#joan hodgson

[crosstheveil]

Excerpt: Three Worlds of Man

Spiritual truth is so subtle that it is difficult to translate into material words and concepts. The frontal mind of man is inclined to confine ideas into compartments and pigeonholes, and in so doing can miss their subtle essence. The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life; this is certainly true in the study of astrology. Many clearly demonstrable facts prove its efficacy, but just as many interesting side-tracks can lure the student into a maze, in which he can wander for years without getting anywhere near the truth.

Pythagoras taught that the planetary spirits resided not in the bodies of the planets themselves but in the planetary intervals. Medieval philosophers, in their studies of the human brain, all agreed that the part which was responsive to the impress of the soul was not the physical brain cells themselves but the cavities or ventricles in the brain. Alan Leo states that the element Air, being all-pervasive, is the most subtle and therefore the most responsive to the impress of pure spirit. The alchemists believed that within the ventricles in the human brain a subtle interchange of the spiritual and physical airs takes place, an absorption of the divine breath. The human skull in the ancient teachings is often likened to the sphere of the earth or the sphere of the universe, and in symbolic language and pictures they depict the seven planetary angels or seven stars residing within the earth or within the human brain.

A number of diagrammatic drawings by mediaeval students of alchemy show the human head with three circles or centres of consciousness. The frontal centre is to be considered with the five senses and the nervous system, all under the control of the frontal mind. In the natal horoscope this frontal mind with the physical organism is shown by the Ascendant and by the balance of the elements in the chart. The four elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water, with a fifth element, ether, more subtle than the rest, and pervading all the others, have always been considered to be linked with the five senses of man.

From the above the student will begin to realise the importance of the Ascendant and the balance of elements in the nature which allows the planetary spirits, through their rulership of the signs, to direct the pattern of the karma of the physical life. These planetary angels are believed to work through the hidden zodiac within the soul of man bearing the imprint of the whole of the past.

In a general sense the frontal mind which governs physical action and creates the personality, is under the rulership both of the Moon and Mars. The subconscious part of the brain including the cerebellum, which controls the sympathetic nervous system, comes chiefly under the rulership of Mars; but both these planets are deeply involved in the birth, death and reproduction of the physical vehicle.

Behind the frontal mind is what we may term ‘the soul mind’, or the centre of imagination and reflection. This, too, is ruled by the Moon. It is the gateway to the inner worlds to which we withdraw in sleep or meditation and which we perceive at times of great artistic or mental inspiration. When we are imprisoned in a physical body the consciousness swings between the phases of the Moon. The times when the frontal brain is extremely active can be likened to the full Moon and the times of sleep or withdrawal to the new Moon, when the earth is dark, but the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun and both soul and body are being renewed or revitalised. From ancient times the period of the new Moon has been recognised as a time of new beginnings.

The Moon has close connection with the element Water which also symbolises the soul. It is not surprising, therefore, that in meditation White Eagle teaches his pupils as a first step to withdraw from the frontal mind and to sit in imagination by a still pool on which gradually the white lotus flower opens. When, by the exercise of the will, man consciously releases himself from the frontal mind and becomes absolutely still, then the soul mind can become active. The light of heaven can be reflected in this still water, and the planetary angels can lift the soul into a consciousness of its true destiny. The whole purpose of physical incarnation is for the soul to expand in consciousness to an ever-greater awareness of God, to the point where it can express divine wisdom, power and love through physical matter.

Even deeper within the brain lies the centre which is under the command of the sun or the divine self. This is hidden so deeply that it can only be reached through the attunement of the soul vehicle to the divine self. When the outer mind and emotions are held absolutely still the soul will be able to rise as on a shaft of light, up to a golden mountain, into the sun, and to worship there. By spiritual training and discipline the soul in incarnation is enabled to make the most of the opportunities presented by the physical life, and to learn the lesson indicated by the zodiacal position of the Sun in the horoscope and the planetary aspects thereto.

The centre of solar consciousness, so deeply hidden within the brain, is closely connected with the heart, which is the true solar centre. White Eagle teaches his students that they must learn to use what he calls ‘the mind in the heart’, for it is only through this heart consciousness that the soul can become aware of the true solar ray which is the source of its being.

This is why, when patients seek spiritual healing, White Eagle encourages them to still the fretful, worrying outer mind, and become still in their soul. Then only can they begin to feel the radiance of the spirit which resides in the heart. When the clamour of the outer self is stilled, the solar self illumines the whole consciousness. Then true healing takes place; for once the lunar self is still and focused on the inner light it absorbs and reflects the radiance of the spiritual Sun, the source of life and being of that soul.

