#is that how we’re interpreting just like you in the year 2024….

[dreamings-free]

.

[1didofest]

1D I Do Fest - Masterpost 2024

Thank you to everyone who supported the fest and to all the authors who gifted us with these wonderful stories.

Twist of Fate by @freakingmeout28 / freakingmeout

Some marriages don't start with love… When his parents tell Harry that they expect him to marry Louis Tomlinson he's more than just against it, he hates them for thinking it would magically solve all his problems and make him their dream son. Louis on the other side isn't keen to marry someone like Harry either, but since it's his only way to save his family's name, he goes for it. Against their own will they get married and are sent on a honeymoon together where they don't have a chance to avoid each other. Their marriage doesn't start with love, but while Louis helps Harry fighting his alcohol addiction they find something in the other that they both needed. Through trials and tribulations, their bond strengthens, transcending the confines of tradition to blossom into a profound love story of resilience and redemption. A story for the 1D I Do fest, a very free interpretation of the following prompt: Arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, preferably larry, forced proximity. Sent on a honeymoon but it’s at the room in the Maldives thats in the middle of the ocean only accessed by boat. Featuring sharing of beds, secret pining, awkward morning wood, arguments but you cannot escape the other.

Guess What by @elmeiko88 / Elmeiko88

Harry should have done a better job of checking out the restaurant where he had decided to get down on one knee.

We Should Be Shooting For Them Stars Of Gold by @babyhoneyheslt / babyhoneyhslt

To make his dream of becoming a tour photographer come true, Harry reluctantly agrees to marry his annoying ex. Louis Tomlinson might be a big name in the music industry, but his reputation needs some polish. Neither of them expects this to end well, but maybe a two week honeymoon in the Maldives can change everything.

Who would have guessed? by SweetieR

“So why don’t we just shag?” “Like what? Like an enemies with benefits kinda shit?” blue eyes lit up in amusement, “Is that even a thing?” Harry shrugged. “It could be.” “But they always end up married when that happened in movies.” Louis made a face, clearly disgusted at the idea. “Don’t worry Louis,” Harry said, shaking his head in amusement. “I’m never ever gonna marry you.” “Trust me, the feeling is very mutual, Styles.” and then, “You’re only like an advanced sex toy.” Harry laughed at that, a genuine laugh. “Look at that.” he elbowed him, “We’re already agreeing on something.” Or - Prompt 2 / “It’s funny how I said I’d never marry you but here we are.”

he bought a ring (and he found the one) by @thefootnotes / whateverthecalamity

All Harry has ever wanted was the big white wedding with someone he loves; and he thinks he’s finally landed on it. That is, until a certain pair of bright blue eyes are looking up from the back of the chapel. Or the one where Harry Styles is looking for marriage, Louis Tomlinson is looking for closure, and both find something unexpected.

If I could Fly by @super--noah / SuperNoah

Just around the one year anniversary of their fake getting back together date, and what most people believe is their three year anniversary Louis has planned to pop the big question for real. It's his first evening off in several weeks and him and Harry had a date night planned. Plans change when Louis returns home to see Harry looking stressed about going out. Even if the evening has a few more non-happy tears than planned, the question is asked and answered. Which is how Harry and Louis ends up spending the summer holidays arguing over colours and food choices. Disagreements, hardship and tears eventually leads to I Do's and more, but very welcome, tears.

[mysticstronomy]

DOES THE UNIVERSE EXPAND BY STRETCHING OR CREATING SPACE??

Blog#401

Wednesday, May 15th, 2024.

Welcome back,

The evidence that the Universe is expanding is overwhelming. But how? By stretching the existing space, or by creating new space itself?

Raisin bread expanding Universe

Just as raisins within a leavening ball of dough will appear to recede from one another as the dough expands, so too will galaxies within the Universe expand away from one another as the fabric of space itself expands. In this analogy, the expanding Universe is described by space that "stretches," but that analogy doesn't work for every aspect of our expanding Universe.

The farther away we look in the Universe, the greater the amount that light, gravitational waves, and all signals are lengthened and dilated (or “redshifted”) by the expansion of space. This effect applies to all observations of objects beyond our own Local Group, but how, exactly, does space itself actually expand: by stretching, or by the creation of new space in the “gaps” opened up by cosmic expansion? The surprising answer is that both interpretations have their usefulness, but both analogies are fundamentally limited and will fail if you use them incorrectly. The expansion of the Universe is real, but no one analogy is perfect.

It’s been almost 100 years since humanity first reached a revolutionary conclusion about the nature of our Universe: space itself cannot and does not remain static, but rather evolves with the passage of time. One of the most unsettling predictions of Einstein’s general relativity is that any Universe — so long as it’s uniformly (or almost uniformly) filled with one or more species of matter, radiation, or energy — cannot remain the same over time. Instead, it must either expand or contract, something initially derived independently by three separate people: Alexander Friedmann (1922), Georges Lemaitre (1927), and Howard Robertson (1929), and was later generalized by Arthur Walker (1936).

Right at around the same time, starting in 1923, observations began to show that the spirals and ellipticals in our sky were actually galaxies: “island universes” that were well outside of our own Milky Way. With new, more powerful measurements, we could determine that the farther away a galaxy was from us, the greater the arriving light in our instruments was redshifted, or observed at longer wavelengths, compared to the light that was initially emitted. It was as though the very act of journeying through space altered the wavelength of that traveling light.

But what, exactly, happens to the fabric of space itself while this process occurs? Is the space itself stretching, as though it’s getting thinner and stretched out? Is more space constantly being created, as though it were “filling in the gaps” that the expansion creates? This is one of the toughest things to conceive of in modern astrophysics. If we think hard about it, however, we’re capable of wrapping our heads around it. Let’s explore what’s going on.

The starting point of our conversation has to be general relativity: our modern theory of gravity first put forth by Einstein. General relativity, at its core, is a framework that relates two things that might not obviously be related:

the amount, distribution, and types of energy — including matter, antimatter, dark matter, radiation, neutrinos, and anything else you can imagine — that are present all throughout the Universe,

and the geometry of the underlying spacetime, including whether and how it’s curved and whether and how spacetime itself will evolve.

If we inhabited a completely empty Universe, or a Universe that contains nothing within it at all — no matter, radiation, or energy of any form — you’d get the flat, Newtonian-like space you’re intuitively used to: something that’s static, uncurved, and unchanging.

But what if we then considered the absolute simplest case of a non-empty Universe? If, instead, we were to put down a point mass in the Universe, we’d find out that space was curved in a particular way: Schwarzschild space. Any “test particle” that we’d put down onto our Universe would be compelled to flow toward that mass, following a particular trajectory.

And if we were to then make our physical situation just a little bit more complicated, by putting down a point mass that also rotates, we’d get space that’s curved in a more complex way: according to the rules of the Kerr metric. It will have an event horizon, but instead of a point-like singularity, the singularity will get stretched out into a circular, one-dimensional ring. Again, any “test particle” you put down will follow the trajectory laid out by the underlying curvature of space.

These spacetimes are clearly much more complicated than a spacetime that’s simply flat. However, they are still “static” in the sense that any distance scales you might include or measure — like the size of the event horizon or the distance between two arbitrary points within this spacetime — don’t change over time. If we could somehow “exit” a Universe with this spacetime and return to it later, whether a second, an hour, or a billion years later, the structure of this spacetime would be identical, irrespective of when we returned to it.

In spacetimes like these, there’s no cosmic expansion that’s present. There’s no change in the distance or the light-travel-time between any points within this spacetime. With just one (or fewer) sources of matter inside, and no other forms of energy, these “model Universes” really can be static.

But it’s a very different game when you choose not to put down isolated sources of mass or energy, but instead to fill your Universe, uniformly, with “stuff” everywhere. In fact, the two criteria we normally assume about our Universe, and which are strongly validated by large-scale observations, are called isotropy and homogeneity.

Isotropy tells us that the Universe is the same in all directions: everywhere we look on cosmic scales, no “direction” looks particularly different or preferred from any other.

Homogeneity, on the other hand, tells us that the Universe is the same in all locations: the same density, temperature, and expansion rate exist to better than 99.99% precision on the largest scales.

As far as we can tell, our Universe, on large cosmic scales, is indeed both isotropic and homogeneous.

Originally published on https://bigthink.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, May 18th, 2024)

"WHAT IS THE DARK UNIVERSE??"

[skyfallscotland]

Fourth Wing Turns 1! 🎉🎈🎊

To celebrate a whole year since we crossed the parapet, here’s the prompt challenge we promised!

It’s a super casual, low stakes, community event—it’s meant to be fun! So no stress. @justallihere & I thought it would be fun if the prompts were like a lucky dip, so here’s how it’s going to work:

There’s three prompt categories: fluff, angst, and smut. Choose which one you’d prefer to write for, pop it in my ask box this week (May 2-9, 2024) and I’ll send you back a short dialogue prompt—make sure you’re not on anon! 🙂

You’ll then have the rest of the month of May to write your piece and post it either here or on AO3 (or both)! Minimum 500 words, no maximum.

Or, if you’re an artist and prefer to draw, you could do that too, totally up to you!

You can write gen or any pairing you like. The prompts are open to interpretation or paraphrasing, don’t feel like you have to use the exact words if you don’t want to, if you just use the general vibe that’s ok too. We really just want everyone to feel comfortable giving it a go, even if they’ve never posted anything before 🥹

When you post it, add the hashtag:

#FourthWingBirthdayBash

So everyone can find your work!

Finally, the prompts are some I’ve collected from across tumblr, they’re free for anyone to use but it would be very appreciated if you also tagged the original prompt creator (which we’ll send with the prompt) so people can find them too 💖 if you’re so inclined, some also have a ko-fi and you can buy them a coffee.

(Pssst, if you don’t finish it by the end of the month, that’s ok too, we’re super chill here)

Can’t wait to see what you come up with 🥰

[gatheringfiki]

Hello, hello!

As promised, we will try to run a Durin’s Day Gift Exchange again this year, provided we get a minimum of 10 people signed up :) If we can’t get enough people, we’ll likely have a break until the Trick or Treat Event.

