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pomegranates-and-blood · 3 years

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νοσταλγία (Chapter 16)

(Gif credit HERE)

νοσταλγία Masterlist

Pairing: Ivar/Reader

Summary: This is a retelling/romantization of the Greek myth of Persephone’s abduction with Ivar as Hades and you as Persephone. The Reader character is a Byzantine woman, follower of the Greek Pantheon/Religion, and a devoted follower of Persephone. This takes place after 5A, but the universe of this is a little changed in relation with the series, of course. Thank you for giving it a chance, hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings: The usual

A/N: I’m sorry I uploaded a bit later than usual today, I’m just idk, I think I’m nearing a burnout on this. But anyways, I’m sorry, you’re not here to hear me whine lol. Today as promised there’s a second chapter (17), and schedule will stay as is for now. Thank you, and hope you like it.

Taglist: @youbloodymadgenius @heavenly1927 @toe-vind-ek-jou @xbellaxcarolinax @pieces-by-me @angelofthorr

You can certainly say the people of Kattegat have surprised you. A few days since the King’s announcement that you are to be his wife, their queen, and yet the whispers, the curious eyes; they don’t seem to be any louder or more insistent than before they knew of who you’ll become once their King returns.

You are grateful, you cannot pretend otherwise. To be normal, or as normal as can be in these strange times, it is a luxury you do not take for granted.

So, as it is your new normal, you help the women at the apothecary every day, learning more and more, and yet also having opportunities to teach them better ways. The Gods made you smart, and they also made you arrogant, you are not one to deny it, which is why you and a warrior-like woman have been arguing on how to treat a simple but deep wound for quite a while now.

“We have always done it this way.” The blonde woman argues, but you shake your head.

“That doesn’t mean it is the best way,” You stir the boiling water, pour it over the wine mixed with vinegar and offer it to the woman. “Trust me, I was a healer all over the Mediterranean and the Silk Roads. I know what works best.”

“Arrogant little witch, aren’t you?”

You cock your head to the side and curve your mouth downwards, doubtful, “Is it truly arrogance if it’s founded on actual skill?”

She blinks but then softens her expression, and with a rueful smile on her lips she says, “If your tongue is just as wicked when you face the King, I pity the poor fool.”

“Are any of you going to clean this or sho-…” The warrior sitting in the ground grumbles, but the blonde woman silences him with a hit to the top of his head.

“Shush,” Her eyes remain on you and after a breath she extends a hand, “Fine, give me that water.”

“Careful, it’s hot.”

“He’s Viking, he can take it.” She offers with a sly smile, that quickly falls at your mocking glare when the man squirms and groans as the hot mixture is used to clean the wound on his shoulder.

When the man leaves with a dressed wound that will remain clean thanks to your help, the woman brings the big bowl of fresh water so you can both wash your hands.

As you do, she concedes, “Your ways are proving to be useful, witch.”

“I have a name.” You quip quietly, your voice a grumble. The Viking woman chuckles.

“I know. But ‘witch’ is not an insult, at least to us. It’s a title. You wage war, you sit next to the King, you are welcomed in any hearth.”

“I am no Völva.” You argue calmly, recognizing the traits and benefits she lists as those of a traveling Viking Völva.

“What would you be, back in your home?”

“Dead.” You reply dryly, to which the woman laughs. Clasping a heavy hand on your shoulder, she says,

“I’m Valdís, witch.”

You roll your eyes, but accept the title and her offered seat on the table near the hearth. She passes you an apple and a knife, and you start quietly cutting little sticks for you to eat.

Lifting your gaze to her and watching her toy with a pear and a knife in her own hands, you ask, “Fine, I’m a witch. What are you?”

“A mother. I used to be a shieldmaiden, but…”

“You got married?” You supply when her words die, but the blonde shakes her head with another low, raspy laugh.

“As if a cock could keep a Viking woman from her shield,” She boasts crudely, strikingly reminding you of Sieghild for a moment. The doors to the shop open again, and Freydis walks in, empty basket on one arm and coin pouches on the other. You greet her with a smile, and she returns it as she shrugs off the cloak and takes a seat by your side. Valdís continues her explanation quietly, “No, I did not lay down my shield for marriage. I was…captured during a raid in Wessex. They injured my sword arm badly, and I cannot fight anymore.”

“And your child…” You start, but the words die out, like saying it out loud would make her pain real, like you need to let her decide if she voices this.

Valdís squares her shoulders, strong and unmoving as she says, “He is mine, he is Viking. But…yes, he was…the Saxons forced themselves upon me.”

“I’m sorry.” You whisper.

“I don’t need your sympathy.”

“You Varangians are so strange. It’s not an insult to be offered compassion.” You tell her. She narrows her eyes, chewing in silence.

“What about you? You weren’t here last winter.” Valdís asks instead of answering, turning sharp focus to Freydis.

The blond girl shuffles in her seat before giving her answer. You eye her with concern and curiosity.

“I’m-…I used to be a thrall. I was freed by a son of Ragnar.”

Why doesn’t she say it was Ivar?

“Surprising he didn’t ask you to marry him,” Valdís huffs, and at your look shrugs and explains, “Those brothers have always had a thing for blonde thralls.”

“Slaves don’t get their hands asked for, Valdís.” Freydis quips, and you catch sight of her fingers playing with one another nervously where they rest on her lap.

“My personal thrall has a husband I have met, and children of her own. What are you on about, girl?”

Even if Valdís sounds gruff, you catch a genuine silver of concern, of care, in the woman’s eyes when she regards the frail girl that seems unbreakable and fragile at the same time.

You remain silent, and wait for Freydis to speak again. She does so, quietly, cautiously.

“We are not-…Slaves don’t fall in love, we just get husbands, slaves don’t have…families, we just birth children. Like animals.”

You do not try to stop your hand from finding hers, stopping the maddening twisting of her fingers and bringing her blue eyes to you. With certainty, you say, “First of all, you are not a slave anymore. And you were never, and never will be, an animal, Freydis.”

But she shakes her head, resolute like that day she tried convincing you the Gods marked you favorites for having endured a world of pain, “You don’t understand, witch. Slaves are not people, you cannot love them, you cannot trust them.”

“Says who? Men in power?” Valdís spits out, bitter chuckle on her lips, “Just because of the Gods we follow we are not people if you ask the Christians. Will you let them say if you are a person or not?”

“No.” The blonde girl bites out, voice wavering even in such a short vocalization. You squeeze her hand, but don’t know what to say.

“Then don’t let others, even our own, tell you that because of capture or birth you are not a woman like any other,” She sounds so motherly you have to bite back a smile. With certainty, the woman continues, “We are all children of the Gods, you are a child of Freyja. Don’t forget that.”

“I’m-…If Freyja looks over me, why…why did I suffer like I did?”

“Because suffering is what makes us human, and who we are,” You supply without hesitation, offering her a sad smile at the truth you had a hard time accepting as well, “How else would you be able to stand tall today and heal your own wounds, fight for what you want, enjoy what you have; without knowing what it’s like to hurt without remedy, to want and be left wanting, to lack and have nothing?”

The mangy black cat that belongs to the shop by now jumps swiftly into Freydis’ lap, and she absent-mindedly starts petting it as she talks,

“So the Gods mark us for pain? You said-…”

You interrupt her words, not wanting to argue this again even if you know now that the deluded notion of pain being a badge of pride is not so certain in her mind.

With another squeeze of her hand, you offer, “Suffering is not preordained, no. Pain, scars, misfortune, they are not proof of the favor of the Gods.”

“Then why-…You were born under the sigil of your Goddess, and you told me you almost burned alive,” You flinch slightly at the reminder, the soft touch of the linens of your dress against the scars burning like the Christian’s fire for a moment. You steal a nervous glance to Valdís, who watches you with wide eyes, and return shameful eyes to Freydis. The blonde girl continues, “You should have died then, but your Gods kept you alive, gave you their favor, their love.”

“The scars I bear are not proof of my Goddess’ love.”

“Your Goddess’ love carried you here!” The girl insists, eyes wide, “You stood in chains in front of Ivar the Boneless and had him release you. You stand at his side, you whisper in his ear, you have power.”

Her words make you pause for a moment, feeling you are witness to the darker side of the blonde girl for the first time since you arrived. She talked with you about lying to get your freedom, she asked about you seducing Ivar in exchange for what he gave you, and now she boasts about you being by his side like a conquest, as if nothing but a crown and power make up the Viking King.

You decide not to dwell on it, but you still release her hand and straighten in your seat. She notices, you know she does, but says nothing.

“No one’s love carried me here, Freydis,” Your voice may sound colder than before, and on the edge of your vision you catch Valdis raising her eyebrows and looking away. Still, you continue, “Sometimes pain is just pain. I don’t know about your Gods, but mine are-…In my home wise men said it takes strength greater than that of believing the Gods guide our every step to accept the Gods sometimes look away from their creations.”

“So they let us suffer?” Freydis asks, frowning.

A loud groan interrupts you, and you both turn to see Valdís throwing her head back where she sits, dragging rough hands over her face.

“Enough with this. Leave it to old and boring men to discuss the wills of the Gods.” She grumbles, earning a small laugh from you.

The days moves on slowly, though you notice the elders in the apothecary start ordering all of you to work more and more on healing salves and presses, making you wonder what the aftermath of a raid or a battle is like for the healers of Kattegat.

After a few days since meeting the former shieldmaiden, you are invited to join the women of the apothecary on the baths, and curiosity as to how similar these could be to roman public baths wins over your modesty, and you accept.

As you walk there, hearing Freydis hum a strange tune behind you, you catch Valdís, the dark-haired shieldmaiden stretching her stride to walk at your side as the group approaches the baths.

“So, witch.”

“So, shieldmaiden.” You reply, to which she offers a small smile as she meets your eyes.

“King Ivar said Sieghild Vorsdottir is the woman who raised you, who claims you as her daughter,” You nod slowly, not sure where she is going with this, “But she isn’t here, and you are to be a new bride soon.”

Your eyes narrow, and you steal a glance to Freydis as she moves closer to your side, very obviously wanting to hear this conversation.

“What are you on about?”

“You have no one to help you…shed the title of maiden,” Valdís explains, smirk devilish, “To prepare you to be a wife.”

“Not that any of us can prepare her to be the wife of Ivar the Boneless.” A woman quips from behind you, earning a chuckle from a few others in the group.

“My point is, we could use this time to teach you.”

“Teach me.” You repeat, and her smile only turns much more mischievous.

“Of course!” She turns to one of the elders, gesturing with a muscular arm, “Isn’t that tradition? Aren’t we to share our wisdom?”

The woman considers her in silence, though you could swear there’s a small smile betraying at her lips.

“I’m too old for this.” She mutters in response, but Valdís only laughs.

The baths are warm, warmer than any room you’ve been in, and though your hair hates the humidity, you sigh in pleasure at the almost-suffocating warmth.

You undress with ease, and it is only when you are readying to enter the bath turning your back to them that you realize what they may have seen.

The scars. Burn scars, not as bad as they could have been but still there, still present and marring.

They run over the outside of your right thigh, climbing over your hip into part of your back, almost up to your ribs. A gift from the Byzantines, so that you remember what happens to pagans.

“Are those burn scars, witch?” One of the women asks, and you turn around with gritted teeth.

Offering only a nod in response, but you cannot bring yourself to say anything more.

“Burnt alive for refusing to worship the Christian God, or so they say.” Valdís offers in your place, no hesitation in her voice, and no shame either, you notice, as she sheds her clothing as well and bares her strong yet scarred and marked body for everyone to see as she approaches the large stone tub as well.

It makes you feel much more at ease, even if it wasn’t her intention, seeing she has scars too, she has marks too. Not that the women that traveled with you are without their marks and badges of honor, but…the mark of war on a woman is something to be ashamed of, at least where you come from.

“No different than a scar from a sword or an axe,” She states confidently, bowing her head in recognition with a small smile on her face, “Glory to you, Greek.”

You offer her a small smile of your own, and get into the hot water.

“Thank you.” You offer sincerely, and go under the water to get your hair wet, silently pleading with them that the conversation finds an end. It does.

Conversation diffuses between the women soon enough, and the loud laugh of the shieldmaiden echoes in the walls, but you find yourself…comfortable, safe, even if the weight of what kind of failure this comfort, this ease you feel in this land means sets on your chest and almost keeps you from breathing if you think about it too much.

“So, about what we ought to teach you.” Valdís presses, drawing a groan from you.

“Would you leave the poor girl be?” Someone quips, but she dismisses them with a gesture.

“Witch,” Valdís -who you are noticing more and more has no qualms about keeping her mouth shut, reminding you strikingly of Sieghild- asks, moving closer to you in the large tub, “Do you know how to please a man?”

Oh, Gods.

“Yes.” You bite out, resisting the urge to close your eyes in mortification and hoping to everything there is on this earth, let it be Persephone or Freyja, that she doesn’t push this.

“But do you know how to please a Viking?”

“No matter what I say, you will talk anyways, won’t you?”

She only gives you a look that says you should know the answer already, before laughing. You groan, and lower your face further into the waters, igniting a laugh out of the other women.

_____

The routines of spending the days at the apothecary, exchanging secrets and tales with Freydis and loud laughs with Valdís, sharing short conversations with the other women, watching and learning and teaching; they quickly become a source of warmth and familiarity in this cold and strange land.

Even more now that Ivar is gone. You have no shame in admitting you have…grown used to him. Maybe that’s what hurts the most, what feels the most like failure; the fact that you have grown to enjoy his company, to hope for something more than resentment, to see him not quite as you did in Aneridge, but differently all the same. And the Gods made you too arrogant and proud to admit it to anyone but yourself, but you do miss him while he is gone. His curious eyes, his endless questions, his taunts and his infuriating stubbornness.

Prince Hvitserk has kept you company, and you offer murmured greetings each time you cross paths and maybe exchange a few words during dinner. It is more than you could ask for, and you think is all you should want. You have always had a soft heart, and not even Kattegat’s cold or its cruel King could harden it; and…a soft heart brings forth familiarity, care, affection. You have no use for neither, for you cannot forget the chains set upon you.

If you forget the chains, it will feel like a choice to remain here. And this is not a choice you can make.

You keep reminding yourself not to forget what brought you here, not to forget the chains set upon you, not to forget that you do not belong here; even as you occupy your day with a foolish and sentimental project.

You run into Hvitserk as you are carrying an armful of wooden planks -that you may or may not have exchanged a necklace for- to your rooms.

“What are you doing, woman?” He asks, and when he offers you, not demands, to take the heavy wood and carry it for you, you accept with a smile.

“I’m…making planters in my rooms,” The Prince still looks at you like you grew a second head, so you add, “I like plants. Herbs and flowers.” You offer as your sole answer, shrugging your shoulders.

When you reach the doors to your rooms, you hesitate, and the Prince offers you a smile.

“I can help you make them.”

“Is that…proper? For a man to be in a woman’s rooms?” You ask lowly, but the laugh you startle out of the young man takes away any secrecy you expected to get.

He pushes open the door with his shoulder and walks in, you trailing behind him.

“‘Proper’. You spent too much time with Christians, witch,” He chuckles, and drops the planks where you point him to. Crossing his legs underneath him as he sits on your floor, he motions for you to do the same. “If it’s my brother you are worried about, I’ll handle him.”

You thank him with a smile, tremulous as it is, and help him as you both work in amicable company, exchanging snippets of stories, quiet laughs and easy smiles.

“The King,” You start cautiously, and the Prince nods, giving you permission to talk, “Has he always been so…?”

“Usually worse,” He bites out when your words die, hitting particularly harder than needed at a nail as he does so. “You keep him preoccupied.”

“Should I be worried?” You say with a smile, scooting as you reach your favorite window and measuring for the perfect length of a planter to set there.

“He listens to you more than me, witch, I wouldn’t worry if I were you.”

