Awe

Reverence

EXTREME RARE HIGH-MID · Rising

Confronting magnitude that exceeds the self. Awe is the response to something too large for existing categories, and it forces the categories to change. Awe with dread is numinous. Awe after the overwhelm passes is settled.

The word

Usually traced to the Old Norse agi, terror, alongside the Old English ege. For most of its history awe meant dread before God, and its offspring keep the split: awful took the terror, awesome took the admiration, and the parent word kept both. The reverent modern sense is the old fear with the trembling worn smooth.

The feeling

The categories stop fitting and the system pauses to rebuild them. Speech drops away first; the body goes still and slightly cold, the way it does in large rooms. The self stays and reports itself smaller, and the reduction registers as accurate, with no humiliation in it. What remains afterward is a recalibrated sense of scale that can persist for days.

Against its neighbours

Wonder keeps asking questions; awe is what happens when the question is too large to form. Sublimity needs the threat kept visibly in frame; awe needs only magnitude, and can arrive in front of things that mean no harm.

In the work

Scale used honestly. The frame admits it cannot hold the subject, and the figure is placed where the viewer would stand.

13 works composed with Awe

Composed with

The rest of the Rising family

Where Awe sits Aw · RISING FAMILY

1IgFervour 2EcEcstasy 3TnTension 5PrPower 6NtAnticipation 9SgSurrender 7TmTranscendence 8AcAscendance 10DrDread 4FrFear 11SuSublimity 12AwAwe 13WnWonder 14EnEntrancement 15AeAesthetic Pleasure 16CrCraving 17EvEnvy 18EpEmpathic Pain 25VdVoid 24DcDecay 21RnRuin 22GrGrief 26NsNostalgia 23SdSadness 27MxMelancholy 28CtTenderness 19AdAdmiration 20JoJoy 32DtDevotion 34LoLonging 36SlSolitude 37StStillness 33RtRelief 30GtGratitude 38SfSatisfaction 31HsHope 39CmCalm 35WcContempt 29AnAnger 47EmEmbarrassment 44DxDisgust 43AxAnxiety 45SmShame 46GlGuilt 40SpSurprise 49CnConfusion 41InInterest 42TsTrust 48EqEquanimity 50BrBoredom 55RgRegret 57NzNumbness 52LnLoneliness 58AqAwe-Quiet 60DzDetachment 59PcPeace 53WtWeariness 54RsResignation 56PdPride 61LvLove 51CgCourage 62SaSaudade 63HrHiraeth 64MnMono no Aware 65ShSehnsucht 66YbYaaburnee 67DvDépaysement 68NmNuminous 69ApApophenia 70KyKoyaanisqatsi 71AbAbject 72WsWonder-Sacred 73DuDuende 74PtPresence 75WbWabi-Sabi ? ? ? ? ?

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