#symbolism in religion

[parwatisingari]

Honoring the Dikpala.

Assuming that majority of the readers are Hindus, how many of your really pay attention  to the muttering of the priest. They perform this ritual called the Lokapaala whatever, in theatre parlance, we call it the Dikpala  puja or the worshipping of the keepers of the cardinal directions. For quite a few years I slept through all these mantras, which were muttered without any explanation, and if…

[the-evil-clergyman]

The Dance of Salome or the Golden Butterflies by Gaston Bussière (1923)

[ashleyloob]

I randomly got dragged to Mormon church and met the illustrator for A Series of Unfortunate Events who is apparently a bishop at the church, and now we are Instagram mutuals. today was so bizarre

[illustratus]

The Parca and the Angel of Death by Gustave Moreau

[brucewaynehater101]

Jason, religious guilt, and the symbolism of him being compared to Lucifer, God's most beautiful creation and beloved son that was cast away when he rebelled against His power.

[eviqur]

†

cause you deserve to be blessed with much more than what god gave you my dear.

[thesilicontribesman]

Eassie Pictish Symbol Stone, Eassie, Scotland

[acheronist]

ok anyways fuck whatever is going on in the rest of my life IT'S LITERALLY JORRINGTON EXHUMATION ANNIVERSARY DAY!!!!!! i drew this ages and ages and ages ago when i started getting into researching the real expedition instead of just obsessing over the tv show and i do fear i'm never going to finish it lol so i'll just post the lineart rn. yay okay.

[ranahan]

Here’s a wild fan theory:

You see these blue triangles on Din’s gauntlets?

And these two little triangles on Boba’s (Jango’s) helmet?

And kind of here on Jaster’s cuirass?

I’ve pondered the significance (there was a post that made the connection between the triangles on the armour of various Mandalorians and clones, but I can’t find it anymore) and here’s my wild little theory.

You know what’s significant in Mandalorian culture and associated with the number three? The three Mandalorian gods Kad Ha’rangir, Arasuum and Hod Ha’ran.

So maybe for the Taung the triangle was a symbol of the three gods, the cosmic battle between growth and stagnation, and the Mandalorian faith as a whole. I like the idea of the triangle standing on one of its corners (“upside down”) ▽: the two upper corners are growth and stagnation, the bottom corner represents the fickle nature of fortune which may at any point tip the scales this or that way. The arrangement of the corners is also reminiscent of the iconic T-visor, and in that way, the T could be another representation of the idea of these teetering scales of cosmic battle.

After the Mandalorian Wars, the Mandalorians reinterpreted their old faith, came to view the gods as metaphors, and moved towards the belief in the Manda, the collective oversoul. And perhaps they also reused and reinterpreted a lot of the old iconography.

So for the modern Mandalorians, one triangle is symbolic of the Manda, the collective oversoul and shared identity. And two triangles… well, what’s significant in Mandalorian culture and associated with the number six? The Resol’nare, or the six actions. Or in Din’s case (his gauntlets are of course a pair, so 6 corners in total), The Way of the Mandalore.

And I like to think that the placement might also be significant. Perhaps Din’s are on his hands to signify honour: “the Way guides my actions.” Boba’s over his view plate might signify vision. Jaster’s around his kar’ta, perhaps justice or faith. Near the mouth parts, truth. On the back of the helmet or on the back plate, it might be a protective cantrip: “watch my back.” And on the shins or feet, a wish for the Manda to guide one’s steps.

[gaslightgirlsummer]

thinking about how lestat is aggressively atheist and jaded towards god and church yet when he meets louis for the first time he calls him his saint and ends up turning him in a church. love is lestat’s religion, louis the highest idol to worship. the gods have always demanded a sacrifice in blood and that very night lestat’s spilled plenty to appease them. he kills the priests of the religion he rejected and the only two people left in the church are him and louis, the believers of a new faith of overwhelming love and terrifying intimacy, reclaiming this temple for themselves. there’s no need for confession here, they know each other viscerally. there’s no need for atonement, for their sins are embraced. it’s a transformation and it’s a communion and it’s transcendence. their axis mundi has shifted; they’re creating their own cosmogony

[inamindfarfaraway]

The Exorcists’ Masks of Virtue

The vast majority of Exorcists in Hazbin Hotel have a notable design element that other angels don’t: their masks are missing an eye. Specifically, the right eye.

I believe this is a reference to the Bible, Matthew 5:29. Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

He’s being hyperbolic. Mr Free Healthcare was not pro-mutilation. What he means is that you have to be willing to make sacrifices to prevent sin. The context of the eye metaphor is him condemning adultery and warning that even something as easy, casual and small as a look full of lustful intent can lead to further, worse sin if you don’t notice your sin, hold yourself accountable for it and do the work to not let it influence your decisions. This will probably be hard. It could be very, very painful. Changing your perspective can feel as horrible as plucking out your eye, so many people can’t bring themselves to do it. But although it won’t feel that way in the moment, it’s healthier for our general wellbeing in the long run to abandon traits and behaviours that damage ourselves and/or others.