“You don’t get along?” You ask even if you already know the answer, readying a few nails to start forming an angle for a planter.

“My brother and I…we are bound to kill each other, I think.” He says, and you lift your gaze in surprise as your hand already moves the hammer down.

The hammer falls down on your finger with all your strength.

“No! Why would you say that!?” You say, sticking the hurt digit into your mouth as you frown at the Prince.

He laughs in response to your clumsiness, but there’s a burden in his eyes. Hvitserk shrugs,

“I risked it all to stand by his side when Ubbe almost turned his back on him, Odin knows if there’s a reason why our brother is not with Lagertha wherever she has run off to now is because of me,” He mutters, and you stay silent, thinking to yourself it seems like it has been too long since someone sat to hear him speak, “Ivar wouldn’t have held on to Kattegat for this long if it wasn’t for me.”

“But you do not want to take Kattegat from him.” You offer quietly, not even a question. Hvitserk presses his lips into a line, seemingly overwhelmed.

“I never wanted to be King. Neither does Ubbe, the throne…Even if you don’t agree and he doesn’t believe I think so, I know Ivar is the best choice to be King of Kattegat,” The young man shakes his head, and he looks much more fragile than you ever thought he could look. You get closer and lay a hand on his arm, as comforting you can be without feeling like you are being ‘too touchy’ like Sieghild used to chastise you for. Hvitserk furrows his lips with no little anger, and continues, “Ivar is my brother and I will always stand with him, I just want the arrogant little fuck to acknowledge what I have done and continue to do for him.”

You have no idea what happened between the three brothers, you assume whatever it was caused the breach and struggle for dominance that permeates the air every time Ubbe and Ivar discuss battle or matters of the city; but you listen to Hvitserk with a compassionate smile on your lips and offer the best you can.

“If you want to talk, my Prince, I am always here.”

Surprisingly enough, he does.

He tells you of their allegiance with Bjorn Ironside and others to avenge the death of Ragnar Lothbrok. You needn’t be told of the Great Heathen Army and the fear and awe it inspired in its enemies and allies, for the words reached all the way to Carthage when the Vikings moved against Aelle. But Hvitserk tells you, and he tells you of the struggles of the men at the helm of the forces and how as the eldest son of Ragnar sailed South, their brother Sigurd married to warrant a degree of peace, and King Harald moved back to Norway with a new Queen; the three sons of Aslaug where left to be the leaders.

He tells you of Ivar pushing to take control from his brothers, of Ubbe being at the brink of breaking away from Ivar and turn against him if needed. He tells you of facing both of his brothers and reminding them of their blood shared, even if vows made, if ambitions clashing, if old pain and rancor, threatened to pull them apart.

He tells you of the marches for York, of many cities raided and pillaged. He tells you of the land granted for a settlement, of the funding of Dublin and the struggles for power that took place there. He tells you of the battles and blood that got Ivar to be King of Kattegat, and he confides that even if he appreciates and sees the change in his younger brother and how he is trying to appease him with by making both his and Ubbe’s voices heard when it comes to matters of war and the Kingdom; Ivar still treats him like nothing more than a dog, always mistrusting and always cold towards him.

“I’m sure he loves you.” You offer quietly, but the Prince does not look at you, instead toying with a piece of wood between his fingers.

“Ivar loves nothing.” He corrects quickly.

You shake your head, the hand on his arm squeezing to call for his attention. When he looks up at you he looks young and open, but his expression speaks of tiredness and resentment.

“You don’t believe that.” You promise quietly, to which he answers with a chuckle and a shake of his head.

Soon enough you both finish the planters, and you both bring the earth and branches needed to make the layers. Whispering prayers you carry in your heart alongside the secrets of the Thesmophoria, you water the earth and promise it care and seeds for growth.

The seeds will have to wait until you can get some, but the knowledge that fertile earth surrounds you fills you with a certain degree of peace. Even if this cold city kills you, you will force life and spring upon it. If you have to feed the flowers with your blood then so be it.

Hvitserk calls for your attention telling you he thinks he knows a little bit of Greek, and as you start getting horrified by his attempts at your language while he butchers it unwillingly, you both walk outside side by side.

Conversation starts on other topics soon after, and he tells you of the strange people he has met while handling Kattegat’s commerce influx and trade deals, which, paired with the way he recalls the stories with gestures and voices and expressions, makes your laugh louder than you have released it in so long.

Your giggles die down as you take a sip from your tea, and the Prince leans forward on the balcony railing, sighing.

“For all your strange ways, you seem…honest, witch.” He says, eyes on the horizon. You join him quietly, overlooking the cold city.

“If you were to ask the woman who raised me, she would say it is due to my arrogance that keeps me from being able to shut up,” You offer with a smile, “But thank you, my Prince.”

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I know this chapter was kinda filler and kinda boring, I’m sorry. I promise the next one is hopefully more exciting. As I said last saturday, I’ll be uploading two chapters instead of one today. Chapter 17 will be up shortly after this one. :)

Thank you for reading <3

#ivar the boneless x reader #ivar x reader #ivar the boneless imagine #ivar the boneless #vikings #νοσταλγία masterlist

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lover-of-trash-and-people · 3 years

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netflix shadow and bone s1 e5 pt3: peak darklina

the first kiss scene Alina is so beautiful Her little smile as she picks up his kefta after he hears him call out for Ivan to get it like ooh I'm gonna play a little trick on Alek Her making him smile with a joke that's not even funny The tentativeness of it all, them tiptoeing around each other, testing the boundaries Him being taken aback by her offering to help him put on his kefta but still wanting her to and immediately resorting to business voice asking questions about official sun summoner stuff And putting on his serious business face him trying to explain away the gloves by calling them a safeguard, not a sign of him not trusting her abilities the face he makes after saying spectacle either depicting his distaste for the showiness of the event or depicting his embarrassment at how he phrased the sentence, like what the fuck did I just say (more likely the first one) Her quickly turning around and walking away after the eye contact makes her realise how close they are and him pulling a puzzled look as she does so Just. Just how adorable the energy is. Both of them making jokes to diffuse the tension, her gripping the table to maybe steady or calm herself, the looks they give to each other as if engaged in a delicate dance; god-like Him straight up just blinking and looking down and gulping as she says 'we can offer Grisha and Ravkans hope' (could be multiple things he's thinking at this point, and all of them interest me) 'That means a lot to me, Alina.' *her turning to look at his face* 'You mean a lot...' *her immediately lowering her gaze and tracing where her mal scar used to be lmao* 'to everyone' *her raising her gaze to him again* The music swelling as she walks up to him, her barely grazing her fingers against his collar, his eyes looking across hers as if in disbelief, her looking at his lips, and then her closing the gap between them. Him being a little stiff, indubitably from being shocked, and yet giving into it almost instinctively as if he can't help it. The violin coming in powerfully yet softly to emphasize the tenderness of it all. This thing has been made with so much love and I can't contain myself about it. Him opening his eyes half a second after Alina, almost as if waking up from a dream and then, following a relaxing of his facial muscles as he clearly regains his composure, immediately looking inscrutable. Her doubting herself, not losing eye contact as he stands up from the desk, but her sudden fear, regret, and embarrassment clear on her face. Her sides of her lips slowly rising giving way his own self mirroring her and breaking into smile and composing himself and breaking into smile again before saying 'Not many people surprise me, Miss Starkov'. Her now fully breaking out into a smile, her face a picture of unguarded joy, she looks down only to have his gaze follow her face. Both of them giddy in the other's presence and the audience can feel it. It feels like he is leaning in for another one when the sound of the door opening makes them spring apart, regaining their composures and standing at a respectable distance from each other. Her poorly suppressing a smile, him looking at her visibly, her mimicking him with a glance out of her periphery, causing her to give in to her smile completely. Him looking visibly distracted as he attempts to pay attention to whoever came into the room. the Jesper of it all Jesper the mega idiot not being able to control his face from doing a thing as he realises the person who caught him where he wasn't supposed to be is the same person he was making sexy eyes at before and yet regaining his composure in record time The poor stable hand actually being interested in Jesper and being adorable with Jesper just being like charm itself Can you believe looking at Jesper Llewellyn Fahey in the flesh and having him make sexy eyes at you and then forgetting about it? Because I simply cannot. The line about light role play? Felt a little not right. GO OFF STABLE HAND WHO PUSHED JESPER AGAINST A WALL AND KISSED HIM, HE LITERALLY SAID IM POPPING OFF AND

THEN HE DID Zoya Zoya saying fuck off to the random racist comment made by one of the guests, but she was racist to Alina herself? (I mean South Asian-East Asian hate is not uncommon so idk) David omg the cutie pie adjusting his hair at the fete HEARTRENDER FUCKING HUSBANDS Fedyor insisting on Ivan eating the sweet and Ivan's solemn head shake like no babe im on a diet and Fedyor being like heart eyes please eat the sweet my love and then Fedyor holding Ivan's face to make him nibble off a corner and Ivan's face splitting into a reluctant grin Kaz the actor Seeing Kaz the actor instead of Kaz the master of trickery and plans is an interesting thing Kanej being Kanej cute banter interaction, would recommend, 10/10 hints at Arken being sus The look Kaz gives Arken when Arken leaves, I really should have known, I was simply being a clown Darkling and the dumb royalty We love the Darkling suppressing his anger at these otkazat'sya rulers dissing the grisha and the little palace Alina's entrance The soft hum that we hear when Alina enters but we don't see her face Alina's adorable peeking The Darkling's expression changing despite being done af with these mfers and instantaneously on catching a glimpse of Alina, she really has that power huh He really made it look like his pupils dilated and who knows maybe they did Him trying to call her out for not following protocol but him melting and saying 'you look lovely, by the way' Her saying 'you look like you needed saving' I can't breathe you're so cool ballroom at the little palace I must confess I expected the ballroom of the winter fete to be bigger

GENYADAVID looking at each other and pretending not to look at each other, my fucking heart Kanej being Kanej Kaz implying they're gonna try to trick the people into thinking that the fake sun summoner is real and Inej being done with his shit Alina's demonstration HER NAME IS ALINA STARKOV yes mfer The way people back away as he steps, god the power of this man Inej looking at Kaz omfg Okay him clapping the darkness into the room was cool af I love the shadow summoning effects so fucking much The first bit of light that Alina summons lighting up the gold parts of her black kefta, absolute perfection Alina just enjoying her power and then looking to Alek, his lips parting when she does Aw Fedyor looking at Ivan in a I told you she could do it way Genya and Fedyor exchanging glances as Alina besties THE CROWD SAYING SANKTA ALINA INEJ SAYING SANKTA ALINA WITH HALF A TEAR IN HER EYE DAMN THIS IS POWERFUL Jesper and Dima IMMEDIATELY TRANSITIONING TO JESPER SAYING 'SAINTS' AS A NAKED STABLE BOY GETS OFF OF HIM AGAHSJSJSJKS I CAN'T IM CACKLING AT THE AUDACITY OF THIS SHOW HOW ARE THEY SO PERFECT (his name's dima btw) Poor fucking Dima getting frightening orders from his superior as his hookup sneaks out with horses that are definitely not his Arken the little shit Ah Arken why'd you have to go and do this I was actually amused by you before the malyen factor omg Mal's here and someone saw him getting here apparat and faith? The apparat literally jumping out of the palace walls at Alina lol man I do love the religion angle of this universe and it would have been so fucking cool if it were explored a bit better ew apparat that grab was very violent mal/darkling interaction the darkling's reaction at his recognition of mal was so funny ah yes my arch nemesis, the other angle of this teen immortal love triangle how utterly delightful someone explain the darkling's 'are you alright' to mal, is it because Alina was worried sick, is it mind games, is it curiosity, what is it Im still don't know how to feel with them attaching a literal symbol to the sun summoner, to Alina's dreams and to the stag itself 'not until I see Alina' THE LOYAL HIMBO ENERGY IN THIS ONE ISTFG I have never known nose acting until I saw Ben Barnes, he uses his nose in his acting and it is absolutely wonderful; case in point, the 'i beg your pardon' to mal with the rage making his voice shake okay but why is every mal darkling interaction like, everything the prompt answer our baby mal gives and the satisfaction it brings to his face, fucking amazing the darkling being literally struck by this, his mouth literally agape, king this is a 20 year old lmao Baghra! OMG WE GOT A GLIMPSE OF BAGHRA'S FIRE YES Genya supremacy Genya beating Arken up let's fucking go Marie's plot influence and Racism? Yellowface? again? hmm bardugo (then again, I have no authority over this, I'm south asian) Ive already talked about how I'm interested in knowing if and how changing Marie's time and place of death going to influence the plot much because in the books it caused a chain reaction doing a lot of stuff Alina, my love Alina just, laughing with other Grisha, feeling at home, ah be still my treacherous heart Mal's confrontation scene with Alina that was in the books being retconned to Mal calling out to her body double, hmm, probably to make Mal more likeable, I don't have any feelings about this particularly Nadia and Fedyor Okay the both of them, smiling and walking, hand in hand, cute mlm wlw solidarity moment that I missed during the first watch Kanej interacting with Alina Why is Alina literally so adorable The music picking up as the Inferni catches sight of the 'limping man' (what? it was funny when he said it) Blue Irises Alina's face showing a certain sense of calm when Alek shows up Alina's face after the Darkling says 'for you' and presents her with blue irises is something like gasp okay you've got game sexy shadow man mal fite time omg I thought she was taking mal to talk to Baghra or smth not to kill him 🤡 aren't oprichnikis like

otkazat'sya or am I missing smth? Because Baghra's spy is obvs a fabrikator THE DESK SCENE omg the scene hath arriveth the fact that Alina can't stop smiling gods, the flirting 'I don't recall this, being part of the schedule' him turning back and saying 'it isn't' her hiding her face through the cover of smelling the flowers and just how coy she acts, like the literal eyelid batting Ma'am how embarrassing for you to have feelings rn these two are my absolute favs of all time the camera moving as they move from their spots on which they had to stand on to get the shot of their shadows almost kissing her nodding and smiling at him saying 'she'll probably be alright' like okay I'm ready for smooches kiss me already and him going 'don't you think' trying to savour this moment IM SORRY BUT THE FUCKING SCORE AT THE MOMENT THEIR LIPS MEET YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND I CANNOT COPE the way his hand is so big that he can almost hold her entire face in it the way she grips the back of his head I'm sorry I feel so disrespectful saying this but the sounds they make+I think that's a um titty grab or maybe it's just a holding someone and the placement was um unintended but I doubt it because everything in this fucking show is so intentional+ the lift up onto the desk+ the faces they make+ um god I'm going to hell for this but when they sort of grind into each other (I understand this is acting and they're just good at their job) but god does all of this make my heart race and also makes me happy I guess LITERAL GIGGLES I can't I'm soft 🥺🥺🥺 his little head shake at the knock on the door when he goes in for one last kiss before she gets off the desk and her eyes going all oy you, go get the door, I'm not going anywhere don't make whoever it is wait is so adorable and domestic her just standing there mouth agape to herself when he walks away HIM STILL FLUSHED AND BLUSHING AND HIS HAPPINESS CLEAR AS DAY ON HIS FACE WHEN HE OPENS THE DOOR his gaze flits to her when Ivan says Alina was the target 'I'll be waiting' love, I physically can't anymore Little cheek hold and walk away Her little smile to herself nearly fading before he jumps back in again to her surprise and to ours to hold her face with both his hands and kiss her one last time, and yes, he does kiss like he's being drafted for the war in the morning Her little mouth open and close and then her little smile to herself after he leaves I refuse to watch the rest of the episode right now because no let me steep in the darklina bliss

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kickasskody · 3 years

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DAKOTA ‘ kody ’ PIERCE, a character study. “just because i cannot see it, doesn’t mean i cannot believe it.” -- jack skellington

Character’s full name: dakota pierce Reason for name and/or meaning of name: kody’s parents met and fell in love in north dakota, and decided to name their son after the great state 💖 Character’s nickname: kody Reason for nickname: in middle school, kody didn’t think the name dakota was cool. but the name kody, the most generic white boy name ever , was definitely cool Birth date: december 13th, 2002. baby sagittarius

Physical appearance Faceclaim: austin abrams Gender: cis male Height: 5″8 #shortking Build: scrawny boy body. looks like he couldn’t lift more than 30 pounds... PSYCH!!! he’s a vampire so he can actually lift several hundred pounds 🤪🤪🤪 Eye color: blue with little dark green specks Glasses or contacts?: not with that snazzy 4k vampire sight !! Distinguishing marks/scars: funny little frecklescape on his back that looks like this emoji 😦 Hair color: dirty blonde Type of hair: type 1, aka straight hair Hairstyle: gets up out of bed, looks in mirror. maybe tussles it a little bit. thats it Physical disabilities: none Mental disabilities: adhd Clothing style: sweaters sweaters sweaters. striped sweaters ( because the best time to wear one is all the time ), disney sweaters, sweaters with dogs on them. white collared shirts to go underneath most of them. denim jackets, a couple of them tattering with holes in the elbows. black skinny jeans -- like he owns four pairs of the same black skinny jeans. someone tell him that skinny jeans aren’t in style anymore. uses the same jansport backpack he’s had since the eighth grade with a sewn in epcot center patch on the front pocket. dirty checkered vans. falling apart high-top converse. it’s not that he’s poor and can’t afford new things, he just prefers all his old stuff. Make up: has never worn any but wouldn’t be opposed to trying some !!

