#but we can see one point: we need religion as part of art. & life.

[ludinusdaleth]

i think the reason why theres so much religious confusion in regards to campaign 3's interpretation is because people are either thoroughly taking a christian or athiest-who-was-raised-christian -and-now-hates-all-religion perspective, when to those outside of those categories, c3 could not more obviously be a critique of both, in a world entirely uninfluenced by a christian viewpoint in itself

[evilminji]

Actually? WOULD Earth be the ones to petition Oa?

They are interstellar Space Interpol. You don't usually call them on different parts of your OWN settlements or systems. You call them in when someone is breaking THE Laws. Not necessarily YOUR laws, though obviously by breaking THE laws they clearly ARE. But THE Big Laws(tm).

Like Geneva Convention for Space type laws.

You have discovered Planet or King X is committing WAR CRIMES. Call Oa. Tax fraud? That's an inter-personal planet side issue they can't help you with. Pointing Nukes at your nursery settlement and threatening to blow up the infants there unless you give them sex-slaves?

Knock-knock! Taste HARD Light Constructs!

But if so? Then how would the situation get so out of hand on Earth? With the G.I.W.? Simple. Tell me, Mr. President, what do you know of the current day to day life of villagers in rural Siberia?

That they exist? Could you even NAME their village, if I referenced specific individuals? Likely not. And no one would realistically expect you too.

There are countless planets out there! With Leaders busy with local industrial conferences and infrastructure bills. Farming regulations. Talks with that planet a few stars over. Very busy. What do THEY know of Earth? Why would they NEED too?

But! As we know, Ectoplasm is EVERYWHERE. Not just earth. And? Thin spots are not just an Earth-centric phenomenon. Other planets most CERTAINLY would have them too. And depending on the species? The culture? To quote the wise sage Bill Wurtz "you can make a religion out of this!"

After all, chosen few, returned from death... glowing and more powerful then before? Immortal? It's a pretty reasonable conclusion to come too. They are clearly Gods Touched. Some sacred task they must complete.

It would likely even shape the ghosts of the region themselves. After all, they TOO, would believe they were chosen for some Important Religious Task. Be it study or collecting rocks. To what end? Unknown. Who are they to question The Gods?

But! Oh happy day! The old tyrant is no more! A chosen Hero! They go to greet him! Honor him, as you do. Traditional gifts and ballads. Maybe some sacred rocks. A fancy hat. But? Oh? The Champion is wounded! Gasp! Still? But the fight with Pariah happened-

And then they are given Grave Warning(tm). Don't go to Earth. Heretics attacking people. KILLING souls! Trying to KILL the king of all the Infinite! He is somber because his living parents were hurt. Preventing the END OF ALL THINGS!!!??

WHAT!?

These "People In White" tried to EXPLODE the very FABRIC of all realities!? Several of them faint. Truely, these Fentons MUST be chosen by the Gods! Heros. Legends. Such bravery in the face of such HORRORS. Please, let them be brought to their Living counterparts! The hospitals are quite good!

And you know what? Fuck it. Danny will take that. Because his Mom n Dad got hurt. BAD.

They learned he was Phantom at probably the SINGLE worst time imaginable and still chose HIM. Chose THEM. The GIW were coming for him. Gonna hurt Jazz. And his parents told them, with fire and blood, it'd be a cold day in hell before they let them so much as TRY it.

They BLEW UP their own life's work. Went literally scorched earth. And now? They're not doing so good.

Because the Zone isn't made for the living. No food, no water, and no real human-safe medical supplies. They've run out. Danny will take what he can get. He'd even go to Vlad but... his Portal's gone too. And the Buzzards said he looked... spirally. Very... "suicide runs until everything BURNS".

So, yeah. No one's doing so great.

Alien planet it is.

They are greeted with fanfare and respect. The best medical teams on the PLANET. The King and his family is there, to welcome him. It's... it's beautiful. Hardly some perfect utopia, but the air is lite. Art everywhere. The stars vivid and so easy to see, at night.

The King kinda reminds him of Mr. Lancer to be honest. Balding and a bit round around the middle, stern but endlessly fair about it, wants people to do their best and succeed in life. Maybe that's why Danny finds himself opening up. Because... because here is a real, honest to God, KING king.

Somebody who was actually TRAINED to do all this King stuff.

Unlike Danny.

And Danny? He's scared. People expect him to Lead now. To know what he's doing. To somehow just... suddenly KNOW how to do all these things he's never even heard about. He only barely just died. Has BARELY been keeping everybody safe.

BARELY stopped Pariah.

He doesn't know what to do. But he pours his guts out. All the things that have bottled up. And King Not-Lancer listens. Somber and thoughtful. There is little, if anything he can TRUELY do to help. But... there ARE things he can do. Lessons on statescraft, while he's here, for one.

As for the other? Well, as King, he does have the local Lantern's Call Sign. Not to be used lightly, mind you. But what Danny describes? And from what the Sacred Ones have reported? THAT must be reported to Oa. He can show Danny how to do that.

(He does)

[The Lanterns of Earth get a VERY exciting call from Oa. Are every different shade of pissed. But? Whoops! Looks like they ACCIDENTALLY put the Watchtower into a complete Quarantine! Well, dang. Guess we're all stuck here for two weeks!

Reset it? *sound of smashing computer terminal* Yeah, don't think that's gonna work! :)

WHO WANTS TO PLAY 20 QUESTIONS?? We'll start! :) Who here has heard of an organization called, and I quote, The Ghost Investigation Ward? :) ]

@hdgnj @ailithnight @nerdpoe @the-witchhunter

[bonefall]

Obviously nobody should be talking poorly about any of Bumble's competitors but it's insane how people voting for Alex are going 'its a CAT'. Like, okay and? Alex Dewitt is ink on paper and we rightfully take issue with her writing to the point of making it a term, so why is it any different when a fictional cat has misogynistic writing? And these are cats with a society, laws, religion, and understanding of (herbal) medicine. They are on par with people. And, it's a YA series. Shouldn't people take the message "fat, abused women dying isn't a problem because they can't contribute ackshually, and if we acknowledge it is how can the goodboy main character stop licking his brother's kitty boots if he's a bad person :(" as a red flag in any series? Let alone one for kids? Like, did everyone outside of the fandom miss the Ashfur defense? Because I was there for it and it was pretty clear a LOT of impressionable children genuinely believed the "he only loved too much" excuse hook line and sinker, and blamed Squirrelflight for everything. There were so many fans genuinely believing that I literally remember seeing hate art and fanfics portraying Squirrelflight as a horrible person just for asking to stay friends. That alone was a testament to how harmful Warriors can be, all because of that one scene of Ashfur being spotted in StarClan.

And with that fiasco in mind, how can anyone trivialize it to Bumble being 'just a cat'? Especially when kids are reading this, and could really take the harmful message Gray Wing the """Wise""" has for them that if you have nothing to contribute to the people you desperately need help from, you are stupid for trying to ask for it. I was lucky to not take any of the really harmful portrayals relationships in Warriors to heart, but not everyone will be. People should support Alex all they want, she deserves it! But downplaying what happened to Bumble because she's a cat is harmful :(

Alex DeWitt's story is so shocking and straightforward that you're able to sum it up with a single word; "Fridging." It's become the touchstone for a wider discussion about misogyny in media because it is so evocative and so easy to explain as an example.

That IS important. That IS a legacy.

But somehow, if you try to explain how EARLY misogyny in media starts, and how pervasive it is even in "less respectable" mediums like YA xenofiction, they lose their fucking minds. People who refuse to read anything at all going, "what could possibly have happened to a cat?"

