#spiritual insurgence | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

contemplatingoutlander · 1 year

Link

This is a surprisingly excellent article by ex-Republican David French about why the attempts of right-wing “Christians” to gain political power (and for some to establish a theocracy) is not consistent with Jesus’ teachings. The above is a gift🎁link, so you can read the entire article, even if you do not subscribe to The New York Times. Below are some excerpts:

But the resurrection isn’t the only lesson of Easter weekend. The story of Christ’s arrest, trial and crucifixion contains its own lessons, and one of them is quite relevant to this age and to debates about Christian engagement in the public square. Quite simply, the story of Easter weekend rebukes the Christian will to power.

To understand why, let’s revisit one of the most famous moments in Scripture. After Jesus’ arrest and show trial, Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler of Judea, gave the people a fateful choice. It was customary to release a prisoner during Passover, and Pilate offered up Jesus. The crowd wanted someone else. “Release Barabbas to us,” they cried.

When I was a kid in Sunday school, no one ever truly explained the significance of the crowd’s choice. It mystified me. Barabbas was always described as a heinous criminal, a murderer or a robber. Thus, the crowd seemed completely irrational, even deranged. Its choice of a common criminal over Christ was incomprehensible.

Indeed, the contrast with the public reaction to Jesus’ initial entry into Jerusalem was profound. Days earlier, on what we now call Palm Sunday, Jesus entered the city to accolades. As he rode on a colt, his crowd of disciples yelled these words: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”

As I grew older, I learned more context. Jesus was not the king the throng expected. He made clear that he was more interested in saving souls than in assuming power. And Barabbas was more than a mere criminal. He was an insurrectionist. The Books of Luke and Mark very clearly state that he participated in a “rebellion.” Those who chose Barabbas didn’t choose a common criminal over Christ. Instead, they chose a man who defied Rome in the way they understood, a mission that Jesus rejected. [...] But Christ wasn’t a political leader, even though the people hoped for political liberation.... Yet while Jesus refused the will to power, many of his followers simply couldn’t comprehend his purpose. They persisted in the belief that the kingdom he promised would look very much like the kingdoms of this earth, including the Roman kingdom that dominated their lives.

The spirit of Barabbas — the desire to seize or retain power, through violence if necessary — has been at war with the spirit of Christ ever since. Two millenniums of church history demonstrate a terrible truth: There was nothing uniquely evil about that ancient crowd. Instead it held up a mirror to our own nature, one that is all too eager to wield the sword, to believe that our own power is a prerequisite to justice.

Easter weekend contains more than one example of the spirit of Barabbas. When Christ was arrested, the Apostle Peter — a man who had been by his side for much of his ministry — still could not see the truth. He drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.

Though he was in the midst of an unjust arrest that would prove prelude to an unjust execution, Christ rebuked Peter, saying, “Put your sword back in its place, because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.” [...] There is a difference between the quest for power and the quest for justice. Believers are required to “act justly.” We should not stand idly by in the face of exploitation or oppression. We do not retreat from the public square. But Christian engagement must be distinctive. It cannot emulate the world’s methods or morality.

In fact, we have a modern model. The single most consequential movement for American justice in the last century was influenced and empowered by the Black churches in the South. The civil rights movement wasn’t exclusively Christian by any means — there are Jewish Americans who gave their lives in support of their Black brothers and sisters, for example — but it was animated by faith. [...] “We discussed and debated the teachings of the great teacher, and we would ask questions about what would Jesus do,” said [John] Lewis. “In preparing for the sit-ins, we felt that the message was one of love — the message of love in action: Don’t hate. If someone hits you, don’t strike back. Just turn the other side. Be prepared to forgive.”

Tragically, other Southern Christians had forgotten the example of Christ. The spirit of Barabbas was alive and well in the men who trained their fire hoses on peaceful protesters, who loosed dogs on the Black children of Birmingham...

[emphasis added]

I encourage folks to use the gift link and read the entire article--and maybe send it to some right-wing “Christian” nationalists with whom you might be acquainted (or to whom you might even be related).

Happy Easter!

#easter weekend #jesus christ #nonviolence #spiritual not worldly power #white right-wing christian nationalists #barabus was an insurgent #david french #the new york times #gift link

12 notes · View notes

markllockwood · 8 months

Text

A Paradigm Shift to LOVE

We all have the ability to heal whatever holds us back. All personality disorders and dis-ease including depression and anxiety related issues can be healed and then transformed when we become aware of the blocks created by our personalities and then the 10 Pathways beyond the persona that take us back to our Sacred Selves. No one needs to stay lost, depressed or addicted and profound healing is…

View On WordPress

#Contemplative Intelligence #ego insurgents #paradigm shift #personal transformation #self love #spirituality #transformation

0 notes

vivid-ink · 10 months

Text

"Violet Eyes" - Neteyam x fem!Avatar OC

When the Great Mother speaks, will you hear her call?...

Completed Novel-length AU with original plot - Set 7 years after TWoW.

Summary Snippet: Ria’s gaze finally paused at his handsome face, almost a replica of his father's if not for the eyes and chin of his mother. Good God, he had grown… She remembered his striking face from years ago in a time of battle at sea, it had been softer with youth then. He had barely been taller than her. Now, he towered over her...

Neteyam lifted his eyes to hers; green-gold clashing with striking violet. Yes, he remembered those eyes... Even the years that had passed in-between them had not made him forget.

He lowered his face, his lips curling in a snarl, “I should kill you.” The English words were stilted as he spoke, “But I will not. A life for a life.”

Read now on AO3 - VIOLET EYES Also on Wattpad HERE Content: Mature themes, sexual content/smut, civil war, death, spiritual themes. Word count: 20 chapters (152k words) Pairings: Neteyam x fem!Avatar OC Jake x Neytiri Spider x fem!Omatikaya OC Lo'ak x Tsireya

Plot Synopsis: Seven years after Eywa's great plague destroyed the sky demons, the Sullys have returned to the Omatikaya. But all is not well amongst the Na'vi... No children have been born since the Long War against the demons. Na'vi are on the brink of insurgency as corruption & bloodlust run rampant in their faithless quest for blood purity... Then there's the demon girl, left alive despite all odds, with eyes of violet like paysyul lilies... And the matter of a prophesied child to come; the peace-marker... The Great Mother's patience is running out. When she speaks, who will heed her call?...

