#so important to our identity as natives

[solangelotus]

to everyone who draws piper mclean with beaded earrings: i love you

[irawhiti]

while everyone's rightfully talking about oppenheimer and its flaws regarding the erasure of japanese and native american voices regarding nuclear testing and detonations, i'd like to bring up the fact that pacific islanders have also been severely impacted by nuclear testing under the pacific proving grounds, a name given by the US to a number of sites in the pacific that were designated for testing nuclear weapons after the second world war, at least 318 of which were dropped on our ancestral homes and people. i would like if more people talked about this.

important sections are bolded for ease of reading. i would appreciate this being reblogged since it's a bit alarming how few people know about this.

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in 1946, the indigenous peoples of pikinni (the bikini atoll) were forcibly relocated off of their islands so that nuclear tests could be run on the atoll. at least 23 nuclear bombs were detonated on this inhabited island chain, including 20 hydrogen bombs. many pasifika were irreversibly irradiated, all of them were starved during multiple forced relocations, and the island chain is still unsafe to live on despite multiple cleanup attempts. there are several craters visible from space that were left on the atoll from nuclear testing.

the forced relocation was to several different small and previously uninhabited islands over several decades, none of which were able to sustain traditional lifestyles which directly lead to further starvation and loss of culture and identity. there is a reason that pacific islanders choose specific islands to inhabit including access to fresh water, food, shelter, cloth and fibre, climate, etc. and obviously none of these reasons were taken into account during the displacements.

200 pikinni were eventually moved back to the atoll in the 1970s but dangerous levels of strontium-90 were found in drinking water in 1978 and the inhabitants were found to have abnormally high levels of caesium-137 in their bodies.

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i'm going to put the rest of this post under a readmore to improve the chances of this being reblogged by the general public. i would recommend you read the entirety of the post since it really isn't long and goes into detail about, say, entire islands being fully, utterly destroyed. like, wiped off of the map. without exaggeration, entire islands were disintegrated.

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as i just mentioned, ānewetak (the eniwetok atoll) was bombed so violently that an entire island, āllokļap, was permanently and completely destroyed. an entire island. it's just GONE. the world's first hydrogen bomb was tested on this island. the crater is visibly larger than any of the islands next to it, more than a mile in diameter and roughly fifteen storeys deep. the hydrogen bomb released roughly 700 times the energy released during the bombing of hiroshima. this would, of course, be later outdone by other hydrogen bombs dropped on the pacific, reaching over 1000 times the energy released.

one attempt to clean up the waste on ānewetak was the construction of a large ~380ft dome, colloquially known as the tomb, on runit island. the island has been essentially turned into a nuclear waste dump where several other islands of ānewetak have moved irradiated soil to and, due to climate change, rising seawater is beginning to seep into the dome, causing nuclear waste to leak out. along with this, if a large typhoon were to hit the dome, there would be a catastrophic failure followed by a leak of nuclear waste into the surrounding land, drinking water, and ocean. the tomb was built haphazardly and quickly to cut costs.

hey, though, there's a plus side! the water in the lagoon and the soil surrounding the tomb is far more radioactive than the currently contained radioactive waste. a typhoon wouldn't cause (much) worse irradiation than the locals and ocean already currently experience, anyway! it's already gone to shit! and who cares, right, the only ""concern"" is that it will just further poison the drinking water of the locals with radioactive materials. this can just be handwaved off as a nonissue, i guess. /s

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at least 36 bombs were detonated in the general vicinity of kiritimati (christmas island) and johnson atoll. while johnson atoll has seemingly never been inhabited by polynesians, kiritimati was used intermittently by polynesians (and later on, micronesians) for several hundred years. many islands in the pacific were inhabited seasonally and likewise many pacific islanders should be classified as nomadic but it has always been convenient for the goal of white supremacy and imperalism to claim that semi-inhabited areas are completely uninhabited, claimable pieces of terra nullius.

regardless of the current lack of inhabitants on these islands, the nuclear detonations have caused widespread ecological damage to otherwise delicate island ecosystems and have further spread nuclear fallout across the entirety of the pacific ocean.

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while the marshall islands, micronesia, and the surrounding areas of melanesia and polynesia were (and still are) by far the worst affected by these atrocities, the entirety of the pacific has been irradiated to some extent due to ocean/wind currents freely spreading nuclear fallout through the water and air. all in all, at least 318 nuclear bombs were detonated across the pacific. i say "at least" because these are just the events that have been declassified and frankly? i wouldn't be shocked to find out they didn't stop there.

please don't leave the atomic destruction of the pacific out of this conversation. we've been displaced, irradiated, murdered, poisoned, and otherwise mass exterminated by nuclear testing on purpose and we are still suffering because of it. many of us have radiation poisoning, many of us have no safe ancestral home anymore. i cannot fucking state this enough, ISLANDS WERE DISINTEGRATED INTO NONEXISTENCE.

look, this isn't blaming people for not talking about us or knowing the extent of these issues, but it's... insidiously ironic that i haven't seen a single post that even mentions pacific islanders in a conversation about indigenous voices/voices of colour being ignored when it comes to nuclear tests and the devastation they've caused.

[headspace-hotel]

I agree with the idea that a lot of humans nowadays have a severe lack of curiosity about the world, but I think there has to be a solution other than shame.

I think about this every day because the fate of our world hangs on curiosity: either we will rediscover the importance and wonders of the soil and bugs and flowers and water and finally with the whole natural world, or this way will be forgotten.

People raised in the great wasteland of the suburbs and roads and buildings have never seen most of the plants and creatures that are supposed to fill every field and meadow. So many humans have never seen with their own eyes more than a scant few of the most common of hundreds of wildflowers that are supposed to surround them. Some live in biomes designated forest and have never witnessed truly mature trees. They do not know what the birds sound like. When they see an ordinary deer, they are awed and amazed by it or even afraid of it. They have never eaten any of the delicious wild fruits that grow in their homeland; all birds except starlings and robins and sparrows are so strange and beautiful that they stare in wonder. They confront insects like people on an alien planet encountering an unknown life form: What is this? Will it hurt me?

I cannot even describe the grief I feel on behalf of humans that grow up and live in the wasteland of pavement and lawn. That we are expected to live in these brutal environments, that we are expected to be content without the right or ability to live alongside living creatures, to walk among wildflowers, to hear birdsong, to feel the plush softness of moss, to see even common bees and butterflies—the fact that we live, work, and raise our children in poisonous wastes where nearly everything has been wiped out, and the simplest and most abundant of natural pleasures are rare privileges—it's cruel. It's a crime against the human spirit. It makes me so angry and sad.

When I started researching plants, I had no idea that I would end up expanding my mind so much that I would be virtually a different person within the year. Before I learned, I could not have imagined the diversity and beauty that exists in the world. My mind did not have the tools to come up with it.

I lived for over twenty years believing that there was only one species of firefly. I lived for over twenty years not knowing that the Southeastern US has native bamboo. I had never tasted the indescribable flavor of a pawpaw or seen the iridescent vibrance of a red-spotted purple butterfly. I had only seen a Pileated Woodpecker out the window of a car. I had never touched true topsoil, the soft, living blanket of rich, sweet-smelling earth full of mycelium, as springy and plush as a mattress. Just one year ago, I knew nothing!

Humans, as creatures, are insatiably curious and hunger for beauty. It is so cruel to deprive a human of relationship with their natural environment.

It is no wonder that we are all addicted to the internet—we have a crucial need that is unfulfilled. Compared with a forest, the world of lawns and buildings is so ridiculously flat and unstimulating. You would expect humans in such a place to feel constantly bored, restless, frustrated, and incurably sad.

I feel that lack of curiosity can be a chosen thing, but it is also a defense mechanism against a world that will feel like sandpaper on the senses of the curious.

But we need curiosity to fix this—we need the ability to notice the living things that have crept in at the edges of the wasteland and be infected and tormented by their beauty. We need to recognize the forest reaching into our cage in the form of tiny saplings. We need to discard the word "weed," not because it is derogatory because it is fundamentally incurious—it designates a plant as needing no identity outside of its unwantedness. We must learn their names. We must wonder what their names are.

[jewishvitya]

hi riki! this is a bizarre question ngl, but im wondering if you could please tell me about why you are anti-Zionist? Since i have FRESHLY (last month!! Woohoo!!) become bat mitzvah, and I’m not going to beit Sefer every week now, I’m starting to realize that what I was told about Israel and zionism miiiight be innacurate. Please feel free not to, but I would personally feel more comfortable hearing about Antizionism from somebody who is for sure not hiding any antisemitic biases. Thanks and I hope it’s not a bother!

Mazal tov!

I was debating if I should reply to this and how. You're only one year older than my son and I never considered talking about this with a kid other than my own children. But if you're online reading and looking up information about this, I'll just answer the way I would for anyone. Like I said, I don't mind explaining. But I don't have the energy to collect sources for you. I'll do that later if you'd like. For now it'll be a bit of a rant.

Basically, if you ask different people what zionism is, you'll get different answers. Some people say that zionism is just the acknowledgement of our connection to this land. That's not what I'm going against. I'm not denying that this is our ancestral homeland. I've never known a different home, I grew up near Hebron. Our history means everything to me. So maybe you could create some definition of zionism that I wouldn't be against. But then I'll be against the use of the word because in practice, politically, the movement has been colonialist. And that reality is more important to me. So when I say I'm antizionist, I'm not talking about whatever pretty idea someone might have, I'm talking about things that to me are very concrete.

Zionism uses whatever political terminology is useful to it at the time. Currently, it tries to paint itself as a sort of landback movement, placing us as the indigenous population of this land. This is a distraction. If you mean "indigenous" as "this is where we originated" - both us and Palestinians are indigenous, which makes this term pointless to this situation. If you mean "indigenous" as "a local population facing colonization" - they're indigenous and we're the colonizers. That's the more politically useful distinction.

And the thing is, zionists knew they were colonizers. Ben Gurion was welcomed by the local population and expressed hope that they're nomadic and could be persuaded to leave. Ze'ev Jabotinsky argued that no land has been colonized with the consent of its natives, so we should just take what we want like other occupying forces did. They knew what they were doing. At the time, there wasn't the broad political pushback against colonialism that you see today, so they didn't really hide it. They saw themselves as the colonizing force and the Palestinians as the natives and this distinction had them placing themselves above the Palestinians.

When I was in school, I was made to believe that Palestine was never truly a country and the population here was never a cohesive nation. You might see questions like "Who were the Palestinian prime ministers and presidents? What was the Palestinian coin? What Palestinian wars were there before the creation of Israel?"

These questions tell you nothing other than the fact that Palestine has been under foreign occupation for a very long time. They try to lead you to believe that Palestine and the Palestinian identity are fictional constructs designed to deny us our place in this land.

But Palestinians have their own dialect of Arabic. They have their own varieties of Middle Eastern foods. They have their own clothing, their own embroidery patterns, their own dances. They have a very rich culture that wasn't just made up from nothing within the last century. I still have to battle against cognitive dissonance every time I find something of the sort, because Palestinian culture goes against everything I was taught.

The truth is, the British had no right to occupy Palestine, and they had no right to offer it to us. If we pretend there was no population that was wronged when we took Israel, we can be "the good guys" with Palestinians being a sinister plot to ruin us. This turns normal families, normal people, into a conspiracy made to hurt us. We're not fighting a military force - every Palestinian person is a threat to our legitimacy. Israelis don't even really use the term "Palestinians" - they're just Arabs, their individual identity is stripped from them. We pretend that they belong to other countries around us.

Israeli propaganda will tell you that we only ever act in self defense. It's in the name of our military, it's called a defense force. Israel boasts that it has the only ethical military in the world. The only defensive one. But like I said, we define threats very broadly. And we whitewash a lot of history. I was taught in school all our fighting was defensive - and then I spoke to an elderly man and he said "of course we killed whole villages, it was war, that's what you do." Only as an adult I found out about things like the Sabra and Shatila massacre and our involvement in it.

