#the mind-body dichotomy is FALSE

[getsemantic]

Actually I am cool and sexy and aesthetically pleasing. Body fascism wants me to believe that my chubbiness is ugly, my shortness is embarrassing, and the mere suggestion that my body does normal-human-body-things (acne, snot, vomit, etc) is shameful and unacceptable.

However, this is a lie!

[bitternanami]

been searching for days to see if anyone has talked about silent hill 2 from a disability/chronic/terminal illness perspective. everyone rightfully talking about the misogyny theming but i dont see anyone engage with marys illness outside of like. isnt that tragic. she saw silent hill 'in her restless dreams' and she was dreaming restlessly because she was contending with a lost future where she got to go there again. what was it like to Be in the hospital. what was she thinking about

[anjanahalo]

Gonna be honest, fam. I know Freakshow did a whammy on Danny with the mind control, but I rarely see the horror placed upon him by Spectra quietly highlighting all of Danny’s greatest fears and insecurities. THAT episode really played with the “introduce something horrific and then ignore it” pattern we love i. Danny Phantom canon.

Spectra really plays upon Danny’s vulnerability and sense of identity, already fragile things as a young teen, and hits him in the core by asking him what he really is. “A creepy little boy with creepy little powers” should hit as hard in his soul as “molecule by molecule” even after she’s exposed as a ghost and not an authority figure because, well, which is he? A dead body or a creepy little boy? Even if we can see it as a false dichotomy, Danny will fret about which he is long after Spectra’s gone.

Out of all of Danny’s villains, Spectra is the most raw because we’ve likely all faced someone who purported to have our best interests at heart but instead inflamed out greatest weakness.

Maybe that’s why she’s not written about.

[gaiuskamilah]

my take is that nia having left over shadow powers is a good thing actually. light is shown to drain your life force and shadow does the opposite of that - elves of the shadow court have been alive for thousands of years. of course there's a price to be paid for shadow i.e. your sanity/mind, but nia balances that by still being a light user (and light requiring a lot of focus of the mind. light/body - shadow/mind dichotomy). the absolute dichotomy between light/shadow as good/evil is false - a mix of both is the ideal. power is just power and it has no inherent moral value. all that matters is how you use it.

[riacte]

So yeah I just spent like two hours playing with this Precure doll generator and made some for my AU yay <3 not the most accurate to what I have in mind but still really fun <3 hopefully you can see the main colour + secondary colour (they have different body types I promise, but the generator doesn't so it’s pretty much just for the clothes 😔)

Some notes:

False probably has goggles but I couldn't make them dsbjdblsd

Pearl supposedly has those moth antennae

Cleo supposedly has green stitches :3

The black vest thing is to show they're part of a team and wear the same uniform (like Happiness Charge)

I wanted to make False's outfit asymmetrical. Pearl's supposed to have a light/dark dichotomy because she's the redeemed cure but most of the items in the generator comes in pairs

[bloggedanon]

People are out here arguing that gatekeeping cpunk from people is actually perfectly fine because able-bodied ND people have mad- and neuropunk and that's "perfectly fine" with them and it's actually annoying as fuck imo, large explanation under the cut I forgot to add originally

• First of all, try to tell me that physically disabled people are mentally perfectly fine and have never had their mental health compromised as a result of their physical disability. Just try, I'll wait. Just like how I'm waiting to hear about "able-bodied" ND people not having any physical issues purely as a result of being ND.

• Secondly, that doesn't make gatekeeping with the mad- and neuropunk communities okay EITHER, even IF the first bullet SOMEHOW happens to be true. The separatist mind-body dichotomy is predicated in entirely false pretenses. The experiences between the physically and mentally disabled communities have SO much overlap. One "form" of disability is not inherently more or less disabling than another, that's down to the individual(s) and their conditions. A lot of either "form" can restrict people's abilities to perform a lot of the same tasks regardless of what the tasks may be or what "form" of disability is responsible for it. A lot of medical conditions (and systemic ableism) can produce a whole lot of symptoms that present like mental disorders.

• In the same vein, we DO have to acknowledge that some people have their disabilities affect them in ways that not everyone experiences. The experience of having a psychotic break isn't comparable to the experience of being wheelchair-bound. But neither is the experience of being a low support needs autistic that can function independently and being a high support needs autistic who can't bathe or dress independently and will need lifelong supervision, and this is just two examples of the same disorder! A person who's chronically bedbound isn't going to have a comparable experience to a Deaf-Blind individual, even if they both wind up with lifelong caretaking requirements. If we can acknowledge that experiences in the mentally disabled and physically disabled communities aren't going to be universal even WITHIN our own communities and we don't turn to separatists about it, what makes the physical and mentally disables communities as wholes any different?

• This one's the big one, and I see it a lot, you guys really need to learn what punk actually means. PUNK isn't about the "by X group and for X group" mindset at all. It's not about "X group of people vs X group of people." It's a community of people who are standing together against a SYSTEM. It's about highlighting society's wrongs and shouting about it, and trying to enact change in whatever way we can. Its praxis is just activism. You don't have to be black to stand with the Black community and fight for their rights, and fight systemic racism. You don't have to be a woman to be a feminist, and fight the patriarchy. You don't have to be queer to get down in the trenches with them and fight queerphobia (allies still get bottles 'n shit thrown at them regardless). You don't have to be disabled to stand against systemic ableism. You don't have to be the direct target of systemic oppression, or specific, targeted systemic microaggressions to fight it.

