In 1913, the Russian Orthodox Church asked the Tsar to send warships against monks—just for how they prayed the name of Jesus. A century later, the same church is fueling a new wave of Christian Nationalism. And it’s not just in Russia.
We can see a similar thing in strands of Protestant traditions. A believer's direct communion with the divine through Jesus is a deadly threat to the sacralization of authority. Though Luther preached that every Christian was a priest, he called on the princess to violently suppress the radical reform movements. The Scots Kirk, in spite of all its Calvinist rhetoric about Jesus being the only true King, suppressed any who questioned its worship of God as absolute, predestinating power and the need to submit to his appointed secular authorities. The Church of England heirarchy tried to suppress the Methodist and Evangelical revivals, that redeemed, trained and supported lay-leaders who went on to bring about unions, employment standards, schooling and social reform. And now in America, power- and money-addicted "evangelical" (cough! cough!) clergy hoodwinked their people into supporting MAGA fascism. It seems Jesu, as he promised, though, always overcomes. Through the poor, the outcasts and the oppressed. Just like he said he will. Matthew 5.
Yes, exactly this. It’s wild how fast “every believer is a priest” turns into “but please don’t act like one unless you’re on the payroll.”
You’re naming the pattern. Every time direct access to the Divine threatens the gatekeepers, the sermons get nervous and the swords come out. Whether it's Luther recruiting princes or bishops trembling over working-class Methodists, the message is clear. Union with Christ is fine, as long as it doesn’t unionize the workers.
And yet, like you said, the holy glitch remains. Jesus keeps showing up where he said he would. Not in the boardrooms of empire, but in the breadlines and jail cells. Matthew 5 wasn’t a metaphor. It was a map.
Celia, it’s wild, isn’t it? We thought martyrdom was a relic, not a rehearsal. But here we are, watching empire tremble at compassion, and truth get flagged as subversive.
If loving mercy and refusing to bow to fear makes someone a target, then maybe the saints aren’t all in stained glass after all. Maybe they’re in yoga pants, voting booths, and comment sections.
I’m very sorry for the monks of Mt. Athos in 1913. Brutal empires throughout history have always chosen one religion for amplifying their message, at the expense of all other religions.
Christian Crusaders destroyed mosques in Palestine, just as Netanyahu’s Jewish Nationalists are destroying them again today. King Henry VIII’s Church of England destroyed Catholic churches & monasteries all across the British Isles, which still has echoes in the Catholic-Protestant battles.
Since 1951, China has destroyed beautiful Buddhist monasteries all over Tibet, only to be replaced by China’s propaganda fake Buddhism. And Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine is fully supported by his puppet Russian Orthodox Church.
The religions that align with dictators & empire are not true religions anymore. They have let themselves become meaningless propaganda tools, completely empty of soul.
Karen, you named it. Empires always find a religion to wear like a costume, then use it to bulldoze the rest.
The monks on Athos weren’t silenced for doctrine—they were silenced for not playing along. Same script as Henry’s wrecking crews, China's fake Buddhism, Putin’s cassocked war.
Real faith doesn’t serve empires. It unsettles them.
The Church’s concordat with Hitler in 1933 was not just a political move, it was a spiritual failure of terrifying proportions. When institutions bless dictators to preserve their own power, they trade Christ for Caesar and call it tradition.
Real prophets get silenced. Real mystics get erased. And real Jesus? He always walks out the back door with the refugees.
Thank you for naming what many still avoid. Truth-telling is holy work.
Although Hitler was raised as a Catholic by his mother, he rejected the Catholic faith. According to Google: In a speech in 1932, Hitler declared himself “not a Catholic and not a Protestant, but a German Christian.” The German Christians were a Protestant group that supported Nazi ideology.
Karen, yes. Hitler weaponized religion the way a con man wears a stolen uniform. Didn’t matter if it was Protestant, Catholic, or “German Christian” cosplay. The point was always power, not prayer.
What’s damning isn’t just what Hitler believed, but who stayed silent while he believed it. Churches weren’t judged for his theology. They were judged for their complicity.
When empire comes knocking, real faith doesn’t offer tea. It flips the tables.
