We are a team of poets and artists who write and publish original stories anchored in traditional Christian symbolism.
113 Digital Retrieves the Medieval
What is digital mysticism? When you hear that phrase, do you imagine hermetic robots meditating in a virtual reality landscape chanting ohms? That may be getting a little bit ahead tech-wise. If you imagined that the information technology revolution that we’ve all been living through since Marshall McLuhan coined his famous phrase “The medium is the message,” you’re a little closer to understanding. And if you thought that “digital mysticism” was mankind’s reacquisition of the medieval method of learning you would be right on the mark. On this week’s Mosaic Ark, the ladies were joined by Mark Stahlman, President of the Center for the Study of Digital Life, where we spoke of how today’s social media environment tracks in very similar ways with philosophical developments in ancient Greece, medieval Europe, and modern China. We would love to hear your ideas on this, so please add yours to the comments!
112 Trumpslide
Remember, remember the fifth of November…. Where were you on November 5, 2024 – the day that Donald John Trump was elected to a second term as President of the United States? If you were like the Ladies of the Mosaic Ark, you were up for most of the night watching the national election results, afraid to go to sleep for fear of getting a nasty shock in the morning. Turns out, most of the country felt the same way, although maybe for different reasons depending upon who one hoped would win. It has been a very momentous campaign that capped off four very momentous and traumatic years. To cope with all of this trauma, the memes did flow, and KC collected a bunch of them! Join the ladies as we discuss the election results, the last few weeks that led up to them, and the memes that explain them all.
111 At Home with Professor Rachel Fulton Brown
Who is Fencing Bear? Why, she writes the Blog called Fencing Bear at Prayer! Who is Ancilla Mariae? Why, she hosts the Telegram Channel called Fencing Bear at Prayer and its chatroom called The Dragon Common Room! Who is Professor Rachel Fulton Brown? Why, she is a Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Chicago! As well as the creator of the aforementioned Blog and Telegram channels. Did I also mention that she writes books with a team of poets at another website called The Dragon Common Room, and she hosts the weekly live-stream called The Mosaic Ark that you’re seeing here on YouTube? So why is she adding Substack creator to all of the other hats she wears? Because she has surmised that a lot of people who have enjoyed reading and listening to her thoughts might like to have a single space to learn about all of the different areas where she teaches and creates, and Substack is a good place to do that. Listen in on this week’s Mosaic Ark as the Professor explains how her projects all complement each other and answers viewers’ questions about the work that she and her poets do.
110 Captain Zodiac Lumen Getty
The ladies of the Mosaic Ark are looking at the stars! Captain Zodiac, the Mosaic Ark’s very first guest, once again joined us to share his insights about astrology and its true meaning—which does not include divination he’ll have you know! He and Professor Rachel Fulton Brown discussed the beautiful medieval Christian manuscripts that are currently on display at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The ancient myths and astrological charts used in the manuscripts’ beautiful, gilded illustrations hold an explosion of information about the people who made them and what they believed. But do they have something to say about who we are today? Watch and tell us your ideas in the comments!
Getty Exhibit: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/lumen/index.html
109 John Carter of Substack
“I have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate and experiment where wiser men would have left well enough alone.”― Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
What does it mean to say that the world was once enchanted, but now it is not? To answer that question, one must ask, “what is a myth, and how can it be both true and false?” On this week’s Mosaic Ark, the ladies were joined by Substack author John Carter (a pseudonym taken from one of his favorite book series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.) John Carter’s imagination is boundless, and with that boundless imagination he asks a lot of fascinating questions about history, science, religion, stories, and myths. One of the big questions of our time is this – what happens to a society built with the imaginative force of myth, when imagination is relegated to secondary status (when acknowledged at all) in the public sphere? If the effect of that secondary status is a crumbling society, how can that society be fixed? In short, how does one reenchant the world? Join us as we wrestle with this concept, and please share your ideas in the comments. —Streamed October 12, 2024 (UATV; YouTube)
Postcards from Barsoom: https://barsoom.substack.com
"The Re-enchantment of the World": https://barsoom.substack.com/p/the-reenchantment-of-the-world
Dr. John Carter, PhD, on X: @martianwyrdlord
108 What Would St. Francis Do?
“Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through which you give sustenance to Your creatures.” — St. Francis of Assisi, “Canticle of the Creatures” (1225)
As the fallen-away followers of our Lord Jesus Christ might have said, this is a hard teaching, especially this week. How do we praise God for “every kind of weather” after the devastating and deadly floods in Appalachia this past week? How did St. Francis do it in the face of the trials of his day? This week the ladies of the Mosaic Ark discuss St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is today (October 4). Was he simply the tree-hugging, animal-loving hippy portrayed by Franco Zeffirelli in his 1972 film? Or was he the devout but shrewd son of a wealthy merchant who founded a world-wide movement? Spoiler alert: He was both! Join us as we talk about why people still love this saint so much, and what he has to teach us about the modern world.
