#the Shrine of Resurrection is only called the Shrine of Resurrection in English

[artemistorm]

https://at.tumblr.com/unexpectedtraveler/ive-always-been-conflicted-when-writing-fics-or/66x4zruc0l7z

I do think Link (wild) died at some point. (It is called the Shrine of Resurrection, after all)

It would explain why it took so long as well. (Also extra angst)

Did Link die or not? Did his heart stop beating? Did his brain stop making brain waves? I dunno for sure. BotW Canon never says and I doubt we’ll ever find out the what the Nintendo Zelda Team intended when they came up with the game lore (if they even knew themselves). In the long run, whether or not Link died doesn’t really matter because the result was the same. Link enters the shrine broken and dying and he exits the Shrine 100 years later with a healthy body and a blank mind in a new world. (I’ll come back to this in a minute.)

Ok, ok, ok, you got me excited. You bring up a very good point of something that’s always bothered me but no one else talks about. Why did it take exactly 100 years for Link to wake up?

Even with Link’s mortal injuries, it would have taken at least a couple months, but probably up to a couple of years to completely heal Link. How long’s a couple? I dunno. 2? 3? 5? But surely not more than 10. So why didn’t Link wake up once he was all better? Why did it wait 100 years?

I’ve figured a couple of possibilities.

The Shrine has an internal timer set at 100 years either by default or by design. Maybe that’s what it defaulted to once the Shrine was made operational by Zelda, Purah, and co. (it doesn’t sound like any of them knew it would take 100 years for Link to awaken). Or maybe that’s what the ancient Sheikah set it to 10,000 years ago as part of their master plan to destroy the Calamity the next time it awoke.

The Shrine was waiting for an external signal to awaken Link, such as the Guardian Towers around Hyrule castle sensed Zelda’s weakening power and Ganon’s growing strength and sent the signal to awaken the Hero. Or maybe the Shrine would have held Link in stasis forever and Zelda had to use her Goddess powers from afar to force the Shrine to release Link. Or maybe the corporeal ghost of King Rhoam somehow intentionally triggered the Shrine to start its awakening process.

The Shrine was waiting for certain conditions of the world to be met, like X% of Guardians to decay, monster population to rise to a certain level, Hylian population to rise back to X number of people, Hylian civilization to return to a certain level of advancement, etc. Although, I don’t know how the Shrine would sense these things since the Sheikah towers and shrines weren’t activated yet. *Magic*

The Shrine was waiting for Link to choose to wake up. This is the least likely in my opinion but most angsty idea. Maybe once Link was healed, the Shrine was waiting for him to attempt to wake up on his own, but maybe Link didn’t want to for whatever reason (guilt, shame, sadness, fear etc.). The Shrine gave him time, hoping he’d come to term with his regrets, but it didn’t happen, and the Shrine predicted that he never would by his own accord and opted to erase his mind and reset him, to manually and physically remove the mental barrier he had to waking up. I could definitely see this process taking a long time since the Shrine would have had to cherry pick what things, what neural pathways in his brain to leave or to take away.

So did Link die? Did he not die? Why was he asleep for 100 years? The answer is simple:

What do you think?

But that’s the beauty of storytelling. It’s two-way, the storyteller tells you the main parts of the story, but you get to fill in the gaps. Whatever you think the answer is, that is the correct answer. That is canon. And I think it’s really so beautiful that there are so many different versions of canon for the same story. It’s so cool to me to see all these different interpretations and everybody is right. It really makes this story so rich and it leaves so much opportunity for exploration in the fandom.

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for Beato Angelico

Heb 11:1-7; Ps 144; Mark 9:2-13

A few days ago, the Rosary Shrine welcomed its first group of pilgrims of this year: five women and one Dominican friar had come on pilgrimage to England, and they were devotees of Fr Bede Jarrett OP who had served as Provincial for 16 years; revered as a retreat giver, spiritual writer, and tireless in his work of expanding the Dominican mission in this country. Like all good Catholics, Fr Bede had a great aesthetic sense, a love for beauty, which is inherent in human souls, and also in beautiful things made by the ingenuity and hard work of human hands. He once spoke of beauty being found “not as a secret but as a gospel, not as a thing hidden but as a friend revealed.” 

This love for beauty, which must be both spiritual and material in order for it to reflect the splendour of the incarnation of Christ, a splendour glimpsed in its magnificence by the three disciples on Tabor, is ultimately a love for God, for the Son who is the splendour of the Father, the icon of the unseen God. As such, when Dominicans preach the Word, they don’t only focus on what is spoken, nor even just on what is written, but also on what is seen, expressed artistically through the painter’s brush, the sculptor’s chisel, or the photographer’s lens! 

For the Dominican seeks and preaches beauty, “not as a secret but as a gospel”, as good news in a world darkened by sin and destruction, and in moments when we might be tempted to cast our eyes downwards in the face of so much ugliness and brokenness. In such a world, beauty is needed all the more, to give us faith in God and his goodness and beauty and power to save and redeem. Thus Christ revealed his divine beauty to his disciples, transfigured on the heights, to help them look up and give them hope of the Resurrection in advance of the terrible suffering of his Passion and Cross which was to come. Likewise, the Dominican find and makes manifest beauty “not as a thing hidden but as a friend revealed”. For the One who has befriended us, and who has revealed his glory to us, even when we were made ugly by sin, is Christ, who is Beauty himself and the greatest Friend of humanity. Dominican preaching, therefore, calls us to look and see that God is with us, and his grace fills this world with divine light, to dispel the darkness, and to beautify us. 

Bede Jarrett thus wrote to an aspiring Dominican who did not think he was much of a public speaker that “Fra Angelico used his paint brush” to proclaim the Gospel, and “these [paintings] are effective” and perhaps more so than the voice. For spoken sermons fade and become mere memory but, he implies, paintings live on. Clearly the painted sermons of Fra Angelico (or Blessed John of Fiesole, as he is properly called), this blessed Dominican friar who we commemorate today, and who is the patron saint of artists, have an endurance and an interior beauty that powerfully communicates the Gospel to us even today. Indeed, many, who would not read a sermon or spiritual writing, do still flock to the museums and churches that are blessed with Fra Angelico’s works, and there they can see in his frescoes and paintings a world transfigured by divine light, and a beauty that gives hope and draws us forward in life’s journey, calling us to look up towards heaven. 

In part due to the example of Fra Angelico, who himself was inspired by the preaching of St Antoninus, Dominican bishop of Florence in his lifetime, beauty, then, has been firmly established in our Dominican life, especially in our churches and in every aspect of our liturgical life. So, I want to momentarily pay tribute to our Dominican Sisters of the English Congregation of St Catherine of Siena, who are based in Stone (Staffordshire), and who were renowned for their beautiful and painstakingly embroidered vestments and liturgical furnishings. This past week, a significant part of the Sisters’ beautiful heritage was handed down to us to be used in the Rosary Shrine, for the glory of God. My hope is that we can have an exhibition of these works in October this year. Such things are, unfortunately, regarded these days by many people, even Catholics, as unnecessary luxuries that shouldn’t concern serious Christians. After all, we should be feeding the poor! However, the Sisters who educated the poor (and fed them) knew that Catholics also couldn’t neglect beauty and art. For the human person needs to be fed in body and soul; the human heart longs for beauty, longs for God and so looks for his beauty to be revealed as gospel and as friend. 

Hence, the austere observant Dominicans, of which Fra Angelico was a member, also had paintings in their monastic cells at San Marco in Florence for we pray not just with our lips and in our minds, but also with our eyes, and indeed, our whole bodies. The goal, therefore, was that such external beauty would lead to interior beauty, so that as we look on the face of Christ and Our Lady and the Saints, our lives would be transfigured by the gospel of Jesus Christ, made beautiful by his grace as, through beauty, we befriend Jesus and so we are made beautiful. For as St Thomas Aquinas says the divine communication of beauty is beautifying, ie, the revelation of divine beauty and our recognition of it  produces beauty in things; Beauty himself acts to make us truly beautiful. 

May Blessed Fra Angelico pray for artists today, and for create beautiful things in this world. May God use the work of their hands to reveal himself to us. Amen. 

[rozha-ruzha]

Preparations for Easter: Remembering Pagan traditions 

Interesting facts about the holiday - celebration of Dazhboh (Slavic Pagan God of Sun)

This is a translation of a Ukrainian-language article about the pagan origins of many Easter traditions celebrated to this day by Ukrainians around the world.

The translator does not have professional translation training, just grew up speaking both English and Ukrainian.

Original article here:

Готуємось до Великодня: Пригадуємо язичницькі традиції (depo.ua)

Christian Easter having strong connections with the pagan solstice, is a well-known fact. When Baptizing Kyivan-Rus, King Volodymyr the Great had to not only ensure the nominal, but also facilitate a transition to an entirely new religion. Christian places of worship were built on the same locations as old shrines, and a lot of pagan traditions were transformed to fit the new ways.

Our ancestors revered Dazhbog as the god of the sun, who hid his warming rays in the winter, and in the spring, sent his rays back to the earth, which bestowed blessings and life. He is considered the good of good, light, and the strength of life. He not only warms the earth, but is the one who oversees the natural world, and holds it in order.

A place for worshipping Dazhboh was found within the holiday of Christ’s Resurrection. Many of the old traditions were preserved to today, and are well-known by all of us. Ukraine’s Christians celebrate Easter, while honoring ancient Ukrainian traditions of Dazhboh’s high holiday. 

In ancient times, the people of Kievan-Rus, would celebrate the victory of light over the darkness on the advent of the solstice (or Dazhboh’s High Holiday, Great Day). They baked special korovays (breads), which were offerings to the gods. Whoever’s bread rose the most and was the best, would have the most fertile harvest and livestock. This ancient Ukrainian custom has been somewhat transformed since the introduction of Christianity.

We cannot even claim that the tradition of writing pysankas came to us through Christianity. The oldest pysanka found by archaeologists was dated back to the 9th century… almost 100 years before the Baptism of Kievan-Rus. 

Eggs were at that time a symbol of the sun, and the birth of new life. People gave eggs to each other on Velykden (Dazhboh’s high holiday). The motifs that decorated the pysanky, all had very important symbolism and carried hidden meanings.

Haivky - a Pagan tradition of glorifying nature

We are all familiar with haivky (spring songs and dance games) from childhood (also called vesnianky). They really do not have any connection to Christianity. Except for the fact that they continue to this day in modern (predominantly Christian) Ukraine.

No haivka includes words about Christ, God, or the Resurrection. Rather, nature is the prevailing theme- nature, sun, spring, the awakening of life, etc. This has continued from ancient times, when the Slavs celebrated the arrival of spring, and turned to the gods to plead for fertile land and a good harvest.

Blessing of the baskets- offerings to the gods

The origins of this tradition are no different. In ancient times, pagans would appease their gods, carrying out different rituals with offerings of food. Now, instead, we celebrate with Easter baskets, foods which we will eat to celebrate Easter Sunday. The basket contents, by the way, have not changed much. Eggs, a holiday bread (paska), meat, horseradish, cheese, all of these products were part of a normal diet for our ancestors.

Water pouring- an ancient rite of cleansing

The mischievous tradition of wet Monday, which lives on to this day predominantly in Western Ukraine, actually has a deep backstory. In ancient times, on the day after Dazhboh’s High Holiday would, like today, pour water on girls. This was considered a wish and bestowing of beauty and health. The waters were infused with magical properties, and were intended to wash the person of all sickness and troubles. Because of this, back in the day, girls would rejoice if they got splashed, and as a sign of gratitude, they would give the boys pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs).

It should be noted, that the pagans did not have a springtime, pre-holiday lenten fasting ritual. But the rituals of cleansing with water had a ritualistic significance. Especially ‘clean thursday’, when they honored deceased ancestors.

The week after Velykden was designated as a time to honor ancestors- Radunytsia or Tryznytsia. They would set up lunches on the graves/funeral mounts of relatives, prayers about the clan. The oldest ritual of which being the tryzna- a horse competition in honor of the dead. Horses (symbols of life, which is why the figure of the horse decorated Pagans’ homes), were believed to be assistants in the passing of departed souls. It was believed, that the souls of the ancestors would contribute to a good harvest, and wellbeing of their descendents.

Translator's note- this tradition of gathering at family gravesites continues in the modern era, and has been blended with another Christian holiday- St. Thomas Sunday. The tryzna also has a modern iteration, post-burial luncheons/wakes, known by the same name.

Evidently, many of our beloved paschal traditions, which at first glance appear Christian, actually have ancient Pagan origins. However, this should not make us feel we should stop tying them into our current celebrations. Rather the opposite, it diversifies our celebrations, and preserves colorful elements of Ukrainian culture.

On Easter, which we call Paska, Ukrainian women, as the have for 1000 years, will make bread in the style of Dazhboh’s holiday offering, and in the morning we will gift each other pysanky, symbols of Dazhboh and eternal life, just like our forefathers did, even long before the Baptism of Kievan-Rus.

[sage-nebula]

With the news of the sequel and Netflix broadcasting to me that they had put up the first two seasons of InuYasha, I decided to rewatch it (or at least the two seasons that Netflix has) for the hell of it. I’m watching it in English, both for nostalgia and because when I want to have it on in the background as I go to sleep or play Animal Crossing (and thus don’t want to have to pay enough attention to read subtitles), and while I don’t think I’m going to seek out the rest after I run through what Netflix has, I have to say that it’s mostly an enjoyable ride. That said, though I’m not finished yet (I’ve just started what Netflix calls season two; last episodes I watched introduced Rin and Kouga), I do have some Opinions™. I live tweeted a bit on Twitter when I first started watching, but I’ll summarize here as well:

— While I think the English dub is pretty good as far as English dubs go (and there’s one scene in particular that I think was definitely improved in the English dub), there are times when I wonder if it’s an awkward translation that makes the scene so hilarious or if the dialogue was really that bad in the original Japanese as well. The first notable instance comes in either the first or second episode; it’s when Madame Centipede (what kind of name, I ask you—) has Kagome pinned up against Inuyasha when he’s still pinned to the tree, and she (Madame Centipede) mentions that she heard that a half-demon was after the Sacred Jewel and that it must have been Inuyasha. Kagome then thinks to herself, “Half-demon? What is he . . .” And it’s like, don’t get me wrong, Kagome is smart. She’s adept at using her wits to get herself out of situations more often than not and is good at thinking on her feet. So I’m not pointing out this ridiculous dialogue to make fun of her intelligence, but rather to make fun of the writing, because—sis, the centipede demon literally just said what Inuyasha is. You literally just said what Inuyasha is. What do you think he is, if not a half-demon? There are plenty more instances like that sprinkled throughout the show as well, and it always makes for a good laugh and some eyeroll-laden commentary. (That no one but my dog hears, of course, but hey.)

