Divine(r's) Blood

where death walks, flowers grow, warriors sing, or prophesies are made, I wait and watch.

[honorthegods]

Strawberry moon rises behind the Parthenon in Athens

A full moon, known as the strawberry moon, has risen over the Parthenon in Athens, Greece Tuesday night.

[en-theos]

just found out about an online database powered by the university of Liège (and others) fully focused on Greek ritual norms (either leges sacrae or ritual calendars, but technically all normative inscriptions with ritual purpose) which is SO SEXY because now i can just search for particular gods in particular regions or centuries or with particular epithets or festivals and it will only give me documentation from that actual time and place instead of also textual sources which tend to distort the rites practiced or the capacity or identity of the deity worshipped. DOCUMENCE

it's the Collection of Greek Ritual Norms, and i highly recommend taking a look! It's not comprehensive (as a living publication it's always a work-in-progress) but it's super helpful. it follows modern editions of the inscriptions and presents translations and commentary as well.

[creature-wizard]

"How can I be a witch/pagan without falling for conspiracy theories/New Age cult stuff?" starter kit

Posts & Articles

Check your conspiracy theory. Does any of it sound like this?

Check your conspiracy theory part two: double, double, boil and trouble.

QAnon is an old form of anti-Semitism in a new package, experts say

Some antisemitic dogwhistles to watch out for

Eugenicist and bioessentialist beliefs about magic

New Age beliefs that derive from racist pseudoscience

The New Age concept of ascension - what is it?

A quick intro to starseeds

Starseeds: Nazis in Space?

Reminder that the lizard alien conspiracy theory is antisemitism

The Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis is Racist and Harmful

The Truth About Atlantis

Why the Nazis were obsessed with finding the lost city of Atlantis

The Nazis' love affair with the occult

Occultism in Nazism

Red flag names in cult survivor resources/groups (all of them are far right conspiracy theorists/grifters)

The legacy of implanted Satanic abuse ‘memories’ is still causing damage today

Why Satanic Panic never really ended

Dangerous Therapy: The Story of Patricia Burgus and Multiple Personality Disorder

Remember a Previous Life? Maybe You Have a Bad Memory

A Case of Reincarnation - Reexamined

Crash and Burn: James Leininger Story Debunked

Debunking Myths About Easter/Ostara

Just How Pagan is Christmas, Really?

The Origins of the Christmas Tree

No, Santa Claus Is Not Inspired By Odin

Why Did The Patriarchal Greeks And Romans Worship Such Powerful Goddesses?

No, Athena Didn't Turn Medusa Into A Monster To Protect Her

Who Was the First God?

Were Ancient Civilizations Conservative Or Liberal?

How Misogyny, Homophobia, and Antisemitism Influence Transphobia

Podcasts & Videos

BS-Free Witchcraft

Angela's Symposium

ESOTERICA

ReligionForBreakfast

Weird Reads With Emily Louise

It's Probably (not!) Aliens

Conspirituality

Miniminuteman

Behind The Bastards

[aresstan]

Hot take but you can’t learn about paganism without also learning about white supremacy and how it uses pagan religions to push hate group agendas all over the world today. If you don’t learn about the connections between the two and how it operates, your ignorance enables white supremacists to keep on doing it and using it to recruit others. People in our community who do nothing and stay silent are literally a part of the problem, there is no opting out whatsoever. Divorcing the two makes the issue repeat itself over and over and over again.

It’s not hard to include this in your research and stay aware. It’s the bare minimum.

[presentlydean]

online communities are so strange because people slip away so easily. you can be on here for years, folding people you've never met into the fabric of your daily life, and then they disappear, leaving only ghost posts scattered across tumblr behind. or their blog stays dormant, for weeks, months, years, until you're only still following them because you remember that they love sunflowers or they were kind to you when they didn't have to be or the last thing they posted was sad and raw and you still worry about them sometimes.

and sometimes they come back when you least expect it, years later, even, and there's this sudden rush of relief like there you are, there you are, even though you barely knew each other.

there's a strange kind of love to it. i don't know you and i want to hold your hand across miles and time zones and oceans. i can still see the imprint of you in this community you left. you don't think anyone will notice or care when you're gone, but we notice and we care and we wish you well.

i hope you're all okay out there. i hope the sun is shining on your face and you are breathing deeply. i miss you.

