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[bye-hadfun]

How do miracles work in Good Omens?

So, let me say from the outset that there are a number of ways that miracles could work in Good Omens, but in order to write my fanfic Great Omens —a sequel to Good Omens set thirty years in the future covering the time of The Big One (read it on A03 here)—I had to make some decisions about how I thought miracles worked. So, this is an account of how I think they work, and hence a bit of a mixture of more solid meta and head canon. I’ll reference both the book and the show as my preference is to consider them together.

So, how do miracles work?

1. Miracles are an angelic/demonic thing. The only beings we see performing miracles in Good Omens are angels, demons and, of course, Adam Young, a very special demon/human hybrid. Further, there’s no reason to believe it isn’t the case that all angels and demons can perform miracles. It seems to be a core characteristic of their species.

So, from our human non-miracling perspective understanding miracles is probably a bit like us trying to understand sonar, seeing light beyond the visual spectrum or flying. It can seem like magic. But maybe for angels and demons themselves it isn’t?

Note: one possible exception to this is witchcraft though witches are clearly not human-normal. Exactly how you think witchcraft fits in depends on what you think it going on with witchcraft. We know that Agnes Nutter truly had a remarkable prophetic gift. We also know that Newt Pulsifier has a strange affect on technology. But are these phenomena witchcraft? And does witchcraft work the same way as miracles or is it something altogether different? If it works the same then it could be the case that witches have some angelic/demonic blood in their heritage. I’ll do a meta on witchcraft later on in a future post.

2. Miracles can be performed consciously or unconsciously. It is clear from both the book and the show that Aziraphale and Crowley perform miracles without conscious effort. In fact, they aren’t even always aware that they are doing it. In the book Crowley’s speakers work even though he forgot to plug them in and in the show Aziraphale’s phone is so old it shouldn’t work (except he expects it to and so it does). Expectation can be sufficient for a miracle. At the same time, it clearly doesn’t simply work all the time either. When Crowley calls Aziraphale to tell him about Armageddon in the first episode, his call doesn’t go through even though in that moment he expects it to. Is it because he does know, on some level, that the London Mobile Network is down? Perhaps. If so, this suggests that unconscious expectations can only have miraculous effects if there is no ambiguity about it whatsoever, if the unconscious fully and completely expects the result and contains no knowledge at all that might contradict that. So let’s hope a customer doesn’t explain to Aziraphale that his phone isn’t actually connected anymore.

3. Miracles require a power source. This is based on the hand motions, with Aziraphale flicking downwards from Heaven to Earth and Crowley upwards from Hell to Earth, like they are drawing on the energy of Heaven and Hell respectively. This, of course, leads to the question: are Heaven and Hell the only potential power sources?

4. Miracles require imagination. Oh, this is the big one. I think we all agree on this to some extent, huh? I mean it is pretty clear from canon that this is true. We are explicitly told that the reason Crowley could drive his flaming Bentley all the way to Tadfield (and Aziraphale...) but Hastur couldn’t remain in the Bentley as it drove through the wall of flame was that Crowley has an imagination. So, a demon/angel needs to have to be able to clearly imagine the miracle and hold onto that. This kinda relates to the expectation thing, huh? It also explains why they sometimes use particular phrases (“let there be light”) or movements (Crowley blowing the paint off Aziraphale’s jacket). They are imagination aids.

Personally, I believe in this one big time and I think it explains a lot. For example, I think this is why (apart from flirtation) Aziraphale would prefer for Crowley to miracle the paint off his jacket. That is, Aziraphale’s anxiety about the jacket makes it hard for him to fully imagine the miracle and hold it in mind, an unconscious ‘knowing the paint is there’ might get in the way. Well, in this particular case I suspect that isn’t fully true. But it is the plausible story Aziraphale is going with to make the plausibly deniable flirtation work and this is why it is plausible.

Now, it is all very well to say that imagination is important but what the Heaven/Hell does that actually mean? The metaphor I have come to latch onto is that it is like the creative arts are for us. It is all very well to be able to paint. But to paint a tiger you need to have seen a tiger and you need to be able to hold a visual of a tiger in your mind. You may be able to write, but to write Sci Fi well you need a clear sense of Sci Fi tropes, an ability to envision a Sci Fi world etc. All of which means, as any artist or writer could tell you, there are things that are easier to do and things that are much, much harder, it would be affected by psychological state and the whole thing can at times fall over for no particular reason the angel/demon can fathom.

All of this leads neatly onto the next point, but first, a little thought: to what extent are angels/demons influenced by us? Like, do they get ideas for miracles from the imagination, stories and technology of humans? We know that Hell piggy-backs on human technology like radio and television to communicate nowadays. But, is it possible that some of the old-fashioned miracles originally came from the imagination of humans too? Oh wow- humans seem to think gods should be able to control lightning? Brilliant idea. Let’s do it! And, here’s a thought: is that part of why Crowley is so damn imaginative and powerful?

