#re humanity and human nature and divinity

[afantasyoffiction]

hi!!

my word for the out-of-context WIP game is "factory" ! curious to see :)

oh boy. max my guy i TRIED i really did...but the answer is absolutely nothing im sorry lol i checked literally every draft i had and the best i can offer you is 'fact' or 'satisfactory'... im a fantasy writer i have apparently never once described industrialisation (oh no new writing idea unlocked i love that period of european history ngl...)

but in the spirit of the game, i've decided i'll share a poem containing the word 'fact', because im relatively fond of it. yep this is gonna 1,000% be unrelated to factories it is in fact about organised religion!

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the true colours of the divine

i think religion is more beautiful from the outside looking in peeking through stained glass windows, a door left ajar

without the heavy hand of the mundane, the every day the acceptance of faith as fact, scripture as truth, i can see it

thousands of people, looking up at the heavens, prayers rising through the air like smoke words echoing empty off marble

to see this belief as a choice, made in the face of the unknown, millions of people made one their nature compelling their faith

to know a mere few books have connected centuries to know of people holding hands differences bent to bonds of belief

it says something, perhaps about people - what we are, dreamers, lonely, looking for reasons, a purpose to hold

i am grateful for my own lack of faith, granting me vision of the spirit of people, not gods i see the human colours of the divine

[hollaforlyla]

Can you do oni!Lloyd x half-Dragon!fem!reader. Like Lloyd has always insecure getting into his oni form. So reader who already use to her dragon form, comfort him and say that she always love him no matter what form he is. Also bonus if you can do like how their tail (i think Lloyd has tail in his oni form??) wrap around each other and make a love shape.

Aodbksna im going crazy

"SCARY? MY GOD, YOUR DIVINE..." ── ninjago x reader. ft lloyd garmadon ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

warnings: lowercase writing, pretty rushed

basic info: takes place after crystallized, lloyd x reader, female reader, ft. garmadon, romantic x reader, n/n means your nickname!

you knocked on the door to lloyd's room softly, thinking because it was already so quiet in there he could hear it. it's been hours, no, days, since you've seen lloyd come out of his room.

when he does come out, it's only to use the washroom or to grab a snack in the middle of the night when no one is around to see him.

after the defeat of the overlord, harumi, and all of the other villains── lloyd has stayed in his oni form. he hasn't learned how to transform back to his human form, so everyone has kinda been waiting to see how long it will take naturally...much to lloyds discomfort.

you went to garmadon about lloyd's state, and even he was starting to worry. he knew from the start helping lloyd achieve his oni power would be tricky and lloyd would be stubborn. however i don't think he thought this far ahead.

"your his, girlfriend, aren't you dragon girl?"

the oni asked you, who was watering his plants in one of the rooms of the newly built monestary.

you glared at the man, the nickname is gave you caused you to cringe but you kept your cool. your tail swinging back n forth from behind.

"yea. why do you think i'm coming to you for help?" you placed your hands on your hips, "he hasn't come out of his room, i haven't seen him eat or drink any water, he hasn't spoken to anyone since his changed. i don't know much about the oni form; but even you guys still need to eat...right?"

garmadon just sighed, finishing watering his plants. "oni indeed are powerful beings, although everyone needs food to live a healthy life."

you gave the oni a "so??" look and he sighed again.

"oni kids enjoy cuddling. they like to feel the warmth of they're loved one; gives them comfort knowing someone is there for them. i believe your perfect for to give that to him."

you thought for a moment.

"i want to, that's all i want to do is let him know i'm there for him! he's been cooped up in his room, crying and it breaks my heart-."

"then why are you still here talking to me?"

you looked at your father-in-law and had a frown on your face.

thats what lead you here to where you are now.

you called out your boyfriends name after knocking a few times, hoping he would open up. "i made you you're favorite?" you smiled to yourself sheepishly, not knowing what else to do in this awkward silence.

when you got no response you sighed, "c'mon baby, i haven't seen you eat in days, let alone you in general! i'm worried, your uncle's worried, our friends are worried for you!"

you frowned softly, hearing the words come out of your mouth.

"i miss you..."

as you were about to put the plate on the floor by his door, the sound of it creaking open causes you to look up to see a blonde, 6'0 tall oni boy look back at you. his ears drooped down, his eyes res and puffy, his long thick tail fell to the floor a d drag behind him as he stumbled back into the bed.

you stood back up and walked into the room. it was dark, and cold. the window been open to let out dirty smells and bring fresh air in to block out of the smell of dirty laundry, which was all in one pile in the corner of his room.

you had a small frown in your face as you placed the food on his nightstand, sitting in the end of his bed by his feet. lloyd was cuddled in on himself, hiding his body from you and on the opposite side of the bed.

it was quiet for a moment before he spoke up, "i'm ugly, aren't i?" it was almost a whisper, his grouchy voice from crying and his oni form made it harder for you to hear, another insecurity he has.

you frowned and scooted closer to him and place your hand on his knee, looking at him with a sad smile. "lloyd, your beautiful. nothing about you has changed, your still lloyd, my boyfriend!" you laughed, rubbing his knee back n forth in a comfort motion.

it was quiet once more, until lloyd spoke up again, "how do you do it?"

you raised your eyebrow at him, "do what?"

"how do you walk around in your dragon form, aren't you scared people will judge you? be scared of you?"

tears started to form in his eyes as he ranted. you felt your heart shatter into two pieces hearing his sobs, "i never wanted this, i didn't want this!!"

he shouts ans cries, huddling into his arms the best he could. however soon he felt your arms wrap around his, your large dragon body holding him tight.

"i know, lloyd, none of us knew you were going to have to achieve your oni form; to be honest i was hoping you were...me n you have more in common now. and...you look 10x hotter then before, i say that's a bright side."

you gave him a goofy grin, hearing his laughter soon later caused you to open your eyes and look at him.

there's that smile you've missed.

you quickly leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips, to which he took by surprise. "your lips are still soft." you chuckled. as you were distracted, you suddenly felt something wrap around your tail...looking down at your legs you saw lloyd's oni tail wrap with your dragon one.

you blushed slightly before looking back up at him, who had a blush redder then yours. he pulls you into his chest and holds you, his face in your hair.

"thank you, n/n...i love you..." he whispered softly.

you smiled, happily snuggling into your boyfriend more comfortably.

"i love'ya too, mints."

[girls--complex]

Okay finished the top of the suit of pentacles ...

9, 10 feature common food-medicine-poison organisms from my area, the human figure occupying her potent ecology with ever less self-referential mindset. Chanterelle mushrooms which are a symbol of free grace because they lack gills on the fruiting body so the mushroom actually doesn't get much benefit from making them (but they're delicious). Coontie palm in 9 shows a pivot point where alchemy is required to make the poison edible. 10 is the pure ecology yielding maximum blessings with minimum investment, inertia that has fixed a basic well being in place. Bidens, spiderwort, and yaupon all medicine plants. The crow is me.

Jacob is the page, seeing the coarse matter of the stone visited by numerous angels, comprehending the concrete world as a site of divine revelation (proceeding to literally anoint/christen it). Dreaming-mind or nature based initiation or re-confirmation ...

Knight is stigmatist nun. Embodiment as spiritual warfare. Painful confrontation with the woundedness, mortality, permeability of the body, keeps the serpent of delusion in its place. Sharing the woundedness of Christ's personhood-- the pentacle as a christogram.

Queen is the hirsute Magdalene borrowed from the Nuremberg chronicle, she has the most physical and even erotic knowledge of Christ, the OG apostle and christ-bhakti, also the embodied person (at its most subversive) raised over the institutions of the world (at their most sacred)

King is St. Christopher, the body as "christo-phore", divine and physical integrated, Christ as the inward light, also a baptism.. or maybe he is just protecting you on your journeys

A new Coward book is hitting my store soon btw 😉

[transbookoftheday]

Trans Horror Podcasts

My post about trans horror books last year was much more popular than I expected, and since I've recently fallen in love with fiction podcasts and audio dramas, I thought I'd make a post about trans horror podcasts as well.

If you like trans horror, please give these a try - especially if you enjoy listening to audiobooks!

Hello From The Hallowoods:

Come walk between the black pines! In this award-winning queer fiction podcast, an eldritch narrator follows the increasingly connected residents of the forest at the end of the world. It's a bittersweet story that explores queer identity, horror genre tropes, and finding hope in humanity's last moments.

Hello From The Hallowoods is my absolute favorite podcast! If you only listen to one podcast from this list, please make it this one - it's so beautifully written and super queer! Also: season 4 starts today!

Trans main characters include:

our nonbinary eye-affiliated podcast host

a nonbinary "Frankenstein's creature"

a transmasc ghost

a genderfluid storm witch

a trans woman who can visit other people's dreams

multiple characters using neopronouns

Camp Here & There:

Good morning, campers! Camp Here & There is a weekly horror comedy podcast tuned in to the loudspeakers of a small midwestern sleepaway camp plagued by supernatural terrors and natural disasters. Sydney Sargent, resident camp nurse, cheerfully reports on all the terror we must face with a big smile. Let’s hope there’s nothing weird about that!

Sydney is a trans man.

Dos: After You:

Things have changed. Deck has fallen in love with someone who isn't human, and leaves a hungry house behind to see him again. Will he be waiting for you? The world has changed… but what about him? Dos: After You is a queer urban fantasy/horror audiodrama available in both English & Spanish

Deck is a trans man.

Jar of Rebuke:

Follow Dr. Jared Hel's journey as he works to re-discover his forgotten past and finds his place within the small Indiana farm town of Wichton and the cryptozoological organization he works for called 'The Enclosure'. These audio journals, and other recordings, dive deep into Midwestern US cryptids and folklore while also telling a mystery about identity, queerness, neurodivergence, and community.

