#Catholic Church Austria

[will-darkness-turn-to-light]

st. michael’s church | vienna , austria

[leocadra]

Karlskirche, Vienna, Austria.

[helloparkerrose]

[dokuzadaiyuho]

聖ペーター教会

Katholische Kirche St. Peter

[milkywayan]

Stained Glass Window Details, Belvedere Vienna, 2023

[divusvox]

🧷 Facebook • Instagram

[farminglesbian]

meanwhile in austria

[theodoreangelos]

Roman Catholic Parish Church of St George, Horn, Lower Austria Römisch-katholische Pfarrkirche zum Hl. Georg, Horn, Niederösterreich Римско-католическая приходская церковь Святого Георгия, Хорн, Нижняя Австрия Église paroissiale catholique romaine de Saint-Georges, Horn, Basse Autriche

[selenekallanwriter]

It's called the Malleus Maleficarum. I learned about it thanks to Serenade of Flames by Serenity. Amazing song btw.

From Wikipedia: The Malleus suggests torture to get confessions and death as the only certain way to end the "evils of witchcraft." When it was published, heretics were often sentenced to be burned alive at the stake and the Malleus suggested the same for "witches."

From The Historian: The Malleus was a misogynistic text. It claims that witchcraft stems entirely from carnal lust, which is allegedly insatiable in women. Philologists have even held the Malleus just as responsible as Christian demonology when it comes to the targeting of women as witches. This shows the vast influence the Malleus had on the view that witches were naturally female.

just learned today that there was a german monk who was obsessed with witches and women having sex so he wrote an entire book called the hammer of witches where in one part he describes in detail that witches have the ability to make people’s penises disappear and they keep the penises as pets and feed them oats

[drunken-boat]

Old church

Austria 2023

[princesssarisa]

That post about all the different possible interpretations of Frankenstein, and my response post about the different interpretations of Little Women, have made me think of all the different ways that other stories can be interpreted.

For example, the opera The Magic Flute. Some people wonder why I never get tired of that particular opera. Well, one reason is that no two productions feel exactly the same, because it can be looked at in so many different ways.

Here's a list of different interpretations I've read. This is probably just scratching the surface of possible perspectives, though.

Nor are these readings mutually exclusive: several can be and have been combined with each other.

*The Magic Flute is about the Age of Enlightenment. The Queen of the Night represents the Baroque era (hence the pseudo-Baroque style of her music), with its powerful Catholic church and ancien régime: luxuriantly beautiful and captivating, but decadent, manipulative and ruthless. Sarastro and his priests represent the Enlightenment, and in particular the Freemasons, with progressive values of reason, mercy, fraternity, self-control, etc. The Queen's ultimate downfall and Sarastro's rise in her place represents the social, cultural and philosophical changes that swept the Western world in the 18th century, leading to the American and French Revolutions, among other reforms. (As for why the progressive men still oppress women and own slaves... well, just look at real life.) Tamino and Pamina are an idealized young everyman and everywoman, who learn to embrace Enlightenment values and will carry them into the future.

*The Magic Flute is a socio-political and Masonic allegory focused expressly on Austria. All the sentiments above still apply, but the Queen specifically represents the staunchly Catholic Empress Maria Theresa, Tamino her more progressive son Emperor Joseph II, Sarastro the prominent Masonic leader Ignaz von Born, and Pamina the country of Austria itself, whose soul they struggle for.

*The Magic Flute is about Freemasonry as religion, namely as an offshoot of Christianity. Pamina's late father, who bequeathed his power to Sarastro, represents Jesus Christ himself. His widow the Queen of the Night, who sees herself as his rightful heir, expressly represents the dazzling yet corrupt Catholic church, the so-called "Bride of Christ." Sarastro and his priests, again, represent the Freemasons, who are portrayed as the true heirs of Christ, faithful to His teachings of mercy, brotherhood, endurance, and forgiveness. Tamino and Pamina learn which religion is false and which is true, then prove their worthiness to be initiated into the true religion.