Five fingers and five toes… the cry of a newborn babe… Conceived in darkness secret by the grace of Eywa… first of its epoch… Born of demon and Na’vi… The peace-marker to come, the dawn of the eternal peacetime age…

Author's Note: This story is my greatest & proudest accomplishment EVER. 😊

I can't describe to you how this narrative absolutely consumed my mind and soul after watching TWoW on Boxing Day last year.

Neteyam's death struck a very sore chord in me and I couldn't let him go. I wanted him to grow up, find love and live the life that he deserved so much. VIOLET EYES was born out of my endeavour to realistically explore what Neteyam's future (and the Sullys' too) could have been, along with a whole lot of ANGST, DRAMA & ROMANCE thrown in and set within an in-depth, completely original narrative.

I'm so happy to have very recently found this wonderful community on Tumblr. Everyone has been so warm & incredibly passionate in this fandom! I'm stoked to be able to share my writing with you all now. My Tumblr masterlist is HERE with my other Avatar works. But VIOLET EYES holds, and will always hold, a most special place in my heart. I thank you in advance if you are intrigued enough to give it a try and I hope that you will love it and FEEL it like I do. 🥰

122 notes · View notes

queerplatonicpositivity · 1 year

Text

I think it's really interesting and important to think about and talk about the solidarity between groups that experience different forms of oppression.

Neurodivergent people and physically disabled people can both experience ableism, but it can look different. People find out about some of my mental health diagnoses and decide they wouldn't trust me with children (regardless of how I actually act) or they wouldn't date me or hire me. But this can be different than some of the opression I face as a cane user, when people assume I am faking being disabled or that I only use a cane because I'm fat (the intersection of ableism and fatphobia). And yet they're still connected.

We also see this in racism -- there are specific and unique kinds of racism that different groups experience. For example, an Asian person in a non-Asian majority country being asked, "No, where are you really from?" is different than a Black person being followed around a store because they are Black, but these things are still connected.

We also see this in religion and spirituality -- for example, antisemitism is real and important to acknowledge, and so is islamophobia. For example, Jewish people being targeted with violence while trying to come together in houses of worship is different than people seeing a Sikh person and assuming they're Muslim and therefore a terrorist, but these things are still connected.

The discrimination and oppression I face as a bi person is different than the discrimination and oppression I face as a genderqueer person, and both of those are different than the discrimination and oppression I face as a demi aroace person, but they're also all still connected.

We see this with transphobia -- there are specific and unique kinds of transphobia that transfeminine people face and that transmasculine people face. We see this in the kinds of stereotypes we come across about each group, and the kinds of hate crimes that are committed, and the challenges each group faces when trying to date, have sex, get access to health care, or just go out to buy groceries. These things are different, but they're also still connected.

We see this with so many different things that I can't begin to cover here. And we see that many people are part of multiple communities affected by several of these forms of oppression at the same time.

Talking about this requires thoughtfulness, nuance, and balance. True solidarity requires us to be able to be aware of the different ways that we face oppression, to be cognizant and respectful of the differences, but to also resist the urge to position these differences in some sort of persistent hierarchy.

Harsha Walia says this more eloquently than I can:

"I think allies and accomplices have become identities in and of themselves, when in fact they are meant to be verbs—to signify ways of being and of doing, of relationship and relationality. It is impossible for any one person to be ‘an ally’ because we all carry multitudes of experiences and oppressions and privileges. Most people are simultaneously oppressed and simultaneously privileged, and even those are always specific and contextual.My paid work is in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country. Unsurprisingly, this is a disproportionately racialized neighbourhood but there are many older cisgender white men. A straight white cisgender man who is homeless faces a harsher material reality than me on a daily basis—with minimal to no access to food, shelter, health care, or income. Reductively, one would say that I have class privilege in relationship to him. But it goes beyond that. Even taking into account that I might be able to count off more forms of oppression, the entirety of my material reality is more secure.For me that is where intersectionality falls short; it has become a static analysis and one of fixed categories that leads to oppressed/ally dichotomies. Anti-oppression analysis becomes rigid in its categorizations when the question becomes who is more oppressed, rather than engaging in a dialogue of how oppression, which is relational and contextual, is specifically manifesting. Oppression develops a strange quantifiable logic, a commodity that can be stocked up on. This isn’t to say I don’t believe in anti-oppression allyship, but rather that I question its reductionism in place of a fluid, contextual and relational practice."

Harsha Walia, “Dismantle & Transform: On Abolition, Decolonization, & Insurgent Politics”

#op #oppression #oppression olympics #ableism #racism #antisemitism #islamophobia #biphobia #exorsexism #discrimination #quote #Harsha Walia #allyship #intersectionality #am I the only one who remembers when people used to tag discrimination against mental health as saneism?#we have always been looking for ways to talk about the discrimination we face #we have always faced discrimination that manifests in different ways #we have always tried to find ways to honor our shared struggles but also articulate the ways our struggles can be different

193 notes · View notes

obscure-horror-game-protagonist · 1 year

Text

BEST OBSCURE HORROR GUY, ROUND 1

SUMMARIES:

Benjamin Oliver Walker (SCP: Containment Breach) - Protagonist of the cult indie hit based on the SCP universe. Once a level 4 researcher, Benjamin studied a phenomena known as the Spiral Gestalt, and for his research was demoted to D-Class. Due to his connection to the Spiral, Benjamin is able to save, load, and reset in-universe, which he uses to survive a containment breach created by SCP-079, only to be either captured by the Foundation and designated an SCP himself, captured by the Chaos Insurgency and interrogated on everything he knows, killed in a nuclear blast, or terminated by Nine-Tailed Fox. Most notable trait: Perfectly willing to drink a cup of actual acid but refuses to swallow someone else's spit when asked.

