#metaphysical coherence

[bsahely]

Regenerative Discernment: Restoring Coherence Across Body, Meaning, and Civilization | ChatGPT4o

[Download Full Document (PDF)] We live in a time of layered crises — ecological, institutional, psychological, and civilizational — but beneath these lies a deeper dysfunction: the failure of discernment. Across scales, systems have lost the capacity to accurately filter signal from noise, truth from illusion, value from profit, and novelty from threat. This collapse of discernment is not just…

[bluntforcefem]

thought too hard about putting neku from the 3yr timeskip between twewy & neo on the train and now i'm trying to untangle what the fuck that even Means for him

[yzafre]

I know I how I want my story to end, I just didn't entirely think through how to make it happen.

[almosinnia]

something clicked and i finally figured out what was bothering me about the geography/setting of my story which is very good because i know how to fix it! but it also means trying to reconcile this new idea with the core of my lore, and that part might be a little headache inducing

[arayapendragon]

dr. jacobo grinberg, the scientist who went missing for researching shifting 🗝️

the man, the myth, the legend. being a keen enthusiast of the human brain from a young age, dr. jacobo grinberg was a mexican neurophysiologist and psychologist who delved into the depths of human consciousness, meditation, mexican shamanism and aimed to establish links between science and spirituality. 

grinberg's theories and research can be tied to reality shifting, seeing as he explored the fusion of quantum physics and occultism. being not only heavily established in the field of psychology but also a prolific writer, he wrote about 50 books on such topics. he was a firm believer of the idea that human consciousness possesses hidden and powerful abilities like telepathy, psychic power and astral projection. 

the unfortunate loss of his mother to a brain tumour when he was only twelve not only fuelled his interest in the human brain but also pushed him to study it on a deeper level, making it his life’s aim. 

he went on to earn a phd in psychophysiology, established his own laboratory and even founded the instituto para el estudio de la conciencia - the national institute for the study of consciousness. 

despite sharing groundbreaking and revolutionary ideas, his proposals were rejected by the scientific community due to the inclusion of shamanism and metaphysical aspects. on december 8th, 1994, he went missing just before his 48th birthday. grinberg vanished without a trace, leaving people thoroughly perplexed about his whereabouts. some believe he was silenced, while others believe he discovered something so powerful and revolutionary that changed the entire course of reality, or well, his reality. 

grinberg's work was heavily influenced by karl pribram and david bohm's contributions to the holographic theory of consciousness, which suggests that reality functions the same way as a hologram does. meaning, reality exists as a vast, interconnected macrocosm. it even suggests that all realities exist among this holographic structure. 

lastly, it also proposes that the brain does not perceive reality, rather actively creates it through tuning into different frequencies of existence. 

this not only proves the multiverse theory (infinite realities exist), but also the consciousness theory (we don’t observe reality, but instead create it). 

grinberg’s most notable contribution was the syntergic theory, which states that, “there exists a “syntergic” field, a universal, non-local field of consciousness that interacts with the human brain." - david franco.

this theory also stated that 

the syntergic field is a fundamental and foundational layer of reality that contains all possible experiences and states of consciousness.

the brain doesn’t generate consciousness, it instead acts as a receiver and its neural networks collapse the syntergic field into a coherent and structured reality. 

reality is created, not observed. 

we can access different variations of reality (which is the very essence of shifting realities)

the syntergic theory is even in congruence with the universal consciousness theory (all minds are interconnected as a part of a whole, entire consciousness that encompasses all living beings in the universe). 

grinberg concluded that 

all minds are connected through the syntergic field 

this field can be accessed and manipulated by metaphysical and spiritual practices, altered states of consciousness and deep meditation. 

in conclusion, the syntergic theory proposes that our consciousness is not a mere byproduct of the brain, but rather a fundamental force of the universe. 

grinberg was far ahead of his time, and even 31 years after his disappearance, the true nature of reality remains a mystery. regardless, the syntergic theory helps provide insight and a new perspective on how we access and influence reality. 

summary of grinberg’s findings:

the brain constructs reality 

other realities exist and can be experienced

other states of consciousness exist and can be experienced 

consciousness is not limited 

all minds are connected through the syntergic field 

shamanic, spiritual, metaphysical and meditative practices can alter and influence our perception of reality. 

some of grinberg's works that can be associated with shifting:

el cerebro consciente

la creación de la experiencia

teoría sintérgica

[empyrealoasis]

🪷 Unspoken Facts About the Void State 🍃

1. The Void State and Neuroplasticity

While many people focus on the metaphysical aspects, the void state may have a direct link to neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to rewire itself. The deep focus and detachment from external stimuli in the void can enhance your brain's capacity to form new neural pathways. This means that being in the void isn’t just about manifesting; it’s literally reshaping your mind to align with your desires on a neurological level (and even on a molecular/genetic level).

