#cackler ma

[diadne]

Sacred Vulva

On the bones of Earth, the signs of origin

Grooved into the rock by aboriginal hands

In remembrance of ancestors, painting

The place of emergence with the sign of blood

The blood that is life, the coursing vitality

The power of the Woman who stands at the Portals

Who has within her an opening into the vastness

The origin which is everywhere at the center.

Vulvas engraved on the bones of the Earth,

In an offering place near the sacred salt spring of the Chimanes, Bolivia.

The natural rock formations in the shape of woman’s portal to the depths

Appear in multitudes in the sanctuaries of the Kumeyaay, east of San Diego

Some carved by the ancients to enhance their resemblance to the vulva.

The holy place of origin that opens as she parts her legs

The unfathomable depths of the Dark Labyrinth within

The sign and crest of the Rock Spring sanctuary (Wyoming)

Of rocks where newly-made women raced at dawn

On one side of the stone, paleolithic ancestors grooved vulvas

And on the other carved the Animal Mother (France).

Ice Age people incised bone with vulvas and meanders

Of the vast, infinite Ocean of Being (Ukraine).

Ancestral Mothers with vulva glyphs in the womb tombs (Guernsey)

The caverns of Earth herself receive the solar rays into the depths (Portugal)

Ancestors and vulva stones of the archaic sanctuary of Lepenski Vir (Serbia)

Aegean island votive platters with the sacred triangle, and above, The indescribable pulsation of Essence, swirling in eternal spirals  

Vulvas of the Canaanite city of Lachish, flanked by ibexes In the manner of Asherah and her Tree of Life.

Triangles of numinous dots worn in amulets of beaten gold

And the dotted vulvas in icons of 11th dynasty Egypt.

From the Jomon culture, little clay vulvas, some with breasts above.

Ceramic yonis painted with cosmic maps, worn as vulva caps: All the clothes women needed in tropical Brazil

Vulvas on figured clay vessels of Ma Jia Yao, and

In the classic Halaf culture of ancient Syria, 7000 years gone on.

The women of Cameroon, arms and legs joined around the motherpot

Amulets of mighty Hathor with her serpent

And the even older stone matrika of Sesklo, Greece

The jade sculptures of the classic Nicoya culture, Costa Rica

The disregarded masterpieces of the Manabí civilization, Ecuador,

Whose stone stelas revolve entirely around the vulva sign:

Women seated on curved thrones, in the throes of ecstasy,

In the deep states of sex or birth, plumbing the full measure of humanity with hands changed into birds, with lizards and spiral-tailed monkeys A stone pipe from Indiana, woman grasping her feet up to her belly

A megalithic ancestor in Sulawesi, hands to her vulva, signaling Origin

Hands to the yoni, in Sumatra too, and above it Blackness,

The open cauldron where consciousness comes into being

Signalling the place of Origin, the ancestor in stone.

India retains the aboriginal veneration of the yoni,

Through the millennia, into Tantra and Shakta tradition

In the temple carvings, enacted in Yantras and Yoni mudras

Blazing forth in the Mahanirvana Tantra, the coiled kundalini

The primal power awakened and released in realized sages

Truly the Sacra Vulva, the Tantric sacrament of menstrual blood Venerated and used to anoint holy images.

The orthodox invent stories of shame around the displayed Yoni, As Lajja Gauri, turns her face into a lotus when surprised during sex with Siva

The Taoists celebrated the elemental powers of sex, saying that The cream of women’s arousal cures the one hundred diseases

This is holiness, Tai Ji, accessing the great Ultimate

She is cast onto the bronze drums of old Indonesia

She is the source of hunting power in ancient Algerian petroglyphs

A clay figurine from northern Nigeria hands placed at the vulva.

Bagirmi women, arms outstretched, vulvas show through their skirts

Legs outstretched, a proto-Mami Wata presides over a Nigerian drum

Splattered with sacred substances, she watches over a house

Legs parted to show the place of origin, the ancestral Mother protects

the matrilineal lodges in Belau: she is the source

In parts of Melanesia, maternal ancestors alternate with vulva shields

In New Hebrides, their third eyes blaze in resonance with clitori, As they link arms (paired with lizards, like the women of Manabí).