You know what, though? I'm GLAD Bumble is winning, and I'm proud of this fandom and our campaigning. I think we actually deserve to be a little smug about this after all the damn "justa cat" comments. Bumble doesn't HAVE a legacy. The book doesn't VALUE HER LIFE AT ALL! "It's so sad Clear Sky is going to have his reputation ruined for killing this useless woman. I never liked Bumble anyway, what matters about this is my poor brother :("

The runner of the Canon Misogyny Tournament mentioned in passing how they kinda take issue with the idea of quantifying misogyny based on suffering because of how it oversimplifies the insidious ways it can express in a narrative, and I've thought a lot about that a lot. They're right.

And Alex is THE posterchild of this because her death is ghoulish. We needed what happened to her as a simple, evocative term, to advance the conversation around media misogyny and get it through people's skulls. But, she has become the conclusion of a sentiment that the more gruesome the death is, the more misogynist that makes it.

but. The fridge was not the misogynistic part of what happened to Alex. THE FACT SHE WAS ONLY INVENTED TO DIE FOR THE PAIN OF A MAN IS. THAT is what the term "fridging" is supposed to point out; The absolute LACK of interest in her as a 3-dimensional character, in women as people, to the point where the writer chose to send Alex out in a gorey, disrespectful way solely as a motivator for her boyfriend. THAT is the bad part.

But instead people have latched onto the fridge half. More violent = more misogyny.

There's a lot of ways for a narrative to be misogynist, though. To downplay the lives, emotions, or contributions of women characters, and to reinforce real-world bigotry.

Warrior Cats does a LOT of this, blaming bad mothers who didn't shut up and accept their 'purpose in life' for Brokenstar's tyranny, making it a TRAGIC thing that Clear Sky is being held accountable for murdering women because his man pain makes it ok, and even blaming Squirrelflight for rejecting Ashfur's advances which caused him to go "crazy" and attempt to murder her children (until, of course, the welcomed retcon of TBC).

Bumble's death, because she is a fat woman, is treated as unavoidable. It's not a terrible thing she died, Gray Wing never really liked her anyway, what REALLY "matters" is that now no one likes her murderer.

She was stupid and selfish to even ask for help, because she is so fat and weak. To be upset at all that her only friend watched her get dragged back to her abuser. Even as she bleeds out, she gets to listen to Turtle Tail making up excuses and wishing she "could have found happiness."

All while Tom the Wifebeater, the fat man who physically assaulted two women, gets a big cutesy redemption death and honored and beloved by everyone and even gets to "lose weight and that's so good :)". Because the books value the lives of men more than the lives of women, plain and simple.

Bumble wasn't just fridged. It's worse than that. Her life doesn't even have enough value to get Clear Sky held accountable for murdering her, because beloved writer favorite Gray Wing hated her for being friends with his wife and doesn't want anyone to hate his poor, innocent big brother :(

Like you said, you can ask anyone in this fandom and they'll tell you about the impressionable kid they were, or have MET, who was badly influenced by the constant misogyny of these books. People who defend Bramblestar tooth and nail as he abuses his wife, the screeds against both Leafpool and Nightcloud for making Crowfeather sad, and the absolutely radioactive Ashfur Defenders who have thankfully died down since TBC's welcome retcons.

It doesn't just end with annoying internet comments. Those kids carry that kind of message with them. It reinforces existing biases and causes them to downplay abused women and toxic men in their real lives.

But sure, "just a cat." Cool way to downplay the 20-year-old bestselling YA fantasy series that is still ongoing but ok. 50000 Bumblesweeps upon ye.

(though i do also have to say, since I started speaking more about it today, I'm seeing more non-wc fans push back against the 'just a cat' comments. Sincerely, thanks guys. It's not every DC fan or Alex voter, just a very vocal section of sore losers willing to downplay misogyny because they're angry.)

[esoteric-chaos]

What is Ancestor Work? Breaking it down and how to start + extra's

TW for death and sensitive topics in this post. Especially when we get into the category of ghosts. You have been warned. The appropriate tags have been placed below.

What is Ancestor work?

Ancestor work is venerating and working with well, you guessed it. Your ancestors. Why do we want to work with them though? Creating relationships with the known and forgotten dead can lead to many great things for yourself such as learning how to break generational curses and cycles. Creating these meaningful and loving relationships with those long since past has been one of the most heartwarming parts of my practice.

I find it is important for people of all ancestry to work with and honour their ancestors. There is much to heal and grow from. We learn through mistakes of the past and some of those mistakes we have to heal from for cycles to be broken.

Who are our Ancestors?

Just who are your ancestors though? According to Honouring Your Ancestors by Mallorie Vaudoise they are your Blood Ancestors, Lineage Ancestors, Affinity Ancestors, Saints, Spirit Guides, Ghosts or Related Spirits.

Blood Ancestors are exactly how they sound. They are the ancestors you find within your family tree that goes all the way back to the beginning of when humans first came around. This goes into the known dead who are ancestors we know of and can be traced back. These ancestors are easier to work with as we have a direct line to them. The unknown dead are unknown ancestors that we can't trace back. Perhaps we only have a name and know nothing about them or maybe we know they existed but have no information at all. This happens to be the case for most of us learning our family tree.

Lineage Ancestors are ancestors we gain through partnerships like marriage, adoption or even initiation such as in a closed society. Examples include religions like Wicca or any religion which needs initiation.

Affinity Ancestors are those who share your cultural identity or even something you are talented in. For example, you are fluent in the arts and you are an artist or musician. You may see a famous passed-on talented artist to venerate as an ancestor. As someone who's LGBTQ+, we can look throughout history and choose to honour and venerate famous LGBTQ+ figures in history as our ancestors as well. In times like this, it is important to venerate and honour these figures in life for strength and courage to move forward.

Saints are found in many cultures. A single example of a saint from a Christian and Catholic point of view is a Christian or Catholic who has passed on and performed miracles before or after death. Then they were elevated to sainthood by the church (This is all from a standpoint as my family comes from a Catholic and Lutheran background). There are also folk saints who are venerated in a specific region or location because of something that was done within that region. Then we have pop culture saints. Pop culture saints for example are people who have influenced or have done things for a group of people that we resonate with deeply. While they do not perform miracles they are venerated as significant to that group.

Spirit Guides are elevated ancestors who have decided to walk alongside us on our journey. They are not usually connected to us by blood or lineage, however, in some cases, they are. In many cultures, you see the concept of a "court". Which is a group of guides. I refer to my ancestors, guides and deities as my spiritual team personally as I am not involved in such cultures that use courts but still am among the belief that I have a group of close guides on my journey as do most others without encroaching on that culture's significance.

Ghosts as Mallorie Vaudoise in Honouring Your Ancestors I agree with their description of ghosts. Some spirits are burdened by the realities of what they went through during their living days. Some call it spiritual disease or they simply lack the power to aid. The spiritual disease of their burdens causes them to act irresponsibly. A lot like Mallorie Vaudoise I too was told ghosts still roam this plane due to unfinished business and they seek resolution through the living for now they feel powerless or they wish to still seek what they started. This can be a grey area for things like passing on murder victims, abusers, children, and relatives. When you are getting into spiritual work it is very important you have strong boundaries and protections. If you do not want to help a spirit move on since you do not identify as a working medium. Do NOT let them step on you. Assert your boundaries, banish and protect. It is not your responsibility to handle the business of otherworldly concerns just because you are a practitioner. If you would like to help a spirit move on, praying in their name to help ease them into the afterlife is a great way to do so to give them strength. May I repeat though, not your responsibility if that is not your focus point.

Related spirits such as land spirits, house spirits and non-human ancestors.

Land spirits are spirits which reside on the land you live on. They can be humans, plants or animals that were born, lived or passed on that land. Honouring the spirits of the land is very important. The land has gone through so much grief and colonization, rebuilding that relationship to take care of the land in turn they will take care of you.

