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horreurscopes: “ trashfirefallon: “ detailedart: “Detail: The Fallen Angel, 2007, by Arantzazu Martinez | If you are sensitive to the majestic beauty and delicacy of this painting, don’t go searching for his head. Just enjoy the little things about...
detailedart

Detail: The Fallen Angel, 2007, by Arantzazu Martinez | If you are sensitive to the majestic beauty and delicacy of this painting, don’t go searching for his head. Just enjoy the little things about life.

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horreurscopes

Source: detailedart

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divinum-pacis

Divinum Pacis’s Reference Guide

divinum-pacis

Throughout school, and especially now since I’ve graduated, I’ve collected a ton of books on religion, philosophy and the like in my pursuit of more knowledge. Let’s face it, schooling is expensive, and you can’t cram everything you want to know into 4+ years. It takes a lifetime (and then some). So if you’re like me and want to learn more, here’s a slightly-organized list of some books I find particularly insightful and enjoyable.

Hinduism

  1. Hinduism by Klaus K. Klostermaier (good introductory text)
  2. Bhagavad Gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupada (trans. from a religious standpoint)
  3. The Mahabharata, parts 1 & 2 by Ramesh Menon (super long but incredibly comprehensive)
  4. The Upanishads by Juan Mascaro (an excellent introductory translation)
  5. In Praise of the Goddess by Devadatta Kali (the Devi Mahatmya with English & Sanskrit texts/explanations of texts)
  6. The Bhagavad Gita by Barbara Stoler Miller (a non-religious translation)
  7. Beyond Birth and Death by Srila Prabhupada (on death & reincarnation)
  8. The Science of Self-Realization by Srila Prabhupada
  9. Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God (Srimad Bhagavatam) by Edwin F. Bryant (totally gorgeous translation)
  10. The Perfection of Yoga by Srila Prabhupada (about “actual” yoga, not yoga pants and whatnot)
  11. 7 Secrets of the Goddess by Devdutt Pattanaik (all about Hindu goddesses, myths and symbolism)

Christianity

  1. The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (NRSV with Apocrypha) (a very big and very reliable Biblical translation)
  2. Introducing the New Testament by Mark Allen Powell
  3. The Illustrated World Encyclopedia of Saints by Tessa Paul (for those who like a little color with their texts)
  4. Who’s Who in the Bible by Jean-Pierre Isbouts (really cool book, thick with history, both Biblical and otherwise)
  5. Synopsis of the Four Gospels (RSV) by Kurt Aland (shows the four NT gospels side by side, verse by verse for easy textual comparison)
  6. The Word Made Flesh by Margaret R. Miles (history of Christianity)
  7. Behold Your Mother by Tim Staples (Catholic approach to the Virgin Mary)
  8. Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary by Miri Rubin (anthropological and historical text)
  9. Marian Veneration by Francis Cardinal Arinze (Catholic p.o.v.)
  10. Systematic Theology by Thomas P. Rausch
  11. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Fr. Michael Romazansky (Eastern Orthodox Christianity)
  12. Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska (very spiritual)
  13. The Names of God by George W. Knight (goes through every name and reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Bible)
  14. Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church by Alfredo Tradigo (for those who like art history AND religion)
  15. The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God by St. John Maximovitch (the Orthodox approach to the Virgin Mary)

Judaism

  1. Hebrew-English Tanakh by the Jewish Publication Society
  2. Essential Judaism by George Robinson (a new edition was recently published- this is THE book if you’re looking to learn about Judaism)
  3. The Talmud: A Selection by Norman Solomon
  4. Judaism by Dan & Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok (introductory text)
  5. The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition by the Jewish Publication Society (great explanations of passages)
  6. The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai

Islam

  1. The Handy Islam Answer Book by John Renard (a comprehensive guide to all your questions)
  2. The Illustrated Rumi by Philip Dunn, Manuela Dunn Mascetti, & R.A. Nicholson (Sufi poetry)
  3. Islam and the Muslim World by Mir Zohair Husain (general history of Islam)
  4. The Quran: A Contemporary Understanding by Safi Kaskas (Quran with Biblical references in the footnotes for comparison)
  5. Essential Sufism by Fadiman & Frager (select Sufi texts)
  6. Psychological Foundation of the Quran, parts 1, 2, & 3 by Muhammad Shoaib Shahid
  7. Hadith by Jonathan A.C. Brown (the history of Hadith and Islam)
  8. The Story of the Quran, 2nd ed. by Ingrid Mattson (history and development of the Quran)
  9. The Book of Hadith by Charles Le Gai Eaton (a small selection of Hadith)
  10. The Holy Quran by Maulana Muhammad Ali (Arabic to English translation, the only translation I’ve read cover-to-cover)
  11. Mary and Jesus in the Quran by Abdullah Yusuf’Ali
  12. Blessed Names and Attributes of Allah by A.R. Kidwai (small, lovely book)

Buddhism

  1. The Tibetan Book of the Dead by John Baldock (the texts explained and illustrated)
  2. Teachings of the Buddha by Jack Kornfield (lovely selection of Buddhist verses and stories)
  3. Understanding Buddhism by Perry Schmidt-Leukel (great introductory text)
  4. Essential Tibetan Buddhism by Robert Thurman (collection of select chants, prayers, and rituals in Tibetan traditions)