— When I was a teenager watching InuYasha for the first time, I thought nothing of the fact that Kagome, also a teenager, was allowed to travel back to the feudal era for days or weeks at a time to fight demons with absolutely no qualms given by her family. Now, as a thirty-year-old adult, I am appalled. Like, her grandpa giving the OK on this I can believe, because he’s a super devout believer of all the tales and legends of the shrine, and plus he gets free medicine out of faking Kagome’s injuries and illnesses to get her out of school. But her mom? What is with Kagome’s mom? Why is she so okay with this? Why was she okay with Inuyasha bursting into her house to kidnap her daughter just because he had cute dog ears? Why is she okay with her barely fifteen-year-old daughter jumping down a well to go fight monsters, without ever knowing if she will come back alive? You would think she would put up a little resistance at least, but she doesn’t! She just cheerfully helps Kagome pack her backpack and then fixes up a bike for her to use in the modern day as well. You could argue that this is a typical thing in anime, that the Pokémon parents do it all the time, but in Pokémon it’s established lore that parents send their kids off into the wild at age ten to go battle and collect monsters. InuYasha is supposed to take place (at least in part) in modern day Japan, and Kagome’s mother just does not give even 1/300th of a fuck that her teenage daughter travels back to the warring states era and risks her life on the daily with no way of knowing if she’ll ever come back again. This, from the same woman who apparently won’t let Souta travel on the metro by himself (granted he’s 10, but like, traveling on the metro is significantly less dangerous than going to do battle with demons in the feudal era so the point stands). Again, I get that this was meant to be an adventure for the target demographic to imprint themselves onto, and so I’m not so upset at Kagome for wanting to leap into battle, but more appalled at her mother for cheerfully allowing this with no stress given (i.e. this is a Mrs Higurashi callout post). I haven’t watched Doctor Who in ages, but man, as an adult myself now, it makes me appreciate Jackie Tyler a hell of a lot more. 

(Putting the rest under a cut as it’s getting a bit long.)

— I was never deeply involved in the InuYasha fandom, but I do remember looking up stuff about it online Back in the Day (circa 2003) and I remember seeing a lot of hate for Kagome. Forum posts and fanfics that depicted her as being useless, as being weak, as being stupid, as being abusive to Inuyasha via the “sit” command. And honestly, while it’s entirely possible that the “sit” thing gets flanderized at some point in the anime (and perhaps the manga as well, though I haven’t read that), there’s really no basis for any of the rest of it. Even from the very start of the anime, it’s clear that Kagome is smart, competent, and capable. She knows how to hold her own. She knows exactly what to say to manipulate the Thunder Brothers into taking her to Inuyasha, thus saving herself from being devoured. She comes up with the idea to tie the crow demon’s foot to her arrow to make sure she hit it (which, yes, resulted in the Sacred Jewel shattering, but nonetheless she quickly figured out a way to get around her lack of archery skill). She was the one who figured out where the hair demon’s true skull was, the one to sneak up to try to get at it, the one to use an arrow to shatter it, and there are so, so many more examples like this. Even before she can sense jewel shards and becomes adept at archery, Kagome proves over and over again that she’s smart and capable of taking care of herself. And at least from what I’ve seen so far, she doesn’t really abuse the “sit” command—and even if she did overuse it, it still wouldn’t count as her “abusing” Inuyasha, because she doesn’t really have any power over him. Yeah, she can make him faceplant, but he could also snap her neck with one hand if he wanted, or else up and leave her completely. (And that, of course, is setting aside the fact that she doesn’t want to control, manipulate, or hurt him in the first place.) Kagome got a lot of undeserved, unwarranted flack, and the worst part is that it was all from the ship wars.

— But of course, she wasn’t the only one . . . there’s also the matter of Kikyo. Kikyo also got a lot of hate, if memory serves, from people who wanted Inuyasha to end up with Kagome (or else projected themselves onto Kagome and thus hated Kikyo for “getting in the way”), which in my opinion is rather silly since it’s pretty obvious from the jump that the endgame was always going to be Inuyasha/Kagome. Setting aside the fact that Kagome is the main character (because while the show might be called InuYasha, the story is really Kagome’s, kind of like how the game series is called The Legend of Zelda but you always play as Link instead), Kikyo’s . . . well . . . dead. Even after she’s “resurrected,” she’s still undead. Like it’s pretty clear that if she was still alive the story would be different, but she’s not. She’s dead, and the title character is not going to marry a zombie when her very alive reincarnation (that he also loves) is right there. So Inuyasha/Kagome shippers getting angry over Kikyo’s mere existence is just absurdly silly, because she was never a “threat.” She was just a tragedy.

With that said, I’ve noticed in the episodes I’ve watched that Kikyo’s characterization seems . . . inconsistent. Like there are moments where she acts far more antagonistically than she was even three seconds ago in an earlier scene, or that it would make sense for her to. I’ve done a bit of reading, and it seems that the anime prolonged her antagonistic behavior, likely to fuel the love triangle relationship melodrama (which I’ll get to in a second). This saddens me, because honestly Kikyo is one of my favorite characters. Her story is a tragedy not only because of how she was deceived and murdered at such a young age, but also because of how she was robbed of ever getting to live a normal life simply because of the power she was born with. She has a line in the most recent Kikyo episode I watched about how she is now “free to hate, free to love,” and that really stuck with me. Because due to the responsibility she bore with guarding the Sacred Jewel, she wasn’t even truly free to have real emotions. At the very least, she was never free to feel anything negative. She wasn’t free to want anything for herself, to have dreams, to feel frustration, anger, or true sadness. Her falling in love with Inuyasha weakened her protection for the Sacred Jewel. Even a usually positive emotion like love is something that was denied to her. Even when she was alive, Kikyo was not allowed to live. It’s only in undeath that she finally gets a taste of freedom, freedom that she knows cannot last, freedom that she has to borrow from the souls of the recently departed. Her story is heartbreaking and her character is fascinating, and I think she deserves so, so much more than what petty shipping drama granted her by the fandom and show alike.

— On that note, though . . . I have to say that I personally feel like the romance is the worst aspect of the show. Like again, I’m sure a lot of this has to do with the fact that I am now thirty and thus have long since dried up my well of tolerance for teenagers acting like teenagers when it comes to love triangles, but the constant wangst over the romance from the various characters is just so annoying. Kagome’s worst fear being Inuyasha and Kikyo being in love (and not, you know, people she loves dying?) to fuel the romance drama, Inuyasha having a spazz attack any time someone so much as mentions romance within fifty feet of Kagome, Kikyo being hyper concerned over whether or not Inuyasha and Kagome are dating instead of the myriad of other things going on with her . . . god, spare me. It weighs down the narrative by taking up screentime that could be filled with more interesting things (more on that in a minute) and, in my opinion, does a disservice to the characters, particularly the ladies. Like, Inuyasha being shrill and annoying is nothing new. It doesn’t really drag his character down when he’s always like that. (Not to say that I hate Inuyasha, because I don’t, but he is shrill and annoying all the same. It’s just how he is.) But while I like Kagome 90% of the time, I find myself wanting to claw my face off with how annoying she is whenever she goes into one of her “oh noes Inuyasha loves Kikyo and not me :’(” wangst fests. Likewise, I love Kikyo, but her being petty jealous over Kagome and Inuyasha possibly loving her (and moving on with her since she’s, you know, not dead), and especially that being used to amp up her antagonism and make her into more of a villain, saps away the interest she otherwise brings to scenes. Kikyo’s not interesting because she’s a member of a love triangle, she’s interesting because she’s a person who has only gained a chance to live through death and cursed rebirth. Kagome’s not a likable character because she wangsts over a boy who she likes, but because she’s a smart, capable, compassionate girl who can manage living in two eras of time at once. And while female characters are of course encouraged to have flaws and be as well-rounded as their male counterparts, saddling them with this petty romantic drama doesn’t count as a believable or well-written flaw, especially since you know the romance isn’t meant to be seen that way since it’s a core facet of the show. It’s just irritating.

On top of that, there is so much to like about InuYasha’s worldbuilding that it frustrates me that so much of the story is overshadowed by the romantic nonsense. One of the more recent episodes I watched is the one where they learn how the Sacred Jewel was made. The story about Midoriko and how she ripped the Sacred Jewel from her own chest during a fight with a demon was frigging fantastic. Not only is it cool that InuYasha has so many powerful women in its story, both past and present (which isn’t too surprising since it was written by a woman, but you know), but the original and immersive worldbuilding is really something to be admired. The fantasy version of feudal Japan that was created for the show has so many interesting elements, none of which feel out of place because they all build upon each other. There is a lot to like about InuYasha, and so it’s frustrating to me personally that the annoyingly written romance bullshit overshadows it. And building on that . . .

— I know I just said a couple paragraphs ago that it was obvious that Inuyasha/Kagome would be endgame from the jump, and I still stand by that. And on the surface, I don’t really have any problem with it aside from the issues I have with the romances in this show as a whole (such as how their love for each other started so early it felt like it came out of nowhere, but whatever). But I still do have an issue with Kagome deciding to live in the feudal era full time because . . . a.) then why did you bother trying to keep up with school, and b.) girl they don’t have indoor plumbing. They don’t have modern medicine, or showers, or convenient food, or the internet, or anything else. Girl what are you doing, deciding to live in warring states Japan full time for a boy, you are what, sixteen at the end of the series? Eighteen? GIRL. I know it’s meant to be ~a feudal fairy tale~ but it’s like . . . the idea of being stuck back in feudal/medieval times horrifies me. Like sis, if he says he loves you that much, make him prove it and live in the modern day full time. He can use a hat to hide his dog ears. He’s done it before. Honestly, Kagome, just:

And “choices” here includes the choice to go romping around feudal Japan fighting demons in nothing but your middle school uniform instead of something more practical, like lightweight armor (Sango could help you!) or at least a pair of pants. HONESTLY, KAGOME—

— On a more lighthearted note, I do enjoy most of the OST, though I have to say that I’ve been laughing at Naraku’s theme music for at least the last ten years and I don’t foresee that stopping any time soon because it is just the worst. Like every time Naraku’s theme music starts up I just imagine him in his bamboo costume, hunched over a tiny piano (like the one Schroeder has in Peanuts), just banging on the keys. Like it completely ruins any tension that Naraku should be instilling. That said, he does have some pretty good snark at times (at least in the English dub), but between his theme music and the fact that you just know it’s always going to be a fucking puppet when he shows up, it definitely takes the edge off his appearances. 

— Actually, back to the “I’m fine with Inuyasha/Kagome but I’m not fine with her being stuck in the feudal era forever” bit, a fanart I saw earlier tonight made me realize that I think it would have been better if Kagome had met Inuyasha’s reincarnation in her own era, and they ended up together. Like, okay, hear me out—

The entire reason why Inuyasha didn’t reincarnate before Kagome was pulled into the well the first time is because he never died. He thinks of himself as having been killed by Kikyo, but he wasn’t; he was just pinned to a tree and put into immortal sleep. But once Kagome goes back to the feudal era and frees him, she changes that. She essentially altered history, which in return would alter her own era, even if in only small ways. (Small ways which should undoubtedly pile up the more she does back in the feudal era, but nonetheless.) Provided Inuyasha isn’t given the immortality of a full demon or put into an immortal sleep at any other point in his future, then he should eventually die, long before Kagome’s time period rolls around. Thus, it would make perfect sense if his soul reincarnated as well. Imagine if, during one of her visits back to her own time, she happens to run into a teenage boy who looks startlingly like Inuyasha does in his human form. Of course, he goes by a different name, but he attends her school (when he feels like it) and she sees him around town, and somehow everyone acts as though he’s always been there . . . because to them, he has. Because Kagome altered time, and with it the memories of all those in Tokyo who would have reason to know him, except her since she was the one who inadvertently made the alteration. There is someone with Inuyasha’s reincarnated soul in her time period, and she feels herself drawn to him just as Inuyasha was drawn to her.

It could even be taken a step further, that perhaps at some point Inuyasha’s reincarnation follows her to the well for some reason or another, trips and falls with her, and goes back to the feudal era himself. The negative consequence of this would be that even more romance nonsense would ensue (perhaps with Inuyasha’s reincarnation traveling with Kikyo for a time? Which would be a shoe on the other foot for Inuyasha), but also it would give time for Kagome and Inuyasha’s reincarnation to get to know one another and grow closer, so that perhaps at the end of the series it would make sense for them to be together in the modern era—for everyone to be in their own time periods, but for the two souls that keep falling in love with each other no matter the era to finally get a happy ending this time.

I don’t know. It’s just a thought.

Anyway, that’s about all I’ve got for the moment anyway. It’s a fun little blast from the past but I doubt I’ll continue beyond what Netflix has, especially since I don’t want to have to sit through a billion episodes of repetitive filler, haha. But yeah, the characters are all pretty good most of the time, neither Kagome nor Kikyo deserve the hate they get, the romance melodrama is annoying, the worldbuilding and lore is really interesting, Naraku’s theme is narm as hell, and Kagome’s mother deserves a callout post so she can maybe learn to care about her daughter at least a little. And that’s that on that.

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 18 June – Saint Elisabeth of Schönau (1129-1164) Abbess, Mystic, Ascetic, Writer, Spiritual Adivisor – born in 1126 in Bingen, Germany and died on 18 June 1164 at Bingen, Germany of natural causes.

In the mid 12th century, Elisabeth of Schönau blurred the conventional gender roles of the time, through the dissemination of her astonishing visions.   Elisabeth lived during a time when women were viewed as the weaker sex, both mentally and physically.   Unless a woman were to join a convent or a religious movement, she would be expected to marry and to bear children.   Elisabeth of Schönau, however, was far from powerless, as her visions led her to acquire enough fame to be known far and wide.   Elisabeth became, not only a local celebrity as a result of her visions but, gained popularity throughout other parts of Germany, as well as in France and England.   This enabled Elisabeth to have her own voice, to be known as an individual and to be sought after in an effort to acquire heavenly advice by high order men, including Bishops and Abbots.   For men of such high order to call upon Elisabeth, a mere woman, is extremely significant given the time period in which Elisabeth lived.   Elisabeth’s visions, as well as her twenty-two letters to Bishops, Abbots and Abbesses, enabled her to transcend the traditional gender roles of the time by making her widely known and giving her an individual voice.