*The Magic Flute is about the progress from nature to civilization. The Queen of the Night is a matriarchal nature goddess who reigns in a realm of stars, rocks, birds, and animals, where there is no law, only emotion, intuition, and personal will. Sarastro, by contrast, rules a patriarchal city and religious order, where laws, rituals, collectivism, and codes of virtue reign supreme. The opera celebrates the progress from the former to the latter, which has occurred in every country since recorded history began. Yet because humans need emotion and intuition as well as law and order, Sarastro's world keeps the best aspects of the Queen's world: her daughter Pamina, the Three Boys, and the magic flute and bells.

*The Magic Flute is about man vs. woman. Sarastro and his followers define all their values as "manly," while all things "womanly" are associated with the Queen of the Night. "Manhood" equals strength, reason, self-control, steadfastness, and light, while "womanhood" equals passion, intuition, vulnerability, manipulation, and darkness. The entire struggle between the Queen and Sarastro, which Tamino, Pamina, and Papageno are caught up in, embodies the tension between the sexes and all the principles associated with them. As for the resolution, there are two ways of viewing it:

**(a) The story is entirely pro-man and anti-woman. Masculinity triumphs, femininity is defeated. An individual woman (Pamina) can only redeem herself by renouncing her femininity (her bond with her mother the Queen) and aligning herself with masculine principles (joining Tamino in his trials and being initiated into Sarastro's order).

**(b) While the male characters think the solution will be the triumph of man over woman, they're wrong: the true solution is for man and woman to reconcile. The conflict is resolved not by the Queen's defeat (which is almost an afterthought), but by the union of the sexes through Tamino and Pamina. Both the hysterical Queen and the stern Sarastro are too extreme in their feminine and masculine principles, so they can never reconcile, but Tamino and Pamina succeed by loving each other and by balancing the feminine with the masculine (using the Queen's magic flute to survive Sarastro's trials).

*The Magic Flute is about growing up. It's a fantastical version of a Bildungsroman. The Queen of the Night represents the mother, nurturing and indulgent, but smothering if the child stays in her care too long, as personified by Jung's "devouring mother" archetype. Sarastro represents the disciplinarian father, who teaches the child right from wrong and trains him to be an adult. Tamino and Pamina are symbolic children: they start out in the Queen's thrall, like a baby attached to its mother, but then switch to Sarastro and undergo his trials, like an older child who outgrows his mother's apron strings and switches his focus to earning his father's respect. In the end, they achieve a synthesis of both parents, using the Queen's flute to succeed in Sarastro's trials, and are initiated into adulthood.

*The Magic Flute, contrary to popular belief, is a post-Enlightenment work of early Romanticism, which revolves around spirituality. Sarastro and his brotherhood are priests, after all, not scientific philosophers or politicians. Tamino and Pamina's journey involves rejecting not only "nature" (i.e. base instinct, which reigns supreme in the Queen of the Night's realm), but cold, worldly reason too. They learn to "renounce the world," transcend earthly fears and temptations, and achieve unity with the divine. Central to this journey is their love for each other, which transcends mere mating instinct in favor of a mutually inspiring spiritual bond, and the spiritual power of music via the magic flute and bells. The Queen of the Night's downfall is that she seeks worldly power. But Sarastro leads Tamino and Pamina down a more godly path instead.

*The Magic Flute is about the search for love. It revolves around three lonely young protagonists, Tamino, Pamina, and Papageno, whose deepest desire is to love and be loved. At first they look to the Queen of the Night to grant them love, and then to Sarastro. But neither the Queen nor Sarastro can do so, because they're both too detached from love – the Queen in her hatred, Sarastro in his noble yet chilly ideals – and use the young people as pawns in their battle against each other. Yet with help from the ethereal Three Boys, the story's purest embodiments of goodness, they find love in the end. Tamino and Pamina unite and save each other, Papageno finds Papagena despite not having "earned" her, and love conquers all.

