#stay tuned for crowley's analysis

[im-this-kind-of-girl]

Aziraphale and Crowley's unhinged character analyzis (pt1)

Controversial opinion:

Aziraphale and Crowley at the end of Season2 managed to accomplish the main goal they each had since the beginning of time. Only to realize that what they wanted no longer made them happy.

It sounds crazy, but to explain myself I have to do an in-depth analysis of their personalities and the possible transformation arc that both characters are probably going to have at the end of the Good Omens story.

Disclaimer: I have no idea about what is going to happen in Good Omens. This analysis could clearly be considered a theory since I'm not Neil Gaiman, but as someone who knows about narrative and character structure, I'm going to elaborate. Also, English is not my first language, so sorry in advance.

Aziraphale

First let's talk about Aziraphale. For two reasons, firstly because he is the one who seems to deserve the most defense right now; and second because Aziraphale, in my opinion, is the main character of Good Omens. This is because Aziraphale, out of the two, is the one who is likely to have the biggest change in his personality once his arc ends.

In a story, especially one like Good Omens with many characters, it is common for there to be many arcs, as every character has something to learn. Crowley, as a co-protagonist and love interest, is clearly going to have a change at the end of the plot, but his change won't be as big as our angel's.

First things first, what is a transformation arc?

It is the transformation that a character undergoes from the beginning to the end of the story. Basically, at the beginning of a story, a character is in a certain state of equilibrium, he lives and thinks in a certain way until he is exposed to a situation that forces him to act outside of his comfort zone. During this, he will undergo different changes that will be reflected in actions that take him away from his natural state until the climax, where the character will make a decision that will change his normality forever. This is important. In every story, the climax marks a before and after in the protagonist's life: whatever he decides at this moment has no turning back and will mark his life forever, so that after the climax, the character may again have a state of equilibrium but different from the initial one.

What is the climax of Good Omens? Well, in the 1st season we have the bodie swap and in the second season the separation of Crowley and Aziraphale. But of the story itself? It's still a mystery.

Neil Gaiman has already confirmed that Good Omens is a three-act story, so its climax will be located at the end of season 3. We still don't know what definitive change there will be in our characters… although throughout the series we have enough clues to at least know what they probably have to work on changing.

Aziraphale's Role

In order to analyze Aziraphale we must begin by understanding his role within the angelic hierarchy. Aziraphale was created as a Cherub and then, after Eden, became a Principality. Both ranks have one thing in common: they are guardian roles.

Cherubs are second in the highest circle of heaven, below Seraphims. They are described as "guardians of the universe from a divine plane and without direct contact with humans, although they positively influence them". On the other hand, Principalities are seventh within the last circle of the angelic hierarchy, and the highest rank within it. They are the guardians of nations and countries, overseeing global events within politics and commerce.

So, Aziraphale was created with the main purpose of being only one thing: a soldier. His function is to obey and protect objects, places and beings. That is why he was the angel who received the sword of fire, his task was to protect Eden. But he also has a very strong sense of intrinsic goodness that has led him to make erratic decisions throughout history that question just how much he is willing to obey orders.

If Aziraphale feels that something is wrong, he won't do it. It doesn't matter if he has to go against Heaven or sin. It doesn't matter if killing a child saves the rest of the world, he won't do it. It doesn't matter if God will grant Job new children, he can't stand idly by. These actions make him stand out from the rest. A simple soldier just obeys while Aziraphale has a critical mind, he has too strong of an opinion about right and wrong. If an event happens that he considers evil, Aziraphale will go to great lengths to prevent it.

It is remarkable that the first thing he did having free will was to give his sword to Adam and Eve. Of course he did it with the function of protecting them but, by giving them his only weapon, Aziraphale was left in a serious state of vulnerability. He did it because he is good and kind, but it could also be considered an act of sacrifice. Here enters another important issue when talking about Aziraphale that relates to religion itself.

The Martyr Hero

One of the most basic conceptions about the Christianity is that without sacrifice a person cannot really be good. Jesus was crucified to free us from our sins; Job sacrificed his whole life to prove that his faith was genuine. Even centuries later, the ecclesiastical institution maintains that the more you suffer, the poorer you are, the more chances you have of ending up in Heaven.

All the sacrifices made in life will eventually be rewarded in the Kingdom of God. It is the eternal figure of the martyr that is worshipped in Church, the idea that to really love, to really do good, sacrifices must be made.

Aziraphale believes this blindly. Now, he is an angel, not a human. He will not have an eventual reward of any kind, and that does not matter to him, because he considers himself lucky to be able to be a being of light who brings happiness to others no matter the price he has to pay. He was willing to fall only to save the lives of Job's children just because it was the right thing to do.

Performing actions for your own happiness without thinking of the consequences is frowned upon throughout the Bible. It is considered selfish and is a great source of guilt for all its faithful.

There is a line from the Good Omens Musical that has always stayed with me. When they argue, Crowley tries to talk some sense into Aziraphale by claiming all the reasons why he should help him avoid Armageddon, to which Aziraphale replies "you and I are not important."

Why didn't Aziraphale quickly give in to the proposal to stop the end of the world? Why didn't he tell Crowley where the Antichrist was without hesitation? Why did he help Gabriel in spite of everything? Why didn't he kiss Crowley back although he wanted to?

Truth be told, Aziraphale does not prioritize his own happiness because he does not consider himself important.

At the center of it all is God, good and ineffable who would never let anything happen unless it is not amenable to the greater good, then there is all the rest. Aziraphale believes he is just a soldier with a mission: to protect the Earth and everything he considers worth saving. He is not on this list: his welfare does not matter to him because, in the grand order of things, Aziraphale does not believe he is important.

There is no afterlife reward for him, though that doesn't stop him from feeling guilty about wanting it.

Aziraphale's dilemma

Aziraphale's great dilemma ould be summed up as:

Do I do what I want or do I do what I must?

Should he obey the rules or get what his heart yearns for now that it is within his grasp?

Throughout Good Omens, we learn Aziraphale has given into various temptations such as food. But these sins are small in comparison to what he really wants. For how does he explain to God that what his heart desires the most is to be able to love the Serpent of Eden?

He is madly in love with Crowley. He could lose everything: his bookstore, restaurants, music, art, but the feelings he has for him will never go away. It were years of repression, believing that if he loved him in silence, everything would be okay.

Now, in the season finale, Crowley expresses it, confesses and kisses him, offering him what he has always secretly wanted on a silver platter.

But Aziraphale was also offered a place in Heaven, finally being accepted by the family he misses. Aziraphale spent the entire 2nd season getting involved in trying to save Gabriel, in bringing Maggie and Nina together, getting perhaps a little too invested because he clearly missed having a purpose.

He was not well emotionally. He missed feeling that he does good because, despite everything, he believes in the potential that Heaven has. Aziraphale knows that if he is in charge, if he gives up everything that makes him happy, if he stops being selfish as he was all these years, he can make the necessary change to prevent the End of the World.

