#tl;dr open a history book

[talesinfallacies]

the whole argument of “there was no official Palestine state” falls flat when you read history and realize the middle east was split into emirates (not uae) or kaza; each with its own emir ruling it, prior to the fall of the ottoman empire. each emir ruled over their designated emirate that consisted of cities and villages; and the residents of these villages have been there for millennials; some of them are descendants of nomadic tribes (who are also indigenous to the land) that settled down in these villages at some point in history.

[adachimoe]

Persona 4 - Inaba Setting Guide

Happy New Years!

This is all written up from the lore/setting/etc books that Atlus released for fans, Persona Club P4 and the Golden Premium Fan/Fun Book. I didn't wanna do a 1:1 translation because this is multiple full text pages from two books so this is more like a summary or tl;dr of what's in the books.

I put this under a read more because it's a looot of text. I will probably inevitably edit something later when I realize I made a dumb typo.

General / Meta stuff not in the book that I feel the need to note first

Is Inaba a "town" or a "city"? Inaba is Inaba city (市). The qualifications to become a city are having ~50k residents and 60%+ of the central area being homes. Per the Premium book, Inaba does indeed have 50k citizens. The characters in-game also call it a town/neighborhood/area (町). (Think how in English, we have sayings like "back in town" even when we're not talking about towns?)

Inaba is not a real city, but Atlus lists multiple inspirations for it: Fuefuki, which they drove to randomly and spoke to people; Tottori, which is where the legend of the Hare of Inaba is said to have taken place and is where names like "Yasogami" come from (and it also used to have an Inaba province); and "an unnamed developer's hometown" which was used as a reference for the central shopping district and the area around the Dojima house.

A briefer on the Hare of Inaba: A hare tricks a bunch of sharks (wanizame or same) into lining up so it can cross their backs to get to the mainland. The hare is an idiot so it proclaims that it deceived the sharks, and the last shark takes a chunk out of it. Meanwhile, Okuninushi and his brethren (collectively known as the Yasogami) come across the hare on their way to woo a princess. The Yasogami troll the shit out of the hare and makes its back worse, but Okuninushi actually helps the hare by telling it to roll in cattail, and this cures the hare. The hare then reveals it is actually a god, and Okuninushi is given the princess's hand in marriage.

From here on, anything from me that I felt like I needed to note or give my Unwanted Opinion on is wrapped in ( )s.

History

Sengoku period: A feudal lord built a castle on Mt. Yasogami, the highest mountain in the area, and a castle town formed at the base of the mountain. The area was never caught up in any of the major wars or battles of the Sengoku period.

Edo period: After the warring period ended, people began traveling to Inaba because of the hot springs. One winter, someone living in the castle started a fire, it went out of control, and the castle burnt down. The feudal lord's family returned to their old territory and left Inaba.

Meiji period: After the black ships, Japan's opening, Perry, etc, coal was in high demand. Coal was discovered in Mt. Yasogami, people began to move there to work in the coal mines, and this was when Inaba became Inaba City. Presently, many of the people living in Inaba are 2nd and 3rd generation descendants of these coal miner families.

Showa period: During the later end of the Showa era, the world swapped from using coal to using oil. The coal refineries began closing, and by the 1980s, the coal mine also closed, people began to move away, thus leading to the current state of Inaba during the time of P4.

Modern Day

Inaba has around 50k citizens

The city center is a flat area surrounded by mountains called Yasoinaba (so Yasoinaba is a region/district within Inaba, not the other way around)

The local plant is cattail (see the bit about the Hare of Inaba) and there is a lot of cattail that grows downstream on the Samegawa

The local animal is the rabbit and many facilities have rabbit decorations (Namatame's family's delivery service also uses a rabbit with a mail bag)

There has been a recent push to make Inaba Beefsteak a thing as part of the revitalization of Inaba efforts, but... since they have no local cows or beef farms, people don't know where the meat comes from, causing there to be rumors about the meat in town... Atlus notes that it really is beef, but it is unknown where it comes from...

Transport in Inaba

Inaba is sandwiched between other larger urban places (think a metropolis like Tokyo), but the closest one is 3 hours away even by train so Inaba isn't really a place you live in while commuting during the day for work to a bigger city

The only train station in the south part of the city is Yasoinaba Station which is the central/headquarters-like station for the local train line, the Inaba Line

Yasoinaba Station is last stop on the Inaba Line, and the stop before it is called East Inaba. Okina is also somewhere on the Inaba line.

The Inaba Line doesn't take you to straight to one of the highly populated urban areas. You also have to transfer to another train at the Yasogami Hills train terminal (the protag does this in the opening anime movie)

There are only a few bus routes: Less used ones that go north/south and connects the city area with Mt. Yasogami, and others go east/west and connect Inaba with other cities. (Shu's house, the hospital, the Amagi Inn, and the outdoor daycare are all known bus stops. In Arena, Nanako also takes the bus to the train station.)

Even though most people get around by car, the national highway - access to the outside world - only runs for 300m at the southern edge of the city, and there's no regular expressways to quickly take you to other nearby cities

Overall, people tend to live their lives within the confines of the city

Yasogami Hills and Mt. Yasogami

The mountains in Inaba, with the tallest being Mt. Yasogami, are collectively known as the Yasogami Hills

Somewhere in the Yasogami Hills is a hot spring resort district and this is where the Amagi Inn plus other hot springs are located

The Amagi Inn has 30 rooms, half of which are located in a building detached from the main building so that guests can enjoy the mountains

The ski resort visited in Golden is located somewhere on Mt. Yasogami

The Samegawa

Named after the Hare of Inaba tale and how the hare tricked the "wanizame" or "same"; name meaning "shark river"

The Samegawa runs north and south through Inaba

Downstream to go fishing, upstream takes you to the source of the river on Mt Yasogami

Halfway up the mountain, near the headwaters, is a campsite which is frequented by fishers and outdoors lovers

Upstream, you can drink from the water at the source, but it's too cold to go swimming in even in summer (recall the June camping trip)

It is very specifically a "Class B river system"

Yasogami High School

Name comes from Okuninushi's bros in the Hare of Inaba tale, the Yasogami (Yasogami means "eighty gods" but that was figurative language where 80 means "a bunch", so the meaning is more like "many gods highschool")

Built in 1944 as Yasogami Military School. It was built on Mt. Yasogami where the castle used to stand to deter the allied forces from fire bombing Mt. Yasogami, thus using the school / students as a shield for the coal mine. After the war, it became a normal school, though there is still a plane on campus as a memento of when it was a military facility.

The JP name is 八十神高等学校. The school's nickname is 八高, derived from 2 characters in the full name. This is pronounced "Hachiko". (I think this was removed from the English version entirely, but if you ever play in Japanese audio and wonder why students say "Hachiko" sometimes...)

During the coal mining period, there were lots of students and the two buildings (what we know as the classroom bldg and the practice bldg in-game) were both classroom buildings. After the mines closed -> less people -> less births, they renovated the unused classrooms into vocational / practice rooms. This is how Yasogami High ended up with so many different things in the practice building lol.

There is a small baseball field in addition to the other outdoor facilities. (I don't think we see this in-game)

The book notes that there is not actual rule explicitly stating that girls can't wear a boys uniform.

You aren't allowed to ride a scooter to school, but according to Daisuke in one of the Strength hangouts (or so says the book; I don't think I've seen this hangout), people do so secretly.

Students have to get permission from school to get a part-time job. They're allowed as long as it doesn't interfere w/studies and the job is age appropriate.

The cultural festival is open to people outside of school, thus it is treated like an event similar to the shrine festival. Businesses from around Inaba also set up stalls at the festival and get into friendly competition with one another.

Many students who graduate from the school tend to stay in Inaba and get jobs there. Attending Yasogami High gives you an advantage / favoritism over students from private schools when job hunting.

Dojima Residence

A house that was built anywhere from a few years to decades ago

It's located in west Inaba

It's not a family home, Dojima bought it

The house has 3-4 bedrooms, exact number not given

The garden outside was started by Chisato, but of course it's been left alone since she passed

If the protagonist eats Nanako's pudding, she will just assume she ate it and forgot about it............................................... (I don't think Adachi would even do this shit.................................)

Junes

The store opened within the previous year

The manager is Yosuke's dad, Yoichi Hanamura

Many students and housewives work there part-time

Students make 690 yen per hr, adults make 900 yen per hr, but Yosuke is worked like a dog for 400 yen per hr

1F has the grocery department and a line of small specialty shops

2F has the clothing department and home appliances department

The part in July where you find Teddie on a massage chair is part of a special event space where they demo new products. Oh, and the Death SLink, Hisano, wins one of those massage chairs after submitting poetry for Junes' anniversary

The roof has the food court, children's land, and an event stage

1F with the grocery department is open 24/7 and they put out prepared foods every day at 4pm / 7pm / 10pm

The food court has a special called the Ultra Young Set (JP name from the JP slogan) or the Meat Lovers Combo (Eng) that has salisbury / hamburg steak, beefsteak, menchi katsu, and fried chicken; people besides Chie who eat this will be blessed with heartburn. In a dungeon chat, Yosuke wonders if it's made using fox meat since it's so cheap, but it's actually from cows and chickens at farms that Junes has partnered with.

