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My high resolution shot of the Super Pink Moon last night [OC] reddit.com/r/spaceporn

Icamiabas: Warrior Women, Stone Animals & Sacred Waters

As Amazonas, Ulrico Schmidt

It is known that the myth of the Amazons belongs, mainly, to a most ancient mythology a tribe in Asia Minor of warrior women, the legend passed to the Occident along the classical mythology. The word “amazon” has greek origin, or returning in time even more, an older root appears, the Scythian expression ha-mazan (meaning warrior women).

One of the most fascinating legends of the mythical culture of the Amazon region is the saga of female warriors. A story so extraordinary that the memory of this great tribe ended up giving name to the whole extense region of tropical-equatorial jungle. Since the first incursions of the europeans crossing the Atlantic to conquer territories, chroniclers, Spanishes and Portugueses, among others, talk about those brave women of South America. 

Although they have received that name as a reference to the mythical tribe of women called Amazons, at ancient Greece, that also dominated perfectly fabulous steeds, the Amazons of South America did not know horses. But in terms of the arts of war those indigenous women were as courageous like the greek female warriors.

At the time of the great  discoveries and great navigations, the first and unique (eyewitnessed) relate about amazons of the South-America was written by Gaspar de Carvajal, catholic religious that was present in the expedition (1541) of Francisco Orellana (1490-1550, explorer and adventurer of Spain) along the great river of the tropical forest, the Amazon river.

It is a widespread South American theme, the connection of divine women to sacred lakes. Many indigenous peoples of the Amazon had traditions about the Women-Living-Alone, the Women-Without-Husbands, the Masterful-Women. (Alexander b, 285) The Waurá of the Xingu river still celebrate rituals in their memory. (Schultz, 142) The great Amazon river is named after the women warriors encountered by Spanish soldier Orellana. The chief Aparia asked him whether he had seen the amazons, “whom in his language they call Coniapuyara, meaning Great Ladies.” (Van Heuval, 117) This name could be rendered as “masterful women.” (Spruce, 457) Other sources translate it as “Great Lord” (Alexander, 285, among others) or as “mighty chieftains”—but they ignore the meaning of conia (cunha), “the Tupí word for woman.” (Southey, 86) The “mighty women” title, like the Waurá ritual and similar traditions, suggest a supernatural status for the Coniapuyara/Icamiabas.

In his text, Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río Grande que descubrió por muy gran ventura el capitán Francisco de Orellana (Account of the recent discovery of the famous Grand river which was discovered by great good fortune by Captain Francisco de Orellana), the dominican Friar Gaspar de Carvajal tells: 

However, Carvajal says that in the end, the spanishes obtained the win against the women warriors killing about eight of them. One of the natives asked about the women said that they lived inside (at hinterlands, not on the coast), around seven days far from the coast … their villages were made with stones, their homes had doors and their roads had vigilants in all the strategic points for require the payment of a tax to let pass the travelers. The brazilian indigenous that portugueses navigators found, men and women, still remained limited in a Neolithic culture. The Icamiabas that lived further north and west, were much more complex. This is a mistery.

Legend or fact, Carvajal’s account coincides with many others left by others historic travelers. Everyone agrees that those women did not cohabit with men. It was an all-female society. That does not mean, however, that they had no contact with men, after all, for the women-warriors needed to procreate to preserve their bloodline. 

When they became pregnant, they released the captives. A girl child would be educated to be a warrior. If a boy was born, he would be delivered to the tribe of the father or, according to other sources, would be killed immediately.

