#'pagans had no sense of time as a progression and only thought of time as cyclical' was the main thesis. which. what???

[pantestudines]

Anyone else have beef with random historical figures for no good reason. Had to make a presentation about Augustine of Hippo once for a shitty college class but I hated the book we were learning from (see tags) so I associated the two together and now everytime I see his name I furrow my eyebrows and say "Augustine..." like he's my nemesis

#see tags: i hated the book because it wasnt actually a history it was like. a motivational book? but by an author that clearly assumed #that the reader would both 1) be christian and 2) trying to stand out and be an exceptional leader individual #i and my friends were neither of these things tbh and we drew the line at when the author started talking about 'pagans' as a single group #and like. im talking about like. the author seemed to think all pagans were fantasy druids? and was UNCITED just talking about like #'pagans had no sense of time as a progression and only thought of time as cyclical' was the main thesis. which. what??? #it didn't matter what kind of pagan either as long as it fit the authors intention. im talking greek. celtic. native american. and more! #sometimes the author didnt even specify! he just would start talking about pagans like they all were homogenous and shared all beliefs #and because i had to present on THIS GUYS conception of Augustine i kindve just associate that author with augustine now lmao #sorrrrry augustine i know it wasnt you who did this but tbh what little i know about you you probably would've agreed #BY THE WAY #a happy ending! we talked to our professor about our issues with the book and he took it off the list for upcoming years #i wish i could remember the title but oh well #it was literally called like 'expreasing individuality' or some shit #leadership major future politician CEO nothingburger ass book #the whole class was also structured around that nonsense leadership and entrepenuer and ceo grindset type shit #(i took this class cause it was required for a good scholarship i had lmao) #... now that im thinking about it #this was also the class i attended while on the afterglow of LSD. #so uh. yeah. lmao

[unbidden-yidden]

Personal question you don’t have to answer: I saw in the tags of that now-paganism post you talked about not believing in other gods but you do believe in other supernatural beings such as sheydim, and then you talked about a “Her” reaching out to you and Her not being who you originally thought.

Were you reached out to by a sheyd?

Nope!

When I originally (and reluctantly) began to dip my toes back into theism, I was very much a pagan and so my initial thought/understanding after some research was Hestia. And honestly? I was very fine with that, because Hestia has a lot more of an interesting mythology than you might think at first blush.

Initially the thing I was "asked" (nudged? idk) to do, was to cover my hair. I brushed that off for a couple years until it became extremely obvious that this was what I was being spiritually called to do. At that point I started searching out reasons and who that might be coming from, which led me to Hestia. So I began to do research to find a good reason why this was a bad idea, and eventually (if skeptically) concluded that it was entirely harmless and up to me if I wanted to connect. So I thought what the hell, why not. I covered my hair and looked up more information and had a little altar and left small hearth offerings for about two years. In that time though, unfortunately there was no real movement, no progress, no additional contact, nothing. During that time, I began to get increasingly more interested in Judaism - academically, of course - and had a much harder time focusing on any pagan path. Instead, I found myself powerfully and inexplicably drawn to Judaism despite my denial and all protestations to the contrary.

To cut a long saga short, after a couple years of radio silence, I realized I must have been wrong about the identity of the source of that nudge, and it was only once I learned about the Shechinah being feminine that it all made sense. The feminine energy I was reading was not coming from a goddess per se, but rather the one and only G-d who is effectively every gender and no gender, but whose earthly presence is typically understood in feminine terms.

And you know what? Guess around what time it was that I started feeling the pull to cover my hair? It was shortly after I became officially engaged to my now-spouse and we were living together in what was in practice (if not by law) a marriage.

When I finally admitted where I was at with things and reached out to Hashem, I experienced an immediate and powerful connection that drastically outstripped any spiritual experience I'd had before. I could only conclude from that experience that Hashem was real like nothing else I'd ever tried to build a connection with, and I felt compelled to connect as deeply with Her as was possible. My path was laid out for me.

As for the sheydim or other possible non-human beings... look I wouldn't say I for sure *believe* in them so much as I don't feel like I have enough information to rule it out. The Talmud and mystical rabbinic writings treat them as being very real, and I'm inclined not to assume that I'm smarter or wiser than all of the Tannaim, Amoraim, Sages, and great rabbis who did believe in them. However, I've never directly experienced them myself. Other gods I don't have a problem ruling out, at least insofar as it matters to me. If they exist, they aren't my problem. I respect other people's connections to the Divine as valid and real for them, in the same way I would like other people to respect and validate (for me) my connection to G-d, which is through the lens of Judaism. Essentially, I believe that G-d is G-d, that G-d wants a relationship with all people, and will speak to us in the "voice" that we are most likely to hear. For me that voice is the still small echo from Sinai. For you it might be something else. G-d is infinite and we each glimpse the smallest fraction of that divinity in our travels through life and spirituality.

[uboat53]

Okay, a few things have come together in my head that I've been thinking about for a while, so I think it's time for a LONG RANT (TM) to lay it all out. If you're interested in my conclusion rather than just my ramblings, go ahead and skip to the bottom, there's a TL;DR.

INTRODUCTION

Lately, thoughts I've been having about politics and religion in general have come together for me and I've realized that it explains a lot about this particular political and cultural moment we're living through. The basic throughline is this: the people who claim to be proud Christian American Nationalists actually don't fit either the "Christian" or "American" part of those definitions.

RELIGION

Let's start with religion. I've been thinking about religion for as long as I can remember and lately I've come to the idea that there are essentially three "waves" of religion. The first wave is purely explanatory, it's meant to explain things in the world that couldn't be explained at the time; to make sense of the world. This kind of religion doesn't usually have a name and has existed as far back as we can tell there were humans.

The second wave, seems to have come about with the advent of settled civilizations. Basically, this wave not only seeks to explain, it also imposes a moral code. This moral code is either applied generally within a society but not outside of it or explicitly imposes different rules for those inside and outside the society. Most forms of early paganism and Hinduism are examples of this as is Judaism in its early forms.

The third wave, however, is what I call the "universal" religions. These religions do not differentiate between societies or groups of people and apply moral teachings universally to all human beings. Christianity in its theological sense is an example of this religion, as are Buddhism and Islam.

The thing about these examples, though, is that they're not necessarily the religion-as-practiced. Many people who call themselves Christian, for example, very much express a morality more similar to a second-wave religion, not the third-wave religion to which they claim adherence. Keep this particular thought in mind, we'll be returning to it later.

AMERICAN VALUES

"American values" is a nebulous concept that often means different things to different people. For my purposes, I'm going to focus very directly on the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution that specifically made America different from other nations on Earth at the time. To me, these are the values that are uniquely American as opposed to being more broadly accepted.

The concept of government isn't unique, that was pretty universal in the late 1700s. Christianity or faith-based statements of values like "endowed by their creator" aren't unique either, probably more the opposite at the time. What is truly unique about the United States and its founding values expressed in these documents is the idea of government by and for the people. All of them.

Certainly we've consistently failed to meet that promise, but the fact that that promise was written in the first place is what has driven every effort to make it a reality. Progress has been slow and we've even had to fight a war to drive it forward, but I don't think anyone can deny that we're extraordinarily closer to meeting that promise today than we were in 1800 and that has a lot to do with the fact that it is explicitly laid out in our founding documents.

This value, to me, is the one thing that is uniquely American. That this nation was founded not to be the home of some people, but of all people, and that its government should represent all of them.

Of course, like with religion, you will find a good deal of people who call themselves "American" who do not accept this fundamental American value.

POLITICS

With these two things in mind, we're seeing something unique in our politics these days. There have always been Christians in America, including both Christians who practice it as a second-wave (in-group morality) religion and as a third-wave (universal morality) religion, and there have always been people who refused to accept the basic American value that our government of, by, and for the people should represent all the people who are inherently created equal, but I can't think of a point in American history where the type of people who practice Christianity as a second-wave religion AND who do not accept that the government should represent all people were clustered together in a single political party.

Various forces of history, including the backlash to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the increasing secularization of the country, the increasing diversity of the country, and a widening divide between urban and rural regions have led to an astonishing concentration of these type of people in the Republican Party in a way that has not been seen before in American history. This has had, to put it lightly, some ramifications for our country.

You can see it in the way that Republican politicians and influential figures consistently refer to "real Americans". Implicit in that statement is that the other Americans, usually Democrats or people who live in cities (who, coincidentally or not so coincidentally, happen to be much more racially and religiously diverse than Republicans or people who don't live in cities) aren't real Americans. This is metamorphosing into a belief, particularly expressed by Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, that only an election where the "real Americans" win is considered legitimate; others are not permitted to govern.

You can also see it in the way that rules are applied subjectively. Senator Fetterman (D-PA) wearing shorts and a hoodie in the Senate is an affront to the dignity of the institution and drag shows are inappropriate for children, but Representative Boebert's (R-CO) lewd behavior at a family event is somehow not worthy of mention. Parents should have the right to prevent schools from teaching their children about race in schools, but not the right to prevent schools from including right-wing materials in their curriculum.

I could go on and on and on listing hundreds, even thousands of examples of each of these, but I think you get my point. The movement that styles itself as a Christian American Nationalist movement does not apply morality universally the way theological Christianity does and does not believe that the government should represent all people as is laid out in our founding documents. This movement fundamentally rejects the moral principles that are fundamental both Christianity and the United States and make them unique.

TL;DR/CONCLUSION

The modern Republican Party, particularly driven by Donald Trump's MAGA movement fundamentally rejects the moral statements that are unique to Christianity and to the United States. They reject the idea that morality is universal, choosing instead to apply morality differently to their in-group as opposed to an out-group, and they reject the idea that a legitimate government must represent all people, believing instead that only a particular group has the right to govern and rule.

In this way, the policies proposed by this group represent a rejection of Christian and American morality which they are attempting to disguise by cloaking themselves in the symbols of both, and that is something we should all be horrified by.

#politics #us politics #republicans #trump #maga #long rant (tm) #christianity #american values

[brightgnosis]

People asking me to trauma dump about what I went through in (1) The Pagan community as a Non-Animist, and (2) The Irish Reconstructionist community in general, in order to essentially prove my abuse to them ... Is just ... Honestly kind of disgusting.

You can couch it in whatever language you want, and hide it behind "curiosity" if it makes you feel better about what you're doing. But ultimately, when you read between the lines? When someone says that they had a better, safer experience with Mormonism as a Child, than they've had in the entire 22 years they've been involved in Paganism ... And your response is "not that I don't believe you but I'm just surprised" and "I always thought Paganism was Pro-Woman and Pro-MOGAI, so I have a hard time thinking of how people can be abused in Paganism" ... What you're saying is exactly: "I don't believe you about your abuse at the hands of our shared community".

If that's you, then I would really think long and hard about why it is you think Christianity is the only one that can be so abusive- but Paganism, Witchcraft, and the Occult somehow can't be.

