#holy alternative tarot | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ayashitetsuko · 7 months

Text

Izzy the Hierophant: The Major Arcana that reminds us to get back to work

As a tarot student, I am fascinated by the interpretations made by fellow tarot enthusiasts in the Our Flag Means Death (OFMD) fandom, on which Major Arcana card best represents Izzy Hands. Popular fanmade decks such as The Cat Bandit Tarot by artist Jennie Planet see him as The Devil—a force that keeps the lovers apart—and Judgement—beating Ed down when he was already at his worst. Valid as they are, these interpretations see Izzy as a negative influence, but I like to offer an alternative take.

I see Izzy’s energy and role in the canon (and eventually, in my personal life as the viewer) as the Hierophant. An energy often found uninspiring, but when used correctly, it can help people make their dreams come true.

In her book The Holistic Tarot (2015, North Atlantic Books), tarot master Benebell Wen uses Tradition, Conventionalism, and Institutionalism as the keywords that explain the Hierophant card.

“The Hierophant is a holy man, an important figure in his society … People rely on him to be a channel between heaven and earth. In a reading, the card typically indicates a desire to follow conventions and norms, a traditionalist—one who holds traditional values,” she writes.

The Hierophant is often seen as the card that calls for querents to be conservative. Instead of thinking outside the box, it expects them to open the manuals and follow the instructions. When discussing making our dreams come true, the Hierophant energy is often seen as an obstacle—curbing creativity and exploration in favour of traditions.

We did see these traits displayed by Izzy in various scenes, such as in Episode 4 when he demanded Ed to come up with a defensive plan after they noticed a Spanish ship coming their way or when he threatened to blackmail Lucius for … you know what he did.

While these scenes might cement Izzy’s role in the story as the Bad Guy, his role is also a reminder of the importance of maintaining a structure—even on a pirate ship. Because this structure, no matter how dull it is, enables us to function and create the impact we want in our personal and professional lives.

The Hierophant energy

The Hierophant card is known for having a restrictive–perhaps even oppressive–energy. In my early days as a tarot student, I tended to roll my eyes whenever it showed up. It was not the kind of nuance I wanted as a young person. But eventually, I learned how the Hierophant energy could positively impact one’s life when used wisely. Instead of preventing progress, it can help with it.

As someone who works in the tech startup community, I regularly meet people driven to succeed. Buzzwords such as “innovation” and “disruption” are being thrown around lightly; everybody wants to be the next big thing that changes the world. Big ideas, even the most unrealistic ones, are cherished and encouraged.

But people are being brought back to Earth rather quickly in this industry. There are even statistics to prove it: Up to 95 per cent of startups fail simply because they cannot find product-market fit, according to various sources. In layman’s terms, they create products and services that nobody needs. This is why startups are commonly advised to implement rigorous market research and product testing to prove that their ideas work; to have the discipline to do more than just talk.

On an individual level, the Hierophant energy is one I tap into to achieve my goals. To be productive, I need to run my days smoothly. This means clearing my housekeeping tasks before leaving home, logging off social media during work hours, and ensuring I eat my vegetables to stay healthy. They are boring AF, but they provide me with a structure to keep the machine well-oiled.

When I look back on my life, all the times I managed to achieve and create something good for myself (and hopefully others) are when I stopped daydreaming and started implementing the Hierophant energy into my daily life. While it is important to explore new ideas, all of them will be pointless without the structure that ensures it is being developed properly.

Now, back to Izzy

One might see Izzy as a traditional pirate who is resistant to change. I mean, what the fuck is even a retirement? It does not exist in this line of work.

This context places Izzy as a counter to Stede Bonnet’s “fresh, groundbreaking” ideas about piracy. It is easy to see Izzy and his beliefs as outdated and needing disruption. But we must remember that piracy is a dangerous business. While pirates generally entered the business with a ready-to-die mindset, a structure that allows the crew to be functional and prepared to handle risks should be appreciated instead of being seen as a threat.

This is especially more relevant in a situation where a leader struggles to function properly. Ed is a smart and gifted captain, but his short attention span and mood swings have made it hard for him to function on some days and for the crew to maintain their trust in him. His wit may have allowed them to survive another day, but will it be sustainable without a system to ensure that? What happens when he is having his moment? At the very least, they would need a plan.

This is a calling for us to look into our own lives and see: In which area do we need a first mate to yell and remind us to focus?

This article was first published in Above All Else: An Appreciation of Izzy Hands, a zine dedicated to Con O'Neill's Izzy Hands from Our Flag Means Death.

#izzy hands #our flag means death #tarot #tarotblr #izzy hands zine #above all else #fandom zine #contributor spotlight

15 notes · View notes

buddiefix · 4 months

Text

Dimensional Travel (Reality Hopping) Fic's

The following are some of my favourite buddie fanfictions that involve the character(s) finding themselves in an alternate reality.

(Any new fic's I find that fall under this category will be added to this post, so feel free to check back for edits!)

Hold Steady, Hold Steady by thetalee

9-1-1 (TV)

After Eddie's bombshell announcement on Christmas, Buck runs away and finds himself back on his first day on the job.

A time-travel fix-it fic of sorts, ft. a stranger that totally just wants to help, honest.

Language: English Words: 172,700 Chapters: 74/74

Evan Buckley & The Coma-Verse of Madness by Daisies_and_Briars

9-1-1 (TV)

After being struck by lightning on a call, Buck experiences a plethora of alternate realities showing him different directions his life could have taken. Fighting hard to get home, Buck learns what, or who, is important to him in every lifetime.

Inspired by a mix of Marvel multiverses and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Language: English Words: 57,964 Chapters: 15/15

darling, the future's better than yesterday by rarakiplin (gmontys)

9-1-1 (TV)

Eddie, ten years younger, in this awful 2010, blinks up at him. He's still sitting slumped on the curb, and for a second Buck thinks he might tell him to fuck off, but then his eyes fall shut and there’s something — aching and painfully vulnerable in the bend of his mouth, the faint tension in his brow. “My…um, girlfriend, I guess. She’s pregnant.”

“Holy shit,” Buck says.

or, buck deals with some wonky dimensional/time travel and then breaks up with his girlfriend. eddie, obviously, is involved.

Language: English Words: 28,749 Chapters: 1/1

I should go and find myself (before I ruin someone else) by MonsterRae1 for heartbeatdiaz

9-1-1 (TV)

The place was creepier than Buck remembered it from a few weeks ago, he was noticing scribbles on the walls, and sigils he was sure it hadn’t been before, even the tarot reader looked a little different, Buck was sure her eyes hadn’t been such a vibrant green last time, or her smile as sharp as this time around. “You’re a lost one, aren’t you?” She said, her hand reaching out to touch his arm, Buck backed away from her cold touch “Yeah, yeah, you’re lost, but don’t worry, everything you’re looking for is right in front of you, you’ll need to look inwards before you can find it” He frowned, “Wouldn’t I have to look outwards? If its in front of me?” She shook her head “You’re blinding yourself; you have to remove the blind. It has to come from within” * Feeling more lost than ever, and after a weird run into an odd Tarot Reader, Buck wakes up in a universe where he has been dead for a year, and in order to go home, he needs to find what he's been missing to be happy.

Language: English Words: 19,699 Chapters: 6/6

dream sweet of me by spaceprincessem for Underhung_Aura

9-1-1 (TV)

“You okay?”

Buck freezes, heart jumping right up to his throat. He turns a little too quickly, nearly knocking him off balance before a hand shoots out, wrapping around his bicep to steady him. Buck blinks up at Eddie and all the fight bleeds out of him as he throws himself into Eddie’s arms.

“Oh god,” he wheezes as he chokes back a sob, “Eddie, I—I’m so sorry!”

He feels Eddie’s hands — strong, steady, and warm — wrap around him before he is unceremoniously shoved backwards. Buck feels all the air punch out of his lungs when his back hits the firetruck.

“Who the hell are you?”

Buck’s mouth falls open as he looks at Eddie. As he looks at the person that knows him better than anyone else in the world. The person that he loves with every fiber of his being. He looks at Eddie and realizes that Eddie has no idea who he is.

[or buck is in an accident and wakes up in a universe where the 118 don't know who he is]

Language: English Words: 16,642 Chapters: 1/1

(Friendly reminder I do not own any of the works listed in this post, and all can be located on archiveofoureown.org)

#9-1-1 #9-1-1 buddie #9-1-1 fanfiction #reality hopping #evan buckley #eddie diaz #dimensional travel

8 notes · View notes

amugoffandoms · 6 months

Note

I FINALLY FOUND IT

@ozymandias5854

"Flowers: thank you to Puga and Oto in the MILGRAM Stanclub for identifying these!

Bird of Paradise: Paradise, freedom, joy. It can also symbolise faithfulness in romantic relationships and optimism. Wilted in the MV, which could suggest the absence of freedom, joy, etc, as well as a lack of faithfulness.

Dahlia: Elegance, inner stength, change, creativity, dignity. Alternatively, it can represent betrayal, instability, and dishonesty. It's also notable that in the Victorian era they symbolised a lasting bond/lifelong commitment between two people. Also wilted, which could suggest a lack of inner strength and a failed long-term relationship/committment.

ORCHIDS: There's a lot of orchids so I'm going to put their general meanings in here. Orchids are typically used at weddings and funerals and represent love, luxury, beauty and strength, as well as virility in Ancient Greece. They are very much associated with love, and their usage at funerals is often to represent everlasting love for the deceased. They can also be thought to bring good luck and fortune in love.