What punk is is getting down in the thick of oppression right alongside those who have to deal with it as a concrete force in their daily lives and being right next to them when shit hits the fan, fighting the same fight they are, and taking the blows as if you were one of them, because to those who want to perpetuate it, you might as well be. Anyone can be an ally, and allyship IS what punk is, just as much as being a member of a targeted group fighting for their rights. Systemic oppression doesn't care about the nuances when it lines us all up against the wall, and our infighting is doing its job for it. The second we start singling out groups of people for their identities is when we've already lost. Anyone standing up against these sytems is punk.

Anyone GATEKEEPING a punk movement isn't a punk, they're a fucking poser. A cop. A fed, even, because there are no cops at punk.

Can you have specific communities OF [x people with x identity and experiences], by and for that group by definition, to discuss their specific experiences unique to their situation(s)? Sure! Just don't do any fakeclaiming in the gatekeeping, mmk?

And don't you DARE call it fucking punk.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Every time I see a post about msg I am reminded they want us fighting each other

This time in the ring they have found the issue to pit anti-racist crusaders against the disabled and disability advocates

The anti-racist crusaders are leftists who think they are fighting an injustice

The disabled are leftists who know they are arguing for their right to safely eat food

The disabled can't put the fight down because the way we are treated over dietary restrictions is materially affecting to our lives

The anti-racist crusaders REALLY FEEL that their pet cause of saying how no one can possibly react to glutamates and all glutamate sensitive people are just secretly racist, IS REALLY actually helping fight anti-Asian and specifically anti-Chinese sentiments. They are very convinced of it.

They are very convinced that vocally advocating that a whole group of people can't possibly have a food allergy is super helping the problem. To the point where this is the crowd that keeps fucking bringing it up.

Because the in-fighting to try to convince a subset of disabled people that they can't possibly know their own bodies -and are secretly unconsciously racist- is super the best hill for them to defend and fight on and not like 1000 other causes to help fight racism that doesn't make their target leftist disabled people instead of people with actual power on the political right.

Please just fucking reassess.

You are arguing to bulldoze over someone else's understanding of their own body in their own mind and everyone else's

We are arguing for our ability to safely access food and not be tricked or harassed into eating something we have told you makes us sick

Who's the bad guy here?

Is this how you want to spend your time and energy?

Are there maybe other causes that would maybe allow you to punch up at power instead?

***And to be clear, you -can- in fact address the racism inherent to "msg is bad for everyone and shouldn't be in food at all" WITHOUT throwing people with actual allergies under the bus by working to try to "disprove" them. You can do that. No one is standing in your way but you. YOU are the one who tried to make "the allergy is fake anyway" your fucking talking point.

This is a false dichotomy and you are playing into it face first, friend.

[ghostinthegallery]

Okay so about Orikan and Imotekh!

Yup, I continue to be the most hinged person on the planet when it comes to imaginary ancient Egyptian themed space robots.

But anyway, Orikan is canonically a member of Imotekh's court, and Imotekh might be one of the only people in the universe Orikan actually respects (or fears? It's 40k, close enough). Which is interesting because Orikan is An Intellectual with a healthy disdain for the military (probably some family issues there, he did come from a military family then ran away to go to star college). So why serve a soldier? I mean yes, Imotekh is one scary dude, but that's a boring answer. Naturally they've never had a scene together because GW hates me specifically.

Which leaves me to wildly speculate, and I think these two have some key things in common that really get to the heart of issues with necron/necrontyr society...

Because the thing is, necron(tyr) society might be one of the most highly stratified cultures in all of 40k. So much so that it was baked into their physical being after biotransference. The higher their social status, the better the living metal body they got. The more mental capacity they got. The more *free will* they got. We see in a Twice Dead King flashback that members of the nobility could and did kill anyone without consequence. Life was so cheap to the necrontyr that it didn't matter. Class mobility was and is not a thing.

Enter Imotekh, who started as a soldier and became a general and then a *phaeron*. He did the thing no one is supposed to be able to do by being just *that* competent and terrifying. Remember, Imotekh woke from hibernation because some Sautekh noble wanted to *use* him to get one up on their rivals in a dynastic power struggle. This guy really thought Imotekh the Gods Damn Stormlord would be so grateful that he'd just help this clown take over the dynasty? Yeah no, Imotekh offed that guy and anyone who wasn't going to vote Stormlord 4 Phaeron.

Which must have been pretty mind blowing for Orikan to see. After all, Orikan may be important, but (as Trazyn loves reminding him) he isn't nobility. A fact that matters in a society where status directly correlates to how much of a person people think you are. Other necron lords "use" Orikan all the time. For his predictions, during battles (seriously check the wiki, feels like the poor guy gets dragged out for like every necron campaign). Orikan may manipulate those nobles on a regular basis (aka "strategically editing" his prophecies) but he won't straight up oppose them. At least not without invoking Imotekh's name, as he does during the Court Scene of TI&TD.

Again, I don't think the two have ever interacted in the canon, but Imotekh respects Orikan's work enough to base battle strategies on his divinations (which is huge, as being a master strategist is the basis of his power). And Orikan doesn't bullshit Imotekh the way he does other phaerons who ask for his counsel. Is Orikan scared of Imotekh? Of course he is. Trazyn calls him out on this during War in the Museum. But I think it's interesting that these two characters are trapped in a cruel society determined to use them up and spit them out, and both of them have found ways to resist that. Ways that could set them at odds with each other (nerd v. jock false dichotomy) but don't.