Aziraphale is a soldier whose main goal has always been to protect. Becoming the supreme Archangel he is able to protect everyone he loves. Because of this, he decides to sacrifice his earthly happiness and make the most difficult decision but the one he feels is right: to leave Earth, reject Crowley and become Head of Heaven.

The end of his arc and Crowley

Like any arc, Aziraphale's is clearly at the end of the story. He's already changed a lot, and he's done mostly so because of Crowley. Not just because of love, no, Crowley manages to awake something in him. Crowley is the driving force that encourages change in him, that reaffirms or questions his beliefs whenever he is in doubt about whether something is right or wrong. He inspires something that Aziraphale, an obedient soldier of the Lord never had: freedom.

Obviously, our angel always had that spark of freedom, though repressed, hidden in the darkest part of his being because he knows it is something that makes him different from the rest and he doesn't like to admit that he doesn't fit in Heaven.

Because this means that he doesn't fit in Hell either, nor on Earth completely. Ergo, admitting to being different means confirming his suspicion that he doesn't fit in anywhere. But he never had to pretend this with Crowley.

Knowing all this, how will Aziraphale's arc end?

Well, he's going to have to choose between heart and duty again. Aziraphale is going to want to save Earth at the Second Coming, that's obvious. He is going to be forced to disobey Heaven once again as he realizes that he cannot change them. In this way, he will confirm something tragic: his sacrifice was in vain.

But it is necessary that he can assume this in order to understand that he is wrong:

It is not necessary to suffer in order to deserve love.

It is not necessary to sacrifice everything that makes you happy to prove you are good.

Eternal sacrifice is not the solution. Aziraphale has to learn that being happy and being loved is not a reward that has to be given, no, it is something he is worthy of without the need to sacrifice his life. Aziraphale must understand that he does not have to prove that he is a good person by martyrdom. He is a good person because he is empathetic, smart and sweet.

The secret is to find the balance between love and duty, between good and evil, to embrace his freedom and find happiness by accepting his mistakes that make him different from the rest. The easiest way is to learn to love in the most genuine way: the human way. Discovering that love does not necessarily have to be painful or repressed, that he can do it openly, that what he feels is not a test of faith, but the reward he has been waiting for all these years.

Aziraphale will ultimately become free through Crowley's love.

#stay tuned for crowley's analysis #some day i'll get over these two #but that day is not today #good omens #aziraphale #aziracrow #aziraphale and crowley #ineffable husbands #neil gaiman #character analysis #terry pratchett #crowley #good omens aziraphale #martyrs #transformation arc #good omens theory #amazon prime #give me s3 or give me death

[sendarya]

Hey, hi, I love your analysis videos and have loose floating thoughts and questions and no one with whom to discuss them while Good Omens slowly consumes all of my available brain space.

Would love to know your thoughts on these! I’m sorry if you’ve already discussed these somewhere and I missed it, I can go dig around if so.

Heavenly/magical working logic of Gabriel’s transfer of himself into the fly. When he’s Jim, his eyes aren’t purple, and he also says something like his head isn’t big enough for the type of memory Crowley is asking him to recall at one point? Is he an empty human corporation? If he’s himself but just without his memory, why are his eyes different and brain capacity different? Do you know what I’m getting at here? Considering the extreme care with which so many other aspects are handled by the showrunning team, this one still evades me.

Hell is super understaffed - where are the demons? 👀 Paired off with angels in some remote corner of the galaxy? Helping God with her next, more interesting project?

Thank you so much for all the time you take producing amazing, thoughtful, well-researched content.

Hello, and thanks for the questions, and for the lovely compliments!

I actually love your first question so much, I've added it to my list of things I'd like to address in a video if you don't mind? Probably soon-ish, as well. And happy to credit you for asking the question! It really got me thinking about how the entire magic system in GO's works, and the implications all of it has, something I can't recall seeing addressed before.

As to your second question, I haven't got a good answer. At the end of s1, Bee says there are millions of demons, but then they are understaffed (and on half rations), why? I will be honest and tell you that as of right now, I have o brainwaves on that topic, but will keep it in mind as well!

Thank you again for the questions! Stay tuned, hopefully I can come up with a satisfactory answer to at least one of them!

#good omens #good omens 2 #neil gaiman #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #michael sheen #david tennant

[bloolecloos-136]

Good omens music analysis?? (Kinda?? Idk if to call it BAJAJ) ⚠️Spoilers to episode 6!⚠️(Also first post!!)

So! I wanted to share this because for me I thought that it was interesting yet so sad that even I myself cried a bit because of it. BUT during the past where Crowley gets close to Aziraphale and kisses him, if you rewatch that part, you can hear clashes of to different tunes in one. For example, on Crowley's side of the tune when kissing Aziraphale, you can feel hope, the wanting for Aziraphale to stay with him, hope to be just them, with without neither of their side. But in Aziraphale side of the tune, you can hear a tune that sounds a scary one, but a scary feeling of messing up, scared about his side disapprove even though he wants to stay, just fear itself. Atleast that's how I view it, and I thinks it's interesting how they show it just by a soundtrack in the episode. Idk if Neil intended to do this or not but it was interesting(AND SO SAD, LEFT ME SO HEARTBROKEN HELLO??). But this is my opinion and if yall have other opinions or something similar let me know! ꧁💙☀️☀️💙꧂

#good omens #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #broke my heart #literally sobbing rn #aziracrow #Music analysis?? Maybe? Idk

[coppicefics]

Masked Omens: Week Five

[Image Description: Image 1 - A simple rendition of the Masked Singer UK logo, a golden mask with colourful fragments flying off of it. The mask has a golden halo and a golden devil tail protruding from either side. Below, gold text reads ‘Masked Omens’. 

Image 2 - A page from the Entertainment section of the Capital Herald, dated Saturday, 23rd January 2021. Full image description and transcript below cut. End ID.]

Read the fic here!