Like ... I legitimately don't understand how I, as someone who had a good experience with Mormonism, can somehow still comprehend just fine that many people are routinely abused by the Mormon institution daily- and by the Christian institution as a whole --- But someone who was supposedly abused by Christianity cannot fathom that the same abuse may also take place in other religious systems- including ones which may pretend to be liberal / progressive, like Paganism, Witchcraft, and the Occult.

If you've experienced any kind of religious trauma and abuse, and you understand how bare basic abusive power structures work, then it should literally just be a common sense understanding.

I would also think very long and hard, too, about why you feel the need to question someone within your own community about their abuse at the hands of your shared community ... In a way you probably wouldn't if you were both still Christian- including blatantly asking them to trauma dump their abuse to you on a complete stranger's post.

Because frankly ... I really shouldn't have to explain to people why both of those things (the questioning in the first place, but also the request to trauma dump in the comments of a complete stranger) are actually incredibly fucked up and hypocritical behaviors.

Like ... Whether or not you prefaced it with "only if you're comfortable"? It doesn't change the fact you did it and it's not ok. The OP of that post didn't ask for my trauma, and didn't consent to hear it- and you have no right to even ask as a complete stranger, either. Especially with what is, ultimately, the hostility of disbelief ... But my trauma is also just not for your consumption in the first place, anyways.

Nor should I have to prove to you that you need to open your eyes and take a good, long, hard look at how systems of power abuse and oppress people in all stratum and areas of life so long as they're granted even one iota of power to do it with. Especially not as a supposed fellow victim of religious abuse and trauma.

#My Super Powers Are Depression + PMDD + Autism + Summer Type SAD + ADHD + Bipolar II #Personal #Religion and Magic #Alphabet Soup #2022 #Celtic* Folk Tradition

[adhd-witching]

Paralysis and Self Doubt

DISCLAIMER: All entries on this blog are made to simply share my thoughts, progress, and experiences as I live them. I am not an educator, I am not a medical professional, I am just a pagan witch with ADHD. I am not asking for sympathy, and I am not trying to gain attention, I am here to talk about how my disability affects my day to day life and progress as a practitioner.

Warning for talks of depression and being a general downer. This is just how I'm feeling today, and I think it's important to share because this side of witchcraft and deity worship isn't talked about very often.

My executive dysfunction is terrible today.

My plan for today from yesterday was for me to wake up, get dressed, deliver the readings I owe people, finish filling out my forms to send in for disability, and spend the day cleaning and organizing.

That did not happen.

Instead, I woke up, and I have not moved from my bed. I have not gotten dressed. As of 6:30 PM EST, I haven't eaten anything but half a bagel with cream cheese early this morning. I spent a good portion crying because I feel like a failure.

I feel paralyzed, and no matter how much I beg my mind to allow me to just stand up and do the things I need to do, my body will not listen.

I'm disappointed, because I thought I was finally starting to improve. I thought I was getting better. My dosage of Adderall had been upped the last time I saw my doctor, and it only made a difference for a couple of days. When I made this blog, my plan was to talk about how proud I was of myself for tidying up the house and setting up a brand new altar as a chance for me to talk about how good it felt to be so motivated. I never even got to that part. I stopped cleaning one day and I never started again, so everything piled all back up and I'm back to square one.

I desperately want to be able to function as a person, do daily rituals, and spend my time researching and learning. I want so badly to be able to spend hours upon hours reading about the gods, learning every epithet and story so I discuss them in depth with my friends and fellow worshippers, but most days I can't even move because I am simply frozen.

Many of the people I know are so dedicated to their practice, and it's so, so beautiful. They are able to meditate with their gods regularly, make the time for rituals and have the most beautifully decorated altars, and know those gods inside and out. They're all able to have in depth discussions with one another about praxis, about the deeper meaning behind certain texts, and as much as I love that for them and am happy for them. I also feel as if I'm never going to measure up to that.

With my ADHD, studying and remembering facts is so hard for me, and I never really learned how to take effective notes. Every time I try to open a book, or try to read a page of text, my brain goes blank. The words look like soup, I can't comprehend or retain anything. When I leave food offerings, what ends up happening most of the time is I forget they exist, which of course makes them.... gross.

I ask myself: "If I can't even make myself put on clothes, how can I effectively learn and grow as a worshipper and a witch?"

I feel useless. I feel incapable of giving my deities the love and attention they deserve, because I can barely give myself the love and attention I deserve. I don't even have my altar set up because I can't get out of bed, and when I do I'm too exhausted to make the time to arrange it. I feel like because I'm in such a rut, I'm not worthy or interesting enough to contribute to these discussions, and it sometimes feels like I'm excluded from them. All I have right now are the conversations I manage to have with the gods on my own. I've been doing this for several years now, and while I've had my ups and downs, this general sense of being overwhelmed and stuck is typical for me. I wake up, I watch the clock and beg my body to allow me to move, the sun starts to set, and before I know it another day has gone by with me accomplishing literally nothing.

I love to learn. I love learning about magic. I love learning about the gods. I love finding out new ways to practice, or new spells, or finding out something new about one of the deities I'm close with. I also love to sing, I love to draw, and I love to write.

Lately, I don't feel enthusiasm for any of those things. It's been this way for a long time.

I'm not asking for advice, or ways to fix this. It's not something that anyone can really change except for me, and the way to do that is by being patient with myself and waiting for my appointment to get my ADHD med dosage changed. I know that the gods love me and care about me regardless of my mental health or disability, and I know there's not any deadline for me to meet when it comes to progress. It's still hard to feel like everyone around me is having so much success, but my stress and insecurity is not anyone else's responsibility.

I bought John Beckett's Paganism in Depth as an audiobook to hopefully allow me to at retain information by listening to someone else talking. I've found reading books is a bit easier for me this way. If anyone has any good audiobook recommendations on witchcraft or paganism, feel free to send them in an ask or on my main blog.

The reason I am sharing this is because I want to document how I feel now, so that future me can look back on this time and (hopefully) reflect on how far I've come. I also want others to see that they are not alone in feeling this way. I'm sure this is a very common problem for witches and pagans suffering from executive dysfunction and mental illness, but it's not something that's talked about very often. I want to be transparent about my progress, which means being transparent about my lack of progress, too.

If you've read my ramblings this far, thank you so much. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day.

#hyatt.txt #adhdwitching #adhd witching

[sandandlightning]

Eschewing Binary Thought

Our ancestors did not view the world or the things in it the same way we do today. The idea that something was 'only that thing' or it was 'this not that' was far less common.

Binary thought is a result of Abrahamic religions which focus on duality, good vs evil, heaven and hell. First I would like to say that these concepts on their own are not bad or inherently wrong, but they have shaped the way people think for so long that understanding certain concepts through a pagan, polytheistic lens can become difficult. I write this post in hopes of helping those who seek to retrain themselves out of this bias, and to simply give insight that might help those better understand certain complex ideas common in paganism.

I had the absolute pleasure of having a Hellenistic pagan be my professor for a classical mythology class in college, and he did such a lovely job of explaining the base concept of 'one thing can be many things' to a room full of people used to a rigid binary. We were discussing nymphs and nature spirits- and there was a particular passage describing a mountain spirit he focused on. It described him as 'walking upon himself' it switched between imagery of a human shaped person and a beautiful flowing mountainside, it described the leaves of trees as hair, but also as the greenery which housed the animals of the wilderness. This idea that this spirit is literally, the mountain, the trees upon the mountain, the animals upon the mountain, and a disembodied spirit all at once, simultaneously, is hard for a binary focused mind of parse. Modern people like to put things in boxes, and this entity is a defiant cat with a paw in 4 different ones.

Many are familiar with the nymph, and modern imagery often shows a nymph turning into a tree or into a woman. Now, there is no shortage of myths where women turn into plants in a literal sense (hello Apollo), but such nature spirits were both the tree and the woman at the same time. For the modern mind, it might be easier to think of such things as 'projecting' a form that is easier for us humans to understand.

But we should not just limit this idea that one thing can be many things to just spirits, as this was how people viewed the world. Things can have many aspects, things are not either pure or evil.

I invite people to embrace this world view not only as a way to better understand our ancestors' worship, but to help combat the toxic progression of things like cancel culture and purity culture. In ancient times, not even Gods were perfect, people made mistakes, but forgiveness could be earned.

#pagan #paganism #philosophy #pagan basics #personal practice

[reedreadsgreek]

John 11:11–13

11 Ταῦτα εἶπεν, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο λέγει αὐτοῖς· Λάζαρος ὁ φίλος ἡμῶν κεκοίμηται· ἀλλὰ πορεύομαι ἵνα ἐξυπνίσω αὐτόν. 12 εἶπαν οὖν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτῷ· κύριε, εἰ κεκοίμηται σωθήσεται. 13 εἰρήκει δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς περὶ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ἔδοξαν ὅτι περὶ τῆς κοιμήσεως τοῦ ὕπνου λέγει. 

My translation: 

11 He said these things, and after this he says to them, “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep; but I am going in order that I might wake him.” 12 The disciples, then, said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be saved.” 13 But Jesus had spoken concerning his death, but those ones thought that he is speaking concerning the sleep of slumber. 

Notes:

11:11 

The substantival near-demonstrative pronoun ταῦτα, referring to the content of verses 9–10, is the direct object of the 2nd aorist εἶπεν (from λέγω) whose unexpressed subject is Jesus.

The temporal prepositional phrase μετὰ τοῦτο (“after this”) may indicate an interval of time (ICC, CGT), which is not suggested in most translations (e.g., NET: “After he said this, he added”). The phrase modifies the historical present λέγει (from λέγω) whose indirect object is αὐτοῖς, referring to the disciples. Jesus is the unexpressed subject of the verb. 

κοιμάω (18x) is, “I sleep, fall asleep”, only passive in the NT having an active sense (BDAG). The word is often used figuratively to refer to death. ‘In the N.T. this euphemistic use is found 13 times, as against 3 occurrences of the verb in the sense of ordinary sleep’ (ICC). ‘Paganism called death a sleep to conceal its nature; the Lord does so to reveal its nature’ (CGT). Λάζαρος is the subject of the perfect passive κεκοίμηται. ὁ φίλος (“friend”) stands in apposition to Λάζαρος. ἡμῶν modifies ὁ φίλος as a genitive of relationship. 

ἀλλὰ indicates sharp contrast. 

The hapax legomenon ἐξυπνίζω, from ἐκ + ὕπνος (6x) “sleep” (see v. 13; cf. English hypnosis), is, “I wake up”. ἵνα indicates purpose after πορεύομαι. The direct object of the aorist subjunctive ἐξυπνίσω is αὐτόν, referring to Lazarus. Most translations render the ἵνα clause as an infinitive (“to wake him up”, NIV, HCSB; “to awaken him”, NRSV, NET). The present-tense of πορεύομαι indicates an action already in progress, since Jesus has resolved to go. 

11:12 

The subject of the 2nd aorist εἶπαν (from λέγω) is οἱ μαθηταὶ and αὐτῷ, referring to Jesus, is the indirect object. Note the 1st-aorist ending on the 2nd-aorist verb. 

