Mad Monks and Maenads

Don't blame me for physical reality, I just work here

[madmonksandmaenads]

Blog Review: "You're like the looney tunes of gnostics." -@inneskeeper

[madmonksandmaenads]

Magic is derived from the Magi and associated with the theurgic practices of Chaldean and Iranian priests.

If your spells aren't cast to ascend to the divine spheres then it's not magic, it's just sparkling sorcery.

[space-feminist]

"why we build the wall" from hadestown is really gonna trip up future media analysis students. they'll be like "ah a piece of media from the 2010s referencing building a wall to keep out the poor, clearly this is a reference to the president of the united states from 2016-2020", and then their professor will have to be like "actually the concept album for this musical came out in 2010"

[gatherround]

how i hope this conversation goes from there is like:

"actually the concept album for this musical came out in 2010 and the original song was written in 2006"

"so she knew about the wall 10 years before Trump proposed it be built?"

"well, let's talk about that...

...but that wasn't when the wall was first built...

...this shift in the '90s marked the start of an enforcement philosophy called Prevention Through Deterrence, which basically says that if crossing is made more deadly, fewer people will cross (fact check: it just means that more people die on the journey). From the start, the purpose of the wall was not to physically to stop people from crossing -- it was to make it more deadly to do so.

...and we can also look at the song metaphorically and expansively, as a reference to the policing of migration, to company towns, to gated communities, and the physical and metaphorical walls that throughout history have kept people in and out and defined who does and don't belong.

Sources: 1 & 2 / 3 / 4"

"...how did you just say a hyperlink?"

"why worry about that when you can use this show as an entry-point into a deeper understanding of capitalism's investment in coercive control over human migration, and its long history in the United States?"

"so the song only seems prophetic because the long history of policing and militarizing the border has been ignored, and treated as an outsider position by Trump rather than the continuation of bi-partisan policy dating back decades? and it can be seen to reflect larger patterns of capital controlling people's movement in order to extract land, labor, wealth, and ultimately life from them?"

"and the song slaps"

"....and the song slaps"

[the-seelie-court-official]

thank you so much for this well-researched response tho because, as a texan, the very concept that trump invented the idea of the border wall made me kinda. reboot. not mad at op! just surprised at the difference in our life experiences

[prokopetz]

Tagging every drawing where an artist depicts two of their own OCs fucking as #selfcest on the basis that some theorists argue that all of the characters we create are in at least some respect a picture of the self, so, you know, ontologically

[prokopetz]

@empressofthelibrary replied:

Something something knocking on doors, something something the devil might answer

Knocking on various doors until various devils answer is what we do here.

[madmonksandmaenads]

If you get into Platonism then you can learn that all sex(real and fictional) is selfcest, due to fundamental unity of The One!

[madmonksandmaenads]

If the EU continues refusing to recognize my authority as Witch Queen, then I will plunge western Europe(and Iceland) into a day of Darkness.

[madmonksandmaenads]

Quake in terror Icelanders! Crawl like worms beneath the gaze of a dark sun!

Spain my dread power turns next towards you. Relent in your hubris or suffer the darkest of days!

[madmonksandmaenads]

My inbox is open for any pledges of loyalty or offerings of tribute to my Infernal Emminence.

If you happen to be a European leader then I will accept a dark and twisted crown at your earliest convenience.

[madmonksandmaenads]

If the EU continues refusing to recognize my authority as Witch Queen, then I will plunge western Europe(and Iceland) into a day of Darkness.

[madmonksandmaenads]

Quake in terror Icelanders! Crawl like worms beneath the gaze of a dark sun!

Spain my dread power turns next towards you. Relent in your hubris or suffer the darkest of days!

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

emperors new groove parody where qin shi huang has been turned into an alligator and he ends up on a field trip with local sheriff liu bang. Send tweet.

[its-not-a-pen]

My hand slipped

[its-not-a-pen]

For the people who missed my previous post: this is the rare and incredibly endangered chinese alligator. they literally look Like That.

[its-not-a-pen]

[its-not-a-pen]

Just in case u all thought i was being facetious. No this also actually happened. Chinese history is just Like That.

[classic-of-yearning]

naturally First Emperor's New Groove is a work of serious historical fiction concerning important events!!!!!

[its-not-a-pen]

Tbh Qin Shi Huang being turned into a gator would be the least unbelievable fact of the Chu Han Contention.

“This magic potion turned the emperor into an alligator” -> “huh i guess magic potions do exist.”

Simple. Straightforward. Comprehensible. Least amount of cognitive leaps to take. Occam’s razor slices through so cleanly and neatly.

