Editing the Hollow Mind Portraits for Greater Historic Accuracy - Megapost
I found out that I wasn’t limited to 10 photos if I didn’t post through the app, so I’m doing this as one large post. EDIT: I did tweak the shading on the first six. I definitely figured out the process as I went along
Fun Fact! Small children, regardless of gender, wore dresses. Boys in the 17th century would typically start wearing breeches around 5 or 6. I opted to draw Philip in just the shirt/shift and stockings in the first image because it seemed cozier. Philip’s outer gown was more guess-work. There isn’t a lot of imagery of younger common children.
I got rid of the ponytails. That wasn’t a thing I saw in period imagery. I do justify it for my fanfic versions, but since this project is independent of that, I got rid of them.
Also: HATS.
I’m gonna be honest, that mask is WAY too creepy looking to be used in this way for anything that isn’t something like Pope Night, but I’m not changing plot here, so it stays. The pointy witch hat goes. IIRC, that association was because of Victorian imagery.
Philip’s got breeches now! I tweaked the anatomy on the left one a lot; it already bugged me, but trying to draw the latchet shoes and breeches in a way that made sense made it impossible.
I do headcanon that the left portrait is Pope Night, both for the reason pointed out above, but also because it amuses me. (Pope Night = Guy Fawkes Day. In New England they would run around with costumes and burn an effigy of the pope. It sounds a lot like modern Halloween, as well as the version of Christmas the Puritans banned.
The pitchforks are a visual shorthand for what’s going on, but that’s situational. Also, the bros might not even have a pitchfork. Are they farmers? Why would they need one?
Simple silhouette edits on the left; no ponytails, indicating the doublet and latchet shoes, that sort of thing. The right is fairly simple as well. Add the cuffs back to the jacket, adjust the hair, indicate the falling band. Philip does have a hat—he’s holding its with the other hand—but it’s in shadow so you don’t really see it.
Philip in the foreground of the left was surprisingly complicated. Fixing the collar of that jacket and showing the falling band took some figuring out. I also flipped Caleb’s head, because people don’t bend that way. I didn’t mess with Evelyn at all; the Boiling Isles are allowed their own fashion rules.
This is where I feel like I really started getting a handle on the shading aesthetic. I really like how both came out. Oh yeah, I skipped the body mod. There wasn’t anything I wanted to change in that view.
I’m just phenomenally happy with how this came out in general. I don’t know WHY Philip was in a completely different outfit in the original of this, but I fixed it. Also, you get the tassels! This is a simplified version of the redesign I posted a while back.
💬 17 🔁 19 ❤️ 82 · I drew this a few months ago, but I’m trying to get stuff on this page.
Important thing you need to know about me: I am
I skipped the one with Caleb’s body in silhouette with the knife. Again, nothing I wanted to change. The fleeing one is just some minor silhouette edits, but I did want to make them.
Phillip’s got his hat back in the right one.
WHEE the tassels are visible again!
And, to finish it all off, here’s the trace/edit of Philip’s design sheet. I did mute the colours of the jacket a little. While I’ve gone off about Puritans not always wearing black, they didn’t wear super bright colours, and limits of dyeing capabilities and fading due to sunlight would affect things as well.
The shortened beard is entirely so you could better see his falling band. There’s a reason why I drew old Belos in my original redesign sketch.
Editing “Hollow Mind” Portraits for Historical Accuracy, #1-6
This was bound to happen eventually. These aren’t takes specific to my fanfiction, so I’m getting rid of the ponytails. That wasn’t a thing I found in any portraiture of the period, nor any woodblocks and engravings representing more common people.
For those who haven’t heard me ramble about this: boys didn’t start wearing breeches until 5 or 6, which maaaaybe you could interpret Philip as being that old in these, but I thought it was more fun to interpret him as being younger. Oh yeah, also, I gave people more hats. If it’s outside in daylight hours, HAT. And one of those background dudes has the stupid 17th century goatee that was so popular. I decided to keep the pitchforks. It’s a stereotype, but eh, shorthands can be useful.
IIRC, the witch’s pointy hat was a thing from the Victorians, so no pointy hat.
I’m debating whether or not I go to the trouble of editing the ones that are just silhouettes.
Puritanism in the Boiling Isles Part 3: Puritanism in Practice
Done, done, done, done, done!
Part 1:
💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 12 · Puritanism in the Boiling Isles, but Not How You’d Expect · Guess who’s been doing historical/religious analyses again? I
Part 2:
💬 0 🔁 1 ❤️ 7 · Puritanism in the Boiling Isles Part 2: The Origins of Puritanism and Puritan Theology, and its Impacts · I thought this wa
One quick aside before starting: I mentioned back in Part 1 that I would eventually talk about John Foxe, the “Book of Martyrs” guy, and a big reason why the Puritans didn’t burn people. I decided to cut it. It wasn’t as relevant. I was simply surprised by how much I kinda liked the actual guy, and he reminded me of Luz in a few key ways. I don’t like what was done with his book, but he didn’t have control of that. In his time, his focus was on convincing people that stake burnings were pretty awful. Which, fair.
Part 3 is focused on what Puritanism, specifically New England Puritanism, actually looked like, and how we can see that reflected in the Boiling Isles. My decision to cut Foxe was because he was a contemporary of Calvin, well before the New England colonies.
To understand what New England was really like, one event early in its history shaped Puritan society more than any other, so much so that many other famous events, including the Salem Witch Trials, can be linked back to it. That event, or series of events, is known as the Antinomian Controversy.
This retelling is going to be pretty heavily abbreviated to details I find relevant to this discussion. I have a more thorough discussion here:
💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 0 · Introduction: So Why are You Writing the Antinomian Crisis into your Owl House fanfic anyway? · As I’ve mentioned before, I
A Witch Hunt With No Witches
I would like you to know that Phillip and Caleb did not grow up in the worst place to grow up Puritan (unless you're like me and you're writing them moving to Connecticut later). Connecticut was markedly more tolerant than Massachusetts Bay.
It's all John Cotton's fault.
The Great John Cotton Conspiracy
John Cotton was a Puritan minister who left England in 1634 and began teaching at the First Church of Boston. He had OPINIONS, and was unafraid to use his considerable influence to push them on others. The ministers considered the “fathers” of both Connecticut and Rhode Island would cite conflict specifically with John Cotton as a reason for their decision to establish new colonies.
Thomas Hooker, who founded the Connecticut River colony, isn’t important here. His conflict was over voting access. He thought things should be slightly more democratic.
Roger Williams, the founder of Providence Plantations, is an interesting case study. He repeatedly got in trouble in Massachusetts. He took a job at the church in Salem—yes, THAT Salem—after he angered authorities in Plymouth by questioning the legality of their charter, specifically the lack of payment to the indigenous people there. He also got in trouble for preaching the wrong things, like tolerance. He believed that the colonial government shouldn’t be punishing “sins of conscience,” i.e. keeping the Sabbath or even requiring the populace to be Christian in the first place. He was generally fine with the beliefs themselves; he took issue with their enforcement.
John Cotton adamantly disagreed, and was involved in the conflict that prompted Williams’ exit from Massachusetts. Williams ran away in the middle of a blizzard right before he was supposed to stand trial. This isn’t relevant; it’s just badass.
John Cotton was also a massive hypocrite. You see, at the same time as he was harassing Williams and Hooker, he was preaching his own unorthodox message. He preached a message of free grace over legalism. If you recall two of the prior points—the “unlimited grace” of Calvinism versus the concept of sanctification—Cotton focused on grace. It wasn’t technically inconsistent with Puritan beliefs, but the majority of the ministers in New England placed far more emphasis on sanctification.
Cotton preaching the message was unproblematic. He was popular, a 17th century celebrity pastor. However, a member of his congregation, one who followed him specifically to New England, was, with Cotton’s encouragement, holding in-home Bible studies discussing these things. The issue was that said person was a woman, Anne Hutchinson.
Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History
Hutchinson’s Bible studies grew incredibly popular, attended even by the eventual governor of the colony, Henry Vane the Younger. Vane is important because he was the primary source of Hutchinson’s political support. Additional ministerial support was provided by Hutchinson’s brother-in-law, Reverend Samuel Wheelwright, whose sermons were considerably more fiery than the generally measured Cotton’s.
Hutchinson and Wheelwright were both quite outspoken in their opinions, including disagreeing vehemently with the legalistic teachings of other ministers. The other ministers couldn’t tolerate the pushback, particularly Hutchinson’s. Wheelwright preached in a small community about 10 miles out of Boston, but the First Church in Boston, where Cotton preached, was the preeminent church in the colony. Did I mention Hutchinson was a woman?
She and her supporters were deemed “antinomians,” or “against the law.” Their viewpoint was portrayed as one that would cause the colony to fall into chaos. Refer back to the discussion on sanctification. For the Puritans, the idea was basically a form of behavioral control, and focusing on salvation by grace was a threat to that. Hutchinson and Wheelwright saw the focus on legalism as explicitly anti-Biblical.
Much of Hutchinson’s ire was focused on the lead minister of the First Boston church, John Wilson. His ego could not handle a woman criticising him, and it especially couldn’t handle that much of his congregation was agreeing with her. As the church authorities tried to figure out how to deal with the rising tensions, he trash talked his own congregation. Members of his congregation, led by Governor Vane, demanded he step down. They were ameliorated by Wilson delivering a very conciliatory speech. It wasn’t to last. It didn’t actually solve the problem.
Massachusetts Pulls a Fascism
Colony officials called for a day of prayer and fasting to deal with the controversy. Cotton invited Wheelwright to preach in the afternoon that day, and the sermon he gave was, to the other Massachusetts ministers, less passionate, more incendiary. Additionally, when Connecticut asked for reinforcements in the Pequot Wars, congregants in Boston refused to sign up because John Wilson was going to be the expedition's chaplain. This was largely attributed to Hutchinson’s influence.
The Pequot Wars are otherwise irrelevant to this discussion, but they do provide a potential model for Belos’ genocidality.
Things had officially escalated beyond the authorities’ control, and the conservatives among the ministers and the General Court determined the free grace movement needed to be destroyed. One of the first actions taken was trying and convicting Wheelwright for what boiled down to “you said mean things about us and we didn’t like it.” The Boston congregation found this unconscionable, and Vane and others got many of the most influential men in the Boston church to sign a petition protesting Wheelwright’s conviction.
