place #everything has more sense #as to why in the same quest Ei #differentiated clearly ambitions from dreams #I might do a smaller post on that one #but for now have the first thingy #related to the poetry that is kept in mind #for the core of G.enshin's story ♥︎