#religion studyblr

[em-istry]

✨em-istry intro post✨

Welcome to my little corner of studyblr!

I’m definitely not new here, but i can never seem to keep my blog on track. 4th time is the charm!

✨about me✨

My name is Em (she/they)

I’m a Religious Studies major, and a Medieval + Early Modern Studies minor

I’ve cycled through about 8 different majors, ranging from Musical Theatre, Political Science, Chemistry, and Biology to name a few

In the future, I would love to work in a library or in an archival setting. I love books and old things, that would be my dream job

My favourite band is Fleetwood Mac, and I worship at the altar of Stevie Nicks

I’m also a huge fan of Florence + The Machine, Ghost, Taylor Swift, David Bowie, AC/DC, and BTS

My favourite movies are The Da Vinci Code trilogy (Robert Langdon is my idol) and the MCU movies (emphasis on the Iron Man and Spider-Man trilogies)

i’d love to make more studyblr mutuals, so feel free to reach out any time!! i also love getting asks in my inbox, so please make my day sometime and say hello or ask me anything!

[the---hermit]

24|10|2024

New day, same book and same struggle to focus. I need this thing to be done, it's so stressing and tiring to try to keep my focus on this. It's written so fucking badly I can't take it anymore. And after sending a few passages to a friend I can confirm I am not the problem, the book is. It's so tiring on my brain that I am also less motivated to read in my free time, which is fine, but it shows how badly it's influencing me. My free time, when I am alone, these days mainly consists of listening to music, doing sudoku puzzles and continuing my Lost rewatch. I am now at the end of season 3 and I am not joking when I say I don't remember shit. I mean I do have a few memories of things that will happen, but there has been so many plot points amd twists I had completly forgotten.

productivity list:

read first thing in the morning

finished reading and underlining the first half of the last section of the book (now I only have to work on the second half and the epilogue which should be less than 50 pages)

started writing down notes for what I have read yesterday and today

started outlining a few thoughts on what my 2025 reading goals are going to be (I feel like this year I really learned a lot on what I want my reading to be, I will be writing a post on that around the end of the year)

duolingo

[achillesreborn]

antidepressants worked too good, i've converted to Catholicism

[crazycatsiren]

One thing I can't help but wonder.

Artemis is not the only virgin goddess in the Hellenic pantheon. And yet it appears, among modern pagans, virginity is the first (often times only) thing to come to mind whenever Artemis is mentioned. So much is focused around her being a virgin, it's gotten to a point where who she actually is, how she was worshipped in ancient Greece, and her presence in the lives of the ancient Greeks are completely lost among misinformations and misconceptions stemming from only one aspect of her.

For Athena and Hestia, it's always their various roles and domains that people will immediately think about. But for Artemis, it's always her body and marital status, for some reason. It's utterly ridiculous.

Because to the ancient Greeks, Artemis was a perpetually unwed maiden goddess, yes, but she was not the goddess of virginity. According to Stephanie Budin and colleagues, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt and wilderness, and she was responsible for helping women in childbirth, turning children into adults, bringing light, freeing slaves, marking boundaries between territories and periods, bringing and curing plague. Her epithets emphasized her "wild" qualities, expressed her proclivity for the hunt, as well as described her as a "kourotrophos" (child nurturer and protector of the young) and a lunar deity.

It's like, why is it never a problem for everybody to accept that Athena and Hestia had worshippers of all ages, sexes, gender roles, and social statuses throughout ancient times, but it's so hard to wrap minds around this about Artemis.

Artemis, Athena, Hestia, all three goddesses preserve their virginity for important reasons pertaining to their roles in Greek ideology. Artemis's virginity established her position in the divine hierarchy. As the goddess of the wilds and wild animals, she herself could not be tamed (damazo) by sex, as other females in the Greek literature, and especially brides, were said to be (paraphrasing Stephanie Budin, Artemis, 2016).