**For a more sympathetic view of both Sarastro and the Queen, we can argue that they're both seekers of love too. The Queen loves her daughter and is desperate to get her back, but fails because her love is possessive and selfish. Sarastro's love is an idealistic, detached, universal love for all mankind, which is admirable, yet cold in a way. Tamino and Pamina strike a balance between the two by loving each other in a personal yet generous and unselfish partnership.

*The Magic Flute is a symbolic, proto-Jungian or -Freudian journey through the psyche of Tamino, a young everyman. Pamina is his soul, or his self, whom he needs to find and unite with to be complete. The Queen of the Night is his "feminine" unconscious, who embodies all his powerful and dangerous emotions, which he learns to resist... yet not discard completely, as symbolized by the fact that his soul, Pamina, is her daughter. Sarastro embodies his moral conscience and his noblest ideals and aspirations, which he learns to embrace as his ultimate guides. Meanwhile, Papageno represents his base, "animal" side that cares only for bodily safety and pleasure, which needs to be kept in check (hence Papageno can't be initiated), yet still honored (hence he does find joy with Papagena). And Monostatos represents his darkest and most selfish urges, which his nobler self (Sarastro) must suppress. Tamino's journey with all these aspects of himself represents the process of self-actualization that we all go through.

**With a few small tweaks to this outline, it can also be read as a more gender-neutral journey through the human psyche, with Tamino and Pamina as co-protagonists who represent two halves of one person seeking to unite.

*The Magic Flute is specifically a journey through Mozart's psyche. Tamino and Papageno each reflect aspects of Mozart – his "higher" and "lower" selves, respectively – while Pamina and Papagena likewise reflect his beloved wife Constanze. The Queen of the Night can be viewed as a caricature either of his difficult mother-in-law Cäcilia Weber (as Amadeus indicates) or of her daughter Aloysia Weber, Constanze's sister, whom Mozart once loved and who rejected him. (Make what you will of the fact that the soprano who first sang the role was Constanze and Aloysia's other sister and Cäcilia's daughter.) The trials of initiation into Sarastro's brotherhood reflect Mozart's relationship with Freemasonry, and possibly also his efforts to please his difficult father Leopold. While of course Mozart didn't write the libretto, he put his soul into the music, and he may have influenced Schikaneder enough to infiltrate the libretto too.

*The Magic Flute is just a classic fairy tale of good vs. evil, with some Masonic overtones, which Mozart and Schikaneder wrote as a crowd-pleasing, moneymaking spectacle.

Some of these interpretations I like better than others, but none of them are necessarily wrong.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @leporellian, @tuttocenere, @cjbolan

[wszczebrzyszynie]

proszę infodump us about graveyard appropriate flora in 19th century Poland

Oh woah turns out a Lot of people want to know this. It does make me quite happy... i'll try to keep it interesting and not go off-topic much, but i have to say i do have a fascination for both history and death related subjects, so forgive me any slip ups. It's also important to mention that: 1) i mostly talk here about catholic cemeteries, and not Jewish ones, although many of these things may overlap; things like these were, especially in the latter half of the century, falling under the country's law, and not church law (even though those two often cooperated), 2) this is mostly about Congress Poland (russian partition of Poland). Austria, Prussia and russia all had different laws, obviously, that could affect what I'm talking about here, even if not by much. I'd rather be clean on this one and not assume things about other occupants 3) translating this to english was absolute hell. Sorry if some parts are hard to decipher and feel free to ask for a clarification.