East Asian Religions

  1. Tao Te Ching by Chad Hansen (a beautiful, illustrated translation)
  2. The Analects by Confucius
  3. Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell 
  4. Shinto: The Kami Way by Sokyo Ono (introductory text)
  5. Understanding Chinese Religions by Joachim Gentz (discusses the history and development of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism in China)
  6. Taoism: An Essential Guide by Eva Wong (pretty much everything you need to know on Taoism)

African Traditions

  1. Prayer in the Religious Traditions of Africa by Aylward Shorter (a bit dated but sentimental)
  2. The Holy Piby: The Black Man’s Bible by Shepherd Robert Athlyi Rogers
  3. The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook by Kenaz Filan
  4. The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santeria by Marta Moreno Vega (autobiography of an Afro-Puerto Rican Santeria priestess)
  5. African Religions: A Very Short Introduction by Jacob K. Olupona (the title says it all but this book is very good!)

General Religions

  1. American Indian Myths and Legends by Erdoes & Ortiz
  2. Living Religions, 9th ed. by Mary Pat Fisher (introductory textbook)
  3. The Wind is My Mother by Bear Heart (Native American spirituality)
  4. The Essential Mystics: Selections from the World’s Great Wisdom Traditions by Andrew Harvey (covers Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Greek, Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions) 
  5. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices by Mary Boyce
  6. The Baha’i Faith by Moojan Momen (introductory text)
  7. Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction by Eleanor Nesbitt
  8. The Essence of the Gnostics by Bernard Simon
  9. Whispers of Stone by Tess Dawson (on Modern Canaanite Religion)
  10. Understanding Jainism by Lawrence A. Babb
  11. The Sacred Wisdom of Native Americans by Larry J. Zimmerman
  12. Freemasonry for Dummies by Christopher Hodapp 
  13. Christopaganism by Joyce & River Higginbotham
  14. Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions by Joyce & River Higginbotham
  15. The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall (huge book on esoteric and occult religions)
  16. Saints: The Chosen Few by Manuela Dunn-Mascetti (illustrated; covers saints from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and more)

Social

  1. Divided by Faith by Michael O. Emerson (on racism and Christianity in America)
  2. Problems of Religious Diversity by Paul J. Griffiths
  3. Not in God’s Name by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (on religious terrorism)
  4. Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan by William R. LaFleur (it says it all in the title)
  5. The Sacred and the Profane by Mircea Eliade (difficult but worthwhile read)
  6. The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong (the evolutionary history of some of the world’s greatest religions)
  7. Roman Catholics and Shi’i Muslims: Prayer, Passion, and Politics by James A. Bill (a comparison of the similarities between Catholicism & Shi’a Islam)
  8. The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, & Witchcraft, 3rd ed. by Rebecca L. Stein
  9. The Goddess: Power, Sexuality, and the Feminine Divine by Shahrukh Husain (a personal favorite; an anthropological look at goddesses and women from cultures around the world)
  10. God: A Human History by Reza Aslan (discusses the evolution of religion, specifically Abrahamic and ancient Middle Eastern traditions)
  11. A History of God by Karen Armstrong (similar to Aslan’s book but much more extensive)

Reference Books

  1. Understanding World Religions by Len Woods (approaches world religions from a Biblical perspective) 
  2. Mythology by Edith Hamilton (covers Greek, Roman, & Norse mythology)
  3. Scriptures by Arturo Pascual (extensive introduction to dozens of religious texts)
  4. The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions by Keith Crim
  5. A Dictionary of Angels Including the Fallen Angels by Gustav Davidson
  6. Dictionary of Mythology by Bergen Evans
  7. The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism & Daoism by Jack Miles, etc.
  8. The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Judaism, Christianity, & Islam by Jack Miles, etc.
  9. Goddesses in World Mythology by Dorothy Imel (dictionary of over 30,000 goddesses)
gallusrostromegalus

On Tradition

gallusrostromegalus

Welcome to another thanksgivng themed Family Lore!  Content warnings: Food, bigotry, fire and explosions, knife mention, conspiracy theories and Ohio.  Please mind the tags, your health and safety always come first.

It’s November of 2012 and the last time I’m going to Ohio on purpose.   My grandparents had passed away within a week of each other that February and since my mom’s family had spent the last decade caring for them there was sort of a void- we’d been putting aside grudges and problems in the interest of their comfort, but also setting aside interests and hobbies to make time for them.  How would we get along without that purpose and burden?

So, the first family Thanksgiving my family had been able to attend in a decade was arranged, part family gathering, part wake.  We drove from Colorado this time, I’d been taking a semester off after a viral infection nearly killed me, and my sister taking a gap year before college.  Everyone was going to be there- my mother’s brother family, My grandmother’s sister and her daughter and her husband, Sue and Cliff.

Sue never really got the hang of critical thinking and as such conservative politics and conspiracy theories held tremendous appeal to her, and that crossed with the family’s double-dominant Dramatic Hoe Genes means that she’s prone to the occasional spectacular leap of illogic and will fight you in the street to defend it.

A decade prior, she’d taken issue with how my uncle stuffed the Turkey.