I do wish there was more canon material to work with, because I am filling in a ton of blanks with my own interpretations. But hey, speculation is fun!

And if you want to see these two in a room together read my necron longfic on AO3 here (heck yeah shameless self promotion!)

[quinloki]

Asking for a second round for the kinks

What about Lactophilia, Negotation and Pegging with croco, doffy and corazon

That list Is so usefull >3

I almost answered this as soon as I saw it and I was like - no, no Quin you gotta do some writing ( and I did! and today has been a pita, so I'm going to answer this and unwind).

I almost wanted to lump "Negotiation" and say "all OP characters negotiate properly because it's a foundational rule of BDSM and kinks" - but! I realized two things: 1 - not all OP characters are non-toxic, and 2 - there's a lot of variance in how negotiations can be handled, so we can do that \o/

I'd do this by Character, but I kind of want to do it by Kink - I think it'll be better for the subtle differences between Sir Crocodile and Doflamingo (who are very similar), and also help highlight the dichotomy between Doflamingo and Rosinante.

*puts on glasses* Lacto-philia - well, I don't need to look this one up (go-go root word language course from college) - this is the enjoyment of breast milk. Kin-kay <3

Lactophilia -

Sir Crocodile: I dunno - Croco just doesn't strike as a "drink from the source" kind of guy, and while I could see him utilizing any lactation on his partner's part in some kind of kink session I feel like it would be tied to humiliation more than lactation. But it would also depends on his partners reaction to their own lactation.

If any part of it makes them uncomfortable in that "we're not talking about neutral or sexy embarrassment kind of way" then he's not going to force things.

Doflamingo: Sure - A "try something one, more and more if he likes it" kind of guy, I think Doffy would be open to experimenting when the opportunity arose. He would, at the bare minimum, enjoy groping and teasing your breasts until he figured out how everything worked. Whether it was caused by birth control or pregnancy he would have a justification for it - something to either quiet your false protests, or something to quiet your legitimate ones.

Doffy wants to see you squirm - canon universe or not, it's not like you can run from him if he makes you uncomfortable. (Doflamingo is such a yandere, and I think he'd openly admit to it too.)

Rosinante: Yes to FUCK Yes - Corazon certainly wants a family, whether he thinks he deserves on or not, or whether he could ever have one, is a completely different discussion, but things surrounding the building of a family certain get his motor running. There's reasons more than just pregnancy that can cause lactation, but whatever the cause it'll be the connection the younger Donquixote can't help but make.

He may sate his kink privately if you're not comfortable with it, but it's more likely that he'll be showering you with praise and assurances and compliments, trying his best to validate your feelings toward it while trying to help you become more comfortable with it. He is a drink from the source kind of guy if you'll let him, and honestly he just wants to lavish you with pleasure. (Rosi is 100% here for the whole Worship your body vibe).

Negotiation -

Sir Crocodile: This is hard to assign a rank to, but we'll go with a Yes for Crocodile. He's here for communication, and he'll respect your boundaries (much as he can), and he's certainly not against writing up a contract. There's no need to be so formal between lovers, but he also understands the comfort that can come from such a document. Mind yourself if you agree to one, this is a business man, you're only a tick or two away from making a deal with the devil if you put things into writing. Verbal arrangements are far more flexible, and Crocodile takes contracts seriously.

The are amendable, though, you're not etching things into stone. People and circumstances change, after all.

Doflamingo: Oh god you don't even know - you want to make a contract with Donquixote Doflamingo? I think I'd rather bury an offering at the crossroads and deal with an actual devil. Every word of the contract will be abided by, you can be assured. That means you better know every word in that contract too, and not just definition 1 of those words, but definition 2 and the biblical interpretations while you're at it.

Doffy's hot button is manipulation, and if you're going to sign your life away to his whims he won't pass it up. But, he's not entirely unreasonable - he won't force you to sign a contract. He's fine with verbal agreements, and he's even likely to abide your cute little safe words too, so long as you don't displease him. You're his favorite little distraction (or his sweet true love), he wants you to be happy.

Rosinante: Sure? - Rosi will sit down and work out all the kinky details of your relationship on paper if you want. He'll also be amenable to having conversation before and after each session, putting safe words into play, and even some back up safe-sounds/actions in case words are failing you.

Pegging -

Sir Crocodile: No - Absolutely not. Exit only. Not his thing. Not even willing to try. You may, might, possibly be able to beg him to try it once, if it's something you're absolutely dying to try at least once. He *may* like it, his opinion may change, but he may also avoid you for a couple days while he tries to shake it off and reclaim his dignity.

Control is a big thing for him, and it's hard to be in control in that situation.

(I need to admit I am a big, horrible fan of Croco x Doffy, I love them, and I generally prefer Croc as the bottom, but! (heh, butt) in an x reader context my head canon is what it is XD ).

Doflamingo: Sure - You give what you get, or get what you give in this case. It better be something you're comfortable with cause he's not going to be the only one receiving. And it may only be once or twice. Doffy likes his control, and more than that he likes manipulating people. The likelihood that he's manipulated you into pegging him is low, but he's a kinky bastard, so he's certainly not averse to the idea.

