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   CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 04:26:56 JST CJ Bellwether

   slapping my head at the revelation that of course drag balls originated as Black Masquerades.

   just mumming through the centuries.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 04:57:50 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @Klaxun so mumming is this premedieval cultural behaviour you see in europe, it permeates pagan ritual and as christianity asserts itself it continues to be allowed as this way of letting off steam (much like christmas or a strange medieval idea of The Purge). Mumming is the act of being someone else, breaking your vow with god for a brief time and inhabiting someone else in a more root urge way. People could make a lot of money while mumming which is a sin, and the idea of earning more than your lot is very outside of what a peasants role in life is. So you wear masks and disguise yourself while you do so. You have the rise of festivals where everyone drops their social roles and laws are suspended with a king of fools being elected to proclaim new decrees of law to be followed during. You could fuck with whom you wanted, marriage ceased to be recognised, and if you or your partner became pregnant with another then after the festival you two would raise the child as your own (as christ rule was restored).

     This is all hugely sexually charged of course, and so european royalty and the courtier classes begins to adopt it too, as masquerades. Parties where the same rules apply (everyone fucks and doesnt know who anyone else is), but done on a far higher budget. Extravagant outfits to show off your plumage, mock ideas, make statements and compete. France very big into it.

     Then France colonizes west africa and brings with it the concept of Masquerade which becomes popular there mixing with cultural events and religious ceremony.

     Then Slavery, and you get Black Masquerade coming to the Americas, so you get New Orleans with mardi gras, and voodoo, as well similar cropping up across the east coast.

     Masquerade Ball becomes Grand Rag which becomes Drag Ball

     https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-first-self-proclaimed-drag-queen-was-a-formerly-enslaved-man-180982311/

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     The Mïghty Kräcken (klaxun@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 04:57:51 JST The Mïghty Kräcken

     in reply to

     @siege What is a Black Masquerade? I asked Google, but all they want to do is sell me masks.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 05:02:38 JST CJ Bellwether

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     just blowing my mind that the US law on crossdressing being allowed during masquerade is literally like an early christian law of allowance of "The Purge" from likely the fall of the roman empire era.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 05:06:07 JST CJ Bellwether

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     christs law stops during the masquerade, marriage is halted and all may fuck and be who they wish, but only as long as we all agree to allow christs law to be restored again after and return to a god ordained roles for to not would be sin.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 05:23:27 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @Klaxun absolutely it does! My professional background is working as a dramaturg for clown/chaos in festival work and one of my larger focuses is how it is this deep human need that we all have to let loose as a community and often the thing missing is this element of chaos - the fool. Like a festival needs a lot of different tones and surprises for it to be satisfying to those who attend and we often over sanitize so my job is figuring out how to safely reintroduce that chaos element that allows release and for people to drop their masks

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     The Mïghty Kräcken (klaxun@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 05:23:28 JST The Mïghty Kräcken

     in reply to

     @siege Thank you so much! I'm fascinated with the concept of festival. Every frumpy little town here in Oregon has its own day where everyone gathers to celebrate and cut loose. It's not the same thing you are talking about, but I suspect it springs from a similar human need.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 06:31:36 JST CJ Bellwether

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     • Mage Moss (trying it on)
     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @Cyrus @Klaxun one type of it yeah

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     Mage Moss (trying it on) (cyrus@zirk.us)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 06:31:37 JST Mage Moss (trying it on)

     in reply to

     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @siege @Klaxun The Wicker Man 1971 features and spells out the community ritual you describe.

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     The Mïghty Kräcken (klaxun@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 06:44:58 JST The Mïghty Kräcken

     in reply to

     @siege That subject has taken up a great deal of my headspace for the last few months. I'm a singer in a band, but we aren't active enough for my taste, so I've also been studying the variety arts, specifically magic performance. I'm trying to bridge the gap between learning tricks and performing magic.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 06:44:58 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @Klaxun yeah, how do you elevate a moment to an experience that fundamentally changes people.