Elisabeth was born about 1129, of an obscure noble family named Hartwig.   At the age of 12 she was given to the nuns for education in the St Florin double abbey founded a few years earlier.   At the age of 18 she entered the women’s Congregation.   She made her profession as a Benedictine in 1147.   In 1157 she became Abbess of the nuns under the supervision of Abbot Hildelin.

Her hagiography describes her as given to works of piety from her youth, much afflicted with bodily and mental suffering, a zealous observer of the Rule of Saint Benedict and of the regulation of her convent and devoted to practices of mortification.   In the years 1147 to 1152 Elisabeth suffered recurrent disease, anxiety and depression as a result of her strict asceticism.   St Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) Doctor of the Church admonished Elisabeth in letters to be prudent in the ascetic life.   St Hildegard here:  https://anastpaul.com/2018/09/17/saint-of-the-day-17-september-st-hildegard-von-bingen-osb-1098-1179-doctor-of-the-church/

At Pentecost in 1152, she first had spiritual experiences of a visionary nature, which she and the nuns and monks understood as the authentic message of God.   These generally occurred on Sundays and Holy Days at Mass or Divine Office or after hearing or reading the lives of Saints.   Christ, the Virgin Mary, an angel, or the special Saint of the day would appear to her and instruct her; or she would see quite realistic representations of the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, or other scenes of the Old and New Testaments.

She died on 18 June 1164 at the age of only 35 and was buried in the St Florin Abbey Church.   It is extremely remarkable that she was not buried in the Monastery cemetery or in the Chapel of the nuns but in a prominent place in the Abbey Church itself.   This was unusual and testifies to absolute acceptance of her mystical life, writings and deep veneration.   There has never been a formal Canonisation process (pre-congregation) but every year on the day after her death, that is, on 19 June her memory is celebrated in the Monastery and surrounding towns.   It was not until the late 16th century that she was officially included in the list of Saints at the request of the Archbishop of Mainz and the monks of Schönau (Martyrologium Romanum).

Shrine and Altar of St Elisabeth of Schönau (with the reliquary in which Elisabeth’s skull is kept – see below) in the Monastery Church of St Florin, Kloster Schönau im Taunus.

What Elisabeth saw and heard she put down on wax tablets.   Her Abbot, Hildelin, told her to relate these things to her brother Eckbert, then a cleric at Saint Cassius in Bonn, who acted as an editor.   At first she hesitated fearing lest she be deceived or be looked upon as a deceiver but she obeyed. 

Eckbert (who became a Monk of Schönau in 1155 and eventually succeeded Hildelin as second Abbot) put everything in writing, later arranged the material at leisure and then published all under his sister’s name.

While this relationship between brother and sister allowed for Elisabeth’s wide broadcasting of her visionary experiences, it is evident that Eckbert attempted to have a degree of authority over Elisabeth.   Elisabeth’s response to Eckbert’s efforts regarding certain visions is just one example of how Elisabeth’s actions blurred the conventional gender roles.   The works are published in English in a Collected Works edition.

Statue of St Elisabeth on the south wall of the choir room of St Florin.

Schönau Monastery is a popular place of pilgrimage today.   The Franciscan Minor Monastery is picturesquely situated in the Saale Valley in a river arch on the Franconian Saale.   Steep mountain slopes flank the Monastery and the small town of Schönau.

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Saint of the Day – 18 June – Saint Elisabeth of Schönau (1129-1164) Saint of the Day - 18 June - Saint Elisabeth of Schönau (1129-1164) Abbess, Mystic, Ascetic, Writer, Spiritual Adivisor - born in 1126 in Bingen, Germany and died on 18 June 1164 at Bingen, Germany of natural causes.

[sophiechoir]

Thoughts from Mass 5/31/20: Pentecost & Reconciliation

@ Klasztor Ojców Dominikanów w Łodzi (Monastery of Dominican Fathers in Łódź)

[very long entry today]

Listened to some Latin hymns before watching Mass proper - first one was Veni Creator Spiritus, then O Ignis Spiritus <3

I suppose the comfort of Latin is that it feels mysterious and unknown and so elevated, more divine, but at the same time, since this is a Catholic hymn and ultimately human, we know that the translation is something good and Catholic and human and not entirely alien or unloving. It’s the unknowable without fear. Without understanding, we understand. It’s an abstraction of faith - a work of art. [side note - something is human when human-made]

A proper shrine, which does not reach above the trees (like a Shinto temple) [excepting the spire and its cross]

Zen feels in a Catholic music video - the return to nature to communicate peace and divinity is universal

Mass

Today’s Theme (among many lol): The many vs the one

The alien faces of icons

Tend to worship the unknowable - fear and worship really are closely tied, aren’t they? Just a thin line, yet all-important - perhaps that line is love - perhaps love is what distinguishes true worship from pagan servitude (...no offense)

Conflicting accounts of the relationship between understanding and God/religion, of course!

I wonder about the ratio of priests/monks to nuns - surely there are more of the former?

It filled the house - it filled each person in the house - community & individual

Rewrite the Bible in modern-day context

The world burns & is renewed, wings of flames, wings and tongues, flying sparks, sparking wires, cut or snapped, snapping together, snapping in the wind, the exhalation, the death of many, yet nevertheless life, always life, always the return to life, all in the same house, same body, resurrection without replacement, the phoenix in agony

Many acts, one God

Body of Christ = Church is incredibly anti-individualist

Floating world this week [Edo Period]

“Peace be with you,” He said, showing them the violence wrought upon Him, “Peace be with you.” God, please

Homily

Two Triptychs: [the priest talked rather quickly, so might be incorrect, but this is a fascinating format/argument nonetheless]

Holy Spirit Triptych

Creation of the world

After Flood - the dove?

Christ Incarnate, I think?

~Badness~ Triptych (lol idk what he called it)

Adam and Eve: The matrimony of sin & shame

Cain and Abel: The brotherhood of resentment

Babel: The community of pride & hubris

Healing the harm of the second triptych through the Pentecost: Apostles proclaiming Gospel globally, in all languages, as both a sign of the brotherhood of humanity in faith (#2) and servitude to God and learning and understanding one another (#3/1 I guess). This healing is how we reach happiness and fulfillment - we are fulfilled through the collective faith of the church and by fulfilling each others’ happiness (communist ‘tude, m’dude!).

Focused very much on the Church: through the Holy Spirit, we know God is with us in the Church

Nowhere else does Christ refer to the apostles as his brothers

No sin or weakness of ours can stop or deter God’s will (hm)

The Church is the Chosen One (not any one of us, I suppose is the logic here - oh, logic)

The fallen face of Cain

God gives through others, through the Church - so perhaps prayer is also a method of raising awareness, not just to God but to others - a method of advocacy among the people - what inner room? lol

The *apostles* as guilty for Christ’s death (hm)

God-given strength to forgive

Post-Mass Thoughts: Reconciliation & Politics

Went to confession today for the first time since around Christmas. Our Polish church just now opened in a very limited capacity - only 10 or less people in the building at a time, per government regulations - my mom, my sister, and I had to sign up for a time slot in the evening. Completely bizarre experience, of course. Signs in English with bright red fonts were up everywhere - half-peeling arrows had been taped onto the floor, as if we were robots following a track or dancers tapping out a routine onstage - a hefty bottle of hand sanitizer sat at the entrance (the new baptismal font! lol) - the main hall was blockaded with wooden kneelers, and, peering in, I saw the silhouette of a camera still perched on its stand in front of the altar - and of course everyone wore masks. 

But those masks were frequently half-off or incorrectly worn. The two priests and two volunteers were cheery and casual as they greeted us. We were a bit early. The confession itself felt rushed and anticlimactic - there was no wait in line, no buildup, no feeling of relief afterwards. Even face to face with the priest in the small side chapel, I didn’t experience any significant anxiety or guilt or shame. But perhaps that was partly due to the sins I was confessing as well as the immediate context. Lack of regret for many of them - yikes-!

The drive home was far more eventful, to be honest. I sat in the backseat of the car and listened carefully as my mom and sister spun into a heated discussion of the riots and unrest around the country, in our own Chicago. I mediated a bit at the end, tried to point out commonalities, broaden the perspective, yada yada, but my mom and sister decided themselves that they would end the discussion reconciled and light a candle before bed for the victims of all this violence. Now that part made my heart swell - what an elevating gesture, what perfect sincerity and love-! Now that’s religion’s role in politics. That’s what practicing in a community of faith can do when debate and ideology fail. Light a candle and hold hands as we bow our heads in the dark.

God, it’s gotten really dark.

[didanawisgi]

Written by Tony Kail

“The practices of African traditional religion manifested as a number of diverse spiritual cultures throughout the Caribbean. As Africans were taken as slaves from their homeland the indigenous healing and spiritual traditions of African religion stepped into the soil of the island of Hispaniola. The surviving spiritual practices of Africa could become seen in Haiti and the Dominican Republic in various forms. In Haiti the religion formed what we know as ‘Vodou’, a term from the Fon people of the region of Dahomey in West Africa that means ‘spirit’. The religion of Vodou focuses on the worship of spirits known as ‘Loa’ that rule over nature and humanity. Worship involves various magico-religious rituals, the creation of sacred shrines and interaction with deities.

As one looks at the religion of Haitian based Vodou they may see some familiar Masonic aesthetics. The square and compass, the use of the letter ‘G’ and various Masonic tools can be spotted among a number of the rituals and shrines of Vodu. As we look deeper into the culture, we can also see a number of practices and symbols found in Freemasonry.

History French rule of the island of Hispaniola established the colony of Saint Domingue from 1659 to 1804 in the area of what we now know as Haiti. Freemasonry was officially established in the colony as two lodges were established in 1749. In 1778 a Provincial Grand Lodge was also established under the direction of the Grand Orient of France.

Slaves were initially prohibited from lodges as they were required to be ‘free born’ however some free people of color were admitted into lodges where many obtained Masonic wisdom. Some traveled to France and became members of lodges. Freed slaves from Saint Domingue were recorded as members of the lodge in Bordeaux France. Upon their return to the island some members would establish lodges based on their familiarity and membership with the Craft.

Historian Sally McKee noted that “Scottish-Rite Freemasonry linked the colony of Saint Domingue and Bordeaux. The masonic lodges established in the French Caribbean were part of a transatlantic network, whose mother lodge was located in Bordeaux.” Stephen Morin, considered by some as the founder of the Scottish Rite established several Scottish Lodges in Saint Domingue as did Martinés de Pasqually, the founder of the esoteric order known as ‘Elus de Cohën’. Pasqually’s order combined angelic operations, ceremonial magic and Scottish Rite Freemasonry as a path to return man to his state before the Adamic fall. Morin was a member of the Bordeaux lodge and in Saint Domingue started a ‘Ecossais’ or ‘Scots Masters’ Lodge in the city of Le Cap Francais.

The impact of Freemasonry on the Vodou culture could be seen in the life of one of Haiti and Vodou’s most recognizable historical figures. Francois-Dominique Toussaint Louverture the leader of the Haitian Revolution was a former slave and believed by some historians to be a Freemason. However, many base his affiliation with the Craft based upon his use of a possible Masonic based signature he used when signing documents. One of the other leaders in the Haitian revolution Jean-Jacques Dessalines who later became Haiti’s ruler under the 1805 constitution was a well-known Freemason and had great influence on local Haitian culture. Masonic knowledge would also become disseminated in the practices of some of Africa’s secret societies that operated in secret on the island as well.

Reflections of the Craft Some of the subtle reflections from Freemasonry in Vodou are reflected in the use of cultural terms like ‘Grand Master’ a term used to describe God or ‘Grand Met Bondye’ the ‘good God’. Masonic practices including the use of passwords, gestures and handshakes can be seen in rituals and various initiations in the Vodou religion. One example of this can be seen as the priest known as the ‘Houngan’ greets fellow priests with a sacred handshake. This is elaborated on when competing priests meet together. Donald J. Cosentino, professor of English and World Arts and Cultures at UCLA observed that ‘When competing oungans meet at the beginning of ceremonies, they greet each other with elaborate Masonic handshakes”.

The pantheon of gods and goddesses in the Vodou religion is composed of a number of diverse spirits known as ‘Loa’. Teachings surrounding the Loa speak of many of the spirits as being Freemasons. The warrior Loa of iron known as Ogou and the Loa of the crossroads known as Legba are frequently referred to as Masons. Ogou is depicted and symbolized by the sword, a military symbol and a tool found in Masonic culture as well. Masonic symbolism abounds in the imagery of Masonic Loa Baron Samedi. Baron Samedi, Baron Kriminel and Baron La Kwa are spirts associated with the graveyard. The Baron wears a familiar top hat much like found in lodge regalia and is often depicted with familiar Masonic symbols of coffins, skeletons and various Masonic tools. Some images of the Barons are depicted wearing Masonic aprons. The Loa Agassu, Linglenso and Agau are also viewed as Masonic Loa.

Vévé are symbols traditionally used to call forth the Loa. Priests (Houngans) and priestesses (Mambos) create sacred diagrams from cornmeal and various powders to invoke the energies of specific deities. The square and compass is reflected in the Vévé of the Loa Ayizan and Véve of the spirits of the dead known as ‘Ghede’. In Vodou the square and compass also take on the meaning of symbolizing the male and feminine united together. One writer has pointed out that the Vévé for the Loa Ayizan Velekete not only appears very similar to the square and compass with its overlay of the letter ‘a’ and v’ but has a philosophical component that speaks to Masonic concepts as well. Ayizan Velekete is the protector of the temple and ritual purity and acts as the defender of morality. In the Craft the square and compass speaks to ideals of squaring our actions as we reach for purity and morality (Robinson 2013). The Masonic patron saint of John the Baptist also takes an important role in Haitian Vodou. Legendary Vodou priest and scholar Max Beavior claimed that John the Baptist taught Jesus the secrets of Vodou. His importance is also reflected in a traditional Vodou song. As St. John’s Day is a celebrated holiday in Masonic culture it is also celebrated in Haitian Vodou.