For the existence of Israel as an ethnostate, every Palestinian is a threat. A lot of people are all in favor of Israel, but against the government actions of ethnic cleansing. The truth is, the ethnostate is not sustainable without the ethnic cleansing. You can't accept one and expect it not to lead to the other. An ethnostate is never a justified goal, and that's always been the goal of zionism as a practical movement.

And I know why this exists. We've had two millennia of persecution. Antisemitism is one of the oldest forms of bigotry. And we just experienced an attempt to industrially exterminate us, we lost millions, including from my own family. We want shelter and safety and the ability to defend ourselves. I just can't see that as justification for what we did and continue to do.

You can look up our human rights abuses, but personally, there were moments that hit me. When I saw a whole warehouse of mail intended to reach Gaza, mail that's been kept from them for years, including items like wheelchairs, in such bad conditions that some envelopes got moldy. I still think of the people who spent all that money to get a wheelchair and were prevented mobility because we decided to hold their mail.

I watched the biggest apartment building in Gaza collapse under our bombs and I cried thinking about the people inside, and about the potential survivors and everything they lost.

I watched our people beat up the pallbearers at the funeral of Shireen Abu-Akleh, a Palestinian reporter. They almost dropped the casket from all those beatings. They were no threat. They just carried her. There was no reason to hurt them.

On the news, after Shireen Abu-Akleh died, the description of the Palestinian response to her death was that they're "חוגגים על המוות." The literal translation is that they're celebrating over the death, but that's not what it means. The meaning is that they're exaggerating their pain and their grief. They're acting, pretending, milking the injustice of it for show. And that's a common Israeli narrative, that Palestinians make a big deal out of things and pretend to suffer more just to make us look bad. We've dehumanized them to the point where we don't believe their grief.

And before all of this, growing up, I saw what the "us vs them" mentality caused in children. I grew up in Kiryat Arba and the population there is very strongly zionist. It's a settlement. It's largely Dati Leumi (national religious? I'm not sure how to translate, dati means religious and leumi means national). Over there I saw children as young as six cheerfully talk about joining the military and killing Arabs. I saw a kid throwing chocolate past the electric fence separating us from them, and laughing when a small Palestinian child went looking for that chocolate, calling her a pig. I saw my high school classmates questioning if they should help the family of a six-months-old baby, first demanding to know if the sick infant is Arab.

The Israeli left has a bit of a slogan. הכיבוש משחית. The occupation corrupts. It means that being an oppressive force changes what we are. It ruins us. And I truly believe that. It taints so much about us and our culture, about our compassion and our ability to have solidarity with other humans. Many principles that kept us safe in diaspora are used now to harm gentiles living under our control, and Palestinians suffer most of all.

So these are the reasons I'm antizionist. I hate what we do to Palestinians. I hate what it does to us. And more fundamentally, I'm against colonialism.

[matan4il]

Judaism is a native religion and identity, so like all indigenous religions, it has ALWAYS sanctified the bond between the tribe and its ancestral land:

* Jews, no matter where around the world we are, pray in the direction of the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem.

* Israel, Jerusalem, and Zion are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible hundreds of times, often in connection to the importance of the bond between the land and the Jewish people.

* The Hebrew calendar and Jewish holidays are based on the agricultural year as experienced in the Land of Israel. For example, we celebrate Shavu'ot, the Jewish festival of the harvest, during the Hebrew month of Sivan, which is roughly around the Gregorian month of June. In Australia, June is the rainiest month of the year, with severe temperature drops, absolutely not the right time for the harvest. But Australian Jews still celebrate Shavu'ot at the same time as all other Jews, around June. Because we ALL honor and preserve the agricultural cycle of our ancestors in Israel.

* Many Jewish prayers express a desire to return to Israel, for example with the phrase, "Next year in Jerusalem."

Here's a greeting card, drawn at Linz, a Nazi concentration camp in Austria, which was turned into a DP (displaced persons) camp at the end of the war. The card features the above three Hebrew words (you can see the freed prisoners of the camp on the left, heading towards a land with palm trees on the right, with one of the buildings having a Star of David on top):

* The holiest site for Jewish people in the entire world is the thousands of years old Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the Jewish temple stood, in Israel.

* Several Jewish holidays explicitly celebrate the Zionist notion, meaning the importance of the bond between the Jews and the Land of Israel. Hanukkah is a celebration of the native Jews fighting off the Greek occupying forces, and re-establishing Jewish sovereignty in Israel, and the freedom from religious persecution this allowed Jews, by re-dedicating the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem to Jewish worship, after it was defiled by the Greeks (including by re-lighting the Temple Menorah). Passover celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and the start of their journey back home, to their ancestral land in Israel, with the Passover meal ceremony including thanking God for bringing Jews back to Israel, and for building the Temple in Jerusalem for them.

* The language of the Jewish people is Hebrew, which is the last Canaanite language, the last of the languages spoken by the native peoples of Israel. Hebrew is specifically tied to the geography of Israel. For example, in the Bible, the Hebrew word for "west" is also the Hebrew word for "sea," because Israel's western border is the Mediterranean Sea. Similarly, the Hebrew word for "south" is also the Hebrew name of the desert that makes up the southern part of Israel, the Negev. Every Jewish language, which developed in the diaspora (such as Yiddish and Ladino), features words borrowed from Hebrew.

Here's an Israeli poster made in 1949, honoring "Sea Day" and featuring a part of a biblical verse (Genesis 28, verse 14): "And your seed shall be as the sand of the earth, and you will spread to the sea and to the east, to the north and to the Negev, and blessed in you and in your seed will be all the families of the Earth."

* Among the 613 Jewish mitzvahs, religious decrees that Jews must observe, one explicitly states that whenever possible, Jews should strive to live on their ancestral land in Israel. This is called in Hebrew, "mitzvat yishuv Eretz Yisrael."

* Among the 613 mitzvahs, there are 26 mitzvahs that can only be observed while living in the Land of Israel. These are called in Hebrew, "mitzvot ha'tluiot ba'aretz."

* Jewish homes have included for centuries a decorative piece hung on the eastern wall, and called "mizrach" (the Hebrew word for "east"), because that was the direction of Israel to most Jews. It usually included a biblical verse in Hebrew, often one that either mentions the east, Israel or Jerusalem, and also illustrations of Jerusalem or Israel.

Here's an 18th or 19th century mizrach from Germany:

* In Jewish synagogues, especially in Europe, the eastern wall was the most important one, because it was the one facing Israel. This wall was called, "kotel ha'mizrach" which means in Hebrew "the wall of the east."

* Oh, but the word "kotel" refers specifically to the walls of the Temple Mount. For example, the Western Wall, the only one of the Temple Mount's four walls accessible to Jews for centuries (and therefore the plaza in front of it became the second holiest place to Jews, after the Temple Mount itself) is called in Hebrew, "ha'kotel" (the wall). So why would a synagogue wall be referred to as "kotel" as well? Because every Jewish synagogue is called "mikdash me'at," a lesser temple. Every Jewish synagogue is a reminder and placeholder for the destroyed Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

* Accordingly, many Jewish synagogues feature reminders of the Beit Ha'Mikdash (the Hebrew Temple). For example, this holy ark, from a synagogue in Romania, which survived the Holocaust, and is today presented at Yad Vashem (Israel's national Holocaust museum), includes two pillars on its sides, a reminder of the Temple in Jerusalem's pillars believed to have been build by King Solomon. The holy ark's pillars are named exactly like the Temple's two pillars, Boaz and Yachin. This holy ark also features two hands, they're meant to be the high priest's, while he's performing the priestly blessing, an ancient Jewish ceremony that was conducted on the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem.

* In fact, over the centuries, one of the most prominent Jewish symbols is the menorah, which is a reflection of the candelabra eternally lit in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

The Temple Menorah being stolen by the occupying Romans, as seen on the Titus Arch in Rome:

The menorah as incorporated into jewelery, as a Jewish symbol, goes back thousands of years:

* For centuries, Jews created Jewish art and culture, which expressed Zionist longing. For example, the Sephardi doctor, philosopher and poet Rabbi Yehuda Ha'Levi writes what is maybe the most famous of the "Zion poems" while living in Islamic-occupied Spain: "My heart is in the East, and I am at the end of west / How shall I taste what I eat, and how should it be an enjoyable taste? / How shall I repay my vows and commitments, while / Zion is in the ropes of Edom, and I am in the bonds of Arabia? / It would be easy for me to leave all of the good of Spain, just like / It would be precious to me to witness the ashes of a ruined temple."

* In 1140, Rabbi Yehuda Ha'Levi finally fulfilled his wish, and boarded a ship for the Land of Israel. We don't know what happened to him, but the phrasing in a Hebrew letter, written by Jews who knew him, and found in Egypt, implies that he was murdered. For almost 2,000 years, it was dangerous for Jews to try and return to Israel, and it certainly wasn't possible on the scale of a national movement. Jews knew it was dangerous. And yet for centuries, despite that, individual Jews like Rabbi Yehuda Ha'Levi persisted in attempting this return. This is a part of Jewish history. It's not just that there was a small number of Jews, who managed to remain in Israel despite the repeated expulsions and massacres of Jews from our land, it's also that there was a small number of Jews who dared attempt the return to Israel continuously, over centuries, and neither of these things would have happened had Judaism not been Zionist. Always.

* For centuries, every Jewish wedding includes a part, where the groom recites an oath of loyalty and longing for Jerusalem. The text itself is taken from the Bible, from the second part of Psalms 137: "If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget itself, let my tongue be glued to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not raise Jerusalem at the height of my joy."

* For centuries, every Jewish wedding included a symbolic reminder of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and our ancestors' following expulsion from the Land of Israel, by breaking a cup made of glass.

* For centuries, many Jewish homes featured an unfinished patch, as a similar reminder. I'm a secular Jew, but my real life bestie is religious, and her house has a hole in the eastern wall, intentionally left there.

* In fact, the destruction of the Temple, and the following expulsion of the Jewish people from Israel, is SUCH a traumatic and significant event for the Jewish faith, that there is a religious national day of mourning every year, on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av (the date when Jews believe the first Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem by the Babylonian occupiers, and the second one, re-built after an expulsion and return of the Jews from Babylon to their native land, was destroyed by the Roman occupiers), when Jews fast.

* Ethiopian Jews, who were probably the most disconnected Jewish community along the centuries, have a special holiday, called Sigd. This name is derived from the Hebrew word for worship or prostration, "sgida." It features asking God to return them to Israel. Since the state of Israel has helped the Ethiopian Jewish community to return to this land, starting in 1982, it has become a part of Sigd to celebrate it specifically in Jerusalem.

The Ethiopian Jewish community celebrating Sigd in Jerusalem:

* In fact, the three major Jewish holidays, other than Yom Kippur, are also called "the three pilgrimages" ("shloshet ha'regalim"), because while the Temple stood in Jerusalem, they included all Jews coming there to celebrate the holiday together. These three holidays are Sukkot, Pesach (Passover) and Shavu'ot.

Here's a piece of art depicting Jews in antiquity, coming from all over Israel to the Temple in Jerusalem for sholoshet ha'regalim:

* The Hebrew Bible itself expresses the Jewish Zionist longing, the desire of the Jews to return to their ancestral land no matter what, after they were expelled by the Babylonians from Israel, the same desire that drove their return from their first exile, as recorded in the Bible, and supported by historical documents and archaeological finds. Here's the first part of Psalms 137:

Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, and we wept, as we remembered Zion. On willows there we hung our harps, because there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors for joy. "Sing to us from the song of Zion!" How shall we sing God's song on foreign soil?

and here's the craziest thing about this list: there's a good chance I forgot some stuff.

