#RHYS.TXT

[seraphhy]

my favorite thing about the excalibur transformation from S&TBK is the fact you can see sonic’s tail poking out 😭♥️

[rhysatlas]

a little snippet of the jayvik fic i'm writing and I want to throw myself off the nearest building.

[adhdrhys]

lesbianclaptrap -> adhdrhys

we are so back babey

[pinktuals]

white men we should bring back:

anthony bourdain

george michael

heath ledger

[numerous-suns]

"i am baby" as in baby driver

[fc6]

sometimes I forget that a lot of people genuinely make their fem!v so sexy and barbiedoll like. because I'm like this is v she smells like stale cigarettes and is wearing the same shirt that she threw on the floor last week. the soles of her favorite pair of shoes is starting to come off but she still wears it. I think shes addicted to prescription medication or something

[fallen-pines]

Searching for a Feeling

Despite knowing that aiming for a consistent experience with the gods over periods of time is kind of... antithetical to belief and probably not good for a spiritual practice overall, I can't help but think back to the point where it hit me that I really want to build relationship with the gods.

I was driving to work, literally had just started going down my own street, when I realized that the morning light was beautiful and perfect and I wished I didn't have to go to work so that I could sit outside and see it more properly. Since I couldn't, I decided to say a quick thanks instead. I had already switched my focus to Apollon at that point so I was going to just dedicate it to him, but when I started giving the thanks I felt compelled to switch it. I still thanked Apollon for allowing the light to reach me and shine so brightly but I primarily thanked Helios for guiding it for us each day. Before I could finish the sentence, I could feel tears pricking at the back of my eyes and I quickly (safely) pulled over for a minute to get it under control.

I am not a crier. Like, to the point that I have to sit down occasionally and intentionally try to make myself cry cause I know it's good for you to let stuff out but it just doesn't happen for me a lot. But it had happened so quickly I didn't really know what to do. What I did know was that it was a good cry, I was just so happy and grateful. I couldn't pinpoint what had actually made me start to cry, I'm still not entirely sure.

If I look solely at myself, maybe it was some cosmic feeling of me being able to thank someone else for being there, that I wasn't alone in the cosmos as I sometimes fear. Derealization has been an issue in my life and occasionally it psyches me out to think I might be in some vivid hallucination or simulation or coma and none of what I know is really there. If I look outward, I almost got the feeling that someone else was crying too and giving me a pat on the back or a quick hug. When I think about it, Helios today is a relatively forgotten deity, though I mean it in the kindest sense. In history, Helios was the one believed to draw the Sun with his chariot and was given worship for many centuries due to being so important to agriculture and various aspects of life. But over time, focus shifted and he was worshiped less intensely, then by less people, then was potentially replaced in certain societies by other figures related to light, such as people who do worship Apollon and attribute the sun to him. And today, though I've seen him mentioned by hellenic and roman practitioners alike, the number of people who dedicate worship to him regularly instead of for ceremony or holiday is extremely slim. At least that's what I've seen online, there could be a huge difference to what's practiced in closed quarters. If I could sense that someone who barely knew me, or maybe knew me a long time ago and hadn't spoken recently, had seen something beautiful and loved it enough to suddenly reach out and tell me about it? Yeah, I'd probably cry.

I don't know which of the two is true. It might be that both are true. It might be that I'm projecting onto an entity that was pleasantly surprised and I was just stunned to pick up on any energy at all.

I might never know, but I do know that that feeling has stuck with me ever since. I can't lie and say that I don't want to capture that same feeling again, or that when I meditate or try to hold ritual that that's not exactly what I'm hoping will happen. It can't be healthy or sustainable to have a specific goal in mind when trying to build an authentic relationship, gods or not. I know I need to push that aside and just do things as if that experience was a one-off thing that I was lucky to experience, not something to rely on. But it's difficult. I was not raised in faith, I am not accustomed to believing things without evidence and repeatable results... but that's what faith is. If I'm going to build a practice, I have to really figure out what will stick for me and feel "worth it" and meaningful even on the days where I get that feeling again that I'm alone and my mind and body are fake, that I might be praying to 1s and 0s in a computer program...

I need to build a practice where it's okay for me to do it even if that was ever true, because it's for me, it's what I want. I want to reach out and give thanks to the beings who help shape our world, or influence it, or merely interact with it in a way we aren't capable. I want to feel like they'd enjoy my presence if an afterlife is real, devout worshiper or not. I want to feel like I'm doing what's best for me, and to me I think that's finding some sort of structure in my life that goes beyond bodily needs and societal pressures.

