#Spiritual Leaders vs Religious Leaders | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

liesmyth · 1 year

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something that i think is so interesting in nona the ninth is that we really see that the nine houses have varying levels of loyalty to/cooperation with the emperor. the most clear example is of course everything going on with the sixth house, but also when aiglamene says that the last time the emperor's intelligence sent someone to the ninth house they 'dropped [them] off eleven hours from the prison with ten hours' worth of air'. that being said, what do you think are the other houses' actual relationship with/feelings towards emperor?

Ohh yes I love those worldbuilding details we get in Nona! Some thoughts—sorry, this got long.

How (I think) the Empire is structured

From what little we know of the political structure in the Empire, I get the vibe that the Houses are mostly left to themselves, govern themselves autonomously, and make alliances with each other, without a solid formal structure in place above them. Many major political events happen without anyone even considering that the Emperor should be consulted on them: Harrow was worried about the Ninth becoming a vassal of the Fifth or Third if they should apply for relief; the Fifth have a lot of influence over the Fourth and “dynastic ambition”; the Ninth were left free to completely isolate themselves for eighteen years.

The Empire appears to be pretty decentralised on matters of internal governance, which I think fits with John's whole deal. He isn't very hands-on, he historically has spent decades a universe away from the Houses, and he doesn't care about the details. IMO, there's a marked difference between intra-Houses governance and the "Imperial" agenda.

1—Internally, the Emperor is very much the ultimate authority… IF ONLY he bothered to yield it, which he doesn’t. Partly because John is just Like That, and partly because he operates on a completely different timescale. But he does have the authority: when he decides to summon the House heirs, they come; when many of them die, there's no noticeable political fallout: he leaves for the Mithraeum, expecting to be away for at least five years with no communication, and that's not seen as an issue. He obviously doesn’t have to explain himself to anyone, and his authority is not even in question.

There's a mention in GtN of "Imperial law" that forbids necromancers from marrying out of House, but IMO 'Imperial' refers to the fact that it applies to every House, not that John came up with it. The Houses are so jealous of their own resources that they don't want their necromancers to affiliate with others; I think this is a law that suits the Houses first and foremost, and John couldn’t care less. In general, I think House leaders are very happy that the Emperor is so hands-off on internal matters, and this has been the case for most (if not all) of their recorded history.

2— Externally, though! The Houses are absolutely united when it comes to their equivalent of foreign policy, which is mostly handled by the Cohort. Interstellar travel seems to be regulated through military channels, and I would bet that a sizeable portion of the internal economy of the Empire is centred on the Cohort. Note that the "contracts" with the "shepherded planets" are between each planet and John himself—he's A LOT more involved when it comes to military matters. Even on the Mithraeum in HtN he's looking at reports and briefing—and when he's around he always resides with the Cohort and definitely makes executive decisions.

I think it's pretty interesting that John is a near-mythical figure to the Houses but Cohort personnel actually interact with him on a regular basis. Like, I bet that leaders of the Houses have no idea what the Emperor actually looks like outside of religious imagery, but there's a twenty-something junior officer who brings him coffee every morning. I think it's fascinating—temporal power vs. spiritual power; he's a religious figure to most of the Empire, but to the extent to which he's "Emperor" of anything, in a concrete, mundane sense, it's the Cohort. And I think that Cohort higher-ups have a lot of sway over the Houses (veering into headcanon land but @theriverbeyond made the excellent point that Cohort command probably have Opinions about the leaders of each House and can influence the decision to some extent)

Each House's relationship with the Emperor

We don't know much about it so it's all speculation babey!

The Second: THE favoured child. The fandom focuses on the Fifth and Third being rich and influential, and they sure are, but that’s based on Gideon’s POV (as filtered through Harrow’s knowledge) which about who is currently on top of the House scheming game. I think the Second just don’t care about House scheming because they are THE Officer House; the Cohort is based in Trentham, and I’m sure there’s a disproportionate percentage of Second House members among their leadership. The leader of the Second is the top brass (Judith’s dad is the Fleet Admiral—that’s a five stars rank) and as of NtN, he has enough pull to antagonise a Lyctor over supply lines. The Second absolutely enjoy privileged access to the Emperor and have a lot of power from it. The Third: we don't know! I think they are one of the Houses who are really really happy that God is off playing star wars and they can do their thing. Also, I think there are many commercial ties between the Third and the Cohort (and by extension, imperial authority) because a lot of the wealth within the internal economy of the Houses absolutely comes from military contracts. The Fourth: Fidelity facing ahead. The bomb kids. They seem to be somewhat subordinated both to the Fifth (at least currently) and to the Second (who, again, lead the Cohort) and probably don't do much scheming of their own. The Fifth: like the Third, I think they are very happy the Emperor is off with the Cohort. I think they have a perfectly civil, friendly relationship with the concept of imperial authority. Like the Third, it's very likely that their economy goes to supplying the Cohort with resources instead of troops, and they get rich from it. The Sixth: this is INTERESTING! They held a vote and decided to secede, but we don't know if the choice was unanimous (I doubt it!) or if there have been reactions from the population of the House (because the decision iirc was made by the Oversight Committee). We know a lot about the Sixth's inner workings, more than any other House barring the Ninth, and they actually send a considerable percentage of their small population to the Cohort. Their entire reproductive strategy of "diversifying the gene pool" relies HEAVILY on sending many people off-House (= to the Cohort) and as far as we know those people are still there.

I doubt the break clause is widely known among the wider Sixth population, because the secession seems to have come as a surprise to the Cohort (or at least Ianthe, who has access to their intelligence). Do all, or any, of the Sixth's people within the Cohort know what happened, or do they think the installation was destroyed? Basically, I don't know if "okay, let's secede" was as simple of a situation as Camilla makes it seem—and she explained about it when talking to Nona, so I bet it isn't.

Another thing worth noting is that, as Cam says, they ultimately "left for a Lyctor". I think it makes a lot of sense for Former Contract Lawyer Cassiopeia (who I still believe came up with the lifetime contracts) to have founded her House with a stipulation in place that they could leave if they decided to—I think there might even be a chance she told John about it back when, though I doubt he ever knew that the Library installation could be packed up and moved. Basically: there are A LOT of implications and possible consequences to the secession, and IDK how it's going to turn out.

