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pedge-page · 2 months

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Joel Dealing with his Preggo Wife #9: At the Beach

Can be read with others in series or alone

Summary: You're not too confident at the beach with your body, but Joel's got the best remedy

Warnings: Super fluff!! Some sexy time at the end, unprotected sex, car sex, failed sex, fingering, 1 spank, heavier descriptions of pregnant body

18+ ONLY

- - - -

You complain how hot it is, the grainy sand stuck on on your thighs, the hot sun blistering your sensitive skin, the onlookers you fear are gawking at your enormous size. The fact you have to wear a bikini now despite always having worn a full piece before the baby train docked. But it just wouldn't fit, and you had to buy a NEW (and even larger sized) two piece to accommodate your must larger figure.

All of it makes you want to barf and hide in a closet. At the very least wrapped up in a towel—but of course, one towel doesn't even cover over your mid section anymore either!

Not that he's complaining. Joel pulls his sunglasses down to the bridge of his nose to let all the light in and, with no shame, gets a glorious look at you as often as he can. You wearing a two piece with your accentuated body now so drastically changed because of him, just absolutely showcasing the evidence of your love making has him struggling to keep his cock down in his trousers. He wants to put his hands all over you and tell everyone yeah, this body? this belly? This woman? You see her? Mine.

You didn't want to come to the beach. Okay, you did, like, yesterday, when you were scratching his arm off and begging to go sun bathe and wear your new sandals, but clearly, Joel couldn't recognize when you changed your mind last minute in the car ride without actually verbally telling him. He was so busy humming his little 70s tunes on the radio, glancing smiles at you and putting his warm hand on your fat thigh. Completely unaware, despite your reassuring smiles, that you wanted him to turn around right now and go home. Why couldn't the man just read your mind? Why do you have to explain everything to him word for word?

So here you are, a million degrees under the baking sun, sand in your sandals with the whole world of beautiful people apparently on this beach too. You stand there awkwardly, rubbing your arms hoping to shrink down to an ant and scurry away.

Trying to get to your knees is difficult at best, uncomfortable and pathetic, before settling on your bum with that massive tummy in the way of everything. You spread your legs and, fuck, you look like you might as well be pushing this baby out right now in this bloated birthing position. Could they kick you off the beach for looking like this???

Joel doesn’t pay any attention at all. He gets right to being a boy and digging a big hole in the sand like a 14 year old, despite his cracking knees and shifting groans from all the movement he’s got to do.

At least someone here is having a good time.

He carefully scoops the sand with his thick palm, making a smooth, rounded cavern. He even brought a tape measure, which he uses around your tummy first, strangely, and you don't even question it.

Once the hemisphere is dug to his satisfaction, smoothed over with his calloused fingers, he sits back and waves to you.

You're picking little grains of sand off your moon-sized belly.

He coughs again, and you finally look up.

"Ta da!" He boasts proudly.

You throw your hands up defeatedly at his extremely unimpressive hole. "Okay?"

His lips draw tightly to a thin line, doubt crossing his face. “Wait, just—c’mere. Best part."

He grabs your hands and helps you to lie forward so that your belly has room to dip into the hole. And just like that, for the first time in months, you're lying on your front again.

It’s as if a massive ache in your back is suddenly relieved. "Oh my god! This feels amazing!" You cheer. The pressure your baby had been putting on your lower spine suddenly disappears, and all that weight is so perfectly supported by the carefully measured cradle he dug in the sand. It's been so long since you were in this position, you had dreams of the day you could again.

"Joel, you're—“

"Fuckin' amazin', I know darlin'."

He plants a special cooling pillow in front of you so you can rest your chin above the sand, no strain on your neck.

You sigh loudly, and extremely long, not even aware that it sounds like a pornographic moan.

"Behave, you," he tsks with a raised brow, his whispers tickling your ear.

"Mmmm.”

You wave him off, suddenly enjoying the warm heat of the sun on your bare back.

He lathers your exposed skin with gentle sun screen, massaging your shoulders, neck, sides. He takes special care to realllly rub your butt, 'so you don't burn.' Puts an umbrella over you too for good measure. With the reassuring feeling of Joels hands working out your muscles all over you, the crashing sound of waves in the distance and chirping seagulls, and feeling like you aren’t heavily pregnant for the first time in months, you quickly succumb to a nap.

Later when he's got food, double fisting some hot dogs, he sits you up and rubs the sand off your belly with a clean cloth. Joel scarfs the first one down, ketchup drooping down his wrist.

But you’re too distracted, and when you tell him its okay, he eats yours without a second thought. You laugh a little. Poor thing probably got baked under the sun too busy taking care of you.

He chews loudly, jaw working close with the amount of meat and mustard and bread bulging out. You lick your thumb and wipe away the droop of condiment spilling from his lips.

He playfully chases your hand with a bite, growling.

you shake your head. “You fucking weirdo.”

“Mmm. My pretty fuckin’ girl.”

His eyes rake over your body—skin radiant in the sun, so smooth and shiny from the oily sunscreen he had smoothed over you. Like something out of a dream. His dreams, to be exact. Not so appropriate dreams he may have already had after only the first week of dating you, and thinking about the day you might be exactly as you are—pregnant with a his ring on your finger.

Delirious with the sight of you, he leans in and starts kissing you, then groping and suckling alll down to your bloated belly.

"Joel, stop, people are gonna see!"

"Let them see, you're so fucking sexy right now.”

"STOP.” You grasp him a bit more firmly to pull his hungry mouth away from going any further down south. “We're not having sex right now. That's final. Now keep your bad boy parts in your pants.”

He pouts and grumbles, drawing away like a scolded child.

You watch as a group of kids play in the water and laugh, or two young girls collect more sea shells than their little hands can carry. Your hand absent-minded rubs over your belly, wondering what your baby is thinking right this moment. If she had thoughts. If she was listening and seeing through you, and feeling what you might be feeling right now.

Joel watches you. He can see that sense of distant longing in your eyes.

Remembers when you first started dating, mid 20s and so young, and the first thing you said was you weren't sure about kids. He kind of knew he wanted at least one, but the more he got to know you, the more he was willing to give that idea up if it meant he got to keep you for the rest of his life. It took five years after you got married before he found you trembling but bravely presenting him a positive test, and he had to fight himself to keep all his emotions at bay in case you didn’t want this. You were so quiet, so unreadable. He wasn’t sure if you wanted to talk about it or not.

Until you both went to your first ultrasound, and from that minute you saw the little blob on the screen, and the nurse said “meet mom and dad!” Your lives changed. The whole car ride home you were babbling excitedly about baby names, the color of the nursery, what your child might look like (you hoped she or he would look like Joel).

You’re quiet right now like you were that day. He follows your eyes to the scene of all the kids playing together, their parents watching over and encouraging the sandcastle building or warning not to go too far out into the water: a happy family.

"I want more,” you say quietly, not really even addressing Joel as your eyes are stuck forward.

He just chuckles and shakes his head. “Baby, we still are working on getting one. Gotta wait before we can have another."

"I want her to have a sibling,” you mumble, holding your belly with both hands delicately.

He bends down and kisses your hand resting atop your swell. “I’ll give you as many as you want.... so long as it doesn't exceed two.”

Your head snaps back. “Three.”

"If there's 2, then that's 4 of us, which is the perfect number to sit at any restaurant. 4 is right. Plus a normal car sits 4 people comfortably. Do you really want a third baby being subjected to a middle seat?"

"Mini van?"

"We ain't getting a mini van. Over my dead body.”

"Well we can't use the truck!”

"Ya can put a baby seat in the truck."

You giggle at the imagery. "You've thought about this a lot haven't you, Mr. Miller?”

He's going off about why 4 also is the perfect number in most rollercoaster carts, but you can't help but just look at him, smiling warmly to yourself that you get to call this man yours.

“—I love you."

He stops mid sentence. A little jumped, but never surprised by your words. He caresses your cheek lovingly, his soft lips finding yours. "I love you too," he mumbles just hushed enough for only you to hear.

Your foreheads touch, as if you wanted your minds to meld into one. You kiss him again, then again a little more firmly. And more. Again, more—more, again. Until you're making out with him a little too passionately, your hand drifting south to his caress his Daddy belly and his Daddy parts—

He hand grabs your wrist to stop you. “Honey,” he warns. There’s a glint in his eye that is just barely keeping his mature brain functioning. With your tits all swollen and hefty with milk, spilling out of that poor excuse of a bra and begging for attention, along with your ass spilling out of that g-string-looking triangle hiding your more than likely wet flower... He’s unsure if he can't keep his erection at bay if you keep acting like this while looking like this.

"I want you," you breathe, your lips crashing on his.

"I want you too,” he hums between your insatiable teeth biting along his tongue. “But..."

"But?"

"You said no sex at the beach."

"I know. I'm waiting for you to get off your lazy ass and take me in the truck."

Joel had never packed shit up quicker in his life. He’s bunched up bottles and towels and sunglasses and whatever junk he had brought all up in a towel with one arm and ran barefoot to the parking lot, his other hand dragging you as you wiggled excitedly behind him. He throws it all in the truckbed and unlatches the door for you, helping you up with a quick smack to your sandy asscheek. He gets in and rolls up the windows. Not bothering to check if anyone is around.

You pull him close and start shoving his shorts down.

Its hot and rushed and promising—until you quickly realize your baby does not want any truck-fucking business happening because there's no possible configuration the two of you can get in to have sex with the sheer size of your tummy in the way.

He can sense the tears of frustration welling in your eyes, immediately caressing you as he buckles you in and revs the truck to life.

“It’s okay, its okay, it's okay, we'll have car sex again after she's born, how's that? Just a beautiful girl you are. Too sexy like this. Need to do it on a comfortable bed, that’s all. Can't have ya all to myself whenever I want, huh?"

You nod, desperate to suck up all your tears. Quite frankly you know that you ugly cry, and Joel knows you ugly cry, and you don’t want to ugly cry. You remember that your pussy is wet and waiting to get home so he can spoil you properly.

He continues to adoring rub over your belly, a constant affection of his touch reminding you to stay level. With one hand gripping the wheel, eyes trained forward, he glides down over your naval and urges you to part your legs.

You slip back a bit, giving him the widened access he needs to dip his middle under your bikini bottoms and between your slick folds. You moan loudly, hips arching forward to get more of his finger rubbing along your swollen clit.

“Joooeeeeeel,” you whimper impatiently. He can’t dip any more than an inch of his finger in you due to the stretch of his arm over you belly. Instead, he swipes along your slit, gathering your wetness and smearing it on your nub.

"Ahhh, oh sweetheart, you’re just drippin' me." He retracts his hand and plunges his finger into his mouth, swirling his tongue over and over and sucking your juices clean off with a pop.