House spirits are arguably land spirits. They reside on that very same land that you do. Proper acknowledgement of the house spirit itself (spiritual upkeep & physical cleaning) and the spirits that live within that old home. They can be from the materials that the foundation of that home is built on or other lesser-known entities. Try speaking to what's in your home. You'll be surprised by what you find.

Non-human ancestors. Through evolution, we have evolved from animals through a series of evolutions before that. So what makes you think we cannot have animal ancestors? Try doing some deep diving into evolution and doing some work with those animals or organisms. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Building your Ancestor Altar

Now that we have what an ancestor is out of the way. How do we build our altars and reach out?

Let's dive into how to make an altar space. We can add some simple tools such as fire, water, an altar cloth, pictures or representatives of ancestors like human skulls (please not real ones obviously), any holy images that bring personal power, offerings and methods of communication.

Fire aids in symbolism in prayer across cultures. If you cannot have real candles on your altar because your altar is within an unsafe place to do so, electric candles are excellent.

Water is said to represent the medium through which the spiritual energy passes. Have you ever felt really dehydrated after a spell, working or spiritual contact? So have I. You can only imagine how dehydrated your ancestors must feel. Leave them an offering of water and maybe even a snack in honour. Remember after veneration to hydrate and fuel yourself too.

Altar cloths are not just there to look pretty. They represent the hard work of our ancestors weiving and working with cloth over the years. Their beautiful craftsmanship is never forgotten. A simple piece of cloth on the altar is a great representation of all of their hard work.

Pictures or representations of our ancestors act as an anchor to connect with them. When I am working with the known dead I'll place photos of them and their names, birth dates and death dates along with a few notes on the back of their photo. With the unknown dead I'll use statues or skulls in place of them. My mother who recently passed is a good example of this. I placed her photos, and ashes, along with some things she may have liked on her little corner.

Holy images. Maybe your ancestors were religious and find comfort in religious imagery. Even incorporating your family's patron saint on the altar might bring them some joy. Do what feels right for you and them.

Offerings. Leaving them offerings such as water, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and food. Anything you personally love especially as a sweet little treat. I find something you have a hard time parting with like that last piece of candy to be a great offering or that dish you're cooking that's been within the family for years.

Dedicated pendulum, tarot or any other method of communication so you can communicate with them efficiently.

What can I do with my Ancestor Altar? How to work it.

There are many ways you can work with your ancestor altar. You can use it as purely an act of prayer and veneration or you can use it as both for veneration and working.

Leaving oils, charms, bags and other spiritual items on the altar overnight to bless and give an extra kick or even some mundane items.

Incorporating them into a spell working for prosperity, blessings, healings, protections, etc.

Active working to break generational trauma and curses. Working through breaking cycles and helping them heal.

Turning to them for guidance and direction through divination from the tools in their space.

Aid in spiritually cleansing myself and my space from any negative influences.

How to reach out?

Reaching out there are many different methods. There are methods through prayer and divination for example. Many different people from different cultures and religions will have different ways of reaching out and praying. I never actively practiced any religion growing up so I adopted prayer through a folk catholic perspective from what my ancestors practiced and used my tarot deck as an adjacent. There's wrong way to pray. We pray from what feels right to us and from what is respectful.

Conclusion

There's no right or wrong way to work with your ancestors except for building a practice solely on gain. By gain, I mean getting them to do things for you. It is a relationship you are building. If that is not what you are seeking then ancestor veneration is not for you. It's the same for any relationship spiritual or not. Relationships freely flow between each other with mutual aid. Not everything is purely transactional. Keep things respectful and everything will be okay.

To close out I'm sure everyone is wondering "Do I have to work with my ancestors who did awful things?" the answer is no. We have to heal from and acknowledge what happened. Move forward with purpose and do the work but we absolutely do not have to go anywhere near them. Spirits are not all-knowing and not all have done the required work. I will echo a previous statement of mine. It is not your responsibility to handle the business of otherworldly concerns just because you are a practitioner.

If that person has not changed and grown in death. Move on and grow from the experience. While not everyone will agree with me I believe it is important to work with things when you are ready. A newer practitioner will not be prepared to work with such heavy energy. It will have to be worked with one day to heal but do not throw yourself in if you are not ready or maybe you just aren't equipped to do it and maybe it is someone else's journey in your lineage, not yours. Do not be hard on yourself if that is the case. Not everyone is built for that or ready. Be kind to yourself, that's what your ancestors want.

Extra's

Ancestor Oil

Need an oil for communication, veneration and one to work with your ancestors for all purpose? I got your back.

What you'll need

A clean and cleansed jar

Frankincense - helps in hardships, divine connection

Peppermint - money matters, underworld symbolism

Rosemary - protection, remembrance 

Rose - raising spiritual vibration, love, symbol of blood

Lavender - Grief, dream work, relaxing

Myrrh - Spirit communication, psychic power, grief

Allspice - Awaken ancestors, drawn in favour

Coconut carrier oil - Moon, emotions, divination, spirit

You can either do the folk method or the hot method. You can find my post on infused oils here to learn how to make infused spell oils. I suggest if you are an animist or someone who wants more power from your oils. Speak to the herbs kindly, treat them less like an ingredient and ask them respectfully for their aid and the purpose they'll have in your oil. Use intention. The same goes for the Coconut oil.

You can sub any of these, however. Try to keep within the theme of the ingredients. Some of these are herbal allies so they will work differently for me than you. Do what feels right.

Blessings!

[theneighborhoodwatch]

I've been thinking a lot about the houses, specifically how they might correlate with WH's theme of religion. The parts in the livestream trivia where Clown talked about the houses is really interesting, how Home is the only "alive" house but all the neighbors believe their houses are alive to some capacity. And the fact that the holidays are to celebrate their houses, where human holidays are usually to celebrate deities/religions.

The only thing on the website that still has this religious theme is the So Below page of Wally (possibly) worshipping Home. Perhaps Clown removed the cross cufflinks and Baphomet imagery so WH could be an allegory about religion instead of straight up about Christianity. The houses/Home could be metaphors for deities and the neighbors are their followers, even if their perception of religion and what it means is probably very different than humans'.

i was wondering why i had a hard time answering this message yesterday, and i think it's because i never really saw welcome home as a story about christianity or even religion as a whole, in either its current iteration or its earlier drafts. i think there is a very good chance that it's one aspect of welcome home, but... how do i say this.

when i see posts from clown talking about what he feels welcome home is about, i get the impression that at its core, welcome home is a story about alienation - from society, from one's environment, from one's peers, even from one's own self - and Specifically about alienation that comes as a result of changing (or at least desiring change) in an environment that upholds stagnation/the status quo/etc. as The Ideal. not Quite the same as but very similar to nostalgia poisoning, two peas in a pod. and i don't think it's a coincidence that this can be used as a criticism of the practices of Many christian denominations in the usa, a country in which christian hegemony is still very strongly felt in many aspects of daily life (let alone back when welcome home was airing in-universe or when its supposed creator, ronald dorelaine, was growing up.) i suspect that part of the reason the christian symbolism seems to have been reworked into something more subtle between welcome home's 2019/2020 concept and what we have now is because:

A.) it would have been rather on the nose, even hokey, to have the world of welcome home (the in-universe show) be a textually christian one when you don't really Need welcome home to be an explicitly religious production to demonstrate the idea that art is shaped by the culture/society in which it exists and/or its creator(s) hail from.

