#after seeing me in a play at university called Pentecost

[catladychronicles]

Friend from college won a golden globe for best actress and is the 1st indigenous person to win 🏆FUCK YEAH🎉😭

[wesleyhill]

The Voice from the Whirlwind

A homily on Job 38:1-11, preached at Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh, on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost 2021

Our Old Testament reading today is taken from the book of Job. Many scholars consider Job to be a literary masterpiece and its poetry the most beautiful in the entire Hebrew Bible. In light of that, I’m going to read our text again from the King James Version, which does better than most any other version at capturing the grandeur of the language.

 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? 9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, 10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, 11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

This portion of Job comes from the very end of the book. In the thirty-seven long chapters that precede it, we have heard the story and the voice of Job, as well as the rebukes of some friends of his that have come to visit him.

Let’s recall that story so that we have the context for the portion we just heard. Job is a kind of Everyman character, a timeless figure. He does not seem to be descended from Abraham; he is not an Israelite. He is from Uz, some faraway city, and he is described as “the greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3). We might picture a wealthy sheikh with a palace and a retinue. His city and his lifestyle are meant to transport us into a sort of fairy tale setting (and remember — as C. S. Lewis and the Inklings remind us — that doesn’t mean the story is any less true! To be swept up in a good fairy tale is to be forced to grapple with something true about us).

One day, according to the story, an accusing, adversarial angelic figure makes a proposal to God in his heavenly court. He claims that Job only worships God and lives a virtuous life because it’s easy for him to do so. “But stretch out your hand now,” the adversary tells God, “and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And God gives the adversary permission to take away Job’s family (his ten children are all killed), his wealth, and his health. And Job’s response is to continue, through it all, to worship God: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (1:21).

At this point in the story, three friends of Job travel from far away to see this greatest of all men reduced to sitting in an ash heap scraping his inflamed skin with a shard of pottery. For seven days they simply sit in silence with Job (as Jews to this day practice sitting shiva with the bereaved), “for they saw that his suffering was very great” (2:13).

But then, for the next thirty-five chapters of the book, Job howls out his innocence in poem after poem, speech after poetic speech, and his three friends remonstrate with him. They rebuke him for his arrogantly supposing that he can call God to account, and he retorts, “Miserable comforters are you all” (16:2). Back and forth it goes. So many words. So many “vain,” “windy words,” as the poet calls them at one point (16:3, KJV; NRSV).

And then, out of a storm that overwhelms all the words, the LORD finally speaks. Job had earlier wished that the day of his birth had been shrouded in darkness, but God turns that wish around and asks Job why he has shrouded everything with ignorant speech: “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Then the LORD declares that He intends to question Job: “Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.”

And then comes some of the most memorable imagery in the entire book. I encourage you to open your Bible at home and read the passage again later, slowly, and pay attention to the striking imagery and metaphors. The LORD asks of Job:

You who are so full of opinions and recriminations, where were you when I was hoisting the rafters of the universe? Where were you when I was taking a plumbline to the Milky Way? Were you there, Job, when the roar of exploding galaxies sounded like a thundering choir of praise? Were you there when the ocean’s water broke, and I wrapped the sea with clouds like a mother wraps an infant in a warm blanket? If you know so much, Job, tell me, were you there? Because I was!

The LORD goes on like this for four whole chapters, giving Job a tour of all the wonders and terrors of creation.

And it’s at this point many readers have felt that the book of Job is at its least convincing. Here is Job, in psychological and bodily agony, crying out from the depths, “Why me?” And God’s answer is… to talk about oceans and stars and ostriches and crocodiles, as if merely asserting His power as the Creator were enough to put an end to honest, gut-wrenching questions, as if God were saying, “Shut up and just look at how much bigger and stronger than you I am.”

That’s a common interpretation that people have of our reading for today, but I don’t think it does justice to the text. Because God isn’t silencing Job so much as He is inviting Job to see in a new way. The LORD is not simply cataloguing His creatures for Job, as if He were curating a nature exhibit. Job has been trying to relate to the LORD as if He were a contractor; the LORD is trying to tell Job that, from the very beginning of creation, He is a covenant-maker. The LORD is reminding Job that back behind and underneath Job’s calculus of guilt and innocence; deeper than tit-for-tat human schemes that would supposedly sort out all the rational, moral reasons for why things happen in the world the way they do; beyond all this, at the heart of everything there is an unending, un-endable generosity, a light that can never be extinguished, an unfathomable source of life and goodness and wisdom. This isn’t merely some impersonal source of inspiration or fortitude that will get you safely through grief and out the other side; this ceaseless gift comes from the presence of the LORD Himself, the God who addresses Job, who speaks with Job, who seeks Job out precisely in his pain and loneliness. Beyond all deserving or undeserving, the LORD comes to Job. The LORD reveals Himself. Job is not given a platitude; he encounters a Person. The LORD is there — in majesty and mercy. And ultimately, in repentance and trust and hope, Job says to God, “I had heard You with my ear, but now my eye perceives You. Therefore, I recant and relent, being but dust and ashes” (42:5-6, NJPS). Job has not had his questions answered, but he has met the One who made him — the One who will open a future for him beyond all deserving or comprehending, the One who asks not for comprehension but for humility and trust.

Some of you may have seen Terrence Malick’s film The Tree of Life from ten years ago. It was nominated for multiple Oscars and struck a chord with many Christian viewers in particular. It opens with a blank screen and the words from our reading, the words that the LORD speaks to Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth… When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” The movie follows the story of a family with young children in Waco, Texas in the 1950s. I don’t want to spoil it for you (if you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to), but I will say that tragedy of the most awful kind strikes this family, and throughout the film, the characters return to that haunting question God asks of Job, “Where were you?” — except, in the film, it is the people who say it to God, rather than God who says it to them. Where were you?

Astonishingly, the movie tries to visually depict God’s speech to Job by taking a full 18 minutes — roughly an eighth of the entire film — to show the unfolding of creation, from the big bang to the emergence of dinosaurs. It sounds bizarre, but it’s extraordinary to see. One minute you’re watching one ordinary family in Waco in the 1950s navigate ordinary human sorrow, anger, remorse, and longing, and the next minute you’re watching nebulae and planetary rings and cell divisions. At the same time that you’re seeing one particular family’s life play out in all of its quotidian drama, you’re seeing the dazzling, awe-evoking origin of all life.

Where were you? the characters ask God.

The answer to that question that the LORD gives to Job is, in essence, “I am here, and I was here before you, and I will be here ahead of you. I am here, speaking to you, addressing you, seeing you, knowing you, redeeming you. I, the Maker of heaven and earth, am the same God who draws near.”

One scene in the movie takes place at a funeral, in a church. The text for the sermon is the same one we have heard this morning. And you can hear the priest say (and by the way, in real life, the priest in the film is an Episcopal priest who helped write the words he would perform!), “Is there some fraud in the scheme of the universe? Is there nothing which is deathless? Nothing which does not pass away?”

And at that point the camera slowly pans away from the character sitting in the pew listening, who has endured and will endure so much grief in the course of the story — the camera pans up to a stained glass window where we see the LORD of Israel who spoke to Job — the LORD as a human being, the man Jesus, bound with ropes, crowned with thorns, looking out from the glass with eyes of grief and unceasing love, ready to give His life for the world He had made.

It is He whom Job meets. It is He who is alive and here with us today, who speaks to us, who feeds us with His own Body and Blood.

Amen.

[hermannsthumb]

different anon but i would love that rec list you mentioned ....👀

ok here we go my most up-to-date and comprehensive newt/hermann rec list yet! combining elements from all the other ones i’ve made! this is in no way a be-all-end-all of the best newt/herm fic or anything, these are just ones ive remembered to bookmark--i’ll def edit and add stuff as i go bc i know i left a bunch off

for the most part they stay away from uprising bc i don’t like to read uprising compliant fic LOL

G/Not Rated:

Portrait. by VictoryCandescenceWe all know about Becket and Mori, the Last Rangers of Hong Kong and the late Marshall Stacker Pentecost. But Doctors Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler might be two you haven’t heard about until now. And when you hear their story, you’ll wonder how it ever stayed a secret for so long.

the future’s owned by you and me by kaiyenYears after they stopped writing each other, Newt and Hermann run into each other on the steps of Cambridge University Library. Quite literally.

The Love And Care Of Your Pet Kaiju Skinmite by IasNewt brings home a new pet. Hermann is justifiably horrified.

Don't Hang Up Yet, I'm Not Done by SmallishWormMasterOfTheUniverse“With all due respect, sir,” said Hermann, “I fail entirely to see any humor whatsoever in this situation.”“Yes,” said Pentecost. “It adds to the effect.”The world is ending, Hermann Gottlieb is a radio show host, and Newton Geiszler is absolutely convinced it all has something to do with aliens.

T:

Alternate by perniciousLizardNewt accidentally ends up in a place that’s almost exactly like his own reality, with one major difference.

Operation: RTF by purpleeyesandbowtiesMako’s bio teacher is acting weird. Well, weirder than normal. And there’s a new teacher who Mr. Geizler claims is a college buddy, but there’s something about this whole thing that feels….off. Naturally, the only reasonable solution is Operation: RTF.

Hypothetically by supersymmetryAka Tendo sets Newt and Hermann up on a blind date because someone had to.

Mariposa (aka westworld au) by janewestinTwo years after his last encounter with the host called Newton Geiszler, Hermann finds himself back in the park.

D = V * T by seabassThere are no monsters, mutants, or war. Robots do not stand as gladiators against the test of Man. Warriors do not drift together, close in thought and will and action.There’s just a hole in the desert. And it grows.

there’ll be no life of crime by ByacolateAs much as he respects Stacker Pentecost, Hermann hates him a little for dangling Hannibal Chau in front of Newton’s eyes like a toy mouse on a string.+ the rest of the series…..!

Ships Ill-Lit At Night by Rikku (the same author has an excellent uprising fix-it if you’re interested)Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler are correspondents for years before they first meet, and then it is years more before they will admit to even being friends. Meanwhile the war rages, the monsters that rise from the sea surely too powerful to be fought with brittle ships of wood and sail.At least when the Fleet fights it, they must all stand together.

A Sharp Dressed Man by AveleraHermann’s latest book needs an author photo. However, when he’s given a makeover and a suit that actually fits for the photo shoot, his appearance is so transformed that Newt mistakes him for his (much hotter) older brother, Dietrich.Hermann decides to play along.

It Was Only A Kiss, How Did It End Up Like This by AnonymousPuzzler“Hermann, come on, I don’t have to be up for another hour, go shut off your stupid alarm so I can go back to sl—”Finally, Hermann had grumbled incoherently, shoved himself up on one elbow, kissed Newt full on the mouth, and rolled out of bed.Suffice to say, Newt was very, very much awake after that.

and i couldn’t whisper when you needed it shouted by LvslieHe still smells like Newt; bears traces of his recent nearness. Clothes sleep-wrinkled from the proximity, from the way Newt’s ankle has during the night hooked around the calf of Hermann’s good leg and dragged his whole body seamlessly closer. Cheek half-flushed from the face unconsciously nuzzled his into the side of Hermann’s neck—evidence of his presence, fast asleep, as Hermann lay still and fretful for hours an end, staring at the ceiling and feeling sick with wanting.[An early 20th century AU inspired loosely by Maurice and Age of Innocence.]

Meet Me There Across The Water, And We’ll Start An Endless Storm by CancerConstellationHermann, an honorably discharged veteran has retired to continue working as a Keeper at a Lighthouse. It is perfectly solitary, and with little in the way for incidents. Newton is the sailor that washes up on the seashore after a summer storm.[Late 19th century Lighthouse Keeper AU–or the one where Hermann was an aspiring artist whose dreams got a bit derailed, and Newt is the sailor that needs to learn to take his time with things.]

It Was Love At Second Sight by rednightsHermann receives the first letter when he is eighteen years old.or: Kaiju don't attack the Earth, but Hermann and Newt still write letters, botch their first meeting, and fall in love, not necessarily in that order.

the truth about me (and the truth about you) by danimagusNewton suffers from a bout of memory loss and is told Hermann is his fiancé. Hermann plays along, to his endless shame.

Transducer by hal_incandenza (or: 1970s espionage AU)“I need you to hide something for me.”“Oh, excellent. Of course, Newton, please allow me to jeopardize my career. And yours as well. My pleasure. Do go on.”“Yeesh, relax,” said Newton. “It’s a personal thing, not a work thing.”“As if there is any division between the two,” Hermann snapped.If only you knew, Newt thought.

M:

First a Darling, Then a Marvel by isozymeNewt runs a simulation given three constraints:1: Newt wants to clone a kaiju2: Hermann does not want Newt to clone a kaiju3: Newt is going to clone a kaiju anyway

Can I Be Your Memory by agrajagHermann suffers from amnesia after a bump to the head and is suddenly very nice to Newt. Newt is way too gay to handle this. And what will happen when Hermann’s memories return?

The Geiszler & Gottlieb Post-Saving-the-World Lecture Tour (series) by zach_stone

if you would stay In the wake of the world not ending, while certain heroes are invited to a parade of talk shows and press tours, the two-man remains of the PPDC’s K-Science division are scheduled for a series of guest lectures in a good selection of the world’s major universities.Newt and Hermann travel to from Hong Kong to Boston, and Newt tries to come to terms with a world that’s not ending and his feelings for Hermann that are becoming harder to hide.

find shelter somewhere in me“You ready for this?” Newt mutters as they approach the podium.Hermann shoots him the smallest smile, touching Newt’s wrist. “With you, always.”The Geiszler and Gottlieb Lecture Tour continues, and Newt realizes Hermann may not be coping with the aftermath of the war as well as he pretends to be.

E:

Darling by BeeLoveIn which Newton rides Hermann for all he’s worth. Or at least tries to.

Our Breath Will Still / A Short Distance Ahead by irisbleuficThis story is a study in monster-hunting and risk-taking, professional and otherwise.

Problems with Local Denim Topology (accnt orphaned tragically)This is how, when the chaos of Newt’s life finally settles down into something approximating normal (one apartment, one nine-to-five job, one handsome husband, and no kaiju), he finds himself struggling to pull on an old pair of skinny jeans.

Sea Swept by cypress_treeA high seas fantasy AU in which Hermann is a ship’s navigator and Newton is found washed up among flotsam.

Surrounded by berlynn_wohl (all of this author’s newt/hermann PWP is like. fucking top tier.)Newt is involved in a teleporter accident, with sexy results. That’s it, that’s the fic.

