Tag: Gnosticism

Just read that essay you reblogged and, Christ is Sophia’s Aeon partner? I never realized that I didn’t know who her partner was because she just did everything herself. As the wise and beloved Witch of Gnosticism, could you confirm?

dahniwitchoflight:

to be fair, its because Sophia doing everything by herself is the cause of all the problems lol so it gets the most notoriety. She was supposed to do everything/creation with her partner/paired concept, just like all Aeons are supposed to, so she has a partner in all gnostic myths, but the problem is she just never uses him lol

anyway, to answer your question, yes and no, kinda but not really

because Sophia’s Partner Aeon is often called Theletos or Christos, but oftentimes is paired with other aeons called Nous or Anthropos

Theletos/Christos/Anthropos are meant to represent the idea of “mankind” like how Sophia represents the idea of “church/wisdom” and their union in cosmology was meant to be like a parable about how Mankind and the Church should be “married” together and produce things together and etc

like, basically think of all natural Aeon pairs as Married Hetero couples, things meant to be in “male”/”female” unions who produce things together

what complicates things though is that Christ as in Jesus Christ the actual human person was considered a different Aeon who’s natural partner was the Aeon called “the Holy Spirit” and these guys were like, the lowest of the rungs of Aeons

and basically the reason everything is complicated is because different Gnostic practices considered Different Aeons married to eachother or lower or higher up in the Hierarchy, especially Sophiua’s partner, he’s constantly changing

and because people like to equate Sophia/Church/Holy Spirit and Nous/Logos/Anthropos/Mankind/The Word/Jesus Christ into these hodgepodges of symbolisms, even when they really should be and are kinda seperate concepts

and also because people see the word “Christos” and immediatealy assume they mean Jesus Christ, not some other dude who happens to share his last name who isnt even really a dude hes and aeon and even though he represents the Idea of Mankind, he’s not exactly human shaped

Jesus Christ the person is always explicitly a human man born of a human woman (and god)

Aeons are not humans and have nothing to do with humans and existed before Humans were ever a thing

but also sometimes Jesus Christ the man IS also an Aeon, just not the Aeon that Sophia’s partner is

its, complicated and inconsistent lol

aaaaa this is fascinating and im never going to be done researching this stuff. I would love your take on how it seems to me that the Sophia/Christ link is presented in Homestuck if/when you have the time, feel free to shoot me a message on discord about it! (dont wanna say too much about that publically until im sure about it) 

merrywetherweather:

i think i just realized something pretty interesting about the retconned timeline and why adding vriska onto the meteor somehow “magically” solved some problems.

so, right before she was killed in the game over timeline kanaya right hooks her into realizing her latent lesbianism:

because this event happened in both timelines, people maybe forgot, but vriska essentially just developed a red crush on her old moirail. so she tries to get close with her again and tries to sneak herself into the time kanaya’s been spending with rose.

and at some point she’s gotta notice these two are becoming an item and she just accepts that her crush is crushing on someone else, but then…

rose, her crush’s crush, fucking ditches kanaya on their supposed first date. instead, vriska finds her drinking soporifics and she’s just livid. “WH8T ARE YOU DOING???????? WEREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO MEET UP WITH HER? YOU’RE THE ONE THAT M8KES HER HAPPY AND YOU CHOSE THIS SHIT INSTEAD OF BEING WITH HER?”

what im getting at here is that adding vriska didn’t just magically fix rose’s drinking problem or that vriska was just butting into other people’s affairs so they could be ready for the approaching big battle. she wouldn’t have actually thought it was a problem since there’s a cultural gap between humans and trolls when it comes to alcohol abuse. in the game over timeline karkat said the drinking made rose “more charming than usual” and didnt understand why it was a problem. i think that her motivations for getting involved with rose’s issue in particular was strictly because she didn’t like how rose was treating someone she had feelings for after she had resigned herself to not confess because she realized kanaya already had feelings for rose.

I sort of think this reading is made way stronger by the stuff I think I just uncovered which has me literally abuzz with excitement. I’m not sure if its EXACTLY like this but…it sounds resonant. Theres something real here and I think I can prove it. 

hello! I just wanted to take the time to say that I very much admire the insight and essays you offer to the Homestuck fandom! it’s incredibly refreshing and enlightening to read about things from such a distinct and detailed viewpoint such as yours. I haven’t been too active in this fandom for a little while now, but since discovering your blog I feel as though I’m learning so much more about things. thank you so much for your amazing intellectual contributions!