Gods help you if you can't please him while doing it though.

Rosinante: Yes - I'm undecided if Rosi is switchy when it comes to dom/sub dynamics, but I do think he is very much a switch for top/bottom dynamics. He'll give and receive for just about any situation and kink, with very few exceptions. For him the point is pleasure, his and yours, maybe more yours than his, but not so much that you catch onto him pampering you. If you want to peg him, he's just going to make sure it's good for both of you, whatever accessories end up being needed.

Kinky One Piece Head Canon

[cripbian]

i really wish the people attacking cpunk stopped creating this false dichotomy between physical & mental disability, even though that's not how the community seems to think of physical disability as a category. it's way simpler. it's just a question of whether or not you're physically disabled. it's not about mind-body dualism, it's about embodiment: does your disability affect your physicality in a way that aligns your experience with other physically disabled people? i really like the cripple punk "exclusionary" community because they're not...exclusionary? the community seems to operate on an understanding that if you feel like your disability affects your physicality, then you're physically disabled. no one seems to really gatekeep so long as people are respectful and kind. in fact, i've seen a lot of validation directed at people who don't feel "disabled enough." this community seems, to me, to be built on respect, on listening to people who are more disabled than you are, and on inclusivity to the point that folks tend to trust that you're physically disabled if you feel physically disabled. the people who get shit on are the people who think that accessibility for physically disabled people "overshadows" other forms of accessibility & devalue the voices of our more disabled community members.

[ome-magical-ramblings]

Lineages of spirits: ropes from men and spirits.

... Ignominy shall be their portion wheresoever they are found save (where they grasp) a rope from Allah(Spirits) and a rope from men.  Quran 3:112

The meaning of this verse was specifically for the Israelites under the Islamic rulership but I'd like to expand the meaning and give a more esoteric view on it, we as the Israelites in this verse as a practitioner and someone learning magic, witchcraft and so on.

Spirits and humans aren't infallibles and that's something we have to keep in mind when we work with all of them. There are always jump of faith, jump of faith that the person talking with you isn't trying to exploit you for money or the jump of faith that the spirit you're talking to have your interest in mind as you have their interest in mind. It's nice to look at it as two polarity but that's a false dichotomy and there are MANY influence into this sphere. Some people get too bent on the psychicism of "oh I can do it myself" or "Oh I don't need a teacher I will figure it out myself", the self-initiation, and so on. I mean I am kinda self-initiated but not in every part of my practice and that's the important thing is that we can't rely on the astral for it all, and you can't just take the human words for it all. The other side of it is someone human, of flesh and bones who can talk to us, and speak to us as human and not as some pompous persona on the internet but someone who speaks with us as a normal person. A teacher, lineage, mentor, passing person, or a friends on the path are also important because they ground us, give us an avenue to talk, and we have this back and forth conversation going on. What is worse that we can also get stuck in our bubble, echo-chamber, in our based and cringe literature or this and that. We can get so stuck on our teacher that we forget their flaws, or get so stuck about our school that we don't think that our practice can improve outside of it. You can see where I am going with in this case, we can't rely TOTALLY on spirit interaction because our whole vocabulary will become so distorted by our own pre-spiritual culture that the word we use to describe our own experience won't be understandable for other people. We can't get too attached to our lineage because we might lose the helpful instructions and guidance we get out of it, in the same sense the system become the "The System" that Valentine Tomberg had a very apt way to describe it:

mysticism is the YOD of the Tetragrammaton, just as gnosis is the first HÉ, magic is the VAU—or “child” of mysticism and gnosis—and Hermetic philosophy is the second (final) HÉ [...] A person who has had the misfortune to fall victim to the spell of a philosophical system (and the spells of sorcerers are mere trifles in comparison to the disastrous effect of the spell of a philosophical system!) can no longer see the world, or people, or historic events, as they are; he sees everything only through the distorting prism of the system by which he is possessed. Yes, autonomous philosophical systems separated from the living body of tradition are parasitic structures, which seize the thought, feeling and finally the will of human beings. In fact, they play a role comparable to the psychopathological complexes of neurosis or other psychic maladies of obsession. Their physical analogy is cancer. Am I against learning from teachers? no, Am I against learning from Spirits? no, but there is some subtleness in the whole situation that's lost. In reality we always need guidance even in lack thereof finding someone to teach us as a teacher always, we can see guidance. It's not wrong to be misguided but what's wrong is charging ahead like it's nothing. "No, this person doesn't know what they're talking about, I will do it my own way" which is valid but then you have to realize that we are all cycling and going back throughout the year and seasons aiming to "grow" and transform rather than dying and "perishing". To cap all of this off, learn, listen, contemplate, widen your horizon and don't keep yourself locked in either boxes, there's more to the world.

[thatonebirdwrites]

19 and 23! for the ask meme pls

From this ask game.

19. What fictional doctor do you wish was your doctor?

Well, the 13th Doctor isn't necessarily a medical doctor, though she can still heal and get me to her Tardis for the worst of it. But I'd love for her to be my doctor. Absolutely loved her run and her and Yaz's relationship. She also has that playful (and often angry) approach to life that I relate to.

