Poison Flower
Date Friday, March 29, 2024 - 07:25 AM PST
Topic Cult


A long time ago I used to write about a charming little baby cult I started up way back in the day, I spoke of it...but never really explained what it was. Having nothing better to do today then whittle away the hours of my life on the computer, I figure it's about time for me to explain exactly what the cult of Anemone was all about, time for me to tell ya' about the Poison Flower.


There are darker impulses within us, a hungering shadow that we are conditioned to deny and overcome or at least attempt to. This is the demon within, the evil at our core...the worm in our apple so to speak. A lot of religions and moral structures seek to restrain, deny or defeat this darkness...a rare few seek to exalt it and revel in it, which typically leads to a diffusion of coherence and a lack of anything other than self-destruction or dissolution into some sort of mediocre "evil religion." Heh...the guys who worship the shadow inside turn into the worst sort of D&D villains, or those sappy dorks who swear up and friggen down that they're really horribly tragic vampires.

Anyways, when we seek to restrain, defeat or cripple this darkness, we inevitably fail...as it is an inescapable and intrinsic part of us. When we fail, it leaks out and taints our brighter sides...turning our souls into a mish-mash of dark and light, lesser for the mixing. It's like mixing two foods that are really good alone with eachothr and getting something that tastes like ass. We cheapen and lessen both sides for the mixing. This is also the source of really insidious half-evils, love gone wrong, friendship turned to self-gain and all those other sorts of half-wrong rights that cause no end of pain for someone sooner or later. On the other hand, if we indulge only in the darkness...we just end up retarded, a modern day version of Skeletor, cackling and plotting...and failing all the way.

So here's one of the big precepts of the Poison Flower. The darkness inside is not something to be avoided, ignored or fought off...nor is it something to be allowed overdue indulgence. Instead it is something to be mastered, to be used and to be excercised when needed. Normally a life is lived in balance more or les between the light and the dark, the Poison Flower belief asks and directs that normally you try to live your life virtuously by your definitions, you try to be what you believe is good. Every once and awhile you gang up with some trusted allies and you let the bad out for a bit. This is for catharsis as well as experience, every time you let your demon out to play, you learn a little more about it. The more you expose yourself and utilize this demon, the more often your able to recognize it when it's trying to be sneaky, and the more often you can uncork it when it's needed. Everyone has enemies, and some people have enemies for a long damn time...but uncorking the right kind of evil at the right moment can remove the threat posed by an enemy, it can also allow for signifigant gain in many different endeavors. It shouldn't take a lot of imagination to see how this could happen. It's a tool, a part of ourselves we rarely understand at all, and it is possessed of a frightening passion and capacity. Get together and let it out every so often...and then use it for your own ends. After all, it IS you...as much you as your arm or your dreams, it grows stronger and more in tune with itself when it is used...as do you as a whole.

Don't worship it, master it.

The Poison Flower term comes from the relationship between two oceanic creatures, the clownfish and the anemone. The Anemone is an incredibly predatory and destructive entity. It will kill anything it can reach, weither it plans on eating it or not. It's barest touch spells all sorts of painful doom for the unfortunate fucker on the receiving end. The clownfish is a fish like any other fish..but it exposes itself to this monstrous thing carefully in it's formative years and builds up a resistance. After it has this resistance and it knows what the Anemone is capable of, it uses it for protection, and thrives through the union. They are symbiotic entities...two seperate species. As human beings it's just a little different, our Poison Flower is inside of us, it is a part of us...just as that little fish is a part of us. Our dual spirits, our Hun and P'o are this fish and Poison Flower. It works in nature it can and does work for us, if approached with intelligence, wit and what paltry wisdoms we can gain from our lives.

Not everyone can do it right of course...actually most can't, at all. The most common reaction to attempting to master and utilize the hateful monster that is you is a complete disorganization of self-control...resulting in an inability to effect change on your environment. But when it does work...it works beautifully. Anemonics do not dislike their foes, they do not try to overcome a challange...they hate their enemy with a ruthless passion, they destroy their challanges with an arrogance born of conviction in their superiority, and then they put their weapon back in the place they've made for it.

Anemone itself is the result of this grouping together to let the dark out, as it is the end effect of the entire process. Anemone is the god-body of man, the fusion of our broken selves into a singular entity on a much broader scale. As more learn to control and utilize their full potential, so does Anemone come more into being. It is not an all-knowing bearded God or a compassionate dying Earth Mother...it is simply a hungering, passionate and predatory collective, the avatar manifested of our own existance. To tell you the truth I don't know if it could even be called sentient or not, but masses tend to act in a weird sort of unison so it wouldn't surprise me if it is. We've all felt that weird connection to something other than ourselves before, this is giving that feeling a name. The Anemone touches all around it and devours those it does...incorporating them into itself.

I have watched it wax and wane, I have seen the god inside stir fitfully in it's sleep and I have seen the shadows looking out from behind the eyes of others, I know it is there and within you, you too can feel it's heart beating...because it's heart is your heart. Master your shadow, embrace and understand it...give it it's rightful place and enjoy life, for with the tools you have, it is ours for the taking.


Whew...alright, all that jazz is the basics, it gets a little snarkier the higher up I pulled people in, but the basis of it all is hidden somewhere inside that drivel. Granted, nowadays it's gone through a few slight evolutions...but if you can read between the lines, you'll see my nifty magic eye picture in there somewhere. So thats it, that was the Cult of Anemone, the Dance in the Poison Flower. You can even donate to the cult! Just go out and buy yourself something cool...yay!

Any questions or suggestions?

This article comes from Shmeng
http://www.shmeng.com/

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