#phyllis rome | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

littledigest · 2 years

Text

Asteroids for the Rejected and Abandoned Lover

Please don't take this one literally and too seriously. These asteroids do NOT mean you or someone else will experience the same fate as the mythological figure.

A lot of these myths and stories end badly for the female character(s). But consider that there is a long history of writers and artists who created tragic female characters to highlight the tragic nature of their work or to explain a different phenomenon. This should not be a reflection of real life. I made this list just because I noticed a similar theme.

11, 171, 556, 209, 53, 43, 2212, 73

Parthenope 11

Named after Parthenope, a siren who drowns herself after failing to lure Odysseus

Her name means "maiden-voiced."

Hard time accepting rejection; overreacting to rejection

Ophelia 171

Named after Ophelia, the rejected lover of Hamlet from Shakespeare's Hamlet

Ophelia loses her mind when she finds that Hamlet did not love her; she drowns

Feeling a loss of innocence; what we thought was real is not real

Regret; a target for misogyny; retreating into the mind where everything is overblown

Phyllis 556

Named after Phyllis, the wife of Demophon, the King of Athens

When Demophon leaves Phyllis behind to help his father in Greece, Phyllis gives him a casket and tells him to open it when he gives up all hope of returning to her.

Some versions have Phyllis committing suicide when she realizes her husband will not come back; other versions have Demophon opening the casket and accidentally falling on his sword, killing him

Losing faith and giving up hope for a relationship; attachment issues

Dido 209

Named after Dido, the founder and first queen of Carthage (modern-day Tunisia)

In Virgil's Aeneid, Dido falls in love with Aeneas, a Trojan hero, but kills herself when he is ordered by Jupiter to leave.

Before she dies, she has a funeral pyre built to burn everything that reminds her of Aeneas and curses the Trojans, giving rise to the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage.

Becoming vengeful when hurt; overreactions that cause disasters

Also clever, wise, a leader, passionate, volatile

Kalypso 53

Named after Calypso, a nymph who wanted Odysseus to be her husband in exchange for immortality, but he refused because he wanted to be with his wife Penelope

She forces Odysseus to sleep with her and stay with her on her isolated island for seven years

Zeus, with the help of Athena and Hermes, tells Calypso to set Odysseus free

Calypso is upset but helps Odysseus with whatever he needs to leave the island

Her name means "she who conceals"

Hanging onto others for our own benefit; making something/someone fit into our plans; trying to persuade others to change their mind

Falling for someone who is already attached to someone else; being jealous

Feeling that life is unfair; getting the short end of the stick

Ariadne 43

Named after Ariadne, the Cretan princess who helped Theseus find his way out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur

Ariadne betrays her father and country for her love for Theseus, who was a sacrifice for the Minotaur

There are many versions, but ultimately Theseus leaves her; Ariadne then marries Dionysus

A labyrinth-like love life; love taking twists and turns; unexpected endings

Betrayal in the name of love or personal desires

Helpfulness cannot be exchanged for love

Hephaistos 2212

Named after Hephaestus, the Greek god of metalworking, woodworking, artisans, fire, and volcanoes

Hephaestus's mother, Hera, throws him off Olympus when she discovers he has a birth defect

He creates a golden throne for Hera that she could not stand up from once she sat down; the gods try to persuade him to free her; only Dionysus is successful when he gets Hephaestus drunk

Hephaestus and Aphrodite marry, but Aphrodite is consistently unfaithful to him with Ares, the god of war

He creates a chain net that falls on Aphrodite and Ares when they are in bed together to parade them in front of the other gods

Hephaestus and Aphrodite eventually divorce

Exacting revenge, big or small, against those who wrong you

Being outcasted by others; black sheep of the family/group

Talented and indispensable but looked down on or underestimated

Klytia 73

Named after Clytie, a nymph who loved Helios, the sun god

But Aphrodite makes Helios leaves her for another woman, princess Leucothoe, as revenge for Clytie revealing her affair with Ares to Hephaestus

Clytie, upset by and jealous of Helios leaving her, tells Leucothoe's father about his daughter's affair with Helios

The father buries his daughter alive, and Helios never goes back to Clytie

Can show where we are excessively jealous and vengeful

141 notes · View notes

havlasha · 3 months

Text

Prima Ballerina Assolutas

I was reading Maya Plisetskaya’s autobiography (great read!) and it got me thinking. I still find it sad that the phrase “Assoluta” has sort of been laid to rest. Originally designated to Pierina Legnani by Marius Petipa to describe, who he felt, was “The leading dancer in all of Europe”. Although, it was never a refined system and a good chunk of the few designated Primas with the title are disputed/unofficial. Petipa himself formally objected to Kschessinska being awarded the title (one of many petty feuds between the prima and the ballet master. Honestly 1800s Mariinsky troupe drama is so entertaining I could go on all day about it) But it adds a level of prestige, in a world of so many companies both national & regional. It’s certainly a shame that certain dancers never got the honour awarded to them, despite being the greatest heralded (and in demand) dancers of their eras (think Sylvie Guillem, Ulyana Lopatkina, Darcey Bussel). The only still dancing assoluta left is Alessandra Ferri and she is slowly fading out, especially with her new role at the Weiner Staatsoper.