Junes is located in the south area of Inaba and is accessible for people passing through on the national highway, bringing them customers who are passing by, Inaba locals, and even people from Okina

Junes doesn't sell Teddie's favorite snack, Homerun Bars (a real ice cream product, localized as Topsicles in English), so he spends his Junes paychecks buying them at Shiroku

Central Shopping District - South Map

Yomenaido Bookstore: The owner's family name is Yomenai, meaning "can't read". They didn't realize how much of a mismatch their name was for a bookstore until after they opened. At first they were concerned about their business, but have begun stocking books for their own tastes and hobbies, drawing other enthusiasts of certain hobbies to their store. Thus, the majority of books in the store are ones that the average person "can't read". ba-dum-tsh

Daidara Metalworks: JP name is "Metalworks Daidarabocchi", with the bocchi written as a dot (e.g. "Daidara。") Daidara makes pieces of art.

Shiroku Store: Shi and roku mean 4 and 6, and the name comes from an old story about there being a toad with 4 front legs and 6 back legs called the Shiroku Toad. It was originally a pharmacy and medicine seller (the shiroku toad was said to have medicinal purposes), but now the store sells a bunch of whatever. The capsule machine outside was handmade by Shiroku's deceased husband.

Marukyu Tofu: A tofu store that sticks to old-fashioned simple tofu recipes (my opinion here, but I believe this is why it's still around after Junes opened). Run by Rise's grandmother. The people in Inaba call her grandmother "Marukyu" as a nickname (in-game dialogue, the nickname is written differently than the sign on the store). Due to her old age, she has been open less hours and making less product. But once Rise comes back to town, she helps out at the store, and her grandma is back to making more tofu and staying open longer. Rise is in charge of (uhh insert word used in fishmongering that seems to express Rise is in charge of selling?) the first batch of tofu in the morning before school, leading to male customers lining up early.

Central Shopping District - North Map

Souzai Daigaku: The name means Prepared Foods University. It used to be a lingerie store until the new owners took over. They made it a butcher, then converted it into a store that sells prepared foods that are "a taste of mom's home cooking". But in a small place like Inaba, people aren't exactly nostalgic for that, compared to the big city. The owner later added beefsteak skewers to the menu, claiming they're 80% beef, 20% something else, thus fueling the "what is the meat in Inaba?!" conspiracies. Due to its cheap prices, it's popular with students.

Marutake: A small hobby shop where the protagonist receives Gundam / Avatar Turner reference plastic models to build. The owner works on farmland during the day and his daughter attends Yasogami High.

Aiya: It used to be an oil store, but now it's a Chinese restaurant claiming to be authentic Shanghai style food. However, the owner is a Mr. Nakamura (hence why Aika in P4 anime's last name is Nakamura) who was born and raised in Inaba. On rainy days, Nakamura serves the Special Meat Bowl which has 3kg "meat" and 3kg rice. The meat is pork (the dish isn't called the Mega Beef Bowl in JP), but when asked what it is, Nakamura replies that it's "authentic Chinese cuisine: sheep head and dog meat" which is referring to the expression "selling dog meat under a sheep head", a saying about selling misleading products. (Btw, the owner speaks in Kyowago, saying Aiyaaaa and ending his sentences in "aru". But during say, Kanji's Social Link, he drops the act. So yes, he is LARPing as a Chinese guy.)

Tatsuhime Shrine: The deity enshrined is Toyotamahime, who's true form is similar to a wanizame (refer back to the hare of inaba story), and story is similar to that of Izanagi and Izanami. She protects against water-related disasters (she comes from an undersea palace) and offers safe childbirths (her story involves her giving birth to Hoori's child). The fox that lives on the shrine grounds heals with Inaba's local plant, cattail.

(If you are wondering about the fox in general, the fox statues at the smaller sub-shrine suggest it is dedicated to Inari Okami, so the fox IMO is a messenger of Inari - not literally, but hey. The red apron/bib it wears is based on the red votive bibs that you find on statues at shrines to ward off evil spirits.)

Tatsumi Textiles: An older store from the Meiji era, from when people used to dye fabrics in the clean streams of the Samegawa. The previous owner, Kanji's father, was a famous dyer. (I believe this is why the store is doing well for itself despite the Junes invasion.)

Konishi Liquors: Saki and Naoki's family's store. Saki was working at Junes as she thought the experience would one day help when she takes over the liquor store. They had been doing poorly lately, but a lot of people began visiting out of sympathy after Saki's death. The store is named after former battle planner and now composer Toshiki Konishi whose family owns a liquor store called Konishi Liquor. The name was used as a placeholder during development and it ended up sticking. (Thus, the YouTube comments on Konishi's remix of Fog talking about "remixing a song that your killer dances to" are kind of on-point...)

And now for the non-Inaba locations visited during Persona 4, because those were included in the Town Guide too lol

Tatsumi Port Island

Kashiwagi books the class to stay at Hotel Hamaguri, the renamed version of the love hotel from Persona 3. Instead of a love hotel, it's now a regular hotel. (The decor, however...) Teddie appears on the building opposite the group and impersonates Takaya with two cats as his Jin and Chidori (Teddie even gets a weapon called the Strega Claw lol)

Two years ago before Rise made it big as an idol, she had an invite-only / secret live at Club Escapade. Due to a power outage, they had to cancel the show. This was caused by a mechanical failure and was not the night when SEES fought the Hermit Shadow. (IIRC, Shinji mentions the club had issues with the power -- due to the Hermit Shadow -- leading up to full moon mission, so it might be that?)

Club Escapade quit serving alcohol last year to protest drunk driving

Akinari's book, the Pink Alligator, was published after Mitsuru found it among a certain person's things. True to the story itself, people like it, but no one knows who the real author is...

One of the Kirijo Group's companies is Kirijo Telecom. Dojima's cell phone service is through this company. When he calls Nanako on November 5th, he gets an automated message about her phone not being unavailable from "KJ Telecom", with KJ standing for Kirijo.

When Naoto takes everyone to the hospital in October, she mentions she has read documents about Personas and Shadows. These are thought to have been leaked from a Kirijo Group research lab.

Okina City

Okina is to the north of Inaba, separated from it by Mt. Yasogami

It has 250k people

Okina was originally a city built around a large shrine

Known for having good water

Used to have a papermaking industry

Recently it became very industrial due to companies making factories there, then the workers and their families moved in, so the shopping mall around Okina Station was built with new retail stores, etc etc

(The station at Okina has a sign for the "Inaba Line", indicating that the local train line goes south from Inaba, to East Inaba, then ???, and then north to stop at Okina I guess?)

Shichiri Beach

Not much to note here except that it is a beach within a distance that high schoolers could realistically access via scooter lol

[queerfables]

Taking away the glass?

Oh gosh I'm actually so keen to talk about this so thank you for the opening!

Context: Responding to akaitsukicat's artwork of Crowley and Aziraphale separated by a glass wall, I said that the reason we're all such wrecks over their kiss is because after 6000 years in canon and 33 years in real life, that kiss was "taking away the glass".

The glass is a metaphor that media scholar Henry Jenkins uses to explain the appeal of slash, originally published in 1993. Here, "slash" refers to queer re-interpretation of heterosexual media, including transformative works exploring those readings.

This is what Jenkins says about the glass:

When I try to explain slash to non-fans, I often reference that moment in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan where Spock is dying and Kirk stands there, a wall of glass separating the two longtime buddies. Both of them are reaching out towards each other, their hands pressed hard against the glass, trying to establish physical contact. They both have so much they want to say and so little time to say it. Spock calls Kirk his friend, the fullest expression of their feelings anywhere in the series. Almost everyone who watches the scene feels the passion the two men share, the hunger for something more than what they are allowed. And, I tell my nonfan listeners, slash is what happens when you take away the glass. The glass, for me, is often more social than physical; the glass represents those aspects of traditional masculinity which prevent emotional expressiveness or physical intimacy between men, which block the possibility of true male friendship. Slash is what happens when you take away those barriers and imagine what a new kind of male friendship might look like. One of the most exciting things about slash is that it teaches us how to recognize the signs of emotional caring beneath all the masks by which traditional male culture seeks to repress or hide those feelings.

The vid I refer to, inspired by Jenkin's comments, is The Glass by thingswithwings. It's a beautiful vid, sad and hopeful and empowering, with a very moving commentary on fandom history. It was originally published in 2008, which is relevant to understanding the position it takes in the dialogue around queer relationships in media.

Here's thingswithwings' summary of the vid, as it appears on YouTube:

Henry Jenkins, speaking of the Spock death scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, said, "slash is what happens when you take away the glass." It has been said, in response, that death also happens when you take away the glass. ie, if you took away the glass Kirk would die of radiation poisoning too; the barrier between desiring men cannot be removed on pain of death. Homosexuality, or just loving touch between two people of the same gender, is equivalent to death in this media narrative. One of the interesting things about slash is the way it takes away the glass, then puts it back, then takes it away, then puts it back, often pleasurably. I think this is both problematic and powerful. It is problematic because it reasserts the impossibility of the touch (it fetishizes oppression in a negative manner); it is powerful - and good - because it dwells on and thinks about and removes the glass (it fetishizes oppression in a transformative manner). One of the interesting things about mainstream media is that it continues to put the glass back up, no matter how hard we try to tear it down. Queer desiring touches have been, and remain, imaginable but impossible. TL;DR ALTERNATE SUMMARY: THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME KIND OF INVISIBLE BARRIER IDK WHAT IT MIGHT BE

In regards to Good Omens, it's relevant that this entire conversation about homosocial relationships in media takes place within the 29 year period between the publication of Good Omens the book and the adaptation of the story to screen. The vid was created 15 years ago - which is to say 18 years after the book was published and 11 years before season 1 was released - and it talks about realised queer desire in mainstream media as being so impossible that it is equivalent to death. That is the kind of resistance that queer representation in pop culture has been up against, these last three decades.