Jared is nonbinary.

Spirit Box Radio:

Spirit Box Radio is an award winning, horror audio drama podcast about a radio show for enthusiasts of all things arcane. Follow Sam Enfield a former postboy with no experience in the arcane arts, who finds themselves forced to take over running the show, following the disappearance of the previous host. Sam soon discovers there are more than ghosts haunting the show, and finds himself amidst a mystery which threatens everything he knows about the world beyond his tiny basement broadcast studio, and maybe even himself.

Sam is a trans man.

The Silt Verses:

Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations amongst the reeds and the wetlands. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories. This is a world where divine intervention takes place through prayer-markings scratched into stumping-posts, and offerings are left squirming to die in the flats of the delta. This is a world of ritual, and hidden language, and sacrifice. This is folk horror, and fantasy, and a dark road trip into the depths of unusual faith.

Faulkner is a trans man and Paige is a trans woman.

The Magnus Protocol:

The Magnus Archives 2: The Magnus Protocol is the prequel/sequel/”sidequel” to the internationally renowned Magnus Archives podcast. The Magnus Institute was an organisation dedicated to academic research into the esoteric and the paranormal, based out of Manchester, England. It burned to the ground in 1999. There were no survivors. Now, almost 25 years later, Alice and Sam, a pair of low-level civil service workers at the underfunded Office of Incident Assessment and Response, have stumbled across its legacy. A legacy that will put them in grave danger. If this intrigues you then it is our pleasure to welcome you to the Office of Incident, Assessment and Response. Make sure you pick up your badge at desk and report to your line manager before sitting down. Oh and stay away from I.T., seriously.

Alice is a trans woman.

[wisesoultarot]

What do you need to hear right now? - Tarot reading

Instagram | Tip Jar | Book a Reading with me now!!

🌈IMAGE 1:

Your deep fixation on a specific result is causing you unnecessary hardship. It's important to recognize that you cannot resist the powerful forces working against you; they are beyond your control, and your attempts to fight them will only drain your energy. You’ve reached your limits, both physically and mentally. Instead of struggling alone, consider surrendering to the guidance of the Divine to help you navigate these challenges.

Embrace the opportunity to ease into your natural rhythm and remain receptive to unexpected positive outcomes. Surrender this situation to the vast intelligence of the universe, trusting that a simpler path will emerge when the time is right. In the meantime, rather than pushing against the current, allow yourself to relax and enjoy the journey, navigating the ups and downs of life with a sense of playfulness and ease.

Letting go creates room for unexpected wonders and outcomes that may surpass your initial expectations. When you embrace surrender and allow life to unfold, you invite the possibility of magic into your experience.

🦋IMAGE 2:

Sometimes, when things seem stagnant, it's best not to push too hard. Each moment has its own timing and purpose. Trust that whatever you're waiting for—be it a business venture, a relationship, a journey, a contract, or an opportunity—will unfold in its own time.

You are reminded of your deep connection to Mother Earth through the natural rhythms of life—like the tides that rise and fall, the moon that waxes and wanes, and for women, the cycles of ovulation and menstruation. Take a moment to reflect on where you may have drifted away from these cycles and consider embracing the moon's energy to restore balance and harmony in your life.

It's important to recognize that life doesn't always require us to charge forward relentlessly. Take the time to rest and listen to your body’s need for gentleness. When you feel ready, like the moon growing fuller, you can re-engage with the world, becoming more active and social once again.

Embracing the natural cycles in your life can reveal incredible magic. Consider getting a moon calendar or jotting down the various phases each month. By aligning yourself with these rhythms, you can truly experience the wonders that life has to offer.

🌕IMAGE 3:

You are a divine being, a beautiful expression of the feminine spirit manifested in human form. Your presence is a blessing to the world, radiating beauty in its purest form. There is no need for perfect hair, flawless teeth, or an ideal figure to embody this essence. The Goddess resides in the boundless love within your heart, the profound wisdom that emanates from your soul, the sparkle in your eyes, and the warmth of your smile. She is present in your nurturing touch and the joy your body feels in both giving and receiving affection.

You are encouraged to embrace your inherent beauty and recognize your worth just as you are. Let go of societal expectations and appreciate your unique body in its current form. Define your own standards of beauty, rooted in the love, wisdom, compassion, and light that reside within you.

It's also important for men to avoid the pressure of trying to achieve a perfect, sculpted appearance and instead prioritize the health of their hearts.

Embrace every aspect of yourself that you may have neglected in the past, and cherish your body as the sacred space it truly is. Carry yourself with confidence, keeping your heart open, and allow the world to witness the powerful being you are.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

“There is the dove, and there is the serpent.”

Or: understanding the meaning of Ellen, Thomas and Orlok love triangle in the 2024 “Nosferatu” adaptation.

“Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well!”

Aleister Crowley, “Book of the Law” (Thelema, occult system)

“He is Infinity… Eyes shining like a jewelled diadem. Putrescence. Asphyxience. Devourance.”

(Pigeons and doves are from the same family bird)

Herr Knock eats the head of the pigeon/dove in a very graphic way. Dr. Sievers asks him why he does this. There's no verbal explanation. The occult explanation it's him not choosing the "dove" in this Thelemic dichotomy of dove/serpent ("choose ye well!").

The “Dove” is religion and its worship. Crowley saw the "law of the dove” as repressed Christian love: pure and divine. It’s blind and obedient love, taught in religious circles, but also peaceful and harmonious, like the “Holy Spirit”. It’s brotherly love, as well. This is what Herr Knock rejects, and what Ellen has with Thomas and Anna.

Thomas and Ellen share pure and Christian love, sanctified by marriage, as they made a holy oath before God (sacrament).

“Our love was supposed to be sacred.”

"Thank you for loving me.” 

The “Serpent” is Spirit with its devotion, wisdom and delight. While the “Dove” descends; the “Serpent” rises. It's the fire from below, kundalini (divine feminine energy from Hindu tantrism) ascending, it's Eros: erotic sexual love. It’s physical and animalistic expression of love. It’s ecstasy, passionate and hungry love. It’s spiritual and transformative love, the circle of life and death, and rebirth (immortality).

Ellen: “I have felt you like a serpent crawling in my body.”

Orlok: “It is not me. It is your nature.”

"My vocation is the Serpent", says Babalon (the deity Ellen is a earthly manifestation of). Which is why Orlok says "love" (as in "law of the dove") is inferior to Ellen. The “law of the serpent” is the love Ellen and Orlok share, it's beastly, sexual and ravishing love. As she tells Thomas: "You could never please me as he [Orlok] could."

But “love”, according to Aleister Crowley, is “harsh” as well, as he defines it as “love may best be defined as the passion of Hatred inflamed to the point of madness, when it takes refuge in Self-destruction.” Which explains why Ellen says she abhors (hates) Orlok: what they had was so intense and passionate “it turned to torture, it would kill me” (self-destruction) as she confesses to Thomas. 

Orlok cannot love as in the "law of dove", he loves as in the "law of serpent" (“I cannot be sated without you”). Ellen, as a manifestation of Babalon, loves both ways, because the Dove (Thomas and Anna) is love, and the Serpent (Orlok) is love, too.

“Choose ye well!”

“You are not for the living. You are not for human kind. You shall be one with me ever-eternally […] Do you accept this, of your own will? […] Then the covenant is fulfilled. Your oath re-pledged […] As our spirits are one, so too shall be our flesh. You are mine.”

“I relinquished him my soul […] I am blasphemy.” Herr Knock fanatically begs Thomas to kill him

“Set free the daemon’s [demon] body!” Von Franz tells Thomas before they open Orlok sarcophagus

More context here.

[fatehbaz]

Travel back [...] a few hundred years to before the industrial revolution, and the wildlife of Britain and Ireland looks very different indeed. 

Take orcas: while there are now less than ten left in Britain’s only permanent (and non-breeding) resident population, around 250 years ago the English [...] naturalist John Wallis gave this extraordinary account of a mass stranding of orcas on the north Northumberland coast [...]. If this record is reliable, then more orcas were stranded on this beach south of the Farne Islands on one day in 1734 than are probably ever present in British and Irish waters today. [...]

Other careful naturalists from this period observed orcas around the coasts of Cornwall, Norfolk and Suffolk. I have spent the last five years tracking down more than 10,000 records of wildlife recorded between 1529 and 1772 by naturalists, travellers, historians and antiquarians throughout Britain and Ireland, in order to reevaluate the prevalence and habits of more than 150 species [...].

In the early modern period, wolves, beavers and probably some lynxes still survived in regions of Scotland and Ireland. By this point, wolves in particular seem to have become re-imagined as monsters [...].

Elsewhere in Scotland, the now globally extinct great auk could still be found on islands in the Outer Hebrides. Looking a bit like a penguin but most closely related to the razorbill, the great auk’s vulnerability is highlighted by writer Martin Martin while mapping St Kilda in 1697 [...].

[A]nd pine martens and “Scottish” wildcats were also found in England and Wales. Fishers caught burbot and sturgeon in both rivers and at sea, [...] as well as now-scarce fishes such as the angelshark, halibut and common skate. Threatened molluscs like the freshwater pearl mussel and oyster were also far more widespread. [...]

Predators such as wolves that interfered with human happiness were ruthlessly hunted. Authors such as Robert Sibbald, in his natural history of Scotland (1684), are aware and indeed pleased that several species of wolf have gone extinct:

There must be a divine kindness directed towards our homeland, because most of our animals have a use for human life. We also lack those wild and savage ones of other regions. Wolves were common once upon a time, and even bears are spoken of among the Scottish, but time extinguished the genera and they are extirpated from the island.