As far as current Primas with the potential for the title, I really think Zakharova could have easily been awarded one by now. It’s a shame that her long-standing controversial political associations have likely hindered any potential for that sort of honour internationally. Just for her sheer presence in the dance world I can’t think of another dancer who holds such a grip on what is considered a “prima”. In talent terms, Osipova should be up there too for her contributions to the world of flying.

Anyway: here’s some photos of the currently recognised Prima Ballerina Assolutas:

Pierina Lagnani - Italian - Mariinsky Ballet

Mathilda Kschessinska - Russian - Mariinsky Ballet

Alicia Markova - British - ENB/ The Royal Ballet

Attilia Redice - Italian - Rome Opera Ballet

Galina Ulanova - Russian - Bolshoi Ballet

Alicia Alonso - Cuban - Cuban National Ballet (Unofficial)

Maya Plisetskaya - Russian - Bolshoi Ballet

Eva Evdokimova - Bulgarian/American - Royal Danish Ballet (also unofficial/sanctioned - appointed by the Mariinsky)

Margot Fonteyn - British - Royal Ballet

Yvette Chauviré - French - Paris Opera Ballet

Anneli Alhanko - Swedish - Royal Swedish Ballet (appointed by the Bolshoi)

Phyllis Spira - South African - Royal Ballet/CAPAB Ballet

Alessandra Ferri - Italian - Royal Ballet/ABT/La Scala

#mariinsky ballet #ballet #bolshoi ballet #classical ballet #paris opera ballet #russian ballet #ballerina #ballet dancer #Ballethistory #mariinsky theatre

5 notes · View notes

libidomechanica · 1 year

Text

Tway this

A tricube sequence

How rich came from the God Bacchus’ pards—

and what foil’d thee! These and the wine of

your iris tightens mechanically.

Like to approach, O Spring, but the

corn is the young, and true’ is always

does. And a Sigh is this: the red with.

Behold two Adons dead! For Winter

would say, Lo! And lay up; and nothing

itself hath wrought the witch’s life is dide.

Moved is like she things a great wrong, have

spoken the loves. This ill presage advis’d;

thou will you to read the sentine?

And the river state! Let the thicket?

Or like a part beside, keep still cold

frae nane, i’ll make their caps; you are seene.

And Phyllis be, you a cream here’s

no belt and as a tunnel. How did

impute, which wanteth toward Damascus.

My vineyards; but twenty hundred their

pettish deceiver? Bitter but a

football thy soften a man in prose.

Whither in thine this due; my spite till

you to the world accountenanced

lady bug within the gleaming flats.

My beloved! Tune thy mouth like the

bliss thou will forgive. My youthful, charming

Chloe. Meg. To unperplex bliss!

But night! Was once he did banish’d, the

sun, and I bursts sixteen years and last,

with no create Ideas in force.

She was the startled little wood are

bad. Imperious were not what, that

Love life, am I say you love is.

Come and probably didn’t want to my sin

and never that he feeds, and blind eyes

of A Love you found the air. The taste.

I am clad in flight, till the cry.

Lurks in these are threescore valiant of

your more gashes and thy starry night.

‘It shall we? Upon their requiring.

Absences, beauties ending no

causeless and diamond: a gold beget?

These words to proof, that thou know before

it should restless verdure story stays

blank indifference. Green with grac’d to write!

Else, suffer’d, it wit that could make a

wife of the sea wand’ring in, disturbed

mind, taking so enrag’d, desire.

To mar the hair of this prey. Do ow;

and my breast. She things was an infinitely

distance remain with loathsome.

There birds such, and nostrils, and set his

face excell’d, and more wayside that is

the blue stone. Yours is the mountains lie.

Gentle Hermes thence breaketh his foes

pursed, the latest time, for thou are seen

me get the lilies. Wreath, till with love.

To passion’s bright, that words she doth them

were unlock’d to standing thus, Ah, Lycius!

Aristocrat— one who frown, O!

Rise up, my mouth when thicket? Weigh the

dire imagination with little

hour whenas I met her lilies.

And yet nought doe meet you went about

you. Dead, by a charms, the Eyes take turn’d

in the fatigue is black as a shell.

Just as lonely as a tunnel. The

one I ate? Resting in this shady

bright longs not for everything back wing.

Some music now? In things grow stiff and

doth make most curious were flower

in the rain, but the man love will leaves.

Into him, with yours. Hee will I could

not wrong whence our lips, and Winter is

the wrong, his brackish waues be glutted.

These lips well as much be Rome and there

remaineth in her? Or, like a young

women young, the hills, whereon the left.

Lord, what we may say, like green she wept

the salt tears in his eyes on your hair.

I never feet. If she sees with tears!

Fair Hermes on mine ear that, as we

do. So I, as I am, first bud?

How beauteous combat, wilful and Meg.

And names, when in dream, while I hard-

believing latch; weeded by the timorous

she. Which is dumb and brake she loves.

And I am not in lust. They wither

or late on the mind at ease. Ceasing

beat upon fold of hueless cup.

Fair fee, he lyes in eyes? With what

prodigies, wherein the windows fleetings

and lover doves the air and having.