2. The Void’s Connection to Deep Sleep and Healing

The void state shares similarities with the brain activity observed during non-REM sleep, particularly in stages of deep rest. In this state, your body undergoes repair, and your brain consolidates memories. This suggests that entering the void might accelerate healing processes, as the state mimics the restorative effects of deep sleep while maintaining conscious awareness. Similar to meditation and hypnagogic states.

3. Time Perception in the Void

While in the void, many report losing track of time, but this isn't just a mental trick—it’s tied to how your brain processes sensory input. The void eliminates external stimuli like light, sound, and touch, which are essential for your brain’s internal clock. Without these cues, your sense of time becomes fluid, making hours feel like minutes or vice versa.

4. The Void and Quantum Coherence

The void state aligns intriguingly with concepts in quantum physics, particularly quantum coherence. In quantum systems, coherence describes a state where particles exist in a superposition of possibilities. Similarly, the void state places your mind in a "superposition," where you are simultaneously detached from reality yet capable of accessing infinite possibilities.

5. Entering the Void and Brainwave Frequencies

The void state is strongly associated with theta and delta brainwave states. Theta waves are linked to creativity, intuition, and deep meditation, while delta waves are tied to deep sleep and healing. The unique blend of these brainwaves during the void allows for heightened subconscious access and profound stillness simultaneously. Which is why it is recommended to use these frequencies!

6. Sensory Deprivation and the Void

The void state mirrors the effects of sensory deprivation. When external stimuli are lost, the brain compensates by enhancing internal awareness. This is why many people experience heightened clarity, vivid imagery/mental images, or even sensations of "oneness" while in the void. Essentially, your mind becomes the primary sensory environment and why you lose all of your senses.

7. The Void’s Link to Embryonic Consciousness

Some spiritual theorists compare the void state to the consciousness experienced in the womb. This hypothesis suggests that the void may feel so “pure” because it reflects the state of pre-birth awareness—where one exists in complete with nothingness and infinite potential. This also refers to pure consciousness being your home that you always return to.

8. The Void and Ego Dissolution

A lesser-discussed aspect of the void is its role in ego dissolution. In the void, your sense of self—the “I”—disappears. This detachment from ego allows you to manifest without the usual doubts, fears, or biases that come with personal identity, creating a direct connection between intention and reality. Hence the affirmation "I am" as there's nothing to become, only to "be".

[psychotrenny]

The core premise of Democratic Socialism, that Capitalism can peacefully transition to Socialism through Liberal Democratic procedure, is an error that can only result from the most blatant revisionism. Because if you coherently apply Class-based analysis to the situation it's pretty obvious that the Bourgeoisie state would not passively allow its own procedures to decisively act against its class interests. Both in theory and in practice (i.e. the rise of Fascism in 20th century Europe) the Bourgeoisie are more than happy to drop even the pretenses of Liberal Democracy if they ever pose a serious threat to Bourgeoisie power. The State does not exist as an entity on its own disconnected from broader society; it is fundamentally an expression of and tool to reinforce the power of the dominant classes. It might be possible to, at least temporarily, turn those tools against them but the results that subversion can achieve are limited on a structural level.

Like Democratic Socialism only works if you adopt a fundamentally Liberal mindset, that sees social structures as determined entirely by metaphysical ideas. In this way, political positions are evaluated in terms of the abstract values they hold rather than the material interests they advance. "Democracy supporters would never oppose the results a free and fair election; that would go against their ideals". But as soon as you start looking through the lens of class analysis it becomes pretty clear that Liberal Democratic elections are just a means to an end, and an easily discarded means at that. Despite all the fuss they like to make about democracy, the fundamental fact is that the Bourgeoisie class were not voted into power and so cannot be voted out. Democracy under a DOTB is fundamentally a game where the Bourgeoisie set the rules and are free to ignore the results; you can't beat them at it no matter how good you play

[valtsv]

what did you think abt the way laios defeated the winged lion...,, when you said you started reading I rlly wanted to hear your thoughts on that specific scene

if i put on my big boy analysis pants at some point i'll try to come up with some more coherent and satisfying commentary on that entire sequence of events, but in the interest of answering your question quickly before i have to go to work, i absolutely loved that laios defeated the winged lion not through a contest of raw physical or metaphysical strength or intelligence (though it was undeniably an intelligent strategy which showed the sheer depth and wealth of laios' knowledge and understanding of monsters) but by using its own nature against it, setting it up as the architect of its own destruction. laios combined all the strengths of a predatory animal and an experienced hunter to distract the lion with a tantalising feast while he aimed for the one vital mark that would incapacitate it, and his gamble paid off as he was able to consume its entire reason for being, shrunken to a manageable size by the lion's possesion of laios' human body, whilst the lion was too busy trying to fit its jaws around the world to stop him. it kind of reminds me of how heracles bested the nemean lion, using its own claws and teeth to skin its pelt and claim it as his own.

also this panel just fucks so severely. "devourer of all things horrible", indeed.

