Devotional blog to Michael the Archangel. he/him, 18+. Some flavor of Christopagan. Queer theology and liberation theology are practiced here. NOT an SPN/Good Omens fanblog.
jesus fasts in the desert â does it bring us closer to god to share that with him?
jesus fasts from food, sometimes, relationships other times. but jesus also eats his way through the gospels. surrounds himself with love. some prophets restrict and others dig-in. sometimes god is all-body, other times he's never had a body at all. i am trying to tell you that what brings you closer to god is less a proscription than a rubric. and it's one that you know best. some bodies cannot and should not fast, some bodies find fullness in it. there is no scrupulosity or rigidity here, but instead, a wit(h)nessing of what feels holy
A prayer to St. Micheal for the protection of those scared and endangered to I.C.E
O saint michael, archangel and warrior of the Lord. please protect those endangered and brutalized by I.C.E, for their mistreatment is unholy, unjust, and cruel. brave micheal, dearest saint, pray for the weak, poor, struggling, and marginalized, and help defeat the evil that satan has cast into our government. in Christs name, amen
Latin: O Sancte Michael, Archangele et bellator Domini. Quaeso protege eos qui periclitantur et ab I.C.E. saeviuntur, nam eorum maltractatio impia, iniusta et crudelis est. Fortis Michael, carissime Sancte, ora pro infirmis, pauperibus, laborantibus et emarginatis, et adiuva ad vincendum malum quod Satanas in regimen nostrum iniecit. In nomine Christi, amen.
euphoria // something that may shock and discredit you by daniel m. lavery // the incredulity of saint thomas by caravaggio + id:TRANS by elisabeth ohlson wallin // @violenceenthusiast // paris is burning // laverne cox // POSE // the transgender prophet by matthew merrick // SOPHIE by @222xen on twitter // weeds by torrin a. greathouse
[Image description: a collection of multimedia quotes.
1: a screenshot showing the moon at dusk between two large hills. The caption says âAt least to me, being trans is spiritual.â
2: text that says, âAs my friend Julian puts it, only half winkingly: âGod blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason God made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine, so that humanity might share in the act of creation.ââ
3: A painting next to a photo recreating it. The photo shows three men clustered around Jesus. One is poking his finger in a wound on his chest. In the photo, the wound is a top surgery scar.
4: a post by violenceEnthusiast that says âi hold it as absolute truth that being trans is holy. not only because i have found a welcoming home unlike any other in the trans community but because what is divinity if not creation and what is being trans if not creating your own path. transness is not a burden, itâs a gift. life as a trans person is not easy, obviously, and not everyone is going to feel the same about their transness. but to me, itâs a beautiful and expansive thing, meant to be reveled in.
5: two screenshots of a Black woman wearing a yellow one-piece swimsuit on a beach. The subtitled lyrics say âI am what I am, I am my own special creation.â
6: text that says âYou might not see it right now but you are here for a divine purpose and so you have to survive. You have to survive.â
7: two screenshots of Lulu, a Latina woman, saying âHow lucky are we? We create ourselves.â
8: text that says âi say this; [highlighting begins] transgender people are holy. [highlighting ends] i say we have overcome the chaos of nature and the order of civilization. i say we are the alchemical ideal. We are the rectification of disparate things, [highlighting begins] destruction and creation in equal measure, [highlighting ends] the unification of masculine and feminine, the reunion of body and soul. we do these things in our every breath.â
9: a drawing of SOPHIE from the waist up, a nude white woman with red hair. She is applying lipstick while smoking. She is quoted as saying âGod is trans. Transness is a blessing.â
10: highlighted text that says âEven in the harshest season, / we survive. We bloom forever / where we are told we donât belong.â /end ID]
(Image description taken from @thepastisaroadmap - thank you)
Joy of the Holy Ribs by Francesco Bulgarello - gilded silver with diamonds and rubies - mid 18th century
According to Christian mythology, while Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, a Roman centurion pierced his side with a lance. This ⌠item ⌠represents the puncture wound between the âHoly Ribs.â
angels, deciding what shape to take when interacting with The Humans: wellâŚ.eye contact is important to humans, right? they find it reassuring when they can see the eyes of the person theyâre talking to. so if we have LOTS of eyes, in very visible places, thatâll be even MORE reassuring