In a nutshell, these goddesses are virgins and never married because of, as a result of, and due to their personas, functions, their parts in the pantheon and the areas they preside over. They chose the path of virginity because of who they are and what their "jobs" are. It doesn't mean they are rulers of maidenhood and virgins.

[theseviolentdellghts]

God, grades and my girls are my priorities this sem 🏹

[crusera]

The Sultan, they said, was a good man. Soft, quickly moved to tears. Out of compassion, he bought the freedom of a Christian woman's stolen daughter. Even Walther von der Vogelweide, the minnesinger in distant Germany, praised the "mildness" of the powerful ruler in the Orient, whose name has a good reputation in the West: Saladin, a righteous man.

He was a man who always kept his word, even to his enemies.

He let his subjects drag him to court, because God's laws applied equally to everyone. Also for him, the ruler who managed to do what no one had ever managed before: to unite the Islamic world of the Middle East after centuries of discord and to wrest Jerusalem, the holy city of the Muslims, from the Christians in 1187.

His name translates as "righteousness of faith", and Saladin is indeed a devout Muslim. Nevertheless, after his conquest of the Holy Land, he allowed the Christians and Jews there to continue praying to their God. This is another reason why, more than half a millennium later, Western Enlightenment thinkers would make him the epitome of the tolerant ruler.

But this al-Malik an-Nasir Salah ad-Din Abu'l-Muzaffer Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi, known as Saladin for short, also had other sides.

He could be treacherous, vile and mean. He did not shy away from murder. Nevertheless, this man fascinated his contemporaries. He became one of the most revered rulers of the Islamic world and the most important opponent of the Crusaders.

Saladin was born in 1138 in Tikrit (in present-day Iraq), the son of a Kurdish officer. During his political career, Saladin was the first to bring Egypt's army under his control.

Saladin, a Sunni, now founds two universities where theology is taught according to Sunni theology - a signal that he is on the side of the population. He also abolished a number of taxes that contradicted the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet.

Saladin's subsequent conquests shock the Christian world. By 1174, his power extended from North Africa to the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. In 1186, he ruled from the Nile to the Tigris.

At the height of his power, the Sultan even dreamed of taking the Holy War to Europe, conquering Rome - and putting the Pope in chains.

The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099 and held it until Saladin besieged it in 1187 and handed it over to the Ayyubid dynasty, a Muslim sultanate that ruled the Middle East at the beginning of the 12th century.

Saladin wanted to recapture the city, which had previously been ruled by Muslims.

For Muslims, Jerusalem is a place where important events in the life of Jesus and other important personalities took place. It is also the place where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven according to the traditional interpretation of the Koran and other texts.

In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. Muslims believe that Muhammad was brought to Jerusalem during his night journey (Isra and Mi'raj).

The name Jesus is mentioned twenty-five times in the Holy Qur'an, often in the form 'Isa ibn Maryam, which means "Jesus, son of Mary". In the Quran, he is given the unique title "Messiah" (al-masih in Arabic), which means "anointed one". He is considered one of many prophets from the lineage of the Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham (peace be upon him). Many Muslim traditions regard it as an ideal example of spirituality. Unlike Christians, who generally believe in a triune God, Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet who was to lead mankind on the straight path of monotheism and obedience to God (Allah).

When Jerusalem also fell, two kings and an emperor set off for the Holy Land with their armies from 1189 onwards. One of the monarchs is King Richard I of England. Even before the armed pilgrimage, he had already earned himself an honourable name: "Lionheart."

Saladin lies in wait for the Christians in the forests of Arsuf near the Mediterranean coast. But King Richard of England had anticipated the attack; on 7 September 1191, his troops won a clear victory. Nevertheless, the Muslim army is still strong enough to block the road to Jerusalem.

Saladin's reconquest of Jerusalem in 1187 prompted Pope Gregory VIII to organize the Third Crusade. From 1189 to 1192, Saladin lost Acre and Jaffa and was defeated in the field at Arsūf. The Crusaders retreated to Europe without seizing Jerusalem, but Saladin's military reputation had been damaged. He died in 1193.

