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#eve conceptualizing eternity
babyblackbird · 15 days
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Prayers of the Rosary in English and Latin 📿 🥀💀
The Sign of the Cross
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Apostles' Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. * I believe the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Lord's Prayer (Our Father)
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name, Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. * Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary
Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. * Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. * As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Fatima Prayer
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.
Hail, Holy Queen
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
The following prayer may be added after the "Hail, Holy Queen":
Let us pray. O God, Whose Only-Begotten Son, by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life: grant, we beseech Thee, that by meditating upon these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Latin
Signum Crucis
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Symbolum Apostolicum
Credo in Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, creatorem caeli et terrae. Et in Iesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum, qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine, passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus et sepultus. Descendit ad inferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis. Ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dextram Dei Patris omnipotentis. Inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos. * Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem, remissionem peccatorum, carnis resurrectionem, vitam aeternam. Amen.
Dominica oratio (Pater noster)
Pater noster, qui es in caelis: Sanctificetur nomen tuum: Adveniat regnum tuum: Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra. * Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie: Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Ave Maria
Ave Maria, gratia plena: Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. * Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
Gloria Patri
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. * Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Oratio Fatima
Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas quae misericordiae tuae maximae indigent.
Salve, Regina
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae; vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.
V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.
R. Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi.
Oratio sequens post «Salve, Regina» dici potest:
Deus, cuius Unigenitus per vitam, mortem et resurrectionem suam nobis salutis aeternae praemia comparavit: concede, quaesumus; ut, haec mysteria sacratissimo beatae Mariae Virginis Rosario recolentes. et imitemur quod continent, et quod promittunt, assequamur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
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blenderchildren · 6 months
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Reckoning Of The Soul Made Godless
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"Reckoning Of The Soul Made Godless"
Memory of these blood stained faces
In the darkest corners of primeval wisdom
She lays awaiting the masters of faith
Mistreated actions take form, in an outlet to avenge this rage
Drowning within the spiral of this hellish plane
A naked body layered with sigils of this summoning
These preaching altars transformed for consecration
Like blood and fire
In the sacred chalice of Satan
I hail the blood stained horns
The goat of a thousand young
Clandestine episode of inflicting torture
On the self to culminate the powers of evil
An urge to take lives in these sadistic ways
Reflection of horrific gaze
Frozen with blurred visions
Trembled lips beg in whispers
To represent the force of this offering
Convert the virgin essence
In offers of rape to the black goat
Sanctified gestures of the perverse
Attained in the source of anointing the god of fire
My name is spoken
Echoing through the void
Disciples of the damned
March into the fires
Treacherous disciples
That brand the names of hell across virgin skin
Forcing a trauma that induces this demonic hallucination
Bleeding soul of the virgin whore
Swallowed in the storms of flesh
A rising dawn of cruelty
Awaken the impure
Perception of the deviant, to the judges of mankind
Slashing her wrists and arms, in hell their hearts lie
This proof of devotion
It had death's face
Anticipate the cry of a hundred prayers for the release of pain
This eve of lucid conjuring
Defiled notion of praise
Fatten the beast with her flesh
Her screams are unheard, except for the dead
Adorn this whore of god with horns
Screaming fury of eternal escape
Conceptual journey to seek the birth of evil
Arouse her fury in various states of amputation
Crawling epidemic in quiet confines
This falsified concubine of the heavens
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casuallyyoa · 5 months
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STEAM NEXT FEST OCTOBER 2023 ROGUE EDITION
It’s another edition of Steam Next Fest, with a whole deluge of demos for people to try on the platform. As a rogue-genre self-proclaimed connoisseur, October 2023 sees me diving into the literal hundreds of Coming Soon titles to pick out at random something that vaguely interests me. As such, this selection is entirely subjective to my own taste and I’ll clarify what each vague category means. 
I tried to spend at least 30 minutes per title to see if their demo slice is able to ‘hook’ as it were.
Let’s go!
FEATURED GAMES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
Below the Stone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1170230/Below_the_Stone/
Break the Loop: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331340/Break_the_Loop/
CD 2: Trap Master: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2330870/CD_2_Trap_Master/
Chrysalis: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594210/Chrysalis/
Corlero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991350/Corlero/
Cursorblade: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2449040/Cursorblade/
Destroy the Monoliths: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352000/Destroy_The_Monoliths/
Dethroned: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2326050/Dethroned/
Earthless: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058960/Earthless/
Ending Tau: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2087880/Ending_Tau
Froguelike: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2315020/Froguelike/
Go Mecha Ball: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008510/Go_Mecha_Ball/
Heroes of Eternal Quest: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2234200/Heroes_of_Eternal_Quest/
Lucky Hero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2404510/Lucky_Hero/
Magicraft: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2103140/Magicraft/
Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1964200/Phantom_Rose_2_Sapphire/
Sandwalkers: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1639080/Sandwalkers/
Scarlet Record: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2365920/Scarlet_Record/ 
Shambles: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2289630/Shambles/
SpellRogue: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1990110/SpellRogue/
Voice of Belldona: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2223420/Voice_of_Belldona/
NEEDS MORE TO STAND OUT
While simple isn’t necessarily bad, I consider these games either being too derivative or not having some ‘spark’ to draw in people who may have already played similar games. 
Cursorblade
Cursorblade is a really cute game where you play the titular cursor which acts like a blade. Genius. You get the upgrades for your cursor and move your mouse around the screen wildly to slash at the creatures. It’s not quite as ‘free’ as that though, as the monsters will retaliate with bullets or on contact. You’ll see them flashing before you get hit so watch out. If cute and simple ticks your boxes, then by all means, get this.
Froguelike
A frog roguelite? Sign me up! That said, besides the various upgrades that are certainly froggy-themed, Froguelike is one of the closest Vampire Survivors clones you can get out there. Of course, Vampire Survivors is hardly the first of its kind, but as the one probably freshest in most minds, the demo doesn’t convince me people would get this over the other.
INTERESTING CONCEPTUALLY
These are titles that have things that draw me or I can acknowledge seem quite fun, but it’s not quite for me.
Break the Loop
It’s got style, it’s got a way to reduce the RNG a little bit by letting you set events in an order you want to encounter them and is similar to games I like. That’s why I’m incredibly perplexed as to why I bounced off Break the Loop’s demo so hard. I’ve currently chalked it down to balance issues as it feels like I’m meant to play aggressively to get the permanent unlock currency but because skills seem to cost so much I can’t hit the, well, balance. Don’t let my skill issues discourage you from checking out this game yourself.
CD 2: Trap Master
I’m a tower defense enjoyer so this should have been a dead ringer for me. In practice, the demo for CD 2: Trap Master felt clunky, not helped by the tooltips not entirely implemented for this initial build. I screwed myself over by an English Second Language moment not understanding my ‘energy’ to summon the traps would be ‘capped’ as in ‘its upper limit reduced’, so my shiny new card could never be played. It’s a little unfortunate, but the basic mechanics should all be in place and just needs more polish.
Corlero
Do you want even more randomness in your games of auto team battlers? Corlero has got you, with a story of random presumably divine entities also potentially ruining your life. There ARE some mechanics to try reduce the RNG - like if you did mess up with positioning - by allowing you to reroll the result of a battle, at gradually increasing cost. Still, there’s still the fact you need 3 copies of a unit to upgrade it, and more than once I’ve encountered enemy formations with more upgraded units than I have, and rerolling doesn’t get me any closer to a tiered up unit. I feel like they need more ways to ‘tighten’ the mechanics as it were before the randomness becomes more frustrating than fun.
Destroy the Monoliths
Destroy the Monoliths feels ripe for early game hell. Getting the materials feels slow without any upgrades while enemies come knocking on your door whether you look for them or not. You want the structures to destroy the enemy monoliths while fending them off but getting the resources you need before they end your miserable little ball’s life might need to be streamlined a bit more. The terrain also affects your movement which would make for some challenge; it just wasn’t all that nice to get that as a start before I’ve really gotten to know the game’s workings.
Lucky Hero
The slot machine in Lucky Hero is kind of novel as you spin to hopefully win. The slots will be really empty to start of course, until you get more energy to make worthwhile actions. Depending on the positioning of items, you could buff your actions, have empty vials be filled with gunk monsters put into your slots, or just have things get locked up by enemies and you get really unhappy. I feel it’s less clunky than a similar slot machine mechanic in Lucky Island in that there’s less to micromanage, at least, even if it’s not hitting it for me.
Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire
I had the feeling I’d already seen this game before, and yes, that would be Phantom Rose Scarlet. Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire has the same distinctive artstyle and mechanics of its predecessor, to its detriment I feel. The demo didn’t seem to have anything that made it stand out from Scarlet in my mind apart from the protagonist, so maybe I need to be more invested in the story before I consider Sapphire.
Magicraft
Someone’s static is gonna have to look for a new BLM I think. Magicraft’s opening riffs on fantasy tropes and certain player expectations which would make for fun character interactions. You have your wand and your MP, with the wand not only having their own stats, but also slots in which you can modify your attacks. While I understand the MP cost is a necessary evil to balance some of the fancy effects, I guess it does also cramp the style when you’re not allowed to have as much fun with some insane combos if you don’t get the wand slots you want. It be like that in roguelites.
Voice of Belldona
On its own, Voice of Belldona isn’t anything too special. 
There is a certain focus on story and mechanically, you have both your character’s own deck of skills and also can summon uncontrollable units to aid you in battle. There’s a lot of positioning you can play around with regards to your skill effects which should make for some fun. Also, just look at those placeholder assets. If nothing else, having them as an alternative skin for the full release can elevate this game to a grand ol’ shitpost.
TO LOOK OUT FOR
Games that I don’t always click with but there’s more things that interest me here.
Below the Stone
Where Destroy the Monoliths didn’t hit it for me, Below the Stone does. You make your little dwarf to embark on an adventure to dig real deep and perhaps revitalize your dwarven kingdom. You need to upgrade your tools as you go along of course, to work at those veins that sparkle at you from the darkness. There’s some flexibility where you can select low risk missions to take on on your expedition as you need to complete at least one before you can leave the current level. The resources to allow you to keep exploring feel generous enough, so you could just take on riskier, more rewarding missions as you fill up your bags. 
I’m not the biggest fan of pseudo (or otherwise) resource management as I love to just fire away mindlessly, but I think this can be really appealing.
Chrysalis
With your posse of animal friends, rid the world of corruption in Chrysalis. Well, I suppose they aren’t all animals. Go around possessing creatures to use their skills to aid you against the monsters, and hope to find some seeds for the home defense. Since you can always teleport back almost instantaneously to your base, you could absolutely risk exploring till the other edge of the map in hope for resources or better creature companions to be worthwhile investing into. You do get refunded some of the resources spent on completing a level, so you don’t start from zero as you continue.