Thank you, that means a lot. My contributions are mostly only the sum of all the awesome people that have influenced me and talked to me and expanded my ideas of what homestuck is about, so don’t praise me too much. What I produce is ultimately the byproduct of the community effort of the entire Homestuck fandom, in my view. 

Also, I’ve made some fascinating breakthroughs today. The stuff I’m going to write about soon has me extremely excited–fandom readings of Homestuck are going to come into a whole new extreme.

Also, just a mention? I’ve got like over 1000 followers now. If 1000 people decided to throw me a buck on patreon, I could immediately work on content full time at way higher quality than what I currently am capable of. I’m not like begging or whatever but if you like what I do then I want people to know there’s a lot more of it than I have any hope of being able to put out quickly enough to my satisfaction at my current rate, so. Spreading me around so more people know about what I’m up to would really help me out. And not to be smug but I think it’ll lead to a healthier overall fandom, too. 

People who liked the Gamzee post I just put out and my post on Dammek are in for an unprecedented ride soon. I hope I’ve built up enough credibility in this audience’s eyes that my being bold enough to say so will have you guys excited and hopeful for it, instead of just making me come off like an arrogant tool. Anyway, I’m really excited, personally.

See you guys soon. Keep rising. 

OFF-THE-CUFF HOMESTUCK POSTS #6: THE TRAGEDY (AND SECRET TRIUMPH) OF JADE HARLEY, OR: THE GNOSTIC GARDENER

betweengenesisfrogs:

DISCLAIMER       FRAMEWORK

[CHECK THE TAG FOR MORE THOUGHTS]

[Note: Content warning for brief mention of sexual abuse and longer discussion of perceived suicide and associated thoughts.]

Let’s talk about Jade Harley.

A common feeling I’ve seen about the final chapters of Homestuck is that Jade Harley deserved better, that she suffered completely unfairly and arbitrarily in the final timeline.

I actually completely agree. Jade *absolutely* deserved better. Where I disagree is with the argument that Jade’s suffering somehow shows Hussie is a bad writer.

I think it’s important to recognize that good storytelling isn’t always the same thing as happy storytelling. Some stories or parts of stories are *about* suffering. They’re tragedy, a form of storytelling I’d define as an examination of a negative set of events: why they took place, why the characters involved couldn’t escape them. Done well, this can be as meaningful as any happy ending.

I mean, there’s a reason a bunch of Greeks wanted to watch a series of plays about a guy who accidentally marries his mother and then stabs his eyes out.

So when we’re talking about good storytelling in Homestuck, i.e.: whether character arcs reach meaningful catharsis, we have to bear in mind that the bad shit that happens to our characters is sometimes the very subject of the story.

In other words, yes, Jade Harley deserved better.

That’s the *entire point.*

Now, that said, I actually think Jade does have a happy ending, and a damn cathartic one. But we need to understand the unfair suffering she went through to understand why.  What I find fascinating about Jade’s arc is that she confronts the tragic, suffering-causing aspects of SBURB and the domain of Lord English more directly than any other character and finds a way to become free of them. It’s not that her suffering was in any way merited or right, it’s that by rejecting that unfairness, she finds incredible self-affirmation, freedom, and escape in a way that makes her the most direct manifestation of Homestuck’s Gnostic themes.

In the causes of her suffering, and in how that suffering is overcome, Jade Harley is the key to the deeper meanings of Homestuck.

Keep reading

I love this post so goddamn much and also, I LOVE JADE HARLEY SO GODDAMN MUCH, GOD

Please read this!!! Holy hell, Ari makes connections between Grandpa and Jade’s greater experiences here I hadn’t even begun to consider and it is blowing my mind, aughhh i love jade and jake my heart hurts 

revolutionaryduelist:

[4. Gnostic Myth –
Literally fucking everything. A Non-Exhaustive review.]

It’s honestly kind of weird to me how skeptical people are on this point, so before we dive deeper, let’s recap the sheer breadth of references to Gnosticism in Homestuck. 

Keep reading

Here’s our last essay in this series, covering quite a bit more of Homestuck’s gnostic influences and taking a look at what they mean for the execution of Act 7. This undercurrent has been pretty fascinating to uncover, particular for contextualizing Lord English, so if nothing else I hope you enjoy reading and letting me know what you think!

[Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

See you all again soon.

Keep Rising.

Here’s a theory* that need to gain more traction:

classesandaspects:

classofaspect:

The binary system of Aspects is wrong! Just completely unable to be true.

Why? Because Aspects aren’t one single thing that matches up neatly with one other singular Aspect. Parts of the Aspects will of course make neat little parallels, or opposites. But the WHOLE Aspect? No, not a chance.

Example: Void! (I love Void, you can’t help but love your own Aspect, I feel) Void is described as primarily the essence of Lack, but also of Obfuscation. It’s often paired with Light, and on some notes I agree! Part of Void is “Lack of Clarity/Knowledge” and part of Light is “Knowledge/Understanding”**. Nice and clear opposites!

But, and here’s where a lot of Classpect*** theories start to fall apart: Void is not described and cannot reasonably assumed to be “Lack of Fortune”. You can’t really just put “lack” in front of a word and make it – Tah Dah! – Void-y. Likewise, Light isn’t described as “the essence of being”. On these facets, the comparison makes no sense! So saying that “Light is just Not!Void” as an end all be all of the conversation is just…not true.

But you know what is the opposite of Void’s “nothing”? Space! and that’s something you never see mentioned: Space is sometimes an opposite, sometimes intermingled with Void!

This kind of component-based analysis of Aspects make so so so much more comprehensive, it’s such a better tool to describe Aspects (or just in general).

And it makes for so many really interesting comparisons! Light and Rage have a few stark similarities! Hope and Void do too, in some ways! Time and Doom. Blood and Time. Space and Life. Breath and Heart. Heart and Time. There’s lots of similar or “opposite” facets of these Aspects, and they are usually lost if you’re only concerned about “yeah, but whats the nega-Breath? What’s the anti-Mind? What’s the bizarro-Hope?”

* There’s two theories, this one and the one I’m railing against lol
** I see Light as more of “Interpretation” as a core, and “Fortune” as a semi-related concept.
*** Probably could have changed this to “classpect theorists” meh

It’s not only the opposites between aspects but the similarities that are missed with the Aspect Duality system.  Space is related to Life via frog breeding.  Space is opposed by Hope via their female/male and successful/failed sexuality, respectively.  Void is opposed by both Light and Space, as described by OP – and also that the symbol of Void consists of the “voids” within the Space symbol (I’m p sure this was confirmed by Hussie, but I can’t find a source) – yet Light and Space don’t seem to have much of anything in common of either opposites or similarities.  Life and Breath are also the same symbol, turned sideways, and Doom and Time both have the gear motif in their symbols in addition to their general themes of death and inevitability.

Unfortunately, it’s also difficult to isolate the influence of the Aspects from the individual characters.  Space is female sexuality through frog breeding, Rosemary, and Porrim’s red flings – basically the only successful flush relationships in the entire comic – but then again the Maryams are both Virgo, and Jade hasn’t had a successful relationship yet.  Life and Breath seem related through their perseverance and ability to keep moving forward, but then again so are Jane and John.  Same with Heart and Time, due to Dirk and Dave.  And hell, same with Void and Light as opposites, due to Roxy and Rose.

There are some Aspects that work well in opposing pairs.  Space and Time, obviously, and even more so since that’s one of the pairs Hussie started with (the other being Light and Breath). (<– Rachel also says inversion isn’t a thing at that link.)  I also think that Heart and Mind are solid opposites, despite seriously disagreeing with the way that most of the fandom jumped to the emotion vs logic, duh!!! conclusion and rarely looks further.

But a few pairs doesn’t prove the existence of the entire system.

If you guys don’t mind me chiming in, I have a bit of a counterpoint.
I basically agree that there are all sorts of resonances between the Aspects, and that the focus on the established binaries tends to make people miss them.
I think this is unfortunate because we definitely lose a lot of depth that way. 

However, the pairs themselves are still real. I would not describe them as opposites, but rather as specifically dichotomous or, better yet, complementary, as Tex Talks describes them.  

This is because I don’t think that, for example, Void lacking a connotation of misfortune (an idea I’d argue against anyway) means that Void does not present an existential counterpoint to Light. The symmetries don’t have to be perfectly exact to paint a compelling picture in the broad strokes.

But more on that later.