B.) it was originally less ... nuanced? idk if that's the word i'm looking for, but - i do not think it is a coincidence that wally's old cross cufflinks were a holdover from a time between the version of welcome home we are familiar with now and a draft in which wally seemed to be much more overtly, Aggressively antagonistic in his status as the center of attention, and was pitted against a much more straightforwardly heroic character who was on more equal footing with the rest of the neighbors. i Suspect that if any of what i just said comes into play, then perhaps the current iteration of welcome home is the way it is because it leaves room to acknowledge that even people who are hurt by this upholding of stagnation as the ideal willingly perpetuate it anyway, for a number of reasons.

BUT to get back to the actual ask: since we have no idea what's actually gonna happen in welcome home at this point in time, let's say that none of what i just talked about comes up even once and that the concept of The Home is really what we should be focusing on here wrt the religious symbolism, or at least that the two are not mutually exclusive. in this case, i think it's less that the houses themselves are metaphors for deities and more that, like - the importance of homes in the world the neighbors live in is so great that the only way it can be expressed in terms that a human could understand would be through the lens of religious/spiritual beliefs. i am intrigued by the idea that each neighbor has their own relationship to this belief though, and how that may effect their environment in the future. Much To Think About.

[simplysnowbarry]

MARK YOUR CALENDARS ❄️⚡

Big thanks to everyone who voted in our poll recently. We can now announce that Snowbarry Week 2023 - our final full-length Snowbarry Week - will run from Monday December 4th to Sunday December 10th this year!

We’ve chosen the prompts from those submitted to us so as to speed the process along and give everyone plenty of time to create. And we’ve also got extras for artists, as well as a few song prompts.

prompts:

day 1, Mon Dec 4th - First + Last Time

day 2, Tues Dec 5th - Innovation

day 3, Weds Dec 6th - Reconnecting

day 4, Thurs Dec 7th - FREE DAY + any past prompts

day 5, Fri Dec 8th - Fantasy / Fairytale

day 6, Sat Dec 9th - "Just a normal day"

day 7, Sun Dec 10th - Post-canon / Future AUs

extras for artists:

silver and gold

hues of red and/or blue

song prompts:

The Script - No Good In Goodbye

Picture This - Take My Hand

The Heydaze - New Religion

Posting guidelines will be posted closer to the date. We hope to see you all in December, and in the mean time, HAPPY CREATING!

(!) F.A.Q

Who can participate in Snowbarry Week?

ANYONE! Writers, giffers, manip-ers (?), fan artists smol and toll. We welcome fan fiction, gifsets, manips, fanart, fanmixes, …

Can days be combined?

YES! Reconnecting with future AU? Or innovation and fairytale? All joking aside, you can combine whichever prompts you’d like.

Can I create work for both the artists prompts and the writer prompts?

ABSOLUTELY YES!

Can I use the artists prompts for a fic, or the writer prompts for art work?

GO CRAZY!

If I want to contribute something do I have to do something for every day?

Not at all. You’re free to commit to a single day, and we will be so flipping excited to see it. The point is just to have fun with the prompts, even if it’s just the one.

Can I post a WIP that I started working on before that fits a Snowbarry Week theme?

Yes, of course! We’re not a Big Bang, or even a Mini Bang, we don’t require art or fic to have been created from scratch for exactly this week.

I’m going to be busy/out of town during Snowbarry Week. Can I post early/late?

We’d really like to avoid early posting. If you’re out of town or too busy the week itself you can always schedule posts for the correct dates.

Posting late shouldn’t be a problem. Posting Day 1 on Day 3 is also perfectly fine, just make sure we can tell which day you’re posting for, so our heads don’t start spinning.

What does free day mean?

Basically, free day is where you decide what prompt you want to do something with. As long as it’s Snowbarry (or one of its variations like Savifrost, Flashfrost, etc), you’re okay to do whatever you want. A free day in the middle of the week might also provide some much needed breathing space for all the contributors.

Also, the same as last year, our free day now doubles as an opportunity to create for any of our past prompts! If there was a prompt you didn’t manage to finish something for, or just always liked the sound of doing but missed the opportunity, we’d love to see that for this day to have a fun revival of some of the great prompts from past events.

What does [insert theme] mean?

Oh man, this is a hard one to answer. Reconnecting could be about Barry and Caitlin getting to know each other after falling out, or after drifting apart, but it could also be about reconnecting with other things in their life or even as literal as reconnecting cables on some tech as part of an action plot! We can’t tell you which roles to cast your characters in, because everyone has different interpretations. If you can justify the connection, we’re pretty sure you’re good.

Does my idea fit the theme?

Like we said above, if you can justify it, we’re pretty sure you’re good. If you’re really not sure, hit us up!

If there are more questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us an ask. Any questions you don’t want published, feel free to come off anon and ask us as well - we promise we won’t publish what you’re not comfortable with, just let us know if you want it answered privately.

[omgfloofy]

Tell me more about Ad Astra!

Oh boy! Ad Astra! I can talk someone's ear off on this setting that's in my head for it, but I've not posted about it a lot on tumblr (or anywhere really).

Ad Astra is an FFXV fic that I'm afraid to write at this point, but has a bunch of notes and small snippets written (though mostly to establish the feel and setting). It's a very Astral centric story and runs on some very eldritch, 'beyond mortal understanding' concepts and stuff.

It is built on the idea of a 'young' Astral that has joined the pantheon. They are a dual-aspected being of Light that has been formed by a metaphysical union of Noctis and Luna. The plan for it is to delve into the kind of risks that may happen beyond mortal awareness that would require the protection of an Astral.

I want to get a bit more experience in storytelling under my belt before I'm fully comfortable writing it. This is because this story, as I have it in my head, will explore concepts of duality between light and darkness and mortality and divinity. I also want to be sure I can manage the blurred line of gender that will be present in this in as best a way as possible, since this is following an entity that is technically a bigender being. I want to manage it in a respectful manner while keeping it as part of the mystery.

This will probably be in the works for a very, very long time. I want to read more in this kind of realm of fiction with a focus on psych horror, eldritch horror, stories involving nonbinary characters. I will also need to read up on religions and how they portray multi-faceted beings.

Most of what I've been trying to accomplish (poorly at this point, unfortunately), has been trying to emulate storytelling that's clearly inspired by the art you'd see from people like Silly Chaotic on twitter, or the imagery that is presented in the short animation, Puparia.

I've got a small snippet added, though. I hope you enjoy and thank you for asking about this particular WIP. <3

[This occurs after Noctis had been shot by someone they were tracking and he disappeared]

---------

[Lunafreya] stepped forward with her hands held out at her sides. The spiritual presence of such a being could be stifling to a mind and soul that was unable to cope with that very influence on the very world around them. So it was no surprise as the man dropped his gun and fell to a knee - somehow her presence alone forced subservience.

"You have made a grave mistake." Power was threaded in her voice. [Her] presence was simply light. Pure, untainted, and blindingly brilliant.

Lunafreya stepped forward, though still out of the man's reach, she gestured to pull the gun from its place on the ground and let it hover over her hand. She studied it in silence. When she finally spoke up, she said, "Weapons such as this may wound our kind, but they do not kill."

She looked up from it to focus on the man this time. "You may have wanted us eliminated, but we are not gone." As she continued speaking, her voice was joined by another's - the man's that had just fallen to the ground. "We exist as one, and we exist as both. We are light, but where there is light, you will also find the shadows."

It was with those words that hands thrust free of the shadows cast by the man from Lunafreya's light. The shadow had seemingly come to life and wrapped itself around the gunman and pulled him back to the ground. His scream was cut off abruptly as a hand covered his mouth.

[kookaburra1701]

Writerly Thumbprint Challenge~

Rules: look back on your work, both past and present, finished and unfinished. what are five (or more!) narrative elements, themes, topics or tropes that continuously pop up in your work?

Tagged by @thana-topsy ❤️❤️❤️

For all of the nattering I do at my friends about my fics, I really had to think about this, (unless I just wanted it to be a list of all my favorite fanfic tropes.)

