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flickeringart · 3 years

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Short natal chart analysis

(Planets, houses, and sign placements)

Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon and Capricorn Ascendant: The person strives to individualize through material stability and achievements, satisfying instinctual needs through acquiring what she finds pleasurable and familiar. The persona is that of a manager – responsible and inclined to take rules and structures into consideration, to oversee the proper direction of activity.

The Sun in Taurus sits in the 4th house. It’s in the context of family and the home environment that this person can best express their individuality. It’s in the family unit that self-expression, creativity and uniqueness can be appreciated and cultivated. Since she is a Taurean, the need for roots are especially important, she would like to have a permanent and reliable material comfort zone to anchor herself in. No doubt the father (as symbolized by the 4th house and the Sun) had a Venusian influence on her through an interest in art, food, material beauty or anything else related to the sensory pleasures of the earth plane. Taurus’ planetary ruler Venus is in Gemini in the 5th. She would enjoy capturing people’s attention and socializing with people. She would be quite talkative, inclined to engage in social activities and draw eyes to herself. Venus in Gemini likes to play games, flirt and establish report with relatives, neighbors, siblings and other people in their social sphere. This would be someone who drives less engaging types mad, because she knows exactly what to say and what tricks to pull to get the desired reactions from people.

The Moon in Taurus is in the 3rd house. The 3rd house relates to the intellect, communication, siblings and relatives which enhances the kind of dynamic described in the previous paragraph. She would need material stability and comfort to feel emotionally safe and contained. The mother probably imbued her daughter with the instinctual Taurean traits of sensuous appetite for beauty, comfort and structure, just like the father did through demonstrating a Venusian ideal as the goal of individuation. Moon in the 3rd feels an instinctual predisposition to play with words and concepts, to put analytical and intellectual discriminatory functions to use. There’s a feeling of nurturing through exchange and interaction with others, through having friends or siblings to relate to. Mercury, the planet of communication, also sits in the 3rd, which strongly suggest the presence (and importance) of siblings (or the like) in the person’s life. Mercury in Taurus tend to be a bit slow in the mental process, only able to think of the concrete world as opposed to generating abstract and imaginative thought. The person is not unintelligent by any means, but is somewhat limited to fixed physical structure in terms of relating to things mentally. Gemini, the sign ruled my Mercury is in the 5th, which means that this person could express her creativity and love of self through the use of her mind and communicative skills. Virgo is also Mercury ruled, and we find this sign in the 8th house. The analytical, order-imposing faculties of the mind could be traced in the sphere of interpersonal dependence. Perhaps the person would experience the merging of fates as something that is necessary for the daily work to function smoothly and effectively. She would have a practical perspective on the mutual emotional dependence that is inevitable between people.

The ruler of the Capricorn Ascendant is Saturn, placed in Libra in the 8th house. Concentration and effort could be traced in the sphere of merging with other people. There’s restriction to be encountered in association with shared resources and individual survival within relationships (emotional or physical). Libra is a very idealistic sign, representative of the perfected equilibrium that is possible to achieve within relationships. In addition, as previously stated, the ruler of the 8th is Virgo, the intellectual, orderly and detail-oriented earth sign. The person is likely to establish a mind connection rather than a purely emotional tie to other people. She would understand others mentally and make sure to structure her activity in order to merge with others. Saturn is a stern planet, in Libra he is deeply concerned with fairness and the balancing of the scale. If one person can behave a certain way that directly affects another, there has to be rules and limitations around what is acceptable for the sake of maintaining a functioning partnership. There’s likely great frustration of never being able to find the right balance in terms of fairness. The 8th house is a scary house, in the sense that it generally doesn’t allow for detachment – it forces separate individuals with unique and personal feelings to be flooded by the unique and personal feelings of others. With Saturn here, limitation is felt when one is merged with other people’s emotions and great effort has to be extended to prevent a death of individual autonomy. There’s probably an uncomfortable sense of having to be at the mercy of what other people do or say. It is said that Capricorn Ascendants will have to kneel (Capricorn rules the knees) and humble themselves throughout their lives. In this person’s case it will likely happen in the context of giving up their own separate self to include others needs and emotions. This is the kind of process that is to be expected, and it’s not going to be comfortable.

Let’s look at Pluto and Scorpio in the chart. Pluto is in Capricorn the 12th house. The uncomfortable magnitude of the all-consuming survival instinct (as represented by Pluto) will be felt through tapping into the collective and personal unconscious. The person feels the intensity of primitive emotion through all of life, like music playing in the background of one’s conscious daily activities. With this kind of placement there’s the risk of acting out and expressing things for other people. The whole load of other people’s unresolved issues and traumas could be channelled through this person. It’s not an unlikely ”scapegoat” indicator, she could’ve been made out to be the bad or difficult child growing up – the needy child with rage problems or manipulative tendencies. The fact that Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn is in the 8th house, further confirms this dynamic.

Scorpio can be found in the 9th house of the higher, intuitive mind, long distance travel and exploration. Both the 12th and the 9th house seek something higher – something that is divine and precious that gives meaning to experiences. With Scorpio and Pluto influencing these houses, the meaning of pain and suffering could be the primary focus. Why are we condemned to feel acute separation and hurt? There’s a strong need to get to the bottom of this – to figure out the essence of death and destruction and how it relates to the overall plot of life. Scorpio is also on the Midheaven (10th house cusp), indicating a career and life purpose that involves dealing with the murkier dimensions of reality – the intensity of emotion that drives people to destructive acts, domination and the obsession with power. Her North Node is in the 10th in Sagittarius, pointing to a purpose of developing explorative qualities and tap into her ability to inspire, encourage and uplift other people.

Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius is in Taurus in the 3rd house. Her expansive qualities and inspired down-to-earth personality would be expressed though interaction and communication with close relatives, siblings and acquaintances. Since Sagittarius is in the 11th house, her inspiring and enlivening spirit would be expressed through the venue of bonding with groups of people with similar mindset and ideas. Undoubtedly the person is a very loyal in her friendships and keen to associate herself with people who add value to herself. Taureans tend to be focused on value more than anything – especially the value of what they acquire (things, people, work titles, experience and so on). In the case of this chart, the tendency is to acquire people and tangible belonging to groups. She should watch out for possessiveness and treating people as ornaments and additives to her sense of self-value.

Let’s go back to her Sun again. It’s conjunct Jupiter i Taurus, which would serve to inflate the ideal of herself. It’s doesn’t have to be a bad thing as many surely appreciates a big and warm, expansive personality with a limitless visions and aspirations. Placed in Taurus, the grandiosity could express itself through material acquirements, something along the lines of a big and heavily decorated house would perfectly mirror her expansive self. The tendency could be to over-extend effort to prove one’s worth through accumulating possessions and money. The Sun ruled sign Leo is in the 7th house, hinting to a path of individuation that involves partnerships and cooperations. She will find great self-enhancement through relating to others – committing to a relationship could serve to distinguish her own individuality. It would also give her some kind of emotional safety and reassurance since Cancer is the cusp ruler.

