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flickeringart · 3 years

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Neptune aspecting Mercury and Venus

(Continuation of my post “Neptune aspecting the Sun and Moon”)

Mercury aspecting Neptune

Mercury is representative of deductive reasoning, of communication and learning, of exchange of information and social interaction. Mercury is essentially representative of the mental faculties, the ability to draw conclusions based on the gathering of information. Mercury represents the intellect, the most commonly applied tool for understanding and navigating the world around the self. It’s the tool that makes connections, that defines and discriminates. The intellect is a divisive mechanism that breaks things down and distinguishes every little part to discover its function and purpose within the whole.

Mercury aspecting Neptune often lends itself to a very creative mind and an ability to articulate and communicate nuances. It also seems to lend itself to a vivid imagination – an ability to paint a picture with words or portray an archetypal energy through mimicry and acting. The conjunction is the most intense of the aspects and the benefits as well as the debilitations are felt more acutely. While Mercury-Neptune has the ability to “enchant” with words and easily navigate the world of imagery and fairytales, the real world void of magic can be less easy to navigate. Taylor Swift has the conjunction and she’s a great example of someone who is a storyteller through songwriting. She essentially takes the interactions of her everyday life and turns it into magic – something that is universal and appeals to people world wide. Music has the ability to glamorize the most dull and ordinary and elevate it to new heights. There’s a might to music and it speaks to people on the feeling level. Music, movies and theater for that matter have the goal to affect people, to mirror their inner life and strike a note on some level of the psyche. Mercury-Neptune comes with the risk of being easily affected by words and a tendency to read into things more than necessary. Sometimes the meaning of another person’s words can be distorted and made to fit the person’s own preferred narrative. This is a huge problem, especially for the conjunction - sometimes words that actually carry weight can be made out to mean anything. Furthermore, in overlooking the concrete – that which is spelled out loud and clear, there door is wide open to make mistakes and blunders when tending to details, and in real life this can have dire consequences. Reading too much into things or not reading enough into things seems to be the problem. Neptune refines whatever planet it touches and this can make for a real ability to work with subtleties, but the more subtle something is, the less dense and concrete it is. The more sensitive the instrument, the more susceptible it is to suggestion and manipulation. Fantasy and imagination is inextricably merged with the intellect with this aspect.

The trine and the sextile aspects from Neptune to Mercury similarly lends themselves to a feeling for subtlety when communicating and thinking. The trine is more of a natural modus operandi while the sextile is more of a skill that can be used and activated through conscious cooperation. Mercury-Neptune can potentially cause a propensity for lying, not because of a need for a control but because of a natural tendency to distort information. This is as true for the conjunction as the trine, while the sextile might take some deliberation. The tendency to convey information in the most romanticized and creative fashion might border on lying because it leaves people with no grasp of the cold and hard facts. Mercury-Neptune is not good with the plain, cut and dry message transferring – these people thinks in images and imbue everything they convey with a touch of story-telling.

The square from Neptune to Mercury, seems to make the native very serious in creative pursuits. There’s effort and strain that is required because of conflict felt between the intellect and the vault of dreams and fantasy. Usually, the native displays criticism of their work and is skeptically inclined toward their own influence or the value of their own artistic pursuits. Amy Winehouse had the square in her chart and she was quite hard on herself although the public loved her. Even in people who aren’t pursuing an artistic path, the Mercury –Neptune square will cause the person to undervalue any talents and dreams that they have, yet be pressed to develop and fulfill them. David Bowie is also a great example of this type of person – on the one hand there’s nebulousness and chaotic creativity, on the one hand there’s analyzing and mental discernment that is unforgiving. Donald Trump also has the square, quite the business man, yet he’s not someone who is able to stick to the purely factual– he manufactures his own story, his own narrative that people, to a large extent, wants to buy. He speaks to the masses and moves them emotionally, some say he’s profoundly stupid, some says his wits are underestimated. This is typical of the square, there’s tension between the two planets and one cannot take credit for both ends. Either one sacrifices Mercury and looks mad and deranged, or one sacrifices Neptune and appears overly critical and rational – even cold and unfeeling.

The opposition aspect is in turn linked to extremism – the native must try to balance intellectual discernment with emotional receptivity. Too much of one thing will be to the detriment of the other. While the square produces conflict and tension, the opposition can give the ability to abandon one planet in favor of the other. Yoko Ono has this aspect and she has obviously been a big advocate of peace and love (Neptune), sometimes to the detriment of rhyme and reason. She has suggested that “direct communication” is the only way to true communication, but of course, this is only possible in the womb, if even then. The great gift of the opposition is the ability to abandon reason, to experience everything and hold onto nothing, to not label and impose judgment. However, it’s not difficult to see the consequences for this sacrifice.

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Venus aspecting Neptune

Venus is representative of love and beauty, of femininity and sociability. The planet is linked to that which is of value, worthy of display and admiration. It also has something to do with preferences, style and talent. Venus is the one attracting Mars, that instigates desire, that draws him in. That which instigates our desire is powerful because it dictates action. Venus has a lot to do with money because it’s a marker and a measure of value – and people want to have as much as possible of it in order to be comfortable and socially desirable. Venus also has to do with partnership and marriage, and in order to catch someone’s eye, one has to be beautiful and appealing.

Neptune conjunct Venus is truly the height of love. While Venus is more personal and more social in nature, Neptune is the collective urge for redemption, the pull to touch something sacred. Neptune in us wants it all, the magic of enchantment that belongs to fairytales. Ordinary human love, which is more about feeling esteemed within a social context and desired for specific qualities, is not cutting it. With these planets conjunct, the person craves the total submerging with the one and only beloved in one’s heart and in other people’s hearts. Neptunian love is based on the mutual longing for something eternally blissful, the garden of Eden, the ultimate escape. This longing exist in all human beings to a larger or lesser extent, but it certainly unifies us and in some ways confirm our basic vulnerability and need for redemption. When Neptune and Venus are conjunct it would seem as if the person is very compassionate and understanding of people’s hearts. No doubt one can be very soothing and able to see the beloved one in all people one meets, which can be wonderful but also overwhelming and exhausting. The person is certainly capable of being accepting of all people, even to the point of allowing things that shouldn’t be allowed. Disillusionment can dawn brutally on these types since they have strong investment in the pure and untainted love that can only be kept alive in fantasy. These planets aspecting each other is a setup for being in love with love. Love for these types might not be about a specific person, they might seek out someone for their ability to mirror them. In other words, it would be difficult to love a person for their individuality because one would seek out someone with enough receptivity and mutability in order to find something of oneself in the other. Of course, this seems to be the nature of love despite Venus aspecting Neptune or not. We only ever fall in love with ourselves, although we’re unconscious of the fact. The only reason we’re ever drawn to someone is because we see something of ourselves in them. For people with Venus-Neptune contacts this phenomenon is taken to new heights. Liking and being fond of something yet knowing that that person or thing is different from oneself is entirely different from feeling a sense of union and yearning that is the oceanic deity calling a person home. With Neptune, the love object is the answer to all prayers and the remedy for all one’s troubles and pains. This is of course never quite true and the disappointment that follows upon the clearing of the intoxicating mist can be very scary and deeply depressing. Personal love, marriage and commitment might be idealized to the point of absurdity.

The trine and the sextile aspects are less intense compared to the conjunction, but they similarly denote a refined taste and a appreciation of artistry and music – anything that touches people’s souls inexplicably and profoundly. Typically, all Venus-Neptune aspects indicate a need to be loved unconditionally and to love unconditionally. Both of these harmonious aspects denote a very compassionate nature and a tendency to idealize and glamourize love. One is naturally very generous with one’s outpouring of affection, even when one’s own heart is broken. The trine indicates that the person is innately and naturally mirroring other people’s beauty. Escapism and distortion of reality is one’s way of being, it is not an acquired skill but rather something that’s a given. It’s probably easy to over-indulge in pleasure in order to escape the dreary everyday existence. In fact, when things get too hard, this is exactly what this type is likely to do. The sextile is more of a skill that is available for use. In other words, one is able to stimulate a bit of Neptune’s magic and universality in one’s style of expressing love – adding a bit of glamour, unattainability and fantasy in the mix. Conscious cooperation is required though, it’s not as if the sextile is going to cause over-indulgence as soon as one lets go of inhibitions.

The square aspect typically brings doubt and friction, when Neptune and Venus are involved, the conflict is between one’s personal value(s) and the recognition of oneness. Usually, the ugly side of Neptune comes out more readily. One wants to attain something special and magical but since one is not attuned enough or certain of one’s own preferences and values neither planet gets fulfilled or satisfied. Kim Kardashian has this square and she is never quite satisfied with her appearance (Venus), which is why she spends to much time perfecting it. She wants so badly to embody the ideal (Neptune) yet can’t seem to close the gap between her own personal look and the otherworldly refinement that Neptune represents. What ends up happening is that she becomes too artificial, some would even call her grotesque – she simply can’t find peace with imperfection – everything has to be sweet and pretty to the point that the coin flips and everything turns ugly. Although Neptune is usually associated with spirituality and the beauty of the divine, it is also associated with dissolution and disintegration – which often manifests as madness. Kim Kardashian has many times been rude or downright aggressive because of her vanity and venusian pride. Madonna also has this square and she certainly falls in the category of people who care enormously about their appearance, being attractive and young even up until old age. Venus is the goddess of youth and beauty and Neptune holds the promise of redemption through the planet(s) that it aspects. It’s easy to see how this square relationship between the planets could run amok. If youth is the gate to heaven, one would be willing to go very far in order to not let the imperfections stop heaven from becoming a reality. When it comes to love and relationships there’s inevitability of disappointment and uncertainty – one tends to look for the perfect partner yet no one can be it all in terms of fulfilling the dream because the standards are set too high. On the flip side, the standards can also be too low, because of the Neptunian tendency is to either be unrealistically idealistic or stubbornly accepting and passive in destructive situations.

The opposition aspect doesn’t typically bring out the obsession with perfect love and beauty. It makes the individual aware that love, in it’s selfish guise of wanting another person or object tied to the self in some way because of good looks and style, is antithetical to universal love. In a sense, personal love must be sacrificed for communion with the source of life, that which many people call God – or, God must be sacrificed for ordinary human seduction, value and pleasure. These are the people who are only looking to touch the source of life through love and union, nothing more. They’re not looking to simple hedonistic pleasures or superficial adornments. If they do, they’re doing it at the detriment of true compassion and communion with all of life. George Harrison had this opposition in his chart and so had Bob Marley. Both were musicians, both used drugs and both had a deep urge for spirituality. Both emphasized the importance of the connection with God and pointed out the triviality of worldly matters. Venus, is to an extent, quite earthy and materialistic. She cares about being nice, looking nice and behaving in a way that causes others to admire her. It seems like Harrison lost his first marriage because of incessant drug use and infidelities. Neptune is boundless and is everywhere and anywhere – there was no way Venus, ruling marriage and social contracts, could conquer the pull of the promise of ecstatic union. With the opposition, either special partnership/marriage or God is the pursuit, neither can exists in conjunction with the other.

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path-of-my-childhood · 5 years

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Lana Wilson Says Her Female Crew Wasn't Taken Seriously While Filming Taylor Swift

By: Emily Tannenbaum for Glamour Date: February 10th 2020

The film, intentionally or not, explores Swift's shaky venture into feminism and how she understands her platform as one of the most famous women on the planet. So it should come as no surprise that director Lana Wilson and her all-female crew can relate to Swift's plight and have similarly learned to manipulate misogyny in their favor.

“When people see an all-female film crew, they assume they're not professionals. That's something I've encountered over and over again in my career and a lot of other female directors would probably say the same thing. People just come up to you and they're like, ‘Is this a school project?’” Even when they’re documenting Taylor Swift. “I do think it’s helpful for keeping a low profile,” Wilson adds.

Glamour spoke with Wilson one week after Miss Americana dropped on Netflix about the massive response to the film, working with the pop star, and, of course, that rumored ring.

Obviously you were an established filmmaker before this, but Taylor Swift is one of the number one pop stars in the world. How is life right now? It's been amazing. It's been overwhelming, and I have been totally stunned by the response. I usually make films where they're about subjects where I kind of have to coax or persuade people to watch them. And this is a film, I feel like everyone on earth watched it within the first 48 hours of it coming out.

How has the reaction to the documentary affected you? It was incredible, I knew there was going to be a big audience, but I hadn't been expecting anything like this. It's been such a positive reaction. People are connecting to it in a really deep way, which was, of course, my dream when making the movie. But I worked on it in secret, so for it to have this kind of reaction is the most gratifying thing in the world.

How did you keep your work a secret? Well, you lose a lot of friends, because everyone gets annoyed that you won't tell them what you're working on. [Laughs]

Considering the sensitive topics the film covered and her standing in the industry, how did you build your connection with Swift? I think one of the first things we connected about was about being artists in male-dominated industries. We had a lot of shared experiences even though we inhabit very different worlds. There were some things in common that I could totally understand about her experience because of my own experience as a female director. I think there's a layer of non-judgment, especially when it comes to stuff like talking about body image, talking about the sexual assault trial. I do think you have an extra layer of comfort there for sure.

Tell me more about how you chose to present her speaking out about her eating disorder? When she's in the car talking about body image, we put in these flat aspect images of her on the red carpet during the 1989 tour while she's talking because I think that those images of her when she was struggling with this makes it so much more visceral and more emotional.

I remember seeing those images, some of them in magazines or on the internet and I never thought that wasn't normal. You know how skinny she was. I didn't think twice about it. And I think when you see the images juxtaposed with her in the car now reflecting on it, you realize, wow, we all have a veil over our eyes. We're so used to seeing one type of body on every magazine cover in the supermarket and thinking that that's normal, and often beating ourselves up and hating ourselves if we don't look like that.

I think to see Taylor, someone who's an icon of beauty voicing these thoughts that so many people have had is incredibly, incredibly powerful because it's not something you would expect to hear, then it makes you kind of think back on everything you've seen in your own experience in a different way. I don't know if you read the incredible post that... is her name Nikki Glaser?

Yes. What did you think about that apology to Taylor? I thought that was so moving and brilliant, and I loved Taylor's response to her, too. I thought what Nikki Glaser was saying made so much sense. She said, "This is Psych 101; I was projecting because I was struggling with an eating disorder at the time." I thought that was a really brave and incredible thing to say. That made me think about if there's ever been a time where I've made fun of someone, I was probably projecting my own insecurities on them as well, you know? We did notice when we were looking at that archival material that a lot of that stuff was coming from other women.

God, I almost tear up like thinking about some of the notes I've gotten from teenagers about how they look in the mirror and they hate their body and they hate the way they look. But now that they've seen that Taylor has struggled with some of these same things too, and she's gotten through it and she's stronger and happier as a result, and that inspires them to keep going. It's just so moving.

What was the most unexpected thing about filming Taylor? The contrast between the extraordinary elements of her life and the ordinary elements. [There are] the very big and massive, spectacular, glittery times, but then these very mundane, normal moments. I really love the scene where she's eating a burrito. I know people have really responded to this scene, and I think it's because it's just her putting a chip in a burrito for crunch. There's something so great about when you get to a point when you're filming someone and they can relax enough to eat lunch and shoot the shit with their friends in front of you.

When you can film the boring stuff and you have that comfort level with someone, then you know you have access. You know, at that point. It's weird, but that was like a breakthrough moment for me because it feels like the camera isn't there.

When did that moment come? How long had you been filming her before you felt like you broke through to that point? At least a few months. But I will say that the first interview we did was the first interview she'd done in three years, and we did that audio-only. I think that was the moment when we really got to know each other and when I really started to see what the story of the film was, that first audio-only interview. It was just me and her, in a room for hours with a recorder.

Did any of that audio make it into the film? Oh yeah. When she talks about the sexual assault trial, that's from the audio interview.

Did Swift see the film at different points in the editing process, or did she not see it until it was finished? I wanted her to see it before it was finished because there's stuff in here - like her talking about an eating disorder - that I think is really important for her to be comfortable with that kind of stuff going out into the world. It was great because when we showed her the first cut, she loved it immediately. She was never like, ‘No, I don't want to go there.’ There was no off-limits area other than anything that would compromise her security.

Taylor's feedback was great. It wasn't like, ‘Oh no, we can't do this.’ It was feedback from another storyteller. She's such an extraordinary storyteller. So it made sense to me.

Before I let you go, I have to ask: When InStyle asked you about a potential engagement ring you said, "I'll have to watch the scene again." Did you watch the scene again? I was confused by what that person was talking about. They said it's the scene in the car where she was talking about her eating disorder, that there were flash frames of a ring. And I was like, I don't remember that. There was definitely nothing like that there. I know that people on the internet are freaking out about this later scene where she's wearing a ring. I don't know anything about... I think she just wears a lot of rings. I think people are overreacting to it a little bit. As far as I could see she's constantly just wearing lots of rings! [Laughs]

#thanks anon for sending me this =)#Lana Wilson #interview #about taylor #taylor swift #Taylor Swift: Miss Americana #body image #sexism

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elcorhamletlive · 5 years

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fandom: MCU (Post-Avengers) relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Bruce Banner & Clint Barton & Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark & Thor, Nick Fury & Avengers Team, Maria Hill & Avengers Team, Nick Fury & Tony Stark tags: POV Outsider, Fluff and Humor, Team Feels, Truth Serum My fic for the Holiday Exchange, for talesofsuspense! Summary: “Look, I’m not thrilled by the prospect of spending my day here either," Nick said, "but there’s no postponing this. We can’t give them a chance to combine stories.”

“Right,” Hill said. “And I’m sure they’ll all be very…cooperative.”

“Hope you didn’t have any dinner plans."

Hill’s sigh mirrored his own so much it was unnerving. “Okay.” She leaned forward and pressed a button on his desk. “Send in the first one.”

Hill flipped through the pages, making the already thin folder appear even smaller. “Not much of a starting point,” she said.

Nick leaned back in his chair. “No,” he agreed. The report from Stark’s A.I. was very brief, and the rest was just what the scavenging team managed to comb through from the quinjet debris. “The press will not be satisfied with that. And there is a key part missing. We deliver this to the Council, they laugh in our faces.”

Hill raised an eyebrow at him. “So our job is to make the folder thicker?”

“Our job is to understand what happened,” he replied. “So we can deliver them something slightly more coherent, and they can feed the reporters whatever they want.”

“And you think this will work?” Hill gestured to the room around them. Across the desk where she was sitting, on a perfect diagonal view from Nick’s eye, there was a single, empty chair. “Seems like a criminal interrogation.”

“Maybe it is,” Nick said. He wasn’t sure if the superficial report was an intentional cover up or just plain sloppiness – both were equally likely when you had people like Romanoff or Stark in the middle of an OP – but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter. There was a hole in the story, and the World Security Council didn’t deal with holes. “Look, I’m not thrilled by the prospect of spending my day here either, but there’s no postponing this. We can’t give them a chance to combine stories.”

“Right,” Hill said. “And I’m sure they’ll all be very… cooperative.”

“Hope you didn’t have any dinner plans,” Nick quipped.

Hill’s sigh mirrored his own so much it was unnerving. “Okay.” She leaned forward and pressed a button on his desk. “Send in the first one.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” Romanoff said, and, if Nick wasn’t sure there was something being hidden before, now he did. “I believe JARVIS sent you a detailed account, didn’t he?”

“Depending on what you consider ‘detailed,’” Nick replied. The report had extensively covered the material damage to the quinjet, as well as the information pertaining to AIM’s plan and how it related to it. It was just lacking in the “explanations” department, and it seemed to jump in key time periods between events very hurriedly. Either Stark’s robot was a shit storyteller, or the human factor (specifically the “what the fuck were your team of freaks thinking to let something like this happen, director?” factor) had been strategically avoided.

And there was the matter of the tapes. The security footage recovered from AIM’s quinjet seemed to cover just about every angle of the battle - that is, up until a point right where everything just faded to static before it returned just in time to record the crash.

“This is standard procedure,” he continued as Romanoff’s eyes studied him attentively. “Which, I’d like to stress, is actually a kind way to go about it.” Romanoff quirked an eyebrow at him. “The Avengers initiative isn’t the most popular plan SHIELD has ever come up with, agent. To the world, you might be celebrities, but a lot of people on the inside see you as - how did Banner put it? Oh, yeah - a time-bomb.”

Romanoff smiled. “We’ve made it work so far.”

“Only barely,” Nick said. Romanoff didn’t deny it, nor could she - ever since they had all decided to stay at Stark’s tower, after the battle of New York, Nick had kept his eye close on their performances, be it on the field or with the press, and though the initial animosity seemed to have lessened, they were still a far cry from a synchronized, united team.

The Council had been against them moving in together - there was just too much potential for the proximity to make things go south again - but Nick had argued in favor, and they ultimately decided to allow it. Nick himself knew he was making a risky bet, but at the end of the day, he figured a bunch of anti social people on the edge of normal society had a better chance of making it as a team if they could at least learn how to deal with each other on a friendly basis. And Stark putting the damn A on the tower was as close as he’d ever get to admitting he wanted the company, so Nick didn’t want to deny him it. Hill had a laugh at his expense, then, saying he was getting old and soft.

None of them knew about any of this, of course, and they would never find out. But if Nick Fury made a bet, he wanted to ensure it’d pay off, and crashing a quinjet belonging to one the world’s largest weapons manufacturers in the middle of rural property of the some of the richest people in America was far from a reward, especially while keeping potentially vital bits of information in the dark. That wouldn’t do, and he was determined to get the full picture of what had gone down, whether they liked or not.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning, agent?” Hill suggested.

Romanoff’s eyes blinked astutely before she smiled. “Of course,” she said, much more kindly than Nick would have anticipated. “It started at the fair.”

“I wouldn’t normally have come,” Dr. Banner said, straightening his glasses. “The events we get invited to, they're… not my usual scene.”

“Too many reporters?” Nick asked. He knew Banner wasn’t the press’ favorite target - Stark and Rogers, both recipients of huge celebrity fame way before anyone added superhero worship into the mix, were tied up for that position - but he also knew the Avengers in general were the go-to topic for any gossip show running out of material. The fascination with them pendulumed from healthy curiosity to obsessive speculation way too often for Nick’s liking.

“Too many people,” Banner said, with a nervous smile. “The other guy doesn’t like crowds. But AIM said they were interested in having me and Tony speak. ‘The science bros.’” He made air quotes. “Or something. And, well, it was a nice idea to hang on a science exposition. I looked through the flier, and there were some interesting exhibits.”

“The whole thing was just a blatant rip off of the Stark Expo. But you know how it goes – imitation, flattery, yadda yadda.” Stark leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the desk as if it was his office. “So, we get the invite, and, not going to lie, I was a little curious. Pep said we should make an appearance, smile a little, make niceties – but, well, you know me.”

Nick raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by the display. “We do?”

Stark smiled. “I don’t like to do things halfway. I’m just not built for it.” He shrugged. “So I decided to come, and I thought it would be good if everyone else came too, and that we should try out some of the exhibits together – team bonding, you know? Sometimes it’s nice.”

“Stark wanted to show off,” Barton said, taking a sip of his water. “He thought there was no way Hammer’s people could organize something on that scale, and he wanted to drag us all there to see it because he was sure it would end up being a huge mess.” He sighed. “I guess at the end of the day, he wasn’t wrong.”

Rogers’ jaw clenched so hard Nick thought he’d pull a muscle. “Everything went normally. We got there, took some pictures, got inside… Nothing out of the ordinary.” He looked at Hill. “But, like I said, this is all in JARVIS’ report.”

“Right,” Nick replied. He tilted his head to get a better look. Rogers was as tense as a wood board, and his effort to not let it show made things a lot worse. “I have to say, Cap, I was a little surprised to not get the usual report coming from you.”

Rogers shifted on the chair. “Tony—” He cleared his throat. “We, uh, we thought JARVIS would make one more quickly.” His eyes turned towards Fury, defiant. “From what I understand, every piece of information the Council needs should be in that file.”

“Need and want are two very different things,” Nick said. Rogers took a deep breath, and Nick couldn’t help but frown. “So, you guys started to mingle, right?” he asked, wanting things to get back on track. “That was when you decided to go to Hammer’s stand?”

“Yes. He… invited us.” He paused. “Well, Tony, at least.”

“Right,” Nick said. “But you also ended up going, right?” Rogers gave a reluctant nod. “Why?”

There was a moment of silence, and Rogers said, “It seemed like it could be an interesting experience.”

