#I HAVE to keep the dragons catholic now because if they were any other religion coded the jesusy vibes would start being straight offensive

[solitarelee]

Oh sure Jesus metaphor this and Jesus metaphor that but no one tells you how hard it is to de-Jesus a character. This is what I fucking get for making the space dragons catholic.

[samwisethewitch]

Practicing Witchcraft in Secret

I love things that are traditionally “witchy.” I love dressing candles with herbs. I love setting things on fire. I love making poppets and charms. But not everyone is able to be so obvious in their craft. For various reasons, some witches choose to be secretive about their magical practice.

Why Would You Want to Keep It a Secret?

Historically, witches kept their practice a secret because it wasn’t safe to be open about their beliefs. In the late middle ages, the Catholic Church began to actively persecute witchcraft, herbal medicine, and folk spirituality with the publication of “witch hunting guides” like the Malleus Maleficarum. This witch hunting fervor would continue even after the Protestant Reformation, with some of the most famous witch hunts (such as the Salem trials) carried out by Protestants.

It is important to remember that the witch hunts were political at their heart and that very few of the people executed for witchcraft were what we would recognize today as witches. They were mostly women, poor folks, or members of ethnic or religious minorities. But even so, the danger of being accused of witchcraft and/or devil worship drove many medieval witches, herbalists, and pagans to hide their practice.

The United States experienced a modern witch hunt of sorts in the 1980s with the “Satanic Panic.” We still don’t entirely understand what caused this cultural phenomenon, but what we do know is that it resulted in widespread paranoia about devil worship. Anything that could be misconstrued as “satanic” was shunned or outright persecuted, from Dungeons & Dragons to heavy metal music to nature-based religions like Wicca — and, yes, witchcraft. People who had been comfortably open about their spirituality suddenly found themselves practicing behind closed doors. If you’re over 30, you may remember this. If you’re under 30, the Satanic Panic probably shaped how your parents view witchcraft and paganism, and they may still be grossly misinformed as a result.

Even today, a lot of witches choose to keep their practice a secret because it would be unsafe or uncomfortable to go public. Many witches have family members, friends, or coworkers who would be uncomfortable if they knew about their witchcraft, and may even choose to end the relationship because of it. Some witches live in culturally Christian areas where it might be harder for them to get jobs or make friends if they were openly self-identifying as a witch. Some of us live in places where an outdoor ritual could get the cops called on us, or have missionaries showing up to save our souls.

On the other hand, some witches just like privacy. You may feel like your spirituality is nobody’s business but yours, and for that reason you may prefer to do witchcraft in a way that is more subtle and secretive. Desire for privacy is a perfectly valid reason to stay “in the broom closet.”

There are also some magical traditions that require members to swear a vow of secrecy and to keep the group’s secrets. However, these traditions usually require an in-person initiation, so I won’t be discussing them here.

Inconspicuous Witchcraft

If you haven’t read my posts about magical journaling and kitchen magic, I highly recommend you check them out. Those are two forms of magic that are very easy to practice discretely.

No matter what your reason for keeping your practice a secret, here are a few tips for making magic without drawing attention.

Use scented candles. Candle magic is one of the easiest and most versatile forms of spellwork, and all it requires is a candle and your intention. Scented candles are perfect for undercover witches because, rather than adding herbs and oils, you can simply buy a scent that matches your intention. (For example, a vanilla candle is great for love, while a pumpkin spice scent will attract wealth.) Plus, they’re so commonplace that no one will think twice about seeing one in your bedroom or on your desk at work. If you’re a purist and want to make sure you’re using real plant materials, you can get all natural candles scented with essential oils — but lots of witches use artificial scents and get good results, so don’t feel like you have to go with the more expensive option.

Diffuse essential oils. Essential oils contain the concentrated essence of a plant, which makes them a must-have tool for witches. Essential oils are also extremely popular right now, both for holistic healing and for aromatherapy, so you definitely won’t attract any negative attention for using them. You can get a good essential oil diffuser for under $20 online. Some brands overcharge for their oils, but you can find good quality oils for under $10. When choosing an essential oil, look at the magical correspondences for the plant it is made from. You can diffuse oils to infuse your space with their energy, similar to the way you would use incense.

Enchant your perfume. You can choose a perfume to match your intention or make your own custom perfume by mixing essential oils in a carrier oil. Focus on your intention as you spray the perfume, letting it infuse your energy field with magic. You can also buy magical perfume blends from witch-owned businesses online or on Etsy.

Learn shufflemancy. “Shufflemancy” is a modern form of divination that is done by putting a playlist on shuffle — whatever song plays first contains an intuitive message for you, either in the lyrics or in how it makes you feel. You can find playlists specifically made for divination by Googling “shufflemancy playlist,” or you can make your own by compiling a playlist of songs from different genres that deal with different topics. Just be sure to keep it diverse — if your playlist only has love songs on it, you might not get very helpful messages if you have a question about your career.

Learn bibliomancy. This divination method is similar to shufflemancy, but much older. Bibliomancy is done by asking your question while holding a book, focusing on your question while connecting with the book’s energy, and then opening it to a random page. There is a long, long tradition within Christianity of doing this with the Bible — if you feel connected to a certain sacred text, you could use it for bibliomancy. You could also use a book of poetry, a novel, or even a dictionary. However, I think it’s important to use a book you feel a connection to, rather than something randomly grabbed off the shelf.

Use Pinterest and Spotify as manifestation tools. You may have heard of vision boards, a tool used to manifest something by creating a detailed collection of images that match your intention. Pinterest boards are already essentially virtual vision boards, and creating one with focused intent can be a spell by itself. Likewise, you can use Spotify playlists for manifestation. To do this, create a playlist of songs that match your intention (songs about money or love, for example) and listen to it while meditating on your desired outcome.

Choose your outfits with intention. You can pick clothes based on color correspondences (see this post for a guide to color magic), the material they are made from (a wool sweater vs. a cotton T-shirt), or some other symbolism. For example, if you want to feel empowered, you might wear leopard print to channel the energy of a fierce predator.

Enchant a piece of jewelry for a specific purpose. You can choose your jewelry based on the correspondence of the metal or gemstones it is made from, make your own piece, or use whatever you already have on hand. You can enchant this jewelry by passing it over the flame of a candle or through the vapor of an essential oil diffuser. State what purpose you want this charm to serve, either out loud or in your mind. Wear this jewelry whenever you need to tap into that energy, and make sure to cleanse it often.

Create magical art. If you want to manifest something, draw or paint a picture of it. You don’t have to be a skilled artist — what matters is that you are taking your mental image of what you want and bringing it into the physical world. Fold up the picture and keep it in your pillow, or in some other special place. Likewise, if you want to banish something, draw or paint a picture of it and then rip it into little pieces and throw it out. This ritual allows you to purge yourself of the negative emotions tied to the thing you are banishing.

Take a magical bath. We rarely have more privacy than when we’re in the tub. Taking a bath is already a ritual of sorts, and it’s easy to add magic. You can, of course, make magical bath salts by mixing essential oils into Epsom salt, but you can also create bath spells with household objects. For example, a bath with salt and vinegar will clear up nasty energy, while adding milk to your bath will attract love and abundance.

Practicing in secret does not have to mean a less deep or well-rounded practice. There are lots of magical acts that can be done subtly or kept private. The suggestions in this post are by no means exhaustive, and I hope they will give you some ideas for other ways to fill your life with undercover magic.

Resources:

“Introduction” from The Malleus Maleficarum at http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org

The Fat Feminist Witch podcast, “Episode 34 — Witches, Midwives, and Doulas”

“Most witches are women, because witch hunts were all about persecuting the powerless” by Bridget Marshall for The Conversation

New World Witchery podcast, “Episode 118 — The Satanic Panic”

[helenfl92]

Yashahime meta/analysis

Will Kirinowa become a thing (part 1)?

So after watching the last episode of Yashahime I decided to write my own meta/analysis about who the main couple from Yashahime will be. And before antis will jump at my throat, I will say that I don’t condone pedophilia in any way, shape or form. But just like Sesshomaru and Rin, I think Kirinmaru and Towa will become a couple in the future or at the end of Yashahime (when Towa will be of age). Below I will explain why I think so. 1) Their first appearance:

So Towa first appears in episode 1 of the series and the first shot of her it's her back. Then in the next shot her face, it's obscured to the viewers, with a small point/circle of light on her right cheek, while her left cheek it's illuminated by the light. Also, she appears in a submissive position (kneeling and with her hands tied behind her back). As for Kirinmaru, the first shot of him (in episode 7) it's sitting on a chair like a throne. When his face, it's shown, the first thing it's shown, it's his mask which covers his face, with the exception of his left eye which it's like a black hole. In the last shot, his left eye, it's shown, with the left side of his face covered in shadow, while the right side (which represents his true self... more on that in part 2) it's illuminated by the moonlight. Also something to point that here, it's the fact that Kirinmaru made his official appearance during a night with a crescent moon. The crescent moon being the symbol of the dog demon clan. So when they are first introduced, they are in opposite position to each other. Also it’s a coincidence that Kirinmaru’s left eye was the only one shown through most of season one, while Towa’s left eye was the place where the silver pearl was and will start to glow when she used the power of the pearl? As opposite to Kirinmaru’s first shot of his left eye which seemed like a black hole. 2) The eye color:  So, according to the color wheel, the opposite color to green it's red. Kirinmaru does have green eyes while Towa does have red eyes. This is another element that puts them in contrast to each other. Coincidence or foreshadowing? 3) The chinese astrology: So, according to Chinese zodiac’s relationships, certain animal signs are highly compatible and harmonize well together, while others find it impossible to get along with each other no matter how hard they try. One of the incompatible pair it's the dragon and the dog. So in episode 5, when Myoga was talking about Kirinmaru, he appeared as being depicted as a dragon (in Myoga's flashback...which was more like a mural picture than an actual representation).   And as of the last episode of season 1, it was pretty confirmed that Kirinmaru's true form it's that of a dragon. 4) First meeting in the feudal era Their first meeting it’s rather peculiar, to say the least. So first of all I would like to bring up the fact that this is the first episode since he appeared in the series, that find Kirinmaru outside in the broad daylight, unlike the other episodes where he was seen in a dark room. So Towa and co. are chasing the last loser (sorry, I meant peril),Totetsu, who runs to seas to get help from his superior, Kirinmaru. Of course Kirinamru is not happy about the uninvited guests, so after he uses a psionic attack on his underling and threatens him, his underling makes himself scarce pretty fast. As soon as his underling it's out of the picture, his attention it's focused on the girls.

Well, and this is where it gets a little bit nonsensical, to say the least. Kirinmaru uses another psionic attack to knock down the girls from Takechiyo's back and Moroha still ask him who he is.  😑 I don't see the sense of this question since he attacked them. I mean it's pretty obviously at this point who he is. Well, after this moment that made no sense to me, whatsoever, Towa asks him about the dream butterfly (since in the last episode Konton told them that the dream butterfly was designated by Kirinmaru... and Towa took it at face value, no questions asked). Of course, Kirinmaru doesn't oblige with a reply, so Towa uses her best weapon for feudal era....talk-no-jutsu (because this helped her so much in the past 😒), trying to convince Kirinmaru return the dreams and the sleep to Setsuna.

So I think every watcher out there had this face when Towa used talk-no-jutsu on Kirinmaru. Followed by an argument between the girls where Setsuna and Moroha didn't want to engage Kirinmaru because there was no reward for them. Up to this point only Towa wanted to solve the matter of the dream butterfly. Kirinmaru, who, at some point had enough of their bullshit, challenge them to a fight (due to the prophecy), even if Towa it's reluctant to fight him (due to her pacifist nature). Moroha and Setsuna are taken out pretty easily, while Towa it's the last one to face him and manage to leave him with a souvenir, until she it's also defeated. I won’t enter in details regarding the fight between Sesshomaru and Kirinmaru because is not important (maybe only the final of their fight). What I found strange about this episode is that Kirinmaru mostly acts like a teacher rather than an enemy. During the fight, he comments on the girls's weaknesses and uses very weak attacks (compared to what he uses in episode 24). 5) Osamu Kirin

So because of the fact that Towa always got in fights, while in the modern era, she changed schools often. Osamu Kirin it's the goofball English teacher (and homeroom teacher) from the christian academy Saint Gabriel (Saint Gabriel it's a saint in both the orthodox and catholic religion and the both of them are religious christian minorities in Japan, so yeah....), the last school where Towa got enrolled before she left in the feudal era. Their encounters are pretty brief. The first time, when Towa arrives late at her classes, he keeps her after school and say something pretty strange to her: When in Rome, do as the romans do.  Meaning that if you are in an unfamiliar place, you should behave like how the people behave there. And the second time when he tells Towa to stop daydreaming and to focus in classes. The first one was an useful advice for Towa since she went to the feudal era and had problems adapting there. And also he was the only teacher who didn't call Towa's adoptive parents to talk to them about the fact that she was late in her first day at school due to getting into a fight. Pretty strange right?  🤔 Everything seems normal with this teacher up until to episode 23.

So in this episode, Osamu Kirin goes to the airport (I wonder why... though I may have an idea that I will bring up in part 2) where he met with Sota Higurashi and his daughter, Mei, who came to pick up Moe. After asking about Towa, Osamu Kirin asks about the grim comet out of nowhere. Sota asks him where it's the comet because he can't see it. So this leads to my theory: Osamu Kirin it's Kirinmaru in the modern era. The first hint would be their names which are similar. Then the fact that only Osamu Kirin can see the grim comet, but a normal person can’t. Lastly, in both English dubbed and Japanese version Osamu Kirin and Kirinmaru do have the same voice actor (also in Miraculous Ladybug, in English version Gabriel Agreste and Hawkmoth have the same voice actor or Vergil and Urizen from Devil May Cry 5 and in the first given example they were the same person). And I also believe that there, it's a telepathic connection between Osamu Kirin and Kirinmaru. Like Wolverine in X-Men: Days Of Future Past type of thing. Also, I believe, there it's a time loop (more on that in part 2). So I think this analysis/ meta t's pretty long already so I will stop here for now. The next points that I want to bring it up will appear in part 2. So, see you all in part 2. 😌

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #310

“i get pretty just to fuck my face up.”

