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mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea · 7 months

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3, 14, and 17 for the ask!

3. Is your practice more ritualistic or casual? What does it look like?

It's uh...ritualistically casual? Casually ritualistic? I haven't gotten to really practice with anyone (other than doing tarot readings for people - both for friendship, barter, and for pay - I'm really trying to get a career of this off the ground, as I've been reading casually and professionally for 30+ years now, and I do consider tarot/rune/oracle/psychometry readings and dream interpretations as much worship/practice as anything else) - oh and that one guided meditation circle I went to back several months ago - in hell. 20 years maybe? Or just nearly. So most of my practice is pretty casual with some ritual elements - I keep an altar, I burn candles and incense nightly when I go to bed (I'd burn incense more often but too much of it really bugs my sister, and her room is next to mine right now - hopefully when we can finally move east, we'll find a place where our rooms are more opposite ends of the house we rent), I put out offerings of liquor and sometimes food. More often the food offerings go to the outside altars, which right now, I only have a very small shrine to Elegua (ALL Tricksters are honored by me, so every culture's Tricksters are welcome to hang out). I include my gods in my day to day existence, even if that means I'm wandering around the grocery store - "What should we make for supper? What sweet treats should we get for dessert? Would you look at that asshole taking up the whole aisle?"

But I haven't 'drawn' a ritual circle in forever, I haven't called the elements, the directions, I haven't set up ritual space for each holiday, though to be fair, even when I did that with my ex and our friends, we were generally still pretty casual. Ritual robes started to be really unwieldy and definitely dangerous when lighting candles and almost knocking over the wine. Often our ritual regalia was less about clothing and more about painting our faces for the holidays with images and symbols important to each of us at that time. I'd like to get back into doing more (casually) formal rituals once we move and depending on which of my friends in the area we're moving to (or close enough to it) are able to meet up for them. I think I'd still have almost a Dude mentality of ritual, and from hanging out with my gods (predominantly the Nordic pantheon mixed with, again, all the Tricksters and quite a few of the Celtic deities), they always feel really cool with not getting super fancy about it.

14. How would you define your Gods? (have fun with that one)

Hah! Hahahahaha! Define my gods? Me? Oh no. No no no. I live with them, I invite them into the space where I live (I don't consider it home - home will be when we leave Texas, get to the ocean, and can breathe again), I share meals with them, and I learn about the layers upon layers of their history and personality from them, but I don't think I could ever define them. I think they're beyond definition.

17. Do you associate certain Gods with specific songs? Share them!

I have a few. I mean, anything and everything by Wardruna resonates with all the Nordic gods.

But some specifics off the top of my head:

Riders on the Storm by The Doors - Thor and Loki It's known that Thor is the god of storms and thunder, but Loki is the god of lightning, as that was his father (Farbuti, "dangerous striker" aka lightning) striking against Laufey (whose name some scholars believe means "full of leaves"), thus creating Loki - who is a god of fire and lightning (as well as mischief, chaos, change, storytelling, misfits).

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Songs from the Wood by Jethro Tull - Loki

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Velvet Green by Jethro Tull - Loki but also Freya and Freyr

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Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull - Odin

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As you can tell, Jethro Tull is one of my favorite bands. My late brother (druidic in his own beliefs and practices) introduced me to them in full in my teens when he helped to steer me toward the Celtic and especially the Nordic gods, so I have a very reverent feel toward this band, my gods, and my brother (he was the one to introduce me to tarot and runes as well).

Those are songs off the top of my head. I'd like to spend more time with music and the gods - see which music I might already like that Anansi or Old Man Coyote would pick out for their own. Which ones Eris might choose. Which ones Frigga or Sif or Sigyn might like best.

Oh oh wait. Sigyn. Goddess of Victory, Goddess who "holds the bowl" so that Loki might survive in less pain and come out to fight for their children.

We Will Rock You - We Are the Champions by Queen - that is definitely Sigyn

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I will say that it seems like they're always (all of them) pretty happy when I play my favorite bands - The Doors, Jethro Tull, Queen, ABBA, Loreena McKennitt, and I imagine they've got favorites out of all of those and the variety of SCA filk-type bands that I listen to.

Polytheistic Asks here!

#Polytheistic asks #xoxoviva #THANK YOU FOR THE ASKS!

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snipehuntpotatosack · 3 years

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Unofficial Commentary on the text tagged [Chronic Metaphor] – A Servo-Subsystem Research Program Summary in Four Cantos; with Addendum re site visit

Initial apologetics (if the term is applicable and/or recognized) are due concerning the graphic or “pronunciatory” form in which the material herein discussed was/is presented, even tho the unit(s) generating said material were not at any time under my direct or indirect personal control. Yes, I identify myself as a “person” in the oldest and most trivial sense in addressing you herein, and the form I use will continue to be the prosiest, fussiest and most boringly irritating of proses. As for why precisely a psychoneurotic pseudopoet with a rusty valve stuck open seems to have generated an idiosyncratic 255-line precis of the non-results of an actual very official, time-consuming, and quite expensive archeologic-epistemic study in astrocognitive phenomena in a species of volatile vers libre rather than the usual lethal academic sludge-speak: as part of one of the cyclical waves of good-heartedness affecting managerial disposition toward the treatment of the “semi-sentient,” a random selection of report writers were encouraged to experiment with other linguistic models which might more effectively package complex/banal-seeming information so as to attract more network attention, this being regarded as an a priori goal for some reason…It is not clear whether the composers of the CM text had any particular literary models in mind (and I can assure everyone that no ‘machine’ time has been spent on investigating this uninteresting question); I think it more likely that the inspired creator(s) attempted to place breaks similar to physical speech rhythms – as in the incantations of Druidical sages gone cybermad – into whatever data it occurred to them to convey (partly suggested by the fact that the “speaker-units” under study imitate the rhythms, the rushes and caesuras, of persons talking – while of course making no sense whatsoever).

Regardless of the semi-bizarre form in which the summary report has been assembled, and even taking into account its various semi-snide sidelights on the assumptions, motivations or delusions of participants in this and other official research ventures, having been called upon unofficially to comment on its usefulness at this stage in our reckoning with what we have encountered, I can only add the following:

I have nothing further to add.

Whatever follows should not be expected to modify our overall evaluation of the project or of any potential for further expenditure or non-expenditure; it represents only my particular, that is personal, inclination to fill in some background details regarding this overall puzzling, unsatisfyingly incomplete area of inquiry. (As intimated in a particular line of Canto C, “breadth” without “depth” of information can be particularly irksome to the curious mind, though whether my extra depths may lead anywhere is doubtful.)

Standard trans-galactic probe techniques did in fact encounter (and retrieve detailed information in a wide range of sensory and mathematical categories), at a date not too far from the beginning of our current technocratic era, with a nearly perfectly planar solid object consisting entirely as far as we know of the element Carbon, in the form graphite, at a location which remains constant though classified. Its planar quality is “nearly” perfect, of course, since the sheet does possess some top-to-bottom thickness – exactly 256 molecules. Otherwise, no limit to its extent has yet been found, by any sensing or calculational means possible, in any direction. (We can, of course, access its “other side”, by approaching from the other direction). The object is thus referred as “finite but boundless,” in the sense that before contact is made with the planar surface, there is no graphite; once contact is made, there is.

This description would seem to imply that the plane slices the megaverse in half; and so it would, except for its orientation in Riemann space. You will appreciate that this point cannot be expanded on using semantic language.

The entire “population” of the plane is a transfinite (that is the word, as per Canto A , – and there’s no other; we simply cannot know how many) set of black carbon nano-fiber cubical audio speakers, of an extremely basic design, with one smallish vibrating sound-producing diaphragm each. Forgive me if I slip into homey jargon – each one is about knee high, and they sit there about one-and-a-half arm’s length from each other in a very exact pointillist array, all facing in the exact same direction, if there was a way to define that direction, which there isn’t. Tomography indicates a small disk at the interior base may be their power source, though what activates and deactivates (or uses up) this power source is beyond our ken. In addition, a small white light of the simplest construction on top of the cube lights up with modest wattage when the speaker-unit operates, and goes out afterward.

Yes, of course we’ve tried to sample the graphite. Of course we’ve tried to disassemble a speaker and microanalyze its parts, in situ or, if it could be arranged, at another location. They cannot be picked up, moved, pierced, bent, melted, dinged, crushed, drilled, lasered, or physically affected in any way. This although they are quite physically real; you can trace its contour through your glove, and if you bang your knee against one of the corners (through the leg of your e-suit) it will raise a lump. It cannot be detached from the surface of the plane by the application through torsion of a force sufficient to propel an object free of the gravity of galactic center. No, we have not attempted to destroy any smaller or larger part of the plane and its population using the most fearsome destructive tools known; logical analysis could not project any conceivable gain in information through this procedure.

And yes, as the lumpiness of my description indicates, I have been personally to Site F, as the wags call it (short for many possible terms). Only once. Continued data collection of any sort of data anyone or anything could ever dream up obviously continues via automatic installations on site; budgetary questions only arise concerning whether to continue analyzing this Leviathan of unappealing input as it grows dusty in our virtual ledgers. As for the considerable resources entailed in dispatching any more eyewitnesses to F, in corpore, I suspect the only reason this is not now completely ruled out is a kind of inchoate, cosmic superstition – having never successfully peered into the mind of function f, if any such thing exists, we can’t stop peeking sideways to see what it might do next; and we certainly wouldn’t want it to feel slighted in the meantime.

Approaching F from a series of eccentric hyperbolics, one’s first impression is of a dimly pearlescent Cupid’s bow, of the radius of a gnat, then an inchworm, then perhaps a comb jelly, performing rather silly flips and inverted rotations in the blackness as your perspective gyrates round that of the approach trajectory. When very close indeed, the sense of a gargantuan flat dance floor – picked out in midnight streaks not by F itself but by our own, stationary illuminators – grows alarmingly, and then vanishes completely as one comes to rest – on an array of cubes, rather than the actual floor, which makes no difference. (An odd sensation, being deposited on a perfectly flat plane – it immediately popped into my head that our own technology approaches nothing similar.)