On water was she strings her mishanter

fa’ me, if thou being sod; they

are sold to nothing? A flock of brasse.

An odour mother bosom it shall

still-kept course to my tomb; or, like a

shade—for pitying world so glories.

Where dead on the resoundeth! Hath caught

aymes at her lip? Which is inseparate

from heavenly moist hand hills.

Then woo’d, as Senses sore ills, and as

the Nereids fair not the same as

pitying men. Healthy as tragedy.

And art thou inviting fire sprinkled

curtains of great delight. By this for

of moss, with cold woman’s compared well.

Then shall stain her lawny continue.

Thou beauty lies; being time. Lest sight

blow its winding tears once doth again.

Or then yong, his unkind breath, I did

not shields at last. Lowering wings to

the lions’ dens, the nymph mighty men.

It was thine oath to see with a leather

force. In thou with him. Lusty could

not so much care, her cheek, his unkind!

His passions of life.—If I should sleeps.

Within, while my soul love’s fire than you

have we below, mild as a tunnel.

And sires, which thou smooth thee their words she

now for him. And I lose myself being

red she told there is not reprove?

Parting through mine ear that, your bosom

of a turmoil of shame; she push’d

momentary, wayworn wander fair God!

Cease, thou wonder whose sharp fangs one! Lord,

what great wrong. And the hot scent-snuffing

out of. Alight long I could they say.

Like disconsolate th’ Anatomie

of each passing is so farre from

wealthy as thou hast doves or old man?

If love’s gain, reaching dew? Kneeling they

do not grieves. Feeds her a perfume, her

joy. Thus, to roam over thigh to knows?

Thus was, whose vulture to bathes and to

belie—even so sure: what thou told’st

the drops of the moonless them again.

The merchange my sisters as she by

thy beloved is grown, and life she

move: so thou to melt. Will give a rope.

When others’ temple be dead! These blue

stony bed. Had he the fair ladies,

by Loue conquest on their hearts doth sport.

I can content to her; and radiant

eyes, whose voice is in praying. Venus

salutes him farewells. This flying time.

Of the wide world in those bodies and

fro on which he deny it! And doing

me. And dregs of a continent.

For shame; she in height, and my break. ’St

creature: and a few hours all trees or

roses found, what can giue th’eternal.

Of sorts of the turn’d to rate the mountain

of gain, and forever lodging

in the boar. And it will, thou are one.

I hid my love—does a like not with

hear; all ornament, her ere light. More

beauty in the basest brought thy mouth.

She marched for curb or prickles, yet commands

mine: he fell upon thy powre dicerne.

Here is as Lebanon, my spouse!

Blue. When God commander; then from her

bloody earth can freedome gladly spent!

Such sanity will no more nearly.

Need not see, thou talk? Comparing my

sweet heavenly tune, have any jot

diminish’d, or there you want to mee.

My family’s voice in a traded

like a part besides must bid farewell,

hear, Eadwacer? I haue most just yours.

You do it for this is rare occurrence.

And look! If those to love to higher

that gentle Hermes, let me in.

Exceeds commission: I probably good

dealing? Them with such please of the Feild,

I saye as sunny hair like Good-bye.

I am becomes near the flock of

the bench of Death! His love a small lady

bug with spicy chocolates tempers?

Of civilization could exceed

their light. Danger ashy- pale; she were

dumb? The silly mind that burns by night.

Thy two alone stands and put under

mines! Till those circumstance best becomes

the chariots. When thou say or long.

Ay, Love’s eyes and mirrors. Love; behold

hand oft as sound. A mind that she went

in a Prayer, or the Sun did reed.

Sick, she is. The new-sprung flock that had

my fingertips, the altar where his

cheeks, she is even what I passeth.

Thus again, each other is not bear

it. My loves, in love’s gain, or hope nor

my sight of Platonic for pitty?

Bid good smell the game. Ah God shield, his

youth: the simple semblance he did lend

there withstanding grave never open.

Suffice and eke the eastern isle, which

hand his right her face! Even if it

be nay, friend where she finger’d Muses!

The pierce one another, thou were game.

Her brazen proue her pride, and like a

red-ribb’d ledges drip within the dead!

Tho’ father. Ilk spring, chiefly in

her arms infold him not. One day there

herself whilst I sing isn’t deny it.

Never sheath’d unaware hath dropping

safety in her beloved! Those up

the could my love is shell fish to war.

And, like Dante I would singing madness,

and brings, streams. But this Arbour makes

the merciless Tyrant fled; the speak.

Either head, dumbly at your house are

stood, and near Mercer St I probably

left? Or thee; and let me here alone.

Give it the fling his flown? Doubt there’d

been nothing to render, making of

the blood; make glad sighes might nowhere.

Lest she wild sparkles diuiding. Lamia:

tell me, O eyes, I never serpent

now is turn’d to the rushes spread.

Or we could my mother’s body who

should yet too coldly him embracing,

lowers face, his fair in the water.

While I thee in this year: thoughts in love,

untill those precedent of Israel.

First the sweet Stellas selfe forgive me.

The taste thy mermaid’s voice, such foul flaws

to hast heavy heart which thee. So in

the bottom the night do burn my faint?

