#pagan victim complex

[crazycatsiren]

The "pagans were one big happy family who loved one another before Christianity" crowd will be asked if they remember that an entire eastern half of the earth has always existed and no, they do not remember.

#witches of color #religious people of color #white supremacy #racism #westerners' bullshit #pagan persecution complex #pagan victim complex #witchblr #paganblr #white people's bullshit

[feralthembo]

Anyway this rent lowering gunshot is apparently necessary: this isnt a religious blog. But also this isnt a blog that tolerates religious antagonism. Take your heathenry tinged with victim complexes and nazi ass dogwhistles elsewhere.

#i instantly block overt pagans who are all wrapped up in the victim complex #if you arent normal about christians i dont trust u to be normal about jews or muslims either

[bijoumikhawal]

Mmmmm writing this story has just made me repeatedly run around the fact that there's no such thing as a pre-colonization way of writing about Copts even in fantasy

#Cipher talk #The thing is that. I've seen other copts talk about how we have a victim/martyr complex as a culture #(Sometimes leading to the Shit Ass Take that Copts who understand our identity through an Indigenous framework are perpetuating that) #Abd it's true. But part of why it's true is Copts have never been the first and last governors of themselves #The cultural context is by the time we start recognizably being Copts we have been put in a political situation where we're the lowest rung #Of society by dint of being Native Egyptians at least since Rome moved in a few centuries ago and were not being treated super well under #The Ptolemic dynasty if memory serves #The iconography of Coptic culture- aside from what we adapted of the old pagan religion and suprosing borrowing from Persia- is the #Iconography of those who had powers over us- empires and those they favored before us- repurposed to our own ends (Read is there any #Justification for the existence of Coptic art its a very good essay will send a link if asked) #It goes from Rome to Byzantium to Persia for a few years and then! Islamic conquest. And then! Mamluk dynasty. And then! Ottoman empire. #And then! France and Britain. And then! Not really independent sultanate. And then! Arab republic #Of course with the overlapping Amazigh control of Upper Egypt between 14-something and 1819? #Which. I love my Amazigh brothers and sisters. But we weren't treated well then either. The historical record is flawed but not good #And I! Hate this for us! #It could maybe have been different? I'd have to go back to the textbooks but I remember there were revolts in Egypt against Rome #That Early Copts probably participated in #Anyways. Tsuris pouring out my ears <3

[lambs-in-flight]

everyone’s talking abt the need to bully Catholics more but. little secret they love it. u don’t build a religion around the interweaving of love and grief and shame unless you want some big tough guy to come beat u up. bullying won’t work when ur constantly jerking off to your own degradation. Mea culpa daddy, etc

#🌤 #the cool Catholics are faggots who have sublimated it into kink the rest of them just have victim complexes #like oh no I hope a big strong pagan doesn’t make me suffer for my faith 😳 #don’t martyr me no I would just haaate that

[byzantine-suggestions]

this is more of a general complaint than a specific call-out for any one book/podcast/whatever, but one thing that really annoys me about 21st-century Byzantine pop history is the notion that paganism in all its forms was Good and Unproblematic (and equivalent to modern-day, vaguely "witchy" essential-oils-and-tarot-cards hobby paganism), and that Christianity and Islam were Evil and Oppressive religions invented by close-minded losers with victim complexes just to end the pagans' reign of tolerance and fun. The people who make these claims never know anything substantial about any of the belief systems they're critiquing, and it's really tiresome hearing them dismiss Byzantine theology and scholarship as pointless, petty arguments and short-sighted moral crusades

#this isn't something that shows up a lot in books #it's definitely more of a pop history YouTube/podcast thing #but I still find it very annoying

[taylovelinus]

every single time i see some goober on instagram (or here on tumblr for that matter) demonizing jews and israel, all I want to ask is:

1) what is your opinion on indigenous rights?

2) are jews white?

3) have you read hamas’ founding document (their 1988 charter)?

because these really get to the root of their hypocrisy. these so-called leftists always claim to support indigenous rights and land back movements until it comes to jewish people, because they have a fundamental lack of understanding of jewish history, jewish ethnic and racial ancestry and identity, and the relationship between jews and that land. (also it shows how American-centric their worldview is that they see this conflict almost exclusively through an overly-simplistic lens of color, wherein they see jews as white/white europeans and palestinians as a generalized, vague group of people of color who are only ever victims instead of as a complex group of people with their own history, culture, and identity). and you KNOW they haven’t read the charter because they sincerely believe this is all solely about “liberation from oppression” and have no idea about the very real and very violent direct, explicit antisemitism that is the very basis for Hamas’ ideology. their original charter completely denies that jewish people originate from the very same land they claim to originate from; they say that they only way for the three abrahamic faiths to coexist peacefully is under islamic rule and regulation (which if you know literally anything about how jews and christians were treated under dhimmi status you’d know that they were treated as second class citizens at best); They directly cite this verse from the quran as justification for a holy war against the jews — "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” (and don’t even get me started that the charter also explicitly states that women are valuable to the movement... but only “because they are makers of men” and because they stay home and rear the children.) I’ll concede that their 2017 revised charter states that they have “no problem with the Jews”, however this is moot when you can easily find video after video of young children saying explicitly that they want to kill Jews (yahood) and eradicate them from the land. these kids aren’t being taught to separate Jews and Israel/Zionism like Hamas leads people to believe (like they have convinced you westerners to believe); make no mistake, it’s not about cleansing the land of only "zionists", it is about eliminating all jewish people, denying their equal claim to the land, and denying their autonomy and right to self-determination.

