Shop blog for @tuiliel's witchy biz: divination, energy healing, pagan gemstone jewelry, witchy blogging, and more! Free Readings are currently closed while I'm "on sabbatical".
Still mostly on hiatus, but here's how you can help
Well. I was hoping things with the divorce and my health would ease up, but in fact the opposite has happened, so I'm still mostly on hiatus. My website needs migrating again, as I've downsized it, and I'm going to go back to just having things on storevny instead of a woocommerce, because I do not know how long it's going to be until I can do the sort of volume of work it would require to make that not cost me more than I'm making. The etsy shop is currently on vacation as well, and at this point besides people generously donating here so that I can pay for the cheaper version of the website while I'm not doing much work, the only income I have is from a few divination regulars, because I'm still doing readings directly via email/paypal if you're willing to wait on longer turn times. I'm slow at the moment, and just a mess in general, but I am hoping by Samhain I'll be divorced and settled somewhere in Maryland and finally resting enough to get out of burnout and get my health back to my still-disabled-but-also-functional baseline. And then hopefully I can get the business back up and running again (with divination/jewelry/healing and maybe classes) approx Spring 2027. But that's a Best Laid Plan, so we'll see if it goes aglay, hmm?
In the meantime, if you'd like to help me stay afloat, here's what you can do:
Set up a recurring donation on Patreon where I'll be posting semi-regular updates
Make a one-time donation on Spotfund
Share either of those with people you think might be interested in/capable of donating
Send me an email to request a reading (if you're willing to wait a week or more)
Light a candle for me and/or address prayers to one of the following deities: The Morrigan, Be Chuille, Flidais, The Dagda, Lugh, Freyja, Heimdallr, Njord, Nerthus, the Norns, Bast, Sekhmet, or Apollo
I appreciate everyone here so much, and I am so thankful for everyone's patience and good wishes!
Ritual of Solar Protection for the Equinox (Chesapeake Bay Watershed)
I wrote this on Patreon but I'm putting the full text here as well, partly under a cut for length:
I was going to share my experiences and notes from Sacred Space/Between the Worlds next, but as usual that draft is running LONG, and I got told to share this first... and when Fairy Monarchs tell me to do something on a deadline, I try to oblige them!
So this ritual is for anyone and everyone who lives within their domain, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. If you live elsewhere, you may find your Locals think it's a good idea as well, but they may have you alter it slightly - or ask your deities, and see what changes they might make to it. But as for us in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed... upg warning for everything from here on, but the Fairy Wars against the Basdán (the unhael ones) continue, and in as-above-so-below tradition, conflict Over There frequently mirrors conflict Over Here, and there's been an uptick on both sides. Solar energies are anathema to the Basdán though, just as they are anathema to the normal cycles of growth and decay, so as the Spring Monarch and the Autumn King here shift power at the equinox, they would like us all to help Them and each other as we move into the brighter part of the year.
They request that if you decide to do it, that you complete the ritual before the equinox if possible, and do it as close to noon as possible, on a sunny day. Cloudy is better than rainy, and before midday is better than later afternoon, but these aren't hard and fast rules - it should work just fine as long as there's sunlight even if it's a sunset filtered through clouds, though the closer you can get to noon on a sunny day, the stronger the protection will be and the longer it will last before it needs repeating.
For the ritual, besides sunlight, you need only two things:
A non perishable solar-aligned object of some type, that is not already consecrated to a specific purpose, that fits in your hand
A leaf or flower or twig you have picked from a plant that is close to your front door
For the object, any number of solar-aligned semiprecious gemstones will do nicely, as will anything made of gold, or anything depicting the sun or a sunflower - you can also use anything red, orange, or yellow colored in a pinch, but try to avoid iron and plastic if you can. It does not have to be small if you immediately thought of something larger, but you do need to be able to comfortably hold it in one hand at chest level for a few minutes. It will also need to be able to be in the sunlight at least once a moon cycle at minimum, so an innocuous decorative object may be best if your practice is stealth.
