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butwhyduh · 3 years ago

Note

Yo B!

I was just doing my stuff and then a random thought appear:

Just Jason dating Damian's teacher without knowing that she's Damian's teacher. Like the realisation hits when he brings her to the Wayne Manor. It hits everyone: Damian, Jason, the teacher. Only Bruce and Tim are lik lmao I figured it out at the beginning of the relationship (though shut up you two cuz I still remember the Hanukkah headcanon of both of them celebrating because they thought it's important to one another. Happy Hanukkah btw to y'all celebrating!)

Not to mention if she teaches something that Damian doesn't really like or if he has a puppy crush on her (because those things happen).

And the moment of realisation that your older brother is boinking your teacher and maybe that's why she was so happy the other day.

So much drama, so much awkwardness! That I love it!

What's your opinion B?

Btw. I love your characterisation of Batfamily you can portray every character very true to the original.

Aww thanks ☺️ and this idea is hilarious 🤣

Warning: some bad words and a food fight. Also it’s Alfred’s birthday.

Jason met you at a Whole Foods of all places. You don’t normally go there but a sale drew you in. And you were so drawn in that you didn’t notice until you actually hit a guy with your basket.

“Oh god! I’m so sorry!” You gasped feeling yourself flush. He kinda laughed. A tall, very fit, handsome man smiling and laughing. That was new.

“No no. The sale on tomatoes is a big deal. I’ll move so you don’t have to run me down,” he joked.

“I-“ you stammered. “I’d rather not run you over.” You laughed and he nodded.

“Oh hey, your book fell out,” Jason said picking a book up off the floor. “Hamlet, hu?”

“Oh yeah. I’m a teacher,” you explained taking the book from him. Oh boy, he had the prettiest blue eyes too. “Thanks.”

“No problem. If I’m nice to you, you might not run me over again,” he flirted. You laughed.

Across the produce section, Tim Drake came to a stop and backed up slightly to watch Jason flirt with a woman. Bruce came up behind him and Tim stopped him.

“Look,” Tim motioned quietly. Jason hadn’t noticed either of them.

“Oh, oh. Well, that’s nice,” Bruce said awkwardly looking away. Tim snorted.

“Take a closer look.”

“That’s Damian’s English teacher,” Bruce confirmed what Tim already knew. They watched as you put your number in Jason’s phone.

“Should we tell him,” Tim said like a kid with the hottest gossip. “Damian will flip out too.”

“We’re not telling anyone. We don’t even know if they’ll even go on a date and it’s none of Damian’s business. I forbid you from telling anyone. Dick, Barbara, Cass, Stephanie. No one. Jason… deserve a little happiness. Don’t mess it up,” Bruce said strictly.

“Geez, I get it,” Tim said with his arms raised. “I won’t say anything. But imagine them dating. It’ll be hilarious!”

“Go back down that isle. We won’t come back until Jason is done talking to her. I don’t want him to know we know,” Bruce said all business like.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be like a ghost,” Tim replied. “I need siracha anyways.”

7 weeks later

It was Alfred’s birthday and that was traditionally when all the family got together. It also happened to fall during Hanukkah this year. So the family prepared a big dinner meal without Alfred allowed to join. He protested multiple times but Bruce refused. Instead they ordered food from Alfred’s favorite restaurant and a dessert from his favorite bakery. Aunt Kate, the only one who actually knew what to do around Hanukkah, was invited as well. Tim and Bruce had yet to admit that neither were actually practicing.

“I want to meet your mysterious friend,” Alfred told Jason one day a week earlier over tea. “I believe I heard you are dating.”

“Geez, nothing gets past you, hu?” Jason said ruefully. Alfred smiled in his tea. “I’ll invited her. But if the family scares her off…”

“I’ll personally burn their meals for a month,” Alfred replied promptly.

“Remind me not to make you mad,” Jason muttered.

“Indeed,” Alfred said with a grin before taking a sip of his tea.

The night of Alfred’s birthday party was turning disastrous by the minute. They sent the wrong cake and added bacon to four dishes and while that was generally a good addition, maybe not on Hanukkah. Bruce at least knew that. Kate wasn’t coming and Bruce was technically raised by an Anglican Christian British man and knew very little about Hanukkah. But he was going to try for Tim to have a good holiday.