i strongly, STRONGLY disagree with israel’s policies towards palestinians. i fucking hate Netanyahu, i hate his cronies, i hate that they court the far right in israel, i hate everything regarding how they have handled and continue to handle this entire conflict. and EVERY single other jew i know feels the same way. but jews have been stepped on and abused and slaughtered by their muslim/christian/pagan neighbors for literally thousands of years at this point. they were murdered en masse within living memory (and updated estimates put the death toll of the Holocaust at somewhere between 10-12 million, by the way. we are still finding mass graves in eastern europe all the time). jews deserve to govern themselves and live in their historical ancestral homeland. palestinians also deserve to live in peace and security, and israel has a responsibility to ensure that. but i will never ever support the complete erasure of the state of israel because i fundamentally believe in jewish sovereignty and indigenous rights, regardless of how much time they’ve been away, especially considering they were forced out and into a diaspora -- their leaving the land was not their choice. if the notion of jews standing up and making a space for themselves and ensuring their security upsets you, then perhaps the world should have actually treated them as human beings instead of slaughtering them. if we say that antisemitism is part of this conversation, and that the antisemitism should be condemned, and your first instinct is to either deny or deflect, you really need to examine your own antisemitism and how you have been thinking about this.

#israel #jumblr

[blackswaneuroparedux]

There is no beauty in Music itself, the beauty is within the listener.

- Igor Stravinsky

“The idea of The Rite of Spring came to me while I was still composing Firebird,” Igor Stravinsky recalled, 45 years after the ballet’s first performance in 1913, in his book Conversations. “I had dreamed of a scene of pagan ritual in which a chosen sacrificial virgin danced herself to death.” If Stravinsky is to be believed, this dream marked the beginning of a process that culminated in the premiere of one of the 20th century’s most important musical works.

Stravinsky’s music was meant to capture the spirit of the scenario, which he had outlined with the help of painter and ethnographer Nikolai Roerich and dancer and choreographer Mikhail Fokine during the spring and summer of 1910. Roerich had filled Stravinsky’s head with tales about all sorts of rituals from ancient Russia – divinations, sacrifices, dances, and so on – involving a variety of characters. The ballet that resulted revolves around the return of spring and the renewal of the earth through the sacrifice of a virgin. In his handwritten version of the story, Stravinsky described The Rite as “a musical choreographic work. It represents pagan Russia and is unified by a single idea: the mystery and the great surge of the creative power of spring….”

Stravinsky completed the score on 29 March 1913, and exactly two months later, the ballet premiered in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where it caused the famous scandal that ushered in modern music. Nijinsky’s choreography and the wild, unchecked power of Stravinsky’s score were something wholly new. Stravinsky wrote for one of his largest orchestras ever in The Rite of Spring, and he used it with an assurance and confidence one would hardly expect from a composer just out of his twenties and with only two big successes - The Firebird and Petrushka - behind him.

But those two scores, for all of their individuality and accomplishment, did not seem like they were leading to The Rite of Spring. What Stravinsky did was totally unexpected.

The stage action during the ballet’s second half, leading up to the sacrifice, was enough to capture the attention of even that raucous audience at the first performance. Finally quiet, they could hear Stravinsky’s score and watch as Maria Piltz, the dancer who played the sacrificial victim, stood motionless as the ritual unfolded around her, gradually coming to life to perform her dance, with its angular contortions and tortured motions.

What actually happened on that scandalous night will always be a mystery to some degree, because the reports contradict each other. Was it the choreography that annoyed people, or the music? Were the police really called? Was it true that missiles were thrown, and challenges to a duel offered? Were the creators booed at the end, or cheered?

The dancer Dame Marie Rambert remembered that right at the beginning ‘a shout went up in the gallery: “Un docteur!" (Call a doctor!). Somebody else shouted louder, “Un dentiste!" (a dentist!)’. The aristocrat Harry Kessler said that people started to whisper and joke almost immediately. Stravinsky himself was so angry that he stormed out and went backstage to help the dancers keep time.

What is certain is that the audience was shocked - and with good reason. Stravinsky’s score for The Rite of Spring contradicted every rule about what music should be. The sounds are often deliberately harsh, right from opening Lithuanian folk melody, which is played by the bassoon in its highest, most uncomfortable range. The music was cacophonously loud, assaulting the ears with thunderous percussion and shrieking brass. Rhythmically it was complex in a completely unprecedented way. In the ‘Ritual of the Rival Tribes’ the music unfolds in two speeds at once, in a ratio of 3:2. And it makes lavish use of dissonance, i.e. combinations of notes which don’t make normal harmonic sense. ‘The music always goes to the note next to the one you expect,’ wrote one exasperated critic.

Then there was the dance, choreographed by Nijinsky. According to some observers this was what really caused the scandal at the first night. When the curtain rose the audience saw a row of ‘knock-kneed and long-braided Lolitas jumping up and down’ as Stravinsky called them, who seemed to jerk rather than dance. Classical dance aspired upwards, in defiance of gravity, whereas Nijinsky’s dancers seemed pulled down to the earth. Their strange, stamping movements and awkward poses defied every canon of gracefulness.