[yorksnapshots]

An Ecclesiastical Study.

In the side room of a church I was exploring.

[httpsoftbunni]

Esoteric Christianity

Part 2: Shedding the Ego and Attaching to the Divine

Previously, we looked at the concept of the inner light, which lies at the core of Christianity. This light is not of external force, but rather the reality that is embedded within our own existence. It is the true nature of who we are in Christ, and it is through this inner awakening that we can undergo true spiritual transformation.

Here, we will look at a crucial step in this transformation: shedding the ego and detaching from the material world. These are not just theological concepts; they are practical stages in our spiritual evolution. To embody the light within, we must remove the barriers that prevent its expression - ego and attachments to the temporal world.

The Ego: A False Identity

In esoteric Christianity, the ego isn't an inherent part of the self, but rather a false identity - a constructed sense of "I" that is shaped by worldly desires, fears, and influences. This false sense of self clouds our true nature and keeps us trapped in a cycle of illusion. The ego is driven by pride, fear, selfishness, and desire for control, all which cast shadow on the divine light within.

Christ's teachings challenges us to move beyond the false self and recognise the true identity as beings created in God's image. In Matthew 16, Christ calls His followers to deny themselves and take up their cross, saying, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

This is an invitation to let go of the ego-driven need to control our destiny and to align ourselves with God's will. Self-denial in this context is not about punishing the self or diminishing one's worth, but rather surrendering the false ego that perpetuates suffering and separation from the divine.

The Cross: A Symbol Of Transcendence

The cross that Christ speaks of here is symbolic of the ego crucifixion. It is through the cross that Christ invites us into the process of killing off the false self in order to be reborn into the truth. The act of taking up the cross isn't about physical suffering, but rather about the spiritual death of the ego - the complete surrender of the self that constantly resists God's transformative power.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul echoes this concept: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." This passage reflects the esoteric understanding of this specific spiritual journey: the ego must be crucified so that the Christ-self may emerge. This is the paradox of the Christ path - the more we surrender our attachment to ego, the more we fully come to embody the nature of Christ, the light that was always within us.

Detachment from the Material World

Esoteric Christianity teaches that while the material world is not inherently evil, it can become a source of distraction and attachment that pulls us away from our true nature and purpose. The desire for wealth, status, and security can enslave the soul, causing us to seek fulfilment in things that are fleeting, rather than in the eternal, unchanging truth.

Christ's words in Matthew 6:19-21 urge us to reanalyse our priorities: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, your heart will be there also."

This teaching encourages us to shift our focus from external accumulation to internal spiritual wealth. Detachment is not the giving up of the world altogether, but rather the refusal to allow the material world define our worth, our purpose, or our sense of identity. It means that recognising the true treasure is within - that the inner light of Christ is far more valuable than any amount of gold.

The process of detachment involves reordering our relationship with the world, seeing it not as something to possess, control, or compete against, but as a reflection of the divine and a tool for spiritual growth. By letting go of our attachment to the material world, we allow space for God to work in our lives.

The Role of Faith and Surrender

We must also learn to deepen our faith in God's plans for us. The ego constantly seeks to control, where faith surrenders to God's will, trusting that His plan is greater than any temporary desires or fears we may have. In the act of surrender, we open ourselves up to the grace of God, which nourishes the soul and leads us to the path of transformation.

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul urges believers: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

The living sacrifice Paul is talking about here is the willingness to offer our lives to God - not as an external sacrifice, but a spiritual one, where the ego and its attachments are surrendered in love and trust. The renewing of the mind is an ongoing process of aligning our thoughts, emotions, and actions with the divine truth. In doing so, we experience the awakening of the inner light that Christ promised.

The Awakening of the Inner Light

As we surrender the ego and detach from the material world, we create space within ourselves for the inner light of Christ to shine more fully. This process of awakening is not a one-time event, but an ongoing journey of spiritual growth and transformation. It requires continuous faith, self-reflection, and a willingness to let go of the illusions that keep us bound to the false self.