Now, according to this source, the Durin’s Day this year falls on the 3rd of October. What a perfect opportunity to make someone’s day, we thought!

The Plan:

We’re looking to pair up fanartists (including graphics/edits makers) with fanfic authors

If you sign up, you will be expected to create a gift for your partner: either as a part of a joint collab or based on their existing works (art or fic)

If you decide to do a collab, it has to be a brand new idea (not an existing verse), which the two of you will work on together, one writing, the other doing the art for it.

If you decide to base your gift on your partner’s existing work, you can pick anything they published so far. You will have a month to familiarise yourself with their works and create your gift. As a bonus, your own work gets some extra exposure too :)

Guideline effort required: we suggest minimum around 3.5k words and ah, equivalent in artwork. (How do you quantify artwork?!) Like, decent stuff, folks.

Whatever you create is kept a secret until the 3rd of Oct (i.e. Durin’s Day), when everyone posts their gifts.

Tag your creations #Durin’s Day 2024 (with spaces) and we will reblog it

Please Note:

You agree that someone else creates something based on your work. Could be a spin-off, fanart, little story, graphic etc. But basically it’s somebody else’s interpretation of your universe.

We accept all the usual pairings (i.e. Fili/Kili or any fictional pairings based on Dean’s and Aidan’s characters). We’ll do our best to accommodate pairing preferences, but if we can’t, we’ll contact you.

The worst thing that could happen with this event is if multiple people drop out throughout. Whilst we understand that RL > fandom, please keep in mind that someone else is creating something based on your work and will be looking forward to it just as much as you are. Please keep your partner and us updated with your progress.

Dates:

24 - 31 Aug (ish)  - Both Artist and Writer signups open

31 Aug - Pairs are assigned at random and published in a post

3rd Oct - You post your gifts for each other, we reblog them

We will go ahead if we get a minimum of 5 artists and 5 writers signed up.

Sign ups:

To sign up, please send us an ask.

Yes, both artist sign ups and writer sign ups are open immediately, as of right now, simultaneously. Go forth.

This event is on a first come, first served basis, so please sign up as soon as you can

We always tend to have fewer artists than writers, so an extra pretty please to those of you who are thinking about it. If we get 10 writers and 0 artists, this event will not go ahead.

As always, please let us know and give us a shout if you have any questions!

Please reblog, to see if we can find more folks to join us!

~gatheringfiki

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Julian Adorney, Mark Johnson and Geoff Laughton

Published: Mar 23, 2024

In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard tells the story of a jet fighter pilot who was practicing high-speed maneuvers. As Willard puts it, “She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent—and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.”

What if we were flying upside down? But let’s go further. What if an entire generation was flying upside down–flying through fog and danger, unable to see either ground or sky, and the well-intended adjustments pushed on them by “experts” were just bringing them closer to catastrophe?

That’s the lens through which we interpret Abigail Shrier’s New York Times bestseller Bad Therapy.

There’s no denying that the youngest generation is in crisis. As the Addiction Center notes, members of Generation Z “run a higher risk of developing a substance abuse problem than previous age groups.” A 2015 report found that 23.6 percent of 12th graders use illicit drugs. The American Psychological Association reports that just 45 percent of Gen Zers report that their mental health is “very good” or “excellent,” compared with 51 percent of Gen Xers and 70 percent of Boomers. A concerning 42 percent of Gen Zers have been diagnosed with a mental health condition, and an astounding 60 percent take medication to manage their mental health.

It gets worse. The rate of self-harm for girls age 10-14 increased over 300 percent from 2001 to 2019 (before the pandemic). According to a 2021 CDC survey, 1 in 3 teenage girls have seriously considered killing themselves.

Well-meaning therapists, teachers, and school counselors are trying to help the next generation to rise up. But what if everyone involved is upside down? What if, like the fighter pilot that Willard describes, what they think is rising up is actually bringing them into deeper danger? Shrier makes a strong case that that’s exactly what’s happening.

Lots of educators encourage kids to spend more time checking in with their feelings. In the 2021-2022 school year, 76 percent of principals said that their school had adopted a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum. Common SEL practices include: asking students how they’re feeling at the start of each day, teaching that students should be more aware of how they’re feeling in any given moment, and encouraging students to use activities like writing and art to express their feelings.

The problem is that all of this obsession with feelings can actually make students feel worse. As Yulia Chentsova Dutton, head of the the Culture and Emotions Lab at Georgetown University, says, “Emotions are highly reactive to our attention to them.” “Certain kinds of attention to emotions, focus on emotions,” she explains, “can increase emotional distress. And I’m worried that when we try to help our young adults, help our children, what we do is throw oil into the fire.” Or to put it another way: when we ask kids over and over again how they’re feeling, we’re subtly and accidentally encouraging them to feel bad.

The reason is that, as psychiatry professor Michael Linden explains, most of us don’t feel happy all the time. Dealing with life involves ignoring a certain amount of moment-by-moment discomfort: I’m tired, my feet hurt, I’m sore from sitting down all day, I’m a little worried about my mom. When we encourage kids to check in many times per day on how they’re feeling, we’re tacitly encouraging them to bring to the surface–and then dwell on–all the things going on in their minds that are not “happiness.” That’s why, as Linden puts it, “Asking somebody ‘how are you feeling?’ is inducing negative feelings. You shouldn’t do that.”

But it gets worse.

Obsessing over our emotions can actually prevent us from doing the things that might make us feel better. Anyone who’s spent too long wallowing after a bad break-up knows this; at a certain point, you have to shelve your unpleasant emotions so that you can get on with your life. Psychologists describe two mental states that we can occupy at any given time: “action orientation” and “state orientation.” “State orientation” is where you focus primarily on yourself (e.g., how you feel about doing the task at hand, whether your wrist hurts or you’re starting to get sick, etc.). “Action orientation” is where you primarily focus on the task at hand. As a study published by Cambridge University Press notes, only the latter is actually conducive to pursuing and accomplishing goals. “State orientation is a personality that has difficulty in taking action toward goal fulfillment,” the authors warn. By encouraging young people to focus so much on their feelings, we might be hurting their ability to adopt the mindset necessary to accomplish goals in life. If so, that would make them even more unhappy. 

But the dangers posed by well-meaning “experts” telling students to fly in the wrong direction–towards the ground instead of towards the sky–go well beyond encouraging unhappiness and depression. Rates of suicide and self-harm for young people are skyrocketing. But in their attempts to cope with the spike, well-meaning administrators might be making the problem worse. Here are questions from the 2021 Florida High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey, administered to students age 14 and up:

During the past 12 months, did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing your usual activities?  During the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide?  During the past 12 months, did you make a plan about how you would attempt suicide?  During the past 12 months, how many times did you actually attempt suicide?  If you attempted suicide during the past 12 months, did any attempt result in an injury, poisoning, or overdose that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse?

A survey authored by the CDC asked students “During the past year, did you do something to purposely hurt yourself without wanting to die, such as cutting or burning yourself on purpose?” Another survey offered this question to Delaware middle schoolers: “Sometimes people feel so depressed about the future that they may consider attempting suicide or killing themselves. Have you ever seriously thought about killing yourself?”

Administrators may be asking these questions with the best of intentions, but the end result is to normalize suicide in young peoples’ minds. If you were 12 years old and taking a survey like this along with all of your classmates, you might reasonably conclude that suicide, or at least suicidal ideation and/or self harm, were pretty common at your school. Otherwise, why would everyone your age have to take such an exhaustive assessment about it?

One reason this is so dangerous is that, as Shrier writes, “The virality of suicide and self-harm among adolescents is extremely well-established.” Following the release of Netflix’s TV show 13 Reasons Why, which some said valorized a fictional girl who killed herself, several studies found a spike in teen suicide rates. The CDC agrees. In a post warning about the dangers of “suicide contagion,” the CDC said that journalists should avoid things like:

“Engaging in repetitive, ongoing, or excessive reporting of suicide in the news.”

“Reporting ‘how-to’ descriptions of suicide.”

“Presenting suicide as a tool for accomplishing certain ends” (i.e., as a “means of coping with personal problems”).

But this is most of what the surveys described above are doing. They are deluging students with repetitive and excessive discussion of suicide. They are describing different methods for killing yourself (e.g., cutting or burning yourself). One survey, which asks students who have considered killing themselves why they did so (possible answers include “demands of schoolwork,” “problems with peers or friends,” and “being bullied”) is a textbook example of presenting suicide as a “means of coping with personal problems.”

The authors of these surveys seem to at least recognize the risk that students are flying upside down, and that these surveys might take them closer to the ground. One survey concludes by telling students, “If any survey questions or your responses have caused you to feel uncomfortable or concerned and you would like to talk to someone about your feelings, talk to your school’s counselor, to a teacher, or to another adult you trust.” The survey also includes links to different hotlines.

Communicating to kids that suicide is normal and a possible solution to their problems might be the worst way that some schools are failing kids, but it’s also far from the only way.

Schools are increasingly lax about standards, willing to let almost anyone get away with almost anything. Some accommodations do make sense: for example, it makes sense to give a kid with dyslexia more time to complete the verbal component of the SAT. But Shrier argues that standards are falling for perfectly healthy students too. “School counselors—students’ in-school ‘advocates,’” Shrier writes, now “lobby teachers to excuse lateness or absence, forgive missed classwork, allow a student to take walks around the school in the middle of class, ratchet grades upward, reduce or eliminate homework requirements, offer oral exams in place of written ones, and provide preferential seating to students who lack even an official diagnosis.”

Shrier documents stories of students who have been allowed to turn in work late because they were having a “tough Mental Health Day” or because “I was having a rough day and dealing with my gender identity.”

The problem with this is that one of the primary things that children and teenagers do is try to figure out the boundaries of the world. When a child throws a tantrum, it’s not malicious–they’re trying to understand this new world and figure out what they can get away with. As Jordan Peterson writes in Twelve Rules for Life, young children are “like blind people, searching for a wall.” “They have to push forward, and test,” he writes, “to see where the actual boundaries lie.” What’s true of young children is also true of older children and even (to a lesser extent) adults. All of us are trying to figure out the rules of life–that is, what we can get away with. If well-meaning teachers and counselors tell students that one of the rules is that you don’t have to do your homework on time if you say that you’re having a rough day, then we shouldn’t be surprised when more young people seem to manifest rough days.