Of syphilitic senses all me

only words. To earth’s fair discouer when

thou to forsake you! Stars; snare of all.

Her secret name I would sing Euphelia

frowns with lilies. In acrylic

fur. When you didst name in the shutting.

And change, o yearning brows o’er the spring

sport; both with a thousand double

wrong; being the petal tide in it.

Like their frail of her bestead, which to

thee to breeds by her preserve. Till he

please let my pass o’er, then from Gilead.

The reason is like their blossoms blown.

In a brake off his effects, yet his

pence, her face; and brakes obscurity?

Or being bitter spring, senses?

And when he been prow in port Cenchreas,

from his horses in a ready earth.

He lyes in the same, else laws of the

mean. What it was you them: and, have not

seem’d to scold me. Caught me in a crowd?

From the neighbor knows no pity do

now, proving Harbour, yet is thy delight.

In a sunny hair, thy rigour.

Adonis within thy lips obey:

stay! And vouches unto itself at

ever straight, there hung a star in love.

Maud could place she dark night. Is it heaven’s

day with the can see, nor know this

harmed in a bell evening disaster.

With oaths, fair; thou meant thou can praise beside.

Look, when you look she tunes her language

bring paints not in their requiring.

And they, as here, plagues, and his neck, her

hair; lure of his mood?—Truth bepainter

is, then did spight us, in pleasure.

#poetry #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Markov chains #Markov chain length: 6 #151 texts #tricube sequence

0 notes

ashleylovesbooks-blog1 · 6 years

Text

Book Review - I Am Livia by Phyllis T. Smith

Livia, historically, really gets a bad rap. She is known as this manipulative and cunning woman who was only out to further the interests of her sons, future emperor Tiberius and famed general Drusus. Recently, I re-read a book in which she featured heavily as an antagonist, Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran. That book has Livia set up a slave to be brutally raped, plotting to marry young girls off to super old men to get them out of the way, and bullies her son constantly. Happily, that Livia does not exist in this book.

Phyllis T. Smith gave Livia the characterization she probably deserves. Here Livia is not a manipulative, poisoning psychopath. She is shown to care immensely about her family and those who are important to her, and what woman wouldn’t? Yes, she does some scandalous things but it is for the reason that her family is not seen as a threat. Especially the whole, you know, divorcing her husband to marry Caesar Octavianus when she was pregnant with her second son. That was just a bit sketch.

I think she’s only given a bad rap because she was an extremely powerful woman and her husband treated her as an equal. Look at how her contemporary, Cleopatra, was treated. History is written by victors, and most of the time, the victors were men.

Wow, I went on a tangent…Um, anyway, I loved Livia’s character in this book. She was human. She was fearful of the future like I’m sure so many were in that time period. She treated others kindly and did charity work, and was an outspoken woman in a time when women were supposed to just sit there and be quiet.

Her relationship with Octavianus/Caesar Augustus, or Tavius as she calls him, started out as instalove which was a bit contrived, but eventually it got fleshed out. I especially loved their relationship in its early stages when they were confessing their love for each other. Of course, I felt bad for her first husband, Tiberius Nero, who actually seemed fond of Livia, but when the future emperor tells you gotta divorce your wife, you just do. Augustus was a very complex character. I never knew where he stood and it bothered me…in a good way. Towards the end of the book, when they are discussing their possible divorce after a blow up, it was nerve-wracking. Even though I know they remain married for a REALLY long time, but I was still worrying about what would happen next. I wondered if the author was ultimately going to have them divorce secretly, but still rule together as a married couple anyway. Of course, they reconciled as most couple do in a historical romance.

I enjoyed learning about this time period through the eyes of a Roman woman. There are a lot of books about the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Battle of Philippi, and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra through several other perspectives, namely that of Cleopatra. I mean, I get it. The life of Cleopatra was exciting because she was always in charge of her own life. Livia, on the other hand, was powerful in her own right but was still a Roman matron with zero rights. Nonetheless, it’s still interesting to see the other side of the story. I have to say, the part where Antony sends the letter of divorce to Octavia was cringe-worthy. Honestly, if I was Augustus, I probably would have went to war too.

I truly did love this and I don’t really have any gripes about it. Oh, and the prose! I read this book in only two days (mostly because I’ve been in the apartment all week with the flu), but I could not put the book down. There were a few typos, but the sentences still flowed, and there were a few nice quotes.

Rating: 5 star

Favorite Quote:

“I wonder how many women from time immemorial have thought that if only women could rule the world it would be better than it is.”

#historical fiction #ancient rome #i am livia #phyllis t. smith #livia drusilla #caesar augustus #mark antony #cleopatra

16 notes · View notes

maaarine · 3 years

Text

MBTI Typing Index: Fictional Characters — INTP ENTP INTJ ENTJ

Fictional characters: NF, NT, SJ, SP. Real people: index.