Crowley/Aziraphale, as depicted in the book, is such a classic example of slash. I've seen some people who read the book in a contemporary context saying they didn't necessarily pick up on any subtext between the characters, and I suspect this is a mark of cultural expectations. Firstly, because the cultural references that the intentional subtext relies on have become obscured over time - see Neil Gaiman's explanation of the "consenting cycle repairmen" line. But more importantly because the audience's frame of reference for unintentional subtext has shifted, too. What is unsayable and which silences are emotionally loaded has changed over time. Even if you are intentionally using a queer lens in your reading, you might not see subtext in the same places that someone would even 10 years ago.

For example, take this passage from the book:

On the whole, neither [Aziraphale] nor Crowley would have chosen each other's company, but they were both men, or at least men-shaped creatures, of the world, and the Arrangement had worked to their advantage all this time. Besides, you grew accustomed to the only other face that had been around more or less consistently for six millennia.

On it's face, this line suggests that the relationship between the two of them is a matter of convenience more than desire. Maybe that's the intended reading and maybe that's how it started or how they justify their association to themselves, but taken together with how deeply they know each other and how they are always each other's first thought in a crisis, suddenly "neither would have chosen the other's company" sounds like an extremely British way to say they care about each other far more than they were supposed to. Plus, this is Aziraphale's take on their relationship, and it plays rather beautifully against Crowley's much simpler expression of the exact same sentiment:

Aziraphale. The Enemy, of course. But an enemy for six thousand years now, which made him a sort of friend.

To go back to Henry Jenkin's wise words, what we're seeing here is Aziraphale thinking about Crowley through the glass - through the "aspects of traditional masculinity which prevent emotional expressiveness or physical intimacy between men". If you came up in slash fandom at a time when seeing queer relationships in canon was unthinkable, you probably find it easier to identify the gap between how Aziraphale thinks about his relationship with Crowley and how their relationship actually functions. That gap was where a lot of slash lived.

You might say that the book shows Crowley and Aziraphale watching each other through the glass, and season 1 is them pressing up against it. They're still prevented from showing the full depth of feeling between them, they still hunger for more than they're allowed, but they are reaching for it. We see the history of their relationship developing through the ages. The unsayable is still left unsaid, but we feel the weight of it in everything they do. They come so very close but they still can't cross that threshold.

And then there's season 2. Within the text, Crowley and Aziraphale are not just pressing against the glass, they're actively trying to dismantle it. They're searching for a door to the other side. They're inspecting for weak points where they could cut their way through. And then suddenly they're out of time and out of options and the glass is still between them, and there's nothing they can do.

As the audience, you feel that desperation. You feel that grief. And if you're someone who's been watching the glass go back up on every relationship you thought might stand a chance of tearing it down, it hits hard. You're longing vicariously with the characters, but you're longing for yourself too, to see queer desire made possible. To see queer touch made not just imaginable but real.

And then, with all hope lost, Crowley throws himself through the glass. It doesn't matter that it doesn't save them. They kiss and it changes everything. Queer desire is no longer up for debate. Queer touch is no longer impossible. They kiss and the glass shatters, entirely and irrevocably.

This is why it matters so much that they did kiss, even though the love between them was already undeniable. For thirty years, Crowley and Aziraphale were part of a media landscape that relentlessly reinforced the glass at every turn and flooded fatal radiation through any crack they couldn't fix. In a different context, that kiss would be less vital to affirming their relationship. But in the world we live in, with the specific history that this story has, I don't think anything else could have done what it did. The glass between these characters had been reinforced over decades, in a culture that made the barriers to open intimacy between men inescapable. Their kiss was what it took to break it.

And by shattering the glass, this story has fundamentally rewritten what is possible. It proves the rules preventing true affection between people of the same gender can be defied. Queer people are already becoming more visible in pop culture; we're no longer reliant on slash reimagining queer longing between heterosexual leads. But Crowley and Aziraphale's kiss is cathartic and vindicating in an entirely different way. It turns slash into intentional queerness. It takes a fetishisation of oppression vacillating between problematic and transformative, and finally stands up on the side of powerful, empowering transformation. It confronts the barriers that once rendered this desiring touch impossible, and breaks through them once and for all.

That's what taking away the glass means. That's what Good Omens did.

[ollywander]

Dutch Jewish Snape

I’ve been headcanon-ing Snape as Dutch, which sounds random, but hear me out.

Jewish!Snape is a very common headcanon; however, British Jews are not very common because they were purged from the U.K. multiple times throughout history. That being said, Jews were pretty common in the Netherlands before the Holocaust (many were Sephardic because the Netherlands was previously under Spanish control. If Snape is any kind of Jewish, it’s probably Sephardic. He doesn’t have traditional Ashkenazi features).

Snape’s hypothetical Jewish family:

Father:

Tobias being the Jewish one makes the most sense to me. Eileen attended Hogwarts in the fifties, meaning she was born in the forties or very late thirties. Tobias probably was also born in the forties. This could be the result of a Jewish mother moving to the U.K. before World War II as tensions and violence against Jews rose. Snape is an English location name, meaning Tobias’ hypothetical Jewish mother would have married an Englishman. Having fled the Netherlands, she might have been poor, down on her luck, which would make sense with the poverty of Snape’s childhood. After seeking asylum in the U.K., she would have had Tobias probably between 1935 and 1940, given that Snape was born in 1960 and in the Harry Potter universe, characters inexplicably almost always have kids around the age of twenty and the man is always at least a little older. She would have named this child Tobias, a very common name in the Netherlands; less so in the U.K. (though still normal). Tobias is also a Jewish name, symbolizing (the) goodness (of G-d). A reminder of home. Tobias, having Jewish ancestry, might have been more open that your average Church of England man to marry a witch because Jews are more closely connected with magic (the Kabbalah, for example, is an important book of magic in Judaism). Also, Judaism passes from the mother to the child. If Tobias were Jewish, his son would only practice Judaism if Eileen was also Jewish.

Mother:

Eileen Snape née Prince is less likely to be Jewish, in my opinion. She came from a pureblood family, probably well established already in England. Given the expungement and number of Jews in England, a well established Jewish family, let alone a wizarding one, is unlikely. She has dark hair, dark eyes, and thick brows. These features are stereotypically Jewish, but also stereotypically Scottish and/or Welsh. The name Eileen is Scottish. The surname “Prince” is common in Scotland. She probably has Scottish and/or Welsh ancestry; likely both given the long-standing history of magic within Wales, and the fictional town of Cokesworth’s location proximity to Wales (Cokesworth is right under Wales in south-west England. Lily Potter née Evans is from Cokesworth. Evans is a Welsh surname. There is probably a good sized Welsh diaspora in Cokesworth. Also, Eileen is not shown to have had a Scottish accent).

Side note: Tobias being Jewish rather than Eileen also makes sense because Judaism is passed from mother to child. Severus Snape does not practice Judaism. Tobias (and obviously, we don’t know whether he would have practiced or not) might not have practiced it because when he was born, there was a mass genocide of Jews and it would have been frightening and unwise to reveal that about himself. Also, British father, probably Christian, agnostic, or atheist — not Jewish.

TL;DR:

I think Tobias Snape’s mother was a Jewish woman from Amsterdam.

EDIT: OH MY GOD I forgot to add that Latin names are common in the Netherlands! A regular Englishman might have had some objection to naming his kid Severus, but in the Netherlands, though still pretty strange, it wouldn’t have been as weird. I wouldn’t blink an eye if I ran into a Dutch guy called Severus Tobias Something-or-Other.

EDIT II: Another thing. The parish of Snape, England is right across the channel from the Netherlands.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for asking my spouse to open up our relationship?

Tl;dr: He said no years ago but our sex life is non-existent and I'm climbing the walls.

Full story:

Me (early 30s, NB) and my partner (late 30s, M) have been together for over a decade. We have a kid, a mortgage and enough interests in common to keep each other entertained. He's a genuinely good person and the last thing I want to do is hurt him. BUT.

We met before I hit 20, and he was my first ever serious relationship. Our sex life tanked about two years in, but we both had other things going on, and over time I blamed many different factors: living conditions, shift work, my weight gain, health issues, differences in upbringing, levels of queerness - you name it. In the last few years I helped him through a serious medical condition (think two surgeries and a long recovery), but once he was nominally in the clear my mental health went down the drain and I haven't really been back to normal since.

For a while, I had a really good counsellor and for once got to talk about some of the less savoury shit going on in my noggin. It all ended up on a Realisation that we only had sex while sober on a laughably small number of occasions, and any and all attempts on my part to spice things up ended at best with affectionately confounded denial or just a straight up brick wall. I got sober a few years before he did (I'm talking 'uh oh maybe we're having too many too often' rather than 'out of control alcoholism'), which effectively ended our sex life altogether. At this point I'm looking at a solid year since my husband last touched me, and even then it was after he came home from a pub in a silly mood so neither of us ended up getting much out of it. And it's not even the longest stretch.

I floated this as an issue a number of times, and every time he agreed it's something to work on then did precisely zilch. I told him point blank once that I wouldn't be opposed to an open relationship, but he was vehemently against, because that's the first step to a break up in his mind. I suggested he might be ace (there are several clues to that, not just my increasingly unhinged internet history), bought the book as a way to start a discussion - he put it on a shelf and never looked at it again.

After my Big Bad Breakdown earlier this year we ended up in family counselling. It quickly became clear that there are so many things he just Didn't Consider that the sex thing didn't even get mentioned, then we ran out of slots and he hasn't followed up on any of his revelations from the sessions, so I feel like digging in is a lost cause.