Do you have a clock in your room? No. What book, movie, TV show, or video game have you been wanting to start up? I *want* to read The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, but I care more about reading Wings of Fire, so I probably realistically won't for a long time. I don't read enough for that; Sutherland will surely keep pumping out books in the series so I'll never catch up, haha. As for a movie, I've been interested in seeing Jacob's Ladder for a very long time; it served as a very large influence on the Silent Hill series, and boy, anyone who brings up video games in front of me knows SH is my SHIT. I also just know I'm bound to like it with how essentially legendary it is in the psychological horror genre, which is my favorite. Onto TV show, I'm not certain. Shows don't really interest me. I would like to keep watching A:TLA w/ Sara, but "start up" implies beginning something new, so. Lastly, video games. There are a LOT of games I want to play, but yeah, I have no operational gaming console above a PS2. I'm dyinnnngggggg to play a ton of PS4 remasters (namely the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy and SoTC), but as for a fresh game I've never experienced, Ico, which is from the same producers of Shadow of the Colossus. It's an old game, and Mom's bought it off of Ebay for me twice, but neither disc worked - they froze only minutes into the game. It's hella expensive in new condition though because of its age... so who knows when I'll actually get to play it. Do you put anything else on your grilled cheese sandwiches? Just butter. Have you ever read a book in a different language? I've read some simple fairy tales as well as the play Faust in German courses. Do you want to go to the Harry Potter theme park at Universal? I have no connection with the franchise, but I mean, I'd go if you're paying, haha. If you had a secret room in your house, how would you decorate it? I'm trying to think what kind of room I'd keep a secret... Ha, actually, IF my love of tarantulas expands so largely to having dozens (which I doubt, but I acknowledge the possibility once I get my own place), a room kept on the down low to others just for them would be pretty cool. Imagine someone not knowing they're sharing a house with like, a hundred Ts, haha. As for actual decor, I'm unsure. I'd definitely keep it generally dark for them as nocturnal creatures, maybe with some Halloween decorations, like lots of fake webbing and neon green or orange lights. Man... that sounds dope. What did you get your dad for his last birthday? I couldn't buy him anything, nor did I actually make anything since I didn't know what to create. I just told him happy birthday, of course. Do any of your relatives live in another country? No. Are you claustrophobic? In some spaces, yes. Ever seen Blair Witch? Without spoilers, you know "that part" near the end? Yeah, if you've seen it, you know. That would be a fucking NIGHTMARE for me. Even watching it made me squirm. When grocery shopping, do you usually buy brand names or store brand? With most items anyway, we just get the store brand bc we cheap. Around what time do you usually eat dinner? Generally between 5:30-6:30 nowadays. Do you have any clothing that you get dry cleaned? No. Do you like foods with coconut in it? Eugh, not a coconut fan. I don't hate it as much as I used to, but I still don't like it. Have you ever researched your family history? No, but some past relative researched our family tree. Have you ever had surgery that kept you in the hospital for over a day? No. Do you like carrots more if they’re raw, or cooked? I hate carrots. Did you play with Legos as a kid? Nah, I was more into Lincoln Logs. Which bothers you more… spelling mistakes or bad grammar? It really depends on the severity and simplicity of the spelling or grammar rule. Grammatical misuse of "there/their/they're" stand out very strongly to me, though. Have you ever bought anything off of eBay? Yeah, a good number of things. Is anybody in your family schizophrenic? If so, what is their life like? I have a scizophrenic half-sister that I've never met, so I couldn't tell you. How organized is your mind? How do you know it's organized/disorganized? My mind is running Windows '98 with multiple windows and even more tabs open, all of them not responding. :^) Why do you follow the religion that you do? I don't follow one. My personal religious journey was a train wreck liberating to jump off of. Do you feel superior to others because you're that religion? I don't care if you're atheist, Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, whatever - you are by no means superior to another person in any way just because you believe different things happen once you die. If you do, it's time for some introspection. Are you a blind believer, or do you frequently challenge your own beliefs? Seeing as I went from Catholic to Christian to briefly Neo-Pagan-ish to what I am now, just believing there's some higher power/knowledge and some form of sentience after death, I obviously challenge them. What's the greatest thing about science? Life itself. This universe, this planet, your state of just knowing is a product of science, and that's pretty damn beautiful. Are you emotional or very stolid? I know I'm too emotional. I'm trying to get better about it. Do your siblings look like you? To a degree, but not NEARLY as much as they look like each other. Ashley and Nicole have been mistaken multiple times in their lives and even asked if they're twins. How many states have you lived in? Just this shitty one. How many states have you traveled through/vacationed in? Traveled through, a whole lot. Up and down the east coast. I've stayed in New York, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina briefly, and I think possibly Michigan as a baby. Which state was/is your favorite? I don't know. Not NC, haha. You have two weeks alone in any place in the world; where would you go? Alone? Um... I dunno. I'd get lonely through two weeks in absolute isolation. How old were you when you first moved out of your parents' home? I want to say I was 18 when I briefly "moved in" with Jason and our roommates. Did you ever have to move back in? Yeah; the apartment didn't last very long. None of us were ready. How old were you when you thought you were "in love" for the first time? I was in love at 16. I'd fight God literally for eternity to prove that fact. How many exterior doors are in your home? Two, or maybe three, depending on your outlook. We have like this deck in the back with a roof and mesh separating you from the outside, and then you properly go into the yard from the door beyond that. How many cars have you owned? I myself, none. How many email accounts do you have? Ummmm my very first one I misspelled, so I didn't use it long before making a new one with the correct spelling, then later I had no choice but to make a Gmail to use YouTube, and I know I've had at least one email specifically for school. I'm probably forgetting some other oldies I used for small things. What was the last movie you watched alone? The Shining. What (if any) one television program do you watch religiously every day/week? None. What (if any) is your favorite sport? Dance. Scoff at that shit and then try one dance session and tell me it's not one. What is your favorite musical? None. Have you ever seen a live opera production? No. Dressing up for an evening out: Pants or skirt? Pants. I don't show my legs. What do you currently hear right now? I'm listening to Dance With the Dead's "The Man Who Made a Monster." I LOVE the aesthetic of synthwave and rock mixed together, but the only problem I have with this song is that it's very repetitive. Still stuck in my head though, haha. What type of survey do you refuse to take? I'm not into bolding surveys, specifically. Do you like to run? bitch fuck no Do you think you could run the mile in 10 minutes? Zero chance. What was the longest movie you watched? Hm, I don't remember... It's faintly there in my head, I just can't identify it... Have you ever been to a job interview? Well yeah. Who was the last person to call you? My psychiatrist. Now that I'm doing the partial hospitalization program again, he calls once a week. When was the last time you talked to your last ex boyfriend? Uhhh I think around the start of this month? Missed him and felt like chatting for a bit. Is your dog mixed or full? I don't have a dog, buuuut... we're getting one soon! I'm quite sure she's a mutt. What was the last thing you and your mother did together? Rode to the pharmacy to pick up my meds. Do you take good pictures? I like to think so. What is your display picture on myspace/facebook right now? The most recent selfie I took and liked. I'm finally comfortable using makeupless photos as a display picture. :') Not that I like my body by any means, I just don't care enough to feel like I HAVE to wear makeup to be even remotely pretty in the face. As for everywhere else... ahahaha. What is going on outside right now? It's raining. Like it has been for what feels like literally weeks - and it might actually have been. There's been one or two sunny days in a huge streak of just nothing but rain. It's so gross outside by now; we've been under a flood warning for days on end. Who was the last person you kissed? My best friend, but we were dating then. What color looks the best on you? Black. Have you ever bought the wrong size because you were too lazy to check it? Oh, absolutely. I LOATHE trying on clothes. You have to essentially drag me to go do it. I don't have a good reason other than I don't want to, lol. What was the last thing you bought over 5 dollars? I put down the deposit on my tattoo. c: Do you have any mag subscriptions? No. What is something you're not scared of but a lot of people are? Snakes are probably the highest on the list. I adore snakes, all snakes. Would you ever have a threesome? No; I'm strictly monogamous and to me would be cheating even if your partner was in on it. Are you an U.S. citizen? Yep. Do you have any step siblings? I have a stepbrother, yeah, but I don't see him as my brother, honestly. He's a very quiet and reclusive guy I've had almost no conversations with, and they've only ever been short. Do they annoy you? Nah, he's fine. How many times a day do you talk to your mom on the phone? Well, we live together... What did you wear yesterday? The same pjs I'm in now. I'm changing when I take a shower later. The tank top is a Day of the Dead-esque skull pattern, while the pants are mostly navy with skulls and candy can crossbones that say "nice until proven naughty" arching over and beneath them. They were a Christmas gift from my sis and are really soft and comfortable. Really don't care that it's now out of season, I wear them anyway. I do not match colors AT ALL, but again, I don't care. What color straightener do you have? We don't have one; neither Mom or I use one. Do you listen to music really loud or really low? Turn that shit up LOUD. I'll be nearly deaf one day, but... worth it? lol Do you live with anybody other than your siblings and your parents? No. Both my sisters have moved out. I'm still here because I'm just not emotionally or financially equipped to live on my own yet. Who was your last crush? I still like my best friend, but agree with her that right now isn't the time for anything. How many tattoos do you have? Currently only six. :( What is your favorite thing to do? Car rides with Mom while I ride passenger, controlling the music nice and loud with my iPod. It's odd, considering I'm very afraid of being on the road, but it's just such a freeing, wild feeling to blare music and just go, letting your mind wander. How many pets do you own? I only have a cat and a snake right now, but we're getting a dog hopefully very soon, preferably today actually when Mom has to go to the appropriate city for her normal check-up to keep her cancer at bay. Her name is Vanna and sounds so perfect for us. Mom can barely wait. Are you close with your parents? Yes, very, Mom especially. Where do you shop the most for your clothes? Hot Topic or Wal-Mart. I'd really like more stuff from Rebel's Market; they have such a wide range of stuff that just scream my aesthetic. I got my purse from there, and it's fantastic quality and so cool-looking. Have you ever read a whole series of books? Well, one trilogy that I remember: Shiloh. I adored those books and the movies. I got very, very deep into Warriors by Erin Hunter, but then my interest in reading waned, and I'm immensely behind. I don't think I'll pick it up again, but I've thought briefly about it. When you tell someone you love them do you mean it? Yes. Are you going to walk at your graduation or just pick your diploma up? I walked. Do you ever eat anything everybody else thinks is gross? Hm, perhaps. I'd have to think for a while. What did you do for your last birthday? I just ate pizza at home with my one sister that was free that day, Mom, and a family friend, as well as opened presents. What do you plan on doing for your 18th birthday? I don't recall, but I think that may have been when I was in the psych hospital. Or was that my 21st? I don't remember. Do you have to type with good grammer? Yes. I type pretty much exactly how I talk. What is your favorite quote? It's hard to pick one singular favorite. Are you allowed to cuss in front of your parents? Dad could care less, but I try to limit myself with Mom, especially with "fuck." She's not a fan, nor does she like if I just swear too much in front of her. Like she won't yell at me or anything, she just makes it clear she wants me to stop. How long was your last phone conversation? Just a couple minutes. I didn't get the Zoom link to group therapy one day and let the place know. Turns out their email was fucking up. Which one of your friends annoy you? The family friend I mentioned a few questions above has the ability to be incredibly aggravating. I love her, but she has zero issue with inserting herself into everything (and sometimes we just don't want to see her), and she voices incredibly rude opinions literally no one asks for a whoooole lot. She's got a strong tendency to try to take control over every situation. Her being our landlord now makes it harder to speak up, and besides, no one wants to hurt her feelings. Don't be mistaken though, she truly is an incredible person with a heart more caring than probably any person I know. Have you ever lost a close friend to death? No, thank fuck. I mean, I think. I do believe one of my childhood online friends committed suicide because of sexual abuse from her own fucking brother, but I guess I'll never know. She was talking to me one night horribly depressed and scared and then just vanished. Bless her, I loved her. Do you know someone who suffers from addiction? Yes. Do you have a lot of pictures in your room? Tons of posters and artwork, anyway. I currently don't have any photographs, but I got this shadowbox thing for my bday to decorate with pictures of Teddy so I can use it in my "tribute shrine" or whatever for him, and I'd also like to frame the picture of Sara's and my first hug and maybe put it on my bedside table. Do you have Facebook? Yeah, I do. Have you ever found a dog/cat on the side of the road? I myself, no, but a friend's mom did find two poor kittens thrown aside in a fucking plastic bag... Some people are abominable. Knowing how much my family loved cats, she reached out to us, and we took them in and named them Aphrodite and... I can't remember the other's name. She disappeared kinda early. Aphrodite wound up being one of my most beloved cats and was even the mother of a kitten that same family adopted. Delilah is still alive, doing wonderfully, and incredibly loved. <3 Aphrodite, meanwhile, as well as all our other cats at the time, were taken by animal control because our neighbors were tired of them wandering, even though they were too fucking cowardly to confront us first. I've said in many surveys that I am very much against outdoor cats, but I wasn't then because I was uninformed and really didn't understand. I wailed and sobbed and just pure shrieked like a banshee outside when we came home to learn they were taken. I have no clue how any are now, and that's the worst part. Do you go bowling in your town? We are in the middle of a pandemic, lol. Even beforehand though, I rarely went. Last time I did was on a date with Girt. We had fun. Do you have a drive-in theater? No sir. What brand is your favorite shoe? Converse. Is your best friend's mom like your own? They're quite similar, yes. Both are very sweet and caring for others. Do you have anxiety or depression? Try both. What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Sonic. Do you own a pair of brass knuckles? Nah. Have you and your friends ever made up a word? Likely as kids. Do you have any embarrassing baby pictures of yourself? Not that I know of. What is the worst smell in the world? Anyone remember that survey I took mentioning my dog's old tumor? Yeah, that after he spent overnight in a diaper and inevitably peed himself in his old age. And he had a UTI. You probably can't even imagine how fucking vomit-inducing that smell was. Do you dye your hair a lot? No. :/ I really wish. I have so many colors I wanna try. Do you have anybody in your family who rides dirtbikes/fourwheelers? Not really? No one in my family owns one. My younger sister would totally go if you asked her and had one for her to use, though. She's done it plenty before. Have you ever rode a dirtbike/fourwheeler? Yeah, a fourwheeler, and it's really fun! Tell me how you got one of your scars? Hmmm, let's think of a unique one. Ah, my shins, left one especially. When I shave my legs, they get unbelievably itchy, even if I use lotion, and I would scratch my skin absolutely raw so often that I have permanent scars. It's partially why I barely shave my legs anymore. Have you ever had a friend who cut themselves? I know many, sadly. I don't know of any that still do, thankfully. I promise, it never helps. If you ever have the urge, I can't suggest enough running where you want to self-harm under cold water or slap the location (like your wrist) with a rubber band. The latter is especially helpful. It's a similar burning sensation and doesn't leave marks. It would help me refrain sometimes. What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? Swim in a nice, warm pool. Otherwise, become a hermit and wait for the outdoors to not be prepared to melt the flesh off my bones. x_x Do you go tanning or do you lay out? Neither, ugh. As you can guess from above, I hate the sensation of heat on me. What is your favorite skin lotion? I just really like cocoa butter. Smells really good and is perfectly moisturizing. Do you use a lot of hair products? The only hair product I use is shampoo, haha. Do you have a cousin you dislike? No. Well, one is incredibly brainwashed and misled by her psychopath of a father, but I love her nonetheless. We talk now and again because family is important to her. Have you ever heard Theory of a Deadman? Yeah, they're good. What is your comfort food? Absolutely ice cream. Who is your celebrity crush? Mark Fischbach/Markiplier is a perfect human being with the looks of a god and heart of a saint and you cannot convince me otherwise. What’s the song you most wish you had written? "Imagine" by John Lennon is a high contendant, for sure. Definitely something I'd write. Have you ever been stuck by someone very annoying on a plane/bus/etc? I think so at one point or another. Did you get lost at all on your first day of high school? Ha, for sure. Have you ever been interrupted during sex? A bitch knows how to act asleep if she hears a door so much as barely squeak, I'll tell you that much lmaooo. Have you ever been recorded doing stupid things while drunk? No. Has a significant other ever called you by the wrong name? No. Have you ever cooked anything and it turned out horrible? I've barely actually cooked anything in order TO fuck up. Have you ever made a bad first impression on someone’s parents? I can't say with certainty, but I think Jason's mom had her doubts about me at first because she commented on the ripped jeans I wore when I went to his house for the first time. She came to love me like her own though, and I love(d) her. I was actually just thinking about her and how she's doing the other day. What is a food that you always are in the mood to eat? Always? Perhaps sour candy, like Sour Punch Straws in specific. Ever held a newborn animal? Many kittens, yes. Do you make a wish when you blow out your birthday candles? I do, but just for the annual appeal of it. I don't actually believe it will have any effect on what I wished, it's just... normal, ig. What is the last thing you searched for online? Medical coding classes. Having trouble finding any free ones that are actually legit... Is it wicked hard for you to sleep when it's hot in your room? It's borderline impossible. Do you dunk your cookies in milk? Sometimes, and almost always with Oreos. Do medical terms make you uncomfortable? Ha, speaking of medical coding... No, not really. It's unnerving to hear "you have _____," but I understand it can be something so, so minor. Of course, it could be the exact opposite, but. I also actually find it quite interesting to learn the Latin roots of the terms. Are you afraid of failure? Beyond measure. Have you been called a bad influence? Yes, to my former friend's son. Not that that witch of a woman was a great person. I'd love to know how an infant can be negatively affected by receiving nothing but love from his "aunt," also having no concept of understanding about me being unemployed and not very "adult-ish" in general, which I'm sure is what she meant. Normally judgment hits me deep, but that shit I just rolled my eyes at.

[tinyshe]

still worth reading ... more now than ever:

The Kraken Unleashed: Are We Ready to Fight the Beast?

Father Richard Heilman  January 14, 2015

“And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names.  And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority.  One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it? – Revelation 13:1-10

“In the 2010 film, Clash of the Titans, there is a scene in which Zeus, angry with the humans, is persuaded by Hades to visit vengeance upon the mortals in the form of the Kraken, a giant monster from the depths of the sea. The visual of this great evil being unleashed is something to behold:

“If this scene is evocative, perhaps it is because it’s familiar. Like a Kraken released, we have a colossal problem in our world today. There are few who are not stunned by the growing specter of evil; a darkness more profound and spreading more quickly across the globe than any civilized human being could have ever imagined. Many of those I speak with have admitted that they now abstain completely from watching the news: “It’s just too much,” they say. “It’s just so horrifying!”

“For the past two years I have been confiding to close friends my own growing sense that something is happening, that something unholy is stirring. I have spoken with others who have admitted the same suspicion. The way I have tried to describe it in the past is like the rumblings felt just before a volcano explodes.

“Now, I find myself wondering if the eruption is upon us.

“Who could ever conceive of atrocities like those we are seeing executed in the name of religion? Where once we might see coverage of a tragic conflict far away, we now face an evil that is not confined to some distant corner of the planet. With the always-on, near-instant spread of information in our digital age, your next door neighbor can be radicalized from the comfort of their living room.

“What we are facing is, first and foremost, a form of spiritual warfare. In a time where violence is rampant and the innocent are threatened, it is true that we must be ready to physically engage the malefactors. But if we deny the spiritual nature of this surge of evil we are facing, we will have no hope of victory.

“When confronted with atrocity, the immediate reaction of most people is, “What can we do to stop it?” Yes! That is the exact question we need to be asking. Summoning us to courage, St. Augustine challenges us to do battle: “Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and courage. Anger that things are the way they are. Courage to make them the way they ought to be.”

“But to begin to answer the question of what we can do, we must first properly assess where we are. What are our capabilities? How is our strength? What is the state of our conditioning? Without this kind of brutal honesty, we are likely to flounder rather than fight.

“Jesus warned, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth” (Luke 21:34-35).

“And yet isn’t that exactly what has become of us? Consider this sobering analysis of our present condition from columnist Jeffrey Kuhner at the Washington Times:

“For the past 50 years, every major institution has been captured by the radical secular left. The media, Hollywood, TV, universities, public schools, theater, the arts, literature — they relentlessly promote the false gods of sexual hedonism and radical individualism. Conservatives have ceded the culture to the enemy. Tens of millions of unborn babies have been slaughtered; illegitimacy rates have soared; divorce has skyrocketed; pornography is rampant; drug use has exploded; sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS have killed millions; birth control is a way of life; sex outside of wedlock has become the norm; countless children have been permanently damaged — their innocence lost forever — because of the proliferation of broken homes; and sodomy and homosexuality are celebrated openly. America has become the new Babylon.

“This cultural assessment is bleak. And I believe that underlying it all is a deeper evil, a more ancient and intractable error which gives rise to all the rest. Many have pointed to “Modernism” as the heresy of our times. Modernism, while it takes many forms, is basically a break or rejection of our past in favor of all things new. And, while it seems evident that our Church is fully infected with the heresy of Modernism, I believe that it, too, is a symptom of this more fundamental threat.

“What am I referring to? Something that impacts the very nature of human existence and the opportunity for our salvation. Lacking an official name, I call this monster, “Stealth Arianism.” Students of history know that the Arian heresy – the worst crisis in the Church before our present age – was rooted in the belief that Jesus Christ was merely a created being, not equal to God the Father.  Stealth Arianism follows the same fatal error, but with a twist: while the Arians of the fourth century openly denied Christ’s divinity, today‘s Arians will profess Jesus as God, and yet through their actions deny it. In other words, they don’t even know they are heretics. Many even believe that they are doing God’s work in their attempts to elevate Christ’s humanity at the cost of His divinity.

“You see, once we diminish the identity of Christ as the Son of God, we are left to view Him as simply a historical figure that was a nice guy, a respectable teacher and a good example for how we are to live. Religion is then reduced to a nice organization that does nice things for people as we seek a kind of psychotherapy for self-actualization. And this is not only not what He came to give us, but it’s something He made sure to leave no room for.

In his Christological examination, [easyazon_link asin=”0060652926″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”onep073-20″]Mere Christianity[/easyazon_link], C.S. Lewis makes the case plain:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

“Over the past 50 years, the Stealth Arians have done everything within their power to remove from our lived experience of Catholicism anything that would point to the divinity of Christ, and the supernatural quality of our faith. Everything has been stripped from our churches – sacred art, sacred architecture, sacred music, and the sacred elements of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – and we are left in the barren desert of the banal. It is no wonder many Catholics think nothing of approaching the Most Holy Eucharist dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, and grabbing the host like they’re reaching into a bag of chips. As Flannery O’Connor said, “If it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” It’s more surprising that these individuals even bother to attend Mass at all.

“Moreover, the Stealth Arians have deliberately chosen to keep their teachings muddled, ambiguous and elusive in an effort to increase “pastoral sensitivity” as the highest of all values, which keeps people feeling good about themselves just the way they are – though never challenged to strive for sainthood! Of course, when people like the way their church makes them feel about themselves, that keeps the money flowing into the collection basket. But whether confused and uncertain, or simply spiritually blind for lack of true pastoral care, the faithful who have been abandoned by their spiritual leaders are prone to be conformed to the world and its prince, a murderer and liar from the beginning.

“St. John Chrysostom exhorts, “Let us be filled with confidence, and let us discard everything so as to be able to meet this onslaught. Christ has equipped us with weapons more splendid than gold, more resistant than steel, weapons more fiery than any flame and lighter than the slightest breeze … These are weapons of a totally new kind, for they have been forged for a previously unheard-of type of combat. I, who am a mere man, find myself called upon to deal blows to demons; I, who am clothed in flesh, find myself at war with incorporeal powers.”

“That sounds noble for St. John, but about for us? Are we really prepared to such a fight? Just when we need mighty spiritual warriors for these dangerous times, Satan has spent the past 50 years diminishing the Church’s legions to little more than a bunch of Girl Scouts. Now that we are left in our weakened state, Satan seems to be calling out to deal the last blow, “Release the Kraken!”

“Indeed, what can we do?

“St. Paul gives us the answer in his epistle to the Ephesians (6:10-18):

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness.  As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

“Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.

Originally published on September 18, 2014.

Father Richard Heilman

Fr. Richard M. Heilman is a priest of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin State Chaplain for the Knights of Columbus. He is a regular guest host on Relevant Radio’s The Inner Life, and is the founder of the Knights of Divine Mercy, which is an apostolate for Catholic men’s faith formation..