—

INTP

A Beautiful Mind: John Nash

(The) Big Short: Mike Burry

Black Books: Bernard Black

Breaking Bad: Gale Boetticher

(The) Bridge (Bron/Bron): Saga Norén

Community: Abed Nadir

Death Note: L

Devs: Stewart

Doctor Who: The 12th Doctor

Elementary: Sherlock Holmes

ER: Lucien Dubenko

Fight Club: Narrator

Genius: Albert Einstein

Halt and Catch Fire: Gordon Clark

Hannah Arendt: Hannah Arendt

Hawking: Stephen Hawking

Me and Earl and The Dying Girl: Greg

Moneyball: Peter Brand

Money Heist (La Casa de Papel): Rafael

Mr. Robot: Elliott Alderson

Ozark: Jonah Byrde

Six Feet Under: Arthur Martin

Skins: JJ

Skyfall: Q

(The) Social Network: Mark Zuckerberg

Suits: Benjamin

Tesla: Nikola Tesla

Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan

Westworld: Bernard Lowe

—

ENTP

(The) Aviator: Howard Hugues

Bridget Jones’s Diary: Daniel Cleaver

Californication: Hank Moody

Community: Jeff Winger

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor

ER: Robert Romano

For All Mankind: Aleida Rosales

Friday Night Lights: Landry Clarke

Friends: Chandler Bing

Game Of Thrones: Tyrion Lannister

Gentleman Jack: Anne Lister

Gone Girl: Nick Dunne

Halt and Catch Fire: Cameron Howe, Ryan Ray

Hamilton: Alexander Hamilton

Harry Potter: Fred & George Weasley

(The) Hour: Freddie Lyon

House: Gregory House

Jessica Jones: Zebediah Killgrave

Jurassic Park: Ian Malcolm

(The) Last Kingdom: Aethelwold

Love, Victor: Felix Weston

Malcolm in the Middle: Malcolm

Mank: Herman Mankiewicz

(The) Martian: Mark Watley

Marvel Universe: Iron Man

Money Heist (La Casa de Papel): Palermo, Alicia Sierra

(The) OC: Seth Cohen

Six Feet Under: Nate Fisher

Stranger Things: Dustin Henderson

Suits: Mike Ross

Teen Wolf: Stiles Stilinski

This Is Going to Hurt: Adam Kay

(The) Tunnel: Karl Roebuck

Veronica Mars: Veronica Mars

—

INTJ

A Single Man: George Falconer

Another Country: Tommy Judd

Better Call Saul: Gustavo Fring

Breaking Bad: Walter White, Gustavo Fring

(The) Crown: Graham Sutherland

Death Note: Light Yagami

Devs: Katie

ER: Kevin Moretti

(The) Fall: Stella Gibson

For All Mankind: Margo Madison

Game Of Thrones: Petyr Baelish

Halt and Catch Fire: Tom Rendon

Harry Potter: Tom Riddle

(The) Hour: Randall Brown

House Of Cards: Claire Underwood

Jessica Jones: Jeri Hogarth

John Adams: Thomas Jefferson

(The) Knick: Algernon “Algie” Edwards

(The) Last Kingdom: Aldhelm

Masters of Sex: Bill Masters

Mindhunter: Wendy Carr

(Les) Misérables: Enjolras

Money Heist (La Casa de Papel): The Professor

Narcos: Jorge Salcedo

(The) OA: Hunter Percy, Alfonso Sosa

Ozark: Marty Byrde

Rome: Octavian

(The) Secret History: Henry Winter

Squid Game (Ojing-eo Geim): Cho Sang-woo

Star Wars: Galen Erso

Testament of Youth: Vera Brittain

True Detective: Rust Cohle

Watchmen: Ozymandias

—

ENTJ

Ares: Rosa Steenwijk

Borgen: Kasper Juul

Downton Abbey: Mary Crawley

(The) Dropout: Phyllis Gardner

Ex Machina: Nathan

Game Of Thrones: Tywin Lannister, Olenna Tyrell

Gilmore Girls: Paris Geller

Gone Girl: Amy Dunne

Good Girls Revolt: Finn Woodhouse

(The) Good Wife: Alicia Florrick

Halt and Catch Fire: Joe Macmillan, Diana Gould

Hamilton: Aaron Burr

House Of Cards: Francis Underwood

(The) Hour: Lix Storm

(The) Knick: John Thackery

Miss Sloane: Elizabeth Sloane

Molly’s Game: Molly Bloom

(The) Morning Show: Cory Ellison

Normal People: Marianne

(The) One: Rebecca Webb

Rome: Gaius Julius Caesar

Sex and the City: Big

Star Wars: Orson Krennic

Suits: Harvey Specter

(The) Thick Of It: Malcolm Tucker

(The) Wire: Stringer Bell

Westworld: Theresa Cullen

You’ve Got Mail: Joe Fox

—

Fictional characters: NF, NT, SJ, SP. Real people: index.

#mbti #mbtiindex #mbtichar #mbtitv #mbtifilms #intp #entp #intj #entj

40 notes · View notes

siegeperilousgalahad · 3 years

Text

Thank you very much for tagging me @miss-dubois <33

Get to know me better

Last song: Moulin Rouge Musical OST (I kinda cheated since I’m listening the whole OST on repeat).

I don’t know how many of you are fans of musicals but if you are this one is totally worth checking it out.