Governor Vane was a problem. He was by far the most effective at obstructing the conservatives on the Court from complete control. So shenanigans were pulled in the next election to minimize the influence of voters in Boston. Vane and the other two magistrates who supported Hutchinson and Wheelwright lost re-election.
John Winthrop, now governor, immediately enacted a law preventing new people from settling in Massachusetts Bay without Court approval, a move explicitly intended to prevent the so-called Antinomians from adding more people to their numbers. Henry Vane returned to England in disgust soon thereafter.
Hutchinson stood trial in November and was convicted. In order to remove any possible support from the Court, the Boston deputies who had signed the petition were removed. And, because things weren’t fascistic enough, following her conviction that same petition was used to disarm those who signed unless they recanted and disavowed Hutchinson.
If you wondered what John Cotton was doing through all this, he was there, somewhat defending Hutchinson, but more defending himself. It was Hutchinson’s church trial (the civil one sentenced her to banishment; the church one determined if she would be excommunicated as well) that displayed his true colours. He folded, and he would be the one to elucidate her true crime. There were men attending her Bible studies, and mixed-gender events like that were almost inevitably going to lead to an orgy. Maybe somebody should have said something about this when the governor was attending? Cotton refused to acknowledge his role in any of this, and would spend the remainder of his life picking fights with Roger Williams and Thomas Hooker via pamphlet publication.
Boston and Salem were, at first, the places where you would be most likely to find dissenting opinions. The Antinomian Controversy put an end to that in a dramatic fashion. “Banned in Boston” was a joke that stuck around to the 20th century, and we all know what Salem was known for.
Societal Participation in both Puritan Communities and in the Boiling Isles
The Antinomian Controversy provided a model for how New England would deal with dissent for decades. Belos grew up in its aftermath, and would have seen its impacts, and heard stories of those involved. This provided him a clear model for how to control the populace.
Puritan Ministerial Heterodoxy as Compared to Hexside
The Antinomian Controversy illuminated the supposed need for Puritan ministers to get on the same page regarding their teachings. As mentioned before, nothing that Cotton was preaching, or that Hutchinson was discussing, was inconsistent with Puritan theology. It was the inevitable result of a society created by non-conformists who really wanted everyone else to conform to their particular brand of non-conformity.
One of the first official actions taken was calling a meeting with all the prominent ministers in the colony, with the primary goal being to reach consensus regarding the theology being preached in the colonies. And guess what—they couldn’t! They met again two months later, and still failed in their goal. This was where John Wilson would trash talk his own congregation. They would find consensus in a third meeting, although that consensus was less genuine agreement, more a proverbial middle finger to Hutchinson specifically.
This conflict was inevitable. Two different people reading the same thing and interpreting it in different ways is the natural outcome of the readers being two different people, with different life experiences. However, Christian sects in general, Calvinistic ones in particular, do not nurture a culture of debate. The idea of total depravity does not allow for different people approaching the same topic in good faith. If people can only be good because of God, then disagreement between two of His saints should be impossible. No, one person is right, and one person is of the Devil. People disagreeing on fundamental theology was a threat to their utopian community. It was vitally important for the people teaching people how to interpret the Bible be teaching the same thing.
The primary purpose of these meetings was to ensure consistency in messaging from the pulpit, but the Antinomian Controversy did impact the education of the children as well. Philemon Pormont, the man who established the first formal school in the colonies, lost his job over this. He wasn’t even a signer of the petition, but he was close enough connected that he was no longer trusted with teaching the youth.
Which brings us to Hexside. We see in Hexside’s introduction a need for that informational control. Belos’ messaging relies heavily on people sticking to their assigned roles, and that extended to choosing a coven before you actually choose a coven. From a cynical perspective, this makes sense. When you are pigeonholed down that route from a very young age, you will be less likely to question it. Additionally, limiting how much magic people are allowed to learn to all but those who have proved themselves most loyal to Belos provides an additional protective measure.
Willow’s skill in plant magic had to be prodigious for Principal Bump to switch her to that track. It is unclear if he would have switched her beforehand if she had simply asked. Dabbling in other forms of magic would usually get you in the Detention Track. The existence of the Detention track in general is telling. You can almost see that as the equivalent of excommunication or banishment (more on those later), but at the youth level. If you aren’t going to abide by the rules, you need to be ostracized from the community.
We don’t get a lot as far as how conformity to Boiling Isles standards of education is enforced at the administrative level. Belos mentions funding in “The First Day” and an indication of some level of additional consequences, but we don’t get specifics. This is understandable for a kids’ show, but it does leave some things open-ended. It likely is not funding-exclusive. St. Epiderm appears to be a private school, therefore less impacted by funding limits, but they still have the standard single-track indicators in their uniforms.
This is entirely speculation, but the proximity of the events of the show to the Day of Unity probably impacted how much Belos cared. If these kids were going to be graduating before the Day of Unity, and getting out into the wider community, the impact of multi-tracking would actually be relevant. As far as Belos is concerned, the only thing that changes is the strategy for marking the students.
The Politicization of Suffering and Eda's Curse
One of the big purposes of religion in general is to provide answers to life's big questions. A universal one is an explanation for human suffering. If you were to ask the Puritans, it’s because they did something wrong.
Trigger warning for pregnancy loss and birth defects.
The Antinomian Controversy featured this in a very disturbing way. The most immediate came to light following Anne Hutchinson’s church trial, which resulted in her excommunication. She was alone and emotionally beaten down. One friend braved the wrath of the Puritan mob to support her—Mary Dyer.
The wrath was immediate. Dyer had suffered a stillbirth less than 6 months prior; the baby had the sort of visible abnormality that was incompatible with life. Anne Hutchinson was a midwife, and she was at the birth. Understanding the superstitions of the time, not to mention her own church standing, Anne, with John Cotton’s counsel, decided with the others present to bury the infant in secret with as much dignity as they could manage.
It was not completely secret, however. When Dyer walked out of the Boston Meetinghouse with Hutchinson, someone called out, “Isn’t she the woman with monstrous birth?” The fact that phrase is the one remembered says all you need to know about how news of the stillbirth was treated. It was seen as confirmation that God was displeased with Hutchinson and her followers.
This was not the first such occurrence of the Puritans politicizing tragedy, and it would not be the last. Dyer’s stillbirth would follow her for the rest of her life, which we know because the full extent of her historical significance came later. She converted to Quakerism and was eventually killed for it as one of the “Boston Martyrs.” She went to that death willingly. Massachusetts authorities wanted to give her a reprieve, but she refused, refusing to be used as the Puritans’ political pawn. News of her death was met with outrage in England, which led to greater establishment of Royal control, one key factor that led to the Salem Witch Trials.
When I said it all links back to the Antinomian Controversy, I meant it.
You can see in Dyer’s story, and similar other cases, the way Eda’s curse was treated as a propaganda tool following her reprieve when she was to be petrified. Obviously Eda wasn’t going to do the same as Dyer. First off, it’s a kids’ show. Second, it would have been disrespectful to the sacrifices Luz and Lilith made. Third, it wouldn’t have affected the propaganda.
Eda’s curse itself was definitely used in Belos’s messaging the same way Dyer’s stillbirth was used by the Puritans. And her reprieve was used the same way the same Puritans had intended to use Dyer’s.
Belos’ own words lay it out clearly:
“Children of the Isles. The Titan has told me to spare the Owl Lady's life, but in return, her curse will strip away all her powers. Let her monstrous form be a lesson about the dangers of wild magic.”
We see the effects of this further in Season 2. Eda was a wanted criminal with a bounty on her head. We see in “Separate Tides” that is no longer the case. We see in “Eda’s Requiem,” that it goes one step further. No coven wants her. It is more useful for Belos’ messaging for her to be seen in public as a warning against wild magic. Not that he intended for her to not get caught in the draining spell. But he could put that off until the end, only sending scouts in to take The Owl House a week before the Day of Unity.
Banishment and the Conformatorium
The appearance of the Conformatorium in the very first episode is a clear indicator of what sort of world Luz has found herself in. This is a world with strange monsters everywhere. Is some guy eating his own eyes weird enough to prevent participation in society? It’s his body; he isn’t hurting others. The reveal that the place was being run by an actual 17th century Puritan added considerable context.
Puritans were legalistic in more than just sermons. They did care a lot about things at least appearing legal, which is counter to the “angry mob witch trial” view of people.
They were quite aware of how things would look if they went around executing people for any little thing, hence why they tried to give Mary Dyer a reprieve. Samuel Wheelwright was also an interesting case of this. I already mentioned his trial, where he was convicted on a nonsense charge. Wheelwright himself raised the stakes at sentencing.
The Court and the Ministers threw around words suggesting that Wheelwright’s sermons were heretical. Wheelwright called their bluff. He told them that if his words were heresy, then sentence him to death, but he would appeal to the king. This happened around the same time Henry Vane returned to England, and Vane’s dad was on Charles’ privy council. It was not an idle threat.
The Court caved. His sentence was banishment from the colony. This was not a surprise, and he and his closest supporters had been making plans to leave anyway. They founded Exeter, New Hampshire.
Anne Hutchinson was also banished. She, her husband and their closest supporters, including Mary Dyer and her husband, would found the colonies on Aquidneck Island (aka Rhode Island).
Speaking of Rhode Island, if you recall Roger Williams: also banished. He attempted to establish another colony just on the other side of the border—he had even negotiated payment with the Wampanoag for it—before Plymouth sent a “friendly” letter reminding him he was technically in their jurisdiction. He then set up shop in Providence after negotiating with the Narragansett. Williams cared a lot about that. His connections with the Narragansett were why Hutchinson and her followers ended up on Aquidneck.
In summary, the Puritans weren’t going to automatically kill you if you didn’t conform in the way they expected, but that didn’t mean that they wanted you around. So they’d banish you. That wouldn’t be an option in the Boiling Isles, however, because of the limits of the world itself.
Still, petrifying people for small crimes like writing literal food porn isn’t going to work out in the long run. Belos can’t risk a popular uprising before the Day of Unity. Even if he isn’t subject to anybody back in England, his plan relies on the merciful father-figure imagery. But he can’t have them just running free. To quote Warden Wrath, “No place for [them] in society if [they] can’t fit in.” To better explain it, Belos couldn’t have people bucking the norm around because that might tell everybody else that it is okay for them to buck the norm. But where would those miscreants go if there was nowhere to banish them?