He is also he founder of the Ladies of Divine Mercy, which is an apostolate for Catholic women’s faith formation. He is the author of the Church Militant Field Manual and the Roman Catholic Man website, which are both dedicated to helping Catholics understand and train for their role in the mission of combating evil and rescuing the souls of our loved ones who have lost the precious gift of faith.

[mymoonisalways-in-scorpio]

🍄  Dig A Little Deeper 🍄

,I was tagged by  my sweet  little sister

@flowrxchild  , thank you so  much darling  🌻🔅🌺💞❣🦋🌸💐

🌙➖ Do you prefer writing with black or blue pen?

 All my student days I have written with a black pen, I rarely write with a blue pen.

🌙➖ Would you prefer to live in the country or the city?

It is strange what I am going to say, sometimes I would like to live in the country surrounded by animals, taking care of them, feeding them in a few words, having a small farm. But there are other times that make me want to live in the city, surrounded by people. surrounded by noise.  Depending on my mood, sometimes when I get upset I would like to go and live in the country, but when I'm in a good mood I want to stay in the city.

🌙➖ If you could learn a new skill, what would it be?

I would like to learn how to read Braille texts, I would also like to learn a new instrument like the tuba or the horn.  

🌙➖ Do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar?

I don't usually take coffee with sugar, but I've always taken tea with sugar, but I usually take both without sugar (now I'm doing it because I have diabetes

🌙➖ What was your favorite book as a child?

John John the dragon of the lake titi caca (Peruvian children's story), the name of the book sounds strange, but when I was in Argentina, in my primary school I was asked to buy that book, read it and make a summary of that story, which ended up falling in love

🌙➖ Do you prefer baths or showers?

I usually take a shower since we don't have a bathtub at home, but every time I go to my uncle's house and stay a few days in it, I love to take a good bath in the tub they have in the guest bathroom.

🌙➖ If you could be a mythical creature, which one would you be?

I have always wanted to be a unicorn, since I was a child I was in love with this horse with a horn on his forehead. I'd like to be a Pegasus instead, those winged horses are beautiful.

🌙➖ Paper or electronic books?  

Paper 100%

🌙➖ What is your favorite item of clothing?

A very 80's style Jean jacket, with patches from my favorite bands, was a gift from my ex-best friend, I'm in love with that jacket.

🌙➖ Do you like your name?

I really like my middle name, but I hate my first name. The reason I love my middle name more than my first name is because my name is Michelle, just like the Guns N Roses song called my Michelle.

🌙➖ Who is a mentor to you?

I have a priest as my mentor, who was my religion teacher when I was still in school.  We became very good friends and even though I am not Catholic, every time I have a problem or doubt about something I always turn to him, it helps me a lot to talk to him.

🌙➖ Would you like to be famous?

Maybe 

🌙➖ Are you a restless sleeper?

Not really, I'll be honest with you as soon as I touch my bed I fall asleep.

🌙➖Do you consider yourself to be a romantic person?

I have never considered myself a romantic person, even if others think I am.

🌙➖ Which element best represents you?

Fire 

🌙➖ Who do you want to be closer with?

My tumblr friends, at first I was afraid of this social network now I love it because I have found very nice people, with whom I never want to lose contact. Also with my neighbor, who is like a sister of another mother to me.

🌙➖ Do you miss someone at the moment?

I miss several people, including several friends from my school and university.

🌙➖ Tell us about an early childhood memory:

I will tell you about my first violin concert and why it was the most embarrassing of all. BTW, it all started when I had to get on stage, everything was ready and in the middle of the concert a string broke, of course I cried because of the pain, so my mom had to sneak on stage and get me off, to wipe my tears and calm down a bit.

🌙➖ What is the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?

Frogs' legs, I remember that on a trip to the Peruvian jungle (Madre de Dios exactly), the locals gave us frogs' legs to eat, which I found disgusting, but when I tried them they tasted like chicken. 

🌙➖ What are you most thankful for?

I am grateful for my family, for my few friends, they have already put up with how clumsy I am, how impulsive I am, how foolish I can be.

🌙➖ Have you ever met anyone famous?:

I had the opportunity to meet Greta Van Fleet last year, in Chile. I had traveled there to do social work and I didn't even know that the band would perform in those places, until a friend told me: ''Listen, the band that you like so much is going to perform in Chile''. I remember I didn't have much money back then and the tickets were expensive, but it was worth spending or collecting some money to go see them, I felt like I was in heaven when Josh Kiszka smiled at me and winked at me, it was the nicest thing ever

🌙➖ Do you keep a journal or diary?

Yes, but to write fan fiction that I will never publish.

🌙➖ Do you prefer to use pen or pencil?

Both

🌙➖ What’s your star sign?

Scorpion child 

🌙➖ Do you like your cereal crunchy or soggy?

Both

🌙➖ What would you want your legacy to be?

I want to be remembered as a girl, with big dreams, who always was and is for people who need her.

🌙➖Do you like reading? What was the last book you read?

I like to read, I'll read any kind of book, but my favorites are scary. Now I'm reading one called "Del amor y otros demonios  " by Colombian writer Gabriel Garicia Marquez

🌙➖How do you show someone you love them?

I'm a very detailed person about that, I always like to give them something that they like, adding a little personal touch.

🌙➖ Do you like ice in your drinks?

Yes

🌙➖ What are you afraid of?

I'm scared of heights

🌙➖What is your favourite scent?

I have always liked the smell of lavender, just as I have always liked the smell of eucalyptus.

🌙➖ Do you address older people by their name or their surname?

It depends on who you're dealing with.

🌙➖ If money was not a factor, how would your life be?

Definitely in these times of pandemic, I would not be stressed out about buying food.

🌙➖Do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean?

 I'll be honest with you, I don't know how to swim, but I still like lakes better than swimming pools.

🌙➖What would you do if you found 50$ on the ground?

First I ask if it belongs to someone and if it doesn't, I keep it.

🌙➖ Have you ever seen a shooting star?

Never

🌙➖ What is one thing you want to teach your children?

Let them first be empathetic to the people who live around them, who know what the meaning of true love is. May they know how to share what they have with others, may they be good people.

🌙➖ If you had to get a tattoo right now, what and where would it be?

I have more than three tattoos (all smaller), but if I had to get one now it would be a rose dedicated to Greta.

🌙➖ What can you hear now?

The spotify is in shuffle mode, so you can hear the music playing through the computer speakers.

🌙➖  Where do you feel the safest?

My home 

🌙➖ What is one thing you want to overcome/conquer?

My attention deficit, although according to these last days has been improving from a few

🌙➖ If you could travel back in time to any era what would it be?:

60's . 70's and 80's

🌙➖ What is your most used emoji?  

🍄🦋💕

🌙➖ Describe yourself using one word: easy-going

Dreamer

🌙➖ What do you regret the most?:

Leaving many opportunities, because of my asperger's syndrome

🌙➖ Last movie I saw?

Rock of  Ages 

🌙➖Last TV show you watched?

Criminal Minds 

🌙➖Invent a word and it’s meaning?

So far I haven't invented one and I don't have the imagination to invent one.

i taggin : 

@kakarla 

@moonchildwildheart

@juvinadelgreko

🦋💐❣💞🌺🌻🔅

[naturalhairhairgrowth]

Is Religion Even Necessary?

So you have heard them all, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, etc. etc., a denomination of this, a denomination of that. Every religion at war with each other, fighting over who’s religion is the right religion. So much confusion! There is only one GOD Almighty and not all of these people holding different beliefs could possibly be right, let’s be honest. Every single one of us have blood flowing through our veins, two legs, the same types of day to day challenges, etc. and we will all be headed to the same place after leaving this earth just like we were all put on this same earth together. We all came into this world the same way, from the same GOD Almighty, and we will all go out the same, to either one of two places created by GOD Almighty, Heaven or Hell. (Where will you go?) So let’s get to the truth of the matter. If all religions take away from the Holy Bible, then why not just rely on what the Holy Bible says? Why make our own rules and traditions? Religion is a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements.

So let’s examine things for a moment. Since all religions take something from the Holy Bible then let’s look at the Holy Bible. The KJV (King James Version) Holy Bible to be exact; said to be the best translation, closest to the original, with nothing added or removed as most other translations these days have. There is either scripture missing or added with words that give the scriptures a whole new meaning entirely. Who said we wanted ‘your’ opinion sir, just give it to us straight, right. The Holy Bible gives us the daily instructions (commandments from GOD) that we need to be 'truly’ good people, so the world flows smoothly. Yet people believe religion is necessary for that; have they not taken a look around the world and seen that their way isn’t working?

People have formed the Christianity religion, so most people look at the Holy Bible as a Christian religious book, but is this a fact? You will find that the Holy Bible doesn’t mention anything at all about needing to belong to a certain religion or following traditions of men. It speaks against that in fact. (Mark 7:7-9, Colossians 2:8 KJV). Being a Christian simply means to be Christ-like, an actual follower of Jesus Christ; nothing about the religion and traditions they have formed which in most cases do not even match up with the Holy Bible. Must be why most self-professing Christians blend right in with the world. Jesus Christ and His disciples didn’t form any religious group. They simply went around preaching “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17 KJV), baptizing, healing the sick, casting out devils, etc. They taught the 'Word of GOD’, Who by the way is the Creator of all things, as if His Word isn’t sufficient enough. The bible says “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19 KJV. Sounds like serious business. These people may want to think twice about removing and adding words to scripture.

It’s broken down quite simple. Jesus Christ came and died for our sins because all sin has to be paid for, requiring a sacrifice. All we are required to do is show 'in action’ we believe in Him by being baptized in water (full body immersion, not sprinkled) where we will receive the Holy Spirit, which without we cannot get into heaven, according to John 3:5 KJV. We then must walk in “newness of life”; meaning, turning away from sin and walking how Jesus commands us, according to Romans 6:4 KJV. The scripture is clear in Revelation 14:12 KJV. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”. So who made up this thing that “we don’t have to keep the commandments anymore”, or that “it’s ok to sin”, or “once saved, always saved”? The oh-so-famous sinner’s prayer is nowhere in the Holy Bible. Yes, that’s right folks, saying a simple prayer will not, I repeat, will not save you!

Have you ever met the over-righteous religious person who has their nose stuck up in the air like they were born perfect and never made a mistake in life? How about the religious person who goes as far as hating others because they see they are in a certain type of sin? How about the religious self-professing Christian who looks no different from the rest of the world; watches worldly TV series, listens to vulgar music, parties, drinks, uses drugs, uses foul language, thinks their own personal opinion on scripture matters, etc. etc. How about the religious person who believes because they show up to church on Sunday (not even the true Sabbath according to GOD -Exodus 20:8-10 KJV) that they will make it to heaven, as if heaven is earned by how many church services you show up to or claiming to be a “good person” in your own eyes. Most of these people never even pick up a bible and read it! These types of people are called hypocrites and satan loves them because they cause others confusion and discouragement; mission accomplished, satan just caused another to walk away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, causing them to lose Salvation.

Let’s look back at the person calling themselves “a good person”. Can you imagine two criminals in court giving the judge their own personal opinions as to why they are a good person and should get away with a crime. That wont work in court with a judge, they will have to pay for the crime; neither will it work with GOD when we face HIM on judgement day. You don’t say the judge isn’t loving because he punished a criminal, you respect his judgment. So why do people say GOD isn’t loving because HE will do the same? HE is the Ultimate JUDGE, THE JUDGE over the judge. We have to play by HIS rules just like we have to play by the rules of this land. So remember; be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, turn from sin and repent, obey GOD and Jesus, and walk in His ways to make it to heaven.

Too many people are too busy following passions and obsessions in this world; TV series, video games, celebrities, careers, movies, worldly music, school, night life, sports, activities, relationships, etc, etc. Sure, SOME of the things mentioned are fine to do, but for most it totally consumes their entire life, this is all that’s on their mind 24/7 making no time or consideration for their relationship with their Creator. The list goes on and on, satan has thousands of ways to distract us and keep our attention and focus off of GOD and Jesus Christ our Saviour.

The Holy Bible says clearly that satan is the deceiver and the author of confusion (“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:33 KJV “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9 KJV) and he has been appointed hell, he is extremely angry, hates GOD’s creation and wants to take as many of us down with him as he possibly can. What better way to do that than confuse people with a bunch of different religions, leading them away from accepting Jesus Christ. Again, sin has to be paid for, and without Jesus Christ as your Sacrifice you have to do the time, and follow the one you followed in this world (satan) to the same place he is going, hell. So it’s time we wake up, stop being lazy, and read the Holy Bible. There are thousands and thousands of accounts of the Holy Bible being true with prophecy coming to pass, people having near death experiences and actually going to heaven and hell, people having spiritual experiences, seeing Jesus and spirits, receiving healing and miracles in the Name of Jesus Christ, experiencing GOD working in their daily lives, etc. etc.

So now we can see clearly that religion most definitely in fact is NOT necessary. Tell satan he can keep his confusion, GOD’s Word is sufficient for you, that he might be getting over on the majority of the world but no longer over on you! How wicked satan is to deceive us in such a way; not to mention all the other things he puts us through constantly: fear, worry, depression, suicidal thoughts, illness, death, anger, sadness, the list goes on and on. According to 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Wow, what a wicked devil, is there really any wonder he’s headed to the lake of fire. We can say Thank GOD Almighty for that and mostly Thank GOD and Jesus Christ for His Sacrifice, the Ultimate Love.

[macdvnald]

[ CHRISTIAN SERRATOS ] • [ SHE/HER ] | is that [ MARY MACDONALD ] , the [ NINETEEN ] year/s old [ GRYFFINDOR ] alumnus , walking down diagon alley ? I heard that the last time they had their fortune read, they drew the [ HIEROPHANT REVERSED ] , which seems [ UNLUCKY ] . hopefully they won’t come to any harm, considering their recent choice to ally themselves with [ THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX ] . they’ll probably be fine - I know they’re [ PERSISTENT ] , though apparently they can also be [ RUTHLESS ] . what’s the worst that could happen ? | 

LINKS: stats, pinboard, playlist PARALLELS: johanna mason ( the hunger games ), jessica jones ( jessica jones ), raven reyes ( the 100 ), ellie ( the last of us ), rosa diaz ( brooklyn 99 ), nancy wheeler ( stranger things ), kat edison ( the bold type ), sarah manning ( orphan black ) HELLO and welcome to the mess that is this intro!! on the bottom are some plot ideas & besides that its a big old mess! but we love disorganisation! hit this up with a like if u want me to hit u up for plots and i sure as hell will <333

history

mary had a little lamb? WRONG. mary had a little calf. because she was born on a dairy farm in the highlands of scotland ( laugh at my joke pls i worked hard on it ). she was born third to two muggles – a scottish father and a mexican mother, who loved each other deeply – and would eventually become their middle child. she could have become overlooked, but mary never felt discounted at home: while her parents were very often busy with the cows, their love ran deep.

her youth consisted of this: running through fields of grass, attending a muggle elementary where people sang songs at her ( old macdonald had a farm and mary had a little lamb ), playing with the animals, building tree houses with her brothers and sister and playing football every spare moment she got. it was good and simple and wholesome.

of course, strange things happened, as they tend to with muggleborns: she’d explode her brother’s toy when she got angry, or let things fly around the room when she was laughing. when she found out she was a witch at age eleven, things fell in its place. and the macdonalds, while traditional catholics, accepted mary, which is the most important thing of it all. her parents were shocked, yes, but they squeezed her shoulder and promised to discover this all together.

which?? very much influenced mary greatly? because it went against a lot of things they – and she, too – believed in? this has allowed her to have a faith in people, and while she may be cynical and bitter at times, that faith is still there.

hogwarts was as chaotic as home, and mary settled in quite nicely. sorted into gryffindor ( she guessed it was for her rambunctious nature, but who knew ), she found herself a second home and loved it. as it turned out, she was rather good with a wand as well – she didn’t do so good at essays, though – and genuinely liked learning ( except for history of magic. fuck that. ).

being a muggleborn had its downsides, of course, but mary never really allowed herself to feel discouraged. hurt? yes, definitely, but never discouraged. she wasn’t going to let it get to her, she told herself, but it did, especially when the harsh words turned into something more. it was during her confrontation with mulciber that mary felt true, harsh fear for the first time. she felt shut down, paralysed, depressed —– but then, after a while, she got up and took some important steps. she reported mulciber, which led to nothing, which caused her to feel angry, which in turn caused her to feel determination. if the system wasn’t going to be on her side, she’d just have to fucking change it, right? mary started throwing herself in her schoolwork, determined to join the dmle – hopefully as an auror, but any position would do. she suppressed her fear and the trauma that was there, and kept her chin up.

the entire mulciber situation is up for change, should we get a mulciber, or if it doesn’t correspondent with the plot/rp canon! 

graduation rolled around and mary got the five required NEWTs to even apply. it was a nervewracking process, but once she got into auror training, she cried. like. for a year. she was so proud of herself and she felt so determined and !! man. it was such a good, defining moment. around the same time, mary joined the order; she knew the ministry was corrupt, and that it’d not allow her to do everything she wanted to, when the order DID. mary had too much anger, too much determination to fight this bullshit to just stick with the ministry, and so the order seemed like the right place.

right now, she’s fighting. she’s gritting her teeth and keeping her goals in the back in her mind and is focusing. and she does not always feel brave or confident or self assured, but that does not matter: mary macdonald always gets the fuck back up, and that’s what she will keep doing until she’s completely knocked down.

personality & tidbits

mary is a human espresso. she’s so. damn. bitter?? despite the fact that she keeps on going and that she’s fighting her ass off, she’s tired and angry that things don’t seem to be moving in the right direction, she’s feeling bitter about the fact that this kind of discrimination is happening right in front of her eyes and that she does not have enough power to stop it. she feels powerless, which makes her feel bitter, which makes her cynical.

still! mary is not necessarily a debbie downer to be around. she keeps her bitterness ( and hopelessness, even ) carefully hidden in boxes in her mind. on the outside, she’s filled with quips and smiles and quick comments! just a sociable bean, but just a bitter one.

is a dog person and will fight anyone who prefers cats. has a cairn terrier called bowie. she loves him more than anyone.

obsessed with tea, tbh. her ma always said that ‘there’s nothing a cuppa can’t fix’ and mary definitely agrees with this statement.

though is also a ‘whiskey in a teacup’ kinda gal

can be spotted wearing either a rly nice ass blazer or a jean jacket, no inbetween. either office-fancy or farmer-chique

fucking loves muggle culture and loves fellow muggleborns and !!!!!! she loves it!!!

very much in a take-no-prisoners mindset at this point re: death eaters. it kind of scares her, tbh, but mary is very much capable of murdering a death eater, even if she could stun them — she’s just done. she’s very. done. with them. and this whole shbang? will only feed into this.

mary is ruthless, that’s what it boils down to. she’s a lot more than that, of course, but i chose that trait for her app because she is --- in small things ( football matches & boardgames ) but also in bigger ones, and of course the war is the main way it shows. mary is so angry. she’s so angry and scared and tired of feeling that way and tired of being scared to lose people and herself and of death and she’s so angry that people really are this way and that they really do these things --- she wants it to stop. she wants the world to be right. and sometimes she thinks the ends do justify the means. 

this is why she’s chaotic neutral and not chaotic good.

like ive had her turned to dark arts before just bc she’s so desperate to. fucking win.

and she’s also like --- mary doesnt care if she ruins herself? if she becomes a bad person who’s unable to live with the shit she’s done? as long as the world is better for it, as long as kids can go to hogwarts and feel safe and the world is a safe place for everyone. what does her soul matter in the grand scheme of things? she’d burn in hell forever if it meant the rest of the world changed for the better.

emotionally driven mess of a being

is catholic but struggles a lot with religion and feeling faithful, but she does still identify is a catholic, it’s just? complicated. it’s rly complicated and she hates it.

is a bit flighty when it comes to romance, def has a lot of one night stands/fwb situations though??? she’s just like??? i dont have time for romance its a WAR

has been trying to stop smoking for five years, but alas

mary also works part time at quality quidditch supplies because the girl loves quidditch ---- though not as much as she loves football.

a proud scot. probably lives in scotland, but i’m ... going to keep her living situaiton open and segue into Wanted Plots!

plot ideas

roomies ----- so mary is not Earning A Whole Lot Right Now but does not want to live at home any more because 1. its in the middle of nowhere and 2. most importantly, she’s afraid of endangering her family. she needs roomies! i’d love for her to live in glasgow/edinburgh/london/idk a city!!!

hook ups/fwb’s/etc ----- mary is what the old ppl call promiscuous and she sleeps around. so ! let’s talk! former hook ups! booty calls! friends with benefits! etc etc etc! 

party pals ---- mary likes going to pubs and clubs in the muggle part of town bc it is a LIT way to escape the reality of the wizarding world and also, muggle clubs have better music. come party w her!!!!

in the dragon’s den together ---- fellow ministry employees who side eye the ministry and whom mary can sip tea and judge their colleagues with

mudbloods club ---- mary loves her fellow muggleborns and i would love some muggleborn friends that she can be buds with. ranting about dumb pureblood names and traditions and the fact that wizards dont have movies

general friendship ideas ---- im just going to a bunch of ideas here: hogwarts friends, ride or dies, order pals, friendly exes, fellow tea drinkers that she can go on coffee/tea dates with, friends who are growing apart bc of the war (my fave), etc.

etc ---- some other ideas i want to spitball: purists who h8 on mary’s life, fellow diagon alley employees, fellow order members, Annoyances, there is solidarity in being scottish, ministry connections, etc etc etc HIT ME UP

[chuckling-chemist]

That Comprehensive Lusus Post: Good Mythical Mayhem

Alright, I’m gonna preface by just reiterating it might be a good idea to read this post before you continue, which was gonna be my introduction before it got longer than intended. Have you read it? Good! Then you know the way I’m breaking this down isn’t through the usual means, but rather through relative area of origin and moving from there. Now, of course, that being said I'm still gonna talk about the specific species too. So I’m not sure how long this’ll end up being, cause there’s gonna be a lot of explanation to start out. Here we go, I guess!

