So I want to do something different with this blog. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m autistic. (Surely, nobody could have predicted this. I’ll take a moment for you to find your fainting couch.) That means I’d give my left arm to find a convenient and personally meaningful system through which to understand the world, preferably inspired by a piece of media that is a special interest of mine. For me, Homestuck’s Classpect system and cosmology can be that foundation, but I don’t just want to slap these categories and ideas haphazardly onto the “real world” and try to make it all fit. Nor do I wish to take the easy way out and just adopt or adapt one or more of the belief systems that inspired these systems and their context. (I tried out Gnosticism for a bit, but honestly, dualism doesn’t become me.)
Instead, I discovered a secret third option: experiencing Classpects on their own terms. “Tali, what the fresh hell do you mean by that?” Well, it’s complicated. The simplest way to put it is that I want to interact with the Aspects and what they represent as if they’re a fundamental part of our world, too. I want to use Classes as archetypes that exemplify how we interact with these Aspects. And I want to do all of this while letting the real-world application of these systems develop naturally, through practical experience rather than a monogamous marriage to the literature. I’ve meditated on the connections between Breath and Void while watching switchgrass rattling in the wind, for example. They share the quality of emptiness; they’re the negative space, the air rustling through tree branches or the gap in your memory where something once was, only visible in the absence of what’s around them. This isn’t a conclusion I came to by reading the comic or banging my head against the Aspect Wheel’s geometry. Although one could arrive at the same realization from either source, in this instance I let the Aspects speak for themselves, and then connected the dots.
This might get long, so here’s your courtesy readmore.
As my non-Homestuck friends know all too well (because I absolutely won’t shut up about it) I’ve been working on ways to expand the Classpect system into a practical, real-world framework that can be used and understood by somebody who’s never read Homestuck. In fact—and this is ambitious of me, I know—I take great inspiration from the development of daemonism as a contemporary practice. Daemonism has taken on a life of its own, separate from its origins in Phillip Pullman’s novel series, His Dark Materials. I can imagine the value of a real-world analogue of the Classpect system, which could open up new methods of introspection, development of one’s personal mythology, and perhaps even an analytical framework through which to understand the world itself. For those brave enough to crack open this can of worms, the possibilities truly are endless.
What might we discover by exploring our own stories through this kind of lens? What does it mean to be a Witch, or an Heir, or a Seer? Why are so many of us preoccupied with figuring out what we are, instead of what we want to be? That’s one of the many questions we should ask ourselves as we embark on this journey. Sure, we can pretty easily state what role a Hero of Space plays in the context of SBURB: they’re tasked with breeding the Genesis Frog. In the broader story of Homestuck, Space players ‘set the stage.’ But what about in our world? What does Space mean to you? What Aspects hold sway over you, and how does this shape your worldview? Your actions? Your identity? When I came up with the term Organic Classpect, it was my intention to explore this very concept. This feels like a fairly natural continuation and expansion of that idea.
You can meditate on Life the same way you’d meditate on the classical Greek element of Fire. You can learn to see its influence in your own life (no pun intended) and commune with it, increase or decrease its presence at will. Hell, I once made a sigil using the symbol of Life and charged it before going to run deliveries in hopes of making good tips that day. My first delivery was a grocery order with like, three small bags, and I got tipped $20 cash on top of the $8 I received in the app. If you understand Aspects as a source of power, and Classes as different ways of working with them, there’s so much you can do within this evolving framework.
I’d love to know what y’all think of this, because it’s something I care about very deeply, and I’ve been exploring these ideas for a long time.
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sorry if someone asked that already, but how was the journey to your own classpect?
No worries! I'm happy to answer. Long story short, it's been a very, very, very complicated journey that's actually still going! I'm of the opinion that Classpects aren't always static. Especially since so many of us are relatively young (I'm 25 myself, and a lot of my Classpect journey happened from around 19-23) we're still changing a lot and trying to figure ourselves out. Let's get the raw numbers out of the way, because this is kind of insane: I've actually identified with 35 different Classpects over the years. The Classes I identified with most were the Rogue (8 total) and the Maid (6 total), and the Aspects that appeared the most were, interestingly, Heart and Mind (5 each). But the real question is, where did it all begin?
My Classpect journey started in early 2015. I was sitting with friends in what we affectionately called "The Hidey Hole," part of an underground tunnel between our dorm rooms, and I stumbled the blog of @dahniwitchoflight which began my obsession with figuring out my own Classpect. I decided to comb through the Aspect pages one by one to figure out which one I connected with, and I found my answer in the section for the Rogue of Time, found here. The section that stood out in particular is this one:
"A Rogue of Time may become preoccupied with making things that they like last as long as they can, like wearing a favorite shirt to rags, or using a favorite pencil until it breaks, or trying to keep a pet alive as long as possible, things like that. They might even give up all their precious Time to other people, trying to make relationships or friendships last as long as possible."
