#Babylon willow

[emaadsidiki]

The Weeping Willow 🌿 Chicago Botanic Garden

[nights-are-better]

i've seen a lot of stuff on this recently and wanna add in my opinions bc why not. there's stuff going around about how low engagement is on fanfics and people are right, i run an edit account (shameless promotion on it rn) and write fics (more shameless promotion) and i get a decent amount of attention, don't get me wrong i love when one person engages bc that means it's reached one person.

but back when i started my edit account it peaks pretty decently, then everything started slowing down and it's really sad, as much as i tell myself not to get hurt by the little attention it gets, i put so much effort into the edits and fics, just to feel a little short changed.

i bounce from more mainstream fandoms to more niche ones, i get engagement varies based on how big a fandom is so when i get little attention on my more niche edits i get it. but when it's a larger fandom, it hurts that i don't get much attention.

when it comes to fanfics, i get kudos, same logic, smaller fandoms, less attention not the issue. the issue i have is that no one comments, i get roughly three or less than. it's not that i wanna sit there and go 'validate me strangers, validate me' it just is a little encouragement when someone says they enjoyed it and can't wait for more (and i also struggle to leave comments on fics to, it slips my mind when you get excited with new ships or just fics).

i know there a bigger issues in fandoms (and the world), but the small sense of community i get within fandoms is quite nice, i've made some mates over the past few years and it's nice, becuase some pretty good friendships come out of one share interest.

it's worrying to me that interaction in fandoms seems to have fizzled out, but also how toxic a lot of them have become, i've seen so many saying they get rude comments, there's so much discourse. i sit back and avoid shit going down in fandoms bc at the end of the day, sure it's just a fandom, but it's also a community for so many.

sure fics/edits are made for the creators, i write a lot of 'no one asked for this' fics, but that doesn't mean you can't engage, leave a comment every once in a while if you enjoyed it, show the author some love.

[therighthandofvengeance]

[jichulichu]

yippee

[magnetothemagnificent]

Thinking about Al Naharot Bavel and how we as Jews have been made to entertain our oppressors since....forever

עַ֥ל נַהֲר֨וֹת ׀ בָּבֶ֗ל שָׁ֣ם יָ֭שַׁבְנוּ גַּם־בָּכִ֑ינוּ בְּ֝זׇכְרֵ֗נוּ אֶת־צִיּֽוֹן׃ On the rivers of Bavel, there we sat, and also wept, as we remembered Tziyon. עַֽל־עֲרָבִ֥ים בְּתוֹכָ֑הּ ��ָּ֝לִ֗ינוּ כִּנֹּרוֹתֵֽינוּ׃ On the willows, in the midst, we hung our lyres כִּ֤י שָׁ֨ם שְֽׁאֵל֪וּנוּ שׁוֹבֵ֡ינוּ דִּבְרֵי־שִׁ֭יר וְתוֹלָלֵ֣ינוּ שִׂמְחָ֑ה שִׁ֥ירוּ לָ֝֗נוּ מִשִּׁ֥יר צִיּֽוֹן׃ For there our captors asked words of song; our tormentors, amusement, "sing for us from the song of Tziyon" אֵ֗יךְ נָשִׁ֥יר אֶת־שִׁיר־יְהֹוָ֑ה עַ֝֗ל אַדְמַ֥ת נֵכָֽר׃ How can we sing the song of YHVH on foreign soil? [Tehillim 137 1-4]

Thinking about how throughout history we've been made into the jesters, the comedians, the performers, how we're only good as long as we can entertain and amuse our oppressors. Over and over and over again throughout history we weep by the rivers of every generation's Babylon while our captors jeer and order us to sing our sacred songs.

And honestly? I think it's time we hung up our lyres on the proverbial willows. Enough. We don't have to keep on this performance. We don't live for the entertainment of Babylon. We won't perform for our captors anymore.

Antisemites don't deserve to be entertained by us.

[taminoamirfouad]

every dawn's a mountain (march 21, 2025):

1. my heroine 2. babylon (listen to here) 3. every dawn's a mountain 4. sanpaku 5. sanctuary (ft. mitsky) 6. raven 7. willow 8. elegy 9. dissolve 10. amsterdam

(x)

[malioli]

Babylon willow by the river Korana

[ed-recoverry]

List of free audiobooks on YouTube for anyone interested

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Alice in Wonderland

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H P Lovecraft

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Village by Caroline Mitchell

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (fuck JKR)

Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Upside Down by Danielle Steel

The Fiancée by Kate White

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Theif

Accidentally Married by Victoria E. Lieske

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

The Collector (book one) by Nora Roberts

The Lies I Told by Mary Burton

Dead Man’s Mirror by Agatha Christie

The Hobbit

The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey

The Good Neighbour by R J Parker

The Island House by Elana Johnson

Desperation by Stephan King

The Healing Summer by Heather B. Moore

The Last Affair by Margot Hunt

To Be Claimed by Willow Winter

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Inn by James Patterson

Wonder by R J Palacio

Faking It With The Billionaire by Willow Fox

The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum

The Catcher in the Rye

The Lottery Winner by Mary Higgins Clark

Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean

Death of a Nurse by M C Beaton

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Frozen Betrayal by Clive Cussler

