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Hello, my loves. It’s been a while!
My name is Reaux (she/they), and I am a third-year senior psychology major and sociology minor at Howard University. But more than that, I am someone who has spent the last 8.5 years pouring my heart into something far greater than myself—something that has shaped me, challenged me, and, in many ways, saved me.
For nearly a decade, I ran Better Future Program, Inc. (BFP)—a global home for marginalized youth, dedicated to providing free educational resources, mutual aid, and a supportive space for disadvantaged communities. It was my heart, my purpose, my family. And through it, I learned some of the hardest and most painful lessons of my life.
Because even in the home we had built for ourselves, we could not escape white supremacy.
Even in a space meant for liberation, the burden of care, labor, and survival always fell on the backs of queer and disabled women of color.
Even in the work we cherished, we felt compelled to give until there was nothing left of us.
For nearly a decade, I carried BFP almost entirely on my own, save for a few volunteers of color who were just as exhausted, just as worn down. We tried everything—transformative justice, education, grace. We gave more chances than we had the capacity to give. And when those who harmed us refused to take accountability—when they twisted our care into something they could take from without giving back—we had to make the hardest decision of all.
We had to let BFP go.
Not just for survival, but for rebirth. Because I have learned that in order to grow into something greater, we must be willing to release what no longer serves us. As one podcaster I love, Ri Turner, says, expansion requires elimination—a truth that I have come to understand through both heartbreak and transformation.
So no, BFP is no longer. That name is in the past. But we, the youth, are still here. And we are building again—this time with boundaries and sustainability at the forefront, and a love ethic that refuses our consumption.
This is reclamation.
This is the Embodied Futures Collective (EFC).
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more about how we built something new from the ashes of what was. The lessons we carried, the changes we made, the ways we restructured our foundation so that what happened before never happens again.
But before I invite you inside, I need you to understand this: EFC is not just an organization.
It is the reason many of us are still here.
It is proof that we are more than what tried to implode us.
It is a love story—one written in survival, in care, and in an unshakable belief that we deserve more than just getting by, especially in our current political climate.
So, please, take my hand, and walk with us. We have so much to share with you! 🩷
Another reminder that Greek mythology is always somehow symbolic, metaphorical, allegorical, since we are dealing with anthropomorphic personifications and other embodiments of cosmic powers.
For example: Demeter has sex with both Zeus and Poseidon. Something-something about the relationship of the Earth with the Sky and the Sea (or the celestial and chthonian powers). ESPECIALLY since these relationships are said to happen at the beginning of the world, in the primordial times during which the world settled itself for what it is now.
Herakles' wedding with Hebe, the personification of youth, checks in with when he becomes an immortal god (aka, an eternally young entity). What better way to symbolize a hero escaping the clutches of death than by him becoming the husband of the spirit of eternal youth?
Why is Hestia never leaving Olympus? Something-something about her being the literal personification of the hearth, which is at the center of the house/community and does not move.
Why is Ares getting his ass kicked by Athena? Because Athena is civilization, and Ares savagery, and in the Ancient Greek mindset intelligence, wisdom and craft will always be above brutality, bloodlust and random cruelty.
Do I need to spell it out that the myth of Persephone-Hades-Demeter is about the cycle of the seasons, and how the earth renews itself and brings back life after a time of death?
And I wonder why Ares' companions during his mass-slaughters are called Phobos, Deimos and Eris - Fear, Panic and Discord... Why would the goddess that breaks harmony and sows feuds and chaos be depicted as the close sister of the god of the ravages of war and of the brutality of conflicts, what a strange mystery!
And I can go on, and on, and on. Remember, the Greek gods aren't just super-heroes or wizards (that's more in line with more "humanized" mythologies, like the Irish or Nordic ones). They are embodiments of concepts and ideas, personifications of natural forces and cosmic powers, they are living allegories and fleshed metaphors. Zeus wields the lightning because he IS the lightning and thunder. Dionysos is both the bringer of joy and madness because he IS alcohol. Hades is both the name of the god of the dead, and of the realm of the dead. Hestia's name is literaly "hearth" in Greek, Hebe "youth", Nyx "night", Gaia "earth", Eros "desire". You can write "Eris met Helios at Okeanos' palace" or you can write "Strife encountered the Sun at the palace of Ocean" and that is the EXACT SAME THING!