And after all that I will also offer Aho to VMB & your beautiful words about soul healing, generational, and acknowledging tenderly the ache that softens 🫶❤️🩹
My sister's friends in Germany are struggling tremendously with what's happening here
I swear it took me a few to figure out what you were trying to decipher (I post - then forget what I wrote, then see replies in email). Yes it is Lakota but I first heard "Aho" as a blessing when I started studying Peruvian shamanism. It's also used by other Native American tribes which I was totally unaware of (wasn't taught that in school). It can mean hello, thank you, even Amen depending on where it is being used & who's using it. I adored The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Saw more times than i'd like to admit.
That is literally the title of a meatloaf song on his debut album BAT OUT OF HELL. The spoken lyrics that start the song are not to be missed. Never got to see him live. Brilliant songwriter
I posted the video on my profile. Can't believe I figured out how to do that 😂
No smoking here so not sure what to share but if I figure it out i'll let you know. Day 2 of Whispers so....🤔
Sounds right to me, Karen, from what my sis has taught me. I will never understand it. Both sides of my family are of German descent - Anspach, Hetzler, Koeppel, Scheerschmidt - but all of them came to the states in the late 1800’s. My sister got a PhD in German & was a college professor her whole life - I married a Jew & even after we divorced, carried guilt deep inside me at what my genetic tribe had done. Anne Frank was my shero growing up. On my first trip to Germany with my sister - out of respect i took a year of German classes so I could at least try to speak some of my native tongue - we stayed with the Genschel family she had lived with for a year in Grad school, teaching English to German students. The way Herr Genschel greeted & hugged me when we met dissolved all the guilt inside me I’d carried my whole life just because i was German descent & I was finally able to let go of what i didn’t understand had been in me all of my life - past life guilt, i have no idea. What happened there was horrific beyond belief & not defending ANY of it, yet I saw more public displays accepting responsibility for what they had done to the Jews, LGBTQ, etc & public declarations that it must NEVER happen again than I have EVER seen here in the South, even in Atlanta, regarding slavery & discrimination against blacks before & during the Civil War. And as we all know, especially those of us who live in the south, in the 30 years I’ve lived here, it ain’t getting any better, itz getting worse. 😭
Beth, my friend, I know what German guilt feels like — I carry WWII in my heart like a heavy lump of coal, even though I was born later. My mom was from northeast Germany, by the Baltic Sea. She taught geography, German, English, & Russian; then she married an American & moved here. We spent many summers there — by then, my grandparents had moved to the Frankfurt area — & my German grandma, who I called Omi (instead of Oma), was my favorite relative. But it’s funny — I never felt quite at home either in Germany or the US.
What you’ve both shared is sacred ground. Not the shiny kind that makes it into history books, but the tender, truth-soaked kind that heals in secret.
Virgin Monk Boy also carries German ancestry. His people came during the 1871 migration, when Germany was still trying to convince itself it was an empire. They were likely farmers. Likely poor. Likely torn between loyalty to land and longing for something freer. Like most ancestors, they were a mix of light and shadow, trying to survive.
Here is what I believe.
We pray for all ancestors. Not because they were noble. Not because they were innocent. But because they were human. And every human soul carries a divine spark, whether or not they ever learned how to let it shine.
To pray for them is not to excuse them. It is to break the chain of silence and shame. It is to say, this wound will not be passed forward. This grief will not grow roots in me. I will bless what came before so I can live more freely now.
And yes, sometimes a stranger’s kindness dissolves what guilt never could. Sometimes healing arrives through a hug, a shared language, a small act of grace.
May your ancestors be held in light. May you be blessed by their prayers, and may they be blessed by yours.
Hi Beth🌸 Thanks for your story about your German family!
What Meatloaf song? 🎶 ( I liked him in Rocky Horror Picture Show!) What’s AHO? Are you speaking Lakota?? Beth, you’re speaking in riddles again — whatever you’re smoking, I want some. 😎
So interesting! I practiced a particular Japanese sect of Buddhism which involves chanting, & the main chant is compised of the title of a sutra (Lotus) & a character meaning both to dedicate oneself to and fuse with (nam).The historic Buddha never claimed to be a god, but a monk/priest/awakened one, so as he was not worshiped, in this case the name of his most important teaching/sutra came to be chanted in prayer, to fuse one’s life with it, & honor it. Even to become (embody) it. Moreover in this later sect in Japan, where this chant was initiated about 750 years ago, the chant itself is considered the name of the “rhythm , or ‘mystic law,’ of the universe” —based in cause & effect (1 of the significances of a lotus) that permeates all things (some Christians might view God in a similar way?) By chanting this name, one fuses one’s life with said rhythm and thereby can live in better harmony, with good fortune/successful efforts, and greater self-awareness to enable change/growth. Goes the theory. It is interesting that in both cases, a “name” of something universal, both transcendent and within (or able to be brought into the human body) is recited as a primary act of faith. During particularly WWII, such believers in Japan were persecuted when Japan’s state Shintoism was the only permitted religion, as well. Relision & authoritarianism do tend to find each other, and never in a healthy way…
Absolutely fascinating, Elisa. That parallel struck me too — how the name becomes more than a name. It’s rhythm, it’s fusion, it’s embodiment. Whether it’s Nam-myoho-renge-kyo or I Am, these aren’t just syllables to shout into the void. They’re how you become the teaching, not just admire it from a safe liturgical distance.