Elleanthus (orchid): It's sort of a purple/pink so: Pink orchids are the 14th wedding anniversary flower and convey pure affection. Purple orchids symbolise respect, and are generally given as a gift to show affection.

Egret orchid: Typically white, so they would normally symbolise innocence and purity, as well as elegance and reverence. However, the ones in the video are red, and red orchids typically symbolise fire, romance, desire, and passion. They're very rare in the wild, which is notable as in the tradition of gifting exotic flowers to show love and affection, the rarer the flower, the deeper the affection. (two seperate omori fans in the replies add: "My thoughts will follow you into your dreams.")

Dendrobium: Popular for use in weddings, particularly as corsages or in bridal flower arrangements to show the beauty of the bride.

Butterfly orchid: The most famous orchid species, they symbolise elegance, femininity and unity.

Cymbidium: Commonly known as a boat orchid, it represents morality and virtue, and in Asia it is an honour/gesture of respect and friendship to give a cymbidium.

Wilted: could represent a loss of morality/virtue.

Masterwort: Also known as astrantia. Can be a romantic flower, referred to in old folk tales as stars that have fallen to earth. Symbolic meaning is a strong, brave protector. Wilted, which could suggest that someone (probably Shidou) has failed in their role of protector.

Anthurium + Monstera: Anthurium signifies long lasting love and friendship, and it said to bring luck in your relationship. Known also as a flamingo lily, it's one of the most gifted plants on Valentine's Day due to it's heart shaped leaves and in Ancient Greece the flowers of anthurium were said to be Cupid's arrows. Monstera can represent suffocation, or long life and the honouring of elders.

King Protea: Named after the Greek god Poseidon's son Proteus, who would change his appearance to avoid detection. Generally thought to symbolise diversity, daring, transformation, and courage.

Calla lily: Symbolism varies by flower colour. However, they're generally used for occasions such as weddings and funerals due to their beauty and are also associated with purity, holiness, faithfulness. The 6th wedding anniversary flower. Dark red symbolises passion and intensity. Although calla lilies are not true lilies, lilies can symbolize that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death.

Roses: Love, romance, can also be linked to secrecy. Appears on four tarot cards: the fool, the magician, strength, and death. In Greek mythology, roses originated from Adonis.

Note: a lot of them have different features like not being fully bloomed, so keep that in mind. I'll update this later"

posted 2 years ago as of october 24th, 2023!

HELLO!! sorry i just remembered to respond to this but thank you!!

the meaning of the wilted cymbidium is so interesting woag…. loss of morality/virtue really hits with shidou to be honest

#mug answers #milgram #shidou kirisaki #kirisaki shidou

12 notes · View notes

bacchant-of-dionysus · 2 years

Text

My current devotional altar to Dionysus

I know I posted it recently, but here’s an update with everything in it, from back to front, left to right.

Old bottle from my grandma with nonbinary pride flag (hoping to replace it with a trans pride flag, as that better represents my identity)

Printed photograph of an artwork of Dionysus

Two tarot cards from a deck I was gifted by my cousin: one of the cards shows Pan, and the other is the 9 of pentacles, represented in this deck by grapes.

A bottle from the thrift store and a bisexual pride flag

A fig scented candle

A goblet from the thrift store for wine libations, presumably originally for holy sacrament (oh, the irony)

Incense

A piece of ancient pottery my dad found washed up on the beach in Italy and was told he could keep because ‘they’re very common’

A grape jug from the thrift store

Grape agate and a piece of amethyst

A serving platter from the thrift store for leaving food offerings on

A goblet-candle from the thrift store

My dad’s childhood dagger. Idk what it has to do with Dionysus but I’m going with the ritual sacrifice theme and keeping it because it’s cool and meaningful.

A bear rug in front of the altar. Wild animal skins are hard to come by. This is a great alternative.

The whole set up is placed in an empty, boarded up fireplace in my bedroom. Now, here’s some altars I once would have wished my altar looked like:

Sure, I’d love to have elements of these. Some ivy, a papier-mâché mask, a thyrsus. But do you see how cluttered and borderline dangerous these altars are? I mean, what a fire hazard with all those candles. Anyway, thrift your altar. The most expensive thing on my altar is the grape agate and it’s only a personal thing that I associate with Dionysus. Your altar should be functional, not perfect. It’s for praying, not photography. You do you.

#dionysus #hellenic polythiest #bacchus #hellenic pagan #paganism #witch #witchcraft #altarspace #altar setup #altar ideas #greek gods #helpol #deity worship

109 notes · View notes

autumnalwalker · 7 months

Text

Snippet Share Saturday

Thank you for the tag, @late-to-the-fandom.

Passing the tag to @imbrisvastatio, @blind-the-winds, @silvertalonwritblr, @365runesoftheamalgamations, @cljordan-imperium, and an open tag for anyone else who may want to share a snippet (of any length) from your current WIP.

Here's a bit I wrote today from Empty Names. I had this idea stuck in my head of rapidly giving brief descriptions of a bunch of background characters a means of conveying the feel of a place rather than for the sake of the characters themselves being all that important to the story. Not sure how well that worked out, but it was a fun experiment nonetheless.

Later that evening, after having said goodbye to Sarah for the month, changing back into her usual red tracksuit, and calling to check in on Lacuna and Ashan, Eris is sitting on a barstool at 121813.

“Twelve eighteen thirteen” is the generally agreed upon pronunciation of the bar’s name, although what the name means is less agreed upon. The three most popular theories are that it’s either a date (usually speculated as either December of 1813), a scriptural reference (which scripture is a whole other debate), or a leftover address from before one of Crossherd’s major layout shifts. Lacuna had suggested it might be a tarot thing when Eris told her about it. The Hanged Man, the Moon, and Death. An ominous spread, according to Lacuna, but Eris figures it makes as much sense as anything else.

In any case, Fitzgerald Wilhelm von Harkenstein IV, the establishment’s clockwork owner, proprietor, and bartender always seemed to get too much of a kick out of the speculation to give a solid answer. Make what jokes you like about a bartender with no taste buds, but Fitzy had drink mixing down to an art. Then again, he claims to be at least as old as the city of Crossherd itself, so Eris figures he had plenty of time to practice if nothing else.

For over a century now, 121813 has served as the closest thing to a centralized organization for American monster hunters. Other parts of the world had holy orders, secret societies, and grand lodges stretching back generations, but in these parts everyone figured that a couple dozen thrill-seeking assholes who all frequent the same bar was good enough to get the job done. Most hunters usually work solo, but the bar is a good place to brag about kills, show off trophies, swap rumors on potential quarries, and put a band together if you get word on something really nasty.

It’s not peak hours yet and regulars are still trickling in, but there were already a few familiar faces there to greet her when she walked in twenty minutes ago.

Golden-eyed Gretchen who had taught Eris German and how to wield a spear.

Bai of the braided beard who had taken over Eris’s old garbage collecting route when she signed up with Road’s new venture and ever since has been alternating between thanking her for the job referral and complaining that he couldn’t take his axes with him on shift.

Wyatt, whose eyepatch is actually an AR visor to aim assist his crossbow and adjust for weight and aerodynamic differences on specialized bolts.

The green-haired enby twins, Loregahste and Lornega, who favor halberds and hammers respectively but both carry swords as backup sidearms.

Chuck in his ill-fitting trenchcoat, a relative newcomer to the game who’s already earning a reputation for going off on insufferable rants about the superiority of katanas.

The grim-faced Preacher, who never shares his name for fear of theft, never touches a drink that isn’t water, and never hides his disdain for everyone else’s choice of archaic weaponry for the sake of sport when guns were so much more efficient at completing the important work of slaying beasts.

Old Vic, the elven immigrant from off world who’s always down to party like the college kid his face looks the age of.

Plus a handful of others that Eris either isn’t all that close to or doesn’t recognize at a glance. High turnover rates have always been an unspoken truth amongst the monster hunter community. It’s been said that there are five fates that await hunters.

One: You die early from a stupid mistake, biting off more than you can chew, or just plain bad luck.

Two: You finally catch up with that one monster that was your reason for taking up the hunt to begin with, and if you survive you walk away, vendetta done.

Three: You have your first near-death experience, confront your mortality, and make the wise decision to get out.

Four: You have your first near-death experience, confront your mortality, and realize you’re hooked on the hunt that will surely kill you one day more than you are on living a long life.

Five: The hunt gradually becomes your whole life and personality until one day you hit a tipping point that causes autogenesis to kick into overdrive, transforming you into a monster yourself in need of putting down by your former comrades.

Everyone at the bar tonight - except maybe Chuck and the other newbies like him who still think they’re invincible - has long since made their peace with the idea that they’ll probably be dead by forty. Fifty tops. Other than Old Vic, of course, who’s at least twice that age, but rumors that he’s already secretly met the fifth fate have been flying around since before Eris ever found Crossherd and 121813. Having been on a funerary hunt with him herself and seen what a hunter consumed looks like, Eris doesn’t put any stock in that speculation.

#snippet share saturday #tag game #writeblr #my writing #writers on tumblr #writing tag games #empty names #Lacuna may or may not be right in-universe about the meaning behind the bar's name but that is the meta explanation of how I came up with i #It's also a very roundabout Bloodborne reference with all the Moon and Hanged Man imagery/motifs in that game.#Loregahste and Lornegna are based on my Bloodborne and Monster Hunter World characters respectively.#Fitzgerald Wilhelm von Harkenstein IV is very loosely inspired by vague memories an old D&D character of an old friend of mine.