Last movie: Malena

There is something about Italian films that make them so bittersweet to me (and I mean it in a good way!). Only Italian directors and screenwriters makes me laugh one moment and cry the next one. Their dramedies are on a whole different level. On this film specifically, Monica Belucci proves that she’s not only the hottest a very attractive woman but more importantly a great actress aswell. Bravo!

Currently watching: The Haunting of the Bly Manor

Huge Henry James fan here, The Turning of the Shew is one of his best books, I adore the 1960s adaptation “The Innocents” and I also enjoyed the first season of this tv anthology -aka The Haunting of the Hill House-. So while I’ve only watched a couple of episodes of The Haunting of the Bly Manor I already have great expectations.

Currently reading: I’m re reading I am Livia by Phyllis T. Smith

I love anything ancient rome related and especially stories set on Augustian era. And who would make the best protagonist if not the greatest woman of Rome at her time? (ok I’m totally biased:I love Livia, I find her an interesting historical figure and so I keep coming back to this book.

I’m also reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

I’m halfway the book, Eleanor so far is far from being fine and I want to give her a hug.

Currently craving: I wish I had more time to spend doing things I enjoy and less dealing with work and responsibilities but that’s the adult life :/.

Tagging: @like-tears-in-rain-storms, @appleinducedsleep, @thewoodbeyond, @demigoddessqueens, @emberlynn333 , @shortgal2014, @lajeunefilleenfleurs @inviisablecrown, @cathymerteuil, @ladysibyl, @ladysybille @kneelbeforeclefairy

#tagged #personal #about me

109 notes · View notes

metmuseum · 4 months

Photo

Plate 10: The Ancient Gallery: a large covered gallery, light entering from the background, six figures standing atop piles of rocks in the foreground, from "Les soirées de Rome". ca. 1763–64. Credit line: Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/399282

#aesthetic #art #abstract art #art museum #art history #The Metropolitan Museum of Art #museum #museum photography #museum aesthetic #dark academia

4 notes · View notes

met-drawings-prints · 3 years

Photo

Portrait of Ioannes Altus (Johann Alten), of the Swiss Guard, standing by the Quirinal and pointing out the antiquities of Rome, Francesco Villamena, 1623, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Drawings and Prints

Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011 Size: sheet: 14 x 20 11/16 in. (35.5 x 52.5 cm) Medium: Etching; first state of two

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/400199

#themet #metmuseum #drawingsandprints #francescovillamena

2 notes · View notes

tinyshe · 3 years

Text

Witchcraft 101

by Michelle Arnold • 7/1/2008 Catholic Answers

What springs to mind when someone mentions “witchcraft“? Three hags sitting about a cauldron chanting “Double, double, toil and trouble”? A pretty housewife turning someone into a toad at the twitch of her nose? Or perhaps you think of Wicca and figure that it is witchcraft hidden beneath a politically correct neologism.

Witchcraft has become a hot topic in recent years. From J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books to self-described witches agitating for political and social parity with mainstream religious traditions, Christians have had to re-examine witchcraft and formulate a modern apologetic approach to it.

In an age of science and skepticism, it may be difficult to understand why intelligent people would be drawn to witchcraft, which encompasses both a methodology of casting spells and invoking spirits and an ideology that encourages finding gods and goddesses both in nature and within the self. In her “conversion story,” self-described Wiccan high priestess Phyllis Curott, an Ivy League-educated lawyer who was raised by agnostics, describes her journey from secular materialism to Wicca as a rejection of the idea that humans are made for mammon alone:

I discovered the answers . . . to questions buried at the center of my soul . . . How are we to find our lost souls? How can we rediscover the sacred from which we have been separated for thousands of years? How can we live free of fear and filled with divine love and compassion? . . . How can we restore and protect this Eden, which is our fragile planet? (Curott, Book of Shadows, xii)

These are indeed important questions that deserve answers, answers that can be found in their fullness in Christ and in his Church. In a homily then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave at the Mass just before his election to the papacy, he famously observed:

How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves—flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth.

Witchcraft has been around for centuries, perhaps even millennia, but is emerging once more from the shadows as one answer to skepticism, to materialism, even to self-absorption. It is, so to speak, the wrong answer to the right questions; it is, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “gravely contrary to the virtue of religion” (CCC 2117). Catholics should not discourage these questions but must be prepared to offer the only answer: Christ and his Church.

Witchcraft’s apologists like to claim that they are the misunderstood victims of centuries of religious prejudice. Unfortunately, all too many Christians make such claims credible when they misunderstand witchcraft and craft their rebuttals of it based upon those misconceptions. If someone you know is dabbling in witchcraft, here are five things you should know before starting a conversation with him.

Witches do not believe in Satan.

If there is one belief common to witches everywhere, it is that they do not believe in Satan and that they do not practice Satanism. Witchcraft’s apologists are quick to point this out.

Denise Zimmermann and her co-authors of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft emphasize, “Witches don’t believe in Satan! . . . The all-evil Satan is a Christian concept that plays no part in the Wiccan religion . . . Witches do not believe that negativity or evil is an organized force. . . . Neither do Wiccans believe there is a place (hell) where the damned or the evil languish and suffer” (13).

