#Revised Standard Bible

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The Good Samaritan

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" 27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live." 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, 34 and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." — Luke 10:25-37 | Revised Standard Version (RSV) Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Cross References: Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Deuteronomy 6:24; Leviticus 18:15; Leviticus 19:18; Isaiah 58:7; Matthew 10:5; Matthew 18:28; Matthew 19:16; Matthew 24:34; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:52; Luke 10:38; Luke 16:15; Luke 18:31; Luke 19:28

[quotesfromscripture]

Never again

"The rest shall hear and be afraid, and a crime such as this shall never again be committed among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

(Deuteronomy 19:20-21 NRSVA, 1995)

[oh-dear-so-queer]

As the monumental RSV stuff-up in 1946 demonstrates, the fault for a lot of negative Christian response to homosexuality lies with those who translate, interpret and preach the Scriptures.

"In/Out: A Scandalous Story of Falling Into Love and Out of the Church" - Steph Lentz

[christianity-crucible]

Hoping to find an article I had but lost track of talking about how messed up the evangelical-favored English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible is, especially compared to the version it was cribbed from, the Revised Standard Version (RSV), which at least according to one telling tried to make it translation as accurate as possible. By contrast, the changes made in the English Standard Version were very political and were LESS linguistically accurate, though more political convenient for evangelicalism.

If I can find that article again, I'll post a link here.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Do you have a list of good sex ed books to read?

BOY DO I

please bear in mind that some of these books are a little old (10+ years) by research standards now, and that even the newer ones are all flawed in some way. the thing about research on human beings, and especially research on something as nebulous and huge as sex, is that people are Always going to miss something or fail to account for every possible experience, and that's just something that we have to accept in good faith. I think all of these books have something interesting to say, but that doesn't mean any of them are the only book you'll ever need.

related to that: it's been A While since I've read some of these so sorry if anything in them has aged poorly (I don't THINK SO but like, I was not as discerning a reader when I was 19) but I am still including them as books that have been important to my personal journey as a sex educator.

additionally, a caveat that very few of these books are, like, instructional sex ed books in the sense of like "here's how the penis works, here's where the clit is, etc." those books exist and they're great but they're also not very interesting to me; my studies on sex are much more in the social aspect (shout out to my sociology degree) and the way people learn to think about sex and societal factors that shape those trends. these books reflect that. I would genuinely love to have the time to check out some 101 books to see how they fare, but alas - sex ed is not my day job and I don't have the time to dedicate to that, so it happens slowly when it happens at all. I've been meaning to read Dr. Gunter's Vagina Bible since it came out in 2019, for fucks sake.

and finally an acknowledgement that this is a fairly white list, which has as much to do with biases with academia and publishing as my own unchecked biases especially early in my academic career and the limitations of my university library.

ANYWAY here's some books about sex that have been influential/informative to me in one way or another:

The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life (Michael Warner, 1999)

Virginity Lost: An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences (Laura M. Carpenter, 2005)

Virgin: The Untouched History (Hanne Blank, 2007)

Sex Goes to School: Girls and Sex Education Before the 1960s (Susan K. Freeman, 2008)

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (Mary Roach, 2008)

Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution (Revised Edition) (Susan Stryker, 2008)

The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women (Jessica Valenti, 2009)

Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex (Amy T. Schalet, 2011)

Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality (Hanne Blank, 2012)

Rewriting the Rules: An Integrative Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships (Meg-John Barker, 2013)

The Sex Myth: The Gap Between Our Fantasies and Realities (Rachel Hills, 2015)

Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Tranform Your Sex Life (Emily Nagoski, 2015)

Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (Jane Ward, 2015)

Too Hot to Handle: A Global History of Sex Education (Jonathan Zimmerman, 2015)

American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus (Lisa Wade, 2017)

Histories of the Transgender Child (Jules Gill-Peterson, 2018)

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights (Juno Mac and Molly Smith, 2018)

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Angela Chen, 2020)

Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press (Kim Gallon, 2020)

A Curious History of Sex (Kate Lister, 2020)

Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity (Peggy Orenstein, 2020)

Black Women, Black Love: America's War on Africa American Marriage (Dianne M. Stewart, 2020)

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality (Jane Ward, 2020)

Hurts So Good: The Science and Pleasure of Pain on Purpose (Leigh Cowart, 2021)

Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs (Ina Park, 2021)

The Right to Sex: Feminist in the Twenty-First Century (Amia Srinivasan, 2021)

Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (Eric C. Wat, 2021)

Superfreaks: Kink, Pleasure, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Arielle Greenberg, 2023)

[jesuschristisgod]

Matthew 11:29–30 in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible reads: 29 "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls".30 "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light".

