#divine understanding

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

ὄλβιος, ὅς θείων πραπίδων ἐκτήσατο πλοῦτον,/δειλὸς δ’, ὧι σκοτόεσσα θεῶν πέρι δόξα μέμηλεν.

Fortunate is the person who assembles a wealth of divine understanding, but a miserable wretch is he who tries to manipulate his fellow humans with his conjectures about the gods.

—Empedokles (Ἐμπεδοκλῆς) of Agrigentum, Fragment No. 132 (attr. Theophr., Caus. plant. I 13, 2)(c 444 BCE)

[Robert Scott Horton]

[ryanranney]

The Paradox of the Spirit

For the words of the spirit Are insane to the world’s sane And sane to the insane Unrighteous to the world’s righteous And righteous to the unrighteous For the spirit of the word Is folly to the wisdom of the world And wisdom to the folly of man Bondage to the will of the world And freedom to the will of man For the love of the spirit Is darkness to the seeking of self And light to the seeking of…

[compassionmattersmost]

Interfaith Harmony: Ganesha, the Universal Remover of Obstacles

There is an ancient story, older than memory, that speaks of a gentle presence who stands at the threshold of each journey. He is called Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. In Hindu tradition, he is worshipped as a friend and guardian of beginnings, an embodiment of wisdom and gentle strength. His form is unmistakable—an elephant head, eyes deep with understanding, a body both round and rooted, as…

[thorough-witness-enjoyer]

I think an severely underrated perspective of the Traveler comes from Peach the ghost and I think she’s the best for being something along the lines of an atheist /lighthearted

Like you’re so right girl, we don’t know much about the Traveler and probably never will, so we probably shouldn’t make our speculations into divine scripture.

I enjoy how her criticism points towards the Traveler not being much of a god people would want, much less an all powerful god who is so wise and knows so much about what it’s like to be a sentient human/ghost/eliksni/uluran/etc., it can predict the future and create a perfect predetermined fate for everyone.

She’s also right that if you cling onto the idea that the Traveler is an omniscient being that can craft purpose, without ever considering other perspectives on it, you’d have to come to terms with the fact that it would be an intentionally massive jerk for its behavior (and you’ll probably want to cut away at the imperfections of your people and combine their will into a single being who will hunt it down)

And above all, she’s right that we really shouldn’t hold what we think the Traveler would want for us above what we want for ourselves and we shouldn’t hold narratives we crafted of it to fit our feelings towards it as a singular, indisputable truth. We live for ourselves first and foremost, not for the Traveler’s approval. It’s probably just as lost as we are.

Also in regards to some recent lore about her watching Osiris with strand:

I love, love, LOVE when Destiny drops what seems to be a throwaway line in lore that came out years ago, only to revisit it later and turn it into something meaningful for the future. I start jumping up and down when I’m able to spot connections to old lore, I love it!

Guys make sure you think about how awesome Peach is at least once a day and remember, be a gardener when it comes to other perspectives on the nature of existentialism/spirituality/religion/divinity! It is our ability to share how we perceive reality that helps us appreciate cultural similarities and differences, even if you don’t agree with them, which makes us stronger and helps us break down harmful, dogmatic thinking.

[wardensantoineandevka]

it's kind of funny that we're back at the start, as it was known from the very beginning, as the story always was, the old lore: "the Divine Gate was built in response to the destruction and suffering of the Calamity as the Prime Deities realized was far too much and, as such, they needed to also remove themselves from Exandria to protect it from the ruin that the gods dwelling here brings"

[blood-orange-juice]

Considering how in other expansions the leading Harbinger shares thematic similarities with the Archon of that nation, could it be that Venti's thing is actually revenge.

[nellasbookplanet]

I know that after Downfall the perspective of 'the gods are a FAMILY' has permeated fandom on both sides of the kill-all-gods argument, but frankly that isn't all they are and acting as if it's suddenly their only motivation flattens both them as characters and the narrative they (and bells hells) are in.

The Wildmother and The Raven Queen didn't 'let' Lolth get away with nabbing Opal and killing Cyrus because she’s their sister. Come on man, we've already seen that the primes are plenty capable of opposing and fighting their siblings on the side of mortals (is the calamity a joke to you??). I'm not saying the primes aren’t capable of picking the lives of their betrayer siblings over mortals (downfall showed as much) but that's not what the situation with Opal and Lolth was about in the slightest.

They let Lolth 'get away with it' not because she’s family, but because this is the very rare instance of them not only having the same goal, but of them actively fighting for their lives. As far as we know that has only happened once before on Exandria, and that time they also entered a truce to defend themselves. The vast majority of the time, the primes picking their siblings over mortals won’t happen because mortals can’t actually threaten the gods (normally), making the 'they're family argument' a moot point. The primes won’t necessarily agree with Lolth's methods, but they won’t go throwing away both hers and their own champions in a meaningless struggle when they need all their strength to stop the fucking apocalypse.

[runawaymarbles]

I really wish I could be cool and edgy and nihilistic like "people are stupid and we're all going to die and we have that coming." But unfortunately people are stupid and I do give a shit and I don't want everyone to die and I don't think we actually have that coming despite the aforementioned stupidity. Very unfortunate. Way less satisfying. Everyone in my inbox is either willfully ignorant, heavily indoctrinated, or 14 years old, and I can't even be smug that they're going to suffer for it because I'm upset they are going to suffer for it (along with everyone else.) Like some sort of loser.