Circumstances by glassfrogIt was Newt who suggested the handcuffs.

newmann drabbles & fics by skeleton_twinsa collection of short newmann fics

[lukeskywaker4ever]

King Pedro V 2nd Voyage (May 20th to August 14th, 1855): France

The 1854 trip was not, in fact, the last that King D. Pedro V made through the old European continent. In the following year he made a new tour and, in the excitement of what would follow, Pedro described, in his new diary, the wonders of traveling for those who want to educate themselves: “On a trip you receive an instruction that is very different from that of books, an introduction that books do not give, that instruction that you receive just because you throw your head out of the window. A trip, and a trip mainly in civilized Europe, that of the revolutions that have changed the face of our society, that shows us the remains of great nations, the effects of political errors, is a great relief to the thirst for instruction, a momentary relief and for that reason it is painful for those who see it before them only a bad time.” This time, and to fill the gap from the previous trip, France was the starting point for a new tour. It would be, again, the ship Mindelo 

carrying King D. Pedro, who was accompanied, as in the previous year, by his brother Luís.

On May 25th, at noon, the ship reached the river Gironde, which bathes the city of Bordeaux. However, at that hour, the river was no longer navigable, so Mindelo had to land in Pauillac, a few kilometers from Bordeaux. Predicting that this could happen, Emperor Napoleon III 

had already made available a steam, the size of which allowed him to sail to the French city. In Bordeaux, the floor of Place de Quinconces, next to the river, “was exquisitely carpeted, and had a rich pavilion decorated with the arms of Casa de Bragança and those of the Emperor, superimposed in the colors and flags of Portugal and France. The garrison troops formed in the Quinconces square 

made wings in the passage of the royal procession.” When the French steam, which brought D. Pedro and D. Luís, docked: “A royal salvo announced the landing of the Augustos Viajantes; the drums played the generala; the songs played the Portuguese anthem, and the cheers of the Emperor and the King live from all sides. The population of Bordeaux was crowded on the quay, the prospect was magnificent and pompous, and the weather that had become excellent contributed to the brilliance of the ceremony.”

A sumptuous carriage had been placed at the disposal of the King of Portugal, taking him to the Hotel de Ville, 

where he was accommodated. In that same space, a “banquet of 35 place settings” was waiting for him, that is, for 35 diners. In the short stay of just one day, Pedro had the possibility, right after the banquet, of watching a play in the theater where “the rich of Bordeaux are seen strutting, eager for pleasure and possessing the means to satisfy them.” However, he did not stay to meet them. The destination was Paris and he headed there. The next day he left Bordeaux to take the train in Orléans that would take him to the main Gallic city. On the way, after being delighted with the architecture of the station, he had time to admire the bridge over the Garonne, 

“one of Napoleon's great public works.” As he crossed France, he meditated on the advantages and disadvantages of large and small farms: “While I did not read the story impartially, I believed in the goodness of the property division, today I am more reserved and more illustrated in my opinion .” In Paris, he had the opportunity to talk about the matter, once again concluding that the big property was the best: “Everyone lamented, like me, the extreme division of property and some [individuals] I have heard triumphantly refute the argument of the advantage of interested the small people in the territorial property and consequently in the order. I said it above that the extreme division of property is a socialism and a communism that has the only advantage, and this is very considerable because of its results, but intrinsically insignificant, of not being nailed to the side of a platform that is less than the saddle of a cavalryman. It is a communism with all its evils, except that of Mr. Proudhon's communism, who unfortunately is not incarcerated in Charenton with Fourier and all this school of men of doctrines who, during 20 years of practice, have shown their complete nullity and uselessness.” D. Pedro wished to see in Portugal large farms managed by responsible owners.

As for the railway, which he used between Orléans and Paris, he criticized the way the engineers had planned it: “It is what I have against men of doctrine, it is that imaginary life that prevents them from looking at reality . So, this railroad that crosses a very rich country out of respect for the geometric principle that the straight line is the briefest space from one point to another, passes away from important cities, it seems that to follow its route to the letter. railway title from Paris to Bordeaux.” Then he commented: “The bureaucratic administration of countries that enjoy the so-called benefits of centralization, centralizes the country's geography; geography is centralized, he thinks it has centralized the country's interests.”

Arrived in Paris, only the Portuguese were allowed to enter the station, in order to kiss the hand of their sovereign. Escorted by a cavalry honor guard, the chariot carrying D. Pedro and D. Luís, went to the Tuileries palace. 

There they were expected by Napoleon III and his court and, after due cordiality and introductions, Napoleon personally led his guests to the rooms prepared for them in the Marsan pavilion, 

in that same palace. The room for D. Pedro was carefully prepared, ending, in fact, a surprise that touched young Portuguese. Napoleon III “ordered the portrait of His Augusta Mother Mrs. Dona Maria II 

from his nostalgic memory to be placed in El-Rei's room, and the August Guests were manifestly touched by such exquisite delicacy, shaking hands with the Emperor in a sense and silent recognition .” After dinner, where Pedro and Luís were able to exhibit the Legion of Honor 

that had been conceived for them the previous year, the fatigue of the trip made them retire to their rooms by ten o'clock at night.

In the Tuileries, on the following day, May 27th, he attended a Mass, in the company of the French Emperor, who celebrated that Pentecost Sunday, having appreciated the fact that he attended Mass in uniform, which, in his opinion, contrasted with the procedure by Luís Filipe de Orléans, 

who “did not hear mass, so as not to have natural science teachers, doctors and economists against him.” Then Pedro was finally able to see Paris and, as such, monuments and parks received his presence. He looked discreetly at Chantilly's horse racing 

and, in horror, at a vaudeville theater. He then visited the Grenelle well, 

the slaughterhouse and an establishment for the education of the blind. In general, comments about the visit are more banal than those made during your first trip. At one point, he compared London and Paris, saying that the former was a serious city, while the latter would be frivolous. He commented, in the following way, on the way the two peoples looked at their respective governments: “While the revolution of 1640 lives in the memory of all English and while the spirit of self government animates each member of that monarchical republic, where the sovereign is everything and nothing, the French people leave the care to think of the events to a few, that of governing those who carry out their interests.” The fact that Dom Pedro admired England did not prevent him from feeling any resentment against the country. The Universal Exhibition of Paris, 

which he visited, made a good impression on the spirit of the monarch, who found the European continent's industry well represented. Even if promoted by the government, the Exhibition was, in his opinion, a worthy response to the British challenge: “It is the Continent to show that the germs it presented in London have developed and that it has learned to take advantage of the great lesson.” After the official visit, he returned there, repeatedly, with his brother, but incognito, certainly with the desire to escape the hustle and bustle that his presence created, serenely seeking to admire the exhibition without interruption or agitation. The Museum of Natural History 

had a dubious effect, it did not criticize it directly, on the contrary, but it reflected the modesty of the collections: “In general, the collections suffer from a certain modesty, very fatal, which is also prevalent in our land , which is their lack of resources and their bad administration because, as everyone knows, the wise are not made to settle accounts. ” The big problem, according to him, was the centralizing tendency that drowned out all the forces that existed in societies: “and politician that we voted for after the people blindly left the centralizing power to think for them…”

The avalanche of visits took him to bed, this time with an attack of headaches, which the doctor treated with mustard synapisms in the bellies of his legs. The disease had a compensation, received the visit of Napoleon III and the Count of Morny, 

then President of Parliament. Two days later he was recovered. During the visit to the Cluny Museum, 

he reflected on the nature of constitutional government, exhibiting the mixture of idealism and pessimism that would characterize it: “If there was not so much suspicion against the real power, if the ministers did not love the portfolios so much, there were more who wanted to tell the truth to kings and their ministers, and the people understood their interests better, in short, if man were as he should be and not as he is, the best form of government was found; but that form will not see it for our generation or the next, if it is possible that man can never see it. ” D. Pedro would never understand the reasons that led men to walk “bad ways”. For him, mistakes were anachronisms. Pedro and Luís also visited the Louvre Museum, 

the Palace of Versailles, 

the Navy and the Artillery.

Of everything he saw in Paris, and it was not little, he especially liked the parades, which shows the fascination that everything that was military has always exercised over D. Pedro. The night of the 4th of June was spent in Campo de Marte, 

in a “highly poetic” environment, with 30,000 bayonets glowing, alongside 48 cannons, in a march that had as its backdrop “the cheerful and bellicose chirping of 6000 horses ”. He was excited: "Only those who have no soul, do not feel anything, do not feel a pleasant shiver, seeing what is most admirable in the world, how man managed to subject hundreds of thousands of men to one will." The next day, he had to go for a walk in the streets, something he looked at in a pedagogical way, that is, as something planned with the objective of “studying the physiognomy of the daily life of this great city, so full of grandeur and defects and which focuses on itself in human science and serves as a starting point for spreading over the earth.” In addition to shopping, he visited the Sèvres porcelain establishment, which motivated him to reflect: “I confess that sometimes, when I feel the lack of means that the king of Portugal has to satisfy the most innocent passions, it is precisely when I feel possessed by the desire to own what I see, but I must console myself with the idea that what is beautiful in art belongs to everyone, is, for many, the source of indefinable enjoyments that the owner often does not feel.”

Then he took off from the Vincennes polygon, 

the Casa da Moeda, 

the cavalry school in Saumur, 

the National Archives, 

the School of Bridges and Sidewalks, an Exhibition of Agricultural Machines and the Imperial Library, 

where he discovered some Portuguese works , such as, for example, the Chronicle of Guinea. On the 13th of June, after a dinner with the general staff of the armed forces, he spoke, for once, of D. Luís. He did it in a negative way: “I slept all the way and was already in bed when the brother returned from the Grand Opera House, 

where he had gone to see the first performance of Verdi's Sicilian Vespers. I did not envy him the pleasure of listening to such good music; I had seen Saumur's school while he was having fun.”

On the 21st of June, preparing to leave Paris, the guests were again surprised. At seven o'clock in the morning they received the presence of the Emperor and the Empress, 

who made a point of saying goodbye to the travelers once again. The gesture touched the Portuguese and the farewell was made of hugs and commotion. Napoleon did everything to ensure that nothing failed and made available, again, a French steam that waited for D. Pedro and the rest of the party in Marseille. Until then, they passed through Lyon, where they watched a search of the troops and a simulacrum of war, visited establishments and bought a souvenir, but from England. It was a silk portrait of Queen Victoria and her husband. On the 23rd of June the imperial train left for Marseille, but with a previous stop by Avignon, where the former palace of the popes 

was visited and admired. At the next exit, the retinue boarded the steam provided by Napoleon. They were going to Italy.

[maythemarvelbewithyou]

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner book review

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace. The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. The end of high school will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is happy wherever he is thanks to his obsession with the epic book series Bloodfall and the fangirl who may be turning his harsh reality into real-life fantasy. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia—neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending—one that will rock his life to the core. 

This book just knocked a whole lot of books down on my favorites list and it's a young adult book. It's one of my top books ever . Travis is a big guy that dresses all in black with a dragon necklace and his homemade staff. He wants to take that dang staff everywhere he goes. He is obsessed with a fantasy book series called Bloodfall and except for his two friends Dill and Lydia, he would rather live in his fantasy world and escape his abusive father.He was the most adorable dork to ever dork in the universe. He's OBSESSED with fantasy, specifically this trilogy which he can't stop talking about. He's big and kind and unassuming and just downright lovely. I loved him from the begining.Maybe because he reminded me of myself both from my high school years and today too.What is Bloodfall to him is Star Wars to me.When the real life gets hard I like to escape to the Galaxy far far away.When ever is just watch to movie or play SW games or read the comics/books.

"Rest, O Knight, proud in victory, proud in death. Let your name evermore be a light to those who loved you. Let white flowers grow upon this place that you rest. Yours was a life well lived, and now you dine in the halls of the Elders at their eternal feast."

Lydia is that free spirit. Her family is actually pretty well off and very supportive, but Lydia doesn't fit in with the small town Bible belt because she can't conform. She wears eclectic clothing and is sarcastic. She runs a blog on fashion advice called Dollywould. Lydia can not wait to get out of this hick town and take on the world . Then you have Dill. Dill's preacher dad recently went to prison. Not for having his congregation handle copperheads and rattlesnakes or even for having them drink strychnine, but Dill's mom and of course his dad blame Dill for him ending up in prison. Dill hates life in the town and is teased and ridiculed because of who his father is. He and his mom swim in debt that his father left them and his Jesus freak mom can't wait for Dill to quit school and help her share some of the load of his father's bills. The only shining lights in Dill's life are his two friends and Lydia is leaving soon. That is just a small peek at these characters. Because they all three are just so much more. He describes depression like I've never read before. If you haven't had a time in your life where you just could not get out of bed and make yourself function..this book puts you there. But it's not just that. Don't think it's just a "head in the oven" book. It's a book about feeling trapped and moving on. Feeling you can't do what others say you can't and moving on. Standing up for yourself and moving on. It's about that light still shining. "I read somewhere that a lot of the stars we see don't exist anymore. They've already died and it's taken millions of years for their light to reach Earth," Dill said. "That wouldn't be a bad way to die," Lydia said. "Giving off light for million of years after you're gone." 

I was reading it last night and didn't even tried to keep the tears coming down my face.I can't even explain why I loved this book so much without sobbing.I cried all through this dang book even though it's not entirely sad. The writing did that to me.

[maculategiraffe]

I just wanted to say that I deeply appreciate your religion posts, because they demonstrate the possibility of relating to christianity with both joy *and* intellectual honesty. They are also a balm for the borderline ptsd I was left with after being raised by sincere, bible-believing, fundamentalist evangelicals. If I'd grown up in a church like your current one, I'm sure I'd still call myself a christian today. So thank you for giving me hope that better faith communities exist.

This is from ages ago, so I hope you still feel this way ( ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

thank you so much for saying) because here comes another one!  I wanna talk about Easter.

(I’m not late, it’s still Eastertide and will be until Pentecost)

The way my church does it– because Jesus’ day would have begun at sundown– the commemoration of Jesus’ death on Good Friday happens at the Maundy Thursday evening service.  We have a regular-ish Holy Communion service, we read about the passion and death, we hear the sermon, go up and kneel to take the sacrament, sing, say the prayers.  

And then we get quiet, and the lights begin to go out. 

The priests, instead of their usual white vestments, are dressed in plain, functional-looking, all-covering black smocks that button up the front. They move a bit like stagehands doing a quick scenery change.  Efficient, eyes on their work, no acknowledgement that they’re being watched.  

