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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 year ago

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https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-66981924.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16963221914273&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com

If I saw this on another site I would have thought it was satirical, but I don't think BBC News does Satire!

By: BBC News

Published: Oct 3, 2023

A degree in magic being offered in 2024 will be one of the first in the UK, the University of Exeter has said.

The "innovative" MA in Magic and Occult Science has been created following a "recent surge in interest in magic", the course leader said.

It would offering an opportunity to study the history and impact of witchcraft and magic around the world on society and science, bosses said.

The one-year programme starts in September 2024.

Academics with expertise in history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, sociology, psychology, drama, and religion will show the role of magic on the West and the East.

The university said it was one of the only postgraduate courses of its kind in the UK to combine the study of the history of magic with such a wide range of other subjects.

'Place of magic'

Prof Emily Selove, course leader, said: "A recent surge in interest in magic and the occult inside and outside of academia lies at the heart of the most urgent questions of our society.

"Decolonisation, the exploration of alternative epistemologies, feminism and anti-racism are at the core of this programme."

The course will be offered in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.

Prof Selove said: "This MA will allow people to re-examine the assumption that the West is the place of rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is a place of magic and superstition."

The university said the course could prepare students for careers in teaching, counselling, mentoring, heritage and museum work, work in libraries, tourism, arts organisations or the publishing industry, among other areas of work.

A choice of modules includes dragons in western literature and art, the legend of King Arthur, palaeography, Islamic thought, archaeological theory and practice and the depiction of women in the Middle Ages.

I mean, it could have been quite good, the history of magic; the effect on human imagination and storytelling; magic in literature and art; magic as metaphor for what we don't know, a stand-in for science; the evolution of societal perceptions of magic through the growth of the scientific method; the role of magic and revelation in early epistemological (truth claims) processes... this could have been a fascinating course.

Then they had to ruin it by stuffing it full of intersectional Gender Studies horseshit and making it ideologically corrupt and completely academically worthless. Except to piss off daddy, who's paying the bill.

This is the exact kind of luxury course that only bored, privileged, upper-middle class people with no real problems or ambition would take. If you take it, you have nothing better to do, and no ambition to better your future prospects. It's low-effort, academically shallow, fosters undeserved moral elitism, but still takes in tuition fees, so it's unsurprising that it exists.

You'd be getting loan forgiveness for it over my dead body, though.

#ask #Degree in Magic #Exeter University #gender studies #intersectionality #intersectional feminism #intersectional religion #religion is a mental illness

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1989doolittle · 2 years ago

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please share the results of your medieval science research when done

well the results r gonna be a presentation that i have to do for history class but it’s sooo crazy fascinating to research im having a blast with it.. since i’m pretty much done for my research portion mostly my findings are that medieval science sucked badly but maybe not as bad as it’s often made out to be. mainly it sucked because of how closely connected it was to the church of the time and how indistinguishable science and magic were from one another, and its original stagnation was obviously because of the regression of society and the lack of a comfortable climate for yk. having time to think about science instead of fighting for ur life (literally) which was possible in antiquity. anyway obsessed w this quote from a guy who has published works on middle ages science: “in the middle ages in western europe, magic was not an obscurantist superstition hostile to scientific rationality, nor was it a challenge or even alternative to science. This contrast arose only in modern times.” BUT there were also many things abt medieval science that are v underrecognized in general, like a lot of discoveries written about by middle ages scientists that were later really made big by scientific revolution era scholars (i.e. that robert grosseteste guy i just posted about explaining the complex concept of refraction of light by a spherical lens before isaac newton wrote the laws of optics). fav part of medieval science is medieval medicine tho. again this sucked because of them being unable 2 separate religion and science which resulted in much of medicine being based on magical/divine/whatever teachings seen in how medical practitioners used a device called an astrolabe (used to measure positions of planets) to decide the best times (based on zodiacs/positions of planets) to do procedures like fucking bloodletting. so yea very fun. omg also cute fact one of the most prevalent uses of science in the middle ages was for computus, which was the term for the calculations used to decide when easter was going to be. there are sooo many manuscripts of charts and tables to calculate this holiday and some of them were even drawn on hands (like this fun one)

in conclusion medieval science was weird and bad and strange but also a little underrated. anyway yea fun times

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the-fae-folk · 5 years ago

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(Root) where do you find all the information for this blog? Or least what are some of your best sources?

Ah, a good question. Most of my information comes from simply researching the subject of the Faerie Folk for a number of years. I have read Fairy Tales, Folklore, Mythology, and various works of Fiction which use Fae in their narratives. When I have time I intend to write several papers on the changes in Faerie Folklore over time and the effect that linguistics, the sciences, literature, and religion all had upon that Folklore (We’ll see if that ever really happens...). I don’t usually have all of my research on hand at every moment...but recently I’ve begun to keep a saved document with citations for texts and links to verifiable websites. Just in case someone asks this blog for sources. I can’t help you sort through the mire of conflicting mythology, regional stories, and cultural beliefs that makes up Faerie Folklore...but you can have the list of sources to help you start off with your research.

Kirk, Robert. The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies. 1691. Reprint, London: D. Nutt, 1893.

Wilby, Emma. “The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland.” Folklore, vol. 111, no. 2, 2000, pp. 283–305.

Vejvoda, Kathleen. “‘Too Much Knowledge of the Other World’: Women and Nineteenth-Century Irish Folktales.” Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 32, no. 1, 2004, pp. 41–61.

Nutt, Alfred. “Presidential Address. Britain and Folklore.” Folklore, vol. 10, no. 1, 1899, pp. 71–86.

Goodare, Julian. “The Cult of the Seely Wights in Scotland.” Folklore, vol. 123, no. 2, 2012, pp. 198–219.

Briggs, Katharine Mary (1976). "Euphemistic names for fairies". An Encyclopedia of Fairies. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 127. ISBN 0-394-73467-X.

Rossetti, Christina G, and Martin Ware. Goblin Market. London: V. Gollancz, 1980. Print.

Frazer J.G. (1983) Sympathetic Magic. In: The Golden Bough. Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Yeats, William Butler. “The Stolen Child.” Collected Classic Poems, Stevenson to Yeats, Jan. 2012, pp. 1–2.

Spenser, Edmund, Thomas P. Roche, and C P. O'Donnell. The Faerie Queene. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978. Print.

Gregory, Lady, and Finn MacCumhaill. Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of Tuatha de Danann and of the Fianna of Ireland. John Murray, 1905.

Howard, Marvin ElRoy. "" See ya na yon narrow road?": the search for Elfland in folklore of the Scottish border." (1996).

Campbell, John Gregorson. Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. J. MacLehose and sons, 1900.

Diane Purkiss, At The Bottom Of The Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, and Other Troublesome Things (2000)

Kready, Laura (1916). A Study of Fairy Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

“Trees in Mythology”. Mythencyclopedia.com. 2007-02-19. Retrieved 2014-05-11.

“‘The king o fairy with his rout’: Fairy Magic in the Literature of Late Medieval Britain–By Hannah Priest”. September 8, 2011.

Lenihan, Eddie and Green, Carolyn Eve (2004) Meeting The Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland. pp. 146–7 ISBN 1-58542-206-1.

https://tam-lin.org/stories/Thomas_the_Rhymer.html

Evans Wentz, W. Y. (1966, 1990) The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe Humanities Press ISBN 0-901072-51-6

De Jubainville, M. H. D'Arbois and Richard Irvine Best (1903). The Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology. Dublin Hodges, Figgis, and Company.

Keightley, Thomas. (1892) Fairy Mythology. London: George Bell & Sons, Retrieved from Project Gutenberg 15 October 2017

King James. Daemonologie. A Critical Edition. In Modern English. 2016.

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chosenrule · 5 years ago

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45, 14, 8!

Headcanon Meme ; Accepting @curenone

45. Superstitions or views on the occult?

Ohoho this one’s a fun one for the simple fact that I can sum it up with two things: first, that one vine that’s like ‘I’m going to do magic’ and the kid’s friend is like ‘Charles, it says talent show.’ Also just generally Shane from Buzzfeed Unsolved if I’m being honest. WHICH IS TO SAY: he is the exact opposite of superstitious, and frankly, occult things that cannot be measured and examined he takes as seriously as he does children’s programming.