[bluecatwriter]

Jonathan: Do I have to read it, oh my dear one?

Me: (cries)

Jonathan: "I will keep my mouth as it were in a bridle: while the ungodly is in my sight. I held my tongue, and spake nothing: I kept silence, yea, even from good words; but it was pain and grief to me. My heart was hot within me; and while I was thus musing the fire kindled."

Me: (cries harder) Do you have to remind me!

OKAY BUT THE INCLUSION OF THIS LINE HAS ME GOING FERAL

(Theological ramble incoming. You have been warned.)

Jonathan is reading from the Book of Common Prayer, but the scripture is Psalm 39. (I originally thought that this was a quote from Jeremiah 20:9, which uses similar language to show the prophet's frustration with burning up inside if he refuses his call to prophesy, but this is even better.)

The psalmist here is a great example of how people's responses to God in the Bible do not fit neatly into the "unquestioning obedience and reverence" framework any more than Jonathan's actions do. The narrator of this psalm speaks despairingly about the vanity of life, begs God to stop heaping hardship on him ("Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand"), and while he expresses near the middle that his ultimate hope is in God ("And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee"), he also flat-out asks God to leave him alone (the last line of the psalm in King James Version says "O spare me, that I may recover strength/before I go hence, and be no more," though I love the more modern translations such as the New Revised Standard version, which reads, "Turn your gaze away from me, that I may smile again/before I depart and am no more").

It's a gut-wrenching psalm that doesn't flinch from the realities of life: things feel meaningless, hardships are heaped on those who are faithful, humans are fragile, riches cannot safeguard against death— and the right to rage and weep before God is a given. It ends not with the line of hope from the middle but with a challenge to God, and the main conflict of the psalm is not resolved or neatly tied up. Like all the Wisdom literature in the Bible, it invites the readers to sit in the tension and the confusion and the pain, rather than hastening on to a "correct answer" or even a sense of resolution.

I assume this is why it's included in the Book of Common Prayer's burial service: death cannot be tied up with a bow, or smoothed over with platitudes. This psalm expresses solidarity with people from every generation who have tried to make sense of their hardships and pain and the devastating reality of mortality.

Anyway, inclusion of this line in this scene was absolutely stunning. I suspect that many of Bram Stoker's original readers would have familiarity with the burial service since it would be read at every funeral, so adding in the words was wonderful to enhance the experience for the modern non-Anglican reader. This passage helped drive home how thematically resonant these words are with what's happening in the story in the moment. Very cool.

[transhuman-priestess]

“None of these words are in the Bible”

Really? Which translation are you comparing to?

There are hundreds, if not thousands of translations of the Bible available from everybody and their grandma.

I’m not even talking about French vs English vs Arabic etc I’m talking about just within the English language.

You’ve got King James, Revised King James, New International, English Standard, New Living, and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Some of those absolutely have the word penis in them. Quit lying, you uncultured buffoons.

[malakaie]

House of Black + the Morrigan

I’ve been thinking a lot about the gear @tommyend and the House of Black wore at All In 2024, and what’s transpired both within and outside the House since then. I wanted to lay out what I’ve been able to find and interpret and what it may mean for the future of the faction. There’s some interesting implications for the overall metanarrative of AEW that I’ve decided to save for a follow-up post as this is already quite lengthy, but this is the foundation for things to hopefully follow.

As is fairly typical with PPVs, the House of Black tends to wear gear to the ring that has a particularly special significance; while there are recurring images of importance (mostly in the form of colour palettes, Malakai’s eye, and the masks he wears on a given show) seen at other times, the PPV gear always stands out, and All In is no exception.

Initially – based on the hint in this post – I had wondered if the “3 spirits” in question might be the Furies, which may not have been far off. @gravekeptsecret found this post for me in which the artist who made Malakai’s mask acknowledges the Morrigan more explicitly, which has essentially been the starting point for the analysis to follow. I wasn’t very familiar with the Morrigan as a folkloric/mythological figure, so I went digging, and while I don’t think I’ve been able to identify every image or symbol in the gear from All In, I did notice a few things with some potentially very interesting implications.

There have been a number of attempts to translate or break down the etymology of the “Morrigan” over the years; the most prevalent that I’ve seen analyse her name in one of two ways. One is to translate the first syllable mor as “great” or big,” and to translate rigan as “queen” – so “Great Queen,” put together. The other – and perhaps more significant for our purposes here – is to suggest that mor shares an etymological root with the Old High German mara and the Anglo-Saxon maere, through which we eventually arrive at the modern English “nightmare.” This produces an approximate translation that sits closer to “Phantom Queen.”

