lady-boa - Tumblr blog

lady-boa · 4 months

Text

Hey friends,

I feel super awkward doing this, but I have to get my cats fixed in a few days otherwise my landlord won’t let me keep them anymore.

And I really can’t afford to get them fixed, so I’m just asking for help. My babies mean everything to me and I can’t mentally handle even the thought of having to give them up.

I got my first cat shortly after my dad died a couple years ago for emotional support, and he is my entire world. My second cat I got a few months ago and he just fills in a piece that felt like it was missing, for both myself and my older cat. And I can’t imagine ever going without them.

So please, if you’re able to, I need the help. I need these boys so much.

#help #venmo #donations #financial help #financial services #percy jackson #pjo #heroes of olympus #apollo #percy jackon and the olympians #perpollo #nico di angelo #will solace #solangelo #percy jackson and the olympians #uNOPEia #cats #cats of tumblr

60 notes · View notes

lady-boa · 1 year

Text

I feel like someone is standing next to me talking about how I'm dead

#Oh #queue?

195K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 1 year

Photo

#ok FINE #since it was the anniversary and ONLY because it was the anniversary 😂#MAY SCROLL BE UPON YE #Oh #queue?

6M notes · View notes

lady-boa · 2 years

Text

The thing I'm most uncomfortable with this going forward is, like, "the Queen of England" is such a major phrase that I don't think I'll be able to let go.

And like this isn't just me -- large parts of modern culture, songs, phrases, etc. are based on the understanding that the monarch of England is Queen. (What are the Sex Pistols gonna say, now? "His fascist... raging?") And with a relatively minor (and rather negative experience, at that) interruption in the middle, this has been the case for the past almost 200 years. This isn't something we can just CHANGE. I get that she was old and going to die, and if the monarchy was going to continue at all obviously they'd need to find some successor. But everything from that past few centuries makes "King whatever" absolutely incompatible with it.

So, like, obviously that's not an acceptable situation. Which leaves a clear solution

The Queen is Dead; Force-Fem the King

#current events #death of the queen #united kingdom #jamaica #Oh #queue?

14K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 2 years

Note

I think it's great your age still says 16 /t

fuck off <3

3 notes · View notes

lady-boa · 2 years

Text

#LITERALLY #Oh #queue?

80K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 2 years

Text

Types of “restless” dead, relatively active ghosts likely to manifest themselves (and convenient for magical exploitation):

1. Aoroi (from αωροσ, untimely): “those dead before their time.” Those cheated of their full stint of life bitterly stayed back to haunt the land of the living of which they had been deprived. In theory anyone who died of anything other than of natural causes in old age could generate a ghost restless qua aoros, although as a class aoroi tended to be conceptualized primarily as the ghosts of children or babies. 2. Bi(ai)othanatoi (from βιαιος and θανατος, violent and death): “those dead by violence.” The battle-dead and executed criminals, although murder victims and suicides provide the bitterest ghosts in this class. 3. Agamoi (from αγαμος, unmarried): “those dead before marriage.” Both male and female ghosts could be assigned this category, although the female ones were regarded as particularly bitter, insofar as marriage and the motherhood consequent upon it were a woman’s defining rights in antiquity. 4. Ataphoi (from αταφος, unburied): “those deprived of burial.” Whatever the circumstances of death, a ghost could not achieve rest without the due funeral rights. These were importantly distinct from the mere insertion of the corpse into a hole in the ground, and indeed the concealment of a dead body in precisely this way is often presented as the chief obstacle to the peace of its soul.

[Daniel Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds]

8K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 2 years

Text

48K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 3 years

Photo

231K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 3 years

Text

A guide to worship of Dionysus - cheat sheets

2K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 3 years

Photo

MAMMA MIA! (2008) “THE MAKING OF” FEATURETTE

8K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 3 years

Photo

Historically Sacred Items/Offerings to each of the Ouranic Theoi! I made this for my Hellenic polytheism group on discord, so I thought I’d share this information with all of you as well.

All information has been taken from theoi.com as well as various historical books on the gods, and I have decided to make this powerpoint so that other people don’t have to sift through all the pdfs and books themselves.