“Stark dared him to do it,” Thor stated bluntly. “Said Steven was probably too scared to lose to him.” He smiled, amused. Nick was fighting against the urge to underestimate him, but boy, was it hard. “It reminded me of some of my disputes with my brother, when we were both younglings and daring ourselves to attempt to steal Heimdall’s helmet.”

“Well, that’s a nice thing to hear about two adults who are constantly in charge of saving the world,” Nick deadpanned.

Thor looked at him disapprovingly. “They are worthy warriors,” he said. “They just… get a little wrapped up in their blind spots, sometimes.” Nick and Hill stared at him questioningly, and Thor looked away, coughing on his hand. “Uh, well, where was I? Right – the stand.”

“It was a silly concept – melt stuff with our new laser project, whoever melts the most wins, woohoo! - but I’ll admit it seemed like it could be fun. It took place in a separate room, though, and they were only letting two people in at once.” Stark straightened his tie, looking away from Nick for the first time since he walked inside the office. “So me and Cap decided to try it out.”

“Why just the two of you?” Hill asked, precise as a whip.

Stark stayed focused on his tie. “Well, I wanted to check out what was so great that Hammer was showing off in public. As for Cap, who knows? You should probably ask him.”

“So it was a spontaneous thing?” Nick pushed. “You didn’t ask him to come along?”

Finally, Stark looked at him. For a second, his expression was downright defiant. Then it all melted away in a shrug. “I might’ve. I wasn’t driving back home, you know? So I had a few drinks, and I was saying a lot of things, and maybe I asked if he wanted to try it out.”

“We heard you dared him,” Nick countered. Normally he wouldn’t put the cards on the table like that, but something in Stark seemed to favor a more direct approach.

Stark’s expression didn’t change. “Again, I might’ve. What’s life without a little challenge, right? But, still, if you want to know why he came in the stand, you should probably ask him.” His eyes darted towards the window, avoiding Nick and Hill. “Maybe he just… needed a distraction. He hates those things.” Nick tilted his head, noticing the strange thoughtfulness in his voice, but as soon as it came it was gone, and Stark was rambling at rapid fire speed again. “Anyway, I suppose this is where I get to the gas, right?”

Hill turned a page of the folder. “This is where the truth serum got them, right?”

Barton gave them a lopsided smile. “Stark would blow a fuse if he heard you calling it that,” he said. “But, yeah. Exactly.”

read the rest on ao3!

#capimexchange #stony #stevetony #superhusbands #stony fic #my fics #reblogs are highly appreciated #im very excited to finally post this #probably one of the strangest things i've ever written #but i'm happy i actually managed to finish it

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rpgmgames · 5 years

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February’s Featured Game: Ressurflection

DEVELOPER(S): charlottezxz ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: Fantasy, Cartoon, RPG WARNINGS: Paranoia, fear and tension, mild swearing and blood. SUMMARY: Ressurflection is a Fantasy/cartoon RPG set in the fictional universe of the Arbvar and taking center stage primarily at the coastal city of ‘Horizon Bluff’. Its story and game play are heavily character driven, with its narrative divided into two parallels told both within and outside the mirror itself. Ressurflection’s core themes draw from our inevitability of fearing death, and that at some point or another, we all must accept it, and to treasure what’s really important in the time that we have.

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *charlottezxz: Hiya this is Charlotte, lead game developer for Ressurflection! I’m some silly, overactive drawing monkey who works a lot with Narrow on Ressurflection! I’m always sketching and conceptualizing monster bois, taking a lot of inspiration from various games, primarily monster hunter! I’ve had avid interest in the Indie scene for a while now and a lot of the great friends I've made have been due to it and a lot of my recent favorite games have come from it! I would have had Narrow say a few things here but he’s hiding in a corner somewhere!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *charlottezxz: Ressurflection started out as what can be described as two separate stories. Myself and Narrow wrote our own stories and every so often we swapped over ideas or combined them together with each other. One day I said to ourselves ‘You know what? This could work quite well as a game rather than just a story’ so eventually Ressurflection was conceived, around the idea of a mythical mirror capable ‘Ressurflection’ the title of the game. We’ve gone through quite a few iterations of the story before it came to its current form and to be honest if we even showed or compared them side by side they’d be pretty unrecognizable as the same thing except for certain characters, locations and the mirror itself to identify its primordial form having any kind of ancestral relevance to how it is today. As for what Ressurflection is about, I think our synopsis can get that across quite nicely! ‘Horizon Bluff has always annually held its ‘Legend of the Wyvern Glass’ festivities. The Wyvern glass was a long lost mythical mirror, once fabled for its power of ‘Ressurflection’ and coveted by a kingdom now all but gone. That is quick to change however with the arrival of the Roulette Runner’s circus to the coastal city of Horizon Bluff. Trouble is soon to set in motion not just the kingdom’s sudden reappearance but the entrapment of one of their own acrobats within the mirror silver. Yet things are soon to worsen...with the spread of a purple ‘corruption’ across the city and the fact that our most unfortunate trouper is far from alone within the mirror, finding himself at the mercy of its ‘Mirror Maiden’. > The apparent all powerful manipulator of its realm…’

How long have you been working on your project? *charlottezxz: Conceptually we have been working on it for 4 years which is hard to even fathom, however that’s more tinkering around the idea for the story and conceiving it as we learnt the engine. The blog itself is hitting its 4th birthday in February! Ressuflection’s development went on as i attended university, so its always been a side lined hobby of ours.Steam says 108 days worth of hours in the engine and most of the game progress other than concepts has been done in 2019. So I could say 4 years for the ideas/stories and concepts and a year of that for actual game making!

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *charlottezxz: We each have our own inspirations, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 9, Xenoblade Chronicles, Monster hunter and many older PSX titles such as Medievil, Tomba and Heart of darkness are great influences and inspirations to me personally. The dark, dangerous environments of Heart of darkness contrasted by some innocent characters, the monster designs in capcom’s franchise and the storytelling and themes with a cinematic approach to cut scenes found in some of FF9, Xenoblade and Lost odyssey, a lost game stuck in the recess of the xbox 360. There are many more but these spring to mind first and foremost. Narrow himself draws inspiration from games such as Earthbound, the Persona series and FF10!

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *charlottezxz: We started the project in VX ace to begin with, until MV released. It was in Ace that I experimented learning RPG maker and in the early days of MV too. Although before Ressurflection’s time i also dabbled a bit in XP. MV seemed more in line for what we wanted, as i really wanted to try animating beyond SV sheets and do more, with Java being a bit more flexible and the scope of it being able to allow dragon bones later. However it hasn’t been without its hiccups! Part of that is the sheer amount of time you underestimate games and certain elements to take in their development. That and everything that comes with it, streamlining, trimming the fat...in the past week alone i spent days optimizing pictures, sounds and music in the game to cut down the staggering file sizes they were. So far they have retained their form without being as costly on the MB! Since I do the vast majority of the game development myself, everything takes a lot longer to develop. You underestimate all the little things to consider and that you may need later. By the end of development, I hope to have the vast majority of the game consist of custom assets and be able to truly call it something that is ours. Though that path is long ahead we won’t stray too far from it.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *charlottezxz: The game itself has always been a story-driven RPG at its heart, although certain game mechanics have been scaled down or developed further from puzzles to battle flow. As mentioned previously, the story has changed considerably which changed the direction of the overall narrative and gameplay as a whole. Certain characters and scenarios have been culled completely too. At its start the story wasn’t as heartfelt nor was the scope of the story all that big - Oh and the game had a time limit, a bit like Majora’s Mask! But it is a lot more meaningful now and we hope that you will enjoy it when the time comes.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *charlottezxz: It has been just myself and Narrow for the majority of the development but we reached a point where we wanted to reach out to find a musician for our game. We eventually came across Geoff who has done the majority of our music up until recently. However we have had friends help and contribute along the way such as Harry helping sprite some NPCs for me, Bart helping formulate and do some math balancing, Vaijack has also contributed to music making him our second musical boi and more on the way, our preliminary demo testers( it would take a little to list them all) and more peeps i’ll be sure to credit!

What is the best part of developing a game? *charlottezxz: For me it has to be conceptualising all the little ideas we have and bringing them all into being. This is especially so for any monster and character bois! I spend a lot of time visualizing and planning the design of areas, locales and creatures. Would this thing live here? Why would it be this way? If this is a historical town wouldn’t it have x and x? Then when we ultimately put it together, and all the pieces of the puzzle line into place and then you can just...experience, the final thing, that for me is the best part in developing our game for me.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *charlottezxz: I learn best by doing, so more often than not I just dive into things, including the engine blind and tussle around with it. It’s a silly way of doing it, but I've often found myself learning more that way than following tutorials. Although in any game I've played, RPG maker or not, i do like to ponder and deconstruct scenes within them. The Witch's house, Pocket Mirror, Dreaming Mary, Mad fathers and Ib are all wonderful games that are great to learn from, dissect and understand what makes and made them tick. This applies across any game I've played or intend to play! I look at game making as one giant puzzle with lots of intricate little details that need to be solved, it’s more fun and engaging that way!

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *charlottezxz: There’s some characters I like a great deal, but i can’t talk about as it would be spoilers to the plot, that and it’s hard to pick any overall favorites. Charm comes across as a fun character to write for as she’s quite witty and sarcastic, the kind of dialogue that comes a bit too naturally to me. She’s a budding magical prodigy of the circus under the tutelage of Jerine. She bigs herself up a lot but isn’t quite ready to deal with the problems of the adult world just yet, as much as she strives to get into it. Then there’s the likes of Ashley as well, she’s the loudest circus member and a close friend to Zakai, its ringmaster. She’s a super hard working down to earth country girl who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and jump into the thick of things. Honestly I love all the cast, but there’s those two for now!

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *charlottezxz: I would say ideally we should have had all our ducks in a row before we dove into development. My development style is very messy, especially since when we started development we had a lot of learning ahead of us. That combined with focusing on a lot of coursework and real life things meant I often forgot how we made things for consistency. This has improved considerably since i started getting more organised now, keeping lists and things tabbed for reference. My desk has bits of paper kept with it with information I need to retain. I forget far too many things for my own good, but now I'm taking better count measures! I would advise anyone to keep tabs of important information about your game such as consistent sprite style sizes, resolution size, x and y positions of certain things and important variables and switches.

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *charlottezxz: There’s a few ideas bounced about to do side stories for some of the cast of characters in the circus, such as before they became one and the origins of how certain members joined the circus essentially the ‘First Stringers’ and ‘Second stringers’, these being those that joined afterwards. These would be great to do as small little episodes added onto the game post development, but currently they are just ideas and won’t be given too much thought until the game is either done or close to fruition.

What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game? *charlottezxz: My most hopeful thought is for people to enjoy the game and have as much fun and interest in it as myself and Narrow have had in creating it. It’s the kind of game we want to make and hope that the characters and story chime with people enough for people to see the journey through to its end! It’s a big scope of a project but i have endless enthusiasm for it, no matter how long it takes it will get out there at some point!

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *charlottezxz: That the games story and overall feel doesn’t quite hit the right notes, it's always a little back concern. From a technical perspective I would say that the game might have some oversighted bugs or critical crashes that slip under the radar or not run as smoothly on other PCs on release. We will do our best to optimise the game as much as possible for MV and squash those pesky bugs during testing, but it is on our minds often as a niggling fear.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *charlottezxz: Gut everything from the base project that you know you most definitely will not be needing and give all your files smart tags and naming conventions. It would be great if MV allowed for sub folders, but it does not so naming your files smartly is key to finding what you need. Any of these files you know you will use often in certain ways, make them common events and call for those in events and cut scenes. This saves you mass editing them later. With naming conventions this could be Actor_1_Hurt or Chapter_1_NPC. Anything you want at the top of the list name it with _ to begin with. The bigger our project gets, the more important this has become for us and we hope it serves other inspiring devs well all the same.

Question from last month's featured dev @rojisroomrpg: How do you keep yourself happy and healthy when making your game? *charlottezxz: I’m normally a happy-go-lucky person, so I'm rarely not happy when working on Ressurflection. It's the happy little hobby I devote most of my spare time to. However, recently i would say my hands, wrists and neck have been hurting from spending a little too much time drawing assets and pieces for the game. Taking more breaks and spreading that time with other activities in between has helped to ease that pain and i would like to advise any dev to do so for their own health, including always having one or two bottles of juice, water or whatever beverage always at hand to sip at as you dev away!

We mods would like to thank charlottezxz for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Ressurflection if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#ressurflection #gotm #game of the month #rpgmaker #rpg maker #rpg maker games #ressurflection game #gotm 2020 #2020 #february 2020 #february #indie games #games

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freddyfreebat · 5 years

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Jack Dylan Grazer’s interview with HERO Magazine

[In] a far step from his first appearance on stage at six years old, during which he adopted a British accent and warbled out an opera ballad, [Jack Dylan] Grazer is currently gearing up for his role in Luca Guadaginino’s upcoming HBO series, We Are Who We Are, a love story set on an American military base in Italy.

Lindsey Okubo: Let’s start by talking about the on-set chemistry between you, Zach [Levi] and Asher [Angel] in Shazam! It was amazing to watch and I imagine that the influences you have on set play a large role in your life. How has your understanding of yourself been influenced by the roles you’ve played? Jack Dylan Grazer: Oh for sure, I think that if I wasn’t living through the opportunities that I have with acting... Oh my god, I’d be a mess. I would be all over the place [laughs]. This is my outlet. This is my world. I tried doing sports when I was little and it just didn’t work for me and then I started doing theatre and was like, this is my tribe, this is where I belong, this is my niche. To live in these fantasy worlds has been so cool because when I was growing up, I used to dress up as Captain Hook or Batman and do little scenes in the mirror. I just enjoyed living through these characters. Lindsey: You must feel a certain level of freedom as you disassociate from who you are? Jack: Yeah, it’s so liberating. Some people choose to bottle thing up, but for me, being on a stage or in front of the camera is freedom. Being someone else is really just me being me in a weird way, it’s who I am, it’s living out loud, which I’ve been doing my whole life.

Lindsey: Yeah, and growing up nowadays we really do have larger platforms to express ourselves, to live out loud and actually be heard compared to past generations. Jack: It’s definitely easier to speak your truth, be your real self, choose your destiny and not have a pre-orchestrated future. It’s easier to carve your own path because people are more understanding – or more empathetic. Lindsey: Are there ever any moments where you do feel vulnerable in those instances? With acting, you really have to open yourself up and be in tune with your emotions in a way that most people aren’t, it’s your livelihood. Jack: Totally. But when you surpass that wall of being afraid, of being vulnerable, you’ll find there’s comfort there. With acting, you’re also this other character and you get to speak your so-called “truth” through his character who may or may not be similar to you. Lindsey: Right, but how do you then fend off moments of doubt when you’re stretching your understanding of yourself? It’s the thought process of like, I know who I am, but how do I become someone else? Jack: Of course there’s going to be doubt, but when you know that you have the capability then it’s easier. You have to have some kind of empathy for your character and an understanding of why they’re doing what they’re doing. A while ago I watched this interview with actor Steve Railsback, who is this super nice hippie dude, but he played Charles Manson in Helter Skelter (1976). Charles was a sickening human but Steve was like, “I can understand why my character does what he does. I can convince myself of his motives.” That’s a tough thing to do but it’s just that, it’s convincing yourself of your character’s motives instead of holding onto your own. Lindsey: Going back to what you were saying earlier about our generation being able to empathise to a greater extent, I’m wondering how do you differentiate between understanding and empathising? Jack: Empathy is putting yourself in the person’s shoes and comprehending the outcomes, while understanding is like, okay, I get where you’re coming from but I’m not going to fully go there. Lindsey: Do you ever feel suffocated by the fame while still figuring out who you are? Jack: Originally I felt, yeah, kind of suffocated, but what really grounded me was school and the fact that it’s super important to me. I plan on going to college and if I start thinking of school as a necessity, like brushing my teeth, or taking a shower, then it’s not as big of a thing. I do my final take on set and then it’s back to school. I never want to neglect it. Lindsey: That’s funny because I feel like now more than ever, people are questioning the importance of the schooling system – where does school become important for you and what value do you see in it now? Jack: Education in any field informs your art because there are always so many references to draw from, it’s so useful and I myself applying these when it comes to acting or anything creative. Subject-wise, I’m super into English, history and world civ, but it doesn’t need to be drawing from school directly, it can just be life experiences because I like to know a bit about the character and what that kind of person they are. Lindsey: Right, but there’s also something to be said about the people we are learning from. What makes a good teacher to you? Jack: I think it’s important when a teacher focuses on each student individually, instead of teaching students as a whole. It’s important to understand everyone has different learning capabilities, everyone learns at a different pace and has a different process. Lindsey: Taking that a step further and applying it to your own career, you’ve spoken about wanting to direct and write... Jack: Yeah I definitely want to extend into other creative factions – I want to stay in this environment and industry because it’s what I love. The cool thing about my experiences on set is that I’ve always been able to apply my own creative input. Like on It, me and Finn [Wolfhard] were always coming up with stuff. The majority of the dialogue between him and I was improvised and Andy [Muschietti], our director, was super fantastic about that. Lindsey: That’s cool. What do you think is the inherent power of storytelling? Jack: I think it’s the ultimate entertainment. It’s so vast, there are a multitude of conduits that go into telling a story and there are so many ways in which to be a storyteller. I’m equally interested in both telling the story and being a character in the narrative. On set, we’re all building the story as open, it’s a team, an ensemble. That being said, I think the key to being a good director is being flexible and doing away with the formalities, to allow for free reign. Lindsey: And it’s also about having trust in the people that you’re working with. I feel like that can be a difficult thing when so many of us have our walls up – how do you begin to break them down through storytelling? Jack: I’ve worked with actors before where I’ll be in a scene with them and they’ll be trying to flex their jawline to look good for the camera when it’s a serious scene. That’s great, but if you’re there in the body of that character, in that moment he wouldn’t be flexing [laughs]. It’s that self-aware thing where it’s like, “Wow, how good does my jawline look right now?” There are levels to it. For instance on social media, I’m a pretty open book but there are things I won’t share because it’s not other people’s business. I keep it lighthearted, I keep it easy, not because I want to make it seem like the life of Jack Dylan Grazer is all fun and games but it’s like, what’s the point in sharing if that’s not my purpose? I think my current purpose is to entertain and that’s what I want to do. My goal is to be funny, to be moving, to be storyteller. Lindsey: Does entertaining ever get tiresome for you to the point where you feel like you’re always performing instead of just being? Jack: I guess sometimes. But I really do feel at home performing. I remember the first time I ever went on stage to do a play, I was six, doing a British accent, singing opera and I found myself. I was like, I can’t do anything but this, I won’t allow myself to do anything but this. Now I’m here and have realised that I want to stretch myself – and sometimes it does get tiring to entertain. Humour is my number one trait, I like making people laugh – that’s my favourite thing. Lindsey: To what extent is sharing that creativity for yourself? Jack: If you’re a creative person and you’re confident in that, then it’s better to be open about it and express it to people who you feel you can share it with. I’m not saying show it off to the world if you don’t want to, but be proud of yourself and have assurance in yourself. There are always flaws in creativity but it’s all part of the art. It’s different for everybody, but for me, I love showing off what I do. Lindsey: Does it have anything to do with needing validation at the same time or are you past that point? Jack: I don’t know if it’s validation. I guess the simplest way to put it is that I’m just proud of what I do and if someone’s like, “Oh, it’s shitty,” I’m like, “Oh, okay, cool, I don’t care.” Unless it’s intelligent, constructive criticism of course. Lindsey: How do you define personal growth? Jack: You’re never done evolving. It’s pretty hard to detect when you’ve reached your full potential, which is like the blood of everything we do, it’s how we operate. By having dedication, commitment and discipline you’re able to access your ability and that’s my ultimate goal, as a human being and as an artist.

#jack dylan grazer #eddie kaspbrak #it movie #it chapter two #freddy freeman #shazam!

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arcanalogue · 6 years

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Thelem-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Due to strictly enforced gender norms, I wasn’t allowed to be obsessed with the original She-Ra cartoon. I could play with a friend’s sister’s She-Ra toy, but I never dared ask for my own.

That’s partly why Netflix’s remake She-Ra and the Princesses of Power means so much to me. Not only is it a version I can can openly discover and geek out over, but the characters’ wide range of age, gender expression and body type makes the fantasy realm of Etheria into a playground for the imagination -- one makes fans like me feel specifically included, even if it’s mainly aiming to entertain kids.

Any storytelling that draws from mystical currents will end up echoing familiar tropes and ideas from our own world. Attempts to portray existing magickal practices accurately almost always disappoint, as they did in Netflix’s other “princess of power” story, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (which is really entertaining nevertheless).

Isn’t it funny how the stories which offer up a wealth of artistic inspiration for magic often prove more durable than those depicting “real-life” magic use? The more abstract the characters’ powers are, the more possibilities we see in exploring them ourselves, and the more permission we feel to make something truly our own.

In the new She-Ra’s case (and in similar shows, like Steven Universe), magic is married to technology in a way that kids watching today will intrinsically understand, aligning neatly with post-modern chaos magick traditions.

In terms of old-school stuff, the Princesses’ magic is elemental in nature -- an expression of the soul of their homeworld, and a tool for regulating planetary harmony. The show departs from the classical elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, etc., which is fine, because their planet is not our planet, and its properties are still being revealed... to the characters, as well as to us.

But let’s not overlook that the very idea of “Princesses of Power” is old-school, and has a deep footprint in the history of tarot -- particularly the one crafted by the Dark Lord himself, Aleister Crowley.

Before Crowley’s Thoth deck, the tarot’s court cards historically consisted of King, Queen, Knight, and Page -- a total sausage-fest, though Pamela Colman Smith brought out a wonderful androgyny in her illustration of the Pages (and in many of her deck’s other figures), which seems to even out the gender spectrum a bit, and is partly why the deck remains appealing to new users over a century later.

Conceived in the 1930s, Crowley’s court consists of a Knight, a Queen, a Prince, and a Princess. This “modern” twist must have seemed terribly progressive at the time, dethroning the King and elevating the court’s lowest ranking member (a page is just a humble servant of the royal court), consecrating that role as female.

You could write an entire book about the gender problems in Thelema (the religion founded by Crowley, which remains popular today). In fact, that book probably exists already, and contemporary Thelemites are continually exploring and re-examining the way our evolving social and scientific views of gender mesh with their religion’s core beliefs.

For now, all that’s important is that Crowley took a humble servant and elevated her to a PRINCESS OF POWER.

The four roles in the tarot’s court each correspond to a different classical element, the Page/Princess’s being Earth. And each of these four earthy figures is herself an expression of the classical elements: Fire of Earth (Wands), Water of Earth (Cups), Air of Earth (Swords), and Earth of Earth (Pentacles, or in Crowley’s case, Disks).

Exploring these cards in an earlier lesson, I wrote:

“The Page’s defining quality is not sex but immaturity, a word which inspires unnecessarily negative associations. Let’s not forget the raw potential we find in the young and/or untested, or the curiosity and vivacity they may bring to their work. As such, each of the four Pages represents a latent untamed force for change.”

What I love about Lady Frieda Harris’s illustrations in the Thoth deck is that the Princesses are all portrayed as doing something. These images could be pulled from the opening credits of She-Ra.

Think about that: she drew them as superheroes. The 1930s were the period when these kinds of heroes began to proliferate in comics, and Superman himself debuted in 1938 -- the same year Crowley and Harris began working on the Thoth deck.

Like She-Ra’s heroines, our tarot Princesses owe all their strength (as well as their weakness) to their signature elements, though in Crowley’s world there is a clear elemental hierarchy, due to spiritual ideas imparted by Western esotericism. As such, the Princess of Disks (Earth of Earth) sits at the bottom of the totem pole.

This kind of hierarchical thinking (and binary gender) is exactly what drives many people away from traditional forms of magick. I sympathize, and agree that we should never stop challenging these ideas.

However, what really we see in the Thoth deck is a setup for an archetypal story in which the low are made high; in which Princesses serve as the catalyst for changes that transform reality itself.

Just like Ace -- the lowest number in the minor arcana, but a symbol of tremendous power -- the Princess represents a place to build upward and outward from. Though she mirrors the queen in her gender, it’s the King/Knight she reflects in her agency and authority.