(You may notice that Jesus’s teaching that you can have sinned, redeem yourself by giving up sin and thus escape damnation is the founding principle of the Hazbin Hotel. You may also notice that it contradicts everything the Exorcists believe.)

The Exorcists seem to follow this idea of painfully excising badness for the sake of the greater good devoutly to the point of placing it above teachings like ‘Thou shalt not kill’, with their job being to remove sin, in the form of sinners, to protect Heaven. Hence the missing right eyes. They’re a declaration of moral righteousness and inability to stumble.

But the truth is that the Exorcists all have their right eyes. Their flawlessness is a facade. Underneath, they are untouched, think themselves morally untouchable and, as shown by their horror and outrage when even one of them is killed, would much rather be physically untouchable too. This perfectly represents their complete unwillingness to acknowledge their own faults, let alone improve. They are never the ones who sacrifice. They force the sinners to sacrifice and don’t compensate it with any salvation. They metaphorically rip out the sinners’ eyes, but still condemn their entire bodies as inherently, permanently sinful. So they’ll just have to do another Extermination to get the other eyes! And another one to cut off their right hands! And so on until there’s nothing left.

The only exception to the rule is Vaggie, both in appearance and character. Her mask has the left eye crossed out instead. Even before her expulsion, she’s set apart to the audience as an Exorcist who has the capacity to, shall we say, see a different side of things. Her mask having its ‘sinful’ right eye reflects her understanding that the Exorcist worldview is wrong.

When she almost kills a demon child, her hateful vision clears. She discards the part of herself that’s an unquestioning, merciless agent of death, terror and grief… and as punishment for what Lute perceives as treacherous weakness, gets her eye plucked out.

Of course Lute leaves her with only the ‘sinful’ eye. It brands Vaggie forever as the inversion, a perversion, of what the Exorcists are meant to be.

You know, all this talk of eye removal in the Bible reminds me of another line - ‘an eye for an eye’. Adam directly quotes it in “Hell is Forever”. He uses it to frame the Exterminations as Old Testament-style punitive justice; the sinners did harm and so they receive it. But putting aside the debate about how ethical the concept of revenge is, the entire point of taking an eye for an eye is that it’s proportional. The punishment fits the crime. If someone cuts your eye out, you shouldn’t murder their whole family in front of them and then slowly disembowel them to death. That would be the sin of wrath. You should just make them pay without excessive pain or collateral damage. This is the fairest form of revenge.

The Exorcists don’t do that! The Exterminations aren’t proportional to the wrongs of all they hurt, nor was Vaggie’s brutal punishment equivalent to her extremely mild insubordination. Lute literally takes Vaggie’s eye, and more, after Vaggie does nothing to her! That’s the opposite of the phrase! Adam and his soldiers are wrathful and cruel, deriving satisfaction from others’ suffering. But they just can’t stop going on and on about how disgustingly evil the sinners are, in total hypocrisy… despite some of the sinners being far better people than the genocidal Exorcists are… it’s like they’re obsessed with specks of dust in the sinners’ eyes when they have massive logs stuck in their own. Oh hey, that’s in the Bible too!

[the-evil-clergyman]

Die Sünde by Franz von Stuck (1893)

[mythologyofthepoetandthemuse]

The Derveni Krater, a masterpiece of ancient metalwork. Found in Derveni, near Thessaloniki, in 1965. The funerary inscription on the krater writes it's dedicated to Astiouneios, son of Anaxagoras, from Larissa, an aristocrat. Some believe that this elaborate artefact was made in Athens while others suppose that it could be created in the Macedonian court, the date of its creation isn't clear as well, generally categorised as Hellenistic. What is most important though is the krater's vivid, playful and sensual decoration with satyrs, maenads and the pair of Dionysus and Ariadne. Usually, when someone died unmarried and the family had the means, such a depiction of a happy mated afterlife was preferred so to comfort the relatives for their loss. The relationship depicted between Dionysus and Ariadne seems more than sensual, the transparency of her clothing, along with his nakedness and their stances are more than revealing of their common passion.

Now at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece. The Derveni Krater may seem gold but it's actually made of bronze.

[illustratus]

Glory to the Hero by Nicholas Roerich

[my4ththerapist]

nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING will get me as riled up as religious symbolism

[jupiter-nwn]

3:6

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat..."

"Finally, tired, with fear and unsteadiness, Nightmare decided to show everyone that he wasn't bad, that he could be good, that he could protect the golden fruits just like his little brother."

Someone was having thoughts about the apples and symbolism and Nightmare, like. I am not immune to all of this, like yes Dream is my blorbo overall but like come onnnnnnn