But this is the opposite of what students need–especially the truly disadvantaged students who so many of these efforts seem to be aimed at helping. In his memoir Troubled, clinical psychologist Rob Henderson writes that, “People think that if a young guy comes from a disorderly or deprived environment, he should be held to low standards.” But, he warns, “this is misguided. He should be held to high standards. Otherwise, he will sink to the level of his environment.”

So kids are depressed, anxious, and poorly behaved. Educators are trying to help them by encouraging them to tap in more to their feelings, by asking them more questions about suicide, and by trying to accommodate their difficulties even more. But all of this is backwards. Educators are encouraging students to do what they think will take them higher–away from the ground and back to the safety of the sky. But both kids and educators are upside down. And every adjustment that the “experts” are telling kids to make just brings them closer to the ground–and a catastrophic collision.

Now’s a good time to emphasize that this isn’t all schools, all teachers, or all administrators–not by a long shot. There are heroic educators working every day to help students to rein in their problems, stop taking advantage of accommodations that they don’t need, and develop the emotional resilience to deal with the problems of adolescence. But the problems documented above do represent a trend. And while it’s not every school, the trend is too big to ignore.

What will happen if this trend continues–if an entire generation keeps going “up” until they crash into the ground? Most severe and most damaging is the harm to the generation itself. Shrier tells the story of Nora, a 16-year-old girl who helps put a human face on all of the brutal statistics described in the introduction to this piece. Nora describes her friends as going through a litany of serious mental health problems: “anxiety,” “depression”; “self-harm” (as Shrier notes, “lots of self-harm”) including “Scratching, cutting, anorexia,” “Trichotillomania” (pulling your hair out by the roots); and more. As Shrier writes, “Dissociative identity disorder, gender dysphoria, autism spectrum disorder, and Tourette’s belong on her list of once-rare disorders that are, among this rising generation, suddenly not so rare at all.”

But the dangers can also ripple out beyond just one generation. The full danger may be nothing less than an imperiling of our democracy.

As Shrier notes, many kids in school are almost constantly monitored. Her own kids have “recess monitors” at their school–“teachers who involve themselves in every disagreement at playtime and warn kids whenever the monkey bars might be slick with rain.” On the bus home, they have “bus monitors.” Better that kids know they’re being observed by an adult at all times than that one kid push another to give him his lunch money.

One of the most pervasive forms of monitoring is what are called “shadows”—ed techs or paraeducators whose job is to cling closely to one particular student so that they don’t have any issues. The original intention certainly made sense. If a child had autism, a shadow could help the kid to integrate into the main classroom rather than being sent to Special Ed. But, as Shrier notes, scope creep has been substantial. “Today,” she writes, “public schools assign shadows to follow kids with problems ranging from mild learning disabilities to violent tendencies.” Nor is the problem restricted to public schools: “private schools advise affluent parents to hire shadows to trail neurotypical kids for almost any reason.” Shadows monitor and guide almost every interaction with their chosen student, from when to raise her hand to how long to hug a fellow student.

As Peter Gray, professor of psychology at Boston College and an expert on child development, puts it, “Kids today are always under the situation of an observer. At home, the parents are watching them. At school, they’re being observed by teachers. Out of school, they’re in adult-directed activities. They have almost no privacy.”

But when kids spend their entire waking lives being monitored by an adult, they start to think that kind of monitoring is normal. Worse, they start to think that they need it. If a child gets constant guidance from an adult, what are the odds that she’s going to cultivate her own independence? If she expects authoritarian adults to monitor and run every aspect of her life already, what is she going to think of a liberal democracy that more-or-less leaves people free to handle their own affairs?

No wonder just 27 percent of Americans age 18-25 strongly agree with the statement that “Democracy may have problems, but it is the best system of government” (compared to 48 percent of Americans as a whole). 

So what’s the solution? If our kids are upside down and getting lower to the ground, then the only thing that makes sense is to help them reverse course. Is there something that’s the opposite of always asking them about their feelings, telling them that life is too much for them or their peers to cope with, and constantly telling them that they’re too fragile to do their homework if they’re having a rough day? Yes. That something is called antifragility.

Antifragility is the idea that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Greg Lukianoff note in The Coddling of the American Mind, kids are naturally antifragile. That doesn’t just mean that they’re tough. It means that “they require stressors and challenges in order to learn, adapt, and grow.” Not letting a kid hand in homework late doesn’t just teach them to do their homework on time; it also teaches them that they can deal with a 0 in class and not die. They can pick themselves up, brush themselves off, and even earn an A in the class overall if they bust a sweat for the rest of the semester. Telling a kid who’s having a “tough mental health day” that you’re sorry to hear it but they still need to take today’s test doesn’t just teach the kid that low-level excuses don’t fly; it also teaches them that a hard day isn’t enough to stop them. It teaches them that they’re stronger than whatever negative emotions they’re currently experiencing.

It’s time to remind kids that they are strong–before it’s too late.

All quotes not otherwise attributed come from Abigail Shrier’s book Bad Therapy.

-

About the Authors

Julian Adorney is a Contributing Writer to FAIR’s Substack and the founder of Heal the West, a Substack movement dedicated to preserving and protecting Western civilization. You can find him on X at @Julian_Liberty.

Mark Johnson is a trusted advisor and executive coach at Pioneer Performance Partners and a facilitator and coach at The Undaunted Man. He has more than 25 years of experience optimizing people and companies. He blogs at The Undaunted Man’s Substack.

Geoff Laughton is a Relationship Architect/Coach, multiple-International Best-Selling Author, Speaker, and Workshop Leader. He is the founder of The Undaunted Man. He has spent the last twenty-six years coaching people world-wide, with a particular passion for supporting those in relationship, and helping men from all walks of life step up to their true potential.

[buckybarnesevents]

Mods:  HR (buckyismybicycle) &  Maya (cable-knit-sweater) Email: buckybarnesevents@gmail.com Discord: https://discord.gg/buckybarnesevents

What is Build-a-Bucky Bingo?

Very much like Build a Bear, you get to customize what your Bingo card will look like! You will get a list of prompts to choose from for each month. Each list will include a few of the following: AUs, NSFW/kinks, SFW prompts, quotes, places and general prompts open for interpretation.

RULES

This is an 18+ only event. All participants acknowledge that they are over the age of 18 by signing up.

Be kind. Any kind of hate (kink bashing/shaming, harassment, hate speech, toxic behavior, etc.) will not be tolerated at any point. There will be no warnings given and if proven to have exhibited any disagreeable behaviors, you will be removed from the event.

Tag your works accordingly. We expect explicit works, and that will contain squicks, triggers, etc.  We believe in Kinktomato here. YKINMKATOK (Your Kink Is Not My Kink (And That’s OK) but you are responsible for advising our readers what to expect.

Bucky Barnes (in any form) must be prominently featured in your fanwork - the main character, or part of the main ship/pairing of your fic/art/creation/etc.  For example, if you write a fic with Stony as the main pairing and Stucky as a side pairing, this would not be eligible for the BABB as it is not Bucky-focused. This event, as always, is open to any and all pairings as long as they involve our favorite murder muffin.

All works must be tagged for any Major Archive Warnings (Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage) that the work contains. If there are none, make sure to select No Archive Warnings Apply. Works tagged as Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings and works not tagged will not be shared. 

SCHEDULE

October 1, 2023 - Sign-ups for round one premade cards & build-your-own cards open

November 1, 2023 - All cards go out / First prompt list is published

September 1, 2024 - Last day to request a premade card or build-your-own card

October 31, 2024 - Last day to post fills & submit final masterpost

November 30, 2024 - All badges go out

SIGN-UP

Join this round of Build-A-Bucky-Bingo using this link. Be sure to use an email you check regularly – if we need to be in touch, that is likely how we will reach out! 

For this bingo there will be two options: a premade card or a build-your-own-card. 

Premade cards:

There will be two types of premade cards: SFW or NSFW. 

Build-Your-Own cards

At the start of each month, a list of 12 prompts and 1 substitute will be shared (by email, tumblr, and on the discord server). The prompt list will include prompts from each of the following categories: Angst, Tropes, SFW, NSFW and General. 

When you sign up, you’ll receive your bingo card that you can fill out as you go. This can be done on any program from Paint to Canva, but should you have any questions, please contact a mod.

You’ll be able to choose as many of the monthly prompts as you’d like, and take as long as you want (until the end of the round) to fill them.

POSTING

Tumblr: When posting to Tumblr, please mention us so we can reblog using "@buckybarnesevents"

Tags for your post should include #BaBB2023 and all your usual fic tags, warnings, etc. as mentioned above.

Please list what month & prompt you are posting for.

AO3 Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/BuildABuckyBingo2023 

Badges:

Looking for a reward for your hard work? We have 4 different badges you can earn throughout this event. We’re working on the honour system – if you think you’ve met the criteria, then you get the badge! Keep an eye out for the badge claim form in early October 2024. 

It’s Plum Season: Plums are in season for three months of the year – you’ve completed 3/12 squares of your card! 

Some Assembly Required: Completed 9/12 squares – you’re really just missing like… the left arm, really 

Build-a-Blackout: completed a full card!

Participant Badge: completed at least one fill.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I have more than one card?  BBE wants to promote as many low stress events as possible. It is recommended that you only have 1 card, as that is still 12 fills to complete. If you truly feel like you want a challenge and would like more than 1 card, please reach out to a mod or reach us at buckybarnesevents@gmail.com. 

What if I sign up, but I miss a month? If you missed a month (ie - did not take a prompt or did not complete the fill), not to worry. You can still complete this fill, even if the month has passed. So long as you have finished all twelve prompts before the end of the event, it still counts!  