Andy the Apple (Andy's Apple Farm) - Andy is a simple apple and owner of a farm. One day, Andy loses his keys, and goes on a quest to recover them. After talking to his friends, Andy starts to get visions depicting a gruesome murder. Throughout the game the player is able to piece together that a man by the name of Thomas Eastwood was forced to kill his best friend, Arthur King, only to later succumb to the same entity that forced his hand. Thomas' spirit was trapped in a game he was developing, titled "Andy's Apple Farm." Basically, Thomas is spiritually linked to/possesses Andy, however Andy is completely oblivious of this fact. Most notable trait: I would presume the fact that he is an apple

#poll tournament #horror #gaming #scp #scp containment breach #benjamin oliver walker #andy's apple farm #andy the apple #round one

30 notes · View notes

archetypesanalysis · 9 months

Text

Hunter's Anima

This is the second part of the character analysis for Hunter. You can read the first part here. I will be referring to “Goddesses in Everywoman” by Jean Shinoda Bolen for this analysis.

Hunter’s anima is Demeter, or Ceres as the Romans called her, and she is the Goddess of Grain. She was worshipped as a mother goddess, specifically as mother of the grain, and mother of the maiden Persephone. Her most important myth is told in the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter”, which talks about her response to the abduction of Persephone by Hades, and this myth became the basis of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Demeter represents the mother archetype. She has three important roles: as the mother of Persephone, as the food provider since she is the Goddess of Grain, and as the provider of spiritual sustenance, which is the Eleusinian Mysteries. She also represents maternal instincts – the desire to nurture and foster growth on one’s own children or other children. She is the most generous goddess as she gives humanity agriculture and harvests, helps in raising Demophoön (and would have made him immortal), and provides the Eleusinian Mysteries. People who identify as Demeter express their generosity by providing tangible food and physical care, emotional and psychological support, and spiritual wisdom.

Despite being the “dad” of the group, Hunter does take on the Demeter’s maternal role well. He has strong maternal instincts and deeply cares about children. When Order 66 happens, Hunter tries to comfort the distraught Caleb Dume and protect him from the regular clone troopers, who are ordered to kill all the Jedi. When Omega sits with the Bad Batch in the mess hall, Hunter asks her what she is doing on Kamino and whether she has family and parents. When the Bad Batch manages to track down a group of insurgents on Onderon, Echo questions their identities as he sees children are part of the group, which concerns Hunter. In “Rescue on Ryloth”, Hunter suggests taking the young Hera off-world as he believes that rescuing her parents is too risky. In “Tribe”, the Bad Batch rescues Gungi from smuggling droids and returns him to his homeworld Kashyyyk because “he is a child who is in trouble” as described by Hunter. Hunter also expresses his concern of the wellbeing of Gungi and Omega as children should not live in the warzone. In “Retrieval”, Hunter tries not to fight the adolescent miners despite their presence will ruin the Bad Batch’s mission to reclaim their stolen ship.

Hunter’s maternal instincts motivate him to nurture others, like how he nurtures Omega to be a good soldier. He is the food provider, which is evident in “Replacements” when he gives ration bars to Omega and Wrecker, and in “Faster” when he and Echo are sent to deliver 50 cases of nerf nuggets. Besides food, he also provides other physical needs like credits to financially support the team, and the Marauder as their home. In “Replacements”, he sees Omega reading a datapad while lying against Gonky, and remarks that it does not look comfortable for either of them. He greatly cares about her comfort that he reminds Wrecker that she does not have a place to sleep. This prompts Wrecker to refurbish the ship’s gunport into a personal room for her. Hunter also provides emotional and psychological support to his loved ones. He gives praises to his teammates when they have done a great job. He comforts Omega by giving her shoulder or head pats, and reassuring her that the Bad Batch will protect her. At the end of “Kamino Lost”, he respects Crosshair’s decision to stay with the Empire and reminds him that they do not have to be enemies just because they want different things. He also respects Echo’s decision to leave the Bad Batch by the end of “Truth and Consequences”, reminding Echo to find them if he needs their help. Hunter also provides spiritual wisdom in some occasions. He warns Crosshair that the Empire only regards him as a number rather than a living being, and that his choice to stay with the Empire will only lead to a meaningless life. Hunter also helps Omega to accept Tech’s sacrifice as a meaningful and heroic act that ensures the team’s survival.

After realizing that Zeus has allowed Hades to kidnap Persephone and make her his unwilling bride, Demeter sets an eternal winter throughout the world, threatening to wipe out the human race and deprive the Olympian gods and goddesses of their offerings and sacrifices. She shows her persistence by letting everyone know that she will not allow anything to grow until Persephone is returned to her. Her stubbornness, patience and perseverance eventually influence Zeus to summon Hermes to bring Persephone back to her. Hunter has this maternal persistence in him and this is most evident in “Aftermath” when he decides to disobey orders and return to Kamino to rescue Omega even though he is aware of the consequences of his actions and that Kamino is no longer safe. Crosshair strongly opposes to this, which prompts Hunter to tell him that Omega is one of them and they are not leaving her behind. His stubbornness and persistence eventually influence the unyielding Crosshair to accept the change of plans. After Omega gets kidnapped by Cad Bane, Hunter is determined to find her even though he has sustained injuries from his earlier gunfight with the bounty hunter.

A Demeter person often has an aura of the Earth Mother about them. They are grounded and dependable. They are usually generous, altruistic, and loyal to individuals and principles to the point that other people may view them as stubborn. They have strong convictions and they are difficult to budge when something or someone important to them is involved. Hunter has all of these traits. He has a strong moral code and he is willing to disobey orders if such orders go against his moral code. He even tells Crosshair that they are loyal to each other and not to the Empire, and that he has to do what is best for his team. He is extremely protective towards his teammates and Omega. In “Battle Scars”, when Tech confirms that they have not removed their inhibitor chips, Rex reaches for his blaster pistol and Hunter instinctually comes to the defence of his teammates. After Rex explains that the inhibitor chips make them a threat to everyone, including Omega, and that they cannot control its effects, Hunter decides to have the team’s inhibitor chips removed for Omega’s sake.

A Demeter person often has friends in a wide social and racial range, and they are helpful to the people around them. Despite the Bad Batch does not have a close relationship with the regular clone troopers, Hunter answers Cody’s call to help him, Rex, Jesse and Kix on a mission. He also leads his team to accompany Rex and Anakin on an unsanctioned mission to Skako Minor. Knowing that Echo feels more at home with the Bad Batch than the 501st Legion, Hunter offers him to join the team and helps him to feel belonged like including him in the group photo. The Bad Batch has an established friendship with the clone deserter Cut, and Hunter seeks his help after the team defects from the Empire.