And yes, authoritarianism and religion have a long, codependent history of trauma bonding. Especially when the state starts deciding which names are “safe” to say out loud. The mystic law doesn’t care about empires, but empires sure get nervous when people start chanting like they mean it.
Opportunities to subvert people whose are different in their speech, their actions, their looks - even their private thoughts - have existed since the dawn of humankind, as described above relating to religious belief.
Most of us are happy that the world isn’t populated with clones, without creativity or individuality. What a boring, stagnant world that would be!
Why is this the time individuality has become wrong?
One reason is that Trump says so:
We must live as he decrees, or else. We must be attractive to him, or we are unattractive. We must share his worldview or we may be arrested. We must have been born inside the U.S. or we may be evicted! Our skin color must be the same as his (natural) skin color or we will be “disappeared”, never to be seen again.
It’s a CONTROL tactic. He strives to strike FEAR in the hearts of our citizens, so they will attempt to be what he demands.
Yes. This is the oldest imperial trick in the scroll. Strip the world of difference, then punish anyone still radiant.
Trump doesn’t just want compliance. He wants cloning. A nation of mirrors reflecting his fragile self-image, bronzer included. The moment someone refuses to flatten their soul to match his script, they become a threat.
But here’s the sacred rebellion. Individuality is not just personal preference. It is sacrament. It is holy defiance. It is Magdalene walking into Peter’s meeting with a story he could not delete. It is every queer prophet, every black poet, every neurodivergent mystic who refused to be domesticated.
You are absolutely right. This is a power play. But so is staying visible.
TBF prophesizing doom & gloom for Imperial Russia those days hardly required divine inspiration, merely observing very real domestic tensions that frequently burst out in political violence or open unrest (such as assassinations of Czars and state officials or the '07 near-revolution). There were good reasons why the Revolutions eventually happened there, and why the Bolsheviks were so adept at paranoid cloak-and-dagger subversion games, after all.
Also fit right in with the wider fin de siecle antebellum Zeitgeist ofc.
Exactly. Predicting doom in Imperial Russia didn’t require divine downloads. Just a decent pair of eyes and the ability to read a newspaper not printed by the czar's cousins.
But the real marvel wasn’t that the collapse was coming. It was that so many still clung to the fantasy while the foundations were already splitting. That’s the magic trick of empire. Keep the curtains shiny enough so no one notices the termites in the beams.
Prophecy often isn’t about foretelling the future. It is about pointing at the present while everyone else is pretending it is fine.
And yes, that whole era had a tremble to it. The champagne was getting poured while the floorboards were already groaning.
Good Teacher, as a concerned student, I worry about your safety in a red state. In light of the danger & threat of Christian Nationalism, please consider moving to a blue state or even Canada! (Yes, I already know what you’re going to say: you feel obligated to stay.)🙏
You know me too well. Yes, I feel the pull to stay. Not out of fearlessness, but out of fidelity. This work was born in the tension, and for now, it belongs here.
The empire counts on our silence. Sometimes presence itself becomes protest.
Your concern means more than you know. It reminds me I am not standing alone. And that is its own kind of shield.
If the day ever comes, I will meet you north of the border with a backpack full of scrolls and sass.
I would add, that the Romanov Tsars and Tsaritsas had a love -hate relationship with the Orthodox church. The Orthodox church was effectively propping up the monarchy. It reinforced the hierarchy- Tsar, Church, hereditary landed gentry and the serfs.( peasants)
In the last reign before the revolution,Rasputin's influence over Nicholas and Alexandra drove a wedge between the monarchy and the church.