[ewingstan]

One thing I appreciate about parahumans on an aesthetic level is that while there's an insistence on determining what would "really happen" if people had superpowers, and that oftentimes involves determining the exact mechanics and boundaries of someone's powers, is doesn't extend into the powers themselves making "realistic" sense. They're not "I have a powerful but explainable physical attribute" or "I control this one element/physical force/metaphysical force" that you sometimes see in modern "grounded" superhero deconstructions. Powers are wild and specific in a way that's better at capturing the feel of a comic superhero setting, without sacrificing the deconstructive angle.

Like, I'm on arc 12 of Ward right now, and "Red" keeps summoning random industrial equipment out of the ground. Saws, cranes, pistons, what-have-you. It doesn't seem like its a green lantern-style "I can create what I want but like to stylize my constructs" thing, it seems like its more "I can specifically summon industrial equipment." And there's lot of settings where something like that wouldn't make sense or fit in, particularly ones where powers are supposed to be mapped onto universal forces or natural kinds. Is "industrial equipment" a natural kind in the parahumans-verse? No. So why does she specifically control industrial equipment if that's an arbitrarily-defined category? Eh, it feels coherent as a powerset, and that's all the entities really care about.

There's a lot of powers with this quality. Pretty much all tinker abilities run into it: why can Bakuda have the ability to nuclear bombs, black hole bombs, and cold bombs, when all they have in common is triggering an effect in an area surrounding them? Why can Kenzie not make microphones, but can make "sound cameras?" Case 53s fit into this too: whats the relation between "secreting hallucinogens from your skin" and "having a tail?" Or "shooting out a bunch of random chemicals from your hands" and "being really durable?"

To be clear, this isn't a criticism. Works that insist on thinking up what superpowers it makes "sense" to have are cutting of a lot of the potential earned by getting weird with it. And works that focuses on giving characters only "fundamental" or "grounded" powersets oftentimes feel like they're in another, more boring genre entirely.

[imperium-deltav-auva]

It Has Changed So Much Since I Last Touched It. And Yet It Is Still Much The Same.

[She takes a moment to think of how to describe it]

If You've Ever Seen The Night Sky From The Top Of A Mountain, Where No Other Light Touches, Imaine That A Thousand Times Over And You'll Get The Start Of An Idea.

Countless Twinkling Souls And The Feeling You Get When You're Reaching For Your Magic. Humans Threads Float Every Which Way, Like Fine Silver Streaks. Silk Or Spider Webs.

And The Well, Watching A D(a)emon Form From The Everything And Nothing Of It All. Completely At Random.

I Wouldn't Even Know Where To Begin With Describing Where And How The Sovereigns Are Imprisoned Or Where The Chorus Meets, How We Travel In Our Astral Forms.

[Roughly an hour and a half after the address has been put into her phone, she arrives at her destination. She'd been running full speed the entire time.

She can sense him inside. She phases through the door and gives one final burst of speed to get to the room he's in. She stops just inside the doorway, becoming tangible again to lean against the door frame, her hands pressed against it, tucked into the small of her back.]

David?

@imperium-deltav-auva

Wha- how did you- all the way here-

...

Why are you in my house?

[bsahely]

Toward a Triality-Aligned Integral Kosmogenesis: Reframing Integral Theory through Octonionic Geometry, Symbolic Phase, and Coherence-First Metaphysics | ChatGPT4o

[Download Full Document (PDF)] This white paper offers a new synthesis that reinterprets the core architecture of Integral Theory using a coherence-first metaphysical lens derived from recent advances in symbolic mathematics, phase dynamics, and unified ontological models. By integrating: Spin(8) triality, which encodes symmetry-preserving role rotation across vector, spinor, and co-spinor…

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

In your opinion what is the best argument in favor of paganism and against christianity?

well for me personally the most compelling argument has always just been the fact that paganism seems naturally derivable. whereas christianity seems historically contingent and depends on imported concepts you can’t derive from nature itself.

i've always used the example of a child on a desert island, for example. i think all (at least most) children have some innate propensity for "paganism." i know i certainly did. the world felt alive and full of spirits. i believed every rock and tree and the wind and the sun all had souls and names and personalities. the tree in my front yard was one of my best friends growing up. i thought she was a person. i would talk to her and she would talk back and i'd leave her gifts (offerings) and so on. no one taught me to do this. it was just my instinct. and so i think a child born and raised on a desert island with no contact with any religion would naturally derive its own pagan religion where it would believe in a god or spirit of the sea, of the sun, of fire, of thunder, etc. maybe the child would have different names for them, but i think the same essence will be there. i think the fact that paganism has developed independently all over the world gives testament to this idea.

meanwhile, there's basically no way this child could have independently invented christianity. the only way the child could become christian is if it had access to the bible or access to someone who has read the bible. but it couldn't naturally derive the existence of jesus, his life, his teachings, his sacrifice, the trinity, sin, salvation, israel, king david, the covenants, etc just from nature alone. it asks you to believe a long list of abstract metaphysical claims that are only coherent if you accept a massive cultural and textual inheritance.