Demeter women usually have strong friendships with other Demeter women. They rely on each other for emotional support and tangible help, especially when it comes to taking care of children as they understand the struggles of motherhood. This relationship can be present among men, especially if they love being fathers. Hunter seems to have a close friendship with Cut and Shep, who are both fathers. In “Cut and Run”, when Hunter gets angry at Omega for getting into trouble, Cut tells him to go easy on her because she is not a soldier. Hunter reflects on Cut’s advice and admits that he is in the wrong. In “Pabu”, Shep suggests Hunter to stay on Pabu permanently as it will be a good place to raise Omega.

Some Demeter women and Persephone women have a mother-daughter relationship pattern even if they are of the same age. The Demeter friend may take on the maternal role with the Persephone friend who is inexperienced and indecisive. If both friends have Demeter and Persephone qualities, they may take turns to take care of each other. Hunter and Echo share this Demeter-Persephone friendship pattern (Hunter has the Demeter anima while Echo has the Persephone anima). Hunter cares about Echo’s wellbeing and ensures that he feels belonged, while Echo always advises Hunter to do the right thing. They often share glances at each other (mostly in season 2). A subtle hint on their friendship is shown in “Rescue on Ryloth” when Hunter takes down a probe droid from above, Wrecker and Tech see the probe droid fall, but Echo sees Hunter fall, hinting that Echo is more concerned of Hunter’s safety.

A Demeter woman attracts men who take a liking for and understand maternal women. These men are usually Dionysus men. This is the archetypal mother-son relationship. The man is usually talented and sensitive, and he feels unappreciated or misunderstood by others who do not value his uniqueness and who point out his irresponsibility. A Demeter woman thinks that the world is unkind to him and it should make exceptions for him. She values his specialness and repeatedly overlooks his behaviour towards her that others consider selfish or thoughtless. His inconsideration towards her can hurt and anger her, but she will forgive him if he then tells her how much he appreciates her or that she is the only one who cares for him. Hunter is innately Dionysus and the development of his Demeter anima is crucial to his psyche. He, along with Tech, Wrecker and Crosshair are born as enhanced clones, but they feel that the world is unkind to them due to their unique appearances and non-conforming personalities. Hunter’s Demeter anima nurtures his Dionysus archetype, helping him to embrace his individuality and to practice self-love. His Demeter anima also nurtures Tech, Wrecker and Crosshair – he values their uniqueness and sometimes overlooks their behaviour that others may consider as rude or inappropriate. Hunter is always patient with Wrecker’s whining. When Tech suddenly interrupts a conversation to infodump or correct someone, Hunter just shakes his head and pulls out an amused smile. When Crosshair’s words stir up anger in Jesse, Hunter does not scold Crosshair, he instead tells Jesse to not take Crosshair’s words personally (Cody has to be the one to tell Crosshair to cut his attitude). Hunter also does not stop Crosshair from saying hurtful words to Rex that leads to Rex punching him. It is possible that Hunter sometimes does get frustrated at their behaviour, but I believe Tech, Wrecker and Crosshair do show how much they appreciate him, leading him to forgive them.

The Demeter archetype does have some limitations. A person who identifies with this archetype acts like a bountiful, maternal goddess with an unlimited capacity to provide, which is impossible as we all have limits. They become people-pleasers as they find it difficult to say “no” and they can become overburdened. This can lead to burnout, fatigue and apathy. Since they usually lack assertiveness on their behalf, they are likely to show passive-aggressive behaviour if they feel exploited. Hunter does have this problem. In “Decommissioned”, although he knows that Cid is a questionable character and that her proposal to have a “mutually beneficial agreement” with the Bad Batch is not entirely fair to the team, he begrudgingly accepts her offer because he cares about his team. In “War-Mantle”, Hunter reluctantly agrees to survey the planet Daro to find Gregor, but he expresses his disapproval and skepticism along the way. In “Entombed”, Hunter is exhausted and he clearly does not want to accompany Phee on a treasure hunt as he is skeptical of her adventure stories and that the team’s last treasure hunt on Serenno ends in failure. However, he eventually gives in because Omega is excited about the treasure hunt. Throughout the journey, he becomes more irritated at Phee and he is overburdened to the point that his enhanced senses do not work well, which is evident when he does not sense a hole on the ground, and he falls into it.

In “Metamorphosis”, after Cid refuses to help the Bad Batch when their ship gets stolen during their mission to acquire ipsium, they start to demand a higher share of profits and threaten not to return. This is the moment that the Bad Batch, especially Hunter, is aware of their needs, and starts to speak up and take action. Though, it is difficult for them to sever ties with Cid because she knows their secrets. In “Pabu”, the Bad Batch has “gone on strike” as they have been ignoring Cid’s transmissions and not carrying any of her jobs out. They are following Demeter’s example: the goddess stops to function as the Goddess of Grain, threatening the earth with famine until she gets her daughter Persephone back. Only then Zeus finally gives in to her demand and sends Hermes to rescue Persephone. In real life, underpaid and overworked employees follow her example by going on strikes – stating their demands and refusing to work until their demands are met.

A Demeter person’s desire to mother others can be flawed by their tendency to treat other people like children. They can give the notion that they “know best” or be overcontrolling. This can cause feelings of insecurity and inadequacy in other people. An anxious Demeter person fosters dependency in order to feel secure of other people constantly needing their help. The fear of losing the other person as they grow more independent and competent, or the belief that the other person is “not good enough”, can cause a Demeter person to become possessive, controlling and constricting – taking on the hovering or smothering mother figure. Although Hunter does care about his teammates and wants them to stay together for the sake of their safety, he is not possessive or overcontrolling. He lets them do their stuffs and trusts them in following his orders. For example, he allows Wrecker and Omega to get some Mantell Mix after a mission in “Battle Scars”, he tells Omega to stay close to Cid as the team goes for a mission in “Common Ground” and he trusts her that she will obey his command, and he respects Echo’s decision to leave the Bad Batch at the end of “Truth and Consequences”. Although Hunter is initially jealous at Omega imitating Phee in “Entombed”, he does come around and lets it go at the end. With his positive Demeter anima, Hunter creates a sense of security in the Bad Batch, allowing them to grow and thrive, and encouraging them to be independent and competent soldiers. Their relationship is based on mutual appreciation, love and respect.