Some of the complexity around understanding the nature of the Morrigan and the beliefs surrounding her comes from the process of transcribing ideas that were largely conveyed through an oral tradition, especially when much of this writing was carried out by Christian scribes and monks as well as classical scholars. These writers inevitably had some of their own ideas that bled into how we understand the Morrigan today – but, interestingly, has also resulted in her name appearing in the glossaries of Christian and biblical texts in some places. For example, in the Vulgate (a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible), the word ‘morigain’ is seen defined as ‘lamia, the Greek child-devouring female witch’. Elsewhere, in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, morigain is identified as the “night hag”; we’ll come back to this idea in more depth a bit later on.

All of this seems to be describing a single or unified figure—so why 3 spirits? Triple or triune deities were fairly common in the Celtic traditions from which the Morrigan arose; and as mentioned we do seem to run into some trouble here arising from different translations, the discrepancies between different records of oral tradition, etc., but there are nonetheless three personages (by various names) that are largely linked into a trio under the “Morrigan” umbrella.

I was able to find a few iterations. One describes the trio as Neman (also spelled Nemain, translated in some sources as Terror or Panic), Macha, and Morrigu (also spelled Morrigan). In other sources we see Badhb replacing Nemain; or we see Macha, Morrigan, and Badhb as the trio. In any event, taken together, these three figures get described as a group of three sisters (Morrigna), or as supernatural beings who haunt the battlefield (Badba).

A recurring image surrounding this triad – and one that appears in numerous places on the House’s gear at All In – relates to crows, ravens, or carrion birds more broadly. With the capacity for shapeshifting, the Morrigan ‘frequently appeared among opposing armies as crows or ravens, sinister black carrion birds of death’.

In terms of crows specifically, there seems to be a suggestion that crows were often represented not only as omens of what was to come, but as agents in fulfilling it; this has some significance for Malakai specifically that I’ll get into later, but it conveys some interesting ideas about how “fate” was understood in this context.

For now it’s enough to say that the Morrigan appearing in the form of a bird or a crow ‘frequently denotes an ill omen, usually one that heralds a death’. Because these birds were often understood as scavengers, they tended to gather near battlefields waiting for corpses to eat. They weren’t necessarily interpreted as being evil creatures – which is something that has been a significant part of the House’s portrayal as neither unequivocally good nor unequivocally evil as well – but their presence nonetheless suggested some kind of impending danger or threat that would affect the living.

I want to also return to the “hag” imagery surrounding the Morrigan here. I think there are two major points of interest. The first is visual: all three men of the House had gear made involving claws and horns in some capacity. Malakai’s long-haired bone mask might be particularly striking, but all three of them—in addition to the crow imagery—seem to be coming in this most ominous form, this form most connected with death and war and tragedy and terror. They’re accompanied by a silent standard-bearer who also forms part of this war-like image.

In one description of the Morrigan in her hag-like form, she’s depicted “with grey dishevelled hair, blood-draggled, and with sharp-boned arms and fingers crook’d and spare, dabbling and washing in the ford, where mid-leg deep she stood beside a heap of heads and limbs that swam in oozing blood.” When asked who she was and what she was doing during this episode, the Morrigan announced that she was the Washer of the Ford and that the human remains she was washing were those of an armed force that was about to be killed in the coming battle. There’s some fairly clear similarity between this description and the long dark hair that’s part of Malakai’s mask; the presence of horns and claws; the patches of red in all three of their jackets. Red, especially, is a colour associated with war and death in the Celtic context; and Malakai has also linked the colour red with moments of particularly significant change in the history of the House and their opponents.

The hag or crone within Celtic folklore is often also presented as interpreting or prophesying the future, and has ‘the ability to transform into a raven, a crow, a hare, or a weasel,’ not dissimilar from the Morrigan’s own shapeshifting powers. There’s a strong link with the figure of the banshee as well in this respect.

Since the banshee is often understood to be a member of the fairy castes, it’s interesting that in some sources the Morrigan is also depicted as living in the sidhe, hills and raths and ring forts around the countryside that may have eventually evolved into beliefs about the faery palaces. These were often ruins of Stone Age structures and frequently play a role in Irish stories of faeries avenging themselves on humans who interfered with these dwelling places. (As a side note, Malakai mentions a ‘hollow’ and a ‘stone abyss’ in the caption of one of his recent Instagram posts which may be connected.)

I also want to briefly mention that there’s patches of grey fur stitched into their clothes at All In. I’m not absolutely certain of this, but I think that may be linked to one of the shapeshifting appearances of the Morrigan, when she appears as a grey wolf to attack the hero Cu Chulainn as part of her revenge for him rejecting her. We’ve seen more grey in the House of Black’s gear in general recently as well, which suggests a certain moral ambiguity (no man is ever truly good…) as well as a possible link with banshees who were often depicted wearing white or grey clothing, so that may also be a link between the colour grey and impending death.