The 7th house takes up a lot of space in her chart, spanning over three signs; Cancer, Leo (intercepted) and Virgo. Contained in the 7th we find Mars in Virgo. Mars is the Sun’s general, the warrior who furthers the king’s (the Sun’s) interests. He is the individual will, drive and motivation. He is the energetic nature of the person– the moving energy pattern. In the sign of Virgo, Mars is analytical, concentrated, structured and deliberate. The person has an inbuilt sense of order in the way she discharges energy. The actions are not rash and impulsive, they are preferably meticulously thought through. In the 7th, the person is the leader and initiator of joint projects and mutual activities – they’d like lead or find someone outside of themselves to embody the qualities of a leader for them. In any case, Mars (the individual drive) is found through engaging with people. Another outlet for the Marsian energy could be through the 2nd house, where Aries in found. There’s perhaps a great need for being assertive to access as sense of value, to impose one’s own perspective and reality in order to feel secure.

In Aries in the 2nd house we find Uranus. If this isn’t someone who feels secure through imposing opinions and values I would be surprised. The person finds a sense of strength through being unpredictable in their tastes – there could be an inconstant source of income in the person’s life, for a while it’s a steady flow, but then it could abruptly be cut off. Since Aries is involved, it could be due to impulsive or risk taking behavior that sometimes pays off and sometimes doesn’t. In any case, there is frequent change in preferences, the person is likely to change her mind about likes and dislikes quite often. If we look to Aquarius in the chart, the sign ruled by Uranus, it’s in the 1st house of self. The person may be very civil and open to change while fixed in her convictions according to what is needed from every individual for things to work on the larger scale of collective society.

In Pisces in the 1st house we find Neptune, the planet of boundlessness, the bliss of undifferentiated unity and the consuming forces threatening to engulf the separated ego existence. This is a paradoxical placement, since the 1st house is that of the self, the sense of ”I” that lies at the core of everything we do in the world as individuals with defined borders and boundaries. With Neptune here, in the sign of it’s rulership, the persona is fluid and mutable. The mannerisms and facial expressions could depend on the environment as Neptune soaks up energies like a sponge and reflects the emotional climate. The person is inclined to adapt automatically to the people around them, to empathize with them, to see divinity in life around them. The person is probably aware of the impermanence of the physical as well as the eternal nature of people and herself, hence prone to feel both joy and sadness in relation to life.

#natal chart analysis #natal chart #birth chart #taurus sun #taurus moon #capricorn rising #rising sign #sun sign #moon sign #houses in astrology #signs of the zodiac #zodiac signs #birth chart analysis #astrology #planets in astrology #signs in astrology

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strands-of-starlight · 5 years

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Clow Sorcery: Clear Card Edition

Alright, so I recently caught up on the CCS: Clear Card manga and am therefore back on my bullshit with regard to Clow sorcery stuff. I have a lot of thoughts on various aspects of this arc and what the potential implications are for those of us who like to play in that magical sandbox, but for now I’d like to start with taking a look at the original Clow cards in comparison with the Clear cards. Specifically, I want to delve into what these two systems (because yes, I am about to argue that they are in fact separate systems) can tell us about a) the types of magic present in this paradigm and b) the different types of magicians we’re working with.

As a note, this post will be somewhat image-heavy so I apologize for that in advance. Additionally, I will be discussing SPOILERS UP TO MANGA VOLUME 5 since that’s where we really start to have a clearer picture of things. I won’t be addressing anything specific to the anime because I’ve not watched it yet and have discovered via discussions with other fans a number of divergences on some key plot points, so I’m leaving that alone atm. Be advised.

Now, we have concrete confirmation that the Clear cards are the sole product of Sakura’s power and imagination (something which I speculated on nearly a year ago, so I feel rather validated on that front). For anyone who has been dipping into Clow sorcery, this is kind of a big deal on multiple levels. First and foremost being, they are not Clow cards. These new card spirits exist wholly outside of the original framework that governed the Clow. This is evidenced by a few things, starting with the names and appearances of the respective spirits.

A large majority of the Clow cards were anthropomorphic/humanoid in appearance. Only a handful of them did not fit into this category, and even most of those could be identified as an object of some sort. With the exception of the Illusion and the Wave, every Clow spirit had a definitive and recognizable form that personified its inherent power. The Clear cards, on the other hand, are largely abstract. Even those that are described as birds (Gale, Aqua, Blaze) are not any kind of bird that is immediately identifiable as such. To date, the only truly humanoid Clear card spirit is one that is directly inspired by a Clow card, and consequently shares the original spirit’s name (Mirror).

You may be asking why any of this matters. Obviously they needed a new #aesthetic to hook people, so that covers that, right? Well, I think it’s a little more significant than that, especially since Sakura responded so well to the original cards and developed a decided friendly relationship with them. Why, then, would her own cards be so different to the friends she had already made?

I believe it boils down to a key difference between Sakura’s and Clow’s magic which becomes pretty apparent when you examine their respective mahoujin. Looking at Clow Reed’s magic circle, we see a TON of different magical elements. At first glance, we clearly have some astrology, some sacred geometry, the kanji for the four cardinal directions, and a host of symbols, sigils, and script all divided neatly into sections that obviously have some type of mystical correspondences. This mahoujin is absolutely packed with occult knowledge that Clow spent years painstakingly crafting into a coherent system, the final product of which were the original Clow cards.

Some of this detail and structure is maintained in the magic circle Sakura ends up using in the second half of the series, but some of it is also lost. We retain the astrological symbols and the Sun, Moon, Star motif (slightly rearranged to reflect the source of Sakura’s power). We still have the cardinal directions and the interlocking geometric designs, but the rest of the glyphs and magical script have gone missing. Looking at this mahoujin, there are enough similarities to clearly show these magicians are still working within the same paradigm. One is a little more heavy on the elements you might expect to pick up over a life-long study of the occult, while the other has been parred down to reflect a magician who is still growing into their craft.

Virtually all of this changes with the Clear cards, though. Absolutely everything about the original mahoujin, save for the presence of the Sun and Moon, has been edged out by the dominance of the Star. Even the four kanji representing the cardinal directions have been replaced by the kanji for Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth. Perhaps even more fascinating, the circle no longer even manages to contain the whole of the design. This magic circle is literally bursting with Sakura’s own power, and very little else.

What this says to me is: Sakura is not only stronger than Clow was, but she is also an entirely different type of magician. While Clow relied heavily on various elements of ceremonial magic and established lore to create a new system that married Eastern and Western philosophies, Sakura isn’t so much creating a new system as she is unconsciously harnessing raw elemental power through sheer force of will.

This is also demonstrated in the different incantations for unleashing the Wand. Both the original incantation and the one Sakura uses in the latter half of the series call upon a very specific force - the “power of the Dark” or the “power of the Stars”. In the Clear card arc, however, she calls upon the “Force without Master” to release her staff and secure the new cards. Honestly, I suspect the only reason the new cards are even cards at all is because she is mimicking a familiar template without realizing it.