The answer is the Conformatorium.
Examining Belos' Own Words
To tie everything together, it might be useful to compare Belos’ own words against the things we’ve learned. I already quoted his speech in “Young Blood, Old Souls,” which pertained to one specific point. The following quotes help us get a bigger picture.
I will address these chronologically.
From the first speech Belos gives in Hollow Mind:
“Fellow Citizens, we are born into chaos. Our lives anger the Titan.”
There is a clear tie-in to the Calvinistic idea of Total Depravity. Everyone is chaotic (bad, as Belos presents it) from birth. Total chaos is the default state, and that default state makes the Titan, or God, as Belos is presenting him, angry.
“My own family has been hurt by the darkness of wild magic.”
The rest of this speech is less directly related to Puritan ideas, but they This line is a natural extension of the messaging that suffering is punishment from God. If you can spin a good conversion story out of it, you can use your own tragic past for clout points. It’s a common strategy of religious grifters throughout history.
“I have been shown the healing light. It shines in nine hues!”
Light is a common theme in the Bible, particularly Jesus’ parallels. The idea of being a “light shining among men” was at the origin of the establishment of the New England colonies. They wanted to be a city on a hill. Light being a go-to metaphor for Belos, from this perspective, makes sense.
“The wild witches! They have found me, run!”
One well-known Bible verse is “Blessed are you when men shall persecute you.” Interpreting anything possibly perceived as persecution as validation is standard across Christianity. Yes, Belos is lying, but it does explain why he thinks this would better make his case.
From the second of the speeches in Hollow Mind:
“Look at what wild magic has done to your city.”
This is an extension from the previous speech. Suffering and disaster are indicative of God’s judgment. Belos has taken it a step beyond the lie that his own family’s suffering was caused by wild magic; now it is seen in the world as well.
“Now imagine what it is doing to you.”
One’s outward blessings or misfortune are manifestations of the state of their soul.
“A city can rise from the ashes, but a soul…”
This line is evocative of the idea of sanctification. Good deeds, when under God’s grace, purify the soul; bad deeds corrupt it.
“I can make your magic pure again, as the Titan intended!”
Here we see another case of Belos having a Puritan-style God complex. This line reflects the Calvinistic idea of atonement, something that only Christ can do.
From his words to the Head Witches in “Hunting Palismen”
“The larger your covens grow, the more power we will have to unite our realms, where the worthy shall inherit a utopia free of wild magic”
This line, and the similar, lengthier speech in “Follies at the Coven Day Parade,” cements my personal headcanon that the Belos internalized his own Day of Unity messaging as a spin on the sort pre-millennialism that Puritans subscribed to. Uniting the realms where the worthy will inherit a utopia free of wild magic sounds almost exactly like Christ bringing his kingdom to earth where the faithful will reign in a utopia free of sin. Belos being a cult leader is commonly accepted among the fandom, but it’s lines like this that make it crystal clear that he is a Puritan cult leader.
Conclusion - Was the choice of “Phillip” intentional?
Hopefully at this point, I have more than driven home my point that the anti-Puritan messaging in the Owl House is far deeper than opposing “witch-hunting.” If you know the theological and historical background of the movement, you can see a lot of it in, not only the actually Puritan characters, but in the show’s themes, and even the way the Boiling Isles itself is presented.
To wrap things up, I would like to tell you a Bible story. There are two people named “Phillip” in the Bible. One of them is one of Jesus’ disciples, but I’m not talking about him. The one I find interesting is Phillip the Evangelist.
Acts 8:26-31, 35-36, 38-39 (NRSV)
26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go [… ] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” […]
27 Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship
28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”
30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading […]. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Phillip to get in and sit beside him
[…]
35 Then Phillip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Phillip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Phillip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Phillip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.
To summarize, the Biblical Phillip met a major figure in the Ethiopian government, who was reading the Bible. Phillip and he had a Bible study, where Phillip explained the Christian interpretation of the passage. The Ethiopian converted to Christianity, and asked to be baptized.
Traditionally, this is the reason given for why Ethiopia is majority Christian. The eunuch returned home and brought Christianity with him. Ethiopian Orthodox is one of the oldest Christian sects, predating even Roman Catholicism, which is not something I was taught. People stopped caring when there weren’t people they could imagine as white involved. In the white evangelical version of the tale, the focus is entirely on Phillip. Also, there is a bit of covert racism, because heaven forbid white people give an African country credit for something they purportedly valued.
Were Dana Terrace and the writers thinking of this Phillip when they gave him the name? Maybe, maybe not, but he did bring an awful lot of the Puritan mindset to the Boiling Isles.
—-
And that’s that! I’m tempted to turn this into a video essay, as well as that “Not About the Witches” essay, but that’s a monster of its own.
Work-in-progress for a bigger art thing. It’s a cover, so-to-speak, for that side fic project.
I’m currently trying to figure out how I dress Hunter, and, if I go more the redesign route, if I give Darius a new outfit as well. I started drawing Darius’ canon one, but that can always be changed. This is not long after “Watching and Dreaming” (the prologue is that day, chapter 1 opens about a week later. Hunter definitely would have changed clothes, but I don’t know if he would just be wearing the stuff Camila gave him. Maybe the wolf shirt, but I dunno. I’m leaning towards something that is more Boiling Isles vibes, but I’m still trying to figure out what.
Looking at Hunter’s epilogue design (and contrasting with other designs, both his and everyone else), it does appear he prefers Human Realm sneakers, so I’m sticking with those, for sure. And I think he does seem to gravitate to comfier clothes, which, given his past—fair. I am probably going to tone down his arms some, but not much. He is athletic.
My working title for the fic is “Galatea,” so that’s the basic idea behind what I’m drawing. It’s the interplay with two creative people trying to figure out how to move on from grief, as well as what I hope are pretty obvious parallels between Belos and Pygmalion. Look, the dude decided he would not take any companion who wasn’t Caleb-shaped, so he kept attempting to create that. The image is not the person inside though.
As a result of being an ex-fundie writing a Wittebro backstory, playing with Biblical themes and stories is a thing that keeps coming up as I’m plotting and ideating. The two different stories of two spies in Canaan is a thing I play with a lot—Biblical Caleb features heavily in one of them, and tends to get conflated with the other story, because his best bud Joshua features in both. When you take that association and the fact that it is extremely easy to see Evelyn as a potential Rahab analog, the ideas almost write themselves.
It’s more of stupid joke than particularly plot relevant, but I do find it interesting how you can map one of the Biblical Phillips onto Phillip’s actions. The fact that Caleb dies while posed exactly like the Titan which HAPPENS to be a crucifixion pose is explicitly acknowledged. Heck, I’ve somehow managed to make a covert Biblical reference a big part of my Darius/previous Golden Guard fic in possibly the most messed up way possible. That fic is absolutely in Dead Dove: Do Not Eat territory.
There’s one common Biblical theme that I want to play around with, but I haven’t figured out exactly how: the blatant younger brother favouritism, often being the excuse for the older brother to attempt to murder the younger one. That plot point is EVERYWHERE. Cain and Abel is the classic. It shows up with all the patriarchs’ kids - Ishmael and Isaac (Abraham’s kids), Jacob and Esau (Isaac’s kids), Joseph and his brothers (Jacob’s kids). HECK, Joseph and his brothers have it on both sides of the family, because the moms have blatant younger sister favouritism! Moses and Aaron have their moments.
Further down the line you get Jesse’s kids, key among them being David, the youngest. David’s sons were all one dysfunctional mess, so I’m not going to count them. And then, all the way in the New Testament, you have the parable of the Prodigal Son. That one’s less extreme than the others, since the older brother’s just “dude, where’s my appreciation?”, but even there, older brother’s feelings are invalidated.
There’s a lot there to work with. There’s the obvious inversion in that the younger brother in this case is the one that goes all murder happy, but I feel like there’s more there than just that. The thru-line I’m sort of working with is that Caleb running off is the scenario where, instead of becoming resentful, the elder brother decides they don’t have to put up with the disrespect. I’m not sure exactly how that fits into the story though. I’m thinking that it possibly keeps coming up in sermon scenes. Because Caleb’s getting a lot of my religious neuroses, he’s got this tendency to try to figure out how every sermon applies to him, which usually means seeing himself in possibly the worst possible light. It possibly is part of why he ends up being pretty shitty at reigning in Phillip’s antics. The Bible tends to reward the younger brothers pushing the status quo, and the elder brother doing anything in response is vilified. It certainly is part of the codependency, in feeling like your entire purpose is supporting your younger sibling’s main character energy.
Anyway, rambling. I’ve also been figuring out some potential writing exercises where I come up with potential metaphors and associations as ways of describing different emotions and actions. Think phrases like “a bull in a china shop” to describe a clumsy person. Obviously Caleb and Phillip aren’t going to be making pop culture metaphors, and similarly, certain idioms aren’t going to work when I’m writing from the perspective of someone in the Boiling Isles.
“Biblical metaphor” is definitely one of the categories.
I Can’t Have Been the Only One to have Noticed This
(Unspoilered version below the cut)
The headcanons are “pyromaniac” and “bisexual disaster,” and regarding the former, “Yesterday’s Lie” indicates someone is lighting things on fire. We don’t see Belos being a pyro, and Evelyn’s not from a culture where fire = purification. Therefore, Caleb is the pyro.
I thought about drawing Frumpkin in “kitty hunt mode” staring at Flapjack, but I mostly wanted to get this out of my head.
And the un-spoilered version
Yes, I know Mighty Nein Caleb was in brainwash mode at the time.
I could compare love interests, but I’m not venturing into spoilers for those who didn’t watch/listen to Campaign Two.
Putting the term "Catholic guilt" on a high shelf where fandom can't reach it until everyone learns how to identify characters who are very very clearly coded as Protestant.
Important qualification for this: “pleasure is bad” does not mean everyone is super dour all the time. The Protestant mindset is that you aren’t supposed to need pleasure.** You are supposed to be “joyful in the Lord.” For anybody writing clearly Protestant characters, it will be way more accurate to channel the Stepford Wives than it would the Buckingham Palace Guard.