Yes. The Empire and the Church were in a long codependent drama. Equal parts throne room theater and spiritual gaslighting. The Tsar wore a crown, but the Church held the incense. Each pretended the other was holy.
And then Rasputin staggered in like a barefoot prophet with bad boundaries and wrecked the illusion. Not because he was worse than the priests, but because he was obvious. He tore the veil. And once the peasants saw behind it, the whole hierarchy began to wobble.
And how does a leader fall to the guiles of Grygory Rasputin? where did he and tsaritsa think this would go? Mutual admiration became the tsar's downfall, with Rasp being just one mortal man...footnote - I had terrible dreams/nightmares for an extended period of time regarding the deaths of the royal family. That led me to glean every bit of info about them I could then find, long before internet:)
Janie, that's such a vivid thread—your dreams, Rasputin, the slow unraveling of a dynasty stitched to one man’s influence.
Nicholas and Alexandra didn’t fall because they were blind. They fell because they were scared. And Rasputin… well, he was just a man. But when fear’s running the palace, people will latch on to whatever feels like magic.
You naming this from your own dreams? That’s not nothing. That’s listening on a deeper level than most.
Recorded history tells the tale that Alexandra, who would have done anything to cure Alexis of hemophilia. Rasputin was able to stop serious bleeding episodes. So she became convinced that he was her only hope.
She was the one Rasputin needed to keep under his control. He manipulated her to perfection.
A righteous exile in the name of maternal holiness. That’s some gospel grit. Calling someone’s mother a “Sunday keeper” like it’s a felony? Please. Magdalene would’ve lit a candle, smiled sweetly, then escorted him out with the dignity of a queen and the force of a cleansing whirlwind.
We can see a similar thing in strands of Protestant traditions. A believer's direct communion with the divine through Jesus is a deadly threat to the sacralization of authority. Though Luther preached that every Christian was a priest, he called on the princess to violently suppress the radical reform movements. The Scots Kirk, in spite of all its Calvinist rhetoric about Jesus being the only true King, suppressed any who questioned its worship of God as absolute, predestinating power and the need to submit to his appointed secular authorities. The Church of England heirarchy tried to suppress the Methodist and Evangelical revivals, that redeemed, trained and supported lay-leaders who went on to bring about unions, employment standards, schooling and social reform. And now in America, power- and money-addicted "evangelical" (cough! cough!) clergy hoodwinked their people into supporting MAGA fascism. It seems Jesu, as he promised, though, always overcomes. Through the poor, the outcasts and the oppressed. Just like he said he will. Matthew 5.
Yes, exactly this. It’s wild how fast “every believer is a priest” turns into “but please don’t act like one unless you’re on the payroll.”
You’re naming the pattern. Every time direct access to the Divine threatens the gatekeepers, the sermons get nervous and the swords come out. Whether it's Luther recruiting princes or bishops trembling over working-class Methodists, the message is clear. Union with Christ is fine, as long as it doesn’t unionize the workers.
And yet, like you said, the holy glitch remains. Jesus keeps showing up where he said he would. Not in the boardrooms of empire, but in the breadlines and jail cells. Matthew 5 wasn’t a metaphor. It was a map.
Amen!
Never thought there would be opportunities to be martyred for faith in America. But they might be coming....
Celia, it’s wild, isn’t it? We thought martyrdom was a relic, not a rehearsal. But here we are, watching empire tremble at compassion, and truth get flagged as subversive.
If loving mercy and refusing to bow to fear makes someone a target, then maybe the saints aren’t all in stained glass after all. Maybe they’re in yoga pants, voting booths, and comment sections.
Stay luminous. Stay loud. The empire hates that.
I believe they are here
Martyrdom has been, is and will continue till the day Jesus returns.
May God protect and vindicate all lovers of truth, humanity, and creation itself.
I’m very sorry for the monks of Mt. Athos in 1913. Brutal empires throughout history have always chosen one religion for amplifying their message, at the expense of all other religions.
Christian Crusaders destroyed mosques in Palestine, just as Netanyahu’s Jewish Nationalists are destroying them again today. King Henry VIII’s Church of England destroyed Catholic churches & monasteries all across the British Isles, which still has echoes in the Catholic-Protestant battles.
Since 1951, China has destroyed beautiful Buddhist monasteries all over Tibet, only to be replaced by China’s propaganda fake Buddhism. And Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine is fully supported by his puppet Russian Orthodox Church.
