#anima creatives

[pleb-the-original]

Day 9: Olitiau

(I have no idea where all this writing motivation is coming from. Then again, maybe its just the fun of writing my concepts. I did know of the Olitiau but not about the pterosaur debate. So I figured why not take a trip back to Prehistoric Paradise.) You know, I probably won’t be the first to admit this but yes, I was one of the bats behind the Olitiau. Oh yes there were many of us. I think I was the one seen by those British dweebs however. It’s actually kind of a funny story. So, I’m an anima-demon right? Got a mom, got a lot of brothers and sisters, you know the thing. Of course since apparently I got the lucky roll of the dice, I ended up being one of those extinct bats. Necromantis I think they call ‘em. Those scientists are way better at naming things than those British dweebs. So of course I wanted in with some other extinct pals. That’s why I applied to Prehistoric Paradise. Also cause mom thought I needed a job but hey, things just work out like that. So I’m just there doing a good job, hanging out with the other old bats. Then this one guy, calls himself Darkwing, decides “hey, you know what sounds fun? Breaking out and seeing the real world!” So then of course its MY responsibility to get him back. That idiot also managed to also get one of the pterosaurs to break out with him. So here I am in bat form searching for this giant bat and his friend swooping through the jungle. Now not to brag, but I fly good. Those trees did nothing to slow me down. What I didn’t expect however were people. I thought Darkwing got out into a pretty remote area. I was tired and I didn’t care anymore so I figured to just swoop down at them and maybe that would get them to leave. Sure I may have taken some bullets but I think it worked. Tracked down Darkwing and the pterosaur too before they could cause another Kongamato incident. It was only after it was all said and done did someone tell me “Oh hey guess what, you created a new cryptid.” I knew that spawning new cryptids was a common thing when working here but that fast? Don’t worry though, me and Olitiau are cool. Of course they’re cool with plenty of the other bats like me that ended up spawning his creation. Heck, whenever I get a day off I usually just end up drinking with them swapping stories. Believe me, Olitiau can make a mean hard folere. (Excerpt from Tall Tales! Testimonies and Stories from Prehistoric Paradise) 

[mianimasenpoeticus]

[dawn-eva]

The following film, #Soul Searching, is an abstract #audio-visual representation of commonalities and echoes I have found across studied texts, interviews and research undertaken for this project on the subject of the soul. I chose to anchor my research predominantly in my own western tradition and #religious/spiritual strands of thought that resonate most with my own experiences and unconscious cultural #paradigm. Through regular visits to the Alex Johnston Reference library, I developed focused #research around #concepts of the soul according to the western traditions of: - #Hermeticism - #Neoplatonic #Philosophy - #Rosicrucian Philosophy - #Transpersonal #Psychology - #Theosophy - #Gnostic Texts - #Alchemical Texts - #Jewish/Christian #Kabbalah and #Mysticism - #Ancient #Egyptian Texts. These traditions survived either through sectarian branches of monotheistic practice (as with Gnosticism and mysticism) or through practices directly outside of (and sometimes in opposition to) the canon of mainstream denomination. The use of language of these texts veil the meaning through subtle and abstract language forms. Some of these source materials purposely obscures the essential message so as to protect their pupils and to escape heretical accusations for its deviation from the cultural monotheistic dogma - however, in most traditions, adepts of the teaching schools are deliberately presented with analogies and shrouded messages, presented as gateways of knowledge, through personal engagement with the totality of Self. The ineffable is respected for its inherent qualities, by allowing its meaning to fall outside of the domination and restriction of language. Rather, it is found in the space between fixed language. As such, gentler, less directive language, that is subtle and allows the individual to arrive at their own implicit meaning making, is used in an attempt to describe the indescribable. Without earthly form and beyond the reaches of knowing through ordinary means, the soul is understood through our internal resonance, through subtle personal gnosis - that is, knowledge beyond intellectual knowledge, an inner knowing; through contemplation and experience. This film endeavours to propose an abstract representation of the ineffable in motion, inviting the viewer to contemplate and tune into their own inner knowing. For the purpose of this piece, I have set out to demonstrate the fluidity and dynamism of the soul, as well as its splicing with the representational facets we experience in our waking life; corporeality, matter, mind, consciousness, emotions - all properties through which we encounter the soul. These synergistic attributes are in symbiosis with the soul, both enveloped by it, and expressed within the function of its parts. Through the development and growth of individual parts, we grow the whole of our individual soul. Within the work I hope to infer the possibility of our individual soul as an expression of an #AnimaMundi , the ALL, a universal soul, enveloping and expressed through individual parts. A special thank you to interview contributors: Gary Kidgell - Professional Esoteric Astrologer and Author Mike hall - Qigong & Tai Chi Consultant, Theosophical Society Chair Marcus LeBroque - Kabbalist, Teacher Father James Cadman - Exorcist, Catholic Priest Luca McQuillan, David McLoone, Jamie L McKenzie & Charlene Morgan - Catholics List of Notable Books: The Way of Divine Union - Arthur Edward Waite Reincarnation; A study of Forgotten Truth - E.D.Walker Everyone's Book of the Dead - Tim Wyatt Cycles of Eternity - Tim Wyatt From Soul to Soul - John M Watkins Mansions of the Soul; The Cosmic Conception - H. Spencer Lewis Esoteric Psychology; The Seven Rays - Dr Douglas Baker The Soul’s Imperative - Harold Tarn The Philosophy of Witchcraft - J. Mitchell & Jn. Dickie Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy - Grillot de Givry Egyptian Magic - S.S.D.D edited by W.W.Westcott The World Soul - H. Fielding Hall Transpersonal Development - Roberto Assagioli The Inner Journey; Pathways to the Higher Self - Gary Kidgell The Lamp Relit - Vestigo The Book of the Dead; Papyrus of Ani - E. A. Wallis Budge Cosmic Consciousness - Richard Maurice Bucke The Sevenfold Planes of Nature - Susan Bayliss (article) Who Do You Think You Were - Robert Woolley (article)

[1introvertedsage]

Lifted

If I let her up will she behave? A vicious bite Entranced by the dance  As she moves in play. Head held high Arms out wide She sways. Some see a light Relaxed by the cast As her hips move and hold the gaze. 

Eyes like a tunnel Go within or go under As she (peaks) To the depths of your Soul. Vice like a scythe. Move too quick And loosen your grip. As she soothes you and tightens her hold.  Legs going weak In the timid and meek. Friared feet More spice - more heat. Pushing you towards your goals.

~Talitha~

pic credit: ⬇️

[carljungdepthpsychology]

Hiawatha wrestles with himself in order to create himself.

Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group Carl Jung Symbols of Transformation CW 5 Faint with famine, Hiawatha Started from his bed of branches, From the twilight of his wigwam Forth into the flush of sunset, Came and wrestled with Mondamin; At his touch he felt new courage Throbbing in his brain and bosom, Felt new life and hope and vigour Run through every nerve and fibre. The battle in the…

[vedicastrology-thestarsguideyou]

Planets in 7th house.

The mirror of self

Sun in 7th house

🌻The personality with Sun in 7th house wishes to know itself, it's identity through the mirror of others. It deeply searches for its own identity, essence , value in the definitions , thoughts , feelings of others about them.

🌻It finds completion and true fulfillment in the company of its beloved .

🌻Can be very self sacrificing or can have ego issues . Balancing is the key. Do something creative everyday. So that you are more dependent on yourself.

🌻Looks for a radiant, confident , regal , creative partner , why ? Because he is looking for his unconscious part to become conscious in the material life.

Moon in the 7th House

💚Here the personality desires the reflection & experience of an instinctive , beautiful, intuitive , beautiful, feeling , emotionally intelligent, emotionally attuned , nurturing partner .

💚In her , he finds his reflection of his emotional needs , in her , he learns about his emotions , the care , devotion , emotional attunement he wishes to get is the unconscious reflection of his anima.

💚The unconscious childhood enactment with mother is wished for to reach a sense of completion within.

💚A tendency of neediness and codependence can form sometimes.

💚Moodiness and nourishment happen in waves.

💚Developing a consistent spiritual practice will help beautifully balance this placement.

💚Emotionally attuned soulful relationship can happen if the personality learns to focus his attention of himself, his beloved , his spiritual practice & stays loyal.