“How the Amazons treat those they take in war”, Jean Cousin from “Les singularitez de la France antarctique”, Thevet, 1557

Among the Tupí peoples of Brazil, the title Cy (“mother”) addresses female spirits of land, water, and heavenly bodies. In the 1750s, the missionary João Daniel wrote about sacred stones in a forest sanctuary, which the Portuguese destroyed. He said the sun was venerated as Coara Cy, “mother of day,” and the moon as Ja Cy, “mother of fruits.” People celebrated when the new moon appeared. “These two heavenly bodies were regarded as divinities, creators.” (Palmatary, 15-16)

Muiraquitã. Theodoro Braga, 1920

A Tupí tradition says that there is a sacred lake near the source of the Nhamundá (Jamundá) river. It is called Yaci-uaruá, “mirror of the moon.” Every year the Icamiabas hold a ceremony to honor the moon and the Mother of the Muiraquitãs who lives in the lake. The women purify themselves, and when the moon shines on the waters, they plunge deep into the lake to receive muiraquitãs from the goddess. These are jade amulets, often in the form of frogs, and also fish, tortoises, and other shapes. By some accounts, the Icamiabas scooped up clay from the lake bed and shaped it into these forms. Once exposed to air or moonlight, the muiraquitãs hardened into stone. Another version holds that the Icamiabas caught little underwater animals and froze their forms by dropping a little of their own blood onto them. (Palmatary, 75)

These “greenstones” or “amazon stones” were sacred and highly valued, worn and gifted and traded as far north as the Carib country. Early colonial reports place the muiraquitãs around the Nhamunda and Tapajos rivers. Many sources refer to their healing properties. In 1851 the traveler Castlenau related that “The Indians attribute to them the greatest medicinal powers.” Tapajós women used them to prevent disease and to conceive. Nursing mothers preferred pale and yellowish stones which were said to increase the flow of milk. (Palmatary, 79-80) In Guyana they were often worn by chiefly women, as Sir Walter Raleigh remarked: “…commonly every king or cacique hath one, which their wives for the most part wear; and they esteem them as great jewels” (Raleigh, 202; emphasis added). 

Occasionally, Icamiabas would give the small charms away as gifts to the men they selected to father their children, representing their love, respect and gratitude and making evident the matriarchal structure of the community. Those men displayed their charms with great pride, since they were proof of their value as warriors and fathers within the village. Centuries later, Fernando Sampaio called the muiraquitã “a symbol of feminine power.” (de Camaris, online)

The major of historians consider the woman warrior in South America only a legend, less than a myth or even like mere fantasy of the chronists.

However, some little things in the notes of the explorers insinuates that there is a background of strange truth behind the legend. The chronicle of Friar Gaspar de Carvajal contains at least two visions of “Amazonas”. The witness, source of information of the writer, talks about the clothes of the women: if in the battle they were naked or barely covered, in their villages they wore fine wool tunics.

But, what wool was that? The brazilian indigenous, those called “Amerabas”, lived mostly naked and they did not herd. It seems clear that the warrior women of South America didn’t belong to the same ethnic groups of  the natives of the region. In fact, the witness could not be more clear:

Between Bolivia and Peru there are notable saltwater lakes as Titicaca, the second largest saltwater lake in the world, located at 3.810 meters of altitude - and the "Poopo” lake.

Researchers from different times have sought to explain the origins of that strange nation of women in South America In 1555, the Franciscan priest and cosmographer, André Thevet (1502-1580, french), published a compilation of texts of various explorers.

About the Icamiabas, Thevet concluded that possibly were descendants of Amazons Greek that after the Trojan War, had been dispersed around the world. Arriving to South America via North America and Central America, settled themselves in insular territories, in small islands, where they built their cities and underground chambers. 

Some scholars believe that those women warriors were survivors of a community of the Atlantean civilization that was in a colapsing process, and after, in association with the phoenicians, the women crossed the ocean reaching the American continent.