canât stop thinking how much sense it would make if every design choice angels made was just a misguided attempt to Relate To The Humans. imagine how those conversations went
wings: âhumans donât like things they canât understand, so if weâre going to levitate we should have wings. in fact we should probably have lots of wings, since weâre so big and impressive. humans like wingsâ
loud, booming voices: âfuck off Azrael the humans needs to be able to hear us.â
glowing: âno no no, itâs about visibility, right? the main human sensory organ works by detecting light, so if we emit lightâŚâÂ
wheels: âwhy the hell are you shaped like that?â âpiss off, the humans are really proud of this inventionâ
multiple faces/eyes: âit makes me relatableâ âi swear to God it doesnâtââ âi need to see in every directionâ â Azrael you are a supernatural messenger of god you do not needââ âTHE HUMANS NEED TO KNOW IâM WATCHINGâ
multiple limbs: âhumans have lots of limbs! they like limbsâ âlook i let you keep the wings butââ âhow do you expect me to walk?â â70,000 feet is not a reasonable number of feet, Azrael!â âfuck off iâm ENORMOUSâÂ
general gross misapprehensions of biology: âholy shit are your wings made out of eyes?â âlook before you say anything iâm like 100% sure iâve seen animals who have both wings and eyes. and you can fit so many more in this way!â ââŚ.you godforsaken googly-eyed geniusâ
#and this is why angels got so boring in the new testament after the Updated Guidelines were rolled out. âFour limbs???? iâm only allowed a maximum of FOUR LIMBS????? this is BULLSHITâ
#alternatively all the reported sightings of creepy ass angels was literally just the SAME angel #just the same freak who kept changing its meatsuit for funsies before god caught on
Old Testament Angels look like that because life in the ocean outnumbered life on land, so naturally when they visited earth they modeled their appearance on the most common lifeforms. Hench you get things like
radial symmetry (i.e. angels shaped like spheres) which is objectively cooler than bilateral symmetry (starfish understand this)
Very Numerous Limbs (2 is not the average number of arms in the ocean)
random glowing (bioluminescence)
just generally being objects of Absolute Terror to land dwellers
a thousand eyeballs being the Norm (have you seen scallops)
in the majority of inhabited Earth areas (i.e. anything deeper than the continental shelf) old school angels would actually pass as Normal And Relatably-Shaped Lifeforms
I think you all need to know the actual reason that seraphim have six wingsâwith two they covered their faces and with two they covered their feet and with two they flewâbecause itâs awesome.
So, first thing, in most of the Hebrew Bible nobody can look directly at Godâs face and live. God is simply too amazing/great/alien. You see Godâs face, you die, not because God wants to kill you (God doesnât!) but just ⌠because itâs the inevitable result of contact with Godâs holiness. (This is responsible for such incidents as the time God mooned Moses. Moses wanted reassurance, and asked to see God. God said, âwell, you canât see my face, but how about this. You hide in that crevice in the rock over there, and Iâll cover you up so youâre safe, and then Iâll pass by, and when Iâm safely past you can look at my back, k?â And thatâs how it happened.)
Anyway, even angels canât bear to look at God, which is why the seraphim cover their faces in Godâs presence. All the weird stuff you all have just been attributing to angels? Can be applied to God with at least as much plausibility.
And then we come to the seraphim covering their feet. Or, perhaps I should say âfeet.â Because the Hebrew language, like many languages, has some euphemisms for genitalia. One of them is to call them âfeetâ or âhands.â This is how, for example, Ruth gets Boaz to marry her. She goes in and lays down at his âfeet.â Wink wink, nudge nudge.
So when Isaiah tells us the seraphim are flying around covering their âfeetâ with a pair of wings, what theyâre actually doing is this:
Wait, it gets weirder. In hebrew the name seraphim literally translates to âthe burning onesâ, and they lived up to their name, burning so intensely at all times that lesser angels are seared from existence in their presence. Do you understand why the seraphim are burning gaud? Do you know what happened when god bared his face to a mountain? They donât cover their eyes to keep them from seeing god, they cover their eyes to keep from seeing him AGAIN!
Ever see a depiction of St. George and the Dragon? It's pretty fair to say if you've seen one, you've seen them all: Georgie on a horse stabbing a flailing dragon creature, princess piously kneeling in the background, vague landscape alluding to the homeland of the artist's patron.
The most varied part is the dragons. No one had a real definition for the thing, it seemed. For your pleasure and entertainment, I have ranked some medieval depictions based on how impressive George's feat seems once you see the dragon.