Both the music and the dance of The Rite of Spring seemed to deny the possibility of human feelings, which for most people is what gives art its meaning. As Stravinsky put it, ‘there are simply no regions for soul-searching in The Rite of Spring’. This is what separates it so decisively from Stravinsky’s hit of 1911, Petrushka. There we’re immersed in a human world, which exudes the very specific cultural ambience of Russia. It’s true that the main characters are puppets, rather than rounded human beings. But they have characters, even if they’re somewhat rudimentary, and at the end there’s even a suggestion that Petrushka might have a soul.

* Pina Bausch's interpretation of Stravinksy's Rite. A masterpiece of modern dance.

#stravinsky #igor stravinsky #quote #music #composer #rites of spring #dancer #ballet #ballerinas #dancers #dance #paris #controversial #modern music #modernism #beauty #aesthetics #polytonal #performance #pina bausch #modern dance

[gayleviticus]

i finished reading damascus by christos tsiolkias (his novel about the apostle paul and early christianity) and was very pleasantly surprised by how it manages to be such a nuanced and complex look at such a controversial figure without descending into the saccharine preachiness of Christian fiction (and in fact, being written by someone who is not a Christian and also filled with enough shits, fucks, cunts, and reference to arse-fucking to instantly kill the average Christian fiction writer)

he manages to balance contrasts very effectively; a cruel, profane world of crucifixion and rape with a genuinely subversive religion of love and solidarity; a Paul flowing with genuine kindness and faith but also struggles with streaks of pride and jealousy.

but what impresses me most of all is the way the novel holds both Paul's apocalyptic gospel of resurrection in a world to come and its radical rejection of the injustice of this world with Thomas' naturalistic gospel that the kingdom has come and is among us already in Jesus' teaching. especially the way Tsiolkias acknowledges that even as Paul's gospel sits awkwardly with our modern scepticism it has heirs in any revolutionary tradition that wishes to change the world; it is this gospel that stands in condemnation of the systems of the world as they stand, and that spread the teachings of Jesus to the entire world (notably Damascus takes the interpretation that none of the other apostles bar Paul would fellowship with Gentiles). it would have been very easy to tap into the zeitgeist of scepticism and write a novel where Paul is a charlatan or crazy fundamentalist, and the gospel of Thomas marginalised and ignored as heretical and Gnostic is rather the true faith buried by orthodoxy. Paul is a very acceptable scapegoat to bash; if we can blame all the uncomfortable bits of the Bible on him (or the bloodthirsty and primitive Old Testament) we can maintain an unsullied image of pure Christianity. [and i don't mean to say this is entirely unjustified, especially given the way evangelicalism in particular loves to deploy isolated verses rather than entire texts! When your primary mode of engagement with him is not actually reading his epistles as works of literature, but throwing Romans 1.27 at gay people to convince them to stop being gay 100 times, that is naturally going to deeply warp your perspective of how much of his corpus is actually problematic (which, imo, when we account for 1) cultural norms re homosexuality and pederasty 2) the fact about 3-6 'Pauline' epistles were probably not written by him and 3) some verses possibly being interpolations, is really not that much).] But such a novel purporting to expose Paul as a fundamentalist charlatan would be just as didactic and simplistic as pious Christian fiction where Paul can do no wrong and harbour no doubts and is a direct mouthpiece for 21st-century evangelical doctrine. And so I very much appreciate the thought and empathy Tsolkias puts into this novel to understand Paul, rather than taking a few soundbites as an excuse to dismiss the man entirely. His Paul is flawed - a man who falls victim to jealousy, who sometimes makes his heart stone to avoid doubt - but also a man who believes in friendship and love across barriers of male and female, slave and free, Jew and Greek, one who hopes that this world mired in empire and oppression and crucifixion need not be the only way. and also a man who has a homoerotic relationship with Timothy that also has v queer-coded parallels in him bringing home an uncircumcised Gentile to the apostles in Jerusalem who he fears will reject this pagan. which is cool imo

#st paul #paul the apostle #christian #queer christian #christianity #religion #damascus tsiolkias

[fitchersvogel]

Christmas Was Not "Stolen" From Pagans.

Seasons Greasons! As your friendly neighbourhood folklorist, I wanted to address some popular NeoPagan memes that spring up around holidays like Christmas. The history of the festival is complex, and there are definitely pre-Christian aspects that made their way into celebrations, but the language of “theft” is not accurate.

Basically:

FIRST: if you want to talk about Christians actively stealing religious beliefs and practices, their primary victim has always been Judaism. The entirety of the Christian religion is founded upon an appropriation and twisting of Jewish religion; please look up the doctrine of “supersessionism.” The ultimate goal was, of course, destruction of Judaism, but only after it had been extensively strip-mined.

Paganism, on the other hand, was to be straight-up destroyed. Strip-mining, when it happened, was more a matter of convenience than theological imperative.

Some pagan practices did stick around, for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes these pagan holdovers were a form of resistance. Sometimes converts just added Jesus to what they’d always done, with no worries. Sometimes Christian authorities deliberately adopted pagan practices to make coerced conversion more palatable.  Sometimes Christian authorities didn’t consider whatever was happening important enough to fuss about. And so on.

Many European pagan cultures—but not all—had festivals set at or around the winter solstice. The most important ones for our purposes are the Roman Saturnalia and the Germanic/Norse Yule. (Ronald Hutton argues that the Roman New Year/Kalends (Jan 1) was also a factor, but since so many of the customs were basically identical to Saturnalia, I’m more inclined to see them as extensions of those festivities.)