“The Princess is the throne of her Ace,” observes Thelemic teacher and author Lon Milo Duquette. In his book The Chicken Qabalah, he writes at length about the importance of Princesses: “They are positioned at the lowest end of our elemental universe, but they also embody the foundation of our universe.”

Awakening and exploring our Princess nature will gradually help us “escape the prison of matter” and “live in the bliss of the highest world.”

He even presents a diagram that shows how you can use the Princess and Ace-through-Ten cards to divide up the globe -- a handy tool for readings involving a geographical component.

In the Netflix show, Adora is offered a very similar view of her world by First-Ones avatar Light Hope, who reveals how the Princesses -- each an expression of their respective element -- are all interconnected as regulators of Etheria’s holistic balance.

Of course, this is just an abstract diagram of Etheria’s actual geography. Entrapta’s model in the same scene shows that these centers of power are just as unevenly dispersed on Etheria as they are on our own planet.

Duquette’s book offers a qabalistic Creation myth based on these feudal archetypes, which may explain why royal figures still play such a prominent role in our storytelling.

“The you that you think is you is not you,” he explains. “It is a dream you. In fact, the you that you think is you is a dreamer inside a dreamer inside a dreamer inside a dreamer. You are the King of the universe, who has fallen asleep and is dreaming he is the Queen, who has fallen asleep and is dreaming she is the Prince, who has fallen asleep and is dreaming he is a sleeping princess.”

In Duquette’s fairytale of Creation, the Prince and Princess are twins birthed by the Queen -- different in sex, but alike in power. HELLO PEOPLE, this is the exact premise of the original She-Ra cartoon.

Within the new show, we see the struggle of a world straining to evolve in two opposing directions.

The Fright Zone is a technocratic military junta which only managed to come into power via political exploitation, capturing the Black Garnet runestone from the family of Scorpia, Etheria’s last “slumbering” princess.

One could compare the Fright Zone’s hierarchy to that of the classic Rider-Waite-Smith court cards, in which Hordak serves as King, Shadow Weaver as Lord, Force Captains are Knights, and all the the various wanna-be’s (including Adora and Catra in the first episode), servants, robots, and various scavengers remain in the Peasant class.

It’s not clear yet how the rest of Etheria is governed. It bucks this traditional structure, resulting in a lumpy sort of meritocracy in which those with the most magical power wield the most influence, but rulers are mainly tasked with maintaining harmony and protecting their subjects against external invasion. There’s evidence of a soldier class, but the “lowest” citizens we encounter are shown existing peacefully in (apparently) self-governing tribal cultures. They don’t serve the Princesses, they simply enjoy the freedom afforded to them by the Princesses’ rule. People live for love, for pleasure, for adventure, and/or the pursuit of intellectual aims.

(The only exception seems to be Entrapta, the Silicon Valley tech-bro stand-in who presides over her own servant class of attendants and robots. And it’s worth mentioning that she’s also the only Princess whose power isn’t anchored to an elemental source.)

In this sense, Etheria is an impressive embodiment of Thoth deck court structure, populated by Queens, industrious “princes” like Bow and SeaHawk, and true Princesses -- “Every man and every woman is a star,” with plenty of room to accommodate those who present neither as fully male or female, those with magical powers and those without.

But if you’ve already read this far, let’s take this one step even further and look at how SHE-RA IS ALSO A KNIGHT.

That’s right, you heard me: everything that Adora symbolizes as Princess, She-Ra articulates as a Knight. She even gets a horse! And a sword, and a shield! Note that Adora hasn’t really changed: she was a Knight in Hordak’s world also. She has simply relocated from one symbolic reality to another -- a more Thelemic one, in which Knights are kings. Thus, as She-Ra, she becomes Hordak’s symbolic equal.

And note that Noelle Stevenson’s re-imagining of the series is entitled “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power,” as opposed to the original title “She-Ra: Princess of Power.” She is of their ilk, but different. As Perfuma might say: “She is the She-Ra.”

Symbolically, Adora contains all the elemental potential of a Princess who must still evolve and struggle to awaken. She-Ra, however, is the elemental Fire that awaits on the other side -- the King who dreams he is a Queen, who dreams she is a Prince, who dreams he is a Princess. We know from Light Hope that She-Ra’s lineage extends thousands of years. She is not a person, she’s a function -- and that function is to protect Etheria by transforming reality.

In other words: Adora’s glorious transformation into She-Ra is a microcosm of Etheria’s transformation, which She-Ra herself was created to oversee.

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In this way, the series bears the greatest resemblance to Alan Moore’s tremendous graphic novel Promethea, which tells the story of an ordinary young woman named Sophie who discovers she’s the latest incarnation of a mythical “science heroine” -- who may or may not have been created to usher in the Apocalypse. And she is guided in this process by other Prometheas, who represent an interesting range of ethnicities, body types, and genders.

Sophie’s exploration of her own newfound identity sends her on an odyssey that matches many beats in Adora’s. What are the limits of her new powers? How can she learn to transform at will? What dangers will this confer on her loved ones? Which parts of her belong to Sophie, and which to Promethea?

These are classic superhero problems, but Sophie’s quest is one that’s specifically designed to transform the reader as well: Moore has crafted a story that also serves as a primer for modern occult traditions, including tarot cards.

While Moore looks beyond Thelema, the works of Aleister Crowley remain a key influence -- the horny old magician even appears as a recurring character, in a handful of cheeky cameo roles.

Like She-Ra, Promethea points to the golden thread of continuity linking the individual and the divine. That’s a birthright that even the humblest, most overlooked person shares with the rest of humanity, but our world’s prevailing powers do everything they can to conceal that truth. Our own senses play tricks on us as well, supporting a view of the world in which we remain small and powerless, in which our lives, our suffering, our deaths, mean nothing.

The artists mentioned in this post -- Smith, Crowley, Duquette, Harris, Moore, Stevenson -- might not agree on everything, but they share the same quest: to awaken all these slumbering princesses. That includes you, dear reader. Wake up, your kingdom needs you!

Our language has another word for this sacred process: animation.

This is why you shouldn’t feel silly enjoying She-Ra or any other fantasy, at any age. This is why little girls shouldn’t be discouraged from play-acting as princesses (and neither should little boys). Society can only stand to improve from humans exploring their Princess powers. Many of these magical abilities will prove to be connected to life-saving (perhaps even civilization-saving) advantages further down the road. Magic is real, and we all stand to benefit from it.

“The clothes you're wearing, the room, the house, the city that you're in. Everything in it started out in the human imagination,” Moore writes in Promethea. “Your lives, your personalities, your whole world. All invented. All made up. All the wars, the romances. The masterpieces and the machines. And there's nothing here but a funny little twist of amino acids, playing a marvelous game of pretend.”

For the honor of Grayskull, it’s time to conduct yourself accordingly.

Have a tarot reading request or tarot-related question for Arcanalogue? Ask here. Tips accepted (but not required) via Venmo, @arcanalogue. Or support my Patreon? I’d love that.

#she ra #she ra netflix #thelema #aleister crowley #tarot #tarot cards #promethea #alan moore #she-ra

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sarahjoneswww · 3 years

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Final Reflection

Understanding Diverse Experiences to be a Transnational Feminist

I decided to dedicate my commonplace book project to transnational feminism. For a little background on myself and why I chose this topic, transnational feminism seemed to continuously connect through each week’s material. We listened and read of women’s experiences from around the world, such as Elif Shafak and violence upon women in Turkey or Dalia Mogahed and how it feels to be Muslim in America . These stories made the topic linger in my head and really cause me to read more into it and what it really means to help women around the world. Regarding feminism in general, before taking global women’s studies I didn’t necessarily label myself as one, of course I have and will always advocate for a women’s fight no matter their background, but this was partially due to a somewhat bad representation that some think being a feminist means. However, learning more about feminism through this classes material just made me realize how foolish it is for me not to call myself one and no one’s idea that may represent feminism as bad should matter to the name. Through everything this class has opened me up to, it has left me with a burning flame to continue to educate myself and others more.

For anyone living in the United states, there tends to be a westernized idea of feminism. This idea overemphasizes gender roles as the main and only factor to women’s oppression. What most people do not realize is that this idea greatly suppresses the differences in the global community of feminism. Understanding the differences are crucial for standing in solidarity with feminist from other countries and backgrounds. How can women be empowering others if we do not even know what they are fighting for? This also means understanding how globalization, colonialism and capitalism has a lasting impact on other countries and need to reconsider advocating and promoting power structures that let that happen. One way of educating oneself on these lasting impacts is by postcolonial study. It’s important to understand historical events that led to how the world is shaped today. Postcolonial study helps us to understand political, economic, socio-cultural and psychological oppression that can still affect women in other countries and their fights in modern times, such as colonization leading to loss of culture, language and heritage. There’s another issue also needs to be conquered if women really do want to help women of other countries. That is that women of third-world countries tend to be grouped as helpless and cannot fight for themselves. These women are nothing less than strong and it’s only doing damage to their fight if they are represented as this. This is because they have to not only fight for the issues they face, but also fight the stereotypical narrative others have about them. So, what does all of this sum up to? A transnational feminist needs to look at issues from a global perspective while also considering how they intersect with our own lived experiences.

I wanted to build my commonplace book project on transnational feminism through not only what it means, but also by including content that show the real-life issues women in other countries face. This not only informs others but helps myself by being educated on what feminism is in other countries, what walls they are trying to tear down and in what ways can one contribute. An issue of Muslim women we took a dive into was what the hijab really means to them. One of the posts I reblogged was a depiction of orientalism which influenced misconceptions of viewing it as a sign of oppression and that Muslim women cannot fight for themselves. This is exactly how western ideology contributes to misrepresenting these women, and if we want to be transnational feminists, we need to step away from the knowledge were told from media and listen to the women who are veiled themselves. Not only can a hijab represent a woman’s devotion to her faith, but also her social status and even more empowering as it contrasts the way commercial industry portrays women. It is important to mention, that yes, some women are forced to cover up and by possible means of violence, but by assuming that all veiled women are oppressed, we depreciate the women who choose to wear veils. Another post that is on my commonplace book page is an animation of a nun and a Muslim women. Both wear coverings and the nun is viewed as just being devoted to god, “but then if a Muslim girl does the same why is she oppressed?”. Why is there a stigma against their veil but not a nun’s? Once again, the only real answer is that westernized feminism ideology is not educated enough to acknowledge the real reasons a Muslim woman wears coverings.

This then leads into another point we learned in class, the issues that surround a single story or narrative that is told. I won’t lie and say I’ve never fallen for a single story as the media contributes to it more than we think. A single story can greatly shape how we view other people’s culture other than our own. For one of our assignments we listen to a TED talk by Chimamanda Adiche, a writer and storyteller from Nigeria. She explains how vulnerable we are to take one story and apply is to everything we know about a culture, especially as children. She herself had written in ways that mirrored what she read, mostly of Americans, as she was not exposed to African writers like herself. She wrote of stereotypical characters from these countries and things she could not personally identify with. As she loved these books, an unintended consequence of only reading and writing these single stories, was that she did not know people like herself could exist in stories. These single stories are not only found in literature, but what we hear from others. Single-stories are all around us and limit our knowledge about other cultures as we are to quick to assume we know everything about it. These single stories often lead us to have negative views about a culture, as most literature starts out with the damage a country has rather than their achievements. She ends her talk with a thought “That when we reject the single story, we realize that there is never a single story about any place”. This is exactly what is necessary to do, not only in the world of feminism but in general. If feminist fail to recognize the many stories that make up a culture or women’s fight, we fail to support them in the first place. Tracking back to Muslim women wearing coverings, I was one that failed to support them because of the single story I had known. In global studies in high school a question came up about hijabs; Should women who are veiled be forced to take if off for security purposes such as at the airport? Well, the story I had known was that in Iran, women are forced to be veiled by law and women were fighting back. So I took that one story of the hijab and applied it to every veiled women, which is wrong. I failed to recognize and be educated on the women veiled to feel empowered or to devote her faith. Taking a step to recognize the fault of accepting a single-story is taking a step towards transnational feminism. If women are wanting to support every other woman, shouldn’t we listen and learn about all of their stories before assuming what they want?

When I look back on what this class has taught me, the biggest take away for me was how to become a better ally, for not only women I have commonalities with but those who come from different cultures than me. It has taught me to be skeptical of that “single-story” construct and if I really want to help I need to listen to the many stories that come from each country. I have also grasped the importance of the art of storytelling is by itself. Not only can storytelling help us understand others, but ourselves too, like how Ijeoma from “Under the Udala Trees” shares her struggles and how she came to be herself, or like femLENS, a group that wants to publicize the everyday events of women near and far through photography. Stories convey the deep history, cultures and values that make us different but unite us at the same time. I learned how one nations choice can lead to the deconstruction of another’s, how historical happenings impact modern day and how that influences what people fight for around the world. These things lead back to the main elements one needs to be a transnational feminism, something more than only worrying about your own struggles and not feeling full until every other woman is full.

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freechoicedreamer · 4 years

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Body and Soul (Ch. 2)

AO3

A side note: a potential plea against the 'canon-compliant' claim - a fundamental premise set out to both stories of this alternate Final Season series - may come from the background seen on the thematic illustration of this chapter. It is a screenshot of the United Realms, as portrayed in one of the final scenes of OUAT series finale. Despite the clear visual evidence, I refuted the idea of all realms being this closely gathered around Storybrooke, seemingly as if they were mere aggregated parts of one single town. I based my assumption on the likelihood that practical production/logistics issues were more prevalent than the need to craft more carefully a setup that would not imply on geopolitical garbage and storytelling nonsense. To be honest, that came with no surprise, even for OUAT typical narrative patterns, well known for not going beyond a superficial and only apparent coherence; after all the series finale condition loosened the need of establishing a minimum continuity level. As a matter of fact, the image appears to be just an iconic concept instead of an accurate representation of a real (and reliable) geographic distribution of the united realms. Actually, it looks - more likely - as a random collage of castles and kingdoms (taken from some OUAT-CGI database) quickly assembled for just one single and short scene. In other words, one may argue that this conclusion is open to interpretation but I may counter argue that the concept all realms physically gathered like all-stuck-together has not been consolidated-by-a-solid-narrative enough to acquire the 'canon' status. In summary, in any feasible configuration, even taking into account the innumerable storytelling possibilities opened by the 'magic' combined with 'mixed fairy tales' formula, the realms should be, at least, a little bit more physically spread, say... throughout the territory of Maine, for instance. That would assure to each kingdom a minimum space to breathe without culturally suffocating their neighborhood neither being suffocated in reverse, thus preserving their original identity. That is the premise I chose to assume, as proposed by the thematic illustration on the previous chapter.

Opening theme

There are people who paint it as the absolute absence of heat; there are those who imagine it as the infinite absence of cold. Neither cold nor heat, neither ice nor fire, there are souls who know it as the absolute absence of love, the pinnacle of hopelessness, the utter void of hatred, the utmost devastation of war, the despair of hunger and thirst, the desolation of loneliness, the consummation of envy, the slavery of the ego, and the corrosion of jealousy. For as far as these souls know, more than the absence of the breath of Life, more than Death itself, Hell is the lack of Significance.

Storybrooke, Sweet-Jones home

Emma and Emm are spending the afternoon together, one more afternoon in a recent row of three afternoons together at Hope's insistent requests, always justified as being “very important, Mommy”. Visiting Luna, Missy, Aunt Em, and the Belly Babies is the recurring excuse. Usually, Emma does not like to fulfill all requests for not spoiling her daughter too much but, given the current exceptional circumstances, she has found it best to give in to the girl’s wishes. And for her it is also nice, she loves talking to her sister. Each day the two realize how deeply bonded, by mysterious ties that transcend any purely familiar connection, they are. And so, here they are, sitting by the kitchen counter for a little snack while Hope runs around the house playing with the two pets. If times were different, Hope would be at Storybrooke’s Kindergarten so that Emma could work half term, but because of the exceptionalism of the moment, she took a leave of her Sheriff duties thus freeing herself to observe– and to protect - her daughter more closely.

“It's amazing how the loft became the exact expression of you and Key, Emm. I never imagined that you two would be able so soon to superimpose your personality on the legacy of who was once known as 'Mary Margaret'. The aggregated details are just a few pieces and touches here and there, such as the paintings on the walls, new curtains, a new rug, other quilt covers on the beds, but all the little details make up a whole that adds to the atmosphere in an incredibly harmonious way, not to mention the musical instruments on the mezzanine - where once was my room, creating a magical atmosphere. Your music is really magic, you know that, don’t you? It lights up the house."

"Thanks, Emma, coming from you the compliment has a special significance to me. While Mary Margaret lived here under a curse that prevented her of being close to her daughter, in a parallel reality, my mother was fulfilling the dream that was denied to yours: the dream of seeing her kid growing up, of being able to raise her daughter together with her Prince Charming. Therefore, it is a deep honor for me to live in this space, you know, it is with reverence that Key and I add such 'little details' to the vintage decor. You see…” she then starts to pointing to the objects, “these nautical-motivated paintings are all Key’s, except that canvas that we both painted ‘magically’ during the Sweet Suite adventure. There are also those oceanic-motivated frames and the big starfish, which is a magic connection with Alice - her and Robyn’s gifts to us, something like our ‘wedding gift’, and those two landscape paintings near the sofa, which are my Henry's gift. Other than that, the curtains, the bedspreads and the rug were manually woven on Hearty Island, one of my hobbies there. Now, about the magic music, I think you and I have it in our heart – and I know that not because I watched your ‘music in the heart’ story through the magic mirror, but because I feel it. Music is as much of your essence as it is of mine. Our stories may have shaped us differently: I may not have developed the warrior side towards being a bad-ass - as you use to say. Nor may you have not developed the domestic docility side, but in essence, our magic has the same origin, our essence has the same substance, our strength will always show itself – on its own style - when necessary."

“I agree with you, I also feel this connection with Music, even though I have not had a formal music education, I feel this force so deeply, like an explosion of feelings. You know, it is really impressive how mysterious this empathy between wish and non-wish versions is. For example, in my turn, I understand and deeply feel the loss of your parents and I know - I feel - that you understand on a deep level the difficulties I had in childhood mainly, to cope with the abandonment of my parents, unaware that through Music in my heart I was always connected to them. This degree of empathy doesn't just happen between us, look at our husbands, or even see how my parents feel connected to you and, I believe, to their deceased wish counterparts. This is an incredible mesh of love and union entwined after an evil wish of Split Regina - it’s really incredible..."

"Yes, it is a Mystery, one more in the Book of Mysteries: Split Regina... Back in Hearty Island, I used to hate her. I’m not very proud of that feeling, but it is the truth, I simply could not accept what she did. But… ironically, it was this wish, driven by dark feelings, that originated, in a distant past spread to the present, the duplication of worlds thus creating the wish and non-wish versions. She changed our lives with only one wish against you – and me. And then, I also hated the Good Queen because of her cruel method to bring your memories back – at least that’s how I used to think based on what I had watched. You know the story, thanks to the gods’ intervention, who kept me in touch with my parents’ souls, I could finally understand, accept, and forgive her. And thanks to all of that, Key and I could find each other, could live on its plenitude our true love. And then… there is also Wish Regina, the Evil Queen I grew up fearing and hearing about, now a reformed sorcerer in charge of the Social Assistance Ministry of the United Realms. Too many turns and plot twists with too many Reginas, don’t you think?” she asks playfully while watching Luna in Hope’s lap, both surrounded by a watchful Missy.

“Too many, I agree. I have had my own dose of struggle to deal with them, that is, rigorously speaking, with the first two of them, but I also have learned to cope, to accept and to forgive them… About their names, Killian told me that Captain Nemo suggested a numbering system to simplify their identification but they are still reluctant to accept that. Particularly, I think this may be a good ID system. Differently from the multiple wish/non-wish people, who come in pairs, in their case there are 3 of them!!" Emma chuckles.

Thoughtfully, Emm caresses her belly, "yeah, coming in pairs..."

“Confirmed then?” Emma asks tenderly.

"Twins, indeed…" Emm nods. “We have to concede this one more credit to our little Pythoness’ account!”

“Yeah…” sighs little Prophetic Priestess’ mother, “get ready for a daily renewed surprise brought by your little products of squared True Love! Wait for squared surprises, in your case!” Emma grins reticently, noting in awe the tiny points of light Hope is creating in the air to entertain Luna and Missy, and then completes her question: “How are you feeling about that? How are you and Key dealing with the idea?”

“I’m feeling truly happy and scared at the same time. You see, it is intense in two extremes: extremely amazing but also really scary given the present uncertain context and then… things are changing so quickly that Killian and I… oh, rephrasing, Key and I, had no option rather than adjust ourselves really fast to the news. Perhaps, if the circumstances were different we would have more time to freak out about the prospect of being parents of twins. But given the scenario, we both went into ‘protecting offspring at any cost’ mode and then we calibrated our momentum in that direction.”

…

As the afternoon falls and the sisters’ conversation continues, Hope and the two pets eventually join them for a snack. Emm mentions that she and Key were positively surprised and became very fond of Dr. Stephen Maturin, not only because of their personal rapport with him but, also, for his patience to explain in details all medical procedures they will follow along the pregnancy. She confesses that, despite having had a good preparation about the modern world, it was not enough to provide all the knowledge related to what she would deal with. In this sense, Dr. Maturin’s empathy is natural since he experienced the same learning stages when he came from the Land of Untold Stories less than 10 years ago. In terms of adaptation, strictly speaking, Dr. Whale's entire medical team has been updating their skills because the 21st century medicine was recently introduced to them with the arrival of those who lived in Hyperion Heights.

…

“Mommy, why Daddy and Uncle Key did not come for a snack with us yet? They are hungry too and I miss them."

"They won't be long, Sweetie, first they had to meet with Grandpa David. They learned that two other kids of Storybrooke also had sad visions that same day you had a sad vision and, as it happened with you, they didn't like it at all."

"Aye, I did not like it, Mommy, too scary... Want to know why?"

“I do, only if you want to talk about it, Honey. If you are okay with that, tell Mommy and Aunt Emm, please, why nobody liked the vision…”

“Because.... it was dark, it had a green river... Hmmn, what more… it had other colored rivers… it had Mommy, Daddy, Hope, Uncle Key, Aunt Emm, Belly Babies, everyone and… all scared… and it had empty bodies and empty souls. Luna and Missy saw everything too, they told me what ‘body and soul’ is; I did not know before, but now I do.”

Exchanging glances with Emma and changing the subject of the conversation, Emm intervenes: "Speaking of emptiness, I'm seeing two empty bowls and one empty glass of juice, so... Who will want more rations with water and more juice with chocolate cake? Raise your hand, who has a hand, and wag the tail, who has a tail!!”

…

In the late afternoon, Killian and Key arrived and joined them at the snack table. Hope asked to bathe in Aunt Emm's tub and is now in the bathroom playing the game of ‘sailing the pirate ship’ while the two couples continue to talk. Emma comments about the girl's revelations and the brothers, in turn, tell them that Storybrooke's other two children also spoke about the world of the dead. Gradually the pieces of a huge puzzle begin to fall into place and some shapes and contours begin to unfold. In this way they already know that there is indeed a threat coming from the Underworld.

Embracing Key, head resting on his shoulders, Emm mutters under her breath: “It would be so good if my parents could talk to us now, as it happened on Hearty Island through the magic mirror...” Turning to Emma and Killian she explains: “even though it has been installed on the mezzanine next to the same musical instruments as before, the mirror never turned into a magic screen again. Maybe it was the case of going upstairs tonight and trying to contact them; I could sit at the piano, meditate, concentrate and then, if I am fortunate to be inspired, play a heart-dictated song… I really wish I could talk to them again, if only the gods gave them permission...”

Elysium, Islands of the Blessed, Wish White-Nolan’s home

Sitting on the lakefront pergola at Wish Charmings' home, Rumple, Belle, W. Snow and W. David silently watch the parade of images reflected by the calm water mirror. As if watching the scene, the whole landscape of the garden - birds, leaves of the trees, flower bushes… everything is quietly still. The only movement comes from the black and white images transmitted by the retinas of Luna and Missy in their dreamy state on Earth.

"Fascinating and disturbing," Rumple breaks the silence to comment. "So .... Every time Luna and Missy sleep on Earth they broadcast images, like journalists reporting to you the latest news?"