Seriously, read that one it’ll make this story make a lot more sense.

Upon arrival, she seemed to have mellowed slightly in the past 11 years and we had an entire salient conversation about fishing whilst preparing the bird.  It was a little strange- after the last decade, it was like I was meeting the entire family again for the first time, but things were going well and I was starting to remember things again.  Maybe I’d figure out how to get back next year.

“We should establish some more traditions!” Mom suggested after Aunt Stephanie mentioned how odd it was to not have grandma and grampa around.  Being raised a 5th generation agnostic has got some advantages- I’ve never gotten up before noon on a sunday- but the lack of religious structure means you’ve gotta DIY your holiday rituals sometimes.  We were used to applying this to Agnosticmas already and were willing to build Thanksgiving 2.0 (now with 200% less revisionist history!) if necessary.

“Like what? Decorations?”

“Yeah, food, decorations, party games, things like that.  Bobby seems game to do his Pregnant Turkey every year, so that’s one down.  Now all we need is some festive decorations and a party game and we’ll have a real traditional holiday.”

“Hand turkeys?” Suggested my sister.  

“We still have pumpkins we didn’t carve at Halloween, we could make a turkey out of those?” Said cousin Sam.

“Oh yeah with the decorative gourds in the hallway- the long one is the neck and- do we have corn for the tail?” I said, missing art class and feeling entirely too overconfident in my ability to handle knives.  Thusly, everyone under 40 went off to the garage to create a Squash facsimile of Ohio’s Most Murderous Avian.

We were doing pretty good for most of it- there was the initial debate as to whether the mock-turkey was going to be cooked or still kicking, but that was quickly settled by the locating of a spectacularly ugly nobbly gourd to be it’s head, but then JohnJack brought up an important point:

“Are we going to be putting a candle in this like a jack-o-lantern?”

We all paused, staring at the half-gutted pumpkin we’d started disemboweling on instinct like a horde of overexcited serial killers.  

“I mean, we’re definitely setting him on fire eventually.” I said like a sane and rational person that should definitely be holding an eight-inch knife.  “But I think the corn leaves would catch so we probably shouldn’t do that inside.  We’ll set it on fire AFTER the meal, as a sacrifice to harvest gods.”

“That sounds reasonable.”  Said cousin Sam, up to her elbows in pumpkin guts like another sane and reasonable person who should be allowed to have knives.

“What are we going to call him?” Asked my sister, shovelling the rest of pumpkin guts out like the only responsible adult in the room.

“Bob.”  Said Sam.

“Your brother is named JohnJack because you guys named literally every dude Bob for like eight generations there, are you really going to start that up again?”  Said my sister.

“Slagthor the Annihilator.” Suggested JohnJack.

“MUCH BETTER.” we all agreed, and set about the complicated technical challenge of getting his head to stay on securely enough to last through dinner.

Slagthor turned into a thing of beauty and terror- he had a resplendent tail of multicolored corn cobs and leaves, wings carved from the sides of the pumpkin and carefully offset and filled in with corn leaves, a long goose-gourd for his neck and some hideous knobbly thing for his face, the twisted stem a menacing beak. We even got him to stand with creative use of aluminum wire left on the garage workbench and another pair of drumstick-shaped gourds.  The effect was completed by a pair of sunglasses balanced carefully on his stem-beak, giving him a fun, 90’s-radical kind of look.  He was greeted with many oohs and Ahs and genuine surprise that none of us had lost a finger making him.

“It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!”  Mom declared.

Things were feeling chill, feeling fun now, and we sat down to dinner under the watchful bespectacled gaze of Slagthor, who had been put up on the mantle as master of ceremonies.  Everyone went around the table and said what they were thankful for- being able to gather, the time we had together, that the turkey didn’t catch in the smoker this year- and we sat down to what was a pleasant dining experience until about two glasses of wine in, when in the middle of an unrelated conversation on raised garden beds and rabbit control, Aunt Sue opened her mouth:

“-And Osama Bin Laden’s death was a Hoax!”

The conversation came to a sudden halt and there was a collective spiritual groan at the table, as everyone tried to avoid eye contact with her.  Cousin JohnJack got up from the table in disgust.

“I saw the maps! Abbottabad is nowhere NEAR the ocean!”

Her mother, unfortunately, took the bait.

“Sue, the navy has helicopters, they don’t need to take the boat everywhere.”

“They couldn’t drive a helicopter with their flippers!” said Sue excitedly now that someone was engaging with her.

“They wouldn’t need Scuba gear in the desert Sue.”  Said Uncle Bobby, taking up the fight since she wasn’t going to shut up about this.

“Why would a Seal need Scuba gear?”  She said.

There was a long minute of confused silence as we tried to puzzle that out. I recused myself immediately and continued eating twice-baked potato.

“Sue…” My father said cautiously, having stumbled upon her line of reasoning.  “SEAL is an acronym for Sea,Air, Land.  They’re human men, not trained seals.”

“No, the navy trains animals to do things underwater, they have dolphins that find bombs!”  She argued.

“That was a TV show, Sue.”  he said gently.  “Flipper wasn’t real.”

Sue faltered, opening and closing her mouth like a confused grouper. “It-it-!”  She stammered, scrambling for another theory to satisfy herself.