Jason hadn’t told Bruce that he was bringing a date but Bruce knew Barbara was coming with Dick and Tim had Bernard and Damian was bringing Jon and they were definitely dating or something. Steph was coming with Cass but she’s been at every family dinner even before they started dating. But she was also Tim’s ex which was weird. Bruce needed an Advil. Or a beer. Luckily Alfred was at the spa that Bruce insist he visit for the day or he would have certainly taken over and it was his birthday.

But finally they had a bacon free kosher meal with the correct dessert delivered. And Bruce managed to do it without going absolutely insane.

The menorah was brought out and Bruce quickly googled Hanukkah traditions that he hadn’t participated in since he was 8. His mother’s side always had Hanukkah dinners and his father’s side had Christmas morning and dinner. But all of that came to a winding halt when his parents died. He had brought Christmas back when he adopted Roman Catholic Dick and until Tim, none of them had any other holiday. When Bruce learned Tim didn’t celebrate because he was always alone for the holidays, Bruce took the time to add some Jewish holidays to his calendar. But he couldn’t remember pretty much any of the traditions that went with them. Bruce wasn’t going to recite any prayers since he felt it unfair to do as someone non-practicing. Tim or Kate could if they wanted.

Tim didn’t know how to tell Bruce he was non-practicing either. Bruce almost broke down when Tim tried to explain he didn’t celebrate any holidays because his parents were never home when they were alive and Tim couldn’t bring himself to say that didn’t exactly feel the need to start as someone who’s firmly atheist. So when Bruce asked if he wanted to recite the prayer, Tim had almost peed his pants before suggesting a moment of silence so people of all religions can have a moment. Both of them were secretly relieved.

But that put Bruce into a tailspin as he wondered what other religions he needed to accommodate for his kids. He should ask them what they needed. What if he already missed a holiday or religious need??

“Master Bruce, I’m home. I shall avert my eyes if needed,” Alfred called in the hallway. Bruce hopped up to meet him. Alfred looked more refreshed then he had in months and was carrying a few shopping bags.

“You can come out. Nothing to hide,” Bruce said and Alfred nodded with a curt smile.

“I’m simply overjoyed that the kitchen is in one piece,” Alfred commented carrying his bags upstairs.

“We knew better than to cook,” Bruce replied.

“Then my stomach is also overjoyed for food safety,” Alfred said before disappearing from sight.

Dick and Barbara showed up with chocolate coins. Bruce had forgotten those and was filled with cold dread.

“We got them. Don’t worry. I once again save the day,” Dick said with a grin.

“I actually thought of them,” Barbara replied with an eye roll.

“And I thought to invite you.”

“Jon!” Damian called out before running down the stairs to open the main door. Jon stood with a casserole dish in hand and a present bag on his wrist.

“Hey Dami! Hello Mr Wayne, Dick, Barbara,” Jon said politely. Damian grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him in. Damian quickly pulled the stuff from Jon’s hands and placed them on the nearest surface despite Jon’s protest.

“I have the newest Cheese Viking game,” Damian said as they ran upstairs. Steph and Cass walked downstairs just as the boys left and they both started talking to Dick and Barbara.

Tim showed up next looking nervous as can be with Bernard in tow. He politely introduced him to everyone slightly more formally that necessary. Bruce shook Bernards hand and welcomed him to his home and Bruce noted that Tim relaxed minutely.

“Jason is late as usual,” Bruce commented a good 30 minutes later. “Has anyone been able to get ahold of him?”

“I texted but no response,” Dick replied. Bruce sighed.

“Let’s get started and he can join us when he gets here,” Bruce suggested.

They all sat around the table with Bruce at one end and Alfred, guest of honor, at the other, at Bruce’s insistence of course. Right before everyone dug into the first course of the meal, the sound of shoes in the hallway came to their attention. Jason’s date was there.

“Hey sorry we’re late. The highway was shit,” Jason said ushering in his lady guest. You moved to the chair he offered and let Jason push in the seat.

“Your scarf,” Alfred started to stand but Jason waved him off and helped you of your scarf and coat and hung them up himself before sitting down. It was only then that you were able to look at the guests at the table.

Mr Wayne smiled politely as well as Dick. The younger brother Tim had a wide grin and just as Jason sat down, you saw Damian. You blinked quickly.

He called you by your last name the way one would a teacher and everyone turned to him. Tim was practically splitting his face in two with his grin. Jason looked between you and Damian before the thought connected and his eyes widened.

“Are you dating my brother??” Damian asked.

“I-“ you stuttered before looking at Jason. “You didn’t tell me you had a little brother in school.”