4 notes · View notes

emma-nation · 8 months

Text

The Curse Of Hackett's Quarry

Chapter 1 - The Tower

Summary: After the events of a traumatic night, Emma Mountebank finds out she still a werewolf. While she learns how to deal with this new reality, new problems and feelings come to surface. Pairings: Emma/Abi, Emma/f!OC

Notes: Set in an Alternate Universe where Emma was bitten by Silas. In this fic all the counselors are alive and all the Hackett's are dead. Pairings are Emma/Abi and Emma/f!OC.

Notes²: English is not my first language, I apologize for any mistakes. This is my first The Quarry fic and also my first Werewolf fic, I hope you guys enjoy it. Like Emma says herself - 'Sub, share and smash that like button. The holy trinity.'

Full Story:

The Tower represents a massive change - destruction and chaos, a personal transformation. The awakening of something new.

August, 2021

At the police station, Emma observed a tarot card inside an evidence bag that was collected from Hackett's Quarry Summer Camp. The last three days had been a blur.

When the police cars arrived in the morning, she assumed everything would be okay. She was finally going home and then college. That traumatic night would become a distant memory.

But then she left Mr. H's office and saw that corpse in the lodge. It was not a monster. It did not look like a monster. That was… Caleb Hackett. In that moment, she knew they were in trouble.

"I… I'm not a murderer," she said once she was being taken to the back of a police car. "We were attacked."

The police officer did not answer.

She and Abi were locked in the same holding cell. Abi was very distressed. She could barely breathe. At some point, she went to the toilet and vomited.

"It'll be okay, Abi," Emma placed a hand on her shoulder, in an attempt to bring her some relief. "They will only ask us a few questions. And then, we're going home."

"Emma, stop," the girl pushed her hand away and stood up, taking a few anxious steps around their enclosure.

"Do you realize that was a teenage boy that was lying dead in that lodge?! Do you think they'll even believe us when we tell werewolves attacked us?!"

Emma swallowed dry. Yes, she was being ridiculous. Their situation wasn't good at all. But she had to believe that. She couldn't let that optimistic side of her die. Not yet. Otherwise she'd break.

They called her for an interrogation by the nighttime. At least she was allowed to shower and change her clothes before. She was also given a meal, but she declined. Even if she hadn't eaten for over 24 hours, she wasn't hungry.

"And that's what happened," Emma finished, after telling everything she could remember about that night.

"Werewolves?"

"Yes. I have a picture on my phone. It was taken as evidence when I arrived, but you can check…"

The officer didn't say anything. Emma stopped talking.

"Ms. Montebank, did you have a relationship with… she checked a paper for information, "Mr. Jacob Custos?"

"Yes. No! I mean… we had a Summer fling, but I broke up with him before all of that."

"So you did not consent when he sabotaged the van to spend one more night with you in the Summer Camp?"

The revelation caught her by surprise. Emma felt a knot in her stomach. She really thought Jacob was acting strange but she didn't want to assume he'd go that far.

"H-He did what ?!"

She returned to the cell, unable to process what she heard. Abi was lying on the bed, facing the wall. She wasn't sleeping, but she didn't feel like talking.

Emma was called back to the interrogation room. Being a lawyer himself, her father had contacts and hired one of the best attorneys in the country.

"So, you did not shoot any of the Hacketts?" He asked.

"No."

In fact, she only learned all the other members of Hackett's family were dead when she was taken to the precinct.

"Then why were your fingerprints on the gun?"

"I took it from Mr. Hackett's storage."

"Why did you take it, Emma?"

"To be honest, I don't know."

Staring at that tarot card, made Emma reflect about her future. She had just signed the papers of her release, after the group was declared innocent of the accusation of murder and didn't know what to expect. Would she be able to recover from that traumatic experience? Would the rest of the world believe that absurd story about werewolves? She definitely wouldn't, if she had seen it for herself.

She didn't see any of her friends while being escorted outside by her parents, which was good somehow. She didn't want to face Jacob yet. She'd certainly punch him and yell at him, what would bring her even more problems. She wished she had seen Abi though, but she was already gone. Emma feared she blamed her somehow, for what Jacob did.

As long as she remembered, Emma always felt comfortable being in front of cameras. Ever since she was a kid, she loved being captured through videos and photos. She was a true actress from birth.

Now, she was learning to hate them. As soon as she left the station, journalists were waiting, shoving microphones on her face, asking inappropriate questions and taking unwanted pictures of her release.

"Ms. Montebank, would you mind saying a few words about the incident?"

"I can't," she attempted to cover her head using her hands. "I'm sorry."

"Emma, is it true you and your friends were under the influence of drugs?"

"Ms. Montebank?!"

"Emma! Emma!"

They didn't stop and the police officers didn't make any efforts to stop them. A few journalists chased her parents' car. Later, they found out their address, staying in front of their house waiting for answers during the next few days.

The journalists weren't the only problem. When Emma finally gathered enough courage to check her social media, she found out she had gained a ton of new followers. Her videos were also bombarded with all kinds of comments - most of them were negative. Sarcastic. Evil. Bits of her videos were taken out of context and each one of her words, each one of her actions were analyzed, misinterpreted and judged.

That was when she decided to deactivate her account. At least for a while. All that fuss couldn't last forever.

At home, her relationship with her parents had been wrecked too. While they believed her innocence, they seemed resentful, disappointed. Maybe because none of them was allowed a normal life anymore. Her parents wouldn't have a moment of peace even during their work hours.

Emma would spend most of her time locked in the bedroom and her 10 years old sister was the only one who bothered to check on her every once in a while.

"Hey, princess," she smiled when the girl appeared in the bedroom, shortly after her arrival. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Em," Olivia Mountebank wrapped her arms around her neck. "I'm so glad you're here."

'Me too,' Emma thought without saying it aloud. While she was fighting for her life that night, her little sister was the person who mostly crossed her mind.

"I believe you. About the werewolves."

"It… it means a lot."

She smiled, attempting to fight the tears that started filling her eyes. She hadn't been able to cry yet. That was the first time.

September, 2021

After two weeks, Emma decided it was time to recompose herself and try to move on with her life. Keeping her mind busy would help her to deal with that whole traumatic experience. She finally started attending classes at NYU and moved to the dorm.

She didn't expect it to be easy. The looks and whispers would follow her anywhere she went. In the better days, people would just ignore her existence.

"Give it some time," Kaitlyn said when they spoke over the phone. She was the only one of the group who called her. Abi hadn't been answering any of them yet. "People will eventually forget about it."

And that was what Emma was trying to do, but on that particular morning of September 20, she woke up feeling awful. At first it was only her chest exploding in anxiety. After an hour or so, she noticed her skin felt like it was on fire. Her body temperature was abnormally high.

"What that bitch is doing?" Somehow, she could hear the conversation between her roommates, while she had been sitting under the cold shower. "She has been there for like two hours."

"Maybe she's doing drugs again."

"I hope she didn't kill herself. It'll bring journalists to the campus all over again."

They giggled. And their laughs sounded extremely loud. Emma's ears started to ring in response. She covered them with her hands to muffle the sound.

Once the girls left, she wore some clothes and headed to the student health center.

"Your temperature is a little bit high, Ms. Montebank," the female doctor examined her. "But it doesn't seem to be anything serious."

"I-I also feel nauseous and… my chest hurts."

"You've been under a lot of stress. I'll prescribe you some tranquilizers."

She asked Emma to return in case her symptoms worsened. After buying the medication, she returned to the dorm and slept.

Her dreams were tormented by memories from that night. She was in the woods all over again, being chased by one of those creatures. This one was different from the others, its skin was much more pale. It seemed stronger and faster somehow. Emma was able to escape. It was only when she was safe inside Chris Hackett's office with Abi that she felt her leg stinging. She didn't say anything. She didn't want to scare her friend. The wound wasn't even deep, more like a scratch. It was also clean, showing no signs the infection was spreading through her bloodstream. When the morning came and she hadn't transformed, she considered herself lucky.

Emma woke up past lunch time. Her body was aching and her head felt a little foggy. She went to the bathroom to wash her face, but once she stared at her reflection in the mirror she let out a scream.

Her eyes had turned yellow.

"It can't be," Emma took a deep breath while she drove around the streets. "It can't be!"

Nick returned to normal after Caleb Hackett was killed. So did Ryan, Laura and Max after shooting Chris.

She later heard the story about a man named Silas, who was rumored to be the one werewolf to infect the Hackett's. But he was also shot to death by Ryan and Laura.

There was absolutely no way that could be happening.

Emma wore shades before entering into the store. Rope. She had to buy rope before heading to the woods.

"Just in case," she told herself. "Because nothing will happen tonight. It's only… stress. I'm very very stressed."

Along the rope, she bought some other supplies and drove to the park. She waited until it was completely empty before she restrained herself around a tree. She feared she could escape once she transformed. If she transformed. But the creatures didn't appear to be that strong or smart. Back to the camp, the hunters caught them in regular and simple traps.

As the night started to fall, her skin started to turn gray. She also felt her teeth becoming sharp.

"Fuck."

It was really happening. And no one was there for her. When the Hackett's transformed, they had each other. When Max transformed, he had Laura. When Nick transformed he had Abi.