Plants on cemeteries were used for both decorative and hygienic purposes ("trees planted in rows, in equal distance from each other (...) clean the cemetery air, because their roots and leaves absorb decomposition and carbonic acid, and emit the ground's moisture into the air. The best types of trees for cemeteries are poplars, birches, willows and aspens" (it's not in the text, but acacia was also pretty popular) Oględziny i grzebanie ciał zmarłych ze stanowiska higieny publicznej, 1873); it makes sense, considering they were build with walking space in mind, a bit like a park, but further away from the town* and with different sets of social norms, if i can call it that. It should also make sense then, that garden, eatable plants were not allowed to be planted on the cemetery, and could only be planted 5 years after the cemetery closed down (and even then, they could only be planted if they didn't require much digging); it was obviously considered non hygienic (same with water; a cemetery was allowed to have a well, as long as the water from it wasn't meant for drinking).

Most common and liked cemetery plants were the various trees i mentioned before (+ conifers as a whole), roses, jasmine, elderflowers, all kinds of flowers and overall scented plants, often planted on graves themselves. It was also important to mention that cemeteries were built with airflow in mind, so while the trees were recommended, there couldn't be too many of them (unless built as a "barrier" between the town and the cemetery, so that the cemetery air wouldn't flow towards the town). Airflow is also why hill sides were considered a good spot for cemeteries, but only if the wind flew from the town or village towards the cemetery, and not the other way around. The only fruit trees allowed on cemeteries were morus trees, which is directly tied to silk production. Policya lekarska : o grzebaniu ciał zmarłych, 1846

*well not exactly; in the beginning, polish catholics really didn't like the idea of walking over 1000 steps away from the town they're living in to the cemetery (1000 steps was the distance required to build a cemetery. Up to this point, the most common kind of cemetery was the one on the church ground, meaning somewhere in the middle of the town. It was also fully under the church law), but it's not like they had much choice? 19th century brought an insane population growth, so cemeteries had to grow as well, and they couldn't exactly... get bigger in the town centre. Also they thought it would be way better for hygienic reasons to have them as far away as possible. This attitude started changing somewhere in the 1820s, but it would take a while until it fully set in, and that's only because a new set of laws rolled around

I actually live nearby an old cemetery. It used to be an asylum cemetery specifically, built in 1860s, and it functioned for 80 years. Today it's considered a small forest/bike path, but you can still see the relicts of the old cemetery, specifically in the plants that grow there and the paths that still exist; there's a lot of white pines, sawaras, common ivy and periwinkles (cemetary plants popular even today), as well as (invasive) plants brought all the way from the US that used to be a part of then cemetary-park complex. That being said i also live in lower Silesia, which was a part of Germany before world war II, so very much not Congress Poland, but i thought I'll share, because i genuinely love that place and it's history. Cemeteries are interesting 👍

[marianadecarlos]

The work represents Queen Mariana of Austria (1634-1696), widow of King Philip IV of Spain and regent of the Kingdom, conversing with Father Juan Everardo Nithard (1607-1681), who would become cardinal of the Catholic Church and General Inquisitor of Spain, the scene taking place in the Chamber of Philip IV of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid.

Source:

[pinkmagicfish]

hetalia religious headcanons:

the concept of nationhood and religion is so fascinating to me and i don’t see a lot of discussion about it! i think being semi-immortal and choosing to believe in an even higher power is so interesting, so this is my personal headcanon on the beliefs of different nations (also obv influenced by my own experiences and opinions). they don’t necessarily coincide with their country which is intentional, because i think the hetalia characters are individuals as well as national representatives.

!! i think all religions are valid, as long as you don’t use them to justify harm to others. if you disagree with my opinion, i would love to hear other headcanons as long as they’re conveyed respectfully! this is also not meant as historical commentary :) !!

