But Seriously Primadonna By Marina And The Diamonds Is One Of The Best Pop Songs Ever Fathomed And Constructed

Im just feeling a certain way rn

THE GODS ARE NOT THEIR MYTHS —

I'd like to begin by stating that all religions have mythos. Christianity has the bible, Islam has the Quran, etc. That is to say, that most of these religions are centered in mythic literalism, as portrayed in their sacred texts.

The mythology surrounding the Gods, since we do not hold a sacred book, has been written by worshippers, for other worshippers, rather than prophets.

While myths may paint the Gods with human-like flaws, these narratives are symbolic, representing aspects of the human experience and the natural world rather than literal truth. The gods embody ideals, fears, and cultural values of ancient Greece, serving as a mirror to humanity's own complexities. In essence, the myths are not factual accounts but rather rich, allegorical tales that reveal deeper truths about existence, morality, and the cosmos, used by the ancients in order to make more sense of the divine, in their own perspective of the world.

We must also remember that whilst a lot of the subjects in these myths do include traits deemed unacceptable in our modern world, the ancients had different values and beliefs that were seen as "acceptable" or at least normative in their societies. Thus, we cannot place modern morals onto ancient writings.

Often times, people look down upon worshippers of the Gods, due to the mythology and the "horrible acts" they've committed, but this limited view embodies, again, mythic literalism, which is not present in Hellenic Mythology.

Instead, we must look outside of these myths for evidence of the Gods; both in the lives of the ancients, and in our own.

// short one today, because i could speak about this topic for ages, but i don't want to bore you all too much.

“nobody is making you do this” i am driven by unnatural forces you will never even begin to comprehend

the picrew of dorian gray

google docs HATES them! writer has a style that actually sounds like someone talking, not like a perfectly grammatically correct robot!

**I don’t mean which has the most trans characters/characters headcanoned as trans. I mean, which novel, as a whole, captures the trans experience the most. Which can be read the easiest as an allegory for being trans**

i walked into seekL because of a mystery masked man and walked out with pseudo-SQL knowledge i love dating sims

Mitski, "I'm Your Man" | Aesop, The Wolf and the Lamb | Susitse.art, Parasite | Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena | Konstantin Korobov, Agnus

I don't know if I just haven't encountered it yet, but I haven't really seen anyone talking about or acknowledging something that's neither Unverified Personal Gnosis or Shared Personal Gnosis, but rather a third thing: Personal Group Gnosis.

PGG emerges from a small group of people having similar experiences to each other, which may or may not resemble anything that people outside of the group are experiencing.

This isn't inherently a bad thing. But among those who lack critical thinking skills, it can lead to some real trouble if they conclude that their similar experiences means that they're uncovering an actual objective truth, regardless of whether it's congruent with anything anyone outside of the group is experiencing.

One thing that many people fail to account for is the fact that they and their group generally share many of the same preconceptions and biases. For example, a group of younger Wiccans are very likely to believe in now-debunked ideas such as the great goddess hypothesis and the witch cult hypothesis. They'll believe in the existence of pagan gods, but they'll probably have a Christian-influenced understanding of divinity and morality, with little to no comprehension of the role that animism played in the development of pre-Christian traditions, nor with any real appreciation for how different values influenced the stories that people told about gods and other spirits.

They might even be exposed to similar media, which gives them all similar ideas about gods, spirits, and history. Even if they don't directly engage with the most popular media, it can still reach them through second or third hand exposure.

They're also likely reading the same spiritual, occult, and esoteric writers; or at least, reading people who have very similar ideas to one another.

And finally, since they're most likely friends and therefore trust each other, they are naturally biased toward accepting each other's experiences as valid, and working them into their own mental maps of the spiritual or metaphysical world.

In short, they're all primed to have very similar experiences to each other.

Without awareness that exposure to similar ideas can influence similar mystical experiences, it's very easy for a small group like this to generate a sort of shared map of reality that they feel justified in regarding as absolutely, objectively true.

It's at this point that people begin to feel confident telling you that if you just talked to your gods about what they're claiming, your gods would absolutely confirm them to be true. And if they don't, you were never really talking to those gods.

Having one's entire internal map of reality dictated by Personal Group Gnosis can be incredibly dangerous. It alienates you from the rest of the world by making you feel as if the only people you can trust are those who agree with your PGG. It can make you see outsiders as spiritually inferior, especially if they disagree with you outright. It can even encourage conspiracy thinking, because attributing what outsiders believe (or apparently believe) to the actions of a malicious conspiracy is a very common rationalization.

In other words, this is how you get a cult.

Now, a lot of people won't recognize it as a cult (and some will vehemently deny it's a cult) because it might not have a clear leader (though there's almost certainly a small number of people who have the most influence), and it probably doesn't have a financial goal. However, the destructive capacities of small groups of people living in their own reality cannot be denied. Members who don't go along with the group's accepted model of reality are often treated harshly, and are frequently targets for harassment. They may say that if you don't like it you can just leave, but let's be real, that's no simple matter if you believe that these are the only people with a real grip on reality, or if these people are basically your only friends, or even just your only friends who share your spiritual beliefs.

(If you're in this kind of situation? My advice is to start making more friends outside of this group. You don't have to cut yourself off from this group cold turkey; you can just start hanging out with other people more.)

Now, I'd like to emphasize that none of this is to say that PGG is inherently bad; I am only pointing out that it can be incredibly dangerous for people who lack knowledge, perspective, and critical thinking skills. Additionally, a group where there's a lot of this going on can be very dangerous for those who desperately just want to belong and get along, and push themselves to adopt their groups popular beliefs for fear of consequences.

Just like a single person's UPG doesn't dictate reality for everyone, neither does a single group's gnosis. PGG isn't inherently any better or more "correct" than UPG.