Personality Good personality traits: good at secret keeping, friendly and uplifting, loyal, thoughtful, great memory, cautious, playful. chaotic good energy 🥰 Bad personality traits: gullible, slightly obnoxious, constantly confused, easily distracted Mood character is most often in: cheery, happy as f, practically bouncing off the walls Sense of humor: goddamn hilarious!!! at least he thinks so lol Articulation: loud and occasionally stuttery. repeating himself pretty often. the type to get lost in the middle of conversation and have to take a second to mentally loop back and remember what exactly they were talking about. uses the word ‘ like ‘ way too much. talks with his hands a whole lot. constantly talking like he’s a kooky disney character on a mission. Character’s greatest joy in life: riding a mf’in roller coaster Character’s greatest fear: disneyworld getting blown up / physically hurting someone Character is most at ease when: he’s curled up with his friends watching a disney movie Most ill at ease when: he’s laying in bed at night, pretending he’s sleeping since he can’t Enraged when: thinking about how there are vampires in bridgemead -- that they could turn other people, kill other people, or worse... harm his friends. Depressed or sad when: drinking from a blood bag. watching disney pixar’s coco. thinkin’ about a disneyworld churro and how he’ll never be able to enjoy the taste of one again. Priorities: at the moment? trying not to hurt anybody. Life philosophy: “Keep Moving Forward!” -- walt disney said that Greatest strength: his optimism / ability to take something sad or bad and turn it around! Greatest vulnerability or weakness: giving just about anyone the benefit of the doubt.

Goals Drives and motivations: getting enough money to be able to travel the world and visit every disney park on the planet. Immediate goals: graduating high school / helping the scooby gang solve mysteries Long term goals: roller coaster designer / engineer. create a haunted house / rollercoaster hybrid ride

Childhood Hometown: orlando, florida Type of childhood: the kind where he’s an only child, where his middle class parents live to please and spoil him, take him to whatever amusement park he wanted to go to and buy him all the best merch. the smile on his face was worth more than anything they ever could’ve purchased for themselves. kody probably would’ve had siblings, but his parents had complications getting pregnant again, and thus they lived to make sure he had the best life possible. Pets: a cat named toulouse ( shoutout aristocats ), but he passed when kody was fifteen Most important childhood memory: waiting in line for five hours to ride harry potter and the forbidden journey at universal studios orlando. blew his little kid mind. Dream job: imagineer!! Religion: non-practicing christians. church on easter and christmas ONLY!

Present Current location: bridgemead, massachusetts Currently living with: his parents 💖 Pets: none Religion: agnostic Sexuality: currently questioning his sexuality. growing up he always felt attracted to both boys and girls, but has never been able to articulate it. he’s only ever expressed interest in women, but he has a fat crush on chris evans as captin america Politics: would be socialist if he cared enough to think about politics Occupation/education: bridgemead high school super senior Mode of transportation: his parents dark blue prius!! but only thursday - sunday

Family Parent one: marcus pierce -- drug store manager Relationship with them: kody and his dad are best buds! if it weren’t for his fathers love for rollercoasters, kody doesn’t know what his life would be like today. they used to play rollercoaster tycoon growing up and kody still cherishes those memories today. Parent two: tina pierce -- bridgemead city manager Relationship with them: kody and his mother have a very loving relationship. however, kody’s adoration for his mother dwindled when it was her job that forced them to move to bridgemead. he thinks of it as her fault that he doesn’t get to go to disneyworld anymore, and there’s a bitter part of him that thinks that if she hadn’t made them leave, he never would’ve become a vampire. he knows its wrong to attribute her to his curse, but sometimes when he’s really sad he cant help it. Siblings: none Other important family members: his widowed aunt shirley who lives twenty minutes from disneyworld and occasionally would join them on their weekend visits to the parks. he misses her greatly 😩😩

Favorites Color: that bright electric blue color on the cinderella castle at disneyworld Music: electronic Food: a disneyworld churro. Film: the incredibles / scooby doo 2002 Drink: pink lemonadde mixed with sprite Form of entertainment: disney+ subscription. if that’s all he had, he’d be content. Most prized possession: a magic kingdom two day passport ticket from the 1980′s

Habits Hobbies: playing rollercoaster tycoon / designing rollercoasters on his computer. obsessively watching ghost club paranormal on youtube. bothering aj with the latest thing on his mind that she definitely doesn’t need to know about Plays a musical instrument?: nope. wishes he could though! Plays a sport?: nope, but would be great at track now that he’s a vampire! How he would spend a rainy day: playing kingdom hearts II in his pajamas. Spending habits: great at hoarding all of his allowance! since he’s not spending it on food, he’s an excellent saver. pre-vampirism kody was not as cautious with his spending. Smoking/drinking/drugs?: no way 🙅🏼 has yet to even try alcohol Extremely skilled at: cheering up his friends! finding the good in others and convincing them to see it too 🤗 Extremely unskilled at: stopping himself from crying when he’s sad / when he’s in the middle of crying. putting together pieces of their investigations. sure, he can find things -- but what the hell is he supposed to do with them once he’s got it?!?! Nervous tics: anxious picking at his cuticles. messing with his hair. aggressive foot tapping. scrolling through his phone without actually looking at anything. Usual body posture: that boy has been working on rollercoaster code on his computer for YEARS. his body posture is absolutely RUINED! Mannerisms: constantly talking with his hands. bouncin’ around like tigger when something exciting happens. abbreviating things that don’t need to be abbreviated. the loudest in the room at all times.

Traits Optimist or pessimist? Introvert or extrovert? Daredevil or cautious? Logical or emotional? Leader or follower? Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Prefers working or relaxing? Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Animal lover? HELL YEAH.

Self-perception How do they feels about themselves?: before the year 2020, kody actually quite liked himself! he realized that he was goofy and sometimes not everyones cup of tea, but for the most part, he knew he was a good guy who was a little obnoxious! now, he has mixed feelings about himself. vampirism has elevated a lot of his emotions and more often than not now, he dislikes himself for what he’s become, or what he could become if things turn bloody. One word the character would use to describe themselves: spunky What does the character consider their best trait?: his compassion What does the character consider their worst trait?: his gullibility What does the character consider their best physical characteristic?: his fluffy hair !! What does the character consider their worst physical characteristic?: that he’s a short king. stream short kings anthem by tiny meat gang How does the character think others perceive them?: he’s pretty sure most people think that he’s wildly annoying, but that doesn’t stop him from being fully himself most of the time! What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: his vampirism!! get this shit out of him just make him a normal aging boy again!!

Relationships with others Opinion of other people in general: kody is a big ole’ ball of love, and thus so, he tries to share that with everyone. strangers are treated with compassion, acquaintances are treated as old friends, and friends are treated like family. unless kody already knows someone to be a bad person, or is wary of them, he’s genuinely one of the nicest people one could ever meet. Opinion of the Scooby Gang: talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it. Does the character hide their true opinions and emotions from others?: it depends on the topic, but for the most part, yes. when it comes to most scooby gang related endeavors, kody will share his thoughts -- if it’s something related to movies or tv, he’ll be talking your ear off for hours. if it’s something that could result in it hurting someone else, he’ll be quiet, and if his vampirism was ever to come into question, he’d be absolutely be suppressing it. Most important person in character’s life: oh god, not to pick scooby gang favorites, but probably aj. she’s the closest thing he has to a sister, and he doesn’t know what he would do without their banter, and her support. Best friend/s: aj darke, dylan frye, & arabella byrne Dating experience: absolutely none. kissed 2 girls in the span of 2 years over 3 years ago. Romancing: kody wouldn’t know the first thing about trying to get someone to date him. all he knows is the stuff he’s seen on tv, watched in movies, or experienced around him ( such as his parents successful marriage, or his friends dating people ), but if it were to come down to him, he’d be extremely awkward. picture tom holland’s spiderman trying to talk to zendaya’s mj in far from home -- because that’s extremely accurate. kody isn’t trying to date anyone right now for a couple of reasons: one being that he’s too nervous, and not exactly looking for love, but if it were to happen... he wouldn’t run from it necessarily. but two being that his vampirism creates a bit of a problem for him, and he’s not sure if he should subject anyone to the curse he’s stuck with.

Extra Physicality: if necessary, could probably lift a car and throw it down the street. as of right now, doesn’t know how strong he really is / is more concerned about hurting his friends with this supposed strength than he is finding out how many hundreds of pounds he could lift. kody in a fight? probably losing within the first five seconds, unless bloods drawn and the instinct to pounce takes over. Species: vampire How do they feel about it?: hates it. would do anything to reverse it. wishes he had just stayed a little longer at karma cafe that night. or had never gone at all. How do they look in their supernatural form?: pretty much the same, however when he’s hungry and near blood, his eyes go all dark and bloodshot, and the veins around his eyes start to pulse ( basically just like vampire diaries ), but kody is unaware of this since he’s never seen it happen to himself or another vampire

#bridgemeadtask01 #shoutout aaustinabrams for this gif #idk how to credit gif makers listen thats my credit right there

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things2mustdo · 3 years

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As you probably have heard in the news, earlier in August a Pennsylvania grand jury handed down a 1,356-page account of sexual abuse which involved around 1,000 kids and 300 priests during a period of approximately 70 years. It is another pedophilia scandal within the Catholic Church that adds up to their collection of countless other ones reported in recent years.

The commie pope—while on his two-day visit to Ireland—begged for forgiveness again, just the way he did in Chile back in January of this year.

You can notice how quick and scathing the mainstream media is to denounce these recurring events, after all we know who owns the MSM and the (real) Church has a long, well-known history of “anti-semitism” and resistance against the tentacles of globalism. I wish the media had the same commitment to inform the existence of other pedophile rings full of high-ranking people as well.

Is the problem of the church’s innumerous sexual abuse allegations really pedophilia? To me there is a deeper explanation for it, and that explanation is: homosexualism. 81% of the alleged victims are male and three-fourths of them are post-pubescent. As you guys are certainly aware of, the Church has a very big issue with homosexualism among its clergymen.

I have a theory for the high presence of gay men inside priesthood: until not long ago being gay was definitely not ok, homosexuals were not accepted as they are now, so they became priests.

The developed Western world of today encourages people to become gay, it applauds individuals for their gayness, but it wasn’t always like that. Now, try to imagine a closeted homosexual man living in the 50s, for example. What a better place to go than the Catholic seminary? People wouldn’t look you down, you wouldn’t have to get married, the place was filled with other young men (potential sexual partners) and that’s how the Church got corrupted by perverts.

Pedophilia x Homosexualism

One normie could argue “how homosexualism relates to pedophilia?” Any red-pilled person who has ever wondered what causes someone to become gay will notice that there is an undeniable link between pedophilia and homosexualism.

Let’s remember the occasion of Milo Yiannopolous’ resignation from Breitbart over comments which seemed to endorse sex between “younger men” and older men. Something that is—as he pointed out—extremely common among gay men. A 2009 report revealed that 74 percent of bisexuals had been sexually abused as children, I am pretty sure homosexuals follow the same numbers.

I won’t say homosexual behavior is exclusively caused by pedophilia because human (or animal) sexuality is a very complex topic which can certainly involve many variables. I just don’t buy that “born this way” hype, until this day not a single reliable proof of the existence of a gay gene or anything like it was discovered.

The Vatican once bought a £21 million apartment block above ‘Europe’s largest gay sauna’.

Pope Francis, a champion of the left-leaning agenda inside the Church, has been accused of covering up former Cardinal McCarrick’s abuse allegations (one of the many cases in Pennsylvania). The accusations were made by Carlo Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador to the US, and if it proves to be true–I am positive it is—that should result in pope Francis’ resignation. As a traditionalist Catholic myself I would be delighted with such an event.

Francis has already been complacent with other pedos before. One good example is the 2015 ‘Synod on the Family’ when the pope invited Godfried Danneels, a Belgium Cardinal convicted of covering up pedophiles in the 90s, to attend the meeting. Danneels is a hard-left priest that tries to push the Church ” liberal reformation” and admitted that he was part of a plot against (right-leaning) Pope Benedict and in favor of the election of leftie Francis.

To affirm that the Church’s gay/pedos are exclusively part of the left-wing priesthood would be too Manichean. I am sure there are tons of sick people who lean right also. But it can’t be denied that the liberals make up the vast majority of these issues involving sexual misconduct.

“Religious progressives”

For those who don’t know, the Catholic Church, just as any other political institution, is divided in factions that tend to be more liberal or orthodox. The liberation theology, for instance, is a movement created inside the Catholic Church (and some Protestant denominations) which aims to mix Christianity and Marxism.

Even if you are an agnostic don’t underestimate the influence they played in various regions such as Europe, Latin America and even New England. Brazilian Workers’ Party attributed their success to this movement and Unions.

Be wary of any religious leader that tries to push a liberalization of dogmas and traditions. Because all religions are intrinsically conservative according to their respective contexts, they establish doctrines that dictate sets of rules that must be followed properly in order to attain their objectives (whether is Salvation in Christianity or Nirvana in Buddhism). There are no (real) religions without their traditions.

Whenever you see liberal religious men doubt their characters. There is a good chance they don’t even bother with religion or spirituality, perhaps they are closeted atheist. What they do care about is the religious platform, which can offer various benefits such as large audiences, political influence, money and even sex.

Estimates of the number of gays in the priesthood are all over the lot, from 20 percent to 60 percent, although a Los Angeles Times poll in 2002 found only 15 percent of priests saying they were homosexual or “somewhere in between but more on the homosexual side.”

Every time pedo priests’ cases pop up in the MSM, secular people are very quick to point fingers and show their moral superiority, but they “forget” the existence of secular institutions that are way more sexually perverted than the “gayish” modern Church, such as Hollywood, the political and corporate world.

Real Church x Sissy Church

It is also important to notice that the Church was emasculated, an emasculation that took place during the process of secularization and establishment of liberal democracies across the Western world (e.g. French Revolution).

The Church had to be softened, becoming an institution that barely resembles the once powerful and great Church of the Crusades or the Inquisitions. This same phenom of emasculation can also happen in other secular institutions too, the Military, mainstream Music, Politics, Sports and even Boys Scouts. And it will only get worse as liberal-democratic globalism advances, so secular people: watch out!

