The Garden of Eden – A Defense of Eve
Most people in the Judeo-Christian world are familiar with the tale of Eve. God put Adam and Eve in Eden, a paradise in which they would never want for anything, never struggle or suffer, and have all their needs taken care of (it’s the best Welfare plan one can imagine). But then Eve ruined it all by becoming tricked by Satan, who disguised himself as a snake, and tempted Eve to eat the fruit (apple) of knowledge. After that, Eve subsequently tempted her husband, Adam, to also eat the apple.
Since then, Judeo-Christian folk have blamed Eve, and by proxy the entire female gender for the fault of humanity inheriting original sin. Women are seen as more easily tempted by evil than men are. They are seen as evil temptresses to the menfolk, who must be constrained and controlled lest they lure men to sin.
(Interestingly, in Islam, the story is different. Eve and Adam were both tempted at the same time.)
But anyways, getting back to my point.
An example of this attitude of Eve blaming is quite abundant in the history of Western Literature.
In 1924, one JHR wrote an article entitled, “The Ugliness of Women.” JHR argues in his column that “in every woman born there is a seed of terrible, unmentionable evil: evil such as man—a simple creature for all his passions and lusts—could never dream of in the most horrible of nightmares, could never conceive in imagination.”
“No doubt,” he writes, “the evil growth is derived from Eve, who certainly did or thought something wicked beyond words.”
Much earlier, Tertullian, a prolific Christian writer (155-240 CE) in the Roman province of Carthage, was just one of many to expand upon the biblical account of Eve to further denigrate women:
And do you not know that you are Eve? God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway; you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die…Woman, you are the gate to hell.
However, is this castigation of the entire female gender, and Eve herself really fair?
When you think about it, Eve (a simple being without knowledge) was tempted by Satan, the Lord and Master of all Evil. Expecting her to resist such trickery is a tall order. Whereas her husband was simply tempted by her. Who really made the bigger mistake?
Also, is it possible that the Judeo-Christian tale of Eve in Eden is a subversion of an older tale that might have placed Eve (or whoever the original female character was) in a better light?
EVE’S ASSOCIATION WITH ASHERAH, A SEMITIC TREE GODDESS
Look into the mother goddess Asherah, she was the consort of the God Yahweh, Yahweh which is the Hebrew name of God in the bible. At this point you might be saying, “Yahweh didn’t have a wife.” But in earlier, pagan times, he did. This role gave her high status in the Ugaritic pantheon (a Canaanite religion, an ancient Semitic religion of the people in the ancient Levant.) However, in Deuteronomy 12, Yahweh demands the destruction of her shrines to maintain the purity of his worship (that’s one brutal divorce).
What is interesting is that Asherah is associated with groves and trees. The association with Asherah in the Hebrew Bible with trees is very strong.
For example, she is found under trees (1K 14:23; 2K 17:10) and is made of wood by human beings (1K 14:15, 2K 16:3-4). Trees described as being an asherah or part of an asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows (Danby:1933:90,176).
Some scholars have found an early link between Asherah and Eve, based upon the coincidence of their common title as “the mother of all living” in Genesis 3:20through the identification with the Hurrian mother goddess Hebat.
Asherah poles, which were sacred trees or poles, are mentioned many times in the Hebrew Bible. The Asherah pole was prohibited by the Deuteronomic Code which commanded “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God.”
In the story of Adam and Eve, the fact that Eve procures wisdom from a tree is twisted into a tale of the “downfall” of mankind. But perhaps in the Pre-Israelite, Ugaritic religion, Asherah was seen as a source of wisdom (in a positive way). And when the monotheistic and more patriarchal religion of the Israelites developed, perhaps the tale was subverted in order to paint the divine feminine as a villain, rather than a hero, as she may originally have been.
THE TALE OF EDEN MAY DERIVE FROM SUMERIAN MYTH
(Ninhursag)
Enki, one of the early gods of the Sumerians, was believed to have lived in a place near an aquifer, which was called the “Sweet Waters God.” He lived in Dilmun, “the pure clean and bright land of the living, the garden of the Great Gods and Earthly paradise” which was located eastward in Eden.
Ninhursag was a female goddess. In the story, she feels the waters of Enki within her and asks him to tend to her earthly body and provide waters for it. He responds willingly and creates waters and streams which allow great vegetation to grow. She leaves for the winter to prepare for the spring and all it brings to the earth.
I won’t get into the whole story, but it eventually involves Enki eating some seeds, one of which is a “tree plant.” He becomes sick and complains of a rib pain. Ninhursag responds with the incantation “to the goddess Ninti, the Lady of the Rib and the One who makes Live, I have given birth for you to set your rib free.” The Sumerian word “ti” means both “rib” and “life.” In Genesis, the word Eve means life but the Hebrew word for rib is different, thus missing the pun in the Sumerian version.