Among these scholars there is the Austrian professor Ludwig Schewennhagen, whose book “Fenícios no Brasil: antiga história do Brasil” (Phoenicians in Brazil: Ancient History of Brazil) is a famous source. Schewennhagen says that the arrival of the “Amazonas” in Brazil coincides with the Phoenicians arrival, between 1000 and 1200 BC. He also advocates that the designation “The Amazons” was used by the Amerabas when the historic meeting took place with the fleet of Orellana. He writes: The name “Amazon” refering to the lower basin of the great river, the region between the mouth of the Xingu River and the mouth of the river Parentins is old. At the epoch of the arriving of european navigators, the tribe of the Tupinambás already used to call “Amazonas”, the region of the lower course of this river… (SCHWENNHAGEN, 1986 - p 37)

Some say that the oldest ancestors of women warriors were Atlanteans. Possibly, the Amazons was the last matriarchal society in the context of an advanced culture. Their tribes were scattered across the entire world. Asia Minor, Americas and also in Africa where they were known as the warrior women of Dahomey.

Leaving mythology aside and considering the traditional knowledge of cultural anthropology, it is possible to understand the tribes of warrior women in different parts of the world like the remaining reality of ancient matriarchal societies.

In the case of brazilian indigenous nations, oral culture from different peoples confirms that, in the older past, the tribes were all matriarchal. Anthropologists, like Claude Lévi Strauss (1908-2009) for example, have gathered numerous legends that preserve the history of how men, after a long time dominated by women, conspired and took political and economic power reversing the social roles.

In “Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale depuis la côte de la mer du Sud jusqu'aux côtes du Brésil et de la Guyane, en descendant la rivière des Amazones” (1745. Something like: Brief account of a journey to the interior of Brazil from the coast south towards the Guyana, sailing down the Amazon river), Charles-Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774), french scientist and explorer, exposes his theorie about the warrior women of South America. He didn’t need Atlanteans or Phoenicians to explain which he understood as a natural social phenomenon.

Even more natural would be a matriarchal elite refusing to submit themselves under the dominance of their former lieutenants.

The essence of astronomy. 1914. Book cover.

Me when I see you again for the first time in 5 years

My Biggest and Most Annoying Fictional Horse Pet Peeve

Big Horses are a Very New Thing and they Likely Didn’t Exist in your Historical and/or Fantasy Settings.

You’ve all seen it in every historical piece of media ever produced. Contrary to popular belief, a big black horse with long legs and long flowing mane is not a widespread or even a particularly old type of horse.

THIS IS NOT A MEDIEVAL THING. THIS IS NOT EVEN A BAROQUE THING. THIS IS A NINETEENTH CENTURY CITY CARRIAGE HORSE.

All the love to fancy Friesian horses, but your Roman general or Medieval country heroine just really couldn’t, wouldn’t, and for the sake of my mental health shouldn’t have ridden one either.

Big warmblood horses are a Western European and British invention that started popping up somewhere around 1700s when agriculture and warfare changed, and when rich folks wanted Bigger Faster Stronger Thinner race horses. The modern warmblood and the big continental draught both had their first real rise to fame in the 1800s when people started driving Fancy Carriages everywhere, and having the Fanciest Carriage started to mean having the Tallest and Thinnest Horses in the town.

Before mechanised weaponry and heavy artillery all horses used to be small and hardy easy-feeders. Kinda like a donkey but easier to steer and with a back that’s not as nasty and straight to sit on.

SOME REAL MEDIEVAL, ROMAN, OTTOMAN, MONGOL, VIKING, GREEK and WHATEVER HISTORICALLY PLAUSIBLE HORSES FOR YOU:

“Primitive”, native breeds all over the globe tend to be only roughly 120-140 cm (12.0 - 13.3 hh) tall at the withers. They all also look a little something like this:

Mongolian native horse (Around 120-130 at the withers, and decendants of the first ever domesticated horses from central Asia. Still virtually unchanged from Chinggis Khan’s cavalry, ancestor to many Chinese, Japanese and Indian horses, and bred for speed racing and surviving outdoors without the help of humans.)