** Puritan-specific qualification on pleasure: Puritans were remarkably sex-positive, provided it was done within marriage (and cishet). A man not fulfilling his wife sexually was a divorce-worthy offence.
Another good Protestant v. Catholic differentiation is the difference between guilt and shame. As I understand it (not Catholic, not raised Catholic), “Catholic guilt” is more about not doing enough for someone. The shame inherent in Protestantism is more about a state of being. Being human, doing human things (like having fun) is in itself shameful.
The Witch-hunting Fit Belos Doesn’t Want You To Know About
A silly drawing jumping off of this post from yesterday:
💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 3 · Ann Austin - Wikipedia · Random Wittebro fanfic history musing, of the “history is wild, and I’m absolutely writing this” v
To summarize - I was doing some history diving on details of actual witch trials and discovered the case of Mary Fisher and Ann Austin. Ann alleged that the person who investigated her for a witch’s mark (usually found near private parts, so it involved stripping) was a man wearing women’s apparel. And if you think I’m not going to use any indication that Puritans may have dressed in drag to get evidence for a witch trials as an excuse to write a Puritan dressing in drag to get evidence for a witch trials, you don’t know me very well.
Random Wittebro fanfic history musing, of the “history is wild, and I’m absolutely writing this” variety. Spoilers. It involves drag.
One of the most ridiculous arcs of my story is what I’m dubbing the “fake witch hunter” arc, where Caleb and Evelyn pass her off as human, and she ends up joining the brothers’ witch hunting efforts. Except not. Caleb and Evelyn are there to ensure that Phillip doesn’t actually find any witches. It’s my chance to, among other things, mock Puritanism with an outsider’s perspective, as well as lambasting religious grifters on the whole.
Caleb convinces Phillip to let Evelyn join because having a woman with them would make it easier to examine suspects for “witch’s marks.” They were supposedly found near a person’s privates, requiring stripping of suspected witches to examine them. My historical justification of this is reading that con-man “witchfinder general” (self-titled), Matthew Hopkins, had women in his operation for just that reason.
Well, I found additional justification. Behold, the case of Mary Fisher and Ann Austin:
Ann Austin - Wikipedia
The two women were the first Quakers to visit the English American colonies. Upon landing in Boston, however, the authorities decided “absolutely not.” They were immediately imprisoned and investigated for signs of witchcraft. Massachusetts hadn’t established their anti-Quaker laws at this point (they would partly in response to this); it would be a lot easier to get rid of them if they could be convicted of witchcraft.
The important detail for this discussion: Ann alleged that one of the investigators involved in the physical exam was a man wearing women’s apparel.
This doesn’t change anything about the second arc substantively, but it does impact the first, when it’s just the brothers doing the witch hunting.
Look, you give me any indication that New England Puritans may have dressed in drag to gather evidence for a witch trial, I am absolutely going to write a New England Puritan dressing in drag to gather evidence for a witch trial. The fact that it nicely foreshadows Evelyn eventually joining the group is only part of it. The real reason is because, c’mon! I get to write a Puritan coming up with an excuse to dress in drag!
I think having Phillip cross-dress makes the most sense in terms of the brothers’ character arcs. Cross-dressing was absolutely a bad thing in Puritan society, and Phillip being willing to do that in service of his greater obsession is a nice mirror to his future willingness to explore the magic of the Boiling Isles. Also, he’s not quite 16 at that point in the story and far more likely to get away with it. Caleb’s got the shoulders of somebody who’s been doing manual labour for the last 12 years.
For Caleb’s part, he’s way too much of a stickler for the rules at that point in the story, and not so emotionally all-in to the whole thing. He’s there because the relationship between him and his brother is a codependent mess rather than because of any real conviction. He tries to talk Phillip out of it, but he’s not good at actually telling Phillip “no” (and the times he has, Phillip’s gone and done something unhinged).
However, if you’ve seen my cosplay sketch series, you know that Caleb, later on, is extremely comfortable in drag. One key trait of his is that his grasp on gender norms is tenuous at best. This is one area where he’s especially a stickler for the rules because he legit cannot make any sense of them otherwise.
So I think the way this plays out is that Phillip dresses in drag, and Caleb is more than a little concerned at how much he wishes it was him.
I’m almost done with part 3 on that Puritanism essay (writer’s block on the last couple paragraphs), but mostly, I got distracted by other ideas.
By “other ideas,” I mean “side-project fanfic.”
It’s younger Darius and Hunter’s predecessor. He goes by “Reb.” Belos also calls him Hunter, because at a certain point he decided he liked the “witch hunter” reference name too much and stopped bothering with naming subsequent Golden Guards anything different. I already headcanon that “mentor” was an obfuscation regarding the relationship between these two. They were absolutely romantically entangled, but Darius wasn’t about to admit that to Hunter at that moment. Kid was still completely in Belos’ thrall. “Mentor” was the word that would lead to the fewest questions.
I saw a theory once that the little abomination in “Them’s the Breaks Kid” was Darius’ palisman, and that he hid them on his head. While I don’t think the palisman wig is the actual case for what we see in the show, I liked the idea and decided to use it. Darius also has purple eyes like we see in the flashback bit in “King’s Tide.” We do see the green eyes as well, but I’m saying he got the green eyes when he figured out the abomination form.
Regarding story background:
My brain started jumping to what their relationship actually looked like when I was exploring some ideas for the grimwalkers in general for my main fic. It got dark. I think it works for how things have been developing, but it’s pretty bleak. I felt like I needed to explore those ideas with characters who don’t die horribly. I mean, obviously, Reb does, but the central idea for the fanfic is Hunter learning to cope with both the grief of Flapjack’s death while Darius is now finally able to safely actually feel the grief that had been shoved down before. Hunter’s also starting to process just how much Belos had hurt him, something forced by Flapjack’s magic causing some …interesting… trauma responses. Look, when your fight or flight response gets triggered unexpectedly, having teleportation magic you haven’t learned how to control is not the best thing in the world.
The present storyline is juxtaposed against Darius and Reb’s story. It is incredibly dark (the fic is absolutely in Dead Dove territory), but their romance is adorable. Reb was never an official mentor, but Darius did learn a lot from him. First off, he figured out his abomination form because of his relationship with Reb. But, most importantly, Reb knew exactly what sort of person Belos was better than anybody, even Belos himself. Didn’t change that he was powerless to escape him, but it did inform his survival strategy. He knows just how sadistic Belos is, but also that Belos refuses to admit it to himself. He tries to use that, as well as Belos’ ego, to cope. His “mentorship” of Darius is teaching him that, which allows Darius to operate inside Belos’ inner circle without getting caught, eventually getting Eberwolf appointed head witch of the Beast Keeping Coven as well.
I have a couple more Reb designs here:
The light skin on Reb’s shoulder is part of the reason why the Golden Guards generally didn’t look as much like Caleb. Caleb had a genetic mutation that Belos had no control over how it expressed. The light ends of his ponytail is because Belos likes to force the Guards who end up with darker hair to bleach it. Reb managed to get away with that only happening a couple times.
I did structure the files to be able to draw other looks on them, so I may post others when I have looks I like. I have a few variations on boots for Darius and some other clothing pieces I didn’t use for this first outfit. This does give me what I need to hopefully get the first couple chapters finished and posted. Darius cares about fashion, so I did need to know what I was trying to describe. I’ve been taking a lot of influence from J-Rock and Visual Kei fashion. It seems like a good vibe for him.
So, I just found out about Pope Night, and I am absolutely writing that into my fanfic. It actually feels like a pretty natural spot for the second mob scene Hollow Mind portrait.
Pope Night - Wikipedia
I would like you to know that the festivities of Pope Night are not dissimilar to the festivities that led Puritans to ban Christmas. You can ban fun, but people will find some excuse to put their revel on. Just don’t be surprised if the new version is more fucked up.
I do kinda wonder if Pope Night is part of how Halloween separated from Christmas as far as how it’s celebrated. Christmas celebrations used to be characterized quite a bit by what we now associate with Halloween (kids going door to door extorting people, costumes, public revelry). Pope Night (November 5) is pretty close in the year to Halloween.
I thought this was going to be a two part thing, but when I got to 3000 words without even mentioning the Conformatorium, I knew it would be three. Part 2 is going to focus on Puritan-specific theology. Part 3 will be Puritanism in practice.
Puritanism in the Boiling Isles Part 2: The Origins of Puritanism and Puritan Theology, and its Impacts
Part 1, which discusses Calvinism, the theological framework that forms the basis of Puritanism, can be found HERE:
💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 10 · Puritanism in the Boiling Isles, but Not How You’d Expect · Guess who’s been doing historical/religious analyses again? I
A Brief History of Puritanism
Mary’s reign would, like her brother’s, last 5 years. When her sister, Elizabeth became queen, most of the Marian exiles would return to England, bringing Calvinism with them, becoming, by and large, the original Puritans. Before we get into that, we do need to get into one important thing that many Reformers got up to while with Calvin in Geneva.
An English Bible Translation for the Masses
Much of what the Puritans valued was in opposition to that of the Catholic Church. One major point of contention was the perceived gatekeeping of the Bible. They wanted the Bible to be read by everyone, which meant translations into the vernacular. An early reformer, William Tyndale, had translated and printed large chunks of the Bible into English, but it was never completed. Henry VIII had, during his lifetime, commissioned an English language version, but it was very much intended for church use only. It was large, and it was expensive. An update of that Bible commissioned by Elizabeth was not much better.
While in exile, a team of scholars undertook to create their own translation, relying heavily on Tyndale’s original translations. It would become known as the Geneva Bible, owing to its origins. Compared to the translations authorized by the English monarchs, the Geneva Bible was far cheaper to print. It remained by far the most popular edition for English laypeople until well into the seventeenth century until the King James Version finally overtook it, after the Puritan migration to New England had tapered off. The Geneva Bible would still be the preferred translation in New England long afterward, and this is the version that Caleb and Phillip would have been familiar with.
A Meandering Trip to Scotland, because Misogyny
In the introduction, I said most Marian exiles returned to England. That qualification is because there was one particularly spectacular a-hole that Elizabeth refused to allow into the country, a well-known author who lived in Scotland, one who alienated a bunch of former allies by publishing a deeply bigoted screed, one who would ultimately double down and exercise their considerable influence on the Scottish Parliament, one with the initials “J. K.” I am, of course, talking about John Knox.