Don’t get me wrong, he thinks it’s mildly interesting in a weird sort of way, but uh. Yeah, he just doesn’t vibe with things like that, as science often doesn’t. He’ll listen, sit politely, but if you ask him about his opinions on it, the kiddie gloves are coming off bc he can only really be nice about things up to a certain point. ( Read: if he feels like you’re willfully being stupid, as he absolutely will if you believe in something immeasurable, he’s going to throw the gauntlet at you. )

Now, I don’t have too much more to say about it bc mostly my brain just sort of dredged up little bits of Seph and the gang hunting ghosts, and Seph mocking them the entire time. So here, have some moments to imagine him in. Mainly bc he would.

( And I apologize bc the majority of what I’m getting from my muse is ‘no.’ )

14. Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.)

I swear to god I had something that I thought of right after this ask was sent, but it was long gone the moment I read this, so. There may or may not be another hc post upon the subject later if I can remember it. In any case, Sephiroth had a lot of food sensitivities in the years before Aeris and her mother were drug into the lab specifically bc a portion of his system wasn’t designed to break down nutrients from this planet, and thus responded negatively. Mind you, after the two aforementioned Cetra’s arrivals, a handful of other experiments were conducted on Sephiroth in the hopes of mutating his human half into Cetra DNA. The results didn’t work precisely as expected – Sephiroth even still never quite managed to speak to the planet – but if nothing else, it brought his genes closer to being native – bc make no mistake, he isn’t.

Much like how a mixed breed dog might take genes from one parent breed or the other, resulting in a mutt that might look and act no different than one purebred parent and not the other, while its siblings may have far different results, Sephiroth took more to Jenova’s DNA than he did to his birth parents’, leading to a child that v possibly might not exactly appear to be his parents’ under the microscope. Which is to say, he’s more alien than human. However, with the Cetra experiments, his genome was made about another 10% more terrestrial, ( sitting him at 75%ish not ) and a lot of his sensitivities to food disappeared. However, he can still only tolerate dairy in small amounts at a time.

On another note, though, I will also say that Sephiroth hasn’t actually suffered accident or battle-related injuries in his life; his skin is completely unmarred by scars, and the very uniform he wears, in the way he wears it, almost taunts opponents by leaving him bare, and yet still largely untouchable. ( And as a side effect, he’s only seen his own blood when it’s being drawn, which… Has probably happened a lot. So added to his war experience, he’s certainly not squeamish about blood – but, I think, should he for some reason see his blood in a setting where it’s not being intentionally extracted, he won’t respond too well to it. )

8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging

Mmm…. Frankly it feels rather uncomfortable for him most of his life; his life has never felt like his own, nor his decisions, and rebellion was severely punished. Thus, indulging rather feels like rebellion to him, and so it isn’t until he’s settled back into his own body again ( after AC ) that he edges close to doing so – mainly with fiction, as it serves no real purpose but indulging. Eventually, he may branch out some, but for the most part, he’s still deeply discomforted by approaching the boundaries set before whether he recognizes it or not. So he doesn’t.

Anyway, I suppose that makes his favourite fiction novels, doesn’t it

#curenone #return as heroes who have fought and conquered // asks.#nothing is so painful to the human mind as great and sudden change // headcanon.

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safety-net-did · 2 years ago

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So, here's what I get out of this. Ancient Piglins were the original Overworld people. Considering the grandiosity of the Ancient Cities as compared to the relatively basic Villages and Outposts (even mansions) I'm gonna put those together with the Bastions and Nether Fortresses. Which inclines me to include other non-'illager structures like the Strongholds, Desert Temples, and Mine Shafts. Large structures, heavily fortified and/or trapped, indications of worship, social activity, and resource gathering, of research and power.

Piglins discovered the Nether in their works, and started exploiting it. The Ruined Portals around may have once been near settlements long since eroded, to act add the main transportation and a way to move resources to the Overworld (while keeping out the dangerous Ghasts with their size).

IMO the appearance of (V/P)illagers would have been a threat to them. A new intelligence to contend with? And one so willing to do war with their own kind? Ones already harnessing the latent magic of the world to create Constructs* and become Invokers and Witches, to breed/create Ravagers, learning and growing at an alarming rate. Tbf, the 'illagers likely had the Piglin's history of science and magic to jumpstart their growth, but it still would have been a major threat. I imagine 'illagers as somewhat short-lived compared to Piglins. Like humans to dwarves, with Endermen the elf analogue for longevity (to use LotR timeliness for example's sake).

(*I refer to Iron Golems as Constructs out of respect for the Jewish community, who consistently call for Golems not to be treated as open mythology.)

Piglins developed the zombie plague originally to try and curb the 'illagers. They experimented on the Drowned populations, destroying their cities trying to turn them into a weapon. That's why zombies will return to being drowned, but Drowned don't become zombies.

Unfortunately, they lost control of it. It mutated. Maybe an 'illager figured out how to weaponize it? The under-igloo alchemy labs, testing how to cure the plague, could have turned up ways to transmit it to Piglins. What exactly happened is lost to time.

But now the Overworld is Not Safe. They evacuate to the Nether, likely hoping to figure shit out and go back eventually. Some stay in their cities and Fortresses, developing defenses like the Warden- an attempt to combine Piglin magics with 'illager Constructs. This doesn't go well. Piglins in the cities still get sick eventually, or are raided, and die out. The secrets of the Warden, and the powers of the Ancient Cities, get lost to time.

Over in the Nether, the plague seems to be somewhat nullified by the heat. It doesn't seem to become contagious there, though zombie Piglins can be there. They discover the connection between gold and health, and start revering it. The most powerful healers wear gold to signal their status. Thus the 'wearing gold makes them friendly to you'. The reasoning may have been lost to time, but the superstition remains.

With all that power and knowledge, I wouldn't be surprised if the Piglins in the Nether attempted to create a better weapon, one that couldn't contract the zombie plague. What better than a skeleton, already dead and so not able to be turned. But they could still be dusted with the disease, no? So they must be cleansed. So char them. Put them through the withering process so that they cannot contaminate the nether with the zombie plague. That's why you farm netherwart in your Fortresses, yeah? It's not exactly the greatest food supply.

But these new soldiers, these Wither(ed) Skeletons, they were more vicious than expected. Harder to control. Piglins develop a natural distrust of them, after enough incidents.

What is needed is a quicker fix, a Weapon of Mass Destruction that could wipe the 'illagers out, giving the Piglins a better chance at reclaiming the Overworld.

Enter some ill-fated necromancy, and you get The Wither. What should have marked The Beginning of a new age!

And oh, it did. But not a new era of Piglin Supremacy. Instead, the Wither War left them decimated. Their slim control of the Wither Skeletons was lost. The Bastions now become the hubs of Piglin life, Fortresses become forfeit to the Wither army.

It becomes the duty of the Piglins to destroy that which they wrought. They destroy what they can of the magic behind the Wither. Over time a point of stability is reached. Wither Skeletons still manifest, but they've reached a shaky stalemate.

Some would rather shirk that duty, find greener pastures to overtake. This is when they remember the End, a vast unexplored realm only just discovered before the Wars.

Piglins that go to the End realise this is not a world ripe for exploitation like the Nether. It is barren-- and also inhabited. It is dangerous to get to, needing to use the Overworld as a stepping stone to get to the Fortresses where they left the portals. Only the bravest, and most powerful, make the journey. The Nether is left with only a sparse population, those not as entrenched in the belief that Piglins Must Rule Again.

The peaceful Endermen don't immediately hate the Piglins. It's not until the Piglins have decimated the Dragon population to build ships and cities, that the Endermen finally have enough. Endermen are only peaceful because they are powerful. They've no need for the Ships or the Cities, so they sit abandoned to the sparse wildlife of The End. The end of the reign of Piglins.