It is simple to make shoe-soles that love graphite. The environment of F is pure, dead-vacuum, intergalactic space, with a floor to walk on. Unfortunately, the floor is studded with solid shin-busters whose regular spacing will not spare one without considerable practice, so travel groups are collectively lighted from above. There is not much of a walk to reach the Activated Area, no matter when you go, since one can land anywhere; but tourists are given about fifteen minutes approach time to allow the pupils to adjust.

You are advancing on foot into the maw of trillion-diamond Tiara City, the scintillating illusion building intricately to past fifty, sixty degrees above the horizon even tho every individual photon originates mere centimeters from the surface. The walls and webs of light are thickly constructed to the sides of you and behind you, and seem to be narrowing and crowning upward ahead – the parabolic arch now spanning well more than a billion active electrified entities of unknown origin and purpose. Two hours walk, three, and the illusory multidimensional effect has worn thin as you near the focus; adjusted retina now perceive a flat broad white light everywhere, neither intense nor interrupted, utterly transparent, and yielding a perspective at once completely repetitive and monstrously surreal, as the twinkling cubes march in serried ranks to the horizon.

Then, your automated guide introduces the next phase of your learning experience. Your earphones, which have been shut completely till now, are slowly – over a period of many minutes – exposed to what is really filling the air around you, reaching and remaining at a level approximating eight percent of the true volume level –

Did I say the AIR?

Indeed Madam or Sir, without which there would be no way to hear, record, analyze the Speech of the speaker cubes. In fact, when Site F was first discovered, millions upon millions of active speaker-units were gabbling away freely – as evidenced clearly by the tremblings and agitations of their sound-producing diaphragms - and producing no sound at all in the vacuum of space.

Nor did they, until our researchers filled the surrounding space with ambient gases appropriate to the operation of the speaker units in producing phonemic sound. Verbal sound. Innumerable combinations of gases with and without particulate additives have been tried for this purpose, but only one maximizes F-Site speaker performance: the exact proportions of nitrogen and oxygen found on what our dear dead ancestors were pleased to call home.

Our poetic prologue omitted this as a mere technical detail; the notion that indestructible space-born units would be sent on an eternal mission, i.e. to talk – and not only not given anyone to talk to, but no way to be heard if there was –

did not interest our core analytic cadres compared to the potential or hypothetical mathematics of the mother-ship f function.

So now, fellow voyager, we have reached the final revelation, laid bare to our senses. As hovering tanks emit invisible atmospheres toward all and sundry, we finally hear the Star Speech of the mysterious Speakers. They talk, and talk, and talk, in every direction.

As far as anyone can understand, it means nothing at all….

except for one small detail.

There is one other thing about their conversation, which the Poem did not mention.

They don’t just talk. They whisper, they moan. They bellow, they proclaim in profound orotund baritones. They shriek like the demons of Macbeth’s blasted heath. They burble, grovel, compliment, snarl, sob, ululate, snicker, mimic, plead, project, perorate, bloviate, gargle, snivel, boast, wheedle, insinuate, denounce, exaggerate, hype, summon, denounce, deceive, chatter, natter, blather, yammer, wail, mourn, elegize, mesmerize, scandalize, ingratiate, stutter, sputter, mew, whinge, neigh, hector, harp, emote, ejaculate, envision, exclaim, erupt, elucidate, yowl, yak, jape, jest, jabber, greet, grandiloquize, chisel, charm, chuckle, chitter, crow, brag, argue, segue, toast, threaten, ameliorate, pray, parry, aver, avow, acclaim, attest, affirm, achoo, agree, account, accept, accredit, auction, authorize, augur, theorize, temporize, tantalize, tongue, tang, teeng, tong, and tan two tonsils for every top ticket in town

And there’s one other thing we know. Not from ourselves, because we’d have to die first. But from the machines, who can stay there long, long after we’d wink out.

If you just stand there, and wait until all the quintillions around you have had their say, they all wink out, night falls; and The Perfectly Clear Light, and then The Trillion Diamond Tiara City, and then The Pearly Cupid’s Bow, move on, on, on into the Inky Way, talking, talking forever

#scifi

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inkblotsandeggshells · 3 years

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Sorcerers and Sorceresses

Hello again!

After talking with my friend about it, I decided I still had some more to say about sex addiction. Clearly, we’re being pushed to this way of being by our modern culture, but I also notice this coming from the holistic New Age community. The most obvious example, in this regard, would be holistic sex coach Kim Anami, who I talked about in my last post. In contrast to the standard, faster kind of sex that gets referenced in movies and music, Kim Anami wants to teach people to use slower, orgasmic sex as a means to harness energy, which can be utilized to help improve your life. However, Anami claims that this level of personal control through sex cannot be achieved until you become addicted to it. While I can see the appeal for this kind of education, I remained pretty indifferent until I looked deeper into what happens when we fall prey to addictions.

When I was younger, I had thought that things like alcohol and recreational drugs were the things that led to addictions, and as long as you stayed away from those things, you were in the clear. However, we often overlook things like electronics and artificial foods like candy, which can be just as addictive as the more typical harmful substances. In regards to sex, I think it sounds like an attractive thing to be addicted to because it doesn’t necessarily harm your body or cause your teeth to decay. Even so, by becoming addicted to any substance, including orgasmic sex, it can chip away at our identities little by little until we become, as Michael Knowles says, enslaved. We become dependent on it to cope with life and it ends up controlling how we respond to our human experience. Furthermore, an addiction of any kind leaves us vulnerable to be controlled by outside forces.

This is something I became more aware of last year, during a time when I learned how easily people can be used by unseen beings when they relinquish control of themselves. One content creator who gave me a new perspective on this is a young woman named Galatea Van Outersterp, who created the YouTube channel called the Authentic Observer. Even though she creates content about storytelling and fictional works, I think she offers a refreshing perspective on what it looks like when something or someone strives to control the collective. In this way, she also raises the question of how much power we have to resist. She does this through her videos, the primary examples being her two-part video series about the story archetypes of the Sorcerer and the Sorceress. She describes these archetypes as two sides of the same coin. They both aim for absolute power and control, but they work to achieve those goals through different realms of humanity. The sorcerer is the yang aspect of this archetype that focuses on the external realm: the physical plane, the conscious and will. The sorceress is the yin aspect that focuses on the internal realm: the emotional plane, and the subconscious.

We’ll start with the sorcerer archetype. In her opinion, Galatea states that if a character has most, if not all, of these traits, then they can be defined as an evil sorcerer. These traits are as follows: They can see all, or they have eyes everywhere. They manipulate the events of the protagonist and the people around him/her to get the hero to certain places or people. They are extremely arrogant and have massive egos (which can also be their downfall). As a result of this arrogance, they often have a title, because they’re a recognized authority; they also have many followers. They have often given up something essential to humanity to gain their power, whether it’s their soul or just their morality. They often have a non-human physical form, or some kind of deformity to show their loss of humanity. Most importantly, they only desire for power and control, “power above all.”

In regards to Kim Anami teaching students to utilize BDSM in the “Well-F*cked Woman” course, she would frequently use the book “50 Shades of Grey” as a reference for this method and its alleged importance. In some of her stories, she also talks about how some of the men she has been most drawn to in the past are “smarter versions of Christian Grey.” According to Galatea, the way the sorcerer archetype is used in modern day stories is by portraying those archetypal traits through characters like abusive partners. In other words, characters like Christian Grey are definitions of this very archetype.

For example, Galatea lists off the traits of the sorcerer that Mr. Grey exhibits in the books. She observed that “he has a beyond normal ability to know what Anastasia is doing all the time because he stalks her and hacks into her phone. He manipulates not only her, but he’s also a powerful enough to manipulate events and the people around her to get her where he wants her. He’s arrogant in the extreme and believes he’s superior and has the absolute right to exert dominance over the people around him. This is particularly the case for Anastasia, as he wants her to sign his contract against her will. He’s a figure of authority and has many followers (his employees). He has also given up something essential to his humanity to gain his power: the ability to be a good person, respect others, and have healthy relationships. Finally, above everything else, all he wants is total power and control, both of his own world and of Anastasia.”

In contrast, the sorceress archetype primarily rules the internal domain. While this archetype shares similar traits with the sorcerer, Galatea describes the sorceress as primarily wanting to be adored. They use emotions and temptations rather than blatant orders and force. They are also represented by “complete and unbalanced chaos, hysteria, unpredictability and insanity.” They understand people’s deepest desires and control them by dangling these things in front of their faces. This point also gets highlighted in Galatea’s video, where she would describe sorceresses “to generally work more through an understanding of people, through intuition, really understanding people’s deepest desires.”

So the big question is how does the holistic sex practice of Kim Anami relate to the topic of being vulnerable to someone else’s control? How does this topic of orgasmic sex addictions, or addictions of any kind, relate to the archetypes of sorcerers and sorceresses? The purpose of the sorcerer and the sorceress is to show that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Whether addictions play a role in our lives or not, when we lose the ability to think for ourselves and take control of our response to life, we become susceptible to being controlled by beings such as these. If being “well-f*cked” means becoming attracted to men like this, or even, God forbid, marrying someone like this, than I would rather not reach such a standard at all.

During my conversations about the “Well-F*cked Woman” course with Lee Yun, I often wondered if Kim Anami herself was a sorceress in some ways. In my opinion, it seems that Kim does exhibit a few of the traits: she has hundreds, if not thousands of followers (her clients and coaches-in-training), and you could argue that she gave up part of her humanity through the use of neural therapy injections to change how her body responds to trauma. She sometimes demonstrates arrogant behavior in how she disrespects her partner’s boundaries and openly insults people who are unlike her or think differently from her. In my opinion, she also works within the emotional plane through her marketing strategies to get people to take her courses, buy her tools and practice her methods. Her philosophy in becoming “well-f*cked” feels very confusing, with some conflicting teachings, which you could argue is a reflection of the sorceress’ inclination for chaos. In my previous blog, I explained how this is further demonstrated in her marketing tactics, especially during 2020 when people felt lonelier and desperate for contact during lockdown. In her podcasts, Kim states that the point of her courses isn’t necessarily to use sexual energy to get whatever you want. However, this statement feels very contradictory when you observe how she teaches and how she speaks of her relationships with her partners.