You eye his bulge stabbing through his trousers. "I wish I could suck you off right now." You whine, squeezing your achy breasts and hoping he can steal a glance at you.

"Mmm, those were good times, huh?"

You groan, frustrated. Turns out the baby was cock blocking you in numerous ways from doing things you enjoyed in your youth. Your “youth” feeling like it just a few months ago when driving BJs were your favorite way of nearly getting pulled over.

Eventually you do get home, and you throw the seatbelt over. This baby was NOT stealing truck-fucking from you. Not. Today.

Joel can’t stop your rush. You’re clambering over the dash, knee pressing into Joel’s bulge painfully and elbowing his chest trying to get into a position.

"Okay wait—just—OW! Hon—s-urgghh— HOLD ON.”

You maneuver him to sit at the center of the back seat, with your back facing him and ass hovering over his cock. He’s protectively holding your waist in your squatting position. You sit back slowly, moaning as he penetrates your slit. With both hands on either side of the front seats shoulders in front of you, you begin gently rocking and bouncing.

He holds your belly, guiding you up and down, back and forth on his dick

"Fuck. Fuck, I love you, Joel. I cant wait—nnmmm—to have your baby!"

He grumbles in agreement, watching the space where his length disppears into your sopping cunt and comes back wet and shiny from your arousal.

It feels fantastic after waiting so long, being so pent up and needy for each other since—like 20 minutes ago.

And There's about 18 more seconds of this before you're slowing down. Joel can feel it too: the awkward clench, slipping out of you every few seconds, creaking in the truck's seat, the wet scratchiness of the sand still wedged there, your hand on your back from the pain, unable to bounce on him with the weight of you, the overall struggle that’s paving way for very shitty, very uncomfortable, very unsatisfying sex. You stop altogether and sit in his lap with his cock impaling you, almost casually.

"I'm tired,” you sigh in defeat, out of breath.

Joel just nods behind you. He kisses your shoulder blade and helps you off him.

Baby: 1.

You: 0

“Bed is still open, if ya want it…” you mumble into his whiskered cheek before planting a soft kiss.

His excitement jolts him into a frenzied leap out of the truck. “Bathroom, then bed, and I expect to see your legs spread and naked.”

You giggle and the two of you part in different directions in the house.

Joel quickly uses the bathroom before tripping over his clothes while stripping, eager to finally make you cry about how good he’s going to pleasure you.

Only to find you nestled on the couch curled up with your hand perched under your cheek, drooling into the pillow. Even despite your sunkissed skin, the dryness of your lips from the salty ocean air, the sand you complained between your folds and wedged up your ass by your bikini didn't matter. As the afternoon warm sun bleeds from the drapes lulled you to a gentle rest, secure and safe in your own home.

Joel kneeled beside you, cupping your cheek soothingly.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

You stir slightly, smiling with a hazy half conscious state. "I know," you respond cheekily, before nuzzling into his hand again and falling back asleep.

Joel stays there for hours, one hand resting over your belly, just watching the woman he's fallen so hard for, wondering what in the world he's done to deserve such a blessing.

- - - -

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chaisshitposts · 7 months

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Hi I am rabbit🐇 anon and I wanna say that Idk why but i m not understanding the pych-k method like i don't get what PPL say especially when ppl tag that post I just don't get it so can you tell step by step how to do pych-k method for void.

P.s we r same age lol

oh yeah??? cool! glad to meet a fellow adult 🐇 anon🤝 and that's ok, I'm more than happy to explain it for ya in simpler terms, it be like that sometimes so I get it. yer mind is like a computer, yer subconscious is the motherboard of info, and while ya do psych-k ya are basically downloadin' an entirely new program with new codin' and all that jazz with the affirmations ya choose, then ya save that affirmation in yer motherboard.

psych-k is about usin' yer entire brain, both hemispheres simultaneously, and how to do it is super simple. when you're just startin' out with it, I always recommend that ya start off with your left side (it doesn't really matter what side ya start with but some people do better when they have clear instructions)

left side -> ya wanna start off with crossin' yer left ankle over yer right ankle, set yerself a five minute timer and then start it, immediately afterwards you're gonna cross yer left wrist over yer right wrist and then interlock yer fingers. for a visual aid, check out this video -> it's not very long and I hope it'll be easy for ya to follow while ya are doin' this pose, you're gonna close yer eyes and repeat yer affirmation for the duration of yer timer. with this pose, ya more than likely will start to feel an influx of thoughts that may try and argue with yer affirmation. it's important to invite those negative thoughts and just let them flow, let them happen, and just keep repeatin' yer affirmation over and over. what yer doin' is teachin' yerself somethin' new until these resistant and negative thoughts disappear. i should also mention that sometimes ya may not experience any negative thoughts at all, which is fine too, just keep affirmin' for the five minutes. some folks also report that they feel physical symptoms when doin' psych-k, which is also normal, and it's perfectly okay if ya don't, that's also normal, everyone is impacted differently.

ya hold this posture for the entirety of yer five minute timer. once you're done you're gonna 'save' yer progress by uncrossin' your ankles and wrists and then press the finger tips of both yer hands together (kinda like when villains are havin' their evil scheme moment, y'know) just make sure all yer fingers touch each other and hold it for 10 seconds --- like below BUT MAKE SURE ALL YER FINGERS TOUCH TIPS 🙏, no palms need to be touched, you're not prayin'.

once you're done, you're gonna repeat the entire process for the right side where ya cross yer right ankle over left ankle, and yer right wrist over yer left wrist, hold that pose for five minutes with yer timer and then save it again with the pose mentioned above.

ideally, this'll completely change whatever limitin' belief ya had with the affirmation ya chose after a single session, BUT sometimes it can take more than one single session of psych-k which is also completely normal especially when dealin' with something that's been deeply embedded in yer mind for such a long time. think of it like a stubborn program in yer computer that you're tryna get rid of, sometimes it can take a few tries to completely wipe out the old programming.

somethin' else that can happen is that psych-k did work but does not instantly reflect in your 3D which can sometimes make people think it didn't work so they fall back into old thinkin' and start reaffirmin' the old story. h o w e v e r, ya can easily find out if psych-k worked through the use of muscle testin'. I'll provide some reference posts for muscle testin' below which can also be used in combination with any and all methods of manifestin'.

muscle testing applied kinesiology

psych-k is just a form of focused, super affirmin'. it can also be used to calm yerself down just from simply crossin' your ankles, many people do it unconsciously without realizin'. i recommend that the next time ya have a moment of panic, anxiety, or any other negative feeling, ya should try crossin' yer ankles and see what happens. 🕵️

if ya need anymore clarification, just let me know!!!

#— chai's asks. !! ~#— 🐇 anon. !!~#psych k #psych-k

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alienssstufff · 6 months

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idk if u talked abt it b4 but i would LOVE to know why u see autumn as 3L (and i assume LL as winter - DL as spring - LimL as summer) tho i 100% see already purely from aesthetic why thatd be the case itd be so so cool to see a more in depth opinion?? it does fit so well in with the 2 arcs being 3L into LL & DL into LimL as autumn into winter then starting as a new arc of spring into summer?? literally perfect i feel??

[ context ] nooo I never have! I'd love to!

The Life Series thematically happens cycles upon cycles within itself. Each season is like a different part of a year like seasons ending on the very climatic Limited Life as its Summer.

[AUTUMN 3RD LIFE] While there aren't many interesting biomes in 3L that give it away, it's more about the progression of the Beginning as players are taken out of the comfort of their previous lives and all social constructs are thrown out the window and into the deep end. People make pretty bases, feel hesitant to steal, and build monopolies in a world that virtually does not have a currency - all because these are things the Hermits and Empires alike have been doing prior to the Life Series. It's Autumn because it's a learning experience, a transition period as the players grow more accustomed to these new customs in preparation for the extreme.

[WINTER LAST LIFE] HONESTLY the one I'm glad we all agree on, that server is SO #wintercore with so many horror elements. Deeeep alpine forests, winding rivers, tall snowy mountains it got all of them! The perfect winter sequel to 3rd Life and the one where the players (after being a part of 3L) are put the most on edge with the levels of betrayal and distrust the season had going on with the Bogeyman mechanic. People straight up start HUNTING each other for sport it's an example of the most dire of situations and I LOVE IT!

(putting the other 2 under the cut before it gets too long)

[SPRING DOUBLE LIFE] Much kinder than Last Life congratulations you have made it through the winter. Double Life is a season centred on relationships, about all the different types of love between players - if you live in the Northern Hemisphere spring happens during valentines. New bonds like in Spring are made here and old ones resurface and/or are broken in history of the previous seasons. Double Life is kind of like 3rd Life in the sense that people's relationships, and how they go about them are in influence to things that have happened in the past (previous seasons).

[SUMMER LIMITED LIFE] The final season of the First Cycle. The server has a WARM OCEAN biome. I really do wish mojang developed their beaches or the tropics better Limited Life would have been perfect with palm trees. I built a bit on the Limited Life world HERE and HERE It's about teamwork, fun and games - the tone Limited Life has in comparison to Last Life is its polar opposite in the way people trust in each other so much. Even the whole meaning of what it means to be Bogeyman here is flipped on its head it's treated as a gift. It comes perfectly after Double Life as the soulmates made in there (eg Boatboys, Ranchers, etc) continue from here. If anything it reminds me of the summer break before everyone gets back to work (Secret Life).

Side note: Secret Life Bit of a weird one honestly. It to me is the strangest out of the 5 like yeah it COULD be spring aesthetically because of the cherry trees, but it could also be autumn (thus the new cycle), the way it is handled so far is reminiscent of how things were in 3rd Life with everyone being so careful of their lives. Waiting for more sessions to come out to build more on this :]

HWWHWH anyway hope that makes sense ty for letting me talk about the Life Seasons >w<

#ask stufff #stufff rambles #character concept stufff #life series #trafficblr #i could have explained the DL one better i feel theres more to it with spring i know in my heart

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ausetkmt · 7 months

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It was the morning of May 24, 1888, and a large, ethnically diverse crowd waited in the Sala Ducale of the Apostolic Palace in Rome for the pope to arrive. Led by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, the French missionary archbishop of Algiers, the group had traveled to Rome on a double pilgrimage from North Africa and from the Diocese of Lyon, France. The pilgrims had earlier entered St. Peter’s Square with camels and a special gift for the pope: a pair of gazelles wearing silver collars inscribed with Latin verse.

Shortly after noon, the smiling Pope Leo XIII and his entourage entered the Sala Ducale to sustained applause from the pilgrims. It was a special year for Leo: the golden jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. Preparations had been underway throughout nearly the entirety of 1887 for the yearlong celebration in which the pope would receive thousands of gifts from all over the world and greet an abundance of well-wishers.