Sure, there is still a sizable population in the Nether. But the natural dangers and low resources make living there an exercise in futility. Constant war is what destroyed their past, and it is only by working together they can maintain what they have. They become reactive traders. The history of their works corrodes, is forgotten. It's not useful information when you're day to day life is so difficult. When you're busy trying to keep your home safe you're not as concerned about libraries. They still fight Withers that arise, and the Skeletons that can give rise to it. They cannot afford more destruction as they eek out their life.

The Overworld is left alone. The powers of the Piglin are greatly destroyed or lost, leaving the 'illagers to their own devices in a world that is simultaneously more and less hostile than before. The Piglins are gone, but in their wake there are now Zombies.

The natural magics of the world still proliferate, and without the might of the great Piglin armies Skeletons, Creepers, Spiders, and more continue to increase in numbers.

The split between Villager and Pillager grows more defined, but their growth stalls out. Pillagers remain obsessed with the mythical powers that the Piglins had. They continue to dabble in magics beyond their understanding, corrupting them. The most corrupted lose their selves entirely, branching off and becoming Witches. They build grand halls of study(Mansions) where the most powerful can train. Without the populace to provide enough resources they continue to cannibalise their own by raiding Villages.

Meanwhile Villagers go the other route, attempting to learn all the skills and sciences, building trade routes. They continue the ancient practice of creating Constructs because the protection is still needed. They've long since forgotten why they were first created, and the fear of the Piglins. They learn the same lesson as the Piglins, that history matters little in the face of imminent destruction. Churches are built to maintain their culture, but survival matters more than accuracy.

Then, there is You. The player, a being out of place, out of time. You have the option of being friendly to those still capable of kindness-- the Villagers, the remaining Piglins, the Endermen.

The Villagers have no reason to despise you. You're a stranger, yes, but there cultures allow for wandering traders. And they have the Constructs that aren't triggered into action, so they'll give You a chance.

Piglins are more wary. Everything in the Nether is dangerous, and those not from the Nether could still carry the plague- an ill-remembered thing, but the lore of Gold as Safety remains.

The Endermen are an enigma. Long lived, not accustomed to interacting with others, they have esoteric rituals and boundaries. They've seen Empires rise and fall. They know the destruction that hostility can bring. So as long as You play by their rules, they've no quarrel with You.

But You have abilities none the others do. You can interpret magics long lost. You have the drive to discover, to create. Your inability to communicate doesn't hold You back from interacting. You don't stay dead.

Though You are alone in this world, You're able to mold it to your will. You are able to harness the powers without corruption. You are able to learn and develop technologies both forgotten and never known.

You are reminiscent of Drowned, of the Zombies they begat. Perhaps it is from them You spawned? Or perhaps the magics that underpin the whole world need releases, and without a major faction drawing on it something like You was bound to occur.

You have Power new to this world. Does that fill you with responsibility? Or dread?

Minecraft Piglins fuck me up. Like, they’re one of two/three seemingly sentient species, but there’s clearly something wrong with them.

They’ve got bastions throughout the nether, huge buildings that at one point were clearly lovingly constructed. Not only were these buildings functional (apartment complexes, hoglin stables), but they created art. Not just carvings, but music. Not even villagers have created music discs, only piglins. Piglins also had access to the overworld at some point, they have a number of items (carrots, water bottles, string, iron) that could only have been obtained from the Overworld.

But… something happened. At some point in the past, something happened, and Piglins lost the ability to maintain their buildings. The buildings fell into ruins, and even though the Piglins stayed with the ruins, they couldn’t salvage them. They just wander the broken hallways.

What happened? Well, we don’t know for sure. But… Piglins are afraid of Zombie Piglins. Even though Zombie Piglins won’t attack them, Piglins still try to get away from them. Despite this, Zombie Piglins don’t appear infectious. Piglins don’t even turn into them when they die. Instead, Piglins turn into Zombies when exposed to the Overworld. The Overworld infects them, and unlike Zombie Villagers, there is no cure.

It can’t have always been this way, Piglins would’ve needed to be able to access the Overworld at some point to get materials. But something went wrong. And here you are, exploring the ruins of a society and left wondering what happened. Or maybe more importantly, are you next?

#long post #Minecraft #headcanon #minecraft lore #piglins #don't mind me rambling #i got bit by a fun idea I needed to get down #I'm only casually into Minecraft so take my thoughts with salt

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christiankosmasmayer · 6 years ago

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Aeviternity, 2019 Installation views: mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien

Petrifying Well, 2019 Artificial rock, wood, plush toys, limestone, water, calcium carbonate, pump Aevum, 2019 Primeval Silene plants in vitro, Erlenmeyer flasks, culture medium, LED lights, cement, styrofoam, HD video

Fet-Mats, 2019 UV-durable print, acrylic paint, Alu-Dibond, frame

Christian Kosmas Mayer’s cross-media works and installations are based on detailed research into history and contemporary society. This is undertaken in order to critically reevaluate history and the present by placing evolutionary and natural phenomena into the framework of cultural history and science. Mayer’s work focuses on critical exploration of questions of archiving and conserving as deliberate acts that create history, shape the present, and point to the future. A starting point for this exhibition is the architecture of the mumok building, which looks like a dark block of stone or a mine, a theme which recurs several times in the exhibition. This is evident, for example, in the true story of a young miner from Falun in Sweden, which Mayer refers to. The miner was buried alive in an accident in 1670, and his body was recovered years later in 1719, preserved in an almost perfect condition. Through all these years, vitriolic water had stopped the processes of decay, and once brought to the surface the corpse quickly became as hard as stone. An old woman near the end of her life recognized the petrified man as her long-lost fiancé. This story was particularly interesting for authors of the German Romantic movement, who made it one of the best-known tales of their own time, with texts by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Achim v. Arnim, Johann Peter Hebel, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and others. In this exhibition, petrification is seen as a transformative process through which living materials can seem to overcome their own transience and oblivion, but paradoxically by paying with their own lives. Humankind has always been fascinated by this process, and thus attracted to petrifying springs. The natural phenomenon of petrification by water with high mineral content was used to petrify objects from everyday life over a period of months and years. The springs were originally seen as magical and bewitched places, associated with many different forms of superstition, and later they were amongst the first ever "global" tourist attractions in Victorian-age England. For his exhibition, Mayer will install an artificial petrifying spring inside mumok, which will cover a number of objects with a layer of stone during the period of the exhibition. Whether the objects underneath this stone will then be forgotten or preserved for the future, when archeologists may rediscover them, is left as an open question. In 2012 Russian scientists found the seeds of a plant some forty meters under the ground in Siberia, which had been stored by an Arctic squirrel in its burrow and had thereafter survived in the permafrost. Working in the laboratory, the scientists managed to grow a plant from the placenta of one of these seeds. As the successors of this plant living in the Arctic region today have seen evolutionary change, this is a case of the revival of a piece of the Ice Age that must have been considered forever lost. Mayer has succeeded in integrating this plant into his exhibition as a living organism—the first time it has left the Moscow laboratory. Today, when the permafrost is slowly thawing due to climate change, this plant seems like a premonition of future reanimations, with completely unpredictable effects. Combining nature, culture, and science, this exhibition tells a complex story about the metamorphosis of objects over time and about the transience of our own concepts and perspectives of the world. The objects and images in this exhibition are witnesses to the passing of time in a frozen moment, in which the usually schematically distinct ideas of past, present, and future, and of life and death, become fluid. We are now testing out limits that we could once hardly imagine, which is a sign of progress, improvement, and self-assurance, but also has the potential of causing new fragmentation and insecurity.

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showtunesdream · 6 years ago

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Halloween Playlist!

So my bestie’s (@amillionmilesaway00 ) ipod imploded and she lost her awesome Halloween playlist. Help us rebuild it by adding to the list below!