[Mind you to limit the gods to being JUST allegories is also a mistake not to make. Greek deities are much more than just X concept or X idea... But one part of the myths will always be, down the line, some weather metaphor or some natural cycle motif]
Zeus was more than just lightning and thunder. He was basically the embodiment of chaos. The vast majority of the Greek myths all have Zeus as the cause for why stuff is happening. Zeus was mad/upset with someone (the birth of the minotaur, Zeus was mad at King Minos and caused his queen to become absolutely obsessed with a bull, the queen had sex with the bull and gave birth to the minotaur) or Zeus was horny and had sex with someone (like half the heros of Greek myths are demigod sons of Zeus). A good one third to half of the myths combine the two.
I am sorry to tell you that you are wrong. As in: you are literaly doing a counter-interpretation, based on wrong facts.
The "wrong fact" being: the god you are thinking of, involved in the Minotaur business, is Poseidon, not Zeus. That's the one who got mad with the bull business - though there is a variation of the legend where it is Aphrodite who caused the Minotaur's existence.
And then, Zeus is literaly not the embodiment of chaos. As in: he was the god of order for Ancient Greeks. As their main and supreme god, the Ancient Greeks considered Zeus the source, patron and protector of their laws, customs and civilization, aka order. Zeus was the main god of justice - seconded by Athena. He was seen as the one who ultimately would reward people for their good deeds and punish criminals (see myths such as the one of Lycaon). He was not just the god of justice - he was also literaly the one who acted as a judge among the other gods. Whenever gods had a feud or a quarrel, it was up to him to settle the matter and decide upon the cases.
He was literaly a god of fate and cosmic balance in Homer's Iliad - literaly because he actually weighed down the individual fates of people with a scale to see what he had to do with them. In fact there is an entire part of the Iliad dedicated to how Zeus is forced to see his son die before his eyes, because he said no gods could interfere in the war and he is bound by his own word, as the embodiment of the law.
Yes, he was known as a lustful god who slept around a LOT. But I actually talked about this before - and it is something most scholars on Greek mythology pointed out... Zeus' title was "Father of Gods and Men" and this was literal. Ancient Greeks had this concept of the father = king (after all they were a VERY very patriarchal society), and as such Zeus had to be depicted as the literal father of all the main gods of the Greek religion, but also as the ancestor of not just the various ethnicities of humans, but also the progenitor of all the great kings and city-founders that literaly built humanity/Greek civilization. To crudely say it, by sleeping around Zeus literaly created the world, and while on a first-degree it makes him look like a horny womanizer, on the deeper, religious and mythical levels, it is just him being the literal "father of the universe". Take a close look at who his children are - and most of the time they will be great heroes who fought off monsters and helped build civilization (like Herakles). Aka, forces of order.
In fact, I guess you are confusing Zeus with Poseidon - who was one of the actual powers of chaos among the Olympians. Constantly quarreling with the other gods for the ownership of cities and lands, for example, or acting as an antagonist in most famous stories (such as The Odyssey). In fact, scholars have pointed out the neat parallel between Zeus and Poseidon: both sleep around, both have a lot of kids everywhere, but whereas Zeus' children are mostly legendary kings and great heroes, Poseidon tends to produce monsters or vicious criminals.
So Zeus IS order, just like Apollo or Athena. If there's a chaos god, it will be either Poseidon or Ares, or even Dionysos.
OP hit a grand slam with this one. I just want to point out some observations on why people seem to have a hard time understanding the themes of Greek mythology that I have personally encountered:
1) Greek words: As OP mentioned, a lot of times ancient mythology was an allegory and some names of the Greek gods are the literal personification of those concepts. Zeus isn't always kind because lightning isn't always kind. He can seem ruthless because lightning can be ruthless. In the Prometheus myth he is the one who decides if humans have fire or not because lightning causes fires and Zeus was probably believed to have given the first humans fire.
2) Local myths that have been re-organized: Sometimes the confusion stems from the fact that different city states and towns in the ancient world had their own local government running it and so myths varied from polis to polis like the death of Adonis being caused by Ares, Artemis or Apollo depending on the location or Hercules being an Olympian depending on the location. A lot of these locations also had tourism and depended on tourism as a valid source of income so they depended on their myth being different enough and hero focused to bring in tourists or people on a religious pilgrimage. Unfortunately as the Hellenistic and Roman periods had empires that blended all those cultures together but selected the favorite version among all of them (often Athenians but not always) I find that modern people have a hard time wrapping their heads around the concept that myths are wobbly, but I agree with OP that Zeus represents order in most ancient cultures that worshipped the Greek gods.