The Capital Herald - Saturday, 23rd January 2021 Entertainment, page 15

Top section: Stream of Consciousness: Shows To Make You Think A whole host of great documentaries, old and new, have just been added to streaming services Who doesn't love a good documentary? You can learn all sorts of things, and you don't have to do any of the research for yourself. Over the last couple of weeks, loads of people seem to have been tuning into the wealth of documentaries available on various streaming services; here are a few I particularly enjoyed. Green Planet (2020) is not your standard nature documentary; while there are some extremely cute shots of animals (including gorillas, whales, and giant squid) the main focus is on sustainable practices people are experimenting with in all sorts of industries and contexts, and the way they allow local wildlife to flourish. It's thought-provoking stuff. We're As Folk (2019) takes a look at the contemporary folk movement, interviewing figures from the second British revival right through to the present day; contributors include Seth Lakeman, Frank Turner, Anathema and Bellowhead. With folk-festival anecdotes aplenty, the documentary explores the intricacies of the genre and culminates in all the contributors performing a once-in-a-lifetime rendition of 'She Moved Through The Fair'. Gadget If You Can (2015) might be a little outdated now, but that's what makes it such a compelling watch. From watches that tell the time in 21 capital cities concurrently to hoverboards that actually, well, hover, this is a fascinating look at the new devices that seemed to be just on the horizon when it was released more than five years ago. Some have since appeared; some remain pipedreams. All are interesting! Making Fast Friends (2012) is the oldest documentary on this list, and the narrowest in scope. It was released alongside the SEGA charity single 'Fast Friends' and gives us a behind the scenes look at what happened when Sonic the Hedgehog teamed up with a whole bunch of children's TV presenters to make the record. Although largely factual in nature, it does also feature animated 'interviews' with Sonic and Knuckles, so it's entirely suitable for watching with your family. And P-White fans, in particular, will not want to miss this a second time around. A War Without War (2021), by contrast, is both up-to-the-minute and extremely disturbing to watch. It is composed of a mixture of expert analysis of the situation developing on the ground in Celestan and grim footage allegedly smuggled out of the country by fleeing residents. Moreover, with more episodes promised, it forces the viewer to acknowledge what is happening as the country breaks apart, and asks us the difficult question: can you have a war without war? Dinosaurs: The Punchline (2013) is frequently mistaken for a mockumentary thanks to its tongue-in-cheek title. It is, in fact, a thoughtful exploration of how religious groups respond to apparent conflicts between scientific facts and the tenets of their faith. Without shying away from the realities of science as we know it, this film takes a surprisingly sensitive approach to investigating how science and religion intersect in the modern world. By The Numbers (2018) looks back at the history of the televised National Lottery, along with its competitors on other channels and the entertainment chosen to appear directly after it. Featuring clips and interviews with stars from Marjorie Potts aka Telepathic Tracy, whose show aired after the draw for over a decade, to Marvin O. Bagman, whose sports-based quiz show had, at the time of the documentary’s release, the corresponding Channel 4 slot. It’s not groundbreaking, but it is very entertaining. CITRON DEUX-CHEVAL Have I missed any amazing documentaries you think I should be talking about? Drop me an email at [email protected] or leave a comment on our website and I might feature your recommendations in a future issue.

Centre left: Memory Lane: Kilcridhe Now there’s a vicar I’d have loved to meet at the altar Ask any male-attracted person of a certain age – well, my age and up, really – if they remember Kilcridhe, and you'll be met with flushed cheeks and a glassy expression. We remember Kilcridhe, all right – or perhaps it would be fairer to say that we remember Father Jacob MacCleod. It's hard to believe that heartthrob Jacob was Anthony Crowley's first major role on television, and harder still to believe that he was also one of his last. The show ran for only two six-episode series, between 2005 and 2006, but in those twelve hours I think it's fair to say a fair few of us fell irrevocably in love. Kilcridhe was named for the fictitious Scottish village where it was set, and largely revolved around the goings-on of the local church and its new minister. Much of the series' drama centred around Father MacCleod's ongoing attempts to fill the pews, which saw him trying everything from hosting a bake sale – for which he ended up baking everything himself – to arranging a community talent show, with predictably bizarre results. But during the course of these adventures, each episode also introduced us to one or more of Kilcridhe's residents. We got a glimpse into the little struggles and joys of their lives – most of which quickly became Jacob's struggles and joys, too. My main memory of this show is that it was pretty. Not just Jacob, but everything about it, from the location they chose for the exterior shots, to the tone added in post-production; everything was just slightly more saturated and colourful than real life, not enough to be jarring but enough to give the whole thing a strangely dreamlike feel. In fact, as Jacob remarked as he prepared to leave for Edinburgh at the end of series one (not knowing if he would return or if the show would be cancelled), “leaving [Kilcridhe] feels like waking from a dream, like going back to reality somehow”. It was, perhaps, for the best that Kilcridhe was cancelled after only two series. Shows originally envisioned as limited series rarely keep their charm past a second extension, and the central actor was to encounter personal problems not long after the end of the show. That's not to say that a revival couldn't work, perhaps with a completely new protagonist. But Father Jacob MacCleod lives on in the hearts of his many fans, smiling that enigmatic smile of his, and when that's not enough, there's always online fanfiction. So much fanfiction. SARAH JEUNE Memory Lane is our regular feature, looking back at the books, shows and films of yesteryear through a nostalgic lens. Do you miss something you’d like to see featured? Just send the show name (plus channel and airdates if you know them) in an email to: [email protected] - your prayers might just be answered!

Centre right: Correspondent’s Corner Stop talking about it Anathema is making waves again as she does the talk-show circuit to promote her new album, Narrative Devices. It's a very pretty album from a very lovely girl, but she does keep getting hung up on one point. Every time somebody describes her music as country, she interrupts to tell them it's folk. Well, I'm no music expert, but even I know that folk is a very European genre, and the United States' equivalent is country, or country and western music, to give it its full name, and to continue to argue to the contrary is simply courting controversy for controversy's sake. It is unbecoming of a young lady – even, or perhaps especially, a young lady with Anathema's obvious talent – to continue to argue with her elders on the subject, and even to correct the likes of Graham Norton and Giles Brandreth. These sage bastions of broadcasting deserve more respect, and they couldn't be more gracious in accepting their 'mistake'. But surely a young musician in the first flush of success should take the time to learn about what she's actually doing? It doesn't seem very much to ask. It’s not entirely her fault, of course; the youth of today are given far too much freedom by their parents and, on top of that, are often propelled to disproportionate success with no chance to prepare for it. Is it any wonder that it all goes to their heads? But there is no excuse for not making an effort to keep their egos in check and defer to their betters on matters of terminology and best practice. Naturally, we all hope that Anathema will enjoy a long and successful career making the music she enjoys the most and , more importantly, music we can all enjoy too. And I also hope that she will, eventually, acquire the humility so rarely found in young people these days and accept that she does not always know best. If she listens to the counsel of older and wiser heads than hers, she might even learn something. ANDY SANDALPHON What can’t they do? If there's one thing that's becoming apparent with every passing week of The Masked Singer UK, it's that celebrities are no longer to content to stay in their lane. No, these multi-talented marvels seem determined to push themselves to the limit in every possible field. So far, we’ve seen sergeants become singers, rugby players become rockers, doctors become divas and authors become, er, audible. And with weeks still to go in this competition, we still have eight masked celebrities to guess. Eight people whose day jobs probably don’t include getting on stage and belting out pop standards are still waiting to impress us with talents that aren’t even their thing. I mean, if I could sing and dance like the contestants on the show, you can bet your life I’d be making a living from it. It would be my number one talent, and I’d be rubbish at anything else, because most of us only get one main skill. Not these jammy gits, though. For them, this is a sideline. It's not just The Masked Singer, of course – from proving their talent for trivia on Pointless Celebrities and their wordplay wisdom on Celebrity Catchphrase to demonstrating their culinary qualities on Celebrity Masterchef and The Great Celebrity Bake Off, it seems that wherever you look someone is adding a new string to their bow. Being a phenomenally talented actor, singer, or footballer is all well and good, but more and more stars are now keen to show us that they really can do anything and everything. And why shouldn't they? It's phenomenally entertaining television to watch. And for those of us who sometimes feel inadequate compared to our famous idols, it can be very reassuring to watch, for example, a comedian weeping into his cupcake mix on Bake Off or an Oscar nominee fall on her face on Dancing On Ice. When they do well, it's amazing; when they do badly, it's life-affirming. That said, I've been blown away by the talent of the contestants on The Masked Singer this series. It's so inspirational, in fact, that I might take up watercolours. EDWARD BIGGS Bottom right (in blue box): Citron’s Quick Picks Fast favourites from Citron Deux-Cheval Look: Sea Change by Hastur LaVista There's never been a journey to to the top quite like P-White's. This authorised biography charts a course from children's presenter to global superstar through interviews, pictures and anecdotes. While the research sometimes seems a little slapdash, the story at the heart of the book is more than interesting enough to hold it together. And since it's authorised, Maputi themself has contributed plenty of private insights and observations. [Image description: A book, its cover featuring a blue-green gradient with black, dripping lines spilling across it. The title reads ‘Sea Change’. End ID.] Listen: Narrative Devices by Anathema Anathema's first album was well-received both within the folk community and beyond it. Now her second album, backed up by an obvious increase in resources, looks set to enjoy similar mainstream success, and deservedly so. The theme this time seems to be the act of telling stories, but it's also a story in itself. You'll have heard the singles, but it takes on new meaning when you play it in order! [Image description: An album cover featuring hands holding a book. The words “Anathema” and “Narrative Devices” are printed on it. End ID.] Laugh: Newtral Stance by AutoTuna on YouTube It's not the first time beleaguered commentator Newton Pulsifer has had his words edited into a supercut. It's not even the first time his frequent disagreements with the VAR have been autotuned – including by YouTube user AutoTuna. But this new edition adds an extra dimension in the form of a flat, robotic voice duetting – and duelling – with the frustrated human, taking the hilarity to a whole new level! [Image description: A screenshot of a young woman wearing a call centre headset (specifically, the woman who cold-calls Crowley in Good Omens and gets Hastur instead). She looks extremely bored. End ID.]