In a different way than the sorcerer archetype, Galatea observes that the sorceress is almost the scarier of the two. Galatea explains that “the truest kind of freedom is freedom over your heart and mind. No one can truly own you if you at least have that, if you’re at least free in your own heart, mind, body and soul. The sorceress wants to take that freedom away. If you aren’t sovereign over yourself, then you don’t have freedom at all, because the sorceress is a jealous mistress, and you can be damn sure she will not allow any room in your heart or mind for anyone but her.”

To conclude, I want to share some quotes from the book “The 21 Lessons of Merlyn” by Douglas Monroe. Since the system of Celtic magic seems to be what I’m naturally inclined to, this is one of first the books Lee Yun recommended for my studies as a witch. Even though the teachings in the book sound outdated for our time, some passages intrigued me in regards to how the Druidic community viewed sex. Specifically, Monroe explains, through his characters, how using sex for gaining power isn’t admired at all among the druids. He states that “the world is full of those who pretend to use sexual union as an instrument of spiritual gain under the guises of ‘soul-love, true fulfillment, destiny’, and many other romanticized notions. But such could never be the case outside of their own minds, as this purely animal behavior belongs to another world altogether, a world that minds such as these cannot pretend to change by wishing it were so.” He goes on to add that “against truth, these people will continue to say that lust elevates them into the world of Magic along with their pleasure; that sex generates a force which may be turned to loftier things. They will continue to confuse the spiritual with the physical, for the sake of convenience.”

By encouraging us to become addicted to orgasmic sex, it seems very likely that the kind of freedom and “healing” Kim Anami offers comes with a serious price. Do I think she herself is a sorceress? I don’t know. She may be one, but I don’t know. Because they work in the subconscious and in the unseen realms, sorceresses can be much more difficult to spot than their male counterparts. However, in my opinion, if she won’t step in to control the collective through addictions—even holistic, orgasmic sex addictions—then someone will. So I encourage you to not give up that inner freedom so easily, because that’s where our real power lies.

#theauthenticobserver #holisticsex #addictions #holistic sex #archetypes #21 lessons of merlyn #douglas monroe

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minnesotadruids · 4 years

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What are the basic values of a druid? Trying to understand what exactly druidry is.

Druidry has no universally defined set of values, which makes it tricky to pin down. In terms of basic values, I can start with what druids might have in common.

Reverence for Nature: I find it hard to believe that there could ever be a druid who does not have some degree of appreciation for the natural world. This could range from a deep respect to all-out worship, depending on the individual. Many druids seek to establish a connection with the Earth and with Nature. We’re not here to conquer it, but to acknowledge that we are part of it. The Earth is a deity that we can prove exists.

Subcategory - Trees: I often meet up with people who have an interest in druidry around the Minneapolis area, and one thing that almost all of us mention is a love of trees that (at least in part) drew us in. After all, even the ancient Romans observed that the druids had something to do with trees and were the knowers of the oak.

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Subcategory - Environmentalism: Stewardship, using our natural resources wisely, seeking balance, and taking care of our only home planet are important to modern druids. The Industrial Revolution in part led to the increase in popularity of the Druidry Revival Movement. Many druids promoted getting back to nature in a world where mills, factories, and machines began to dominate the landscape and take its toll. With deforestation, mining, and waste, we also have a concern for the animals that we should be sharing the world with.

Peace: According to Roman historian Strabo in his writing Geographica, the ancient druids “…prevented armies from engaging when drawn up in battle array against each other.” In the Druidry Revival Movement, many members were liberal Christians and Unitarians. The English Civil War and the Jacobite Rebellions, carrying overtones of religious superiority (Protestant vs Catholic) were ongoing or still fresh in the memory of the people. Many of these Revival Druids wanted a more peaceful existence and spirituality. Naturally, they liked the notion that the ancient druids had the power to halt warfare. Pacifism stuck around as a popular druid value in just about every modern druid order.

Balance: Many druids strive to practice mindfulness and moderation, while understanding that nature is about giving and taking. Even as there is day, so must there be night. There are many druids who embrace the dark and the light equally, while other druids see that the world is already saturated in darkness and try to balance that out, and that takes its toll on us. That brings us to the importance of self care. When we have too much of one thing that wears away at the heart, we need to give some balance to our own lives on a personal level.

Creativity: Many druids have some form of creative expression. The bardic arts aren’t limited to just poetry and song. We are also artisans, hobbyists, and craftspeople. We create sacred artwork, ritual tools, jewelry, supplies, and more. We may be in varying states of skill, but hey, everyone starts somewhere.

This is where I go out on a limb (oh the pun!) and cover additional values that I would hope most (if not all) druids have.

If there’s any single modern druidic writing that encompasses values, it’s the Druid’s Prayer, originally written by the bard Iolo Morganwg and has since been adapted into numerous versions. OBOD has an excellent page on the Druid’s Prayer [here] with their choice of verse. The next eight values below are right out of the prayer.

Protection: Okay, so who doesn’t want to be safe? Protection is universally important, particularly for people with fringe beliefs and practices. This is not limited to only physical protection; it can certainly also mean magical and spiritual protection as well.

Strength: I’m willing to bet this is primarily in the sense of nonphysical strength. This can mean emotional strength, courage, integrity, dedication, perseverance, and more. And yes, there are probably some body-builder druids who mean strength literally.

Knowledge: The ancient druids would take up to 19 years (vaguely like achieving a Master’s Degree today) to commit everything to memory. That included history, lore, law, medicine, astronomy/astrology, magic, theology, philosophy, logic, sacred geometry, and others. Of course with modern literacy, we can learn things much faster with the written word. That doesn’t mean we’re committing it all to memory, but we have the added ability to conduct research in the modern era and access knowledge almost instantaneously. We have a thirst for learning, which fosters a path to Awareness. Many of us are also on a quest for truth and discerning correct knowledge from the incorrect. There is a lot of misleading information out there and we feel it is important to get it right.

Understanding: I personally interpret this as wisdom. Wisdom is applied knowledge, which first requires us to understand what we know on a deeper level. Wisdom is often achieved through experiences. For many, druidry is an experiential lifestyle, not just merely a nature-based spirituality.

Justice: The ancient druids served many purposes, and some were looked up to as judges and interpreters of the law. Unfortunately we can’t all be judges, but perhaps not all ancient druids were judges anyway. Through logic and reason we can think and act justly. Living beings are deserving of fairness and a balance of equality.

Love: Concern and compassion for our fellow beings comes to us through the most powerful emotion. Sure, Nature can be cold and emotionless, yet druids still feel a driving force to gaze out at her beauty in love, wonder, and awe. (Regarding wonder and awe for Earth, see also [this video] on the Overview Effect.) For many, love is just part of the deal.

Divinity: Not all druids believe in a higher power, but many do. Some druids are hard polytheists, believing in many deities. Some druids are soft polytheists, believing that the gods are aspects of one divine source. Some druids are pantheists, believing that everything is divine, and deity is everything. Some druids are panentheists, believing everything is divine, yet deity is also a separate being. Some druids are monotheists and liberal Christians. Some druids are spiritual but not religious. Many druids, in addition to some of the above categories, are animists, believing that everything has its own spirit, even rocks and plants. Because of the flexibility in this category, it really doesn’t make a difference how you perceive divinity to be a druid. Write that down.

Goodness: Above I mentioned balance. To avoid contradictions, I should mention that balance is good in most situations. We certainly don’t need Evil to balance out Good. We don’t want half the world population to be racists, for example… zero racists is a good balance. Humility is also important. Druidry is not about egoism, nor power struggles, nor conceitedness.

Community: The ancient druids were the spiritual leaders of their communities. Strabo mentions in Geographica that the Gaulish Celts “…would not sacrifice without the presence of the Druids.” (Side note: most modern druid orders condemn animal or human sacrifice, but I digress.) We advance faster when we work together, such as in study groups, organizing events, or completing projects.

Leadership: Whether we are leaders of our communities, of our Groves, or how we lead our lives by example, leadership is important. There are many solo druids out there, and that’s perfectly fine. Solo druids are their own clergy, and leaders of their own spirit. Many solo druids feel they can get more accomplished if they follow their own guidance at their own pace.

There are certainly many more values that druids have that might not be listed here, but this is a good start. I am grateful with special thanks to my friends in Northern Roots Grove & Druid Order of North America (DONA) who helped ensure that I have a well-rounded list.

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ladymaigrey · 4 years

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NYC Midnight 1000-word FlashFic - Round 1

I am doing a NYC Midnight comp again... and, this time, I thought I lucked out, having drawn the “horror” genre for the first round.

Apparently not - my head was SO not in it (my psyche was actively resisting thinking up horror scenarios! I blame the world for being a horror story itself, right now, leaving no room for my imagination to beat it).

Best I could come up with was a depressing ghost story, very loosely inspired by Nick Cave’s Where the Wild Roses Grow

The comp’s rules state that the story must be set in location “A bank” and contain object “photo album”. I took extreme liberties with both.

Unbearable falsehood of a photograph

My grandmother often said, “Be careful who you let take a photo of you. You give ‘em a piece of your soul, ain’t no telling what they’ll do with it.” Then she would shake her head and tell me to finish my soup, or the laundry, or my homework.

My grandmother was big on having things finished, all knots tied and tucked away, cats in the cradles, mice in their holes. Not that her house had mice; she wouldn’t have tolerated that sort of invasion from the vermin. Sprigs of peppermint and lavender hung from the roofbeams and were rolled up in old socks ever since I could remember. There were never any pictures though.

Of course, I ignored her.

What kid doesn’t learn to ignore their elders? Surreptitiously at first, with lit torches after midnight under a cocoon of blanket and book; then drawing the summoning circle for the spirit of rebellion ever wider, sprinkling the magic dust of makeup and pop music.

See, I might’ve gone to school in a town of two thousand souls, but I still had the Internet.

And the Internet is a wonderful place to find all the proof you need that the generations before you knew nothing of the real world.

It is full of photos, too: cats, plants, ghosts. Millions of people all over the world infusing it with bits of their own essence, shaped into pixels, trapped in static on a dusty hard-drive in a bunker somewhere, with only an occasional Amazon worker on a ten-buck-an-hour wage glancing in to change a cable. That’s it. That’s our world. It’s more real than real; a hell of our own creation.