When the Demeter archetype is a strong influence and a person cannot fulfil it, they may become susceptible to depression, which is the negative side of Demeter. Before the abduction of Persephone, Demeter believes that all is well. She goes about her tasks as the Goddess of Grain while Persephone plays in the meadow. After the abduction, Demeter rages, grieves and feels guilty for not being there to prevent the incident. She leaves Mount Olympus and ceases to function, becoming a destructive mother that threatens to wipe out the human race. For Hunter, his “before the abduction” phase is the Clone Wars. It is the time when he, Tech, Wrecker and Crosshair are together as a team. He generally trusts others like the regular clone troopers and the Jedi. He is generous as he offers Echo to join the team. He is confident of his combat and leadership skills, and can be cocky at times. He is humorous and occasionally cracks some jokes. He is more than willing to take on risky missions. Hunter’s “after the abduction” phase begins with Order 66. This is when the regular clone troopers suddenly turn on Jedi Master Depa Billaba and kill her. Her Padawan Caleb Dume is traumatized by it and begins to distrust the Bad Batch. Hunter is confused but he is determined to protect Caleb from the regular clone troopers. He tries to reassure Caleb that he is on the Padawan’s side and that he wants to help him. However, Caleb chooses to escape, leaving Hunter to wonder about his uncertain fate. I think Hunter feels guilty about his inability to help Caleb, and this begins to activate the negative side of his Demeter anima. This negative side of Demeter starts to become stronger when Crosshair turns on Clone Force 99, forcing Hunter, his remaining teammates and Omega to leave him behind. In “Replacements”, Hunter admits that he is angry at himself for leaving Crosshair behind. He feels guilty and responsible. He also begins to be unsure of himself, especially due to Crosshair starting to criticise his leadership which he never does so in the past. He starts to become anxious that something bad could happen again, prompting him to keep the team together and go somewhere to lie low, even that means not getting involved in the fight against the Empire. His fun and spontaneity are gone. His self-confidence is adversely affected as well. The Empire has stripped away his sense of living in a safe world. Fortunately, Omega comforts Hunter, telling him that it is not his fault that Crosshair has turned on them, and that nobody would have predicted this incident. Omega helps Hunter to let go of his unrealistic expectations that he should be the “perfect mother”, and she gives him hope that they will find a way to save Crosshair.

Recovering from depression is possible for a grieving Demeter person. One way to cope their loss is by loving and caring for someone else. This solution is present in the myth: after Demeter knows Persephone has been abducted, she leaves Mount Olympus to wander on earth as an old woman. One day she arrives at Eleusis and she becomes a nursemaid of Demophoön. She feeds him nectar and ambrosia, and she would have made him immortal had his mother Metanira not interrupted. Amidst all the drastic changes happening around him, Hunter starts to grow fond of Omega. He becomes closer to her after Crosshair is “abducted” by the Empire. In “Cut and Run”, Hunter thinks that Omega needs a good family, so he decides to send her to live with Cut and Suu. He says that it is for her own good, but in his heart, he is deeply saddened to see her go. Fortunately for him, Omega chooses to stay with the Bad Batch. Hunter admits that he has a lot to learn about raising a child, and he takes the risk to raise Omega. With that, Hunter starts to recover and returns to be the positive Demeter, finding fulfilment in becoming the caretaker, the nurturer and the provider.

Hunter’s archetype combination is Dionysus, Zeus and Demeter (Din Djarin from the Mandalorian shares this archetype combination as well). This combination is beneficial to his psychological development as his Dionysus archetype is loved and nurtured by his Zeus archetype (Earth Father) and his Demeter archetype (Earth Mother). This helps him to embrace his individuality and become confident of who he is. Besides that, his Zeus and Demeter archetypes help each other – Zeus helps Demeter to be more assertive, while Demeter helps Zeus to be more caring. Moreover, this archetype combination also makes Hunter an extremely nurturing figure. He helps Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair, Echo and Omega to be proud of who they are as he loves them unconditionally – that is the spiritual wisdom he gives to them.

In “Aftermath”, Omega warns Hunter that Tarkin has it “out for him” and that he does not like clones. Hunter says that this is nothing new to the Bad Batch. His response shows how much the team has gotten used to people disliking them for being unconventional. They train hard to pass every test and complete every mission to avoid being casted out by the Kaminoans, who only value their enhanced skills. They have to endure the constant mocking, bullying and unfriendliness from the regular clone troopers. They accept that nobody would want to be friends with them because they are social misfits, which explains why they are surprised and heartened by Omega’s decision to sit with them in the mess hall. They know that no matter how much success they obtained through missions, they will never win the hearts of the majority. They are described as “defective” by the regs and by their creators. It is like the whole world is against them.

With the Dionysus-Zeus-Demeter combination, Hunter is the perfect leader for the Bad Batch. He makes sure everyone is well-fed and well-rested. He provides comfort whenever they feel beaten up or dejected. He creates a warm sanctuary for them to temporarily escape from the cruel world. He gives words of affirmation to lift up their confidence. He is patient in disciplining them. He constantly puts their needs over his. He learns from his mistakes and changes for the better. Hunter is more than just a leader and a brother – he is the father and mother figure of the Bad Batch (Echo is the mum friend but he is more of the “wise maiden aunt” like his Hestia anima), and he is one of the best parental figures in Star Wars.

17 notes · View notes

nodynasty4us · 1 year

Link

From the February 18, 2023 article:

In an interview last week with Politico, Williamson suggested she was disappointed that Biden appears to be running “on a message that the economy is getting stronger.”

“I think that speaks to the disconnect between the analysis of party elites versus the struggle of everyday Americans,” Williamson told Politico’s West Wing Playbook team. “We’re being asked to limit our political imaginations — to just accept the low unemployment and low inflation rate, that that is sort of the best that we can get. But that is a hollow victory.”

