#panta rhei

[bttrflyblu]

Veronika Fischer & Panta Rhei - Nachts (DDR, 1973)

[writing-for-life]

We Are Made Of Star Matter

A couple of days ago, this post flitted across my screen, and it made me think about a piece I wrote three years ago. So I just thought I’d share some personal thoughts about autumn, aging, mortality and being connected. And I’m looking at it now and recognise that there are repeating themes in there that have always resonated with me, even when I was a lot younger. Plus, for my Sandfam: There's a lot in there that resonates in that way, too...

And don’t worry, it’s not depressing. At least I hope so…

Autumn

My daughter has started doing divisions at school. Recently, on our walk back home through a very autumnal park with fallen leaves everywhere, we talked about the seasons, and how many parts of a whole each of them are individually.

»You know, humans go through seasons in their lives, too. If you assumed someone would be 80 before they died, how long would every season of their life be?«

»20 years?« She does a quick calculation in her head. »Which means I’m still in spring!«

»Pretty much so. And where am I?«

She does the numbers again. »Autumn.«

Autumn

That season when nature moves from growth and abundance to going more inward and protecting its very essence. When the outer signs and displays of renewal and fertility begin to whither away…

It would be straightforward to feel a bit uneasy about that transition. And at times, I do. I look in the mirror and see those signs: The facial features that change. The body that transitions. The change of colours (more and more greys). The daily physical pain that’s been around for quite a few years, but that I rarely talk about.

A body that slowly but surely prepares for winter. Nothing can change that, no matter how much we wish for it. No matter how much the performing arts glorify youth. No matter how sexist, misogynistic and deeply rooted in patriarchy that is. No matter how much we might lament the visible transition, or even try to stop it outwardly. We can’t. The body will do its thing, just like nature does.

It’s not a binary one of two things: Embrace it or try to escape it. It’s both, and everything in between. There are days when I wonder where time went, and what the flip happened.

However, there are as many days when I can see and appreciate the beauty of autumn. The change of colours, the giving back to where I once was and came from. But also the turning inward, the concentrating on what really matters, the getting better at preserving energy instead of incessantly expending it, the shedding of what no longer serves me. And there is goodness and beauty in that. A sense of gratitude for not having to put on the often loud display of spring and summer that’s all about, you know, proving that you have something going for you. That you’re eligible, that you are good material for the survival of the species, whatever that means individually (because it can be interpreted in many ways that go far beyond reproduction)…

At the end of the day, mortality stares us in the face once we move from summer to autumn. But isn’t that strange — it’s always been there, not just when we transition into midlife and beyond. Just like the heatwave in summer that destroys life, or the floods, or the unexpected touch of frost in spring that ends what has just begun. If I were to share the fate of the last two generations of women in my family, none of whom lived much past 60 (or didn’t even reach it), I would not even be in autumn. I would have reached the winter of my life by now.

Pánta Rheî

And maybe that’s what’s truly important. Appreciating the beauty of movement, of ebb and flow, of impermanence. The fleeting moments, no matter how much we want to hold on to them — we have to let them go, just like the tree lets go of its leaves.

However, maybe we sometimes wish time stood still, if just for a moment. Time, that arbitrary human concept that is more about perception than anything else. And yet, it’s visible, graspable, and inescapable.

I recently watched Midnight Mass (»What a strange change of subject«, you might think, but bear with me). I was apprehensive about it because I usually don’t like horror, but this one surprised me because it had many very deeply philosophical moments I didn’t expect (NB: I am not religious in any shape or form, maybe what most people would call an agnostic atheist. I can see why religious people might not like it, or might even find it offensive).

There is a beautiful moment when Erin talks about dying I’d like to share with you (you might not want to read on if you feel it would be a spoiler).

We Are Made Of Star Matter

»Myself. My self. That’s the problem. That’s the whole problem with the whole thing. That word, self. That’s not the word. That’s not right, that isn’t…

How did I forget that? When did I forget that?

The body stops a cell at a time, but the brain keeps firing those neurons. Little lightning bolts, like fireworks inside, and I thought I’d despair or feel afraid, but I don’t feel any of that. None of it. Because I’m too busy. I’m too busy in the moment, remembering.

I remember that every atom in my body was forged in a star. This matter, this body is mostly empty space after all, and solid matter. It’s just energy vibrating very slowly while there is no me. There never was. The electrons of my body mingle and dance with the electrons of the ground below me and the air I’m no longer breathing. And I remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin.