“Hey can we clear up so we can set Slagthor on fire before it starts snowing?” I said, which gave everyone a nice out.  

We gathered in the front yard, dressed like michelin men to ward off the late-november cold, and set Slagthor atop the stump Uncle Bobby had failed to dynamite out the year before.  We gathered around as Johnjack carefully lit his tail, then watched in confusion as he sprinted back towards the house.  The more mentally adept members of the family started sprinting as well.

“Why are you all standing there?”  he asked from the porch.

“It’s cold and we want to be near the fire, why are you running?” Asked Aunt Stephanie.

“We’re destroying him, so-”

JohnJack was interrupted by Slagthor suddenly and violently exploding, flaming cobs of corn and miniature gourds flying in all directions and the pumpkin amplifying the sound of the roman candle inside to a deafening roar.  The family scattered, taking whatever cover was available- cars, snow drifts and shrubbery alike.  It took a good three minutes for Slagthor to stop exploding, reduced to a charred ring of squash and flaming pieces of produce scattered about the front lawn.  In the distance, sirens began to wail.

“- SoI stuffed him full of fireworks.”  He explained.  

We all glared at him from our various partial covers.

“I shoulda said that earlier, right?”

“Yes JohnJack,  You get to clean him up.”

And thusly, the family thanksgiving 2.0’s traditions are set: the Pregnant Turkey, The telling and defending of the wildest conspiriacies we can think of, and the creation and destruction of a produce turkey.

This year I’m planning on “The earth isn’t a ball OR flat, it’s actually shaped like a donut, with the equator on the outside and the poles in the middle.  The moon is the donut hole.”  and putting Slagthor the Harvest Turkey out on a float so he explodes in the lake like a particularly dramatic viking funeral.

If you enjoyed this story, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or PayPal, as this is my primary source of income. Thank you!

jakattax

Anonymous asked:

Dumb ask: can you pact an angel?

jakattax answered:

Hey.

Not that dumb really. Depends on the angel, depends on the reason WHY you wish to make this pact. Celestial spirits will assist you through petitions providing you contact an angel appropriate for your needs and that your request isn’t too much of a selfish one.

Most, if not all Demons are happy to help in any regard, but angels are more finicky and choosey as in if you ask an angelic spirit for favourys to win that lottery, then it won’t respond to that kind of selfish ask. Matters of justice and equality, petitions which are literally more wholesome shall probably garner results.

Probably.

Angels are in every regard above us. Demons are below us, demons are akin to scabby wild dogs who’ll do anything in return for a juicy slab of meat. Angels are your house proud cats, who turn their heads at you and don’t really care what happens to you. Very tricky customers.

momolady

Momo Monsterlist Part 1

momolady

Huge shout out to @thetravelerwrites who did all the backbreaking labor of making these masterlists. Don’t thank me, go thank her.

Part Two

Ruby Empire:

Rakshasa Court: Amit, Ravi, Kalidas, Sharif, Foluke, Imani and Mateo, Adi (MLM), Rokshi(Trans), Hapi & Kairav (Poly; Part 1, Part 2), Akio the Tengu,

Royalty: Golem King (Part 1, Part 2), Cetus Prince, Lich King (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Queen Nadine the Naga (WLW), Ikid the Ifrit, Lizardfolk King Niran, Mora (Poly), Unseelie King, Florent the Drider and Meihui the Moth, Fairy Queen Amadi (WLW), Seif the Sabertooth(MLM),

Pirates and Nobles: Autry the Pirate, Unicorn, Phanes the Griffin (Part 1, Part 2), Brieffstien the Minotaur (Part 1, Part 2), Bray the Dragon Pirate, Griel (Part 1, Part 2)

Obresh Villagers: Max, Jasper the Lizardman (Part 1, Part 2), Nictis the Skeleton, Malachi the Changeling, Braug, Rovil the Possessed Halfling (Part 1, Part 2), Bolivar, Merlind the Mimic (Part 1, Part 2), Dura, Gilta, Odd the Tiefling (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Clain, Seven Dwarves, Teshi (Ace)

Orcs, Dragons, and Fae: Rube (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Kurz, Burul (Part 1, Part 2), Maim, Rhazien, Iorgos, Ora, Astarot, Aekayli, Pike the Hydra (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Toris the Unseelie, Beist (Non-Binary), Vela the Fairy Knight (WLW), Myrlie the Fairy, The Red Knight, Klasha the Unseelie Knight, Hisso the Dragon,

War of the Crowned Jewels Arc: Demir the Centaur (Part 1, Part 2), Nadeem the Gnoll (Part 1, Part 2,) Amit and Mythri (Part 1, Part 2), The Rakshasa War (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Gnoll Empress Bathsabe, Emperor Nadeem (Part 1, Part 2),

Other Ruby Empire Residents: Harpy (WLW), Manticore (Part 1, Part 2), Gale the Tiefling, Ermolai the Gorgon & Gergo the Mimic (Poly; Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Golem (Part 1, Part 2), Codras the Minotaur (Part 1, Part 2), Kraken, Underwater Gargoyle, Centaur/Deertaur(Poly), Aphi & Sela the Lamia (Poly; Part 1, Part 2), Merle the Gorgon, Living Armor, Fluffy the Wendigo, Iomhair the Centaur, Brigid the Cyclops (WLW), Chestre the Gorgon (WLW), Disguised Lovers