The religions that align with dictators & empire are not true religions anymore. They have let themselves become meaningless propaganda tools, completely empty of soul.
Karen, you named it. Empires always find a religion to wear like a costume, then use it to bulldoze the rest.
The monks on Athos weren’t silenced for doctrine—they were silenced for not playing along. Same script as Henry’s wrecking crews, China's fake Buddhism, Putin’s cassocked war.
Real faith doesn’t serve empires. It unsettles them.
Thanks for keeping the candles lit.
♥️♥️♥️
Please remember the Catholic Church calibration with Hitler during WWII.
Josie, you’re absolutely right to name that.
The Church’s concordat with Hitler in 1933 was not just a political move, it was a spiritual failure of terrifying proportions. When institutions bless dictators to preserve their own power, they trade Christ for Caesar and call it tradition.
Real prophets get silenced. Real mystics get erased. And real Jesus? He always walks out the back door with the refugees.
Thank you for naming what many still avoid. Truth-telling is holy work.
I'm remembering the minister who was executed in a camp.
Although Hitler was raised as a Catholic by his mother, he rejected the Catholic faith. According to Google: In a speech in 1932, Hitler declared himself “not a Catholic and not a Protestant, but a German Christian.” The German Christians were a Protestant group that supported Nazi ideology.
Karen, yes. Hitler weaponized religion the way a con man wears a stolen uniform. Didn’t matter if it was Protestant, Catholic, or “German Christian” cosplay. The point was always power, not prayer.
What’s damning isn’t just what Hitler believed, but who stayed silent while he believed it. Churches weren’t judged for his theology. They were judged for their complicity.
When empire comes knocking, real faith doesn’t offer tea. It flips the tables.
And after all that I will also offer Aho to VMB & your beautiful words about soul healing, generational, and acknowledging tenderly the ache that softens 🫶❤️🩹
My sister's friends in Germany are struggling tremendously with what's happening here
(Sigh I suppose who isnt?)
I swear it took me a few to figure out what you were trying to decipher (I post - then forget what I wrote, then see replies in email). Yes it is Lakota but I first heard "Aho" as a blessing when I started studying Peruvian shamanism. It's also used by other Native American tribes which I was totally unaware of (wasn't taught that in school). It can mean hello, thank you, even Amen depending on where it is being used & who's using it. I adored The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Saw more times than i'd like to admit.
That is literally the title of a meatloaf song on his debut album BAT OUT OF HELL. The spoken lyrics that start the song are not to be missed. Never got to see him live. Brilliant songwriter
I posted the video on my profile. Can't believe I figured out how to do that 😂
No smoking here so not sure what to share but if I figure it out i'll let you know. Day 2 of Whispers so....🤔
🌟🥰
Sounds right to me, Karen, from what my sis has taught me. I will never understand it. Both sides of my family are of German descent - Anspach, Hetzler, Koeppel, Scheerschmidt - but all of them came to the states in the late 1800’s. My sister got a PhD in German & was a college professor her whole life - I married a Jew & even after we divorced, carried guilt deep inside me at what my genetic tribe had done. Anne Frank was my shero growing up. On my first trip to Germany with my sister - out of respect i took a year of German classes so I could at least try to speak some of my native tongue - we stayed with the Genschel family she had lived with for a year in Grad school, teaching English to German students. The way Herr Genschel greeted & hugged me when we met dissolved all the guilt inside me I’d carried my whole life just because i was German descent & I was finally able to let go of what i didn’t understand had been in me all of my life - past life guilt, i have no idea. What happened there was horrific beyond belief & not defending ANY of it, yet I saw more public displays accepting responsibility for what they had done to the Jews, LGBTQ, etc & public declarations that it must NEVER happen again than I have EVER seen here in the South, even in Atlanta, regarding slavery & discrimination against blacks before & during the Civil War. And as we all know, especially those of us who live in the south, in the 30 years I’ve lived here, it ain’t getting any better, itz getting worse. 😭
Beth, my friend, I know what German guilt feels like — I carry WWII in my heart like a heavy lump of coal, even though I was born later. My mom was from northeast Germany, by the Baltic Sea. She taught geography, German, English, & Russian; then she married an American & moved here. We spent many summers there — by then, my grandparents had moved to the Frankfurt area — & my German grandma, who I called Omi (instead of Oma), was my favorite relative. But it’s funny — I never felt quite at home either in Germany or the US.