Abi. She wished Abi was there. Sweet, shy and insecure Abi. If only she was answering her calls.

WHY wasn't she answering her calls? Emma started feeling angry. She had done NOTHING wrong!

Maybe that was him … Jacob. He had manipulated Abi's mind against her. Of course.

That was all Jacob's fault in first place. If only he had respected her when she said no. If only he wasn't so toxic, obsessive and childish.

The thoughts were becoming too much to handle and Emma resorted to the only thing that could bring her some comfort. She positioned the camera of her cell phone in front of her and started to film.

"September 20, 2021 - 7 PM. It's… uh… it's my first night," her feelings of rage were replaced by fear and anxiety. Some tears started to roll across her cheeks.

"I'm scared. And lonely. I wish… I wish Abi was here. Or even Kaitlyn. S-She is always so brave…"

"Or Dylan. I'd… I'd love to hear one of his awful jokes right now."

God. She missed them terribly.

"Y-You've won, Jacob. Karma has found me! This is the price I'm paying for breaking your heart. I hope you're happy now, motherfucker."

Her conscious was being replaced by something else. Something wild. Something dangerous. Something inhumane.

Emma swallowed a few pills from the tranquilizer she had bought earlier. Maybe that would weaken the creature inside her.

Then she closed her eyes and waited.

A few minutes later, she was no longer herself.

#the quarry #emma mountebank #abigail blyg #blygbank #emma x abi #emma x f!oc #the quarry fanfiction

5 notes · View notes

redshoes-blues · 2 years

Text

Hello, there!

I’m Em, she/they, 23

Usually yelling about fictional characters on the dash.

This is my little corner of the internet to ramble about whatever I’m hyperfixated on at the moment. The main culprits are Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Stranger Things.

AO3 | ofsolitudeandsong

My Good Omens Fic, Holding Love for the Keeping (M, on hiatus indefinitely): For six months after Aziraphale leaves him for Heaven, Crowley watches over the bookshop. Then, one day, he vanishes. And with him: a bottle of holy water.

I write a lot of Stranger Things analysis, usually focused on Byler, but through a narrative lens.

Theories/Meta

My Stranger Things + Byler analysis

The Heroes Theory: my complete thematic analysis of Stranger Things that explains why Byler should be endgame from a narrative perspective.

Clocks and Emotions: my theory that emotions alter time in Stranger Things, and that Will confronting his trauma is how he will save Hawkins.

That time Neil Gaiman answered my ask

Talking About Myself

What else is there to say? I’m bi, Canadian, and here to rant about whatever I’m into at the moment! Some of the other things I love include: Good Omens, The Sandman, the Spiderverse, music (70s, 90s, alternative, etc.), Ted Lasso, Six of Crows, various sci fi/fantasy books, films, and writing books about traumatized queer people.

I’m very passionate about OCD awareness and related topics. Sometimes I will reblog stuff that is “adult” in nature (mostly jokes, fics, or art), which I try to always tag as nsfw, but just as an FYI.

Socialist. Pacifist. TERFs and other bigots will be blocked.

My asks are always open and I love chatting with people, so pop on over if you’d like! :)

Those Star Wars writing masterpost for my own reference because I’ll lose them otherwise: link; link

Not Sick of Me Yet?

@tenofmuses: my witchcraft/tarot blog

@kixfics: my clone writing blog that I have yet to post on (coming soon!)

Thanks for reading! Take care of yourself :)

-Em

#welcome to hell #redshoes-blues #about me #personal #pinned post

11 notes · View notes

fictionfixations · 2 years

Text

The Hermit Archives / HC Fic Series [Grian-centric.. ish...?] / Thoughts

So. The Hermit Archives. Where do I even start?

Well first off- I finally read it- I binged it all today actually? And like. so. I've never actually seen The Magnus Archives, which I'm pretty sure is what THA is based off of, but like HOLY FUCK- I think I have a new fixation, which is a bad thing, and I've already had multiple fixations TODAY-

Like Chrisrin who does a few of the book covers for some of em on Twitter had this post pinned with I think THA Scar but hanging upside down as the tarot card 'The Hanged Man' or something and then my brain was like 'what if I wrote a collection of oneshots either connected or not connected that have to do with tarot cards and their meanings and i could pull random ones to decide'

and then now i wanna do the fuckin audio recorder format where its like

[GRIAN]

(STUFF HERE)

AAAA

WHY- i have so many other WIPs I really need to get done that I've been procrastinating for like over a month now D:

My point is though- The Hermit Archives is distracting as fuck and the storyline is just 'HOLY FUCK' and for a series that technically doesn't usually go straight after each other and are instead from different times as well as the statements we 'hear' of, you just get stuck in this story, and it all feels like it connects, like one after the other and the stories are just so interesting, and each statement is like its own little story even though its in like first person stuff which I kind of grew a dislike for eventually, but I just don't mind it in statements??

no but holy fuck i was LOST in this

nothing was stopping me

I was reading for hours and my eyes didn't even hurt or feel tired like they usually do after bingeing for long periods of time the fuck?

no but there was so much that happened and so many other minecrafters--

i mean like holy shit?

okay so like

spoilers. ..duh.

okay Grian has main character energy probably- I think he's most likely the only one who has 'encountered'.. twice, third..-ish..??? Actually i think Mumbo did twice though because the potato incident and the evil moon rock- everyone else, i dunno

BUT. So. Grian has Red Light Green Light where he.. Honestly I wanna say it was similar to third life with desert duo? I think we were all thinking that, except Grian has murderous urges and then continues to have those urges and HOLY FUCK- YES.

Then we have during the moon rock incident.. THE EYES??? we never got an explanation for the eyes- the fuck?

THIRD- we have Cleo's... feathering

WAIT NO FOURTH BECAUSE HE WENT TO TANGOS LIBRARY AND LIKe... fell. and saw pearl. that counts, right? holy fuck man

Also do we even wanna get started on what happened to Etho? He went blind, eyes gone- I wanna say it might've been.. Evil Xisuma....? I can't tell whos who because I'm a dumb fuck, but so basically- EX was like.. carving out peoples eyes and replacing those eyes with his to have total control of their body and live on forever basically, but what happened to Etho? But with Xisuma, EX took out on eye and replaced one, so logically Etho should have two by now, but like..

I mean we will never know will we? But would they really dangle mysteries in front of us if they won't give us an answer?

BUT to what I said, EX probably wouldn't though because he was choosing his family members as his 'successors', and as far as I'm aware, Etho and Xisuma aren't related.

But so- out of all of this- I think that one title that I can never remember how to spell with the study of birds, where Grian went to Cleo to make a deal that he'd stay there for 3 days as like a statue thingy and she would get Joe for a meet up (except not really- but what can she do?)

uhm. so. i wonder- i mean so in the alternate hermit archives, cleo chopped off grians arms and legs and replaced them with wings and bird legs

do you think that wouldve happened if cleo had been more prepared?

huh..

BUT Grian was kidnapped there for like 6 months he said in that alternate. but I'd think that Cleo could finish before that time, not to mention Grian said that he'd been in Cleo's closet with a cloth over his head in case someone would look in ? Cleo didn't even let him out, the statue magic just like.. wore off..??

honestly confusing as fuck but honestly really interesting. EVERYONES INTERESTING- except i dont think we've seen enough with mumbo? We've gotten a lot of pearl and her dreams, a bit of Scar with his death curse thingy, Grian- because hes head archivist, and then we just hear Mumbo about becoming like a vegetable potato thingy and etc-? I think it was Slumber Party or something when the evil moon rock happened, but Mumbo wasn't even the main focus, he just like started it and then everyone else went and encountered the fuckin monster

..huh..

#the hermit archives #the magnus archives #hermitcraft #alternate universe #thoughts #mcyt #au #fanfiction #read on ao3 #ao3fic #fic rec #fanfic #ao3 fic #fic recommendation #fanfic recommendation

6 notes · View notes

thinkingmystic · 3 months

Text

Deceived in a different direction – thoughts on Doreen Virtue’s Deceived No More and the search for answers

“He pulled a Doreen Virtue,” someone wrote in the comment section of a tarot reader who posted a Reel about their conversion back to Catholicism, which also served to denounce their former practices as dangerous and sinful.

I’m sure Doreen Virtue is thrilled that she’s become the lingua franca for (relatively) prominent woo people who convert to Christianity and condemn their previous path as demonic/evil/misguided in the process. Doreen Virtue – riding on the success of Sophy Burnham’s A Book of Angels, published in 1990 – was Hay House’s darling during the late 90s up to the late 00s. Then, in 2018, she announced that all that was dangerous and demonic and that she’s found the real deal in evangelical Jesus.

This is not an uncommon trend, and in trying to understand it – and seeing how many parallels there are to my own ‘Doreen Virtuing’ back in 2010 – I thought I’d take a closer look at Virtue’s Christian memoir, Deceived No More, published in 2020.

Why Virtue’s book?

There are two reasons I’m using Virtue’s book.

First, her about-turn is relatively recent, and in my opinion, there is a potentially interesting connection between her conversion and the run-up to the Trumpian era of politics. This might illustrate the growing ‘new age to alt right pipeline’ we’re seeing.

Second, Virtue was big in the new age scene and released dozens of spiritual books and card decks. She also toured the world giving workshops and presentations. Why would she abandon two decades of work? Or, as we’ll see, might this influence (and its waning) factor into her conversion more than she’s admitting?

