#Spiritus Mundi

[poligraf]

Truth is the ultimate end of the whole universe.

— Thomas Aquinas

[snappingthewalls]

[brother-hermes]

MOVING BEYOND MENTAL ALCHEMY

Alchemy is a polysemic language riddled with rich symbolism and mystery. When we think of terms like Mercury it’s easy to get lost in possibilities. Today I’d like to solidify some of that mystery and describe how these symbols paint a working picture of the universe itself. Rock with me as we take the journey within.

[tamashii--0--naturanimae]

I'm too boring?

I've heard from some alterhumans, that my identity is too boring to call myself as alterhuman... I've heard that without awakening you can't be alterhuman, I know my identity since I can remember in this incarnation... Some saying that being alterhuman isn't connected with spirituality, some saying it is, but even some of them are upset because I see the world differently than they... Can I even call myself as alterhuman? Is that ok?

[spiritually-cursed-sniper]

If I catch you round'ere again, it won't be pretty...

Mark, Sniper Class, RED Team. 32 (He/Him). 5'6.

"I don't know wot you've heard about me, but it's probably true. They say I've got sumthin' wrong with my head. Bloody morons, how could they not see what's roight there in fronta them?"

Mark grew up in an unstable household. When he was young, there was a terrible tragedy and ever since, shadows follow him everywhere...

No jobs would take him, rent was due. He took up marksmanship, taking jobs as a private for-hire mercenary. He got caught, locked up, beaten.

Mann Co. bailed him out and now he serves out his sentence paying dues in a war he had no qualms in.

[holdoncallfailed]

dear holdoncallfailed what are ur thoughts on the blur film

dear anon my thoughts are that I SURE WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT. but alas i have not and it appears i cannot until it is distributed abroad or someone takes the time to put it online. which if they have then for the love of god let me know. right now i'm just experiencing it one screencap at a time through the irr HEY

I JUST GOT THE LINK WHILE I WAS TYPING THIS

EVERYBODY CHEERED

[castilestateofmind]

If, as pointed out by Eliade, our common territory is the manifestation and the centre of the sacred world, the only possible true reality, any victory over the attackers of our land is the victory of the gods over the primordial dragon.

[saints-who-never-existed]

Sigil. Sean Mundy.

[nicholasr]

One poem to be relevant to now and once in a lifetime epochal events since early 20th century and they had already been so more modern for so long and now to feel genuinely sure of it and for this to have preceded gives pause to my eschatology

The Second Coming Launch Audio in a New Window

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[terrasu]

Hello, yes, it is thinking of Yeats' poem time

[jimbojame]

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeates, "The Second Coming"

[snappingthewalls]

[tikhanovlibrary]

Inspiration/Expiration

It's interesting how many languages draw a connection between 'Spirit' and 'Breath'. The meaning of Latin spīritus is perhaps only preserved in English through the words inspiration and expiration.

The literal significance of this is evident from Cicero's use of the word adflatu, literally signifying a sudden, unexpected, breath which pushes one forwards or upwards. An inspiration, if you will.

In Hinduism this concept is preserved through the concept of Atman, meaning both God-Self but also descending from the Sanskrit word for breath, Atma. This finds a parallel in the Islamic concept of Nafs, coming from Nafas, or breath.

Nietzsche described Christianity as "life's nausea and disgust with life", holding itself above the World, and I think that this must be the explanation for the divorce in Western European culture of the act of living from the act of breathing.

Something must have happened, in any case, for anima mundi, the breath of the world, to gradually transform to Weltgeist, or the mind of the world. In under a millennium the living, breathing, life of the world became abstract thoughts and ideas.

[apoemaday]

The Second Coming

by W.B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[gffa]

So, I fucking loved The Living Force, I found it to be one of the most Jedi-positive books out there, and look I can't guarantee you that you'll feel the same way, this book only gets the Lumi stamp of approval, not the "you'll definitely love this as a fan of the Jedi" stamp of approval, so take that as you will. But this book took such care to give the Jedi Council members different fun personalities, that even when Saesee was a total grump, he was a funny grump and one who clearly dove right into helping people, that even when it was Qui-Gon who issued the challenge, the book showed it as an excuse for the Jedi Council members to take some time off to go do what they were choosing to do, that their good acts were their own, not Qui-Gon's. This book took such care to give moments to the Jedi discussing why they put their efforts where they did and showed that they all loved helping people, none of them felt this was beneath them for a moment, only that they felt they could help more people by doing their regular Council duties most of the time. The discussions they had weren't about castigating themselves, but about discussing where their balance should be, that their work as a Council was always seen as necessary, that they very much did need to look towards the future, but that they as individual Jedi sometimes needed a reason to do something more individual. Because of that good-faith feeling in the narrative, other things also came off really good-naturedly, like Ki-Adi-Mundi often was stilted or just did not understand the point of some of this ridiculousness, but he was never painted as uncaring, but instead very much came off to me like he was on the spectrum and that that was fine, it was part of the feeling of how each of these characters is allowed a different personality and allowed to see duty and the Force and their lives differently, that there was emphasis put on how the Council prized those differences because it helped make them stronger.

And the author clearly had an absolute blast writing Yarael and Even Piell especially, they were hilariously fun and there is SO MUCH FUNNY BANTER, like there's so much friendly teasing between characters, there's so many little moments that show these people care about each other and have fun with each other, that there's no doubt that this Council is full of life and light. I also really enjoyed Mace and Depa's dynamic, that it's clear he cared about her and still worried about her, but he trusted her to take care of herself, that Depa's part of the storyline was a bit more subdued in a lot of ways, but she was thoroughly competent and trusted to understand what she was getting into. Mace does fuss over her a bit in the end, but she's strong enough to stand up for herself and he takes it in stride because she's a Jedi Master now and knows what she's doing, that she's trusted to be right about what's going on and how this should be handled, as well as her deep care for the people she gets involved with around her.

The only real heads up I would give (other than to caution that the opening chapters might make you side-eye a bit, but I ask a little patience with the book) is that it's in a specific worldbuilding genre, that it's not really about the spiritual aspect of the Jedi Order worldbuilding, but instead more about administrative worldbuilding and the action plot. But if you're into that (and I was so into that because I love worldbuilding detail!) and into the Jedi Council being hilarious and getting time to basically take a vacation, then I hope you'll enjoy this book with me, too. I know what the interview from the author said, but honestly I felt none of that with the book, it felt like a story that really understood the increasing complexity of the galaxy around them and that there weren't any easy answers, that the future does matter, even if so too does the present, that what the Council does as a Council is vital to the good work the Jedi Order does, but that this provides them with the breathing space to balance it with their own individual ways of being a Jedi, which is simply giving them some breathing room and letting them flourish on their own!

[talonabraxas]

The Cosmic Tree Talon Abraxas

The Cosmic Tree is a universal archetype that appears in the symbolism and mythologies of countless civilisations. It represents the Axis Mundi, or World Axis, that connects every aspect of the universe. The motif of a sacred tree is often associated with the figure of a serpent – an emblem of the shamanic experience, ascending from the shadows to the spiritual plane.

The great Twentieth century psychoanalyst Carl Jung developed a deep understanding of the archetypes of the collective unconscious and how they emerge as symbolic images. He created an extraordinary manuscript – the Liber Novus – now commonly known as The Red Book, filled with symbolic images he discovered in the depths of his own mind. The tree was a recurring motif, pictured as both supporting and connecting every aspect of the cosmos. Planted in the earth its roots reach down through the terrestrial realm toward darkness and the shadow realm, whilst its branches stretch up through the celestial, toward the star-filled heavens.