[barnsburntdownnow]

Lindy Pollard Oregon, 2022

[sqbr]

ID: A branch of blackberries, around which is entwined a blackberry-wide, blackberry-coloured little snake.

[monologhidiunamarea]

[lesracined]

[a-sculpture-a-day]

Hand of a Kore holding a fruit, Attic workshop, 6th century BC, marble, Acropolis Museum, Athens.

[upthewitchypunx]

 I always worry when people recommend my blog to new witches and they show up and are are “what the the fuck is this ranting about REM and capitalism and crows and how everything is relative! Where is the witchcraft I was promised?!”

This might not be a good blog for beginners because you just keep tripping over my lost socks of ideas and never giving you a direct answer to questions that I disagree with in the first place.

[khaire-traveler]

I have been struggling immensely over the past few weeks. It has been an emotional rollercoaster of ups and downs - an endless barrage of confusion, anguish, and despair. The last thing I've been focused on is my spirituality.

And still, Hermes was there for me.

I had nothing to give to him, no energy for offerings or acts of devotion, and still, Hermes put a hand on my shoulder and encouraged me to keep going. Still, he reached out a hand into the darkness and did his best to start pulling me towards the light. Still, he witnessed my suffering and lent a listening ear when I needed it most. Hermes was there for me, even when I had nothing to give.

And I make this post to emphasize something: deities aren't just in it for the offerings. People are welcome to get upset at me for generalizing, for not including every possible deity relationship scenario that I can, but genuinely, I don't care. Deities aren't just in it for the offerings.

So the next time you find yourself alone, afraid, and hopeless, please don't feel the need to hesitate to pray simply because you have nothing to give. Don't hold yourself back on asking for help because you don't have the energy to give something in return. A healthy relationship with anyone doesn't always ask for favors in return for support. Period.

[honeyymoony]

🍊 ☆

[creature-wizard]

Eugenicist and bioessentialist beliefs about magic

Like New Age, modern witchcraft developed at a time period when eugenics and so-called race science were highly popular ideas - and consequentially, some of these ideas influenced people’s beliefs about magic. These beliefs also influenced modern conspiracy theories about the occult, which in turn influenced perceptions of magic in general. Here’s some of these beliefs:

People are either born with magical gifts, or they’ll never have them at all.

People born with magical gifts are meant to be spiritual leaders and guide the world into a new age.

There are special bloodlines whose members are more capable of performing magic than others.

People who can perform magic are able to do so only because they have special ancestry.

Some racial groups are more capable of performing magic than others.

Some bloodlines or racial groups are more capable of performing certain kinds of magic than others (EG, so-called “light magic” or “dark magic”).

The traditions of your genetic ancestors will always come to you easily and intuitively, with little to no study required. (And if they don’t, you aren’t a “true witch.”)

Modern witchcraft was also hit by the gender essentialism stick, and claims that come from this line of thinking include:

Magic requires or at least massively benefits from some performance or symbolic representation of heterosexuality or heteronormativity; other forms of magic will be inherently weaker.

Literally all magic is a recreation of heterosexual reproduction.

The womb is a woman’s most potent source of magic.

There are only two important deities: the god and the goddess.

All goddesses represent the divine mother archetype, all gods represent the divine father archetype.

Feminine energies are soft and nurturing, masculine entities are aggressive and bold.

Masculine energies are too strong in the world, and are the reason for imperialism, violence, etc. The imbalance can be corrected by focusing on feminine energies.

So yeah, always watch out for claims like this because they don’t come from a good place.

[treasure-of-the-ancients]

Gold diadem with carnelian Herakles knot, Macedonia, 3rd-2nd century BC

from The Walters Art Museum

[bad-moodboard]

Stone-hewn graves at Heysham, Lancashire. Believed to be 11th Century. 

[carcassafterlives]

[upthewitchypunx]

Apparently it's the "WhAt DoEs It MeAn?!" Time for Facebook witches who seem to have never paid attention to animals in nature and ask questions about what it means to see a bird with a twig.

The bird is making a nest, they do it in spring every year. Pay attention!

Where the "is this ...?" Meme. I'm terrible at tagging posts but I know there's one that asks "is this a sign?"

[traegorn]

It's like when people kept trying to tell me on TikTok that my constantly spotting deer was a sign from Artemis.

No kid, I just live on the edge of the woods.

Where all the deer live.

[hachama]

My hand slipped

[upthewitchypunx]

Thank you!