I mainly wrote this just to get my thoughts about that one experience out of my head. I'd love to hear if anyone else has had an experience like it; I'd love even more if there were other folks who've had similar difficulties starting a practice or maintaining a faith, any faith really. Hearing how you've worked through it or continue to make efforts towards faith despite barriers would be great.

[ I'm tagging only the non-hellenic paths that I personally follow in case others have had a similar experience, apologies for crossposting. ]

[shoujo--rei]

fufufu, my source character's birthday is coming up soon and star is going to have to be nice to me for an entire day~

[starrycalz]

2 four day liquid fasts back to back with only one day break where i had like 800 cals (might be overestimating iforgor) . my mouth feels funny . i want to CONTINUE FASTING THOUGH

[seraphhy]

Sonic & Tarot: #0 - Sonic

This is the first entry in a miniseries where I will attribute a few Tarot cards to specific characters and explain my reasoning behind them. Maybe this post stemmed from Mild Annoyance at seeing Sonic assigned the King of Pentacles in the official deck released by Sega. At first, I was contemplating drawing a random card for the deck while thinking of a character--and since Sonic is one of my well-beloved characters, I have done spreads for him in the past--but to distill a meaning from 78 cards, the Major and Minor Arcana, proves to be too daunting of a task, and the Major Arcana are more impactful to the layperson, anyways.

[1] Do note that I am using a variant of the Rider Waite deck due to its ubiquity, its simplicity, and relative accessibility. For transparency, the deck that I am using is called The Change Tarot, illustrated by Xaviera Lopez; the imagery, compared to the Rider Waite deck, is almost a complete one-to-one, with a few minor changes. I will supplement each post with images of the original Rider Waite deck for accessibility, as the meanings remain unchanged for the most part.

[2] I just want to make it clear: I am not an expert. This is purely for fun. Your mileage may vary.

#1: Big Picture - The Fool

[ID: A young man stands on the edge of a cliffside against a warm yellow background. His arms are wide open, with a white rose held in his left open palm and a bindle held in the other, propped on his shoulder. A white dog is reared back on its hind legs at his feet.]

I know. You probably saw this coming.

The Fool is denoted by #0 - the number of Endless Possibility infinite potential. For all intents and purposes, The Fool is the very first card of the deck, and that makes sense; his carefree pose and expression imply he has the world at his feet, ready to take a leap of faith. He is eccentric, forward-thinking, radical, and prepared to embark on a journey with an almost blind trust in the universe. The Fool is succeeded by the more austere Magician, #1 of the Major Arcana (which is one of Shadow's cards, in my experience). It sounds familiar, doesn't it?

[ID: A collection of song lyrics. Top left - "Never fear the fall / When you leap without a net, you'll find / It won't be there all the time / So watch your step now, watch your step / Don't fall!" Middle left: "I won't even hesitate / A second left to alter fate" Middle: "Hold on to 'what-if'! Hold on to 'what if'!" Bottom middle: "Long as the voice inside me says 'Go', I will always keep on running / There is no way to stop me from going to the very top" Bottom: "This is my escape / I'm running through this world and I'm not looking back / And I know I can go / Where no one's ever gone and I'm not looking back"]

To outsiders, The Fool is precisely that - ruled by his blind faith and his thirst for adventure, he may unknowingly stumble into trouble, danger, and hardship. He may find himself jumping from The Tower if he is not careful.

More significantly, The Fool is governed by Uranus. Uranus is associated with freedom, airiness, revolution, and independence (one wouldn't be shocked to find that The Fool's element is air). Although Sonic's personality may have been ... sterilized over the years, his childhood (teenhood?) revolved around defeating Ivo, who, for all intents and purposes, is perhaps a not-so-covert metaphor for capitalism and industrialization. He is the oppositional force to Sonic's wildness and free-standing nature. Interestingly, Uranus also represents forward-thinking, innovation, and the (positive) future that can come from said innovation - one could argue Eggman is like the other-side of Uranus, its dark hemisphere, innovation in blind excess.

One more thing I wanted to add (courtesy of Tarot & Astrology by Corrine Kenner) because it blew my mind when I was making this post:

Uranus rules Aquarius, the sign of futuristic thinking, and the eleventh house of the zodiac, where astrologers look for information about social groups and idealistic causes. Like Aquarius, Uranus is associated with the lower legs, the ankles, and the circulatory system.

#2: Impact - The Tower

[ID: The Tower shows a tall tower perched on the top of a rocky mountain. Lightning strikes set the building alight, and two people leap from the windows, head first and arms outstretched. It is a scene of chaos and destruction.]

When I say impact, I really mean the effects of Sonic on others.

