Mosaic Ark

“I’ve got a jar of dirt! And guess what’s inside it!” Captain Jack Sparrow seemed to think that he had the key to controlling his fate with the contents of a jar of dirt. He wasn’t entirely wrong! The jar was holding the heart of Davy Jones, and he who held it controlled the oceans; he who controlled the oceans controlled the whole earth. This week the ladies of the Mosaic Ark discuss the connections between ocean ports, a trade war with China, and control of the Earth’s trade in literal earth — lithium, cobalt, rare earth minerals...

He is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! No matter what is going on in the world this week, nothing will be more important than this, that Jesus Christ is risen — Alleluia! Despite this most significant of Christian seasons, there were many other things going on in the world, too. There was the death of a pope and preparations for the election of another, the potential end to a bloody war in Ukraine, but the sad continuation of another bloody war in Gaza. And the pro-Palestinian encampments are inching their way back towards university campuses, even as those universities are already feeling th...

What do these things have in common: the American Revolution, Goofball Jim Carrey movies, 19th-century economic policy, and Penguins? Surprisingly more than you think! This week, the ladies of the Mosaic Ark discussed the current meme mockery of President Trump’s tariffs being applied to several islands south of Australia, the only residents of which are penguins, and whose only product would seemingly be guano. Some say that this is proof that the POTUS is dumb or crazy. But what is really going on in the world of high-stakes geopolitics? The ladies think that it’s the same thing that...

What are the Rules of civility for persons of quality? Are they an outdated holdover from the Ancien Régime? Archaic manners designed for Lords and Ladies, obsequiously bowing before their King? Or if you prefer a more American, egalitarian example: are these rules for civility only followed by wealthy people in gated mansions and country clubs as a means of social exclusion? The ladies of the Mosaic Ark take a look at the etiquette lessons of the 17th century and discuss which manners have been lost, which seem to have been retained, and which should definitely be brought b...

What makes good poetry? Is it rhyme, meter, meaning, resonance? Maybe it’s alliteration. Then again maybe it’s imagery or story or emotion. Could it be all of these things? And does a good poet come by inspiration through luck, or blessings from God? Carl Winderl, author of the poetic books The Gospel According to…Mary and The Lost Parables of Jesus, joined the ladies on this week’s Mosaic Ark, and provided wonderful food for thought. Join us as we discuss his creative process and read selections of his poetry about the life of Christ told through the eyes...

Happy Pie Day! Tonight the Ladies of the Mosaic Ark hijacked International Pi day to discuss how one defines things such as pie, or people, or nations. Specifically we discussed the English nation and wondered where they went and what defined them as a people. They are one of the best examples to show how difficult it is to define a nation. Is it blood? Borders? Language? Songs? Stories? In the case of the English, it is all anchored Christ the King, who inspired their stories and songs; He was the very beginning of their founding myth. —Streamed March 14, 2025

“You can be a lover or a fighter, whatever you desire / Whatever you want, baby, choose your fighter!” —Ava Max. This past week saw a group of Congresswomen in a viral video called “Choose Your Fighter,” wherein they each appeared well dressed in smart suits, smiling and jumping with fists in the air as they pretended to strike a boxing pose. The visual rhetoric was clear; these women were “fighters” who would work for you. But did the video work? Did it transmit an image of strength or one of trivial in-group popularity? Did it reinforce the idea that women are a po...

What is a factory worker, a man or a woman? What is a CEO? Same question. No one asks these questions anymore. Thanks to the feminist movement of the last 50 years, those kinds of questions don’t matter because a woman can be anything she wants! Yay, women! Also, men can be anything they want, including, apparently, women. But what is a woman? This week, the ladies of the Mosaic Ark continued their discussion of categories and taboos by trying to answer that question. Listen as we explore a tiny fraction of the possible categories that define “woman” according to Gro...

What is a nation? Over the past several weeks, we’ve struggled to come up with an answer that will satisfy everyone, and so this week we decided to tackle an easier question. What is a sandwich? Easy! It is some kind of protein between two pieces of bread, created by none other than that illustrious Englishman, the Earl of Sandwich. But wait a minute. Is a taco a sandwich? What about a hamburger? How about the humble hot dog? For that matter, what makes up a hot dog? (Scratch that; let’s not ask!) The ladies of the Mosa...