3) Evolution of the Gods: I also find that people have a hard time with the myths because they are older than writing, were originally oral (anyone who has ever played the game Telephone will get that variety will happen over time) and may have started in the Mycenaean period or even older but changed over time. For example in the Iliad Zeus mentions his war with Poseidon and that's because in the Mycenaean religion Poseidon was the original king of the gods, not Zeus. Artemis and Apollo were not twins and Artemis and Dionysus were originally the children of Demeter, this is why they both have ties to the wilderness and mother nature because they were originally rustic gods like Pan. So I find people often mix the gods and myths because they have changed over time.
4) Ancient culture vs Modern progress: The biggest misunderstanding is the ethnocentric way modern people view the ancient world. In anthropology ethnocentricity is the act of judging a culture based on your own culture's standards which ruins the understanding. Anthropologists try to judge the cultures based on the culture's own rules and standards to better understand why they do what they do. In the ancient world women were seen as property and didn't have the same rights modern women have. Kings were also oftentimes seen as directly connected to the gods and thus given "Divine birth" to rule. People see Zeus cheating and judge it based on today's standards whereas the ancient world saw it as a connection to Zeus and Zeus granting this king the right to lead because either he's a direct descendant or an ancestor was and praised their mother's beauty in the process because beauty was very important to the ancient Greeks and if a person was so beautiful to drive a god to procreate with them, then it was seen as high praise. So if they're being praised, why is it described as "rape?" That's because of the purity culture of the ancient world which discouraged women from seeming willing in order to give them a modest appearance. We don't know the true feelings of the women because they were not the main topic of the myth, their children were. Also, even if they seemed like they were consenting like the myth of Semele who is excited about being with Zeus but gets tricked by Hera, they couldn't be seen as actually consenting because they were viewed as property and thus the consent needed to come from their husband or father and most of the time the gods bypassed that consent. Any sexual act towards a woman by a god was seen as a violation of her father or husband but never her because she never had a say in her own life. They were captured by the god and the old word for captured would often be translated as raped. In the modern world this is thankfully different with sexual liberation helping women untangle from purity culture but the ancient world had its own rules and in order to better understand the myths, one must understand the ancient culture, rules and laws or else big misunderstandings will happen. For example, often times when humans in ancient history were seen as very exceptional, beautiful or brilliant to the point of seeming inhuman it was believed they were the secret love child of a god. This can be observed with Alexander the Great who was often seen as being the son of Zeus. Sidenote: Consent of a woman also didn't matter to the ancient Greeks because marriage was seen as a political union. This is also why Aphrodite is seen more as a type of madness that opposes Zeus/order instead of love in the way we understand it today. Love was not the priority in marriages and Aphrodite was seen more as a goddess of lust and then later Greeks and Romans started to explore her more and look at love differently but in the ancient oral myth world she was definitely seen as a menace that ruined arranged marriages and thus got in the way of order.
5) Allegories vs local legends and tragedy: As OP stated, the gods were a way for the ancient Greeks to understand the world around them. These myths were Mnemonics (named after Mnemosyne: goddess of memory) to tell the story of how something came to be or to remember when to water the crops or remember when the seasons change, etc. There is a myth of Orion lusting after and chasing the Pleiades because he's literally following them in the sky. The ancient Greeks were also comforted with the thought that if a person died young it probably meant they were loved by a god and taken. Local legends like the Spartan Prince Hyacinth who was said to have been tragically loved by Apollo, were said to have been chosen by the gods and so we have the "brides of Hades." These were young girls of marriageable age dying and being buried in their wedding dress and said to be marrying Hades. So there is a lot happening allegorically but when modern people encounter an ancient myth without the historical context they judge them in the same way they would judge full humans and forget the allegory.
6) Missing myths and cultural references: There are so many vases that reference mythos that were either never written or have yet to be found but well known or specific to their region. There are also a lot of ancient tragedies and comedies we have references to that have yet to be found or are incomplete or were purposefully disposed of like some of Sappho's work. Even if you know the information, you can't judge a culture based on small samples and echoes of preserved fragments. We are missing so many cultural, religious and historical references that it's hard to make a confident assessment on so much that is missing, but we try and might still get it wrong so some people who have done research might be using older resources that are now invalid due to new discoveries or old biases from researchers that are now contested, this is especially prevalent with 19th and 20th century research of the ancient world. So it's important to keep in mind that we might be getting information about the gods that might be outdated or littered in 19th/20th century biases which tended to see the gods in a more negative and human light.
