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How to Be a Better Human

1
How to communicate better (w/ Charles Duhigg) 36:56

منذ 9 weeks36:56

التشغيل لاحقا

قوائم

إعجاب

احب

36:56

What makes some people supercommunicators? How can you become one too? This is the central lesson in Charles Duhigg’s bestseller Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret of Communication. Charles and Chris dissect what makes messy conversations so great, how to ask deep questions, and whether women and men communicate differently. They also discuss the different rules for different technologies — from telephones to Facebook to Signal — and how cautious politeness may be the best method to communicate effectively online. Follow Host: Chris Duffy (Instagram: @ chrisiduffy | chrisduffycomedy.com ) Guest: Charles Duhigg (Instagram: @charlesduhigg | LinkedIn: @charlesduhigg | Website: https://charlesduhigg.com/ ) Links Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Subscribe to TED Instagram: @ted YouTube: @TED TikTok: @tedtoks LinkedIn: @ted-conferences Website: ted.com Podcasts: ted.com/podcasts For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Stories

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Stories

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updated منذ 4 أيام

منزل السلاسل•Feed

Fiction

189 حلقات

#Audio Drama #France #francisrosenfeld

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Stories

1
A Year and A Day - January - The Blessing of the Waters 11:25

منذ 4 أيام11:25

11:25

Aifa had always asked herself, ever since she was a little child, why would a community decide to perform a ceremony that featured water during the time of year when it was almost guaranteed to be frozen. Of course if she asked her mother, she would have gotten hours of cross-referenced instruction about the significance of the holiday, complete with historical dates and the most important writings about it. It had to do with the Twins, of course, everything in Cré had to do with the Twins, but as far as the particular time of year, she couldn’t remember a reason. To her family’s dismay, whose members were never satisfied with the level of interest Aifa showed to her doctrinal studies, she didn’t much care what the reason was, but that didn’t prevent this holiday from being one of her favorites, because it involved something very special indeed: a trip to the sea shore.…

Stories

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A Year and A Day - December - The Birth of Life Itself 12:27

منذ 12 يومًا12:27

12:27

Itwas the week before the feast of the Birth of Life, a time when the city of Cré was usually bustling with activity. Everybody rushed to finish the preparations for the feast, get the gifts wrapped, and most importantly, get ready for the big social gathering that happened at the Hearth each year to mark this event.…

Stories

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A Year and A Day - December - The Night of the Mothers 11:36

منذ 17 يومًا11:36

11:36

Onthe longest night of the year, the women of Cré gather quietly, dressed in their festive garments, whiter than snow, to walk the gentle hill towards the Hearth of the Gemini, whose limestone walls glow ghostly in the distance. They have no lights to guide them, other than those of the stars and the moon, as they slowly join in long files, which in turn join larger streams, which in turn join the main procession to pass through the gate of the Hearth together, like confluences of rivulets and rivers finding their way to the sea. Nobody utters a single sound, as it has been the tradition for thousands of years, and with each year passing, the significance of this silence amplifies and lends more decorum to the sacred ritual. It isn’t forbidden to talk, there is no mention in the law that everything has to happen in silence, but every woman and girl past the age of thirteen knows and abides by this unspoken rule, as a measure of respect and pride in their tradition.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - The BEGINNING 28:51

منذ 25 يومًا28:51

28:51

“Taylor? Taylor Bradford?” a voice called from behind the counter, with non-dissimulated boredom. “I’ve got the reference materials you requested. Where do you want them?” Taylor pointed to the table in the middle of the reading room and one of the assistant librarians who were working in that section dropped the thick stack of books on it, went back behind his counter and adjusted his ear buds to disappear into his own musical world. Taylor was at a loss as to where to go from here. How do you search for something as unthinkable as a door that doesn’t exist, especially when you can’t ask anybody about it? Logic kicked in, impeccably, and suggested that if there was any information to be found about such a thing, even folk tales or urban legends, the library would be a good place to start.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number Eight - The Forbidden Door of Wishes and Desire 29:40

منذ 5 weeks29:40

29:40

“Whoa, what’s on fire?” Taylor woke up the next morning to painful, unholy banging on the door. “What’s gotten into Christine, and why doesn’t she just come in, she knows the lock doesn’t work?” She stumbled towards the door, nursing a bear of a headache, surprised to see that somebody had already repaired the broken lock. The door burst wide open, slamming into the wall, and in came Matthew, carrying a giant pizza, steaming hot. The sheer amount of meat on top of it was enough to make Taylor’s stomach revolt. “Wake up, man! Coach is going to bench you if you’re late again. I brought help, your favorite, meat lovers’. Edge to edge, my friend!” He stared at Taylor, who was about to protest on behalf of vegans everywhere, and a doubtful look appeared on his face. “What on earth are you wearing?” Taylor looked down to find out what was wrong with her pink jersey pajamas and was shocked to notice a pair of unusually large and very hairy legs emerging from their bottom.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number Seven - The Afterlife 29:57