Make sure to click each image to get a fullview! Ευχαριστώ!

16K notes · View notes

lady-boa · 3 years

Text

Yes, I agree, which is why I never said to make one religion/all religions true. As I said above, you can make all of the characters co-exist together like real-life (as in, have the characters but not the gods), or you don’t. It really is a either or situation, either you dismiss all religions as the correct one and make these characters powered by belief/ have meta and lore explaining how everything ended up together, or you don’t include either the monotheistic religions or the polytheistic religions as they cannot co-exist in that context.

Jewish and Muslim children of gods & biblical figures

hello! this blog has been an amazing help as a white, pagan writer and i just wanted to say thank you for that!

i have a book i’ve been working on for about a year now, and the short summary is that it takes place in a world where if enough people believe in something existing, it does. from urban legends, cryptics, and religion.

the main story plot follows a group of teenagers who are the children of biblical figures (and later hellensism, since those are the religions i used to worship and now do), but several characters are different religions than that. i can’t believe it’s taken me so long to realize this, but isn’t it kinda… off? to have jewish and muslim characters be children of greek gods and biblical figures? i don’t want to completely erase that part of them, and its also stated in the story that the religions they believe in are true, also, but i’m neither muslim nor jewish, so i don’t want to just assume it’d be okay.

(also, for context, the plot causes such a diverse cast of characters. they are brought together because of they are their children, like percy jackson, i guess)

Here is a recent post that listed our concerns with inclusion of Jewish characters in settings where polytheism is literally true: Can Jewish authors write polytheistic settings?

One way I might fix the awkwardness of having the child of a “Greek god” convert to Judaism (lol backwards Chanukah?) is if, as in the linked post, the “gods” aren’t actually on the same level of divinity as the entity in our prayers, but are just like, mortal superbeings that just happen to have way more power than regular humans. As for biblical figures, well, there are tons of Jewish biblical figures so if you want to write fanfiction about them that’s legit, just do your research to make sure you’re using Jewish interpretations about them that aren’t filtered through Christian analysis. (And there are also Jewish characters in the New Testament.)

Honestly as a Jewish person I would not feel left out if I was not included in one of those polytheism-is-true stories. I may off-hand wonder where we fit into the worldbuilding, but that would be less distressing than some kind of depiction of being stubborn, wrongheaded, backward, and ignoring the reality in front of our faces, which is hard to avoid unless it’s clear the gods are just, as I said, mortal superbeings and not literally divine and on the same level as HaShem. Which would be the other way of making me cool with it.

–Shira

Shira’s answer covers most of it for me, but I did want to come back to this part:

>>it takes place in a world where if enough people believe in something existing, it does.

There are a couple of things about this that don’t seem quite compatible with our theology, at least as I’ve been taught it.

First of all, this seems to be suggesting that Hashem was created by humans, through their belief? I don’t love that. I pray multiple times a day to the ‘Master of the universe, Who reigned before any form was created.’ Proposing a deity that exists simply because people believe in it doesn’t answer many of the questions that religions set out to deal with, such as ‘How did we get here?’ and ‘What does it all mean?’ And it’s fundamentally not the God I pray to.

Secondly, although this is pretty much what Shira already said, I want to point out again that monotheism and polytheism are obviously not compatible, unless you add certain caveats. Our prayers and other sacred texts repeatedly emphasise the ultimate Oneness of Hashem. Judaism just can’t be right in a world where Hellenism is also right, unless you go with the Greek gods being nothing more than humans with superpowers. In the post that Shira linked to, we already talked about including Jewish characters in polytheism-as-fact settings, and we highlighted the diversity of Jewish opinions on this (Shira and Dierdra: Yes, IF…; me: Pass, BUT…). I thought this was important to bring up again, because this sounds like an ‘all religions are true’ story and I wanted to highlight that these are not as inclusive as they may at first sound. They’re actually very difficult to pull off respectfully. Usually (not always), people who write that kind of story are the folks who have never had to fight for their beliefs or have them seen as anything other than the norm.