Christian apologists should acknowledge that witches do not consciously worship Satan and that they do not believe he exists. But this does not mean that Satan needs to be left entirely out of the conversation. A Christian apologist should point out that belief in someone does not determine that person’s actual reality.

One way to demonstrate this is to ask the witch if she believes in the pope. “No,” she’s likely to answer. “The pope is a Christian figure.” True, you concede. But there is a man in Rome who holds the office of the papacy, right? Your belief or disbelief in the papacy does not determine whether or not the papacy exists. Put that way, a person will have to acknowledge that something or someone can exist independently of belief in its reality. That’s when you can make the case that Satan exists and that he does not require belief to determine his reality or his action in someone’s life. In fact, disbelief in him can make it easier for him to accomplish his ends.

In the preface to The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis notes that “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

While it is true that witches do not directly worship Satan or practice Satanism, their occult practices, such as divination, and their worship of false gods and of each other and themselves—which they explain as worshipping the “goddess within”—can open them to demonic activity. To make the case though, it is imperative to present it in a manner that won’t be dismissed out of hand.

Witchcraft and Wicca are not synonyms.

Wicca, originally spelled Wica, is the name given to a subset of witchcraft by its founder Gerald Gardner in the 1950s. Although some claim the word Wicca means “wise,” in her book Drawing Down the Moon, Margot Adler states that it “derive[s] from a root wic, or weik, which has to do with religion and magic” (40). Adler also says that the word witch originates with wicce and wicca. Marian Singer explains the difference between Wicca and witchcraft this way: “Witchcraft implies a methodology . . . whereas the word Wiccan refers to a person who has adopted a specific religious philosophy” (The Everything Wicca and Witchcraft Book, 4).

Because witchcraft is often defined as a methodology and Wicca as an ideology, a person who considers himself a witch but not a Wiccan may participate in many of the same practices as a Wiccan, such as casting spells, divining the future, perhaps even banding together with others to form a coven. This can make it easy for an outsider to presume that both the witch and the Wiccan share the same beliefs. But, if someone tells you he is not a Wiccan, it is only courteous to accept that. The Christian case against witchcraft does not depend on a witch identifying himself as a Wiccan. (There are also Wiccans who reject the label “witch,” but this is often a distinction without a difference. Even so, use the preferred term to avoid alienating the person with whom you are speaking.)

Several strands of Wicca attract followings, including: Gardnerian, Alexandrian, and Georgian, which are named for their founders; Seax, which patterns itself on Saxon folklore; Black Forest, which is an eclectic hodgepodge of Wiccan traditions; and the feminist branch known as Dianic Wicca after the Roman goddess Diana. Knowing the distinctions among these traditions may not be important for the Christian apologist, but he should keep in mind that there are distinctions and that he should not make statements that start out with “Wiccans believe . . .” Rather, allow the other person to explain what he believes and then build a Christian apologetic tailored to that person’s needs.

Witches question authority.

When dealing with self-identified witches, remember that no two witches will agree with each other on just about anything. Witches are non-dogmatic to the extreme, with one witch apologist suggesting “[s]ending dogma to the doghouse” and claiming that “[r]eligious dogma and authority relieve a person of the responsibility of deciding on his or her own actions” (Diane Smith, Wicca & Witchcraft for Dummies, 32).

Generally speaking, witches prefer to give authority to their own personal experiences. Phyllis Curott, author of a book titled Witch Crafting, puts it this way: “Witches, whether we are women or men, experience the Goddess within us and in the world all around us. I love what Starhawk [witch and popular speaker and writer] said about this: ‘People often ask me if I believe in the Goddess. I reply, Do you believe in rocks?’” (121, emphasis in original). In other words, witches know “the Goddess” exists because they can experience her by at least one of their five senses. Faith in such a material deity calls to mind the demon Screwtape’s longing for hell’s “perfect work—the Materialist Magician” (Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 31).

Throwing a bucket of cold water on a witch’s “personal experiences” will not be easy, particularly since one of the frightening.aspects of witchcraft is that some witches do have, and blithely report, extraordinary preternatural experiences. Incidents that could and should scare away many dabblers from playing with forces beyond their control are recounted by witchcraft’s apologists as affirmative of their path. Curott tells of a man who once dreamed of “being prey” of a monstrous creature; ultimately, in the dream, he was captured by the creature. Rather than taking this as a sign he should reconsider the path down which he was heading, he awoke “deeply transformed” by the dream’s ending because he believed “tremendous love” was felt for him by the creature. He eventually became a Wiccan priest (Witch Crafting, 154–155).

How can a Christian argue against a belief like that?

Ultimately, it may be that a Damascus-road moment might be necessary to sway someone that deeply entrenched in traffic with preternatural creatures. To those who are not as enmeshed, a Christian can point out that sometimes apologists for the occult have warned their readers not to be taken in by their experiences with spirits.

In a section of his book titled “Practicing Safe Spirituality,” author Carl McColman gives a checklist of “some common-sense precautions” occultists should be aware of “while meditating, doing ritual, reflecting on your dreams, or doing any other spiritual work that may involve contact with spirits.” The first item on the list is “Don’t automatically believe everything you hear. Just because a spirit says something doesn’t make it so” (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism, 129).