Among the pilgrims who traveled to Rome during Leo’s jubilee, however, this group was unique, and its uniqueness was indicated by the 12 men strategically placed at the front of the crowd. These 12 African men had been enslaved before their freedom was purchased by Lavigerie and his missionaries. They were at the head of the group because today’s audience was an unofficial celebration of the release of Pope Leo’s encyclical on slavery.

On Feb. 10, the Brazilian statesman and abolitionist Joaquim Nabuco had met with Leo in a private audience and asked the pope to write the encyclical. Brazil was on the cusp of abolishing slavery, which would make it the last country in the Western Hemisphere to do so. Due to the Brazilian princess regent Isabel’s devout Catholicism, Nabuco thought a letter from the pope condemning slavery might embolden her to support abolition more aggressively. Leo was happy to oblige, and the news about this antislavery encyclical began to spread.

Upon hearing of it, Cardinal Lavigerie wrote to the pope and asked him to include something about the continuing presence of slavery in Africa. The anti-abolition prime minister of Brazil, however, was not happy with the news from Rome, and he successfully pressed the Holy See to delay the issuance of the encyclical.

Despite the prime minister’s back-channel machinations, Brazil’s parliament passed the abolition bill, and it was signed into law by Isabel on May 13. When the encyclical, titled “In Plurimis,” was released to the public on May 24, it was dated May 5, as if Pope Leo wanted it on the record that he had supported Brazilian abolition before it became the law of the land. Nevertheless, this late release intersected perfectly with Cardinal Lavigerie’s pilgrimage. The day before the audience, the 12 formerly enslaved men had been given the chance to read the document. Though other encyclicals of Leo would come to overshadow this one, it surely was one of his most theologically significant. For with “In Plurimis” and his follow-up encyclical, “Catholicae Ecclesiae,” Leo XIII did something astounding: He changed the church’s teaching on slavery. The Catholic Church, for the first time in its history, had finally gotten on board with abolitionism.

Divergent Explanations

That revolutionary day when Leo XIII became the first pope to condemn slavery is not well known by many Catholics and is rarely mentioned in scholarship related to the church’s history. This is not terribly surprising. The church’s historical engagement with slaveholding is very complex, and it is also widely misunderstood. Even in the past several years, well-intentioned Catholic writers have published accounts of the church and slavery that are full of inaccuracies.

Often, those inaccurate accounts are written to defend the church in some way. In 2005, for example, Cardinal Avery Dulles wrote a book review in First Things claiming that the popes had denounced the trade in African slaves from its very beginnings and yet had never condemned slavery as such, retaining a continuity of teaching that always allowed for some “attenuated forms of servitude.” Other apologists have taken a more absolute position: The church has always been against slavery itself. Both these lines of argumentation seem to agree on two central assertions: The popes always condemned the trade in African slaves, and the church’s teaching did not change.

Defending the church, either in its reputation or its doctrinal continuity, can be praiseworthy. But when it comes to the history of the Catholic Church and slaveholding, this posture of defense has been deeply damaging. It has unnecessarily led to confusion around the church’s history with slaveholding, and that confusion has helped to prevent the church from reckoning with a troubling history whose consequences are still present in our world.

The history of the church was nothing close to a steady, if interrupted, march to eliminate slavery.

And yet it was once widely known, and still is among historians of slavery today, that the Catholic Church once embraced slavery in theory and in practice, repeatedly authorized the trade in enslaved Africans, and allowed its priests, religious and laity to keep people as enslaved chattel. The Jesuits, for example, by the historian Andrew Dial’s count, owned over 20,000 enslaved people circa 1760. The Jesuits and other slaveholding bishops, priests and religious were not disciplined for their slaveholding because they were not breaking church teaching. Slaveholding was allowed by the Catholic Church.

One of the reasons the church’s past approval of slaveholding is so little known among the general Catholic population today is that the very popes who reversed the church’s course on slavery and the slave trade also promoted that same inaccurate narrative that defended the church’s reputation and continuity—even, intentionally or not, at the cost of the truth.

Condemning the Atlantic Slave Trade

The shifts began quietly. In 1814, Pope Pius VII, at the request of Great Britain prior to the upcoming Congress of Vienna, privately sent letters to the kings of France and Spain asking them to condemn the slave trade. At this time in history, condemning the trade did not equate to condemning slavery itself. “The slave trade” meant the transatlantic shipping of enslaved persons from the African continent to the New World. Hence, the slaveholding U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, prior to signing an anti-slave-trade bill into law in 1807, saw no contradiction in referring to the trade as “those violations of human rights” against “the unoffending inhabitants of Africa” all while continuing to keep Black descendants of the trade’s immediate victims enslaved. Britain itself outlawed the trade in 1807, but slaveholding remained legal afterward in parts of its empire. In the same vein, Pius’s private letters referred only to the trade, not to slavery itself.The Door of No Return is a memorial in Ouidah, a former slave trade post in Benin, a country in West Africa. (Alamy)

The papacy’s condemnation of the trade became a public one in 1839 with Gregory XVI’s bull “In Supremo Apostolatus.” Though the bull came, once again, at the request of Great Britain, Gregory deserves praise for being the first pope to publicly condemn the Atlantic slave trade after nearly four centuries of its operation. The bull was a strong one in many ways, blaming the advent of the trade on Christians who were “basely blinded by the lust of sordid greed.” And yet, as with Pius VII, Gregory did not speak directly on the issue of whether slaveholders in the Americas should free their enslaved people, something he easily could have included.

So when some abolitionists in the United States greeted Gregory’s bull as a fully antislavery document, Catholic bishops like John England of Charleston, S.C., and Francis Patrick Kenrick of Philadelphia argued that the only thing the bull did was precisely what the United States had already done: ban participation in the international slave trade. Gregory corrected no one’s interpretation, and so Catholic slaveholding was able to continue in the United States and elsewhere, arguably without disobedience to church teaching.

The Catholic Church approved, multiple times and at some of its highest levels of authority, of one of the gravest crimes against humanity in modern history.

Why Gregory was the first pope to publicly condemn the trade is an agonizing and perhaps unanswerable question. The arguments that Gregory used to support his condemnation had been articulated by countless theologians and activists over the previous few centuries, including by the representatives of Black Catholic confraternities who protested the trade before the Holy See in the 1680s. Any pope since at least the 1540s, when the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas changed his opinion on the trade after researching its injustices, could have issued nearly the same bull as Gregory did. Gregory was just the first to choose to do it.

Rewriting History

Unfortunately, Gregory also provided a narrative in his bull that did not present a truthful portrait of the church’s engagement with the trade. Pius VII had made an ambiguous and dubious claim that the church had helped to abolish much of the world’s slavery and that the popes had always “rejected the practice of subjecting men to barbarous slavery,” but Gregory expanded upon this claim in detail. He wrote that in ancient times, “those wretched persons, who, at that time, in such great number went down into the most rigorous slavery, principally by occasion of wars, felt their condition very much alleviated among the Christians.” He claimed that slavery was gradually eliminated from many Christian nations because of “the darkness of pagan superstition being more fully dissipated, and the morals also of the ruder nations being softened by means of faith working by charity.”

In Gregory’s telling, this steady Christian march toward eliminating slavery from the earth was then interrupted by greedy Christians who reduced Black and Indigenous peoples to slavery or who bought already enslaved persons and trafficked them.

Gregory claimed that the papacy had been opposed to these new situations of enslavement: “Indeed, many of our predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs of glorious memory, by no means neglected to severely criticize this.” As evidence for this statement, he cited the bulls prohibiting the enslavement of Indigenous peoples in the Americas written by Paul III, Urban VIII and Benedict XIV, as well as the then recent condemnations of the trade by Pius VII. He also included a curious reference: a 1462 letter of Pius II that, Gregory wrote, “severely rebuked those Christians who dragged neophytes into slavery.”

This narrative was deeply misleading. The history of the church was nothing close to a steady, if interrupted, march to eliminate slavery. Rather, the early church embraced slaveholding both before and after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the medieval church expanded the ways by which someone could become enslaved beyond those allowed by pagan Rome—allowing, for example, that women in illicit relationships with clerics could be punished with enslavement. Theologians like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas theologically defended the practice of keeping humans enslaved, and St. Gregory the Great gave enslaved people to his friends as gifts.

Moreover, while it was true that the popes condemned the enslavement of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, the trade in African slaves was permitted and encouraged by a series of popes from Nicholas V, who died in 1455, forward. Gregory XVI mentioned none of this, instead seeming to suggest that Pius II’s letter meant the popes’ hands had always been clean with regard to the trade. But Pius II’s condemnation had nothing to do with the general Portuguese trade in enslaved Africans; it instead concerned a particular instance of Catholic converts being kidnapped. Nicholas V’s bulls had specified that only non-Christians could be seized and enslaved. Pius II’s letter was in accordance with Nicholas’ permissions, not against them.

While it was true that the popes condemned the enslavement of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, the trade in African slaves was permitted and encouraged by a series of popes.

The inaccuracy of this narrative did not go unnoticed. The Portuguese consul in Brazil scoffed at the bull, writing that “its doctrine has been most rarely sent forth from the Palace of the Vatican, for it is well known that Nicholas V…and Calistus III…approved of the commerce in slaves” and that Sixtus IV and Leo X also approved of the trade even after the letter of Pius II. He noted that Scripture did not condemn slavery and that the popes had previously condemned only the enslavement of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Erroneous as Gregory’s narrative may have been, he was not pulling it out of thin air. Some British and American abolitionist historians had been promoting such a narrative for decades in an attempt to argue that Christianity had historically been an antislavery religion. Just five years prior to Gregory’s bull, for example, the American historian George Bancroft falsely claimed that the slave trade “was never sanctioned by the see of Rome.” It is possible, then, perhaps even likely, that Gregory XVI honestly believed this narrative to be accurate. Nevertheless, it was wrong, and its publication in a papal bull meant that it would spread more widely.

An Abolitionist Church

When Leo XIII condemned not merely the slave trade but slavery itself on that exciting day in 1888, it may have not been too shocking to most people who heard the news. Slavery was now legally abolished in the Christian world; why would the church not be opposed to it? And yet both Nabuco and Lavigerie understood that Leo was making history. The condemnations of slaveholding that Leo issued in 1888 and 1890 did not represent merely a change in policy, which itself would have been momentous enough. The change was a theological one. What the Holy Office only a couple decades prior had proclaimed was “not at all contrary to natural and divine law” was now declared by Leo to be contrary to both.

Leo even used the arguments of abolitionists to make his case. There was a certain set of theological propositions that abolitionist theologians had been promoting for centuries, from as early as St. Gregory of Nyssa to the 19th-century abolitionists Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass and the French Catholic journalist Augustin Cochin. These propositions had been criticized or ignored by most Catholic theologians who wrote in favor of slavery, but Leo’s documents were filled with them. His successors would repeat and even deepen those abolitionist ideas in their own antislavery documents over and over again.