I love him, don't want to leave him and quite frankly couldn't even if I did because the UK is a financial ruin. I also have some extremely unfulfilled needs, and can't even rub one out in peace because he finds it weird (???). Even if I didn't find cheating morally Too Far it sounds exhausting and I already have too much going on. I haven't been the easiest person to be around for the last few months, but this has been a years-long issue. So, WBITA to start the conversation on the open relationship again, despite the negative feedback I had previously?

(If it helps, we both have different flavours of neurodivergence, although mine is under treatment and his largely ignored.)

What are these acronyms?

[keydekyie]

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕠𝕥𝕙 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕖𝕒𝕣

~Frequently asked questions~

Wondering what the hell that human-faced bear monster was that you saw on your dash? Can't figure out whether it's supposed to be scary or cute? Confused deeply?

Well do I have the solution for you: All your questions answered, and more!

First of all: what am I looking at?

The creature you've seen is called a Kanai. They're basically a sphinx, a creature with a human face, but instead of the body of a lion, it's a bear! It's not that weird! (right?) Oh, and they're also the size of a house. Don't worry about it, it's fine. It's fine.

What is this setting?

The story is set in my headworld, which is a sort of an alternate-reality Earth, and specifically in a country called Kellabor. Here's a big worldbuilding dump if you're curious, but there's no need to read it all before diving into the books. You'll discover everything important along the way.

So there are books?

Yes! I've written three books in the series, and am working on the fourth and final book. I have a masterpost explaining them with content warnings here.

Okay but what is the story about? What happens?

It's a very PG (maybe edging on PG-13 in the fourth book) slow-burn fantasy romance adventure story with a dash of horror.

Oh, so there's romance?

Yep! It's been planned that way since the first words I put down. If you get through the first two books and are wondering where the hell the romance happens, just remember: it's a slow burn. A sloooow burn. We'll get there.

How many books are there going to be?

So far, I'm planning on four. Originally, I had three planned, but the second one was getting too long and I had to split it in half. That's why book II: The Crossing ends on a cliffhanger. Don't worry, it's not going to take four books to get to the cute parts.

Is there going to be a happy ending?

Yes! Yes, I promise there will be a happy ending. Might not, uh... seem very likely, at times, but yes.

What's the inspiration behind this story?

If you want a long, somewhat-spoilery answer, you can read this, but the tl;dr non-spoilery version is:

I wanted to write a story about a monster and a human where the monster is the one facing the ethical dilemma, and they come to be friends and care about each other. And go on adventures. And love each other.

Wait, so... are the giant bear monsters the good guys?

Um... yes and no. There really aren't clear good guys or bad guys in this story. I'm going to have to ask you to have a bit of an open mind, here.

Okay, but I swear I saw a gif of one of these monsters eating someone. Was that from this?

Yeah, that gif is from a side-project set in the same world. It's a little more explicit than anything that happens on screen in TMatB, but let's just say it's not... uncharacteristic. That's the dash of horror I mentioned.

Listen... it's the dash of horror that makes the cute stuff that much cuter. The horror is the flavor. Trust me on this one.

Wait so if the bear monsters eat people, how are they not obviously the bad guys?

It's complicated! You'll find nothing is black and white here in Kellabor. The country has a long, mysterious, complex history, and so do each of my characters.

Okay but... what happens, though? Who's this girl I keep seeing in these drawings? Why does it sometimes seem like they are enemies and sometimes not?

The protagonists start out in conflict in book I due to ✨circumstances✨. They have a lot of issues to work out. Depending on where they are in the story, drawings of them might show them being more antagonistic or more sweet. It'll all make sense with context.

I'm still confused...

Ask box is always open! ♥️

You can get the books on my webbed site: graceohare.com

[thesehandsfic]

hey i was wondering if you had a process for how you do reasearch for your fics? i don’t really do research and i have a hard time finishing any of my projects- does it help you stay motivated to finish?

hi! yes!! research is actually one of the most fun parts of a project for me & my methods/practices have changed a few times. i definitely think having a strong foundation for a work is essential, and it's important to me that my work is grounded in reality, even while i employ some aspects of non-reality that are afforded to us by fic. i work mainly in period pieces so my research processes are geared towards that specific type of work.

i usually start with the character research, who they are, what they would be, what they would experience in the area/period where they are placed. this can be anything from politics to religion to ideals to wardrobe to hobbies. after that i tend to familiarize myself with the media/culture of the era/location. culture & art are a big aspect of any world building, and it's a bit easier if the world you're building already exists/has existed. after getting a feel for the political climate, the books/movies/music that were popular, and how the characters would interact with them, there are usually niche topics i then look into for the sake of a specific project. like for example i once found a blogspot run by some guy where he indexed nothing but restaurants that were open in san francisco in the 70s. he included pictures, descriptions of menu items he ordered when he visited, the date it closed/who owned it/where it was located, etc. all of that stuff is out there. sometimes i will also do some research into sex and/or identity of the time, but this usually only applies to niche time periods or areas i'm not familiar with. i don't use anachronistic references, epigraphs, or anything else when i'm writing a clearcut period piece.

to keep everything organized i'll create a google doc called "research/outline for [fic name]" or something like that, and i'll make tabs. in the tabs, i save links like this:

& you'll see there in my other tabs i also save my plot breakdown, some quotes/literature by authors from the time period, or things i find relevant. it's easy to go back to all of this & find what you're looking for. i think this also helps you have something to look at as a visual aid. i spent hours just reading over the 16k+ research doc for tenebroso as i was writing it, and i really think being so firmly grounded in the heart & soul of the work is what helped me finish it up! there were a few times when i thought i wouldn't--i also used to really struggle with finishing a project, and this is what i've found works for me. some fics are less research heavy than others or simply just draw upon things i already know to be fact, which means the google doc is not always necessary. i think for go running the only thing i really researched was achilles tendon surgery & related recovery processes 'cus i lived in new york and already knew a lot about religion/gay sex/corporate teams/tech, etc.

i also am just kind of a history nerd and some of this is really just me adding enrichment to my enclosure. i'm not going to say there's any one correct way to do research or that it's necessary to do research in order to complete a project or anything like that... but it definitely helps me!

tl;dr: lots of hours on google, even if you think it's not "necessary" it might be fun to read/learn about it anyway, save what's relevant, remember to have fun !

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

(I’m popping a extra disclaimer here because I don’t know if I worded this very well, and I understand if this isnt the kind if question you feel comfortable answering, but this is a genuine question made in good faith. I also apologise if this sounds really stupid)

I read one of your recent asks about inclusivism and it reminded me of something that always sat in the back of my mind with this train of thought.

If we say that everyone regardless of religion, or absence of it, gets into heaven, doesn’t that seem disrespectful to their faith. By saying that people of other religions get into christian heaven, is that not inadvertently telling them that their religion or their gods are fake, and that when they die it’ll be okay because they’ll learn the real truth? I hope this doesn’t come across as blunt or disrespectful to anyone, I’ve just never be able to come to a conclusion that isn’t exclusive (which is kind of a depressing thought), but is also respectful. Because it’s a beautiful idea that god loves us all regardless of who we are or what we believe, but what about people who have the kind of faith we do in a completely different god, or multiple gods, do they have the same thoughts about us? that their god loves us even though we dont believe?

I feel like I’m asking questions I’m not supposed to but I’m just really curious about your perspective if this is something you’re comfortable answering.

Hey anon, this is an important question, so thanks for asking it! You don't sound "stupid"; you're thinking like a theologian :) I'm probably not going to do it justice, I'm afraid, but maybe folks will hop on with more ideas or resources?

This got really long, so the TL;DR: I agree with you, and so do a lot of theologians and other thinkers!

In a religiously diverse world, it makes sense that people of various religions ponder where people outside their religions "fit" in their understanding of both the present world and whatever form of afterlife they have.

If someone has a firm personal belief in certain things taking place after death (from heaven to reincarnation), I don't think it's inherently wrong to imagine all kinds of people joining them in that experience, when it points to how that person recognizes the inherent holiness and value of all kinds of people, and shows that they long for continued community with & flourishing for those people.

However, this contemplation should be done with great care — especially when your religion is the dominant one in your culture; especially if your religion has a long history (and/or present) of colonialism and coerced conversions.

Ultimately, humility and openness are key! It's fine to have your own beliefs about humanity's place in this life and after death, but make yourself mindful of your own limited perspective. Accept you might be wrong in part or in whole! And be open to learning from others' ideas, and truly listening to them if they say something in your ideas has caused them or their community tangible harm.

In the rest of this post, I'll focus on a Christian perspective and keep grappling with how to consider these questions while honoring both one's personal faith and people all religions...without coming to any solid conclusions (sorry, but I don't think there's any one-size-fits-all or fully satisfying answer!).

I'll talk a bit about inclusivism and how it fails pretty miserably in this regard, and point towards religious pluralism as a possibly better (tho still imperfect) option.

And as usual I'll say I highly recommend Barbara Brown Taylor's book Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others to any Christians / cultural Christians who want to learn more about entering into mutual relationship with people of other religions.

In previous posts, I brought up the concepts of exclusivism, inclusivism, and religious pluralism without digging into their academic definitions and histories — partially because it's A Lot for a tumblr post, but also because it's by no means in my sphere of expertise. I worried about misrepresenting any viewpoint if I tried to get all academic, so I just stuck to my own personal opinions instead — but looking back at some posts, I see I didn't do a great job of clarifying that's what I was doing!