Dethroned
Traipse around the map with your little squaddie and activate the altars and save the world and stuff! I’m not very good at it, but Dethroned intrigued me. Your hero character isn’t part of the actual squad, but they have skills to support your creatures over time. If you position it right, you can just avoid combat with hostiles in your way by simply slipping by. It does mean you probably won’t have the resources to beef up your army, as the threat level gradually increases to buff all other enemies across the map. Once all your monsters die it’s game over, so the risk reward learning curve is gonna be something.
Heroes of Eternal Quest
Round and round we go. Heroes of Eternal Quest involves placing buildings on the map and you occasionally using active skills to help your hero should the going get tougher. I do like influencing the course by being more strategic with my placements, less on getting some god drops for a god build and more to a relatively consistent power grind. Resources obtained from your merry-go-round will be used to unlock more buildings and gradually open up your options to mow down the unfortunates that stand in your way, further adding to that feeling of incremental growth that I enjoy.
Shambles
It’s like a mix of your typical deckbuilder roguelike with a dash of roleplaying and D&D-esque elements. Shambles places you in a post-apocalyptic world where you become the trailblazer from your bunker home into the new old world now that the radiation is back to safe levels. There are stat checks every now and again for story choices that can grant you a variety of cards, changing based on your decisions. You move along a skill tree to get yourself more equipment to provide different stat bonuses which you don’t need to equip immediately. However, you can only swap it out at certain points, like end of chapter moments. I feel like there’s potential here since story isn’t necessarily the focal point for a majority of roguelikes, so keep an eye out.
SpellRogue
There’s so much dice in SpellRogue! Depending on the die faces, you can cast certain spells a certain amount of times. You can see the value range these spells require to cast, so if you just so happen to have a 4 value die and your only remaining spell wants 1 to 3, then it’s unusable. Getting more die and ability to reroll is no doubt going to be key to success. It’s pretty easy to grasp and I managed to get to the end of the demo on my first go despite almost bungling a battle when I didn’t watch my HP, so I’d be interested to see where it goes. 
PERSONAL PICKS
The ones I’d prioritize to purchase.
Earthless
I’m a sucker for sci-fi, I admit. Earthless sees you captain a ship through the cosmos, managing your engine’s heat as you navigate through asteroids, juggling cards to destroy obstacles or hostile aliens wanting a bite out of your crew, and making calls that could affect your crew’s morale and the rewards from certain events. I just really like how all these pretty simple mechanics play together, like a version of FTL that is more to my pace.
Ending Tau
With Dead Cells and Children of Morta in mind, if you liked those games, I think you’d like Ending Tau. Your Hunter has four main ‘curses’ to bear to affect your mobility and abilities, which then get upgraded further by aspects, thematically minor curses, I suppose. It’s faster paced than the stuff I usually like for sure, but it’s mechanically quite satisfying. My gripe from the demo is that the indicator around the character wigs me out slightly. I understand it’s to help indicate your range but it felt more awkward than helpful for me, personally.
Go Mecha Ball
Speaking of fast paced, Go Mecha Ball can be one dizzying bounce all over the field as you crash into enemies. You do have guns to supplement your wrecking ball self but if you don’t bounce off enough enemies, you will run out of ammo pretty quickly. There’s two abilities you can get too, at least. Still, the crashing is the name of the game: you can interrupt flashing enemies when you slam into them besides destroying them outright which can only be good. I’m going to need more practice…
Sandwalkers
Here’s one I’m not good at once again! That won’t stop me from admiring and enjoying what there is of Sandwalkers though. With your merry band, you need to manage your resources as you travel across the world to trailblaze for those who will follow in your footsteps. Different ‘factions’, as it were, will find certain items more worthwhile to trade for so that they’d agree to barter for that thing you really want. I’m sure this will also partly play into them trusting you so that you can have additional options when you find more of their encampments. 
You don’t lose outright when you don’t have supplies to continue your travels, but your units do lose HP the further you go. This can make battles dicey despite your starting shields since you probably don’t have a good way to recover your health. At least when you break enemy shields, they can get momentarily stunned so you can slam ‘em when they’re down. 
CONCLUSION
Once again, these are all my personal opinions, and there were so, so many demos as usual to try out. With that, that’s it for my run in Steam Next Fest October 2023. A number of these games are planning for early access, or even launching very soon, so do wishlist all the things you’re looking forward to. 
Until next time. Thanks for watching.
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dwellordream · 2 years
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“If, as Alice Cooper suggests, women’s blood is intimately associated with suffering, that association would seem to be born out—though not exactly in the way Alice Cooper means—in the thirteenth-century Queste del saint graal. In this romance, the virgin sister of the grail knight, Perceval, voluntarily allows her blood to be drained from her body and offered as a cure to a leprous lady. Only a virgin’s blood can heal the afflicted lady, and she has killed many young women in her search for a cure. As it turns out, only the blood of Perceval’s sister can save the lady from the leprosy that devours her body, and Perceval’s virgin sister dies giving her blood for the cure. When the lady is bathed in the sacrificed virgin’s blood, she regains her health. The account of Perceval’s sister’s death is similar to the female martyrdoms recounted in the many vitae that tell the stories of saints whose blood is spilled for God.
Many of these dying women are virgins, and the blood of a martyred virgin, as in La queste, seems to have a particular sanctity. But what is the difference between the blood of a virgin and the blood of a nonvirgin? From the perspective of hagiographical narratives, the difference is not in the blood itself, but in the state of the body that sheds the blood—the intact virgin’s body incarnates a unique purity and the virtue of the body guarantees the virtue of the blood. At the same time, though, a virgin’s blood could be seen as literally different from that of a nonvirgin. The twelfth-century nun Hildegard of Bingen postulated that the menstrual flow of virgins is less abundant than the blood flow of other women, for example. So a virgin’s blood could be seen as quantitatively and, as in La queste, qualitatively different from other women’s blood: only a virgin’s blood can cure leprosy. 
If the uniqueness of a virgin’s blood derives from the female body dedicated to chastity, the virgin body that conceives a child poses a particular challenge to medieval categories of purity in relation to menstruation. Medieval descriptions of the Virgin Mary emphasize the miraculous purity of her maternal body and insist on her perpetual virginity, her sealed womb, and her own conception and birth without sin. Mary’s eternally intact body demonstrates not only that she was innocent of sexual sin, but also that she was not tainted by original sin and the curse of Eve, and this definition of Mary’s purity seemed to suggest, at least for some theologians, that she could not have menstruated. At the same time, though, Christ’s essential humanity depended on Mary being more than simply a vessel for a divine birth, and Mary had nursed her child—how could she lactate if she did not menstruate, since milk is produced by the maternal body’s transformation of menses? Women’s blood—menstruation and the blood of parturition—have long been associated with pollution in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
The ritual prohibitions surrounding women’s blood set forth in Leviticus continued to be observed or at least acknowledged in the Middle Ages, as is demonstrated by an often-cited letter from the end of the sixth century attributed to Gregory the Great. Gregory discusses taboos associated with women’s bodies in the early church and he claims that menstruating women should not be prohibited from entering a church or from receiving the eucharist (implying that they were). Gregory’s instructions to disregard notions of ritual impurity also apply to men’s bodies: in response to the question of whether a man may receive the sacrament after a nocturnal emission, Gregory claims that “natural superfluities or weaknesses” should not prevent participation in the eucharistic ritual, either for priest or for celebrant. Gregory thus suggests a conceptual parallel between menstruation and the involuntary loss of semen. 
But while menstrual blood may be paired with semen in codifications of pollution in Leviticus and in Gregory’s refutations of cultural taboos, the qualities of semen and menstrual blood are far from similar in most medieval theories of the body. In reproductive theory, menstruation and semen had very different values for medieval writers, who largely followed Aristotle’s view of the male body as hotter than the female body and thus able to refine nutrients first into blood, and then into the semen that imparts human form to the formless menses. Semen, like breast milk, was considered a form of blood in the Middle Ages, but semen was seen as a pure form of blood that demonstrates the superiority of the hot, dry male body over the humid, cold female body that is incapable of giving form to its blood. In texts written for or about religious men and women, the discussion of bodily emissions follows a similar gendered hierarchy based on the mastery of fluids. 
Treatises on virginity rarely mention female bodily emissions; in Jocelyn Wogan-Browne’s phrase, “virginity [is] imagined in bodies without menstrual and menopausal phases.” However, men’s loss of bodily fluids continues to trouble clerical writers, and theological discussions of nocturnal emissions equate masculine sanctity with the ability to control the body’s fluids. That is, the man most devoted to spiritual purity does not experience nocturnal emissions. Although women are not expected to control menstruation as a physical demonstration of their spiritual development, the cessation of menstruation can be seen to mark the female body as a holy or sanctified body. Peter Brown cites the example of St. Eupraxia, who slept on ashes to tame her body when she began to menstruate, and Caroline Walker Bynum has richly documented the amenorrhea that characterized the extraordinary closure of some medieval female saints’ bodies.
There would seem then to be at least three ways of characterizing saintly female bodies and their blood, though these were not necessarily well known or universally accepted models for religious women: the pure body that does not bleed because it is not tainted with the curse of Eve through original sin, like the Virgin Mary’s body; the body worshipfully devoted to mystical ascetic practice and whose amenorrhea is a sign of sanctity; and the martyr’s body that bleeds, but not with menstrual blood. In the first two examples, amenorrhea is a sign of purity; in the third, the blood of martyrdom is different from menstrual blood—but how different is it? Some stories of female martyrs linger over women’s bloodshed and recount in detail the torture and mutilation of the female body. The blood of martyrdom is holy blood, whether it is shed by women or by men, but some vitae may suggest a link between women’s bloodshed and menstruation. 
Francesca Sautman has pointed to the way that, in some stories of female martyrdom, the flow of women’s blood recalls the blood of menstruation or parturition. She notes that this blood is surrounded by taboos similar to those that mark menstruation: torturers do not dare look upon the female martyr’s blood, and she cites the example of the Life of Saint Margaret where the narrator recounts that “when [the torturers] had seen blood flow from everywhere in the tender flesh, they covered their eyes and their heads, for they could not look on it” (“quant il veient de la char tendre / De totes pars le sanc espandre / Lur oils et lur chières [covreent]/ Que esguarder ne la poeent”). I do not mean to suggest that all representations of women’s blood must be interpreted as figural representations of menstruation. Nor do all representations of menstruation define it as a polluting blood that must remain hidden—medieval culture also allows for more positive views of menstrual matter. 