(Which I kind of do so they will come rapid-fire at the end hehehehe)

Crisis of Faith - At some point, at least one of my characters will have to question everything they've been taught or thought about the Way the Universe Works. This may be a crisis of actual religious faith, or in the way they view abstract concepts like Truth or Justice, or in the way they view some institution or authority figure. Unlike some of the themes that follow, I know exactly where this one comes from. See, I grew up in a very fundamentalist house hold. Like speaking in tongues, the earth is 5000 years old, and having an erotic dream is just as sinful as sex type of fundamentalist house hold. I even went to a religious college and learned some Latin and Greek to try to figure out which Christian denomination was The One True Church. I graduated from that religious college with straight As in all my theology/religion courses and new found atheism. So, crises of faith and deconversion arcs are very compelling to me, but I really love exploring what a deconversion/reaffirmation of faith means in the context of worlds where there is incontrovertible evidence that the gods/divine/supernatural do actually exist. I suppose it's a little bit of wish fulfillment - sometimes it would be nice to have the comfort of religion again, but that's a bell that can't be un-rung, at least for me. Tropes that come out of this that I loooooooove: -baptism imagery -oracles/prophecy -martyrdom -pretty men tied up and tortured (I'm not sure whether going to church and being SURROUNDED by the kinkinest goddamn fetish art of various saints dying horribly changed my brain chemistry or whether my brain was always That Way and the visuals just made it bearable but either way.)

The Universe Doesn't Give a Shit About You, but I do - this is the second part of the Crisis of Faith. The Protagonist has realized that searching for meaning outside of themselves is pointless, and that in the face of an implacable, uncaring void the only way to find meaning is within oneself and in the connections forged with fellow beings.

The Crucible - I love angst. I...honestly cannot think of a time that I wanted to do something horrible to a character and toned it down before publishing a fic. But I really want it to have a point - I want my characters to go through hell and back, to be completely destroyed, remade, but also to come out the other side changed when they shed all the extraneous things and discover what their essential inner essence is.

Hidden Depths - in this case I'm not referring to the main protagonist discovering their inner strength; to me that is part and parcel of The Crucible. What I just eat up with a spoon and love writing is secondary characters, minor characters, and especially antagonists revealing some of their inner world and it surprising the hell out of everyone. The taciturn swordsman turns out to actually be really good at sewing. The logical scholar loves romance, etc. It can be hard to not have this end up being a deus ex machina crutch to resolve corners I've written myself into, but some of the best times of my life have been when I've discovered something I didn't know about someone I've known for years and they bust it out just when we need it (usually final jeopardy round at pub trivia) I want my protagonist to suddenly see every previous interaction with that person in a new light because they've now glimpsed the Hidden Deep.

Cleansing, or in other (Greek) words Catharsis - Someone somewhere is going to end up in a bathtub. Getting scrubbed. Usually this physical vulnerability will mirror the emotional vulnerability between the scrubber and the scrub-ee. It's also a really fun place for smut.

Sanctuary - in real life, after we've gone through the Crucible to achieve our Catharsis we rarely get a chance to breathe. The activities of daily living still require our attention: pets must be fed, jobs must be reported to, taxes must be paid. But something that almost always happens in my stories after the big resolution is that circumstances contrive to give my characters a physical place where they do not have to worry about keeping themselves fed or housed while tying up loose ends. They've ended up in a secure environment separated from the rest of the world. They always end up having to leave this place, and do so willingly, but the time they spend in it gives them space to come to terms with the events that came before, and plan out their next steps, without the pressures of the outside world. This has taken the form of a temple, a spaceship, and a giant tree in various fics. And then, of course, there's this that might as well be a personal attack:

I tag @gilgamish @moriche

[glocodile]

Something that just has been on my mind lately is that art doesn’t need a reason to exist. I’ve noticed that a good chunk of the people who get wayy too into media discourse are artists themselves. Like Steven Universe’s biggest critics seem to be other artists, especially animators/aspiring animators. And I understand this, as someone who’s about to graduate from art school this spring. Me and many of my peers have a lot of opinions about art, if that’s something you study then you probably will.

But I also think it comes from this desire for art to be important. I’d say about a quarter of people in art school will say that they just want stuff to look cool. Most really want their work to be important and to feel important. Representation in media NEEDS to be one of the top issues for them because it’s one of the few ways that they, as an artist, can feel like they’re contributing to society.

Art has existed for as long as humans have existed. It existed when there was much more food scarcity, when there was a lot more daily struggle for our own survival. Art always manages to exist in society even when there’s more important tasks to do.

I think a lot of my peers would get defensive over the question if art is as needed as say a doctor or farmer. And I would ask instead, does art need to be needed? Does it need to justify its existence?

There’s something very capitalist about this way of thinking, part of the philosophy that has seeped into art and religion. I consider myself a non-denominational Christian, but I was baptized in and currently go to a Seventh Day Adventist church. There’s some things I agree with them on and some things I don’t.

At some point I decided I wanted a necklace with a cross on it, and eventually got a rosary from a street artist and I wear it nearly every day that I go outside. Once I wore it to church and someone just a bit older than me, I’d guess early millennial/late gen X (I’m a millennial-gen Z cusper), told me how when he was younger, members of the SDA church weren’t supposed to wear any necklaces, even cross necklaces. People would hide it and put it on after leaving the house and take it off before going home.

I asked him if that was a gender thing and he said no, it was that everything had to have utility. If you proposed to someone, you were supposed to give a watch instead of a ring, because a watch has a purpose that isn’t just decorative.

Of course in modern times it’s a bit different and no one really cares that much. But it is something that ties into that “Protestant work ethic” and how capitalists treat art and religion.

The concept of everything needing to be utilitarian is so anti-Christianity (and likely anti-spirituality in general) if you really think about it. Jesus didn’t only turn water into wine, he turned it into GOOD wine (John 2:10). There’s a lot in scripture that suggests that we’re meant to get joy out of life.

It’s also so insidious to some core beliefs about Christianity. SDAs take the Sabbath very seriously, I mean they named themselves after it. They emphasize it as a day of rest. I can use my baptism certificate to get out of working on a Saturday if my boss tries to make me. That concept is already in conflict with capitalism. It also reminds me of that one atheist meme that I see floating around sometimes, talking about the collective hours that Christians spend in church every year, and how that time could be better spent building houses or whatever. And like, people who are otherwise anti-capitalist post it, implying that if something isn’t “productive” enough that we shouldn’t have it?

I often lightheartedly say that one thing I agree with Catholics with is their aesthetics. Like yes a lot of the iconic architecture was commissioned as a response to the Protestant reformation in order to attract more people into the church, but churches having room for “frivolous” things like art is something we need. It’s very much capitalist influence on Christianity that causes the emphasis on nonstop productivity and utility.

Not to mention all of the other anti-capitalist Christian messages like giving to the poor and whatnot, having time to rest and enjoy your life is something constantly devalued in capitalist society. And that extends to how we treat art.

This doesn’t mean that the meaning in art doesn’t matter, the themes are part of what makes a story interesting to me, and being mindful of the messages you perpetuate is important. But you don’t have to justify your existence as an artist. You don’t need to feel like someone would die without your work. You can just do things that bring yourself joy. I really think we’re meant to, and if you’re not religious or spiritual then you also exist the same way plants or animals or anything exists. You can just be.