κύριε is a vocative. 

εἰ + indicative forms the protasis of a first-class conditional statement. Lazarus is the unexpressed subject of the perfect κεκοίμηται (from κοιμάω “I fall sleep”; see note on v. 11). In the apodosis of the condition, Lazarus is the unexpressed subject of the future passive σωθήσεται (from σῴζω); NASB, NET: “he will recover”; HCSB: “... get well”. The use of σῴζω may suggest a deeper, spiritual meaning here. 

11:13 

δὲ is adversative (“but”). 

The subject of the 2nd pluperfect εἰρήκει (from λέγω) is ὁ Ἰησοῦς. The verb is modified by the prepositional phrase περὶ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ (“about/concerning his death”). αὐτοῦ, referring to Lazarus, is a subjective genitive. 

The substantival far-demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνοι, referring to the disciples, is the subject of the aorist ἔδοξαν (from δοκέω). The demonstrative pronoun is ‘often used by John to make his point, just as an English writer may resort to italics for the sake of clearness’ (ICC): “but they thought”. 

ὅτι introduces indirect discourse after a verb of cognition. 

The hapax legomenon κοίμησις is, “sleep”, from κοιμάω (18x) “I sleep” (cf. v. 11). The prepositional phrase περὶ τῆς κοιμήσεως (“about/concerning sleep”) is the subject of the present λέγει (from λέγω) whose unexpressed subject is Jesus. The present-tense of the verb is retained in indirect discourse. 

ὁ ὕπνος (6x) is, “sleep”. The genitive τοῦ ὕπνου is epexegetical after τῆς κοιμήσεως. In this case, ὕπνος refers specifically to literal/natural sleep. Obviously the translation “the sleep of sleep” is unacceptable; NASB: “literal sleep”; NIV, HCSB: “natural sleep”; NET: “real sleep”; NRSV: “merely to sleep”.

#John #John 11 #Jesus #Lazarus #death

[doktordismemberment]

Roundup #6: Roguelike Mustard Adventure/ Cringesanity

Blah Blah:

Not a whole lot to report this week. Really just that tomorrow is my wife's birthday so we're probably gonna hang out, eat pierogis, and play Shredder's Revenge.

Other than that? I dunno... Still chipping away at learning music theory so things might be a bit quiet on the music front until I get that figured out.

Oh yeah, the grocery store I've been going to for the past seven years completely reshuffled all their aisles so it just took me almost half an hour of dungeon crawling to find mustard.

-

Muzak:

Heretical Sect - Picked this up without knowing much about the band 'cos I thought the album cover was cool and man it's good... Crusty doom/ death that sounds like "IVth Crusade" era Bolt Thrower covering "Through Silver in Blood."

-

Forn - Funeral doom leaning heavily in the direction of death metal. Manages to be both achingly sad and totally fucking crushing, often at the same time.

-

Isole - Like I said when I wrote about these guys the other day: I always had it in my head that Isole sounded like Nightwish but it turns out I was wrong and they're more along the lines of Solstice or early Candlemass which makes me feel extremely stupid for not checking them out sooner.

-

Thy Catafalque - Super proggy black metal from Hungary. In a weird way they kind of remind of Galloping Coroners crossed with Emperor or Arcturus.

-

Heilung - Super hypnotic "viking folk" music that is pretty similar to something like Garmarna I guess.

Gotta be honest and say I'm a little bit skeptical of these guys 'cos paganism/ heathenry comes with a lot of sketchy baggage, and over the top theatricality is not usually my thing, but they definitely scratch an itch when I want to zone out.

Second song on this newest album is really good.

-

Video Games:

Fire Pro Wrestling World - I really liked the Fire Pro game that was on PS2 back in the day so I've been wanting to pick up the new one for a while now. Just saw it on sale for $9 and that was enough of a discount that I finally pulled the trigger. So far it's exactly what I expected and you can play as Jushin Thunder Liger, so yeah... two thumbs up from me.

-

Xenoblade Chronicles - It took a while but the combat is finally making sense and I'm honestly really enjoying the story which is essentially: "Progressive Death Metal Album Cover: The Anime".

-

Reading:

I stalled out on my book but my iPad is charging and I swear I'm gonna finish the fucking thing this week.

Up next: Probably Red Harvest by Dasheill Hammett

-

Tube:

A bunch of the 90's/ 00's era Godzilla flicks.

Hakaider

Burst City

Devil's Rain

This weirdo Christian doomsday cult indoctrination DVD we found at a used bookstore for $2.

That 2000s era live-action Casshern flick that is kind of an over the top CGI nightmare, but stylized enough to be pretty cool as far as anime adaptations go... I went into this not expecting much but probably liked it better than any of the Matrix films.

Dragon Ball Evolution I was aware this existed but only sought it out after hearing it was one of the worst films ever made because I kind of collect worst films ever made.

A weird live action video game/ anime/ horror movie fan-film rabbit hole which I must say is a rich vein of hilarious cringe/ insanity (cringesanity?).

#Roundup #Youtube #Bandcamp

[whereareroo]

THANKS BE TO GOD

WF THOUGHTS (10/5/22).

I feel like a million bucks. I just saved myself a ton of time. It's always great to save time. After all, time is the most valuable commodity.

I had boxed myself into a dilemma. The story involves books and God. Both can be troublesome.

As my regular readers know, I'm on a never-ending quest to understand God. Even after this recent episode, my quest continues.

I recently read a blurb about a new book, released in 2022, about God. For two reasons, I was intrigued by the blurb:

1. The book is written by a well known legal scholar who is a professor at Yale Law School.

2. The book deals with the author's own 25 year struggle with the "God issue" and his conclusion, after a lifetime of atheism, that God exists.

The blurb indicated that that the new book was a follow-up to a previous God book that the professor had written in 2016. I asked Mrs. Bookbuyer to acquire the two books. I'm always interested in what smart people think about God. With the assistance of God and Amazon, Mrs. Bookbuyer was able to have the books delivered to my doorstep.

My dilemma began when I opened the box that contained the books. The 2016 book, entitled "Confessions of a Born-Again Pagan," is 1076 pages long (excluding the footnotes and index). The 2022 book, entitled "After Disbelief," is 139 pages long (excluding footnotes and index). It looked like I was facing an 1,1OO page challenge. God help me.

This week, because I had a few days with open time blocks, I decided to attack the project. My compulsiveness demanded that I start with the 2016 book.

Unsurprisingly, the law professor has a very dense writing style. His sentences are very long. His paragraphs are very long. His thoughts are very complex.

The Introduction to the 2016 book is 67 pages long. That's some "introduction"! I fought my way through it.

After my battle with the long introduction, I received a message from God. He said: "Hey stupid, why don't you start with the second book?" I'm not one to argue with God. I pushed my compulsivity aside and jumped to the second book.

It turns out that the 2022 book contains a summary of the 2016 book. Better yet, the professor's overall conclusions are set forth in about 20 pages at the end of the second book. I took this as proof that there is a God. Furthermore, it appears that God didn't want me to waste time. Praise Jesus!

It is impossible to prove the existence of God. It is impossible to disprove the existence of God. It is the greatest debate of all time.

I believe in God. My belief is not because I was taught to believe in God. My belief is because I have given the "God issue" serious thought for most of my life. I have studied the arguments on all sides. I have pondered. I have struggled. I have faced doubts. At the end of the day, the existence of God simply makes sense to me. I don't believe that the universe happened by accident or mistake. I don't believe that the universe is purely the result of natural forces. Today is not the day for me to expound upon my thoughts. When I do, be ready for 1,100 pages.

Given my fascination with the "God issue," I'm always interested in learning about smart atheists who became Believers. Their stories give me hope that I'm on the right track.

The law professor who wrote 1,100 pages about God started out as an atheist. He had no use for God. In academia, he was surrounded by progressives thinkers who were radical atheists. But the professor struggled with his atheism. He was an atheist out of laziness and because he ended up in a circle of atheists. His atheism wasn't based on any study or any critical thinking. He decided that the God issue deserved serious study and serious critical thought. His journey took 25 years, and the 1,100 pages only reflect a small part of his thought process. His conclusion: God exists.

It's very difficult to summarize the professor's analysis or conclusions. His thought process is incredibly complex. Much of it is way, way beyond my capabilities. His ultimate view of God is quite unique and beyond easy description. With those caveats, and with the grace of God, I will endeavor to set forth an overview of the professor's conclusions:

1. There is a God.

2. God didn't create the universe.

3. God IS the universe. Borrowing from the work of Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher from the 1600s who was raised in the Jewish tradition, the law professor calls the universe "the face of God." The professor also borrows some concepts from Walt Whitman, the poet and essayist from Long Island. Whitman, a confirmed deist from the 1800s, believed that the existence of God was confirmed by the combination of rational thought and observations of nature.

4. God always existed. The universe always existed God will always exist. The universe will always exist.

5. Everything in the universe--including you and me--is living WITHIN God. Everything is part of God.

6. Nothing in the universe has a beginning or end. Everything, including us, simply changes forms.

7. We are all part of "a tapestry of infinite diversity that is the face of the God of the world."

8. We are all blessed with unique individual traits. Our purpose is to use our individual gifts to "make a singular and eternally meaningful contribution" to the universe. In other words, we're supposed to make God's world a better place. That is the meaning of life.

Let me grossly oversimplify the professor's view. He basically believes that we are all living inside of God. He believes that's where we've always been, and where we'll always be. That's why, whether we admit it or not, we're all drawn to God. The connection is unavoidable. Exploring the connection is unavoidable. The desire to support and enhance the connection is unavoidable. Take a moment to think about this approach. In some ways it's extremely comforting. Don't you want to believe that it's impossible to be separated from God?

The professor's theory is certainly interesting. As you might suspect, I could write a book analyzing and critiquing the theory. Even though I have some problems with the theory, it gives me hope. I like it when smart people believe in God. I'm never going to pass judgment on anyone's personal relationship with God. God works in mysterious ways.

Throughout his books, the professor discusses eternity. It's hard to separate that concept from God. It would have taken an eternity for me to fight through all 1,100 pages. Thankfully, God reached out to me and gave me a way to do the job in a few hours. Thanks be to God.

[filthforfriends]

On the Cliffside

Damiano x fem reader

Word count: 2k

Based on a blurb request by @lifeofa-fangirl

By the time they called dinner you were starving. It’s not that you hadn’t brought plenty of snacks, you just hadn’t accounted for the amount of calories you’d burn on this shoot. Take after take of running through the forest at full tilt, barefoot, with the freezing wind from the coast whipping your hair. Everything about this music video had been kept secret. You weren’t given a script until you climbed in the van at your brutal 5am call time to be shuttled into the woods.

It was a three day shoot, and you’d only been hired for one. From what you could tell it was an ancient sacrilegious concept with pagan and Wiccan elements. Victoria was playing some sort of false god worshipped in this gorgeous coastal setting. They’d even hired a witch as a producer and you wished you had time to prepare beyond aggressively skimming wikipedia articles.

