cafe & brujeria

ribbit ribbit // latina // raised santera // currently doing whatever // language is an impediment to meaning

[cafeconbrujeria]

anyway if you tagged me in a tag game I definitely saw it and felt affection and then guilt for not responding and then another wave of 115K novel hit and obliterated all other thought

[cafeconbrujeria]

i haven't been posting much because I was too busy doing a priestly Great Work (finishing a novel that is a devotional work and a sacrifice and an offering and a ritual all at once while also pretending to be a normal adult spec fic book) but now that I'm shopping it around to agents I am...free to be a magician again? Not that I ever STOPPED, exactly. and not that this Work is done. but y'know. there's some free processing power. some of which will be immediately tied up in the magic of getting to the next step here but nonetheless.

[lailoken]

‘Crow and Chicken Extol the Flame’

Lucien B. Hale, 2026

@friend-crow @windvexer

[friend-crow]

HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING??

Goddamn, I didn't realize you had this kind of drawing chops!

[cafeconbrujeria]

in Latin America, and perhaps in other places, this Saturday is a very special Saturday. It is the Saturday where death triumphs. Or Death, rather, the personification of the function, sometimes masculine, male, and sometimes feminine, dressed in the garb of the Virgin. A day for special petitions, perhaps celebrations. For some. A day of mourning, for others. And both, to a particular subset of practitioners...

[cafeconbrujeria]

etsy witch shop with love and light themed name selling D.U.M.E. oil... okay...I mean sure...

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

what if the four big chapter breaks (crossroads structure here) are named as relevant materia magica, like

abre camino,

?

?

graveyard dirt.

devil's shoestring, lucky rabbit's foot...black cat bone...trouble with a lot of the strictly brujería common names is that they're just descriptive phrases (espanta policia etc) and too much Spanish will lose the audience. Ruda isn't obviously enough rue, I don't think.

can't name a chapter law stay away because the whole book is like. the law Not doing that.

brujería's spooky black bird is specifically a black hen, whereas english language sources prefer a black rooster, usually.

oh!

Florida water, maybe? it IS set in Miami.

much to think about. possibly while not running on four hours of sleep.

[cafeconbrujeria]

really this should be on this blog tbh

[celestialcemetery]

museum of appalachia

[carbon-heart]

Equinox rites. Blessing the garden and a few other tools.

[cosmicanger]

"Egungun" yoruba masquerade from Benin

[uncleclaudius]

Details of an enormous bronze cauldron discovered a few years ago by French archaeologists near the town of Lavau in a tomb of a Celtic nobleman. The burial dates to around 500 BC and the cauldron itself is of Etruscan or Greek manufacture, showcasing the extensive trade links during the period.

[cafeconbrujeria]

have absolutely no idea what the current witchblr ballyhoo is about. i politely liked some posts making generic points before I even realized y'all were vagueposting about each other. i do not have time for this shit nor am i sufficiently entertained to rubberneck i am going back to writing my book.

[cafeconbrujeria]

Friday the 13th oil

[thegeekstressart]

I’ve been slowly working on illustrating my own Tarot deck about black cats.

I have a long way to go, but I’m nearly done with the major arcana.

Here are some of my favorites:

I set myself a design challenge (as I often do). I wanted to limit the color palette and the brush styles to create a very consistent look.

And since each card focuses on black cats, it forces me to think deeply about symbolism and design to make sure the meaning of each card is clear and each design is unique.

But there’s still a lot of variety coming through. It’s not all class, or all silliness - just like cats

I have a forearm tattoo of the cats in this one ☝️

I’m so happy with how both of these two managed to feel dark, but adorable at the same time.

And then there’s this one absolute diva:

Most of these used my own feline friends for reference.

There are more but I don’t know yet how many I want to share online. If I can actually complete the entire deck I would love to have it made. But I have a ways to go, so for now I continue to chip away, one card at a time.

[naamahdarling]

The Hanged Man as a lad who has ascended a curtain for a better view. 10/10

[b00bologist-deactivated20260104]

15 year old monk whispering "do i lust for men?" and then flipping to a random page in the bible to see what it says = medieval equivalent of modern "am i gay quiz"

[b00bologist-deactivated20260104]

bibliomancy is alive and well in the 21st century. St Augustine rolling in his grave.

[rimonoroni2]

he flips to samuel ii 1:25-26 and resigns himself to his fate

[cafeconbrujeria]

[cafeconbrujeria]

waaaaay back in the day I used to hang around r/tarot to be helpful, mostly because the aeclectic tarot forums closed down and the Internet never recovered. sometimes, googling a specific cartomancy question within the realms of my specific former expertise still brings me to a reddit thread where I'm answering questions under one of two usernames. that I frequently forget were my usernames.

all of which is a long winded way of saying that I am capable of patience and at least once upon a time, I was very kind.

but LORD, browsing r/tarot these days brings my worst qualities to the forefront immediately. there's always been stupid posts--and yes, asking for empirical proof that tarot is or is not inherently evil is a silly question--but the ratio of sense to nonsense now is just... there's not even anybody in the comments trying to vouch for historical accuracy anymore. People are going citation needed? and getting answers about reading channelled literature which contains the sum of all divine knowledge.

[unholyhymns]

went to my local (white) crystal shop bc they're the only place with florida water and they stopped playing the lumineers like two minutes after i came in and started playing kendrick lamar like come on djejdjjd

[unholyhymns]

to be fair, i did want to be listening to that more, but what a way to be racially profiled