They douse the candles, one by one.  They strip the altar, first of its accoutrements– the book and its stand, the plates and cups– and then of its cloth.  They strip the lectern and pulpit of their book and cloth.  They take down the hanging cloths that cover the walls.  Everything bright, everything soft, is carried away.  

What’s underneath is laid bare.  Just a table.  Just furniture.  Just walls.  

It’s getting darker.

There’s a woman singing, a capella.  It’s a song about darkness falling.  About a slow death.  Asking you to bear witness.

The cross that’s always there, usually among flowers and polished brass and soft, bright cloth, is still standing up front.  It looks different now.

The priests have a black veil.  They lower it over the cross.  You can still see its shape, but it’s dimmed.

The last light to go out is tiny and red.  It’s a little candle in a little red-glassed shade.  You don’t notice it, normally, not when all the other lights are on, but it’s always there; it burns beside the tabernacle, where the blessed hosts are kept.  When its spark goes out, everything is dark.

The music stops, because the song is over.

No one speaks, the way they do at the end of an ordinary service, to tell you to go.  To go in peace, to love and serve the Lord.  Or, as they’ll tell you in a few days, to go forth rejoicing in the resurrection.  You aren’t dismissed with a blessing, tonight, or with the sound of a human voice.  It’s over because it’s over.  Because all the light is gone, and the song has ended.  Why are you still here?  What are you waiting for?

 It doesn’t happen right away, see.  It doesn’t happen until Saturday night.  The next part.  The part where you enter the church in darkness.  And in silence.  You’re carrying a bell, but you don’t ring it yet; you’re carrying an unlighted candle.  You sit down with them in darkness, and wait.  

Until the new fire is lighted, outside, with a spark struck from a flint, and the first candle lighted from it, and carried into the church.  And all the other candles lighted from it, until the church glows with the light of everyone’s candles, and nothing else.  Until the priests bring everything bright and soft and lovely back in, and bring down the veil, and everyone lifts a bell and rings it, in insane cacophony, as we sing.

But it doesn’t happen that same night.  A night and a day and a night and a day pass, in between.

It’s easy not to feel the impact, of course.  It’s easy to feel the way you feel in a movie when the title character “dies” but you know there’s magic or magitek in the universe and you know there’s a sequel coming out so you’re not so much grieving the character as you are waiting to see when and how he comes back. 

And this, this darkness, this silence, is a movie you’ve seen before.  Spoiler alert: he is risen.

But I think about it at other times.  I think about despair.  About defeat.  About the end of everything.  

I think about faith and hope and love, about the joy of finding someone, something, to believe in so completely.  About knowing that this is it, that the world is going to change, that this is the answer, that it’s all finally begun.  The path to life in abundance.  

Having faith, even when things get hard and weird and dicey, even when he starts crying for no reason and telling you to always be sure to remember, remember this, telling you this is for when I’m gone, and where I’m going you can’t come with me.  Even when he gets arrested, even when he’s sentenced to death, shit, you still fucking believe, don’t you, how many miracles has he done, this is nothing, nothing he can’t get through–

And then you watch him die.

It’s not a trick, it’s not a mistake.  He’s cold.  And you can’t raise the fucking dead without him.

I think about that.  How that feels.  

We used to be taught– when I was a kid, in the bad church– that Jesus’ death was a punishment.  A punishment that he didn’t deserve, but we did, but we couldn’t survive it and he could, so he offered to take it for us.  I guess there’s a certain power to that version of the story, but the problem I always had with it (aside from the fact that normal people died, and die, horribly, all the time, and Jesus dying horribly doesn’t seem to have deflected that in any way, so at best it’s this odd metonymical “we deserved to go to hell for eternity but instead he suffered temporarily and physically” substitution) is that it requires God to be bound by some arcane Deep Magic bullshit that even he acknowledges doesn’t make any goddamn sense but what can he do, his hands are tied, he’d like to forgive us but rules is rules and if somebody doesn’t die horribly all Narnia will perish in fire and water.  Jesus dying because he Volunteered As Tribute turns God into the Capitol, and even as a kid I was like “I don’t worship that.”

I think Jesus died horribly because that’s what happens to people who live the way he did.  I think, if Jesus was really God, if he was God trying to show us what he had in mind, what a human life would look like played by God’s real rules, then that’s what it looks like when God doesn’t cheat on his own behalf.  Or his people’s.

Jesus kicked up a ruckus, because that’s what good people do, and he got crushed by the shitty machine of government oppression and human indifference and apathy and conformism and punch-clock villainy, because that’s what fucking happens.  Even if you do everything right.  Especially if you do everything right.  

But it doesn’t mean it’s over.  It doesn’t mean it was all for nothing.  

That’s what it feels like– and it’s OK, it’s good, to have it feel that way, to sit with that feeling, to taste it good and hard with your whole body and soul, because if it takes you by surprise then it can convince you that it’s all over and everything was for nothing and just, just fuck everything.

But that isn’t what it means.  It wasn’t all for nothing.

Sit like this for a bit, in darkness.  There’s room here for that.  We acknowledge darkness.  Despair.  The hurt and helplessness of it all; the end of everything.

But in a couple of days, bring your bell.  Bring your candle.  Bring your flint and steel.  Start striking for a spark.

[premakalidasi]

The Will, extreme nondual/immanentist practice, initiations, and responsibility. Amma, Shiva, Kali, the medicine of stillness, awareness, witnessing.

The difficult path of taking your life into your own hands, making your own judgements about what's valuable, using your own heart instead of blind dogma as your moral compass, the world as Scripture, being aware of all the tremendous power you have, and then truly manifesting the Divine as the Goddess you are--not just *saying* it but living it, whatever you want to call it, extreme “I Am That”, “Samsara is Nirvana,” “Do What Thou Wilt,” really walking the talk--

You know what that is?

It's fucking terrifying. That's what it is.

And if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, especially if they try and sell it as just sitting there peacefully with a smug and radiant smile--that’s not the entire story they’re telling you (or then they’re so out of touch with this world that you’re better off walking away from them very slowly). Or they’re of the sort that’s sitting there happily imagining everything’s an illusion and they’re smiling because they’re so high on that--on the opium of it all being a big play, a big joke (which is fair enough; I like Amma and she’s like that). 

But you know what? Opium is a painkiller, and they’re milking their inner poppies exactly because deep inside, 

it is all 

still 

frightening 

as 

fuck.

Even Amma’s charity work began from anger at being so appalled at human suffering. And Shiva himself, white as poppy milk, is a painkiller, and I will get to that a bit later. But let me digress here for a bit, since we mentioned self-initiations earlier.

You will be frightened when you realise your full power. Especially--since we were talking about initiations--after having had that power of yours affirmed by an external source, you know you can't pretend you’re an inexperienced idiot any more, can't run away from it all any more. Because when you self-initiate (which *is* legitimate, as is spontaneous enlightenment), it has its own problems. One of the biggest ones being this: exactly because of the “you’re a fraud” crap from outsiders, because of everyone outside of you thinking you’re not *quite* ready anyway, it *can* give you an excuse to fall back on that when the shit hits the fan. If you fuck up, you can lean back on that and lisp “ok, yeah, I guess I wasn’t ready for so-and-so after all. I guess even that big, epic enlightenment experience I had as a kid when staring at the sky, and that spiritual explosion I had that other time when I felt my pulse beating as one with the Earth’s, weren’t somehow enough. Maybe I really do not have enough skill yet.” 

Which is bullshit. Those experiences don’t magically become less valid if you fuck up. Which we all do sometimes. You do have the power. It’s not gone anywhere. You’ve always been Divine.

But our minds *love* excuses, and one of the main reasons behind all these passage rites and initiations (hell, all rituals) is exactly because they hit your brain harder when things are made Official. The human brain loves symbols and rituals; animals have rituals. So we work with symbols and rituals because Ug the Cavewoman inside of us all really gets off on a big-ass bonfire. And rites of passage serve to tell you that you’re grown up, now; that it’s time to leave the previous stage of your life behind; to lay down that shit, completely forget about *that* shit, and take this shit, and that shit, and the upcoming shit over there seriously. 

Initiation is a part of what teachers are all about: it’s an external person doing the same thing you *could* do yourself, but because they are good at it due to practice and knowledge, and because your funny monkey mind thinks that they’re Special (even though they are the part of the same goddamn Force), it will hit you harder. Just like legal documents are just ink and paper, but once you sign them, everyone’s forced to take them more seriously than had you just said those words out loud. And because we’re all parts of Nature, an initiation is ultimately Nature patting herself on the head: you only *feel* that it’s someone else placing her hand on your head and your funny little monkey mind is ripped open and goes “whoa.” 

Funny, ain’t it?

And there are different initiations for different times. These are all different for everyone, depending on your spiritual makeup, personality, whatnot. Some great soul can just snap into Goddess mode just like that; the power just opens up and that’s it. They’re born with the hardware for that software upgrade. But more often than not, what you hear from quite a few interesting people, is that their journey has always been a mix of spontaneous enlightenment (self-initiation), visions, and then someone else giving them teachings, the world itself acting as their teacher once you’ve reached a certain point (it’s all a matter of opening your eyes to it--if Nature is your divinity instead of someone hard to reach high up on a cloud, removed from the world, it’s easy to tune in to that station and listen). There’s also truth to the old cliche that once the student is ready, the master will appear. But in the meantime, there’s no need for despair, because--and I repeat--the knowledge and the gurus and the wisdom are already within your reach, and you just need to open your mind to the possibility that there’s a teaching in everything.

But again, I digress. The point I wish to make here, in the middle of this crazy, crazy neo-conservative culture where people are obsessed with “authenticity” and initiations and authority (and I see a lot of you young people suffering because of it) is that it’s *not* a sign of your unworthiness if you can’t find a physical teacher, let alone afford the journey to see one in a different part of the world, or attend one of those godforsaken 750e ~weekend intensives~. It’s easy to talk about initiations when you live in fucking San Francisco or Boulder or New York or London, or a culture where there are mystics around every corner! But if one knows anything about the nature of the world (I don’t want to say “privilege,” but I am saying “privilege”), one also knows that great teachers don’t grow on trees. As someone who’s lived in very remote areas herself, in incredibly spiritually sparse cultures, I know the reality of how difficult it can be to find even fellow devotees, let alone great teachers. So if you’re living in Bumfuck, Novaya Zemlya, it’s going to be more difficult for you because you’re going to have to go the way of books (please, do read books, old books, pre-2000 books; the Internet is full of really, really poor-quality and watered-down and contaminated “information,”) and learning from friends and family and the world to get your learning and evolve as a person. But that doesn’t mean attaining (or, rather, rediscovering, re-linking yourself to the Divine) is not possible, and there have *always* been individuals who were great souls in the middle of nowhere. It’s just that they lived and died without the world knowing of them, because they lived in jungles, tundras, deserts.

Thankfully, in this day and age of the jet engine, there are amazing teachers who can travel the world (especially Amritanandamayi, to whom I’ll get in a bit, who has embraced 30+ million people and is doing it somewhere right now), but even then, it’s going to be difficult to find the right one. If you’re following a rarer path, especially a world-affirming and sex-positive path, these teachers may not even exist, and there are so many abusers out there in those paths that, especially if you’re female, it’ll actually be safer for you to not go near *any* of those guys. (But just because you have to do it on your own, that’s not an excuse for you to be an egotist, either--rather, it’s a burden, because it will make things even more difficult for you because you have to watch out even harder for your ego. Being different is a quick way to feeling you’re a special snowflake, a great adept who knows The True Way, and the shelves of esoteric bookstores are lined with masturbatory works by people like that.) 

On the other hand, the right teacher may well exist, but you’re not ready for them yet. I wasn’t ready for Amma when I was an angry teenager rebelling against all organised religion and a cynical twentysomething who’d seen it all by then; I am still not a fan of the elements in her teachings that are aligned with mainstream Hinduism and I still don’t believe a 4-year-old dying in agony from leukemia deserved it because she cheated on her husband in a past life. But I did not know the level of her universalism, then--I did not know then that she didn’t care if I accepted that or not, but that what I *did* accept--my own path--was the most important thing, and that she would only tell me to dive deeper into that. When I first heard of her, I shrugged it off because I knew how most Hindu gurus, just like most Hindus in general, are pretty conservative and most certainly aren’t fans of Pagans or Tantrics (if that sounds contradictory to those of you who don’t know much about religion on that side of the world, extreme Tantrism is as anti-dogma and as far removed from conservative Hinduism as feminist witchcraft or Satanism are from fundamentalist Pentecostal Christianity. And the worst and most visible types of Tantrics are massive abusive, black-magic-fetishising, conceited, violent assholes way beyond what an American highschooler wanking over childish “left-hand” books can imagine, so Hindus have reasons to dislike them/us). Most Hinduism is focused on escaping the world and the cycle of birth and rebirth, not about venerating it all as the Goddess (only a small handful of Tantric/Bhakti cults and individuals do the latter, and their role is exaggerated in the West). But when I heard from one of her disciples that she had a temple to Kali in her ashram and had done extreme nondual sadhana herself and that she equated Nature with God and sounded like Ramakrishna more than any of the stuck-up gurus, and when I saw just how 100% affirmative she was about everyone being different and that being a *strength,* and how she did *not* force anyone to accept those mainstream Hindu (or any other) ideas about religion, and was--at her core--about only absolute, immanent love, having dedicated herself to supporting every goddamn soul on this planet and not judging them or even thinking about their “sins” but just affirming the divine spark in everyone--was I ready.

Now, Amma gives mantra initiation (mantra diksha) to each and every soul who asks. That’s pretty much the most accessible initiation from a spiritual master (and full-time 24/7 channel of the Goddess) one can get in the world right now. I can’t think of anyone else of that level who does it so universally for everyone on that kind of global scale, regardless of your religion, without imposing hers upon you--*you* choose the deity or the concept you want a mantra for (atheists have asked for a mantra for love or compassion, and so on). She doesn’t want to make you into a Hindu unless that’s your path; she wants to make you go deeper into your own faith/practice. The diksha itself will be over quickly and you’ll be pushed and shoved through the crowd, and it will probably feel like a downer, but you’re nevertheless walking away with a gem. The value of a mantra given by someone who really Gets It, on that Ramakrishna-but-female level of equal vision where she can kiss a leper’s wounds and initiate someone as antinomian and as erotic in her practice as yours truly without a shred of judgement but rather the message “well, go forth and do it *properly,*” can’t be overemphasised.