Total Mythical/Divine Beings: 394 (9.85% of all lusii)

What I expected to see lots of (and did): Dragons. Everyone knows dragons. Dragons appear in every culture, even in some surprising areas. On top of that, since a dragon is a dragon, even in fiction, I threw them under the dragon label instead of say, a fictional species, unless it was a particularly unique design to the show in question or a named character. A Ridgeback Dragon would just be a dragon, but Toothless would be HTTYD. But even if I took those out, it wouldn’t shrink the dragon count too much (only a +/-5, realistically as many dragons weren’t named). At 86 total, dragons are nearly 22% of all mythic beings.

What I didn’t expected to see lots of (and didn’t): Beings like Ifrit, Golems and Djinn from Jewish and Islamic faiths. A bit of a combination of I’m sure plenty of people don’t know exactly they are (Ifrits and djinn in particular), and wanting to sidestep using beings from those faiths. 

What I expected to see lots of (and didn’t):  ...There’s only 6 Krakens. Everyone and their mother has at least one sailor troll, yet there’s only 6 Krakens. My guess is most of them gave the sailor an octopus or shark, where there were much higher counts.

What I didn’t expect to see lots of (and did): Um....honestly? Archdemons. You know, those ones that get named and were probably a middle-of-the-road pagan god that the Catholic or Protestant Church refitted to discourage pagans?  Yeah those....those came up more than I expected. So they’re kinda still under a deity label, which I’m aware they’re not but I really expected the first Baphomet to be the last.

What I wish I saw more of: Modern day Cryptids. One Jersey Devil? Two Bigfoots? Come on, man. 

Alright, so here’s the breakdown by general area. I’m gonna preface it by saying trust me, any big grouping decision I made trying to keep this legible. For example, with the Asia category, yes I know that’s a huge, ridiculous area but there really weren’t any West Asian mythic beings that weren’t Middle Eastern, but calling it “Eastern Asian” felt disingenuous when I did have two that spread throughout all of Asia - nagas actually, which are found in Southwest and Southeast Asia -  so I just expanded out the region. If I had one mythic being I could explicitly trace back to India that didn’t immediately jump into China/Japan I would’ve separated the two out, but I didn’t. So this is what happened. The locations are as follows:

Worldwide: So scattered throughout the world there’s not a good place to say where it came from. Many dragons (if you were really specific with your dragon I could pin it), jackalopes (there’s Persian jackalopes???), and some other things are a lot of this.

European: If it’s Anglo-Saxon or Germanic, it’s probably here. Most of these were just “European”, so spread out throughout Europe that, again, hard to pinpoint an area when Wikipedia is your resource.

Mediterranean: This is mostly Greco-Roman, but mermaids and griffins were also included in this count for a couple reasons: 1) Mermaids as a myth were originated by Alexander the Great and 2) Griffins are found in Egypt, Persia....and Medieval Europe. Having a “Mediterranean” group was the best way I felt to reconcile that. 

Asian: As I explained, this one is only so big of an area because nagas just had to start in India and yeet over somewhere else. Thanks, Nagas.

Abrahamic: Jewish, Christian and Islamic creatures in particular are here. I separated them out from other Middle Eastern cultures since these are all 3 huge religions and there was a decent chunk from this group.

Americas: Again, I realize this is a huge cross-section, but this went as far south as Mexico and as far north as Alaska. There’s no better way for me to qualify this.

Celtic: Separated out from Europe because Celtic culture didn’t spread the same way others did. Really, it’s....kinda dead.

Middle East: Pretty self explanatory. For once.

Other Cultures: Ones that didn’t fit any better anywhere else. There’s only 2 here, most I could somehow finagle a grouping. 

(imgur link)

Alright, so how did these further breakdown?

Mediterranean

Greco/Roman: 70

Mediterranean: 27

Greek Only: 7

European

European (Spread out): 50

Scandinavian: 8

British: 6

Germanic: 4

Nordic: 2

Finnish: 1

Russian: 1

Asian

Japanese: 19

Chinese: 9

East Asian: 7

Asian: 2

Mongolian: 1

Korean: 1

Buddhist: 1

Melanesian: 1

Abrahamic

Christian: 19

Abrahamic (all): 7

Jewish: 2

Islamic: 2

The Americas

Modern American: 7

Various Great Lakes Native Tribes: 3

Various Central American Native Tribes: 3

Latino: 3

Various Native Tribes Across the Americas: 2

Inuit: 2

Seneca: 1

Celtic

Scottish Only: 11

Irish/Scottish: 7

Irish: 1

Middle Eastern

Egyptian: 8

Persian: 5

Babylonian: 1

Middle Eastern: 1

Sumerian: 1

Iranian: 1

Other Locations

Central African: 1

Maori: 1

Worldwide: 85

Notes:

I can take a few educated guesses as to why the spread is as it is. Greco-Roman is probably as high as it is because Greek myth holds a lot of monsters with humanoid intelligence that could fit right along a Humanimal (thanks Zeus), plus unlike many other pagan religions, we still hold a lot of actual record. Widespread European beasts get used constantly in anything vaguely western fantasy, and and Japanese is obviously because y’all’re weebs for a similar reason.

You’re probably wondering if every single one under Celtic is fae. You would be correct.

Dragons were spread out between worldwide (if the dragon was nonspecific, since it could be any variant), European (wyverns and hexapodal dragons), British (if it was specifically a cockatrice) or Chinese (they were always named as such), and one specifically from the Seneca Tribe. I think dragons had the widest spread in this regard.

There’s some really bizarre facts I found out upon trying to categorize these. Including, but not limited to: chupacabras have been reported in Russia (???), the jackalope is just as Persian and middle eastern as it is American, and the spread of non-American cryptids was very high somehow.

Okay, now I’m not going to do a breakdown of every single mythic creature. That’s gonna take too long. If someone wants the full list (or curious if a specific mythic beast made an appearance at all) I can PM it, but even for this I’m not doing that. Instead, I’m going to list the ones that appeared in overwhelming majority. Anything that’s not listed appears less than 10 times in the overall list, and thus, are unlikely to have specifications anyway.

Dragon: 86

Divine/Infernal: 27

Cryptid: 25

Griffin: 21

Phoenix: 21

Hydra: 18

Fae: 17

Unicorn: 13

Chimera: 10

Dragons:

Dragon (completely nonspecific/only color or mutation mentioned): 42

Elemental Dragons: 12

Specified Dragon: 9

Wyvern: 7

Cockatrice: 6

Chinese Dragon :5

Lindwurm: 2

Other Dragons: 3

Divine/Infernal:

Demon: 9

Angel: 5

Quetzalcoatl: 3

Slepnir: 2

Thunderbird: 2

Other God: 6

Notes:

Baphomet was the most common demon used. Seraphs were the most common angel, however Gabriel was named specifically and a throne was once used.

Other Gods include Horus, Amaterasu, and Lamassu. Also the Grim Reaper, who I wasn’t 100% where else to put them.

Cryptids:

Yeti: 6

Mothman: 3

Loch Ness Monster: 3

Chupacabra: 3

Ningen: 3

Bigfoot: 2

Other Cryptid: 5

Notes:

Yeah, the low number of cryptids (and low variety of cryptids, honestly) caught me off guard considering how much cryptid talk seems to be on the site. Then again, I think the obsession with cryptids is much more recent and many people’s characters are very old. 

Fae:

Kelpie: 8

Catsithe: 2

Fae (nonspecific): 2

Other Fae: 5

Notes:

There are 2 under kelpie that technically aren’t kelpies, however they’re functionally identical to kelpies (literally just a name change, not even an aesthetic one or identification one -- they are still fae in their mythos), so for convenience sake, they’re under kelpie.

Overall Notes:

While I didn’t break it down, there were a solid 3 people who used a qilin, or the Chinese unicorn. 

I will make the note that it was impossibly hard to tell if someone meant the European phoenix or the Chinese one. I generally assumed the European one (due to its appearance in Harry Potter) over the Chinese one. I’m sure people have used the Chinese phoenix, it just never got stated as such and when say, the Chinese dragons (which have a unique body structure and function) and Chinese unicorns (which are so radically unique they even have their own name) got specified as such but there wasn’t one phoenix listed as “Chinese Phoenix”, I’m going to presume they’re European. If for whatever reason you happen to catch this and have a Chinese phoenix, I can check to see if you’re in the records and edit accordingly if so.

The breakdowns are very interesting when you consider canon. We have 4 distinct mythic (or heavily inspired by) mythic beasts in canon used: Terezi’s dragon, Equius’ centaur, Sollux’s bicyclops - which was really just a conjoined cyclops pair - and Gamzee’s capricorn. Dragons are, obviously seen here, highly common, but neither the cyclops (1), centaur (2) nor the capricorn (2) are. That being said, all 4 are either European (Terezi’s hexapodal dragon indicates a European backing) or Greco-Roman, which are common areas to pull from. It doesn’t really mean anything, I just think it’s neat.

Okay I realize I said I was going to do fiction alongside mythic, but....yeah I don’t think that’s easily feasible. So the next one will be fiction. And if I can squeeze it, the completely un-classifiable next. (Sorry for the slow schedule but it’s getting to the messy sections)

[thetygre]

Dark Souls Lore Rambling #8

Hey, remember when I said these mini-lores were going to be shorter to write? Or shorter at all? Ha ha ha ha what a liar I am

The Lesser Lords

Now that we’ve covered Gwyn and the Lords in general, I wanted to take a break and cover some of the minor divinities in Dark Souls before we get back into the meatier subjects. There’s a bunch of lesser deities mentioned in passing in Dark Souls, so I thought I’d try to shine some light on them. Please note, I’m only covering the gods referenced in Dark Souls 1; the rest are just going to have to wait.

Flan

What we know about Flan is equal to almost the sum value of bupkis. He is apparently married to Gwynevere and is a god of fire. Also, his name means ‘red haired’ in Gaelic. That’s it; everything else is a mystery. Was his marriage to Gwynevere an arranged one, or did they meet naturally? Is Flan now the King of the Gods by virtue of Gwyn being dead, bereft of male heirs (sorry, Gwyndolin), and Flan being married to Gwynevere? Is he even alive? Who knows.

I think it’s worth noting that Flan is the fire god. That could potentially have a lot of connotations, given that fire is central to the Dark Souls universe. All civilization and life stem from fire. The very cosmic order of duality is set in motion because of the First Flame. So does Flan have some tie to the First Flame? Or perhaps he has some ties to Izalith and pyromancy? Maybe Flan’s marriage to Gwynevere was the sealing pact between the Lords and Witches? Interesting theories, but still just theories.

The only thing I can speculate on for certain is the interesting juxtaposition of divine portfolios in Gwynevere and Flan’s union. Gwynevere, as established earlier, is a benevolent and providing goddess of sunlight, representing the nurturing and feminine aspects of her father Gwyn’s purview. Flan is simply a god of fire; rawer, unrefined, and more elemental. In a way, Flan fills in for the Nameless King as the warrior-prince deity, complementing Gwynevere in a dual relationship. United with Gwynevere, Flan represents not just fire in its elemental aspects, but also fire in its domestic uses, including smithing and the hearth. Or, at least that’s how I envision it.

 Allfather Lloyd

Lloyd. Not much of a deity name. Barely edges out ‘Greg the Thunderer’ and ‘Karen the Earth Mother’. The lore states that Allfather Lloyd is Gwyn’s uncle, was the founder of the Way of White, and his clerics are noted Undead hunters. His face is emblazoned on coins which are apparently currency outside Lordran, which travelers cling to as mementoes of the outside world. That alone indicates that Lloyd is a pretty big deal. It might even give us some details about economics outside Lordran; maybe coins are minted in one of the more theocratic countries, like Astora of Thorolund.

Lloyd’s clerics are even given a certain amount of respect for their Undead hunts, which tells us how the outside world views the Undead; at best cursed and unnatural, at worst slavering zombies. (Which, to be fair, isn’t exactly one hundred percent unfounded.) When everything is taken into account, Lloyd is a figure of central importance to not just the Way of White, but the whole world outside Lordran.

But things get interesting when you start to break down his name. ‘Lloyd’ is easy; it stems from the Welsh ‘llwyd’, which means both ‘holy’ and ‘grey’. But the meat of Lloyd’s etymology comes from the important part of his name; ‘Allfather’. Those of you who have been paying attention might recall that Dark Souls draws from Norse mythology a smidge. And in Norse mythology, ‘Allfather’ (or Alfodr and/or Aldafoor, if you’re feeling fancy) was one of the more important epithets for Odin, King of the Gods. Allfather has two applicable meanings for Odin; first, he and his brothers Villi and Ve are responsible for slaying the primordial frost giant Ymir and using his body to construct the cosmos, as well as the human race. In this capacity, Odin is literally all things’ father in that the universe would not exist without him. Second, Odin was the king over all the other gods, or Aesir, and his word was law. And in between is the fact that Odin is listed as the literal father of some of Norse mythology’s more famous deities, including Thor, Balder, and Tyr.

The thing of it is, when you take these meanings, a creator deity and a divine patriarch, and apply them to Lloyd, old Lloyd starts to turn up short. For starts, Lloyd didn’t create anything. The world existed even before the Lords did, so he wouldn’t be in the running as a creator deity anyway. Adding on to that, he’s listed as Gwyn’s uncle, not Gwyn’s father; if he was going to be called a creator deity by association with Gwyn, he would at least need a paternal link. Lloyd isn’t even the king of the Lords, Gwyn is. Lloyd might still have some kind of ruling position, but he definitely isn’t top banana. And, as far as we know, Lloyd isn’t the biological father of any other important Lords. So what gives?

All these inconsistencies, and a little bit of the lore from Dark Souls 3, point to Lloyd being a fraud. Lloyd started the Way of White touting himself as some distant relative of the Lords from on high. This even ties into my theory that the Way of White wasn’t always the religion of Lord worship, but originally the name for the alliance between humans and Lords during the war with the Everlasting Dragons and against the demons. Lloyd took advantage of, or may even have been responsible, for the shift to a more traditional church. The Undead Hunts are just a way to garner favor with the people and direct attention on a common scapegoat; people won’t notice that the Way of White is rotten from the inside if they’re too busy hunting Hollows.

But for old Lloyd’s sake, let’s consider a second option, and accept Lloyd’s story at face value. Even as only Gwyn’s uncle, that still gives Lloyd a lot of leverage with both humans and Lords. Lloyd might have been the one to oversee relations between humans and Lords during the Age of Ancients and the Age of Fire. The Undead Hunts are genuine efforts to protect humanity and/or to contain the Undead curse. His Allfather title is a religious one, associated with the pseudo-Catholic structure of the Way of White (Havel is a bishop, etc.). ‘Father’, after all, is the title given to a priest in Catholicism after all. So it might be that, as the head of the church of the Way of White, Lloyd is equivalent to the Pope, the high priest to whom all other priests defer; the All-Father.

Of course, these answers aren’t mutually incompatible. Lloyd still could have been the founder of the Way of White and still been a fraud as well. He might even have still been a Lord, a rogue deity like Velka. Either way, by Dark Souls 3 the Way of White has gotten so old that old Lloyd has fallen to the wayside completely.

 The Nameless Blacksmith God

There’s surprisingly more to the Nameless Blacksmith God then you would think, especially if you look at the Dark Souls meta and concept lore. The canon lore on the deity is actually very sparse, but pretty straightforward; the Blacksmith God was the Lord that forged the armor and weapons for the other Lords. I generally take this to mean the Blacksmith God did not literally craft every arm and armament for the Lords, or invented the process of smithing; rather, like how Seath is the father of sorcery, the Blacksmith God was a pioneer in his field, exemplary in his profession. He was the Lord who spearheaded the arming work during the war with the Everlasting Dragons, and may even have been the one to discover titanite and how to use it.

At some point, the Nameless Blacksmith God died, though nobody knows when or how. For a while, I entertained the theory that maybe Gwyn killed the Blacksmith to keep his secrets out of enemy hands, but I’ve come to reject that now. Gwyn’s a dick, but he’s not a stupid dick, and the Blacksmith God was a bigger asset than liability. I kind of like the idea that the Blacksmith was assassinated during the war with the Everlasting Dragons; dragon forces tried to weaken the Lords by cutting off their biggest arms supplier. There’s nothing to even remotely back that up, though.

When the Blacksmith God died, he left behind two things; the titanite demons, and the titanite slabs. I doubt that these were meant to be the Blacksmith’s legacy because I frankly doubt the Blacsmith ever planned on dying. The demons might have been made as servants for the Lords, but I’ll cover them later. Why the Blacksmith God made titanite slabs, I don’t know. There’s obviously writing on the slabs, and Dark Souls 3 actually has the slabs have translatable runes on them that tell the story of the Lords. It is entirely within reason to assume that the Blacksmith God did not leave behind the titanite slabs as resources at all; they were records, preserving history and knowledge in the strongest material available. By the time of Dark Souls, however, titanite is so scarce and so valuable that humans have started cannibalizing what would otherwise be historical artifacts, maybe without even realizing their true value.