Carpathian native horse / Romanian and Polish Hucul Pony (Around 120-150 at the withers, first mentioned in writing during the 400s as wild mountain ponies, depicted before that in Trajanian Roman sculptures, used by the Austro-Hungarian cavalry in the 19th century)

Middle-Eastern native horse / Caspian Pony (Around 100-130 at the withers, ancestor of the Iranian Asil horse and its decendants, including the famous Arabian and Barb horses, likely been around since Darius I the Great, 5th century BC, and old Persian kings are often depicted riding these midgets)

Baltic Sea native horse / Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Gotland and Nordland horses (Around 120-150 at the withers, descendant of Mongolian horses, used by viking traders in 700-900 AD and taken to Iceland. Later used by the Swedish cavalry in the 30 years war and by the Finnish army in the Second World War, nowadays harness racing and draught horses)

Siberian native horse / Yakutian pony (Around 120-140 at the withers, related to Baltic and Mongolian horses and at least as old, as well-adapted to Siberian climate as woolly mammoths once were, the hairiest horse there is, used in draught work and herding)

Mediterranean native horse / Skyros pony, Sardinian Giara, Monterufolino (Around 100-140 at the Withers, used and bred by ancient Greeks for cavalry use, influenced by African and Eastern breeds, further had its own influence on Celtic breeds via Roman Empire, still used by park ranger officers in Italy)

British Isles’ native horse / various “Mountain & Moorland” pony breeds (Around 100-150 at the withers, brought over and mixed by Celts, Romans and Vikings, base for almost every modern sport pony and the deserving main pony of all your British Medieval settings. Some populations still live as feral herds in the British countryside, used as war mounts, draught horses, mine pit ponies, hunting help and race horses)

So hey, now you know!

I love this so much - and now I know why Tall Lanky Thin horses have a terryfying vibe to them, and the “primitive” native pony-like breeds awake in me only hope and trust.

The Icelandic horse was the original ATV

Tall, thin horses are a very recent invention, but fucking huge horses have been around for many centuries. They’re mostly called draft horses and they are bred to drag huge weights behind themselves at relatively low speeds forever. They didn’t evolve naturally because in nature saving energy is more valuable than being super strong, but humans have been selectively breeding for horses that are really good at physical labor since humans first tamed a horse, and the ability to plow fields and move the heaviest possible carts with ease is extremely valuable.

Historical warhorses are generally divided up by weight too, with lighter horses being fast but not being able to handle riders with heavy armor or whatever, generally used for scouting and light skirmishing, and really heavy warhorses given solid barding and fully armored riders in order to smash straight through enemy defenses and break apart infantry formations, and in-between sizes given various tasks in between. Even the heaviest warhorses were generally a little smaller than a real draft horse, but there are exceptions.

Was everyone method acting?! Viggo walked around in full Aragorn costume off set (including sword) and acted as the leader of the group, not to mention deflecting knives, Billy Boyd apparently found a way to cheat the system and get two birthdays, John Rhys-Davies ignored fight scene instructions in favor of hitting as many people with his ax as hard as he could, Orlando Bloom literally never had any idea what was happening, and now I learn that Sean was Elijah’s batman the entire time?

why do you think the movies are a timeless classic of the highest quality?

You dress people up as warriors and wizards and they will LARP, they can’t help it.

Tuna Catnip Kitty Treats Recipe

This recipe combines the two treats most kitties love the most, that being tuna and catnip, this recipe comes from Joy The Baker. 🤗

“Hecate” by Jane Estelle Trombley.

Frankincense Spiritual Uses In Magick

Frankincense is an amber-colored incense resin that is popular among ceremonial magicians for its ability to aid in consecration, purification, illumination and spiritual work. Frankincense smoke can burn away any rampant excess energy attached to your altar space or ritual tools without scaring away helpful Spirits the way that Dragons Blood resin will. Burning Frankincense and Myrrh on activated charcoal will greatly enhance your chances of success when you are performing a Spirit Summoning.