The Maori carve their lintels with images of the female ancestor

On Rapa Nui, women use komari stones in womanhood initiations, When girls learn to stretch and lengthen the organs of pleasure

These are holy things, things of power, never forget. This is healing.

Hand to the vulva, hand to the breast, red wood icons of Easter Island

Touch a place of power. Cast off the shame, release the violations.

This is a holy place, this core of womanness.

A place of pleasure, of streaming and of climax.

Look, I am aroused by showing you my petals: my bud rises, and juices flow.

In Australia, rockface panoramas of powerful vulvas, Ancestors with arms raised in benediction

Mothers in the Dreaming, at the heart of aboriginality

Mohawk matrons of the Wolf Clan crowned with her combs. (That word comb, Kteis, Greek slang for vulva.)

Tairona goddess with apotropaic vulva, and the lolling

Tongue of the Gorgons, of Rangda, of Kali

Cosmic maps on Shipibo effigy pots in the Peruvian rainforest

And mysterious shamanic masks on the belly and vulvas of Nazca pots

Other bowls given over entirely to celebrating the vulva,

With little soul birds and caterpillars circling around the Gateway.

Rough and ready stone women of south Italy, where too

a splayed Gorgon laughs, supported by lions and serpents

And a chased metal plate full of vulva-glowing Gorgons

Then come the Baubos, some engaged in the frankest self-pleasuring

Others throwing up their skirts in the classic gesture of the crone

Iambe, whose skirt-lifting made grieving Demeter laugh at last.

As the devotees of Bast raised their skirts to rival townswomen

As they cruised the Nile with music and dance

In rowdy musical festivals of Bast, cat goddess of love and pleasure

So Iambe placated Demeter’s wrath, so did “the ugly sky-female,”

Uzumue, dance on an upturned tub, skirts pulled up and blouse turned down, with the celestial jewel-tree on her head, to lure Amaterasu from her cave.

Countless figurines of Isis Baubo in often acrobatic sexual display

And Besit, the dwarf goddess, sticking out her tongue

Isis Baubo holds libation cups and the sistrum of the Nubian dancers.

The vulva goes everywhere, and shows up in surprising places:

A silver sheathing around the sacred Black Stone in the Kaaba.

She even bubbles up on the walls of Christian churches

In Ireland and Britain, she is usually a crone, wrinkled, hairless and bony,

Aged ancestor, with that ever-pouring source of power at her core, Where people rub for a blessing, or scrape out the rock dust

Hands to the vulva, the very definition of the shiela-na-gig

Some with the prominent clitoris, others with an opening to the Center

The infinite Deep, the cauldron of Cerridwen brewing countless lives

The place everyone wants to get back to, the ultimate Return.

The very flowering of female sexual power

The Shiela with animal, flanked by animal powers

Even the Sheila-abbess with her crook

The protector shiela looming over the doorway

The smiling shiela, the cackler shaking with laughter

Overlooking the valley from her castle wall where she dances

In perpetual delight, in touch with the source.

After ages of denial, shame and suppression,

She reappears in the visions of artists, poets and musicians

Yoni means the Origin.

It's a Yoniverse.

-by Max Dashu, 2004

[ihopesocomic]

MATRIARCH OF THE GOLDEN GROVE 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

NAh fr that's such a fire title like??

Thank you! We think so too. 'Matriarch' seems to be a very common term for the leaders of hyena clans in media so it just seemed a natural title for Cackler Ma. c:

[ihopesocomic]

You mentioned that Cackler Ma has at least 18 kids and that her clan is big enough to come at Edge from different directions so 1. How many members is her clan? and 2. How old is she? because 1-2 pups in a litter and she still has pups as small as Junior she must have been at this a while

Alot.

Old.

- Cat

-

For an irl reference: spotted hyena clans can comprise of up to 80-130 members so I think it's safe to say that this isn't solely made up of just the children of the lead female. They live in complex groups that may comprise of the leader's siblings and the children of those siblings. Not to mention grandchildren or grand-niblings.