This light can only come into physical manifestation through perfect polarisation of the lunar self with the solar self. When the full Moon reflects the Sun, the earth is illumined. In the same way, when the soul makes true contact with the source of its being, the body is illumined and inharmonies fall away. This is what Jesus meant when he said, I and my Father are one . . . I am the resurrection, and the life. I AM the resurrection, and the life.

The mystery writings of ancient religions often referred to the heart centre as a cave wherein dwelt the holy of holies. In some religions it is regarded as the holy city — the new Jerusalem of the Christian mysteries, the Mecca of Islam, the Benares of the Hindus. Always this city has to be approached by a pilgrimage.

The difficulties and trials the soul endures during its incarnation eventually force it to cry out for God and consciously to set forth on this journey, wonderfully described in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. The path and the end are always the same — the climb up the rocky mountain, the process of purification, often through pain — either physical, mental or emotional, according to the element which is being mastered — and finally the admittance into the heart’s cave where the light burns and the glorious unseen Presence waits.

Because of the close link of the solar force with the physical body and the desire nature shown by the Sun’s exaltation in Aries, it was recognised in the mystery teachings that until the soul begins to yearn for light and starts the spiritual pilgrimage, the desire nature, with its headstrong wilfulness, passion and egotism crowds out the little light - the child of the Sun. The heart centre of the soul living only for itself is crowded - there is ‘no room in the inn’. Then through some bitter sorrow or denial of desire, the soul begins to yearn for God and seeks spiritual help, and in so doing becomes dimly aware of the divinity within the heart. As it learns to watch for the light that shines in darkness, to listen for this inner voice, the Word of God, gradually the soul discovers the small cave or sanctuary in the heart, from which all intruders are shut out. This is the purpose of the true meditation; and it is what humanity is reaching out for as the Aquarian Age, in which man will begin to realise his own divinity, approaches.

During any one of the sidereal Ages, two signs, not one, influence humanity. The sign through which the vernal equinox is actually passing exerts a powerful influence on the outer life of humanity, but the opposite sign, its polarity, is the one which affects the inner life most strongly. Always there is this reflection from heaven to earth, and this being so, from earth to heaven. Because Leo is the sign opposite to Aquarius and rules the heart, much more will be understood about the true function of the heart centre during the coming age. It is interesting that so much attention has centred upon heart transplants in recent years. When man is ready to understand the secret of life there will be no need for heart transplants because he will learn how to awaken the solar self to bring about his own healing. He will realise something of the secret magic of the solar consciousness.

The resurgence of interest in astrology is a necessary part of humanity’s progress towards enlightenment, for true astrology is the science of religion, the science of the soul. Understanding of the planetary forces playing on the soul and of the soul’s lesson in incarnation, can be a great help to those seeking spiritual unfoldment. The soul lesson is shown primarily by the element of the sign in which the Sun is placed at birth.

To understand why this should be, let us trace the path of the soul from death to rebirth. During earthly life the soul is imprisoned in the physical consciousness, the five senses of the body. This is related to the rising sign and the balance of elements in the birth chart. It is permeated by the lunar or soul consciousness, often referred to as the personality. During waking hours this consciousness is focused in the physical brain, but during sleep it functions in this soul world, and at death the personality or lunar self withdraws from physical matter but lives in a soul body, vitalised by the solar, the true self, on the astral and mental planes.

In due time comes the urge to withdraw into the solar or celestial world. At this stage, described by Arthur Conan Doyle as the second death, the soul releases itself from all entanglements of the astral and lower mental planes and withdraws into the sphere of the sun where the higher self can review the whole panorama of past experience. It can see the pattern and the purpose of its many lives on earth. In this heavenly stage it realises the planetary ray necessary for the next stage of the soul’s development.

As the soul incarnates under each of the planetary rays, through the signs of the zodiac, it gradually builds for itself the seven bodies or vehicles it needs to function with mastery on every plane of being.

At the moment it is ready and wills to function once more through a physical body, the ray of the solar self shines into the darkness of matter and the conception of the physical body takes place. This is the moment when the planetary spirits are in the right relationship and gather round to build the foetus, which will be born when the position of the Sun gives the planetary ray required. By an exact and unerring law the chosen parents are irresistibly drawn together at the right time also. The laws which govern this are beyond the comprehension of man’s finite mind. They are under the direction of the angels of karma.

According to the sign in which the Sun is placed, the soul is learning the lesson of the planetary ruler of that sign, the real work of the incarnation being to strengthen and develop the soul vehicle of that particular plane. All the diverse experiences of the incarnation contribute to the learning of this lesson which is indicated by the quality and element of the Sun sign at birth.