💚Moon related business will also bhi helpful.

Mercury in 7th house.

⭐The personality with mercury in 7th house desires a friendly beloved . The one who he can chatter with , funny batter , intellectual stimulation, discuss business ideas .

⭐He searches for a childlike , youthful, logical , analytical partner who can reflect his unconscious so that he feels complete fulfilled within & outside.

Mars in 7th house.

☘️Here the personality finds its vigour , assertiveness, competitive spirit becoming active in its close partnerships, within the company of the other.

☘️He looks for a courageous, bold , dynamic , athletic partner who wakes up or reflects his own courageous dynamic qualities . Thus a sense of completion and fulfillment is felt within & without.

☘️Can have some clashes with partners , but these can be resolved with understanding.

☘️Playing active sports with one's partner will also be helpful in making the use of this energy.

Saturn in 7th house.

🤍The personality with Saturn in 7th finds itself in a dilemma , to be close or far away , to open up or not .

🤍Close relationships have been marked away with restrictions and a sense of emotional coldness.

🤍The personality desires close soulful relationships but finds difficult to be vulnerable with its close partners.

🤍The personality in its earlier formative years is forced to grow up , restrict its inner child so as to act mature for the situations it is placed in to face , experience & deal with.

🤍Thus bringing up the courage to open up , be vulnerable , to let your inner child feel nourished & itself again , & to allow others to see yourself for your needs & desires too .

🤍To accept change & to grow together.

🤍Better relationships happen with time .

🤍Spiritual practice is deeply helpful.

🤍A responsible, mature , sensible , fair partner fills the mirror image . ⭐💗

Jupiter in 7th house.

✨Here the personality aspires to find a wise , guiding, spiritual, religious ,teaching presence in one's partnership.

✨A spiritual relationship where both can be themselves , grow & mature into their true selves.

✨Expansive relationships , soulful connections are searched for.

✨Guard against multiple relationships.

Venus in 7th house

💗The personality with Venus in the 7th house desires the romance , loving , sensual, beautiful experience of a true soul connection.

💗Balance , fairness , negotiation, a penchant for beauty & harmony within and also in relationships is desired .

💗Quality time spent , luxury , beauty , sensuality & heart to heart feelings are desired.

Rahu in 7th house.

💫Personality desires the excitement of close relationships, business avenues wealth . Partners of different origin , culture , background, of exotic origin find his attention. Choose your partners wisely.

💫Never let your close partners take advantage of your yielding nature. Do your spiritual practice.

Ketu in 7th house

☘️Personality is self focused this lifetime & is detached from close relationships , business etc.

☘️A spiritual meditative partner can be a good choice .

☘️Having a spiritual base to the relationships , marriage & business will help chanelise the energy towards its best use.

☘️Regular spiritual practice will also be beneficial.

DM for readings

[linkspooky]

Judai and Yubel's Chemical Wedding

A chemical wedding is central to many alchemy stories.

A chemical wedding is a reconciliation of opposites, often with the most significant character relationship to the protagonist. A relationship which destroys and then remakes them in the better version of themselves.

Jung said that relatioships are chemical reaction. If you have a reaction you can never return to your previous state of being. That's ultimately the role of a chemical wedding in a story. A relationship which is central to a character's development, and changes both parties.

Yubel isn't just important for Judai's character development, they're literally his other half and their union of opposites completes them both in an alchemical sense. Keep on reading below the cut for a lesson in alchemy symbolism.

Peter Pan's Missing Shadow

So, the story goes somewhere in the middle of developing season two the writers recognizing that Judai, would never be able to handle a Marik level antagonist. He lacked maturity compared to the previous series protagonist Atem. The concept of Yubel emerged to make Judai grow, because as he was, he wasn't enough.

Judai fits the archetype of the hot-blooded shonen protagonist almost perfectly in the first two seasons, but even in two seasons where he changes very little as a character the hints are there.

Sho immediately puts Judai on a pedestal, and soon so does everyone else. Judai is praised for his pure heart over, and over. The standards for Judai are set so high you begin to wonder what if Judai wasn't the person everyone sees him as?

At this point is it even Judai that his friends are seeing?

What does that do to a person's identity when everyone around you is love with the idea of you. When you're not seen as a person with flaws.

Judai doesn't grow but how can he, when he's not really allowed to make mistakes. When he's expected to always be cheerful, and always bounce back without help or support.

Judai is pure of heart, but is anybody really pure? The light always casts a shadow.

Jung pioneered a lot of analytical psychology theory. Jung divided the psyche into four parts, the persona which is how we externally engage with the world our public face, the animus and anima masculinity and femininity, and finally the shadow.

Complementary to Jung’s idea of the persona, which is “what oneself as well as others thinks one is” [CW9 para 221], the “shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality [...] that is his shadow does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses etc “ 

The shadow isn't made up of bad qualities, just what we are afraid to show others because of judgement. Hidden as it may be, the shadow is a fundamental part of your personality.

Jung had a deep interest in the shadow – its form and content – and in the process of assimilating “the thing a person has no wish to be” [CW16, para 470]. He saw quite clearly that failure to recognize, acknowledge and deal with shadow elements is often the root of problems in relationships.

Is a friendship with someone real if you're afraid to show any of your flaws?

Juda's never allowed to make mistakes around his friends. He's under constant pressure to fight their battles, to fear he might lose them if he loses.

Ryo, a foil and rival Judai suffers a complete breakdown after losing just one duel. Before that he spelled it out for Judai in the graudation duel, the "perfection" everyone expected limited his growth, until he finally fell apart. If one loss makes Ryo fall then how much farther does Judai who's under more pressure have to fall?

Judai hides his shadow from everyone, but the shadow isn't just a part of you. The shadow is you. You are your shadow. Which is why recognizing the shadow is a critical part of growth - and alchemy. As Jung once said, "The gold is in the dark. And one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” 

Judai's in unable to grow up, because like Peter Pan is missing his shadow. It needs to be retrieved and sewn back to his feet. Until then, he's stunted and missing an important part of himself.

Judai is missing something important without his shadow. I'm not pulling this from thin air, it's directly stated by the text repeatedly.

Here.

Kouji Satou: We have something that you lack. Judai: That I lack? Kouji Satou: Yes the darkness of the heart that slumbers deep within a duelist. The burden that a duelist bears in his heart. Judai, you have none of that.

Here.

Cobra: You are certainly a talented duelist. But you have one fatal flaw. Judai: A fatal flaw? Cobra: Yes, your duels are superficial. Someone who fights with nothing on his shoulders, cannot recover once he loses his enjoyment. What a duelist carries on his shoulders will become the power that supports him when he’s up against the wall! Cobra: But you have nothing like that! Those who go through life without anything like that cannot possibly seize victory. Cobra: But I know that nothing I say will resonate with you… because you have nothing to lose but the match.

Even, by Judai himself.

Judai: They’re all… They’re all gone. There really was something missing in me. But what is it? What was missing? What should a duelist burden themselves with?

I often worry people will misinterpret Judai's ending with Yubel is unhealthy because he's "caving to the demands of a stalker."

Yubel's not a stalker, they're not even a real person. Judai's a character in a story, experiencing an arc about learning to accept and grow path his worst flaws. How could that arc end with throwing away Yubel, who represents the ugliness Judai tries to hide?

Yubel is Judai's shadow, run away from him just like Peter Pan. Yubel's more than just a cast-off shadow though, Yubel is Judai. A good example of two separate characters coded as each other's shadows in other literature is Katherine and Heathcliff, two characters designed specifically to be two halves of a whole. Katherine once said, "I am Heathcliff", or to be specific she said:

 My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty strange: I should not seem a part of it [...] Nelly, I am Heathcliff! Katherine - Wuthering Heights

So these are two different topics, shadow as a literary foil, and shadow as an aspect of peresonaity in Jungian psychology, yubel is both.

Yubel is the archetypal shadow character, a character who challenges the main character by being their internalized flaws made external.

In a Jungian text when a character won't look at their shadow, they're often forced to look by being confronted with an externalized version of their shadow.

This is the first line of dialogue Yubel says that's not chanting Judai's name in episode 117 to Amon.

