#sainthood

[pityroad]

— Forfeiting My Mystique, Kaveh Akbar, in '100 Queer Poems, an anthology' (2022)

[text ID: Some saints spent their whole childhoods biting their teachers' hands and / sprinkling salt into spider-webs, only to be redeemed by a fluke shock of grace just before death. May I feather into such a swan soon.]

[letallthetrashraindown]

Anne Carson, “Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides” / George William Joy, “Sleeping Joan of Arc” / Andrei Tarkovsky / Anne Sexton / “Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian”, Il Sodoma / Caroline Walker Bynum, “The Holy Feast and the Holy Fast” / “St. Denis Picking up His Head”, 19th century Panthéon murals / Margaret Atwood, “Half Hanged Mary”

[lucidloving]

Chelsea Hodson, "Tonight I'm Someone Else" // l.a.m, "The Rising of the Phoenix" // @astrono77153462 // author unknown, "Fallen Angel in Church" // Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov // Franz Kafka and @wingful // @conturnacious // Ted Chiang, Hell is the Absent of God // Google search results // David Bowie

[surelyspacejunk]

'Sainthood' in the Shadow Realms

When I was exploring Enir-Ilim, the pillars made of humans reminded me of stories of the 'Hitobashira' in Japan (which literally means 'human pillar'.) Hitobashira was the practice of sacrificing humans before a grand project (such as bridges or castles) to appease gods and ensure the success of the project. In some stories, the sacrifices are entombed/buried alive in the structure as part of the ritual. It was also said that the hitobashira gave the building more structural integrity (with a side effect of the occasional vengeful spirit because not all sacrifices were willing participants.) You can read the wikipedia entry for hitobashira here if you're interested.

Bringing this back to Elden Ring, I felt like this was the most straightforward explanation to what sainthood meant; becoming human pillars for the gate of divinity to usher in a new god. If building Enir-Ilim required a large number of sacrifices, and the shamans somehow acted as catalysts that stuck more bodies together, it'd make sense why the hornsent would hunt them to extinction. It would also make sense why it wasn't just the numen put in jars, it was as many people as they could fit to complete the project.

If this is correct, then it makes sense why it wouldn't matter if the people in the pots were willing or not, their sacrifices would ensure the Gate of Divinity would be made and have their deaths honored in the name of 'sainthood'. The parallels of unwilling sacrifices/martyrdom and direct visual wordplay on hitobashira/human pillars make me think that this explanation is as simple as it gets. It was also shown that in The Lands Between, jar folk were used to bring bodies back to the Erdtrees, so it would make sense if their predecessors in the Shadow Realm also had a role in bringing bodies to Enir-Ilim.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Etienne Azambre (French, 1859-1935) Saint Cecilia of Rome, n.d.

[catholicmemoirs]

Please pray for me. I have been suffering from fits of rage ever since having my second child and although I've made progress I'm not at the vision of Catholic calm and peace I always imagine a mom should be and it breaks my heart because I want to become a saint but feel so very far from it. Please pray for my children and husband who don't deserve my rage.

[blackwomenrule]

[imaginal-ai]

"The Meditations of Saint DeAndre" (0006)

(More of The Meditations and Ecstasies Series)

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[my-deer-friend]

The Saint of Never Getting It Right

(Click for full quality!)

[mothmussy]

Goku should be given sainthood

[spiritstarry]

After two years of hard work, soul searching, and combing through bad jokes, my friend @thetempurmental and I are finally ready to start sharing our new comic. It's called Sainthood. It's a satirical dramedy about a group of students at a Christian high school in Middle America. The first few pages are up now. Updates will come as they come. Enjoy!

[apesoformythoughts]

[anetherealpoetess]

[mk-wizard]

I know this is the most unpopular opinion in the world when it comes to the lost gem Wall-E, BUT I think everyone is wrong about Auto.

Specifically, I don’t think he was a blind dumb machine mindlessly following his programming. In fact, I think the very reason he acted the way he did is because he was self-aware and had developed some bad vices over time. If he was a mindless machine who only did as his programming and superiors told him to, he would have obeyed the Captain’s orders to return to Earth after seeing it was habitable again. I think he knew what he was doing was morally wrong, but he didn’t care. Auto is capable of feeling emotions like frustration and even fear which are clearly shown during his face off with the Captain. Moreover, I think Auto was aware that if the humans returned to Earth, he would not only lose his power over humans, but also over machine. Plus, he would become obsolete because all the humans would leave the Axiom ship which is the one ability he doesn’t have.

In other words, I think Auto was very aware that HE was the one who had all the power and didn’t want to give it up. I think over the 700 years, being “king” got to his head and corrupted him to the point where he stopped caring about humanity and was more concerned with staying in power. People forget that personhood doesn’t mean sainthood. In other words, Auto can serve as a cautionary tale that power can corrupt anyone.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Vladímir Lukich Borovikovsky (Russian, 1757-1825) St. Luke the Evangelist, ca.1804

[rachelleacomics]

Take me to church // I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies // I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife

Lyrics (c) Hozier