— Joan Hodgson, from Astrology: The Sacred Science

[after-witch]

Can I ask for your book recommendations? If you haven’t done so before that is ><

oh sure! my book taste is all over the place, I'm not sure what to recommend, so here's a bit of everything.

Horror/Dark

Small Spaces Quartet by Katherine Arden (obviously)

The Collector by John Fowles

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Dark Water by Suzuki Koji

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

IT by Stephen King

Carrie by Stephen King

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (really, anything by Shirley Jackson)

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (okay, not quite horror but mystery)

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Goth by Otsuichi (Anything by Otsuichi; their stuff is really really dark, though, be aware)

Fantasy/Other

The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden (doesn't come out until February)

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish **If you go for this one, DO NOT get the 2002 reprint. Only look for copies published before 2002. The 2002 reprint is heavily censored.

The Rumpeltsiltskin Problem by Vivien Vande Velde

Dragon's Bait by Vivien Vande Velde

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

[poppletonink]

The Aesthetic of Studio Ghibli: An Inspired Reading Recommendations List

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Shuna's Journey by Hayao Miyazaki

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao

Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Linn

Never by Jessa Hastings

When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

Anne Of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

[ofallingstar]

List of books I read in 2023

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

L'homme semence by Violette Ailhaud

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

On Magic & The Occult by W.B. Yeats

Faithful Place by Tana French

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996 by Seamus Heaney

The Love Object by Edna O'Brien

Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Night by Elie Wiesel

In Between the Sheets by Ian McEwan

The Lost Days by Rob Reger & Jessica Gruner

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Parallax by Sinéad Morrissey

The Woman in the Strongbox by Maureen O'Hagan

Diaries, 1910-1923 by Franz Kafka

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Walking to Martha's Vineyard by Franz Wright

A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki

Mouthful of Forevers by Clementine von Radics

Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block

The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Find Me by André Aciman

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Grace Year by Kim Ligget

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Psycho by Robert Bloch

Classic Tales Of Vampires And Shapeshifters by Tig Thomas

Love Devours: Tales of Monstrous Adoration by Sarah Diemer

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Putney by Sofka Zinovieff

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

The Maid by Nita Prose

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

You can follow me or add me as a friend on Goodreads.

[laddersofsweetmisery]

book fair finds (and at a dollar a piece!)

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo

A Beggar in Jerusalem, by Elie Weisel

Memories of My Melancholy Whores, by Garcia Marquez

Daisy Miller, by Henry James

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

The Waves, by Virginia Woolf

The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

Blue Nights, by Joan Didion

The Master and the Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov

Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

Hiroshima, by John Hersey

I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

And Ladies of the Club, by Helen Hooven Santmyer

The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte

How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas Foster

The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx

The Professor and The Madman, by Simon Winchester

The Antioch Review (I was recently accepted into their MFA Program, so I thought it was a neat find!)

And the entire Twilight series because although I'm a literary girlie, I also like to have fun. I'm multifaceted.

[healerqueen]

50 Favorite Children’s Books

Inspired by Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki’s list of his earliest literary influences. This list is limited to books I read in childhood or youth. 50 Childhood Favorites

Caddie Woodlawn and sequel by Carol Ryrie Brink

Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink

The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, and sequels by Elizabeth Enright

Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery

The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

Derwood, Inc. by Jeri Massi

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Heidi by Joanna Spyri

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong

All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

Family Grandstand by Carol Ryrie Brink

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink

Cheaper By the Dozen and sequel by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Rebecca’s War by Ann Finlayson

The Lost Baron by Allen French

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman

Captive Treasure by Milly Howard

Toliver’s Secret by Esther Wood Brady

Silver for General Washington by Enid LaMonte Meadowcroft

Emil’s Pranks by Astrid Lindgren

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois

Freddy the Detective and Freddy the Pig series by Walter R. Brooks

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Robert Lawson

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

The Bridge and Crown and Jewel by Jeri Massi

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Young Adult:

The Eagle of the Ninth and other books by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

Buffalo Brenda by Jill Pinkwater

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret (a nonfiction memoir)

Picture Books:

Make Way for Ducklings and other books by Robert McCloskey

Go, Dog, Go by P.D. Eastman

Sam and the Firefly by P.D. Eastman

Robert the Rose Horse by Joan Heilbroner

Ice-Cream Larry by Daniel Pinkwater

Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant

Discovered as an Adult: Seesaw Girl by Linda Sue Park

The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye

The Armourer’s House by Rosemary Sutcliff

Urchin of the Riding Stars and the Mistmantle Chronicles by M.I. McAllister

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Escape to West Berlin by Maurine F. Dahlberg