St. Basil the Great, a 4th century bishop and Doctor of the Church, defended that gay/pedo priests should be publicly flogged. That was the (real) Church, not this sissy catholicism created after the Second Vatican Council (a modernist reform imposed in the Church from 1962 to 1965). A lot of things got bad in the 60s.

The (real) Church has a very important and vigorous story in the construction of the West. Always being a target to the globalists and that breed who rules the world, a clear obstacle to their goals.

Examples are many: Gabriel García Moreno, Catholic Equatorian president, who made a terrific job in a Confessional Equator and was killed by the Freemasons; Saint José Sanchez del Rio, who was killed by Mexican secular, freemason and leftist government with the support of the US, for refusing to abbandon his faith.

Inconvenient truths are ignored

The media only goes after what is convenient to their narrative, don’t expect them to expose Hollywood pedos nor the obvious link between pedo priests and homosexualism. The left has already pushed the normalization of pedophilia many times and I didn’t see the indignation of the MSM.

Late Vatican’s Chief Exorcist Gabriele Amorth once said, “The Devil resides in the Vatican and you can see the consequences”.

“The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops”. – St. Athanasius

Read More: The Vatican Has Disgraced True Catholic Values

I have noticed that many people have been falsely conflating what comes out of the Vatican as Catholic. Thus it is my duty to present to the esteemed readers of this fine site the true teachings of the Church which stand, ever more so today, in stark opposition to the rot of cultural Marxism and the effeminacy of the Papal pretenders in Rome.

Vicar of Christ?

Church authorities are not legitimate

It is a dogma of the Catholic faith that the Church cannot substantially change. This means that the church cannot contradict nor change her teaching from what has always been universally taught or has been solemnly defined. Any one who claims to be Catholic and knowingly professes a faith which contradicts a teaching of the Church is considered to be a heretic and is considered to have a removed himself from the Church.

As St. Thomas states: “[one] who disbelieves [even] one article of faith does not have faith, either formed or unformed.” This is known as the unity of faith which means that all Catholics profess the same faith. Likewise it means that heretics cannot hold a clerical office in the Church. Thus if a heretic were to be elected even to the Papacy they could not be considered a legitimate Pontiff because a heretic has separated himself from the Church (source).

Would a real Pope bow to a religion declared false by the Church?

Simply put, you have to be Catholic to be Pope, and the absurdity of a heretic claiming the See of Peter is where we find ourselves today. For just as the institutions in the West have been infiltrated and seized by the enemy, likewise have the institutions of the Church been usurped by apostate forces. The hierarchy currently residing in the Vatican are not legitimate authorities and do not represent the perennial teaching of the Church. Therefore I have listed for your benefit the actual Church’s positions on some current areas of contention.

The only time Francis has ever smiled at a Crucifix

On Communism

The Catholic Church is vehemently opposed to communism. Without Pius XII valiant efforts, communism would have prevailed over postwar France and Italy. The Pope went so far as to issue the Decree against Communism in 1949 which excommunicated any Christian who professed communist doctrine.

Catholicism is the enemy of Marxism as it teaches that there can be no separation of Church and state, and an atheist government is immoral. Catholicism believes private property is a natural right going so far to say that depriving workers of their wages is a sin which cries to heaven for vengeance (compare that to our socialist tax code!).

On Migration and Culture

The current Muslim invasion of Europe would be met with the utmost resistance. It has always been the Church which has sought to safeguard Catholic Culture and in ages past has gone so far as to issue a call to arms against non-Catholics who have sought to destroy it.

Pope Urban II issued the Crusades and Pope Leo the great even went so far as to personally travel into the heart of the Hun army—to Attila himself—to deliver Rome from the sack that was to come. In 1571, St. Pope Pius V formed the Holy League that would go on to defeat the great Muslim Turkish Armada that was plaguing the Mediterranean.

“Then I pointed like so and told them where to take their cultural enrichment”

The tradition of the Church has been to unite the West against external non-christian threats in order to preserve Western Christian culture.

“The natural law enjoins us to love devotedly and to defend the country in which we were born, and in which we were brought up, so that every good citizen hesitates not to face death for his native land…. We are bound, then, to love dearly the country whence we have received the means of engagement this mortal life affords.” – Sapientia Christiana Encyclical Pope Leo XIII

On Abortion and Contraception

So what is the real teaching of the Church in regards to abortion and contraception? The teaching is any member who has an abortion or supports abortion is automatically excommunicated from the Church. That’s right: every single Democrat who claims to be Catholic is actually excommunicated, including Nancy Pelosi who likes to sanctimoniously drone how she is a good Catholic grandmother.

Contraception is also considered a mortal sin because it is an unnatural stoppage of life.

“Hence, after the sin of homicide whereby a human life already in existence is destroyed, this type of sin appears to take next place, for by it the generation of human nature is impeded.” -St. Thomas Aquinas.

I know this is unpopular with the readers, but the teaching is that those who engage in contraception have already committed murder in their heart. Contraception is what allows people to engage in recreational sex, because the natural end of sex has been set aside so too then has the institution of marriage, whose end is children.

Likewise, because we have committed murder in our hearts, we have become a petulant, immature, vain, and a sterile people similar to any other people who have taken the risk from reward or the consequences from pleasure. This is the most difficult pill to swallow.

On Feminism

The Church condemns feminism in the strongest terms. There cannot exist feminism without birth control.

“…any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.” -Pius XI Casti Cannubi

The Church asserts that Man is the head of the household and that a woman finds her vocation from being a good mother and housewife:

“This … does not deny or take away the liberty which fully belongs to the woman both in view of her dignity as a human person, and in view of her most noble office as wife and mother and companion; nor does it bid her obey her husband’s every request if not in harmony with right reason or with the dignity due to wife; … For if the man is the head, the woman is the heart, and as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so she may and ought to claim for herself the chief place in love.” -Ibid

The Pope has even gone so far as to condemn women’s suffrage:

“Woman can never be man’s equal and cannot therefore enjoy equal rights. Few women would ever desire to legislate, and those who did would only be classed as eccentrics.” -St. Pius X

On Pacifism

The Catholic Church is not simply just a religion of love and mercy. Christianity is not a weak religion, for our God is a God of Battles. Catholic Tradition encourages us to live our lives in the manner of our Lord Jesus who spoke of the struggle that his Church would have to endure.

“Do not think that I am come to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.”-Mathew 10:34

Christians are not meant to sit idly as bystanders to the great struggle of good and evil in this world.

“For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood: but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness: against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” -Ephesians 6:12

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be-ca-lm · 4 years

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the apostate’s tulip

trying to outline the main points of my deconversion process so i can write about it more in depth in the future and what better way than a T.U.L.I.P.?

1. Total Misogyny - issues from a young age regarding: the inherent inferiority of women, the femaleness of god to create in ‘our own image,’ neither male/female but one in christ - yet prescribed gender roles expected to be followed and these roles not product of curse but created intentionally (help-meet in garden)...so god just likes dudes better and that doesn’t compute and then just all of purity culture. all of it.

2. Unconditional Acceptance - if i had born in any other religion i would accept it as truth just as much because my experience accepting this religion has proved such, and they all claim to have the right way to the exclusion of the others. i’m expected to accept wild claims with no proof and arbitrary rules - miracles happened to prove god is real, oh no they don’t happen today, we just have to believe.

3. Limited Accountability - the holy spirit conviction versus the heart is deceitful above all things - what is me and what is the spirit? no way of knowing. basis of much spiritual abuse, nonsense, extrabiblical teaching, and manipulation of vulnerable members. i am taught not to trust myself, but at the same time to be guided by the spirit who will convict me of sin, sanctify me, lead me?? where does my human/sinful intuition end and holy spirit begin? other people discerning god’s will for MY life with no evidence to back it up? no one can hold you accountable if you are ‘acting within god’s will’ and hearing from him/being led by him. also “people failed you god didn’t” circumvents any accountability for the egregious actions of pastors/leaders/mentors, you cannot blame them for pushing you away from faith because tHEy ARe HuMAn, everyone held to impossible standards but the belief system cannot be held to its own standards.

4. Insincerity of the Saints - faith/belief based on feelings no matter how much they claim it’s not - i choose to believe, ok now i choose not to (there was no difference internally, nothing perceptible, no indications that i changed). the “evidence” of christians being loving/good/transformed is no different than morally good nonbelievers. my life does not look different when i simply remove the label of ‘christian’ from it - i still want to be a good person and treat others well. promises of joy, peace, comfort, etc - never felt. Accepted and praised by spiritual leaders when I faked these feelings to seem spiritually mature. Continued this ruse through adulthood in hopes one day it would “click” and become real and not produced by my mind. Despairing feeling of - if i can do this, anyone around me could also be doing this. Also, church goers just as bad as nonbelievers - backstab, gossip, lie, judge - only difference is they sing songs and say they feel bad about it on sunday then go back to it monday. false sense of superiority when really no different than anyone else, just with more rules to follow. rules give a sense of being right, having the right answer, in a hard world this is comforting. people held to different standards than our models given in the bible (church discipline for premarital sex and affairs, but david, solomon, joseph, esther, etc), “people failed you god didn’t,” if you walk away your experience in the faith automatically gets invalidated “you were never really saved” = your faith was insincere. my concerns are dismissed immediately. “you will come back around. i’m not even worried about this. you know what is right and you’ll come back to it eventually.” at least i’m considered not worth witnessing to.

5. Perseverance of the Guilty - it is all a bait and switch. it is not works, it’s faith - but works prove you have faith, so no works = no faith. they become indistinguishable. struggling with having faith? work. do good. serve. evangelize. work now, the feelings will come. duty and obedience first, love and joy will follow. eventually. one day. faith, not feelings. you don’t need to “feel” good to know god is real and there. but you should be experiencing the things he promises you will in scripture, so the issue must be with you. go on the mission field - if i can’t feel god’s love, the least i can do is help others to feel it. motivated by guilt. I never feel I am enough. It is hard to believe that the same being who tells me i’m depraved and worthless also loves me unconditionally and wants the best for me. so i stay in shame and pretend i am free. because i am supposed to be free indeed. my shame kills my spirit. depression and anxiety are not fruits of the spirit, this causes more shame, the cycle continues. i am ashamed of my sexual nature, ashamed that i question my inferior role as a woman, ashamed that my brothers and sisters utter unspeakably cruel things about the poor, immigrants, and people who disagree with their politics. i keep trying to reconcile my love for helping people with my motivation of guilt - which is which? even doubts are sin. so asking questions begets more shame.

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unbidden-yidden · 3 years

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I didn’t want to derail your post about the Trinity so I’m just sending this as an ask but I just studied all this in my Into to Western Religions class and I just wanted to say that girl who was preaching to you was actually heretical. It’s very funny because her analogy is a classic example of modalism, a 3rd(?) century heresy. I always think it’s funny when people evangelize while not even knowing the most basic stuff.

Hey no worries! For what it's worth, I don't think it would've been derailing at all, particularly since that post was a lot of me rambling and infodumping lmao

To your point though, I know, right?! It's so weird because I see variations of this everywhere on xtian stuff and have heard a number of them in person, too. There's actually one in the sources I linked:

There are others we could mention. An egg is made up of a shell, the eggwhite, and the yolk. All three are needed for an egg to be complete.

...

Like. This same source also explains that modality is a heresy?

What we don't mean

First of all, Christians don't believe in three Gods. That's a heresy called Tritheism. Second, we don't believe that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are three "forms" of God—like, steam, water and ice. That's the heresy called Modalism. Third, we don't believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are "parts" or "pieces" or God. That would imply that Jesus is 1/3rd God, the Father is 1/3rd God, and the Holy Spirit is 1/3rd God.

So... I'm really not sure why this keeps happening tbh. This particular source does clarify afterwards that all analogies are imperfect, at least:

It's important to remember that all illustrations fail eventually. They don't "prove" the Trinity, they simply help us understand the concept.

And like, look: for the xtians in the audience who are reading this, if any, please know that I am not trying to tell you what to think or believe. If this makes the most spiritual sense for you and is your way of connecting to holiness, I'm not going to pretend like I have The Answer(s). I do, however, have my answer, and it is that this is a form of polytheism that is totally unsupported and in fact thoroughly rejected by the Tanakh.

I think that when it comes down to trinitarianism, you either have a vested interest in xtianity being monotheistic and also worshipping Jesus, or you don't. If you do, probably one of the more cogent answers you're going to get is something along the lines of this:

The Trinity is a doctrine that all Christians believe but no one really understands. That much should be clear from this message. If you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny it, you will lose your soul.

The Trinity sets the limits on human speculation about the nature of God.

There is so much we would like to know about God, but our finite minds cannot comprehend it. We are not free to create God in our own image. The Trinity sets the limits for human speculation. God is more than the Trinity, but he is not less than that.

The Trinity teaches us that God is beyond all human comprehension.

After all, if we could explain God, he wouldn't be God. I have no doubt that God is much more than "one in essence, three in Person," but since I can't even understand those simple phrases, I don't worry at all about what else might be true about God. If you feel baffled by the Trinity, join the crowd. The greatest minds of history have stood in amazement before a God so great that he cannot be contained by our puny explanations.

I can accept this answer as at least intellectually honest and as having the potential to be spiritually meaningful for some people, even if I thoroughly disagree with its conclusion and do not believe it to be true personally. I would even say that it is partially correct in the sense that if G-d could be fully known and explained, then it would inherently make G-d finite and thus no longer G-d. At the same time, I do not think that it then follows that trinitarianism can still be monotheistic, and thus this concept of God inherently cannot be the G-d of the Tanakh.

Point being, if you just straight up don't believe in the trinity and don't have a vested interest in making xtian theology work, then this looks like utter nonsense from that outside perspective. If you do, then that's your prerogative and theological dilemma to solve, or not.

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basicsofislam · 5 years

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ISLAM 101: Muslim Culture and Character: Reflections (Tafakkur): Part 2

ABUSE OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS

The quest for truth has two principal branches which, if the quest is motivated by a sincere love of the truth-seeker, are radically joined – that is, they have fundamentally the same root and goal even though the branches diverge. The two branches are the seeking represented by religion and the seeking represented by science. The effort of the quest is aimed at discovering the relation between existence and human consciousness and perceptive powers within that existence. But the effort is also directed at what it (the effort) is for, and what attitude is to be taken to the knowledge we are given or obtain. This means that purpose and moral judgments enter the quest for truth and shape and color its achievements.

Now some people pretend that the science of nature is neutral about such matters. They are wrong to do so. In fact, though an individual working at some particular problem may believe him or herself to be applying neutral, objective procedures, that person’s work nevertheless entails sharing in all the structures of thought, the assumptions, and purposes, which are a part of the culture of science as a whole in any particular epoch. That culture is not independent of questions of purpose and meaning: it is simply that such questions are not the immediate objective or concern of the individual scientist, and, for that reason, they remain implicit in the work being done. They become explicit in human attitudes (personal and societal) and in the technology that funds and (by its success) justify the quest for scientific knowledge.

True science and true religion should be, as it were, fellow-travelers in that both passionately oppose superstition and falsehood; and, in any case, both have the same right of appeal to reasoned argument and to experience. Religion is the older quest in two important respects: first, in that it teaches and inspires love of truth for its own sake (that love is not and cannot be generated by science itself, though it motivates the best science); and, second, in that it upholds the Authority which gives to human reason its conditional authority – the Revelation of Gods Will to His Messengers, most comprehensively, reliably and finally in the Qur’an and in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace.

