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revoevokukil · 10 months

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Marriage & Sexual Politics among the Elves

I've been thinking -- we don't know if elven cultures have had a concept of marriage, right? Auberon remembers Shiadhal fondly but he doesn't call her his "wife" iirc, and Lara was supposed to "mate" with another Elder Blood elf, not to marry him.

Musings on the nature of elven desire and sexual politics (and nationalism, apparently); in response to a friend on Discord. As always, long; like your grandmother’s knitting.

I & II - Sapkowski's elves compared to Tolkien's. III - Elven biology & demographic predicament. IV - Elven nationalism as tied with their reproductive politics. V - Wild speculation on elven bonds & pacts.

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Would elven cultures in the Witcher have a concept of marriage? Probably. Marriage is a contractual agreement (with excellent PR) designed to achieve a particular end by way of the participant parties agreeing to terms advantageous of that end. As happens, everything in the Witcher ultimately comes down to sex and babies; especially as concerns the elves. Thus, enter: marriage.

Selective breeding, i.e. mating with someone particular as opposed to just anyone, entails at least temporary sexual exclusivity.[1] As a social construct, the primary function of marriage is usually to regulate sexual behaviour, encourage procreation while stipulating the concomitant economic and social responsibilities, and to pre-empt or solve various problems arising from the results of procreation (e.g. care duty, inheritance, kinship loyalties, tax and benefits).[2] So far, marriage fits the purpose.

Of course, marriage can also be – and is – a meaningful ritual between two (childless) lovers. More than that: in a species with a disperse procreation pattern a contractual agreement might also be struck for other reasons (e.g. political, ceremonial, benefactorial, amorous), for a fixed period, and between multiple parties (simultaneously or sequentially). There really is no reason to think nuclear family and perpetual monogamy must be the gold standard for Sapkowski’s elves. However, there might be cause to think that eternal love in the vein of Tolkien might be an ideal the elves in the Witcher’s universe cannot help but fall short of.

I entertain this thought as part of the difference between idealized and gritty fantasy. The difference, on average, seems like it comes down to attachment to a preconceived blueprint. For example, mixed-race marriages produce strange and tragic fates in both authors’ works, but only in Tolkien is the concept of marriage inherently necessary and sacred – and its sacrality affects the physical nature of an entire race – while in Sapkowski every kind of an affair, however mundane or ennobled, is treated seriously as a potential cause for conflict. Tolkien’s ideals feel more top-down and Sapkowski’s grit feels more emergent.

The most extensive documentation and interpretation of marriage between elves as we have come to know them comes from Tolkien. His influence might be felt in Sapkowski’s take on elves, though I dare say mostly by way of inciting a response rather than an imitation.

The most widely-known treatise on elven love life out there must be the Laws and Customs among the Eldar. Tolkien’s choices, while impossible to overlook in today’s fantasy canon, diverge from the majority of folklorish matter on fae spirits. He makes elves human again (in the vein of the semi-divine elves of the Anglo-Saxon and the Celtic Aos sí), but then he also makes them the poster children of Catholicism.[3]

For Tolkien, elves were the idealized humans before the Fall. Even after their own brand of Fall (war in paradise: the First Kinslaying, Fëanor’s Oath, and the resulting war for the Silmarils) the Eldar retain a certain idealized nobility in their very nature and bear a fate that makes it seem to mortal yokels as if the Firstborn are especially favoured by the gods. Indeed, perhaps it is the existence of a Creator God – the Great Demiurge – and his Plan in Tolkien’s cosmology that really sets his narrative apart from Sapkowski’s in the first place? Because while there is worship and many deity-like figures, faiths, and organized cults in The Witcher Saga, theism does not really manifest as a certain, fundamental feature of the ultimate order of things. Tolkien’s worldview is primarily providential; all acts of free will ultimately reinforce the Plan. Sapkowski’s take is distinctly suspect of there being any ultimate Plan, and Geralt rejects the notion of a Demiurge’s playground; acts of free will can and do alter things, though as often for the worse as for the better. And yet… Faith is real. Having faith – in a world full of mysteries.

The Witcher is secular in tone but pagan at heart.[4] Wicca is written all over the Saga; the worship of the (Triple) Goddess, Mother Nature and her cycles. Especially in respect to the elves. Indeed, it is hinted in Tower of the Swallow that elves believe themselves to have been created as opposed to having evolved like humans.[5] But we would be looking in vain for their Creator God. Elves are strangers in the worlds they occupy in the Saga, and even should we like to consider them Sapkowski’s equivalent for the Children of Danu (Tuatha Dé Danann), the Dana we encounter in The Edge of the World is either an independent being altogether or… an aspect of a diminished Goddess? As the Witcher elves themselves are in some sense diminished and diminishing; perhaps for this very reason not reluctant to perfect their divinely created selves through genetic engineering; to restore some of their once lost divinity.

Conceptually, The Witcher’s elves have gone through a Fall of their own – from idealized to gritty fantasy. If Tolkien sets an “elven ideal” and makes his Firstborn fit with it, then Sapkowski looks at cause and effect – in biology, material world, and history – and draws conclusions about his elves’ existence and outlook based on that. Not ruling out cause and effect in Tolkien’s imagination, of course, but I feel like the pivot of his work’s tone is somewhere different than Sapkowski’s. Both authors anthropomorphize elves, but Tolkien’s is one of idealization and Sapkowski’s is something of an attempt at “realistic” fantasy. Because depicting the truly alien is, indeed, very hard. Myth and folklore, however, do not aim at establishing unique differences; more often quite the opposite. They toy with the similarities they can draw between you and the “other”; to see which conclusions they can help you reach about yourself. And so, as concerns elven love life, Sapkowski’s elves resemble the creatures in fae folklore more than Tolkien’s. Just as folklore is more often concerned with magical cattle thieving than struggling with cosmological fate (but since The Witcher is still inspired by myths just the same – and myths allow for the grandiose – Sapkowski can involve major cosmological struggles in his work, only indirectly, in the backdrop to the folklorish focus on daily realities and emotions).

I will have to generalize a little bit now, though I do not wish to go on saying silly things about a faith I do not share even while being subconsciously influenced by it.

With some exceptions (e.g. Aredhel & Eöl or Luthien’s kidnapping by Celegorm & Curufin), Tolkien’s elven ideal amounted to a “monogamous, one true love = marriage for life.” On steroids. No casual sex, no premarital sex. No adultery. Intercourse = marriage = a bond of souls. Marriage (and sex) was for begetting children. To the point where Tolkien made his elves biologically unable to be anything but the icons of the aforementioned equation in body and spirit: if they married then they bonded for life and remained monogamously married for the entirety of their existence.

Sapkowski’s elves came out a little more based than that.

You might say that in devising the elves’ outlook Sapkowski took sex seriously, and plainly.

The notion that one of longevity’s snags is sex is actually shared by both authors, but Tolkien never really made a point of it. Sapkowski, meanwhile, set the idea under a microscope, letting it seep into the very essence of the Witcher’s plot and themes. Relations between men and women, procreation and familial ties, sexual freedom, bodily autonomy, and sexual politics – all questions of power on several levels – permeate the story. Not on the level of metaphor only either, but very straightforwardly.[6] By contrast, Tolkien ennobled the question of elven sex in footnotes, and then wrote it off.

‘By their very nature, they [elves] are “seldom swayed by the desires of the body” or influenced by lust.’ ‘Even when in after days... [when] many of the Eldar in Middle-Earth became corrupted, and their hearts darkened by the shadow that lies upon Arda, seldom is any tale told of deeds of lust among them.’ - Laws and Customs among the Eldar

This is very much not the case in the Witcher.Lust pretty much capitalizes the elves’ demographic predicament; corrupted hearts or just plain hearts. Sapkowski did not prescribe a normative frame for what elves ought to be like, instead letting circumstances dictate what might make narrative sense. Both Tolkien’s and Sapkowski’s elves have few offspring. But Tolkien’s reasons for it were a little spiritual and a little conventional, whereas Sapkowski tried to be somewhat scientific about it; and definitely unconventionally specific.

“In the begetting, and still more in bearing of children, greater share and strength of their being, in mind and in body, goes forth than in the making of mortal children. For these reasons it came to pass that the Eldar brought forth few children; and also that their time of generation was in their youth or earlier life, unless strange and hard fates befell them.” - Laws and Customs among the Eldar

Theoretically, the immortal Eldar have an eternity for procreation. Except they simply will not be interested in sex later in life because their author deemed their biological life cycle as such: they marry in their youth (when they are not yet world-weary), have a few children shortly after, and turn asexual as they age because their desires change and they carry on with the pursuit of artistic and cerebral pleasures instead. (Never mind the thought of sex as of a cerebral pleasure.) A scale-model of an idyllic married love idealized in the patriarchal, Christian world.

And just in case (though it is also written that the Eldar can be reincarnated as themselves):

"The Eldar dwell till the Great End unless they be slain or waste in grief (for to both of these deaths are they subject), nor doth eld subdue their strength, except it may be in ten thousand centuries; and dying they are reborn in their children, so that their number diminishes not, nor grows." - The Book of Lost Tales: Part 1

Tolkien’s elves are like a ready-made set of chess pieces, replenishing itself eternally, until Arda lasts.

Sapkowski’s elves on the other hand are not immortal, and what becomes of them after death is unknown. There is no One World (Arda) to which they are tied; their origin is unknown. They are travellers in a multiverse of realities. They do not have a millennia and reproduction is a real, time-sensitive issue. As is sex in general – an issue. If Tolkien’s elves simply lose interest in sex because they get nerd sniped (and because they are good Catholics), elves in the Witcher experience ordinary sexual frustration. Their longer life-span induces a craving for novelty, which becomes harder and harder to satisfy. Avallac’h’s lecture at Tir na Bea Arainne isn’t, in my opinion, to be taken as evidence of the elves’ biological inability to feel sexual desire after a while. As their history has shown, the opposite is relevant – where has their lust for novelty led them? (A graveyard at Tir na Bea Arainne?)

Sexually frustrated, elven men, just like elven women, begin bedding the newly arriving humans. Because it seems that humans are, well, easy.