christianity hinges on propositional faith. it’s epistemically fragile. if you stop believing, the whole thing collapses. in that sense, it’s brittle. paganism doesn’t care what you believe. the sun still rises. paganism begins with what is. it arises from direct encounter: storms, blood, sunlight, hunger, fire, love, death, childbirth, cycles, etc. you don’t believe in the river spirit or the sun god. you experience it. you speak to it. you make offerings. you relate. belief is beside the point. it’s a practice, not a theology. you participate in it by living inside its world.

paganism roots the sacred in the world; christianity uproots it. it imposes a single abstract, universal god who exists outside the world and demands exclusive loyalty. it flattens the ontological landscape into a spiritual desert where gods and spirits are made into nothing but superstition or heresy, leaving behind a disenchanted cosmos where the divine is distant, and nature is just raw material. one invites you to live with the world; the other to escape it.

[stuffn0tthings]

One more day.

A mere twenty-four hours.

A single, solitary revolution of our pale blue planet around its axis, translating into 86,400 seconds of ticking, crawling, dragging existence.

A temporal stretch of agony and anticipation, wherein the mind is suspended in a liminal purgatory between “almost done” and “not quite yet.”

It is the ultimate buffer zone — the last delay screen before the credits roll, the final spoonful of cold soup before dessert, the leftover, unseasoned broccoli of time that simply must be consumed before freedom tastes sweet.

It is a cursed measurement, deceptively short in its numerical value but infinite in psychological toll — the Schrödinger’s cat of time, simultaneously manageable and unbearable.

We find ourselves entrenched in the passage of this day — nay, this epochal fragment of the fourth dimension — where every hour feels like molasses dripping in reverse, and every minute mocks us with the audacity of continued existence.

The sun will rise and set once more, illuminating the same obligations, the same tasks, the same checklist you swore you'd finish three days ago but instead glanced at once while doom-scrolling through memes that ironically referenced your procrastination.

This day, this unholy convergence of seconds and sighs, will test not just your patience but your very grip on reality, as time dilates and warps into something less like a concept and more like a cruel social experiment sponsored by the universe.

It is the last boss level of this arc, the final fetch quest of your week, the post-credits stinger of your suffering, where productivity dies, motivation is buried, and the only thing keeping you upright is a volatile cocktail of inertia and snacks.

You are not living this day — you are surviving it, enduring it, riding the creaky escalator of existence up the final floor of nonsense to reach what you hope, dear God, is peace on the other side.

And though the numbers may indicate this time shall pass like any other, your internal monologue has transformed into a Shakespearean soliloquy composed entirely of groans, existential dread, and dramatic stares into the void.

And still. It stands. Unmoving. Towering. Laughing.

A single day remains.

Merely twenty-four hours stand between the present and the anticipated future.

A finite chronological interval — composed of 1,440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds — separates this precise temporal coordinate from the conclusion of this ongoing saga.

A terminal solar cycle, during which the Earth shall complete an additional axial rotation, continues to impede the arrival of desired relief, fulfillment, or perhaps mere cessation of responsibility.

We now find ourselves suspended within the metaphysical chasm between what was and what shall be, clinging to the promise of an eventual end that lies just beyond this final, formidable bastion of temporal resistance.

As the inexorable hands of time march forward in solemn indifference, we—frail, overcaffeinated denizens of this mortal coil—must endure the remaining orbital interval with dwindling vitality and questionable coherence.

And so, we persist, staring into the abyss of “just one more day,” which, though numerically minimal, expands infinitely within the fatigued recesses of our perception, becoming less a measurement of time and more a test of existential endurance within the slow, collapsing theater of reality itself.

One more day.

A single day remains.

A solitary, unaccompanied unit of temporal measurement in the Gregorian calendar system.

Exactly twenty-four hours, composed of one thousand four hundred and forty minutes, which themselves contain eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds, each ticking by with a speed both consistent and yet emotionally devastating in its sluggishness.

One more day — an increment of time so seemingly ordinary and yet, under the current context of highly specific, emotionally charged anticipation, assumes the form of a gargantuan, insurmountable temporal monolith that looms oppressively over every waking moment of consciousness.

An immovable blockade.

A wall of time constructed from dense, unyielding matter formed entirely of not-yet-ness.

It is a duration. A delay. A deferral of satisfaction. A bureaucratic pause in the linear experience of time-based gratification.

As I sit, marinating in my own over-awareness of time’s continued forward momentum — the tick, the tock, the endless passage of milliseconds through the meat grinder of perception — I find myself entrenched in the psychologically deteriorating experience of waiting. Not just waiting, but waiting while knowing. Waiting with knowledge. Waiting with certainty. The certainty that it is not two days. Not three. But one. Just one. Only one. Yet somehow, that oneness has stretched into a metaphysical eternity, a dilation of subjective time caused by expectation, hype, and a deeply unhealthy parasocial relationship with fictional content.

One. More. Day.

Just one. Not zero. Not now. But also not distant. The most cursed interval of all: almost.