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     The Mïghty Kräcken (klaxun@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 13:13:06 JST The Mïghty Kräcken

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     @siege I would very much like to know if you have any favorite books on that subject.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 13:13:06 JST CJ Bellwether

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     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @Klaxun Yeah anything that delves into ritual and liminal space might be interesting - the one i think im thinking of i think might be "The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure".

     Also tracking down any book that goes into detail on trying to actually describe Happenings from the 60s/70s. To that end Id very much recommend Ringolevio: A Life Played For Keeps by Emmett Grogan following his work with The Diggers which is who Ken Kesey modelled himself on with his Acid Tests. Ringolevio is free as a .txt online on the diggers website. A lot of it is not going to be useful but still a wild read if you havent, but theres a few points that describe The Diggers events like The Invisible Circus and the Frames of Free Reference that are interesting points.

     If you're able, tracking down any description of theatre events by Joseph Campbell, who irregardless of what anyone may think of his concepts on ritual, his events at the very least managed had some very beautiful concepts that were deeply affecting.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 13:21:03 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @Klaxun but theres a lot of really simplistic stuff thats straightforward in terms of manipulation. My favourite is doing a solo 1v1 piece inside a space where the audience member has to either crawl through a tunnel or climb through a portal like a hole in a wall - and as they're crawling through to stop them mid way before they're able to stand up so they're either still on the ground or straddling the hole or whatever, to catch them in that point where they're still in this playful position of action and to then translate that into a continuing action into the performance world so they dont have time to reorientate themselves, reestablish who they are and put their judging viewer hat back on etc. If i can catch them in that between moment then they're willing to do the immediate thing i have ready for them and then it just becomes a dance of keeping them somewhat unbalanced.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 14:20:39 JST CJ Bellwether

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     • The Mïghty Kräcken

     @Klaxun no trouble, therse a lot of stuff on mask work which can be useful too, especially the more mask exercise stuff looking at longform where the performer working with the mask loses their sense of internal identity after about an hour of the mask and so on. Theres a ton of options out there its just figuring out what you want to hone in on.

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     The Mïghty Kräcken (klaxun@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Feb-2024 14:20:40 JST The Mïghty Kräcken

     in reply to

     @siege Nice! Thank you so much for the suggestions! You've given me a lot to investigate.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 02:49:05 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Nat Bennett

     @nat yeah id be interested to hear more on that, i know the Cult of Cybele would have been a primary area for crossdressers/trans people and banned for any roman citizen to take part in, tho i seem to fuzzily remember at some point the high priest role became a symbolic title given to roman senators etc.

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     Nat Bennett (nat@ruby.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 02:49:06 JST Nat Bennett

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     @siege This reminds me of the weird and poorly-explained role that cross-dressing played in the end of the Roman Republic

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 12:46:01 JST CJ Bellwether

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     • Nat Bennett

     @nat Oh so Cicero does literally refer to the Magna Mater / Great Idaen Mother in his speech against Publius Clodious Pulcher - that its during the games of the great mother (Cybele). So there would have been a lot of her trans/crossdresser followers the Galli around so yeah its no wonder Cicero knows quite a bit on it, i think he literally lived round the corner from her temple.

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     Nat Bennett (nat@ruby.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 12:46:03 JST Nat Bennett

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     @siege Claudius later got himself adopted by a man younger than himself so he'd be eligible to run for Tribune so he seems to have been a general social boundary crossing weird dude, but the way the cross-dressing incident in particular is written about always makes me think that like, there was something *happening* here socially that mostly doesn't make it into the sources, but that this incident got written down because of the trial around it.

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     Nat Bennett (nat@ruby.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 12:46:04 JST Nat Bennett

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     @siege It's not totally clear to me if cross-dressing was a Thing for this guy or a one off. Cicero talks a lot about it when he's attacking this guy later, and it seems like he's *mostly* taking this one incident and making it into a Thing for political reasons... but then he describes the cross-dressing in technical detail and it's like, okay, Cicero, why do you know this much about how to do drag.