In early Christianity, the single most important festival, by a long shot, was Easter. Christ’s Nativity, when they bothered with it at all, was very [shrug emoji].

The textual evidence of the Gospels, insofar as they can be relied on, suggests a spring birthday—that’s when shepherds would have been out watching their flocks by night, for example.

The Roman date of the feast of the Nativity was fixed at December 25 in the mid-4th century; it absolutely was placed there to take advantage of the existing holiday of Saturnalia, as well as the feasts of the Unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus) and (possibly) Mithras’s birthday. Jesus had to be born sometime, and this was as good a choice as any.

Christians could also spot a good seasonal metaphor—the saviour is born at the darkest time of the year, and the light grows in power every day thereafter.

While Gregory the Great (601, Epistola ad Mellitum) is the most famous advocate for appropriating existing religious sites and festivals and plastering Jesus over them, the practice had been happening for a while already.

Because the authorities cared so little about policing the festival, tons of earlier celebratory traditions and symbolism just… carried over. Gift-giving, centrality of family/household, carnival atmosphere, Lords of Misrule, feasting (especially on boars), Yule logs/fire symbolism, evergreens as decoration… all of these customs are holdovers from either Saturnalia or Yule.

What didn’t carry over is the specifically religious elements: Saturnalia was a feast for Saturn, celebrating a lost golden age of peace and plenty. Yule was (probably) linked to some form of ancestor veneration and/or a feast for the dead.

You can make a slightly better case for theological influences from Sol Invictus or Mithras’s birthday; Christianity certainly appreciated the symbolic value of linking their god to the rebirth of the sun. But Sol Invictus is a relative latecomer on the Roman festival scene, and there is considerable dispute about December 25 as Mithras’s natal festival.

Once Christianity had successfully colonized and suppressed the majority of pagan religious practice, the most fanatical started getting upset about Christmas customs, because they now had more time to play orthodoxy police instead of, you know, murdering people and passing laws to compel conversion.

From, like, the 600s on, there is always some churchman bitching about the decadence, drunkenness, and extravagance of Christmas celebrations. Lots of them argued that it wasn’t a properly Christian festival at all.

The high point of anti-Christmas whining came during the Protestant reformation, when many hardliners forbade the festival altogether, citing a) lack of Biblical support, b) holdovers from paganism, and c) riotous behaviour from the ~lower orders~. Christmas was banned in Puritan New England for exactly this reason.

Modern “War on Christmas” narratives that insist that Christmas is, and always has been, a 100% Jesus holiday are pretty laughable: it was never all that theologically important, and their own co-religionists kept trying to ban it for most of the festival’s history.

To sum up: Christmas was not “stolen,” per se. Jesus’s birth is described in the Gospels, so there needed to be some kind of festival. December 25 was as good a time as any, because there were existing festival infrastructures, and the symbolism of the solstice is useful. Because it was such a minor festival, a fair amount of the less-overtly-religious folk elements from Saturnalia and Yule celebrations just kept going, and nobody in the early days cared enough to police that. Once Christianity had crushed active pagan resistance, then some theologians found time to bitch about how un-Christian the festival was, because of the arbitrary date and the continuance of earlier customs. This sense of “Christmas isn’t properly Christian” has been flaring up periodically ever since, particularly among fundamentalist Protestant groups; it’s also proven useful to modern Pagans who enjoy the customary trappings of Christmas, which is fine—I’m one of them!

But the language of “theft” isn’t useful here: advantage was taken of existing practices, but in a more hands-off way than Christians usually behaved—which is the reason so many of those pre-existing practices survived! If you want to talk about theft from pagans, you’re on much firmer ground when talking about things like the destruction of pagan sanctuaries to build churches. But remember: Jews are the primary victims of Christian religious appropriation, not pagans!

If you want some academic sources, Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun is the most useful and accessible. There's also The Battle for Christmas, by Stephen Nissenbaum, for an in-depth look specifically at American practices.

#folklore #yule #paganism #have i mentioned i hate christianity today

[crazycatsiren]

At least half of the world was never and has never been pagan ever and good fucking gods will white pagans and witches please start understanding this 2023 is almost over now.

#witches of color #religious people of color #witchblr #paganblr #white supremacy #racism #pagan persecution complex #white victim complex #witches of the world

[servantofthefates]

The 4 People Who Say Tarot Cannot Tell the Future

1) THE UNSKILLED

Someone who tried to use tarot to tell the future but failed. So now he or she believes tarot is only for meditation and advice.

Anyone can learn tarot. But not everyone will be good at it. The same way anyone can learn arithmetic but not everyone can be a math genius.

If you are a beginner at tarot, you have a lot to learn before the cards allow you a glimpse of tomorrow.

And if you are mistreating your deck or offending the forces that influence it, then tarot will never work for you unless you change your ways. That is simply how it is with magic.

This person was either not born with the prophetic eye, or is too dismissive to even try opening it.

2) THE COWARD

Someone who is afraid to know the future. Let’s be honest. Do you not feel even the slightest tingle of fear at the idea of learning when you are going to die?

Instead of owning up to that fear, some people fool themselves into believing something else. “The future changes all the time, so who can really see it?” “People are unpredictable, so seeing the future is impossible.”

Then how come they believe in surveys? Projection studies? Marketing research? Even scientific paradoxes and self-fulfilling prophecies in literature?

The future and humans are complex but predictable.

This person is simply too afraid to admit it. What if the future is not what he or she expects it to be? It would only hurt. Much like lurking on your ex’s Instagram. Of course it can be done. But many don’t.