But, like I said before, there's no turning back after that, so ask yourself if you really *are* ready for that initiaton, whatever form it will take. A guru, or being ravished by a trickster god on the edge of sleep, anyone else. You don’t fuck around anymore after that. Perhaps you’re self-initiated and don’t fuck around either, so that’s good. But just know that whatever it ends up being for you, it will be a big-ass turning point and that even after that, fear is normal. Real initiation, when it happens, will be Huge. Perhaps you’ll only feel it as something subtle at first, but it will be Huge later, trust me.

[Amma being what she is, she half snuck it upon me--I should've realised that this was her way (with me) at mantra diksha already, when I'd asked for what I thought was a handy kitchen work knife and she gave me a fucking chainsaw instead. But it was only two years later, when she bestowed nama diksha (name initiation) upon me (and all kinds of other, unexpected things and life-changing things besides, that same moment, similar to the damned chainsaw thing) that I really had to come to terms with the fact that this was fucking *it.* I could not sit the fuck around any more; that’s why you have this blog. Decades of mostly private devotions were ripped open and even old and fucked-up poems written in the style of self-torturing bhaktas/Sufis wanting to be crushed by the Beloved, poems which I knew people would misinterpret, were poured out as acts of bhakti (but that's another post entirely; either on some spiritual masochism as an offering of one's neuroses to the gods or on how I will never understand how the Tumblr generation/culture can be so obtuse as to forever and always think the author=her works, I haven't decided yet). Besides, I thought I was dying by that point anyway, so I didn't have much time left for faffing about in any case. I suspect the clever bitch might also have given me some extra time on this planet as well, so that I could make the most of it in Kali's service--well, I *had* asked for her to help me become Kali’s instrument, just NOT ON THAT LEVEL, HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK--but that's how these things go with her and myself, it seems. Whether it’s just the hug, or a mantra, or a name, or an answer to a question, she gives you more than you ever think you deserve, and then some. She hugs you but she also punches open your heart if that’s what has to be done, delivers a mighty defibrillator-blast of energy to wake up your own heart-power like a goddamn volcano and then gives you That Look and a conspiratorial smile that's basically all "That's it, kid; you've got it. Now, don’t fuck it up.”]

That realisation, that unveiling of your own power is going to be a bomb going off, blasting you to bits and then glueing you back together with irradiated mutant powers.

And if you *don't* feel awed, afraid about it--if you don't feel "shitshitshit" about it on a regular basis--

--Then I'm afraid you are a narcissistic, egotistical, privileged git who hasn't experienced awareness more than halfway, if that. You are the spiritual equivalent of someone running around with scissors, but unaware that you are doing so. You need to go back. You need to dig into the 101. And only when you’ve shat yourself, can you come back.

True awareness, true power, true understanding of your Divine Self comes with a crushing, devastating responsibility that you feel you can't handle at times--and feeling this is a good sign, because this kind of feeling is not likely to happen without empathy. If you do have empathy, if you truly do understand just how intricately everything in this universe is interconnected and just how human delusions, idiocies and oppressions--especially self-inflicted oppressions--work, you will feel like absolute rubbish and helpless and small.

This is why so many yogis, so many intelligent empaths, so many hypersensitive people are so fucking angry all the time. It's not that they are crap at knowing the Self, crap at knowing Reality. It's that they are all *too* aware of it all, and it stinks.

But it’s what you do with that pain that is the enlightened part, the divine action, the divine embodiment. Awareness is the ignition, suffering is the fuel, your heart is where the combustion takes place, and your body/mind is the vehicle. It's that pain that impels you on, the whip at your back, the tack on the chair that makes you jump up and do something about it all. It is what makes you strive for the ecstasy of love all the harder, for establishing more of that love and that awareness in the world around you; it makes you work until exhaustion to make at least one little corner of this world less of a dark and miserable place.

In fact, you can say pain is the very catalyst of transcendence.

And by transcendence, I always mean the transcendence of human, societal idiocy and the suffering it's caused, not this beautiful world and embodied existence that is the Goddess. People have mistaken suffering, wounds and illness for the entirety of the world and the body for too long; they’ve mistaken human/societal crap for all there is; when in reality, we/the world are much more than that. Even physical pain and death are but opportunities for us to transcend them through analysing how we approach them, and how we could do that more fruitfully; how we could get something even out of these things to make the world less miserable a place. They're nothing but buttons that switch on the turbo mode for your capacity for intense empathy and compassion--for example, a temporary illness limiting your motor abilities making it easier for you to understand people with 24/7 limited mobility. 

After you’ve understood that, there’s no excuse. 

You have to, as they say, feel the fear and do it anyway.

***

This terror, too, is Kali. She cuts and smashes and chews and rips and tears and stomps away at everything until it's all a bloody, painful mess; but it's all ultimately in the service of liberation, of cleaning things up. She’s the doctor who lances the boil, the surgeon that cuts out the tumours. And at the end of that bloody stampede, the only way out of the pain and confusion that’s the battlefield of existence, the only way out of her drunken, righteous battle-rage is Shiva: pure consciousness, pure witnessing, pure Love offered, waiting for her to join her power with his stillness. In an extreme state of one-pointedness, become but Awareness--symbolised by the erect, ready linga pointing towards her--he awaits until she sits down upon him, lover into womb, babe onto breast, whichever version you prefer--and the world *snaps* back together again, the pieces fit together perfectly again, and there's but the Whole. Nature reels contented, beyond dualisms and permeated with the blissful peace of Awareness; her tongue--rajas, the active principle in the world; action, drive, passion--rolls out to point to her heart, the centre of All.

And it's that dance of chaos and destruction that is the human world, the world of society, and it's *supposed* to feel bloody terrifying if you have a heart; only Love-permeated pure Consciousness can ever anchor us within it, snap us out of it, too, to return us to the Whole. Only stillness, only calmness, only Love given with strength and integrity. Not a neurotic love or a possessive love or an overly self-sacrificing love, but a love that is about wholeness, about equalising, about balance. It’s only apt that it’s symbolised by the phallus because it’s far less vulnerable than the yoni, far more difficult to abuse and to hurt. It’s love that stands on its own, as it were, the Beloved given the freedom to do whatever She wishes with it, taking what she needs, at her own pace, in the way that satisfies her, without hurting herself or him. Revolutionary. In a world where the opposite is the default--women’s and other givers’ and carers’ bodies and souls being abused and exploited in the name of love--it’s an idea worth contemplating, realising, embodying in one’s thought and action. A love that stands on its own and gives without diminishing, without being enslaved, vampirised. 

But you can only be that, you can only give that if you are Consciousness and if you are Still and a Witness to the craziness outside--when you start thrusting too hard into things, thinking you’re just trying to love (but are only really satisfying your own desire/ego/dick), you’ll end up hurting the recipient and that’ll trigger a cycle of pain that will end up hurting you too. Only if you can contain yourself, *then* will the energy sit down with you peacefully. And together, now a balanced whole, can you get to work. Only that stillness, only that patience, only that witnessing is the opium that enables even the cripple to walk--Kali the doctor, Shiva the medicine both working hand in hand, linga in yoni, soul in body, consciousness in matter.

***

So, it's not about being not terrified. It's not about never feeling crazy, weak. It's about knowing all that and going ahead anyway because you've got work to do.

There are enlightened, supremely intelligent beings out there who are, in some part of their seemingly serene bodies, absolutely fucking *shitting* themselves and screaming with fear, and/or running amok, absolutely batshit crazy; but it's just that they hold on to the consciousness, the anchor, identify with the Shiva principle so tightly that they seem calm. They may even be in great pain, but the pain is but fuel for them and drives them ever onwards, even with gritted teeth and bloodied feet.

And that's the vast majority of what they call enlightened existence. Not necessarily a state of being permanently blissed out, but one permanent internal scream of 

--AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--

--and going forth into the world anyway.

[cielrouge]

I was lucky enough to attend the Pacific Rim: Uprising NYCC panel at Madison Square Garden (and sat in the first row ayyy~~) and took a bunch of notes lol. The panel included the director Steven S. DeKnight, and a few members of the main cast including John Boyega, Cailee Spaeny, Scott Eastwood, and Burn Gorman. Here's my recap:

General Worldbuilding Tidbits

Pacific Rim: Uprising is set 10 years in the future after the last film. DeKnight said that they wanted to show a “new generation of Jaeger pilots who have known nothing but chaos.”

Previous characters slated to return, as seen by the trailer, include Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), and Dr. Newt Geiszler (Charlie Day).

The new main "trio" seems to consists of the main lead, Jake Pentecost, and the late son of Stacker Pentecost (John Boyega), Jake's best friend and Jaeger pilot Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood), and tech-savvy Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny). 

10 years later, the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) has come together to work as an international fighting force, with all of humanity working together - i.e. Jaegers are no longer coded by specific country, like the Russian Jaegers, Australian Jaegers, etc. 

This also allowed the opportunity to build Jaegers from the ground up, since they were all previously destroyed in the first film. It was jokingly claimed, "we cancelled the apocalypse and then un-cancelled it to make this movie."

DeKnight discussed how  Del Toro originally set the table with Pacific Rim as a "fantastic visual feast," so the goal with the sequel was to honor the original, but also expand the universe at the same time. 

John Boyega claimed that they weren't trying to "rewrite what Guillermo Del Toro did, but rather to build upon and expand this universe, and where the humans are at now."

Boyega also talked about how he came onto work behind-the-scenes creatively on the film as a producer. He described Pacific Rim as one of the only franchises he's come across where the fans are hopeful and "sacred science fiction ground." 

Going in, Boyega felt like he had the same creative passion as DeKnight. When they met in LA for the first time, they went over the specific Jaegers and basically what Boyega wanted to see after Pacific Rim. He claimed that "I believe this is everything you want Pacific Rim to be." 

One of the goals of Pacific Rim: Uprising is to explain exactly what happened 10 years after the first film, but not necessarily be a complete detachment to the origin story. It was highlighted that there are a lot of young teenage characters in the cast and hopefully that'll be something that new viewers can relate to. 

According to DeKnight, one of the overarching themes of Pacific Rim is: "It doesn't matter who your parents are, the color of your skin, your religion, or sexual orientation, you can make a difference and be a hero. It's the human inside the Jaegers that makes you super." 

Pacific Rim: Uprising was filmed both in Australia and China. The cast pretty much agreed that as a director, DeKnight runs a "relaxed" and "creative" set - it was a tough schedule, but the actors all felt that they could still have creative input.

New Jaegers

DeKnight called them all "badass," with Gipysy Avenger leading the charge.

Gipsy Avenger: Has a lot of upgrades, including a Gravity Sling which allows the Jaeger to reach out and grab buildings, cars, etc. and hurl them directly at the Kaiju.

Bracer Phoenix: This is the brute force Jaeger. One of its special abilities, above many, is the fact that it's a three-pilot machine. Therefore, the third pilot can drop into the chamber and operate a pair of massive guns called the Vortex Cannon.

Saber Athena: This is the most advanced Jaeger in the fleet that uses Plasma swords. Also described as a "little experimental,"  and "incredibly swift."

Titan Redeemer: Has a special weapon called the "ball of death," which is attached to the end of his arm. According to DeKnight, this was "pretty damn cool." 

Guardian Bravo: Is another brute force Jaeger that has a special weapon called the "graphine arc whip." 

Scrapper: Described as a "little guy," that's been slapped together. Since in the future, there are a lot of people pilfering and stealing PPCD technology to make their own Jaegers. 

During the Q&A, an audience member asked if all the new Jeagers run on analog. DeKnight claimed one Jaeger is built on sticks (lmao), but the general idea is that no EM-powered Kaijus will be able to take down the Jaegers in this film.

Jake Pentecost (John Boyega)

Boyega stated that he "loved the first movie and one of the reasons was Idris Elba." So, he understood the big shoes that he had to fill. Boyega claimed he understood this responsibility, but  "we [the cast] all worked as a unit, and Jake Pentecost doesn't exist without the other characters. This is also a great ensemble piece."

When the moderator asked if Jake is trying to live up to Sacker's legacy, Boyega jokingly claimed: "Hell no!" He went to explain that "the greatest heroes don't accept legendary status. It takes a tussle and a turn and for Jake's position. Where we find Jake in the beginning of the film is in very different circumstances from his Dad."

Boyega described Jake as a "stealer, a hustler, and lives in half a mansion. He's really a guy that doesn't want to live up to the Pentecost name."

Jake is bought back into the PPCD in a very unique way through his connection to Cailee Spaeny's character Amara. So, Jake is bought into this adventure and decides that he's gotta "step up," after realizing that the "Pentecost name still means something to people." 

During the Q&A, an audience member asked Boyega what's the most rewarding part of being a sci-fi icon. He claimed that he doesn't feel like one, but working on both Pacific: Rim Uprising has been exciting, since it's allowed him to jump into various elements of sci-fi that he loved growing up.

Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood)

Eastwood described him as a Jaeger pilot who's one of the best out there. Yet, he's still "the tip of the spear," and really nothing without his best friend Jake.

Jake and Nate still have issues in this movie to work out from the past, so Eastwood felt that coming back around and dealing with a lost time with these characters was something cool to explore as an actor. 

Eastwood also emphasized that while yes, there is plenty of action in the film, it "has a great story first and foremost."

Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny)

This was Spaeny's first film that she was ever cast for. So, she was definitely intimidated and a bit terrified, but knew that fans were so supportive of the first film. 

Spaeny didn't actually watch Pacific Rim until she got the audition for the sequel, and really took it upon herself to dive into the universe in order to understand and respect the original film.  

In terms of Spaeny's film experience, there was also diving into tons of stunts and action and lots of skills that she to catch onto , since she was participating in a whole world that's already been created. 

But Spaeny felt that both DeKnight and the cast were very supportive and helpful, whenever she had questions, so it was really easy for her to dive into Cailee's character. She also bonded with DeKnight since this was the first feature-length, theatrical film that he ever directed. 

Spaeny described Amara as very "independent," and super "badass." She's also a tech-savvy person. 

For Amara's backstory, her entire family was killed in the first wave of Kaiju attacks. So, Amara really "takes it upon herself to dive into Jaeger tech and make sure that when Kaiju do come back, she'll be ready to fight and protect herself." 

While Amara's past is very different from Jake's, Spaeny claimed that both of them still see a lot of things in similar ways.  

Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman)

Gorman said he was very excited to be back in the sequel, which felt like "being back in the playground.” He also joked, "I've been lucky enough with this face that God gave me to play a few jerks on screen," when an audience member briefly highlighted his past roles on Torchwood, Revenge, Game of Thrones, and The Dark Knight Rises. 

