Breaking the family curse (being the first to get a diagnosis)

dionysus big naturals

hey so this is simultaneously the best and worst reply you could have ever made to my post

man why do white people have to appropriate our guys its not like y'all dont have your own guys

[shaking a little bucket full of european folklore] you want some tatzelwurm??? i think i have some tarand in here too... maybe if youre lucky theres a vampire or a werewolf left!

[seeing some European dipass eyeing up the bucket behind me labeled "Indigenous folklore" greedily] My folklore is too strong for you, colonizer. My folklore would kill you, colonizer. You cannot handle my folklore.

Y'all ever open a book on a new subject, read a little bit, and have to put it back so you can process the way in which your mind was just expanded?

The textile book: okay here is some of the ways that textiles are important to human life

me: Okay!

The textile book: Clothes separate the vulnerable human body from the conditions of the outside world, and in doing so absorb the sweat and debris of human existence, accumulating wear and tear according to the lives we live. In this way, various lifestyles and professions are represented by clothing, and the clothing of a loved one retains the imprint of their physical body and their life being lived, as though the clothes absorb part of the wearer's soul

Me: ...oh

The textile book: The process of weaving a garment and the process of a child being formed in its mother's womb are often referred to using the same language. Likewise, when a baby is born, a blanket or other textile material is the first material object it encounters and protects it. Textiles can create the idea of two things being inextricable, as with being "woven together," or can create the sense of separateness, as with a curtain or veil that separates two rooms or spaces, even separating the living from the dead, or separating two realities, such as a performance ending when the curtain falls

Me: ...oh God

The textile book: Odysseus's wife Penelope undid her weaving in secret every night to delay the advances of her suitors. In this way she was able to turn back the passage of time to allow her husband to come home. Likewise the Lakota tell a story of an old woman embroidering time by embroidering a robe with porcupine quills. If she finishes the embroidery, the world will come to an end, but her faithful dog pulls out the quills whenever her back is turned, turning back the clock and allowing existence to continue.

me: ...is...is...is that why we refer to the fabric of space and time?

The textile book: The technological revolution of textile making is sadly underappreciated. The textile arts are possibly the most fundamental human technology, as once people created string and rope, they could create nets for catching fish and small animals, and bags and baskets for carrying food. In the earliest prehistoric times, the first string or cord perhaps came from sinew, found in the body of an animal. Because of this perhaps the body of a living being could be understood as made of a textile material. Indeed textiles have the function of preserving life, as with a surgeon stitching back together the human body or bandages being placed on a wound. Textile technologies are being used to create life-changing implants to restore function to injured parts of the body, as though a muscle or tendon can be woven and made in this way. Cloth can be used to create a parachute that will save a human's life as they plummet out of the sky. Ultimately, the textile technologies are used to enter new parts of the universe. [Photo of an astronaut and details explaining the astronaut's suit]

Me: STOP!! MY MIND IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH FOR THIS

The book is "Textiles: The Whole Story" by Beverly Gordon

40,000 years ago, early humans painted hands on the wall of a cave. This morning, my baby cousin began finger painting. All of recorded history happened between these two paintings of human hands. The Nazca Lines and the Mona Lisa. The first TransAtlantic flight and the first voyage to the Moon. Humanity invented the wheel, the telescope, and the nuclear bomb. We eradicated wild poliovirus types 2 and 3. We discovered radio waves, dinosaurs, and the laws of thermodynamics. Freedom Riders crossed the South. Hippies burned their draft cards. Countless genocides, scientific advancements, migrations, and rebellions. More than a hundred billion humans lived and died between these two paintings—one on a sheet of paper, and one on the inside of a cave. At the dawn of time, ancient humans stretched out their hands. And this morning, a child reached back. 

A Timeline of Humanity:

Bastet, roman period Egypt

How to join the Transgender Ancestor Rite: an FAQ on our updated format

What is it?

Please reblog to spread the word so others know how to participate tonight or in the coming days. Thank you, friends. 🤍

Get hot water, not boiling hot but almost hotter than you can stand, and put a metal spoon in it for a few seconds. Take the spoon and put it against the mosquito bite for about 30 seconds. Do it a few times if you like. The proteins that cause the itching are susceptible to heat and break down.

WHY DON’T THEY TEACH THIS SHIT I have four decades of suffering from skeeter bites behind me

Do you have something for bruises, rainmonster?

Yes, arnica! It's not instant, but the bruise will clear up days sooner.

you know what's always gonna make me feel better after a bad day? SOUP!

death to empty lawns! death to McMansions surrounded by acres of nothing! death to lawn care companies! death to homeowner's associations! death to invasive ornamental plants! death to cosmetic application of herbicides! death to leaf blowers! death to lawn fertilizers! death to the wasteland! LIFE in its place!!!!!!!!!!

wait wait

Life to lawns! Life to empty mowed expanses! Life to neglected outskirts and stretches of turfgrass! Life to empty black mulch! Life to concrete and compacted soil! LIFE BE UPON YOU

Flourish (curse and threat)

Okay, what about fans of Byzantine chariot racing teams becoming de facto political parties?

You know, that's a pretty good comparison! I wonder if the blues/greens ever had niche splinter groups that formed isolated high-control cults.

Every culture on earth looking at snakes: These long things know stuff, but watch out.

My Drive Resource Libraries

Feel free to download, share, etc. I found most everything through open access journals, JSTOR, Anna's Archive, sci-hub, pdfs shared on other sns, etc.