Let’s get into the book.

Virtue’s main argument against the New Age: ‘Because the Bible says so’

If you were hoping that Deceived No More would blow you out of the water with its astute exegesis, keep dreaming. Throughout this repetitive book, Virtue’s main argument is that the Bible says so. She offers no explanation and leaves no room for any alternate view of the Bible. In chapter 6 she calls it “God-breathed and internally consistent”; in chapter 11, she advises her audience to ask whether spiritual directors or life coaches believe the Bible is God’s inerrant word. In chapter 9, she writes that one of her four revelations upon converting were that “the Bible is inerrant and trustworthy”. “I didn’t need to consult with apologists (people who defend the Christian faith and inerrancy of the Bible), as I knew for certain that the Bible is God’s Word.” How does she back this belief? By saying (later in the eleventh chapter) that the only way to understand the Bible is through the Holy Spirit, and you don’t get that until you are saved.

As for her hermeneutic approach, she – like many biblical ‘literalists’ – don’t believe they have one. They take the ‘God wrote it, I believe it!’ stance. But no one approaches anything without bias or preconceived ideas – not the original authors/scribes of the texts that would eventually be collated into the Bible, and certainly not the scholars who translate these texts into modern languages. We all have lenses through which we view and interact with the world. It is by understanding these lenses and how they influence us that we arrive at greater self-understanding and compassion towards ourselves and others. Pretending that these lenses don’t exist – or being confident that your view is the only view, because the text you’re interacting with appears to tell you so – is a logical fallacy and a spiritual dead-end.

I was surprised to see just how far right Virtue has swung. Her reading of the Bible is extremely legalistic. In chapter 2 she writes, “God can’t overlook our years of using His name is vain, practicing idolatry, slandering our neighbor, having lustful thoughts, dishonouring our parents, and so forth. Sinful behaviour always has consequences. This isn’t an appeal to legalism, however,” she concludes, but then also says: “Instead of hearing the gospel, mockers need to hear the Law” (chapter 6).

Not all biblical literalists are conservative, but most ‘inerrant’ churches lean conservative. So if we were in any doubt about what exactly Virtue converted to (namely evangelical Christianity)…

“He [the devil] tells you that you’re ‘woke’ if you realise ‘the truth’ that God is simply the ‘universe’” (chapter 6)

“New Agers blame politicians and conservatives for the problems in the world, instead of blaming Satan” (chapter 6)

Which brings me to Virtue’s conversion timeline.

2015: On January 14th she listens to Alistair Begg’s sermon, “Itching Ears”. Begg is a Scottish minister pastoring in Cleveland, and Virtue would go on to adopt many of the same doctrinal stances that his Parkside Church espouses. She credits this sermon as the start of her conversion.

2016: She and her husband Michael attend a Pentecostal church and church shop, including a stint in an Episcopal church. She takes pains to emphasise that Michael wasn’t forcing her away from the new age, but that they left it together.

2017: On January 7th, she has a vision* of Jesus; she is baptised in an unnamed protestant church on the 25th of February (probably the Episcopal one); she and her family move to Seattle on November 17th.

2018: Hosts “The One Year Bible” Instagram live Bible study daily. She posts Deuteronomy 18:10-11 on Instagram on October 6th; is “fired” from Hay House “a few weeks” before Christmas; joins a Baptist church sometime during this year or at the end of previous one.

2019: Would this be when she starts her MA at Western Seminary?

2021: Graduates Western Seminary with an MA in Biblical and Theological Studies.

Sometime before their move to Seattle, Virtue gets “sucked into the world of conspiracy theories”. “I became obsessed with ‘the new world order’, ‘chemtrails’, and the Illuminati. I was constantly upset about genetically modified foods and politicians who didn’t vote as I thought they should,” she writes in chapter 7. My theory – and it is just a theory – is that Virtue’s conversion was influenced by booming Q-Anon rhetoric and the political climate leading up to Trump’s election in 2016.

This wouldn’t be surprising; in fact, it’s got its own term: the new age to alt right pipeline. In a Maintenance Phase podcast on the topic, for instance, they talk about how new age adherents can be especially vulnerable to alt right beliefs and talking points. They specifically reference how a distrust of authority coupled with a niche belief that appeals to particular people – new agers may be especially vulnerable to antivaxxer rhetoric, for instance – then segues into right-adjacent conspiracies which segues into the right itself.

Something the podcast doesn’t mention but that I think also applies, especially in Virtue’s case, is the intersection of white supremacy and white privilege in pushing new agers into alt right territory. The new age tends to be very white, very American, very aspirational middle class. Privilege experiences change, diversity and inclusiveness as threatening. In times of change, then, it’s not uncommon for those with certain privilege to revert to conservatism. In the next section we’ll look at how this may have contributed to Virtue’s about-turn.

Little Miss Popular

In chapter 8 of Deceived No More, Virtue writes, “Right before my salvation, I was at the pinnacle of my New Age career.” It’s true that she published with Hay House consistently – sometimes yearly - since the early 00s, but that had slowed down by the early 2010s. Her last book with Hay House, Sweet Dreams Scripture: Bible Verses and Prayers to Calm and Soothe You, was published in 2017.

But were angels, Virtue’s primary selling point, still popular?

According to Google Trends, global interest in angels peaked in 2009, with a steady overall decline up to the present. The search term “Doreen Virtue” peaked in 2016, presumably around the time she became more vocal about her changing beliefs. The drop-off in searches for her (search terms and topics) between August and November of 2017 was steep.

My speculation is that Virtue’s popularity was already tapering off as Hay House expanded into tarot and other aspects of woo. I like angels as much as the next person, but Virtue’s angelology is particularly saccharine, which, as the world spun from the blow landed by Trump’s election, just wasn’t cutting it. Hay House have also been trying to diversify their demographics. I wouldn’t be surprised if Virtue was simply aging out of popular appeal.

Virtue, though, attributes her sales slump wholly to her conversion (and she may very well be telling the truth; I don’t know). In chapter 13 she notes, “[M]y former publisher reported that my conversion was dramatically affecting my book sales… My former publisher’s accountant estimated that my earnings would drop by 70 percent that year.” This is ultimately what prompts them to move to Seattle.

In the book she attributes this move, depression and unhappiness on social media (she calls it spiritual warfare) to her finally breaking completely with her former path. “Soon after we moved [almost a year later, actually], I made a social media post with the verses from Deuteronomy 18:10-12. In the comment of the post, I said that this was the Bible passage that led me to quit the New Age practices. About an hour later, I received an email from the president of my publishing house informing me that I’d crossed the line with this post. He was concerned that I’d offend witches with these Bible verses that condemned divination, fortune-telling, omen interpretation, mediumship, and witchcraft. Since the publisher had newly begun printing witchcraft books, they didn’t want to upset their customers. He told me I was fired” (chapter 14).

She goes on to lament the direction that Hay House was moving in: “I’d been working with that publisher for twenty-five years and was their top-selling author. We’d travelled around the world together, and here I was getting fired by email three weeks before Christmas. I was losing my radio show, my website, and my publishing contracts. When I’d first started with the publisher, they only printed books about health, inspiration, and positive affirmations. They wouldn’t even use the word psychic or other New Age terms in their books. Here they were, twenty-five years later, printing witchcraft books! This showed me the progressive nature of deception.”

This kind of resentment is one of the constants of the book, along with reminiscences about how popular she used to be, and her endless defence of herself for not knowing better at the time. In chapter 14 she writes about how her New Age friends – “many of whom I helped get publishing contracts” – stopped contacting her. Is it any surprise, though? According to those verses in Deuteronomy, the verses that ultimately converted Virtue, God abhors people in the new age.

In chapter 6, Virtue quotes New Zealand-born evangelist Ray Comfort, “The gospel is inherently offensive to most people.” “Don’t be surprised or take it personally if your loved ones become offended by your evangelising.” Later in chapter 8 she adds, “It’s so ironic that before I was saved, I used to judge Christians as being judgmental. The irony was lost on me until the first time I was called a judgmental Christian when I was only trying to help someone.” Yes, the irony does seem to be totally lost on her.

“My old friends, and some New Age family members, saw my evangelizing work as being ‘unloving’. One family member informed me that Jesus would never talk this way. My relative gave me an ultimatum: either I stop evangelizing against the New Age or I wouldn’t hear from him again.” I’m pretty sure this relative is one of her sons, Charles.

It seems that Virtue’s conversion was shrouded in and accompanied by a lot of anger and lingering resentment, but is it possible that anger/resentment precipitated it? Resentment at a changing market, resentment at a changing publisher, resentment for no longer receiving the “rockstar treatment” she spends so much of Deceived No More talking about? Resentment, even, at a changing world?

Dowdy dressing for Jesus

One of the more bizarre aspects of the book (and there’s plenty; the line “The enemy is a sugar daddy who’ll give you the high life” comes to mind) is Virtue’s attachment to fine clothing and how she thinks Christians are dowdy dressers. In chapter 3 she writes, “I judged them [Christians] as ‘fear-based’, which is a New Age term for someone who operates out of fear, guilt, and negativity. I also thought their manner of dress was boringly conservative.” Oh, you think she mentions it just once?

“Five minutes into the start of each workshop, I’d invariably see two or more conservatively dressed women get up and leave. Looking back, they were probably Christians” (chapter 5).