 Gwyn’s Wife

We know even less about Gwyn’s wife than we do about Flan or the Nameless Blacksmith God. The Blacksmith God is at least referenced; no one even mentions Gwyn’s wife. It’s assumed he had a wife; he fathered his children, after all. We’re operating on the assumption that the kids actually are biologically Gwyn’s, and not just extremely devout disciples. So unless something is radically different about Lord biology from humans, then Gwyn must have bumped uglies with someone at some point.

We keep seeing a statue of a woman holding a child throughout Lordran. The statue is of a woman wearing a crown, indicating royalty; Queen of the Gods is as good a queen as any. The child she’s holding is grasping a sword, which indicates that he’s meant to grow up to be a warrior. Maybe the Nameless King? I like to think the statue depicts Gwyn’s wife. She’s worshiped as a general maternal goddess, a deity of home, family, women, and fertility. She represents renewal, and the providence of the future. Basically equivalent to the Greek Hera or Juno. Or maybe it’s some random female saint from the Way of White. Maybe there is no explanation for the mother statue, just like there’s no explanation for the statues of Athena in the Undead Parish. It’s just there for the aesthetic.

 Fina

Fina is another deity mentioned in passing reference. The only real detail we get about her as that she is described as having ‘fateful beauty’. Her name is most likely derived from the Celtic ‘Fiona’, which means ‘blond’ or ‘fair’. So, established; she’s pretty, and maybe blond. The ‘fateful’ part of her ‘fateful beauty’ description makes me think that there’s a history of people becoming infatuated with her and driving themselves to their own doom trying to serve her, kind of like our boy Lautrec. It could be that it is literally referring to the concept of fate, however, which means that Fina is also associated with destiny in some capacity. The symbol on the Ring of Favor and Protection is also the symbol of Venus, associated with the goddess of the same name, femininity, and copper. This points to Fina being roughly analogous to the Greco-Roman goddess Aphrodite/Venus, but even that is kind of self-evident.

I was originally going to propose that Fina herself was a Fire Keeper, only worshipped as a god and conscripting men like Lautrec to hunt Humanity for her, but that got thrown out the window when I realized Lautrec leaves the Fire Keeper Soul of Anastacia of Astora behind when he kills her, which is a valuable nugget of Humanity. But that in itself raises a question; if Lautrec was just hunting for Humanity and Fina is only his matron, why leave behind the valuable Fire Keeper Soul?

Maybe Fina is a jealous goddess, vain like the Greek gods, and has any woman she deems too beautiful killed, no matter how far away they are. She could also be acting on her potential purview as a deity of fate, condemning Anastacia of Astora specifically for being a heretic. Or perhaps Lautrec simply didn’t know about Fire Keeper Souls, and left behind the soul the same way he left behind the Black Eye Orb out of ignorance. I’m still partial to my theory of Fina as a Fire Keeper and Lautrec as a kind of alternate Kirk of Thorns, but I have to admit, it’s a theory standing on some pretty shaky ground.

 Old Man McLoyf

I’m gonna’ level with you, I’d completely forgotten about Old Man McLoyf until about twenty minutes ago. His face is on the Copper Coin, where he’s mentioned as the god of drink and medicine. From his name, we can gather that he is both A.) a man and B.) old. ‘Mc’ means ‘son of’, and ‘Loyf’ means ‘to praise’; both parts are Scottish. We can infer from his placement on the Copper Coin that he comes from the same general pantheon as Allfather Lloyd, revered in whatever potentially theocratic state made the coins.

And… that’s about it. I’ve seen it posited that McLoyf might have some connections to Catarina, with his connection to alcohol for celebration and medicine for healing combat wounds. I’ve even seen a theory that he might be Gwyn’s father, but there’s nothing to really substantiate that. It’s possible that, like Lloyd, he might not actually be a Lord and instead be a hero-deity or charlatan. I doubt that he’s a chaotic and wild deity of drinking like Dionysus or Bacchus. The connecting thread between medicine and alcohol is that they both cause chemical alterations within the body, so I suppose that’s McLoyf’s root purview. In that capacity, he might also be a god of bravery in the face of harm, which really only reinforces the idea that he might be popular in Catarina. Another mystery god.

 Velka

And of course I saved the best for last. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding Velka in the Souls lore community. I think it’s best to start by laying out the facts. And by ‘the facts’, I mean ‘a summary of the lore with some of my thoughts sprinkled in’. Velka is described as a ‘black-haired witch’, as well as a ‘rogue deity’. Right off the bat, this gives some cause for speculation; ‘witch’ in Dark Souls can refer to either a female practitioner of magic or the specific race of people inhabiting Izalith. I want to err on the side of simplicity and say that she’s just a woman capable of spellcasting. The ‘rogue’ part makes me think that she operates outside of the standard pantheon of gods. Velka is stated to be the goddess of sin; not of sinning itself, but of defining sin and meting out justice to those who do it.

Her priests are also pardoners, where, similar to Catholic priests, an individual can confess their sins and be told how to atone, or offer one’s self up for punishment. Also like medieval Catholic priests is the practice of indulgences with Velka’s pardoners, where one can simply pay to be absolved; however, this may be unique to the pardoner in the Undead Parish. She also appears to a goddess of magic, both performing it and countering it. She is so closely aligned with sorcery that she allows the usage of intelligence instead of faith for her followers. Her name is either Czech for ‘great one’ or ‘famous, or Finnish for ‘debt’; both meanings are appropriate to Velka’s character, but it’s more likely meant to be the Czech meaning since that is the language Dark Souls draws more from. Finally, she has black hair and is associated with ravens. Ravens already have mystical significance in both European and Asian mythology, but are universally associated with death and the presence of the gods. It’s also worth noting that Velka’s connection to ravens and witchcraft gives her some parallels to the Celtic Morrigan; however, Morrigan is a goddess of warfare and sovereignty, not justice.

Velka’s rogue status might tie into her purview as the goddess of sin and justice. The theory I subscribe to is that Velka’s sense of justice was universal, and so she indicted the Lords as well as humanity. This didn’t sit well with the Gwyn et al, and so Velka had to be disappeared into the Painted World of Ariamis, with all the other undesirables of the gods. Clearly, the Lords were not wholly successful in banishing Velka; she appears to still have some presence in Carim, or at least one surviving pardoner from Carim, and some of her items and spells are still in Lordran. As of Dark Souls, her exact portfolio is trying to be absorbed by Gwyndolin, and the two appear to have a standing rivalry; or, more correctly, Gwyndolin still has a standing bounty on Velka’s worshipers. Velka may have once had control of the Blades of the Darkmoon, but the very name indicates that they’ve shifted allegiance to Gwyndolin.

We now descend into the realm of complete conspiracy, where I state my stance on some of the theories surrounding Velka. First and foremost; no, I do not believe the Chosen Undead is an unwitting pawn of Velka’s to strike back against the gods. True, a giant raven carries the Chosen Undead from the Undead Asylum to Firelink Shrine, but this entire plot thread just seems too tenuous to me. It is placing an undue amount of agency and significance on a character that, for all intents and purposes, is barely more relevant than the Nameless Blacksmith God or Allfather Lloyd. Miyazaki has a history of letting characters directly confront their manipulators; the Fool’s Idol in Demon’s Souls, Gwyndolin in Dark Souls, the Amygdalae in Bloodborne, etc. The importance of Dark Souls is that the Chosen Undead is not significant beyond the fact that they are a person and they control their own fate; an unknown manipulator seems contrary to that philosophy.

That being said, I can’t help but see the giant raven as somehow being tied to Velka. Perhaps, once, long ago, it did indeed serve Velka. But with her disappearance, it now acts on instinct and more like an animal rather than an active agent. The raven, with the hindsight of Velka’s lore, becomes symbolic of the inevitable karmic cycle that comes to Gwyn and the other inhabitants of Lordran. If nothing else, it’s a powerful visual; ravens in the West are considered birds of death and ill omen (before we began associating them with being preternaturally smart). In Japanese folklore, ravens are the servants of the gods and act on their behalf. Given that Dark Souls is distinctly aiming for a European aesthetic, however, I think Miyazaki was going for a more Western signifier with the giant raven. It is both death and justice.

Second, I do not think that Velka is Crossbreed Priscilla’s mother. While Priscilla’s Dagger does do Dark damage and Velka’s rapier also does dark damage, I operate on the general assumption that Seath is Priscilla’s father/creator. Velka, once again, was the goddess of sin and punishment, which means that ‘Weird Science’ Seath would probably want to avoid her. At the very least, he would be in some hot water for betraying the Everlasting Dragons. If she wouldn’t discriminate for the other Lords, she certainly wouldn’t discriminate for a dragon.

Third, I do not believe that Velka was involved with the Four Kings and New Londo. True; the darkwraithes do dark damage with their Dark Hand, and they have what appear to be raven feathers on their armor. But we have no way of knowing if that material is supposed to raven feathers; it could very well be fur. Furthermore, connecting the darkwraithes of New Londo to Velka because of an aesthetic feature seems like a mighty leap to conclusions. By that logic, the darkwraithes also have something to do with Gravelord Nito because their armor looks like skeletons. The presence of the same statue that is in the Painted World is also circumstantial at best; there are also giant rats with Humanity in the Painted World as in the sewers, but nobody calls them part of a greater plot.

And finally, I do not believe Velka is the narrator at the beginning of the game. This ties in especially with the theory that Velka is the grand mastermind behind the Chosen Undead, and perhaps even the Dark Sign. And that’s just silly; the bad guy is not the narrator. That was a stupid plot twist in RWBY, mildly effective in God of War 2, and just out of place here. Dark Souls is known for its subtle storytelling, but this is just esoteric. And I say that as someone who has just written 3300 words about some astoundingly esoteric entities. What purpose does it serve for Velka to be the narrator and mastermind of the game? What does it say about Dark Souls’ broader themes? Humanity, the cycle of life, the rise and fall of civilization, empathy, hope, loss, decay, the inevitability of entropy and the ephemerality of life; those are the themes of Dark Souls. Gwyn is usurped because it’s part of an uncontrollable and inexorable cosmic cycle that repeats endlessly and meaninglessly; the concept that divine justice plays into that is simply counterintuitive.

With all that out of the way, I do think Velka used the Dark. The Dark did not originate with her, and she did not try to push the Dark to act a certain way, but I do think she used it. The pardoner’s rapier does have dark damage, after all, and the Dark Ember mentions specifically that it was used to forge weapons that could hurt the Lords. It could be that, growing desperate to mete out divine punishment to the other Lords, Velka drew on the Dark and taught her priesthood how to do the same. And this, ultimately, is the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back and got Velka banished to the Painted World. Velka, in her own way, became was broken down by the passage of time, as all things are.

And now that I’ve had my fill of lesser Lords, stay tuned for when we turn our sights back to the main stage. Darkmoon Tomb, here we come!

[nanigma]

So I just finished Dragon Age Inquisition

Hoo boy. It took me years to get to this game, and I somewhat regret it since the community has changed so dramatically from when this game first came out. Would have been fun to have been part of all the active discussion and theorizing. 

Oh well, I have to say I really enjoyed it. It probably doesn’t topple 2 as my favourite Dragon Age game, because I have too many feelings for that garbage pile of a city and the walking disaster that is my party in that game. I have to say though, even if this seems insane to some people, it does topple Origins for me. Since I played through that again just a couple months ago, I can safely say that even if I am still fond of that game, it does feel very dated by now.

I loved most of my companions in this game, even if Varric felt distant to the Inquisitor, and I never got very close to Blackwall, Vivienne and Sera, the rest of the bunch was just amazing. Cole, Dorian and Iron Bull were particular standouts. Josephine’s romance was very sweet. Once I got into it, the combat felt very smooth and not nearly as tedious as Origins and parts of 2. The main quests and dlc were just amazing in ther cinematography and really drew you into the story. 

There were a few very noticable flaws though: For one, the game was just too massive. i get that they wanted to make this open world and have giant areas to explore, but it did feel tiresome after the third enourmous map they make you traverse. There were some engaging sidequests while exploring (such as the time-frozen ruin in the Western Approach or the d’Onterre mansion in the Emeral Graves), but for the most part they felt very samey and not worth doing them at all. Compared to some sidequests in the previous games they felt overly simplified (probably because the developers had make a gazillion of them) I’ve replayed Origins and 2 about 10 times each, yet I can’t even think about starting another playthrough, if it means trudging through the whole of the Hinterlands yet again. Is seeing Cullen’s naked ass really worth that? Maybe...

Another thing I didn’t like was the “chosen one” style narrative. The Inquisitor felt like the center of the universe way too often. Did they really have to force that point so much? I know what they were trying to do with this, but it felt like they both deconstructed and reaffirmed the archetype constantly, causing whiplash. It just felt a bit aimless and they could have toned it down at least a little bit.

The final criticism would be the way the elves were treated. I think the game almost reveled in tearing down their beliefs and own version of history. Them being the main architect in their own downfall is one thing (though it ticks me off that this is often brought up in a “take that” kinda manner, and it really should be made clearer that Tevinter isn’t absolved of any of their shit), but the utter unraveling of the entire elven belief system was just way over board imo. It does make for an interesting backstory, but I can’t help but notice how it’s only the catholic church the chantry’s faith that keeps being presented in an ambiguous and thoughtful manner, while basically every other religion in the game gets thouroughly dismanteled and/or discredited.

Wow... okay my criticsm turned out way longer than intended. Longer than my praise even. I really did like this game and just spend a lot of time thinking about how to best articulate my misgivings with it. I will continue on to other games next, but let it be said that I do want to come back to this and look very much forward to DA4. 

[vaedar]

Headcanons: Valyrian Civilization

       This will be a general description of my headcanon for the Valyrian Freehold as a civilization, including ( but not limited to ) culture, politics, military, and so forth. It is important to remember that the details and descriptions given here apply only to interactions in this blog for RP purposes and references, they are not official nor canon unless stated otherwise. Also important to remark that some of the descriptions may not fit the laws of reality because this is fantasy and GRRM himself has stated so when people try to give logical, realistic and scientific explanations to how the ASOIAF world works. This post is VERY long but I opted for doing just one organized post rather than separate ones so it's easier to find things by having them in one place.

More of my headcanons on Valyria can be found over here.

To begin, I want to remark that I take inspiration for my headcanons of the Valyrian Freehold mainly from the histories of Ancient Rome and the mythical Atlantis, and merge them with what is canonly known of the valyrian civilization in the ASOIAF world.

From Atlantis, the similarities lie in a couple of details. The most obvious one is probably how Atlantis was said to be an advanced and powerful civilization that disappeared and/or was destroyed in a single day and night by a cataclysmic natural event ( like Valyria ), believing it a punishment by the gods for their greed ( also like some believe of Valyria ). Atlantis was also said to be 'composed' mainly by ten 'territories’ or it was divided in ten territories in the island-continent, one major or leading territory by the name of Atlas ( which would be Valyria ) and other nine self ruling territories ( the Free Cities, instead of current Braavos though, it would be Essaria ). Atlantis was said to be a mountainous area in its majority but with rich soil that was enough to sustain atlanteans ( as how the Lands of the Long Summer were in the valyrian peninsula ), as well as provide precious minerals and metals ( as Valyria was famous for ).

Another very important similarity is how Atlantis was said to have a unique metal known as Orichalcum, just as valyrians have their valyrian steel. Last but not least, in my research of Atlantis, there was an excerpt on how by the end of this mythical civilization, factions struggled for dominance and when one of these overpowered the others, they misused magic in ways that ushered the cataclysmic events that destroyed Atlantis; which is very, very similar to another of the main beliefs of how the Doom of Valyria came to be.

From Ancient Rome ( specifically the Roman Republic era of ancient Rome ), the similarities lie in the military power, politics, language and religious matters. First, the roman republic was neither an empire nor state as the Valyrian Freehold was neither a kingdom nor an empire. It was during the republican era of Rome that most of its conquests and wars expanding its power took place, including the Punic Wars from which is believed the wars between the Valyrian Freehold and Old Ghis are inspired from. Governance was in the hands of elected consuls, similar to how Valyria elected archons to rule over valyrian colonies and cities, though the senate had a say in governance matters ( if mainly in a manner of advice ); as freeholders had a say in governance as well back in Valyria ( even though noble dragonlord families in practice held the most power ). In Valyria, the term ‘archon’ is the same as the greek term of the same name that means ‘ruler’. It’s important to remark that Rome and Greece influenced one another greatly, creating the term ‘Greco-Roman’ used in historical matters, so Greece will also be used as influence as well for the inspiration of my headcanons for Valyria and its civilization.

In ancient Rome, the language spoken and written was Latin and the spoken Vulgar Latin then developed into the current romance languages ( as the Valyrian Freehold had High Valyrian which was later 'bastardized' through out the cities and colonies ). It is still used as a scholarly language around the world, including the catholic clergy as a liturgical language ( as maesters in the ASOIAF world and as how some highborn are taught High Valyrian to some extent ). On religious terms in the roman republic, though romans had their own deities and religion ( polytheists as well ), they did not impose them on those peoples they conquered but rather absorbed other religions, supporting and promoting the religious diversity in order to maintain social stability. This is very similar to how valyrians supported and tolerated the different religious beliefs so that the peoples could not stand unified behind one single and powerful religion, which was a way of keeping social stability ( or control it, in what is belief the valyrians actually did by promoting religious tolerance ).

I wanted to expose these similarities I've found with what is canonly known or believed of the Valyrian Freehold before hand, so that maybe it helps explaining my reasoning behind the headcanons that are to follow now a bit better.

Expansion and Military

Have in mind that the majority of the following headcanon is actually canon but a few of the more detailed parts are what I added as headcanons.      

      The key to the valyrian expansion was their military power or more specifically, how they came to tame and use dragons as weapons of war. Before finding dragons living in the Fourteen Flames, valyrians were peaceful sheep herding people but once they acquired dragons and learned to ride them into battle, the valyrian expansion was a rather swift one. As they bonded with dragons, so did their magic grow greatly which enabled them to exploit the riches in the Fourteen Flames and build the city of Valyria, which would be the capital of the Valyrian Freehold as they continued to expand. After founding the city, others in the peninsula followed, such as Tyria and Oros ( canonly known valyrian locations ) along with Draconys to the south, Rhyos to the west and Aquos Dhaen to the east.

Of course, the more the rising power flourished, the more attention it drew until inevitably, a conflict for dominance ensued. A century or two after the rise of Valyria began ( over 5,000 years ago ), the first out of the five Ghiscari wars took place, all of which ended with a valyrian victory. The fifth and last ghiscari war took place around 4,700 B.C., where the valyrian army, ships and dragons incinerated and destroyed the city of Ghis ( later to be called Old Ghis ), effectively ending the conflicts with the now ruined empire once and for all. The Valyrian Freehold took over the empire, colonizing the remaining ghiscari cities ( others were already taken during the prior wars ) and taking their people as slaves to mine the riches of the Fourteen Flames.

For the next three and a half or so thousands of years, the Freehold opted for consolidating its power through out Essos. There were those in the capital that believed they ought to conquer the rest of the known world, knowing that it was a very possible feat to accomplish, as none could truly stand a chance against the fires of their dragons. However, they were already the greatest power in the world. The majority saw little use or necessity for conquest since the Freehold was already growing exponentially rich on the backs of slaves mining the Fourteen Flames, and thanks to the successful trading with the kingdom of Sarnor, the Rhoynar and the lands beyond the Jade Sea. Trading cities were founded.

