Dawn On ‘em

If there is something that you must read today, let it be this. In my estimation, this is one of the most important pieces of text ever written, and it is essential for every woman who wants moksha to read this.

Okay, Magha gworlz. I know I’ve been somewhat nasty to you. And to be clear, this is not an apology.

-cackles-

However… Grandma Dhuma has a special gift for you today, and frankly for any woman who practices spirituality with the Vedic or Hindu system.

I explored in this earlier post why women should always question conventional spiritual authority, and it is of the utmost importance that we put this into daily practice. So what does it mean, materially, to use the Hindu system in a way that does not reinforce patriarchal constructs?

As it happens, Magha is actually the perfect nakshatra for me to explain how this is done, and we might initially think of it as ironic since this is THE patriarchal nakshatra, with its traditional ruling entity being those fucking Pitrs. Well, good thing we have Tara, whom I explained in relation to Ashlesha in this post, for those of us who haven’t read it yet.

So, “Pitrs” basically refers to one’s forefathers. In other words, one’s male ancestors. And when you look at all the male ancestors in your bloodline… ask yourself this: what is the probability that most of my male ancestors were degenerate pieces of shit?

The answer for everybody is basically….. very, very high. Pick any one male ancestor from your bloodline and you’d very likely want nothing to do with them. Especially if they were from the Middle Ages or some shit where there were even fewer social rights for women.

So if you are a Magha woman, knowing this fact might present you with a bit of a conundrum. Especially if you think you have to call out to these male ancestors in prayer, since they—after all—traditionally rule Magha nakshatra.

Don’t.

Please do not do this.

This is not just for Magha women, but all women.

Instead, call out to Tara. Tara sadhana is beneficial for all women.

And no, regardless of what you may be told, you don’t need a male to initiate you into Tara sadhana. These “gurus” ain’t shit and cannot give you what you need as a woman.

So, during the Full Moon in the month of Magha—also known as Magha Purnima—which takes place during the festival known as Magha/Shyamala Navaratri, the vidya Shyamala, who is more popularly known as Matangi, reveals our divine DNA, as opposed to our biological DNA. Also related to Magha is our good sis Tara, who is referred to as Magha-Nakshatra-Rupini (she who takes the form of Magha nakshatra) in one of her 1000-name hymns. The correlation is right here for all of us to see.

And to reiterate, what plays a central role here is the theme of “DNA purification”, where our divine DNA is revealed to us as a blueprint that we, as women, can use to free ourselves from our biological prisons and the patriarchal constructs that trap us in our biological prisons. Remember: Tara is the vidya associated with crossing the sea of samsara, with name Tara meaning “passing over, crossing, passage” and “ferryboat.” This mechanism by which Tara frees us from our biological mandates by centering our divine DNA is exactly how She obliterates the myriad of patriarchal constructs such as bioessentialism and mindless reproduction, which have caused so much suffering for women throughout the millennia. In other words, She is our way out of this cesspit of a dualistic universe.

So Magha gworlz (and any woman for that matter), call out to Tara. She is here, and She wants to help.

Butttttt—and I’m not a Steven Universe FAN myself—but I don’t think that TADC was ever THAT good. Like I feel like I found myself enjoying Steven Universe a lot more and being able to appreciate its story telling beats a lot more than I will EVER even consider with TADC. Not to mention that their story lengths are different despite TADC being in production for a few years just for a single season to be produced. Steven Universe was on air for a long long while and unlike TADC, has far better characterization of its characters, better care taken to its themes, and is overall just a better written story overall.

You can tell that there was a lil more love and thought put into Steven Universe compared to TADC (not to mention that it was way more diverse, had banger music, left an impact on fandom spaces and brought about queer representation in a time and in a space where it often wasn’t even allowed to be seen and more). And I’m not saying that Rebecca Sugar has ever been a saint or a marker of good “whiteness” being a queer person themselves, but they don’t go to Twitter and tumblr and basically act a fool with racism and nazism for the funnies as their go to joke…

Actually a BIG reason why I very much think that one SHOULDN’T just toss TADC among the “greats” in regard to internet memorialization or “wow, this show was better than I thought,” is because of how Gooseworx acts and just how basic the writing of the show is. She said that she based it on IHNMBIMS but I feel like this show is actually a great disservice to the premise and themes of the original book and game.

Her purposeful negligence in how she writes her female characters is sexist and leaves a bad taste in my mouth, the fact that she relates to only the male characters (who are all bad people within the context of this show—you got a tech AI creator who conveniently forgets that he’s done and been a part of creating the thing that keeps them all trapped, we have Caine who is this abusive AI who is torturing these people with games, and we have Jax, an abusive, women hating, asshole.) None of these are people who you should say that you relate to whilst also acknowledging that your female characters are more like placeholders than beings you actually care enough about to characterize properly.

So yeah, definitely don’t feel like (and even if you don’t like or do like SU quite a bit) those two shows are on the same level of “underrated and under appreciated”. Yeah, Steven Universe DEFINITELY has its warranted critiques and there’s still a number of things about the show that could have been better (for the first series and the second series by the way), but I will never put SU and TADC on the same level of “goodness” because one is simply FAR better than the other.

Look at that little owl!! He's so goofy and cute and so dear to me and so so very clearly a LITTLE OWL (Athene Noctua) which is, of course, the species of owl that represents Athena

Look at how small that little guy is:

Athena holding a helmet and a spear, with an owl. Attributed to the Brygos Painter (c. 490–480 BC). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And, look at these incredible further examples cute little owls in pottery:

Armed owl. Attic red-figure Anthesteria oinochoe, ca. 410–390 BC

Skyphos with Owl between two branches of olive wood. Attic red-figure pottery. Archaeological National Museum of Spain.

Attic red-figure kylix, owl between two olive branches. Found in the Mengíbar Necropolis. Archaeological National Museum of Spain.

Owl skyphos. From Most na SočI, end of the 5th century BC. Tolmin Museum.

Owl skyphos. Attic, mid-5th century BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Terracotta rim fragment of a kylix. Attic, dating 480–470 BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

for those who know me, you know that I am a big fan of greek mythology, so when the epic saga by Jorege Rivera-Herrans came out I couldn't help but fall madly in love with it, his music accompanied and inspired me while I was working, and now that this long journey is about to end I couldn't help but leave a tribute to thank him for all the work he has done. he couldn't have left us a better christmas present under the tree! thanks again for everything.