This is posted in honor of the first candle of Hanukkah tonight, and the many Tumblr antisemites, who distort Jewish identity and history by claiming Zionism is incompatible with or has nothing to do with Judaism, people who in the name of anti-Zionism celebrated the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, who ignore Jews pointing out that anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic, who prove it by going out of their way to deny Jewish native rights, and who think posting "Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish followers!" (as if Hanukkah isn't a Zionist holiday) covers up their antisemitism.

Happy Jewish sovereignty in Israel holiday to all who celebrate Hanukkah! I hope you really enjoy its foods! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[thecoiledserpent]

BASICS OF ASTROLOGY + FINDING THE DOMINANT PLANET

(APPLICABLE TO VEDIC CHARTS ONLY / APPLY AT WESTERN CHART AT YOUR OWN ACCORD, I DO NOT GUARANTEE ACCURATE RESUTLS)

in vedic astrology, we consider the traditional planets—sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter and saturn along with the nodes—north and south node to be the significant placements of a chart. we do not consider the outer planets, i.e. neptune, uranus and pluto as significant placements in a person's chart. this is because these are generational planets that remain in the same position for almost a human's entire life and do not influence a person's personality in any major way because generations of people are going to have the same particular placement.

following are a few important points about the planets you will need to properly analyze your vedic chart:

THE SUN / SURYA is your driving force, your life, your soul. it represents your ego. just as no life can exist on earth without the sun, no human can survive without an ego. even saints are driven towards moksha, or liberation. with a weak sun, a person will struggle with having a proper identity and will be unable to distinguish reality from illusions.

the sun is a 'sattvic'/ pure planet. in elements, it is fire. in gods, he is ravi / surya / the sun god & agni / the god of fire. in the zodiac, it is leo. in society, it is the king / ruler / president. in colors, it is red. in gems, it is ruby. in metals, it is copper. in the days, it is sunday / 'ravivaar'. in the body, it is bones ( particularly the spine ), the heart, stomach and the right eye. in items, it is saffron. in chants, it is HREEM.

your father represents your sun. bad relationship with father = bad sun, and vice versa.

the sun is sensitive to malefic planets, although it is generally susceptible to energies, as well.

the presence of rahu / ketu will irrevocably damage the sun. it forms an eclipse, leaving negative impact on the natives life and personality.

the house which your sun rules will be a house with a strong impact on your life purpose, regardless of other factors.

strong sun in good dignity = good eyesight, pleasant demeanour, good confidence, attractive aura, authoritative qualities, able to take a stand, comfortable in solitude.

strong sun in bad dignity = overconfidence, stubbornness, disregard towards other people, dictator like behavior, weak heart.

weak sun = weak eyes / higher susceptibility to eye problems, low confidence, lack of strong opinions, damaged relationship with father, lack of groundedness in reality.

THE MOON / SOMA / CHANDRA is your mind. quite literally. our brain is protected by cerebrospinal fluids and all fluids are under the domain of the moon, hence directly affecting your brain. the moon is the most important planet in the vedic chart. this is because so long as we are human, we are driven by our mind. although the soul (the sun) is the ultimate truth, as flesh and blood we cannot connect with our soul. our mind is what drives us in the mortal realm; the soul takes the backseat. the moon sign / nakshatra depending upon context, just as the sun in tropical astrology, is going to be what we're referring to when mentioning 'rashi' / sign.

the moon is a 'sattvic'/ pure planet and sits in the company of the sun, mars and jupiter. in elements, it is water. in gods, he is soma / chandra / the moon god. in the zodiac, it is cancer. in society, it is the queen / healer ( not alleopathic medical practicers or surgeons. only ayurveda practicers / psychiatrists / therapists). in colors, it is white and pale blue. in gems, it is pearl. in metals, it is silver. in the days, it is monday / 'somvaar'. in the body, it is the brain, fluid matter, and the womb. in items, it is food / nourishment. in chants, it is SHREEM.

your mother represents your sun. bad relationship with mother = bad moon, and vice versa.

it is noteworthy to mention that the correlation here is the strongest of all other planetary associations. if you hurt your mother, neglect her, disrespect her or abandon her, no matter however might her behavior towards you be, your moon will be completely destroyed. even if you have a bad relationship with father you can still fix your sun, but there's no way you can fix your moon if you have a bad relationship with your mother.

the moon is sensitive to malefic planets, although it is generally susceptible to energies, as well.

the presence of rahu / ketu will irrevocably damage the moon. it forms an eclipse, leaving negative impact on the natives life and personality.

aspects to / from / with the moon are case specific and i will not generalize anything. although, in general -

weak moon = mood swings, emotional turbulence, mental problems, weak aura, lack of appeal.

strong moon = good focus, strongly opinionated, has mother's support, will have more traits from their mother's ancestral house.

MERCURY / BUDDHA is your intelligence, your speech, your mental capacity. note that where the moon rules over mental stability and the physical brain tself, mercury rules purely over your intelligence, the abstract part of the brain. mercury represents how well you can think, your grasping power. mercury also affects your beauty & fashion style, although in a more indirect way unlike like moon which is quite literally your beauty or venus which represents the external manifestation of one's inner self. in mythology, buddha is the son of chandra & tara (jupiter's wife)

mercury is a 'rajasic'/ royal planet and sits in the company of venus and saturn. in elements, it is air. in gods, he is buddha / lord ganesha. in the zodiac, it is gemini & virgo. in nakshatras, it rules ashlesha, jyeshtha and revati. in society, it is the advisor / minister / doctor ( not surgeons ) / young girls. in colors, it is green. in gems, it is emerald. in metals, it is bronze. in the days, it is wednesday / 'budhvaar'. in the body, it is the nervous system, skin, face, and thyroid. in items, it is the pen.

your sister & maternal uncle represent your mercury. bad relationship with sister & uncle = bad mercury and vice versa.

the house which your mercury sits in will dictate the way your mind thinks.

mercury is friends with venus, saturn, sun and rahu. it is neutral towards ketu, mars and jupiter. it is enemies with the moon.

weak mercury = bad body coordination, may have problems walking in a straight line or just bad hand eye coordination. speech problems, may be too hasty, too slow or stutter. unattractive physique if supported by a weak moon and venus. inability to make use of even the most precious things even when the native owns them, a weak mercury is a weak mind.

strong mercury = wide forehead (usually), fond of laughter, may like sweet meats, good at thinking and have a good approach towards analyzing situations.

VENUS / SHUKRA is your beauty, your desires, your external appearance, what pleases you and for a man, what kind of woman best brings you peace and success. in mythology, shukra is the guru / teacher of the demons and hence, a weak venus is a weak moral compass. for men, a weak venus if supported by the appropriate aspects from planets, may make you infertile.

venus is a 'राजस्व' / royal planet and sits in the company of the mercury and saturn. in elements, it is water. in gods, he is shukra / goddess laxmi. in the zodiac, it is taurus & pisces. in society, it is women / younger animals. in colors, it is white and pale pink. in gems, it is diamond. in metals, it is platinum. in the days, it is friday / 'shukravaar'. in the body, it is the reproductive system, lumbar region, veins, parathyroids, throat, kidneys, face, and cheeks. in items, it is money.

your wife / girlfriend / lover / significant women other than the mother represents your venus. bad relationship / mistreatment of wife / women = bad venus, and vice versa.

venus, just like mercury, is best at mixing energies with another planet. very rarely will it give negative results, even when sitting with rahu or ketu.

it is very important for men to respect the women in their life because women represent venus, and for men, venus not only controls your success and fame, but also your ability to reproduce. shukra controls the 'शुक्राणु' / the sperm. expanding on this topic i would also like to mention that people who masturbate a lot weaken their venus because orgasming is a form of releasing sacred pent up energy. this is why people who masturbate a lot have sunken eyes and are physically weaker.

additionally, i would like to mention that in vedic culture, it is advised not to sleep the first time with anyone randomly. the first person who makes you orgasm should be the wedded husband / wife. otherwise, the first orgasm is considered 'wasted'. ( don't come after my ass, do whatever you want i'm just giving information)

for women, it is highly advised to wear floral perfumes and engage in self care to strengthen your venus. venus also represents the bedroom, that's why it is considered a sacred place which should be accessible only to the husband and wife. the wife is the caretaker of this domain, and at the very least should engage in habits that keep the bedroom neat and clean. ( i do not mean to say that the wife should cook and clean or imposing any sexist roles on anyone. regardless, some things are a responsibility and should be done by a specific person. very crude indeed, but i would like to give an example- you won't have servants bathe you just because you're an independent woman, will you? it's like that. i'm not putting anyone at gunpoint here, you're your own master; nor am i supporting sexist gender roles. )

for unmarried women too, it is recommended to spray the bedroom with floral scents and wear white clothes and / or floral designs in clothes, jewelry or flowers themselves in their hair. although the last part isn't very practical. unmarried women should avoid criticizing other women or speaking ill of other's appearance. ( do avoid wearing scents at night though, it attracts negative spirits)

among all planets, venus is the most strongly affected by our day to day actions.

strong venus = good regulation of sexual energy, curvaceous bountiful body for women, healthy reproductive system in men, good hygiene, soft and polite speech, abundance of opportunities.

weak venus = harsh speech, lack of hygiene, disgraceful behavior, weak immune system.

MARS / MANGAL / KUJA is your courage, your energy, your drive, determination, passion and hope. when a human being is born, first the brain starts working, and then the intelligence develops. it is when we become fully conscious of ourselves and our surroundings that we develop a sense of passion and drive, all while the soul keeps watching the 'show' from behind the 'curtain'. mars is what gives life meaning. mars has direct correlation with the moon, because even violence stems from deep emotional turbulence. i have noticed that people with a strong moon but weak mars express even positive emotions very strongly. a weak mars will hinder how you interact with the world. where sun is the will, mars shows the way. sun gives rise to your purpose, and mars gives rise to desire. those two may or may not be the same, but without passion, life has no meaning whatsoever.

mars is a 'सात्त्विक' / pure planet and sits in the company of the sun, moon and jupiter. in elements, it is fire. in gods, he is mangal / lord hanuman. in the zodiac, it is aries and scorpio. in society, it is the soldier / surgeon. in colors, it is red. in gems, it is red coral. in metals, it is bronze. in the days, it is tuesday / 'मंगलवार'. in the body, it is the blood, muscles, bile, hands, genitals, rectum, adrenal, hemoglobin, prostrate gland and adrenaline. in items, it is the knife.

your brother & other prominent men in your life represent your mars. bad relationship with brother or these men = bad mars, and vice versa.

mars can be best managed by doing physical activities. dancing, sports, going for a walk are all activities that will recharge your mars.

weak mars = anger issues, violent behaviour / inclination towards violence or fear of fights / violence. bad expression of self. isses standing up for oneself, body will find it difficult to store and retain energy.

strong mars = bold, fiery and passionate. stubbornness and able to take a stand. will avoid figts until absolutely demanded. courageous but retains their wisdom even in anger. good regulation of excess energy or good at storing energy.