John Knox was a Scottish minister and theologian who had been captured by the French after fleeing Scotland, then exiled to England prior to Mary’s reign. Like many reformers, he would flee to Central Europe and meet John Calvin, who would influence his own theology. While in Geneva, he would publish his best known pamphlet, in which he would attempt to make a theological argument against the sort of monarchs responsible for his frequent banishment: Women.
You see, Mary of Guise, acting as regent for her daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, was responsible for his arrest by the French. After some time in the French Galleys, he was exiled to England, until Mary Tudor forced him into exile from England! A logical person would see that the cause of his banishment was the Catholic vs. Protestant tit-for-tat. But no. The problem is women.
The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women is a steaming pile of misogynistic dung. The best thing about that pamphlet is that it provides the name for possibly my favourite Discworld novel, Monstrous Regiment (GNU Sir Pterry). Knox appeared to have sensed that his pamphlet was utter drivel, because he had it published in secret, initially anonymously, without the prior knowledge of his friends, including Calvin. Their general reaction was “dude, this is a little much.” Again, these were his friends.
Knox’s pamphlet was ridiculously short-sighted. One of the Catholic queens he was railing against was at an age where the odds of her successfully producing a Catholic heir were miniscule. Her presumed heir was Protestant! Her heir was…also a woman.
Elizabeth was royally pissed, and, from all accounts, she never forgave him for the offense. Knox was not allowed to return to England. He decided to return to Scotland, but the quickest and safest way to get there was through England. Elizabeth refused to even grant him a passport. Poor boy had to take the long way around.
I bring up Knox not just because I find Elizabeth’s understandable anger at him hilarious. And not just because of the Discworld plug, either. Knox got up to a lot of politics when back in Scotland. He would lead a revolution that would ultimately see Mary of Guise deposed. When she died suddenly, the road was wide open for the Scottish parliament to establish a new, Protestant, Church of Scotland.
One problem: Mary of Guise had been acting as regent for her daughter, who at that point was in France. The year following her mother’s deposition and death, Mary, Queen of Scots, would return to Scotland. Knox was the leader of a fairly popular revolution however, and he would use the intimidation of the masses to install himself as an advisor close to the queen. He did not last long in this position, but he did have the political acumen to avoid getting charged with treason.
Shortly thereafter, at the youthful age of 50, he would marry the 17 year old daughter of a friend. Even in the 16th century, eyebrows were raised.
Knox would not be deeply involved in politics after this point, although he did preach a number of very influential sermons and write a book on the Reformation in Scotland. Queen Mary gave birth to a son, James, in 1566. Not long after he reached a year, at which he was considered to have survived infancy, the Protestant nobility around Mary had her deposed and exiled to England. A Protestant regency for King James VI would be established. Knox would preach at the young king’s coronation.
Folks in England Start Getting Ideas
Knox would die in 1572, but his legacy was profound. While the ultimate origin of Puritanism was the return of the Marian exiles, those same people in England would see Knox’s reformation in Scotland and decide that was their goal. Knox’s writings would prove deeply influential on the reformers in England. It was somewhere around this point when the word “Puritan” started appearing in print in conjunction with the group.
It was an insult. Turns out, “Puritan” back then meant the exact same as it does now. The actual Puritans preferred to use words such as “the saints,” or “the elect” (all those Calvinist words earlier). Shakespeare used the word in that context, which, considering the Puritans wanted to get rid of theatre altogether, seems like a fairly mild offense.
Elizabeth would appoint bishops that were, on the whole, Calvinist, but this was not good enough for the Puritans. Elizabeth was almost certainly wary of them, but she was wary of everyone. While she had excellent reasons to eschew marriage altogether that are not at all relevant to this discussion, the experience of her cousin in Scotland indicated that even declaring her heir publicly might empower her enemies to depose her. Negotiations with potential heirs were conducted through coded letters. Had the Puritans known that King James VI of Scotland had become her preferred choice, they likely would have been chomping at the bit to see him on the English throne. He had been raised Scottish Presbyterian, after all, by those of John Knox’s ilk.
James Thinks the CofE (& Witch Hunting) is Pretty Cool
The Puritans were destined for disappointment. They weren’t the only ones. James was king of playing the middle of the field, and I am not just talking about his rumoured bisexuality. Puritans saw his Calvinist upbringing and saw an opportunity to purge the Church of England of its remnants of Catholicism. Catholics saw someone who took a genuine interest in other religious practices and saw an opportunity for more religious tolerance. If you remember the 5th of November (the gunpowder treason and plot), it was YET ANOTHER act of violence in the ongoing Catholic v. Protestant back-and-forth sweeping across Europe at the time. That time, English Catholics were the perpetrators, disappointed that James had not loosened anti-Catholic restrictions as they expected.
James became king in England, and he thought the Church of England, as it was under Elizabeth, was pretty awesome, actually. His reign in Scotland had been characterized by constantly butting heads with the Kirk, the church structure. James saw the Church of England as the natural middle ground between Protestant and Catholic, to the extent that he got it into his head that he would be the one to solve the 30-years-war that was being waged across the European continent. He would arrange marriages for his children (or attempt, in the case of his son Charles) with the goal of encouraging peace on the continent. It didn’t work, because of course it didn’t.
Before you decide James sounded okay, if painfully naive at times, one his monikers is “the witch hunter king.” One of the reasons for the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is because Scotland had been associated with witches as a result of James’ witch hunts prior to his reign in England. He wrote the Daemonologie, one of the major witch hunting texts. James also did a lot of stake burnings, although in many (most?) cases that was a means of dealing with the body after they were hung.
The first group of Puritans, the “Pilgrims” of first Thanksgiving fame, would settle in Massachusetts during James’ reign, fed up that they were not allowed to tell other people what to do.
Charles Throws a Temper Tantrum
James’ son, Charles I, was a Divine Right of Kings guy. To be fair, so was James—he literally wrote a book on the subject—but James was much more cognizant of the practical limitations of claiming “God put me here, you have to do what I say.” The way his grandmother and mother were both deposed likely left some impression. Charles did not learn that lesson, or if he did, it wasn’t until his neck was on the block.
As mentioned before, James had previously attempted to arrange a marriage for Charles, to the Infanta of Spain. The idea of Charles marrying a Catholic was about as popular as the plague, and the Puritan faction of Parliament and the clergy strongly objected. The lesson Charles learned from this was “don’t give Parliament a chance to object.”
Almost the first thing Charles did upon the death of his father was marry 15-year-old Henrietta Maria of France. Yes, she was Catholic. He was 25. He consummated the marriage before he called his first Parliament. This is noteworthy because, contrary to what pop culture would have you believe, royal marriages did not always consummate right away, at least not that young. Royals would be married, sometimes by proxy, in order to secure alliances, but consummation would wait until the woman was considered old enough to safely carry a potential heir to term. Fifteen was borderline.
Unsurprisingly, Parliament did not take well to this. So Charles stopped calling Parliament. The first waves of the Puritan “Great Migration” were largely a response to this act.
The Calvinist bishops in the Church of England also disapproved of Charles’ marriage. So Charles appointed bishops ascribing to a more Arminian theology (broadly speaking, anti-Calvinist).
The bulk of the Puritan Migration was in response to this, specifically the appointment of William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury. The aspect of the Puritan mythos claiming to have been fleeing persecution did not come out of nowhere. Laud was a big fan of torture for non-conforming bishops, and, if you couldn’t tell, Charles did not opposition in a particularly mature manner.
Puritan Theology and its Evidence in The Owl House
The Puritanism Belos grew up in arose out of all of this. 70 years passed between the return of the Marian Exiles and the first wave of the Great Migration. That time allowed it to take more shape, to develop into the form that would characterize the communities in New England. The ability to get the Bible into more hands would shape Puritan thinking. Ministers seeing their teachings in practice in their congregations see questions arise from that experience, and they would determine answers. Most importantly, between John Knox’s success in Scotland and Charles I’s general incompetence, gaining wider control started becoming central to how they thought about things.
Similar to Part 1, I will explain these theological developments partly by how they can be seen in The Owl House.
Trinitarianism and Belos’ Personal Imagery
This theological point is probably the least relevant to the Owl House, but I did want to mention it for the sake of thoroughness. I’m mentioning this first to get it out of the way.
The idea of the Trinity is the idea of God as three-in-one: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. That specifically does not come up in the show at all, although I do find it interesting how much Belos incorporates triangles in his personal imagery. The magic of the Boiling Isles is based on circles; Belos forces a triangle onto it.
If you think that’s a stretch, you should see my notes on how a structural load path could be used as a giant magic circle. The danger of the “calculus is arcane knowledge” trope, one clearly evoked in Phillip’s diary, is that sometimes the weird math and physics nerds will try to make it make sense.
But back on triangles, there is a possible read on Belos’ triangle imagery in conjunction with how he presents himself in relation to the Titan, but more on that later.
Biblical Societal Roles: A Possible Inspiration for the Coven System
A stopped clock is right twice a day. There was one thing that the Puritans unequivocally got right: they strove for universal literacy. That in and of itself doesn’t directly connect into the Owl House, other than explaining why Phillip is able to read and write in the first place. Given the brothers’ implied lack of wealth, at that time in history, they would have likely been illiterate literally anywhere else.
While the Puritan emphasis on literacy was a good thing, the primary goal was so that everyone could read the Bible. In and of itself, that is not bad either. It is a good thing for all worshippers to have access to their holy texts. However, the Puritan idea of what would result from Biblical literacy was naive at best.
Christians, in general, do not know how to disagree with each other. This is not a Puritan thing. That is just history. There are so many different sects of Christianity when compared to any other religion because whenever anybody disagrees with somebody, they start a new denomination. In the early modern period, those splits accompanied times of great violence, as that disagreement was seen as heresy, a capital offense (so many stake burnings).
The Puritans had some weird idea in their head that if everyone could read the Bible, then everybody would come to the same conclusion and everyone would get along. Well, if all of “the saints” could read the Bible anyway. That two different people could read the same exact thing and come to different conclusions did not seem to occur to them. One major purpose of religion, throughout history, is to provide answers to difficult questions. Puritans thought that, by following the Bible, they could have their perfect little utopian community.