Another image I noticed on all three ring jackets appears to be heads or skulls on stakes, which you can make out pretty well in this photo in addition to the grey fur patches.

This seems to have a link with two of the figures typically understood in connection with the Morrigan, namely Macha and Badhb. There’s mentions of the ‘mast,’ or food, of Macha being the heads of men slain in battle, in various sources, which may in part be tied to beliefs about the head being the residing place of the human soul. However, we also see a similar idea in one of the myths when, after the death of Cu Chulainn, Conall Cernach (another Irish hero) ‘returns to Ulster with Cu Chulainn’s head along with the heads of the warriors’ who killed him. Conall Cernach then proceeds to ‘[place] the cuailli Badbha [or] ‘stakes of the Badb’ all around a meadow,’ namely placing the heads of the men he has killed on stakes as trophies by way of his revenge. It’s possible then that the “mast of Macha” and the “stakes of the Badb” ‘referred to the same martial practice,’ so I find it interesting that this image appeared in multiple places on the House of Black’s gear.

The last symbol I was able to make out I’m admittedly not sure about, but it appears in a few places and seems to be three arrows in a bow. I wasn’t able to find additional mythological significance for this symbol, but there are three men in the House, and the House rules do point to imagery around arrows as well: “My past has shaped and guided me; it is not a crutch, but an arrow.” The presence of arrows could suggest preparing for a hunt, while the crossed swords on the standard-bearer’s flag is a symbol usually associated with readiness for war or battle. Taken together with the scythe symbol that we most often see associated with the House of Black, we have essentially three phases or aspects of the life and death cycle: hunting, war and death, and reaping or harvest. (credit to @gravekeptsecret for figuring this out)

(image credits fluxtidedesigns and soy_takeda)

Having laid out the symbols I’ve been able to make out, I think it’s worth visiting a little more of what the Morrigan (alone or as a triad) are more specifically portrayed as doing, since I think that has some interesting implications for the House’s current storyline and the way the faction seems to be evolving.

Prophesying or forecasting an impending death – whether in the form of a carrion bird, or in the form of the various hag-like figures that appear and are also reflected in the All In gear – is perhaps the easiest place to start. This wouldn’t be the first time that the House has engaged with the idea of death not as a permanent ending but rather as part of the process of change and renewal, and I think it’s within that same context that they’ve appeared here as a trio of war/death goddesses. After the war, what grows from the battlefield? What life comes after the violence, once the quiet falls again and the decay left behind is able to feed and replenish the soil?

I want to put all of this back in the context of the post where I started. I don’t think it’s the only place Malakai’s mentioned the presence of “omens” or other entities “possessing” the vessel that was Tommy End, but it’s a fairly recent one, so we’ll use it for our purposes here. It’s interesting in the context of the entity calling itself Malakai also being referred to as a “messenger,” where it shares a name (albeit with the Dutch spelling) with the biblical prophet Malachi. If Malakai serves as a mouthpiece for other entities, or has done so in the past, when they have something to say or express—or, in the most literal interpretation of the word “omen,” to warn the AEW locker room and fans about—the it stands to reason that the Morrigan could be speaking through him, too, in some way. It stands to reason that if the entity calling itself Malakai could enter through the damaged eye, that that could be a possible entrance point for other spirits or entities to come and go, too.

However, for a possession to take place, there has to have been a human soul, right? There’s some, I think, deliberate vagueness about the transition from Aleister Black to Malakai Black – but this video package posted pretty early in Malakai’s time with AEW makes the transition from Tommy End to Malakai Black fairly explicit.

[Excerpt of the transcript:

Doctor 1: You know you shouldn't get in fights with the other patients, especially Matthew.

MB: You mean being pushed into the stairs. That's what you mean.

Doctor 1: Tom, how many times have we talked about this? That didn't happen. It's all in your head.

MB: All in my head. Speaking of in my head, how's your neck?

Doctor 2: See, this is your problem. You think everything's a joke, and we're sitting here trying to help you. All you have to do is go to your meetings. Take your medicine. Maybe you'll start improving. You've been here for five years!

Doctor 1: Tom, I have to agree with my young colleague over here. It's been five years. You're not getting any better, Tom.

MB: Last time. Last time I'm gonna say this. My name isn't Tom. My name is -

Doctor 2: Your name is Tom! [...] We gotta get some help. Tom, can you hear us right now?

[...] Doctor 1: Tommy? Are you okay?

MB: I'm fine. You, on the other hand. You won't be. Doc, in all the years of digging through my head, you never thought that any of this was real?

Doctor 2: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Tom.

MB: Tom? My name isn't Tom. My name is Malakai.]