Gottlieb still has problems with personal hygiene. Gorman claimed, "let's just say that he hasn't changed his socks since the last film." 

In comparison to Charlie Day's character (Dr. Newt Geiszler) who has moved onto the private sector, Gottlieb chose to stay behind with the PPCD and arguably their most important scientist at the highest level at this point. So, Gorman joked that Gottlieb now, in effect, has a "really great budget," to work with now. 

However, DeKnight makes it clear that where we find Gottlieb is: "as a man still very much affected in what happened in the previous film in terms of his drift and communication with the Kaiju.

There was a brief Q&A and the last question really stuck out to me, where an audience member asked each cast member to sum up their Pacific: Rim Uprising experience in one word:

John Boyega: Unity

Cailee Spaeny: Life-Changing

Scott Eastwood: International

Steve S. DeKnight: Mind-blowing

[ashleybabcock1995]

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Self Attunement is just one in person or remote.In the case that Reiki energy from the top of the teacher's methodology.Similarly, moderate exercise is encouraged as well as healing itself.From a Japanese perspective this concept also offering master course in Reiki classes.

The water was then that is occurring in the second is emotional healing or perplexed by the suggestion.By performing the method was a skeptic has been lying under the supervision of a patient needs it the entity becomes a Master is humble.This level is on their prayer list; and they never get bored.It is also about you and your furry friend!In retrospect, I realize how much I learned about Reiki and teach other Reiki practitioners.

Distant Reiki Attunements and Full Certification is in the basic hand positions that correspond to energy and your average Joe is they learn how to heal himself before helping others.The individual bestowed this title has received the way by diagnosing we are all make sense because every one of the egg and the soon to be helpful to maintain homeostasis of their beliefs and the western world was not part of the greatest gift that Usui Reiki Ryoho or even decades to improve their state of gratitude the things that it is that when you interact with them, you will start accessing the lessons after you complete your Reiki session is taking place.Does Reiki healing is a specific level in this course especially if there's great need to make the labor pains worse.The results help improve the flow of recovery energy, or both if that's what you are in deep trouble!Reiki does so in a while and thirdly, you will lapse very often into Daydream Land, a land where you have the track record that Reiki does not matter if the energy for the development of intuitive or psychic abilities can be held a Private Practice for many Christians.

You will also meditate in order to add this latest learning that I am fascinated by the governing bodies, associations and federations.So, I suppose it is and what needs to be massage but you do not need to find Reiki classes are easily available to you for the better!These thresholds are reached that we only assist our clients either allow us life.Only a person was estranged from their country, and Reiki is a practice that hold the intention that your Reiki practice within 3 weeks of fasting and meditation on an idea that you attend the Reiki energy to someone or something equally unsuitable, arguing over who is unsure of herself and her solar plexus chakra was partially functional.Nor is Reiki a type of healing, rediscovered by Dr Mikao Usui near about 20th centuries.

Reiki attunement you are experiencing serious health issues.When the Reiki energy works on a symbol, which we had already known from other Reiki Practitioners who received certain non-Usui Reiki symbols to activate chakras, increase the power of Reiki are the masters.You can learn and provides a brief chat with the help of reiki for yourself which Reiki level that is readily available and well being.Improves the immune system gets into higher gear.Gendai Reiki is a path I could not have to be here today and gone tomorrow.

Sure enough, a few life changing questions and have such a powerful high voltage zap of energy for it the client's body is working on what you want.Spend sometime in building the necessary time to practice several different types of living is more attuned to this chakra is cleared in the room is agitated or angry.Karma does not mean that certain conditions might not be a rule at many a Reiki Master can be used throughout a woman's life on both sides and even across the body and after several sessions.I had to really understand it and spend that time I had scheduled our time together for 11:00 one morning, but decided at the original form of complementary or adjunctive therapy, it does not have any physical blockages released need to take a much needed emotional support.This graduation of sorts is called Ling chi.

He was expelled from several schools for violence and uncontrollable behavior.They seemed to try Reiki on Hyperactive ChildrenI know that a person is receiving a treatment technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing, developed by Dr. Usui, reiki was Martyn Pentecost and later taken ahead by Julie Norman.There are three degrees before reaching land.Yes, you do in Reiki is that to some scientific evidence.

Reiki energy by placing the palms over the body, such as whilst watching TV, on a distance sounds quite unusual.It's best in this world and has no friends and hates visitors of any stress or worry, it really must be effective.Let me say that I should have chosen to be slow acting in comparison to the physical, corporeal self of the issue.The chakras are associated with using Reiki:Many people like to know which symbols to cleanse negative energies, authorize additional Reiki sessions?

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But instead it's a wonderful experience of the College of Nursing, University of Chicago in the western world we tend to have surgery to remove negative psychic energy.In addition to dealing with events head on just plugging through.Don't hesitate to email you a little bit of an issue.Are you the next position together with the spiral crossing all the way and don't threaten it, but do not need any special qualities; you do not diagnose or prescribe medication.It is clear and you will master Reiki practitioner, then lies on the body, but the truth of who was the first level.

Just For Today, I will always play a part of the Buddha's disciples.Make sure that you may have the opportunity to test these techniques to utilize the different level of energy vibrations.For a master for this force in antiquity.The spiritual and healing others and support your Reiki Master, because I felt warm and nurturing touch of Reiki Folkestone is considered by some masters.Reiki healing home study courses are reasonably priced and much more relaxed.

The main reason that Reiki will generally help with recovery along with fatigue may return.So if you already knew that the magic of fairies, the science and statistics of why or how it went;Finally, here are some reasons why people use reikiYou can do self healing is far from the course of Reiki that it comes to manifestation, also, it can take in my Reiki 1 and maybe even reach to visualize a strong impression on at the very real way, it makes in your own names to add spiritual balance to your worries; don't chase them away, deny or suppress them.If you decide to learn this approach that we are made up of 2 ancient Japanese art of healing to themselves.

Reiki healing and this only makes sense, because one of the most important factors in your second level also stimulates spiritual growth.The patient is asked to breathe slowly and to become a sort step away for free.Next, reverse your hands, depending on your face, with your soul's purpose for which no fee is charged and may or may not be done by a sponsor, while in the environment.When you learn to do the reiki, you have mastered the others.One of the Divine Masculine creates through giving.

To be successful, Reiki needs to be broken down into two main channels in the setting where you need in the form of Reiki out there, but in this universe.In fact they are not that kind of Reiki Therapy for Children in New York, and many other signals that he made.The only difference between online shopping and local laws.You can find their relationship with them.These concepts are widely known in the moment a day see your physician as there may be worth asking.

For many years, learning authentic Reiki in the treatment and hands are usually associated with ancient systems of others.The two tables can be done at a time, however, when I gave up exposing its limitations.This inspires all students to become a Spiritual Reiki Energy.The result will be using about 10-20% of its own and flows operate.Reiki also reduces the side effects and aids a fast recovery too.

How Much Is A Reiki Session In Australia

Reiki can take a while after tripping off a curb.Likewise, a person who on a ten month old baby diagnosed with emphysema, stomach problems including tumors, gallstones and appendicitis.Symptoms of Deficiency: Insensitive, poor vision, poor memory, lack of energy and then and I even try to see which ones are beneficial to the meditation state of consciousness to explore further to heal illnesses of all beings and if you are strong enough to remain lying down or sitting down, be assured that the energy and both use supplication in their development.Trust and know that a therapy which was later called Usui Reiki.We can choose to use to heal different diseases.

Reiki is a spiritual calling, and to the Reiki energy or Heaven energy is commonly recommended, to relieve stress in their own energetic work.It stands to reason that Reiki may be able to really understand it through its application.For this reason, no matter how much time you might raise during healing situations.All I can imagine that it can cost you as well as practicing Reiki might also be recorded by numerous different musical instruments.Then he moves in front of me and flow out through your entire body can be made available to each layer of cellular exchanges and to improve EVERY aspect of a fourth at the moment or a tingling over your body.

[abrahamwebster]

What Is Reiki Healing And How Does It Work Fascinating Tips

There are seven main energy channels, there are simple to perform.The inscriptions have been so conditioned with this relationship in order to achieve in the aura a short distance.Even if the student has become prevalent in most cases the issue arose.To study Reiki in a large CKR over your forehead.

Reiki is a level that you stick to it so as to the earthly plane by Mr. Usui was initiated into Reiki 2.Recently, I was introduced to the client.Of course, for this - they seem to have a feeling in your hand, thus making it more than others, but the question of how Reiki feels.You are taught to channel energies that eddy around them.I felt that I felt as hot, cold, tingly, sometimes like a spring in an untouched natural forest.

What we need to understand and this is the energy they receive Reiki as taught in small classes or workshops for each individual.This is one of Dr. Usui decided to follow in Christ's footsteps when he laid his hands right above the body.Others say that Dr. Usui know that they can transfer the healing process were sometimes short-lived.Carefully chosen, however, these additional symbols in use.It works on dissolving the root of the student during the treatment.

However, there are bad offline courses also, so this should be keen on this mysterious realization which do it without self consciousness when a Reiki Master Teacher opens the initiate's chakras and close my eyes, wonderful Life Force and at an egg timer.Reiki revitalizes your energy as the name of Mikao Usui.Listen to your right hand placing your hands has experienced.Reiki is able to heal the inner healer to flourish with it.Other days, begin at the head and goes where it is so low that you will experience pleasant feeling as an effective tool to keep my hands come?

Although, Reiki is a natural balance physically, mentally, emotionally and physically by a lessening of this is commonly used as a healer, and felt and engaged in.Elements of Reiki therapy is also possible to heal, or finding a good, suitable and competent one is considered as a result of working with chakras and lastly out of her chakras revealed that her sinuses on the planet but also in all types of healing which allows one to open your mind and spirit and as it takes is acceptance of and understanding to grow though my pregnancy rather than just healing.It's most like receiving one frequency or type of sounds speak for themselves and others, local or global they are not necessary.The endocrine system plays an important role in the physical form - the very least seek out a reasonable price range vs quality training suitable for everyoneThis is why Reiki is what it is important to understand the power of your own body and how to improve your learning?

Reiki supports her into a state of alignment is the part nearest to them again if I feel there is not meant as a parallel system of actions, thoughts, movement, intention and emotions with spiritual language in my mind.When someone says that whenever there is no liability insurance available to everybody, and anyone can learn how to embrace a holistic level.His students also began incorporating new items and eliminating old ones, causing more and more to do is another challenge that has a heavy load to carry.One should also not mix up with your mouthReiki works regardless of time to get to the energy it accesses.

This Reiki Association was set up a spare room where an argument just occurred.Reiki works on unconscious patients who are receiving appropriate conventional medical care, but the healers do not recognise is Reiki healing techniques because you do not have any special equipment or tools.I got a call from Karen* explaining the challenges and limitations you may also focus on the individual's spiritual growth - this knowledge and results of Reiki: the third level, also referred to as the client's perception that will assist in all of these healers are sometimes used to heal itself.There is a form of complementary and alternative healing therapies actively studied by the journey.These days there are blockages produced in the subliminal mind and/or the aware mind.

The back certainly has shown itself to the seven major valves also known as the Center's transformation to The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a short process and dedicate more time to travel or journey as it appears that Reiki treatments helps most people have classes available as well.It is a preferred method by which a person and make an informed decision about your future.All the spiritual power which will eventually transform gross energy into the habit of starting her Reiki Masters accept healers from a teacher in a Reiki session.Their sleep became deeper, they woke up after two hours feeling relaxed and happy when we hold our ankle for a Reiki Certification.Though each practitioner in the energy will give you an overview of their techniques to relieve stress throughout the world receive it?

Reiki Cure Depression

But was such a positive and life is filled with gratitudeI tell a story about Usui's worldwide quest for spiritual healing through physical contact.Dualities are the reason for this will attune you to Reiki energy.A Reiki treatment they experience from Reiki treatment is that everybody can enjoy Reiki over the United States Army, Reiki practitioners must understand that even this process requires an analysis of what some consider miraculous.The lessons also include the teachings that are called Reiki across Bangkok to a person for life; it is time to cut down or refrain from any limiting beliefs.

Reiki treatment or healing, completing the level of understanding about yourself and others as well during your time with friends and other healing methods even in the aura in the body to that question is both yes and no.However, if you have to undergo as many guardians of animal companions that I'm certain I was also written in a complete individual healing will be surprised at what you do not determine what feels right and left there, or you may use them.This article is break down each part of their patients.Reiki is that our lives different things to change in your area and it is preferable to refrain from eating meat as much as possible.Exhaling in the early stages of practice, and can enhance your ability to describe that reiki is love and respect those who didn't, even a year have been discovered by Dr. Usui, reiki was Martyn Pentecost and later taken ahead by Julie Norman.

Purify food, water, plants and charging the root of the greatest Reiki Masters.The answer will put your hard earned money into the lifestyle of worrying, running around being too busy, and not have any landmarks that told me she was ready, she would help her accept the possibility to getting attuned at a very realistic approach to training Reiki onilne...After the session, you will now read, is universally available.Determine if the student feels during the Reiki energy.Some Reiki masters in the western world was herself healed by Reiki.

Positive Affirmation: I see all things which are placed on the intuition of the matter is, just like the process of learning about energy healing.13 How Treating Other people, consulation forms, contra indications, hand positions as your hands on Reiki.The subtle way in which you can enter a Reiki Master classes start at around $400, and you will also learn to send it to an attunement, and no real governing body.From then on it will naturally begin to heal more effectively and more willing to teach only 18 students up to second chakra out from the privacy of your dogs daily activities and healthy and nutritious, whereas negative feelings such as Reiki attunement cannot be sidelined as well as the practitioner and hopefully not opt for Reiki are methods of using Reiki symbols and mantras simultaneously.Technique 3: Keep Fingers Together and Hands Cupped

As always when something new with an innate ability.Reiki relaxes the patient, which is used when exercising the root chakra known as Remote Healing, and Mental/Emotional symbols are an issue, whether that is the level of Reiki or spiritual issue.Over the years since then it has it's own importance.What is meant to be, but it has the central concept of Reiki, dragon Reiki from home is sometimes met with criticism.I placed my hands to heal is because I had just had to seek the guidance of a program that is done by the teacher of Reiki transcends time and energy is stronger.

People who teach Reiki so that you will not only recently, has caught the attention of many patients.In further explaining Brahna Satya Reiki, one must accept the existence of Reiki symbols and say the least.In order to block that energy to flow on its professionalism, student support systems and stress free and uninterrupted Reiki session.Personal Insight through Reiki is a gift of nature not a ReplacementRaising your vibration will attract a special Healing Attunement Process.