CONCLUSIONS
In the ancient, Pre-Israelite, pagan religions of the Middle East, female goddesses were associated with life and wisdom. It is my belief that the story of Eve captured in the bible intentionally subverted the power women once had in the region, in order to paint Eve as a villain. But even if she is a villain, she gave the gift of knowledge to mankind, and I, for one, am quite thankful for that gift.
LINKS
The Garden of Eden (Faithless Feminist)
God’s Wife Edited Out of the Bible — Almost (Seeker)
The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan (The Met)
Archaeologists Discover: God’s Wife? (Haaretz)
Did God Have a Wife (NBC News)
Asherah
Yahweh’s Divorce from the Goddess Asherah (Mythology Matters)
Chrislam – The Syncretism of the World’s Major Religions?
One topic that fascinates me is religious syncretism, the blending together of different religions into a new religion. Every religion that has ever existed is the product of syncretism. Christianity for instance takes influences from Judaism, Celtic Paganism, Hinduism, Greek/Roman Paganism and Near Eastern Paganism. Islam is a blend of Arab Paganism, Christianity and Judaism.
Is it possible that the world’s two largest religions, Christianity and Islam would ever blend together in the future into a global super religion? Or instead, will people drift away from Abrahamic religion and find contentment with an altogether different set of ideas?
In Arthur Clarke’s 1993 science fiction novel Hammer of God there is a religion called “Chrislam” which is based on Islam and Christianity.
In some parts of Africa, a small number of people have purposely blended Christianity and Islam together in order to get along with their neighbors. (R&E)
And “Chrislam” is also a pejorative term used by Christian leaders in America for what they see as an unholy blending of religious ideas.
If this is an idea that you find interesting as well, read more about it here.
Quotes from the Prophets of World Religions – New Twitter Page
Check Out the Twitter Page Here
Many of the great major religions and philosophies of the world have similar values.
I wanted to make a twitter where I could post one quote a day from an influential prophet, philosopher, or God of a different religion, so we could learn from the wisdom of all the religions.
Cinematic Music – ‘Falls of Glory’ BrunuhVille
BrunuhVille is an independent composer from Portugal who creates a world of magic and fantasy between the fusion of Gothic, Orchestral, Celtic, Folk, Movie, Ethnic and World music.
I think those of you who like folk music and cinematic composers, such as “Two Steps from Hell,” will really like this song.
LINKS
Metal to Come in 2019
Happy Fucking New Year, Metal Heads!
Here’s a list of all the new tunes to expect in the new year.
Let me know if I’ve missed anything.
January
| Day | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Callejon | Hartgeld im Club |
| Festerday | Iihtallan | |
| John Garcia and the Band of Gold | John Garcia and the Band of Gold | |
| Legion of the Damned | Slaves of the Shadow Realm | |
| Mark Deutrom | The Blue Bird | |
| 11 | Born of Osiris | The Simulation |
| Jinjer | Micro (EP) | |
| Soilwork | Verkligheten | |
| 18 | A Pale Horse Named Death | When the World Becomes Undone |
| Arch Enemy | Covered in Blood (compilation album) | |
| Cane Hill | Kill the Sun (EP) | |
| Flotsam and Jetsam | The End of Chaos | |
| Lemuria | The Hysterical Hunt | |
| Malevolent Creation | The 13th Beast | |
| Oomph! | Ritual | |
| Papa Roach | Who Do You Trust? | |
| Raven | Screaming Murder Death from Above: Live in Aalborg (live album) | |
| Rifftera | Across the Acheron | |
| 21 | Oblivion | Oblivion |
| 25 | Bring Me the Horizon | Amo |
| Carnal Forge | Gun to Mouth Salvation | |
| Evergrey | The Atlantic | |
| Hecate Enthroned | Embrace of the Godless Aeon | |
| Incite | Built to Destroy | |
| Jetboy | Born to Fly | |
| Kane Roberts | The New Normal | |
| King 810 | Suicide King | |
| King Diamond | Songs for the Dead Live (live album) | |
| Quiet Riot | One Night in Milan (live album) | |
| Starbreaker | Dysphoria | |
| Swallow the Sun | When a Shadow Is Forced into the Light | |
| 26 | Corroded | Bitter |
February
| Day | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metallica | Helping Hands… Live & Acoustic at the Masonic (live album) |
| Soen | Lotus | |
| Within Temptation | Resist | |
| 8 | Beast In Black | From Hell with Love |
| Herman Frank | Fight the Fear | |
| 15 | Avantasia | Moonglow |
| Born from Pain | True Love | |
| Rotting Christ | The Heretics | |
| 22 | Attila | Villain |
| Candlemass | The Door to Doom | |
| Delain | Hunter’s Moon | |
| Dream Theater | Distance Over Time | |
| Imperia | Flames of Eternity | |
| Last in Line | II | |