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan

The Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelan

Courage in Her Hands by Iris Noble

Knight’s Fee by Rosemary Sutcliff

Victory at Valmy (Thunder of Valmy) by Geoffrey Trease

Word to Caesar (Message to Hadrian) by Geoffrey Trease

The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo

Seventh City by Emily Hayse

Escape to Vindor by Emily Golus

Valiant by Sarah McGuire

The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart

[alexesguerra]

Planetary Harmonies: An Astrological Book of Meditation (Revised) (3RD ed.) Planetary Harmonies: An Astrological Book of Meditation (Revised) (3RD ed.) Contributor(s): Hodgson, Joan (Author) , Hayward, Colum (Foreword by) ISBN: 0854872531 Publisher: White Eagle Books Physical Info: 0.42" H x 8.47" L x 5.62" W (0.56 lbs) 160 pages "Joan Hodgson was both a visionary and an idealist, deeply immersed in the teaching of White Eagle, and her language derives very much from the view of things from the higher world that we get with White Eagle. She believed strongly that positive attitude was something that could be cultivated and which would raise us out of the limitations of the earthly viewpoint." - From Colum Hayward's Foreword Contributor Bio:Hodgson, Joan Joan Hodgson was the author of two other astrological classics, Astrology the Sacred Science and Wisdom in the Stars. Born in 1913 she took up from Alan Leo the pioneering work of esoteric or spiritual astrology. Deeply influenced by the White Eagle teaching and connected with it all her life, she was the founder of the White Eagle School of Astrology. She died in 1995 but her books remain in print and widely read.

[wahwealth]

🕵️Sydney Toler | Charlie Chan | Murder Over New York (1940) Mystery | 

Murder Over New York is a 1940 US mystery movie. directed by Harry Lachman.   The cast stars Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan and also features Marjorie Weaver, Robert Lowery,, and Ricardo Cortez. Charlie Chan solves a murder while he is attending a police convention. Cast Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan Marjorie Weaver as Patricia West Robert Lowery as David Elliot Ricardo Cortez as George Kirby Donald MacBride as Inspector Vance Melville Cooper as Herbert Fenton Joan Valerie as June Preston Kane Richmond as Ralph Percy Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan John Sutton as Richard Jeffery (called Keith Jeffery by Kirby) Leyland Hodgson as Robert Boggs Clarence Muse as Butler Frederick Worlock as Hugh Drake Lal Chand Mehra as Ramullah Shemp Howard as Fakir (uncredited) Never miss a video. Join the channel so that Mr. P can notify you when new videos are uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/@nrpsmovieclassics

[jennystahl]

We have so many classics that tell a different perspective, you just don't read them. I don't care what you were forced to read in high school, you have free will.

Don't discredit the many greats because you want to assume they don't exist. The societal outlook has not yet changed, but you don't have to say this kind of stuff. It's unhelpful at best.

Obviously white men are always over represented, but your message is still incorrect, especially considering how many NEW books we have that are absolutely what you're looking for. But anyway, non-white male classic writers:

Alice Walker (gay Black woman)

Sylvia Plath

Sarah Waters (lesbian)

Lydia Chukovskaya

Anita Diamant (Jewish woman)

Joan Didion

Truman Capote (gay man)

Fanny Burney

Ursula K Le Guin (feminist and incredibly progressive)

Dorothy Bussy (bisexual woman)

Jane Austen

Zora Neale Hurston (Black woman)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (African woman)

James Baldwin (gay Black man writing about civil rights in many forms)

Julia Voznesenskaya

Harper Lee

Elizabeth Peters

E.M. Forster (gay man writing about gay men)

Mary Shelley (female pioneer in science fiction)

Mabel Seeley

Louisa May Alcott

Virginia Woolf (gay woman)

Ann Radcliffe

L.M. Montgomery

Shirley Jackson

Mae West (wrote plays about sex, drag, and homosexuality)

Frances Gies (wrote history, still some of the best sources for their topics)

Christine de Pizan (medieval woman writer)

Margaret Weis

Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi woman)

Maya Angelou (Black woman)

C.L. Moore (female pioneer in weird fiction)

All three Bronte sisters

Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, Patricia Wentworth (wrote mystery like no man in history ever has; Christie is the most sold author of all time after Shakespeare and the Bible)

Donna Tartt

Daphne du Maurier

Alexandre Dumas (mixed-race Black man)

Willa Cather (gay woman)

Toni Morrison (Black woman)

George Eliot

Margaret Atwood (explicitly feminist works)

Fannie Flagg (gay woman)

Anne Carson (translates ancient Greek works)

Oscar Wilde (gay man)

S.E. Hinton

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Khaled Hosseini (Afghan man)

Kate Chopin

Eve Babitz

Helena Maria Viramontes (Chicana)

Octavia Butler (Black woman writing science fiction, an incredible staple of the genre)

I didn't count any who wrote children's stories; it didn't seem relevant. There are thousands of others too, these are all just at least moderately well known.