I remember I am energy. Not memory. Not self. My name, my personality, my choices, all came after me. I was before them and I will be after, and everything else is pictures, picked up along the way. Fleeting little dreamlets printed on the tissue of my dying brain. And I am the lightning that jumps between. I am the energy firing the neurons, and I’m returning. Just by remembering, I’m returning home. And it’s like a drop of water falling back into the ocean, of which it’s always been a part.

All things… a part. You, me and my little girl, and my mother and my father, everyone who’s ever been, every plant, every animal, every atom, every star, every galaxy, all of it. More galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on the beach. And that’s what we’re talking about when we say ‘God’. The cosmos and its infinite dreams. We are the cosmos dreaming of itself. It’s simply a dream that I think is my life, every time. But I’ll forget this. I always do. I always forget my dreams. But now, in this split-second, in the moment I remember, the instant I remember, I comprehend everything at once. There is no time. There is no death. Life is a dream. It’s a wish. Made again and again and again and again and again and again and on into eternity. And I am all of it. I am everything. I am all. I am that I am.«

Whether you are comfortable with this perspective or not, it is hard not to acknowledge some simple truths behind it. During every season of our lives, but especially during autumn and winter. Maybe it’s just not the truth we want to hear when we are focused on the self. We all are to a degree, and I think that’s also natural. We seek meaning. But isn’t that meaning there by default?

Maybe, just maybe, if we remembered the complicated simplicity behind it all, we would feel more at home. Within ourselves, but also in the world, and with each other.

Alas, “Life is a dream. It’s a wish.” …

[linuxgamenews]

Panta Rhei: Unraveling the Guardian of Time

Panta Rhei adventure roguelike game is working to make its way onto Linux, Mac, Windows PC. Thanks to the talented teams at Reignite Games, Omme Animation, and Nordic Scoring for this adventure. Due to make its way onto Steam this year. Reignite is back with an exciting new demo for Panta Rhei, a roguelike adventure for Linux that puts its emotional story front and center. If you like a good time-travel twist, high-stakes combat, and also deep lore, this one’s for you. You play as Phi, a Guardian of Time who’s spent eternity tending to the Garden of the Past, a peaceful sanctuary hidden away from the world. That peace? It doesn’t last. An ancient force awakens, threatening to unravel everything Phi holds dear. So now, you must step beyond the safety of the garden and fight to protect the Realm of Time—and face the shadows of Phi’s past.

The Panta Rhei Demo

The expanded demo gives you a taste of what’s to come. While letting you explore four key locations, including the brand-new “Gate to the Wilderness”—Phi’s first real step outside their home. It’s a big moment, and with it comes danger, mystery, while offering some seriously mind-bending mechanics.

Master Time Itself

In Panta Rhei, time isn’t just a ticking clock — it’s also your most powerful tool. Phi can pause, rewind, and accelerate time, letting you outsmart enemies, solve puzzles, and even reshape the battlefield. Made a mistake? Rewind. Need an opening? Speed things up. Want to absolutely wreck a group of enemies? Use time to your advantage and unleash devastating attacks. How you play is up to you, while you progress, you’ll evolve Phi’s abilities to match your style.

Panta Rhei | Demo Announcement Trailer

A World Full of Secrets

The Realm of Time is packed with hidden mysteries and ever-changing challenges. Each area you explore also reveals more about the world, with side quests and purifying the land leading to new discoveries. The best part? Your home, the Garden of the Past, isn’t just for show. By cultivating it, you’re due to unlock resources that strengthen Phi for future runs—because let’s face it, in a roguelike, you’re gonna need every advantage you can get.

A Time-Travelling Sci-Fi Dream

Reignite CEO Raffael Moser jokes, “Panta Rhei is what happens when you watch a time-travel sci-fi thriller by Christopher Nolan and think, ‘How hard could it be to put that into a game?’ And then it turns out it’s very hard, but now you're too deep into it, and you actually made a pretty decent game.” With over 25 locations across three diverse biomes, the full version of Panta Rhei is shaping up to be an unforgettable journey. Expect intense battles, emotional storytelling, and also a world that constantly surprises you. Want to experience the adventure roguelike for yourself? The Panta Rhei demo is available now on Steam via Proton. So give it a shot on Linux — and don’t forget to wishlist it to stay updated on the road to its 2025 release. Which is also coming to Mac and Windows PC.