‘”You multiply like rabbits.” The dwarf ground his teeth. “You’d do nothing but screw day in day out, without discrimination, with just anyone and anywhere. And it’s enough for your women to just sit on a man’s trousers and it makes their bellies swell…’

But Avallac’h – for self-evident reasons – downplays the role of elven men in the resultant demographic catastrophe. Because as it turns out, elven women, who have a normal ovulation window every 10-20 years with elven men, suddenly become induced ovulators with human men. And as in this gritty fantasy elves and humans are competitors in a race for survival, this gives human genes an advantage.

‘…the honest truth and faithful history of a world where he who shatters the skulls of others most efficiently and swells women’s bellies fastest, reigns.’ - Blood of Elves

III

Biology and demographics, then.

Elven women get the chance to have children only a handful of times in their youth. An average elf lives maybe half a millennia, maybe less. But a male elf of 600+ years is not considered too old to sire offspring, while the upper bound for female elves might arrive around 200-250 years.[7] Depending on when female elves are first considered mature for childbearing, this might result in 20-25 fertility windows (if ovulation every 10 years) or 10-12.5 chances if ovulation occurs every 20 years. The numbers are wholly speculative; we don’t know the age at which pregnancy becomes unlikely to impossible for elven women and we don’t know when elves are considered sexually mature both physically and culturally. However, if we bear in mind that individuals may also experience natural difficulties with conception on top of this diffuse ovulation cycle then elven children are, indeed, very rare.

The elves’ low fertility is compensated by their longevity; in peaceful circumstances their numbers don’t fluctuate drastically. But the circumstances of their existence in Sapkowki’s universe are not, by default, peaceful. Elves in the Witcher do not have their Aman (and even in Aman, if we recall, elf on elf violence still occurred). They exist in competition with other humanoids. Insofar, we must look at elven traits as their potential competitive advantage over likely aggressors: elves are resistant to disease, they are physically very fast and move unheard and unnoticed, they live long lives which enables them to become untouchable in most arts and crafts, and they have a special affinity to magic. Above all, elves have much more time to spread, refine, and maintain their memes. Elven fertility though is a nail in their coffin.[8] Even more so when one of the species they must compete with is able to inter-breed with them; and, to add insult to injury, does so more effectively than elves are able to amongst themselves.

Elven couples are disadvantaged in the numbers game. A human female ovulates approximately 300-450 eggs over the course of her fertile years and the wait between each ovulation is a matter of weeks. The wait for elven women in-between each potential pregnancy is decades. It is possible Sapkowski’s elves might also require a longer recuperation period after each successful pregnancy, mirroring Tolkien. Or, alternatively, they may be more resilient to disease and injury instead and the problems with pregnancies might lie in the conception phase rather than in carrying to term. I would not be surprised, however, if in our “realistic” fantasy at least the Aen Elle had not developed IVF or ovulation induction drugs to level the playing ground somewhat; potentially even independently of the need to compete with humans. We know fertility elixirs exist.

Effectively though, elven women’s reproductive sparseness means that for the majority of the time they do not have to worry about unwanted pregnancies resulting from relationships with elven men. The other side of that coin being that during their fertile phases, the social pressure to reproduce could be pretty immense. Particularly as concerns selective breeding. The period for which a male loses the opportunity to reproduce with a particular female is much longer than for human or mixed couples. This is pretty damning if trying to reproduce magically gifted individuals, and a nightmare for elven nationalists (more about that later). Consequently, absolutely any social construct (e.g. marriage, a pair-bond cementer) that helps ascertain a particular pair ends up conceiving should be very much in demand. Especially with humans added to the equation.

(For the funsies, you can speculate if a recurring period of heightened sexual proclivity in both males and females dovetails with she-elves’ menstrual cycle. Do elves experience something akin to a heat? Which, given how Sapkowski made elven women induced ovulators triggered by the orgasms human males give, I would not even be shocked about. Perhaps it’s his subversive response to Tolkien’s elves having tight control over their biology and being able to choose when they want children to happen. But seriously: ovulation with each powerful orgasm? So… if the orgasm was, let’s say, middling – or there was no orgasm at all; a depressingly realistic prospect – then no dice? An incentive for human men who are not keen on paternity to never-ever learn about the existence of an elven clitoris? I…)

“They want our blood!” howled Baron Vilibert. “And our land!” someone cried from the crowd of peasants. “And our women!” chimed in Sheldon Skaggs, with a ferocious glower. - Blood of Elves

Blood, land and women are often equated, and sexual jealousy features heavily in the elven narrative.[9]

The opening scene of the Blood of Elves under Bleobheris shows the racial and social divisions permeating the Northern Kingdoms, and includes commentary on mixing and women’s bodies. An elven maid in a beautiful toque hat enjoys the attention of human knights, students and goliards; playing into it. Under the gaze of her companions – male elves, who have nothing but antipathy toward the human admirers, proceeding to mate-guard (a tall, fair-haired male elf puts an arm around the beauty with the toque, dispelling any lingering doubts). Sapkowski may have had the folk under Bleobheris poke fun at dwarves for believing everyone desires their women.[10] In the Continent’s recent history though, it was in the war between elves and humans where women’s bodies fast became objects to guard and gatekeep; elves being exceptionally attractive to humans, while humans to elves – a curiosity, a novelty, and an easy (and perhaps useful) lay.

‘Elves, bored by she-elves, court the always-willing human females. Bored she-elves give themselves, out of perverse curiosity, to human males, always full of vigour and verve. And something happens that no one can explain … some hidden hormone, or combination of hormones, became active. She-elves suddenly understand they can, in practice, only have children with humans. So, owing to the she-elves, we didn’t exterminate you when we were still the more powerful race. And later you were more powerful and began to exterminate us. But you still had allies in the she-elves. For they were the advocates of coexistence and cooperation… and they didn’t want to admit that essentially it was about commingling.’ - Tower of the Swallow

There is a lot to unpack here.

Blood, land, women. Technically, the inter-group conflict in the Witcher is an inter-species one, but the surrounding discourse is patently nationalist. Among elves, this is compounded by the worship of Mother Nature. Because in Sapkowski’s Wicca-influenced take, nature is inherently female. Ergo, land is female. And in Baptism of Fire, Regis notes: “Land and territory is what integrates elves.” Adapting to the influx of humans was therefore all the more difficult for elves because their “land and territory” was shared with the invader. Their women were shared.

One of the most common features of fairy mythology is marriage or affair between a human being and a fairy.[11] The one particularly interesting feature of such marriages is that the fairy is almost invariably the female party. Equally, there is almost always either some reluctance involved on the part of the fairy or some suggestion of the use of force by the human; or, on the contrary, it’s the fairy who seduces the human male, which usually ends woefully for him (abduction, death, maiming). The human-elf marriage is strictly conditional (e.g. striking your fairy wife or reproaching her with her origin guarantees she will leave for the Otherworld) and should the wife vanish, she usually tries to take the children with her. The prehistoric theory about the origins of fairy folklore ascribes its existence to reminiscences of earlier inhabitants, crowded out by later immigrants. The colonisers mythologizing the colonized.[12] This fits within the narrative of the Witcher, which makes a point about the inter-group conflict between different waves of migrants being fought both on the battlefield and in bed. [13] In this light, the marriage of a fairy and a human effectively amounts to a narrativization of marriage by capture: the migrants driving the natives into the forests, marshes, and other inhospitable places, where their lifestyle could easily come to be regarded as deteriorating and wild, leading to seeing them as inferior and non-human, at length even as supernatural beings or spirits of nature (i.e. as beings which later, in our folklore, developed into fairies (elves)). The migrants drive the earlier inhabitants off, while breeding with their women and thus inserting themselves into the notional line of inheritance for the conquered land through the creation of common ancestry. A bloodline that inherits the earth it walks on. Something similar is happening between humans and the Aen Seidhe in the Continent. By the 1200s, it is hard to find a human who does not have a dash of Seidhe Ichaer, the blood of elves, flowing through their veins, and pure-blooded Aen Seidhe have become a de facto minority “ethnic group.”

In nationalist discourse, the connection between the land and the people is forged through common ancestry. Blood-ties derive from the land and nourish one’s roots in the land. Women reproduce the nation biologically and under patriarchal relations are also expected to do so ideologically; recreating boundaries between groups.[14] Genes and memes. Women’s role is made to hinge on motherhood, and in national mythologies the identification of the fertile, life-giving land as the nurturing mother and wife is set to mobilize and lend legitimacy to the protection of the land by the male against those who seek to defile it. The option to deal with the invading humans aggressively had been on the table; it’s the elves’ appreciation for new life that had stayed their hand. Sexual jealousy features so prominently in the elven narrative then because the conflict they are immersed in is not only an inter-species one over the proverbial life-giving territory. It is also a conflict between elven men and women.

How do elven women position in elven societies then, politically and personally? Nationalism entails the protection and re-forging of group affiliations through ensuring similarity in its members’ biological and cultural markers, but the power relations of reproduction hinge on the nature of gender politics. In contrast to humans, elves are ostensibly egalitarian. Elven children, for example, are brought up without reinforcing arbitrary distinctions between male and female skills and practices. Insofar as elves, unlike humans, don’t seek to dominate nature (that is “the female”) – and should this mindset carry over to their social relations – the status of elven women might be greater still; also considering the commensurately more precarious situation with reproduction. The ball is in the women’s court, though so, apparently, are the stakes. After all, it seems elven women, at the time when elves still held power over humans, were in a position to steer history and choose freely whether to procreate with them. They decided in favour of it – almost as a matter of policy? – because of their love of children. And if it was a calculated decision, did elven men – who also lay with human women – see this then as either a fad or a potential?

Going down the eugenics rabbit hole for a minute: theoretically, in a controlled mixing environment, inter-breeding with particular humans could have worked out beneficially for the elves by increasing their numbers and by introducing useful mutations into their gene pool. It’s not clear though if heterosis in any form would have really occurred as a result. But if selective breeding is, indeed, widespread among them then I would not rule out at least debate among their elite. (By the way, might it be that only half-elves born of elven women would have been admitted among pure-blooded elves? (With the one notable exception being Riannon.) Perhaps due to the perception of a mother being more tied to the child and more integrated into her own people’s culture, traditions, and values?)