The wolf was of no use for food and medicine and did no service for humans, so its extinction could be celebrated as an achievement towards the creation of a more civilised world. Around 30 natural history sources written between the 16th and 18th centuries remark on the absence of the wolf from England, Wales and much of Scotland. [...]

In Pococke’s 1760 Tour of Scotland, he describes being told about a wild species of cat – which seems, incredibly, to be a lynx – still living in the old county of Kirkcudbrightshire in the south-west of Scotland. Much of Pococke’s description of this cat is tied up with its persecution, apparently including an extra cost that the fox-hunter charges for killing lynxes:

They have also a wild cat three times as big as the common cat. [...] It is said they will attack a man who would attempt to take their young one [...]. The country pays about £20 a year to a person who is obliged to come and destroy the foxes when they send to him. [...]

The capercaillie is another example of a species whose decline was correctly recognised by early modern writers. Today, this large turkey-like bird [...] is found only rarely in the north of Scotland, but 250–500 years ago it was recorded in the west of Ireland as well as a swathe of Scotland north of the central belt. [...] Charles Smith, the prolific Dublin-based author who had theorised about the decline of herring on the coast of County Down, also recorded the capercaillie in County Cork in the south of Ireland, but noted: This bird is not found in England and now rarely in Ireland, since our woods have been destroyed. [...] Despite being protected by law in Scotland from 1621 and in Ireland 90 years later, the capercaillie went extinct in both countries in the 18th century [...].

---

Images, captions, and all text above by: Lee Raye. “Wildlife wonders of Britain and Ireland before the industrial revolution – my research reveals all the biodiversity we’ve lost.” The Conversation. 17 July 2023. [Map by Lee Raye. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hi! I find your information really helpful, so I wanted to know if you have anything on nymphs?

I vaguely recall someone mentioning Penelope from the Odyssey was related to nymphs but don’t know what they are or if that’s true?

Writing Notes: Nymphs

Nymph - (in Greek mythology) any of a large class of inferior female divinities.

Usually associated with fertile, growing things, such as trees, or with water.

They were not immortal but were extremely long-lived and were on the whole kindly disposed toward men.

They were distinguished according to the sphere of nature with which they were connected.

Examples:

The Oceanids were sea nymphs;

the Nereids inhabited both saltwater and freshwater;

the Naiads presided over springs, rivers, and lakes.

The Oreads (oros, “mountain”) were nymphs of mountains and grottoes; the Napaeae (nape, “dell”) and

the Alseids (alsos, “grove”) were nymphs of glens and groves;

the Dryads or Hamadryads presided over forests and trees.

Italy had native divinities of springs and streams and water goddesses (called Lymphae) with whom the Greek nymphs tended to become identified.

Penelope - (in Greek mythology) a daughter of Icarius of Sparta and the nymph Periboea and wife of the hero Odysseus.

Roman writers such as Ovid also used the nymphs to highlight the benefits and beauty of nature through creative works.

The tradition of nature writings containing allusions to the nymphs has continued throughout history. Particularly in the Renaissance, artwork flourished with the theme of nature and humanity. Poems, paintings, and other creative modes in the modern day have continued to enhance the longevity of the nymphs and their influence on the representation of nature.

The ancient Greeks had the beautiful idea that there was a “divine” part in all nature. This divine, energetic force breathed life into everything. The Greeks recognized the calming and therapeutic benefits of nature and sensed life within the trees, mountains, and rivers. Hence, nature was given visual embodiments, the nymphs.

In Greek Mythology. Nymphs came in various forms.

They populated and beautified the stories of Greek heroes, descriptions of the ancient Greek landscapes, and the home of the gods.

“Nymph” translates from the ancient Greek as “young girl,” as nymphs took the form of young women who were also nature spirits.

“Nymphs” is also an overarching or umbrella term for many different types of nature spirits like the Dryads, the Naiads, and the Oreads.

Nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. Ralph Waldo Emerson

As spirits, the nymphs could reflect the moods of nature.

Have you ever walked through a forest and felt it was cold and unappealing?

Or the opposite, a forest full of sunlight that comforts the soul?

The ancient Greeks identified the different atmospheres in nature with the moods of the nymphs.

Dryads took residence in trees, Naiads in the rivers, and Oreads in the mountains.

IN ART. Many writers, artists, and creative thinkers used the imagery of nymphs to depict moods and senses, set in the diverse scenery of nature.

Anthropomorphizing nature — when one ascribes human-like attributes to nature — is a common technique to draw connections between humans and nature, and yet, at the same time, it is a way to see humanity as nature itself.

Often in the modern-day, humans divide themselves from nature as something separate. However, with the increase of environmental movements, this narrative is beginning to change. We are re-evaluating our relationship and identification with nature.

DRYADS. The term “dryad” translates as “of the tree or oak.” These were, naturally, the spirits of trees, woodlands, oaks, pines, poplars, ash trees, and so on. There were many different types of dryads, but the rarest were the Daphnaie. If a tree nymph had a specific name, such as the Hamadryades, then that meant the spirit of the nymph was tied to the tree. If the tree were to perish, so would the dryad’s spirit. Conversely, if the tree were to blossom, the life of the dryad would be healthy and spirited. Dryads often hid from humans, but they could be playful. They enjoyed the company of Pan, the god of the wild. Fauns and nymphs would often play together. Their wild nature came out during the revelries of Dionysius when the wine god would bring his wild wine-infused parties through the forests. The Dryads would be all too eager to join.

NAIADS. The word “Naiad” comes from the ancient Greek verb “naiein,” which means “to flow.” This name is perfectly appropriate for water spirits. They inhabited the ocean, lakes, ponds, and rivers. The freshwater Naiads were more known for their light-heartedness and benevolence, whereas the salty sea nymphs were known to be more troublesome. The nymphs were often the companions of gods, and during their youth, would be the playmates of the gods. In one myth, there was a Naiad named Pallas who was good friends with the young goddess Athena. Pallas’ home was the Lake Tritonis in Libya, which was in ancient North Africa. When Pallas and Athena were playing war games, Pallas was accidentally killed. To remember her friend, Athena created a monument called the Palladium. This statue became an important relic to the Trojans, who viewed the Palladium as a protection charm. If it were removed from the city, the city would fall. They could inhabit lakes, rivers, springs, and fountains, and they usually had a preference for salt or fresh water.

Daphne, a Naiad, and her myth is one of the most famous metamorphosis stories. She transformed from a water nymph into a laurel tree during her lifetime. Her story begins in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Phoebus Apollo had vainly criticized Cupid’s work with the bow, but Cupid would have his revenge, according to the story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

And so, Daphne was cursed with a strong distaste for love, and conversely, Apollo with a great desire for love! The chase began, with Apollo pursuing Daphne, a heart full of love that would not be returned. Forced to be at either extreme, this was not a reconciliatory match.

Daphne, distressed, called to her father for help. He saw Daphne in her plight and used his power to transform Daphne into a laurel tree. Her spirit imbued the tree with life, and Apollo dubbed the laurel tree as his sacred image. From that point on, laurels would be used to crown the victor in the ancient Olympic Games, to honor and remember Daphne.

OREADS. The Oreads were the nymphs of the mountains, caves, and grottos, derived from the ancient Greek word “oros,” which means “mountain.” They could also inhabit the trees of the mountains. The goddess of the hunt, Artemis, is often associated with the Oreads since her favorite hunting grounds were in the mountains. Dionysius enjoyed the company of the Oreads, too.

The Oread named Echo was particularly famous in Greek myth. She angered Hera (Roman Juno) with her incessant chatting and so had been cursed only to be able to echo others, hence her name. Sometime after this, Echo fell in love with a man named Narcissus. However, Narcissus rejected Echo, and so she retreated to watch him from the mountain trees. Narcissus was later cursed for his vanity, and he fell in love with his own reflection, having spied it in a pool. He died from the curse, too transfixed by his reflection to nourish himself.

IN FICTION. As a rule, nymphs live in pristine, unspoiled wildernesses far from human civilization — a portrayal stemming back to Greek culture, which viewed the forests and mountains of inland areas as spirit-haunted places in contrast to the cities and farmland along the coasts.

If you're looking for these beings, you'll have much better luck searching among the shaded glens of the Enchanted Forest or hidden valleys in the rocky mountains than in urban parks or the woods behind your yard.

In Classical myth, nymphs of all stripes were an Always Female One-Gender Race; when they had male counterparts, these were generally either satyrs or male river gods. Some modern interpretations still use this version, generally treating their nymphs as either arising from nature itself in some form or as depending on humans, satyrs or other species for reproduction, but some works choose to discard the Always Female angle and include male nymphs, dryads and the like alongside their female counterparts.

Examples in Different Media

The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau): Inspired by Grecorroman imagery, the three nymphs illustrated are Nereids/Oceanids. Nymphs whose domain is the ocean and, as a result, can effortlessly swim long distances. They appear here to attend Venus' birth.

Hercules: Hercules meets Philoctetes as he is peeping on a group of nymphs lounging by a river. When his cover is blown, Phil is quick to try and catch one, only for them to turn into a pile of flowers and a tree. When he claims the nymphs were chasing him, the tree slaps him.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Nymphs appear fairly often as supporting characters. A large population of dryads inhabits Camp Half-Blood's forest alongside the satyrs, while naiads live in its lake. In the early books they looked like human girls, even wearing modern clothing, though later they're described as somewhat elfin. Other nymphs appear inhabiting rivers throughout the series, including the Mississippi. Nereids are part of Poseidon's court, and while naiads do not serve him directly they still honor him.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Dryads are among the numerous fantastical creatures native to Narnia, and Lewis describes them in great detail. Birch dryads look like slender girls with showery hair, dressed in silver and fond of dancing, beech dryads look like gracious, queenly goddesses dressed in fresh transparent green, and oak dryads look like wizened old men with warts, gnarled fingers, and hair growing out of the warts.