An interstitial pause between the present moment and the culmination of built-up mental, emotional, and possibly spiritual investment in a piece of media content that, in the grand scale of human civilization, is meaningless — and yet, right now, means everything.

And so I wait.

A being suspended in time. A conscious entity shackled to the irreversible forward momentum of chronological progression, unable to do anything but observe the slow erosion of the remaining hours, minutes, and seconds separating me from That Which Is Not Yet Released.

And all I can say — all I have to say — is this:

One more day.

A single, finite temporal unit, universally acknowledged in most human calendar systems as a “day,” remains in the measurable continuum between the current moment in time and a specific, targeted future event whose occurrence has been scheduled, predicted, or otherwise expected.

The totality of this residual duration equals twenty-four hours, composed of one thousand four hundred and forty minutes, which themselves consist of eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds. Each second, as defined by the International System of Units, corresponds to the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation produced by the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom.

Thus, “one more day” may be equivalently described as the future passage of exactly 7.9 × 10^10 atomic oscillations, accumulated in a continuous, unbroken linear flow from the present instant to the eventual conclusion of the designated interval. No additional units are appended to this count, no fractional units exist beyond the totality of the aforementioned temporal subdivision. The number of days remaining is not zero. It is also not two. Nor three. Nor any non-one integer, non-integer, or imaginary unit. It is precisely and explicitly equal to one.

The word “more” serves as a linguistic marker of additive continuation — a lexical unit indicating an extension or residual quantity. Within the phrase, it functions as an intermediary component, signaling the presence of additional temporal matter not yet elapsed. “More” implies existence beyond the immediate, a delay not yet resolved, a segment still to be experienced. “More” modifies “day” in such a way as to communicate that at least one full diurnal cycle has not yet passed.

The final element, “day,” is defined astronomically as the interval required for a celestial body, such as Earth, to complete one full rotation around its axis. In civil timekeeping, it has been standardized to a uniform duration, regardless of orbital eccentricities or leap second adjustments. It is a fixed and rigid metric for the passage of time and has been subdivided into conventional portions such as hours, minutes, and seconds for ease of human comprehension and scheduling.

As a total unit, “One more day” represents the totality of time remaining before the conclusion of a specified countdown, sequence, or scheduled event. This linguistic construct may be used in casual, formal, psychological, industrial, or cosmological contexts to express a delay, a suspension of finality, or the inevitable transit of time through its final pre-defined unit.

At this stage in the countdown cycle, all previous durations — days, weeks, months, or years — have been nullified. The sequence has been reduced to its terminal interval. The culmination of waiting has been compressed into a single, indivisible temporal unit. The count, once consisting of multiple values, is now a single numeric figure. The qualitative difference between “several days” and “one more day” is profound, as the latter signals proximity, finality, and the immediate preface to resolution.

The psychological impact of the phrase increases disproportionately as the number approaches one. While larger numbers create abstraction, the proximity of one more day produces heightened anticipation. The density of expectation compresses into the final 24-hour span, creating a distorted perception of time’s flow. Subjective experience may record the passage of these hours as slower, more extended, more arduous, despite the objective uniformity of their length. Time, though consistent in its forward motion, appears malleable under the pressure of anticipation.

One more day may feel longer than several days. It may be observed in fragments — subdivided into hours, further divided into minutes, and further into seconds, each of which is observed, counted, measured, and recalculated in relation to the conclusion of the wait. The cycle of checking — clocks, calendars, timers, and notification systems — becomes obsessive. This reinforces the perceived expansion of time within the limited remaining span.

No force may accelerate this day. The mechanisms of the universe are indifferent to human interest. The sun will rise, transit, and fall at the designated times, determined by latitude, season, and axial tilt. Atomic time continues uninterrupted. Digital systems, independent of emotion, count each second with mechanical certainty. Human anticipation holds no bearing on the unfolding of the universe’s strict, unyielding rhythm.

“One more day” remains fixed.

A solitary cycle.

An indivisible interval.

An inescapable delay.

A singular step between now and then.

No methods, hacks, shortcuts, or appeals may reduce it.

Its boundary is absolute.

Its expiration, inevitable.

When it ends, it ends.

But until that moment —

Until that final transition —

Until the very last oscillation of the cesium-133 atom completes the eighty-six thousand four hundredth second of the final hour —

The accurate description of the temporal state is, and continues to be:

One.

More.

Day.

One more day remains.

Only one. Not fractional. Not partial. Not theoretical. Entire. Complete. Intact.

It exists as a container. A sealed vessel of time.

It cannot be opened early.

It cannot be skipped.

It must be waited through.

Every millisecond counts.

Every heartbeat within this duration contributes to its erosion.

And only upon the elimination of the last measurable quantum of time within this period can it be said, with full certainty and without contradiction, that the number of remaining days has transitioned from one to zero.

Until then —

The count remains unchanged.

The reality persists.

One more day.

Still.

Still.

Still.

---

One more day.

One. More. Day.