“It wasn’t relevant,” he replied. “Is he- do you teach him?”

“Todd,” Damian said grasping a table knife tightly. “Did you go out of your way to date my English teacher??”

“No, you little psycho. I have a pretty hard fast rule about avoiding middle schools for dates,” Jason said puffing up a bit.

“Boys,” Bruce warned knowing they were going to start fighting any second and he actually liked the soup.

“Why are you grinning, Drake,” Damian growled. “Did you know? Did you set them up?”

“No one set us up, Damian,” you replied.

“I had nothing to do with this!” Tim protested.

“You are not that important,” Jason growled.

“Yeah, then why are you dating my teacher, you oaf,” Damian sneered.

“Boys,” Alfred warned but Jason and Damian were too far gone and when Damian slung mashed potatoes at Jason, it desolved into chaos. Some food slapped Dick directly in the face and as he was trying to calm the others down, it made him very mad.

Jason grabbed Damian by the collar and went to haul him over the table but in Damian’s flailling, he kicked an entire saucer of gravy in Bernard’s lap. Tim helped him up and grabbed the saucer to throw but it instead hit Bruce in the head. Bruce was currently separating Damian and Jason. Jon hopped up and helped you out of your seat only to be hit with a paper table decoration coated in whipped cream.

“STOP NOW,” bellowed Alfred and the boys stopped fighting. “Clean all of this up immediately! I am going to bed and I want this room to gleam in the morning.”

Everyone had the decency to look guilty while cleaning. And everyone- even Bruce- cleaned until it was Alfred worthy. It took a full 10 minutes since they didn’t let any of the dates clean, including Jon who could have done it in a second. Bruce bought Bernard an entire new outfit to be delivered to his house.

Jason was awkwardly silent on the ride back to your place. You glanced over to look at him and he glanced at you quickly before looking away. You couldn’t handle it when he pulled in your driveway.

“Okay, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’m your kid brother’s English teacher. You already knew I was a teacher and I didn’t know you had a kid brother,” you said. Jason nodded.

“So you’ve got to decide if you want to see me anymore or not. Because I really like you and what I do for a living shouldn’t-“

He cut you off with a kiss. His rough fingers cupped your cheeks and his mouth pressed heavily against yours. Jason kissed you until his lungs burned and he pulled back panting.

“I definitely want to keep seeing you. I’m just- just embarrassed that my family acted that way. God. You sure you don’t want to run screaming into the night?” He asked.

“I’ll try to resist the urge,” you replied playfully nipping at his lips but not enough to count as a kiss. Jason tried to follow you each time until you finally gave him a good kiss. “I teach middle schoolers. Do you think I have a bone of fear in my body?”

“That’s my girl,” Jason added with a grin.

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popcartoonkabala · 7 years ago

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Trinities, dualities, retirements and euphemisms: division into clarity (Chesed-Gevurah-Tipheret she b Malchut) PART I! [Superman is not Batman]

Phillip K. Dick z”l likes Kabbalah, as a tool for making sense of the mad world around him through a kind of schizophrenic observation of patterns around him to testify a larger message. The greatest and most perfect vessel for this, as testified in the Gnostic tradition, is trash culture, pop garbage i.e. the only place where divinity is expressible, where the evil demi-urge isn't looking to stop the holy serpent from emerging with original light. In order for there to be a world at all, the world has to be ruled by the unfair, ugly, and chaotically inconsistent. Not like heaven at all, right? Almost by definition, by Platonic or Aristotelian standards. But where does cosmic order emerge? Only at the margins, only at the fringes, and, ironically, there at the center stage too.

That's commercial fiction and idolatry for you: at the center stage, selling for all the most cynical and manipulative purposes, through a penetrating insight and resonant rightness bound to all the trouble, which of itself reflects the larger pattern ultimately. Nature of stories, and this is why the different degrees of meaning that can be understood from a story go so far, from the very literal, to the allegorical, to the practical to the sublime. And so, the patterns manifest themselves beyond the wills of the ostensible authors of the stories, and hide themselves from the more over philosophers and theologians. Because the heart of the most crass and cynical yearns to speak truth the most completely, he will testify, like the reactionary with the profoundly naked insights.