3) THE FAITHLESS

Someone who thinks that only they and absolutely no one else – much less a bunch of cards – has full control over their future.

As a strong proponent of self-esteem, I too believe that we must lead our own lives. Create our own happiness. Destroy our own demons.

But what of the hardworking father who got hit by a bus and became a paraplegic? Do you think he planned on that? How about the bus driver? Do you think he woke up that day and decided, “At 3:00 PM, I will put someone in a wheelchair!”

And what of the 4-year-old boy who got molested by his parents? Or the teenager from Indonesia who became a victim of human trafficking? How about the low-life scum who picked up a lottery ticket on the street and became a millionaire in one day? Do you think he strategically thought of doing that to turn his life around?

This person is too arrogant to see that while we should always strive to drive our life, there are forces above, beneath and around us that will now and then take the wheel and push us to the passenger seat.

4) THE IGNORANT

Someone who never had the chance to learn tarot’s true history before one of the three people above brainwashed them.

Tarot was born in Italy in the early 1400s as a card game called tarrochi. It was later imbued by the French with occult meanings and used for fortunetelling – the act of predicting the future. That is literally what tarot is for.

French and later English mystics wanted to tell themselves apart from the poor, uneducated tarot-wielding witches and pagans whom they believed to be beneath them. So instead of “fortunetelling” they began using the term “divination”. Because to divine the future sounds more refined than to predict it.

This person is an unknowing victim of generations upon generations of classism and elitism.

#Tarot #Divination #Fortunetelling #Witchblr #servantofthefates #Witchcraft #Witch tips #All About Tarot

[gsirvitor]

Oh nice black April Ai art, now for MCU Wakanda. I can’t fully blame white liberals for that. It my own community fault.

Here a dirty little secret of the black American community. Black activists have a massive FETISHIZED view of African cultures. Which is why MCU Wakanda look like oversized shantytown or Africanized NYC. That how black activists think a non colonized African country would be.

And incase you wondering why no one at marvel studios or Disney pointed out the issues? That because black activists have a MASSIVE victim complex so anyone with half a brain calling them out would get their lives ruin.

Sorry, my community make me want to put Uncle Ruckus to shame to how we went from racial equality to superiority. God, why did you have to make me a black American? Did my ancestors did something wrong?

Okay, enough of that, there's nothing wrong with being black, the issue comes from the culture in America, but that is something that can be rectified by the individual.

And it isn't just black Americans that fetishize black cultures, the same people who fetishized Wakanda also fetishize Native Americans, Indians, and so on, and this isn't even a phenomenon exclusive to them, white supremacists and neo pagans also fetishize other cultures, it's why both try to claim Egypt as theirs.

Which is why this meme hits so hard;

It's a refusal of modern day people to reconcile with their history and come to appreciate it, even if it was underwhelming.

Most people are not descended from greatness, they come from poverty, serfdom and slavery, that's everyone's history, fetishizing the past won't change that.

Though I doubt this is the intent of your ask.

And never apologize for the behavior of others, especially when they do not represent you.

[eternal-echoes]

“The history of relations between the Jewish and Christian communities has been complex and often painful. There were blessed times when the two lived together peacefully, but there was also the expulsion of the Jews from Cologne in the year 1424.

And in the 20th century, in the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology, born of neo-paganism, gave rise to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate European Jewry. The result has passed into history as the Shoah.

The victims of this unspeakable and previously unimaginable crime amounted to 11,000 named individuals in Cologne alone; the real figure was surely much higher. The holiness of God was no longer recognized, and consequently, contempt was shown for the sacredness of human life.

This year, 2005, marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, in which millions of Jews - men, women and children - were put to death in the gas chambers and ovens.

I make my own the words written by my venerable Predecessor on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and I too say: "I bow my head before all those who experienced this manifestation of the mysterium iniquitatis. " The terrible events of that time must "never cease to rouse consciences, to resolve conflicts, to inspire the building of peace" (Message for the Liberation of Auschwitz, 15 January 2005).

…

This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration Nostra Aetate, which opened up new prospects for Jewish-Christian relations in terms of dialogue and solidarity. This Declaration, in the fourth chapter, recalls the common roots and the immensely rich spiritual heritage that Jews and Christians share.

Both Jews and Christians recognize in Abraham their father in faith (cf. Gal 3: 7; Rom 4: 11ff.), and they look to the teachings of Moses and the prophets. Jewish spirituality, like its Christian counterpart, draws nourishment from the psalms. With St Paul, Christians are convinced that "the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" (Rom 11: 29; cf. 9: 6, 11; 11: 1ff.). In considering the Jewish roots of Christianity (cf. Rom 11: 16-24), my venerable Predecessor, quoting a statement by the German Bishops, affirmed that "whoever meets Jesus Christ meets Judaism" (Insegnamenti, Vol. III/2, 1980, p. 1272).

The conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate therefore "deplores feelings of hatred, persecutions and demonstrations of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews at whatever time and by whomsoever" (n. 4). God created us all "in his image" (cf. Gn 1: 27) and thus honoured us with a transcendent dignity. Before God, all men and women have the same dignity, whatever their nation, culture or religion.

…

On the basis of our shared human dignity the Catholic Church "condemns as foreign to the mind of Christ any kind of discrimination whatsoever between people, or harassment of them, done by reason of race or colour, class or religion" (n. 5).”