Frankincense increases spiritual activity in an area. Myrrh goes very well with Frankincense because while the Frankincense makes the spirits excited the Myrrh helps them to feel relaxed. Burning these 2 incense resins together in a summoning ritual has an effect on spirits similar to consuming alcoholic energy drinks.

The greatest aspect of Frankincense is its ability to burn away the pesky ego that is always in the way of being a successful magician or spiritual worker. It brings to light the darkest parts of the psyche and clears away any delusions that you may have about yourself.

Frankincense trees grow in India, the Middle East and various parts of Africa. The tree has the appearance of a knotted, gnarled bonsai tree and grows best in Rocky warm environments. Frankincense is associated with the astrological sign Aries, the Sun and the element of fire.- Zwahk Muchoney (Image from Unsplash.com)

Star Anise Psychic Vision Oil Recipe

Star Anise is a spice that increases clairvoyance and the ability to engage in prophetic dreaming.

To create psychic vision oil cleanse the inside and outside of glass carrier bottle with incense. Fill a cooking pot halfway with water and place it on the stove top at the medium setting. Pour 1/2 cup of grapeseed oil into a glass measuring cup, place it in the pot and allow the oil at least 5 minutes to heat up. Crush 5 pieces of Star Anise into a powder with a mortar and pestle. Add the Star Anise to the heated oil one pinch at a time. Mix the ingredients together with a wooden spoon. Allow the Star Anise to steep in the hot oil for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the oil is ready remove it from the pot and place it on the kitchen countertop until it cools down. Remove the plant material from the oil with a strainer. Pour the Star Anise oil into the glass carrier bottle, Add 20 drops jojoba oil or vitamin E oil. Screw on the lid and shake it 7 times.

To open your third eye and enhance your psychic abilities apply a small amount of the oil on your forehead. Star Anise is associated with the astrological sign of capricorn, the element of air and the planet Jupiter.- Zwahk Muchoney (Image from Unsplash.com)

Ginger for Heating Up & Speeding Up Spells

Ginger is a hot magical spice that adds power and speed to any spell in which is used. Usually this light-brown herb is used in love and money spells but it can just as easily be added to spells for protection.

To use Ginger to help attract money simply sprinkle some powdered Ginger into your wallet or rub powdered Ginger on a $2 bill and carry it with you as a good luck charm. Draw prosperity into your home by finding a Ginger Root that looks like a person and burying it in the yard.

In protection magick Ginger is best when paired with Cinnamon. The fiery energy of these spices helps create a burning magical wall around the participant. In curse work the very same fire energy can be used to spiritually burn your enemy.

Adding Ginger Root to a luck-drawing magick bag along with Cloves and Nutmeg helps to enhance your odds of winning at games of chance. Make sure that if you chop up and dry Ginger Root you allow it to sit in the Sun during the drying process. Ginger uses the energy of the sun to recharge itself.

Chewing on raw Ginger right before or during a ritual helps to enhance your power as a magician. If you can't handle raw Ginger you can just as easily chew on candied Ginger, especially if you are trying to bring about a sweet outcome with your magick.

Ginger has aphrodisiac properties, adding Ginger to a magical recipe designed to draw love can enhance its potency, as an example you could create a Gingerbread person that contains various spices such as Cinnamon and Ginger which you have prayed over and blessed with your intentions. Give the Gingerbread to the one you desire while it's still hot from the oven and your chances of this individual feeling passion for you will increase.

Ginger is native to Asi and India. The spice grows best with partial shade in loamy, well-draining soil. Dried Ginger Root and essential oil can easily be added to oil recipes, sachet powders, magick bags and candles spells. Medicinally Ginger is well known for helping with nausea, especially when it is combined with Peppermint or Cinnamon. The spice aids in digestion and helps with circulation and inflammation issues, it is also a very diuretic spice. Ginger is associated with the astrological sign of aries, the element of fire and the planet Mars.- Zwahk Muchoney (Image from unsplash.com)