Who's a cheaper whore than Superman? Maybe the word “cheap” is inappropriate, but maybe not. American/Roman Pop morality is naught but infinitely flexible and adaptable to new concerns and insistences; always ready and curious to be impressed. This is universal religion, “Catholic”. This is the aspect of Jesus on the cross, god manifest through his degradation, into and for the sake of, accessibility. Superman becomes whatever he is needed to be-- whatever powers whatever vulnerability, whatever issue, whatever justification we need for doing something or nothing at all, superman will stand for it. If not the Warner official version, then surely some instant satiric analogue.

There was a great legal case once over the Adventures of Captain Marvel: a visual and capable rip-off of superman, with a twist of course, seeing as he was a kid who could turn into the superman at will, and existed through magic. The lawsuit came and went, and in the end, DC comics and Warner just went out and bought the rights to Captain Marvel, realizing that it was the best they could do to get a handle on a hero successful enough to be identified as distinct, with a narrative and identity suddenly irrepressible. All super-heroes are twists on the superman model, it turns out, and even he is a twist on something older, almost infinitely and unknowably older. Generational waves of sub-character tend to be expressions of the original character into another era, I.e the Dick Grayson into Batman, or better yet, the evolution of the Blue Beetles from classic old school adventurer into whatever a Blue Beetle must become. Aspects reincarnate into the next necessary amendment of the original character, which occasionally (but rarely) effectively supplants the original character, as in the case of the silver age DC heroes like Flash or Green Lantern. If only there was some guide to identifying the pattern that made a change resonant, helpful, or necessary; there is a long history of embarrassing attempts at revamping, gropes for relevance ending as repulsive and unwanted as desperate, blind insensitive groping tends to.

One of the most important of the Kabbalistic traditional practices has been the hope of charting the exact moment where good becomes bad, the exact moment when the shark is jumped, in the hopes of seeing the face of the divine in that interchange, in that second where something goes from either problematic to helpful, or from helpful to problematic. Helpful to problematic is easier to gauge because it's relatively easy to watch something “good” and appreciated go on, while abuses and crimes turned heroic tend to be more spontaneous, but the story of both or either are precisely the story of how and when G-d creates the universe, and splits the read sea.

There is a certain kind of apocalypse inherent to the cartoon narrative: i.e. The day the Golem went mad. Superman and Jean Grey are the most helpful of heroes, and every integral problem solver MUST GO BAD-- ULTIMATELY! This is inherent to any narrative that goes on forever, the day the hero either got mind controlled, justifiably corrupted, or just crushed by tragedy-- and became more of a problem than a help. In the biblical book of Lamentations, one of the most striking moments is when the G-d who often defined helpful friendliness throughout much of the bible, has suddenly become “Like an enemy, his bloodlust insatiable.” This is an inevitable moment with especially the most likeable and powerful of super-helpers, and this end is certainly the profound apocalypse most feared, who's fulfillment is the end of the heroic purity myth.

Superman ends like this a million times: the very first superman sequel, and the very ultimate Batman story (DKR), the last two episodes of the Superman cartoon, and the whole second season of the Justice League Unlimited, feature this nightmare tension, of a superman entirely corrupt, either sensibly (as is the case of the cynical political superman of Red Son, Justice League episode “Justice Lords” the Reagan lackey of Dark Knight Returns, and the marvel analogue Hyperion in the orginial Squadron Supreme) or from corruption or madness (like under Darkseid's control, or that of Red Kryptonite, or just frustration and natural alienation from humanity, like in Mark Waid's brilliant extended series Irredeemable, or John Arcudi and Peter Snejbjerg's sublime meditation on power and humanity A God Somewhere.) Alan Moore's Marvelman/Miracleman split the difference by having the maddened Kid Miracleman be the horror apocalypse, and then fighting the enlightened mature Miracleman, who defeats him and becomes the art messiah who fixes the whole world at last, just like we'd like superman to in our most ideal of fantasies.

In Gath Ennis's affectionate take on the problem, as well as the ones of other ostensibly cynical voices like Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Jack Kirby: Superman's only able to do so much, and is strikingly tolerant and welcoming of criticism and alternative support. Many writers prefer the earnest and noble invincible hero to the crafty and cynical plotter, hence greater cynicism about Batman or Iron man gone awry than for Superman or Silver Surfer, those so powerful who haven't ALREADY become monsters might be trusted never to do so, or at least, not for long, and not without being sorry.

