A few verses about social media, opinion, and unknown ways forward.
Month: September 2019
What Does One Transmit?
This is something Proclus wrote in his Parmenides commentary that I rarely go more than 2-3 days without thinking about. Proclus is commenting on that part of the Parmenides (at 128d) where Zeno describes how awkward it was to go viral with a philosophical thing he wrote as a young man — someone stole a copy of … Continue reading What Does One Transmit?
Some Quotations from a Thing I’m Reading On Orphic Things
The past two posts — the one about how Strawberry Shortcake got me thinking about depictions of Hêlios and Zeus I encountered as a child and the other about motivations and actions — both included some discussion of (and reaction to) Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods, which I am reading through right now. Since … Continue reading Some Quotations from a Thing I’m Reading On Orphic Things
The “Why” Is Not, and Cannot Be, Uniform
I was thinking recently about a parasocial interaction online — parasocial because the person does not know me, nor I lim — in which I assisted with an information need. It got me thinking about actions versus reasons and how the two differ. In that specific case, I helped the person with the question despite … Continue reading The “Why” Is Not, and Cannot Be, Uniform
Strawberry Shortcake got me thinking about Gods
My girlfriend and I watched a clip from Strawberry Shortcake last weekend. While it came out before I was born, Strawberry Shortcake reruns aired on television in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a baby/toddler. I had a VHS recording that I watched and rewatched frequently. What struck me the most about watching … Continue reading Strawberry Shortcake got me thinking about Gods
Tea Lights
I use tea lights on a regular basis because I use a flame-warmed oil burner for some offerings, and I also use tea light candleholders in shrine areas for the Eumenides, for Dionysos, for household Zeus, and for ancestors. This is one of my brief logistical posts. Demographically speaking, I am guessing that 90% of … Continue reading Tea Lights
To Mnêmosynê
Great Mnêmosynê, powerful Titaness, you hold the lake that bears your name. Many claim to know you, yet grasp only at ephemeral echoes within themselves. Your waters are a vessel reflecting Nyx back upon herself — you hold stars so deep within that they become abyssal, unending — what was, what is, what has always … Continue reading To Mnêmosynê
My Biggest Takeaways from the Chaldean Oracles
At the close of August, after reading Proclus' Parmenides commentary, I spent a few days with the Chaldean Oracles fragments as translated by Ruth Majercik. The ChalOr¹ are quoted a lot by Proclus and other Late Platonists — I read the last third of the Parmenides commentary in the span of about two and a half weeks, and the … Continue reading My Biggest Takeaways from the Chaldean Oracles