Collage Challenge: IMAGE IDEAL

[Animal]

You definitely pull off physical androgyny. This is something I'm fairly big on too, and very selective when it comes to partners having masculine and feminine balances in various ways (not always physical). I recognize that balance in you for sure.

[Eclipsed]

I did it. As requested I added the pic of my current avatar as well as more of me, big pictures of me, because it's me, so why wouldn't I?

I think my image ideal, in my own head, mostly just represents aspects of myself I feel I see that which aren't obviously observable that I wish would be - namely openness, a desire to look a little physically androgynous, and creativity/intuition.

[a2jc4life]

Oh, lorrdy. Are we going to do the whole passive-aggressive mess again? Nitpick all you want, but it's pointless to nitpick something about a typing collage that the creator didn't choose.

[a2jc4life]

This was my reaction, too. I think it's a centers thing. As gut types, we have a sense of "being," but the idea of "how do you want to be seen?" is language that just doesn't compute.

[Eclipsed]

*blushes...

[[redacted]]

well, it is quite lovely don't you think

[Mahat]

Daeva this is VERY interesting indeed, the parallels. I don't have a rational reason as to why I have a repulsion towards to the feminine, as far as I can tell it's a result of a tension from my own femininity. Something I simultaneously repudiate and yearn for.

[Daeva]

It's really interesting; for as different as our collages can be visually, the symbolism has great overlap and always did, in my view. I, too, went with the dragon and the esoteric. Rather than struggling with the lunar, I don't trust the Sun. For it is the bringer of light and the giver of life, but it inevitably betrays us. We will get burned. It is the Christ and the anti-Christ, both in one. It also represents my own struggle with the masculine and because of this, and ironically so, I cannot help but identify with Apollo to some extent. Though in this thread my depiction of him (and the image-ideal "me") is a depiction of the Irish god Lugh, who has been equated with Mercury...

[Daeva]

[redacted]'s comment is so funny now with Eclipsed's current avatar. The hearts! <3

[Mahat]

Animal Roshanhttps://archetribe.com/forum/lifesty...tal-health-log

it should give you an insight into why I chose that painting.

Third photo third row down - That image came from Hiraoki Samura's manga "Love of the Brute" which depicts women in really brutal bdsm scenes. I chose that particular image because it depicts my hatred of the feminine quite explicitly. It pictures a nude queenly woman sitting on top of a chair that has a dildo attached to the base of it, and it's penetrating another woman who's in an uncomfortable position. The feminine and women's bodies inspire visceral sadistic feelings in me, and I enjoy seeing them in varying states of agony. I would be the queen in this photo, subjugating and oppressing other women (like a gender-traitor heh). Overcoming, dominating, and then subverting the feminine.

Second photo first row and second photo third row - Left Hand Path symbolism. My values, to a degree, are very much in line with the ethos of the LHP. I didn't need the LHP to discover those values, they just happen to fall in line with it.

"Left Hand Path (LHP) is a phrase used to describe some alternative religious movements and religious practices involving magic. LHP movements are said to involve self development instead of communal concerns, self analysis instead of group meditation, self empowerment for material reasons rather than for spiritual ones. The focus is on individualism, freethought, intelligence and personal abilities and gifts. Practitioners of Thelemic Magic and Chaos Magic (championed by Aleister Crowley and Austin O. Spare respectively) often call themselves LHP1 and Satanism is one of the few left-hand-path religions. Historically some LHP groups have pushed past the limits of acceptable behaviour.

The LHP is contrasted with the "Right Hand Path" (RHP) that upholds symbols of goodness, of the sun, of herd mentality and of submission to gods and religious authority. The idea of the "left hand path" comes from Indian Tantric philosophy which contrasted the left path (vama-marga) against the right path (dakshina-marga); this terminology was popularized in the West through the teachings of Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophists, who were responsible for bringing many Hindu teachings from Indian and Westernizing them1,2. "Left-handedness" has had ancient negative associations and "the left" (as a symbol opposed to "the right") is nearly always the inferior of the two3,4. The English word "sinister" comes from the Latin word for "left-handed" and in history Christian and Islamic institutions have ostracized left-handers and physically punished them. The RHP represents the vast majority of religious practice in the World and followers of the LHP are often instinctively reticent about revealing their affiliations."
- http://www.dpjs.co.uk/lefthandpath.html#Features

Nonetheless, I do incorporate a lot of Right Hand Path values into my value system so I don't really pit these systems against each other. My mind is always prone to synthesizing opposites. And it seems like this article stops at Laveyaneism in regards to modern LHP which is too materialistic for my taste (I aim for something higher than the corporeal). One of these days, I might write about my spiritual beliefs in more detail. What's ironic is that the LHP is associated with the feminine and the lunar, which I have a hatred for, while the RHP is associated with the Apollonic. Something to think about...

First photo second row and last image last row - The Lesser Key of Solomon: https://www.grimoire.org/grimoire/lesser-key/

The rest of the symbolism I'll leave up to you.

[a2jc4life]

Ahhh...yes, in that sense, I have experience.

[[redacted]]

Lol I was curious if you had some past experience because it sounded like you were referring to a different exchange, but maybe there's an edit I missed.

[[redacted]]

One thing I found tricky about making a collage based on this theme is that I figure most collages are image-ideals in a way, so it feels rather meta. (Also if you explicitly say you want to be seen a certain way, it kinda breaks the spell. ) And in general, image is kind of complicated... I don't see myself as an image-type, but don't think it's necessarily easier for someone who is since it's so ubiquitous for them.

[a2jc4life]

Um...define "a lot." lol I don't know that I would say "a lot." Enough, though, to know that I don't want people trying to make sweeping statements based on elements that weren't even my doing. I chose the images here; I didn't choose the arrangement (other than to cycle through the layouts until I got to one that didn't seem to make a third of the images microscopic).

[[redacted]]

Do you have a lot of prior experience with collage typing?