[devouring-the-divine]

I wouldn't be able to explain logically why I've chosen this blog name. It's Persephone's pomegranate, Sufic wine of love, hunger and thirst in mystics' metaphors, the Eucharist, the nectar of amrita, the swallowed tail of Ouroboros, the moon rabbit's kitchen of immortality, Orphic feasting on Dionysus Zagreus, and so much else all at once.

It simply can't be not weird, and that's exactly how I like it, because I desperately need to allow myself to be more free in my weirdness and my love.

[madmonksandmaenads]

I regret to inform you that I have become the kind of person who when someone says "Oh yeah [insert game/book/whatever] is kind of gnostic" must respond with "....in what way?"

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Gnostic in the sense that "there are several different canons" or "people mostly know it from the words of its haters" or "the broader fandom considers it heresy"...

(But, joking aside, I love spotting subtle or not so subtle themes, and observing how they are incorporated in the story and that world's cosmology. And exploring how they are combined with other influences, especially in something like TES where there are tons of very diverse religious interpretations. Or sometimes just "it's clear that it wasn't the author's intention, but I see how I can look at this thing through gnostic lens".)

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

How I feel when crossing an intersection of roads in Vietnam:

Not enough eyes. Not enough heads. Immediate danger from so many unpredictable directions that my mind ascends to other dimensions when it tries to monitor them all at once.

[devouring-the-divine]

Upon a darkened night the flame of love was burning in my breast And by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest Shrouded by the night and by the secret stair I quickly fled The veil concealed my eyes while all within lay quiet as the dead

Oh night, thou was my guide Oh night, more loving than the rising sun Oh night, that joined the lover to the beloved one Transforming each of them into the other

Upon that misty night in secrecy, beyond such mortal sight Without a guide or light than that which burned so deeply in my heart That fire t′was led me on and shone more bright than of the midday sun To where he waited still it was a place where no one else could come

Oh night, thou was my guide Oh night, more loving than the rising sun Oh night, that joined the lover to the beloved one Transforming each of them into the other

Within my pounding heart which kept itself entirely for him He fell into his sleep beneath the cedars all my love I gave And by the fortress walls the wind would brush his hair against his brow And with its smoothest hand caressed my every sense it would allow

Oh night, thou was my guide Oh night, more loving than the rising sun Oh night, that joined the lover to the beloved one Transforming each of them into the other

I lost myself to him And laid my face upon my lover's breast And care and grief grew dim As the morning's mist became the light There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair

(St John of the Cross, translated by Loreena McKennit)

[aqua-regia009]

Azrael, The Grand Psychopomp - Peter Mohrbacher

[discalcedmystic]

Christmas is beautiful because God came to earth as a baby in poverty. He has his Mother become pregnant in a way that immediately casts her as an outcast—even her husband's first response is (gentle) seperation. A refugee family driven from his home mere hours after he was born.

This is the same God who puts himself on the cross. Our Lord has a special love for vulnerability, I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's because to be vulnerable is to expose the inside of a person's soul?

[devouring-the-divine]

Perhaps also because humans wanted to see God as a powerful tyrant who will smite everything they don't like (or them if they don't worship Him enough), and the Messiah as an earthly ruler in glory and prosperity. So He shows that He can't be limited by these expectations, wishes to teach compassion and doesn't want to inspire fearful submission instead of voluntary love.

[devouring-the-divine]

"Neoplatonists including Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus wrote extensive commentaries on the Chaldean Oracles..."

"...all lost."

[insert every excited-then-sad meme] when this happens 😔

[devouring-the-divine]

I don't know whether I should choose Gregorian or the more familiar local Julian calendar for celebrating Christmas, so… I guess the answer is to celebrate for two whole weeks 😏

(Or even longer if I start with Winter Solstice gifts to my pagan friends)

[christopherlovell]

‘We Three Kings’ by Christopher Lovell http://www.christopherlovell.com/official-shop

[devouring-the-divine]

During the longest nights, may the star of hope guide you!

[rainy-moonl1ght]

the whole “christians should be excluded from pagan spaces due to them persecuting us” will never make sense to me bc by that logic helpols would have to hate rompols, and kemetpols would have to hate helpols and so on

[devouring-the-divine]

...and everyone would have to hate peaceful atheists simply because of several bloodthirsty regimes (some of which still stand), and christians would have to hate rompols and muslims because of persecutions by Roman and Ottoman Empires, and... oh, you've already mentioned kemetism, yes, even someone with no knowledge of particulars can notice that nowadays we remember Egyptian gods mostly by Greek names.