منذ 6 weeks29:57

29:57

“Where are we?” Taylor looked around, trying to recognize her surroundings. There was something very familiar about the place, it felt as if she had spent a lot of time there, but so long ago, maybe in a dream. “For lack of a better word, dead,” he clarified, too calm for comfort. “Not dead-dead, just on the other side of the river Styx, visiting, sort of. Don’t worry, we’re going back.” “I didn’t know one could visit,” she thought, “without being, you know…” “Sure you can,” he reassured her. “Well, I can, some people can, that’s beside the point. Welcome to the great beyond!” he smiled and raised his hands to present the environment, in an attempt to be a gracious host. “To give a more specific answer to your original question, we aren’t anywhere, at least not anywhere that can be pointed on a map in normal reality. We’re in the world inside your mind,” he suggested, “you can make it look any way you wish.” “Then why does it look like this? I’m sure I’ve never been to this place, nor did I imagine it. Why does it feel so familiar?” she kept looking around. “Of course it feels familiar, it is your mind, you just didn’t know what it looked like before. It feels a little bit like seeing your own face for the first time. Without a reflective surface you have now way of knowing what you look like, but you can sort of recognize yourself, even if you don’t understand why. Cozy,” he commented upon looking around. “What’s that smell?” “Sugar plums. They’re over there,” she pointed to the corner of the table from which the scents of vanilla, cinnamon and orange wafted. “So, we’re in Heaven?” “That depends. Do you like sugar plums?” he asked, very serious.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number Six - Soul Journeying 24:39

منذ 7 weeks24:39

24:39

”Are you sure you are ready for this? It may be a little unsettling,” he asked. “As sure as I’ll ever be,” Taylor answered, doubtful. She hadn’t slept well the night before, well, with the sea lion visiting and whatnot, and was a little concerned about the extra preparation required for this door. “What is it this time?” she tried to anticipate her challenge. “Just remember, whatever you see or feel, it’s all in your mind. You are perfectly safe and you can leave anytime if it gets to be too much. That being said, here goes,” he said, and got up to open the door. A wall of water flooded the room, so fast that Taylor didn’t even have a chance to react to the prospect of imminent drowning. They both got swept by it, despite their best efforts, and carried away in a white water stream that rushed violently between large boulders, where they struggled to keep from getting pulled under, grasping at anything they could get their hands on. Taylor wanted to speak, but her voice didn’t carry over the deafening roar of the stream. For a second she felt suspended into a quasi-imponderable state, where all of her being was freed from any pulls or pressures, and then tumbled into the void at great speed, almost gliding over the surface of a tall waterfall whose bottom got lost in the mist. She wanted to be scared, every rational thought told her she should be scared, but she couldn’t feel fear at all; as it turns out it is the emotion itself, and not the thought behind it, that really matters. She kept falling, dazzled by the surreal beauty of her surroundings, melting into a million drops of water, becoming the stream itself, its wild rush, its jump over the rocky edge, and the mist at its bottom.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number Five Splintered Self 27:41

منذ 8 weeks27:41

27:41

The thing about the human mind is that it trains itself to be very efficient, so it automatically eliminates the events that have an extremely low probability of happening so that the brain doesn’t get burdened with useless information to the detriment of day to day activity. When these very rare events happen, the mind gets confused and resentful, trying in vain to reconcile what it thought it knew about the world with the new image that simply doesn’t fit into that knowledge. Stepping into the hall of doppelgängers without warning definitely fit into this category for Taylor, so she wrapped her arms around the first reasonable justification that came to her mind in order to discount whatever it was that she was seeing with her own eyes. “I must be drunk, I never should have had that beer,” she closed her eyes to make the image go away. “Oh, don’t worry, they don’t really look like you, I just altered your perception of them to make it easier for you to notice,” her neighbor whispered behind her.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number Four Shared Consciousness 30:08

منذ 9 weeks30:08

30:08

Taylor woke up to a timid knock on the door, followed by a soft fumbling with the door handle. It was Christine, who was trying to balance a large box of jelly donuts and two cups of coffee. She entered, sheepishly, waiting for Taylor’s reaction. “Peace offering?” she said, from behind the donut box. “What gives?” Taylor asked, more curious than upset. “I”m so sorry, Taylor! I realized yesterday afternoon it wasn’t you, it was that girl, Jessica, I told you she’s following Matt and his friend around like a shadow. Turns out I was wrong about which one of them she was after. Sowwy?” she took a comical Tweety bird pose to lighten the mood. “Exactly how nuts are you? And how can you mistake me for Jessica?” “What do you mean?” Christine said innocently. “Well, for one, she’s a foot taller,” Taylor pointed out. “I just saw them from a distance,” Christine explained. “She’s blond! Like really Nordic!” Taylor pointed at her own skin and hair. “People make mistakes,” Christine looked down. “Friends?” she asked. “Sure,” her friend shrugged off the logical inconsistencies.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number Three - Alternate Realities 31:26