Addams Family Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ5IWRz78DY

Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQiUFZ5RDw

Black Swamp Village - the Speakeasies' Swing Band! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc5_S7z5RJk

Bones Bugalo - Gabriel Rios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfnHITVmHVg

Don’t Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClQcUyhoxTg

Frankenstein - Edgar Winter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juVZ1dbn_t0

Ghost Riders in the Sky – Vaughn Monroe (and others) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1TGV-KpM9I

Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe93CLbHjxQ

Grim Grinning Ghosts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSaqSVi--Ms

Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLYB9pvww2M

I Put A Spell on You – CCR (and others) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hvA0wWTIv4

It’s A Kind of Magic –Queen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TinyaeCxq50

Jack You’re Dead – Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A2h-S00ycM

Look Behind You - The Gaslight Troubadours (Feat. Professor Elemental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDQjQ6IhxgY

Love Potion No. 9 – The Searchers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36WVirpAieM

Magic Dance – Labyrinth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50E11RupbyM

Maneater - Hall & Oates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqy2N1jM2tU

Midnight – Swingrowers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKPD8jChw94

Monster Mash – Bobby Pickett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juR5-On2UYg

Riboflavin Flavored, Non Carbonated, Poly-Unsaturated Blood - Don Hinson & the Rigamorticians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekVvU66MvZA

Save My Soul - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5IEt63qOSI

Season of the Witch – Donovan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-YI50fGMMg

She Blinded Me With Science – Thomas Dolby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FIMvSp01C8

Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY

Spooks – Louis Armstrong and Gordon Jenkins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2ktbgrZc6Y

Spooky Dooky – Kid Kasino https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f4_p8yqHiQ

Spooky Scary Skeletons – The Living Tombstone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6-ZGAGcJrk

Superstition – Stevie Wonder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CFuCYNx-1g

That Old Black Magic – Glenn Miller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrV1IvbjNZc

The Greatest Invention - Peggy Suave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9crAB0NI9A

The Headless Horseman - Bing Crosby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfMu9RAvUXE

The Headless Horseman – Kid Kasino https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibs2aXMqTbU

The Man With the Hex - The Atomic Fireballs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UunvsU66B4Y

The Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL1ZH0Ke92A

They – Jem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k53NGe64RBU

This is Halloween - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGiYxCUAhks

Thriller - Michael Jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S91wQbYYX3Q

Union of the Snake – Duran Duran https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6p5Q6_JBes

Weird Science - Oingo Boingo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm-upHSP9KU

Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpYBT0XyvA

Witchcraft – Sinatra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFmNgiEgPoQ

Witchy Woman - The Eagles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLa0FAZbgjQ

With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm – The Kingston Trio (also recorded by Rudy Vallee and others in the 30’s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHLdH6Re51k

#halloween #halloween music #halloween playlist #halloween songs #halloween party #thriller #monster mash

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tonystarkbingo · 3 years ago

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TSB Mark V Roundup - Week 10!

Collaborator : LBibliophile Card Number: 5105 Square Filled: K4 - image: IM1 repulsor glove shattering glass Title: Debt Link: Tumblr Pairings: na Word Count: 0 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: self-sacrifice, atonement, Tony's Snap, graphic Summary: There is blood on his hands so he must atone | He can't see that the only blood left is his own.

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Collaborator : LBibliophile Card Number: 5105 Square Filled: A4 - Afterlife/ascension Title: Off the Edge of the World Link: Tumblr Pairings: Tony Stark & JARVIS Word Count: 100 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: Major character death (sort of), AI!Tony (also sort of), moodboard, drabble, dialogue-only Summary: Tony is dying, but perhaps it can be a beginning as well as an ending.

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Collaborator : deehellcat Card Number: 5018 Square Filled: T3 - science and magic Title: A Very Reliable Magic Link: AO3 Pairings: Tony and Happy, background Pepperony Word Count: 3229 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: Knitting, Five Year Gap, Science and Magic, Not Endgame Compliant, the Russos whomst, I still don’t know them, Socks, Baby clothes, Happy Hogan is a Good Bro Summary: Happy shares a hobby with Tony who, being Tony, takes it to new heights.

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Collaborator : tellmevarric Card Number: 5053 Square Filled: R5 - Mind control or brainwashing Title: The Glowstick Protocols Link: AO3 Pairings: Tony Stark & Bruce Banner Word Count: 1541 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: AU - Canon divergence, Not AOU compliant Summary: A conversation with Clint after the invasion results in Tony creating the Glowstick of Destiny Protocol. Combine the protocol with Tony's genius and a weregild gift from Thor and Ultron is finished before it ever gets a chance to live.

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Collaborator : PoliZ Card Number: 5025 Square Filled: Adopted - Constructed Reality/Framework (Adopted Sept Party) Title: Constructed Reality/Framework Link: AO3 Pairings: n/a Word Count: 400 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: Constructed Reality, Movie Retelling, Time Loop, POV Tony Stark Summary: As he slides into the Hum-vee after the Jericho demo, Tony feels like he’s done all this before.

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Collaborator : PoliZ Card Number: 5025 Square Filled: Adopted - KINK: Anal Sex (Adopted Aug Party) Title: The Invitation Link: AO3 Pairings: Pepper/Tony/Rhodey Word Count: 1638 Rating: Explicit Major Tags/Triggers: Threesome - F/M/M, Friends to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Oral Sex, Anal Fingering, Pegging, Spitroasting, Bisexual Tony Stark Summary: After the Avengers Tower open house, Jim is invited up to Tony and Pepper’s penthouse for a nightcap … and a little something more.

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Collaborator : Chel Card Number: 5012 Square Filled: K4 - Spy, secret agent, assassin, hit man Title: long story short (i survived) Link: AO3 Pairings: Tony/Bucky Word Count: 3480 Rating: Teen Major Tags/Triggers: N/a Summary: After the disastrous Dragon Hunt, Tony decides to grant Steve his blessing and fuck off from the Witcher’s life. Destiny, however, plants Tony in the path of another Witcher

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Collaborator : LBibliophile Card Number: 5015 Square Filled: S1 - Magic Title: Golden Avenger Link: AO3 Pairings: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, Tony Stark & DUM-E Word Count: 490 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: Midas-touch, panic attack, no bots were (permanently) harmed in the making of this fic Summary: The media likes to say that everything Tony Stark touches turns to gold. Tony knows the tale of King Midas, and he knows there are things far more important to him than mere metal. Magic decides to give him the lesson anyway.

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Collaborator : LBibliophile Card Number: 5015 Square Filled: T2 - Rhodey Title: Lucky Pebble Link: AO3 Pairings: Tony Stark & James Rhodes Word Count: 325 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: Superstition, IM1, ambush Summary: Tony is not superstitious, not really, but he still never travels without his lucky pebble... except once. It is a choice he could never regret.

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Collaborator : Adi Card Number: 5051 Square Filled: S1 - Kidnapped! Title: moments of beauty Link: AO3 Pairings: Bucky/Tony Word Count: 1097 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: None Summary: Tony gets kidnapped (sorta)

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Collaborator : camichats Card Number: 5037 Square Filled: A3 - Free Space Title: I'll Give You All I've Got To Give Link: AO3 Pairings: Tony Stark/Johnny Storm Word Count: 9359 Rating: Mature Major Tags/Triggers: None Summary: Johnny doesn't know what to do with his life. He's in college, but he's still stumbling around life blind. When Tony-- handsome, self-assured, and rich-- propositions Johnny, he figures why not. He hardly expects for it to change his life.

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Collaborator : iam93percentstardust Card Number: 5063 Square Filled: K5 - Nose Kiss Title: Tell Me a Story Chapter 5 Link: AO3 Pairings: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Word Count: 782 Rating: Gen Major Tags/Triggers: Past Child Abuse Summary: Tony grows up hearing bedtime stories, told to him by the people who love him. Now an adult, it's his turn to share his stories with his children.

