#there is even more symbolism in the lighthouses that are topped with the domes from the Tower but it's so much already

[lunar-system]

Izzy Hands: The Moon.

Re-imagined from the traditional Ride-Waite-Smith tarot, this version of the Moon shows Izzy taking the shape of a lone Lover, longing for what he cannot reach.

Longer exploration of the card's symbolism under the cut.

Symbolism of the card

I initially meant this card to be specifically Izzy's, but he is once again unseparable from Ed. Though the moon itself is depicted as Ed, it is through Izzy that I interpret the journey of the card. Feel free to invent your own interpretation as well!

In the original version of the Moon we see a dog, a wolf, and a crayfish. Izzy takes the place of the wolf, marking him as wild and untameable. He is accompanied by a dog, symbolizing his loyalty. The crayfish has retreated, and we can see a monster lurking in the depths of the water, reminding us of the beasts that lie within.

Rachel Pollack (2011) writes: "The Moon signifies the dangerous time between the end of one world structure and the beginning of another. On the emotional level it can indicate the strange state when something powerful has ended and you find yourself thrown back on your instincts."

In the card Izzy already has his wooden leg. He his stepping into his role as the Unicorn, marking a shift in his loyalty and his place in the world. His reign as Blackbeard's first mate is ending, and a whole new world order is being imagined.

Ed is also seen in a new light. With his short beard, he is at the end of his captaincy, possibly even at the end of his piracy. He as the Moon is illuminated by the light of the Sun, personified by Stede in another card, The Sun.

Izzy bears witness to their combined light, unreachable to him on the ground. He teeters at the edge of the water illuminated by that very light, and is faced with a choice. Will he turn, follow the path and try to reach the unreachable? Or will he explore the unknown waters in front of him?

In tarot, water symbolizes emotions, intuition and subconscious. Pollack writes: "Here in the unknown territory our animal selves take over. We cannot suppress the wild emotions but only travel through them." The message of the Moon beckons Izzy to step into the water and face his emotions.

However, there are also dangers in the murky waters of the subconscious. Pollack continues: "The Moon card calls forth powerful dreams, visions, and the power of the feminine." In tarot water is a feminine element. Izzy, a beacon of masculinity, has in the past confused the feminine with the monstrous. He is now dared to invite the feminine within him to the surface. His posture already mirrors that of the feminine lover from the Lovers-card. It also calls back to the Fool, to someone at the beginning of their self-discovery.

Tl;dr: Izzy, the Fool and the Lover, is on a journey from one world to another. Will he follow the path and try to reach the unreachable, or will he find the courage to plunge into unknown waters?

A comparison between the original Rider-Waite-Smith card from 1909 and the re-imagined version

Izzy's pose mirrors the feminine Lover

Sources

Image source: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, republished as Tarot of A. E. Waite, 2016, AGM-Urania, Germany

Text source: Rachel Pollack, A Journey of 78 Steps, 2011, as cited in the booklet for instruction and guidance of Tarot of A. E. Waite, 2016, AGM-Urania, Germany

#there is even more symbolism in the lighthouses that are topped with the domes from the Tower but it's so much already #it's about the journey between life and death #ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #edizzy #steddyhands #blackhands #i'm tagging this as ships cause i ship them all and i made this with shipperly intentions #even if it's not like explicitly shipping content #ed teach #edward teach #blackbeard #gosh i went to some deep waters with this myself #i mean there is so much to interpret here #is izzy shooting for the moon with ed? has he lifted ed high on the pedestal himself? #what does it mean that the water is lit by moonlight? #to me this is the point in fics where izzy does not yet know how he would fit in the steddyhands triangle and doesn't see it possible #and maybe it won't be unless he accepts some things and allows himself to feel #but it can also be read that he needs to let ed go #in either case water is discovery and acceptance #i am planning to make ed the star and stede the sun as well! #my fanart

[starsailorstories]

 @genderlessspacerock replied to your post

“Hey it’s nanowrimo eve and I really wanna talk about my book but can’t...”

4 and 5 asks the astronomer

@lando778 also asked for #5!