JUPITER / GURU is your knowledge, your moral compass, your 'luck' and your teacher. in terms of luck, jupiter is the planet to go to. thing is that although jupiter itself will not particularly affect the smaller niches of your personality like the sun, moon or asc will, but it will guide you throughout your life. in vedic mythology, jupiter is lord vishnu 'अनंत', 'सत्यानंद' , 'सत्यनारायण'. he is the supreme divine, the origin of life and the preserver of all that exists. he is endless, the only truth, and the guide of all. hence why in the vedic chart, a weak jupiter is considered extremely unfavourable regardless of other factors.

jupiter is a 'सात्त्विक' / pure planet and sits in the company of the sun, moon and mars. in elements, it is air. in gods, he is guru / lord vishnu. in the zodiac, it is sagittarius and pisces. in society, it is the teacher. in colors, it is yellow. in gems, it is yellow sapphire. in metals, it is gold. in the days, it is thursday / 'गुरुवार' . in the body, it is the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. in items, it is the book.

your teacher represents your jupiter. bad relationship with / disrespecting / troubling / viewing the teacher inappropriately = bad jupiter, and vice versa.

for women, jupiter represents the husband. although jupiter should hold more value to women just as a good venus does for men, i recommend strengthening your jupiter for both men and women. a bad jupiter will literally hinder all your success.

jupiter is a heavy planet and damages the house it is sitting in.

jupiter observes, and moulds the path forward based on what you do in the present. jupiter and saturn are the two planets that will never let your past deeds go in vain / be forgotten. the native will get what is due, in accordance with the houses or signs these planets are ruled by.

SATURN / SHANI is your struggles, the punishments you receive for bad karma, your hard work and your restrictions. most people relate saturn with past life karma, and that is only partially true. swyurn is the punishment you're receiving for your past life karma, but if you want to delve into your past .ife itself, then we majorly speak of rahu and ketu, in association with saturn and the ascendant.

maids, sweepers, poor people, disabled people represent your saturn. bad relationship / disrespecting them = bad saturn, and vice versa.

saturn will delay but never deny; it only gives you what you want when you come to terms with why you want it or why the universe should give it to you.

in vedic astrology, we associate to planets with bestowing riches; satrn and rahu. the thing with saturn is that it demands you to become someone who is worthy of receiving what you desire, and that is often a slow process so people dislike this planet. but without your saturn, you will never be able to achieve heights of character and nobility.

capricorn and aquarius are ruled by saturn.

i won't comment on how wek and strong saturn manifests since it's a bit tricky. but if you're certain you're facing problems due to saturn, then you may do the following remedies-

donate alms to beggars, offer food to dogs, respect and care for maids and sweepers, never criticize the difficulties of life. if you're a hindu, praying to lord shiva or lrd narasimha is greatly recommended. during the sadesati period, make it a point to chant the narasimha kavacham / hanuman chalisa for your physical safety.

you can learn about sadesati here.

RAHU is your greed, unjustified curiousity and the things you never managed to know or experience in your past life. although it is fairly antagonised, it is as much representative of your soul as your ketu. as they say, light does not exist without the dark. regardless, rahu is your greed and understanding it is key to understanding your shadow side. what your rahu desires is what you intrinsically are motivated by, whether or not you realise it. it is body less, and craves endlessly. a common remedy to reduce negative affects of rahu is to wear a silver chain around the neck; because rahu is without body and is kept at bay by silver.

rahu represents your paternal ancestors. disrespecting them weakens the rahu.

rahu represents the things you are irresistibly drawn to or have an almost insatiable affinity towards. these are things you didn't focus on in your previous lives, and so to balance the scales, you must now delve into those aspects of life, as well.

what is noteworthy about this though, is to remember than too much of everything is bad. delving too much into the themes of rahu is actually destructive, and this is the part of rahu that most people highlight. it's simply that balance is necessary, and without exploring what your soul desires, you won't be able to sit in peace.

the most important thing here is discipline, though. at the end of the day rahu is a shadow planet that feeds off your satvik gunas (positive qualities).

like i mentioned in saturn; rahu is also one of those planets that bestow massive wealth. businessmen / women often do rituals / remedies to reap the benefits of rahu.

KETU is your past life's karma (mine seems pretty bad since i have written this thing five times now and coincidentally it never displays😶) and your ancestry. it is the things you inherited from your ancestors and also who you were in your past life. ketu is the pathway to understanding one's spiritual nature. ketu is a headless planet. in it's mahadasha or antardasha, natives may find themselves doing things or making decisions they normally wouldn't because they are disillusioned by falsities.

ketu represents our maternal ancestors. speaking ill of them ruins our ketu.

ketu is the body of the demon svarbhanu, (you may read about the mythology behind rahu & ketu in vedic culture here; amazing article btw) and wields a sword in his hands; this sword is symbolic of ketu's importance in our lives. he is the force that cuts out attachments and punishes us for our bad deeds in our previous lives. this is why the punishments bestowed by ketu are difficult to understand.

truth be told, it is best to lower our heads and accept his punishments. this is one of the planet's on whom no remedy works. he aspires not only for you to rise from the mud, but also aims at helping you bloom into a lotus. he will break you, but just as a forest blooms after a fire, we too, must burn ourselves in the trials of life to become our best selves.

ketu also create illusions and causes dissatisfaction wherever it sits. this is unlike the nature of rahu which desires more of wherever it is sitting; ketu causes you to completely turn away from said thing. ketu is the outcast. it's energy is like a snake's; dangerous, but attractive nonetheless.

ketu dominant people, or people having ketu conjunct sun or moon within 10° are highly magnetic. they tend to devour other's energy. of course, it can manifest positively as well; but majorly these people create a lot of polarity wherever they go, attracting people to themselves with ease.

this also means that they are prone to the black eye. ketu dominant people try to be rational, but it's easy for them to get carried away. they should keep at least one well-wisher around themselves whom they can trust with their body and soul.

in your ketu md, or ad, make sure not to gamble with money, resources or people too much. this will be a time of less, regardless of how good ketu might be in your chart. and if it's weak, then it will cause intense emotional turmoil, depression, and in worst cases, even drive someone to insanity or suicide (debilitated moon with strong mars in low dignity supported with a weak sun)

no remedy exists for ketu. you can only pray to your god to protect your physical health and your soul and give you the strength to overcome difficulties. remember that ketu aims not to break you, but to teach you, and if you resist too much, then it will break you.

helpful resources (verified) you need not overwhelm yourself with information, it's just for help and you end up learning it along the way; no need to try to memorise it.

understanding mahadasha and antardasha.

reading the south indian, and north indian vedic chart, respectively. below it, basic info about the planets. note that, ketu is represented by the colour brown and rahu by deep blue as opposed to 'colourless'.

the significance of the houses, and their respective planets.

break down of the four main motivations of human life as depicted in vedic chart.

the aspects of the planets in vedic astrology. note that all planets have a default aspect of conjunction, which maximum works till 15°. also known as the 'drishti' / sight of planets.

the planets and the houses wherein they are strong / weak.

the various charts studied id vedic astrology. we majorly discuss D1 and D9 charts.

importance of the houses in D9 chart.

the 12 zodiac signs.

the 27 nakshatras (lunar mansions).

FINDING THE DOMINANT PLANET

DISCLAIMER : THE METHOD I HAVE USED BELOW IS SIMPLY BASED OFF GENERAL TRENDS AND IS NOT ANY CONVENTIONAL METHOD. I ALLOW ITS USE ON GROUNDS THAT INACCURACIES ARE NOT TO BE HELD AGAINST ME.

use the following trick for finding your dominant planet; the planet with the highest score is your dominant planet.

moon nakshatra lord [ +15 ]

moon sign lord [ +8 ]

asc nakshatra lord [ +10 ]

asc sign lord [ +10 ]

sun nakshatra lord [ +3 ]

sun sign lord [ +3 ]

planets in first house closely conjunct asc ( 10 degree max. ) [ +8 ]

planets in first house loosely conjunct asc ( any degree further than 10) [ +4 ]

planets in stellium conjunct moon [ +5 ]

planets in stellium conjunct sun [ +2 ]

in case it so happens that two planets are having the same score-

recheck your calculations

choose the planet of your moon sign lord / nakshatra lord out of the two

if none of these tips help and you're certainly not an idiot then you're welcome to send me your chart to help you determine your dominant planet. only send your vedic chart + nakshatras. i will not analyse anything else in the chart, though.

JAIMINI ASTROLOGY

i am not learnt in jaimini astrology and only understand understand the few basics which i might mention from time to time, so you may refer to this website to understand what atmakaraka and amatyakaraka are

CLOSING WORD : consider this to be the guidebook of all vedic astrology content that ill post on my blog. if there is any doubt, then please first refer to this post for information, and if you still don't find an answer to your question, then you're welcome to send it to me via ask. do remember that i will exercise freedom in which asks i shall answer and which ones i won't based on how precise the question you're asking is since i don't do personal readings.

[cuntyglam]

alien romulus, andy, racism, and why robots are autistic

this is an introspective into how the alien series treats artificial humans, also known as synthetics, and how sci-fi portrays androids in general. alien romulus spoilers under cut. written by a native autistic and disabled fan <3

andy from alien romulus is an artificial human that is constantly being seen as less because of his race (artificial human) and who often portrays autistic characteristics. these characteristics include an aversion to loud sounds, difficulty reading social cues, and a special interest in dad jokes.

his behavior is explained by him being a “damaged” artificial human, which is somewhat disappointing. it’s disappointing that these traits that so many of us autistic people have are considered flaws in the context of the movie.

his sister, who is human, takes him for granted and chooses her life over his, even though he shows emotions and was apart of her family. even though it isn’t outright stated, this kind of reminds me how sometimes we as autistic people are seen as a burden on our families, despite us being able to care for ourselves.

once andy gets rook’s chip inserted he becomes “better”. “better” motor skills, “better” intelligence, and “better” everything. but yet, he still portrays autistic characteristics. he doesn’t go from autistic to not autistic, he just starts displaying different autistic traits. he is very knowledgeable about tech, aliens, and the human body, while being very objective about what the right thing to do is. instead of being a very empathetic person, he is a very practical and calculating person, which i think is super interesting.

honestly, i think it would have been really interesting to see him be the sole survivor. to have him get his revenge on the sister that betrayed him and the world who bullied him for his raise and ability.

okay now to androids, synthetics, and robots as a whole. robots are seen as cold and emotionless, similarly to how autistic people are seen, so many ai and robot characters are autistic coded. robots don’t have compassion or empathy in the eyes of the general public, same as autistic people. many autistic people have reclaimed robot characters to represent us, and i think that’s fantastic !!

i specifically love artificial humans in the alien franchise because they showcase so much depth and empathy, while still displaying autistic traits. and beyond that, most of these artificial humans are enslaved by a corporation (weyland yutani), and despite direct programming from their oppressors, most artificial humans end up doing the right moral thing in the end, further proving their humanity. despite being technically non human, i genuinely think they’re good autistic representation. do i like the way that the characters around them treat them ? no. but i think that might be the point. the point is that these characters are ableist and racist and shouldn’t be considered morally correct. i think that the writers could convey this in a better way though.

okay. racism discussion time. several times throughout this series we encounter artificial humans, and almost every time they have to correct their peers on the right terminology to use for them. as a native person who has had to tell multiple people (coworkers, professors, etc.) not to call me an indian, this really stuck with me growing up, and i still think it’s interesting to this day. in alien: romulus andy’s sister uses “synthetic” to refer to him MULTIPLE TIMES, after he’s stated that he prefers artificial human. this is important, because even though he’s family she still does not fully understand what he goes through and she does not respect his identity or boundaries.

there are also multiple instances throughout the series where characters (our beloved ripley included) have prejudice against artificial humans because of bad experiences with artificial humans in the past. this causes human characters to attack and/or harass artificial humans who they have just met for no other reason than their race. in alien: romulus we see a character be hostile towards andy because another unrelated artificial human made a choice to save the many over the few, and his mother died. this is a choice that many humans would make and would not be blamed for. this reflects the real world, where people of color are blamed for almost every choice they make, while white folks can make the same choices and not be criticized.

in conclusion, i love the character of andy and i think him and the alien franchise as a whole is so interesting. let me know if you want a deep dive into the themes of sexual violence, birth, and motherhood in the alien series !! i’ve done a whole research paper on it, and my college admissions essay was about the alien queen, so i know quite a lot !! i hope this drives a lot more fans towards the alien fandom and i hope a bunch more merch comes out !! yippee !!