| The Moth Gatherer | Esoteric Oppression | |
| Overkill | The Wings of War | |
| Rhapsody of Fire | The Eighth Mountain | |
| Rock Goddess | This Time | |
| Tora Tora | Bastards of Beale |
March
| Day | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Demon Hunter | Peace |
| Demon Hunter | War | |
| In Flames | I, the Mask | |
| Mark Morton | Anesthetic | |
| Mike Tramp | Stray from the Flock | |
| Queensrÿche | The Verdict | |
| While She Sleeps | So What? | |
| 8 | Children of Bodom | Hexed |
| Doro | Backstage to Heaven (EP) | |
| Misery Index | Rituals of Power | |
| The Raven Age | Conspiracy | |
| 15 | Any Given Day | Overpower |
| 22 | Battle Beast | No More Hollywood Endings |
| 29 | Anthem | Nucleus (compilation album) |
| Nightrage | Wolf to Man | |
| Whitechapel | The Valley |
April
| Day | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Enterprise Earth | Luciferous |
| 19 | Per Wiberg | Head Without Eye |
| 26 | Månegarm | Fornaldarsagorna |
August
| Day | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | HammerFall | Dominion |
Sabarimala Temple: Indian Women Form 620km (385 mile) Human Chain For Equality
(God of the Sabarimala Temple, Ayyappa)
In Kerala India, women have formed a 620km (385 mile) human chain in support of gender equality amidst a row over access to the Sabarimala Shrine. (BBC)
I think it is a very positive thing for women in India to protest for gender equality. Because even though they’re a culture that worships Goddesses, the treatment of real flesh and blood women in India is often problematic. Not only does India have a high rate of female infanticide, but in a list of “most dangerous countries for women,” India tops the list. Levels of violence against women run high. (Straits Times)
India ranked as the most dangerous on three issues – the risks women face from sexual violence and harassment, from cultural and traditional practices, and from human trafficking including forced labour, sex slavery and domestic servitude. (Straits Times)
When I worked at an Indian restaurant, my co-workers often told me that behavior toward women at home was “not good.”
But let’s bring this back to the discussion about the Sabarimala shrine. The Sabarimala shrine was historically closed to women of “menstruating age” – defined as between 10 and 50. And this ban was enforced by a law that was adopted in 1991, because until then, women did reportedly go to the temple in small numbers.
India’s top court overturned the ban in September 2018, but protesters have since attacked female visitors.
The “women’s wall” was organised by the state’s left-wing coalition government.
(Sabarimala Temple)
However, in reading about this protest, one has to keep in mind that the function of a Hindu temple is different than a Christian Church or a Muslim Mosque. Often for Hindus, the temples are places where they believe their Gods and Goddesses live. The Sabarimala temple that the article is talking about is devoted to the deity Ayyappa, the child of Shiva and Mohini (Vishnu’s female form). Specifically, the form of Ayyappa that is worshiped in the temple is in the form of a celibate student. The reason the temple women of menstruating age (10 to 50) from entering the temple is apparently out of respect for the deity’s celibacy.
And what is not captured in the media’s depiction of this issue is the scores of women who took to the streets for #SaveSabarimala, a protest against the supreme court verdict to permit women to enter the temple.
So in terms of temple entrance, the issue may be more complicated than non-hindu readers may understand.
But in terms of marching for gender equality, I think that is a positive thing for women in India.
RELATED LINKS
Indian Metal Band Sceptre Takes a Stand On Violence Against Women (Interview)
New Environmentalist Facebook – Earth Now
Hey, everyone!
Here’s a new facebook group I created dedicated to fighting human made climate change, finding solutions and raising awareness.
Help Urarv Drummer Fight Cancer
Recently Trish, the drummer of the Norwegian avant-garde black metal band Urarv found out she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I myself have battled breast cancer, and know how expensive and difficult this disease can be to deal with.
So please do what you can to help Trish, even if it’s just donating a few dollars along with a few minutes of your time.
Thanks!
The Four Elements – The Basics
The ancient Greeks believed the universe was broken down into four basic elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire (as proposed by the philosopher Empedocles). Aristotle added a fifth element, Aether – the matter that fills the universe above the terrestrial sphere.
Many cultures actually believe in five basic elements.