———————————————–

Hearthway Hollow:

Werewolves: Prince Adam (Part 1, Part 2), Kalem (MLM), Saul, Big Billy, Jack (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Kamila, Ivan (Part 1, Part 2), Harun (Prequel, Part 1, Part 2), Kane, Rosie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Anna (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4), Roman & Harris (Poly), Edgar (MLM), Charlie (Trans WLW; Part 1, Part 2), Beau, Rowan, Kirby, Ariell, Angelo (Part 1, Part 2), Theo, Kai (Part 1, Part 2), Dart (MLM)

Other Hearthway Residents: Rubi the Spider (Part 1, Part 2), Asav the Naga (Part 1, Part 2), Andres the Ghost, Felix the Minotaur (Part 1, Part 2), Vampire Bat 1, Vampire Bat 2, Bigfoot, Bea the Vampire

———————————————–

Beyond the Sea:

Levi the Fishman (Part 1, Part 2), Mako the Sharkman (Part 1, Part 2), Mermaid, Cecaelia, Jellyfish, Lusca the Cetus, Kya the Fishwoman

———————————————–

Other Others:

Fluffy the Dragon, Markus the Dragon (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Gigi the Satyr & Reggie the Gorgon (Part 1, Part 2), A Cautionary Tale, Plur the Slime, Phineas the Dragon, Anubis (Non-Binary), Hades & Persephone (Poly; Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Dragon, Slenderman, Palmyre,

———————————————–

Huntress in the Castle (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6(Wattpad)

Cursed Creatures (Full Story)

hungarianator
writing-prompt-s

You, an atheist, have died. All the gods that have ever been line up to offer you their version of heaven if only you believe in _them_. Turns out souls are currency and yours is up for grabs.

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses

There are many Gods. They speak, and I am tired. A mass of voices coiling around me, each telling their own tale. They speak over one another, they talk to me, they do not listen. And I am tired.

Currency. Is this what I am to them?

They will not stop speaking. They offer me things. They will take me to my loved ones. They will gift me joy and music. They will have me serve, in their armies, in their choirs. Some tell me stories of how they made me. From clay. From nothing at all. Some tell me they love me, small as I am, that I am their creation and so their child.

Above all, they repeat their stories. They talk incessantly of their power, their battles, of the ways and reasons they are feared. How long will they talk? Time does not happen here. It is so much effort to stay. Effort to maintain. Effort to exist.

So many Gods. Gods whose names I had already heard. Modern Gods whose human disciples still speak their names. Obscure Gods whose stories were written on tablets, on scrolls, thousands of years before, whose only proof and records were discovered underground, in caves, in ancient lands. Every God there ever was. They are all here with me. They have been talking for years. They repeat their stories. Their stories are important to them. They demand, plead for my attention.

I died knowing I was dying. I died as I lived, believing in no Creator, no great demiurge, and no final salvation from death. Knowing that gods were stories we told. I believed only in the universe. That it existed before me and would continue without me.

And it has.

The voices scream their stories. Why are they so desperate for me? Despite their insistence, I know what I knew before. My truth is unchanged. My truth is of the universe, of its physics and particles, of its probable beginnings, of its possible ends. Of the simple fact of existence.

These gods are not my creator. I was created by a long line of life, of unlikely Life happening and colliding and continuing. Eons. Three, four eons, billions of years all lined up behind me, all of my predecessors, their lives and their stories, they are my chapters and I am their sum. I am the story of Life, in all its improbably glory. And gods are as old as humans, but I am as old as Life, and Life is much older.

I think I’ve solved it. I think I know why they seek us. They want what Life wants. To exist. To continue. They need their legends told, at any expense, because:

We wrote them. I said before: gods are stories that we write and tell. We are their Creators. And this is why they scream for me, for my ears, for my attention. Stories exist only so long as they are told. Gods exist only so long as they have a listener. And I know they have nothing to offer me. There are no rooms, there are no gates, there are no hallways, no crowds for me to join. They only keep me here to listen. If I accept an offer, what then? Will they stop speaking, disappointed, and leave me? Will they keep delaying? Will the god of my choice sweep in, desperate, and keep me here as long as I can be convinced?

All of my being is tired. Life is not meant to persist this long after it is through. My presence and existence, temporary from the start, is loosening and loosening. All of my pieces beg to be released. I was not made to last.

I am through. I have given these voices enough.

So I do what life does when it is finished. I dissolve, and return to the world.

hungarianator

“I am the story of Life in all it’s improbable glory.” is my fav quote so far in all of Tumblr, thanks for making my day, creepy fellow

Source: writing-prompt-s
sabbatine

A History of Fandom Purges

olderthannetfic

I’m curious how many related deletions we can come up with.