It’s heavily implied that the spirit or demon Malakai entered through the eye that was wounded by Buddy Matthews when they were both in WWE.

It’s also shown, however, that there seem to be multiple competing voices or entities in Tommy’s/Malakai’s head, and it looks like a battle that Tommy is losing in this instance. It’s the repeated insistence by the doctors in this video that “your name is Tom” that lets those other voices come more strongly to the forefront, and ultimately win. We kind of see neither hide nor hair of “Tom” for years after that; it doesn’t seem to always or exclusively be “Malakai” that’s in control, but if there are other entities that show up, they don’t seem to be human in nature or intent either.

Later, though, we see a pair of video packages that also didn’t air on TV (to my knowledge) but were posted to Malakai’s Instagram fairly close together. I’d seen them before, but hadn’t quite made the connection between the two; if you watch them together, they start to sound increasingly like a dialogue between two different characters.

For one, Malakai’s voice is noticeably different in tone and timbre between them; but the wording is different, too. The first video (dated February 5) is more vulnerable, confused, maybe even afraid – like someone who’s just woken up from a nightmare and hasn’t quite found the line between the reality and the dream. The second video (dated April 5) is more confrontational, maybe even angry in places, arrogant in others. I don’t think we’ve seen this dialogue come into its full fruition yet, but based on the wording (transcribed below), I feel fairly confident in saying that this is a dialogue between “Tom” and “Malakai” … which implies Tom has never been dead, just dormant or suppressed.

[February 5 transcript:

"What is your name? I feel like I woke up in a dream and I do not know who I am. But you, you who bears the name Messenger, are you trying to tell me who I am? Or are you trying to tell me who you are, because who are you? Because you are inside my head. Who are you? Other than the sentences you keep shouting at me. The same sentences over and over like a poem, going back and forth and screaming at me - deep in the shadows where whispers dwell, ancient tales there lie to tell, revered in mystery, his presence known, keeping secrets in the night alone, forging paths where light dares not tread, amidst the silence his words are spread, through the twilight his figure looms, harbinger of faith, in the glooms, echoing strength in the silent night, ruling the darkness with quiet might. What is my name?"]

[April 5 transcript:

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me, then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come. But who can endure the day of his coming? You will know my name. Without me we would still be shackled. I saved us, I was the oxygen in your lungs and now, now you claim I am drowning you. You owe us. Saviour of mankind, I don't think so. I could care less about your moral crusade. Across 24 years, a march both saviour and condemned. Which mountain do you choose to end it all?"]

Equally importantly, in the second “Malakai” video, the character or entity present here seems to present “Tom” with a choice, but it’s a complicated one. He makes it quite clear that he’s not going anywhere, that whatever “Tom” does he’s going to have to do it with “Malakai” present whether he likes it or not. But there’s still a choice to be made: Saviour or condemned – which will we be?

I realized, thinking about this, that this is something not unlike what Malakai has done to his opponents before. He takes certain options away from them, or at least makes them so unbearable or impossible that the only avenue is the one he wants them to take, but still at the end of the day doesn’t seem to have the power to truly force anyone’s hand. He puts FTR in an impossible situation: you can choose your family and “die,” or you can walk through the doors of the House and join them – but you have to walk through the doors willingly. They don’t abduct FTR or simply spirit them away. They create a condition where the alternative – not joining the House – is something insupportable.

He puts Copeland in an impossible situation: cling to your false humanity now that I’ve taken from you and forced you to confront the truth of yourself – or willingly walk through the doors of the House and join them. It almost feels as though there’s some kind of restriction, whether it’s a literal limitation on his power or some kind of code that he holds himself to, that prevents him from simply forcing people to do things.

It's compelling to me, then, that the same logic seems to apply to the internal conflict implied by these two video packages. Malakai doesn’t intend to go anywhere. He doesn’t intend to vacate the vessel he’s taken as his own. But he places the choice of what that means squarely back in Tom’s hands. He only makes it clear that, whatever “Tom” chooses, doing it without Malakai present isn’t a possibility, isn’t an option. It’s reminiscent in some ways of the temptation of the serpent in Eden: the serpent doesn’t tell Adam and Eve they have to eat from the tree. He only plants the idea that not eating from the tree would be worse, because it would leave them in ignorance of good and evil. Eve and Adam ultimately make the choice on their own. (credit again to @gravekeptsecret for connecting these ideas)

There’s also a Bible passage quoted (no doubt intentionally from Malachi 3) in the second video that I think is worth setting down more fully as below:

‘“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver […]’

There’s more to this passage but for this context this is the most important part, I think: if it leads to the House of Black itself being put through a cleansing fire, what comes afterward? Who can endure this process of purification and change? Will they survive it?