The inner light is the divine spark within each of us, the presence of Christ that dwells in the deepest parts of our being. When we release the ego's grip and allow the light to emerge, we begin to live from a place of authenticity, love, and compassion. Our actions become aligned with the will of God, and we experience a deep sense of peace and unity with all of creation.

This is the ultimate goal of esoteric Christianity: to shed the layers of false identity and attachments that separate us from God, and to embody the divine light that has always been within us. Through this process, we come to understand that we are not separate from God, but rather, we are divine beings who are called to manifest God's love and grace in the world.

Living in the Light

Living in the light means living in accordance with the divine nature that we were created to embody. It means recognizing that we are not defined by the ego or the material world, but by the eternal truth of our being in Christ. As we continue on this path of transformation, we learn to navigate the challenges of life with grace and wisdom, trusting in God's guidance and surrendering our personal will to the divine will.

This does not mean that we are free from difficulties or suffering, but it does mean that we approach life with a deeper sense of purpose and meaning. We understand that every experience, whether joyful or painful, is an opportunity for growth and spiritual evolution. By living in the light, we become vessels of God's love, spreading the light of Christ to those around us and contributing to the healing and transformation of the world.

hedding the ego and detaching from the material world are essential steps in the journey of spiritual awakening in esoteric Christianity. By releasing the false self and its attachments, we open ourselves to the transformative power of the divine and allow the inner light of Christ to shine more fully in our lives.

This process requires faith, surrender, and a willingness to embrace the unknown, trusting that God's plan for us is far greater than anything the ego could imagine. As we walk this path, we experience the profound truth of our identity as divine beings, created in the image of God and called to embody His love and light in the world.

The journey is ongoing, but with each step, we move closer to the ultimate goal: union with the divine, the realisation of our true nature, and the full expression of the light within us.

[no-where-new-hero]

Based on a poll I saw about jobs...

[unfayth]

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

[annarosestudent]

Hi!

Welcome to my blog!

You can call me anna-rose.

I am currently studying in Scotland at an S5 level, and the subjects I am taking are English, Biology, History, Religion and Philosophy, and Latin, all at Higher level. I hope to go to Oxford to study English, then do a Law conversion degree. The clubs and societies I do are; Politics club, cadets, cello (studying for grade 5, and in my school orchestra), STEM volunteering with the school maths club, ski racing, I'm editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, I volunteer in the school library, I am vice president of the school law society, speech and debate club, Mental Health advice volunteering, badminton, canoeing, hill-walking, rugby coaching, and finally volunteering to help get disabled people involved in sports. It's a busy schedule but I love doing all of it, and I would love to connect with people on here who share any of these interests.

I'm starting this blog to keep me accountable with my studying habits, because I'm starting studying for my Higher mocks today. I would love mutuals so please any studyblr accounts that see this maybe reblog or give me a follow?

[magpiecollectingknowledge]

for some reason I plan my assignments so much better by hand…I wonder if it’s because it takes more time to write it down, and I can’t just brain vomit without considering what I want to include. I did an unnecessarily large amount of research for this essay but I loved the topic so I don’t regret it.

have a good rest of your week everyone!

[ashs-nerd-den]

✨Motivation ✨

[i-want-to-be-a-poet]

Why must I repent for my doubt?

[crazycatsiren]

I personally do not agree with absolutely everything historians say about the deities. They have their knowledges and opinions but their words are not gospels to be followed. Historians are also not 100% correct about everything every time. After all, they were not there.

Does studying history help me understand the deities and their worship better, as well as form my own conclusions, interpretations, and ideas? Absolutely so. There are my personal thoughts, and there are the historical facts. They are not always one and the same, but they complement each other.

[thesorcerersapprentice]

Image Text: “A belief in magic does not make people irrational, and [...] the contrast between magic and science is not between irrationality and rationality; rather, people work with various forms of logic that are argued from radically different premises." - Magic: A History by Chris Gosden.