For the plant, the closer to your front door the better, unless you have a nearby shrub you've tended and you'd rather use part of a plant you have a developed relationship with, rather than a little weed. Little weeds are fine though! If you live in an apartment building, anything close to the front door of the building is good. For the purposes of this ritual, the Monarchs insisted a mushroom counts as a "plant", despite my protestations to the contrary. Please don't pick anything that will harm you, however, and if you aren't sure, pick something else. You will need to be able to touch this piece of plant with your bare skin.
The ritual itself is very simple:
Pick up both objects in your bare hands (or somehow arrange for them both to be in contact with your skin) and hold them up to the sky or to a window with no obstruction (open the curtains etc if there are any; the idea is you have an unfiltered view of the sky). It does not matter which is in which hand, and your arms do not need to be outstretched, but the sunlight needs to fall on both objects, and they need to be at least level with your sternum, touching skin.
Then say (and feel free to read it):
"I consecrate this [name of object] in my [left/right] hand to the sun, that it may a protective shield for myself and for the watershed where this [plant/leaf/flower/mushroom - name the plant if you know its name] grew.
"I claim the protection of the sun for myself and this watershed, against all that is unhael and baneful and anathema to the natural cycles of growth and decay.
"By claiming this protection, I state my intention to use my own power to protect my neighbors, both physical and unseen, from our common enemies, when I am able and not otherwise overburdened.
"I am witnessed by the sun, the flowing waters, and by all my neighbors who are close enough to hear, from now until such time as I cast the token aside."
And then place the piece of plant somewhere it can decay back into the earth, and place the object somewhere it will occasionally get sun.
And then you're done.
As a note: yes, that is also a binding oath of alliance, but that is how the Fair Folk work, and this one has a Lot of wiggle room built in, because I negotiated hard. It's kind of a what you put in is what you get out arrangement - if you do more protecting others, they'll do more protecting you, but it's vague on purpose. Taking care of or organizing your human community? That's protecting neighbors. Removing invasive plants from your yard and planting native species? Doing a stream cleanup? Doing a small task for your local Fair Folk? Work in the healthcare or wellness industries? Political activism? Those all count. We're trying to promote natural cycles of growth and decay, and increasing our sense of community, both local human community and with our local ecosystems. (Human medicine and veterinary care count as natural! We've been doing both of those for at least 10,000 years! We've just gotten a lot better at it lately. Capitalism's need for constant and unending growth is not natural, however! And this community protection does not extend to diseases and cancer. Those can also fuck off. And actually, I do think the Basdán sometimes use sickness and pollution as a way in - I don't think they cause them, necessarily, but they can aim things at us and will certainly use whatever tools they can find. Speaking of which, if you're near the Shenandoah Valley, please take extra precautions near the Luray Caverns - I do not know why exactly, but the Basdán seem to congregate there in greater numbers. Insert Buffy Hellmouth joke here? But please be careful. You can take your token with you, but most of the time it should stay in your home.)
Also, the "able and not otherwise overburdened" means that if you are struggling too much now or later on to do much of anything, you'll gain protection anyway, because you're saying you'll chip in when you can.
It's all a sliding scale - the more solar power you can put in your token, the more protection your home will have; the more you help others out in the world, the more the Fair Folk of this region will make sure you also are protected against the Basdán. The more wellness we can create on this plane, the harder it will be for them to get their hooks in the adjoining planes of Fairy/the Otherworlds.
This does not mean that you can't be victimized by the Fair Folk - protecting the natural cycles and building community is also, in nature, a food web. Things still die; things still need to eat. Over There we're fighting against unnatural and not supernatural forces - they do not come from here or the adjoining planes, and they do not belong here, and where they manage to colonize will slowly on this plane become incapable of supporting normal life. And I don't think anybody really wants that happening in their neighborhood.