Since you quoted softowl, I may as well mention that in an exchange with Bladekindeyewear where she debunked Inversion theory, she actually agreed with him about the aspect pairs themselves. 

i DO say u can arrange aspects in contrasting or dichotomous pairs. however, i DON’T think that has an impact into how acting against one’s class manifests.

i think you were typing this as I was typing my reply to myself!! i essentially agree with what you’ve just said, up to and including the pairs. it’s where you take it a step further that i disagree. http://www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/2ik4as/was_this_theory_debunked_or_did_this_guy_know/cl3bbj8

And in the quote you linked to from her, there’s an interesting little tidbit of information.

Andrew said that he started with Light and Breath, and then Time and Space, as the things you need for creation. Light and Breath being the more metaphysical concepts (especially influenced by Western canon/Christian thought, given that that’s deeply fused to our culture), Time and Space being the more quantifiable ones.

Which actually suggests more strongly than anything that there are indeed Aspect pairs, given the source Hussie was drawing on. I’ll be posting an essay on this on Monday so I’m not gonna go into much depth here, but I’m talking about the Gnostic concept of Aeons.  

Gnosticism is pretty much a conglomerate of obscure Christian mystic and alternative spiritual practices, and it is definitely part of the canon softowl references, since it’s where Abraxas and Yaldabaoth get their names and theres all sorts of other references to it in the story.

The Gnostic gist is that, n the “Nothing” before Creation, the One True God/Source of Light and Knowledge emanates a series of Idea-Gods known as “Aeons”. These Aeons were created in pairs, and were meant to create reality by working together “in harmony”.

So what you’ve got is beings of God-like power, bonded in pairs, who together create all of reality, yet exist entirely as Ideas rather than existing as concrete, physical entities. And Ideas are essentially what the Aspects are–conveyed as they are entirely through symbols, color and thought rather than specific language or concrete physicality. 

As with Yin-Yang’s applicability to the Active/Passive spectrum and Classes, the Gnostic concept of Aeons seems to be the closest analogue to Homestuck I’ve seen yet, so I think it’s worth bringing up here. Understanding the Aspects as akin to Gods also sort of helps me imagine how they might be understood to have “Wills” of any sort, as Calliope implies. 

As with the last one, hope this helps or that you found it interesting!

revolutionaryduelist:

[3. Earthbound – The two Yaldabaoths,
Dramatic Tension & The Diegetic Reader (That’s You!)]

[Spoilers for Earthbound:Beginnings, Earthbound, & Mother 3]

Most know by now that Earthbound is referenced every time we say the word “Homestuck”. It’s built into the name:
To be Stuck at Home. To be Bound to Earth. 

And fittingly for a reference which such pervasive impact on our understanding of the comic, Homestuck styles itself as a spiritual successor to Earthbound in a number of ways. 

Both Earthbound and Homestuck begin with a set of four kids who go on an adventure together. Both feature kids with psychic powers, friendship, and the meaning of growing up. 

But there are three particular similarities to Homestuck that I want to present you with here. In these three areas, Homestuck and Earthbound/Mother are notably alike:

The Characters:

1) Both feature a unique execution of dramatic tension and narrative stakes for the characters.  

The Player:

2) Engage in heavily metatextual, diegetic relationships between the World/Story and The Player/Reader. 

The Antagonists:

3) Are God-Like, Authoritarian powers that cannot engage with ideas. In other words, they operate as Yaldabaoths.

These antagonists are who I want to talk about first. We will proceed from number 3 up to number 1, talking about the context of the games and tying it into the comic further as we go.

I’ll ask you to be patient with me if you don’t see much about Homestuck at first–there’s a lot of setup work to do. 

Without further ado, let’s begin.

Keep reading

Here’s the next essay in this series on Homestuck’s use of thematic reference.
This time, we go over the latter two MOTHER games, Earthbound and Mother 3, to see what they can tell us about the themes Homestuck builds up. 

These games are near and dear to my heart, so I hope you enjoy this essay!

[Master Post]

[Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

Keep Rising.

Part #3: Earthbound & Mother 3 — – optimisticDuelist – Medium

Here’s the medium version of this essay.

This time, we go over the latter two MOTHER games, Earthbound and Mother 3, to see what they can tell us about the themes Homestuck builds up. 

These games are near and dear to my heart, so I hope you enjoy this essay!

[Master Post]

[Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

Keep Rising.

Part #3: Earthbound & Mother 3 — – optimisticDuelist – Medium