Beth, Karen,
What you’ve both shared is sacred ground. Not the shiny kind that makes it into history books, but the tender, truth-soaked kind that heals in secret.
Virgin Monk Boy also carries German ancestry. His people came during the 1871 migration, when Germany was still trying to convince itself it was an empire. They were likely farmers. Likely poor. Likely torn between loyalty to land and longing for something freer. Like most ancestors, they were a mix of light and shadow, trying to survive.
Here is what I believe.
We pray for all ancestors. Not because they were noble. Not because they were innocent. But because they were human. And every human soul carries a divine spark, whether or not they ever learned how to let it shine.
To pray for them is not to excuse them. It is to break the chain of silence and shame. It is to say, this wound will not be passed forward. This grief will not grow roots in me. I will bless what came before so I can live more freely now.
And yes, sometimes a stranger’s kindness dissolves what guilt never could. Sometimes healing arrives through a hug, a shared language, a small act of grace.
May your ancestors be held in light. May you be blessed by their prayers, and may they be blessed by yours.
Good Teacher, thank you for your very kind blessing. 🌅 It’s nice for friends to find (& share) things they have in common with each other. 🌎
So funny that this whole thread began with the monks on Mt. Athos!! 🙏
AHO to what Karen said. You took the words right out of my mouth (cue the meatloaf song for us old rockers, which may be only one of us 🫵)
Hi Beth🌸 Thanks for your story about your German family!
What Meatloaf song? 🎶 ( I liked him in Rocky Horror Picture Show!) What’s AHO? Are you speaking Lakota?? Beth, you’re speaking in riddles again — whatever you’re smoking, I want some. 😎
So interesting! I practiced a particular Japanese sect of Buddhism which involves chanting, & the main chant is compised of the title of a sutra (Lotus) & a character meaning both to dedicate oneself to and fuse with (nam).The historic Buddha never claimed to be a god, but a monk/priest/awakened one, so as he was not worshiped, in this case the name of his most important teaching/sutra came to be chanted in prayer, to fuse one’s life with it, & honor it. Even to become (embody) it. Moreover in this later sect in Japan, where this chant was initiated about 750 years ago, the chant itself is considered the name of the “rhythm , or ‘mystic law,’ of the universe” —based in cause & effect (1 of the significances of a lotus) that permeates all things (some Christians might view God in a similar way?) By chanting this name, one fuses one’s life with said rhythm and thereby can live in better harmony, with good fortune/successful efforts, and greater self-awareness to enable change/growth. Goes the theory. It is interesting that in both cases, a “name” of something universal, both transcendent and within (or able to be brought into the human body) is recited as a primary act of faith. During particularly WWII, such believers in Japan were persecuted when Japan’s state Shintoism was the only permitted religion, as well. Relision & authoritarianism do tend to find each other, and never in a healthy way…
Absolutely fascinating, Elisa. That parallel struck me too — how the name becomes more than a name. It’s rhythm, it’s fusion, it’s embodiment. Whether it’s Nam-myoho-renge-kyo or I Am, these aren’t just syllables to shout into the void. They’re how you become the teaching, not just admire it from a safe liturgical distance.
And yes, authoritarianism and religion have a long, codependent history of trauma bonding. Especially when the state starts deciding which names are “safe” to say out loud. The mystic law doesn’t care about empires, but empires sure get nervous when people start chanting like they mean it.
Thanks for dropping such a rich insight.
Opportunities to subvert people whose are different in their speech, their actions, their looks - even their private thoughts - have existed since the dawn of humankind, as described above relating to religious belief.
Most of us are happy that the world isn’t populated with clones, without creativity or individuality. What a boring, stagnant world that would be!
Why is this the time individuality has become wrong?
One reason is that Trump says so:
We must live as he decrees, or else. We must be attractive to him, or we are unattractive. We must share his worldview or we may be arrested. We must have been born inside the U.S. or we may be evicted! Our skin color must be the same as his (natural) skin color or we will be “disappeared”, never to be seen again.
It’s a CONTROL tactic. He strives to strike FEAR in the hearts of our citizens, so they will attempt to be what he demands.
It’s what dictators do.
It’s a POWER play.
We must resist.
Jackie,
Yes. This is the oldest imperial trick in the scroll. Strip the world of difference, then punish anyone still radiant.
Trump doesn’t just want compliance. He wants cloning. A nation of mirrors reflecting his fragile self-image, bronzer included. The moment someone refuses to flatten their soul to match his script, they become a threat.