I do find it unfortunate when ppl (especially women) live with a ‘well female characters are hardly ever interesting, so I prefer male characters’ mindset. When there are arguably the same, if not many, many, more terribly written male ocs compared to women. Like media/society has just convinced you to put men and their stories first and you’ve gotta break out of that mindset if you’re ever truly going to embrace women in media imo

[calmgrove]

Yorkshire lasses

Les Sœurs Brontë 1848

An intriguing photographic image, with Les Sœurs Brontë written on its reverse, was found earlier this decade in a private Scottish collection by Robert Haley from Lancashire while he was researching for a book on Victorian photography.

As Haley explains in detail on his Brontë Sisters websitethis monochrome picture of three young women, two of them facing a third who is…

[ecos10milpodcast]

S04E11 - La Vampira de Barcelona y héroes golpeando nazis

CINE 00:02:40 - Justice League 00:09:45 - Kingsman: The Golden Circle 00:15:37 - Joan Didion: El centro cederá SERIES 00:19:45 - Alias Grace 00:25:10 - Runaways 00:31:44 - The Good Place 00:37:05 - She's gotta have it 00:41:11 - The Punisher 00:47:33 - Crisis on Earth X (Crossover Arrowverse) PODCAST 00:54:02 - Valencia Destroy 00:56:00 - Our Fake History LIBROS 00:59:30 - Entrevista a Iván Ledesma, nos habla de su novela gráfica La Vampira de Barcelona 01:32:53 - La formación de una marquesa de Frances Hodgson Burnett 01:37:19 - Los Buenos de Hannah Kent 01:42:03- Este es el mar de Mariana Enríquez 01:46:09 - El bosque oscuro de Cixin Liu 01:53:06 - Taller de Literatura SciFi En este programa suenan : Come together (Gary Clark Jr.) / Don't Run (Mr Little Jeans) / Youth (Daughter) / She's gotta have it theme (Bruce Hornsby)

[curseofmxcbeth]

Female centric dark academia novels: 

Picnic at hanging rock, Joan Lindsay

The prime of miss jean brodie, Muriel Spark

The little princess, Frances hodgson burnett

Miss Marple mysteries, Agatha christie

Pride and prejudice, Jane austen 

Wuthering heights, Emily Bronte  

Matilda, Roald Dahl

[after-witch]

Hello I really love your writing and I was wondering if you can give me a list of your favorite books or some that you can recommend. I’m trying to get back into reading and I thought why not ask you since one you’re my favorite writer and two we have similar interests sorry if this comes off weird

not weird at all! Here are some off the top of my head:

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (obviously)

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Dark Water by Suzuki Koji

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

IT by Stephen King

Carrie by Stephen King

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (really, anything by Shirley Jackson)

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (okay, not quite horror but mystery)

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Goth by Otsuichi

On the non-horror side of things:

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish 

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess  Frances Hodgson Burnett

Also re: Prince Ombra, since it’s really not a popular book. I love this book. The basic premise is that the reason why everyone has that little groove above their lips is because right before you leave heaven, an angel puts their finger to your lips and says: Hush! Don’t tell what you know. And then once every while, a child is born without this groove, and it’s because they’re supposed to remember everything so they can try to fight Prince Ombra aka evil/darkness/hate incarnate. In the book, the one chosen to fight Ombra in this generation is a young boy named Bentley. 

If you get it, make sure you are not reading the 2002 reprint with the gold cover from Starscape; this version is abridged and basically ruined. Go for the older print editions from the 1980s. The book contains child sexual abuse, violence/death, and other heavy themes. This 2002 edition was like 'oh well let's take out massive chunks of the story related to anything remotely dark so we can market it to modern young readers, rendering the story nonsensical in the process.’ So don't get that version.