"Not always," Snow replies. "In general, they do not communicate at all, that is, if there is no transmission, we infer that there are no problems and we are released to our eternal rest in peace, even though there are times that they dream happy dreams and we can watch our Emma with the other Snow and David, or with her twin sister, their respective husbands, and Hope. Luna and Missy simply love the sweet little girl, a special child indeed, as far as we could observe..." she sighs, turning to the lake, worried with the sequence of projected images showing the scary visions shared by Luna, Missy, Hope and the other seer children.

"I have one question. Well, actually, I have several questions, but I will start with this one," Belle chuckles trying to lighten up their mood before continuing, "exactly, do you know who Luna and Missy are?"

David shrugs before saying, "to such a straightforward question, Belle, an equally straightforward answer: exactly, we don't know. Now, by inference, we know that they are beings of Light most likely sent by the gods to the Heart-shaped Island as a company to our daughter, to look after her. I believe the time will come when we will know the exact answer to your question but until then, the inaccuracies and doubts are many..."

Snapping her fingers, as if remembering useful information, Snow goes on. "We also have a mirror in our living room that has functioned as a magical screen transmitting colorful images from Earth; actually, it used to function as a screen when Emma was in the Heart-shaped Island, it never worked that way since Emma moved to Storybrooke," Snow remembers. "It was through this mirror that we were able to talk to her, you must remember when we told you the story."

"Yeah, we do remember," Belle confirms, "… and now that you mentioned it, you see, there is a mirror in our living room as well, but it has never worked as a window between worlds. So far it has been just a mirror..."

"We should confess something," Rumple interrupts Belle. "It’s about what brought us here. It all started with a philosophical talk about rules of incarnation, a curiosity that led us to wanting to talk to the gods about the subject and that, by its turn, ended up on us missing our son and triggering our memory about the story of your communication with your daughter. We know that it happened thanks to a divine intervention so, because of this sequence or reasoning, we decided to visit you. What happened during our teleportation to your house, on the light of these transmitted images, adds more relevance to the case: Belle felt an inexplicable concern, an intuition about a metaphoric storm getting close to Gideon, which should be enough to increase our initial need to meet the gods. Now, seeing these premonitory images clearly indicating a real threat originating from the Underworld hovering over the Earth – I assure you that the need has just become an urgency."

“Well, what I can tell you is that they found us…” David explains, thoughtfully searching his own words for clues on how they should act in the present situation. “To be precise, the gods found us. Actually, Zeus found us; he came to us and told about an intense outburst, from our Emma, addressed to the Sea gods from the sands of the Island. He said it was a completely justifiable outburst that deeply touched them to the point where he came to meet us in our house and allowed us to talk to her. The rest is history but I have no idea how we could try to contact the gods...”

“There is no need, they have already contacted us…” says a voice coming from the backyard, approaching the group. They all turn to the voice direction and meet a smiling Merlin, accompanied by his loyal Apprentice, Jack.

…

After everyone exchanged greetings, Merlin revealed the reason for his and Jack’s visit. He told them that Jack was meditating in the tower, where they live, when a mirror on the wall began to display the image of a cocoon opening and morphing into a transparent-winged butterfly. Almost in a trance, he called Merlin and they both witnessed the butterfly turning into a woman of extraordinary beauty.

She introduced herself as Psyche, the goddess of the Soul and the wife of Eros, the god of Love, and told them that she was, once, a mortal princess that became immortal because she drank the gods’ nectar of ambrosia. She then explained to Merlin that the origin of his full name, Merlin Ambrosius, dates back to the desert oasis where he was born. The first trees whose fruits came to be known as ambrosia were original from that oasis although, initially, they had no magical property. Only later, when planted in the orchards of Mount Olympus and irrigated with waters of the Holy Fountains, did the fruits acquire special properties, among them to confer immortality on those who drank the nectar produced from them. Psyche then reveals to Merlin that it was this nectar, drank in the Holy Grail, which made him an immortal Wizard. Or rather quasi-immortal, since immortality is not synonymous with invulnerability - and Merlin, better than anyone, knows this Truth.

"And why did you come to me to reveal this story?" Merlin asked.

"Because the Ambrosia trees from the Olympus Orchard are drying up, as well as the waters of the Holy Fountains. Some gods - my husband included, believe that the source of the problem lies in the Underworld Rivers, and we will need the help of the Elysium souls as well as some souls in the Underworld, under the command of Persephone, to locate and neutralize this source. If the problem spreads, everyone may be affected, especially the mortals, on Earth."

…

The visitors are already gone and W. David and W. Snow are now in their living room. Sit in front of the mirror - functioning again as a magic screen, they watch their daughter playing a piano piece she has dedicated to them. The harmonious notes cross the spaces until pulsating in sync with the two monarchs’ ethereal hearts and, although not seen by her, they feel that she feels their presence. Resigning themselves to what they are allowed, the two send to their Emma - and to the two little points of light shining in her womb - the blessings of their eternal love.

“And they say rest in peace for all eternity…” David mutters.

“Yeah,” Snow chuckles, “they never mention the stormy weather in between two lulls.”

“What can we do, Snow? Psyche didn't explain much beyond what she briefly told Merlin. According to him, she only warned that we will be – her words – ‘activated’ when the right time comes. Until then ... what can we do, Snow?"

"We can listen to the music our daughter is dedicating to us, David; we can send our beloved ones all our best energy. We can keep in tune with the other Snow and David. In practice, they are our representatives on Earth and worship our daughter as their own. In addition to looking after our loved ones, we can keep the flame of Hope alight - theirs and ours...”

On Earth, sensing the presence of her parents, Emma raises her head and looks at the mirror. In a flash, she sees their smiling faces mouthing ‘I love you’ while their image dissipates.

Enchanted Countryside, White-Nolan’s home

“Neal!”

From the porch of the ranch headquarters Snow shouts for her son, whom she hasn't seen since early in the morning, at the breakfast table.

Looking around, she sighs. The Charming Farm is the fulfillment of an old dream of David combined with more room for the vibrant energy of a preteen practicing light magic and within easy reach for Snow on her way to work. They were well adapted to the routine of a country life close to an urban life but since David accepted Regina's invitation to the Ministry of Defense the farm has not been so carefully taken care of. Snow would not say it has been neglected; on the contrary, it would not be fair to belittle Anton's good work as a farm administrator, but the lack of David's almost magical touches everywhere - in the stable, in the pastures, in the corral - is remarkable. Exception, of course, for the magic bean plantation, always over zealously cared for by Anton. Although magic beans are no longer needed to open portals between realms, as they are now unified into the same time-space dimension, the delicious feijoada prepared with them by Snow for special occasions, an adaptation of the classic Brazilian feijoada - became famous. In fact, its fame crossed the borders of Storybrooke and for the Summer School closing dinner, in Camelot, in response to everyone's insistent requests, she prepared a cauldron of feijoada that deserved the highest praise. The ceremony just couldn't be as triumphant and joyful as Snow would have liked because of the worrying news that began to come from various parts of the United Realms…

PUFFF!!!!

Lost in thought, Snow jumps in fright at Neal's sudden appearance on the porch, surrounded by a pale blue cloud.

“Did you call, mom?”

“Neal, how many times do I have to ask you not to scare me like this? Yes, I called you, my boy. Although we are discussing in the Ministry about setting up a school recess while dealing with the current crisis, classes have not yet been suspended. Are you ready to go?”

“I do but… look, there comes Dad; he seems in a hurry - as always, recently.”

“Snow! I just got a call from Killian warning that Nemo is about to land on the northeast coast. He reported an anomaly in the Enchanted Sea on the same day as the premonitions. It seems that, with the exception of humans and humanoids, all other inhabitants of the oceans exhibited, during a few hours, a completely chaotic behavior as if in a collective trance, an underwater hysteria that only ended with Poseidon's intervention - neither Triton nor Ursula could contain the sea fauna fury - the seas have been very rough, it seems. If that happened with the creatures of the Ocean, now I’m worried about the inland creatures. I’ll call W. Robin, Merida and Kristoff asking for a report on the Enchanted Forest, the Enchanted Highlands’ and the Enchanted Mountains’ wildlife; maybe it’s the case for increasing the vigilance in these areas to protect the animals.”

“Dad, you are thinking Wish Cruella may be behind all of it, isn’t it?

“Yeah… I'm suspecting she may be behind the erratic behavior of the sea creatures, indeed.”

“Then, Dad, I'm telling you what I am thinking. I think I should work on the protection spell that Gideon taught me so that Wilby won't be left defenseless. And I think we should leave him indoors, is that okay?”

“Agree about protecting Wilby, good idea, son. If you feel safe preparing the magic, go ahead, maybe we should ask Anton to help you in extending the spell to the other animals. Do you think you can manage that? You will be late today for school but it will be worth.”

“Sure Dad, be back in a minute!!” Neal answers already puffing himself into the house to get the ingredients he will need.

“David,” Snow says, “I do not want to increase the overall worry or to generate another panic wave but, is that a case to sanction a general school break?”

“Maybe, but we’ll have to talk to Regina and some ministers first. We will deal with that in Storybrooke, after Neal works in the protection spell, okay?”

…

On their way to Storybrooke, Snow and David talk about what they are working with and what they would love to do. David knows he is much needed in the present crisis but he wishes he could go back to his farm activities, he misses the country life. Snow is happy in her dreamy work, being able to promote a real revolution on Education…. They keep talking and end up commenting on the good partnership the two Killians are developing at Storybrooke’s PD, despite Emma’s temporary license, and that reminds them how the two Emmas are becoming as close as two close sisters. To be quite honest, they have to admit that not only the two Emmas are tightening their emotional bond, they feel that the ‘girls’ are more and more becoming their very dear twin daughters...

“David, because of the fuzz yesterday night caused by Hope’s description of her vision, I forgot to mention that Emm had called me earlier with good news: they are indeed having twins!”

“That’s great news, Honey,” David smiles at his wife and sighs, “at least one really, really good news.”

“Yeah… two more babies for us to love,” Snow completes, looking at the countryside landscape through the car window.

“Mom,” Neal cut them from the back seat, “isn’t that Zelena’s farmhouse entrance? Look, there is a car getting into there!”

“It’s Robyn’s,” David explains, “she and Alice are temporarily living there while deciding where to move for good, to finally settle down – I guess they are tired of being on the roads. They have traveled a lot in the Land without Magic since they got married.”

“Oh, that reminds me of another novelty, Charming. Did you know that Zelena and Chad are our neighbors now, I mean, sort of?” Snow asks.

“Really? How come? What about Chad, doesn’t he have relatives that will want to visit him?” David asks, impersonating his Defense Minister mode.

“Split-Regina didn’t enter into little details, we talked just a bit, while waiting for Neal and Coralline at the school door, but what I know is that Zelena and Chad moved to Portland, Maine, a couple of weeks ago. It seems that he got a transfer to the East Coast in a scheme that appears to be safe, David, no need to worry. Living in Portland will allow Chad’s relatives - as well as the couple’s friends from San Francisco - to visit them without any suspicion. Regina told me that their house is near Storybrooke’s town line, it looks like Zelena has created an amulet for Chad so that he may cross it whenever he needs regardless of whether she is with him, so they both have free access to the United Realms."

“This is so cool…” Neal smiles dreamily, “I would love to have a strategic base for horseback ridings and explorations outside the Realms…”

“You can get your little horse out of the rain for now, young man. As long as the current crisis is not abated, the only strategic base you are allowed to have is our home, next to your parents," David warns him playfully..

Portland, Maine, Zelena and Chad’s new home

“You were right, the view from the room at the tower top is really beautiful, Zelena: a panoramic view of the city and the sea. A view of Paradise, with this blue sky; and I can imagine how incredible it might be during starry nights, I’m sure they will love it!”

“I agree, it’s perfect for them. It’s not a hexagonal room with a balcony, like ours on the floor below, but it has the exact breadth of sight they asked for. It was really fortunate that we found this house in such particular coordinates and with such an architecture that satisfies Robyn's poetic request, and I quote: an architecture that reminds towers but, at the same time, invokes free space, liberation; a tribute not only to Alice's experience of breaking free from her prison in the tower but also my passing ritual of giving up magic in favor of becoming an archer, thus embracing the dream of honoring my father’s memory: a tower symbolizing a springboard for us to fly freely.”

"Poetic… Robyn was quite inspired when specified her dreamy room in our home if we were to buy a house. Listening to this quoted description leave me with no doubt, they will love their towered room. The house is beautiful. To be honest, it’s a bit too much for just the two of us but it’s fitting to be always full of life and visitors. Besides Robyn and Alice, I hope to get more guests occupying our 4 bedroom house,” he turns to Zelena.

"They will come, from the Realms and from the West Coast, I’m sure. I will love to welcome your parents and our friends from San Francisco. This is a fresh start for us, Chad, but it is also continuity. I am happy to be here, near my family and friends from the Realms and, at the same time, to keep the door open for the world we built to ourselves in the Land without Magic."

All of a sudden, interrupting Zelena's words, a feminine voice echoes off the hexagonal tower walls: "the doors of this house are also open to the worlds below and the worlds above, Zelena!"

Petrified by fright, Chad can only move his eyes toward the woman's form materializing before him and his wife. "What the hell!?" he mutters.

"Technically, not necessarily a 'hell', Chad." Smiling, the beautiful woman walks slowly towards the couple and continues, "please, do not be scared, nor fear, I come in peace. Oh! What a bad behavior on my part... I did not knock neither introduce myself. Forgive my bad manners… So, I ask permission to come in. I’m Persephone," she bows extending both hands to them, “nice to meet you”.

“Persephone, as in…. the goddess? I mean, Greek Mythology? Really?” he asks incredulously taking one of her hands.

“Says the Wicked Witch’s husband!” Persephone replies with a small chuckle and immediately corrects herself, “actually, ex-Wicked Witch, nowadays, a respectable sorceress. It’s an honor to finally meet you, Zelena.”

“Yeah, sure, ah… permission granted, I guess, and, thanks… my pleasure too, Persephone.” Zelena and Persephone shake hands. “I’ve wondered so many times about you and your whereabouts, you have no idea. Hades once spoke to me about you. Despite the hardships you couldn't quite solve, he said you were determined and firm…” Zelena returns the compliment and invites her to the living room on the first floor.

…

“You must be curious about my visit," Persephone explains, "it is natural to be so. I'm not planning to go around in circles, because time to lose is something we no longer have, but... I believe it is necessary for me to explain the context of my visit to you. As a start, I think it is important to make it clear that, in the time count, Hades and I broke up for over a thousand years. While in a marital life, our marriage arrangement was described in the literature with reasonable accuracy. I did in fact alternate - and still do - my stay on Earth and Underworld with a periodicity of six months, although the part that associates this alternation with the creation of the seasons has been very romanticized and mythicized. In other words, there are truths and there are myths related to that. Truths refer to the majority of storylines dealing with my relationships in a more personal level, the mythicized part, to the creation of the seasons. You see, I’m not affirming that there is no relation between the cycles of my stay and the seasons; I’m just saying that everything is much more complex and intricate than a metaphoric legend, or myth, describing something that is real but too complex for the rational mind to absorb completely… there are Mysteries and Secrecies that are so named for a reason; for decoding them one needs to combine wisely all sciences, all areas of human knowledge, so to speak...” she smiles reticently.

“But resuming this not so short ‘introduction’, in general Greek myths are about an early world; usually, they explore themes of parental treachery alternating with tales of filial betrayal, love and loyalty - all the essentials of good plot-lines linking birth and cosmic creation. Seen today, they have become ancient stories and part of the ancient mythological worldview. But, believe me, gods and goddesses, existed then and still exist now. We may be known only for the ancient part of our existence, but we are still ‘around’. This way, to contextualize, Demeter is in fact my mother and Zeus, her brother, is, indeed, my father. Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Dionysus, Hermes, and Hephaestus are indeed my brothers and sisters. And Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Hades and Zeus are, indeed, brothers and sisters…”

“The moral code of your family is, indeed, quite different from ours,” Zelena mutters with high dose of sarcasm.

“Indeed,” Persephone agrees, with a wink, “but you must remember that we are talking about early human civilization. I understand that incest is a taboo now, but it was considered ‘normal’ and most prevalent in families of royal lineage to keep the bloodlines ‘clean and pure’. Non-royalty rarely participated in incest. Maybe that is the origin of all the drama in my family, that and our immortality, but, looking cautiously, even in many religions and traditions of nowadays, the myths of creation start with the narrative of incest…”

“You are right, when we really think about we see that most of them do start this way,” Chad concedes.

“Of course they do. The key is to never be too judgmental and keep in mind all historical and cultural context. We are talking about metaphoric stories explaining complex transcendental science. These stories usually use hyperbolic language to exaggerate some colors, or to emphasize some attributes. Take Hades, for instance. He was not as bad as they usually say, at least until the Olympian Crystal incident. As the god of death and the Underworld, he suffered a bit from a bad image. He is often treated like the Greek version of devil, but that’s a bit of a stretch. To start, Hades never chose the Underworld as his domain. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, drew straws to see who would be lord of what realm. Zeus drew the Heavens and the Upper world, Poseidon drew the Seas, and Hades drew the Underworld. As the Underworld rulers go, during the time we were married he was a pretty decent king. When Orpheus descended into the Underworld to retrieve his bride, Hades was moved by his pleas and agreed to let the woman go, on the condition that, when leaving, Orpheus wouldn’t look back. You know, he did, of course, and lost her – but that was not Hade’s fault. Today, when I think about it, I see how Hades started to downgrade into darkness because of that passage, which led him to cut the Ambrosia tree in the Underworld. That used to be the only tree of my garden - in that quadrant - that wasn't dry… But it is important to note that he was not responsible for the condemnation or redemption of souls. Those who died were subject to the judgment of demigods, not Hades. As for me, although he did in fact, tricked me to stay in the Underworld - he kidnapped me - after a deal with my father he became a respectful and good husband. Differently from most gods and goddesses, we were both faithful to each other – and quite possessive, I must confess. There was a time that he fell in love with a nymph and I turned her into a mint plant so that my husband wouldn’t be able to have her as a lover. That is not my most glamorous story, I know, but, as far as a marriage between gods goes, those were good times for us,” she sights reminiscent.

After a pause, while Zelena and Chad exchanged discreet glances but didn’t say a word, Persephone continues. “Anyway, things deteriorated fast between us because of that ancient crystal, shaped like a crude lightning bolt, the Olympian Crystal. Because of an old sibling rivalry, the crystal, which belonged to my father, was stolen by Hades. My father, by his turn, cursed Hades' heart and, since then, Hades changed radically. He could not love, he could not feel. You know the story, Zelena. For us, that's when we parted and he became the cruel, vengeful god without noble feelings. Only you, Zelena, was strong enough – and I admire you for that – to penetrate his petrified heart and break the curse with a true love kiss. You were able to see his remaining good, but even that was not enough to lead him into a redemption path. On the contrary, with his distorted mind he deceived you, he schemed against you and your sister, and he caused suffering and losses. Eventually, he ended up losing his immortality. Not even his soul could be saved and, sadly, disintegrated. The irony is that he ceased to exist because of the illegitimate power he wanted to possess. That was the end of Hades but that was not the end of Evil, and that is the reason of my visit today.”

“Are you implying that you came because you didn’t like me not only killing Hades but also disintegrating his soul and your father’s Crystal? Well, I’m sorry and not sorry at the same time. In my defense, I had no option, he was going to disintegrate my sister in the same way he tried to do with Robin right in front of us. You see, I did love Hades, but not to the point of living with the burden of Regina’s death. At the end of the day, after all struggles, many curses and turns of the world, here I am. I met a man who loves me as much as I love him and we built up a healthy and happy life together. Even Regina, despite not being allowed to live side by side with the love of her life, came out of all that victorious. She was able to save his soul by opening her heart to host his soul; in other words, their love was so strong that they could overcome the soul disintegration power of the Olympian Crystal, did you know that? ” Zelena vents, holding tight to her husband's hand.

“Yes, I did, they were impressively brave. And let’s be clear, I’m not here because of Hades or of what happened to him and the Crystal. As I told you, Hades and I rarely spoke or saw each other for over a thousand year. You see, the Underworld is big enough to ‘accommodate’ its King and its Queen in such a way that I always managed to keep my distance from him, mainly because I didn't approve his evil behavior. Only after his death I went back to where you and your friends have been, that place he called Underbrooke - a section of the Underworld he built to please you. There, I helped Arthur to reorganize the broken kingdom, as Arthur used to call it. Thanks to my intervention, Arthur was able to rescue and to retrieve the essence of some lost souls who had accidentally fallen or been thrown into the Lost Souls river before being judged and without deserving such a sad fate. Actually, to be extremely honest, my coming here is indirectly connected with Hades. Going straight to the point, I came because of Hades’ legacy, the evilness he planted in a land that cannot be called fertile unless the sowing is dry, hard, and… cruel. For Evil, the ground is fertile, and that is what Hades sowed. Unfortunately, it seems, the harvest has just began. In fact, the process started a few months ago, a period of great light and love for people from the United Realms thanks to the harmonious waves of the Sweet Suite. Meanwhile, the counterpart was being unfolded downstairs, so to speak, as reported to me by Arthur, when he noticed the first anomalies in the smoke coming from Tartarus.”

“Anomalies?” Chad, increasingly frightened and uncomfortable, interrupts to ask. “What kind of anomalies do you refer to? Could you be more specific?”

“Of course,” Persephone concedes, “I’ll get there. Continuing, I was talking about Arthur. Although he and I have taken every precaution in our bailouts, some lost souls not supposed to get free and to recover their evil ego managed to escape without our help, probably they were helped by the one who took over the Underbrooke’s City Hall and became a stumbling block in Arthur's path: Cruella Deville. Apparently obsessed with the idea of returning to Earth and taking revenge on Emma Swan, who killed her to save her son's life, after freeing some lost souls Cruella stole from the library of Hades one of the ‘Mysteries & Secrecies’ books accessible only to the gods and a few humans who get permission – in this case, granted by me to Arthur."

Taking a sip of tea, Persephone inhales and exhales deeply before continuing. "Here, a parenthesis is needed, since you and others have already been in the Underworld and may wonder about what I'm about to reveal. Despite having similar buildings, as you must know Storybrooke and Underbrooke do not share exactly the same layout - quite the contrary, actually. Particularly, downstairs, the public library - where Wish Belle, a soul with unfinished business, works - is adjacent to Hades's forbidden sector. Belle isn't allowed to get in there but she has been given permission to borrow some books from there. To read and decipher their ancient texts she uses a magical translator, a gift of mine, an appreciation for her good behavior and impressive achievements as a researcher. Now, closing the parenthesis and going back on track, Arthur and I found out that Cruella not only had stolen Belle's translator but had also broken the magic lock to the forbidden library. We managed to prevent her from stealing all banned books but one of them she hid and, especially with the help of two other souls, Pan, whom she rescued from the river of Lost Souls, and Wish Rumple, she managed to read - and learn - the content of a very specific Mystery & Secrecy tome: ‘How to clone human bodies’.”

“Is that a Mystery, or a Secrecy, really?” Zelena interrupts Persephone with a nervous chuckle. “I mean, not that I don’t believe the seriousness of what you are telling us, but I’ve seen so many wish and non-wished versions of people, or split versions, of whatever that it’s really doubtful this is such a mysterious secret…”

“There's a big difference between what you have seen and what I’m referring to: you have seen body-and-soul alternate versions of people, duplication even triplication of people in a so-called quantum process of magic involving the concept of infinite possibilities. I am referring to cloned bodies, you can think about them as empty bodies, ready to host deceased souls in a process that does not involve reincarnation as we know it. It does not involve a restart, a reset with forgetfulness and detachment of the past life, with the loss of ego for starting all over again aiming at a spiritual evolution. In short, their plan is to clone bodies – your bodies, before killing you so that in a fraction of seconds they will magically switch places with your souls which will force your souls to descend to the Underworld. This way, by taking your place, they will enter your clones. They also plan to clone all gods’ bodies, after drying our source of immortality. The process of this kind of cloning involves a hibernation state of the cloned body until the new soul enters the empty ‘vehicle’.”

“Bloody hell…” Chad interjects.