In Hinduism there is Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Void. This is the same in Japan.
In China there is Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.
The Celts believed in three: Earth, Sea, Sky.
However, in this article, I’m going to focus on the four elements.
Obviously we know today that the universe is broken down into the 118 elements on the periodic table, which is ordered by each element’s atomic number (the number of protons in its nucleus).
Yet the “four elements” provide an important way for people to conceptualize who they are on a spiritual level. Understanding what each element represents helps us evaluate where our individual strengths and weaknesses are. And in the West, the four classical elements seem to be the default.
And there’s a certain, balanced logic to the number four. There are four seasons in a year. Four states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma). Most tables are held up by four legs. Most people have four limbs (or a fifth if you include the head). The spiritual significance of the number four is stability and structure.
There are many healing traditions and religions which incorporate the elements in their practices. The four suits in the Tarot represent the four elements. The medicine wheel is an example of Native Americans recognizing the four elements. Wiccans honor the classical elements along with a fifth added in that represents the spirit or the self.
So, now that we’ve clarified why the number four is important, what is the significance of the elements themselves?
ELEMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE: BASIC DEFINITIONS
- Air represents intellect, mental intention, and connection to universal life force.
- Earth represents grounding, the foundation of life, substance, connection to life path, and family roots.
- Fire represents energy, a tool for transformation, connection to personal power, and inner strength.
- Water represents emotional release, intuition, and inner reflection.
THE ELEMENT OF AIR
GODS: Enlil, Kheohera, Mercurym, Shu, Thoth
GODDESSES: Aradia, Arianrhod, Cardea, Nuit, Urania.
Cardinal Direction: East (where the sun rises)
Season: Spring (A time of freshness)
Time of Day: Dawn
Color: Yellow
Positive Qualities: vigilance, care-freedom, kind-heartedness, trusting nature, clarity, lightness, independency, dexterity, optimism, diligence, acuity, joy, smiling…
Negative Qualities: lack of perseverance, dishonesty, gossipy, cunningness, backbiting, garrulousness, inconstancy, touchiness, prodigality.
Astrology: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Spiritual Significance: Intellect, freedom, purity.
“The element of Air is vital to human survival, without it we would all perish, its aspects are Thinness, Motion and Darkness and its quality is Active. Air is the manifestation of movement, freshness, communication and of the intelligence. Sound is another manifestation of this element. As an element, it is invisible, but its reality can be felt in the air that we breathe in every day.
To connect with the power of this element, find a place with clean air and breathe deeply, touch a feather or inhale the fragrance of a heavily scented flower. Let yourself experience the energy of this element, and reflect that we also possess Air energy within ourselves.
In magical terms, Air is the power of the mind, the force of intellect, inspiration, imagination. It is ideas, knowledge, dreams and wishes. Air is the element of new life and new possibilities and is essential to spells and rituals of travel, instruction, finding lost items, some types of divination, and freedom. Air aids us in visualization, a vital technique in magic.
Air is a masculine element and governs the magick of the four winds. It is the vital spirit passing through all things, giving life to all things, moving and filling all things. Thus Hebrew doctors ascribe it not as an element but as a medium or glue that binds all things together.” (Source)
THE ELEMENT OF EARTH
GODS: Adonis, Athos, Arawn, Cernunnos, Dionysus, Marduk, Pan, Tammuz.
GODDESSES: Ceres, Demeter, Gaea, Mah, Nephthys, Persephone, Prithivi, Rhea, Rhiannon.
Cardinal Direction: North
Season: Winter (A Time of Darkness)
Time of Day: Night
Color: Green
Positive Qualities: consistency, conscientiousness, perseverance, punctuality, caution, resistance, responsibility, carefulness, firmness, reliability, sobriety, ambition, respectfulness, matter-of-factness…
Negative Qualities: stuffiness, superficiality, laziness, indifference, cumbersomeness, touchiness, lack of conscientiousness, irregularity, timidity, scornfulness…
Astrology: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Spiritual Significance: Discipline, Vigilance, Stabilizing, Grounding.
“The basis and foundation of all the elements is the Earth. The Earth is the object; subject and receptacle of all celestial rays and influences and in it are the seeds of all things. It is made fruitful by the other elements and the heavens, and brings forth all things of itself. It is the first fountain from whence all things spring; it is the centre, foundation and mother of all things.
Earth is the element of stability, foundations and of the body. The Earth is the realm of wisdom, knowledge, strength, growth and prosperity. It is also the physical Earth on which we live and the very heart of life. It is essential in spells and rituals of prosperity, business, fertility and stability. Earth is a feminine element and governs stone and knot magic.