If you want more information on the Basdán, I unfortunately have been living under at least 3 rocks and have no idea what other people have said lately, and my own website is currently down, but I'm sure Morgan Daimler, John Beckett, and Cat Heath have a better idea, as they've been involved in this current themselves (and probably have not been living under three rocks for the past two years). Of the three, if you're not on Facebook or Bluesky, John Beckett is the easiest to find.
An Unsprouted Seed, and Engaging with Community during Fallow Times
I have been quiet for a long time - but do not mistake my silence for the end of what I spoke on before. The Morrigna still recruit and call their recruits to action. Freyja still seeks those wishing to deepen their own magic and enhance their own capabilities and power. The Eyes of Ra still rage against injustice and lend their strength to our battles. The Fair Folk still guide, use, and protect those whom they have chosen.
Relationships continue, the work continues - it is just that my own work for this period has become much smaller in focus, as I sort through health issues and personal life issues. I was told to retreat from my public work, and focus on shifting things in my immediate vicinity, until I am once again settled and able to stand in a place of my own power. I am preparing for another level of initiation, in a way -- and for the moment I am still an unsprouted seedling, roots going down and the parts of my shell that are no longer helpful all falling away as I begin to reach up, unspooling in the darkness.
Outside, the War still rages on in our cultures and in the Otherworlds; the Storm still swirls around us with its lightning striking and its rain obscuring; the Tower is still falling and not yet only rubble. Yet in this maelstrom of Strife, new communities and alliances are being built, new ways of resisting oppression and of defending ourselves are being created, and many many people are learning to cultivate love and joy despite it all. It is difficult. It is not hopeless.
As an Unsprouted Seedling, my soon-to-be-stem moving is slowly through the dark soil, towards warmth, with the hope that I will eventually emerge into the light. And as I have done this process many times before, I trust it. Not every minute of every day: there are times I am overwhelmed and the difficulty of transformation seems insurmountable. But overall, I trust that I will get to the surface again when I am meant to.
In such times, gathering with my community can be both a blessing and a strain. Seeing everyone so vibrant and seeing what progress they've made in their own lives and practices in the last few years makes me so happy for others - and yet comparison is tempting. What have I done this last year and a half, except slowly lose momentum and get dragged down by my circumstances? The answer to that of course is: Rest. Discern. Prepare. And I am now at the point that I am also once again finding sparks of inspiration. The surface is near, but the last leg of the journey will be arduous and will likely take longer than I wish. But still. The only way to get there strong enough to emerge is to keep going at my current pace, and let things unfold as they need to. I expect it will be more than two years, from when I began to retreat in September of 2024, to reemerging into community, able to write and teach again. (Learning continues even now - learning always continues.)
In the meantime, I have some thoughts to share about my experiences at the conference this past weekend, but I will do that in a second post.
I have been absent for a while – between health issues and some other personal difficulties, it has been hard to find time and energy for more than my bare minimum personal practice. Again and again, the message I heard from my deities and guides is: Rest. So I have been trying to. But a few months back, the tune changed slightly. I am being called back to this part of my practice, the part where…
I really, really hate being an influencer, actually. I wanted to be a goddamn novelist, not a marketing expert. Marketing is the absolute worst part of this gig, 200%. Staring at an empty page for hours and hours while I get mad at myself for being depressed would be like a plush vacation if I didn't have to go out and hock the wares afterwards. One of these days I'm gonna get my hands on an agent and a publicist and you'll know when that day comes b/c the volume and frequency of Posts will drop off like you've gone through a halocline.