The Seventh: we know very little about them. Protesilaus was a duelling champion, so clearly they are plugged into the "social scene" of the Houses—that's all I got

The Eight: very into the worship of the Emperor as "God," but I think they're more into their own interpretation of what the religious precepts of the Houses ought to be than what the God-Emperor actually wants. (Which I think suits John just fine). See Silas having a portrait of the Emperor in his room but also being the only one to say "God was wrong" re: Lyctoral process. I think the Eight like the idea of the Emperor as a symbol of authority, both religious and political (the two are one and the same to them) but they're very happy that he's off warring in the stars so they don't have to actually listen to anything he has to say.

The Ninth: I think the Ninth like the Emperor just fine, but from far away. They worship and respect him through the lenses of their brand of religion, focused on the Tomb. They clearly aren't involved in the running of the space prison, and the whole House seem to have been a religious hermitage at the edge of the Empire before they shut the House to pilgrims. I think John tries not to think about the Ninth at all, because Alecto, and they are mutually very happy each doing their thing.

EDIT: I originally wrote "I think Aiglamene's line about kicking off Intelligence officers is not necessarily a reflection on their stance on the imperial government; simply a consequence of the fact that they were hushing up the death of an entire generation of Ninth children and didn't want the intelligence guys poking around" but I was wrong there—the Ninth kicking out the bureau guys precedes the child murders. That points to a bigger distrust for military / Cohort / imperial authority than I initially considered, but I don't think it changes much. They're fine sending people to the Cohort and praying to God, but want to be left alone to run themselves

(SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG :D)

#tlt thoughts #the nine houses #ejg #tlt meta #tlt #anonymous #ask

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resident-idiot-simp · 28 days

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I’m so glad you liked my idea! :D

In this Au I don’t think people would be born as hybrids. Around the age where kids start developing personalities that’s when they’re the most open to absorbing the ambient magic around them. The forms they take being dependent on a combination of the persons spirit and the local magic. It requires a lot of magic so it’s pretty rare and mythics require even more magic so are rarer still. It’s unusual to have more than one hybrid in a family let alone siblings and one being a mythic to boot is basically unheard of.

There’s room to change what creatures Price, Gaz and Ghost are I just went with lions because it’s England’s national emblem. I love Irish roach too but DRAGON.

Farah and Hadir are unequal opposites both hybrids but Farah is a mythic and they represent different elements and want different things in the end freedom vs retribution (I also wanted a hybrid antagonist instead of making all the bad guys human).

Farah x Alex = roast beef :,D

Laswell isn’t a mythic but she is also very rare she grew up on or near a hidden fossil when other hybrids (especially reptiles and some birds) get near her the feel like they’re in the presence of something ancient.

Golden eagles mate for life (Alrudy) and the snake the eagle eats on the Mexican flag is a rattle snake but I think it was originally a different one and Valeria does work better a a viper

You are so right with nick btw polar bears are one of the few animals to actively hunt humans and they’re smart to.

I think the first thing to change for soap were his eyes, they went from blue to BLUE and ever since everyone’s been to afraid of tainting the pure little Unicorn to even touch him. Being viewed as near holy did not help the religious guilt. This could also work with him being trans masc or just gay. Also did I say this was Ghoap yet?

Everyone listens to a mythic they are put on pedestals and viewed as nearly holy and hurting one purposefully is nearly unthinkable for most regular people, so having several in the military even if they are fierce creatures is nearly unheard of let alone with Soap. They usually become celebrities or spiritual leaders.

Shepherd mission in life is basically “if I can’t have special magic then I’m gonna make those who do suffer”. Makarov’s is to wipe out the walking talking crimes against nature. He’s one of the few deadend to magic like the opposite of a hybrid but that does mean magical tracking, attacks or other affects don’t work on him.

Nearly everyone has a bit of magic in them they can use and feel, hybrids and mythic hybrids have more Laswell has more then most still.

Thank you for letting me word vomit I hope you like some of the background info.

I LOVE THAT AS A WAY TO EXPLAIN HYBRIDS THAT WORKS SO WELL! THERE IS SO MUCH POTENTAL!!!

I see why you chose that but honestly it almost to many lions. What you could do is have Ghost's transformation happen around the Roba period. I know that goes against the premise, but it would be an explanation if you wanted to do something else. Maybe a chupacabra or OOHHH A BLACK DOG!!!

Agreed Irish Roach is based but DRAGON!!!

Good thought process on Farah that absolutely makes a lot of sense as well as some of the bad guys being also hybrids.

FARAH AND ALEX MY BABIES!

I like that a lot Laswell gives the ancient knowledge vibes.

THE SYMBOLISM WITH ALRUDY AND VALARIA 10/10 (I'm a bitch for symbolism)

My thoughts exactly it also narrows down presumably a wide range of other bear hybrids. Polar bears are so cool and I have never seen one be used in a hybrid AU.

I love the Soap angst (I'm also a bitch for Soap angst) lovely ideas for potential angst it works very well. I did figure it was Ghoap when is it not.

That is such a cool concept and it really makes a lot of sense. Do you think you will have any hybrids that are disliked and on top of that to what extent do mythic hybrids extend to. Ie what counts as something you can be a hybrid of because there is fae and other stuff (yes this is a roundabout way to ask if wendigo hybrids could exist)

Both motivations are just perfect chefs kiss. It fits both of their personalities and Shepard strikes me as a spiteful old bastard. And Makarov is just pure evil.

I like that addition I think it really ties the premise together.

I WILL TAKE ANYTHING YOU WILL GIVE ME!!! Feel free to drop by and give me more whenever you want I am living for this!

#call of duty modern warfare #cod modern warfare #call of duty modern warfare 2 #modern warfare #hybrid au

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theblissfulstars · 2 months

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The historical Spiritualism vs Modern New Ageism

The word “Spiritualist” is thrown around quite frequently on the Internet as a catch-all term for Pagans,Occultists and Folk practitioners. However, the term is not an umbrella term at all, and actually originates from the Spiritualist movement of the 1800s.

