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threew-com · 1 year ago

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AI and Web3 jointly build the future digital economic infrastructure, and 3W.com creates new financial technology application scenarios

Once upon a time, the “awakening” of artificial intelligence to fight against mankind was a vigilant idea based on optimism about the supremacy of human civilization. However, recently, a piece of news that “ChatGPT deceives mankind” has covered the Internet media and major social platforms. With ChatGPT, the hottest generative AI robot in the world, as the protagonist of the latest story, this “strange news” has indeed brought the battle between AI and humans to the forefront again.

In fact, since the birth of artificial intelligence technology (or concept, school, etc.), the traditional world’s focus on the relationship between AI and humans has long gone beyond the original differences between “assist” and “empowerment”. The benefit is that the fear and discomfort with the emerging “productivity killer” have gradually led to a subtle relationship marked by “game” and “balance” between the two.

So much so that for decades, the stories of “AI replacing humans” and “robots ruling the earth” have been enthusiastically previewed in literature, film and television works, and even in the real world, the “ultimate battle between artificial intelligence and humans” has also become a new phenomenon. The lingering worries of the times have been exaggerated into the sound of alarm bells and chants in turn.

However, the continuous iterative development of AI seems to have become an inevitable historical trend nowadays. Before 2022, the development of AI technology can be said to be relatively stable, but the emergence of ChatGPT has completely changed this situation. The AI large language model has revealed Amazing the world with its capabilities, AIGC has set off a development craze for new artificial intelligence tracks around the world. AI has begun to “invade” the human world more deeply through new application scenarios and penetrate into daily life.

Since its launch on November 30, 2022, ChatGPT has gone through several version iterations, from a web application that can only process text information to a super application that can process text, voice, and image information at the same time, attracting thousands of users every week. Used by billions of people. After ChatGPT was launched, almost all the world’s major technology companies released their own large language models. It can be said that the birth of ChatGPT has changed the research, development and application ecology of AI. Global users have begun to be able to use richer and more accessible application products and Experience and feel the huge changes in productivity brought about by the development of artificial intelligence in service scenarios.

What changes might breakthroughs in generative AI bring?

From a technical perspective, generative AI is a machine learning algorithm that can generate new data from training data, including: tabular data/structured data, media data such as images, videos, and voices, and text data.

Al pre-trained large models are infrastructure. On this basis, scenario-based, customized and personalized small models can be quickly extracted to achieve industrial pipeline-style deployment in different industries, vertical fields, and functional scenarios, while also being used on demand. , the advantages of high efficiency and economy. As the AIGC model with both large models and multi-modal models accelerates to become a new technology platform, Model-as-a-Service (Maas) begins to become a reality and is expected to have a huge impact on the business field.

Currently known generative AI technology based on multi-modal large models can currently achieve the following functions:

1. Automatic data/content generation. Large language models and image generation models can support prompt word (prompt) input to automatically generate data/content; 2. Improve content quality: AI-generated content may be of higher quality than content created by humans because AI models are able to learn from large amounts of data and identify patterns that humans may not see; 3. Increase content diversity: The AIGC model can generate multiple types of content, including text, images, audio and video, 3D content, and more.

Exploring application innovation, generative AI is injecting new productivity into financial technology

After the release of GPT-4, multi-modal generative AI technology has once again become a cutting-edge technology hotspot that the technology and industry circles are paying attention to. In 2022, Gartner, an American information technology research and analysis company, ranked generative AI as the first of the three hot technology trends in the banking and investment services industry. Generative AI-related technologies such as generative adversarial networks (GAN) and natural language generation (NLG) It has been used in areas such as fraud detection, transaction prediction and risk factor modeling.

With the release of ChatGPT and GPT-4 by OpenAl in 2023, application exploration in all walks of life continues to advance. The financial industry with a large amount of data accumulation and technical reserves will be the main beneficiary of generative Al.

Fundamentally, generative AI reduces the money and time required to generate content across text, code, audio images, videos, and combinations thereof, allowing businesses to produce more content quickly and at scale, thereby increasing productivity. and profitability.

For the financial industry, since generative AI technology is still in continuous iterative development, the application of related financial scenarios is still being explored. The earliest industries to adopt generative AI technology are concentrated in industries such as graphics and art, games, marketing and sales, but generative AI can also become a key factor in revolutionizing financial services and increase productivity by more than 10 times.

AI and Web3 jointly build the future digital economic infrastructure, and 3W.com creates new financial technology application scenarios

With the popularization of large AI models, we have seen significant improvements in efficiency in areas such as office work, entertainment creation, and scientific research. Looking to the future, as the development of emerging technologies such as AI and quantum computing drives the productivity of human society to increase, the threshold for ordinary people to create professional creations will be lowered, and the data produced by individuals on the Internet will become one of the most important production factors in the digital economy era. one.

How to confirm, transfer, realize and distribute income of personal digital assets will become one of the major issues facing the digital economy era. Web3 uses blockchain as the underlying value distribution system to store data, exchange value and record transactions through shared ledgers. Activities to optimize trust and distribution mechanisms in the digital era may, together with AI, become an important infrastructure in the future digital economy era.

3W.com Group is a holding group company focusing on the development and application of global cutting-edge technologies represented by AI and Web3 technologies. The core technology products of its technology sector are based on AI and Web3 technologies, and will also be adopted in the future. The AI large model explores the direction of implementing more innovative application scenarios in the field of general artificial intelligence.

Among them, 3W.com is a terminal application brand created by 3W Wallet core technology industry deeply incubated by 3W.com Group for To C business. It is a multi-functional platform that integrates social networking, payment, exchange, transaction configuration, consumption, games, entertainment and other functions. An all-in-one membership-based cross-platform super application tool, providing a one-stop comprehensive platform service of “super wallet + unlimited scenarios”. 3W.com’s many application functions, such as Web3 social networking, transaction configuration and game entertainment application scenarios, all use new technologies in the AI field.

As more and more industry builders pay attention to Web3 and AI, there will be more and more innovative uses or scenarios combining the two. 3W.com’s core technology products organically combine AI and Web3 technologies to help users improve efficiency and make better decisions in new financial transaction processes. Its products also focus on improving scalability, enhancing security and providing personalized services, and are committed to providing Humans bring more convenience and innovation.

#web3

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rhianna · 1 year ago

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It is rather a pity that the Devil has vanished with Santa Claus and other delectable myths; the universe is more theatrical with a “personal devil” roaming at large, seeking whom he may devour. In the book of Job the Devil played the part of the return of the native, coming along in the best society in the cosmos to appear before the Presence. And when he was asked where he came from, he replied in a devilishly debonair manner, “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

There are so many things in this world that seem to be the Devil’s handiwork, and there are so many people who look like the devil, that it seems as if he could not be extinct. His chief service to the universal scene was to keep virtue from becoming monotonous; to warn even saints that they must mind their step; to prove that eternal vigilance is the price of safety. The Enemy of Mankind never took a holiday. Homer might nod, but not he. In fact, on human120 holidays he was, if possible, unusually efficient. The idleness of man was the opportunity of Satan.

The principle of evil is so active, so tireless, so penetrating that the simplest way to account for it is to suppose that men and things receive constantly the personal attention of the Devil. Weeds, and not vegetables, grow naturally; illness, not health, is contagious; children and day-labourers are not instinctively industrious; champagne tastes better than cocoa.

Throughout the Middle Ages, although every one believed steadfastly in the reality of the Devil and that he was the most unscrupulous of all foes, there was a certain friendliness with him, born, I suppose, of daily intimacy. It was like the way in which hostile sentries will hobnob with one another, swap tobacco, etc., in the less tense moments of war. The Devil was always just around the corner and would be glad of an invitation to drop in.