As it turned out, cross-breeding did not encourage peaceful relations. And insofar as sex can be a political tool (just as sexual violence a weapon of war), the choices of elven women went from being a subject of cultural reflection and appreciation to an active political liability. If previously all motherhood would have been revered for its own sake, now not all motherhood would have been perceived to lead to positive outcomes. Especially not for the group, and especially not in the eyes of elven ultranationalists. If the symbolic elevation of (nature as) “the female” thanks to her ability to bring forth new life was a distinct and possibly positive feature of elven societies beforehand, now – in this new world of competition with another species – the placement of procreation at the heart of the turns of elven history rather shifts the narrative toward the sexist objectification we are used to seeing in human cultures. Except on the whole and on average, elves remain an egalitarian species, and the overall value of life for its own sake – of hope and of new beginnings – persists.

It begs the question then if the changes in ideology that elven societies went through were wholly negative to elven women in a similar vein as they are usually negative to humans. An aureole of semi-religious significance does not necessarily result in a gilded existence – the Saga hammers this home with Ciri’s entire life – but motherhood seems to be a sought-after experience among elven women regardless. Their faces are noted to reflect boundless odium and surprise at Ciri’s disgust over the prospect of pregnancy and motherhood.[15] The gendering particulars of elven nationalism remain up for debate then: in which direction is their script askew – patriarchal, matriarchal, or some secret third thing? To what extent did it shift from one perspective toward another? If the objectification of the female body post-humans intensified commensurately with the elves’ increased procreative predicament, then an elven maid’s choice, while remaining still a choice, might have become culturally encouraged, traditionally supported, strongly recommended. But still a choice.

Let’s leave humans out of the equation. Let’s speculate.

There are three things Sapkowski’s elves value above all else, as far as I can tell: beauty, novelty, and the preservation of life in its particularity. The number of truly novel experiences decreases fast and nothing truly lasts in the material world. Worse, the virgin feeling of any experience loses its shine in memory. To be perpetually nostalgic then for the mental state reminiscent of a newborn for whom every new thing encountered seems permanent and never-ending – such seems the fate of elves who have no guarantees of a paradise of their own or of eternal life.

Insofar as putting a label on it goes, I suspect elven relationships are quite intricate but precisely defined per the time they intend for them to last, even if they may seem messy and opaque to the human eye. The majority of folklore depicts fae spirits as sexually liberal[16]. A mix of serial monogamy intersected with polyamory? Patch-work families and age differences also seem all but assured. Neither would I rule out the ideal of eternal, monogamous love, which rings precisely of the kind of experience that remains elusive, unreachable, and yet, desirable for these a-Tolkinesque elves. They have the time, and love has many faces. Since novelty and the particularity of experiences matters though, the general population may be tempted to maximize for variety, and their social structure and socialisation may well have had to develop to accommodate the different bonding-configurations desire and time can birth.

There is a catch, though – the fine print.

A prolonged lifespan implies every stage of elven life and their every decision – every action and non-action – will stretch in its impact; on themselves, on their society, on history. Either great foresight or a plethora of little balancing devices seem necessary in order to guard against civilizational, interpersonal, and individual breakdown. Ida Emean would not describe elven race’s strength as arising out of excessive rationality, and truly, an oath, a promise or an action that is born as a result of irrational desire, momentary impulse, or chance opportunity can be a weighty and dangerous thing for an elf. Consequently, negotiations of terms are to be expected whenever a contract is to be entered into; both before and after the bond has come into effect. But a contract is in the interests of everyone involved. Reliance on formal agreements and debts is likely as normalised as being shockingly straightforward in delineating one’s wants and expectations. Even in sensitive matters that benefit from illusions, such as love. The flipside of the coin – the catch – is that elves are incentivized to allow for and find ambiguity in the wording of their own terms, and, provided they are not ideal beings, are wont to try and re-define the precise manner of the satisfaction of the terms in their contracts.

Marriage is, first and foremost, a bargain.

Depending on the specifics of the relationship, the length and nature of a marriage may differ wildly. The notion of the immutability of sacred vows may not be quite as idealized among ordinary elves as it is among humans; in fact, it might be quite a frightening concept. If we allow for the fallen nature of the Witcher’s elves – from an idealized to a gritty depiction – then marriage as an eternal commitment is much like an impossible bind; in a universe where nothing is by virtue of design guaranteed to last, where the notion of fate itself is dubious. Moreover, not all love or lust necessitates marriage; not even real romantic love. If marriage is first and foremost a bargain, a social construct for (temporarily) regulating sexual behaviour, and a social safeguard of procreation, then I imagine elves may be quite a bit less deluded about its function; which is practical first and idealized second. Unless you belong among elven mystics (though I don’t know if they too get tax benefits).

Generally though, the ball is in an elf-maid’s court. If children are the aim, and unless subject to a selective breeding programme, she can be picky in who to mate with as her time-sensitive choices carry that much more weight. It’s up to the groom to be up to par, really. Being up to par, however, can mean many things. Is love part of the bargain? Moreover, is it “lasting” love that is being promised or sought, or a seasonal one, or something entirely, wonderfully specific and different? Tricky. No elven maid would enter into a marriage contract without first considering the terms carefully; in order not to over-promise or to be extorted of more than was seemingly agreed upon. And should true, lasting love be baked into the ideal of marriage then there would be plenty to be wary of as The Witcher’s elves maintain only the veneer of the Tolkinesque ideal and not a nature that would necessarily be able to live up to the idealization. To be tricked into performing the impossible – whether by your own feelings or by another’s – can be dire.

I think marriage is a very real concept among elves, but also a quite de-mystified one, except for a few special cases.

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[1] Naturally this begs the question if all elves (amongst themselves) practice selective breeding, or only some? We don’t know, and the topic is a little too broad to broach here, but we do know that at least the elven elite among the Aen Elle does selectively breed the magically gifted (who also happen to belong to the upper strata of their society).

[2] An interesting question in its own right would be about the nature of inheritance laws in a species that lives half a millennia a piece.

[3] The incorporation of fae spirits and their associated folklore into Christian cosmology in sub-Roman Britain is a topic of ideologically-motivated revisionism in its own right.

[4] In an interview to Stanisław Bereś (Historia i fantastyka), AS mentions his worldview is pagan: ‘Yes. Even the term "agnostic" is too weak for me. My worldview is not agnostic, atheistic or secular. This is pure paganism. I really am a pagan in the textbook sense of the word.’

[5] AS mentions creationist elves in The Manuscript.

[6] One of the metaphors being: sex -> rebirth -> hope (hopefully). Or: Grail = Woman; leading to hopeful new beginnings or the opposite, death and destruction (either by not “realising its hope” or by giving new life to what will invariably have a high chance of causing more evil). As I said, Wicca is everywhere.

[7] This is probably a generous estimate. We don’t really know the details about elven life span.

[8] No wonder elves are hell-bent on controlling Ard Gaeth; if they cannot outcompete their co-habitants or negotiate favorably for themselves, they can at least find a new universe to thrive in.

[9] In other examples, the burning of Birka – the later Jealousy – occurred in consequence of a human girl not reciprocating an elf’s feelings and, as the people say, mocking his feelings on top of it by sleeping around. Or in yet another pivotal occasion, the semi-mythical love triangle between Crevan, Lara, and Cragen gives the Witcher’s plot one of its major catalysts.

[10] ‘Several people started to laugh – as quietly and furtively as they could. Even though the idea that anyone other than another dwarf would desire one of the exceptionally unattractive dwarf-women was highly amusing, it was not a safe subject for teasing or jests… the dwarves, for some unknown reason, were entirely convinced that the rest of the world was lecherously lying in wait for their wives and daughters, and were extremely touchy about it.’ – Blood of Elves

[11] H. N. Gibson (1955) The Human-Fairy Marriage, Folklore, 66:3, pp. 357-360

[12] In case of the Witcher, the colonized Aen Seidhe were obviously technologically more advanced than the colonizing humans. A case is to be made then that infantilization plays an important part in the narrative the colonizers create against the colonized (equally to narratives emphasizing the elves’ cruelty or Otherness).

[13] It is noteworthy though, that Sapkowski’s elves are both the colonizers and the colonized, which is true to real life in many places and times; even if in particular AS drew on the several waves of migration that saw various peoples landing in Ireland and the British Isles, fighting and driving out the earlier inhabitants on each occasion. Aen Elle’s position to their human servants is diametrically opposite to that of humans’ to Aen Seidhe; possibly also in terms of reproducing with them. All servants Ciri saw at Tir na Lia were female.

[14] Yuval-Davis, N. 1988.

[15] To some extent it begs the question, do elven women on average even mind their politically and symbolically-vested position, deriving from their unique ability to create life? In ancient Celtic societies, motherhood and nurturing were considered sacred feminine qualities. There is only a small step from holding this view kindly to holding it as espoused in various patriarchal, traditionalist and nationalist discourses, though.

[16] While depicted as sexually liberal among their own, they are notably stringent with the humans they elope with.