منذ 10 weeks31:26

31:26

“Have the lessons from yesterday’s field trip reached you yet?” he asked, smiling politely. “More than I care to process,” she thought, still upset about the musts and the have to’s, but she answered in the same good mannered vein. “A few, I’m still analyzing them.” “Just remember, before we go through door number three, that not every rule is there to be broken, but it helps, every now and then, to question your assumptions. It seems fitting, since we are on this subject, and given that all of these doors look more or less the same, to remind you of a rule that you shouldn’t be breaking. Do you remember what I warned you about during our first encounter?” “Don’t go through door number eight,” she recited, trying very hard to suppress an eye roll. “You say that, but you don’t believe it, not in your heart, anyway,” he probed her with a sharp gaze, and then, not finding what he was looking for, continued, slightly disappointed. “Anyway, ready when you are,” he took a bow, pointing towards the door. “What’s through there?” “You.”…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number Two - Time 24:05

منذ 11 weeks24:05

24:05

“I have to ponder this rationally,” Taylor thought and quickly put together a plan to address the current situation. Whether it was real or not, she figured all of this weird stuff kept happening to her around four o’clock, and if she managed to avoid her haunting ghost, hallucination, prankster or whatever he was around that time of day she should be fine. Since the thought of locking herself in the women’s restroom for an hour sounded a little bit like overkill, she moved to the next best option, which was spending every single second in Christine’s company. First, she wanted to assess whether Christine could see her “ghost”, or if he was a hallucination of her stressed out mind, and second, she was kind of hoping that a public setting would deter future kidnapping attempts.…

Stories

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Door Number Eight - Door Number One - Space 25:49

منذ 12 weeks25:49

25:49

Taylor woke up and got ready for classes, as if nothing had happened the day before, trying to avoid looking at the door, somewhat uneasy with the thought that if she did, she might not see it there anymore. The first day was filled with the trepidation of adjusting to new settings and finding her way through the maze of buildings and hallways, and in all the excitement she almost forgot about the “class” that was supposed to start at four. She hadn’t had anything to eat the whole day and stopped almost without thinking at the cafeteria for a quick bite.…

Stories

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Door No. 8 - Chapter 1 The Beginning 30:06

منذ 13 weeks30:06

30:06

“Taylor? Taylor Bradford?” a voice called from behind the counter, with non-dissimulated boredom. Taylor fumbled with the paperwork and rushed to the counter to finish registering for classes before the four o’clock deadline. The clerk handled the documents absentmindedly, while she watched the clock and switched to a more leisurely mindset in anticipation of the get together she had planned with her friends later at the bar on the campus corner. Taylor walked out the door thirty seconds after four, trying to avoid the clerk’s resentful glare and careful not to slam the door behind her. She was a shy person and, even if she didn’t want to admit it, she found this whole situation of being on her own a little overwhelming.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 10.3 Chorus 9:15

منذ 14 weeks9:15

9:15

“Persephone, darling! What a joy to have you back home!” Demeter welcomed her daughter effusively at the mouth of the cave of Cumae and presented her with the traditional sheaf of barley. The oracle of Cumae bowed deeply to both goddesses, concealing a resentful glare, while Demeter performed a critical assessment of her daughter, staring her up and down in search of things that required attention. “You look thinner, Persephone. Are you sure you’re eating enough in the underworld? I am concerned.” “I’m exactly the same, mother. As you well know, we never change.” “No worries. We’ll make sure to feed you properly as soon as we reach Olympus. I’ve made you a list of tasks, just to get you started on your duties. Dionysus wants to talk to you. Make time for a meeting with him as soon as feasible, will you?”…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 10.2 The Silent Kingdom 9:35

منذ 15 weeks9:35

9:35

Persephone was careful about lifting her torch, to avoid scorching the healthy roots which poked through the vault of the cave, drawn by the sound of the small stream running through it. Plants can hear water from great distances. Plants can hear water from great distances and extend roots to capture it. They are a lot more sophisticated than people know. A delicate root tracery was covering the entire vault, surrounding the larger tap roots, which found themselves mimicking stalactites, and growing in thin air, no doubt managing to absorb the water droplets generated by the feisty little brook. She couldn’t help imagine what a thicket this place became in the summer, when the root systems expanded to fill the entire cave. She was surprised to realize she never gave any thought to what was happening in Hades while she was gone; how different it was from the lovely winter home, which always welcomed her in pristine and splendid glory.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 10.1 Spring Fever 10:40