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#tonystarkbingomarkv #tsbmarkv #tsb weekly roundup #tsb week 10 #tsb round 5

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thecrookedtower · 4 years ago

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11. The Final Lesson of Master Abarin-V, pre-campaign

[music for atmosphere]

Magic was outlawed in the land in the not-so-distant past, and while most places no longer burn mages at the stake for their arts, the hills and distant villages of many countries still hold superstition. My master, Abarin, always told me that the people would find their enlightenment in time, that they would see magic for what it was: a tool, not unlike the ones they used to plow their fields and mend their homesteads. He endeavored to teach them the merits of the arcane, and often spoke of an age of magic and knowledge. I still remember how his aging eyes would light up as he spoke of it, his wrinkled pulled by the wide smile that would spread across his face as he described his dreams.

My master was a man with a brilliant mind filled with ideals and purity. He had a command of magic that I can only hope to possess one day. I doubt a man of his character exists even twice in a century, and I was blessed to have him as my caretaker. He had but one flaw, which was his selflessness. In a better world, a kinder world, this trait would not have doomed him so. I studied each of his lessons fastidiously, and his last was by far the most potent.

We began with short trips into the village in the spring, Master Abarin sought to learn of the crops, buildings, and medicine in the village. He sought to anticipate their needs in the coming winter when the land would become far more inhospitable. People, he explained, were far more open to change when they needed it most. If we were to establish ourselves in this area, we would need to build trust in the community, and reveal our gifts when they were needed. We were to move in as common folk, he forbade me from using magic. It was for my safety, but he explained it would help us both learn the struggles of the common man if we solved problems as they did for some time.

The seasons passed painfully slowly, for I had not the patience or experience of my master. It seemed tedious to do everything by hand, but it did give me an appreciation of my master’s dream. The world could be made far easier with magic, for many arduous tasks could be replaced by its use. When winter came, we introduced the simplest of magic, mending broken tools, warming food, removing snow. The people were cautious at first, but they could not deny the things that brightened their lives during the dark and cold nights. We continued to introduce new spells, and soon the village was filled with candles that never snuffed out or burned you, wards to keep out beasts, and people with curious minds. Master Abarin was always seeking new ways to improve the lives of the people, to keep them safe, and to give them prosperity.

On the edge of town, there was a mine. It bore all manner of geological wonders and provided the town a source of wealth through the trading of its goods. However, it was notoriously dangerous. Frequent cave-ins and gas leaks caused many fatalities, but the work was too profitable to relinquish. Master Abarin had a solution, one that would protect the village while making use of the mine’s assets. If it could be automated by non-human workers, more effort could be spent on the expansion of commerce, and fewer lives would be lost. The cemetery was full of bodies that would work as hard as any man, and the mine provided the onyx to animate them.

He had been so sure that they would see reason, that they could look past their superstitions and accept all that this change would do for them! After all, they had welcomed other magics into their life, how much further of a stretch could this be? Master Abarin had underestimated their zealotry, their fear, and their fickleness. Perhaps he had been celebrated and thanked by the people of the village, but never truly trusted. Those in the local clergy whispered of his evils, the devilish nature of magic and science. This had been the chance to confirm their fears and prove to the others around them that my Master was no saint, but a twisted and heinous villain.

When he showed them how the undead might work their mines, the people merely fled in terror, or looked away in disgust. That night they dragged him from his bed and hauled him through the mud to the town square, where a pile of wood was waiting, the stake stabbing into the sky like some grim monument. The same people we kept warm during the winter held me back as they tied him up. The same men we’d helped patch their roofs poured oil on the logs. All those that had thanked us for how we’d bettered them, watched in a circle as they lit the pyre, and listened with eager ears to the clergy man’s poisonous words.

I wondered why he did not free himself or strike them down. He was certainly capable of it. I will never understand his restraint and inaction in that moment, for hadn’t the people proved themselves beyond learning or redemption? I broke free of those who held me, and I ran to him. I tried to wrest him from the fire, my eyes burning with smoke and tears as the flames scorched the skin on my hand. Yet, he only looked down at me with that same wrinkled smile and told me:

“Leave the world better than you found it. My time is done, but I can only imagine what you can accomplish in yours. Go, my apprentice, it is time for the next step of your journey.” His voice was ever calm, I wondered how he could stand to hold in the anguish and pain. How could he endure it all so peacefully? His next, and final word chills me even now.

“Leave.” Not a question, a command, the only time he had ever used magic on me against my will. I felt my body move on its own, as my legs carried me out of the village. I could only look back, and watch as the pyre burned higher, and as each of the eternal candles was snuffed out one by one through the streets.

The hearts of men are wicked, their minds small; this was the final lesson. If a man as gracious and kind as my master could not change them, they will not be swayed by good will. Fear is what grips the heart of man, it outstrips any reason or compassion. It is by fear and by power that I will leave this world better than I found it.

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iwillchangemymind · 4 years ago

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There have always been people with epilepsy. Since the dawn of time, epilepsy has affected millions of people, from beggars to kings. It is one of the oldest conditions of the human race.

The earliest references to epilepsy date back to the fifth millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia, where epileptic auras, generalized convulsions and other aspects of what these ancient people called “the falling sickness” were recorded with remarkably accurate descriptions.

Some ancient people thought epileptic seizures were caused by evil spirits or demons that had invaded a person’s body. Priests attempted to cure people with epilepsy by driving the demons out of them with magic and prayers. This superstition was challenged by ancient physicians like Atreya of India and later Hippocrates of Greece, both of whom recognized a seizure as a dysfunction of the brain and not a supernatural event.

Nevertheless, the superstitious interpretation of epilepsy persisted for centuries, and still exists in some parts of the world. Attitudes of past societies toward epilepsy have left a legacy of stigma and damaging misconceptions which still persist today. Many people with epilepsy continue to face fear, prejudice and discrimination in their everyday lives.

On the other hand, epileptic seizures have a power and symbolism which, historically, have suggested a relationship with creativity or unusual leadership abilities. Scholars have long been fascinated by evidence that prominent religious leaders, political leaders, philosophers, and many who achieved greatness in the arts and sciences suffered from epilepsy.

Aristotle was apparently the first to connect epilepsy and genius. His catalogue of “great epileptics” (which included Socrates) was added to during the Renaissance. Only people from Western culture were included, however. So strong was this tradition that even in the nineteenth century, when new names of “great epileptics” were added, they were rarely chosen from among people in other parts of the world. Working from this biased historical legacy, the famous people with epilepsy that we know about are primarily white males.

We know that epilepsy involves temporary bursts of excessive electrical activity in different locations in the brain, locations which house our bodily sensations and functions, as well as our memories and emotions. Psychiatrist Dr. David Bear states that the abnormal brain activity found in temporal lobe epilepsy can play a role in creative thinking and the making of art by uniting sensitivity, insight and sustained, critical attention.

According to Dr. Bear: “A temporal lobe focus in the superior individual may spark an extraordinary search for that entity we alternately call truth or beauty.”

Nowadays, modern medicine can diagnose Epilepsy far more accurately than in past centuries. However, many of the world’s most famous people are historically recorded as having had seizures. People with epilepsy have excelled in every area. What follows is a list of people who are responsible for changing civilization as we know it, all of whom are strongly suspected or known to have had epilepsy. It’s an impressive group.

AUTHORS:

Charles Dickens Dante Sir Walter Scott Lord Byron Alfred, Lord Tennyson Moliere Lewis Carroll Fyodor Dostoevsky Leo Tolstoy Gustave Flaubert Agatha Christie Truman Capote Edgar Allen Poe

RELIGIOUS LEADERS:

Saint Paul Joan of Arc Martin Luther Pope Pius IX

PHILOSOPHERS:

Socrates Aristotle Pythagoras

COMPOSERS:

Paganini Tchaikovsky Beethoven Handel George Gershwin Schumann

SPORTS FIGURES:

Tony Greig (Cricket) Terry Marsh (Boxer) Greg Walker (Baseball) Wally Lewis (Rugby) Paul Wade (Aussie Football) Allen Faneca (NFL) Chandra Gunn (Women’s Hockey) Bobby Jones (Basketball) Garry Howatt (NHL) Derek Morris (NHL)

MILITARY & POLITICAL LEADERS:

Alexander the Great Julius Caesar Hannibal King Louis XIII (France) King Charles V (Spain) Napolean Bonaparte Peter the Great Vladimir Lenin Theodore Roosevelt (U.S. President) James Madison (U.S.) President

PAINTERS:

Leonardo Da Vinci Vincent Van Gogh Michelangelo

ACTORS:

Michael Wilding Margaux Hemingway Richard Burton Danny Glover Bud Abbott Ward Bond

https://edmontonepilepsy.org/famous-people-with-epilepsy/

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 3 years ago

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dont you ever have fun and notice how quantum mechanics is beginning to draw the same conclusions that religion/mysticism/shamanism has presupposed for centuries?