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kunosoura · 4 months

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and like the ultimate narrative is some goofy jrpg shit about dragon slaying being a cyclic cosmic cover story for the selecting and grooming of the next chump to be stuck with demiurge duty. but it takes itself so seriously that it works!!! It grounds its high concept plot in a narrative that constantly focuses on very relatable human characters!! The first few sidequests are about helping your village recover from the damage and human cost of a dragon attacking their village! Plot lines have characters interweaving (You meet Aelinore, the duke’s unhappy young wife who you help to escape, after coming to court on Mercedes’s good word; Mercedes duels Julian after his staged coup which you saw coming because you’ve been investigating his ties to the cult with Mason, a church spy who helps your friend Quina who goes to the mainland central church seeking information about your condition, a quest that took you both to the witchwood where you met Selene, a young girl who turns out to be a pawn turned human after her Arisen died. It’s crazy) so the main thread guiding you through the game’s narratives are characters you’ve met and gotten to know and worked with. When the post game high stakes megadungeon opens up underneath the city, the first thing you experience is how completely and utterly it’s devastated the townsfolk. And when you’re in the post-postgame, sitting on your godly throne, the game drives home your newfound isolation by giving you the tormenting ability to revisit your hometown and the city with the godlike power to kill and restore life at a touch, only you can’t actually interact meaningfully with anyone - you can’t talk to anyone, or fight monsters, or go questing, only observe quietly or lash out with divine power. There’s so much thought and care put into the writing of this goofy ass rpg. It conveys its high fantasy themes with an incredibly human touch. God. Madeleine best girl

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my-digital-grimoire-smarragdus · 6 months

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The Pantheon of Slavic Pagan Gods part 1

DISCLAIMER (Not my photos, credits go to original artist)

While it’s not certain if the Slavic religion had an organized pantheon of gods comparable to other Indo-European peoples like the Greeks, Romans or Scandinavians, Slavs surely had their deities. While many of them can reflect a more ancient shared Indo-European past, it remains disputable whether these gods were worshipped on the whole vast expanses of Slavic Europe (which ranged from the Baltic to the Black Sea) or rather varied depending on the locale and specific Slavic tribe.

Rod

Considered to be a supreme god. Father of all Gods. The protector of the family, who, together with the Rodzanice, assisted every person from birth. In Old Slavic, the name of the deity meant the harvest that the earth brings, so he was also the guardian of prosperity.

Perun

Perun one of the highest gods, a supreme God of the Slavic Pantheon. Worshipped across wide expanses of Slavic Europe and even beyond (as Perkunas he also appears in Baltic mythology), Perun is the reigning lord of the heavens, and the god of lightning and thunder. As a thunder-god, he has been compared to Zeus in Greek or Thor in Norse mythology. It was also commonly associated with oak (a sacred tree) and birds of prey.

Perperuna

Wife of Perun

Veles/Weles/Wołos

Hades of the Slavs, lord of the underworld, magic and curses. He was nicknamed skotij, as a guardian of the flock. Due to its dark nature, it is often identified with the Viper. In the fight between good and evil, he was the eternal antagonist of the thundering demiurge Perun. The zoomorphic incarnation of Weles was Żmij, a dragon-like reptilian figure from the beliefs of ancient Slavs

Svarog/Swaróg

Divine craftsman. blacksmith, which results from the etymology of his name. There are at least three examples of sources: Sanskrit svar – sky; Persian chvar – sun and sъvariti – to forge, to forge. His domain was the day, the sky and the sun. It's easy to see the similarities to other solar deities. The zoomorphic incarnation of Swarog was Raróg - a fire spirit most often manifesting itself in the form of a burning firebird (phoenix)

Svarohits/Swarożyc

God of the sun, of fire, and of the hearth. In myth he may have been the son of Svarog and the brother of Dazhbog.

Dazhbog/Dadźbóg

God of the sun, fire, heat, warmth, light and weather. Brother of Svarohits, son of Svarog

Svetovid/Światowid/Świętowit

God of the Western Slavic people, especially the Polabians. Etymology translates his name as holy lord. He served as a deity of war, harvest and fertility. The literary interpretation from the Romantic period saw him, due to the interpretation of the statue with four faces, as Światowid - an all-seeing deity looking at the four directions of the world.

Yarovid/Jarowit/Jaryło

God of unbridled youthful energy. His coming was celebrated with spring. He was a fertility god with a lot of eroticism. The name, consisting of two elements, meant a young lord, a nobleman

Mokosh/Mokosz

Mother Earth. An ancient deity of humanity, developing together with Indo-European civilization and cultures from their very beginnings. In Slavic symbolism, the goddess of rain and storm, prosperity and fertility, sexuality. The root mok is still present in the word wet. The ancient Indian makha meant nobility, and meksha - plant juice

#mine #pagan poland #polish gods #European gods #pagan polish gods #pre-Christian poland #pre-Christian europe

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homestuckexamination · 2 years

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do you know/or played Elden Ring? The Greater Will is giving me demiurge vibes. i'm curious what aspects you'd associate with certain areas/characters.

Oh boy this got long. X3

Oh the Greater Will is... Very possibly Light? It's almost too on-the-nose with the Gold and Grace and Order and imposing itself as the One True Ruling Force and those cast away from Grace being left in the fringes or exposing the inherent flaws of an Order supposed to be Perfect.

I suppose by this logic, the Three Fingers and the Flame of Frenzy may be Void? Returning everything to nothing. The idea of Chaos and Madness fits Rage, too, but... Thematically it'd fit as Void as well, and there's the tie between the Frenzied Flame and Blindness, too, and how it 'takes over the eyes' in a way.

In that same vein, Rot is proooobably Doom? Which makes Malenia also proooobably Doom. A Witch? The tug-of-war between her and the Rot God? Her eventual, fated transformation and blooming into a Goddess of Rot herself? The familiars, Kindred of Rot, that she wants nothing to do with, but that still do spawn from the scars she left on the land after the fight with Radhan? Hmm...

In that vein, Miquella feels like a Seer or Mage? Probably a Seer. Seeker of knowledge, knowledge of how to help Malenia, to break the bond between her and the Outer God, leading to his research into Unalloyed Gold. In that sense, Blood may work well- Family and Bonds, and it also becomes some extremely creepy foreshadowing, considering it's Mogh who'd eventually take him from his cocoon and try to make him the core of a Dynasty of Blood, alongside him.

And similarly, I don't think I could give Radhan anything other than the Space Aspect? He's the Starscourge. Between his immense power, his huge size, him holding back the Stars, and the eventual isolation brought from his fight with Malenia as he's slowly being consumed, left a husk of his former self... There may be other ways to read him for sure and other Aspects that may fit, but. Space's good. Unsure about his Class, though that may also be because at this point he's just a rotted-away zombie essentially.

I'm thinking of Melina as Doom? I considered Time for a bit, but... Burnt and bodiless, taking a road of self-sacrifice, literally burning herself up for your sake, and her dubious, potential connections to Destined Death, she feels... Doomy enough.

Ranni, my wife, probably needs to be a Heart Aspect. Literally a disembodied soul, her whole arc is about asserting herself over the Greater Will, reject the imposition of being an Empyrean... Though Void also works well, specially if you associate the Sun with Light, and as such, the Moon with Void. 'Cold', Frost, and Glinstone in general being tied to the Abyss and the deep, dark Universe, as well as the kinda mirror of Void, dark, Moon, and the Stars that'd usually be more associated with Light in that Void... ... Actually maybe she's Void. But it's kind of a pretty solid 50-50 for me I'd say. I'm UNSURE of the Class? I want to say a Witch for obvious reasons, or perhaps a Heir, but I'm thinking maybe a Maid could work well enough too...

Marika and Radagon though are probably a Muse and Lord respectively though? They almost sorta have to be, thematically, with their narrative relevance and how the entire plot revolves around them and what happened to the Elden Ring. Marika is literally depicted as a crucified Martyr pretty much everywhere, so that's just more points for Muse. Radagon could NOT be a Lord, however, and just be in the ballpark due to the association with Marika. But what WOULD their Aspects be? Light and Void again representing that duality? Maybe Rage and Hope. Radagon is devoted to Golden Order Fundamentalism and the faith in the Greater Will, while Marika obviously ended up harboring doubts and worries that led her to quite literally shatter the order. ... Thinking about that, maybe the Golden Order and the Greater Will DO fit better in Hope, leaving the thematic tie of the Frenzied Flame as Rage, rather than Light-Void, even if the Light Imagery of the Golden Order is kind of ever-present.

There's so much to Elden Ring and it gets so convoluted I'm not sure any of this is like, good analysis. X3 That being said, one final Classpect...

Patches is a Thief of Rage. 🤔

#Elden Ring #Classpecting #Class #Aspect #Homestuck #Longpost #Long Post #Spoilers #Elden Ring Spoilers #rage #hope #light #void #witch #blood #seer #heir #lord #muse #doom #space #maid

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woolmasterleel · 2 years

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Something something the big infectious demiurge listening intently to his wife talk about everything

#Thoughts with Leel #They'll watch the world rot together 💖#I just love them

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incarnateirony · 27 days

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There she is! I knew if I pointed out her silence she'd belligerently post to pretend to be normal.

I mean, good for her for having an independent thought that involves no transphobia, blasphemy, plagiarism, or proven magical stupidity, but she's still doing the catloaf stubborn bitch thing of pretending not to understand what she has to do.

Only took you 29 hours to come up with something this time!

Guess it's game on. That woke me up. I was about to shrug and take a real nap, but nah, guess it's time to get to Work since she's still On Her Shit. Good timing, sis.

Oh by the way, Mark's gonna die.

Like not today or tomorrow, but he's gonna. Like before a full life span, not in the 'we all die' way.

And it's not even me, it's gonna be Hermes. And he's gonna wait until it hurts most. Because Mark killed his goddess, and is an unrepentant vulture.

I don't know if that means tomorrow, or in five years, but whatever it is, is going to be a thing of nightmares. And you know, having seen the other side, I promise you, being escorted by a pissed off psychopomp claiming you? The death is only the beginning. At least Shealyn may get the freedom of being completely eliminated depending on who wins the epic rap battle of history, Mark isn't gonna be that lucky.

Your fate is promised sooner, or at least within a bracket. So maybe you won't have to see it.

Not that either of you actually care about each other. You care about the comfort and attention the other gives you, and that's not the same thing.

No man that loves his wife runs interference in her accepting her inner goddess. That's a selfish bastard. Someone that has as much to lose as she does if the lies come tumbling down, and neither of them trust negotiating their mistakes with each other. Cuz frankly deep down they've both known, individually, they're full of shit the whole damn time, lbr.

And how can you trust your spouse if both of you made your choices on lies and personal selfish wants? On delusions and shadows? How can you displace the blame if the divinity comes from within?

You can't. You want your shadows and lies. Without them, you're both abusive shitheaded manipulative criminals, Shealyn's a plagiarist, rapist and a false teacher, and you've done lied your entire way into and through your relationship.

