#india.arie

[fantastickkay]

From Teen People, December 2002

[ometochtli2rabbit]

MAYA:

13.0.13.6.13

wuk [7] BEN|AAJ [reed] - junlajun [11] KAYAB

galactic tone: reflection/ mystic power

sun sign: REED| armadillo/red/east

bless or repair your house

NAHUA:

chicome [7] - ACATL [reed]

Centeotl | Tezcatlipoca

papalotl [butterfly]

lord of the night: Chalchihuitlicue

trecena [7]: Tepeyollotl

x: mahcuilli[5] - tecuilhuitontli

___________________________________________________________

"Sacred Grasses", Emily Kame Kngwarreye, 1994

"Four Sacred Mountains", David Chethlahe Paladin,1973

"Sacred Trout Through The Portal of Time", Norval Morrisseau, 1978

"Sacred Grove", Toshi Yoshida, 1941

____________________________________________________________

Heart Sign: The predominant sign of your Mayan Cross

As keepers of the fire of the hearth, persons born on this day are centered, loving, and intelligent and possess sacred knowledge. They hold much respect for the plant kingdom and gifts from the Earth. The key to their success is to recognize the esoteric gifts and Destiny as in this Cross, so that they may experience the divine love that supersedes all else and brings ultimate completion. Reed is engendered by the day Serpent and holds the destiny of the Crocodile. The combination of these energies will provide an inexhaustible power and enrich life by extraordinary experiences. The Reed person is very prone to mysticism. (www.mayancross.com)

These are songs and groups who use the term SACRED:

Sade: Feel No Pain

Bad Brains: Sacred Love

Thee Sacred Souls: We Don't Have to Be Alone

India.Arie: Sacred Space

Bee Gees: Sacred Trust

Monty Python: Every Sperm is Sacred

Carole King: The Sacred Heart of Stone

Billie Eilish: GOLDWING

Dio: Sacred Heart

Dolly Parton: Sacred Memories & Pure and Simple

Sufjan Stevens: Idumea (Sacred Harp)

Iron & Wine: Sacred Vision

Heart: Black on Black II

Tears for Fears: Rivers of Mercy

Sacred Spirit: The Spirit

Lea Salonga: The Sacred Bird

Lupe Fiasco: Dots and Lines

FKA twigs: mary magdalene

Tokio Hotel: Sacred

Connie Francis: Heartaches

Greta Van Fleet: Sacred the Thread

Ethel Cain: Pulldrone

Lamb of God: In the Absence of the Sacred

Chynna Phillips: Naked and Sacred

St. Vincent: Los Ageless

Daryl Hall: Sacred Songs

Smashing Pumpkins: The Sacred and Profane

David Duchovny: Stranger in the Sacred Heart

Bad Wolves: Sacred Kiss

Sonic Youth: Sacred Trickster

Meat Loaf: Is Nothing Sacred

Rush: Xanadu

Primus: Greet the Sacred Cow

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Suck My Kiss

Lenny Kravitz: Again

Sting: Sacred Love

Eels: Something is Sacred

Janis Ian: Walking on Sacred Ground

The Cult: Sacred Life

Electric Light Orchestra: Mission (A World Record) & Queen of the Hours

Grover Washington, Jr: Sacred Kind of Love

Merle Haggard: Precious Memories

The Band: Daniel and the Sacred Harp

Deltron 3030 (Del the Funky Homosapien): 3030

Paul Simon: The Sacred Harp & Love is Eternal Sacred Light

Bruce Dickinson: Sacred Cowboys

Iron Maiden: Lost in a Lost World

The Smiths: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

Ozzy Osbourne: Mr. Crowley

Elton John: All the Nasties

Billy Joel: State of Grace

Los Lobos: Wake Up Dolores

Bruce Springsteen: Lift Me Up

Lana Del Rey: My Bedroom is a Sacred Place Now

Nirvana: Verse Chorus Verse

Björk: Black Lake

The Kinks: Days & All of My Friends Were There

Depeche Mode: Sacred

David Bowie: Blackstar

George Michael: Father Figure

Tracy Chapman: Wedding Song

Louis Armstrong: What A Wonderful World

[xtrablak674]

Radiating Beauty

I truly wish the beauty people allegedly see, and the way I felt aligned, but alas they do not. Y'all may not know this but I mostly fake the funk, attempt to seem beautiful in the attempts of becoming beautiful.

One of the greatest compliments I got easily over a decade ago, was at a queer party where I think the host said to me:

"You're always so glamorous."