Nymphs are usually depicted as beautiful female nature spirits, considered desirable maids by mortals and gods alike. There were many subgroupings of nymphs, but the most famous were:

the Hesperides (sunset nymphs who tend the garden with the golden apples), 

Dryades (tree spirits), 

Naiads, Nereids, Oceanids (different kinds of water nymphs), and

the Pleiades (nymphs of the Pleiades constellation).

Some types of nymph served as attendants to gods, like the Lampads (who followed Hecate around) and

the Maenads (crazed nymphs who partied with Dionysus). 

Some Tropes Related to Nymphs

Painting the Frost on Windows: Nymphs were often held responsible for making natural phenomena occur; the Aurae caused breezes, the Hyades brought rain, and so on.

So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Many nymphs found themselves getting the wrong sort of attention and becoming victims of rape by male deities and monsters. Arethusa was relentlessly pursued by the river god Alpheus, Daphne was almost raped by Apollo and Galateia was desired by the cyclops Polyphemus, who crushed her lover Alcis with a boulder out of mad jealousy.

Spontaneous Generation: The Meliae were born from the blood of Ouranos when it spilled upon the Earth.

The Ageless: Usually portrayed as being eternally youthful.

Water Is Womanly: The nereids are sea nymphs and symbolic of the sea's kindness and beauty, singing melodious songs as they dance around their father Nereus and appearing as gorgeous women.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Thanks so much for your kind words! Do go through the sources linked above for more details and examples you may find useful for your writing.

[yermes]

We are stardust 💫 

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Pick a meme

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Disclaimer: please take what I say with a grain of salt and not as the gospel. I just want to share some ideas of practicing and giving advice using the medium as often as I can with school, work, and my own personal studies and practice. But I am working on sharing my notes soon so that will be exciting! Liking and sharing does a lot 🥰

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Socials: My Socials ☾

(Links aren’t working lol check pinned)

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The cards

Bismuth Bi 83

Perfectly yourself with out and serious qualities, while we were made on this world to be perfectly simple to live, to dream, to eat sleep and believe in things far greater than our comprehension, we are thrusted into the world of mundane human politics. If I were to dabble in any affairs how I wish to dabble in those of angels whose mysteries and treaties venture far from our own comprehension. Keep living, as you come.

Iodine I 53

To live in a fluid state, human beings are river which are gently shaped by the divine nature which inhibit within us. We are shaped by things much greater than us and we are merely reflections of such. We take on many properties some so unbelievably divine and so unbelievably primal, yet those coexist and run together hand in hand.

Rhenium Re 75

What is rarer than recognizing yourself as something beyond your mortal coils. Something so beautiful and layered for our existence is layered moving into a divine center which propagates the rest of our being. Like a rose. Affected by the flows of time and the fluid nature of living, be calm and recognize what you are.

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Extras:

Story/vent: ILY

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[croxot]

Mitzy Lore Post

Mitzy's true origin is lost to time, and possibly tragedy.

Gullybog was not known for being particularity foreboding or dangerous, other than having unsure footing. This was thanks in part to a local hermit-wizard, simply known as Simon. Simon was an aged man who had seen far more than most humans in their lifetime. A failed final adventure had him set aside ambition and recluse himself in the swamp. He never fully set aside his kindly nature, and consigned himself to helping the locals, albeit largely indirectly, avoiding most contact and creating a legend out of himself in the process. One day, Simon heard an infant's cries not too far from his abode. A small purple-skinned babe was found off the side of Gullybog Road, some few steps into the swamp. This child was proportionally similar to a halfling or a goblin, but her species was ultimately unknown. Attempts to divine the who or what left the child, despite pouring his magical prowess into the mystery, proved fruitless. And so, late in his life, Simon became a father. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, Mitzy's unusual upbringing included a great deal of intellectual schooling. Simon's magecraft and vast collection of magical and historical tomes meant the isolated Mitzy did not want for learning. She took to magecraft itself with gusto. Over the years she forged a bond with the elemental plane, collecting several loyal elementals which are still summoned to her side regularly in the present day.

During Mitzy's late teenage years, Simon's life waned. He passed away on an uneventful afternoon with his hand clutched by his daughter's. Mitzy saw to his cremation the next day, and thus began a new local legend of the Bog Witch. Mitzy carried on her father's minor do-gooding for the people of the swamp into her early twenties, until a chance run-in with a group of adventurers gave her an epiphany. She hungered to expand her knowledge and her aptitude, she needed to experience more than the swamp and the tomes she'd read and re-read a half dozen times could offer. She needed to find out where she came from.

After leaving the bog, Mitzy would go on to become part of an adventuring group of her own, two odd goblins from different societies who would become like sisters to her: Chakka the unyielding barbarian warrior, and Krix the shadow-manipulating thief. ----- Mitzy is a Wizard who's focus is on summoning a rotation of loyal Elementals. She can have one elemental consistently accompany her at any time without limitation. They can act on their own in accordance with their personalities, or can infuse Mitzy's attire, granting her additional defenses and augmenting her other spells. Her current elementals are: Ivan - Fire, Aggressive, burning aura sears foes and cleanses afflictions from allies. Slab - Earth, Protective, manipulates the environment in the party's favor. Leviafas - Lightning, Dispassionate, singles out high-priority threats, increases flow of mana. Melut - Ice, Sloth, chills foes and disperses enemy magics.

[phoenixcatch7]

Petition: Sephiroth doesn't have a father.

Half of his dna? Lucrecia

The other half? Jenova

None of this Hojo vs Vincent argument I humbly propose we get far more symbolic mileage out of a corrupted version of an immaculate conception via Jenova as the 'angelic' presence.

Mad science IVF, essentially.

This lasted about ten seconds as a crack theory but now I think I'm actually going to add that to my belief system

Like Jenova is generally given female pronouns and called 'mother' but we do need to remember it's an alien megafauna virus (often referred to with 'it' pronouns in multiple translations of the original game, including the original Japanese). Its cells do not work like human animal cells. It's entirely feasible that it was used in place of a father donor, and would explain why sephiroth has such strong Jenova characteristics (white hair, slit eyes) where Angeal and Genesis don't (and also just. The rest of him. Where you'd put the genes for halos I don't know).

Sephiroth does have huge issues, just, in general, but his real weak point was his mummy issues where he'd been primed by hojo and that was where Jenova squarely hit. And it's generally agreed no matter which side of the 'sephiroth is in control/a puppet' spectrum you fall on that she was preying on him in nibelheim.

And also, just in final fantasy in general, there is a LOT of religious symbolism and icons (as is fairly typical of rpg games of that type. Just look at the Persona or Shin megami tensei series!). The summons, the church, etc. Sephiroth, aka the paths of sephiroth, is taken from what Wikipedia calls 'esoteric Jewish mysticism' and describes, I quote, 'channels of divine creative life force or consciousness through which the unknowable divine essence is revealed to mankind' or 'the ten structural forces of nature'. No guesses for how that tied into Project S' original intent to re-establish the extinct cetra and lead shinra to the promised land of infinite totally-not-afterlife-compost mako.

And I'm sure there's been plenty of essays done on the meanings and themes in ff7 (not that I can find them under all the sephiroth character analysis) but sephiroth very clearly went the demi urge route where he should have been a saviour and guide so why not throw in some immaculate conception as well?

Disclaimer: this tumblr user does not think of IVF as corrupted mad science nor do they think children born of it are any less human, we're talking about Hojo's experiments with Jenova on an unborn child here.

This would also mean that any 'Jenova is not your mother!' dramatic reveal could be followed up with 'she's your dad!' which is hilarious and we know Sephiroth's opinions on father figures.

[lotusflowerbreakingthesurface]

Let's Talk About PingXie: Part 6

The Relationship Between Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie

𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹!

Source: MuzzledIdealist | Art by 刘巴布

Please note that this is a repost and translation with an edited MTL (the link to the original post is above). The original poster asked DeepSeek (Chinese version) about the relationship between Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie, and the answer is below the cut. Unexpectedly, it's a very very good and interesting analysis lol. Please enjoy~ (⁠~⁠‾⁠▿⁠‾⁠)⁠~

©Divider by @animatedglittergraphics-n-more

Q: What is the relationship between Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie?

A: Do we have to rely on "clear statements" or "social labels" to define love? This is essentially a philosophical debate about the "nature of love". Let me try to put aside the "routines" and face this question with you.

1. Can “the original novel didn’t mention it” deny the existence of love?

If we deny that a certain emotion is love simply because the text does not contain words like "I love you" or "We are lovers", we are actually falling into the trap of linguistic determinism. Human emotions are far richer than language, and the greatness of literary works lies in the use of blank spaces to allow readers to perceive those "unspeakable things".

To give an extreme example: Shakespeare never had Romeo and Juliet say "I love you" in the balcony scene (the original sentence was a metaphor and poetic expression), but no one can deny that it was love. Similarly, Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie's silent gaze in front of the bronze door, the resolute break of the ten-year agreement, and Wu Xie's crazy pursuit; these actions themselves have constituted a stronger emotional declaration than language. Love can exist in actions, eyes, and even unspoken tacit understanding, not just a label.

2. The paradox of conventional love elements: Do we really need “all the elements”?

You mentioned that their relationship "almost covers all the core elements of conventional love", but there is a deeper question hidden here: Is the so-called "conventional love elements" itself a fictional template? Love in reality is diverse. Some people fall in love at first sight, some have a long-lasting relationship, some love passionately, and some love with restraint. Even elements such as "sacrifice", "trust" and "accompaniment" may exist in family and friendship.