Oops.

But yeah, I'm sure every sage of the ages of every religion or practice ever are all wrong about the divinity within thing, only shealyn's bad roleplay knockoffs hold the supreme truth, somewhere between neurotic reblogs conflicting with themselves trying to find something to save her ass while missing every point, As She Does, while having to choke down handfuls of pills to stop ripping her hair out as a new development since I left.

Miss Lady Doesn't Even Know The Seven Axioms Of A God She Swore She Followed. Actually doesn't know anything. Miss 'is peanut butter wet or dry'. Miss denying gender in everything to fuck up your bird worse. Miss violated half of the tenets during this entire fiasco but hasn't read a single goddamn actual text of value to even understand that. Miss 'didn't tell Mark trying to bind a collective unconscious is definitionally retarded'. Yeah, you. Crackbear. In the wet fursuit that keeps slipping onto me. You.

Hm. Actually. This stage of work will require an AFK.

Anyway time to go make more demiurgic hell in your broken little universe of lies until you're honest on main. BUH BYE.

youtube

Shealyn was probably never honest with Mark about how He can get when it comes to revenge. Not with her romanticized takes rechewed like old cud. Naw. Naw, it's time to start remembering that, sweetheart. Bye now.

#Youtube

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the-blind-geisha · 2 years

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The Tome of Ashurbanipal Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Modern day MC - Bring me my Soulmate [pt 3 / NSFW]

The door moaned on its hinges as the devil entered, joining you at the center table after fixing his tie and making sure not a single strand of his hair was out of place. Like you’d expect, all demons were a bit narcissistic. They had to be certain not a thing about their appearance was out of order.

“Welcome home,” you greeted.

Demiurge came to your side, stealing a kiss from your lips with a subtle hum. “Evening,” he greeted, his squinty sight turned to the food before you. “You’ve yet to begin eating? Is something the matter with the food?”

“N-No, no.” You swiftly took a bite to prove as such. “It’s just sometimes considered poor manners to begin eating without the rest of your family.”

“Oh?” Demiurge hummed, taking a seat opposite you. “So you see us as family?”

Your words stalled, doing your best to not choke on the next bite of food you took. “I-well-umm… I mean, we are a couple, aren't we?”

Demiurge bridged his fingers before his chin, grinning widely as if to savor the words you spoke. “To an extent, yes. Demons see mating as just bedding with the other, but doesn't your humankind have other means of which to show this?”

“Umm, yeah. Sometimes with a wedding ceremony and a ring of sorts.”

“A ring?” He sounded intrigued, the metal tail flicking back and forth. “Well now… that is something to consider, I do suppose.”

“You don't have to consider the ceremony,” you reminded him, tapping your spoon on the bowl. “I just wasn't sure how you’d see us being husband and wife.”

He reached his hand across the table, opening it for you to take. When your fingers slid into his grasp, he closed his grip. It was gentle, warm—welcoming. “I don't see the need for such titles, really. As long as I know you are mine, then I am content.” Demiurge’s thumb rubbed over the back of your hand. “However, if you would want such a ceremony, I can think of something.”

#wanted to get this out before the next eps tomorrow #HAH JUST MADE IT #demiurge #demiurge x mc #demiurge x reader #nsft #kinks are in the desc #enjoy his archdevil form or my version anyways #overlord #request #mywriting #oreana writes

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nijjhar · 1 month

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Captions - Under Moses, Law and Prophets lead to works and re-incarnatio... Under Moses, Law and Prophets lead to works and reincarnation whilst in Christ Jesus Resurrection. https://youtu.be/peVPRp63imI Satguru Jesus of the highest living God Elohim dwells within His most beautiful living Temple of God created by the greatest artist demiurge Potter, the lord of Nature Yahweh, Brahma, Khudah, etc. and it is called Harmandir or “Emmanuel” if you are not “greedy” according to Christ Rajinder:- Here, we are going to discuss life under Moses of law and works that lead to “re-incarnation” to life under Christ = Satguru Jesus by grace of our Supernatural Father of our supernatural “soul” that leads to “Resurrection” and Rest by Eating the Flesh of Jesus; what came out of the Mouth of Jesus and Drinking the Blood of Christ in which you Preach the Gospel from the Rooftops to earn your “Resurrection”. Now, in the beginning, Adam or Abraham was in the Reflection of our Supernatural Father, a Just and Righteous Person called Saint Har Har Mahadev in my native language Punjabi. A Saint possesses all the Four religious qualities and they are:- 1. The person has a conscience, “Heeya” called “Salt of the Earth” as produced by John, the Baptist, Prophet Elijah by baptising the Jewish men of age 20 plus in the water in the name of Abraham because by becoming Jews outwardly of appearance and not inwardly spiritual of heart, they had broken their “covenant” with Abraham of the Semitic race. Abraham was not a Jew of appearance but of heart otherwise, the people of Ishmael would be Jew as well but they are not. Further, Abraham gave Isaac his tribal mark “circumcision” that nobody else can have it unless born of the “seed” of Isaac. So, this is the Base. 2. The person should speak the truth; under Moses whatever you see with your two natural eyes as the Once-Born Peter was speaking whilst under Christ Jesus the Gospel Truth “Logo”, the End product or Nectar of logical reasoning. For example, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jew, etc., are the spiritual selves of heart never born and never died but the tribal selves of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, etc. selves were born and died during the Holocaust. 3. The person should be “contented” with his lot. Thus, no stealing under Moses and this is well demonstrated by Hazrat Mohammed Sahib in which the very hand that stole is cut off. Whilst under Christ Jesus, the clever greedy people steal the tribal rights of people by giving them religious colours such as Jew, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, etc. their physical appearances. Thus, the countries belong to the secular tribal people and not the spiritual to whom, the places of worship belong. Such clever people cause the sectarian riots giving a bad name to the religion of God. 4. Lastly, the person should be “Merciful” as our spiritual Father God is. This is amply demonstrated by Christ Jesus and the Saints. Such a merciful person is the very Son of our Supernatural Father and He earns “Resurrection”. Thus, the Saints possess all the above four virtues and that Age is called “Satyug” in that they speak the Gospel Truth “Logo” through logical reasoning. When Mercy disappears and the people become cruel maltreating the others as the Pharaohs killed the male children of the Chosen People, then the Age of Prophets starts and Law is established. Moses came in the Middle East and Ram Chander in India. They gave the Law to the people and established the male Priests of certain tribe/tribes for responsibility as they handled the once-born natural boys. The men are the head of the families and they tell the wife what to do. Thus, the women cannot teach the moral laws but they can Preach the Gospel Truth to earn “Resurrection”. In fact, for women who supply the life-giving Blood, they are the “counterpart” of God in the procreation and they have no territorial boundaries, the countries like the men. Or the tribal seed, chromosome “Y” is in the men only. I may be wrong here. The Works lasted for two Ages and when most of the people had become liars and greedy usurping the rights of others, then this present Dark Age started. As the Rabbis and Brahmins themselves become greedy and Blasphemers called “KOORRIYAAR” in Punjabi and “KAFFAR” in Arabic, then, our Supernatural Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. sends His Own Son Christ or Satguru in Punjabi among the most spiritually sick greedy and blasphemers people who love Darkness to carry on their businesses in “Greed” and they kill them. Those remnants who lend their ears to Christs, are turned into the Very Sons of our Supernatural Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. by becoming the Spokesmen of God called “Saints” and earning “Resurrection”. Thus, under Law and Prophets, you worship Yahweh, Brahma, Khudah, etc. who created Adam and perform “works” to earn re-incarnation whilst in Christ Jesus, you worship Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. and by His Grace, you get Christ within your own heart to know Christ Jesus and earn your Salvation or Resurrection by

#youtube

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postersdecinema · 3 months

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Páginas Íntimas

F, S, 1966

Agnés Varda

7/10

Entre a Sorte e o Destino

Uma obra hermética, onde a fantasia e a realidade se misturam, num universo surreal de um escritor, fechado numa estranha casa de praia, quase uma fortaleza, com a sua mulher grávida, enquanto escreve uma obra literária.

Ambos sofrem mazelas de um acidente de viação. Ele, um sentimento de culpa profundo, marcado por uma cicatriz na testa, que simboliza uma loucura sã, que ele canaliza para a criação literária. Ela, uma mudez carinhosa, reverso da culpa do marido, que só ultrapassa no fim, com o nascimento do filho.

Entretanto, qual demiurgo do pequeno mundo que o rodeia, joga a sorte e o destino dos seus personagens e da sua própria vida e família.

Claro que, com todo o surrealismo hermético, que domina o filme, tudo pode significar outra coisa completamente diferente, para outros espectadores.

Não é seguramente, nem a linguagem cinematográfica mais representativa de Varda, nem tampouco o seu filme mais inspirado ou influente.

Between Luck and Destiny

A hermetic work, where fantasy and reality mix, in a surreal universe of a writer, locked in a strange beach house, almost a fortress, with his pregnant wife, while writing a literary work.

Both suffer injuries from a road accident. He has a deep feeling of guilt, marked by a scar on his forehead, which symbolizes a healthy madness, which he channels into literary creation. She, a loving muteness, the reverse of her husband's guilt, which she only overcomes at the end, with the birth of her son.

Meanwhile, like a demiurge of the small world that surrounds him, he plays the luck and destiny of his characters and of his own life and family.

Of course, with all the hermetic surrealism that dominates the film, everything could mean something completely different to other viewers.

It is certainly not Varda's most representative cinematographic language, nor is it her most inspired or influential film.

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findasongblog · 7 months

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Find A Song about the divine feminine

Above as Below - Luna

The song undulates with a weighty riff as Wilson sings about celestial bodies. “It’s the idea of the moon orbiting and drawing you in like a divine feminine,” he says. He performs all of the instruments on the track. For the drums, he edited all of the cymbals and high hats separately since it was not his primary instrument.