“You have no idea how bloody this hell is,” Persephone acquiesces. “The anomalies refer, as I said, to a kind of smoke that may change Nature's behavior across all kingdoms - including the Underworld. They precede, as an alarm, the main and final cloning magic, which involves the use of a special fruit cultivated in the Olympus associated with water from a special fountain there. With them we have indications that our enemies are on their way, unfortunately. Although we managed to send Pan, Cruella, Gaston and James Nolan to Tartarus, attempting to avoid the problem, now we think that sending them may have increased the likelihood that it will occur. Wish Rumple hasn’t been judged yet and remains in Underbrooke, Arthur and I will see what we will do with him, but I guess sending him to Tartarus will not be a good idea…”

After a prolonged silence, during which Zelena and Chad processed the huge amount of information, Persephone concludes: “There are some facts that we don’t know yet, for example, it seems that they have a connection on the Upperworld, some sort of help coming from the United Realms, and we really fear that, led by Pan and Cruella’s souls, the condemned souls may be plotting from Tartarus. As I said, there are lots of things we still don’t know but we do know that the situation goes beyond what our power alone can handle. We need you, humans from Earth and souls from Elysium, to help us. There is a major disaster with proportions that I would not like to think about being forged and we need to prevent that. So, there you have it, the reason of this unexpected visit of mine. I came to ask for your help.”

Enchanted Seashore, Wish Regina and Roland’s home

“Roland, where have you been? After my sister Queen announced, this morning, the suspension of classes, I didn't see you anymore; I was starting to worry and thinking about using a location spell... I waited but you took so long that I decided to have lunch first. Now… let's go to the kitchen, my dear, to warm up your food.” Wish Regina tells the 15-year-old as he begins to climb the back porch staircase.

"No need for worry, Gina, I won’t go too far from here, promise. I was in my other room, at the tree house and didn’t hear you calling because I was chatting with Lucy, Neal and Coralline. Neal and Aline are staying at Lucy's house while their parents are in a meeting with the Queen and the others, at the City Hall."

"I see… Well, as you know, I attended this meeting via Web, as well as a few other ministers who did not travel to Storybrooke, but in my case I only needed to be present for 2 hours. We decided that, at the moment, the activities of my Social Assistance Ministry will remain in a standby mode, waiting for more information regarding the mysteries behind the children visions and the ocean ‘turbulence’. By the way, one of the absent ministers, Nemo, warned us that he is about to land near our house and I have, since then, been waiting for the Nautilus, cooking a few dishes, a couple of apple pies… I guess they shouldn't be long. Now, about you: seriously? 6 hours of chat?" she asks playfully. “Thankfully, the power consumption of the equipment developed by Nemo and the Dragon is 100% self-sustainable, otherwise people with magic in all United Realms, working in sync, would not be able to energize all transponders that the young people use!" she quips.

“I see no problem in talking too much. Adults can spend a whole day in conversations and meetings – which is accepted as normal. What about us? This is our world too, what happens now affects our future. The current crisis seems to be so serious that the four of us needed to get together to discuss our positions, nothing that won’t be coordinated with what you will decide, don’t worry. Adults are in charge - and we know that, but we needed to align our claims and we can help. Neal and Coralline have magic, Lucy is a True Believer and I am a champion Archer, not to mention our cunning intelligence! And do not forget: as the senior of the group, I’m kind of their leader!” Roland responds proudly, already devouring a heated lasagna.

“We will see about that, young ‘senior’…" Regina’s reply would be longer but, fortunately for Roland, the conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Nemo, Liam Jr, Wish Brennan and Liam Senior, together with Ursula and W. Ariel, who traveled swimming by the Nautilus' side, “just for the fun of it!”

…

"Like Lieutenants Martin & Harris who, by the way, opted to have lunch and stay nested aboard, those four out there are becoming inseparable couples, if you know what I mean..." Brennan smiles muttering under his breath to be heard only by Liam Senior and Regina, the three sat on the oceanfront balcony. He refers to the couples walking arm in arm along the shore with the excuse of digesting Regina's hearty meal but, in fact, looking for an alone time. That is especially valid - it seems - to Liam Jr and W. Ariel, moving away as if in search of a more private corner.

“You prepared a real feast for us, Regina, everything was delicious,” L. Senior says, between sips of an herbal tea.

“Thanks, Liam. Knowing that six people were coming was an ideal excuse for me to try and forget about the problems. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to prepare anything special, I hope you stay long enough to enjoy something more elaborate. Oh yeah… something that doesn't involve seafood, out of respect for Ursula and W.Ariel. Maybe a cheese soufflé with a good red wine...” she plans dreamily. “You know, cooking for me is a therapy, especially when I'm just like now, really worried. There was a time when I used to vent going to the 'witch's cauldron', instead!!” Regina and L. Senior have a good laugh at that, and she goes on, “but now that my witchcraft times are past, my hobby is cooking, I love to try new recipes, combine new seasonings and condiments ... Sometimes I resent from not having a taste keeper more open to novelties, you know, since Roland is not that much given to spices - especially seafood, I must confess. Well, I love the sea, no wonder I chose to live in front of it taking care, obviously, to find a seaside location close to the Enchanted Forest, which is Roland's natural habitat.”

“Well,” Liam Sr. replies bluntly, “if registration for tasting your cuisine is open, I'll be the first in line to appreciate the Chef's production!”

Rubbing his beard thoughtfully, Brennan interrupts the flirtation to ask about Roland, and Regina goes on to explain how the two eventually got closer, and today share a bond resembling the one between a son and a mother.

…

Approaching the balcony, Ursula, accompanied by Nemo, asks:

"Regina, do you know why we came to your house before going to Storybrooke?"

“No, I don’t. Although I feel much honored by your visit, I must confess that I was curious about it,” Regina replies.

“The reason is simple and complicated at the same time, but I'll try to summarize it,” Ursula explains. “The location of your home is special. In fact, Nemo and I found out that some homes in the United Realms are very specially located. I do not know whether by the architects’ intuition or knowledge of occult sciences, or both, but many houses are located at points of telluric energy chakras and they are very useful as a communication channel for the members of my family. You probably know my family tree from literature – so you might know that I'm the daughter of Poseidon's union with Amphitrite and I'm Triton's sister. You might also know, I imagine, that I have many uncles, aunts, and cousins, including my cousin Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. So… yesterday, Persephone telepathically contacted me to let me know that she was going to visit your half-sister, Zelena, at her new home in Maine. Although it is located outside the borders of the United Realms, Zelena chose a house positioned at one of these energetic crossing points to which I referred, and that opened Persephone's passage to the Earth plane coming from the Underworld. I don't know exactly the subject of their talk, but I do know that my cousin asked me to be at one of these energy points because she needed to talk to me too - with urgency - and the conversation would be lengthy, thus more complicated to sustain, via telepathy, if I were outside of them. In face of that, Nemo and I searched in his maps to locate the nearest point in relation to where we were – in other words, your home was the answer. And this is, my dear friend, the original reason that brought us to your welcoming house. The extra bonus, that is, our great time here and the opportunity to strengthen the emotional ties that bind us, might be a result of one of Cousin Eros’ romps,” Ursula mumbles and Nemo giggles.

“I see, interesting…” Regina replies, pensive. “Well, while Persephone doesn’t contact you, I invite the two of you to join us in our tea time and, then, if possible, I would like to know more about these energy lines and points, that is, if you or Nemo, or both, could teach us about them. If I got the idea roughly right, they may be useful for us to deal with what is coming even though we don’t know yet what it is.”

“I will tell what I can for now,” Nemo addresses the small audience, soon joined by Roland, Liam Jr, and W. Ariel, while Ursula quietly retreats to the living room, “so that Ursula may be free to relax and meditate. Well… let’s start from a scientific fact: there are straight fault lines in the earth’s tectonic plates, to many people known as ley-lines. It’s also scientifically known that through these cracks the magnetic energies released are very powerful. Our ancestors have known about these lines for thousands of years: each culture on the planet has known about them yet with different names. Native Indians of this same region where we are right now, for example, used to call them spirit lines because their electro-magnetic energy helped their Shamans to contact the spirits. The druids called them mystical lines. In Wales, as in eastern countries, they were called dragon lines. For the aboriginal people of Australia these lines were known as dream lines. Throughout history all megalithic structures have been strategically built on top of these so called ley lines. These electro-magnetic lines may be seen as veins that receive energy from the sun, thus connecting and affecting every living thing on this planet. The atoms of our bodies, because they are surrounded by electrons, are connected to the earth’s electro-magnetic fields and our heart, as a battery, may be charged by them. Right now, Ursula is in the living room, meditating on one of these crossing points, or megalithic centers, to elevate her electrical aura, intellect, and connection to her higher self, which will activate her energy centers (or chakras).”

“Wow...” Roland exclaims softly.

“Of course there are dark forces that are knowledgeable of these lines and concentrate effort to manipulate these fields and to control or influence the geo-electrical grid. For this reason the access to this knowledge is not allowed to every mortal and few cultures have it completely mapped - the maps in my possession are a rare treasure, among the few out there with the complete grid involving all alternate and superimposed realms – such as the United Realms, which is superimposed to Maine, the Upper world, the Underworld and the Olympus. Around the world, multiple alternate realms, aligned to multiple cultures and traditions, are superimposed, which explains how Henry Mills, our Author, ended up in a realm with another Rapunzel, another Cinderella – which is made possible due to a magic quantum process of infinite possibilities.”

“I have a question, Sir!” Roland raises his hand.

“Go ahead, young man,” Nemo replies in a benevolent tone.

“How is it possible to converge, to the same time and space, characters and stories, known through literature for hundreds of years, which were, according to their origins, mismatched in time and in space? And how come that they all speak the same language - English, in our case?"

"Wow, I'm positively impressed with the complexity of your question... what's your name again, my boy?"

"Roland, sir."

"Very well. So, Roland, the ley lines - which I usually refer to as Earth’s meridians of energy, in an analogy with the millennial Chinese medicine, allow connections that mix time and space and activate, on those that are transported through them, the necessary adjustment of language skill and, sometimes, cultural adaptation. In other words, they equalize the inner communication channel of the person crossing a portal. This means that you need portals, like those opened by magic beans, like the ones I used to open, for the Nautilus, with kraken blood fuel - thanks to Ursula, this is a method I no longer use - or any other magical means to open portals between realms and dimensions. They translate different temporal and spatial planes to converge into the same plane. Before you ask – yeah, I’m seeing your eyes shining while your mind is processing the information - let me tell you one thing. Time travel in the same realm is far more complicated than that between planes of different realms and often requires dark magic. So, back to the convergence of characters originated from different times in History into a common space-time, you’ve got to remember that they are characters like all of us, right here and right now. We obviously know that these characters and stories are absolutely real – we are real!" Everyone laughs at that, before Nemo resumes, "the fact that we are known in the Land without Magic literature is also explained by the Earth’s meridian theory: during their dreams, writers, supposed to be our creators, travel through the dream lines and visit our original and very much real realms, they get to know real people that they turn into fiction characters, and by doing it the way they do, they frequently translate their dreams into mixed distortions of our real stories, you know the rest. In summary…” he sighs and pauses for a little while, “there you have it. Are you happy with my answer, Roland? "

"Very, Sir, thank you very much," the boy responds with a distant, dreamy look, sailing the waves of imagination fueled by Nemo's response.

Concluding his explanation, Nemo takes another sip of his tea and finally states, “to conclude, the Grid, with capital letter - that is how I call my maps, establishes higher levels of consciousness in a scale of 7 keys, but this is something to talk about in another day. Let’s hope Ursula will help us in understanding what is going on in our present situation and, also, in knowing what we should do to prevent chaos or to fight potential enemies.”

Underworld, Underbrooke

The air is dry, reddened by the pollution caused by a high dose of toxic gas spewing from chimneys spread along the sidewalks. However, for those who inhabit the decaying town, the existence of the permanent anomaly does not affect them yet: they do not properly breathe with lungs; though through their semi-densified souls, molded in the shape of the body they had on earth, runs a viscous liquid which - under the effect of torture, in Hades' time, gushed and bled.

The streets are empty; most of Underbrooke’s inhabitants are gathered in an assembly promoted by Arthur and Persephone, at the City Hall. The subject of the meeting may be or may be not new to everyone except for the two beings walking down Main Street: Wish Belle and Wish Rumple discussing and, in vain, trying to seek an understanding, a convergence of viewpoints.

…

"Rumple, no matter how hard you try to justify it, the fact is that you lied about not acting dominated by your Dark One persona. Dark Ones trick, Dark Ones lie! When Baelfire came back from Neverland, you tricked him and lied to me!"

Tousling his hair with his hands in exasperation, Rumple continues to argue. "Belle, we were a happy family until Regina killed Baelfire and you. We lived years of peace, harmony and love. What difference does a harmless lie make?"

"Harmless? Really? It's the cornerstone of everything that went wrong later, Rumple. It's the first domino, the first lie followed by a string of more lies. It means that all our happiness was grounded in lies. Our harmony was false, and I no longer know if your love was false too. Your love of power has corrupted your noblest feelings, Rumple.”

“How dare you?! Of course I loved you! I love you. Everything I did was because I loved you and Bael more than anything!” Rumple cuts her.

“Rumple, you know that I've always been able to see beyond the Beast, to see your primary light source despite your Dark One persona. The fact that you can't understand a truth as basic as this: our happiness was built on a lie, makes me wonder. It makes me think that you continue, even after you are dead, trying to delude yourself and, as a byproduct, to fool me too!"

"I lost everything Belle, I lost you, I lost my son, differently from the other Rumple I was left with nothing. My only option was to give up. I know I am worse now than I was when you died but ... I had no choice but to surrender to darkness. I lost Hope."

"Don't you see the pattern? Everything and everyone to blame but you! You're victimizing yourself again and we're going around in circles. I know it got harder for you after Bael and I died. But it was hard for me too! After dying we arrived here but he quickly moved on to the Islands of the Blessed. Meanwhile, with this hellish unresolved business called Rumplestiltskin, I've been here for almost 12 years now, always in a library, reading, studying the human psyche, and waiting for my unresolved, unfinished business to come in. Then you arrived, a soul completely darkened but … still, I still hoped, I still do, Rumple. I have not given up on you or on us. I wait because I'm your Hope. Can't you see, Rumple? You haven't lost Hope."

“Nah… you are the one not seeing, Belle. I know that I had lied to you and to Bael but I had good reasons. I did that so that I would be able to trick Regina and Hook by making them believe that she would cast the dark curse and he would follow me in a world where I would be vulnerable. I made them believe that I needed to go the Land without Magic to find my son when, in reality, I had already found him and we were secretly living in peace. All I wanted was Hook to cross the realms and be trapped there, staying there for the rest of his life. And why should I care in betraying Regina? She was Evil, she was a villain. So, I plotted with the fairies to capture her and to steal her magic – in one way or another, the result would be positive: the Enchanted Forest would get rid of two villains. What happened was not exactly what I envisioned, but it worked well, for a while at least. Hook moved to the other Enchanted Forest, to raise his daughter, and we neutralized the Evil Queen’s power - all realms benefited from that. I was convinced, and still am, that the end justifies the means - and the end was noble: to live in peace with you and my son, being a family of nobles with noble attitudes: charitable, generous, fair … Bael became a knight and married a Princess! We lived a happy life, we did!”

“Until we did not,” Belle sighs, and continues, “I don’t know what else I could do or say to make you see, Rumple. I don't know how far you still have in your soul traces of the connection with the Dark Ones lineage, or if it's all just you. I do not know how far you have not understood that lying is like non-consensual, abusive, sex; it is the absence of resonance, of transparency, of respect. There is no nobility where there is a lie. Nobility is, above all, a state of honesty, of sincerity. I’m not saying you did no good to a lot of people, I’m saying you did no good to yourself, mainly. Once I read a text, written by a man called Carl Gustav Jung, in his ‘Memories, Dreams and Reflections’, stating something like: You may feed the hungry, you may forgive an insult, and you may love your enemy…these are undoubtedly great virtues… But what if you should discover that the poorest of beggar and the most impudent of offenders are all within you, and that you stand in need of your own kindness; that you are the enemy who must be loved? What then?”

“Are you implying that I should love myself? Well, dearie, that would be the opposite of what you have always said when you accused me of being selfish, don’t you think?”

“Absolutely not, these are two different things and there you are again, trying to locate a loophole in my reasoning. I’m saying that you are your own enemy. Don’t trick me with your word playing, Rumple. You know what I meant. We are both too old and too dead for this kind of game.”

“One more reason for us to go back to Earth, to inhabit healthier and younger bodies, Belle...”

“Please, Rumple, not this nonsense again. I asked Arthur to come for a walk because he knows how and why I know the news he and Persephone are, right now, communicating to everyone and trying to find out who else, besides you, is behind the plan. He knows I’m aware of you being behind the sad news…”

“I still don’t see the sad aspect of it. You are neglecting a unique opportunity to keep your memories as Belle intact and be given the experience of a new life without repeating the same mistakes of the previous life. Look at my dark soul, I could evolve towards the light, don’t you see? I would be able to learn what still needs to be taught to me. Just imagine, you and I together, no dark magic this time, no magic at all, no tricks, and no lies: a new beginning – a reincarnation without forgetfulness. The prospect is fabulous: a new life in young bodies ready to express physically the pleasures of loving and being loved. Would you do that, Belle? For us, would you build with me a new life? Would you go back with me, if you knew that the cloning plan would work as it is supposed to work?”

Sighing, despite not breathing, just out of habit, Belle responds. “I love you, Rumple, I honestly do, I know – I sense – that underneath your darkness there are resilient seeds of goodness. But I could never go ahead with you in this craziness. And … you know what? I’m so tired; I need to evolve, I need to rest in peace.” Slowly, head down, Belle walks away from him, leaving Rumple completely alone.

…

"Fate behaves irrationally, and the energy of life inconveniently demands a gradient agreeable to itself; otherwise it simple gets dammed up and turns destructive. It regresses to former situations. […] Psychic energy is a very fastidious thing which insists on fulfillment of its own conditions. However much energy may be present, we cannot make it serviceable until we have succeeded in finding the right gradient. […] Life can flow forward only along the path of the gradient. But there is no energy unless there is a tension of opposites; hence it is necessary to discover the opposite to the attitude of the conscious mind. It is interesting to see how this compensation by opposites also plays its part in the historical theories of neurosis. Freud’s theory espoused Eros; Adler’s the will to power. Logically, the opposite of love is hate, and of Eros, Phobos (fear): but psychologically it is the will to power. Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other: the man who adopts the standpoint of Eros finds his compensatory opposite in the will to power, and that of the man who puts the accent on power is Eros. Seen from the one-sided point of view of the conscious attitude, the shadow is an inferior component of the personality and is consequently repressed through intensive resistance. […] The conscious mind is on top, the shadow underneath, and just as high always longs for low and hot for cold, so all consciousness, perhaps without being aware of it, seeks its unconscious opposite, lacking which it is doomed to stagnation, congestion, and ossification. Life is born only of the spark of opposites…" (Carl G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology)

#Body and Soul #Ch 3

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3dsrendercom · 4 years

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Lisbon's MAAT museum premieres documentary about SO-IL's temporary work with VDF

In this exclusive movie premiere screened as part of VDF's collaboration with MAAT, Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu of SO-IL explain 12 temporary architecture projects that feature in an exhibition at the Lisbon museum. Made by Corinne van der Borch and Tom Piper, the video explores each project through movie footage, models and renderings plus interviews with SO-IL co-founders Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu. It also features interviews with the Brookly-based architects' clients and collaborators.

The video features interviews with SO-IL co-founders Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu The projects were due to feature in an exhibition called Currents – Temporary Architectures by SO-IL, which was scheduled to open at Lisbon's Museum of Architecture, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) on 27 March. However, both exhibition and SO-IL's temporary Beeline installation remain shuttered until further notice due to coronavirus, so MAAT executive director Beatrice Leanza has instead teamed up with VDF for a virtual launch. SO-IL's collaboration with MAAT was created with the support of Portuguese cultural organisation Artworks. Currents exhibition features 12 temporary projects Poledance, the first project featured in the movie, was an outdoor interactive environment constructed at MoMA PS1 in New York City in 2010. The video features an interview with Barry Bergdoll, was Philip Johnson chief curator of architecture and design, MoMA from 2007 to 2013. Blueprint, the second project, involved shrink wrapping the facade of New York's Storefront for Art and Architecture in 2015. Eva Franch i Gilabert, director of Storefront from 2010 to 2018, explains the commission.

The video explains 12 of SO-IL's temporary architecture projects including Into the Hedge Next comes Pollination in Chengdu, China, 2011, followed by Transhistoria, a project for New York's Guggenheim Museum that took place at Jackson Heights in Queens, NYC in 2012. David van der Leer, director of the architecture and urban studies programme at the Guggenheim Museum from 2008 to 2013, explains the project. Video features interviews with curators and clients Matthew Slotover, co-founder of art fair Frieze, explains SO-IL's design of the snaking tent built for Frieze New York in 2012 and 2013, while Mark Lee, curator of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, talks about the Passage installation created for the biennale. Lee also discusses L'Air Pour L'Air, SO-IL's performance piece for the 2017 edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The final three projects featured are Tricolonnade in Shenzhen, China in 2011, the Breathe installation for MINI Living in Milan in 2017, and Into the Hedge, a 2019 installation at Eero Saarinen's 1957 Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. Anne Surak, artistic director at Exhibit Columbus, discusses this last project. Below is the transcript of the video: Florian Idenburg: The idea of time obviously is really important. And designing time into the project is really important as well, because it doesn't mean that the project is done at the date it opens. There's no necessarily beginning or end. Jing Liu: All architecture is temporary. It should remain and it would always remain open-ended. That is something we always try to remind ourselves in the design process.

The studio's Poledance installation is explained in the video. Photo is by Iwan Baan Mark Lee: I always think SO-IL's work had that type of aura, this invisible envelope that projects out and sometimes this envelope was not that invisible. You know, like in the Korean gallery , like in the temporary installations, it's always an aura. I'm very interested in this part of the aura of their work. Florian Idenburg: Why we are working on temporary projects is that it allows us to very quickly respond also to new ideas and things we're curious about. Architecture can be a very slow profession. And sometimes, you know, the thoughts that you had at the beginning, you know, when the project is realized, you're already somewhere else with your thinking. The nice thing of the temporary works is, you know, very quickly, you can be sort of in dialogue with the contemporary world. Poledance, New York, USA, 2010 Florian Idenburg: After the financial crisis, the economy collapsed, the environment collapsed. And so for us, it was really interesting to think of the idea of modernity through this system of the structural grid, in a way when it is weak, when it can always collapse, and one in which the visitor or the audience or the user is actually responsible for its stability. Barry Bergdoll: We got a gridded field of unstable rods connected to a net above as though somebody had decomposed a volleyball net from a beach in Queens. It was almost a renewal in our faith in the program. Everyone was flabbergasted this was something that we hadn't seen yet, in the 10 year history of the competition. Jing Liu: The American champions of pole dancing has called us and said, they want to do a performance in the space. It was the perfect collaboration, the space that was performative and the people occupying it was performative. Florian Idenburg: That idea of a design process in which we are open to collaborations and partners and input from outside: that was, I think, one of the most formative, you know, aspects of that project. Barry Bergdoll: Those themes in Poledance have found their way into designs for museums that are proposed and built around the world. So there's a very direct relationship between the experimental temporary installation and an emerging design practice establishing the themes of what they think are important in architecture. Blueprint, New York, USA, 2015 Eva Franch i Gilabert: What SO-IL did with Florian and Jin did was to transform this space into, into almost like a pause, to make us reflect and think about issues of shape and form, but also security and insecurity, issues of permeability and access. Florian Idenburg: We really love the idea of the Storefront being open. So we thought, how can we keep the Storefront open in the middle of the winter? We thought, what if we winterize the storefront? Eva Franch i Gilabert: It was shrinkwrap for boats. Jing Liu: Typically, when you shrink-wrap and the object that's inactive, it becomes this very static thing that's just sitting there. But then when you shrink-wrap a building where people are in there and then there is the conversations happening and the lights are spinning out of it, then it's a completely different reading of that object.