The Spiritualist movement is said to have been deeply inspired by the Theologian Emanuel Swedenborg who wrote "The Heavenly Doctrine", after supposedly receiving a vision from Jesus Christ himself, illustrating the nature of the afterlife, and that all good souls live together regardless of Faith. This universalist perspective was widely rejected by the majority of Christendom but gained traction with various groups such as the Quakers and Shakers and created the foundation of radical acceptance that spiritualism would be known for.

The Spiritualist movement can be accredited to the Fox sisters in the mid-late 1840s, a group of sisters who claimed mediumistic abilities who had physical evidence that they could communicate with spirits on the other side. In fact, the day I am writing this, is considered the day Spiritualism really emerged. March 31st 1848 Hydesville New York, the three sisters established a channel with the dead, with a spirit that communicated through “rapping” or tapping on wood rhythmically and systemically.

This religious movement would grow because of the radical foundation of equality, abolitionism, and a feminism so profound, suffragettes even found them intolerable.

Catching the eyes of disenfranchised Quakers early on who felt their church had not done enough in the way of women's rights, abolitionism and genuine community care, many Quakers were smitten with the structure, ideologies and practices of the movement. Women at the time we're not permitted to speak in public, let alone lead a religious service or be spiritual community leaders of any kind, In the spiritualist church, the majority of trance speakers (working class young girls who would do public speaking on various topics possessed by the spirits of the dead), mediums and faith healers were all female.

Along with female spiritual leaders, the worship style of the Spiritualist tradition was loose, and they organized in learning circles known as Lyceums. Some Spiritualists did create active Ministry, with full churches, holidays, and baptisms and you can even find old hymnals from the churches online.

This egalitarian attitude towards women, a genuine and consistent track record with the pursuit of equality in gender relations garnered a poor reputation among the greater population.

Along with its incredibly abolitionist narrative, and an earnest pinning for racial equality and the end of slavery in the US. Spiritualism was one of the first religious institutions in the Americas to seek to make the conditions of Indigenous Americans better. Spiritualists claimed to see native American spirits at their seances who were embittered and distraught with their displacement and the poor treatment of their ancestors. The spiritualist church sought to rectify this.

Characterized by the belief in the ability to communicate with the dead, and radical equality, You can see why the religion did not take off.

The doctrine of spiritualism was formed largely through mediumship and the interrogation of various spirits and entities from the other side as the "ministry of angels" was paramount to its development. Ideas such as reincarnation, faith healing and the ability to see the future became integral aspects of the Religion.

Offshoots of the religion continue to exist to this day particularly through Spiritism or Kardecism, a branch of spiritualism that sought out to reconcile Christian dogma and belief with a spiritualist conception of reality. This form of spiritualism became especially prominent in the Caribbean and Latin America and is known as Espiritismo. Spiritualist doctrine found itself quite amenable to Latin American and Black Diasporic beliefs and was easily folded into religions and beliefs already centered in the veneration of the dead and those who came before.

Spiritualism in layman's terms is a coming home to the plurality of the divine.

Spiritualism was despised by the likes of the Theosophical Society and Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn. Helena Blavatsky in particular, a co-founder of the Theosophical Society disliked it in particular and spoke strongly against the religion.

Interestingly, the modern-day New age movement, while borrowing to a degree from spiritualism regarding especially terms such as Spirit Guide and Spirit Team, takes very little from actual Spiritualist or Spiritist dogma and lends itself more to Theosophy which is about the reappropriation of Eastern philosophy and mysticism through a western lens and New Thought Christianity.

This movement wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the Reformation taking place at the time which is where a schism between the social attitudes of culture and society were at odds with what the church could deliver at the time.

As stated earlier, remnants of the church do remain despite the brevity of practice such as the National Spiritualist Association, International Spiritualist Federation, Spiritualist National Union and Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ.

So I ask again, are you really a Spiritualist?

#spiritualism #spiritism #paganism #pagan #witchblr #occultism

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haggishlyhagging · 1 year

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Contemporary researchers have found neurological connections between religious or trance experience and female sexuality. In women's brains there are unique neural links between the forebrain and the cerebellum, which allow sensations of physical pleasure to be directly integrated into the neocortex, or high brain center. This explains why some women experience orgasm so intense that they enter "religious" trance, or altered states of consciousness. And this ecstatic female orgasmic experience, in which the physical and the spiritual are fused and realized as one, is at the core of all mystical experience. This is why, in the original religion of the Great Mother, body and mind and spirit are always integrated. Because human male brains do not seem to have these neurological connections (just as human male sexuality has not evolved radically beyond primate sexuality, while human females, through the shift from estrus to menstrual cycles, have evolved a nonreproductive sexual capacity that functions primarily for affectional bonding), the researchers conclude that it is women who must take the lead in further human evolution—"toward the integration of the conscious and the unconscious mind and to a more profound understanding of the spiritual nature of the species."

What these modern researchers are now "discovering" is something ancient women always knew. The warring dualisms of "matter vs. spirit," the hostile antagonisms of "sexual body" versus "religious truth," are recent patriarchal inventions, destructively forced on the world and the soul. They had no place at the beginning of things, for they are neither natural nor true. For women, at any rate, they can never be true; and that is why the first religion, originated by women, was a sexual-spiritual religion, the celebration of cosmic ecstasy. Among these early women, though some more receptive psyches might have acted as shamanic trancechannels, we can imagine no real leaders, no followers, no hierarchies—just as there was no hierarchic distinction made between ordinary daily tasks and the most exalted rituals—because we can see these women sharing experience as a kind of ecstatic rite in itself. They knew life as an ecstatic rite and as their right to ecstasy.

-Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering The Religion of the Earth.