23. Share a bit of philosophy?

I wrote this essay by hand awhile ago, then typed it up sometime in 2021. I'll just copy/paste it for your enjoyment as it sums up my own philosophy. :)

Communality

Communality is the communion of subjects (living beings, world/Earth) not objects, and is based in the relationality of all living things and the Earth itself. What is relationality then? It is the relational way of being, knowing, and doing as defined as the socionatural configurations that arise from the recognition of the radical interdependence of all living things, where nothing preexists the relationships that constitute it (See Paulo Freire's and Arturo Escobar's books).

Our atoms come from the Earth, and thus we are interconnected, entangled. As the Earth lives, we live, and we are in communion with all living beings on the planet. We cannot separate ourselves from the Earth without falling prey to the lie of ‘individualism.’ The lie of ‘individualism’ teaches that we are all independent, not connected, and are separate from the world and thus can act upon it without consequences. This is based on the false dichotomy that undermines much of Western philosophy, that we are separate and thus not part of nature.

We cannot ever be separate from nature as we come from it, and we live within it and we use it – often in harmful ways for ourselves and the habitability of the planet. This individualistic philosophy severs us from the interdependence of our relationality with the Earth, thus we end us causing extreme harm to ourselves. So what is a better way to be with the Earth?

Relationality, where we recognize that we are not separate from the Earth but interdependent on it and all that live on it. Where we realize we are not true objective observers outside the system, but we are entangled IN the system, and thus unable to ever be one hundred percent removed and truly objective. For example, in Buddhism, we, everything in life, are the result of processes of dependent coarising.

Nothing exists intrinsically; everything is mutually constituted. This belief aligns with the results of quantum mechanics, and how our atoms are all constituted of star dust — Big Bang dust, all mutually constituted, unable to exist without all the universe also mutually existing with, in, and around us.

In a sense, our particles that comprise us are entangled with the particles of the universe. From that one starting explosion that expanded outward in all directions and dimensions to form the lattice of superclusters, galaxies, stars, planets, and us. From that one beginning, we were all formed. The universe made conscious in us (and any other sentient beings), burning with a curiosity to know itself.

Thus, we cannot truly separate ourselves from the universe in order to obtain true objectivity.

True Objectivity requires full separation from the universe to observe and rationalize it from outside its systems, but no one is one hundred percent separate from reality. This myth of true objectivity poisons our relations; it claims that only logic and separation must rule — as if we can separate ourselves from our emotions, from our unconscious biases, from our prejudices, from our socialization, from the situations in which we find ourselves. As if one can separate our minds from our bodies, our bodies from the universe. This simply is not possible in our reality.

The best we can do is analyze with a mixture of subjectivity and partial objectivity, where in partial objectivity we examine only a small segment of reality, but even in this action, our subjectivity remains because our act of observing impacts the system. Thus, again, true objectivity remains out of our reach.

Act of Observing

Quantum mechanics have shown that the act of observing a system changes the system. The observation is entangled in the system being observed, where the observer becomes part of the system they are observing. When light passes through a narrow slit with no detectors to determine where it will hit and at what velocity, it does not show any interference pattern. As soon as the detectors are added, that act of observing the photons influences the system and the interference pattern appears.

The observer becomes part of the system; the observation changed the results by the sure act of observing. Quantum particles are governed by the uncertainty principle, where particles exist and simultaneously not exist in a probability cloud, where we cannot know all attributes, such as position and velocity, at the same time and with the same accuracy. The more precise we measure one attribute, the fuzzier and more ‘spread out’ the probability cloud becomes for the other particle’s attributes.

For quantum mechanics, Schrodinger’s Equation can show where a particle is ‘likely’ to be versus ‘unlikely’ with amazing accuracy. Another interesting feature is how quantum particles’ probability clouds smear enough that sometimes they “tunnel” through barriers (Electron scanning microscopes and MRIs rely on this), but they also can become entangled so even when separated by vast distances, they still act in tandem (an example: if one particle is measured in an up spin, the other will change simultaneously to a down spin).

This entanglement is at the root of why our observations influence a system. We cannot divorce ourselves from our own particles and the universe itself. We have to include ourselves in the analysis of reality. We are interconnected and interdependent. We are mutually constituted.

Dualism is False

Descartes, a philosopher of Western Europe, separates reality into a dualism: physical stuff (realm of science – physics, chemistry, etc) and mind stuff, that although they may influence each other, they are distinctly separate. This mind/body dichotomy would influence centuries, but in the end can easily be prove false as I show above.

There is no separation — no dualism — mind stuff and physical stuff are the same, they are entangled and interconnected. Mutually constituted. Each made of the same collection of particles, and each interdependent. We cannot have our mind without our bodies.

What creates a conscious mind? The emergence of billions of particles, entangled, working in concert within the neurons of our brains; here the emergence of a new process (mind-thought) can appear. The particles of our body – of which our brain is part of our body — is necessary for the emergence of consciousness to even exist.

All is Alive and Interconnected

In Indigenous knowledge, Everything is Alive. All things — animals, people, rocks, rivers, planets, etc – are alive; they are emergent minds that exist because of the organization and energy of billions of entangled collections of particles. As much as we are dictated by the physical laws of the universe, made of the same particles originating in the Big Bang, the emergence of each of our consciousnesses stems from our unique configuration of collections of particles, and how our behaviors (responses to stimuli) begets our ability to learn, be creative, think, act — the higher level portion of a nested story that began with a collection of particles.