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     Nat Bennett (nat@ruby.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 12:46:05 JST Nat Bennett

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     @siege There's a specific incident I'm thinking of with Publius Claudius Pulcher, who dressed up as a woman to join sacred women-only rights and seduce Caeser's wife, and ends up on trial for that but the evidence in the trial is... substantially that he's been having an affair with his own sister?

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 12:53:14 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Nat Bennett

     @nat "So these games, the sanctity whereof is so deep that it has been summoned from distant lands and planted in this city, the only games which are not even called by a Latin name, that. their very title might indicate the domestication of a foreign cult, adopted in honour of the Great Mother, these games, I say, were performed by slaves, viewed by slaves, and were indeed converted under Clodius' aedileship into a Megalesia of slaves. O immortal gods! how could ye speak with us more clearly, if ye were with us and moving in our midst? Ye have signified and ye openly declare that the games have been desecrated. What greater example of pollution, dishonour, distortion, and confusion can be quoted, than that the whole of our slave population, liberated by permission of a magistrate, should have been let loose upon one stage and given control of another, with the result that the audience of one was exposed to the mercy of slaves, while that of the other was composed of slaves alone?"

     I believe Cicero is literally doing the roman equivalent of calling Clodius a woke trans BLM communist

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 13:44:08 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Nat Bennett

     @nat yeah, spread as far as Britain turns out. The British Museum has a pair of the clamps used during the Festival of Blood to welcome new Galli to the cult, found in the Thames in 1840

     https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1856-0701-33

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     Nat Bennett (nat@ruby.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 13:44:09 JST Nat Bennett

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     @siege It's sometimes unnerving how modern that particular era sounds.

     Also: Wow Cybele's cult and how she got to Rome is wild, I am reading about it in detail for the first time now.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 13:46:11 JST CJ Bellwether

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     • Nat Bennett

     @nat The Galli would bleach their hair, wear bright yellow/orange female robes, large golden jewellery and dance through the streets during the festivities in a delirious state. Ye olde cult of the bimbo.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 13:48:18 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Nat Bennett

     @nat so Cicero is implicitly stating that Clodius is trans in his description and a secret Cybele worshipper which roman citizens were forbidden to be (but slaves were not).

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 29-Feb-2024 13:50:13 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Nat Bennett

     @nat oh also the Sibyl, the oracle prophets were also part of Cybeles cult

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 11:40:44 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Nat Bennett

     @nat they also ran a good racket at a Gate to the Underworld:

     "During the early years of the town, the castrated priests of Cybele known as the Galli descended into the Ploutonion, crawled over the floor to pockets of oxygen or held their breath. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and so tends to settle in hollows. They then came up to show that they were immune to the gas. People believed a miracle had happened and that therefore the priests were infused with superior powers and had divine protection"

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploutonion_at_Hierapolis

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     Nat Bennett (nat@ruby.social)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 11:40:45 JST Nat Bennett

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     @siege Yeah I also saw something about the Galli making money by telling people's fortunes. Which has me chewing on the relationship between queerness and astrology/tarot. Reminded me of living in Venice Beach, the land of Crystals.

     Also what I can't help but imagining as... tambourine raves?

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 11:44:14 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Nat Bennett

     @nat but also yes, afaik transness and the idea of wisdom through transformation is infused into the artwork of tarot.

     The World is a trans woman is what i was taught, why she always has that tactful thin fabric.

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     Sleepy time tea bear (sleepytimeteabear@octodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 02-Mar-2024 00:41:33 JST Sleepy time tea bear

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     • Nat Bennett

     @siege @nat one of my absolute fave things they ran- professional death defiers, not just in initiation but every day & matinees on Sunday lol