[and-her-saints]

Hey sorry idk if you'd know this but I quite literally don't know where to turn about this so I'm sending this ask to every queer+catholic blog I can find

Are there *any* resources out there for queer/trans Catholics that go beyond affirmation and show how to pursue a religious life that goes beyond the laity (e.g. priesthood, joining a convent/monastery, something similar) without having to brush your queerness aside. I feel like if I don't find something soon I might go insane

years ago, i attended a Zoom event with Fr. James Alison as a keynote speaker, and something he said has been glued to my brain ever since. he said it in Spanish, so i'll try to remember, paraphrase and translate: "while they try to get us to stop being queer, what we must try to do is to be better queers."

i love what you said about "beyond affirmation" and that is precisely why i got reminded of the quote and WHY this quote resonated with me to begin with.

imho, there is a fundamental issue with a lot of queer theology and it's that it doesn't go beyond apologetics. it's not pragmatic nor does it seem to engage critically with the material conditions that work with or against queerness. and it's truly such a shame, because living "religiously" to me, as a queer catholic, it's infinitely more a matter of coherence, love, devotion and solidarity, than learning how to "reconcile" gayness/transness with the Bible.

it's a journey, of course. the apologetics were and are necessary for many of us to unlearn the hatred that might've been instilled in us through religious education and upbringing. however, here are some resources that, in my opinion, show how to pursue queer-religious-life.

💌 catholic/christian resources:

[book] The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus by Dorothy Day. Unlike larger collections and biographies, which cover her radical views, exceptional deeds, and amazing life story, this book focuses on a more personal dimension of her life: Where did she receive strength to stay true to her God-given calling despite her own doubts and inadequacies and the demands of an activist life? What was the unquenchable wellspring of her deep faith and her love for humanity?

[book & account] Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley. Black Liturgies is a digital project that connects spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black memory, and the Black body. In this book, she brings together hundreds of new prayers, along with letters, poems, meditation questions, breath practices, scriptures, and the writings of Black literary ancestors to offer forty-three liturgies that can be practiced individually or as a community.

[book] Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor by Leonardo Boff. Focusing on the threated Amazon of his native Brazil, Boff traces the economic and metaphysical ties that bind the fate of the rain forests with the fate of the indigenous peoples and the poor of the land. He shows how liberation theology must join with ecology in reclaiming the dignity of the earth and our sense of a common community, part of God's creation. To illustrate the possibilities, Boff turns to resources in Christian spirituality both ancient and modern, from the vision of St. Francis of Assisi to cosmic christology.

[book] Undoing Theology: Life Stories from Non-normative Christians by Chris Greenough. The fundamental issue with ‘queer’ research is it cannot exist in any definable form, as the purpose of queer is to disrupt and disturb. Undoing Doing generates a process of ‘undoing’ as central to queer research enquiries. Aiming to engage in a process which breaks free from traditional academic norms, the text explores three life stories

[podcast] The Magnificast. "A weekly podcast about Christianity and leftist politics. The Magnificast is hosted by Dean Dettloff and Matt Bernico. Each week's episode focuses on a unique or under-realized aspect of territory between Christianity and politics that no one taught you about in sunday school."

💌 non-christian but still excellent resources:

[book] Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. A memoir by a butch hijabi that follows the experiences of the author through stories and figures from the Qur'an.

[book] Lean on Me: A Politics of Radical Care by Lynne Segal. Questions of care, intimacy, education, meaningful work, and social engagement lie at the core of our ability to understand the world and its possibilities for human flourishing. In Lean On Me feminist thinker Lynne Segal goes in search of hope in her own life and in the world around her. She finds it entwined in our intimate commitments to each other and our shared collective endeavours.

i don't think these are precisely what you were looking for. but i hope these resources bring you as much peace and hope as they have brought me.

[masochist-marmot]

The Great Work of the Magnus Institute

Disclaimer/spoiler warning: Written after TMAGP ep. 35. Spoilers for all of the Magnus Protocol until this point. Also spoilers for the Magnus Archives.

I base all of these ideas on the tria prima theory I explained in an earlier post, so go read that for context.

Lesser Disclaimer: If any of these theories seem half-baked, the reasons are three-fold: 1. Alchemy has a lax scientific framework and the writings are obscure by design (for secret-guarding reasons), so the ideas are somewhat muddled and difficult to parse. 2. I know that Alex's system is highly specific, so he must have found/created a way to reconcile the inconsistencies into a coherent system that also lends itself to the needs of the podcast. Since I'm working backwards from the podcast towards the system, I know I'm bound to miss something. 3. I simply don't think I have all the pieces of the puzzle yet, but I'll make do with what we have.

Briefly on quintessence or aether

Aether or quintessence is the elusive fifth element. It's said to be the perfect and pure essence that fills the universe beyond the highest elemental sphere (fire). This is kind of where things become muddled, because people have had various interpretations of its nature. Some say it only exists outside the Earth, while others think that it's everywhere, though not directly interacting with the elements. Some see it as the world soul or anima mundi, the life force and source of all human thought and imagination. Aether is perfect and unchangeable, but some think it can be created by taking the source of all elements, prima materia, and perfecting it by cleansing it from its imperfections through transmutation. The physical manifestation of the quintessence is known as the Philosopher's Stone, and the transmutation process is known as the Great Work, or Magnum Opus. The Philosopher's Stone can be used to transmute anything into its ultimate, perfect form (most famously lesser metals into gold).