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? KC the realist would say “Yes. The forest and the tree and soundwaves exist irrespective of my presence.” A nominalist would say, “The forest only exists as a category of your mind. Only individual trees exist.” Professor Rachel Fulton Brown would say, “The medieval nominalists are the reason we are having a problem defining a nation today.” Listen as the ladies of the Mosaic Ark discuss why trying to get people to agree on categories and the language used to desc...

Who’s up for a game of Polandball? Or to be less whimsical, who’s up for defining what makes a nation? Last week, the ladies of the Mosaic Ark discussed that question and its expression in the Reddit phenomenon called Polandball, which are ongoing community-created comics where little balls stand in for the nations and express ideas unique to their culture. This week, we narrowed the nation question down to what makes America a nation and what makes a person American, using David Hackett Fischer’s book Albion’s Seed for historical insight. Q. Is it blood, social customs...

What is a nation? That’s a simple enough question, isn’t it? After much discussion, points and counterpoints made, history explored, and the opinions of various historical and contemporary figures considered, the ladies of the Mosaic Ark have decided….It's complicated! Is it a geographical area, a shared ethnicity, religion, language or culture? Is it blood? Or is it merely a legal designation? Join us as we explore these questions in Part I of our discussion. Let us know in the comments if you have any thoughts to add, and especially if you have any questions for Part II, as...

This week was a flurry of activity for the newly re-elected President Trump. There were concerts, and parades, and luncheons, speeches, and formal dinners and dances, and of course the swearing-in ceremony. It was all very magical from the red coat-wearing and bewigged United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps to the black-robed Supreme Court Justice eliciting a sworn oath from the then President Elect. But the ladies of the Mosaic Arc believe the real magic happened with the many strokes of a pen after that oath was taken, and the Executive Orders were signed. Watch as...

This week the ladies of the Mosaic Ark were joined by Robert Kroese, science fiction author extraordinaire! He has 35 published titles to his name and is the founder of Based Con, an annual gathering for authors and fans of science fiction and fantasy. We discussed everything from his humble beginnings as a precocious, aspiring writer in the second grade, through his stint as a software engineer, the inevitability of AI, and the Christian and philosophical world view that informs his writing. —Streamed January 17, 2025

Follow Rob on X @robkroese

Website: badnovelist.com

2024 has ended and the New Year is but minutes away for some in these United States of America. It’s time for reflection on the past and speculation of the future. Join the ladies of the Mosaic Ark as we discuss the runup to 2025, and especially the most recent X-wars over all things pirate from the East India Trading Company to the modern would-be robber barons of today—Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. We also speculate on the Professor’s potential development of Madam Web-like superpowers due to some unfortunate spider bites. —Streamed December 31, 2024

“O Dayspring, Brightness of the everlasting light, Sun of justice, come to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death!”

Thus sings the Church on December 21, the darkest day of the year. On this week’s Mosaic Ark, the ladies discussed the Catholic tradition of preparing for Advent by singing the “O Antiphons,” which are short sung sentences describing a specific aspect of prayerful meditation on the eternal Truth — God’s incarnation in the womb of a virgin named Mary. They are sung at sunset (Vespers) both before and after recitation of Mary’s “Mag...

Myths, threads, and spider webs — that’s what the ladies of the Mosaic Ark discussed this week. Specifically, we discussed how all information from ancient times through the present, all history, literature, art, science, music, and religion have been compressed into a digital scroll that is now accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This ability to “scroll” information has also allowed people to start seeing the threads that run between all things and times, connecting them through a massive digital web. Quite a modern wonder, wouldn’t you say? Actually, some might say it is a return to the “pre-m...

Have you noticed the trend lately? “Strong independent woman” is a trope that keeps popping up in movies, television shows, and advertisements, and especially in political advertisements. “Single cat ladies” were the largest group that voted for Kamala Harris in the last election, and groups of witches were casting spells against her opponent. Their number one issue seemed to be the right to an abortion, which is promoted as something strong, independent women need and want. But is this true? The ladies of the Mosaic Ark beg to differ and have some pretty amazing examples to share with you of stron...

Recently on an episode of The Timcast with Tim Pool, Tim was debating with his guests about whether America was created as a Christian nation. John Adams’ 1798 letter to a Massachusetts regiment was offered as evidence that it was, as Adams wrote “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” But what does “religious” mean in this context? What did the founders mean when they allowed for the free exercise of religion? If they meant “Christian,” why didn’t they say the name of Christ in their documents...