The only thing I'm further behind on than Patreon updates is telling Tumblr about all the Patreon updates I've already made. I already wrote the damn thing and now you want me to describe it, too? And make it sound appealing? Ugh.
remember when one of the major advantages of patreon over individual websites was that all the money went in and out at the same time so you just had a monthly 'patreon bill' instead of thirty small transactions a month
and if you were a creator supporting other creators the amount you were paying would automatically get deducted from your payout to make things simpler
if i already have to tell people to open up a browser in order to make a small transaction that will in no way be grouped with payments to other creators, why would i not just send them to my own website, where it looks however i want and i never have to use patreon's post editor ever again
patreon also bought memberful, a service that allowed you to paywall posts on your own website, and then got rid of the free tier that charged a higher fee in favor of charging me $50 a month for My Own Website
and then didn't integrate with patreon for any cross-platform benefits at all whatsoever
I've been using Ko-Fi for less than a week and it's already easier to use than Patreon, has more features (including the goal setting feature that Patreon took away for basically no reason), and takes far, far less of a cut (none at all, if you use the free tier). Patreon's becoming more and more of a dump by the month. If I could somehow shunt all my Patreon supporters onto ko-fi instead I would.
I’ve been using Comradery for some time and quite like it. It’s democratically owned and has solid values and intent, but for folks like me who just want a way to share things at varying levels it’s just a nice Patreon alternative.
Hey, so, Patreon is lying to you about Apple forcing their hand.
Patreon is getting rid of 1st-of-the-month/per-creation billing, claiming a new decision by Apple has forced their hand. This will hurt a lot of creatives, and their excuse is bullshit. Allow me to explain.
In 2018, Patreon tried to impose a new ill-considered fee structure on everyone that would have cost creators a lot of smaller pledges. They ended up apologizing for this profusely; they have now deleted this apology from their website and unfortunately I was unable to find it on the Internet Archive. This was shameful, but to their credit they backed off quickly when things got ugly.
Back in 2021, Patreon discussed plans to force all creators into a rolling bill structure and get rid of first-of-the-month/pay-up-front billing. The community once again very decisively shouted them down, and they had to walk it back again. This whole fiasco damaged the already shaky trust between Patreon creators and staff.
This week, Patreon announced that, along with extra fees, Apple's policies were supposedly forcing them to move everyone over to the rolling fee structure that they first tried to get us to agree to in 2021. Patreon will tell you they are not happy about this. As a person who spent a long time watching Patreon make terrible decisions, I can tell you-- they are probably very happy about this, because it's exactly the smokescreen they needed to do what they've been trying to do for years, which is pull ALL Patreon creators away from 1st-of-the-month and per-creation billing.
The spin in the news I've seen so far is "Apple bullies Patreon, boo hoo hoo poor Patreon". This is very obviously not what's happening. Mind you: Apple does suck, and they are doing something bad here. Fuck apple. But Patreon and Apple are BOTH the asshole in this situation; Everyone Sucks Here. Patreon has options: they can make the iOS app a reader app and do billing through the browser to avoid the restrictions and the extra fees (Netflix and Amazon, notably, both do this), or they can allow creators to opt-out of iOS billing if they want to use billing models that don't work with it.
It seems most likely to me that the Apple situation is a real fire that Patreon has chosen to use as a convenient smokescreen to do what they've been wanting to do since at least 2021, and maybe since 2018.
What do we do?:
They have a feedback form specifically about this.
They also have a creator discord.
And they have lots of social media pages where they probably really, really hope that this doesn't blow up again, because they never learn. The incidents I've described here aren't the only two other times Patreon has pissed off their creators. They know if they don't contain the noise it'll be harder to get away with it, so make some noise. They've done a lot of work to spin this cleverly so you'll have sympathy for them and they won't get the kind of backlash they know they deserve.
Please don't misuse these links and make threats or spam or something. All you have to do is give well-reasoned feedback. Patreon hates feedback. Make sure they get a nice heaping helping of their least favorite vegetable.
Yesterday was both the full moon and the summer solstice, so this one’s just a touch late. I recommend lighting a devotional candle and/or making a small offering to Freyja (perhaps a libation) before you begin, and then prepare yourself however you normally would, to do work at an altar. For my part, that usually means wearing one of my devotional hair ribbons and perhaps donning magical…
This reminds me of a time I (almost) got grifted irl.