[pansophyandmadness]

[fabiansteinhauer]

Alles rennt

Alles rennt oder rinnt (alles läuft), d.h. alles ist angeregt, richtig, und es geht doch vorbei.

[manuelamordhorst]

Tipp: Panta Rhei/ Der Rhein - Museum August Macke Bonn

26. September 2024 bis 23. März 2025 DER RHEINBilder vom Strom und Fluss des Lebens Mit „Panta rhei“ beginnt eine bundesweite Ausstellungsreihe, die seine herausragenden Werke des deutschen Impressionismus zeigt. Die Ausstellungsreihe startete im Herbst 2023 in Türkheim und war ein voller Erfolg. Die Identifikation mit dem Rhein bzw. dem Rheinland war unter den Kunstschaffenden hoch. Kaum eine…

[selenedistress]

The more I grow up the less I like overly sweet things. Tangerines that are too sweet, hot chocolate, most cakes et cetera, I can't really handle them anymore.

I can't recognise the person I'm changing into. What is happening to me? Is this body horror? Is this identity death?

[mochi06sblog]

me sinto muito... não sei

tipo, eu não sinto que "encaixo" com ninguém

todos tem um grupo de amigos que são sempre hand in hand

por que eu não tenho um grupo assim? que me faça sentir confortável para tudo, brinquem, mesma vibe, sabe?

mas eu não tenho um,

e eu nem sei se vou ter um algum dia.

Espero que um dia eu consiga, e venha ver meus posts antigos e falar:

"omg, she's insane."

[gbhbl]

Album Review: Oceanica – Panta Rhei (Prog On! Recordings)

Benedict Harris-Hayes is a talented musician, that much must be made clear, and he continues to impress with his Oceanica output.

Prog On! Recordings will release Benedict Harris-Hayes’ latest album, ‘Panta Rhei’, which is released under his Oceanica progressive rock/metal solo project. The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2019 album, ‘OneDark‘ is out on June 30th, 2023. Benedict Harris-Hayes is a talented musician, that much must be made clear, and he continues to impress with his Oceanica output. Promising a ‘heavier’…

[cosmogyros]

It's been eight years and I'm still listening to and loving "Occidentali's Karma" <3

You'd think a song lyric that's a full course load of philosophy, sociology, history and culture compressed into three and a half minutes and seasoned with a dash of "früher war alles besser" would be simply unbearable, but... somehow it works? I mean yes, it's still kind of heavy-handed, but to me he seems to have (at least in the music video) a sense of gently self-mocking humor, and that's what saves it.

Also it's just... so darn catchy

[ryusaidate]

Whats with the Uchikoshi server?

*shrug* the only real hatemail i've gotten was from someone apparently active enough in that server to mention the fact i started using it slightly less often as some kind of gotcha and while it is the funniest message i've been sent in my life, hanging out in a space where that kind of thing happens is not conducive to my vibe. tweets have been made about the best way to do fandom being to find 5 other freaks and ignore absolutely everything else and it's so real.

[minus-world-of-love]

Am I jealous of Yu, or am I jealous of the popularity of Sou/Yo-

[murky-galaxy]

Anyway I think we should all take a moment to thank Myth & Roid for always dropping absolute bangers for total garbage isekai anime like isekai cheat magician

[another-goblin]

Chaos vs. Order in the world of HSR: an incoherent rambling.

Spoilers for the Unknowable Domain.

Speaking of Aventurine and Dr. Ratio, if you asked me before which side of the dichotomy of Order and Chaos they represent, I wouldn't hesitate. Of course a reasonable and methodical scientist represents Order, and an unpredictable gambler represents Chaos (Ratio even called him "a system of chaos devoid of logic"). Until I saw this.

It got me thinking. Yes, gambling is all about chance. Unless you are supernaturally lucky and you always know that the coin will land to your benefit, following the predetermioned Order.

Compare Aventurine's "No reason to choose otherwise, and no other choice" (everthing's predetermined; you can't change it; don't even try) to Ratio's "Chose your own path" (I think this phrase might be more important for Ratio as a character than we think. He said it twice. It's not just about choosing a playable path, like our Traleblazer does, but ultimately about Free Will. The chaotic unpredictability of an individual freely choosing their actions. Can it be one of the reasons why he wasn't chosen by Nous? Nous who's all about predicting and calculating the future, which is the opposite of the notion of free will?)