Many dragonlords would also fly over to the lands beyond the Summer and Narrow Seas, reaching places like Casterly Rock, The Reach and Oldtown for trading purposes. Not even the riches of these lands persuaded the valyrians to invade for they already had far more in the peninsula ( both in crops and food as well as gold ). Using their magical prowess, it granted them the ability to build vast network of roads which facilitated trade and travel through out the continent. Valyrian soldiers provided safety to the peoples traveling on these roads and valyrian fleet guarded the waters from pirates and when situations escalated to dangerous ones, dragon riders would be called upon to destroy the threats. During these years, the Valyrian Freehold was not in essence an expansionist power, opting for acquiring riches through vast trading with civilizations around the known world, rather than using the power of their dragons to rouse battles and wars of conquest. This all changed though when tensions began to grow with one of these trading partners, and afterwards, it caused the rest of the world to grow all the more wary of the valyrians.

After a rather strong relation with the Rhoynar, it was against them that the next wars occurred and the rhoynish civilization proved to be a formidable one with their water wizards and armies. Losses of people and cities on both sides were heavy in several clashes, both major and minor, that spanned over a period of two hundred and fifty years. It was in the Second Spice War that the conflict came to an end, when a fearful Volantis called for help from the capital city of Valyria through the instant communication the valyrian glass candles granted. The Rhoynar had a powerful army marching onto the city but the Freehold responded by sending an army over three hundred dragons strong, their fires obliterating the rhoynish forces. One by one, the remaining cities were destroyed but the valyrians were soon afflicted ( or cursed, as many believed ) with greyscale when the river Rhoyne flooded and a foul fog fell on the city; causing the remaining valyrians to retreat, and instead come upon the remaining cities from inland. This allowed Princess Nymeria and her ships to slip unnoticed and flee.

The need ( or the greed ) for more wealth rose, and slaves were taken from across the world on any pretense, earning the Freehold a reputation of arrogance and cruelty. Interest in the west grew and so the westernmost outpost named Dragonstone was founded to trade with westerosi kingdoms, as these kings lusted for the special and expensive valyrian steel for themselves. However, the abrupt collapse of the Valyrian Freehold halted any possible western expansion.

Economy

     Undoubtedly, the Valyrian Freehold was as rich as it was powerful. In the beginning of the rising civilization, it was the discovery of dragons and the work of their growing magic that enabled valyrians to mine the riches of the Fourteen Flames. But the lands north to the volcanic chain were one of the most fertile in the known world and as they farmed them, the peoples could be fed and the rest was to be invested in trade. Whatever neighboring cities existed before, joined the flourishing valyrian civilization, adding more still to its growing territories. It was after the victories in the ghiscari wars that both the power and economy exploded, acquiring ghiscari cities and slaves to work the mines in the Fourteen Flames. Precious minerals and metals mined were worked into stone and steel for buildings, bridges, roads, palaces and entire cities; and gold, obsidian, garnet, silver and the like were sold.

As more riches were amassed, a main bank was built in the capital city but eventually others were raised in trading cities and colonies. The valyrians were ambitious and did not shy from exploiting the riches the valyrian peninsula offered and using them to expand trading relations with far off lands such as YiTi, so much so that a valyrian noble woman married an emperor and a dragon once used to live in the imperial palace. Slavery was also a practice they did benefit from economically but it was the famous valyrian steel that many wanted and were willing to pay high amounts of coin to acquire.

The currency for the valyrians was known as 'gelebo' ( literally 'coin' because I have no mind to make up currencies and I really suck when it comes to economical things, so this is just a very general description ).

Culture and Society

Have in mind that the following sections are a big mix of canon and headcanons. Pretty much all that can't be found or detailed in the ASOIAF wiki are headcanons.

Social Structure

   || To be applied to interactions before the Doom ||

        The valyrian hierarchy was ( generally ) organized in the following:

Noble Freeholders, Dragonlords and Archons

    These were noble freeholders or freeborn landholder families or Lords Freeholder. Though there were many nobles, there are forty noble dragonlord families, and it's on them that the highest power resides. In court at the capital of the Freehold ( the city of Valyria ), they elected and appointed archons to govern over other valyrian cities and colonies ( did not apply to the Free Cities who were self ruling to an extent ). In the capital itself, the archon functioned as a spokesman for the entirety of the council of Lords Freeholder. This position was not hereditary. Dragonlords, other than ruling or governing and having lands and property through out the Freehold, also fill military and safety roles both in wars and in a daily basis. These families were also strong in magic and often sorcerers hailed from them. Noble freeholders were those with lands and properties, as well as their own businesses in trade and others from where they received vast incomes. The higher ranking soldiers would also often come from these families though they were still below the command of dragonlords.  

Freeborn

    These are the families that have no land to their name ( other than their homes though there were those who lived in the lands of their employers ) but have jobs and roles in the society ( such as cooks, entertainers, physicians, artists, farmers, fishers, carpenters, scribes, etc. ), and were in the service of freeholders in their lands and properties. In almost the totality, these peoples served as soldiers in valyrian armies in times of war though many made a career out of their military service, aiding in safety on a daily basis ( as guards, escorts, etc. ) through out the Freehold.

Slaves

     Valyrians adopted the practice of slavery from their ghiscari enemies, and the ghiscari themselves were taken as slaves to be used in the mines of the Fourteen Flames, after the five ghiscari wars took place. Though there are domestic slaves ( these are considered 'lucky' when compared to the other option ), the majority ( in the several thousands and then millions ) were forced to work in mines, where they die from the hazardous conditions. Valyrians took slaves in mass numbers from their conquests but in times of peace, slaves were bred.

Origins

       The valyrians evolved from peaceful sheep herding people to powerful dragonlords in just a few centuries, and established a civilization that endured for five thousand years. Though it was ruled neither by a king nor emperor, it's expansion could only be compared to that of an empire but it's not only the vast lands that came under valyrian governance that made this civilization so grand; it was the society itself as well. There were characteristics and practices unique to the valyrians, from their physical appearance to religious beliefs and special bond to dragons.

Many are the theories on how the peoples acquired the unique coloring and features that depict them from the rest of the ethnic characteristics in the known world. Pale and fair skin, silver-gold and platinum white hair along with eyes of differing violet hues ( purple, lilac, indigo and clear blue ), and their innate resistance to heat are said to be a direct effect of the magic that runs in valyrians or the so called 'blood of the dragon'. Others say it may be a literal result of some form of magical fusion between humans and dragons. A far less known belief is that valyrians are descended from peoples of the Great Empire of the Dawn, who were said to have very similar characteristics. The valyrians themselves think they are descended from dragons and gods and it's because they share the same blood that their special bond with these creatures exists. Regardless of where the truth resides, the facts remain that the valyrians are unlike other men and women with their peculiar traits, not only physical but magical ( as they were also stronger in magic than others ).

Religion and Traditions

    Through out the social structure of the valyrian civilization, beliefs and practices differ slightly. For example, though dragonlords generally follow the polytheist religion of the Valyrian Freehold, they are not particularly devout as those freeborn peoples beneath them in the social structure. Though dragonlords and sorcerers do practice certain rituals ( mostly involving blood rituals and magic ), they scarcely gather for religious worship ( thinking this to be a primitive thing that only serves to control the masses and promoting religious diversity served to appease them, and prevent from one religion rising in unified power over the others ), unlike the lower freeborn folk. This was because dragonlords think themselves to share the blood of dragons, creatures that are believed to be divine and magical beings and therefore, they are above the rest of the common folk and religious cult. It's important however to remark that there was no official religion in the Valyrian Freehold and that the capital itself did not promote any over the other, so there were many temples and structures built to worship or pay tribute to different gods and religions.

To those who do follow the valyrian gods, it's customary to have some small altar or figures representing these gods at their homes or rooms. If one was to worship or pray to one specific deity, one would need to have something representative of this god as well ( ex. a source of fire such as candles or a hearth for the god of the fire mountains—Fourteen Flames—which was the principal deity ).

There were countless gods, and more than one could be synonymous to the same thing. Balerion ( the name given to Aegon Targaryen's mount ) was the name of a god of night or more specifically, the god who was believed responsible for the night that shadows the sun in mid day; an eclipse ( a symbolism of how the Black Dread's wings were said to shadow over entire towns, was the best I could come up with ). Azaes, Vaedar's dragon, was named after one of the gods of war, particularly the one responsible for the strife in wars. But there are other gods related to war and the causes and effects of it ( such as discord, lies, chaos, grief, anger, etc. ) so it was not uncommon for people's to relate any of these gods to war. The same principal applies to deities such as the gods of the sun, fire, light, and so forth.

The naming of dragons after valyrian gods was a common custom and it served to symbolize the relation that these creatures ( and their riders ) shared with the gods. It's because they wanted to maintain this purity of blood that incest was practiced amongst the dragonlord families, marrying brother to sister or aunt to nephew as well as cousins, and so was polygamy practiced ( a little less common ). Although it didn't mean they exclusively married family members, as some nobles did marry outside of their families and the valyrians themselves ( ex. the noblewoman that married a YiTish emperor ).

Magic would also sometimes be a factor in these unions, as a strong sorcerer could take a skilled sorceress for a wife in hopes to have children with even stronger magical prowess. Unlike some other civilizations, magic was not prohibited nor looked down upon but it was freely practiced by priestesses, witches, sorcerers and all others with the skill, including blood magic. This being said, valyrians ( or most of them ) did believe in prophecies or at least the power that they have, as dragonlords aside from their unusual characteristics, also experienced prophetic dreams. It's a common belief that the first valyrians ventured to the Fourteen Flames as a result of the visions received in these dreams.

Rights and Law Enforcement

    The council of Lords Freeholder were responsible for creating, approving and implementing laws. The valyrians were aware of how important trading relations were and so they were rather welcoming of foreigners, allowing others to visit or come and go as they please in and out of the valyrian cities. However, this was mostly possible because their laws and regulations for public safety were simple but strict, and were effectively implemented and executed. After all, it was hard for any criminal to stand up against a dragon and it was sometimes in fear of these creatures and the punishment their riders may bring if caught, that delinquents abstained from criminal activity ( or at least tried to be more careful when doing so ). Though there were well trained guards to guarantee safety and make certain the laws are followed, there was no hesitance to call upon and use dragons to enforce and dissuade whatever conflicts that can't be resolved through the usual ways.

Every freeborn valyrian citizen was entitled to basic rights, such as those which allow them to participate in trades, own property, and ( for the nobility ) have a say in governance. There was little discrimination over gender in the roles of valyrian society. Soldiers, teachers, physicians, cooks and the like could either be male or female, as well as dragon riders. However, it was most common for the male children to inherit positions as household heads ( as it was through males that the family name continues though there were special cases, depending on who holds the most power in a marriage between nobles ), even though there was no law forcing this upon noble families. It was rather a matter of personal preference on the current household head to choose which of his or her children would succeed them.

Bastard children with only one noble parent did not have the right to inherit the position of household heads nor were they bestowed any dragons or dragon eggs but they could marry their noble true born half siblings. Other than this, they virtually had the same rights as their noble family if they were taken and raised into said noble family as another member, though this did not spare them of the social discrimination or taint of not having 'pure dragon blood'. Divorces and annulments weren't allowed ( one of the reasons as to why polygamy was allowed ) but a widow could remarry, as virginity was not a requirement for marriage and neither was the consummation ( as long as the wedding was performed under the valyrian gods ).

Slaves are considered property with no rights, and children born to slaves are meant to live the life of their parents. The mothers of newborns are allowed two years of reduced simple labor so that they may feed and care for their babes, after which the one year old is taken from her to begin receiving a very simplistic education with a few dozens of other children ( think of it as orphanages ). They are taught high valyrian and are raised to obey their valyrian masters. When they are deemed ready, the young children join their parents in the mines and are forced into labor. At least, that's how it usually was in times of peace, for once the thirst for more riches and slaves grew after the rhoynish wars, their valyrian masters stopped caring if whether the children survived or not—they simply enslaved more people from wherever they could to replace the ones who died. Revolts were common but they were dealt with rather easily though it’s in the mines of the Fourteen Flames that the religion of the Many-Faced God originated, but valyrian masters did nothing to stop this, since they didn’t really care ( nor thought of it as a threat ).

Whenever laws were broken, the punishments were enforced regardless of social standing or power, they were the same for a noble freeholder as for a freeborn individual. This was both good and not so good, as many times special circumstances that would thought to require special consideration and approaches ( more specifically, injustices ) were treated as any other crime of its kind and punished accordingly. In other words, if someone was forced into something by someone else for example, the law dictated the victim to be punished as well. With time, as the influence of certain dragonlord families grew, so did these laws waived and with the wavering, corruption amongst the more powerful nobles began to grow in frequency; but this was at a later time near the collapse of the valyrian civilization.

The punishments ( often decided in public audiences by Lords Freeholder or dragonlords ) ranged from monetary or proprietary compensations and/or confiscation, imprisonment, forced labor for periods of time, exile and death ( be it burned by dragon fire, hanged, or beheaded; the severity was determined by the type of crime ). Dragons usually fed on the dead if a dragon lord enforced the execution. Though valyrians were pretty welcoming to foreigners, they also expected visitors to abide by their laws and if broken by visitors, they were subjected to the same punishments.

Education and Language

     From a young age, valyrians received a basic level of education in a vast variety of subjects, though it was depending on the individual's resources if they received a more specialized and/or focused education. The general population with moderate or low resources usually attended schools from the ages of six to sixteen, being instructed on subjects like grammar, language, history and mathematics. Every girl and boy received instruction on how to wield weapons and a basic training for battle, which qualified them all to serve in the valyrian army in times of war. It was once they came of age ( sixteen ) that they could decide whether to pursue a military career or any other of their choosing. Once the decision was made, depending on the choice, individuals either became apprentices in their fields to other experienced professionals, or acquired their own experience and honed their knowledge independently if possible.

As for noble families, either they employed private instructors or have their children attend smaller and more exclusive schools where renowned teachers would instruct the young. It was more common for dragonlords ( those with the most resources and riches ) to employ private instructors for different subjects although sometimes the dragonlord parents would personally instruct their children as well. For both noble freeholders and freeborn citizens, certain skills like sowing, sculpting, embroidery, art and music were taught either by parents possessing these talents or ( in the case of the nobles mostly ) instructors were also employed for these specific subjects.

The language valyrians spoke is known as High Valyrian, and it was imposed on all the peoples they colonized, believing that successful communication was very important for the Freehold ( and this could only be achieved through using the same language ). However, the Common Tongue was taught in schools ( even if on a more basic and general level ) but nobles were fluent in the language too. Through out the colonies and cities, High Valyrian was bastardized into dialects.

Entertainment and Fashion

    With many resources and riches, come more lavish ways of entertainment and the valyrians were not shy in amusing themselves. From tournaments of all kinds to pleasure houses, they did like to have fun in their own ways. Sorcerers, other than taming the fires of the Fourteen Flames, would also offer beautiful spectacles of magic in important celebrations of nobility. Tournaments had battles between warriors but dragons were never to take any part, though their riders who were skilled with the sword ( and others ) could participate. However, the battles would not be to the death, unless it was an accidental occurrence ( more so if dragon riders were the participants, as they were too valuable ). As ruthless, greedy and even cruel valyrians can be in wars, to kill for entertainment was not a common nor generally accepted practice on a social level ( thinking it too primitive and unnecessary for just entertainment purposes ).

Musical talents were highly praised too so musicians were quite on demand for parties and even just to spend some leisure time after dinner or supper entertaining guests. Art was also something valyrians admired and had a like for, and it was considered an entertaining activity both to do art and admire it in exhibitions during balls or other festivities. During all of these social gatherings, all varieties of food were abundant and so was valyrian wine, considered to be one of the best in the known world. Valyrians did not know any modesty and lacked restraint when it came to entertainment, and it was so also portrayed in the fashion they clad themselves in for these social events ( that were pretty often ).

Though their climate did not allow for layers of tunics and dresses to be worn ( unless they wanted to drown in sweat ), the clothes were elegant and elaborate, with complicated patterns and high quality fabrics. Jewelry was an important part of the attires, either worn on the clothes and/or skin and/or hair. Gold was the usual choice for decorative wear whilst other metals infused with the famous magical alloy of valyrian steel for armor with details in other precious metals, was ideal for those who were off to battle. There were extravagant ceremonial attires but as for every day wear, common folk would opt for simply light tunics or togas tied by their waists and shoulders. Nobility would use more sophisticated versions of these and/or tunics mostly for males, with jewelry ( both men and women used jewelry though female did tend to use more ).

Dragonlords were mostly the ones who wore more covering fabrics whenever they were to ride their mounts to protect themselves better from the strong winds on dragon back. Their attires would usually consist of ( long or short sleeved ) tunics with leather belts by their waists for their weapons, and on their arms over their gloved hands ( to protect the skin of their palms from the rough scales of their dragons ). It was not uncommon to also have some form of light weight armor ( often valyrian steel ). Though it was not as important on freeborn folk, for workers and nobility, clothes were a symbol of status or it served to show and even promote their status or profession. This also applied to pleasure workers and other peoples associated to this business.

Pleasure houses were available though not all of them were open to everybody. The more exclusive ones were available for noble freeholders, and those were elegantly furnished, almost as well as palaces of nobility ought to be. To be a pleasure worker was not as looked down upon in Valyria as it could be in other places. From all this entertainment, valyrians did earn much income as well since foreigners were actually the ones to seek these pleasure houses more than valyrians themselves, due to how famously beautiful the females ( and males ) were.

Valyria After the Doom

    || To be applied to all interactions taking place in the verses for Path of the Last Embers ||

    After the Doom took place, few were the survivors that managed to remain safe within the magically protected buildings that endured the cataclysmic event. Had sorcerers not been amongst these survivors, the valyrians would've surely died out but through sorcery, cunning and determination, the few peoples did survive and adjusted.

Immediately after the Doom happened, the devastation left behind rendered the shattered peninsula uninhabitable and the volcanic ash and fog covered almost the entirety of the land, effectively protecting and concealing the location where the refugees remained. The dragonlord Aurion and his host that ventured into the peninsula perished intoxicated from the fumes before they could even think of returning or fleeing, and similar fates befell all others who tried to claim whatever riches remained in Valyria. The survivors were able to live through out the upcoming centuries thanks to both magical and natural protection from the Doom itself.

With the passing of the years, the valyrians learned to adjust, feeding on whatever still remained until the years allowed for them to venture further away in search for more resources. New fauna inhabited the peninsula, mostly those that move by land and/or sea so they hunted them. It was a good thing that so few families survived ( less than twenty ), and dragons were no more, so not much was needed to live. After the first century passed, the toxic fog retreated more to the north, closer to where the remaining peaks of the once Fourteen Flames still actively stood. But the presence of these toxins did affect a few of the surviving valyrians even though magic helped to protect them from ultimately dying. Some of the babes born had deformities and defects, and though the occurrence did lessen in the later years, it is still happening.