Conclusion: The ancient myths are fascinating and fun but it's important to remember they are older than the Bible with concepts we have lost the meaning of due to various reasons but even in their own context the stories follow the pattern OP listed. I graduated studying this and will be going to a Master's program to study the archaeology of it, and I can tell you they are way more fascinating in their original culture and context than ethnocentric modern interpretation.
I write to you with gratitude and hope. Thanks to your incredible support, we’ve raised €17,359 out of our €29,000 goal. Your generosity gives us strength in these unimaginable times. ❤️🌍
As the war enters its second consecutive year, it continues to rob us of safety, basic necessities like food and water, and access to education. Our lives are filled with fear and uncertainty, as we’ve lost our livelihoods and now rely entirely on donations to survive.
Your support is our lifeline. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a huge difference.
👉 Donation link:
🔗 https://gofund.me/32e5e95e
To all those who have supported us: I am deeply grateful. ❤️ Your generosity gives me the courage and hope to face each day. You are not only helping my family endure these hardships but also showing us that we are not alone in this journey.
Please continue to share and support. Together, we can reach €29,000 and move closer to rebuilding our lives. Thank you for standing with us. 🌈💖
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what went down in nyc at columbia and city college was a massive escalation and a huge show of violent force from the police in what is already one of the heaviest policed cities in the country, if not the world. sending hundreds if not thousands of riot cops, counter terrorism, SWAT and NYPD's notorious SRG units armed with what is basically military equipment to beat up college students and barricade columbia faculty into their apartments. the fact that they removed all press from campus and refused to let journalists in before they swept the camp is very concerning. a lot of journalists said this was an unprecedented use of force even for the NYPD and it seemed like an excuse for them to use a lot of their new equipment. NYPD reportedly entered with guns drawn. out of around 300 people arrested on tuesday, some still havent been released or even processed. this is illegal in new york state btw, people have to be arraigned within 24 hours. NYPD has been giving very little information about the people detained, not specifying where theyre being held, and taking a suspiciously long time to process them. they're apparently trying to charge some protestors with felonies. anyways all this is to say this is a major escalation from NYPD and a grim sign for the future. this is a prelude to fascism, not an alternative.
the sound of police helicopters has been constant for days. not to mention that we already have the national guard and increased police presence in subway stations because of the "crime wave"
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The stage of taking the risk to relate the picture has ended and the stage of trying to survive has begun. I have transferred enough, and I bear witness to God that it was for his own sake and for the service of my country.
We are now living under the beginning of an internal siege. We cannot go out, whether toward the north or the south. Israeli tanks are surrounding the central region of the north and south.
Our situation is tragic beyond what you can imagine. Remember. We are not content for sharing. We are people who are being killed and a cause that we're trying to keep from being erased from existence
As part of the Better Future Program’s (@bfpnola's) Indigenous liberation theme for this volunteer term, I’m asking for some help with BFP’s Health Library. The Health Library is a collection of resources for international health education and care that we aim to make freely accessible. From November 2023 to January 2024, I’m going to focus on gathering resources for Indigenous health.
As an international organisation, Indigenous liberation covers a range of interconnected issues and diverse communities and experiences. Some focus areas this term include:
providing care in Palestine and during the Palestinian genocide;
the australian Aboriginal healthcare gap;
Indigenous access to healthcare internationally, including in:
- the USA & Canada;
- the Congo; and
- Sudan.
If you have any resources you would like to see added to the Health Library, you can:
DM me;
@ me in BFP’s Discord server, which you can join here; or
Email me through the contact form.
I also made this post on Instagram, if you would like to share or repost.
Did you know that Giving Tuesday is a holiday where you can give back to your favorite organizations to help fulfill their missions of bettering this world? This year, we’d like you to consider Better Future Program (BFP) for your donations! Founded in 2016 @reaux07, BFP is a 501(c)(3) youth-run nonprofit headquartered in Bulbancha, also known as New Orleans, Louisiana. Our mission is to globally expand peer-led political education, support, and imagination for marginalized youth!
