#it's from a goethe text

[thetimecrystal]

someone needs to yell at me whenever i have a semester task to actually choose something i actually enjoy and want to think about for an entire semester

[shredsandpatches]

Fell down an old reviews rabbit hole on my lunch hour and once again am pondering the tendency reviewers have to discuss the Gounod Faust as though Marguerite is being punished by the narrative instead of just the world around her. Like, okay, it's not as clear about that as the source material (and Gounod was a conflicted but observant Catholic, whereas Goethe was not a believer), but. I feel like you see this the most from reviewers who really like the baritone singing Valentin, who is the main voice of traditional morality in both the opera and its source material--but while the operatic version of him isn't as nasty as Goethe's, you know a character is in the wrong when an opera chorus tells him to maybe ease up on the slut-shaming. Slut-shaming is like half of what opera choruses do!

[kraniumet]

being like, a way more optimistic of person than i am, but the way people are so paranoid about and obsessed with having their work stolen and thats why “they /need/ copyright”. lol.

[ic-napology]

The illustrations I used for compositing the reel. With better quality though.

Can you recognize every episode? ✨️

[mesetacadre]

Sorry if this is a bit weird question but would artistic freedom be restricted in a socialist state? If it would be, how? Wouldn't restrictions/censorships be a bad thing since it's important for people to be able to learn critical thinking skills and criticize in a constructive way a government or other aspects of society or for them to just depict with reality and imagination in a way that leads to diverse conversations?

The degree of restriction always depends on the context of the state, it's not a set answer. Like most other questions regarding the running of a state by communists, it will change depending on necessities and as it evolves. But regardless, art will always be free of the pressures imposed by salary work, and across the history of socialism, there is a good precedent for ample subsidies of the arts, even those not directly related to socialism itself.

Look at this passage about the GDR, for instance. Take into account the historical context, of a country that has just been divided and liberated from the Nazi Party, with the mass support they garnered. The FRG wasn't exactly unwelcoming to former nazis, even important members of the party, and the GDR was the frontline for the cold war, during its entire existence it faced infiltration, sabotage, and a myriad of attacks against it. [Because of indented quotes being awkward for longer texts, I'm not going to format it differently. The quote will end with the link to the book it's from]

During the forty years of its existence, a unique GDR culture developed in the country and it differed substantially from that in the West. It was characterised by a very fruitful, even if at time bruising and sometimes painful, battle between artistic freedom and creativity on the one hand and the demands the Party and state attempted to impose.

Since the early days of the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks and later communist parties everywhere placed a great emphasis on culture and on the contribution cultural workers could make to the building of socialism. One of the first things the Soviet Army of occupation did at the end of the war, was attempt to resuscitate cultural activity in a war-ravaged and demoralised Germany. The one thing the Russians could never get their head around was how a country with such a high level of culture, a nation that had produced a Bach and a Beethoven, a Goethe and a Schiller could have carried out such barbaric crimes in other countries. The Soviet army had cultural officers attached to each battalion and the war had hardly ended before they began seeking out cultural workers and encouraging them to take up their batons, musical instruments, pens and paintbrushes again. Temporary cinemas were established, orchestras formed, theatres opened and publishing houses set up.

In contrast to West Germany, in the Soviet Zone and later in the GDR, there was also an early emphasis on making films about the Nazi period as a means of educating and informing a nation ignorant of or in denial about what had happened.

The first anti-Nazi and anti-war film to be made in the whole of Germany was Die Morder sind unter uns (Murderers among us - 1946) directed by the West Berlin-based Wolfgang Staudte with full Soviet support. Among later anti-Nazi films made in the GDR were: Rat der Gotter (Council of the Gods - 1950) about the production of poison gas by IG Farben for the concentration camps, Nackt unter Wolfen (Naked amongst Wolves - 1963), based on a true story about a small Jewish boy who was hidden in a concentration camp and thus saved. Werner Holt (1965) - about the life of young men in Hitler’s army, Gefrorene Blitze (Frozen Flashes -1967) about the development of the V2 rocket by the Nazis; Ich war Neunzehn (I was Nineteen - 1968) - the true story of a young German who returns to Germany in the uniform of a Red Army soldier with the victorious Russian troops. Almost two decades passed before West Germany attempted to confront the war and its Nazi past. And the film Das Boot (1981) is more about the heroics of German U-boat crews than about understanding Nazi ideology. Das schreckliche Maedchen (Nasty Girl -1990) was a rare exception, as was Downfall (2004), a film about Hitler.

The GDR had more theatres per capita than any other country in the world and in no other country were there more orchestras in relation to population size or territory. With 90 professional orchestras, GDR citizens had three times more opportunity of accessing live music, than those in the FRG, 7.5 times more than in the USA and 30 times more than in the UK. It also had one of the world’s highest book publishing figures. This small country with its very limited economic resources, even in the fifties was spending double the amount on cultural activities as the FRG.

Every town of 30,000 or more inhabitants in the GDR had its theatre and cinema as well as other cultural venues. It had roughly half as many theatres as the Federal Republic, despite having less than a third of the population (178 compared with 346 in the FRG). Subsidised tickets to the theatre and concerts were always priced so that everyone could afford to go. Many factories and institutions had regular block-bookings for their workers which were avidly taken up. School pupils from the age of 14 were also encouraged to go to the theatre once a month and schools were able to obtain subsidised tickets. All the theatres had permanent ensembles of actors who received a regular salary. Plays and operas were performed on a repertory basis, providing everyone in the ensemble with a variety of roles.

All towns and even many villages had their own ‘Houses of Culture’, owned by the local communities and open for all to use. These were places that offered performance venues, workshop space and facilities for celebratory gatherings, discos, drama groups etc. There was a lively culture of local music and folk-song groups, as well as classical musical performance.

Very different to the situation in West Germany, was the widespread establishment in the GDR of workers’ cultural groups - from literary circles, artists groups to ceramic and photography workshops. These were actively encouraged and financially supported by the state, local authorities or the workplace. Discussions of books and literature, often together with authors, were a regular occurrence, even in the remotest of villages.

The ‘Kulturbund’ (Cultural Association) was a national organisation of over one million members that organised a wide range of cultural events around the country, from concerts, lectures on a wide variety of subjects, to art appreciation classes.

To begin with it was set up in set up in 1945 as a movement to bring together interested intellectuals and artists, on the basis of an anti-fascist and humanist outlook, with the aim of promoting a ‘national re-birth’ and ‘of regaining the trust and respect of the world’. From 1949 onwards many smaller cultural groups joined the national Cultural Association. Soon, ‘commissions’ and ‘working groups’ for specific areas were established: educational, musical, architectural and craft groups, followed by photographic, press, philatelic, fine arts groups and others. The Association also had its own monthly journal and weekly newspaper.

The art form ‘Socialist Realism’ has always been decried and ridiculed in the West, caricatured in the constantly circulated images of monumental statues of muscle-bound male workers and buxom, peasant women in heroic poses. However, such a view ignores those many realist artists who were not necessarily ‘court-appointed’ or monumentalists but who chose a realist mode of expression freely.

We now know that the CIA was, at the height of the Cold War, instrumental in promoting abstract art in the West as a counterweight to ‘communist’ realism. The CIA was able to capitalise on the fact that abstract art was frowned upon by party leaderships throughout the communist-led world where realist art was seen as better able to represent socialist values. This led to an often artificial polarisation between realist and abstract art, the former characterised in the West as old fashioned and conservative, the latter as progressive and representing individual freedom. Not surprisingly, it meant a marginalisation of realist art in the West and a dominance of the abstract. The fact that much of the so-called ‘socialist realist’ art to which those in the West had access was state-commissioned and often second rate should not lead us to ignore the fact that there were excellent realist artists working in the Eastern bloc.