This seems to be a fairly slow-burning storyline, something that has been quietly in the works for weeks or even months now, but it’s notable that we’ve seen a fairly significant change in the House’s behaviour since All In.

They shook Pac’s hand after his victory at All In.

Brody shakes Darby’s hand after their match. That’s in large part a nod to their history as shoot friends and kayfabe opponents, but it’s nonetheless a new development; the house has been pretty sparing with their displays of respect for their opponents in the past.

Buddy does engage from a place of being a bit arrogant and challenging in his match against Adam Cole, but it seems to be with the intent of trying to bring the best out of him – in a sense, not unlike the Morrigan goading Irish folkloric heroes to try and get them engaged in, and ultimately victorious through, an impending battle. To what end? Why is it more important that Adam Cole be ready to fight than it is for Buddy to win the match? Why do both Buddy and Malakai shake Adam’s hand afterward, if not because the deal is done? They got what they wanted out of him. The Adam Cole who leaves the ring, having beaten Buddy, has confronted his weakness and vulnerability in a way the Adam Cole who entered the ring had not.

Malakai, in turn, shows a new approach to his match against Cole. He’s given – quite literally handed – the easy option of targeting Adam’s ankle, and explicitly refuses it. He says he’s not going to do that, that he doesn’t want that from Adam. He wants it to be an honest fight, wherein Adam gives the best that he can. When the fight draws to a close, Malakai doesn’t just lose. He welcomes it. He gestures, quite explicitly, for Adam to put an end to the fight, and – in keeping with the promo he gave before the match – an end to him, in some way. He’s invited – or challenged – Adam to silence the voices in his head (that, it seems, have been there since he first came to AEW, and arguably longer), and when the opportunity arises he gets Adam to do it. He accepts his “death” or defeat with deliberateness and intent.

[Excerpt of the promo transcript:

"Maybe I want you to be the person to end all of this for me, to silence these things that I have in my head. Maybe I want you to muffle the noises. Because if you don't, I will drag you down so deep that the blackest black you have ever seen will not compare to what I will show you."]

@gravekeptsecret pointed out that Malakai’s posture toward the end of this match reminded him of capacocha sacrifices or sokushinbutsu/self-mummification practices of extreme asceticism among Buddhist monks, which I found particularly interesting. I’ve linked some articles below if you want to read more about both. There’s almost a dignity in that. It’s over. He can reconcile “Tom” and “Malakai” and find some way forward if the noise in his head falls quiet, if he doesn’t have to keep up the constant fighting.

As a brief sidebar here, the timing of the matches against Adam is interesting. While the Morrigan’s first appearance in AEW happens toward the end of August, I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen another entity appear so clearly and obviously since then, and it stands out that the matches with Adam Cole both surrounded the date of Samhain. It’s a date on which both faeries and spirits of the dead were/are believed to have the capacity to emerge and move freely among living humans. Similarly, in some stories, the Morrigan emerges at Samhain from Oweynagat Cave, which is said to be a passage to or connection point with the Otherworld.

The week following, Malakai wears a mask we haven’t seen before to his match against FTR. While it shares some commonality with other masks that have been associated with the House – we’ve seen a number of versions of it in black, black and green, black and red, black and gold, white and gold – this is, I believe, the first time we’re seeing this mask in pure white. And it’s not just pure white: there are deep cracks in the mask. Like it’s falling apart. Like there’s some fault line in the things it represents that are going to give way to something new that can grow from those cracks. White representing newness, innocence, vulnerability. White representing light. White representing peace.

This has coincided with many other, arguably more subtle, things –

House of Black trying to call the referee’s attention to their opponents cheating/using illegal manoeuvres when they’ve had no issues cheating in the past, whether or on their own or through Julia’s interference (see: Kings of the Black Throne vs. Premier Athletes, Rampage 12.07.2024)

Buddy increasingly gaining the audience’s favour behind him in the wake of being “attacked” by Christian Cage

House of Black starting to leave through the face tunnel (see: Collision 22.06.2024; Dynamite 06.11.2024)

Buddy holding Brody back from chasing after FTR when they were challenged for the tag team match (Collision 09.11.2024)

FTR singling out Malakai in their Dynamite match and denying him the tag out to Brody in a way that’s more commonly seen done by heels to face opponents (in fact, this is something House of Black have done many times) (Dynamite 13.11.2024)

The nature of the House is changing. In what ways or to what end, only time will tell, but it’s noticeable, and I feel quite strongly that it’s something to do with the Malakai/Tom interplay going on in the background.