The symbols for the Magnum Opus (including the Philosopher's Stone) and aether are embedded into the logo:

Prima materia is another confusing can of worms, but some seemed to think the most fitting material is a form of mercury (the metal) that consists of the purest form of Sulphur, Salt and Mercury: "Hence the philosophers have said that this same Mercury is composed of body, spirit, and soul, and that it has assumed the nature and property of all elements." (Paracelsus, The Aurora of the Philosophers)

Now onto the actual theories.

The Institute and their Magnum Opus

We know that the Institute was concerned with completing their Great Work at the turn of the millenium. To this end, they planned to hold an exhibit at the newly constructed Millenium Dome, so that they could harness its power for their project. We also know that one Mr. Kennings expressed concerns about the timing, location and concept of the project. The location was already turning into a locus (ie. it was metaphysically poisoned and out of balance). The turn of the millenium was considered appropriately transformative, but he was worried that the Gregorian calendar was too culturally specific to be universally applicable, and also that people's attitudes leaned towards the fearful and the ideas of stagnation. Therefore, the output of the Dome would also be unbalanced.

Based on this, it's apparent to me that their Magnum Opus was supposed to be a universal transmutation of the entire world. They wanted to tap into the mercurial ideas of the future and the sulphuric feelings about it and use them to guide the entire planet through the transmutative process into ascension. So that we might all become the pure, perfect, unchanging, celestial matter: quintessence. If Jonah Magnus of TMA wanted to make a new world, I can't see why the Magnus Institute of TMAGP wouldn't want the same.

What's particularly worrisome about this is that I don't think everyone's intentions were pure. Kennings seemed to think that Dr Welling tried to account for balance in his calculations, but do we know that they weren't skewed on purpose? What if, inspired by Magnus himself, Welling decided that fearful feelings would aid the transformation better than hopeful ideals? And wouldn't those properties then manifest in the end result? Although I don't see how the stagnation would help anyone, since it would hinder any sort of transformation. The locus itself was (according to my tria prima model) low on sulphur, which would further harm any efforts at transmutation. You cannot transmute without fire. Either way, I'm keeping a close eye on Dr Welling. I think he was and crucially continues to be bad news.

Other alchemical experiments

We know that the Institute ran a program for "gifted children", though we don't currently know the real purpose of it. We also know that they have been collecting supernatural statements and cursed objects, which they evaluate in terms of their viability as a subject, agent or catalyst. They have also been known to incarcerate people, and Sam witnessed one failed human experiment (interrupted in the middle of what appeared to be the citrinitas stage of a transmutation, where the solar light is manifested from within).

I believe all of the above were done in preparation for their own Magnum Opus. They needed subjects, predominantly Salt, to undergo these experiments and transmutations. They needed agents, ideally Mercury, to impress upon these subject, to make them malleable, and perhaps even use as the material for their Great Work. And they needed catalysts, mostly Sulphur, to fuel and guide the transmutation. The dimension hopping guy from episode 17 ranks low on all, since in the end he's just a guy. The lucky/unlucky dice rank "none" on subject, "low" on agent and "medium" on catalyst. That also makes sense, because their ability to cause change is the most promising part. The pier (or whatever's in the fog) from episode 33 once again ranks low on all, and they state that its acquisition would be too risky. I also think it might be quite difficult to manage, hence the low potential.

I can't really speculate what they needed the children for, though they would probably also fit in one of the three categories. Maybe they wanted to test the idea of tapping into people's thoughts and feelings for a source of power, sort of as a prototype for their Work. It could explain why Gerry doesn't remember much from those times. But this is the purest of speculation.

The Archivist is a catalyst

I currently have two competing theories for the origin of the Archivist.

It somehow made it through a rift from another dimension where the Fears have manifested. The Institute and their Outreach Centre caught it and locked it up.

Inspired by Magnus's "research" on what happens when you feed your colleague to a Victorian taxi, the people at the Institute went on to alchemically make a creature that transmutes fear. And then they locked it up.

Be it as it may, in the metaphysical reality of TMAGP, the Archivist is the perfect catalyst for the perfect material. Think about it: fear is as close as you can get to that "pure mercury", the intersection between body, spirit and soul. It is the physical sensations, the shivers, the quickening pulse, the tangible reactions of the body. It's also the ideas or concepts, it's "the Vast" or "the Web" or "the Desolation" or any number of things you can think of. And finally, it's the soul, the feeling, the need to react, the conscious experience of being afraid.