Many artists in the communist countries simply preferred to place human beings and social reality at the centre of their art, as did most muralists and many painters in the West. It should not condescendingly be dismissed out of hand. Many continued the strong realist tradition, taking it forward into new realms. It also connected with ordinary people who saw themselves, their lives and their questions and criticisms taken up by artists. While some conformed and became state-sponsored artists, churning out often mediocre art, many others ploughed their own furrow and their work aroused avid interest among the people. This could be seen not only in painting and sculpture but graphics, the theatre, music, literature and, though less so, also in the cinema.

A number of artists did reject the unnecessary ideological fetters as well as banal socialist realist platitudes, and in exhibitions of their work often shocked the party functionaries. Such artists often promoted a progressive and expressively advanced form of critical realism and an aesthetics of their own making. The national contemporary art exhibitions, which took place every five years in Dresden, drew huge numbers of visitors from all over the country and provoked heated discussions. The country could also boast a number of artists, writers and scientists of international renown: the physicist, Manfred von Ardenne, the social scientist, Jurgen Kuczynski; visual artists like Fritz Kuhn, John Heartfield, Willi Sitte, Werner Tiibke and Wolfgang Mattheuer; writers like Christa Wolf, Stefan Hermlin, Stefan Heym,

Christoph Hein, Erik Neutsch and Erwin Strittmatter were all much admired beyond the GDR’s borders.

In the theatre, Bertolt Brecht was, of course, the most famous. His influence on theatre practice was extensive in the GDR but also worldwide. The country, certainly in the early years, could also count on the expertise of actors and directors from the pre-Nazi period: Wolfgang Langhof, Wolf Kaiser, Wolfgang Heinz, Fritz Bennewitz and the brilliant Austrian opera director, Walther Felsenstein - people would come from all over the world to see his exciting productions at the Komische Oper in East Berlin. Among those who matured post-war, Heiner Muller was widely recognised as one of Germany’s most innovative and radical playwrights. There were rock and pop bands like Silly and the Puhdys and jazz groups who were certainly not ‘mouthpieces’ of state-sanctioned culture. There was also a whole range of individual classical musicians of world class, like the conductor Kurt Masur, tenor Peter Schreier and baritone Olaf Bar, the chanteuse Gisela May as well as outstanding orchestras.

The GDR provided facilities and funding for artistic and creative theory and practice. There were lay art circles in most communities and these received state support to carry out their work. Many writers, musicians and visual artists enjoyed a quite privileged existence if they belonged to the officially recognised artists’ or writers’ associations. They would be offered regular well-paid commissions by state and local authorities which provided them, as creative artists, with an income to live on.

A number of leading writers were seen in many ways as ‘people’s tribunes’, articulating grievances, criticisms and ideas that people felt had no proper airing in the public sphere. People engaged actively with these writers and vice versa. Public readings by, and discussions with, authors were a regular feature of GDR life.

Another myth constantly perpetuated is that because the GDR restricted the import of and access to literature from the West, its citizens were entirely cut off from it. A range of works from many contemporary writers from the West were published in the GDR; in fact more British authors were published there than authors from both Germanies combined were published in Britain. GDR readers could find books by British writers like Graham Greene and Alan Sillitoe to US writers like Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway. By 1981, the GDR was publishing 6,000 books a year, almost 17 per cent of which were translations from around 40 foreign languages. There was a wide selection of international literature available and a number of foreign films were shown in cinemas. David Childs, in his book on East Germany, exposes the myth that the GDR populace was totally ignorant and ill-informed about life in the West; most of them, after all were also able to tune in daily to West German radio and television.

Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?: The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It, by John Green and Bruni De La Motte (2015)

The GDR's relationship to art censorship wasn't as black and white as allowing and disallowing. Certain types of art were discouraged, but they also let regular exhibitions happen which contained "shocking" art, shocking for the party members. They were justifiably weary of any art coming from the west because they knew the CIA used it as a weapon, but "more British authors were published there than authors from both Germanies combined were published in Britain". The social conditioners of art also show themselves in socialist states. Just like liberal art in capitalist countries doesn't really need to be actively encouraged to exist, some artists in the GDR "simply preferred to place human beings and social reality at the centre of their art". It's a complex question which, like I said, almost entirely depends on the historical moment.

[youzicha]

Newton vs Goethe

Goethe wrote about the physics of color and claimed to find effects that the Newtonian theory overlooked. Somehow while reading popular science I got the impression that Newton explaines the spectrum while Goethe's theory reaches further and is relevant to perceptual phenomenons (e.g. cyan-yellow opposition). But reading the Wikipedia page, Goethe comes off very poorly.

Actually the things that Goethe considered critical evidence was not experiments related to human-color perception, but rather experiments with prisms. He refracted extended, rather than point-sized, light sources; for example, he noted that looking at a field of white light through a prism gives white light, and that looking at a white-black boundary can give either blue-violet or red-yellow depending on the orientation of the prism. From this he concluded that the source of color is a mixture of light and darkness, and that this proves Newton wrong—according to Goethe, Newton's experiment with a point source is just a special case when a dark-light and a light-dark boundary are right next to each other.

Of course, we now know that the effects Goethe observed arise from adding together spectra, so Newton's experiment with a point source is exactly the interesting case and the rest can be deduced from it. I guess Newton knew this also. Certainly he must have seen all the same effects that Goethe did, and he mentions (Opticks part II prop I) the need to make the prism large compared to the light aperture.

Newton and Goethe make a nice case study of science. Text books and papers are cleaned up to highlight the interesting result and how it is predicted by the model, but if you actually do experiments there's a jumble of confusing effects, and the scientist needs to figure out which of them are crucial and which are distractions. Here they did basically the same experiment, and one of them understood the composition of light and devised the exact right experiments to prove it, while the other messed around but never understood what was going on. The latter seems like the more typical outcome, but it's a bit unfortunate that Goethe did it a hundred years after Newton.

[wishful-thinking64]

One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion #07

I think how the Seven Deadly Sins are respected should vary depending on how sinful they are. _________

I'm going to be completely honest here. I think the Hellaverse's version of the Seven Deadly Sins are jokes due to how far off they are from their Demonolgy & Theology counterparts. With that being said, something the Hellaverse did get right is how Lust and Gluttony are often considered to be the two weakest sins out of the seven.

Lust is depicted as the weakest of the Sins because it's TYPICALLY the least malicious. As when people hear about a crime related to lust the majority will think of an infidelity having been committed. Does infidelity suck? Absolutely, you were cheated on by your partner with someone who either knew of the situation or with someone who’s in the same boat as you and didn’t know until it was too late. However, I would hope that most of us would rather hear/learn about one of our friends or family members having a partner who cheated on them over other lust filled crimes.

As for why Gluttony is seen as the second weakest out of the Sins would probably be how common it is to commit it and, again, it’s less malicious especially compared to sins like Wrath, Envy, and Pride. Think about it, you probably know at least one person in your family with a really bad habit related to overindulgence whether it be a raging alcoholic, a chainsmoker, a drug addict, or someone with Binge Eating Disorder aka BED (yes, Binge Eating Disorder is an actual diagnosis that many people have and struggle with in their day to day lives as it can cause them to eat excessive amounts of food even when they’re not hungry.) The point is, you likely know someone who has some kind of bad habit that they need to break and should get help so that they don’t end up digging themselves an early grave.

Now, back to my original point, having the Seven Deadly Sins be respected by least sinful to most sinful would make it to where we can not only get a good idea of what the Sins are like before we meet them but more importantly it establishes order and coherent world building which is what the Hellaverse’s hierarchy lacks the most. If I were to order and rewrite the Hellaverse’s Seven Deadly Sins it would be Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor, Mammon, Satan, Leviathan, and Lucifer.