— ⸝⸝ ୨୧・┈ ・ ┈・୨୧ ⸝⸝ —

america: atheist (but sometimes goes to sunday church because its ‘funny’, otherwise he prefers to rely on himself instead of some higher power)

canada: catholic (he’s not the most religious guy or even believes all the time - the existence of a god is a comforting thought to him though)

england: celtic pagan (used to be officially christian but has always secretly preferred the religion of his brothers, with modern age and freedom of religion he became more open about it. tries hard not to let this old fate die out and holds big open celebrations on beltane, yule and ostara)

russia: russian orthodox (doesn’t go to church that frequently but enjoys the pretty churches and dressed up church-goers nonetheless)

france: believes a bit of everything (he loves everyone and can’t fixate himself on one certain religion or path, so he chooses his favorite aspects of different religions)

china: agnostic (not a very spiritual person, but still follows certain practices and superstitions he adopted centuries ago)

italy: catholic christian (his country is the residency of the pope, so not being a christian has never been an option to him. he sometimes doesn’t agree with certain judgements of the church, but every night before he goes to bed he sends a quick prayer to god)

romano: catholic christian (not as devout as his brother, but occasionally he prays before bed)

spain: atheist (he prefers to follow philosophies he agrees with rather than a set religion)

germany: protestant christian (he likes the ideas of the protestant church more than the catholic one, despite what one may assume given his love for rules. he also enjoys the community of his church)

japan: doesn’t believe in gods necessarily, but really enjoys japanese myths and folklore (he likes not having too many rules set by a church or a similar institution and gets a lot of joy from spending time with his culture)

prussia: atheist (used to strongly believe in god but when his kingdom fell, all the love for his god went out the window)

austria: jewish (despite his country being very christian nowadays, austria is a guy who likes doing what he’s used to. same thing goes for his religion - he picked it once, and wouldn’t dream of changing. he does, however, enjoy the social aspects and atmosphere of christmas)

poland: atheist (he used to be jewish, but strayed from the religion when he started to rely on himself instead of a god who, in his eyes, never bothered to come to his rescue. he likes to celebrate lithuanias holidays with him)

lithuania: pagan (he believes that every god exists in some form, but he prefers to work with lithuanian deities. his heart swells with joy whenever his brothers or poland celebrate pagan holidays with him)

[hairtusk]

being jewish is all fun and games until one of your formative childhood memories is your irish convert grandfather crying in an armchair while you watch the sound of music at his feet, and through his tears he asks you to never give in and leave your homeland, knowing that his own wife had to flee austria to escape the nazis after the anschluss, and he had to leave ireland after being ostracised and excommunicated from the catholic church for marrying a jewish woman.

[pure-ablution]

I just got engaged. Now what?

As I think pretty much all of my 28 beloved followers know, Alajos and I got engaged last month. I’ve been requested to make a post about what I’m planning on doing over the next few months in the run-up to our wedding, and this is going to be my very best attempt at that. I’ve had this ring for less than a full calendar month at this point, so I’m no expert on the matter and I’d actually be really grateful if any other engaged or married girls out there were to chime in with their own advice! But this is what I’m working on doing and scheduling right now, and it’s a combination of advice from my friends and relatives who have been engaged/married for much longer than me, and conversations and decisions had jointly with my darling fiancé.

First of all, and maybe most superficially, there’s the actual wedding to be sorted out. I have a nice little timeline checklist of things to arrange, but I’ll just run through the main bits now, else I’ll be writing for hours and boring everyone totally senseless! Alajos and I are going to have a traditional Latin wedding Mass and ceremony at his family’s parish in Austria, and the first thing we did after he proposed (after we finished crying and excitedly telephoning everyone we could possibly think of!) was to contact the church and book the date of the wedding. This was actually really important to do as soon as possible for us, because we planned to participate in the rite of betrothal soon after proposal, and that requires an already-set wedding date. We paid the church a visit and met with everyone there, and spent a long time discussing our plans for the wedding itself. In some respects, we have it quite easy, because with the wedding itself being held in Alajos’ family’s parish and the reception at the home estate there, there’s no real venue and catering difficulties for us. Still, we’ll need to plan out exactly how we’re going to transport and host our guests for the duration of the wedding. We’re fortunate enough to be able to pay for our guests who will need to travel a long way for us, and I’m really glad that we can do that and make sure that everyone we love will be able to attend without worry, but the logistics will definitely need to be sorted and finalised properly over the next few months. Also, I’m anxious to give our two families more of a chance to get to know each other before the wedding, and hopefully I’ll be able to coordinate ample opportunity to make that happen soon!

Of course, I think that every soon-to-be bride is worried about how she’ll look on her big day, and I definitely feel it! I’m going to have my braces removed next month, when I’m back in England, and I’m going to book my rhinoplasty for January, so that I’ll have ample time to recover and for swelling to go down before the wedding—for any engaged girls planning surgeries, I’d really recommend no later than 6 months before the wedding day! I’m going to get my lip filler re-done in Seoul whilst I’m in Asia over Christmas, I have a luxury skincare regime planned in stages over the next few months, and I’ve already booked my hair and makeup, and I’ll have several discussions and rehearsals with the artists and stylists before the day itself. I’m going to have my wedding dress made up by my very trusted seamstress, and I’ve booked that in with her already and bought the shoes and underwear I know I’ll be wearing on the day before I go for my first fitting. It’s so, so important to go to fittings with your underwear and shoes already sorted, otherwise you’re just wasting your seamstress’ time!

Aside from the wedding itself, though, I’m focusing mostly on the idea of marriage as a complete whole. The Catholic Church places a huge emphasis on checking and resolving potential stumbling-blocks in a relationship before the point of marriage, because, quite sensibly (in my opinion), it wants to minimise the chance of divorce. When I get back to England, we’re going to be doing a marriage preparation course with our church, and I’m actually really looking forward to it—Alajos has already picked up the workbooks that we’re going to be using, and from the photos he’s sent me, they’re very sensible and focus a lot on secular questions and topics which I think would be beneficial for any couple to consider. Before marrying anyone, I really do think that you need to discuss everything under the sun, and although Alajos and I have talked about almost everything there is to talk about, and several times over at that, there’s something very reassuring and something intimate about doing an actual course together and filling in a workbook in writing, I think. We’re also going to be mentored by two lovely married couples—one close to our age, and one who have been married for a long, long time—and, of course, by our reverend, too. I know I’ll spend a lot of time thinking, praying, and talking seriously with Alajos over the next few months; I’m aware that this is the end of a part of my life, and the beginning of another, and it feels important to me that I take the time to reflect on things and embrace the transition for what it is.

There’s a lot of paperwork that comes in the run-up to marriage, and it’s important to stay on top of it and not feel overwhelmed or confused. I think the most crucial thing to discuss is the prenuptial agreement. Prenups get a bad rep, but I fully agree with them, when they are done right. Of course, you don’t want to think about the prospect of divorce, but much like you wouldn’t buy a house without insurance (even though you don’t want to think about it burning down!), you also really shouldn’t get married without a prenup. It’s an opportunity to discuss and decide on the worst at a time when you love and care for one another deeply, rather than when you’re feeling bitter and horrid after a difficult marriage and divorce. If either of you have any family money, then a prenup is basically a given, so you need to make sure that both of you are represented by very good and capable lawyers. If he loves you, he shouldn't ever be trying to screw you over. Alajos has offered to pay for my lawyer as well as his own, and I’m strongly considering it, although I think we’ll decide on that for certain when we’re back in England together. In the same vein as prenups: make sure that you’re both straight on things like mahr or any other bridewealth, dowry/dower, pin money, and your will and testament, too. All of these things can, and should, be done and sorted with excellent lawyers and love in your hearts, and the engagement period is a perfect time to do that.

This is all the important stuff I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m always happy to gush about my wedding (and future husband) to anyone who even looks as though they might possibly be listening, so please do just ask if there’s anything else you’d like to know! If you have any advice yourself, as I said, I’d be really very grateful if you were to share it—I’m really very new at this whole engagement thing and I know I’m not going to be any good at it just yet!