Legrace Benson in the work Nou La, We Here: Remembrance and Power in the Arts of Haitian Vodou speaks of how the Masonic ‘All Seeing Eye’ can be seen in some of the elaborate sequined flags (Drapos) used in Haitian Vodou. Benson claims the image came from Jesuits and Freemasons that came to Haiti. (One particular Vodou priestess I spoke to claims that Freemasonry introduced the Kabballah and the use of sigils to Vodou.) There are some historical accounts that speak of examples of esoteric imagery such as the tetragrammaton and all seeing eye found in the ritual décor of Vodou temples in Haiti.

Masonic tradition is believed to have affected the manner in which some Vodou ceremonies are conducted. Milo Rigaud in his book Secrets of Voodoo states “The older houngan requests the assistance of two other houngans — the oldest he can find-by virtue of the esoteric prescription that holds three masons together form a regular lodge”.

Secret Societies There are secret societies that exist in Haitian Vodou culture such as the Bizango and Sanpwèl societies. Masonic references abound in these cultures with the membership in both societies observing 33 ranks as in Scottish Rite Freemasonry.

Members of these societies utilize a number of forms of coded recognition. Anthropologist Wade Davis notes that many of the societies such as the Bizango society utilize a number of signs and signals upon entering and exiting ritual spaces and in greeting each other. There is an interesting use of symbolic ‘reversal’ in giving and receiving such signs. Ethnologist Andrew Aptar concludes that “Many reversals play in Masonic symbols and even handshakes, suggesting an appropriation of European or Creole signs of power and value through secondary coding.”

Temples The traditional Vodou temple is known as the Houmfort. The main ritual area where most ceremonies occur is known as the Peristyle and much like Masonic lodges has specific pieces of architecture that symbolize various spiritual principles.

Legrace Benson speaks of a Bizango ceremony where the All Seeing Eye of Providence is painted on the central pole (Poto Mitan) in the temple . She also documented the leader of a Sanpwèl society adorning his temple with photographs of himself in Masonic regalia as well as various lodge symbols. She also observed the leader wearing a white Masonic apron while creating a spiritual bath. Benson also observed wooden coffins used by many of the secret societies that are placed by sacred altars. The coffin is a symbol in Freemasonry used to represent death and resurrection.

As a Freemason and a student of African studies I am fascinated by the meeting of these two worlds. I am reminded that both traditions contain elements that are kept as secrets in order to preserve their wisdom. I am reminded that both traditions have survived years of persecution and demonization from those who live in fear and ignorance. Lastly, I am reminded that both traditions have maintained a sacred lineage that has provided community, guidance and fulfillment for thousands of initiates.”

Sources Avengers of the New World, Laurent Dubois, Belknap Press, 2004

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, Maya Deren, McPherson, 1983

Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas, Robert F. Thompson, Museum for African Art, 1993

Freemasonry and Vodou, Journal of the Vodou, 2013

Hegel, Haiti and Universal History, Susan Buck Morss, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009

Institut de la Maison Impériale ď Haïti, http://www.imperialhaiti.fr/the-haitian-empire/freemasonry/

Morin’s Book Plate, Josef Wäges, The Plumbline: The Quarterly Bulletin of the Scottish Rite Research Society, Spring 2017, Volume 24, №1

On African Origin: Creolization and Connaissance in Haitian Vodou, Andrew Aptar, American Ethnologist, Vol. 29, №2 (May, 2002), pp. 233–260

Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodu, Donald J. Cosentino, University of California Museum, 1995

Secrets of Voodoo, Milo Rigaud, City Lights Publishers, 2001

The Exile’s Song: Edmond Dédé and the Unfinished Revolutions of the Atlantic World, Sally McKee, Yale University Press, 2017

The Plantation Machine: Atlantic Capitalism in French Saint Domingue and British Jamaica (The Early Modern Americas), Trevor Burnard, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018

Voodoo in Haiti, Alfred Métraux, Pantheon, 1989

[vgbestiary]

Final Fantasy Ghosts!

It’s interesting to me to see the shapes and forms that a single idea can take depending on the artist, the setting, etc., etc. Final Fantasy, of course, is a series that spans decades! Its initial bestiary was heavily inspired by the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons -- and honestly, ‘inspired’ may be being a bit generous considering it just sort of lifted a large amount of the bestiary -- but over time its creature designs became more and more original. Let’s take a look at how the classical idea of a ‘ghost monster’ evolved over time!

The rules here: The baddy must be called ‘Ghost’ in either the English translation or original Japanese. We’re only looking at the main line series of games, so no spinoffs this time around, alas.

Final Fantasy

It’s interesting to me that instead of a spooky bed sheet ghost, the first Ghost in the series is more of a skeleton in a night robe. This wizard-looking feller appears in the Sunken Shrine, which is a water-themed dungeon that mainly has like, sharks and mermen and stuff in it. Ghosts in Final Fantasy I don’t seem to have any magical abilities, but they can hit you really hard, I guess. I don’t know what it would feel like to be hit by a ghost. I suppose that’s what their staffs are for?

Final Fantasy II

FF2 continues the trend of ghosts taking the appearance of robed skeletons, which is a new one to me. They also have some pretty sexy hair. They can suck up your HP with their swords and cast all sorts of status effects on you, like Poison (called SCOURGE in the original version, which is pretty rad) and Mini. This is a tangent, but I’m glad that, as serious as Final Fantasy tries to be sometimes, it still has goofy spells like Mini and Frog here and there. Aaaanyway, I like these guys polka-dotted capes. One must wonder if they were buried with them, or if they found some kid’s bedsheet after being resurrected and were like, ‘yeah this’ll do.’

Final Fantasy IV

These buddies are actually called ‘Evil Dreamers’ in the original Japanese, but the old SNES translation labelled them as ghosts, so here they are in this list. I like their weird electro color scheme, and the fact that they are floating spectro-heads that can spit fire at you and your buddies. Actually, I’m not sure what an ‘Evil Dreamer’ is. A ghost is an undead soul, but an Evil Dreamer is just a sleeping person whose thoughts manifest into a weird malevolent force, maybe...? Or maybe this particular fiery soul-head just dreams about evil things, and it makes him angry enough to take it out on passersby.

Final Fantasy VI

A visual throwback to the first game’s ghosts, though these guys have a plethora of magic to toss at you. They can cast the Big Three Elemental Types: Fire, Electric, AND Ice! So watch out. They’re actually passengers on FF6′s famous Phantom Train, and some of them will be your allies, but others will just attack you if you talk to them. Oh, they can also stop time! I can only hope that doesn’t mess up the train’s schedule.

Final Fantasy VII

I can’t believe it took until the PS1 to get a good old-fashioned bed sheet-style ghost. Look how lovely this thing is, too! It’s just vague enough to be obvious what it is, but its weird anatomy and creepy skeletal fingers make it genuinely scary, even in this low-poly style. These ghosties appear in the Train Graveyard, which is, to this day, still an incredibly unique location. There’s something really frightening about an area that’s just full of broken-down, busted metal with freaky undead things like this hanging about -- and in groups, no less! FF7′s ghosts can turn invisible at will and cast fire. They can also sap your HP! So watch out, again. Oh, and they can rake your flesh with their spooky red fingers. Honestly, these dudes have such a good design -- and I’m VERY happy to say that they look just as good in the remake.

Final Fantasy IX

What a unique color palette! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a navy ghost before. Its spiky grimace is really nice, too. This egg-shaped specter can use fire AND thunder spells, or it can just suck up your MP. They’re pretty early-game monsters, but I’m happy their designs are so unique regardless. One of my favorite things about the FF series is that, once it hit its stride in 3D, it really didn’t skimp on unique monster designs.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t talk about FF9′s friendly Ghost, who has a much more traditional color scheme and a nice halo just to make sure you know he’s a buddy. He asks you for some rocks, and finding him is part of a sidequest.

Final Fantasy X

Y’know, it’s hard to find a good picture of this guy. This here shows their body well enough, but they’re supposed to have a big ‘tail’ made out of white smoke and some other ghosty, misty parts surrounding it. This concept art shows it better. Anyway! FFX’s ghosts have lots of magical abilities. Upon the aforementioned Standard Big Three JRPG Elements Fire Electric And Ice, they can also cast ‘Doom,’ which basically makes a countdown appear above a character, and when it runs out they bite the big one. I’m a BIG fan of their spindly arms and horns. And again, skeletal ghosts! I never knew skeleton ghosts were a Thing in this series, but here they are.

Final Fantasy XII

Spindly fellas, huh? Not quite a bed sheet ghost, but it still kind of takes that general shape: a vaguely humanoid pale blobby with spectral bits abound. These guys appear in the Garamsythe Waterway, which is sort of a sewer/sluice level. FF12′s bestiary gives lore for each and every monster, and the Ghosts of this game are explicitly tied to the mortal world by magic. Like, someone is intentionally keeping these guys here, and their souls hate it. The lore says that you have to free their soul to kill them, but it seems that hitting them with rulers or swords works, too. They can do the Fire Ice Electric thing, but they can also Blind you or Slow you, and when their HP gets low they will divide into several more ghosts, which makes them kind of annoying to fight. I like the eyeballs in their chest. I can’t help but wonder if the weird arrangement of their facial features and green-white color scheme is a throwback to 7′s Ghosts.

Anyway, so there’s the Ghosts of Final Fantasy. I hope you enjoyed comparing and contrasting them with me! Have a good one.

[satoshi-mochida]

Samurai Shodown will launch worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June, followed by Switch in Q4 2019 and PC at a later date, publisher Athlon Games and developer SNK announced. It will feature Japanese voice-overs and support English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Pan-American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese subtitle language options.

The Unreal Engine 4-powered fighting game is a reboot of the classic series set between the events of Samurai Showdown V and the original game. It will feature 16 total fighters, including 13 returning characters and three brand new characters. Additional characters will be released via post-launch downloadable content.

Here is the official fact sheet:

About

After more than a decade, Samurai Shodown is back! SNK is rebooting one of its most successful series, carrying on the legacy of past titles with a new game that retains the same thrilling battles of past titles in a graphically advanced package. Samurai Shodown’s gameplay is driven by the tense atmosphere of being one strike away from death, and the exhilaration of defeating an opponent with overwhelming power and attacks. Taking place between the events of the original game and Samurai Shodown V, the new game carries on the legacy of the one true weapon-based fighter.

Key Features

Exhilarating Weapons-Based Combat – Samurai Shodown carries on the legacy of the tense battles the series is known for, where players are always one strike away from death, and one powerful attack away from victory.

Evolving the Presentation – Using the power of Unreal Engine 4, SNK is able to modernize the unique atmosphere and setting of past titles in a gorgeously artistic package that achieves a detail and graphical quality like never before.

Unique Cast of Returning and New Warriors – Samurai Shodown welcomes back iconic characters from past iterations, including the swordsman Haohmaru, his rivals Ukyo and Genjuro, the shrine maiden Nakoruru, and fan-favorite Galford. The starting roster will include a total of 16 characters—13 veterans and three newcomers to the franchise.

All New Gameplay – Carrying on some of the key fighting mechanics that made the series popular, such as the Rage Gauge, Rage Explosion, Sword Clash and more, Samurai Shodown will also include several new techniques, including a powerful, one-time use attack from each character called the Super Special Move.

Revolutionary New AI System – Titled Dojo Mode, SNK has developed a proprietary AI system that learns from player patterns and creates a specific Ghost clone from that data. With this system, players can fight against their own Ghost or take on the Ghosts of top players in mock battles.

The public will be able to go hands-on with the game for the first time at PAX East 2019, which runs from March 28 to 31 at the Boston Convention Center. SNK will also host a panel, “Samurai Shodown: Resurrecting a Legend” on March 30 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. ET featuring producer Yasuyuki Oda, director Nobuyuki Kuroki, original Samurai Shodown director Yasushi Adachi, and several other staff members from SNK.

Get a new trailer and 44 minutes of Gematsu-recorded gameplay footage below, as well as our preview of the game and interview with producer Yasuyuki Oda, director Nobuyuki Kuroki, and game designer Joshua Weatherford.

PAX East 2019 Trailer

44 Minutes of PlayStation 4 Pro Gameplay

Navigation

0:20 – Story Mode Introduction: Galford

2:04 – Story Mode Battle: Galford vs. Earthquake

4:49 – Story Mode Battle: Galford vs. Haohmaru

8:05 – Story Mode Introduction: Haohmaru

9:48 – Story Mode Battle: Haohmaru vs. Galford

12:09 – Story Mode Battle: Haohmaru vs. Genjuro

17:02 – Story Mode Introduction: Nakoruru

18:52 – Story Mode Battle: Nakoruru vs. Jubei

21:27 – Story Mode Battle: Nakoruru vs. Jubei (Rematch)

24:35 – Story Mode Battle: Nakoruru vs. Earthquake

29:13 – Battle Mode Battle: Haohmaru vs. Genjuro

32:42 – Battle Mode Battle: Earthquake vs. Charlotte

36:42 – Battle Mode Battle: Genjuro vs. Jubei

41:39 – Battle Mode Battle: Galford vs. Charlotte

Preview

I played about an hour or so of the new Samurai Shodown and it felt good—really good. I have stated this in the past, but I am not big on fighting games. I am generally not good at them and tend to only play for fun with friends. That being said, I went into playing Samurai Shodown without really caring much about it. But after some hands-on time with the weapons-based fighter, I am actually kind of hyped?

Samurai Shodown is being treated as a reboot to the long-running series. Story-wise, it is set in 1787, after the events of Samurai Shodown V in 1786 and before the events of the original Samurai Shodown in 1789. While the Kansei reforms have been enacted by the newly appointed Matsudaira Sadanobu, a mysterious dark force is looming on the horizon, prompting the warriors of Samurai Shodown to gather and set out on individual journeys and fight for their own beliefs. Each character character has a different story.

The game has a roster of 16 characters, 13 of which are returning from previous games. They are Charlotte, Earthquake, Galford, Genjuro, Hanzo, Haohmaru, Jubei, Kyoshiro, Nakoruru, Shiki, Tam Tam, Ukyo, and Yoshitora. The other three are completely new characters who have yet to be announced. I played as a few characters during my session, including Galford, Haohmaru, Nakoruru, and Jubei. As for stages, the stage selection screen appears to offer 13 total options.