That way lower class demons could be shown being less tense around Ozzie and Bee as they’re more approachable and sociable compared to other Sins like Satan and Leviathan. From the one image we’ve seen from the Hellaverse’s Satan, I can only assume he’s a tough bastard who would rather settle things in a good old fashioned brawl compared to negotiation. 

As for why I think a lot of demons would fear Leviathan more so than Satan is because of most how religious texts describe him as being some kind of giant sea monster (depending on the religion some say he’s a hydra, water dragon, or a water serpent) that could only be slain by God as there used to be several Leviathans but when God realized how destructive they were, he killed all of them except one. If God hadn’t interfered, the many Leviathans would’ve destroyed all of creation. 

So why did I place Leviathan lower than Lucifer when he sounds more evil than he does? Well, the answer lies within their intended purpose. Leviathan’s intended purpose was to destroy all who cross his path whereas SAMAEL’S intended purpose was to HELP not to HINDER. Leviathan was released into the ocean and was told, “Annihilate anything and everything.” Meanwhile, Samael was created and lived in Heaven as an Archangel who was instructed to assist God’s creations by watching over them, teaching them, disciplining them, and protecting them. That’s all he had to do but he threw away his title, his dignity, and LITERAL HEAVEN by letting his own hubris get the better of him. Truly, pride goeth before a fall (and apparently before a future name change.) _________

I thought that it'd only be fitting for my 7th opinion to be about the Hellaverse's Seven Deadly Sins. Also I don't hate the Hellaverse's canon Lucifer but I do think his character is a massive disappointment. There are ways to make a dastardly character likable without infantilizing or woobifiying them.

[stjohnstarling]

Why "A Companion in Vice?"

(On the decision-making process behind the choice of title for my next novel.)

I knew I wanted to take a quote from Frankenstein (though I did consider some alternatives, I've also been thinking about Goethe's Faust and a poem by John Donne) primarily from a desire for consistency. I definitely wanted a title that would be harmonious with What Manner of Man, the title of which was taken from a line in Dracula (itself a Biblical allusion; hence the two side-by-side quotes at the beginning of the novel.)

Once I narrowed my search down to one particular scene, I suddenly had a list of over a dozen possible titles, mostly taken from the same passage of text:

Read the rest on Patreon! →

[lynnlyrae]

The Devil, the Scientist, and the Most Beautiful Creature 

This is my attempt to analyze the connection between the Teacher, Faustina and Luna through the lenses of Goethe’s “Faust” and determine the origins of the “cursed moon twins”. There’s also alchemy.

This text will consist of four parts. And yes. It is long. Reader, you are warned.

Enjoy!

PART ONE: PARACELSUS, THE FATHER OF BABEL 

What do we know about Paracelsus:  

Lived in 15-16 centuries; 

Was a scientist;  

His actions led to the Babel Incident. 

The real world Paracelsus was “the father of toxicology”, our Paracelsus is The Shapeless One. Alright, this is a bold statement, but why not. 

The twin six-pointed stars above Paracelsus head (Ch. 7) have always stood out to me. Guess who else has exactly same two six-pointed stars as well? Teacher/Saint Germain (Ch. 55)! 

Some other similar motives: 

Paracelsus’ face is always obscured, we never see his eyes, only vague shadows. Teacher’s face was always drawn without eyes before the Big Reveal Moment in Ch. 55. He’s also known to frequently change his name and appearance, to the point where it’s not always possible to determine whether one’ve met him before (Vanitas has met him in another form, but has no idea when and how it happened). 

Paracelsus wanted to save the world from sufferings and guide people to happiness (Ch. 7). He also assembled a team of scientists to conduct a research. Teacher/Saint Germain is referred to as savior by Misha, and he also saved Noé from human traffickers. He also claims his ultimate goal is world peace (Ch. 61). But the goal is shared with someone (he says “our” wish specifically). 

And honestly, their vibes just fit so well. Paracelsus and Saint Germain, two mysterious figures who are renowned scientists and alchemists with ambiguous lore — why wouldn’t they be the same person?  

Since I want to use “Faust” as base for analysis, let’s assign him a role – Mephistopheles. I mean, just look at this (Ch. 61). It’s as devilish as it can get! The free force in s shape of a fine gentleman that ultimately creates destruction. 

Mephistopheles also claims to be an observer: 

“I’m so involved with Man’s wretched ways,

I’ve even stopped plaguing them, myself, these days”. 

And look how well it fits to Teacher, who left the Court to enjoy his little things in a secluded mansion (manipulating kids and raising pawns) and also claims to be an observer!  

Alright, I’d like to keep this part short because my main focus here is Faustina-Luna situation, so let’s move on. We’ll get more bits of this manfailure there anyway. 

PART TWO: FAUSTINA, THE QUEEN OF THE RED MOON 

What do we know about Faustina: 

she’s a Queen and the first vampire of red moon to ever exist, while Teacher was by her side the longest; 

she has a special power to control other vampires as herself, not as Naenia; 

she’s mostly active as Naenia and was likely cursed in 17 century; 

there are two physical bodies that are stated or hinted to be her: one in her bedroom in Carbunclus castle and one in Ruthven’s lab. 

Now let’s take a look at Faustina’s bodies (Ch. 13, Ch. 26). I briefly mentioned in one of my recent posts that I think Faustina changed bodies at least once, possibly due to them being damaged by curse. I believe these pics support this idea: the body in the castle looks like that of an adult person, with limbs and fingers much longer than those of the body that was seen in Ruthven’s lab and reacted to Naenia’s name (Chloe also summoned Faustina in the same body of a young girl). 

Additionally, when Ruthven talks about her connection with Saint Germain, she is portrayed as having adult-like proportions (Ch. 19). And when Naenia takes more human-like shape, it also has adult-like proportions (Ch. 9). So I think she was cursed as an adult, and her original body is the one in the bedroom, but her soul went from one vessel to another, while her cursed form remained more like her original body. 

While we are on the topic of bodies, I’m going to show you this. Thankfully, the moment when Luka stayed at Faustina’s bedside wasn’t omitted from the anime — and the queen’s skin looks quite the same color as Luna’s. I’m not sure what to do with this information yet, but it creates another link between them. It’s quite interesting that Faustina’s corrupted form looks a lot like Luna’s normal form.

Ok now that I’m done with this idea, let’s move on to something more interesting: Faustina’s role in the story. 

Right now her position is not really active: she steals true names as part of the Charlatan, but it’s unlikely that she in control of the organisaton (at least in present time), and Ruthven leads it. She obviously can’t fulfill her duties as a Queen either: they’re taken over the Senate (which again includes Ruthven) and a puppet-on-the-throne Luka (who is, again, under Ruthven’s control. Ruthven, what kind of power play is that?).  

But I think it’s wasn’t always like this. After all, she was an absolute monarch with magical power to make every vampire fall to her feet! And, well, she had to do something even before that, right? 

I believe that prior to becoming a vampire she was involved in Paracelsus’ research, possibly even as an alchemist. While the majority of well-known alchemists were male, there were some cases of women conducting and publishing researches in this field as well. A notable example are Sophie Brahe (1559-1643), who studied astronomy and was also well-versed in Paracelsus’ medical texts, and Isabella Cortese(fl. 1561), who was the first woman to publish a book on alchemy, titled The Secrets of Lady Isabella Cortese. Tbh I just really hope that Paracelsus team (Ch. 7) will include women in general…

Of course, my desire to see Faustina as an alchemist is not enough to claim that this is a credible theory. So let me elaborate on that a bit more (and we’ll get to Luna right after that). 

Her name derives from the name of a Ghoete’s character Faust, a man who makes a deal with the Devil to exchange his soul for fulfilling his desires of knowledge and pleasures. Faust is deeply dissatisfied with his life: 

“He drives his spirit outwards, far,

Half-conscious of its maddened dart:

From Heaven demands the brightest star,

And from the Earth, Joy’s highest art,

And all the near and all the far,

Fails to release his throbbing heart”. 