The Puritans saw order, as defined in the Bible, as the way to achieve societal perfection. It therefore became critical for everyone to stay in their assigned roles. While Puritans were remarkably egalitarian when it came to literacy, it was important for everyone to stay in their place. Mixing of men and women’s activities could lead to adultery. While Puritans did eschew sartorial excess, there was still an expectation that those of lower class would not dress above their station.
And here is where we get into the Boiling Isles. I often see discussion on exactly how much of the draining spell that the Collector was responsible for. My headcanon is that the Collector was responsible for the mechanics, Belos was responsible for the implementation. The “pretty colours go boom” feels like the sort of twisted kid chaos that characterizes the Collector. The Coven System, on the other hand, is extremely Puritan. Or proto-fascist as the case may be. Same diff.
The coven system is the exact sort of thing I could see coming out of the mind of a person who had been raised to believe that keeping to your assigned role was the key to societal perfection.
Belos may have a number of issues that affect his critical thinking, but he’s not, generally-speaking, stupid. He has difficulty applying that critical thinking towards himself and his own actions. He’s perfectly capable of applying it toward other people.
He needs to figure out how to control the populace to convince them to brand themselves. What exactly are these brands, and how would he sell it? The sigils are a way of assigning a role, something Puritans ascribed to. What did his people say was the benefit of keeping to your role?
Of course, he isn’t among his fellow saints. These hellspawn aren’t going to care about God’s proper order of things; it isn’t worth his time to try. How to convince the people to choose order over chaos? Seeing the general reverence for the Titan, even if only as a form of respect for the land you live on, and the way witches and demons use magic, perhaps he can utilize that as an angle.
The way Belos presents the coven system maps fairly cleanly onto Puritan thinking. The Titan wants you to live your life in accordance with his order, and that means accepting the “purification” of your magic, accepting a set role. The “talked to the Titan” less so—that sounds more like Quakerism—but Belos doesn’t have a Bible equivalent he can refer to. If he doesn’t have any prophets to reference, he’d have to create his own.
The sigils themselves don’t have a Puritan analog as much, but it is easy to extrapolate from other signifiers of devotion that Belos would likely have been aware of. My personal headcanon is that the idea behind the sigils is a hybrid of the Mark of the Beast and the idea of a “witch’s mark,” one of the things that 17th century witch hunters would look for. That seems like the sort of sick sense of humour expected from a guy who would name at least one clone of his reformed witch-hunting brother he murdered “Hunter.”
The sigils do tie back to the Calvinistic idea of “the Perseverance of the Saints.” There’s no take-backs, however, unlike the vague status of election by God, the sigils actually enforce it.
Sanctification and the “Protestant Work Ethic” As Seen in The Emperor’s Coven
Talk to almost anyone steeped in Calvinist theology, and one of the questions that often arises is that of grace versus works. The core of the debate is this: there is nothing you can do to affect your own salvation; it is entirely the grace of God. God’s grace covers all sins. You also believe that, apart from God, people are infinitely depraved. The issue is, that combination isn’t exactly conducive to a functioning society. When you tell everybody they are no more than their base impulses, but hey, God’s grace covers all the worst of it, some people are going to be more likely to give into their worst impulses.
The Puritan answer to this was a concept called sanctification. Salvation is from God alone, but once you are saved, Christ will work within you to sanctify your soul. When you are saved, you should be doing good works automatically. The extension of this is that you can tell other people are saved by their good works. It circles back to legalism very quickly, where your faith in your salvation is based on your good works (because everyone around you sees your good works).
Ask two different Puritan ministers their opinion on where the line is, and you will get two different answers. One of the first big challenges the Puritans in Massachusetts faced as a community ultimately came down to that dispute. The Antinomian Crisis was an indicator of how the Puritans would handle disagreement in their ranks. The Puritan hegemony ultimately came down on the side of fascistic enforcement of sanctification.
What a hardcore focus on sanctification looks like, practically speaking, is a little thing sometimes referred to as the “Protestant Work Ethic.” “Protestant Work Ethic” is a fancy way of saying “push yourself to the edge of burnout.” Because anything fun is associated with depravity, given the fundamental nature of humanity, you shouldn’t want to do that. You should want to be contributing to society. Given that Puritan communities had a fairly large merchant class, this did, by implication, mean economically. American capitalism had its roots in Puritan New England.
Oh, also, you should be happy about it. You should be happy, because God is working within you so you don’t need to relax or have fun!
It’s this work ethic that is most evident in the Owl House, in particular the Emperor’s Coven. That also makes sense. The members of the Emperor’s Coven are Belos’ special select witches. They are held to higher standards. Conveniently, those same higher standards tend to leave them too overworked to question their actions. “Any Sport in a Storm” definitely hit me right in the painful memories, which is probably not the episode most people would list as one of their most personally triggering.
“Teens are probably into the same things as me. Like authority and rules!” Oh Hunter, baby, that’s the lack of free time talking. Hunter’s undereye circles make the results of that “work ethic” crystal clear. I would like to remind you that Hunter is a kid. Hunter did not understand how to have fun if it wasn’t part of some grand mission.
I suppose it should also come as no surprise that Puritan children were rarely afforded the opportunity to play.
Millennialism: Belos’ Theological Justification for the Day of Unity
There are interesting parallels between the way that Belos presented the Day of Unity and Puritan eschatology (understanding of the apocalypse). Millennialism, in the Christian context, refers to a passage in the Bible that says that Satan will be bound away in chains for 1000 years prior to the Last Judgment. The point of discussion is determining where Christ’s second coming fits into that. The “Rapture” is one such approach, however, not relevant here. The rapture, as a concept, did not start to become popularized until the 1800s.
Puritans generally held a premillennialist point of view. Premillennialist means that Christ’s second coming immediately precedes the 1000 years of Satan being bound in chains. The lead-up to that is the “tribulation,” where the persecution of the faithful increases as Satan becomes more desperate.
Puritans started to popularize the idea of mass conversions being a sign of the second coming, including conversion of Jewish people. In that sense, there was a missionary aspect to Premillennialism. Tying back into the previous point, sanctification also played a role in Puritan eschatology. It was was considered a critical component of preparing oneself for Christ’s second coming. After the second coming, Christ would make the world a utopia in which he would reign on Earth amongst his faithful.
It’s not difficult to see Puritan Premillennialism in the way Belos presented the Day of Unity. Witches and demons joining covens, turning against “wild magic,” is clearly analogous to the mass conversion idea. Belos places an emphasis of preparation for the Day of Unity, connecting to that sanctification idea. It is important for those in covens to recruit more witches. In the vision he showed the Coven Heads in “Hunting Palisman,” you can see a connection to the idea of a kingdom on earth, one which Belos explicitly describes as a “utopia.”
To take an even darker perspective, it is possible to interpret Belos’ motivations as a delusional attempt to bring about the millennium himself. I mentioned much earlier in this part the idea of the Trinity, and finding it interesting in connection with Belos’ triangle imagery. One thing I have not explicitly mentioned at this point, but is hopefully evident, is that Belos positions himself in a role analogous to that of Christ a lot. He is the only one who can purify your magic. He is the one who is in communion with the Titan. Maybe his motivations did not start that way, but so long of presenting himself as such could have warped his thinking even more. It is possible that he actually saw himself as a Christ figure. The Day of Unity was his way of “locking away Satan,” at which point he would return to earth.
If the Earth he returned to was the same as the Earth he left, he absolutely would have been executed as a heretic, a crime even worse than witchcraft.
——-
Part 2, complete! Part 3 probably won’t be quite as long. Probably.
EDIT: It’s just as long. Oh well.
💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 0 · Puritanism in the Boiling Isles Part 3: Puritanism in Practice · Done, done, done, done, done!
Part 1:
💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 12 ·
Getting sick last week threw my brain off the Puritanism essay a bit, but I would like to share this little train of thought regarding the history lesson part of it:
This is spawned entirely from discovering David Tennant played the stained glass dude in the 2018 Mary Queen of Scots movie.
Witteclaw kids in colour! I redrew Haven’s arm and added Toast, who Haven bonded with after Caleb’s death (for those who haven’t seen my comments on the angst-heavy death pic, I headcanon Toast has been in the family a LONG time; Caleb carved her as a mate for Flapjack).
When doing some research, I discovered that the gene that causes piebaldism (my explanation for why the grimwalkers look “different”) is dominant. Haven inherited it; Kallyn didn’t.
Haven’s nonbinary. They came out a few months prior to Caleb’s death, demanding to wear breeches like their friends who were boys were getting to (yeah, I’m still keeping breeching in the Boiling Isles. I like it). They declared they weren’t a boy either, but they still want breeches. Caleb was…confused. Ultimately supportive, but there might have been a some feet put in mouth. Look, I just wanted to write a confused ex-Puritan.
Haven’s ultimate existence is because, while Caleb and Evelyn THOUGHT they were being safe, the spermicidal potion they were using APPARENTLY isn’t as effective on humans. Look, it works for both witches and demons, humans aren’t THAT different, right?! They got an effective one figured out afterward, hence the 6 year age gap.
Also, kids are really good at accidentally digging up buried trauma, and this is ultimately a trauma recovery narrative.
Guess who’s been doing historical/religious analyses again? I started going down this path while working on that “Behind the Bastards talks about Belos” fanfic narrative, and decided I should actually finish this thing I started years ago.
Puritanism in the Boiling Isles, but Not How You’d Expect
A Comparison of Puritan Theology and Society with Messages and Imagery Present in The Owl House
Introduction
“Puritan” holds a number of connotations for people today. Witch hunting is one (hey, this is an Owl House analysis, gotta acknowledge it). Sex-repressed is another one, and bigotry beyond that. None of those are entirely fair in the historical context. Witch hunting, yes, to an extent, however that was widespread throughout the 17th century regardless of religious sect. Sex-repressed isn’t entirely deserved. They were relatively sex-positive, provided sex was in the confines of marriage. They were more extreme on the enforcement of the marital limitation, but they also punished men who failed to please their wives. And bigotry is…complicated. Like with witch-hunting, they weren’t particularly unique in that regard. The form it took, however, was not the form it took elsewhere.