Even Ennis's twist on Superman in The Boys isn't as vicious as he initially appears, at least not because of his own selfish obliviousness, one that generally seems even more noble than that of every other corrupt hero around. But part of Ennis's art is humanizing and contextualize the most dangerous of monster-people, the war criminals and punishers alike, even as he refuses to take away from the horror of what people do, all the time. But these are the three extremes that define the end of Superman: Benevolent divinity vs. Malevolent divinity vs. Death/alienated immortality. His death can only be tragic and heroic, but how much is his virtue lost in through his power? Superman is defined as the guy who becomes as awesome as a situation demands, in all and any ways-- that is infinitely helpful or infinitely dangerous or just only possible for finite time.

But what Sephira is Superman?

Lets say there were ten sephirot, or even lets say there's just seven: one of the biggest issues in Kabbalistic accounting and equalization is where does One stand relative to Two? Does Three come after Two, or does Four? We might want to just assume that One is before Two, but it's not always clear that Three is before Four, because the rumor is that Three and Four are created simultaneously, in much the same way that One and Zero are. Let me say it better: Superman is obviously a certain kind of hero number One.

But is Hero #1 Chesed or Tipheret?

Let me explain what I mean: Everybody knows...

...Chesed Is Original Kindness, infinite utterly and unitive, the right arm. Gevurah Is Original Restraint, infinite utterly and divisive, judgemental, the left arm. And Tipheret Is the Original Harmony, perfect in it's balance between Kindness and Restraint, relating infinitely, the central trunk of the tree, aka “Truth” and “Mercy.”

The First is identified often/sometimes with Jupiter, especially in Hellenistic models. This is fair if/when he rules the Heavens and makes rightness (צדק) between the other highest forces. Enthusiastic, appreciated but too comfortable to be too respected: so is a certain cosmic ruler and standard. The middle pillar, on the other hand, generally ultimately identified with the Sun, which confounds the order of days of the week, implying that Sunday is not the natural first day of the week, but rather should be the Third! But this is not how the ancient Romans calculated. Our modern international sequence comes from, as described in Ptolemy's Almagest and the Talmudic Shabbos BT (100-102), emerges from observation of which star was most visible in the first hour of each given evening. Is that arbitrary? Or full of meaning?

---

There's a parallel from the iconic super team of Marvel to that of D.C.-- While the Fantastic Four was commissioned to exploit the popularity of the Justice League of America, the Avengers were the authentic doppelgangers-- in different aspects, certainly, but with certain fundamental similarities inherent to the iconic pantheistic model. Once one is collating the assorted gods of all regions into a proper pantheon, one starts to notice syncreticsms and synchronicities. Both teams, maybe the Avengers more so, just because they had less overt precedent than the Justice League, grew and grow through a process of throwing more and more shit on the wall to see what sticks. There have been incarnations of both teams with an absolute minimum of iconic team players, and those experiments honestly tend to be much less successful, because who cares about peripheral characters? Who wants to identify with, or feel safe because of, the peripheral? Even heroes of the periphery like Spider-man stop being peripheral as soon as they emerge into action mode, and suddenly become the most visible and important people in the room. Same with spy heroes like the Black Widow or The Vision or Bronze Tiger or The Huntress or any of them: their value in the team dynamic only comes from the moment where they too become central to the narrative.

If Aquaman can't maintain his functional centrality, he's not gonna be on the A-team for long-- unless the whole concept becomes boring, and some urgent manic experiment offers to make him fundamentally central, as in the case of Justice League Detroit, or Martian Manhunter's JLTask Force. From this process emerges the true iconic figures, hero or villain: Divinities are defined by their never-endingness. That's why the days of the week are named after, and associated with, gods: because they keep on coming, forever. The mystery of identifying patterns in that infinitude are the beginning of all wisdom.

The heroes, like gods are defined by their values and priorities. The gangster extreme of self-indulgence, the scientist extreme of blind unapologetic exploration-- to be resonant, they just need to be inspiring-- but to be national myths, they must be tempered with moral limitations pleasing and comforting to the controllers of the mediums expressed through.

One of the first great American pop heroes of the 20th century, avatar of the electrical media of radio and television, and precursor to the model of secret identity bonded to uncompromising moral code is of course, the Lone Ranger. Composed very intentionally as a moral alternative to the traditional savage, cynical and self-interested Western hero-model, much of the strange-but-endearing commitment to Certain Social Principles of profound civic idealism, which in the Lone Ranger's case includes subtleties as square as a refusal to use any slang or pidgin english, but also as inherent to mainstream cartoon heroes as the commitment to avoid killing any villain whenever possible, despite actually carrying a sacramental pistol, packed with specifically silver bullets, a metal with very noble alchemical associationsi. This shifting of the wild, independent loner into the trustworthy hero depends on his commitment to these social principles, much as the biblical Samson and David are able to be pious warriors, once they've committed themselves to mosaic law, and made clear that there is a charming and co-identifiable limit to their violence that will not degrade into the most disruptive of role models.