So here they are, finally:

4. Cosmologies:

To understand the mainstream view of the universe in the Cosmonist religion (and the older faiths that were eventually subsumed into it) you have to understand some stuff about astraea species and what they have in common:

All of their conscious mental processes AND “genetic”1 information are contained in the lights on their heads, which operate like mini-stars and follow stars’ life cycles

Before they had spoken language, they communicated by manipulating the beams of their lights, like a projector, and it’s still used by many species to indicate tone/expression rather than having a lot of auditory tone variation in their languages

Although it’s not super prominent in actual cosmonist teaching and practice anymore, the ancient equation of the stars and suns in the sky with the tiny “stars” that power astraea consciousness and biology is really important culturally, and light=life-force or light=spirit is an almost pan-galactic motif.

Because of all that, the light you emanate, your personal starshine as it were, is–both metaphorically and kinda literally–what you put out to the world while you’re in it. This is your praefulgeria–the effect of your soul on your current lifetime, which will be judged at your death.

Enter the Cosmic Prism.

A person’s praefulgeria is usually represented by a light beam. The universe is represented as a prism that scatters the light beam. The various points of the prism separate people into different species/positions/experiences based on the characteristics of their souls.

Prior to scientific advancements made about a generation before the story takes place, it was widely thought that the Andromeda galaxy lay in the center of the prism, and that the creator-goddess Orellistia had her home in the center of the galaxy. There are still those that cling to this idea but mainstream thinking has mostly shifted away from it (there’s no official word on the debate from the Aula so for now it’s free to shift where it may). Intergalactic sailors have been superstitiously honoring the Great Attractor as the locus of gravitational force (which is seen as the goddess’s will) for centuries, so eventually that may be accepted as the new “center”. But that really only matters if you’re, like, making an illuminated scripture anyhow.

The prism has five points in total: Excelsia, Limina, Ladiu, Longitu, and Altiu (those u’s are pronounced like schwas with tighter lips, think French).

Excelsia is the topmost point, and ideally your light bounces upward through your cycle of death and rebirth, presumably being freed from the cycle at the top--or at least, that’s the popular concept. The Levinoxian temples, when they existed, generally held that there’s no way to actually reach it before the reunion of the goddesses at the death of the universe, or else that the upward spiral is literally eternal--there’s always more to learn (although most believe some things are learned in other realms/dimensions after an enlightened-ish soul/praefulgeria has incarnated for the last time).

The lowermost point, Limina, is what it sounds like--a kind of limbo where souls that have fallen from grace with the cosmic order are judged and either healed or released to oblivion if they refuse to be. It’s not a place of punishment exactly, just sort of a...like...astral airport lobby where you’ve got nothing to do but think your shit out for an unimaginably long time. People with an agenda are fond of implying that ALL empty space in the universe is a part of Limina, and that as little as griping about your boss behind her back can land you there, but most folks who aren’t indoctrinated young dismiss that as utter raving b.s.--if not because they see the convenience of literally deifying the status quo, then because it’s just like, then what are all the other myriad possibilities for reincarnation for?

The other three points, as you might guess from their names, correspond to the axes of three dimensional space (now might be a good time to say that the “uppermost” and “lowermost” positioning of the first two is understood as not literal) and are places souls pass through to receive knowledge on their way to the next incarnation. It’s common in stories and myths for living characters to journey there too, in order to learn truths beyond normal understanding or confront something with effects beyond the current lifetime.

This isn’t the only traditional perception of the universe--the Caesurans, who settled on their planet very early (and being blue stars are shorter-lived than most astraeas), have depicted the universe as a circle centered around their solar system for thousands of generations. The Ashtivans, who just lived in space for most of their prehistory as a species, have pretty much always had a pretty accurate picture of at least the galaxy. They too regard the unknowns of empty vacuum and dark matter as the home of the unclaimed dead, though they tend to do absolutely everything they believe will keep their own dead from winding up there.2 But because of the reach of the Basillan attempt to unify all of Andromeda’s different religions, their cosmology is the most widespread.

5. Spacefarer Superstitions:

Obviously there’s a lot of them and they’re very diverse, but here’s a few that are mentioned in the book:

Tracing the positions of the Seven Suns (or the stars in whatever constellation most often guides you home--for central andromedans that’s usually Aviana’s Bow) with your finger over the airlocks when you close them is a ward for safe passage.

Luxmotes, which are little jellyfish-like creatures with a Light on them in a similar way to astraeas (and most animals in andromeda) that live in the vacuum, clustering around a ship are a good omen--they show the goddess of gravity’s favor on a mission.

