#divine pleasure

[jbfly46]

What happens when a child with divine power is born into a world where secret psychopaths commit mass murder for pleasure?

[biblebloodhound]

"I Choose You!" (Ephesians 1:3-6)

People tend to live up to how they view themselves, to how they self-identify.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He did this by predestining us to adoption as his legal heirs through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will—to the praise of the…

[markmcole]

Seven Blessings of Faith

Hebrews 11:6  states that, “it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.” This verse underscores the pivotal role of faith in our relationship with the LORD. Let’s look into seven blessings that radiate from a life grounded in faith. 1. Divine Pleasure: The very essence of faith lies…

[gingermintpepper]

hi I love your tags so so much! they were so sweet and so interesting and creative and the whole Aphrodite type of beauty thing sounds really interesting do you have any articles and recommendations to read further into it??

-hogoflight

Hello my fine feathered (I am assuming possession of feathers if you are, indeed, capable of flight) @hogoflight! I'm always always happy to hear that people appreciate my frenzied rambling in the tags :D! I have a lot of articles and recommendations :D!! Ancient Greek notions of beauty and representations of it in their art and sculptures is a pretty well studied topic! There isn't any way for us now to know definitively what the beauty standard was (it varied widely from region to region and culture to culture after all) but here are a couple of my favourite reads about Aphrodite and what her representations tell us about idealised beauty!

Probably the most empirically extensive one I can list is Krönström's thesis which compares statues of Aphrodite and literary text referring to both the goddess and mortal women to determine physical ideals for women in five specific eras of Grecian antiquity. Including measurements of the statues there are many descriptions of Aphrodite as 'curvy' with a 'voluptuous figure' and with 'ample buttocks and bosom'.

"When the beauty traits are described in the texts, they are never extreme or anything that could not be found in normal people just that they are more beautiful in every aspect. Furthermore, the sculptures’ physical forms look healthy, they are tall and have distinct curves. Great examples of this are the Knida sculpture and de Milo (the Melian) sculpture."

Of course, these images are still idealised, and there was still a concept such as 'too fat' or 'too skinny' found in written records (and this thesis even includes analysis of pornographic writings and descriptions of the fashion and stylings of pubic hair of women from different regions!!) but from an interpretational standpoint? There is absolutely no reason why these can't refer to a fuller figure. Height was also a very important factor after all and over the course of many eras, it seems like being well proportioned in addition to the length and appearance of one's hair were the most important factors (and, like Apollo, greater beauty was given to those with curlier hair)

Mireille M. Lee's 'Other Ways of Seeing' essay which talks about the forgotten female viewers of Knidian Aphrodite which is also extremely illuminating on how Aphroditic sexuality and sensuality was perceived totally differently from the well documented male voyeuristic gaze (which was overly preoccupied with the statue's nakedness and therefore over-sensationalised the statue's physical appearance) vs women's perspective on the statue which is more centered on the beauty of simplicity in Aphrodite's garment and decoration and in her power and ability to captivate both in her finery and without it. I think it's especially useful in exploring the importance of finery, jewellry and adornment in representations of Aphroditic beauty.

"Some of the small-scale copies are heavily jeweled, especially those from the eastern Mediterranean, for example the Hellenistic gilded terracotta statuette in the Çanakkale Museum (Fig. 5) in which the goddess wears, in addition to the armband on her (right) arm, the following: a necklace with multiple pendants; cross-bands extending over both shoulders and hips, with a cascading pendant in the center; a coiled snake armband on the left arm and another snake on her left thigh, and a twisted anklet on her right leg. (The left leg has been restored, and might also have featured an anklet.)"

"Jewelry is especially associated with Aphrodite in Greek literature. As seen above, in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, the goddess adorns herself with gold jewelry, dress-pins, and earrings in the shape of flowers (162–3)..."

Finally, and to me, the most important one in the argument for an interpretation of Hyacinthus as fat, beautiful and fundamentally Aphroditic comes from Brilmayer's brilliant brilliant thesis done on Aphrodite's work and influence in Archaic Greek Poetry which does away with all of that masculine preoccupation with physical proportion, measurement and bodily ideals for a focus on a Sapphic Aphroditic ideal centered in clothing, ornamentation and, most importantly cunning as symbols of Aphrodite and ultimately a feminine idealised form of beauty. This paper also discusses Pandora and Helen in these terms and it is just kind of a wonderful read tbh.