Advertisement, bottom right: IS THIS YOUR CARD? [Image Description: Two business cards with a white-to-yellow gradient, overlapping so that they are slightly fanned out. Printed on the left-hand side of each is ‘This is to certify The Amazing [blank] as a [blank] training under Mr A.Z. Fell.‘ The one behind is filled in with ‘Your Name-’ and ‘Sorcer-’. The front card is filled in in a more child-friendly font, with ‘Your Name Here’ and ‘Junior Magician’. Below this is space for a start and expiry date, filled in with ‘08/20′ and ‘08/21′ respectively. On the right-hand side of the card, a logo shows a rabbit emerging from an upturned top hat, and below it are the words ‘Harry’s Junior Magic Academy’. The word ‘Junior’ is in the same child-friendly font as before. End ID.] IT COULD BE. Membership is open to under 12s and 13-18 year-olds at www.harrys-magic.com

End of transcript.

#masked omens #mo week five #very much fake news #good omens fic

[100witches]

One Hundred Witches

🖤💜Master Post💜🖤

A handy resource guide of 100+ witches from across history, literature, mythology, and pop culture. Not all of these women would have identified as such, but many were persecuted and marginalized in the name thereof. This is not complete, nor comprehensive. I will be adding to it as I continue the project, as there are many, many witches I have yet to include. 

📜Witches from History📜

Hypatia (350/370- 415)

Joan of Arc (1412-1431)

Mother Shipton (1488-1561)

Agnes Waterhouse (1503-1566)

Agnes Sampson (1591)

Alse Young (1600-1647)

Tituba

Catherine Deshayes (1640-1680)

🗄Historical Compilations🗄 

In Memoriam 

Red Haired Witches

📖Witches from Modern History📖

Occultists🔮

Pamela Coleman Smith

Dion Fortune

Helena Blavatsky

Marie Laveau*

Mothers of Modern Witchcraft/Wicca🕯 

Doreen Valiente

Monique Wilson

Maxine Sanders

Edith Woodford-Grimes

Janet Farrar

Eleanor Bone

Margaret Murray

Vivianne Crowley

Old Dorothy Clutterbuck

Lois Bourne

Patricia Crowther

Sybil Leek

American Witches and Pagan Elders🌿

Margot Adler

Starhawk

Selena Fox

Silver RavenWolf

Zsuzsanna Budapest

Laurie Cabot

Jeane Dixon

Stevie Nicks

W.I.T.C.H.*

🎥Witches from Film/Literature📚

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Eglantine Price

Bell, Book, and Candle

Gillian Holroyd

The Witches of Eastwick

Alexandra Medford, Jane Spofford, Sukie Ridgemont 

Witches from Oz

Glinda

Mombi

Wicked Witch of the West

Witches from Narnia

Jadis, The White Witch

Witches from Harry Potter

Minverva McGonnogal

Bellatrix Lestrange

Hermione Granger*

Animated Disney Witches

Ursula 

Maleficent 

Madam Mim

Grimhilde (The Evil Queen)

Practical Magic

Sally and Gillian Owens

Frances and Bridget Owens

The Addams Family

Grandmama Addams

Hocus Pocus

The Sanderson Sisters: Winifred, Mary, Sarah

Wicker Man

Miss Rose

Witches

Grand High Witch

Rosemary’s Baby

Minnie Castavet

The Craft 

Nancy Downs/Fairuza Balk

Rachel True

The VVITCH

Thomasin* 

Miyazaki Witches

Kiki

Yubaba and Zeniba*

Pirates of the Caribbean

Tia Dalma 

Macbeth

The Weird Sisters/Three Witches*

📺Witches from Television📺

Bewitched

Samantha Stephens

Endora

Aunt Clara

Sabrina The Teenage Witch

Sabrina Spellman

Hilda and Zelda Spellman

Game of Thrones

Melisandre

The Magicians

Julia Wicker, Margo Hanson, Alice Quinn, Kady Orloff-Diaz

Penny Dreadful 

Vanessa Ives

Joan Clayton

Charmed 

The Halliwell Sisters: Phoebe, Prue, Piper, and Paige.

Cartoons 

Witch Hazel (Donald Duck)

Witch Hazel (Looney Tunes)

Halloweentown 

Agatha Cromwell

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 

Willow Rosenberg

American Horror Story: Coven 

Miss Robichaux’s Academy*

🏺Witches from Mythology/Folklore🏺

Biblical

The Witch of Endor

Lilith

Greek 

Cassandra

Calypso

Circe

Medea

The Graeae/ The Moirai

Hecate

British Folklore

Jenny Greenteeth/Nelly Longarms/ Peg Powler

Black Annis

Allison Gross

Arthurian Legend 

Morgan le Fay

Nimue: The Lady of the Lake

Italian Folklore 

Aradia

La Befana

Celtic Mythology

Ceridwen

Slavic Folklore

Baba Yaga

American Folklore

The Bell Witch

📝Witches from Children’s Books📝 

Room on the Broom

Witch

Strega Nona

Strega Nona

Mother Goose

Mother Goose

📰Witches from Comic Series📰

Wendy the Good Little Witch

Wendy

X-Men/Avengers

Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)

*denotes I was unable to complete their original post. I will be returning to these and adding a full analysis.

