Stardew Valley - Spirit's Eve Festival

SO LIKE, WHAT DOES THAT ACTUALLY MEAN?

well, the thing is, it could mean a LOT of things. words can mean whatever the hell you want in any order that you put them in. that's kind of the folly of communication between sapient beings.

that said, the general consensus between a large group of those beings is that it's about balance. you know, your yin and yangs, your good and evil, your top and bottom, left and right. this seems to be a pretty common reoccuring theme in theology and spirituality; the human brain is nothing if not excellent at seeking out patterns, and duality is a pattern quite common in the grand scheme of things.

if you've read some of my journal entries, you might know that i'm not a very spiritual person; i don't adhere to any set of religious beliefs and i'd consider myself pretty firmly agnostic. though i find religion, occultism, mysticism, and other like practices extremely interesting, i don't really participate in them myself. all the more power to those who do, but i've never felt comfortable participating in any religious or spiritually significant ceremonies or rituals.

so with that context in mind: why is it that i've fixated so hard on this term? AS ABOVE, SO BELOW. let's explore a little!

so, a brief history lesson:

the figure you see before you is known as BAPHOMET, a pretty prominent figure in satanism as well as many goth subcultures. you walk into a hot topic, you've probably seen this guy. their origin story's kind of funny: basically, the knights templar, a catholic military group, were accused of worshipping this guy instead of the one true (catholic) god. there's a lot of debate surrounding their origins. the name's showed up in documents as old as the (gregorian calendar) year 1098, but as far as anyone knows, there haven't actually been any instances of groups dedicated to worshipping them. in our contemporary age, there's a lot of people attempting to find ties to gnosticism and other forms of christianity. the image you see to the right was drawn in 1856 by occultist Éliphas Lévi, and has since then become the generally accepted appearance for this figure.

plenty of people consider them a demon, or deity, or whatever else suits you. but as far as i'm concerned? that doesn't really matter.

like i said: i'm not religious. i wasn't even raised catholic. or christian, for that matter.

(do some reading yourself if it's so important!)

whether or not there's actually a half-human half-goat intersex titty demon wandering out there in the world is... well, not really any of my business. if they show up at my doorstep, sure! but as of right now my existence is fairly mundane, and so, very, painfully, human. i'm sure they're a lovely being, whomever they are. or were. and while i do find them fascinating as a historical and theological figure, i'm here to talk about PHILOSOPHY, darn it!

okay, so, here's the point i was getting to:
i think there's much to be said about the human tendency to find pattern and meaning in things that may very well not have either of those. it's what we're built for, and it's what we're best at: figuring out and understanding patterns is how, in my opinion, we've come to be the "dominant" species on this little wet rock of ours. we find patterns in everything. human faces, especially - that's called pareidolia, in case you didn't know. we build our understanding of the world and how it works by the events in our lives that we experience, the symbols and patterns we see, and whatever neurological connections that we draw between those things. i think this is why duality is so HUGE in pretty much any case of symbolism ever: mitosis inherently divides one cell into two, so we're just sort of naturally inclined to see things in twos. that may sound like nonsense, but think about it - we have two eyes, two arms, two limbs. the human body is meant to be at least partially symmetrical! obviously, this isn't like, a hard-and-fast rule, but it's commonplace enough that i figure it's worth noting.

the little sprite i have plastered all over my website was made by my wonderful friend zim. i specifically requested one in the colors of the trans flag, and i have purpose for this! i'm of the opinion that "male and female" as binaries are a drastic oversimplification of the deep complexities of biological sex, psychological gender, and all things in between, but there's something so very potently queer to me about this figure. perhaps it's the fact that they're meant to be male and female at once: more of that balance stuff i mentioned earlier. many people interpret baphomet as a symbol of balance between all things, including the "two sexes".

as a queer person myself, i find a strange, inexplicable comfort in this depiction. baphomet's got titties, something you associate with 'women' and 'femininity', but it's also often depicted with a penis, which you generally associate with 'men' and 'masculinity'. the way these social trends and cultural understandings of gender differ from culture to culture, but for me, personally? as a trans man with intent on transitioning?
it's kind of nice to see yourself reflected in a deific figure like that.

but, hey, i've spoken enough for now, i think. there's so much more to learn in the strange world of esoterica, and i'm excited to dive headfirst into it all. i'll let you know how it goes!