Through this kind of covenantal circumcision of the heart, the modern hero is able to be trusted by even his enemies within the conservative mainstream, otherwise afeared of the wildness of the West inverting into the romantic lawless relative amorality that becomes the gangster, once the expanse of the West gives way to the cramped urban jungle of the Cities that become America. This is observed strongly in the relationship between Spider-man and J Jonah Jameson, as opposed to Superman and Batman who are ultimately more than tacitly encouraged and appreciated by their local constabulary and media, who know that these heroes are only here to help and would never do certain terrible things, any terrible things, by definition and nature. This may be because spider-man is an avatar of instability, stepping between margins that a bat, super or wonder person would gracefully step over and avoid the weakness and vulnerability of. The spider-tipheret-middle pillar walker will be elaborated, but first, I just want to clarify:

In Thirty Two Paths of “Awesome Science”!

Jah Deus

The Lord of Hosts Odin

Living god Thor

El Shaddai Freya

High and Guiding Sun

Staying until (forever) and Sacred his name Moon

Superior and Holy he Saturn/Loki

Created his Universe in three spheres

1) In Digit, ספר

2) Media, ספר

3) and Narrative סיפור

10 spheirot ספירות(“cyphers”) “without-what?”

And 22 signature-marks אותיות (“letters”)

3 mothers אמהות and

7 doubles כפולותand

12 simples פשותות

Sepher Yetzirah (1:1)

I'm saying!

3 mothers = The Trinity, a term openly used in DC cosmolopgy to mean

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman

the foundation and inherent electoral board of the Justice League,

without these three IN SOME FORM OR ANOTHER there is no democratic team dynamic

The Marvel Trinity is obviously

Captain America, Thor, and Iron-man

and

Captain America is NOT a founding member! But the team did not glue until he was aboard, and this is the secret of Tipheret/Harmony coming down from Daat/knowledge-- Captain America joins the team to guide it and ground it:

Man out of time? Not far out of time, he is the only ancient Marvel Hero to join the team from recent modernity-- Thor is an ancient hero, but not originative in the medium-- he's notably absent from the Golden age except as a villain (in Kirby and Simon's Sandman reboot)! Unlike Samson or Hercules, ancient heroes inoffensive in their relative moral grounding with relationship to democracy. As opposed to Germanic Thor, only identifiable then with the “cursed Hun” and his nihilistic confidence.

But by the sixties, comics enter The Silver age, and any alchemist who knows knows that Silver is so much more divine and resonant than Gold. By then, the redeemed Captain could descend, specifically from the moment in history that created the pop-superhero, the World War 2. All three foundational Justice Leaguers come from Golden Age to Silver, intact as opposed to their mostly rebooted comrades like Green Lantern, Hawkman/Hawkgirl and Flash. Not so with the Avengers: only one of the marvel heroes returns from recent antiquity, That war-- but is he Chesed or Tipheret?

Michael, identified with Chesed is a war god, master of legions, but in the context of the Avengers, Cap is the balancier, not the childish infinite power that Marvel's Thor, or the Powerpuff girls's Bubbles, represent.

On the other hand, the shield is identified with Abraham, not Jacob, and Thor is more the Eternal Son, killed and resurrected, and humbled by the sublimation of his divinity into human form so that he might change his essential nature and gain new sensitivities; This Is the aspect of “Israel”: similar to Jacob, Joseph, and Jesus, except more into hitting than getting hit, dying only in order to win better. Compare with heroes on the level of King Saul and Solomon alike, who must be defeated in order for the love they represent and embody to be expressed.

3 becomes 7 by doubling, and then the axis that both are on is the 7th. This is Shabtai/Saturn/Shiva: conceptualized ultimately as Time itself (Cronos/Shabbat) this star is what binds the week and initiates creation, by being willing to be, and satanically shuts down time, as soon as he doesn't care anymore. Identified with the god of Israel by the Romans, Saturn is identified with and synchretized with Dionysus(Liber) in his exctatic/nihilistic aspect (the Attic/Anatolian/Ancient-Eastern “Sabezius”). This same Saturn initiates law and civilization, all by being the axis that the other Celestials revolve around, which all the rest do in their way, at their point. They all imitate their absented-defeated father, as is the way. Shabatai/Saturn/Shiva encompasses all and implies the rest-- if you have Shiva, then you have had Brahma and all the rest at once. Cronos/Saturn similarly devours all his children, not destroying them, but just encompassing them, in the hopes of keeping All One and All Whole and All Self until Jupiter/Guru/Tzadek cuts him open, making space for story, peace and generations. Mothers, Doubles, Etc.