The Earth can be viewed as our mother, with its fertile and nurturing farmland, providing all Earth’s creatures with nourishment and shelter. The earth takes on qualities of the other elements, whether it is the dry, dusty and hot aspects of Fire and Air, as is found in deserts. Or the moist and fluid aspects of Water, in swamps, marshlands and fens. In its physical manifestations, such as stones, rocks, crystals and gems, the element of Earth represents the densest of the elements.
The Earth is the womb from which all things spring, pressing your hand against fresh soil, you can feel its vitality, stability and earthiness. In its fertile soil, we’ve grown the food that provides life, on its surface we live out our lives, and when the time to return to the Goddess and God comes, we are interred in the earth.
We couldn’t exist in this form without the Earth. But our planet is simply a manifestation of this element on the physical plane, each of the elements exist in the astral planes as pure energy. This Earth energy not only exists within ourselves but also throughout the universe at large.” (Source)
THE ELEMENT OF WATER
GODS: Dylan, Ea, Manannan, Osiris, Neptune, Poseidon
GODDESSES: Aphrodite, Isis, Mariamne, Mari, Tiamat, Yemaya.
Cardinal Direction: West (where the sun sets)
Season: Autumn (a time of harvest)
Time of Day: Dusk
Color: Blue
Positive Qualities: understanding, placidity, mildness, trusting nature, devotion, mercy, forgiveness, modesty, compassion, fervour, pliancy, meditativeness, internalization…
Negative Qualities: indifference, heartlessness, laziness, indolence, rigidity, lack of daring, lack of concern, unstableness, dejection
Astrology: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Spiritual Significance: Intuition, Emotion, Compassion, Healing
“Water, is a great necessity, without it nothing can live. Only earth and water can bring forth a living soul. Such is the greatness of water that spiritual regeneration cannot be done without it.
Thales of Miletus concluded that water was the beginning of all things and the first of all elements and most potent because of its mastery over the rest. Pliny said “Water swallow up the earth, extinguishes the flame, ascends on high, and by stretching forth as clouds challenges the heavens for their own, and the same falling down, becomes the cause of all things that grow in the earth.
Water is a cleansing, healing, psychic, and loving element. It is the feeling of friendship and love that pours over us when we are with our family, friends and loved ones. When we swim it is water that supports us, when we are thirsty, it is water the quenches our thirst, another manifestation of this element is the rainstorms that drench us, or the dew formed on plants after the sun has set.
The power of the energy of Water, can be felt by tasting pure spring water, moving you hand through a stream, lake, pool, or bowl full of water. You can feel its cool liquidity; it’s soft and loving touch, this motion and fluidity is the quality of Air within Water. This Water energy is also contained within ourselves, our bodies being mostly composed of Water.
As well as being vital for life, within the energy of this element is contained the essence of love. Love is the underlying reason for all magic. Water is love.
Water is a feminine element, it also the element of emotion and subconscious, of purification, intuition, mysteries of the self, compassion and family. It is psychic ability; water can be used as a means of scrying or as an object for meditation. Water is important in spells and rituals of friendship, marriage, happiness, fertility, healing, pleasure, psychic abilities and spells involving mirrors.” (Source)
THE ELEMENT OF FIRE
GODS: Agni, Hepaetus, Horus, Promtheus, Vulcan.
GODDESSES: Brigit, Pele, Vesta.
Cardinal Direction: South
Season: Summer (The Time of Heat)
Time of Day: Noon (When the Sun in Highest)
Color: Red
Positive Qualities: vigorousness, zeal, enthusiasm, courage, decisiveness, power of creativity, daring, sedulity…
Negative Qualities: quarrelsomeness, irritability, urge to destroy everything, passion, immoderacy, jealousy, voraciousness, vindictiveness, violence, hate, anger, sudden ebullition…
Astrology: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Spiritual Significance: Destruction, Renewal, Rebirth, Transformation
“The element of Fire is both creative and destructive, its qualities are Brightness, Thinness and Motion and its mode is Active. It is fire that we and our ancestors used to warm our homes, we use it to cook our food, we sit around it to ward of the darkness of night, and it fuels our passions. Fire, unlike the other elements, does not exist in a natural state. Its physical form can only take place by consuming some other element. Fire is the transformer, converting the energy of other objects into other forms: heat, light, ash, and smoke.
To feel the manifestations of this power, go out on sunny day and feel the warmth and light of the Sun, hear the crackling of logs and smell of smoke from a burning fire. As you gaze into the transformational flame of a candle, immerse yourself in the energy of Fire. Fire is the natural element of animals and mankind, and they “have, in their natures, a most fiery force, and also spring from celestial sources.”