Religion has a moral and philosophical, as well as a historical, priority. Denial of that priority in human life robs it of its most vital element, its deepest dynamic, and it deprives the science of nobility of purpose. A scientific endeavor which does not aim to understand existence, which does not depend on the love for and zeal to know the truth, is liable to blindness and falling into contradictions. Perhaps without knowing it, but (surely) sometimes also knowingly, science becomes captive to ideological and doctrinal preconceptions, cultural prejudices, to the pursuit of power (instead of knowledge and understanding). When that happens, the inquirer’s way to truth is blocked up, and the endeavor of science as a whole does not yield understanding or improvement in either physical or human nature but leads to the opposite, the ruin and degradation of both.

The priority of the religious quest for truth over the scientific quest for truth does not mean that it is exempt from falling into error and wrongdoing. Rather, it is the reason for even greater vigilance to maintain the soundness of beliefs and principles, the purity of intention and practice. Just as science can be rash and intolerant in attitude towards that which it regards as outside its culture, and so fail its vocation to seek the truth, so too religion can be abused and turned from a quest for pure, heavenly truth into a means for hatred, rancor, and vindictiveness. A dogmatic and narrow-minded scientific community, enslaved to certain philosophical or ideological prejudices, can become more fanatical and dangerous in its consequences than ignorance. So too can a religious community when it reduces religion to a device to serve certain political interests or worldly advantages. Religion then ceases to be a heavenly inspiration for thought and conduct and becomes instead an assemblage of meaningless ceremonies and a worldly ideology.

Institutions where sciences are taught and scientific studies are conducted are to be esteemed as highly as places of worship. However, the institutions where sciences are used to promote certain ideological biases or impose certain concepts to obtain material advantages, no longer deserve respect, as they are structures where selfish, ignoble desires and passions are nurtured. Likewise, if religion and religious sentiments are exploited to promote political ambitions and to divide people into factions, and if religion is taken as a rigid ideology giving rise to polarization and disruptions among people, then religion is no longer a means serving to lead people to God; rather, it is an obstacle before the true religion of God, an obstacle made up of fanaticism, enmity, hatred, and belligerence.

However he may outwardly appear, a man unconscious of the true nature of belief and deprived of knowledge and love of God, who cannot measure the principles of religion in the scales of the religion itself, who does not give priority to that to which God gives priority, is disrespectful of the heavenly and universal identity of religion and has no right to claim to be truly religious. What is most opposed to both religion and science is that selfish desires and fancies are presented in the guise of objective knowledge and religious sentiments. This is a weakness in human nature leads people to ostentation and worldly expectations. People tend to sublimate their defects and shortcomings and science and religion are two important devices they use to this end.

The most effective weapon of conscience against such a tendency is the love of truth; if there is an elixir to dissolve from minds the ‘scientific’ dross and remove from hearts the tendency to false show of religious devotion, it is love of the Creator and love of truth and the love of His creation arising therefrom. If hearts are ardent with love and spirits with yearning, it is possible to mend moral defects and elevate human beings to true humanity.

The world of mankind recognized the love of truth through the Prophets, and it is this love which leads people to love of God and to build healthy relations with existence. From the very beginning, all Prophets guided their followers to that love and based their relations with their people on that love. It was only when absorbed in love of God that men have been able to find their true identity and value. The Prophet Jesus (upon him be peace), composed a poem of life based on the love of man and fulfilled his mission by conveying it to others. The Prophet Muhammad, (upon him be peace), honored the world as, in the words of a classical Turkish poet, ‘the commander of the army of lovers’ and expressed love throughout his life.

When the love of God became in him irresistible, he went on to the other world. The Qur’an, when recited with conviction and concentration, will be understood as a declaration of love, in addition to the charm of its music and phrasing. Love of truth, love of science, the urge to research, the call to reason and to exercise self-control – these are the points which the Qur’an reiterates and about which it warns people. They are like mines in which a careful, believing reciter of the Qur’an can find new, different jewels every time he seeks.

How unfortunate it is that, despite its wealth of power to heal all our wounds, to end all our centuries-old pains and cure our diseases, this precious Book has long been approached with superficial attitudes and disagreeable intentions and used by many capricious persons, desirous of the world and in pursuit of self- interests, as a device to always accuse others and acquit and absolve themselves, and exploited as an excuse for the hatred, belligerence and impudence originating in their own dark souls. This is why much seeking truth and the true path come to it with suspicion and doubt. Approaching people with anger and feelings of enmity and vengeance in the name of the Qur’an, and confusing communicating its message with looking for ways to satisfy certain political or worldly ambitions disguised under religious aims results in imitating others in atrocities and wrongdoing. It should be understood that Islam is neither an ideology nor merely a political, economic and social system, nor is the Qur’an a book calling its followers to kindle fires of war and enmity among people.

The Qur’an came down to the world with a balance. It seeks to establish a perfect balance – the balance observed in the whole of the universe which the Qur’an orders us not to destroy – in the relations of an individual with other individuals, with his family, his community and with the whole of existence. The Qur’an aims to establish peace and harmony. So, it ought never to be used to cause disruptions and mischief among people and it by no means sanctions or allows putting pressure on consciences and minds. Rather, it seeks to remove pressure from consciences and minds so that people may find the truth.

Those who set their hearts upon the lofty ideals established by the Qur’an continue to live until eternity and have an honored place in the hearts of others, similarly inspired. But those who exploit those ideals in pursuit of their debased ambitions remain as chained slaves of their desires and fancies. Their lives are spent in humiliation and end in doom.

A true, sincere student of the Qur’an aims to convey others to eternity. While he is constantly advancing to his destination along his own way, those drowned in their wrong suppositions and ambitions regard him as mad and see him as misguided.

The aim of a sincere student of the Qur’an is like a catapult throwing him directly into the world of pure spirituality beyond this base world tainted with selfish interests and mean aspirations, or it is like a rocket put in orbit around the truth. Religion is the pure source feeding him and the Prophet is the one who offers it. Those who cannot approach this blessed source through the gate of the Prophet, those who cannot dive deep in this source after the guidance of the Prophet with the necessary equipment to find the gems of truth required in this age, will not succeed in presenting as religion the ideas originating in their dark minds and souls, nor succeed in disguising their fancies and desires as religious ideas.

The Qur’an is a resource of infinite depth; whoever dives in it with a sincere intention to satisfy his needs of every kind – spiritual, intellectual, social, etc.- will find the cure he seeks. The deeper one grows in understanding and knowledge, the more one will find the Qur’an, like a rainbow, far above one’s level, impossible to reach. The following religion means being able to see the light of the Qur’an and the Prophetic way of life reflected through the prism of one’s time, place and conditions and being illumined by it.

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mtvswatches · 5 years

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Jane the Virgin 1x18 Chapter Eighteen

Spoilers disclaimer (please read before sending messages or writing comments.)

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) I like this Jane…

It’s basically eight-year-old me.

2) I don’t know how I feel about this message, though…

I get why you need to banish doubt in religion – if you don’t, you’ll question every little thing you believe in. Of course, I believe in questioning EVERYTHING, but that’s beside the point. I guess what I��m trying to say is that this is a very powerful message to convey to a young kid – they may grow up believing that they should not doubt or question anything – not only religion, and to take everything at face value. That’s a detrimental indoctrination.

3) Just please let this be the episode where Jane and Rafael break up. I’m so fucking tired of their storylines following the same pattern in every single episode and having the same result – they’re all lovey-dovey, something comes up and Jane questions something about their relationship, they fight, they say I love you, and back to square one. ENOUGH ALREADY. This is seriously putting me off the show.

4) To be fair, Xiomara…

NARRATOR: In 1991, Rogelio's mom walked in on them in flagrante, so to speak. And she was so shocked, she tripped on a lamp cord. The lamp fell, electrocuting her cat, Gordito.

XIOMARA: She's always gonna hate me.

…I’d always hate you, too. Gordito didn’t deserve to go like this.

5) I have a feeling Jane won’t follow her own advice, yet again…

Ma, if you feel yourself getting worked up, just take nice, slow, deep breaths.

And Xiomara having a Monster-in-law? I know it’s a classic telenovela trope, but I’m not a fan of it. We’ll see how it works out here.

6) This shady bitch is going to tell Jane she should stick it out with Rafael, isn’t she?

7) “It’s probably hormones”????!!! She’s not even a creative shady bitch!

8) ooooh another asshole!!

I have a gut feeling this lady will be relevant to the story, will she be Rafael’s mom, maybe? There’s a reason she was mentioned in the previously-on…

9) Okay…

She could still be Rafael’s mother for all I know. We’ll see.

10) She may have a point…

RAFAEL: Aaron is not Roman.

PETRA: Look, he obviously lured his brother out here somehow, killed him, and now he's taking his place

I was wondering how Roman could be alive when he had been impaled… The question is, why? Why would he kill his brother, fake his own death, and then come back? Or did Rose have Aaron killed thinking he was Roman? Was he trying to sever his links with Sin Rostro? Where are Rose and Luisa, btw?

11) Jane is really going to pass up spending Easter with her family in order to pretend to be someone she’s not and make some fake rich people like her so that Rafael can do some business? And I ask yet again, why is she still with him?! This is getting beyond frustrating, you have no idea how much this whole Rafael/Jane gets to me – I find it hard to enjoy the show because of them. I almost want to spot watching, it’s so fucking annoying.

12) Petra really enjoys getting into jams, doesn’t she?

13) Okay, Jane finally found out she’s been singlewhitefemaled. I wonder how she’ll confront Andie.

14) Okay, I guess I was wrong after all, Rafael sent her mom an email. I guess the snotty bitch was just a snotty bitch and nothing more.

15) This was a plot twist I wasn’t expecting…

Do I think he’ll leave the priesthood to be with Alba? I certainly hope so!

16) Oh.

LILLY: Look, I can forgive the cat. Even though the stench of Gordito's scorched fur will forever haunt me. But I cannot forgive the fact that you never told my son that you were pregnant.

NARRATOR: Wait. But she did.

XIOMARA: Excuse me?

LILLY: And as a result, you deprived me of my granddaughter. And Rogelio didn't get to raise his child.

So the reason Rogelio’s mother hates Xiomara is that he lied to her. Rogelio, shame on you, you should know better.

17) It’s actually quite decent of Michael to believe Petra and help her out.

18) Of course, Jane did her homework before meeting these Rich White Ladies.

But I really don’t like how she’s forced to act like someone she’s not to save Rafael’s ass. And let’s not forget it’s probably the first time she hasn’t spent Easter with her family…

19) You’re a good man, Rogelio. You did the right thing. He just couldn’t stand and see how Xiomara had to take Lilly’s jabs in silence because of his lie. And he may not have said “I love you” yet, but I think he’s just proven he does.

20) I wasn’t expecting a sweet moment between these two, but they got me…

MRS FALCO: I suppose I seem pathetic to you.

JANE: No, you don't. And you should know, I grew up without a father. And the one thing I remember about my birthdays is, my mom was there. And that's what your daughter will remember, too.

MRS FALCO: Thank you. And I owe you an apology for lashing out at you the other day. I was having well a moment.

NARRATOR: And for the first time, Jane realized that Mrs. Falco wasn't the worst person in the world. She was just a person

It’s a really nice message, one I often try to keep in mind when I interact with people I don’t know or just met. You just never know what type of day – or life – they’re having, so you should be careful how you treat or judge others.

21) Lilly is kind of well-intentioned, and she makes a good point of how Rogelio and Xiomara have similar flaws and that they may be rushing into things without having a clear plan of what they want. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that their relationship is doomed. They just might need to work a bit harder at it.

22) UGH I’m rolling my eyes so hard right now. We finally got to the fight portion of the Jane/Rafael storyline of every single episode. Rafael keeps saying he wants to be a family man but he keeps acting otherwise. Jane keeps telling him this is not what she wants, but she stays. And I’M BOOOOOOORED.

23) Priceless.

24) WHAT!

Naughty priest!

25) No, Xiomara!!!!

26) No, Alba!!

See what I mean? What type of message is this? And now Xiomara is giving her the same advice!

She’s not doubting, she’s seeing things as they are and questioning the decisions she’s making.

27) Fuck, she’s listening to this dumbass advice about banishing doubts? Oh my god, how long will they stretch it out? Till the season finale? I don’t know if I’ll make it…

28) So here’s Rafael’s mom…

The reveal was kind of underwhelming, tbh.

29) And she’s a piece of shit. I’m sorry but I will never forgive parents who leave their children. Especially not if she basically sold him to his father. I hope she’s not part of the show.

30) Aww, Rogelio finally said it!

31) OMG

Who cares if your eggs are too old? We'll buy fresh ones. Combine my DNA with anyone, and the child will be extraordinary.

32) Ugh, Xiomara is going to keep the kiss a secret. WHYYYYYYY. It’s such an unnecessary plot device, I hate it.

33) IT IS FUCKING ROMAN.

34) aND RAFAEL BREAKS UP WITH JANE?????!!!! SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE TO BROP HIS FUCKING ASS!!! UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH I’M FUCKING DONE WITH THIS SHOW.

35) See? If she’d listened to me from the day one, she wouldn’t be crying in the hallway…

36) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

#Jane the Virgin #Jane Villanueva #Gina Rodriguez #Rogelio De La Vega #Rafael Solano #JTV recap #JTV 1x18 #mine

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hunterinabrowncoat · 6 years

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Christians will say “becoming a Christian doesn’t mean all your problems will be solved” and “becoming a Christian won’t make things easier”, but at the same time, pretty much all evangelising follows the same formula: insert any issue, and the answer is Jesus.

Do you feel like there’s something missing in your life? It’s Jesus! Do you feel like there’s got to be something more to life than this? Well you’re right - it’s Jesus! Do you want something to give your life meaning? That something is Jesus, you just don’t know it yet! Do you feel broken and you need something to make you whole? Jesus will do that! I was just like you and had problems where I tried to fill that empty hole in my life with [insert unhealthy pattern that clearly shows unresolved issues here], until I found JESUS and ALL OF THOSE PROBLEMS WENT AWAY!

...As if we stop being broken people the moment we meet Jesus. As if our life will suddenly have meaning and purpose and we won’t feel that aching emptiness anymore because we have The Answer - we’ve ‘found God’. We have Jesus. And that’s all you need for a fulfilled, whole, healthy life. As if the moment you ~become a Christian is the moment that all of that yearning and aching and questioning and searching and worrying and confusion ceases, and you are suddenly completely satisfied with life.

I hate this idea so much, and I hate that it is so pervasive. It’s false. It’s misleading. It’s an empty platitude. And it’s guilt-trippy as fuck. It makes you feel guilty for struggling, for questioning, for feeling empty and dissatisfied with life, for yearning for something more, because you’ve got Jesus! What more could you possibly need?

It has permeated every facet of Christianity that I’ve been involved with - every church, every group, every friend, this idea has been there, even if only in the background, influencing the way we talk about God, the way we relate to God, the way we feel about our faith. And it is constantly causing so much hurt.

Christians will cry “I don’t pretend to have all the answers” and “we don’t think we’re better than you because we have all the answers!” but the reality is... we do. We say it every time we say that The Answer To Everything is Jesus. We reiterate it every time we act as though having faith in Jesus, having relationships with Jesus, having communication with Jesus, knowing Jesus, inviting a Jesus into our hearts (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean anyway), is all that we need in life.

Now don’t get me wrong... I’m not saying that we don’t need God, that Jesus is not important, that relationship with the divine isn’t essential, or that faith can’t give us meaning. What I am saying is that this idea that Jesus is the answer to every question and the solution to every problem, is empty. And the culture we’ve built around that idea is incredibly toxic, because it leaves us all feeling guilty for being human, when, inevitably, we experience doubt or confusion or worry or hurt, or - God forbid - that feeling of emptiness.

Human beings were designed for relationship. We are made for community - both with one another and with God. And when people perpetuate this idea that if we are dissatisfied with life in any way, it’s because we aren’t trying hard enough with God, because we aren’t close enough to God, we’re not doing what God wants for our life etc., it does us a great disservice. It completely ignores that human beings have very real, practical needs. And when those needs aren’t met, we will feel like crap.