Yubel: My power is not especially great. But those with darkness in their hearts can unleash great power in me. Yubel: The pus welling out of your injured heart forms a second heart. I can see that other heart. The darkness in it. Yubel: That's right. That is the darkness of your heart. it's there, in the depths of your mind. Th scream of your other heart, born from your stagnant blood!

Yubel's go-to strategy with manipulation is to throw in a character's face the secrets they've been hiding to make them more liable to their will. Until Yubel can reconstitute their own body, they're forced to act entirely through others, possessing Cobra, then Martin, and finally Johan.

Yubel, the runaway shadow can't exist in this world without glueing themselves onto someone else. Can't be whole without Judai.

Yubel: You'll formally become king. Yubel: It must be great to have your wishes come true. But then, who's going to be happy for you? Yubel: Living in a way that suits you. The one who'd be most happy for you would be that "echo" woman that you loved, am I right? Yubel: But you went and let her die. You won't even be able to see her celebrate, isn't that a bit weird to you? Amon: Silence... Yubel: I know I couldn't stand it. A world without the one I love. It's because of Judai I can feel pain, angiush, and agony.

They say it over and over again, a world without the person you love, even a perfect one like Amon imagines, isn't worth living in.

Yubel: I wouldn't want to live in such a world! Yubel: The world is a place that you make alongside the one you love! What Judai and I make together... that will be the world!

It seems like a one-sided dependence on Yubel's part, but because Yubel is Judai's shadow, Judai cannot exist without them either.

Yubel was literally introduced into the story to spur Judai's character growth after two seasons of stagnation.

Judai seems better off without Yubel. Judai even suggests as much, that it might have been better for Yubel to die in that crater, than crawl back to Judai in their wounded and hateful state.

It seems that Yubel's reapperance triggered Judai's breakdown, and without it the breakdown never would have happend. However, there's two seasons of foreshadowing that JUdai is "missing something" without Yubel, which is why they can't grow or adapt to new circumstances. Judai needed to go through a death of his old self, a loss of innocence to become someone new, that's how alchemy works, that's how growing up works.

JUdai needed to reintegrate his shadow (Yubel) so he could become aware of his flaws, and while he does hit a low point, in the aftermath he can finally better himself.

The question is what flaws of Judai does Yubel reflect?

At first brush they seem as opposed to each other as hero and villain.

There's a tragic symmetry to the way both of them lived their lives for the past ten years. They began in the same place, Judai's childhood was just the two of them together. Then Yubel drove all of Judai's friends away, and Judai sent Yubel away in return.

Ten years go by and Judai attends Duel Academy and makes friends for the first time. He learns of his destiny was the one to protect Neo-Space and the Neo-Spacians led him their power helping awake within him the power of the gentle darkness. Judai spends almost two years almost always surrounded by people, alone in the center of a crowd.

At the same time Yubel has spent the past ten years alone in space, crying out for help from Judai. When they finally return to earth they ask for help one final time only to be met with silence. In that moment Yubel decides that silence is their answer, that abadoning Yubel, ignoring their screams of pain and forgetting them was all Judai's way of showing love.

Judai awakens his powers of the gentle darkness, whereas Yubel is corrupted by the light of destruction. Judai receives the help of everyone around them, Yubel only survives by manipulating several people to eventually crawl their way back to Judai.

They started at the same point, but by the time they meet again they're completely unrecognizable to each other.

As easy as it is to see them as villain and victim you can flip their roles too. As Judai is responsible for the chain of events that led to Yubel's torture, from Yubel's point of view they are the victim and Judai the villain.

It's unfair to hold a decsion they made when they were five against him. However, abandoning Yubel is a choice Judai continually makes, even after learning Yubel's undergone ten years of torture they were responsible for.

Judai: Yubel didn't come into being by coincidence. I made them who they are.

Judai continually ignores Yubel to search for Johan. However, he's not responsible for Johan. Johan made the choice to sacrifice himself. Wanting to save Johan isn't bad of course, but wanting Johan back is about what Johan represents to Judai not who he is as a person.

Yubel rightfully points out Judai will go so far to save Johan, but won't lift a finger to help them.

In fact Judai's obsession with Johan, is a narrative flaw (one Yubel reflects for the audience). It leads to his destruction.

Sho even calls him out, his willingness to sacrifice anyone, including his friends for Johan's sake. It's selfishness on his part. To quote this post:

The way he goes after both after Johan in season three and O’Brien shows that he actually doesn’t care all that much for them as people. To him, they represent a concept: Victory, or at the very least atonement for his past actions. A convenient way to right what he did wrong.  That is not to say that he doesn’t like them as people - he does. But when the chips are down, what he ultimately wanted was a chance to redeem himself by saving them. 

Yubel's obsessive pursuit of Judai to the destruction of everyone else, reflects Judai's obsessive pursuit of Johan destroying his friends.

To quote the above post again.

Yubel is a deeply selfish person as well. However, it’s a different kind of selfish. Yubel has exactly one priority: Juudai. Anyone or anything that isn’t Juudai doesn’t matter, and Yubel will go after Juudai no matter the situation and no matter the consequences. 

They're both two deeply selfish people and Yubel is needed to cast a light of this selfish side of Judai. When the two of them are compared though the image blurs, Yubel doesn't have the right to take their pain out on Judai's friends, but Judai goes on to later do the same thing.

"But then that's the nature of love, isn't it? I wanted all that torment to convey the depth of my love."

Judai rightfully calls out Yubel's involvement of innocent people, but it's hypocrisy on his part. He doesn't have the moral high ground here. Yubel's suffering doesn't entitle them to take out said suffering on Judai's friends, but Judai also slaughtered innocents as the supreme king.

Judai framing Yubel's reaction as revenge is ignoring his own flaws and role in things. Sharing pain = understanding = empathy for Yubel. Yubel wants to be understood, but Judai wants to ignore his shadow.

Yubel's strategy is a kid of forced empathy - to drag Judai down to their level and make Judai understand the same pain so Judai will understand them.

I'm going to quote another post again, this post here.

In her desperation to grasp why she was being made to suffer if Judai loved her, it makes a certain amount of sense that she would latch on to the suffering itself as being something Judai wanted for her.  (She knows and admits this isn’t true, btw, but it’s the only thing that allows her even a tenuous grip on sanity)  Then, when she was in a position to meet him again, her own views on love would allow her to subconsciously justify making him suffer the same way because her pain had left their life experiences too disparate to form a meaningful connection once more.  And the hilarious thing is that she was ultimately right?  Yanking Judai down to her level is what allowed Judai to understand her in a way that was impossible before he had his own little fit of love-induced murder spree. I think what people sort of miss is that what Judai is reviling her and calling her an unfeeling monster near the beginning of their duel, he’s the one that’s wrong.

This symmetry they eventually reach where they both become perpetrators shows the biggest thing they share in common: trauma, and how they react to it.

Trauma comes to define both Judai and Yubel, but they react in different ways.

Yubel externalizes their trauma, the same trauma Judai hides internally. What Judai conceals, Yubel by acting out their grief on others reveals.

Yubel wears their heart on their sleeve for all intents and purposes. They will act out their pain on others, gleefully, sadistically so. Their entire philosophy of love revolves around the idea that intentionally inflicting pain as a show of love.

However, as stated above that's a coping mechanism. When Yubel says they want to share pain with Judai, it's not revenge, it's a desire for empathy and understanding. Yubel wraps themselves in a blanket of love, to endure years of torture they suffered alone.

Yubel can't just ask for Judai's love though, they demand it.

This too is Yubel shielding themselves, they're coping with their abandonment trauma. Yubel can endure any pain inflicted on them if they convince themselves that Judai still cares, they can crawl out of a crater if it might lead them back to Judai. If Judai rejects them however, they completely fall apart.

Judai too, is protecting himself from fears of abandonment.

Judai's coping method is opposite, he internalizes all his emotions. The pressure of having to constantly rescue his friends, his fears that he can't lose once, or else he'll lose everything. Judai hides it under a smile, and a fun loving attitude.

Judai even states point blank, the reason he always runs forward is because if he stops to think he won't be able to continue. Judai compartmentalizes everything, and it all starts to pile up so high that if he just can't process it.

Judai: I can’t just stay and wait. All this time I’ve run on instinct, never second-guessing myself. If I just stand still now… I’m sure I won’t be able to start running again. And I won’t be able to get to Johan.