There were conflicts amongst the survivors to let the rest of the known world be aware of their existence but in the end, it was decided against it. Where once the grand civilization had been welcoming of strangers, now they would go to any lengths to protect themselves from them. In the later parts of centuries, there have been more adventurers and few did manage to reach the veiled location but never left. Valyrians took whatever riches they could from lost voyages that washed ashore and the peoples that offered no benefit, were executed. No valyrian could get out of the peninsula either and if they did, they were never to return.

This was not much of a problem since the majority knew there was nothing worth their revelation in the outside world. Though the valyrians in the shattered peninsula were isolated, it was possible to learn of the events taking place in other places through the magic of their obsidian glass candles scattered through out the world. However, once the rebirth of dragons came to be, a change began to occur not only in the valyrians but the rest of the world—the magic of Valyria itself seemed to be reawakening to its full potential ( until then, it was dependent on the skilled sorcerers and even they struggled to access or maintain whatever magic remained, and instead needed to channel the fiery power of the remaining Fourteen Flames ). It was then that Vaedar realized his time had come, and that if no one else was courageous ( or foolish ) enough to respond to these changes, then he would do so himself.

General Conclusion

    To sum it all up as best as I can, the valyrian civilization was rather unique from their way of governance, to their dragons and to their people and traditions. These headcanons try to describe in a general way a few of the things I have in mind, as much as I can manage since my knowledge on many of these matters is limited ( and not even research suddenly makes me knowledgeable enough to come up with things ). In canon, they were the 'greatest civilization' so I simply try to add a 'why' to that, other than what is canonly known, that will be applied to give some background to interactions with Vaedar, and can serve as a reference for my partners. But as always, all these things can be changed or adapted to meet RP needs.

All art and images used can be found on my Valyria pinterest board.

[twinflameshardcore]

The Sun had spoken again - 33 Pisces Virgo

Ladies and gentleman, it has begun! According to my channelings, there’s a rise of the proper, max love energy coming from the Galactic Central Sun, the Galactic Heart, through our Sun. I feel it as an increased flow of love, inspiration, easiness, and pleasure crawling down from my heart into my solar plexus.

I’m very connected with the twin, the heart communication is joined by the third eye’s activation, and the minds are also attuned. We also talk at times and we love each other much more openly than anytime before, online (LDR). Fears of showing and receiving feelings of love and care are gone. We gaze at each other on a cam just as in the beginning, with a difference that we don’t shy away after a few seconds Even the look of ourselves in an additional little Skype window doesn’t distract us. He had matured while I have less ego issues, expectations, survival impulses but more understanding that everything had been planned above to favor this relationship, to give us the best, to make us together to stay in this lifetime, just as every other true twins should get. I stick to patience and I detach from any incoming triggers of the evil energy which are less and less effective. They have no more power over my mind. Because it’s been always the brain, as the heart knows the truth and remains confident. We just gaze with love and passion - we know we’re both worth of gazing. I somehow know that September it’s his time to awaken more (he told me he didn’t have any channelings or other spiritual experiences so it looks it’s only me being hyperactive and learning about my angelic, galactic & Earthy past since 2014). For me, this is the time to enter then root into the new and better! I believe all what I have done so far will be rewarded with that what I need the most. I’m so excited as I didn’t suspect it’s coming that soon.

Now, why I’m writing here on this blog again. Watch the Sun! Some of us come from the Galactic Central Sun, I’m confident I do. Our Sun is the most important star to me as I cannot stand cold and darkness. So I talk to the Sun and I observe it. I take notes when I receive impulses to look at a clock and then I know the Sun (or some other unmonitored star here which I’m also connected too, like Betelgeuse or Eltanin) made a flare. I check results on a few websites which report solar flares and I compare. In most cases hours and minutes match together. I was hoping for X-flares when I noticed there was a sudden activation of the sunspots 2 days ago. And here we go, X2.2 followed then by X9.33 today on 09/06/17 (=16=7, I was born on 16th)!! This is big time. It is also accompanied by G3 solar storm which (somewhat badly) effects all living beings, the head, and the heart. It’s a level when the satellite communication can blackout. Or rather the black - out, the darkness out of here!

How strangely, it’s happening during the full Moon in Pisces too (I’m Pisces/Aries). The number 33 is very meaningful here as well. It’s assigned to alchemical symbols of water and fire, blue/indigo and red/orange (a triangle symbols turned up and down), dualities, the year Christ was reported to die, and also I was born as number 33 :)) Thus when I saw the Sun was active so much on Sept. 4th, flaring up all that plasma at :33 minutes during the day (see screenshots below), I knew I am being called out to receive, that my soul has been receiving messages which only it understands for the time being but it’ll send decoded messages into the body’s systems next. And I felt so much of love, release, freedom in the solar plexus and heart that I know this is what most of us had been waiting for. I felt my twin and myself coming into my higher heart chakra today morning. It was amazingly open, I felt his joy, his satisfaction, his love. I was no more drained by low vibrations, the fog in the brain, and it was such a difference! I heard a little voice in my head asking to repeat: ‘I AM the Sun. I radiate’ to feel like the Sun next. So I repeated and for a moment I felt like the major star in our Solar System - unmovable, static, the highest where all others planets are bound to, where the Sun is loved, respected, supports life, transmutes with the extreme heat, powerfully releases the excess of its content, and is somehow related to Seraphim angels as well.

What I’m trying to tell here, today marks the very preparation of so called the Event which is related to love, not politics yet. I’m sure of it because I have connections with the Galactic Central Sun and I somehow knew this would start with the X flare after many months of silence. The silence before the storm, the good one!

Twin flames will play a big role here as we’re going to keep the grid of love, the new, powerful one which is above the old grid of abusive, hacked energy. It’ll be trying to restore itself but we need to hold steady to keep it (via being connected with the twin and loving them unconditionally, this is enough) so the old can dissolve and so we can spread and replace it with better values.

What’s more, areas effected by the areas on Earth which had absorbed the most of the big solar flare have been... the countries related to war and slavery to start from the area where Atlantis was said to be, Africa (Egypt!), then the entire Europe - Italy (Rome, Catholic religion!), and call countries affected by war, slavery and/or religion - Poland, France, Czech, Sweden, Germany, UK, Norway, Belgium and more, but also Brazil and Peru etc. All these places were affected by the evil energy which originates from Egypt and which was incorporated by the Roman Empire along with manipulative techniques of muting people’s heart connections and threatening the brains, killing good people (burning alive herbalists, shamans, wisemen, Cathars and healers called by them ‘witches’!) in the name of Christian religion and their big fake book full of distortions. I’m of the Dragons and I know the very truth but this is a topic for another post. In addition, I’ve discovered lately that I have strong connections with Andes and Inca (I was probably a shaman, an astronomer). When I had a look at the place on Google street view, poor Peru is all covered with crosses and churches, manipulation, enforcement, brainwashing! Damn the Crusaders-mercenaries hired by the Roman Church, you’ve stolen the spirit, the many beliefs and the gold too. We praised the Sun, the connection to the only source of Love and Creation! Today marks the beginning of the religions’ cleanup. We don’t need any religions. Bloody wars were brought by religions exclusively, by enforcing good, innocent people to take in what they didn’t want. What their hearts didn’t resonate with. What was feeding their brains with fear, dependance, enslavement, and confusion. The only love, forgiveness and wisdom are inside, in our own hearts. We don’t need leaders or god’s messengers.

Solar flares between September 4-6th, 2017:

(I’ve marked all timestamps which I’m prompted to see on any clock during every day, in random order as I receive impulses from the Sun).

We haven’t seen any X-flares since I believe 2015. The strongest ever recorded was in 2003 (X23). I was missing them as they keep me high, excited. They feed my inner fire, in tune with Mars’ passion. X9.33 solar flare has happened exactly during the full Moon in Pisces, the last and the most wounded zodiac sign as we - Pisces have given away, dedicated everything including ourselves so the Love, Peace and Balance could return. We were tricked and disconnected from ourselves. The most dualistic sign (the other is Gemini, Twins) has the duality inborn for the reason to understand it and stand against separation. To unite itself within, and unite others by generating the energy of balance and love. But what we kept is the ability to receive messages and energies from realities higher than this of the 3D. Thus the last who are usually bullied, misjudged, misunderstood, who are shy and isolate themselves from the world are becoming the first creators of the New-er World Order, where Oneness within and with all that is is the only option. Today we’re affected by the Sun which heals what had been damaged. The Moon acts like a download today and will purify everything which was damaged in Pisces and all other zodiacs too because today people are fragile, sensitive and accessible to the higher powers. Today everybody can feel what Pisces feel and understand why we live in isolation, why we hate crowds, why we’re so defensive when it comes to the environment - sounds, light, energy. Why we don’t participate socially. Because we’re so affected by everything that we’re sick of it and it disturbs our inner balance.

I’m also excited because this full Moon is my twin’s natal aspect while the Sun is in Virgo, and it’s a very opposition to my aspect. Which means that we’re upside down with each other thesedays. Alchemically, we’re fire and water, 2 triangles of a hexagram. He’s a Neptune-water person, I’m Mars-fire person, these planets were the closest to the Milky Way when we were born. Milky Way is the scar surrounding our Universe, it was sealed that way along the Milky Way once the Light entered between now Scorpio and Sagittarius constellations, then started bouncing against crystals with heat and noise creating more colors, more frequencies, more matter, more stars, planets etc. Like a stroboscope driven by one beam. In fact I’ve seen a pattern of 3 stars merged together in my mind’s eye on 09/4 and it flashed like a stroboscope then disappeared :)

The next thing is that on 09/16 Mars will have a close randez vous with Mercury, both are very influential planets in my natal chart (I’ve Mars in Gemini, Mercury is Gemini’s planet). They will communicate something to each other, either demanding or negotiating. Maybe I’ll learn what my most advanced self prepared for me -the human- to proceed with next.

On 09/21st, there’s a new Moon in Virgo, again, Pisces-Virgo opposition. I feel I’m going to go through the same upgrade like I had in February March this year, when the full Moon was in Virgo and new moon in Pisces (which also was a solar eclipse in Feb.) thus inverted to where it’s now and yet it’s 6 months later = 33, balance.

(From Stellarium program)

Then on 09/22 and 23th, during the autumn (and spring Down Under) equinox, a few major planets will align along with the Sun: Mercury, Mars, Venus on one side in Leo, but Jupiter and the Moon on the other, in Virgo. This sign will play an important role here. This tells me that the feminine energy (which agreed to do the hardest part in the TF relationship) will get a long awaited boost. Imagine an energy beam which as if initiated by Regulus, the major star in the Leo constellation. Leo and its natives got their vibrational ‘messages’ during the solar Eclipse. Next, the energy of Leo will spread it onto other planets and these, into people who are linked with these planets too - ex-Venusians, Mercurians, Marsians. The beam goes through all these planets, then though the Sun where it gets boosted again, then flashes into Jupiter (which is a radio-like planet) and the Moon, pointing towards Libra next.

Virgo represents stability, perfection, organization, being savyy, prioritizing an order of things and clarity, the family, often the love for children too but rather thanks to the traditional approach as as mother and/or wife, not a hippie. Negatively, they love criticizing (which is the ego stuff) and also a very strong self-criticism doesn’t let them shine either, despite of own talents, great memory, and always hard, routine work. Virgo works like an ant, is meticulous and has an eye for detail. Anything what Virgo does, its done perfectly, precisely, organized well too but then they won’t yell about it (unlike Sag, Gemini or Aries) so many people just won’t even know such a work had been done. Similarly, many people with the feminine energy (not just mothers, wives, lovers and employees but also many men who feel & understand like women) had been plotting silently, doing the hardest work for many years while getting no encouragement, motivation, applause or payment. They never liked the ‘comfort zone’ (or ‘comfort jail’) of the known and predictable but they were hoping that somebody could kick their ass and say - ‘Do something unusual, break the rules you’ve established. Go for a chance, the new, refreshing‘. Thus here come the full Moon in Pisces before the New Moon in Virgo,  followed by a reward, from all other planets aligned and the Jupiter bringing abundance, opportunities, love, money, dreams coming true. I believe we’ll be getting noticed for the perfect job which the feminine energy had done so far on any levels, spiritually and physically.

Libra will then judge and equalize in late September and in October to give everybody a chance, encouraging - ‘Turn to love and harmony, we need that. Ditch war, unite the duality’. Then when we pass Libra and enter Scorpio in late October to November, here the revenge-loving warrior will vibrationally ‘execute’ those who remained attached to war, fear, dualities, patriarchy, matriarchy, religions, manipulation or anything which is not related to own self, own heart and peace. I don’t know yet what Sagittarius will do with that energy, but considering there’s the middle of the Milky Way near by, it may help remove those individuals who resist love as the only force out of the Solar System and open the ‘door’ to those who have been waiting to enter this New Earth behind the veil. They are our most advanced original versions, galactic families of many races, positive aliens, higher selves, you name it. Sagittarius is a man/woman of many contacts, it’s a human-animal hybrid too. Many of us were non-human beings before and this essence had remained in us waiting to be embraced and re-animated when the time comes. Then in December many of us who are ready and open, may have the first serious contacts with such galactic families, aliens, because our consciousness will expand drastically and we’ll be able to hear, see, detect, call, host, travel etc. We’ll be able to see and read with the 3rd eye, to navigate in many dimensions whenever we want, not only when the timing is right or when ‘under influence’. December may be also the very first month when a huge amount of love from the Source, (the original love we were basking in up there before we came down on Earth), will be processed by those twin flame couples who are ready to be conductors for it. Those who will not get fried :) I’ve volunteered to process it a long time ago because it feels like a fiery orgasm, so I’m sure I’ll be a part of it. Thus most possibly, this task will be done by Seraphim (here, here!), supported by all other highest ranked energies - Cherubim, Ophanim, healed djinns, healed 'fallen angels’, etc., any fire beings as these are the most capable to engulf themselves in ‘flames’ and fire up the new energy grid so the vibration can be delivered to others and stay within, bounced between the ‘conductors’.

From September to December, it’s also the time to draw yourself, your primal  energies and attributes from elements. Draw the You from all 5 elements into your heart, solar plexus, root, your mind and the body. Draw your healed sexuality from water into your sacral chakra and the body (swimming, taking a shower etc), draw passion and courage from fire into your heart (ie. looking at flames), draw air (multi-dimensionality, versatility, wisdom) into your mind so the air could refresh it, draw earth (stability, peace, also money) into your root chakra so you don’t fear to receive from Gaia anymore as Gaia is mostly healed. Finally, draw from the aether - your divine, your I AM Oneness, all of your versions, your most advanced Self, your galactic essence as you’re one with everything that is around. Let the elements, your energies return to where they belong.

Twin flames who are ready, who learnt their lessons, got rid of the ego’s impulses, surrendered to love and understood why they cannot live without the other, it’s time to host our higher Oneness into our bodies and switch from the timeline of separation into the timeline of togetherness, permanently. We exist as One above in the other dimension and we stay in less or more realized contact with those separated, human versions of us below. Those above and those below are us (like reflected in a mirror- the horizon, anchored with hearts and heads). We above join our human bodies below once we ascend into 5D and 6D, a bit after bit. We fill our body and the twin’s with the self and the other. The galactic you returns to you. The galactic marriage as you are returns into you two. This makes us closer, and closer and finally One again here on the New Earth. It’s called the New Earth as it runs on the new grid of energy re-created by twin flames and light/earth/galactic warriors. Merging is a slow process and only the end of it goes fast. Most of this is handled by your soul. I don’t believe we can help it in any other way that just allowing the soul to run the show. Do not resist, do not sabotage your near future joy, because you want to exit the struggle incl. everything around, and once for all.

Now I need to rest. I got so exhausted being touched by so many solar flares and this channeling. Time will tell if I was right or wrong. Bye for now!

This post is copyrighted by the author of this blog who prefers to remain anonymous. My posts must not be used for commercial purposes of any kind. Respect my work - ask first before you copy, always include a link back to my site when you quote a part of my writing!

[sammy24682468]

Quote for your delight

[6/29, 6:34 AM] Albert: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Corinthians 6:19

The health reform is one branch of the great work which is to fit a people for the coming of the Lord. It is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is with the body. The law of ten commandments has been lightly regarded by man; yet the Lord will not come to punish the transgressors of that law without first sending them a message of warning. Men and women cannot violate natural law by indulging depraved appetite and lustful passions, without violating the law of God. Therefore he has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may realize the sinfulness of breaking the laws which he has established in our very being. Our heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of men who, many of them ignorantly, are disregarding the principles of hygiene. And it is in love and pity to the race that he causes the light to shine upon health reform. He publishes his law and its penalties, in order that all may learn what is for their highest good. He proclaims his law so distinctly, and makes it so prominent, that it is like a city set on a hill. All intelligent beings can understand it if they will. None others are responsible. To make natural law plain, and to urge obedience to it, is a work that accompanies the third angel's message. CTBH 9.1_9.1_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/14.23#36

[6/30, 5:56 AM] Albert: “And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.” Proverbs 23:2-3

God wants men to cultivate force of character. Those who are merely timeservers are not the ones who will receive a rich reward by and by. He wants those who labor in His cause to be men of keen feeling and quick perception. They should be temperate in eating; rich and luxurious food should find no place upon their tables; and when the brain is constantly taxed and there is a lack of physical exercise, they should eat sparingly, even of plain food. Daniel's clearness of mind and firmness of purpose, his strength of intellect in acquiring knowledge, were due in a great degree to the plainness of his diet in connection with his life of prayer. 4T 515.4_515.4_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/114.2519#2540

[7/1, 6:27 AM] Albert: “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:3

Romanism is now regarded by Protestants with far greater favor than in former years. In those countries where Catholicism is not in the ascendancy, and the papists are taking a conciliatory course in order to gain influence, there is an increasing indifference concerning the doctrines that separate the reformed churches from the papal hierarchy; the opinion is gaining ground that, after all, we do not differ so widely upon vital points as has been supposed, and that a little concession on our part will bring us into a better understanding with Rome. The time was when Protestants placed a high value upon the liberty of conscience which had been so dearly purchased. They taught their children to abhor popery and held that to seek harmony with Rome would be disloyalty to God. But how widely different are the sentiments now expressed! GC 563.1_563.1_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.2545#2546

http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/06/21/pope-calls-for-christian-unity-in-protestant-heartland-of-geneva/

[7/2, 6:17 AM] Albert: "And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory...And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,

Come out of her, my people,

that ye be not partakers of her sins,

and that ye receive not of her plagues." Revelation 18:1,4.