Thus, the point here is even an observer to a real-time situation is still part of that system they are observing and thus influence the system (even if their action is only to stand in observe). The person cannot be detached from their presence and impact on the system. At best, they can share their subjective experience and cross reference with those present (or recorded analogs or experiment logs from detectors, etc)_ to find commonalities, differences, and shared facts.

Free Will and Cooperation

Each of us unique in our configurations. As for why we are here, that is up to us to decide. I believe it is rooted in curiosity and relationality — humanity has survived NOT because of competition (it is a myth that nature is only red in tooth and claw, there is much cooperation in nature that helps species thrive), but we have survived because of cooperation.

We, even in the darkest and most dangerous disasters, tend toward cooperation. Even when people are looting stores in disasters, they aren’t doing it just out of selfish need (though their needs are valid and worthy of help) but also to share with their relations — whether those relations be biological relatives, neighbors, or other people in their area. This tendency toward cooperation has played out again and again and again throughout history. Even as children, we tend toward cooperation.

Society had to teach us how to be competitive (sometimes unsuccessfully and sometimes far too successfully), and that socialization is what severs us from each other, from the root of our being (our interconnectedness with the Earth), and from who we are.

What about reconciling our realities?

Let’s say we are looking at a cat in the box. The box is closed. We have no way to measure if the cat is actually IN the box or if the box is empty. We could try to lift the box and check its weight, but without the knowledge of the box weight or the cat weight, it is hard to definitely say the cat is in the box or not.

So until we open the box, we can disagree on reality all we want. It’s the act of measuring by opening the box where the reconciliation of our realities happen.

Now, because sentience is a weird thing, the person who claims there is no cat in the box, can go on doing that all they want, even as they reach in and touch the cat’s fur. (This is how conspiracy theories are born). They can have all the evidence the cat is in the box, but if their mind is so rooted in denying that reality, for them, they create their own made-up reality and may even fail to see what they are actually touching. We can trick our own minds. So yes, there is instances where we may disagree and have no way to reconcile it. Brains are funky like that, but now we’ve entered into the realm of psychology, and that’s not my forte.

Suffice to say, the universe reconciles the differences, but we have the conscious decision to reject that reconciliation or embrace it. Because our interdependence — us being part of the system means our act of observing the opening of the box causes the universe to reconcile the interior of the box for us to observe. The waveform collapses, and we see the cat or not. But because we are conscious and sentient, we can reject that reality still. That’s a decision that is one step beyond the moment the wave-form of quantum particles collapse from our observation.

Thanks for reading! And thank you for the questions! :D

[beeden96]

Chiron as guide to the Dao

I am used to seeing people in the astrological community describe Chiron as "the wounded healer" and stop there. But I have been reading more about Chiron, and doing a lot of introspective work about him, and I want to help everyone see him in a deeper, more well-rounded light.

For those who are familiar with Daoism, and the concept of the Dao, this post will be easier to grasp. But just as a brief description, Daoism (as illuminated in Daoist texts) is essentially the synthesized philosophy of much older Earth-based spiritual traditions in what is now known as China.

Because Daoism is a synthesized philosophy coming out of a much older animist tradition, and because all human societies and cultures once practiced animism (and most still do in various ways), it has a massive amount of resonance cross-culturally.

Anyway, back to Chiron. I see him as a mediator, a sage, who was a kindred spirit to LaoZi and other spiritual teachers. He taught those around him how to reconcile the different parts of their nature, how to integrate their base level instincts with their higher awareness. Astronomically, he is the mediator between the inner and outer planets, at the boundary of Saturn and Uranus.

In his lifetime, Chiron was trying to reconcile the differences and misunderstandings between centaurs (representing "nature," "instincts," "barbarism" etc.) and gods (representing "humanity," "rationality," "civilization" etc. ). He was trying to teach everyone that these concepts are a false dichotomy, and that it is possible for all of these things to coexist in a single form- after all, he was living proof!

His injury, which is why people refer to him as "the wounded healer" happened by accident during a fight between centaurs and gods. He was wounded in this battle specifically, but I think the story is just emblematic of the lifelong wound of rejection and misunderstanding he carried as a result of who he was, and the message he was trying to convey (which others were not always receptive to).

I find it important to say that Chiron was wounded by circumstance, and this myth takes place in a specific historical context, where ideas about "civilization" versus "barbarism" (read: empire versus indigeneity) were rapidly being formed. This is ancient Greece and Rome we're talking about here. This myth was being actively created through retellings in a context where the idea of someone like Chiron NOT being wounded was unimaginable.

I think that the difference between Chiron as an archetype, and Chiron in mythological/historical context, is really important. Because at least in theory, Chiron did not have to be wounded by that poisoned arrow. It was not an inevitable outcome. And I think that as a collective, humanity is now being faced with the task of integrating Chiron's awareness, and healing everyone who has been hurt in the process of global patriarchal/colonial/capitalist expansion (which is actually literally everyone, in one way or another). We have the option now, to re-write the story. To stop the wounding.

What if the whole "mind vs. body, humans vs. nature" thing didn't exist? What if we learned how to relate to ourselves and all other beings in a non-dominating, loving way? What would it mean to let go of control? What would it mean to allow the Dao to flow, to stop trying to escape change and death, and just surrender to being a part of everything? These lessons are what I believe Chiron is trying to teach.