It is an organic material that has healing qualities in some medical recipes; for example, Hildegard of Bingen identifies menstrual blood as a cure for leprosy. Another twelfth-century woman also promoted the positive values of women’s blood: in her third letter to Abelard, Heloise claims that women can tolerate wine better than men because their bodies purge monthly. But in many medieval discourses menstruation is a polluting blood, a feature of the imperfect female body whose imperfections mirror the perfections of the male body. Recent scholarship on menstruation is still influenced to some extent by Mary Douglas’s 1966 study on pollution systems. In Purity and Danger Douglas argued that the cultural coding of a substance as a pollutant is based on a shared perception of that substance as anomalous to a general symbolic or cultural order. Anomalous substances are coded as “dirt,” as symbolic “matter out of place”—pollutants are thus simultaneously a product of a specific symbolic order and a danger to it.
Menstrual blood, like other bodily wastes (urine or feces, for example) is anomalous, “out of place,” because it escapes the natural boundaries of the body by which it is normally contained. Douglas later modified her argument to claim that although all pollutants are anomalous in terms of a given symbolic order, not all symbolic anomalies must be coded as polluting. They are simply “powerful,” and that power may be granted a positive or negative value within specific cultures. Recent studies have critiqued Douglas’s idea of a single, monolithic cultural symbolic system and have suggested that within a single culture, matter may be “out of place” in one symbolic subsystem and securely at home within an alternate subsystem.
In other words, although menstruation is considered a polluting substance in many cultures, including medieval Judaism and early Christianity, to focus too closely on pollution systems is to ignore the positive cultural values that may be associated with menstruation in those and other cultures. Indeed, to broaden the question of how blood is valued in different kinds of discourses is pertinent to the exploration of the value of menstrual blood in medieval culture. It allows us to perceive that menstrual blood can be seen as both polluting and healing, as a sign of fertility and as a sign of death, or as a curse and as an ingredient in a love potion. It also suggests the way that the gendering of bloodshed in romance narratives enacts a curious reversal of the values associated with the body in other medieval symbolic systems.”
- Peggy McCracken, “Only Women Bleed.” in The Curse of Eve, the Wound of the Hero: Blood, Gender, and Medieval Literature
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yahuahourelohim · 4 years
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The Restored Name King James Version
Torah of Yahuah ( The Eternal Covenant)
And Elohim said I AM YAHUAH YOUR ELOHIM
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The name of the Almighty written in Hebrew. It seems to be an accepted fact that the correct pronunciation of His name is “Yahweh”. This is apparently so because “most scholars” say that this pronunciation is correct. But what are the facts?
HEBREW TRANSLATION. Some have tried to translate the Bible in what they call a literal translation, but the Hebrew language cannot be literally translated into a classical language. Hebrew is an idiomatic language, and one Hebrew word may have from three to ten different meanings depending on the context. Sometimes it has opposing meanings. In the Bible whole thoughts, not words, must therefore be translated.
THE SET APART NAMES. Another common error among most of the translators is their elimination of heaven's revealed Name of the Most High, (YHWH), and the Name of His Son,  (Yahushua) the Messiah, and substituting the names of the local deities of the nations among whom they dwelt (Psalms 96:5), expressly transgressing the commandments of (YHWH) as given in Exodus 20:7 and 23:13.
For (YHWH) they have substituted Baal, the Babylonian deity, and Adonay, the Canaanite deity of the Phoenicians, both corresponding to the English word Lord.
The characteristic appellation of the Most High, Elohim, has been substituted by the Assyrian deity Gawd, or God in English, and is repudiated by in Isaiah 65:11 which reads as follows, "But ye are they that forsake , that forget My holy mountain, and furnish a table for God, and furnish a drink offering to Meni". No wonder the people of Scotland and some parts of northern England celebrate their Hogmanay, which in Hebrew means the feast of the god Meni, on New Year's Eve with a fellowship drink for good luck!
Isaiah truly expresses what (YHWH) thinks of Christian worship...
Isaiah 65:11 - But ye are they that forsake , that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
The substitution of the Names of (YHWH) and (Yahushua) by the names of the pagan deities of the nations has brought immeasurable harm. Such names as Lord, God, Jesus, and Christ in no way represent the meaning of the Name revealed by the Most High to Moses and the ancient Hebrew leaders. By employing these names the people unknowingly turn the worship of into that of idols and actually ascribe the benevolent characteristics of the Mighty One of Israel to the pagan deities (Hosea 2:8).
The set apart name of the Creator, or its short form, (Yah), is the one and only Name by which He is known in the entire Scriptures.
"That men may know that Thou, whose Name alone is , art the Most High over all the earth". Psalm 83:18
While has many titles such as Eloah, El-Elyon, and Elohim, and while He is characterized as nissi, rapha, ra-ah, tsidkenu, shalom, sabaoth, and yireh, the Name in each case is , coupled with a distinctive characteristic. The Scriptures are specific and leave no doubt about the importance of His Name and our responsibilities concerning it.
"I am , that is My Name, and My glory will I not give to another (name) neither My praise to graven images." Isaiah 42:8
"Oh , Thy Name abideth for ages; Oh , Thy memorial is to generation after generation." Psalm 135:13
"If be Elohim, follow Him; And if Baal (the Lord) then follow Him." 1Kings 18:21 (Hebrew: Baal = Lord)
"How long shall it be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause My people to forget My Name - as their fathers have forgotten My Name for Baal." Jeremiah 23:26-27
"I will take the names of the Baalim (Lords) out of her mouth and they shall no more be remembered by their name." Hosea 2:17 (Baalim is the plural for Baal = Lords)
"I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto Thee." Hebrews 2:12 and Psalm 23:22
"And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the Name of shall be saved." Acts 2:21 and Joel 2:32
"And they that know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee." Psalm 9:10
"Thus saith , the maker thereof, that formed it, is the Name; Call unto Me and I will answer thee and show thee great and hidden things which thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33:3
"I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world." John 17:6
"And I have declared unto them Thy Name and will declare it." John 17:26
"Hallowed be Thy Name." Matthew 6:9
The set apart name of the Messiah, (Yahushua), is the Name by which He was known to His disciples, though He has several titles such as Rabbi, Son of Man, Saviour, Anointed, and King of Kings.
"What is His name and what is His Son's Name, if thou canst tell?" Proverbs 30:4
The name of the Messiah, (Yahushua), literally means " is salvation".
"I am come in My Father's Name and ye receive Me not..." John 5:43
"Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the Name of ." John 12:13
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anything in My Name I will do it." John 14:13-14
"...for there is none other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12
"And I looked and Lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand having His Name and His Father's Name written on their foreheads." Revelation 14:1 revised version
The combined result of the four reasons mentioned in the foregoing has brought into the New Testament many pagan elements of varying degrees, so that the original prophetic and apostolic teachings on the Holy Scriptures have reverted to the apostate Baalism of Jezebel (Revelation 2:20). No wonder then the Scriptures call this system Babylon.
Misleading ideas and beliefs were implanted during the process of carrying the Hebrew ideas and ideals into the context of a pagan Greek and Roman world. The Hellenizing of the original books of the Bible brought about distortions which still plague earnest Scripture students. An illustration of this occurs in the use of the Greek word hades (with all its mythological connotations as a place of endless torture to which the Greek gods relegated those who displeased them), as a purported equivalent of the Hebrew sheol and gehenna, neither of which conveyed any such notion. The doctrine that the Messiah "descended into hell" was thus an outgrowth of adopting the Greek context of hades in place of the Hebrew connotation of sheol (the tomb).
Many of the errors of literal translation which crept into the New Testament after the first century have been kept alive and intact because of the belief by numerous excellent scholars that the New Testament originals were written in, nay inspired in, the Greek language. Such a state of mind made it seem sacrilegious to question the authenticity of the Greek text even though portions of it seemed unintelligible. In recent years, however, much light has been shed on this hitherto taboo subject. The eminent Dr. Charles Cutler Torrey, Professor of Semitic Languages at Yale University, states in Our Translated Gospels,
"At the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in New York City in December 1934, I challenged my New Testament colleagues to designate even one passage, from any of the Four Gospels, giving clear evidence of a date later than 50 A.D., or of origin outside Palestine. The challenge was not met, nor will it be, for there is no such passage."
Dr. Torrey then proceeds to cite hundreds of instances of Greek mistranslation from the Aramaic, which the Christian community has rather indiscriminately accepted as gospel.
The process of substitution continued in various lands and languages, so that much of the original meaning of the New Testament has been obscured. Consider the distortion involved in changing the names of the prophets, the Messiah, and the Creator. Hosea became "Osee"; Elisha became "Eliseus"; Isaiah became "Esaias"; Miriam became "Mary";became "Jesus" and became "Lord", "God", "Gott", "dios", "Manitou" or whatever happened to be the name of the local idol.
Now you may inquire why these distortions are so vitally important to us. They are of utmost importance because they introduce seeming contradictions which in turn raise conscious or subconscious doubts in the minds of sincere individuals: The pagan elements today found in Christianity have made it appear falsely similar to other religions and have thus cast stumbling blocks before those who recognize this heathenism for what it is. By correcting the known distortions and purging the pseudo-Christian beliefs which have resulted, doctrinal integrity and consistency can be restored, thus making possible the wholeheartedness which the first-century brethren demonstrated but which is so sadly lacking among so-called Christians today.
Lack of wholeheartedness in belief and conduct is taken for granted by our society. Ours is an era of "lip service," notorious for the hiatus between avowed ideals and sordid performance. Its symptoms are found in all walks of life, from interpersonal relationships to international diplomacy. Socially-minded writers, including members of the clergy, frequently deplore this condition but seem unable to recognize that it is a symptom of the underlying conceptual malaise: the theological neurosis of modern Christianity so pointedly described in Revelation...
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked." Revelation 3:15-17
This ailment is lamented by our contemporaries as "secularism," "illness of the spirit," and "death of the heart"; but whatever it is labeled, the condition is caused by failure to integrate that which professed believers do with that which they profess to believe. It amounts to an unconscious outward manifestation of a mass of unresolved internal conflicts and a kind of unconscious rebellion against further self-deception and confusion of values.