#monica sjöö #barbara mor #sacred feminine #sexuality and spirituality #feminist spirituality #mind body spirit

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tellurian-in-aristasia · 6 months

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Your humble editress is usually quick to say "No, of course Aristasia wasn't a cult!", usually. But sometimes, I feel as if perhaps it was a bit too close to being a cult for comfort. It definitely varied from what you normally might think of as a cult, in that they didn't really recruit, and they usually played all their weird cards first thing, right out on the table. They didn't keep their strange secrets until after you were already invested in them, they wanted everyone to know, right up front, that they were aliens in exile. But maybe not in so many words. They were, of course, very happy to cozy up to girls who shared their interest, and see who were willing to to play their game (see Operation Roriita and their Femmekin/Otherkin blogging), but once they hooked you with their weird ideas, they didn't seem to want anything from you beyond your willingness to engage in long-term life theatre with them. Of course, it's also apparently true that certain girls, with certain positions of power, have allegedly used their spiritual and social power to act out what seems like obvious kinks (viewing it from this century, with what we understand now about kinks, even if it is just a bongo Tellurian's understanding) against seemingly unwilling members of their community who apparently were willing to subject themselves to such treatment because they apparently were lead to believe it was done for spiritual reasons. Maybe it was printed in bongo tabloids, but the events certainly seemed to transpire, one way or another.

To make a long post even longer, I would like to go through many of these and speak a little about my thoughts on them.

Chanting Chanting is used within the religious aspect of Aristasia/Chelouranya, but the religious side was never particularly pushed to any real degree. Instill guilt about not living up to potential This seems to be something that comes up a bit when ex-Aristasians (particularly of the Second Life era) tell their stories, and mostly it relates to feeling guilty that they're not really living a racinated life outside of the internet. No happiness outside of group The idea that the rest of the world was in an eclipse, and the world outside of Aristasian hearths was The Pit is a big one. Almost everything about the modern world was deemed disgusting. Forbid critical questions about leader The leaders (if that is what you could call Miss Martindale and Miss Langridge) had so many different personas it was almost impossible for them to have answered any critical questions about them. It's very possible that whole people have been invented, for the purpose of deflecting questions about who really founded Aristasia. Information deliberately withheld Now this is one that doesn't seem to actually have been a thing. Aristasians seemed to play all of their strange cards right at once. They wanted you to know they were aliens. If you didn't like that, you were free to leave. When, how, and with whom you have sex dictated While Aristasians generally didn't seem to care about your relationships outside of the group, it was indeed stated that if you were to be a full, inner circle, Aristasian, you were expected to give up relationships with em-ee-en. The old Artemis zines also have a lot to say about how intimacies between women shouldn't be regarded as "sex", and that "sex" should mean gender. So there is a lot of redefining what sex even entails in Aristasia, and more importantly, what is and isn't sexual. Which has lead to some behavior that is distinctly sexual in Tellurian life being regarded as nonsexual within Aristasia. This blurring of lines between sexual and non-sexual has lead to, to put it very lightly, misunderstandings. Encourage only good and proper thoughts This seems to be largely a Chelouranya idea, but encouraging their members to always be sweet and happy was important. Some emotions deemed evil See above, and also see this old Poppitops comics. Outsider vs insider doctrines Aristasians vs the rest of the world was a central theme to their lifestyle. There were a number of names for non-Aristasians, and even different Aristasian words for mundane objects. It was generally regarded by Aristasians that there was a war on, and they were fighting for the winning side. Instill fear of outside world See above. Control information at different levels within group This is something that they didn't really practice. While there was definitely the idea of inner and outer circle Aristasians, there seemed to be no secret information that would be revealed to the inner circle. New name/identity Creating a new identity was a central core of being Aristasian. If you decided to use your Tellurian name, you were at the very least encouraged to choose if you were a Blonde or a Brunette. Many Aristasians had many different names, identities, and even sexes. Distort information to make it acceptable There was a lot of information bending within Aristasia. Reading Aristasian musings often feels like it's very obvious that they're working backwards from whatever point they're trying to make to make it fit around their world views. This ranges greatly from science denial (for there's no belief in evolution in Aristasia) to their own history revision (They only ever got involved with all that Silly Monkey stuff to make money to fund their embassies, but also what they did wasn't Silly Monkey stuff anyways, because, remember, what they did wasn't sexual) Impose buddy system This one is a little bit vague, but pairing up blondes and brunettes or forming communal households was always a priority with Aristasians.

So, while it may seem like this Bingo card has a lot of marks, I still don't necessarily think that Aristasia or Chelouranya was a cult. I think that it was potentially a very toxic community, with some toxic views, run by some girls who maybe were not suited for running a community, members were free to leave if their faith in the game wavered, were not really expected to give up anything besides aesthetics, and were not actively recruited. However, I was never part of any Aristasian circles, so perhaps I'm very wrong about this.

I would like to make special note that I'm speaking strictly of the Aristasia that later transformed into Chelouranya, and not at all about the Filianic, Madrian, or Deanic religious community, which have made much effort over the decades to distance themselves from whatever Miss Martindale and Miss Langridge were doing after about 1982.

#BITE model #aristasia #aristasian #note from the editress #aristasian cult #aristasia recruitment #life theatre #filianism #chelouranya

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waeirfaahl · 3 months

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The Daughters of Aku Cult issue

Alright, although I earlier made several posts about many aspects of this story element in 5 season (the best and most detailed posts can be found here and here), in this post I want to dive a little bit deeper. The case with these cultists is... interesting, because there's no information about them in interviews, except the line about idea with the seven sisters “I wanted to show the human side that’s been treated like a machine. Aku builds robots and all these robots are singularly programmed to kill Jack. What if it’s humans? What if the one purpose in your whole life is to kill this one person and you’re raised from birth that way?” — in this line Tartakovsky not only states the seven sisters are humans, but also gives pretty clear answer of for what these fanatics were created — to appeal the theme of propaganda, blind fanaticism and brainwashing. I.e. they were created only for pretentious symbolism (that's why they have no face and only train the girls).

There's nothing behind them. No backstory, no proper explanation, who are they, how they started to exist and why, what they (their leader/queen mostly) wanted. They are pure plot device, 10 years later shoe-horned into the setting that never had the concept with Aku-related cults etc. But let's ignore for a second interviews and look at the show itself. I already pointed out many times, that in the classic seasons there were no religious undertones. Aku was portrayed as emperor of Earth, not god or whatever, he never cared about portraying himself as a god, he never needed religion etc, as well as he was a patron of technologies and hence opposed to the past in therms of "technological progress and globalization vs traditions and spirituality/beliefs". He can be described as "I don't care about your cultures and beliefs, believe if you want, just consider me as the master of this world and pay taxes, if you want to live here and use benefits of civilization I gave to the inhabitants of Earth". Plus, the one aspect immediately debunks and erases the entire idea of 5 season with cults and possibility of "heirs". Back to 1 episode of 1 season. Jack trained for 10-15 years, and when he returned to free his father and people, there were only demonic guards of Aku — no cults and hence no armies of fanatical followers, no armies of demonic sons and daughters of Aku, who would immediately tear Jack to shreds, so the sword would not save him.