It is true that there are real Christians in the Roman Catholic communion. Thousands in that church are serving God according to the best light they have. They are not allowed access to His word, and therefore they do not discern the truth. [Published in 1888 and 1911. See Appendix.] They have never seen the contrast between a living heart service and a round of mere forms and ceremonies. God looks with pitying tenderness upon these souls, educated as they are in a faith that is delusive and unsatisfying. He will cause rays of light to penetrate the dense darkness that surrounds them. He will reveal to them the truth as it is in Jesus, and many will yet take their position with His people. GC 565.3_565.3_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.2545#2558

[7/3, 6:17 AM] Albert: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Revelation 16:13-14

Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience. GC 588.1_588.1_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.2635#2659

[7/4, 6:09 AM] Albert: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Revelation 13:11-12

When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result. GC 445.1

The beast with two horns “causeth [commands] all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16, 17. The third angel's warning is: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” “The beast” mentioned in this message, whose worship is enforced by the two-horned beast, is the first, or leopardlike beast of Revelation 13—the papacy. The “image to the beast” represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas. GC 445.2_445.2_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.1960#2014

https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/key-evangelical-players-trumps-advisory-board

[7/5, 6:11 AM] Albert: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:4-6

How the Roman Church can clear herself from the charge of idolatry we cannot see. True, she professes to worship God through these images; so did the Israelites when they bowed before the golden calf. But the Lord's wrath was kindled against them, and many were slain. God pronounced them impious idolaters, and the same record is made today in the books of heaven against those who adore images of saints and so-called holy men. RH June 1, 1886, par. 12_12_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/821.7316#7316

[7/6, 6:09 AM] Albert: “And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.” John 2:15-16

Christ was a protestant. He protested against the formal worship of the Jewish nation, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves. He told them that they taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and that they were pretenders and hypocrites. Like whited sepulchers they were beautiful without, but within full of impurity and corruption. The Reformers date back to Christ and the apostles. They came out and separated themselves from a religion of forms and ceremonies. Luther and his followers did not invent the reformed religion. They simply accepted it as presented by Christ and the apostles. The Bible is presented to us as a sufficient guide; but the pope and his workers remove it from the people as if it were a curse, because it exposes their pretensions and rebukes their idolatry. RH June 1, 1886, par. 14_14_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/821.7316#7316

[7/7, 5:53 AM] Albert: "And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence." Esther 3:2

The decree which is to go forth against the people of God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews in the time of Esther. The Persian edict sprang from the malice of Haman toward Mordecai. Not that Mordecai had done him harm, but he had refused to show him reverence which belongs only to God. The king's decision against the Jews was secured under false pretenses through misrepresentation of that peculiar people. Satan instigated the scheme in order to rid the earth of those who preserved the knowledge of the true God. But his plots were defeated by a counterpower that reigns among the children of men. Angels that excel in strength were commissioned to protect the people of God, and the plots of their adversaries returned upon their own heads. The Protestant world today see in the little company keeping the Sabbath a Mordecai in the gate. His character and conduct, expressing reverence for the law of God, are a constant rebuke to those who have cast off the fear of the Lord and are trampling upon His Sabbath; the unwelcome intruder must by some means be put out of the way. 5T 450.1_450.1_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/113.2223#2228

[7/8, 6:36 AM] Albert: “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

Self-denial means to rule the spirit when passion is seeking for the mastery; to resist the temptation to censure and to speak faultfinding words; to have patience with the child that is dull and whose conduct is grievous and trying; to stand at the post of duty when others may fail; to lift responsibilities wherever and whenever you can, not for the purpose of applause, not for policy, but for the sake of the Master, who has given you a work to be done with unwavering fidelity; when you might praise yourself, to keep silent and let other lips praise you. Self-denial is to do good to others where inclination would lead you to serve and please yourself. Although your fellow men may never appreciate your efforts or give you credit for them, yet you are to work on. 4T 521.2_521.2_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/114.2556#2567

[7/9, 6:03 AM] Albert: “For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” Isaiah 52:3

The enemy is buying souls today very cheap. “Ye have sold yourselves for nought,” is the language of Scripture. One is selling his soul for the world's applause, another for money; one to gratify base passions, another for worldly amusement. Such bargains are made daily. Satan is bidding for the purchase of Christ's blood and buying them cheap, notwithstanding the infinite price which has been paid to ransom them. 5T 133.4_133.4_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/113.658#666

[7/10, 6:05 AM] Albert: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?” Luke 16:10-12

There are few who realize the influence of the little things of life upon the development of character. Nothing with which we have to do is really small. The varied circumstances that we meet day by day are designed to test our faithfulness and to qualify us for greater trusts. By adherence to principle in the transactions of ordinary life, the mind becomes accustomed to hold the claims of duty above those of pleasure and inclination. Minds thus disciplined are not wavering between right and wrong, like the reed trembling in the wind; they are loyal to duty because they have trained themselves to habits of fidelity and truth. By faithfulness in that which is least they acquire strength to be faithful in greater matters. PP 222.3_222.3_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/84.901#940

[7/11, 6:07 AM] Albert: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10

It is a law of the mind that it gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is trained to dwell. If occupied with commonplace matters only, it will become dwarfed and enfeebled. If never required to grapple with difficult problems, it will after a time almost lose the power of growth. As an educating power the Bible is without a rival. In the word of God the mind finds subject for the deepest thought, the loftiest aspiration. The Bible is the most instructive history that men possess. It came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, and a divine hand has preserved its purity through all the ages. It lights up the far-distant past, where human research seeks vainly to penetrate. In God's word we behold the power that laid the foundation of the earth and that stretched out the heavens. Here only can we find a history of our race unsullied by human prejudice or human pride. Here are recorded the struggles, the defeats, and the victories of the greatest men this world has ever known. Here the great problems of duty and destiny are unfolded. The curtain that separates the visible from the invisible world is lifted, and we behold the conflict of the opposing forces of good and evil, from the first entrance of sin to the final triumph of righteousness and truth; and all is but a revelation of the character of God. In the reverent contemplation of the truths presented in His word the mind of the student is brought into communion with the infinite mind. Such a study will not only refine and ennoble the character, but it cannot fail to expand and invigorate the mental powers. PP 596.2_596.2_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/84.2786#2810

[7/12, 6:04 AM] Albert: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15

The obedience of Christ to His Father was the same obedience that is required of man. Man cannot overcome Satan's temptations without divine power to combine with his instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ; He could lay hold of divine power. He came not to our world to give theobedience of a lesser God to a greater, but as a man toobey God's Holy Law, and in this way He is our example. The Lord Jesus came to our world, not to reveal what a God could do, but what a man could do, through faith in God's power tohelp in every emergency. Man is, through faith, to be apartaker in the divine nature, and to overcome every temptation wherewith he is beset. OHC 48.3_48.3_https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/81.306?#309

[imparatiavine]

Context

Religion in the Middle Ages

It’s no secret that Christianity dominates the world in the 21st century. Not surprisingly, Christianity as a cultural, political, and religious phenomenon played a major role in Medieval Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire. This fall, to many Christians, did not come as a surprise since it was prophesied about many times in the Old and New Testaments in books such as Daniel and Revelations. Now, to anyone who is familiar with these books, there is a lot that goes on which might make you think ‘wow am I still reading the Bible or is this some World of Warcraft stuff?’ From colossal statues to dragons and many-headed beasts, the Bible has stories that, if you’re as into it as I am, will keep you at the edge of your seat. This book was a major part in the daily life of any Christian, and I dare say non-Christian, living in Medieval Europe. His entire existence was pretty much based on what this single book said and as we discussed in class, it is all interconnected. Much of the Old Testament makes sense because of the New Testament and vice versa.

Although there weren’t as many denominations as today, there was still diversity within the Roman Catholic and Orthodox sects of the religion and these matters could be traced back to the previous religions of the country. Yes. You read that right. There are many themes in Christianity tracing back to Pagan religions in Egypt, Germany, and everywhere else. And to many modern faithful individuals such as myself, I don’t think about this often, mostly because it makes me uncomfortable. But that’s the truth, during the past and now. Part of the discussion was also around how much of these pagan themes infiltrated the practices of Christians and how some themes weren’t completely Christianized and remained alive in the liturgy and praises and “magical” texts. All of this to say that, as the title of the course suggests, there is a lot of mythology in Christianity and after attending class for ten weeks, I can say with ease that Christianity would probably lose a big part of its identity if we stripped it of mythology. And I think Medieval Christians would agree...I could be wrong.

Medieval Monasteries and the Bible

As I said earlier, Christianity spread like a wildfire in Medieval Europe and that was largely due to Monasteries and Monastic circles. Monasticism was based on many different rules in case you didn’t know but at its core, it depended on asceticism. The term asceticism comes from the Greek word "askesis" meaning "exercise" or "training." It implies that the individual is training for something. In all its forms and in terms of monastic life, it is not only training the body but the mind as well. The objective is to gain control of oneself in order to pray without distraction. The term monk comes from the word "monachos" meaning "single alone." The oddity is that most monks did not live alone. In general, the monks that get most of the attention tend to be the anchorites. They are living alone for long periods of time. Numerically,  most monks lived in monasteries and in groups. The term hermit is usually reserved to those living in solitary and are desert dwellers. Finally, the term anchorite comes from the Greek verb "anachoreo" meaning to "withdraw or go up." Anchorite is also someone living in solitary.

Now that I got some definitions out of the way, I want to focus on a specific type of monk, the type which evangelized and taught the sons of rich merchants and aristocracy. See monks were actually more useful to their communities than in modern day and I don’t mean in that in a negative way or anything. On the contrary, if you visit countries like Egypt and go to the poor countrysides, you’ll see that the monks of the nearby monastery are the ones that help wherever is needed and go out of their way to support struggling individuals, whether Christian or Muslim or any other religion. But back then, monks and friars and men in training were tasked to educate the youth and produce and illuminate manuscripts and books of many types, not just the Bible. And that’s how Christianity spread! Each time a monk visited a village, alongside selling the works of his hands not for himself but more for his community and his basic needs, he’d evangelize and spread the Gospel. And more often than not, he would go into houses of rich men and teach the children how to read and write...and I would like to think that he snuck the Bible in between sessions or probably used scriptures to test the children. But that’s just a theory. Again, I could be wrong. For the purposes of this assignment/story, however, this is the case. It’s like the beginning of a joke.

Two monks walk into an aristocrat’s home...

Anyway, Monasticism, as an institution, spearheaded missionary activity in several locations. Much of Nubia and Ethiopia, for example, is evangelized by Egyptian monks, and Asia & China by the Syrian monks. The bulk of Anatolia and Russia are also evangelized through the monastic movement. Where monasticism goes, they are evangelizing, and where they are evangelizing, they need to have the Bible in the vernacular, along with basic liturgical and patristic texts. In all of those locations mentioned, the Old and New Testaments need to have been translated in order for the monks to interact and preach to the population. They are not only spreading education but harnessing it through the copying and decoration of manuscripts. From the 6th century on, monks have a monopoly on the higher offices which leads to ecclesiastical leadership mainly by the bishops but also by the priests. This is also one of the reasons why I picked this part of the story of Christ to write about. Not much is known about the forty days Christ spent in the desert and I’d like to think it went a little something like this. And since this is meant to be graded, I based it on a discussion we had for one meeting: the connections between the Old and New Testaments.

The Rule of St. Benedict

So the order which followed the teachings of St. Benedict was the most common during this era and it encouraged its members to live as simply as possible, in every aspect of their life. For the purposes of this story, the two monks speaking to the little kid are Benedictine monks which went out to sell their daily labor so they could buy food and water for their community of monks. For a closer look into the Benedictine Order, please visit this website.

[rcsonant-blog]

                                           you don’t want to hear the story of my life,                                          and anyway i don’t want to tell it, i want to listen                                                to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.                                                 and anyway it’s the same old story—                                                           a few people just trying,                                                              one way or another,                                                                     to survive.

mirae was born to kwon hyemi, a beautiful dragon that’s features easily enchanted anyone with a passing glance. unlike many other dragons, her mother remained unregistered, roaming free and “illegal” all of her life. well, almost all of her life. like dragons before her, she had been thrust into the system as a child, growing up in a care facility herself until she was sold off to a wealthy family. the family, like many families often did to dragons, treated her horribly, never addressing her as an equal, abusing her as a pet, and shackling her away when they had to use of showing her off around town. she was nothing more than a luxury item to them. and hyemi had accepted that as her life until she had met a man. in particular, another dragon from the families close friends.

a secret love affair was what they shared, running around in secret behind closed doors and reveling in each others company. they made each other feel alive, like they were destined for more than a life of solidarity and imprisonment. they loved each other, at least that’s what hyemi thought -- until she got pregnant. then everything changed.

they were both panicked, knowing that this information would tear the families into shambles. the news certainly wouldn’t go over well, especially for them. fear drove them mad, until realization struck. not only would this affect them, it would affect the children. if they weren’t ripped away from hyemi, they’d be subjected to the same torture she had to endure.

that just wasn’t going to happen.

hyemi tried to talk him into going with her, she really did. that was the best option -- run away together, start a new life. they could do it, surely. but that was the thing. he didn’t want to. he was afraid, the uncertainty too much for him, the pregnancy and responsibility that accompanied it much less desirable than staying shackled in a home.

so, in a desperate attempt at a normal life for her children, hyemi decided to run away alone. she didn’t have time for his cowardly ass!

hyemi lived like that, homeless on the streets, staying hidden and fending for herself. she made a few friends along the way, friends willing to help her out for a few days. but it only ever lasted a few days. hiding a runaway, illegal dragon wasn’t exactly what people would call worth the risk.

nearing the due date, hyemi had become incredibly sick, which put a stress on the pregnancy. because of that, when she finally gave birth ( in the home of a dear friend of hers ), not every baby survived. 10 had been born, and only 5 had survived. it was rough on hyemi because she knew it was her fault, even if it wasn’t actually her fault. her health was to blame, and she’d done the best she could with the circumstances but it just wasn’t enough.

flashing forward ( ‘cause the meat in the middle isn’t at all important ) mirae grew along with her siblings, her family remaining on the streets. if you’d ask her, she doesn’t remember much from the time other than a lot of nights were spent cold and were often scary, but her mother was warm. she had a tender voice, and mirae loved the way her heart sounded when she pressed her ear to her chest.

mirae gotten distracted one day, wondering far off without thinking while her mother wasn’t fully paying attention. five children was a lot to keep an eye on, but mirae was only 2 dragon years ( 8 human ). a simply shiny object and she was off. it was as simple as that, in the panic of the bustling city, she’d been separated from her mother and siblings.

while she cried, she wondered around until her tears dried, simply searching. just trying to find her mother. for a while she did that, not necessarily accustomed to surviving on her own, but doing it anyway. it was a few weeks later that she wondered into the kim’s shop, just desperate to see if they had a bathroom that she could use since the last two places had refused.

their curious and sad eyes fell upon her with sadness, offering her to stay for a little longer and asking if she was hungry. morally they couldn’t throw an 8 year old back out on the street, so they decided to let her stay with them for the night, and the next, and the night after that, taking her back to their home. she hadn’t necessarily moved in with them, but she definitely wasn’t going anywhere given 6 months had passed since she’d joined them. at least she had a friend. a young girl by the name of eunbi, only a few years older than her ( she was only 13 ) in human years and unknowingly, she had imprinted on her within a short time.

it was different than her imprint on her mom. a welcoming attention, a tight comfort. she didn’t want to lose her.

they still didn’t know she was a dragon, though ( her telling horns hadn’t quite come in just yet ). but it had taken one moment of which she’d woken up alone and bellowed the most horrendous, echoing cry that resembled something much more intense than any alarm could fathom that started it. the police were called on a noise complaint, and the issue was addressed. “oh my -- that’s a dragon! are you aware that your dragon is unregistered? that is a horrendous offense, you could get jail time, y’know.”

“my what is what now???”

it took some discussion with eunbi’s parents, but with pleading eyes they’d decided to register her. the process was quick for them, the regional boss of their little quaint shop giving them a fast pass to the registration process that usually took people a year and a half to go through due to the fact that mirae had already imprinted on eunbi and separation anxiety for a dragon was a bitch.

and i mean like ,, that’s it ?? she grew up with them, moved out with eunbi when eunbi moved out, and that’s been her life ever since. kind of an abrupt ending, but you’ll get the missing information between this point and now in eunbi’s bio so stay tuned!

IMPORTANT TIDBITS

alright so there’s not a crazy amount of information to know about dragons. i might add things as i go and figure it all out myself but these are the things i know so far that personally apply to mirae

when in her human form, she has the ability to harness a few abilities that she could as a dragon, the most important and prevalent of that being fire. most of it comes from her hands, but whether or not she can do it any other way (i.e. her mouth) is something she isn’t quit sure of herself. because of this ability, she tends to set things on fire a lot unintentionally. miniature expositions and general fire hazards are something to always be prepared for when you’re around her.

overwhelming emotions are very dangerous. when she gets upset, her cry can become alarmingly loud and, quit honestly, terrifying. if she feels highly distressed, or even angry, she’s at a threat of transforming into her full dragon form altogether. (eunbi only experienced this once, and it was when mirae had been hauled away from her and thrown into custody to be registered). overall, all u really need to know is Intense Emotions are Very Bad

when she turns into a full dragon it’s super badass. one day i’ll change this small section with a picture of what she looks like probably. the one thing i’d like to mention is her scales are iridescent. they shift from beautiful shades of a range of colors, which is rarely seen on dragons, and it’s quit the spectacle.

⸻ THE BASICS

name: kwon mirae

age: 20

age in dragon years: 5

birthday: august 11, 1998

race: korean

gender: cisfemale

sexuality: bisexual

relationship status: single

⸻ PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

hair: brown

eyes: brown

height: 158 cm (5′2)

build: slim

distinguishing marks: horns. i know this picture is white, but i think the horns would boarder more of a darker brown/black [x]

common accessories: none

⸻ PERSONAL  

profession: helps eunbi around her shop

languages: korean

residence: taebaek, south korea

birthplace: pyeongchang, south korea

religion: catholic

fears: abandonment

disabilities: none

good traits: animated, adventurous, bright, compassionate, enthusiastic, playful, reliable, talkative, sincere, sweet

bad traits: childish, fearful, indecisive, messy, mischievous, picky, possessive, rowdy, sharp, uncoordinated

⸻ TRAITS

extroverted / introverted / in between.

disorganized / organized / in between.

close minded / open-minded / in between.

calm / anxious / in between.

disagreeable / agreeable / in between.

cautious / reckless / in between.

patient / impatient / in between.

outspoken / reserved / in between.

leader / follower / in between.

empathetic / unemphatic / in between.

optimistic / pessimistic / in between.

traditional / modern / in between.

hard-working / lazy / in between.

cultured / un-cultured / in between.

loyal / disloyal / unknown / in between.

faithful / unfaithful / unknown / in between.

⸻ PLACE IN SOCIETY

financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty

class or caste: upper / middle / working / unsure

education: high school / college / dropped out / didn’t go to school

criminal record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no

⸻ BELIEFS

monotheist / polytheist / atheist  / agnostic

belief in ghosts or spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

belief in an afterlife:  yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

belief in reincarnation:  yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

belief in aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

philosophical: yes / no

⸻ CAPABILITIES

combat skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

literacy skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

artistic skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

technical skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

social skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

⸻ HABITS

drinking alcohol: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

smoking: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

other narcotics: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

medicinal drugs: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

indulgent foods: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

splurge spending: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

gambling: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

⸻ HABITS

nail biting / throat clearing / lying / interrupting / chewing the ends of pens / smoking / swearing / knuckle cracking / thumb sucking / muttering under their breath / talking to themselves / nose picking / binge drinking / oversleeping / snacking between meals / skipping meals / picking at skin / impulse buying / talking with their mouth full / humming or singing to themselves / chewing gum / leg jiggling / foot tapping / sighing / hair twirling / whistling / eye rolling / licking lips / sniffing / squinting / rubbing hands together / jaw clenching / gesturing while talking / putting feet up on tables / tucking hair behind ears / chewing lips / crossing arms over chest / putting hands on hips / rubbing the back or their neck / being late / procrastinating / doodling / shredding paper / peeling off bottle labels / forgetfulness / running hands through hair / overreacting / teeth grinding / nostril flaring / slouching / pacing / drumming fingers / fist clenching / pinching bridge of nose / rubbing temples / rolling shoulders