- Pope Benedict XVI, VISIT TO THE SYNAGOGUE OF COLOGNE, 19 August 2005

#Catholic #Christianity #quotes #Pope Benedict

[tiarnanabhfainni]

the st patrick nonsense is so annoying like please. i hate the phrase 'victim complex' because it's mostly used by right-wing crank losers but i can't find a better way to describe the behaviour of (some) pagans online. desperate to find some historical claim to genocide so they can avoid any of the guilt in their own family histories and bang on about their current suffering. larping at someone else's pain for lack of anything better to do.

you know you can just hate the church for the shit it's actually done right? the role of catholic missionaries in british colonisation (and french and italian and spanish and... you get the point), the residential schools in canada, collaboration with franco's spain, the global child abuse racket, magdalene laundries in ireland, centuries of antisemitism etc. etc. etc. you don't have to invent a single-handed genocide of a people by a weirdo in the 4th century. you can just hate them for their many many many real crimes.

#drives me absolutely nuts #shut. the. fuck. up.

[brookston]

Holidays 4.13

Holidays

Aerosmith Day (Massachusetts)

American Elephant Day

American Sikh Day

Arugula o Rocket Day (French Republic)

Auslan Day (Australia)

Beauty Peace Day

Celebrate Teen Literature Day

Day of Patrons and Philanthropists (Russia)

Day of the Dead (Elder Scrolls)

Environmental Protection Day

Feast of Rotten Endings

413 Day (Arkansas)

Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) International Awareness Day

Homestuck Day

Huguenot Day (France)

Ides of April (Ancient Rome)

International Campus & Community Day

International Creativity & Innovation Day

International Day of the Kiss

International Functional Neurological Disorder Awareness Day

International Imposter Syndrome Awareness Day

International Jaat Day (India)

International Plant Appreciation Day

International Rock & Roll Day

International Special Librarian’s Day

International Turban Day

John Hanson Day (Maryland)

Katyn Memorial Day (Poland)

Military-Industrial Complex Employee Day (Ukraine)

National Boot Day

National Borinqueneers Day

National Hippy Day

National Hockey Card Day

National Japanese Spitz Day

National Kiss Your Homies Day

National Pathology Day (India)

National PhiliShui Day

National Silly Earring Day

National Sticker Day

National Theresa Day

Neil Banging Out the Tunes Day

Religious Freedom Day (England; France)

Scrabble Day

Silent Spring Day

Sinhala & Tamil New Year’s Eve (Sri Lanka)

Sterile Packaging Day

Swiftie Day

Teacher’s Day (Ecuador)

Thomas Jefferson Day

Unfairly Prosecuted Persons Day (Slovakia)

Western Mass Day (Massachusetts)

World Microscope Day

World Sarcoidosis Day

World’s Day of Remembrance for Victims of Katyn Massacre

Food & Drink Celebrations

Day to Give Thanks for Fish and Seafood

Hopocalypse Day (Drake’s Brewing)

National Make Lunch Count Day

National Peach Cobbler Day

2nd Saturday in April

Baby Massage Day [2nd Saturday]

Global Day to End Child Sexual Abuse [2nd Saturday]

National Catch & Release Day [2nd Saturday]

Slow Art Day [2nd Saturday]

World Circus Day [2nd Saturday]

Weekly Holidays beginning April 13 (2nd Week)

California Native Plant Week [thru 4.20]

Independence & Related Days

Adammia (Declared; 2013) [unrecognized]

Mensa Ann (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Sicily (from Naples; 1848)

Varnland (Declared; 1991) [unrecognized]

Winterspell (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

New Year’s Days

Songkran (Thailand) (a.k.a. …

Bangla New Year

Bisket Jatra (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand)

Chiang Mai Songkran

Tamil New Year

Thai New Year

Festivals Beginning April 13, 2024

Armageddon Expo Christchurch, New Zealand) [thru 4.14]

Baldwin County Strawberry Festival (Loxley, Alabama) [thru 4.14]

Bar K Beer Fest (St. Louis, Missouri)

Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) [thru 4.14]

CNY Maple Festival (Marathon, New York) [thru 4.14]

Crawfish & Zydeco Festival (Kemah, Texas) [thru 4.14]

Dairy State Cheese & Beer Festival (Kenosha, Wisconsin)

Dessert Wars (Baltimore, Maryland)

Georgia Renaissance Festival (Fairburn, Georgia) [thru 6.2]

Hall Cabernet Cookout (St. Helena, California)

Hudson Mac & Cheese Fest (Washingtonville, New York)

International Orange Blossom Carnival (Adana, Turkey) [thru 4.21]

Lost Colony Wine & Culinary Festival (Manteo, North Carolina)

Mobile Chocolate Festival (Mobile, Alabama)

National Grits Festival (Warwick, Georgia)

Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival (San Francisco, California) [thru 4.14 & 4.20-21]

Polish Festival (Phoenix, Arizona) [thru 4.14]

Spring Cheese and Chocolate Weekend (Stillwater, Minnesota) [thru 4.14]

Supernova Pop Culture Expo Gold Coast, Australia) [thru 4.14]

Taste of Hillcrest (San Diego, California)

Feast Days

Alfarbot: Alfheim Day (Pagan)

Believe in Fairies Day (Pastafarian)

Bill Hicks Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Caradoc (Christian; Saint)

Carpus, Papyrus, and Agathonic (Christian; Martyrs)

Elizablecccch Arden (Muppetism)