What kind of works can I submit? All works should be new content (ie - has not been previously posted).  New chapters to existing works are allowed. They must be tagged appropriately. Bucky Barnes in any form (Winter Soldier, Bucky Cap, etc.) must be the focus of your work.  ✵ FANFICTION: The minimum word count is 200 words, unless you are writing a drabble, which has to be 100 words exactly. ✵ FANART: Minimum a linked sketch ✵ MOODBOARDS: At least 3 images. ✵ PLAYLISTS: At least 10 songs and some sort of graphic.  ✵ REC LISTS: At least 5 works and some sort of graphic.  ✵ GIFSETS: At least 3 images.  ✵ CRAFT: Something you can photograph You can create as many works as you want for any of the prompts, but the minimum is only 1 fill each prompt you choose (event minimum: 12 fills).

Does this event require a masterpost? Yes. Because we do not require you to fill out a submission form for each fic, your masterpost acts as one big submission form and your badge claim(s). If you do not submit a masterpost, we cannot verify your fills.

If you still have any questions or concerns, please let us know! dividers from @rookthornesartistry 💕

[hylaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

AgneKari Week 2024 Official Prompts and Rules

Hello friends! Thank you to everyone who showed interest in AgneKari Week 2024! We are excited to announce the prompts and rules for AgneKari Week 2024!

Join us from August 11-17!

We are so pleased to announce the first annual AgneKari Week, a full seven days dedicated to the adorableness that is Agnea Bristarni/Hikari Ku from Octopath Traveler II. All are welcomed to participate in this event with fanart, fanfiction, poetry, musical compositions, crafts, and any other creative outlet of your choice.

Please see below for full event information!

How to participate:

During the week of August 11-17, share your creative works related to Agnea/Hikari! You can participate as little or as much as you would like – no need to come up with something for every day. Check out the prompt list below to inspire you, and help us spread the word by liking, resharing, giving kudos, and commenting on other participants’ work.

When uploading works to Archive of our Own (AO3), please drop them in the “AgneKariWeek2024” collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/AgneKariWeek2024 

When posting works to social media, please use the #AgneKariWeek2024 tag so that others can easily reshare!

Prompts:

For each day, we are providing two prompts to choose from. You can pick your favorite or try to combine them. Don’t be afraid to get creative – all potential interpretations of the prompts are welcomed! And if the prompts aren’t speaking to you, no worries. Thursday is a free day, when you can write, draw, or produce anything you’d like, as long as it relates to Agnea/Hikari.

Full prompt list:

Sunday, August 11: Home | Path

Monday, August 12: Music | Hot

Tuesday, August 13: Travel | Rest

Wednesday, August 14: First | Fall

Thursday, August 15: Bewildering Grace (Free Day)

Friday, August 16: Joy | Sorrow

Saturday, August 17: Shadow | Dawn

Where to go for more information:

Follow the official AgneKari Week twitter/X account @AgneKariWeek

Join the official AgneKari discord: discord.gg/ppQFjwnX

Or email any questions to AgneKariWeek@gmail.com

Who’s steering this ship?

We have two moderators, myself and Ivy!

You can find Ivy on Twitter (@Ivy_WritesYall), Discord (@pomegranate_leaves) and AO3 (@azuki_porridge).

You can find me on Tumblr (@hylaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa), Discord (@hygirl), and AO3 (@hiya_girlie).

Other questions and answers:

I want to participate, but I don’t want to write or draw. Is there anything I can do?

There are plenty of ways you can participate! Tell an artist or writer what you like about their work, repost some of your favorites, or get creative – compile a playlist, make a mood board, or bake themed cupcakes! All ideas are welcome.

Can I share information about AgneKari Week on my social media channels?

Absolutely – in fact, we would love it if you did! Feel free to direct folks to the official channels for more information.

Can I include background ships?

Sure! Just make sure they are tagged appropriately.

Can I write/draw explicit content?

We ask that all previews be non-explicit so that we can share freely, but as long as your work is tagged appropriately, there are no rating limits!

I like Agnea and Hikari but want to depict them as friends. Is that okay?

We agree that friendship is a great ship! Feel free to depict them as friends – we just ask that you don’t pair them romantically with anyone else if you tag your work as part of AgneKari week. And please bear in mind that folks may still interpret it as romantic.

Why is the free day called Bewildering Grace?

Because we’re wondering what will happen!

I have a prompt idea for AgneKari week. Where can I submit it?

Please send any ideas to the email address listed above! The prompts for this year are finalized, but we would love to hear your thoughts on prompts for future weeks.

I have a question that’s not listed here. What should I do?Reach out to the mods on any of the channels listed above, and we’ll do our best to get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.

Thanks for joining us for our inaugural AgneKari week, and we hope you have a wonderful time!

-Mod Hy♥️

[bfvillage]

Boyfriend Village is open for submissions!

What is Boyfriend Village?

Boyfriend Village is, acclaimed literary journal, Black Warrior Review’s online edition, released once and sometimes twice a year. 

We just opened submissions for our new issue More Than One Boyfriend!

Our submission call for the issue is as follows:

Black Warrior Review is seeking submissions of all genres for our eighth edition of Boyfriend Village: More Than One Boyfriend.

There’s a misconception about writing being a solitary pursuit. Even as a singular author working with a single piece of paper at a desk with only one chair, you have to ask: who provided the ink? How many people were involved in making the desk and the chair? How much history of production, engineering, mathematics, government, and philosophy is behind this single moment? More Than One Boyfriend seeks to correct this misconception by encapsulating the ways in which writing, like everything else, is a communal pursuit.

This might mean work authored by more than one person, yes, but also any work that is informed by more than one practice, more than one medium, more than one language, more than one voice, and more than one piece of art. It means ekphrastic work, erasure, reiteration, and bilingual writing. It means writing in conversation with and incorporating visual art, music, and interactivity; art that moves more than one of the senses. It means intersectional writing from writers with multifaceted backgrounds, whose work speaks to more than one mode of being. Writing that highlights more than one experience, more than one point of view, more than one voice, more than the one perspective we’re used to hearing the story from. Writing about the collaborative spirit; writing that tells the reader that they are more than just one.

More Than One Boyfriend asks for work that is more than itself.

This year’s issue is helmed by our first collaborative team of Online Editors, Darby Power & Jaric Sarmiento! Find out more about this dream team, and their vision for this year’s Boyfriend Village, on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and Mastodon. 

Submissions are open between April 1st, 2024, and May 1st, 2024. While themed, this is open to interpretation. If you think your boyfriend(s) might belong in our village, don’t hesitate—send them along!

[the-power-of-stuff]

yes you GET it!!!!

i love the idea of live actions sokka’s blatant sexism being almost triggered. it comes out when he’s agitated and has been shown up which i think would translate better to live action than just straight up jokes like in the cartoon. i think we’re in an age where misogynistic remarks are made more out of anger than in old timey jokes

“the pride she feels about being a guardian for her village ends up damaging his pride” completely!!! not only do we get to see her as the badass warrior that she very obviously is, but her drive beliefs and motivations behind what she does and who she is are so clearly laid out.

my biggest gripe with the episode was definitely the lack of buildup for sure. and the kiss. not that sukka were ever really slow burn, but that constant distance where they would meet intermittently and have those intimate moments made it feel like they were

maybe that’s something that can be not so much rectified in the next season, but worked on? because if their first kiss came about so quickly, i feel like the conflict of them next time they’re together should be greater than sokka’s overprotectiveness. or maybe it should be played up more - which i guess it will be as their whole arc that episode was condensed to twenty minutes. idk!!!!

ooo i like your predictions!! i feel like if they go with a year or so time jump then maybe it’ll go more similarly for them in s2? sure, they kissed when they last saw each other, but there’s been some time since then.

sokka’s been involved with yue, and i’d like to think amidst her travels with the kyoshi warriors suki has had time for a fling or two herself. they were each others first kiss, their first encounter with someone from the opposite sex their age, and while it clearly meant something to them, they were younger.

idk though, that’s me trying to rationalise their first kiss being so early. i’ve been interpreting their kiss as yes, definitely a romantic one, but also as a thank you from suki for, like she said, showing her the world. for being that last big push towards her leaving.

i’m rambling now so sorry for another long ask!! but on a slightly different note, i’ve seen some float around the idea of the suki and the kyoshi warriors having their own sort of mini subplot in s2 to do with the dai li.

i’m not 100% sold on this idea yet, but i thought it would be an interesting angle to have two groups/organisations that kyoshi founded at conflict. if done right it could just alter where the kyoshi warriors find appa without changing much else.

here’s the link that i saw posted on the atlatv sub - https://knightedgemedia.com/2024/02/suki-deserves-her-own-original-subplot-in-netflixs-avatar-the-last-airbender-season-2/

anyway thank you for such a detailed response! i love your blog so much and always appreciate how much detail you go into even answering lil old asks like mine <3<3

and i’d definitely be interested in reading a reimagining of the ep from you👀👀 no pressure tho!!!

Ooh, thank you for sharing that Suki theory! I do love the potential for building out more of the Kyoshi Warriors' storyline and explaining what they got up to between leaving the ferry station and discovering Appa. In the episode where they're crossing the Serpent's Pass, Suki mentions that she's heard the Fire Nation is working on something on the other side of the lake that they don't want anyone to know about, so clearly she's privy to some gossip at her ferry job. I always thought it would be neat if she and the Warriors decided to leave the ferry station to investigate, and that's how they ended up in the forest where they found Appa. But the idea of tying the Kyoshi Warrior's adventures into the Dai Li's conspiracies could be a cool way to pull Suki more deeply into the main story.

I wrote into a fic a while ago that Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors got fed up with the bureaucracy of the ferry station and how trying to "maintain order" actually ends up being harmful to people (e.g., the lady in charge would rather force a pregnant woman to walk across a deadly pass than help her find her stolen property or otherwise get her onto the ferry), and it ends up being sort of eye-opening for them that the Fire Nation aren't the only ones doing harm in this war. (And in my story, that's ultimately why the Warriors end up leaving.) I think it could be interesting for the LA to delve more into this aspect of how the Earth Kingdom is dealing with the war, and it seems like the kind of thing that could fit with the darker tone they want the series to take. But however they end up doing it, I'd love to see them develop more of an explanation for why the Warriors are where they are when the find Appa!

Also I had a lot of fun thinking about a different take on the second episode of the LA. Got me through a dentist appointment lollll... Throwing my thoughts under the cut!