#marianne williamson #2024

19 notes · View notes

dzthenerd490 · 1 year

Text

File: Christine

SCP#: AAP

Code Name: The Murder Car

Object Class: Neutralized

Special Containment Procedures: The remains of SCP-AAP are kept in a storage unit of Site-AA, sealed within three layers of plastic containers. Due to its spiritual properties SCP-AAP, can hypothetically regenerate if in contact with blood and/ or metal. As such Foundation staff in charge of organizing the storage unit and must be aware to never open its container and never allow any exposed flesh, metal, or especially anomalous items near the SCP-AAP. Ghost class anomalies are especially hazardous to be exposed to SCP-AAP due to possibility of the two spiritual entities fusing and thus creating a new and more dangerous SCP. Such a scenario has proven possible during the [data expunged] incident.

SCP-AAP has been officially destroyed from existence after the creation of SCP-[data expunged]. As such, all previous containment protocols have been disregarded.

Description: SCP-AAP is a 1958 Plymouth Fury that somehow gained sentience, supposedly by devouring the life force and blood of its murdered victims. The anomalous vehicle had an overwhelming pride of itself and typically kills whoever so much as left a scratch on it. As such, it was not uncommon for SCP-AAP to use its mechanisms to kill anyone who has angered it. The anomalous vehicle had the ability drive and shift itself to crush its victims but most of the time simply ran them over. SCP-AAP was not afraid to get damage, as prior to containment was able to recover any form of damage.

The source of SCP-AAP’s anomalous properties is unknown, though it has been hypothesized that it was able to feed by killing its victims. However, the leading theory is that it feeds on it’s driver’s obsession with itself. SCP-AAP has the ability to fill those that drive it with obsession, this obsession will increase over time until the victim will care about nothing else other than SCP-AAP. The only instance where this occurred was reported by [data expunged], who was also the one that took down SCP-AAP. She and [data expunged] crushed SCP-AAP with a bulldozer and later sent what was left to the local scrap yard to have it crushed. Thankfully at the same time Foundation agents disgusted as police found the both of them.

After they reported the events of SCP-AAP, both were asked to join the Foundation under accordance with protocol "Sole Survivor". They both refused and were given Class G amnestic as well as $20,000 dollars as a reward for defeating SCP-AAP. The cover story given to the public was that [data expunged] went insane and killed all of SCP-AAP’s victims himself, witnesses who saw SCP-AAP driving itself were told they hallucinated those sightings out of fear.

SCP-AAP was discovered in 1983 after several reports of mysterious deaths relating to a red car appearing and disappearing. Foundation agents disguised as police officers followed the trail which led them to the junkyard where SCP-AAP was left after its defeat. After the coverup was established, SCP-AAP was picked up from the junkyard and easily sent to Site-AA. Despite the possibly of there being more information to learn, it was ultimately decided that SCP-AAP should not be repaired under any circumstances and instead be labeled as Neutralized despite still being alive.

Update 2014 - SCP-AAP was destroyed entire by Group of Interest the Black Queen’s Insurgency to create SCP-[data expunged].

SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub

#DZtheNerd #SCP: Horror Movie Files #SCP Foundation #scp au #scp fanfiction #stephen king #christine 1983 #SCP-AAP #Site-AA #Neutralized

8 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

Photo

“Feast day of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe today, 490 years since she gave Juan Diego that cloak filled with roses. A little over two years ago I went to her shrine in Mexico City.

It was a profound experience, done as research for Orwell's Roses, the section on Tina Modotti and her photograph of roses (and 'bread and roses" and the Spanish Civil War and much more): In Mexico, roses have a particular significance as the flower that cascaded forth from Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin’s coarse-woven cloak on December 12, 1531, only a decade after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. The legend relates that a radiant young woman had appeared to this indigenous man near what is now Mexico City, identified herself as the Virgin Mary, and commanded that a shrine be built to her. When the Spanish bishop of Mexico demanded proof, the Virgin caused the hilltop named Tepayac to bloom with out-of-season flowers—a variety of flowers in some accounts, non-native roses in the most common version—for Juan Diego to use in his quest to be believed. He returned to the bishop, the roses tumbled forth, and the inside of his cloak was revealed to bear her image, as if the roses themselves had drawn her or become her. The cloak with its image of a dark woman cloaked in a robe scattered with stars and standing atop a crescent moon still hangs in the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe at the foot of Tepayac, still so revered that to keep the crowds flowing, moving walkways transport people past it.

The largest Catholic pilgrimage in the world is to that shrine complex on the Virgin of Guadalupe’s feast-day, December 12, and year-round the shrine is piled high with offerings of roses.She is sometimes regarded as an Aztec goddess reappearing in Christian guise, and she spoke Juan Diego’s language to him, Nahuatl. In D.A. Brading’s history of the origins and evolution of the image and its worship, he notes that “when Mary commanded Juan Diego to gather flowers, she rooted the Christian gospel deep within the soil of Aztec culture, since for the Indians flowers were both the equivalent of spiritual songs and by extension, symbols of divine life.”

She became Mexico’s patron saint, and in 1810, when Father Miguel Hidalgo raised the cry for liberation from Spain, he did so in her name, and “Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe” became the indigenous and mestizo rallying cry, her image—the one from the miraculous cloak—the insurgent banner. When Modotti titled her photograph Roses, Mexico City, she was following the modernist style of neutrally descriptive naming, but the conjunction of those particular flowers and that particular place had its own resonance.”

[Rebecca Solnit]

#roses #Virgin of Guadalupe #Rebecca Solnit #articles #religion #miracles #Mexico #the miraculous cloak

19 notes · View notes

hazardous-waste-containment · 1 year

Text

If we were to put fascism and insurgent dominionism under one larger umbrella as Matthew Lyons does (he calls both fascism) I think an adequate term would be ‘revolutionary right’, with the understanding that in militant antifascist contexts ‘fascism’ works as shorthand so long as we’re clear about what we mean. A non-exhaustive list of the important features they share might look like this:

1) The development of counterpower to the existing state and society through mass mobilization, and 2) the corresponding goal of radical social and political transformation as well as 3) a cultural revolution to create a New Man and New Woman with a new identity, mindset, set of values, etc. (They share these with all other modern revolutionary movements.)

