#Gnosi

[popolodipekino]

tre parole

In un episodio famoso del Vangelo secondo Matteo, Gesù domanda ai discepoli: "Chi dite che sia il Figlio dell'Uomo?" [...] In un testo gnostico, il Vangelo secondo Tommaso, troviamo una variazione di questo episodio: "Gesù disse ai suoi discepoli: "Paragonatemi, ditemi a chi assomiglio." Simon Pietro gli disse: "Tu assomigli a un angelo giusto." Matteo gli disse: "Tu assomigli a un filosofo saggio." Tommaso gli disse: "Maestro, la mia bocca non accetterà assolutamente che io dica a chi tu assomigli." [...] Allora Gesù prese Tommaso, si ritirò e gli disse tre parole." da P. Citati, L'Abisso e il Silenzio, da La luce della notte

(che raccontata così pare quando la mamma si incazza sul serio, perché l'hai fatta/detta davvero grossa, però qualcosa dentro di lei le dice che non avevi intenzione - non del tutto, forse - o non sapevi quel che facevi - almeno in parte - così decide di redarguirti pesantemente, com'è giusto che sia, ma in separata sede e lontano da occhi indiscreti. e ti chiama, con voce flautata e minacciosa: vieni qui, amoruccio, devo dirti tre paroline...)

(ah, chi volesse conoscere le tre paroline può contattarmi in privato - com'è giusto che sia)

[cristianesimocattolico]

Dalla loggia alla società: il trionfo della mentalità massonica

La data di nascita della Massoneria è il 24 giugno 1717: la ricorrenza di san Giovanni Battista è uno dei tanti sovvertimenti di simboli ed espressioni cristiane, indice di un più generale sovvertimento dei valori penetrato a fondo nel sentire comune. Continue reading Untitled

[zillychu]

everyone sh. shutd up im cooking smthn

[jamesmrdouglas]

Poi venne un essere spirituale (mpsychikos), il maestro, il Serpente e disse loro: “Cosa vi è stato comandato? Forse (vi è stato detto) che potete mangiare liberamente da ogni albero del giardino, ma dall’albero della Conoscenza del Bene e del Male non potete mangiare?”

La donna carnale rispose “non solo ci è stato detto di non mangiare, ma anche di non toccare, perché, se lo facessimo, conosceremo la morte”.

Ed il Serpente, il maestro, disse: “voi non morirete. Vi è stato detto questo per gelosia. Piuttosto i vostri occhi si apriranno, diventerete come Dio e conoscerete il Bene ed il Male”.

(Tratto dalla GNOSI E IL MONDO ARCONTICO)

[thematrixrw]

Capire i Quadrati Magici.

 La prima cosa da capire è la “misura” attuale nostra di comprensione di questi argomenti, onde evitare inutili speculazione e alimentare la “creduloneria” su questo tema come per altri simili. La “misura” dipende dal grado di libertà interiore dal condizionamento, cioè da quella modalità di “pensare”, acquisita e oramai attuate da tutti, o psichismo, che ci impedisce di “intendere” ogni cosa che…

[stormbornwitch]

This is going to make me sound like a cantankerous old bitch, but meh, I'm gonna say it anyway.

Witchcraft is too commercialised nowadays.

It's great to see so many witchcraft books and supplies available. I can walk into kmart or big w and find witchcraft books, tarot cards, and crystals now.

The problem, though, is that everything that's readily available to the masses (i.e. the first thing witchlings may interact with) is all so watered down to be socially acceptable that it gives a warped view to new practitioners while being simultaneously useless to experienced practitioners.

As much as I love how personalised the craft is, I genuinely wish more experienced witches published their personal grimoires and gnosis. I would love to see what others are working on/what works for them.

So here's my plea: if you're an experienced witch (I.e. practising for over 5 years and working your own path), please share a little titbit of what you're currently working/researching/crafting.

☆Marci☆

[amiya-shirou]

Truly the best thing about Silverash that sets him apart compared to other master manipulators like Victoria's Dukes is that for all his "master chess player" persona he's somewhat forcing himself to be, he's completely adamant in treating Degenbrecher, someone who would easily be his strongest "piece", as a trusted friend he can bet everything on shonen manga style rather than as a pawn. And this is exactly why he hasn't lost her, why they trust each other so much, and why Kjerag could become an home for her rather than another place to leave behind like Leithanien and Kazimierz. She's not a tool.

Gnosis tried to act the part of the unfeeling mastermind, didn't trust Monch enough despite the fact she was being ordered to do a pretty important betrayal, and lost her when she rightfully felt betrayed by him. He treated her as a tool for his plan, thus unwillingly making sure she was never going to help him again.