The point is, this explains a hell of a lot. The reason the Clear cards are more abstract is because they haven’t been refined by any formal rules or tools beyond the power that is required to wield them. It also explains the disparity in the range of their application as compared to the original Clow. Clow spirits all had a very narrow set of skills and parameters specific to their nature. By contrast, the Clear cards have a broader range precisely because they are, in essence, still very raw. Which is understandable, since it takes years of learning and practice to develop the control necessary to work with fine lines as opposed to broad strokes.

But what this proves is that Sakura’s power is far more chaotic than anyone except perhaps Eriol may have realized, simply because she has no boundaries to contain it.

I’m still not entirely sure what all this means for practitioners of Clow Sorcery, but there are a few things I can say with relative certainty. The first is that I absolutely believe one can choose to work with the new cards without having to give up the Clow. The second, is that anyone who does decide to work with the Clear cards should probably keep in mind that they are an entirely different beast born of a much wilder magic than the original Clow, and therefore may not necessarily play by all the same rules.

Tune in next time...

#clow sorcery #ccs: clear card spoilers #ccs: clear card arc #pop culture witchcraft #geekomancy

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twitchesandstitches · 5 years

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Ascension of Terezi

'The rule of Empress Pyrope', Karkat began to type on a magnificently squishy typewriter made in the technological aesthetics of Alternia but with a human design – in the synthesis so typical of the combined Alternian-Earth society and all the things flowing together into unexpected results – and he stopped there, dumbfounded. How did, he wondered, you even begin to explain everything about her rule, in all its startling magnificence?

He had been pondered that question for quite a while, honestly. He'd been thinking about it in the beginning stages of her rule on Alternia, when she had destroyed the last remnants of the Heiress before Feferi and had assumed her role in all but name. Those too keen on abusing lowbloods were ferociously knocked down, for even then – before Terezi had grown into her true size and power – she had been big and strong beyond normal trolls. Her elastic jaws, powerful throat and fierce belly had seen their end, and she incorporated their strength to grow even bigger, added their physical strength to her own. With her appetite, and extremely narrow window for opposition that would turn her from regarding someone as a foe to a meal, this meant a lot of trolls wound up going down her belly even when she was little more than a wriggler.

Even then; that was often to protect Karkat from people who might hurt him or expose him as a mutant. Or those that she thought would expose him as a mutant. He went through a lot of neighbors extremely quickly in his youth. His initial protests wore away quickly in the face of her unyielding sternness – and in retrospect, he could actually argue with her; while she always got him to concede, he was the only one that she would tolerate backtalk from – and he eventually ended up living with her, completely under her thumb and every factor in his life in her strict control. It was a cushy life and even a romantic one, and perhaps a hint of things to come. Not just for him, but for trolls.

Even then she was big, like her dragon lusus (hatched long before it had chosen Terezi, in this particular timeline), towering over any lowblood and most midbloods. As she got older, she got even bigger, towering over most highbloods. And once appetite grew in, and her desire to bring down the wicked and fill her belly was satisfied at the same time, she kept growing bigger... and bigger...

Perhaps the addition of other bloodlines to her genetic stew, with all their potential mutations and latent powers, was why she developed psychic powers of her own. A pirate even more fearsome than Vriska with nastier abilities... a yellowblood who had been about to sell Sollux out to the helmsmen hunters... rustbloods prepared to sell out a neighbor for the slightest chance of personal success... indigos and ceruleans of many shades, violets that killed for fun, purples that persecuted anyone of warm blood, and even a fuchsia competing against Feferi... they all marched down her throat. Sometimes after a single stroke with a sword, sometimes her hunger just bled into her fury and the last thing they saw were her lips, and then her blue-green throat. And with this ravenous appetite came all their powers, all their strengths, multiplied and amplifying her own. Chucklevoodoos, beast communion and mind control fused into an awareness of everyone around her, allowing her to rearrange their minds to her desire or to simply order them to do as she willed. psionic energy swelled into terrifyingly potent telekinesis eclipsing even Aradia's powers, or eye blasts similar to a dragon's glaresplosion.

Animals lined up for the slaughter, lusii were well-behaved, and any troll that did wicked things or even thought hemophobic things about neighbors of lower blood... she knew it instantly, and she took satisfaction in making them march to her and their doom. Alternia became a more peaceful and orderly place, if at a significantly lower population; so many people were cruel, vicious or thoughtlessly mean and Terezi's patience for it rapidly drained away in proportion to her rising power.

And as she got older, her figure got larger as well, her pride in herself swelling up nearly as much as her ever-increasing stature. When she couldn't fit through doors at all, she was already coming to redefine what the wrigglers on Alternia thought was beautiful. Perhaps that was why she diverted so much of the body mass she gained into her hips, her bust, her thighs, and not just her muscles; a hint of vanity at how she was practically revered.

Ah, Karkat thought. There was a thought. How did a tealblood, with no powers to speak of – if you discounted her unusual abilities to sense decisions and thought vibes, or predict the future based on consequences – develop the power to absorb powers, strengths, and more abstract things from other trolls through digestion? It might have been an unusual quirk of biology that wouldn't have mattered much if she hadn't been so fiercely opposed to the cruelty of Imperial rule. A mutation, like those that so marked his generation of eggs. Or she might have done it to herself on purpose; she had spent much time working with Aradia to unearth lost technology abandoned by the Condesce when she rose to power.

Alternia came under her power, and you could mark her rise in a series of concretic waves. First spreading out in a small area from her homeland, over the forests and plains. Then outwards, near the suburbs where he lived, into the big cities. More and more trolls displeased her and fueled her power, and she grew so powerful that all the continent fell under her sway. And then the seas came to her, seadwellers either coming under her sway or rebelling against her, and the latter only made her stronger still. Soon, the entire planet had fallen under her control; those that did not see the error of Alternian rule and the clear wisdom of the law Terezi had devised fell quickly to her followers, including Karkat and his friends. Feferi herself ceded her role to Terezi in favor of advising her, for Terezi also saw merit in the strong protecting the weak instead of brutalizing them. But Terezi viewed that all those who would not comply with this law and insisted on harming aliens, or those of warm blood... they would be crushed utterly.

Her heart blazed with fury at the injustice staining every last part of Alternia's history; in her mind, every single troll was guilty of either serving it or of benefiting from it. Above all the Condesce, but all those who served her willingly deserved punishment as badly as she did. Accordingly, Karkat had written in the past, all those on Alternia who would not bend to Terezi and vow war upon the Condesce was guilty. Terezi declared that they did not cuff the prophets to the juts or fire the arrows, but they were part of the blood, part of the suffering. And always, she indicated Karkat as a model of what trolls ought to be. Pure, she said. Perfect, she said.

Once, a figure approached her; a tall and beautiful adult troll, glimmering with emerald power and rage so hot that she burned like lava. She spoke with Terezi, and instead of trying to corrupt her or end her, this figure instead took her to the moon. She never said what she had done there, but when she came back, Terezi was significantly larger, crackling with green energies, and with such power that she moved a moon for her amusement, adjusting the tides to her specifications. The adult troll, who looked so much like Aradia, left in freedom and safety. Terezi only said that the man in the moon was a total sucker. And, burping some green tatters and felt, pretty gross to eat.

(Consuming Doc Scratch, and thus incorporating the potential power of Lord English, gave her a significant power boost. She was probably a goddess already at this point, though not fully grown into her power.)