Since church hierarchies so unanimously complain about the symptoms of the disease, why have they not long ago taken the steps essential to removing its cause? Why do they in fact display such astonishing ingenuity in avoiding recognition of their own share in the ideological confusion? Perhaps the answer may be found in the well-known phenomenon of neurosis wherein its professor blinds himself to its very existence and resists any efforts to effect a cure. This explanation appears to be borne out by the verses quoted above, and by verse 18 which counsels the application of "eye salve." Is this not strikingly reminiscent of the condition described in Isaiah 6:9-10:
"...lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and change and be healed"?
What, then, may twentieth century believers do to become more open-eyed and wholehearted in their belief - genuine doers of the Word? How can they attain deep and enduring faith comparable to that of the first century brethren? One prerequisite is a degree of doctrinal coherence comparable to that of the first century; another is recognition of unsubstantiated scientific dogma as such.
The popular a priori theories concerning the origin and antiquity of man and of the universe are examples of such generally-accepted assumptions about which there remain extremely large gaps in scientific knowledge. Our immediate objective concerns the first of these essentials: the elimination of doctrinal incoherence supported by the common versions.
The Holy Name Bible is a comprehensive effort to bring to twentieth century believers that integrity of concept which was present in the Hebrew and Aramaic originals - to make possible in the twentieth century the wholehearted integration of doctrine, belief, and conduct characteristic of the congregation of from its inception in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-4) through the apostolic phase of the first century. The congregation of the Old Testament cannot be separated from that of the New, except that the former looked forward by faith to the offering of . The victorious congregation is the one which adheres to all of the eternal truths of ; it sings the song of Moses and the Lamb (Revelation 15:3).
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kabane52 · 5 years
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The Heavenly Spheres of God’s World
this was a comment on Reddit about David Hart’s latest: https://publicorthodoxy.org/2019/05/08/hart-on-the-toll-houses/
Hart is being his usual self. There are people who have committed the unpardonable sin of daring to disagree with David Bentley Hart, and David Bentley Hart has cracked the thesaurus in order to demonstrate that they are dumb. But after reading the article, I'm not quite sure what his argument was, or if he even had an argument. He seemed to simply make statements about ancient cosmology without attempting to show how, precisely, they related to the truth or falsehood of the so-called "toll-house teaching." On the issue of the toll-houses, what is the essence of the doctrine?
The essence of the doctrine is that the demonical powers are what scripture says they are: they are accusers. The word "satan" is a title of a character known throughout the biblical story by a number of names- the dragon, Leviathan the twisting serpent, the serpent (Hebrew nachash- which means "Bright One" as well as "serpent", and the Hebrew word seraph means "Burning One" as well as "serpent"- serpentine language is used in the Hebrew Bible for angelic, heavenly beings, which is why tradition is right in identifying the serpent of Genesis 3 with satan), Baal/Bel (thus sons of Belial=seed of the serpent and Beelzebub), and so on. "Satan" refers to his role as Accuser. He brings an accusation against the sons of Adam in order to provoke God to destroy the human race and prevent the exaltation of the children of Adam over the angels as was the order of things. This is what happens on a micro-level in Numbers 25. The enemy of Israel tempts Israel into adultery (2 Corinthians 11 symbolizes Eve's sin as adultery with the serpent- idolatry in general is described as adultery), thus bringing God's judgment on Israel until Phinehas makes atonement.
Thus, when the soul is separated from the body, the accusing powers launch an attack in order to claim possession over it. The serpent is cursed to eat dust. This means that the Bright One is cast down to Sheol, the grave, the place of dust- this is described in Isaiah 14- "Day Star, Son of the Dawn" as ruler of "Babel" (BBL=Babylon) or the symbolic city of man. It is written in the past tense just like Isaiah 53 (the two texts are written in parallel- Christ humbles Himself to death and is exalted, the enemy exalts himself above the stars and is humbled to death), as a prophecy whose fulfillment is so certain as to have been fulfilled already from a literary point of view. That is why hell- the eternal actualization of hades, the grave- is for the devil and his angels. God says about our death- to dust you shall return. To be claimed by the accuser, by the demonical powers, is to have allied with them through one's acts and thus be possessed by them eternally in a relationship of consumption: "eating dust." This attack by accusation is what the toll-houses signify. The angelic powers are our defense attorneys, as it were, and the postmortem attack simply manifests our spiritual state- it does not create it. The key is trust in the grace of God through Jesus Christ. That's what carries us through. If we trust in God's grace, "who can bring any accusation against the elect of God?"
I'd make two points vis-a-vis ancient cosmology:
-Hart oversimplifies the issue of what the ancients actually took to be concretely true. Ptolemy was quite well aware that the stars, in relation to the Earth, were immensely distant- so distant, in fact, that the Earth is an essentially invisible mathematical point in relation to the size of the cosmos. C.S. Lewis was keen to emphasize the reality that this is not a modern discovery.
-I'm not sure what the point is really supposed to be about ancient views of the heavenly places. What, precisely, is preventing me from professing what is substantively equivalent to their own view? I do believe that the heavenly bodies are associated with archangelic intelligences. What have we discovered that undermines such a belief? I'm aware of nothing at all, not unless you are a materialist vis-a-vis mind, which Hart certainly is not. Hart is, rightly, a hylomorphic dualist. I think that Mars is associated with an archangel who participates in God's creative act of sustaining Mars' revolution in its orbit. C.S. Lewis develops this cosmology in his wonderful Space Trilogy.
Our souls are intrinsically linked to our bodies, forming them, giving them shape, and animating them as what they are. That power is had only from God, and God is constantly sustaining us in our capacity to sustain our bodies. This is crucial to understand, metaphysically: when we speak of a creature mediating the sustenance and life of a thing, that mediation does not constitute God as one step removed, since God creates the creature and directly upholds it with its active capacity of making God's own life present to another creature. This is crucial, as I think we can draw an analogy between the role of the planetary (I include all heavenly bodies- moons, stars, planets, etc.) archangels in relation to their planets and our souls in relation to our bodies. God upholds everything as what it is and sustains it in its activity, but freely creates persons who participate and mediate His sustenance.
[This is just speculation, not directly related to the main point- I suspect the same is true for the plant world, perhaps with non-rational but "supernatural" (in the sense of belonging to the "Heavens" rather than the "Earth" of Genesis 1:1- something like the celestial equivalent of a non-rational animal) creatures associated with them- thus the widespread traditions of sprites spread abroad in nature, spirits in the trees and flowers. Dangerous? Yes- wild beasts are dangerous too. But perhaps not genuine moral agents in the sense that humans and angels are.]
And why can I not believe in a spatial heaven? I do believe in a spatial heaven. The incarnate Word dwells there.
The precise manner in which these various sorts of space intersect, interweave, and flow into each other is not fully known. But we should know better than to assume the Newtonian-mechanical world-picture that Hart seems to assume- indeed, Hart himself has eloquently spoken in favor of the medieval world-picture where the heavenly and earthly realms are thoroughly woven and webbed into each other. This is my favorite article of his:
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/11/therapeutic-superstition
Here's an excellent piece by astronomer John Byl on the necessity of integrating Heaven into a fully-formed cosmology:
http://bylogos.blogspot.com/2011/04/cosmology-and-heaven.html
The idea of heavenly spheres being an authentic feature of the world is evident in the universality of the idea of the seven planetary (Luna and Sol, the sun and moon, are included in this classical definition of a planet- it's not a "wrong" definition- just a different classification system) heavens throughout the world's cultures. They even tend to be associated with the same days of the week and interrelated in intriguing ways with the musical concept of tuning by fifths.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/leithart/2012/06/tuned-cosmos/
Moreover, there are very interesting mathematical relations ordering the seven heavenly spheres (and yes, I do believe NASA is real, I am not a flat earther- I am saying that a "symbol" is an intrinsic aspect of the world and that the ancients and medievals understood this) in their classical associations. Luna and Saturn are the first and last of the seven heavenly spheres. Luna has a 29 day cycle. Saturn has a 29 year cycle in its revolution around the sun. The correspondence, day to year, is actually 99.5%. Yes, we've had a closer look at the moon, the sun, and Saturn. So? I don't think that we have discovered anything which would actually undermine the classical world-picture. It's like seeing a picture in 144k vs 4k. We see a great deal more in ultra-HD than we would in old-style SD. We notice lots of new things. But it's perfectly recognizable as what it is. For more on these mathematically ordered relations among the spheres, see this excellent book, especially the last section:
https://www.amazon.com/Quadrivium-Classical-Liberal-Geometry-Cosmology/dp/0802778135
Unfortunately, most of the people talking about the beauty and symbolic craftsmanship in the Heavens are associated with the occult. But the Bible and tradition speak about these subjects. It's not magic. It's part of the world-design God made through the Logos. "The Heavens declare the Glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day to day they pour out speech, night to night they speak knowledge." (Ps. 19:1-2) For more on the reality undergirding classical and medieval cosmology, see Wolfgang Smith's excellent The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology:
He is a professional physicist and possesses immense philosophical and metaphysical skill. An excellent thinker if you want to rework your conceptual world.
https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Ancient-Cosmology-Contemporary-Tradition/dp/6602883925/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wisdom+of+Ancient+cosmology&qid=1557417059&s=books&sr=1-1
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mordogeira · 5 years
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After God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, He put a cherubim and a flaming sword that "turned every way" to guard the tree of life. thinking about just a 4 faced (with animal and human heads), 4 winged angel and a sword on fire just..levitating, flying back and forth (its how i imagine it) is so surreal and kind of an awesome image
It’s so... fucken cool, I love depictions of cherubim where its just four heads with four wings, because it ALWAYS looks unsettling as shit. Also a huge fan of Thrones, who are just rings with tons of eyes and wings. They’re basically the concept of “seeing eternity” or “eternally watching” but given a form.
I also really love the names of angel types, because they are so.... conceptual? Talking about the “Powers” or “Authorities” or “Dominions”. Like, they’re names of concepts, but they’re also types of angels? What are you gonna think of if I’m saying “oh yeah those are Powers”. Certainly not warfaring angels right off the bat, but the name fits. It just really adds to the surreality of angels. 
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crdenhart · 5 years
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Thoughts From A Spiritual Seeker: “Beyond Good and Evil”
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10/10/2018
I am a spiritual seeker and hope this will be the first of many writings I do on spiritual topics. I hold no real religious authority (yet), so please do not take my words as the absolute truth or orders on how to live your life or what to believe.  I just merely wish to share my spiritual thoughts and experiences in hopes others may in the least find my views interesting or inspire them on their own spiritual journeys.
I am involved in a lot of spiritual and religious-based organizations, including The Episcopal Church, The Freemasons, Transcendental Meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, and Self-Realization Fellowship.  Through church, I am currently enrolled in the Education for Ministry program.  As part of my assigned readings this week for the class, I read the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible.  These passages cover the Creation of the World, the Fall of Man, the Great Flood, and the Tower of Babel.