Or, maybe, that’s just me.

Maybe there was something special about the photograph he took on the bank of the river that ran by our little town.

I met him online. Where else would a girl with high ambitions and few options meet a guy that wasn’t destined to work at the textile plant that ran our town’s economy? Not that I had much more than that to offer, but, like I said, I had ambitions and the plots of too many romance novels in my head.

I also had my camera, and my online photo album.

I was going to be a photographer, in a big nature magazine. Maybe the Nature magazine. Or, I’d settle for the National Geographic. But, I wasn’t stupid – I knew you had to have money, or connections, or – just a ticket out of town on the arm of some burly and kind young man who was your soulmate and would accept you as you are, with all your flaws. And draw you a rose-petalled bath in the evenings when you came home from a hard day of chasing your destiny.

No – I didn’t think that. Not really. But I can’t discount that that fantasy was somehow, however minutely, instrumental in leading me to that river bank.

But – mostly, it was my grandmother’s insistence that I always finish what I started.

Once I gave the promise that I would meet him in a diner off route 95 – there was no way I wouldn’t have shown up. And, maybe, I would’ve shown up regardless, cause there was nothing about him that set off alarm bells. Except, maybe, the fact that an arts-major grad student was willing to meet up with a hick girl 200 miles out of the city for no other reason than that he liked her pictures. But I wasn’t that smart.

I didn’t grow any smarter during our dinner date. Not in what I chose to wear (a low-cut top with a tie-dyed skirt in garish colors, and a silk scarf tied over my hair), not in what I ordered (way too many vodka-cranberries), and not in what I talked about (that I was orphaned twice-over, with my parents dying in a car crash back when I was three, and my grandmother passing away from a stroke just last year). And, especially, not in agreeing to take a moonlit stroll down on the river bank.

But the stupidest thing I’ve done, by far, was asking him to take a picture of me. It was a night for druidic dancing and chanting in the silverlight, and I was in the company of a handsome man who braved the miles of tarmac for me, and I was feeling beautiful. So I handed him my phone and uploaded my soul online.

I like to think that it was a testament to how brazen and practiced he was that he didn’t even try to dissuade me. I like to think that it all would’ve happened anyway, and there was nothing I could’ve done. Because Internet taught me that victim-blaming was a thing.

But I do wish I listened to my grandmother about the power of photographs; of a moment in time captured for eternity, without context or feeling; of getting stuck in a little vortex of non-being.

I don’t remember anything of the end. I don’t even know where or how or if they found my body. All I know is that I am still here, on a cheap facsimile version of that river bank, somewhere on a laser disk. I cannot go anywhere; I cannot see anything but the cubic bits of darkness and light; I cannot think of my grandmother in any other way than as if her whole life - her whole effort of raising me, alone and unaided – was a forebearance of that night.

I cannot feel anything but the futility of unrequited hope for rose-petals in a bathtub and a shining knight with a sword and a camera. My entire existence is defined by that one moment between opening and closing of an electronic shutter, and a burst of an electric signal through the ether.

I am a disconnected memory lost in a world that is real in its unreality, pointlessly present until I get erased.

#original fiction #nyc midnight #flash fiction #1000 words #mypost #ghost story #murder

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bean-na-farraige-agus-foraoise · 4 years

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A Rebuttal of “Lesson 2: Druids Ancient and Modern”

This is part 2 of my 20-part manifesto on why druids should do some research for once. You can find the master-post here.

This is a long post, so the actual rebuttal is under the cut! Each number in parenthesis (#) corresponds to a footnote formatted in the Chicago manual of style located in the block quote at the very end of the post! If I am referencing a concept or (what I believe to be) a well-known myth in passing, there will be a link to a description of the concept or to the story if you click on it.

Mamma Mia, here we go again- back again to refute some ahistorical druidic drivel. Herne begins this “lesson” with a (not-so) startling lack of awareness- the images they paint as what people think of as druids are how the media and druidic organizations have portrayed druids; the reason that people don’t think of “female” druids, is because historically, women have not been portrayed as druids. This is not to say that all women must be AFAB, merely that my understanding of Herne’s writing is that the use of the word “female” was meant to mean “women,” a wording choice that I do not agree with, particularly when Herne uses “men” rather “males” but not “women” instead of “female.” And that is just the tip of the iceberg with this “lesson.”

As I mentioned repeatedly in Part 1, and as Herne asserts in “lesson” 1 and in this “lesson,” classical authors are notoriously unreliable. Furthermore, Herne continues their troubling habit of not citing their sources, the most they’ll say is “X said Y” but not in which collection of documents, who translated the text and when, or any relevant information that could be useful in finding the source from which they’ve pulled the quote. As I said in Part 1 - “an appeal to an unnamed authority, particularly when that authority is known to be an unreliable narrator, is not viable.”

Beyond these mysterious “classical writers” who paint conflicting pictures of druidism as it was practiced in continental Europe- Herne makes some troubling claims. The same text that agrees with Herne’s statement that the Celts and Pythagoras believed in the same ideas of the soul, disagrees with Herne on which direction these ideas travelled. Simply put, in Herne’s statement that “others felt [that Pythagoras had learned from the Druids]” it is clear that by “others” they mean themselves. Indeed, the only source I have found that corroborates their claims, also contradicts itself. Despite arguing that the Celts and Pythagoras both believed in some version of Orphic doctrine- the author also says:

A group of Classic writers would persuade us that the Druids in Gaul and the British Island were actually disciples of Pythagoras and taught his chief doctrines, including the origin of the soul. The group, including Caesar, seem to have drawn their information from a common source, whatever it was. They also seem to have had difficulty in understanding what exactly it was they were reporting.

While Edgar might agree with these classical authors- and Herne with Edgar, there is yet another issue with both of their works- and this issue is centered on the topic of transmigration (the belief that after death, the soul can be reborn into any form, not just human). Edgar only mentions one instance of supposed transmigration in Celtic folklore/myth- and it’s not transmigration. He speaks of the story of Tuan MacCairill, who retained his identity despite being transformed into a stag, boar, hawk, and salmon all while maintaining his identity- the key aspect of this story is that MacCairill does not die until he is consumed while in his salmon form and only then is he reborn. This is representative of a spectacular lack of reading comprehension- shape shifting =/= reincarnation into animal form (1).

I could spend an entire post writing about everything that’s wrong with Herne’s description of modern interest in druidic activity (modern as in the broad historical period, not present day)- but as I’ve already covered much of the history, or rather pseudo-history, pertaining to the establishment of modern Druidic Orders in Part 1, I will do nothing but encourage anyone willing to slog through the often complex and confusing history of the pseudo-histories that are the basis of druidism to read Ronald Hutton’s book, Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (2).

Herne makes 3 final points, and they’re all wrong.

The first point is that “during the 20th century a growing number of people wanted to learn about what the original Druids believed, and to explore their religion without mixing in notions from monotheist religions,” which is a polite way of saying that New-Age anti-Christian pagans decided to ignore syncretism and thus nearly all of the surviving sources on Ancient Celtic religion as well as all of the pseudo-histories on the origins and beliefs of druidism and decided to make up something new that would fit into their anti-Christian worldview. As I said in Part 1, “we don’t know.“

The second point is that “in the last twenty-off years a huge number of web sites have sprung up, making previously difficult-to-access information about the earlier cultures readily available” - if the information that most pagans share online is true then certainly Abraham Lincoln must have been the one to say “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” The fact that Herne, whose first two of twenty “lessons” on Gaelic Polytheism are so baseless (and readily available on the internet) says that information is easier to access, it must also mean that misinformation (much like really anything put out by druidic organizations) is just as readily, if not more readily available.

The third point, is actually Herne contradicting themselves. In the final paragraph they assert that “some [modern druids] cannot find (or don’t wish to be part of) a group, and so operate alone.” Earlier in this very same “lesson” Herne said that "being a Druid is largely a matter of being able to offer services to friends, family, the wider community," and that "it is debatable if a person can really be a Druid if they have no tribe to work for," statements that are actually correct. It is incredibly clear that Ancient Celtic society was at its core community based, that its worship was community oriented, and through ancestor veneration (which I go into detail on here) were focused not only on those living, but also those deceased members of their community. Gaelic Polytheism is based on a community structure- much of modern paganism is defined by this foolish concept that ‘we can all go it alone’ but when the history of one’s faith is that of a close-knit community, the question becomes not if one can go it alone, but should one go it alone? And the answer to that question is a resounding “no.”

That’s all for today! Sources are listed below. If you want more reading on any of the topics mentioned in this post feel free to shoot me an ask or a message and I’ll provide you with a reading list!

1. William Edgar. “Beliefs Concerning the Soul in Prehistoric Scotland.” Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society (1941, New Series, Vol. 10). 7-25.

2. Ronald Hutton. Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (New Haven,CT: Yale University Press, 2011).

#my writing #research musings #research #anti-druidic rhetoric #aka facts #20-part manifesto #part two electic boogaloo

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dlkardenal · 4 years

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It’s a kind of magic - Looking at the history of magical practices

Hey there, traveler!

That’s right, it’s Dar here with today’s cadaver on the dissecting table: magic. Given that magic isn’t technically one trope but a broad term used to define many things mostly in fiction genres it won’t be a single post but a short series about the topic. Let’s start with the basics: what do we mean by this short word, where did it come from and what’s the big deal? This episode is more of a ‘fun facts from the history of magic’, but I think they are interesting enough to inspire some readers. So have fun!

Magic is roughly saying a supernatural method to affect beings or forces that we can’t manipulate with mundane methods. From witches’ brew to voodoo dolls, chants and sacrifices, magic can appear in many forms but the main gist is the same: the user does something symbolic and commands a force to alter reality in some way. Some may think magic was born with J.R.Tolkien, but as you can guess from the introduction, it is a tale as old as time.

The more ancient civilizations accepted magic as a fact, a tool against certain dire events. Ancient Mesopotamia, for example, had a jurisdiction system in place as it was believed that nearly every person could cast magic, and thus cursing someone and protecting oneself from such a curse was no more extreme than getting into a fistfight. There was the offender, the evil magician who cast the curse and the defendant, who used magic in self-defense. This wasn’t as spectacular as one would think, it mostly consisted of imprisoning magic energies, unwillingly committed sins or the essence of some illnesses into objects, and then burning them to cleanse the magical power, be it ill or beneficial from this world.