And yet, bold and praiseworthy as Leo’s abolitionist encyclicals were, he further concealed the truth about church history. Ignoring centuries of papal, conciliar and canonical approval of slavery, Leo strengthened Gregory’s narrative of a long antislavery march through history and inaccurately listed additional popes who had supposedly condemned the trade in African slaves and even slavery itself—including one of the popes who had renewed Nicholas V’s permissions.

What the Holy Office only a couple decades prior had proclaimed was ‘not at all contrary to natural and divine law’ was now declared by Leo to be contrary to both.

As with Gregory, Leo may sincerely have believed these falsehoods to be true. But far from being officially corrected, this erroneous papal narrative has survived online and in print. Even St. John Paul II, who apologized for the participation of Christians in the slave trade, repeated the false claim that the trade had been condemned by Pius II.

The Need for Reckoning and Reconciliation

The Catholic Church’s change in teaching regarding slavery was striking. While that change raises important theological questions about ecclesiology and doctrinal development, we must reject the temptation to jump straight to those questions without also doing the hard and painful work of reckoning with this history. It is morally imperative that we admit and deal with a series of difficult truths: that the Catholic Church approved, multiple times and at some of its highest levels of authority, of one of the gravest and longest-lasting crimes against humanity in modern history—and did not withdraw that approval for nearly 400 years.

During the full history of the Atlantic slave trade, roughly 12.5 million African men, women and children were forced onto ships to be sent across the ocean to a life of forced labor. Almost two million did not survive that journey. The survivors and millions of their descendants, all human beings made in God’s image, were the chattel property of other humans who had the power to whip them, force them to work unpaid their entire lives and keep their children enslaved as well.A bas-relief sculpture on the wall of the Our Mother of Africa chapel at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., depicts the African American experience from slavery to emancipation and the civil rights movement. (CNS photo/Patrick Ryan for the National Black Catholic Congress via Catholic Standard)

As Catholics, we must consider the human beings affected by the church’s actions. How many people died chained to the disease-ridden hulls of ships because the popes before Gregory XVI repeatedly failed to take a bold stand? How many enslaved people were sexually assaulted because they were placed in a legal position allowed by the popes before Leo XIII that left them vulnerable to such abuse? How many enslaved people fell away from the Catholic faith because priests told them that the oppression they were experiencing was occurring with the approval of Holy Mother Church?

A process of reconciliation is needed. Our church needs to admit these past injustices.

As part of that reconciliation process, we need to do our best to repair the harm caused by the injustices our church perpetuated. Anti-slave-trade Catholic theologians of the 16th century were already writing about the need to make restitution to enslaved people. One 17th-century Capuchin even wrote about the eventual need for the descendants of slaveholders to make restitution to the descendants of the enslaved. Some religious communities have taken steps toward reconciliation, including the Jesuits of the United States, but at some point the Vatican will have to do the same. Perhaps there could be an international commission, or maybe a synod. When we consider the millions of lives the trade harmed and still harms to this day, it is difficult to imagine even the convoking of an ecumenical council as being too extreme a remedy.

Pope Leo XIII righted one significant wrong when he changed the Catholic Church’s teaching on slavery in 1888, and the popes since then should be lauded for their continual denunciation of slavery, slavery-like economic practices and contemporary human trafficking. But as with every unconfessed and unaddressed sin, harm remains. It takes courage to pick up that examination of conscience and pray with it. It takes courage to enter the confessional, say what needs to be said and commit to doing what needs to be done. And yet the justice and love of God demand such steps.

#Slavery and the Catholic Church: It’s time to correct the historical record #catholic church #curse of cannan #church lies #white lies #Black Lives Matter #Reparations

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magickkate · 2 months

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Hey witches! As nature awakens from its winter slumber and the days begin to lengthen, we come to Ostara, the spring equinox, a time of balance, renewal, and fertility.

Ostara, also known as the Spring Equinox or Eostre, is a pagan holiday celebrated around March 20th in the Northern Hemisphere (September 20th in the Southern Hemisphere). It marks the arrival of spring and the balance between light and darkness as day and night are of equal length.

The holiday is named after the Germanic goddess Ostara, who represents fertility, renewal, and the dawn. Many customs and symbols associated with Ostara are rooted in ancient pagan traditions and folklore. Some key aspects of Ostara celebrations include:

Celebrating the Equinox: Ostara marks the arrival of spring and the rebirth of life in the natural world. It's a time to celebrate the earth's renewal, the return of longer days, and the promise of new beginnings. Here are some ways to honor Ostara and celebrate the beauty and bounty of the season:

🌱 Planting Seeds:

Get your hands dirty and plant seeds in your garden or indoor pots to symbolize growth, abundance, and new life.

🥚 Decorating Eggs:

Embrace the ancient tradition of decorating eggs, a symbol of fertility and rebirth. Paint, dye, or decorate eggs with symbols and colors that represent the themes of spring and renewal.

🌸 Nature Walks:

Take a walk in nature and immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and scents of spring. Notice the blooming flowers, budding trees, and chirping birds as you connect with the energy of the season.

🕯️ Rituals and Ceremonies:

Hold a ritual or ceremony to honor the equinox and invoke blessings for balance, harmony, and renewal in your life. Light candles, burn incense, and offer prayers or invocations to the goddess Ostara and the spirits of spring.

🍃 Feasting and Sharing:

Gather with loved ones for a festive meal or potluck to celebrate the abundance of the season. Cook and share dishes made with seasonal ingredients such as fresh greens, herbs, and spring vegetables.

Here are some ideas for recipes for Ostara:

Hot Cross Buns (Cross Quarter Buns): These tasty pastries are often enjoyed during the pre-Easter season of Lent. The decorative cross on top represents a Christian symbol, but you can infuse your own Pagan beliefs into it. Consider associating the four quarters of the cross with elements, directions, moon phases, seasons, Tarot suits, or fire festivals. To make your own, start with your favorite muffin or roll recipe and create an X on top using raisins, currants, or scored dough. Mint Chutney: Mint chutney is a versatile condiment that pairs well with various dishes. Keep in mind that the term “chutney” covers a wide range of culinary options. Roasted Lamb: For many ancestors, lamb was a symbol of spring and rebirth. Roasted lamb can be a delicious centerpiece for your Ostara feast. Dairy Products: Dairy is associated with fertility and new life. Include cheese, milk, cream, butter, and other dairy items in your Ostara meals. Eggs: Eggs symbolize new beginnings and potential. Hard-boiled eggs, deviled eggs, or egg salad are great choices. Spring Greens and Fresh Herbs: Celebrate the awakening of nature by incorporating fresh greens like spinach, kale, and spring onions. Use herbs like parsley, chives, and dill to add flavor and vibrancy to your dishes. Seasonal Crops: Asparagus and fiddlehead ferns are early spring crops that align perfectly with Ostara. Check in your area what is available! Marshmallow Peeps: While not traditional in ancient practices, these colorful marshmallow treats have become an iconic part of modern Ostara celebrations

Embrace the Magic of Ostara: Whether you're planting seeds, decorating eggs, or simply basking in the beauty of nature, Ostara offers a magical opportunity to connect with the energy of spring and celebrate the renewal and rebirth of life. So gather your friends, set your intentions, and let the magic of Ostara guide you on your journey into the light! 🌼🌿

Spring is a time of rebirth and growth. Consider working magic related to these themes.

Explore magical aspects of:

Serpents: Symbolism and folklore. Eggs: Associated with new life. Spring Flowers: Use blooming flowers in your magical workings. Daffodils: Early bloomers with magical purposes. Rabbits: Beyond the Easter Bunny. Magical Gardening: Growing plants as a magical act.

Remember, Ostara is a time to celebrate the return of light, growth, and the promise of warmer days ahead. 🌸🌼🌞

Learn more: learnreligions.com Sabbats: A Witch's Approach to Living the Old Ways by Edain McCoy(amazon.com) Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials BOX SET (amazon.com) witchcraftedlife.com magickalspot.com teaandrosemary.com

#queue the magick #witchcraft #witchblr #reference #witch #magickkate #kitchen witch #sigils #green witch #witchy #sabbats #ostara #wheel of the year

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f1hallmarkfest · 11 months

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Formula 1 Hallmark Fest

Hello one and all! We are delighted to announce the Formula 1 Hallmark Fest, aiming to bring winter cheer and cheesy festive feel-good holiday fic to the masses.

What is Hallmark?

Every year, The Hallmark Channel has their annual Countdown to Christmas celebration. As you can imagine from the title, the movies center around Christmas/winter holiday themes. Hallmark Christmas movies are some of the cheesiest, most nostalgia-evoking films you can imagine. Many of them center around small towns and discovering (or rediscovering) the spirit of Christmas, spending time with family and friends, and finding love in the holiday season!

Hallmark Christmas movies are absurd in the best way, making them perfect for fanfic plots.

How to Join

Join our fest Discord

Join the AO3 collection

The Rules

For writers- Minimum word count: 4000 words (and the sky's the limit)

For artists- Minimum art requirements: Lined and colored

Theme: Your work must align with the theme of the fest, that being cheesy heartwarming festive goodness!

Other than that, there are no limits on what you can create! A short, fluffy feel-good fic oozing with tender holiday love? A novel-length fic with an intricate plot and epic highs and lows? A painting of your favorite guys kissing under the mistletoe? A comic centered on holiday misadventures? Your call!

Key Dates:

Important Dates

TBD: Sign-ups close July 15th: Check-in 1 October 15th: Check-in 2 November 25th DECEMBER 14th: Collection submission December 1st 17th!!!: Fic reveals start

Important Links:

Admin: Dees @leclercenjoyer Mods: River @river-ocean, Tracy @apeacebone, Samuel @gearshxft Discord Server: https://discord.gg/GmXyBx3AVC AO3 Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/F1_Hallmark_Fest Sign-up form: here Email: [email protected]

FAQ under the cut! 👇

1. Does it have to be AU? Not at all! F1 drivers' lives are already so god damn weird that it lends itself perfectly to the sort of over-the-top nonsense that makes a Hallmark movie truly special.

2. Does it have to be romantic? Absolutely not! Follow your heart <3

3. Does it have to be Christmas specifically? Nope! At their core, Hallmark movies are Christmas movies, but it's not essential. Any winter holiday, or even just winter in general, can fit the bill. (Or I guess summer, for the southern hemisphere?)

4. Can I do art for someone else's fic? Yes! Absolutely! We won't be pairing writers and artists (a la Big Bang) but you are more than welcome to find a writer to work with through our fest discord!

5. What happens if I have to drop out? Nothing! We understand that circumstances can change, and the deadline is long so unexpected situations may arise. If you sign up and find you can't participate, that's fine! Just drop the mods a line, no hard feelings.