That’s the one exemption to this controversial but extremely perennial one: it’s bad luck to bring any symbols of Orellistia or gravity into interstellar space. The reasoning is that it isn’t her domain, things float around willy nilly, if she wanted her stuff on her wife’s side of the material plane she’d have put some stars or planets there. As Levinoxia has become more of an oppositional/trickster figure it’s also said that symbols of gravity offend her and will cause her to play havoc with your ship’s systems, get you lost, and generally ruin your mission. This is a BIG problem for pious destigravitational cosmonists as symbols of gravity are kind of Their Thing, it’s like if you told a ship full of catholics it was bad luck to wear crosses. But most experienced sailors, especially older ones, swear by it. When artificial gravity systems started to be introduced it was common to overhear grizzled grey-haired captains, pilots, and boatswains, who’d come into their own in the solar-sailing days, in the public houses swearing up and down that they would NEVER contract to sail a ship with that newfangled fake-your-own-planet tech, it’s just ASKING for an instrument malfunction in black hole territory

Dark stars and neutron stars and their systems are dead, but still inhabited by the spirits of their solar goddesses and all the life that might once have been in that system in attendance to them. If a crew doesn’t maintain respectful silence while passing through, their ship might become uncontrollably trapped in the dead sun’s pull.

Signals that are transmitted too far out in the vacuum to reach a receiver are received directly by Levinoxia, goddess of the void and protector of sailors and travelers. At the midpoint between the last lighthouse on the Andromedan coast and the first on the Milky Way’s, pilots both religious and not so much have a tradition of praying the Dodecacet, a series of twelve short hymns to her, into their radios. For many working-class folks who were practically raised “at sea”, it’s the only prayer they know.

If any of your crewmates died while in space, you have to jettison everything they brought aboard personally--clothes, possessions, all of it. If not your bad luck is your fault.

Cadrian ingots stuck into the outside of your gravity ballast tank draw in treasure if that’s what you’re lookin’ for. Or something. Truthfully it’s just fun to drop them into the grooves they fit perfectly

Different planets have different beliefs about what kind of animals it’s lucky to have on board and this can become quite the debate among interstellar or intergalactic missions whose rates have only sailed between planets before because 90% of boatswains are going to be like “we can bring ONE”

1They actually still use the term “genetic” even though they don’t have genes--from their perspective, it comes from the Orellistian epithet “Genetris”. 

2They don’t have the reincarnation cycle concept that tends to be consistent closer to the dome--they think the spirits of their ancestors stay with their families, just beyond the veil. Ashtivans, like their sun, are small, slow-burning stars, and death tends to be a much more peaceful transition for them rather than a jarring nova, so it makes sense that they don’t have as much of a sense of separation. 

#genderlessspacerock #sweet chariot #long post

[kazlifeadventures]

Iceland!

Warning - lots of facts and alot of gushing to come for this amazing country... and I've had to split it up because I saw and did so much. But first:

Oh my - suitcase joy!

I surprised myself with  how  chill I was about my suitcase not making an appearance at the airport in Keflavik. Not surprised as it was a very short transit in Copenhagen, so a part of me knew that there was a chance that would happen. As a person who has worked predominately within the service industry it is always interesting to aee the different reactions of the customers and the responses it generates in the staff.  My lovely lady guatanteed me that I'd be first delivery of the next day as my tour waa was due to depart at 9am. I was not entirely impressed in what seemed to be the disorganisation of the buses from Keflavik airport. Waiting in a queue for another 40 mins for the  1 hr or so trip to Reykjavik doesn't help when you are tired from travelling most of the day! I'm not sure if they were surprised by an influx of tourists for the new year period, there were heaps of us though! I finally made it to my hotel, with my little pouch of 'sorry we misplaced your suitcase' stuff. Found food, and a beer walking distance from the hotel, then sleeeeep! I'd booked a harbour northern lights cruise as an extra for my first night, but the rain and clouds meant it was cancelled.. bummer, but also good, as it meant an early night.