So now I'll go into what scholars mean when talking about these different viewpoints, with a huge caveat that I'm not an expert; I'm just drawing from notes and foggy memories from old seminary classes + this article from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), and anyone interested in learning more should find scholarly articles or books rather than relying on some guy on tumblr!

Defining exclusivism, inclusivism, & religious pluralism

When we encounter traditions that offer differing and often conflicting "accounts of the nature of both mundane and supramundane reality, of the ultimate ends of human beings, and of the ways to achieve those ends" (IEP), how do we respond? Do we focus on difference and reject any truth in their views that conflicts with our views? Do we avoid looking too closely at the places we differ? try to find common ground? try to make their views fit ours?

Exclusivism, inclusivism, and religious pluralism are three categories into which we can place various responses to the reality of religious diversity.

It's important to note that this is only one categorization system one can use, and that these categories were developed within a Western, Christian context (by a guy named Alan Race in 1983). They are meant to be usable by persons of any religion — all sorts of people ask these questions about how their beliefs relate to others' beliefs — but largely do skew towards a Western, Christian way of understanding religion. (For one thing, there's a strong focus on salvation / afterlife and not all religions emphasize that stuff very much, if at all!)

Drawing primarily from this article on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), here are basic definitions of each:

Exclusivist positions maintain that "only one set of belief claims or practices can ultimately be true or correct (in most cases, those of the one holding the position). A Christian exclusivist would therefore hold that the beliefs of non-Christians (and perhaps even Christians of other denominations) are in some way flawed, if not wholly false..." . (From my old class notes — Exclusivist Christians believe 3 things are non-negotiable: the unique authority of Jesus Christ as the apex of revelation; Jesus as normative; salvation exclusively through repentance and faith in Christ's work on the cross. Some will allow that God does provide some truths about Godself and humanity through general revelation, including truths found in other religious traditions, but the Biggest most Important revelation is still Jesus.) .

Inclusivist positions "recognize the possibility that more than one religious tradition can contain elements that are true or efficacious, while at the same time hold that only one tradition expresses ultimate religious truth most completely." . Christian inclusivists tend to focus on salvation, claiming that non-Christians can still achieve salvation — still through Jesus Christ. Sometimes they hold that any non-Christian whose life happens to fit Jesus's call to love God and neighbor, etc., will be saved. Other times they hold that only non-Christians who never had the chance to learn about Jesus can be saved; if you know about Christianity and reject it, it doesn't matter how "good"you are, you're doomed. .

Pluralist positions hold that "more than one set of beliefs or practices can be, at least partially and perhaps wholly, true or correct simultaneously." For Christian pluralists, that means believing that Jesus is not the one Way to God / to heaven/salvation; Christianity is one way of many, usually conceived of as all being on equal footing, to connect to the Divine. .

(These three categories are not all encompassing; the IEP article also brings up relativism and skepticism.)

Issues with Exclusivism & Inclusivism

I hope the issues with exclusivism are clear, but to name a few:

Christians who are taught that all non-Christians (or even the "wrong kind" of Christians) are doomed to hell are taught to see those people as Projects more than people — there's a perceived urgent need to convert them asap in order to "save them." The only kind of relationship you'd form with one of them is centered in efforts to convert them, rather than to live and learn alongside them as they are.

Doesn't matter if they are already happily committed to a different religion. In your eyes, they're wrong about feeling fulfilled and connected to the Divine.

Doesn't matter if you have to resort to violent and coercive practices like wiping out all signs of non-Christian culture or kidnapping non-Christian children to raise Christian — the ends justify the means because you're looking out for their "immortal souls."

...But what about inclusivism? If you're a Christian inclusivist, you aren't forcing anyone to convert to Christianity right now! You acknowledge that non-Christians can live holy and fulfilling lives! You even acknowledge that there's scraps of value in their valid-but-not-as-valid-as-Christianity religions! So what's the problem?

Turns out that this is a major case of one's good intentions not being nearly as important as one's impact.

You may be pushing back against exclusivism's outright refusal that non-Christians have any connection to the divine at all, which is nice and all — but by saying that non-Christians will basically become Christian after they die, you are still perpetuating our long history of coercive conversions.

There's a reason some scholars argue that inclusivism isn't actually a separate category from, but a sub-category of, exclusivism: you're still saying everyone has to be Christian, "so luckily you'll See The Light and become Christian after you die :)"

This is very reasonably offensive to many non-Christians. If nothing else, it's ludicrously smug and paternalistic! I won't get into it here but it only gets worse when some inclusivist positions try to get all Darwinian and start arranging religions from lower to higher, with Christianity as the "evolutionary" apex of religion ://

For now, I'll only go into detail about Catholic Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner's particular version of inclusivism, because it's quite common and really highlights the paternalism:

Rahner's Anonymous Christians:

A question that Catholics and other Christians struggled with in the 20th century was this: If non-Christians cannot be saved (because they held firm in believing that salvation must be in and through Christ), what happens if someone never even had the chance to learn about Christianity? Surely a loving God wouldn't write them an automatic ticket to hell when they're non-Christian through no fault of their own, right?

German Jesuit Karl Rahner's response was to conceive of a sort of abstract version of Christianity for non-Christians who lived good, faithful lives outside of official (what he called "constituted") Christianity:

"Anonymous Christianity means that a person lives in the grace of God and attains salvation outside of explicitly constituted Christianity. ...Let us say, a Buddhist monk…who, because he follows his conscience, attains salvation and lives in the grace of God; of him I must say that he is an anonymous Christian; if not, I would have to presuppose that there is a genuine path to salvation that really attains that goal, but that simply has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. But I cannot do that. And so, if I hold if everyone depends upon Jesus Christ for salvation, and if at the same time I hold that many live in the world who have not expressly recognized Jesus Christ, then there remains in my opinion nothing else but to take up this postulate of an anonymous Christianity." - Karl Rahner in Dialogue (1986), p. 135.

So someone who has intentionally devoted themselves to another religion, someone who does good work in that religion's name, is...secretly, unbeknownst to them, actually Christian?

I hope the offensiveness of that is clear — the condescension in implying these people are ignorant of what religion they "really" belong to! the assumption that Good deeds & virtues are always inherently Christian deeds & virtues! the arrogance of being so sure your own religion is The One Right Way that you have to construct a "back door" (as Hans Küng describes it) into it to shove in all these poor people who for whatever reason can't or don't choose to join it!

One theologian who criticized the paternalism of "anonymous Christianity" is John Hick, who was one of the big advocates for religious pluralism as a more respectful way of understanding non-Christian religions. So let's finally talk some more about pluralism!

Religious Pluralism!

As defined earlier, religious pluralist positions hold that there are many paths to the divine, and that all religions have access to some truths about the divine.

For Christians, this means rejecting those 3 non-negotiables of exclusionists about Christianity being the one true religion and Jesus being the one path to salvation. Instead of claiming that Christianity is the "most advanced" religion, pluralism claims that Christianity is just one religion among many, with no unique claim on the truth.

Some other pluralist points:

Pluralism resists antisemitic claims that Christianity is the "fulfillment" of (or that it "supercedes") Judaism.

Various religions provide independent access to salvation rather than everyone's salvation relying on Christ. (Note the still very Christian-skewed lens here in emphasizing salvation at all though!)

When we notice how different religions' truth claims conflict with one another, pluralists reconcile this by talking about how one's experience of truth is subjective.

Pluralism tends to give more authority to human experience than sacred texts

John Hicks' pluralist position

I mentioned before that Hicks is one of the big names in the religious pluralism scene. The IEP article I drew from earlier goes into much greater detail about his views and responses to it in the section titled "c. John Hick: the Pluralistic Hypothesis," but for a brief overview:

His central claim is that "diverse religious traditions have emerged as various finite, historical responses to a single transcendent, ultimate, divine reality. The diversity of traditions (and the belief claims they contain) is a product of the diversity of religious experiences among individuals and groups throughout history, and the various interpretations given to these experiences."

"As for the content of particular belief claims, Hick understands the personal deities of those traditions that posit them...as personae of the Real, explicitly invoking the connotation of a theatrical mask in the Latin word persona."

"Hick claims that all religious understandings of the Real are on equal footing insofar as they can only offer limited, phenomenal representations of transcendent truth."

We must accept that world religions are fundamentally different from each other, rather than falling into platitudes about how "we're all the same deep down"

Each religion has its own particular and comprehensive framework for understanding the world and human experience (i.e. we shouldn't use the normative Christian framework to describe other faiths)

Another angle: hospitality

As various philosophers and theologians have responded to and expanded upon pluralist frameworks, one big concept that some emphasize is hospitality: that all of us regardless of religion have an obligation to welcome others to all that is ours, if and when they have need of it — especially when they are of different cultures or religions from us.

Hospitality requires respect for those under our care, honoring and protecting their differences.

When we are the ones in need of hospitality, we should be able to expect the same.

Hospitality implies being able to anticipate our guest's needs, but we need to accept the impossibility of being able to guess every need, so communication is key!

Liberation theology & Pluralism

I also appreciate what liberation theologians have brought into the discussion. Here's from the IEP article:

"Liberation theology, which advocates a religious duty to aid those who are poor or suffering other forms of inequality and oppression, has had a significant influence on recent discussions of pluralism. The struggle against oppression can be seen as providing an enterprise in which members of diverse religious traditions can come together in solidarity.

"Paul F. Knitter, whose work serves as a prominent theological synthesis of liberation and pluralist perspectives, argues that engaging in interreligious dialogue is part and parcel of the ethical responsibility at the heart of liberation theology. He maintains not only that any liberation theology ought to be pluralistic, but also that any adequate theory of religious pluralism ought to include an ethical dimension oriented toward the goal of resisting injustice and oppression.