There are plenty of things about our lives that will leave us dissatisfied, feeling hopeless and empty, feeling lost or worthless, regardless of faith. And that’s not a failing on our part. That’s because our very real psychological needs are not being met.

We need to feel valued. We need to feel part of a community. We need to be around other people that we care about, that care about us. We need to feel like we have a purpose. We need to feel like we have some measure of control over our lives. We need to be around nature. And a world that not only doesn’t cater to those needs, but often actively works against them, will leave people feeling hopeless, empty, dissatisfied, and lost.

Our society is set up in a way that deliberately leaves us all desperately isolated. It tires us out, puts us down, strips us of our power. It reduces human worth to capital gain. It deliberately and calculatedly sets up certain groups of people with more social power, and victimises and oppresses others.

And the reality is that we know this idea that all you need is Jesus is false. Because in the real world, Christians are still human beings, who get depressed, who struggle with worry and uncertainty, who grieve and hurt and cry, who can still struggle with addiction. And all of us feel this aching, this knowledge that something isn’t right, that things aren’t as they’re supposed to be, this yearning for something more.

In my experience, the Christian response to this reality is either to push harder into this dangerous theology - Christians shouldn’t get depressed, we’ve got Jesus. Christians shouldn’t worry or feel that yearning or aching, Christians shouldn’t have problems. Or, those who have a bit more of a realistic understanding of what it is to be human, this cognitive dissonance has to be maintained - Jesus is all we need, but we’re human and we hurt. Both of which, to their own extents, inevitably lead to feeling guilty about our humanness, and see it as a failing on our part. We need to pray more, have more faith, press in to God, find our meaning and identity in Them.

And again - I’m not saying that our faith, our relationship with God, can’t help us in those things. Without a doubt, when experiencing those things are when we need to turn to God. Many of us find meaning and purpose and solace in our relationship with God, in our religion.

But our relationship with God cannot undo the reality that we live in a broken, hurting, desperate, unjust world. Living in that world takes a toll on us. And we shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for that. When we feel that way should be the time that we come together, that we press in to community and find ourselves closer to God, that we comfort each other and experience God’s comfort.

But instead we feel guilty about how we seem to be the only one feeling that emptiness and yearning, while everybody else seems to get on just fine, and talks about how they find meaning and purpose in God. But everybody else is feeling the exact same thing, we’re all just too afraid to say it.

#christianity #church #religion #faith tag #long post for ts #church hurt #theology #god

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pomegranates-and-blood · 4 years

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νοσταλγία (Chapter 1)

(Gif credit to @kikuthestrange)

νοσταλγία Masterlist

Pairing: Ivar/Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 2.8k

Warnings: As usual, mentions and descriptions of blood, death, torture, injury and people being burnt alive. Mentions or allusions to rape. If there’s anything else I didn’t mention, please let me know. Fair warning that the Reader Character may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but please give her a chance.

A/N: Um, idk. Hope you like this, and again, really sorry if this is OOC. That is one hell of an insecurity I have when I start writing for new characters, but I really hope I’m not messing Ivar or any of the others up.

You are focused on the blending of some herbs to help the pain of some of the warriors, when a round metal shield is dropped at your feet. You raise your eyes from the snake engraved on the old metal to the Saxon, giving away nothing except a small twitch of your mouth.

But you know what that symbol is. It is a mark of the Attics.

“Most of the Greeks are dead,” He states, certainly, viciously. Your eyes fall closed, and you heave a sigh. “And I will personally see that the survivors are hunted down.”

You knew this was going to happen. The Varangians cornered Stithulf into the confine of these walls and yet last night he sent a hunting party, the best of the best within his Arab mercenaries.

You knew he wasn’t going to try and kill Ivar the Boneless or his brothers. No, he was going to take revenge on the people he deemed failed him, the people he deemed owed him a victory.

And it makes the whole ground cave under your feet, the realization that it is done. That the last of the Attics lie bloodied on the unforgiving earth. That their faith in you, their love for you, was their downfall.

Just like Narses’.

“I always knew you Christians were just as bloody and cruel as the worst of us,” You say instead, looking down at the shield again and picking it up with trembling hands, “You slaughtered hundreds of innocents.”

“If you had fought for us…” He starts, but you interrupt him with a glare. Some things don’t change even if you get far from home: all it takes to stop an army, to make a man like Stithulf hesitate, is a heathen witch.

If only their God hadn’t taught him to fear yours, the world would be so different.

“We’d all rather be dead than slaves to a Christian.” You hiss out, curling your fingers over the cold and bloodied metal. And you mean more than this battle, this war not your own that regardless you lost; no, you mean Byzantium, and the home you left behind.

“You could have avoided all of this, Greek.” He insists, the scar that runs from his neck to his uneven sideburn stretching around the smile he offers.

For a moment you imagine letting your hand run a knife deeply through that scar, open it again and see it pour red and victorious blood. Trace with a knife over every scar, so that he only remembers the torment you brought him.

No, that’s wrong. Trying to hide the grimace at your own thoughts, you shake off the shame and stand up. Holding on tightly to the shield, you feel you carry the weight of thousands of Greeks on your hand.

And because you were taught speaking things helped make them real, you promise, “Our Gods live on, and the worship of them is not something blades and blood can smother. Quieten, yes, but never silence.”

“You will die for your pagan ways, you know this, don’t you?” He asks, stopping you for a moment at the…honesty in his voice.

“I do not fear death,” You answer, and when you walk past an open window that looks over the foreign and cold horizon you add, quiet enough that only the Gods may hear you, “I welcome it. Let Hades summon me home.”

“I have reached an agreement with the Vikings,” Stithulf calls out, voice loud and echoing in the halls. You grip the shield tighter. “There will be…negotiations tomorrow.”

Your mouth smiles and your tongue runs with dangerous words before you can stop yourself, “You will sit and talk with the same men you scoured the world trying to kill?”

“I know when I am defeated, Greek. Something you lack.”

You say nothing else, the defeat finally setting over your shoulders and all you can do to keep appearances is to keep walking and pretend the tears are not clogging your view as you walk past unfamiliar halls, on unfamiliar grounds, with the weight of unfamiliar and familiar ghosts over your head.

Spending the rest of the day, almost till the sun sets, taking care of some wounds and fevers, you can almost pretend to yourself that the life you give here, the damage you heal here; can start to make up for all the death you and your mistakes have caused.

You raise your head from your work on the stitching when strange rhythmic sounds reach your ears.

Metal on wood. Dragging sounds. Metal on wood again. Something dragged again.

The door to the barren and almost empty home you are using as a makeshift infirmary opens, and the silhouette of Ivar the Boneless stands on the doorway.

Your heart pounds in your ears, and the warrior with his injured skin under your fingers hisses a breath when your needle pierces deeper than intended into his skin. You mumble an apology in Greek, but keep your eyes on the King.

“You don’t need healing.” You quip quietly in his language, rising to your feet and motioning for the Greek you were helping to remain in his seat.

To be honest, you don’t know why you stand up, why you straighten your back and raise your chin. You can pretend to be as tall as you wish, as strong as you wish, but everyone in this room knows if the Varangian wants you dead you will be so.

“I wanted to talk to you.” The Viking offers, forced nonchalance as he approaches. His legs don’t seem to work normally, and the contraptions around them are like you never saw before. The healer in you notes they look…painful.

He gets close enough you can see his handsome face clearly in the candlelight, but far enough you don’t feel threatened. The King remains standing, straight and proud, by one of the wooden pillars.

His pale eyes, you note in the now clear view the candles provide you, switch to the warrior sitting a few feet behind and then return to you. You resist the urge to play with your fingers.

“Why?” You ask, retrieving with trembling hands one of the linens you will use as bandages for the wound on the Greek warrior’s back.

“I’m…curious.”

“So am I,” You reply, rolling the needle you use for the stitches between your thumb and forefinger as you study the man. “It is not every day that I find myself meeting with a Viking King.”

“So you know who I am.” He states, and you cannot know if he is disappointed, proud, or a mix of the two.

“Of course I do,” You answer without hesitation, “And I also know it is not me who you are supposed to be meeting.”

“I wanted to talk with you, witch.” He insists again, reminding you of a spoiled child, but also showing you that, either for the foreignness or something entirely him, the Varangian is uncertain on how to talk to you.

It almost makes a smile curve at your lips, and your impulsive heart wants you to send the warrior off and talk with this strange man, this…Ivar the Boneless.

“I…am busy,” You answer instead, returning to your stitching. If your hand trembles a little and you cause a little more pain than you intended as you finish up the last of the stitches, no one can blame you. “I must tend to the wounded, Varangian.”

“A smart woman would know better than to deny me.”

“I never claimed to be smart.”

“Are you always this insufferable, woman?” He snaps, anger rises in his voice, making the warrior you are standing behind tense under your fingers as they wrap a bandage over his back and ribs to keep the wound from infection.

But you, past the fear, feel a small smile start to curve at your lips when you find the pale eyes of the Varangian King.

“I try.” You reply with a shrug, but a growl is the only answer you get.

You watch with wide eyes as the Viking unsheathes a small knife from somewhere in his chest and, instead of throwing it like you would expect, he flips it so that he grabs onto the blade instead of the handle.

His fist clenches around it, eliciting a sharp breath from the King and blood that drips between his fingers.

“There,” He grunts, opening his hand and letting the knife clatter unceremoniously to the wooden floor. He returns his piercing pale eyes to you and his mouth almost bares in a snarl, his nose furrows in cold anger, as he speaks, “Now you have to tend to me.”

So the rumors were true, he is actually crazy. Although you doubt a man that can topple Aelle, that can conquer York, is crazy.

No, he is clever. If maybe too angry and arrogant, he is still cunning. That thought alone reminds you to keep your guard up.

A part of your mind begs you to be sensible about this, not to do anything stupid, but you finish wrapping the wound on the warriors back with skilled fingers, and tap his shoulder so that he stands. Ivar the Boneless keeps his eyes on you, defiantly and terrifyingly, as he watches you move. You turn your attention to the Greek and nod as goodbye, “Go, I will be fine.”

The man looks between the Varangian and you, before putting his right fist to his heart, his left arm bent behind him in a goodbye and a sign of respect to you.

“Anassa.” He mutters in farewell, and you watch him go wondering how many days will it take for him to also die because of your mistakes.

And as the door closes behind the Greek, you notice truly how engulfing the darkness and the defenselessness are. The city moves on around you, but all that reaches the small cabin you are in is the faint sounds of a stray horse or farm animal. The Saxons wouldn’t want the heathen witch to be near their soldiers, after all, even in a city that was never theirs with barely any civilians on it.

All that means you are all alone and defenseless, with a Viking known for his cruel and vicious ways. Gritting your teeth and fighting to keep your heartbeat from drumming away in your ears, you turn back to the Varangian and motion for a chair near you.

He doesn’t move. Of course he doesn’t, because no one in this cursed land listens to a damn word you say.

His hand still drips red to the wooden floor, and you pointedly look at it where it rests on his side and back to his face. The King only cocks his head to the side, eyes narrowed.

“You speak many tongues,” The Varangian states, not even a question, “Our language, the Saxons’, but I don’t recognize the other one.”

“Greek,” You reply, “I am not from here.”

“I noticed.”

With a shrug, you state, “Probably why you haven’t killed me yet, isn’t it?”

But the Viking doesn’t answer. Instead, he limps towards you, but where there should be -to a sane woman, maybe- a threat, a danger, you only find your heart beating with the same fast pace it did when you were about to cross a dangerous and wild stream by Eleusis’ forests. A hint of fear, a hint of curiosity, and much more than a hint of freedom.

The rage of the stream deafened you, uncertainty beat quickly on your chest…but your bare feet still continued running towards the water.

You keep your eyes on his.

“You are…outspoken, witch. Are all Greeks like you?”

“You should lower your eyes when men are speaking.” He advises with more than a little anger in his tone.

You hear faintly of Sieghild’s mocking scoff, and you stand up from your chair and stalk to Narses in a few strides, keeping your eyes on him. A sick part of you is trying to test him, to dare him into laying hands on you to shut you up.

The lies would come easier if he did.

“I cower before no man, my love.” The endearment drips with poison, and the twitch in his expression tells you he is aware of it.

There’s rustling of armor, and out of the corner of your eye you catch sight of Lysander straightening to his full height, the mantle of the soon-to-be Anax of Sparta set well over his shoulders as he walks calmly towards you.

For a moment of distrust and panic, you think he will take the side that wants to silence you, but your cousin stands next to you, although slightly behind, offering you his support. His hand is comforting on your shoulder.

“You may do things differently in Attica, but in Laconia our women are not slaves,” Lysander promises, voice dripping authority and more than a slight threat, “Descendant of Theseus, aren’t you?” He breathes out a chuckle, “You will have to venture into the Underworld like your ancestor to make a woman of Spartan blood cave.”

You breathe out a laugh, “No.”

“So you are not afraid of me.”

You look into his pale eyes and wonder for a moment. What is there to fear? It is true his fame precedes him, even if you choose to ignore his name, his truth. Rumors of madness, ruthlessness, unpredictability, rage, cruelty; they all are kept safely in your mind, to torment you faintly with exactly the kind of beast you try to dance with.

But you remember the time that mad man in the flimsy boat offered to take you to cross the Aegean, and how the threat of pain and death and cold all hung over you like shadows; and yet the curiosity of what lay in the realm of what if made you still get on that feeble boat. You have a feeling it is the same kind of stubborn and reckless curiosity that makes you offer the King a small smile.

“I learned long ago not to fear any man, Varangian.” You answer, motioning with your hand to his injured one, hoping for response this time.

The Viking’s eyes are defying as they challenge yours, but you refuse to lower your gaze. He sits by you on one of the chairs, movements graceful and confident as he discards the crutch he uses to walk by the table.

After a breath, he offers you his injured hand.

You don’t hesitate, even if a part of you tells you that you should, and take a seat at his side, working instinctively as you start wetting a clean cloth in some water infused with honeysuckle and goldenseal.

Taking his hand and opening the rough fingers to your sight and touch, you clean off the blood and hope silently that you are not the one responsible for Ivar the Boneless getting an infection for a stupid wound on his hand.

“Why are you and your people here, if you are from the Mediterranean?” He asks suddenly, but it doesn’t startle you like it should.

With a deep breath and keeping your eyes on your work, you offer, “The obvious answer would be attacking your city, my King.”

“And retreating.” He points out lowly, not biting into your taunt.

Lifting your eyes to his, you search his pale gaze for a few moments. You offer him sincerity in exchange for his calm, “The Christians were going to surrender, we knew this the moment your army arrived. We had no interest in this war of yours.”

“Then why fight in it?”

“Obvious answer, my King?” You ask around a smirk, and the man’s eyes darken as he leans closer. A finger underneath your chin threatens you as much as a sharp blade could, and you swallow past a dry throat.

“Careful.” He cautions, and his lips curve around a smile as dangerous and poisonous as it is enthralling and tempting.

“Our commander agreed we aided the Saxons in exchange for their army’s help in our homeland. With my-…with the commander dead the Greeks were called to retreat.”

“But not you,” He points out, still uncomfortably close. “You didn’t retreat.”

You wish you had an answer to his unspoken question. But you don’t. You could have run with Galla and the others, you could have forged your own path with Sieghild away from battle, the Gods know you have done so before.

You could have, but still you fell back to the Saxon city as if survival was to be achieved only by acceptance of defeat.

“A lady ought to have her secrets, I’m afraid.” You answer instead, lowering your eyes back to your work. Although you can sense the young Viking wants to demand more, because of course he does, he remains silent.

______

Hi, thank you for reading! I really hope you are liking this so far, and that it isn’t boring lol

Again, thank you so much, and I’d love to hear from you!