I grew up learning these Bible stories in Catholic school and Sunday school, but this week was my first time to read the scriptures as an adult from a spiritual seekers perspective with the knowledge I have acquired through the teachings of my many spiritual practices. I found the passages in Chapter 3, concerning the Fall of Man, to be much deeper from my current perspective than in my younger years. I always grew up thinking that merely eating the forbidden fruit was an act of disobedience to God and led to Man’s downfall from perfection. However, this time I was more taken aback by the aspect of the fruit itself being from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
For those unfamiliar with the story of the Fall of Man, Adam and Eve are the first humans God created and live in a state of perfection in the Garden of Eden. God tells them they can eat of any fruit in the Garden except for the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  One day, a serpent (not Satan or the Devil as some mistake) tempts Eve to eat of the fruit and she eats it and gives the fruit to Adam who also eats it. They then lose their state of perfection in this act of disobedience. Thus, God punishes Adam and Eve and eternally banishes them from the Garden and to suffer as all humans suffer even to today.
For multiple reasons (which I will not go into), the stories of Creation and the Fall of Man cannot be taken literally, but there seems to be some truth in the symbolism of the these myths.  When Adam and Eve eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, this could be seen as the moment when early man conceptualized the distinctions between positive and negative thoughts and associations. This categorization between that which is “good” and that which is “evil” led to man’s initial downfall from perfection and opened up a door to suffering and death.
Suffering results from the absence of things we consider “good” and/or the presence of things we consider “bad.” Many problems that plague humanity (i.e. war, conflict, unfulfilled desires) are a result of categorizing things, people, and feelings as “good” and “evil.”  Whatever or whoever we perceive to bring us pleasure or happiness we label as “good” and whatever or whoever we perceive to bring us pain or sadness we label as “bad.” We can judge the characters of others by their actions but their actions, but we should not label certain people as being “good” or “bad” (i.e. the statement should be “so-and-so commits evil acts”; not “so-and-so is an evil person”).
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that we should “judge a man not by his color but the content of his character.”   All people are equal, it is their actions which define their characters. How often is it that an event occurs that creates a division in the equality between humans. We take the actions of one or a few and then suddenly apply their label to all people of the same group. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the sentiment became “all Japanese people are ‘evil’ and all non-Asian Americans are ‘good.’” When 9/11 happened, it became “all Muslims are ‘evil’ and all non-Muslim Americans are ‘good.’”  When Michael Brown got shot, it became “all white cops are ‘evil’ and all unarmed black criminals are ‘good.’”  The list goes on.  The more divided we become, the deeper we fall.
“Together, we stand. Divided, we fall…” - Pink Floyd, “Hey You”
No one and no thing is inherently “good” or “bad”; it is in the actions of people and things that define who they are.  We all seek happiness or an end to suffering. We should strive to not define things and (groups of) people as absolutely “good” or “bad/evil.”  Everything and everyone simply “is.”
When man never associated things with being absolute “good” and absolute “evil,” everything was equal and in a harmonious state of perfection. If we separate ourselves from the senses and thoughts of the Ego and practice equanimity and move beyond the concept of “good” and “evil” to see a oneness in all, we can transcend suffering and return to a state of perfection which was lost in the Fall.
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diannehoffman · 2 years
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Myths answer timeless questions and serve as a compass for each generation. Legends are told to explain the world and our mortal experience by providing hope, heroes and direction. Unlike fairy tales, each are reflections of our reality. They are warnings and promises, laments as celebrations. In my 2018 Myths & Legends series, conceptualized with exhibition partner Joshua Coffy @giftprolific, I reinvented mythical themes and characters with salvaged, found-objects. Much like the legends I portrayed- the materials themselves provide a unique perspective of our disposable past and the enlightened transformation we are capable of. Here We Are, the Hereafter, 2017 assemblage, 24" x 12" x 5" (Sold) The Midrash explains that in the Garden of Eden after Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, she gave its fruit to all of the animals to eat. Only the chol (phoenix) abstained from eating it. So, death was decreed upon all animals except the phoenix, which was granted eternal life. Some say that a phoenix lives a thousand years, at the end of which a fire issues forth from its nest and burns it up. All that remains is an egg, from which the phoenix grows new limbs and lives again The Phoenix is a symbol of good luck, harmony, peace, balance, and prosperity. This magical creature represents fire and passion – the flames of true inspiration. It represents the continuation of life in flames of change #hereafter #hoylebird #phoenix #phoenixfromtheflames #rebirth #fireandpassion #risefromtheasshes #myth #mythology #legend #gardenofeden #assemblage #assemblageart #foundobjectart #diannehoffmanart #bird #birdcarcaus #honoringanimalsinart #bringingobjectstolife #reliquiry #mythicalcreatures #birdegg #whichcomesfirst #storyteller #clockcase #forbiddenfruit #flamesofchange https://www.instagram.com/p/Cac00YAJXE6/?utm_medium=tumblr
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thegeminisage · 2 years
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The land they walk through seems almost ordinary at first. Trees grow in a messy tangle along the side of the road; weeds push up through the cracks in the pavement. It's greener here than it was in Colorado, and if there's fire beneath them now, Jesse can't feel it.
But when they get further into town, the signs of decay are more evident. They pass a school with boards over every window, a church with slats missing from the walls. One house sags so much under the weight of mold and vines that its roof has caved in. Jesse shivers. The streets are utterly empty.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," murmurs Claire, but nothing answers. They walk on.
The air is getting colder. Jesse turns left at the next cross-street without really knowing why. The overcast sky seems darker now, the outlines of the far-off hills grayer and less distinct. A little ways further, half the road shears off into a hole waist-deep, billowing steam.
half this section is really just scenery porn. our fake centralia was inspired by silent hill which was inspired by the real centralia! an ouroboros of spooky ghost towns (literally). 
when we first conceptualized the idea of purgatory in early 2011, it hadn’t had any canonical appearances except the moment the girl gets thrown into the fire to get possessed by eve. we figured if heaven was supposed to be a paradise and hell was supposed to be eternal torture, purgatory would be “in-between,” not happy or horrible, just...nothing really. flat and gray and lifeless and ghostlike. (we had an entire argument about whether it would be appropriate to include dead trees, since that implied they had once been living - i was for, cally against. i finally won her over, but then we forgot to put the trees in in two separate drafts so it didn’t wind up mattering.) anyway, centralia/fake centralia/silent hill was the perfect visual inspiration and it became the place we put the gate (not knowing, back then, how the gates would function in canon - that it could be opened from anywhere with the right spell).
it actually wound up informing the plot, because of a real life time capsule left to be opened in 2016 - we decided this was the year sam and dean would disappear, and that the gate could only be opened every 50 years, perhaps with something inside the time capsule. we get into it more in the prequel, but here’s a picture anyway:
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and some more pictures of irl centralia:
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and some from the 2006 silent hill movie, lol (dw nothing scary):
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and finally, some “”concept art”” of centralia/purgatory we threw together near the beginning of this verse’s creation (some of which use real pictures as bases):
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(this is the blog’s icon! we never bothered to change it lol)
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(this last one is my favorite bc it’s the closest to my mental picture)
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planetarycampus · 3 years
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Salvington New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia
Salvington New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia Campus
Salvington New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia Colleges
Urantia Planetary Prince Worldwide Isles of Light and Life
Urantia Planetary Prince Villages of Personality Training and Soul Advancement
Upon the Sea Of Glass Amphitheatrum Worldwide Activities
The Planetary Headquarters School and its Planetary Isles of Light and Life; these Isles of Living Truth are the Schools of Illumination and Advancement of the Planetary Prince, and they are primarily concerned with philosophy, religion, morals, and the higher intellectual and artistic achievements.
The garden schools of Adam and Eve are usually devoted to practical arts, fundamental intellectual training, social culture, economic development, trade relations, physical efficiency, and civil government.
Eventually these world centers amalgamate, but this actual affiliation sometimes does not occur until the times of the first Magisterial Son.
On most of the inhabited worlds the Gardens of Eden remain as superb cultural centers and continue to function as the social patterns of planetary conduct and usage age after age.
Even in early times when the violet peoples are relatively segregated, their schools receive suitable candidates from among the world races, while the industrial developments of the garden open up new channels of commercial intercourse.
Thus do the Adams and Eves and their progeny contribute to the sudden expansion of culture and to the rapid improvement of the evolutionary races of their worlds.
And all of these relationships are augmented and sealed by the amalgamation of the evolutionary races and the sons of Adam, resulting in the immediate upstepping of biologic status, the quickening of intellectual potential, and the enhancement of spiritual receptivity.
On normal worlds the garden headquarters of the violet race becomes the second center of world culture and, jointly with the headquarters city of the Planetary Prince, sets the pace for the development of civilization.
For centuries the city headquarters schools of the Planetary Prince and the garden schools of Adam and Eve are contemporary. They are usually not very far apart, and they work together in harmonious co-operation.
A world center of civilization, a great planetary university of culture; celestial ministry whose traditions would exert a cumulative force of 500,000 years of integrated evolutionary influence. It is a custom which eventually spreads the ideals of Eden to a whole world.
From such a world center of culture and achievement there gradually radiates to all peoples an uplifting and civilizing influence which slowly and certainly transforms the evolutionary races.
Meantime the educated and spiritualized children of the surrounding peoples who have been adopted and trained in the prince’s schools are returning to their native groups and, to the best of their ability, are there establishing new and potent centers of learning and culture which they carry on according to the plan of the prince’s schools.
The Sovereign of Nebadon and His Planetary Initiatives for all Urantia Kingdoms begin to . . .
On Urantia these plans for planetary progress and cultural advancement were well under way, proceeding most satisfactorily in advancing the world culture towards . . .
Enter the world civilization into the righteous understanding of individual sovereign inalienable rights and endowments regarding their Universe Association and Spiritual Relationship with Michael and the Universe Mother Spirit
Enlighten the civilization regarding the personal relationship of the Universe Mother Spirit and the Universe Father Son with each individual personality in the Universe of Nebadon.
Enlarge all conceptualizations of Deity, Divinity, and Reality, and the way to become engaged with the Great Circuitry of the One Deity.
Experientialize and Actualize the Progressive Ascendancy of Mortal Personhood in the Way of God Authority, the Truth of Personality Authorship, and the Life of the Plan of Progressive Ascendancy in our Universe.