In order to gain benefit from the energy of this element, we need to control Fire’s destructive aspect. When we light a candle, we are not only calling upon the energy of Fire, we are also limiting its power. This destructive aspect should not be seen as negative, forest fires, actually help, clearing away underbrush and encouraging seeds lying dormant within the Earth to burst forth into new life.
Fire is a masculine element, its aspects being change, passion, creativity, motivation, will power, drive and sensuality. It is sexuality, both physical and spiritual. Fire is used in spells, rituals and candle magic for healing, purification, sex, breaking bad habits or destroying illness and disease. Fire is the element of authority and leadership.
The properties of Fire, Heat, Making things fruitful, Celestial light, Giving Life to all things. Its opposite the Infernal Fire are a parching heat, consuming all things and darkness, making all things barren.” (Source)
LINKS
The Four Classical Elements (Wikipedia)
The Elements of Magick (The White Goddess)
The Elements – Fire, Earth, Air and Water (Thought.Co)
The Dragon Prince – New Show Involving Avatar Head Writer
The Dragon Prince will be available on Netflix on September 14, though no official episode order has been given as of yet.
To me it looks very Game of Thrones inspired.
I know a lot of you on here are fans of the cartoon series, Avatar the Last Airbender. Even though it’s a show for kids, there are many spiritual themes that make it an interesting show for adults (and of course metal-gaia readers). Avatar the Last Airbender is set in an Asiatic world where a twelve-year old boy named Aang must master the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water so he can bring peace to the world.
The Dragon Prince is an upcoming American computer-animated fantasy television series created for Netflix by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond and produced by Wonderstorm.
Ehasz was the head writer and director of the influential animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a longtime writer and story editor for Futurama. Richmond is the director of the video game Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. The two co-founded the multimedia production studio Wonderstorm in 2017 with Justin Santistevan to work both on The Dragon Prince and a related video game. Ehasz and Richmond are co-creators and writers on the series, while Volpe, a former director for Avatar, is an executive producer.
The show follows two princes and an elf assassin.
The world of The Dragon Prince, Xadia, already appears to be a rich and diverse one, with a deep lore and interesting basis for its magic system.
According to the panellists, and the episode screened, magic is derived from six natural sources: moon, sun, stars, earth, ocean, and sky. The humans discover the ability to use dark magic, which takes the essence from magical creatures in order to unleash its power. It is that use of dark magic which sets in motion the conflict with the elves and dragons.
When questioned about the possibility of LGBT+ representation in the show, the panel answered that anything specific would constitute a spoiler, but they are trying to create a diverse and inclusive fantasy. This was similarly stated for the ethnic diversity of their cast of characters within the world of Xadia as well.
As for the antagonist in the series, there will be no specific good vs. evil storyline. Unlike the Fire Nation in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the intention for the show is that the sides will be varied, with neither being “ethically homogeneous.”
Black Magic, Black Skin: Decolonizing White Witchcraft
“My witchery is hood. I don’t have an expensively decorated, Instagram-ready altar; I don’t worship some appropriated feminine divinity or semi-European Paganism. When I talk about being a witch, my spirituality, or any combination thereof, I’m not talking dark aesthetics or visual trappings of occultism. My witchcraft is carved out of a history rife with appropriation, misrepresentation, and invisibility. I am the witch I’ve made myself.” (READ MORE HERE)
Since the Neo Pagan movement began in Western countries, it’s no surprise that it involves many European deities. However, for those in the West who are interested in connecting with their African roots, or even marshmallows like me who are just interested in African spirituality, sometimes the resources out there can seem sparse and underwhelming. The colonization of African spirituality has also added a negative connotation to things that aren’t negative.
For instance, the portrayal of Voodoo in many movies is often scary, when it doesn’t need to be.
Back in the day, many people with African heritage (such as the people of Haiti) looked to their African spiritual traditions to give them strength and power. Their white colonizers didn’t like this, so they often regarded these traditions as a kind of Satanic or dark magic.
And yet the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau, healed numerous people. She was such a skilled healer that many Catholic Churches allowed her to offer her services within their walls.
The truth is that African spiritual traditions, like Yoruba, go back thousands of years and even predate Christianity.
To learn more, check out the resources below:
RESOURCES FOR SPIRITUALITY WITH AFRICAN ROOTS
Mankind’s #1 Priority Today – Stop Destroying The Planet Before We Destroy Ourselves
First of all, what needs to be understood in the conversation about climate destruction is that this has the more grievous consequences for the survival of the human race itself. It’s not just the polar bears. It’s not just the ice caps. It’s the future of the human race.
