#protectors

[whereifindsanity]

Maremma Sheepdog wearing traditional anti-wolf spiked collar, known as vreccale.

[reminders-for-systems]

Shout-out to the intimidating alters. Shout-out to Protectors who are often rude or aggressive as part of their function. Shout-out to Gatekeepers who are often cold or uncaring as part of their function. Shout-out to the Caretakers who are often overly bearing or demanding as part of their function. Shout-out to the Persecutors who are often hostile or distrustful of others as part of their function.

[groundrunner100]

There are times I wish that the Agori & Protectors were just Matoran.

One of the things I’ve come to like about the Bionicle mini sets is that it shows you how unique & diverse the Bionicle universe appears.

Like each yearly Matoran design belonging to a particular village/island.

[thesorceresstemple]

Leopards bronze plate from Benin

[witchthewriter]

𝐂𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐍 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: 𝐴𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠 🏹

Being claimed by Artemis means many, many things...Artemis is the Protector of the Young (especially female) and the Leader of the Hunters of Artemis/Diana.

Is the Goddess of the Hunt, Hunting, Nature, Wilderness, Vegetation, Forests, Woods, Jungles, Animals, Wildlife, Wildness, the Moon, Moonlight, Lunar Cycles, Childbirth, Birth, Fertility, Health, Healing, Plague, Protection, Virginity, Chastity, Maidenhood and Archery.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰𝒔 𝑪𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆?

Its structure is graceful but wild, woven from pale wood and moonlit stone. Ivy wraps the beams, and soft animal tracks are always visible in the earth outside.

Bow racks and hunting gear are kept with reverence, and pelts line the floor like offerings. There's always a breeze, always starlight filtering in, no matter the time of day.

This cabin doesn't call to everyone...only to those who belong to the wild.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔 & 𝑨𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒔

𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑨𝒖𝒓𝒂: Hunters of Artemis tend to have a silvery aura around themselves.

𝑨𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒚: Hunters of Artemis are extremely proficient at archery, even more so than the Apollo kids.

𝑬𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉: Hunters of Artemis are semi-immortal, which means that they do not age or get sick, but they can die in battle, or if they break their vow.

𝒁𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒎: Hunters of Artemis have a telepathic connection with wolves and falcons.

𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒆𝒂𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: Hunters of Artemis can summon their bows and arrows, and their hunting knives, whenever they need them, but it is tiresome.

𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏: Hunters of Artemis have excellent night vision, so much so, that they can see as well at nighttime as they can in the daytime.

𝑬𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒔𝒔: Hunters of Artemis tend to have enhanced strength, agility, and dexterity.

𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒔: Hunters of Artemis are skilled hunters, as they hunt monsters with Artemis.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔 & 𝑨𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒔:

𝑳𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔: the manipulation of the moon and its' light as their mother has divine authority over the moon. They can even create arrows made out of silvery moonlight, which never fail to hit their target unless an outside force intervenes. They are also more powerful when the moon shines on them, and they can use moonlight to communicate with anyone, espescially their mother and other lunar gods.

𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔: Children of Artemis have the ability to turn anyone into the opposite sex of what they currently are, but only temporarily, like their mother did to Sipriotes.

𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆-𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 (𝑳𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅): Children of Artemis have the ability to turn into to turn into animals of wildlife. However, this ability is quite rare.

𝑪𝒉𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔: Children of Artemis can use Chlorokensis and have control from a forest's tallest trees to its grass.

𝒁𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒎: Children of Artemis have the ability to communicate with and understand stags, hawks, and wolves given that they are their mother's sacred animals. They can also understand other wildlife.

𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏: Children of Artemis have night vision that allows them to see in even the darkest night.

𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑳𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒔: Children of Artemis can fire lasers of moonlight from their eyes, just like their mother can do. It works identically to heat vision.

𝑳𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒓 𝑮𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔: Children of Artemis can use the moon's gravity to weigh down an opponent and hinder their mobility, or they can make themselves nimbler by lessening the gravity around them.

𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑬𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕: Children of Artemis can heal at an accelerated rate if they are bathed in moonlight, as well as move faster and hit harder.

𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈: By using moonlight, they are able to heal their allies. However, the more serious the injuries are, the more energy and concentration it requires to restore them. Should only be done sparingly

𝑳𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒓 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍: The use of moonlight as a means of teleportation and appear anywhere as long as the moonlight can shine in that location. Known as "Lunar Travel", which functions identically to Shadow Travel.

For those who belong in Cabin Eight...

You are not made for cities or crowns. You are made for forests, for freedom, for vows that never break.

You are Artemis' legacy; sacred, sharp, and untouchable.

(p.s. As Artemis is a virgin goddess, all her children are born through parthenogenesis.)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Rebecca Solnit 

I got very excited that Bruce Springsteen just wrote a ballad about Minneapolis and said that I think we're winning and I know that will flush lots of grumpitude from the shrubberies but here's how I think about how these changes happen.

John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson, 24 August 1815, " What do We mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington."

In other words the most important battle really is for hearts and minds (and you don't change them by dropping bombs on them or throwing tear gas at them). And while the Trumpists didn't have a majority to begin with (only a third of eligible voters chose the Trump/Vance ticket), they have steadily eroded what support they have through their malice, destructiveness, arrogance, and idiocy. And open hatred.

They have lost the people. And they seem incapable of doing anything but continuing to do so. And while it's nice Bovino was kicked out of Minneapolis, his boss was Noem, and while it looks like Noem might go, her whisperer was Miller, and while even Miller seems to be in rough waters, it's Trump and Vance who chose these policies and these people and until they go we keep going.

A bunch of writers seem to be suddenly discovering that a crucial question in this conflict is about human nature, and that the Trump Administration's deeply wrong assumptions are not serving them in this moment. I had a head start on the topic from the research for A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, and so my very first newsletter declared:

Underlying all this is an old assumption by many elites, especially the authoritarian and fascist variety, that ordinary people are weak, timid, fearful and pretty much collapse if you say boo to them. They also tend to think we are selfish and operate only out of self-interest because they think we're like them. They are very often wrong in very consequential ways. This misapprehension about human nature has, from at least the Second World War to G.W. Bush's Shock and Awe plans to subjugate Iraq, driven military attacks on civilians. Their idea is that you can break morale and make people surrender through sheer brutality. That somehow ordinary people will all collapse in terror or mental breakdown and be helpless and defeated, which will weaken or undermine the country as a whole.

That book of mine was about how ordinary people react in disaster, and the truth is that most of us are brave, generous, altruistic, creative as we rise to meet the demands of a sudden disaster by rescuing and taking care of each other and re-building the terms of survival as community kitchens, volunteer clean-up teams, and more. We saw this with the L.A. fires... Los Angeles has filled with mutual-aid efforts of many kinds, drawing on the resources and commitments of many communities, many of which are ongoing--a true paradise built in hell.

Or rather the book was about the magnificent ways ordinary people often respond in disaster and the vision of human nature and human desire it gives us--because people don't just do good but they are often deeply moved and even joyful in these times. I read their accounts from the 1906 earthquake, the 1917 Halifax explosion, and the London Blitz; I heard them in person about 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. I found in disaster a window into our deepest desires for connection, community, purpose, immediacy, meaningful work.

Disasters sometimes bring moments when the triviality, the distraction, the fretting about the past and future, disconnect us from the present and our deepest commitments, moments when Martin Luther King's beloved community comes into being. But this book was also about elite panic--the way elites, including government officials and wealthy and powerful individuals assume the worst about human nature and act on their assumptions, convinced they're suppressing a rampaging mob or controlling a bunch of hapless panicky people. What they're really frightened of is the fact that in these moments they're not in control, and the old order they sat atop is destabilized and maybe open to change.

Quote in picture from Adam Serwer's spectacular report/reflection on Minneapolis. And a piece of my essay before last at Meditationsinanemergency.com

[bad-comic-art]

Protectors Handbook #1 (1992)