This is not to say Puritans were good, or even morally neutral compared to everybody else. No, they very much sucked, and the positive impacts of the society they built in New England are few in comparison with the harms. Those harms have stuck with us, but by focusing on the stereotypes, we excuse ourselves from deconstructing them.
As part of that deconstruction, one of the most remarkable things about The Owl House is how we see Puritanism displayed. Not in Gravesfield, mind you. That’s all stereotypical tourist-friendly Puritanism. I’m talking about Puritanism in the Boiling Isles.
This essay is an analysis of the way we see the reality of Puritanism in The Owl House. We call Belos a cult leader. Well, that’s because the world he was raised in was a cult. We see a world that enforces conformity, shunning and imprisoning those who refuse to fit the mold. That is a major component of Puritanism. We see the way the people closest to the Emperor, his own coven, are denied fun and relaxation so they claim being “better.” That is possibly the most Puritan thing in the entire show.
To make it clear: I am NOT going to be talking about witch hunting in this essay, other than the occasional aside. Number 1: it was hardly unique to Puritans, and frankly, I think the focus on it is overblown in terms of this show anyway. Witch-hunting was, in my opinion, Belos’ coping strategy, the same way Azura was Luz’s. You can read my essay elucidating my thoughts on the matter here:
💬 0 🔁 14 ❤️ 27 · It Was Never About the Witches - An Analysis of Belos’ Motivations from a Narrative, Historical, and Human Perspective ·
Number 2: It’s not relevant to what I am trying to explore. This is about the more subtle ways Puritanism works its way into who Belos is, the empire he created, and how the character of Luz provides a counterpoint to all of it. This is an exploration of how Belos was able to incorporate Puritanism into a world of witches and demons. Through this, it will hopefully be easier to see the ongoing toxic legacy of the Puritans on modern society.
I will be splitting this essay into two parts. Part 1 explores the impacts of Calvinism, the theological framework that characterized the Puritan movement. Part 2 will explore ideas that Puritans developed in England from framework, incorporating it into the society they created in New England. The nature of that split means that Part 1 is going to be more character-focused, looking primarily at Belos’ motivations, but also the way we see anti-Calvinist themes in the arcs of other characters, primarily Luz and Caleb. Understanding Calvinism provides a means for understanding who likely Caleb was, because it means understanding exactly how much of his core identity he would need to leave behind to leave the Human Realm.
Part 2 Will focus more on the Boiling Isles as a whole. That is where I will be exploring how we see Puritanism in Belos’ empire.
Part 1: The Impacts of Calvinism
The Origins of Protestantism In England
To understand how Belos brought his society of origin to the Boiling Isles, it is helpful to understand that society. Understanding that means understanding some of what Puritans were reacting against. That starts with the Protestant Reformation.
The exact start of the Reformation is less important to this particular discussion, but, in summary, throughout the Medieval Period, the Roman Catholic Church had a monopoly on religion in Western Europe. As tends to happen in any group with so much power, corruption is incredibly common. The early reformers such as John Wycliffe and Jan Hus had definite grievances, and the Church came down hard on them. Eventually with Martin Luther, an opposition would gain a foothold in Europe, aided largely by the invention of the printing press. Self-ruling cities in the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) would become relatively safe havens for those disillusioned with Catholicism to develop their theology.
Henry VIII wants a Divorce
Protestantism came to England for considerably less high-minded reasons. Protestantism came to England because the Catholic Church wouldn’t grant Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which would allow him to marry Anne Boleyn. Henry already had a wandering eye, but Catherine had reached menopause, only providing Henry with one surviving child, a daughter, Mary. Henry’s quest for a male heir is a thing of infamy. The Catholic Church wouldn’t give Henry what he wanted.
Those of the Protestant bent residing in England saw an opening, although it was not entirely people like Thomas Cromwell whispering in Henry’s ear. A whole lot of it was Henry being pissed at being told “no” and taking it out on the priests and bishops in England. Henry would get his annulment, marry Anne, and pass the first Act of Supremacy, making himself the head of the Church of England.
Religion under Henry was largely indistinguishable from Catholicism, except where it benefited Henry, like the dissolution of the monasteries to get the Church’s money. He would, famously, only have a daughter, Elizabeth, with Anne Boleyn. He would have Anne beheaded. He eventually had his desired son, Edward, with his third wife, Jane Seymour, who would die less than 2 weeks after.
Reforms under Edward
Edward was only 9 years old when he became King Edward VI. His regency council had a considerably more Protestant bent, one which Edward shared. He wasn’t just a manipulated kid; he was a true believer. Many will point to this as the true schism between the English Church and Catholicism, because all of the CoE offshoots (in particular American Evangelicalism) really don’t like admitting the divorce-based roots.
During Edward’s reign, the Book of Common Prayer was authorized, providing the Church of England with a source for prayers and liturgy. The Act of Uniformity of 1549 would remove Catholic rituals considered superstitious from Anglican worship services. The same year would see clerical marriage be legalized, and soon, the remaining traditionalist bishops would be removed from office or forced to resign. Catholic clerical vestments would be confiscated to fill the royal coffers. A second Book of Common Prayer was published when church leaders argued that the original was still too Catholic. This was all within Edward’s five year reign.
Mary Tudor Makes it Personal
There’s someone we forgot in all this: Henry’s eldest daughter, Mary. To say that Henry did not treat the teenaged Mary well during his “Great Matter” would be an understatement. When Henry’s marriage to her mother was annulled, Mary officially became a bastard, removed from the line of succession. The same would happen to Elizabeth after Anne’s execution. Elizabeth was considerably younger, however, and wouldn’t hold quite the same resentment. It was all that she knew.
Henry VIII’s daughters would not be restored to the line of succession until Catherine Parr, Henry’s sixth and final wife, persuaded him to pass the Third Succession Act of 1544. When Henry died in 1547, however, Mary still had to endure her younger brother’s reign. He put considerably more pressure on her to recant her Catholicism than her father had. She spent most of her time at the estates inherited from her father, appearing in court as little as possible. In spite of that, the tension between Mary and Edward was so great that during one Christmas party, they engaged in a shouting match that brought both to tears.
Edward would die at 14, and after a short stint (< 2 weeks) where the Reformers attempted to install Edward’s cousin, Jane Grey, as queen, Mary would become Mary I, the first undisputed queen regnant of England. She would immediately set about re-establishing Catholicism as the official religion in England with the fury of one who, somewhat understandably, saw Protestantism as the source of every misery in her life.
Given the Catholicism, this meant stake burnings for heresy. SO many stake burnings.
(Witchy side note: Puritans didn’t burn purported witches at the stake. Stake burnings were too Catholic. Also, the Puritan John Foxe kinda made getting rid of them his life’s mission, but more on him in Part 2 Edit: Part 3. This went long.)
Mary’s wrath would send many prominent ministers and theologians into exile on the continent. Many of them would find shelter in Geneva, Switzerland. It is here where they would meet John Calvin and be exposed to his teachings.
Calvinism and its visibility in The Owl House
John Calvin was a French theologian and minister who would eventually make his home in Geneva, Switzerland, establishing a church there. He was a key proponent of Reformed Theology, which was largely about further separating Christianity from Catholicism. It is worth noting that Calvinist, or Reformed, is not a sect of Christianity. It is more of a descriptor. “Reformed” typically means “this denomination, but with Calvinism.” Or more Calvinism, as the case may be. But what exactly is Calvinism?
Tulips Should Just Be Flowers
Calvinism has five major tenets. They are remembered using the acronym “TULIP,” which, c’mon, what did tulips ever do to you? I suppose that it’s somewhat appropriate as the Netherlands during the Tulip Mania was largely Calvinist, but that’s more of a coincidence.
(Tulip Mania is wild. In summary, during the 17th century, tulips in Holland were like NFTs, or like Beanie Babies before them. Holland being largely Calvinist was one reason for this, because Calvinists value austerity. It was socially acceptable to display your wealth with cool flowers, though, hence it turning into an economic bubble.)
But I digress. The five tenets of Calvinism are as follows:
T: Total Depravity. Humans are, by their nature, completely corrupt. There is no innate good in them.
U: Unconditional Election. God doesn’t care how shitty you were prior to accepting him. If you are one of God’s chosen, you are one of God’s chosen.
L: Limited Atonement. Jesus’ Christ’s sacrifice works only for those whom God has elected.
I: Irresistible Grace. If you are one of the elect, you don’t have a choice in the matter. You will always accept God’s grace. You were chosen before you were born; it is not a question of if you will accept grace, it is when.
P: Perseverance of the Saints. There’s no take-backs. Once you accept grace, God will work in you to make you one of the saints. Turning away from Him is an indication that you were never one of the elect in the first place.
To better understand these tenets, well, that is where The Owl House comes in.
Unconditional Election, or, the Idea of Being “Special”
One of the overarching themes of the Owl House is the deconstruction of the “chosen one” narrative. Luz wants to be the chosen one, but is disabused of that notion pretty quickly. Belos believes he is the chosen one, and will go to extreme lengths to discount any evidence to the contrary. Both Luz and Phillip were raised on Chosen One stories, however, Luz was raised with the knowledge that they were fictional.
Phillip was not. Phillip was raised with the idea of predestination, a word that primarily encompasses the “unlimited election” aspect of Calvinism, as well as some aspects of the other four. Phillip was raised to believe he was one of the Elect, one of God’s chosen. He was among a select few for whom Christ had made atonement.
The very existence of the Boiling Isles should have raised some questions in Phillip’s head, but when you have been raised to believe you are one of God’s special boys, it is incredibly hard to give that up.
Irresistible Grace as seen in Belos’ Offer to Luz
The other aspects of Calvinism are largely encompassed by the idea of moral absolutism. Calvinist thinking is extremely black-and-white. While there is some room for shades of grey prior to someone hearing the word of God, after that point, that’s it. That was one of the justifications for the Puritan colonization of the Americas: spreading the word of God amongst the Indigenous. You gotta give everybody the chance to receive God’s grace. If they don’t want that grace, well, clearly they aren’t among God’s chosen. THEN you can wipe them out.
Puritans really liked the idea of “Praying Indians.” It was validation for their actions. Racism was, in general, far more subtle amongst the Puritans. It was that sort of condescending racism that tries to seem benevolent, but is fundamentally infantilizing. Oh, those people just haven’t heard about Jesus yet; they don’t know better.