How to tell everyone that you don’t understand the first thing about quantum mechanics without saying "I don't understand quantum mechanics."

Here is the “Professor Dave Explains” content on quantum mechanics.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfessorDaveExplains/search?query=quantum%20mechanics

Go watch it. All of it. I dare you. You should pay particular attention to this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQTWor_2nu4

People are lying to you, for money and/or status. And you believe them because you’re gullible, incurious and desperate for magic to be real.

Quantum mechanics describes the physical universe at the level of the smallest physical unit. It has literally nothing to do with supernatural bullshit, by definition of the word “supernatural.”

Also no. Because it hasn’t:

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Biblical_scientific_foreknowledge#Criteria_for_actual_foreknowledge

In order for a statement to be Biblical scientific foreknowledge, it must fit five criteria:

1. It must be correct. A statement cannot be scientific foreknowledge if it is incorrect, because the scientific method necessarily eschews incorrect data. 2. It must be in the Bible. A statement cannot be Biblical scientific foreknowledge if it isn't in the Bible, because the only possible source of Biblical scientific foreknowledge is the Bible. 3. It must be unambiguous. A statement cannot be scientific foreknowledge if it is ambiguous, both because science is necessarily precise and because ambiguity allows modern science to be shoehorned into ancient religion when none is present. 4. It must have been outside of contemporary knowledge. A statement cannot be scientific foreknowledge if it was already known, because this makes the "foreknowledge" into merely "knowledge" and makes divine intervention unnecessary. 5. It must have been outside of contemporary technology. A statement cannot be considered scientific foreknowledge if it was knowable with the technology of the time, because this makes divine intervention unnecessary.

This also applies to any other religion, or any other source of superstition, pseudoscience and woo nonsense you want to put forward.

It's also so unbelievably disrespectful to the scientists who have done the honest, hard work for centuries using actual methods of verification to eliminate superstition, bias, fallacies, poor conclusions, bad data, bad methods and exactly the kinds of problems your religions/mythicist/shamans rely upon. And to give you the luxury and comfort you take for granted today.

Including an expected lifespan that has been doubled only by science and medicine and only in the last hundred years or so. Your religions and mystics and shamans apparently couldn’t figure that out. Science did. Medicine did.

And you would give the credit to frauds, con artists and grifters. Unbelievable.

Science must account for all data. Where does your religion, mythicism and shamanism account for or explain their “misses”? Their assumptions that the Earth is flat, that the sun goes around the Earth, that souls exist, that a conscious force is required to make everything exist or go about its course

You sit there smug as can be because you squint at ancient superstitious nonsense and think it sounds like your superficial and poor understanding of actual scientific principles, while ignoring all the time they got it wrong.

This is called Confirmation Bias. It’s a cognitive flaw, and your ramble hinges entirely upon it.

Have the intellectual integrity to go back and read every line of your superstitious texts and accounts. You need to resolve every statement, or else admit you’re a cherry-picking science-denying hypocrite.

dont you think that our human science is too small to grasp the whole of the universe?

Literally the Argument from Ignorance and the God of the Gaps argument.

Thank you for letting us know that your gods and magic only exist within your own ignorance of the world. Your gods and magic are a shrinking gods and magic.

We will undoubtedly never understand everything about the universe. Simply because we are a finite, mortal species that arose long after our world and the universe, and we’re 13 billion years behind. But this doesn’t mean you get to slip your superstitions and baseless nonsense in like a vibrating buttplug, just to make yourself feel better about not knowing.

You demand that science must know everything perfectly, yet you expect nothing but palliatives from your superstitions.

Answers must actually answer. Explanations must actually explain. Resorting to “gods/magic” doesn’t actually answer or explain, and you think that we can’t tell what you’re doing.

So, unless you can provide the specific verifiable mechanisms, properties and qualities for how your religion/mythicism/shamans solve this gap in our (well, your) knowledge, then you’re dishonestly trying to solve a mystery with an even greater mystery that is even more unsolvable than the first.

Science depends on new ways of thinking and collecting evidence. Radiation, relativity, gravity as spacetime distortions. If you had anything worthwhile to offer, you would be able to show the scientific endeavour how to solve these gaps in human knowledge. You would demonstrate the mechanisms, how they work, how they’re reliable and replicable. You would earn a Nobel Prize and revolutionize the world.

But you won’t. Because you have nothing. Because you don’t care about truth, validity, accuracy, substantiation. Only about pandering to your primitive, useless superstitions.

“Throughout history ever mystery ever solved turned out to be NOT magic.”

-- Tim Michin

Gods and magic have a zero percent record of success. Literally, zero. With such an appalling track record in mind, it seems clear that this has nothing whatsoever to do with science refusing an untapped source of “knowledge” (that doesn’t answer, explain, or predict).

Rather, it’s about you needing to pretend you have a depth and insightfulness you don’t have, that you know something everybody else does not, when you don’t. And can’t.

presupposed

By the way, “presupposed” by definition means that they had no basis for their conclusions in the first place. They started with the “answer”/conclusion and just assumed it was the case without any basis, evidence or reason.

Which means that even if they were “right”, they guessed.

What you’re arguing is the exact same thing as a lottery winner saying that they “knew” their numbers would come up.

By choosing the word “presupposed,” we can comfortably ignore your claims as readily as the lottery winner. You’re telling us explicitly that there is no useful process, method or epistemology to be offered by “religion/mysticism/shamanism”

these are rhetorical btw

Not when what you say is patently false.

Non-belief, like facts, like science, starts from a neutral position and works forwards, rather than presupposing or beginning from someone’s preferred conclusion or belief and working backwards.

Which is why religions and ideologies that aren’t true ignore, attempt to discredit, or try to subsume its processes.

#stupid people #science denial #science deniers #superstitious nonsense #superstition #woo #pseudoscience #reality denial #confirmation bias #god of the gaps #argument from ignorance #religion #mysticism #religion is a mental illness #quantum mechanics #quantum mysticism #quantum woo

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tipsycad147 · 5 years ago

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Mirror Gazing (Scrying)

Written and compiled by George Knowles

Since time began, man has been fascinated by his reflected image as seen in the still waters of woodland lakes, pools and rivers. Among primitive peoples superstition was rife, and seeing their image reflected in water may have been like catching a glimpse of their souls, for it was widely believed that the soul existed separate from the body. Others may have found themselves gazing through a portal into the spirit realm, there communicating with departed loved ones or gaining insights into future events. However, these same woodland lakes and pools were also known haunts of fairy folks and nature spirits, sometimes friendly, but sometimes hostile, and likely to snatch at human reflection to capture the souls of the unwary. Little wonder then that anything reflecting images was regarded as magical.

The Mirror of Venus by Burne-Jones

Ancient prophets, soothsayers and oracles initially used bowls filled with water in which to scry and divine answers to questions about past, present and future events. Later, highly polished stones such as beryl, crystal and quartz were used for similar purposes. The first man-made mirrors used in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome were commonly made of sheeted metal (pewter, copper, tin, bronze or silver etc.) and flattened into rounded disks to which handles were applied. Some had decorative designs inscribed on the back, but the face would have been highly polished and reflective.

In the Middle Ages when it became possible to make glass, crude hand held glass mirrors were made backed with thin layers of metal such as tin and lead. Later during the 16th century, better quality mirrors were produced in Murano, Venice (Italy), the backs of which were covered with an amalgam of tin and mercury (normally 75% tin to 25% mercury). In 1836 a German chemist called ‘Justus von Liebig’ developed the process of coating a glass surface with metallic silver, a process that is still used today. By the end of the 17th century plate glass was developed, and the use of large stationary mirrors became commonplace household features.