6. Does my work have to be completed for me to submit it to the fest? Given the length of the deadline, we would ask that yes, your work should be finished before posting!

7. Do you accept late sign-ups? Sure!

8. Do I have to have an idea when I sign up? No! If the theme of the fest intrigues you but you can't think of what you want to write/draw right off the bat, you're still welcome to sign up! The discord server is the perfect place to workshop ideas with your fellow creatives, and we even have a random plot generator if you need a shot of inspiration.

9. Can I join the Discord server if I'm not participating in the fest? Yes, absolutely! If you just wanna come hang out, share in the vibes and the love and chat with folks, you are more than welcome to! And who knows, perhaps inspiration will strike you!

10. Why is the deadline so long? We decided to get started early to give people lots of time to work on their fics! This way, if people want to write proper longfic, there's plenty of time to get it done!

#f1 fic fest #f1 hallmark fest #f1 rpf

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raeuberprinzessin · 27 days

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A Slice in the Life of the Boyfriend of the Daughter of the most eccentric Billionaire's Family of the northern Hemisphere (or The Day Felix arrived late, met his Girlfriend's Brothers and didn't get to drink his Tea)

Summary: Meeting your girlfriend's family is never exactly easy.

AO3 | Masterlist

Meeting your girlfriend's family is never exactly easy. But if your girlfriend is the long lost and only recently found daughter of the probably most eccentric billionaire in the northern hemisphere and has a gaggle of siblings who sounded absolutely crazy from the things she mentioned casually alone, meeting the family wasn’t just an awkward event. Felix felt like an emissary of an ancient kingdom being sent into enemy territory to propose an alliance which would ask the enemy kingdom to give up their most-beloved treasure.

But being a Graham de Vanily meant not to be intimidated by anyone. Not by his uncle in his disturbing villain costume, not by a crime-ridden city and it’s just as crazed rogues and vigilantes, not even by Marinette’s temper. She rarely lost it, but if she did, he really didn’t want to be in her way. She was just as creative with torture as she was with her designing and if he was really honest with himself, he was absolutely intimidated by her, even if he wouldn’t ever admit it.

He felt this shouldn’t count. She was Ladybug! Freaking everyone was intimidated by Ladybug! At least everyone who saw that one video in which she verbally took apart the Justice League for getting involved without coordinating with the heroes of Paris and almost costing them everything. They were lucky Red Robin and his team warned them and helped them with a plan to counter the adult heroes. He would never forget the way Nightwing looked like a plucked chicken after she was done with them.

At least something good came out of this: With the Titans they gained allies with a serious disregard for boundaries and they were able to learn that his uncle was the weirdo whose hobby it was to possess teenagers and meddle in their petty teenage dramas. Well, he was glad. Had he chosen competent people the heroes would have had a harder time defeating him. Felix wished he could say he was as surprised by his uncle’s hobby as his cousin was, but the truth was that it made too much sense. Honestly, he felt slightly offended to be related to that man, even if it was through the marriage of his aunt.

At least today he would only meet the family’s butler, four of her five brothers and her father. Her foster brother Duke and her sister Cassandra were unavailable.

His chauffeur finally arrived at the gate to the Wayne property. On the way there from the high-class penthouse he and his mother rented for their stay - they were debating finding a more permanent residence, since Marinette would spent a lot more time here and his mother fell in love with the architecture and wanted to make at least one movie here - he had felt like every single traffic light had turned red just as they got there which meant he wasn’t a bit early or perfectly on time. No. He was late. His father had taught him the importance of punctuality. “Being on time is being late,” Gustav Graham de Vanily always said, “but at least you’re technically on time so you might be forgiven if you apologize. But it’s always better to be a few minutes early. But don’t be too early, that’s just as impolite as being too late. Always plan with some spare time, you can always wait outside until it would be acceptable for you to ring the bell. And if you still can’t make it, at least call!”

Well, his father probably didn’t expect that an angry Poison Ivy would rip up almost all streets between his penthouse and Bristol just as he got into the car. Neither would he expect the traffic lights to conspire against him. At least he did call ahead and talked to the Butler, Mr. Pennyworth, who seemed understanding, but also sounded very reserved. Obviously a fellow englishman.

When the car stopped in front of the imposing manor Felix took a moment to take a deep breath and make sure he looked presentable and that his kwami Krrah was still carefully hidden inside his waistcoat. The crow wanted to come along, so they could hang out with the other kwamis in Marinette’s room.

Then he took the flower bouquet he brought as a hospitality gift. Marinette had told him how much pride Mr. Pennyworth took in his cooking and baking and he knew from her parents in Paris that in this case bringing any food would be inappropriate.

Mr. Pennyworth, at least Felix assumed it was him, had already opened the door and watched as he walked up the steps to the entrance.

“Mister Graham de Vanily, I suppose?”

Felix gave him a polite smile and offered a handshake which the butler took after a moment. “Indeed that’s me, Felix Graham de Vanily. Am I correct in assuming that you are Mr. Alfred Pennyworth?”

“You are. May I take your coat? The flowers would be for Miss Marinette?”

“Oh no, they are for the family. Marinette let me know that it would be quite the faux pas to bring anything edible as a hospitality gift,” Felix answered. He has always been quite observant, so he noticed the tiny twitch in the older man’s face. A faint almost smile. He decided to see this as success.

“Very well, then I shall find a suitable vase in just a moment. Please follow me and take a seat in the sitting room, I will inform the family of your arrival.”

The butler took his coat, put it away and offered him a pair of house slippers. After that he led him to a tastefully decorated room to wait for his hosts. He asked him if he could offer him anything to drink and Felix gratefully accepted a cup of Earl Grey tea.

“Psst, Felix!”

Felix looked around before he looked down his waistcoat into the beady black eyes of his kwami.

“I’ll go and find the other kwamis and tell your girlfriend that you’re here,” Krrah declared in a croaky voice. Felix gave them a tiny nod and then acted as if he was checking his appearance again.

When he looked back up a steaming cup of tea stood in front of him. When did that appear? Hopefully after Krrah got away. He very deliberately did not check on his tie pin to make sure it was still there. If someone actually had seen everything, that would give too much away. Instead, he adjusted his cuffs and checked his cufflinks. After that he decided to reach for the tea.

Only for it to be snatched out of his hand. He blinked in surprise and turned in the direction the hand had come from. There stood a dark haired teen roughly his age with icy blue eyes and an exhausted smile. In one hand he held the cup of tea, the other held up a struggling kid by the scruff of his neck like a misbehaving kitten. The image was surprisingly fitting especially when the kid started to hiss insults at the teen, calling him “Drake”.

“I’m so sorry for him,” Drake apologized. “Damian likes to play pranks and this time he seemed to think putting some sleeping pills in your tea would be funny.” At that the boy hissed again and resumed his struggles.

“It is my duty as her only true blood brother to defend Marinette,” Damian declared.

“May I ask what the meaning of this is?” a cool voice came from the door. There stood Mr. Pennyworth with another steaming cup of tea. His right eyebrow rose as he observed the picture that presented itself to him. “Master Timothy, would you please let Master Damian down?”

Timothy sighed and set the child down. Damian gave him a calculating look and then a small knife stuck in the upholstery next to him and Timothy restrained the boy once more.

“Alfred, I would love to let go of Damian, but he doesn’t seem to know how to behave in front of a guest,” Timothy told the butler. “I’ll bring him to Bruce. I’m sorry about the upholstery.”

With that he left and Mr. Pennyworth placed the cup of tea in front of him with a sigh.

“Please excuse the young master. Regrettably he hasn’t had the most healthy upbringing.”

“It’s not my place to voice any judgment,” Felix replied. It didn’t stop him from thinking such judgment, of course. But instead of saying anything else he pulled the knife out and gave it the butler. “Would you please return this to its owner?”

The man nodded and left again. Felix turned back to the tea when the cup was, again, snatched away. This time he couldn’t suppress a twitch at his eyes and turned again to the person who took the beverage this time.

How this tank of a man was able to come in without making any noise Felix had no idea. The man had unruly, curly black hair. The white streak at the front brought to mind the image of a skunk.

“Hm, Earl Grey. To be honest, I prefer any green tea, but it’s good to have another tea drinker here. There are already too many bean worshippers in this house,” the man declared and gave him a roguish grin. “The name’s Jason Todd and you’re obviously pixie pop’s arm candy?”

“Arm candy, that’s a new one. Especially since those I know agree that everyone pales next to Marinette. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Jason. I am Felix Graham de Vanily.” He offered the man his hand for a handshake and suppressed a wince when that handshake turned out to be a bit more forceful than expected.

“Ah, Felix was it? I have a very serious question for you Felix,” another voice came from the door. Once more a young man with black hair stepped into the room. He grinned good-naturedly, but there was a dangerous glint in his dark blue eyes that had Felix immediately on edge.

“Tell me … what’s your favorite cereal?”

Taken aback Felix only blinked at the man. Jason next to him burst into peals of laughter.

“Cereal?”

“Yes, cereal.”

Felix didn’t know if he was serious or not. “Actually, I don’t eat cereal.” The man gasped as if he had just insulted all his ancestors.

“Then what do you eat for breakfast or as a late night snack?”

“Well, for breakfast I usually eat a boiled egg and toast with jam, marmalade or honey. And I rarely eat a late night snack, but if I get hungry between meals I prefer a greek yogurt with honey, nuts and fruit or simply an apple if I don’t want to put as much work into it,” he explained confusedly. It seemed Marinette’s family was even weirder than she had told him.

“Oh, Felix boy, sounds like you are much too healthy and sane for this family,” Jason cackled.

“I tried to warn him,” he heard Marinette say from behind the cereal-obsessed man. “In or out Dick, but don’t stand around in the doorway.”

The man going by the unfortunate name of “Dick” sighed and stepped inside. Behind him Marinette came in and gave him one of her beautiful smiles. That’s all he needed to remember why he was doing this.

“Hello Marinette,” he greeted as he stood up to come over to her. Marinette grinned, pulled him in and pressed their lips together. After the kiss swallowed his surprised (and plainly undignified) squawk he returned the kiss gently. The two men in the room made noises of discomfort but he realized this was part of why Marinette did it when she grinned into the kiss.

When they pulled back his wonderful, beautiful, brilliant girlfriend smirked at her brothers.

“Remember, I am French, I have absolutely no problem kissing my boyfriend in front of you or dad whenever any of you step out of line. And I can’t imagine Felix disliking my idea of punishing you, do you?”

He shook his head and gave her a conspiratorial grin.

“My lips are at your service, my queen.”