Even Judai taking on his friend's burdens, is done out of a fear of being alone. In his backstory Yubel drove all his friends away and it doesn't seem like he made friends until he came to Duel Academia.

Yubel and Judai both spent a significant amount of time alone, and they both fear going back to that time.

When Judai takes on other's burdens, it's a way to protect himself. If he's constantly doing them favors, they have to stick around right? It's still a transactional relationship though, the same way Yubel thinks all of their love entitles them to Judai's love.

Judai's method is to internalize everything. That seems better than Yubel, because Judai's not hurting anybody right? Except Judai's owbmethod of coping turns out to be just as unhealthy as Yubel's.

Judai carries the weight of everyone on his shoulders until he can't.

Judai's fears of being abandoned become a reality.

It's telling that Judai's breaking point isn't Fubuki, Sho, Asuka and Manjoume's apparent deaths. He's deeply upset by it for sure, but what pushes him over the edge is Sho's rejection afterwards.

Judai's friends being taken away in circumstances out of his control is one thing, but the fact that Sho leaves him? That Sho sees the part of Judai's self that he's always been hiding and gives up on him. That rejection sends him spiraling, because all along Judai was driven by the same fear of rejection Yubel was.

When Judai reaches his breaking point, he externalizes all the trauma he held within. He starts sacrificing others for power, because he's convinced himself with his friends gone power is what he has left. Judai acts out that trauma on others, as Yubel does with Judai's friends.

In the end Yubel and Judai react the same way to being abandoned, they share the same flaws and the same fears.

Rejecting Yubel, villainizing them, despising them is an act of self-loathing for Judai. However, empathizing with them, understanding, trying to reach out a had to break the painful cycle between them - is Judai accepting himself.

Chemical Wedding

Judai and Yubel become their worst selves when they are alone, they walk parallel journeys in season 3 dragging down Judai to Yubel's level until at last they finally reunite.

This metaphorical union is a chemical wedding, of two opposites coming together. How Judai and Yubel's relationship changes throughout the narrative is vital to how they develop. Their bond develops each of their characters, until they integrate qualities of each other.

The final stage is called a wedding, it's not necessarily romantic but Yubel's 10,000 love confessions can certainly be interpreted that way.

Once again it's not really about what's healthy in a real life relatioship, it's a symbolic journey two characters take in a story. Yu-Gi-Oh Gx uses chemical weddings to develop the romantic relationship between Judai and Yubel.

(What about Bruno - I'll talk about him later next post. Please be patient, I can't cover everything in one post).

Here's another meta on the concept of chemical wedding's in general for a different show. The chemical wedding between Judai and Yubel is woven into the text in may ways.

The show is rife with direct references to alchemical imagery (references to medieval portraits, the solar king and the lunar queen)

A process of death ad rebirth they both undergo multiple times, until their last union where Judai says he might be destroyed by the attempt to fuse with super-poly but he doesn't mind).

The four elements are referenced in the clash between Judai and Yubel, Judai is fire and air - their favorite monster is flame wingman an air and fire hero combined. Yubel is water and earth, their entire deck has a plant motif).

The two of them literally fuse together into someone new. That act is what purifies Yubel's soul by uniting it with Judai, the process of alchemy is purifying metals until they forge gold.

Yubel is also literally a hermaphrodite, and by incorporating Yubel into themselves the two of them together become a hermaphroditic figure.

So that’s the role and importance of the chemical wedding.  Pretty vague, right? But over the centuries the most common imagery has been a man and woman--often King Sol/Sulphur and Queen Luna/Mercury--1. standing together, 2. conjoined, or 3. combined into a hermaphroditic figure.  -In the Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, Lyndy Abraham definition of chemical wedding.

The basic formula of a chemical wedding is the union of opposites (Fire and water, air ad earth, sun and moon, light and dark), that union creating a "Rebis", a figure that is both male and female. Judai and Yubel's journey takes them on a path to uniting as one.

It's a violent sometimes dangerous process as in each step dissolve et coagula occurs, in order to forge your better self you have to let your old self dissolved, which is sometimes a violent even painful process.

It's why Chemical Weddings often take the form of violent conflict. A conflict that threatens to destroy both parties.

The first chemical wedding is usually somewhat violent, primitive even, whereas the second one signifies the creation of the stone. However, characters can have more than two weddings (Hamliet).

Yubel and Judai have three violent confrontations in Season 3, before their final union of opposites take place. The three weddings are the three steps in their journey. It's also a process where both experience several metaphorical deaths, before finally their two souls unite into something new (which is why the ship is called Soulshipping).

SOULSHIPPING WEDDINGS - STAGE ONE

Alchemy is a process of continual death and rebirth. Yubel and Judai both go through two symbolic deaths, (the second one they die together to reforge themselves into something new).

Yubel's first death takes place sometime during season 1 and 2. The satellite containing them finally crashes back to earth, and Yubel burns up upon re-entry. Putrefecation, or Nigredo is the first stage of alchemy a process of boiling away all impurities, and it's associated with the element of fire, and associated with the color black. Yubel's spirit form of a black dragon comes out to protect them, and that burns away too. Nigredo is often signified with the death of a dragon.

Yubel comes close to death, but their true death is metaphorical.

What Yubel truly experiences is the death of their old self, as the trauma they've endured makes someone new crawl out of the wreckage.

This is the moment onscreen where Yubel snaps and adopts their new philosophy of love, that love is sharing pain with someone else.

Yubel literally crawls out of earth, out of a crater that could have easily been the sight of their grave. However, their rebirth comes when Yubel reconstitutes themselves in time to meet Judai face to face a second time.

Yubel's true form is revealed then to be that of a rebis.

The head on the left is male, the wing attached to his side is red. The head on the right side is female; the wing attached to her side is white and in her hand she holds an egg. This figure is known as the Hermaphrodite, half man and half woman.

Yubel's design is a Rebis, split male and female down the middle. It's even implied in their backstory they were more masculine, and through an alchemical process to become a dragon altered their body to look as such, giving them several feminine traits.

Yubel as one boob and one pec, speaks in two voices a deep masculine one and a light feminine one, defaults to using masculine "ore", but plays a feminine role to comparison Judai's more straighforward masculinity, they even have their face split one side being drawn with eyelashes. The image above is the hermaphrodite and the dragon, Yubel is both.

Yubel can be a reference to the greek story of the hermaphodite or the concept of the Hindu god "Ardanareshwara" which translates to "Lord wo is half woman." Likely both, they have a third eye on their forehead in the place of a bindi in traditional depictions of that god.

Ardanareshwara is the embodiment of the union of male and female energies in the universe, as well as the sacredness of marriage and copulation. [Mythcrafts]

The Splender Solis pictured above are images from the ripley scroll, a in alchemy text. There are 22 plates total, but plates 5-11 are called the parallels they reference the process of death and rebirth.

The seven parables are:

Plate 5 - Miners excavating a hill

Plate 6 - Philosophers beside a tree

Plate 7 - The drowning king

Plate 8 - Resurrection out of the swamp

Plate 9 - Hermaphrodite with an egg

Plate 10 - Severing the head of the king

Plate 11 - The bath

Season 3 goes through all seven, quickly covering the first two plate 5 is mining the Rainbow Dragon out of the side of a mountain, Philosophers beside a tree is Johan's deck using crystal tree, and also Judai awakens after Austin snaps him from his Haou phase underneath a tree.

Judai and Yubel's parallel journeyes reference plates 7-11, #9 was already pictured above.) They both experience two deaths, two rebirths, before their final third union.

Yubel's second death occurs here, at the hands of another dragon (Rainbow dragon is involved).

The first chemical wedding is usually somewhat violent, as metals need to be melted down and reforged through multiple steps in order to create a purer metal.

Judai definitely doesn't want to unite with Yubel their first encounter, they're at each other's throats, in fact Yubel specifically states they want violence, to share as much pain with Judai as possible.

Yubel ends the first wedding literally dissolving gain right in front of Judai's eyes, only to reforge themselves with Johan's body.

Those are Yubel's two deaths, and Judai's two deaths happen in parallel.

SOULSHIPPING WEDDINGS - STAGE TWO

Yubel is the process of two people breaking down, and mixing until they acquire each other's traits. Yubel pushing Judai down the path of becoming the supreme king, so they can be reunited again is exactly that.