منذ 16 weeks10:40

10:40

As spring approached, Persephone started getting restless. She was startled from her sleep, shaken by the feeling she forgot something important, whose absence had consequences which were now piling up out of sight. Her daydreaming trips to the gardens got shorter, as she spent more and more time with Hecate preparing for her trip. Most of the hard work of spring was happening underground, quietly. While the dirt was still frozen, the seeds already started their labor of sprouting, and the old roots were patiently rebuilding their aerial parts. The dark earth concealed this fierce struggle towards the light, which lasted for months before being rewarded with results. All people ever saw was the miracle of spring, nature bursting suddenly back to life, happening incredibly fast, while Persephone, who looked young and delicate, like she’d never seen a day of work in her life, seemed too unlikely to be its enabler.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 9.3 - The Unreality 9:48

منذ 17 weeks9:48

9:48

Hades always felt empty after Persephone saw the returning souls off into the world. To allay her sadness, she went to the Hall of Scrolls, to reread what the Moirae had in store for them. Hades’s palace was vast, and not many people knew that, because very few had been allowed past the sumptuous rooms at the front, which were intended for receiving visitors. It had libraries and vaults, salons and dining halls, and since his marriage with Persephone, interior gardens. Since Hades didn’t have weather, half of the spaces were open to the outdoors, facing colonnades and atria, fountains of living waters and magical trees. Everything had spirit in the Underworld, and Persephone often lost track of time talking to the trees in the open courtyards, or the flowers in her daffodil garden. The latter was a gift from Hades, who worried she might miss the meadows of her maiden days, a garden bursting with daffodils perpetually in bloom.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 9.2 Joyfully Reborn 9:34

منذ 18 weeks9:34

9:34

Life doesn’t change. Sure the technologies advance and the day-to-day gets easier, but people aren’t fundamentally different from how they were centuries ago. The same emotions and drives push them on their paths, and the same disappointments sour their spirits. Persephone tended to her souls like a gardener tends to his or her plants, watching them get born, live and die, forget their experiences and come back to life the next time around, like seeds sprinkled on the ground. It is human hubris to imagine there is a purpose to this repetitive endeavor. Just like is the case with plants, there is no purpose for them to exist other than to perpetuate themselves. Life wants to continue and slowly evolve. If there was a greater purpose under Olympus, it was too high for anyone to understand it, and it most likely did not involve building mighty empires and fighting bloody wars, the empty vanities and illusions of power that die with their creators.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory, Chapter 9.1 Inspired 10:18

منذ 19 weeks10:18

10:18

Every four years in the middle of summer, the mortals gathered to celebrate the muses in a gentle valley at the feet of Mount Helicon. The nine daughters of Mnemosyne, they weren’t your usual goddesses; they were a gift to humankind. Nobody talked about them as such, out of fear these wonders that fired the human mind to create masterpieces might be taken away, to leave mankind only the toiling and the wars, a drab existence made of hopeless and uninspiring days, all the same. The muses were born of the goddess of memory and the highest of the gods, a splendid metaphor for the mind’s union with the sublime. And, just as happens with the human minds, their relationships and connections with other gods and with the mortals got complicated from there. Unexpected friendships and mentoring roles emerged, and if one wanted to understand them, one had to know their whole family history. Pegasus himself had struck the ground with its hoof to open their source of inspiration, the stream of Hippocrene. Their mother, Mnemosyne, the keeper of the fount of memories in Hades, was Hypnos’s neighbor and friend. Remembering is the opposite of forgetting, and therefore, it embodies the same concept. They are two halves of the same whole. Every object in a universe of duality must have an opposite, and the two opposing elements are intrinsically the same essence. They are what is, reflecting itself into what it is not.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 8.3 Through a Veil, Darkly 9:51

منذ 20 weeks9:51

9:51

Those blessed with the gift of prophecy form a small but very special community. They instinctively seek each other’s presence, they are drawn to those who are similarly blessed. If they are mortal, they become oracles and seers whose wisdom is sought and revered, and people travel from far away to seek their counsel. They are the living vessels of the gods, who speak through them in cryptic messages, which are only understood in retrospect. It’s not that the gods were trying to make their teachings obscure, or that they even cared if they were. People can’t form concepts about things that don’t yet exist. Immortal prophets like Apollo, Phoebe, the Moirae, doled their wisdom onto the world below, speaking through their official oracles, like those of Delphi, or Cumae, who were famous and revered and to whom people dedicated temples and compounds, theaters and springs. And then there were the quiet visionaries, who saw a lot but kept it to themselves, not wanting to put any more strain on the greater order of things than it was already under, and staying out of the affairs of the mortals, whose misinterpretations of godly wisdom were a constant source of disaster and false hope.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 8.2 Strife 9:58

منذ 21 weeks9:58

9:58

On the westernmost edge of the Oceanus, which spans the vast distance between the world of the living and the underworld, there is a splendid garden, constantly bathed in the glow of the sunset. The garden belongs to Hera, a wedding gift from her grandmother, and wonderful apple trees with golden fruit grow there, under the jealous guard of the dragon Ladon, an offspring of the Typhon, and the rather distracted oversight of the Hesperides, the daughters of night and of the evening star. The legendary orchard was far from the real world, in both location and appearance, and because of its priceless bounty, a perpetual temptation for those driven by greed. When someone broke in to steal the apples, the circle of displeasure, complaint and requests for retribution invariably closed in the Underworld, a constant source of annoyance for Hades, who was expected to do something about it. “Who was it this time?” Persephone asked. “It was one of ours, actually. Eris decided to take it upon herself and plot against Hera. You remember Hera, don’t you?” “Vividly,” Persephone replied. Hera took exception to the smallest slight, never forgave an offense, and always made sure to drag the entire Olympus into her drama, satisfied only when she was the center of attention.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 8.1 The Blessed Isles 9:36