Greek Polytheism & Hellenism

Roman & Italic Polytheism

Gaulish & Gallo-Roman Polytheism

Celtiberian Polytheism

Every culture on earth looking at snakes: These long things know stuff, but watch out.

6/30

Read all 30

On what I'm going to call "peer positioning" in witchcraft, and the scary empowerment it can bring you

I think a lot of people who get into witchcraft have a problem with being able to see themselves as peers & equals to the powers they cultivate around them.

I see this most often discussed when it comes to gods. "Just because your god asks you for something doesn't mean you need to do it!" Etc. I think we've all heard that.

But today my thoughts are on the tarot, and how some people seem to treat tarot readings as "the truth" or "the answer" that then must be followed, even if they (the living, breathing, human practitioner) don't really agree or don't really want to do that.

I'm really big on the analogy of a witch as a monarch, and the concept of various powers (like gods, spirits, tools, and spells) being counselors in the throne room.

In this context, it's easier to adopt the mindset that all of these powers have their own personalities, abilities, and goals - and that they can & will provide conflicting information when you ask for advice. (Especially ancestors - so opinionated!)

Imagine Captain Picard sitting in the meeting room with Geordi, Riker, and the rest of the space nerds.

If you're captain of the ship, monarch of the kingdom, (etc.), then it might be important to ask yourself:

And I think it all kind of comes back to "peer positioning," or, witches being able to develop a spiritual framework within which they are equals to the powers around them.

Since beginning practicing witchcraft in earnest, I have often demanded a course of direction. Instead of asking, "how do I accomplish this?" I would ask, "what do I do?"

And the answer was the same every time, deeply infuriating, but also very scary: "Do whatever you think is best."

I think that's the problem of being the captain of the ship. Once your counselors are done giving their input, you are the one who has to make the final call.

Lately I've really been on a kick about witchcraft as a path of empowerment, and I think that viewing spiritual input as just that - input - is a vital part of the process.

Even if you are a true-blue believer in the magical power of tarot, tarot is still just one counselor sitting in your throne room.

Even if you have tutelary spirits, guardians and guides, gods and angels, providing blessings and support - they are not sitting at the head of the table.

You are.

I think that a framework of allied powers as peers and equals is relatively basic, and does have its flaws. But I also think it can be helpful in a variety of ways:

I just think it's something to consider. At the end of the day, most of us have probably got to make our own calls.

[I'm making this post because in the past few months I've been helping witches consult the tarot, and they've been giving feedback like, "so this is what I should do, right?" or, "what is it telling me to do?"

I can basically see the huge reblogs where people are explaining that a period of time where they signed complete personal autonomy over to their god was the most empowering and spiritually electric time in their lives,

and I want you to know, I'm not speaking about vows and oaths made to entities that gives them control over your life. I'm talking about situations where witches put down their autonomy so they can have both hands free to shuffle tarot.]

This is a GREAT metaphor.

In working with tarot, I've found it pretty much never tells you "what you should do". It's very good, however, at telling you what's the likely outcome if you choose X vs if you choose Y, or what you should expect to be in your way from forces outside your control. Or what you could possibly to do mitigate a downside if you choose X despite the inherent risks.

Tarot (and other forms of divination, really) is really, REALLY good for exploring possible courses of action for pros and cons and ways to mitigate issues in each path.

It's really bad at taking the decision out of your hands. That's not the point of divination, the point of divination is to gather additional info to use when making your decision, not to have the decision made for you.

watching a video on brewing Mesopotamian beer and look at this orange man (his ass cannot guard the barley)

2023 Trans Rite Opening Divination

Dear ones,

We’ve done our opening divination for this year’s Trans Rite and we wanted to update you with what we learned. We also encourage you to do your own divination and ask your own questions of the Ancestral Helping Spirits that we’ve been working with together, or others that you’ve incorporated into your practice, and would love to hear what you learn!

We reached out to the Ancestral Helping Spirits that we honor by name every year: Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Ray Rivera, and Comrade Leslie Feinberg. We confirmed that all three of them do want to be involved this year in helping us welcome the newly dead in our family, and giving them offerings of love, honor, and water for their journey. They also affirmed for us that moving from nine nights to one night is the right step to take this year, and that while there will be power in how many people will be doing it at the same time on November 20th, the Trans Day of Remembrance, it isn’t a problem to do it one or two nights before or after if you have to.

The revised FAQ here lays out the basic steps of the format, and we suggest you incorporate the specific offerings that they have all asked for this year. Marsha P. Johnson has suggested that we incorporate music from the past into the ritual itself, both as an offering to her and as a gift to the newly dead. Sylvia Rivera asked for the same offerings we’ve been making to her – including dulce de ajonjoli, and poppers and lube. Leslie Feinberg told us to include prayers for peace, so we’ll likely be including more Hebrew prayers this year as well.

The moderators also work with an entity called Agdistis in the Rite, whom we checked with and who is down to participate this year, so if venerating Agdistis as an ancestor or in other ways is part of your practice, we have their enthusiastic consent. Agdistis also reiterated what they always say, which is, “Give me the pain. I will take it and fix it.”               

The final piece of guidance that came through for us this year was that it’s a good idea to localize your ancestors of spirit just as you would you ancestors of blood. What trans saints and history makers lived where you live? Who are your local trans heroes, who may have left our kind of life behind them but who can take on that role of welcoming more people across the line? Finding the local Ancestor Helping Spirits in the place that you live, calling them in and honoring them by name  -- this will be a stronger practice than everyone honoring the same few people regardless of where you’re operating out of.

Ping us with any questions. As Leslie always tells us: Courage.

-- Mod Rocket