"Knitter claims that, if members of diverse religions are interested (as they should be) in encountering each other in dialogue and resolving their conflicts, this can only be done on the basis of some common ground. ..."

Knitter sees suffering as that common ground: "Suffering provides a common cause with which diverse religious traditions are concerned and towards which they can come together to craft a common agenda. Particular instances of suffering will, of course, differ from each other in their causes and effects; likewise, the practical details of work to alleviate suffering will almost necessarily be fleshed out differently by different religions, at different times and in different places. Nevertheless, Knitter maintains that suffering itself is a cross-cultural and universal phenomenon and should thus serve as the reference point for a practical religious pluralism. Confronting suffering will naturally give rise to solidarity, and pluralist respect and understanding can emerge from there."

Knitter also sees the planet as a source of literal common ground for us all: "Earth not only serves as a common physical location for all religious traditions, but it also provides these traditions with what Knitter calls a 'common cosmological story' (1995, p. 119). ...Knitter makes a case that different religious traditions share an ecological responsibility and that awareness of this shared responsibility, as it continues to emerge, can also serve as a basis for mutual understanding."

When Knitter and other liberation theologians speak of suffering or earth care as rallying points for interreligious solidarity, it's important to point out that such solidarity doesn't happen automatically: it is something we have to choose to commit to. We have to be courageous about challenging those who would pin suffering on another religious or cultural group. We have to be courageous about having difficult conversations, again and again. We have to learn how to work together for common goals even while accepting where we differ.

How to end this long ass post?

My hope is that as you read (or skimmed) all this, you were thinking about your own personal beliefs: where, if anywhere, do they fit among all these ideas? where would you like them to fit?

And, in the end, did I really address anon's question about whether it's disrespectful to people of other religions to assert that everyone is loved by God, or gets into heaven? Not really, because I don't know. I think it probably depends on context, and how one puts it, and how certain one acts about their ideas about God and heaven.

For me, it always comes down to humility about my own limited perspective, even while asserting that we all have a right to our personal beliefs, including ideas about what comes after this life.

When I imagine all human beings together in whatever comes next, I hope I do so not out of a desire for assimilation into my religion, but a desire to continue to learn from and alongside all kinds of people and beliefs. I hope I remain open to learning about how other people envision both what comes after death, and more importantly, what they think about life here and now. What can I learn from them about truth, kindness, justice? How can we work together to achieve those things for all creation, despite and in and through our differences?

I'll end with Eboo Patel's description of religious pluralism, which sums up much of how I feel, from his memoir Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim:

"Religious pluralism is neither mere coexistence nor forced consensus. It is a form of proactive cooperation that affirms the identities of the constituent communities while emphasizing that the wellbeing of each and all depends on the health of the whole. It is the belief that the common good is best served when each community has a chance to make its unique contribution."

___

Further resources:

Explore my #religious pluralism tag for more thoughts and quotes

You might also enjoy wandering through my #interfaith tag

Two podcast episodes that draw from Eboo Patel, Barbara Brown Taylor, and other wonderful people: "No One Owns God: Readying yourself for respectful interfaith encounters" and "It's good to have wings, but you have to have roots too: Cultivating your own faith while embracing religious pluralism"

My tag with excerpts from Holy Envy

Post that includes links to various questions about heaven

Here’s a post where I talk about why I don’t believe in hell

My evangelism tag (tl;dr: I’m staunchly against prosletyzing to anyone who doesn’t explicitly request more info about Christianity)

[beguilingcorpse]

Does Harrow even love Gideon? Harrow probably loves Alecto more than Gideon

anon i love you. i love you for asking me this. i love you for opening this can of worms. i'm giving you a little kiss rn

DOES harrow love gideon? does she feel the same way that gideon feels about her? this is the central question driving the entire series, and tazmuir has done a fantastic job of using narration and point of view to conceal it. we get gideon's third person limited perspective in gtn; we get gideon's pov AGAIN in htn, even though we don't find out until the last act; and we see the world as nona in ntn, and nona (respectfully) doesn't know jack shit. the final scene in ntn is the first time that gideon and harrow have SEEN EACH OTHER since the end of the first book, and they don't interact - and we don't really know what either of them are feeling in that moment, since the narration is mostly from alecto's point of view. (we do know that gideon is still tits over ass for harrow tho. "get in line, thou big slut" can really only mean one thing)

we, as the audience, can piece together that yes, harrow loves gideon. or at least, that harrow loves gideon ENOUGH to lobotomize herself rather than remember that she's in a world where she had gideon and now doesn't. harrow loves gideon enough to stop the lyctoral process and completely fuck up her own body because the grief of losing gideon is too much for her to handle. harrow loves gideon enough that she's undone without her.

but is she in love with gideon? listen. i'm biased. i absolutely think that she is. the issue - and the reason that this question is so hard to answer - is that she won't fuckin admit it to anyone, least of all herself. harrow has convinced herself that she's in love with The Body, not even knowing alecto's whole insane deal, and has sworn herself completely to alecto. can harrow be in love with an earth popsicle? does she know alecto? does that even matter to her? does 'one flesh, one end' override a nun's vow to the hot corpse of the holy spirit? we don't know.

alecto the ninth is going to answer a LOT of questions. i assume based on the trends of the other books that it'll be from alecto's point of view, which means that we still won't see things from harrow's perspective - which is really, really interesting. it means that for us as the audience to know what the fuck is going on with her mental and emotional state, harrow needs to (1) admit it to herself, (2) tell another character directly, or (3) telegraph it indirectly with her words and actions - which she's rarely done in the history of the series. whether or not harrow loves alecto more than she loves gideon will be entirely dependent on her interactions with both of them in atn.

tl;dr: does harrow even love gideon? yes, i firmly believe that she does. it's just that she doesn't know it yet.

[maggieharlan]

hi hello :) have you ever rambled about berec or the wip with the “it was kind of love, wasn’t it?” quote?

if so, may you redirect me to that post?

and if not, may you please 🥹🥹?

i wish to know of the tragic, longing lovers 😤

cheers!

xoxo, naveena (thecomfywriter) <33

i have not but lordy i would love to! thank you!!

have you ever written a whole book around, like, two or three scenes that just sort of jump into your brain? that's what happened with these two, but the scenes were so different and so far apart and showed both of them in such different places in their lives.

two twenty-somethings making promises to each other in the shade of an old linden tree, full of plans and potential and hope for a world they fully believe they can make better together

two thirty-somethings pulled apart by the world that resisted their efforts to change it, and changed them instead--scarred them up, broke their hearts, until the only thing they have left is the hope that maybe the people who come after them won't hurt the way they've hurt. but even that hope looks a little as different between them, and they're not even sure they're on the same side of the fight anymore, and there's so much history and pain and still, underneath it all, the love of those two hopeful kids and their bright-eyed promises.

and in the end, it's those promises that will either save them or ruin them.

on a way less serious note, these two assholes are singlehandedly responsible for getting me back into writing fantasy. i built a whole-ass magic system (it's really cool, and really messy, because i firmly believe that all magic should have consequences and HOO BOY here there be consequences) and world and broke it up across two timelines, just so that i could either doom or undoom this yaoi so hard it'll either fix or break their whole country. it gives very che.rik (XMFC) or jay.vik (arcane) vibes--like everything is falling apart, and they might be fighting on/from different sides, but there's this core of profound respect and history and affection that keeps pulling them in like gravity until they have no choice but to face the people they were and the love they had, and see if there's anything left of it that they can save.

tl;dr i have Very Big Feelings about these two and about this book (also there's a whole second generation of disaster children that benji's responsible for teaching and keeping safe, which is hilarious, because he is only nominally an Adult and can barely take care of himself) and i would so love to get to share it with folks someday soon!

also hi hello thank you for the ask and if you're ever looking for writer folks to chat with, my ims are open! i am occasionally slow as christmas but would love to make new friends!!

original post is here

[bunnies-and-blues]

─꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱─ slam dunk : megane-kun !

⸝⸝ tl;dr : headcanons for kiminobu kogure ! there's no specific topics that i was going for in here, just general headcanons as a whole !

his study playlist consists mostly of soft jazz, bossa nova, or lofi tracks. Occasionally he listens to ambience audios (specifically cafe ones), or calming video game music ! I also have a feeling he turns the volume all the way down low ? It helps him focus more on what he's studying and helps him not get carried away with the music. And in addition to turning the volume down, if he doesn't want to wear earphones, he just plays it on his phone and tucks it somewhere that he can't see nor reach easily .

he and Akagi are really smart, and I feel like they study together for exams and help each other with their homework . Kogure's average at physics, but he has a bit of trouble with it so Akagi helps him out there; Akagi struggles a bit with English, so Kogure helps him in that subject; you know the drill .

instead of having seperate notebooks for each subject, he just has this massive binder for all of his notes . All organized by subject and topic, of course !

his notes are GODLY . It's really minimalistic, but he makes sure to make a header for the subject and topic, and color-codes said headers, too ! He also just uses really light colors for highlighting ; he thinks the bright neon colors most highlighters have distracts him from the text itself .

kogure's not really "shy", per se, but I feel like he'd rather stay in his comfort zone than put himself out there right off the bat . He wouldn't mind doing so if he's with friends, though ! He's pretty open to trying out new stuff if it means he and his friends have a great time .

dog? cat? nope, bunny ! I like to imagine that Kogure's parents got him a bunny when he was in middle school and he's made it his entire personality since (affectionate) .

he likes building stuff ! Like, those lego sets and gundams that you put together. He's not opposed to spending three hours putting together a 1000+ piece lego set, if anything he finds it really calming .

