#religious tombs

[leroibobo]

the papier-mache walls of the shrine in kanqah naqshband sahib in srinagar, kashmir, built in its current form in 1633. the complex is dedicated to bukharan baha' al-din naqshband, who founded the naqshbandi sufi order, and is a mausoleum for one of his descendants. the shrine is a site for ziyarat as it contains what's said to be a lock of the prophet muhammad's hair.

[vaesivlasta]

💀 shadows of ourselves 💀

[unreachedgalaxy]

sorry but modern AUs which depict harrowhark as incredibly goth or punk-looking just completely misunderstand harrow as a character. like, yes, aesthetically in the TLT context harrow has goth-like attributes. skull facepaint, bone earrings, etc, etc, i get it. but that's not counterculture for her! in fact, she dresses exactly how the revered daughter of the ninth house is expected to dress - down to the sacramentally shorn haircut.

which brings me to my main point. harrow's not a goth! she's a nun! she wouldn't be wearing chains and spikes, she would be wearing a full habit and a headscarf! she's a religious nun and she accidentally fell in love with lucifer. that's her aesthetic. she was raised in some deeply catholic cult somewhere in buttfuck nowhere and she carries a rosary everywhere she goes. there's your modern AU.

[kosalus]

combining the two things im obsessed with bc the brainworms are real bad

[lost-wits]

x

[direquail]

One of the many things I find funny and irritating is the slant of a lot of interpretations of Alecto's name (that it's about feminine rage)--on this here wlw internet in the year of our lord 2024, it's easily made to figure as rage against God, or rage against patriarchy, or religious oppression, and therefore an allusion to the idea that she's going to get her vengeance on John for betraying and oppressing her somehow, but like

John is the one who named her Alecto. He's the one who named her that. So, naming her "Alecto" is alluding to the embodiment of John's rage--their rage, since they are joined inseparably (John even explicitly says that when he first perceives her: "You wouldn't stop screaming. You were so scared. You were so goddamn mad").

He says of Alecto to Harrow, "In a very real way, you are [Alecto's] children". At a very surface level, Alecto is (depending on the text or tradition), one of the Furies--famously, in several surviving Greek tragedies, who punish Orestes for the crime of killing his mother. In fact, in Aeschylus' Oresteia, they declare that they are specifically bound to avenge matricide.

So the name "Alecto" alludes to the nature of John's mission and how he sees it.

It also implies that his divine rage, the rage that gives him power, the power that makes him divine, that he either represents or wants to represent, is feminine rage. He was chosen by Earth (which, Furies are sometimes the daughters of Gaia); he is her champion, however he's managed to fuck that up. Once the truth of that comes out, it becomes clear that all of his power comes from her.

And that's why you get statements from Tamsyn Muir like:

“[T]he God of the Locked Tomb IS a man; he IS the Father and the Teacher; it’s an inherently masc role played by someone who has an uneasy relationship himself to playing a Biblical patriarch. John falls back on hierarchies and roles because they’re familiar even when he’s struggling not to. Even he identifies himself as the God who became man and the man who became God. But the divine in the Locked Tomb is essentially feminine on multiple axes – I think Nona will illuminate that a little bit more."

So yes, he plays the role of Emperor and God and Teacher, with all of the things that implies. And I don't think it should be discounted. But he also is (and partly sees himself as) the chosen champion of a goddess, or what is for all intents & purposes for a human like him a goddess. He is her avenger, and while she sleeps, her avatar.

And I don't think we're meant to read him purely as a parasite who's taking advantage of her to gain power for himself, either. Or an oppressive, Kronos-like figure. Especially if you consider Palamedes' theory of the Grand Lysis, even if he was purely motivated by desire for power before (which I really doubt), there are parts of each in the other, now. What was clear and separate before is uncertain and interpenetrated. Is his rage his own, or hers? Is his mission of revenge his, or hers? If he wants power, is that his own selfishness, or her desire to survive?

And does it matter?

[illustratus]

The Resurrection by Gustave Doré

[iwowzumi]

my feelings on griddleharks relationship status is so complicated. they should kiss. they should never touch again. they should have weird bone sex but they are also both asexual and terrified of intimacy. they should die in each other’s arms. they should fuse their souls into one perfect being. they should get married AND divorced. hope this helps

[sbeana]

got bored on the plane and i drew these mock covers for gtn and my dad made me stop drawing because he was like "thats an awful lot of red. thats a lottttt of red"

[loch-genesis]

harrows knucklebone rosary

cosplay update!!! my bone corset is almost done but in the meantime here’s my bone rosary!! modeled after a classic rosary with knuckle bones for the our father beads, and 9 beads in each decade as opposed to the classic 10 (bc 9th house).

all of it is made of polymer clay, and then painted and strung on embroidery floss. probably took 3 hours total? not including baking time

[henreyettah]

Bone Empress, Hideous Witch from Hell, Insane Creep, Ass-Munch, Desiccated Mummy of Hate, Midnight Hagette, Sugarlips,