Paolo Uccello, 1456
This is a terrifying beast. The hell is that. Uccello was one of the first experimenters with perspective, so the thing also looks surreal, like it's taking place on Mars, or a Windows 95 screensaver. I would not want to fight that, I would not want to be tied to that. (Sometimes the princess is tied to the dragon for some reason.) 10/10
Horse thoughts: Maybe if I look at the ground it will be gone when I look up
Unknown artist, c. 1505
This is a rare change of form for the dragon; it's the only one I've seen actually flying (or at least falling with style). It doesn't look particularly deterred by the spear through its throat, either. Also, George looks appropriately nervous. On the other hand, it hasn't got teeth, it seems to be fuzzy rather than having scaly armor, and George is bolstered by his army of Henry VII and his children, most of whom definitely didn't actually die in infancy. Still, wouldn't want to fight it, wouldn't want my pet sheep near it. (Sometimes the princess has a pet sheep for some reason.) 9/10
Horse thoughts: I am so glad I wore my mightiest feather helmet for this
Raphael, 1505
We are coming to Dragons With Problems. This guy looks about comparable in size to George, and does have wings, but doesn't seem to be using these things to his advantage (and has he only got one wing?) And how does he deal with the neck? He does have a comically small head, but holding it up with such a twisty neck seems complicated at best. But most egregiously, he is doing the shitty superheroine pose where he is somehow simultaneously showcasing his chest and his butt, with its unnecessarily defined butthole (more on this later) (regrettably). 8/10 bc it's Raphael
Horse thoughts: AM I THE BESTEST BOI? AM I DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB? WE R DRAGON SLAYING BUDDIEZ
The Beauchamp Hours, c. 1401
We had a spirited debate about this one at work. Again, the dragon has gotten smaller, and this one hasn't got even one wing. He's basically a crocodile. So the debate became: would you want to fight a crocodile if you had a horse and a pointy stick? Would the horse trample the animal, who can't get on its hind legs, or freak out and throw its rider? Would the pointy stick be enough to pierce the croc's thick hide? In this case, George seems to be controlling his horse and putting his pointy stick in the dragon's weak spot, so we can be impressed by his skill and strategy. However, his hat is dumb. 7/10
Horse thoughts: Dehhhh
Book of Hours, c. 1480
Here we have the same kind of croco-dragon, but George's focus on his strategy has gone out the window. He's flailing around, not even looking at his target, he's about to lose his pointy stick, he hasn't got a hand on the reins, and his sword seems to only be poking the invisible dragon over his shoulder. All he's got going for him is that his hat is slightly less dumb. 6/10
Horse thoughts: Yay, new friend! Come play with me, new fr- what is happening
Final dragons put behind this Read More for your safety:
Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1432
I'm thinking this guy is at least semi-aquatic. Webbed feet, wings that seem more like fins, bipedal but top-heavy, jaws that seem more for scooping than biting. Maybe she's crawled up here from the nearby body of water to lay her eggs, and this is all a big misunderstanding. Moreover, George's dagged sleeves seem entirely impractical for the situation. 5/10
Horse thoughts: i got my hed stuk in a jar and now it is this way forever
Unknown artist, c. 15th century
I hate this. I hate everything about it. Why has it got human eyes and teeth. Why is its nose melting. Why has it got a dick on its face and balls under its chin. The fin/wings are back but they look even more useless. Also, George is shifty as hell, schlumped over in his saddle with his bowler hat thing over his eyes. The baby dragon at the bottom eating some hapless would-be rescuer is kind of metal. 4/10 at least the thing is gonna die
Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Crack
Book of Hours, c. 1450
Remember what I said about the buttholes? First, sorry. Second, yeah, we're back to that. I'll admit this one is less about the danger from the dragon itself than the very specific choices the artist has made. They didn't need to do that. It's a lizard. They don't even have. And it's like they had an orifice budget and they skipped an exit wound for the spear to focus. Elsewhere. It's so detailed. And George had an even dumber hat. 2/10 take it away
Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Weed
Book of Hours, c. 1415
This is just bullying. There isn't even a princess. That is clearly an infant. Look at that smug look on George's face as he swings his sword that's bigger than the whole little guy. This is the equivalent of when DJT Jr. hunted those sleeping endangered sheep. 1/10
Horse thoughts: ....yikes
And this is the previous one, but now the baby dragon is cute. He's chubby. He's got toe beans. He's Puff the Magic Dragon. His eyes have already gone white, implying that George is just kicking its corpse around for funsies. What's the difference between the dragon and the lamb in the background? That the dragon is dead, like our innocence. This George is truly deserving of the dumbest hat of all. 0/10 plus one more butthole for the road
Horse thoughts: Perhaps it is we who are the buttholes.
