Joy

Look, we love a skid making an effort.

AND who's not! I'm on there! I mostly read other people's stuff! I am not influential! Like, you have to be REALLY committed to the bit to sweep me up in this, I feel.

Still and all, an honor to share a malicious blocklist with such fine folks.

I appreciated the running theme of time/the afterlife making enemies into (possibly 'really good', I'm looking at you, Theseus and Asterion) friends - see also Sisyphus and Bouldy.

...and I really like the moments where that very much *doesn't* happen, too.

Amanda Seyfried as Mother Ann Lee in the Testament of Ann Lee. Seyfried is leaning into frame from the right, in profile, staring straight ahead, with one arm thrown out, hand spread wide open.

...it was this or Jane Eyre

EXCELLENT. I shall ensure my scorpion flail is nice and sharp.

Will snakes in hair/as belts be permissible? I know it's crossing the streams a bit, but these are important questions.

And...I love this framing for the legacy of the Shakers. "Mother's grace, mother's virtues raining down on her children" also feels appropriate, and I hope Ann Lee is pleased, if not, perhaps, satisfied.

OH GOTCHA. Yes, then. Unqualified yes.

as a base for 12/24 things. Not that this is unusual, really, in the grand scheme of traditions, even Post-Reformation Christianities. I suppose I just like a lot of Shaker theology and praxis better than other forms of charismatic/ecstatic Protestantism.

I don't *understand*-understand this, but my tiny bit of searching around it has me inclined to agree with you.

...AND I think one of the most compelling things, to me, about the Shakers in this respect is the whole-hearted integration of, I guess, World 48 things - physical body things -

This brushes right up against my own strengthening determination to prioritize Doing Helpful Things That May Or May Not Be Remembered and not give in to the lingering Gifted Kid desire to Be The Most Specialest.

I think about you, and the ways you serve your community, a lot in relation to this.

Owwwww.

Well done. Extremely well done.

Seriously. Those early Shakers could have had me - communal ecstasy might well be worth the sacrifices.

My second place goes to *Bridge to Terebithia*, as a girl whose best friend in my neighborhood was a boy, and as a girl who loved Narnia. I think that was the first book that I cried real tears about.

*A Wrinkle in Time* is unquestionably first place for me, too. In addition to the larger, less concrete things, it also gave me tidbits of information (Ananda, the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, an understanding of dimensions) that served as touchstones/signposts for me later on.

Following it up with some crashing *O, Fortuna* didn't hurt, either. Bombastic banishing, for the eternal win.

Wide eyes, no thoughts, can't lose.

america I'm putting my queer fingers to the screen

This is so deeply validating to me. The number of times I have wondered this, and then dismissed it as being a super lightweight are... statistically significant.

🤝 My CPE cohort was impressed that the pagan was the one who knew the majority of the words to "Bringing in the Sheaves"

...I didn't tell them about my Bacchic reworking of "The Leaves Of Life"

...and no glare. For comfort.

MORE CUTE GIRL CUDDLES AND GAY CRIMES.

Search Results for “kybele” – The Serpent and the Tree By the water, beneath the tree, come and spin and dance with me.

OH AND I see you're following her, but if you haven't peeked at Ariana Serpentine's work (on Kybele and Dionysos, via her website: serpentandtree.wordpress.com?s=kybele, and on gender via her book *Sacred Gender*), you might find those helpful, too!

Finally, here's some of the sources - just in case you're not using theoi.com yet! It's my go-to starting point for reminding myself What The Texts Actually Say and untangling my own interpretation/gnosis.

www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dio...

I think it's particularly striking that Euripedes brings this up in the *Bacchae*. Your interpretation of Attis's castration as a horrible act that also serves as an invitation makes me think on Pentheus's fate in a similar way.

So, you're already looking in the Orphic direction, which is where I tend to play, too.

It's a relatively late attestation, but it feels so important to me that Kybele-Rhea is the one who heals Dionysos-Sabazius of the madness Hera inflicted, and taught him the mysteries of initiation.

Maybe knowledge in a different direction - I wouldn't say *more*!

I'm refraining from gleefully infodumping things you probably already know at you, and I expect you have folks you're closer with to share your process/thoughts with, but if you do need an enthusiastic ear for this, I'm here for it.

It's deeply adjacent to my own Dionysian feelings, and the ways those inform my actions as community clergy, and is very much the sort of thing I want to support there being more of in the world.

Thank you for sharing this. So much.

Top 10 all-time favorite vocalists? Off the top of my head...

Florence Welch
June Tabor
Maddy Prior
Amy Ray
Nina Simone
Jason Molina
Damien Rice
Mary Fahl
Azam Ali
Jeff Buckley