i don't know what it is about him, but I get "guitarist" vibes from him. Both electric and acoustic; he plays in his spare time, and he's pretty good at it ! He'd be the first person people seek out when there's a group project and it involves a guitar of any kind .

and while we're at it .. he can sing 😈

like,, he can really sing . He'd sweep everyone off their feet on karaoke night because he's so good at it . Funny thing is, when you first ask him to sing, he'd be really shy and modest about it, but when he gets riled up .. oh boy . Someone get Akagi because at that point he's the only one who can wrestle the mic from him -

enjoys historical fiction books ! And on the topic of it ,, his favorite subject is history ! He finds learning about what happened in the past and the events that led to now so interesting .

and speaking of books .. I feel like he'd buy Akagi the soppiest and cheesiest romance book as a joke gift, but after seeing that Akagi actually enjoyed it (yes, I headcanon that Akagi secretly enjoys romance novels), he'd recommend him titles that he thinks Akagi would like whenever he pops by the bookshop for some window shopping .

bottom line : live laugh love kiminobu kogure

[woodswolf]

🌿🏜️🔪🪲?

writer's truth or dare ask game

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

honestly? just don't be afraid to step away. sometimes you're not in the right headspace for a project and that's okay. work with your brain, not against it - whether that's on a different WIP or just taking a break for a while. sometimes this means the WIP sits for a little while. sometimes this means you abandon it. roll with the punches, don't dodge into them.

like for example, i've been having One Of The Weeks Of My Life at my job recently and just feeling really burned out and depressed on the Major Fucking Crunch Time this project is getting into. i didn't feel like working on chapter 5 when i was feeling that terrible, but i was able to channel some of that energy into a side story. i've barely started it as of yet, but it's got a lot of potential, has required a lot of research, and just. it's helped burn off a lot of the negative emotion (because it involves a very similar kind of negative emotion and focuses on a kind of burnout recovery. lol)

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

long analysis comments are like the #1 kind of comment to get in my good books. i get an excuse to talk about Fun Details whether intentional or not and just generally feed information to someone who isn't fully aware of all of the complexities of a project yet (usually my partner lol)

however.

i personally consider that the highest honor i could ever receive would be recursive fanfiction. fanart as well, yes, but fanfiction in particular. it's more or less a reflection of my own process in a way; i write a lot of recursive fanfiction relative to my output, but i only write recursive fanfiction about fanfiction that really, really resonated with me, or that often were incredibly formative to me in their own specific ways. it's not enough for it to be a good story - it has to change something about me, alter my perspective or open my eyes to an entirely new world. often these end up feeling like (or just being) treatises on a particular subject; there are fics on hope, on grief, on forgetting, on becoming monsters. and it's just.... it's powerful.

i could link all of these if anyone is curious.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

honestly all of the research i've done for DLD and other fics in the DLDCM (Dogs Leading Dogs Cinematic Multiverse) qualifies as really weird. outside of the semi-standard fanfiction-writer fare (e.g. symptoms of various injuries, or how to identify certain types of injuries like with that shoulder test), there are two broad categories of "what the fuck" research that i've gone into very extensively.

the first category, which i keep coming back to over and over, is all of the speculative biology shit. basically NONE of it is going to come up until more than halfway through catch/cradle at minimum, but at this point ive probably put close to ten hours of research into figuring out what the fuck is wrong with these things. (and that's just the research, not the processing that shit afterward.) i know what this guy breathes. i don't know exactly how his metabolism works, but i do have a general outline that seems approximately sound, and have a general principle for how it interacts with other metabolisms. i don't just know HIS metabolism by the way, i know like three other components' metabolic interactions and life cycles and to some extent their histories. and then we get into all of the other lore shit that is Very Present and Very Real and Very Probably Isn't Going To Be Written Down In Any Fics and also isn't strictly research based as much as vibes based but it doesn't have to be research based because my source is i made it the fuck up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but tl;dr there's a CRAZY amount of various kinds of biology lore and 90% of it is never going to see the light of day most likely

the second category which has generally come about more recently is primitive / historical technology. generally just a lot of how you would do certain things - such as making paper, or refining clay, or working metal or glass - if you were starting from (almost) nothing.

additional shoutout to when i did some brief research on akkadian for one of my recurive fic projects, that was fun but really overwhelming and i ended up not finishing it myself lol

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

from chapter 5:

The ship doesn’t need any additional explanation. “I’ll set the course,” it says. Brief and to the point. He can’t help but appreciate that right now. The controls shift ever-so-slightly under his hands as they start following a slightly different autopilot route. It’ll set them up for the approach path they discovered on the second day — one that doesn’t cut through as many of the giant trees.

thanks for the ask!! :D

[huntingorbits]

Review: The Door to Witchcraft, by Tonya Brown

I just finished reading this book earlier this year, and thought I'd write a review on it. This is also going to help me determine how I want to review other texts going forward. So without further ado, let's get started.

TL;DR:

I highly recommend this book for both beginners and more experienced witches who are looking to expand their practices or gain additional resources. Brown takes a practical approach and breaks things down beautifully in a way that's easy to understand and follow. (Such as steps to creating a spell, steps to spellcasting, etc.) The second half is spells that may take a different approach to what we're used to seeing in other books, which in and of itself is very useful.

What's Inside (Contents)

PART I: Witchcraft and Practical Magic

1. Understanding Witchcraft 2. Core Beliefs and Values 3. How to Tap into Your Powers 4. How to Practice Witchcraft

PART II: Spells (Begins on page 87)

5. Love 6. Health and Healing (in Yourself and Others) 7. Career 8. Friends and Family Matters 9. Spiritual Work 10. Protection

Glossary Resources References Index

Summary

Part I: Witchcraft and Practical Magic spans 86 pages and includes a lot of information.

"Understanding Witchcraft" is your fairly standard introductory chapter, addressing questions such as, "What is Witchcraft?" and, "Are you a Witch?", before diving into a brief history of witchcraft.

"Core Beliefs and Values" is a high-level tour of the most common tenets of witchcraft among witches of all varieties, not just Wiccans.

"How to Tap into Your Powers" and "How to Practice Witchcraft" are more instructional than educational, but Brown includes a lot of education in those chapters nonetheless, including a handy breakdown of the structures of rituals and spells, sabbats, and some basic correspondences.

Part II: Spells is approximately 90 pages in length (some pages are just illustrations). Brown prefaces these pages with a few notes, including:

"Some of these spells may not align with the stereotype of spellcasting that you've seen in the media. They may seem too simple or they may seem too complicated. I implore you to come to these spells with an open mind..." (pg.89)

The spells that follow offer a variety of complexities, though most of them take less than half an hour to cast.

Provided Resources & References

Following the Spells section of the book is 3 pages of Glossary, 2 pages of Resources that appear to be reading recommendations, and 3 pages of References - titles cited or referenced throughout the book. Going over these materials, the book appears to have been written using carefully curated resources, which is very encouraging.

About the Author

From Amazon:

TONYA A. BROWN is a current resident of Florida, where she is the editor-in-chief of Witch Way Magazine as well as writer and host of the podcast The Witch Daily Show.* Tonya is a Lenormand reader, medium, and magical guide for other witches.

*Formerly The Daily Witch.

Her other titles include Evolution of a Witch: 150 Journal Prompts for Witches; (Witch Way's Book of) 100 Love Spells; a children's book titled Tutty Learns About Witches; and The Hectic Witch's Planner (currently only for 2022 and 2023).

I'm already a fan of both her magazine and podcast (which I started listening to last year), though I have yet to check out her other works. It's encouraging to see a witch-positive children's book in the lineup, though.

As for the podcast, Brown does briefly recommend Lilith as a goddess that could be followed in the "Badass Goddesses" episode on January 17, 2023. This is, of course, problematic, but I haven't listened to each episode since then to see if she has recanted that statement or revised her perspective on the subject.

My Overall Review

I really enjoyed reading this book. Though it was designed as an introduction to witchcraft, I learned several new things and gained resources I didn't have before. The breakdown of spell structure is especially appealing to me, as at the time of this writing, I've just started writing my own spells.

The language Brown uses is conversational and easy to follow, using accessible vocabulary and staying on track through each subject. I greatly appreciated this aspect because we've all read enough books that meander and tangent into unrelated thoughts and information. We don't see that with Brown; her writing stays on task and only "wanders" to provide necessary context.

Additionally, where she makes claims or presents facts, she always cites her sources in a way that isn't distracting. It was quite refreshing to see in an area of study where sources are often an afterthought.

Final Word: I will definitely be keeping this on my bookshelf and I look forward to seeing more from Brown in the future. I do sincerely hope she'll be more thoughtful on the subject of Lilith in her podcast going forward, as well.

Thank you for staying with me throughout this review. I hope it helps you to make an informed decision if you've been pondering this title.

[intothedysphoria]

Dude, DUDE - you gotta listen to the WTYP episode on the Vulcan Bridge. Or else, look up the story of the Vulcan bridge in West Virginia.

TL, DR; Vulcan’s a remote rural community in WV. In the 70s a one lane bridge over the Tug Fork collapsed, cutting off the people on either side. Kids had to drop out of school bc there always no feasible way for them to attend anymore etc.

Bc of its position they had difficulty getting funding to replace it, and finally, the mayor got fed up and wrote a letter explaining the town’s predicament to the foreign office of the USSR. The soviet government weren’t interested, but it fell into the hands of a sympathetic Russian journalist who then travelled to Vulcan and brought international attention to the lack of a bridge.