As unpleasant as it was, the cinematography was glorious. Dawn cracking itself open, splayed across the sky in the background. The light shone through the fabric, you looked ethereal. The director had you change into progressively bloodier dresses, more desperation and anxiety in your footfalls contrasting with the golden sunrise. Fake blood was sprayed on your face and he had you do a couple takes actually screaming.

“Yes, got it! Thank you, y/n, that’ll be all for a while.” The second round of crew arrived with the band, all yawning as the disembarked from the van. You were wrapped in a wool blanket, but thought better of asking to change. You knew the rules, don’t bother the staff, don’t bother the talent. Essentially be a potted plant unless you’re needed on camera. There was a table with coffee placed right by the producers, so it wasn’t general catering. Why hadn’t you thought to bring a thermos of something hot? The band went over and poured cups of coffee, already being poked and prodded by glam.

“You want some?” Damiano called to a crew member in your direction. “Hey there. Hey!” He’d taken a couple steps in your direction before you realized he was speaking to you. Most people treat background actors like pieces of the set.

“Oh, um,” you looked longingly, but saw all the higher ups gathered around the table. Damiano could sense that you felt torn, and put a guiding hand to your back.

“You need coffee, come on.” It was like Damiano’s acknowledgement of your existence made you no longer invisible to everyone else. A makeup artist looked at you and started digging in their belt.

“We’ve got to get this off before it stains your face, hun.” They started wiping your face and Damiano left, probably to get ready himself. You felt something being pushed into your hand and looked over to see him at your side again, handing you a cup of coffee. He winced at how roughly the makeup artist was scrubbing at a spot of fake blood right next to your eye.

“Thank you, um-” It was usually better to assume that someone liked to be addressed formally.

“If you call me anything other than Damiano, I’m suing.” The makeup artist turned away and you snorted with laughter. Something possessed you to say what you did next.

“All right, Mr. David.” He smirked, cocking an eyebrow as he sipped his coffee.

“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer, and you’re already covered in blood so your case is weak.”

“You know, now that you mention the fact that I’ve been covered in fake blood since 6am, I suppose I do deserve coffee.” You both take a sip while holding sizzling eye contact. Well then.

“I should apologize, I helped write the script.”

“You should apologize,” you quip. His expression is deliciously dangerous and you want to be in trouble. “Are you always so cruel, or do you save it for special occasions?”

“More like I save it for special people.”

“And somehow I’ve already met your prerequisites?”

“Damiano!” A crew member yells at him from across the set, and he’s swept away by wardrobe as soon as he looks over his shoulder. Wow. You can feel your cheeks heating up, and hope that flirting with Damiano hasn’t violated some taboo of professionalism.

You don’t get a chance to flirt verbally all day because you’re never alone. He’s unafraid, but seems to understand your plight. Physically though, it seems like the director is trying to set you guys up. It starts innocently enough, holding his hand in yours as your run along the cliffside. Then you’re dancing together in a clearing as the sun finally extends some warmth. Next he lays in a tangle of bodies while lip synching to camera. You do this with the other three band members as well.

Damiano watches the couple short shots you have intently. You skip and fling yourself through the forest while rock music blares in the background. Once a blackberry vine catches on your dress and you stay in character, pulling the fabric free and using the momentum to twirl.

“Nice,” calls the directer, both enthusiastic and monotone. “Lets do a couple more passes by thorns, y/n.” Damiano mouths your name and smiles at you, hearing it for the first time. “Getting caught and reacting in different ways.” You nod, unsure of how wardrobe is going to feel about you ripping your dress up for this shot. You do another take, integrating the catch of your dress into your movement. The director makes a sour face.

“Lets go to the ground, and then over top. Okay, Bill?” The cinematographer nods. Take after take you fall to the forest floor and the grips guide the camera over your head while you grin secretively like a nymph. “Lets make it sexier, y/n, its a sexy song.” You’re glad Damiano is needed somewhere else right now because this is humiliating. The next take you genuinely eat it and get the wind knocked out of you, but still manage to act like the grass is the embrace of a lover.

“Awesome! That looked so authentic. Let’s move on.” Thats because I am authentically in pain ass-wipe. You lay very still, hoping to be invisible again, as you catch your breath. “Y/n, come on! We need you in a couple shots with Victoria.” You and Victoria are wearing modesty patches, yards of gauzy black fabric, and nothing else. It’s the most intimate of a series of worship shots. You wiggle around sensually to everyone’s satisfaction, staring at her with pouted lips ad longing eyes.

“All right, I think you’re done.” Gratefully, you slink away in a bathrobe. You’ve just pulled on your day clothes when catering arrives. The only thing more potent than your exhaustion is your hunger. Luckily, you got first pick and the food was decent.

The sun is setting and you haven’t had time to explore, so you walk out of the tree cover and to the cliffside. The wind whips up the rock face in powerful gusts that smell like the ocean and tangle your hair. You have time to wander. It’s not even dark so it’ll be a while until a shuttle comes to take you back into the city. You mentally congratulate yourself for covering your paper plate with another on top, so your food will still be warm when you find a spot. The beach is sandy and beautiful, but the cliffs probably too sheer to navigate down. You’re pleasantly surprised at a rock outcropping protruding from a cove with a faint trail. It gets a bit dicey in the steeper parts for one-handed maneuvering, but you can at least climb half-way down and sit while you eat.

You can’t hear Daminao calling your name, his voice gets carried by the wind. Not until he’s nearly at the top of the outcropping do you turn around and see him, feeling flattered that he’d searched for you this far.

“How did you get down? he yells.

"There’s a trail!” You point right next to him, because he’s nearly stepping on it. To you it’s obvious.

“That is not a fucking trail, that is a path made for goats!” Your laugh gets lost in the wind, but he catches you smile in the last light of the setting sun. You scramble up the rocks and extend a hand.

“Let me hold you plate, while you climb down.” You take his food and watch Damiano gingerly brace his hands against the rocks, slowly picking his way down to where you wait. When he reaches the plateau, gritting his teeth, you struggle to keep a straight face. “Just sit down, for fucks sake, you’ll be fine,” voice still raised doing battle with the wind.

“I could literally die at any moment,” he deadpans. You splutter a laugh.

“Oh so you are the diva. I guess they were right.”

“I’d playfully shove you right now if it didn’t mean falling to your death.” You adored this warm, pink-cheeked, natural chemistry that buzzed between you. He wobbled trying to sit down awkwardly, so you gave him your hand and scooted over, gently pulling him so sit right next to you. Your knees and shoulders were pressed together as you looked out on the horizon.

“I spent part of my childhood growing up next to a beach like this. The sketchy pathways down cliff faces,” you clarified. “Not the expensive view.”

“I used to come to places like this all the time, when things started to pick up in Rome and I couldn’t breath.” You nodded in acknowledgment, knowing you didn’t understand, but that him sharing this with you was significant.

“Whenever I think about how big the ocean is, I feel less anxious.”

“Sea monsters?”

“No,” you gaff. “It reminds me that I’m insignificant, so my fucks ups are insignificant. Might as well do whatever I want to make a life with meaning.”

“I love that,” he murmurers. The air is heavy with tension that you can feel in your chest. Oh shit, I might really like him.

“Its so beautiful, in the twilight” you say blandly, like a coward.

“Its gorgeous.” You see Damiano move out of the corner of your eye and turn your head to find him gazing at you, not out onto the beach.

“Oh, fuck off!” You jostle him with your shoulder while you blush at the cheesy pickup line.

“You’re gonna knock me off a cliff,” he shrieks dramatically, laughing at himself. You throw your arms around him in a tight side hug.

“Now you’re not going anywhere, happy?” You sound indignant until your breath gets caught in your throat. Damiano has turned his face towards yours, his glorious Roman nose bumping your own. His eyes flit up to yours, then down to your lips. He wets his mouth and looks to your eyes again. You nuzzle him, savoring the moment, when you’re so excited about someone that you feel aflame. The electricity between you, gazing at his pretty mouth then his pretty eyes, was unbearable, but delicious.

You press a chaste, barely-there kiss to his lips, pulling back so you can swipe the tip of your tongue up the middle of his lips, to his cupids bow. Damiano makes a sound in the back of his throat resembling a growl and kisses you properly, hand sliding onto your mid-thigh.

For a first kiss, it’s damn good. He has the sense not to use tongue, but focus on creating a rhythm with you. He kisses you with pressure, mouths molding, but supports the back on your head with his hand. You quickly come to point where this exchange cannot be comfortably (or safely) continued on a cliff’s edge and you separate. You’re still holding onto each other, panting, and huffing in disbelief intermittently.

“We have protected beaches like this in Rome, y'know. It’s not just all resorts and umbrellas.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, Castel Porziano and Sabaudia. You’d love it. Santa Severa has a castle. If you ever come to Italy, I’ll show you.”

“Really?” You wracked your brain for an excuse to go to Italy, besides the one sitting in front of you. After your pause, Damiano’s face changed completely.

“Shit, was that a completely psychotic thing to say after kissing you for the first time? Oh my god.” He looked absolutely mortified.

“Totally!” You kissed him again and he moaned into your mouth. “What part of Rome do you live in?”

Notes: I'm reposting this blurb as a fic. It was so fun to write! It'll be added to my Masterlist. Thank you for reading and requesting. <3

@gr8rainbowpunk @peesodaandtoast @homesicam @hiraetheral @l0standn0tf0und @iosonoarina @teenyweenynightghost @elvirabelle @8iunie @immrbrightsideeee @idyllicbutterfly @ilwiwbysmv @superchrystaldrug @que--sera--sera @obiw4n @minnietmouse @thatonebraziliangirl @bohemianrainbow @xweirdxsceletton @boyswillbeexecutied @daisy0gf @little-moonbeam-666 @teacosea @katyldamusic

#damiano maneskin #damiano david x reader #damiano david fanfiction #damiano david #damiano #maneskin #måneksin #maneskin fanfiction #maneskin imagine #maneskin x reader

[samwisethewitch]

Paganism and witchcraft

Thanks to many, many centuries of misinformation, paganism and magic are inextricably linked in pop culture. Progress has been made — the word “pagan” is less likely to make people think of dark rites, blood magic, and ritual orgies in the twenty-first century than it was in, say, the seventeenth century. Even so, if you tell someone you identify as pagan, you’re bound to eventually get the question: “So, are you, like, a witch?”

The answer, like so many things in paganism is that it depends on the pagan.

Before we get into modern pagans and their views on magic, I think it’s helpful to understand the historical roots of the association of paganism with witchcraft. And for that, we have to travel back to the Middle Ages, when Christianity was already well-established as the dominant religion in Europe, and the Catholic Church was well on its way to becoming a hegemonic superpower. The beginning of the witch hunts was just around the corner.

In her book The Study of Witchcraft, Deborah Lipp claims that two very different understandings of what it meant to be a witch were both at work in the medieval witch trials.