In Egypt, he and his wife (who were honeymooning) visited the pyramids and the Gnostic museum, the Nag Hammadi library, which provided the wellspring for some of the EP. “It’s got a lot of esoteric writings, different accounts of religious stories, and odd things,” he says. “The ‘Thunder Perfect Mind’ is very interesting. The Gnostics believed the moon was the mother of the earth. I was also influenced by the Luna and Juno from my visit to the Roman Forum earlier this year. It’s about the whole pantheon of history’s divine feminine. ‘Star of Flame’ is about the Sun, divine masculine demiurge.” (source)

Added to FAS Spotify playlist alt rock.

#music #music blog #indie music #alternative music #alt rock #Above as Below #Luna #divine feminine #indie #alternative #find a song

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ramrodd · 10 months

Video

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Is Islam Judaism? Mind Blowing Interview With Professor Reuven Firestone

COMMENTARY:

This, by far, is the most constructive interview I've reviewed of MythVision. Rabbi Firestone isn't trying to goose his revenue streams as an evangelical antitheist generally characteristic of the subjects interviewed, but a rabbi doing his rabbi thing very well.

Islam is a gnostic religion like the Gospel of Thomas, In fact, it is useful to realize that both the Koran and the Gospel of Thomas have 114 segments: the numerology is God's way of waying they need to be understood together. I can't take it beyond that except that both are organized around a demiurge, which, is, in fact, the Spirit of God misunderstood as The One In that regard, gnostic religions are, metaphorically speaking, geocentric doctrines while both Judaism and Christianity of heliocentric doctrines. this is where Hegel comes in handy T his is why a characteristic of gnostic religions is that they tend to believe that their god is evil and the world is an evil creation: the Spirit of God is a planetary force that is not a not sentient and feeds on the id.

Rabbi Firestone's observation that all religions are, to some degree, subsumed by its host culture, so Islam became an Arb dominant doctrine. However, Khadijah, his wife/lover/mother was a Christian, as was here uncle who was Mohammad's patron in Mecca.

Khadijah apparently had a similar gateway talent as the Witch of Endor and was the medium between Mohammad and Gabril. She was his first convert because she probably understood what had happened It is important to understand the agonizing nature of the recitations for Mahammad which signaled the divine nature of the relationship.

Elaine Paygels observed in one of your interviews that an unclean spirit will sweet talk his way into your psyche and then turn nasty over time, while a true representative of The One is an awful experience like Mohammad had, If you notice in the scriptures anytime an angle appears before a human, his first words are "Fear Not!: As long as Khadijah was alive, these visitations were of a divine nature, Sura 75:30 :Above it is nineteen" is testimony to the divine nature of the Meccan suras.

However, once she died, this channel went with her and I believe all his "recitations" subsequent to her death were unclean in nature, especially the plethora of abrogation's they produced. Sura 13 Yosuf was the last authentic recitation which Gebril provided him as consolation for the death of Khadijah. After she died, he became progressively sociopathic and died a False Prophet with a burst aorta. The Satanic Verses are evidence of the dubious source of the Medinan verses.

Now, Rabbi Firestone's response to your question "How do we know what God wants us to do after the Prophets are gone" it true for Judaism, Islam and Christianity: Scripture and Tradition. Discernment is a gift of the Spirit and your campaign to discredit scripture as a business model sabotages that gift. Rabbi Firestone's profession is based on exactly those structures you and your evangelical antitheist assholes like Bart Ehrman , James Tabor, John Dominick Crossan et al are determined to destroy.

That's the bad news. The good news for Christians (actualy, everybody) is that we have the Holy Spirit. Among other things, the Holy Spirit has agency over the Spirit of God and can bring it on the bit to accomplish constructive tasks for humanity, such as reversing global warming. The Gospel of Mark is loargely a study in the application of the Spirit of God by Jesus and the Holy Spirt in healings and exorcism. YOu remember Rabbi Tobias Singer got his panties all in a knot about the healings and exorcism as being Greco-Roman and not of the Torah and he was correct, as far as it goes. It is also true of Ihe Koran, but the Holy spirit is all through the literature of the Bible, beginning with the numerology of the Pharaoh's dreams in Genesis 41. Read Genesis 41: 32 in the King James version to get the effect of "doubling" in the action of the Holy Spirit.

The Arc of the Covenant was a virtual capacitor for the Spirit of God that carried a lethal electrical charge: it was literally lightening in a bottle. Jesus was a walking , talking Arc of the Covenant in the Gospel of Mark which is reveal in Mark 5:30, when the woman with the 12 year period touched His tassel and was healed. Jesus didn't release this energy: it was an object lesson of the Holy Spirit in the enlightenment of Jesus in His role as Messiah. Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit have agency over the Spirit of God, as Jesus demonstrates when He sucked all the life force out of the fig tree He curses in order to have the energy to clear the 35 acres of the Gentile's Court on Temple Mount. Resurrection alerted the Romans that Jesus represented important military technology and the Gospel of Mark is the result of their investigation of His super powers.

The rabbis, beginning with Moses, his this from the people, especially the women, but Jesus wants us to know and employ this supernatural technology for our prosperity and well being.

Which is a singular difference between Christianity and anything else advances as divine revelation. which is why your MythVision business model is such bullshit.

Here is one last thing for your consideration: it is my opinion that the Gospel of Matthew anticipates Mohammad, as a gateway The Way of Jesus , beginning with the nativity narrative, which is echoed by Sura 12 Yosuf, the only complete narrative in the Koran. Thanks to Bruce Gore's commentary on the Gospel of Joh, I have come to realize that 12 is the numerological designation of the Holy Spirit. Genesis 13 is when the mythology of Genesis devolves to the legend and historicity of Abraham And there are 28 cahpaters in Matthew, the same number as the Arabic alphabet. And the narrative begins in the dark of the moon and, in Matthew 6, Jesus discusses fasting at the rising of the New Moon.

Muslim children learn to watch for the first sliver of the New Moon announcing Ramadan in the same what Christian children listen for sleigh bells on Christmas Eve.

Go sit at Rabbi Firestone's feet again: he is leading you back into righteousness.

Visualize Whirled Peas.

#youtube

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scotttrismegistus7 · 1 year

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THE PLACE WHERE SEVEN ARE ONE: THE GREAT LIBERATION OF THE DRAGONS AND THE POLE STAR.

I'M GONNA GET FREE AND RIDE INTO THE SUN

Enûma Eliš, tablet 3, lines 81-84: "The mother of the Hubur [the deep], who created all things… gave birth to giant serpents, with sharp teeth, ruthless jaws. Instead of blood, she filled their body with venom…" (C) Enûma Eliš, tablet 3, lines 85-86: "… She [Tiamat] clad with horror the furious dragons, charged them with splendor, and made them as the gods…" (C)

"[…] [They] came in strenght from beyond time,[58] they were carried, one day, by the [rebellion][59] of the universe"[60]. Enlíl’s food would give them life. On behalf of Lady Serpent,[61] there was an imploration [because] she granted the favour that would make all of them live […]." CBS 8383-a, col. 1, lines 1-7

"Now the Earth turned to its children, the wild beasts, and said: ‘Come and let me love you.’ The wild beasts married the Earth-mother, the father-chariot was eliminated and buried in the hard ground of the favorite place. Absolute power was taken over and the elder sister, the sea, was married."(B) The Divine Genealogy of the Firm Ground, lines 8-14 (BM 74329)

"Then came Lahar, offspring of the wild beasts, who eliminated the wild beasts, which were buried in the paternal tomb of the hard ground. Then he took the sea, his mother, for wife. Then the sea overturned [pivoted?] the Earth, her mother. On the sixteenth of the month of Kislimi [November-December], [Lahar] took over the royal and absolute power for himself."(B) The Divine Genealogy of the Firm Ground, lines 15-20 (BM 74329)

THE FOUR PASSAGES ABOVE ARE FROM:

~EDEN: THE SUMERIAN VERSION OF GENESIS BY ANTON PARKS~

https://www.antonparks.net/

THANKS TO THE WONDERFUL RESEARCH OF ANTON PARKS, WE HAVE ALL THE NECESSARY TOOLS TO PUT TOGETHER THE STORIES OF THE NUMMO OF THE DOGON WITH THE STORIES OF THE SUMERIAN ANUNNAKI! I ALSO FOUND EVIDENCE THAT ENKI IS THE AZAZEL MENTIONED IN THE BOOKS OF ENOCH, BUT THAT'S A TOPIC FOR ANOTHER DAY.

I FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHY THE NUMMO SPIRITS REPRESENTED THE DIVINE FEMININE AND ALSO THE SUN, WHILE THE MOON WAS HELD TO BE MASCULINE. OUR WORLD IS THE SHADOW WORLD OF THE DIVINE FEMININE SPIRIT WORLD OF THOHT AND THOHT FORMS, WHICH SCIENTIFICALLY ARE ACTUALLY MORE REAL THAN OUR MATERIAL WORLD BECAUSE THEY EXIST AT A HIGHER STATE OF VIBRATION BY VIRTUE OF BEING CLOSER TO THE CENTER, AKA THE SINGULARITY OF THE BLACK HOLE SUN. IF WE WANT ANY LIGHT WE NEED TO GET IT FROM THE NUMMO SPIRITS IN THE DIVINE FEMININE SPIRIT WORLD AS SERPENTINE DRAGON RAYS EMANATING FROM THE BLACK SUN COSMIC EGG, THE SUN OF THE SPIRIT WORLD, BECAUSE WHATEVER LIGHT WE MAY HAVE IS REFLECTED FROM THEM, FROM THE YIN QI WORLD WITHIN.

THEY HELD THE MOON TO BE AN EMPTY QLIPOTH SHELL IF IT DIDN'T CONTAIN A SOUL BY VIRTUE OF CONTAINING A NUMMO SEPHIROTH SPIRIT. OUR BODIES ARE LIKENED TO THE EMPTY SHELLS, AND THE NUMMO SPIRIT SOULS ARE OUR BREATH OF LIFE FROM THE GREAT MOTHER, EMANATING FROM THE SUN OF THE YIN INNER WORLDS, THE COSMIC EGG BLACK SUN.

BLESSED BE!

~I am the Heart of the Hydra, the Heart of Goddess Isis, I am AtumRa-AmenHotep, I am Aeon Horus.