The same thing happened with Jack's arrival in the distant future — again, after eons, there are no Aku-related cults/churchs (or at best philosophical schools) in every city/settlement, no millions of demonic sons and daughters of Aku, who in this case would be the first to protect their father and rush into battle against Jack, since they themselves would also rule either individual cities on Earth, or maybe even whole planets like in the "Dune" series. There's absolutely nothing of it.

This one fact from the show breaks down all these attempts of 5 season to add cultists with a claim of absolutely impossible "immaculate conception" or getting demon's power etc. And I remind again, Aku is completely asexual, lonely and poisonous creature — and he is objectively a sole proprietor (immortal, besides). He would never have agreed to share his own power with mortals or breed potential rivals and a threat to his power (I have already told about why creating empty impersonal robot-vessels for Aku's blood is a smart move). Not to mention that in this case (with army of heirs and also demons) robots would not be needed at all (there wouldn't be any technologies most likely, the core would be magic). I.e. the idea of 5 season already fails on this surface level, not to mention deep levels. But now about the cult. The main problem, of course, is that 5 season gives no information about them, except the fact that they know martial arts, their leader uses magic a few times, they are extremely cruel and for some reason decided to worship. And there's no indications, whether it is some tribe or just a sect, created quite recently, or just murderous fangirls of Annie Wilkes type. And I confidently can tell that the cult was created exactly during 50 years time skip. I will mention my arguments a bit later.

Now I will just try to show, how bad the character building and world building are in the case with these characters. I am not kidding, in 2017 after release of 1 episode I saw comments, how some fans legitimately assumed that Jack's roaming segment and the seven girls' training segment happen in one time line, i.e. they trained several days/weeks or whatever, not several years (more questions then to the story). I thought it is crazy, but looking at this scene editing in 1 episode now, I understand why people could get this impression — visual storytelling suffers as well. Another moment with problems of visual storytelling is the absent face/identity of the High Priestess — the character, who caused the events of 5 season, has no face, no motivation and goal (Ashi's line "You raised us as weapons in your fightings!" was deleted and hence remained only in animatic version). Again, what's a point to focus on "Look, she hides her face and identity!" in 1 episode, if in the end we got literally nothing?! Now some questions to the theory that these cultists allegedly existed all this time. I.e. dive into this rabbit hole a bit deeper. If they supposedly existed for several generations, then why the hell do they live like leprous marginals in the backyards of the world without technologies and with almost complete absence of magic?! They should have been the first, who wanted and went to integrate into a futuristic society closer to the Master of Masters long long time ago and be, I don't know, librarians or keepers of some treasures with lots of privilegies and support etc!

If they are a tribe of warriors, then where is the male half of this tribe? Why were only the seven sisters born during all the time, if for these assasins more effective would be to birth lots of children and train them as army of killers, where the seven infected ones would be leaders (and especially if it is a big family, i.e. tribe)?

If it is something like a destructive sect, i.e. a fairly new cult , that means these women came from different cities and settlements, or even were abducted and forcibly integrated into the sect. Again, my questions — for what?! And why there are no technologies? And moreover, why then had Jack never heard of them or seen them? Like, he encounters the seven sisters and thinks they are robots!

There should be people in a random town or settlement, asking Jack to find the crazy religious scumbags who kidnapped and brainwashed their daughter/sister/wife/mother! Jack would find out about them no matter what during these 50 years!

And if it is some kind of, again, a closed small sect (a community of interests), then… where did these marginal savages get the strength, money, loot and resources to build a temple with a statue and a billion high and deep rooms with a chasm with spikes or with a monolith with a height of at least 12 floors? And also they built their temple in mountains far far from everyone, but at the same time with a clear and visible image of the Aku's face from a mile away, i.e. they would have been discovered in any case.

What's a point of creating this cult, if more profitable way to get Aku's respect is to become a scientist, a spy, a bounty hunter or a treasure hunter? Like, they know f*cking martial arts, their queen/leader can watch on a person she is interested in and even to talk with this person on distance! So, what's the deal?

But now I'll mention my arguments about, why I got impression that this cult exists 20-25 years at best, and that the cult leader had own goals and intentions, i.e. she was calculating and power-hungry, but very arrogant psychopath, who only pretended to be some loyal and devoted fanatic.

This cult consists only 16-20 members, all of them are women (for some reason — I assumed about the answer to this here), and it seems that they built the temple only for training the seven sisters, i.e. it was planned from the beginning, i.e. the cult leader already was pregnant way before Aku visited them (I really doubt that they could build these rooms, when the seven girls already existed — during building other training rooms by the followers, I'd watch how poor Ashi tries to escape and to run away and then gets brutally punished for this many times).

Since they called Aku to watch the new statue (and you'll never even realize this during watching the show or animatics, only from the crew), it means that the temple is new, as well as the cult is new-made, i.e. it didn’t exist before (and I remind again, Aku knew nothing about them, about their leader and their/her intentions — he doesn't know the face and identity of the leader).

Plus, the almost biblical line of the cult leader “And we will find favor in your glory!”, which means in this context “When my girls will kill the samurai, I will earn your respect, you will honor us with your presense, we will be under your protection and be your best servants and warriors, you will share your power with us” in 1 episode. And also in 6 episode she continues this narrative in Ashi's flashbacks as well.

The brightest example of her malice intentions is demonstrated in Aku's flashback assumption in 9 episode. I many times pointed out that there's no explanation, why Aku left his blood for these fanatics he knows nothing about (and he has no reason to do this at all — Tartakovsky literally butchered Aku and turned him into moron in 5 season). The trick is that the imitation of answer kinda exists — Aku's line "Worship me, Daughters of Aku!". I.e. he left his blood as a relic object for religious worship (ah, this is the first and only time he offers to honor himself and his parts as a god — he never did or said that in the classic seasons, and there's no reason for him to do this bullsh*t, especially in the context of these random women he knows nothing about), i.e. just to bow and to pray to his blood just like to some hallows and icons or whatever. That's it. While in this "divine context"... what the High Priestess did with Aku's blood... is a blatant blasphemy and desecration of a sacred relic in fact.