Okay, I’m totally stealing your idea about Sokka’s latent sexism coming out when he's provoked, cuz I just think 1) it makes sense as a defense mechanism for a guy who's feeling insecure in himself, and 2) it raises the stakes for him and Suki. XD

So! We keep “you’re trespassing on sacred ground!” and Suki being the one to tackle Sokka. I would’ve liked to have seen a little bit more of an action sequence during the ambush, so we (and Sokka) get a real taste of the Kyoshi Warriors’ skill. 

The Kyoshi statue glows, they have the village hall meeting. Sokka’s eyeing Suki the whole time with grudging interest. Suki notices and looks at him narrow-eyed, tilting her chin up at him and then looking away abruptly. She’s not sure how she feels about him yet.

Afterwards they walk, and Sokka does his whole, “I’m my village’s protector, too,” thing, to which Suki responds, “I don’t see how that could be true if you’re here.” Sokka stumbles, says something like, “Yeah, I mean, good point, it’s just…this was more important.” And then Suki gets heated (what could be more important than protecting your people??) and gives the Kyoshi Warrior spiel. 

That evening, Sokka rants to Katara and Aang about it. Katara’s like, “Sokka, it doesn’t matter, just let it go,” and Sokka’s all, “It does matter! Just because we’re here with Aang doesn’t mean our village isn’t safe! I worked hard to protect us all those years and— and anyway, helping Aang helps the village!” But inside he’s also thinking, “Have I let my people down? Or did they not need me that badly in the first place?”

The next day, Sokka storms over to the dojo, sees the Warriors practicing, and scoffs. “Fans? That’s your weapon?” and Suki’s like, “Excuse me?” Sokka goes, “At least I trained with real weapons—” “Real weapons, huh? Fine, let’s see it, then.” Sokka’s a little taken aback but he pulls out his club, they get into a stance, Sokka attacks, and Suki easily disarms him with her fans. “Well, Southern Water Tribe warriors are more known for hand-to-hand combat—” Suki immediately puts her fans away and gets into another stance. Sokka grits his teeth and attacks again, but Suki tackles him much like she did at the beginning of the episode. She’s hovering over him and he looks at her and his look of shock becomes a little sad. “I’m a bit out of practice,” he says, and Suki straightens, crosses her arms, and says snarkily, “Feel free to come back when you’re better prepared.”

Later, he comes back and Suki’s like, “Ready for a rematch?” but he gets on his knees and asks to be trained. Suki’s very surprised and just stares at him for a while. He apologizes. “Truthfully, there isn’t much need for warriors in my village…” And this strikes a chord with Suki because it’s not like there’s much need for warriors in her village, either (seeing as how they've kept themselves out of the war)… So she agrees to train him. But she says, “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right,” and pulls out a spare uniform.

After Sokka gets dressed he looks at Suki and asks, “Face, too?” “Of course.” And he tells her—but sincerely; not bragging, this time—that he actually knows about putting on facepaint because of the SWT warrior paint. And this time when Suki asks him to demonstrate, she's also being sincere. He starts putting on the Kyoshi Warrior paint, and she helps him, and oops! romantic tension.

They train. Suki is strict but there’s still a lot of closeness and touching. We get to see Sokka use the fans. We get to see Sokka almost best Suki before she gets over her surprise thirst and overtakes him. But then she’s still all “oh shit he’s hot” so she gets up. Training’s over.

I loved the delivery of, “Thanks, um…you’re a great teacher.” “And you’re an excellent student.” So I’m keeping that. Suki acknowledges Sokka’s role as his village’s protector. Sokka, sadly, “Can’t protect them if I’m not there, can I?” And Suki looks at him earnestly. “I’m sure that you made sure they were safe before they left.” “Why are you sure of that?” “Because we’re warriors. And it’s what I would have done.” Enter “you’re the fiercest warrior I’ve ever seen” and “truth is I envy you” spiel. They share an intimate look, like maybe they’re about to kiss, and then the bell rings.

I also really, really loved the moment where Suki goes, “The bell,” and Sokka, all dreamy and lovestruck, says, “You hear it, too?” because OMG what an adorable sap. So I’m keeping that, too. 

They go kick ass together. Sokka jumps in front of Suki to save her from a fireball with his fans. And as much as I like the idea of Suki getting to see a manifestation of Avatar Kyoshi right before her very eyes, I would actually take that part out because for a lot of thematic reasons that I won’t get into here, I prefer Aang and Katara realizing they should retreat to draw fire away from the island, rather than being told they have to leave. And because of that, Sokka and Suki’s goodbye has to be hurried.

While they're ducking for cover, Sokka apologizes again. "Suki, I'm sorry... For treating you like a girl. I mean...you are a girl, but for treating you like just a girl. I mean, a girl who isn't a warrior. I'm sorry for treating you like girls can't be warriors—"

Suki smiles and shakes her head, then kisses his cheek.

"Thank you, Sokka. For showing me that there's more out there."

He gapes at her.

"Now get out of here! We'll hold them off.”

He escapes with Aang and Katara, and while they're flying away on Appa, Sokka pulls off the headdress and runs his thumb over it thoughtfully. Aang says “Nice dress, Sokka,” and Sokka looks up and says, “It's a warrior’s uniform.” 

~fin!~

(I, too, enjoy the sort of slow burn way their relationship develops in the animated show, so I definitely get how you feel about the lack of buildup, Anon. So if it were my rewrite, I would keep that aspect in. ;))

Thank you so, so much for your asks!! I'm having a blast answering them, and I'm so happy to hear you enjoy my blog! 💗💗💗Feel free to keep 'em coming if there's anything else you wanna talk about!

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Saturn stations retrograde

Timeline (current events in bold)

Saturday, March 11, 2023, 23:06 UT - transiting Saturn enters pre-retrograde shadow, 0°31’ Pisces

Saturday, June 17, 2023, 17:28 UT - transiting Saturn stations retrograde, 7°13’ Pisces

Saturday, November 4, 2023, 07:03 UT - transiting Saturn stations direct, 0°31’ Pisces

Wednesday, February 7, 2024, 15:01 UT - transiting Saturn exits post-retrograde shadow, 7°13’ Pisces

First of all, Saturn has been in Pisces since March 7, 2023 - and remains in Pisces until 2025/2026 (thanks to retrogradation, it will enter Aries in May 2025, only to scuttle back into Pisces for several more weeks, a couple of months later). This will be the vibe for a long time; it’s something we’re going to have to get comfortable with.

I’m now 65 years old, which (in the US) means my official demographic group is called “elderly” - I mean, what the actual fuck; come on, now!! When did this happen?!?

This doesn’t automatically make me an expert on Saturn, but I admit I do feel rather more comfortable with its energies. My natal Saturn is retrograde in Sagittarius/2nd, also, which feels like a good situation. (Be nice if it meant “a materially bountiful old age” too.) So let me try to interpret Saturn retrograde in Pisces, in a way that won’t terrify or bore all of you youngsters.

With Saturn being the master of solitude, and Pisces being about retreat from the world - one strong theme of this transit is “being able to be by yourself.” Perhaps since Saturn entered this retrograde zone, you have noticed this? In whichever house(s) Saturn has been transiting, you’re being asked to “go it alone” - we could even say you have the responsibility of going it alone, maybe even an imperative. (I’m reminded of the US folk tale “The Little Red Hen.”)

Another theme is putting some spirituality (Pisces) around how we create structure (Saturn). Religious ritual is one way this manifests. We are more easily able to integrate spiritual disciplines into our lives.

Overall, the Saturn/Pisces transit is a great time for spiritual breakthroughs. In The Book of Water, astrologer Steven Forrest wrote:

Committed, disciplined, relentless effort undertaken willingly now yields extraordinary results - but not overnight. Patience and relentlessness are rewarded as the months go by. This is more of a time for making lifelong spiritual vows than a time for “amazing weekend workshops.” Solitude is a sacrament. Silence is a psychedelic.

Of course there are ways this can go awry. There will be dire consequences (Saturn rules karma) if we rely too heavily on escapism - or if we do escapism “wrong,” eg, in a harmful manner. Paralysis by guilt is another potential hazard, as is a kind of fatalistic nihilism - “what’s the use.”

The process is as follows:

Consider the position of your natal Saturn - this is the motivator for what transiting Saturn is driving you to do.

Look at the natal house(s) Saturn/Pisces is transiting. This is where the action is; here is where you need to grow up a little.

Will Saturn make any aspects to your Sun, Moon, or an angle? What about to the rulers of those angles? Possible issues are shown. (In my case, there’s zero going on, in this department. Sometimes this happens. It won’t be so difficult for me, but I have no helpers, either.)

The natal house(s) with Capricorn on the cusp (and to a certain extent the Aquarius house(s) show the ultimate results.

Saturn doesn’t make any aspects to the slower-moving planets during this time - just the occasional meet-up with the speedier ones. To me that means we get to grapple with this on our own individual levels, without feeling bound up with what’s going on in the rest of the world.