#mss2024 #shutterbug station 2024 #maribat #maribat felix graham de vanily #felinette #fluff #slice of life #curtainfic

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thegrapeandthefig · 2 years

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The Adeia - a modern festival to Demeter

Historically, it’s often during times of hardships and crisis that new cults would be established and religious innovations would appear. This one is no different. It’s through discussion with @iliosflower that the idea of creating a new festival, one that would more accurately respond to modern problematics, came to fruition. This is what we’d like to explain in this post and hope that the idea finds an echo, and hopefully, validation from the wider community.

Why? What is it supposed to do?

On a global scale, we’re dealing with a climate crisis that is putting food sources at risk. On a more local level, conflicts and abnormal weather are creating risks of bad harvests, resources shortages and/or inflations.

We are aware that not everyone is impacted directly by the current ongoing issues, but we hope that this festival (or at least the idea) can be useful beyond these and be seen through a wider scope of praying for food security at large.

We named the festival Adeia, from the ancient Greek ἄδεια, which conveniently can signify both “abundance”/”plenty” and “freedom from fear”/”security”. All things the festival aims for.

How? What would the festival entail?

For whom? Demeter Soteira (the saviour) and Herakles Alexikakos (averter of evil). While this is what we thought was appropriate, we gladly encourage additions, especially if it fits your local situation (eg. Poseidon or Zeus could both make logical additions to protect from droughts or other natural disasters that impact food security).

For what? An answer to the needs of current events; fear of food shortages/wheat shortages

Purpose; invoke the Saviour and Averter of Evil, ask for their continued blessings for plentiful food in the home for you and your loved ones, thanking them for past blessings, ask them to watch over those that will be hit the hardest by the current food crisis. Ask for Herakles’ strength and forbearance in the coming year; ask for Demeter’s continued blessing of your home’s stores.

Date: 1st weekend of September (2022: 3-4th of September) / a week before Eleusinian Mysteries. These dates are based on the Northern hemisphere, feel free to make the dates match your local harvest calendar.

Ideal food offerings:

Pig; preferably piglet (if findable); fat and smoke to go up to Demeter; BBQ will do perfectly.

Rye, barley, and wheat as grains (if rice/corn or another grain is the majority grain in your area, go for that instead), baked into cakes, and/or tossed on the fire for Demeter.

Some kind of honey fritters; honey and bees are connected to Demeter, as a thank you for their pollinating the plants, flowers, and all that grows; or fruits and vegetables; to honour the “fruit of Demeter’s labour” and all she does for mankind.

Ideal drink offerings;

Grain-based drinks (see: Kykeon at her festival in Eleusis); you can get close to this with beer, mead, with a mint flavouring preferably.

Other ideas to offer;

Donate either food/money to your local food banks or charities that help in relief from food shortages.

Support local farmers/buy your groceries for this weekend solely from regional products.

Bring awareness to the current crisis and see what you can do to support others.

Make a votive offering and give it to Demeter and/or Herakles on this date.

Read the Hymn to Demeter out loud/listen to a recording of it, as a reminder of her blessings to mankind and how she relieved us from famine before.

A simple libation and prayer of thanks goes a long way; offering what you can afford/can do in your situation is historically attested and perfectly valid. Offerings should be made according to what is possible and reasonable for your means.

Feedback, discussion & questions welcome.

Sources used in the making of the festival;

Hesiod, Works and Days Pindar, Olympian XIII A Companion to Food in the Ancient World, Nadeau, Robin Wilkins, John Earthquakes and the Gods: Reflections on Graeco-Roman Responses to Catastrophic Events, Fritz Graf Demeter, Myths, and the Polyvalence of Festivals, Sarah Iles Johnston

#hellenic polytheism #hellenic religion #hellenic pagan #hellenic paganism #hellenic deities #helpol #theoi #demeter #demeterdeity #demeter deity #hellenic pantheon #hellenic prayer

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coinandcandle · 2 years

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Autumnal Equinox

Leaves are starting to turn, the air will get a little chilly, you know what time it is: Sweater weather the Fall Equinox! This year in the Northern Hemisphere, the equinox lands on September 23rd.

What is the Fall Equinox?

One of two yearly equinoxes, when the day is equal to night. The Earth’s axis won’t tilt away from or towards the sun, as the sun is exactly above the equator. In the context of astronomical seasons, this equinox officially marks the beginning of fall.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we celebrate the equinox either on September 22nd or 23rd. In the Southern Hemisphere, this equinox is celebrated on March 20th or 21st.

During this time, the Southern Hemisphere will be celebrating their Vernal Equinox!

Equinox vs Solstice

What’s the difference between an equinox and a solstice? The equinox occurs twice a year and during this time the night and day are equal; the solstice also occurs twice a year but rather than night and day being equal, the day is shorter on the winter solstice and longer on the summer solstice. Here’s a simple way to help you remember:

Equinox is made up of the Latin “aequus,” meaning equal, and “nox,” meaning night, since the daytime and nighttime are equal during the equinox; Solstice comes from the Latin “solstitium,” which means “stopped sun.”

History and Holidays

The full moon nearest to this equinox is referred to as the “Harvest Moon”, referencing the extra time given to the farmers to gather their crops in the light of the full moon before the frosts start. For full moon meanings, check out my Full Moon Meanings post!

Perhaps one of the most popular stories, in ancient Greece the people believed the fall equinox to be the return of the goddess Persephone to the underworld where she remains until the spring equinox.

In Mexico, a large pyramid called Chichen Itza was built by the Mayans. On the equinoxes, the sun perfectly hits the pyramid to create an effect that looks like a snake slithering down the steps.

In Peru there is a stone monument called Intihuatana that serves as a solar clock, marking the dates of the equinoxes and solstices.

This equinox marks the first day of Mehr or Libra in the Iranian calendar. This day marks the festival of Mihragan, an Iranian and Zoroastrian holiday that celebrates the Yazata Mithra.

In China, many celebrate Zhōngqiū Jié (Simplified: 中秋节; Traditional: 中秋節), also known as the Mooncake festival or Moon festival, is held to celebrate and honor the moon. Held on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese Lunisolar calendar, the day that the festival is held can range from mid-September to Early October in the Gregorian calendar. This holiday is also observed by folks in Vietnam and Taiwan.

Japan has Shūbun no Hi (秋分の日; "Autumn Equinox Day") which is a public holiday celebrated on the 22nd or 23rd of September. This holiday was repackaged as a secular holiday but originally this day was Shūki kōreisai (秋季皇霊祭), a Shinto holiday. Moon-viewing festivals are held on this day called Tsukimi (月見) or Otsukimi (お月見), and Jugoya (十五夜) in honor of the autumn moon.

Japan also has Higan (彼岸, "Distant Shore") observed by Japanese Buddhists and is held not only on the fall equinox but on the spring equinox as well. During this holiday Buddhists will return to their hometowns and pay respects to their ancestors.

In South Korea Chuseok (추석), meaning “autumn evening” is a three-day mid-autumn festival celebrated near the autumnal equinox. This is seen as one of the most important festivals of the year.

Dożynki, a Slavic harvest festival, was traditionally held on or near the autumnal equinox but is celebrated in the modern day on the Sunday after the harvest season.

While it is possible that Celtic cultures celebrated or observed the autumnal equinox, there has yet to be a historical name found for it. If the Celts did celebrate this astronomical event, they likely wouldn’t have named it “Mabon”. I have not been able to find any article about the Celts possibly celebrating the fall equinox that has genuinely historical resources. Please send me your resources if you have them!

This is not a complete list of holidays on or surrounding the equinox, just a few that I have found! Please feel free to add more in a reblog or comment! <3

It's important to note that most of these are not considered witchy or pagan holidays. Witches and Pagans can and do celebrate these if they are a part of the culture, religion, or belief systems involved. We should only label these holidays as they are labeled in their respective religions and culture.

The Equinox in Modern Witchcraft

So, how about the modern witches who want to celebrate?

As we welcome Autumn, cultivate the energy of the season: Summer is coming to an end, things are starting to change, crops are being harvested, and leaves are turning many shades of warm colors despite the weather growing colder.

Equinoxes balance day and night, where in your life do you need more balance? How can you obtain this balance?

Reaping what you sowed; Allow yourself a time of relaxation as the seasons begin to change. Working hard non-stop and never taking the time to chill out will cause burnout like no other. Reap the rewards of your hard work!

Correspondences

Deities

Generally, deities to do with Autumn or Harvest deities, including but not limited to: Mabon or Maponus, Persephone, The Morrigan, The Dagda, Lugh, Osiris, Vertumnus, Modron, Eurus, Demeter, Dionysus, Adonis, etc.

Colors

Red

Yellow

Brown

Orange

Rocks/Crystals/Stones

Tiger’s eye

Citrine

Carnelian

Herbs/Plants

Chives

Thyme

Rosemary

Sage

Sorrel

Hyssop

Orange

Fennel

Activities

Go berry or apple picking.

Create a simmer pot with the corresponding herbs.

Go camping and appreciate the nature around you changing.

Have a bonfire with friends and family (maybe burn things but do so safely)

Create a feast for either your family and friends or just yourself!

Do a bit of a Summer’s End Cleanse—for real, clean your house physically and metaphysically.

If you work with any deities or spirits, set out offerings for them.

Clean and rearrange any altars you may have out.

This is not an authoritative list, these are just some correspondences and activities that you could use or participate in this holiday. Celebrate however you'd like!

References and Further Reading

Autumnal Equinox - Britannica

Fall Equinox - History.com

Fall Equinox - Farmer’s Almanac

September Equinox - Wikipedia

many other links sprinkled throughout the post

Enjoy my posts? Consider leaving me a tip on my ko-fi!~

#pagan holidays #witchcraft #beginner witchcraft #pagan #witchy holidays #autumnal equinox #fall equinox #equinox

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madamlaydebug · 1 month

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Haha! Makes sense. 🤓

📷: Art by Ahmed Elblas

MER: THE GREAT PYRMID OF GIZA

The Great Pyramid Of Giza Known as Mer to the ancient Kemites is the most enigmatic structure on the face of the planet. Mer which translates to the “Place of Ascension” is the only surviving wonder of the ancient world and has inspired much speculation as to why it was built and what was its function.

According the the ancient Kemites themselves the Pyramids served as a ritual center for the Per Ankh schools of initiation. The Kings and Queens chambers were designed to harness resonance frequencies to induce higher states of conciousness. The structure of the pyramid was designed using sacred geometry which allowed the structures to tap into the subtle energies of the earth and the cosmos. The ancients harnessed this enegery for a number of purposes. It is said that the Pharaohs would use the Mer structures which were incased in highly reflective white limestone, capped with gold to "Turn night into day". A feat of such greatness would surely ensure their names and legacies would live on for thousands of years. They were right.

The mathematical accuracy and astronomical information encoded into the structure has baffled scientists for decades. The great pyramid is aligned within three sixtieths of a degree of true north, a more accurate alignment than any other structure on earth. It is not only aligned almost perfectly to the cardinal points, but its placement on the earth is intentional as well placing it directly in the center of the world's landmass.