The first concept of witchcraft, which Lipp identifies as the “folk witch,” was much older and much less Christian. These were people who used dark magic, such as hexes, to cause harm and mischief. Though they may not have been called “witches,” folk witches or witch-like figures have existed in virtually every culture in some form. Examples include British witches, Irish changelings, and Navajo skin-walkers. The one consistent feature of these diverse creatures is an association with magic and a tendency to cause harm. They were seen as a threat to the community, and these types of witches were persecuted long before the rise of Christianity.

(For what it’s worth, the fact that witches were disliked by ancient pagans doesn’t mean that all magic was. Most of the ancient cultures that inspired modern paganism also had their own magical practice, and in many cases magic does not seem to have been controversial or taboo. But again, those who used magic for good would not have been considered witches before the twentieth century.)

The second concept of witchcraft identified by Lipp is the “Satanic witch,” which is an exclusively Christian concept. These people were heretics of the worst kind, members of a cult of Satan worshipers who had sexual relations with demons and plotted against the Church. They were a threat to the faithful Christians in their community.

The only unifying factor in these definitions is a sense of deviancy. Both folk witches and Satanic witches were people who deviated from the norm. It’s no coincidence that those accused of witchcraft were often those who broke societal norms in some way, such as single mothers or women who owned property.

These two distinct definitions of witchcraft would collide in the Middle Ages, with those who were tried for witchcraft often accused both of causing harm to the community by blighting crops or killing animals, and of worshiping Satan. It was commonly believed that these witches tormented the community with evil powers given to them by Satan.

But what does all this have to do with paganism?

While it’s possible that some of the people executed for witchcraft in Europe were secretly practicing the old pagan religions, they definitely wouldn’t have been the majority or even a significant minority. Supposed witches were almost always accused of worshiping Satan, not pagan gods. Most of the people who were accused, tried, and executed for witchcraft were probably accused for social reasons, not religious ones. Most if not all of them were probably not witches as we would recognize them today.

The accusation of devil worship is one that medieval “witches” have in common with pagans. Many of Satan’s names were originally the names of pagan deities, such as Beelzebub (a Philistine god), Moloch (a Canaanite god), and Dagon (another Philistine god). This association of Satan with pagan deities reflects real-world political conflict between the Hebrew people (and later the early Christians) and the cultures who worshiped those deities. Like the label of “witch,” this serves a political function and creates a clear “us vs. them” mindset.

However, it wouldn’t be accurate to say that medieval Christians thought that witch = pagan, or that they thought pagan = devil worship. During the conversion period (several hundred years before the Middle Ages), it seems that Christians largely viewed pagan gods as just that — other gods who were in competition with their own. There are records of Christians and pagans living in relative peace in some parts of Europe — something that surely wouldn’t have been possible if Christians believed that all pagans were devil worshipers.

Fear and paranoia regarding Satan and his followers didn’t become a large part of Christianity until the Middle Ages. Before that, Satan was a relatively minor figure, less the embodiment of evil and more of an annoyance. He was even used for comic relief in religious plays! It was in the Middle Ages that Satan began to take on a more prolific, antagonistic role. Again, this coincided with the Church becoming a hegemonic political entity.

I’m by no means an expert on European history, but it sure seems to me like the witch hunts and Satan paranoia of the Middle Ages were more about controlling the people and punishing deviance than about genuine religious conviction. Just saying.

By the time the witch hunts began, paganism (a.k.a., pre-Christian religion) had all but died out in Europe. Worship of the old gods had either ceased entirely or had been incorporated into Christianity in the form of regional tradition and superstition. Thus, “witches” were accused of worshiping Satan who, at the time, would have been a much more recognizable figure than Jupiter or Anubis.

So, to make a very long story short, there really isn’t a historical connection between paganism and witchcraft, except for both of them having been in conflict with Christianity at some point. It’s important to remember that witchcraft (in this case defined as harmful magic) is a concept that predates Christianity and that witches were treated with suspicion in pagan as well as Christian communities.

That’s not to say the two aren’t connected. In fact, modern paganism is much more closely linked to witchcraft than its historic counterparts.

If you read enough older books about paganism, especially Wicca and other neopagan religions, you will likely find references to “the Burning Times.” This is an exaggerated, largely fictionalized, and thoroughly disproved narrative that was popular with early neopagans, including Gerald Gardner, the father of Wicca. The “Burning Times” refers to the idea that, in the Middle Ages in Europe, the witch hunts were a genocidal attack on self-identified witches and pagans, in an attempt to wipe out these ancient belief systems. This is almost entirely false.

Belief in the “Burning Times” requires belief in Margaret Murray’s witch-cult hypothesis, which has been almost totally discredited by historians and archaeologists. Murray believed that the medieval witch trials were an attempt to wipe out a widespread pagan religion that had survived the Christianization of Europe. Murray claimed that this witch cult spanned much of Europe and worshiped a horned deity, who was referred to as the Devil by Christians.

Again, Murray’s theory has been completely discredited. There is no evidence whatsoever of a continent-spanning pagan religion, much less one that survived into the Middle Ages. If a book, website, or teacher refers to Murray’s theory or to the “Burning Times” as if they were historical fact, they are not a good resource for your study of paganism. Remember, paganism had been largely displaced by Christianity before the European witch hunts really got going!

But Murray’s theory, although false, has still had an impact on our modern understanding of witchcraft and paganism. As previously mentioned, Gerald Gardener was inspired by Murray’s ideas and incorporated some of them into Wicca. Noticeably, the Wiccan God often appears in prayers, poetry, and artwork as the Horned King, clearly inspired by the god Murray wrote about. Wicca was also the first pagan religion to make magic an integral part of ritual, thus marrying paganism with witchcraft.

The rising popularity of Wicca, and of self-identified witches, has helped destigmatize the label. Wiccans are, for the most part, lovely people who strive to use magic only for good. This is very different from the historic understanding of a witch as one who causes harm, and it’s been great PR for the witch archetype.

Nowadays the word “witch” can refer to anyone who practices magic, although some magic practitioners choose to use different labels. “Witch” no longer has connotations of evil, mischief, or malicious intent. The witch’s pop culture makeover has also been aided by popular fiction that portrays witches in a positive light, like the sitcom Bewitched, the Harry Potter franchise, and the TV show Charmed. This new definition has caused thousands of people, pagan and non-pagan alike, to use witchcraft and the witch label as a means to empower themselves and improve their lives.

Modern pagans may or may not identify as witches. Personally, I am both a pagan and a witch — but my paganism and my witchcraft are two different parts of my spiritual identity. For other pagans, witchcraft and magic are an essential part of their religious practice.

Say it with me, now: it all depends on the pagan!

Resources:

The Study of Witchcraft by Deborah Lipp

Witches, Sluts, Feminists by Kristen J. Soleee

The British History Podcast, “94 — Dark Age Beliefs”

Irish History Podcast, “Kilkenny Witchcraft Trial of 1324 (Part I)” and “Kilkenny Witchcraft Trial of 1324 (Part II)”

Wicca For Beginners by Thea Sabin

#paganism 101 #pagan #paganism #baby pagan #witchcraft #witchblr #baby witch #history #medieval history #wicca #wiccan #feri #reclaiming #goddess worship #celtic paganism #irish paganism #hellenic polytheism #hellenic paganism #hellenismos #religio romana #roman polytheism #heathenry #heathen #norse paganism #kemetic polytheism #kemetic paganism #eclectic pagan #witch #long post #my writing

[livlepretre]

This is prob a weird question, but do you wonder what a ‘typical vampire’s’ relationship to religion would be like in the tvd universe if it had been explored (&I get why it wasn’t), at least upon being turned, considering that most vampires would have been brought up in eras where religion (generally) played a comparatively more serious role in everybody’s lives? I mean, how would one BEGIN to grapple or fit in this critical aspect of one’s (prior??) worldview, with rising from the dead as what’s essentially a demon, w supernatural powers & preying on humans — what would be t implications of your existence? Were the Salvatores never believers? Plus, do u have any hc on the Originals’ faiths as humans?? Were they Pagans? Christians? Or… I guess not the latter/they would have believed in the spirits as their mother was a witch..? Thoughts? (Srry if I’m bothering you with this question btw, I appreciate that you’re probably busy)

No, not bothering me, I'm very interested in the intersection between religion and vampirism.

We have to assume that religion played a huge role in the lives of MOST vampires-- secularism is relatively recent, and even then all that's happened is that older gods have been replaced with newer gods. And I can't think of any religion where rising as a vampire would be anything other than, as you say, rising as essentially a demon, a night hag, an abomination. And also, to make a blanket statement here, many religions focus a lot on the progression from life into death-- on making sense and peace of the natural order of birth, life, death (and rebirth). Vampirism breaks a person from this cycle, forever divorcing them from the natural world, the natural order. The combination of becoming that demon, of fearing themselves, and of becoming trapped in the netherspace between life and death is a horror unto itself-- one of the main reasons I find tvd vampires in particular so fascinating is because it is not just that they are truly monstrous and frightening, but that the show delves into the way the vampires horrify themselves with their own monstrosity (at least, it used to). They can only be horrified by that monstrosity if they retain some sense of what it is to be human-- and therein is the key. TVD vampires don't lose their human souls, as the vampires in BTVS do-- they simply... transmute. They're cursed with that never ending bloodlust that turns them inevitably into monsters, and they go further and further down that road until they just give in. It's a very dark curse. I'm sure there are plenty of vampires who lose faith... but there are probably even more who don't lose their faith, but instead come to accept their role as the dark mirror in opposition to life. There are a lot of really profound psychological implications to all of this.

As for the specifics of the religions of the vampires-- Damon and Stefan would have almost certainly been raised Catholics-- and I've never thought they weren't still Catholic, although, being Catholic doesn't necessarily make one devout, as with any other sect of any religion. Damon obviously crossed a lot of lines as a human. Also, the show would never have gotten into the thick of us, but how much of Stefan's guilt and shame is tied up in an understanding of the world and morality based on his religious upbringing? We can talk about Humanist ideals all we want, but I think it would be stretching credulity that someone turned as a 17 year old in the 1800s would be feeling so much shame from pure philosophical ethics and not from a sense of morality built into the religion he was brought up in. (And how do we know that Damon isn't so furious with Stefan for forcing him to turn because Stefan has essentially damned him?)

The other vampires are interesting because they're medieval people, so their worldviews would have been even more strongly intwined with religion than the Salvatores.

Katerina I've always assumed would have been Bulgarian Orthodox (you could make an argument for other religious takes based on the Travelers-- but that came later and I tend to just blot that all out of my memory because frankly I think making Katherine exceptional at all other than as the doppelganger is stupid and actually robs her story of tragedy-- it's tragic for her to just be living her normal life and losing her baby the way she did and then to discover that no, she has this dark fate she had no idea about-- it's somehow less tragic if she also is from a family with superpowers and her daughter just gets vamped to track her down) -- nothing much to this other than that is a likely choice. Although I have ALWAYS wondered about Katerina's life in Bulgaria, since it was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time and of course, the show has no interest in history so there's nothing that even touches on this potentially fascinating detail.