Yubel's plan is to force drag Judai down to their level, so they can be reunited, and at that point Judai having walked a similar path and taken on traits of their can understand them, they tell Judai as much.

So when I solved the riddle you posed I was delighted. ANd that fueled my decision. I would try to fill the entire twelve-dimmension universe with my love towards you, Judai. And once I did, you would have to recognize my loev wouldn't you? That's why I sought to fill all those linked to you, your world, with sadness and anguish. And my line of thinking wasn't wrong!

Judai has to go through a process of two deaths mirroring Yubel's own before he can reunite with them in their second wedding. Yubel even says, the first time they dueled didn't work out, because Judai hadn't awakened his darkness of the heart yet. Judai needed to take on Yubel's traits.

Judai's journey to Yubel is referenced by two Splender Solaris plates.

"The destruction of one thing is the birth of another " - Aristotle.

The plate depicts an old king drowning, and a new king being reborn at the same time.

The text describes to us how the old king was taken under, but then reborn the next day from the earth as the new king; the old king must die before the new king is born.

Judai's first death is his breakdown after Sho's rejection, he quite literally experiences a death or self, while at the same time rising up as the supreme king - but it's not a split personality or anything like that, merely an inversion. Judai once internalized their pain, now they externalize like Yubel. Yubel in acquiring darkness of the heart, Judai then begins to take on Yubel's traits, integrating facets of Yubel into themselves.

Within the stages of physical alchemy there is a set referred to as the drowning king; this is the dissolution step of the Nigredo process. This is when the alchemists would take their chemically calcified ashes and dissolve them into water.

Judai experiences the same Nigredo that Yubel does, as his old self dissolves away. Judai sinks into a mental landscape which is pictured as all black, while a new Judai the supreme king assumes his form out of the shadows. The new king has golden eyes, like the new king in the painting is dressed in gold.

This is where Judai begins taking on parts of Yubel, not only do they lash out at innocent people as Yubel does, don a plate of armor to protect themselves (Judai has black armor, Yubel has impenetrable scales).

It's also a direct parallel to Yubel's experiences. Judai is left alone by the friends who he thought would always take his side and sinks into darkness. Yubel spends years alone in what they call "a capsule of darkness" in space after Judai's abandonment, sinking into denial because Judai couldn't possibly treat them this way when they love them so much.

Judai dies and is replaced by the supreme king, but the supreme king is a just a temporary stage in his development.

In order for Judai to heal he needs to be dismembered first, the Supreme King's head is torn off in a reference to Splendor Solis: Plate 10, severing of the head of the king.

Alchemy is violent; the motto of Solve Et Coagula demands dissolution before rebuilding, tearing apart before putting back together. This idea applies to the material world as well as the spiritual realm; before the psyche can grow, it has to be ripped asunder.

The Supreme King is eventually stopped by Austin, they burn away in in fire, against a duelist with a flame deck, reduced to ash only to rise from the ash reborn like Yubel did out of the crater.

After the end of the duel, Judai's helmet is removed and thrown for all to see to signify the king's dismemberment.

Judai now struggles to become someone new, as he cannot return to his previous state of innocence, but can't keep continuing on as the Supreme King. When Yubel and Judai reunite again Judai has taken on so many of Yubel's traits, they are mirror images of one another.

The second stage of alchemy is albedo, the word is taken from ablutio - the washing away of impurities. When Yubel and Judai meet for a second time, Judai's only priority is to cleanse Johan of Yubel's body, literally through purifying Rainbow Dragon in order to return Johan to his body.

His action in the duel is to destroy the "advanced darkness" field spell which changes Johan's crystal beasts, into darkness crystal beasts. First Nigredo, then Albedo, the prima materia is boiled in a flask where all impurities rise to the surface and make a thick black material, and then those impurities are washed away.

Cleansing Johan's soul doesn't go as intended for Judai however, because the only result is that Yubel reconstitutes themselves for a second time and faces Judai again in their true body.

The cleansing turns from Rainbow Dragon from Black to White and both Yubel and Johan are purified into their true selves.At this point they've both experienced multiple deaths, they've both been torn apart and sewn back together again. However, they still have one stage to go.

The duel ends in a draw and they restart another duel facing each other this time, thus beginning the third and final wedding.

SOULSHIPPING WEDDINGS - STAGE THREE

The final wedding in a chemical wedding forges a philosopher's stone, and I bet you can't guess how this third wedding ends.

Everything so far has made use of the death and rebith imagery. Yubel and Judai grow closer each other through a violent union of opposites (extremely violent in this case ). They experience two metaphorical deaths as a part of their journey to finding each other.

Death and Rebith is a major theme in the last duel, before they both experience their final death together, to become a new being together.

As I said above they've experienced several violent deaths, Yubel is ripped to pieces until they're nothing more than an arm, Judai experiences an ego death and reforms as the supreme king, before the supreme king's armor is torn off him.

In the third duel Yubel's signature monster experiences two deaths, only to be reborn again into stronger forms, yubel terror incarnate, and yubel the ultimate nightmare.

Yubel starts as a one headed dragon, their second form has two heads, their third they fuse with the dragon becoming the third head representing the three stages of alchemy. In the picture above the red, white and blue signify those three stages as well.

Judai and Yubel are also positioned as the Solar King, and Lunar Queen in their duel, just as in the alchemy painting above.

The above image  image is taken from is called Rosarium Philosophorum–which literally means “rose garden philosophy. In this case I believe the anime writers are deliberately reference the "rose garden philosophy" name b/c even Yusei and Aki in 5Ds have a similar duel in a Rose Garden that parallels this duel - representing their union of opposites too.

The final duel between Judai and Yubel takes place in a rose garden, intentionally so. Yubel uses two rose themed cards, and their method of attacking and sharing pain nightmare pain revolves around lashing out with a vine covered in rose thorns.

They're both entangled in the rose garden together, as Yubel says my suffering will become your suffering, Judai. Yubel isn't immune to pain they suffer alongside him, for Judai hurtng Yubel is an act of hurting himself. That's also a reference to the ouroboros, the snake biting it's own tail is a common symbol associated with initiating the alchemical process.

Judai has taken so many traits of Yubel at this point they are inseparably intertwined, there's no telling where Judai ends and Yubel begins so any damage Judai attempts to do is dealt to himself as well.

Standing together in the garden Judai assumes the role of the solar king, and Yubel the lunar queen.

Yubel's machinations were to make Judai ascend into a king, Judai is referred to as being like the sun by Sho drawing everyone in.

Bro... Bro, you're too selfish. Before now, I thought of you as the sun. Someone who gave others energy and made the impossible, possible.

Yubel is the moon which orbits around Judai. There's the time they spent in a literal satellite, floating in space among the stars to signify this. Yubel even drops a reference to the myth of Endymion. A story where Selene, the titan of the moon fell in love with a young boy and asked for them to fall asleep and stay young in their sleep forever so they could gave upon them lovingly as they slept.

I will take you to a distant dimmension, where no one will ever reach you. There I will watch over you as you sleep forever.

Once again Judai is fire, and Yubel is mainly plant themed. Judai assumes a masculine role, Yubel after transforming into a Rebis changed their body to take on feminine traits. Judai is the holder of the gentle darkness, Yubel is corrupted by the light of destruction which is engaged in a battle with the gentle darkness.

Theirs is a violent union of opposites, they are literally trying their best to kill each other.

Yubel frames themself as the selfless protector of Judai like a knight or servant, but their obvious desire is to stand together with Judai and be on the same level with him (hence dragging him down).

They spend a duel against Amon reviling him for how easy Amon could throw Echo away, because ultimately Amon is the king, and therefore Echo is beneath him. In fact Yubel was content to just sacrifice their body like Echo and serve as a protector in a previous life, until prince Judai offered Yubel their eternal love, giving something in return and elevating to them as equals.

So Yubel's primary goal is to be by his side, to be lunar queen to his solar king.

In order to accomplish this the art depicted above has to happen, they both have to dissolve, experience a death and become something new together.

Judai even explicitly tries very hard to kill Yubel, saying they'll use the power of the supreme king to erase them from the universe. Yubel similarly, rejected one too many times responds to violence with violence. Their union is inherently marked by violence. However, it's what brings them to a closer understanding of each other.