I bring this up primarily to explore the dynamic between Belos and Luz. I often see people comment on Belos attempting to get Luz, an Afro-Latina girl, on his side. They are surprised that he is not overtly racist or sexist towards her. No, his behaviour is entirely consistent with Puritan behaviour.
Puritans were, on the surface, less overtly racist and sexist than many other colonizers. Less is the operating word. If you were willing to play their game, they were cool with you. Playing their game meant you were one of the elect, and they aren’t going to shun one of God’s chosen. However, if you were in any of those marginalized groups, they would come down even harder upon you if you refused, or even if you didn’t play by their exact rules.
The hand of “friendship” that Belos proffers is exactly the sort of evangelism that Belos would believe was the proper way of dealing with the human heathen. Give God the opportunity to do his magic. If He didn’t, then clearly this person isn’t among His elect. THEN you can kill them. (Diplomatic limitations aside. Belos doesn’t have those.)
The Disposability of The Depraved
Human, of course, is the operative word in the last paragraph. That does not apply to the witches and demons of the Boiling Isles. The only reason he needs to even try to play nice with witches and demons is because of the aforementioned “diplomatic limitations.” Particularly early on, he needs to be affable to remain alive. Palisman eating isn’t going to save him if somebody throws him off a cliff before he can eat a Palisman.
Witches and demons are completely disposable otherwise. Providing the opportunity for grace only applies to humans. Witches and Demons are, like humans, totally depraved, but, unlike humans, there is no hope of salvation for them. Humans matter, in spite of race, because God might still choose them. He’d never choose a witch or a demon.
The idea of total depravity doesn’t, by default, express as anger and hatred at those who do not profess your beliefs. It expresses as indifference.
I often see people surprised by how “chill” Belos seems regarding gender and sexuality in the Boiling Isles. However, that’s how the idea of total depravity messes with your head. Any queer folks run into evangelicals pretending their sexuality is no big deal because “all have sinned”? It’s like that. I haven’t found much historical evidence regarding Puritan views on homosexuality, so I really can’t comment from a historical angle. From a personal experience angle? To Calvinists, non-conformance to cis-heteronormativity is just as bad as murder. Everybody is just as bad as everybody else without God’s influence. Belos is “tolerant” of these things because they are already witches and demons. Why should he care?
Caring about issues like that generally requires it to be personal. People jump to the idea of the closeted bigot far too quickly, but that stereotype does exist for a reason. Something being personal doesn’t mean it is a supposed sin you feel personal shame for, however. Sometimes it is because you see it as a corrupting influence on the people you care about. Many times, that bigotry is because that group has been made a scapegoat for all your problems.
When you believe that all sins are equal, making a big fuss about some sin being committed by a group that is outside of God’s grace is simply not worth the energy. Unless gender non-conformity or queerness starts actually affecting Belos, it won’t be something he will be concerned with. He wants to kill all these people anyway.
Self-Delusional Atonement, or, How to Succeed in Calvinism Without Really Trying
The idea of Total Depravity will mess with your head in ways other than how you see and treat others. Calvinism is a theology that can be incredibly difficult to hold to if you possess any amount of negative self-talk. Every mistake will have you questioning your status among the elect. Yes, there is the atonement of Christ, but that atonement is limited only to the elect. What if you have been fooling yourself this entire time? What if your mistakes are a sign that your sins have not been atoned for?
Limited Atonement tends to incentivize a certain level of self-delusion. Never questioning your status among the elect is mentally safer. However, that tends to deny people a certain level of self-reflection. You’re one of God’s chosen; He wouldn’t let you go down a path of evil! If you can justify something as part of God’s plan, it’s good, clearly! Genocide is in the Bible, y’all! Any sins before God granted you grace don’t matter, they’ve all been atoned for! That also extends to sins made since, although there will be some expectation that you aren’t going to go scenery chewing villain in front of people.
Belos doesn’t have a Puritan community around him to call him out on going scenery-chewing villain. He only has his own delusions. He doesn’t question his own use of magic in his goals, because he failed to consider that the use of magic for him would be a bad thing. Ends justify the means! Killing all witches is a good thing, so him using magic is a good thing! Right?
Caleb, the Grimwalkers, and the Perseverance of The Saints Denial of Agency
Possibly the most tragic expression of Calvinism, or, at least, Belos’ twisted interpretation of it, is in Caleb and the cycle of Grimwalkers. The moral absolutism that accompanies the “perseverance of the saints” is a pain that many ex-evangelicals know well. The story goes as this:
You are living your life the best as you can, in a way consistent with your beliefs. You devote yourself to your faith, to the things you are taught in the Bible. Many times you may question, because as humans, we are all imperfect, and every mistake has you questioning your salvation. But you keep trying, because, with every ounce of your being, that is what you believe.
Eventually though, something breaks. Maybe somebody in the church hurts you. Maybe you see the church hurt others. Maybe you realize things about yourself that make evangelicalism untenable, queerness being a common example. Maybe you are hit with the sort of tragedy that causes you to question the existence of a loving God. Maybe you get outside the evangelical bubble and realize that the idea of “total depravity” is rubbish, that most people don’t need the threat of hell to be nice to others. Maybe you are just too damn tired.
So it all falls apart. It doesn’t often happen all at once, but once you start questioning some things you start questioning others. Maybe you find your faith somewhere else, whether it be in a different sect of Christianity, or a new religion entirely. Maybe your faith becomes far more personal, separated from any church. Maybe you lose your faith entirely. Exactly what happens doesn’t matter. You aren’t doing Christianity correctly. Losing your faith means you never had it to begin with. You were never saved. You were always a devil in disguise.
Many family members that subscribe to Calvinism would write off the apostate family member. They will just refuse to talk about that person. They are lost to God, that means they are lost to the family. Sometimes though, the family member, most often parents, cannot handle that this person would choose differently than them. They will lash out, doing everything they can to regain control of that person’s life. True autonomy does not exist in the confines of Calvinism. God does not give you a choice. Why should your family?
How Caleb and the grimwalkers created from his bones fit into this is likely obvious. It’s why I personally latched onto his story. Caleb chose to leave. This wasn’t a case of a disagreement with some minutia of dogma that caused him to be kicked out. If that was the case, he could still tell himself that he was correct, but that his fundamental worldview didn’t have to change. No, Caleb left. Caleb chose witches and demons, in spite of every indoctrinated fiber of his being screaming at him. He was choosing explicitly to go against God, and that meant that his faith was never that strong to begin with. He did some unforgivable things in service of that faith; he was party to the witch hunts after all. Choosing the Demon Realm meant acknowledging that his actions were unforgivable, and furthermore abandoning any hope of forgiveness. This was not just following a pretty face on an impulse. The existence of the rebuses proves that this was planned. Caleb came from a world that told him true autonomy was an illusion, and he chose to leave in spite of it.
I can have some sympathy for Phillip in this situation. Caleb’s choice not only meant that he was leaving Phillip at that moment, but he was choosing against the hope of an eternity in Heaven with Phillip. Caleb clearly didn’t mean that to mean never having his brother in his life again, but he knew all they had was this life. But, as much as abandoning his faith would be a big deal for Caleb, it would just as much be a big deal for Phillip.
Not that any of that excuses Phillip’s actions, but it does provide some explanation. Fundamentally, Phillip could not respect Caleb’s choice, in part because he had been indoctrinated to believe that Caleb making that choice meant that Caleb was never the good person Phillip saw him as. The motivation of every good thing Caleb had ever done for Phillip would be put into question.
The answer to that should have been either to realize that Caleb choosing this now did not negate his past actions, or, barring that, to accept Caleb’s decision and let him go. Phillip couldn’t do that though. There is no way within the Calvinist framework to justify Caleb’s murder. I certainly have my theories, but those are outside of this discussion. Calvinism just helps to explain Phillip’s emotional turmoil.
To make it worse, Phillip couldn’t even accept his brother’s death at his hands. He had to make the grimwalkers. And eventually, each one would “betray” him. It was almost inevitable. Caleb chose the Demon Realm, having been in the Puritan cult. The Grimwalkers only knew the Demon realm. And, to be clear, given the Puritan view of autonomy (or lack thereof), I do not believe that many of them truly betrayed Belos. Some of them may have fallen in love with witches, but I don’t think that “betrayal” required a purported crime of that scale. Belos expressed his desire to kill Hunter long before Huntlow was a possibility. I think the betrayal was any choice that shattered the Caleb-shaped illusion, the same way the actual Caleb did. If this version was better, he wouldn’t have thought he had a choice to begin with.
This is why Hunter choosing what he wanted, regardless of what he felt he “owed” his uncle, regardless of how similar or dissimilar his desires were to those of his ortet, was such a huge part of his character arc. It was what he wanted.
We also see an exploration of choice in Luz’s character arc. While she is disavowed of the notion of being special in a good way pretty quickly, she holds onto the notion that, because of how she helped Phillip in the past, she is destined to become like Belos. This all-or-nothing obsession over one mistake leads her to her darkest moments. However, even with that fear in the back of her mind, when it comes down to it, Luz will always choose kindness. And, when the time comes, she chooses to accept Papa Titan’s power in order to defeat Belos once and for all.
It wasn’t fate. It wasn’t destiny. It wasn’t because of some innate goodness or evil inside of her. She was there, she had the opportunity, and she chose to do something about it.
——-
That’s it for part 1. I’m hoping I will get part 2 done next weekend. Optimistically I can get most of it done on weeknights, but we shall see.
Edit: Part 2!
💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 0 · Puritanism in the Boiling Isles Part 2: The Origins of Puritanism and Puritan Theology, and its Impacts · I thought this wa
I believe I’ve mentioned in a few places that I’m planning on having Phillip teach himself Latin from the Malleus Malificarum, a particularly infamous 15th century witch-hunting text. The Malleus Malificarum is spectacularly horny. The way I’ve heard it described, it sounds like some weird 15th century incel manifesto. It was generally disregarded in its time, but dug up 100 years later with the witch panics across Europe.
That in mind, I am currently wondering about the wisdom of having a teenage boy going undergoing the throes of puberty teach himself Latin from THAT. Not that I’m not going to do it. It just means that Phillip is going to be even weirder about it.