Playing round after round of Samurai Shodown, I learned that no two characters are alike and that a single strike has a ton of pull, as one hit can deal massive damage and significantly turn the tide of battle. The game is built atop various mechanics, starting with the “Rage Gauge,” which fills up the more you are hit. When the Rage Gauge is filled entirely, your attack power increases, special moves become stronger, and you can use a “Weapon Flipping Technique” to disarm your opponent. You can also deplete the entire gauge to activate a once-per-match “Rage Explosion,” which enables the use of a “Lightning Blade” attack in which the character leaps forward and uses a quick strike that deals heavy damage. Each character also has a “Super Special” attack that, like Rage Explosion, can only be used once per match. Each Super Special plays out a character-specific scene that reflects their personality or style. Nakoruru’s, for example, captures her resolution to protect Mother Nature while also illustrating her displeasure of fighting. The commands to activate these techniques are simple and the same across every character, which means that there is no need to memorize complicated commands for different fighters. Finally, there are also “Sword Clashes,” which occur when two attacks perfectly clash, prompting you to mash the attack buttons to retain your weapon and send the opponent’s weapon flying.

I picked up on the game’s systems quite fast as I played, and even went toe-to-two with producer Yasuyuki Oda. (Though, I think he went easy on me.) The systems are incredibly easy to grasp, but the real challenge comes in utilizing them correctly while timing your strikes and preventing your opponent from dealing significant damage. It felt like there is quite a lot of strategy involved, and it is something that I found myself wanting to learn and master. Playing as Galford, I got the upper hand on Oda in our first match as he was so used to Galford’s behavior when playing against game designer Joshua Weatherford that he did not expect me to react in certain ways. (Or at least that is what I was told. I still just think he went easy on me!)

In terms of game modes, Samurai Shodown offers the classic Story Mode, an offline Battle Mode (which in itself includes modes such as Survival), an Online mode to compete against players across the world, a Practice mode (which includes Tutorial and Training modes), a Gallery Mode to view player-unlocked movies, artwork, and background music, and a new Dojo Mode in which you can upload and fight against your own “ghost data” or the download and fight against the ghost data of other players.

Dojo Mode is an entirely new asynchronous online mode, which according to SNK utilizes “deep learning technology” to have the game’s artificial intelligence learn from your techniques and habits during offline mode gameplay to create a “ghost AI” character that both you and other players can fight against online. An “Ironman Challenge” mode in which players can try to fight 100 ghosts in succession is also being implemented. SNK even has a patent pending for Dojo Mode. Unfortunately, SNK is not saying more about Dojo Mode for the time being, one of the reasons being that the mode is essentially built off player data, which the team does not currently have.

Visually, Samurai Shodown is an eyeful. From graphics to menus, everything is decorated in a traditional Japanese aesthetic—as is appropriate for its Edo period setting. That setting and visual design make the fighter stand out as something truly unique from the rest of the crowd.

Samurai Shodown is by no means the most well-known name in fighting games, but with the release of this spectacular-looking reboot and its participation as a main title in the upcoming Evo 2019 tournament, I really hope that it gets more recognition. I really want to pick this one up and learn its ins and outs.

Interview

This is the first new Samurai Shodown game in over a decade—the last new one being Samurai Shodown Sen for Xbox 360 and arcade in 2008. What was now the time for something new?

Nobuyuki Kuroki, Director: “There are various reasons, one being that when I was at SNK back in the day, I always wanted to work on Samurai Shodown more and more. I did a little bit of work on the Samurai Shodown 64 series. But there’s also just the fact that there has been a major focus on eSports recently, and I feel like this game in particular is very unique and will stand out on the eSports scene. And in general it’s just an iconic series for SNK, and we’ve had a lot of fan requests from the community to bring it back.”

Speaking of eSports, I think it’s safe to say a lot of people didn’t expect Samurai Shodown to be a main title for Evo 2019 in August. With the game due out in June, are you worried there won’t be enough time for players to learn how to play at a sufficient level?

Yasuki Oda, Producer: “I’m a little worried. (Laughs.) I’m a little bit worried that it might not be the top-level play that you’d see. But I also think that the system in general is just so simple and easy to pick up that people will jump right into it. And you might see a lot of people come out of nowhere that haven’t been on the scene before, who resonate with this game that’s so different from other games, and make a new entrance.”

Joshua Weatherford, Game Designer: “I personally think that the systems are not just simple, but also difficult to master. So it’s that perfect balance for me in game design. One thing that we like to point out is that we were very careful to stay as close to the roots as possible for some of this stuff. So you know a lot of times whenever you see modern fighting games, they’ll change the move sets around, cut some of them out—almost none of that happened here. We kept everything in—we just tuned it a little bit to be more balanced for modern fighting games—but there’s very few cases where you have a character that’s lost half of there moves or something like that. So people who know Samurai Shodown from the past, who know a specific character—they’re going to be able to jump right in, in my opinion.”

Moving on to characters, The King of Fighters XIV had a very generous starting roster of 50 or so fighters, compared to the 16-character roster of Samurai Shodown. Do you feel like that might be too little?

Weatherford: “Not really.”

Oda: “We’re not really worried about that honestly, because The King of Fighters is a team-based fighting game—three-versus-three, so you need a full team of three characters. So in my opinion, when you take one-third of that roster, you get about the amount in this game, so it works. Also, there’s not really a single clone character—that’s always been one of the things about Samurai Shodown. Even Hanzo and Galford, two ninjas that should play alike, play nothing alike. A couple of motions might be similar, but very few characters are actually similar to other characters. So all of them really stand on their own.”

And you guys aren’t showing the three original characters right now, but can you give us a hint?

Athlon Games representative: “No! We’re not answering that. (Laughs.)”

Hey, get out of the room! (Laughs.)

Weatherford: “They’re really cool, that’s all I’ll say. All three of them are really cool.”

Woo, big giveaway there. (Laughs.) Anyway, while we’re still talking about characters, given the rising popularity of guest characters, is there a possibility that we’ll see fighters from other franchises appear in Samurai Shodown?

Oda: “Yeah, we’re definitely interested, especially in finding a character that really fits this kind of gameplay.”

Say there were no restrictions on which guest character you could include, who would you choose to add to the roster?

Kuroki: “Oh man, that’s hard… Luke Skywalker.”

Oda: “(Pulls up an image of a Mobile Suit from the Gundam franchise on his phone.)”

Weatherford: “For me, I’d want TOEI Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man and I want something that’d fit this, so there’s actually a tokusatsu Spider-Man—like old school, giant robots—made back in the ’70s… None of these could ever actually be in because of licensing issues. (Laughs.)”

Oda: “If I’m thinking about swordplay, I’d like to put in Aragon from The Lord of the Rings.”

How do you plan to draw in beginners or players who don’t normally play fighting games?

Kuroki: “I think it really just comes from the basic fighting system of the game. Single strikes are so useful and damaging that you could win even if you land a lucky strike against a high level player.”

I think that’s what I did against Oda-san…

Oda: “(Laughs.) Well, we also made sure that all the super moves are the same inputs for each character. So as long as you know one character, you can easily jump into another character. Which is very different from say, The King of Fighters. That’s very difficult to keep up with everyone’s supers.”

Well, that about wraps up our time. Thank you for speaking to me! I wish you a successful public debut at PAX East 2019!

[koikishu]

Essential Japanese Seasonal Decorations - New Years

Seasonality: Late Winter/ January

Japanese Name: Shichifukujin

English Name: Seven Lucky Gods

     In Japanese mythology, the Seven Lucky Gods or Seven Gods of Fortune [七 福神] are believed to grant good luck and often have their place in netsuke engravings or in other representations. Amongst the seven, not all the gods are mythical characters, as there is one who is a historical figure. They all began as remote and impersonal gods, but gradually became much closer canonical figures for certain professions and Japanese arts. 

Ebisu [恵比寿] is the god of prosperity and wealth in business, and of abundance in crops, cereals and food in general. He's the patron of fishermen. He’s often represented with fishermen's costumes and any large fish, in general, that symbolizes abundance in meals. It’s common to see him in restaurants where fish is served in great quantities or in household kitchens.

Daikokuten [大黒天] is the god of commerce and prosperity. He’s the patron of cooks, farmers, bankers, and protector of crops. He's also a demon hunter. This god is often represented by his smile and carrying a bag full of valuable objects.

Benzaiten [弁才天] is the goddess of talent, beauty and music. She's the patron of artists, writers, dancers, and geisha, among others. She's represented as a smart, beautiful woman, with all the aforementioned attributes, carrying a biwa (a Japanese traditional lute-like instrument) and a white snake. In many occasions, it's common to see her at the entrances of Japanese Shinto temples.

Bishamonten [毘沙門天] is the god of fortune in war and battles, as well as authority and dignity. He is the patron of fighters and protector of those who follow the rules and behave appropriately. He's represented dressed in armour and a helmet, carrying a pagoda in his left hand and a spear in his right hand. He also acts as protector of holy sites and important places.

Hotei-osho [布袋] is the god of fortune and popularity as well as the guardian of children. He is the patron of diviners and barmen. He’s often represented as a fat, smiling, bald man with a curly moustache. He always appears half naked, as his clothes are not wide enough to cover his enormous belly. He carries a bag on his shoulders which is, according to the beliefs, loaded with fortunes for those who believe in his virtues. 

Fukurokuju [福禄寿] is the god of wisdom, luck, longevity, wealth and happiness. Moreover, he is the only god who was said to have the ability to resurrect the dead. He is represented as having a head as large as the size of his whole body and wearing traditional Chinese costumes, carrying a cane in one hand and a scroll in the other with writings about the world. He's usually accompanied by a turtle, a crow or a deer. He’s the patron of chess players and students.

Jurouzin [寿老人] is the god of the elderly and longevity. He is represented as being approximately 1.82 meters tall with a very long head and a long white beard, riding a deer and accompanied by a 1500 years old crane and tortoise. In addition, he is usually represented under a peach tree. In his hands, he holds a cane and a book or a scroll, with the wisdom of the world written in its pages. This god enjoys rice and wine, and is a very cheerful figure.

     At the beginning of January each year in Japan, large numbers of people participate in a short pilgrimage called the Shichifukujin Meguri (七福神めぐり) to pray at seven local temples and shrines for good luck in the coming year. A Shichifukujin Meguri isn’t necessarily limited to winter. However, the gods are said to arrive bearing gifts for the worthy in their treasure ship around the coming of the new year, so January is the traditional time to make this pilgrimage. In fact, some temples and shrines only provide the traditional stamps, described below, around New Year’s.

(Text Source 1) (Text Source 2)

DISCLAIMER: This is not a sponsored post from the source website nor am I selling these items through this tumblr account. This post is the result of my finding this item to adorable and/or beautiful to not include on this account. Thank you for your understanding.

[hekate1308]

Grease The Wheels

Part of my Wheels series, human hunter!Crowley, Team Free Will case fic. Enjoy!

He was playing fetch with Juliet in the woods behind the bunker when Dean came looking for them.

“Crowley, we got a case in –“

Juliet jumped up to catch the ball.

Considering neither of them could see her, it looked rather funny.

“Huh” Dean said, “She’s getting better every day. In the beginning she’d just devour it.”

“My girl is smart, aren’t you?” Crowley scratched her behind the ears as at treat. “What kind of case?”

“Don’t know yet. People have been dying of an unidentified disease in North Caroline. I know how this sounds, but the symptoms appear to be the same as that of the sweating sickness.”

“The sweating – as in the English sweate? Tudors style?”

Dean nodded. “Yep. All dead within twenty-four hours.”

“But no miracle recoveries as of yet?”

“Nope. Could be a witch.”

“I’ll call Mother, then.”

Dean nodded. “Must be rather an old witch too, if it is. Don’t think anyone younger than... two hundred years would come to think of the sweating sickness of all things.”

“I don’t remember much about it... was a bit before my time.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what books are for. Sammy and Cas are already at it, the little nerds.”

“So you didn’t immediately identify the illness in question?” Crowley raised an eyebrow.

Dean grinned. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Peaches. Juliet!”

As always she immediately trotted to Dean’s side. He reached down to pet her. “Any idea how big she’ll eventually be?”

Crowley shrugged. “Hellhounds really just... keep growing if they aren’t killed.”

“Ah well, we’ll see. Let’s go.”

“The old Sweate? Crowley, that’s old-fashioned even for us!”

“I know, Mother.”

“Old Gobbert – you remember his mill from back in the day? He always thought he’d catch it even though there hadn’t been an outbreak in two hundred years –“

“Yes, Mother, I do remember. He used to get drunk and then ramble through the village.”

“The good old times, ay. But Crowley – this is not to be taken lightly. I remember how scared people were of the Sweat, even though two centuries had passed. No one who’s lived through it should wish it upon someone else.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

“And I’ll try and see if I can contact some other witches. Maybe they know something.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and if you should happen to talk to Sheriff Mills, greet her from me. We just had tea the other week.”

He hung up, wondering what they could possibly have talked about.

“Mother is working on it” he told the others, stepping into the war room.

Dean nodded. “Guess we’ll be on our way, then.”

As it turned out, they didn’t need Rowena to find the witch, nor to do any digging.

Instead, the Impala had barely rolled into town when Crowley saw the culprit. “Father Roy” he breathed.

“What?”

“Keep driving” he instructed Dean, fighting down the impulse to duck down. Even if the priest saw him, he wouldn’t recognize him.

Crowley didn’t know him here. They had met in another universe.

Stumbling through the wasteland Michael’s and Lucifer’s price fight had left behind, human, hungry and tired, the single hut had seemed like Paradise incarnate.

If he hadn’t been just resurrected human, if he had had all his wits about himself, he would have asked some obvious questions.

For example why someone who had literally lived through the end of the world would feel the need to isolate himself from human company.

But, as it was, Crowley had seen the light shine through the windows of the building and had decided to knock.

The man who opened it wore a priest cloak and didn’t seem surprised to see him; two other signs that should have tipped him off.

“Hello there. You look like you could use a good meal and a place to sleep.”

In his defence, Crowley was rather unaccustomed to being met with kindness.

“Thank you.”

“Please. It’s the end of the world; we have to help one another to survive, wouldn’t you say?”

His brain came back online when he was served dinner. “No offense, but how do you find meat here?” he asked casually.

“Oh you know, you just have to know a little bit about hunting.”

The grin he gave him was nothing short of predatory.

By now, alarm bells were ringing in his mind. Dean – no, he was trying not to think of them – would have considered Roy a “grade A creep” no doubt.