As I mentioned earlier, all these images and ideas together pose some interesting questions about how we understand Malakai as a “prophet” or messenger in this context. Is he just delivering the information about what will happen? Or is he, perhaps more likely, creating the conditions such that the omens he warns of do happen? Much like the Morrigan, he might have only been warning of or prophesying the future of the House up until now – but even the Morrigan sometimes interfered and created the conditions for victory or defeat of the Irish heroes and their enemies, and much like Malakai carefully manoeuvring his opponents to the outcome he wants, I don’t think we can rule out a similar level of calculation here, even if “Tom” isn’t consciously aware of it.

I don’t know for sure where all of this is going, and I’m definitely speculating here, but I know – or strongly believe – one thing: Tom is awake. He might be changing the course of the House’s future. By appearing as the Morrigan, the three men of the House together could certainly be argued to be forecasting a “death,” and further to have had a hand in creating an environment in which that “prophecy” or omen could come true.

What if the death that’s being forecasted isn’t someone else’s, but rather their own?

What if the House of Black as we know it is dying, to be reborn from those ashes as something altogether new?

---

Sources:

Olivia L. Blessing: "The Morrigan: A Trinity United" (2010)

Angelique Gulermovich-Epstein: "War Goddess: THe Morrigan and Her Germano-Celtic Counterparts" (1998)

W. M. Hennessey: "On the Goddess of War of the Ancient Irish" (1866)

Alexander Haggerty Krappe: "The Valkyrie Episode in the Njals Saga" (1928)

Alicia Karen Littleford: "The Divine Feminine: A Study of the Cyclical Representation of Life and Death in Irish and Norse Female Supernatural Figures" (2023)

Nancy Ann Parker: "The Mythical and Mortal Crone: Recollecting and Reclaiming the Sacred Regeneratrix" (2009)

Emily Asia Ruch: "Wyrd Webs and Woven Words: Archetypal Expressions of Fate in Classical, Celtic, and Norse Mythology" (2021)

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt: "Gods and Heroes of the Celts," translation by Myles Dillon (1994)

Courtney Weber & Lora O'Brien: "The Morrigan: Celtic goddess of magick and might" (2019)

Capacocha

Self-mummification/sokushinbutsu

[babyangelsky]

*sits at a lighted vanity mirror with clown makeup half on and a multicolored wig on a stand beside me*

I would like to share with you all a little fact about me: I have an incurable case of Fluke Pusit Heart Eyes. All I asked for Christmas was more Fluke, then all I asked for New Year's was more Fluke, then all I asked for my birthday was more Fluke.

So while that may admittedly be coloring my judgement, I'm gonna ask ya'll to let me cook here for a second.

A few days ago I ran my lil self over to Petty to share a bit of news I came across, which was that Fluke stated in a recent interview that he had a project coming up and that it was maybe a BL.

THEN, a couple of days later, Be on Cloud announced that Ta, Copper, Bible, and Bas would be at the One D press conference and it began to be speculated by some that Bas would be paired with Bible in the upcoming series 4 Minutes. Nothing was announced or confirmed at the press con...

BUT!

In an interview with The Standard, the relevant portion of which has been kindly translated here, Pond Krisda stated that the script for 4 Minutes had just finished being revised and:

THAT AN ACTOR HAS BEEN CAST TO STAR ALONGSIDE BIBLE.

Now! I love Bas. I'm very excited to see him in Man Suang when it gets released on Netflix at the end of the month because by all accounts he gave a fantastic performance. If he is paired with Bible in 4 Minutes, I'll be seated for it. I'll be seated regardless.

But! I HAVE FLUKE PUSIT HEART EYES! AND NOT ONLY DO I HAVE THEM, A MONTH AGO FELLOW FLUKE PUSIT ENJOYER CHICA PUT THIS IN MY HEAD:

DO YOU SEE WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS? DO YOU SEE?

Fluke shares that he has a project coming soon but can't share any details and then TWO DAYS LATER Pond gives an interview and says that they have a co-star for Bible! Is the co-star Bas or one of the other BOC boys? Very possible! Probable even! Is this all just coincidental timing and Fluke's new project is something else entirely? Maybe!

BUT WHAT IF IT ISN'T? WHAT IF IT REALLY IS FLUKE WHO HAS BEEN CAST TO STAR WITH BIBLE?

*secures my clown wig, completing the clown transformation, and takes deep breath*

There is absolutely no reason for this post to exist or be this long other than my profound desire to see Fluke star in something, and these may very well be the delusional ramblings of a freshly 30-year-old lady in a "-I've connected the dots/-You haven't connected shit" situation.

But I just want ya'll to consider that much like the chances of being attacked by a bear in everyday life, the chances of Fluke being in 4 Minutes with Bible are slim, but not zero.