[sapphireshorelines]

My 2022 Reading List

(chronologically)

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Train to Pakistan - Khushwant Singh 5/5

Dandelions - Yasunari Kawabata 4/5 (trans. Michael Emmerich)

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth - Warsan Shire 2.5/5

The Waves - Virginia Woolf 5/5

Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis - Wendy Cope 3/5

Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston 3.5/5

Glass, Irony and God - Anne Carson 4/5 (The Glass Essay is 5/5 tho!)

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen 4/5

Night Sky with Exit Wounds - Ocean Vuong 5/5

A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett 3.5/5

Gendering Caste - Uma Chakravarti 5/5

Heartstopper #1 - Alice Oseman 3/5

Live or Die - Anne Sexton 4.5/5

I remember - Joe Brainard 2.5/5

The Country Without a Post Office and other Poems - Agha Shahid Ali 5/5

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf 4/5

Othello - William Shakespeare 3/5

My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun - Emily Dickinson 3.5/5

The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot 5/5

Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories -R.K. Narayan 4/5

An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire - Arundhati Roy 4/5

Alphabet - Inger Christensen 4.5/5 (trans. Susanna Nied)

Autobiography of Death - Kim Hyesoon 3.5/5 (trans. Don Mee Choi)

A Room With A View - E. M. Forster 4/5

A Mathematician's Apology - G. H. Hardy 3.5/5

Radial Symmetry - Katherine Larson 4/5

Crush - Richard Siken 3.5/5

My Life in My Words - Rabindranath Tagore 4/5 (ed. Uma Das Gupta)

Love Letters: Vita and Virginia 4/5

Fasting, Feasting - Anita Desa 3.5/5

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz 5/5 (reread)

Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion 3.5/5

Autopsy - Donte Collins 3.5/5

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson 3/5

Time is a Mother - Ocean Vuong 3.5/5

Dracula - Bram Stoker 4.5/5

Anne of Avonlea- L.M. Montgomery 3/5

Four Essays on Philosophy - Mao Tse-Tung 3/5

First Light - Sunil Gangopadhyay 5/5 (trans. Aruna Chakravarti)

Howl and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg 2.5/5

[nik-jr-lit]

To Be Read (TBR) List (Oct. 31, 2022)

Short-term TBR list (goal is to read by end of 2022):

Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Ice Run by Steve Hamilton

Long-term TBR list (goal is to read these...period):

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Villette by Charlotte Brontë

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Shirley by Charlotte Brontë

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hatchet series by Gary Paulsen

The Alex McKnight series by Steve Hamilton

The Nick Mason series by Steve Hamilton

And more that I'm forgetting! I will update this list with each TBR list post.

As mentioned in my post about what I've read so far this year, I have lately been interested in mystery/crime novels and historical romance/fiction. Ever since I first read Jane Eyre in my last year of high school, I've been smitten with the language, culture, and drama that Austen and the Brontës bring to the table. As I work my way through their published works, I'd love to branch out to other historical/classic authors who also explore social classes, gender roles, religion, societal norms, and personal growth within their stories. If you have any suggestions for me to add to my list, let me know :)

[dwellordream]

“…War often necessitated the absence of men from their families and their homes. While we have already touched on the fact that women could exercise military leadership during such an absence, the importance of their domestic role in the context of the husbands’ or sons’ military activities is worth considering, even if the women themselves were not all directly involved in military activity. For, in their men-folk’s absence, women sometimes assumed full control over the governance of the household or estate, along with all the lands which came with it – a role which took on an added significance amongst marriages of the more powerful nobles of Western Europe whose landholdings often entailed extensive seigniorial rights.

Stephen of Blois, for instance, alluded to the power that his wife Adela had whilst he was absent on the First Crusade when he wrote that ‘I send [the wish] that you do well and dispose of your things superbly, and treat your sons and your men honorably, as befits you’. This statement reveals the lordly authority which Adela maintained as regent while Stephen was absent and which she was to retain after his early death in May 1102 – right up until she took the veil as a nun in 1120. The military authority she wielded as lord is demonstrated by the fact that she once sent a large number of knights to support her lord Louis VI (c.1081-1137) while he was fighting rebellious castellans north of Paris in 1101.

But Adela was not the only women whose regency resulted from the call to crusade: when Louis IX went on crusade he entrusted the governance of the French kingdom to his mother, Blanche of Castile, who had proven herself a reliable and effective ruler during his minority. Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), queen of France and later England, similarly acted as regent in England for her son Richard I while he went on crusade, and was involved in mediating ecclesiastical disputes in his absence as well as in matters of governance. Likewise, Clementia of Burgundy, wife of Robert II of Flanders, held his county while he was left on the First Crusade, much like Eremburge of Maine governed the county of Anjou during her husband’s absence on crusade in 1120.

