essays on polytheism, minimalism, and everything in between
I. To Elpis (Hope) Elpis, you remain in the jar, the potential of libations. Before words are spoken, on the tip of the tongue, among our racing desires, adventurous, grasping thoughts, you shine like a struck nebula, dispensing grace like flowers. You are the brightness we grasp, unseeing the Fates who know the topography of … Continue reading Maxim 62: ἐλπίδα αἴνει
Recently, my girlfriend and I have been attending a Buddhist LGBTQ sangha, which holds a meditation once a week, in the Shambhala tradition. It's 90 minutes long, with a combination of sitting and walking meditation followed by scriptural discussions. While I am not a Buddhist, I can appreciate a lot of Buddhism — the discipline … Continue reading Plato-Related Thoughts After Reading a Few Lojong Slogans
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
Today, a conversation about the normalization of calls for violence on social media sparked me to wonder what kinds of ethical and moral writings existed about nonviolence — ones that did not take a Christian perspective. While Googling a variety of terminology (nonviolence, ahimsa, &c.), I ended up finding Mark Kurlansky's Nonviolence: The History of a … Continue reading Something I Read About Nonviolence
At the end of 2018, I decided that 2019 would be the year I tried to find (and use) natural-fiber clothing for environmental, ethical, and religious reasons, and I announced this on Twitter during one of those goal posts that basically everyone writes. It is August, I am still sticking to my goal, and I have some takeaways.
A further exploration of a Twitter thread on concord and our polytheist communit(y/ies).
The strongest agalma is the amalgam of the mind contemplating divine images with the senses. Here we mix the prayers, thoughts, and offerings. A god is the lock; the mind-in-pattern its key. The images the mind makes welcome in the Twins drawing back their bows or the keen-sighted Guide. A god flows into any space … Continue reading What Images We Make