منذ 22 weeks9:36

9:36

Persephone stood tall on the bow of the ship, against the breeze. Behind her, the fortune’s chosen, the ones who managed to navigate its treacherous waters through three lifetimes in a row, without reproach, were gazing towards the islands in the distance with apprehension and awe, not yet able to believe their luck, eyes moist for what they left behind. Lost for words, they feared the promise of this new and wonderful existence was just a mirage which would dissipate the second they stopped believing it. Hades stood next to his wife, like a symbolic shelter against the winds. He always attended these happy occasions when mortals earned themselves the right to perpetual bliss. Also, he loved the Fortunate Isles, which he rarely found the time to visit, with his schedule as full as it always was, and besides, he had promised Persephone. The islands were two, so close to each other one could think them a single land mass. They weren’t that far from the shore, but a whole world removed in terms of privilege and grace, even compared to the Elysian Fields.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 7.3 Behind the Bronze Gates 10:20

منذ 23 weeks10:20

10:20

There was much sound and fury in Hades’ chambers the next morning, the clamor of many people speaking in anger, and above them all Persephone recognized the voice of Zeus. She got dressed in a hurry and sneaked into the anteroom of the large conference hall where Hades was involved in some very heated negotiations with an entire delegation of Olympians, which, as an extraordinary circumstance, included Zeus himself. “We’re doing everything in our power to retrieve him safely. As I told you, no effort is being spared.” “But how was it possible, brother? I thought you ruled this kingdom supreme! Just command your minions to deliver him at the gates.” “If the Hecatonchires were commandable, you wouldn’t need to keep them in Tartarus. They’re trained to some degree,” Hades replied, “but definitely don’t exhibit the level of obedience you seem to expect.” “So, you’re telling me there is no hope and you can’t do anything about this?” “Quite the opposite, brother. I just told you every effort is being made.” “Yeah. That means you can’t do anything about it. I’m so disappointed in you, Hades. I entrusted you with the fate of one of our finest, and now he’s lost in Tartarus with no expectations of rescue.”…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 7.2 The Cave of Hypnos 9:48

منذ 24 weeks9:48

9:48

When she wanted to take a break from her daily activities, Persephone wandered along the banks of the Lethe, under the slender branches of the willows, which arched to touch its waters, and walked all the way to the cave of Hypnos. She went there mostly to pick poppies, whose flowers surrounded the quiet realm of the god of sleep. The bright red blooms glowed from afar in the perpetual sunset, a bucolic image whose beauty was worthy of a painter’s canvas: a small tributary of the river Lethe was dancing between large boulders atop a rocky bed, surrounded by poppies, lavender and chamomile, and other soothing herbs, in the shadow of large linden trees, perpetually in bloom. The fragrance surrounding the place, it had no match in existence, not even in the gardens of Olympus. The flowers were always swarmed by bees, the goddess’s faithful companions, who built their hives in nearby tree hollows, which were dripping with melting wax, amber, and honey in the warmth of the sunset. The softest grass grew on the banks of the stream, tall and bright green, so delicate its texture seemed unreal, and even its touch was barely felt under the fingers. The little stream bubbled along its winding banks and entered the cave, getting lost in its depths.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 7.1 Politik 10:17

منذ 25 weeks10:17

10:17

She rushed home, crossing the bridge over the Acheron, past the elm of false dreams, through the mucky banks of the Vale of Mourning and the orchard to get home faster, so she had to stop and shake the pumice dust off her sandals before she entered the palace. Hermes was waiting in the loggia overlooking the gardens, impatient, as always. “Great! You’re here.” “Good morning to you too, cousin.” “Aha. Yeah. Listen. The cave of Cumae gets water in it every time there is a storm; it needs a new levee to fend off tidal flooding. And consolidation. That project had sat on the shelf way too long, if you ask me.” “So, what’s the hold-up?” “The Cumaean Sibyl thinks making any changes equals blaspheming Apollo. She barricaded herself in the cave and refuses to prophesy. She threatened to burn the last three books, too. To tell you the truth, I think it’s a shake-down. Greedy wretch’s demands for coin never cease.” “Well, look on the bright side: she can’t burn them if they’re underwater. Not that it would be an improvement.” “Don’t joke, cousin, it’s serious. The woman is on a mission.”…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 6.3 Land of Dreams 9:59