… And Mephistopheles offers him everything he wants. 

I think she literally is Faust. And her Mephistopheles wanted to grant her wish that they probably shared (Ch. 61). 

Faustina (well-educated person dissatisfied with reality) met Paracelsus (who offers a way to change the entire world). Perhaps he plays both the role of God and Devil in this version, since Paracelsus is described as someone who actually wanted to help people, but his action led to a literal apocalypse. Way to go, Paracelsus! 

Anyway, in my theory, she joins the research and becomes the first vampire during the Babel incident. Perhaps all other scientists, except for her and Paracelsus, died during the incident (but the research itlsef survived and was later used by Chloe’s family). Faustina was reborn as the Queen and Paracelsus as the Teacher. 

Why only Faustina is considered to be the first vampire and not both of them? Well, they didn’t necessarily fully awake as vampires at the same second of the same day. Or maybe the Teacher hides his identity and true powers this good… After all, he is known to mess with history (for example, he removed everything about Ruthven from his books, leading Noé to being completely oblivious about his existence). But honestly the parallel between vampires reacting to presence of Faustina (Ch. 38.5) and Teacher (Ch. 55) are interesting… 

PART THREE: LUNA, VANITAS OF THE BLUE MOON

What do we know about Luna: 

they’re the only known vampire of the blue moon and are considered abnormal and dangerous; 

Naenia is the one who steals vampires’ true names, but it’s believed to be the fault of the first Vanitas;

they’re told to have created the Books of Vanitas (it may of may not be true); 

they’re canonically agender, neither male nor female, and regret knowing what they are (Ch. 51).

I mentioned here that Luna is a Homunculus. Now it’s time to explain what led me to this idea.

Noé points out that Luna and Faustina look alike (Ch. 49) Is it connected to whatever knowledge Luna regretted having? Considering Luna’s unique blue skin, blue blood and their statement “I’m not like any other living thing in the world”, I don’t really think Luna could be Faustina’s human twin. Or rather, it’s not my first guess. I’m inclined to believe that Luna was an artificial being whose creation was connected with Faustina. 

In “Faust II”, the theme of artificial human, the perfect creature that surpasses humanity and yet serves their creator, is also present. Faust’s student, Wagner, works on a project when Mephistopheles visits him. Wagner claims: “A Man is being made!”, Mephistopheles jokes about a “loving couple hidden up the chimney”, but Wagner pronounces this way of creating life “unfashionable” (🤝) and delivers a beautiful speech: 

“The tender moment from which life emerged,                                      

The charming power with which its inner urge,

Took and gave, and clearly stamped its seal,

First in a near, and then a further field,

We now divest of all that dignity:

Though the creatures still enjoy it, we,                                                   

As Men, with all our greater gifts, begin,

To have, as we should, a nobler origin”. 

The interesting thing here is that Wagner’s creation is alluding to Paracelsus’ recipe of homunculus in Of the nature of things, 1537 (I found this in an article which referenced a publication by R.D. Gray Goethe the Alchemist. A study of Alchemical Symbolism in Goethe’s Literary and Scientofic Works.) Paracelsus called the creature “chemisch mensch”, but Goethe adapted that to Homunculus, an alchemical term. 

The Homunculus desires to become fully created: “Since I exist, I must find things to do”. He (this character is referred to as a male in “Faust”) seeks “the beginnings of creations”, to “reach at last the human state”. In order to achieve it, he wants a connection with the sea goddess Galatea (here a version of Aphrodite), but his brittle flask hits her chariot-shell and breaks. He spills in the sea and dies, but he also merges with the sea itself. 

Now that I’m thinking about it… Painfully familiar… Blink if you too were forever traumatized by “I won’t die, Noé. Even if I’m no longer here…” in Ch. 1… 

Well, back to Luna. Just like Goethe’s Homunculus, Luna was created in a certainly unique way. Here it’s time to remember the fairytale about Vanitas, told by Noé to Amelia (Ch. 1). Granted, it’s something he learned while under Teacher’s care, and we know he isn’t above censoring of wildly retelling anything, but Amelia doesn’t correct him on anything, so let’s accept this fairytale as it is. 

Perhaps the “birth” of the first Vanitas on the night of a blue moon refers to the artificiality of their creation? Artificiality can be equalized with “unnatural” birth of the Moon in the fairytale version. Even if the concept of homunculus will not be directly named in VnC, we already have the idea of an artificial being that differs from all living things in this world, is nonbinary and possibly agender and is able to perform unique functions — to control the book of Vanitas. 

Interestingly, our Vanitas and Misha are also to some extent “artificially created” – without experiments of Moreau and Luna’s bite they wouldn’t have been able to control the Books. It’s possible the reasons for the existence of Luna and both their children were somewhat similar – it was merely an experiment conducted in order to change the design of the world. (Ch. 48) 

Perhaps those “reasons to exist” are also the reason of Luna’s regrets and the reason to forbid Vanitas to allow Archivists to read his memories. We don’t know why it’s so. Maybe Vanitas learned something about Luna, and now those memories are meant to be hidden carefully. Maybe Luna just wanted to find out about themselves, asked an Archivist to read their memories (Machina, perhaps), and was so traumatized that simply wanted their children to never go through this kind of pain. 

And the knowledge that traumatized Luna? It could have been knowledge about the purpose of Luna’s existence. I don’t think Luna was created by accident. They were meant to do something or to be something. The Books are said to be created by the Vampire of the Blue Moon, but they could have been created for them as a tool to rewrite the world once again. 

In “Faust” Mephistopheles tells to the audience: 

“In the end we’re dependent on

The creatures we’ve created”. 

What if Paracelsus and Faustina needed someone else to fully realize their plan? And that someone was Luna, “the most beautiful creature in this world” (Ch. 55) (he’s so real for this). 

Saint Germain, the president of Luna fan-club, everyone!

Oh, one more little thing. The “perfect creation” of alchemy is the Philosopher’s stone.

Carbunculus is one of many synonyms for Philosopher’s stone, which may be anything from a rock to a human-like being (waving at fellow FMA fans); 

It’s also the name of Queen’s castle;  

And Goethe uses this word to describe how Homunculus looks: 

“The deep alembic now has passed, 

And like a living coal at last 

A fine carbuncular fire is glowing 

Into the dark it’s brilliance throwing”. 

No way it’s a coincidence. Just. No way. C’mon, it Jun. So… Luna is the “ultimate creation” of alchemy, VnC’s version of Philosopher’s stone and Homunculus at the same time. 

PART FOUR: THE THRIAD 

Now that we’ve assigned roles to all of them, let’s go deeper in another rabbit hole that is alchemy. This one is hella hard to research because of the amount of extremely different modern occult groups. But alchemy was my childhood hyperfixation, so… let’s do it. 

Together, Faust, Mephistopheles and Homunculus form a triad. (Yes, Wagner created Homunculus, but he kinda diss appears from the plot afterwards and Homunculus goes on a journey with Faust and Mephistopheles). This is kinda relevant, because Goethe actually researched the topic and it’s not unreasonable to connect his characters (and their VnC analogues) to certain alchemical symbols.

The triad is Salt, Mercury, and Sulfur. Here we can see irl Paracelsus at work again, because he was among the alchemist who popularized this theory. In alchemy, the idea of “feminine meets masculine” is pretty common, but unfortunately, different sources assign these qualities to different elements in the triad. That being said, the common point is that one is “female principle”, one is “male principle” and one is “neither, or the spirit itself”. The most common division of that in the triad is: 

Sulfur — the active male principle. Causes change. Brings an object to be changed. Associated with fire and sun. Red King. 