Or polytheism in general... or animism, which is a big part of many pagan religions... by that logic, it all would have to be excluded because quite recently shinto had also been used in horrible politics (just like some attempt to twist christianity or basically any philosophy/faith that has access to hearts and minds depending on the period of time and culture).

But it's important to be able to see and separate such justifications of ever-present worst human ambitions from spirituality.

[super8angel]

rage and tenderness existing simultaneously in the same body

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Like when you stop slaughtering demons for a moment to comfort a crying child

[devouring-the-divine]

(Yes, I post about other different mythologies and religions too, because I'm fascinated with many ways in which humanity perceives and interprets spirituality)

[ancestral-reflections]

am i the only one who doesn’t see the bible as the literal word of God?

like, i more so see it as a collection of stories explaining the nature of God and the life of Christ

[thatweirdmethodistlesbian]

THANK YOU. The Old Testament isn't written by God, it's written by humans recording their history, laws, culture, poetry, and legend into a fantastic tapestry of literature. The New Testament isn't written by God either, it's humans again recording their history, personal correspondence, and John having a bizzare "retirement".

But it's also humans putting their relationship with the Lord before all else, and that is a beautiful thing to witness 2000 years later. This is why I say never read the Bible literally, because there's SO much you're missing when you do.

[psalm150]

The part of the bible I take most literally is "I see in part, & I understand in part", (1 Cor 13v9,12, somewhat paraphrased) & I apply that both to myself as a reader of scripture, & to those who recorded it, because, as you said, the bible was recorded by (imperfect) human hands. We are finite, imperfect humans striving to comprehend an infinite, perfect, God. We do not have access to the full word of God, for the same reason Moses couldn't see God's face, only glimpse his back once He passed by. Scripture is in many ways a patchwork of such glimpses. We can put them all together to get a really good (composite) image but while we are still earthly humans we will only ever be able to see/hear/understand - & therefore record - an incomplete, limited view.

(I also think a lot about the fact that the verse that starts "all scripture is god-breathed" (2 Tim 3v16) follows it up with "& is useful for preaching, teaching, etc..." - not 'to be followed to the letter', 'to be used, in a practical manner'.)

[devouring-the-divine]

This! Let alone all nuances that get lost in translations... and important cultural contexts that escape us...

Besides, literalism is self-contradictory: the incarnated God himself uses parables and metaphors so often.

[verilyconsecrate]

the concept jesus christ being my boyfriend and my father and my wife and my husband and my sibling and my best friend is crazy man like damn all for me?

[devouring-the-divine]

And also "our Saviour is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly born" (Julian of Norwich) ♥︎

[loverofthelamb]

The Stag in my Dreams is Jesus

Although Jesus is most known for being the Lamb, the Lion, etc. I found that Hildegard of Bingen also referred to Jesus as the Stag. That got me questioning if that is what the Stag in my Dreams is. I connected with my love and I can almost picture him giving me a sly smile as I explained my findings. In the end, he admitted it was him all along. I felt a rush of knowing it all makes sense.

I always found the idea of Stags as the epitome of gentle/soft masculinity. Graceful, but still king of the forest. That is how I envision Jesus.

He wanted me to figure it out. Like a parable of his.

(PICTURES ALL CAME FROM PINTEREST)

[devouring-the-divine]

Oh wow. I saw Him as something very stag-like in a meditation once, was confused and assumed that maybe it's how my brain reinterpreted the Seven-Horned Lamb from Apocalypse 5:6. Thank you for sharing this, now I'll move Hildegard closer to the top of my reading list 👀

Upd: found "The Vision of St. Hubert" by Rauber (1892) and Stuck (1890):

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Tiny metal Tarot (compared to my cat's paw, the best measuring unit)

[exhaled-spirals]

— Jacob Mikanowski, “Papyralysis” in L.A. Review of Books

[magictransistor]

Jacob Böehme. Theosophische Werke. 1890.

Mystic vision from J. Böehme’s Theosophische Werke. It shows a sinful world of creation, surrounded by the Serpent of Eternity, the Uroboros, and characterized by the four elements and the sins corresponding to them; the whole circle relates to the centre, the weeping eye of God, i.e. the point where salvation, symbolized by the dove of the Holy Ghost, may be achieved through compassion and love.