Legends, Myths and Folklore

Dr. John Dee (1527 – 1608)

Dr. John Dee was a famous Alchemist, Mathematician, Astronomer; he was also an adviser to Queen Elizabeth I on matters pertaining to science and astrology, as such, he was commonly referred to as “the last royal magician”. A serious academic, some thought him to be the most learned man in the whole of Europe. He was fascinated by all things occult, and was an adept in Hermetic and Cabbalistic philosophy. Dee had a particular interest in divination, and spent much of his later life experimenting with different methods in his efforts to communicate with Angels. From 1583 onward, Dee worked with Edward Kelly using both a black obsidian mirror and a crystal ball to see visions of ‘Angels’. Allegedly they communicated by pointing to squares containing letters and symbols that Dee had transcribed.

John Dee’s black obsidian mirror and crystal ball

This is the mirror together with a small smoky quartz crystal ball used by Dee and Kelly for their occult research. These are now on display at the British Museum in London. The mirror is made of highly polished obsidian (volcanic glass) and was one of many objects brought back to Europe after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish conquistador Hernán (Ferdinand) Cortés. Obsidian was sacred to Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec “Sky God” associated with Kings, Warriors and Sorcerers, and whose name can be translated as “Smoking Mirror”. The Aztec priests used mirrors for divination and conjuring up visions.

The case along side it was especially made to fit the mirror, it has a paper label written by the English antiquary Sir Horace Walpole who acquired the mirror in 1771 stating: “The Black Stone into which Dr Dee used to call his spirits...” and added later: “Kelly was Dr Dee’s associate and is mentioned with this very stone in “Hudibras” (a satirical poem by Samuel Butler, first published in 1664) Part 2. Canto 3 v. 631. Kelly did all his feats upon The Devil’s Looking glass, a Stone".

Archimedes

In one of the many legends of Greece, the mathematician Archimedes (287-212 BC) invented giant mirrors that were used to reflect the rays of the Sun onto Roman warships during the battle of Syracuse in 212 B.C.

Wall painting from the Stanzino delle Matematiche in the Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence, Italy). Painted by Giulio Parigi - 1599-1600.

“At last in an incredible manner he (Archimedes) burned up the whole Roman fleet. For by tilting a kind of mirror toward the sun he concentrated the sun's beam upon it; and owing to the thickness and smoothness of the mirror he ignited the air from this beam and kindled a great flame, the whole of which he directed upon the ships that lay at anchor in the path of the fire, until he consumed them all.”

(The above description is from Dio's Roman History - Translated by Earnest Cary, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1914)

Narcissus

In Greek mythology Narcissus was a handsome young man whose beautiful good looks claimed the love of all the women who met him, but he continually rejected their advances. One day while hunting in the woods he came upon a clear pool of water and stopped to take a drink from it. Mirrors were almost unknown in those times, but when he bent down to drink from the water, he saw what he thought was another young man. Amazingly the young man seems to be alive and responding, for when Narcissus smiled, so did he. The young man was so incredibly beautiful that Narcissus immediately fell in love with him, but when he bent forward to kiss him, just when their lips should have touched, the young man’s image blurred and rippled and all he got was a mouthful of water.

Narcissus by John William Waterhouse (1903)

Eventually Narcissus realised it was his own reflection in the water, but he could not bear to pull himself away. As he continued to gaze longingly at himself, he gradually pined away and died. At the place where his body had lain now grows a beautiful flower, a Narcissus, nodding its head over its own reflection in a pool.

Perseus and Medusa of the Gorgons

In Greek mythology, the Gorgons (daughters of the sea god Phorcys and his wife Ceto) were three monstrous sisters called: Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. They were dragon-like creatures covered with scales, had wings, claws, enormous teeth and snakes replicating hair. They lived on the farthest side of the western ocean, shunned and feared because a single direct glance at one of them could turn a person to stone. Of the three, only Medusa was mortal and could be killed, a feat that was achieved by the hero Perseus (son of Zeus).

Perseus, with the aid of a sword given to him by Hermes and a highly polished shield given to him by Athena, by watching Medusa’s reflection in the shield, was able to cut off her head without directly looking at her. The severed head, however, still had the power to turn a person into stone if it was looked upon. Legend has it that Perseus gave the severed head to Athena who used it to turn Atlas into stone. This stone became known as the Atlas Mountains that now hold up the heaven and earth.

Medusa painted by Caravaggio 1596-1597

Other legends about mirrors and scrying include the Goddess Hathor, who carried a shield that could reflect back all things in their true light. Nostradamus is believed to have used a small bowl of water as a scrying tool into which he gazed and received images of future events. And who can forget the magic mirror featured in the Disney folktale classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when the wicked Queen immortalized the question “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”

Making a Scrying Mirror

All types and sizes of mirrors can be used for scrying, but commonly round or oval mirrors seem to be preferred. Old mirrors seem to work better than new mirrors, and more particularly those encased in a silver frame. Silver is generally associated with the moon, and while scrying can be practised at any time, best results are often gained in the quiet of night during a full or new moon.

Many people find it easier to scry using a black or obsidian mirror, the dark depth of a black mirror being more conducive to inducing visions. Obsidian is a black or dark-coloured volcanic lava rock, chemically similar to granite, but formed by cooling rapidly on the Earth’s surface at low pressure. The glassy texture of the rock is the result of its rapid cooling, which inhibits the growth of crystals.

Obsidian was highly valued by the early civilisations of Mexico, who used it for making sharp-edged tools, ritual and ceremonial sculptures, and polished mirrors similar to the one owned by Dr. John Dee above. Sadly, the ancient method of mining, grinding and smoothing obsidian into reflective mirrors was a long and drawn-out process, and so true obsidian mirrors, particularly old ones, are now quite expensive. However, given modern techniques and the demand created in the contemporary market, new obsidian mirrors can be obtained from most modern occult shops who stock them in a range of sizes at competitive prices.

Here’s an old mirror and stand I found at a car boot sale recently. I then purchased a new black obsidian mirror slate from an occult store in Glastonbury and collected all the bits and pieces needed to transform and create my own magick mirror.

An alternative to using obsidian is to make your own ‘black’ mirror. If you have an old silver picture frame lying around the home, simply take out the glass, clean it being careful to remove any marks, finger prints or blemishes, then paint the back of it black. Matt black paint tends to work better than gloss paint, as does black enamel or car spray paint. You may need to give the glass a few coats of paint to cover it properly, but allow each coat to dry thoroughly before adding the next. Also try to leave a smooth finish without streaks or runs.

Having rubbed down the mirror frame with fine sandpaper and sprayed it with black satin paint, I decided to decorate the boarder with appropriate directional and elemental stones. North is Malachite representing Earth, East is Citrine representing Air, South is Tigers Eye representing Fire, and West is Lapis Lazuli representing Water. Replacing the silver backed mirror glass into the frame, I then centralised and bonded the black obsidian slate to it leaving a silver rim around the black mirror...

Another good idea is to use the curved glass face of an old clock and paint the convex side black; you will of course need to make a suitable frame to mount it on. Antique shops are a good source for old clocks, and who knows, you could also find an antique silver frame on which to mount it. Frames can be as plain or as ornate as you like; you may even wish to personalise or decorate it with meaningful stones, gems or sigils. Remember the mirror will also need some method of standing-up on your altar or table, ideally at a shallow or adjustable angle. Some picture frames have a leg on the back for this purpose, or alternatively you could use a display stand similar to those used for collector plates.

... and the end result is my own Magick Mirror.