This list stems from my original project that I did for the 100 days before Halloween 2018. The nature of the project I discuss in my 1st post, which happened to be The Witch of Endor. I will be adding dozens other witches I did not get to in the initial 100 over time, and plan on producing a second series for male witches. Stay Tuned!

On the horizon

Bonnie Bennett (Vampire Diaries)

Witch of the Waste (Howl’s Moving Castle)

Mary Poppins

Louise Miller (Teen Witch)

#witch #witches #witchblr #witchcraft #100witches #coven #magic #occult #wicca #wiccan #pagan #paganism #the craft #modern witchcraft #mythology

[ineffably-in-love]

Good Omens Soundtrack: The “Lift Home?” Music Analysis

So, I’ve been way too deep into the Good Omens OST lately, and it’s a real shame that not every piece we hear in the show made it to the final soundtrack. One of the pieces most people miss is the romantic violin song that plays in Episode 3, when Crowley hands Aziraphale his unharmed books and bastard angel canonically realises he’s in fact in love with that demon thanks Michael Sheen.

I thought it would be fun to unpack this piece of music --- and even though Aziraphale and Crowley don’t have an explicit theme of their own, by now I firmly believe that this melody is Their Theme. Read my take on it under the cut :’)

First of all, a brief definition from Wikipedia on what a ‘motif’ is in music: “A motif is a short musical phrase, a [...] recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition.”

With that outta the way, let’s dive into this.

So, this is basically the melody we’re hearing when Crowley hands Aziraphale the books:

But that’s not the first time we hear this melody. It first shows up in the Main Theme, after the A Minor and Major parts, that, as far as I’m concerned, are Hell and Heaven respectively. Or at least two different ideologies/ideas/fractions. This new little theme is still in A Major, but it’s not as elaborate as the melody from before. It’s playful, sure, but very simple and repetitive, maybe even to a point where it can get kind of annoying. It goes like this:

As you can see, both motifs start on an E --- the same note that the Main Theme (the first thing that plays in the intro) starts with. The melodies go down from there, to D sharp and C sharp respectively. But the little new motif takes a very different turn with C sharp, because C sharp is what distinguishes the sound of A Major from A Minor. It’s E - C sharp - F sharp. This new motif does not turn into A Minor, like the Main Theme did. It ends on a high A and stays A Major throughout.

That’s very interesting, and I kept wondering --- what does it mean? Why is there such a cut in our intro music? It’s a completely new theme. What kind of theme is this?

Whose theme could it be???

Crowley and Aziraphale, of course. This melody and the fact that it stays in A Major until the very end contain a lot of things they stand for: That they stay true to themselves and their Arrangement. That they share the same “origin key”, but turn it into something that’s solely their own. Their positive nature (we’re in Major, not Minor). But more on that later.

So when do we hear it in the show? The motif does not always play during vital turning points in the plot involving them (I’ve talked a bit about ‘Is That You?’ here), but I think it does play when something changes fundamentally about their relationship. Something personal. I’ve not actually counted all the times the motif is played in the show, but here are some instances as examples:

Crowley’s Lullaby: Sung in C Major, for David’s sake, maybe? Crowley and Aziraphale have thought of this *brilliant* idea to keep the Antichrist normal. They’re actually watching the wrong boy, but they don’t know that, so they’re very enthusiastic about it. but they’re actually being dumbasses Crowley sings to Warlock as “the evil fraction”, but it’s actually part of his and Aziraphale’s mutual plan, and as of right now, everything is going according to that plan.

It’s interesting that a variation of the Main Theme plays when they enter the scene as the Nanny and the Gardener. It’s the “representative tune”. But in that intimate moment, when Crowley is alone with the child he believes to be the Antichrist, he sings our motif, the little new one that sounds so simple and sweet, during the mission that might save his and Aziraphale’s precious Earth.

Before that, we’ve only heard the new theme briefly play when Mr Young names Adam after his birth in the hospital (in the key of C Major) and before Crowley tries calling Aziraphale. You might think that it is out of place here, but remember: The Antichrist is what will drive Crowley and Aziraphale for the next eleven years and make them work together -- even when they first think it’s all about Warlock.

We’re Not Killing Anybody: This is their break-up scene in Episode 3. Now we’ve changed to A Minor (E - C - F). We even get a bit from ‘Holy Water’ in here. But our motif begins when they start their break-up: “This is ridiculous, you are ridiculous”, showing how their relationship is changed by this conversation and by their different ideas about dealing with Armageddon. Showing how their past relationship is coming to a sad end. “It’s over!” Sob.

Bookshop’s ON Fire: An altered version (F - D - B flat - A - D), but it’s there. The motif goes up to B flat before it falls to A and D, showing Crowley’s great emotional distress and the destructive mania he drives himself into. Listen to the choir when he picks up the Nice and Accurate Prophecies, one book as a souvenir, the last thing that connects him to his angel now -- that’s our motif. Sobbb.

Requiem for A Bentley: Even more altered, distorted even (A - G sharp - C - B) --- The Bentley has accompanied them with the greatest loyalty, and their theme is showing here, too, if you listen closely to the strings at the end. The Bentley is gone, that’s how close they are to Armageddon. Everything’s a mess already, how much worse could it get?

End of This Story: We’re back! Well, sort of. Not A Major, but G Major, the key of the Them. One note below A. An only slightly altered version of our motif plays as Aziraphale believes the war is already won, believes that he and Crowley did it. It comes up again when he starts talking about the Beginning and how his husband was a wily old serpent and how he was technically on apple tree duty and---

All Change: They reverse their bodyswap and chatter happily on their bench in St James’s Park. We’re finally back on the old pattern in the key of A Major. After the motif, there’s a nice line cliché down to A [=harmony’s “going down” note by note in a very pleasant way; Queen used those a fair bit, e.g. in ‘Somebody To Love’] and then to E without resolving the tension that comes from this dominant of A Major. It only gets resolved in the piano version of Nightingale later on, which is written in A Major as well.

Okay. So far, so emotional the ugly sobbing. But, especially when watching Ep3, you might be asking yourself: Isn’t the “Lift Home” scene the first time in Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s mutual past when this motif plays?

The answer is yes.

Let’s revisit Episode 3 before the Blitz scene. At the Globe, when Aziraphale looks at Crowley, eyes begging him to make Hamlet a success using a miracle, an E plays quite prominently and you could think it would kick off our little motif. But it doesn’t; it somewhat changes into a sweet little downwards melody, ending in a happy little E Major chord (while showing Aziraphale’s sweet smile) before cutting to Paris. E Major is the dominant to A Major, as written above, and the dominant always means tension. Tension that, to our ears, feels like it needs to be resolved, ideally to the tonic, which in the case of E Major could be either A Minor or A Major. Now we don’t actually get that feeling right away, because the whole phrase is written in E Major, but keep it in mind still.