It seems like Aventurine long gave up the idea of having agency; he sees himself as "a cog in the machine known as the IPC's Strategic Investment Department". With his "Good luck makes one powerful, but destiny? Inherently unjust" and "Go ahead, use me as you wish". He basically sees himself as a slave to his supernatural gift and his predetermined destiny. Compare to Ratio's "about Aventurine" voiceline: "we can't chalk it all up to "good luck". Meaning, it's not just your luck; give yourself some credit for your achievements; you can change things.

Even their banner's names show the difference of their worldviews in terms of free will and determinism: Aventurine's "Gilded Imprisonment" vs. Ratio's "Panta Rhei" (which can be translated as "everything changes").

Aventurine considers his supernatural luck a gift from Gaiathra Triclops, who's theorized to actually be Ena the Order, which makes even more sense from this order/chaos point of view.

Aventurine probably knew that his path on Penacony led him towards inevitable death. "No reason to choose otherwise, and no other choice." What saved him in the end? It was two people: Mr. Chaotic himself, Veritas "Choose your own path" Ratio, and Acheron. I don't know where IX stands in this dichotomy of Chaos and Order. Probably nowhere. But if I were to choose, I'd say they lean towards Order. Or rather against the free will of Chaos. "Yes, you can do whatever you want, but why would you if it all is unlimately meaningless". But IX's factions are kind of opposed to them, so I'm curious what Acheron's personal opinion is on this.

Speaking of IX's factions opposing them, the "Dr. Ratio is a Doctor of Chaos" theory has never been so strong!

And what was our major encounter with the Order as an ingame Path? It was the Perfect Dream created by Sunday, where everybody's living their perfect lives, unwilling and unable to change it. Btw, who was one of the first people who woke up from this Dream?

Sunday and Robin also represent the opposites. Unlike her brother, devoted to Order, Robin, representing "Chaos", respects the diverse individuals as a part of a harmonious choir.

BTW, off topic but where else could I have seen a short message containing both good luck wishes and "Death" in quotation marks? Coiucidence? (yes)

Moreover *inhales*

It's interesting to look at Aeons and their major factions through the lens of the confrontation between Chaos and Order (not Ena the Order but Order in an abstact way).

Which can be understood in different ways. Free will vs. prophecy. Choosing your own path vs. calculating the future. Destruction vs. Finality. Personal strife vs. organized Preservation. Individuality vs. Harmony.

Speaking of which, we can kind of sort some of the Aeons and major factions into two opposing camps.

Who would be on the "Order" side?

Nous who can predict (and thus predetermine) the future through their calculation.

Preservation, who's main faction, the IPC, calculates planets' chances of survival in percents and who opposes Nanook (who else does that? Svarog, a super intelligent machine himself, who's later thwarted by the "unknown variable" - our Trailblazer, who only possessed the power of Destrustion at the time).

Stellaron Hunters, led by a person who's known as Destiny's Slave and can predict the future, also oppose Nanook.

Hunt, who's main faction, Xianzhou, is led by people like Jing Yuan, "The Divine Foresight" (who's so smart that it seems like he can predict the future), or Fu Xuan, whose actual ability to predict the future comes from Nous. They also oppose Nanook.

And of course Terminus the Finality, who travels backwards in time and is all about predicting the future, symbolizes the inavitable end of all things. 

And on the side, representing Chaos, we have, for example:

Nanook, whose path, the Destruction, seems kind of similar to Finality but actually somehow the opposite of it.

Mythos, who "strives to challenge the certainty of Nous the Erudition".

And of course, Akivili the Trailblaze, representing the ultimate freedom to go wherever you want, to "choose your own path", if you will.

So it all kind of boils down to Destrucion vs Finality at the end. It's interesting that at the moment we are expected to see Nanook as a "bad guy", as we ally with more factions opposed to them. Although I'm sure actually it's more complicated and messy than that. 

For example, from Data Bank on Akivili: "There are three directions on the compass of destiny — the Unknown, the Known, and the Unknowable. THEY can tolerate the Unknown, but will never bow to the Unknowable". How does it factor into all this Knowable/Unknowable Domain stuff and reaching outside the Circle of Knowladge? 

BTW I actually have only a very vague idea of the game's deep lore at best, and I also understood like maybe 20% of what happened in the Unknowable Domain, to take it all with a grain of salt.

But what I actually wanted to say is: continue, HSR, I'm listening.