“[I] donated and sold most of those clothes [the designer dresses] and learned how to wear modest and inexpensive clothing with grace” (chapter 1).

She references her previous lifestyle numerous times, with varying degrees of regret:

“I was seduced by the first-class lifestyle from my New Age teachings… We [her and her husband, Michael] were treated like rock stars on the New Age tours.”

“It all seemed so exotic and exciting!”

“I didn’t realize that I was spending money faster than I was earning it, and after taxes I rarely had much money left over. That kept me in a cycle of continually giving workshops so that I’d have enough money to pay my bills. The devil is an evil genius, y’all. I grieve now thinking of how I could’ve helped impoverished families with that money!” (all from chapter 4)

What I’m driving at is this attitude of Virtue’s that, without using quite as many words, signals she’s a martyr for Christ. She calls it sanctification – chapter 11 is titled “sanctification in the public eye” – but I wonder if there’s an early draft where she used the “m” word. She talks about how she “felt altruistic, like a martyr, denying myself pleasure in order to bring the latest messages to people in my books, audios, videos, seminars, and cards” in the fourth chapter, referring to her new age work. That same attitude persists into her conversion. Her readers are to understand exactly how much she sacrificed to be ‘right’, and she takes much more pain to explain what she’s lost than she does to explain what she’s supposedly found. Which brings me to my next point: what is the goal of this book? Who is it for?

Who is this book for?

The thing that puzzled me most about this book is exactly who its intended audience is supposed to be. You’d expect it to be geared towards new agers, since Virtue apparently regrets her previous teachings so much, but listen to what she has to say about unbelievers:

“Spiritual blindness is a real and pervasive condition. The Bible says that Satan has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe in Jesus, so they’re unable to see the glorious light of the gospel. The devil puts a veil up so that the gospel is hidden and the Bible isn’t understandable to unbelievers… As author Justin Peters recently told me, ‘False teachers are part of God’s judgment upon unbelievers.’ As difficult as it is to fathom, God used my false teachings in His wrath against me and unbelievers” (chapter 6).

For all that Virtue is so regretful about her old teachings and beliefs, she seems curiously uninterested in reaching her old fan base and more interested in defending herself against them and Christians sceptical of her conversion. What she writes in chapter 6, quoted above, reads like a pre-emptive defence for Deceived No More’s inevitable failure to sway her previous audience. As for the sceptical Christians, her primary defence there is ignorance:

“[I] wasn’t a rebellious Christian but a biblically ignorant and foolish unsaved person who didn’t know the true gospel” (introduction)

“[I] was just ignorant of true theology” (chapter 8)

“All those years, I didn’t know I was following a false Christ” (introduction)

Virtue also takes aim at doctrine and teachers she doesn’t approve of, which strikes me as arrogant for someone who at the time of writing the book had only been a Christian Christian for two years (by her own estimation). Joyce Meyers (who I don’t like, either, by the by) is dismissed as a false teacher, and Virtue has a little hitlist of doctrines she considers unbiblical and warns people about. I’ll talk more about this in the next section.

The only time this book stirred any emotion in me is in chapter 11 when Virtue is talking about the Episcopal spiritual director she saw for a short time. “She reassured me that I didn’t need to change anything in terms of deleting cards or crystals from my lifestyle. I simply needed to add Jesus and the Bible, and she said that I should embrace my gifts from God… Now I realize the Holy Spirit was convicting me against following her counsel. The upset I felt was conviction [emphasis hers] from the Holy Spirit, who steers saved people away from sin and back to God’s will. I almost fell for her advice since she seemed wiser and more biblically educated than I was. Ultimately though, it was the author of the Bible—the Holy Spirit—who taught me what was right.”

This was probably the last genuinely kind advice Virtue got before she phased completely into conservative evangelicalism, and she was too defensive, angry, insecure and arrogant to realise that the spiritual director could see which direction she was heading in and trying to help her.

The New Adventures of Old Doreen

I believe that Doreen Virtue believes she’s changed, but I see little evidence of that in Deceived No More. Mostly I see someone trying to reestablish herself in the publishing world – the Christian one, this time – and having to convince people that she’s no longer who she used to be to do so.

In the previous section I mentioned how Virtue has a hit list of what she considers heresy. I’m less interested in her theology and more interested in how unable she is to resist setting herself up as a spiritual authority even if, by her own admission, she doesn’t believe women should teach or preach (she coyly references 1 Timothy 2:12 in chapter 14).

One of her first projects after coming out of her Christian closet was to start a Bible study/group reading through The One Year Bible. “I wasn’t qualified to teach the Bible then [emphasis mine], but I could share commentaries of each day’s Bible reading…” she writes in chapter 14. “The group was free of charge without any financial compensation, so I was really leaning on God, knowing that I’d be involved in researching and teaching [emphasis mine] daily without pay for the whole year.”

This contradicts what she has to say about herself in chapter 6: “The public outpouring of anger against my conversion was humbling, and I saw that popularity is fickle and conditional. I am also humbled by going to seminary classes, where I’m the oldest person in classrooms filled with twenty-five-year-old future pastors. I’m an invisible person in these classes, which has been humbling in a healthy and necessary way.” Virtue was and still is pursuing spiritual authority; it’s just a different stage and a different audience. This doesn’t really gel with her narrative of being a repentant and humbled sinner, does it? (Also, as far as I can tell, the One Year Bible group predates her enrolling in seminary.)

While Virtue repeatedly professes regret for her previous lifestyle, she seems genuinely confused that her actions hurt people. “[P]eople seemed to interpret my denouncing [the new age] as being ‘hate speech’, when my entire motivation was love. I cared enough to warn people about the New Age leading to hell, and I risked losing everything and everyone to sound this warning,” she writes in her introduction. In chapter 14, she says, “The more I spoke openly about changes that stemmed from my conversion to Christianity, the more confused and upset people who followed my work seemed to become.” For someone who has a MA in counselling psychology and who resisted attempts at being evangelised herself for decades, Virtue has little empathy for her previous audience and seems to resent that her good intentions don’t cover her officiousness.

Leaving the new age

So what did Virtue find in Christianity that she couldn’t find in the new age? As far as I can tell (and as much as she’ll admit to), she felt spiritually unfulfilled. In the first chapter of Deceived No More, Virtue writes: “I was unknowingly hungry for the love that only God can give. I’d followed all the New Age prescriptions for healthy, happy living… The New Age, for all its promises, could not save me. Only Jesus could.”

This sentiment is familiar to me because in 2010, I converted to Christianity after several years as a Pagan. There’s a lot of overlap between modern Paganism and new age practices, (which neither group enjoys admitting). Both are groups that follow a spacious set of doctrines or beliefs, a kind of hodgepodge of different practices under wide, inclusive umbrellas.

I recognise the spiritual hunger Virtue references, but I also recognise – which I’m not sure she does, yet – that that hunger doesn’t occur in a vacuum. In hindsight, for me it was a product of PTSD from cancer treatment and abusive relationships, and as yet unrecognised/misunderstood autism, ADHD, and queerness. I’ve thought a lot about my conversion in the years since I’ve left the church and ministry. Virtue doesn’t doubt the validity or meaningfulness of her conversion experience, nor do I mine. But I understand now that it wasn’t so much Jesus, or just Jesus, that pulled me in: I was, I believed at the time, also converting to acceptance: as a Christian, surely I would never feel like an outsider again.

Was it the same for Virtue? I do wonder if my speculations about political rifts, resentment at power shifts at her previous publisher and in society in general, and general financial stress contributed to an environment in which she, too, was yearning for acceptance – or, at the very least, no further loss of privilege. And if she could no longer find that in the new age…

Deceived in a different direction?

One of the worst things I experienced in my time in church and ministry is that some people genuinely enjoy the thought that God loves them and not whatever ‘other’ they most distrust, resent, envy, or hate. I’ve known Christians who seem especially to resent grace: if they work so hard to prove their faith – put in so much time in Bible study, prayer, church attendance and volunteering – and are ‘sinless’, or at least less sinful that someone else – why should others get a free pass to God?

Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in Deceived No More, it appears that Virtue is now one of those Christians. In the first chapter of the book, Virtue writes: “[There] were two desires that drove me toward the New Age. The first was a desire to help people, and the second was a desire for secret wisdom.” It’s hard not to see Virtue’s conversion as a continuation of her previous thinking. As a new age author, speaker, and teacher, she could sell access to her ‘secret knowledge’ – helpfully presenting herself as its arbiter – in book, radio and workshop format. As an evangelical Christian, she does the same thing…via exclusionary doctrine. The only difference, as far as I can tell, is that she’s swapped the carrot for the stick: she’s now found the secret knowledge, and if her search is over, then everyone else’s should be, too.

Some concluding thoughts

The converting tarot reader that inspired this reflection recently changed their Instagram handle to something more appropriately Christian. They appear to be setting themselves up to teach their 30k followers “real Catholicism”. Virtue’s social media presence is focused on educating people about the dangers of the new age – especially her YouTube presence – while espousing her ‘biblically inerrant’ Evangelicalism. And of course, both of them believe their brand of Christianity is the correct one. Both of them believe that their faith system has the answer.

I find it so ironic that the reason we generally first turn to religion and the primary thing that drives a wedge into our maturing faith system is ultimately the same thing, namely: expecting answers.

We commit to religion to find answers to life’s questions and reasons for life’s difficulties. It provides us comfort, community, structure: rules to live and die by, context to make sense of ourselves, a place to belong to something greater than ourselves.