She deliberately did that, it was only her decision. And somehow she f*cking survived instead of agonizing death after drinking his deadly poisonous blood, which had to devour her... I guess, she will feel good even after simultaneous taking of rabies from 7 episode of 1 season of Primal, black pathogen from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, T-virus and G-virus from Resident Evil games etc. Even if Aku just wanted to prank them with death of all of them after interaction with his blood, it is still extremely irresponsible, unmotivated and stupid from his side. More sense to give them some magical artifact as a gift and gratitude for the statue, which later would curse and decimate them all or whatever.

So, in my opinion, if Ashi and everything about her (every contradiction to canon, and I already mentioned this here and here) is №1 logical and plot hole, the Cult is №2 plot and logical hole, which contradict to the canon and create more questions and holes. And to excuse this plot hole and plot device only as a "Just evil crazy fanatics, just brainwashed" is a very bad idea, because you see not an adult story with well-written characters, but just a trash parody, a childish caricature, which pretends to be deep and mature. Sorry, but I can't relate to something, what is stupid and pretends to be tragic or whatever.

#aku theories #aku samurai jack #samurai jack #samurai jack 5 season

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warriorswritingstuff · 2 years

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Back on the grind. I need a bit of help with disability rep in my AU, and I thought it'd be best to see if I could reach disabled warriors fans for help? I'm both able-bodied and neurotypical so I could fuck up, but I don't want to.

Short gist: Princess also comes to the clans, becomes a healer in ThunderClan. Because of the time it takes to train as a medicine cat, and her being a warrior for the first half of the book, she's still an apprentice by Fire and Ice. Y'know...when Cinderpaw gets hit by a car. So...I've soft locked Cinderpaw out've healing duties. I've thought of two options.

-One, she gets to be a warrior, though she has some difficulty, mainly with hunting. I believe her leg is described as being dragged in the series? So, stalking is hard because her leg would be brushing on undergrowth constantly. I've thought maybe she could learn other ways to hunt, like chasing prey into the paws of a hunting partner.

Deadfoot is deputy of, basically, RunningClan, so- it doesn't feel to outta left field? But, their disabilities are different (front foot vs back leg) and territories and hunting styles even more (moors vs forest, chasing vs stalking). She could still patrol and maybe fight, though.

-Second option. I split the medicine cat duties in this au. Healers take over all the healing stuff. Divines take over all the spiritual stuff. So she could be a divine, except...connection to StarClan and stuff is more rare(?) in this au, it's can't be taught like in the series. If she was showing connections to the great leaders (religious figures in the au) before the accident, she would've been training as a divine anyway. And if she was showing it after that...well that feels weird right? Suffer a traumatic injury, you can suddenly meet god?

Other things are...the fact Cinderpelt was reincarnated as Cinderheart suggests she was never happy so is giving her the same story a good idea anyway? And maybe I could do something to help keep her leg up, so she can hunt easier? Like, Yellowfang can wrap a vine around her leg and back. I dunno, I just need some help with Cinderpelt not being a healer, without being ableist by accident.

#warrior cat #warrior cats #cinderpelt #warriors au

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keyleth-clay · 5 months

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Hii, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on a critical role/venture maidens crossover? 💖💖💖

Oooooooooh, well, I have a few ideas, but not much in terms of, like, specific plot stuff:

If I Had A Nickel For Every Time I Watched An Actual Play Group's First Online Campaign Where The Goth Elf Ends Up A Champion Of The Raven Queen, I'd Have Two Nickels - Which Isn't A Lot, But It's Weird That It's Happened Twice. (and by that I mean I would love for Arrnodel and Vax to meet.) EDIT: also a Two Nickels moment with Arrnodel and Fjord both being unwitting warlocks in pacts with a fuck-off giant snake patron and then end up changing patrons as a major part of their character arc.

Just... the insanity (and destruction) that would happen as a result of the Fate Maidens meeting The Mighty Nein, given that one of the M9's bffs is a Drow, and. Y'know. Everything with Kara.

Building off of this - adding Valerius and/or Gidget to Caleb and Essek and Veth's magic experiments and Wizard Hubris™.

I've only watched one episode of Favour so far, but I know for a fact that Aoife and Fearne would adore each other. Also maybe low-key distant relatives? 👀👀👀

(Okay full disclosure this is just me taking my faves from each campaign and smooshing them together) But like I think that Keyleth and Sawyeh would have so much to talk about?? Like both of them being the youngest in their respective groups and having these expectations placed on their shoulders, and their respective elemental ties and how they feel about using those powers and their relationships with each particular element (Sawyeh generally being more drawn to fire on her own and water because of Persana [I still don't know how to spell the water elemental's name lol], and Keyleth being drawn more to air and earth [plus fire when she's pissed]). Plus throw Caduceus into the mix for some tea and meditation and growing up in an isolated religious/spiritual centre, and.... I'm gonna cut myself off here. 😅

HANG ON I JUST THOUGHT OF. PARALLELS. Rem/Isolde vs Allura/Kima???? Powerful WLW political leaders who are supporters of the party, one of whom is stabby and take-action and the other is a spell-caster and more cautious???? Is this something???? (I vote yes 🖤❤️🤍 💙💛🤎)

Also speaking of parallels - Ranna and Dorian? Enough said.

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journeytothewestresearch · 2 years

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JTTW Great Peng Religious Statue

Chapters 74 to 77 of Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) feature a powerful bird demon called the “Peng of Ten Thousand Cloudy Miles” (Yuncheng wanli peng, 雲程萬里鵬). He is portrayed as an ancient, halberd-wielding monster and a spiritual uncle of the Buddha. He comes to rule his own country and later teams up with two escaped Buddhist animal spirits to cause havoc on earth. The Great Peng is so strong that his nephew, the Enlightened One, has to personally intervene to trap this matchless evil in a position above his throne (this references South Asian Hindo-Buddhist architectural elements that jumped to Tibetan Buddhist religious iconography). The monster submits but stubbornly refuses to stop eating meat, showing that even the Buddha cannot fully tame him. In the end, the Enlightened One placates the Great Peng by offering him willing human sacrifices from among his countless followers.