But

Every version of the Sepher Yetzira i've seen has a different sequence for the correspondences between the seven planets and the associated days of the week. Why?

I asked a rabbi who had published my favorite version of the Sepher Yetzira, tidily framed like a poetry book, like a modern translation of the Dao De Ching, one simple quatrain per page. His version, as with a predominant majority of the extant Hebrew versions of the Sefer Yetzirah in circulation, has the planets and days in an order contrary to the Julian order that seems to be almost universally popular in the world. You know the order i'm talking about, right? Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and then Saturn. The order of the days in Norse, Vedic, and Greco-Roman tradition. Ostensibly based on emergence of the celestial body during the first hour of a given day, it's really popular... and yet almost no version of The Sefer Yetzira, which lists those same 7 deities along with the seven days of the week, helpfully numbered (The first day, second day etc) has them in a order like Sun on the first day Moon on the second, etc. Why not?

I found him at a wedding, Avraham Leader, and I asked him. He looked off into the sky, closed his eyes, and testified: “they're changing all the time, rotating.” There's something honest and authentic in that very witty deconstruction-- the pattern is observed, 3 mothers and 7 doubles, but which is which shifts, as is the nature of dynamic relationships. Maybe there's some pattern to how, i'm sure some number of people have tried to chart it, always, from all angles. And maybe that's one of the blessings of pop-cartoon media: the constant unfolding of the stone, and the chance to watch the same divinities engage each other in different permutations according to the new clarity of each new day. New comics come out on Woden's day, but they are printed on Moon day and shipped on Tyr's.

But all that would change as the technologies and conveniences do, because no tradition is more stable than the context that nurses it. Subsequently:

There's a problem in identifying which day of the week is which Sephira

Lets say there are three intial “mothers” as the sepher yetzira insists. One forms the other, and then a balance is found it between it's two infinite extremes that is the third that defines the polarity forever, it's harmony and balanced aspect.

For example-- heat, when created, immediately exists in the context of cold, and right there, are the two mothers חום/heat and קוּר/cold, and the balance that forms between them is the harmony that becomes known as רויה/temper(ature), and time is defined by these extremes.

This pattern is also itself triplicate in the Sepher Yetzirah, the above triumvirate reflecting Time, another triumvirate reflecting Space and a third personifying Psyche, a.k.a. Soul, a.k.a. Feeling.

The absurdity of these narratives is that the third, the harmonizer, in all case must actually be the first, in some conceptual sense, and tends to actually be listed first in most versions, despite being defined only by its relationship to balancing the other two infinities. This is expressed by the three letters through which the idea of the Three Mothers is first elaborated: מ (“Mem” )initiates, ש (Shin) stops and א (Aleph) balances. The joke is: א is the original letter, the first, identified with the moment before creation. The aleph is the original alpha, yet here it comes only to balance the conflict between an initial oM and a silencing Sh-- as if to say that, although it's initial conception predates all existence, it only comes into functional existence in the context of the schism that the world itself is made of. The schism between before and after that creates history, the schism between close and far that invents space, and the schism between gut and head that facilitates experience-- they are all founded in the tacit and unexpressed primordial distinction between being, unbeing, and the liminal space inbetween that actually, naturally, predates the distinction.

This space is not to be identified with God, who is still defined as implicit in, and beyond, this whole game and process. But if one would identify it with a degree of God, it would be the degree yearned for and sought by the gnostics who insisted that all else of power and presence in the world of lies was only extant to repress that pure initial light. That's the prize for everyone and anyone trying to get beyond the distinction and the world, but the whole and true G-d is only encounterable in the whole entirety, being and non-being and the bridge all together at once with everything AND nothing.

All the stories are about the invasion of these patterns into each other, and the hilarity, terror and novelty that ensue. But they are just decorations so that we have some impression of the invisible Queen, who cannot be known except by the veils she wears, which ironically free her to be as public as she would be. The veils have patterns because the shape of the face has patterns: Most of Kabbalistic meditation is looking at a thing and then it's opposite, and then at once glancing at what they have in common, through which they are bound and ground.

