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“The Celtic idea is very beautiful; it claims that the underworld is not a dark world but a world of spirit. There is an old belief in Ireland that the Tuatha de Dannan, the tribe of Celts banished from the surface of Ireland, now inhabited the underworld beneath the land above.”

—

Anamchara, John O’Donohue

This explanation of John’s is interesting when you think of the references made by certain historians, that the Celts emerged from an ‘underworld’ of sorts.

#john odonohue #celts #underworld #spirit #tuatha de dannan #anam cara

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THE ARISTOCATS (1970)

#movie #childhood #aristocats #animation

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From my journal.

#illustration #note to self #symbols #alchemy

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Carpet - René Crevel, circa 1925.

#carpet #art #home

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Herman Hesse, Demian (tr. Damion Searls)

#fatal flaw #demian #herman hesse

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Gloria Anzaldúa, from Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza

#serpent #Gloria Anzaldúa #borderlands #mythology #earth serpent

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”They divided her who had been complete, who possessed both upper (light) and underworld (dark) aspects.”

“The male-dominated Azteca-Mexica culture drove the powerful female deities underground by giving them monstrous attributes and by substituting male deities in their place, thus splitting the female Self and the female deities. They divided her who had been complete, who possessed both upper (light) and underworld (dark) aspects.

[…] Tonantsi —split from her dark guises, Coatlicue, TlazolteotI, and Cihuacoatl— became the good mother. The Nahuas, through ritual and prayer, sought to oblige Tonantsi to ensure their health and the growth of their crops. It was she who gave México the cactus plant to provide her people with milk and pulque. It was she who defended her children against the wrath of the Christian God by challenging God, her son, to produce mother’s milk (as she had done) to prove that his benevolence equalled his disciplinary harshness. 

After the Conquest, the Spaniards and their Church continued to split Tonantsi/Guadalupe. They desexed Guadalupe, taking Coatlalopeuh, the serpent/sexuality, out of her. They completed the split begun by the Nahuas by making la Virgen de Guadalupe/Virgen María into chaste virgins and Tlazolteotl/Coatlicue/la Chingada into putas; into the Beauties and the Beasts.”

— Gloria Anzaldúa, from Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza

#Gloria Anzaldúa #mythology #borderlands #serpent #feminine #dark feminine

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#eartha kitt #kitties #gordon parks #1950s aesthetic

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Barriers to Intimacy by Olivia de Recat

#olivia de recat #intimacy

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Sade Adu

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#cat #connection

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Me too.

Illustration of triple spirals at Newgrange from the book Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times (1904), by Allen, J. Romilly, 1847-1907.

I still find it curious that I was always drawing and sketching these exact patterns in childhood, before I ever knew about their meaning or origin. I still do, when my mind feels too muddled and I need to ground my thoughts in something soothing.

#spirals #art

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“The goddess holds all things in balance. Good and evil. Death and rebirth. The predator and the prey. Without her, destruction and chaos would prevail.“

Mists of Avalon (2001)

#goddess #balance

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“We need more resonant words to mirror this than the tired word ‘relationship’. Phrases like ‘an ancient circle closes’ or ‘an ancient belonging awakens and discovers itself’ helps to bring out the deeper meaning and mystery of encounter. This is the more sacred language of the soul for togetherness and intimacy. When two people love each other, there is a third force between them.”

- Anamchara, John O’Donohue

#relationships #intimacy #egregore #celts

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“The real moral of Hadestown to me is, yes, we’re fucked, but we still have to try with all our might. We have to love hard and make beauty in the face of futility. That’s the essence of what Persephone sings at the end of the show: “Some birds sing when the sun shines bright / my praise is not for them, but the one who sings in the dead of night / I raise my cup to him.””

— - Anais Mitchell (via theredshoes)

#hades #persephone #mythology #hadestown

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And darkness will be rewritten

Into a work of fiction, you’ll see

As you pull on every ribbon

You’ll find every secret it keeps

– Sleeping At Last, I’ll Keep You Safe

#sleeping at last #lyrics

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The OA  |  2x05 - “The Medium & The Engineer”

#the oa #secret life of trees #brit marling #the oa spoilers