I think that the most painful separation for most of us alive today, is the separation we have from our own humanity- as contextualized by, and produced by, our relationships to all other beings. This pain is amplified for those of us who are especially spiritually sensitive, and who are the targets of dominating systems.

Dominating systems, extractivist systems, do not understand the lessons of Chiron. They position themselves as gods, ruling over nature and taking what they please.

It has been argued that Chiron rules Virgo and the 6th house. I think this is an interesting and keen observation. Chiron, as mediator between "heaven and earth" so to speak, rules over the connection between the mundane and the divine. He is the bridge between the two, as Barbara Hand Clow says.

I am reminded of a Zen Buddhist saying (which I suspect has Daoist origins): "Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.”

I am also reminded of the line in Everything Everywhere All At Once, where Ke Huy Quan's character says: "So, even though you have broken my heart yet again, I wanted to say, in another life I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you."

...

So then, what to make of Chiron as an astrological object? He has not really been labeled, which I think is part of the beauty of his symbolism. Nobody can fully decide if he's a planetoid or asteroid or comet, or something else entirely. And that is okay. As an archetype, Chiron represents embodied forms that cannot be easily categorized.

In a natal chart, Chiron is said to represent a person's deepest wound, but also the area of life where they have the most wisdom. I think this is true, but I also want to move beyond the surface-level symbolism.

I have come to see Chiron as representing the area where a person can experience their greatest sense of connection or disconnection from the Dao. From "God" or the "ground of being" or whatever other words people use to describe it. This makes it extremely powerful as a gateway, and because it unleashes all of these fraught themes about mind vs. body, humans vs. nature, etc. it is not easy to deal with.

Chiron is a reminder of all the ways we are limited in our connection to the Dao. All the ways we struggle to let go of power and control, the ways we get ourselves stuck in material issues or stuck in spiritual issues and struggle to find the balance between them. Chiron is about balance- I think the greatest balancing act of all. Think of the Yin-Yang symbol, which represents the Dao.

It takes a high level of spiritual awareness, coupled with a high level of skill in navigating mundane reality, in order to fully integrate Chiron. But Chiron in itself is the guide to the mastery of those realms. So I would say that in order to reach that place, we have to listen to what Chiron is asking of us.

In a natal chart, I feel that Chiron represents our potential. Where we could find our greatest sense of integration, wisdom, and joyful embodiment. Where we could find our connection to the Dao. It's getting there in this world, where "gods" and "centaurs" are fighting, which is the major challenge. The process of getting there is usually painful. But it can also be full of love, and beautiful lessons that are profoundly healing. It depends on how you approach the themes that are being brought up.

In synastry, I think of Chiron contacts as areas where the other person is supporting or pushing us to get into deeper contact with the Dao. It depends on whether the aspect is hard or soft. I think hard aspects with Chiron can be difficult to wrangle when people are young, but they are likely the most transformative.

In a composite chart, I think Chiron represents the greatest potential of the relationship itself. It is the area where, if it is focused on, both people in the relationship would feel most connected to the Dao. Any aspects it makes, especially conjunctions, are representative of planetary energies that are key to Chiron's mission and what it is asking of us in that relationship.

Chiron says: "This is the most difficult thing for you to achieve, but it is the thing that will be the most rewarding if you can get there."

Chiron sees potential. It pushes people to their outer limits, tries to help them break through to the other side (past Saturn to Uranus), then guides them to come back and tell the tale.

Not everybody makes it back. Not everybody even accepts being pushed to their limits like that in the first place. But those who DO make it back, especially those who have willingly gone on the journey, are essential guides for the rest of us.

Chiron is intimately connected to ecology. To relationships, to polarities, and to balance. Now more than ever, the world needs people who are ready to harness the power of their natal Chirons, and to harness the power of Chiron in their composite charts with people who they have important relationships with.

We can't do this work on our own. Even though Chiron was often depicted as a loner, in reality he had a large network of friends, and he even had a wife! Her name is Chariklo- but that's a story for another time.

I want to encourage people to start seeing Chiron in a new light. Let's not fear him, and run away from the pain. The pain is trying to tell us something. If we are in pain because of Chiron, that is because he is highlighting an area of life where we are disconnected from the Dao. He is telling us to "chop wood, carry water" and to maintain spiritual awareness at the same time. He is telling us to recognize and respect our limits, while pushing them at the same time. Chiron is paradox. He is Yin and Yang. He is the relationship of opposites. If we allow these lessons to sink in, our area of immeasurable pain can transform into the area of our greatest ecstasy.

Let us learn!

[hybbart]

Heart catch was my first precure series and its the only one i ever finished watching. I wish i had time to finish watching other precure also love your art

Heartcatch is considered one of if not the best! It's what got a lot of people into precure.

By this point there's a season of precure for whatever you are in the mood for or like to watch so I highly recommend checking out other seasons that interest you:

The original futari wa is high in action and cool fights, and the heroes don't always win.

Splash Star has a lot of interesting story and some very interesting rivals.

Star Twinkle is an amazing, energetic space science fantasy with some of the best designs and creative ideas (fitting since the theme is imagination)

A La Mode has very strong cartoony character designs and is a very cartoony season with much more blatant yuri subtext than usual.

Smile is the most light hearted and silly season probably, with a lot of slice of life and cuteness.

Fresh, Suite, and Dokidoki both have strong musical themes and idol aspects with some interesting styles meant to appeal to older fans in their plot.