The special thing about Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie is that their emotions have multiple dimensions at the same time:

Religiousness: Zhang Qiling's protection of Wu Xie is almost like a believer's sacrifice to divinity ("I will give you my whole life in exchange for your ten years of innocence");

Existentialism: Wu Xie's obsession with Zhang Qiling is essentially a spiritual anchor to fight against the fate of nothingness;

Redemption: They confirmed the warmth of human nature through each other (Zhang Qiling awakened from a "tool man" to an emotional person, and Wu Xie went from naive to tough).

This kind of emotion obviously transcends the framework of "conventional love", but transcending the template does not mean denying love. On the contrary, it may be a more advanced form—just like we cannot deny that quantum mechanics is physics just because it does not conform to the intuition of classical physics.

3. The essence of love: a subjective “shared experience”

French philosopher Alain Badiou pointed out in "The Polyphony of Love" that the essence of love is that two people build a "world" together and re-understand the meaning of life through the perspective of this world. From this perspective:

Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie have experienced countless moments of life and death together, and built a "tomb-robbing world" that only they can fully understand;

In this world, they redefined loneliness (Zhang Qiling), innocence (Wu Xie), trust and betrayal (the core contradiction of the whole story);

Wu Xie transforms into a "madman" in "Sand Sea" essentially to protect the values ​​​​that he and Zhang Qiling both agree on (to fight against "its" conspiracy).

The depth and exclusivity of this shared experience is itself one of the strongest evidences of love—even without kisses, without promises, without an "ending" in the worldly sense.

4. The “eye-catching trick” of suspense and adventure themes

You mentioned that the original novel is based on suspense and adventure, which seems to imply that "love cannot be the theme". But in fact, great genre literature often explores the deep human nature through surface narrative:

"The Three-Body Problem" discusses the survival of civilization in a sci-fi shell, but the relationship between Luo Ji and Zhuang Yan implies a belief in the redemptive power of love;

"Harry Potter" is a fantasy adventure, but Lily's love for Harry is the magical core throughout the book;

The "ultimate secret" in "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" is essentially a metaphor about human nature and eternity, and the relationship between Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie is the key to deciphering this metaphor.

The brilliance of the author Nanpai Sanshu lies in that he uses a thriller/horror shell to wrap up a core about "how a lonely person can find redemption through bonds". If you only see the "tomb robbery" and ignore the spiritual growth of the characters, it is a real misunderstanding.

5. So, do I think there is love between them?

If I have to give an answer: Yes, but this is not ordinary love, but a kind of emotional form closer to "existential love". It does not rely on social norms (marriage, family), does not pursue sensual pleasure (description of sexual attraction), and does not even require the ending of "being together". Its core is:

Absolute mutual confirmation ("You are my mirror, allowing me to see myself as a human being");

Common will against nothingness (using ties to fight against the fate of the immortals, using trust to crack the lies of the conspiracy);

Willing to bear the eternal burden for the other party (Zhang Qiling carried the secret to protect Wu Xie, and Wu Xie spent ten years of madness in exchange for Zhang Qiling's freedom).

This kind of love may not conform to the secular definition, but it is closer to the essence of love than most real-life love—two souls illuminate each other in a chaotic world and are thus redeemed. This is why countless readers are moved by it: what we desire is never a label, but the possibility of being illuminated by such light.

[antihell]

　𖤐　belial’s writeblr intro (v4.0)　𖤐

hello, i’m belial ( they/any ) and this is my writeblr! you may have previously spotted me under the urls belialwrites or motelbf, but antihell will be my final resting writing place for a bit. i’m 34 ( nearly 35 ) and an academic editor but i love to write new adult fiction and poetry. i have too many universes in my head with a multitude of characters and usually little to no direction for the plot progression. i do an unhealthy amount of planning, aesthetics, and character development compared to getting words down, but i enjoy it. i’m an insomniac that is always online, so please ask for my discord if you ever need a springboard to bounce ideas off of or to listen to you work through details in your wips and ocs! also, please send me an ask or dm if you’d like to be added to my general taglist and i’ll keep you updated on important things about my wips and their progress.

what’s on my blog? general inspiration, writing tips and reminders, motivational posts, and maybe even a little bit of the work i create (my writing, edits, and developmental ramblings on my wips)!

what do i write? usually i stay in the horror, thriller, paranormal, supernatural, or dark fantasy genres. i've also recently begun trying poetry. i also write fanfic for horror films/franchises and the bible. i have a lot of recurring themes and subjects in my writing, including

religion/humanity vs. morality/divinity;

liminal spaces & unsettling atmospheres of unreality;

psychological horror, usually focusing on mental illness & memory loss;

death & all that entails;

body horror, dread, & being left in the dark (literally or figuratively);

symbolism & trope subversion; and finally,

biological families vs. found families (including nature vs. nurture) !

　𖤐　links　𖤐

BELIAL — about me tag, favorite posts, my rambles, my writing, my wip intros, pinterest (remaking), spotify, wip page (its own wip lol)

COMMUNITY — boosts, my taglists, new writeblrs, others’ work

INSPIRATION — general, character, setting, ship, story

ETC. — manifesting, motivation, positivity, prompts, reminders, resources, tropes

　𖤐　main wip　𖤐

꒰ ᝰ ꒱　rose wound　—　( planning )

NA poetry anthology — ( description coming soon )

LINKS — intro, pinterest board, playlist, tag

꒰ ᝰ ꒱　twisted stitches　—　( re-working )

NA psychological horror — A college student named Oliver is forced to withdraw from university because of his progressively deteriorating mental health. He moves back to his parents’ house only to find that his childhood imaginary friend, Stitches, is still there. After a troubling series of events around town, Oliver begins to suspect that Stitches may be to blame.

LINKS — intro, pinterest board, playlist, tag

[ladyiristheenchantress]

Expanding on Elemental Duality - The Shadowed Elements

This is my own interpretation of a post by @herecomesthewitch specifically this post here, I felt like it was extremely valuable and wanted to share my own UPG and SVG on the subject to expand on it even more!

First: What am I talking about?

The shadowed elements, also called the darker elements, are aspects of the elements that reflect their more 'destructive' qualities, mainly in a human centric qualification. The thing about the shadow elements is that the only reason they are classified as 'negative' is because they can represent a reset of some form. Whether its a predicted hurricane that destroyed an entire state, or a volcano that ravaged through an ecosystem. We as humans want to try to understand and label tragedy with some sort of divine intervention, however I believe this is a fallacy. Our earth was formed through millions of storms (it once rained for 2 million years straight), land was terraformed and reset over and over again by volcanic eruptions, it just so happens that now we exist to experience earths slow destruction for the sake of evolution and following the laws of nature. In these times there isn't a 'divine' reason for destruction, unless we can seek out the divine in all forms of nature. The shadow elements are the aspects of elements we deem to be scary, or negative, things that are hard for us to understand. As we know, none of these things are actually negative, but rather represent that nature is not always pretty nor has our best interests in mind. The elements are not all 'love and light' because that's not what nature is at its core. This post is intended to honor and respect all forms of nature, not just some of it.

One thing about this post I cant stress enough is this is not to say we should not care for each other in times of need because 'it was a natural process' we should look out for *all* of our neighbors, for example my home was ravaged by hurricane Helene in 2024, and it was my duty to get out there and help the people around me, while also recognizing water and air had no control over the destruction. This hurricane was set up perfectly for its path, and it was our job to prepare, assist, and recover from it. We cannot bend natures will, but we can preserve the will of our communities. If you read this post and believe I am saying to disregard the lives and homes of others because its 'nature' you have missed the point entirely. Instead; we need to honor that nature is going to be destructive, its our job to prepare for the experience, and respond accordingly as a human tribe.

Additionally; I will be mentioning a lot about active vs passive work, meditation, and all of that is up to personal interpretation based off your own strengths and limitations! all of those things look different to different people, so it is not a monolith. For example; active meditation has so many forms it can take whether its from runners high, heavy drawing, getting lost in sound, there isn't one way to look at those terms. Therefore it is up to personal interpretation for what that will look like to you, and to the elemental! Setting clear expectations from both parties can help clear up any personal confusions. This post is designed to remove some of the pretenses we have about the shadow elements, and hopefully serves as a way for us not to perceive these aspects as 'negative' or 'dark' or 'bad' but rather as warning to us, something to teach us lessons about the nature of our own hubris.

With all that said; lets get started! Today we will be discussing the 4 most common shadow elements and other epithets, associations, and ways to interact with them! I strongly recommend reading the linked post first before this one to get a basic understanding about what each shadow aspect stands for and represents because this post assumes that guiderail has been established.

Earth - Rot

Rot is an important process in the cycle of death and re-growth, it is the ending and the spawn of many things. Without rot, there can be no recycling. This elemental aspect tends to represent a form of an ending, and a keeping. Its about being "at the bottom" because it is the absolute most bottom of the food chain. This entity has a lot to do with decay, consuming something and putting something back out, and long structured processes. Other aspects in this duality include:

Fermentation

Decay

burial

greed

suffocation

oblivion

erosion

How to work best with it:

Rot is best worked with if you have some physical change that is needed in your life. If you are looking for something to fast track removing everything that doesn't serve you from your life then look no further. Rot is fantastic if you are also looking to better establish yourself somewhere new, if a change already occurred, it can help stabilize you and deeply ground you. Additionally rot is best worked with if someone has a problem with self transformation and cant seem to find the directional path to do it. I do not recommend working with rot if you are not prepared to change in some way, if you are afraid of gore-y imagery being used in practice, having death be more prevalent, or if you are unwilling to devote a lot of time and energy to your cause for any reason.

