Strobing light, also puppet torture and seriously some extreme trauma threads. Puppets or not, really serious stuff.

And a lot of medicine with it.

It is a very intense experience for someone whose friends are being killed while people continue to overlook it, the way ours are.

Most people don't realize that things like this are going on under their noses right now.

Makes the experience of fiction quite different.

Differently painful, brings different kinds of blessings.

' I could have used a distraction, but the Netflix puppet show about a mystical world filled with elfin-like heroes and adorable furry creatures offered no relief.

Instead, I saw reflections of these real-world nightmares, including deceit, environmental destruction, and death.

Was I reading too far into it, my mind warped by the onslaught of tragedies presented by cable news?

As I interviewed the cast and artists behind the show, I told them about my view of it.

Co-executive producer and writer Jeffrey Addiss had the most succinct answer:

"We wanted it to be upsetting."

Mission accomplished. '

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/netflix-dark-crystal-prequel-about-billionaires-scare-kids

' In the new series, set long before the original 1982 movie, the elfin Gelfling are being tricked by the ruling Skeksis, a small cabal of giant, snot-filled, vulture-esque villains. The Skeksis' mostly hands-off dictatorship begins to turn when their sniveling scientist discovers they can grow more powerful and even approach immortality by draining and consuming the "essence" of the noble Gelfling. The first episode ends with what seems to be one of the two Gelfling protagonists having her essence drained, a torturous process that has her screaming until she turns to dust.

To a person, everyone I spoke to, from Addiss and his creative partner Will Matthews to director Louis Leterrier and star Jason Isaacs, laughed when I mentioned how striking it was to watch this innocent puppet be tormented and mutilated. Many said that in the writers' room and on set, they had a shared mantra: "This ain't The Happy Crystal."

It's a fun show, no doubt, with fanciful creatures and gorgeous new sets, but those things only serve to make the dark parts even scarier. Leterrier says that he saw the original film, which was directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, when he was far too young, and it left him "traumatized." It also inspired him to be a filmmaker, and so he sought to bring back both the classic puppetry techniques with which the original film was made and its macabre and downright sinister undertones. '

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/netflix-dark-crystal-prequel-about-billionaires-scare-kids

Deck: Tarot of the Vampyres
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Tue Sep 17 22:24:25 EDT 2019


Today's Card
THE MOON (Reversed)

Essence
Encountering and releasing our inner fears. Facing our Shadows. Illusion and fantasy. Arousing our imagination. Dreams and nightmares. Entering the image world of the soul. The fantastical and bizarre. Peculiar or strange. Bewitchments. Glamour. The inconceivable or incomprehensible. Descent into the Underworld. Deep inner questing that leads to the rebirth of light. Reincarnation. Reawakening or resurrection. Dream work and visualization. Exploring the depths of the unconscious. Secretive, mysterious or ambiguous. The furthest reaches of our subconscious. Elusive or intangible. Occult knowledge. Seductive sorcery. Addictions and intoxication. Ghosts and Phantoms. Eerie, macabre, sinister or cryptic. The realm of the dead.

Message
The Moon card represents the depths of our unconscious and the fantastical aspect of our being. It is eerie and illusory by nature and relates to the deep psychological images of the soul. When the card appears, it is often an omen that something mysterious, elusive or intangible is contained within the issue. This may relate to the nature of the situation, indicating that there is a illusionary or cryptic quality present, or that the issue is deeply woven in our subconscious. Sometimes The Moon emerges when we are fearful or feeling lost, experiencing haunting thoughts or emotions that the path ahead seems incomprehensible. In this aspect the card is related to the sinister moonlight of our fears or nightmare. We are urged to take one step at a time along this mysterious path, to be aware of our inner signs and intuition in order to pass through these mists toward the light. The Moon is also a calling for us to look to our dreams and subconscious for understanding. We must put aside rational reasoning and trust in the realm of our imagination. Fantasy and creativity can aid us in revealing hidden messages from our unconscious. To unravel these messages we can employ dream analysis, create very spontaneous art, such as creative writing or painting. This should be done without any logical thought, but rather just a series of almost random thoughts and feelings. When the exercise is complete we can use our reasoning mind to interpret and analyse them. The card can also be a call for us to live out our fantasises, to explore the unknown or dare to divert from what is safe and known.

The Moon teaches us that the night of fear and confusion will soon come to an end. We have reached the depths of despair or soul-searching and the sun will soon arise. This relates to the aspect of the card as a journey through darkness to reach the light where we will be reawakened to the joys of life and deepest understanding. This promise of morning arises after we have delved into the pit of our deep fears and gained control of our shadows. These fears and shadows then reveal themselves to be just illusions, that only exist because something is blocking the flow of light. Discovering what these blockages are and sweeping them aside leads us to transformation and freedom. This requires a journey into the underworld of the unconscious depths and can be a daunting experience, where we must resist being led astray by shadows and illusions which are merely mirages projected from irrational fears eclipsing the light. In these times everything seems strange and unfamiliar or extraordinary, our senses are heightened as we regress into more primal instincts. We should not fear these experiences because they cannot harm us. Rather we can view them as an enticing ghost story that concludes with an emergence into The Sun (the following card) and towards deepest self knowledge. We will also gain greater skills in intuitive knowledge and expanded awareness. In many cases The Moon is a sign that we are feeling lost or wandering aimlessly and that we must find our way back to our path find clarity of purpose. Although this card is shadowy and peculiar it is not always disturbing. It can be bewitching

, and has tremendous power to inspire creativity and visualization and enhance psychic abilities.