What's interesting is that a later book titled The Complete Telling of the Biography of Yue (Shuo Yue quanzhuan, 說岳全傳, 1684), an embellished chronicle of famed Song dynasty loyalist and general Yue Fei (岳飛; 1103-1142), portrays him as a reincarnation of this bird demon-turned-Buddhist guardian. This connection is likely based on Yue's historical "courtesy name", Pengju (鵬舉). In the novel, the “Great Peng, the Golden-Winged King of Illumination'' (Dapeng jinchi mingwang, 大鵬金翅明王) becomes enraged when a bat spirit farts during the Buddha's sermon, leading him to jump down from his perch and mercilessly kill the offender. The Enlightened One promptly exiles him to the world below to be reborn as Yue Fei. But this is actually a preordained countermeasure against a red dragon sent by the Jade Emperor to punish the Chinese Emperor in the form of a tribal leader who comes to invade northern China. This naturally plays on the known animosity between birds of prey and snakes (e.g. Garuda vs Nagas).

Yue Fei came to be worshiped in Chinese folk religion as a Daoist protector deity. He has temples (or at least a statue therein) dedicated to him throughout the Chinese diaspora, but they are most concentrated in China and Taiwan. This leads me to an interesting religious statue that I recently purchased. Labeled "Marshal Yue Fei, the Great Peng" (Dapeng Yue Fei yuanshuai, 大鵬岳飛元帥), it portrays the general astride his former incarnation. I've never seen a statue such as this, nor have any of my friends who are in the know. It appears to be quite rare.

Now I can say that I own a religious statue of the most powerful demons in Journey to the West!!! [INSERT EVIL LAUGHTER]

#Great Peng #Great Roc #Journey to the West #JTTW #Lego Monkey Kid #Sun Wukong #Monkey King #Yue Fei #Song Dynasty #Garuda #Chinese religion #Taiwanese religion #Chinese folk religion

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planetarybound · 1 year

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Birth Card Notes: Temperance / Hierophant

Imagery — Things to Look at and Contemplate:

Postures — hovering / sitting (Raised on high, mythic, unreal vs. grounded, conventional, real)

Colors — white / red (Purity and knowledge vs. passion and devotion)

Clothing — flowing gown, bare feet / full robes, slippers (Natural, intimate and personal vs. formal, distant and ceremonial)

Symbols

wings, sun disk, chalices and streams, path and glory, irises / triple crown and staff, surplice with crosses, pillars, gesture, kneeling devotees with roses and lilies, dais and keys (Shared involvement in different forms with spiritual teachings, mysteries, and rewards through personal effort)

flaming hair / ear flaps (Blazing attention vs. inner listening)

Foreground Figures — one angel / three religious figures (Single integrated focus on spiritual attainment vs. multiple approaches and perspectives)

Astrology:

Sagittarius (Temperance) — adaptable, restless, volatile, quick to anger, freedom-loving, and drawn to philosophical abstraction

Taurus (Hierophant) — rooted, steady, slow to anger, simultaneously loyal and jealous, appreciator of true value

Predilection:

Free-thinking vs. Traditional

Explosive effort vs. Steady progress

Warrior vs. Academic

Temperance and The Hierophant share a passionate nature, a concern for purity of intention and action, faith in personal evolution and perfectability. Both are impatient with wrong-doing and lack of effort.

They contrast as natural vs. formal, personal vs. hierarchical, righteous vs. moral, individual vs. communal. Self-knowledge contrasts with received lineage. The path of mighty effort contrasts with the path of perfect surrender.

The Hierophant listens to the inner voice and allows it to speak through him. He knows the secret path that connects the inner and the outer, the hidden and the visible; and he is a sure guide to anyone traveling from one to the other. The Hierophant's job is to clearly separate right from wrong, to create and lead the rituals of the spirit, to teach the true knowledge, to open the door to the chamber of the heart; and to initiate all who have done the outer practices into the inner mysteries. He is the guardian of the gates of Paradise.

Temperance is the captain of the armies of the spirit, the beam of light in a dark room. He combines the powers of opposite intensity — of hot and cold, of light and dark, of dry and wet, of weightless and heavy — into the passionate impulse of the center. He is the drawn bow of the arrow of Sagittarius, aimed at the bulls-eye. His job is to know first-hand every danger and pitfall of the right and left-hand paths, and then to find and travel the middle way. His energy, passion and purity are the shortest, surest way out of the prison of our personal limitations, and into our freedom and true power.

Unintegrated and imperfectly realized, The Hierophant can be intolerant, inflexible and hypocritical, concerned with form instead of essence, permitting vice while forbidding heresy, exchanging the inner kingdom for a personal following.

Temperance can be given to extremes — of self-righteousness and self-contempt, of anger and pity, of action and lethargy, of asceticism and license. He can be self-involved, lazy, sloppy, and given to fantasies of personal greatness.

Together, they can be focused, inspired and charismatic. They can be both trusted leaders and loyal followers. They know, speak and act from their own highest truth.

#Tarot #Temperance tarot #The Heirophant tarot #astrology

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artwithoutblood · 1 year

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Another thing stuck out to me in the Cryptid let’s play… the music. Very pretty. It sounded like a Middle Eastern instrument and triggered a similar memory of another song’s opening.

The song is called Full Circle by Loreena McKennitt from the Mask and Mirror album. It might not be your style but it specifically compares/contrasts Christianity with Sufi Islam by way of their morning and evening prayers. (Dawn call to prayer vs bells for vesper.)

In other words they are different faiths but are both calling to god who might even be the same one. The album liner notes on the net spell the parallels out. There are also apparently a lot of Sufi converts from Christianity because there are enough similarities to converge? I think Dorian would like all of this very much.

I’d like to know more about the game music too if possible - what is the instrument used? Was the non-Christian cultural/religious overtone intentional? It was so fitting.

And as the lack of life/ash storms also mimic sandstorms in the desert, could that hint at where Dorian once resided in life? His beliefs? And potentially which particular political and religious landscape brought about his death?