“I see.”

Despite the hunger gnawing at him, he only took a few bites. It was a good decision; otherwise, his new life would have ended before it began.

Crowley was starting to feel strangely drowsy when he noticed Roy getting up and reaching for something –

He sprang up.

Roy was brandishing a hatchet, grinning at him. “You’ll do just fine; meat for months –“

He might have been human, but he had also been the King of Hell, and survived nearly a decade of knowing the Winchesters.

The ensuing struggle was short, fuelled on Roy’s side by desperation and insanity, while Crowley not only fought for his life, but also felt rather disgusted at the thought that he’d just been served human flesh.

Eventually, he managed to wrench the hatchet out of Roy’s grasp.

“How?” he demanded, looking up at him.

“I’m Crowley. It’s how I roll.”

“Please” he begged, “Please, I promise I won’t do it any more –“

Crowley felt his now-human heart beat wildly in his chest and knew that any killing from now on would be followed by remorse.

He slit Roy’s throat.

Sometimes it was just worth it.

A week later, when he stumbled upon the camp that had taken in Mary as well, it was surprisingly this slaughter of a serial killer that got him into their good graces. When Bobby was questioning him, he mentioned his little problem.

He raised an eyebrow. “You survived Roy?”

“I killed Roy.”

He was taken in immediately.

“Let me repeat that. Your very first day as a human, you murdered a serial killer?”

“It was self defence.” Roy’s death had brought him far less sleepless nights than anything he had done as demon.

Dean hummed. “Doesn’t mean he has to be one hear as well, though.”

“It’s...” he shook his head. “It’s not quite like that. The basic... settings of everyone I met were pretty much identical to those in our world. Bobby was just the same loveable curmudgeon he was back here, and from what he told me about Mary, she was the same kind of hunter she happened to be in our world.”

“Hm. Is killing people by quick illness instead of eating them a step up or down the ladder?” Dean asked.

“Squirrel, I would say both are offenses that would ensure you ended up in Hell.”

“Regardless” Sam interjected, “We should make sure we have the right man before we do anything against him.”

“A priest who’s also a witch” Cas said. “A rather interesting combination.”

“Especially if you add Hannibal Lecter into the mix” Crowley answered. “But yes, I agree, we should probably not judge him too hastily.”

Dean turned to him, grinning. “I have an idea.”

And somehow, he knew exactly what that idea was.

Sam had had his choice of words to say on the matter of course, while Cas had just huffed and shaken his head.

Their former angel friend still wasn’t the best at impersonating others, although he did make a good FBI agent these days.

And so Dean and Crowley ended up calling at Roy’s dressed as priests who were just passing through.

“You saved me from writing a rather dreary sermon – Bless their hearts, some people are too specific when it comes to their wedding.”

He seemed perfectly friendly and welcoming, but then that had been the case in the other world too.

Crowley caught Dean’s eyes.

Soon enough, the hunter excused himself to go to the bathroom.

“Say, you seem familiar. Are you sure I haven’t seen you before?” Roy asked casually.

“I don’t think so” he replied simply.

He shrugged. “Maybe in another life.”

The statement was too accurate for Crowley’s liking, even though the man could know nothing. No, it was remembering; remembering these first few days as a human with nothing but hunger and pain and confusion, and thinking that he’d never see the boys again.

Dean returned and Crowley knew immediately that he’d been right. They said their goodbyes soon afterwards.

“Don’t know much about priests, but I am guessing most of them don’t keep a shrine for the powers of Darkness in their bedroom.”

“You would be surprised. I have sold many of them deals over the centuries.”

“Don’t doubt it, but I don’t think we got a demon involved. Just a priest become witch become serial killer.”

Only it got a little more complicated than that, because Dean began to feel ill soon after they had returned to the motel.

“Dean” Sam said immediately, “Is it –“

“I think so. Damn it. Must have realized something was the matter with us...” Dean mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“No matter how tired you get, you can’t fall asleep” Crowley said immediately, “It was thought lethal at the time, if I remember.”

“And you need to sweat it out” Cas said, unflappable as always, but Crowley could tell that underneath the surface he was panicking just as much as him and Sam.

“I’ll call Rowena.”

She picked up at the third ring, thank God.

“Mother, Dean is sick. We need a way to break this spell now.”

For a few seconds, she didn’t answer, and suddenly he found himself waiting for a quip how she could do very well without Dean Winchester in her life, or that she wasn’t beholden to them, like there would have been before – before.

Instead, she said, “I’ll come as quickly as I can. Don’t worry, we’ll get him sorted out.”

She hung up and Crowley was left with the unfamiliar feeling that she had been trying to comfort him.

Dean was getting worse by the minute.

Cas, while trying his best, was clearly fretting because he could no longer heal him.

Crowley could sympathize. Once upon a time, he would have snapped his fingers and transported his mother here.

She came soon enough, four rather miserable hours later, with them trying to do research while keeping Dean conscious.

“Hello boys –“

“That’s my line” Crowley mumbled. She ignored him, naturally.

“Oh dear. He looks rather poorly. Alright, I need to read this spell, give me a few minutes.”

She did indeed work remarkably quickly. “The witch who cast the spell has to die for it to unravel, it seems.”

“That won’t be a problem” Crowley said lightly. He didn’t very much like anyone going after a member of their team.

She waved towards the door. “Just go. I’ll look after him.”

When they hesitated for a moment, a strange expression crossed her face. “You boys cared for me when I was too weak to walk. He’s safe with me.”

They left.

They always kept enough witch-killing bullets in the booth of the Impala. That wasn’t the problem.

No, the problem was that none of them had considered that Roy might use an old tracking spell on them.

In their defence, it was old. Older than Crowley, for one thing. Demon years included.

And so Roy was waiting for them.

Crowley was really getting tired of being thrown around, especially at walls.

“Thought you would immediately come if I dropped a little spell on your friend. Rather special, isn’t he?”

Crowley rolled his eyes. What was it with this man and gleefully trying to taunt him?

Thankfully, a well-timed bullet shot by Cas did him in when he opened his mouth again.

“Good shot” Sam breathed.

Crowley got a text.

Dean is doing fine. Mother.

“Everything’s alright” he announced.

And for that evening, Rowena staying for dinner, everything was.  

[lawrenceop]

Salve Regina!

A talk on the Titles of Mary in the ‘Salve Regina’ given at a ‘Day with Mary’ in the Rosary Shrine on 25 November 2017.

If you were to come here on a Sunday evening, around 5:45pm, you’ll see a procession of Dominican friars in their black and white habits, singing as they walk to the Lady Altar. The words that they’re singing are well known to us: “Salve Regina, Mater misericordiæ…”. These words date to the 11th century, but the tune which the Dominicans sing are, perhaps, less familiar, and it dates to the at least the 13th century. The custom of processing and singing the ‘Salve Regina’ every night also dates to the 13th century – it was first introduced by the Dominicans about 1221 in their priory in Bologna, in the church where St Dominic is now buried. According to a 13th-century compilation of stories from the early Dominicans called ‘The Lives of the Brethren’, Blessed Jordan of Saxony, Second Master of the Order, instituted this practice of the “Salve Procession” in order to beseech Mary’s protection for the friars who were being tempted and tormented by evil spirits: “At once, the phantoms were put to flight [and] those who were tormented were left in peace”. And Blessed Jordan also wrote that when the Salve is sung, he saw Our Lady at the feet of Christ “praying for the preservation of the Order”. So, the Dominicans have a great devotion to Our Lady and especially to this antiphon; unlike the Roman custom of changing the Marian antiphon with each liturgical season, the Dominicans (until very recently) would sing the Salve all year round. The Salve is also intimately connected with the Holy Rosary, a devotion promoted throughout the world by the Dominicans. Indeed, tradition says that Our Lady taught the Rosary to St Dominic, and told him to use it to combat the evil of heresy. So, together with the Rosary, the Salve is dear to the Dominican heart.

Therefore, my talk today is about the Salve Regina. But time does not allow me to analyse the theology and beauty behind the whole prayer. Rather, my attention was drawn to the titles given to Mary at the very beginning of the prayer. Our Lady is greeted, “Salve”, which means ‘Welcome’, or even simply ‘Hello’. In the English translation we can see immediately its relation to the angelic salutation: “Hail”! The angel Gabriel then follows his greeting with the most awesome title given to describe Mary: “full of grace”. In fact, the Greek word that St Luke used is much richer than the English can encapsulate. The word is kécharitôméne, and this form of the verb in Greek signifies that “Mary has been transformed by the grace of God”, and “if it is true that Mary was entirely transformed by the grace of God, that then means that God has preserved her from sin, ‘purified’ her, and sanctified her". St Gabriel’s title for Mary thus tells us of Mary’s uniqueness in the history of salvation, and of everything that God has done for her. Everything that Mary is, and everything that Mary does is possible only because of God’s grace at work in her life so singularly and powerfully.

An understanding of this angelic title given to Mary and recounted in the Gospel is vital if we’re to understand properly the titles used in the ‘Salve Regina’, for they all flow from Mary’s plenitude of God’s transforming and sanctifying grace. The five titles at the beginning of the Salve are: Regina, Mater Misericordiæ, Vita, Dulcedo, and Spes nostra. I shall look briefly at each of them and comment on how they disclose to us Mary’s role in our lives and in God’s saving work.

Regina Mary’s Queenship is derived from her divine Motherhood. She is Mother of God, of Jesus Christ who is the universal King, and so Mary is fitting called the Queen Mother. Scott Hahn, who shall be speaking here in our Rosary Shrine next March, observes that in ancient Israel, “the woman honoured as queen was not the wife of the king but the mother of the king”, and moreover, one of the key roles of the Queen Mother was to intercede for the people and present their petitions to him. So, when we hail Mary as our Queen, we’re signalling that we want her to hear our prayers and present to Christ on our behalf. This is clearly a fitting title for the start of the Salve, which is a prayer, of course, containing one single petition, which is that we should see Christ face to face in heaven. The Salve is fundamentally a prayer that we may receive the grace of the beatific vision enjoyed by all the saints; all genuine prayer is directed towards this goal of eternal salvation. So, in the first place, Mary is called Queen because of her divine Motherhood. Consequently, St John Damascene says: “When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature.”

However, it’s not only in the realm of our creaturely human nature that Mary is Queen. She is also Queen in the order of grace, in that which concerns our salvation. For Mary is called Queen because of her plenitude of grace setting her far above all other human beings because she is, in an unparalleled way, full of holiness and love. Thus, St Andrew of Crete, writing in the 8th century says that Mary is “the Queen of the entire human race… who is exalted above all things save only God himself.” Moreover, Pope Pius XII explains that “the Blessed Virgin Mary should be called Queen… because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of our eternal salvation”. Mary has an “active part in the work of our salvation” because she gave of her own substance, her own flesh, to the Saviour. Therefore Mary is so closely united to Christ that, Pope Pius XII says, there is an “inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father.” Hence, as Queen Mother, Mary is our intercessor, and she is most efficacious of all intercessors because of her active interest in our salvation, and because of her Queenship over all people. This first title, therefore, proclaims Mary’s pre-eminence as intercessor and object of our prayers. Hence, St Dominic was told in a vision of Our Lady, that whenever the Order prayed the Salve, she interceded for the Order and asked Our Lord to protect the Dominicans.

Mater Misericordiæ According to St Thomas Aquinas, the word mercy refers to “the compassion in our hearts for another person’s misery, a compassion which drives us to do what we can to help him”. This title, therefore, explains why Mary is such a great intercessor for us: it is because she is full of compassion, a Mother of Mercy. The reason for this is, again, due to the fullness of grace that she has, making her full of love and like God who is all merciful.

We know that in art, following the words of Scripture, Mary’s Immaculate Heart is often depicted with a sword piercing it. This is a fitting depiction of Mary’s compassionate heart, full of mercy, because, as St Thomas says, the Latin word for mercy, ‘misericordia’ means to have a miserable heart, that is to say, a heart that suffers. Mary suffers in her heart when she sees our misery, we who are the “poor banished children of Eve”. For no mother can bear to hear her children cry, so Mary cannot fail to be moved when we, her children, go to her crying, “mourning and weeping in this vale of tears”.

Indeed, in the Dominican tradition, it is believed that Mary founded the Order of Preachers to eradicate heresy, and thus to save sinners from error and sin, because Mary had so much mercy and compassion for sinners. The story is told in the ‘Lives of the Brethren’ of Mary begging Jesus to have pity on lost souls: “Such prayers as these did the Mother of mercy pour forth for sinners, kneeling at the feet of her Son. At length, on the third day, raising her up with great tenderness, the Son replied: “I know, sweet Mother, that sinners are being lost for want of preachers, having none to break open for them the bread of the holy Scriptures, or teach the truth, or open the books now sealed to them. Wherefore, yielding to you entreaties, I will send them new messengers, an Order of Preachers, who shall call the people and lead them to everlasting joys”. Therefore, the preaching of truth and the teaching of the Faith is a great work of mercy, and one that, it seems to me, we need desperately in our world. Surely, the world cries out now to Our Lady for help, and I pray that she will respond by moving many men and women to become Dominicans!

Vita The name ‘Eve’ means “Mother of the Living”, and yet, through Eve’s disobedience and sin, humanity was condemned to death through the condition of original sin. For as St Paul says, “the wages of sin is death.” As such, Eve’s name is somewhat ironic, or rather, tragic because it reminds us that through sin she had forsaken her vocation as mother of the living. However, Christ who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” rescues Mankind from the predicament of original sin, and he opens for us the way to Paradise once more. So, St Irenaeus says, “Jesus’s obedience on the tree of the cross reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden”. Moreover, by his death and resurrection, Christ becomes the source of our resurrection with him to eternal life.

However, Mary participates in this saving work of Christ, and so she is called “our life”. Due to Mary’s sinless obedience, which is a fruit of her fullness of grace; an effect of her being preserved from the stain of original sin through the merits and grace of Christ, Mary becomes the New Eve, the true Mother of the Living. So St Irenaeus says that “As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God”. Therefore, Mary’s “Yes” to the angel Gabriel overturns and reverses what Eve does so that just as through Eve death enters the world, so through Mary, the new Eve, life is restored to the world.