In the Holy Land the wife of Joscelin the Younger, count of Edessa (d. 1159), governed the county ably after he had been taken prisoner in 1150 – ‘far beyond the strength of a woman’, according to William of Tyre. His remark hints at the way in which medieval women who did govern well were thought by their male contemporaries to have transcended the ‘weakness’ of their sex, much like other comments regarding militant women referred to their masculine qualities in order to explain their involvement. Regardless of how well they governed, though, the key point is that it was war that forced these women to assume governing roles at home in support of their husbands or sons.

Women were also sometimes entrusted with the administration and coordination of affairs in preparation for war. Thus in 1267 the earl of Pembroke wrote to his wife, who had command over the castle of Winchester, informing her that he had sent men to help her defend the castle from attack and instructing her that she had ‘power over them all...to ordain and arrange in all things according to that which you shall see to be best to do’. More striking is a letter sent by Edward III in 1335 to three women: Margaret, widow of Edmund, earl of Kent; Marie, wife of Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke; and Joan, wife of one Thomas Botetourt.

In this letter Edward, who was absent fighting in Scotland, commanded these women to gather trusted advisors together in London to ‘treat and ordain on the safe custody and secure defence of our realm and people, and on resisting and driving out the foreigners’ who Edward had heard were massing warships and men at sea. The women were then ordered to ‘arm and array your people...to repel powerfully and courageously the presumptuous boldness and malice of our same enemies...if those enemies invade’. Although we do not know the extent to which these women were successful in carrying out the king’s orders, Edward nevertheless showed remarkable faith in the capacity of these women to prepare for the defence of the realm in his absence – certainly no small task.

Another particularly important arena in which women could directly aid the military effort was through their efforts to help finance and raise money for wars within Western Europe and the Holy Land. Funding for military campaigns was raised in many different ways – taxation, general donations, mortgaging or selling property – and women formed an important part of this process, especially when it came to paying for costly crusades to the East. We have already seen how Pope Innocent III, at the turn of the thirteenth century, began to make greater allowances for women to accompany their husbands on crusade or take a crusade vow if they were able to take armed followers with them to the Holy Land, but what really freed up this process was the promulgation of Innocent III’s decretal Quia maior in April 1213 (which pronounced the Fifth Crusade).

Quia maior stipulated regular liturgical processions of men and women, during which the participants would hear sermons, receive some degree of remission of sins just for listening (according to an earlier letter of Innocent), and pray for God to deliver the Holy Land. Furthermore, it promoted greater financial participation by making it possible for women to finance male warriors to go in their place and also specified monthly Church collections to which men and women could contribute. Perhaps most importantly, Quia maior decreed that anyone of either sex who so chose could take a crusade vow and might redeem or commute it if necessary (in return for a monetary payment), thus widening the number of people who might contribute financially to the crusade movement.

Later papal policy expanded this practise by enforcing the payment of vow redemptions if crucesignati (the legal term used to signify someone who had taken a vow) did not leave on crusade. As far as women are concerned there seems to be not enough evidence to gauge how much they actually contributed to the overall amount of money collected from redemptions, or even how much was collected in the first place. Nevertheless, Innocent’s reforms certainly allowed women to take on a greater financial and spiritual role in supporting the crusades, even if their circumstances prevented them from going on crusade in person.

Vow redemptions were, however, only one means by which women could provide monetary assistance. Often more financially taxing were instances in which women were forced to sell their husbands’ property or mortgage dower lands, which left some destitute and others fighting in the courts for their property rights, as Christopher Tyerman has explored in the case of English women. At other times, women helped contribute funds collectively, especially in the case of poorer crusaders who had to rely more on donations from the whole family, in which case the selling and mortgaging of property was again the most common way of financing a family member for war.

Similarly, women who had control over a significant source of income could play a key role in helping finance men on crusade: Hodgson, for instance, cites the examples of Marie of Champagne and Blanche of Castile, both of whom acted as regents and sent money to their sons while they were crusading in the Holy Land, but has also noted other women whose large dower was a key financial source for crusade expeditions. Another more indirect means by which women could assist the continuing military struggle in the Holy Land came from the revenues of female convents associated with the recently founded military orders, of which part went towards financing the latter’s activities in the East (although these payments were not large and varied from one house to another depending on each convent’s financial means).

Finally, we cannot discount the role female taxpayers may have had in helping pay for war, although again it is very difficult to discern how much women contributed in this regard, since the head of the household (the eldest male) was the one who paid taxes and who thus appeared in tax records. The only women to appear were those active in an independent trade of their own or who were widowed and lived in a house in which no male heirs were also residing, though such women only seem to have made up a small proportion of taxpayers.