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Line of Fire by R J Patterson

Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

The Remnant by Tim LaHaye

The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

Payment in Kind by J A Jance

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Marriage of Anything but Convenience by Victorine E. Lieske

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Kama Sutra by Mallanaga Vatsyayana

The Wisdom of Father Brown by G K Chesterton

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Robin Hood by J Walker McSpadden

The Poor Traveller by Charles Dickens

Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865 by Sarah Raymond Herndon

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Man After Man

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Charlotte’s Web

Midsummer Mysteries by Agatha Christie

Out of Silent Planet by C S Lewis

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harai

Hamlet by Shakespeare

[feministkomaeda]

In the trial striaght up debunking it. And by it, well, let’s jurtst say… haha……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

[emaadsidiki]

Tino Rossi Garden, Paris, France. 🌿🍃🍂

[nights-are-better]

me: *sat in lesson typing*

my friend: what are you doing?

me: ... revsion

me: *turns to forthwall* don't look at me like that

[fdelopera]

Moon Knight thoughts for Sukkot...

this week is Sukkot ... and naturally, thoughts have turned to MK System, and their relationship to it.

Sukkot commemorates a time during the Jewish people's wandering, after our escape from Egypt... when we left Egypt, we wandered in the desert, and G-d told the Jewish people to build and live in sukkot, or temporary huts, to shelter from the elements.

(of course, the escape from "Egypt" commemorates the escape from any oppressive system, since the Exodus story isn't literal -- it's more a Jewish cultural memory of the late Bronze Age collapse. it also relates to the Jewish people's experience of enslavement and captivity in the 500s BCE during the Babylonian Exile, right before the Persian empire conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to build the 2nd Temple... but that's a whole other discussion...)

perhaps Marc would connect to the impermanence of the sukkah. it echoes his rootlessness, his wandering... after all, he escaped his own "Pharaoh" when he ran from his family's abuse... maybe he would draw a parallel to the (nearly) forty years that he has been trying to find a home...

Sukkot is also a harvest festival, and Jews collect four distinct species of vegetation, and put them together.

the species are an etrog (a yellow citrus fruit that looks like a giant lemon), as well as a palm branch, myrtle branches, and willow branches (the branches are all assembled together to create the lulav).

it's traditional to stand in the sukkah and shake the lulav and etrog together, and recite the blessing: Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al netilat lulav.

well ... the etrog, palm, willow and myrtle each have many different meanings. you can learn more about their symbolism here.

but one of their meanings relates to the body.

specifically, the etrog relates to the heart/wisdom. also, the palm is the spine/uprightness. myrtle is the eyes/perception. and willow is the lips/speech.

but back to the etrog. the heart.

a thought came the other day, of Marc and Steven in the Duat, wrapping their hands around their heart as they finally start to communicate... as Marc recognizes their connection as their superpower... except, it's not a stone heart they're holding.

they're holding a yellow etrog.

it probably wasn't intentional ... but their heart even looks like an etrog in the "you're the only real superpower i ever had" scene.

and as they hold the etrog together, they're able to begin their personal Sh'mot -- their exodus from "Egypt" -- escaping the emotional chains of guilt and rage that have bound Marc to Khonshu.

Steven in this way feels similar to Moshe -- the unlikely, emergent leader who shows Marc that "Egypt" is holding him captive. the one who leads them out, away from that servitude.

now we just need Season 2 so that Jake, like Aaron, can let go of the false security of their old ways of protection, and connect with Steven as he leads them to a more unified future...

[landofanimes]

CLAMP EXHIBITION (2024)

Merchadise: Hanafuda 🎴

There are two versions: regular playing set with wooden box, and the framed version.

Features illustrations from RG Veda, Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, xxxHOLIC, and Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE.

🌸🪷🏵️🌹🌺🌻🌼🌷🪻🌸🪷🏵️🌹🌺🌻🌼🌷🪻

Hanafuda (flower cards) are a type of Japanese playing cards. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, tanzaku (短冊), animals, birds, or man-made objects.

There are 48 cards total, divided into twelve suits, representing months of the year. Each suit is designated by a flower and has four cards. The flowers depicted are:

Pine (JAN), Plum blossom (FEB), Chery Blossom (MAR), Wisteria (APR), Iris (MAY), Peony (JUN), Lespedeza (JUL), Pampas (AUG), Chrysanthemum (SEP), Maple (OCT), Willow (NOV), Paulownia (DEC).