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

"Diff'rent" is nice, but it sure isn't pretty.

"Pretty" is what it's about.

I never met anyone who was "diff'rent"

Who couldn't figure that out.

So beautiful I'd never lived to see."

My mom had handsome children, but nothing that I would say was a traditional standards of beauty, folks would say things like,

'Those are some good-looking boys'

My dad said something to me when I was in early adolescence:

"You're too pretty."

I mean the song said "pretty is what it's about", I think this was his way of recognizing that his son, later his child, was queer, or in vernacular I am sure he would have used, a faggot.

Something about my kind of beauty obviously disappointed him. Whereas I thought that was exactly where I wanted to be, I always joked about how in my relationships, I wanted to be the pretty one.

The beauty I had to offer wasn't the one folks were looking for. This was frightfully obvious when during a break between semesters from college, that I joined an escort service, in an attempt to bolster the meager stipend I got from my summer internship. I am not sure if the pimp, for lack of a better word, said I wasn't sellable, as to point out how my friend, who I also got to join the service, was.

My friend had green-eyes, was uncircumcised, and was presenting himself at the time as a "banjee boy" which was just a term for an unclockable urban young man. He was also Latino, which whyte men have been fetishizing for centuries. Albeit I at the time was taller, generally more fit, probably equally hung, handsome but not attractive in any traditional sense, I had two Johns before leaving the service all-together.

I was a Black gay, but not one that was easily categorizable. I wasn't remotely a femme queen, I wasn't a drag queen, I wasn't butch trade, as I told my niece I have never been anyone's twink, I was just somewhere in the middle, sort of creating my own lane off to the side. But that side wasn't anything anyone wanted as a main course, they wanted horse-hung, prison muscles, ebonics, aggressive dominance or at least one of the Blacks they had seen in their porn, I wasn't any of those things, and never would be.

I have spoken on the fact that I suffer from body dysmorphia, self-diagnosed but an accurate assessment.

"Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with one or more perceived flaws or defects in one’s physical appearance. These perceived flaws are often minor or entirely unobservable to others, yet they cause the individual significant distress and impairment in daily functioning."

Now my BDD is a bit milder than this clinical description. Like with most things with me it's a private-silent battle. Part of the reason I utilize myself as a model in my photography is to attempt to find the beauty I don't feel.

ATTEMPT TO FIND THE BEAUTY I DON'T FEEL

If the person in the picture looks good, than maybe I can too. This is where the BDD comes in, I don't feel like I am the person in those photos, because I don't look good. And here is where the cognitive dissonance comes in, in me trying to resolve, what I feel, with what I see.

Documenting myself and my bodies changes helps me to understand what really is, versus what it feels like. It is a great compliment to be perceived as beautiful, but if you don't feel beautiful the former is moot. That is my mental health struggle, and a reoccurring theme in my work, trying to find the beauty with this non-traditional body, with it's non-traditional presentation of gender, in its not-favored melanin content levels.

"I wanna go to a place were I can hold the intangible

And let go of the pain with all my might

I wanna go to a place where I am suspended in ecstasy

Somewhere between dark and light, where wrong becomes right

I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful"

Special thanks to @hm22 for the prompt that led to today's short essay.

[Lyrics courtesy of India.Arie Simpson and Edward Kleban, Screenshot courtesy of the Brown Estate]

[fkajackiebrownx]

Brown Skin - India.Arie🎶

[wifey-type]

[thexoelove]

[nerdwithapoll]

Female/Femme Singer-Songwriter Tournament -Soul/ Funk/Disco/R&B (Round 1: Poll 5)

Who is the most talented Soul/ Funk/Disco/R&B singer-songwriter?

Amy Winehouse

Aretha Franklin

Gladys Knight

Patti LaBelle

Grace Jones

Emeli Sandé

Erykah Badu

India.Arie

Mariah Carey

H.E.R.

Voting ended onJan 14, 2024

First Round Voting: Top 4 make it to the 2nd round. This is a talent tournament, not a popularity contest! Please re-blog! Tournament format here.

Other round 1 polls: Genre Benders, Pop, Bands & Groups, Solo Rockers, Soul/Funk/Disco/R&B, Solo Hip Hop, Crooners/Blues/Jazz/Piano Players, Folk and Country, International, Famous Family Connections.

Links to the artists on Spotify (tournament playlist):

Amy Winehouse

Aretha Franklin

Gladys Knight

Patti LaBelle

Grace Jones

Emeli Sandé

Erykah Badu

India.Arie

Mariah Carey

H.E.R.

[3ashell]