Eudora Welty (Writerism)

Festival of Jupiter Victor (Ancient Rome)

Festival of Libertas (Ancient Roman personification of freedom and political liberty)

Grounding Meditation Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Guinoch of Scotland (Christian; Saint)

Hermenegild (Christian; Martyr)

Ida of Louvain (Christian; Saint)

James Ensor (Artology)

Libertas (Old Roman Goddess of Liberty)

Martin I, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Martius (a.k.a. Mars; Christian; Saint)

Poshui Jie begins (Water Splashing Festival; China)

Ptolemy (Positivist; Saint)

Purification Festival (Thailand; Everyday Wicca)

Samuel Beckett (Writerism)

Seamus Heaney (Writerism)

Squashing of Moonhopper Day (Shamanism)

Thomas Lawrence (Artology)

Vaisakhi (Sikh spring grain harvest festival)

Vishnu (Pondicherry, India; Hindu)

Yayoi Matsuri (Nikko, Japan; 5-Day Spring Festival)

Islamic Moveable Calendar Holidays

Eid al-Fitr celebrations continue (Islam)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 103 [27 of 72]

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Premieres

Aladdin Sane, by David Bowie (Album; 1973)

An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures, by Clarice Lispector (Novel; 1969)

Bedeviled Rabbit (WB Cartoon; 1957)

The Big Bad Wolf (Disney Cartoon; 1934)

Black Rose, by Thin Lizzy (Album; 1979)

Bridget Jones’s Diary (Film; 2001)

Brown Sugar, by The Rolling Stones (Song; 1971)

Bulldog Drummond (Radio Series; 1941)

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, by Elizabeth Smart (Novel; 1945)

Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming (Novel; 1953) [James Bond #1]

Catch a Fire, by Bob Marley (Album; 1973)

Critic’s Choice (Film; 1963)

Dane, by Heinrich Schütz Opera; 1627)

Daltrey, by Roger Daltrey (Album; 1973)

Echo, by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Album; 1999)

El Capitan, by John Philip Soul (Operetta; 1896)

Good Little Monkeys (Happy Harmonies; 1935)

The Greyhound and the Rabbit (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1940)

Hold the Lion Please (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1951)

The Kilkenny Cats (Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1945)

Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here Grammar Rock Cartoon; Schoolhouse Rock; 1974)

Messiah, by George Frederic Handel (Oratorio; 1742)

Mickey’s Kangaroo (Disney Cartoon; 1935)

Mouse Into Space (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1962)

The One Minute Manager, by Kennth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (Book; 1983)

Rampage (Film; 2018)

Rising Sun, by Michael Crichton (Novel; 1992)

Safe at Home! (Film; 1962)

Swing Shift (Film; 1984)

Tango in the Night, by Fleetwood Mac (Album; 1987)

Tintin and the Picaros, by Hergé (Graphic Novel; 1976) [Tintin #23]

12 Angry Men (Film; 1957)

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (Historic Novel; 2012)

Today’s Name Days

Hermenegild, Ida, Martin (Austria)

Ida, Martin (Croatia)

Aleš (Czech Republic)

Justinus (Denmark)

Tarvi, Tarvo (Estonia)

Tellervo (Finland)

Ida (France)

Hermenegil, Ida, Gilda, Martin (Germany)

Gerontios (Greece)

Ida (Hungary)

Ermenegildo, Martino (Italy)

Egils, Jagailis, Justins, Justs, Nauris (Latvia)

Algaudė, Ida, Mingaudas (Lithuania)

Asta, Astrid (Norway)

Hermenegild, Hermenegilda, Ida, Jan, Justyn, Małgorzata, Przemysł, Przemysław (Poland)

Artemon (Romania)

Aleš (Slovakia)

Hermenegildo, Martín (Spain)

Artur, Douglas (Sweden)

Slavka, Yaroslava (Ukraine)

Thom, Thomas, Thomasina, Thompson, Tom, Tomas, Tommie, Tommy, Twain (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 104 of 2024; 262 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of week 15 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Fearn (Alder) [Day 28 of 28]

Chinese: Month 3 (Wu-Chen), Day 5 (Ding-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 5 Nisan 5784

Islamic: 34 Shawwal 1445

J Cal: 14 Cyan; Sevenday [14 of 30]

Julian: 31 March 2024

Moon: 28%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 20 Archimedes (4th Month) [Albategnius]

Runic Half Month: Man (Human Being) [Day 4 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 26 of 92)

Week: 2nd Week of April

Zodiac: Aries (Day 24 of 31)

#calendar #Holidays

[fishtre]

Hi!!! I read Your medieval au in ao3 and loved it so much. Both the writing and art were amazing and could really build up and give form to both the au and the characters. Your jay is such a complex character that is so cool and competent without stopping him from being charming and a survivor with whom it’s easy to sympathize with. Also i really like how you portrayed and designed dick grayson, I really like his mean strike and smartness to read bruce. If you don’t mind me asking out of curiosity, how would you describe the relationship between bruce, dick and Jason? And what are each character’s expectations from each other? I would really like to see how did you intend to portrayed their relationship reflected in the art of the comics,reactions and thoughts. Anyway, I really like to blog and truly enjoy your post both in tumblr and ao3. Kudos and have a nice one!