But as our faith journey continues – and I do believe this is a universal experience – as we butt up against the limits of religion-as-answers, we enter new territory: religion-as-experience, religion-as-questioning, even religion-as-doubt.

In the tarot we see this transition happening as The Fool navigates three cycles of seven cards in the Major Arcana in a process of self-individuation. In 78 Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack writes:

The division into three allows us to see the Major Arcana as dealing with three distinct areas of experience. Briefly, we can call these: consciousness, the outer concerns of life in society; subconscious, or the search inward to find out who we really are; and superconscious, the development of a spiritual awareness and a release of archetypal energy.

To move away from religion-as-answers is risky business, though. It’s uncomfortable and it frequently brings us not just to the limits of our religious understanding, but also to the limits of our ego and induces us to face our innermost selves. If we can’t stand the tension, if we can’t find a way to cope with dissonance, if we find ourselves faltering when faith is a question mark rather than a full stop, we regress.

While I don’t think we’re judged for this, I do think we miss out on something and we’re poorer for that loss, as are our communities.

Any religion or spiritual persuasion – including the new age, including evangelical and Catholic Christianity – that isn’t elastic enough to hold difficult things in tension and through that tension, birth something new – is brittle enough that it will snap if there’s too much pressure. I think the same is true of its adherents.

If we can’t collectively, regardless of our religion, be elastic enough to hold difficult things in tension and through that tension, birth something new – we will snap if there’s too much pressure.

When someone does a Virtue, rather than seeing it as a challenge to legitimacy of whatever path they were on, I think we’re better served seeing it as an opportunity to hold space for the human condition, in others and in ourselves.

We move through The World as The Fool, happy for every opportunity to step off the cliff from what we were once so certain we knew.

*She has a Jesus vision but goes on to denounce this as demonic, too.

#tarot #Christianity #Doreen Virtue #conversion

0 notes

holdonendure · 1 year

Text

Brothers and Sisters!

The word divination comes from the Latin divinare, meaning “to foresee” or “to be inspired by a elohiym.” To practice divination is to uncover hidden knowledge by supernatural means. It is associated with the occult and involves fortune-telling or soothsaying, as it used to be called.

From ancient times, people have used divination to gain knowledge of the future or as a way to make money. The practice continues as those who claim supernatural insight read palms, tea leaves, tarot cards, star charts, and more.

YAHUAH tells us His view of divination in Deuteronomy 18:10: “There shall not be found among you . . . anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens.” First Samuel 15:23 compares rebellion to the “sin of divination.”

Practicing divination is listed as one of the reasons for Israel’s exile (2 Kings 17:17). Jeremiah 14:14 spoke of the false prophets of the time, saying, “They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.” So, compared to YAHUAH’S truth, divination is false, deceitful, and worthless.

As Luke traveled with Paul and Silas in the city of Philippi, he recorded an encounter with a diviner: “We were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16). The girl’s ability to penetrate mysteries was due to a demon that controlled her. Her masters received “much gain” from their slave. Paul eventually exorcised the demon (verse 18), freeing the girl from her spiritual bondage and angering the slave owners (verse 19).

Divination in any form is sin. It is not harmless entertainment or an alternate source of wisdom. Followers of the way should avoid any practice related to divination, including fortune-telling, astrology, witchcraft, tarot cards, necromancy, and spell-casting. The spirit world is real, but it is not innocent. According to Scripture, those spirits that are not the Holy Spirit or angels are evil spirits.

Followers of the way need not fear the spirits involved in divination; neither are followers to seek wisdom from them. The follower’s wisdom comes from YAHUAH (James 1:5).

#holdon #ministry #yahuah #yahusha #love #servant #patience #bible #truth

1 note · View note

infjtarot · 2 years

Text

Hierophant ~ Anna Maria D'Onofrio Tarot

Le Pape in French refers to the Catholic pope whose attributes appear in the illustration. The right hand with its two straight fingers forms “the Latin gesture of benediction” used by Catholic priests. The small crosses on the hands suggest the gloves which are usually worn by popes. Three crowns symbolizing the Church’s dominion on earth appear on the papal tiara since the middle of the 14th century. An earlier version had only two, as in The Popess card which could thus be understood as “an old story.” Until the 14th century, popes also had a beard. Another traditional attribute of the pope is the triple-barred cross, usually linked with the holy trinity. The Pope gives counsel and advice The unclear shapes in lower part of the card look like two small figures with their backs to us. Their heads are shaved in the tonsure form designating members or aspirants of the Catholic clergy. The Pope seems to be teaching and guiding them, and they may be his students or disciples. The yellow circle on the left may be a hat taken off in respect. The uncovered heads can also symbolize willingness to learn and receive advice. The Pope card may represent a figure of authority offering guidance and advice to the querent. If the card is straight, it may indicate good advice which should be listened to. The card can refer to someone already influencing the querent, or indicate that advice is needed. As with The Popess, The Pope can also refer to the reading itself. The difference is that The Popess represents the mysterious and intuitive aspect of the reading, while The Pope represents the elements of guidance and therapy. The Pope imparts knowledge As head of the Church, the Pope represents a system of knowledge and values with a long tradition and well established institutions. The card may refer to any such kind of institutional knowledge. For example, The Pope card can symbolize a school, a university, a hospital or a court. It can refer to learning or teaching in such an institute, or a procedure which takes place in it. The card can also indicate advice from a professional expert such as a medical doctor, a therapist, a lawyer, a coach, or any other kind of certified advisor. In legal matters it may refer to the court as a mediator, rather than to a sharp act of judgment that we can see in the Justice card. In matters of therapy and healing, it indicates conventional and institutional methods rather than alternative approaches based on intuition. In a couple’s relationship, The Pope card may represent an official procedure of status recognition. However, it can be either marriage or divorce. If it is an existing couple in difficulty, the card can also represent them seeking help from a marriage consultant. The Pope is a spiritual father The origin of the word Pape is “father” which is the common mode of address for a priest. In symbolizing the figure of a father and a teacher, the card may refer to a person who has had a meaningful role in the education or the personal evolution of the querent. It can also indicate a religious leader, a spiritual guide or a guru. In other cases the card may refer to the actual father, and describe him as a person of high ideals, a moral role model, or a cerebral and distant parent. The card can also represent a part of our own personality, expressing our moral conscience, the education we received and the values that we absorbed in our childhood. The Protestant members of the order of the Golden Dawn, who wanted to eliminate the Catholic reference, called the card “The Hierophant.” Hierophant is a combination of Greek words meaning “showing sacred things.” In ancient Greece, it was the title of the high priest in secret rituals known as the Eleusinian mysteries. There are also some new decks in which the card is named “The High Priest,” but its basic meaning remains the same. The Pope points to heaven The Pope’s right hand points upwards in a benediction gesture, marking a diagonal line of progress and ascent. Yet the line passes through the staff with the cross which symbolizes institutionalized religion. It is as if the Pope indicates that the road to salvation passes through the church that he represents. Still, unlike later cards of the suit, what we see here is not the heavenly sphere itself but only a man pointing to heaven. The Pope’s guidance can be an enlightened one, and the card can represent an inspired counsel. But it can also represent someone who expresses his own prejudices and limitations, pretending that they represent heaven’s decree or an objective reality. For example, the card can symbolize unfounded claims made in the name of religion, or purporting to be based on objective science. The Pope identifies with the system The flesh-colored gloves which the Pope wears indicate that it is difficult to separate the person and personality of the Pope from the institution that he represents. From this point of view the card may symbolize a person who identifies with the values and the norms of the system of which he is a part. One can see here a positive image of a person who sincerely applies what he preaches. But it can also be a bureaucrat or someone who blindly serves the interests of an established system – for example, a public institution, or a commercial firm. The card can also represent a person who upholds conservative, traditional and conformist values. The Pope shows preferences The two disciples in the card don’t receive equal treatment from the Pope. He turns his attention towards the disciple on the right, and seems to ignore the one on the left. Accordingly, the disciple on the right raises his hand and the one on the left points downward. The card may represent the act of preferring someone for a justified reason, but it can also express inequality, discrimination and prejudice. For example, it may be an institution preferring those who conform with the norms, and rejecting the ones who are different and dissenting. The card can also indicate a preference for one child over the others in a family. The light-blue shape under the raised hand of the disciple on the right might be a hidden knife, which hints at betrayal by the one who was preferred. Yoav Ben Dov

#Hierophant #tarot #major arcana #Anna Maria D'Onofrio Tarot

0 notes

sing-backwards-and-weep · 2 years

Text

a number of assorted tarot culture gripes

readers referring to parties you may be in conflict with as possessing “low IQ”

i know i’m guilty of tossing the word “retard” around like a proverbially elastic hackey-sack - and i’ll make no motion to excuse as much - but holy hell, anyone who actually thinks “IQ” constitutes a worthwhile, reputable, quantitative measure of intelligence is dumb as a sack of fucking bricks, and twice-over if they don’t even realize the hypocrisy involved in disparaging others according to a standardized intelligence test that some of the greatest thinkers of our time - stephen hawkings, namely - have discredited outright.

classism

it shouldn’t be news to anybody that tarot culture at large is a cesspool dominated by bougie bitches who view life, interpersonal relationships, etc through a business lens trying to legitimize their own contrived social narratives, but this finds particular expression in the thinly veiled expressions “low value / high value” men / women, that weird “hobosexual” phrase a handful like to throw around, and the obsessive focus on finances / career, etc.

eugenics

this goes beyond the scope of tarot, and is a problem that affects us all on an institutional level, but holy hell, the proliferation of terms like “sexual market value” cropping up even here is fucking insulting to the intelligence of all parties involved

the fact that a subculture oriented towards “alternative spirituality” has become - by and large - a prop of fascist theocracy is demoralizing as all hell. fucking bile-sucking biters and buggers alike.