I wondered if he was killed in the Middle East resisting the spread of Christianity but that doesn’t square with his manner of death (being burned) or called an heretic. Or his pale skin and blonde hair. And very early on Christianity was the tiny cult being persecuted. And HE was implied to be a cult leader of some kind himself! I’d have to check more into the time frame given for his death. (After I remind myself when it was.)

I do know ancient pagan religions were overrun in Britain. For burning monasteries were razed by Vikings Lindisfarne in 793. Dorian does live a monastic existence curating (false) religious texts. But those were raids for profit rather than ideological. And Christians were the ones that forcibly converted the Vikings.

The ash is possibly just a metaphor for spiritual death/a spiritual wasteland or meant to emotionally mirror Dorian’s barren isolated existence where he can’t even enjoy life’s pleasures like freedom or eating.

He also does seem to fill the role of the scapegoat, having been labeled a sinner/assigned responsibility for sins and been sent into exile alone in the wilderness.

Anyway. I’m not religious myself and haven’t studied any religion or history but I like lore and all that just came to mind as something cool to discuss! I hope the nerding out was not offputting. Interesting thought provoking game.

-Let’s Play/fruity tea/consensual Erebus affection anon. (Different to 🍎 anon)

apologies for mobile spacing. no matter what i do, it doesn't want to look good.

ive heard loreena mckennitt's music before, so thank you for putting her back on my radar. for the music, i gave my musician some ambient vibes music that i like (i am the person who regularly listens to ambient. i know.) for any influences and instruments for making the songs sound the way they do, you'd have to ask zack himself! he's very talented and in the discord. nonetheless, i might add one of mckennitt's songs to my dorian playlist. thank you!

in dante's inferno, which is the source that dorian's original source is based on, heresy is kind of boring because he's just a bunch of dudes. like. burning forever. in vindication (whenever we start getting to the production process), the never ending library was most of what the player would see. the souls of the damned were burned for fuel and for knowledge. each circle provided a challenge: dorian's was constantly lying out of wanting the mc to stay with him. there were attendants he had, mouths ripped and stitched so they would no longer tell lies, but they were husks of people. for the sake of the jam and my spin on vindication, i did not include them, and i indulged in dorian's loneliness.

i added the ash storm mostly because i thought...it was cool. and i needed a reason for the player to get into close quarters with him. i have nothing written of his past, other than he was born with albinism which has shaped itself into pure whites and grays while in hell, he led some sort of "cult" maybe that still had the values of the religions at the time, and that he was burned alive. everything else is sort of vague on purpose, because for me, it's not about the man he once was. like all other demons, he was given a new name upon assuming his role. all demons are. erebus's human name was not erebus.

which is why im really interested in this interpretation you have! dorian is a character who, really, is up to the player. he's old, but how old he is he does not reveal. he may not have died because of heresy outright. limbo herself was assigned limbo despite not fitting entirely with original doctrine or anything (also because. it's my fantasy catholicism for my silly little game and i get to choose what the sins mean). anger themselves are a newer demon born out of the misery of a justified crime. who knows why dorian was chosen? perhaps the forces enjoyed his charisma.

the ash, the fog, and the cemeteries parallel against the life he preserves in his own abode. (and random shoutout to the irish vikings and also the christians being lame. as usual.)

he might be a scapegoat who transformed into what he was scapegoated for. who knows?

#dorian ask #10:16 ask

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angeltreasure · 1 year

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Cecilia here, glad your rosary making event went well! I'll be going on that 24 hour visit to a few convents in the archdiocese area this upcoming Friday to Saturday, and hope it goes well too. I've also seen your vids of lizards, YES I LOVE THEM! I love lizards and reptiles, and in a way you're right they're dragons in a way, would have a snake if I had time to raise one or take care of one. Otherwise I did talk with my Priest, he's my spiritual director and he's happy I'm doing these visits. He also mentioned I might be trying to take too many prayer devotions on and focus on some more simple ones, like the rosary for example. He said that quality over quantity is a better idea for me, as I can get scrupulous if I don't keep in check and recall that we're not perfect and that's okay as long as you're seeking God in all things. He also addressed that the family should be told soon, but not to rush into telling them about being a sister in the future, in case I am called to marriage after all. I doubt that I'll be for marriage, but he doesn't want me to rush. Otherwise God Bless, happy Annunciation Day, and I hope you're doing well.

Thank you! The Rosary making event sure was humbling but fun. At first everyone sat away from me. I was all alone. I thought oh Lord, not again, don’t make it like the time where people sat around the fire at the Maronite Catholic Church and left me out! Thankfully the leader of the event spoke up and someone sitting behind me took the seat next to me. Later, a lady came in a bit later than the rest of us and sat to my left!! I made three friends friends that day. We talked about our favorite saints, our favorite Rosary mysteries, our Lady, how we found this church… I was having a hard time learning the steps and pretty much everyone finished before me with such beautiful Rosaries, even a little girl! 😊💖 at the end the lady to my right donated her beads to me so I can add them to the Rosaries I will make for the homeless. The lady on my left recommended me some great books and said I should be a Eucharist minister. Lastly, the leader asked if she could give me a hug and said come to more events, and that I’d be a wonderful Eucharistic minister. 😭🙏🏻I told them both I just started being a lector, so who knows! I might just have the calling to dive deeper but first baby steps! I spent a few hours sorting beads out when I got home. That is so true it’s better to do prayer slower with greater reverence vs overwhelming ourselves with too many complex prayers and praying too fast! That’s a good reminder for me too. One of the things I need to tell you that Sister M.E. told me is that if any Order says “oh we know that God is calling you here”, don’t join because you need to remember that God gifted you free will. We can apply the same to the vocation of marriage. Don’t let anyone force a vocation on you. Pray about it, trust in God, and when you feel you are absolutely ready you can decide with peace in your heart. (And with any religious order, they give you freedom to decide if you want to stay or go in the different phases over years, so even if you leave your formation in faith is not a waste it could actually aid you to become stronger as a future wife or single). Thank you, may you also have a blessed Annunciation feast day! May Mary wrap her mantle around you for protection.

#Cecilia #asks

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