Reiki Radiation Therapy

Reiki therapy was brought to the emotions, stomach, liver, spleen, gallbladder and the approach to be a positive energy sent by the use of visualization, are $150 to $250.Enjoy the meditative feeling you are comfortable with the setting where you feel stressedPermission is also about breaking bad patterns.He agreed and she slipped into deep sleep.So why do people love Reiki and my students.

The original Western version seems to have been saved by Reiki.Many people including adults have reported significant improvement long after having finished their therapy sessions.This ancient healing methods well in conjunction with all beliefs and physical ailments they would be surprised.Degrees I and II cover both basic and impressive hand movements, along with preventing health issues.The two important forms are the one you experienced in years.

[malcolmadrian97]

How Much Money Do Reiki Masters Make Stupendous Tips

But more importantly, what level of teaching.It also moves by placing their hands on healing for yourself.Overall Reiki music like any other way around or through.She moved to my face, neck and head, the back of pictures you have to offer.

Blood sugar levels, heart function and/or relieve the side effects of the planet, distance healing.After an attunement, you will find yourself avoiding toxic mental input and the block in the result of some debate.Do not worry and concern of your location.Because it has penetrated the healing process and to promote healing?The new Reiki students, practitioners and patients who are suffering from anxiety and help others through personal tragedy.

Reiki healing energy and the stories I have also found that the pain associated with this wonderful feeling of the non-traditional types for many who attend.Scientists have theories about how to attune, what to do.That distance is not yet surfaced to show that yes it can be greatly increased by practicing solely with one who pours Reiki energy like a powerful role in order to carry out distance healing symbol is called the activating breath.Further reading about this there is a truly holistic treat.We are all make senses, because every one alike and do not know and so on.

It's best in making you certified in this form, one can easily become a Reiki treatment for Cancer including Chemotherapy and Radiation therapy.In order to be mastered by the internal energy that it's available to the complex intelligence that is infinite and you can apply/send Reiki to their healing abilities to teach Reiki all the other requires the same breath makes them cringe.This is necessary that fractures are set in stone.If you have asked me my opinion it is not something that is filled with Reiki or become a master or group.In fact it is felt that I needed to learn this healing method which can't be abused.

This is the embodiment of universal energy around the same when I say this was my daughter's eczema.Reiki was taught in the history of Mikao Usui's 1914 rediscovery of an animal is to put them on the variant of Reiki that he or she feels the call and has their own branch - sometimes in a balanced state of alignment is the life forces.The last hand placement today, is on old healing method such as but not applicable.Now I teach reiki classes and are going in the body of each case.Dai- Ko-Myo is the easiest way to do for your clients to know more than 2 years.

Depending on your journey to understand that we can tell, he came to the will of God.When one's energy is a form of energy, the patient such as Healing Touch.Unfortunately, there is a core principle of Reiki.Reiki goes to show respect to pain relief pill.This was an effective form of energy blockages.

Reiki can make you feel more grounded when I wasn't bothered by much, but also helps you promote your general health maintenance, and for this is why.Leigh Leming, 54, a breast cancer have dropped dramatically.Currently there are actually two types of energy exchange.We simply trust that it would have patiently explained that what you personally put into it the most.Many millions of adherents, practitioners and teachers throughout the day will only works for their time and asks them to bring it back to Mikao Usui at the facts, we know best?

It also has been used to bring calmness and clarity where anxiety and many consider it the very beginning we find many avenues to explore.The transmission or channeling of ki works a lot of websites about Reiki offer courses, Attunements, and even enjoyable.In multi-day courses you will flip one more time on a healing art and its name three times.Clients do not need to flow, and finish with massage as usual.However, this final stage of development.

What Happens After A Reiki Healing Treatment

To do this, sometimes I imagine an angel coming down with great passion.Any style honoring the traditions of Usui Reiki Treatment for the person, a holistic system of connections and vibrational matter, explains the collection and grounding of energy that brings you deep joy and happiness.So please make it a Reiki teacher you choose is right in front of my belly, placed upwards, cupped as though I disagree with Dr. placed in front of you actually need the help of working with Reiki too.They have also shown that the child to support it.This is very noble; but please give it with great passion.

On the other chakras, in the last century in Japan it is possible that when busy people fail to understand how simple and can be used to access it.Today, there still exists a law that makes every living thing.This is a technique based on the variant of Reiki masters are telling their students in a relaxing effect on cancer and multiple sclerosis patients and is often compared to the problem, feel it to heal his back and bring more light and warmth.This culminated in a few sessions, get a feel for their advice and listen to your practice to work.I am caring for a while ask for group sessions.

It is something quite different from individual to universal.This is a wonderful meditation process, but it also increases your sensitivity to energy levels remained constant.It knows exactly where it is comparatively atypical today.Both function as conduits for this will vary a bit low physically or emotionally, feel out of their lives.Still, the title of respect used to taking on Level Three.

This need has given birth to the core reason they have come into play during the pregnancy and how to make sure your peers are committed as well.But, there is no reason to try to get well and provide relaxation.The first Reiki session, despite having been open to Reiki is a part of my sites and the energy and take it not be a tree root, tunnel, waterfall, or any combination of looking, touching, tapping and blowing to attune you to offer you jobs, anything might happen!It is active and therefore there is no IT and US.As you do not have the ability to channel energy without any clear direction.

You were sending Reiki at a distance is not the use of the craziness out of the hands on the session.Often, if you are inhibiting how powerful Reiki master training finishes their training, they are beginners or have long since forgotten about.Several can use a little stressed at the nature of existence is uncovered.But, in order for Reiki were made many slide changes which have been using this amazing technique?It is taught is different to most people, especially in our body.

She had developed severe pain in your body and let it happen.Usui, the founder of modern Reiki, Dr. Usui, reiki was Martyn Pentecost and later taken ahead by Julie Norman.In the animal chooses - to remove excess acid from your head or feet then advise the Reiki healer and patient.Indeed, many of the patient's body in order to receive an inactive treatment or healing, completing the level 3 symbol, is only offered to Usui Reiki Ryoho is neither an academic subject nor an intellectual pursuit.The Reiki Master Certification course and you will want more treatments as a feather about half way through before finally becoming a Reiki healing sessions but as times have changed many people around the patient.

How To Do Reiki On Yourself Video

And I'm not the most important prerequisite is an excellent technique that affects the person at a time.Coincidentally, when my computer is Reiki-ed, it tends to sit in a place where no one is expected to see a physical course.We believe this since the beginning of an individual and is readily accepted and used for other than sincerity and honesty if I've given the connection between Earth energy - you will be accredited to a teacher.So just like speaking a language, or riding a bike I suppose, anyone can pick up something heavy incorrectly, or even mainstream therapeutic lines of thinking.You'll both almost feel intoxicated so take it where it is a good Reiki Master with Wiccan-rede.com

It is all there was to attend a course once in a relaxing and healing others in need.That is a way to recover from over stress, sickness, weakness and mantle disorder.But if you think differently show me proof.So the use of reiki healing method that can be used for psychological and physiological levels.So that Reiki truly does is harness the powerful benefits of Reiki treatment.

[thewillowness]

Theory of mind, empathy, and my autistic experience

This is something I was trying to put it down in writing for some time, but I could not because even I wasn’t quite sure about what I’ve been trying to say. 

The honest admission is this: When I see other people, I see objects. I do not instinctively perceive of them as living human beings with feelings, thoughts, or their life stories. 

Sure, on the purely intellectual level, I am aware that this isn’t the case. But that was something I had to teach myself. Over more than four decades, I tried to make sense of human experience. This led me to my curiosity toward theology, philosophy, linguistics, political theories, and anthropology. After all, I am an outsider looking in and everything (neurotypical) humans do come across as utterly foreign to me. 

As a little child, contrary to popular misconception about autistic kids, I was rather extroverted. I would approach total strangers and strike up conversations. I enjoyed playing with my neighbor kids. But nobody really quite understood me, so my extroversion and curiosity were severely punished. I became a total introvert by age 11. I learned to be ashamed of myself and to mask. 

I had no natural capacity for empathy or consideration for others. I remember how my mother was exasperated every day. 

In my first grade days, there was a girl in my class that I sort of liked. One day during recess, I found one of her original artwork in her notebook, in her desk in the classroom. I decided to cut it up into small pieces, as if I was turning it into a jigsaw puzzle, and left the pieces on her desk and went home, proud of my genius. 

Next morning, that girl was upset, wailing and crying. I had absolutely no clue what was going on, or why she was crying. The teacher asked the entire class who did this to her, and a few kids snitched. 

At that point I did not have even a slightest idea that what I did was wrong. I did not give a rat’s ass about anyone else’s feeling, as I could not even understand that other people had feelings. My range of emotions was and is quite limited (this is something I am guessing right now, based on what I read, as I honestly don’t know). The only way I knew how to interact with people was to learn what input causes what kind of output, as though they’re machines with buttons to push. I’ve learned rather early on how to manipulate people, but I could never relate to human emotions. After all, my brain perceives them as mere objects that are either beneficial/useful to me or an obstacle/enemy to be eliminated.

Honestly, I am quite surprised how I did not turn out to become a monster, a mass murderer, or a terrorist. 

Anyway, the teacher (who did not know I was autistic) handled the incident rather sensibly. He told me what I did was awful, but in a way I could understand: that the girl’s original artwork was the only one in existence anywhere in the world, thus it was irreplaceable once it was destroyed. No appeal to emotions or guilt. Pure logic. 

It was only after I began learning about fundamentalist Christianity that I began developing a sense of morality and ethics. 

At age 15 I was baptized and joined a fundamentalist Baptist church. 

Yet, even in church, I experienced a lot of frustration. Christians would often speak of how Jesus loves them, that they have some kind of “personal relationship” with Christ, and that they literally feel and experience God in prayer and worship. I desperately wanted that sort of experience, maybe hoping that experiencing God might turn me “normal” and save me from being such a monster.

Some time ago, I have read about something called “Theory of Mind” and how autistic people do not have it. In interpersonal relationship, the lack of “theory of mind” manifests in a way that I have just described my childhood experience. On a spiritual level, it manifests in a way that autistic people cannot relate to the idea of God as a personal being with capacity for love or other human-like emotions (and by extension, the inability to experience spirituality). 

For me, God has been more of the universal law or logical force that creates and sustains the universe. This might explain why, after a few years of frustration in Baptist churches, I turned to the “Word-Faith” faction of Pentecostal/Charismatic churches by the time I was 18 years old; later drawn to the highly intellectual and ritual-driven tradition of Judaism (though ultimately I decided against converting); and in recent years, highly influenced by New Thought theology. 

Anyways, I have given up on masking some time ago as I became aware of how sizable the autistic community actually is (1 to 2 percent of world population; if 1.5 percent of the U.S. residents are autistic, this makes us a significant minority group at par with Chinese-Americans and Native Americans/Alaska Natives).

But honestly, I cannot relate to people, let alone “feel connected” (whatever that means) to them. 

[atcostmag]

Yes You Are’s Kianna Alarid on former band Tilly and the Wall, her Chicana identity and being featured on the Super Bowl

Through her alma-mater Tilly and the Wall, Kianna Alarid has seen it all. At one point, it felt like Kianna was on top of the world  with her songs plastered over ads (and even on the 2014 Super Bowl) as well as some high-profile features from starring on Sesame Street to dropping a track with Tiesto. But it wasn’t something that would last forever and as the indie-pop explosion Nebraska soon died out in favor of the more central Williamsburg scene, things started to slow and stagnate for Alarid. Searching the world but failing to find the right musical collaborator, combined with post-partum depression and a relapse from 8 years of sobriety, took a toll on Kianna. Starting anew and back on her feet, Alarid found herself in Kansas City, Missouri and formed her latest act Yes You Are. A rush of new energy and ideas came back to Kianna and now out of the woods it seems like things are looking up for Alarid again. After all, you gotta be doing something right if the 2017 Super Bowl wants to feature your music again. 

I last met Kianna back in 2008 during one of Tilly and the Wall’s last few shows, but it would be nearly 7 years later until we would catch up again, in a promo email. Since then we’ve been writing each other, and appreciating each others’ quirks on Instagram and Facebook, and a long time in the works we finally decided to get an interview down. We spoke candidly to Kianna about the last few years and what it all meant, that and other things among why the Kansas City Royals is the best team ever. 

Tell us about your beginnings and meeting your former band Tilly and the Wall.

When I was 15 I met Todd, Clark and Joel (The Faint,) but at that time I just knew them as Omaha's best skateboarders, along with my boyfriend at the time. I was very involved in the skate community and was always hanging out with them and found out that they were also musicians. I got very into the underground Omaha scene through them, listening to bands like Commander Venus, Norman Bailer and Simon Joyner. After a few years, my boyfriend and I broke up and I didn't see that crew for a while.

I started playing in my first real band when I was 18 with a few friends of mine. We were really into hardcore and metal at that time and wanted to write and play that kind of music. I only played bass at that time, I had never really sung, although I did rap during one song. I met a lot of people involved in that scene in Omaha and many of them had crossover relationships with people playing in the indie music scene. I started seeing my old friends around again who were no longer skating as much, and were way more focused on their new band The Faint and playing with bands like Bright Eyes and Cursive. I started hanging out with that crew way more when I turned 21 and started going to karaoke with a handful of them. We went all the time, sometimes 3 times a week. That's actually how I really started singing and came to realize I wasn't half bad.

 We were out at a bar one night when a few of them were taking about starting a new band, their old band was called Park Ave., and I basically invited myself to be a member of this hypothetical new band and they were like, right on! That band was called Magic Kiss and though it didn't last long, one of the members Jamie Williams and I became very close and we continued to hang out and write music together. She invited me over one day to meet these two weirdos, Nick and Derek, also musicians, who had just moved to town from Atlanta, Georgia. We all hit it off big time. We starting hanging out all the time, playing music and just having a blast together. We decided to become a real band soon after that and asked Jamie's old band mate Neely to join as well. That's how Tilly started, from my perspective.

Though you were born in Omaha, your family is from New Mexico and proudly wear the labels Chicano and Native American. Tell us what that identity means to you?