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

Part of Hans' deal, at least from my interpretation so far, is that he's envious of the freedom he perceives peasants of having, and Henry does seem to have a lot more freedom than most (the hinted at storytelling reason for why is ingenious, actually, because it feels like it'd make Henry just another special hero but really it'd make him a target).

Hans wants to go out drinking with his soldiers and court the daughters of the local artisans because he has a romantic understanding of their life and craves some of that freedom for himself. It's only through his relationship with Henry that he matures because Henry is the first person from that station he sees the entirety of and he starts understanding that Henry's not free either. I love Theresa's perspective for this reason too.

None of them are free but they persist and live and love anyway. If anything the war and the systems around them are obstacles they must puzzle through and overcome— it shapes them but doesn't define them.

[notyetgolden]

No one can annoy me more than people who hate on Shree Ram but call themselves Krishna Bhakt or vice versa. Or compare these two to prove one lesser than the other.

They're the same person for god's sake.

If you think they would disagree with each other's actions then sorry to break it to you, you're just being stupid and don't understand anything about any of them.

Same goes for the people comparing Maa Laxmi, Sita, Radha and Rukmini.

THEY'RE THE SAME PERSON.

[beadelmare]

i had the bright idea to talk to the gods through a dictionary (bc it's rlly precise ig?) and long story short, lord apollo told me to pursue the career i want (medicine), lord zeus wants to talk to me more, and lady demeter literally just said "hi, spring is here, just checking in, bye !!" THIS IS SO SWEET HELP MEEE

[thatringboy]

haven’t finished Amphoreus yet but if they send Sunday down to the surface he’s literally gonna get confused for titankin with his funky clothes and halo he’s gonna get his ass beat by mydei and NOT in the way my current wip suggests

[lucifers-favorite-child]

"Eurylochus got the crew killed when he opened the bag-" but he literally did not??? Are we all forgetting Get in the Water? Where Poseidon's storm is trapped in a windbag so Odysseus can get home, so instead Poseidon waits until Odysseus is home to get his ass! Poseidon literally shows up by saying "ODYSSEUS OF ITHACA!" He knows where that man lives! Or when Poseidon tells Odysseus to get in the water or he would kill his family, maim his son, and drown his entire kingdom? In what universe does Poseidon see the crew get home safely after the Cyclops saga and think "ah dang it! guess I'll get them next time." (Odysseus and Eurylochus obviously don't realize this during the Ocean and Lightning sagas, but what is your excuse???))

Within the context of the musical, Eurylochus did not get anyone killed! It was absolutely a betrayal of trust and a big fuck up, but he was not responsible for the crew's death. Odysseus is! That's half the point of his character! He's complex and interesting! He messed up majorly because he is arrogant, he was emotionally compromised from Polites's death and killing Astyanax (the infant), he's used to being the smartest person in the room, and he's used to having Athena's divine favor!!! Removing his responsibility makes him less interesting.

While we're here. Every time someone gets mad at Eurylochus for saying they should leave behind the men Circe turned into pigs, I lose three days of my life. "Why is Eurylochus mad at Ody for sacrificing 6 men when he said let's leave the men behind-" Because Odysseus knowingly sacrificed their lives with prior knowledge and without informing anyone beforehand, while making sure he lived. Whereas on Circe's island a powerful minor goddess just transformed several men into animals. They had no way of knowing if it's even possible to make them human again. And they JUST got away from Poseidon, another god, who killed 550 men. Eurylochus wasn't saying fuck the crew. He was saying "your arrogance with the cyclops just got most of our men killed, and now you want to get in a fight with another god without knowing if you can win. you are going to get the REST OF US KILLED TOO. Also I feel immense guilt and don't want to see you die too."

[nymphiqueish]

me when I'm a pure and dependent angel with pretty wings who wants to sing praises and sit at a god's feet except I have to pay taxes and go to my full time job and do dumb human things like "drink water"

[flowerbloom-arts]

The thing about being a non-american Simpsons fan is that as the show does all its reference humor it basically acts as a springboard and reason to consume/learn about the media it references, but the funny thing is that in doing so your brain recontextualizes a good chunk of American pop culture as a Simpsons reference.

Like, I was vaguely aware of 1961 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho" but I didn't watch it until I read Skinner's wiki which mentions that he's an awful lot like Psycho antagonist with mommy issues Norman Bates, and therefore I watched 1961 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho" to get a better understanding of his character (and in turn his relationship with Agnes), but now the film, to me, is 1961 film where Seymour Skinner's mommy issues are based on "Psycho".

Today I walked past a carnival shooting game branded with 1990 Mafia Movie "Goodfellas" (yes, I'm in that part of Europe) and all I could think was "Wowie, like the thing Louie Simpsons is based on!"

It's so funny.

[saltyowlets]

Alt text:

Vivienne is not pro-templar as many would think. She is just using the resources she has in hand in order to work with a system that would rather throw her and the rest of the mages into an inescapable pit. Vivienne's insistence of using the templars is indicative of her awareness of the dangers of magic but she has made it clear that as much as magic serves man, templars serves mages as protectors. She does not trust templars as much as the average mage but knows that there is no easy solution to the weak Veil and the lack of protection the mage rebellion has brought upon other Circle mages. Vivienne does not hate or look down upon other mages as her efforts are clearly to support the mages if she is made Divine. Additionally, her quest was initially supposed to be about collecting phylacteries in order to keep mages safe from templars and mage hunters. She cares about mages enough to chain the templars and if you have a good relationship with her, allow the College to exist.