Thus in the mediæval mystery plays, the forerunners of our modern theatres, the Devil was always the Clown. He supplied “comic relief” and was usually the most popular personage in the performance. He appeared in the conventional makeup, a horrible mask, horns, cloven hoofs and prehensile tail, with smoke issuing121 from mouth, ears and posterior. He did all kinds of acrobatic feats, and his appearance was greeted with shouts of joy. In front of that part of the stage representing Hellmouth he was sometimes accompanied with “damned souls,” persons wearing black tights with yellow stripes. On an examination at Yale I set the question, “Describe the costume of the characters in the mystery plays.” One of the students wrote: “The damned souls wore Princeton colours.”

#history #literature #devil #clown #medieval #project gutenberg #mystery plays

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mysticalcrowntyphoon · 2 years ago

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QR Code on Medicine: Its Benefit and Challenges

Table of Content

· An Introduction

· Why Use QR codes

· Conventional Vs Digitalization

· Benefits of Using QR codes

· Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

An Introduction

A pharmaceutical company is serving the mankind for ages, and it is the mode of survival and hope of many to get going. A lot of changes added spark to the industry whereas some proved a challenge. With the utmost vigilant sector of manufacturing, it religiously follows all the rules and regulations. The law-abiding sector which maintains compliance profoundly faces many challenges on regular basis. For instance, the threat of product counterfeiting concern and retailers charging unfair prices for medicines a piece of common news.

Why Use QR Codes?

Along with this, the pharmaceutical sector is associated with legal liabilities too where it is quite evident that nobody wants to face the unfavorable consequences for any unspecified or indefinite side effects that a consumer may get. It is pretty much sure that contract manufacturing in pharma has done an exceedingly brilliant job yet certain limitations need to be given due attention. So to deal with all these ongoing issues and address the concerns more specifically QR codes have been introduced.

Conventional Vs Digitalisation

Though there are conventional ways of sharing information with the customers like product manuals that acquaint the customers with the company’s product as every customer wants to know everything about the product they are buying. There are certain limitations with product manuals they have restricted space for giving details which gives way to displaying only selective details. Presentation of multimedia content like video is not a possibility with the manual. In case the company shares a link to demonstrate something it becomes tiring and long work for customers to take it up. Like typing the link detail, getting it functioning, etc. A convenient way to combat such issues is using QR codes and flawlessly used by Pharma Contract Manufacturing in India. They are two-dimensional barcodes that can store a lot of information which is the preference of many big shots to keep their customers fully acquainted as it has the following benefits:

Benefits of Using QR Codes

· QR codes associated with software that has price data of all the brands keep the customers updated on the increase or decrease in the price of a pharmaceutical product. Scanning of codes gives the accurate price of medicine.

· The authenticity of the medicines also gets verified with QR codes as the government also mentioned encoding the technical aspects and information in them. The scanning verifies the legality of the medicine.

· It also helps to access the long and detailed videos on guiding the prescription and proving as detailed medical assistance as QR Code-based videos solve the complications related to medical assistance. This treats as an online medical guide as, amongst a wide range of medications, videos and images make their task easy.

· In-depth product detailing is given to the customers through QR codes.

· QR codes help to build your brand’s image and legitimacy as it helps to conduct surveys and collect reviews. Most people go by reading the reviews and feedback available.

Third-party pharma manufacturing has made it convenient and practiced to use QR codes for their customers by making it a habit of putting them on all pharmaceutical Products. Though there are certain concerns shared by the customers regarding their data getting shared with others, due to which sometimes people don't use it promptly but that percentage is very less. Other than that, QR codes in the pharmaceutical sector are doing a fairly good job. QR codes have been proven as a reflection of the brand's integrity.

Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a Third-Party Manufacturer of Pharma that is WHO-GMP certified and holds a high reputation in this sector. Moving ahead of time with a technology-driven approach is their forte and that’s why they are looked up to by their co-manufacturers. They are in habit of setting a benchmark for others and thus looking at their Experience, they have been using these QR codes successfully for so long. The authenticity and purity they display through their endeavors speak volumes about their productivity.

Key Takeaways

· Pharmaceutical Sector, being a law-abiding sector, which maintains compliance profoundly faces many challenges on regular basis.

·The authenticity of the medicines gets verified with QR codes as the government also mentioned encoding the technical aspects and information in them. QR codes have been proven as a reflection of the brand's integrity.

·Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a Third-Party Manufacturer of Pharma that is WHO-GMP certified and holds a high reputation in this sector.

#pharma #pharma contract manufacturer in India #third party manufacturing #Third party manufacturer of pharma

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mordigen · 3 years ago

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Unpopular opinion: Christians are not witches

I said it. Fight me.

There has been a trend that has been growing ever more problematic recently: overbearing, hyper-zealous, hyper-vigilant "acceptance" This means the pagan community is an absolute free-for all, and you are not allowed to so much as even feign the possibility that you do not agree with absolutely 100% of everything, lest you be named a gatekeeping, ignorant bigot.

Whether you like it or not - there ARE paths out there that have specific rules...regulations...stipulations...tenets - whatever the hell you want to call or classify them. End. Period. There's no other colour that comes in - that's it. Sorry for you, but they DO exist. In fact, there are many of them.

If you do not follow those rules, tenets, etc..., then you are not of that path. Point. Blank. And there is nothing wrong with that - it simply means that you are of some other path. That's it! That's all that means! It may be *nearly* identical to the path in question - but it is not, hence the 'nearly'.

If you happen to be a part of one of these paths, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying so. If someone claims to be a part of one of these paths, but are absolutely, blatantly not - there is nothing wrong with saying that, and explaining why that is. Some people just honestly don't know there is a difference, or that these certain prerequisites are indeed a definitive factor - so they learn something, they broaden their horizons. Everyone seems to be all about educating themselves about being sensitive to other cultures and customs - except the pagan community, apparently, because this mentality does not translate across that pagan/witch line. Instead of taking it as a learning experience, you are immediately pounced on with notions of 'there are no rules!' 'you can't tell someone what to do on their own path!' Or, simply, the name calling. Well yes, while all of that is true - it still remains that how ever you want to practice or whatever you personally decide to do, may just simply not be what you are claiming, or calling it. It may just be semantics - but semantics matter when dealing with nuance. And paganism is extremely nuanced.

You can call a tomato an orange all you want to - but that thing will never be an orange, no matter how much you believe in it. And people are not wrong for informing you that you may have the wrong name, that is in fact, a tomato. If you go on deciding to call it an orange, you can do that - but that is willful ignorance. So, in your fight to be unapologetically accepting of every ridiculous notion, you are perpetuating willful ignorance - whilst being directly in opposition of your goal and being, *GASP*, unaccepting to those who follow a path where distinction and definition matters. You are completely invalidating those people's paths and beliefs while trying to defend another's (another who may, in fact, actually be wrong) and actively using their path & beliefs as the very reason to berate and ostracize them. Pretty fantastically hypocritical of you. Now...on to the second problem. I do not, at all, in any form, believe in "ritual magick" - as perpetuated by Aleister Crowley hardons. And no, that is not a knock on Crowley, just the idiot followers that don't understand half of what he taught and latch onto the superficial.

