Some REAL Dark Academia Things:

The Signs as Beautiful Words

Aries - Phosphenes

(n) The light and colors produced by rubbing your eyes

Taurus - Sonder

(n) The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own 

Gemini - Epiphany

(n) A moment of sudden revelation 

Cancer - Divine 

(adj) Like God or a god / very good or pleasing

Leo - Aurora 

(n) The dawn in the early morning

Virgo - Mellifluous 

(adj) Sweet or musical; pleasant to hear

Libra - Opulent

(adj) Ostentatiously rich and luxurious or lavish

Scorpio - Alluring

(adj) Powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating; seductive

Sagittarius - Euphoria

(n) A feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness

Capricorn - Serendipity 

(n) the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way

Aquarius- Iridescent

(adj) Producing a display of rainbow-like colors

Pisces - Ethereal 

(adj) Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world

I can never find the right words to tell people what I’m thinking. Telling them I’m tired doesn’t work, but I can’t seem to vocalize that I’m mentally exhausted and sick of existing. Telling them I’m sad doesn’t work either, but I can’t explain that I’m struggling not to kill myself and that the joy in everything in my life is gone and when I wake up to the sun in my eyes, I have to struggle to get myself out of bed because most of me didn’t even want to wake up at all. I can’t tell them I’m numb because what I’m feeling is so much more complex than numb and I don’t have the vocabulary to tell them that I feel like I’m drowning and it terrifies me that I feel nothing as it’s happening, and that my insides want to scream but I can’t even find it in me to shed a tear anymore, that every single aspect of my life feels like it’s shaded in grey because someone sucked out all the colors but I can hardly even remember what colors are because I can no longer remember a time I didn’t feel like this. No, I don’t know how to say that. So I just whisper “I’m fine.”

Dear me,

You're nothing .

Nina Simone performing on a TV show filmed at BBC Television Centre in London, 1966. 

Photos by David Redfern

Real Talk.

the nine muses but dark academia

clio

plays her own music on the guitar, she sometimes covers lorde’s songs, knows random history facts, shows particular interest in english history, speaks latin and ancient greek, drinks tea three times a day, introverted, lights candles when studying

euterpe

speaks italian, plays multiple instruments, though the flute is her favourite, good with animals, wears turtlenecks and golden jewellery, doesn’t like people, doesn’t respect people who have no general knowledge, wants to attend the milan conservatory

thalia

has great humour, sometimes sarcastic, favourite book is vile bodies by evelyn waugh, great at math and wants to be an architect, vegan, she only trusts herself, listens to gang of youths, goes to art museums all the time

melpomene

thalia is her best friend even though they are complete opposites, sees life as a tragedy, has read all of shakespeare’s works, rhetoric speech is her way to express herself, her dream is to be an actress, deep blue sweaters and beige cigarette pants are her favourite things to wear

terpsichore

a great dancer, does ballroom dancing and ballet, plays the harp, goes to her favourite café to write music, doesn’t use her phone, writes in fountain pens only, speaks only when spoken to, daydreams about her university years and can’t wait to find the university she’s going to attend’s library and spend hours in it

erato

hopeless romantic, though still very dark academia-ish, secretly a matchmaker, coffee addict, listens to hozier and debussy (weird combination but she loves it), also listens to ballet music, reads all day every day, wants to major in english lit, writes poetry when she isn’t reading

polymnia

wants to take linguistics, her biggest pet peeve is people who don’t speak correctly (naturally, she corrects them all the time), studies to podcasts, great at debates and is interested in politics, strong opinions about everything and is not afraid to speak her mind, bi

ourania

reads tarot cards, great at astrophysics and wants to study the subject in uni, first thing she asks when meeting someone is what their zodiac is, silk blouses and golden jewellery (rings mostly), has a moon journal, favourite song that isn’t anything lana del ray is drops of jupiter

calliope

natural leader, writes and reads odes, her favourite thing to read is odes by horace, quotes the illiad and odyssey, adventurous, sometimes thinks of creative ways to commit murder, wears dark colours, has friends from all around the world and lots of pen pals, visits old buildings way too often

Dark academia reading list ✨📚

-The Secret History by Donna Tartt

-The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

-If We were Villains by M. L. Rio

-Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

-The Magicians by Lev Grossman

-Metamorphoses by Ovid

-Dead Poets Society by N. H. Kleinbaum

-A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

-The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

-Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro

-The Bacchae by Euripides

-The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

-Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

-Possession by A. S. Byatt

-Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire

five things that made me fall in love with you. or maybe even more...

this awkward joke, my favorite first awkward joke. it was so strange, but it was the first time you made me feel special, even in this strange and sarcastic way

our friendship. it was so warm, so familiar, so close. just like rainy summer day when something is not supposed to be happening, but still happens, yet feels really really good, our friendship was the most interesting interaction with anyone in this world

trust. it is not even the fact that i can tell you anything as much as the fact that i really want to. Or maybe it is a mixture of both that makes me feel so secure with you

mutuality that never in my life i felt so much, before you. those meaningless fights on who loves more are fun, but honestly i feel like we both give out full 100% into this relationships which makes me extremely grateful.

it feels like it was yesterday. first time i realized that i’m falling for you, first kiss, first i love you, first time that i saw you in my future. It is just doesn’t feel like burden, and i don’t feel like it ever will. It is so easy to be with you, because it just feels right. there are challenges and struggles, but i don’t feel like they matter at all. nothing ever makes me feel like giving up, because whatever it is, just having you in my life is so god damn worth it.

you are not like other people. you look at things in this different but also interesting way that always made me wonder and made me want to explore them. I can’t get tired talking to you, because even though we are same, yet manage to be so different. I know everything i need to know about you, while actually i don’t know anything at all, because you are too much to explore, and i’m willing to test my luck until our last talk.

“We read to know we’re not alone.” - William Nicholson, Shadowlands