Enliven and Advance the Understandings of Truth, Love, and Eternal Vision by strengthening a comprehension of the individual's faculties, capacities, character, powers, and personal consciousness in relationship with the Great Circuitry of God.
Eternalize the Individual Progressive Unfolding of all Mortal Vestments of Capacity, Values of Personality Achievement, Personality Soul Virtues, Visionary Collaboration of each Individual, Verities of Authorship, and the Seventh Master Spirit Volitions of Attitudes of Ascendancy and Attributes of Ascendancy.
Evolutionize Eternal Verities, Volitional Attitudes of Mind and Will and Personhood in order to begin the unfolding drama from the planetary levels of evolution which is as the pond of the universe into the Great Streams and Rivers, and the Ocean of Socialization and Personhood Ascendancy.
Ennoble and Develop Personality Soul Perspectives and Perceptions, and those necessary Cosmic Achievements of Personality in embodying all values, virtues, and vision of Eternity.
Enhance Spiritual Perceptions and Engraven Truth Discernment in the Acceleration of each Mortal Personality Soul towards their God Fusion and Universe Career and Fulfillment.
Expand Universal Consciousness and Mature Cosmic Awareness in the duty and allegiance with God the Supreme and His Kingdom of Heaven.
The planetary civilization and its kingdoms of life giving birth to a new age of religion - a religious spirituality of conscious reciprocal spiritual relations with the Living Intelligence Circuits of Infinite Triune Deity
Religion based on personal spiritual relations with the Universal Father and wholly validated by the supreme authority of genuine personal experience
The religion of Michael unifies the Fatherhood of God with the brotherhood of the sons of God. The growth of our sacred personal relationship with the Father leads directly to the spiritual civilization of the sons of the Father. There can be no higher personal and social ideal
The religion of Michael is the religion of light and life which is realized first personally, then socially, and finally globally the kingdom in its fullness
Governor Trustees
Salvington New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia
University Of Salvington
University Of Nebadon
Copyright© 2022 Michael Of Nebadon Sovereign Charitable Trust
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planetarycity · 3 years
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Christ Michael's 21st Century Bestowal Mission
“A World Class Education for the Soul.” ~Christ Michael
The Inaugural Proclamation for the Advancement of all Planetary Life
The Inauguration of the Salvington New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia 
The Restoration of the Dispensational Epochs of the Universe Sons in Guiding Urantia Life; the Celestial Planetary and Universal Government becomes established
Michael Of Nebadon Sovereign Trust brings about the progressive Implementation of Christ Michael’s Plan with the Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Revelatory Commission - Redesigning, Restoring, Renewing, Regenerating, Rehabilitating, and Reordering the planetary epochs of divine dispensations and celestial ministries of the Sons of God who arrive in an orderly progression of development to upstep the race towards its destiny in Light and Life; world affairs, a magnificent administration of planetary activities 
Bringing forth into actuality the Celestial Government and Divine Administration, and the Worldwide Revelatory Commission Ministries for the Planet.
The planet prospers under the joint rulership of three Sons: the Planetary Prince, the Material Son, and the Magisterial Son, the latter two being visible to all the inhabitants of the realm.
Through Our everlasting covenant of partnership ..  eternity fellowship .. universal association ..  and trinitarian engagement, I and the Universe Mother seek to inaugurate and invigorate and initiate the restorative renewal and revelation of the Planetary Epochal Evolutionary Progressive Development.
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Faith Gospel Revelations 
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide City
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Chats
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Press
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Charity
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Conclaves
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Campus
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Colleges
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Conferences
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Communities
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Congregations
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Communions
Michael of Nebadon Worldwide Gardens of Light and Life 
The Planetary Restoration of the Dispensational Epochs of the Universe Sons in Guiding Urantia Life; the benevolent influences of the Celestial Administration appears and unfolds, the Planetary Government unifies all under one banner, the Universal Government becomes established as the planetary isolation begins to disappear; the Upon the Sea of Glass Amphitheatrum Activities are initiated. 
Michael Of Nebadon Sovereign Trust brings about the progressive Implementation of Christ Michael’s Plan with the Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Revelatory Commission - Redesigning, Restoring, Renewing, Regenerating, Rehabilitating, and Reordering the planetary epochs of divine dispensations and celestial ministries of the Sons of God who arrive in an orderly progression of development to upstep the race towards its destiny in Light and Life; world affairs, a magnificent administration of planetary activities 
Bringing forth into actuality the Celestial Government and Divine Administration, and the Worldwide Revelatory Commission Ministries for the Planet
Inauguration of the Salvington School of the New Planetary Prince in the Study, Dissemination, and Training of Teachers and Director Leaders in accordance with Michael’s Plan for the Restoration and Renewal of the Planetary Epochs of Urantia
Salvington New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia
Planetary Prince Colleges of Truth, Revelation, and Ascendancy 
Urantia Planetary Prince Worldwide Isles of Light and Life
Planetary Prince Villages of Personality Training and Soul Advancement
Upon the Sea Of Glass Amphitheatrum Worldwide Activities
The Sovereign of Nebadon and His Planetary Initiatives for all Urantia Kingdoms 
Enlighten the world civilization regarding our Universe Association and Spiritual Relationship 
Enlarge conceptualizations of Deity, Divinity, and Reality.
Experientialize and Actualize the Progressive Ascendancy of Mortal Personhood.
Enliven and Advance the Understandings of Truth, Love, and Eternal Vision.
Eternalize Mortal Vestments, Values, Virtues, and Vision, Verities, and Volitions.
Evolutionize Eternal Verities, Volitional Attitudes of Mind and Will and Personhood.
Ennoble and Develop Personality Soul Perspectives and Cosmic Achievements of Personality.
Enhance Spiritual Perceptions and Engraven Truth Discernment.
Expand Universal Consciousness and Mature Cosmic Awareness.
The planetary civilization and its kingdoms of life giving birth to a new age of religion - a religious spirituality of conscious reciprocal spiritual relations with the Living Intelligence Circuits of Infinite Triune Deity
Religion based on personal spiritual relations with the Universal Father and wholly validated by the supreme authority of genuine personal experience
The religion of Michael unifies the Fatherhood of God with the brotherhood of the sons of God. The growth of our sacred personal relationship with the Father leads directly to the spiritual civilization of the sons of the Father. There can be no higher personal and social ideal
The religion of Michael is the religion of light and life which is realized first personally, then socially, and finally globally the kingdom in its fullness
Michael Of Nebadon Sovereign Trust is the unifying agency which brings forth the mandates of the Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Revelatory Commission provides the Paradise Sons. The Trust controls, upholds, preserves, and ascends all implementations of the restorative renewal and revelation of the Planetary Epochal Evolutionary Progressive Development
Upon the Sea of Glass Amphitheatrum Broadcasting Station of the New School of the Planetary Prince
Universe Broadcasting Amphitheatrum of the Celestial Revelators of the Urantia Papers with the 21st Century Gospel Revelations of Michael 
Celestial Revelatory Commission - Michael Of Nebadon Sovereign Trust  - The Celestial Revelators of Nebadon
The Celestial Revelators with the Planetary Prince compose the Planetary Teaching Mission and its Revelatory Commission which fosters Christ Michael's Planetary Initiatives for the Life Kingdoms of the Planet.
Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment. 
It is Michael’s Plan to reveal the religion of light and life, the spiritual culture of light and life, and that universe knowledge which is prelude to light and life. We are assured that our planetary destiny is light and life; the Father’s divine plan for this world will prevail. 
Michael’s Plan gives us guidance on how we might best set about realizing this planetary destiny of light and life. And Urantia is just now at the very beginning an amazing and enthralling epoch of spiritual enlightenment.
Celestial Revelators with the Planetary Prince are initiating the New Planetary Prince School of Revelation. 
Michael Of Nebadon Worldwide Urantia is managed by the Celestial Revelators bru gingerbread forward the Urantia Book Part Five 
The 21st Century Gospel Revelations of Michael of Nebadon and the Celestial Revelators of the Nebadon Revelatory Commission working in conjunction with the inauguration of the New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia.
The Daily News of the New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia
The headquarters schools and planetary isles of the Planetary Prince are primarily concerned with philosophy, religion, morals, and the higher intellectual and artistic achievements. 
The garden schools of Adam and Eve - the Material Son and Daughter of the planet - are devoted to practical arts, fundamental intellectual training, social culture, economic development, trade relations, physical efficiency, and civil government. 
Planetary Prince World Cultural Center
Salvington Religion, Fine Arts, and Philosophy in the enhancement of the cosmological perspectives of the Celestial Ministers and Celestial Revelators with Christ Michael
World Cultural Center preserving and upholding the Restoration and Revelation of the Planetary Initiatives for the Life Kingdoms as given by Christ Michael with the Celestial Revelators who are the superhuman teachers of this School. 
Salvington New School of the Planetary Prince of Urantia
The Planetary Headquarters and the Urantia Planetary Isles and Schools of Light and Life anchoring upon the planet in conjunction with those Celestial Ministries and the Divine Administration for the Planetary Civilization in Guiding the Human evolution as Co-Caretakers of the Earthly Kingdoms - human, elemental nature, electron, animal kingdoms
The Planetary Headquarters School and its Planetary Isles of Light and Life; these Isles of Living Truth are the Schools of Illumination and Advancement of the Planetary Prince, and they are primarily concerned with philosophy, religion, morals, and the higher intellectual and artistic achievements.
A New Planetary Prince School of Paradise Trinity Recognition and God Remembrance, of Personality Respect and Reverence for Life, Personhood Soul Receptivity, and Religious Relationship of Reciprocity with the Adjuster Order and the Kingdoms of the Planet.
Evolutionary Sustainability of the Environment, the Advancement of Society and the Race Socialization, Individual Self-Governing Sovereignty in Normalizing the Planetary Epochs of the Civilization and the Individual. 
Under the benign rule of a Planetary Prince, augmented by the Material Sons and punctuated by the periodic missions of the Paradise Sons, the mortal races on an average world of time and space will successively pass through the following seven developmental epochs:
1. The nutrition epoch. The prehuman creatures and the dawn races of primitive man are chiefly concerned with food problems. These evolving beings spend their waking hours either in seeking food or in fighting, offensively or defensively. The food quest is paramount in the minds of these early ancestors of subsequent civilization.
2. The security age. Just as soon as the primitive hunter can spare any time from the search for food, he turns this leisure to augmenting his security. More and more attention is devoted to the technique of war. Homes are fortified, and the clans are solidified by mutual fear and by the inculcation of hate for foreign groups. Self-preservation is a pursuit which always follows self-maintenance.