Because apart from the many times the Main Theme plays (e.g. when Crowley enters the church), I think that’s the closest we get to our little motif: The two of them bickering about their Arrangement and doing each other’s deeds, when suddenly Aziraphale wants Crowley to do something for him. Not for head offices, not for God, not even for poor Shakespeare, but for him. And when Crowley says yes, “my treat”, our angel gives him the most precious smile ever. Urgh.

The motif first plays in its proper form when Crowley hands Aziraphale the books and offers him a “lift home”. This is when Mr Sheen decided that Aziraphale would finally realise his love for Crowley, and the camera and music department support his acting rather strongly in that regard. As for the instruments, I believe it’s a violin playing the melody, with those cute recurring chimes sprinkled on top. The chimes play so often on this soundtrack I’d have to analyse their meaning/symbolism as well, oh God. Back to our scene with Aziraphale staring into the middle distance. Finally he’s on the same level as Crowley, who’s had it bad for 6,000 years already, and maybe Aziraphale even knows. I think that in this scene, Aziraphale not only realises his own love for Crowley, but he also realises that Crowley very much loves him as well, and has loved him for a damn long time already. That’s a big effin turning point for these two.

However, this would mean that the variation we hear in the Blitz is actually the original version of our motif! It’s a quiet tune that sounds like realisation, yearning and loving, and it’s written in A Major. It would mean that the times we hear it later on in the timeline (e.g. the Warlock lullaby or the happy ending) are actually an evolved version of Aziraphale’s love theme from the Blitz.

Let’s take a look at this early motif again:

It goes up to G sharp before falling onto F sharp. This kinda sounds like a sigh, doesn’t it? The second time around, the melody goes to G sharp once more, before falling down to E -- an even more longing sigh in here, a quickened heartbeat in the quavers there... At least that’s what I hear :’) Aziraphale’s heart is practically beating out of his chest here. That’s one brilliant way of musicalising the feeling of falling in love if you ask me. But the best part is that the music also conveys Aziraphale’s confusion about those feelings, his insecurity, because we do not get a resolution. We are in A Major but we end on E Major yet again.

Now, let’s look at the evolved version we hear in the intro once more:

The melody is much more refined by now, it’s steadier, quicker and overall more complete, mainly because we end on an A Major chord. We climb up from our E Major to a high A and the thing finally, finally resolves. Aziraphale and Crowley have come into their own, they are comfortable with their feelings and their mutual love for one another. It’s whimsical, playful and laid-back at the same time. This little motif is about them and them alone, it’s the signifier of their relationship, and it has turned into their Theme. In this regard, the omniscient intro has given us a fully developed theme since Ep1, and it has been evolved from Aziraphale’s little love motif.

So, if you ask me, this melody is as close as we get to a Theme for Crowley and Aziraphale. It’s more joyous than the Mystery Theme (which plays very prominently during their pep talk to Adam), mischievous even, but quiet and solitary when compared to the pompous Main Theme. It also lends itself to more serious tones when shifted in key, as seen above. But most important of all, it gives us a resolution after Aziraphale’s confusion in Ep3. Now we have a happy ending in fucking A Major, the key that is said to sound the most emotional, bright, proud and joyous; the key that closes the series with ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’.

Bach, famously one of the demons’ composers, once said that “the glorious heights of the light of A Major have only seldomly been really reached” by other keys in music. If that isn’t worth a Hallelujah then I don’t know what is;;

Thank you for reading!

#dear god I'm in love with that gif #ineffable husbands #episode 3 #music #meta #analysis #david arnold #good omens #*

[foxhenki-blog]

Cthulhu and Medusa Go To The Prom - Part Two

Front Matter:

It's been a pretty good week thus far. I am back at work (that's not the good part) and cursing my new task management app 'Todoist' for working way to well. I think I liked it better when I lost track of all the coding and librarianing I had to do. The best part of the week (the work portion of it anyway, obv spending time with my insane and awesome wife and kids is the best best) is happening right now! The St. Cyprian feast week starts tomorrow and St Barabara's feast day is coming up so I trucked a few minutes into Milwaukee's South Side (the Hispano/Latino District) to El Rey Mercado to grab myself some novena's and new San Cyprian y San Barbara candles. As an added benefit, I grabbed a couple of tacos de boyo tradicional, because, when in Rome! (Like tacos need an excuse). A mariachi just walked in and there is a game show called 'Mas Pelotas?' On the flatscreen that consists of the contestant in a protective but Velcro suit dodging wildly flung tennis balls. It looks like the aim is to stick as many balls as possible on the main in the suit. I love this town.

Imbrications:

I have read some rumors, but have not yet found any evidence, that Mark Frost, Twin Peak’s co-creator is a bit of a Crowleyian or otherwise interested in or involved in Thelema and Theosophy. I have yet to read ‘The Secret History of Twin Peaks’ but I am leaning a bit more towards picking it up now that 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' has been announced and is available for pre-order. The rumors of what is in the second, post ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ book has my inner armchair magician’s mouth watering.

Whether you’ve seen The Return all the way through or not, it won’t hurt you to know that there are a few bits in there that touch on the subject of ‘tulpas’, which brings me to the below quote from The Dark Lord:

"As we have seen, the Valentinians [1st c. Gnostics] concentrated on the Divine during sex so that they would produce Divine offspring. The method seems strangely similar. Old Whateley was concentrating on incarnating one of the Old Ones on earth. Crowley’s quasi-fictional magicians in his most famous novel were pretending to create a Moonchild. Magic is the creation of forms, of illusions, of whole new realities. In Tibetan shamanism, this is known as creating tulpas: homunculi designed for specific purposes..."

Creating magical beings to accomplish specific purposes. The tulpa, or the idea of the tulpa, imbricates on top of, or underneath, the magical practices of both sigilmancy and shamanic journeying. This is a road that, I think, holds a lot of wisdom for a future investigation.

On to the videos!

The first is a short rendition of Lovecraft's 'From Beyond' by 'Dangerous Puppets'. 

The second are a double of videos from the coffin rock jam band 'The Cosmic Dead', which are essentially some expertly time vintage films put to gothic doom guitar and drum. This trinity of videoart adds layers of sonic truths to the ambience that a life lived breaking through the barriers of the Lovecraft Grimoire naturally has.

Check em out!

On Rogue Planets and Hair Metal

This week we will focus on our second king from 'Whisperer in the Darkness', the educated rustic, Henry Wentworth Akeley. Before we look too closely at Akeley, let’s wake the thought-tentacles born of our multi-species anthropologist - Donna Haraway. The context of the below quote is Akeley framing an alternate path towards biology and anthropology, one that incorporates art into, and as the reason for, the science. From ‘Staying with the Trouble’:

"The data were intended to provoke, motivate, amplify, inspire, and illustrate, not to substitute or surface professional... science and monitoring. These were data produced to generate further imaginative and knowing action in many domains of practice... multi species art in action for mundane worlds in need of - and capable of - recuperation across consequential differences."