Mercury – the passive female principle (it’s just medieval occult stuff is I’m sorry). Needs something to give it shape and change it. The chaos of creation. Associated with earth or water and moon. White Queen. 

Salt – pure and undivided salt is the result of the interactions between mercury and sulfur. Such perfect things are the purpose of alchemy. 

Here are illustrations from Splendor Solis, which was also written under the influence of Paracelsus. Really can’t get away from this man… The first one is the Chemical wedding, the second one is… also that. Just in a fusion way I guess. Here the result of the Weddking is portrayed as Hermaphrodite with two heads (like in the myth, where human souls were originally of dual nature, but got divided into two parts that are men and women), but sometimes it’s a child or a person with both male and female features. Hermaphrodite can also be called Rebis (which means “dual matter”, aka Philosopher’s stone) or Androgyne (hello Luna).

I don’t expect Faustina, Saint Germain and Luna to fulfill this specific roles just like that. Rather, I think their roles would be mixed a bit, like how Saint Germain is both God and Devil. Still, the idea of the first one providing an idea, the second one helping him work on it and a third one being born out of it all as a perfect creature is intriguing to me. 

The three of them are the oldest, most ancient and perhaps the most mysterious vampires in VnC, and I’d love to them connected in such a way where one can’t exist without the others.

In conclusion: tragic ancient vampires own by brain.

[beardedmrbean]

Now here’s a divine development. 

Just ahead of the holidays, archaeologists have “digitally unrolled” a 1,800-year-old silver amulet to decipher an inscription that’s being hailed as the oldest known evidence of Christianity in Europe. 

Authentic evidence of pure Christianity north of the Alps has never existed before now. And the findings have the potential to change holy history forever. 

“It will force us to turn back the history of Christianity in Frankfurt and far beyond by around 50 to 100 years,” said Mike Josef, mayor of Frankfurt, Germany, where the artifact was exhumed. 

“The first Christian find north of the Alps comes from our city,” added Josef. “We can be proud of that, especially now, so close to Christmas.”

The amulet housed a “wafer-thin” foil, measuring 1.4 inches, and featuring text referred to as the “Frankfurt silver inscription.”

It was found beneath the chin of a man’s skeleton at a burial site on the outskirts of Frankfurt in 2018. However, the ancient wording, dating back to between 230 and 270 — when the predominant religions in Europe were Judaism and paganism — has been virtually illegible until now.  

Specialists from the Leibniz Center for Archaeology (LEIZA) used computer tomography (CT) scans to decode the 18-line engraving, which declares Jesus Christ the “Son of God.”

“In the name of Saint Titus. Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God! The Lord of the world resists with [strengths] all attacks [or setbacks]. The God grants entry to well-being. May this means of salvation protect the man who surrenders himself to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, since before Jesus Christ every knee bows: those in heaven, those on earth and those under the earth, and every tongue confesses (Jesus Christ),” reads the translation, per DailyMail.

The deific discovery closely trails the recent decrypting of the Meggido Mosaic, a 1,800-year-old relic that says, “Jesus is God.” It also follows the July 2024 unearthing of a nearly 2,000-year-old manuscript that details the earliest known account of Christ’s childhood. 

To crack the code on the Frankfurt silver inscription, which is written in Latin, LEIZA experts used sophisticated technologies on the extremely delicate scroll. 

“The challenge in the analysis was that the silver sheet was rolled, but after around 1,800 years, it was of course also creased and pressed,” Ivan Calandra, an archaeologist at LEIZA, said in a statement. “Using CT, we were able to scan it at a very high resolution and create a 3D model.”

The pros reportedly placed individual segments of the scan together, piece by piece, until most of the words were visible. 

However, there are said to be a few gaps in the text — which is being dubbed “purely Christian” as it spotlights Jesus Christ and Saint Titus, a missionary and church leader, but avoids pagan themes as well as elements of Judaism. 

Professor Markus Scholz, an archaeologist from Goethe University in Frankfurt, helmed the deciphering efforts. 

“I called in experts from the history of theology, among others, and we approached the text together, piece by piece, and finally deciphered it,” said Scholz, who was surprised that the etchings were in Latin.  

“Such inscriptions in amulets were usually written in Greek or Hebrew,” he noted. 

And while little is known about the man who was buried with the amulet, scientists reportedly believe that he was a devout Christian — although believers of the faith were still subject to persecution at the time of his death. 

According to insiders, the late Jesus-lover likely wore the amulet on a cord around his neck for protection before transitioning into the afterlife. His grave also boasted an incense bowl and a jug made of fired clay.

Researchers consider him the “first Christian north of the Alps,” and speculate that there could be more historical, untapped Christian burial sites around Europe. 

“This extraordinary find affects many areas of research and will keep science busy for a long time to come,” said Ina Hartwig, Frankfurt’s head of culture and science. 

“This affects archaeology as well as religious studies, philology and anthropology,” she continued. “Such a significant find here in Frankfurt is really something extraordinary.”

[forestdeath1]

Lily and James — the alchemical Queen and King. Lily is the main symbol of the entire saga.

In Harry Potter, there are two levels - the mundane and the symbolic. On the mundane level, Lily is a character with her own strengths and weaknesses. On the symbolic level, Lily is the main symbol of the entire saga. Perhaps that's why there's so little talk about her because symbolically Lily is what everyone strives for, everyone searches for but cannot find. Harry learns more about Lily only before the final battle, and there's a reason for that.

It's no secret that HP books are heavily laden with alchemical and Christian symbolism. I'm not religious, and to me, all these symbols are just cultural codes that have had a significant influence on almost all classic literature and art.

Philipp Otto Runge, Chagall, Goethe — they're all alchemical codes

Firstly, alchemy is not about literally turning lead into gold, it's a path of spiritual development, a path of transformation, a "hero's journey," the journey of the Son returning to the Father. Alchemical transformation is described in the text "The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz." This is the third manifesto of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood.

So, lilies are a very ancient symbol.

According to Jewish legends, the lily grew in Eden just at the time of Eve's temptation by the devil and could be defiled by him, but even amid temptation, it remained as pure as it was, and no dirty hand dared to touch it. In early medieval depictions, Christ was placed against a backdrop of lilies or in the lily flower, seen as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. The orange lily often symbolizes the blood of Christ.

Symbolically, Lily is the love of God, a divine spark, and the blood of Christ itself, which was shed in the name of redemption and salvation to atone for the sins of all humanity. And what is the blood of Christ? In Christian tradition, the blood of Jesus Christ is a symbol of the life-giving and saving spirit of God.

By the way, lilies and roses were often confused in translations, and symbolically they are the same. Many suspected that the Rosicrucians' rose is a stylized version of the Egyptian and Indian flowering lotus, and the lotus has often been considered a water lily (they are different, but symbolically they merged). But calling the main character Rose would be too dull and obvious a reference.

Lily - symbolically, she is both the mother of Christ and the Spirit of God herself, the bearer of divine love, to which all seekers are drawn. This is not the only meaning, but for now, it's enough.

God is love, says John the Apostle. (Remus John Lupin, hehe. It was absolutely unnecessary to know his middle name. It's intentionally inserted because each of the marauders, except Sirius, by name signifies one of the disciples closest to Christ. Sirius is a separate story, he signifies something completely different.)

And who is drawn? Well, primarily we see two - James and Snape.

One of the most important things we learn about James is that he's a deer. The deer is a well-known symbol. In myths and folk beliefs, the deer was associated with the soul's aspiration to heaven and purification.

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God" Ps. 42: 1

In the Alexandrian "Physiologus," there's an ancient enmity between the stag and the serpent. The serpent hides from the foe in the clefts of the earth, but the stag, with the help of water, draws out the serpent and defeats it. (Water has always been a symbol of the serpent, even in Slytherin's element water, but the stag fights the serpent not with ordinary water but with the water of baptism. The snake has another important meaning for alchemy, but more on that later.)