107 Spot the Mimetic Twins
Mimetic Desire. This was the phrase used by René Girard to describe the human condition of wanting to obtain that which others have already obtained; not to be confused with envy, mimetic desire is simply an extension of the way we learn what we should and shouldn’t want — food, shelter, love, etc. Can this be observed in everyday life, in fiction, in geopolitics? Yes, yes, and yes, through a phenomenon called Mimetic Rivalry. Join the ladies of the Mosaic Ark as we discuss some of the more famous mimetic twins, and tell us in the comments if you can see what we see in these pairings: Indiana Jones and René Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Simone de Beauvoir and Mother Theresa of Calcutta (two single ladies and historic contemporaries with two very different ideas about love) and the trifecta of mimetic twins — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, leaders of the Allies during World War II.
106 Why All Politicians Are Liars—Except the One I’m Voting For
Isis and Osiris. Apollo and Artemis. Donald and Kamala? Twins are memorable features in the world’s mythological systems; they are symbols of duality, balance, and integrating opposites. One might say our myths have conditioned us to look for similarities when presented with two choices. On last week’s Mosaic Ark, we discussed the visual image presented by presidential candidate Kamala Harris and how it might appeal (or not) to women. This week we compared her tweets to those of presidential candidate Donald Trump. Did we see stark contrasts in the messaging of each campaign? Yes and no; we saw twinning. Want to find out what that is? Watch tonight’s stream and peer into the looking glass with us.
105 What White Women See in Kamala Harris
“It’s our time.” Vice President Kamala Harris is quoted as having said this recently to her fellow women as she seeks to win one of the most powerful positions of authority in the world, President of the United States. However, the time of powerful women’s leadership has already come and gone… and come and gone… and come and gone again, has it not? The ladies of the Mosaic Ark remember a time not so long ago that the Anglo-American empire lost the longest reigning queen in British history, her late majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We also remember the second longest reigning monarch in British history, Queen Victoria. But the most iconic British ruler, also a queen, has to be Queen Elizabeth I, and it is with her that Anglo-American women all over the US most closely identify, and why they yearn for a strong, independent woman as their leader. Why? Watch the stream to find out!
104 Take the Cruise of Your Dreams!
What is the Mosaic Ark? What kind of a livestream is it? The best way to describe it is this: it is a cruise ship! The Mosaic Ark takes its viewers on a cruise through an ocean of information, images, art, science, history, and (very occasionally) political events. Professor Rachel Fulton Brown, Medievalist and Tolkien expert, is your cruise director bringing you to interesting ports of call every week with her co-hostesses. They discuss what they see, what it means, how each port is connected to the other ports and how all are oriented towards Christ and His mother, Mary, the Star of the Sea. Come aboard! We’re expecting you!
103 The Lamb's Love Feast and the Paris Olympics Bacchanal
Watching the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, many people were outraged by the display of drag queen camp and hedonism included in the show, particularly because it was done in a way that many claimed mocked Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” Christians world-wide demanded apologies in the strongest of terms. The ladies of the Mosaic Ark were also outraged—but not for the same reason! Presuming that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness,” we argue that the Paris Bacchanalia show was merely trying (poorly) to grasp what it could not reach: the scandalous joy of the Liturgy of the Lamb.
102 How to Be the Next Tolkien
“’Twas our Right!” to write poetry, and thereby speak our creative world into being. In this week’s Mosaic Ark, Professor Rachel Fulton Brown speaks about J.R.R. Tolkien’s creative process, how it began and how he was able to create an entire world using both poetry and prose. But, most importantly, how without his poetry there would’ve been no story; poetry was the engine that drove the vehicle of his prose and without it, there would be no Middle-Earth. So how did he begin? He began at the beginning of course, by first learning how to scan.