I admit, I felt a bit called out, and I began to identify strongly with this Classpect—and I still do, to this day. I've always had an extremely strong connection to music, but my time management has been horrendous since I was young, giving me a complicated relationship with my Aspect. One key theme in the Rogue's journey that I also identify with is balance, which is further expanded upon on @godtiertalk's blog, which has been my main inspiration for the balance narrative. This is definitely a big reason why I later identified with seven other Rogues over the next few years, with my strongest connections being the Rogue of Life and the Rogue of Heart. Most of that time was spent combing any Classpect blog I could find for different interpretations, especially as I began to run my own blog here and exploring what these Classes and Aspects meant to me.
Life stood out to me, as someone whose energy levels are always in great flux, and also due to my nasty little habit of popping up through the cracks in the sidewalk of life despite years of devastating trauma. Life, uh, finds a way. Heart perfectly described my knack for understanding the feelings and deepest desires of people around me. I have a tendency to draw a sense of emotional honesty from people, and what they don't tell me themselves, I tend to intuit without much trouble. Yet, I struggle greatly with my own identity, which has changed so much throughout the years, and my growing collection of Classpect identities seemed to back that up.
Throughout the years, I flowed between Classpects, from the seemingly obvious Maid of Mind or Mage of Time to the out-of-left-field Prince of Rage. (I'm still not sure why that was a thing for me.) A lot of it actually came from running this blog, to be honest. Any time I'd dive into research for an ask I'd received, more often than not I'd begin relating very strongly with the Class or Aspect in question, if not both. This made for a lot of fascinating introspection and a deeper understanding of precisely what this blog is all about, but it was also frustrating to continue tripping into rabbit holes of self-exploration. Every new epiphany or connection I made seemed to point to some new, unexplored part of myself, and that manifested as a different Classpect identity. This was tempered only by my desire to go back to my roots as a Rogue of Time, for two reasons in particular. Firstly, I already had a Land and Quest planned out in excruciating detail—and I'm still very attached to the Land of Cadence and Fugue—and secondly, I trusted that my past self couldn't have been entirely wrong.
I finally compromised with both my nostalgic ties and my evolving self-identity and created the concepts of Archetypal and Organic Classpects, which you can read about further here. Put simply, my Archetypal Classpect would most likely remain the Rogue of Time, being the one I'd most likely receive in an actual game of Sburb. My Organic Classpect, meanwhile, would describe a more holistic approach to self-identity. It would be based around common themes I explore in my own life, being free to change as I do. Such Organic Classpects have included the Maid of Mind, Rogue of Life, and Sylph of Time.
In short, my journey has been a complicated one, but my approach certainly isn't for everyone. If you do like to dive headfirst into loads of research, though, I'd highly recommend the blogs I've mentioned, as well as optimisticDuelist's blog and YouTube channel, which have given me an excellent level of clarity on the origins and various interpretations of the Classes and Aspects. Of course, you're welcome to navigate the strange, often choppy waters of my blog as well, and feel free to ask further questions!
I was thinking earlier about how many people imagine themselves as having different Classpects in different contexts, and I’ve decided to come up with a few terms to distinguish between two particular contexts.
An “Archetypal Classpect” is a Classpect you would likely be assigned within the game itself, were it to actually exist. An “Organic Classpect” is one which applies to the journey and real-life struggles you feel are the most significant to your individual growth. For some, it may be easier to think of their Classpect as an Archetypal one, imagining what they’d be assigned within SBURB, while for others, the Organic Classpect may be more relatable because they can examine it through the lens of their lived experiences.
These Classpects are likely to be different for many people, hence the importance I’ve placed on distinguishing between the two. For example, my Archetypal Classpect is the Rogue of Time, while my Organic Classpect is the Rogue of Life. This is because I feel a lot of deep connections to the Aspect of Time, many of which would only have true relevance within the context of SBURB, while I can also definitely tie in Life as a key Aspect in my personal, real-life journey to grow, change, and develop while avoiding the crushing apathy I’ve been subject to in the past. Some people may find that there are vast differences between their Classpects, and this is to be expected. For some, their Archetypal Classpect could simply be the Classpect they’d most desire to be in the face of the challenges laid out by the game itself, while their Organic Classpect is more of a symbol for their experiences. After all, SBURB’s very nature is so vastly different from our own lived experiences that it would challenge many of us in different directions.