Witchy is a magical school type story that has a small number of precure.

Happiness Charge was a celebration of the franchise thats main character was not the pink cure for once and had a world tour sort of shtick going on.

Yes! 5.

Go! Princess combines classic hyper girly stuff with amazing action and a lot of interesting things to say about dreams and aspirations

Hugtto is probably the most scifi of them and it's main theme is careers and goals, and it is considered to have one fo the msot well-fleshed out casts and a rather dark plot.

Tropical Rouge is very summery, cartoony, and fun with a lot of mermaid stuff and cool characters.

Healin' Good is more slice of lifey healing anime, whose villains are literally diseases, with a lot of very good morals about health in both mind and body in ways you don't expect it to, and the BEST subversion of the most annoying trope in shoujo series that's still one of my favourite single episodes in all of anime (and the whiny Nice Guys upset about it refusing to validate them in place of a hard lesson that was exactly what this particular season needed instead of teaching a false black and white dichotomy that woudl have been especially bad at the freaking height of covid to say can stay mad about it forever)

And this season Delicious Party has a lot more story, a well fleshed out male cast that have actual purpose (Rosemary my beloved), and also delicious food as the focus.

[uroxe]

Polytheism and monotheism is a false dichotomy. There is really no difference between the two. Many separate gods does not mean there cant be one supreme God if you view the separate polytheistic gods as part of one higher God. From bhagavad gita we learn that Within Krishna’s body, Arjuna sees the form of every object that has ever existed merged into one! This means God is all. God is every single polytheistic god ever created in the minds of man. Every object in the material world is part of God. Wotan, Thor, Freyr, Zeus, Jupiter, Saturn, and so on are all personifications of part of the whole being that is God-

[selvesdiscovery]

hi .. we want to stay on anon for this one due to the nature of the question. Alright, so ... We're disordered, and I wasn't aware of my system for a long time, and because of how our trauma works, I'm basically frontstuck and I hate it. I struggled to communicate with my headmates, and most had to learn how to co-front because we'd never done it before. I wanted to leave front completely because I just want a break, I know that's normal and not too bad.

So about the more disconcerting part ... In working to front switch more, we started noticing more heavy amnesia we didn't notice before due to me always being the one in front. The biggest is time loss (which is much less of a blackout and more of a dilation, but idk if that's because I don't completely lose consciousness?), but I also struggle to remember more than even the most basic of events if I'm far from front, random switches are happening way more often, things like that. I'm losing the control I didn't realize I had over us.

My point is, though, that .... I kind of like it, honestly? I really like it. I'm so much happier like this. I trust my headmates to do whatever's needed without me, being able to rotate things out more consistently is a huge weight off of me, the amnesia/time loss is actually a relief because I meticulously over-analyze every single action the body does. My desire to present as "sane" to singlets grows less and less every day, especially since we're already nonworking and unable to drive due to separate circumstances. I feel myself wanting to get to the point where I'm so far in back that I don't get shaky and fearful and forced back into the front seat when somebody in outerworld "requires" me. Not forever, because I have partners in the system and out and a life I want to live, but I crave that disconnect I or others in my system can sometimes initiate.

Would it be wrong of me to not discourage these aspects of our system normally considered "disordered"? I really don't mind not remembering things, my headmates remind me, and my qpp is usually there to tell me what I missed. I already have other memory problems so it feels more like accepting them. Random switches are only mildly annoying at best, and have only caused trouble when a singlet in outerworld expects something of me. Letting go of control and letting my headmates figure things out has been a relief and a blessing, a freedom from the exhaustion I constantly feel. It's also been improving the mental health of the headmates we rotate out with.

But I know these aspects are quite literally part of *why* we're disordered. I know some aspects of disabilities are only disabling because we live in a society catered to the "abled" side of the false dichotomy. But I see people around the system community saying encouraging dissociation and memory separation is dangerous, wrong, and anti-recovery. We... Really need an outside opinion, if that's alright.

TLDR: Is it wrong to encourage dissociative aspects of our system when it's drastically improving our mental health?

Hi!! Thanks for reaching out anon.

Honestly, not at all. I'm super happy for you, and very glad that you take comfort in the aspects of yourselves that are meant to be disordered.

If it makes you feel any better, we entirely relate. The amnesia, dissociation, time loss, losing control, switching a lot, especially when triggered or overwhelmed, are all extremely helpful and beneficial to us. Of course they're inconvenient sometimes, and unpleasant when we try to present as sane like you said, but they formed to protect us. They literally came to be to make us feel better. There's no shame in being relieved and grateful for these coping mechanisms your brain has built in for you.

There's also no shame if they end up getting more difficult at some point. The state of your symptoms with OSDDID is notoriously fluid, it's okay if you hate your symptoms and just want to be "normal" one day, and are grateful for everything they do for you the next. There's no shame in wanting to step back, dissociate, and block everything out from time to time, or even all the time.

We are very proud of you for finding happiness where you are. Never feel pressured to change that for anybody. The most invaluable thing a trauma survivor could possibly feel is happy with themselves. Being happy or content will never ever be anti-recovery, the entire goal of trauma recovery is to be happy and accept yourself. It would only be anti-recovery if it remained maladaptive, and hurt you more than it helped, yet you continued to lean in onto it. Clearly, you're& doing great. Keep it up!