Now whatever happens, nature will survive. In the Earth’s 4.5 billion years of existence, nature has endured 5 major mass extinctions that destroyed most of the life on the planet (at least 60%), and nature will survive humanity, even if it takes a couple hundred thousand or million years for nature to get back on track. However, it is not certain that humanity itself will survive.
Today, mankind is presiding over what scientists are unanimously describing as a sixth major mass extinction event.
According to the Living Planet Report put out in 2014 by the World Wildlife Fund, humans have killed up to half of the wildlife on the planet in the last 40 years (World Wildlife Fund). And according to the Living Planet Report put out in 2016, this level of decline could increase to two-thirds by 2020. And now a recent study 2018 has said that humans have killed off 83% of wild mammals.
What is also terrifying is that the Permian Extinction (the most deadly extinction event on Earth) may have been caused by circumstances similar to the causes of global warming today. A team of researchers from Canada, Italy, Germany and the US say they have discovered what caused the Permian Extinction. According to a paper published in the journal Palaeoworld, volcanic eruptions pumped large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, causing average temperatures to rise by eight to 11°C. This melted vast amounts of methane that had been trapped in the permafrost and sea floor, causing temperatures to soar even further to levels lethal to most life on land and in the oceans.
Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at Cambridge University, has said, “If there were a large methane release, which is now possible because of the instability of the methane hydrates underneath the Arctic continental shelves, the off-shore waters, that could quite easily give rise to a very large [methane] pulse.” He was one of the authors of a paper in the journal Nature, which suggested it was possible for a truly vast amount of frozen methane to be released over just 10 years – a blink of an eye in geological terms, which could theoretically lead to similar events that caused the Permian Extinction (Independent).
So this is the key issue we face today. This should be a political focus, a spiritual focus, and a psychological focus of all our current endeavors. Doing what we can to stop this destruction before it is too late.
METAL GAIA ARTICLES
Earth Day Realities and Environ-metal – Change is Needed Before We Reach The Point of No Return
The Era of Fake Reform. When Will We Actually Fight for the Planet?
RESOURCES
Humans Are Paving the Way for a Sixth Major Mass Extinction (World Future Fund)
Neil deGrasse Tyson scolds cherry picking climate science (CNN YouTube)
Sixth mass extinction: The era of ‘biological annihilation’ (CNN, 7-11-17)
Earth’s worst-ever mass extinction of life holds ‘apocalyptic’ warning about climate change, say scientists (Independent, 3-24-17)
Study: We’ve wiped out half the world’s wildlife since 1970 (VOX, 9-30-14)
Are We in the Midst Of a Sixth Mass Extinction? (New York Times, 6-1-12)
Extinction Threat, A Call to World Leaders at Rio Earth Summit: (CNN World News, 6-20-12)
According to the article above: 41% of amphibians, 25% of mammals, 13% of birds, 30% of conifers and 20% of all plants are all threatened with extinction.
One in Five Mammals Threatened With Extinction (Common Dreams, 11-3-09)
The survival of 17,921 species is in jeopardy.
Almost 50% Of The World’s Primates Are In Danger Of Extinction (CNN, 8-5-08)
Habitat destruction as well as hunting are the greatest threats to primates today.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s Will to Power
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche is probably one of the most influential and misunderstood philosophers in history. And sadly, he didn’t even attract much fame until the part of his life where he started to lose his mental faculties and go insane.
In this post I will not cover the entire history of Nietzche or his writings. But I would like to explain one of his most famous concepts, a conception that revolutionized thought on philosophy, religion and politics — his “will to power.”
The will to power describes what Nietzche believed was the main driving force of human life. He did not believe it was a struggle for survival, as philosophers posited in the past. He believed it was the struggle for power — achievement, ambition, and the striving to reach the highest possible position in life. It can be argued that human beings do not wage war or create art or write books merely so they can survive, but the greater reason, is so they can gain and enforce their own power. And this is not only just a struggle in human life, but it is the perennial struggle of nature itself.
Part of the reason why Nietzche is so important, when it comes to the history of thought in Western civilization, is because his works urge people to question what was the accepted morality of the time. Of what actually is morally true, and of what actually is a good pursuit in life.
Master Morality vs. Slave Morality: A key concept in the works of Nietzche is slave morality and master morality (On the Genealogy of Morality). Master morality values pride and power, while slave morality values things like meekness and humility. Master morality weighs actions on good or bad consequences (i. e., classical virtues and vices, consequentialism), unlike slave morality, which weighs actions on a scale of good or evil intentions (e. g, Christian virtues and vices, Kantian deontology).
Controversy: Friedrich Nietzsche is controversial because the Nazis were great fans of his work. But would he actually have supported them if he was alive in the 1930s?