  • 2002 - FFN bans porn
  • 2002 - FFN bans RPF
  • 2004 - FFN bans script format
  • 2005 - FFN bans CYOA, Readerfic, 2nd person, Songfic
  • 2007 - Strikethrough, Boldthrough
  • 2009 - GeoCities shuts down, taking old fannish websites
  • 2010 - FFN forums deleted
  • 2011 - Delicious destroyed by Yahoo’s incompetence
  • 2012 - major FFN crackdown on porn
  • 2014 - Quizilla shuts down
  • 2015 - Journalfen’s servers become fully robust, deleting Fandom Wank

Didn’t quizilla have purges before finally shutting down? And I know basically every vidding home hot destroyed, repeatedly taking out the entire history of vidding online.

unclutterme

… they deleted Fandom Wank???

olderthannetfic

Well, not specifically. Journalfen failed completely and has never come back. FW was on Journalfen, so while you can see some entries on the Wayback machine, I think (?), the long comment threads aren’t archived.

elfwreck

  • 2007 - Youtube starts using its “content ID” system to identify (and block) works that include copyrighted material in their database.
  • 2009 - Greatestjournal shuts down, taking down fandom’s biggest collection of blog-style RPGs
  • 2012 - Megaupload shut down by FBI; some (many?) fanvid archives lost

I thought there was also some kind of purge at Deviantart, but I don’t recall the details.

pearlmaser

I’d like to remind folks that there was literally wank last month about why do we need the OTW.

Well, this would be why: we sincerely believed in the internet values of a decade or two ago, which involved owning our own servers if we wanted to see our projects remain stable, in the long term, online.

liz-squids

Worth mentioning: Yahoo purchased GeoCities, and was behind the decision to shut all those sites down. 

Yahoo’s incompetence destroyed Delicious.

Yahoo owns Tumblr.

whitmerule

1356: 50% of monks.

tsuki-chibi

People just… completely forget. I was there for all of the bans on fanfiction.net. You don’t know panic until you go to log in one morning and find out a bunch of your works have been deleted, gone forever, because some asshole arbitrarily decided that they wanted to ban something.

AO3 IS IMPORTANT. IT MATTERS.

cameoamalthea

2016 -y!gallery an archive of m/m art and stories, original and fanfiction was completely destroyed and all works were lost

Y!gallery itself was originally built in response to Sheezy art banning adult themes in 2005

Deviant Art in my experience says it doesn’t allow porn but will allow erotic art of women to reach the front page, straight male gaze gets a pass. Art focused on men is more likely to get deleted.

A lot of things destroyed by anti-porn rules are really anti-porn not made by and for straight men. It’s women’s and queer folks work that is demonized.

elder-lemon

^^^^^ i actually tested this when i was on DA. I drew a bunch of s*xually e*plicit vag*nas and d*cks and the d*cks were removed within 24 hours. the vag*nas were never reported.

these bans are attacks on women and queer/LGBTQ people. the straight male gaze is apparently the only legitimate n sfw view

greywash

You missed some:

Fandom purges are almost never just about one thing. Fannish content both relies on fair use exemption and is frequently sexually explicit, so it gets attacked on both copyright/legal grounds (thank you, OTW Legal Team, for protecting us!) and TOS/hoster rules about porn/specific fictional content (thank you, AO3, for being an open archive!). On top of that, there is a nontrivial history of fannish content being lumped in with content that criticizes authoritarian governments, and targeted by sweeps by those governments and their censorship agencies when they purchase or put pressure on the commercial entities that own the servers (thank you, OTW, for being a nonprofit and owning and defending our servers!).

If you care about fannish content, you have to fight for fanfic on all three fronts. And if we hop off of HTTP and onto one of the decentralized protocols like dat et cetera, like people are starting to talk about in response to Article 13 and the Tumblr purges, we will inevitably be targeted along with a) people pirating media, b) porn distributors, and c) anti-government protestors, because those groups are also going use those protocols, too. I’m not saying, don’t think about migrating. I’m saying: there is a systemic problem within fandom, regarding the fact that we routinely get hit on three fronts: legal rights to the material we transform, sexual content, and governmental disapproval. Protecting fandom means fighting for fandom on all three fronts and putting thought and effort into how to make an archive robust against all three prongs of the attack.

This is what’s made AO3/the OTW so special: we have lawyers protecting our right to make what we make, we have a TOS that protects our right to make things that are sexually explicit, and because the OTW is a nonprofit, it’s more robust to the pressure that can be brought to bear upon commercial entities by both corporate and governmental powers (though, I note, especially when it comes to governments, it’s not immune, and we have to keep actively protecting it, and we have to protect other fans). If you are in fandom but you think that copyright upload filters are fine, because, well, you don’t want to put fanvids on YouTube, you are part of the problem. Your community is under attack. The powers that be have always come for us by attacking us in pieces, and we have always only ever successfully fought back by banding together.

Source: olderthannetfic
harutemu
monstrosibee

A species such as Cybertronians that does not reproduce sexually most likely evolved a form of sexual intercourse in order to encourage social bonding in the event that hot spots produce more sparklings, who will need large groups of friendly social adults from which to learn. Lacking sparklings, the drive for bonding is still present, leading to the idea that casual sex is a common activity in Cybertronian social circles. In fact, ships full of large amounts of Cybertronians in close quarters probably have higher rates of casual sex, as it is not only an activity during long stretches of boredom, but it also acts as as a mediation tool and a way to let off steam in a confined space. In this essay, I will detail why the Lost Light is the HORNIEST ship-

Source: monstrosibee
lyresnake

why-is-it-making-that-sound asked:

Okay, so I just googled "Mr Darcy Takes a Wife" because it sounded interesting (in a "this has to be painful" sort of way), and a whole lot of red flags went up in my head when I read "this book is not for Jane Austen purists" in the blurb. Can you tell us more about this book, please?

janeaustentextposts answered:

Look, I myself am no purist in that I expect Jane Austen fanfic to never stray beyond the bounds of drawing-room civility nor make any reference to Sexy Anything.