The tour I booked was a new tour, a 4 night 5 day New Year Northern lights adventure. We were late departing. And it wasn't my suitcases' fault. Luckily our tour leader is awesome. He rang the company for me and got the details of the driver,  rang him and arranged for my case ro be waiting at the first stop of the day. One very happy Kaz! Especially as it was raining and I was wondering how on earth I'd get everything dry as I'd spent a good couple hours the night before rotating my smalls on the tiny heater in my room.

We had a smaller earthquake in the early hours of first morning (30thDec) at about 4am. I woke up to a bit of a shake, then went back to sleep! Earthquakes are very common here as Iceland is literally on the join of tectonic plates and has multiple active volcanoes as well. It's like one big bubbling hotpot with constantly changing walls...

The country is only a relatively new one when compared to everywhere else (both in land age and being populated/economic development),  it has seen many of it's advancements in growth over the past 100 years or so. Iceland has a very small population of about 354000, and alot are direct descendants of the Vikings. Our guide, Baldir (no idea of spelling) told us he can trace his history to the first settlers 20 generations ago, and the city has a statue of his 20th cousin Leifur Eiríksson. To me having that level of descendancy in one location is simply amazing.

Before we set off out of Reykjavik we did a quick tour of some of the city's highlights.

The Harpa - suitcase arrival zone (did I say I was happy!) What a beautiful building! Its an amazing concert hall opened in 2011 featuring a distinctive colored glass facade that was inspired by the basalt landscape of Iceland. The lights that are set into the glass change colours constantly adding to the intrigue.

Next up was the Perlan ('The Pearl') a museum and rotating glass dome restaurant (more to come on the restaurant later!), that has been built on top of six huge water tanks  that store 24 million litres of Reykjavík's hot water on top of Öskjuhlíð Hill. Surrounded by trees it is one of the capital's most distinctive landmarks. Oh, and there is a 360° outdoor viewing platform with stunning views across Reykjavik, even on a freezing cold wet windy day... We drove past the beautiful Hallgrímskirkja the 74.5m high Lutheran church, so tall that it's tower can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

After lunch at a gorgeous little lighthouse restaurant in the old fishing area of Grindavík we headed out to the 'Bridge between continents' at Sandvík. It is a small pedestrian bridge over a major fissure showing clear evidence of the presence of a diverging plate margin. It is often referred to as a symbol for the connection between Europe and North America. By this stage it was so windy rainy cold that it felt like being pelted with ice! Everyone's clothing that was not weatherproof was soaked. So it didn't matter much when we then headed to the South west coast peninsula of Reykjanes. The diverse landscapes of this country are astounding. The previous eruption areas of black rock, no vegetation, no water that extend for klms. The huge bodies of water, the lack of trees, the rock formations of the ever changing coastlines. This area, although wet, super windy and cold at the time we came, was absolutely stunning.

All too soon we were hauling our wet butts into the blue lagoon. There is a marvelous story of Gunda a lady who died near the hot springs. The Icelanders have many stories/fables and are a very superstitious bunch as well!

The lagoon itself is a big environmental mistake. Its the outcome of the waste water disposal from the geothermal power plant that operates in the middle of the lava field. In 1976 a pool formed with strange colour at the site, and in 1981, people started bathing in it after its supposed healing powers were popularised. In 1992, the Blue Lagoon company was established, and the bathing facility was opened for the public.

Sometimes it just works to say: Stunning! Freezing. Got beer and a face mask and blissed my way around finding the hotspots. Was still lightly raining, windy, but glorious. Not too busy, I had heard it gets terribly full of tourists and was happy that it was only the locker rooms where there was an overload of people. I totally Showered like a European in the open shower area (winning!! - how far have I come!!) Iceland has many many public pools (it has hot water everywhere!!) But the blue lagoon is the big touristy thing, and I'm so glad my suitcase arrived otherwise I may have missed out (my swimsuit was in it). I did find out that you can hire swimsuits there but...hmmm glad I didn't have to! I don't have any photos as the weather meant it wasn't worth it. One of the tour guys took a photo of myself and Christine (one of my new friends), in the lagoon, classic tourist shot, but that's it, the memories are enough!

I Loved it. What a magnificent experience even putting my wet clothes back on couldn't dampen my mood.

What a day! Off to Hella, to our Arhus cabins on the Ranga river. No northern lights tonight though - too much cloud rain and oh my...the winds were nuts. Got some new friends, and a huge day tomorrow.

More to come!