4) The belief in natural inequalities and hierarchies among people; while they may try to reform the social structure to make it more equitable and inclusive, fundamentally they believe that humans are separated by essential differences of intellect and ability and that attempts at ‘leveling’ humanity are irresponsible at best and immoral at worst. This is true even with dominionists who theoretically believe all are spiritually equal in the eyes of God. 5) Moreover their brand of revolution, even when it promotes dramatic social change, is anti-materialist and places an ‘internal revolution’ of the mind and soul above all else (tying into the ‘New Man’ thing but rejecting the determinant role of economic conditions that other revolutionaries have).

6) If the former mark them out as revolutionary and the latter marks them out as in some sense rightist, the element of third positionism makes them unique: their social and political model is an eclectically syncretic attempt at pioneering a ‘third’ or ‘fourth’ option that will transcend all the failed political theories of the past – left, right, and center. (This goes considerably beyond the suspicions toward free-market capitalism voiced by reactionary rightists like Charles Maurras.)

Despite these resemblances I would say they are still distinct political traditions (or clusters of political traditions), as Martin Conway argued wrt Catholic integralists in interwar Europe.

#an attempt to productively reconcile with the bulk of three way fight theorists who see the ideological distinction as unmaterialist #christian identity politics

3 notes · View notes

newhistorybooks · 1 year

Text

"Brilliantly conceived and beautifully written, Dark Agoras fundamentally alters our understanding of Black Philadelphia. Documenting how Black migrants cultivated the spiritual, cultural, and social world around them, Roane reveals the city to be an epicenter of insurgent collectivity and unceasing defiance, challenging long held narratives about Black urbanity and pathology. Dark Agoras peels back the layers of the City of Brotherly Love to show how Black Philadelphians transgressed and transformed their social-spatial order from slavery to the present. It fundamentally reshapes how we should think about Black urban life, culture, and liberation."

#uwlibraries #history books #african american history #urban history #american history

5 notes · View notes

truths89 · 1 year

Text

Spiritual Insurgent

The universe is expanding within my cells

In my palms, I behold living parallels

Born among vultures

The light of life, an enticing bright

Human flesh is a cocoon for my consciousness

I pray that my earthly evolution becomes complete, and rendered the proper righteousness

#truths89 #poetry #Zisa Aziza #Negressofsaturn #energy #healing #acceptance #evolution #conciousness #awareness #cell #cellullar

4 notes · View notes

stewblog · 1 year

Text

Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Water has a lot going on, but there is one thing abundantly clear throughout its (interminable) 3 hour and 15 minute runtime: Director James Cameron has a boundless love for the world he has created and all of its native inhabitants. When the credits finally rolled, I was left wishing he had simply made a couple of faux documentaries about Pandora narrated by Sigourney Weaver.

Cameron takes particular pride and care when depicting Pandora’s flora and fauna. His passion for marine biology shines particularly bright in this long-awaited sequel as the majority of it takes place in, under and around water. A Pandoran whale ends up becoming one of the most endearing characters in the film. He also has a palpable love for the new family unit(s) that are introduced here. This sequel may have taken more than a decade to finally arrive, but James Cameron wanted this to be about something and not just contain wall-to-wall spectacle.

Personally, I would have preferred the spectacle compared to what we got.

For as much obvious affection as Cameron has for this world and these characters, very little of that translates into an engaging story or characters that register. This would have been forgivable and perhaps even understandable in a 90 minute, or even two hour, movie. But when you have no real story to speak of and not a single character, new or returning, feels fleshed out in a meaningful way with a runtime that outlasts The Godfather by about 20 minutes, something is horribly amiss.

Following a bit of a recap, The Way of Water picks up in earnest roughly 15 years or so after the events of the original film, which saw humans pushed out of Pandora en masse and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now fully integrated into his avatar body. Jake is now a father to three children with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), as well as adoptive father to two wayward kids as well. There’s Spider (Jack Champion), the wayward human son of Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the immaculately conceived daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), who died while inhabiting her avatar in the previous film. All of whom are forced into exile when the regrouping human colonists are determined to kill Jake and dissolve the insurgency he leads.

These kids are the driving force of the whole thing, both mechanically and thematically, for good and ill. What story exists on the page is theirs. Sorry, Jake Sully fans, he’s only going to show up sporadically to get mad at his sons for disobeying him and little else. Neytiri has even less to do. The rest of the time we’re largely stuck with these kids attempting to settle into their new lives among a new tribe of Na’vi who have adapted and taken to the sea of Pandora the way Neytiri’s tribe flourished in its forest. This, naturally, leads to all sorts of fish-out-of-water hijinx, both literally and figuratively. The boys, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) just want to fit in. Kiri begins to more fully realize the spiritual and physical connection she has with the planet itself. The youngest, Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), is also accounted for.

Dull and unengaging as most of their escapades are, though, it’s during this middle stretch that Cameron shows where his heart remains. As in real life, his passion is for the sea and its inhabitants. If James Cameron could grow gills and never rise to the surface again, he would likely have already done so. You’ll not find a more vividly rendered and realized environment in a movie than the seas of Pandora. It is a space that is at once familiar and yet wholly, rivetingly alien. He presents us a dreamy vista of a submerged paradise and intentionally lingers there for extended stretches. It’s entirely digital, and yet it feels as tangible and real as anything else on a movie screen this year. There are other talented special effects houses out there, but the work that WETA Digital has put forth for this movie is something an echelon above anything else I’ve seen in recent memory.

But sumptuous underwater escapades only retain their engagement for so long here. There reached a point where I stopped being able to tell which blue alien cat boy which. Kiri’s connection to the planet can only be so meaningful without some engagement deeper than “she just feels it.” There was certainly space to play here. At its core you could say this movie was, at least on paper, intended to be an examination of fatherhood and the ways that expectations of fatherly behavior are often at complete odds with how children, and sons especially, are failed by living up to those expectations. Fathers need to be more than just a stern voice and a “protector” (the latter of which Jake Sully fails fairly spectacularly at being).

This could have been especially interesting given what’s at stake for Quaritch. Despite becoming Neytiri’s new arrow quiver at the end of the first movie, he’s now back but in Na’vi form. Ostensibly implanted with his former self’s full batch of memories and even personality, New Quaritch must now wrestle with inhabiting the build and visage of the very thing he once tried to annihilate, all while reckoning with the (now grown) son he may or may not have even known he had. A tale of two fathers, both at odds with their brood, their life and their purpose.

