Life and The Flesh vs. Doom and The Desolation
Life is concerned with healing, energy, growth, power and luxury - being unrestricted. Doom is concerned with harm, caution, withdrawing, equality and limits - being restricted.
The Flesh is concerned with having your body changed or destroyed or grown in some way. The Desolation is concerned with pain, loss and cruel destruction.
Life and The Flesh
The Life Aspect is about pushing past your limits - gaining power and authority and wealth, growing, rebelling, being reckless. Its symbols include animals, food and youth. The Flesh is about physically becoming more than what you are: having autonomy over your own body and doing with it what you like; rebelling against what you were born as. It is about mass farming and raising of animals for humans to consume, letting something grow so that you may use its body as energy and food for yourself. Having the power to butcher livestock whenever it's needed. Life's emblem within Homestuck is a growing plant; in The Magnus Archives, Jared Hopworth had a garden of human plants. Life and The Flesh are concerned with letting something grow and reach its full potential, even if that means pruning and removing unneeded parts.
Doom and The Desolation
The Doom Aspect is about caution and withdrawal - it is the great equaliser, setting limits for what you can do or be. If Life and The Flesh are about growing and gaining, Doom and The Desolation are about diminishing and loss. The Desolation destroys and limits what you can have - Agnes Montague cannot grow into the person she could have been, because she is restricted to being a messiah. She cannot have her own life or destiny; even falling in love with a single coffee shop worker disobeys the 'rules' of her life and only causes further destruction. The members of The Cult of the Lightless Flame enjoy destroying the lives of people who had reasons to live, and destroying things before their potential is realised. Doom's symbols literally include explosions, bombs, and fire. They destroy what you love and stop you from becoming anything more.
The Flesh and The Desolation are opposites in this system due to the above reasons. The Flesh is about mass growth, even if it disobeys the natural ecosystem, with livestock being killed en masse for humans' gain. The Desolation is about mass destruction, placing limits on people's lives and preventing them from growing and having power.