[jichulichu]

might've stated this before, but i do queue dumps, so i don't have many funny captions, uhh, this is from june i think, yahoo

[daenerys-targaryen]

I know I’m gonna be with you so I take my time -> I can’t let you go your hand prints on my soul -> Baby, for you I would fall from grace just to touch your face -> Sometimes I wonder when you sleep; are you ever dreaming of me? -> I’m yours to keep and I’m yours to lose -> If you’ve got a girlfriend I’m jealous of her -> Is this the end of all the endings? -> I loved you in spite of deep fears that I knew would divide us -> Our secret moments in a crowded room they got no idea about me and you -> I woke up just in time now I wake up by your side my one and only my lifeline -> I want to wear his initial on a chain round my neck not because he owns me but because he really knows me -> Please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere -> I’m so thankful for all of the girls you loved before they’ve made you the one I’ve fallen for -> I’m highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you -> I hope I never lose you I hope it never ends I’ll never walk cornelia street again -> I’m with you even if it makes me blue -> Tell me that you’re still mine tell me that we’ll be just fine even when I lose my mind -> I don’t wanna look at anything else now that I saw you -> I once believed love would be golden red, but it’s golden like daylight -> “I love you” ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard? -> It’s hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you -> Isn’t it just so pretty to think all along there was some invisible string tying you to me? -> All these people think our loves for show but I would die for you in secret -> Don’t want no other shade of blue with you -> Life was a Willow and it bent right to your wind -> Wherever you stray I’ll follow -> I don’t like that anyone would die to feel your touch -> Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon -> And he’s passing by, rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky -> I find myself running home to your sweet nothings -> and now you’re mine, it was all my design cause I’m a mastermind -> We’re burned for better I vowed I would always be yours -> I’m so in love that I might stop breathing

[taylorswiftandx]

Taylor Swift and Myth/Legend/Fantasy

Note: huge thank you to @meandmypagancrew who collaborated with me on this post! This one is very subjective - I ultimately chose to include references specifically relating to the story elements of religion/myth/legend/fantasy/tales, in order to determine what to include here versus what appears on TS and Religious Words/References. TS and Literary References may also be of interest.

'Taylor Swift'

Picture to Burn: State the obvious, I didn’t get my perfect fantasy

'Fearless (Taylor's Version)'

White Horse: I’m not a princess, this ain’t a fairytale

The Best Day: Don’t know if Snow White’s house is near or far away

The Best Day: It’s the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarves

Today Was A Fairytale: Today was a fairytale

'Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’'

Long Live: I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you

Superman: I watch superman fly away

'Red (Taylor's Version)'

State Of Grace: These are the hands of fate, you’re my Achilles heel

'1989 (Taylor’s Version)'

You Are In Love: You understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars

Now That We Don’t Talk: You part the crowd like the Red Sea, don’t even get me started

Suburban Legends: I didn’t come here to make friends, we were born to be suburban legends

Suburban Legends: I had the fantasy that our mismatched star signs would surprise the whole school

'reputation'

I Did Something Bad: They’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one

'Lover'

(no myths/legends)

'folklore'

invisible string: Isn’t it just so pretty to think all along there was some invisible string tying you to me?

invisible string: A string that pulled me out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar

mad woman: And women like hunting witches too

'evermore'

willow: As if you were a mythical thing

champagne problems: Your Midas touch on the Chevy door

gold rush: My mind turns your life into folklore

ivy: I wish to know the fatal flaw that makes you long to be magnificently cursed

cowboy like me: Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon

'Midnights'

Anti-Hero: Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby and I’m a monster on the hill

Labyrinth: Lost in the labyrinth of my mind

Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve: I would’ve stayed on my knees and I damn sure would’ve never danced with the devil at nineteen

Dear Reader: When you aim at the devil, make sure you don’t miss

You’re Losing Me: I’m getting tired, even for a phoenix

'The Tortured Poets Department'

So Long, London: I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist

But Daddy I Love Him: Screaming, "But, daddy, I love him"

Guilty as Sin?: These fatal fantasies giving way to labored breath

Guilty as Sin?: If it's make believe, why does it feel like a vow we'll both uphold somehow?

Guilty as Sin?: What if I roll the stone away? They're gonna crucify me anyway

Clara Bow: Beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours demanding more

The Albatross: Locked me up in towers, but I'd visit in your dreams

How Did It End?: My beloved ghost and me, sitting in a tree, D-Y-I-N-G

I Hate It Here: And in my fantasies I rise above it

thanK you aIMee: I pushed each boulder up the hill

thanK you aIMee: So I pushed each boulder up that hill

The Prophecy: Cards on the table, mine play out like fools in a fable, oh, it was sinking in

The Prophecy: Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand

Cassandra: So, they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst and tried to tell the town

Cassandra: I was in my tower weaving nightmares

Peter: Forgive me, Peter, my lost fearless leader

Peter: And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired

Peter: Lost to the Lost Boys chapter of your life

The Bolter: But none if it is changing that the chariot is waiting

The Manuscript: He said, "No, just a good samaritan"

Other Songs written by Taylor

Beautiful Ghosts: Is this hope just a mystical dream?

Crazier: I was trying to fly but I couldn’t find wings

Official Alternate Releases

Cassandra (Clean Version): When it's "Burn the witch" they're shrieking