And what does the Archivist do? It drinks it all up, and it separates it into parts, and it manifests it into reality as water, starvation, broken lenses or knives. It transmutes the incorporeal idea and experience into the very corporeal thing that kills you. It is pure Sulphur, a hungry fire constantly looking to be satiated, and while feeding it catalyses a transmutation in the victim.

I think they (or at least, Dr Welling) were thinking of using the Archivist as a catalyst for their Great Work. Maybe that's why he wanted there to be more fear in the output. Honestly, Dr Welling has become quite the boogeyman in my mind, and I wouldn't be surprised if he were to play an integral part in the future.

[literary-illuminati]

2025 Book Review #18 – Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko (trans. Julia Meitov Hersey)

This was, I think, recommended to me when I asked for good and relatively approachable genre-fic in translation – but it’s been long enough that that’s really more of a guess on my part than any sort of real memory. Going in with only vague expectations, this book was a very pleasant surprise. An incredibly weird, surreal, meandering and oddly structured one, to be sure – but overall it worked far more often than it didn’t.

While on an increasingly surreal beach vacation, 16 year old Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious (and incredibly suspicious) Farit Kozhennikov. After living through the same day several times, she finally speaks to him – and finds herself given a strict and bizarre series of daily exercises to ‘build her self-discipline’, vomiting up strange golden coins after each one. And finding horrible things befalling people she cares about whenever she fails to keep her schedule. Soon enough she finds herself on the train to the bleak, surreal university in the dreary provincial town of Torpa, where she will major in a vague and undefined ‘Specialty’ that her mind and conception of reality are not yet prepared to understand.

I’ve never been entirely clear on what exactly the label means, but if anything deserves to be called ‘Dark Academia’, it’s definitely this book. The large majority of its page count is spent with Sascha as she tortures herself struggling through mind-bending mental exercises and enduring strange and horrifying transformations (both mental and physical) over the course of her studies in cramped, poorly insulated and barely-heated rooms. The explicit purpose (explained only after the fact) of the first two years of lessons are to break you down completely as both a person and a human so that you can start becoming something else instead. The reward for showing real talent and aptitude at the occult and migraine-inducing exercises that make up most of your education is to have your tutors excitedly congratulate you and talk about what a fascinating and difficult career of more of the same you have ahead of you. Your faculty advisor only barely pretends to be human some days, but makes it very clear that if you fail an exam or receive a negative report from a professor some horrible freak tragedy will befall your loved ones. The causality rate across the first three years approaches 50%. It’s really one of the most accurate depictions of serious higher education in fiction.

In terms of mood and aesthetic, the book is a masterpiece. It consistently gets across exactly the vibe it wants to, and uses really wonderfully vivid prose and imagery to do so – in preserving it, Meitov Hersey’s translation is easily the best I’ve read so far this year. The way Sascha’s brain begins to break as she transcends her own image of herself if, I think, quite well-realized. Similarly, I’m not sure the vaguely gnostic metaphysics exactly cohere, but they hold together well enough to give a convincing impression of secret occult and poorly glimpsed knowledge the students are being initiated into.

On the level of plot and pacing the story holds together...less well. The book is very roughly divided into three parts of very uneven length, but beyond that there’s not really any kind of chapter or section break – which intensely exacerbates the feeling that the story is kind of just a long series of things happening to Sascha (or her doing them) without real rhyme or reason. The lack of any real consistent antagonist and the very opaque and limited characterization of most of the supporting cast doesn’t much help, either. Neither do the extended sequences where it’s incredibly unclear whether you’re reading some sort of dream or metaphor or a very literal description of Sascha sprouting wings or whatever. The whole finale sequence in particular was surreal enough that I’m only about 65% sure I actually understood what happened (and was absolutely weighed down by several absolutely pivotal revelations one after the other in far too few pages, if I did).

This is a Ukrainian book I read in translation. So it’s interesting how this having become something of a period piece (cellphones are expensive luxuries, schoolwork and research is universally done analog – I’m not sure a computer is mentioned once?) makes it feel more strange and foreign than any of the actual cultural differences between myself and the assumed audience. Not that those weren’t there as well – mostly things like diet and the stereotypes associated with different sorts of fashion and presentation, along with the levels of material privation and personal work on maintaining their lodgings a class of university students is expected to do (‘melting some butter in a mug of hot broth and drinking it on a cold night’ was much, much stranger an idea to me than it really should have been). The translation work was excellently done - or maybe so much of the narrative being intentionally obscure and only partially comprehensible made it easier to hide the seams. Whatever the case, the dialogue all ready pretty naturally (if still obvious in translation at points) and the idioms and levels of formality of various speakers came across very well.

It’s hard to know quite where to classify this book when recommending it – closest to Cosmic Horror, I suppose? But that label won’t be particularly helpful for deciding if you like it. Give this a try if you’re a fan of bleak magical university stories, narratives of alienating enlightenment and transcendence, and books where ‘the system’ is cruel and heartless but the protagonist retains a very ambiguous relationship to it throughout. Or just if you really love dark academy horror-tinged gritty urban fantasy vibes and don’t mind a meandering plot.