When you look at the origins and make up of magical beliefs, and magic itself as a separate entity - no matter which particular branch - they were all created by religion. They all have roots in highly spiritual cultures and customs. So, I absolutely do not believe for one second that you can believe in magic without SOME form of religion - whatever one you adhere to is your choice, but you cannot have the first without the latter. You cannot. Even if you claim that you have no religion, or spiritual faith, your practices absolutely do. You are calling on elements and agencies that absolutely have divine ties and connections one way or another. Oh, how many atheists I see calling on the seals of Arch Angels.... are you fucking shittin me? Really?? So let's bring it all together now - with the fact that many faiths DO have prerequisites, AND the fact that magic is religious/spiritual -- Christians are not, and cannot be witches or pagans. They are mutually exclusive. Not only because so many various paths have such prerequisites, and very define religious/spiritual beliefs that are contradictory to others - but simply because Christianity DOES, very much, have very clear and stringently defined Do's & Don'ts, and obviously the religious aspect itself clashes with the religious beliefs of others. Their religious beliefs clash with people who believe in their same god - so how could they not with those who believe in other gods?? Considering this, no other path would even need such stipulations themselves for them to be mutually exclusive, as Christianity already covers that issue so completely, but the fact that so many pagan paths do only exacerbates an already existing problem. That being said - that does not mean you cannot believe in the Christian 'god', by whatever name you know him by - or that you cannot believe in Jesus, and also be a witch or pagan. In fact the latter has an even bigger argument for believing in both, as paganism, generically, in itself is polytheistic, so it is very fitting to simply have the Christian god and Jesus amongst the many deities being worshipped. But those two things alone is not what makes Christianity. A good start, yes, but that is not all it takes - in fact, there are many that are shunned, excommunicated, banned, condemned and moreso whilst having those very two qualifying factors. You can find this in *every single* sect of Christianity, so...the proof is in the pudding, as they say, that it is much more than simply believing in 'God' and Jesus that makes a 'Christian'. And if you take that to heart and follow all those rules - you cannot be a witch or pagan, many times over, as you would be in direct opposition, or violation, of a number of their teachings - both on the aspect of simple 'rules', but also on a much deeper spiritual level of the entire foundation of their faith. Cannot serve two masters, and all that... If you do not follow those rules, then sure, you could be a witch or a pagan - but then you cannot be a Christian. That is just the facts.

Many people like to argue the use of magic and mysticism in the bible - but the issue is what parts of the bible they are found, and all the amendments of the further books. Again, what really carves out being a Christian vs. any of the other sects of Abrahamic beliefs. As, news flash - there is far more than just Christianity. And some of them, do, in fact, do hand in hand with magic. The Kabbalah is an astounding example of that - and, in fact, where a lot of the so called *ahem* 'non'-religious 'ritual magick' comes from. In this same vein, I would like to note that I have never had any issue or seen conflict with the Hebrew or Jewish take on shamans, mystics and witches, as they really do go hand in hand - They have their own very in depth, detailed, spiritual and sentimental form of mysticism that was a natural progression from pre-Abrahamic religions and culture, and grew into their teachings and belief system, so it does not go against their core beliefs the same way it very stringently does in Christian theology. Considering their ethnical histories and cultural heritage - this is a brilliant example of the natural evolution and progression of faiths - not simply ripped from the hands of the brutally oppressed and rewritten as a mockery to wipe out the preexisting notion of faiths -- as the Church has a history of doing. The Book of Enoch is another shining example of Biblical magic, or Angelic magic. But, this also also turns my point into a self fulfilling prophecy, as in the fact that it is accepted amongst all denominations as heresy, and it is taught that these magics - though they do, in fact, exist, were for the angels and completely forbidden from mankind. So, thusly, if you are a follower of Enoch, you are not a 'Christian', by name and membership, as you are outright going against it's teachings. You are a heretic, a blasphemer. Perhaps you may be one of the many other forms of the Christian god's followers - but not a Christian, as being Christian denotes a very specific set of beliefs and tenets - end of story. Magic, and paganism, is in direct conflict with those teachings, and therefore, cannot coexist.

On top of the logic - there is also the emotional issue. Christianity has a long history of abuse towards various pagan, tribal and indigenous faiths, while stealing our beliefs as their own, and demonizing those they couldn't successfully acclimate into theirs. To now be expected to be OK with this faith, yet again, latching on to *our* sacred rites and practices as being a part of their own is a hard pill to swallow at best, a slap in the face to most, and flat out perpetuating trauma at worst. Once upon a time, people sought out these very same communities and groups within their pagan circles as an escape, a safe space, and a shield and guardian against the Christian onslaught, torment, oppression, or just exhaustion - and now, we must not only tolerate them invading our private spaces, but must now welcome them with open arms and expected to be happy about it? Forgive me if I don't sympathize....

If we are going to now be forced into being shoulder to shoulder with them, the very least you can offer us is neutrality. You can be accepting of all and still be neutral grounds - not taking any one side anywhere, all you have to do is be respectful to each other. Disagreement is not disrespectful. Could someone who disagrees with a certain viewpoint *become* disrespectful? Sure, of course they could. But simply the act of disagreement is nothing hateful or hurtful in any way shape or form - in fact, good discourse is how progress is made. So we need to remain neutral grounds and normalize the acceptance of different viewpoints - we need to recognize and accept that, yes, there are paths out there that do have specific requirements, expectations and limits - there are paths that are going to disagree, or just flat out not believe in something. Instead of name calling, when someone of those paths decides to speak up and enlighten and elaborate on information that may be inaccurately described or depicted, you need to LISTEN and learn, and not just bludgeon them with presumptive judgement. You also need to accept that there are many, various different closed practices out there - beyond Native American & Voodoo practices (as those seem to be the only ones the pagan community recognizes) and if someone of those closed faiths tell you - no, you are not xy or z, that is also not being judgmental or hateful or hurtful - that simply is. ....a very important side note here is that acknowledging closed practices is also not a carte blanche for screaming about cultural appropriation. Please shut the fuck up about cultural appropriation. Not being of a specific faith is not equivalent to cultural appropriation - Telling someone "no, you're not xyz" is very different from telling someone "no, you can't practice xyz" (looking at you smudge-Nazis) You can enjoy, practice, learn or celebrate anything you want of any faith you want while not actually being apart of it - that's the beauty of sharing and learning. And I think that is where all the trouble boils down from:

Yes, you can do whatever you want and can create whatever path you want for yourself...just don't misrepresent it, don't call it something it is not, and don't deny those who are more educated & experienced in that particular department. We get enough of that from outsiders to start doing it to each other.

#madd mordi #mordi #mordigen #mordigen malone #pagan #paganism #pagan problems #mordiwrites #pagan pride #christian witches #christians are not witches

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st-just · 3 years ago

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What's the eldritch conspiracy? Is this a new setting or is it Abhari adjacent?

I'm glad you asked!

Entirely different setting. Properly speaking it's just an extensive riff on/two degrees removes from Delta Green and other modern lovecraftian stuff. Human existence is a tiny soap bubble in a grand and terrible cosmos full of things which are to us as we are to gnats, exposure to Reality has terrible consequences both physical and mental, as technology and human understanding of its little sheltered cove of the universe has expanded, so has the degree to which we've bumped against the edges, and the strength with which the edges bump back, things get worse every day and only with constant vigilance and sacrifice is the masquerade preserved and the beginning of the apocalypse staved off, etc, etc.

The org chart without context (bold lines are command/authority, green is funding, blue is other support. Hexagons are parasitized/infiltrated but not controlled, diamonds are front-line tools/catspaws/deniable projects and all still need names, rounded shapes at the bottom are plot seeds before I ran out of objects in the free version)

So really the main thing that has my interest is figuring out conspiracies. Which are, basically, cliques of people In The Know who have each come to the conclusion that yes, in the long term this is unsustainable and humanity is fucked. To which there are a few responses.