The level of technological sophistication used to build this great monument far exceeds the capabilities of today’s greatest minds and we could not build anything close to the great pyramid today even with our perceived advanced technology and building machinery. The ancient Kemites did not use the inch as they do in our modern system.

They used the royal cubit which is one 25 millionth of the polar diameter of the earth which is the exact distance from the north to the south pole. If you chop that distance into 25 million pieces you get the royal cubit.

The length of a base side at the base socket level is 9,131 inches which translates to 365.242 royal cubits. This just happens to be the earthly year right down to a quarter day. The measurements of the length and width of the perimeter of the great pyramid corresponds to an exact fraction of both the longitude and latitude measurements at the equator. Scaled up this means the great pyramid directly corresponds to the circumference of the equator as well as the measurements from the equator to the pole, making it a scale model of the northern hemisphere.

If you take the location of the Great pyramid as a coordinate this number sequence matches the speed of light traveling through space measurement in meters per second. None of this is a coincidence and the vast information encoded about the earth and its relation to the cosmos points to the fact that these ancient Africans were far more advanced than we could ever imagine and the methods in which they collected and incorporated these high sciences into their structures and cities still escape scientists today.

Today I give thanks to the ancient Kemites and those that came before for their contributions of Mathematics, Sacred Geometry, Architecture & Astronomy. I am grateful for these gifts you gave to the world.

Black Genesis by Robert Bouval and Thomas Brophy

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Genesis.../dp/159143114X

𓊵𓏏𓊪 𓋹 Hotep Be at peace

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https://www.youtube.com/@knowthyselfinstitute

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"I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds." ~ 35th & 36th Principals of Ma'at

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explorersaremadeofhope · 3 months

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I would like to know more about both your Star Trek Terror fic and your Crozier hates tinder fic please 🙏

omg okay so like, these are both a bit old, star trek terror fic is proper old, i think i wrote it in 2021, but im still hoping!! i had so much fun just working out the worldbuilding on that one and how the different characters slot into different roles, but then i ran up against my old nemesis The Actual Plot and was like 'hmm ok, i think i need to know a bit more about Star Trek TOS lore for this', aaaand that's where i stalled. it's fitzier, but like, eventually. very eventually. you'll see why from the snippet 😂

crozier hates tinder fic was me going 'why is there almost no modern au romcom rossier fic' and then having a very funny convo with some folks on discord about science nerds on tinder. that one mostly exists in vague outline form with a scene or two written out plus random details like 'james ross owns not one but several tacky early 2000s mugs from various places in the southern hemisphere, preferably with penguins on'.

snippets mostly below a cut because they got long (sorry about that)!

Star Trek Terror:

francis raised his brows, but said nothing. ignoring fitzjames' confused expression, he turned his attention back to the file in his hand. "i see from your service record that you've received several commendations for bravery in engagements with the romulans and the klingons." he looked up. "out of curiosity, do you speak klingon? or romulan?"

"ah, no, sir," fitzjames smiled apologetically. "i'm afraid i don't."

"i see. so your expertise lies primarily in firing at alien races, not communicating with them."

it wasn't a fair question, nor a fair conclusion. clearly taken aback, fitzjames blinked in open surprise. "sir," he began carefully, "i believe my qualifications -"

"your qualifications, commander fitzjames, are perfectly adequate. even impressive. for war." francis fixed him straight in the eye and held his gaze. "but don't let the repurposed nature of our ship fool you. we are a survey vessel. you will appreciate, no doubt, that the primary goal of any exploratory mission is to avoid bloodshed, not to excel at it." fitzjames drew breath to speak. francis ignored it. "put bluntly, commander, we don't particularly need a war hero. what we need is someone who knows how to calibrate a spectrometer correctly."

"with all due respect, sir," said fitzjames, once he was sure francis had finished speaking, "i think you'll find i have the requisite scientific training to apply for this post." he'd uncrossed his legs while francis was speaking and now sat ramrod straight. his mouth was pinched, his dark brows drawn together.

francis waved that away with a flick of his hand and a shake of his head. "this isn't a twelve-month patrol tour along the neutral zone, commander. we will be five years in deep space. sometimes uncharted space. in that situation, a man's merits on paper will matter far less than his personal qualities."

there was a pause in which fitzjames lowered his gaze to the floor, his jaw working. when he spoke again it was to a point just above francis' shoulder. the affable buoyancy had drained from his voice, leaving a gravel harshness which francis privately suspected was far more genuine. "i respectfully posit, sir," said fitzjames, "that you don't know my personal qualities, seeing as we've only just met."

francis' smile did not reach his eyes. "be that as it may. i'm afraid my decision is made, commander." he set his padd aside and folded his hands on the table. "thank you for your interest. and good morning."

Tinder fic:

“Well,” says Blanky flatly. “That's sexy.”

But as he reads over the message one more time, Francis’ heart is actually slowing down from its panicked gallop – his dread replaced with sheer relief at being given a topic of conversation he's fluent in.

“No, no, it's fine,” he says absently, staring at the words I'm thrilled we matched. “I don't mind.”

“Aye, you wouldn't, would you. What the hell are–” Thomas peers at the screen more closely. “Pinnipeds?”

“Seals. Well. Not just seals.” Francis looks up. “It's one of those things – all seals are pinnipeds but not all pinnipeds are seals. You know?”

Blanky regards him with the look of a man who absolutely does not. "Right."

After staring at his phone for a few moments longer, Francis opens the keyboard.

Hi, he types out with deliberation. Thank you for – no. That comes off a bit pathetic, doesn’t it. Backspace.

Thank you; likewise. Exclamation point? Does the full stop look dour? Cold? But he’s never been much of an exclamation point man. Likewise – I’ve always wanted to visit Antarctica. What

He stops typing, seized by a sudden fear. Hurriedly erasing the message draft, he looks up at Blanky. “Can people see me typing on this thing?”

“Fuck should I know, Francis? I’ve been married for twenty years. – Give us a minute, though.” Blanky pulls out his own phone and writes a text. Less than a minute later, his phone pings. “Hannah says aye. Also wants to know if I'm cheating on Esther.”

#*#asks #wip game #thank you for asking!!💖

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bigbroadvice · 22 days

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Hi, I want to preface this with the fact I was raised in a conservative home, homeschooled, and very .. insulated from people I guess. My first public schooling experience was college and I only made a few friends I kept at arms length for a while. So I don’t know a ton of people.

I have recently been questioning a lot about politics and religion and science (I was never taught about evolution either and am just now learning about it) and I am .. questioning LGBT stuff and I was wondering if you know of studies proving LGBT identities? Or evidence for them? I was raised being told they just didn’t exist and the idea that they could be real is .. I guess amazing to me. I’m so sorry if this sounds cruel at all. I support and love my LGBT friends, I just don’t understand if there’s any science or proof behind it and .. I’m kind of questioning if I’m LGBT too but I really need evidence or I know I’ll never be accepted by my family. Are there studies proving people can be born gay or trans? Or anything else? Something like that? I’ve found studies looking at trans brains that look promising and the hemispheres and hypothalamus of gay and lesbian people but idk if there’s anything else.. thank you in advance.

Sorry this took so long to respond. I felt like I needed to do some research for it but I’ve been struggling to keep my head above water with college work.

Don’t worry, this is a perfectly valid question given where you’re coming from and that’s exactly what I’m here for, all the questions you’re not sure who else to ask.

Honestly, it sounds like you’re already doing a really thourough job researching, in fact I’d love to see what you’ve found. I’m not sure what kind of scientific proof I could find for you that LGBT people are real. It’s like finding research that proves the sun is real. Of course it is, it’s right there. Queer people are everywhere and always have been.

But I understand that you were raised in an environment that went to great lengths to deny that reality. I was also homeschooled in a very conservative home and while they couldn’t outright deny the existence of queer people because I had some access to the outside world and knew I myself was queer, they did try their very hardest to explain it away as something you get infected with, confusion, a choice, and/or sin.

I don’t know all the science behind why people are queer, I just know that they are and there’s no changing it. Some people are naturally attracted to another sex, and some people are naturally attracted to the same one. Some people have always felt comfortable in the gender they were assigned at birth, and some people never have and never will. People will try to tell you that can be changed, but it can’t. They used to try to medicate it like a disees but all that did was make people depressed or feel nothing at all, not start feeling attraction for the opposite sex.

Growing up, they told me that if I prayed enough and did all the right things I could stop being queer if I wanted it enough. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s a lie. I went though years of conversion therapy and am still just as queer as I’ve always been. No amount of bible verses and earnest pleading prayers and counseling sessions and exorcisms was able to make that go away, it just made life miserable.

The only choice involved in being LGBT is weather you choose to love or hate yourself for it. It’s not going away, so you can either choose to live in shame and keep yourself from things that would make you happy, or you can embrace it and live freely.

If you’re looking for more avenues to research, I’d recommend queer history. It’s really eye opening seeing how queer people have always existed in every time period and every culture, through persecution and celebration. We have been and always will be here for as long as humanity is, because we’re an inextricable part of it.

#big bro advice #cw religion #cw conversion therapy #cw christianity #cw homophobia #cw religious trauma #lgbtq #lgbtq community #queer #queer community #queer history #lgbt

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justjams2003 · 8 months

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Sweet Savagery 4

Paring: Dark!Thor Odinson x Slave!Reader

Summary: All your life, Thor's blue eyes have haunted you. You believed you outran him, but now all your hopes come tumbling down.

Warnings: Death of loved ones, violence, nightmares, non-con, p in v, degradation. Tell me if I missed any.

Word count: 1.8k+, Unedited

1st Divider by: @firefly-graphics

2nd Divider by: @cafekitsune

Tag list: @torossosebs @steverogersistheguy

~Masterlist~

Part 3~Part 5 (coming soon)

Tension sits like a fog in the air. The sun has long since set, it's well into the night. The whole castle is quiet. You've had dinner, the knights have changed to the night shift, and all the maids have gone to bed. The candle on the nightstand is short and the sight of the flickering flame is burned into your eyes at this point.

The fear of the door opening has kept you stuck, in the same position on the bed. Cradling your legs up close against your arms, against the headboard. You sit, as small as possible against the furthest point, away from the door, on the bed.

You've long since changed into your night dress, your long locks of hair have been combed and hangs loose in front of your eyes.

The curtains closing off the balcony, blow in the night wind. It's cold, winter cold and heavy storm clouds hang in the air. Likely filled to the brim with expecting snowflakes. Ready to coat the northern hemisphere with a thick layer of ice.

You yourself have crawled under the sheets, all to shield yourself against the freezing wind. And you can't help but think that perhaps you should've started a fire in the fireplace.

