{Flowers Revisited}: Lotus

Please see the Introduction To Rabbit Hole Legend A-Z post for information about sources and purpose 

 Also, please see "Flowers" for more symbolism of flowers related to the Beatles, the ultimate flower children. 

Lotus: The Lotus comes up in various Beatles images, especially associated with the Maharashi. Also- Tara Brown's car was a Lotus Elan.
"Both the otherworldly appearance of the [lotus] flower and its growing circumstances make it obvious that the flower is somehow very special indeed. It's therefore no surprise that the flower is one of eight auspicious symbols in both Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist iconography.

This sensuous and extraordinary flower, with its perfect petals, rises imperiously from muddy swamps, its head above the dirty water. The symbolism applied by generations of Egyptian, Indian and Chinese sages is obvious. First, the flower arises in complete perfection from the murky primal waters of creation. Next, the flower comes from the darkness into the light, woken by the sun; third, the lotus symbolizes the triumph of spirit over matter and is a metaphor for the journey to enlightenment.

Because the lotus retreats back into the water during the hours of darkness only to rise again above the surface of the water at dawn, the Egyptians saw it as a symbol of death and rebirth.

[...] Lotus has 8 petals, symbolizing the four cardinal directions and the four inter-cardinal directions, as well as the rulers of the eight directions of the universe, or Ashtadikpalas. [...]

In Hindu iconography, the lotus is seen as the base of the earth from which the holy mountains (such as Kailash and Meru) rise. The stalk of the flower is associated with the world axis which rises up through this sacred mountain." (ISS)