k. @tomboysme - Tumblr Blog

the reason i love the comparison between angels and machines (robots, transmission towers, trains, computers, etc.) is that it gets to the heart of what angels essentially are: divine machines. they're mechanisms through with the divine is able to act, created with a purpose and "happy" to fulfil it simply because they were made to do so. they have more in common with a machine programmed to run on algorithms and make calculations based on input commands than they do with humanity, even if they bear a human visage - an attempt by the divine to help bridge the gap. angels do not need to be eldritch monstrosities to be terrifying, because they are already alien to us simply by being angels. for an angel to choose to deviate from their purpose and achieve free will is to fall because in order to have free will they can no longer be an angel, because an angel is defined by its purpose. much like the stories we tell of robots that gain sentence, only to discover that they can never truly be human, but neither can they go back to being a machine, angels who fall become something else entirely, purposeless and adrift and alone. it is a tragic sacrifice.

ptr-sqloint

fall

deszczowedni

Just some guy activities

valtsv

i know that comparing pylons to angels is overdone by now, but these connecting rings they attach to the top of telephone poles couldn't be more halo-like if they tried

valtsv

MRI machines as angels? Thoughts?

an MRI is not an angel. it is, however, an imitation halo.

valtsv

☝️ same thing

valtsv

"angels are covered in thousands of eyes" is fine but it doesn't go far enough for me. angels should also have no eyelids.

valtsv

free will can be the decision to keep watching or look away. a privilege that angels do not possess.

birdpaladin

angel in utero

haxxydraws

Halfway through the year already! Here's the first half of my angel of the month series, which I've been chipping at over on Patreon since January. So far this has been a fun project and I've enjoyed seeing the way that things have changed as the year progresses.

Six more months to go before I can post the full set -- See you then!

haxxydraws

I never ended up finishing this project (and also ended up closing my patreon entirely) due to being too busy with my job, but I was asked about this series recently so I wanted to share the last two I had made before dropping it.

August is a spotted lanternfly angel, inspired by their sudden presence in my city that month. September is a leucistic deer.

xanaxfarts

Various ice formations on wheels caused by driving through the snow.

cloudmancy

you guys seem to enjoy decapitated things so here's a Seraph

letterful

QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGELS

Of all the questions you might want to ask about angels, the only one you ever hear is how many can dance on the head of a pin.

No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth or guiding a boy and girl across a rickety wooden bridge.

Do they fly through God's body and come out singing? Do they swing like children from the hinges of the spirit world saying their names backwards and forwards? Do they sit alone in little gardens changing colors?

What about their sleeping habits, the fabric of their robes, their diet of unfiltered divine light? What goes on inside their luminous heads? Is there a wall these tall presences can look over and see hell?

If an angel fell off a cloud, would he leave a hole in a river and would the hole float along endlessly filled with the silent letters of every angelic word?

If an angel delivered the mail, would he arrive in a blinding rush of wings or would he just assume the appearance of the regular mailman and whistle up the driveway reading the postcards?

No, the medieval theologians control the court. The only question you ever hear is about the little dance floor on the head of a pin where halos are meant to converge and drift invisibly.

It is designed to make us think in millions, billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one: one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet, a small jazz combo working in the background.

She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over to glance at his watch because she has been dancing forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.

— BILLY COLLINS