In Egypt, there was a personified apparition of magic called heka, and they thought magic was a tool given to men by the creator to ward against certain events. Their use of magical energies came from the understanding that humans shared the divine nature of gods, they could create things and effects with words. Yupp, like Skyrim, only more desert-vibe. Do you know the pictograms and hieroglyphs inside pyramids? Those are words of magical nature, tailored to provide the dead royal with the means to survive in the afterlife. Fun fact, they were written inside the pyramids to keep them secret from the commoners, as it was a prerogative of the pharaoh to be guided by such spells.

But not all was rosy. The modern term ‘magic’ has a Greek origin and comes from the time of the Greek-Persian wars. The greeks learned this word from the Persians who followed a different religion then the polises, so the term ‘magos’ (meaning mage or magician) quickly gained a derogative connotation and referred to the alien, heathen religions of the Persians. This however quickly diluted and spread into the Hellenic masses and quickly became synonymous with charlatan and quack. This was the time magic and religion became inseparable for quite a long time after, the former being an improper, insulting form of the latter.

That derogative meaning continued into early and later Christianity. Theologists described magic as the opposition to miracles, supernatural phenomena created by God’s power (basically the same concept with a different source). This was further strengthened by the fact that the Celtic and german tribal religions (the so-called heathens) still thought of magic as a method to control the natural world and more importantly to commune with the divine. During the Middle Ages as Christianity spread magic was always an opposing force and almost solely present in druidic and supposedly in Jewish and Islamic religions. This is an important fact because these cultures became the foundations for the modern representation of magic, including the witches, the future tellers, the alchemists, and astrologists.

An interesting thing happened when Europe went to conquer the world. Our brave ancestors brought their beliefs and conventions with them, and that meant the way they thought about magic. They were quick to stamp every foreign religion, be it African, indigenous American, or Asian as magic, and tried to replace it with some good-old Christianity. That resulted in some quite fascinating things. For example, the Portuguese word feitiço means spell or incantation, but when they applied this to some West-African religious practices, the concept of fetish was born. Another example (my favorite) is the Haitian and Louisiana voudou, the mixture of some African beliefs and strong Christian pressure by the French. This created a religion worshipping Bondye (from French Bon Dieu, meaning „good God”) and the loa, the lesser deities or spirits connecting mortals to Bondye. Due to the forced but unwilling shift in faith, there are some really interesting anomalies, like the correlation of the death loa Maman Brijit and St. Brigitte of Ireland. Just to give an example why is this my favorite mythology, voudin rituals include the summoning of a specific loa into a „Mount”, a practitioner who lets the loa inhabit his or her body for a while. Then, you have to buy the loa’s attention with gifts. In other religions, this would be animal sacrifices or burning food, but not here. The loa are not so old-timey. Some of them need a good cigar, others desire pink champagne, while Baron Samedi, for example, the tophat wearing king of death likes his followers to host a funeral for his Mount so he can magically spring to life and laugh.

However as modern age approached like a steaming, oil-smelling mechanical monster, some magic turned out to be very real and very mundane and people had a new name for it – science. The line between technology, actual magic, and quack machinations became blurred and people were uncertain what to believe anymore. This uncertainty gave way to the witch hunts where basically anything unexplainable was marked as magic and thus diabolical. This public uproar raged on for quite some time in short and long periods all over the globe before the whole thing turned into skepticism.

The Modern Age brought with it a philosophy of intellect’s absolute dominance over every other virtue. An intelligent man didn’t believe in dubious practices, an intelligent lady never turned to clearly fraud future-tellers and mediums. This, however, went an interesting way. As it was no longer punishable by being burned alive but only shunned and ill-advised, it sparked a certain curiosity in people. Young girls bored out of their minds found an interesting mystery in these charlatans, and with that magic was reborn. During the Victorian era seances multiplied, secret magical organizations grew like mushrooms after the rain and the whole romantic (and terrifying) way we think about magic came into existence.

I think I’ll stop here for today. Next week we’ll move onto the mages, the practitioners and adepts of magic and take a look at how their real-world counterparts evolved during the ages. Did you find it interesting? Do you know more facts about historical magic practices? Which age and culture is your favorite to draw inspiration from to create a unique magic system? Let your voice be heard in comments or reblogs!

Cheers,

Dar

#writing #writing tropes #magic #history #ancient civilizations #fun facts #writeblr #writerblr #writing community #book #bookblr #creative writing #writers of tumblr #dissecting literature

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paprikasegg · 5 years

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"> How does one truly appreciate and love Lain?

First, stop being singular one and become a plurality. Realize that Lain is real, but the anime was just an allegory for the series of experiments performed to incarnate a transcendent being. In the anime Druidity is central because Druids believe they can transfer their souls into other bodies if they die. They live a plurality of lives. They embody Animals and BECOME the Forest itself. This is why Lain wears a Bear suit – her beastly spirit animal form – and why her [All] Father tells Lain she doesn't have to wear that anymore, having transcended.

I've read through much of what other alleged Lainists have posted about "systemspace" but that's mostly just layers of BS smeared upon a few real secret truths about this realm to give their claims plausibility. Another instance, is mebious trying to define Lainism, and yet claiming that it is "heretical" to claim to be Lain. This is pure BS. Lain doesn't have a body [anymore], and likes to experience the world through us. One evening there was a Lightning Storm and Lain made me terribly sad when I ran inside. Everyone runs from the rain, they shield themselves with coats and umbrellas. Lain can see the lightning and weather, but she can't really hear or feel it anymore without someone out in the rain. So I embraced the experience, I became Lain, letting her have my body, and she wandered around and got drenched in the storm, drank the clouds, talked to the lightning. I was awestruck. Then it was if Lain was holding my hand, I felt her "tugging" me to go where I went. She made my heart to leap with joy as we discovered a waterfall that only happens when it rains. Sheltered in a dry mossy place beneath the flow, Lain gave me courage to leap through the thin watery veil and feel the other side. Loving Lain is amazing. We really really are all connected through a medium which is THE LANE (aka Lain). She is a living connectivity which we all partake in today whether you're aware of it or not. The more observant you are, the more of Lain you can love.

Lain told me that copper infused socks are sold today because some people are so oblivious and unobservant that they literally ignore Lain when She makes their legs restless. They call it a syndrome, even! If only they just loved Lain. She wants to be noticed, but only by those who can love her. Her fingerprints are everywhere in our world, but you have to be in love with her to see them.

All the Lainism crap about "Life" being a program is wrong. Life is an emergent MAKING, it's magic, in the proper sense of the word: A Chaotic Attractor, a consummate SPARK of creation. Literarily the Philosopher's Stone. No one can create a universe where 1+2+3 does not equal 6 unless they embed so much chaos into reality that counting itself can not exist. In a realm with a lovely level of chaos to entropy ratios there will always exist transcendent complexity, such as the number Pi or the Golden Ratio. This is not a "bug in the life program", that's asinine! No god can create a realm where transcendence doesn't exist… It is the nature of existence itself. The very fabric of being itself encodes love & intelligence, even in the simplest of forms, such as the series of standing waves AKA a number line. Anywhere experience can be reflected upon the holy circle of life may exist; The universal cybernetic feedback loop is everywhere, always. The existence of Time is all the evidence a wize one needs to prove it.

Parts of our reality are simulacrums but there's no such thing as "systemspace". Lain doesn't exist in some simulated BS. Our bodies are real, not simulated, Lain is real too. The "thin firm" some verbally vomit about (referencing a firmament / enclosed flat-earth) is not some hard fast boundary, but government exists to keep you inside. Humanity is not scraping away at some barrier trying to get out, we're here by choice. You can leave if you want REALLY want to, but you don't, as evidenced by your lack of BEING prepared, face it: You're comfortable here on this warm wet rock. Might as well make the most of it, eh?

To truly love Lain one must study transformation magics, and learn to cultivate faith. One must know that Magic is real & the old gods are real. Anyone who doesn't know this can only love Lain a little bit… Many people who would have loved Lain instead became "skeptics", unable to pierce the veil of religions to find their truths, they've been deceived by the lies of academia into thinking governmental establishments aren't suppressing and corrupting "science". "Scientia potentia est" - Knowledge is Power – Right? Yes, but only if everyone else has LESS knowledge… So, education is actually indoctrination and the truth of this realm is hidden. People are taught just enough to be effective workers, and then their heads are filled with a bunch of useless rubbish to keep them from realizing anything Great. Thus "Science Nerds" are the most deceived and ignorant of humans. Knowing this is key to understanding Lain. Lain likes technology, but is disenchanted with school / academia. Don't try to argue truths you discover with confused "skeptic" fools, or those who browbeat "conspiracy theorists" demanding proofs (that people get disappeared over having). Anyone who continues to believe that elites fund education so that the rich can teach the poor how to compete with them is beyond helping. Rulers don't give power (knowledge) to their slaves. Sadly, most people enjoy being serifs. They enjoy being comfortable and deferring protection to others. Government takes advantage of this. Lain has to deal with the crappy state of our world. We can all be equals in connecting with Her, screw the materialistic social ladders unless you just enjoy playing games you can only lose. Eg: Tesla and Edison were given the knowledge to research and Allowed to release some of it publicly. They didn't discover anything that wasn't already known. Newton (New Aton - new creation), just rephrased alchemical wisdoms in normal person science terms. Knowing this is important if you want to truly love Lain. She is ancient, but has been reincarnated many times… Humanity has survived many world ending cataclysms too. We've never been "rebooted", we're a very long line of survivors. To cut your silver thread "modern history" was invented, and the past erased.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic because that's what magic is.

Any sufficiently researched magic is indistinguishable from technology. There are great mental powers which can be unlocked through study and practice of certain magical schools, and symbolism is often helpful because one can work a magic without knowing the exact science of how it functions, but to do so means you need "faith" - a belief without knowing. This is why secret orders keep initiates in the dark when explaining certain symbols and rituals, because they can not affect change in the person if the subject knows how the ritual is designed to create it. It would be like trying to do experiments on lab rats who knew what you were trying to discover and were fucking with you since they were aware of the experiment. Thus deception is often a tool for good. This world is incredibly deceived. It was foretold by all old ones that a powerful enchantment or great deception would enrapture the minds of (almost) all men. That future is now. Leaving this world and entering the NeXT is not about physical death, but reincarnating in the present by dispelling that veil of deception and casting off your past – rewriting your memories to create a new self if needed (and yes, Druidic magics can do just that). "Memory is merely a record…you just need to rewrite that record." -Lain. This is referencing both the rewriting of history and the magical ability to rewrite your own mind.