However, while violence brings them closer together, it eventually has to transform into a a union.

As they reach the final stages of the duel, Yubel states to Judai they finally understand that Judai has chosen to respond to all of their love with hate (once again union of opposites, love and hate). At the same time a wind begins to blow, elemental symbolism occurs as the wind and clouds appear in a process of "sublimation", and Judai's past is revealed to him, and he realizes his memory of his past life of the Supreme King.

Sublimate appears as a term for a mineral deposit, by analogy to the alchemical process: minerals in a vapor state, thrown up from the interior of the earth.

The introductory of the element of air also signifies Yubel and Judai moving from Citrinatis, the yellowing, signified by earth to Rubedo the final stage where the philosopher's stone is forged. Judai and Yubel's first duel takes place in a desert (earth), their second they climb high into the sky, and their third they climb even higher until they are standing above the clouds fighting in an arena of air.

Sublimation is a whole new experience of self and reality, both being redefined. Judai's reconciliation isn't just Yubel, it's with the three faces of himself Prince Judai, Regular Judai, and Haou / Supreme King. These memories lead to Judai's eventual decision, to propose a union. This union takes place as the last chemical wedding, which is also a real wedding in everything but name.

Their entire duel contains elements from both japanese and jewish weddings (the three phantasms that Yubel utilizes in the duel against amon are based off of three kabbalistic angels so the jewish symbolism has already been used before).

A traditional Jewish wedding starts with drawing up a marriage contract (Spell Chronicle), and the bride paying out a dowry (the five cards Yubel banishes at the start of the duel). The wedding must be observed by a minimum of two witnesses (Shou and Ojama Yellow). During the wedding the bride circles the groom seven times (Yubel makes 7 successful attacks on Judai between their 3 forms, all others were negated in some way). At the end of the ceremony, the groom presents the bride with a ring (Judai giving Yubel Super Fusion), and a glass is broken to the cry of “Mazel tov!” (the glass window breaking in Samejima’s office). Finally the ceremony isn’t considered complete until the bride and groom retire away from everyone to ... consumate the marriage (Judai and Yubel leaving together). Source [HERE]

Judai attempts to use super polymerization card to start the process of alchemy (fusing the 12 dimmensions - there are 12 steps to Alchemy). However, Judai announces that the two of them are going to fuse together.

Judai and Yubel's quite literal fusion into one being is the formation of a hermaphrodite. From the essay of "Get your Gender On, Jaden Yuki and Yubel",

Art historian Arturo Schwarz argues that “the Great Work is but a metaphor” in which alchemists don’t create a Rebis but become a metaphorical Rebis themselves, as Judai does over the course of the series. By joining his soul with Yubel’s through “Super Polymerization,” he arguably becomes nonbinary like them. Even before literally fusing with Yubel, he gains “aurea apprehensio (golden awareness) of this marvelous reality: we are gods, because we all are man and woman at one and the same time.” 

Hermaphordadites are a recurring symbol in a lot of greek mythology, the name comes from Hermaprhoditus a son of Hermes and aprhodite originally born male. A female nymph fell in love swam to him in a pool and wound herself tightly around his body and begged the gods to never tear them apart creating the co-joined male and female figure the hermaphrodite. The parallels to Yubel and Judai are present, especially in them becoming entangled in one another.

One origin story for humanity is also that human beings were originally two headed, four armed, and four legged beings, combination of men and women, men and men, and women and women. However, they were torn apart into two seperate beings, and forever doomed to go searching and be reunited with their second half.

When opposites are finally reconciled, the great hermaphrodite is formed. Judai even refers to this as an act of finally purifying the light's corruption from Yubel's soul by uniting it with the supreme king's soul. The union is a purifying process, and the end of Yubel and Judai's long journey of losing each other and finding each other again.

However, in order to be purified they have to both let their old selves die in order to form something new, the final death but one they experience together. Just like the painting of the dismemberment of the solar king and lunar queen, they need to be torn apart and sewn back together again.

I don't care.

Yubel is finally moved, and all the anger between them is washed away by tears as they're finally allowed to grieve (as death is central to alchemy, so is grief, both are parts of life).

To signify the end of this journey, Judai falls to earth the same way Yubel did at the start of their story. However, while Yubel was suffering, all alone, this time Judai and Yubel are together.

[milksockets]

'dark room installation: anima + mater dolorosa' by gunilla paetau sjöberg, 1987 in 500 felt objects: creative explorations of a remarkable material - lark crafts (2011)

[talonabraxas]

Aphrodite, Goddess of Love Venus (named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love identified with Aphrodite). The Greeks themselves called the planet "Aster Aphrodites" (Star of Aphrodite). Aphrodite is essentially psyche, or soul, expressed personally as anima and collectively as Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World. What appears to be outside of us is equally present within us, constantly arising as the creative passion that forces us into the unknown. The source enlivens our human potential.

Aphrodite's nature links us to all living beings with a bond of love and a heart-centered myth, rooted in embodied love, compassion, and passion.

“Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” -- C.G. Jung

[glasscitadel]

hmm.... tumblr can have some runes. as a treat.

Anima proficiency in creatures works much more differently than in humanoids! Creatures do not have sigils and instead have very basic runes that look entirely different from what you'd see an oc use, with proficiency levels that are determined by species, with a minimum of 0 for very basic creatures, and a maximum of 9 for highly intelligent ones. Every third anima tier will grant another rune, up to a maximum of 3. Tiers 0-2 have none, tiers 3-5 have one, 6-8 have two, and 9 has three.

No matter the creature or proficiency, the anima type will always be Sagian (blue) (the Fauven Deer is the only exception verse-wide, with one of their three runes being Vatian (yellow), with the ability to heal). No creature runes will belong to the Corporian anima family.

Like runes used by humanoids, they represent an ability. Abilities and proficiencies vary entirely by species instead of on an individual basis and are instinctual rather than learned. They also typically use up much more anima in a single use than humanoids, causing them to be used as a last resort. The abilities can range on an incredibly wide spectrum! While some are only capable of summoning a rune that gives a quick beam of anima, others can temporarily shift the light around them to become harder to see, create defensive barriers against predators, or coat their claws in a thin anima layer for deeper cuts, for example. There is no runecrafting involved, so they aren't able to get too creative with it, but higher intelligent creatures with multiple runes have been known to combine them for more devastating (or helpful) effect if it doesn't run their anima in the negative.

I've got more but... I'll leave it at that <3 just thought it'd be fun to share a little bit --

I probably won't post them, but eventually I'll make more and will begin assigning them to creatures in my toyhouse Bestiary. I think this is a good enough example size to get the point across, lol

[onceinawhilemoon]

The World Hinges on Small Details: Jon vs. Sherlock and The Hand-Me-Down Quest

This quest intrigues me so much. It not only raises questions about Jon's “nature”, but also gives us a glimpse of where Sherlock's focus on the small details, and therefore his struggle to see the big picture, came from.

If you're as intrigued by this quest as I am, read ahead, but before we continue, I highly encourage you to go read @spiteful-crow ‘s wonderful writeup on Jon and Sherlock and the Jungian concepts of “anima” and “persona” (here) if you haven't already. Not only does it explain a lot about them and what/who Jon is, but that analysis also serves as a pretty solid basis for most of this one, and it will help make it make sense, I hope!

Under the cut we go-

Quick recap of The Hand-Me-Down quest: Jon notices a first of three riddles engraved on top of a monument called “The Silver Hand” in Old City, and convinces Sherlock to solve them, saying that the riddles lead to a lost treasure. Sherlock is bewildered by how Jon was able to guess that something was on top of the monument in the first place but goes along with it. Eventually, instead of the treasure, they find a magnifying glass that belonged to Violet, buried under a rock. Sherlock is so confused by the discovery and has no clue as to how the glass made it there. Neither he nor Jon seem to remember ever burying it there.

The third riddle stands out the most here, as the last two lines of it read “you may find only one small detail, but that doesn't mean that you have failed.”

Upong finding this riddle, Jon commends Sherlock on his admirable ability to notice the details. This evokes Sherlock's memory of one of his mother’s core teachings:

S: “In such moments I often recall Mother's voice teaching us of the importance of the smaller details. The world hangs on small hinges, Jon.”