The first creates the second. The second splits into both third and fourth at once. But one and two have an eternity together. An eternity to work out as much as is interesting or meaningful in their interaction. Any two characters on a given situation comedy are inevitably going to have time to do everything there is with each other than can be milked for humor and/or pathos. One and two live together, depend on each other, especially veiled as 0 and 1. Notice how the Latin word for god parallels the number two “Deux” rather than the number one “Uno,” identified with the moment before creation. No wonder the ancient west had no concept of “Zero”: they just called it “One” instead, with Two being the triumphant god “Tiwaz” vs. One/”Wotan, (Three/Thor, Four/Freya, etc.) Pop-culture, especially of a sort geared toward children, has trouble acknowledging post-romantic sexual dynamics, limiting the possibility of super-hero couples as being viable outside of a larger team dynamic. This is one of the tremendous distinctions between normative pagan hierarchy and that of both Kabbalah and Pop-Cartoons: the ability to acknowledge a divine couple that is male and female equally. A great recent example is the Sym-bionic Titan, G. Tartatovsky's ambitious, epic and rightly awesome but short lived follow up to Samurai Jack. Princess and Protector and Awesome Robot supervisor vs. Evil alien empire and G. I. Joe in the form of armored Transformers, that can bond into a full mini Voltron. Here, the problem is adressed by defining the roles distinctly, mythically, and idealistically-platonically. He is there to protect her, She needs not protecting but wants to help Everyone, and Awesome Robot is the Knowledge resource that helps them bridge their gaps of priority and inherent personal distance, without need for ultimate compromise of personal identity. So sometimes a way is found, to relate to the masculine and feminine in a dynamic in its entirety, but this rarely happens. It's hard on pop cartoons, made for kids assumed to be in relatively homo-genderous stages of developmental priority, not to just decide to pander to Boy Fantasy of infinite play-war, or Girl Fantasy of infinite play-drama.

In Pop culture sitcomedy, it's easy: the tension between a central couple is the source of all tension and humor, and generally there's at least one secondary Dyad (Fred and Ethyl Mertz, for classic example) to take the pressure off the starring couple, to split with them into sub-teams, and then come back together in the comic denouement, often in paroxysms of laughter and celebration at an episodes end. Something similar plays out in the ancient story of Dumuzi and Innana, where Dumuzi's sister-twin comes out of nowhere to play a central role once her bro has been dispatched to Hades for his insensitivity. His twin sister represents his interests, from a feminine perspective, to his feminine counterpart, who lives as a lover-foil, rather than as an empty gender-switched reflection. I believe this is the secret of the difference between an opposite and a contrapositive or an inversion, depending on which direction the wheel of priority turns.

In both the Hebrew Bible and the Pop Comic Book, power couples do emerge, and the stronger dualistic framework is that of the Hero/Villain dyad, where the tension is infinite, and the room for betrayal just as much. Romance is expressed mostly through this format, with “partners” existing in a sibling limbo of proffessional-sacred uneroticism. Notice how much silver-age Lois Lane ultimately functions as something more like an enemy than a partner, disrupting in the hopes of courting, Superman's tantric greatness being his ability to maintain integrity and grace while still dodging the compromise that Lois is constantly trying to insist. Superman and Batman don't have to be lovers to be PARTNERS, neither do Jonathan and David. But they ARE lovers, as mythicly bonded as Dumuzi and Innana-- and maybe even more securely.

In the great future, they have a fight to the death, says one vision of the end of the Batman/Superman team. One goes awry (or appears to) and the other must stop him. The only constant hope of salvation that the team/coupling has in this model is to be interrupted by a greater villain, watching, clapping, laughing, or invading, who they are then united against. This is the great model of ALL super-hero encounters in the original Marvel way, to the point where an immediate camraderie and spirit of co-operation becomes suspect, ominous, and due to inevitably collapse, because of mind -control or some other subversion.

Because the characters are MADE to ENGAGE each other, generally with violence, because this is a visual medium. Whereas Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty only came to fisticuffs once, and even then, not in a manner choreographed through words, but instead described almost passingly, and with more attention to detail given to the environment that they were to have their final encounter in, rather than lovingly detailed Biffs! And Pows! Because analog literature prized the narrative and insight form of conflict much more than what Warren Ellis calls the Explodo! Model, of action prized far over lush description.

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