In the 4th century, therefore, St Epiphanius writes that “in truth from Mary the Life itself [i.e. Jesus] was born in the world, such that Mary might bear living things, and become the Mother of living things. Therefore, Mary is called the Mother of living things… Also, there is another wonderful thing to consider about these women, Eve and Mary: Eve became a cause of death to mankind… and Mary a cause of life. For through her life is given to humanity in exchange for death, that is to say, we receive from Mary, he who through the Woman has become our life”.

Hence, several stories in ‘Lives of the Brethren’ report that Mary came to many of the Dominican brothers on their deathbed, and she would lead them to eternal life. As one dying brother said after Our Lady appeared to him: “I look forward to my death with joy, and am all eagerness to hasten away to the place prepared and shown me by the Queen of heaven”!

Dulcedo So we see that Mary, the Queen of heaven, who leads her children to life makes death sweet for her children. This, St Alphonsus Liguori says, is why Mary is called “our sweetness”. Many people fear death, and they suffer terribly at the hour of death to the extent that they might even despair and turn from God. However, Our Lady frequently promises us that if we remain close to her, and if we are devoted to her, she will grant us a happy and holy death. Thus, we say repeatedly in the Rosary: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death”. This, in effect, is a prayer that Mary will come to us at our deathbeds and sweeten that passage from this life to the next through the doorway of death.

In the ‘Lives of the Brethren’, the story is recounted of a Dominican brother from Metz who, as death drew nearer, changed: “his eyes sparkled with unusual brilliance, and he began to clap his hands as a sign of the great joy that reigned within him, as if his soul were eager for its flight but unable to burst its mortal bands. Presently, he was heard to murmur: ‘O most blessed Lady, thy presence is indeed a most welcome one!’ Then he began to sing Mary’s praises”! To this day, in the Dominican tradition, when a brother is dying, a bell summons the other brothers to his deathbed and they sing the ‘Salve Regina’.

How beautiful is this prayer that, at the hour of our death, Mary will come as our sweetness and make that which is most dreadful into something to be embraced and, even, desired. Thus St Alphonsus says that “if you are faithful to Mary, even though you have previously offended God, she will procure you a sweet and happy death”.

Spes Nostra Therefore, Mary is called our hope. We place our hope in her promises of securing for us life and sweetness; we hope in her merciful and immaculate heart; we hope in her Queenship. All that Mary obtains for us is given to her from her Son, and it is he who desires that we receive these graces through her intercession. So, when we place our hope in Mary, we know that, ultimately, we hope in Christ who is the source of Mary’s plenitude of grace and who has given his Mother such a unique role in our salvation. Hence Pope Pius XII said: “the Blessed Virgin possessed, after Christ, not only the highest degree of excellence and perfection, but also a share in that influence by which He, her Son and our Redeemer, is rightly said to reign over the minds and wills of men. For if through His Humanity the divine Word performs miracles and gives graces, if He uses His Sacraments and Saints as instruments for the salvation of men, why should He not make use of the role and work of His most holy Mother in imparting to us the fruits of redemption?”

Therefore, it is right and just that we hope in Our Lady. She is ever-faithful Mother, and we have every reason to trust in her powerful intercession because she has never let us down. One of the most beautiful stories in ‘The Life of the Brethren’ recalls a promise she made to St Dominic. We’re told that in his prayers, St Dominic “was caught up in spirit from where he was standing to the throne of God, and there he beheld our Lord, and the Blessed Virgin sitting on his right hand”. But as St Dominic looked around heaven, he saw men and women from every Order in the Church standing before God, but he did not see a single one in a black and white habit, not a single Dominican. St Dominic began to cry, and when Christ asked him why he wept, he said “I am grieving because I see here members of every religious Order, but of my own not one.” Then Our Lord said to St Dominic: “Do you wish to see your Order?”, and St Dominic nodded and said “Yes, Lord”. So, placing his hand lovingly on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s shoulder, Jesus replied: “I have given over your Order to my mother’s care.” At these words, the Blessed Virgin drew back her mantle, and opening it wide before St Dominic, it seemed to enclose nearly the whole of that heavenly country, so vast was it, and beneath it he saw a great company of his brethren.”

Hence, every year, the Dominican Order celebrates the feast of Our Lady Patronage over the Order, and we entrust ourselves to her motherly protection, placing the hope of our salvation in Our Lady’s intercession and prayer. So, let us end with the Collect said at the Mass on this feast day:

Let us pray: “Faithful and merciful God, you placed the Order of Preachers under the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Grant, we pray, that she who is now our life, our sweetness and our hope may at this life’s end mercifully show to us Jesus, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

[solitariussanctumartarchitecture]

Also known as Basilique du Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre.

Designed by Paul Abadie

Style: Romano-Byzantine

Constructed of travertine stone

Construction began in 1875 and was consecrated in 1919

"Montmartre has been a place of worship : from the Druids of ancient Gaul, through the Romans with their temples dedicated to Mars and Mercury, to the Church of Saint Peter, the oldest in Paris, rebuilt in the 12th century next to the Royal Abbey of Montmartre by Louis VI and his wife Adélaïde de Savoie… Finally, the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur, erected at the end of the 19thcentury. Today, this shrine of prayer remains faithful to its tradition: God is well and truly present!

Through Saint Geneviève, who lived in the 5th century, we learn of the existence of Saint Denis. Thanks to her this first Bishop of Paris entered the annals of history, for in the life story of Saint Geneviève written by one of her contemporaries in 475 it is related that she persuaded the people of Paris to erect a chapel on the site where he was martyred. Saint Denis, first Bishop and Martyr of Paris, as well as his legend, illustrate this period when the disciples of Christ triumphed “not by fighting, but by dying”.

The original chapel built on the mound in honour of Saint Denis fell into ruin in the 9th century. It was subsequently rebuilt, as the hill of Montmartre was a popular place of pilgrimage. Apart from Saint Denis, the remains of a large number of anonymous Christians martyred during the persecutions were venerated, thus contributing to the hill being called the Mount of Martyrs (Mont des Martyrs - Montmartre).

In 1559 a fire destroyed a large part of the abbey of the Benedictines of Montmartre located at the summit of the mound and from then on the misfortunes increased, until 1611 when Marie de Beauvilliers, who had governed the abbey for almost sixty years, undertook the restoration of the Martyrium on the side of the hill. Around this chapel a new abbey known as the lower abbey was built, which was connected to the upper abbey by a long, vaulted gallery.

During construction, on 11 July 1611, a staircase was discovered that led to an ancient crypt that was said to have been sanctified by Saint Denis. This discovery caused a sensation. Marie de Médicis and over sixty thousand people came to the site, setting off a new wave of devotion.

At the end of the 14th century the French King Charles VI, after being cured of an attack of madness and after miraculously escaping the flames of a fire, made a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to the Martyrium of Montmartre.

At the beginning of the 15th century, when Paris was the scene of the bloody struggle between the Armagnacs and Burgundians, the butchery and pillage were such that the parishes of the city came in procession to the hill of Montmartre to ask Saint Denis to save the capital.

In 1525, when François Ist was taken prisoner by the Spanish at the battle of Pavia, the people of Paris thronged to Montmartre to pray to the patron saint of the kingdom to end the great desolation. On 15 August 1534, Saint Ignatius, Saint Francis-Xavier and their companions founded the Society of Jesus.

For centuries the Abbey of Montmartre was a centre of intense religious life and a place of pilgrimage. In 1792 the Benedictines were dispersed by the French revolutionaries and the monastery was razed. The last Abbess, Marie-Louise de Montmorency-Laval, mounted the scaffold on 24 July 1794 and her blood gave rise to the miraculous resurrection of religious life that took place eighty years later on the sacred mound. The only surviving part of the abbey of the Ladies of Montmartre is Saint Peter’s church, whose choir served as a chapel for the nuns."

http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/english/history-and-visit/article/montmartre-the-mount-of-martyrs

Basilica of the Sacred Heart - Paris, France

This Roman Catholic church is located on the highest point in the city. The great bell of the tower is one of the worlds heaviest bells, weighing 19 tonnes. The church provides the second highest viewpoint in Paris, the first highest being the Eiffel Tower. 

[xtruss]

Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque Shut As Precaution Against Coronavirus

Holy mosque and Dome of the Rock have closed, but Muslim prayer will still be held outdoors in the Al-Aqsa compound.

Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock will close their doors to worshippers as a precaution against the new coronavirus, adding that outdoor prayers will still be allowed at the complex that houses Islam's third holiest site.

— March 15, 2020 | Al Jazeera English

‘All prayers will be held in the open areas of the Aqsa Mosque,' Al-Aqsa Mosque director Omar Kiswani said.

The Islamic authority that oversees Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem has announced that the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock will close their doors to worshippers as a precaution against the new coronavirus, adding that outdoor prayers will still be allowed at the complex that houses Islam's third holiest site.

"The Islamic Waqf department decided to shut down the enclosed prayer places inside the blessed Aqsa mosque until further notice as a protective measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. All prayers will be held in the open areas of the Aqsa Mosque," the director of Al-Aqsa mosque, Omar Kiswani, told Reuters news agency on Sunday.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs ordered mosques and churches to be closed in all the governorates in the occupied Palestinian territories until further notice as part of efforts to curb the coronavirus, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Mosques across the occupied West Bank called through loudspeakers for Muslims to perform the regular daily prayers at home rather than at mosques, aiming to restrict gatherings of people, according to Wafa.

Palestinian Authority spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said three more cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, raising the total number of infections to 38.

Palestinian officials confirmed the first cases in Bethlehem on March 5, subsequently declaring a state of emergency and shutting down Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, while the Israeli army sealed off the city.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced a 30-day lockdown in a special broadcast, saying the measures were essential to contain the disease.

Public parks, tourist sites, schools and educational facilities have closed and all major gatherings including sporting events and conferences have been cancelled.

Meanwhile, Israel's Health Ministry announced on Sunday that 200 Israelis have so far tested positive for the coronavirus.

Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque Shut As Precaution Against Coronavirus by Muslim Clerics

The health ministry announced that as of Sunday all educational institutions, shopping centres, restaurants and places of public gathering are closed while gatherings of more than 10 people have also been banned.

Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock will shut their doors as a precaution against coronavirus, Islamic religious authorities said on Sunday, while outdoor prayers will still be allowed at the complex that houses Islam's third holiest site.

— Ali Sawafta, Ammar Awad | March 15, 2020 | Reuters

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock will shut their doors until further notice, religious authorities said on Sunday, in a move to protect worshippers at Islam’s third holiest site.

Prayers will still be held on the huge open area around the two shrines and other Muslim prayer sites on the sacred compound known to Muslims worldwide as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as Har ha-Bayit, or Temple Mount.

“The Islamic Waqf department decided to shut down the enclosed prayer places inside the blessed Aqsa Mosque, and until further notice, as a protective measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” Sheikh Omar Al-Kiswani, the Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, told Reuters.

“All prayers will be held in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa mosque and doors will remain open to all worshippers,” he added.

Al-Aqsa Mosque was built in the 8th century and Muslims regard it as next only to Mecca and Medina in importance.

The latest measure follows a series of ever-stricter restrictions imposed by political and religious authorities in the Holy Land to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate said last week that Jewish worshippers should not come to the Western Wall or pray en masse there. The wall was built by Herod the Great as a restraining wall for the compound housing the Jewish temples of antiquity and is a sacred place of prayer for Jews.

Jerusalem’s Old City is sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three great monotheistic faiths. Christians revere it as the place where they believe that Jesus Christ preached, died and was resurrected, and the Holy Land church authorities have changed some worship practices to protect mass celebrants.

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 13 July – Blessed Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodríguez Santiago (1918–1963) aged 44 Layperson, Apostle of the Liturgy, Catechist, Speaker, Spiritual Advisor – born on 22 November 1918 at Caguas, Puerto Rico – died on 13 July 1963 of cancer at Caguas, Puerto Rico.   He is the first Puerto Rican, the first Caribbean-born layperson in history to be Beatified.

Carlos Manuel Rodríguez was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico on 22 November 1918.   His parents Manuel Baudilio Rodríguez and Herminia Santiago, both came from large families with strong Christian roots.   He was baptised at the Sweet Name of Jesus Church in Caguas on 4 May 1919.   He was the second of five brothers and sisters.   Two of his sisters married, while another is a Carmelite nun.   His only brother is a Benedictine priest and was the first Puerto Rican to become the abbot of a monastery.

‘Chali’ as a six years old, experienced a terrible loss – a terrible fire destroyed both his father’s small store and the family home.   Having lost virtually all of their earthly goods, the young family moved in with Carlos Manuel’s maternal grandparents.   Carlos Manuel was thereby strongly influenced by his grandmother, Alejandrina Esterás, a deeply devout and holy woman.

Carlos Manuel’s father, Manuel Baudilio, endured the loss good-naturedly.   Hope and faith never left him until his death in 1940.   Doña Herminia not being in a house of her own, imposed upon herself and her children a strong sense of respect, to a point of inhibition.   This contributed to the reserved and timid personality of her children. Nonetheless, Herminia had the virtue of a serene happiness that was brightened up by her faith.   Her relationship with the Lord was nourished by daily Eucharistic encounters.

So it was that – at a young age and in the heart of his own family – Carlos received his first lessons in Catholic faith and life.   At the age of six he began his schooling at the Catholic School of Caguas, where he remained until completing eighth grade.   It was there that he would come into contact with the Sisters of Notre Dame.   He cultivated a special friendship with them during his entire life.   Under their tutelage – as well as that of the Redemptorist Fathers – he received his initial religious and humanistic education.

His reception of Christ for the first time in the Holy Eucharist would mark the beginning of a love that would last a lifetime.   He became an altar boy and began to experience the riches of the faith through the sacred liturgy of the Church.   It is likely that it was at this time that he felt the initial call to live a life entirely dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When he graduated from eighth grade in 1932, he was first in his class and won a medal for his Religion.   He then went on to study at the public Gautier Benítez High School in Caguas.   But shortly after, he experienced the first symptoms of what would later become a severe gastrointestinal disorder, ulcerative colitis.   This illness would cause him much suffering and inconvenience for the rest of his life.   Nevertheless, it never undermined his commitment to Christ and His Church.

Carlos Manuel began his third year of high school (1934-35) at the Perpetual Help Academy in San Juan.   There he renewed his contact with the Sisters of Notre Dame and the Redemptorist Fathers  . His health, however, rendered him unable to continue studying there.   Thus back in Caguas, he worked for some time, finally earning his High School diploma, in both the commercial and scientific areas, by May 1939.