The exact ideology of Friedrich Nietzsche is difficult at times to pin down. But in the context of the time he was alive, Nietzsche was not an anti-semite. According to Robert Holub, in Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem, Nietzsche recoiled from the crude excesses of Richard Wagner’s antisemitism and even had extremely positive remarks about the Jewish community that would probably be characterized as a form of racism in modern times (for the use of stereotyping), but would have been considered pro-Jewish at the time.
When Nietzsche referred to the “blond beast at the core of all noble races,” many people believe he was actually talking about lions rather than fair-haired Europeans. After all, check out this quote:
“One cannot fail to see at the bottom of all these noble races the beast of prey, the splendid blond beast, prowling about avidly in search of spoil and victory; this hidden core needs to erupt from time to time, the animal has to get out again and go back to the wilderness: the Roman, Arabian, Germanic, Japanese nobility, the Homeric heroes, the Scandinavian Vikings–they all shared this need.”
There’s not many blond Arab or Japanese folk — so I think it’s pretty evident he was talking about lions.
One of the reasons why Nietzsche came to be associated with Nazis is because his sister, unlike him, was a protonazi. They even grew apart when she married a former high school teacher who had become a prominent German nationalist and antisemite. Yet in the years when Friedrich Nietzsche started to lose his sanity, his sister became his caretaker, curator and the editor of his manuscripts. She reworked his unpublished writings to fit her own ideology, often in ways contrary to her brother’s stated opinions. And when she died in 1935, Adolf Hitler attended her funeral.
Nietzsche and Black Power? While many people associate Nietzsche with Hitler, there are very few who would associate him with the Black Power movement in America. Yet Huey P. Newton, one of the key founders of the Black Panther Party, was an avid fan of Nietzsche. He found his writings, The Will to Power and Beyond Good and Evil, especially influential.
Elaine Brown writes that, at Huey’s behest, the Party established a school for party leadership to attempt to acquaint them with broad philosophical ideas:
Now they were wondering about his ideological institute. I saw the questions as the local leadership cadres came trooping to Oakland from as far away as Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago for bi-monthly, two-day learning sessions led by Huey. Where was the stuff about the pigs, they seemed to ask, as we studied with not only Mao and Marx but Aristotle and Plato. Where was the stuff about urban guerrilla warfare? Their expressions conveyed, as Huey led us in discussions of the philosophies of Rousseau and Kant, [sic] Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, about existentialism and determinism and free will. I saw their faces when we examined and questioned the theories of capitalism and socialism and communism. Huey asking whether our systematic use of the tests of dialectical materialism meant anything. If, under a dialectical materialist analysis, nothing “stood outside” of the process, did that negate the process itself, he asked? (Brown 255-56)
The idea of the Will to Power is evident in the Newton’s article “Black capitalist”
When we coined the expression “All power to the people”, we had in mind emphasizing the word “power” for we recognize that the will to power is the basic drive of man. But it is incorrect to seek power over people. We have been subjected to the dehumanizing power of exploitation and racism for hundreds of years; and the Black community has its will to power also. What we seek, however, is not power over people, but the power of control of our own destiny. (Newton 227)
As a Nietzschean, Newton knew that only power could influence change, and direct it along its desired course.
Nietzsche also played a critical role in getting people to question the established norms and morality of their time. In America, when Africans were brought here and enslaved, they were taught Christian morality, and taught to embrace the meekness, humility and pacifism encouraged by what Nietzsche saw as a “slave morality.” Via the Black Power movement, many African Americans started to question those values, and see the pursuit of power as a road to real change.
Importance in the Pagan Community: The ideas of Nietzsche are obviously of great import to the modern pagan community. He questioned the Judeo-Christian morals of good versus evil that came to define the West. Paganism — in my opinion — is a religion and set of values less concerned with good and evil, and more concerned with virtues like courage, honesty, integrity and the ability to hone one’s inner power though magic or ritual.
Nietzsche is a fascinating character supported by movements on both the left and the right. You can love him or hate him, but you cannot deny the importance of his writings and their effect on history.
QUOTES
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Without music, life would be a mistake.
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
LINKS
An Introduction to Midsummer for Heathens
The Summer Solstice will be upon us soon. June 21st (in the Northern hemisphere). Midsummer is one of the most important holy days in Heathenry. The time of year when the great sun goddess, Sunna, rides her great chariot to the highest she can manage. When the sun shines upon the Earth like no other time.
During this time, many people from all over the world would celebrate the summer solstice, being the longest day of the year. This was a time of merriment, celebration, trade, prosperity, and for Vikings, a time for raiding.
Metal Gaia 