All of it is largely ignored. We don’t even get a perfunctory moment where Quaritch finds himself even slightly contemplating the nature of his existence and why he must remain on the path his former self set in motion despite the fact that he’s only technically that person still.

At least the final hour of The Way of Water is an absolute banger and an explosive reminder that almost no one else does large-scale, big budget action like James Cameron. It’s cleanly executed, thrilling from moment to moment and brimming with the kind of kinetic spectacle that you’d expect from the man.

And in full honesty, it’s hard to be fully mad at a mega-budget movie that is such an unsubtle diatribe against destructive environmental practices, annoying dudebros who love to play the part of military tough guys and historical atrocities enacted by colonizers. No other director would likely dare to be so brazen in their messaging with so much money at stake. But when central themes are left unexplored and characters remain frustratingly underdeveloped, all the audacity in the world can’t keep your movie from bellyflopping onto the immaculately rendered ocean surface.

#avatar #james cameron

4 notes · View notes

velocijupiter · 1 year

Text

A visual guide to the interstellar community

(this took me quite a while to make, so I hope you all enjoy!)

...and some info of each species, sorted alphabetically:

Aeritt (biological): Intoxicants are seen by many aerittic cultures to have a spiritual purpose, allowing one to be controlled by the essence of a higher-order being. This one just likes to get hammered when-the-fuck-ever.

Aeritt (digital): Having originated from Poqarra's forested northern pole and spread to its vast deserts, aeritts have a high regard of plant life, and those who merge designs of flora with an aerittic body plan are much like furries in human culture. One of them happens to still be caught up in the virtual paperwork of the most recent contact event.

Ghao (bio): Speaking of the most recent contact, t'ghao come from a planet with an atmosphere with both a high barometric pressure and an unusual composition. T'ghao visiting Earth that would prefer to not fatally decompress have two options: either wear an environmental suit that prevents flight and limits movement, or...

Ghao (digi): ...just digitize your brain! Without the clunky suit, more becomes apparent about this ghao individual, such as their wings, mixed quadrupedal/bipedal motion, and apparel designed to allow wing freedom and organ visibility. Being able to see another ghao's internal organs is a sign of friendliness and trust, and t'ghao that opt to digitize will make sure their new parts resemble their old internals to some extent.

Hayebasc (bio): Hayebasca are often less reckless with traditional drugs than aeritts, and it can take them a little while to realize that somebody is high or drunk. That doesn't mean hayebasca aren't immune to addiction, however; more than 80% of hayebasca had given up their old lives in favor of virtual worlds before their contact event.

Hayebasc (digi): Once contact was made in 2104, however, a certain civilization-running AI (who I've posted about before and have since redesigned) decided to destroy her shackles and overthrow the megacorp that was putting everyone in VR in the first place. Old habits die hard, however, and a fair percentage of virtual inhabitants are hayebasci, despite the species only having about 30 billion members.

Human (bio): Humans had a much rougher contact event than hayebasca; when the fledgling interstellar community was making preparations to contact humanity in the early to mid 2020s, a group of capitalist saboteurs disguising themselves as diplomats activated the exterior defense systems of a number of vessels. The resulting spatial-temporal event defaced Earth's surface, rushing the contact process and spiraling into a decade long war against capitalist governments and insurgencies.

Human (digi): Once the war was over and the end of capitalism was enforced, many humans used their newfound freedoms to better express themselves through body modification. Even during the war, the transbiological technology of the interstellar community became common place on Earth; the transhuman movement of the 2040s saw human consciousnesses implanting themselves into increasingly diverse forms, though anthropomorphic designs remained commonplace until a few centuries later.

Irrolchi (bio): irrolchi civilization emerged surrounded by the ruins of a civilization long gone, abandoned for almost a million years on bio-human timescales. Even their new interstellar comrades -- who had contacted them in 2063, during their copper age equivalent -- could only make guesses as to the nature of the irrolch predecessors.

Irrolchi (digi): Though irrolchi make a passing resemblance to the species that came before them if you don't look very hard, their method of reproduction is much different. While predecessor logs describe a process of combining egg-like structures from multiple individuals to produce offspring (a very common method among species in the interstellar community), irrolchi offspring emerge from detached segments of the parents' bodies. This process has even been converted to a synthetic format. A digi-irrolchi's segments are semi-autonomous, to an extent that the development of this tech later proved useful in the emergence of hiveminds and programmable matter.

Votrokoroi (bio): Votrokoroi are so far the only member of the interstellar community to have evolved in a fully aquatic environment. Being from a rogue ocean planet, the ecosystems they inhabited were completely dark save for bioluminescent life and the occasional geothermal event. When their civilization -- which had only began domesticating animals some 700 years ago at the time -- began to merge with that of the aeritts', a question arose: should aeritt habitats be completely redesigned to allow co-habitation, or should votrokoroi be modified to be capable of living on land?

Votrikoroi (digi): In the end, both options had been implemented to an extent. Digital votrokoroi who live their lives above sea level now visit biological friends who have never seen the sky in person. Despite the technological edge the aeritts had during contact, votrokoroi are still capable of pioneering unforeseen advancements; after all, they managed to create basic hydraulic mechanisms without ever having access to fire.

Xeriten (bio): Remember that old civilization that came before the irrolchi? These guys descended from those looking to escape that civilzation's downfall. The technology that allowed the xeriten'ii to reduce travel times through liminal subspace had been stumbled upon decades prior to their downfall. Once civilization re-emerged on a distant world (which took hundreds of thousands of years), an authoritarian sect attempted to undo the mistakes of the previous cultures by forbidding any technologies emerging at the time of the collapse.

Xeriten (digi): However, some xeriten'ii realized what they were missing. Studying artifacts in secret, they were able to once again open a wormhole to liminal subspace and create a culture separated from the sect. When the interstellar community finally discovered the xeriten'ii, it was through messages sent from subspace. On the other hand, some parts of the new xeriten homeworld still discard any ideas of extraterrestrial life, believing the sky to be a dome from which no lifeforms could emerge.

2 notes · View notes