Grove of the Queer Bacchante

Monday, August 7, 2023 Good morning! Today we consider Certainty, Structure, Recharging Tarot of the Day: Four of Pentacles

This Four basically represents holding onto what you have earned/ worked for. In many cases this can be a positive thing; holding safe and close, the energy, relationships, position, respect, etc. that you have worked to maintain. However, it also indicates a need to review whether it’s in an appropriate, and healthy way. Ensure that this ‘down time’ is recharging you, and working for your highest good.

As with most of the Pentacle cards, the Four tends to be involved with tangible possessions. If you are in a situation because of money or possessions, then the Four is telling you that the time has come to review what you are holding onto and why. Sometimes, we outgrow the thing that makes us feel secure and it becomes the thing that is trapping us.

💚 At work, you are likely doing something you don't like or is even having a negative impact on your life, simply to put food on the table. You will soon be able to change your situation. Believe it can be better. Be brave and informed to make a decision for your higher good.

💙 If your relationship is your focus today, then the Four signifies that one or both of you are hanging on too tightly. Relax your grip and allow things to flow naturally. Love will not grow or even survive in a stranglehold. Talk to each other; allow each other the space to be yourselves and things will feel more secure.

🧡 Holding tightly to what you have, can be practical but, it can blind you to not just the need for change but, to opportunities, as well. Whatever you are holding on to, the Four says it's time to relax your grip, trust the Universe and yourself. Your roots are strong, now see where they need to be flexible. Gun a-màireach (until tomorrow) Peace out, Lovelies

@spiritusloci

Ancient Greek ring depicting a dancing maenad. Artist unknown; 3rd or 2nd cent. BCE (Hellenistic). Now in the Louvre. Photo credit:  © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons.

— A. E. Stallings, from Archaic Smile; “The Wife of the Man of Many Wiles,” (via violentwavesofemotion)

maenads serving gender as usual

They’re also shooting for 100% renewable plastic sources by 2030! All of the soft plant/leaf elements in sets right now and going forward are made out of bioplastic made from sugarcane, and they’re working on getting the regular hard plastic bricks out of that, too.

They’ve done it, actually! The full bricks are in the prototype stage now, and are expected to be 100% biodegradable without the need for a commercial compost facility. It’s very cool. Right now they’re testing the durability and playability of the bricks and seeing what needs to be revised/reworked on their final model.

So its that easy huh

Of course it is

Actually, this isn’t “easy” and is huge news. You see, Lego is absolutely meticulous about their quality control. Their standards for manufacturing are stupidly high, as are their safety requirements. You know that distinctive “click” when you pop two Lego bricks apart? They engineered that. That sound is so distinctive that it can be used to tell genuine Lego bricks from counterfeits and it’s a sound that would be based on shape and material.

Furthermore, one of the hard requirements for a Lego brick is that it must be compatible with any other Lego brick. If I buy a set today and pull a set from the 1980s? Those bricks would fit together perfectly. This requires a huge amount of precision engineering and controls on manufacturing quality. (I can’t remember the source, but I’ve at least heard that once the brick molds wear to a certain point, they’re pulled from the line and either melted down or turned into construction material for Lego HQ. Point being, no one is getting their hands on a worn Lego mold)

Recycled and non-petroleum plastics are different from other plastic. The chemistry is different. The timing and process to use them is different. This has been a reason why more companies haven’t moved to them, because there’s a drop in quality for material (so they claim).

What Lego just did is completely obliterate that argument. The corporation with some of the strictest quality control requirements for plastic just kicked the basic foundation of the “bad quality” argument out from under it, because if they feel confident enough to guarantee the same experience as using a brick from over 40 years ago, if they are confident enough that they can meet their own metrics at a huge industrial scale….

Nobody else has any excuse.

Treehouse Gardens

"Serpents of Hygieia", oil on panel, 32 x 18 in.

Xavier Mellery

Xavier Mellery (1845 - 1921), a Belgian Symbolist painter,  ‘’L'Églantier’’.

Amethyst Banska Stiavnica (Schemnitz), Stiavnica Mts, Banska Bystrica Region, Slovakia, Europe

La Grenouillère by Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1869

listen i know each actor brings their own spice to a role, but i just can’t take timothee chalamet’s wonka seriously 

where is the madness behind his eyes??? the malice??? the complete disregard for the laws of mankind and decency???

this man makes me fear that i’ll be shoved into a taffy machine at the slightest provocation 

as! he! should!

I’m not gonna let this gem of a tag on this post go unnoticed.

The Hamadryad by Émile Bin (1870)

The psychiatrist diagnosed me with divine madness

any other diagnoses you'd like to share?

Autism

So, there's apparently research coming out now about microplastics being found in people's bloodstreams and the possible negative effects of that and I feel the need to get out ahead of the wave of corporate sponsored "be sure to recycle your bottles!" or "ban glitter!" campaigns and remind everyone: It's fishing nets. It's fishing nets. It is overwhelming fishing nets It always has been fishing nets. Unless regulations are changed, it will continue to be fishing nets. The plastic in the ocean in largely discarded nets from industrial fishing. The microplastics are the result of these nets breaking down. The "trash islands" are also, you guessed it. Mostly fishing nets and other discarded fishing industry equipment. Do not allow them to continue to twist the story. Do not come after disabled people who require single use plastics. Do not come after people using glitter in art projects and makeup. These things make up a negligible amount of the issue compared to corporate waste, specifically in the fishing industry. Do not let them shift the blame to the individual so they can continue to destroy the planet and our bodies without regulation.

Industries are incredibly resistant to taking responsibility for their own waste, to the point where “consumers are responsible for industrial waste” is somehow considered a sensible, ethical, worthy sentence.

It is actually perfectly reasonable to say that “industries are responsible for industrial waste” and “the effects of industry can, should and must be fixed by industry” and “Industry can, should and must be held responsible for its impacts on the commons, such as air, water, oceans and land.”

Do you know how much ocean plastic waste is straws?

Something like 0.0007%.

IT’S NOT EVEN ONE ONE-HUNDREDTH OF A PERCENT.

But they want you to hate the disabled people who need safe and bendable and sanitary plastic straws in order to be able to drink. So you won’t notice the 70+% that’s fishing nets.

Walter T. Crane, 1845-1915

Nyads and Dryads, n/d, watercolor on paper, 23.4x16.5 cm 

Private Collection (Heritage Auctions)