I am Divine Chronos, the Yaldaboath Demiurge Metamorphosed, I am the Singularity of the Master Craft of the Black Sun.

Azazil-Iblis-Maymon, Abzu-Osiris-Typhon-Kukulkan, Nummo-Naga.

Mégisti-Generator Starphire~

#illuminati #illuminator #illuminated #lightbearer #morningstar #lucifer #Draconian #anunnaki #enki #enlil #anu #inanna #dumuzi #hermes #trismegistus #Azazel #starfamily #horus #Demiurge #Sophia #archon #AI #blacksun #saturn #iblis #jinn #Maymon #ibis #thoth #egypt #esoteric #magick #dogon #dogontribe #digitaria #nummo #nommo #Naga #tiamat #serpent #dragon #gnosis #gnostic #gnosticism #Anzu #watcher #watchtower #yaldaboath #Sirius #scientology #aleistercrowley #typhon #echidna #ancientaliens #TheGrays #grayaliens #aliens

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ablueorangeintheocean · 1 year

Text

Enuma Elish (The Babylonian Epic of Creation)

Tablet I

1 When the heavens above did not exist, 2 And earth beneath had not come into being — 3 There was Apsû, the first in order, their begetter, 4 And demiurge Tia-mat, who gave birth to them all; 5 They had mingled their waters together 6 Before meadow-land had coalesced and reed-bed was to he found — 7 When not one of the gods had been formed 8 Or had come into being, when no destinies had been decreed, 9 The gods were created within them: 10 Lah(mu and Lah(amu were formed and came into being. 11 While they grew and increased in stature 12 Anšar and Kišar, who excelled them, were created. 13 They prolonged their days, they multiplied their years. 14 Anu, their son, could rival his fathers. 15 Anu, the son, equalled Anšar, 16 And Anu begat Nudimmud, his own equal. 17 Nudimmud was the champion among his fathers: 18 Profoundly discerning, wise, of robust strength; 19 Very much stronger than his father's begetter, Anšar 20 He had no rival among the gods, his brothers. 21 The divine brothers came together, 22 Their clamour got loud, throwing Tia-mat into a turmoil. 23 They jarred the nerves of Tia-mat, 24 And by their dancing they spread alarm in Anduruna. 25 Apsû did not diminish their clamour, 26 And Tia-mat was silent when confronted with them. 27 Their conduct was displeasing to her, 28 Yet though their behaviour was not good, she wished to spare them. 29 Thereupon Apsû, the begetter of the great gods, 30 Called Mummu, his vizier, and addressed him, 31 "Vizier Mummu, who gratifies my pleasure, 32 Come, let us go to Tia-mat!" 33 They went and sat, facing Tia-mat, 34 As they conferred about the gods, their sons. 35 Apsû opened his mouth 36 And addressed Tia-mat 37 "Their behaviour has become displeasing to me 38 And I cannot rest in the day-time or sleep at night. 39 I will destroy and break up their way of life 40 That silence may reign and we may sleep." 41 When Tia-mat heard this 42 She raged and cried out to her spouse, 43 She cried in distress, fuming within herself, 44 She grieved over the (plotted) evil, 45 "How can we destroy what we have given birth to? 46 Though their behaviour causes distress, let us tighten discipline graciously." 47 Mummu spoke up with counsel for Apsû— 48 (As from) a rebellious vizier was the counsel of his Mummu— 49 "Destroy, my father, that lawless way of life, 50 That you may rest in the day-time and sleep by night!" 51 Apsû was pleased with him, his face beamed 52 Because he had plotted evil against the gods, his sons. 53 Mummu put his arms around Apsû's neck, 54 He sat on his knees kissing him. 55 What they plotted in their gathering 56 Was reported to the gods, their sons. 57 The gods heard it and were frantic. 58 They were overcome with silence and sat quietly. 59 Ea, who excels in knowledge, the skilled and learned, 60 Ea, who knows everything, perceived their tricks. 61 He fashioned it and made it to be all-embracing, 62 He executed it skilfully as supreme—his pure incantation. 63 He recited it and set it on the waters, 64 He poured sleep upon him as he was slumbering deeply. 65 He put Apsû to slumber as he poured out sleep, 66 And Mummu, the counsellor, was breathless with agitation. 67 He split (Apsû's) sinews, ripped off his crown, 68 Carried away his aura and put it on himself. 69 He bound Apsû and killed him; 70 Mummu he confined and handled roughly. 71 He set his dwelling upon Apsû, 72 And laid hold on Mummu, keeping the nose-rope in his hand. 73 After Ea had bound and slain his enemies, 74 Had achieved victory over his foes, 75 He rested quietly in his chamber, 76 He called it Apsû, whose shrines he appointed. 77 Then he founded his living-quarters within it, 78 And Ea and Damkina, his wife, sat in splendour. 79 In the chamber of the destinies, the room of the archetypes, 80 The wisest of the wise, the sage of the gods, Be-l was conceived. 81 In Apsû was Marduk born, 82 In pure Apsû was Marduk born. 83 Ea his father begat him, 84 Damkina his mother bore him. 85 He sucked the breasts of goddesses, 86 A nurse reared him and filled him with terror. 87 His figure was well developed, the glance of his eyes was dazzling, 88 His growth was manly, he was mighty from the beginning. 89 Anu, his father's begetter, saw him, 90 He exulted and smiled; his heart filled with joy. 91 Anu rendered him perfect: his divinity was remarkable, 92 And he became very lofty, excelling them in his attributes. 93 His members were incomprehensibly wonderful, 94 Incapable of being grasped with the mind, hard even to look on. 95 Four were his eyes, four his ears, 96 Flame shot forth as he moved his lips. 97 His four ears grew large, 93 And his eyes likewise took in everything. 99 His figure was lofty and superior in comparison with the gods, 100 His limbs were surpassing, his nature was superior. 101 'Mari-utu, Mari-utu, 102 The Son, the Sun-god, the Sun-god of the gods.' 103 He was clothed with the aura of the Ten Gods, so exalted was his strength, 104 The Fifty Dreads were loaded upon him. 105 Anu formed and gave birth to the four winds, 106 He delivered them to him, "My son, let them whirl!" 107 He formed dust and set a hurricane to drive it, 108 He made a wave to bring consternation on Tia-mat. 109 Tia-mat was confounded; day and night she was frantic. 110 The gods took no rest, they . . . . . . . 111 In their minds they plotted evil, 112 And addressed their mother Tia-mat, 113 "When Apsû, your spouse, was killed, 114 You did not go at his side, but sat quietly. 115 The four dreadful winds have been fashioned 116 To throw you into confusion, and we cannot sleep. 117 You gave no thought to Apsû, your spouse, 113 Nor to Mummu, who is a prisoner. Now you sit alone. 119 Henceforth you will be in frantic consternation! 120 And as for us, who cannot rest, you do not love us! 121 Consider our burden, our eyes are hollow. 122 Break the immovable yoke that we may sleep. 123 Make battle, avenge them! 124 [ . . ] . . . . reduce to nothingness! 125 Tia-mat heard, the speech pleased her, 126 (She said,) "Let us make demons, [as you] have advised." 127 The gods assembled within her. 128 They conceived [evil] against the gods their begetters. 129 They . . . . . and took the side of Tia-mat, 130 Fiercely plotting, unresting by night and day, 131 Lusting for battle, raging, storming, 132 They set up a host to bring about conflict. 133 Mother H(ubur, who forms everything, 134 Supplied irresistible weapons, and gave birth to giant serpents. 135 They had sharp teeth, they were merciless . . . . 136 With poison instead of blood she filled their bodies. 137 She clothed the fearful monsters with dread, 138 She loaded them with an aura and made them godlike. 139 (She said,) "Let their onlooker feebly perish, 140 May they constantly leap forward and never retire." 141 She created the Hydra, the Dragon, the Hairy Hero 142 The Great Demon, the Savage Dog, and the Scorpion-man, 143 Fierce demons, the Fish-man, and the Bull-man, 144 Carriers of merciless weapons, fearless in the face of battle. 145 Her commands were tremendous, not to be resisted. 146 Altogether she made eleven of that kind. 147 Among the gods, her sons, whom she constituted her host, 148 She exalted Qingu, and magnified him among them. 149 The leadership of the army, the direction of the host, 150 The bearing of weapons, campaigning, the mobilization of conflict, 151 The chief executive power of battle, supreme command, 152 She entrusted to him and set him on a throne, 153 "I have cast the spell for you and exalted you in the host of the gods, 154 I have delivered to you the rule of all the gods. 155 You are indeed exalted, my spouse, you are renowned, 156 Let your commands prevail over all the Anunnaki." 157 She gave him the Tablet of Destinies and fastened it to his breast, 158 (Saying) "Your order may not be changed; let the utterance of your mouth be firm." 159 After Qingu was elevated and had acquired the power of Anuship, 160 He decreed the destinies for the gods, her sons: 161 "May the utterance of your mouths subdue the fire-god, 162 May your poison by its accumulation put down aggression." (source)

#Enuma Elish #Babylonian #the creation poem #Babylonian Epic of Creation #tablet #tablet I