For its Blueprint project SO-IL wrapped white plastic around New York's Storefront gallery. Photo is by Iwan Baan Florian Idenburg: This idea of agitating the audience and sort of rubbing up to the public sphere, also here to the public rubbed back because the next day the whole thing was sprayed over by graffiti. Eva Franch i Gilabert: "Vandalized" would be a term that some people would use. "Occupied" could be another word. "Animated". "Enacted". And what I think is very interesting about their work is that the forms and even the shapes that they actually produce are not always immediately legible. They produce a moment of uncanniness: you don't know exactly what it is. And I think it is in that moment of non-recognition in which there is kind of latent potency, of actually things becoming something else. It is in the making of otherness that I think we can identify and produce new spaces of action. So from a very specific space, that is the one of aesthetics, I think, as architects, they're able to produce spaces that also make us think and reflect about what the city can be, and what architecture can be. Pollination, Chengdu, China, 2011 Jing Liu: Chengdu at that moment, was the fastest-growing urban site in China, and our installation was an attempt to address some of the consequences of a very fast-growing, urbanizing environment. Florian Idenburg: And Chengdu is known as the Garden City. Jing Liu: The famous Garden City that's been paved by concrete. We've invited the visitors to rent the bicycle and each bicycle will have seed bombs. This actually allowed many of the seed bombs to go into sites that are forbidden to the general public. Florian Idenburg: After they dropped these bombs, they could geotag them and write a little note and it would show up on a map.

SO-IL designed the temporary home for the 2012 Frieze Art Fair in New York Jing Liu: It was important that the garden was forming in the imagination through this digital mirroring of the action itself. We are always interested in dematerializing and understanding time as a material to work with in our architecture. Florian Idenburg: Specifically with this project. It's more about sort of the way in which you organize people in the city and have them participate in an experience. So how to create a way to escape the city while being in the city. We thought through storytelling we could create this isolation and we could sort of, you know, take you out of the loudness of the city into this other space. Jing Liu: Every immigrant that comes with also the memory of the spaces they grew up in, the space that they passed through getting here, and that they also perceive of space in different ways. Transhistoria, New York, USA, 2012 Florian Idenburg: Jackson Heights is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in New York, I forgot... 120... Jing Liu: 173 languages spoken. Florian Idenburg: So that's where also the title of Transhistoria comes from. It's like this idea of going through a transitionary moment in one's life and finding home. David van der Leer: You would believe listening to these very intimate stories on these wonderful installations designed by SO-IL sitting in these very random spaces in Jackson Heights: somebody's apartment, a front yard for a church. And the experience of going through that as a visitor, I think must have been rather amazing. Florian Idenburg: It was a very emotional project. And it was only there for two, I think, weekends or three weekends, and then it was gone. Jing Liu: It was a really interesting and important platform for us to explore this concept of the space not only in what you can see, but also the invisible space. Frieze Art Fair, New York City, USA, 2012 Jing Liu: How do we make a forgotten space in Manhattan to come into the public imagination with something that's very mundane and very ordinary? Matthew Slotover: They asked us: can the tent curve? And, initially, we said no, this is what it is. And they said, well, let's ask the contractor. So we asked the contractor and they said: well, we could do that. So we have a tent that curves. It means you don't see the whole length at once, which makes it much less intimidating to visit. Looking straight forward, you don't see just the corridor, you see art. There are points where it curves and your eyeline hits an artwork. So it's a great end-of-corridor kind of moment, to see a picture. Jing Liu: It is possible to create something extraordinary out of something that's incredibly ordinary. And that's the most enjoyable part of architectural design for us. Matthew Slotover: It must be one of the lowest costs per square metre of anything that they've done because it's 20,000 square meters at a very small budget and it's only on for five days. So it's probably the shortest period and the largest thing. Passage, Chicago, USA, 2015 Mark Lee: The space that's always used for transition, no one will even pay attention to that space, they did this big cathedral-like structure that makes people want to stay and ponder. And for them to do that installation and ingratiate it and slow people down as they walked through, make them aware, you know, of what was not there. And even for people that have been working there for decades. You know, just to stop and understand. I think that this is what architecture does best. Florian Idenburg: We hoped that people passing over this ramp actually started to really become aware of their own body and moving through space; just contemplate that bodily movement.

SO-IL created Passage at the Chicago Biennial headquarters Mark Lee: Where the passage was meant to be temporary, the fastening of the materials was quite easy. But the staging, you know, putting up the scaffolding in mid air was not easy. So, as a result, the dismantling of a project would be incredibly expensive. You know, it's almost like building the structure itself. So by default, it was grandfathered into a permanent piece. I think that's the brilliance of how they plan ahead. In Bloom, Amsterdam, NL, 2010 Florian Idenburg: In Bloom was a project that was so temporary that it never even happened. We were asked by Ben Kinmont, an artist, to work on an installation together. And he is very interested in bringing people together also through events and ceremonies and rites. Jing Liu: It was an object but at the same time is also a situation. So the architecture was a facilitator for an event and a relationship to happen. But it also had a form to it that was very recognizable and it became the symbol of that event, which is also what architecture can do very well. it solidifies and gives importance to often things that are transient and forgotten and invisible, and it makes those things visible. Spiky, Beijing, China, 2013 Jing Liu: What's interesting about the canopy as an obsession for us is that we feel that in architecture we tend to ask very complex and complicated questions and not enough of the simple questions. For example, what it means to be under something. The question of the primitive hut: what it means to create an environment that was human and how do we re-examine that question of inhabiting, not just nature in such a direct way, but in a mediated way and make something that's easily deployable. And also it's about working with the light in this very transient way. Florian Idenburg: And the creation of a canopy certainly also affects a lot of our other thinking, I think the space right above us, the relationship between us and say, the heavens and how to filter that layer is something that you know, you see in projects like UC Davis , or in our proposal for the Adelaide Contemporary or in some of these other more permanent institutional spaces. L'Air Pour L'Air, Chicago, USA, 2017 Mark Lee: We invited SO-IL to collaborate together with the artist Ana Prvački. Florian Idenburg: Probably the most intimate space in a way is literally the space one needs to be; just around you. So is it a piece of cloth? Is it a tent? Is it a shelter? What is it? It's like right on the edge of architecture, Mark Lee: It's a performance piece, you know, so it has a really temporary setting and it's both a sound performance as well as an environmental performance. Talk about the air filter, which these structures are made out of, and how this breathing of these wind instruments you know, kind of facilitate the symbolic idea of the exchange of air between the plants and the human inhabitants.

SO-IL designed air-filtering costumes for a musical performance at the Chicago Biennial. Photo is by Iwan Baan Florian Idenburg: We worked together with a composer, Veronika Krausas. She wrote a piece which is performed by instruments that need air in order to produce music. Mark Lee: You know, you go there you have a certain quietness of observation and studying the plants and suddenly there'll be these trombones and trumpet players, you know, and then maybe those who don't understand the environmental story behind it, but I think the performance became a window for the general public to understand the deeper message. Tricolonnade, Shenzhen, China, 2011 Florian Idenburg: We are part of a continuous flow of architectural culture. Jing Liu: By replicating and mirroring that one surface, that entire environment becomes this marble forest and this endless marbleized space that you walk into. Although it's only created by something that's very two dimensional and very thin. Florian Idenburg: You see people enter and you don't know where they exit. It's a quite simple installation but I think spatially really rich. It does sort of riff on this traditional idea of the colonnade. Once you get into the space some people call it like digital space; it's almost like an infinity. And I think that relationship between something that's maybe, from the outside, typologically very historical, but as soon as you enter, you're sort of in a spatial dimension that maybe is a completely new type of experience. Breathe, Milan, Italy, 2017 Jing Liu: In order to consume, we're producing a lot of things, but actually living can be very minimal. We were interested in doing more with less. And this situation that we created that we were imagining would be quite a dense living situation with very minimal material means to achieve that.

Breathe is a a translucent prefab home in Milan Florian Idenburg: To think about a new type of living, basically a MINI Living, so small footprint, more mobile, more flexible and more in relation to the environment. So it's a concept home but it asks basically can a home also be part of creating a healthy environment. I think what's also nice about this project is that it ties into some of our other projects that deal with wrapping and skins; it creates a completely new object. It's a new way of living and it also looks like a new way of living. Into the Hedge, Columbus, USA, 2019 Jing Liu: Into the Hedge is re-examining some of the modernist ideas with a fresh eye. What if we make our project about purchasing and replanting the hedge that needs to be replaced in the Miller House? Anne Surak: In this moment in history, we had this opportunity to see these trees as individual elements and to come into contact with them not as a border and a boundary but as a place that you can walk into and engage with. Florian Idenburg: The installation in some way works with the landscape and the interior elements of the house and brings them into a new public experience. Anne Surak: It was sort of the best of both worlds. It was a temporary project that was engaging to the community. And then it also went to good use and purpose within the community afterwards. And so people could understand in a tangible way, the way that things could transform over time. And that the temporary can also have permanent influence. The whole project is really a progressive preservation effort. We want to build a community of people that cares about and understands the cultural heritage and legacy of Columbus. So when the time comes, people understand why we need to care for these things. Jing Liu: And so understanding architecture not as the end of things, but as just a momentary coming together, of ideas, of materials and also pregnant with new possibilities as a different understanding of architecture. Mark Lee: I think in the past people thought about temporary structures as an intermediate step to the permanent building. And I think in many ways, a lot of architects – I would consider SO-IL one of them – they see the temporary pieces as sometimes the final piece itself, you know. It's there for a short period of time, but it activated the life that we need it to. Eva Franch i Gilabert: Sometimes we forget for whom it is that we are actually building, experimenting, testing the ground. And I think it's important that we reflect and really start somehow being a bit more aware about agency and about the politics of those aesthetics. In fact, I think this show is not only about temporary architecture; it's about how does one push the agenda and how does one take some risks and what can that afford us. The post Lisbon's MAAT museum premieres documentary about SO-IL's temporary work with VDF appeared first on Dezeen. Source link Read the full article

#architects #italy #nature #style #interiordesign #picoftheday

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tipsycad147 · 5 years

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Samhain, The Witches New Year

Leandra Witchwood

Samhain

Thy soul shall find itself alone

‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tombstone;

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness — for then

The spirits of the dead, who stood

In life before thee, are again

In death around thee, and their will

Shall overshadow thee; be still.

An excerpt from Spirits of the Dead

Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 – 1849

Time of the year/Date: October 31 – November 1

What is Samhain? It’s only my favorite festival!

If you are a Witch, you feel it; we are well into what is called The Season of the Witch. Many of us feel something that can’t be described. Mysteries are present, doors open, Magick is easy to manifest, and we feel things more deeply than we might at other points in the seasonal calendar. Like the trees bursting with color, we too seem to be emanating and receiving an abundance of energy. Perhaps this energy is present to help us through the long dark winter, or maybe it is because the veils are thin. Perhaps it is a little of both. Undoubtedly, the wheel of the year has once again turned, and we are where we need to be.

Samhain (usually pronounced Saa-wn, Sa-ween, or Sa-ven) is the Gaelic festival honouring the darker half of the year when the harvests are complete or at their very end. It takes place at sunset on October 31 through sunset on November 1. It is time to honour and remember our ancestors, departed loved ones, and recognise the thinning spiritual veils. It is also a time to prepare for and acknowledge our own spiritual, needs, renewal, and introspection.

Cultures (modern and ancient) all over the world have their own similar celebrations to honour the dead. Many observances seem to take place around the same time of the year and are known by many other names. Some common names are The Witches’ New Year, Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Feast of the Dead, Day of the Dead/Dia De Los Muertos (in Mexico), etc. I am sure you can name much more on your own.

Some festivals are dark and mysterious, while others are bright and cheerful. One great example of a lively celebration is Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico. There are parades, colourful paper flowers, elaborately decorated sugar skulls, candy, and more. An excellent example of the darker side of this festival could be taken from here in the USA. It is common to find attractions featuring gory scenarios staged in corn mazes and or modified buildings.

It is easy to see why Samhain or Halloween could instil fear and reluctance in most. In our conventional society, we are taught to fear death, fear the dark aspects of humanity, and fear the unknown. Samhain teaches us to recognise then and asks us to face these fears. Conventionally to compensate for our concerns we exploit them, making them larger than life. other tend to hide from them and pretend they do not exist.

When practising a spiritual path, the balance of light and dark is essential. To many, this is an uncomfortable road to venture. We must accept our own mortality along with the mortality of those we love. When the wheel turns to Samhain, we are reminded that all good things must end, which leaves many feeling scared and empty.

Although many would portray this holiday evil and mischievous, I have to disagree. In my experience, I have come to understand that the darkness of this festival is necessary and helps bring spiritual balance. Without death, rot, and darkness, rebirth cannot happen. After all, a flower will not germinate without adequate nutrition. Many of the things we might consider foul and disgusting are the very ingredients that provide nourishment for cherished spring flowers. I am speaking literally and figuratively, of course. As a Modern Traditional Witches, we have been passed down a long tradition of walking straight into the darkness as we allow the silence of these dark places to teach us. It is in this capacity, we realise that the darkness is the sacred mother’s womb from which we will emerge, renewed and rejuvenated come springtime. That is if we stay the course and learn the lessons at hand.

The Season of the Witch is when we prepare for this gestation and rebirth. As Samhain marks another turn of the seasonal wheel, we realise and honour death, darkness, and the unknown. This is a time of cleansing and remembering. It is a time for knowing our roots. It is also about having fun, maintaining relationships, and preparing for winter. In the spiritual sense of Witchcraft, winter is our time of gestation. Winter is the womb of the mother, where we regenerate and renew ourselves. This means we often are beaconed to let go of something that doe snot serve our progress. Maybe this thing is a bad habit, attitude, or relationship. That is for you and your guides to decide.

As we follow the laws of nature and the examples nature provides, we can see that the Earth is preparing for sleep and rebirth will come in the spring with new leaves and flowers. If we are in tune with our Mother we will see how she is easing herself into rest, which for us can be symbolic. This is a time for preparation as we look within to discover our truest potential and plan for the coming year. I follow this model. This is an opportunity to take time yourself. Shed the burdens you feel weighing your shoulders. Fill yourself with merriment and sorrow, experience all there is for this season. Meditate, reflect, and find the areas in your life and spiritual path that need work and prepare to work on them. As we ease into the darkness of winter, we realise we have time to mend ourselves, as long as we grant ourselves the space and attention we deserve.

Samhain is the counterbalance of Beltane when the trees display their brilliant colours of orange, red, brown, and gold – rather than pale green leaves and flowers. Both festivals are seen as times of liminality, a time when the veils between the living world and spirit/Fae worlds are at their thinnest. It is during this time when spirits, fairies, and other-worldly creatures can effortlessly pass through. Some traditions include covering mirrors to prevent spirits from becoming trapped in this world. This is an important concept as many people find it fun or entertaining to call upon spirits using various devices like Ouiji boards. A rule I teach and respect is this, Do NOT summon what you cannot banish. If you insist on calling spirits into this realm it is important to know what you are doing and exactly who or what you are dealing with.

The tradition of carving pumpkins into lanterns, speaks directly to the belief that spirits and fae pass through the thinning veils. This belief has brought us the Jack ‘O Lantern. Originally apples, gourds, turnips, and other bulbous root vegetables were carved. Today we use large pumpkin which proves to be easier to carve and tasty to eat. The faces carved into root vegetable and gourds were thought to distract vengeful spirits from entering your home when the lanterns were placed on your doorstep or porch or carried with you in the night. There is also a traditional belief that when you carve lanterns you are also calling home your ancestors and recently departed.

Masks are also a long-lived tradition for Halloween and Samhain. Wearing a mask on Samhain was thought to confuse spirits so the wearer could avoid possession or discovery by the Fae and spirits. These Fae creatures were not considered to be very helpful so it was essential to trick and avoid them. Now wearing masks and painting our faces is just fun!

My traditions shared

I have two sides to my Halloween/Samhain practice. Like most American families we celebrate the traditional American aspects of Halloween, we dress up in costume, carve pumpkins, visit pumpkin patches, corn mazes, decorate our home, Trick or Treat, and watch movies.

As for Samhain, I have my own traditions that help me commemorate the season. I host a Samhain tea which is much like a Dumb Supper. I bake up some eerie treats & bread. My coven members and I serve traditional foods associated with Halloween/Samhain, I make my Sugar Skull Sugar Cubes, brew some seasonal tea, and we sit out under the stars to commune with nature and to enjoy the season. When you sit and enjoy someone’s company in silence, you obtain a new way of perceiving and knowing them. It’s quite remarkable.

Divination is also part of our tradition. I use Medicine Cards and do full spreads at this time. I will also offer tea leaf readings for those who want them. After our tea, we sit by our “balefire” and read cards and tea leaves. As the bats fly overhead, we listen to the fire crackling and the leaves in the breeze. When we are done with the tea and cards, we like to do Fire Scrying or a fire meditation. This is often when the more intense messages surface.

in the past, I hosted a large Mystery Meal. It was a game as well as a feast where ordering your food was a game. It was a fun event everyone enjoyed.

Since Halloween and Samhain are so vast in their symbolism, celebrations, and observances, it is difficult to cover everything in one post. Below is a highlight of common rituals and traditions I enjoy each year.

Magickal & Spiritual Aspects of Samhain:

Banishing

Personal Sacrifice

Divination

Past-Life Recall

Spiritual contact/Séances

Meditation

Cleansing

Introspection

Associated Deities:

All death and underworld Gods: Cailleach, Hecate, Lilith, Hel…

All Crone Goddesses

Festivals, Observances, and Ritual:

Sacred Feasts

Costume parties

Trick or treats

Storytelling

Canning, preserving, drying herbs, and foods from the last harvests

Bon or Balefires

Divination & Scrying

Ancestor work

Foods:

Baked items like bread, desserts, cookies, etc.

Apple

Pomegranates

Corn

Pumpkins

Preserved/Canned/Dried Foods

Wine and Cider

Plants, Spices & Herbs

Mugwort

Gourds

Sage

Allspice

Cinnamon

Catnip

Anise

Wormwood

Decorations:

Pumpkins & Gourds

Corn stalks

Dried fruit, herbs, and plants

Colourful leaves

Skulls

Candles

Handmade brooms

The Cauldron

Besom

Masks

Mums

Traditional Colours:

Orange

Black

Purple

Green

Wine Red/Burgundy

Brown

http://www.themagickkitchen.com/samhain-witches-new-year/

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hollywriteslightly · 6 years

Text

A place to call home

"You can't go home again," wrote Thomas Wolfe. For most of my life I've railed against accepting this unbearable truth, stubbornly searching in vain for a way back to homes that were lost to me; those of wood and nails, those found in other people, and, maybe the most elusive, a sense of home and belonging within myself. For all that time spent searching, what I never paused to consider was that I'd always held a way home very literally in the palm of my hand. I've wanted to be a writer since I was three years old, the age when my mother taught me to read. Our family home was on the northern end of the Gold Coast, a block from a glittering, shallow estuary of the Pacific Ocean called the Broadwater. I was always outdoors, in Mum's subtropical, ever-blooming garden – full of silver-green ironbark, scarlet bottlebrush and pink flowering tea trees – or at the sea; I could smell the salty pungency through my bedroom window. I used my life savings to leave Australia for England to give my writing dreams a wholehearted crack … I’d never been to Europe before, I was alone, and I knew no one. Illustration: Simon Letch My favourite stories were ones that reflected the landscapes I lived in: May Gibbs' Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, and Pixie O'Harris's Marmaduke the Possum. Both were tales embedded in Australian flora and fauna, told from European storytelling perspectives. As soon as I learnt to write and read, I started writing stories about gumtree kingdoms, paperbark queens, soldier crab warriors and wattle witches. When Mum added Indigenous Australian books to my library, such as Dick Roughsey's The Rainbow Serpent and The Quinkins, my fascination with the relationship between stories and landscapes deepened. As I grew older and began to choose my own books, I turned to young-adult novels and fairy tales, most of which were European or American; the culture of Sweet Valley High and The Baby-Sitters Club also mirrored most of the television and films I watched. When I was nine my family moved from Australia to North America. We rented a home in Vancouver, which we used as our base while we lived and travelled in a campervan from national park to national park throughout Canada and the US. The experience was like jumping into one of Mary Poppins' chalk drawings; suddenly I was in the world I'd read about in the adventures of the Wakefield twins, seen on Sunday night Disney television, and absorbed at the movies. North American landscapes, both wild and suburban, created an exotic sense of wonder and pure escapism that my homeland surroundings couldn't compete with. A couple of years later, on the cusp of becoming a teenager, I noticed in a vague way that the stories I was drawn to writing were always set overseas, even if the setting was only implied. It didn't feel like a conscious decision to separate my storytelling from my homeland, it was a default in my imagination. In my early 20s I moved inland to live and work in Australia's dramatically beautiful Western Desert, learning and sharing culture and stories with Anangu colleagues. For the first time I noticed a sense of Australian people, weather, bodies of water, flowers, and bushland creeping onto my page. But that wasn't to last; the desert was a landscape that became a home I loved and lost. I didn't leave because I wanted to. I left the desert because I was fleeing a violent relationship. This was not a new phenomenon to me. I had lived with male-perpetrated violence before. Ongoing research shows how traumatic experience changes the brain. According to author Michele Rosenthal, for trauma survivors who go on to develop symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder – an unmitigated experience of anxiety related to the past trauma – the shift from reactive to responsive mode never occurs. Instead, the brain holds the survivor in a constant reactive state. In my case, I lived with high-functioning fear and anxiety as a result of trauma. One of the ways this manifested was in my relationship with Australia. "Memory is the fourth dimension to any landscape," wrote Janet Fitch. By my late 20s, everything about home caused me pain and fear. Accumulated memories were embedded everywhere I'd ever been, in every sense and memory: the smell of the sea, the changing hues of red dirt. The feeling of summer heat softening in dusk air, and saltwater tightening my skin as it dried. Gum leaves hushing each other in the strengthening wind and the deep growl of thunderstorms; the smell of rain hitting baked dry earth. The unholy screech of cockatoos and drunken joy of rainbow lorikeet song at sunrise, and the haunting scents of wattle and honey grevillea in bloom. I tried different cities and jobs in Australia, but lived with the unending feeling that I belonged nowhere. I understand now that it wasn't only cultural influences that caused me to crave an escape from the familiarity of home in my writing. It was also my brain's response to trauma. Writing stories set elsewhere was an act of refuge; I wrote myself away from places that weren't safe, into fictional ones that were. The tipping point came during dinner with a trusted friend, who held space for us to talk about the debilitating sickness of shame as a result of trauma, and its consequential stasis. Why don't you go? I remember her asking. Make a new home, somewhere totally different. But choose a place that takes you towards writing. Don't leave yourself completely. I remember how time slowed between us at the dinner table as I took in her words. There was a spark in my belly as I considered following my childhood dream, the one thing that trauma had not extinguished. What would become of my life if I tried to follow and honour that one constant in how I identified and understood myself? An old memory arose: sitting at my childhood desk with the window open, sea breeze blowing in while, oblivious, I hand-wrote stories full of wonder. Everything I hoped for was possible. Six months after that dinner conversation, I used my life savings to leave Australia for England to give my writing dreams a wholehearted crack: I accepted a place at university in Manchester to do my master's of creative writing. I'd never been to Europe before, I was alone, and I knew no one. The contrast of the moody, consistently grey north-west of England to the extreme weather and bright colour of central eastern Australia was a deep shock. No matter though how I struggled with the lack of sunlight, the colourless skies and a dampness I could feel in my bones, it was also – immediately – a place of deep relief. Manchester was a tabula rasa; fear and anxiety were still enormous parts of my learnt behavioural responses, but, for maybe the first time in my independent adult life, I didn't panic about what or who might be around every proverbial corner. In my first week I met the kindest man I've ever known and somehow knew enough to not turn away from the sense of safety and sun-warmth being in his company gave me. I was on different time, under a different sky, with different trees, seasons, light, wildlife, cultures and people. And I'd gotten myself there to write, something I hadn't done in a long time. There was a brief period a few years earlier when I'd tried, but it had caused too much conflict in my relationship at the time. Held liable for the wandering depth and breadth of my imagination, I had hidden away my lifelong calling to write. Every new morning in Manchester, my mind seemed to unfurl a little bit more with another day of freedom and possibility. I took to my northern life with as much zest and gusto as I could muster. I started writing and, again, vaguely noticed most of my new writing was set everywhere and anywhere but Australia. I didn't return until 2012, three years after I'd left; I shook with fear for most of the long-haul flight to Brisbane. Homecoming was painful, poignant, anxious and beautiful. My fear was mainly unfounded, like a child's fear of the dark. When I returned to England six weeks later, a question began to form that I'd not considered before. It niggled and agitated deeply in my mind, a pea under a princess's mattresses. I wouldn't turn to it, I wouldn't ask it. I didn't want to have to answer. What does it mean to exile ourselves from the places that make us? Back in Manchester, a couple of years passed. I was writing regularly and working on storytelling projects that took me to places in the UK and Europe I never expected to go. I was in a healthy, loving relationship with a kind man. I felt safe. I began to trust myself. At the same time, the longer I stayed away from Australia, the louder the country started to call to me. In my dreams, in my memories and most of all, in the gaping spaces between the lines of everything I wrote. In 2014, when I sat down and wrote the first line of my first novel, it was immediately clear that the story was set in Australia. Even more surprising and unfamiliar to me was how utterly right it felt. I wrote the entire first draft of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart in Manchester. Over 12 months my office, home, and wherever possible, wardrobe, became a trove of Australian native flora, scents, photos, art, music, poetry and objects. I was driven to embody my story's world as much as possible, insatiably hungry for the sea I grew up beside; the feeling of salt on my skin; the mystifying green sugar cane fields at the end of my grandmother's street; the peach and violet-blue sunsets I watched from my mum's verandah; the wildflowers and red dirt of my old desert home. Safe to freely remember the landscapes that meant home to me caused a hunger like first love. It was blissful, unstoppable agony to revive them to life on the page. It was blissful, unstoppable agony to realise I was writing my way back home to them and them to me; I was coming home to myself. I'm writing this at my desk in Manchester in mid-November, when the holly bushes and rowan trees have burst into red-berried bloom and night draws in at 4.30pm. People around me are buttoning up for winter. All this time of year signals to me is home: in a couple of weeks I'll pack my suitcase stuffed with togs, thongs and cotton dresses, and make what has become an annual pilgrimage south for a long slurp of summer in Mum's garden. The journey home has grown easier since 2012. With the publication this year of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, returning has become outright magical, and in all my years of travel the international arrivals gate at Brisbane Airport is still the best destination I know. The beauty of clutching my mum and stepdad, grinning with teary faces as we walk out into the sweltering humidity and I catch my first glimpse of gumtrees in their native soil, fills my heart like nothing else. Until I wrote Lost Flowers, I had thought that to escape trauma I needed to separate myself from everything that reminded me of it. But, it turns out home is deeper than pain, deeper than love. Those roots go deeper. The landscapes, flora and fauna that raised me will never be any further from me than the microsecond between my heart's beat or the unseeable dark in the blink of my eye. Those places are always there. Here. Home. Writing has been my homecoming in all senses, to places made of wood and nails, to accepting and reciprocating the love and kindness of others, and to learning that I wholly belong to myself. Maybe this is what Thomas Wolfe meant: we can never go back to what was. We can't go home again, to home as it was when we lost it. But we can find our own ways to return, anew. And in those ways, maybe everything we hope for can be possible.