But Linda Berdoll got so much so deeply so consistently Wrong, and what is more, the writing was ACHINGLY BORING, that I cannot think of her work without deep and abiding loathing.

Even now my stomach has literally just soured and cramped with my anger and frustration. A chill has settled over me and I have angry goosebumps and I am not even exaggerating a little bit. My loathing and disbelief that this book even made it into publication before the days of epublishing and major vanity press works has a distinct physiological effect on me. (Though, in fairness, I hear it started as a self-published project before a publisher picked up the rights to it when it got a little popular–AND YET NO EDITOR APPARENTLY EVER SAT DOWN WITH IT AND A RED PEN because trust me if a competent person had done so there would be no book left.)

I have read it. I have TAKEN NOTES. I have catalogued every instance of my horror and outrage and I know I still probably missed something in the murky blur of melodrama while the red and twitching haze of my fury obscured my comprehension.

I have recapped (in detail) all 93 chapters. I have attempted to begin the sequel–and here was where my faculties failed me, and I found I could not continue on. I was a broken blogger. I fear I still am. I have not yet found the courage to try again. A third book exists. A fourth is rumoured. I am only one small, angry egg. The universe can offer me neither solace nor pity.

Source: janeaustentextposts
sinesalvatorem

Pure Land Buddhism As A Pure Replicator

sinesalvatorem

I’ve noticed that I have a religious immune system.

Like, I don’t just mean a normal unwillingness to believe unsubstantiated doctrines - I’m fully aware of that. It’s why, even though I find religions very interesting and like to learn about them and sometimes steal their techniques, I generally don’t adopt their doctrinal beliefs.

But Pure Land Buddhism triggers my “spit this out before it poisons you” response, which is fascinating. I’ll try to explain what this religion is and why I react to it this way.

This 4 minute video is a really good overview of the foundational message behind Pure Land Buddhism:

Basically, you know the Buddha we’re familiar with, who is supposed to have lived in India and preached liberation from suffering through non-attachment? He’s just a lesser Buddha compared to Amitabha Buddha, who is the greatest Buddha that all the other Buddhas admire and venerate. 

And what makes him so great? Well, chiefly, he created the Pure Land. The Pure Land is basically heaven, and in it you can have any material indulgence you desire. The goodness is generally described on the sensational level: Everything is bigger, brighter, prettier, tastier, and just generally pleasurable. There is no suffering, or even the memory of suffering.

Which, honestly, I think sounds pretty cool. Like, I’m totally behind getting everyone to a state of hedonic bliss, even if I might have different opinions on the implementation. Pure Land Buddhism goes on at length about how generous and loving Amitabha Buddha is, due to his selfless willingness to give access to the land of bliss to anyone. So, how do you get in?

Well, by reciting Amitabha Buddha’s name a bunch!

…Um?

That’s right. That’s it. That’s literally it. The entire religious practice revolves around saying this Buddha’s name over and over again. For added effect, one should also try to visualise him, and hold an image of him in your mind in as intense detail as you can.

And my brain immediately told me to spit this out, because this clearly looks like someone trying to exploit my mind as memory to host themself in. Like, if one considers a person to be their informational content (and whatever spiritual intuitions I have seem to flow from this feeling), then Amitabha Buddha looks like a cancer trying to spread indefinitely by hosting itself in the minds of devotees.

Because why would it be that the greatest of the Buddhas; the creator of the Pure Land; a being in want of nothing - why would they gate their “infinite generosity” behind a willingness to say their name over and over again? This would be narcissism at best.

But the whole doctrine just really feels like it’s optimised for one thing - hosting Amitabha Buddha inside of gullible humans. The reward is superlative! The maker is the greatest of the greats! And his only request of you is incredibly modest: Say my name. He doesn’t particular care what actions you take in this life or how you treat others.

After all, this world is inherently corrupted and irredeemable. The only thing you can do is hold Amitabha Buddha in your mind and, by so doing, escape this world for a new and better one. Karma? What karma? What dharma? What personal growth and attainment? The religion brands itself as “the easy path” for a reason.

Now, I also get a lot of these creepy vibes from Christianity too. This shouldn’t be all that surprising, because the things I’m describing are clearly memetic selection pressure, and Christianity is the religion that has spread the farthest. However, Pure Land Buddhism is horrifying to me because it is stripped down. There’s no there there. There’s nothing left but the reproductive system.

And it’s specifically optimised for laziness. It’s built to appeal to our least reflective selves. It’s the sugary soda of religion. It calls itself “the easy path”. It emphasises how low-commitment it is. The video overview explicitly tells you not to bother thinking about how this whole system is supposed to work. You don’t need to understand it, they say - just close your eyes and let Amitabha take the wheel. Don’t act under your own power. Turn off; drop out; and fall into eternal sensual pleasure that conveniently shows up only after you’re dead.

