Demotivations With Anne

Share this post

User's avatar
Demotivations With Anne
My Imago Dei is "Soul-Certain"

My Imago Dei is "Soul-Certain"

Friday Takes on mourning cloaks, how we do have souls, heaven and hell, cross-dressing, how I found my piano money, and what a ridiculous time it is to be alive.

Anne Kennedy's avatar
Anne Kennedy
Mar 24, 2023
∙ Paid
12

Share this post

User's avatar
Demotivations With Anne
My Imago Dei is "Soul-Certain"
2
Share
brown and yellow wall decr
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Happy Friday, Gentle Reader. I’m deeply grateful both for you and to have got this far in the week. An “attitude of gratitude” is what I say, on this gray and desultory morning. I have so much to do as I rush into the day, but I have caught together a few interesting, fun, silly, and stupid objets for your consideration.

Firstly

Today is the anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth I and I thought this thread was quite interesting about the gradual abandonment of mourning cloaks:

Twitter avatar for @burgonsoc
The Burgon Society @burgonsoc
Drawings of the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth I to Westminster Abbey, 28th April 1603 Principal and official mourners are shown wearing long black mourning cloaks with hoods drawn over their heads BL Add MS 35324 bl.uk/collection-ite…
coloured engraving of funeral procession with bourse pulling the hearse surrounded by people holding banners
funeral procession showing military guard in black cloaks
funeral procession showing people in black mourning dress and a figure carrying a banner of arms
engraving of funeral procession showing woman in groups wearing black mourning dress
9:04 AM ∙ Sep 18, 2022
853Likes277Retweets

Of course, as time went on, official mourning people wanted their fancier outfits to shine through the gloom of death, and so contented themselves with a mere shmear black sash. Still, it’s too bad that we can’t have this anymore, if only for the austere elegance of Christian grief. The gradual change must have coincided, I wouldn’t be surprised, with the cultural abandonment of Christian feelings about death and heaven and hell. It’s not just beautiful outfits that got lost, but the anchoring beauty of reality, of death contextualized and constrained by everlasting life.

Secondly

Which is excessively pertinent given this interesting, fairly silly long piece about how (the author is sure) there is no such thing as a soul. Here are some fun bits:

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Demotivations With Anne to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Anne Kennedy
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share