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend Summer 2018 reading issue: 10 short stories by 10 big authors. With much gratitude to Editor, Katrina Strick.

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nealcassatiel · 7 years

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were you saying that supernatural is repetitive in your last post, because it isn't really.

I wasn’t saying that the show in general is repetitive, it certainly isn’t as structurally repetitive now :) What I was saying is that the older seasons are far more formulaic per episode. So the technical structure of the plot repeats per episode. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t overall plot progression or character progression, simply that each episode had a more similar structure than later seasons.

I think an issue when discussing shows being ‘repetitive’ is that people always simplify what they mean, and they assume negative connotations to the concept of a show being ‘repetitive’. Take the show ‘Lie To Me’ for example, which is highly formulaic and thus repetitive, however it is a very very good show imo. Doctor Who can also be fairly formulaic (monster does something, doctor goes after monster, doctor sorts it all out). It would be hard to say that the early seasons and some recent episodes of Supernatural are not formulaic and thus repetitive.

For example episodes normally run with this structure;

- scary scene where monster kills victim

- Sam and Dean investigate

- make a breakthrough in the case

- hunt monster

- kill monster and save people

- Sam and Dean discuss stuff a bit then drive off

Episodic vs Serial Dramatic Programmes

It is not a bad thing that this is repeated over many episodes. I actually really enjoy this plot structuring and see it as a kind of structuring glue across the seasons as well as adhering to the tone and structuring of classic ‘who done it’/ ‘murder mystery’ tv plot tropes (Hannibal, another ‘who done it’ show also uses repetition of plot structure at points). We should also remember that Supernatural started as a show which is from the tail-end of the era of episodic television (as i said in that post). Only shows post 2001 (so after ‘24′) and ‘Lost’ (2001) did shows become more serials. Now in the days of GoT, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, American Gods, Peaky Blinders (i.e. highly serial dramatic programmes) we see far fewer new episodic shows. So viewers who didn’t grow up watching episodic television may view SPN as episodic, which tbh it is particularly in it’s early seasons. But this does not mean that it’s bad or bad because it’s repetitive. It’s simply utilising a different form of televisual storytelling that is less common nowadays.

Supernatural definitely does not repeat things outside of technical plot structuring, and this is key. Repeat denotes something which is redone exactly the same. So there is this sense that it assumes a backtracking to the start. When it comes to long arcs and character progression, there may be a mirroring or insinuation of what has come before, but never a re-starting/backtracking/repetition of what has come before.

Progression and the Road Narrative

Another interesting thing which I am always aware of about Supernatural that it is a road narrative (I am going to write stuff about this soon as this was a main research focus during my degrees). Road narratives may be repetitive at points, but their main mythology is structured around a road - a concept/signifier for progression, continuation, searching, liberation. We are reminded every episode as they drive along a road in the car that one of the concepts at the heart of this show is progression and continuation, therefore as a road narrative (of course it is based on many different narratives as well) it is based on progression, so any repetition is either going to be a technical structuring repetition, or it is going to be a case of ‘same same but different’. And this is so so important in the SF genre!

Same same but different in SF

There is something so important about something being the same, only different - particularly in Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. When something is seemingly repeated, although it is different there is an estrangement. By this, I mean that the slight difference in the repetition is exaggerated by it being placed within a repetition. For example, a classic use of estrangement (as detailed by Darko Suvin) is time travel.

Darko Suvin traces cognitive estrangement toBertlot Brecht, who ‘defined this attitude (“Verfremdungseffekt”) in his Short Organon for the Theatre: “Arepresentation which estranges is one which allows us to recognize its subject,but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar.”’ Suvin, Darko, Metamorphosesof Science Fiction, p. 18. So SF as a genre is based on a world which is a repetition of our own, however changed - and this difference is what removes it from our own reality, thus highlighting the difference. This use of ‘the same, only different’ as repetition is key to our understanding of both the SF genre as well as our understanding of the use of repetition as a writing devise.

Say you time traveled to the near future where everything looks the same except robots did everyone’s jobs. Things would be very very similar except that the viewer would notice small changes like an apathy amongst the people, a greater wealth disparity because so many more people are out of jobs, perhaps cars are self-driven causing problems, but apart from those more subtle things shown in the background, everything is the same. The similarity thus highlights the differences in the more subtle things.

This is the same when well used repetition occurs in SPN. Not just time travel episodes, but any repetition. The similarity to what has happened before highlights the more subtle points; we become more aware of the estrangement of this.

Something I’ve always been interested in is Freud’s theory of ‘the uncanny’. Now this is not me saying anything about Freud being right (god no). But when it comes to his theory of the uncanny, the idea of same same but different is really relevant. Freud discusses the uncanny as this; ‘Inother words, there is a doubling, dividing and interchanging of the self. Andfinally there is the constant recurrence of the same thing – the repetition ofthe same features or character-traits or vicissitudes, of the same crimes, oreven the same names through several consecutive generations.’ Freud, Sigmund, ‘The ‘Uncanny’’, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of SigmundFreud, Volume XVII: “An Infantile Neurosis” and Other Works, trans. JamesStrachey, (The Hogarth Press: London: 1975), p. 234. So here the Uncanny is something that is familiar and therefore creates an unsettling emotion within ourselves. And this is what repetition is SPN manages to do. It repeats things and creates an unsettling sense of deja vu in the viewer.

However as I said before, SPN does not fully replicate something from before, rather it repeats it but includes subtle differences. This both heightens the subtle differences (such as how the characters react slightly differently having changed) and it also creates a sense of the familiar; the uncannily familiar.

From Suvin to Freud, repetition is far more complicated than how some people view. They see it as a lazy writing technique, yet it is not. Repetition is a strong writing technique that can be used in various ways to highlight subtle differences, or make the viewer aware that it is indeed an uncanny repetition.

Conclusion

Overall, if I say that the show was/is repetitive, I am referring to the formulaic technical structuring of plot.

Or, the show is indeed repetitive but it is being used well and for a specific reason. It is normally a repetition but with subtle differences, or perhaps a repetition to highlight how little has changed.

We have to get away from this idea that repetition is a bad thing. It is a writing device used to highlight something specific, whether that be similarities or differences.

#repetition #supernatural structuring #spn plot structure #repetition and mirroring in spn #spn as a road narrative #my supernatural discourse #supernatural

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zak-animation · 6 years

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CG Animation: From Sketch to Screen

As a way to begin my research into the medium of CG animation, in this post, I’m exploring the process of creating an animated sequence through analysing the methodologies used by industry professional Jeff Gabor.

An animator who’s worked on the Ice Age franchise, and Epic amongst others, Gabor represents an experienced professional in computer-generated animation. In a special ‘webcast’ for AnimSchool on Youtube, the animator presents and discusses his entire workflow: from sketch to screen. With this, he describes the powerful use of live-action reference to his work, and some general tips when animating the character in Maya.

For our Mystery Box project, we will be provided with a rigged character to animate with, created by the 11 Second Club. This is a fully articulated biped rig, which allows for some customisation. With this, we will be introduced to the iterative process and pipeline of CG animation. Here, I’m analysing this process to get an initial understanding of the workflow ahead of me.

Referencing As I’d expected, the first step is taking the storyboards and filming some video reference for the scene. Using his iPhone, Gabor films the reference in 24 frames per second, allowing us to break down the frames and key poses frame-by-frame and have it synchronise when animating in the same frame rate within Maya. He outlines the importance of reference, ‘make sure it’s as good as possible, check the spacing and environment of the frame - because you need to use that information in the reference.’ Whilst it’s not necessary to hire a completely empty room, we should be mindful of the background and position our props and ourselves just as we would want to animate them. Even at this initial stage, animators are thinking about posing: ‘how can I create an applying silhouette?’. Using a mirror, Gabor changes the pose whilst he’s working to get a clearer staging and appeal. In this early stage, he explores how to make the action appealing, through changing the pace. ‘An even pacing is boring’ he says, and considers timing, exaggeration and acting all within the reference.

It’s important to note, however, that this is an iterative process: ‘take around ten minutes of footage, and watch that’. The animator then writes down what it appealing and successful, and shoots it again. This process repeats for four or five times before reaching a performance that really works and conveys the feeling and mood of the scene. It’s key to test out different ideas and have plenty of iterative references to return to, but what we ultimately want for the animation process is a ‘master reference’, taking elements of all the reference footage and compiling them into a single sequence. If done right, this can actually be used as a first pass to show directors, as a way to pre-visualise the sequence and see if the performance conveys the desired emotion of the scene.

Interestingly, however, with fantasy creatures like the sabre-toothed squirrel Scrat in Ice Age, ‘you pretty much have to throw all reference out the window’ and work from the imagination. One final note about this first step is to remember the purpose of a live action reference - it’s there for timing, performance and posing - not for specific details and polish. This is where the artistic elements come in. It’s important to explore every single effort and avenue to make the sequence as best as possible’ - evidencing a need for iterative development even in this early stage of the process.

Stepping From here, we then move onto the first aspect of the CG animation process: stepping, or blocking. Digital 3D animation follows a three-stage pipeline, with plenty of key steps in-between each one. CG is a long process, but it allows for smoothness and visual charm unique to the specialism. The process begins with this, describing the layout and blocking of the key poses. These are held to allow clarity for review, allowing animators to critique our own work and analyse whether or not the pose is able to communicate the desired narrative beat. This ensures clarity of key poses, and thus clarity of visual storytelling within the performance.

In this example from Epic, Gabor is taking the narrative beats outlined in the reference footage and establishing the key storytelling poses of the characters in conversation with each other. This is the stepped process, simply focusing on clear posing of the characters to convey the emotion of the shot. There’s no real animation happening here, it’s simply establishing the key poses of the scene.

One tip that the animator offers is to not get concerned with the three dimensionality of the frame. ‘I think students get too concerned with is what it looks like from all different angles - [we, as an audience] really don’t care’. The focus should instead be on making sure each pose is solid and clear, pushing it to the extreme to communicate the idea to the viewer.

Working with stepped keyframes allow us to focus on the key areas of the sequence: to establish the key storytelling poses of the shot. These will convey the story of the sequence, and thus have to be crystal clear to the viewer. This is where the iterative process begins, exploring how each pose communicates an idea best to the audience. This allows the program to focus on the key posing of the sequence: ensuring clean body language to tell our story in a minimal amount of keyframes possible. Here, we establish the important narrative ‘beats’ or stages of the animation. This first step is about blocking the key poses and seeing if the animation works through the body language of the character: having an overall clarity and explains the overall narrative of the sequence.

With the example from Ice Age: Continental Drift, Gabor instead was working directly from provided storyboards by artist Jerod Chirico. The stepping or ‘blocking’ process is still the same - simply moving between keyframes to tell the story through clear posing, but instead of working from video reference, the inspiration for composition and shot type comes from drawn illustrations. Despite the fact that it’s only blocking, the strength of Gabor’s posing make it an inherently funny sequence.

Splining This then goes to the Spline process, in which animators convey stepped keyframes to ‘spline’: this is where the actual animation happens: adjusting the splined keyframes to create an appealing performance. Whereas working with the stepped process was effectively digital 3D pose-to-pose, splined animation allows us to work more straight ahead, with an organic quality. Here, we are able to get a feel for how the animation is going to be played out, using the computer to interpolate between each keyframe which allows us to get a strong grasp on the timing of the animation, and smoothen out the actions. The focus is placed on the performance of the character, moving from pose to pose. Here, we can incorporate the basic principles of animation such as follow through and anticipation.

In this example from Ice Age again, we can see that the animation now flows seamlessly as one organic performance. With the addition of smear frames, Gabor is able to add squash and stretch principles to further give a sense of life to the motion. The sequence is no longer a series of still keyframes, but a refined animated sequence. There’s no visual polish, but the main animation is effectively complete.

Final Touches The final stage concerns adding a final polish to the sequence, refining the movements so the motion is smooth and fluid but also adding detail to the original keyframes - adding secondary actions, texturing and rendering the animation. This is almost endless, and the deciding factor in just how much time we can allocate to this final step largely depends on both the scale and budget of the project.

With a big budget production like Ice Age and Epic, we can see the level of post-production and polish in comparison to the actual animation. Using lighting and rendering engines, the creators are able to completely change the aesthetic of the sequence: adding a visual appeal through soft light and texture, taking away the sharp lines and feeling of the animation and adding a visual polish that audiences today expect from an animated feature film.

This final step brings the characters to life through visual representation: adding a real sense of depth and physicality through lighting and shadows, and immersing the audience into a whole new world through detailed backgrounds and moving cameras. This final polish is what gives CG feature films the refined, photo-realist cartoon-like aesthetic, and effectively completes the sequence pipeline.

With each of these steps, I will be needing to balance ideas of reality such as gravity and weight with dynamic animation, and using influence of pantomime performance to exaggerate the posing of each keyframe to clearly communicate the idea I want to portray. As a beginning animator, I will be needing to cover the whole process from idea to screen, meaning it’s completely understandable if my animations aren’t as polished and fine-tuned as Gabor’s.

Review Here, I’ve presented my own independent research into CG animation: exploring the process of creating an animated sequence through analysing the methodologies used by industry professional Jeff Gabor. This is an area of animation I’ve been reluctant to really delve into considering research simply because I didn’t have the tools to create my own. However, having been introduced to the basics of Maya, I’m now eager to begin experimenting with the software.

Gabor describes the power of creating a successful reference, and this will be my primary effort moving forward with my project. Through iterations, I hope to film a series of live-action videos exploring a few different approaches to the idea of a character reacting to a mystery box. This and a new understanding of the CG pipeline is what I hope to take away from Gabor’s influence. Having explored this initial research into computer-generated animation, I can see the importance of using live action footage to support the timing and posing of my animation. Next, I will be acting upon this influence: attending an acting workshop introducing us to the idea of performance for animation.

References

Animation School - AnimSchool Webcast: Jeff Gabor, Parts 1-4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-WIRh7XZCs

Reference / Blocking / Timing. (2009). Jeff Gabor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouaspd_dr5o&t=1s

Epic Comparison Reel. (2013). Jeff Gabor. https://vimeo.com/81962062

Ice Age: Continental Drift Progression Reel. (2013). Jeff Gabor. https://vimeo.com/70297665

Stepped vs Spline Curves When Blocking an Animation. (2014). https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/film-games/stepped-vs-spline-curves-blocking-animation

#ba1b:mysterybox

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2700fstreet · 6 years

Text

THEATER / 2018-2019

CARTOGRAPHY

TEACHER AND PARENT GUIDE

World premiere Kennedy Center co-commission Written by Christopher Myers Directed by Kaneza Schaal

Student Guide: Cartography

Parents, Teachers, and Caregivers: Get the Conversation Going

Human migration is an ongoing theme in human history. Whether the people on the move have been refugees fleeing war or natural disaster, or migrants relocating somewhere they hope will offer greater opportunity, much of humanity’s story has been about people seeking a new home in a new land.

Today’s stories of refugees and migrants are no different. Cartography, written by Christopher Myers and directed by Kaneza Schaal, invites people to make the connection. “I really want young people to see themselves in that context, whether their stories are personal or farther back in their family’s history,” says Myers. (You can find an interview with Myers below.)

For this production, 2700 F St. invites teachers, parents, and caregivers to take a break from interpreting “the big picture” of today’s news coverage about refugees and migrants, coverage that often presents these people and their circumstances in simplistic ways. Instead, we can let the documentary voices of young people onstage speak directly to young people in the audience.

This adult guide is designed to facilitate the start of a conversation.

The Human Journey

The play Cartography is one in a series of programs in The Human Journey, a season-long artistic collaboration among The Kennedy Center, National Geographic Society, and National Gallery of Art. These identified performances and exhibits invite audiences to investigate human experience through the performing arts, science, and visual art.

Cartography features all of the main themes that form the framework for The Human Journey project—namely migration, exploration, identity, and resilience. These four themes are described here:

Migration is the movement of people from one place to another, whether by force or choice, in search of a better living situation. “This movement of people has historically brought together cultures from around the globe, shrinking our planet and bringing the cultural identities that define us into sharper focus,” said Tracy Wolstencroft, chairman and CEO of the National Geographic Society.

Exploration is the human endeavor to discover and better understand the world. The urge to discover can mean turning inward to reveal the mysteries of human biology and psychology, outward to explain secrets of our planet and universe, or toward each other to untangle the jumble of humanity and its relationships and social systems.

Identity relates to how we see ourselves and others, and how we form and apply ideas about who we are. In Cartography, this theme is central as the identities of these young refugees leave their familiar lives and cultures behind.

Resilience describes our ability to endure and function, especially under pressure and stress. Cartography dramatizes the various ways the characters stay strong and hopeful under life-churning circumstances.

With migration and refugees frequently in today’s news, the central ideas of The Human Journey programs are very relevant. Keeping them in mind can help us relate the stories in Cartography to our own lives.

Video: “What Does It Mean to Be a Refugee?” by Benedetta Berti and Evelien Borgman. June 16, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25bwiSikRsI

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A Different “Kind” of Theater

Cartography is a type of theater known as “devised documentary theater.” This style of stage performance is developed by a collective where performers collaborate and improvise on specific topics or themes—that’s the devised part. For example, the director may call out a word and have the performers act out their responses. As a group, they see and discover effective scenes and onstage moments and craft them into a script. New York’s Wooster Group and Elevator Repair Service are two well-known theater companies that specialize in devised theater.

“Documentary theater” draws on news stories and interviews with real people. The performance dramatizes a story by portraying events, sometimes using people’s actual words. Documentary theater includes “investigative theater” that is based on investigative/exploratory journalism. The Laramie Project (2000)—which recounts the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard based on interviews with people in Laramie, Wyoming—is a frequently produced example. “Verbatim theater” is another form of documentary theater, performed using only the words of people interviewed. The works of Anna Deavere Smith are examples, including Fires in the Mirror and Notes from the Field.

Using Open-ended Questions

To set the tone for discussions with young people, consider sharing something from your personal experience that relates to the play and its themes. The intention is to start conversations and keep them going. However, avoid putting any students on the spot about their own identity or family history.

You can use open-ended questions to help students spot details they may have missed, to dive deeper into the play’s content and themes, and engage with potentially controversial content that may come up in discussions such as issues of religion, race, and poverty. When necessary, encourage students to back up their interpretations or views with supporting evidence from the play itself or a trustworthy third-party source.

Here are several open-ended points of discussion to consider:

Have students describe the set of Cartography and how it is used.

As a collaborative exercise, recount notable moments in the performance: What got your attention or surprised you?

How did you feel when the cast left the stage and interacted with audience members?

What new information or ideas came to mind by the end of the performance?

What are examples of major human migrations in history? What factors contributed to them?

Before the Show

Along with your young people, discuss and decide how they want to prepare for attending Cartography. First stop, review the Student Guide with them. Then ask: What do they already know about human migration? What more would they like to learn? Do they want to research their family’s own migration history? Are they interested in the asylum process? Do they want to learn more about documentary theater? Would they like to take an online tour of the Kennedy Center?

Consider following their lead on how they want to prepare, from theater etiquette and stagecraft to background research on human migration to themes in Cartography. Below are some ready resources to draw on.

After the Show

Collaborate with your students or young people to determine how they want to process the play afterward. Let them brainstorm ways to get the most out of the experience and make the subject relevant to them. Do they want to go deeper into the play’s themes? Talk about acting and stagecraft? Learn more about migration and refugees in their community or state?

The Student Guide

Revisit the two sections from the Student Guide: “Check This Out…” and “Think About This….” Use them to stir discussion about the production, scenes in the play, and its characters and themes.

Consider Activities on Three Main Themes in Cartography

Cartography zeroes in on three main themes, or big ideas: Migration, Home, and the Role of Storytelling. Review activities in the “Take Action” section of the Student Guide, such as creative writing, geography, and artistic projects that students can use to explore these ideas in relation to their own lives. These themes overlap with those of the Human Journey series: migration, exploration, identity, and resilience.

The activities in the Take Action section of the Student Guide are designed to be easily scalable for a diversity of learning styles and/or abilities. For example, the acrostic poem exercise can use shorter words and the identity collage activity can be presented with a limited scope, say five pictures and five favorite things.

A Classroom of Pen Pals

Refugees and detained asylum-seekers face a long and often lonely road as they seek to start a new life in a new land. Receiving a letter in the mail can be a highlight of their day, even from someone they may never meet. To find out how your young people can use their writing to connect with other young people who could use a friend, check out: https://www.care.org/get-involved/letters-hope.

Q & A with Christopher Myers

Christopher Myers is an American author and illustrator of children’s books. His illustrations in Harlem won a Caldecott Honor in 1998, and Black Cat earned a Coretta Scott King Award in 2000. He has illustrated and/or written some 20 books and is also a visual artist who designs clothing. Cartography is his first play. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, but travels worldwide. You can visit his website at https://www.kalyban.com.

Kennedy Center: How did the idea for Cartography take shape?

Christopher Myers: In 2016, there was a massive influx of refugees into Europe from Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, West Africa. I was spending time at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, and that area was receiving thousands of refugees every day. I had this thought, that while there was obviously a need for social services, there was also a need for storytellers, too. The act of migration is an act of storytelling, an imagination of a future, a rewriting of the past. Storytelling is central to the process of moving, and it is essential that alongside medical assistance and social assistance that we think about the stories that have drawn our borders and our needs to cross them.

The library provided space and support for myself and my collaborator Kaneza Schaal to talk with and work with these young refugees. They ranged from 11 to 17 years old and came from all across the world.

KC: What role did director Kaneza Schaal play in developing the play?

CM: Kaneza is an ideal collaborator. We were working with young people who spoke Arabic, Pashto, French, and other languages, and communication presented its own challenges. But Kaneza brought the language of theater and performance which is more than just words—it’s movement and action and sound and images. She created a framework to allow these young people from a mix of cultures to express whatever they wanted to say. It was her idea that we could build a community around the conversations we had seen the need for in Munich, take the work we were doing outside the walls of the library, and that her art form, theater, would be an ideal way to do that. Our process is very collaborative. I write scenes and texts and then bring them to her and she asks for more or less, hones the vision of the piece, brings the team of performers together, makes the piece truly breathe as theater, and not just as words on a page.