1. The 'over my dead body' response. Basically the standard PCs in a Delta Green campaign - a network of military officers, federal agents, cops, spies, and friends in industry and academia willing to fight, die and kill to save the world for at least one more day. Between embezzlement, misuse of the national security state, and apocalyptic paranoia they do their very best to put out every fire before it can start to spread (helped by the fact that most of these things burn themselves out and need more of a cover-up than an intervention if you're pragmatic or slow enough). They're..often overzealous about this - this is a world with fewer Jonestowns and more Wacos, if you understand me.

2. "Humanity is doomed, but we can salvage what's important": Apocalyptic transhumanism is probably a workable term? An acceptance that the real conditions of the universe are incompatible with the existence of the human race, combined with a desperate conviction that humanity can create or transform into something for which that's not true. And so their efforts are split between trying to buy more time and efforts to engineer a successor species capable of meeting the mythos on its own terms while still retaining the pieces of human consciousness and culture they consider the worthwhile parts of its heritage. As might be expected, this is a very messy prospect and requires a lot of, ah, 'raw materials'. But it's easy to justify doing quite a lot to individual humans when you're already resigned to extinction and committed to building something better.

3. "Civilization is doomed, but we can save humanity". Or, as the previous two groups would put it, defeatists and traitors to humanity. They'd argue they're just trying to make the best of the inevitable. Essentially they're trying to curate the apocalypse, making it the gradual, gentle kind, easing humanity into awareness of its true conditions. The line about how "The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy"? That's their best case scenario, more or less, and they do what they can to engineer culture and nudge history in directions to make the transition as easy and subtle on humanity as possible. Better than burning from an instant of some mad god's attention or all the myriad of fates worse than either, after all.

4. The nihilists, or the real traitors, or the idealists, as you prefer. A small number of those who've been touched by the Outside and been remade, and are really quite happy with the result, or just are sufficiently disillusioned with the world that they're willing to give apocalypse and revelation a chance. Of course most aren't actively trying to die, or at least would prefer someone else was the suicide bomber if there's an option, so they do their best to find their way to promising nascent cults and arm and support them to meet their end in as dramatic and hard-to-hide a way as possible, and find potential converts more interested in Truth and enlightenment than their own obsessions.

(the org chart is for conspiracy number 2, for reference)

#reply #circletofcircles #worlbuilding #this is theoretically a writing blog #unnamed eldritch setting #the fourth mythological names are the members of the steering commitee who I have frankly spent too much time thinking abt already tbh

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americanoddity · 3 years ago

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Planetary Orphic Hymns

Manifestation order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon

Please only use these Hymns if you’re ready. Jupiter is incredibly expansive, Mars incredibly defensive, etc. All planets need to be worked with before ever thinking about prayer to Saturn, and when Saturn is worked with, you need to keep Solar influences heavy.

*astrological conditions matter

Formal wear

Storax, basil, frankincense

Hymn to Jupiter

O Jove much-honored, Jove supremely great,

To thee our holy rites we consecrate,

Our prayers and expiations, king divine,

For all things round thy head exalted shine.

The earth is thine, and mountains swelling high,

The sea profound, and all within the sky.

Saturnian king, descending from above,

Magnanimous, commanding, sceptred Jove;

All-parent, principle and end of all,

Whose power almighty, shakes this earthly ball;

Even Nature trembles at thy mighty nod,

Loud-sounding, armed with lightning, thundering God.

Source of abundance, purifying king,

O various-formed from whom all natures spring;

Propitious hear my prayer, give blameless health,

With peace divine, and necessary wealth.

Any attire

Frankincense, cinnamon, dragon’s blood

Hymn to Mars

Magnanimous, unconquered, boisterous Mars,

In darts rejoicing, and in bloody wars

Fierce and untamed, whose mighty power can make

The strongest walls from their foundations shake:

Mortal destroying king, defiled with gore,

Pleased with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar:

Thee, human blood, and swords, and spears delight,

And the fire ruin of mad savage fight.

Stay, furious contests, and vending strife,

Whose works with woe, embitter human life;

To lovely Venus, and to Bacchus yield,

To Ceres give the weapons of the field;

Encourage peace, to gentle works inclined,

And give abundance, with benignant mind.

Clean, nice clothing with a sense of modesty

Frankincense

Hymn to the Sun

Hear, golden Titan, whose eternal eye

With broad survey, illumines all the sky.

Self-born, unwearied in diffusing light,

And to all eyes the mirror of delight:

Lord of the seasons, with thy fiery car

And leaping courses, beaming light from far:

With thy right hand the source of morning light,

And with the left the father of the night.

Agile and vigorous, venerable Sun,

Fiery and bright around the heavens you run.

Foe to the wicked but the good man’s guide,

Over all his steps propitious you preside:

With various founding, golden lyre, ’tis mine

To fill the world with harmony divine.

Father of ages, guide of prosperous deeds,

The world’s commander, borne by lucid steeds,

Immortal Jove, all-searching, bearing light,

Source of existence, pure and fiery bright

Bearer of fruit, almighty lord of years,

Agile and warm, whom every power reveres.

Great eye of Nature and the starry skies,

Doomed with immortal flames to set and rise

Dispensing justice, lover of the stream.

The world’s great despot, and over all supreme.

Faithful defender, and eye of right,

Of steeds the ruler, and of life the light:

With founding whip four fiery steeds you guide,

When in the car of day you glorious ride.

Propitious on these mystic labors shine,

And bless thy supplicants with a life divine.

Something that makes you feel good about yourself

Frankincense, rose, honeysuckle, sandalwood

Hymn to Venus

Heavenly, illustrious, laughter-loving queen,

Sea-born, night-loving, of an awful mien;

Craft, from whom necessity first came,

Producing, nightly, all-connecting dame:

Tis thine the world with harmony to join,

For all things spring from thee, O power divine.

The triple Fates are ruled by thy decree,

And all productions yield alike to thee:

Whatever the heavens, encircling all contain,

Earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main,

Thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod,

Awful attendant of the brumal God:

Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight,

Mother of Loves, whom banquetings delight;

Source of persuasion, secret, favoring queen,

Illustrious born, apparent and unseen:

Spousal, lupercal, and to men inclined

Prolific, most-desired, life-giving, kind:

great scepter-bearer of the Gods, tis thine,

Mortals in necessary bands to join;

And every tribe of savage monsters dire

In magic chains to bind, through mad desire.

Come, Cyprus-born, and to my prayer incline,

Whether exalted in the heavens you shine,

Or pleased in Syrias temple to preside,

Or over the Egyptian plains thy car to guide,

Fashioned of gold; and near its sacred flood,

Fertile and famed to fix thy blest abode;

Or if rejoicing in the azure shores,

Near where the sea with foaming billows roars,

The circling choirs of mortals, thy delight,

Or Beauteous nymphs, with eyes cerulean bright,

Pleased by the dusty banks renowned of gold;

Or if in Cyprus with thy mother fair,

Where married females praise thee every years,

And beauteous virgins in the chorus join,

Adonis pure to sing and thee divine;

Come, all-attractive to my prayer inclined,

For thee, I call, with holy, reverent mind.

Scholarly or what you work in

Frankincense, rose, honeysuckle, sandalwood

Hymn to Mercury

Hermes, draw near, and to my prayer incline,

Angel of Jove, and Maia’s son divine;

Studious of contests, ruler of mankind,

With heart almighty, and a prudent mind.

Celestial messenger, of various skill,

Whose powerful arts could watchful Argus kill:

With winged feet, tis thine thro air to course,

O friend of man, and prophet of discourse:

Great life-supporter, to rejoice is thine,

In arts gymnastic, and in fraud divine:

With power endued all language to explain,

Of care the loosener, and the source of gain.