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...

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...

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...

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 som...

“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’...

“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...

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 s...

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...

“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 l...

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...

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 s...

“’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. —St...

Who elects a King? Is it God or the Barons? Who elects a President? Is it the billionaire class, the tech oligarchs, the “donor class”? Is there a difference between any of them and the Barons; between a King and a President? If one looks at the rhetoric of the past and present, there doesn’t seem to be a difference. But there is another similarity between the power struggles of the past and present that might be overlooked: the power of the people to assent to their new rulers or reject them. This is a constant that all would...

On July 13th, 2024, former President Donald J. Trump was shot while speaking at a rally for his re-election campaign in Butler County, Pennsylvania. To protect him from getting shot again, the Secret Service agents quickly tackled him to the ground. He was down for what seemed like minutes as the crowd waited anxiously to see if he was alright. Though bleeding, he was alive—the would-be assassin failed. Trump rose to his feet, blood on his face and fist defiantly in the air, and shouted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” A photographer who was present for the rally had jumped towards the st...

Did you hear about those weird secret symbols embedded into the layout of the 19th-century Bomberg Talmud? Or similar layouts, symbols and coded messages found throughout a medieval Christian book called the Glossa Ordinaria? Oh come now, everyone has read Dan Brown. Those monks and rabbis were up to something. There must be a conspiracy “they” don’t want us to know about. Well, no, not really. It was just the medium used to convey the messages of those times, similar to the typical layout of almost all newspapers of today. But why were they so similar? And how does t...

In 1951, media guru and secret medievalist Marshall McLuhan published his first book, The Mechanical Bride. His purpose was to encourage his readers to contemplate the way that advertising and technology shape society, both for the advertisers and for their targets – the buying public. The ladies of the Mosaic Ark have been contemplating McLuhan’s writings for several years now and it has shaped the way we see the world and the way we write our own fictional stories. Join us as we discuss McLuhan’s early inspirations and his spookily prophetic observations. —Streamed July 6, 2024

This month the ladies of the Mosaic Ark talked about the sin of pride in its various forms. As Providence would have it, our last stream on this topic occurred one day after the first US presidential debate, where two men sought to convince a nation to give one of them power. Was that debate informative or merely a display of pride? This question got us thinking of two other persons who also sought out power – Prometheus and Satan. In this week’s conclusion of our own “pride month”, we discussed the character traits of Prometheus (from the Greek myths...

What does it mean to be proud to be an American? For that matter, what does it mean to be proud to be a German, or an Englishman? Is it pride in the homeland’s culture, language, history? And what of the bad things about its history, do those things negate pride in the nation as a whole? Also, what (and who) makes a nation? This week the ladies of the Mosaic Ark continued to discuss pride, particularly American pride and what that means in the continually expanding ethnic and social demographic of the United States. Bonus: Musical interludes! —Stre...

“Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” These are the words of a proud being. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan is cast out of Heaven, and in his pride boasts that he shall be a king in Hell. The question for the modern reader might well be this: what did Satan do differently than other rebellious people? If Paradise Lost were a modern movie, would Satan be the anti-hero that everyone loves to watch? And if he were a British Colonial in early America, would he be a revolutionary that everyone wants to honor? And if he wer...

Pride. It is said that this was the sin that caused Lucifer to be cast down from Heaven, and the same temptation that he offered to Eve in his attempts to destroy her and Adam’s relationship with The Almighty – “Ye shall be like God.” But how does one explain to the people of a rapidly de-Christianizing society that pride is a sin, the most deadly of seven deadly sins, and something that should be rejected? The ladies of the Mosaic Ark discussed this challenge and why it is so difficult. We also discussed pride as the sin which all othe...

The Professor asked KC if she could come up with some really stupid questions about the Middle Ages. “Can I? And how!” she said. “Did people bathe more than once a year? Did sanitation exist? Did anyone live past the age of 30? What about witchcraft? Were women thought to be witches because they were folk healers? How many witches were burned at the stake? For those women not burned at the stake, how many were forced into marriage arrangements?” During this week’s Mosaic Ark, we discussed these questions and many more concerning life in the Middle Ages (and yes, inclu...