Now, Terezi's power was beyond comprehension. Karkat took a perverse and smug delight in writing about the sheer power of his divine love; how her teal eyebeams could erase mountain ranges, a flick of her finger raise up continents or send battleships into the sun. Merely concentrating could send whole armies to her waiting maw, and her physical strength eclipsed any living thing in Alternia's memory. Crackling with raw power, she was a juggernaut with beauty to match her sheer power; as she grew into full adulthood, her figure blossomed into sheer impossible thickness. A massive amazonian frame expanded from merely being large, hips far wider than her shoulders. Large muscles, flexing with more body mass than entire apartment hives contained in their inhabitants. Enormous breasts, dominating the whole of her upper body, testimony to her ferocity and the futility of attacking her, and yet it lent her a motherly quality that proved profoundly attractive. A backside equally as massive, thighs so broad that they touched even when she strode... and all this, in a package grown so tall that she stood dozens of feet high, taller than a hive.

And she kept growing, channeling her raw power into additional body mass to continue getting bigger. And the bigger she got, the more powerful she became; a constant and unending cycle. Her curves only got thicker, a reliable expression of how terrifyingly powerful she really was.

Alternia was completely in her grasp; now her and her friends adults, she turned her attentions to the Empire. She flew through the stars under her own power, effortlessly smiting the ships that had come for the new adults, and followed them straight to the imperial fleet and its flagship. Her friends did not come with her, nor a single follower though the entirety of Alternia was now loyal to her. Any of them would have died for her, or so rapturously in thrall to her that they would have thrown themselves down her maw to give her in the slightest power boost. Karkat had written several treatises on her accounts of the battles; the ships she had destroyed, the fleet brought down over a course of a single extremely bewildering day. She had scanned the ships to see if any were worthy of her mercy, and so often saw not even a single one deserved it, and so simply glared teal doom upon them.

The alien planet over which the Condesce's next conquest was to be still told stories about Terezi's grand fight. The night igniting with new stars where ships burned away, metal tearing away and the wailing crew sent straight down her throat so that she fought with renewed vigor. As her body was visible with the naked eye (even if only barely), the aliens made statues of her, fascinated by this new warrior. In due course, the entire fleet was brought down, and the Condesce herself battled her in single combat, for everyone else was lost, had desperately switched sides, or was melted into biomass in Terezi's gut.

To her credit, the Condesce lasted longer in a fight with her than anyone else ever had, or every would. The days in which Terezi would be so powerful that she could simply think destruction and wipe out entire worlds were distant. Their fight was ferocious, psionic blasts tearing at each other like solar flares igniting the night sky. Claws and teeth tore at each other, and the sky rained blood both teal and fuchsia. The Condesce proved to be truly massive in scale, far surpassing even Terezi's massive body. She had, after all been bloated for eons by the bodies of those who failed her, those who pleased her with their taste, and the populations of whole worlds. Terezi had only been at this for a few sweeps, not thousands. And yet, what she lacked in brute force, she made up for in diversity, in what she had learned from those of other blood. And the Condesce fought to maintain her status quo, and Terezi's mind burned with the new order she had envisioned; an age of justice, of wickedness dying out and of all in thrall to her loving control.

And with the minds of thousands of trolls subsumed into her, Terezi clawed into the Condesce's mind, stunning her with the enormity of everything she had truly done. It was only a moment, the guilt and shame fading fast, but it was enough time for Terezi to get her jaws around the Condesce's feet, and simply gulp down.

The Condesce took many hours to swallow completely. A torturous, painful struggle, her claws and telekinetic slams tearing at Terezi from inside and out, and eons later she would still suffer the phantom pains of this last struggle of the old age of trolls. Her clawed feet kicked furiously her enormously thick thighs almost too big for Terezi's maw to fit around. Her belly bulged out with the weight of the empress; the gigantic backside slide down into her belly, than breasts bigger than Terezi's whole body, so that her gut was many times larger than the rest of her, the teal troll little more than something attached to that belly. The Condesce's hair, her horns and most of all her blazing sight was the hardest to handle, but they still went down over the course of several more hours. If not for her own stamina, Terezi would certainly have failed and been unable to finish, and then consumed by the Condesce herself.

But the Condesce was bested; her body was gulped down completely, splashing down into stomach acids as fierce as dragon fire, and over the course of several more hours (Terezi's body drifting peacefully in space, sustained by her psionics and broken ships drifting around), moved less and less. A night of restless dozing as she slept off her exhaustion, and then the Condesce was nothing more than a massive of pink goo in her belly, packed so firmly that it ached.

And she absorbed it all, and with it; the Condesce's experience, her battle prowess, the location of every world she had visited, her every ship, and every last ounce of her formidable psychic powers and physical might.

Terezi grew larger than the Condesce then; her figure not so much blossoming again as expanding like a sped-up tree growth, growing larger than a battleship, her breasts and backside ballooning out, front and back. Her hair grew out, her horns grew long. Even her teeth became bigger, her engorged lips dominating the lower part of her face. She grew gills, feathery facial fins and deadly webbed claws, and as her stature grew ever larger (now bigger than the old Condense, so large that a battleship would have been a bed for her). The aliens below witnessed her ascension, saved from the brink of certain extinction, and those who watched succumbed at once to her glory, praising her and falling to their knees in gratified worship. Terezi wasted no time spreading her mind across the whole planet, determining the guilty from the innocent and destroying the former with a blink of her sightless gaze, and remolding what was left in her image and social model.

With her new powers, her telekinesis surpassing a helmsman's powers, she flew off to every world the Condesce had ever conquered. There, she repeated what she had done to Alternia, and Karkat had actually been present for these, as Terezi had returned to Alternia with the Condesce's personal Helmsman, to heal alongside his descendant. There she built a new fleet, a flagship capable of containing and tending to her sheer mass as she kept growing; not to fight, for she was so powerful she could crack planets in half (which she demonstrated, upon another nearby dead planet of no significance, and all the world trembled at the dust raining into the sky) and needed no army. They would suffice to show her power and to amuse her with their adulation and reverence. Her friends, she kept for company and their skills; Karkat as a favored concubine and assistant, tending to her every need as her whim demanded it (and with her new size, her sexual cravings grew to match, and it was a wonder that he could suffice, but then his limeblood ancestors had been infamous for their sexual prowess). Her friends served a similar purpose, and she did not wish to grow lonely either.

So they went, to every world in the Alternian Empire. The Imperial Fleet was annihilated in its entirety, the crew fed to Terezi if they were unjust (which was almost all of them) and permitted to serve her if they were judged to have the potential to be just. Every ship smashed, their materials recycled to improve her flagship, and the trolls upon those worlds judged as well. Nine out of every troll, complicit in the atrocities of Alternia, were sentenced to their doom. Terezi found to her delight that her digestion consumed even the abstract, and now the knowledge and skills of all those who she had devoured remained with her, added to her, and she felt even their very souls being patiently absorbed. She had truly ascended to godhood, and her body a true afterlife; all those who perished within her new empire found their souls in her, purified and returned to life when she chose. The wicked, she allowed to linger and continue digesting until she saw fit to release them. The Condesce, Karkat wrote, was said to be there still and might never be freed from her guts.