The Tower gets a bad rep, and for good reason - the imagery on it is striking and unsettling. Death, breakups, or loss of a job are all what we would colloquially call Tower moments: moments that irrevocably alter the course of our lives. The Tower, therefore, represents stability, structure, even if that structure is built on shaky ground - yet this card reminds us that nothing is permanent. As scary as that may sound, The Tower isn't all negative: it signifies a purging of false beliefs, interventions, tearing down concepts and things in our lives we thought were here to stay.

More significantly, The Tower is succeeded by The Star: What goes up must come down, or what falls will always rise again. Such is the harmony of the universe. Regardless, when you rise from the ashes of the fallen Tower, you're stronger, brighter, clarified.

This is definitely a take on Sonic that is more personal and less grounded in canon, but it feels so pertinent to me that I want to include it anyways. Sonic himself is life-changing - that's the whole conceit of his character. Sonic's role as The Tower is felt most palpably in Shadow's character saga: the appearance of Sonic heralded immense change in his life, from remembering his true purpose to emerging from the other side of his fall as stronger, more dignified, and certain of himself. The same can be argued for Surge, and if I wanted to reach, even Tails. What they all have in common is the change that Sonic inspired in them.

For the best application of Sonic as The Tower, look no further than Sonic & the Black Knight, wherein Sonic literally destroys the false kingdom Merlina built out of a feverish desperation to preserve her status quo:

[Picture 1 ID: Sonic asking Merlina, "What good is a world that goes on forever?!"

Picture 2 ID: Sonic charging at Merlina to attack, shouting, "No! And I don't want to [understand]!"]

The Tower is most closely associated with Mars/Aries, whose domains encompass strength, prowess, and impulsivity (among others). I would be remiss to exclude the fact that one of Mars' associations is sports and competition (Sonic Riders mention). Additionally, I'd argue that almost all of the Titan songs in Frontiers are very warlike in their intensity and genre, exemplifying Super Sonic as Sonic's ultimate weapon. All four songs seem to scream jump out of the Tower now!

[Pictured: Sonic threatening Surge with a Tower Moment, or the infamous "a bigger shame is what'll happen to the idiot that tries that" moment.]

Honorable Mention - The Chariot

[ID: The Chariot tarot card depicts a brave warrior standing upright in his chariot. His lower half is obscured, and the chariot is being driven by two sphinxes. In his hand he clutches a wand.]

I was hesitant to include this card, but I decided to for two reasons: 1) Sonic is a Cancer (at least if you acknowledge June 23 as his birthday), and I wanted to pay homage to that; and 2) there are aspects of The Chariot that resemble Sonic to me.

To put it simply, The Chariot is an adventurer, much like The Fool (in this instance, perhaps The Charioteer could be The Fool?). Unlike The Fool, though--and more akin to its ruling sign, Cancer--The Chariot houses its home on its back. In other words, where Sonic goes, home goes with, even if he never stays in one place for long. Furthermore, the advent of Cancer season is marked by the summer solstice; thus, The Chariot also symbolizes new beginnings, much like our adventurous Fool. The charioteer is ambitious and focused, commanding his body and his vessel forward through the world (as evidenced by the wand in his hand, which represents our spirit and unconscious). The charioteer knows what he wants, and he goes after it boldly and decisively.

This wasn't in my top two spots solely because The Chariot has a kind of austerity and severity that I don't quite associate with Sonic. While Sonic does have serious and grounded moments, I prefer the more airy and lackadaisical approach of The Fool, or, if we're characterizing Sonic by his impact on the cast and the world, the more intense and lightning-quick change of The Tower.

That concludes the first post in this little miniseries! These are the three cards I wish Sega would have associated with Sonic, as opposed to the Taurean and wizened King of Pentacles (which, in my opinion, is very antithetical to Sonic's nature). Both The Fool and The Tower remind me of Sonic in different aspects, and I think they embody his characteristics more accurately than what they went with. Alas, one can dream.

In my next post, we'll touch on Shadow. I have a lot to say about him ...

[rhysatlas]

i feel like what i said in a server with my friends pretty much sums up the pain that is the show arcane.

[adhdrhys]

BRUHHH LOOK AT THE TYPEWRITER KEYBOARD MY SISTER GOT ME!!!!!!!!!!

[pinktuals]

well well well

[ftmswag-moving]

moving blogs

@cutthroatcollective

refollow me over there 🤙🏽

[strangecreationchaos]

this was one of the most favourite moment of mine in acosf ...

p.s. nesta let rhys see her experience in bloodrite! and nesta showed him because she thought rhys asked out of curiosity not as a highlord! if people can't read the change and the development in their relationship here! i am not going to convince you any more!

[oldscratch-thebigd]

Happy wild mouse coaster wednesday