[yolkcheeks]

possible new rotation subject: Tyrian World Religions 201

I was reading the wiki for funsies (as one does) and noticed in the article on Lyssa a throwaway note that the norn consider her a “spirit of action” with a footnote to an archive of Guild Mag. Indeed, on page 14 a developer went into how the different races filter conceptions of their fellows’ gods/spirits/philosophy thru their own experiences, such as the asura seeing human gods as larger equations in the Eternal Alchemy and the norn see the human gods as spirits of action, with Balthazar being War and Kormir being Knowledge. They would be called such by norn—obviously this is lore that didn’t make it into the game because norn NPCs and PC dialogue options alike refer to Balthazar not (Spirit of) War.

Which already- war can be a domain or an action but knowledge is a domain. One would think the action would be learning or study or observation or something… tho I appreciate the alliteration. But it of course doesn’t go further into it so we don’t know how the other gods’ domains translate for the norn. They aren’t all as straightforward, often having dominion over multiple areas both due to the shifting over time as gods fell or ascended and the doylist need to have a particular god of whatever class you pick.

Balthazar, dominion over war, fire, and challenge. Spirit of War, and boy does he live up to it. *

Kormir, dominion over order, spirit and truth. Spirit of Knowledge. Interesting choice since humans tend to focus more on her aspect as Goddess of Truth. *

Dwayna, dominion over healing, air, and life. First of the gods to arrive on Tyria from the mists when they put humans there. Church of Dwayna worships as Goddess of Life. I perceive her as the head of the pantheon, with additional influence over medicine (human story) and motherhood (see below). Possibly Spirit of Healing? Or of Assistance, given the nature of prayers/flavor dialogue associated with her.

Grenth, dominion over death, ice, darkness (and being baby boy. In-universe mari llywd probably.) Associated with casting off of illusions, defeat of false gods, etc. Worshipped as God of Death. Obvious answer would be Spirit of Death but due to Dhuum and also I prefer more action, how about Spirit of Fallow or Spirit of Inevitability (per statue description)

Melandru, dominion over nature, earth, and growth. Considered the oldest & wisest, worshiped as Goddess of Nature.

- May have had an aspect named Mellaggan (bounty, wealth of the ocean) who appeared to the Quaggans but was killed by krait at some point in the distant past.

- obviously all the spirits are part of nature, so I suspect she’s the Spirit of Growth.

Lyssa, dominion over beauty, water, and illusion. Worshipped as Goddess of Beauty but her parables and associations with chaos seem to more emphasize illusions. Possibly Spirit of Inspiration given her favoring art and culture? Interested in the implications of Lys & Ilya + triple-faced sigil.

Abadon, dominion over deep water, knowledge, and magic. Titled God of Secrets. Lore snippet suggests he used to appear in the form of a handsome & calm man with wings as blue as the ocean, appearance changed over time thru torment into squidhead we know and love. Apparently made the Sirens Landing reliquaries, further cementing Secrets as his main thing so I feel safe saying he would be (have been) the Spirit of Secrecy.

Dhuum, dominion over death undeniable, voice in the void, etc. also has a helmet with fuckassbig horns, both more and less humanoid than Grenth. Spirit of Annihilation sounds good to me.

Menzies the Mad, Lord of Destruction. Yeah I know we aren’t sure he’s a god but I feel safe assuming he basically would be one if humans worshipped him. Allegedly is more associated with destructive/deceptive battle than valorous & honorable Balthazar, but given recent events… possibly the Spirit of Bloodthirst or Vengence?

The three queens! Lesser spirits of defense/wrestling/etc? No idea.

Anyhow. That’s some thoughts.

[child-of-hurin]

Outside of the faithful/kings men/Sauron situation is there even much explicit religion in there? “Earendil/Aragorn/Frodo is Middle Earth’s Jesus” isn’t that literally eru, think it’s in the athrabeth

Anon, I have so much on my mind about this topic in general, it really became a full ramble and I'm not sure this is useful to anyone besides me. These are my thoughts:

I don't think there is a Jesus-like figure anywhere in Middle Earth, at least not in a way that matters. The son of god, born from a virgin, who teaches a new doctrine, gathers apostles and is betrayed by one of them, goes though abuse and murder by the hands of the state, redeems mankind from original sin by his death, then is reborn three days later; is alive in heaven waiting at the end of time to judge mankind. That's Christ. You don't get that in Tolkien, in fact you don't even get anything remotely resembling the framework that would allow such a figure to arise.

We can see traces of a framework akin to 'original sin' in some extra-canon stuff, like in the tale of Adanel, and some references Andreth makes in the Athrabeth. In the tale of Adanel, Men fall into thrall of Melkor and thus invent, among other things, slavery, and, as punishment, lose their immortality/long life. This is undeniably a narrative of "fall". If you incorporate it in your understanding of the Legendarium, even if not as a cosmological truth, but as a story that exists within the story and that is part of Edain culture, then it's really very easy to imagine that much later, in Númenor, that lost mortality is what the King's Men, their descendants, are trying to reclaim.

This is not, like, /completely incompatible/ with the published Silm, it's just irrelevant: the published text puts immortality as something the Dunedain covet and decide to conquer by force, and associate with the material Aman, not something they think originally belonged to them, that they are reclaiming. King's Men do not understand themselves cosmologically as "fallen men" -- on the contrary, they are men on the rise.

Middle earth has no Jesus, Middle earth needs no jesus, because there is no original sin in Middle Earth. Noldor have more of a narrative of "fall", but even so it's sketchy at best, and their "redemption" doesn't come from Jesus. I mean: Earendil isn't sent bu Eru to die for the sins of the Noldor after teaching them a better doctrine. Earendil is not even Earendil, he is Earendil and Elwing.

There isn't much religion explicit in Tolkien's legendarium in the sense of an organized religion with rites, but I'm also not sure how much it is fair to dissociate magic and lore in M.E. from religion. Some 'religions' in this world have no gods or worship. Many amerindians, for example, have an extremely complex and ritualized, even political, cosmology -- is it religion? Is it religion when a shaman has a spiritual conversation with a leopard? But going further: is it religion to believe in ghosts? In the evil eye? That fasting and positive thinking can cure cancer? etc. IRL the key "religion" needs to be conceptualized every time we open a discussion about a specific topic; it is a conceptual tool, right? So I think to talk about "religion" in Middle Earth we first need to assess what we are trying to discuss, and conceptualize "religion" and its opposite, "secular". If Middle Earth is not Religious, then is it Secular?

You see my point? Like, I'm not trying to be difficult: I don't think there is religion in the Legendarium in any analogue sense to Christianity, period. The closest thing we have to christian religion in the Silm is Sauron's temple to Melkor in Númenor (lol!).

But at the same time, Tolkien populates his world with a historian's understanding of lore, the past, and by consequence, the future. Aragorn talking about Beren and Lúthien is, at the same time, history, art, folklore, AND a spiritual belief in a certain afterlife, a certain organization of the cosmos and of life. When Sam sings about stars in Cirith Ungol, is that a prayer? What do you think?

It's funny to me that I'm complicating this when it would serve me better to just tell you: there is no religion in Tolkien! Because I am an atheist and because I am bothered by fans who, in their eagerness to defeat Christianity, end up shoehorning it where it literally has no place.

[primalmike-blog]

Concepts for the Start of our Spelljamming Campaign.

As I mentioned before, my basic concept for a campaign was for the players to form a party of adventurous treasure seekers on a ship. Pirates. In a universe of thousands of cultures and worlds with no central authority(unless you as DM want to create one), it seemed natural that right and wrong would be more factionally based than any other concern.

Why? Factions are interested in many things. Sustainability and growth are chief amongst these. Even the most morally good group does not want to cease existing because they couldn't bring themselves to compete for viability with other possibly more aggressive ideologies. Would the faction of Corellon Larethian lie down and allow groups of evil to erase the importance of their art? Absolutely not. It is, and always will be, a competition. For the actors in this drama, the player characters, this is a good thing.