[makingspiritualityreal]

Moon in the Houses and What Your Mind has Adjusted To

Despite the Moon being such a basic placement in Astrology, it is still widely misunderstood and not taken for the role that it really plays in our charts. Luckily, Vedic Astrology gives us a better insight into the Moon's actual functioning, placing its importance as the number one placement to analyse when it comes to how the chart functions.

The Moon is the first thing to analyse in a chart because it is the basic mode of operation that we will use to exercise all of our planets. The Moon in a given house shows more precisely how our basic consciousness has adapted to the external world, based on the energies we received during our prime years of infancy. We are also born with individual karmas at the soul level that collide with our environment. As a result , the Moon becomes our subjective response to an equally subjective environmental pressure.

The Moon in Western Astrology is often confused with the Sun. However, the Moon is present with us our entire life and develops very early on. The Sun is our identity in the context of our immortal soul reflected in our mortal achievements in a given incarnation. That takes years to build up, and most of us don't really know what we're doing and what we are going towards until our so called mid-life crisis. That is why the classic Vedics start judging the Sun's performance in no earlier than our early 50s. The Moon, however, is like a filter that we approach the entirety of our life experience with, and so it appears the moment we ground into our body on this Earth and develop any human consciousness at all. Classic Vedic theory says the Moon is literally our mind, the Sun is our Soul's Earthly kingdom.

Naturally, planetary aspects will influence the state of the Moon and change its behavior in any given house. These aspects will show basic influences to our mind and ego, our knee-jerk reactions so to speak.

The Moon also has the unique quality of having no enemies and being malleable in nature. As a result, it is the most prone to planetary influences, for better or for worse. It becomes a malefic if it's conjunct with any malefic influence. The moon is a benefic if conjunct with a benefic planet. Phases of the Moon also have a lot to do with its nature. A person born on a Full Moon or close to it will naturally be more energetically abundant than someone born on a New Moon.

The Moon will naturally produce and provide if conjunct Mercury, Venus or Jupiter. The best conjunction for the Moon is Jupiter as these planets are mutually friendly. Venus and Mercury don't like the Moon, so while it's a benefic conjunction for the Moon itself, these other planets suffer as a result of Moon's presence, viewing it as a burden.

The Moon will automatically have to develop its character through struggle if conjunct Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu or Ketu. Sun, contrary to what pop astrology sources tell you, is a malefic, as it rules authority and burning away disobedience. When too close, it shames the Moon, and so does Saturn, another authority figure of a different kind. Rahu and Ketu give extreme biases in thinking to the Moon, making it unstable and lacking in perspective and objectivity. The "best" malefic for the Moon is Mars, as the two are friendly and give the native a goal oriented nature, if the conjunction is without further affliction. It is most easy to channel this conjunction productively as it busies itself turning challenge into an opportunity.

Moon in the 1st house represents the mind, that has grounded securely into a sense of self. Anything in the 1st house has a very strong influence on our sense of identity, as it is directly in line with the life karma of our Ascendant. As a result, even if one is not a spiritual person, they will be thinking strongly about the meaning of their life and their personal destiny. Since the mind grounds so surely in the self, there is a certain egoism and self interest present, and one may easily attract people's attention and support regardless, but also suffer blame for one's action.

Moon in the 2nd house gives the mind a pragmatic nature. They will take action based on where their interest is placed in a result of that action. They will root into what they perceive as their support system with unrelenting stubbornness, which can make them inflexible. However, if the Moon doesn't suffer from afflictions, they are also an excellent support system to others themselves, associating their sense of self with being a wellspring of stable nourishment.

Moon in the 3rd house is said to be the peak placement for the Moon. The reason for that is that the Moon here becomes very proactive. One's mind is adjusted naturally to making the most out of every day by creating the life they want from themselves through their own power and effort. As a result, this is someone who can go very far, because they know what they want and don't hesitate to get it. It results in peak productivity in life, whatever that means personally for the native, in a well oriented direction decided by the inner compass of one's happiness and achievement. Malefic influence can make it ruthless, but the good gains will still be there.

Moon in the 4th house is another placement where the moon feels very comfortable, as the mind is naturally attached to one's emotional idea of personal happiness and personal creativity. One is fundamentally synchronised with the landscape of their heart. One's mind basically exists to make one happy, which makes for a very balanced mental health perspective. If afflicted however, it can lead to self delusion, one telling themselves whatever they want to believe, choosing to think whatever is comfortable even if it loses all realism. This placement needs a serious reality check to compliment it, but has a lot of potential.

Moon in the 5th house is another peak of personal activity, where the mind attaches to going forward with one's personal ideas and sharing them with loved ones. The expression of personal identity here is strong and leads to creativity, but also to selfishness. This can be a mind that is used to having its own way and bossing people around if afflicted, yet they still manage to take everything personally. External self expression shines its light on others if it flows well here, but can become a detriment if not paired with self reflection.

Moon in the 6th house is a difficult point, as here the mind thrives on competition and constant problem solving. That can make them very successful in their goals, but can give a life full of stress and pressure if the Moon is afflicted. Afflictions also can result in an illusion of productivity, while in reality one gets nowhere with their efforts, but simply wants to feel like they're doing something even if it has no use. However, if strong that Moon is someone who doesn't mind getting their hands dirty performing confrontational tasks that make other people uncomfortable and their practical streak can be unmatched. It is one of the worst placements for one's peace of mind however, as they are inherently unable to relax, since the mind finds peace in conflict and problem solving. Doing physical tasks or working out to release excess energy is a must.

Moon in the 7th house is an energetic struggle, as here the Moon is the lowest energetically. The mind can be lethargic and clingy, as is fundamentally adapted to external companionship and serving their internal polar opposite and they can lack self awareness. Independence here is a struggle too, and if afflicted this Moon can make the mind treat people instrumentally for their own peace of mind. This Moon thrives in productive partnerships and finds its bliss over time in those, as they mature and develop with age.

Moon in the 8th house is said to be the lowest point of the Moon. The reason for that is that the 8th house is a point of stagnation and sorting out between what is true and not. It's the point of the highest pressure in the zodiac, which seeks for extreme release. As a result, the mind here is tormented, constantly in motion trying to let go of some burden and find something of value. If that is well placed, it can be excellent for goal setting, handling business and high pressure situations that come with success, if Jupiter helps this moon they can have a strong gift for speculation and being able to predict business tendencies. Think of a Christian Grey personality profile. If afflicted, there is a lack of clarity on what to do and what is valuable and important in one's life, and in situations in general, which leads to blundering, stagnation and serious personal losses, as one doesn't value what is good for one's happiness or a productive contribution, until they suffer a loss of it and see results by contrast, at which point it is too late. Turning to spirituality and meditation for clarity of mind and direction is necessary.

Moon in the 9th house makes for a mental adaptation to expansion, from any life situation, happy or painful. This is a mind that was taught to learn something from every experience, good or bad, and share that wisdom with others. That can be both theoretical and practical, depending on how the Moon is aspected. As a result, they grow into a natural teacher or guide, because they have an ability to process everything, both positive and negative, into a lesson through apt conclusions. The capacity for universalizing here is very powerful, as they turn even the most personal experiences into a parable, being able to see them through the lenses of emotional pattern recognition and fluidly turning them into conclusions. Once they get the opportunity to adapt their experience and talents into a successful day to day routine, they give a lot to the world.

Moon in the 10th house creates a native who very much can feel like a public property. Their personal desire is linked strictly to social contribution and having a practical daily schedule. The mind is attuned to routines and social involvement, more for the sake of order than personal fulfillment, making this a difficult place for the Moon as it can become a very impersonal placement of someone who "doesn't have a life". In reality, the mind here doesn't know what to do with one's personal life as they feel like their public life is their personal life, and if they establish any intimacy, it will be in that context. The mind naturally cares more about their image then the raw personal truth.

Moon in the 11th house gives a mind adapted to an extremely extroverted, goal oriented nature. This can be the kid that was always taken to several different extracurricular activities after school by their parents. As the 11th house is the height of Jupiter, there is an internal pressure for the height of achievement. Personal goals here always involve large scale contributions and social climbing in the context of social success. If the moon is in a good condition, it will make the native versatile and successful, if it suffers any afflictions it will create a feeling of extreme pressure and struggle with patience necessary to achieve one's goals.

Moon in the 12th house is a placement of a native whose mind naturally adapts to extreme sensitivity to one's environment and gives the ability to be in tune with the ebbs and flows of the entire universe. There is an inherent openness and a tendency to automatically create space for the energy for other people's vibrations. While it is a good and healing placement for the environment, it can be hard for the native itself. They can feel lost within themselves, not knowing how to self define and they tend to bend over backwards in front of others, not necessarily out of genuine caring but because they're only at peace when they make others feel good. It happens because due to their upbringing they were trained to find fulfillment in everything but their own selves. Meditation, spirituality and extreme boundaries are necessary for them to find any peace of mind, as their mind can't tolerate anything external that pollutes their energy field.

[kryovene]

the 12th house

loosely based on the twelve houses by howard sasportas & liz greene

surrender, the collective, returning to source, unity

the 12h has an ominous reputation, rightfully so. 12h themes are very difficult for most of us to deal with. the 12h is about our yearning for the safety of the womb, to be surrounded by everything and nothing, to be complete and whole. we suffer the trauma of separation to be born and struggle to find that unity for the rest of our lives. our ego and individuality directly conflicts with this emptiness we subconsciously (usually) want to fill.

we want to be connected and return to source. we want to be bigger than ourselves. but we also are very attached to our identity. this internal struggle especially affects 12h placements. love, sex, drugs, prayer, and power are common things used to deal with this urge of being connected or blurring boundaries.

attachment and identity

most of the things we associate with our identity are external. if we lost everything - family, friends, money, housing - we would still be a person. we do not lose our personhood in losing these external factors. so what is our identity then? what is deeper that is not dependent on our outer world? how much of our inner world is also dependent on our perception of our outer world? does our identity change in losing these things, or was that not our identity in the first place? in the moment of losing them what is your identity? how can it change immediately if identity takes time to develop?

the signs through the 12h

aries 12h brings an unpredictable nature when dealing with these themes. these natives may be unaware of where their urgency comes from.

taurus 12h may not be aware of their need for security. they may try many of the strategies mentioned above to figure out what's missing.

gemini 12h has a lot of mental energy that can be hard to organize. they may not even know what to attach to their identity, but don't feel fully connected to source either.

cancer 12h has a lot of emotional energy to work through. probably very nostalgic. may base their identity on others.

leo 12h has their ego very dominant. they may not know that how they react is because of pride and ego. leans to extremes by either sacrificing only the self or only others. likely to seek power/influence

virgo 12h is very sensitive to the hardships of the collective. They want to help and heal others but they may not know how to do so, and this can cause issues with the self.

libra 12h may struggle a lot with the injustices of the world. they struggle to find their place in it all. they want to do the right thing for others but it's hard for them to know how to do right by themselves.

scorpio 12h brings a lot of doubt around the idea of a universal "source". they want to believe in the universe and generally just want to have faith - but life can sometimes beat them down.

sagittarius 12h is no stranger to the pain of the collective, but they don't like to show it. they feel something there but they shift their focus to the self and put surviving first.

capricorn 12h brings a serious attitude to the conflict between source and self. they feel the world's pain and want to work to change it. this may sacrifice their personal attachments.

aquarius 12h understands the importance of being connected to source. however, others may not understand or see them as someone connected, so they may struggle to express their concerns. may be self-sacrificing

pisces 12h is easily influenced by others and may have a changing identity. their ways for coping with being away from source can vary a lot due to impulsivity. this energy is inconsistent and hard to describe

[starsworldd]

☉ Stelliums in houses☉

ᴘᴀʀᴛ 1!