One time I was getting a multi-session Reiki treatment, and during the course of the sessions the Reiki practitioner memorized information about my hopes and desires that she gleaned from our conversations.
During the last session, she gave me an analysis of my "untapped spiritual powers," which just so happened to coincide with everything that I had hoped and desired for myself at the time. And after giving her assessment, she said, in somewhat veiled fashion, "We can unlock your powers, but only if you keep working with me."
I didn't go back, but only because I knew about these kind of long-game grifts. I'm not sure where I'd be right now if I didn't.
I hope you don't mind me screenshotting your tags, but honestly as a reader myself I prefer this too:
I like having a general question or framework (like: "I'm trying to choose between two career paths") so I can set up a spread, but don't tell me much more than that - it's just more stuff I need to forget and filter out. If it's a really complicated situation sometimes a little bit of background helps to come up with a question, but honestly it's still probably better to just get a cold reading then. Like: "I'm dealing with a confusing situation - I'd like some advice on what I can trust and some pitfalls to avoid."
Be Very Very Skeptical of any reader who says they need more information!
And ffs don't give them your birthdate and shit like that.
It can be daunting on a reader to do an entirely cold reading, especially on a small number of cards (3 can be hard, 5-7 is probably the sweet spot), but if they're good at their craft they'll find the narrative that weaves through. The only problem I've had with those is sometimes people have a question in mind and ask for a cold reading about it and then don't understand the answer, and when I go a little deeper into the symbolism they realize it's actually answering a different question. Something to be aware of as a client - if I don't have a question my cards will just give you the message you most need to hear.
It’s almost the full moon again! So here’s the next Falcon Flight. I recommend lighting a devotional candle and/or making a small offering to Freyja (perhaps a libation) and to Freyr (if you have a relationship with him) before you begin, and then prepare yourself however you normally would, to do work at an altar. For my part, that usually means wearing one of my devotional hair ribbons and…
Deck: Mystic Faerie Tarot
Publisher: Llewellyn
Writer: Barbara Moore
Artist: Linda Ravenscroft
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Cardstock: It’s Llewellyn’s standard card stock, which is to say it’s a little on the thin side compared to some other decks, but shuffles well. The borders are semi-metallic, probably meant to be gold, but they come off a little more olive green. Some people may prefer to remove…
Well, I meant to do twice a month but at least I’m back with this on time again. Spring weather changes and some mundane life stuff have left me still a little overloaded, but I’m working on getting back into the swing of things, and the abundance of sunlight is definitely helping!
I recommend lighting a devotional candle and/or making a small offering to Freyja (perhaps a libation) before you…
Spring is back, and so are these Falcon Flights – on the full moon now, to help me keep my plan to blog every other week. As before, this journey is based on my experience, and I’m offering it to the community in case it’s helpful or resonates with some of you. If you’re used to doing journeys from a script, great! Otherwise feel free to have some one read it to you, or record yourself reading…
Aquarius Witch: I have an article getting published in July!
I wrote an article about a year ago (haha, publishing is a super fast industry), and it’s being published in an upcoming book from Llewellyn: Aquarius Witch, which is being released on July 8th! It’s a biography of Pamela “Pixie” Colman Smith, the artist behind the ubiquitous Rider-Waite-Smith tarot. She was herself an Aquarian Sun, a queer woman, and a very talented artist but she died…
First, before I say anything else:
THE OGHAM IS NOT A TREE CALENDAR OR A TREE ALPHABET
Right? Okay, got that? I’m here to talk about a tree list, which is one of many many types of ogham lists (including lists for things like hunting dogs and sows and other livestock). It’s just a list. Some of the letter names are trees yes but they aren’t all trees. And on the tree list they are a few…