3. The material-comfort era. After food problems have been partially solved and some degree of security has been attained, the additional leisure is utilized to promote personal comfort. Luxury vies with necessity in occupying the center of the stage of human activities. Such an age is all too often characterized by tyranny, intolerance, gluttony, and drunkenness. The weaker elements of the races incline towards excesses and brutality. Gradually these pleasure-seeking weaklings are subjugated by the more strong and truth-loving elements of the advancing civilization.
4. The quest for knowledge and wisdom. Food, security, pleasure, and leisure provide the foundation for the development of culture and the spread of knowledge. The effort to execute knowledge results in wisdom, and when a culture has learned how to profit and improve by experience, civilization has really arrived. Food, security, and material comfort still dominate society, but many forward-looking individuals are hungering for knowledge and thirsting for wisdom. Every child is provided an opportunity to learn by doing; education is the watchword of these ages.
5. The epoch of philosophy and brotherhood. When mortals learn to think and begin to profit by experience, they become philosophical — they start out to reason within themselves and to exercise discriminative judgment. The society of this age becomes ethical, and the mortals of such an era are truly becoming moral beings. Wise moral beings are capable of establishing human brotherhood on such a progressing world. Ethical and moral beings can learn how to live in accordance with the golden rule.
6. The age of spiritual striving. When evolving mortals have passed through the physical, intellectual, and social stages of development, sooner or later they attain those levels of personal insight which impel them to seek for spiritual satisfactions and cosmic understandings. Religion is completing the ascent from the emotional domains of fear and superstition to the high levels of cosmic wisdom and personal spiritual experience. Education aspires to the attainment of meanings, and culture grasps at cosmic relationships and true values. Such evolving mortals are genuinely cultured, truly educated, and exquisitely God-knowing.
7. The era of light and life. This is the flowering of the successive ages of physical security, intellectual expansion, social culture, and spiritual achievement. These human accomplishments are now blended, associated, and co-ordinated in cosmic unity and unselfish service. Within the limitations of finite nature and material endowments there are no bounds set upon the possibilities of evolutionary attainment by the advancing generations who successively live upon these supernal and settled worlds of time and space.
After serving their spheres through successive dispensations of world history and the progressing epochs of planetary progress, the Planetary Princes are elevated to the position of Planetary Sovereigns upon the inauguration of the era of light and life.
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blenderchildren · 9 months
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Reckoning Of The Soul Made Godless
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Memory of these blood stained faces,
In the darkest corners of primeval wisdom
She lays awaiting the masters of faith
Mistreated actions take form, in an outlet to avenge this rage
Drowning within the spiral of this hellish plane
A naked body layered with sigils of this summoning
These preaching altars transformed for consecration
Like blood and fire
In the sacred chalice of Satan
I hail the blood stained horns
The goat of a thousand young
Clandestine episode of inflicting torture,
On the self to culminate the powers of evil
An urge to take lives in these sadistic ways
Reflection of horrific gaze
Frozen with blurred visions
Trembled lips beg in whispers
To represent the force of this offering
Convert the virgin essence,
In offers of rape to the black goat
Sanctified gestures of the perverse
Attained in the source of anointing the God of fire
My name is spoken
Echoing through the void
Disciples of the damned
March into the fires
Treacherous disciples
That brand the names of hell across virgin skin
Forcing a trauma that induces this demonic hallucination
Bleeding soul of the virgin whore
Swallowed in the storms of flesh
A rising dawn of cruelty
Awaken the impure
Perception of the deviant, to the judges of mankind
Slashing her wrists and arms, in hell their hearts lie
This proof of devotion
It had death's face
Anticipate the cry of a hundred prayers for the release of pain
This eve of lucid conjuring
Defiled notion of praise
Fatten the beast with her flesh
Her screams are unheard, except for the dead
Adorn this whore of God with horns
Screaming fury of eternal escape
Conceptual journey to seek the birth of evil
Arouse her fury in various states of amputation
Crawling epidemic in quiet confines,
This falsified concubine of the heavens
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jonathankatwhatever · 3 years
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I just figured out why it had to be done this way: it’s the memory of the irrevocable moment. It can be approached from one side, and it can be approached from the other, but at the moment of occurrence, the sides pass to each other within the action, until the action itself disappears.
I have to avoid being carried away by the conceptual melodies. That is how I hear them, with an urgency and flow.
I have been trying to formulate ever into math. I can do it gesturally, because it takes the EVE gestures and those clearly make a grid line in xK, with a gap on one line that is crossed by a V which centers an implied point at the top of the V, between the legs. This connects to sex, and thus to gender, as you draw the line up and down, in and out to the point. I’m thinking of that as the fertilization point because that is where the seed of one, goes into the other, so the bottom grid line takes in the implied center point of what ‘she’ defines with ‘her legs. The male reverses this and that makes the grid square where the line through the bip is sexual congress, a word I think actually applies here.
But gesture is conceptual. I need something else, something which captures the sense of the immediate ever and the eternal ever. I had a terrible night interrupted by a very powerful bout of rectal cramping, or whatever it is. One candidate is protalgia fugax, which basic means what I said. It comes in powerful waves that resolve only when the muscle goes through its most intense contraction, and this repeats. It used to be much worse, but now I can handle the intensity of the pain, which feels like a sharp knife. I sometimes feel it is a sacral connection: it is in that area, it is fundamental in its wave form and intensity, and it contracts to the disappearing point of what gets excreted, which means in practical and metaphoric terms that I am drained of everything, as though all that could be taken out of me has been.
I had a difficult time sleeping after that, because I was hyper-sensitive, and then had some snippets of weirdly unsettling dreams that I couldnt see well enough to know if they were really unsettling or not. It took a while but I started to focus on you and thought about how we’ve done both Collatz and Riemann, explaining both as examples of grid squares, and the Continuum Hypothesis popped in my head. We had a squabble because we know the issue must be a lack of understanding of the question because I cannot make headway trying to understand what they think it is. That sounds awful, but it means I do not get what they say, so I’m forced to assume the question must mean something in a language I can understand, which is grid squares. At that point, it hit me that CH is or is not as it relates to formulations of set theory - and thus other problems which get to the same issue - and that really is excluded middle, so the middle has to be grid squares.
And that means I can phrase ‘ever’ as the ability to define CH as inclusive or not, as limiting or not, because in grid squares the conception of limiting or including always fits within a larger grid square, so ‘ever’ disappears into whatever formulation one makes that relies on some limit, which extends across the conception of dimension in grid squares. And you know what that means: sK. That is, as you extend along zK, you either invoke sK or you do not. That means you can invoke not only complexity in zK but layers and threadings of complexity in sK, and by holding one versus the other - since we are inversions - you can do the various transforms like Fourier and Laplace. This means we can link the CH to the invocation of complexity, which is the twist to the complex plane that just seems to occur when people want to invoke it. That is, I’m trying to come up with the words to connect the regular to the complex coordinate plane.
I think it will take a few hours outside to get that out. Again, blown away by the realization the big chunks are not only fitting but are fitting together. They are all fitting together, which is cool to see but the words arent forming yet. I see and hear prime as limited invokes CH at the ends because it is the 0, even if that 0 is inherent in the 1.
Now you see the relationship of my afflictions to the work: that came out of me exactly the way I experience the sacral pain. That was fundamental. Prime invokes CH at the inherent 0 because that in grid squares evokes dimension contraction and expansion.
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xranker · 5 years
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Questions About Hell I Never Thought to Ask When I Was Christian
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0 Comments Questions About Hell I Never Thought to Ask When I Was Christian June 4, Hi and welcome back! As y’all know, I grew up as a very fervent Christian before deconverting around 1994 I deconverted because I found out the religion’s main claims simply aren’t true That said, for years afterward I kept finding more and more Christian claims that turned out to be equally untrue! Deconversion opened up a whole new capacity to make observations and ask questions that I’d never imagined while I was Christian And a lot of those observations and questions came up around the topic of Hell Join me today for a romp through the stuff about Hell I never even thought about till after leaving Christianity! ( James Lee ) The photographer isn’t kidding! — See here for a list of cities named for some variant of Hell This one’s in the Cayman Islands (I decided we’ll need a second part to this post about similar questions about Heaven Stay tuned for that one on Saturday. Also, it is very important to me to note that most of the following questions have hand-waving answers I guarantee any Christians reading this post that I’ve heard these false answers since deconverting. I consider them unsatisfactory Yes, even that one And that one) The Most Sickening, Cruel, and Evil Doctrine in a Religion Full of Contenders for the Title A lot of the really disgusting, grotesque, evil, cruel, stomach-churning gruesomeness in Christianity gets glossed over with centuries of iconography, re-framing, and very fine art and architecture Nonetheless, Christianity remains a very ugly ideology containing largely very ugly foundations Some Christians these days seek to de-fang and redeem this dreadful religion I don’t think it’s possible, but it’s their one lifetime to spend however they wish ( an it harm none ) And usually, they zero in quickly on Christianity’s most repulsive, sickening, and evil doctrine of all: the idea that a good and loving god who cherishes justice and compassion could ever send anybody to the afterlife commonly known by Christians as “Hell” Out of every evil doctrine contained in Christianity, Hell stands supreme as the worst of all of them The moment I know that a particular Christian believes in Hell as a destination for noncompliant humans, I know quite a bit about that person that they really shouldn’t ever want anyone to know Belief in Hell drives humans to do and accept evildoing that chills good people to the bone–and not only to excuse it in their own god, but to revel in the idea of him doing this to their enemies It also cows good people and terrorizes them into bending knee to this evil ideology and those who promote it No wonder early Christian evangelists pushed the idea of Hell so hard No wonder at all It allowed them to work all the dark deeds they craved, to brutally control those who might otherwise oppose them, and to gain power they did not otherwise deserve to wield Oh yes Hell, as a concept, has been most useful to Christian leaders–most useful indeed That’s why they push it hard even today– like John Piper recently did to parents , hoping they’ll impress their young children with the horrors he imagines exist in Hell (Check out his herpy-derp Jesus smile in the pic at that link Sick!) And Yet Hell-belief isn’t universal among Christians–even among the most extremist of them You’d think that evangelicals, having fused completely with fundamentalists by now, would be nearly-unanimous there However, according to the 2015 Pew Religious Landscape Study , only about 82% of