ᴅɪꜱᴄʟᴀɪᴍᴇʀ: ɪ’ᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀɴ ᴀꜱᴛʀᴏʟᴏɢᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʀᴇꜱᴏɴᴀᴛᴇꜱ <3 ᴛʜᴇꜱᴇ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴘʀᴇᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴅɪꜰꜰᴇʀ ᴅᴇᴘᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴏɴ ᴀꜱᴘᴇᴄᴛꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘʟᴀɴᴇᴛꜱ ɪɴ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇꜱ ᴛᴏᴏ

stellium in 1st house:

✧˚ · . Throughout your life, there could be more of a spotlight on you. Developing your confidence and sense of direction in life could be prevelant themes. How will you take the reins of your own life? What defines your identity? Maybe how you appear to others could be prominent themes in your life too (insecurity/overconfidence). This could also influence your personality and developing certain traits about yourself too. While there is an emphasis on you, there could also be a lack of energy on your part when it comes to compromise and partnership with others (7th house).

stellium in 2nd house:

✧˚ · . There may be an emphasis on material comfort (this can be sensory too, like food, clothing, etc…), self-esteem, and even your body. The second house is succedent to its neighboring 1st angular house, meaning that the 2nd house supports themes regarding the 1st house. The second house shows us what things support our identities so maybe there’s an emphasis on your talents/skills throughout life too. Your life may tend to focus a lot on things that are within your comfort zone (2nd house), but you must also be willing to experience transformation and uncomfortable experiences in order to grow (8th house).

stellium in third house:

✧˚ · . Stelliums in this house can often indiciate someone who loves to write (songs, plays, poems, etc..). Maybe your someone who loves to learn about different topics and can be a lifelong student, as an example. A lot of your energy in life may be put into being out n about in your hometown (stores, malls, etc..) or meeting with different people, whether that be in person or over the internet since this house also represents the media. Maybe you have a passion for social media and content creation, or it played a significant role in your life. It’s important that you expand yourself by going beyond what’s in your immediate environment (3rd house) and expanding yourself through abroad travel and what is foreign to you (9th).

stellium in fourth house:

✧˚ · . Homebody. Lemme just start off with that hehe. But no, there’s more to that don’t worry. This is the house of emotional comforts and of the physical home + family. It’s all about where you came from and your origin story. A lot of your energy in life may be pulled internally, meaning that you want to focus on what emotionally fulfills you and what helps you feel safe and protected. Your family could play a big role in your life and maybe that’s where the majority of your energy is at too. Maybe you too also crave a solid foundation and/or a strong familial connection. You may want to focus on things that happen in your private life (4th), but it’s also important to build a name for yourself publicly and to go after your calling/vocation in life (10th).

stellium in 5th house:

✧˚ · . Some type of production is essential to your life. It can be your hobbies, like music, crafting, acting, etc.. or maybe children (whether they be your own or someone else’s) have a siginificant impact on your life. This house also represents romance and sex so those may also be important things to you in life. Stelliums in this house often demand attention, leisure and fun throughout the native’s life, and while that may be fortunate it’s important that you also don’t procrastinate too much and still keep up with your responsibilities. I often find that stelliums in this house indicate some sort of talent in the arts which are a big part of the native’s lives. While it’s important to cultivate creativity and fun for yourself (5th house) it’s also important to share that with others and/or to truly pursue your dreams/aspirations (11th house).

stellium in 6th house:

✧˚ · . A lot of people say that natives with a stellium in this house could work in industries that do with service (particularly doctors/nurses) or with animals. This house deals with themes of productivity, “practice makes perfect”, and habits. You might care a lot about your productivity and/or whether you are helpful to others. You could also be very health-oriented and care a lot of fitness or improving your physical state. This could be a rarer manifestation of this stellium in this house, but the 6th house also deals with open enemies (12th house = hidden people) which could be a part of your daily life. Your daily routine is very important to you and you may prefer to keep things tidy and neat. It’s important to focus on daily tasks and routines (6th house) but it is equally important to give yourself rest mentally and/or physically (12th house)

[elysiansparadise]

Dear Elysian, since your blog is so insightful, I hope you can help me out: What is the best way to deal with moon square moon synastry? I know so many Scorpio moons (I'm a Cancer rising with Scorpio 5th house) but my natal Leo moon almost always squares their moon. Maybe there are some Synastry aspects that can smoothen this energy? I would love to hear your thoughts about this. On the other hand, I‘m really excited for your upcoming posts! Keep up the great work and good luck! 🍀

Sure, I would love to help you dear! 🥰💗

How to deal with Moon-Moon square in synastry?

First we have to understand what this square usually indicates. When Moon squares Moon in the synastry there may be different emotional needs, lifestyles, ways of feeling and/or expressing feelings, dynamics with the family or different opinions regarding the formation of the home.

As for practical approaches, I can mention the following:

🤍Good communication always helps. Openly express what things make you feel comfortable and what don't. Establish boundaries and make sure you listen to and accept each other's boundaries. Let each other know how you like to be loved to avoid misunderstandings. Talk to each other about how you deal with your emotions, do you like to have your space when you are upset or sad? Do you prefer physical comfort? Do they just want to be heard? Talk about it.

🤍Empathy is the foundation of a relationship and a perfect way to deal with Moon squares. Trying to see things from the other's perspective and developing empathy can help to ease tensions. It’s important to remember that both have valid ways of feeling and reacting, even if they are different.

🤍Find a middle point. Do not wait for the other to change into what the other wants, instead of insisting that the other adapt completely to your own needs, find a middle ground where both feel seen and heard without needing to feel that you cannot be yourselves with each other.

Now, as far as aspects of astrology are concerned, I have a couple in mind:

🩶Conjunctions, trines or sextiles between Sun-Moon can help a lot, because despite the initial square, these aspects help both of you to have greater empathy with the other and feel that despite your differences, you can be yourself and feel appreciated, loved and supported. The Sun is our identity, so when the Moon aspects positively, there is genuine affection where sympathy, care and appreciation for the other awakens.

🩶Mercury-Moon positive aspects can be an excellent tool, as they will be able to talk more easily about insecurities, emotions and what they need from the relationship. The fluid aspects between these two planets help the other feel heard, favoring that disposition of truly wanting to understand the other and validate what they feel.

🩶When the Moon aspects Jupiter positively, it causes both of them to grow together and learn a lot from each other. These aspects greatly favor a peaceful coexistence in which both look up to the other and are amazed by the other. The theme of teamwork, mutual support, affection and attention to others are of great help to counteract the initial square.

🩶The trine or sextile between Moon-Saturn makes both of them focus on creating the foundation for a lasting relationship. The Moon person shows empathy, understanding and a lot of validation, while the Saturn person is open to knowing how to best meet the other person's needs, be reliable, as well as patient and delicate. Both will support each other and seek to meet the other's needs in their own way.

🩶The positive aspects between Venus-Saturn give a lot of commitment between the natives, they will want to do things well with the other and provide love and understanding to the other. 

🩶Mercury positively aspecting Pluto or Saturn can also be of great help, as both may feel that they can talk about the more serious aspects of the relationship. It greatly favors long-term planning and makes both feel that they can be very honest and clear with the other. They will not be the type of couple that is afraid to address some topics; on the contrary, they may find it very easy to do so due to the foundations of trust and reliability of the relationship.

🩶Planets falling in the 1st house can help you find similarities between the two and can help you feel more empathy between them. Understanding, similar experiences and in general similarities on issues related to the planet that falls into the house. Sun for example makes them have similar personalities and makes them feel admiration and happiness with respect to each other. Mercury can make you both have similar opinions and ways of communicating. With Venus, your perception of love or similar love languages and so on.

🩶Planets falling in the 4th house can create this feeling of comfort with each other. No matter the differences or experiences they have experienced, both can feel understood, protected and cared for by the other. Moon falling here, for example, can talk to us about that feeling of being able to better express your feelings without fear of being judged. Jupiter falling here tells us about this immediate boost of serotonin, the presence of the other makes you feel happier and understood.

🩶Planets falling in the 5th house also help a lot, as both make each other feel happy, loved and very motivated by the other. They feel that they can be lighthearted with each other, that there are no pressures, expectations or stress, being with each other is fun, easy and leaves them with a feeling of warmth in their chest. Moon falling here makes you more easily expressive of each other, romance, authenticity and compatibility.

🩶Planets falling in the 7th house greatly favor compatibility, good coexistence [especially if you plan to be with this person over the long run], and a willingness to understand their differences. Sun, Moon or Rising falling here are a great indicator of compatibility between both of you and the house person can even develop this ease of reading the other like an open book.

[redesigningxmen]

REDESIGNING MIRAGE

That’s no mirage you’re seeing, that’s our group taking on Dani Moonstar, aka Mirage! One of the New Mutants from the 80s book, Dani has long been that team’s leader and served in different leadership roles. She’s most notable for being one of the X-Men’s most prominent Native American characters. Her identity is so central to her character, she refused to wear the standard New Mutants training uniform without adding pieces from her Cheyanne heritage.

Our team considered both Dani’s unique power - the ability to manifest someone’s greatest hopes or fears into realistic illusions - and her Indigenous background when redesigning her. Taking on a character so strongly rooted in such a specific - and non-White - culture meant approaching the design with respect, and of course always with an eye towards an exciting design!

Give all our talented artists a follow on social media!

Rake | @/pastelrake

"For Dani I drew on two prominent western themed pieces of media from my childhood. Firstly my father's favourite John Wayne film;  1965's The Sons of Katie Elder and secondly, the 1987 ridiculous children's cartoon BraveStarr. Both of these properties, whilst flawed, gave me a love of Americana/ Wild-Western aesthetics. With this in mind, I wanted to create a vintage-style western movie poster that centred Dani as the protagonist. In particular, I imagined her in the recognizable role of Sheriff, given her established characterization as a protector."

SSTArtwork | @/sstartwork

"I did two looks for Dani, one is more of a practical field uniform, with padded armour sections and oversized gloves. I've added an extra skill to her power set, as well as creating arrows and bows, she can now create a psychic vulture, which I envision swooping onto an enemy and ripping at the fears and drawing them out, or the desires, to varying effects. The second look is more Valkyrie based, with more opulent armour and headpieces harkening back to her initial days as a Valkyrie. In this state, all her powers are boosted and her bird becomes much larger, around about the size of a very large condor. She can use the bird as an aid in battle, for gliding, shields etc etc."

Alex Buckland | @/blueromanticss

"Dani's culture has always been really important to her so I tried my best to incorporate that into my design! "

Thwwip Stickers | @/Thwwip_Stickers

Dani is one of my top two most fave New Mutants and a character I’ve always loved in the comics my entire time as an X-Men reader ( since I was 6…I’m old lol)

"I had two Goals with this redesign.

I wanted to move Dani into a cyberpunk futurism feel…as I feel like it’s time for all the X-Men to be ushered into the age of CyberPunk.

I really wanted to grow Dani up. My goal wasn’t to do an entire redesign from the ground up, but rather take what she’s had and mature her. Dani, as well as most of the New Mutants, have a tendency to to revert or be written like teens again and it was high time that we start viewing Dani as the strong, mature, dynamic member of the X-Men she truly is.

I wanted to use style lines and shapes that evoked Indigenous Futurism without (seeing as I am not indigenous) just covering her in a bunch of patterns and regalia that might not be appropriate for Dani as a member of the Cheyenne Tribe. I wanted to really make her seem like a hunter while still honoring her indigenous and mutant roots."

[primordialsoundmeditation]

Words for these Times

(I've copied and pasted with tags since that's the best way to be sure you get to see it.)