منذ 26 weeks9:59

9:59

Hades is a water realm. Surrounded by Oceanus, it’s crisscrossed by rivers and streams whose rash and unsettled currents can be heard in the background almost everywhere. From the quiet Lethe meandering between boulders in Hypnos’s cave, careful not to awaken him, to the echoes of the Styx, muffled as it flows through underground caves, the sights and sounds of water are everywhere, sometimes soothing, sometimes unsettling. The rushing waters of the underworld carved intricate stone tracery and painted the rocks in spectacular hues. They flowed slowly through sleepy valleys only to abandon themselves suddenly to grand waterfalls, diving into bottomless chasms nobody ever dared explore. The perpetual sunsets painted their watery curtains with rainbows, and sometimes, when the light hit them at just the right angle, it illuminated them from behind. The fiery river Phlegethon crossed the real waters sometimes, and their mingling gave rise to sharp hisses and clouds of steam, and turned its incandescent lava first to embers, and then to black stone. The placid river Lethe branched into a delta when it reached the land of dreams, seeping countless rivulets and streams through its open fields. Those who’d been brought to Hades through the gate of the sun could be deceived they were still alive when they reached this familiar landscape, only to be set straight when it changed without warning, lulling them into rationalizations in order to deceive them again. The spirits always found an explanation for why their world stopped making sense. Any explanation but the real one.…

Stories

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 6.2 The Patterns of Reality 9:55

منذ 27 weeks9:55

9:55

Persephone sneaked out into the gardens the next morning, grateful to have a few quiet moments to reconnect with her plant companions. Everything had spirit in the Underworld, even the rocks and the streams, and her beloved trees were the goddess’s most trusted friends. The poplars flittered in the twilight, their gold leaves shimmering in ways which would have gratified Demeter, who always thought her daughter’s attire too plain for a goddess and often urged the latter to show off her riches. Persephone didn’t need to impress in the nether realms, where even the leaves of the trees in her garden were made of pure gold. She grabbed a handful of the soil beneath her feet, picked out the glossiest onyx, obsidian and jet pebbles to place in her little knapsack and let the rest fall to the ground. The muses had inspired her to create a mosaic that morning, and she was on a mission to pick the most colorful gemstones for its motifs.…

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 6.1 Going Home 10:02

منذ 28 weeks10:02

10:02

She said goodbye to her mother at the mouth of the cave of Taenarum, crumbling under the weight of her sorrow and tears, and harboring guilt over feeling relieved when she finally stepped into its dark depths and its silence. Hecate was supposed to meet her and lead the way, but Persephone had walked that path so many times she really didn’t need the dark goddess to guide her. She grabbed a lit torch from the wall and started her descent, feeling a little spacey and out of reality, and wondered whether this is how all those postulants she appeared to in dreams must have felt. The path looked the same as theirs too, something she had never noticed before, careful as she was not to fall behind Hecate’s quick stride. Everything was dark and quiet, so quiet. She’d forgotten how still the Underworld could be, compared to the world of the living, where the noise never ceased, not even in solitude. The narrow path swept between large rock formations, who had been shaped and carved by underground streams, and their constant flow had covered them in rainbow layers of reds, ochres, blues and whites, almost like somebody had painted them on purpose. The path was covered in soft silt. Persephone had to guess this narrow tunnel must have been a riverbed at some point, which now dried up. Its silky consistency cradled her feet without a sound, making her footsteps softer than those of a cat.…

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 5.3 Thesmophoria III 9:21

منذ 29 weeks9:21

9:21

To say that everybody woke up the next day nursing a headache would be an understatement. The wine and the herbs left a parting gift - a vicious nausea, amplified to epic levels by the main part of the ceremony. The Antleriai, the wailers, descended into the Megara pits, specially outfitted with snakes for the occasion, to retrieve decomposed pieces of the pig sacrifices, which were then placed on the altars to be blessed by the goddess, and then taken home, as they were believed to offer bounty and protection to the crops when buried in the fields. The only silver lining of the previous day’s overindulgence was one couldn’t be sure anymore whether the smell of rotten meat was real or the result of a massive hangover. Through the headaches and bleary-eyed confusion of the morning after, the celebrations continued, however, libations, dances, obscene language and all, and actually helped the participants feel better, because it provided them with a cure in the guise of the hair of the dog that bit them. The third day was all about fertility, and honoring Kalligeneia, the goddess of childbirth, for protecting those in labor, nursing mothers and the well-being of their infants. They never missed out on enlisting Demeter and Persephone’s help in the matter as well, since childbirth, the most perilous endeavor any woman would ever go through, and which cost so many their lives, needed all the help it could get.…

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 5.2 The Thesmophoria II 9:28