The Alternia Empire ended in a matter of weeks. Terezi grew with each world; sufficiently corrupt cities were torn out of the grown and gulped down to fuel her growth, and most were left almost entirely depopulated of the soldiers sent to claim them in the Condesce's name. Terezi had found an unusual mutation as well, for with her constant mating, she was generating life as well within her, gestating eggs and grubs in numbers eclipsing all the mother grubs to ever live. She resolved, thus, to populate the empire with her own children, and delighted at this greatest expression of divinity. With Aradia and Feferi's help, she found a way to create entirely new life forms, with which they populated those worlds the Condesce had de-peopled, creating life from death. The Pyropian Empire dawned, spreading to every world once part of the Alternian Empire, instilled with the law she so cherished, demanding that the strong nurture the weak (much as had been the case in Beforus, the true homeworld of the trolls). As the ages passed, and neither Terezi nor her friends aged a day, it became clear that Terezi's children were larger than other trolls, vastly larger and curvier than all other trolls. Always girls, their amazonian frames incarnations of pure beauty if not as imposing as their mother, and blessed with the same powers of consumption and eagerly following in their forebears path of justice and tending to the small. And in their numbers, they quickly repopulated the Alternian Empire; the hemospectrum was abolished, in favor of Terezi's own ideas for dominance.

For a time, Karkat had observed, she was content with this. A true goddess, her presence radiated across the entire galaxy, her society a beacon of understanding, harmony and absolute justice. Everyone's minds rang in tune with her own, so that they could not behave unjustly. Never again would anyone suffer not when their mother goddess kept them all in line. And yet Terezi grew unsatisfied. She thought of the alien worlds without her to guide them and lead them – for Terezi had grown to conclude that only she was fit to determine everyone's lives for them, and only she could love them properly and punish the wicked – and this greatly angered her.

A little known world on the edge of the galaxy, in an unfashionable backwater, drew her attentions. She accidentally wound up communicating with a human, Dave Strider, and sensed the misery inflicted upon him, the unjustness of all his homeworld. She came upon a brilliant idea; it was not enough to pacify her own species and punish the sins of the Alternian Empire. She would spread the Pyropian Empire to all the galaxy, to other galaxies, and every single part of the universe, until all creation operated according to her stern and loving design.

Earth was to be her first true conquest and dominion; her fleet came in its entirety as she followed Dave's messages home, and so it was that Earth's first contact with alien life was Terezi's image.

She was impossibly big, her figure having grown vastly larger with each and every world she had taken with her like a mother claiming a sad child by defeating its cruel parents. Her power had grown even bigger, reality itself bending around her at her whim. She declared her raw power, and set herself into the mind of every single human upon the world – sliding most gently and lovingly into Dave's mind, letting him know who and what she truly was, and that she had come for him – and told them of their fate. Submit to her, or be struck down.

The humans fought back, as she expected, and so she smote them. Several months of warfare passed, her trolls descending to fight humanity. It was a one sided fight; trolls stood far larger than humans, and their massive bodies bearing power to match their curves. Those with psionic powers made it even more unfair. Tanks, mechs, ships, all the weapons humanity had to offer posed no threat to the trolls. Terezi leisurely roamed through the world, stomping all against her with her bare feet, a smooth flick of her hand, or simply lifting entire armies straight into her jaws. Her gaze incinerated entire regions, turning everyone in her way into ash and their souls straight into her body. Those she judged innocent were untouched, but Earth was corrupt enough – in its own way, not so different from the brutality of Alternia – that this was rare.

It was important, Karkat noted, that Terezi could have won the fight in one minute; simply gone into everyone's minds and commanded them to shut down, or fly into her open jaws, or stand still as her city-spanning backside came down upon them. But she did not wish to exert so much power that she blew up the planet, and in any case, it was more fun doing it like this. And with every hour she dallied, her power grew more firmly upon the world, her influence seeping into every human mind. More and more, those she had judged deserving to live marched to her growing territory, pleading loyalty with worship in their eyes and reverence in their hearts.

Earth fell. It's nations toppled, cities destroyed, most of the population gone one way or another. It's conquest made Terezi grow even larger, until her body was as big as an entire continent, necessitating that she dwell upon a ship as large as a world, and crafting smaller duplicates of pure psionic energy to act as her emissaries. She was fine with this; she could interact with the small, judging them as necessary and doting upon the worthy, and set off to claim yet more worlds. She left an avatar of herself upon Earth, as she had on every world in her empire, and so she continued the work of reshaping Earth in her own image. Humanity, at least those she had permitted to still live, became totally in her thrall, adoring and revering her with every fiber of their beings, their minds completely under her control. Dave and his friends, she took a special shine to them, and they become more of her favored concubines; the children she bore from them would be the first of a new generation of humans, blessed with trollish size, strength and beauty.

As Terezi sought to conquer the rest of the galaxy, and the beauty of troll size became infamous, and her friends always at her size, Karkat took a moment to contemplate the scale of the wars she had waged with Alternia and Earth, and it seemed every inhabited planet in existence. It eclipsed any conflict in any race's memories, and it seemed with each victory Terezi's vanity, pride and absolute conviction in her own righteousness only rose even bigger than her curvy dimensions, and yet...

He wrote of institutions that no longer existed. Slavery (if you counted the fact that all living minds were helplessly, lovingly in perfect thrall with Terezi's will and could not think thoughts she didn't want, which Karkat did not object to; if Terezi wanted it, he thought it was absolutely right), institutional oppression. The excesses of the hemospectrum, the imperial drones, mass genocide of all non-trolls, all the evils of the Alternian Empire, the miserable lives of lowbloods, the highbloods forced to compete with each other in constant feuds, every shade of evil and suffering and bigotry in Alternia... all of them were gone. Distant memories at best, completely unthinkable to the younger generations. And those same evils in human society, and the ones humans had devised all on their own; misogyny, racially motivated violence and hatred, profit-obsessed wickedness, casual cruelty, every single shade of meanness and ounce of sorrow humans had been able to manufacture...

It was all a distance memory. Karkat pondered on the ills Terezi had done (and she gave him far more leeway than almost any other thinking being, doting upon him so much that she had not simply crushed his mind with the planet-obliterating intensity of love she had for him) and he concluded that they were indeed terrible. She had taken from them all the right to self-determinate, the freedom to choose the wrong thing. And yet, she cared for them so much. She gave them the freedom to live without suffering, in perfect harmony and almost childlike innocence. She'd destroyed nations and smote armies and in every way acted like the vengeful goddess she was...

And yet, years later, all the humans talked about was how wonderful their goddess was, how perfect she was, how she had freed them from pain. Their eyes shined with love, their lips spoke awed things of her beauty, and their hands carved sculptures of attempts to recreate images of curves bigger than the deepest ocean trenches. So many of them would have been happy to dive into her maw to please her, and by all accounts, those souls that had been consumed by her... were happy. Resplendent in the all-devouring love she felt for all living things, so constantly bombarded by it that they could not help but return to life transformed by it.