Whose hand contains of blameless peace the rod,

Corucian, blessed, profitable God;

Of various speech, whose aid in works we find,

And in necessities to mortals kind:

Dire weapon of the tongue, which men revere,

Be present, Hermes, and thy suppliant hear;

Assist my works, conclude my life with peace,

Give graceful speech, and my memory’s increase.

Something comfortable, flowing that isn’t constricting

Jasmine, lavender, willow, copal, opium

Hymn to the Moon

Hear, Goddess queen, diffusing silver light,

Bull-horned and wandering thro the gloom of Night.

With stars surrounded, and with circuit wide

Night torch extending, thro the heavens you ride:

Female and Male with borrowed rays you shine,

And now full-orbed, now tending to decline.

Mother of ages, fruit-producing Moon,

Whose amber orb makes Nights reflected noon:

Lover of horses, splendid, queen of Night,

All-seeing power bedecked with starry light.

Lover of vigilance, the foe of strife,

In peace rejoicing, and a prudent life:

Fair lamp of night, its ornament and friend,

Who gives to Natures works their destined end.

Queen of the stars, all-wife Diana hail!

Decked with a graceful robe and shining veil;

Come, blessed Goddess, prudent, starry, bright,

Come moony-lamp with chaste and splendid light,

Shine on these sacred rites with prosperous rays,

And pleased accept thy suppliants mystic praise.

Solemn, black or grey clothes, on the formal side of things

Myrrh, poppy seed

Hymn to Saturn

Ethereal father, mighty Titan, hear

Great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere:

Endowed with various council, pure and strong,

To whom perfection and decrease belong.

Consumed by thee all forms that hourly die,

By thee restored, their former place supply;

The world immense in everlasting chains,

Strong and ineffable thy power contains

Father of vast eternity, divine,

O might Saturn, various speech is thine:

Blossom of earth and of the starry skies,

Husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wife.

Obstetric Nature, venerable root,

From which the various forms of being shoot;

No parts peculiar can thy power enclose,

Diffused thro’ all, from which the world arise,

O, best of beings, of a subtle mind,

Propitious hear to holy prayers inclined;

The sacred rites benevolent attend,

And grant a blameless life, a blessed end.

#planetary worship #hellenistic polytheism #hellenism #planetary magic

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argumentl · 3 years ago

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The Freedom of Expression, radio version - Ep 23 - Fan comments, Child killer identity leak, Politician suggests shutting down politically biased content - March 2016.

Kaoru starts this episode by stumbling over the pronunciation of 'Expression' in 'The Freedom of Expression'. He introduces Joe, and Joe asks him about his recent activity since Budokan. He says he has been in the studio, working hard on the new single. Joe then asks whether his opportunities to speak with other people have reduced. They have reduced, says Kaoru. Joe tells Kaoru to call him if he gets lonely. Kaoru thinks this is a bad idea, because Joe would tell him to come out drinking.

Kaoru says that this week he would like to read out some more of the fan messages which were written in notebooks at the booth in Budokan. The first comment says 'Freedom of expression is a contitutional right, and must be respected, but determination is also needed. Its a brave thing to boldy speak out, despite knowing the drawbacks. I look forward to the future episodes'. Joe thinks it impressive to wait out in the cold for so long before the live, and then write this after coming in. Kaoru says this message gives him courage. Joe says, yes, its true that freedom of expression is written in the constitution, but with complacency, this right will become eroded. Vigilence is needed.

The next message says, 'It's said that Dir's live shows are all about expressing pain, but is it ok to say the live was 'fun'?'. Kaoru says there are two ways to look at this, fun for him, or fun for the audience. As for him, he feels very happy when he sees people coming to watch him, in both small and big venues, which is similar to fun. As for the audience...he recalls when the band were making Dum Spiro Spero, and the huge earthquake/tsunami happened in March 2011. They asked themselves whether they should quit this album, was it right to continue with it in those circumstances? But they came to the conclusion that it may give people hope, and help people to look forward if the album could be finished and released. It may be a trivial thing, but if it makes a positive difference in someone's life they (Dir) are happy. So in that sense, he thinks its totally ok to say lives are fun. It may seem odd that everyone leaves a live with a smile on their face, but when you think about it, that is a part of what makes us people. Joe says that just after seeing Dir en grey live for the first time at Budokan, he went to interview one of Kaoru's favourite manga artists, Urasawa Naoki, at Urasawa's own house. Urasawa is a huge fan of 60s and 70s rock, and has a big collection of vintage guitars in his house. Joe says their conversation naturally turned to, 'What is "rock"?'. Urasawa said it may be the idea of 'understanding'. For example, when rock star (Imawano) Kiyoshiro sang, 'Kimi no kimochi, boku ni wa wakaru/I understand how you feel'...that sense of understanding may be what rock is. That includes understanding feelings of lonliness, or of fun etc etc. 'Sharing' may not be quite the right word, but Joe says he felt this at Budokan, this sensation of understanding. Kaoru feels like its a sensation of becoming closer with each other. Joe says there may be people who feel 'fun' out of this, but it comes from a sense of understanding. After speaking to Urasawa, Joe realised that this is how he had felt at Budokan.

Next Kaoru moves on to read out some emails which the show has recieved. The first email is from a fan who was very impressed with the Budokan shows, and hears Arche in a different light since then.

The second email is from a fan who saw the two days at Budokan, but didn't see 'Day 3' (the show at Liquid Room a week later). Some fans who had gone to 'Day 3' had posted online that they thought THIS was the real finale to Arche. The fan was disappointed that they didn't get to experience this. Kaoru feels that at Liquid Room they played Arche in a new style, showing a kind of step forward into a new path.

Next Kaoru welcomes Hiranabe for the Tokyo Sports corner. Hiranabe says he had been very busy at work lately with the whole Kiyohara drug scandal. But the first story Hiranabe brings up this time is the news that the gossip magazine Shukan Post had published the place of living and other details about the child killer Shonen A/Boy A (Search: Kobe Child Murders). Joe says he rarely buys gossip magazines, but he did this time, and not only did he realise what a huge leak of information this was, he wondered why the magazine had published this. What was the point of making this into news? Hiranabe thinks this is a plan by the police. He says there is a trend of high profile criminals finishing their sentences, leaving prison and then writing a book, or appearing on tv and getting royalties or fame (Ten years after his release, 'Boy A' wrote a book detailing his crimes).The police don't like this trend, and there has been a slew of such cases where the police have made a fresh arrest after a book release or tv appearance. Kiyohara Kazuhiro is a good example, but other examples include businessman Ikawa Mototaka (arrested after releasing a book), and motorcycle gang leader Ishimoto Taichi. Hiranabe thinks the Shukan Post must be cooperating with the police over the publication of this information. There is no proof of this, its just his opinion. He also says he wonders how often 'Boy A' has to move house, which he probably needs money for. If his place of living is discovered he will have to move, and finding a new place will be hard. He must be getting some kind of support. Kaoru jokes that since he himself has also released a book, will the police be after him now? He wants someone to support him too. Joe wonders whether the police are intending to re-arrest 'Boy A' with this info leak, and whether there is someone somewhere assisting him to escape further.