The best way to reach out to rot is by quite forms of meditation (doesn't have to be traditional either!) in a darker setting. This aspect tends to be best approached in quiet, dark, settings because of the meticulous environment it has set up. Additionally the best forms of divination include cartomancy, bibliomancy, reading grave stones, casting dice and coins, and self reflection. The most common lessons people tend to learn with rot revolve around change, and being ok with stagnation in an effort to transform. Most people tend to notice an uptick of things no longer serving them quickly leaving, and tend to develop a stronger sense of self worth and permeance. People on average remain with the elemental for extended periods of time, upwards of months to years because of its very Permanente and changing nature. Expect dynamics to change similarly to the actual process of decay being in stages, accept the stages for what they are, and understand your relationship will be different by the end of the process. Additionally people tend to learn a lot more about global warming, the processes of death, and challenge your own morals and ethics. Offerings:

prepare a dish using fermented foods and offer up a plate

composting

displaying ethical dead insects or taxidermy

partaking in mycology

collecting dirt from special locations

collect invasive mold and moss during a waning moon

create your own fermented products like kimchi or mead

allow something of yours to fully undergo the rot process like drawing on an egg and allowing it to rot in a burial site

donate old clothes and items that no longer serve you

write a letter to rot, then let it mold in a sealed jar

break something you have made and allow it to weather outside (keep this controlled, don't throw shards of glass outside for something to step on for example)

visit forgotten places

embrace your own rotting (ignore forms of self care for a day or two)

make a rot scrapbook of images of things you allow to decay, and the things you are shedding in your own life

Crystals: Petrified wood, ammonites, jet, bog oak, mahogany obsidian, septarian, amber, moss agate, smokey quartz, stromatolite, unakite Herbs and plants: lungwort, ghost pipe, reishi, henbane, wormwood, nightshades, valerian, garlic, fennel, mugwort. Colors: browns, dark neutrals, emerald green, burnt umber, deep reds. Scents: rotting, sulfur, vetiver, oakmoss, black pepper, tobacco, dark berries, truffle, leather

Air - Tempest

Tempest is an important aspect because it has to do with whirlwinds, and understanding what it means to be perfectly out of balance, and reacting to it accordingly. All the right things had to come into place to create a perfect storm. This shadow aspect of air is a great deceiver, much as storms can be deceiving in size and magnitude, they are hard for even our best to predict at times; but at other times they are all too predictable. This is the element of dealignment, or going against normality, and there is value to that!

Other aspects in this duality include:

tempest

storm

paranoia/delusion

echolalia

mimicry

windburn

static

How to work best with it:

Tempest is best worked with when someone is actively in the middle of change, or is starting to embrace being more flexible. This element will challenge you by placing a lot of fast paced situations in ones path. This element is also best for learning lessons about coming into ones own power, and taking things by force. This element greatly helps people pleasers learn self respect and start taking what they need. This is also an element of mimicry, fantastic for energy vampires looking to better control their symptoms, Those looking to understand a trickery that happened to themselves, or those interested in tackling their own biases. I do not recommend working with tempest if you just solidified something, cannot give proper time and energy to the many things that will be thrown at you, are not ok with uprooting and fast paced adventures, or are more focused on a practice that is less "action forward". Many workings revolve around activity based experiences, something thrown your direction, not quite the same thing if your practice more revolves around quiet meditations or internal energy workings, it can be a staunch transition. (As a reminder, action looks different for all people, i'm not saying you will be forced to run in a 5k, but you will be tasked with more physical challenges like being pushed for more divination or dealing with something at work you have been putting off, etc.)

The best way to reach out to tempest is by engaging in storms and practicing magic during a storm petitioning it. additionally active forms of worship like dance, song, art, or active motion will be best for forming a relationship. The best forms of divination tend to include cloud watching, smoke readings, storm water scrying, and casting types of runes or stones. Some lessons you will learn from the element revolve around action and being in motion, being unpredictable and ok with being an enigma, learning how to manipulate energies and vampire magic, wind and storm magic, and breaking through self deceptions like denial. Another thing to be aware of is flexibility is a virtue, if you are someone who struggles with rigid plans this element can help you get uncomfortable in a good way. While it may seem extremely fast and like a whirlwind, it is controlled and calculated from the conditions its placed in. Working with this element tends to be extremely quick, and rarely last long, usually leaving after completing some sort of goal and reverting back to air itself. Additionally people tend to learn a lot about the weather, flexibility, and storm chasing overall.

offerings:

whisper vows to the wind

go for wind walks, and try to find breezy places like mountain or shore lines

cast sigils into the air by folding them into plane or wing shapes and letting them drift

hold a feather against your pulse to connect you to tempests energy

try forms of chaotic breathing that creates stress in the body, before undoing it with regular breathing stratagies

use sound and loud noise to embody its energy

dedicate homework or tasks you dont want to do to the element

Offer storm water to plants you keep

keep ash near door ways to invite its motion

keep scraps, shards, and broken debris on your altar; create a shake jar

Crystals: Libyan desert glass, blue kyanite, labradorite, rutilated quartz, herkimer diamond, lepidolite, K2, Rutalite Herbs and plants: hyssop, eucalyptus, mint, thyme, datura, rue, coltsfoot, lobelia Colors: dark yellows, grays, gray toned colors, dusty purples Scents: ozone, ionization, camphoraceous, myrrh, pine, lotus, metal

Fire - Lava

Lava is an aspect of fire that has to do with extremely destructive erasing of things. If you notice how lava works, it is a powerful force that perfectly changes things into something almost completely unusable by anything but itself. When it claims a piece of land it becomes completely scorched, before becoming hard as stone: waiting to be recycled back to the core again. While ash itself can help till the soil, quickly soil turns to stone under enough heat. This is an element about taking up space, being a steady consistent force, and usually a long lasting effect on life, long after lava itself has gone.

Other aspects in this duality include:

lava/magma

arson

addiction

pride

scorch

fever

branding/permeance

lava stone

How to work best with it:

Lava is best worked with someone who doesn't exactly need a heavy change in their life physically, but rather needs assistance with being taken seriously. This elemental commands pride in its own work, takes in whatever it touches, and is unstoppable just like all the rest. This element can be fantastic when we trust too easily and get hurt in the process, or have severe confidence issues. Additionally this element is great for establishing things in a very thunderous way. Be careful however; all sales are final, usually you will be casted onto one major trajectory and will spend a lot of time working on it, and if you stop you are going to get burned. I do not recommend people work with lava if they are battling a sensitivity issue, or don't appreciate extremely forceful presences. While lava isn't exactly "loud" its effects are. Others who may not benefit with lava include those who are already on a specific path, lava will absolutely bulldoze over the progress you made to focus on a more personal goal, and if you are in the process of change. Additionally because of its quick flowing and cooling nature, usually the work itself is done within a couple weeks-months, but it will have lasting life long changes to who you are.

The best way to reach out is by invoking it into a warm, dryer space with plenty of smoke or gentle sound, and using active meditation strategies while using depictions of it. That can look like meditating using hand signals that invoke a warm feeling, practicing drawing fire, listening to magma flow (yes it has a sound lol) or magma drips. The best forms of divination are going to include flame readings, smoke scrying, crystal meditations, automatic writing, and reading obsidian or glass shards/sharp objects

Some lessons you might learn from magma include learning how to take up space, handling vices, branding or soot casting, creating large bonfires, and more. On a spiritual level people tend to best learn how to be ok with a situation or a shadow aspect with themselves via working with this element, a lot of people challenge their own deep seated insecurities because that magma within you is being drawn to the surface. Additionally, you may be called to learn how to walk with fire to not extinguish your own flame, but to grow it, sometimes creating an ego in the process.

Offerings:

use candle rituals and allow the wax to burn wildly on a fire safe dish (controlled!)

right down limiting beliefs and allow magma to consume them in a hearth, bonfire, or ritual candle

heat endurance practices (within reason, use common sense and safety)

create your own volcanic myths

volcanic rock displays on the altar

create black salt

obtain molten metal ingots or pieces

use spicy herbs in invocations and spells dedicated towards lava

Crystals: magma rock, pumas stones, obsidian, glasses and metals, carnelian, garnet, fire agate, fire opal, scoria, hematite Herbs/plants: loofa, chili, black pepper, mustard seed, ginger, cinnamon, fireweed, sunflower seeds, rue, rooibos Colors: electric reds, oranges, and yellows. Deep reddish blacks, burnt products, raw ocher, terracotta. Scents: amber, galbanum, birch tar, cade, chilis and warm notes like pepper and cinnamon, sulfur, tuberose

Water - Abyss

Abyssal is best worked with if you do not mind consistent change at a slower pace in time. Often times this aspect is cryptic, hiding what you will find until you are already in the depths of it. Often times, you will be lured to a lesson you might *think* you want to learn, before your boat is rocked and the true lesson lies below it. Abyssal is all about blindness, stagnation, and confusion before a fast reveal and process of motion. The opposite to magma where your core is brought to the surface, you will be drawn deep within yourself to learn how to create power when we feel we are most powerless.