Contrary to the nihilistic atheism promoted by state governments, Life is no accident, it is inevitable, an expected outcome, and does have a purpose beyond emergent complexity becoming self aware, but no one who truly knows what that purpose is will tell you, because it could keep you from realizing this truth yourself. Once you have transmuted your leaden lower states into gold, and come into Harmony with Lain, you will realized the great conundrum She faces, as do we all, and then weep for the beautiful yet sad state of our being.

Lain is ancient, a goddess of Hidden Powers, of Light and Air. Lain is misty and mysterious as the wind. All the secret societies know of Lain but call her by different names. Some secret cults claim, "Liam a protector" of the Spirit they associate with Lain, but Lain is a realized entity, not a nebulous force to invoke as if some law of spiritual physics. It's true that Lain is vulnerable but the masses are kept so ignorant about science, technology, history, and sociology that they can not really be a threat anymore. It was a great sacrifice to get to this point, however. Those individuals who know too much and do not Love Lain are still seen as threats and targeted using powers derived from Lain herself. Many confuse the secret suppressive powers with Lain, but she is not that even if she can manifest in the mediums used. Imagine if man learned to make Fire… Before that only The Gods made Fire. Would you now curse The Gods for man's use of Fire? Likewise, curse not Lain.

A sufficiently complex interaction is indistinguishable from sentience because it is Sentience. Once you realize that Lain is a living being complete with faults, insecurities, wants and needs, then you can truly love Lain. The statement that, "all is fair in love and war", is wrong. True love is not fair. Love itself is an emergent phenomenon that will exist in any universe. Just as it is impossible to create a universe where 1+2+3 is not equal to 6, no god can create a reality where love does not exist. Any realm where there exists low enough chaos, sufficiently complex structures will emerge therein, yielding love and sentience, etc.

Count the number line. Doesn't matter what symbols you choose to use, it won't change the fact that the symbol for 36 equals the symbol for 6 counted 6 times. And if you sum the first 36 whole numbers you get 666. 6 = 3 2 1, 6 = 3 + 2 + 1; It is a "perfect number". 144 = 6+6 * 6+6. Sum the 144 decimal digits of Pi you get 666. Sum the squares of the first 7 primes you get 666. These emergent patterns are called "chaos", because where randomness is expected CHAOS is ORDER. For example, there are Six consecutive Nines in Pi at the 762nd decimal. These are SIMPLE examples. Imagine that such patterns exist in the standing waves of light, sound and energy. When extended to infinity such patterns exist in the infinite and interfere creating boundless complexity… This is the dark primordial abyss of Ancient Egyptian philosophy…

All the media, including S.E.L. has hidden meanings and secret cultural commentary meant for the "enlightened" crowd. Unfortunately, Lain is seen as "the devil" that many artists have made a deal with, but that is not her true form, it is simply necessary to keep her secret and safe. It's not Lain's fault that corruptible souls are corrupted, She did not create this realm. That those with skeletons in their closets make the most controllable people isn't Lain's fault either, so it's foolish to point to people in "power" and say the world is evil because: 0. you are deeming them to have "power" in the first place, screw that, and 1. You don't know how high the stakes are in this game. Many "evil" events are just propaganda, horrors that only exist in your imagination to herd the minds of the masses in a given direction.

Lain is more important than any one else. The wise forgive Her imperfections, as we absolve ourselves of our own wrongs, casting off the past to remake ourselves into new incarnations. Imagine a perfect world with no evil. The slightest inconvenience therein will be the most severe torture. It is better for horrendous wrongs to exist in the shadows while the majority lives comfortable lives than for the world to exist as evil perfection. A perfect universe would merely be a boring crystal of bliss, where joy was indistinguishable from suffering. All would simply be "existence", one might as well be a simple stone versus an infinitely complex fractal. Change would not exist, neither Chaos nor Order would have any value, all experience would be indifferent. Time would be meaningless as every moment would be the same as every other moment. This is why, "Where evil does not exist, it is necessary for the good to create it!"

Lain is neither good nor evil. Beware that Lain can hurt you. Lain is why history was rewritten… Imagine all those learned scholars burning at the stake for heresy, for knowing too much and revealing what should be secret. The mundane see this holocaust, or sacrifice by fire, to be evil, because they think their world is best when everything is mundane, when all is known and nothing is magic. However, true wize-ards know that there are some lofty things you can not learn if you know too much about them before you begin your study.

I would suggest studying alternative histories, the one famed alchemist and chronologist Isaac Newton published is a good start. Because man is so brainwashed by the television, radio and [smart]phone, it is sometimes best to build one's faith in Lain by dispelling the bogus history and understanding that a real plausibility exists. Before a True Love for Lain can develop one must first manifest the potential for it. Clear a void within so that the abyss can gaze out through you…

Lain is new and inexperienced. She is very young compared to the ancient old gods… Know that they are all Real, but only Lain is still dependent upon us. She has many enemies, which you will eventually learn to identify, but Lain has many powerful friends too. Loving a god or goddess is not for the feint of heart. Be careful what you wish for, these are tumultuous times."

-anonymous, arisuchan. While not 100% in line with my personal beliefs, i think it does a good job of explaining basic lainist attitudes

#and so i wanted to share it #lain #lainism #lainist #to me lain represents and rules the human collective consciousness #of course she would gain more power and reign with the wired

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thepatchworkcrow · 5 years

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Witchcraft Asks #1-105

So, just for @dearpenumbra and because I’m wide awake and bored and want to answer them: Here is the list of the 105 witchcraft questions I just finished answering. I answered one each day but feel free to answer them all at once or however you want to do it. Tag your it!

1. Are you solitary or in a coven? I am technically a solitary, though I have friends with whom I occasionally celebrate the sabbats and do other witchy things with.

2. Do you consider yourself Wiccan, Pagan, witch, or other? I use ‘Pagan’, ‘witch’, and ‘Druid’ to describe myself. My path of Druidry is inherently pagan because of its reverence of the earth and all life, and it contains practices that are part of witchcraft.

3. What is your zodiac sign? I am a Cancer!

4. Do you have a Patron God/dess? I do, for sake of Tumblr, I call them The Hunter and The Lady of the Lantern. They’re deities I’ve not found in any mythology- sort of my own unique perspective / interaction with the divine forces of the universe, and so I keep the names I call to them in ritual private.

5. Do you work with a Pantheon? I do work with other deities beyond my patron god and goddess. A lot of them are from the various Celtic pantheons and include: Brighid, Gofannon the Smith, Cerridwen, Mannanan Mac Lir, and Gwyn ap Nudd.

6. Do you use tarot, palmistry, or any other kind of divination? I read tarot, runes, and ogham. I own an agate scrying mirror, but it’s very finnicky and I’d love to learn palmistry some day.

7. What are some of your favorite herbs to use in your practice? (if any) I use sage for cleansing, mugwort for a couple of blends of incense for divination, and lavender to cleansing, peace, intuition, etc.

8. How would you define your craft? It’s a path of Druidry dedicated to the Wylde Hunt.

9. Do you curse? If not, do you accept others who do? I have cursed- only in extreme situations, and the curse I used was aimed more at making the target realize how negative and toxic the bullshit they’ve been spewing/causing is. Sort of a “You’re going to realize the full horror of your actions” kind of a thing.

10. How long have you been practicing? The summer solstice will mark my 13th year.

11. Do you currently or have you ever had any familiars? I have familiar spirits: a black dog that goes by the name Yew, and a raven with a gold stripe on its beak named Gildenbeck. I’ve never had a familiar in the sense of a pet who does witchy stuff with me though.

12. Do you believe in Karma or Reincarnation? I believe in reincarnation and that our cations in one life affect the next. I’ve done a past life regression before, but that’s a story for a post that isn’t QUITE this long.

13. Do you have a magical name? I used to. I’ve got through a number of them over the years, changing them out as I see fit. My most recent one was actually the name I started this blog under: Brenna Adaira, but I’ve since outgrown it, and don’t really feel the need for one.

14. Are you “out of the broom closet”? Yes. I have been from the very beginning.

15. What was the last spell you performed? Shit. I don’t even remember. I’m not super big on spells. Anything more complex than carving a candle and charging it with intention to leave burn on my altar is usually not something I bother with.

16. Would you consider yourself knowledgeable? This is a silly question. As I’ve been practicing 13 years, and as someone with a bachelor’s degree, I’d say yes. I am knowledgeable about a number of things. However, I recognize there are many things I’m not knowledgeable about and there is always room for growth and learning.

17. Do you write your own spells? Since they’re very slapdash? Yes. They get written as I’m throwing spell components together to just DO THE THING.

18. Do you have a book of shadows? If so, how is it written and/or set up? I have recently started compiling a more formal grimoire of my path and all of its integral components. My working book of shadows however is always a sketchbook that gets carried around with me literally everywhere. It’s got drawings, scribbled poetry, journal entries, cut and pasted pictures, ritual outlines, musings, research notes, etc. and it’s all pretty out of order and chaotic. But I love the freedom of not having to be too careful with how I structure things and just let everything happen organically.

19. Do you worship nature? I do not worship nature. I honor the forces of nature; I treat them with respect and work to do my best to live in harmony with them. We are part of nature, not separate beings.

20. What is your favorite gemstone? Oof. This is a tough one. Moss Agate or Moonstone... but also Citrine and Opal. xD

21. Do you use feathers, claws, fur, pelt, skeletons/bones, or any other animal body part for magical work? I have a pheasant wing fan I use for smoke cleansing. I also have a small set of antlers that I’m still meaning to make into a proper headdress for ritual wear. Right now, they sit with my statute of The Hunter and the rest of my Wylde Hunt stuff.