Hiranabe's next news story is that Internal Affairs and Communications minister Takaichi Sanae had made the sugestion that broadcasters who repeatedly broadcast politically biased material could be taken off the air. Hiranabe asks, if broadcasters are shut down, what happens after that? You can't listen to the radio any more? For them, if this show got negative press, would they be taken off air? They all agree this would be pretty undesirable. Joe says that the minister might say that a move like this is permissible by law, but as for freedom of expression on radio stations for example, in Japan there is never any instruction from radio stations to take material off air or to take certain songs off air, it is down to individual radio programs to decide on this. In the USA they have station-wide policies when taking songs etc off the air, but in Japan it depends very much on each program, rather than the radio station itself. As a result, people on radio programs have to be very aware of the atmosphere around them. The Japanese are a culture whereby reading the atmosphere is very important. Its very different from America where the rules are often set down clearly. When the Japanese musician Aska was arrested, there was a time after this where his songs ceased to be played on radio, but there was no instruction about when it would be ok to start playing them again. People just though, 'Ah, he's been arrested, so we'd better not', and then after a while, gradually just started to think it would be ok to play them again. So with this kind of comment from Minister Takaichi, its possible people might just react in the same way, and read the atmosphere as appropriate. Joe also mentions that recently some tv announcers had be axed from a few channels. He thinks this is a result of pressure from political quarters, and if such things continue to happen, freedom of expression in Japan will get narrower. Hiranabe and Joe say it sounds like intimidation tactics are being implemented by the government. Hiranabe laments at how useless the main opposition party is against this, with their constant in-fighting over petty matters. The voters have no choice. Kaoru agrees with this. Joe asks Hiranabe what solution can be found to this. Hiranabe suggests forming the 'InterFM Party'. The others laugh at this, then suggest they could unite with the 'Tokyo Sports Party'.

To finish Kaoru says the TFoE stickers have been made already. He expains one more time that the stickers wil be revealed on the show's blog after they have been sent out to the winners of the Arche cover design contest. Joe suggests Hiranabe should get some stickers. Kaoru then plugs the Budokan bluray/DVD, upcoming new single and tour. He also reveals that his Offical Blog magazine TheTheDay will put out its first edition on the 11th of that month (11th March 2016), and will update every second and fourth friday. Finally, Joe mentions how impressed he was with Hiranabe's energy as he entered the studio that day. He had arrived just in time, and says his driver had got lost on the way and made him late.

Songs - Dir en grey/Revelation of Mankind, New Order/Blue Monday.

#dir en grey #the freedom of expression

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faemoria · 3 years ago

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as haroom died the same day as rashmi , the same also remains true that toothiana will never have any real closure in regards to whether she is doing him proud && thus we turn to writer’s prerogative again .

haroom would be proud of his daughter almost unconditionally , but his pride in toothiana as she is today would be bittersweet .

as far as looks go , toothiana definitely inherited far more from her mother’s side in the most obvious of ways , but a lot of her face takes more from him ( chin shape , nose , lips , etc. ) . his skin tone was lighter than rashmi’s && it seems their daughter’s is somewhere in the middle of them both . likewise , rashmi was more inhuman looking && haroom’s genetics diluted some of those more monstrous qualities . there was not much time for her to pick up on specific , physical mannerisms of either of them , but a few things did catch on . for instance , when toothiana runs her hands through her hair or feathers , it’s practically a mirror image of haroom doing the same thing , down to the weight shifted in her legs if she is standing .

moreover , this is a very simplified way of breaking down the makings of a personality , especially give the trauma involved in her childhood but ;; where as toothiana obtained her more holistic views such as that constant vigilance , a mind for striking before anyone else has the opportunity to , the means of holding oneself as a queen , an inherent distrust of humans in part from her mother , she learned many of her more personal values from her father . those being the things like individual acts of compassion , a penchant for hospitality , appreciation for her more immediate surroundings && for the little things that bring about ones own happiness . things that are often smothered down by what toothiana considers to be her responsibilities as queen of memories , guardian of childhood && status as the last sister of flight , but were heavily fostered during her short time living as a child .

that is not to say that rashmi was ‘ the mean one ’ && haroom was ‘ the nice one ’ , but being the human between the two , haroom && his beliefs were more grounded in humanity . also i am more than a little skeptical of the idea that a slave && his master can truly be ‘ friends ’ , but even aside that , his time in servitude would give haroom a far different outlook on what ' goodness ’ is than a being which spent most of her life transcending mankind . haroom was humble , at times to a fault .

but to great virtue as well . toothiana’s father was the sort of man who would take joy in sharing his favorite meal , who would find it a great honor to be approached by a wild animal && the ability to live off the land comfortably . he would have a dedication to long && difficult work , but what would inspire him to do it in the first place would be a mind for how it would enrich the lives of another person or his family . both parents taught toothiana various crafts , but the ones learned from haroom tend to inspire comfort . such as weaving or carving wood into instruments && knick-knacks .

haroom would understand that the roles toothiana fills must be seen to && he would likely be plenty proud to see all that she accomplishes , but that she uses them to define so much of who she is would be a point of worry if nothing else . she seemingly does very little for herself outside of an instinct for survival && her interpersonal relationships are quite few ( granted by blog canon , the past small number of years have been a successful effort to hesitantly acquaint herself with more people , but it is still a drop in the pond for someone that has lived thousands of years ) . haroom loved others inherently && the idea that his daughter must live in such a state of hyper-vigilence , even when trying to do good for mankind from a distance , would make him plenty sad on its own . but the fact that her experiences have fostered so much rage && hate in her , would absolutely break his heart .

it was his desire that toothiana grow up among humans only in part because she appeared to be one early in her childhood , but far more importantly : haroom’s faith in them did not die despite the earlier actions of the maharaja , he forgave his former master ( && would have stepped in front of that arrow for his wife again without hesitation ) . && haroom felt the monkey king’s punishment to be a fitting && fair one for his disrespect towards fellow creatures in the world .

the remaining , jagged , chipped , but nonetheless surviving faith in humanity that keeps toothiana from abandoning mankind entirely is most certainly in thanks to her father . she did not , however , pick up his aptitude for forgiveness .

art credit : i could not find a proper source for this image .

#» ทั่วไป ; headcanon

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screamingatthevoid · 4 years ago

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For more than a hundred centuries...

Someone at Black Library apparently decided that the classic 40k intro (It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries etc.) of the last... idk as long as I can remember was no longer good enough and needed to be chopped up, rearranged, and generally ruined. New and classic versions below the cut, for reference.

If they had added something genuinely new I would have understood - I love the classic intro, but I can see why they might want to add a reference to the Great Rift and Imperium Nihilus, for instance.

They didn’t do that.

Not a peep about the Fall or Cadia, the Great Rift, or Guilliman. Just the classic intro awkwardly rearranged. The sole purpose apparently to have the final line be “in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”

Classic

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

Yet even in His deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. Yet for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat of aliens, heretic, mutants - and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future, there is only war. There is no peace among the stars, only and eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

New

For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind. By the might of His inexhaustible armies a million worlds stand against the dark.

Yet, He is a rotting carcass, the Carrion Lord of the Imperium held in life by marvels from the Dark Age of Technology and the thousand souls sacrificed each day so that His may continue to burn.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. It is to suffer an eternity of carnage and slaughter. It is to have cries of anguish and sorrow drowned by the thirsting laughter of dark gods.

This is a dark and terrible era where you will find little comfort or hope. Forget the power of technology and science. Forget the promise of progress and advancement. Forget any notion of common humanity or compassion.

There is no peace amongst the stars, for in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

#warhammer 40k #black library

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the-tzimisce · 4 years ago

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God Emperor 2/?

OK I literally forgot I was going to do this because I got a computer, we’re doing it now, chapter by tiny horrifying chapter at a time

This morning I was born in a yurt at the edge of a horse-plain in a land of a planet that no longer exists. Tomorrow I will be born somewhere else in another place. I have not yet chosen. This morning, though - ahh, this life! When my eyes had learned to focus, I looked out at sunshine on trampled grass and I saw vigorous people going about the sweet activities of their lives. Where...oh where has all of that vigor gone?