I spent a bit of time in the months before the release of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space looking over previous content to determine what factions might be fun to encounter and form relationships with. The best list I found was here: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/spelljammer-universe-franciscovega/a/a-list-of-factions-in-the-multiverse2Fphlogiston-article

You can see that previous story tellers in 2nd edition were busy populating the Universe with diverse action groups. Many of the previously published adventures have encounters with these groups, and I was very excited about adding several of these groups to my campaign.

I knew that my long term goal was for the party to discover an ancient civilization and many strange artifacts and locations, but I still wanted to present a real universe filled with interesting obstacles. After all, they are starting in a spaceport with very little functional knowledge of how daily life in the Spelljammer universe really works. Who can they work with, and who must they avoid? It is really a blank canvas for the DM.

If you start your Spelljammer campaign on a world such as Faerun, then the player characters likely have a distinct world view based on their associations with religions, races, and factions on that world. There may be Zhentarim or Harper agents in Waterdeep, but there is also a solid legal system that doesn't want any shenanigans on their watch. The player characters know much of what to expect. In a spaceport, most, if not all, of the factions they knew from Waterdeep have no representation or influence outside of the party itself. The spaceport doesn't have to be completely alien (though it could be), but the party will need allies to explain the setup.

You could present a group in need of help which could appeal to your player characters, but I chose instead to present a job offer. Even though they are starting at 5th level, the party does not have their own ship yet. So, they need to pay for passage or join a crew. I decided to have a ship looking for an 'away team'. In this case, the captain of the ship is a priestess of Celestian, so travel and discovery are her path. Scouting and searching dangerous planet locations, not so much. So, a tidy cut of all loot for the captain and crew, and we are off to discover.

My original thought was that the captain had acquired an old map or information leading to an ancient site on a distant planet. While she felt certain the ruins should be there, there was no telling what else would exist in that system or on that planet. Now, the ancient civilization discovery is supposed to be the long play, with ship combat encounters more to the front. So, I decided that the planet they were heading to in this distant wildspace was inhabited now by kobolds and orcs, but to spice it up, I added a group of slavers based on the planet's moon havesting humanoids from the planet for the The Fleshdealers faction, because at some point Illithids just have to play a part.

So. I had been putting together many resources on Roll20 for these encounters when Spelljammer 5e released. I don't have to tell you that the space combat rules I was expecting didn't materialize. With our first session less than a month away, I was scrambling to find a set of rules that worked for me. Hats off to the many creators who have put out the many various rulesets available on the internet. It quickly became apparent that any ship combat that made sense would represent a separate sub-game. A quick poll of my players showed they didn't mind what I decided, they would try it. They are very cool like that.

Ultimately, I devised a movement system based on mph speed ratings(from 2nd edition, I think) on a grid of 150 ft sized hexes (so ships could be in just one hex). So, the rule for boarding applied anytime two ships were in the same hex. All ranged attacks had to reach somewhere in the enemies hex to by useable from a range perspective. The ship the party was on has two range weapons, which I allowed the players to roll attacks for, though the ship's crew manned them.

For the most part, the players just wanted to get close enough to use their own attacks and board the enemy ship. They had no interest whatsoever in some sort of naval combat. The whole being on ships really did not resonate at all. They did enjoy defeating the enemy and taking their ship, even if the helm of that ship was corrupted by blood magic. Yeah, I felt the basic rules for spelljammer helms lacked any flavor at all. I decided that the kobolds had seized a slave galley and refitted the helm with their powerful blood magic totem. This meant they could sacrifice some of their slaver prisoners for a performance boost to speed for their ship, etc. The repurposed slave galley was in bad shape and the less-than-evil party couldn't bring themselves to sacrifice prisoners to power it. They destroyed it instead.

The takeaway from our first session was that I needed to rethink the 'pirate' concept. The episodic 'star trek' format of visiting alien worlds and discovering was still the base format, but the space battles will need some further thought. Of course, your group may be much more interested in tactical naval combat. There is no wrong answer. The point is to find something that everyone enjoys and do that.

[thatmcgwords]

There is no point looking for an easy life, one without adversity. The only way you'll get ahead is to find a goal that you want to struggle for. However, it's equally important to say no to all the struggles and tasks that don't bring you joy. Be ruthless and stop chasing the things in life that don't make you happy. Concentrate on the few great things, and don't give a fuck about everything else.

you may have always considered yourself to be a career-minded person. And this has meant that you've always put your job first and your family and hobbies second. Free yourself of this constraining self-image, and you'll be able to do whatever makes you happy, whether that be spending time with your kids or making model airplanes.

Studies have shown that passionate romantic relationships have a stimulating effect on the brain similar to that of cocaine. That is, you experience an intense high and then you crash back down. Then you search again for the high, though not necessarily with the same person, a recipe for pain and anguish.

Studies have shown that passionate romantic relationships have a stimulating effect on the brain similar to that of cocaine. That is, you experience an intense high and then you crash back down. Then you search again for the high, though not necessarily with the same person, a recipe for pain and anguish.

Rather than concentrate on their own feelings, each partner offers support to their significant other. However, this support has to be desired. If a partner oversteps boundaries and seeks to control the other by, for example, looking to solve all their problems for them, problems will ensue. If one partner seeks to dominate the other, this is clear evidence of unhealthy love.

The Denial of Death. In this book, Becker presented two main ideas. The first is that humans are terrified of dying. Unlike other animals, humans are capable of thinking about hypothetical situations. We can imagine what our lives might be like if we had chosen to study a different subject in college or, say, decided to be a pharmacist rather than a teacher.

This ability to hypothesize has a downside, however. We can imagine what life would be like after we've ceased to be. This brings us to Becker's second main idea, that since we know we're doomed to die, we try to create a conceptual self that will live on after our demise. In other words, we spend our mortal lives seeking out immortality projects, things that will endure as our legacy. It's this desire that encourages some people to chase fame while others may seek to make a mark in religion, politics, or or business. Yet, this dream of immortality causes problems for society.

People's wish to fashion the world, or at least a part of it as they see fit, has caused war, destruction, and misery. What's more, it's not healthy for us as individuals. A desperate urge to make a mark causes us stress and anxiety. Luckily, there is a straightforward solution. We have to stop striving for immortality. We need to stop giving a fuck about fame and power and instead concentrate on the here and now.

Look for meaning in the present and seek to spread happiness and joy where you are. And not giving a fuck shouldn't just be limited to thoughts of death. As you've learned in these Blinks, trying to be all things to everyone just leads to pain. If you want to pursue a happy life, focus on the things you enjoy, be it the joyful struggle or a healthy relationship. Everything else is a pointless distraction.

The book's main takeaway is that we try to do too much in life and this leads to stress and unhappiness. Each of us needs to learn to stop giving a fuck about the things that are causing us pain. Choose what it is you really want to care about and develop a more constructive approach to work, love, and life itself. Here's some more actionable advice.

Forget FOMO and learn to say no. If you want to focus only on the things that really matter to you, it's vitally important to say no to everything else. FOMO, the fear of missing out, keeps us stressed, but the truth is we'll miss out on things no matter what. You can't have the perfect career, lots of family time, and countless hours to spend surfing waves on a sunny beach.

It's more important to miss out on the right things. So pick what's important to you and ignore the rest. Be totally ruthless with this.

[leonbloder]

The Antidote for Toxic Masculinity In The Church

I was reading an article recently about the Stronger Men Conference in Springfield, MO, and how some controversy arose regarding a shirtless, sword-swallowing male acrobat who was part of the Christian conference's entertainment.

During one entertainment portion, a tank driven by Chuck Norris also crushed a couple of cars, but that's beside the point.

Apparently, to some of the dudes gathered at this conference designed to teach men about the subtle art of patriarchy and how to protect it, the acrobat touched a nerve, and their overt homophobia kicked in.