Harold insists on treating his soldiers as people, not as the tools he very well could use them as due to his authority as Viscount, and they formed an unshakeable bond. None of them is ever going to betray him. Like Degenbrecher, Harold longed to make Kjerag his new home, but due to the Duke of Caster treating him as a pawn and not caring about his real wishes he was unable to do so. As a mostly unwilling, undecided pawn he ended up being useless to the Duke since he never really puts his whole heart into forcing Victoria's demands on Kjerag, thus giving Silverash enough time for his countermeasures to stop him.

The Dukes of Victoria are always wary of each other, plotting against each other, wary of anyone who thinks their way and thus can pose a danger to them. Meanwhile Silverash completely trusts Gnosis, keeps him by his side, and is so happy to find a peer in the Doctor. The one time he was too wary of a fellow plotter to earnestly communicate with them (Ratatos) he made things infinitely harder for everyone, since they might have agreed to work together from the start. He looks so much the part of the plotter with no morals who actually only really wanted power, but no, he sincerely does everything because he loves Kjerag. He really just watched too much Code Geass as a teen.

[cerastes]

I think it’s funny as fuck that Gnosis is THE Freeze unit in Arknights, top of the shelf, no one does it better, but in all side material, his signature move is to set people on fire through chemicals of his own design. Not even Arts, just straight up honest to god chemistry.

[neskastree]

Noone wants to talk to the Knave

[grunckle]

Qualia and Ascension in Rain World

(To clarify I'm mostly talking about base-game lore and not including Downpour, but honestly most of these things can transfer over)

Qualia

One thing that’s relatively hidden in Rain World’s text and subtext is the concept of qualia. Qualia is described as being, “sensory experiences that have distinctive subjective qualities but lack any meaning or external reference to the objects or events that cause them.” It’s a personal sensory experience that cannot be comprehended by another person other than the individual themself, and are often hard to convey via language.

Qualia is a reoccurring motif in Rain World, but what’s more important is the way in which it’s conveyed to the player. The picture that’s painted is that of a world or civilization that placed a great importance on the individuals’ experience, and it’s shown through pearls or environmental details.

Here are some examples of qualia appearing in the text through pearls.

“It's qualia, or a moment - a very short one. Someone is holding a black stone, and twisting it slightly as they drag their finger across the rough surface. The entire sequence is shorter than a heartbeat, but the resolution is extraordinary.”

“A memory... but not really visual, or even concrete, in its character. It reminds of the feeling of a warm wind, but not the physical feeling but the... inner feeling. I don't think it has much utility unless you are doing some very fringe Regeneraist research.”

“This one... is authored by Five Pebbles, when he was young. There has been an attempt to scramble the data, but it's sloppily done, and most is still somewhat legible. It's written in internal language, or thoughts, so it is hard for me to translate so you would understand.”

But the most prominent examples of qualia and it’s importance in this world are the Memory Crypts and possibly ancient naming conventions. The deep purple pearl (shortened) found in Shaded Citadel states,

“In this vessel is the living memories of Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel, of the House of Braids (…) Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel nobly decided to ascend in the beginning of 1514.008, after graciously donating all (ALL!) earthly possessions to the local Iterator project (Unparalleled Innocence), and left these memories to be cherished by the carnal plane. The assorted memories and qualia include:”

Ancients likely mutated their own neural tissue into the cabinet beasts we see in Shaded, which were used to store their memories and qualia before ascension. Even james said once "how 5 pebs got the rot is a good hint here" in response to someone asking how cabinet beasts work, and how they're made.

Adding on to this, ancient (and iterator) naming conventions seem to be built off of the concept of qualia, with them focusing on individual images or experiences.

Nineteen Spades, Endless Reflections

Droplets upon Five Large Droplets

Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets

Looks to the Moon

Generally, this all points to a world focused on the expression and preservation of the individual experience. You could even consider some of the echo dialogue as more evidence for this running motif, but I already have too many quotes lol.

Ascension

So now time to talk about my interpretation of ascension. In short, you turn into a worm, but I should probably explain more than that.

So its been surfacing on rw-tumblr that the light in the end of the game is called the egg in files. Although file names shouldn't be taken as fact or canon, it is pretty obvious given the birth imagery.

But something a little lesser known is what happens to the worm that takes us down to the void-sea depths. Void worms normally have a bright glowing effect, on their body, which is present for ours as well. But after it unhooks us, it swims down, and when it passes us on it's way back that glowing effect is gone.

To be honest, I don't really think this can be interpreted in many ways, but the most obvious one and the one I personally subscribe to is that the worm laid the egg. Biology and spirituality really aren't that different in Rain World, it's implied that karma is stored in the brain through Five Pebbles's slideshow. Adding on to that, we see voidspawn after eating an iterator neuron. One's spiritual state is innately tied to their mental state, and that dictates what and what they can't perceive.

And for that reason I decide to take a more biology leaning approach to what happens in the ending. At face value, we are fertilizing the egg of a void worm to be reborn into a voidspawn.