5. There are individual differences in the kinds of miracles angels/demons can perform. We know that Crowley could drive his flaming Bentley all the way to Tadfield but Hastur couldn’t even remain in the car. So, there certainly are individual differences. That’s canon. And if imagination is important, and it is like the creative arts for humans this makes a lot of sense. Knowing that one particular angel/demon could perform a specific miracle under specific conditions doesn’t necessarily mean they all could do it or even that that particular angel/demon could always perform that miracle. It’d be like saying “Hey, you wrote a Good Omens fanfic so you can write. Well, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, so write Hamlet.” Or “you wrote an award winning poem last month. Here’s pen and paper, write another in the next five minutes.” To me, this smooths out a lot of potential inconsistencies such as why Crowley didn’t teleport himself to Tadfield. If he didn’t do it, we just have to trust that he couldn’t do it.

If angels/demons have strengths and weaknesses, just like human artists do, then it makes sense for them to play to their strengths. So, maybe when Aziraphale asks Crowley to check that no one is watching them before they swap back to the correct bodies, that is simply because he knows that that miracle is one of Crowley’s strengths. It is just like in any joint artistic endeavour, artists will play to their own strengths.

6. Specific miracles may be learned and practised. It is possible then that specific miracles may be learned, that they may become smoother and easier over time with practice. Who knows? Maybe they actually spend time deliberately practising certain tricky miracles to get them right. Maybe Crowley’s time stop miracle is the result of dedicated and deliberate practice over many years. Perhaps Aziraphale can’t stop time at all because it is an especially tricky miracle and he’s never practised it. Particularly under stress, the most practiced miracles may be much easier for them to perform. And hence, under stress, those old favourites are the miracles that they turn to.

Okay- those are my thoughts. What do you think?

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Shax: I'm a little bemused as to why Crowley should risk destruction for you. You don't seem his type at all.

Aziraphale's face detail:

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Answering Questions I Would Usually Avoid

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Either everyone changed accs or this post is for some reason getting attention from a whole lot of bots

Yo old camp dnp ppl from pug tent 2018 was anyone called Eva

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Yo old camp dnp ppl from pug tent 2018 was anyone called Eva

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The Tesco Delivery Guy Incident | 29.12.20

Dan: You recognised the Tesco Delivery Guy.

Phil *high voice*: What are you talking about? That... wha- why would you bring that up?

Dan: You don't need to, we don't need to expand upon that.

Phil: Oh my god, well we do. 'Cause now everyone is like that. Okay, so well, the Tesco came and then... *giggles* the guy

Dan *cheekily*: Oh, go on, Phil.

Phil: The guy delivering it looked really familiar, okay? So I was like, I'm sure I know you from somewhere? Which wasn't like me hitting on the Tesco Guy.

Dan: This was like a cool looking, young man.

Phil: It was like an emo-looking guy.

Dan: Yeah.

Phil: I was like, I know you from somewhere. And he was like... *bursts into giggles* it's probably from... the adult movies I'm in. And I was like... what! I don't recognise you from THAT. I just- You've just got a familiar face. And he gave me those eyes like, "sure, buddy, I know where you've seen me".

Dan: Places we've been there. Okay! Well, if Phil said THAT, y'all can say ANYTHING.

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watch this video and then try to tell me there is a god

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Ngl i didnt read properly and thought this was the entirety of the stream

Worse part is i didnt doubt it could be

if you didnt listend to the AMAZING show dan and phil put on this morning while testing the stereo app, here you go.

4:02 minutes of pure JOINT content

also, we are suckers dan we know, you were a phillie once too

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Dan and phil games... Isnt dead? No way. No way am i going to rewatch all their videos right? No way im gonna catch up on all the 19-20 vids right? Hahahaha

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Its been so long how tF do u find ppl to follow on here

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This is a fuckin dream cuz dnp are actually... Alive? And talking to each other? What the Fuck.

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seth everman and phil lester and no one told me

2020 and i might be falling back into the hole lmao 

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back on tumblr and literally no one on here is a phannie anymore, my feed is filled with socialism, fuck jesus gang, and twitter screencaps. wtf

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행복 은 심플 하네

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yeah so i didn’t do that 

i went to the school ‘therapist’ (they don’t have a license) after two really huge impactful things happened in the same night 

and it took some time but i’m better now 

i’m still sad, and I do think that it’s a condition sometimes, but depersonalization, anxiety, and depression might not be the best words to describe the thing i have inside me. and i don’t think it requires medication yet. 

i haven’t grown huh

@danielhowell im late but it’s world mental health day and i have something to get off my chest.

i’m juliet, I’m 13, and i might have depression, depersonalisation and anxiety. The symptoms have been creeping out since i was 10, but it was not until i saw your ‘daniel and depression’ video at december 2017 that i realised that this was not a teenage hormonal burst- it might be something very very serious.

I’m planning on visiting a therapist as soon as i can. i’ve been telling everyone near me that i need one since december, but i can stall no longer. This world mental health day 2018 and all the support everyone has in the phandom made me realize that it’s okay to want to care for yourself. It’s not stupid, or selfish, or to quote my mother ‘a stupid thing you have for validation’.

i might not be able to create and support others this world mental health day, but i sincerely hope that i will be able next year, with all of you by my side.

Love, 

Juliet

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also like bruh the gif accounts used to have so many followings on here what happened 

every gif would get at least a few thousand notes 

glad to see that at least some accounts are still holding onto that part of fandom culture