This led to some pretty awful diatribes about LGBTQ+ people and a doubling down on why it's essential to keep "those people" out of church and relegated to the margins of society.

The level of hatred, bigotry, and downright meanness that was put on display was pretty impressive, even for a bunch of fired-up, angry white Christian nationalist dudes.

[To paraphrase Shakespeare here, "Methinks they doth protest too much." Just saying.]

I've been to conferences like this in the past (minus the sword-swallowing acrobat, though), and let me tell you, the vitriol that gets spilled in those spaces about anyone who is considered an "other" is very real.

Jesus once told his followers to "love your enemies" and "pray for those who persecute you." He couched this in an exhortation that went something like this:

"It's easy to love your loved ones; nothing extraordinary about that. But if you extend your love to those you have considered an "enemy," now that's something special."

A better way to interpret the word "enemy" here is "someone who opposes you, your beliefs, identity, etc.

But it feels like Jesus' teachings are falling on deaf ears in the Church, and not just in the right wing. There's plenty of animosity from all sides.

The question that many of us might have is, "How did we get here? How did we get to a place where there are so many Christians who think it's perfectly all right to hate, discriminate, fear-monger, and condemn anyone who is different or who disagrees with them?"

And what do we do about it?

In a recently written article titled "The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart," Peter Wehner explores the resurgence of this behavior among Christians today.

He writes that when politicians could (without many Christians blinking an eyelash) add open hatred and resentment to the political-religious stance of ‘true believers,’ it crossed a line. "Tribal instincts seem to have become overwhelming.”

Wehner then goes on to say that the dominance of political religion over professed religion is seen in how, for many, loyalty to political figures became a blind allegiance.

The result is that many Christians “have come to see a gospel of hatreds, resentments, vilifications, put-downs, and insults as expressions of their Christianity, for which they too should be willing to fight.”

This brings me back to the Stronger Men Conference.

From attending conferences like this in the past, I know that well-meaning, devoted, faithful followers of Jesus attend those conferences. And I know from experience that most of them filter out the good from the bad.

What they crave is community, connection, and affirmation.

They have been told their whole lives that they need to act a certain way, never show emotion, and be strong and courageous, yet many live lives of quiet desperation, feeling not good enough, not strong enough.

The Church needs to offer them more than toxic masculinity, bigotry, and hatred. The Church needs to give them a real glimpse into Jesus's life.

No politician and few mega-church pastors will offer them Jesus, however, without first making Jesus in their own image.

We must listen more carefully to Jesus's words about love, inclusion, sacrifice, and salvation. We all need to hear the intrinsic value of loving everybody, which is inextricably bound to a life of following Christ.

We all need to do everything we can to ensure that the Church of Jesus Christ does not entirely lose its way.

May it be so, and may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

[moreyouread]

Making Sense of God

Discovered is better than constructed meaning

• constructed meaning leads to us feeling hopeless the more we think about it

• any constructed meaning relying on something in the material world leads to unhappiness (described in Ecclesiastes) and also observed during the Holocaust in Man’s Search for Meaning

• Ancient philosophers felt that detachment was the key to happiness, but this seems dissatisfying because loving relationships do serve to make us happy

Freedom as ultimate good? No

• Freedom is not real. There are trade-offs so you need to sacrifice for different freedoms. Eg freedom for wealth requires sacrifice of education.

• Real freedom is a strategic loss of something for another that you care about

• there are social restraints based on how humans work that guide us to true freedom

• avoid harming others as a moral law is not self evident. People disagree on what will harm others. eg does porn harm others?

Self identity as ultimate value? No

• self identity is hard to determine; saying anger issues isn’t you and you’ll work to change it but homosexual feelings are is an arbitrary determination

• anything we build identity in will cripple us eventually

• anything we build identity in will lead to a disdain of the other. Humility is needed to recognize no disdain for or view themselves as better than the other, but confidence to not demonize the other out of insecurity. This comes from humility in our sin but confidence in God’s grace for us

Hope is a belief in the future that affects our attitude today.

Morality and justice is difficult to explain without God.

Part 3: Christianity makes sense

God argument

inferred God like light particles and atoms are inferred. However isn’t God less consistent in testing?

• original matter either:

- sprung from nothing

- always existed

- infinite number of causes

All of these are outside of the realm of science. So even those who deny God have to admit that

• all the values of physical constants for life-permitting settings are so low likelihood — point to God than not. Some like to argue the multiverse thesis even though there is no shred of evidence of this either.

• moral obligations are illusions of evolution and culture if there is no personal God.

• human consciousness is remarkable. All human experience has a subjective experience to it, ability to draw abstractions, relate past and future, and do complex mathematical equations and philosophy. It’s hard to prove why these capacities were developed in evolution. No one can explain consciousness yet with science. It’s hard to swallow that love / our ideals are just chemicals and illusions

• beauty in art and nature point to God. Sure it might help for reproductive fitness but a lot of art like music is not related to reproduction. Beauty is often not utility

Jesus argument

• Mark gospel was written 30 years after Jesus death so eye witnesses were still alive and consulted.

• it’s not likely fabricated to fit the cultural needs at the time since many culturally embarrassing things like women being the first to see Jesus, the crowds Jesus hung out with, would be embarrassing

• early Christians believed Jesus was God, and Jesus claimed it himself

• the way the NT Bible was written is like a historical narrative with all these unnecessary details that make it sound real. Back then, fictional stories were not written the way the NT was

• people mentioned witnesses by name even, which could back up what was being said; apostles frequently said they were eyewitnesses too and not fabricating a lie

• no other religion has a real historical figure claim he was God and lived a life with character that made it believable to many. Either Jesus was God or an arrogant lunatic

• early disciples and believers died for their beliefs, within the same generation or claiming to be eye witnesses of the event

• it was very unlikely that Jews would believe God could be man. This was very anti their religion

• all other zealots of the time who died did not then have followers claim resurrection

[ananalyses]

somehow despite the fact that my life as a disabled person is almost totally dictated by the need to work, longer than most, and then recover from that work, then work more to earn the privilege of time to rest from the work until i have to work again, to the point that i have so little opportunity to partake in research and scholarship any more, sometimes i get like demonically possessed by the spirit of my master's degree and i wake up at 4am woozy from sedatives, blurt out, "the mandela catalogue is genius not simply bc it is a high quality work of analogue horror to hit at the absolute perfect moment in the zeitgeist of online underground horror art, but because it also taps in at the perfect moment to the zeitgeist of the surveillance state, the all consuming literally inescapable sensation of being watched not passively but parasitically and that no one in power can help you bc the surveillance technology is part of upholding the power divide and there's nothing you can do about that. but the religious element isn't just ooowaaaa spooky perversion of familiar christianity goofs it draws a connection across time the culture of total constant surveillance feels unique to our level of crazy technology that facilitates it (we did this to ourselves) and in some ways it is, but in a lot of ways it's actually not. go back to 17th century and puritanism and the witchcraft panic, and religion then played the role of technology, those people too felt helpless under a sensation of constantly being watched, being judged, at the mercy of some all seeing, unsee-able entity that knows what you love and knows what you dread, the fear of the demonic doppelganger invading one's life and body and those of their loved ones created from parts of you you didn't even know were present yourself as some sort of apocalyptic test of metal that you could be trained for and trained for and trained for few could withstand by design, not at all dissimilar to the digital persona, the invisible parasitic double that feeds and feeds on us and everything merest thought and is looming behind us even in our most private spaces, it all fits it all has purpose it's all about the paranoia and stepping back the demons look absurd but it still stings but something about it is extremely familiar it's timeless but it feels so time specific (so vhs tapes innit)" then instantly flop back to a more restful sleep snooooork mimimimi