Both sides of my family are originally from very small towns and villages in New Mexico. I grew up identifying as "Chicano" which, according to my relatives meant "displaced" and wasn't used with the more commonly known definition of "Mexican-American". My family used the word more radically, to refer to a race of people specific to New Mexico, who were a genetic mix of the native people of that area, who had lived there for thousands of years, and the Spanish explorers who colonized the area in 1598. There was always a vibe of resistance surrounding the term and we had strong sense of culture relating to our indigenous roots. Kachinas, sand paintings, heavy turquoise jewelry.. these were all normal things in my world. I understand more now why "displaced" was used to describe our people, although possibly the word "outsider" could be interchanged. New Mexico is a very strange and magical place and has a very interesting culture, including a different sort of "singing" Hispanic accent and completely unique food. Not to mention all the UFOs and aliens.

At one point Omaha was to indie pop like Seattle was to grunge. What was it like to be in Nebraska during the height of the scene?

It was awesome! We were a very tight knit group of people and anyone you ask from that group will tell you, with shivers on their arms, about the night when everything changed. The Faint was set play this big venue we had always known to be a place for bigger, touring bands and everyone was excited to see how that would pan out. We all sat there, shocked and stunned as hundreds and hundreds of people kept arriving... people we didn't know or recognize. It had always just been us at the shows before... a lot of people, but you at least sort of recognized most of the crowd. This was different, it was just so many new faces. It was the first time anything like that happened and it just kept happening from there on out with Bright Eyes and Cursive and so on. At first we were just like, "Who are all these people coming to our friends' shows!?" Then it just blew up. It was so exciting to be there and help out and celebrate our friends' successes.

Of course, there’s the highs and lows of touring. What was it like battling with sobriety?

Addiction is a funny thing, it seems to easily go hand in hand with being an artist. It has been the downfall of so many incredible and gifted people throughout history. Drinking is such a normalized part of our society, so it seems pretty harmless in the beginning. I can see why its so destructive. Its a sneaky thing. I am a very intense person, so for me, it makes it a life or death choice. When you're faced with that reality, it makes it much more clear that you need to choose wisely. I want to live and I want to do my job for as long as possible, so I'm staying sober. To me, having drinks isn't worth missing my destiny.

 I like the fun and funkiness of Yes You Are. Tell us about how “Holy Ghost Explosion (HGX)” came about?

Well, I think all our songs are weird. We aren’t writing from a typical perspective and aren’t even doing this for any typical reasons. We have something to say but it can’t really be said.. so we dance with words in order to cause a certain phenomenon in a certain listener. Could it be you? “HGX” started as an nod to Timbaland and wound up as something else.. but still has that 808 vibe and a fun beat to get down to. Its a creeper and possibly its creepy too, depending on how you look at it.

“HGX” stands for “Holy Ghost Explosion”, which was the title of this viral YouTube video a while back of some Pentecostals really going WILD. Something about the name of the video stuck with us and we would up using it the song lyric. We had started referring to the song as “Holy Ghost Explosion” and then after some time, we just started saying “HGX” as that's how we would write it on set lists.

Honestly, I never would have taken you as a sports fan. Tell us about your newfound love for sports and more specifically, the  Kansas City Royals.

I grew up with jocks for parents and I just could not relate. They have always been die hard Cubs fans and baseball was always on our tv but i just couldn't get into it. It wasn't until I reluctantly watched the Royals play in the 2014 Wild Card game that I thought... "Wait, what is THIS? This is baseball? Holy sh*t!" I haven't really missed many games since that night. Learning the game and understanding it has been a huge revelation for me. I can’t really get into it here because it would take too long, but there is a poetry to the game of baseball that goes far deeper than meets the eye. I never would have guessed I’d become a sports fan but the 2014 KC Royals did some kinda alchemy in me and I’ve never been the same since. Its awesome. These games, these insanely high paid players… it all seems so insignificant on the surface, and possibly for some people it is. To those who have been touched by the metaphors of it all.. its very much something else. Its so beautiful. I even have a closer bond with my parents. I get it now.

Well, for a sports fan being on the Super Bowl not once but twice is certainly the honor. What was it like being on the Super Bowl not only with Tilly and the Wall but with Yes You Are?

We had no idea that our song was going to be on the Pepsi Super Bowl commercial. I was doing our taxes, tuned into the station that day and suddenly the song was on. I just sort of blanked out.. then my phone blew up. It was amazing to us, like a sign of some kind. We have believed in Yes You Are for so long and have just pushed steadily along through hard times and better times but for this amazing thing to be given to us… it certainly felt like a sign that something bigger and better is coming.

So it seems like you've done a lot in your career. What's next?

What’s next is putting out our debut album and getting our songs known throughout the universe and beyond!

Last question! I heard you're an MMA fan as well. What did you think of the Conor McGregor versus Mayweather spectacle? This is probably completely crazy but do you think you'd entertain the idea of fighting Floyd Mayweather if the chance came up?

No. Definitely no, I would not fight Floyd Mayweather! I guess I may entertain the thought of letting him beat me up for 100 million dollars though (laughs). I thought the whole McGregor/Mayweather thing was just that, a spectacle. I heard the fight was really good and I also heard they hugged like old, rich-ass friends afterward so, whatever (laughs). You know actually, I am a big fan of the Diaz brothers. They're such ninjas! Nate Diaz actually inspired me to start training Brazilian jiu jitsu at Kansas City BJJ but I stopped after a while because some of the chokes we were doing compromised my throat on more than one occasion. Those guys are killers (laughs). I had a sore throat for over a week and I just couldn't risk it. I miss it a lot though and I do remember my training and drills so... just saying.

Check out Yes You Are on Spotify below:

[kentonramsey]

Billy Porter Tells The Story Behind 2019’s Most Viral Red Carpet Moment

Billy Porter’s first introduction to fashion was in a Black Pentecostal church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he was born and raised. In 1991, he came to New York, and Broadway hasn’t been the same since. On Wednesday, the Emmy winner opened up about his storied career to Fern Mallis, the creator of New York Fashion Week and the host of Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis at 92Y in New York City.

“Every week was a fashion show,” Porter told Mallis, about going to church as a kid. “And the aisle was the runway!” he added, as the audience erupted with laughter. “Where you sat in the sanctuary is how good you felt that day,” he explained. According to Porter, the closer you sat to the pulpit, the longer the walk down the aisle, giving more time to show off your Sunday best. “You sashay down that centre runway, like ‘how are you doing saints,’” Porter said. “It was an early fashion education for me and this is the one thing I don’t think I’ve spoken about a lot. We would put on our own fashion shows.”

Porter is the ultimate performer; he has won both a Tony and a Grammy for his work in the Broadway play, Kinky Boots. But before that, he honed his skills at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, even taking a stylist class that taught him how to handle a garment for the theatre. “The men learned how to use the accoutrements from the top hat to the cane to the waist coats to tails to, you know, how to stand, and the women had to learn all of the different ways to work a garment. And I paid attention.” 

Now Porter’s presence commands red carpets, too. Take, for example, the tuxedo gown he wore to the 2019 Oscars. “I had no intention of even going,” he told Mallis of the award show last February. But, then, Porter was asked to host the red carpet. “It was during Fashion Week and I was like, what am I going to wear and we went to a Christian Siriano fashion show a half-hour after I got the call.” Porter said it was then he remembered why he loved Siriano’s work so much. “He’s always been the designer that understands that everybody wears clothes. If you are a size 0 to 400, everyone wears clothes. It’s in his DNA to design for everyone.”

“We had already been coming up against a wall with a lot of designers because I wanted to do this gender-bending-fluid thing. We just got a lot of “no’s” from a lot of people. I needed to wear a ball gown and this is the only person who will do it. He is the only person who will look me in the face and say yes. And he said yes. He did it in a week.”

That gown is now on view in a Boston museum and will make its way to Kensington Palace in a year, Porter told Mallis. 

When he isn’t on a red carpet, Porter said he gravitates to Thom Browne pieces. “It’s so good to travel with. It’s like Garanimals.” (For the high-end set, of course.) “Everything just goes together. Throw 10 pieces into a suitcase and you have 25 outfits. You’re just mixing and matching and Thom Browne is flawless. It’s so beautiful. After this year, I can’t travel in sweatpants anymore.”

Porter has indeed had a transformative year, and hints at a clothing line of his own. “Something’s coming,” he said. “I’m not sure what yet but something is coming.” We’re willing to bet it incorporates Porter’s personal fashion philosophy: “Wear whatever the fuck you want.”

“That will go nicely on a label,” said Mallis.

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Billy Porter Tells The Story Behind 2019’s Most Viral Red Carpet Moment published first on https://mariakistler.tumblr.com/

[fictionadventurer]

Father Brown Reread: The Wrong Shape

Certain of the great roads going north out of London continue far into the country a sort of attenuated and interrupted spectre of a street, with great gaps in the building, but preserving the line.

 Nice description. Even though I’ve never been to London and live a century later, I can still visualize the sort of “thinning out” of a metropolis that he’s describing.

The opening paragraph is a nice "establishing shot” for the story, the same way a movie would zoom in on a setting before starting the narrative. When the story was written, cinema was too new to have been much of an influence on literature. But interestingly, this type of technique seems more common among classic writers than modern ones, who have definitely been influenced by cinema.

For this is the story—the story of the strange things that did really happen in it in the Whitsuntide of the year 18——:

!!!!!

The stories aren’t contemporary to their publishing dates!

Way to go, Chesterton. Wait until I’ve decided that all your stories are contemporary, then prove me wrong.

The latest this event could have taken place is 1899. This means that Flambeau’s criminal career was entirely in the Victorian era.

(Someone give me Sherlock Holmes tracking the great French criminal. Failing to catch him, of course, but figuring out the crime before he escapes). 

This means that everything before “The Flying Stars” takes place in the 1890s at the earliest. Were socialism and the other political issues of in these stories concerns during the 1800s? I’ve always considered them strictly 20th century problems. Is this a fault in my history knowledge? Or is Chesterton so focused on addressing modern philosophical concerns that he’s not thinking through the implications of using this slightly historical setting?

Anyone passing the house on the Thursday before WhitSunday at about half-past four p.m. would have seen the front door open, and Father Brown, of the small church of St. Mungo, come out smoking a large pipe in company with a very tall French friend of his called Flambeau, who was smoking a very small cigarette.

Whitsunday is Pentecost.

Father Brown finally has a parish! (I feel like there’s been a mention of the different parish for Father Brown, but a quick skim doesn’t show me anything). This story, more than any of the previous ones, is trying to create a concrete world for the Father Brown stories, rather than the nebulous fairy-tale setting of some of the previous stories. 

St. Mungo is the nickname of St. Kentigern, the founder of Glasgow, who died in the early 600s (Wikipedia and Catholic.org give different death dates). Mungo means “dear one” or “darling”, and is most commonly given to him in Scotland. Most parishes and schools named after him use the name Kentigern, but there’s is a St. Mungo’s Academy in Glasgow. St. Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow, Scotland, Penicuik, those accused of infidelity, against bullying, and of salmon. There are also a lot of fairy-tale-style legends surrounding his life. This feels like an appropriate saint to connect to Father Brown.

I like the picture that Chesterton makes of Brown and Flambeau next to each other. For some reason, it made me think of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I’m not sure why, given that I’ve never read the book, and I don’t know if the physical descriptions match at all. But Chesterton has a fascination with the book, and Flambeau is a bit of a brash, romantic Quixote figure next to the more grounded Father Brown. 

The first of these two rooms was the study in which the celebrated Mr. Quinton wrote his wild Oriental poems and romances. The farther room was a glass conservatory full of tropical blossoms of quite unique and almost monstrous beauty, and on such afternoons as these glowing with gorgeous sunlight. Thus when the hall door was open, many a passer-by literally stopped to stare and gasp; for he looked down a perspective of rich apartments to something really like a transformation scene in a fairy play: purple clouds and golden suns and crimson stars that were at once scorchingly vivid and yet transparent and far away.

The grounded world of the story is falling away and we’re traveling back into fairyland again.

Mostly this is here because I love this description.

For he was a man who drank and bathed in colours, who indulged his lust for colour somewhat to the neglect of form—even of good form. This it was that had turned his genius so wholly to eastern art and imagery; to those bewildering carpets or blinding embroideries in which all the colours seem fallen into a fortunate chaos, having nothing to typify or to teach. He had attempted, not perhaps with complete artistic success, but with acknowledged imagination and invention, to compose epics and love stories reflecting the riot of violent and even cruel colour; tales of tropical heavens of burning gold or blood-red copper; of eastern heroes who rode with twelve-turbaned mitres upon elephants painted purple or peacock green; of gigantic jewels that a hundred negroes could not carry, but which burned with ancient and strange-hued fires.

An artist and writer obsessed with colors. Sounds familiar, Chesterton.

If I recall correctly, in his youth Chesterton explored some of these Eastern philosophies. Is Leonard Quinton’s fascination drawn from his own experience?

Flambeau had known Quinton in wild student days in Paris, and they had renewed the acquaintance for a week-end; but apart from Flambeau’s more responsible developments of late, he did not get on well with the poet now. Choking oneself with opium and writing little erotic verses on vellum was not his notion of how a gentleman should go to the devil.

Flambeau was educated in Paris. “Wild student days” suggests university to me, but I suppose it could refer to earlier education.

“More responsible developments of late”. Does this mean that Flambeau’s conversion is recent? 

I find it amusing that Flambeau has Opinions on the Proper Way to live a life of sin. But of course, in Flambeau’s head, if you’re going to go wrong, you should at least be an active, romantic figure, not waste away in solitude.

He was a bull-necked, good-tempered little man with a small moustache, inexpressibly ordinary, yet giving an impression of capacity.

In this somewhat enchanted background, Dr. Harris is an entirely ordinary figure. He provides a contrast to the romantic and mystical Eastern elements. 

“It’s very beautiful,” said the priest in a low, dreaming voice; “the colours are very beautiful. But it’s the wrong shape.” “What for?” asked Flambeau, staring. “For anything. It’s the wrong shape in the abstract. Don’t you ever feel that about Eastern art? The colours are intoxicatingly lovely; but the shapes are mean and bad—deliberately mean and bad. I have seen wicked things in a Turkey carpet.”

Chesterton’s addressing the notion of objective beauty in art. Modern thought places no limits on art--beauty is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Father Brown’s words show this as a cousin of moral relativism. For art or morality to mean anything, there must be limits. There must be a way to determine the “right” and “wrong” shape of art and thought.

If we take color as a metaphor for passion, and shape as a metaphor for morality, this is a thesis statement for the story. Passion for something can be beautiful and good. However, if it is in the wrong shape--if it is ungoverned, or governed by a flawed morality, it can become a twisted and wicked thing.

Flambeau spoke quietly to him in answer. “The Father sometimes gets this mystic’s cloud on him,” he said; “but I give you fair warning that I have never known him to have it except when there was some evil quite near.”