With threat of international embarrassment looming, the US gov paid for the bridge to be built and Vulcan’s mayor and the soviet journalist toasted its opening with Vodka.

There’s more detail in the episode, including the coal mining in the area (and types of coal). You ever need a break from your studies it’s good one.

Oh my god that sounds so interesting

I may be doing my MA on American blue collar jobs in the late 20th century, particularly coal mining so 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

I love a good history documentary/podcast/book so I will be running to listen to it in my free time, probably next week when I’m on holiday

[stackthedeck]

Can I ask what you thought of the flashbacks in the new Good Omens season? They felt narratively unnecessary to me and I don't fully understand why they were included- the latter two, anyway, I did very much like the Job flashback. But the Blitz and grave robbing flashbacks felt to me like they didn't do anything that wasn't already established somewhere else in the show. But I do recognize that I'm not particularly skilled at media analysis and could easily be missing something, and you're SO good at analysis, so I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Can I tell y'all a secret? I did not want a season two of good omens and maybe it's because I'm a massive fan of the book, but I just felt like the story was complete and anything more would feel like fluff and filler. And season two did feel like fluff and filler, but that's not necessarily a bad thing because I enjoyed myself immensely and it did explore aspects of Aziraphale and Crowley I was curious about, but like it wasn't as good as season one

oh god, this got very long so I'm putting it under the cut. TL;DR, the flashbacks were fun, but not as interesting as the season one flashbacks and they felt a little redundant in establishing information that we already knew from season one.

And the flashbacks (to actually answer the question lol) were definitely the most fluffy and filler-y. Season one had that excellent cold open of Aziraphale and Crowley throughout history and that wasn't in the book so it's definitely possible to add really interesting things to the source material. And I agree with you anon, I really didn't love the addition to the blitz and the grave robbing, but I did like the other two so let's unpack why this might be

So first we have the before the beginning flashback. This is the flashback that's doing the most narratively. It is Chekov's gun for the ending. We are shown that Aziraphale remembers who Crowley was before the fall, how happy he was doing heaven's work, and as an extra bonus for fan service, we also get the confirmed headcanon that Crowley helped make the stars. This flashback sets up exactly why Aziraphale still believes in heaven and why he still thinks Crowley could be happy in heaven. But it also sets up how Crowley sauntered vaguely downwards, showing us exactly what was wrong with heaven to Crowley. To Aziraphale this time shows the miracle of creation but for Crowley, it's the oppression of obedience. To Aziraphale heaven is what you get to do, for Crowley heaven is what you can't be. (I also wrote a fanfic that's the reverse of this flashback, Crowley remembers Aziraphale from heaven, but Aziraphale doesn't remember him but I wrote it in 2019 so idk if it's still good)

I adore the Job flashback, but that might be because Job is my favorite story in the Tanakh, mostly for the wide variety of interpretations of the story. What I found really interesting about this season was that it was deeply uninterested in what God thought of anything, even more so than the previous season. Crowley takes the cynical approach that all the misery Job is cursed with is simply God trying to win a bet and we don't really get any confirmation if that's true one way or the other. Job's relationship with God is the background to Aziraphale finally experiencing doubt. What felt weird about this was that Job's kids were the catalyst to him doubting which I don't know, Aziraphale and Crowley never seemed to care about humans specifically, rather what they create. Like in the book and season one, I always thought Crowley and Aziraphale were saving Earth—meaning everything on it like books and wine and cars—but like specifically humanity. This flashback made me feel for the first time that Crowley and Aziraphale comprehend life enough to grieve it. Maybe for others, they always felt that way, but I really liked the idea of an Angel that is in love with the earth not because of the inherent beauty of humanity, but because of materialistic worldly things. But the role this flashback plays for the larger narrative is that it establishes the first time Aziraphale goes against the plan—or at least bends the rules—and gives into the "temptations" of Earth. This is when the angel becomes the person we're familiar with. And it also leads us to end because it establishes that Aziraphale does not want to be just a soldier, he wants to make decisions, to lead, to make things better. This looks like doubt to Crowley and to us the audience, a signal that the two of them are on their own sides. But it also doubles as Aziraphale having a very strong sense of justice that he wants to implement.

And then we have the continuation of the Blitz flashback. I'm of the opinion that less is more in storytelling so the fact this massive moment in Crowley and Aziraphale's lives was so short and concise gave it so much weight. The extended flashback was used to give more context to Aziraphale's fixation on magic and also to show that Crowley and Aziraphale can trust each other without the power of heaven and hell behind them. But I liked that the magician thing makes no sense and it's just a random detail, we don't need it explained. And like wasn't the agreement(tm), raising the (fake) anti-christ, and stopping the end of the world proof that Aziraphale and Crowley trust each other enough to lose their connection to heaven and hell? This flashback told me that they're really close and trust each other with their lives and like...I knew that already. Also, I didn't like that the nazis came back as zombies and then weren't tortured for all eternity. And like I guess there are zombies running around and it's just never come up or caused problems?? (I need to watch that episode again, maybe I missed how they handled that). The whole magic show was a fun and cute moment and I did enjoy it, but idk maybe they could have done it in a different time period like the 1920s?

And then there's the Victorian street urchin whose digging up bodies to sell. And again this was fun, I enjoyed it, but it felt like filler. So what Aziraphale learns from this adventure is that it's hard for poor people to be good because they're trying to survive and the web of morality is complicated because sometimes bad things have to happen in order for good things to happen. Which is the thesis of The Good Place, but nonetheless, it's interesting and more than one tv show can explore it. But this idea is really complicated and frankly they could have written the entire season around it, in my opinion, this revelation to Aziraphale felt and little rushed and a little clumsy. Like you're telling me in Aziraphale's thousands of years on Earth and hundreds of years of having the agreement with Crowley, he's just now realizing that actions have consequences. Like grave robbing is bad, but medical knowledge is good so therefore grave robbing also has to be good. But like Aziraphale, you watched the crucifixion, you know that bad things lead to good things, this is like a mandate from heaven. I think this flashback could have been more interesting if Aziraphale tried to make the urchin spend her money on more holy things or something and then like Aziraphale's hypocrisy around "temptation" could have been examined. I'm not saying this is what the show should have done, but it would have been funny if Crowley and Aziraphale tried to turn people into murderers so they could kill them for the urchin could sell the bodies guilt-free. But the meaningful part of this flashback was Crowley saving the girl from killing herself and then being punished by Hell. This explains why he wanted the holy water and gives it an extra layer of angst, but I'm not sure how much this changes about season 2. Crowley was already running from Hell after season 1's events what does Crowley being punished add to this? There is certainly something there but I think I need to rewatch the show to piece it together. (also this is 100% nitpicking and I think that's bad faith criticism, but Crowley gets swallowed up by the earth immediately after doing a good thing, but he keeps the holy water in a safe in his apartment, so like if the holy water was to stop that punishment from happening again, shouldn't Crowley keep the water on him?)

[xxhumancentipedexx]

my favorite thing abt the human centipede is that it can b abbreviated to THC. like WEED ! ! ! ! ! ! ! anyways can i ask a ww2 question how deep did nazis get into occult stuff ? i remember hearing abt them trying to do magic

IKR one time i got a thc ad and i was sitting there for fifteen minutes trying to dissect where the human centipede was before realising. Oh they're talking about The Weed. and YEUeuUS!!! !! i love discussing the history of the third reich

TL;DR of below: Himmler had strong neo-pagan beliefs that he incorporated into the SS through ritualistic ceremonies. He also sent teams across Europe in search of Thor's hammer and/or evidence regarding it because he believed it could be used as a weapon against the Allies. No, nothing came out of these expeditions. The spread of his occultist beliefs wasn't too successful because Himmler himself didn't think Germany was ready for such a shift into neo-paganism among other reasons

-------------------------

So Heinrich Himmler was the primary propagator of these occultist beliefs. He abandoned his Catholicism, finding its views on those he considered "subhuman" too merciful.

He sort of fused the ideas of pagan gods, pseudoscience, and Germanic myths into one religion he wanted the German race to follow. Thus began the neo-pagan doctrine established within the SS

There's a loooot to go over but Himmler believed in a Germanic god named Waralda, or The Ancient One. He organised ritualistic ceremonies for the SS, like solstice celebrations, SS weddings, and baby naming ceremonies. He sort of treated Mein Kampf like their holy book which is funny considering it's not even a well written piece of literature. Passages of the book were read during naming ceremonies and to open SS weddings

Himmler was also obsessed with Thor's hammer. Teams were sent across Europe in search of evidence and knowledge regarding it. He believed it was a war weapon, and that it could be used against the Allies. Here's his (translated, obviously) letter to the Ahnenberbe (a pseudoscientific organisation he was involved with) about the hammer:

“Have the following researched: Find all places in the northern Germanic Aryan cultural world where an understanding of the lightning bolt, the thunderbolt, Thor’s hammer, or the flying or thrown hammer exists, in addition to all the sculptures of the god depicted with a small hand axe emitting lightning. Please collect all of the pictorial, sculptural, written and mythological evidence of this. I am convinced that this is not based on natural thunder and lightning, but rather that it is an early, highly developed form of war weapon of our forefathers, which was only, of course, possessed by the Aesir, the gods, and that it implies an unheard of knowledge of electricity.”

The spread of Himmler's beliefs also didn't go very far because he himself didn't think that Germany was ready for a complete shift into neo-paganism

Also something pretty funny, Himmler recruited a man named Karl Maria Wiligut into the SS because he claimed to have access to knowledge of ancient Germanic tribes by going into a trance. Himmler was unaware he was schizophrenic