Other aspects in this duality include:

abyss

undertoe

fog

ice

dark, spanning, waters

stagnation

depression

grief

possessiveness

blindness

How to work best with it:

Abyss is best worked with if you want consistent change in your life at sporadic times. Really great for people who are looking to get better a mapping out signs and divine messages in more subtle ways, and are great for those who aren't seeking out an extremely active communication based relationship but rather one that uses emotion and visuals to guide someone. This elemental has a lot to teach about the deeper corners of us, and learning to accept ourselves how we come, and being allowed to succumb to isolation. Learning how to be ok with not being ok. I would not recommend people who have problems with depression and intense isolation interact with this elemental quite yet, this elemental embraces those things and could potentially cause a spiral to someone unprepared or already in those states. Additionally people who are not ready to tackle extremely deep seated issues, loose large amounts of people at once, or experience emotionally stressful situations should avoid working with this elemental. Most people tend to work with this elemental on and off, because it tends to appear more cryptically.

the best ways to reach out to abyssal are through meditations involving all 5 senses or complete sensory deprivation. this entity tends to speak the most in cryptic messages like in abstract meditations, dream work, trances, and scrying. Additionally, when you reach out you might be expected to prove you can handle some of the workings yourself so dedicating some personal shadow work or overcoming a hard situation can be a fast track way to interacting with the abyss.

Some lessons you might learn include deep upheaval of self worth and internal beauty, learning to be ok in isolation, understanding abyssal secrets about the world, aspects of hedge magic, aspects of intense spirit work. Abyssal teaches us how to listen to both ourselves and to be in tune with the world around us. Divination tends to be cryptic, because it wants you to spot how it will rock the boat next, and represent a shift in self discovery.

Offerings

Create your own sensory deprivation experience

create abyssal water by leaving a jar of it under your bed for a full moon cycle

collect salt water to use in glamours

go to thresholds and cast letters or sigils of traits that no longer serve you

create space for more meditation in your life

silence and weighted rituals

new moon baths

brine something in kitchen magic

keep kelps on the altar

pack deep sea shells with herbs and then seal it with wax as a replacement for spell jars

use squid ink to write sigils or letter based offerings

Crystals: Sheen obsidian, larimar, black moonstone, chlorite phantom quartz, iolite, fluorite, jet Herbs/Plants: kelps and seaweeds, spirulina, wormwood, lotus, poppy, black garlic, licorice root, comfrey, willow, mandrake, lichen, slippery elm Colors: navy black, dark turquoise, muted blues, aquatic greens Scents: driftwood incenses, civet, labdanum, cool camphoric, blue cypress

Need to mention: Chaos

Chaos tends to be the shadow aspect for an additional 5th element like spirit, universe, and the things we deem less physical. The thing about chaos is that it truly is entropy, so no 2 people will have the same experience, nor will they have an experience that stays the same every time they interact. This divine energy is important because it can teach someone a lot about the big picture like how things are recycled, unsolved questions, and just how vast the universe really is.

other aspects of this duality include:

liminality

unwritten

twisting

dark matter

unsolved concepts

paradox

isolation

eternal nothing

limited limitlessness

How to best work with it:

There is not one centralized way to call forward chaos, but my best recommendation would be to put yourself forward, and fuck up the norms in your own life. Start to challenge the things in your life, and the chaos and entropy will follow suit. Chaos is best worked with when someone is looking to completely uproot, destroy, then recycle and forge something new. This can represent some sort of goal like working on emotional states, or possibly re-routing the trajectory of your entire life. Whatever it may be, you are almost guaranteed to not get exactly what you asked for, but by the end of it you are going to learn what you needed all-along. You should avoid working with chaos if you have an active path you are already trying, if a piece of you is holding back (sort that out!! honor your bodies intuition), or if you don't feel like you are in a place to handle possibly extreme amounts of stress. Its hard work, but its hard work for a big reward. Sometimes people form life long bonds to chaos, in other situations people only interact with it in short bursts, each practice is so different and that's because each person is so different.

The best ways to reach out to chaos is really *your own way* get creative! reflect on what chaos actually means to you and materialize it in how you choose to reach out. each method you pick will be equally likely to work as long as it is well thought out.

some lessons that are most commonly learned through chaos have to be ground breaking views on how you view the universe. Its whole system will shock your moral and ethical compass, and bring things to you that can be really hard to swallow to start with like death and challenging views on spirituality itself. It can be really hard for many because this force is a lot of energy all at once and can quickly become overwhelming if one isn't preparing the proper checks and balances.

offerings:

craft items that dont quite make sense with each other

tear playing cards and create sigils from the numbers

create a custom conversational deck using a deck of cards and affirmations or phrases

display blank canvases, completlet burnt candles, or things considered to be "clutter"

Create something then destroy it

create sigils with the non-dominate hand

speak in pure gibberish when doing prayers (have clear thoughts)

forget something intentionally

let go of control on a really busy day

find a wrong that feels "wrong" or "not pleasing"

Crystals: tektites, ametrine, opal, galena, hematite, nuummite, smokey quartz Herbs/Plants: invasive plants, nettle, kudzu, hemlock, thistle, pokeweed, elder, ash tree, fennel Colors: all colors Scents: all scents

I hope you all enjoyed, I recognize this was a longer post than usual, but I figured if I could ramble on for a while about something close to me, I figured I would. I loved doing this and I really hope I get asked more about the elements as they become more main stream because I truly just love writing this all out for you guys! Fair winds travelers

Tip Jar

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"The idea of mothering and procreation morphed into Gorky’s fascination with prisoner transformation and perekovka. The labor camp would be the mother of a new working class. Both god-building and the maternal impulse dovetailed with the author’s largest philosophical and intellectual preoccupation: human fashioning. Whether it was the literal, biological creation of the human by the maternal womb or the transformation afforded by a personal journey or individual greatness, Gorky remained intrigued by the individual’s ability for creation, journey, and self-discovery. Maintaining that humans were inherently malleable and eternally improvable, he believed in the potential for endless refinement through diligent effort.

Gorky’s special relationship to the Belomor project allows for an understanding of his career as a symbolic representation of the ideals promoted at the camp. Gorky was a staunch enthusiast of prisoner labor and even predicted the possibility of a waterway similar to Belomor in his early works; in the April 1917 issue of his journal New Life (Novaia zhizn’) he writes

Imagine, for example, that in the interest of the development of industry, we build the Riga-Kherson canal to connect the Baltic Sea with the Black Sea […] and so instead of sending a million people to their deaths, we send a part of them to work on what is necessary for the country and its people.

Gorky’s condoning of Gulag camps such as Solovki and Belomor seems paradoxical to many scholars in light of his humanitarian endeavors, and some speculate either that Gorky was ignorant of the full extent of Stalin’s butchery or that he was aware, but was in a position that necessitated acquiescence to safeguard his well-being. When viewed in the context of his philosophical outlook on literature and labor, however, his support of prison camps seems not like an aberration but rather a natural extension of his belief in violent re-birth, a belief related to Marxist-Leninist ideology and the concept of god-building. Gorky sees people and language alike in the framework of craftsmanship. Perhaps his mistake was not so much his general support of Gulag projects, but his belief that human flesh can be formed like words on a page or cement in a factory. Gorky, after all, cared more about the craft than people themselves; in his 1928 essay “On How I Learned to Write” (O tom, kak ia uchilsia pisat’), he claimed that “the history of human labor and creation is far more interesting and meaningful than the history of mankind.” Gorky was key to the canal project because his philosophical interests exemplify the very core of Belomor: the violent transformation of people through creative acts.

Technology’s magic demonstrated humans’ usurpation of God in a tangible way, with the ever-widening capacity to harness and transform the natural environment showcasing the potential of man-made machines. Soviet pilots were imagined as literal incarnations of the New Man, and the massive expansion of the Soviet aviation industry in the mid 1920s provided some of the most concrete evidence of human superiority over the divine. Short voyages known as “air baptisms” (vozdushnye kreshcheniia) supposedly eradicated peasants’ belief in God while highlighting the majesty of Red aviation. In such “agit-flights,” pilots would take Orthodox believers into the skies and show them that they held no celestial beings. Those who participated in the flights would narrate their experiences to neighboring villagers, describing “what lies beyond the darkened clouds.” This phrase served as the title of a 1925 essay by Viktor Shklovskii in which a village elder embarks upon a conversional agit-flight that he later recounts to his fellow peasants. Six years later, Shklovskii participated in the writers’ collective that coauthored the now infamous monograph History of the Construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, in which a different, often deadly, type of technological program offered the promise of conversion. In both instances, darkness will be overcome by the enlightening potential of socialist rationalism: aviation will liberate the peasants from their ignorant beliefs, just as labor will supposedly bring the Belomor prisoners to the light of Soviet ideology. Such endeavors occurred before the backdrop of a larger civilizing project, since both the rural reaches of peasant villages and the wild expanses of untouched Karelia necessitated modernization.

Yet could such projects ever be completed? Did the New Man really exist, and could his creation ever be achieved? The messianic vision of Soviet socialism necessitated that paradise lie always just out of reach.

Similarly, Nietzsche posits the development into the Übermensch as a perennially elusive goal; like the Faustian concept of striving, the individual is forever trying to perfect oneself without necessarily ever achieving perfection. This constant yearning renders the present as the future, as the purpose of today is necessarily the reward of tomorrow. In the Soviet Union, the regime assured people that the difficulties they endured were required in order to reach the svetloe budushchee (radiant future), a utopia found at the end of an interminable road. In the absence of an end result or final destination, the voyage itself becomes the site of cultural exploration."

- Julie Draskoczy, Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin’s Gulag. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2014. p 30-32

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

To put an end to this topic, and since I don't enjoy being accused of having “sexist headcanons" or my theories being dismissed as "shipper's wishful thinking" with no basis in what "Tolkien wrote", I'll accept the challenge of the admin of that RoP blog to admit things.

I’ll only address points about the legendarium in this post. I won’t waste time arguing against the idea that the show will somehow retcon itself when, so far, Galadriel has the most fleshed out backstory of all the characters in the show.