[musicarenagh]

Black Silver: Preserving the Essence of Hip-Hop in a Modern Landscape Guys, let’s talk about Black Silver, a name that’s been ringing through the underground hip hop for years now. This guy ain’t just some rapper, this is a legend who’s seen and done everything. He's known as The Navigator or Silver Synth, but he's much more than an emcee—Sterling World Records, he's its CFO. Black Silver was back roaring in 2023 after taking a little time away from the spotlight to prove he’s still got that magic touch. This is his latest project, *Weaponized Alchemy*, hitting stores on November 15th, and you DO want to hear it. He’s teamed up with some serious talent; DJ Obi, Main Flow and El Gant all bring the A game. 'Magnum 88' is incredible and the second single, a killer track, showing that Black Silver hasn't lost his edge and which dropped on November 14th, and listen it's a winner. He’s joined by El Gant and Main Flow, providing a track that’s both classic and fresh. It feels like old school hip hop but made for 2024. It’s what sets Black Silver apart from a lot of other kids who make hip hop: he knows how to straddle the line between respecting where hip hop came from and moving it forward. That in music, experience is your best weapon. He’s a prime example. Age? When you have real skill, that's just a number. Wanting to know more about how this hip-hop veteran keeps reinventing himself? Hang tight, we’re about to explore the Black Silver universe and hear more about his new musical endeavour. Listen to Magnum 88 below   https://open.spotify.com/album/6DcxGRPyhnEPDRPYzDMFpe?si=QJKO507rT4Gmpk88rMgCEw Follow Black Silver on Spotify Youtube Instagram   What inspired the concept and title of "Magnum 88"? The homie and legendary artist Ras Kass who is also in a group with El Gant suggested the two of us do a record. Magnum 88 is the result. How does this release reflect your artistic growth and evolution? As a veteran Emcee, challenging my writing capabilities with each new piece of art is second nature. What emotions or reactions do you hope listeners experience with "Magnum 88"? The constantly reinventing of an international culture. Boasting that there is no age cap! How did you blend styles to achieve its distinctive atmosphere? The seamless nature of this particular record all happened organically. Some things were just meant to be. When you combine exceptional production with seasoned vocalists you can normally expect a great final product. [caption id="attachment_58012" align="alignnone" width="843"] Dj Obi[/caption] Are there any hidden meanings or symbols in the lyrics or title? Lyricism in Hip-Hop particularly is part of the essence and held close to our hearts. So sometimes it's best to leave the interpretation to the listeners. How do your lyrics reflect your personal experiences or observations? I only speak about what I know. So you don't get a lot of fluff from Black Silver. I'm a straight shooter. Will "Magnum 88" have an accompanying music video or visual campaign? We are considering it now after such a great response from the public since its release a few weeks back. So we will see. Are you working on an album, EP or standalone singles? Magnum 88 is the follow up single after Hood Narrators feat. Kool G Rap. They are both from the Weaponized Alchemy EP which should be available on all DSP's by the time this article is out. What's next for Black Silver? I dropped a full length solo LP, 3 collaborative Ep's & 6 singles in 2024. Expect me to exceed that work ethic in 2025. https://open.spotify.com/artist/0wx3cuWLhMVkPA6dnMjNLd?si=YTF67lY_QbuL24Zsn3ORxg How do you navigate vulnerability and authenticity in your art? My nickname is The Navigator so this isn't an issue for me. I've always dealt with things head on and prioritized from there. How do you envision fans connecting with "Magnum 88"? So far so great! I'm actually ecstatic with the response thus far. Especially without any commercial marketing.

[bllsbailey]

Neil Gorsuch Decimates CBS News Reporter Pushing Left-Wing Talking Points

As a Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch typically stays out of the public eye. His job is to interpret the law, not please the howling voices in the political world. Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris administration has decided to force the issue by making a series of ludicrous and counter-productive proposals to "reform" the high court, not because they genuinely care, but because they desire total control over the lives of Americans. 

SEE: Joe Biden to Unveil His Supreme Court Plans - and They're Non-Starters

The details boil down to 18-year term limits and an enforceable "ethics code." Naturally, the term limit being proposed would immediately boot off multiple conservatives while ensuring the court gains a strong liberal majority. What a coincidence, right?

With that now being battled over in the political sphere, the press is doing what it always does, which is to parrot talking points in support of whatever the Democrat position is. Gorsuch found himself on the receiving end of that in a recent interview with CBS News.

The justice responded by decimating the arguments being made. 

The following clips and transcripts are courtesy of my friend Curtis Houck over at Newsbusters.

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 5, 2024

GORSUCH: I read the other day that...I agreed with Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson something like 45 percent of the time. That’s the court I know. GARRETT: But there are people who watch this right now and say I thought I understood what Roe v. Wade meant in our country. I thought I understood what affirmative action in college admission meant, and this court told me I didn’t understand what that meant and I wrongly relied on things that I thought were settled. What would you say to those? GORSUCH: I would say those are deeply complex legal questions on which reasonable minds can, of course, and do disagree. And that when it comes to Roe v. Wade, for example, what did the court decide? Decided that we the people should answer that question, not nine people sitting in Washington, D.C.

Let me start by saying that Garrett's premise is nonsensical. Just because a bad decision existed prior does not mean that decision is worthy of preservation. The majority opinion in Roe v. Wade was a joke written, relying almost exclusively on the whims of then-Justice Harry Blackmun, who was desperately trying to find a middle ground for political reasons. There was no actual constitutional right to an abortion, and to claim the right to privacy somehow covered it has never passed legitimate legal muster. 

As Gorsuch explains, all the Supreme Court did in overturning the precedent set by Roe v. Wade was return the decision to the voters in each state. That should be far preferable to anyone who values "democracy" than unelected judges creating legal precedent out of whole cloth simply to appease one side of the political aisle. 

Garrett wasn't satisfied with that answer, though, and he then pressed Gorsuch on affirmative action.

GARRETT: How about affirmative action? GORSUCH: Much the same thing. What did we decide? We decided that all people are created equal, that it’s not acceptable in this country to discriminate on the basis of race.

Again, how is this even a discussion in 2024? Affirmative action was legalized discrimination based on race. A white person should no more be punished for their skin color than a black person. Historical oppression should play no role in modern-day decisions regarding people with equal rights. That the press thinks that such a ruling is wrong is an indictment on them, not the Supreme Court. 

Still, Garrett kept going, making yet another emotional appeal.

GARRETT: And, for those who would say but I feel something’s been ripped away from me, you would say? GORSUCH: I would say that we’re taking it back to you. In a democracy, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re the sovereign. Those famous three first words of the Constitution empower you. Do you really want me deciding everything for you? GARRETT: And for a woman in a state where she no longer has the rights she once relied on, is that cold comfort? GORSUCH: Major, all I can say is I don’t know better than you do on these questions. And that most major western democracies have decided these questions through the ballot box.

Gorsuch hits the nail on the head again. It is not his job to make up "rights" that give "comfort" to women who want abortions. If Americans want that, they should be forced to own it through their vote, unable to hide behind the cover of a flawed legal judgment from half a century prior. 

With that said, notice what Garrett never bothers to ask about throughout the interview. While he continually makes appeals to emotion, he doesn't give any credence to what the law actually says. Wouldn't that be the most important factor in any Supreme Court decision? 

Expectedly, once the interview segment ended, the in-studio team took their shots without Gorsuch there to embarrass them as well. 

GARRETT: Gorsuch does not appear at all troubled by the decline in public confidence in the Supreme Court or the real-world ramifications of overturning decades of legal precedent. Comfort, with such contradictions, of course, is one of the things that comes with a lifetime appointment to the highest judicial perch in the land. KING: Yeah, many people are questioning whether it should be a lifetime appointment.

Gayle King might as well be on the White House payroll. The "many people" who are questioning lifetime appointments are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris along with a slew of Democratic Party politicians. To whatever extent that has trickled into the public consciousness is completely inorganic. 

The Supreme Court does not exist to win popularity contests. On the contrary, it was designed from the founding to rule absent of political pressure. Lifetime appointments are part of that equation as they relieve the justices of any concern about post-court opportunities and influences. 

DUTHIERS: I appreciate you pushing back on those issues because I thought it was sort of telling that the associate justice said, do you want me deciding everything for you? If you’re a woman, you will say — but you have decided. Even though you’re suggesting that you’re sending it back to the people, the Court made those decisions that had been precedents for over 50 years.  GARRETT: And what was once relied upon can no longer be. That’s the change.

I'm trying to remain professional, but part of me just wants to call Vladimir Duthiers an imbecile and leave it at that. His reasoning is so ridiculous as to be worthy of nothing but mockery. Would he say the same about the precedent that once allowed segregation of schools? What about the precedent that once restricted personhood for black Americans? The idea that a precedent is untouchable simply because it exists is moronic. What matters is proper legal interpretation of the law. Nothing more, nothing less. 

In the end, what this Gorsuch interview shows is that Democrats have no actual argument. They are simply emoting at any given point, wrapping themselves in contradictions to garner the political outcome they want in the moment. The Supreme Court stands in the way of that, and that's why they are trying to destroy it. 

Editor's Note: This article was updated post-publication to reflect that Roe was authored by Harry Blackmun. 

[dfroza]

Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms

for july 1 of 2024 with Proverbs 1 and Psalm 1, accompanied by Psalm 12 for the 12th day of Astronomical Summer, and Psalm 33 for day 183 of the year (with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 2nd revolution this year)

[Proverbs 1]

I, Solomon, David’s son and Israel’s king, pass on to you these proverbs—a treasury of wisdom—

So that you would recognize wisdom and value discipline;

that you would understand insightful teaching

And receive wise guidance to live a disciplined life;

that you would seek justice and have the ability to choose what is right and fair.

These proverbs teach the naive how to become clever;

they instruct the young in how to grow in knowledge and live with discretion.

The wise will pay attention to these words and will grow in learning,

and the discerning will receive divine guidance,

And they will be able to interpret the meaning of a proverb and a puzzle,

the twists and turns in the words of the wise and their riddles.

Let us begin. The worship of the Eternal One, the one True God, is the first step toward knowledge.

Fools, however, do not fear God and cannot stand wisdom or guidance.

So, my son, pay attention to your father’s guidance,

and do not ignore what your mother taught you—

Wear their wisdom as a badge of honor and maturity,

as fine jewelry around your neck.

My son, should your less honorable peers pressure you to do what is wrong,

you should be strong enough not to go along.

If they should say,

Evildoers: Come on! Everyone, hide and let’s wait to see whom we can beat to a pulp.

We’re going to jump some unsuspecting chumps for no reason at all.

We’ll have our way with them, and when we’re through, there will be nothing left,

as if their bodies were swallowed whole by the grave’s dark pit.

We’ll take whatever we want—all their wealth and their fancy clothes—

and when we’re through, we’ll have piles of their treasure for our own.

You have to join us; forget about God.

We’re going to rake in the goods, and we’ll share all we take!

My son, do not join them;

keep well away from their violent, destructive paths.

For they run right away, every time, to do wrong,

and they are thirsty for blood.

You see, it makes no sense to bait the net and set the trap

while the bird is watching,

But these hiding in the shadows and waiting to spill innocent blood

are really just hastening their own destruction!

