[DRAFT SYNOPSIS] August Moon Volume 2: Aethal
Very much just a few bullets...
The 12th House successfully splits from the Ziru and forms a new religion. The Ziru are weakened as a result, and the Supernatural world seizes its opportunity for upheaval
August learns about the truth surrounding Mr. Moon’s disappearance through his exploration of the 12th House
The Final Holy War and Reformation take place
Abiola’s studies influence August’s quest to reform the Ziru
Abiola is defeated early in volume 2
The Witch embarks on her final push for world domination
In the end, August grounds the world in a shared reality through the discovery + creation of a new language called “Aethal”
Overall, August Moon: The Shadow Hunter did a couple things for me. Psychologically, it really helped me with my death anxiety. I grew up going to church, surrounded by church going peers, and baptized in Christian thought and practice by my grandparents before my actual baptism at 13. But, even in elementary school, I never believed. It was difficult to reconcile the idea of an almighty God and our need for His Son's sacrifice with the ugly and sometimes much more interesting realities I could actually see. To the point of ugliness, my first real experiences with the Southern cliche* taught me the true worth of God's words and Jesus' sacrifice. To the point of more interesting, I could read Percy Jackson or Action Comics and get a more grounded life lesson than I could from a book it seemed no one really listened to. Trayvon Martin's murder in 2012 thrusted the realization that Ugly had been, was, is, and will be our true god until we start using, creating, or discovering new language - yes, the cure to cliches.
August's character was my Jungian shadow* at one point. Most people's takes on the loneliness epidemic contextualized to men are pretty amusing. They make it seem like such existential loneliness springs from Crime Alley one day to shoot the man - our analogical Thomas Wayne - while he walks unexpectedly with his family (representative of life) intact. In other words, it's viewed as a spontaneous and random phenomenon like, well, a virus. But viruses don't explode onto the scene one day. We aren't confused on where COVID-19 came from. Loneliness starts as a whisper that evolves into a scream (that might explain why Namtaru, August's sword, was first named Whispered Lullaby. Yeah, I'm glad I changed the name too...). We become lonely when we internalize the Southern cliche's prevailing message: "We can snuff your inner world's light with impunity. Don't let us see it. The North Star is in you and you'd better keep the sky smoggy." So, I looked outside myself to dream. That dreaming took my angst and shaped it into August. August is who I was when I was alone. Quiet because it took all my energy to silence my inner world. Dutiful because I had no worth outside my hands. Self-critical because I couldn't trust people to keep me quiet/safe. Disillusioned because I had no faith.
Spiritually, this story has helped me center what I as an Afrofuturist call Soul-Essence. It's the same thing as Soul or Spirit, but I use this vernacular so people recognize I'm talking about who you really are, not who your practice says you should be. Those "Christians" doing their best to uphold white supremacist epistemology don't practice Soul-Essence. They're too busy asphyxiating on smog so they spew hate. The beautiful thing about taking people as who they are is that it makes compartmentalization waaayyyyy easier. If you are a humanist, which I am, then you are concerned with collective actualization*. That requires you to learn to recognize when people know themselves. How else can a person actualize? Two categories emerge (and I'm very wary of dichotomies): dreamers and drawers. Dreamers are asleep; they look outside themselves for a cheap idol in replacement of soul. Drawers use their authenticity to craft the space for themselves and others to do what God intended - be.
August Moon: The Shadow Hunter's Node is that religion is unnecessary once you realize we all have souls. For me, that required the observation that religion itself is an institution, or an organized system of a people and their practices geared towards a singular purpose. And I don't need that to recognize we all have Soul-Essence. I don't need that to fuel my light. I don't need that to help you feed yours.
Intellectually, August's character journey is commentary on reformism vs. radicalism. "Scriptures of the Damned and Disillusioned" sets August down the path of reformist. Although the Ziru have oppressed him for his entire life, he's unable to imagine a worldview divorced from theirs. He seizes the opportunity to deal with his own repressed emotions towards the belief system that is cause of both his development and damnation. His entire bloodline has been damned by the Ziru's beliefs. Yet, his naivety and ignorance keep his love and hate - therefore his fire* - within the unproductive bounds of a comfort zone. Nazanin juxtaposes August in two key ways. Firstly, she is willingly within her position under the Ziru world order. In fact, she enjoys her job. Even further, she experiences a fuller relationship with love than August. Its her capacity for love coupled with the events of Issue #6: "Walk Two Moons" that ignite her well-kept flame. She's ready for radical action by the end of volume 1. Love is a Node for change; her radicalism is catalyzed by her love for August, for Dione, and ultimately her people. Although August has a higher capacity for hate, another aspect of the fire, he's racked with an inability to fully experience his own emotions. He can only be disillusioned by the end of volume 1.
"Aethal" is when it clicks for August. Whereas love moves Nazanin to begin imagining new possibilities, it's experience for August. He learns that he can't rearrange shitty furniture and expect the house to be, well, a better house. Fuck the furniture. Man, fuck the house, even if just for a little while so you can step away and put in the right thought. The right thought is only possible with the right language. The right language is discovered and created through God's greatest gift: being. "Aethal" makes a fool of August. He's finally in the world with a purpose stemming from within the community of self* and everything he sees is new. Reform makes a mockery of novelty. Novelty needs renaissance to meet the demands of necessity.
*The Southern cliche is racism.
*Shadows are the parts of ourselves we refuse to embody but exist in our psyche as mini-personalities. We have to integrate them to experience the fullness of who we are; nothing exists without its opposite, and fullness for humans requires comfortability with our own light and dark.
*I believe collective actualization is the purpose of a community and its chosen government.
*Love and hate aren't heads and tails. They're two people sitting on opposite sides of a fire. Both of them need the fire to survive. Their relationship with the fire is what makes them what they are. Revolution and renaissance require some fire.
*Community of self is a term borrowed from Na'Im Akbar whose book is titled the same thing. When I reference it here, I'm referring to the two aspects of one's identity: the self-concept and the social identity, both measured by time and its use.
Quick (and final) Notes
Nazanin’s radicalism is catalyzed by love thru her struggles with getting back to August and the Ibahim. Love is a node for change. She embodies The Disillusioned
Abiola is exposed in his true nature, embodying The Damned. Those of us living in constant denial of Death/Change/Earthseed/God/Self will walk this Earth and leave it damned
August’s disillusionment propels his character conflict in Vol. 2 to find radicalism
His father represents rage created from soullessness. In the end of Aethal, August experiences the sun for the first time in 13 years while his father disappears with Death. Mr. Moon siphons the Shadow Hunter energies and brokers a deal with Death to end the curse. Mr. Moon goes on to serve Death in an unknown capacity. The message: let’s dream of a place where the lessons of the Old World actually save the New.
Ending scene: August lying in a crater from the battle with a smile we’ve never seen