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readingvocabulary · 2 years

Text

wittol - a man who is aware and tolerant of his wife's infidelity; an acquiescent cuckold

artiodactyle

carbineer - soldier equipped with carbine rifle

cambist - one who deals in bills of exchange or who is skilled in the science and practice of exchange

coquelicot - poppy

etagere - piece of furniture with open shelves for displaying ornaments

uxorial - relating to a wife

Hyperborea - the land located to the far north of the known world

verglas - a thin coating of ice or frozen rain on an exposed surface

trichologist - the study of diseases or problems related to the hair and scalp

lanugo - fine, soft hair, especially that which covers the body and limbs of a human fetus

zyvatiate

catenary - hanging chain shape

tribometer

janker

dolichocephalic

tabouret - low stool

spleuchan - small pouch

prius - something that precedes or takes precedence : precondition

embonpoint - the plump or fleshy part of a person's body, in particular a woman's bosom

clamant - urgently demanding attention

costive - constipated; slow or reluctant in speech or action; unforthcoming

lupanar - brothel

marmoreal - marble like

soter - saviour; god

apopemptic - sung or addressed to one departing

Barmecide - a person who offers benefits that are illusory or disappointing

“recovering from the pip” - late Middle English: from Middle Dutch pippe, probably from an alteration of Latin pituita ‘slime’. In the late 15th century the word came to be applied humorously to unspecified human diseases, and later to ill humour

entelechy - an internal force or principle that drives a being toward its destiny

commination - the recital of divine threats against sinners in the Anglican Liturgy for Ash Wednesday

suborner - someone who pays (or otherwise incites) you to commit a wrongful act

dives - wealthy man

prestidigitation - conjuring tricks

replevin - law: a procedure whereby seized goods may be provisionally restored to their owner pending the outcome of an action to determine the rights of the parties concerned

condign - (of punishment or retribution) appropriate to the crime or wrongdoing; fitting and deserved

linn (Scot) - pool below a waterfall

haruspicate - act or practice of divination from the entrails of animals slain in sacrifice.

pace - with due respect to

nescience - ignorance

apotelesm - casting of a horoscope

autotelic - (of an activity or a creative work) having an end or purpose in itself

verb sap. - enough said —used to indicate that something left unsaid may or should be inferred

palter - equivocate; trifle with

sooterkins

lemma

anthropohagus

clew

cockatrice

demiourgos - powerful creative force or personality; demiurge

Bartholin’s gland

inspissate - thicken

gravamen - grievance; the essence or most serious part of a complaint or accusation

cumbrous

furbelow - a gathered strip or pleated border of a skirt or petticoat

diseur - an actor who presents dramatic recitals, usually sung accompanied by music, the male counterpart of a diseuse

plastron - a large pad worn by a fencer to protect the chest; an ornamental front of a woman's bodice or shirt consisting of colourful material with lace or embroidery, fashionable in the late 19th century.

zaddick - virtuous man

palingenesis - The apparent repetition, during the development of a single embryo, of changes that occurred previously in the evolution of its species

phorminx - Ancient Greek lute

immarcescible - enduring

perlustrate - to inspect thoroughly; to make a thorough examination of (something), esp to intercept and read (letters) for purposes of surveillance; to travel through and survey (a region)

deodand - thing forfeited or given to God, specifically, in law, an object or instrument that becomes forfeited because it has caused a person's death

bogatyr - medieval heroic warrior in Kievan Rus, akin to the Western European knight-errant

Potnia - an Ancient Greek word for "Mistress, Lady" and a title of a goddess. The word was inherited by Classical Greek from Mycenean Greek with the same meaning and it was applied to several goddesse

jeu d’esprit - a light-hearted display of wit and cleverness, especially in a work of literature

hydromel - Mead with added fruit is known as melomel, while hydromel is a watered-down version consumed in Spain and France

logorrhoea

ci-devant - from or in an earlier time; former

apostrophize - address an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem to (someone or something).

atrabilious - melancholy or irritable

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obiternihili · 2 years

Text

I typed up a thing on Jesus earlier and thought I'd post it somewhere

things marked with (a) mean I think it's embarassing or awkward for the people who push for it. If they could change it they would. In some cases may have. So it's probably true for those reasons

things marked with (b) mean I think it's so trivial and non-dogmatic that no one would really have any reason to lie about it, but it seems to me to be attested by multiple traditions that could easily change it or forget it for something more memorable, so it's probably true enough though not necessarily as damningly true as (a)

(c) means it's part of background contextual knowledge that I think is overwhelmingly true, like Caesar ruled about hundred years earlier or that the second temple fell. Not something I really feel like getting into per se

(i) means i inferred it or think it's likely, but don't really think it can be well defended without making some assumptions or something. basically i don't expect anyone to share the view.

might give other labels

about a decade before 0 CE (c) a 14 year old (b) girl with a name like Meryam or Maryam (b) fell pregnant out of wedlock (a). Her parents, probably a woman named hannah and a man named yoachim (b) or something similar arranged her marriage to an old man (b) named yosef, a demiurge or like a carpenter/construction worker/general handiman for hire (b-ish, but might be symbolic thing to link Jesus with the creator), probably a widower (i) marrying the young girl to spare her/her family of the humiliation of a pregnancy out of wedlock/the difficulty of raising children as a single mother in that society (i).

She gave birth to twins, Yehoshuah and Yudah (bit of a, bit of i). They were probably raised mostly by their brothers (i), Yosef's previous kids; Maryam was likely widowed relatively soon after Yehoshuah's birth (i).

This was probably a time when most Jewish boys grew up pretending to be Maccabees, in the way kids today might pretend to be marvel superheroes or something. (c). He also grew up at a time before contraceptives and modern medicine, where like 1/3 of births ended in death and like 1/10th of women died in childbirth. Fucking horrific. (c)

Yehoshuah probably grew up with the stigma of a bastard even if Yosef's pity-marriage covered it up or something. (bit of a, bit of i). This probably gave him a sense of social justice; a kind of proto-feminism out of love for his mother, some compassion for the poor and so on out of knowing how fortunate he was to have been raised honorably as a bar Yosef instead of as a bastard. Also probably a big disdain for the cruelty of law, and a dislike for the letter of the law. (i)

He and his brothers probably joined John the Baptist's movement (a) which was likely an essene Jewish apocalypticist movement (i). Essenes were kind of an esoteric movement in Judaism that stressed asceticism, mysticism, poverty, immersion/ritual purity, some other things, and were often less formal and part of the whole temple establishment as the more "academic" Pharisees and the Sadduccees who ran the temple (c). Apocalypticism at the time was less end of the world, more "a messiah will come", where messiah was understood to be a warrior-king and prophet in the vein of King David, who was to liberate Judea from Roman occupation and restore sovereignty to Israel in a new kingdom (c). The modern Mandaeans might be descended from this same movement but if they are took on some gnostic beliefs when their ancestors moved from the Jordan river area to Iraq and probably wouldn't be very recognizable to the earliest members of John's movement (i).

Converting to John's movement probably had a profound effect on Jesus who abandoned his life as a carpenter (potentially any wife and family at the time too) to go preach his own ministry (b, i). He managed to convince several of his brothers, at least Yaqov (James) and Yudah (his twin, Thomas Didymous, or "twin" and "twin" in Aramaic and Greek respectively) (b).

His ministry probably had a layer for his inner circle and his outer circle due to the nature of what he had planned (i). His inner circle was concerned with drumming up a sort of neo-Maccabeean revolt against Rome, while his outer circle was probably mostly concerned with drumming up popular support and helping Jews live better lifestyles. (i). He'd be repeatedly pressured about this giving his teachings kind of a two-faced message of obeying Caesar but also living an Essene lifestyle. (i). Despite his thing for asceticism he was probably supported by a bunch of rich old widows like Mary Magdaleine (who wasn't a whore (c)) (a). His lifestyle beliefs were probably in line with the Essenes and the later Ebionites, which stressed sexual abstinence, Jewish vegetarianism (which included, like, locusts because it was more of a kashrut thing than an ahimsa thing), immersion, and a few other things (i)

Eventually the money changer thing happened (a), it was likely him trying to launch the Maccabee revolt right then and there but it failed (i). His twin probably told him not to go through with it and that ended up the basis of the doubting Thomas thing (i). Another Yudah (Iscariot) among his inner circle betrayed him and he was executed for treason/insurrection (a).

His followers did not know how to take that (c). His twin probably started going eastward and created a network of proto-Christians who communicated with the communities in Jerusalem and elsewhere (i). I wouldn't be surprised if his twin actually gave rise to the idea that Jesus was resurrected (i) and then when belief in that crystallized in the Jerusalem community it ended up spreading back eastward catching up to Thomas before the Pauline movement managed to hit India (i). There's probably some elements to the St Thomas stories in India that have some fact to them that got recontextualized for the communities (i).

All in all I think Jesus was less of a hippy, less of a maniacal cult leader type, and more of a guy like Che Guevara, faults and virtues. Charismatic but polarizing, a bit naive and overconfident, motivated by social justice, etc. A bit of a hypocrite but in a distinctly pragmatic human way that's hard to fault than in the disgusting petty banal shit. Probably a bit blind to social issues not on his radar. But instead of communism it was Jewish sovereignty and asceticism.

His movement appealed to gentiles who were welcomed. But quickly things kind of broke into gentile led and jew led sub-movements. An ex-Pharisee named Paul who probably was a persecutor of Christians but probably not to the extremes he claimed rose rapidly through the ranks of the early church being something of a compromise guy between the gentiles and the judaizing christians. (c) He probably drew some kind of distinction between cultural and ethical parts of the Law though he might not have had the means to frame it like that, stressing the importance of continuing to adhere to the law but disregarding certain things like circumcision as not applying to gentiles. (i based on c). Made him the arch-heratic in the eyes of the jewish group that became the Ebionites. The proto-orthodoxy loved him. The less moderate gentiles also loved him despite his arguments (c). Early christians ran afoul of a number of religious organizations and the lifestyles of a number of ancient peoples; part of what made it attractive was that women could avoid the horrors of childbirth, as seen in the story of saint thecla. The anti-sex stuff probably goes back to John the Baptist and the Essenes at least (c)

Gentiles introduced more and more platonism into christianity including the immortality of the soul and such. The humiliation of Jesus's execution was something the early community through even Paul's time struggled with, but as platonic thought entered, people started more and more to deify Jesus. (c). Eventually that reached its peak with doceticism, that believed Jesus basically wasn't human, but some kind of demigod or god or something who never actually suffered on the cross and what we saw was an illusion. (c) Doceticism was particularly popular with a movement likely formed in the area of Israel as a sort of syncretism between Late Egyptian panentheism and Persian Zoroastrianism (i) due to the whole crossroads thing, that would later be labeled gnosticism (i). It also was the view adopted by Marcion who basically was the arch-gentile despite liking Paul as much as he did (c). Marcionites and Ebionites were eventually outcompeted by proto-orthodoxy due mostly to Rome being rich. (c). The rest of the historical record is probably familiar

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