“Some random peasant becomes emperor eight years after QSH’s death, after winning a contentious (haha) civil war, and beating out some of the most celebrated military men in history. Despite being a crude, backstabbing scoundrel who pissed in people’s hats, he also managed to lay the groundwork for a moderate and (relatively) humanist Han dynasty, which lasted 400 years and became china’s first golden age. He stands as a paragon of benevolence (relative) to the draconian Qin rule*. His legacy is so enduring that into the modern day, chinese people still call themselves the Han people, and the language the Han language, while his predecessor QSH (who envisioned himself as the progenitor to an unending dynasty) only managed to create a dynasty that lasted 15 years, and has nothing but crumbling walls and unopened mausoleums that stand as a monument to human exploitation” <- it this was a work of fiction i’d decry it for being heavy handed and painfully unrealistic.

*its more complicated than that because the best historical sources about the qin were written by the han historians. undeclared conflict if interests and all that.

[qin-shi-huang-di]

our Period of Warring States is collapsing…

[qin-shi-huang-di]

reblog to make it collapse faster

[qin-shi-huang-di]

that’s right! and after i’ve conquered the six LOSER states, i am going to upgrade my royal title so it reflects my identity better! i think “emperor” has a nice ring to it…

[swordsman-jing-ke]

I AM SO SICK OF THESE MODERN SNOWFLAKES AND THEIR MADE-UP TITLES

BITCH WHAT THE FUCK IS A “皇帝”??? YOU’VE LITERALLY JUST COMBINED THE TITLES OF THE 三皇AND 五帝 TOGETHER. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE FUCK AN “EMPEROR” IS SUPPOSED TO BE WHY CANT YOU JUST CALL YOURSELF A HEGEMON-KING LIKE A NORMAL PERSON????

[qin-shi-huang-di]

hi traitor, please respect my royal title going forward! after my conquest of the six warring states, the old title of “King of Qin” no longer reflects who i am! i now identify exclusively as the First Emperor. anyone who disobeys will be blocked, unfollowed, reported and beheaded. thanks!

[madmonksandmaenads]

Live poetry is a gateway drug for ceremonial magic.

[apsciencebylyn]

Perkiest little Geolycosa (burrowing wolf) you'll ever see 🥹

[bowelfly]

her beatific smile...

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

Momento Mori: Natura Morta Macabra (1604) - Jacopo Ligozzi

[innumerable-voices]

What is wrong with being a man, or similar identities?

It's one of those kinks that's almost impossible to do ethically

[innumerable-voices]

I've talked many times about how choosing to be dominant in a scene or a relationship is choosing to take on responsibility. Power and responsibility come hand in hand they are intrinsically linked, so to put yourself in a position of power is to accept the responsibility to use that power to help those without power

Choosing to be a man (whether or not you were coercively assigned the role at birth) in a patriarchal society is choosing to put yourself in a position of power and hence comes with responsibility. If you don't want the responsibility then you need to actively work to put down the power

[innumerable-voices]

It's similar with race, it's a totally made up thing that's societally enforced, I'm not 'white' because 'white' isn't an extant thing, it's not part of my identity or something I care about. But that's not the assumption that anyone who looks at me is going to make and I can't escape that assumption, I am stuck in a position of power over racialised people and it's therefore my responsibility to use that power to help those without it. I seek out black voices, artists, authors, I've read about racism both as it is now and its history, I don't stand by and do nothing when other people are racist around me I use my voice and the way people perceive me to do good. I don't say this for praise I say this because unfortunately being white is also a kink that's almost impossible to do ethically

[madmonksandmaenads]

If the EU continues refusing to recognize my authority as Witch Queen, then I will plunge western Europe(and Iceland) into a day of Darkness.

[agentofdeterioration]

The Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad is, to a modern audiences, what classicists have called “boring as hell,” but I can’t help but think that if you were watching Homer recite it it would have been more like when comedians go, “anybody here tonight from Chicago?” and the Chicagoans in the back start cheering

Homer’s like, “and there were forty black ships from… LOCRIS” and the Locrians in the crowd start going absolutely nuts

[thecactifindahome]

[str-ngeloop]

Hey, I'm a clocky trans woman who's under-employed and working thru an environmental science master's degree without support from the institution. I will probably be employed by the end of this month but May rent plus food and junk is still gonna be pretty rough.

I know shit's hard for everyone but if anyone happens to feel like they wanna contribute to the survival fund of ya girl my venmo's @str-ngeloop . your support helps me keep making weird overintellectualized posts.

[str-ngeloop]

hey everybody, out of money again. it would be much appreciated if you wanted and had the means to throw some money my way <3

[madmonksandmaenads]

I'm building great and terrible toys. My play shall doom uncountable generarions to whimsy and games beyond their comprehension.

[everydaylouie]

thinking of you