Before using your mirror, as with all magickal tools, it needs to be cleansed of all previous associations and negative energies, then dedicated and charged with your own energy. It is up to you how simple or elaborate you wish to make this process, but most people do it inside a properly consecrated circle. Once your circle is formed and quarters called, a simple dedication might go something like this:

“Into this sacred space I bring this mirror, here to be cleansed and dedicated to my service”. Face each direction in turn and call on its associated element with these or similar words (start with North - Earth): “By the spirits of the North and the powers of the Earth, I purify and dedicate this mirror” (repeat the same with the other directions: East - Air, South – Fire, and West - Water). Next you may wish to call whatever deities you are working with for their blessing, saying: Goddess/God (or deity names), bless this mirror, let it be a tool I use for positive purposes. Guard and watch over the works that come from it, and ensure no harm can ever be caused by it. In thy name Goddess/God I dedicate this mirror to my service. So Mote It Be!”

Mirror Gazing (Scrying)

The art of mirror gazing (scrying) is called Catoptromancy, a term that refers to the use of reflective surfaces for the purposes of divination. Scrying mirrors can be used to make contact with spirit guides, to access knowledge for healing and self-improvement, or to define the past, predict the present, and perceive the future. As a portal into other realms, it can also be used to aid astral travel, and during ritual to communicate with deity.

Scrying can be practised at any time, but best results are often gained in the quiet of night after the hustle and bustle of the day’s activities. It is not necessary to construct a fully consecrated circle for scrying; it is enough to simply create your sacred space by visualising a circle of white light surrounding and purifying the appointed working area. In a quiet darkened room, place your mirror on a table or altar with a dark cloth beneath it. Light a candle, one on each side of the mirror, but in such a position they don’t reflect on the mirror’s surface, and if you wish, burn an appropriate blend of incense to stimulate the psychic senses. Switch off all other light sources except for the two candles, and seat yourself comfortably in front of the mirror. Take a few minutes to relax while you tune into the atmosphere created. When ready to start, first ground and center yourself then call your guides or guardians to protect the work from unwanted or misleading influences.

To begin, when looking at the mirror try not to just stare at it, but look through its surface as if gazing into a dark and endless tunnel. After awhile, images and colours will begin to take form, they may even appear and take shape outside the mirror surrounding it on all sides. When you first start scrying be patient, keeping your first sessions to about 10 - 30 minutes, and gradually work it up to hour-long sessions as you learn. The art of scrying is interpreting what you see in the images and colours as they take form. This in a way it is a little like dream interpretation, and initially you may wish to consult one of the many books on the subject to help define the images you see. At the end of the day however, the real interpretation will be what those images mean to you personally.

After you have completed your scrying session, re-ground yourself and close your sacred space. You may wish to keep a journal and note down any visions you received during your session and later compare them with a list of dream interpretations. The more you practice, the more familiar the images and their meanings will become, but you may need to meditate on them for awhile to reveal any hidden meanings.

In conclusion, there are many differing ways and methods of scrying in addition to the one above, so it pays to experiment and use what works best for you. Whatever tool or method you use, be it your own personalised mirror, a crystal ball, or simply a bowl of coloured water; it can with time and patience become a font of wisdom and knowledge. As Ostara, the Spring Equinox approaches, a time of fresh beginnings, who knows what future truths can be divined??? Believe in your abilities and may you find what you seek.

End

https://www.controverscial.com/Mirror%20Gazing.htm

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lazaefair · 8 years ago

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ask meme thingy

Tagged by @erebones, hi!

A - AGE: 29

B - BIGGEST FEAR: Death...but also public failure.

C - CURRENT TIME: 8:55pm CST

D - DRINK YOU LAST HAD: Water. Last non-water drink: chai tea latte (I cannot get enough of the little buggers)

E - EVERY MORNING STARTS WITH: Going to the bathroom and surfing Facebook and Tumblr while on the toilet because I am weak.

F - FAVORITE SONG: Too many to list - it depends on my mood. If I had to pick, I’d say the song that I could play with the most repetitions before I got tired of it is Ghostwriter - RJD2 (feel free to play this as you continue to read) - I just adore that percussion-and-guitar groove.

youtube

G - GHOSTS ARE THEY REAL: Probably not as they are defined by human religion and human superstition. There might be something going on outside our universe or involving Quantum that our science hasn’t caught up to yet, but like I said, it’s probably different from what we imagine them to be.

I - IN LOVE WITH: What is love?

K - KILLED SOMEONE: I certainly wouldn’t admit it in a Tumblr quiz, what kind of question is this?

L - LAST TIME YOU CRIED: I would like to say it was during the devastating finale of Logan, but no, it was during the somewhat less devastating scene in Beauty and the Beast when the servants said good-bye to each other.

M - MIDDLE NAME: Bessie

N - NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: One.

O - ONE WISH: Something to deal with my executive dysfunction.

P - PERSON YOU LAST TEXTED/CALLED: My friend about the engagement photoshoot I’m doing for her.

Q - QUESTIONS YOU ARE ALWAYS ASKED: Where are you from, or all variations on the “I can tell you are some sort of Asian so I am going to ask you about it now” question.

R - REASONS TO SMILE: Hot chocolate.

S - SONG LAST SANG: Something made up, to the dog.

T - TIME YOU WOKE UP: 6:30...but didn’t get out of bed until 6:52

U - UNDERWEAR COLOUR: Pink and lacy.

V - VACATION DESTINATION: Currently, England. Once I’ve got that off my bucket list, China.

W - WORST HABIT: Procrastination.

X - X-RAYS YOU HAVE HAD: Just teeth. My dentist said I had “awesome bone structure” last time I went.

Y - YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD: Jiaozi

Z - ZODIAC SIGN: Rabbit.

Tagging: @lagren0uille, @dark-magic-waves, @roguewen

#life #lazaefair #ask meme #food tw

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kalleri-blog · 8 years ago

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the bible has it seven deadly sins, but the most sinister sins are the ones that actually are embedded into life. the ones that are around us everyday and have a face to pair the visual with the name. and these, are the seven social sins: wealth without work. pleasure without conscience. knowledge without character. commerce without morality. science without humanity. worship without sacrifice. politics without principle.

i. wealth without work. i come from a relatively well-off family. everyone’s basic needs are met with enough left over to indulge ourselves in benefits here and there, but i also work for my earnings. i meet deadlines, work with clients, and do my best to satisfy their needs. that’s how i support myself. so how is it fair for someone to be able to sit around and receive benefits without any actual effort? it’s not fair.

ii. pleasure without conscience. i myself am guilty of this. i embody the qualities of greed and envy, and at times seek after what i want without fully considering the consequences of my actions or how it will affect others. have i ever ruined something for you? stolen something from you? because if so, i’m not sorry. there are things i need to do, my inner sinner coils around my soul.

iii. knowledge without character. this is described as dangerous. quite frankly i don’t know if i agree with that or not, or disagree. it seems judgmental, which is ironic for the girl who is equally as judgmental herself to state such a belief. i don’t think a character can be built until knowledge is properly nurtured. violence and disrespect can’t be disregarded until knowledge grows. or maybe this is my lack of character speaking, who knows.

iv. commerce without morality. personally, i know how to operate myself. i know how to give decent business logistics and i do not use unethical methods to sway people in the wrong. i think there are far too many people in the world who do this, cheat the system to their own benefits. i am confident, call it cocky if you must, to know my work is the best so why scam for more benefits?

v. science without humanity. science date backs to so many centuries ago it is impossible for it to exist or thrive without the accompany of humanity, but there’s a limit to that, science is simply like a second era. the world was based off of superstition and terms of magic, religion, and so on. i am chrisitan, and do believe that without the acceptance of a god we would all be nothing. there would be nothing.

vi. worship without sacrifice. this is the sin that catches my heart the most. i lack sacrifice, yet ask for so much in return. i never think of it much or wonder if it is improper to be this way, because quite frankly i see nothing wrong with how i act. after all it’s others own choice to sacrifice for me, right? it’s not like i’m being cruel if they take it on themselves.

vii. politics without principle. i was never one to be intensely involved in politics, i always roll my eyes at the news and updates whether it’s national or global. personally, i think it’s all a bunch of bullshit and that no one ever really knows what they are advocating for or about.

#notepad.

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