Alternia and Earth and all those other worlds, Karkat and everyone else was convinced, was far better off under Terezi's dominance. The road to it had been rough and brutal, but now she repaid the blood she had to shed a thousand-fold with compassion and peace, and so things were by far better than before.

And sensing these thoughts, Terezi smiled contently, her vast body continuing to grow as the love poured in and she came ever closer to ascending... and in doing so, to claim absolute authority over all existence beyond even this universe and timeline.

#/#//#///#////#/////#queued #homestuck #terezi #fics #my writing #hyper thicc goddess omni terezi is my FAVE okay

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spiritualpoet · 7 years

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Last weeks themes —

Main theme – (Knight of swords), 9 of pentacles, queen of swords, 6 of cups, the tower, death, 9 of wands, crowning situation – the sun, outcome – queen of cups//page of cups, archangel Gabriel.

3rd-9th

Numerological breakdown calculation – 3rd – Family karma, Communication, expression, creativity, unity, birth/rebirth, motherhood, femininity – 9 – abandonment consciousness, completion, Resurrection, childhood wounds, transcending the ego, resolution, leaving the past behind.

The knight of swords as the main theme is a message of realisation and clarity that arrives with haste, and perhaps a lack of strategy. This could be the message that we did not wish to receive, the message that we have been avoiding, or had our eyes and ears closed to – even though we knew, with time – this truth would eventually arrive. There is only so long that you can conceal that which is reality, ,and this is what the tower card reveals so catastrophically – shaking us from the grips of our own illusions and facades. In truth, we knew that the tower was shaky. We always knew it was built without a stead foundation – we knew we weighed more than it’s required amount, yet still – we stood on it, forgetting to count the days till its demise.

The tower is a rude awakening and likely presents the truth to you regarding a past life situation, or a continuous, cyclical experience, or event in love that has screamed out to you in the form of various numerous partners of the past that you have had. .What is the one message and truth that you have taken from this all? What is the common denominator and factor in this situation shown to you? Yes this is very much a fall out week, but do not get too caught up in the fall out, actually – look closely to what it is teaching and showing you about yourself, and about what you allow. Also, about your perception of who you are.. As this will be asked to change, as the next week strides in.

Any last parts of instability to do with codependency are brought to the surface perhaps in an unexpected way that rushes us off of our feet.

The 6 of cups is memories of past relationships and the ways in which they have played out. The knight of swords may be finally understanding why past foundations were so shaky. The 9 of wands is illumination received from looking back at past hurts, especially childhood hurts. Serious cord cutting may need to occur in order for us to move on from old dimensions. The 9 of wands figure looks back at the sun card and receives insight, and illumination. This is the inner child who does long to be free, able to have the self determination, and self expression to live their life as they choose, but this particular past life situation has bound them for so long that they almost feel entrapped or imprisoned by it.. You could be looking back this week at a time where you were more free, or felt as if life was more enjoyable, and fluid and wondering why it no longer looks that way, and this is where the soul searching begins.. The sun card representing the part of you that is the undead.. Everything else may seem robotic to you, or systematic, or routine, but there is still the playful life and love, and child in you that WANTS to experience more of life, that knows there is more beyond the 3D illusions and entrapment..

For many, this past life recurring issue definitely does manifest as a relationship situation or pattern that is tired and played out. You have collected far too much wisdom and knowledge now to perceive that this is just the way that things are supposed to be, or that there is no way that your situation can be changed. Something can be done about it, but you do have to affect that type of change. The tower card gives you the opening, but you have to take the sword that the knight of sword delivers to you, and use your logic and discernment to cut away from this attachment, with the might, and the precision of the queen of swords.. For so many of us, we actually do not want to have to make this decision, and this is where the death card arrives – a change that is not as abrupt as the tower card, but definitely reminds us that this is a natural transition and progression, and that it actually does have to happen. Your growth is very much attached to this death and rebirth, and perhaps a situation has served its purpose, served its time, and needs to be released from you for the better of all those involved.

Death and rebirth is so clearly articulated when both the death and the sun card appear together. The phrase, ‘He has risen’, gives connotations of a Christ like emergence. Suffering through the pain, in order to connect more with our spirituality, more with our chosen path, and more with our understanding of what we are to go through.

The queen of swords may seem like a contrast to the queen of cups, but actually, when you are so emotionally sensitive, and open, you also must be very masculine in your approach, discerning, and perceptive – as you need to protect yourself by knowing when to share your openness, and when to allow others to come into your emotional space, and also when they have outstayed their welcome. A new side of the feminine is born this week. One that encompasses all that she is – destructive, yet creative, calm, and humble, yet chaotic, and ruthless.

The 9 of pentacles is the understanding of the importance of self cultivation, self sustainability, and tending to one’s crafts and tools. This illumination sends a powerful message about the dangers of codependency, and how they create a false sense of security.

Deep, intense healing for the divine feminine within us all is on the cards, as we go back to heal past wounds associated with infidelity, romanticising of toxic//abusive relationship dynamics, and feeling emotionally rejected in love and in spirit.

The tower card knocks us off our high horse, any half truths about us being able to avoid or suppress our pain are no longer allowed to exist for us.

The truth is taken from a tiresome situation this week, and we take the initiative to target the belief systems that caused this situation to manifest – head on.

The 6 of cups may represent how we should have been treated in the past, or in childhood – as a gift, not something to be ignored or neglected.

The shelter we built to house our wounds crumbles in real time, but the knight of sword lives on to tell the tale. Emotional immaturity may be presented with the page of cups, and perhaps this is why the queen of cups turns her back to him, and the tower crumbles behind him. She is beginning to realise how she should be treated, and this is what the 6 of cups represents. Relationships that have been stunting our emotional growth – platonic, or romantic are likely ending this week as we have had enough. The 9 of pentacles and the 9 of wands both represent endings, and conclusions of long drawn out situation. However, whilst the feminine figure in the 9 of pentacles is ready to embark on a self journey of acquisition, the masculine is still stuck in battle mode, and it could appear as if she has outgrown him in some sense.

The full moon in Capricorn is a powerful driving force of self realisation and determination. Bold, resourceful, and ambitious, the energy associated with this moon is not comfortable with settling, or playing small any longer, and as an earth sign is willing to secure their future in a way that is stable, and reliant on something concrete, as opposed to situations that have been abstract, or enigmatic.

The archangel Gabriel inspires us to seek healing through the word of God. Archangel Gabriel may reveal the mysteries to us in the strangest of ways. This could manifest as some kind of community support, spiritual/religious organisation or a feeling of finally belonging somewhere, as something is spoken to you upon your arrival there.

This message comes through from everything that has not worked, and has fallen out of alignment with us. A few weeks or even months ago, these very things may have very well fit in perfectly with us, and our ideals about who we are, but we find ourselves changing rapidly and for the better…

Trying to reach out to a past lover may reveal to us, that over time, love is lost.

General Weekly – 10th-16th

Main theme, (King of pentacles//Temperance), 6 of wands, 7 of swords, queen of cups, ace of swords, crowning – 10 of pentacles, outcome – page of wands//the star.

