Saint Hilaire, eveque, 1630s

etching 216 x 125 mm - Mackelvie Trust Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, bequest of Dr Walter Auburn, 1982
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki via DigitalNZ

http://api.digitalnz.org/records/1839982/source

#Saints #Vestments #Miters #Prayers #Faith #Worship #Altars #Christianity #ReligiousArt #Bishops #Mannerist #Print #Etching #Museums

“I hit my knees there, too, awed and overwhelmed at the sheer amount of power as I was regarded by the god of the sun,” writes Luke Babb of their relationship with Apollo. “So this is what it’s like to have a god flex at you.”

https://wildhunt.org/2026/01/apricity.html

#pagan #witchcraft #apollo #dionysis #altars #greekgods #hermes #lgbtqia #loki

The altar 1908, c1908.
Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952
1 photographic print. | Arikara Indian and altar.

#Curtis #EdwardS #1900-1910 #Altars #ArikaraIndians #GreatPlains #Spirituallife #undefined

https://www.loc.gov/item/90710187/

Unicursal MRS GRUNDY Propaganda from Hermetic Library Office of the Ministry of Information https://hermetic.com/information/mrs-grundy/index

#propaganda #AleisterCrowley #altars #MrsGrundy #RunRed #red #WithTheBlood #blood #HerFaithful #faithful #NewComment #LiberLegis #TheBookOfTheLaw

He spins the card, bright with marigolds, to face me. “Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – what if you let yourself be sad?” Looking at the card is easier than looking at him. “I tried,” I say. “I should be done by now.”

https://wildhunt.org/2025/08/fallow.html

#pagan #witchcraft #altars #change #emotions #grief #moving #aphrodite #dionysos

Monday Miscellany!

This week:
- #Mystery and #Paradox
- #2Chronicles
- #Bible readings
- Book reviews: #altars where we #worship, moral basis of #outrage

Please read, share, and subscribe!

https://open.substack.com/pub/deverbovitae/p/monday-miscellany-05d?r=14n9qk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Convulsing – Perdurance [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Dear Hollow

If you’re not familiar with Australia’s Convulsing, you’ve likely been exposed to mastermind Brendan Sloan’s impact on underground extreme metal. Alongside serving as bassist/vocalist of Altars (beginning with 2022’s Ascetic Reflection), guitarist of cinematic post-rock act Dumbsaint, and one-man show behind dissonant death/black distortionist Convulsing, he has contributed in some way or another to acts like Greytomb, Cosmic Putrefaction, Defacement, Gonemage, and Nightmarer. Convulsing remains his flagship project, and after two excellent LP’s Errata (2016) and Grievous (2018) of consecutively higher praise and a fantastic split with Siberian Hell Sounds, we are finally met with a gem of dissonant death metal after a six-year absence, an iconic record and monolithic sound steeped in nuance and imbued with dynamics, contrast, and texture: Perdurance.

What makes Perdurance such a resounding and enduring success is its ability to attack with intensity and dissonance that outdoes the best of its genre-mates. Warped rhythms are graced with staggered riffs and blazing percussion, as Convulsing explores every nook and twist of a rhythm and melody until its inevitable conclusion is happened upon in tragic and fatal fashion. Dissonant leads are the guide of Perdurance, providing scenic vistas to punishingly heavy riffs while reminding listeners of the inevitable doom that awaits. Like this year’s Ulcerate, the devastation is beautifully nuanced and dynamics are secured, giving a sense of freedom, sentience, and lushness amid the relentless darkness and discordance. Tempo-abusing, blastbeat-wielding, and heavy as mountains, the more immediate offerings (“Pentarch,” “Flayed,” “Shattered Temples”) offer this weight in pulverizing chuggy progressions, with a lurking monstrosity and humanity beneath its processions somehow more mammoth than its ten-ton riffs.

Beginning with “Inner Oceans,” we are graced with Convulsing’s massive sense of crescendos and atmospherics. A slow burn guided by the leads, the riffs are explored more subtly and incrementally – leading to a sense of immense claustrophobia and suffocation. Beginning delicately and organically, the tracks warp and shift while constantly growing in size and intensity, leading to what feels like cave walls closing in. The organicity suggests a warmth unexpected in this breed of death metal, as lush progressions morph to menacing tones seamlessly (“Endurance”), while devastation and grandiosity are the killing blow for natural growths and crescendos (“Inner Oceans”). The episodic nature of closer “Endurance” is aptly climactic and cinematic, its different three-minute portions threaded together with lush and yearning progressions slightly twisted to uncanny valley’s version of the heartfelt, amplified by brief passages of clean vocals and punkish beats.

Perdurance shows that Sloan remains at the top of his game – Convulsing cements itself as one of the best offerings of underground extreme metal and death metal in general. The second you think you’ve heard a progression or passage before, Sloan distorts it with the precision of a mathematician and the ambition of a madman. It never neglects punishment or overstays its welcome, and every twist and turn feels beautifully executed and stunningly methodical. Even the cleanly sung bonus track Porcupine Tree cover “A Smart Kid” feels at home following “Endurance.” Reflected in its evergreen title, Perdurance represents an immortal statement in dissonant death metal and extreme metal in general: ceaselessly brutal, meticulously crafted, and indubitably iconic.

Tracks to Check Out:1 “Flayed,” “Inner Oceans,” “Endurance”

#2024 #Altars #AustralianMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Convulsing #CosmicPutrefaction #DeathMetal #Defacement #DissonantDeathMetal #Gonemage #Greytomb #Nightmarer #Perdurance #PorcupineTree #ProgressiveDeathMetal #SelfRelease #SiberianHellSounds #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #TYMHM #Ulcerate

For those with small spaces, always on the move, or simply find them cute, The @templeofdionysus offers #printable #altars!

Created by our temple leader, you can find these adorable printable altars on our Temple Patreon! As always, the base tier of our #patreon is free, and there's no obligation to upgrade.

We do have eventual plans to update them with poems from our prayer book "Prayers from the Broom Closet." Feedback is welcome.

https://www.patreon.com/collection/329527

#pagan #hellenicpolytheism