منذ 30 weeks9:28

9:28

A mournful song and the unmistakable scent of winter filled the mist the next morning, when the festival attendants woke up to an eerie landscape. The meadow grasses were covered in a thin dusting of ice, and their dried flower heads, which the freezing rain had pounded relentlessly overnight, were encased in transparent globes of ice that acted like magnifying glass to enhance every detail of their intricate structures. The most beautiful among them, the latest flowers of the season, had been caught by the sudden freeze while still at the peak of their bloom, and the icy shells displayed their half opened blossoms like works of art, like summer frozen in time, insulated by a magical crystal ball from the harshness of the dark season. Towards the morning the cold and the rain gave way to a plushy fog, thick like soup, which caressed the frozen wonderland with ghostly fingers and muffled the sounds. The warmth melted the surfaces of the ice globes, making them glisten in the low light, and look polished like mirrors. Nature was so quiet in the fog, a soft, comforting and unnatural silence which reminded Persephone of home.…

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 5.1 Thesmophoria I 9:25

منذ 31 weeks9:25

9:25

“Have you prepared yourself, daughter? You have to set an example for all the married women: fast for nine days, refrain from the pleasures of the flesh and purify yourself to be worthy of the Goddess’s blessing.” “Yes, mother. Although I find it a bit ironic that I need to prepare myself so I’d be worthy of my own blessing.” “You are a role model, daughter. Everyone is looking to you for guidance. Among the Attic women, you should be the strictest follower of the ritual preparations.” ‘Shouldn’t be that hard,’ Persephone thought. ‘We only eat ambrosia, and I haven’t even seen my beloved in months. What is ambrosia made from, anyway? I hope it’s a proper lenten meal.’ “Have you chosen your pig, dear?” Demeter asked innocently, reminding her daughter of the unavoidable and loathsome drudgery of sacrificing some poor creature, which seemed to be mandatory for every celebration, be it of joy or of mourning. “Why don’t you choose one for me, mother?” She smiled back, waiting for a snarky retort, but her mother was in a good mood, so she took her daughter’s bratty comment in stride. “I wouldn’t dream of making choices for you. You’re a grown woman, mistress of your own fate. Just make sure to pick a fat one this time. The ladies seem to believe it makes a difference in the abundance of next year’s harvest.”…

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 4.2 Kore 8:51

منذ 32 weeks8:51

8:51

“Mother, aren’t we going the wrong way?” she asked Demeter when the ship left the shore and started following the sun due west instead of sailing towards the sunrise. Demeter smiled, but said nothing. “Where are we going?” “Sicily.” “Why?” “You’ll see, the latter smiled in anticipation.” Anthesphoria was a festival of flowers, and as such, dedicated to Persephone, or, more precisely, to her incarnation as the maiden, Kore. The mind creates sophisticated models to get a grip on reality, abstract structures which are often personified to make it easier for it to relate to them. These models may not make sense rationally, they are archetypal, and are useful in interpreting the world in the absence of knowledge. They build stories to explain the unseen patterns of nature, which are experienced, but not understood. The archetype of the Goddess kept shifting, depending on its symbolic meaning.…

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 4.1 A Trip to Magna Grecia 9:28

منذ 33 weeks9:28

9:28

The delegation left early in the morning, poised to reach the shores of Magna Graecia at sunrise. Everywhere else Persephone was just another goddess of the Pantheon, but in Locri, she was the goddess. Two majestic temples were raised for her worship, and the city had bestowed upon her the additional honor of being the protector of childbirth, thus managing to intrude upon the attributions of both Hera and Artemis, and therefore offend them both. Persephone tried to suppress a smile, and figured out if any of the lands of Hellas were going to have the gumption to question the gods, they had to be Locri. The city had been founded by the Achaeans and was protected by Poseidon; its citizens were aristocratic and never backed down from a fight. Their sophisticated, unbendable laws, and their appreciation for athletics, culture and the arts, were supported by the enviable wealth of their thriving commerce. The women of Locri were very special to Persephone, who favored them as much as they did her. They were independent and powerful, undaunted by their men’s ambitions, and they didn’t indulge the whims and demands of the latter. They were masters and administrators of their own homes and wealth, acting like earthly goddesses in their own right, and so they didn’t aspire to gain the favor of Aphrodite, and her enchanted binds of desire, or Hera, the ideal obedient wife, or either one of the virgin goddesses, who had to forgo marriage in order to enjoy their freedom.…

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Chapter 3.3 - Summer Festivals 9:51

منذ 34 weeks9:51

9:51

“Welcome back, daughter,” her mother greeted her, all smiles, at the mouth of the cave. Persephone felt a little stiff from sleeping on the ground and still a little turned around after traveling back and forth twice between worlds within the boundaries of one night. “I take it you had a pleasant journey home,” Demeter continued, way too cheerful so early in the morning. “How is your husband?” “He’s well, thank you,” Persephone mumbled, squinting from the crude light. “I take it your followers are still looking for you,” her mother pointed to the group, which meandered through the forest and valleys carrying torches in the middle of the day. “I wouldn’t deprive them of the excitement of finding me, eventually. Let’s give them a few hours. I have a few things to tend to in the meantime.” “Your husband gave you homework, dear?” “No. It’s a favor I promised a friend. In fact, I was wondering if you’d be able to help. It’s a plant.” “For Proteus.” When you spend so much time switching between realities, whether it’s from death to life or from sleep to consciousness, you are bound to cross paths with the shapeshifting god of the unconscious, whose gift of prophecy and ability to alter the properties of matter were unmatched, even among the gods.…