Snape belongs to the Serpent, to secret knowledge, occult knowledge, "philosophical" reason, dark magic, which has always been contrary to the divine nature in Christian understanding and originated from the devil. James belongs to the Lion and the Deer.

The Lion is a typical alchemical symbol. Also, the Red Lion is Christ. Gryffindor embodies the soul's aspiration towards light and transformation, towards salvation. By the way, St. Godric (the hermit) also had his own pet deer, which he saved.

The deer seeks love, the spirit of God, the divine spark, God Himself, and in this persistent pursuit is shown James's path, as a seeker and as an alchemist. The Potters — if not alchemists themselves, then at least from the lineage of alchemists — the Peverells (The symbol of the Deathly Hallows is an alchemical-masonic symbol). And this means that the Potters are at least seekers; in their souls, there is a desire to find the divine and undergo transformation. The Potters have a strong hatred for the 'serpentine essence' of evil, and this is what needs to be transformed. (By the way, the graveyard is located near St. Jerome's Church. Besides translating the Bible into Latin, Jerome also healed and tamed a lion).

Masonic-alchemical symbol. Symbol of the philosopher's stone. Symbol of the Deathly Hallows. Solve et coagula is a principle of alchemy meaning "dissolve and coagulate".

An alchemist is a gardener, and this is another interesting reference to James and Lily. The way James tries to find an approach to Lily is an alchemical process. The alchemist tends to the Garden. In Vrisvik's Great Work (the Magnum Opus), it appears as the Garden of the Wise. The Gates to the Garden of the Wise for the Chosen become the process of dissolving "our Substance." James manages to approach Lily only when he dissolves his Ego. The Ego is the main enemy on the path to transformation.

The tradition of "hermetic gardening," that is, "cultivating the flowers of Wisdom in one's garden," becomes a leading line in alchemical symbolism. James cultivates wisdom.

While Snape cultivates "dark knowledge," although his soul also strives for light and love. But Snape is still too captured by his Ego, too captivated by base emotions, a thirst for revenge, recognition, or power, a craving for "secret knowledge." He cannot resist it, no matter how much he may strive for Lily, for the divine transformation of his spirit, and James, still dwelling in his Ego, instead of showing mercy to Snape, pushes him further away. The stag fights the serpent, but God is love. Ultimately, Snape temporarily closes off the paths of alchemical transformation for himself.

The Rebis is the end product of the alchemical magnum opus or great work. The lion must dissolve the serpent. Hermetic gardening. The alchemical wedding: the Queen and the King.

But besides all this, the deer is also a symbol of eternal renewal and victory over death ("The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" 1 Corinthians 15:26 ). A symbol of Christ. His constantly renewing antlers represent eternal life.

In the original Greek of the New Testament, the names Jacob and James are variants of the same root—Yaaqob. James is an active force, a seeker, an investigator, a supplanter. James the Great was of a rather impulsive character, but everyone was also amazed by his courage, he was the only one who acknowledged Christ as the Messiah. And he is the only apostle whose death is described in the New Testament. He dies at the hands of King Herod, a cynical and evil king who was willing to murder babies for his purpose. James also dies at the hands of Voldemort, who is willing to kill a baby for his purpose.

Moreover, it was Saint James who was considered the heavenly patron of alchemists. His tomb was located in Santiago de Compostela, which was the oldest center of adepts. It was there, in 1378, after twenty years of unsuccessful attempts to decipher the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures, that Nicolas Flamel, the most famous alchemist of the Middle Ages, went. By the way, Shell Cottage... the scallop shell is a symbol of the apostle James and the "trademark" of the Way of St. James. Shell Cottage is also alchemical. It is there that Harry sees the symbol of the Deathly Hallows around Lovegood's neck.

James is a seeker. Lily is a symbol of the divine spirit, sparks, transformation. That to which all must ultimately come, that which must change in our world in the image of God. But for now, our world is seized by evil, by the antichrist. To defeat death means to defeat the antichrist in one's soul.

James finds Lily. The Soul finds the Spirit. The Spirit descends into the Soul. The King and Queen marry—and a new life is born, another hero capable of defeating the evil that has engulfed the world, capable of cleansing the world of evil. The connection between Harry and Christ is no secret to anyone.

The power of love conquers death. A rune appears on Harry's forehead—Sowilo rune—the victory rune, the sun rune, the irreversible rune. It symbolically serves as the key to the world of Alfheim—the world of the light elves, that is, the bright ideas, the prototypes of the buddhial plane, the ideality in this world.

The key to God. Harry becomes marked. His scar is a reminder to him that he came into this world not just by chance, but to destroy evil. And coming into this world, materializing, a person invariably receives a particle of the antichrist within himself. That's how this world works. Evil is in the soul of each of us, and through the Great Work, a person must purify himself.

And none can live while the other survives, because they mutually exclude each other by their very nature. Christ and antichrist.

But Harry has a difficult path ahead, the path of the Great Work before he can achieve victory. And that will be the theme of all 7 books, 7 years — exactly 7 days is the duration of The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz for the transformation oh his soul, for victory over death.

[loneberry]

"Attar is one of the greatest poets of the Persian language. Nonetheless, his popularity - both in Iran itself and in the West (Goethe, for example, touched on him only briefly in his West-Eastern Divan) - does not match that of Ferdowsi (d. 1020), Omar Khayyam (d. c.1132), Rumi, Saadi (d. 1292) or Hafiz (d. 1389); occasionally he is even omitted from the line of seven Persian poet-princes in favour of Jami (d. 1492). One pos­sible reason for this is that the composition of his poetry is too artful, too complex to be effective in the town squares and teahouses, while at the same time, many of his stories and figures may seem too coarse, too folk-like and too sarcastic to be at the forefront of the high spir­itual literature cultivated at courts in former times and in middle-class households today. Attar’s poetry, on the other hand, is far less stilted than that of most Persian poets but, rather, unadorned, clear and imme­diate. The pain it expresses is not spiritually filtered as in Rumi, far less metaphysically elevated than in Saadi, and not sublimated into pleasure as in Omar Khayyam - where Hafiz turns the earthly into the mystical, Attar strips mysticism down to its leaden, earthly foundation in order to scream his longing to the heavens." --Navid Kermani, The Terror of God: Attar, Job and the Metaphysical Revolt

.

I asked my professor which masnavi (Persian epic poem) he thinks is the greatest ever written. He replied, Rumi's Masnavi (the only masnavi Rumi wrote). Shock. How can there be a masnavi greater than Attar's Conference of the Birds? (There are 4 authentic Attar masnavis; sadly, as far as I know, Conference of the Birds is the only one that has been translated into English.) Reading through Rumi's masnavi I think I am still team Attar. It's Attar's coarseness I love--he is a poet of mad saints and freaks. In Rumi's Masnavi, the absence of a frame story and the pious/didactic tone is somewhat of a barrier for me. The pieces don't quite hang together, whereas Attar's Conference of the Birds is intricately structured--there are stories within stories within stories, each bird with its idiosyncratic psychology--a narrative arc that mirrors the journey of the soul across the seven valleys. But maybe there is a difference between reading a sufi text for its poetry rather than religious instruction, I don't know.

[perfectwitchcrown]

Ekuoto 81 thoughts

Spoilers below! CWs: references to abuse, suicidal ideation/suicide

Before this week's chapter I had been wondering how we might see the Dante and Vergilius fight resolve since Dante had so clearly expressed that this was the end of the line chapters ago and Bel had just been defeated, but I somehow did not expect this to be what happened… :’)

Tbh I think he’s going to live if only bc I think that there was a reason we were shown that Vergilius has healing powers when he kissed Charlotte chapters ago. Maybe this is just cope tho lmao. On the other hand, I’d be really interested to see Priest’s (and Barbara and Leah, who were in France with Dante) reaction to Dante being dead so I’m torn lol.