KC: The importance of stories is a recurring theme in the play. Why is storytelling important, especially for refugees?

CM: These young people urgently wanted to share the stories about their lives, and I think young people in general are desperate for stories—to tell as well as hear them. In a very real sense, they all are in the process of writing their own.

What I found is that, more than most people, these young people must contend with stories being told about them in newspapers and other news coverage. They, themselves, rarely have a chance to tell about their experiences. Journalism is important, but it can have a flattening effect on the human side of the experience of being a refugee or migrant. It has a way of erasing their individuality and humanity. That’s why I say it’s important to have storytellers on the front lines of any crisis, to shape both our human reaction to the crisis, and to shape our understanding of the people who are undergoing such radical change in their own lives.

In the end, we are the sum total of the stories that have come before us and the stories we tell about our futures. That’s true of anyone. We’re also hungry for stories to help us make sense of what’s happening to us and around us. For a young person, it’s about having the opportunity and ability to write the next chapter of their lives, and by developing this show we want to have a part in that. Storytelling is a source of empowerment. If you don’t write your own story, someone will come along and write it for you.

There was a young man from Syria. I asked him what he wanted me to bring back to the world from our time working together. He told me he didn’t want to be invisible anymore. He wanted us to make a place for people in crisis like himself to be seen.

KC: Often, we don’t think of the stories of refugees as having much humor in them, and yet there are laugh-out-loud moments in the show. Were you surprised at all by the jokes and humor shared by the young people you worked with?

CM: I think too often when we create art about people in crisis, we focus on the crisis and not the people. So many people who I’ve met, who are going through a crisis have had a way of finding the humor. Humor is a kind of a way out, an escape or safety valve. Humor is how we fully acknowledge the challenges we face but still give ourselves agency.

These young people we worked with used humor as a tool. They are not simply poster children with tears in their eyes. We want nothing more from this piece than to remind ourselves and our audience of the personalities behind the statistics.

KC: You have mainly written and illustrated children’s books in the past. Why create Cartography as a play?

CM: Theater has all kinds of unique storytelling devices. It combines light and sound, spoken words and action. It can communicate in ways that pictures and the written word can’t. These stories are better told on stage.

Every theater audience is an instant community. It gives us a chance to think about these and other issues as a community and not just as individuals, and that is super important to Kaneza and me.

KC: Stories of human migration run throughout human history. Why is this show particularly timely now?

CM: Everyone has a story of migration in their past. My grandfather came to the United States from Germany in the 1920s. Kaneza’s family fled strife and genocide in Rwanda. We are all on the continuum of migration; we are all part of this story.

Movement is part of what it means to be human. It helps us see our place in the grand scheme of things and in relation to each other. I really want young people to see themselves in that context, whether their stories are personal or farther back in their family’s history.

I was visiting an art museum in Germany with Makhtar, a boy from Mali [in West Africa]. And there was this painting from the 1700s of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. I explained it was the story of their flight into Egypt. They were fleeing great violence. Makhtar looked at that painting, that story, and said, “They were refugees, too.”

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Data Bank

Here are a handful of graphs to help you and students examine the context and the bigger picture of migration patterns. They present some of the numbers behind the news coverage as well as the play.

A clear definition of what constitutes a refugee was adopted after World War II as part of the United Nations’s 1951 Refugee Convention. According to Article 1(A) of the convention, a refugee is a person:

who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Today, there are more than 63 million refugees in the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. That figure surpasses the estimated 60 million Europeans displaced during World War II (1939-1945).

Online source: https://www.vox.com/world/2017/1/30/14432500/refugee-crisis-trump-muslim-ban-maps-charts

Refugees and people seeking asylum 2017, by country of origin

Online source: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/getfacts/statistics/intl/global-trends-2017/

Refugees and people seeking asylum 2017, by country of asylum

Online source: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/getfacts/statistics/intl/global-trends-2017/

Where Migrants and Refugees Are Coming from and Going, 2015

Source: Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/06/19/mediterranean-migration-crisis/why-people-flee-what-eu-should-do

Video: “UNHCR Global Trends 2017 Report.” UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency. Overview of the world’s refugee crisis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MGRB5ZmKpU&t=41s

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Standards Connections:

English Language Arts - Reading: Literature (RL.7, RL.9)

Writer: Sean McCollum

Content Editor: Lisa Resnick

Logistics Coordination: Katherine Huseman

Producer and Program Manager: Tiffany A. Bryant

Cartography is part of the Kennedy Center's Human Journey www.kennedy-center.org/humanjourney

The Human Journey is a collaboration between The Kennedy Center, National Geographic Society, and the National Gallery of Art, which invites audiences to investigate the powerful experiences of migration, exploration, identity, and resilience through the lenses of the performing arts, science, and visual art.

David M. Rubenstein Chairman

Deborah F. Rutter President

Mario R. Rossero Senior Vice President Education

Bank of America is the Presenting Sponsor of Performances for Young Audiences.

Additional support for Cartography is provided by A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation; the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Education.

Funding for Access and Accommodation Programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David M. Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.

Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

#theater #forteachers #cartographyat2700f

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phosphorescent-naidheachd · 7 years

Note

So I am woefully behind on my dash and thus all The Best Blogs such as your own, but please tell me: What were your thoughts about Twin Suns? Please feel free to refer me to a post if you already made one.

*blushes* Thank you! And sorry for taking so long to reply to this! Apparently I had even more thoughts on “Twin Suns” than I’d initially thought.

Rebels 3x20: “Twin Suns” has its weaknesses, but I really enjoyed it overall. As you may be aware, I’m a fan of Obi-Wan (yes, yes, I know, ~shock~), so I spent pretty much the entire time I watched the episode clapping my hands in glee (albeit softly, so as not to drown out what was happening) because Obi-Wan was on my screen again. I mean, you’re talking to the person who gets excited every time canon makes the slightest of oblique references to him, so…¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’ve also always been All About Those Parallels™ and this episode abounds with them. The most obvious, of course, are the ones that mirror Qui-Gon’s death sequence in TPM, and I found this fitting for several reasons. First and foremost, I love it because it brings Maul and Obi-Wan’s story full circle. By setting their fight amidst the desolate sand dunes of Tatooine, Obi-Wan and Maul meet for the last time where the audience met Maul for the first time – something which the show explicitly underlines in 3x10: “Visions and Voices: “it ends where it begun… a desert planet… with twin suns”. (In fact, for all we know, the setting of Obi-Wan and Maul’s final encounter might even be somewhere in the Xelric Draw, which, according to Legends canon, is where Qui-Gon and Maul first met and fought. If you look at this map, you’ll notice that the Xelric Draw covers a wide swath of the space between Obi-Wan’s hut and Mos Espa, so it’s not improbable that Obi-Wan might travel there by dewback.)

In contrast to our introduction to Maul, however, which took place under the heat of a midday sun, our last glimpse of him takes place at night under the stars; Obi-Wan and Maul are at the end of their journey together and so – ostensibly, anyway! – are Maul and the audience.

Just as day and night contrast, so too do Obi-Wan and Maul, both when compared to their younger selves and when compared to each other. Both characters have gone through enumerable events in the three decades since they first met one another, all of which have shaped them… but at the end of the day, Obi-Wan has grown and changed in a way that Maul hasn’t. One of the first things Maul says in TPM is the following: ”At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.“ And at the end of “Twin Suns”, his last line is “He…will…avenge us.”

For all that Maul scolded Ezra about refusing to break free from the chains of his past in “Visions and Voices”, Maul is still focused on revenge – still focused on Obi-Wan; in the end, it’s all he has left to give his life purpose. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, has moved on from their grudge match and is focused on the future – on Luke. He is no longer the hot-headed padawan or the crusading knight that Maul knew; he is a guardian, and thus it is only when Luke is threatened that Obi-Wan deigns to fights Maul. Luke is, after all, Obi-Wan’s sole remaining tie to Anakin, his sole remaining purpose for existing… and seemingly his sole remaining hope for a better future.

At the same time, however, the two characters have a great deal in common. Obi-Wan and Maul have always been foils to one another. Both are Force Sensitive children who were taken and raised by their respective Orders, thus setting their feet on the paths to their respective destinies. Both had brothers that were destroyed by Sidious’ machinations and both are deeply lonely as a result. Now, both are relics of a past that has already passed into legend for most of the galaxy; they are old men who have no place in this new world – this new Empire – and have consequently been hiding in exile for the past seventeen years. Obi-Wan has long been aware that they have some commonalities (see some of his comments in TCW 5x16: “The Lawless”) and I think Maul is aware too… he just refuses to acknowledge as much until he’s dying. (Honestly, I’ve always gotten the impression that he’s subconsciously a bit jealous of Obi-Wan and that that is one of the roots of his resentment towards him, but that’s a conversation for another day.)

“He…will…avenge us,” Maul says with his dying breath. Us. Although they belong to very different traditions and have made very different choices, Maul tacitly acknowledges that at the end of the day, they both belong to a way that has vanished, and that this experience bonds them together. It is my personal opinion that both men are tired of fighting by this point – it’s simply that Maul doesn’t know any other way. He seeks out Obi-Wan because it gives his life renewed purpose, and he fights Obi-Wan because that is what he has always done. No matter which of them wins the fight, Maul gets what he wants – either the defeat of his nemesis or a release from his own suffering.

In a sense, Maul has been occupying a liminal space between life and death ever since Obi-Wan cut him in half in TPM. When we first re-meet him in TCW 4x21: “Brothers”, Maul is emaciated and utterly deranged. As TCW progresses, Maul regains some of his sanity and ambition – and his brother! – only to lose them again. At this point in Rebels, just as when Oppress first found him in TCW, Maul has lost all sense of self and purpose, his own spite and a burning desire for revenge against Obi-Wan (and Sidious) the only things keeping him alive. He lacks hope.

Fortunately for Maul, Obi-Wan is heavily associated with hope in Star Wars; does “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” ring any bells? ;-) That said, Obi-Wan is associated with sorrow as much as he is with hope. Perhaps nowhere is this peculiar combination encapsulated as well as in that oft-quoted excerpt from James Luceno’s Legends novel, Labyrinth of Evil: “And you, Master. What does your heart tell you you’re meant for?”“Infinite sadness,” Obi-Wan said, even while smiling.”

We see this theme repeatedly play out in Rebels. The two most blatant examples of Obi-Wan being linked with sorrow are when Maul uses Ezra’s suffering to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding (“Your pain, your sorrow… it calls to him”) and portions of Obi-Wan’s holocron message (“I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with a dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place […] Do not return to the Temple…that time has passed.”). Meanwhile, Obi-Wan repeatedly acts as an embodiment of hope for at least three of our main characters: Kanan (“This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in The Force […] we must persevere. And in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always.”), Maul (“As for myself, I seek something much simpler, yet equally elusive… Hope. […] I see him! […] He lives!”), and Ezra (“The answer to my question of how to destroy the Sith is Obi-Wan Kenobi.”).

Obi-Wan’s sorrow and hope both come to the forefront during his brief appearance in this episode. Maul’s unnecessary death is tragic in and of itself to Obi-Wan, but the way in which it mirrors Qui-Gon’s death and the fight that preceded it only adds to the pain he feels. And although he undoubtedly has hope for Ezra and the Rebellion after safely seeing the boy off (just look at the faint smile on his face before Maul starts to speak again), there’s something incredibly sad about his parting words to Ezra: “That is your way out. Your way home.” Obi-Wan can’t go home anymore – his home no longer exists. Yet still he clings to hope.

“Look what I have risen above,” Obi-Wan says in response to Maul’s taunting. And that’s Obi-Wan in a nutshell, isn’t it? He’s far from perfect, but despite all the blows life has dealt him, he perseveres and continues to choose the Light. In their previous confrontation in “The Lawless”, he told Maul, “You can kill me, but you will never destroy me”, and this holds true throughout Obi-Wan’s life and beyond. Obi-Wan is sorrow, yes, but he is also hope – and although hope can be shattered, it rises anew from the wreckage each time, a phoenix from the ashes. And hope is indeed “more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.

A related recurring Star Wars theme found in “Twin Suns” is that ‘it’s always darkest before dawn’. It is only after Ezra has given up on finding Obi-Wan, collapsing of heatstroke/dehydration/exhaustion next to a powered-down Chopper, that he achieves his objective. Although Maul dies, he does so with a glimmer of hope that the “Chosen One” will balance the cosmic scales. One might even call it a new hope. ;-) Meanwhile, we literally see this theme played out at the end of the episode, with the dark night fading away into pale morning mist, Tatooine’s twin suns hanging partway up in the sky as Beru calls for Luke (presumably to come back in for breakfast?), the titular new hope.

Speaking of the Chosen One… Ughhh, I’ve hated that prophecy ever since it first popped up in TPM. Can I believe that several key individuals in-universe bought into said prophecy? Absolutely. But honestly, “bring balance to the Force”? I know prophecies are always vague and therefore can be interpreted twelve thousand different ways, but come on. This ties into Star Wars’ problem where it can’t quite make up its mind as to what the Force is, let alone what the Light and Dark sides of it mean or what “balance” would look like. One could argue that we’re not supposed to understand it any more than the characters do – all of whom having differing beliefs on the subject – but I personally think it’s sloppy storytelling rather than an artistic choice. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if TLJ clears any of this up.

…But I’ve gotten off-topic here. The Chosen One. *sighs* Up until TCW’s Mortis arc, I was happy to believe that the prophecy was only true insofar as characters’ perceptions of and reactions to it, but TCW more or less put paid to that when it had literal manifestations of the Force declare Anakin the Chosen One. I can still headcanon my way around that, but I’m pretty sure the canonical intention is for the prophecy to be a legitimate thing. So, working from that interpretation…

I know there’s been a lot of debate post “Twin Suns” about the implications of Obi-Wan’s statement that Luke is the Chosen One – does this mean that Anakin was never the Chosen One in the first place? does this mean that there’s more than one Chosen One? – but I think a lot of viewers are overlooking the simplest explanation, which is that although Obi-Wan may believe that Luke could be the Chosen One, it doesn’t necessarily follow that he is the Chosen One.

Obi-Wan canonically places a great deal of hope – and pressure! – on Luke’s shoulders throughout the Original Trilogy, so a belief that Luke is the Chosen One would dovetail nicely with that behavior. For instance, with that belief in mind, his comment to Luke in RotJ takes on a new meaning: “Then the Emperor has already won. You were our only hope”. This complete and utter focus on Luke to the exclusion of Leia would make a bit more sense if Obi-Wan sincerely believes that Luke is the true Chosen One. (Though that still doesn’t answer the question why Obi-Wan would think Luke must be the Chosen One rather than Leia. *rolls eyes*) Moreover, it is makes sense that Obi-Wan would no longer believe that Anakin/Vader is the Chosen One. By the time we reach the Original Trilogy, Obi-Wan appears to have given up on Anakin. In his mind, the moment that “the good man who was” Anakin turned to the Dark Side, Darth Vader “betrayed and murdered” him. In Obi-Wan’s mind, submerging the galaxy into darkness is incompatible with bringing “balance to the Force” a la the Chosen One prophecy; therefore, Anakin either lost his status as the Chosen One when he became a Sith or he was never truly the Chosen One to begin with.

Another possibility is that Obi-Wan, master of “half-truths and hyperbole” as he is, is merely trying to give a dying Maul some form of comfort and hope. After all, he never outright says that Luke is the Chosen One – his reply of “he is” in answer to Maul’s question (“Is he the Chosen One?”) certain implies that he’s referring to the person he’s all but admitted to protecting (i.e. Luke), but we all know that Obi-Wan sometimes has a casual relationship with the truth, especially when he thinks his obfuscation will serve a greater good. It would be just like Obi-Wan to intentionally give a vague reply that he knows someone will read an incorrect message into; after all, it’s not like he’s lying… And ironically enough, this is another way in which Obi-Wan parallels Maul. Obi-Wan’s line to Ezra that Maul “used your desire to do good to deceive you” and “manipulated the truth” could just as easily apply to himself, what with his “the truth is often what we make of it” and “from a certain point of view” way of looking at the world.

But honestly, I couldn’t care less who is or isn’t the prophesied Chosen One. It’s been a recurring theme in the prequels and animated TV series, but thus far it has yet to significantly affect the story (except insofar as it affects the characters, who in turn influence the plot – but most of this is implied rather than shown outright onscreen).

The audience sees “Twin Suns” through Ezra’s and Maul’s eyes, and both of them are lost – figuratively and literally – throughout most of the episode. From a narrative standpoint, perhaps this is why so much of the episode’s time is spent focused on them wandering in the desert. Both characters are searching for Obi-Wan in hopes that he will be the solution to their respective problems… failing to recognize that those solutions can only be found within themselves. On a personal level, I’m a bit unsatisfied by how much of the episode is wasted on Maul and Ezra’s wanderings, but I can acknowledge its merits on a meta-narrative level. Perhaps we’re supposed to feel frustrated and as though something is incomplete, just as Maul and Ezra do… or perhaps I’m giving the Rebels writers way too much credit.

Of course, no discussion of this episode would be complete without examining Ezra’s role in the story. “Twin Suns” acts as a metaphor for Ezra’s inner journey every bit as much as it does Maul’s. While their futures may indeed “converge on a planet with twin suns” as Maul claimed in “Visions and Voices”, Ezra does not choose to “walk that path together” with Maul. Ezra certainly has his attachments, but unlike Maul, he isn’t so married to the past as to be irrevocably trapped in it.

“What else can we do?” Ezra says in response to Chopper’s grumbling after their ship is destroyed, leaving them stranded in the middle of the desert. “We have to go forward.” And that’s what this episode is about for Ezra, really – learning to move forward again… and learning to accept that he already has everything he needs in order to do so.

A few more random thoughts before I (finally) end this:

• Chopper’s slump and resigned sigh before turning around to go after Ezra like his babysitter will never not be hilarious to me.

• Chopper goes from being powered-down and sand-logged in one scene to awake and alert in the next. The only possible conclusion? Obi-Wan must have fixed him while Ezra was sleeping. And later, Obi-Wan pats Chopper while talking to Ezra; that’s practically a declaration of friendship coming from him! It makes you wonder what kind of conversation they had before Ezra woke up… (That would explain how Obi-Wan knew Ezra’s full name, though, if Chopper told him.) …I kind of want that missing scene in a fic now.

• “You saw what you wanted to see, believed what you wanted to believe,” Obi-Wan tells Ezra of the combined holocrons’ message. Going off of what I said earlier about Obi-Wan possibly misleading Maul, I can’t help but wonder if he’s doing the same thing to Ezra here. I mean, Obi-Wan is obviously trying to get Ezra to not delve into the subject any further and to leave Tatooine before he learns about Luke (and, y’know, to protect him from Maul), but part of me wonders if there’s anything more to it – the same part of me that wonders if the holocrons had a point beyond the obvious (and, if we’re being honest here, author intended) interpretation. Not to take anything away from Luke, but I’d love to see a fic that runs with an AU interpretation of the holcrons’ message.

• I had had some doubts when I first heard him in the episode promo, but I after watching “Twin Suns”, I have to admit that Stephen Stanton did an excellent Alec-Guiness-as-Ben-Kenobi impersonation in this episode. Kudos to him and to the writing staff for nailing the character’s speech patterns a la ANH.

• I’m just as glad to see Maul finally gone (well, ostensibly anyway!), but I’m also glad that he was able to find some small measure of peace on his proverbial deathbed. He was dealt a truly terrible hand in life, and although he inflicted suffering on so many beings, you can’t help but feel sorry for him.

• “That is not your responsibility. I will heal this old wound.” Other fans have doubtless already commented on this Easter Egg, but it’s still worth a gleeful mention.

• Responsibility is another theme that runs throughout “Twin Suns”. I got the impression that we’re supposed to think Ezra is initially trying to foist the primary responsibility for destroying the Sith off on someone else, someone older and more qualified (hence his search for Obi-Wan) and that he eventually learns to take responsibility for fighting evil himself. I disagree with that reading– I’d argue that Ezra’s narrative arc has been more about learning to be able to depend on others, as he’d had stand on his own two feet for years before he met the Ghost crew. Moreover, while of course the Rebellion doesn’t need to wait around for mystical saviors in the form of Jedi (nor should they!), that doesn’t mean that the adult Jedi – namely Obi-Wan, Yoda, and any other Councillors who might have survived – have no responsibility to the Rebellion, either. The rise of the Empire was by no means solely their fault, but like many, they did help to enable it… and therefore the responsibility for destroying it also partially rests with them. The problem, of course, is that this isn’t their sole responsibility to the galaxy, and so they have to choose which responsibilities to prioritize. In the end, they deem the survival of the Jedi (through themselves and Luke) and the protection of someone powerful enough to eventually bring about the demise of the Sith (once again, Luke) to be more important than any individual strikes they could make against the Empire on their own. Are they correct in their decision? Well, that depends upon your point of view.

• You can definitely see the moment where Obi-Wan goes from a calm refusal to fight – even amusement – to Must Protect Luke At All Costs™. Similarly, you can see the moment when he recognizes the move Maul is making and adjusts his stance accordingly. Some very nice animation work here from the creators!

• Some fans find the shortness of Maul and Obi-Wan’s final duel to be unsatisfying and unrealistic, while other fans think that the duel’s speed and anticlimactic nature are the whole point. I… don’t particularly care, tbh? I can see both sides. That said, I do think that they should have shown Obi-Wan’s lightsaber making contact with Maul’s saber-staff and chest for more than half of a second in the dark; on my first watch-through, I didn’t realize that he’d actually hit Maul until Maul was dead. I was so confused… and I know I’m not the only viewer to have had this problem.

• I love the strange sense of kinship that’s evoked between Maul and Obi-Wan as he lays dying. And the way Obi-Wan cradles Maul and gently closes his eyes kills me every time.

• Why, precisely, is Ezra so sure that Maul is dead when he left before the Big Showdown™? Does he just have that much faith in Obi-Wan? Did the Force tell him as much? Personally, I’m rooting for someone to write a crack fic where Obi-Wan comms him mid-flight through something he installed in Chopper or something and tells him, leading to a wacky correspondence. (Utmost secrecy and security risks? What utmost secrecy and security risks?)

• I was slightly disappointed not to get any more of Luke than his silhouette (well, Ezra’s silhouette, if we’re going to be technical lol – Rebels re-used footage of Ezra to save time & money) in the closing scene, but I also thought it was kind of fitting. The closer we get to the timeline of ANH, the stronger Luke’s shadow looms over Rebels, after all.

• The closing scene in general!!! I get chills each time I watch it. It really ties “The Journals of Ben Kenobi”, the Rebels series, and ANH together nicely. All we needed was for Obi-Wan’s bantha family to make an appearance… ;-)

• As much as I loved “Twin Suns”, I think it would have worked better if they’d cut just a smidgeon of the ‘wandering in the desert’ bits and used that extra time to 1. Show a point in Obi-Wan and Ezra’s conversation where Obi-Wan gets Ezra to promise not to tell anyone that he’s still alive and on Tatooine, or 2. Shown us Kanan’s reaction to learning that Obi-Wan is still alive… and is hiding on a backwater planet instead of searching for remaining Jedi and/or helping the Rebellion (I’d love to see the other characters’ reactions to this news too, but Kanan’s reaction is the one that is most important thematically), or 3. Use their original draft’s plotline, which involved Ezra and Kanan going to Tatooine instead of Ezra and Chopper. This last scenario would have the added benefit of more narrative ‘showing’ than ‘telling’ when it comes to Kanan’s reaction, and it would allow for further streamlining of the episode, as TPTB could then cut out most of the scenes with the rest of the Ghost crew (which, although enjoyable, split the audience’s focus in an undesirable way in this episode, IMO, even if they did act as nice bookends). Any of these options would have made for a much tighter, less rushed, more coherent, and more satisfying episode.

All criticisms and analyses aside, I really liked “Twin Suns”. Although it’s enriched by knowledge of previous Rebels episodes, it can stand on its own. I’d say it’s definitely among the best work Rebels has produced and is a worthy addition to new Star Wars canon.

#phos replies #spectral-musette #obi wan kenobi #darth maul #star wars rebels #star wars meta #things done by phos #star wars #perfect parallels #star wars prequels #star wars original trilogy #swr #meta #death #star wars is pain & suffering #star wars is perseverance & hope

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