You still have 12 hours TODAY to donate to Better Future Program! Tap the link in our bio or attached below for more [emoji] 🔗
Donate to a Black-, queer-, woman-, and youth-run organization today!
And if you can’t donate? Share this post as well as our volunteer application, attached below:
Better Future Program is accepting global volunteers, both in-person and remotely. Ages 14-25 can hold leadership positions. Apply today!
As part of the Better Future Program’s (@bfpnola's) Indigenous liberation theme for this volunteer term, I’m asking for some help with BFP’s Health Library. The Health Library is a collection of resources for international health education and care that we aim to make freely accessible. From November 2023 to January 2024, I’m going to focus on gathering resources for Indigenous health.
As an international organisation, Indigenous liberation covers a range of interconnected issues and diverse communities and experiences. Some focus areas this term include:
providing care in Palestine and during the Palestinian genocide;
the australian Aboriginal healthcare gap;
Indigenous access to healthcare internationally, including in:
- the USA & Canada;
- the Congo; and
- Sudan.
If you have any resources you would like to see added to the Health Library, you can:
DM me;
@ me in BFP’s Discord server, which you can join here; or
Email me through the contact form.
I also made this post on Instagram, if you would like to share or repost.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
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‘Children of Shatila’ (Lebanon, 1998) film by Mai Masri. In this scene the youth of the Palestinian refugee camp interview an elder with a video camera.
The Big Damn List Of Stuff They Said You Didn't Know
Thousands and thousands of years back in three minutes:
But closer to the issue...
Listen to this episode from Cocktails & Capitalism on Spotify. Continuing the story of Palestine, Leeh outlines the Great Arab Revolt and th
What will the maps of Palestine and Israel look like if Israel illegally annexes the Jordan Valley on July 1?
Five free eBooks on the colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine
Here we have collated our free ebooks, reading lists and ongoing publishing on the Verso Blog. These resources challenge much of the zionist
Pluto Books Free Palestine Reading List 30-50% off
LGBT Activist Scott Long's Google Drive of Palestine Freedom Struggle Resources
(includes some of the reading material recced below)
The Cambridge UCU and Pal Society Resources List
List of Academic and Literary Books Compiled by Dr. Kiran Grewal
Academic Books (many available in Goldsmiths library)
Rosemary Sayigh (2007) The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, Bloomsbury
Ilan Pappé (2002)(ed) The Israel/Palestine Question, Routledge
(2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, OneWorld Publications
(2011) The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel, Yale University Press
(2015) The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, Verso Books
(2017) The Biggest Prison on earth: A history of the Occupied territories, OneWorld Publications
(2022) A History of Modern Palestine, Cambridge University Press
Rashid Khalidi (2020) The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, MacMillan
Andrew Ross (2019) Stone Men: the Palestinians who Built Israel, Verso Books
Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir (2012) The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine, Stanford University Press.
Ariella Azoulay (2011) From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950, Pluto Press
Jeff Halper (2010) An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Pluto Press
(2015) War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification
(2021) Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State, Pluto Press
Anthony Loewenstein (2023) The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the Technology of Occupation around the World (CURRENTLY FREE TO DOWNLOAD ON VERSO)
Noura Erakat (2019) Justice for some: law and the question of Palestine, Stanford University Press
Neve Gordon (2008) Israel’s Occupation, University of California Press
Joseph Massad (2006) The persistence of the Palestinian question: essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, Routledge Edward Said (1979) The Question of Palestine, Random House
Memoirs, Novels & Poetry:
Voices from Gaza - Insaniyyat (The Society of Palestinian Anthropologists)
Letters From Gaza • Protean Magazine
Raja Shehadeh (2008) Palestinian Walks: forays into a Vanishing Landscape, Profile Books
Ghada Karmi (2009) In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, Verso Books
Mourid Barghouti (2005) I saw Ramallah, Bloomsbury
Izzeldin Abuelaish (2011) I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity, Bloomsbury
Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke (eds)(2015) Palestine Speaks: Narrative of Life under Occupation, Verso Books
The Works of Mahmoud Darwish
Human Rights Reports & Documents
Information on current International Court of Justice case on ‘Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’
UN Commission of Inquiry Report 2022
UN Special Rapporteur Report on Apartheid 2022
Amnesty International Report on Apartheid 2022
Human Rights Watch Report on Apartheid 2021
Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’ 2009 (‘The Goldstone Report’)
Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, International Court of Justice, 9 July 2004