Obviously, we're not gonna give an exact figure as to how many hyenas Cackler Ma leads because that's just silly. All you need to know that it's certainly a number than can take on two fully grown lions and their three cubs no problem. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

The way this comic portrays hyenas is such a nice breath of fresh air and so heartwarming. Not only is Junior drawn to be an absolute cutie pie and Cackler Ma is wonderfully majestic but it's so nice to see them being just ordinary civilians of the comic's wider neighborhood and not as an antagonist that are out to hurt our main characters for no real reason. I also like how you've both obviously researched hyenas as well as lions to give them a fair and accurate depiction too!! <333

Thank you so so much, anon. We really want to depart from other lion media where hyenas are portrayed as the bad guys. They're truly interesting critters and it's also just nice to have other animals to explore in this comic. Just makes the world feel more alive and populated. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

YESSS LETS GO CACKLER MA AND JR FOR THE WIN

QUICK BEFORE THE HYENA COME

- RJ

[ihopesocomic]

HERE THEY COOOOMMMEEEEEE

Happy y'all are so hyped over the hyenas turning up again, we've been vibrating with excitement ourselves throughout this whole chapter AND NOW THE REVEAL IS FINALLY HERE WOO! - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

If I may touch on you character designs once more, your silhouettes are 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 Like I can tell that amongst the shadows of Hyena's is Cackler Ma (tho I notice there's another similar silhouette at the back, but since there's one at the very front, you can just tell it's her with that "mane", and copy pasting is to make artist life easier honestly)

Cackler Ma's design is so... Ethereal in my opinion, her colors and the way her "mane" sits makes her so elegant and regal. I've never seen a Hyena design like that and I'm over here devouring it all up.

And may I talk about Bright meanwhile. I LOVE HER, the fact that she genuinely thinks she's having fun with Storm is so delightful, like feel she's not saying that to be a tease and taunt her opponent–she was genuinely having fun with Storm. I also love how Storm isn't too disturbed–if not at all, she's just... Confused. English isn't my first language so there's a better word than just confused I'm sure, like there's a mix of curiosity and wonder in there? Like "Huh, you're a strange lioness" but not in a condescending(is that the right word?) way.

Oh and did I mention how magnificent and ethereal Cackler Ma is?

Thank you so much! I've grown attached to Cackler Ma's design haha so I'm glad people like her. Especially since she's become more important than planned.

And YES I'm glad you got that from Bright and Storm's reactions because you are correct haha Bright is being confusingly genuine. - Cat

[ihopesocomic]

ok listen come on bright’s such a cool character. maybe she dethroned adamant as my fav. but CACKLER MA WITH THE STEEL CHAIR LETS GO?????????

THE STEEL CHAIR PART HAS ME ROLLING LOL

She's a pretty cool character. I also appreciate that she's mostly silent and Cat conveys her bamf-ness through expression alone. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

now that the cackler pup's scenes have been 'paid off', so to speak, im gonna take a moment to say how i appreciate how you two have an extremely simple yet effective storytelling method of not wasting a reader's time. I work on my own fiction narratives and i like to analyze other shows/movies in my free time, and its getting increasingly frustrating in the new streaming-based world to see random fluff scenes that dont get any sort of payoff or dont seemingly add anything character wise or just get shoved in to tease another season only to not get addressed in said second season. When i first read that chapter about the random cackler pup, my first thought was "why is this relevant?" and then as soon as Edge shows up and starts putting Hope in the dirt thats when I thought "ah i get it, the cacklers will repay Hope's kindness by getting them outta this jam". I know its not crazy innovative in terms of storytelling, but it builds my trust as a reader that you wont dick me around or waste my time unlike certain other lion shows lmao

Thank you, anon.

This is why 'wait and see' applies to a lot of things happening in this comic. There's also the fact that Junior wasn't just there to serve as a Chekhov's Gunman but to also demonstrate that we weren't going to go with what other lion media goes with and have the hyenas be a purely antagonistic force.