#neat #this is just a general vent

0 notes

holykillercake · 3 years

Text

All Blue is the warmest color.

I wish I had more of Okama Sanji. Okama kenpo Sanji. A beautiful performance with Bentham. I miss Bentham.

Also, why are the blondes ganging up? hahahaha This piece made me think of @vemuabhi chan! hahaha This time I tried to go deeper and darker with the shadowing, it´s scaryyyy~

Sanji in ¨All Blue Is The Warmest Color.¨ - ETIQUETTE CARD

(click for better quality)

#sanji #black leg sanji #vinsmoke sanji #one piece #op fanart #all blue #etiquette #holy alternative tarot

15 notes · View notes

lunarticxenia · 3 years

Text

The Sun Signs

Hi guys! So I decided to make a series. I’m going to do: each sign in each planet, each house placement for every planet, and the aspects for all the planets. This of course is going to be over the course of a month; it’s going to take a while to cover everything LMAO. I’m thinking of doing this and alternating between asteroids, “placements that make people ____”, and astrology observations. Without further ado, here’s my take on the sun signs based off of people I know:

🪁 Aries: These people are go-getters and know what they want when they want it. I feel like a lot of people associate Aries with being extroverts because they’re a fire sign, but I know ALOT of Aries and 95% of them have been shy. It’s more of the Aries moons that I’ve noticed that have been more extroverted. However other aspects in your chart can determine this. They’re also extremely competitive and very hard workers. Every Aries I’ve ever met has worked their ass off, and they keep working their asses off until they perfect everything. Some negatives are that Aries people can be super dramatic as well, and don’t take other people’s advice. Even when they ask for it, if their mind is set on something, there’s no going back.

🪁 Taurus: Boy oh boy, do these people just want to go on a 10 year vacation and not have to deal with anyone ever again. These people love the finer things in life; they most likely have a creative hobby or have a creative streak. They also love good food and they love a good nap. Now everyone says Tauruses are super chill, and honestly, it depends on other aspects in their chart. I’ve known super chill Tauruses and super chaotic Tauruses. I’ve noticed the chaotic Tauruses have a lot of Aries energy in their chart i.e. Aries Mercury and Aries Mars (no offense Aries). I’d say a downside of Tauruses is that they can be lazy because they love to relax (however this depends on other aspects) and they can be apathetic a lot. I’ve found that Tauruses can very much disconnect themselves from a situation when they have to, so they can keep calm and grounded.

🪁 Gemini: These people are social and will talk for hours. I don’t mean this in a bad way. Even the more introverted Geminis, once you get to know them they will talk for days especially about things they’re passionate about. I think it’s a cute and endearing trait. A lot of people hate on Geminis, but I don’t get it. One of my best friends is a Gemini, and she’s the most genuine person I’ve ever met. In fact, most Geminis I’ve met have not been two-faced, at least from my experience. I think that Geminis are also very funny, every Gemini I’ve met has made me laugh my ass off. Every single one. They have a great sense of humor and a very engaging personality. You can see this with Gemini politicians, they’re very charismatic and know how to entertain a crowd. I’d say the more negative side of Gemini is that they can be very flighty about what they want and while they’re social, they’re not always the best communicators when it comes to interpersonal relationships.

🪁 Cancer: I’ve found that Cancers are either extremely extroverted or extremely introverted; and this can change depending on their mood LMAO. I can speak from experience; I am a Cancer. Sometimes I feel like being social and talking; other times I hate people and I just don’t wanna deal with them. Cancers also always have a softness to them; even if they have a lot of fire energy. I don’t know how to describe it other than they just look like water itself. I’d say some obvious downsides of Cancer are that they can be extremely moody and they can be snippy. If you catch them in the wrong mood, they’ll snap at you. I’m guilty of this as well.

🪁 Leo: Again, a lot of people don’t like Leos but I love them. The Leos I’ve met have not been self centered at all- in fact they’re the exact opposite. Perhaps it’s the underdeveloped Leo suns who are self-centered, but all the ones I’ve met have always put others before themselves. They’re not cocky at all. I’ve also found that Leos all have really nice hair; this is a stereotype that’s definitely true. I’ve never met a Leo with bad hair. I’ve also found that they’re super creative and even if they don’t have a creative hobby, they have a creative flair. They’re also REALLY funny. I feel like they’re definitely slept on in terms of funny placements. This is the sign that rules “performing” in a way, so of course they’re going to be entertaining.

🪁 Virgo: My favorite sign. I love all the signs in their own way, but Virgo is my favorite. Every single Virgo I’ve met I’ve loved. I get along so well with them. Virgos are shit on for being critical but it’s because they know that the people in question can achieve so much. Virgos also save that critical energy for themselves and can tear themselves apart if they’re not perfect. These people are also always putting others before themselves and always try to help everyone. Remember the 6th house rules one’s sense of usefulness. They feel that if they’re not being useful in some way to people that they’re not good enough. I literally just want to hug every Virgo. Also they’re not boring at all. FOH. Virgos are literally so much fun.

🪁 Libra: These people are just so likable. No matter what they do, you just tend to like them for some reason. They can adapt to any type of personality and they have a way of making everyone like them. This is why Libra suns tend to be popular; they’re very bubbly and sociable. Even if they’re not popular, they’re well-liked. However, this can be their downfall as well. They can be superficial and fake. They tend to flip flop in arguments alot, and they try to play on both sides which can create more tension between two people. Also, have you ever seen a Libra try to make a decision? LMAO. Love them though.

🪁 Scorpio: Your eyes. Holy fuck. You can tell if someone is a Scorpio just by the gaze in their eyes. They stare into your fucking soul. Even if their eyes are a light color, there’s always a sense of mystery and darkness to them. Despite this sense of power they give off, once you get to know them they’re literally the biggest teddy bears. Literally just go up to one and talk to them, they’ll talk to you and be all nice and happy. I’ve noticed that Scorpios just don’t like to talk about their emotions or what goes on in their heads either. They like to look strong and they don’t show their vulnerable side to just anybody. This would be one of their downfalls. They have a hard time being vulnerable and letting people in. They look fierce, but they’re sweet and just want a hug.

🪁 Sagittarius: The funniest people ever. I’ve never met a non-funny Sagittarius. I work with two of them and they have me in tears laughing. They’re also very smart and you can talk to them about anything. Even if they don’t get the best grades in school (which I rarely see, the Valedictorian and the Salutatorian were both Sagittariuses) they always have a base knowledge about everything. They’re also extremely chill and try not to take life too seriously. I’ve found that a downside of this placement is that they can be very flighty in love. They have a hard time settling down which can be difficult for someone who wants to date them. Sagittariuses crave independence and they’re usually not the relationship types. Also they have a hard time taking things seriously.

🪁 Capricorns: My guilty pleasure. I’ve dated two of them and 75% of the people I’ve liked were Capricorn suns. I feel like people overlook the appeal of Capricorns. Scorpios are the “sexy” ones, but have you seen how attractive Capricorns can be? Remember, in Tarot, the Devil rules Capricorn, so they can be devilishly handsome or darkly beautiful. Even if they’re not the most attractive person in the room, they have an aura to them that’s intriguing. They speak softly and carry a big stick. They don’t have to impress anyone; they know that they’re powerful. I’d say some downsides to Capricorns are that they have a hard time expressing their emotions and they tend to shove them down; which can result in them exploding later on. They also have a tendency to be arrogant, and can dish it out, but they can’t take it.

🪁 Aquariuses: My second guilty pleasure. I just love the Saturn energy, what can I say? Aquariuses are such lovable weirdos. I don’t know how else to describe them. Every single one I’ve met has been unique in some way and they don’t try to fit in either. They’re proud of being different. My boss is an Aquarius and I felt self conscious one day because I had a different color shirt on than everyone else and he told me “Why would you want to fit in when you could stand out?”. They’re those types of people. They’re also really funny as well, their minds just work so differently from everyone else. They’ll say the most outlandish things and you’ll die laughing. Some downsides? You could know them for years and you’ll just find out things about them. They don’t share things about themselves and it’s hard to get to know them. They also can be very emotionally cold. They don’t like emotions.

🪁 Pisces: Softies. They’re literally soft teddy bears. No matter how big or tall or muscular they could get, you just look into their eyes and that softness is there. They’re really sweet and tend to be more introverted. They aren’t the types who go out of their way to talk to strangers at a party. They love comfort and they like to feel secure. They’re also very dreamy if that makes sense. They always look like they came out of a fantasy world. I’d say a major downside would be that they’re overly sensitive. They cannot take a joke. I remember I was telling my co worker who’s a Pisces about the negative traits of Pisces and one of them was lazy; and he got SO offended. He was like “I am NOT lazy.” LMAO.

Also guys, as I’ve said, other things in your natal chart can affect these traits. For the next asteroid by the way, I’m between asteroid Bellona and Lilith. Which one would you guys want to see? I’ve been getting a lot of questions about those two. :)

613 notes · View notes