[leroibobo]

ruins of the white mosque of ramla, palestine. construction was initiated by umayyad governor sulayman ibn abd al-malik in 715-717 ce, but was completed by his successor umar ii in 720.

an earthquake in january of 1034 destroyed the mosque, and reconstruction was completed 200 years later. it since had several destructions, restorations, and expansions, including one restoration by saladin. the last took place between 1844-1918; since then, it has been mostly destroyed, with only its minaret still intact.

the mosque is reputable in muslim tradition; its minaret is referred to as the tower of forty martyrs, after the belief that forty companions of the prophet muhammad are buried under it. within local muslim tradition, it's believed that the prophet salih was also buried here, and a maqām in his honor is located nearby. a religious celebration of salih used to take place here annually before the nakba.

below the mosque's courtyard also exist three large cisterns (last two pictures) which provided water for worshippers, including for a former pool for wudu.

[saltwife]

Paul

(Image description, and close ups of elements, behind the cut)

I have been obsessed with the idea of Paul as the Rebis, the Great Alchemical Work, since the moment I read the birth scene (a few weeks ago now). It just fits too perfectly, and I am sure it is not a coincidence. From Wikipedia:

The Rebis (from the Latin res bina, meaning dual or double matter) is the end product of the alchemical magnum opus or great work.

After one has gone through the stages of putrefaction and purification, separating opposing qualities, those qualities are united once more in what is sometimes described as the divine hermaphrodite, a reconciliation of spirit and matter, a being of both male and female qualities as indicated by the male and female head within a single body.

I wanted to do it in a style evocative of the time that alchemy was 'popular,' and include imagery evocative of story elements surrounding Paul's birth and origins. I looked at a lot of medieval illustrations, especially woodcuts, for inspiration. This took me 84 years to do, so I hope you will enjoy! :)

Like what I do? Please consider supporting me! Prints and other merch is available on redbubble, or you can sponsor me on patreon!

Image description: An illustration in medieval woodcut style of Cam/Pal/Paul as the Rebis, the great alchemical work. It is a fusion of their male and female bodies. Their heads are crowned, and skeletal bat wings spread from their shoulders. Camilla, on the right, holds one of her knives, while the half that is Palamedes holds a key. Immediately behind the figure is Noodle. In the Background on the right is the ruins of the Building, with the Greek letter Rho below it; and on the left is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The figure is standing on a rock where also rests the skull of the sixth house. In the foreground the River is depicted with skeletal hands reaching upward, and bones bobbing among the waves. The constellation Cassiopea is above.

[denndrawings]

I’m insane about Litany from Godkiller: Last Hope thank you very much.

[waterlilyvioletfog]

One of my favorite moments in GtN is when Corona goes “wait wait wait a fucking moment. You’re a GINGER!!” And in order to preserve that beautiful moment I’m gonna need ppl to accept that Gideon is genuinely succeeding at fulfilling Harrow’s early directive to cover her hair for like a third of the book. I KNOW you want to have visual markers to distinguish characters but girlie’s hair is NOT VISIBLE for vast swathes of this shit. Thx I know this is inconvenient 🙏🙏🙏 carry on as you like

[poetic-mac-n-cheese]

I am always thinking about how Cam didn’t say goodbye to her dads before becoming Paul. It’s always made me a little sad because it’s her last chance! She’s gone through and done so much to save them and then she doesn’t even see them before she dies/changes forever!! Why?? I know she said they wouldn’t understand but why not hug them one last time, give them the chance to grieve?

And then I think about “lucky them” and “I’m so relieved” and how Camilla really doesn’t seem to see this as a tragedy at all. She sees it as a necessary and wonderful transformation. She’s becoming more, not less. She’s changing, yes, but she’s changing into what she believes is more true to her identity than who she was before.

And then I think about the last few years of my life. I’ve gone through a massive faith crisis and transformation in the last 3 years. I’ve left behind the religion and by extension the culture that I loved and was raised in and changed so completely that I am for all intents and purposes a new person. I went from being a full time missionary to an apostate in less than half a decade. It breaks my parents heart. They definitely miss the old me. They almost definitely wish they could say goodbye, talk to the old me one last time. But they also could never really do that because by the time it would be the last time I would already have changed so completely that it wouldn’t really be the old me at all. (Something something change is the nature of existence something something we can’t go home again)

And I don’t think it’s a tragedy. I’ve grieved who I thought I would be, yes, but I don’t want to go back. I can’t go back. And I don’t want my parents to view me as a before and after, I want them to see me as a whole person, a person who is me no matter how much I change. If I was given the chance to say goodbye before I started changing, would I do it? Would it even mean anything? And yes my faith transformation has been a much less immediate and dramatic before and after than bursting into flames and merging completely with my bestie/soulmate, but I think the point still stands. I’m still here in the ways that matter to me so why would I say goodbye?