I think it's interesting how often Dante's advice to fall in love from the first chapter has come up in the series, and how tonally different Priest vs Dante treat that moment in this chapter. Dante sort of broods on it and considers it a curse he's left on Priest, whereas Priest kind of brushes it off to Imuri as uncool advice from an unreliable adult. On the other hand, I think it’s super interesting that Priest seems to consider the hug Dante gave him as having saved his life as a child. In chapter three, when Priest saves the children in the aquarium, he similarly gives them a hug.

I’m sure a lot of it has to do w most of his experience with adults throughout his life involved physical pain (the abuse he suffered from his father, the abuse he suffered from the church, etc) so like I am sure positive physical contact was not something he really experienced. But also, this moment in the first chapter comes after Priest breaks down about how hard he finds living--outside of Bel, who Priest had forgotten about at this point, Dante was likely one of the first adults that actually listened to his cry for help as a child and saw his idealization of religious martyrdom that was really, at its core, suicidal ideation.

Dante’s whole thing about being tired of chasing Vergilius is interesting too. It uses the same language as when he spoke of his failure to chase after Vergilius in chapter 20. Vergilius naming himself Vergilius is also such a "come follow me" move since Virgil was Dante’s guide in Inferno. Interested to see how this shift in the dynamic affects Vergilius.

Also excited to see what happens w Marco next chapter. His relationship w Priest seems fascinating to me bc it’s kinda hard to tell what level of distance they have from each other. Marco completely idolizes him, and it’s also been mentioned that he was present at the previous offscreen exorcism of Mammon prior to the start of the series, and he’s also visible in a flashback panel to that exorcism. They've known each other for like three years then so it's kind of interesting how obsessive Marco is and how little he actually knows about Priest as a person for having known him for all that time.

Even in the first chapter we're shown that Marco's understanding of Priest is completely misguided, where he assumes Priest's studying the bible when he's actually reading poetry by Goethe and Song of Songs (the second of which is in the bible, but the unifying theme between the works he's reading is romantic love. Also, this is the dorkiest form of romantic texts for him to be interested in LMAO).

Also can’t wait to see what goes down w Leah Barbara and the others. While Marco looks pissed, Leah looks more worried than anything else, and Mikhail looks sort of solemn. Daniel sort of has resting bitch face so idk what’s going through his mind. Last we saw of them all, Leah and Barbara very much dodged mentioning that Imuri is a demon and said to focus on fighting the witches first. Now that they’ve clearly finished with that, I wonder if they’ve told the rest or if they’re still hiding it. Either way Marco would be pissed since Priest did work with Bel.

Anyways, what a chapter, I'm so excited to see what happens next chapter. If Imuri and Priest have to be on the run from the church for awhile I wonder if Imuri's friend Cass from the file extras might finally make an appearance...

[itsalliebitheway]

make a move, do your thing

chapter 6: poet

Lena Luthor was objectively good at a lot of things. She’d graduated from high school at 16 and went on to get multiple degrees and even two doctorates. She had been running L-Corp successfully now for almost four years. Even outside of her academic success, she was good at many things. She’d been a chess prodigy and almost good enough at fencing to go to the Olympics. As a child, she learned how to play the piano to entertain her parents’ guests, and she learned to ride horses good enough to compete at charity polo games to represent their family.

Lena Luthor was good at many things.

But one thing that nobody knew about Lena was that she enjoyed writing poetry. And sure, she was no Goethe or Emily Dickinson, but she enjoyed playing with words. She’d discovered her love for writing poetry in middle school. Her teacher even encouraged her to keep writing, even recommending a special tutor since Lena showed talent. But of course, the Luthor’s vetoed it, since it was a worthless skill that brought no value to the family empire.

Recently, things had calmed down. L-Corp ran smoothly next to Lena’s occasional DEO duties. CatCo was safe and sound in Andrea’s hands and the friendship between them might not be back in full bloom but it was at least rekindled. The only thing that wasn’t going Lena’s way was her love life, and more specifically, her painfully unrequited crush on her best friend.

Kara was oblivious to all of Lena’s advances, had been from day one. She’d thought the office full of flowers was a thank you between friends and the personal gala invite just because Lena wanted some friendly company. Even when Lena bought CatCo for her, Kara saw it as a strategic step against Morgan Edge rather than Lena professing her undying love for her.

So, Lena turned back to one of her old outlets: poetry.

 She’d been rusty and it had been painful, trying to fight the urge for perfectionism. Where Lena had written sonnets in her middle school years, she now tended to write in free form, letting her thoughts wander where they wanted and writing them down in a pleasing way. She even added a backdrop to all of them and edited them as pictures into a secret folder in her phone.

Still, it didn’t quite feel like getting her emotions out while these photos were hiding in her gallery. So, she did something she was almost sure she’d regret later – she asked Nia for help. The younger reporter had intermittently showed her some posts on Instagram, whenever they got together, and some of the inspirational quotes reminded Lena of the format she herself had been creating. Nia was thrilled to help her set up a profile under the penname @dreams_in_poetry where Lena slowly but surely shared her new poems with the world, or her current 33 followers.

She didn’t mind that not a lot of people were seeing them, she just wanted to write up her feelings and get them out into the world before she’d blurt them out in front of Kara.

Most times, Lena was also very good at keeping her emotions in check. She rarely cried and angry outbursts only happened in the privacy of her home or office where nobody could call her emotional. But there were times when her feelings for Kara were so overwhelming that Lena just needed to get them out to get on with her day.

So, on a Tuesday morning right after hiring a new scientist for her new ocean clean-up project, Lena closed all work documents in favor of opening a blank word document. The words flowed out of her easily, dripping like molasses from her fingers.

She went to her secret Pinterest account in her browser half an hour later and downloaded a picture of shattered glass, editing it under the text. She posted the picture with the caption “breaking the illusion” and was just about to close the window when she heard a slight tapping at the balcony window.

Kara, clad in her supersuit, waited outside with two coffee cups until Lena opened the door.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Lena asked when she’d closed the door behind Kara again.

“Well, I brough you a coffee, but full disclosure, I saw your screen and I thought you didn’t have Instagram?! Why aren’t you following me, and how come I didn’t know you had an account?”

“I don’t really have an Instagram, it’s just something silly I do,” Lena deflected and tried to push herself between Kara and her desk, but Supergirl had already put the cup down and sat down in Lena’s chair. At the same time, a ding sounded in her office and Kara pulled her phone from her boot.

“Oh look, my favorite Instagram poet just posted something new, now that you have it too I can finally show you this page, it’s truly amazing.”

Kara turned to her computer, apparently determined to put the poet’s name into the search bar, when she stopped short.

“Wait why is your profile pic the same one as…” she trailed off. She clicked on the little profile picture icon and was led to Lena’s posts, the new one on the top left.

“Kara I can explain,” Lena tried but Kara interrupted her.

“You’re dreams_in_poetry? Lena oh my god that is amazing and everything makes so much sense now!”

“It does?” Lena asked but Kara couldn’t be stopped.

“I’m not even mad anymore that you didn’t tell me, I’m just amazed honestly, and also a little bit sorry. You’ve been going through this alone the entire time, even though I could’ve been here for you.”

“What exactly am I going through?”

"...I can understand why you didn't tell me, I'm the press, but Lena I would never tell on you. You guys make such a powerful couple, imagine the charity galas you guys can throw, I bet you can collect a Guinness world record donation, I mean, golly. She's very beautiful, you as well, a magnificent couple, the prettiest."