J: “Even the most chaotic miracle becomes sequential when you take a closer look. I remember.”

Sherlock’s keen eye for detail is something almost everyone he meets praises him for, and it's an inherited trait from his mother, who was an authenticator and a truth seeker, she taught him that "the truth lies in the details." Consequently, his struggle with seeing the big picture due to focusing too much on the details sometimes stems from his mother's teachings, which he clearly holds in very high regard. She was also the source of his strong moral stance against lies and obfuscation of truth. He was closer to his mother than his brother, even during her worst days. It's no surprise that Violet had a huge and deep influence on Sherlock-she shaped all of his moral views, many of which are being challenged by what he's discovering on Cordona.

The title of the quest, the quest being strongly tied to Violet and her teachings, specifically the third riddle, and of course the magnifying glass, all lead me to believe that Sherlock put the glass there and made up those riddles and the silver hand treasure, inspired by his mother, the monument, and the pirate it was erected in honor of.

Maybe it was also a ritual like burying Siger’s “skull” to help Sherlock process things and move on. Maybe it was to help him process and reconcile with the negative feelings associated with Violet's abusive nature or with her death, or maybe it was simply just child's play. But, as with everything else, after the pond incident™, his memories of Violet and most of his time on Cordona were suppressed and lost to time, including the magnifying glass and the “ritual”. And since Jon seems to remember or at least seems to have a gut feeling about the past and those lost memories, he recalled the riddles and the legend about the treasure, which, interestingly, can be considered as the “creative” aspects of the ritual. Jon may not have remembered the magnifying glass itself but remembered the steps to get there because Sherlock created them with his help. I do believe he is Sherlock's creativity and imagination personified. I've written a (much shorter, thankfully!) theory about that and how I think it's tied to Sherlock calling him his "anima" (here) if you're interested.

And maybe it was something more, if you think of Jon as a Tulpa or one of Carl Jung's thoughtforms (like Philemon, who Jung described as a "guru" possessing of transcendental knowledge and wisdom) this quest could be an example in which these concepts are explored. Jon does act as a guide in the game. He also seems to notice things before Sherlock does sometimes, and points out things that Sherlock has no way of knowing or verifying with empirical evidence at the time, sometimes even despite his physical limitations, like the “engraving” on top of the Silver Hand monument.

I personally don't think there was ever an engraving on top of the monument. I think the idea was for the first riddle to be memorized by Sherlock while the rest to be written down and hidden. This, I think, makes the whole “ritual” much more personal and special to Sherlock. Of course, after what happened, he forgot everything, and Jon was left to remember the first riddle and made it look like he read it on the monument to entice Sherlock to solve it and remember, just like how he invented the fiction that the skull belonged to Sherlock's father.

Then there's their conversation after discovering the glass, which I think perfectly captures the “rational” vs “irrational” parts of Sherlock, or the "persona" vs. the "anima" :

Jon, the “irrational” and creative part that wants to believe in magic and miracles, tells him that sometimes he just needs to let things happen, that some things can't be explained and we should let them be, and Sherlock, the "rational" part that strives for logic and objective truths, has a hard time accepting that, because to him, everything needs to have a logical explanation and a tangible root in reality.

J: “The whole world is one big unresolved chaotic miracle" - That's the part of Violet's teaching that Jon chooses to follow. Jon finds beauty in leaving mysteries unsolved, in the “who knows?” which leaves the door wide open for imagination, in non-linear thinking which leads to originality and uniqueness. He thrives in chaos.

S: “But they will become sequential if you take a closer look" - And that's the part that Sherlock wants to follow. He finds stability in order. He sees the need to investigate to uncover what's hidden and verify facts with evidence to restore structure into the world.

The two parts are both sides of the same coin. They shouldn't be separated because they balance each other out and make up one whole. Thanks to this balance, Sherlock eventually concedes and lets this particular mystery remain unsolved. It must have been freeing for him to just leave it to "fate" and focus on the beautiful feelings that this strange experience has evoked-him feeling closer to his mother by remembering her wisdom and honoring her legacy.

Which makes me wonder how differently Sherlock would have faced the horrors in The Awakened if Jon was still with him to hold his hand and remind him that it's okay if things didn't make sense, that sometimes you just need to let things happen and free your psyche from the weight of fervently searching for logical explanations. Some things are just meant to not make sense, just like that magnifying glass.

Then there's the title of the quest.

“The Hand-Me-Down” I think, refers either to the magnifying glass itself, being a precious heirloom inherited from Violet which later becomes Sherlock Holmes’ signature crime solving instrument, or the mindset of “the world hinges on small details“, also passed on from Violet and the reason why Sherlock is so keen on the details that he sometimes struggles to consider them within a broader perspective-the big picture-which can cause him to tunnel vision on isolated facts and possibly risk making ill-informed decisions. A notable example is concluding that “Richter tried to save my mother; therefore, he was an innocent man who was wrongly accused,” while disregarding the fact Richter and his medical malpractice caused his mother to deteriorate in the first place.

Finally, there's what Jon wrote in his diary after discovering the glass:

“But when Sherry looked at me through that glass, I was suddenly struck by terror. For a brief moment, it felt as if I weren't there at all, his gaze passing through me and over the horizon.”

Jon rarely gets “deep” in his journal, so this line stuck with me. Jon is pretty aware of his “non”-existence and even seems pretty in peace with it, so why would he be struck by terror at the idea of him “not being there at all”?

The choice of words in “his gaze passing through me and over the horizon” signifies the future; Jon is terrified of a future in which Sherlock doesn't see him anymore; when he favors his rational and mature side so much, that it ends up consuming him and severing Jon, his anima, his irrational and creative part that clings to his childhood, from the whole. If Sherlock stops seeing Jon, only then does Jon truly cease to exist.

I think this means that at this point in the story, deep down in his unconsciousness, Sherlock knew that when he leaves Cordona this time, he'll be leaving Jon with it, and this gut feeling, this terror at being fractured and fragmented, possibly with no way of ever getting mended, manifests through Jon as he constantly tries to alert Sherlock to the danger of the situation, that once he steps through the threshold, there's no turning back.

[mianimasenpoeticus]

[cygnus-cypres777]

Pick a Pile Tarot Reading- Why did I have this dream? Dream TAROT

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

PILE 1 - Eye Photo

Why did you have this dream or what did your dream mean?

You may have had a dream with a couple different people, there may have been an ancestor trying to reach out to you they want to help protect you at this time. I feel like you are very in tune with you subconscious emotions and your dreams may be very vivid. You feel a calling like the dream world is calling to you, maybe you are being more called to an unconventional spiritual path, if so, go for it.

Water will be very healing for you at this time, taking baths with Epsom salt or drinking tea and healing with water will be very good for you. You also may be a water sign, Cancer, Scorpio, or a Pisces. I am also getting Leo energy. Your dream may have been telling you that the connection you feel to your lineage or family line is real and your spirit guides may be trying to connect you with your ancestors. This is a very fertile and verdant time for you. I feel like you may be connected with swans or cranes or geese, these animals may be a sign for you. You are healing a lot in your sleep and this is an important thing for you at this time.

You are also very mentally active during the day so at night you get to mentally unwind. You may have dreams about being active or traveling. This means that you are motivated and plan for the future in you unconscious mind.

You may also be creative and like Japanese Studio Ghibli films.

You may want to look into the "Anima and Animus" archetypes as this may prove to be helpful for you.

Thank you for reading <3 Blessed Be.

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PILE 2 - Moon Book Photo

Why did you have this dream or what did your dream mean?

You might dream about things you want to manifest and might enjoy reading. If you dream about conquering your fears this is a good sign. You may be a person who lucid dreams or does astral travel, it is good when you are able to make decisions in your dreams and it helps you problem solve in real life. You are maybe dreaming about rivers and bodies of water, as well as sculpting or shaping clay or removing obstacles. You may be dreaming about places you lived while you were growing up. This is you reflecting on your past and healing.

You might be having dreams about flying, this is a sign that you are looking for freedom. Freedom will come to you when you take action.

You might be wanting to be more healthy in your life, this is affecting your sleep and dreams. Look into the term "Sleep Hygiene" as this may be beneficial for you at this time. You might be dreaming about forests or jungles. You may be dreaming about old friends and you are longing for them in the astral.