By giving in to their sinful desires,

they set themselves up to be ambushed.

This is what happens to everyone who tries to profit by violence;

violence will eventually rob them of their very lives.

There’s another voice in town.

It belongs to Lady Wisdom, who calls out in the street.

She cries out in the town square,

At the city gates, in the noisy city streets,

you can hear her speaking over the racket.

Lady Wisdom: You simple, naive people, how long will you love your feeble ways?

You simpletons, how long will you enjoy making fun of what you don’t understand?

You fools, how long will you hate learning what truly matters?

Turn to me and receive my gentle correction;

Watch and I will pour out my spirit on you;

I will share with you my wise words in order to redirect your lives.

You hear, but you have refused to answer my call.

My hands reached out, but no one noticed.

All my advice, all my correction, all have been neglected—

you wanted nothing of them.

So I will be the laughter you hear when misfortune comes, and it will come.

I will be the mocking sound when panic grips you—

When panic comes like a stormy blast,

when misfortune sweeps in like a whirlwind,

when sorrow and anguish weigh you down.

This is when they will call on me, but I will not respond;

they will be frantic to find me, but they won’t be able.

Because they despised knowledge of my ways,

and they also refused to respect and honor the Eternal,

Because they rejected my advice

and turned down my correction,

They will surely get what’s coming to them:

they’ll be forced to eat the fruit of their wicked ways;

they’ll gorge themselves on the consequences of their choices.

You see, it’s turning away from me that brings death to the simple,

and it’s self-satisfaction that destroys the fools.

But those who listen to me now will live under divine protection;

they can rest knowing they are out of harm’s way.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 1 (The Voice)

A set of notes from The Voice translation:

A strategic translation decision has been made to respect the historical situation of this book. In its original context, Proverbs is practical wisdom passed down from parents (especially fathers, see chapters 1–9) to young men who are preparing to enter a life of adult responsibilities: family, business, community leadership, and so on. Because of this relational aspect, we have retained masculine references when appropriate and have used more inclusive language when that was the intention of the original author. It is our greatest hope that God will use this work to remind fathers of the profound place they have in nurturing, instructing, and guiding the next generation.

•

Each generation faces strong peer pressure to follow the world’s ways, especially during adolescence. That pressure can twist an innocent young man inside out until he is nearly unrecognizable to those close to him. Once gang mentality takes over, that young man could easily find himself in unexpected and troublesome situations. Wisdom calls, and her voice is clear: Remember your parents’ instruction. Avoid violence and violent people. If you don’t, violence will find you.

[Book One]

Book One (Psalms 1–41) is attributed almost entirely to David; all but four of the psalms (1–2; 10; 33) are ascribed to him. In Hebrew Psalm 10 is a continuation of Psalm 9 because it was composed as an acrostic poem. Likewise, many Hebrew manuscripts combine Psalm 33 with 32. Only later are these divided into separate psalms. Psalm 1 sets the stage for the entire collection by explaining that the study of the Word of God is the foundation of a meaningful, prosperous life.

[Psalm 1]

God’s blessings follow you and await you at every turn:

when you don’t follow the advice of those who delight in wicked schemes,

When you avoid sin’s highway,

when judgment and sarcasm beckon you, but you refuse.

For you, the Eternal’s Word is your happiness.

It is your focus—from dusk to dawn.

You are like a tree,

planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry.

Your fruit ripens in its time;

your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun.

No matter what you do, you prosper.

For those who focus on sin, the story is different.

They are like the fallen husk of wheat, tossed by an open wind, left deserted and alone.

In the end, the wicked will fall in judgment;

the guilty will be separated from the innocent.

Their road suddenly will end in death,

yet the journey of the righteous has been charted by the Eternal.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 1 (The Voice)

[Psalm 12]

For the worship leader. A song of David accompanied by the lyre.

Help me, O Eternal One, for I can’t find anyone who follows You.

The faithful have fallen out of sight.

Everyone tells lies through sweet-talking lips

and speaks from a hollow and deceptive heart.

May the Eternal silence all sweet-talking lips,

stop all boasting tongues,

Of those who say, “With our words we will win;

our lips are our own. Who is the master of our souls?”

“I will rise up,” says the Eternal,

“because the poor are being trampled, and the needy groan for My saving help.

I will lift them up to the safety they long for.”

The promises of the Eternal, they are true, they are pure—

like silver refined in a furnace,

purified seven times, they will be without impurity.

You, O Eternal, will be their protector.

You will keep them safe from those around them forever.

All around, those who are wicked parade—proud and arrogant—and people applaud their emptiness.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 12 (The Voice)

[Psalm 33]

Release your heart’s joy in sweet music to the Eternal.

When the upright passionately sing glory-filled songs to Him, everything is in its right place.

Worship the Eternal with your instruments, strings offering their praise;

write awe-filled songs to Him on the 10-stringed harp.

Sing to Him a new song;

play each the best way you can,

and don’t be afraid to be bold with your joyful feelings.

For the word of the Eternal is perfect and true;

His actions are always faithful and right.

He loves virtue and equity;

the Eternal’s love fills the whole earth.

The unfathomable cosmos came into being at the word of the Eternal’s imagination, a solitary voice in endless darkness.

The breath of His mouth whispered the sea of stars into existence.

He gathers every drop of every ocean as in a jar,

securing the ocean depths as His watery treasure.

Let all people stand in awe of the Eternal;

let every man, woman, and child live in wonder of Him.

For He spoke, and all things came into being.

A single command from His lips, and all creation obeyed and stood its ground.

The Eternal cripples the schemes of the other nations;

He impedes the plans of rival peoples.

The Eternal’s purposes will last to the end of time;

the thoughts of His heart will awaken and stir all generations.

The nation whose True God is the Eternal is truly blessed;

fortunate are all whom He chooses to inherit His legacy.

The Eternal peers down from heaven

and watches all of humanity;

He observes every soul

from His divine residence.

He has formed every human heart, breathing life into every human spirit;

He knows the deeds of each person, inside and out.

A king is not delivered by the might of his army.

Even the strongest warrior is not saved by his own strength.

A horse is not the way to victory;

its great strength cannot rescue.

Listen, the eye of the Eternal is upon those who live in awe of Him,

those who hope in His steadfast love,

That He may save them from the darkness of the grave

and be kept alive during the lean seasons.

We live with hope in the Eternal. We wait for Him,

for He is our Divine Help and Impenetrable Shield.

Our hearts erupt with joy in Him

because we trust His holy name.

O Eternal, drench us with Your endless love,

even now as we wait for You.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 33 (The Voice)

[unacaritafeliz]

fic writer review

tagged by (one of my absolute favourite authors) @dameferre!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

94! I am slowly creeping closer to that 100!

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

360, 929.

3. how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

technically nine, but only seven for ao3 - check please, avatar the last airbender, miraculous ladybug, haikyuu, yuri on ice, 2gether the series & cherry magic

(more questions + tags under the cut!)

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A slap to the face. (viktuuri)

Here in Your Arms (nurseydex)

Re-dib-flip (nurseydex)

It's (not) You (nurseydex)

New York at Christmastime (nurseydex)

anyone else miss the days when the check please fandom was active? i mean... i don't miss the racism i had to see every second of my life, but i do miss writing fic for the boys to combat that racism. and not hating canon!dex. i miss that too.

5. do you respond to comments, why or why not?

listen, why did ao3 make it so that author comments count towards the comment total? I always used to think it was cheating by artificially inflating your own comments now and I can't start now because how will i compare my fic if some of them have double comment counts? i know there are comment threads in statistics but consider - i don't care.

anyway i feel bad because i do feel as if more people would engage with me if i did respond but alas. maths brain won't shut up.

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

the only fic i've written with a sad ending is Goodbye (nurseydex) where Dex confesses to Nursey and gets rejected (rip). It was a prequel to another fic i was writing where they met 5 years after college and managed to get together but i... never wrote the follow up (which i started writing first)

7. do you write crossovers? if so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

i write crossovers in that they are inspired by other media but not that characters from both media are present. I have 2 chapters of Checks, Chirps & Cellys (zukki set in the check please universe) up (and yes I am working on chapter three for the anniversary) and I have a Haikyuu x Cherry Magic crossover (kuroken!) ready to go up as soon as I have a free week to post.

8. have you ever received hate on a fic?

yeah so in New York at Christmastime someone told me that it was "abuse" for Nursey's sister to threaten to leave Dex on the side of the road if he was mean to Nursey when the Nurse siblings offered to take Dex home for Christmas since he didn't wanna go to his own family (even though he had been a dick to nursey previously, as per canon). This person left me this comment on CHRISTMAS DAY which makes it better.

also it's not hate but i get a lot of "wow i love this fic which is weird because bi zuko seems so wrong!" which isn't hate but i do take it as hate <3. bi zuko rights but more than that just leave people alone if they ship something you don't. you don't need to tell them you don't ship their ships or disagree with their headcanons.

also also this wasn't on a fic but do y'all remember when the parse stan told me I was drinking the "cool-aid"? Truly my favourite fandom interaction.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

bitch please can you imagine?

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

lmao who would steal my rubbish

11. have you ever had a fic translated?

i have! Because I love Adrien too (Alya & Adrien) was translated into Russian! I also have two fics that have been podficced! It's Chow Time!! (Chowder-centric) and Adam J. Birkholtz and the case of the missing clothes (links to translations and podfics at the end of the work)

12. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Anne and I worked together on 2gether 4ever (sarawatine).

13. what’s your all-time fave ship?

y'all are picking favourite ships?

14. what’s a fic you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

okay so the 5+1 fic The long way home (zukki) won't get finished. I don't think I'll ever go back but I loved it so much. It was such a fun concept. It was basically sokka and suki being like "okay can we love you know?" and zuko being like "no! you can't! honour!" and sokka and suki being like "okay! how about now?"

i still want to work on Checks, Chirps & Cellys (zukki) and am trying my best to get chapter three chugging along but i think if we're being realistic... its been eleven months since chapter one and i'm only just starting on chapter three. i don't think we're gonna get to the end on this one gang (unless y'all wanna hang around until 2024)

15. what are your writing strengths?

i don't know what i'm doing i just write a bunch of words and sometimes they're good.