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Chapter 3.2 - The Eleusinian Mysteries 9:09

منذ 35 weeks9:09

9:09

The communicants started their descent into the depths of the earth, with nothing to light their way other than the high priestess’s torch. The latter was tall, and her pallid members stood in stark contrast with her long hair, black as night, which flowed freely and draped around her shoulders like a mantle, and the black chiton, tied around her waist three times with a thin golden girdle. She wore a tri-faced mask, which wrapped around her head, hiding her identity, and on her temples, the silver horns of the crescent moon: the symbol of Hecate. As they continued their descent, the trail became narrower, sweeping between large boulders, overgrown with tree roots in places, its quietude disrupted by the sounds of an underground river flowing nearby. The supplicants’ faces looked carved in stone, they all look the same, as if their spirits have left them. They seemed unaware of each other’s presence, their fixated stare darting into the darkness before them, as if something powerful inside it pulled them into its unknown depths, a ghostly army of the dead whose footsteps were muffled by the soft silt on the path. All of them had partaken in the ceremonial drink, a hot wine mixed with herbs and spices which felt like liquid fire running through their blood, a paradoxically still fire, bringing peace beyond understanding. Their spirits turned inward, leaving their earthly shells vacant and making them look as if they were sleepwalking down the path.…

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Chapter 2.3 - The Moirae 10:27

منذ 36 weeks10:27

10:27

The world is surface, a shimmery veil of illusion, woven from gossamer and dreams by the Moirae to give the unbound consciousness a home. Behind this elusive veil, the fundamental action principles of existence, known only to the gods, continuously transform reality, sometimes unseen, sometimes picking at its back and putting waves through its diaphanous fabric. Its visible side glistens like a mirror, reflecting any consciousness that is there to see it, its ever changing imagery shifting to harmonize with it, an exquisite mirage, poised to fool the senses. It looks solid and permanent enough, but it’s not, and if you touch it, it shrivels under your fingers like a mimosa plant, contracting into itself and letting you hold on to thin air. Reality is made of nothing, just like dreams; it comes from nothing and has to return to it eventually, it just does it so much slower than the latter.…

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The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 3.1 The Dionysia 7:50

منذ 37 weeks7:50

7:50

Persephone used the pretext she had to oversee the progress in the barley fields to take her leave from the city, which was bursting at the seams with crafting festival paraphernalia, cooking, and the stress people always experience on the eve of major holidays. The city’s noise and bustle gradually disappeared as the goddess ventured into the fields, which had already been plowed and sown, and whose fresh shoots were starting to emerge, green and slender like grass. The clearings and meadows overflowed with daffodils, and though the air was still cool, Persephone felt Gaia’s vibrant return to life. The honeybees, her underworld messengers, emerged from crevices and hollows, to greet their mistress with the latest news from home. She watched them dance their messages, smiling to old memories, intoxicated with the scent of daffodils and caressing the tiny shoots of wheat as if they were her little children, gathered round to bask in her presence. Such blessed peace she felt in the fields, whose bounty filled her heart more than any offerings left on the steps of her altars.…

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منذ 46 weeks11:10

11:10

Local: Denoting a variable or other entity that is only available for use in one part of a construct, relating to a particular region or part, or to each of any number of these. My beloved child, there are so many things I wanted to teach you! We all live in a subset of reality that only reaches as far as our minds and our senses. We occupy a small room inside being, and in that room we’re like the orange that falls off the side of a wagon and upsets every other fruit in its path. We get a sense of our surroundings based on immediacy and adjacency; we rush to the familiar to solve problems and favor the most recent things we did when we look for quick ways to tackle something new. Our minds economize when they take in the world, we keep our trusted standards to the forefront of our thinking, so we don’t have to do any more of it than necessary. We can only experience things that are available in our corner of the world. Just because something does not exist where we are, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in general. Here is a simple example, we only know what snow looks like because we live here, where it gets cold in the winter. If we lived in Egypt, we could go through our entire lives with no knowledge of it. Everything that hasn’t dawned on us yet does not exist. There may be states of being stranger than words, time crystals, solar winds, condensates of reality itself, but they are all unavailable to our perception, because we can’t live inside the conditions that define their worlds.…

مرحبًا بك في مشغل أف ام!

يقوم برنامج مشغل أف أم بمسح الويب للحصول على بودكاست عالية الجودة لتستمتع بها الآن. إنه أفضل تطبيق بودكاست ويعمل على أجهزة اندرويد والأيفون والويب. قم بالتسجيل لمزامنة الاشتراكات عبر الأجهزة.