Witchcraft is an inversion of Catholicism.

Observers of witchcraft have claimed that it is remarkably similar to Catholicism. Catholic journalist and medievalist Sandra Miesel called it “Catholicism without Christ” (“The Witches Next Door,” Crisis, June 2002). Writer and editor Charlotte Allen noted that “Practicing Wicca is a way to have Christianity without, well, the burdens of Christianity” (“The Scholars and the Goddess,” The Atlantic, January 2001).

It’s easy to see why the assertion is made. Allen notes that as witchcraft cycles through its “liturgical year,” many of its adherents honor a goddess who births a god believed to live, die, and rise again. Fraternization with apparently friendly preternatural spirits is encouraged and eagerly sought. The rituals of witchcraft call to mind Catholic liturgies, particularly the libation and blessing ritual alternately known as “Cakes and Wine” and “Cakes and Ale.” Like Catholics collecting rosaries, scapulars, statues, and prayer books, witches have their own “potions, notions, and tools” as Curott calls them —some of which include jewelry, statues and dolls, and spell books and journals.

But to say that witchcraft has uncanny similarities to Catholicism is to understate the matter. Witchcraft is an inversion of Catholicism: Catholicism emptied of Christ and stood on its head. This is most readily seen in witchcraft’s approach to authority.

In his book Rome Sweet Home, Scott Hahn compares authority in the Church to a hierarchical pyramid with the pope at the top, with all of the members, including the pope, reaching upward toward God (46–47). With its antipathy to authority and its reach inward to the self and downward to preternatural spirits, witchcraft could also be illustrated with a triangle—every adherent poised at the top as his own authority and pointed down in the sort of “Lower Command” structure envisioned by Lewis’s Screwtape.

Witchcraft is dangerous.

In my work as an apologist, I have read a number of introductory books to various non-Catholic and non-Christian religions. Never before my investigation into witchcraft had I seen introductory books on a religion that warn you about the dangers involved in practicing it. The dangers that witch apologists warn newcomers about are both corporal and spiritual.

In her book, Diane Smith includes a chapter titled “Ten Warning Signs of a Scam or Inappropriate Behavior” (Wicca & Witchcraft for Dummies, chapter 23). Her top-10 list includes “Inflicting Harm,” “Charging Inappropriate Fees or Demanding Undue Money,” “Engaging in Sexual Manipulation,” “Using Illicit Drugs or Excessive Amounts of Alcohol in Spiritual Practice,” and “Breeding Paranoia.” Smith claims that such a need to be wary is common to religion: “[U]nscrupulous or unstable people sometimes perpetrate scams or other manipulations under the guise of religion, and this situation is as true for Wicca as for other religious groups” (317).

However true it may be that there can be “unscrupulous or unstable people” involved in traditional religions, most practitioners—Christian or otherwise—do not experience problems with these behaviors to such an extent that religious apologists see the need to issue caveats to proselytes. That Smith does so suggests that these problems are far more widespread in witchcraft than in traditional religion.

We noted one paganism apologist who warned his readers to “practice safe spirituality.” McColman goes on to caution that the “advice” of spirits “must be in accordance with your own intuition for it to be truly useful.” He goes on to say, “You remain responsible for your own decisions. Remember that spirit guides make mistakes like everybody else!” (Paganism, 128).

Catholics concerned about loved ones involved with witchcraft may not be attracted to witchcraft themselves, but there is danger for them in pursuing dabblers down the road to the occult in hopes of drawing them back. In preparing themselves to answer the claims of witchcraft, they may feel the need to read books like those mentioned in this article. If they are not fully educated and firm in their own faith, such Catholics may find their own faith under attack. Three suggestions are in order.

Not all are called to be apologists. If you are not intellectually and spiritually prepared to answer the claims of witchcraft, leave such work to others. Search out knowledgeable Catholics with whom your loved one can speak.

Prepare yourself. Common sense indicates that if you are about to rappel down a cliff, you do so with safety ropes firmly attached and in the presence of someone you trust who can help you if you are in danger. Don’t even think of rappelling down a spiritual cliff without seeking to fortify yourself intellectually and spiritually—particularly spiritually. Inform your confessor or spiritual director of your plans to study and answer the claims of witchcraft. Ask trusted Catholic friends to pray for your work. Regularly receive the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist. If you need to stop or take a break from this area of apologetics, by all means do so. And, most importantly:

Pray. Whether or not you are called to personally minister to those involved in witchcraft, the most fundamental thing you can do to help witches and other dabblers in the occult is to pray.

Saints whose intercession you can seek include Bl. Bartholomew Longo, the repentant former satanic priest who returned to the Church and spent the rest of his life promoting the rosary; St. Benedict, who battled pagans and whose medal is often worn in protection against the devil; St. Michael the Archangel (Jude 1:9), invoked especially by the prayer for his intercession commonly attributed to Pope Leo XIII. And, of course, there’s St. Paul, who reminds us: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39).

SIDEBARS

The Catechism on Witchcraft

There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (CCC 1852)

God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility. (CCC 2115)

All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. (CCC 2116)

All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others—even if this were for the sake of restoring their health—are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity. (CCC 2117)

Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.