"Combining Homeric and Hesiodic elements with her own ideas, she [Sappho] alters the way female beauty is viewed. For example, the Homeric war chariot – a symbol of male, military prowess - comes to symbolise the totality of Aphrodite’s power uniting in itself male and female qualities. Having addressed the concept of beauty directly, Sappho then concludes that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. With the help of Helen of Troy and her beloved Anaktoria, Sappho sets out to reinvent the concept of female beauty as a godlike, subjective quality that may be expressed in many ways, yet remains inspired by Aphrodite."

The conclusion to all of this of course is that Aphroditic ideal beauty is much more fluid compared to its stricter Apolline masculine standard. The nuances and understandings of both are of course, constantly being studied, analysed and scrutinised but really, if Dionysus who was both bearded and clean shorn, effeminate, birthed and rebirthed (and twice gestated!) and strongly associated with vegetation can be popularly portrayed as fat and handsome, why can't Hyacinthus?!

[pookiebearhelaena]

I want to stay optimistic, but I don't have much faith that the HOTD writers will go through with any of the messages in the Dance aside from misogyny. Obviously, misogyny plays a big role in the Dance because it is the means to and end for the Greens, but the way the show focuses on this to favor Rhaenyra's claim and rule and this sort of diminishes the complexity of the story. By making it so that one side rightful, righteous, chosen by some divine powers, etc., etc. and one side that is perverse and corrupted and only there for greed, it takes away from one of the most important lessons in the Dance: Targaryens are not a divine superior race that should be exempt from the rage of common men that suffer at the cost of them.

(Also, ik ambition was a major motivator for the Greens in the books, but the books didn't try to frame Rhaenyra's right to the throne as God-given)

You might have already guessed, but the part of the dance I anticipated the most was Targaryens who perceive themselves to be divine and superior take the realm to shit fighting over a throne that neither of them actually deserve. They fight at the cost of everything and lose everything for a throne that neither of them keep for long because they are both inadequate rulers that rely heavily on their respective councils. When they make decisions on their own, their nearly equal incompetence shows because Aegon's choices are emotional and stupid and Rhaenyra's are paranoid and stupid. These are the people that cause the death of the dragons.

It feels like the show is trying to appeal to those stans that bend over backwards to defend their fave tyrants and believe the throne is a rightful possession of the Targaryens.

[coffee-bard]

An array of sketches I’ve done of my divine soul doctor priest, Requiem, during his sessions 🙏🥀

(Feat his party and also Veryl)

[themotherofrevelation]

Ecstasy and tension are oppositional forces. Stimulus is not the heart of yoni-governed sexuality. Venusian sensuality is the ingress to nirvāṇa.

[zorosdimples]

horniness is next to godliness

[vintage-tigre]

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

Headcanon that Wolfwood physically can’t get tattoos or piercings because every time he takes a vial the piercing rejects and the tattoo scars over and fades because both are technically wounds and he’s never gone long enough between vials to let them heal completely.

So technically he could get them, but not keep them. Kind of makes tattoos a bust, but imagine him making Vash redo his piercings in whatever shithole they end up in for the night after a fight.

A happy, healthy Wolfwood has piercings lol

[femininom3non]

[isdalinarhot]

My favorite sex headcanon that is not fueled by lust in any way but just exists because it’s funny to me. Is that Evi has like a super mega piss kink like Cannot Get Off If There’s No Piss Involved kind of shit and Dalinar Does Not Have A Piss Kink At All but he’s like you know what. Some of Sadeas’s wildest fantasies are shit like wound fucking and forced castration so in comparison to that peeing on you every time we have sex is no biggie and so even though for Dalinar his Evi sex is lackluster unenthusiastic pretend-she’s-Navani reproductive at best, Evi’s Dalinar sex is wildly wildly good. Because she gets to have Dalinar pee on her. Love wins

[venusianspace]

[elio-monroe]

i have figured out how to put my erotica under a read more! rejoice!

blessed are the meek

[youcanbuyasaladglove]

Asuka/Raven is something I do not personally ship because I think it’s otherwise loveless and unrequited but I can’t not acknowledge the secret third thing it is (too fucked up to ignore)(submissive like a guard dog but you don’t want a dog at all)

[themotherofrevelation]

The sensation of pain is the veiled suora of pleasure. Sensation is sensual prāṇa in motion.