Thus, even if most or all tax revenue before the sixteenth century went towards financing war, as has been argued in the case of England, the percentage of the revenue that came directly from female taxpayers would have been much less than that of male taxpayers (though both sexes were adversely affected by the effects of high taxation in times of war). Considering all of the means by which women could contribute financially, therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Western European women were a substantial source of finances for military campaigns, especially for the crusades, although the precise extent to which this assistance actually contributed towards the success of these campaigns is hard to quantify.

Women’s enthusiasm for war and their recruitment efforts formed another facet of their home front involvement. This is one area where women may not have always acted in support of their men, and instead actively tried to discourage their men from leaving, hence the actions of such women are worth exploring as they could have influenced the number of men who went to war. The chances of women successfully preventing men’s involvement in warfare appear highest in the case of the crusades because, although wives’ emotional responses to their husbands’ departure could not prevent the latter from leaving, canon law stipulated both husband and wife required each other’s consent before leaving to go on crusade.

Thus women were, for a period, legally able to veto their husbands’ decision to participate. To what extent women were successful at doing so is not entirely clear – some of those who preached the crusade appear to have felt women were among the ones preventing the crusades from being successful, although after Pope Innocent III issued his decretal Ex multa in 1201, which removed the requirement for men to obtain their wives consent before leaving, they would have had little cause for further concern. These developments suggest that some women, at least up until 1201, were successful in stopping men from leaving, but it is hard to say for certain.

Emotional distress at the departure of loved ones on crusade may have played a role though: Odo of Deuil noted that there were tears on the part of women when the Second Crusade departed, as did Ambroise before the Third Crusade. Some years earlier Fulcher of Chartres elaborated at greater length on the sorrow before the First Crusade: ‘Oh what grief there was! What sighs, what weeping, what lamentation among friends when husband left his wife so dear to him, his children, his possessions however great...Then husband told wife the time he expected to return...He commended her to the Lord, kissed her lingeringly, and promised her as she wept that he would return.’

Departure scenes such as this one, it has been argued, were deliberately used by chroniclers to portray the crusades as a male affair in which women were not expected to participate. Certainly, such an account does reinforce conventional gender stereotypes: the emotionally controlled, pious husband, and the overwhelmed, irrational wife unable to maintain her composure. Nevertheless, it is not unreasonable to assume that some women would have been reluctant for their men to depart and upset if the latter eventually did, although we cannot know the extent of their influence on limiting the numbers of men on crusade.

At the same time, medieval women also seem to have encouraged and even recruited men for war. Thus the author of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum asserted that ‘Brides urged their husbands and mothers incited their sons to go, their only sorrow being that they were not able to set out with them because of the weakness of their sex’. Although gender stereotyping is again evident in the way women’s ‘weakness of sex’ is said to have prevented them from leaving, there are some actual examples of women who tried to persuade men to fight. Adela of Blois, for instance, is well-known for her efforts to persuade her husband Stephen to return to the Holy Land after he deserted and came home during the difficult siege of Antioch in 1098.

Similarly, Alice de Montfort was active in recruiting men, notably her brother (the Constable of France) during the Albigensian crusade, as was, supposedly, Eleanor of Aquitaine before the Second Crusade. Riley-Smith, too, has also discussed women, notably the Montlhéry sisters in the Île-de-France, whom he feels ‘transmitted an enthusiasm for crusading to the families into which they married’ and which can help ‘account for the concentrations of crusaders in certain kindred’ during the early crusades. Of course, whilst the genealogical preponderance of crusaders in certain families does not prove for certain that women necessarily had anything to do with recruiting or persuading men to fight, the examples given above do suggest that we should not discount their possible influence.

Lastly, it is also worth considering the role which urban women active in certain trades had in supplying various resources used in military affairs. For although most women were active in the textile and cloth-making industries during the Middle Ages, there were apparently some who worked sharpening tools and making scabbards for swords and knives, and others who even trained in arms manufacture (making chain mail and fletching strings to bows) – definitely a trade that would have thrived on war. Admittedly, the numbers of women engaged in such crafts were very few and their likely effect on military affairs slight. Accordingly, we should not make too much of their employment or we risk over-emphasising their contribution. All the same, they do at least serve to draw attention to other more indirect means by which women on the ‘home front’ may have supported the whole industry of war by supplying military goods and services.

- James Michael Illston, ‘An Entirely Masculine Activity’? Women and War in the High and Late Middle Ages Reconsidered