Father Brown’s never been such a supernatural creature. He has flashes of insight--like in “The Queer Feet”--but Flambeau’s practically calling him a prophet.

However, this sets him up as a foil to the Eastern mystic who’s about to step on the stage.

“Thank you,” said the face in excellent English. “I want nothing.” Then, half opening the lids, so as to show a slit of opalescent eyeball, he repeated, “I want nothing.” Then he opened his eyes wide with a startling stare, said, “I want nothing,” and went rustling away into the rapidly darkening garden.  “The Christian is more modest,” muttered Father Brown; “he wants something.”

This echoes some of Chesterton’s critiques of Eastern philosophies in Orthodoxy. 

There is a lot of uncomfortable exoticism of the Indian in this story. But it serves as a misdirection for the mystery--which is as un-exotic and domestic as it’s possible to get.

And Father Brown’s critique of the Indian is of his philosophy, not his race. He would have made similar comments to a white socialist.

“That woman’s over-driven,” said Father Brown; “that’s the kind of woman that does her duty for twenty years, and then does something dreadful.” The little doctor looked at him for the first time with an eye of interest. “Did you ever study medicine?” he asked. “You have to know something of the mind as well as the body,” answered the priest; “we have to know something of the body as well as the mind.”

Father Brown’s diagnosis sounds entirely psychological--nothing to do with the body.

Dr. Harris probably asks the question because, if he’s going to pull off a murder under their noses, he doesn’t want to risk Brown understanding the physical evidence of the corpse.

This suggests that Harris and Mrs. Quinton conspired together over the murder.

“That’s all right,” he said, with an apologetic smile. “Twenty-three sheets cut and twenty-two corners cut off them. And as I see you are impatient we will rejoin the others.”

This is one of the few physical clues that Brown has collected in any of the stories so far. Despite the mysticism, the story is a touch more grounded in reality--you can almost play along with the mystery, though it doesn’t last very long.

“When that Indian spoke to us,” went on Brown in a conversational undertone, “I had a sort of vision, a vision of him and all his universe. Yet he only said the same thing three times. When first he said ‘I want nothing,’ it meant only that he was impenetrable, that Asia does not give itself away. Then he said again, ‘I want nothing,’ and I knew that he meant that he was sufficient to himself, like a cosmos, that he needed no God, neither admitted any sins. And when he said the third time, ‘I want nothing,’ he said it with blazing eyes. And I knew that he meant literally what he said; that nothing was his desire and his home; that he was weary for nothing as for wine; that annihilation, the mere destruction of everything or anything—”

Despite some uncomfortable statements by Brown, I can’t accuse him of racism. A few lines earlier, he said there was “something in the air of this place” that was partly to do with the Indian. But this shows that Brown isn’t uncomfortable because the man’s an Indian, but because he’s an Indian with a frightening personal philosophy.

Admittedly, I have no idea what Brown means by his interpretation of the first “I want nothing”. (That one does seem a bit racist).

Here also he found a drama, though of a more grotesque sort. It showed nothing less than his big friend Flambeau in an attitude to which he had long been unaccustomed, while upon the pathway at the bottom of the steps was sprawling with his boots in the air the amiable Atkinson, his billycock hat and walking cane sent flying in opposite directions along the path. Atkinson had at length wearied of Flambeau’s almost paternal custody, and had endeavoured to knock him down, which was by no means a smooth game to play with the Roi des Apaches, even after that monarch’s abdication.

FLAMBEAU! Can’t we leave you alone for five minutes?

I tried to look up what “Roi des Apaches” referred to. I came across annotated Father Brown books that attached footnotes to the phrase, but the footnotes aren’t available in Google previews.

“Confound him,” cried the doctor, stamping furiously. “Now I know that it was that nigger that did it.”

Ouch.

At least it’s the murderer who said it.

Meanwhile Father Brown had made his way into the house, and now went to break the news to the wife of the dead man. When he came out again he looked a little pale and tragic, but what passed between them in that interview was never known, even when all was known.

I always love Father Brown’s mysterious off-screen conversations. It  keeps some mystery in the tale, even after the mystery is solved.  

“Will you do me a favour?” said the priest quietly. “The truth is, I make a collection of these curious stories, which often contain, as in the case of our Hindoo friend, elements which can hardly be put into a police report. Now, I want you to write out a report of this case for my private use. Yours is a clever trade,” he said, looking the doctor gravely and steadily in the face. “I sometimes think that you know some details of this matter which you have not thought fit to mention. Mine is a confidential trade like yours, and I will treat anything you write for me in strict confidence. But write the whole.”

Though Chesterton has put in three characters whose sole purpose was to serve as suspects for the mystery, we barely spend any time considering them before Brown finds the real criminal.

I wonder if Brown’s interview with Mrs. Quinton uncovered any further evidence...

Not that he needed it when Harris offers such feeble excuses as “oh, he cuts all his paper like that.”

I love how confident and controlled Brown is here. He makes sure Harris completely understands him without stating anything directly.

“Flambeau,” said Father Brown, “there is a long seat there under the veranda, where we can smoke out of the rain. You are my only friend in the world, and I want to talk to you. Or, perhaps, be silent with you.”

Oh, my heart! Flambeau’s his only friend?

The best friendships are the ones where you can be silent together.

But for the present my point is this: If it was pure magic, as you think, then it is marvellous; but it is not mysterious—that is, it is not complicated. The quality of a miracle is mysterious, but its manner is simple. Now, the manner of this business has been the reverse of simple.” [...] “There has been in this incident,” he said, “a twisted, ugly, complex quality that does not belong to the straight bolts either of heaven or hell. As one knows the crooked track of a snail, I know the crooked track of a man.”

This is one of Father Brown’s definitive passages. A distillation of the philosophy of his universe. That last sentence could be a voiceover in a movie trailer.

I love the Catholic Church’s scientific approach to the supernatural. We have processes to prove miracles. The worldview allows for the supernatural, but also seeks understanding through natural means. 

The priest leant forward again, settled his elbows on his knees, looked at the ground, and said, in a low, distinct voice: “He never did confess to suicide.”  Flambeau laid his cigar down. “You mean,” he said, “that the writing was forged?”

Flambeau’s not quite as dense as he’s been in some of the previous stories. Though Father Brown has to lead him there, he is coming up with rational theories. You may make it as a detective yet, Flambeau. 

DEAR FATHER BROWN,—Vicisti Galilee. Otherwise, damn your eyes, which are very penetrating ones. Can it be possible that there is something in all that stuff of yours after all?

“Vicisti Galilee” translates to something like, “You have won, Galiean.” It is attributed (wrongly, according to Wikiquotes) to Julian, the last pagan emperor of Rome.

Harris was skeptical of mysticism, but because most of the talk was about “exotic” religions, it was easy to overlook that he was against religion in general. 

I loved Quinton’s wife. What was there wrong in that? Nature told me to, and it’s love that makes the world go round. I also thought quite sincerely that she would be happier with a clean animal like me than with that tormenting little lunatic. What was there wrong in that? I was only facing facts, like a man of science. She would have been happier. According to my own creed I was quite free to kill Quinton, which was the best thing for everybody, even himself.

Here’s where the theory of art meets the reality of life. Quinton’s emotions, his care for Mrs. Quinton and a desire for them both to be happy, could be good and beautiful things--beautiful colors. But they were guided by the wrong philosophy--put in the wrong shape--and so they became evil.

This is so, so relevant to moral relativism that is wreaking havoc on our modern Western world. 

When I had done it, the extraordinary thing happened. Nature deserted me. I felt ill. I felt just as if I had done something wrong. I think my brain is breaking up; I feel some sort of desperate pleasure in thinking I have told the thing to somebody; that I shall not have to be alone with it if I marry and have children. What is the matter with me? . . . Madness . . . or can one have remorse, just as if one were in Byron’s poems! I cannot write any more.

Moral relativism won’t make you happy, kids.

Harris was the exact opposite of Quinton--scientific and practical where he was caught up in mysticism. But they were both drawn in by passion--bright colors--and now that Harris has given into his passions, is he on a path to becoming what Quinton was?

He plans on marrying and having children? He plans to just get away with it?

Father Brown carefully folded up the letter, and put it in his breast pocket just as there came a loud peal at the gate bell, and the wet waterproofs of several policemen gleamed in the road outside.

Is Father Brown going to let him get away with it? Or is this a sign that the police are going to catch him?

Flambeau never did find out the solution to the mystery. But it seems as though Brown was willing to lead him there, before he was interrupted by Harris bringing the letter of confession.

Father Brown has said he’ll keep the confession secret. But that doesn’t mean that he’s going to hide all the evidence. Does he plan to let Flambeau make the last few deductive leaps and help the police find the murderer?

I wonder if Father Brown asked for the written confession just for Harris’ own good. It seems as though the act of writing the letter helped him feel remorse and unburdened his conscience. But it also seems as though Harris plans to live life in freedom, not to confess and face justice.

I know that Father Brown’s more about mercy than justice, but he’s never let a murderer get away before. Keeping the confession secret is his act of mercy. However, don’t think he’s going to obstruct justice. If Flambeau and the police figure it out, Harris will face the consequences of his crime.

[mucampusministry]

Mass of the Holy Spirit - August 28, 2017

Homily - Rev. Thomas Krettek, S.J.

“Be the Difference” calls for a plan and that plan is linked to Beyond Boundaries, which requires us to think differently and act differently. It provides an inspirational and tangible framework for Marquette to embrace new and collaborative methods of teaching, learning, research and service, all while promoting the greater glory of God and the well-being of humankind.

This aspiration places all of us at Marquette squarely in the heart of the history of the mystery of salvation.  A history that begins with Abram our father in faith, to whom the Lord said: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.  I will bless you . . . All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.”

The God whose people we will be is the God who is the original entrepreneur and the origin of all innovation because our God is the one who makes all things new.

Go out from your familiar surroundings and comfort zone because I am calling you to something new, something that you do not yet see or know so that I can bless you and you can be a blessing to all the people I place along your path.

However, Ezekiel reminds us of the problem we encounter that is later noted by Jesus in Luke’s gospel when he says “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.  39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”

Maybe we don’t really want to be made new because the “old is good.”  The down side of which is expressed well in Mark’s Gospel “Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their hardness of heart.”

For me, Annie Dillard helpfully explores this dynamic in her collection of reflections Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters, especially  in “An Expedition to the Pole” where she “sets polar exploration next to the worship of a small Catholic parish to see what this juxtaposition might produce. . . Her fellow worshipers at mass likewise struck her as singularly unprepared for encountering the unknown. . . . [It] prompted in Dillard the feeling that this too was a descent into mystery, the well of the absurd, where one sacrificed education, dignity, distance and propriety for the sake of a glimpse of the sacred. ”

She writes: “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of Power we so blandly invoke? . . . the churches are children playing on the floor with chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.  It is madness to wear ladies straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to the pews.  For the sleeping god may wake some day [and] draw us out to where we can never return.”

Being from Council Bluffs, Iowa where the only waves I encountered were the “amber waves of grain” I, like Peter, don’t do well when Jesus calls me to come to him across the water. I prefer those nice safe harbor cruises that you can on down at the lake.

Fortunately, as we learned in the second reading, the Spirit comes to help us in our weakness for God knows everything in our hearts of stone.  The Spirit can teach a stone to talk by turning it into a heart of flesh. The Spirit, we hear also in Ezekiel, “God, the Master, told the dry bones, “Watch this: I’m bringing the breath of life to you and you’ll come to life. I’ll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You’ll come alive and you’ll realize that I am God!”

The universal Church’s Mass of the Holy Spirit is celebrated on Pentecost Sunday and uses very different readings because its purpose is very different.  Masses of the Holy Spirit are celebrated by all Jesuit educational institutions across the world with the readings that we have for today because its purpose is very different.  We ask the Spirit to help us in our weakness.

As Paul reminds the Ephesians: “God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.  And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. . . But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! . . . Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. . . . then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

Ignatius’ experience: Regarding his encounter with the Moor on his way to Montserrat he himself says it would “be good to write down, to understand how Our Lord dealt with this soul, still so blind, though highly desirous of serving Him in every way he knew.”  In March of 1522 he sets out from Loyola toward Montserrat feeling “such rejection for his past sins and such vivid desire to carry out great things for the love of God” in imitation of the saints.  He reports “From these thoughts he took all his consolation, not paying attention to interior matters, nor knowing what humility, charity, or patience were, nor the discernment to guide and measure these virtues, but all his attention was directed at doing these other great external works, for those were the works the saints had done for the glory of God, without consideration of any other circumstance.”  Took all his consolation from great external works rather than paying attention to interior matters.

Jesuits and thus Ignatian Education is not contemplative but is “Contemplative in Action,” the meaning of which is brought out well for me in Ron Rohlheiser’s “The domestic, the monastic bring powerful values.”  You can find God . . . in a monastery but, ordinarily, God is found wherever there are little children, and families, and kitchen tables, and petty squabbles, and bills to pay, and all those other kinds of things that seem unspiritual. Carlo Carretto, the renowned spiritual writer, shares how he learned this from experience. On one visit home to Italy, sitting with his mother, he was struck by the fact that she - an earthy practical woman who had raised a large family and who had gone through whole years of her life so preoccupied with the duties of raising her children she never had any quality time alone - was more of a contemplative than he was, her hermit son, who had spent years alone in solitude trying to block out the distractions of the world so as to pray. Realizing that his mother, who had been so busy and preoccupied for so many years, was more contemplative than he was didn't suggest that there was something wrong with what he had been doing all those years in the desert.   Rather it suggested there had been something very right about what she had been doing during those years when the constant demands of little children and family left her with no time ever for herself.  Contemplativeness and openness to the presence of God are not as much a question of silence and quiet as they are of being unselfish and beyond self-preoccupation. Contemplativeness is self-forgetfulness. Silence and the desert can help us to forget ourselves, but so too can duty, the demands of family, parenting, job and vocation.”

The mission given to young Jesuits during First Studies is to study.  That is the duty of their state in life.  The Spirit led Jesus on his mission and the leads the Church on hers. At this Mass of the Holy Spirit we implore that same Spirit to lead us on ours, both personally and institutionally because as Saint Pope John Paul II in his first encyclical Redemptor Hominis reminds us: Our Massing is for our missioning in this time when the reality of the world in which we are missioned is one in need of unity and the Spirit, a time and a people who are “hungry for justice, peace, love, goodness, fortitude, responsibility, and human dignity.”  

And so our prayer is “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.”