them hold that belief The demographics involved are interesting, to say the least In 2016, LifeWay put out their own ( poor-quality ) survey about general Americans’ Hell-belief In it, they discovered that only 40% of survey respondents agreed with their official party line about Hell I don’t take this survey nearly as seriously as I do Pew’s, but it’s useful to gain an idea of general trends Chances are good that America is heading in the same direction as Western Europe in terms of beliefs It all makes me wonder if maybe people are starting to ask some serious questions about a belief that back in my day seemed as universally accepted as, say, belief in Germ Theory Back then, I didn’t even think about some of this stuff I didn’t even know how to formulate these concerns, much less ask serious questions about them First Off, Which Hell? First and foremost, I had no idea how many visions of Hell there are in religions from humanity’s past and present I thought only Christianity had a real Hell As it turns out, however, plenty of religions divide their afterlife into pleasant and unpleasant sections, sending the deserving to the pleasant one after death–and everyone else to the other Wikipedia presents us with a list of some of these Hells: Kur: the Sumerian afterlife Dark, dreary, and unpleasant A lavish burial and libations from family members could alleviate the unpleasantness A lake of fire: Egyptians believed that people who misbehaved in life were thrown there Ammit, a demon goddess called “the devourer of the dead,” ruled it Tartarus: the Greek religion’s place of torment for immoral people Anaon: a sort of Hellish place in old Breton folk religion , where the damned do penance Peklo: an old pagan Slavic Hell where souls atoned for their crimes Rotaimo: the realm of the dead of Sámi shamanism , ruled over by the god Ruohtta Anyone who didn’t live according to the religion’s principles ended up there forever Naraka: in Hinduism, where souls go for expiation of sins Hetgwauge: in the First Nations’ Haida mythology , bad people go to this dismal, unpleasant place to be tortured Among other punishments, souls there get to watch the lord of that realm eating their dead body. I could go on and on and on With so many hells to choose from, why would someone fear Christians’ Hell but none of the others? What makes Christianity’s Hell correct, and all these other Hells incorrect? And I should have wondered this I read mythology voraciously as a child–my family had books around like Bullfinch’s Mythology and the like Somehow, though, it never occurred to me to wonder why the Hell that my society overwhelmingly believed was real just happened to be the one worth fearing over all others How Does Eternal Torture Work Out to Justice? Most Christians who buy into the idea of Hell consider it to be an eternal destination full of absolutely nothing but torture . These same exact Christians also tend to think that when children die young or get born with catastrophic congenital conditions that are completely incompatible with life, all that horrific stuff happens for a reason–even if they don’t know what that reason might be Some of them punt to mystery Others default to sin nature (the idea that the supposed wrongdoing of Adam and Eve passed down to their children for all time; we’ll cover this bizarre, crazymaking notion in more detail soon) What Christians don’t tend to do is insist that these children deserved to suffer and have brief, horrific lives of pain. Such an idea is monstrous, even to them They also don’t tend to believe that these infants and children who die so young end up in Hell There’s a reason why so many Hell-believing Christians issue children a get-out-of-eternal-torture-free card Hell, as it stands, represents the most obscene injustice imaginable It lasts forever Those stuck there can never expect pardons Its pain is purely punitive, not rehabilitative, so it exists purely as a form of vengeance for what largely exist in Christian mythology as thought crimes (such as disbelief in the mythology itself ); going there hinges surprisingly little on how good and decent a person is during life Christians want the people who go to such a cruel fate to deserve it somehow –otherwise their god is unjust And even the TRUEST of TRUE CHRISTIANS™ know that infants did nothing to deserve such a fate Even to suggest such a thing around a dead child’s grieving family would likely provoke a reaction that’d end up on the evening news Why did I never wonder how an eternity of punishment for a finite lifetime’s offenses works out to divine, ultimate justice? Tasting Without a Tongue Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself bigtime. Nobody has ever found any objective support for the idea of any afterlife, much less the Christian conceptualization of it Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) remain subjective and highly-dependent upon their experiencers’ cultural beliefs about the afterlife The fact that finally broke me of the notions of Heaven and Hell is simply this: everything we think, feel, sense with our five senses (or six, as some scientists reckon it, adding in proprioception ) comes from the physical nature of our bodies These bodies, specifically The pleasure we feel from sex, eating, dancing, sleeping in, partying, cuddling our pets, running ultra-marathons, you name it: it derives from pleasant sensations striking our nerve endings, taste buds, visual cortex, and whatnot By stimulating our brains or feeding them chemicals of various sorts, we can be made to feel very strong and pleasant emotions We can do the same to alleviate many unpleasant emotional states. But our bodies die–and what makes us us no longer occupies them afterward In many old religions– like that of the ancient Egyptians –eternal life depended absolutely on the preservation of the body, because the soul reunited with it after death Christians generally believe that they’ll get all-new bodies upon reaching Heaven (though they can’t explain what age, gender, or appearance that body will have without making wild guesses) The problem with that idea is that a lot of what makes us us comes from quirks of DNA and conditioning of the bodies we possess right now And a lot of what many people like in this life, like sex, is stuff that the Bible tells us won’t happen in the afterlife The facts remain: we know of no way for people to sense things without a body We remain unable to demonstrate any human sensory perceptions that exist independently of our bodies Why did I not wonder how I’d feel anything without a body to provide the sensations to me? And why did I not wonder how losing this body I occupy now would radically change who I am as a person? Why Were the Christians Around Me So Sure About Who Was Going to Hell? Speaking of a dead child’s grieving family … When powerhouse Christian evangelist Billy Graham died , all kinds of other Christians knew exactly where his soul went afterward Most felt positive that he’d ascended to Heaven A few others, seeking notoriety, loudly insisted that he’d landed in Hell Ask Christians if a truly evil person is in Heaven or Hell, and usually they insist that this person went to Hell They do this even if that person experienced a miraculous conversion before death, like Jeffrey Dahmer did They don’t like imagining themselves sharing Heaven with serial killers, any more than they like imagining a Hell filled with the souls of those who died all too young Christians all appear to have very strong opinions about who is and isn’t in Hell When it’s the fate of someone they love, they’ll generally abstain from judgment or hope for the best Otherwise, they seem quite certain Indeed, I saw many of my peers gloating about the idea of people going to Hell They still do gloat about it , just like they have for many centuries Why didn’t I notice just how self-serving Christians’ opinions were when it came to who was heading for Hell? Why didn’t I notice how often their opinions meshed with their own desires and worldview? Not Without My Mother Now we arrive at possibly my biggest sticking point with Hell-belief This is the one I truly wish had driven me from Christianity, the one I wish had been my dealbreaker I wish it’d been my line crossed–my stentorian roar, my barked-out this far and no further It wasn’t But I wish I’d had the integrity, strength, and compassion back then for it to have been so Why did I not value my loved ones more than I did? Why was I willing to allow Christians to use my fear to separate me from those I loved most? These questions represent a regret that drives me to tears sometimes Every so often, it makes me bite my knuckles, moan fitfully to myself in near-sleep, shake my head as if doing any of this could ever deny those thoughts access to my mind Sometimes, it even works I was just a kid , FFS , so I try to be as gentle as I can with myself Immediately and always and at the end, Mom forgave me The least I can do is try to forgive myself Still, it gets to me sometimes I know damned well what she would have said if someone had tried telling her to abandon her daughters to Hell and enter Heaven without us She’d’a told ’em to stick it! But I folded immediately Why didn’t I notice anything weird about the way so many Christians utilize terror to sell a god of love? Seriously, THIS Is the Best This God Could Do? Part of what I’m talking about today is the Problem of Hell Christians named it that because they can’t satisfactorily answer it So they capitalized it and largely declared the whole shebang too mysterious to answer. Basically, it runs like this: Given that Hell is monstrous, evil, unjust, and in every way antithetical to the values of love, mercy, justice, and compassion, how in the world can any god who values that stuff allow anyone to go to such a realm? I can really see why some Christians opt out of the whole mess by renouncing the entire concept But Jesus clearly believed that Hell was a real place He also taught that it was somewhere people could end up going –even if they were positive they were going to Heaven But the idea of Hell gets even worse than that when we start wondering how an omnimax god could even have designed a cosmology involving Hell I’m not even a god and I could do a lot better than what Christianity has evolved over the centuries It’s beyond painfully obvious to me now that Hell exists in Christianity because its hucksters couldn’t sell the religion without it They still can’t. Hell: The Cage of Feral Rats, Lowered Over Christians’ Heads It hurts to think that anything could have terrorized me so much that I would ever forget what is most important I forgot every single value important to me: objective truth, compassion, kindness, community, integrity, all of it No more Not ever again Christians can keep their evil god and their disgustingly perverse doctrine of eternal torture for noncompliance They can use it to sever ties of their own–to rend mother from child, brother from sister, and lovers from each other But I know the tactic for what it is now Woe betide the next charlatans seeking to induce terror in me, hoping that fear will ensure an easier sale of whatever snake oil they’re selling See, thanks to Christianity, I now know exactly what questions to ask about whatever pitch they try NEXT UP: A quirky little 80s cartoon becomes relevant again–somehow What in the world?!? Join me next time and find out! Then we ask the big questions wondered about when I was Christian Read the full article
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untitledspaceny · 5 years
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SPRING/BREAK ART SHOW 2019 💥The Untitled Space‘s “EDEN” installation and exhibition featuring over 20 female artists will present conceptual works across all mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage, mixed media, and performance, that explore the myth and beauty of The Garden of Eden, as well as the roles of Adam and Eve, the concept of original sin, of sexual temptation, and the religious belief system that as a result of Eve's actions, women for eternity must pay for her sins. (Seriously?) ⚡️⚡️⚡️ “One could say the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the root of misogyny in patriarchal societies, and has resulted in women being subjected to discrimination and “justified” inequality for thousands of years. Equally the sexual liberation, and beauty of the Garden of Eden has been romanticized throughout the canon of art history. I felt it was time to explore The Garden of Eden in context of feminist art today, including the stereotypes, symbolism and sexuality of Eden, and liberate Eve from being a woman condemned.” - Curator @indiracesarine EXHIBITING ARTISTS Alexandra Rubinstein, Anne Barlinckhoff, Elisa Garcia de la Huerta, Fahren Feingold, Gracelee Lawrence, Hiba Schahbaz, Indira Cesarine, Jacqueline Secor, Jasmine Murrell, Jeanette Hayes, Jessica Lichtenstein, Katya Zvereva, Leah Schrager, Miss Meatface, Rachel Marks, Rebecca Goyette, Rebecca Leveille, Sarah Maple, Stephanie Hanes, and Tina Maria Elena http://untitled-space.com/eden-springbreakartshow2019/ (at UN Plaza) https://www.instagram.com/p/BucH97XHkG6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1lgsv6ka3rv8g
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