#ivar the boneless x reader #ivar x reader #ivar the boneless imagine #ivar the boneless #vikings imagine #vikings #νοσταλγία masterlist #νοσταλγία

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tipsycad147 · 3 years

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Real Love Spells for Modern Witches! 17 Spells That Work

Love spells can be a really powerful source of self-empowerment. Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, and loving someone deeply gives you courage. These words were true when Chinese philosopher Lao-Tze coined them – over two thousand years ago – and still ring true today.

Some of us would do anything to recover a lost love or to attract someone new, but it can be hard to know where to start [psssst! Start here!]. Past and present can get in the way, certain experiences make it hard just to try and move on. But spiritual healing is easier than you think. These simple love spells are a free DIY option that you can use at home to promote love in all aspects of your life. 💏

On this page, you’ll find:

Do Love Spells Work?

Free Love Spells

Tips for Casting Better Love Spells

FAQ

Spells to Attract Love

Spells to Forget an Ex

Love Spells For Couples

Reconciliation Spells: Bring Back a Lover

Love Spells for a Specific Person

Do Love Spells Work?

Love spells have existed since the beginning of civilization, when Witchcraft was used to increase fertility or to favor marriages and relationships. This type of Magic was usually performed by shamans and healers. It was an early form of religion and science. This experimental skill has been passed down for hundreds of generations.

If you have never worked with spells of Witchcraft before, here’s a quick guide that will get you started:

The most effective love spells that work usually involve love chants, prayer, mantras, or affirmations that reinforce our confidence. Before manifesting anything in our reality, we must first believe and feel that this is possible, that we deserve it. To cast a love spell, you have to be ready and open to receive that kind of love. ❤

The ritual aspects of the spell are less important, but they will help you to get into the right mindset. So prepare an atmosphere with dim lights or candles, and a silent place to work without interruptions. Let the energy flow through you and concentrate on your desire. If you haven’t already, read this lesson on the First 5 Steps to Becoming a Real-Life Witch.

Bookmark this site and especially the free love spell recipes. Come back later and print them out or copy them to your Book of Shadows. All spells on this page can easily be cast at home, even if you are a Beginner Witch. You can use Magic for:

Channeling self-love and confidence

Improving a romantic relationship

Recovering a lost love

Attracting someone closer to you

Tips for Casting Better Love Spells

Here are some keys to the proper casting of spells, so if you are a beginner and would like to practice Witchcraft at home, you can maximize the effectiveness of your rituals without having to pay for a professional spellcaster.

1. Clearly define an intention

One of the basic rules for doing any type of Magic work is to understand exactly what your desires are. The clearer your goals and intentions are, the easier it will be for you to materialize those goals and get good results in your spiritual work.

When casting any spell, your thoughts must be directed towards your goal like a laser beam, without any interference. 🎯 Love spells that work best for beginners are those that focus on changing your outlook on life and improving yourself, instead of trying to change what others feel.

2. Choose the right spell

If there are several spells that could fit your need, then choose the one that immediately draws your attention or that you liked at first sight.

Don’t overthink, rely on your intuition and keep your confidence levels high. If you like candles, cast a spell that uses candles. If you like to work with herbs, crystals, or any ingredient in particular, use that ingredient as much as you can. Witches tend have affinities to certain elements because they symbolize a connection to an aspect of Nature or the Universe. With the help of these symbols, a true Witch can manifest anything they want. Find the ingredients and spells that speak to you personally, experiment and have fun! 🍀

If you’ve never cast a spell before, start with easy spells, or look for one that seems simple enough for you. Don’t have big expectations for your first rituals. It’s a slow learning progress and little by little you will become more confident.

3. Practice through trial and error

If a spell does not work for you, wait for a month and re-cast it. Use your intuition to try and find the reason why it didn’t work. If you felt good while casting the spell but you didn’t get any results, it’s preferable that you try casting the same spell again instead of moving to a new one. It takes practice. 💪

Do not combine a love spell with another trying to enhance it. Unless you are experienced, your attention will be dispersed and the spellwork will become useless. It is much more effective to focus all your energy and attention in one goal. Wait until one full moon cycle has passed (about 28 days) before casting another spell. You can still perform, for example, baths and cleanses for unblocking and opening paths. There are plenty of other daily rituals and meditations you can still perform.

If you are a beginner, it’s best to following a written spell step by step, without changing anything. More advanced practitioners should adapt and write their own spells.

4. Give thanks every day

Give thanks because the people and circumstances that you have asked for are already on their way. Allow yourself to daydream and remember what your goal is every morning. Use the Daily Ritual Page to practice devotionals, positive affirmations and mantras that will keep you in the right mood. 🙏 Thought creates reality: Watch your thoughts!

5. Work with the Universe

The Full Moon and all other lunar phases have energies that can enhance your Magic. Full Moon love spells harness the symbolism and power of the lunar radiance to amplify your intent. Find more Full Moon Spells to Workout the Witch in you.

🌒🌕🌘

Remember: There are 8 lunar phases and we can group them into 4 stages: New Moon, Waxing Moon, Full Moon, and Waning Moon. If you’re new to Moon Magic, read this post now:

When you make a petition or a request to any entities or to your Higher Self, pretend that you already have what you are asking for and that you are just giving thanks for it. Never say “Help me because I’m tired and lonely” or anything like that. Focus on positive thinking, which naturally attracts positive energies. For example, say: “Thanks for filling my life with love and joy”.

The Universe will always interpret your call as a reaffirmation. Whatever you have now, you will get more. Try giving thanks because the man or woman of your dreams is already in your life. Try to feel like you are already surrounded by love and happiness, because you deserve it. Part of learning how to make love spells is visualizing yourself being embraced, loved and letting those emotions surface. ❤

6. Be patient

Don’t let doubts and fears take away your Power. Don’t talk with others about the spells you are casting or about your petitions to the Universe. They will see for themselves when it happens. For now, be patient. Let the energies do their job and trust them. Work every day towards your goal and do not hurry.

7. Support your desires with action

Besides what’s in your head and in your heart, you should be doing things that tell the Universe what you want. Use your new boost of confidence to go out and become more active. Make friends. Establish contacts and open up to new opportunities.

The manifestation of what you want comes much more quickly when your words are supported by your deeds. Do what you say you will do. Show the Universe that you are a powerful creator by being what you say you want to be. ☀

Never get carried away by envy, jealousy or negative emotions when it comes to casting spells. I wish you luck in all of your love spells, and remember that you deserve the best, right now.

1. Are these spells of Black Magic?

Answer: They can be, depending on your intentions.

If your wishes entail tampering with another person’s freedom, then that can be considered Black Magic. In other words, spells or rituals of Magic that aim to change someone’s free will or that might affect it as a side effect are undoubtedly rituals of Black Magic.

If your intentions and methods aren’t evil, then you shouldn’t worry. Spells are not “bad” or “evil” by themselves. Evil can exist only in a person’s heart and intentions. When you chant a spell, invoke a certain deity, or contact any spirits, you and your Higher Self know exactly what you are doing. If you have the wrong intentions, or if you are seeking to cause harm or manipulate something that you should not be fiddling with, then it is your own subconscious that will make your spell backfire. Develop your intuition so you can read your own intentions better. Practice your Magic safely, click here to learn about Safety when Casting Spells.

2. How long do love spells take to work?

Answer: Love spells act on people, behaviors, and emotions, which can be very erratic. This is why there is no exact number or mathematical formulas you can use to know this. In general, you can wait to see results within one full moon cycle, but remember that the harder your goal is, the longer your spell will take to work.

If after 28 days ⌛ you haven’t seen any signs of manifestation, you can cast the spell again. Remember to keep realistic goals: If you are looking for free love spells that work in minutes, you should know that such a thing cannot be guaranteed by anyone because Love has its own timing and patience is key.

Avoid scams! Do not trust any spellcaster that promises immediate results or “love spells that work overnight”.

3. How do these love spells work?

Answer: The simplest love spells work by the Law of Attraction. That’s essentially you, your faith and your thoughts. In a more advanced stage of your path, you will learn how to work with deities, spirits and other entities.

These love spells work by creating and raising scpecific energies that sometimes can’t flourish naturally due to blockages, fear, sadness or insecurity. Spells of Magic can make it easier for a person to open their heart and receive, but also give, positive and lovesome emotions.

4. I don’t have any experience casting spells, can I still try them?

Answer: Of course you can. Click here to learn How to Cast Spells When you’re New. Many people visit this website searching things like how to do voodoo love spells, but if you don’t have any experience working with metaphysical energies it can be hard to make love spells work simply following the steps in a recipe. Read as much as you can, and start with easy devotionals and guided meditations.

5. I am LGBTQ, can I do these rituals?

Answer: Yes. All of these spells should work whether you are a man, woman, straight, LGBTQ, or however you identify. You also don’t need to go searching for “gay love spells”, use them and know that wherever there can be love, Magic will help. Work on your rituals until you feel confident enough and you will be able to modify the spells to fit your needs and all your personal circumstances.

6. Can you cast a love spell for me?

Many people are searching for “free love spells cast for you“. The reality is that they are looking for an easy way out of their situation. If you want real change in your love life, you will have to put in the work and make some real changes in your attitude and behavior.

Even if a spellcaster could cast a love spell that worked instantly for you, the results wouldn’t last long because you haven’t changed yourself. The problems will eventually resurface, leaving you back to where you started. Casting a love spell that works for real means investing your own time and energy, making your own decisions, and evaluating the progress you make all the way.

If you feel stuck or can’t make any progress. it’s recommended that you talk to an expert who will be able to address the specifics of your situation.

https://spells8.com/real-love-spells/

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overthinkingfeathers · 6 years

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@carabas mentioned Imshael offering more choices than his original three a while ago, and the idea has been bouncing around my head ever since, so.

The man at the center of the courtyard wasn't human.

He was doing a good job pretending. Tiny details were wrong - skin not nearly flushed enough from the bitter winds, footsteps vanishing seconds after he moved - but those were things Lavellan wouldn't have noticed immediately, if at all. No, the telltale sign was his energy, the massive pull of Fade behind him. Once, before Cole and before the aching mark on her hand, she wouldn't have noticed. Now if she closed her eyes, she could almost see the outline of it, trace the tendrils that were spiraling to her. The anchor, it seemed, was always hungry for the Fade, and spirits provided.

Of course, the fact that he was standing calmly among patrolling Red Templars was a bit of a giveaway too. She never would have mistaken him for harmless.

"Ah, so the hero arrives. But is it hero? Or murderer? It's so hard to tell." He was turned halfway around, dramatically anticipating their approach. Arrogant or justly confident? Lavellan wasn't sure which.

"So this is the demon called Imshael," said Varric, eyeing his coat with contempt.

Imshael cleared his throat, turning to give them the full brunt of an impressive glare. "Choice. Spirit."

"Maker give us strength!" Cassandra hadn't sheathed her sword since they had stepped into the Keep, and now she was raising it, preparing for battle.

"Wait. Wait. Wait. These are your friends? They're very violent. It's worrying." His eyes swept over them warily, taking in the blood and viscera spattered across their armor. The templar nearest him stirred in agitation, and he glanced at his own reinforcements before settling. "True to my name, I will show you that you have a choice. It doesn't always have to end in blood."

Everything she had ever been taught told her to attack, to not even let him finish his offer. Some spirits meant well, but she had heard enough to believe that he wasn't one of them. But the trek up had been tiring, and her mana wasn't fully restored yet. Stalling for a few minutes wasn't the worst idea she had ever followed through on. "Talk."

"Yeah, that... never ends well," Varric muttered.

"Simple. We don't fight, and I grant you power. Shower you with riches. Or maybe virgins. Your pick. Then we all live happily ever after." He smiled. "Well, not all of us. But who's counting?"

"No." This was the spirit that Michel was so worried about? Lavellan had overestimated them both.

"Hmm," said Imshael. "You made that choice too quick. Decisive. I like that. Most people go for the easy ones. Let me try again. How about... safety?"

Behind her, Varric snorted. "A demon offering safety? That's a stretch."

"Oh for... Choice! Spirit!" He raised his hands in exasperation, then smoothed back his hair as if to calm himself. "Not for you, Inquisitor. You're quite capable of handling yourself. No, safety for your clan."

Lavellan didn't say anything.

"Tell me, do you really think they're safe in Wycome? Oh sure, maybe they're treated well now, but eventually a plague or famine will sweep in, and who do you think the humans will blame?"

A muscle in her jaw twitched. This was more like she expected. "Us. They always blame us." It was the answer he wanted, but it was also the truth.

"Exactly!" Imshael seemed pleased that she was following along. Every elf learned that lesson quickly, she wanted to point out. Every one of them lived with fear in the background. "Surely you know by now that you can't protect them. Sitting in your fortress, so far away, waiting for weeks on end for even the simplest reply. Did they live? Did they perish? The mightiest force in all of Thedas and you can't even get an answer."

"Food heavy and tasteless, sleep fleeting, I should never have left, I should be there," Cole murmured behind her.

"Not helping." Neither of them were wrong, much as she hated to admit it. Every time she dispatched teams to help her people, she thought she would throw up. By the time they received an answer, the anxiety had worn her ragged, and she had felt like she was barely holding on. She would gladly throw herself into a rift if it meant never fearing for her family again.

"See, even Compassion here agrees! It is Compassion, isn't it? So hard to tell in this world. Everything's so... murky."

"He's trying to fool you, Herald," Cassandra said. "Be wary. He's just saying what you want to hear."

"Yes, of course, the Chantry is the one who upholds their promises. That's why the Dales are swimming with elves right now and why part of Fereldan was set aside just for the Dalish. Oh, and who can forget Andraste's faithful Shartan, forever immortalized in all his elven glory? Yes, the only person fooling anyone about elves is me." Imshael's voice was thick with sarcasm. "Your ability to see right through me wounds, Seeker of Truth."

"Silence, demon! Your lies will not work here!" Cassandra took a threatening step forward, but Lavellan held a hand in front of her, blocking her path. She didn't need to take her eyes off Imshael to feel Cassandra stiffen in rage and surprise.

"I've corrected you over and over again, but you still insist on using that hurtful term. Does it make me a demon to offer options? What's the point of offering something no one wants? Please. Choices were one answer is obviously superior are boring." He turned his eyes towards Lavellan. For the first time he looked sincere, and that scared her more than anything else had. "Herald of Andraste, you have my promise that none of the words I'm saying are false. Choices made in lies are hardly choices at all. No, everything I offer is possible."

"If - if - I take you up on that offer, what do you get out of it?" She shouldn't even be considering this. Damn her. Damn him. Damn this entire world.

"I walk out of here and go somewhere else. Offering the same choice over and over gets boring. I'm ready for a change of scenery."

"That's it? I let you leave, and in return, you keep my clan safe?"

"You seemed surprised that I value my own safety. I know how many obstacles you faced getting here, and I'm not interested in being one more." He grinned and leaned in conspiratorially. "Let me let you in on a little secret. Chantry or not, Corypheus or not, big change is coming, Herald. I want to be here to see it."

"What kind of change?"

"No, I don't think I can tell you. Besides," he waved dismissively, "I doubt you'd believe me. You'll just have to wait for that one."

"Inquisitor, listen to me." Varric sounded more careful than she had heard him ever be before, and hidden beneath the slow words was a hint of long buried pain. "It sounds easy right now, but it's not. That's not how these things work. I've seen it before. I don't want to see it again."

The spirit shrugged. "I suppose you'll have to deal with your friends's negative opinions about this deal, but who cares about that? They're not going to tell anyone."

Beside her, Cassandra snarled and took another step forward until Lavellan's hand was pressed against the cold steel of her breastplate. Still she didn't take here eyes off Imshael.

"I believe our time is running short," he said. "I do like to give people some time, but I don't think your friends are going to grant you the luxury. What will it be? Safety for the people you left behind or an unnecessary fight now?"