Analysis and Symbolism
The chilling moon hangs like an omen over an eerie path of poisoned mists. The mysterious light it casts is the only guidance we have (the subconscious) into the depths of the soul. The narrow path leads up between confining tombstones (the Underworld) toward the cathedral, which is the sanctuary and eventual escape from our fears into the twilight of day. The Vampyre Bride represents our confrontation with our shadows and a personification of the fear surfacing from the unconscious. Her ethereal gown illustrates a fear of being swallowed by the realm of the dead and our inner poisoned darkness. Everything is intangible and sinister for the ego, whose only guide is the bewitching moonlight. In her hand, the bride holds a blood stained sickle, its moon shaped blade a symbol of dark intrigue. She has become the bride of death, a mirror of nothingness and illusion. It is midnight, the very depths of darkness and the axis where the deepest loss ignites the flicker of promise toward escape into the twilight. Like a pupa within a cocoon, she has become only intangible substance, yet to be reduced to this pulp of nothingness is the process of metamorphosis that will transform her into a new form. She emerges as a moth, reborn, enticed and directed by the moon into the light. She has journeyed into the Underworld, faced her fears and conquered her shadows. Around her neck she wears the symbol of Pisces which is the zodiacal trump of The Moon.

The moonlight that illuminates our nightmares can also guide us towards psychic messages and occult truths. It can be a signal for us to reject the ordinary and release ourselves from the prison of normality that we cling to for security, and to expand into the mysterious universe that murmurs within the deepest parts of our soul. We can employ flights of fantasy and imagination to overcome blockages and to gain intuitive understanding of situations and issues. Any experience in which our more primal senses are stimulated can lead us to undiscovered truths and alternative perceptions, whether through intense dreams, fantasy, psychological and physical exertion or intense eroticism. We can glimpse behind the mirror of the soul and explore our personal underworld of mists and enchantments. Many of these mirrors reflect from the depths of old memory woven into our subconscious. They are partly genetic, passed on from our ancestors as archetypical themes and emotions that relate to the passions, the struggles, and the hopes of human existence. Perhaps these archetypical motifs emerged and evolved from a need to understand the world around them and their place within it. The motifs became like a spiritual map, expressed in their myths and stories. They were also pathways that can be used to explore and decipher mysteries of the spiritual realm. This mythical framework originates from an ethereal core within each of us, presented to us as messages from our higher self, in symbols, dreams and fantasy. Not only is this deeply woven web a map of our metaphysical landscape, it is the language of our unconscious, which speaks directly to us through symbols, events and seeming coincidences in our everyday lives. This synchronicity is purely natural, just nature at its subtlest, formless beginnings, the foreshadowing and unfolding of our reality, as well as unique messages from our personal psyche.

Shadow
The shadow of The Moon can mainfest as phobias, primitive fears, morbidity, superstition or anxieties. When in this aspect, it can also indicate that we are giving into our fears or refusing to face our shadows. Sometimes, by not incorporating our shadows sensibly into ourselves as a whole, they can poison our hearts or minds. This can lead to addictions, drug abuse, bewilderment or eventual lunacy. By not containing and controlling our own fears, shadows or darker natures, we may project them onto others, making others the scapegoats for our own poison through self-deluded morali

ty. This can lead to persecution or bullying. We may be urged to overcome our guilt or face up to our actions with honesty and sincerity. Perhaps we are bewildered, losing our sense of direction and purpose or feeling confused and disoriented. In this case, we should take one step at a time until we regain our balance and perspective. Other negative qualities of The Moon include lies and deceit, self-deception, hallucinations, depression, derangement and insecurity. Religious fanaticism, hysteria, venomous slander or gossip, paralysis, self-harm, suicide and or murder are the extremes of The Moon in shadow.

Alchemy
Zodiacal Trump of Pisces
Jupiter Rules. Venus Exalted.
Connects Netzach with Malkuth on the Tree of Life

Kindred Spirits
The Child of the Sons of the Mighty
Anubis
Medusa

Verse
Wishing all my cups were poison
instead of mulling,
dulling wine.
Wishing the voracious raptor,
that is the fist
that owns my heart
would, incensed with its blackened madness,
tear its own webbed net
apart.



Presented by Tarot of the Vampyres app from The Fool's Dog.

Re: our ability to believe in one another's experiences.

Re: being susceptible (or not) to the possibility of others thinking you are crazy.

Re: how our relationships slip away, and how it kills us.

Re: spitting up lung water from the last dimension's sudden death into this new dimension's pristine and otherwise (seemingly) sudden-death-free environment...