I personally think that this is a good approach to recording and working with spirit contact data. It is not meant to be hard science, and cannot be due to its subjectivity. We can see the difference between a materialist view and what amounts to an animist view (although Haraway has yet to utter the term). Our first king, Professor Wilmarth is our materialist. He is supremely skeptical of all the accounts of the ‘pinking things’ dredged up by the Vermont Flood, until he meets with the argument of Henry Akeley. Akeley is a believer because he is also a seer, but not just a witness, a witness who has collected data on the phenomenon of contact with these entities. The animist carries with her subjective proof of spirit contact. This proof, when extended into a material framing, ultimately breaks down under its harsh fluorescence. What Haraway is suggesting is that, instead of using the data collection, visualization, and analysis tools of the materialist on their own, that cross-species (in her case) or spirit (in our case) contact is expressed as information art. This is another imbrication, but one that I have certainly placed in a jar on my shelf of animal skulls and cursework for later examination. For an excellent introduction to this genre of expression, you can get a head start by checking out “Information: Documents as Contemporary Art”. We can circle around later and compare notes.

Our second king is the perfect fit for a lot of Haraway’s blistering science poetry. The first, let��s call it a case study, that she offers as an example of cross-species cooperation and co-habitation is the ongoing and quite ancient relationship that humans (of guman’s, to use her term) have with the pigeon. She speaks of towers (a favorite archetype of mine) dedicated to the pigeon:

“The pigeon loft… commissioned by La Defense, the association of pigeon fanciers in Beauvoir en Cambresis [had an] interior space… functionally organized like a tree, a kind of axis of the world, and the exterior shape echoes old Egyptian designs for pigeon lofts. Historical, mythical, and material worlds are in play here…”

Lot’s to play with there, right? She continues describing another pigeon tower, this one used in permaculture operations:

"Another pigeon loft in the shape of a tower imposes itself on my memory; another proposal for multi species recuperation for creatures of empire is held out to those of whatever species who might grasp it. This time we are in Melbourne in Australia, in Batman Park along the Yarra River, part of the Wurundjeri people's territory prior to European settlement. This colonized area along the Yarra became a wasteland, sewage dump, and site for cargo and rail transport, destroying the wetlands (Anglo scientific term) and destroying country (Anglo-Aboriginal term for multidimensional and storied place)."

“Whisperer in the Darkness”  hands us hints of protecting wild spaces and coexisting with them. Akeley fights hard to protect his place in a land that is being mined to exhaustion by secretive xenomorphs. This, for me, correlates with the recent Ojibwe protests of corporate mining on their land and on land upriver for their homes. This correlation, and Henry Akeley’s actions in Whisperer, could reveal some interesting and heretofore unearthed wrinkles in the Tower archetype. Perhaps taking a look at the Batman Park pigeon loft more closely would be valuable. Are there correlations to the Tower Trump, to Saint Barbara, and permaculture? Are the warning of the Tower ecological in addition to religion-spiritual? How does our second king fit in, is he an occupier or a protector of the woods climbing up the face of Dark Mountain? Can you be both a colonist and an indigenist? These are questions for another day.

Let’s turn our attention back to the dance floor. The invisible band has ceased in their death feet jazz corpse stylings and have moved from a slow dance to a faster hair metal tune. This, of course, has our dancers pulling apart, tentacles and snakes begin to flail, and even the acolytes crowding around them start to writhe with the new rhythm. 

I have to make an admission, even though the subtitle of Haraway’s book is spelled a certain way and that spelling is used throughout the introduction, I completely looked past the extremely subtle difference between what the author was meaning to say and what I thought she was saying with her word ‘Chthulu’, to the point where I missed quoted this word as ‘Cthulhu’ in those bits I’ve already pulled from her book. I found my error when she detailed her reasoning for her subtitle:

“"The eight-legged tentacular arachnid [Pimoa cthulhu] that I appeal to gets her generic name from the language of the Goshute people of Utah and her specific name from denizens of the depths, from the abyssal and elemental entities, called chthonic. The chthonic powers of Terra infuse its tissues everywhere despite the civilizing effort soft the agents of sky gods to astralize them and set up chief Singletons and their tame committees of multiples of subgods, the One and the Many. Making a small change in the biologist's taxonomic spelling, from Cthulhu to Chthulucene, with renamed Pimoa chthulu I propose a name for an elsewhere and elsewhen that was, still is, and might yet be: the Chthulucene... Myriad tentacles will be needed to tell the story of the Chthulucene.”

Both Chthulu and Cthulhu are powerful words, and both lead downhill towards the abyss and its secrets. When I used to sketch all the time, in my youth, I had a practice of drawing in pen and just rolling with the mistakes. I do this when writing long hand too. I’m going to hold to my tradition and stick with my mistake through the rest of my arguments. As Haraway takes her theories away from the spiritual and into the material world, Terre, earthed, as do I tear her theory from her hands and re-apply it to the spiritual, renaming her Chthulucene to the more appropriate Cthulhucene - The Age of Cthulhu the High Priest of Cosmic Horror and the salting of the material earth of mankind. The huge majority of Haraway's theory is sound and can be easily and without pulling too far away from her original context, re-adapted to a world as populated with spirit as it is with her 'tentacular ones'.

“The tentacular ones are not disembodied figures; they are cnidarians, spiders, fingers beings like humans and raccoons, squid, jellyfish, neural extravaganzas, fibrous entities, flagellated beings, myofibril braids, matted and felted microbial and fungal tangles, probing creepers, swelling roots, reaching and climbing ten drilled ones. The tentacular are also nets and networks, IT critters, in and out of clouds. Tentacularity is about life lived along lines - and such a wealth of lines - not at points, not in spheres… Sympoiesis... 'collectively-produced systems that do not have self-defined spatial or temporal boundaries. Information and control are distributed among components. The systems are evolutionary and have the potential for surprising change.” 

This is niche construction, or the systemic equivalent, systems as entities carving system-sized niches out of each other's hides. Why is looking at the world in this way relevant though? And how does it connect to our second King? To find that out, let’s step out of the world of cross-species bio-science-poetry into some more familiar territory, The Arbatel. Take for example, this quote, from  the Digital Ambler’s most recent article on the Arbatel:

“If the greatest secrets [from the Arbatel] are those that can be learned “without any offense unto God”, while the medium and lesser secrets are more tempting to lead away from and offend God, then the unmentioned secrets are those that are most likely to veer too close or outright into what the Arbatel considers cacomagy or “evil magic”, which are doomed to offend God and should be avoided to the point where they are not even listed in the text.”

This is an excellent example of the Anthropocene trying to limit the potential of the Cthulhucene. The magician that recorded the Arbatul attempts to disguise or obscure the ‘destructive’ secrets, labelling destruction, in the context of magic, is restricted due to a moral code. Morality is an ecologically destructive force endemic to the Anthropocene, but as we see in Whisperer, there is no such animal as morality in the Cthulhucene. Wilmarth’s interaction with Akeley as the liminal object between the two epochs makes the distinction more plain. To exacerbate this point, take this short quote from the Arbatel offered by the Digital Ambler:

“We are therefore to exercise our selves about spiritual things, with fear and trembling, and with great reverence towards God, and to be conversant in spiritual essences with gravity and justice. And he which medleth with such things, let him beware of all levity, pride, covetousness, vanity, envy and ungodliness, unless he will miserably perish.”