Okay first: ashjsdhsd!!! Thank you, anon. I'm flattered you enjoyed it, and relieved that the fic was legible. I’ve gotta thanks Dae for that. 💖

It's hard to explain my intents without mentioning what I had to cut out. For the flow and to not bloat a one-shot fic that had already too much happening in term of "lore".  But I may as well spill the beans here. I assume you're ready for an essay since you like blogging anyway. lol  

Despite of how hard I wanted the reader to feels for Jason's struggles, my intent wasn't to portray Dick as unlikable. Same for Bruce, even if that alpha is a daker shade of gray and stays out of focus. I also wanted to avoid portraying Jason as passive or as a victim. Going with the flow, dealing with the crappy cards life throw at him with spunk is what Jason does best.

My last intent was to not disney-ize or fetishize royalty/nobles/the feudal system.

> How would you describe the relationship between Bruce, Dick and Jason?

Unequal. A power balance dictated by the feudal system above all. The dogmas surrounding ABO are just the final nail in the coffin. From their age/designation/birth, Bruce and Jason represent the two extreme poles of that spectrum.  

(Dick's origins got cut out, but he was supposed to be an in-between. He wasn’t born a slave or a noble. His birth station is humble but uncommon enough it sets him a bit apart. He gets assimilated and socially ascend upon joining Bruce's pack early on his life. This involved extra elements from the worldbuilding and there was already too much going on.)

*

Bruce is Gotham's Earl. Powers above him exist, the crown and the church, but he controls his land however he wants.The church is breathing in Bruce's neck for Bat-man, who accidentally re-ignite a pagan tale/faith to life.

(If Bruce still seats in Gotham it’s because the crown prefers Bruce where he is. The alpha managed to bring order in what the they perceive as an accursed county after the Wayne's death. Beside he’s the heir and a noble. He is part of their clique and the lesser evil until someone better steps in.)

Regardless of Dick's origins, him and Bruce are pack. Despite the lack of blood affiliation. You can imagine Dick faces some discriminations, but he is overall pretty well accepted/assimilated since he becomes Sheriff.

As Dick grow, they become to have an “old” dog versus young dog kind of rivalry that ends pushing Dick away.  

Jason is above all a serf; a slave-born. Without even taking ABO designations into account, the peoples Jason serves have choice of life and death over him. He can be sold. He can’t marry without authorization. Same for his pups because this condition is hereditary. This is the prism between these characters.

Jason is part of Bruce's pack in the sense that he is a possession. Being an omega is why Bruce ends taking interest in him, and indirectly improve Jason's life conditions over night. Like a fairy tale that scoop him away.

He’s a glorified pet or chew toy in the service of an eccentric noble, who wouldn't be as attached to Jason if the omega was less feisty. As such, Bruce can be pretty lenient toward Jason occasionally. So long as that sharp tongue isn’t aimed at Bruce’s lordship. If Bruce likes him for his spunk and “bluntness”, Jason actually filters his thoughts around him and does as he is told.

As for Dick and Jason... They just met, and not in the best conditions. Bruce pits them against each other to get Dick’s attention.

  > What are each characters’s expectations from each other?

Bruce ➡ Dick

A family/ pack. Bruce has this “old” packless alpha kind of crisis going on. Until now he always prioritized his duty over his pack. But now Gotham is somewhat in order, the Bat-man isn't as needed so Bruce has to face his loneliness in Dick’s absence. A void he can’t fill with Alfred, Jason or Tim. He's reassorting his priorities and that begin with re-bonding with Dick before the young alpha breed his own pack and truly put Bruce behind him. That's the headspace he's in atm.  

Dick ➡ Bruce

The young alpha to Bruce’s old. He’s after Bruce’s trust, respect and recognition as an equal and alpha. 

Bruce ➡ Jason 

For Bruce, Jason is a servant, pet and a distraction. An intelligent omega he trains to be versatile asset/weapon. In the absence of Dick (or Tim), Jason is a squire with benefits that won't/can't challenge Bruce. Even as Dick’s chew toy/practice dummy, Bruce expects Jason’s loyalty to goes to him first. He is found of Jason but mostly because there’s a lot about the omega Bruce takes for granted.  

Jason ➡ Bruce

Nobles are high maintenance and servitude is a hassle but Jason’s quality of life and life expectancy improve greatly. Jason gives the alpha his best but ambitions to earn his freedom (to become a free folk) after some years of service. To his own surprise Jason grows to like/respect Bruce for his eccentricities. The very things Alfred, Dick or society may disapprove of. 

Dick ➡ Jason

Jason is Bruce’s olive branch, a responsibility and a chew toy. Where Bruce asks Jason to be mindful of their status, Dick makes sure Jason doesn’t forget he is an omega. Where Bruce is amused by Jason’s spunk, Dick is way less impressed. If Jason profits from Bruce’s eccentricities, Dick knows from experience the pack doesn’t always do. This is something Dick expect to see changes after mending bonds with Bruce. A young alpha has a lot to prove (more so with omegas) and keeping the pack in line is how they typically prove their “alphahood”.

Jason ➡ Dick

Dick is someone who could be a plan B or jeopardize his goal entirely. It doesn’t help that Jason doesn’t feel beholden to Dick or like his temperament. It’s in Jason’s nature (and role as a chew toy) to push Dick’s limits when staying on Dick’s good side could be vital for him. Which isn’t always an easy feat when Bruce’s influence stands between them or when the alphas’ expectations contradict each other. But if Jason can gain anything by playing to an alpha's weakness, Jason will.

#reply #kemonomimi hell AU #a pleasure to butcher english #as always