You may be a Sagittarius or a Fire Sign- Sun, Moon, or Rising. Aires, Leo, or Sagittarius.

Conquering your fears is an important theme in your dreams and this is healthy.

Thank you for reading <3 Blessed Be.

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PILE 3 - Stargirl Photo

Why did you have this dream or what did your dream mean?

You may be having dreams about different animals and animals might be showing up as omens in your dreams. You may be seeing, dolphins, cats, rabbits, butterflies, or deer. These all may be signs for you. You might be seeing signs from your past life in your dreams, or you might just be feeling really connected to your higher self right now. You might have an old flame or relationship who keeps showing up in your dreams. This is your subconscious dealing with this and moving on.

Sacred Geometry and Shapes may be showing up in your dreams. You should google what different shapes mean, like the universal hexagram as well as circles and triangles. You may be at a standstill at the moment and your dreams are showing you what you need to let go of and release so that you have room to grow. You may be having a few nightmares lately and this might be about something you need to face in your waking life.

You have a very strong and lively spirit and you are very protected.

Thank you for reading <3 Blessed Be.

[black-arcana]

LACUNA COIL's CRISTINA SCABBIA On Artificial Intelligence In Music: 'My First Impression Is That I Hate It Deeply'

In a recent interview with Brazil's Sonoridades Inc., singer Cristina Scabbia of Italian goth metal veterans LACUNA COIL weighed in on a debate about people using an A.I. (artificial intelligence) music generator as a tool to create melodies, harmonies and rhymes based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithms and machine learning (M.L.) models. Cristina said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I still have to know more about A.I. My first impression is that I hate it deeply. I think that it could be interesting and useful in many ways. But what humans are capable of, it's never 100 percent good. So I know that it will go downward. I mean, we could use it to explore galaxies, we could use it to get better in medicines and science, but I know that a lot of people will be using it for bad reasons.

"Speaking about music, I am confident that the creativity that a human being with emotions, with a soul can have will not be comparable, hopefully ever, to A.I.," she continued. "I think about songs like — I don't know — the one of THE POLICE, 'De-do-do-do, de-da-da-da, is all I want to say to you.' And A.I. would be scratching the forehead, if it had one, and say, like, 'What is this? What does it mean?' But it sounds good. It's rhythmically good. It works with that voice.

"There are so many things you have to bring together to write music, to [put] emotion [across to] other people, to give the emotion that for A.I., it's difficult to bring this emotion because it doesn't have one — yet," Scabbia added. "But my actual opinion is just, like, I want to continue to write music without A.I. for a long time… Maybe it can be helpful. This is my first opinion because I don't know that much. Maybe I don't want to know that much about A.I. I just want to keep it there, just like, 'Eh. I don't know if I wanna know you.'"

During the same chat, Cristina revealed that she and her LACUNA COIL bandmates have completed the demoing process for their follow-up to 2019's "Black Anima" album. She said: "If everything goes as projected, before the end of the year [the new LP] will be released."

LACUNA COIL has just completed the "Ignite The Fire" U.S. tour with support from NEW YEARS DAY and OCEANS OF SLUMBER.

Last month, LACUNA COIL released another new single, "In The Mean Time", featuring Ash Costello of NEW YEARS DAY. The song's title is a reference to the mean times the world is living in, as well as a reference to the state the band itself is in, between cycles.

Last July, LACUNA COIL released the official lyric video for "Never Dawn". For the track, LACUNA COIL partnered with CMON, the renowned board game publisher behind the popular game "Zombicide".

LACUNA COIL has spent some of the last couple of years promoting "Comalies XX", the "deconstructed" and "transported" version of the band's third album, "Comalies".

"Comalies XX" was made available on October 14, 2022 via Century Media Records.

LACUNA COIL celebrated the 20th anniversary of "Comalies", by performing it in its entirety at a one-night-only concert on October 15, 2022 at Fabrique in Milano.

"Comalies" was originally released on October 29, 2002 through Century Media Records. The LP, which featured the band's breakthrough single "Heaven's A Lie", has reportedly gone on to sell over 300,000 copies in the United States alone.

[windudemon]

psychosexual deconstruction of p.types

each p.type has a role function (8th function in mbti) and even though they actually really dislike it, they will try to act like they are competent with it, they don’t suck at it etc. this is a problem in the bedroom. for example estp trying to be funny or entp trying to rail somebody down will just turn them off. why? because:

each p.type has an anima/animus. this is the fourth function in mbti. suggestive or “dual-seeking” in socionics. types “need” this. instinctively.

so how to please enxps? first tell them “OMG, daddy! destroy me!” or something (since they are trying to prove you how se hard they can fuck you at the beginning) but gradually (depending on your communication skills), show them / tell them that you actually like cuddly grindy si sex instead of railing. slow them down, make them relax, take control even (without being bossy about it). so basically, bring them from fake unvalued se to valued and needed si.

therefore, guess what? inxj is the opposite of entp as you have to bring them from fake si to actually valued se! you gotta rail them. you can think this way too: ni doms are so detached and in their own simulation-world, you gotta be impactful to break the matrix. similarly, ne doms are thinking about possibilities how to make love to you but you make them just focus on the experience and chill.

this is fully theory now: but applying the logic to esxps, they should try to do ne shenanigans in the bed? they should suggest a bit “too creative” things trying to impress you? stupid jokes and shit? nicknames and whatever? so one should be like “muhaha you are so funny” first but then gradually bring them from that fake ne to meaninfulness of the experience which is ni. make them connect with you ni deeper? which, infjs and intjs will do perfectly?

and then ixfps trying to analyze the situation and what their partner thinks right now etc. with their ti role? which actually turns them off? so you gotta clearly “TE”ll them, what you think, what you want? so they won’t need to analyze? they are givers after all? they want to give you what you want and the more you like it, the more they like it?

so yeah, apply the logic to the rest. (acknowledge 8th slot, approach carefully, but bring them to 4th slot without being bossy.)

[rzyraffek]

Hi there! I just watched a video on Home Alone, and it got me thinking. Could I please have a Yautja X A Non-Binary Reader, who boobytrapped their house like Kevin did? Maybe the yautja is impressed by how this simple human managed to almost fool him with rudimentary traps?

Okg yass l they/them pronouns Request open

This headcanons have 2 parts, first is about how he would try to get into ur house, and second one of how yall get along later

Yautja wants to Hunt them

Bro just wanted to hunt something (he was bored) Well he didnt expect such challange

But he enjoys it ^^ its very intresting and some of those traps are very creative. For example when he tried to go thrue backdoors and the stairs where so slipery that he almost did a backflip (deadly backflip)

Lucky for him he is good with sensing temperatures so he didnt touch anything burning hot by accident

He will be a little impressed, he didnt know humans can be so hard to get.

It will be funny because they tried so hard with those traps and he either sees it easly and just avoids it, or doesnt even flinch when he activates them.

Its mostly just hide and seek but hes 3meters tall and hits every lamp and door frame

In best scenario he will get tangled up in one of traps and got stuck due to being too cocky and sure about his soon win (silly yaujta) or find them and they have to run for their life (or try to talk them out of it)

If he got stuck somewhere and they choose to help him, he will be 🤨human might do smart stuff, but now very stoopid😓

But if he menages to find them hiding in some random closet. There will be akward eye contact, yautja covered in flour(due to funny traps they made) is rare sight. And he thinks thats is finally it, its fianlly over he caught them. Jokes on you yautja, they are prepared for that, they have super bright flashlight to blind him(he got blinded)

OMGOGKOMG BUT IMAGINE that yautja does sneaky mode and hes invisible and he just waits till they think its over. And when they finally go out from their hidehole, he will fallow them invisible, mostly because he thinks its funny and he is curious. (He will yeet them into space probably)

After yall get along

"Human learn me how to do those funny traps u made" maybe they dont work for him but some animas that he Hunt might be stupid enough to fall for some of those

He will hang out sometimes, but he treats their house more as intresting place to stay than some accual home

Still impressed by those funny traps u made

But he isnt only a taker but also a giver, they give him trap ideas? He will give them too! But not some super advanced ones, he doenst want them to blow up their house

He will steal food from frige btw