"Kara... What the hell are you talking about?" Lena finally interjected loud enough to make Kara stop and breathe.

"You and Andrea? The poems? You obviously have feelings for her again and this is how you expressed yourself."

Lena almost laughed she was so confused. “Where on earth do you get this from, Kara?

“Just look at this one. Titled Past Love.”

“longing stares and almost kisses only moments apart ruining a friendship feels inevitable the drinks taste tart

have we ever been closer when we should be apart fleeting touches linger too long flirting morphs into art

familiar hugs without letting go rest your head on me we dance around each other I’ll never be free

of you”

“That just screams and Andrea. You’ll never be free of her. Your past love that can happen again.”

“Kara, I wrote that about Sam and Alex when they were dancing in the club while Sam was already dating Andrea. The two of them who are still together, by the way, so there is not a chance I want Andrea. None.”

Kara scrunched up her brow in confusion, looking at the words, and most prominently, Lena’s most recent post, open on her page.

Lena sighed and clenched her jaw, unwilling to crack now that Kara was so adamant about there being nobody else for Lena than her ex.

“Then who are all these about? Do you not want to tell me, Lena? I’m your best friend.”

Lena groaned loudly and buried her fingers in her own hair, ruining her pristine updue. This line had broken her heart far too many times.

“Why don’t I read the new one to you, and maybe you can figure it out, Kara.”

“will you let me kiss you once so that I know for sure I’ve dreamed too big

will you let me hold you close to let me convince myself I’ve been foolish to hope

will you let me take you home to show me I’ve been wrong to think there was a chance

of ever having you”

It was almost too painful to get through the whole thing, but thanks to her photographic memory, Lena didn’t need to read the lines. She stared into Kara’s eyes, reciting each word, and just hoped that it would finally click.

When she was done, she closed her eyes, too afraid too see how Kara would react. When she heard nothing, she slowly opened them again, watching Kara stare at her, her mouth agape, her eyes wide.

“Do you… can you, I mean. You can’t mean me, right?” she stuttered and swallowed hard enough for Lena to see it.

“Of course I mean you, you beautiful idiot,” Lena whispered, fighting the urge to just run all the way home to her apartment.

Then Kara reached for her, standing up from the desk chair, she towered over Lena again. Before Lena could think, Kara’s lips were on hers, chasing her when she broke away for air, not letting her get farther away than a hair’s breadth.

“I don’t think your illusion needs shattering after all. You can have me for as long as you want,” Kara whispered and pulled her in again.

[vesselsscarlet]

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - The Love Vessel Needs Book Project

Alright, so @murderofcrow and I decided that a nice little FAQ is the key for answering your (possible) questions.

Let's go :)

• How can I submit my art/letter? Is there an address to ship it to?

Nope, there will not be an address. The answer to this will be: DIGITAL

Please scan your handwritten letter(s)/physical art; jpeg files can ruin the look when it is printed. In case you want to type something, you are allowed to do so. Send us a PDF file then (it makes things the easiest because of formatting the text, and it already the looks the way you wanted it to look like; same goes for digital artwork[s]).

For your submission(s) that Crow and I will receive, please write in the title your tumblr username and TLVN Book. For Vessel, you can write down your name/alias/tumblr username and the country where you are from.

Submissions can be handed in: Tumblr Direct Messages (Crow: murderiscrow, Lia: vesselsscarlet) or on Lia's Discord (Username: vesselsscarlet)

• I cannot write. I suck at it. Also, I am not artistic. What can I do?

Don't worry, we gotcha.

You don't have to be Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller. You also don't have to be Monet, Van Gogh, or Picasso. It is all about conveying your message for him. In any way possible. You also don't have to worry about spelling mistakes, and messing up the tenses. We don't mind this. As long as Vessel can understand it in any way possible, you will be fine. This is you, this is your way of expressing your love.

• Is there a limit for the submissions? When is the deadline for submitting it/them?

Nope, no limit at all.:)

The deadline will be announced, as soon as we know more. But it will be 4 weeks before one certain live ritual which we will announce (follow the tag, so you will be updated).

• How can I make sure that I won't miss anything important?

Follow the tag. That is all we can say.

• Will the book be printed?

No. It is a physical one which we will craft and design with our pure hands. It will take some time because we are working from two different cities on it. But this will work.

• Will you share progress and the result?

Of course we will:)

You guys deserve to see our baby that you all have been a part of.

~

That is all for now. If you still have any questions, you can ask them in the ask tool. We will answer you asap.

Merry Christmas from the both of us.🎄✨️

[polysprachig]

Hello friend! I just came across your post about filling in old spaces in your polyglot journal via the bullet journal tag… could you say more about how you use your polyglot journal in general and what its intended purpose(s) is/are?

Thank you for the question, @northfaceho! ***(Read orange text for a short summarised version)

The purpose of my polyglot journal is to capture my process of learning languages, both for myself and to share with other people. It was prompted by a secret learning project I did in 2019 to make my other native language skills go from passive to active (and the subsequent desire to subtly strengthen my skills across my main 5 languages). This happened to coincide with my dissatisfaction with the general ‘Polyglot learns X# of Languages - Here’s How + Tips and Tricks’ kind of content you could—and can—find online. And the rich stock at the base of all my griping generally boiled down to one thing:

Fucking notecards.

No shade to anyone in specific—it was more a general trend I felt I noticed at the time—but the idea that someone who has acquired or is learning a football club worth of languages and who, moreover, is able to demonstrate their use of said languages across the 4 skills to various degrees of range and accuracy at their current stage of learning does so by *secret tip: using notecards* struck me as extremely… imprecise and decidedly non-tip-worthy. It’s not that I think these people were lying about using notecards to learn—not at all! The description was just focused on what I learn with not how I learn imho, and it begged the question: Well, what do you do with the notecards?

Because at the time, I only really used notecards in Old English, but not as flashcards for memorisation or playing vocabulary matching games, which I assume was used as shorthand in the content I kept seeing. No, once a year, I would take out some fresh notecards and write Beowulf verbatim from memory for the section I have memorised, then compare it to the orthography in the Howell D. Chickering dual-language translation. (I do something similar with Chaucer, but notecards are too small so I use a yellow legal pad instead. Still, the concept is the same.) And later, when I started learning Italian, I would prepare a notecard to keep on my desk during lessons which listed out the most common errors I knew I was going to make in that day’s class, based on my teacher’s recent feedback (usually incorrect pronunciation/word stress, Greek or French influence which isn’t correct, accidental uses of Latin, etc.).

And so I repurposed what I had hoped would be a travel journal into a polyglot journal and kicked it off with this statement of my intentions forgive the register:

This year, 2024, one of my main goals was to read the rest through, comment on my methods, mistakes, mindset, etc. etc., and fill in the gaps with scraps of loose studies and feedback from my teachers. Oh yeah, and start typing it all up to save my future self some time.

I’ll be posting a lot more from my polyglot journal in 2025, now that I’ve figured out how much time I can commit to it based on my schedule and the writing routine I’ve been testing out these last months. I want to make sharing it an adventure reflective of its many side quests and the actual time and input required to learn.

In essence, the journal reflects the planning, check-ins, learning notes, and process of my quarantine levelling up project and literary/poetic translation portfolio part 1, which are free to read here if anyone is interested:

The Merlin Project (Irish-English)—running with the question all my students asked in the pandemic, i.e. Can I learn a language from just watching TV? by writing borderline Merlin fanfiction

The tragic portion of my translation portfolio (English-German-French-Italian)—literary translations into English from Poliziano, Goethe, Voltaire and Kaiserin Elisabeth (Sisi); translations into German of Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley

The journal is not without silly and serious one-off language escapades as well, which I occasionally ventured out into when taking a break from the more major projects.

Thanks for reading if you’ve made it to the end!