Finally, I’m curious about what this premise means for racism and other bigotries. Many people believe in a type of monster called a Jew who controls government and finance and kills babies for fun. Does that exist in your story, too? I’m not saying you can’t go ahead with this premise, but just something to think about: maybe there should be some checks and balances on the it’s believed = it’s true thing.

On another note, as Shira touched on, I was confused by this part:

>> to have jewish and muslim characters be children of greek gods and biblical figures?

According to our own traditions, we are the descendants of Biblical figures? I’m not sure what you thought would be off about that, but it would be kind of cool to see a character being singled out Percy Jackson style because they were a descendant of Yitzchak and Rivka – as long as it was well-researched and executed in line with how we view these figures.

–Shoshi

The Muslim portion of this character is open to followers. Muslim mods are not active at the time of this answer. We’ll recruiting for more mods; Muslim writers, feel free to apply anytime! https://forms.gle/qywJmrwcZj3E28nh8

259 notes · View notes

lady-boa · 3 years

Text

You know, I’m gonna have to call you guys out on this one.

One way I might fix the awkwardness of having the child of a “Greek god” convert to Judaism (lol backwards Chanukah?) is if, as in the linked post, the “gods” aren’t actually on the same level of divinity as the entity in our prayers, but are just like, mortal superbeings that just happen to have way more power than regular humans.

No, you can’t.

First of all, remember that you were answering a pagan writer’s question, so you Have To look at their side of things and understand their religion. You completely dismissed their religion, using airquotes for “gods” as if mocking and saying they could never be gods and they’re just silly for saying this. Their gods (my gods) are Gods. They are. What you just said is that they aren’t, to worship them is silly, and that they are just mortal. You’re being offensive to the extreme. Pagans have their religion dismissed enough as it is, you can’t just say this.

Second of all, why the fuck would they have to convert? Religions can co-exist easily. Don’t we have real-life pagans and real-life Jewish and Muslims all co-existing at the same time? The story is about belief and faith. You can have Jewish characters who are descendants of biblical figures and characters who are children of greek gods in the same story without changing anyone. Make a Jewish character, make them eat kosher and pray and be a Jewish character, and have them say they believe in their god, and you can have a greek character smile and nod along because that’s how people are in real-life.

I thought this was important to bring up again, because this sounds like an ‘all religions are true’ story and I wanted to highlight that these are not as inclusive as they may at first sound.

this is also true. All religions do clash in one way or the other. How will you have a Greek Myth be right at the same time as a Norse Myth or a Christian Myth? are each divinity/pantheon of their own universe that has melded into one singular universe? What’s the inter-pantheon politics like? Is it the deities or the power of belief that gives them power? I would hesitate to even have a Percy Jackson style mix with different pagan gods together because they all contradict each other. That doesn’t mean to say you can’t do it, just that it will have to be very very carefully planned out, unless you go with what I said above and just have your characters exist for the sake of existing like real people do.

Usually (not always), people who write that kind of story are the folks who have never had to fight for their beliefs or have them seen as anything other than the norm.

I am once again reminding you that OP is pagan. They have had to fight for their beliefs. Paganism might have not been oppressed in the way Judaism has been, but it has still been oppressed. We aren’t Christianity, we aren’t some big religion who has been trying to wipe out all others for the past two thousand years, we have also been burnt alive for our beliefs. I’m not comparing the two oppressions, I am just pointing out that you are dismissing their struggles too.

I’m curious about what this premise means for racism and other bigotries.

You don’t have to include things in your story. Can the people who read it wonder about it? Sure. But nobody wants to read about bigotry without knowing they’re picking up a book just about bigotry. Can your story be grim-dark? Yes. Is it weird to have you guys responding to this Q wondering about it? Yes. There’s belief that pagans worship the devil and preform human sacrifice under the full moon, and you don’t have to add that in to ‘balance’ your story, wtf. TLDR; Religions can co-exist peacefully, don’t dismiss other’s religions and struggles, and you don’t have to write about dark things in your stories. Be inclusive and nice to each other ffs