Not only do void spawn and void worms have multiple characteristics in common, (worm like bodies, tendrils/tentacles, glowing heads, void spawn look microbial and void worms are likely some of the oldest "life" in game)

but voidspawn are seen inside egg-like coverings and share the same egg light seen in the end of the game, confirmed to be the same thing by Videocult in a livestream they did.

I believe that all this points to ascension being re-birth into a voidspawn, which eventually undergoes metamorphose into a worm. Higher-dimensional beings, who manifest and give birth to a new world.

So how does this tie in with qualia? Another thing you might know is that the area in which void spawn are most plentiful is Shaded Citadel and areas in Shoreline near Shaded. And shaded is absolutely packed with Cabinet Beasts, even outside Memory Crypts. I believe these qualia-storing creatures are what manifest voidspawn.

From what we see in ascension, it still looks physical and largely based around the real world. Hunter still has his scars and see's an iterator, survivor sees the slug tree in a more mystical and formless state, and monk sees survivor frankly just looking like a normal slugcat. I think that ascension is a product of qualia. We transcend our earthly knowledge via the egg, and our own qualia is used to give birth to a new world. This is why voidspawn appear most in Shaded Citadel.

Now I won't be getting into Void-Worm theories too much here, I'm mostly focused on ascension but I can't ignore the Gnosticism parallels. For those who don't know, Void Worms heavily resemble the Yaldaboath from Gnosticism, along with sharing some similar celestial motifs.

and running with that some people theorize that, like the Yaldabaoth, void worms are responsible for manifesting the material world. Ascension seems to be a mix of the concepts of Gnosis and Nirvana, but I believe it might lean more on Gnosis.

From my limited knowledge, Gnosis is a few things, some of which being a state achieved from experiences or intuitions, and an essential part to salvation is personal knowledge. While researching a bit, I came across this text by Peter Wilberg called "From NEW AGE to NEW GNOSIS" which brings up some comparisons between Gnosticism and qualia as well.

"Gnosis is subjective knowledge of an inner universe made up not of matter, energy, space or time but of countless qualitative spheres or ‘planes’ of awareness – a knowledge obtained directly through inter- subjective resonance. It is the subjective science of this inner universe."

One thing though that has been brought up when discussing this is how this can be consolidated with the tone of the ending. It is pretty un-ambiguously happy, but if we're going with the Void worm Yaldaboath theory then that would put a bit of a sour twist on it right?

I agreed with these for some time, but now I actually think it ties in perfectly with Rain World's core themes as stated by the devs, "overcoming differences and finding empathy." I don't think the void worms are "evil" or malevolent, but I think they (and subsequently us after ascending) play a key role in demonstrating this theme.

By manifesting the physical world, we allow these souls to experience life and develop their own qualia so one day they can ascend themselves. We are shown compassion, and pass it forward.

[a-gnosis]

The comics I ordered have arrived!

Blood Stain, Book 1, by Linda Sejic

Aya: Livet i Yop City by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie

Medea by Blandine Le Callet and Nancy Peña

[avnasace]

its really funny to me the difference between the older archons and the younger ones, because we have:

raiden ei who even without her gnosis kept a perpetual near-uncrossable storm raging around her nation and executed a harbinger seemingly effortlessly. also she was downright scary cold as the shogun puppet, still the archon with the coldest aura imo.

nahida used the power of the gnosis and dreams to help free herself, save her nation, purify the literal tree of memory, erase her creator and help bring down a self-made god and harbinger using another gnosis. also fended off another harbinger with words and a transaction and a threat.

focalors and furina spent 500 years carrying out a plan through sheer strength of will and a gnosis alone, which shattered a divine throne, threatened the heavens and returned their power to a sovereign, leading to focalors dying for her people and finally freeing furina from her curse.

mavuika lost everyone she knew and held dear, returned from death, beat the strongest (?) harbinger in a fight even not at full power herself, rescued us from the abyss, cracked the bloody sky itself open, and fended off an abyssal invasion with her skill, her people and her gnosis, even at the possible cost of her own life.

meanwhile zhongli and venti are just chilling in their respective regions drinking wine and shit... the eldest archons basically gave up their gnoses to the fatui willingly, and theyve been all but bystanders since the start of the story! they purified a dragon each, and zhongli saved xiao, but other than that they just retired sjdjsjxk its kinda hilarious

[aftokrator-official]

arknights characters as makeupaguy tweets

[dimension20memes]

I'm so proud of this one lmao. My baby meme phase.

[sstarconch]

venti core

[cerastes]

The way this likely works is that Gnosis, being big brained, can properly finesse Karlans out of Situations by a combination of prior preparation and familiarity with each Karlan’s particularities, putting them back in action twice as fast as it’d normally take.

The way I like to think this works is that it takes 10 seconds for Karlans to realize that Gnosis is watching and there is absolutely no way that little bitch of a man is ever going to let them live it down that he saw them stunned or nervously impaired or frozen or what have you, so they power the hell through using superhuman might that one may only tap into in case a little bitch of a man is watching.