Hopi Indian Chief White Eagle commented a few days ago on the current global situation:

"This moment that humanity is living through can be considered a door or a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the door is yours.

If you consume information 24 hours a day, with negative energy, constantly nervous, with pessimism, you will fall into this hole.

But if you take the opportunity to look at yourself, to rethink life and death, to take care of yourself and others, you will go through the door.

Take care of your home, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual home. When you take care of yourself, you take care of others at the same time.

Do not underestimate the spiritual dimension of this crisis. Adopt the perspective of an eagle that sees everything from above with a broader vision.

There is a social demand in this crisis, but also a spiritual demand. The two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. Without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and futility.

You are prepared to go through this crisis.

Grab your toolbox and use all the tools at your disposal. Learn to resist by the example of the Indian and African peoples: we have been and continue to be exterminated.

* But we never stopped singing, dancing, lighting fires and having joy.

Don't feel guilty for feeling lucky in these difficult times. Being sad and without energy doesn't help at all.

* Resilience is resilience through joy!

You have the right to be strong and positive. You have to maintain a beautiful, cheerful and bright posture.

This has nothing to do with alienation (ignorance of the world). It is a strategy of resistance.

When we walk in the door, we have a new view of the world because we have faced our fears and difficulties.

This is what you can do now:

- Serenity in the storm,

- Keep calm, meditate daily,

- Make a habit of encountering the sacred every day.

Demonstrate resilience through art, joy, trust and love."

From Hawk Henries : ( I honestly don't know if the identity of Chief White Eagle is real. Real or not the essence of this message feels important to consider)

And additional comment from one of his fans:

Yes, very good advice indeed! Yes, he was a real person, a chief and a poitician who died in 1914. He fought for Indian rights and homelands during their most troubling times when they were disposed form their native lands and wantonly killed. But, that is why history is important, right? Most of what he speaks to can be applied to certain times affecting the human condition thru history; this is one of those times, so his wise words are both a balm to the soul and a roadmap for going forward into the future.

I'll put the Wiki link in the comments.

Thank you for finding this timely message, Michelle Heddinger!

Mara Clear Spring Cook

[sillysybilsden]

To Janus. To Jupiter. To the Roman gods.

🪔

𝐓𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

I. Introduction

II. Gods

III. Mythology

IV. Calendar

V. Ritual

VI. Epilogue

VII. Resources

🪔

𝐈. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Hey there everyone! This is Sybil (fka Clever Crow). As a Roman polytheist, “Roman polytheism is just a carbon-copy of Greek polytheism” is something I hear on a weekly basis. Whether on YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest or, heck, even academic resources, there seems to be a widespread belief that these two religions are identical. Today, I want to focus on this piece of misinformation and try to debunk it by using historical evidence and examples.

Just a small disclaimer: I will be discussing this topic from a hard polytheistic and revivalist point of view. Soft polytheism is absolutely valid, but in this case it might not be of use when highlighting differences between gods.

Also, I want to thank the following people: Cristina, Mystix, @spiritual-entries and @camssecretcave . They made sure that all information provided here is factual and reliable, and I will be forever grateful to them for their help.

🪔

𝐈𝐈. 𝐆𝐨𝐝𝐬

“Are the Greek and Roman pantheons one and the same?” This is the first question we will attempt at answering within this chapter. To do so, we must introduce a very important concept in Roman religion: interpretatio romana. Before that, though, let me provide you with some historical context.

Ever since the founding of Rome in 753 BCE, Romans were exposed to influences from other Italic peoples: Sabines, Etruscans, Volsci and so on. Because of that, we can indeed say that there has never been a 100% “native” Roman religion.

We can nonetheless differentiate two “phases” of Roman polytheism: pre-hellenisation polytheism and post-hellenisation polytheism (“hellenisation” being the process that merged Greek and Roman cultures and religions during the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE). For simplicity’s sake, in this post we are going to compare the pre-hellenisation version of Roman religion and Hellenism.

Back to interpretatio: what is it? To put it simply, it is the comparison of two different pantheons (which is used to find matches between the gods). It was used so that, when describing other populations’ religions, one could just name a more familiar, local deity instead of fully describing a foreign one (which, obviously, would take much more time). Just imagine being a Roman historian and having to discuss Greek religion: instead of saying “Ares is a god of war, battle and courage”, you could just say “Ares is like our Mars”.

Does that mean that these gods were seen as identical? Absolutely not! Actually, this shows us that Roman gods were a thing long before Greek gods started being adopted in the pantheon (which is the reason why a god like Janus does not have a Greek counterpart).

Sticking with the same example we have used before, we can say that Mars was already Mars before he was equated to Ares. And, because of that, at a closer look, the two are extremely different: while Ares is blood-driven, Mars shows a much calmer nature; contrarily to Ares, Mars has some pretty important ties to royalty (his son being Romulus-Quirinus) and agriculture; while Ares has a relationship with Aphrodite, Mars is married to Nerio; and so on. It is only after hellenisation that these two (as well as all of the other gods) started merging into one single Greco-Roman figure.

As I said before, though, this does not mean that Rome was against syncretism. Quite the contrary, actually: whenever Romans ran into a deity who could be of use to them and did not have a counterpart in their pantheon, they would consider adopting them. This is the reason why Apollo was worshiped by both societies (Romans adopted him in 431 BCE in order to fight a pestilence; his Greek nature never went unacknowledged: for him, ritus graecus was performed).

Fun fact: interpretatio was not only directed to Greece. Roman priests tried to include the prophet Jesus Christ into the Roman pantheon. He was described to them as “a god of love”, so they used interpretatio to connect him to Venus.

🪔

𝐈𝐈𝐈. 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲

As I said before, during hellenisation Greek and Roman gods started merging. As a consequence, so did their mythologies…

Actually, no, scratch that: except for a few exceptions, Roman gods did not have a mythology to begin with. Mythology that is Roman in origin revolves around men, not deities (and that is the reason why it is also referred to as “mythic history”, as the protagonists are pseudo-historical figures). Myths in Ancient Rome were used as exempla, examples to teach teens and men how they should behave in a virtuous way.

For example, one of the most famous figures from Roman mythology is Lucius Junius Brutus, the founder of the Republic: he was intelligent (he tricked the cruel king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus into sparing his life), loyal (he never deserted the Romans) and strong-willed (he took the matters into his own hands and kicked out of Rome the cruel king), and every Roman had to aspire to be like him.

In Greece, on the other hand, myths had the task of explaining why something happens. Why do we have a colder season and a warmer one? That is because Persephone comes back from and goes to the Underworld. How do we know how to use fire? Prometheus gave it to men. How did the hyacinth, the flower, get its name? It comes from Apollo’s lover Hyacinth. On top of that, Greek mythology revolves a lot more around deities than the Roman one (which is the reason why there is a pretty intricate divine family tree in Hellenism).

With this in mind, we can say that, with hellenisation, the Roman gods received myths and genealogies (as well as iconographies, in some cases) of their own for the first time ever. However, these myths and these genealogies were not altered to better fit the deity.

This is the reason why Nerio, Mars’ original wife, was forgotten in favor of Venus (Aphrodite’s Roman counterpart). This is why Saturn, an extremely benevolent agricultural deity, started being depicted as a cruel entity devouring his children (yes: I am looking at you, Goya). And this is also why Minerva, who used to have nothing to do with Medusa, started to be seen as she-who-cursed-Medusa (now I am looking at you, Ovid).

🪔

𝐈𝐕. 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫

Calendars were of extreme importance in polytheistic societies. After all, they were deeply intertwined with their religious mentality… which is the reason why we are briefly going to discuss this matter in this blog.

When it comes to Ancient Greece, the calendar we have the most evidence on is the Athenian one (which, because of this, has become the most widely used in modern Hellenic polytheistic communities). It is lunisolar (keep this in mind!). When it comes to Ancient Rome, on the other hand, we have quite some evidence on three different calendars that modern Roman polytheists can choose from: a lunar one, a lunisolar one and a solar one (the latter happens to be the calendar still in use today).

One similarity that needs to be addressed is the one between Noumenia and Kalends (both being a celebration of the first day of the month). In the Roman version, however, we would also have to add Nones and Ides as recurring monthly festivities.

Another similarity that many seem to highlight is the one between Kronia and Saturnalia, two festivities where abundance is celebrated (as well as, respectively, Kronos and Saturn, who later merged) and the Golden Age is remembered. However! Kronia is celebrated during the Summer, roughly during the Summer solstice; Saturnalia is celebrated during Wintertime, roughly during the Winter solstice. It might not seem like a big difference at first, but it is if we consider this: during Kronia, the harvest is celebrated while it is happening, while the mature crops are being collected; during Saturnalia, the harvest that has already happened during the past Summer is celebrated, as well as the one that is to come.

Last but not least, let us highlight a Roman-only peculiarity. Back in Ancient Roman times, every day had a “quality": they could either be faustus or nefastus (as well as a lot more nuances which we will not be taking into account here). They were of great importance on a religious level, as nefastus days could bring bad luck to a practitioner if they were to take big decisions. Something similar also happened with dies religiosi, during which it was forbidden to go to work (or do anything that was not a life-or-death matter).

🪔

𝐕. 𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥

Now that we have discussed the more “theological” matters, such as the nature of the gods, myths and festivities, we can briefly talk about the more practical side of things.

Let us start with an all-time favorite: veiling. Nowadays, a lot of pagans (no matter their path or their gender) veil for a variety of reasons: protection, modesty or devotion. And that is, no doubt, valid. Historically speaking, though, things kind of different. While both in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome veils were used by women in order to express their modesty, in Italy they were also mandatory whenever performing rituals (for women and men alike).

Another big difference resides in the views of these two societies over divination. When we think of “divination” and “Ancient Greece”, one of the first things that comes to our minds is probably the Oracle of Delphi (and rightly so!). This figure was said to be able to channel the messages of the gods, and they did so by going into a trance-like state.

In Rome, this practice was seen as unreliable (even though, surprisingly, there are a couple of instances where Romans have asked the Oracle for guidance), as the only reliable forms of divination were those that could be performed when completely conscious (augury, haruspicy, etc). Dreams, too, were seen as an untrustworthy form of communication by Romans.

🪔

𝐕𝐈. 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

There is something we still need to address: if these two cultures, societies, religions were so different, why do so many people believe otherwise?

Well, the answer can be found in 19th century’s anthropological and religious studies. Back then, scholars used to be very fond of the comparative approach (which is a “strategy where characteristics or parts are compared across different research situations to identify differences or similarities”, according to www.sciencedirect.com) and the Indo-European theory.

Too focused on stressing the similarities between Greeks and Romans, intellectuals “forgot” to highlight the differences. Even though nowadays, academically, these hypotheses have been marked as outdated, they are still ever-so widespread.

I hope that this blog will contribute to debunking this piece of misinformation. And I hope that I managed to introduce you, reader, to Roman polytheism… Not just a carbon-copy of Hellenism!

Sybil

🪔

𝐕𝐈𝐈. 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬

The majority of my knowledge on Greek religion comes from “Archeologia greca” by Enzo Lippolis and Giorgio Rocco and theoi.com, as well as some high school classes dedicated to Hellenic mythology.

The following resources talk specifically about this post's subject:

Roman vs. Greek religion (YouTube)

Greek mythology: A second masterpost (Tumblr)

You can check out my full list of resources on Roman polytheism here.