Okay the Originals. I have a special place of loathing in my heart for the Viking!backstory and have basically decided to whole heartedly reject it. I think Elijah's "my father was a landowner in Eastern Europe" story was much more convincing and likely. I prefer the idea of Russian!Originals, for various reasons I've documented here on this blog, so I think they would also be Orthodox Christians. (But: potentially before the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches? so perhaps they wouldn't really think of themselves as "orthodox," or perhaps they later started to think of themselves this way.) The Orthodox Christian thing also ties into Tatia Petrova, whose descendants I headcanon as Orthodox. (I'm also fond of the idea that the Originals were Jewish, or the idea that Esther was Jewish.) There are a lot of mystic arts buried in religious arcana, so I don't see there being a conflict between Esther's witchcraft and simultaneously practicing a religion. I think in a medieval context, framing the world in terms of religion would have been just so inevitable, so tied in to every other element of life. It's actually fascinating to consider what hold overs of this thinking medieval vampires would have. (And I think of the Originals as deeply medieval in outlook, in ways in which they are largely unaware)

At any rate, the Originals are by far the most monstrous of the vampires, and the ones that have slipped the furthest from their humanity. I wonder in what ways they developed such horrific tastes as a means of spitting in the eye of their faith? If some of their differences could pertain to who held on to faith (Finn) vs. who felt most abandoned by it (Klaus)? Food for thought!

#anonymous

[tipsycad147]

Tools of a Witch

Written and Compiled by George Knowles

Athame  / Pentacle  / Wand  / Chalice  /  Censer /  Broom  / Bolline  / Cauldron  / Bell /  Book of Shadows

As with most other religions, tools are used in witchcraft to aid and enhance ritual worship.  Tools have no power in themselves, though they do have powerful symbolic significances.  Some like the Wand and Athame (pronounced ath-ay-me) are used to invoke and direct whatever power we generate or pass through them.

While tools are not absolutely necessary to the practice of the craft, some tools are nice to have if only to focus our will and concentration.  The basic tools to start with are the elemental tools or those tools which represent the four elements of life: The Pentacle for Earth, The Wand for Air, The Athame for Fire, and The Chalice for Water.

Tools needn’t be purposely bought or excessively expensive.  Take a look around the household, many ordinary implements can be used or improvised as tools.  You could even make your own and by doing so, a certain amount of personal power will be infused into the item, thus increasing its effectiveness.  Other sources of tools are Car Boot Sales, Junk Shops and Antique Shops.  With a little patience you may find tools cropping up in the most unusual places.

All tools as they are collected, should be cleansed of all negative energies and past use influences.  Lets face it, you won’t know how or for what use they may have been used before you acquired them.  To do this, clean the item physically and thoroughly while using visualisation.  Then bury the item in the ground for a few days, thus allowing past associations to be dispersed and purified with earth’s energy.  

Alternatively you could use the water method.  Immerse the item in water, preferably natural water like the Sea, a River, or a Lake.  If these are not available to you, used a bowl of water and add a few pinches of Sea Salt.  Leave submerged for a couple of hours before removing and drying the item off.  Obviously common sense must prevail when using these methods, as you wouldn’t want to ruin the item.  Do whatever seems appropriate for each item.  After the cleansing process, each tool needs to be consecrated, ready to use for magickal purposes.  (More about this later).      

Below is a list of the standard tools used in witchcraft together with their uses and significances.  For other correspondences see:

Athame  - The athame is the traditional ritual dagger of the witch.  Commonly it has a black handle and steel double-edged blade.  Many Wiccans engrave the handle or blade with magickal symbols indicative of deities, spirits or the elements as sources of power.  The athame is a tool of command, it is used to direct what power we pass through it.  It is used to cast circles by tracing the circumference, to charge and consecrate objects and banish negative energies.  In most traditions, it is never used as a mundane knife for cutting purposes, and is used strictly for magickal purposes only.  As an elemental tools of the craft, in most traditions it is associated with the elements of Fire, in others it is associated with Air.  The phallic symbolism of the knife links it with the God.

Pentacle  - The pentacle is a traditional tool of the craft.  Originally it is thought to have been adopted from ceremonial magic.  It is usually a round solid disc often made from stone, wood or cooper.  On the disc is engraved or painted an up-right five pointed star enclosed inside a circle called the Pentagram.  A disc decorated in this manner then becomes called a Pentacle.  In some traditions other symbols are added indicative of deities, spirits or the elements as sources of power.  The pentacle is normally the centerpiece of the alter on which objects are placed to be consecrated or charged, such things as amulets, charms and tools are placed on it, as is the salt and water for blessing.  The pentacle represents the elements of Earth and is sometimes used to summon the Gods and Goddesses.  For a more detailed description of the pentacle - pentagram see (Pentagram - Pentacle).

Wand  - The wand is one of the prime magical tools of the witch.  Traditionally the wand is made from the wood of a sacred tree.  These include the Willow, Elder, Oak, Apple, Peach, Hazel and Cherry, to mention just a few.  Its length should approximate the crook of the elbow to the middle of the index finger.  These days many modern materials are used instead, and even tipped with crystals and gems.  The wand is a tool of invocation, it is used to evoke the Gods, Goddesses and Spirits.  It is also used to bestow blessings, charge objects and draw down the moon during ritual.  In most traditions the wand represents the elements of Air, in others it represents the elements of Fire.

Censer or Thurible  -  The censer is an incense burner used to contain burning incense during ritual.  Any type of censer can be used, even a simple bowl filled with sand will do.  The censer represents the elements of Air and is normally placed before the images of the Goddess and God on the altar.  

Chalice  - The Chalice is one of the four elemental tools of witchcraft and represents the elements of Water.  It is a symbol of containment and often represents the womb of the Goddess.  The base is symbolic of the material world, the stem symbolises the connection between man and spirit and the rim or opening symbolically receives spiritual energy.

The chalice can be made of any material, in times of old - Horns, Shells and Gourds were used to hold sacred liquids during ritual, and then in later times - Silver became the preferred material, having long been associated with the moon and the Goddess.  The chalice is used to hold the blessed water and wine during ritual.  It is traditional in many covens to pass the chalice around all members, who then take a drink as a token of unity.

Broom  - The broom is a ritual tool of the witch, sacred to both Goddess and the God.  The God - through its symbolic phallic shape, The Goddess - through its three-piece make up, the stick, brush and binding cord being symbolic of the triformis aspect of the Goddess.  

Traditionally the broom was made from three different woods.  Ash for the handle, Birch twigs for the brush and Willow for the binding cord.  Ash is protective and has command over the four elements.  Birch is purifying and draws spirits to one’s service.  Willow is sacred to the Goddess.

The broom is used for a variety of purposes but most generally to purify and protect.  It is used to ritually cleanse an area before magick is performed by symbolically sweeping away negative energies and astral build up.  Of old it was used to guard the home and persons within against psychic attack or evil curses, this by placing it across the threshold, windowsills or doorways.  It was also placed under the bed or a pillow to protect the sleeper.

Traditionally and perhaps the use which most people identify it with, are the old wedding ceremonies of the Gypsies and the early American slaves, where a couple leapt over the broom to ensure fertility, domestic harmony and longevity.  Today pagan hand-fasting rituals often include a broom jump.    

Bolline  - The Bolline or White-Handled knife as it is now known, is the practical knife of the craft.  Traditionally it was used to harvest herbs and had a blade in the form of a small sickle.  Today it is normally a mundane knife used for cutting and carving.  It has a white handle to differentiate it from the Athame, which has a black handle and is used only for magickal purposes.  The bolline is used to cut wands and herbs, to mark and carve candles with symbols and to cut cords for use in magick.  Any other ritual function requiring the use of a knife, such as cutting flowers for the altar, can be performed with the bolline.

Cauldron  - The cauldron is probably the tool most associated with witchcraft and is steeped in magickal tradition and mystery.  The cauldron is the container in which transmutation, germination, and transformations may occur.  It is symbolic of the womb of the Goddess, and is the manifested essence of femininity and fertility.  Everything is born from the cauldron of the Goddess and afterwards everything returns back to it.  It is also symbolic of the element of water, as well as reincarnation, immortality and inspiration.

In ritual the cauldron is used as a container for making brews and potions, or to contain a small fire for use with spells.  It can also be used for scrying (divination) by filling it with water and gazing into its depths.

In ancient times the cauldron was used as a cooking vessel and for brew making.  Traditionally it was made from cast iron, it rests on three legs and has an opening smaller then its widest part.  Cauldrons are made in many sizes but can be difficult to find, so you will need to persevere if you want one.

Bell  - The bell is a ritual tool of invocation and banishment.  The bell is a feminine symbol of the creative force, that of the Goddess.  The bell can be rung to indicate the start of a rite by banishing negative influences before the ritual begins.  Often it is used to invoke the Goddess during ritual, or sounded at the four quarters to call forth such spirits as the Watchers and Elementals.

Bells can be used to guard the home by warding off evil spells and spirits, or evoking good energies when placed in cupboards or hung on doors.  Hung from a cord the bell symbolises the human soul suspended between heaven and earth.

Book of Shadows  - The Book of Shadows is the workbook of the witch.  In it is recorded: Rituals guidelines, Invocations, Spells, Runes, Rules of a particular Coven or Tradition, Symbols, Poems, Chants, and anything else of use to the witch during ritual.  

Traditionally the Book of Shadows was always hand written by the individual.  A common custom for new initiates into a Coven, is to hand copy his teacher’s Book of Shadows exactly as it appeared, then later to add his own material as he progressed in the craft.  Today with the advantages of technology they are often typed and photocopied, or even computerised onto Floppy Disc’s.  

To make your own Book of Shadows, you can use any form of blank book, but perhaps the best type to use are those of a loose-leave nature, thus allowing pages to be shuffled around when preparing for rituals.  My personal Book of Shadows is made from recycled paper, bound up in natural tree bark covers, these are available in some art shops and bookstores.

Sources

Wicca, A guide for the Solitary Practitioner  - By Scott Cunningham

Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft  - By Raven Grimassi

A Witches' Bible - By Janet and Stewart Farrar

Witchcraft for tomorrow  - By Doreen Valiente

https://www.controverscial.com/Tools%20of%20a%20Witch.htm

[thedamageofherdays]

If this is an overstep I do apologise + feel free to ignore this/tell me off but I’m respectfully curious.

What’s your relationship with faith/religion as a person & as a writer? I recently noticed your religion tag is actually like, Bible verses and genuine quotes about God as opposed to religious-inspired things.

-curious anon

Hi Anon! I had to think about how to respond to this for a bit because it is an interesting question but simultaneously a personal one. My relationship with faith and God is complicated. Although recently it hasn't been complicated with Him but with what direction I want to go in with my faith. I am hoping to go back to church soon. Deciding which church to go to has been a journey of a few years and now it's a matter of getting over my anxiety. I'm not anxious about God but I am anxious about people. There are also other complications, such as my parents no longer having faith in God (they believe in Him, they do not believe He will save us), having friends who are uncomfortable with religion (for valid reasons), being queer, being someone who survived extremely traumatic things, etc. Those things all complicated my relationship with God and faith and will likely continue to do so in a way.