But I'm still ultimately glad we made it to this payoff. We've always maintained that audiences do deserve to be rewarded for their perseverance in following stories, so certainly hope this moment was worth the wait for folks. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

CACKLER MA CACKLER MA

Also Radiant's face is hilarious. She's just like "Yeah this might as well happen"

I love the unprecedented reaction to Radiant just not giving a shit about the proceedings. For now, anyway. lol

ALSO YES HYEANS GONNA BEAT YOU ALL UP 8D - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

Wai wai smth I just remembered that got me a lil confused

in the previous page it's shown the hyenas/Cacklers coming from the open towards the three siblings and Storm, but in the next page it shows the Matriarch coming from the ravine in front of Edge, are they coming from different directions? Cuz if so Matriarch seems to have a pretty big clan and I love that for her!

Yep, they're coming from different directions. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

ooooo vanish looking nervous in that last page... guess storm was right about the cackler's partnership with travelers! good to see good deeds coming back around -w-

side note but related: its nice to see a lion-centric story that doesn't automatically hate hyenas! I like the lion king as much as the next person but JEEZ that movie really gave em a bad rap. it's real refreshing seeing them portrayed as not inherently bad, and I look forward to seeing more of them! hyenas are some of my favorite animals :3

It's not really a partnership per se, the hyenas wouldn't be there if our girls hadn't helped Junior vs. y'know, killing him or w/e. They're certainly not in the habit of forming friendships with lions and for very good reason. Lions typically spell trouble for hyenas and their cubs, hence why Cackler Ma was initially ready to attack Hope when Junior found her.

Traveller beliefs just teach Travellers than hyenas and all other creatures are worthy of respect but that doesn't necessarily equate friendship. Merry was certainly not friends with the hyenas when they inhabited the Grove, they just had a mutual understanding to keep their distance and this allowed them to co-exist.

And thank you, I most certainly agree. Hyenas deserve more love. They're just vibing most of the time and lions are not above ruining their chill. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

I think it’s official that Cackler Ma (does she have another name? Idk how the hyenas would name themselves or if she’s simply addressed as the matriarch/cackler Ma) is one of my favorites of the side characters (I’m assuming that’s what she’s classified as)

I LOVE the positive portrayal of hyenas here, even though we never hear her or any of them speak due to the language barrier, they are clearly portrayed as thinking and complex individuals rather than being villainous creatures (I love the lion king but seriously hyenas deserved better) through things like actions and facial expressions

I can’t wait to see more of them, hopefully the little cackler returns too

She doesn't have any other name, nope. We haven't really put into any thought as to how hyenas name themselves and the language barrier prevents our girls from knowing what their exact names are anyway so there's no real point thinking about it too much.

And thank you so much, we thought it was high time that these amazing critters got some positive representation. They have deep family connections very similar to lions despite their unforgiving and ruthless society (if you're a male hyena, anyway) and we thought it would be neat to translate this into them having a sense of honour and loyalty as opposed to their usual portrayal as being opportunistic scavengers. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

Everytime I think I know where this is going, you two turn the wheel 180° and I'm left biting my nails again. Super duper work, now I'm going to pray Cackler Ma doesn't die now because that would crash my soul like a dry leaf.

lol thank you and I guess we'll have to see how things go down. Cackler Ma is one tough cookie though, as you'll find out. - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

words cannot describe how much i started GRINNING once i saw the newest page! i LOVE when good deeds get rewarded in story! also not a day goes by where i don't think about soft vanish's fur looks.

We're so happy that we've finally reached this point. It's been a long time coming (both for the plot and good hyena represent!). c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

I adore the hyena designs, despite being what I assume to be spotted hyenas, they all have so many differences! Instead of them all being just brown, there's color differences! (Like the three orange-ish ones in the front :D)

Also the way all their fur is designed gives you a feel for their different personalities despite the fact they can't speak in the comic, Cackler Ma looks focused, confident and determined. She's elegant as hell even in the way she holds herself compared to the other hyenas in the group.

Thank you so much! I always love when people pick up on those details lol and we tried giving the hyenas at least a little individuality. There's only 3 designes here minus the matriarch but RJ did an amazing job coloring the others in the next chapter. - Cat