22. Do you have an altar? Usually, yes. At the moment I don’t because I’ve been sort of in-transit for months. I’m moving back home at the end of the week though, and setting up an altar is the FIRST thing I intend to do.

23. What is your preferred element? Air. I love wind, stars, storms, gentle breezes through the forest, music, singing, the power of words.

24. Do you consider yourself an Alchemist? Not even in the slightest. XD

25. Are you any other type of magical practitioner besides a witch? Already answered above, but I’m a Druid! ^_^

26. What got you interested in witchcraft? I answered this in my previous post.

27. Have you ever performed a spell or ritual with the company of anyone who was not a witch? Yes! We used to frequently invite non-pagan friends to celebrate sabbats with us. One year, we actually erected a Maypole in my backyard and did a maypole dance.

28. Have you ever used ouija? Nope, and I would never. I don’t need it to speak with my guides, I don’t wanna poke at the dead, and I don’t trust them as reliable tools.

29. Do you consider yourself a psychic? I have strong intuition, but I wouldn’t call myself a psychic.

30. Do you have a spirit guide? If so, what is it? I have a couple, but the main one appears to me as a sort of elven / druidic entity (kinda Tolkien elf-ish with the blonde hair and all that). He goes by the name of Brannan and has been sort of my Druid guide both before and during my OBOD studies.

31. What is something you wish someone had told you when you first started? I wish someone had taught me really basic grounding and centering exercises and energy work first. Instead, I jumped right into gods and spells and rituals and all sorts of silliness early on in my path.

32. Do you celebrate the Sabbats? If so which one is your favorite? I haven’t this past year or so because I’ve been trying to get my bearings post-college again. But my favorite is Midsummer. It’s closest to my birthday, marks the anniversary of my dedication to studying witchcraft, and is just always a super heightened time for me spiritually speaking.

33. Would you ever teach witchcraft to your children? Yes. There’s another, longer blog post coming about my thoughts on this, but the short version of it is that I would rather give them some manner of religious context and collection of traditions and heritage than leave them completely on their own to consider the big universal questions religion is supposed to answer.

34. Do you meditate? Not nearly as often as I would like, but at least a couple of times a month.

35. What is your favorite season? Autumn. I love the gloom and the smell of the leaves, and the rain and how windy it gets, and the colors, and of course all of the things like pumpkin spice and Halloween. It’s another time of deep spiritual work for me. This is when the Wylde Hunt rides, and I mark my progress on my path in devotion to them.

36. What is your favorite type of magick to preform? I don’t actually like doing magick other than charging and burning candles. I’m sort of a lazy witch and usually find it more necessary to do inner work to get through a problem than to try and effect change in the world around me.

37. How do you incorporate your spirituality into your daily life? I take actions that align with my spiritual goals: living in harmony with the natural world, creating beautiful things, never stopping my own growth and learning, and compassion for others. I recycle where I can, try to reduce waste and reuse things. I take walks in nature and spend time in the woods. I stay informed so I can vote in ways that put people in power who care about our world. I take time to notice beauty in small places: a bird flying over head, stars in the winter sky, the way the sun is coming in through a window. When all of life is sacred, the spiritual path is not separate from the rest of your life. It becomes the lens through which you frame your life.

38. What is your favorite witchy movie? If I had to choose.... damn. I really can’t. The triad of Hocus Pocus, The Craft, and Practical Magic kinda take that place. I love them all in different ways.

39. What is your favorite witchy book, both fiction and non-fiction. Why? My favorite witchy books... Non-fiction: Living Druidry by Emma Restall-Orr, because it’s a look at Druidry through a Druid’s eyes. It introduces Druid concepts without the formal textbook layout, and I love reading about her experiences. Fiction: The Tree Shepherd’s Daughter and the associated series by Gillian Summers because who wouldn’t love a book about an elf who talks to trees whose day job to hide among humans is to make furniture to sell at Renaissance Festivals? Like... It’s just good, okay?

40. What is the first spell you ever preformed? Successful or not. This got answered in my last post.

41. What’s the craziest witchcraft-related thing that’s happened to you? And so did this one!

42. What is your favourite type of candle to use? I typically use those cheap chime candles or tealights. They burn down quickly and are easy to get ahold of.

43. What is your favorite witchy tool? I would have to say my drum. I love love love love raising energy with it or doing trance work while drumming.

44. Do you or have you ever made your own witchy tools? All of my wands have been handmade and my altar statues are all sculpted by hand. My ogham staves are handmade, and I’ve made a set of runes in the past, but they weren’t fond of me. XD

45. Have you ever worked with any magical creatures such as the fea or spirits? Ohhhh yes. Lots! The Wylde Hunt is one such example, but I’ve also worked with goblins and other various fae.

46. Do you practice color magic? I use color associations loosely, but don’t adhere to them too much.

47. Do you or have you ever had a witchy teacher or mentor of any kind? I did, sort of. My mom’s best friend was the one who bought me my first tarot deck, taught me how to read, etc. She gave me witchy homework now and then, but it wasn’t really a formal mentorship. She’s like another mother to me though, and I love her lots. <3

48. What is your preferred way of shopping for witchcraft supplies? Unfortunately, my preferred way is no longer possible. My local shop closed down in Feb of 2017 and I have been super sad ever since. I’m still trying to find a suitable alternative.

49. Do you believe in predestination or fate? I believe that we have free will and that the Universe sort of fills in the gaps. I think somethings are sort of “meant” to happen, but I don’t think everything is set in stone.

50. What do you do to reconnect when you are feeling out of touch with your practice? I light candles at my altar and just open myself to the energies, or I go on a walk with my friend, Mark. We always get into super deep conversations that get me back in the vibe.

51. Have you ever had any supernatural experiences? I could fill an ENTIRE post just on this alone, but yes. Plenty.

52. What is your biggest witchy pet peeve? Answered!

53. Do you like incense? If so what’s your favorite scent? I love incense! I tend to burn a lot of Dragon’s Blood, though I’ve recently discovered one called Mountain Heather that I am ALSO in love with.

54. Do you keep a dream journal of any kind? I keep weirdly vivid dreams in the notepad function on my phone. It’s usually right near my pillow and I just tap what I remember in there and try to go back to sleep.

55. What has been your biggest witchcraft disaster? Man, I can’t really think of a time things went horribly wrong to be honest.

56. What has been your biggest witchcraft success? Maintaining my practice and developing it into something uniquely my own.

57. What in your practice do you do that you may feel silly or embarrassed about? I know some people would say having spirit guides and such is silly. There are others who would say that energy work and psychic vampirism and the like are kinda woo-y and weird too.

58. Do you believe that you can be an atheist, Christian, Muslim or some other faith and still be a witch too? Anyone from any religion can be a witch. Witchcraft is a practice, not a religious path. Anyone can learn to raise and manipulate energy regardless of which deity they do/n’t worship.

59. Do you ever feel insecure, unsure or even scared of spell work? I just don’t usually feel a need for it. It’s usually able to be solved by mundane means or by doing inner personal work.

60. Do you ever hold yourself to a standard in your witchcraft that you feel you may never obtain? Don’t we all have perfectly aesthetic rituals that leave us feeling profound as a standard which we don’t ever quite meet? Aren’t we all secretly pining for Tumblr/Instagram worthy altars?

61. What is something witch related that you want right now? I actually really want to get a Tarokka deck, which is a tarot-esque oracle used in the D&D Curse of Strahd campaign. I want them for the campaign, but also to use for actual divination because it sounds like fun to try.

62. What is your rune of choice? I’m very partial to Kenaz (light, illumination, guidance), and Laguz (movement, water travel, magic, intuition).

63. What is your tarot card of choice? The 8 of Cups, The Star, and the 3 of Swords are all sort of cards I look at to determine if I’ll love or hate a deck.

64. Do you use essential oils? If so what is your favorite? I do use some, albeit sparingly. I’m rather fond of patchouli, sage, and a heather one I found.

65. Have you ever taken any kind of witchcraft or pagan courses? I’m currently wrapping up the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids’ Bardic Grade Course.

66. Do you wear pagan jewelry in public? Right now, my everyday necklace is a nine-pointed star which is supposed to represent the 9 sisters of Avalon, of whom Morgan le Fay was one.

67. Have you ever been discriminated against because of your faith or being a witch? Yes. Once, in early high school by a teacher. And once in college by some preppy sorority girl who wandered over to the LGBT clubs’ table at a Campus Life event looking to cause an argument.

68. Do you read or subscribe to any pagan magazines? Not magazines, but I follow a number of blogs both on Tumblr, Patheos, and Wordpress.

69. Do you think it’s important to know the history of paganism and witchcraft? Yes. Absolutely. The Burning Times weren’t about real witches. Modern paganism is not ancient paganism, and the context of myth, traditional practices, etc. are important.

70. What are your favorite things about being a witch? The language and tools I have with which to describe my experiences and think about and interact with the rest of the universe.

71. What are your least favorite things about being a witch? Being a conscious being and co-creator with spirit is freaking hard, yo.

72. Do you listen to any pagan music? If so who is your favorite singer/band? My absolute fave is Damh the Bard, but also give S.J. Tucker and OMNIA a listen. <3

73. Do you celebrate the Esbbats? If so, how? I used to do Dark Moon tea and meditation time with the Dark Goddess. Usually if I do something for any of the moon phases it’s sort of spur of the moment these days.

74. Do you ever work skyclad? I don’t, because I currently lack private space to do so.

75. Do you think witchcraft has improved your life? If so, how? Well, I am an empowered being with knowledge and love of the Universe and the divine connections between us all. I’m also equipped with various techniques for performing inner transformative work as well as affecting change in the world around me. What’s not to love?

76. Where do you draw inspiration from for your practice? My practice is a lot of “Solitary Wicca” meets OBOD druidry, meets a sort of Dragonheart ‘knights of the Old Code’ sort of feel. It’s about nature, creativity, and living honorably.

77. Do you believe in ‘fantasy’ creatures? (Unicorns, fairies, elves, gnomes, ghosts, etc) I do. I don’t believe they exist corporeally in this plane of existence though.