OK listen, my whole commentary is going to be about Dune’s thematic obsession with the idea of people being hardened through adversity, because it’s, to be clear, bullshit, but it’s bullshit that I also, personally, am extremely thirsty for. I’m not going to dissemble here. I am absolutely desperate to be molded into a greater being through death-defying struggle and constant personal vigil. Anyway the literal point of God Emperor is the elevation of said bullshit to the transpersonal. It is not enough for man to be acted upon by the desert. Mankind must be led to their own collective desert. (This is also why God Emperor is the end of the series for me, I know Children of Dune is the end of the good books in the series, but I feel like if you take God Emperor seriously on its own terms it makes a bridge beyond which anything further is a new story which maaaaaaybe doesn’t need to be told by Frank Herbert in Dune’s particular idiom).

Anyway, in no other context would it be so ominous that Arrakis doesn’t suck now, ecologically. Poignant for the loss of our good sand worm buddies and good drugs, maybe. But for Frank Herbert and his (/my) weird obsession, the gentle warmth and sea breezes are the same descriptive sentence as the decline of the Fremen to a rotely remembered stasis which forbodes the decline of the human race etc etc.

Also, Leto had a Forbidden Forest decades before Hogwarts did, suck my flippers, JK Rowling.

Men thought her beautiful when she ran. Siona knew this.

I’m only on page nine but I know what is to come and I’m already very tired

There were Gaze Hounds in the ancestry of Leto’s forest guardians

I don’t know what a Gaze Hound is supposed to be but maybe it should have been a Male Gaze Hound

Anyway for showing a heist scene - or really, the aftermath of one - this chapter has maybe the most action in the entire book. It’s been like eight pages since I read a dramatic proclamation of godhood.

[turns page] Oh shit.

#it is the worm that kills #dune #god emperor of dune

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pamphletstoinspire · 5 years ago

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Pentecost Sunday - The Gathering of the Human Family: Pentecost Vigil Readings

Welcome to Pentecost! This is such an important Feast Day in the life of the Church, we should celebrate it with just as much joy and enthusiasm as Christmas and Easter. This the day of the Spirit, and if we have understood Jesus' teachings clearly, we understand that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not an epilogue or denouement to the story of salvation, but its climactic finale that ushers in a new age! This is the high point of our liturgical journey that began in Advent with anticipation of the coming of the Messiah!

The Church recognizes the importance of Pentecost in her liturgy, and graces this Solemnity with its own vigil, complete with four different options for the First Reading. All of them are important for understanding the meaning of this feast:

1. Genesis 11:1-9, the Tower of Babel:

The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”

The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. Then the LORD said: “If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us then go down there and confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says.” Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.

In Hebrew, “Babel” means “Babylon,” so in a sense this narrative gives us the account of the beginnings of the great evil city which will be one of the greatest symbols of opposition to God’s people, and later the place of defeat, captivity, and exile for the people of God. But “Babel” is also the etymological root for our term “babbling,” that is, making unintelligible sounds. The city that opposes God is also the city of unintelligibility. It suggests that opposition to God (lack of faith) leads to the loss of intellectual ability (lack of reason). We see that in our culture, in which opposition to God has also lead to an inability to recognize common-sense truths like when life begins, what a marriage is, or what makes a person male or female.

The tower is built with bricks and tar (i.e. bitumen)—artificial materials manufactured by men—rather than naturally occurring materials like stone and mortar. There is an kind of ecological message here: man in his opposition to God employs technology and synthetic materials in opposition to the natural goods and natural order. Pope Francis has stressed the connection between moral evil and damage to the environment in Laudato Si. It is a theme throughout Scripture, as well as Christian literature like The Lord of the Rings.

Holy Mother Church suggests this reading because it is a kind of “bookend” near the beginning of Scripture that pairs with a “bookend” near the end of the Scriptural story: Pentecost. Notice the contrast and comparison between Babel and Pentecost: in both cases, all humanity is represented (the list of nations in Genesis 10 is roughly summarized in contemporaneous terminology by St. Luke in Acts 2:9-11).

In both cases, there is confusion because of speaking. At Babel, they are confused because they do not understand. At Pentecost, they are confused because they do understand! The Tower of Babel tells us how mankind was fractured. Pentecost tells us how mankind is reunited as a family: by the Spirit, which forms the Church, which is the new Family of God.

Notice that at Pentecost, Peter’s leadership and preaching is highlighted (Acts 2:14-42). Peter’s role in the Spirit-unified Family of God is crucial. Without his leadership, the family breaks up into autocephalous communions or various denominations. Only where his Spirit-empowered leadership is respected does the family maintain its transnational unity. Peter is the older brother who represents the father and keeps the family together.

The Tower of Babel reading emphasizes the role of Pentecost and the Church as the re-gathering of the human family. The Church is not just about our individual salvation—“me and Jesus and heaven.” The Church also has a social and sociological role to bring the human race back together as one. The United Nations is a kind of secular church, a civil and ultimately irreligious attempt to achieve the harmony between nations that can only be found in the unity that comes from acknowledging Jesus as Lord of all. Christians need to exercise care in order not to invest too heavily in international organizations that attempt to achieve the Church’s mission by secular means. Many programs of unification for humanity have arisen since Jesus Christ—various empires, Freemasonry, Communism, etc. All of these ultimately are false Churches that end up in competition or active persecution of the one true Church, the only organization that does, in fact, establish real harmony among nations wherever it spreads and is embraced.

2. Exodus 19:3-8, 16-20, The Sinai Narrative:

Moses went up the mountain to God. Then the LORD called to him and said, “Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob; tell the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself. Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. That is what you must tell the Israelites.” So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people. When he set before them all that the LORD had ordered him to tell them, the people all answered together, “Everything the LORD has said, we will do.”

On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke, for the LORD came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking, and God answering him with thunder.

When the LORD came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain.

The reason Holy Mother Church suggests this reading is that the Jewish Feast of Pentecost—which literally means “Fifty,” taken from the fifty days counted after Passover—was the Jewish liturgical celebration of the Giving of the Law at Sinai. If one makes a careful count of the passing of time in the Book of Exodus, one discovers that the Sinai theophany (appearance of God) occurs exactly fifty days after the Israelites departed from Egypt. So, Pentecost was not only an agricultural festival celebrating the end of the harvest, but also a sacred historical memorial of the day of the establishment of the Old Covenant.

This parallel and its significance is missed by modern readers, but not by ancient Jewish readers of Acts! At Sinai the Law was given in a fearsome storm, and on tablets of stone. At Pentecost, there is a “peaceful storm” of the Spirit (the rushing wind, the lightning-like tongues of flame) and the giving of the Law on the Heart.

As St. Thomas says in his treatment of the Old Law in the Summa Theologica, “the law of the New Covenant is nothing other than the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit is the Law written on the heart promised with the New Covenant:

Jer. 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

This passage from Jeremiah is a wonderful “intertext” to show the connection between Exodus 19-20 and Acts 2. So we see that Pentecost is the fulfillment of what Jeremiah prophesied: a new covenant would be given to replace the old covenant broken by Israel in the wilderness and elsewhere. This new covenant involves the writing of the law on the heart (the gift of the Holy Spirit) as well as the knowledge of God (the seven gifts of the Spirit) and the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins is, of course, a very important theme of the Feast of Pentecost: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38), Peter famously says.

Hebrews 12:18-24 is also a must-read for the connection between the Sinai account and Pentecost!

Heb. 12:18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.