The flame of your candle flickers wildly and completely blows out when the door is opened. Your eyes blow wide with fear and your body immediately starts to shake. Thor's shining blue eyes fall on your form. Again, for the slightest moment, a mere second in time, you see guilt cloud into a storm.

On instinct, you shove the sheets aside and make your way to the hauntingly beautiful man. Each step is wobbly, what will he do next? Will your fear spark him to throw you in the dungeon to rot? His golden hair and beard shine in the moonlight but, like always, it's nothing compared to those eyes.

Your bodies are close, and with your height, you expertly avoid looking into his eyes. His breath is hot against your face and you can taste the beer. With trembling hands, you go to unclip his blood-red cape. But he catches your hands. So small and delicate in comparison to his.

For once his touch is soft, as if he fears he might break you. Physically, and mentally your anxiety level is ramped up to 100. He takes you under the chin and forces you to meet him.

There is truly nothing else in the world that compares to the sight of King Thor.

His hair the colour of coins hangs just below his shoulders. His beard is full and frames his sharp cheekbones perfectly. Thor's plump lips crash into yours. With such urgency and demand. Scouring each inch of you. For love, for forgiveness, for reciprocation? With his sharp mood swings and secrets, you might never know.

If it's in fear of your life, the hope for love, or simply because this is the first time he's kissed you, that you kiss back, you don't know. How your body reacts is also completely out of your control.

Your hips slot themselves next to his, his hand pulling your waists together. And suddenly you're craving him more and more. The slight domestic bliss makes you dizzy.

Abruptly, it stops. He pulls away, luckily when you're begging for breath. His eyes examine the way your chest moves up and down and the way that your cheeks flush red. In the rush, a strand of hair has escaped from behind your ear. Thor shoves it back in place, only for your hair to defy him.

A tut escapes his lips and then strangely enough he sits down on the bedroom bench. His hands motion for you to sit in front of him. It's confusing, yes, but in fear of the slimy rooms below the castle, you comply. You sit down, criss-cross between his legs.

He pulls you closer, and then peculiarly, takes his hair into your hands. Beginning at the very top, he takes three sections into his hands. And then, with the same fingers that lit your village on fire and murdered your parents, he begins to braid your hair.

The silence is cut short by Thor clearing his throat. "You are the lady of the castle now. If you fear your king, you may not show it. They must never see you cry. Even if their death is certain." At that last sentence, he pulls the braid tighter. Causing your face to contort with discomfort.

You stay quiet, even if the questions bubble all around you. "I'm leaving tomorrow morning. It seems the people down south are much less willing to give in than we thought. I will not be gone for long, two weeks at most." Each time his fingers graze your scalp, you must fight the urge to run.

"Thor..." your voice is hushed, worried that you are speaking out of turn. "Yes, little dove?" He asks, coming close to the end of the braid. "I am but a slave and an orphan. I do not think I should be given the responsibility of being your lady." At the end of your words, he rips a piece of his sleeve.

He uses the scrap to tie off your braid. "If you shouldn't have the responsibility of being queen, then I should not have the responsibility of being king. For I too am an orphan and a slave to the gods." His words speak of wisdom beyond the years that he is considered to have lived.

Your breath hitches in your throat at hearing his confession. He turns your body around, analysing his handy work. "It's not as neat as my mother taught me. I am sure she is scolding me for it now." The braid sits high on your head, little do you know it speaks volumes of Thor's heritage and culture.

His heart aches at the thought. Of his mother and father, the kingdom he was owed and the memories he's been running from so long.

Though, with your arrival into the world, it seems to be catching up to him. And the thought enrages him. Not that it's your fault. And when you look at him with such fear and at the same time yearning, he lacks true anger.

Your eyes search for some sort of explanation of his words. Or perhaps the true emotions that he hides from you. He can't help but smile, seeing the concentration on your face. Your innocent bliss to the gears turning behind the scenes. The gods at play with you and him meeting in the first place.

His fingers stroke your cheek, desperately yearning for your mortal mind. A king like him shouldn't be jealous of your fragility and yet he is. "We leave at sunrise. Be there." Anon, he, without warning, stands up and in long strides makes him leave.

And like a few nights before, you reach for him. His big forearm rests in your small hands. "Mustn't you sleep before a trip?" Why you still want him in the same bed as you, after he made such shame to you, is beyond your mind. Nevertheless, your heart knows and in that you trust.

"If it pleases my lady?" How on earth can this man with a kind smile be the same as the one before. That had you on your knees, exposed and begging for a dead man's forgiveness. Again, your weak heart caves. "It would." You keep your words short, or else you might just expose the fight in your mind.

It doesn't take him long to scoop you up into his arms. His armour is gone before you realise it. The warmth radiates from him, and you can't help but enjoy the way he pulls you closer. His grip is strong on your body and you're sure a bruise will form there.

But then again, that'd be a reminder of a good moment.

For the first time since being a small girl, you woke up being held. The person holding you is the one who ended the same childhood that this all reminds you of. Nevertheless, waking up was not peaceful.

The bed shakes as Thor kicks in his sleep but somehow refuses to let you go. Nail marks scrape and small pools of blood form. Until, with an extreme urgency, Thor lets go and snaps awake. He's sitting upright, and he's sweating for the first time since you've met him.

You too sit up right, rubbing circles on the back of the giant. Hoping to soothe him of any shape or form. But as soon as you touch him, his eyes glitch to yours. His face seems to rear in disgust and he rubs his forehead. He throws off the sheets and puts as much distance as he can between you.

He stands leaning over the balcony, his toned muscles glisten in the first rays of the morning. He looks to be in a fight with himself. Muttering things in a language you've never heard of. Do you move? Do you comfort him? His warnings of last night echo in your mind. Show no fear.

Your steps are barely heard when you walk across the cold stone of the balcony. You can see the railing is covered in a thin layer of snow. The first snow of the season. Shivers shake your body as you realise you've left your coat behind. How Thor isn't freezing, as he's only in his breeches, is beyond you.

You wrap your arms around yourself. "Thor...?" His voice startles him again, this time he has more control. "You'll get sick..." he begins to scold but trails off seeing where the fabric of your nightdress is ripped. Seeing the slight bit of blood pool around the tears stops him in his tracks.

He curses in the same language as before. "I did not mean to hurt you. I... sleep has never come easy to me." It's his only explanation, not that you care. You can only soak up the way he dotes over you.

You shrug, tucking stands of hair that had fallen out of your braid back in place. "You...that night...it happens the same to me." His jaw slams shut at this. His gentle features turn sharp as stone once more. Thor gives just a slight push, forcing you back onto the fur skin laid out on the inside floor.

"Get dressed. You must be quick; they're already packing the boat." He's not wrong, you can see the peer from the balcony. They've already brought everything there to be boarded. You give a mere nod and do as told.

He insisted on braiding your hair again. How he got ready so quickly, without developing a smell, isn't known. You didn't dare question it; you just enjoyed his fingers making their way through your hair. Small moments of bliss.

Saying goodbye at the peer was short and sweet. He daren't touch you, likely in guilt. And as he and his company paddled away, you wondered what you will do with yourself. Rather, with the kingdom and the cold.

#thor x you #thor x reader #dark!thor x reader #dark!thor smut #dark!thor #thor smut #thor x reader smut #dark!thor x reader smut #king!thor x slave!reader #thor #king!thor #thor odinson #thor fanfiction

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seafoamreadings · 4 months

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What are the differences between sidereal and draconic charts compared to tradition or tropical? What can you use them for and what do they mean?

this is actually a pretty huge topic and something i might write more extensively on later but let's do a rundown here.

what is traditional is going to depend a lot on where you are from and who you learn from. vedic and western tropical are the two most traditonal ones i think, and it seems like you are referring to tropical here, but i want to be clear that's not always the case.

so, tropical: this doesn't take into account the precession of the equinoxes over thousands of years, which is why it no longer lines up with the visible stars. i discuss this in more detail in this book and it's also something you can do your own research on if you wish. in this system each sign is just a thirty-degree chunk of the sky, and the 0 degree of aries is determined by the day of the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere (autumnal in south) NOT by the actual beginning of the constellation of stars that looks like aries the ram. i do not have any good scientific reason why this method should work better than any other, but my experience is that it is the best, and it is very old and widely used around the world so others must agree! i use this for pretty much everything although i know a thing or two about some other chart systems.

sidereal: DOES account for the precession of the equinoxes and DOES more or less line up with the actual stars as a result. but make no mistake, there's more than one way to do a sidereal chart. for instance, vedic astrology popular in india is one sidereal system. it uses the same 12 zodiac signs as the tropical system i use, but additional information and if i understand right also each sign is 30 degrees so it doesn't line up perfectly with the stars (someone correct me on this if i'm wrong in the replies please~). but there are other sidereal systems that don't have evenly sized signs, or they do but they incorporate eg the 13th sign, ophiuchus. i have written some before about how i feel like these sorts of systems SHOULD be more accurate but in my personal experience never are. the physicist/astronomer in me doesn't like that but whatever, i don't make the rules.

one thing i have heard is that while tropical is best for knowing thyself, sidereal or at least vedic is better for making predictions. i'm digging into that a little bit on my own time but i think tropical does predictions fairly well itself if you know what you're doing! since i am not as well-versed in vedic i still use tropical for my predictions and while i may not know the minute details it never really gets the vibe wrong.

draconic: a bit of a different thing. i offer these readings in my etsy. like everything i do, it varies a little bit from the most traditional/conventional manner. but it seems to work nicely. i think this style of chart has its origin in vedic astrology where the lunar nodes are the head and tail of the dragon, but it seems a lot of people do this chart in a tropical system anyway. it's defined by making the north node the 0 degree of aries and building the rest of the chart around that. so the planets and spacing of everything are the same as in the tropical natal chart, but the signs change. the idea is that this shows you something about your karma, your soul, your overarching personality in a way that is bigger than your personal egoic small self life as you know it. it's very esoteric and cool.

draconic charts are always really similar to natal charts. they are for a *person*. but you can do vedic or tropical charts about an individual, a meeting, a synastry, an event, a horary chart, etc. so that is another difference.

another thing i want to mention which you didn't ask explicitly but might interest you is all of the above are geocentric approaches. you can also do heliocentric astrology! i'm delving into that too because that's one of those things my science brain wants to work so much, lol. it is not widely practiced in the mainstream but astro dienst will generate heliocentric charts if you check off the right boxes. it's fun to play with. the big change is you no longer have a sun sign, you have an earth sign, and it is opposite whatever your natal sun sign is in tropical (eg i'm a taurus sun, but in heliocentric i have my earth in scorpio.)

that seems like a long post but seriously it just scratches the surface. i hope it helps anyway, and maybe spurs some further investigation! thank you for the excellent question <3 will definitely be reblogging this one for posterity~

#astrology #sidereal #tropical #vedic #draconic #heliocentric #geocentric #astrology charts

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