I’m not at all surprised that Pure Land Buddhism is a primarily Chinese phenomenon. Like, no shit. Even less sketchy sects of Buddhism in China have been known to take payments in exchange for reincarnating your loved ones as Americans. Reincarnating into a magical Pure Land of perfect bliss to the West is just the more exaggerated version.

However, I’m concerned that all of the traits that might make a cancer religion appealing are increasing in modern American culture. This is the soda of spirituality; the Tinder of traditions. Other forms of stripped-down bullshit-Buddhism are already becoming popular among the dislocated American youth - how long before something like this catches on in the West? Probably not literally this - mantra recitation doesn’t seem to be our style - but the selection pressure is clearly there.

slatestarscratchpad

I heard a very different description of Pure Land Buddhism which I really liked.

In the version I heard (which is probably Westernized and modernized and bowlderized, but whatever), the goal wasn’t to maximize use of Amida’s name. It was to say “Hail Amida” nine times. Hail Amida, Hail Amida, Hail Amida, Hail Amida, Hail Amida, Hail Amida, Hail Amida, Hail Amida, Hail Amida. Then you would get into Heaven and you could stop worrying about it.

I like this because it seems like Christianity taken to its logical extreme. Christians always say that God *wants* you to go to Heaven, but the reason not everybody does is that God won’t save people who don’t want to be saved. And, uh, “want to be saved” means that you have to have faith in this complicated and not-very-believable thing and then live your life in a difficult-to-impossible way, except you might not actually have to do that, but if you explicitly avoid doing that then that’s definitely bad, except…

Whereas it always seemed to me that if God-Jesus’s problem really was that He could only save people who really wanted to be saved, then looking at the sky and saying “I want to be saved” in a loud voice ought to count.

Pure Land Buddhism seems like the closest religion to this and I think Amida Buddha deserves credit for having the closest thing to an open-borders afterlife.

sinesalvatorem

Oh, hmm, I guess my main difference in how I approach religions is that I don’t believe heaven has gates? I don’t believe there’s anyone deciding who can get it, except on the level of metaphor, but that the rest seems reasonable enough.

Like, to the extent that I think there’s anything valuable in religions, it’s a way to formalise a set of heuristics that will lead to your own attainment of heaven. Be that bliss, liberation from suffering, or whatever else that creed’s ultimate goal is.

So I care about religions as imperfect templates for how to get there. How to create that inner or outer state of goodness. I don’t at all care about a religion’s specific promises so much as how trustworthy its path to getting there is.

And most religions have a path. It may not be the best one. It may not be a good one. But if you wrap your head around far enough, you can see why it is that it must have gotten some people there.

Amitabha recitation is not a path. It’s filler for starting on any path. It’s looking up in the sky and saying “I want to be saved” and expecting that to work.

But most religions are supposed to work even when it turns out that the father you were working so hard to impress isn’t actually there. That the fruits you grew for Him actually feed you. In practice, creeds often don’t deliver, but one can see why they would have worked for some people, even when it turned out there wasn’t someone in the sky looking out for them.

Amitabha recitation only works in the worlds where Amitabha is real. If he’s not, then the other-power path gets you nowhere. Which means, in practice, that you go nowhere. At least the self-powered path gets you somewhere whether or not other conditions you believed in at the start of the journey happen to hold.

Amitabha recitation is throwing your hands up and saying “I want to be saved!” and then going back to your life. It’s not doing anything about it. And it’s the not doing anything about it that I cannot abide.

gallusrostromegalus
wrangletangle

You, posting your work to AO3: These tags are excellent, they are super-clear about exactly what I mean, and no one will ever be confused about my intent.

Me, a Tag Wrangler receiving your tags through the wrangulator: ACTUally-

lurking-lucifer lurking-lucifer

The Tumblr tags specify using characters’ full names. 

This is honestly never something I considered before, but I’m guessing that - a lot of the time - tag wranglers probably see tags to organise/sort independent of the work itself, so it could prove confusing to see say “Human Peter” or “Mutant Keith” … the names are so common that it could belong to dozens of fandoms, with no guarantee the wrangler is a part of those fandoms either. 

When writing character tags, it’s worth bearing in mind. 

Not only will it make things easier for volunteers, but it’ll likely have the added benefit of increasing your audience, too, as people will have a more specific tag to search and use in place of one that could apply to several characters. After all, nothing more irritating than searching for x and finding y! 

wrangletangle

This is correct, except it’s not “a lot of the time” - it’s every time! We have to make an extra effort to go to an individual work to see the tag in context. Otherwise, all tags arrive to us without context. And if we’re wrangling hundreds of tags a day, we’re just never going to have time to check the works on all tags.

Even worse, “Human Peter” can (and has) been used by multiple people to mean different Peters. We can’t edit tags, so we can’t fix that. The tag will simply become unuseable. Human Peter Hale or Human Peter Quill, those are wrangleable tags! Human Peter, not so much.

This post explains the Peter problem in detail. (This one is funnier and shows the problem visually.) This post shows how the wrangulator works on the back end. And this post suggests how to make life easier for tag wranglers in general.

If anyone has questions about how tags work or needs help with deciding how to tag, my asks are open!

Source: wrangletangle
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