Haraway instead iterates and reiterates that we ’Stay With The Trouble’ in her multi-species anthropological context. I assert that we should do the same in our xenological and pnuemalogical contexts. Instead of ‘bewaring of all levity… and ungodliness’, approaching the spirit world as if they operate or even recognize man’s moral tendencies, we should instead treat the spirit world as we do the natural world, recognizing the moral ambivalence of hurricanes and floods. We should, as Haraway suggests, pull from our interactions with the spirit world in such a way that, as she phrases it,:

“data produced to generate further imaginative and knowing action in many domains of practice… multi species art in action for mundane worlds"

agic should follow the path of art, but not a free form dancing barefoot at the jam band concert type of art, carefully considered art with heavily detailed constraints, the type of art that considered research and data analysis can produce. In this way it is closer to science and allows plenty of room for the correct practice of Solomonic magic or similar constraints, but it also allows for a criticism of that practice and, most importantly of all, experimentation.

Niche-constructing animals and man derive their systemic improvements (or destruction) of the environment by capitalizing on successful experimentation. The mistake we make is considering that our free will and quote/unquote intelligence places us above this process. 

Recounting the words from the beginning in the Imbrications section of the post from Levenda’s Dark Lord:

"Magic is the creation of forms, of illusions, of whole new realities. In Tibetan shamanism, this is known as creating tulpas… and in Jewish mysticism, we have the Golem."

The first tulpa was not created from a formula, it was an accident. The first Golem was an experimentation with combinations of the spirit world and the material. If we are to obtain our vision of making the human species one of spacefaring witches, we need to recognize the ambivalence of both the natural and the spirit world, and not limit ourselves by very human conventions when experimenting with both.

As I close in on the final paragraphs of Levenda’s Dark Lord, he begins to make so many connections to my current practice, I feel a little like that boy in the Neverending Story.

Take the below quote:

"In the later volumes of the Typhonian Trilogies, Grant reprises the second-magical rituals we have already described and demonstrates how they can be used to penetrate the veils that conceal from our sight the vast reaches of deep space and deep time. In fact, he cites other magicians who - he claims - have already penetrated those veils and opened a hole in the earth's protective atmosphere allowing the entry of the Old Ones. In other words, they have opened a Gate"

This maps back to the Soot Men in the Fireman in the Twin Peaks: The Return. That is a fictional meditative summoning of the same spirits and inter-dimensional entities that 'rode' Lovecraft, Crowley, and Grant - getting a greater foothold through the imaginations and journeying of earthbound magicians. Levenda continues:

"This dangerous process certainly was begun by Crowley, but later was amplified by his American follower Jack Parsons. Grant claims that the atomic explosions of 1945 disturbed the delicate psychic membrane covering our planet to the extent that other forces began massing at the rent in the veil and by 1947 began pouring through in greater and greater numbers. This, of course, was the UFO phenomenon which Grant links directly to the type of magical operations begun by Crowley and continued by his followers. This is a scenario straight out of HP Lovecraft and especially, 'The Call of Cthulhu… Any glance at medieval grimoirs would certainly reveal magic rituals depend as much on correct timing as they do on the preparation of the magician and the occult implements to be employed. It is this emphasis on timing - in Tantra, in Daoist magic, in alchemy, and in Western magic - that reveals the deeper character of occultism in its dependence on the interrelationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. What casual observers may not realize, however, is that the macrocosm can be just as dangerous as the microcosm. After all, Cthulhu can only be summoned 'when the starts are right'.“

Wilmarth’s astral terror is described as emanating from the then recent discovery by the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh of the planet Pluto in 1930. 

Wilmarth makes the connection that Pluto is the planet-gate of Yuggoth, the entry into our solar system by the Winged Ones. I assert that now, after our intimate look at the planet (shut up, Pluto will always be a planet to me), that it can no longer be considered in the same way as Lovecraft / Wilmarth did. We have a new focus for our astronomical inquiries however, and that is the mysterious Planet X.

Levenda, in his explanation of some of Kenneth Grant’s ideas and the qlippot or the dark nodes behind the sephiroth in the qabalah, also takes us in this direction:

"In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Daath was the subject of much speculation and it was Jacob Frank - a messianic figure of the eighteenth century who combined Jewish, Islamic and Christian concept in his movement - who emphasized the importance of Daath to his own system. To Grant, Daath is the 'Outer Gateway'..."

I assert that Daath / Yuggoth is Planet X.

Levenda then returns us back to our haunted prom, pulling everything together for that little boy in this much darker and dangerous version of the Neverending Story:

“Cthulhu, as 'dead but dreaming' seems to refer to a realm between 'death' - dreamless sleep - and dreams: in other words, the Mauve Zone. Kundalini is also a Serpent, an amphibious creature that could be linked with Cthulhu. A serpent, an amphibious creature that could be linked with Cthulhu. A Serpent in her cave beneath the earth; Cthulhu in his house beneath the sea. Both raised by magicians and occult practice and, when they do, they change our world forever."

This is the dance of Cthulhu and Medusa. Medusa is the serpent but not a goddess or a force, a mortal Gorgon, a representation of the bridge between the extra-dimensional or interstellar Cthulhu and us, and Cthulhu is in turn a bridge between her and the gate on Yuggoth / Daath / Planet X that leads to realms beyond.

Lovecraft is a system of barriers and gates. Cthulhu is alien, our experience with him is young, but Medusa is of the earth (and also the mother of fairies in her death - a path to be tread later), a mortal being of magic with the power to do away with her (mortal) obstacles with ease. The space between these two as they dance now, in a frenzy, rending their garments and stoking the religious ecstasy of the crowd, of us, That space is the bridge. An unseeable space between two doors.

Our second king, Henry Wentworth Akeley, the most clearly visualized in the photograph that he sends Wilmarth sitting with his shotgun in front of his ancestral house on the edge of Dark Mountain, surrounded by large, vicious, and obedient German Shepherds (the dogs in Whisperer are an archetype yet unexplored, I think), his grizzled beard and Einsteinian hair, Akeley represents the real gate in Whisperer. He is the gate through which Wilmarth, the skeptic, the materialist, is coerced through. The other side of which, is revealed the beginnings of the elitist occult tendrils that is our third king, Mr. Noyes.

Our exploration of the third king of Whisperer will have to wait, however. Tonight is the Feast of Saint Cyprian of Carthage, beginning the nine days of ritual and prayer leading up to the feast day of Saint Cyprian of the mythical drowned city of Antioch. Next week we will have a intermission to discuss all things Cyprian, as a further act of prostration to the sorcerer’s saint. We will pick up our current discussion the week following.

#Lovecraft #Astronomy #Planet X