Aphrodite And The Golden Apple

2500 years old statue of Aphrodite

Satan as the Fallen Angel

Painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) in red, white, and black chalk, this creation of phenomenal artistic mastery is a part of a larger group of art pieces. The full collection consists of six different paintings depicting scenes and characters from Milton's Paradise Lost. One is currently at the Royal Academy of Arts, one at Louvre, one in Private Collection, and two are lost.

Satan in this depiction stands in his full humanised glory - imagery typical of the late 18th century Romanticism when the fallen angel lost his beastly, animalistic appearance in art. His features here remind one more of David or Apollo Belvedere in his majestic, heavenly beauty caught right before the fall.

My faith in the gods comes in waves. There are times when I feel so dedicated, so full of love that I get emotional just thinking about the gods. Then there are other times where I feel so disconnected to them that they may as well solely be the statues on their altars - unknowable.

I've come to realize that it's ok for my faith to be so inconsistent. It's not required for us to have 100% of our faith 100% of the time. The gods understand that, like most things in life, faith comes in wave, receding back just to return in full force soon after.

So, it's ok if you feel disconnected. It's ok if you feel faithless. Give yourself time, and things will improve.

This post is for the person who grew up learning no one would help them so they had to do things on their own, who doesn't want to burden people with their problems, who feels like they should be able to handle things on their own, who is having a hard time, who is depressed, who feels alone and like the Gods are far away.

Sometime we're the ones who put that distance between ourselves and the Gods without even realizing it. It can feel silly to pray sometimes, especially if it's over something we think isn't a big deal, but They still want to hear from us, especially if we're struggling.

Detail of Lemminkäinen At The Fiery Lake, Sketch by Robert Wilhelm Ekman (1867)

a giant lamp / of light, it is voltage, / it is more like a lantern / than like a house poem excerpt, stephen ackerman source image

me to mother earth: we totally deserve what’s coming to us but are you ok

apollo + art

Διονυσος <3

genuinely people act like working with both angels (and other similar figures) and demons is some sort of almighty wrong for both parties

but may i gently suggest that they're less about being at each other's throats all the time and more about understanding that someone's spirituality can be extremely complex?

idk, i genuinely believe both demons and angels are above the idea of "pick a side". if someone wants to work with angels and demons, i don't think it's going to be this almighty attack on who they work with

you really don't have to complicate things any further than saying a person can work with two different entities. whether it's angels, demons, saints, gods, spirits... they're not gonna hate you for working with two or more different kinds of spirits out there. they really aren't.