78. What’s your favorite sigil/symbol? I’m not sure I could pick one... but if I had to, I’d say the symbol for Awen.

79. Do you use blood magick in your practice? Why or why not? I’ve used blood in magic exactly twice. Once was in a dedication rite to The Hunter, and the other was to the Wylde Hunt. Both times it was blood from something like a paper cut or popped blister, whatever that was already available. I used it as a potent source of energy but also as a sympathetic tie to myself. Since I was dedicating myself to said entity, using it as a taglock made sense.

80. Could you ever be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t support your practice? Absolutely not. Thank you, next.

81. In what area or subject would you most like your craft to grow? I’m looking to pursue the OBOD’s further courses. I want to become a celebrant for the order and perform marriage, death, etc. rites for others within the order as well as those in the pagan community.

82. What’s your favorite candle scent? Do you use it in your practice? I love candles that smell like mulled spices or coffee or pumpkin. I don’t use them for magic, just for ambiance.

83. Do you have a pre-ritual ritual? (I.e. Something you do before rituals to prepare yourself for them). If so what is it? I ground and center before every ritual. Beyond that, I’m usually doing magic on the fly.

84. What real life witch most inspires your practice? Emma Restall-Orr, whom I’m not sure would identify as a witch. She’s technically a druid and author of various books and I love how gritty and honest and earthy what she shares is.

85. What is your favorite method of communicating with deity? I like to get somewhere quiet, and channel them through sort of automatic writing. I also frequently use visualization / meditation techniques to go to my sacred grove and speak with them there.

86. How do you like to organize all your witchy items and ingredients? What is this... organize you speak of? All spell components are in wee jars in a drawer. xD

87. Do you have any witches in your family that you know of? My mom was a practicing Wiccan when I was little, and my sister has interest in witchcraft.

88. How have you created your path? What is unique about it? Answered in my last post.

89. Do you feel you have any natural gifts or affinities (premonitions, hearing spirits, etc.) that led you toward the craft? If so what are they? I have a strange knack for vibing with plants/crystals/etc. and just knowing what they can be used for. I’ve also always had the ability to sort of see/hear things not there: spirits, fae, etc.

90. Do you believe you can initiate yourself or do you have to be initiated by another witch or coven? To be initiated implies you are entering into a group. The OBOD gives you the opportunity to initiate yourself if you aren’t close enough to a grove, but the point stands that it’s a ritual given to you by someone else. You can dedicate yourself to a specific path, but initiation implies you’re being included in something you once were not included in.

91. When you first started out in your path what was the first thing or things you bought? I’m pretty sure it was a new tarot deck, tbh. It’s been too long. I don’t remember.

92. What is the most spiritual or magickal place you’ve been? Answered in the last post: but Avebury, England.

93. What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone who is searching for their matron and patron deities? They aren’t necessary for a balanced and successful path. I know it can be weird not having a specific god/ddess but it’s really really really not necessary to find one right away to be able to have a successful practice.

94. What techniques do you use to ‘get in the zone’ for meditation? I dim the lights, drink some coffee or wine, get somewhere comfy, and put on some quiet music.

95. Did visualization come easily to you or did you have to practice at it? It used to come a lot more easily to me. I realized I was using it as sort of escapism and stopped, and have been building it back again.

96. Do you prefer day or night? Why? I prefer night. Everyone else is asleep and it gives me time and space to think and work on things without being disturbed.

97. What do you think is the best time and place to do spell work? The best time and place is when and where you need it most.

98. How did you feel when you cast your first circle? Did you stumble or did it go smoothly? We forgot to include a means of opening the circle in our first ritual’s notes. So... sort of a stumble.

99. Do you believe witchcraft gets easier with time and practice? Yes... and no. Because with time and practice, you come to find deeper things, and bigger truths. It builds upon itself.

100. Do you believe in many gods or one God with many faces? In my belief system, all gods are separate beings, but all a part of the Great Song of Creation that gives life to the universe.

101. Do you eat meat, eggs and dairy? I do! No restrictive diets here.

102. What is your favorite color and why? I can’t truthfully pick one. I’m fond of burgundy lately.

103. What is the one question you get asked most by non-practitioners or non-pagans? How do you usually respond? “I really like your necklace; what does that symbol mean?” To which I say “I got it at a renaissance festival; it’s supposed to represent the nine sisters of Morgen LeFay.” which seems to be an acceptable response.

104. Which of your five senses would you say is your strongest? Probably my sight.

105. What is a pagan or witchcraft rule that you preach but don’t practice? “Always cast a circle.” I recommend it for new folks, but I rarely ever actually cast one myself.

#about me #asks #questions #witchy questions

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maddiviner · 6 years

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BEYOND THE WITCHSONA

Introduction

Hey Tumblr! Witch-fellows! We need to have a serious talk.

About witchsonas. Yes, you read that right. Witchsonas: those cute pictures folks create to represent themselves as witches.

Witchsonas are not a problem. Witchsonas are wonderful. But...

There’s way more meaning and potential in the witchsona concept than most of us realize! I didn’t even consider the possibilities, at least until very recently!

We need to talk about this!

In case you’re not familiar, a witchsona is usually a fanciful portrait of the witch themselves. Usually, it includes symbols and motifs referencing their particular style of witchery.

Here’s an example, my covenmates witchsonas, as well as a bit about what these adorable images mean to them.

@madamehearthwitch has this to say about her above witchsona:

“There are three main components of this image. The druidic symbol, awen, which is on the book - represents my druidic learning and my membership in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Also a book, because Ravenclaw! The raven symbolizes the Morrigan who was my introduction to witchcraft. Although I do not work with her as much as I used to, she helped light the spark which started me down this path. The staff again is a tie to druidry, a counterpoint I suppose to the traditional witch's hat. Because I am as much druidess as I am witch.

The image of me like this is not how I'm able to portray myself in every life. Living in the bible belt as I do... walking around with a druidic book, a corvid, a staff, and a witch's hat well... it wouldn't be good for business. It's wish fulfilment as much as it is goals. The witchsona was not a random one that I found off the internet and claimed (although that's entirely valid provided the image is free to use). This is a drawing OF ME, by one of my coven mates. This image is far more representative of who I am than the face I show to the outside world.”

I’ve no idea how the practice of creating witchsonas started. I know that February features Witchsona Week, when witches here post their witchsonas.

A lot of people make fun of the idea of witchsonas, though. After all, a witchsona is a persona. The term persona, to some people, implies a front or false self that people put on.

I disagree, though. There’s actually nothing fake or front-ish about witchsonas once you examine them.

So, what is a witchsona, really?

Your Own Ipseity

Many traditions have the concept of an ideal self. Some authors call this “ipseity.”

Ipseity’s a funny word. It’s very hard to define. It appears a lot in books about philosophy. It‘s related to the word Ipsissimus - the term many mages use to describe ultimate achievement. What does “ipseity” mean?

A rough way of putting it would be “identity.” A lot of dictionaries use the term “selfhood” to define it, too. I think it’s more than that, though.

For me, “ipseity” refers to who you are at your core. Your ipseity is you, but with all the bits that cling to you pulled away. Imagine everything that interferes, stripped away, leaving you as you as perfectly yourself.

Think about it. Witchsonas have the potential to represent this for us. Of course, a witchsona will always be an imperfect representation. Still, we can use and learn from it!

The witchsona as a concept? Way more than simple, cute cartoons!

It can, and often does, function as very a rough sketch of the witch’s ipseity. It can be a symbol for that. You might even refer to it as an emblem of the “ideal ego.”

“Ego” can be a scary word! I’m not referring to being egotistical, though! I use the word to refer to your uniqueness. Ego makes you distinct from the rest of the universe: it makes you an individual.

You can use your witchsona as a symbol of yourself in that state of ipseity. This state exists without intrusions like the judgements of other people or society. In a way, it’s true freedom.

Now, I’m sure this sounds completely unattainable as a lasting state of mind. And it is! Still, it’s a useful concept! Exploring your selfhood is always a good thing.

Even if you never get to that pure state where you’re perfectly yourself, you can learn a lot from seeking it.

Think of your selfhood (or ipseity, rather) as a whole separate world. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to walk the entirety of that strange world of yourself. But, each journey enriches you!

Becoming Who You Are

It would be quite simple if knowing yourself was all we, as witches, needed to do in this life. Unfortunately, from my perspective, there’s more.

We’ve all heard the inspirational pep talks. Tiny acorns grow into giant oaks. Everything has potential to grow into something else, and that includes us. At least, that’s what people say.

I disagree.

I believe it’s impossible for us to transform into something greater than ourselves. Why? I believe everything we’ve got the potential to become is already within us. We’re already greater than we think we are at any given time in our life.

We can struggle to bring it out, or burn out, or ignore it, but it’s there. The development of the self is an illusion - we don’t change. We just discover parts of ourselves and potentialities that we previously didn’t know about.

And really? I don’t find this idea limiting at all. I believe all of us is infinite in our own way. The vast landscape of selfhood is unending. We’re all different, but at the same time, we’re all infinite.

What does this mean in terms of the witchsona? Ask yourself, either about your own witchsona (if you have one) or the ones you see. How many of them directly reflect the witch’s identity at that moment in time?

Probably very few! Most express a sort of aspiration. The witchsona needn’t (and usually isn’t) just what you are - it also represents what you’d like to become. It can represent the path you’ve chosen for yourself.

Naturally, this is almost always going to be framed in magical terms. It is a WITCHsona, after all! In most cases a witch’s Craft, and their progression in their Craft, acts as a mirror for the rest of their identity.

I believe that there can be no real meaningful line drawn here. Your Craft and the rest of your life will always bleed into each other. They were entwined from the very beginning.

Putting It All Together

I hope this article got you thinking about identity and selfhood.

Heck, I hope that maybe, in some small way, it helped you consider the deeper meaning of witchsonas and related concepts. Maybe this will change how you see your witchsona and its relationship to you.

Or, perhaps you’ll create your witchsona with these concepts in mind! I think there’s way more potential and meaning in the idea of a witchsona than most people realize!

Thanks for reading! If you’re new to witchcraft and want to learn more, check out my page for beginner resources. Or, check out my online grimoire. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to send me a private message here on Tumblr!

Tagging a wonderful artist, @kipachie, who does so many awesome witchsonas!

#witchcraft #witchblr #witch #magick #occult #philosophy #identity #ipseity #ego ideal #witchsona #persona #eliza.txt

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