I suppose a bit of background would be helpful here? I was raised Catholic although my parents didn't take me to church often and didn't get me baptised (another thing I have Complicated Feelings about). I also went to a Catholic primary school. I know people might assume me being queer and me being in Catholic school is where faith got complicated for me but that's simply not true. My school was actually pretty progressive? Especially compared to what some people might experience in a Catholic school or think about when they think of Catholic school. My struggle with faith didn't start until I was 11 or 12-ish. A lot of things were happening around that time. One of the most significant things was my church closing and needing to go to a different one. I didn’t feel at home there. I can't quite explain why but it felt off. Anyway that was the start of years of struggling with faith. Years of having harmful thoughts that only hurt me. Of learning more about how some christians think queer people and feeling like God hated me for being queer, like he was punishing me. I mean why else would God let me go through all the trauma I experienced. (I know better now. This is not how He works and He loves all his children. He made us.)

I missed God during this time and I craved religion. I was a pagan for a while and then I just didn't really do anything. All this time I missed God and on some level believed in him but I didn't think He believed in me, I didn't think He wanted me. Until I met a girl in therapy who talked about God and how He helped her and how she found strength in the words of the bible and through prayer and through her church. The more I learned from her the more I realised I could go back. I could come home to God again and he would not reject me. It was such a relief!

Actually finding my way back has been a proces. But I am grateful for my journey. I believe I am where I need to be (And this is a Complicated thought but I believe I have been guided to where I am today and that all the hardship I faced had a purpose in the end. I know Complicated and not something I feel like I can fully explain and have it make complete sense). And I genuinely plan to go back to church soon (a Catholic one) and I hope I can be baptised. Catholicism is what I drawn to and what feels appropriate for me. Getting back in touch with it, slowly learning about the church again and our traditions has been beautiful and rewarding. I believe in communities, I believe in helping others and caring for others. And I think that works really well with Catholicism. We are not one individual, we are a community and a group and we share humanity and we are all God's children.

As a writer I don't always write about religion directly (although Steve being Catholic is something that shows up in my fics sometimes and it matters to me A Lot that he is Catholic!!!!) but even when I don't write about it directly, I do think it still influences me. One of the things I like writing about is sharing meals. I like writing about friendship and family and helping each other. Caring about people and so on. And I think the values I hold are influenced greatly by how I was raised and how I was raised was influenced by my religion and I think my values appear in my works (at least sometimes. Sometimes a work is too short or too... smutty to think much about values).

I think it mostly influences some things I absolutely won't write (or read for that matter). (Which doesn't mean I will police people who do write these things or read these things but I just Do Not Want to interact with certain content. Ever. Priest kink for example. I only found out that was a thing like last year and I just Cannot. Nope. Look I wanna be able to look my future priest in the eyes and it's also just generally a big big big nope for me. You do you but it's a no from me.) I also cannot deal with fics where Steve or Bucky talk shit about God or Catholicism. I hate it. It feels icky. Yes you can write what you want but also I don't have to read it.

So uh yeah sorry this got very ramble-y? But my religion tag is not for religion inspired things but for actual Christian things because I am a Christian.

I hope this satisfied your curiosity? <3

(Little disclaimer at the end: just because I am a christian doesn’t mean I expect others to be. No hard feelings if you need to filter out the religion tag on my blog. But I will talk about religion because this is my blog).

#religion tag #asks #rrambles

[michaelbogild]

Quotes by Arthur Rimbaud

A mysterious anthem falls from the golden stars.

A poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses. All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences. Unspeakable torment, where he will need the greatest faith, a superhuman strength, where he becomes all men the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed--and the Supreme Scientist! For he attains the unknown! Because he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than anyone! He attains the unknown, and if, demented, he finally loses the understanding of his visions, he will at least have seen them! So what if he is destroyed in his ecstatic flight through things unheard of, unnamable: other horrible workers will come; they will begin at the horizons where the first one has fallen!

A thousand Dreams within me softly burn: From time to time my heart is like some oak Whose blood runs golden where a branch is torn

Against snow, a tall Beautiful Being. Whistlings of death and circles of muffled music make this adored body rise, swell and tremble like a ghost; scarlet and black wounds open in the magnificent flesh.

Along the open road on winter nights, homeless, cold, and hungry, one voice gripped my frozen heart: 'Weakness or strength: you exist, that is strength. You don't know where you are going or why you are going, go in everywhere, answer everyone. No one will kill you, any more than if you were a corpse.' In the morning my eyes were so vacant and my face so dead, that the people I met may not even have seen me.

And from that time on I bathed in the Poem Of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam, A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down

And the horizon runs away from an eternal flight

Aphrodite’s thirst was never quenched; it was cruel and dreamy. It was certainly the most splendid kind of thirst.

As of today, I rebel against death! Work seems frivolous; I'm a proud man, and a lifetime's work would be too brief an agony for me. At the last moment, I'd attack...to the right...to the left...And then—oh!—sweet old soul of mine, eternity would not have been wasted on us!

Blood was flowing – in Bluebeard’s house, in the abattoirs, in the circuses where God had set his seal to whiten the windows. Blood and Milk flowed together.

But, true, I’ve wept too much! Dawns break hearts.

But, truly, I have wept too much! The Dawns are heartbreaking. Every moon is atrocious and every sun bitter.

By being too sensitive I have wasted my life.

Come from forever, and you will go everywhere.

Doubt, a dreary bird, strikes us with its wing

Every moon is brutal, every sun bitter.

From castles of bone unknown music comes

Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.

how full of flowers the world was that summer! Tunes and forms fading... ––A choir, to calm down impotence and absence! A choir of glass pieces, of nocturnal melodies... Soon, indeed, the nerves will slip their moorings.

I alone have the key to this wild parade.

I am hidden and I am not.

I believe I am in Hell, therefore I am

I could never throw Love out of the window.

I found I could extinguish all human hope from my soul.

I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; Garlands from window to window; Golden chains from star to star ... And I dance.

I have withered within me all human hope. With every silent leap of a sullen beast, I have downed and strangled every joy. I have called for executioners; I want to perish chewing on their gun butts. I have called for plagues, to suffocate in sand and blood. Unhappiness has been my god. I have lain down in the mud, and dried myself off in the crime-infested air. I have played the fool to the point of madness

I is another.

I ought to have a special hell for my anger, a hell for my pride, – and a hell for sex; a whole symphony of hells!

I saw myself before an infuriated mob, facing the firing squad, weeping out of pity for the evil they could not understand, and forgiving!

I shall ask forgiveness for having fed on lies.

I shed more tears than God could ever have required.

I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.

I understand, and not knowing how to express myself without pagan words, I’d rather remain silent

I will tear the veils from every mystery: mysteries of religion or of nature, death, birth, the future, the past, cosmogony, and nothingness. I am a master of phantasmagoria.

I've researched the magic shapes of the happiness no one escapes.

I've seen archipelagos of stars; islands whose feverish skies are spread above the traveller - are these the boundless nights in which you sleep?

In the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter the splendid Cities

In the great glasshouses streaming with condensation, the children in mourning-dress beheld marvels.

Is it in these bottomless nights that you sleep in exile?

It began as research. I wrote of silences, of nights, I scribbled the indescribable. I tied down the vertigo.

It has been found again. What? – Eternity. It is the sea mingled with the sun

It was the voice of mad seas, roaring immense

Let us desire The nothing of night

Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.

Monkeys of men fallen from the vulva of mothers

my heart, my heart betrayed me!

My wisdom is as spurned as chaos. What is my nothingness, compared to the amazement that awaits you?

O seasons, O castles, What soul is without flaws? All its lore is known to me, Felicity, it enchants us all

Once, if my memory serves me well, my life was a banquet where every heart revealed itself, where every wine flowed.

One evening I sat Beauty on my knees – And I found her bitter – And I reviled her.

Our pale reason hides the infinite!

Pagan blood returns!

Satan, you clown, you want to dissolve me with your charms. Well, I want it. I want it! Stab me with a pitchfork, sprinkle me with fire!

Self interest exists, attachment based on personal gain exists, complacency exists. But not love. Love has to be reinvented, that’s certain.

Stronger than alcohol, vaster than poetry, Ferment the freckled red bitterness of love!

ternity is the sun mixed with the sea

That shattered your infant breast, too soft, too human.

The first study for the man who wants to be a poet is knowledge of himself, complete: he searches for his soul, he inspects it, he puts it to the test, he learns it. As soon as he has learned it, he must cultivate it! I say that one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The poet becomes a seer through a long, immense, and reasoned derangement of all the senses. All shapes of love suffering, madness. He searches himself, he exhausts all poisons in himself, to keep only the quintessences. Ineffable torture where he needs all his faith, all his superhuman strength, where he becomes among all men the great patient, the great criminal, the great accursed one--and the supreme Scholar! For he reaches the unknown! ....So the poet is actually a thief of Fire!

The flowering sweetness of the stars

The northern lights rise like a kiss to the sea

The poet makes himself a voyant through a long, immense reasoned deranging of all his senses. All the forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he tries to find himself, he exhausts in himself all the poisons, to keep only their quintessences.

The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire. He is responsible for humanity, for animals even; he will have to make sure his visions can be smelled, fondled, listened to; if what he brings back from beyond has form, he gives it form; if it has none, he gives it none. A language must be found…of the soul, for the soul and will include everything: perfumes, sounds colors, thought grappling with thought

The storm made bliss of my sea-borne awakenings.

The world progresses! Why shouldn’t it turn as well?

The World will vibrate like an immense lyre In the trembling of an infinite kiss!

These verses believe; they love; they hope; that is all.

They find me odd, and whisper behind hands... And my brutal desires sink hooks into their lips...

They seem to have fallen asleep in some rose-coloured paradise…

This lofty thought proves I dreamt it!

To whom shall I hire myself out? What beast should I adore? What holy image is attacked? What hearts shall I break? What lies shall I uphold? In what blood tread?

True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’.

True life is elsewhere. We are not in the world.

turn your face towards the lances of rain, the soul towards ancient wisdom

We are overwhelmed with a cloak of ignorance and narrow chimeras

What an old maid I'm getting to be. lacking the courage to be in love with death!

Whose hearts must I break? What lies must I maintain? - Through whose blood am I to wade ?

Your strawberry-raspberry taste, your flowery flesh

[detective-with-one-arm]

💭 - your choice

Simon

Vanilla!Rachel & Android!Simon

I love him. I love him so much. I could watch him smile forever. I could kiss his face for hours if he'd let me. I'd kill and die for him. I'd go to the ends of the world for him. I'd do anything if it meant making a better world for him to live in. I don't ever want to be without him. I want to spend the rest of my life by his side.