16. what are your writing weaknesses?

i don't know what i'm doing i just write a bunch of words and sometimes they're not good.

17. what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages on a fic?

i think it can be confusing to understand but i do occasionally throw in some better known words into my fic.

18. what was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

if we're counting unpublished, then pirates of the caribbean self-insert when i was ten. the first fandom i actually count is Miraculous Ladybug.

19. what is your favorite fic ever written?

I can't pick a favourite from my own fics so I'm interpreting this as my favourite fic by someone else and it is without a doubt A Mile Away by @dameferre. I remember reading it, a beacon of light in the messy racism that was the nurseydex fandom and just... everything felt right in the world for once.

tagging: @creativityobsessed, @admiralsushishin, @toriftw, @literalchineseperson, @hoenursey and @ambykinns

[goodvibesatpeace]

Astrology: Birth Charts, Cycles, Angles and Ancient Symbolism

Have you ever wondered what the Pentagram actually means? How about the Star of David (Seal of Solomon), or the Sumerian 8 pointed Star of Inanna?

These symbols are all thought to be references to astrology. The points on the stars are the geometric angles made between planets in the sky; the points on the stars represent planets, and the astrological angles between them.

The Seal of Solomon represents Sextiles and Trines, and the star of Inanna represents Oppositions and Squares.

90 degree angles, 180 degree angles, 60 degree angles, these ancient symbols were geometric codes embedded into ancient artifacts, preserving a blueprint for an understanding of astrology.

Your soul is a snapshot of the Solar System at your time of birth. A photograph.

The geometric angles made between planets in the sky at your time of birth, in your birth chart, define the inherent characteristics of your soul.

Along with the constellations the planets are in, this is how astrology works- it’s a mix of geometric angles made between planets, and the constellations the planets are in (the 13 constellations of the zodiac, as all planets except the dwarf planets are on the Ecliptic Plane).

If you go deeper, the individual stars that align with your planets also define you, and every degree of every sign is different.

Looking at your birth chart, an astrologer can tell you your deepest inherent characteristics with 100% certainty. Without ever having met a person, an astrologer can take your birthchart and tell you who you are, down to the most private and hidden aspects of your soul.

Astrology is the clock upon which all events occur, the measure of why every individual behaves in their unique inherent way, and the one sure way to understand the future and the past.

Uranus and Pluto — The Synodic Cycles of Revolution

Your soul is connected to every planet in the solar system; the planets are physical pieces of the code of your soul, each one of them being a physical component of your being. Every planet in the solar system governs a set of archetypical traits that compose your core being, your inherent self, and your soul.

For example, Uranus governs intuition and the flow of thoughts, ideas, creativity, and revolution. This is more than a mere metaphor; when Uranus makes angles in the sky to slow moving Neptune or Pluto, the effects are seen for years, and revolutions literally occur.

Historically, the accuracy of these cycles is proven again and again.

2012-2015, a kind of awakening has occurred globally, has it not? In 2013, Egypt saw the largest protests in the history of the world, drawing over 20 million people.

These revolutions of the mind and outside the mind were predicted in the 60’s and 70’s by astrologers- we’re currently living through the Uranus Pluto Square.

This was the aspect held in the birthcharts of revolutionaries born around 1933- including Martin Luther King, John Africa from Philadelphia activist group “MOVE”, and more.

After 1933, the next angle between Uranus and Pluto was the sextile, 1942-1944. In this era, the next wave of revolutionaries were born including Huey P Newton of the Black Panthers (Who founded the Black Panthers with Bobby Seale of the 1933 Uranus square Pluto generation).

If you look close, there is a common characteristic between these generations who share the same outerplanetary angles.

The 1960’s revolution

So tell me this; why were the 1960’s so revolutionary? What made all of those people decide they wanted to protest, try psychedelics, form a new culture, and transform like that? Americans certainly didn’t inherit those ideas from their parents or peers, so where did the waves of culture come from?

The 1960’s were the most intense phase of the Uranus/Pluto cycles in the 20th century. 1965-1967, we saw the peak of the wave of culture, and the peak of the Uranus Pluto Conjunction (alignment).

As with any generation, those born in that era of time permanently have that energy embedded into them. Uranus is the seat of nearly all of the characteristics of the 60’s; Uranus is Aquarius, ideas, revolution, creativity, experimentation, freedom, music and the arts, everything that defines the 60’s.

Pluto is a powerhouse, an incomprehensibly powerful beam of light that adds voltage to anything it touches. In the charts of billionaires, Pluto is conjunct Jupiter (the planet of wealth and abundance).

In the charts of serial killers, Pluto makes harsh angles to Mars, like Joseph Stalin’s Mars-Pluto Opposition. So in the 60’s, Pluto added power and intensity to revolutionary Uranus, and look at what came out of it.

To sum it up, here are the 7 most revolutionary eras and generations of the 20th century. This goes for the whole world:

    1933 – Uranus Square Pluto

    1942 – Uranus Sextile Pluto

    1965 – Uranus Conjunct Pluto

    1978 – Uranus Semisextile Pluto (mild)

    1986 – Uranus Semisquare Pluto (mild)

    1996 – Uranus Sextile Pluto

    2012-2015 – Uranus Square Pluto

Predictive Astrology – Eras of Life and the Outer Planets

It works like this; the planets in the sky at any given moment, they make angles to your birthchart.

If you take your birthchart, and lay it on top of a chart of any given moment, and then see what angles are made between the planets at that moment and the planets at your birth, you have the code of that moment in time and you can accurately predict how you are going to feel, and what is likely to happen.

For instance, if Neptune were at 15 degrees Pisces, and your natal (birthchart) Pluto were at 15 degrees Sagittarius, Neptune would be squaring your Pluto. This is because Neptune’s current position forms a 90 degree angle to where Pluto was at your time of birth- a Square.

If Neptune were instead at 15 degrees Aquarius, it would be sextiling Pluto. That would be a positive and transformative aspect, rather than a shocking, bottomless pit of Neptunian depth mixed with Plutonian intensity like a Neptune-Pluto Square would be.

Over thousands of years, people have analyzed what happens when individuals experience certain angles.

For example, when Neptune squares a person’s natal Pluto. When that angle happens to a person, an astrologer takes note of what happens to them. Once multiple people are observed experiencing the same angle and they all have the same things in common happen to them, you have tangibly determined the effects of an astrological angle.

Over time, astrologers have defined every single angle, with razor sharp accuracy.

Because it is as tangible as mathematics, anybody can start interpreting astrology with just a bit of effort- all you have to do is use a Synastry Calculator to calculate a person’s angles they are experiencing at any given time. Or if you’re experienced, all you need is the charts.

Then to see what era of their life they are in, you look at the outerplanetary angles- the angles made to their planets by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. These are angles that last months, or a few years.

For instance, if you’ve gone through a Pluto transit, such as Pluto Conjunct Sun, you’ve had your life completely transformed from top to bottom over the span of about 2 years.

A devastating or life changing event was probably the trigger of this; it exploded on you, and your life was transformed for a year after that. If you are Sagittarius, you experienced Pluto conjunct your Sun somewhere between 1996 and 2008. If you are Capricorn, your experience comes 2008-2024.

Through this understanding, an astrologer can take your chart and tell you years in advance when eras of extreme change strike.

They can tell you when a period of spiritual awakening will come (Uranus/Pluto related usually), when a time of extreme hardship will come (Saturn/Pluto), when a period of lack of focus will come (Mercury/North Node), when a period of economic prosperity will come (Jupiter/Venus), when an era of irritation with others and conflict will come (Mars), everything you can imagine.

The Angles of Astrology and Ancient Symbolism

The primary angles in Astrology include the Conjunction, Opposition, Sextile, Trine, and the Square. Other equally significant but less known angles include the Sesquiquadrate, Quintile, Decile, Semisquare, Semisextile.

The Trine and Sextile are the ‘easy’ aspects, the positive ones. These are the angles of reward, gain, peace, happiness, pleasure, and the smooth flow of ideas and energy.

This is one trine – (when two planets are this many degrees apart, a line is drawn between them in a chart):

This is one sextile:

A Grand Trine is 3 trines, a perfect triangle:

And a Seal of Solomon is 6 Trines and sextiles:

The Star of David or Solomon’s Seal is composed of 2 triangles on top of eachother- These are 2 astrological Trines.

A Sextile is an astrological angle very similar to the Trine, but not as strong- a Sextile is a 60 degree angle formed between 2 planets- or 2 points next to eachother on the Seal of Solomon.

The Seal of Solomon is thought to be nothing but a symbol of the astrological Trines and Sextiles; that’s why it can be found in ancient cultures all over the world.

The 8 pointed star of Inanna represents the malefic angles. It would make sense, as Inanna/Ishtar is the goddess/god of War, Greed, and Lust.

The Square and Opposition are considered primarily malefic but not unnecessary to the balance of life, causing disaster, problems boiling over, tension, hard lessons, and a need to use the tense but fiery energy towards something constructive.

Squares or Oppositions between certain planets are not malefic, but most are. For example, Jupiter improves and expands everything it touches. It’s almost impossible for Jupiter to be malefic.

The Opposition is the angle of war itself. 9/11 occurred on an exact opposition of arguably the 2 most destructive planets, Saturn and Pluto (When Saturn was in the US War aspect of Saturn in Gemini).

This is 2 Squares, or a T-Square- 2 Squares and one Opposition: 

This is the Grand Cross Configuration, an extremely tense and energetic configuration of 4 Oppositions and Squares. This is found in the birthcharts of people like Charles Manson:

Conclusion

Astrology is not a vague or imagined thing. It’s entirely tangible like mathematics; observable by multiple people, the same in each observation during multiple different circumstances.

This is the beginning of a series of articles on astrology that will delve even deeper into the topic.

Please share this with as many people as possible, especially people who need to know that astrology goes infinitely deeper than sun signs.

Astrology is the code of our soul, and it goes deeper than we may ever be able to comprehend. The tangible and objective analysis of astrology is the analysis of self.

Much love to all... go in peace my friends