But here’s the sacred rebellion. Individuality is not just personal preference. It is sacrament. It is holy defiance. It is Magdalene walking into Peter’s meeting with a story he could not delete. It is every queer prophet, every black poet, every neurodivergent mystic who refused to be domesticated.
You are absolutely right. This is a power play. But so is staying visible.
Thank you for saying it out loud.
Thank you!
TBF prophesizing doom & gloom for Imperial Russia those days hardly required divine inspiration, merely observing very real domestic tensions that frequently burst out in political violence or open unrest (such as assassinations of Czars and state officials or the '07 near-revolution). There were good reasons why the Revolutions eventually happened there, and why the Bolsheviks were so adept at paranoid cloak-and-dagger subversion games, after all.
Also fit right in with the wider fin de siecle antebellum Zeitgeist ofc.
Exactly. Predicting doom in Imperial Russia didn’t require divine downloads. Just a decent pair of eyes and the ability to read a newspaper not printed by the czar's cousins.
But the real marvel wasn’t that the collapse was coming. It was that so many still clung to the fantasy while the foundations were already splitting. That’s the magic trick of empire. Keep the curtains shiny enough so no one notices the termites in the beams.
Prophecy often isn’t about foretelling the future. It is about pointing at the present while everyone else is pretending it is fine.
And yes, that whole era had a tremble to it. The champagne was getting poured while the floorboards were already groaning.
Is there a new Underground Railroad! I know a friendly town in Wisconsin!
Good Teacher, as a concerned student, I worry about your safety in a red state. In light of the danger & threat of Christian Nationalism, please consider moving to a blue state or even Canada! (Yes, I already know what you’re going to say: you feel obligated to stay.)🙏
You know me too well. Yes, I feel the pull to stay. Not out of fearlessness, but out of fidelity. This work was born in the tension, and for now, it belongs here.
The empire counts on our silence. Sometimes presence itself becomes protest.
Your concern means more than you know. It reminds me I am not standing alone. And that is its own kind of shield.
If the day ever comes, I will meet you north of the border with a backpack full of scrolls and sass.
I would add, that the Romanov Tsars and Tsaritsas had a love -hate relationship with the Orthodox church. The Orthodox church was effectively propping up the monarchy. It reinforced the hierarchy- Tsar, Church, hereditary landed gentry and the serfs.( peasants)
In the last reign before the revolution,Rasputin's influence over Nicholas and Alexandra drove a wedge between the monarchy and the church.
Yes. The Empire and the Church were in a long codependent drama. Equal parts throne room theater and spiritual gaslighting. The Tsar wore a crown, but the Church held the incense. Each pretended the other was holy.
And then Rasputin staggered in like a barefoot prophet with bad boundaries and wrecked the illusion. Not because he was worse than the priests, but because he was obvious. He tore the veil. And once the peasants saw behind it, the whole hierarchy began to wobble.
It was a house of cards. I've always found it amazing that it lasted as long as it did.
And how does a leader fall to the guiles of Grygory Rasputin? where did he and tsaritsa think this would go? Mutual admiration became the tsar's downfall, with Rasp being just one mortal man...footnote - I had terrible dreams/nightmares for an extended period of time regarding the deaths of the royal family. That led me to glean every bit of info about them I could then find, long before internet:)
Janie, that's such a vivid thread—your dreams, Rasputin, the slow unraveling of a dynasty stitched to one man’s influence.
Nicholas and Alexandra didn’t fall because they were blind. They fell because they were scared. And Rasputin… well, he was just a man. But when fear’s running the palace, people will latch on to whatever feels like magic.
You naming this from your own dreams? That’s not nothing. That’s listening on a deeper level than most.
Recorded history tells the tale that Alexandra, who would have done anything to cure Alexis of hemophilia. Rasputin was able to stop serious bleeding episodes. So she became convinced that he was her only hope.
She was the one Rasputin needed to keep under his control. He manipulated her to perfection.
I once had the pleasure of throwing a Seventh Day Adventist out of the house when he called my sainted Mother a "Sunday keeper!"
A righteous exile in the name of maternal holiness. That’s some gospel grit. Calling someone’s mother a “Sunday keeper” like it’s a felony? Please. Magdalene would’ve lit a candle, smiled sweetly, then escorted him out with the dignity of a queen and the force of a cleansing whirlwind.