Vanilla!Rachel & Mer!Simon

He's so cute and so sweet. It's kinda nice having someone like him in the tank with everyone. He's more like me. And it's fun having someone I can tease and play with myself. Plus, he gives nice hugs and it's nice sleeping next to him.

Aquarium Siren!Rachel & Android!Simon

He's my friend! He understands me! He sees me! I don't have to pretend around him and he wants to stay with me. He makes me happy and I want to make him happy, too. I want to see him every day!

Delinquent!Rachel & Undercover Cop!Simon

He's got guts. I'd like to see him again. He's very fun to play with and tease. Cute, too! Wonder what he does for a day job.

Demon!Rachel & Fallen Angel!Simon

I hate him. I love him. I love fucking him. I love being fucked by him. He makes me confused. He makes me scared. He sets me on fire. I never want to be without him. I don't ever want to go back to a life without him. I don't care about anything else but him. I just want him. He's my angel and I'm his demon. God's not getting him back and I'm not Lucifer's bitch.

Yandere!Rachel & Homeless Human!Simon

He'll understand. Even if he never loves me, he will understand that I am the only one who can protect him. I'm the only one who can provide him everything he needs. He'll see. He'll see that the world is horrible and that I rescued from it. And he'll see that I love him. I love him more than anything and that I would kill and die for him if it meant protecting him from the world that's hurt and tortured him his whole life.

Naga!Rachel & Homeless Human!Simon

Men are cruel. I've seen it. To women, children, and other men. Though...it's not always men. Nevertheless, I've seen his wounds before. Less frequently, though it breaks my heart to see them at all. That as much as the world progresses and improves, some parts remain the same. And it saddens me that it's the uglier parts. But, my home is a safe haven for people like him. So, Simon has a home with me. With my people.

Guardian Angel!Rachel & Homeless Human!Simon

Poor thing...he was done so wrong in his life. But I'll be there for him. I'll help him find his own wings and soar. I'll be his guiding light. His star in the night. His friend...his home. Until he's strong enough to live without me...

Hybrid!Rachel & Hybrid!Simon

A bit odd, but a chill dude. Not as creepy as some of the predators I've met and not as aggro as some of the large prey I've met. I trust him. Hope he gets by okay.

Werewolf!Rachel & Vampire!Simon

He's sweet. And kind. And gentle. And so compassionate. I don't think I've ever met a vampire as nice as him and I'm not letting him go. He's my mate and part of my pack, now, and we've gotta look out for each other. And I love him. Wish he wouldn't pretend to throw the stick or film me in the bathtub, though...even though it is really funny.

Vampire!Rachel & Vampire!Simon

Respectable and understanding of the symbiotic relationship between humans and vampires. A true gentleman and a responsible sort. A worthy vampire. Though, I wished he had been more honest about his feelings, I'm so happy that he is honest, now. It was painful living knowing that he'd been neglected for so long. He deserves to be loved as fervently as the others.

Markus

Vanilla!Rachel & Android!Markus

I used to think of him as above me. Not as a person, but as some sort of judge. A vector for my sense of justice and morality and how that connected to my sense of self. I was so sure I was unworthy of even standing next to him. But now...? I can't imagine doing what I do without him by my side. No matter what, we do everything together. We're partners. And...I love him. For who he is. For everything that makes him...Markus.

Vanilla!Rachel & Pagan God!Markus

I never thought that praying to the void would actually get me an answer. But...weirdly enough, knowing that gods are real brings me a sense of peace. And that one is on my side and genuinely believes in me and wants to help is...nice. It's nice knowing some part of the universe has my back. So, I wanna have his. It's only fair. Besides, he makes for good company and a good houseguest. Easy on the eyes, too, so long as he doesn't break my brain. I think we could be good friends.

Vanilla!Rachel & Mer!Markus

I trust him with my life. He protected me. Kept me safe. Made sure I knew that nobody would hurt me as long as he was around and made sure that the others knew not to hurt me. And made sure I knew I was safe around him. And he's so gentle...so affectionate and loving. I'm gonna miss him whenever we get the hell out of this tank...

RK800!Rachel & Human Detective!Markus

I find him...peculiar. And fascinating. His curiosity and inquisitiveness is infectious, I think. He holds my attention. And he's kind. And...sincere, I think. I like him. Detective Manfred is a good man and a good detective and I value him as a partner. I like working with him and I hope I will be granted more opportunities to expand our professional and personal relationship.

Hybrid!Rachel & Hybrid!Markus

Smug son of a bitch thinks he can get in my pants with a cute little smirk and a playful charming personality and a sensitive artist persona and a sexy voice...well he can, and I'm mad about it. It's not fucking fair.

Naga!Rachel & Naga!Markus

He thinks he can fool me with his innocent act. He seems sincere, but I will not be fooled again by a naga who means to take that which I have guarded for centuries. We will see his true motives soon enough. If his heart truly is pure...he will likely move on and never see this place again...he is a traveler, after all.

Werewolf!Rachel & Werewolf!Markus

He's not an alpha, I don't think. But I feel like I would follow him wherever he went. Like I would do whatever he ordered me to. I don't know why, but I feel like I can trust him. He fought alongside me and didn't even expect a reward. I want to know him. To be close with him. I...I want to be a part of his pack.

Frontier!Rachel & Frontier!Markus

Mister Manfred is a good man. A bit cocky and polished, but a good man. Hard worker. Good craftsmanship. Sheriff Anderson's taken quite a liking to him and he stays for dinner a lot. Can't help but feel like maybe I'm letting him get too friendly with me. I can't say the competition's very appealing, though. Besides...he makes for good company. And he's a kind man. A very kind man...I hope he knows how to protect himself out on the streets.

Leo

Vanilla!Rachel & Mer!Leo

He's very sweet, but he's kinda intimidating. Though, it's not his fault and he's super gentle and careful with me. With everyone, actually. Which I really appreciate. Besides, even if he doesn't think so, he's nice to cuddle, too. And a very kissable face.

Trans!Rachel (Richard) & Human!Leo

I love him. I love him so much. I still feel so shitty that I didn't tell him I was a cop...I should have. But he still gave me another chance. He still let me in. I won't make him regret it. I swear. I'll be everything he deserves to have in a partner. He's too good for anything less from me.

Guardian Angel!Trans!Rachel (Richard) & Demon!Leo

I don't know how. I don't know why. But, this charming demon is my charge. I will never truly understand the will of God, but none ever will. Not even us angels. And if God wills it so, who am I to argue? Especially if it means I can be myself without having to disguise what I am. And I've never met a demon so sweet and so kind. Perhaps now I understand how others fell in love with Lucifer. There is a certain...beauty to demons I didn't see, before.

Elijah

Vanilla!Rachel & Human!Elijah Kamski

How in the everloving fuck did I manage to land a multi-million dollar deal beta testing a line of androids specifically catering to monsterfuckers like me? How? ¿Como? Cum? Someone explain when my life got so fucking weird that I am now collaborating with a fucking tech company trillionaire beta testing his new line of androids SPECIFICALLY for monsterfuckers?! How did this happen????

Daniel

Vampire!Rachel & Vampire!Daniel

Unlike his brother, Daniel is...frustrating. He is archaic, dogmatic, and difficult to tolerate at times. But...I also understand where his beliefs come from and being forced to share residence with what is essentially food that he is not allowed to eat must be frustrating to him. But all he needs is...proper discipline. And attention. And...affection. I do care about him...deeply. I want him to prosper and be comfortable here. I want him to be happy. I want him to feel as though my manor is a home, not just somewhere where he is a guest. And I hope I can achieve that with him, somehow.

Alma

Vanilla!Rachel & Vanilla!Alma

I care about him. I care about him more than anything. I cared about him before. I like him. I like him a lot. He tries to hard to learn, but he's actually a really good learner. It makes me upset that he seems so afraid of failing. He won't say it or act like it, but I can feel it. The hesitance and even preemptive recoiling as though him messing up will bring him pain. But now that I understand where it comes from...I just want to protect him. I want him to know how much he means to me. How much I see in him. How much I care about and appreciate him for who he is. The man who looks up at the sky and maps stars in his silver eyes. The man who always asks questions and wants to know more than he already knows. The man with an insatiable curiosity and a kind heart. The man who will hear me rattle on about whatever random thing just because he likes hearing me talk about it and likes learning about it. The man who will do the same to me. I...I just wish that everyone he's stuck with at home could see him for who he really is. Not what they wished he was or what they think he is or what they think he's supposed to be. Fucking cunt doesn't deserve her own invention, if you ask me...

Vanilla!Rachel & Mer!Alma

I'll admit, he was kinda scary at first. I couldn't see him and suddenly he was inside me. Didn't even give me a chance to catch my breath or anything or prep me. Then, he looked really scary. But then...he got soft. And cute. And I just wanted more of him. Even now, I look at him, and I just wanna hold him. Let him rest his head on my chest and listen to my heartbeat for a while. He's hot as fuck when he's railing me, but god damn, he's so sweet, too. And cute. It's nice to hold him and kiss him. He makes the best faces. Especially when I mess with his lure.

Alien!Rachel & Space!Alma

He's different. So much different than I could've ever expected. I'd heard reports of the ambassador from Earth from the Congress, before. But...actually meeting him was something else. He isn't even human. He's so different from me, but he feels familiar. Comforting. Like...home, almost. And his interest in my people and our culture is hard not to like. Perhaps I can request that my team visit my planet. I think Alma would like to experience Essek for himself. And I want to show him all my favourite parts of it.

Elianna

Vanilla!Rachel & Android!Elianna

She's so pretty. And confident. And fun. God, I haven't been on a date with a woman in years. I really hope I don't scare her or make her uncomfortable. I wanna get to know her and I can't do that if I fuck up and scare her away before I get the chance to.

Arda

Vanilla!Rachel & Vanilla!Arda

If she's anything like Alma, I think I'll like her. And probably get just as protective and defensive of her as with Alma. I bet making friends with both Alma and her would piss Dr. Chen off. I wonder if Alma's told her about me...

Vanilla!Rachel & Mer!Arda

She's...beautiful. Honestly. And so soft and so sweet. I like just floating around the tank in her arms and sitting on her lap. She's just nice to hold and I like listening to her. She's so gentle and so loving. Also helps that she's really good with her mouth. I could fall asleep floating around on her.

Alien!Rachel & Space!Arda

She's beautiful. She's a lot like Alma. Sort of like hatchmates, I think. Though, they're closer than that. But she's very kind and considerate and I like her. I feel inclined to protect her and defend her, much like Alma. I wonder if she'd like to study the flowers on my planet. She seems the type to enjoy interplanetary botany.

#the-mind-of-xelyn #i'm off the clock #answered ask #ask meme #ask #simon dbh #dbh simon #markus dbh #dbh markus #leo manfred #leo dbh #dbh leo #elijah kamski #dbh daniel #daniel dbh #dbh ocs #siren verse #aquarium siren verse #delinquent verse #demon verse #yandere verse #naga verse #guardian angel verse #hybrid verse #werewolf verse #vampire verse #rk800 verse #frontier verse #trans verse #richard verse