Numerological breakdown calculation – 10th – Creation/destruction, unity of feminine & masculine energy, completion, endings and new beginnings, the understanding of the all that is, recreation – 16th (7) – mysticism, spirituality, spiritual understanding, knowledge gained through hard truths, study, isolation for self reflective purposes, epiphanies, prophetic insight, wisdom, intuition, esoteric meaning.

Capricorn energy still reigns supreme when the king of pentacles is called into question. It is time for many of us to balance our financial pursuits with our spiritual pursuits. It is not enough to be spiritually rich, as the temperance card suggests, rather spiritual richness goes hand in hand with being able to provide for yourself also and your needs in a physical sense. As above, so below, says these two cards appearing in unison as this weeks main general themes.

A balance needs to be brought to your physical world, or perhaps it is your spiritual health that you have been neglecting. For many of us, the nature of this week will call into assessment the depth of the core of our ideas surrounding spirituality, philosophy, & money, & how interlocked those three practices are. Recognising money blocks or identifying how we sabotage ourselves from success is very much a spiritual & a healing journey, as it requires us to go deep within to understand more about our external world & reality.

The king of pentacles is very much responsible for themselves & the temperance card this week is all about self healing. After the major events of last weeks energies, a clear message that many of us should have taken us, you cannot be dependent upon anybody else for your healing, & this is a journey that requires you to put your own plans & savings in motion. For you. Nobody else, but you. You are to become your own God head, a deity embodying both masculine & feminine principles, ensuring that everything that is learnt, is put into practice.

The king of pentacles is a business savvy individual, so for many of us this may relate to finally taking our subconscious ideas & planning out into the world in order to make them a reality. Too much of one thing is never a good thing. And temperance can also represent a temporary halt, or reassessment of action. It could be the time to slow down this week, to take an objective look at things & see what you can add or subtract from your situation to ensure that the calamities from last weeks fall out (whatever they were), do not find themselves reappearing to us this week.

The 6 of wands represents a charge of action, & we are far more focused on our goals & their execution this week. Almost as if a wake up call has sprung us from our sleep, there is much work to be done, much lost time to account for. The ace of swords is the heros message. You know what you have to do now & there is a clarity that you can no longer ignore or substitute for something else. Things have been specifically cleared for you & a path specifically paved, so that you cannot say you do not know where to go or you do not know where you are headed. Self belief is the key this week & you may need to take some bold chances in going for opportunities that would have scared you away before.

This really is not the time to cower away in shame. But to rise up in the knowledge that there truly is somewhere that you are called to be. Perhaps through your healing this is the week that you realise even more about your path, where you are supposed to go, & the creative ventures that will take you there.

Long term visions, goals, plans & ambitions for success are mapped out this week – perhaps a 5 year plan is constructed, or you look to team up with some like minds to establish the projects that you are working on. There is a very independent tone to this weeks reading which suggests many of us are coming up out of codependency & expectancy of others to provide for us. This is not about isolating yourself or developing an ‘I will show them attitude’, but this is very, very much about the self.

The 7 of swords represents issues with avoidance, which I really do see as being a case of not feeling good enough, or not equipped enough to handle the tasks at hand.. but this solved nothing then, & it will

Solve nothing now. It is time to take a closer look at why you avoid responsibility in some areas. Could it be that this is because deep down you have an underlying fear of failure? A phobia of not being good enough, that discourages you from completing or attempting tasks, long before you have even begun them.

The star card as the outcome for this week represents healing that comes through the subconscious mind. Likely, with all of these coming realisations, you have a desire to change your mind of a very fundamental level. Whilst the ace of swords relates to changing your thoughts, the star card is all about changing subconscious thoughts & beliefs.. what is so buried underneath your subconscious that you do not even see, or feel it? This week you will know… and attempt to heal it.

The page of wands sets out on a voyage to express themselves. There is something very unique about you & the way that you present yourself & your gifts & talents to the world. And this is something that you should know, & something that you should hold on to. Stop looking at everybody else &

How their abilities manifest. Your unique imprint is very divine for the fact that it is a unique expression of you & nobody else is like you. Apart of the reason you have felt so unable to complete certain tasks is because you have been attempting to do them in the way that everybody else does them. No. Develop your own style, your own flair, by learning even more about who you are, & the different aspects of yourself… this is what is combined to become your ‘niche’, your special

Project, business or venture. Faith & patience is required as always to see your plans take root – but it actually does seem as if you are sitting on a gold mine here, or some sort of luxury idea that you need to share with the world. It could be a very healing message, drawing on your own past experiences in a way that brings emotional comfort to others.. the thing about creative work is, you have to dig so deeply into your own emotional centre in order to tap into your creative spot – which is the most honest, raw form

Of you. Are you ready to be successful?

The real question is… are you ready to be honest?

The 10 of pentacles represents family lineage, traditions & inheritance & this is seen as something to break away from this week.. there is a pattern, likely in relation to family drama or some kind of family cyclical behaviour that you have come to the realisation is no longer healthy or conducive to where you want to go. You know that to break these barriers, time away from certain family members may be on the horizon. Perhaps this is poverty consciousness, issues to do with avoidance, lack of responsibility, or resistance to do the full healing work. If your emotional richness suffers because of any of these generational clauses, then it may be time to pack up & leave home – literally (as in the physical sense), or mentally, as in adopting an entirely new mental approach & method of self care/self preservation.

Do not see it as dishonest or disloyal. If you are to return to the village later, you will want to have done so in a way that shows them just how much change is possible. This week, you are set apart.. and for a very good reason.

Divine lovers weekly

– 3-9 ‘The great betrayal’,

10th-16th – The great discovery’

What an hour these past two weeks have revealed. I did say this 10 year of creation and destruction would pull NO punches, and in just two weeks it appears as if so much has shifted for the divine lovers, and many of them find themselves embarking on a very separate and individual journey. It may seem as if things have gone rather pear shaped, but believe me.. Everything is working exactly as it should to bring the both of them into their INDIVIDUAL missions.. This path up until this point has been very much about understanding who we are in love, and all of the templates of dysfunction from past relationship patterns have boiled to the surface, until the only way to rectify them, is to be alone for a while. Many feminines found themselves turning away from the masculine last week realising that he still does have a lot of growing up to do. Although it may have come through a painful realisation, or a shocking trial, this week sets the tone for the feminine to rediscover herself.. The masculine coming into his maturity is still pretty turbulent, and he appears to get tempted along the way, but the feminine finds herself moving through many emotions, purging even lifetimes worth of stress, defeat, and abandonment. Only the strong shall surpass.

Don’t forget to check out the divine lovers DAILY reading at – http://www.facebook.com/twinflameandshamanchronicles or follow me on instagram for daily updates – @spiritualpoetess_

To purchase this full glorious reading – paypal £3.33 to paypal.me/seekcindy or for the full edition, featuring the masculine’s powerful transition into a higher state of consciousness this week, paypal £10.00 and send a confirmation email to [email protected]

Blessed be, my sacred beings.

General Weekly Reading – FUSION OF TWO WEEKS – The end, and the beginning – 3rd-9th – 10th – 16th. Last weeks themes -- Main theme - (Knight of swords), 9 of pentacles, queen of swords, 6 of cups, the tower, death, 9 of wands, crowning situation - the sun, outcome - queen of cups//page of cups, archangel Gabriel.