🪔 Check out this post on Amino as well! 🪔

[matan4il]

I saw your post about Noah and it just but a bee in my bonnet about how people in all sorts of fandoms have been doing similar things to Jewish actors (but it’s not as well known cause they’re obviously not as high profile as stranger things). I follow you from the 911 fandom, and I also watch 911 Lone Star and both Ronen Rubinstein (who plays TK) and Lisa Edelstein (who guest starred so isn’t a regular anymore but is iconic in her own right) have gotten hate. Ronen removed his twitter after people started calling him a Zionist and harassing him. Lisa turned comments off on some of her ig posts and specifically said it was so she wouldn’t get attacked. The only things those two have said are in regards to getting the hostages home safe or in reaction to the immediate events of Oct 7. Yet they’re being called supporters of genocide. The antisemitism disguised as “antizionism” is so fucking obvious and it’s sad how it’s infiltrated even the smaller fandoms if actors involved dare to be Jewish and express concern for fellow Jews.

Hi Nonnie!

First of all, yes. Sadly, there is not a single fandom I have been active in, that has been a safe space for Jews in general, and they've all become worse since Oct 7. So I'll talk a bit about the 911 fandom, but let's be clear that this fandom isn't the issue, it really is a symptom of a much bigger problem, which is very prevalent in online spaces, not just online fandoms. What I'll talk about is obviously not true for every single person, but it IS true for enough people, and especially for some very vocal ones, who shape what the "allowed" discourse is.

I have not been following what the 911 fandom does and says about Ronen Rubinstein for at least 2 years, but I can't say I'm surprised by what you told me.

I've written more than once about the fact that Jews are not white, not even the white passing ones. Also, I'm hardly the only Jew raising their voice about this, and yet I've noticed that the 911 fandom, which raged when half-white Eddie Diaz was not recognized as a POC by one fan, the fandom which has accepted Christopher Diaz as a POC (even though he's canonically only 25% Mexican, and is played by an actor who actually IS white, which means there's no arguing over the fact that Chris looks white), is also the fandom which has repeatedly conceptualized Ronen as a white guy, same for his character TK (even though he's canonically only half white), and with that view in mind there's been hostility towards Ronen that I've come across not long after 911LS just started. Ronen's family is from an area where Jews had been repeatedly slaughtered, including during the Holocaust for NOT being white less than one hundred years ago. TK looks white (you know, exactly like Chris), so that's enough to ignore Jewish identity, history, being native to the Middle East, and anti-Jewish persecution. Ronen gets conceptualized as a white oppressor. And as such, he's a fair target, even an encouraged one.

Gavin, whose character Chris is recognized as a POC, even though he himself is completely white.

Ronen, whose character TK is not recognized as a POC, even though the actor is fully Jewish.

Natacha, whose character Marjan is recognized as a POC, even though the actress herself is half white. She's also half Lebanese, Marjan is fully so, and whatever Arabs are, Jews are the exact same, because both groups are native to South West Asia (similarly, both groups come in a variety of skin tones).

So I'm not surprised that Ronen is being mistreated. Jews are mis-conceptualized as white, and the Israeli-Arab conflict gets mis-conceptualized by applying to it a race-based model imported from the US, in which Israelis are white Jews (even though 21% of our population is Arab, a part of our leadership is Arab and has been since the first Knesset was elected, over 70 years ago, and even though many of the Israeli soldiers fighting to protect us are Arabs... when the conflict is explained, they're all erased, and Israelis are only understood as - and blamed as - white Jews), who are evil oppressors of brown Arabs (even though some Arabs are just as white looking, or even whiter than some Jews). Then, this conflict is used to vilify and justify harassing Jewish actors, whether Noah in Stranger Things, Timothee Chalamet, or Ronen and Lisa.

Here are some white looking Palestinians, who always get ignored by the people conceptualizing the conflict as white vs brown people:

Two pics of Israeli soldiers killed, each pic from just one day in this war in Gaza, and you can see the diversity of skin tones...

Like I said, I haven't been following Ronen, but I did happen across a post that claimed he needs to be canceled for the crime of blocking people who the poster said were pro-Palestine. But in my experience, even when you're a Jew who is not being hateful towards Palestinians, you're just pro both groups, because you recognize they're both humans, the fact that you have the "audacity" to stand up for Jewish people and Jewish rights, and against the mis-representation of Jews in Israel, is enough for antisemitic bullies to use that to come after you with antisemitic abuse under the guise of being pro-Palestinian (here's just one example. I wonder how many Palestinians have been liberated by harassing Jews online. Pretty sure the answer is zero. I also always love how this crowd never actually stands up for Palestinians when they're wronged by fellow Arabs, in Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon or Syria. It's only the Jews who bother these "pro-Palestinians," not the actual well being of Palestinians). I'm sure that if we could see who Ronen was blocking, it would be the same kind of people who have been sending me these very caring, human rights-oriented messages:

^ This ask was specifically a response to my reply to an anon telling me I lost my claim to humanity when I became an Israeli (and me answering that that was at the age of 5 months, and that my parents' decision to bring me to Israel actually saved my life).

^ Just a small collection, nowhere near what I actually got, but I kept them 'coz I wanted to show people at some point what Jews who dare to not want Israel destroyed are subjected to. And Ronen probably got similar ones, he blocked them, and for saying he was blocking them, he got further hate... At what point are people going to wake up and see that this is how an antisemitic misinformation campaign works? Lots of Germans genuinely believed in the narrative that Jews backstabbed them during WWI. If you were to ask them in the 1930's whether they hate Jews simply for being Jews, they'd say no, that they hated Jews, because Jews deserved to be hated due to their actions. In the exact same way, now support of the existence of the Jewish state, not even of its specific policies, is being spun as justification to hate on Jews.

I'll say this again. This reply isn't about Ronen. It isn't about Noah. It isn't about Lisa. This isn't about a specific fandom. This is a call for people to wake up and smell the antisemitic coffee, the legitimization of Jews being harassed. Please don't be a part of it, and if you can, please speak up when you see others being a part of it. I KNOW that online, and def on Tumblr, the majority of posts you see justify the vilifaction of anyone who is pro Israel's existence, even while also being critical of its leadership. And it's easy, and it feels right, to go with what everyone else in your echo chamber says. But you can be that one guy in 1930's Germany who didn't do the heil Hitler. If you will be, it may not be easy, but I very much doubt you'd ever regret it.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[nightmarearian]

finally got this digital and all neat <3

boothill hair-headcanons! I did some (admittedly short) research on indigenous hair traditions & cultures (x).

A bit too tired to paraphrase rn so direct quotes to get the main points: > "believed that a person’s long hair represents a strong cultural identity" > "As part of the practice in self-respect, we are taught to take good care of our hair through proper grooming" > "adorn their hair with fur wraps, woolen wraps, feathers, fluffs, and bead work for war dancing and ceremonies" > "common to see family members and friends brushing and braiding hair for each other. > "we don’t cut our hair unless we have experienced a significant loss, like the death of a close family member, traumatic event or significant life change." > "When we do have to cut our hair, it is never to be thrown away, but rather, burned with sage or sweetgrass in a ceremonial way. When our hair is burned, all of our thoughts, prayers, dreams, aspirations, experiences, and history rise to the Creator to be properly taken care of." > " hair embodying so much of who we are, boundaries are important. Touching someone’s hair without permission is disrespectful in the Native community."

With that, looking at canon Boothill... I decided that at first he straight up just. Did not have the time to cut and burn his hair at first, and by the time he did he. Couldn't. (He’s dead anyway. Everything on his is dead anyway, so it doesn’t exactly count right now…) (he should be ashamed. He is. Being so fuckin selfish and one of the last of Aeragan-Epharshel and he making a mess of their culture). (He really should. He should stop being selfish but he can't let go of his memories of them and he's sorry, he's so so sorry, please he knows he's nothing more than a fuckin husk he's sorry he's sorry he's sorry-). (Going off of my other boothill art,) He loosely braids where a few of them would usually be, but comparatively it's too loose and he doesn't have as much feathers or sweetgrass or fur anymore but it's as close as he's ever going to get anymore so it'll do.

If any of this is inaccurate, really sorry and please correct me! :)

Text (Sorta. In order of my thoughts, all that, and then some): Aeragan-Epharshel "Boothill" (tesswehas) > had thick, soft, black hair -> current hair is thinner from lack of care + general consequences of becoming mechanized. -> Marie-Antoinette Syndrome + stress turned the majority of it white. > Tight & neat braids (w/ feathers, sweetgrass, fur) -> Family braids his hair & vice versa (-> Consequently, Boothill can't braid his own hair as well as he could someone else's. The difference in doing it to someone else vs. oneself, and all that) > Around~a bit longer than waist length -> Might've gotten a bit shorter when getting mechanized.

Post killing Oswaldo (a few months) > Cuts it a while after killing Oswaldo (while the power vacuum and all the extra stuff that comes with killing a head of department) -> Especially the braids/where the braids would be & the black parts. -> (his hair's all white now). > Burns it with sweetgrass > Additionally (not on drawing), He's tried to tie it back, sorta; It's a bit too short so he uses hair clips and stuff. It's at like mid-neck length. > His red bandana was his little girl's baby wrap. (yk those non-descript cloth wrapped around a baby).

-> (Eventually*) -> *meaning Argenti & Robin are able to keep Boothill from joining the rest of his family + heal/take care of himself > He lives long enough to grow it out. About shoulder length. > He usually has four braids (A/R/Sv/C), all with a few different ornaments. -> Side note, usually I guess one would get their hair braided with their associated accessories (if that makes sense???) but Boothill wants accessories based on his loved ones, so he has a little something. (Still doesn't have enough feathers, either). (Braid Dictionary): Each person's Ornaments, from Neatest -> Messiest: > Argenti(Tied w/ R): Vines & Roses > Robin(Tied w/ A): Metal/Fake flower ornamets (3); They're based of her halo. > Sunday*: "haloes"/rings > Clara (Tied w/ Sv): (Brass) Bolts & sometimes (uncommonly) fluff/fur, or flowers. > Svarog (Tied w/ C): (Steel/Silver) Bolts & Nuts > Hook: Usually doesn't have accessories, but the messiness & bits of dirt/grime (/aff) is enough of an indicator. Sometimes she can "braid"/tie string or smth. + Possibly aventurine? depends. -> neatness-wise would be around Sunday-Clara's; Accessories would be straight up jewlery, yk?

Bonus: Boothill (Makes the absolute neatest braids). Doesn't actually leave much accessories unless asked (Will be encouraged by A or R) -> would be feathers or sweetgrass; The children get flowers too. -> Bullet shells would be like bolts but he doesn't really want to give bullet shells to anyone. If he really wants to, it usually ends up in Svarog's ornament-strings/fur.

Ext. : > Boothill would give Argenti and/or Robin waterfall braids a good amount of the time. > Rose braid either from or to Argenti, to or from Boothill or Robin. > Boothill & Clara braid Svarog's coat's fur + give him strings of accessories.

Ext. Not in Drawing: > Between Robin & Argenti, Boothill gets around to taking proper care of his hair again :). > Sunday eventually joined in per Robin's request (as long as Boothill was okay with it, of course), and he found it calming & also just a good way for these two to bond. > Boothill keeps in his braids as long as he can, until it really has to or he meets the others again. > I only draw Robin, Argenti, Clara, & Svarog's braids in the final-post killing Oswaldo, so Sunday's would probably go behind Boothill's ear, next to Robin's. Hook's goes around the side, near Clara's. > Guess it was sorta implied with the neatest to messiest thing, But Argenti & Robin have the most clean braids, Sunday near close - his perfectionism/idealization is getting to him a bit - Clara & Svarog both have some troubles. It's like. Average-good? Not expert but not bad either. Clara's is a bit messy, and Svarog has some trouble with his bigger, mech-hands. Hook has the messiest. For obvious reasons. Little menace <3

> Oh also Don't think I ever specifically mentioned it but implied open/poly relationship between Argenti, Robin, Boothill & Svarog. (Argenti X Boothill X Robin, Svarog X Boothill). Think that's it. 👍

Original paper sketchpage: