#Darkness and Light

[palatinewolfsblog]

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light" - Plato

[tifa-simp]

Rebirth peaked at this moment.

Source

[violetmoondaughter]

Many are the faces of the Hellenic God Dionysus, but the duality of his nature is sometimes connected with two specific plants associated to the god. Dionysus relates to many plants such as Fig, Oak, Pine, Vine and Ivy, these two are specifically connected with two opposite faces of the god. 

Grapevine starts its annual growth cycle in spring with bud break. During spring and summer, the plant grows and after flowering the vine sets the fruits that are usually harvested in early autumn. Following the first frost the leaves begin to fall as the vine starts to enter its winter dormancy period. The following spring, the cycle begins again. Following the same annual cycle Dionysus is seen as a god that is reborn every spring, bringing during the hot season prosperity and abundance before disappearing in winter. Grapevine grows thanks to the hot weather and humidity and so it represents the warm fertilizing humidity power of the god. Grape is used to create wine which is the drink sacred to Dionysus because of its ability to release mental faculties.  

Ivy on the other hand, blossoms in the autumn when the vines are harvested and bears fruit in the spring. As an evergreen plant, ivy needs cold weather and humidity to grow and flower.  Ivy vines crawl as snakes and in the myth, ivy appeared soon after the birth of Dionysus to shelter the child from the flames that burned the mother's body. To its freshness was attributed the virtue of dispelling the ardor of wine, so Dionysus was believed to have commanded his worshippers to crown themselves with it. Ivy, in contrast to the vine that bore fruit bearing vitality and exaltation, produced a poison that sterilized and had medicinal virtues that were refreshingly depurative and narcotic. The plant is also connected with thunder and lightning and was believed to have the power to protect from lightning and cure sore throat and cough. 

Thus these two plants sacred to Dionysus are contrasted with each other in an eloquent contrast: the vine, drunk with light, is a child of heat and returns the rays of the sun by warming, with its libation, bodies and souls, while the ivy shows itself to be cold in nature; indeed the sterility and uselessness of its first sprouts recall night and death. 

Their affinity is rooted in the very essence of the dual-figured god, whose nature is expressed from the earth by means of them: light and darkness, warmth and coldness, intoxication of life and breath of death that withers everything; the multiplicity of the Dionysian aspects struggling with each other and yet conjoined with each other is manifested here in vegetal form, stands in struggle with itself and prodigiously transitions from one form into the other. 

Dionysus rules over all moist and hot creatures whose symbol would also be wine, as a hot and moist substance. In wine, heat is made ardor drink of fire that overwhelms everything, that ignites the soul and the body. But the moist heat is contrasted with the moist cold that as a Dionysian element, is manifested in ivy, a plant that greens even in winter when the Dionysian festivals take place.

[eananoor]

Eana Noor, It is your dark I think that has made you an angel.

[teaandfics]

Did somebody say yearning? Guilt and shame? Soriku? Created with a hint of religious trauma?

Well…

Probably not, but here’s this anyways.

This is made from Riku’s perspective. He sees Sora as a someone good and to guard, and himself as someone who has done wrong and must continue to serve Sora.

After DDD, he’s at least forgiven himself to an extent. But he still feels responsible for not saving Sora after the War, and he feels a certain weakness for not doing more.

My favorite detail that I made was that Riku wants to touch Sora but won’t. It’s Sora who touches his face and goes out of his way to stain himself. Riku yearns for Sora, yet he simultaneously can’t accept that he has him.

[vxmpire-vxlle]

[frostbyte744]

First bloom

[gothicseverance]

Light is that which allows the subject to be ‘caught, manipulated, captured, in the field of vision.’

—Gothic Light

Gif by @emziess 🖤

[darkcrowprincess]

Blue equals darkness and Yellow equals light. Giving yin and yang vibes for byler right there. The blue meaning the wheelers/creels connections to Mikes family darkness. Will being associated with lights, lighting, sunshine. Will is yellow meaning love and hope.

Mike is literally always being cast in shadows while Will is in light. Darkness protects light, light protects darkness.

[zelphafrost]

I dislike the phrase "living rent free in my head." It's dishonest. There may not be a monetary cost for these, but it's hardly free. It etches and scrapes at the bones, the soul, the heart. Branding thoughts onto the very essence of your being.

[worldbuildingwanderlust]

Only in darkness

Do we see the stars

As they were meant

To be seen

[violetmoondaughter]

In neopaganism the horned god is seen with two different faces representing the duality of nature and the changing of seasonal cycle. The theory of these two aspects of the god was debated by Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough and by Robert Graves in The White Goddess.  

According to these theories old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Frazer based his thesis on the pre-Roman priest-king Rex Nemorensis who was ritually murdered by his successor. The king was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the Earth. He died at the harvest and was reincarnated in the spring. This legend of rebirth is central to almost all of the world's mythologies. Some examples of this archetypical figure are the gods Dionysus, Osiris, Tammuz, Dumuzi, Adonis, Janus, Attis. 

 The two aspects of this figure take the names of Holly and Oak king. 

The Holly King is seen as an old version of the green man, ruler of winter, death and darkness. He starts his kingdom at summer solstice when, after the longest day, ruled by his opposite king the oak king, the days start to get darker and shorter entering in the dark half of the year. The holly king is so called referring to the plant that is fruitful during the winter season.  The holly king is also referred to as a black knight and is also connected with the dark aspects of many pagan gods. 

Counterpart of the Holly King is the Oak King that is usually seen as a young green man, ruler of summer, life and light. He starts his kingdom at the winter solstice, when after the darkest night a new light is reborn, signing the beginning of the light half of the year. The oak king is called over the name of the plant that is fruitful during the hot season. Opposite to the Holly King, the Oak King, relates to the light aspect of many pagan gods and its sometimes referred to as a white knight. 

According to the theory these two kings may be seen as two brothers fighting for the throne or as a father and son passing the kingdom to each other in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth. This cycle of life and death represents the seasonal cycle of death and rebirth of the sunlight and vegetative world.

[the-potato-slayer]

[soulinkpoetry]

On fire from within…

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[oddestishottest]