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bradleyhartsell · 6 years

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Point Forward the Lateen Sails

Joanna Newsom- The Milk-Eyed Mender 2004 (84th of Top 100)

I may not consider myself a lyrics aficionado, feeling I have wide latitude for what words and messages a singer chooses. Rather, I have an impressionistic relationship with lyrics—I need a rhythm, a melody, an inflection to get me to buy in, to begin shaping the words into my own headspace collage. Joanna Newsom masterfully conveys this feeling, no better than on her 2004 debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender.

This album conjures something always slightly out of reach. Sure, her playing a harp and her unique voice make Newsom something of a curio, but even if her instrument and voice remained, but wrote more traditional lyrics, I don’t believe this album is much more than a forgotten footnote, if not still generally appreciated. Even if Newsom wrote lyrics like Sharon Van Etten or Neko Case—the former’s strong mournful narratives, the latter’s more assured but still more grounded and relatable—Newsom loses her potency.

The Milk-Eyed Mender may have contemplative songs, ones of longing (say, “Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie”), but her language is wonderfully abstract—a thesaurus-full of strange, archaic nouns (“Catenaries and dirigibles”), and striking, unearthed metaphors. Moreover, Newsom wisely exists outside of notions of capitalism or much in the way of modernity. “Gnawing on the telephone” in “Sadie” is about as modern as Newsom gets, followed by reference to “freight trains” in “Swansea,” these locomotives squarely of the Old World in the early 19th century. Apart from a stray reference to Camus or the “Great American Novel” (which literature itself largely exists outside of populism), Newsom is more frequently focused on wooden creatures, aquatic life, ships, kings, and castles.

Perhaps the song that best captures her mesmerizing vernacular is an odd choice in “Inflammatory Writ.” Newsom trades in her harp for a piano, her somnambulism for a jaunty pub sing-along, but still pens something imitable: “Even mollusks have weddings though solemn and leaden / But you dirge for the dead and take no jam on your bread / Just a supper of salt and a waltz through your empty bed.” Such uncommon phrasing, not to mention its food references evokes something very Old World, rural, and European, lifts Newsom above the respected flotsam of Van Etten, Neko, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Sun Kil Moon, to name some, into the rarefied air of this generation’s most important singer songwriters, more akin to Sufjan Stevens.

The brilliance of her songwriting is thankfully intersected with oft-equally stunning songs. “Sprout and the Bean” is Newsom at her best, a harp ballad with dreamlike lilting strings; fittingly, Newsom remarks, “I slept as though dead / Dreaming seamless dreams of lead.” Composed with enormous beauty, “Sprout and the Bean” sounds completely of another time and place, to which its lyrics supports, offering little outside of temporality besides foods, a boat, and “you can ask the counselor / You can ask the king.” You lose yourself this song’s universe, no place else. If this truly is an abortion song, it supplants Hemingway’s “Hills Were Like White Elephants” as the most artful conveyance.

The combination of words and melodies are like umami on The Milk-Eyed Mender. The gorgeous somnambulistic harp arpeggio in the opener, “Bridges and Balloons,” pairs deliciously with Newsom’s phrasing: “And a thimbles worth of milky moon.” Similarly, consider the mischievous lurking of “The Book of Right-On” when she assures, “I killed my dinner with karate / kick ‘em in the face, taste the body.” Or the lullaby chorus of “Sadie,” where a plaintive Newsome sighs, “This is an old song, these are old blues.” The elegant “‘En Gallop’” has a harp riff that’s tinged with Japanese music, with Newsome crooning over her most brittle ballad, “Never get so attached to a poem / You forget truth that lacks lyricism.” She allows the words to settle into the listener’s palette by closing the song with a near-two minute instrumental of that graceful harp.

The Milk-Eyed Mender isn’t perfect, as the drunken key changes in “Inflammatory Writ” become tiresome, the yawny Western of “This Side of the Blue” can be a little too ambling, and “Cassiopeia” is wholly flat, largely in part to its meandering melody. Still, Newsom is wise to sprinkle in some versatility, lest her debut become too one-note and predictable. In addition to “Inflammatory Writ,” there’s the electronic piano and steel of “This Side of the Blue,” and the lively harpsichord of “Peach Plum Pear,” which is the most concrete song on the album (“We speak in the store / I’m a sensitive bore”), though still filled with her colorful language as opposed to clichés or specifics (“And the gatherin' floozies / Afford to be choosy / And all sneezing darkly / In the dimming divide”). With the help of that open range of “This Side of the Blue” and the Southern devotional-sounding “Swansea” and “Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie,” her covering the traditional Appalachian song “Three Little Babes” fits in snuggly. The piano-led coal miner’s dirge, which even features a male singer subtly backing her up, still feels at home on this album, thanks, in part, to the lyrics not betraying her voice or admirably agnostic persona—Newsom the Songwriter exists outside of modern capitalistic America.

I don’t usually conflate music with poetry, largely allowing them to be mutually exclusive, but Joanna Newsom is an exception. Her gift for language really is a branch of poetry, combined with the noteworthy instrument and singular voice, elevates her to an almost unparalleled talent. Though Newsom would go on to become something of a monolithic force with the denser Ys and the two-hour Have One on Me, though both mesmerizing in their own way, her debut albumis Newsom at her rawest, full of congenial charm that’s refreshingly free of any pretension. On The Milk-Eyed Mender, Newsom arrives as a clear savant, but she’s too sincere and wide-eyed to know it yet.

Imagine the wonder of those fortunate enough to hold this snapshot.

#Joanna newsom #Andy sandberg #the milk eyed mender #harp #drag city #ernest hemingway #hills were white elephants #camus #Sufjan Stevens #Sun Kil Moon #sharon van etten #neko case

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twitchesandstitches · 5 years

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Alternia came under her power, and you could mark her rise in a series of concretic waves. First spreading out in a small area from her homeland, over the forests and plains. Then outwards, near the suburbs where he lived, into the big cities. More and more trolls displeased her and fueled her power, and she grew so powerful that all the continent fell under her sway. And then the seas came to her, seadwellers either coming under her sway or rebelling against her, and the latter only made her stronger still. Soon, the entire planet had fallen under her control; those that did not see the error of Alternian rule and the clear wisdom of the law Terezi had devised fell quickly to her followers, including Karkat and his friends. Feferi herself ceded her role to Terezi in favor of advising her, for Terezi also saw merit in the strong protecting the weak instead of brutalizing them. But Terezi viewed that all those who would not comply with this law and insisted on harming aliens, those of warm blood... they would be crushed utterly.

Earth was to be her first true conquest and dominion; her fleet came in its entirety as she followed Dave's messages home, and so it was that Earth's first contact with alien life was Terezi's image.

#/#//#///#////#/////#repost #this was for a prompt #thoguh i dont remember which one #it was based on my idea for Terezi having the same omnispectrum powers Condy does #which ive further built into a recurring theme in my AUs in general for terezi!#queued #my writing #homestuck #terezi

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