And I would like to invite ya'll and @respectthepetty and @chicademartinica to join me in this clown car

[and-her-saints]

What do you recommend for someone who's starting to read the bible? Like where to start, complementary readings, methods of study, etc

short answer: not really, i am so sorry. i have not found anything i would publicly recommend. there has always been some really heavy drawbacks that make me not want to back them.

the only thing (method-ish) i would recommend for Gospel readings wholeheartedly is the podcast Imagine: A Guide to Jesuit Prayer . however, it IS a contemplation podcast. not a bible study.

long answer: hmmmmm… my buddy El really recommends the The New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE) but i do not own it, i pretty much only read the bible in Spanish (REINA-VALERA‼️🔥) but the NRSV is a very good, recent and accurate translation 👍 or so i’ve heard…

in regards to Bible studies… i’ve taken so many Bible study/Theology online courses and they have all SUCKED 👎 i don’t have many (if any) recs on that end.

many (many) people would recommend “Bible in a Year” with Fr. Mike Schmitz, however! i cannot stand him (respectfully) i am SO sorry…

this America article has some really good points on how to approach Catholic bible studies and has some recommendations.

i must finally add that i will be checking out the Agustine Institute’s podcast on the Bible/Bible in a Year because i’ve really enjoyed the experience of the “Amen” app. but i’ll have to give it a shot first.

i’m sorry this was SO unhelpful. i’m sure some people on here might have some actual suggestions and recommendations. pls add them. pls….. for the sake of us all…..

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Jacob is Buried

1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel; 3 forty days were required for it, for so many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, ‘I am about to die: in my tomb which I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.’ Now therefore let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father; then I will return.” 6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.” 7 So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household; only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; it was a very great company. 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named A′bel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan. 12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them; 13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field at Mach-pe′lah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, to possess as a burying place. 14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

Joseph Forgives His Brothers

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Forgive, I pray you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, we pray you, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Fear not, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he reassured them and comforted them.

Joseph’s Last Days and Death

22 So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph saw E′phraim’s children of the third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manas′seh were born upon Joseph’s knees. 24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die; but God will visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph took an oath of the sons of Israel, saying, “God will visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. — Genesis 50 | Revised Standard Version (RSV) Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Cross References: Genesis 13:15; Genesis 23:16; Genesis 27:41; Genesis 30:3; Genesis 37:8; Genesis 37:26-28; Genesis 41:43; Genesis 42:21-22; Genesis 45:5; Genesis 45:11; Genesis 46:4; Genesis 47:12; Genesis 47:29-30; Genesis 49:33; Genesis 50:15; Exodus 1:6; Numbers 20:29; Numbers 32:39; Deuteronomy 34:8; Matthew 26:12; Matthew 27:60; Mark 16:1; Acts 8:2; Acts 7:16; Hebrews 11:22

Trusting God's Direction for Our Lives

[quotesfromscripture]

Life for a life

"But if someone at enmity with another lies in wait and attacks and takes the life of that person, and flees into one of those cities, then the elders of the killer's city shall send to have the culprit taken from there and handed over to the avenger of blood to be put to death. Show no pity; you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you."

(Deuteronomy 19:11-13 NRSVA, 1995)

[oh-dear-so-queer]

The clincher was the discovery that the word 'homosexual' first appeared in the Bible (1 Corinthians 6 RSV) in 1946, following an error in the translation of the Greek words 'arsenokoitai' and 'malakos'.

"In/Out: A Scandalous Story of Falling Into Love and Out of the Church" - Steph Lentz

[coffeetime88]

If I went up to Santa- If I went up to Santa Claus-

If I rode the literally magic Polar Express with Tom Hanks as my conductor and the train is powered by belief in Christmas, then I went up to

SAINT NICHOLAS HIMSELF

And my request was for concrete and undeniable proof of The* Biblical God existing...

Santa would do that thing where he winks at me and wrinkles his nose, then points to my heart cause I'm a Good Christian Boy (tm). Then I'd get a Bible for Christmas

*I'm assuming you mean the Christian God and not just like, proof of Baal existing, cause while that would be cool I don't know what you'd do with that other than just have more questions.

If, in The Polar Ezpress, you had told Santa what you wanted for Christmas was proof of the existence of a Biblical God do you think he'd

1) Give it to you on the spot, safe in the knowledge it would dissappear come the end of Christmas like the memory of the Polar Express itself

2) Deliver it to you on Christmas morning leaving you with a document that would be incromphensible to your child brain without the knowledge of having asked Santa for it

3) Refuse on principal

[skepticalpigeon]

@anamericangirl

Sure, yeah, you can kill anything until God breathes the breath of life into it. That's what I mean. If it hasn't breathed it's first breath, it's not alive.

Also the Message Bible, New American standard Bible, New revised standard Bible, BBE, CEB, CJB, Good news translation etc say miscarriage.