The winds howled through the ruins, bouncing off half destroyed statues they would never understand. In the Emerald Graves, despair and rage tumbled through the rifts at greater rates than they did anywhere else. The first time she had heard a despair demon shriek there, she had been overcome with grief. Through eyes that were not her own, she had seen a vast, gleaming army marching towards them. Behind them, smoke had cried out the border towns fate, the fate they were soon to share. And even that was not enough; later, when thousands of trees grew from her people's bodies, they had to spread their roots around statues proclaiming them to be heretics and savages. She blocked here ears in the forest now.

The people with her now would die for her. She would die for them. Lavellan wouldn't deny that. But they were only a few, and the Chantry was many. How many times had she proclaimed her faith in the Elven Pantheon, pointed to the devotion tattooed into her flesh, only to be told her own thoughts didn't matter? She was an icon, an image to be used. "These traditions were forged by the Chantry's most trusted mages," Leliana had said about elven techniques. "That cannot be denied." Good people, people who she trusted and who trusted her, easily led by their religion. And hadn't she learned at the Winter Palace that even city elves weren't safe? They were Andrastian, raised in a city and knowledge about human customs, and they were still disposable.

Her clan wouldn't stand a chance against a city full of strangers. They'd be dead within a year.

"I accept. You keep my clan safe, and I let you walk out of here." The words sounded stronger than she wanted them to. The decision should have been harder.

"The choice is made. The deal is struck. Nice doing business with you, Herald of Andraste." As soon as he said it, the Fade behind him gained in intensity, flashed a blinding green that she was sure no one else could see, and the sense of finality settled in on her. The choice was made indeed.

As Imshael strolled away, Varric echoed her thoughts: "Shit."

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sortingoutayoungcontrarian · 6 years

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I recently typed the name Christopher Hitchens into the search bar on WordPress and was very disappointed with the top result. This result was an ignorant evaluation of who Christopher was as well an evaluation of his book “god is not Great. The author of this “evaluation” was clearly a fundamental Christian along with those who commented on the post thus far… Obviously, they hated Christopher and did their best to discredit everything about the man. I could not help but be a contrarian. I shall copy and paste the exchange below. I shall update per reply.

Me:

Hmm I wonder if you would find Hitchens’ points valid if they were made by a compilation of ancient misogynistic people who believed that genocide, dispossession of land, slavery, polyamorous incest, virgin-child-sacrifice-scapegoating, and baby genitalia mutilation was acceptable (all of these acts adamantly encouraged even), and then translated by a committee of megalomaniacs lead by a man who boiled his wife in a bathtub… All of whom believed the universe revolved around them in every sense the phrase entails and murdered those who said differently whilst claiming absolute morality. The reason why atheists do not mind that Hitchens may or may not have plagiarized is that they value what is true and don’t care how they get that truth. Christians, however, claim the bible to be the inerrant word of god despite its countless plagiarisms and contradictions.

If you could respond to those points which Hitchens made rather than the one he obviously did not care about (the validity of Jesus), then maybe your thoughts of critique would hold more water, maybe even have an atheist flicker with doubt . To be quiet honest, I have a very hard time believing you actually read any book by Hitchens’, due to the fact that his main focus was not to refute the overall accuracy of the bible but rather reveal the overall hypocrisy. You chose to give a general evaluation of a man by highlighting an argument he argued carelessly because there was no need at all to even argue it. Or maybe you were just scared to touch on the points he made that would open the eyes of any free thinking rational mind to see the lie they have succumbed to.

His response:

Your first paragraph has a large number of mischaracterizations similar to what is typical of Hitchens. You seem to have learned him well. Unfortunately, upon close examination, it is sophistry through and through, nothing but a hollow shell of an argument. In but one point: Flatly, circumcision is not mutilation, and to phrase it like you have is not making an argument, but merely using hollow emotional rhetoric. I gave cold explanation of a point, and you respond with emotionalism. This is typical of modern atheism, which Hitchens exemplifies. It always amazes me that atheists deal so much in emotionalism. Personally I prefer reason and logic.

Concerning what I have stated, I backed my claims. For example, see the first link in the post above. As to the Canaanites, I have responded to that as well.

Also please take note of my comment policy.

Me:

Thank you, I am proud to have learned Hitchens! I simply could not do nothing about such an inaccurate “evaluation” of a great man. As to baby genitalia mutilation, I was not making an argument but stating the fact of the matter, a beautiful baby is born and on the eighth day take a blade to its genitalia. There is nothing fallacious about that claim. If it is a semantical issue, the greek translation for “mutilate” is from a compound of kata and temno (to cut); a cutting down (off), i.e. Mutilation (ironically) — concision. The greek word used in the bible for mutilation is “katatomé” which translates– to cut. While circumcision is “peritomē” which translates — to cut around. Look for yourself, please. Studying in-depth interlinear commentaries in greek after graduating seminary school is what drove me away from the hypocrisy that is the church. I am not an atheist, as you assumed in your lazily mistaken attempt of ad hominem, but I merely saw the bible for what it was; a perfect business plan to enslave the people in a time where theocracy reigned. What sane person would not respond with emotionalism over this? If you apply James 2:24 to the role christianity has played throughout the narrative of history you will never again be amazed by the emotionalism that apparently surprises you in atheists however. It causes good people to do bad things, when one takes the focus off themselves and the box they locked themselves in due to fear of losing after-life insurance the bigger picture reveals itself. It is a lame excuse for wars birthed from an ancient inherited trait of tribalism.

You back your claims with a text you cannot prove. As to the Canaanites, I am always amazed by how christians separate real-life and their pretend world of faith as if in admittance to it not being real; Freudian slip esque. Like a child does when playing cops and robbers and their mom calls them inside for dinner and they have to break character in order to reply, “coming mom”. For example, I was stepping outside the realm of the bible and into empirical accounts in history books. who said I was talking about genocide mentioned in the bible only? I never brought up the Canaanites, you were mistakenly assuming (again) atop your omniscience tower. I was referring to, as Hitchens was, the rules for dispossession of land and the slavery of the previous land owners outlined in Leviticus 25, specifically verses 44-46. A lame excuse for justifying lust of what their neighbor has. Leviticus is the same book that outlines the pagan tradition of sacrificing life, (e)scapegoating responsibility. Chapter 25 in Leviticus was most cited chapter in the bible within memoirs of protestants during the establishing of the USA… and people wonder why black lives matter is heading a postmodernist movement.

You still avoided addressing the topic of (1) incest, (2) misogyny (which, unfortunately for all the women of the bible, in this context implies polygamy allowed for the man alone), and (3) The irrevocable evil, with a recorded historical background that goes back thousands of years before the bible linked to ancient savage polytheistic religions : scapegoating responsibility of sins through child sacrifice.

These were the main points of Hitchens, yes? I don’t think one could give a fair “General Evaluation of Christopher Hitchens” without addressing his main points. It seems as if you are trying to hide the reader from the points made by a man who had won countless debates with the leading apologists of all the major religions. A man who is now dead and unable to defend himself… If you could respond to those claims rather than attempting to define who I am or what I believe in then your critiques would be much more (logically/reasonably) respectable. I do apologize if I crossed a line defined in your comment policy. If you would prefer to reply privately I would still appreciate hearing your defense. Whether your audience hears you out or not is not upon my conscious. I would hope they follow you in order to hear the truth rather than feed confirmation bias. I have many issues with your past posts as well that I could refute using the bible, if you are interested. I am honestly just curious and value discussions from those that have come to opposing conclusion.

His Response:

As my comment policy states, this is not a discussion board and we do no go down endless rabbit trails here. Humoring you briefly is all I will do.

–You pointed out correctly that the Greek terms for cut around and cut off are two distinct terms. In no sense is circumcision mutilation. You agree the claim is incorrect. –As for horrible things like incest, the Bible accurately portrays history but does not condone these practices. It forbids incest and shows the folly of marrying many wives, for all who do so are shown to inherit the problems these practices create. –As to the Bible’s treatment of women, any claim that the Bible has a low view of women is completely false. –Child sacrifice was practiced by the Canaanites, which is one reason God commanded they be wiped out. Israel did what you and Hitchens seem to want them to do, which is not actually kill all the Canaanites. As I explained, this resulted in Israel starting these practices, which God stopped by sending Babylon to take Israel into captivity. Please portray the whole account or stop criticizing.

I did indeed deal with Hitchens in a fair manner. All signs point to Hitchens copying from earlier atheist writings, then not even doing the research to check out whether the claims were true. He spent the rest of his life traveling around repeating these claims with bluster, yet they are completely, entirely, totally untrue. His claims about virgin birth myths are completely false. Hitchens did not even do a magazine grade level of research on these items, yet repeated them for years.

The claims in this post stand.

Per my comment policy, we will stop here.

... And then he disabled the comments...

#christopher hitchens #atheism

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dalyunministry · 4 years

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TOPIC: HOW TO OVERCOME THE WORLD

By. Sister. Savita Manwani

💥

Let us Pray: Lord we thank you for the very breath of life and this precious opportunity to share your living word. I pray Lord, that you guide us and teach us to hear your voice so that we may be the doers of your word and not just hearers. Glory and honor be to your Holy name. Amen.

TOPIC: HOW TO OVERCOME THE WORLD

The world represents everything that displeases God, opposes His teaching, and is under Satan’s dominion. (1 John 5:19).

Many philosophies, ideas and doctrines distort or degrade Christ and His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. These offer a salvation not found in the Word of God, and are all manifestations of the world.

The Apostle John points out 3 aspects that mark the love of this world: The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. John 2:15- 17 says “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

¶ Lust of the flesh:

These are those desires that are in us by nature and impel us to do the wrong things. They incite us, even from childhood, to yield to what the flesh desires. They can be described as the satisfaction, passion or enjoyment that is felt by doing wrong things. In doing these things, we give room to sin in our lives.

Galatians 5:17 says, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” This shows the conflict found in every Christian life. The flesh wants one thing while the spirit wants another. That is why it is important to nourish our spiritual man.

Galatians 5:19 - 21 gives us a long list of the sins of the flesh. These include sexual sins, sins involving pagan religions such as witchcraft or idolatry and other sins relating to temperament and character. The fruit of the Spirit is everything that is opposite to the flesh.

• In relation to God: love, joy and peace

• In relation to others: patience, kindness and goodness

• In relation to ourselves: faith, kindness and self-control

Our goal should be that our spirit wins the battle against the flesh.>If we want to conquer the desires of the flesh, we have to pay special attention to our spirit. We must feed it and care for it in such a way that in the face of temptation, the spirit prevails.

¶ Lust of the Eyes:

The eyes can be a fountain of life, purity and inspiration, or they can be an instrument of evil, perversion, and bad desires. Dr. W. E Vine describes them as being, “the principal avenue to temptation. “The desires of the eyes” can be described as perversions, bad intentions and selfish delights that include not only the sight, but also the mind and imagination. The Bible teaches in 2 Peter 2:14 “having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease to sin, …” And in Matthew 5:27 – 29; “You have heard

that it was said to those of old, “You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

The word “look” refers to the desires of the eyes, a look laden with lust, which wakens impure images and desires in our minds.

Someone once said, “the first look isn’t sinful but the second look is.” This second look aims to satisfy the mind's own desires.

Beacon's commentary says that this type of lust is “the tendency to be captivated by the exterior appearance of things without looking into its real worth.” The lust of the eyes include not only sight but also the mind and imagination. They seek to satisfy themselves through pornography or unedifying books, magazines or movies. They create an addiction that can only be quenched by giving in to the pleasures of the flesh. Generally, these desires are fed by thoughts convincing us that sin is something pleasant, pleasurable and desirable.

We justify the sinful thought as being acceptable as something harmless and insignificant. And since we haven’t actually done anything we are convinced it is not sin.

What's more, it keeps us from seeing the consequences that our behavior may bring to our lives and to those that we love.

When the mind delights itself with memories of past sexual experience, drunkenness, parties, or gambling. The enemy shows you the fun you experienced, the pleasures you felt, and how wonderful it would be to experience them again. These memories are accompanied by thoughts like, “there’s nothing wrong with that,” or, “everyone is doing it”, or, “I can’t become a fanatic.” The mind does not concentrate on the consequences that will come sooner or later, but on the desire and pleasures it wants to feel again. The influence the lust of the eye has on us is acute. They manipulate our mind and cause us to forget what Christ did for us.

That is why it is good to follow the Apostle Paul's counsel, when he exhorts us to walk in the Spirit and do not satisfy the desires of the flesh.

¶ Pride of life: This refers to the belief that the reason for life is found in the worldly appearance and worth of things, and not in how God values them. Pride is the illusion that leads people into superficiality, inflates their egos, and makes them believe that their worth is based on position, money and friends.

These vanities turn into strongholds for people who open the door to them. Vanities lead them to believe that their own ability has given them positions of importance with their peers. For this reason, some people climb over others in life, violating biblical principles and the will of God. Behind their appearances they hide their insecurity.

An example of this is when you spend more than you earn and live in debt even though it steals your peace. You don't change because you want to pretend that you are rich. You buy designer clothes, expensive mobile phone or hang out at the most popular places. You have been led to think these things win people’s respect.

God wants us to be prosperous. When we love Him, He lifts us to a better position. God, not His blessings, gives us our value.

¶ How the world affects me: The young person's world is not a secret to anyone. It is one that offers parties, vices, sinful passions and a worthless and empty life. The media, radio press and television, along with society push us towards this type of lifestyle. They trick us into believing that to have fun you must become part of their activities. If we refuse, we are labelled as boring and bitter people. These words boring and bitter are the most commonly used words by non-Christians to pressure the believer into doing what they want or say. The world may affect me when I give into its ways. It affects me when I take part in its dirty jokes and perverted comments or accept its invitation to drink and party. It affects me when these activities stop being fun and become addictive when I end up caught in circumstances that I want to be free from but cannot.

For example, an ungodly relationship ends in frustration and deception; an excess of alcohol produces sicknesses such as cirrhosis and venereal diseases are a result of a degenerate and promiscuous life.

The life the world offers us is a mirror that makes us believe that it is true and fulfilling. However, it doesn't let us see the deception and true consequences of its ways. Jesus does not want to remove us from the world he wants us to shine and be a light wherever we are. Jesus said: “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one” John 17:15

¶ How to face the world now that I am Christian?

A. Not participating in what the world has to offer.

Ephesians 5:11 says, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them”. Right from the start you need to learn how to be radical in dealing with sin. Don't ever cloud the real issues. For example, if they offer you a drink, don't lie by saying, “No thank you, I am on medication and drinking could be harmful.” That is not true. You are not on medication. It is rather a matter of faith, but you are too embarrassed to tell the truth.

B. Be radical in your stand as a Christian.

Job 22:28 says, “You will also declare a thing. And it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways”. Decide beforehand what things you are not going to yield to. For example, decide not to go to parties with nonbelievers or social events where drinking and other vices are predominant. By deciding ahead of time you will avoid facing temptation and prevent yourself from falling into sin. The main thing is to decide, “No matter what happens, I will not leave the path that I have chosen.” This is determination. When I do my part, God does His. He brings His light to reveal what we should say or do.

C. Avoid spending too much time with unbelievers.

They will constantly encourage you to do wrong, inciting you to turn back.

D. Look for friends that share the same purpose and goals.

Spend time with those people who challenge you and strengthen your relationship with God.

E. Strengthen your relationship with God.

Spend time with Him daily in prayer and live in such a way that you will not leave His side. When you are facing situations that you are uncertain and doubtful about, it will help to ask yourself, “What would Jesus do if He were in my place?. I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me. John 14:30

Allow me to end here. May God bless you all.

Let us Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for speaking to us today. Lord, I pray that you empower us with your spirit and enable us also to feed our spirit being so that we will be able to overcome the flesh and the world in Jesus Name. Amen.

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