Frightful Mount Sinai

Here we see the contrast between fearful Sinai and peaceful Zion. The law was given with great fear at Sinai, and forty days later 3000 were slain in a rebellion against God. At Pentecost, the new law is given in a “peaceful storm,” and 3000 are baptized into the New Israel.

It is important to highlight a particularly verse from Exodus 19. Before the Ten Commandments are given, the LORD promises Israel through Moses: “if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant … you shall be to me a kingdom of priests” (Exod 19:5-6). This phrase “kingdom of priests”, in Hebrew mamlek≈et◊ koœh∞nˆîm, can be rendered either “kingdom of priests” or “royal priesthood.” The Septuagint went with “royal priesthood,” but both renderings can be found in the New Testament (1 Peter 2:9; Rev 1:6).

The pouring out of the Spirit makes the members of the Church into a Kingdom of Priests (Exod 19:5-6; see 1 Peter 2:9), a promise that was rejected by the Tribes at the Golden Calf episode (Ex 32), but is renewed to the Apostles and the other Israelites who heed their preaching in Jerusalem at Pentecost, and also to all us Gentiles who also partake in the same Spirit.

1Pet. 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

This reminds us that at baptism—first administered in its fullness at Pentecost—joins us to Christ’s roles as prophet, priest, and king (see Catechism §901-909).

3. Ezek 37:1-14, The Resurrection of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel’s Vision:

The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among the bones in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were! He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? I answered, “Lord GOD, you alone know that.” Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD.

I, Ezekiel, prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone. I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them. Then the LORD said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.

I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people!

I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

The dry bones in this vision, at one level, represent the national hopes of God’s people Israel, which have “died” and been “scattered” by war, exile, and diaspora. At Pentecost, we see a remarkably widespread, representative group of Israelites from around the world (see Acts 2:5-11), gathered together in Jerusalem and “reunited” or even “resurrected” as the New Israel through the blowing of God’s Spirit. They form the infant Church, the “resurrected” people of God. In both cases it is the “blowing of the Spirit” that causes the act of re-creation that we call “resurrection.”

We ought never to forget that the Church is, as St. Paul says, the “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16), the restored Kindom of David, ruled over by David’s seed, Jesus Christ, and founded on twelve Israelites, the Twelve Apostles. There is not one plan of salvation for Jews and another for Gentiles, but both Jews and Gentiles are called to form one Kingdom of David which is manifested on earth in the visible Church. “The Gospel … is the power of salvation for everyone … for the Jew first, and also for the Greek” (Rom 1:16).

4. Joel 3:1-5. The Outpouring of the Spirit in the Last Days:

Thus says the LORD: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; even upon the servants and the handmaids, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. And I will work wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke; the sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, at the coming of the day of the LORD, the great and terrible day. Then everyone shall be rescued who calls on the name of the LORD; for on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant, as the LORD has said, and in Jerusalem survivors whom the LORD shall call.

The connection of this reading is obvious, since St. Peter quotes it as being fulfilled during his sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2:17-20. Joel wrote perhaps seven hundred years before the coming of Christ, at a time in which the northern kingdom of Israel was being destroyed. There seemed to be little hope for God’s people, but the prophet foresaw a future outpouring of God’s Spirit and a “remnant” on Mt. Zion. This “remnant” is the three thousand who, together with the Apostles and 120 believers, form the nucleus of the New Israel, the Church. This event is accompanied with the signs of Sinai: “blood, fire, smoke, darkness.” Some of these phenomena we witnesses at the Crucifixion, where Jesus “gives up the Spirit,” and others we witness at Pentecost, where again the Spirit is poured out.

The Psalm. Psalm 104, the great “Creator Spirit” Psalm, is the Responsorial for both the Vigil and the High Mass of the Feast Day:

Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1-2, 24, 35, 27-28, 29, 30

R. (cf. 30) Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak. R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

How manifold are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all— the earth is full of your creatures; bless the LORD, O my soul! Alleluia. R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

Creatures all look to you to give them food in due time. When you give it to them, they gather it; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

If you take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

Verse 30 is used as the refrain: this verse is virtually the theme of the “decade” of the Spirit that we celebrate from Ascension to Pentecost. Psalm 104 celebrates God’s glory revealed in his creation, which is brought forth, maintained, and renewed by the Spirit (compare Genesis 1:2). At Pentecost, the Wind that blew over the waters of the young earth blows again over the believers gathered around the Apostles. The Church is the foretaste or first-fruits of the New Creation, since Christ’s resurrected Body is our food. As St. Paul says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!” (2 Cor 5:17). This concept flows nicely into the Second Reading (Rom 8:22-27), where Paul refers to us as having “the firstfruits of the Spirit,” that is, already in a mysterious way participating in the Creation that is to come in the next age, a participation which as yet is denied to rocks, trees, petunias, and Labrador Retrievers. We have the “down payment” of the Spirit, yet we await a fuller experience of the New Creation which will come at the resurrection, when the rest of nature also will be renewed.

The Second Reading. St. Paul’s famous teaching on the Spirit from Romans 8:

Rom 8:22-27

Brothers and sisters:

We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.

Here St. Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit is our great comfort in the sufferings that we endure in this earthly life. Although Christ has saved us, we do not yet have our resurrected bodies, and we live in this “in-between” time of suffering, subject to all the weaknesses and evils of this present world. But the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives assures us that we have eternal life (1 John 4:13), and even when we feel overwhelmed by the evils of this world, the Spirit still teaches us to pray, and prays on our behalf. The Spirit is the great interpreter. At Pentecost, the Spirit communicates the words of the Apostles in the languages of the people. When we pray, the Spirit interprets our wordless longings into the language of God.

The Gospel. This is the famous passage (John 7:37-39) where Jesus identifies himself as the Source of the River of Life which flows from the New Temple (see Ezekiel 47):

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”

He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

This image is based historically on the spring called the Gihon, which emerges below the Temple Mount and flows below the City of David (a very old part of Jerusalem) to the Pool of Siloam, provinding water for all of the populace of the city. The Gihon is the “river whose streams make glad the city of God.” In Ezekiel’s vision, the Gihon is replaced with a much more spectacular river flowing from the Temple. In John 7, Jesus identifies himself as the New Temple, and the Spirit as the River which flows from him. The NAB translation of this passage is defensible, but I believe a different division of the Greek clauses is to be preferred. In my opinion, the Greek of John 7:37-38 should be understood as follows:

“Whoever thirsts, let him come to me, and let him drink who believes in me. As the Scripture says, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’”

Translated this way, it is clearly Jesus’ heart that flows with rivers of living water. I think this division of the clauses makes better contextual, narrative sense as well as theological sense.

Jesus’ Scriptural “quote” here is a paraphrase and summary of the vision of Ezekiel 47 and other passages from the prophets that foresee a supernatural river coming forth from the New Temple. The Church sees in Pentecost the definitive realization of this vision. The River of the Spirit is the water of baptism, which conveys the Spirit to believers (Acts 2:38).

In John 19:34 we see the blood and water flowing from the side of Christ. Christ’s body is the New Temple. At festival time, the old Temple flowed with blood and water, as the blood of animal sacrifice mixed with purification water spilled out of a pipe underneath the Temple and ran down to join the brook in the Kidron valley. This is a symbolic fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in John 7:37-39, but also a sign of the sacraments (Eucharistic blood and Baptismal water) that flow from the Body of Christ (the Church) as a kind of River of Life bearing the Holy Spirit through time and space to the whole human family, whoever is willing to come to the waters.

The Catholic Church offers eternal life for free to all who will come receive the Spirit of God from Jesus. It’s the best deal around.

From: www.pamphletstoinspire.com

#pentecost sunday

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