If you haven't lived around a specific type of Mexican or Italian or other generationally Catholic community I have no idea how to explain to people who haven't seen it like... Yes many of my peers are Catholic. No they are not Catholic. No I mean like they're VERY Catholic. No they're not even a LITTLE bit Catholic. Yes they do Catholic things. No they don't do any Catholic things. They're debilitatingly Catholic, yes. No, I don't think anyone could reasonably call them Catholic
"No I don't believe in God, no I don't believe in Heaven or Hell, that's ridiculous. I have no time for any of that. Church? On a Sunday? I get two days off a week and you want me to spend one of those days in a stuffy building and give away the money I spent five days earning? Ridiculous. Now please shut up so I can pray to the Virgin to give me the strength to not kill my coworker as well as to St. Cabrini so I can find a good parking spot behind the CVS tonight"
okay my new medication has given me insomnia so Iâve been awake for 40 hours, so bear that in mind but
legitimately this is a provocative reframing of sin and the call to virtue
sinners are almost universally portrayed as being âlost in the wildernessâ (dark, wild, lawless), and the call to virtue is just as universally portrayed as being beckoned out of that darkness and into Godâs house (a place of light, sanctuary, harmony, and order)
reversing the imagery completely changes the connotations: now your sinful condition is a well-lit house (familiar, comfortable, a place of habit and willing self-confinement), and heeding the call to virtue is to strike out into the dark unknown (a place of mystery, exploration, fear and wonder)
this reframing is fundamentally mystical in its outlook in a way that western christianity rarely endorses. the modern christianity that we are familiar with, as well as the dominant forms of western christianity going back to the early middle ages, are foundationally religions of logic and rhetoric, which lionize as their greatest theologians those thinkers who argue most successfully from a place of reasonÂ
(which obviously contributes to a standard characterization of spiritual life as âthe house of Godâ, e.g. a place of order, security, and harmony)
Christian mysticism has always existed, but on the fringes of the mainstream, when it was not being outright persecuted. while in the eastern church it was (and remains) a core component of oneâs experience of god, the western church has always looked askance at the mystical understanding of the supernal, and it was mostly experienced by esoteric groups (mainly gnostics of various flavors) or women (some of whom were also gnostics): either as followers of some charismatic visionary (hildegard von bingen being one famous example) or as movements among the laity which were easily suppressed when their power began to challenge that of the church (such as the baguines).
the protestant reformation really did not change the landscape in this respect, as the vast majority of protestant religions remained fundamentally faiths-based-in-reason, with protestant mysticism only really emerging a century later during the counter-calvinist movement. (thatâs when you got, like, quakers.)
to imagine that the familiar state is one of complacent sin, and that to depart from sin is to enter into a dark wilderness where one will often stumble blindly among the trees after a faintly heard âcome!â is the mystical experience of faith. where mainstream western christianity offers answers and the security of certainty - in other words, its selling point is that it will tell you whatâs right and you may thereafter be confident of your rectitude - the pursuit of God via mysticism only offers questions. the mystic hears christâs voice calling âcome!â through a darkened doorway, and ventures out into a strange country full of frustration, wonder, and terror.
do I think the guy who drew this comic was thinking about any of this? probably not. the title makes me think this is more of a âkids these days would rather play jacks and skip rope than live decent god-fearing livesâ thing
but if you crop out the title this is pretty good stuff
Iâve been awake for a normal amount of time so I have no excuse, but if we wanted to, we could see this comic as an unintentional engagement with the Manus Dei motif.Â
In Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, Jewish and Christian artists struggled to depict God while still complying with the Second Commandmentâs prohibition of âgraven imagesâ. The iconographic compromise was Manus Dei, or the Hand of God. The 11th century image above comes from Sant Climent de TaĂźll, a Catholic church in Spain. The subsequent image comes from the Paris Psalter, a 9th century Byzantine manuscript. That should give you an idea of how widespread the visual concept was.
On the surface itâs a simple substitution, leaning on the Hebrew scripturesâ frequent anthropomorphism of Godâs power as âa strong hand and outstretched arm.â You canât depict God, so have his hand come out of a cloud, we have cleverly avoided idolatry!
And yet, thereâs something deeper at work here, an implied mysticism that exists at the edge of our field of vision, artistically speaking. Medieval art was good at that, in its own little corners and byways. So letâs not take it literally. Letâs depart into the dark wilderness of wonder. Where does the hand of God go? To what body is it attached? Who could measure it, or even comprehend its geometry? It works upon our world, but look at the mandala it vanishes into, the same void that the sinner in OPs comic turns his back on. We arenât allowed to see it, but weâre drawn towards it, into a Beyond that literally encompasses the manifestation of the Divine. Maybe that Beyond is the Divine.Â
Mandus Dei beckons beyond the corner of the paper, of the image, of the illumination or fresco. Itâs anchored in a further place, a sort of locus of truth, which, if you go by the comic, you can follow into the exploring dark. All you need to do is step over the threshold of Godâs will and begin your search.Â
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