He continued working as an office clerk until 1946, when he decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Río Piedras.   However, despite excellent grades and his love for studies, illness prevented him from completing his second year.   The end of formal education, however, did not mark the end of his education.   As his friends at the UPR – who began to call him ‘Charlie’ would later recall – his studies really never ended.   He was a voracious reader and his interests were wide-ranging, including the arts, science, philosophy, religion and music.   In fact, although he only took piano lessons for a year, he continued to learn on his own, to the point where he was able to not only play the piano but also, the church organ.   The sacred music he loved so much!

Nature was another of his great loves.  As a child, he would spend summer vacations in the countryside  . He often made day trips to the river or to the beach with his siblings. As an adult, he organised leisurely hikes with his family through the countryside.   They would travel light – with modest provisions for food – and yet a great desire to commune with God’s creation.

Carlos Manuel worked as an office clerk in Caguas, Gurabo and at the Agriculture Experiment Station, which was part of the UPR.   There he also translated documents from English to Spanish.   He spent almost his entire modest salary to promote knowledge and love of Christ.   He did this especially promoting a greater understanding of the significance of the Sacred Liturgy.   Using articles on liturgical subjects which he himself translated and edited, Carlos Manuel began publishing Liturgy and Christian Culture, publications to which he dedicated innumerable hours.

Increasingly convinced that “the liturgy is the life of the Church,” (through proclamation of the Word, the Eucharist and the “mysteries of Christ” or sacraments), he organised along with Father McWilliams in Caguas a Liturgy Circle.   Later on, in 1948, he assembles along with Father McGlone the parroquial chorus Te Deum Laudamus.

In Río Piedras, where brother Pepe and sister Haydée were already UPR faculty members, Carlos was able to achieve his ardent desire to make Christ known, among professors and students.   As his disciples grew in number he moved into nearby Catholic University Centre and organised another Liturgy Circle (later called the Círculo de Cultura Cristiana).

He continued his publications and also organised his notable Christian Life Days for the benefit of University students who sought to understand and enjoy the liturgical seasons. He participated in panels on various topics and distinguished himself for his insistent emphasis on the importance of liturgical life, as well as the paschal meaning of life and death in Christ.

Carlos Manuel organised discussion groups in various towns and participated in societies such as the Brotherhood of Christian Doctrine, the Holy Name Society and the Knights of Columbus.   He also taught Catechism to high school students whose teaching aids he supplied from his own income.

He zealously promoted and stood for liturgical renewal, among bishops, clergy and laymen: – active participation of laity, the use of the vernacular and – most especially – the observance of his much loved Paschal Vigil, which to Charlie’s delight was restored to its proper time near midnight by Pope Pius XII in 1952.   Of note, all of Carlos Manuel’s proactive lay apostolic activity took place prior to the Second Vatican Council, thus a veritable pre-conciliar apostle towards approval of the Sacrosanctum concillium, at its onset.

Many a good number of people testify to their growth of a living faith thanks to his teachings, in conjunction with the integrity of his life and exemplary service.   Others testify that Carlos Manuel’s zeal for Christ awakened in them their vocation to religious life.   Those who sought him out in order to clarify their doubts — or seek to strengthen their faith –would never be disappointed.

To approach Carlos Manuel and to getting to know him was as if to approach a light that illuminated one’s perspective of life and its meaning.   His glance and smile revealed the certain joy of Easter.   An enormous spiritual strength transcended his fragile physical constitution.   The firm conviction of his faith allowed him to overcome his natural shyness and he spoke with assurance resembling Saint Peter’s on Pentecost.   Despite his failing health for so many years, no complaints ever clouded the joy with which he faced life.   He reminded us that the Christian must be joyful because he or she lives the joy and hope that Christ gave with His Resurrection:   VIVIMOS PARA ESA NOCHE – WE LIVE FOR THAT NIGHT – he would say.

His physical strength declined gradually but his spirit never failed.   He lived each moment quietly overcoming his pain with the profound joy of one who knows himself to be resurrected.   Following an aggressive “life-saving” surgery in 1963 he turned out to have advanced terminal cancer.   Near the end, he experienced the “dark night of faith”, thinking himself abandoned by God, a known mystical experience.   Yet, before dying, he rediscovered the Word he had lost and which had given sense to his entire life.   His passage to eternal life took place on 13 July 1963  . He was 44. “The 13th is a good day,” he had said a few days before his death, without any of us having a notion of what that meant.   Now we know.

Charlie’s Beatification Process was indeed a swift one!   Initiated in 1992, the positio on heroic virtues, lead to his status as Venerable as of 7  July 1997.   The miracle for his Beatification (cure of non-Hodgkins malignant lymphoma back in 1981) was approved on 20 December 1999 by HH St John Paul II.    Thus, a record-making eight-year span, a first for lay apostles!…Vatican.va

A school in Bayamón is named after him, with the blessed title.   The school was renamed in 2001: = Colegio Beato Carlos Manuel Rodríguez.   Staff from the school witnessed the Beatification ceremony.

Below are his tomb and Shrine.

Saint of the Day – 13 July – Blessed Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodríguez Santiago (1918–1963) Saint of the Day - 13 July - Blessed Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodríguez Santiago (1918–1963) aged 44 Layperson, Apostle of the Liturgy, Catechist, Speaker, Spiritual Advisor - born on 22 November 1918 at Caguas, Puerto Rico - died on 13 July 1963 of cancer at Caguas, Puerto Rico.   

[caveartfair]

How Frida Kahlo’s Love Affair with a Communist Revolutionary Impacted Her Art

Leon Trotsky, Natalya Sedova, Frida Kahlo and Max Schachtman, Mexico, 1937. Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images

In the summer of 1940, Frida Kahlo found herself in jail. Mexico City police suspected her as an accomplice in the murder of the embattled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Several days prior to her arrest, he’d been gruesomely offed with an ice pick. His murder—and her implication in the crime—was a dramatic turn of events, especially considering that Kahlo and Trotsky had been giddy lovers just three years earlier; she’d even dedicated a striking self-portrait to him.

Kahlo had many romantic partners over the course of her short life (she died in 1954 at 47), but few resulted in dedicated paintings—and fewer pointed explicitly to her political beliefs. The liaison with Trotsky did both. Although their romance only lasted several months, it offers a window into Kahlo’s politics and how deeply they influenced her work.

Kahlo and Trotsky first met in 1937, when the painter was 29 and the politician was 57. Kahlo and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, were vocal supporters of Marxism and had been on-and-off members of the Mexican Communist Party for a decade, since 1927. Influenced by the Mexican Revolution at the turn of the century, they advocated for a populist government and believed political power should rest in the hands of the working class. In Rivera’s 1928 mural The Arsenal, he showed Kahlo as an activist. Wearing a shirt emblazoned with a red star (red being the traditional color of Communism), Kahlo disseminates weapons to workers while a flag bearing the Communist party’s hammer-and-sickle insignia flies over the scene.

Leon Trotsky lecturing. Copenhagen, Denmark. , 1932. Robert Capa Magnum Photos

The couple also championed Mexicanidad, a post-Revolutionary movement that called for stripping the country of colonial influence and replacing it with the trappings of indigenous culture. It was in this spirit that Kahlo dressed herself, painted, and even gardened. On most days, she donned traditional Tehuana clothes, elaborately patterned skirt-and-blouse ensembles native to Oaxaca. Many of her paintings took cues from age-old Mexican votive panels, and she and Rivera re-planted their yard to include only native plants (succulents abounded).

By the mid-1930s, Kahlo and Rivera both considered themselves Trotskyites. They’d followed the Russian Revolution and the rise of Communism closely, and knew Trotsky as a hero of the 1917 October Uprising, which cemented Vladimir Lenin and the Socialist regime’s rise to dominance. But when Joseph Stalin assumed leadership in 1924, he consolidated power and demoted Trotsky, exiling him for good in 1929. As a result, the Communist party fractured into two main camps: Stalinists and Trotskyites.

It was Rivera who convinced Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas to offer Trotsky political asylum in Mexico. After several years in Turkey, France, and Norway, Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova boarded an oil tanker and docked in Tampico, Mexico on January 9, 1937. Rivera was sick, so Kahlo greeted them at the port, along with a troop of armed guards. In photos of the disembarkment, her Tehuana garb stands out among a sea of police uniforms and three-piece suits.

Frida’s Plaster Corset with a Hammer and Sickle (and Unborn Baby), 1950. Frida Kahlo Gallery Sofie Van de Velde

Friday Kahlo and Leon Trotsky in Mexico, 1937. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Kahlo and Rivera offered the Trotskys their second home, the now famed Casa Azul, equipping it with guards, barricades, covered windows, and alarm systems to ensure their political hero’s safety. Sedova recalled the beginnings of the trip fondly in a letter to friends: “We were breathing purified air…A motorcar…carried us across the fields of palms and cacti to the suburbs of Mexico City; a blue house, a patio filled with plants, airy rooms, collections of Pre-Columbian art, paintings from all over: we were on a new planet, in Rivera’s house.”

It wasn’t long after the Russian couple settled in that a romance developed between Kahlo and Trotsky. The politician’s secretary, Jean van Heijenoort, remembered the pair’s blatant flirtations under the nose of Trotsky’s wife. Sedova didn’t understand English, the language in which the lovers communicated. They met clandestinely at Kahlo’s sister’s house, and Trotsky slipped love notes into books he lent her. Kahlo and Trotsky’s meek attempts at discretion didn’t prevent Sedova from discovering the affair. She gave her husband a “me-or-her ultimatum,” as scholar Gerry Souter points out in her 2014 book on Rivera. It seems that Kahlo tired of the romance around the same time, and by July their physical liaison had fizzled. (For her part, Amy Fine Collins wrote in Vanity Fair, “[f]riends recall that long after Trotsky’s assassination Kahlo delighted in driving Rivera into a rage by humiliating him with the memory of her affair with the great Communist.”)

Despite their split, the two remained friends for some time, and on November 7th—Trotksy’s birthday and the anniversary of the Russian Revolution—Kahlo gifted the politician a vibrant, sensual self-portrait. In the painting, Kahlo stands between two curtains, recalling the theatrical style of traditional Mexican ex-voto panels, created for devotional purposes and often found atop Catholic church altars or makeshift home shrines. She stares resolutely at the viewer, presenting herself with self-assurance and strength in a bold peach skirt and a fringed rebozo shawl. Rouge swaths her lips and cheeks, and ribbons weave through her thick plaits of hair. She cradles a small but bursting bouquet while holding a letter that reads: “To Leon Trotsky, with all my love, I dedicate this painting on 7th November 1937. Frida Kahlo in Saint Angel, Mexico.”

Leon Trotsky and his wife arrive in Tampico, Mexico, surrounded by police and artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Photo by Keystone/Getty Images.

Trotsky displayed the portrait in the intimacy of his office. When Surrealist André Breton visited in 1938, he too fell for the piece, later gushing: “I have for long admired the self-portrait by Frida Kahlo de Rivera that hangs on a wall of Trotsky’s study. She has painted herself in a robe of wings gilded with butterflies, and it is exactly in this guise that she draws aside the mental curtain.” He continued, with a typically gendered reading of the work: “We are privileged to be present, as in the most glorious days of German romanticism, at the entry of a young woman endowed with all the gifts of seduction, one accustomed to the society of men of genius.”

The painting reveals two sides of Kahlo’s politics. On one hand, it denotes her allegiance to the international Communist movement and, in the moment she created the work, its Trotskyite faction. On the other, her devotion to Mexicanidad and Mexican nationalism is elucidated through the work’s allusions to ex-voto panels and traditional Mexican decoration, fashion, and even plantlife.

As Stalin’s power grew, Trotsky’s supporters dwindled and his enemies multiplied. In 1939, Kahlo and Rivera both switched camps, becoming Stalinists. Rivera and Trotsky had been moving apart politically for some time; Unlike Trotsky, Rivera supported General Francisco José Múgica in Mexico’s controversial election to replace Cárdenas, while Trotsky called Rivera “childish in politics” and derided him for his “political ambiguity.” Despite these differences, Trotsky attempted to resurrect their relationship, even writing to Kahlo for help in the matter; she didn’t respond.

By May 1940, fellow Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Trotsky (Rivera was an early suspect in the case). He wasn’t as lucky several months later. On August 20th, Ramón Mercader, an undercover agent working for Stalin, killed Trotsky with an ice pick. Kahlo had met Mercader in Paris the previous year, and was brought in for questioning by the Mexican police. She was released a day later, and soon after traveled to San Francisco, where Rivera was working on a mural.

The hammer and sickle emblem is draped over the casket of Frida Kahlo at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, 1954. Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images.

Despite her stint in jail, the incident didn’t dissuade Kahlo from continuing to embed politics into her paintings. In fact, references to Communism ramped up in her works from the 1950s. As scholar Andrea Kettenmann writes in her 1999 book Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954: Pain and Passion, the artist became “explicit in her last productive phase.” In 1950, Kahlo painted a hammer and sickle on one of the orthopedic corsets that supported her increasingly weak back, and in a diary entry from 1951, she worried that her failing health would restrict her from serving the Communist cause. “I want to turn [my work] into something useful; until now I have managed simply an honest expression of my own self, but one which is unfortunately a long way from serving the Party,” she wrote. “I must struggle with all my strength to ensure that the little positive that my health allows me to do also benefits the Revolution, the only real reason to live.”

Several years later, in 1954, Kahlo painted her most pointedly political work: Marxism will give Health to the Sick. (Its original title was longer-winded: Peace on Earth so the Marxist Science may Save the Sick and Those Oppressed by Criminal Yankee Capitalism.) The canvas metaphorically links Kahlo’s physical suffering with her allegiance to Communism. At the center of the composition, she holds a red Marxist book, while large hands (another symbol of the movement) embrace and uplift her corset-sheathed body. With Marxism to bolster her, she’s able to fling her crutches to the side. On one side of the painting, a dove, the universal symbol of peace, hovers above planet Earth. On the other side, a depiction of Karl Marx himself strangles a monstrous Uncle Sam/Eagle hybrid. The painting’s message seems clear: If Marxism can heal Kahlo, it can heal the world.

When the artist died later that year, a banner boasting a hammer and sickle swathed her coffin. Trotsky was long gone, but the painting Kahlo made for him—and her bold conviction in fusing politics and art—survived.

from Artsy News