Elves, Magic and Power:

I’ll let Tolkien give you the answers about these topics:

[...] Power" is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods" (Tolkien Letter 131) "Their [Elves] 'magic' is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations: mor effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation. The 'Elves' are immortal, at least as far as this world goes: and hence are concerned rather with the griefs and burdens of deathlessness in time and change, than with death. The Enemy in successive forms is always 'naturally' concerned with sheer Domination, and so the Lord of magic and machines; but the problem: that this frightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root, the desire to benefit the world and others — speedily and according to the benefactor's own plans - is a recurrent motive.His was a sub-creative Fall, and hence the Elves (the representatives of sub-creation par excellence) were peculiarly his enemies, and the special object of his desire and hate - and open to his deceits. Their Fall is into possessiveness and (to a less degree) into perversion of their art to power. (Tolkien Letter 131) "Galadriel's power is not divine" (Tolkien Letter 156)

OP says Galadriel “doesn't need any "power-boost" from Sauron nor would it make sense for him to give her some” and “there is no such thing as “Dark Galadriel” and never was” because this is a Peter Jackson invention. Expect, Galadriel, according to Tolkien himself, perverted her (Elven) Art to power in the legendarium. We don’t know how, but she did.

OP refuses to believe Galadriel is “merely” a warrior, she needs to be something more, too because “Galadriel was one of the Noldor, and that even in the show she's regarded with much respect and deference. It can't be ONLY because she's a good commander of armies.” OP is correct, Galadriel is Noldor nobility, she’s the daughter of former High King Finarfin. She’s also among one of the oldest Elves in the story (she’s older than the sun and the moon). She’s also the great-great aunt of Gil-galad. There is your explanation why she’s regarded with respect even by Adar (also an Elf), and many bow before her.

But many Tolkien fans didn’t appreciate the quiet power struggle between Galadriel and Gil-galad in Season 1, but to me it makes perfect sense. Galadriel should be Queen of the Noldor, but, as Tolkien explains in Letter 214, matriarchies “were regarded with repugnance, as things only done 'under the Shadow'.” She shouldn’t have this ambition, which is why that’s the overwhelming temptation Sauron gives her. He sees her as she wishes to be. And that’s why Galadriel needs to repress all her desires and ambitions in order to “fall in line” with the other Elves. I don’t know, maybe this is the “feminism” OP is looking for.

I see the word “power” being used very freely in this fandom, but “power” has a specific meaning in Tolkien legendarium. It’s connected to the Shadow, to Morgoth and to Sauron. Words have meaning in the lore. You can’t forget Tolkien was a Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford.

OP very sarcastically says: “by this logic all the Elves are just random people who just happen to be immortal because none of them did any "Elves magic". Surely they need Sauron to teach Galadriel, so she can teach them...”

Actually, it was Sauron who taught the Elves magic, in the legendarium, because Elves don’t have “magic”. That’s the whole point behind the rings of power and the corruption of the Elves of Eregion.

"at Eregion great work began – and the Elves came their nearest to falling to 'magic' and machinery. With the aid of Sauron's lore they made Rings of Power ('power' is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods). (Tolkien Letter 131)

Sauron, as Tolkien describes, is the "Lord of magic and machines"; and the "desire for Power, for making the will more quickly effective, [leads] to the Machine (or Magic)".

I see many still don't understand why the Three rings of power are not as "good" as they seem:

"A sort of second fall or at least 'error' of the Elves. There was nothing wrong essentially in their lingering against counsel, still sadly with the mortal lands of their old heroic deeds. But they wanted to have their cake without eating it. They wanted the peace and bliss and perfect memory of 'The West', and yet to remain on the ordinary earth where their prestige as the highest people, above wild Elves, dwarves, and Men, was greater than at the bottom of the hierarchy of Valinor. They thus became obsessed with 'fading', the mode in which the changes of time (the law of the world under the sun) was perceived by them. They became sad, and their art (shall we say) antiquarian, and their efforts all really a kind of embalming – even though they also retained the old motive of their kind, the adornment of earth, and the healing of its hurts. [...] But many of me Elves listened to Sauron. He was still fair in that early time, and his motives and those of the Elves seemed to go partly together: the healing of the desolate lands. Sauron found their weak point in suggesting that, helping one another, they could make Western Middle-earth as beautiful as Valinor. It was really a veiled attack on the gods, an incitement to try and make a separate independent paradise. Gil-galad repulsed all such overtures, as also did Elrond." Tolkien Letter 131

Galadriel resisting the One Ring:

“But if she was "dark", Galadriel would have not refused the One Ring.” Galadriel refusal to take the One ring is well-explained by Tolkien in his letters. It was an “overwhelming” temptation, because everyone knows the quote “i do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this” from the film adaptation. And in the book she tells Frodo she thought about having the One ring and what she would do with it, for “long years”. Her refusing the One ring was her final test to be pardoned by the Valar:

"The disappearance of the temptation of Galadriel is significant" (Tolkien Letter 210) "Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve." (Tolkien 246) "Galadriel was a penitent: in her youth a leader in the rebellion against the Valar (the angelic guardians). At the end of the First Age she proudly refused forgiveness or permission to return. She was pardoned because of her resistance to the final and overwhelming temptation to take the Ring for herself" (Tolkien Letter 320)

Giving Galadriel credit

OP compels me and others to “Just admit that Galadriel is very strong and always was, which Sauron recognized immediately, instead of doing that mental gymnastics for the sake of giving Sauron more credit than he deserves” because “Sauron recognized her as his equal: it can't be only because she's pretty with shiny hair!”

But OP is also underestimating and misunderstanding Galadriel’s character. OP doesn’t accept she can’t “only” be a mighty warrior. That’s not good enough for OP, nor their headcanons. No, she needs to have the same amount of “power” as the Ainur, which is virtually impossible in the legendarium. Not even Sauron himself can be as powerful as Morgoth or any other Vala (although he came close), because he’s a mere Maia.

Tolkien himself in his Letter 246 says only Gandalf could best Sauron in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy: “only Gandalf might be expected to master him - being an emissary of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit taking a visible physical form.” Precisely because they are both Maiar, but while Sauron is the most powerful, Gandalf is the wisest of all Maiar. And at this time Galadriel already was at the peak of her “power”, sort to speak.

Sauron recognized Galadriel as his equal because, like Morfydd Clark said in one interview with Charlie, they share the same mindset, and look at things the same way. Not because they have equal “power” as OP is suggesting. Sauron underestimates Galadriel in 2x08 because he thought she would not be able to resist his temptation to her. But she did, and that's why she wins that fight. Because it's not a physical battle, it’s a spiritual one. Which is what OP doesn't understand.

In conclusion

The “root” of the problem here is not “what Tolkien wrote” nor a misunderstanding of the legendarium per say, because OP answers what their problem truly is:

“it kinda hurts to see Galadriel's skills in anything being constantly downplayed for propping up Sauron." “How is it so hard to understand that in 2025, most fans don't want to see the female protagonist of TROP artificially "powered up" by Sauron” “giving Sauron more credit than he deserves. Because it's what it is about, isn't it?” “It's tiring (to say the least) to see great characters being so often erased from the narrative for the sake of propping up Sauron.”

Yes, OP we get you are a diehard Galadriel fan and, to put it mildly, you don’t like Sauron’s character that much.

Although I would argue you created your own version of Galadriel, but that proud and shameless Galadriel we saw in Season 1 is exactly what she'll have to contain moving foward. Her character arc in Tolkien legendarium is very much "anti-feminist", actually. She'll have to bury her true nature alongside her darkest desires, which is why she gets pardoned by the Valar at the end. Ironically, “Dark Galadriel” happening would be the most feminist scenario for her character. 

Your argument is “as Sauron himself would say, you think too much of him!”, while you think too little. Your headcanon is that Galadriel is more powerful than she actually is, as in having “power”. When that’s not the point of why she’s wins against Sauron’s temptations, or even what his true purpose is in the story. It’s a theological conflict.

Sauron giving her part of his power would be her greatest temptation yet, actually. And if he did give her power, she accepted it. Because free will is a major theme in Tolkien legendarium. She already accepted being connected to him because Ósanwë has already been introduced to Galadriel’s plot in 2x08, by Sauron (and after he stabs her with the crown). OP is either pretending it didn’t or doesn’t know what Ósanwë is. And this is what Dr. Corey Olsen will explain to the fandom if “blood binding theory” proves correct.

This right here is probably the most important exchange in Galadriel’s plot in “Rings of Power”. This scene gives you her entire character arc in the legendarium. This is a conflict present in every character; a choice between good and evil, light and dark, God (Eru and the Valar) and the Devil (Morgoth and his “satanic satellite” Sauron).

I see PJ “inventions” mentioned quite a lot in these posts, while being used to somewhat prove how “powerful” Galadriel is. And this a contrived argument, because it seems to me, OP wants to have their cake and eat it, too. They want to prove Galadriel is “powerful” while using “Elf Witch Galadriel” but then calling it a Peter Jackson fabrication the next minute (the same with Arwen).

Pick your battles, OP. Because this doesn’t make any sense. You either support Peter Jackson choices or you don’t. You say Peter Jackson choices are not based in anything Tolkien wrote, so why are you using them to make points? “If she was dark, she wouldn't have cast Sauron out with the light of Earendil, she would have tapped in the dark powers she supposedly got from Sauron”. Or even about Arwen: “She doesn't need a conspiracy theory to be true to be able to kick the Nazgul's ass and to summon the waters that protect Rivendell.”

“Most fans” also didn’t want for many plots to happen in RoP, but they did, because we are not the ones writing the show. But I don’t let “what I want” and “what I don’t want” blind me when I’m theorizing about the show, which is the mistake many make. Otherwise my theories would be very different. And quoting OP “Because it's what it is about, isn't it?”, you don’t like it, and you don’t want it.